Monday, April 30, 2007

Tabula Rasa

Note:

In case you already forgot:

"this" indicates normal talk
this indicates thoughts
~*~*~*~*~ indicates a change of place

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Chapter 3

"Now how did I guess that? Time to panic."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally I get to sit down. We're sitting on a bench in one of the endless hallways. Malice is going through the folder we got from Kyoto.

"So what kind of case did we get?"

"..." Malice keeps reading the folder. After a while she looks at me.

"Suicide. A pretty normal case." The way she speaks about suicide like it's something that happens every day and is not something to stress about gives me the creeps.

"Well for your information rookie, suicides do happen every day. You'll get used to it."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

She tosses the folder to me. "You can read that while we move." And I'm back to the half-jogging.

~*~*~*~*~

After what felt like hours of walking we get out of the building. Surprisingly I'm through with the folder.

"Can I ask something?"

"Yeah?"

"This case..."

"What about it?"

"...it's in Berlin."

"And?"

"Can you explain me how exactly we're going to get to the capital of Germany?"

"No worries rookie. I've got it covered."

That comment just made me feel uneasy.

"C'mon. It's no big deal." We're getting closer to another office-like building.

"Let me guess, more walking?"

"Hey you're getting the hang of it already!" We arrive at the door and enter.

~*~*~*~*~

Another hallway. But this is different: on each side of it there are doors. Above every door there's a flag of some country. Somehow I just know what door we'll be picking. And just as I finished that thought, we're getting closer to the door that has the flag of Germany above it. In we go.

"Has anyone told Heike we're coming over?" Malice asks the woman behind the only desk in the room. She nods and keeps signing the papers next to her.

"That makes it a bit easier. Let's move, we don't have all day!"

She moves quickly to the other side of the room and in front of the map of Germany. She pushes the red button on the map that says "Berlin" above it. To my surprise, a doorway appears on the right side of the map. Malice of course is already going through it.

"Well what are you still standing there?"

I shake my head to clear my thoughts and go through the doorway after my "partner".

~*~*~*~*~

"Ah, Malice! Ich habe euch gewartet!" (Ah, Malice! I've been waiting for you!)

So this must be the Heike Malice was talking about. She's a nice looking young woman, maybe 18 years old or a bit younger. She has a short red hair and brown eyes. She has a big smile on her face and a loud voice.

"Und sie ist...?" (And she is...?) Heike points at me. I don't like being pointed at.

"Der Angfänger, ja. Sie spricht nicht Deutsch." (The beginner, yes. She doesn't speak German.)

"Oh! Hello, I'm Heike. Nice to meet you...?" She has a strong German accent in her voice.

"Anya. Anya Wales."

"Anya? Are you Russian?"

"No. The name was not my idea, believe me."

"Enough with the chit-chat girls. Our case Heike."

"Ja!" (Yes!) Heike smacks her own forehead.

"This way." We start walking after Heike. While we walk Heike explains the present situation and Malice translates it to me.

"Apparently this one hasn't been on the loose for long, a day or a few at tops."

"Is it a good thing?"

"Well it hasn't caused too much havoc. But we still gotta get rid of it." It's a beginning spring. The air is warm and the sun shines brightly. I'm not feeling too hot in my T-shirt, but I wonder how Malice manages in her red jacket. The black jeans look a bit warm too. Maybe she's used to it.

"We're here."

We've stopped on the edge of a market place. I don't see anything strange about it. Only people shopping and doing normal things. That's when Malice points at the crowd.

"See that guy there?"

I look at the direction she's pointing at. There's a guy who looks like any normal teenager.

Wrong.

He's glowing. A bright red glow.

"That over there is our case. He's invisible to the human eye, so living people can't see him. Now we just gotta get him away from the crowd and somewhere isolated. That way things won't get too complicated and we won't risk human lives."

"So how do we get him to us?" I understand what she's saying, but I don't understand how she's going to drag that guy out of the crowd. Though he doesn't seem too dangerous, he's just staring around like he's looking for someone. I look at him and then back at Malice. But she's talking with Heike. After a while she turns to me.

"Right-o, rookie, you'll be our bait."

Now how did I guess that? Time to panic.

"No worries, here's what you do: just walk close to him so that he sees you, turn around, go to that alley" she points at an alley a few meters away from us "and me and Heike can take care of the rest."

"Are you sure about that?" I have my own doubts about the whole thing.

"Positive. Trust me, I've done this for years." With that she pushes me to the crowd and disappears. So does Heike.

Just great.

So I do as I was told: walk over to our target. I'm about 5 meters away from him when he finally notices me. He cocks his head to the side and starts coming towards me. I start going to the alley.

I get to the alley. No sight of Malice nor Heike. I turn around.

Big mistake.

The case smiles and starts running. I've never seen anything run like that. I can barely see him.

And then he reaches me. And goes straight through me.

"Marco! Das ist Kokain!" (Marco! That's cocaine!)

Feels like someone threw freezing water on me...cold...

"Yo! Rookie! Don't just stand there! MOVE!"

Malice...?

"She got hit!"

Heike...?

"Well that's simply brilliant! Should've known this would happen!"

Hey where did that guy go...?

The guy is banging a wall of some sort. It's purple and I can see through it. And then I fall on the ground.

"Heike, look after her, I'll get this over with!"

Heike is already next to me. Malice walks calmly to the glowing guy. Talk about a professional in action. I can almost feel the power radiating from her. She draws a cube in the air with her fingers. Suddenly the glowing guy is trapped in a purple cube. Malice snaps her fingers and the guy bursts in black flames. When the flames fade away the only thing left in the cube is a black butterfly. The cube disappears. Malice pulls a small jar out of her pocket and catches the butterfly. Then she walks over to us.

"How's the rookie doing?"

"...'m fine." I try to stand up and Heike grabs my shoulders.

"Unbelievable. See this butterfly here?" Malice lifts the jar so I can see the insect in it.

"That's Marco Schellhammer. He was a drug-addict and died from an overdose. And now look at him. Nothing but a mere insect. Has as much strenght as a butterfly, that's why the form. And it still took you down." She shakes her head. "Unbelievable."

I can already stand on my own. We get going.

"Try to be more careful next time." We're back at the doorway. I don't feel too great. My first case and I screw it up.

After Malice walk through the doorway, Heike pats my back.

"Don't worry, you'll do better next time. It always takes it time. And by the way," she smiles at me "I bet Malice wasn't a master at this job in the beginning either."

"She's been doing this longer than you?"

"Yes."

"And you've done this for...?"

"50 years next month."

I'm speechless.

Malice pokes her head through the doorway.

"Hey what's the hold up?" Busy as ever.

"You better get going." Heike winks at me. "Auf Wiedersehen, Anya!"

"Auf Wiedersehen!"

I wave at Heike and step through the doorway.

~*~*~*~*~

"So what do we do with that?" I point at the jar Malice is holding. We're walking towards another building. A small one for a change.

"We're sending it where it belongs."

We step inside the small building. In front of us is something that looks like a pool filled with shining water. It keeps spinning towards the center.

"So this is it." Malice goes to the edge of the pool and drops the jar in it. The jar vanishes and the butterfly sinks into the pool.

"Now the people upstairs handle Marco and make their final judgement."

I can't help but stare at the pool.

"That's it?"

"That's it for me." Malice turns towards me with a wicked smile on her face. "You still have that report to do."

Damn.

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A/N: At least the main character has a name now. A lame one but a name anyway.

And yes, this chapter contains German (feel free to correct me if it's not written right) and I translated them for the sake of the people who can't understand German.

The thing is that Anya and Malice might go all over the world so of course they have to speak other languages than English. All the non-English will be translated of course.

I hope people won't flame me for this.

And Simpleplanluver: Do you mean grammarwise or the style I write with?

1. The over-perfect grammar can be blamed on my Finnish and English lessons, both trying to make me write in a perfect way.

2. I'm a pre-mature perfectionist. That might explain a few things too.


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