Checkmate(original) Chapter 1

Prologue
The melody of the music surrounded the air like a mist.
The young girl stroked the instrument, her long eyelashes hid her eyes. The sorrow atmosphere was unreasonable. She lifted her eyes to look at the other side of the table, expression blank. There were two people who looked identical- one male and one female- sitting on the opposite side of the chessboard. All the pieces were scattered around, but the game had already ended. The female noticed the girl’s gaze and met her eyes idly. She dropped her stare immediately, and began to play the music once again. A servant like her could not disobey the owner, even though she did not say anything.
The female was silent.
“Sister,” The brother sighed to the female in front of him. “Don’t you give any sympathy to your twin brother? This is a difficult game.” A smile flashed through his eyes, and his sister saw it perfectly. “But I still won.”
Her lips parted slightly.“Did you truly win?” Her voice sounded as if she had the power to subside the roaring of the ocean. She glanced at the chessboard, pointing at a blank space that was at the right of where her queen stood. “Count your pieces. to break this game, you need one more.”
The brother’s expression gradually became somber, exactly like his sister's. Their faces seemed transparent as ice. “Sister…” He whispered.
The sister picked up the bishop with her thumb and forefinger. The fabric on her arm fell, revealing her snow white skin. “I know.” She replied. “I will be your final pawn.”
It was midnight, and the music stopped.

Chapter 1
The blue sky.
The birds were flying freely until a small dot appeared in the way. It was getting bigger and bigger, and eventually turned into a magnificent airship. The birds squawked in panic, flapping their wings and pushing themselves towards their own direction. The group was broken.
The engine of the airship roared in the sky; vibrating, claiming that it was the king. It was painted in various colors: the head was shining gold, the wings were fiery scarlet, and the body was lightning yellow. The colors were in such harmony that it seemed like no other colors would be more compatible. There were also gigantic letters written in white on the side of the vehicle. Like the colors, it was in a unique style.
“The Scarecrows”
People were running, each rushing to their own destination. Chatters were everywhere.
“Hey, Novus! Get outta’ere! We ain’t got time for procrastinatin’! The target’s near!” A muscular blond man hollered. The hallway was suddenly filled with his impatient echo.
“Boss! He is already out there!” A person who was much shorter than him yelled back.
“Good!” The chief said as he ran to the piloting room. His footsteps hit furiously on the ground until he reached the room and kicked the door open. He jerked his goggles out of his eyes and thrust them aside. The pilots were not startled by his brutal actions, like they were expecting it. One of them shifted his body to give the head some space. The giant man grabbed the announcer:” Attention, all Scarecrow members in position, all Scarecrow members in position. The mission has begun. Activate the sky-deck and get ready for descent.”
“Boss, there is a call from Nov.” the pilot beside him reported when the man turned off the announcer. He offered his headphones and microphone to him.
With the sky-deck slowly stretching out, a boy hopped onto the vibrating ground. The sign of youth was still in his face. He looked fifteen years old and had blond hair which tied loosely to a short ponytail. The tank top and cougar pants made him look dashing. Before buckling the short swords on his belt, the boy took the walkie-talkie out of one of the many pockets. “Boss,” he said. “I already located the destination from above. Look at how fancy that place is! I guess that person wants to be popular pretty badly.”
“We’ll save this chit-chat later when celebratin’. Are you ready?” The man’s voice appeared yet again.
“As always.” The boy grinned widely, confidence and excitement flickered in his green eyes. “Bring it on, boss.”
At the other side of the walkie-talkie, the man chuckled. “I’ll bring it then.” Knowing his apprentice was listening to him carefully, his eyes turned serious. “Listen good. After ya go in, grab as many jewels as ya want, I believe you ought’a pick’em ones that looks fancy. Our main goal’s a jewel called 'Azul'. It’s a pair of darn pretty jewels. Blue, has snowflakes on the edge, you’ll know when ya see it.”
“Azul.” The boy repeated the word, forcing it into his head. “Got it.”
The man bellowed through his shoulders towards the people outsides of the piloting room:”What are ya people doin’?? Are the slide chains ready???”
The volume reached the boy’s ears along with the loud feedback, screeching on his ear drums:”Geez, boss. Be patient, you are going to burst your veins one day.” Then, hearing the affirmation about the slide chains, he nipped the walkie-talkie between his shoulder and his ear; pulling out a pair of thick, leather gloves on his fingers. On the gloves' palms were some metal clips that looked like they were specifically made to join with something.
Slowly, two circular lids opened on the wall of the airship just above the boy, and two cannon-like tubes stretched out. Then each of the cannons fired out a tough, metal woven chains. Quickly shoving the walkie-talkie between his teeth, Novus leaped up in order to catch the metal handles that were attached to chains before they went beyond his reach, and watched as the silver chains wrapped themselves around a tree. Because the handles were now stationary in his hands, the friction between the chain and the handles made millions of little sparks.
Abruptly, the walkie-talkie in his mouth beeped.
He counted the beeps in his mind.
One,two,three,four,five,six.
Signal translation: It was time to kick those rich butts.
With his hands holding onto the chains, the blond haired boy first leaned backwards, then dashed out of the sky deck. The clips from the palm of his gloves automatically clipped onto the handles just a second before he slid downwards.
Feeling the wind whooshing into his ears, Novus’s mouth was able to curve into a crooked arc of anticipation. (It was considerably hard to do with a thing in your mouth…just saying.)
Robbing this treasure facility should be fun.
***
The girl opened her eyes in the dark.
Everything was so unfamiliar to her.
The darkness, the coldness, the thoughts. Everything.
Everything was blank.
She twitched her forefinger. The touch of wood rapidly made its way through her nervous system, although she did not have the capability to recognize it.
Her left arm felt sore. Following the sore feeling, she traced her eyes from her shoulder to the hand up in the air.
Those were her arms.
She did not know how to put them down.
The girl's eyes rolled around, the blue light shimmering in the darkness.
A knot was in her throat.
The room was narrow.
It felt hard to breathe.
Her body remembered that she was claustrophobic.
But she herself had no memory what so ever.
She touched her throat.
...."So you're able to get "Azul" here."
A dark, stable, strange sound frequency entered her ear. It startled her.
"Y-yes. I just want to say that I've worked really hard on negotiating...."Another one of them. Similar but squeakier. "I hid it in here..."
"Okay, let's see it then." The door creaked open, light pouring into the room. The whiteness made the girl narrow her eyes. It was blinding.
Two standing shadows reflected in her retina. One was obese, round and big;another one short and skinny. Before she could see the details on their faces, the two men saw her first.
What they saw was a young girl with long, straight dark blue hair lying on the wooden floor staring at them innocently, body fully exposed without any clothes on. The snow white skin was perfectly visible.
They froze.
"Gah!!!" Yelped the short one. "Azul is gone!!!"
There were random pieces that seem to be a part of the jewelry box, all scattered around the girl. There was also a piece of fine embroidered silk lying beside the girl's head.
"......If this is some stupid prank you're pulling on me....you have no idea how dead you are going to be." The fat man hissed. The twitching on the corner of his mouth and the veins that were popping out from his forehead conveyed how furious he was.
The short man denied in panic:"No! I didn't do it! I don't even know who she is! I locked the room!!"
The superior waved his giant hand impatiently to the urgent explanation. Beckoning the passing maid, he ordered her to get the girl some clothes.
One of the maids walked towards the girl, trying to help her up. The moment the maid's fingers wrapped around the girl's arms, the naked girl instinctly slapped those fingers away. Then,after the unexpected actions, she shifted her eyes towards her own hand, expression shocked and horrified. She was sitting up now, though she herself was not aware of that. She concentrated, and her hand clenched and unclenched. She had no recollection of this power, this control.
The fat man was now impatiently yelling something into his cellphone. His spit was spruting out of his mouth. The short and sly one, on the other hand, was scratching his greasy auburn hair, examining parts of the jewelry box anxiously. A second before this incident happened, he thought that he would be promoted for sure. But now, that blue glimmering glory vanished before he could even catch it.
His sixth sense felt the premonition.
And sixth senses never lie.
***
"Okay....let's see...."
Novus scrutinized his surroundings.
He had memorized every single part of this facility before the mission. The boss specifically made sure that everybody in the group knew where all the traps, surveillance cameras, secret tunnels and doorways were.
The map he saw distinctly in his head converted into a three dimensional version. He was in an open lobby room with machines, transportations, elevators, escalators, and electic beeps that would eventually get into people's nerves. The entire room was gray; the floor was made out of marble. It was difficult for him to not make any sounds.
The lobby was like a enormous cylinder. And on each side there were various kinds of passage ways. One of them looked like a garage door.
This must be….
"The transit center." He clicked his tongue.
All the valuable gems and jewelries were preserved in one place, what he and his groupies called “the Treasure Chest”. The transit center was located on the very north of the whole facility, and the Treasure Chest was in the south-west. His brain analyzed quickly. He was facing inwards, which was south.
The route to the Treasure Chest was intricate. Nonetheless, after all that training, he knew exactly where to go.
Normally all the guards were supposed to be in the conference room ending their shift at this time, giving Novus plenty of opportunities to prowl all he wanted.
However, it seemed to be a deviation today. Although there were no guards in here currently, he could sense their presence. There were at least 10 guards who were close to where he was at the moment, hindering the path he needed to go through.
It wouldn’t be fun if the treasure hunt is not worth a challenge.
Soundlessly he concealed himself under the shadow of the enormous escalator on his left side. If the guards were where he sensed they were, the escalators would block his figure perfectly.
Novus pressed his back hard against the wall, warily sticking his blond head out to peep at the hallway full of guards. 13 people, each holding a power-loaded taser, expression threatening. They looked mighty to him. He might manage to get through without being busted if he sent at least half of them away.
Lifting his right leg, he steadily reached out for his pocket around the ankle of his pants. A grenade was in his hand when it came out. It was a special smoke bomb, he only had 2 of them. Boss warned him to use it only during an emergency to escape.
He popped the lid out with his teeth while the other hand gripped on the short swords on his waist.
The smoke grenade dropped on the ground. It exploded into a big puffs of black smoke that was totally not environmental friendly.
No way the guard could have ignored that.
The husky men dashed out near the elevator. They could not see anything under the smoke.
Unlike Novus.
One of the guards was intending to report this to the headmaster, though he went unconscious before he could press down the button. The body made a huge thud when it hit the ground, but the other guards were too distracted to notice it.
Exhaling, Novus yanked the uniform off the man and pulled it on over his own clothes. This one was the shortest in the team and possibly the weakest. He had targeted that man from the second he saw him. The uniform was slightly long for him, but not long enough to make anybody suspicious.
He quickly glanced at his watch.
The bomb would last for another 30 seconds.
Fortunately there was a storage room in front of him. Novus dragged the man’s leg into the dark, humid space.
The store room was small, it was all wooden, except for the concrete walls. A couple of shelves were visible. In the center of this room, there was a stool. Around the stool, were small blue segments lying around, as if something had just broke free from there. When Novus went into the room, he shoved the man in too hard, sothat one of the spiky segments pierced through his mouth when his head plummeted down. He had no hostility towards the man, instead he was quite appreciative to him for letting him “borrow” his uniforms. He accidently thrust the man like that because something else drew his attention.
A piece of blue silk, embroidered with flowers and snowflakes.
“Wow…that thing must worth a ton of money.”
Novus had seen silk and a lot more valuable things in his life. But he had never seen anything like that hankerchief before. Even his eyes could not identify the material of that thing.
As much as it seemed like silk.....
It was glowing.
It was really glowing, in a luminous bright blue color, which was conspicuous in the dark room.
Novus was completely intrigued. He picked it up and tugged it in his pocket under the uniform before he put on the guard's helmet along with the sunglasses and scurried outside.
The sprinkler system seemed to have detected the smoke. It was spouting out liquid frantically, drenching the carpet.
The smoke was mostly gone by now. The guards were still around the escalator, all saturated and cranky.
Novus-in disguise-walked up to them in a "I didn't do nothin'" kind of manner as if he was the guard. He could not let them count and realize one of their companions was missing.
None of them doubted his identity.
"Hey Starthas! Where were you just now!?" The tallest of the guards bellowed at him when he reached them. There was a heinous mole under his lower lip. Novus exerted all his will to not smirk at his "beauty mark".
He'd observed the personality of the guard he knocked out. His name was Starthas Brown, the lowest rank in this group due to his height and body structure. He had a way lower voice than Novus. Lowering the pitch of his voice, Novus mumbled to the mole-man:"Ah, sir, I was reporting this situation to the headquarters. I couldn't talk in the smoke." Starthas usually talked in a polite slash weak attitude, so this answer would be most appropriate.
"What's up with your voice,bro? It's a little hoarse." Another guard, who did not wear the helmet and glasses,looked into his eyes under the sunglasses. He was Starthas' closest friend in this squad, so far.
It was difficult to tell the difference of eyecolor when a pair of sunglasses were in the way. Novus knew that perfectly well. Without any guilt or nervousness, he stared into the guard's pupils. "The smoke is kind of messing up my throat." He replied with a cough, deliberately making it pathetic.
Other members regarded him in defiance. Novus scoffed sardonically in his mind, he sympathized with Starthas.
"Filthy thieves." The mole-man cussed under his breath. "Like the first Azul didn't disappear because of them, and now the second one is gone too."
What? Pondered Novus. The boss never mentioned that the first Azul was missing. And that there was only one of them in this facility. But most importantly, the Azul in here was gone as well.Boss always gets the fastest and latest information. Perhaps it happened right before the mission. He did not dare to ask,though,for he could not take any chances to raise skepticism. He needed to contact the boss. At this instant.
"Hey, what did the chairman say when you reported this?" The mole-man demanded with a gruff voice.
It seemed like they actually believed him. It was a good thing that those guards, although with bodies like buildings, were so dumb to fool.
That meant he could manipulate them however he wanted.
Novus grinned in triumph when the guards were not looking.
This mission is getting more and more interesting.

-Chapter 1 fin.-