'Under Cover' - A.C.E
Unedited
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Zayn and Shahzad were walking down Alperton Station. Not to go inside, but to where Zayn was brought after he was drugged. Looking for clues was essential; Zayn needed somewhere to start. Hail stones pelted them, the wind adding more force. It was probably going to snow soon. But only for a day or so. London was way too polluted.
They reached the entrance, the same one Zayn had left through the other day.
"Let's first see if there are any other ways to get in," Shahzad suggested.
Zayn looked at him questioningly.
"Incase we gotta make a run for it and the main entrance is blocked or sum," he explained.
He put his hands on his hips and squinted around the building as if he would find something.
"Even if it does seem deserted as fuck," Shahzad added further.
Right. That actually made sense. Zayn was positive he was still being affected by the drugs. They take time to leave your system. That was the only explanation he had for his slow reactions and lack of common sense. Nothing you haven't experienced before, right? thought a voice in his head. Zayn ignored it, wanting to concentrate on the task at hand as opposed to arguing in his head with voices with various personalities. The one with common sense seemed to have vanished.
They walked around the building. The front section of it was one story but that back section had one floor above it. On the side there was only a window which was barred from the inside. Shahzad went over and saw the window was actually broken from outside, so they both used some pole thingies they found lying around and broke down the wooden planks covering it. Inside the room was empty, the door ajar. Escape route established.
Now they went further down, finding nothing until they turned left so they were at the back. Over here there were signs that some people had been here. Cigarette stubs littered the ground, needles strewn haphazardly across. Small dusts of white powder were detectable here and there, empty ziplock bags. There were also bloodied bandages, now smudged with black. Zayn was sure he smelled vomit as well. It made him want to hurl too. It hadn't seemed to affect Shahzad too much for he was zigzagging threw the rubbish, looking for something of interest.
There was a sliding glass door at the back, so Zayn could see inside was a bare kitchen. He went over, the door easily sliding open, checking back once on Shahzad who was still inspecting the ground. The kitchen had no appliances or cutlery of the sort, just a table and four chairs in the centre. There were three doors; on the left was the door that lead to the room they saw on the way, on the right was a door opening into a corridor.
The middle one was metal. Probably the one where he had found consciousness in. He went inside again, this time heading for the cupboards. He found some pens and blank papers, measuring cylinders and some other things that weren't of interest. In the last one by the door through which he had left the other day, there was a card. It was plain black, about a5 in size with grey writing on it. In bold letters in the centre it spelled DEYS. It was in plain lettering, no designs or something. He turned it to find something that baffled him. It said:
North - complete
South - complete
East - complete
West - complete
Northwest - complete
Northeast - complete
Southwest - complete
Southeast - complete
Central - awaiting
Something bothered him about this. Something that he could not remember now had been mentioned about this. He stood there, deep in thought, willing it to come to him. The door behind him banged open and he turned to see Shahzad, the card momentarily forgotten because Zayn clocked something.
When he had been brought here that day, he had only witnessed one door, which Syra, Ahmad, Ilyas had entered through and which they had all left. All the other sides had a counter. But now he had entered through a door in the back. There had been no space before. He narrated this to Shahzad who forgot what he came for and turned to investigate. Zayn joined him.
"There's this part of the countertop - you can slide it in and out," Shahzad explained.
So that explained why he had seen no gap that day.
"But how could I have missed and entire door?" Zayn pondered aloud.
"You were drugged. And no one else saw the girl Merry," Shahzad pointed out.
He had completely forgotten about that.
"Bruh I don't think the drugs made me hallucinate. Just aggressive. And why would I fuvking imagine an annoying ass voice. My head was pounding at that time I could barely think, let alone let my imagination run free," Zayn rambled, flabbergasted.
Shahzad only hummed in response.
"I think I know. So look here. If the table is slid into place, someone can still go underneath and push open this bottom section of the door and leave. Possibly what the chic Merry did. And as for you missing the outline of the door, there's this -" Shahzad stretched out a long piece of metal from a small little pocket thingy just under the table - " so it can be hidden." He put it back into place and slid the table back. He pulled the door open and beckoned Zayn to follow him outside.
"We need to know where this girl went - and where she came from," Shahzad said.
Zayn nodded.
The card.
"Oh yeah I found this inside one of the cupboards," Zayn said, holding out the card to Shahzad.
Shahzad took it from him, turning it over in his hands. While he read the back, Zayn desperately tried to recall what had bothered him about the card.
Rafael.
Yes. Now he remembered. He called out to Shahzad who had begun wondering through the litter again outside and recounted all the information Rafe had told him before he left London. Shahzad listened to all of this without much interest.
"There's clearly not much we can do. This new power or whatever the fuck it is doesn't seem to be planning on coming out soon. So we shouldn't really bother ourselves bout this. What does concern us is why you ended up here with that twat Merry and - are you sure her name even is Merry? Like the fuck it's a weird name," Shahzad mumbled the last part.
"She had some long ass name which she shortened to... fuck yes I remember, it was Mary. That was the shortened version." Zayn remembered, snapping his fingers as he go it.
Zayn brought out his phone and squatted down, searching up names that Mary could be short for. He had to know because he needed to know her exact name she had given him for him to ask around about her. Fuck, he couldn't find anything that related to his searched. Just alternatives of Mary or Biblical stories. He tried searching for girl names beginning with M. Margaret. Meredith. Marleigh. Marjorie. Marlowe. Martha. Marianna. Margot. Marissa. Marley. Mariam. Mariyah. Morgan. Miranda. Marlee. Marlene. Myra. Marilyn. Mercy. Marina. Marcela. Meera. Mercedes. Myrtia. Maryjane. Margaux. Marigold. Marin. Mariella. Martina. Mayra. Maura. Maritza. Marin. Margarita. Marwa. Margerete. Marionette. Marabel-
Marionette. He finally remembered it. His little sisters loved watching Miraculous, whose main character was Marinette, so the name sounded similar. Now he remembered her saying her name was Marionette, but her friends called her Mary.
"Oi, Shaz, I remember her name now. Marionette. Yeah that defo was her name," Zayn called out to him, switching his phone off and putting it back into his tracksuits pocket.
"Cat Noir," Shahzad replied while kicking at a solid white ball. It crumbled into white powder.
"Yes, I know I'm definitely not mistaken. Marionette was her name. Now we can get accurate answers from whoever we ask," Zayn said, ignoring Shahzad's comment.
"Right so we go around and ask people if they know a Marionette aka Mary who was behind Alperton station," Shahzad stated.
"Bruh, when you put it like that it sounds dumb-" Zayn huffed at him.
"Cuz it is! Who the fuck are we gonna ask anyways?!" Shahzad burst out.
Zayn sniffed at him. The little count wasn't the one who was drugged and deposited to a random building. Yet he was the one being a little bitch. He didn't have to help if he didn't want to.
"Trust me on that. I know who to ask. I'll narrate my story, obviously leaving out some parts," Zayn reassured him.
It's like we switched roles, Zayn thought. Well he never was the responsible sort, he thought again.
Shahzad was silent for a bit, contemplating what Zayn said.
"I don't see why we can't just leave this. Who gives a flying fuck about Ladybug? And those guys prolly won't bother you again since they just dumped you here-" Shahzad began to rant before Zayn cut him off mid rant.
"I can't do that! Besides I'm still have to begin fighting again so it will be inevitable. Better solve this mess before it interferes further in my shit. And they could go after someone I know. And I can't have that. I'm not asking you to help, though," Zayn stressed.
He had Syra now. She had been spotted at the fight by Vinnie and his lot, and with their whole court case, stories about his victims had been circulating recently. He had heard Syra's story, but luckily no one knew who she was. But if they really wanted to know, they could easily find out. So he was going to do everything in his power to just keep trouble away from him. Also, who knows that there could be come sort of recording device in the building which could have recorded Syra, Ilyas, him, Shahzad and Ahmad. And Marionette. She could have seen Syra embrace him and out two and two together and reported to whoever instructed her to be there.
This lead him to another thought. They must of really given him a high dose of the drug for them to be trusting a capable guy like him around a jumpy little thing. Had she been drugging him? Did she have anything to say to him before the other three arrived? Maybe they thought the drugs would affect him more. He had been on some shit before, but most likely not this crap that had knocked him out, messed with his brain and emotions. He brought back to reality by Shahzad sighing loudly.
"I ain't gonna let you do stupid shit alone," muttered Shahzad.
"Good. Let's go now. We've got some people to bother about some chic called Mario," Zayn said, stretching his arms up.
The two begun walking back to the front.
"Her names Marinette not some Italian plumber," Shahzad muttered, still in a mood.
"It's actually Marinette but we'll just stick to Ladybug as a code name between us, ight?" Zayn replied.
"It's not that hard to figure out though," Shahzad responded with.
"I highly doubt the crowd we will be mixing in knows what Miraculous is," Zayn pointed out.
"Not gonna lie, it's one of the kids shows I would not mind watching," Zahn commented after they walked in silence for a bit.
"Bruv, are you good?" wheezed Shahzad in between his snickers.
"Yeah. I watch it with my sisters. And Power Rangers. I ain't ever gonna get too old for that," Zayn confessed unashamedly.
"I guess you have a point there," Shahzad stated.
"Power Rangers Dino Charge," Zayn declared.
"Naaaahh, not then dutty lot, Ninja Steel was the best," Shahzad argued.
They continued arguing about stupid pointless stuff. But Zayn was glad for some light hearted banter to distract his mind right now.
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This chapter will make more sense on a later date. Maybe you might understand in this book, but you'll defo understand in the second book. That's all I'm saying for now though.
2020 words.