5Chapter Two: In Which Four Boys and One Girl Complain of Overwork
The demon crouched in the dark alleyway, the gloom no problem as its yellow eyes gleamed. It hissed and spoke softly to itself, crooning over the jewelry in its clawed hand.
"Yesss, yesss…very pretty, yesss, pretty yesss…ssso pretty…all mine now, aren't you? Took you from thossse nassssty humans, didn't I? Yesss…all mine…"
Dressed in a plain trench coat and large hat, it was easy to tell why no one had noticed the lizard. Hiding in a dark alleyway hid him from all eyes anyway, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Unfortunately for him, a young girl was walking by, talking and frowning. She looked like any other teenager, talking into one of those handless cell phones. However, she paused suddenly and turned, peering down the alley. The lizard, sensing danger, shut up and watched her.
She entered the alleyway, stopping as her eyes adjusted. Catching sight of the demon, she strode forward.
The demon was no fool however, and scuttled backwards. "What do you want with me?" he said, trying his best not to hiss.
"I want to arrest you for stealing that jewelry in your hand," she replied calmly, and added, almost as an afterthought, "demon."
That tore it. The demon turned and fled, fully expecting the girl to follow. She did not, however, instead talking to thin air. "Tag, Kaine. You're it."
"Got it. Thanks, Leslie."
Kaine was situated on a rooftop near the alley, a pistol cocked and ready. When the fleeing figure came into sight, he aimed and fired. The spirit bullet missed, instead hitting the wall and leaving a sizable hole. Swearing, Kaine aimed and fired again, a bit more recklessly, as the demon backtracked madly, turning and running in a different direction. Soon Kaine lost him.
Sighing in disappointment, he tapped the communicator in his ear. "David, I lost him. He's probably headed your direction, so look out." Kaine paused, then added, "Tag, you're it."
"You guys are really mature," replied David, as the black boy unfolded himself from his sitting position in a different alley, gloomy but lighter than the lizard's previous alleyway.
"Hey, it's more fun this way!" came Leslie's indignant voice, as Kaine affirmed that statement. David winced. Two people talking at once on a simple communicator can be extremely noisy.
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before. Now shut up, I think I hear him."
Sure enough, the demon was panting his way into David's alley. He stopped when he saw the boy, narrowing his already slitted eyes even further. David pretended to take no notice of him, whistling a random tune and staring up at the sky.
"You…boy," the reptilian demon growled, attempting once again to hide his hiss.
"What?" David looked around frantically as if the CIA were hiding in the darkness before 'catching sight' of the demon. "Oh. Jeez man, you nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought you were my girlfriend."
In his ear, Kaine snorted. David's girlfriend was the sweetest thing in the world, so kind she couldn't kill a fly.
The demon was convinced though. He relaxed and began to slink past David, hoping to get further ahead.
It was out of luck. Walking down that alley, something caught its leg. Tugging at it, the lizard found that his arm was trapped in a similar way. Struggling frantically with the spirit ropes proved futile, and soon the demon was entangled, unable to move.
David laughed.
"Mission accomplished, guys. I win."
"Damn!" Kaine swore.
"I owe you five bucks, David," Leslie moaned.
"Good job David," came a quiet voice, from two different places. One from the communicator, and one from the blond boy who now was standing by David. David yelped.
"Holy shit, Dev, you scared me!"
Dev smiled. He was average height, with blond hair cut reasonably short, going down to roughly chin height, getting a little longer in the back. In short, he looked very girlish, with loose white robes trimmed with gold and brilliant green eyes. However, the others had discovered that he was indeed a guy, and that he was only interested in girls.
"I'm sorry," Dev apologized, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. David shook his head, and had put on a mock-scowl when another boy rounded the alley and shouted, "Hey you two! Get the demon and let's get back, the boss wants us!"
"Shut up, Kevin, we can hear you perfectly well!" David yelled back, causing Dev to wince and hold a hand up to his ear. David looked at Dev.
"You okay?"
"Yes, but please try not to scream when I'm two feet from you and I still have a communicator in my ear."
"Oh man, I'm really sorry," David said, suddenly remembering that his non-human friend also had extremely sensitive hearing.
Dev waved away the apology as they walked towards the mousy-haired boy, who was looking a little sheepish himself. "It's fine."
The other boy, Kevin, gave an embarrassed grin when Dev and David had reached him, then frowned. "Um, are you bringing the demon?"
"Oh, whoops!"
David ran back to collect the lizard.
A soft snort was heard from behind the two boys. "Jeez. David is so absent-minded sometimes."
Leslie stood there, watching David with a half-amused, half-exasperated expression. Her hair was shoulder-length, a chestnut brown with streaks of blond from being outside in the sun. At the moment she was wearing a sea green T-shirt, practical blue jeans and tennis shoes. Her tawny eyes flickered over to the boys for confirmation.
"Yeah, I've known him for six years, and he still doesn't know my birthday," Kaine suddenly added, appearing as if from nowhere. Tall, with black hair, he was the definition of dark and handsome. Wearing jeans and a white T-shirt with a leather jacket over it did nothing but help. Leslie, however, far from being bowled over, simply growled and smacked him on the head.
"Don't sneak up on me!"
"Ouch! Leslie, when are you going to act like a normal girl?" Kaine complained, rubbing his head. Leslie was slight, but she packed a mean punch.
"When you stop being a self-centered jerk," Leslie replied calmly, having taken her revenge. Kevin laughed softly, soft brown eyes laughing. Kaine glared at the shorter boy, who was dressed in jeans and a plain black shirt. Kevin immediately stopped snickering and looked at Kaine with wide innocent eyes.
"Did I miss something?" David asked, now dragging the demon with invisible spirit lines. His Hawaiian shirt was open a bit, as it was a hot day, and he wore slacks and loafers. Kaine eyed the costume, one eyebrow raised.
"What?" David defended. "Sometimes I like to dress up! Is that so wrong?" Getting nothing but a 'Uh-huh, sure' look, he muttered, "Plus I'm going out with my girlfriend later today."
Kaine smirked. Kevin, also grinning at David's wordless interrogation, took a device out of his pocket and pressed a button, causing the five to simply disappear.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
"What!" a voice shouted. The work in the office stopped, as people peered out from around their computers to see what exactly was the matter. All they saw however, was a closed door and a bemused secretary. However, most of them recognized Leslie's shriek, and so waited for her next sentences.
"Whaddya mean we've got another mission? Do you know how much we've been working our butts off? We deserve some free time! I absolutely refuse to go on another mission today! Absolutely refuse!"
Inside the office, a fuming Leslie was only being held back from tearing up the middle-aged man before her by Dev's restraining hand. The man didn't look fazed, and instead shrugged.
"I'm sorry Leslie, but you know how we've been overworked. All my Watch are too busy keeping down the rebellions, and you know I don't have a High Watchman to send on these missions, and even if I did, he couldn't be spared."
Leslie was still breathing fire, but a quiet whisper from Dev calmed her enough to simply whirl around, stalk to the nearest unoccupied corner and sulk. Dev then asked the million-dollar question.
"What is our mission?"
The man sighed in relief. Dev could always be counted on to calm the others down and get them to work together. No one had ever seen Dev lose his temper.
"It's not even that bad. I want you to go the Other World, and try to recruit some help. The man's helped us in the past, and he might help again, even if it's because the great OPAR came begging for his help," he finished in a mutter.
OPAR, or the Organization for Peace Among Races, was an organization started when the Other World had first come into existence, with all of its elves, dwarves, nymphs, gnomes, demons, and other assorted races. It was seen almost immediately that something would be needed to keep peace, so the organization was created, with the understanding that Other Races, as the OPAR referred to them, could visit the Human World if the Other Races would allow OPAR agents to watch over the land. These agents, commonly called the Watch, were supposed to be watched over by the High Watchman, who reported directly to Mr. Ferald, the founder of OPAR. However, due to an unfortunate accident, the last High Watchwoman was never replaced, and connections between OPAR and the Other World started to disintegrate, starting with the demons, who'd never liked OPAR anyway, and on to the nymphs and elves, on and on and on. At the time, connections were nearly non-existent, with demons openly rebelling and killing, nymphs retreating into their watery homes, dwarves threatening violence and Northern elves ignoring everything OPAR asked for. That, minus rogue species popping up on Earth, was enough work for a whole team of Watchmen and women, much less the fragments the OPAR retained at that point.
"What do you mean?" asked Kevin. His hands were in his pockets, but his normally uninterested eyes had lit up, signaling his interest. Mr. Ferald sighed uncomfortably.
"What I mean is this man used to help OPAR greatly, but roughly 300 years ago he stopped. Just…stopped."
"Whoa, time out! Hate to break it to ya, Mr. Ferald, but the creature that lived the longest so far is only 264, and that's about as old as they get," David commented jokingly. Mr. Ferald fixed him with a serious look.
"I'm not talking about the Other Races, or humans. I'm talking about Kita, the Immortal."
Only Dev recognized the name, and he sucked in a deep breath, eyes wide with shock and awe.
"Kita? Who the hell is this guy?" Kaine demanded.
"Kita, the Immortal. The only one ever. He used to work with the OPAR. I remember…" Dev whispered. Everyone looked at him, concerned. Nothing had shaken Dev this badly ever since they had known him. Mr. Ferald closed his eyes.
"Yes. That Kita. I'm surprised you remember him, Dev, you can't be more 90 years."
"I'm not, Mr. Ferald, but my mother knew him. And she told me of him and…"
"That's enough Dev," Mr. Ferald cut him off sharply. Dev shut up and focused on the desk, not without suspicious looks exchanged throughout the group. Leslie especially narrowed her eyes, still miffed at the mission. No one dared speak up in front of Mr. Ferald, but Dev was in for an interrogation after they were safely out.
"Anyway," Mr. Ferald coughed, "This is a letter for him. Kita lives in the Other World, and all you need to do is deliver this letter to him, get his answer, and you can come back. Not so hard, is it?" His smile not only failed to alleviate their suspicions, it strengthened them as another look passed between the four teenagers.
Mr. Ferald, far from being blind, realized this and winced. However, he held the letter out, and finally David walked forward and took the envelope. Mr. Ferald let out a shallow breath, then smiled, a little more realistic this time.
"Thank you all very much. Shelah downstairs will transport you there. You can be in and out in a hour if you hurry. Thank you again."
The five left, and just outside the door Mr. Ferald heard the whispers start, then fade as they left to go downstairs. A quiet breath, followed by whispered words escaped him.
"Oh, if only we hadn't lost you, my most faithful Watchwoman, we wouldn't be in such a mess. Please, Firelily, lend me your strength."