Chapter 2
Two weeks have passed since the Tepes incident. Claudia and Sierra continue their daily lives as students in New Den’s largest university, UND. Their activities at the MSU headquarters had been brought down to mere research of urban legends and rumors on the internet. Nothing interesting or suspicious had popped up since Tepes.
“Sigh~ another boring night. God I wish something would happen. Even though I hate hunts, anything would be better than this.” Sierra said as she scrolled down her monitor.
“We can’t be too picky. Besides, research is an important part of hunting too. Gathering information and intelligence is half the battle. We don’t want to just run out there unprepared, the consequences could cost us our lives. And –“but before Claudia could finish, she was interrupted by Fonsie.
“Well, ladies, I think I have something that would be infinitely more interesting than just reading things on the internet. Over the past several months, books have been going missing from our universities library. This may not seem like a big important issue, but the majority of books that have gone missing are mostly related to studies about abilities, fantasy novels with a similar theme and a few books on technology. We might have someone researching a way to create ability users using today’s technology. If that is the case, then we have a big problem on our hands.”
“Awesome, some hands on work!” Sierra said excitedly.
“Now, we will start our search tomorrow. I will fill out some paper work so that you two may take a few days doing some ‘Independent work’ at the library. Once your there, you are to research the books that have gone missing in detail. Find out what they were about, try to get an idea of what this individual is looking for. Check with the librarians to see when these books were missing and try to make a timeline. We need to gather as much information as possible and set up a trap for the next time a book goes missing.”
Claudia, silently accepting her new orders, gets up and walks to her room. It was late at night and everyone was worn out from all the work. They had a big day coming up and even more work to do. Fonsie was not the kind of guy to easily give up on a case whenever magic or abilities were involved. Sierra, who was excited to finally spend the next few days outside the MSU headquarters, followed Claudia into their room. Fonsie, standing alone in the large deserted room, decided to follow the girls lead and call it a night. I wonder if things will get interesting this time around, he thought to himself as he walked to the room across Sierra and Claudia’s.
As the two girls prepared to go to bed, dressed in a plain pair of a white pajama for Sierra and a black, almost transparent, night gown for Claudia, they tidied up their room. The room consisted of two bedrooms each with their own bathrooms, separated by a living room. Sierra’s room consisted of mainly white and black furniture. White wall papers, white bed sheets, white and black teddy bears, a black desk beside a black make-up table and white carpeting. Claudia’s room, on the other hand, was more extravagant. With red wallpaper, black and blue bed sheets, stuffed hearts decorated the room, a red make-up table and black carpeting. The living room had two two-seat black sofa’s facing a television on a shelf filled with videos, books and small sculptures. The walls were decorated with abstract art. Their living quarters were easily considered a large apartment for two.
“Hey Sierra, any news from your parents?” Claudia asked from her room as she combed her long curly hair in front of her mirror.
“I got an email from them the other day. Looks like some areas in Japan have gotten fairly dangerous, but it seems like their town is still fairly safe thanks to the civilian treaty. Seems like in a few years regular civilians who’ve been checked out may be granted a visa to visit New Avalon.” Sierra replied as she lay in her bed with her arms crossed behind her head.
“So you’ll be able to see them again in a few more years. That’s something to look forward too.”
“Yea, I haven’t seen them in a while. I’ve sort of forgotten what they sound like. I hope things turn out good.”
“I’m sure they’ll come. When they do, we can all have dinner. You know, that’s a good idea! You could show off your cooking to them! I’m sure they’d be proud.”
“Ya just wanna have me cook for you,” Sierra said as she chuckled.
“What’s wrong with wanting to eat good food,” Claudia replied with a flirty disappointed look on her face.
“Hey, what do ya think of the new case we got. I wonder what kind of person steals books from the library when they coulda just burrowed them with their student card.”
“You know, you have a good point there. If they’re stealing books, they probably don’t have a student card, “Claudia paused to yawn and continued “Let’s talk about the case tomorrow, I’m really tired now so good night.”
“Night,” Sierra replied as she turned off the lights. Tucked comfortably in her bed, she drifted away from reality.
The next day, stationed in the library, the two girls began their investigation. Hundreds of books had been stolen. After a brief Q&A session with some of the librarians, they determined that the culprit had been stealing books for years now. This supported Sierra’s assumption that it was not a student from the university. Studying the list of books that went missing in chronological order, Claudia noticed that the first forty or so books had either been directly related to magic and ability users or fairly tales loosely based on magic. The books stolen after that ranged from scientific journals to cooking guides, with the occasional magic oriented book in between. It did not seem that the culprit knew what he wanted and more like he just needed some reading material. The two agents continued the investigation well into the afternoon where they had to stop. It was time for their club meeting.
The occult club, a small gathering of people whose interests involved urban legends and internet rumors about the bizarre and the mystical. The club advisor was none other than Fonsie, the founder of the MSU, and a History professor at the university. Club activities were simple; the members would converse about the hottest internet topics in regards to their interests. The club was initially founded by Fonsie as a means of gathering information that he may have missed on and to ensure that those interested would not delve too deep in matters. Including Claudia and Sierra, there were nine members. Today’s meeting was similar to the previous. The topic was the morphing liquid man. People may have already begun to dismiss the stories, but the occult club still had doubts and debated the facts. It was a free-for-all, everyone voiced their opinions. Those who believed he was still out there claimed he is only taking a break till the rumors faded so he may go back to his usual activities, others simply argued that it would simply be impossible for such a being to exist. Fonsie, like he always had, ended the club meetings by openly dismissing these stories and provided scientific evidence to disprove these myths. His reasoning was ‘If a rumor came to be, with enough evidence and proof for legitimacy, we will waste no time hunting it down. Until then, we will disprove all false rumors and move on to the next.’ This was his way of ensuring the public would not get too involved with silly legends, by educating those who believed. He was hypocritical that way.
As the members left, Claudia, Sierra and Fonsie made their way to their headquarters. They had a lot to discuss tonight. As they took their rightful seats at their desks, Fonsie began the conversation “So, Let’s all share what we’ve managed to gather so far. I haven’t had time to look into it too much, but I’ve gathered the security tapes for over the past four years. We don’t know what we might be looking for specifically and based on what you girls have found, we might spend a couple of days in here watching the footage.”
“Well, here’s what we got. It seems that it’s not just books bout’ magic and abilities that have been stolen, some are about the university, the foundation of New Avalon, bout’ cooking and bout’ technology and science,” said Sierra.
“We’ve also found out that the first book was stolen fifteen years ago. So we are assuming it’s quite an old individual doing this. From the pattern it seems that he is on campus at night, when the library is closed which puts the crime between midnight and seven in the morning. We assumed that he has access to a staff member’s access card considering that it’s the only way to open the library doors at night. The last book was stolen three weeks ago, so we would probably find something if we looked at the footage from the past two months,” Claudia added.
Fonsie, with his eternal smile, pulled out two CD’s from a pile and said “And here is the security footage from the library security camera for the past two months. Why don’t we have a look.”
As he inserted the first disk into his computer, the girls gathered around his monitor. Skipping to midnight, the trio watched as nothing happened. Nobody passed by for weeks. Two months ago, there was no activity. With his undying smile, Fonsie changed the disk and loaded the files. Skipping to midnight, they continued to watch. Four hours had been spent watching the first disk and another two hours watching through the second disk until finally, something happened. A man in a black robe walked by, stood before the library terminal and with a staff card he opened the library doors. Minutes later he left with a book in his hand, locking the doors behind him as he left the scene of the crime. Amazed at the discovery, the three replayed the scene over and over again in hopes of getting a clear image of the man. But their efforts were wasted as it was too dark to make out any facial features other than a pair of grey eyes.
As Fonsie worked through the night, Claudia and Sierra lay asleep at their desks. They had been reading through staff and student profiles all through the night. Fonsie, with his everlasting smile and keen interest in the robed man, continued to slave over his monitor searching through files in hopes of finding something. But even he succumbed to the sandman when morning came.
The next day
After coming back to reality, Claudia and Sierra planned to begin guarding the Library at night. Prepared for anything, they set off to the library and began their night shift. Their first night was a plain one, but if their speculations were accurate then their efforts would be rewarded within a few nights time when the suspect would come by to steal another book.
Four nights had passed since their first stake out, and nothing had happened. The daring duo had still not given up hope and came by for their fifth night. Time passed as they wasted time reading magazines and playing card games. When the campus clock rang twelve midnight, footsteps resonated through corridors. Alert, the girls looked down the corridors to where the sound was coming from. Getting into position, Sierra stood ahead of Claudia and readied her blade. Claudia, from the rear, placing her hand beside the rose in her hair as thorns extended forth into her palm. As the footsteps got louder and louder, anxiety filled the air.
A large robed man stood at the end of the corridor, held back in his tracks as he looked at the two girls who stood before him. Ignoring them, he continued to his intended destination, the library. As he stepped forward, roses burst from beneath his feet and wrapped his legs up to his knees. He did not flinch or make a sound, he simply placed his right hand over the plants. As he bent over, his sleeve revealed a ring bracelet fashioned after a sword on his right hand. This item began to glow as sand poured out of his hand, turning into shards of glass as it fell over the roses, slicing them apart. Freed from the trap, he turned around and began to walk back. “Hey! Wait up!” Sierra shouted as she ran towards him.
“Wait Sierra! Don’t rush him!” Claudia said as she ran behind Sierra.
Seeing the two girls chase him, the robed man began to run. As he gained distance over his pursuers, pillars of roses burst forth from the walls and blocked his path. Before he could raise his arm, ice coated his obstacle. Unable to escape, he turned around and faced Sierra and Claudia. Sierra, with her blade unsheathed, looked at him and said “We are from the Magic Suppression Unit, I am agent Sierra and you are now in our custody.”
A guest of wind blew towards the robed criminal, revealing his face. Grey eyes and shoulder length brown hair with blonde ends were what stood out. As he stepped forward, Claudia threw large thorns at the ground by his feet. Yet this did not stop his advance. Charging in, Sierra swung her sword at him as it left a trail of fire. The sound of metal hitting glass vibrated through the air as he parried the blow with his bracelet. With a quick blow to her abdomen, Sierra fell to the ground. The robed man continued his walk forward, towards Claudia who wore a look of anger as she screamed “You worthless pile of SHIT!! How dare you touch her! How dare you hurt her!”
Lounging at him, Claudia engaged in melee combat. Fouetté, Chassé Bas, crochet. Claudia, being well versed in the martial art of Savate, was unable to land a single hit as he dodged every blow she swung at him. In a mad fit of rage, she grabbed him by the robe as the rose in her hair extended over her right arm and unto his body. Wrapped in roses and thorns, the robed man broke free with ease as he knocked Claudia away from him. From a pathetic book thief to this… are we really ready to handle such a case, Claudia thought to herself as she fell to the ground in disbelief. As the robed man walked past them, Sierra forced herself to stand with the aid of her sword and said “Claudia, we can’t just let him go! Come on, we can do this.”
As the two girls got up, finding strength in each other, the robed man began to run. The hunt continued as he was chased back to the MSU headquarters. With a terminal card, he opened the door that lead to the headquarters and ran past a sleeping Fonsie. As the girls entered the room, they were greeted with silence and a sleeping Fonsie. Rushing over to him and shaking him awake, Claudia asked “Where is he! Where did
he go! He ran right in here!”
“Wha-What! He ran in here! Search the room, quick!” exclaimed a groggy Fonsie as he got up and began to search the room.
The Magic Suppression Unit was stumped. Unable to find the mysterious figure, they gathered at their desks. “So, here’s what happened,” Sierra began explaining, “As soon as the midnight bells start ringing, we hear these footsteps. The guy in the black robe pops up from one of the corridors leading to here, and he just stands there for a while. He walks up to us and gets caught in Claudia’s roses, but he cuts ‘em up with sand and glass that just sorta fell from his hand. He had this bracelet that glowed when he did that.”
“He then turns around and begins to walk away, so we rush him. Of course, like any dirt bag, he runs for it. I manage to block him with a wall with Sierra’s help but when it came down to hand to hand combat, we didn’t stand a chance. He continued to run and we chased him back here, where he apparently has disappeared.” Claudia added.
“Did you get a good look at his face, does he look like any of the students around here?” Fonsie asked.
“He had grey eyes and brown hair with blonde tips,” Claudia replied.
“That does not fit a description of any students or staff members here. I think it’s best to assume he is an ability user not from this school. Since he didn’t get his book today, I’m sure he’ll try again tomorrow. So rest of for tonight and get ready for tomorrow. I’ll be joining you, we’ll come up with a plan later.” Fonsie said as he walked to his room.
“I need a bath and some rest. I think I’m done for tonight too. You better get some rest too.” Claudia said as she walked towards her and Sierra’s room.
Sierra, who nodded in agreement, followed her into their room. That night, neither of the girls could get any decent sleep. Both keeping silent in the hopes of not waking the other, they thought about what happened during their encounter. The next day was definitely going to be a busy one, someone might even get hurt. The girls had to be in their best condition to capture that robed bookworm.
