.hack//Legend Of Twilight Bracelet Fan Fiction ❯ Heist ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 2 )

Names ---Rena/Rose(blackrose)--- Shugo/Kite--- Anissa/Kirasha--- Alyssa/Kayane--- Tengaki/Tenya--- Taryn/Nami--- Balmung holds true to his real name through-out the whole fic.

 

And I made a small mistake in the prologue. Instead of a girl with green eyes and black hair when Balmung's father shows him the members of Aeturnum Vale, its a girl with reddish auburn hair and brown eyes. If you read 'Concrete Kiss' and the A/N at the beginning, you'll already know this. That's all, enjoy.

 

Chapter One (15)

 

Why the hell did he have to find the crew, as his father put it when he was heading out the door that morning, when they were going to be working with him?

 

He was grateful for the fact that he wouldn't be working on the job alone, but with the current team that he'd been assigned along with, Balmung wasn't so sure he wanted to risk even attempting to complete the job.

 

After he'd spent ten minutes standing at the window, long after his sister had been taken inside, Balmung had brought himself to read exactly what he was supposed to do. Other than break into C.C. corp., and steal all their most important files, he needed to 'take care' of a couple people.

 

For years, his father had been 'getting rid' of those who opposed him, or those who had the power to oppose them if they didn't already. Now, he had to get rid of his father's remaining two partners; Aura Marion, some woman from England, and Morti McCauley, another woman from Scotland.

 

The annoying little bell rang above as Balmung walked through the door to the diner, looking around warily before he'd even taken three steps inside.

 

Seemingly what were the usual customers, geezers played chess, a woman scolded her screaming children, a few of high-school kids talking amongst themselves, a middle aged man watching some sport on TV. Glancing at each of them, then the most private booth of the place in the back, a brown haired man was looking back at him calculatingly.

 

Realizing that he was being watched, he grinned and waved him over. Holding back a sneer at the open gesture of recognition, Balmung walked slowly but surely over to the back of the diner.

 

Shugo Tanega, nicknamed Kite, was young, maybe a year or two younger than Balmung, with shaggy brunette hair and a tall, thin frame, the light hitting his upper arms just right to show off the muscles in his arms as he rested them on the table. With a simple black Crisis T-shirt and baggy blue jeans with some chains and a chain necklace, Balmung wondered if the kid was even eighteen yet.

 

"You're Balmung Beyoneisu, right?" Shugo said with a small grin on his face, earning himself no response from the quiet, silver haired twenty-two year old.

 

Upon the statement and question, Balmung could barely hold back a sneer at the way he seemed to fit in his attire and sounded older than he'd expected. I should have looked up on these brats, damn it, he muttered mentally, letting out a silent sigh.

 

"I'm Kite." He hated the code-names they had to use on people they first met. Keeping their identities until they were sure the person was trust-worthy was a pain, but it did the job and kept them safe from being discovered.

 

Balmung sat down in the booth across from 'Kite', and grimaced in annoyance when a shadow fell over him.

 

"What can I get for ya, darlin's?"

 

"Hey, Gardenia, doll, you look more beautiful than the last time I saw you. Its seems you are getting younger with each day," he chided, taking her hand and kissing the back of it lightly, receiving a short chuckle of amusement.

 

Balmung groaned silently, coughing loudly at the flirtatious two and disgusted by the pointless waste of time.

 

Sizing herself back up, Gardenia, let out a snort of annoyance and repeated her question.

 

"Just my usual, Denia."

 

"Why, of course. Take your time, we're in no hurry."

 

'Denia' giggled then went to seat a couple who'd just come entered.

 

After Gardenia was out of ear-shot, Shugo leaned back in his chair, giving a tired and loud yawn. Glancing around, his eyes settling on a small little fly crawling around on the floor, then looked back up at Balmung, feeling his eyes bore into him. "What?" Looking away once again, he saw a stand nearby within arms length and shifted to stretch for it.

 

"How often do you come here?"

 

Shugo froze in reaching for a sample bread from the stand a few feet away and confused, stared at Balmung. "Nearly every day."

 

"And you never tire of this place?"

 

"I'm sort of a creature of habit."

 

Balmung acknowledged with a nod.

 

Silence.

 

"So are we going to keep talking about me or this assignment that your father's got set up for us? I mean, I don't mind talking about me, but..."

 

"Your profile says you steal cars. How's that beneficial to our job?"

 

The grin that had been on Shugo's face the entire tip disappeared and he looked at Balmung seriously for the first time. "I can get in any car you name in under thirty-seconds. Re-wire any and all systems that we don't want on our trail that can find us. If you want a car that will always drive toward the north-pole, I'm your guy." Ignoring the snort of disapproval, Shugo leaned back in his seat, arms resting on the back of the booth.

 

A shadow looming over Balmung, Denia came back with three plates full of pancakes, sausages, eggs, biscuits, and a lot of other things that Balmung didn't want to know about.

 

Shoving a few bites of food into his mouth, Shugo paused for a moment. "And what is it that you do, oh great one?" he asked after taking a drink of milk.

 

Balmung shrugged non-chalantly. "I crack safes."

 

A short bark of laughter echoed through-out the room though no one paid any mind and Balmung seemed more than a little surprised by the reaction. "Safes, huh? I bet it took you ten minutes to open a simple combin--"

 

"You know the Chubb Cobra Elite?" Balmung questioned almost darkly.

 

Shugo's head popped up from leaning in for another bite and recognition showed in his eyes. "Yeah, that's the most famous safe I've ever heard of. I think there is a record of six minutes and nineteen seconds or something."

 

"The record's now four minutes and forty-three seconds."

 

Shugo stopped eating in mid bite, eyes wide. The old record had lasted for longer than he'd been alive, longer than his father had been alive. "Hell... you're not shittin me, are you?"

 

"Do I look like one to joke around?"

 

The grin came back to Shugo's face in an instant. "Good point."

 

Once again, a shadow fell over Balmung and he cursed the waitress silently. Looking up, he saw Denia looked afraid, her eyes shifting back and forth as her hands fidgeted as the were clasped together. But her face was still hard, determined, as if to show she wasn't going to let fear get the best of her.

 

"Sorry to bother you, hon', but... there are some people outside."

 

Shugo's eyes widened slightly and he looked out the window. Sure enough, there were three men walking around, checking cars; more specifically the licence plates. A small smile on his face, Shugo turned back to Denia, standing up. "Thanks for the tip, doll." Pulling out a couple bills, both fifties, he handed one to Denia then set one on the table.

 

Balmung watched as everyone stopped whatever they were doing, even crying on the kids parts, and nearly cheered Shugo on, albeit quietly with a few good-lucks. It was obvious they weren't fond of the idea that was Shugo being caught.

 

"See that red convertible out there? With the black vinyl on the hood?"

 

Balmung sighted the car, nodded then turned his attention back to the men rapping on the cars.

 

"Head straight for the car. You don't know me." Shugo then walked in front of Balmung, pushing through the diner doors as they walked in.

 

Balmung was stopped as a hand found its way in front of his path. "Do you know that man?" a man with blonde hair and green eyes asked, pointing at Shugo as he just walked out the door.

 

"No, I haven't. Except for when he just walked out in front of me." Balmung side-stepped the hand and began to walk toward the red convertible, watching out of the corner of his as the three men followed Shugo dumbly into an alley behind the same diner he'd just left.

 

Listening to the sound of men groaning and grunting like pigs as they were hit, Balmung watched as cars flew by on the local road to his left.

 

He rolled his eyes when Shugo walked out, brushing off his hands and shirt, a cocky grin spread from ear to ear. "Okay, lets go before they regain what little sense they had and follow us."

 

"How did they find us?" Balmung did not like the fact they had been found, or more specifically, Shugo had been found. Wasn't he part of the so-called 'notorious Aeturnum Vale' that he had never heard of except for the night before.

 

After setting himself in the driver's seat, Shugo looked over at the taller teenager and a half-smirk came to face. "I forgot to change the plates, that's all. No big deal."

 

"You could have cost us."

 

"Relax, it was a simple little mistake. One-time thing." Stepping on the accelerator quickly, Shugo pulled the car onto the highway, cutting off Balmung's reply with a deafening screech of the tires. Arriving at a large corporate building the size of a skyscaper, pulled up to a gate that rose rather than splitting in half and opening sideways. "Its me. I've got pretty boy here too, like it was scheduled." The high-pitched, mumbled reply came back sarcastically, and the gate began to rise.Shugo slammed on the accelerator when the gate barely reached a fourth of the way up, narrowly missing the rim of the widsheild on the convertible and causing Balmung to duck.

 

Raising his head when they'd pulled into a spot, Balmung glared at the younger teen's grinning face, then promptly jumped out of the car sourly.

 

"Geez, what a grouch. Where's the humor in this guy?" he muttered to himself, locking the car even though it was a convertible and walking to the stairway leading up into the building, where Balmung was so stiffly waiting for him at the bottom.

 

"Relax, man. Did something bite you in the ass or what?" Shugo snapped, finding Balmung's humor, or lack there of, not so funny anymore.

 

"Maybe it was the fact that someone as childish as you is who he's stuck with," a voice from above interrupted, echoing in the concrete garage. "Maybe he's too mature for ya, hon." Balmung looked up to see a blonde of about twenty years in black pants and a black, long-sleeved shirt with rips on the arms staring down at him inquiringly.

 

"Can't wait to see what he does around you then. You're not half as mature as I am and even I know I'm a kid at heart." Shugo looked up at the blonde up in the rapters, leaning her elbows on the banister and looking down at them, intrigued, rolling her eyes at his response.

 

"Whatever. So who's the spiffy dude I saw at the museum supposed to be, anyways? Some lawyer we surely don't need or what?" the blonde asked, moving her gaze from glaring at Shugo to raising an eyebrow at Balmung.

 

"Kirasha--" Shugo paused to send her a tilted nod and a wink as a warning, "--this is Balmung. Balmung is Balmung Beyoneisu, our dear old employers son. Balmung, this is Kirasha, best damn translator you'll ever see and the best looking one too. She knows around 6 languages fluently, not counting Japanese, knows about 3 others nearly fluently."

 

"And that's supposed to impress me?" Balmung snorted, crossing his arms, and looking unimpressed. "How's knowing 6 other languages supposed to help us on our assignments."

 

"Go ahead and hack any radio frequencies you want and I will find out who's going to be where, when, and why, and I can cover for anyone. For example, you got an earpiece in and they want to see it, check and see its not a communication device. Tell them you're getting stock reports from whatever country, hand it to them, and you're safe," she snapped. "And what's your specialty, mister big-shot son of the mob boss?"

 

"I crack safes."

 

The only response he found was a raised eyebrow that showed complete disbelief. "Uh huh. And I can run a mile in under a minute. Are you serious? How's that supposed to get anything done in our assignments? We can just blow them open and be gone in less time it would take you to open it."

 

"I can open three locks in under four minutes, and be out of there. Blowing them open would result in being discovered and found, then having to hurry out."

 

The blonde laughed, grabbing onto the banister for support. "Yeah, right! I'd like to see you try, buddy. Until then, I'm not gonna believe your word on that."

 

"What in the hell are laughing about, blondie?" Another girl, brown haired and almost identical to Shugo, walked up behind the girl mentioned as Kirasha.

 

"Boss' son over there says he's can crack three locks in under four minutes like he's some prodigy better than all of us. Isn't that shitty, Rose?"

 

Catching the look Kirasha gave her to use their 'code names', she smiled, laughing a little at her words. "Yeah, it really is. Four minutes? You need to work on your lying a little bit, dude. That's immpossible."

 

"Whatever. Believe what you want, but I doubt you can even open a lock when even knowing the combination."

 

"He can't take a little insult meant as a joke, can he?"

 

"I guess not." She paused to glare at the blonde muttering about how hot guys were usually jerks, then turned back to Balmung who was currently walking up the stairs like the hot-shot he played himself to be. "Anyways, ignoring little miss blonde... My name's Rose; I take it you're Balmung, right?" Holding her hand out, she waited as Balmung glanced at her hand for a second, then shrugged and turned away.

 

When Balmung disappeared down a hall that lead straight down to the main room, Shugo snorted after arriving by the girls. "Gee, I just can't wait to see him on a bad day. He was about ready to yell at you, Anissa."

 

"We'd better watch our backs, he is the son of the most ruthless man in Japan. And the apple doesn't far fall from the tree, remember? And as much as you don't want to admit it Rena, he could have the ability to hack our computers, so forward everything to our back-up one and delete it off the main." a voice sounded strongly, belonging to a woman with reddish auburn hair past her back in a loose, thick braid with brown, doe-like eyes.

 

"And we must be sure to not make the mistake of using our actual names. If he finds out we lied to him about our names, I doubt he will even trust us to be in his presense, right, Taryn?" Shugo voiced, shoving his hands into his pocket. "So no more Taryn, Anissa, Rena, Shugo, or anything from now on."

 

"And no arguing with him. As much as we all would love to send the boy back to his daddy, we can't afford him ratting to his father about our...unhospitality, for lack of a better word... And no taking his car in the midde of the night, Shugo." Taryn added as an after-thought.

 

"Damn, you got me again..." Shugo muttered sarcastically. He didn't take other people's cars anymore... at least, not that much...

 

"I'll go tell Tengaki-- I mean Tenya, that codes names are in play. Actual names are out." Brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, the youngest person in the crowd of four rushed down the hall to inform Tengaki before Balmung found him and Tengaki made one of his trademark screw-ups.

 

"Ta-- Na-- whatever, real names in private-- what are we going to do without anyone who can get inside a place without setting off an infra-red beam and alarm?" Anissa asked, turning her attention to Taryn, who was now their leader. "I mean, I can't get past them without tripping over myself, and we know Tengaki and Shugo can't. I doubt Balmung can-- as he put it -- since 'he cracks safes' so he probably has someone turn the beams off, and Rena's our technician. You could probably do it, but --"

 

"But I'm not experienced, I know. We'd have someone but you had to make a deal that sacrificed our leader for six months. She won't be here for another month or so." Taryn crossed her arms. "We'll just have to hope that stealth comes along with being able to manuever a car the best in town and being in shape, right?"

 

Shugo smiled at the way Taryn seemed put at least an ounce of humor into something solemn. "If not, I'll find a way to find someone or get the older 'dark angel' replica of ours back, and we can have to whole Aeturnum Vale team back together."

 

"Okay, no more mushy stuff, and lets get to work. I don't think leaving Tengaki and Rena alone with Mr. Boss' son is such a good idea with Tengaki's short temper," Taryn snapped half-heartedly, rolling her eyes at the way Shugo had been so dramatically gesturing with his arms and putting on various expression during his short, pointless speech.(-)Shrugging off the stares of people sitting at their desks, typing like crazy, Balmung wandered down the halls deliberately. He didn't really know where he was going, but in all honesty, he really didn't care. They had two months to complete an assignment that he was sure was too easy. It made him question his father's motives more than he thought but let it pass as his father underestimating him once more in his life.

 

When he'd neared the last door of the hall, dim as there were no over head lights above it, the question of why no one was following him to keep an eye on him popped into his head as he opened the cold metal door.

 

The sound of shots firing entered his ears immediately and slammed the door back shut our of reflex, nearly jumping when the girl who'd been introduced to him as Rose called out to him, running down the hall to catch up to him.

 

"That's our main practice room of sorts," she informed him, trying to keep hold of the papers she'd quickly grabbed from an secretary who'd given them to her. "Tenya is in there. He's our ammunition specialist, so don't piss him off."

 

Sending the younger woman a glare, Balmung opened the door and went in, ready for the loud bursts of sound. When no sound came, he looked around, seeing the piles of discarded metals and wires, the assortment of artilery on the wall set up unorganized, the metal barrels marked liquid nitrogen, gasoline, oil, gunpowder, and other names, and turned his attention to the far corner of the room, where a clank interrupted the silence.

 

In the corner, a man about his age, if not a year or two older or younger, with brown hair and a tall, built form was standing hunched over a long barrel, hitting it lightly with a hammer to shapen it.

 

"Tenya, guess who's here."

 

No answer.

 

Rena scowled. Tengaki didn't recognize when he was being called by his code name. "Tenya! Metal head, snap out of it!"

 

Jumping at the voice, dropping the hammer onto the floor, Tengaki spun around, an almost murderous gaze shot at Rena. "What do you want now? You almost made me ruin the barrel for the third time this week!"

 

"First off, you don't need to work twenty-four/seven on this thing. I don't know what's up with you, but all of a sudden, you started to work on these a lot a few months ago. So, take a break and meet our new...partner..."

 

Tengaki sent her a annoyed glare but a grin spread on his face a moment later. "Fine. Tenya's my name," he greeted, holding his hand out to shake, "and ammunition's my game. What's yours?"

 

Shaking his hand briefly, Balmung nodded his head in scknowledgement. "Balmung. Safe cracking," he said dryly in an unfriendly way, hoping to erase the aggravating grin on his face. If anything, it caused the grin to widen even more in amusement.

 

"Short and to the point. Reminds me a little bit of someone else we know..." he commented, speaking to Rena rather than Balmung. "But maybe he's just trying to put an impression in our minds to not forget..."

 

"Keep talking and see where it gets you."

 

Laughing, he punched Balmung's shoulder lightly, clasping Balmung's hand again in a friendly, welcoming gesture. "Don't worry 'bout it man, I'm just playing. I don't have anything against you."

 

Blinking in surprise, Balmung looked down at his hand grasping Tengaki's like he'd seen in some brotherhood symbols around. "And that's supposed to reassure me somehow?" he snapped, removing his hand from the grip, and turning to come face to face with a red head girl. the same girl he'd been told was the oldest of them.

 

"Well, either you trust or don't, Balmung. We can't do anything except be ourselves and leave you to decide whether we are trust-worthy or not. I'm Nami, mechanic, team-racer and team-leader as of now. Its a pleasure to meet you."

 

The way her brown eyes seemed judge him silently and hold much intelligence gave Balmung the satisfaction of not being the only one being mature for their age.

 

Watching as she walked past him to hand Tengaki what he'd glimpsed as blueprints for another weapon, Balmung watched as Shugo and Anissa began to stretch for what he thought was a race from one side of the room to the other and back.

 

Despite them being barely out of his teens, they weren't as reckless as their ages and first impressions made him think. And even so...

 

This was supposed to be Aeturnum Vale, the team that didn't even have an identity outside of their group and his father?

 

It was hard to believe...---------------------Semi-Long Chapter to make up for the short prologue. Not much happening in this, but it'll start moving along next chapter. Ineeded to introduce the characters that would be in this and out came thispoorly written chapter. Written with my right middle finger cut and bandaged from the tip to the knuckle. It wasn't easy. R&R please.

 

Also, if I didn't mention this before, Aeturnum Vale is Latin for Forever Farewell. Its a suitable name for ... the plan they're in the process of completing. -insert evil authoress grin here-