Chapter 1—
"The Droid Stone"
On a private beach in sunny California, two sunbathers basked in the humidity and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the serenity. The sand was warm underneath their towels and the couple were getting an all-over tan. Although, one of them was so white in complexion, he was feared his skin would burn. But his female partner had lathered his body with so much sunscreen, the sun failed to penetrated his glistening skin.
His female partner bare it all. Neither were inhibited. The only one that could see them would either be God Himself, if He so choice to partake in such a decision.
As for the thousands of satellites that circled the earth, whoever wished to spy on them would get a rude awakening. Not only was their beach house equipment with anti surveillance devices, but anyone attempting to hack it, would see their computer system overridden with preset viruses.
The male turned his head and looked at his companion, lifting his sunglasses. She was beautiful, like a stoned-carved goddess. She looked like the gods had moulded her out of the most perfect clay. But she did have one flaw, the scar that ran across her throat from an attack by an assailant many years ago. And it prevented her from speaking normally. She whispered mainly. But with sign-language, nothing was missed.
He, on the other hand, was a mix of emotional piety and scarring. Years ago, he attempted to escape capture from the police by setting himself on fire. Nearly 80% of his body was burned. But over the years, skin-grafts fixed most of the damage. Scarring on his face, however, was permanent but had faded over time with creams. He was fine with it, adding a je ne sais quoi look, to an already unique and intriguing personality.
He turned down his glasses and once again closed his eyes and enjoyed the serenity.
However, it was not to last. His excellent hearing could hear the engine of a sports car pulling into the drive-way located on the main level of the beach house and he already knew the identity of the driver. Only one person he knew enjoyed the danger of sports cars and he seemed to have a new one every time he visited the private residence. Judging by the engine, it was a Mustang.
Still, until the driver ventured down to the beach, the beach-goer would leave the other to his own devices.
It was a couple of minutes later when he finally heard the descending footsteps of his visitor, then the swishing of the sand under his feet. And a curse-or-two after getting sand in his designer boots.
Without opening his eyes, the sunbather said, "Matt, welcome. But you should know sand is a versatile substance and it will get into even the smallest of cervices." He ended with a small chuckle.
A shadow crossed his face as Matt stood over him. "Yeah, yeah…I'm here, B," came a crass, brash voice. B looked up at Matt through his sunglasses. The young man didn't look happy. He was wearing a read and black long-sleeve, stripped shirt underneath what looked like a fur-coat with dark pants and black boots. He was also smoking, which B hated the smell. Matt yanked at his collar and breathed out a hot breath. "Your package arrived, I picked it up at the post office. It was postage due. You own me—"
Suddenly, Matt's eyes's—through a pair of stylish racing goggles he always wore—looked passed the other. And he saw the naked, sun-tanning form of the female sunbather—B's partner, Raven, baring it all.
Matt lifted his goggles to take a better look. "Woah, um…"
B, better known as Beyond Birthday, looked over, then back, taking a handful of sand and throwing it at Matt, distracting him. "Eyes on me, Matt. And keep your tongue in your mouth, or I'll cut it out," he said casually, but with a meaningful tone.
Raven was not only Beyond Birthday's partner, but also his femme finale. Recently, they had both challenged Kira in a battle of wits that almost cost B his life. He only escaped by a thin margin.
Beyond Birthday had summarily returned from the grave to taunt Kira and to demand justice for the murder of L. However, a greater evil lay before him, and instead, curiously, he put his own emotions aside and teamed up with Kira to combat this greater foe—one that Beyond Birthday thought he had killed himself years prior,, but who had also returned from the great beyond to seek revenge against Beyond Birthday.
In the end, the battle was won and Beyond Birthday was the victory,, yet Beyond Birthday had to make a concession and made a strategic withdraw, leaving his restitution with Kira unfinished. But he was already forming another plan for when the two will meet again.
Matt brushed off the sand from his jacket. "I'd rather look at her, B. Can you put something on. I'm not interested in seeing another man's junk."
B smirked, as he got to his feet. He blocked Matt's view of Raven. Raven didn't seem to care and ignored them. "You're a one-dimensional thinker, Matt. The human body is a thing of wonder. For ages, beauty has been in the eye of the beholder. The Ancient Greeks chiseled perfection into stone and displaced it in open forum. It's a shame that now beauty has been replaced with staunch, grotesque movie sexual trope."
"Yeah, well, sometimes they coalesce," Matt said, tilting his head in attempt to have another quick glance at Raven again. B moved to block him. Matt huffed annoyed and then stared hard at B perturbed. B eyed him with hard-eyes. Matt gulped. Matt shrugged his shoulders. "Well, good thing I have that yearly rendezvous with a movie actress. She helps. Friends with benefits. We've known each other for a while."
"Misa Amane," B said, nodding. "Another Lilith, if ever I knew one," he muttered to himself.
Matt questioned him on that, but B waved it off.
"Come, let us go open the mail," B said. "I'm eager to see what has arrived." And he put a hand across Matt's back and they began to walk up the steps leading up to the beach house. A minute later, they entered the cool domicile. B sat down in a single, black leather chair in the main area. The room was vast and filled with various items of B's interests, fully furnished. On a table sat a large package wrapped with packing paper addressed to an alias name. B crossed one leg over the other, not bothering to dress.
Matt finally decided to take off his fur coat and dropped it on a oak, dark-stained floor.
"Pick that up," B insisted. "I will not have my house cluttered and looking like a frat house."
Matt looked taken back. B was naked. But Matt quickly hung the jacket across the back of a couch.
"Open it, I want to see it," B ordered.
Matt began to unwrap the package and revealed a wooden box. He took out a pocket knife and then began to pry the lid open. Inside was a lot of material to protect the item within. "What is this? This thing was heavy."
"Something very unique," B said, remaining seated. He was excited, but until the item was fully revealed by Matt, he wasn't going to move. But he did have the sudden mindset to think about dressing for his guest.
Matt pulled out the item. It was made of stone and it looked like an old-fashioned mirror stand with a oblong frame and a narrow neck base and a flat stable platform. It must have weighed fifty pounds, plus. "What the hell is this?" Matt said.
B jumped to his feet. B picked it up as if it was weightless. "Beautiful! Absolutely, beautiful! The money I paid for this is already well worth the cost!" He set it back down and took a few steps back, gazing at it with awe and wonder. "To answer your question, it's called a Druid Stone. It's a miniature version of an anomalously larger stone, a series of stones, in fact, located in the village of Blidworth, Nottinghamshire, in the heart of Sherwood Forest, England. It has ancient, magical properties that grants its owner wisdom beyond the ages!"
Matt rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Did you check its authenticity? And have you been reading Robinhood? The thing is probably made in China from a toy company."
B stopped short in calling Matt an idiot. "To the untrained eye, it looks very much so. But in reality, it's one of the most valuable archaeological artifacts ever discovered. It is so ancient, that most scholars dismiss its importance to fable. But through my research, I contacted the person who possessed it in a private collection. And for the right price, he was willing to part with it. He had no idea its true value."
Matt leaned in for a closer look. "Sorry, B. But you're going to have to give me more information. Wammy House kids are the cream-of-the-crop, but you were always the smartest amongst us."
Matt began to light a cigarette. B gave him a stern pointed finger. "Not inside! Smoking is a disgusting habit."
"C'mon, B. You know I don't have a choice. Every one of the Wammy Kids are eccentric. L, you, myself, even Mello—we can't help ourselves. Our habits are like calming barriers against our abnormal behaviour. The Doctor built them into our DNA as he tested on us at the orphanage."
B frowned, slipping on a pair of jockey shorts he had left on the floor in the room—despite his objects of Matt's discord of dropping his jacket on the floor in a heap—before going down to the beach with Raven. He clenched his fists at his side as he recalled the tests. The tests were painful, but they also enhanced each orphan's intelligence exponentially. He vowed revenge against the Doctor for his Mangeleian tests on the children. The Doctor fashioned himself after Josef Mangele, the man who experimented on children in Nazi, Germany.
But without a hint of a smile, recalling, when recently B finally did catch up to the Doctor, posing as Light Yagami, pretending to reside over his—Beyond Birthday's—own corpse at a mortuary, he had the Doctor killed by one of his now-late associates in a brazen, day-light shooting.
His own regret was B didn't kill the Doctor himself.
"Yes, I know," he grumbled under his breath. He then unconsciously bit at his nails of his right hand. This was his "habit" to calm the rage inside. He slammed his hand down. "But we can overcome them, Matt. We can draw on our inner strength and defeat the Doctor's programming."
"Yeah, well…I need a smoke," Matt said adamantly. "I'll step outside and you can play with your new toy for a few minutes."
B sighed heavily. "Very well. I'll get dressed." And he left the room leaving the Droid Stone on the table.
"Thank god," Matt said with relief, exiting to the back porch.
After Beyond Birthday returned to the main area, he was now wearing all black clothing, with an partially open, button shirt. Across his chest was a gold chain with a crucifix. He also wore a gold Rolex watch on his right wrist, and two rings on his left hand—one on the pinky and the other the index. It was fashionable.
Matt was sitting on a couch, as if awaiting his return. Matt told him Raven had come inside while B was dressing was now getting dressed in her room. She had been wearing a towel when she did. But B knew it probably still didn't stop Matt from imagining Raven in the naked flesh.
B clapped his hands enthusiastically. "Now, let's get started. The Druid Stone is useless on its own, it will only activate with an ancient chant, opening up a portal to anywhere the user desires, according to lore." B went to pick up the Droid Stone, but instead clasped the outer rims and kept it where it stood on the table. "For weeks now, I've had visions of a bizarre-looking individual with white skin and black eyes. And he spoke to me telepathically, stating if I helped him, he would grant me a wish. And told me to purchase the Droid Stone."
Matt rolled his eyes. "Okay, now I know you've gone off the deep end, B. You've always believed in some weird things, but this is beyond crazy. You bought this stone artifact because some dream told you so?"
"Matt, shut-up, or I'll slap you. I haven't finished my story."
Matt leaned back in the couch, silenced.
B stood up straight. "The world has a secret society of individuals with unique abilities, and only these individuals, like myself, have what's known as the "silent whisperer", so-called Junk DNA with RH-Blood, that can tap into an energy net generated from the planet itself. You see, the Doctor, despite his despicable acts, also allowed me to access this power, hence my extra-sensitive eyes that can see things most people cannot."
"Are you talking about your 'Ghost Eyes'? Mello mentioned something about them. He'd be here, too, but he had other things to do."
"A shame," B said, sitting down in a chair, crossing one leg over another. "He might have enjoyed this."
Matt folded his arms. "Frankly, B. You have me a little worried here. At the orphanage, you were always into secret cults and ancient civilizations. And you freaked some of us out with your obsessiveness, even Watari was concerned. When everyone thought you killed yourself, your room was searched. Underneath the floor boards, the nuns found mountains of crazy notes on cosmic phenomenon."
"I've always been smarter than anyone at the orphanage. And I've seen things that you can only imagine. There is a greater picture beyond the physical world. Once I learned this, it opened my eyes to infinite possibilities, and I was reborn. And the Droid Stone will expand my horizons even further!"
"I'll believe it when I see it," Matt said with disbelief. Just then, Raven returned, in a stunning red two-piece swimsuit, with a silk pullover shirt. Matt's face lit up and he straightened his posture. "Wow! You're more gorgeous now than I first saw you. Care to take a ride in my Mustang. It can go from 0-150mph in 30 seconds."
B let the flattery linger for a moment, then said, "I bet something else here can go just as fast and fizzle out just as quickly when stick-shifted," he said with dry humour. Raven smirked.
Matt frowned, falling back into an unceremonious seated position. He got the mockery.
Just then, a knock came at the front door. "Be a sweetheart, and answer that, will you, Raven dear? Although, curious…I'm not expecting any more company." Without a word, Raven did what Beyond Birthday asked. She gripped the handle, and opened the door.
On the other side, stood two individuals—a tall, young man, and a shorter boy.
Matt jumped to his feet in complete shock. Since the beach house was open concept, except for the bedrooms beyond, Matt saw the two people and recognized the tall, young man immediately.
"Oh, my, God!" He paused momentarily. "Demetre Draycott…it's you!"
To be continued…