VINCE/FLAME POV
*Bzz bzz* *Bzz bzz* The alarm on my phone kept buzzing. *Bzz bzz* *Bzz bz-* I clicked it off. I groan as I sat up in bed. I looked at the clock on the wall, 3:20pm. My nap lasted longer than supposed. Guess I was that tired. I got up and headed out the guest room door, towards the stairs. I looked down but saw no one. I walked down the stairs towards the kitchen to find something to eat. I then noticed a note and two envelopes on the dining table. I picked up the note,
Hey Vince! We're out to run some errands and won't be back till 5pm. Make yourself comfy and there's some microwave food in the fridge. We'll bring back some dinner too. By the way, the black envelope came for you from London HQ. The red envelope is from us to you. Sign, N.R
I picked up the black envelope first, I opened it to find a letter and a picture.
Yo Vince! You doing good? It's been a little less fun without you here at London HQ. You're always the one whom bring smiles to seriousness. We have a surprise for you but of course we can't tell you what. But the picture might let you know a little something... Leo is cranky as ever, Lily still needs some help with her work and we all miss you so much. Oops that's another clue. Anyway, hope to see you soon! Love, Team Danger.
I put down the letter with a smile and pick up the picture. It showed them all holding a piece of request form that was issued out to Gred. I wonder what they requested. I put the letter and picture back into the black envelope. I picked up the red envelope next, inside was an amount of $1000 and another note from the N.R. My eyes widened at the amount, I immediately picked up the note.
Hi Vince, hope your eyes aren't popping out of their sockets right now. This is your share of the mission of Joon Li. Just because you're on suspension it doesn't mean you can't have your share of the reward for a mission. We've split the money equally so no worries. Feel free to use it to your liking. Sign, N.R
What? My share? But I only did so little. At most I could get is $300 but I get $700 more?! I sealed up the red envelope, I took both the envelopes into my room before coming back down for lunch. After microwaving some food and watching a short movie, I realized it was 4:30. They should be coming back soon. *Ding dong* My heart skipped a beat, was I allowed to answer the door? What if it's the police? I hesitantly peeked through the window. It was Ed. I opened the door. "Um if you're looking for the Reaperz they're not in at the moment." I say to him. "Well lucky me, I was looking for you." I invited him in as I go prepare some tea.
"Why did you ring the doorbell? Last time you just burst in." I ask as I settled the cups on the coffee table. "You would probably jump a gun at me if I did that." he replies with a laugh. "I got a surprise for you though I know you just received the black envelope. The letter was delayed as it was hard to find it within all the fan mails, here, this is a present for you." He gave me a box I didn't notice he was holding. I raised an eyebrow when he said fan mails but I was more interested in the gift he'd brought me. I opened it and found some new clothes at the top, in the middle were my clothes that were supposedly suppose to come tomorrow. I dug through the clothes and found two pairs of converse and at the very bottom, was another box wrapped in bubble wrap. I look at Ed, he gestures me to go on. I took it out of the box and unwrapped the three layers of bubble wrap. I opened it and my eyes widened. There was a jet black steel flame thrower gun but what caught my eye was my initial that was engraved in gold on the body of the gun. "Wow..." I gasp as I ran my fingers down my new baby. "I'm glad you like it." Ed said as he took a sip of tea. "Oh there's something I need to tell the others though, well I'm just gonna sit here relaxing while I wait and..." Just as he was about to put his legs on he coffee table, the door burst open and a knife came through. It flew past Ed and I felt it brush against me slightly.
There standing by the doorway were the N.R. Iris' arm was straight out meaning she was the one that had threw the knife. Jennifer suddenly appears by Ed, I jumped back in surprise."Put your legs up there and you won't just see $2500 coming out of your bank." Jennifer said in a low voice. "Great timing Reaperz, I need to talk to you in private." Ed said as he took another sip of tea. Takahiro sighed, "Meeting room please." They dropped their bags onto the table nearest to the door. "Hey Vince." They greeted me in unison, again. Sometimes I wonder if they're mind readers. Iris approached me and pulled out the knife that was on the wall behind me. She smiled at me before following the others. Might I add that its just plain scary when a girl who almost threw a knife in your face smiles innocently at you? They disappeared into a room and I returned to my own room with the present. I changed from the current clothes Takahiro loaned me to my own normal clothes. I slipped on a blue tee and a pair of white jeans with my own black converse. After folding up Takahiro's clothes neatly, I left it on the bed for later. I turned around and was about to exit when I remembered something. I picked up the cross chain and clip on piercings that they had given to me. I looked at the mirror, this might actually match.
"Woah, look at that!" Katherine exclaimed as she watched me go down the stairs. "I'm glad you got used to the accessories." Takahiro say as we did the fist thingy that all guys do. "So, what was the meeting about?" I ask, trying to see if they would reveal the mystery. "We have a meeting with a gang apparently. But this is the good kind, not the bad." Takahiro says. I formed my mount into an 'o'. "Dinner's ready." Jennifer called out. We all took a seat as she started serving it out.
TAKAHIRO/2BULLET POV
I quickly ate my food and put the dishes in the sink. I jumped onto the sofa from behind and clicked onto Youtube on the flat screen, getting my mind off reality. Time flew by, before I knew it, it was almost 8. I turned off the TV and headed upstairs to my room. I found a neatly folded pile of clothes in front of the door,
Here are your clothes back, Vince.
I sighed, I turned the note around and wrote on the other side,
You can keep them, they're too big for me anyway, Takahiro.
I put the pile in front of his door before disappearing into mine. I picked up my laptop and it immediately greeted me with a screenful of numbers. The password login was a design I made myself. I clicked a few buttons here and there. 'Welcome Takahiro' The screen shown after I logged in. I started recording the Joon Li files into a document for Ed and for our own keeping. I suddenly heard a loud crash from downstairs, I cringed at the ruin of my peace and quiet. When it finally quietened down, I continued typing out the file. A few minutes later, I received a call from Katherine.
JENNIFER/OO9 POV
*CRASH!* I cringed as the punching bag rolled over the other equipment in the gym. "Woah. Looks like it finally gave way." Iris says as she walked over to hand me my water. "The chain must have finally broke, it was rusty the last time we checked." I say as I gulped down half of my cold water. "Looks like we'll have to spend more money on our gym, for new equipment." Katherine say as she picked up one side of the bag but suddenly lets go of it. "Wait, why do we have to carry this out? There's two guys now right?" She immediately dialed Takahiro and Vince's number on her phone and called them down whilst me and Iris were laughing at her use of the boys even though the three of us could manage it.
"What happened?" Tricia appeared from the other room that was connected to the gym. "It finally gave way." Iris told her. "Hey...didn't we get this bag when we were 9? It's been four years!" Tricia exclaimed. "It brings back memories doesn't it?" I say. "But guess its time for a new one." Iris say as she walked out the room, greeting Vince and Takahiro as they came in. "Soo...we have to carry that?" Takahiro ask, pointing to the punching bag that was still on the other equipment. "Yep." Katherine say, popping the 'p'. Iris walked back in, holding her laptop. "Which one should we get? The black with white or the white with black?" Iris showed the screen to everyone. Both the designs were the same but their colours were alternated. "Hmm, why don't we add a little sparkle to it?" I walk over and typed on the keys. The screen then showed metallic looking punching bags. "It's nice and all but I feel like that's not our style?" Takahiro say. "Maybe we'll decide another time. It's almost half past 9. Let's pack up." Tricia says as she disappears back into the other room. Iris closed her laptop screen and walked out of the room with me and Katherine behind her. Vince and Takahiro carried the punching bag to a corner of the gym before exiting as well. I stretched as I made my way back upstairs to my room for a shower. I glance outside one of the windows, it was a crescent moon tonight. The full moon was coming, soon.
~~~
The 6 of them jumped from building to building, doing parkour as they make their way to school. It was 6:30 in the morning, instead of walking their usual route to school, they're taking a longer way by parkour. It's their daily exercise you could say. They had on their hoodies to blend into the still dark sky. Waking up wasn't an easy task as they only slept at 12 but of course they won't show it. But what they do do is show the fun on their faces as they do one daring jump after another. They cheer and laugh as they continue to make their way. They stopped at a roof, looking at the familiar view. They drop down into an alley and landed with ease. They quickly took off their hoodies and stuffed them into their bags. *Ringgg* The first bell of the school rings, signalling the gates were opened. Not many students came that early in the morning which made it a perfect chance to properly change and equip for their daily lives. They went into their respective changing locker rooms and changed their sports outfit into a more casual style, with a quick bath of course. They emerged out just as half of the student body had already arrived.
They walked along, to the school canteen for a small snack after their early exercise. Everyone was caught up in their conversations when suddenly, Vince hit a wall and stumbled backwards but as fast as he had hit the wall, he had quickly regained his footing. He looked up to apologize but as soon as he saw whom it was, his face dropped to a smug smile and did a 'hmph' as he brushed past. The "wall" was no other than Billy and his goons. Billy wasn't just as ignorant as Vince however, he turned around and shouted, "Hey!" Vince turned around, his face no longer smug but a death glare. "Yes?" Vince challenged, as if saying 'You trying me?' Billy slightly flinched but returned his question with a sneer. Suddenly a wall was between them, it was the N.R. They looked at Billy with threatening eyes and raised brows. "Here's a little story for you Bil." Iris started, looking at her nails. "There was once..." Jennifer continued, looking down at her phone, scrolling through her social media. "...a boy whom we found..." Takahiro continued after Jennifer, looking at Billy in the eye. "...in an alley, fighting..." Tricia continued the chain whilst observing one of his goon in a predatory way. "...against..." Katherine threatened to finish but Billy had already turned pale in defeat. "I'll see you in class, Vince." He sneered and spluttered on Vince's name as if it was poison. "Fine by me." Vince replied before continuing to walk down the hallway. Things had not started well for Vince on his first day, this was just the third and he was already making enemies, much less friends. Vince knew the N.R had dirt on Billy, otherwise why would the gangster of the school, that is feared by almost everyone, go pale at 5 kids whom are 2 years younger than him. And that story, Vince decided he needed to know about it too.
The bell rang, signaling first period. Everyone let out an annoyed sigh for having missed their snacks, Iris rummaged through her bag and chucked everyone a chocolate energy bar as they went their separate ways, eating it on the go.
~~~
IRIS/PHANTOM POV
I look out the window from my seat which was at the back of the class, thinking about our past few missions. "Miss Iris would you so kindly repeat what Max has just said and answer the question on the board." Miss Lee asks. "The factors listed are in ascending order and x is in the middle which means we are finding Medium and not Mean. The answer for Practice 2B question 13 is 86.43." I say effortlessly as I continue to look out the window. All of us Reaperz have to study whenever we could as at least more than half of our 24hr is taken up with missions. We studied ahead to not lack behind. I was able to repeat what whatever-his-name-was said by multitasking with years-trained skills. All of us could. Miss Lee looked dumbfounded as she quickly moved on to the next student that wasn't looking at the board and "spacing out".
3...2...1 *Riiing!!* The bell sounded as third period finally ended and it was break. I picked up the laptop bag by my seat and started to make my way towards the others as we went up to get Vince. Once we were at the bleachers by the field which was next to the canteen, I opened up my bag and handed out some files to the rest of the Reaperz before taking out my laptop. "Okay, let's see. We have...omg." I say, shocked at the sight before me. "What? What?" Tricia says, leaning closer to get a better look at the screen. "Our missions are piling up again." I scroll down the lists of names we need to assassinate. "Looks like we can say bye to our free week." Katherine sighs. "And just when we were this close." Jennifer says as she stretches out her tired arms. "We should've enjoyed the last one more." Takahiro says. "What's this free week?" Vince asks as he chewed his sandwich.
"Every time we manage to finish all our missions a week before the month is over, we get a mission-free week. We get to do whatever we want." Katherine explains. "How many missions are there in a month?" Vince asks again. "It depends, it can go over 30, below 15. What ever the amount we finish it every time before the month ends." Takahiro explains. "I remember that one time we had about 3 missions left on the last day of the month about two months ago." Jennifer laughs as she remembered that stressful night. "Urgh, don't remind me. I had split ends in my hair for a week because of that." Katherine exclaims as she combed her hair with her fingers. "And we didn't get our free week." Tricia complained as she huffed. "One more question. You don't get your free week even if there's 6 days left of the month?" Vince asks. "Unfortunately, no. In cases like that, we may get sent back to HQ to spend our remaining 6 days in training." I explain. "Oh wow, lucky. Back at London HQ, the only free time is the breaks between missions." Vince says before going back to his sandwich.
After break ended, the rest of the lessons went by with breeze with homeworks here and there. But considering us we probably just stuffed it into our sling bags. We walked out of the school gate before turning into the alley. We started to take out our hoodies but we immediately stuffed it back in when we heard footsteps behind us. "What is this? An illegal gathering?" It was Billy again, this time with about 10 others behind him.
"Why? You wanna join our fun? Sorry, registrations are closed." I stepped forward till I was about an arm's length away from him.
"Aww, was little Billy lonely? How greedy, having 10 with you and yet you're not satisfied. You wanna join the 'big kids'?" I look at him with "eyes of pity." He growled before swinging his hand to try and hit me. I say 'try' as he totally missed. The minute he swung it, I took a step back.
"I'm here to settle a score." He points an accusing finger at us.
"Sorry not sorry but we're not free right now. We GTG."
"Oh yeah? Where to? It's a dead end." He crossed his arms.
"Where to you ask? Hmm. How bout up?" In a second we jumped and we started to make our way out by hopping shoulder to shoulder of Billy's goons. "Later gator." I say as we started sprinting down the pathway. "Wha-Hey! After them!" Billy yelled as a thunder of footsteps followed behind us. "So persistent. Fine then, we'll run till we shake them." Takahiro smirked, loving the challenge. We all sped up even faster. We could be in the Olympics but we wouldn't even have the time. "Let's make a detour at the skating park." Tricia says. There was a skating park near the school where many go to after school ends.
We took a turn into the skate park, we ran to the big dip, the hole in the ground like a big bowl. We jumped in, sliding down the surface. Billy's goons followed but some did not keep their footing and ended up rolling down to the bottom. We jumped over them before climbing back up with ease. We managed to lose about 3 of them. We continued running, I have to admit they have great stamina to be able to keep up so far. We ran off to the obstacle course where many different obstacles are stationed. We ran separate ways to split them up. I ran towards the high metal bars. I stepped up on them, they were quite high to the fact my knee came up to my chest when I stepped up. I did a backward flip just as the two guys chasing me slammed into the metal bar. I kicked them from behind before landing on my feet. I watch as they lost balance and fall forward onto the ground with a loud thud. Just so you know, these grounds aren't smooth.
JENNIFER/OO9 POV
Apparently me and Takahiro ended up meeting halfway of our runs. We were outnumbered 2 to 3 but we've done worse. We faced back to back, I was tempted to fire my dual guns that were strapped on my belt, under my shirt. Suddenly, a blue gun flew to me from above. "Here, use this instead. They're tasers. We don't need any dead bodies lying around because a certain someone lost their cool." Takahiro says with a smirk. I roll my eyes, "Oh pul-lease." I loaded it and aimed it at the first guy running up to me. He didn't falter. "You can't do anything with a toy gun!" He laughs. Or so he thinks, true that its made of plastic and looks like a toy, but this is a deadly weapon. I said nothing. I smirked as he approached closer and closer. He reached out his hand, and that's when I strike. I aimed the gun in the palm of his hand and shot. I watch as the currents shocked him before he fell down flat with a curse. Takahiro instead chose to be dramatic by turning his back to the guy running toward him and shooting from over his shoulder. "Show off." I scoff but smiled anyway. We then saw Iris running towards us. "Hey, looks like you wrapped up." She looks around for Tricia and Katherine. "Move them to the entrance where I already left the ones chasing me. Leave them there for Lil Billy to find." We nod as she jogs away to Tricia.
TRICIA/TRIXIE POV
After I ended with a high kick and the guy fell to the floor, I saw Iris running towards me. "Move him to the entrance with the others." She says as she runs past me after checking that I was done. I dragged him to the entrance and left him by his buddies. I was about to turn around and walk back to the others when the Icky Girls appeared before me. "Ew, could you like move, away?" Kelia sneered at me. "Nice to see you too." I replied sarcastically. I moved aside for them but just as Kelia passed me, I tripped her. Emma and Betty grabbed her just before she fell flat on her face. "Careful! This is designer, it's delicate." Kelia exclaimed. I rolled my eyes, she was actually more concerned over her designer shirt then her face almost being ruined. "And you! How dare you trip me! I haven't forgotten about what happened at that cafe!" Kelia said, angry. I shrug my shoulders. "Oops?"
"I swear you'll be sorry next time. Lucky for you I'm preoccupied today." She flipped her hair before walking off. "I swear you'll be sorry next time." mimicked Katherine as she appeared beside me with the guy she had beaten up. She dumped him with the rest before walking back to me. "Ignore them Tri, we have better lives than them." She encourages me just as everyone else came. Vincent put down the last of the goons with the rest. "Let's go home." Iris sighed.
IRIS/PHANTOM POV
I unlocked the door and let everyone in before closing it. I walked into the kitchen to get everyone some cold drinks. The rest of the gang was chilling in the living room with the air conditioner and television on. Just as I set the tray of drinks down on the coffee table, there was a knock on the door. Vincent got up but i motioned him to sit back down. The whole room was silent as I approached the door. It had a weird aura coming from the other side. Just as I opened it, a girl with bright pink hair jumped in. With my reflexes I had knocked her out by hitting the pressure point on her neck in a second. She dropped to the floor before she could take any more steps in. I immediately took out the knives I had hidden on me and look at the group standing by our door. Suddenly, time seemed to have slowed down as I saw two bullets flying towards me. I deflected one with my knife as the other went into the living room and Jennifer, with her bullet proof gloves, caught it. "What do you want?" I ask with a low voice. By now the entire N.R was pointing their weapons at them. "Flame." one smirked. I raised a brow.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I update slow I know but writers block is not easy to defeat. This chapter was done in a bit of rush and may require some more editing at a later date. Hope you enjoyed this one.
Author Angel