(Third POV)
- At the Tres Spades-
Eisuke sat in his suite, typing away on his laptop, his cool brown eyes narrowed in frustration. He had a lot of work to do, and it didn't help that he also had to set up the next auction. He was also wary of the two women staying there. It didn't help either, that two more seemed to be frequenting the penthouse with them.
His cell phone went off, interrupting his thoughts, and he quickly grabs it, without looking, thinking it was either business, or he was expecting a call from Soryu. "Ichinomiya." He answered coolly. He listened carefully, before agreeing to meet an associate, and friend in the lobby shortly.
Eisuke headed to the penthouse elevator, to go meet his friend in the lobby. His friend was an up and coming movie producer, and had wanted to film some of his next movie at the Tres Spades. Though Eisuke was slightly hesitant to agree, he was going to let his friend film there.
He finally reached the lobby, the usual swarm of groupies trying to gain his attention. He politely pushed his way through, ignoring them. It was something he had grown used to, he was the king after all. The women that swarmed may have had different faces, but in the end, they were all the same, attention seekers, merely after his status and money. He was used to their attention, and was often bored by it, even though every so often he would entertain one or two of them.
He finally reached his friend, Santiago, and noticed he wasn't alone. The young woman looked familiar, though he wasn't sure at first. He knew she was someone in his usual business circles. She was tall, slim, and beautiful, with black hair, that had pink highlights, along with fierce blue eyes. Her skin had a rosiness to it, and even the normally bored Eisuke, had to admit, she was beautiful. It was when he saw the Phoenix tattoo on her chest, that he recognized the young woman as the actress Shara Hase.
"Santiago, Miss Hase." Eisuke greeted them both, meeting their gazes, his business smile on.
"Eisuke."Santiago greets Eisuke warmly, smiling at him.
"Mr. Ichinomiya." The actress greets him coolly, shaking his hand quickly, before returning her attention back to Santiago.
It confused yet, intrigued Eisuke, how she seemed so cool towards him, so ready to ignore him, and return her attention back to Santiago. "Shall we go discuss this elsewhere?" Eisuke offers, gesturing for them to head to the elevator.
Santiago goes first, followed by Eisuke walking next to Shara. They made their way through the overly eager groupies, Shara rolling her eyes at them. Eisuke smirks, picking up on the actress's disdain for the groupies.
- Ota's studio -
Ota was at his studio, trying to quickly swap out his painting supplies, for his photography supplies. He had a new model due any minute, and he didn't want to have all his paint and brushes everywhere still when she got there.
He had just stashed the last of his painting supplies, when a soft knock came from the door of his studio. He opened the door, to find a beautiful young woman, whom was his new model. She had beautiful long blonde hair, and stunning blue eyes, with a feminine air about her. "Ota Kisaki? I'm Melonie Anderson, the new model." She said kindly, offering her hand in introduction.
He takes her hand, placing a feather light kiss on it, giving her a warm smile, gesturing for her to come in afterwards. "Nice to meet you, please just call me Ota." He says, walking farther into the studio. "If you'll have a seat, and I'll go get the clothes, and finish setting up my camera stuff okay?" He adds, shooting her the smile he was so well known for.
She smiles shyly at him, nodding as she takes a seat. "Okay all set." He says, coming back into the room, smiling at her. "How about to start, for practice, why don't you just pose naturally, before we do any wardrobe changes or poses?" He adds, gesturing for her to go in front of the camera.
She takes a seat, sitting slightly at an angle, while still facing the camera. Ota snapped the picture, admiring how she seemed to be a natural. "Beautiful." He murmured, loud enough for her to hear. She blushes slightly at his words, but doesn't move, because he snaps another picture. "You're doing great Koro." He adds, smiling at her, earning him a shy smile from her.
- With Hiro -
Hiro was in a hurry, on his way back to LRN. He had to stop in at school earlier, for he had gotten assigned a partner for an art project, and he had met her earlier, in between meetings at LRN, which the foxes had another one on again tonight, for their previous meeting had gotten interrupted, when Scarlett's friends got called back to the Tres Spades. Hiro was slightly worried, about having to balance his schedule so he could work with his new partner, not to mention normal school hours, along with missions, plus whatever they were helping Scarlett's friend with. His partner for the art project was Jenna Steffen, a fellow art student, and an attractive one at that. She was tall, slim, and beautiful, with dark black hair, and brilliant light blue eyes. She had multiple tattoos, across her chest, and on both arms, and Hiro was impressed with her creativity. He looked forward to working with her, he just hoped his schedule wouldn't be too crowded.
He managed to beat Felicia and her friends back to LRN, by ten minutes. He had run pretty hard to make it, but he was glad he wasn't late to the meeting. Riki knew that Hiro's schooling came first, but he still didn't want to be late. This time, it was only three of them that returned, Cecilia, Felicia, and Soryu. He didn't see Mamoru with them this time.
(Felicia's POV)
We finally make it back for our second meeting with the black foxes. We take a seat at the back, where we were last time, while Scarlett pulls up info on her computer. "Okay so, we're looking for Mei Ling Lee, who it appears was taken hostage by the Yakuza. So far we've determined that the Yakuza have six registered buildings here, two of them we have already ruled out this morning, towards the outskirts of town." Scarlett brings the rest of the foxes up to date on our current mission, pulling up the map on her computer, and showing it to the rest of the foxes.
"Our best bet is their main building or offices, the closer to the boss of the Yakuza, the better." Kris cuts in, pointing to different buildings on the computers.
"Well I'm assuming you don't just want help locating her, you want help getting her back too right?" Riki cuts in, a question in his steel blue eyes.
"Well.. I'm not sure... Maybe the dragons could just do the actual going in to get her part.. Soryu?" I ask, looking to the mobster, who shrugs slightly.
"I wouldn't turn down the extra help, I'm not sure how many of the dragons would actually be available at the time. I also don't want to drag anyone in if they are uncomfortable with that part of it though." He says coolly, looking around the table at all of the foxes.
"It wouldn't be our first run in with the mafia. Probably won't be our last either. We can handle ourselves. It's ultimately up to boss and leader though." Kenshi says, looking from Riki, to Atsumu and back again.
"I'm in, that okay with you boss?" Riki asks, raising an eyebrow as he looks over at Atsumu, who shrugs nonchalantly.
"I'm fine with it. We need to be careful, and have a good plan in place." Atsumu adds, thoughtfully.
"Okay, so we need to separate for the first day, find which building she's in first, before we plan any further." Cecilia says, drawing the attention to her.
Before anyone could answer her, Soryu's phone goes off, and he stands up, walking away to answer it.
After a few moments, he returns, a slightly smug look crossing his features. "So we might not have to search every building. I got a lead." He announces, as he takes a seat with us once more. "There's an information trade in four days, and the Yakuza are hosting it." He adds, looking over at me. We would have to explain exactly what that was, though there still could be some issues with this.
"The different gangs get together to trade info once a year, and a different gang host it each year. Though considering how hostile the Yakuza can be, this could still be a problem." I explain, looking to Soryu to further explain.
"It's like a giant party hosted, a lot of illegal things go on there, info trading being one of them. You have to be invited, usually someone from each gang is invited.. Though I think since I have an alliance with the bell crickets, they might not extend an invitation to the Ice Dragons." He says, scratching the back of his neck in thought.
"We can sneak in can't we? Just make up some fake ID's and invites, me and Takkun could easily construct something like that." Scarlett says, looking to me and Soryu.
Soryu shakes his head. "The amount of people we would need to do this right, and cover all angles and possibilities of this, I doubt we could sneak that many in." He answers, clearly starting to get frustrated.
"So we need an invite then. Besides if your gangs invited you can bring whoever you want. The foxes are still technically apart of the underground, they are thieves after all. I'm sure if we play it like the foxes are allied with a particular mafia we could get them in, as associates." I add, trying to think of a plan.
"But we need to find out which gangs are invited, and how we're getting in. This would be a big operation, it takes a lot of people." Riki says, looking to me and Soryu.
"I could find out which gangs are invited.. Yes it would be a big operation. If all the foxes, plus me, Felicia, Cecilia, Eisuke, Ota, Baba, and Mamoru, that might be enough." Soryu answers simply.
I shake my head. " We would need a few more. We need to split up into groups of two for this one.. We have so many different areas of this to cover, it's a big building, not to mention to avoid suspicion some of us actually have to participate in some of the activities, while the rest do the background work on the sly." I add, starting to feel slightly overwhelmed with the enormity of this mission.
"Well I'm sure we all know some people, we can all contact a few more." Cecilia adds, trying to be positive, and I smile at her, grateful.
"So what exactly would we all be doing? You said some of us have to participate?" Kris asks, looking to me for an answer.
"Well, we need two in their main database area, for hacking, it's not the type of system you can get into from the outside. We need more hackers to get through some of the security systems, and into some of the restricted areas, some to actually find her, plus people keeping the mafia off the hackers asses... Also, there's the information trade, a few other things gangs are expected to participate in." I trail off, running a hand back through my hair in frustration. This was one hell of an operation.
"The race. You're forgetting the race. We could get a lot of info if we actually win that." Soryu adds, glancing at me.
Hiro whistles."Maybe we should just stick with the original plan, find her before this." Hiro suggests, looking at everyone.
"This is our best bet. They are probably gonna have her heavily guarded up until the information trade." Soryu says, shaking his head at the youngest black fox.
"So we have four days, to draft a couple extra people, and get our shit together.. Damn this is gonna be fun." Kris snorts, smirking at us, and I can't help but think she's right.
A/N: hi everyone!!! Sorry I took so long between updates, I was sick, but I'm feeling better, and will be updating more like I used to, at least regularly alternating between stories. ^_^. That was the last three girls, so yea... We'll delve more into everyone's characters in the upcoming chapters.. Thanks for the help with this chapter Cecilia!!! ^_^ Thanks for the patience, and thanks for reading! ^_^.
-Jinx