Checkmate(original) Chapter 2

Pain.
The girl had never experienced it before.
Therefore, she did not know what it was called.
All she knew was, that after the maids had managed to put a dress on her in another room, her legs collapsed as those people were trying to lift her up. The body was not used to the weight.
Her face hit the ground fiercely. A ring occured in her head; her visions blurred for a second. The unpleasant feeling slowly spreaded all over her body.
She narrowed her eyes.
The fat man was still beside her. The short one sat down on the couch, appraising her more closely this time. A flow of annoyance was within his orbs as he examined everything about her.
She was too beautiful, too distracting.
That was why it was irritating.
She was too perfect that he could not find himself to do anything to her, even resenting her seemed stupid and weird, although she was the reason the second Azul disappeared.
The two Azuls were both from a meteorite that was just discovered approximately one week ago.
Nobody knew where they came from.
The local workers cut the mysterious stones and polished them. But soon they were confiscated by the national jewelry museum.
The gems had unprecedented characteristics.
One of them vanished a fews days after it was brought to the museum.
The police was not able to find the culprit. The investigation was an irrevocable fail. There was no evidence, no fingerprint, no footage, no trace, no nothing. The camera did not catch anything, all they knew was that one second it was there, and the next second it wasn't.
Even the glass box was closed.
He worked so hard to persuade the museum into letting him have the one left.
After all his work was downright annihilated, he could not hate her.
She seemed that chaste.
The fat man placed his enormously disgusting fingers under the girl's delicate chin, lifting her head up in order to get a better view.
The eyelids were shut close.
"Hmmm, listen, you." The fat man spoke, his face was in such proximity to hers that she felt his breath. "Drop this fake innocence at this instant. The punishment would be much lighter if you confess now."
He thought this was threatening enough to a girl.
However, to her, it was merely a bunch of strange sound being inflicted into her ears.
Remembering how to move, the young girl's brain slowly gained control of her head.
The head obeyed her wish.
It snapped away.
This seemed like a sign of rebellion to the obeseded human.
Rage rushed through him, making his face scarlet than it already was:"So you won't tell, huh?" His hands were quivering slightly from clenching. He stood up, turning his back on her:"Very well then. Lock her in here until she tells us. No food no water. I would hit her but since she's got that pretty face we'll sell her for a good price." The man stroke the diamond ring on his forefinger and glared toward the girl with disgust:"It's the least she can do."
The sly and skinny one squinted the girl one more time before shutting the door behind him.
The girl was lying down, her face on the carpet, and slowly, slowly, she opened her eyelids.
The sunlight shone on her dark blue irises, which was reflected, making a beautiful rainbow in mid-air and a million of small glitter in her eyes.
There were no pupils.
* * *
"Suckers!"
Novus laughed happily as he was running towards the treasure chest. Those boots that the guards were wearing were extremely annoying to him, nonetheless now, he did not care.
This could just be the best scam he had pulled off.
Those idiots really listened to his ridiculous commands.
He did not expect them to be that moronic.
Apparently the guards had no obvious experience on sense of humor, but a lot on stupidity. Thanks to them, Novus decided to check out the Treasure Chest by himself instead of believing what those dumb guards were saying about the second Azul.
He ordered the guards to run all over town to search for the "escaping culprit". The "culprit" had eyes just above his forehead.
Luckily Starthas had a reputation on brains, or else they wouldn't have trust him.
Perhaps Starthas was not intelligent, it was just that the guards were complete idiots.
Recalling the memories, Novus chuckled again.
The pants felt kind of heavy. It must be all those walkie-talkie Novus had managed to sneak out of their pockets. 13 walkie-talkies, plus his own, was not a pleasant weight.
A professional thief should at least have the skills to commit soundless crimes. Although his huge group did both theft and robbery.
He had to admit that his group did not particularly have a so-called "good" image. However all the Scarecrow members were devout to each other.
Why did he have to be good anyways? There was no absolute justice in this world, everyone was doing something for themselves, even the government. There was good within the bad; there was bad within the good as well. He would rather be in a straightforward thief group than be one of those hypocritical syophants who were playing mind games with other sycophants all the time.
Even if he was in the goody goody side,
He would not be qualified to anyways.
Novus's laughter gradually ceased.
He had witnessed too many things in his life already.
Shaking his head, Novus slapped himself in the helmet. Now was not the appropriate time to think about this.
He was in a mission.
That was the only thing he should be thinking about right now.
His head snapped up when he heard the sound of footsteps. There was a dim conversation getting closer and closer to him. The auras which he sensed was not strong, therefore they must be the head of this facility. They would not be as easy to fool as those guards. After all, they were able to obtain this prodigiously fancy place.
Novus scanned around for a place to hide, but nothing was in sight. He stood in the middle of the corridor, tension building up in his body. A drip of sweat seeped out from his forehead, tracing around the shape of his face inside the helmet. It tickled him.
He had to confront them. It was better than being spotted standing here looking pretty.
Okay, here goes nothing.
He pushed his legs towards the chatters.
"SIR!!!!!!" Novus yelled at the top of his lungs, acting anxious and urgant in case they got a peep of him under the sunglasses.
It was the fat man and his wanna-be.
The superior's expression was full of annoyance which was clearly not towards him. The inferior had something on his mind.
The fat one crossed his arms when he saw Novus. Thinking that he was the member of the security team, he accused:"Where are the rest of the security team?? Uh....Starthas?!" The man glanced at his name tag before the last word.
Novus rolled his eyes underneath the sunglasses. Ignorant bosses. "The captain ordered me to guard Azul. I am new so I got lost..."
The superior's face was obviously suffocating when he said "Azul". His next sentence was forced out from his gritted teeth. "It's stolen. But fine," The scrawny man saw his boss's gesture and threw a key at Novus. "We got a ally of the thief. Here's the key to the room, since you're here might as well see if you can interrogate something out of her, Starfy."
"Starthas, sir. Starthas Brown." Novus reminded casually while contemplating about his plan. This man's words must be true....so it's really stolen. And so my mission now would be getting....wait, didn't he say girl?? He was described as a lot of things by his buddies, "skirt-chaser" being one of them. One of his best friends even proclaimed that the word "skirt-chaser" was invented for him. Even when traveling around the world like that, he had a stunning amount of relastionship records. Respecting all the females in this world and treat them like royalty was his nature slash policy, which would not be expired under any circumstances. Even the clueless headmaster could see sparks in his eyes under the black sunglasses.
"?"Both of the people were regarding him with perplexed eyes which made Novus somewhat awkward. This was definetely not the best time to show his weakness, not here, not now.
He knew how boss would treat people who screwed up their missions. His fists were like 50000 kilograms of lead being thrashed into wherever he felt like hitting.
Not like the boss did not love them, but he was brutal to those who were not capable of living up to his standards.
He lowered his head to look at the key.
It appeared to be similar to a room key, except it was made of silver and the edges were jagged with no pattern. The key felt smooth as a whole. This was the type of key that was most difficult to hack. He did bring some tools, but without this key, he would be spotted before he hear the click of a open lock. Although sweet talk the girl into opening the door for him would always be an option, sometimes thief girls were more vigilant than others. Besides, he did not favor in the idea of using his "charms" just to exploit females. That was plainly wrong, very, very wrong.
"Then, sir, please excuse me." He carefully put the key into his-Starthas'-pocket. The guard's trousers had only two pockets, which was way less convenient than his own pants that was practically made of pockets. One of the two pockets were filled with Starthas' things, therefore forcing him to put the key together with the piece of enigmatic silk.
His heart tightened when he felt the touch of the hankerchief.
"Oh and Starcrust." Fat man called Novus' back, who rolled his eyes with contempt at the superior's naming sense. He couldn't possibly be serious about thinking anybody would have that name. "If you do it well I'll add a big bonus to your wage." That wrinkled face contorted into a smile."You know what I mean?"
Novus feigned a surprised delight onto the corner of his mouth, the real him on the inside scoffed scornfully. Says the person who can't even get the name right. "Ah thank you, sir!" He made an effort to not sound monotonous and paced
away. A few meters out of their sight Novus sighed heavily. All the acting tired him even though the people were gullible. The corpulent leader bothered him a lot. Novus knew Starthas was not getting any bonus whether or not he really did question the girl well. The deceptive mask was too obvious. Nonetheless, he did not have the right to criticize anyone. After all, he was the one in disguise.
The hallway was well carpeted. There was no pratrait of anyone but identical oak doors. The ceiling was wooden, and the walls were cement grey. No color, no personality, monochrome.
Turn left, go straight, turn right, turn right, turn left, 20 steps forward.
Novus stood in front of the guest room right across from the treasure chest.
Shaking off his weary expression off from his face, he watched as the fingers plugged the key into the slot, making clattering sounds when the slot obediently rotated.
Something was glistening under the sunlight.
* * *
Somewhere above the treasure facility, the exuberant colored Scarecrow airship levitated tediously. The Scarecrow boss-Edraud Zytix, slouched on the couch. He stretched out a hand towards the alcohol bottle on the plastic table. Glass table would certainly be better, but he could not afford the price of replacing one everytime it crashes, he already had enough with the glass jugs. The room he was in had a beige bar counter with a fridge inside of it. The couch plus the table was on the other side of the wall. On his left side, the entire wall was an enclosed glass window, letting the sunlight sprinkle sparkles into the whisky as the liquid poured into the cup. This was the Scarecrow conference room, where they plan all the missions and eat like lunatic starved horses. Anyway, the macho boss was holding a electonic device, which seemed inconceivably small in his giant hand.
It was a tracking device placed inside Novus's walkie-talkie.
"What's that boy plann' on doin' now...?" Boss Edraud muttered, noticing his young apprentice entering the room in the opposite direction from their main target. He had known this kid ever since he was 3, shivering in the drizzling rain in a forest under the spruce tree with a tormented expression, body coiled by bruises.
"Boss!!! Bosssssssss!!!!!!"
The hand that was cradling the alcohol plucked to a precipitous halt. A frown fell between his eyebrows. "Will'ya people gimme some peace?! This better be good!" His deep but loud voice rang in the entire conference room.
One person rushed in. A man who was a brunette with hair that looked like it had just exploded. He looked rigidly tough for a 20 year old man. Edraud recognized him. Faw Quicktime, the main detective of the bloc. He was literally the access to any data bases, computers, and electronics. Sometimes he could hack into a person's car-under special occasions. Also he was one of Novus's best buddy, next to Shique Crimson-the sexy 18 year old blondie who was usually being used as "bait", and Travis Fig-the 16 year old hot tempered professional survivor, with over-tanned skin.
The boss snuggled into the couch as Faw stormed in, panting:"What up, Quicktime?! Boy look at ya all darned up cuz of runnin', ya gotta keep up to be in da group, y'know?!" He took at sip of the clear liquid, letting the taste leaving traces on the way down to his throat before he spoke:"So? What's the biggie this time?"
Faw scratched his eyes-the contacts he wore itched:"We need to abort mission,boss. Apparently the second Azul is stolen as well. Don't we need to let Nov kno-"
"No wonder!" Unexpectedly Edraud burst out a giant guffaw. He flicked his finger on the young man's forehead. "I was just wonderin' why that boy ain't goin' to our target! Nov must've knew!" The laughter seemed like Novus in peril was the least of his concern.
Faw's jaws dropped wide:"Aren't you worried, boss!?! There's no point for doing this now! Nov is in trouble for nothing!"
"Oh I won't call it trouble." Said the boss. "He's up da somethin'. Ya see?" He handed the tracking device into the young man's right palm. "He's not in the target! He found out somethin'! Right now, his informations are more accurate than yours, let's just wait here, 'kay?"
"Are you seriously not worried? Nov is like a son to you." Said Faw incredulously.
"If he's like mah son I gotta hav som' faith in'em."
The proud grin that stretched out from one end of his blond beard to the other made the detective having no other reason to object.
* * *
Novus was blown away.
The only thing that came out of his mouth after he saw the girl was a whisper that said something like:"Oh my goddess."
The girl was lying on the carpet wrapped around by a black long dress all the way to her knees,making a contrast with the snow white legs;her lush dark blue hair draping all over her body like water flushed into the room;her long eyelashes almost made a shadow on her face;her cherry lips were delicate yet tempting;her cheeks formed a perfect arc around the cheek bones but came together to a point in the middle of her chin. This kind of blemish-less creature,was now right in front of him, closing her eyes, possibly sleeping.
Even the so called player drew in his breath. But he tried to contain himself with his normal attitude..to girls of course. "Good afternoon Ms Gorgeous." He said in a flattered tone while taking off his helmet and sun glasses. He shook his hair so it did not look as abnormal.
The girl opened her eyelids, looking casually at him. This creature looked better than the two she dealt with;the sound frequence coming from him was way more steady and soothing. The color of his eyes intrigued her, it was a type of light mint turquoise, but with such depth and complexity.
She did not feel like moving.
"Wow, and I thought you'd be beautiful enough with your eyes closed! Those are the most pretty eyes i've ever seen!" Novus knelt down with one leg and put his left hand to his right chest, a very gentleman-like curtesy to a lady. Although after prasing her glinting blue orbs for a moment he noticed how hollow the eyes were. He could see the beautiful, deep irises filled with nothing. They had no emotion, no knowledge, no....pupil."Whoa." He inhaled once again. "Can you see properly?"
The girl tilted her head side ways innocently, as if wondering what he was saying. She liked him, he was the first one who was not brutal or mean to her. Like that fat man.
She stretched out her hands towards the boy. It was weird, she repulsed the touch of the creatures she saw before. He was....somehow different. The boy was not threatening.
Novus took her hand and kissed it like a gentleman. "Let me help you up, my lady. My name is Novus Zytix. I'm here to get you out." He bent down, trying to lift her up to her feet. Nonetheless the girl almost fell down onto the ground again instantly if Novus had a slow reaction. "Easy." He whispered to the girl's left ear when catching her on the waist. "You know what? You must be too tired for standing. I'll carry you myself." The boy said after he took off all the security guard things, including all the clothes. To this point, he did not have to be in disguise anymore. He perferred this way anyways, it was way lighter.
The unknown girl stared at the boy blankly as he gently put her on his back. She obediently rested her head on the shoulders. Her body was extremely light. The weightlessness surprised Novus. Though it was a good thing because he would not have to waste his stamina. "Now, let's get outta this place and maybe have some tea-" Before he could even finish the sentence, his body tensed. "Uh-oh."
The girl noticed the change in atmosphere. Without knowing what it was, she touched the sphere earring on Novus's left ear.
The karma was coming back to him.
Those guards were back.