1. The Terminal
This is the first part of a story we’re doing for team AGNO. It’s an urban dark-ish fantasy we’re doing for fun so updates to it will come when we have time, but we’re interested in what people think about the story. the stories may go through changes in the future.
“Gray” that writes the story and the rest of us are not native english speakers so wierd sentences and misspellings are going to be common, we try to avoid them as best as we can...
more info can be found on our page.
-”Ashton”
“How much did you say we could get for her?” A nervous voice that Melissa couldn’t hear finally said something.
“A whole bunch, enough for the lot. She is a nobles daughter after all.” Another voice, a lot more confident, probably the leader.
“Maybe we should ask for weaponry instead. He had a weapons factory after all.” A third one. How many are they?
“A-a weapons factory!? He won’t use those weapons on us, right?” The nervous one.
“He won’t if he wants to see his daughter alive once again.” He probably grinned while saying that.
“She is awake.”
Melissa froze. A few second later a hand touched the side of her and she yanked her head away. That only made another hand grab her by the cheek to hold her head in place. The other hand removed the cowl that covered her eyes, but she would have preferred to not see anything than seeing this face. It looked like his nose had been broken several times combined with a badly shaved cheek and a scar that did nothing to either hide or improve.
“A cute little thing, isn’t she?” The smile on the scarred man’s face had no compassion.
“What was the requirements for package damage?”
“Alive.” Another man of the bunch answered.
It had to be at least two dozen people in the room. The scarred man moved his hand to move a curl that had fallen down in Melissa’s face.
“Well, all packages get damaged to some degree.” He continued to move his hand around the side of Melissa’s head. The hand stopped when it reached her neck and he took a firm grip. She couldn’t turn her face away from this man and now his face was getting closer to hers.
A loud bang was heard and glass shattered. The man’s hand was cut off a little below the elbow. It took him a second to realize what had happened to him, but then the screaming started. A few of the people reacted by reaching for their weapons but most stood paralyzed from the scene in front of them. Grunts were heard and a monster of a man, dressed in almost military attire, jumped through the broken window, the gun he had wasn’t any smaller. Grunts tried to scream something or take aim before the bullet hell was unleashed. Some had time to take cover or hit the deck before the bullets ripped their friend apart. Melissa didn’t even notice the smoke before it was covering her entire field of view. The confusion and panic around her was deafening, she just heard screams of pain and bullets. Another sound, a clink of something metal was heard then her entire body got whiplashed forward when the chair she was bound too started moving backwards. She pinched her eyes just wishing for this nightmare to be over. When her momentum stopped it no longer smelled like blood and gunpowder, but she could still hear it close by. She was lying on her side. Someone touched her side and she jumped trying to get away. Melissa opened her eyes to see a man with a hood.
“Easy, girl.”
He had a cold voice, but it didn’t sound like he was going to hurt her, he was actually cutting her bonds. The man was dressed in mostly dark grey, his facial hair seemed to be colorless as well. Even though she was free she didn’t dare to move. Another man, dressed in a sleeveless, open robe with a violet pink haircut, ran up to them and kneeled next to Melissa.
“Are you hurt?”
He asked with both kindness and compassion in his voice. She didn’t answer just shook her head slowly. He still insisted to have a look on her arms and legs. By now the gunshots and screaming had died down.
“Are we getting paid?” A dark clothed man coming from the building, alongside the giant, shouted. He was dressed in mostly black with his left arm entirely covered in armor platings.
“She seems to be undamaged, just a little shaken.” The punk answered.
“Splendid.” He walked up to Melissa.
“W-w-who are….”
“Team AgNo at your service. Though I recommend we discuss this somewhere else, just in case they have friends. Can you walk?” Melissa only looked at him with big eyes without answering.
“Listen, Either you walk or we carry you. Okay? I seriously don’t want to find out if they have back-up.” After a pause Melissa nodded.
“Great, lets’ go. This way.” The darkly dressed man didn’t wait any longer.
“B-but…”
“What is it now?” She could see that he was getting irritated.
“Won’t they follow us?” She almost whispered.
“Oh yeah, almost forgot.” He took a gun out from a holster shot once towards the building and flames blew out of the windows. Didn’t take long for the entire house to be up in flames. Melissa looked at it feeling like her eyes would pop out of her skull. She feared the man’s skill and his coldness towards killing.
“That’s enough, Nero take her.” Melissa barely heard him say that. When the large man picked her up she got such a fright that she fainted.
“Is it late again?”
“Probably, the roads out here aren’t the best.” People talking.
“I had plans today.”
“Well now you make new plans and calm down.” Melissa could make out the kind man and the dark man’s voices. She was currently lying on something hard, not the ground. Also she couldn’t figure out what time it was but she didn’t want to move just in case.
“She’s awake.” The cold one spoke and Melissa froze.
“Hey?” The kind voiced man touched her shoulder and she yanked. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. But we really couldn’t stay there any longer.” She opened her eyes to see the kind man. When he saw her looking at him he smiled.
“I’m Orchid, who are you?”
“Melissa.”
“That’s a nice name.” He smiled even brighter. Melissa got up looked around to see that they were in a bus stop, everything else was open fields and trees.
“They didn’t do anything indecent to you, Right?” The dark man sitting at the other edge of the bench spoke.
“N- no.” She was still scared of him.
“Good, then we don’t have to explain that.” Orchid looked angrily at the dark man.
“The rude asshole over there is Ashton.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Orchid continued.
“Nero is the big guy that carried you here.” Again he pointed towards a member of the group. The big guy who raised a hand to greet.
“Lastly we got Gray, he pulled you out of the battle.” Lastly he pointed at the hooded guy. Gray didn’t even look at her, didn’t look like he reacted at all.
“Where am I?” Melissa asked after looking at them for a while.
“Clearly not at a bus stop, as you can see.” Ashton answered sarcastically and got punched by Orchid as a result.
“Quite a bit from civilization, but at least there is transportation.” Orchid filled in.
“Transportation?”
“Yea, busses. Seems like it’s coming there.” He answered and looked of in the distance towards a dust cloud coming closer. Melissa still had so many questions but decided to only ask one more.
“Why did you save me?”
“Because of the contract.” Ashton answered.
“Contract? Are you….?”
“Yes we are mercenaries.” He cut her off. At least she knew they would complete the contract but it was still only for money. At this moment the bus had arrived at the stop and the team started entering it. Melissa hesitated so Orchid puffed her back and smiled when she looked at him. She decided to get on the bus against better judgement.
The bus cranked before coming to a complete stop.
“Ah, we are here. Public transportation is underrated when travelling incognito.” Ashton said with his self secure tone. Orchid woke up with a twitch.
“Oh wa..? Home?” He tried but was unable to form a sentence.
“Yes, sleepy head, we are home.” Ashton answered while getting up. Gray and Nero hadn’t reacted yet but Melissa knew they would follow when everyone else got of the bus. Ashton was first off and stopped a few steps out and took a deep breath.
“The sweet smell of fumes.”
“I thought your home would be… cleaner.” Melissa said when she felt the smell.
“Well it’s safe at least.” Ashton said while walking towards what looked like a subway entrance. Melissa couldn’t see anything else beside some overdue houses, but she still followed Ashton to the entrance. A dark, long stairway was behind the door, the only light coming from the door and two blue light strips on each wall going down. She didn’t like the looks of it but the guys hadn’t done her any harm, yet. They walked for about a minute when Melissa couldn’t hold her curiosity.
“Where are we going, exactly?” She asked Ashton that was a few steps ahead.
“We are going home.” He said without clarifying anything else.
“You said that, but what is this home?”
Ashton stopped with a hand on a door, that seemed to be at the end of the staircase.
“True, we haven’t explained it. So see for yourself. Welcome to the terminal.” He answered and opened the door. At first it was only blinding light and noise, but when her eyes had adapted to the light an enormous hall was in front of her. The light came from a giant sunroof that made the place not unlike one of the larger train stations she had seen, but this place was an entire town square, with houses on the side, under one roof. They walked up to the rail that surrounded the lowered center part, it had a complete park in it. Melissa had never seen something quite like this. She looked over to the side and saw Ashton examine an electronic billboard.
“What’s this?” She asked after walking up to him.
“Contracts, no interesting or good ones though.” Ashton said sounding disappointed.
“Dragon?” Melissa asked with a tone of discomfort.
“Yea, it’s been there for ages. Might be none left to pay out the bounty.”
“No one want 2 millions?”
“None is stupid enough.” Melissa looked at him for a while and remembered reading something about dragons being next to immortal. Then she noticed that she and Ashton were the only ones there. If she was going to escape she had to do it now.
“Where are the rest?”
“Buying supplies. We’ll meet up at the bar later.”
“Do you always split up like this?” Ashton looked at her with a irritated glance.
“What are you? Our tour guide?” She looked at the ground and felt her cheeks getting warm. Ashton continued.
“They were just lucky enough to run away before me. So now i’m stuck with you.” Melissa’s head felt even lower between her shoulders.
“Let’s just go to the bar.” Ashton sighed and started walking. He stopped after a few seconds because he didn’t hear any steps behind him. Ashton turned around and Melissa was gone. He just sighed.
“Of course this will happen when Gray is somewhere else.” After looking around a while he started searching.
Melissa wasn’t in the best shape but she got a few blocks before she had to sit down and rest. The surrounding was a lot worse worn down than the square. Broken windows, half walls and a lot of garbage. She tried to calm down her breathing and be as quiet as possible. It took a while but her breathing finally slowed down. A smile and feeling that she was gonna be alright came creeping. A door flew open with a loud thud and a sounds of struggle came through.
“Just tie him to the chair.” A deep disappointed voice was heard on the other side of the wall Meissa was leaning against. She could hear the struggle but it didn’t last long before only the scraping sound of the chair was all that was heard.
“Now again. Where is it?” The deep voice was back.
“Again, piss off.” Another voice, probably the man tied to the chair judging by the sound of pain in the his voice. A thud was heard and then a louder one. He probably got hit so hard the chair fell over since it sounded like someone rushed over to tip him back up.
“I’m going to hurt you for real next time.” The man with the deep voice was running out of patience. “Where is it?.” It was silent for a few seconds. Melissa’s curiosity got the better of her and she peeked over the edge. She saw three men standing around another one tied to a chair. The man in the chair was badly beaten but still looked defiant. She didn’t have time to study the other men before the man closest to the tied up one burrowed his nails into the other guys thigh and ripped a piece of flesh out. The tied up man screamed in pain but it only resulted in him getting hit in the face.
“WHERE IS IT?” The large man with the deep voice yelled.
“I-I- don’t…” The tied up man didn’t get further before the large man ripped another piece of flesh from his leg.
“WHERE!”
“Please… stop…” He just looked at the tied up man with blood dripping from his fingers.
“Take it to the grave.” The large man said and cut the bound persons throat with his nails. The strength of the man and sudden development made Melissa squeal. The large man turned around and a hand grabbed Melissa from behind and dragged her into cover. She tried to resist but the grip was to strong.
“Sssh.” someone whispered in her ear, it was Nero.
“Search the area.” Footsteps started to walk towards them so Nero started dragging her backwards. Just as they rounded a corner Melissa saw a head appear from where she had peeked a moment ago. When they were on the other side Nero removed the hand he had covered her mouth with but he still was holding her arm and dragged her with him. Melissa knew that the AgNo guys were safer than the people she just had seen.
Nero didn’t stop before they were out on the main square again. He turned around and grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes.
“You better forget everything you just saw and heard.” Melissa was to shaken to answer but apparently her face looked like she asked why.
“There are some really bad eggs with the mercenaries who wouldn’t stop for anything.” He sighed. “You just have to choose your friends properly, most of us have learned that the hard way. So can you stick with us until someone comes and picks you up? We will not hurt you in any way.” The honest look in his eyes made Melissa a bit calmer. She didn’t have really much of a choice either, she didn’t want to end up with people like the ones she just had seen. When she finally nodded Nero let her go.
“There you are.” Ashton came towards them. He looked at both her and Nero. “Well if you are done with running away today we can go and take a few mugs at the pub.”
Even after some minutes at the bar Melissa couldn’t let go that she ran away and almost ended up killed because of it.
“Are you still grudging over that?” Ashton was holding up his head with his arm. “Yeesh, It’s not like we expected you to trust us with everything from the start. You folks need to relax.”
“What do you mean, us folks?” Melissa asked dismayed.
“You nobles.”
“What, how did you..?” her insecurity started pulsing.
“Please, who would pay such a ridiculous sum for your safety?” Melissa didn’t know if she should be afraid or offended.
“Besides, there is a name on every contract from who has requested it.”
Now she felt stupid but she couldn’t possibly know how a mercenary contract was constructed.
“She’s a noble?” Orchid had appeared at their table with the rest of the team. Ashton moved further in in the cubicle to make room for Orchid. Gray climbed over the backrest where Melissa sat and took the seat next to the wall. While Nero took a chair and put it on the end. She felt uncomfortable, trust doesn’t come that easily but she decided to stay put this time. It wasn’t sure that anyone around here would help her if she asked. Melissa looked up to three pair of eyes. Everyone but Gray studied her face like she would have had a third eye.
“W-what?” Melissa couldn’t help but shake on her voice.
“I thought noble’s would dress better.” Orchid answered. Ashton rolled his eyes and said.
“She was kidnapped, cut her some slack. We were more interested in those fluffy ears.”
Melissa reached automatically for her ears, that she knew well wasn’t normal.
“Can you take them off?” Nero asked after a few seconds of silence.
“What? NO!.” Melissa covered them in fear that he would try.
“Must be a sigil then. Fox traits I assume.” Ashton assured.
Melissa knew what he was talking about and he was not wrong. Her parents decided to give her one hoping that she could protect herself with it. It’s not helpful at all, she only got fox ears, tail and a tiny increase in sense of smell and hearing with the cost of reduced color sight.
Ashton pulled off his glove revealing a sigil with three points and what seemed to be smoke in the middle. When he noticed Melissa studying it he lifted it up so she could see it better.
“You probably know how this thing work, but I’m gonna explain it to you anyways.
The sigil is what gives people their near magical powers. Every sigil is different in some aspect, less points, other image or different runes. There are several different grouping to different these. Examples are the anima group, that gives animal traits, sense enchantment and conjuration that I myself possess. These marks are given at birth depending on if your parents have the coin and want to take the risk. The survival rate is less than half which gives why so many doesn’t have a sigil. This is the only chance of ever getting a sigil, some say it’s because you are more receiving as a newborn. You also have to calculate with the risk of the sigil destroying the person it inhabits, and remember that the sigil is always random, no one can choose what to get. It also probably makes more sense why only this arm is covered in armor. Losing connection to the body part that has the sigil on it also makes you lose the power, painfully for anima sigils i might add.” Ashton didn’t have time to continue before Orchid put an elbow in his side and gestured to be silent and watch the tv.
“Oh daily ranking.” Once again Melissa got that confused look while she turned around to look at the screen. An awful silence had overcome the inn while the news anchor talked for a while before it started to list names with a rank starting from 100, ten at a time. Red and green arrows appeared on some of the names indicating if they have sunken or raised in rank. A few delightful laughs was heard and some sad sighs. Gray appeared on the next page on rank 81, he had gone down with two ranks. Ashton playfully put an elbow in his side. Nero appeared on the third on rank 75, he had not moved. Both Orchid and Ashton appeared on the following screen on positions 68 and 63 accordingly. Ashton have increased one rank while Orchid had gone down three. The closer to the top positions it went the less the rankings had switched. Only two people had switched rank on top 10, namely rank 6 and 7.
“Seems like you are buying today, Orchid” Ashton laughed while Orchid sighed.
“Okay, what do you want Melissa?”
“I.. uh.. Don’t know, what do they serve?” Melissa stuttered since she wasn’t prepared. Before Orchid could answer Ashton cut off.
“Just give her what Gray takes. Now chop, chop.” Orchid shrugged and went for the bar.
Melissa looked after him for a while before she said.
“I assume that the person who has decreased the most buys the first round.”
“You are correct.” Ashton smiled. Orchid came back without anything so Ashton raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Lena insisted that she would bring it.” Orchid answered.
“She has never done that before.” Orchid shrugged at Ashton’s comment to show that he didn’t know why either. It didn’t take long before a girl came walking towards their table carrying a tray with glasses. She had a cute face and was dressed like a barmaid would look in Melissa’s eyes.
“So a beer for Nero and Ash. Some color for Orchid and tea for the rest.” She handed the drinks out as she was saying who ordered what. Lastly she gave a cup to Melissa who thanked her.
“I’ve never seen you here before. I’m Lena and I own this gloomy place.”
“So that’s why you are so kind today.” Ashton blurted out and got the tray in his face as response.
“Hush you, I’m always kind.” She looked back at Melissa. “What’s your name, Honey?”
“I’m….” Melissa didn’t get further before being cut off by Ashton.
“A guest that will not stay long enough for name exchange to be done.” He smiled.
“Oh one of those, don’t stay to long around these people, we don’t want you to lose your manners…” Lena leaned in closer to Melissa and whispered. “But maybe you could teach these a little.” She winked at Melissa.
“We can hear you, you know?”
“But you can’t say anything against it.” Ashton had to admit defeat and Lena laughed.
“You enjoy yourself now and I will be behind the counter if there is anything else you need.” Lena left with a wink.
“She knows us too well.” Nero said and Ashton agreed with a cheer.
In about an hour the atmosphere in the pub was all smiles and laughs. She found the mercenaries quite enjoyable, a few times even she let a laugh slip.
Melissa’s back hurt from the temporary bed they had made up for her. She was definitely not used to this, but she wouldn’t complain so anyone of them could hear it. The difference in temperature felt nice when she stepped out into the naturally lit hangar.
A few minutes passed while she stood there absorbing some heat. When she opened her eyes a hot cup of tea was in front of her, Orchid holding it.
“Thank you.” She said but hesitated a moment until the fresh smell reached her nostrils.
“Don’t mention it.” He said and looked over to the rest of the team tinkering and then sighed. “They don’t know anything about hospitality.”
Melissa looked over to the three remaining team mates. Ashton was halfway under an engine block of a car with sound coming out of it, probably Ashton swearing. Nero was currently on some morning training doing situps and other stuff that Melissa could not name. Gray was polishing one of his blades. Melissa took a few sips, her head tilted backwards, and felt like everything is gonna be alright. When she opened her eyes again she saw something move on the glass roof. A small cylinder formed object fell down. When it hit the ground everything went white. She couldn’t see anything, only heard thuds. A hand grabbed her and she let out a small squeak before a hand covered her mouth. Melissa tried to squirm out of the hold but the person was too strong. A few seconds passed and her sight slowly came back. Orchid was pinned against a wall with his arm locked behind his back. Nero had a foot on his back and a gun pointed at his head, two more were aiming for Gray who hadn’t stopped polishing his blade. Ashton was still under the motorblock, swearing.
“I swear to Gaia, I will f… “ He sat up and had three gun barrels pointed at his face. “Oh… we have guests. Gray, you could have told us”
Gray stopped polishing and turned his head towards Ashton, The men aiming for him changed the weight from one foot to the other.
“Melissa?” A familiar voice came from the entrance. A man dressed in a gray costume and red vest came into the hall. He signed to the man holding Melissa to release her.
“Dad!” Melissa didn’t think twice but ran up and hugged him.
“Darling, we’ve been so worried.” The man said embracing her.
“I’m okay. I was…”
“Now this is heartwarming and all, but what’s with all the guns?” Ashton cut off while moving one of the barrels away from his face.
“My apologies. You can never be to safe these days.”
“Oh you are so right, Mr. Scarlet. Now I do believe you have something for us.”
“All in due time, mister..?”
“Just call me Ash.” Ashton smiled.
“Certainly, Mr. Ash. As promised you will be paid handsomely.” He turned to Melissa. “How have they treated you?”
“Good, father, considering their standing.”
“I’m relieved to hear that and see you safe. Though I have another business proposition for you, Mr. Ash.”
“If the pay is equally good I’m all for it.”
“Splendid, then I will leave Melissa in your care.”
“What?” Ashton and Melissa said in chorus
“It’s safest this way.” He continued. “Only for the duration until we figure out who did this.” Melissa exploded on him.
“Are you going to leave me, your only child. In the hands of unwashed mercenaries who would do anything for money?”
“Ouch.” Ashton pretended to look hurt.
“Of course it’s to be assumed that if they hurt you once I will revoke the offer.”
“Our entire mansion is guarded.”
“And they still got you.”
“But..”
“It’s not up for argument young lady. Next time we might not be so lucky to get you back, and neither me or your mother could stand that. At least this way we will have a little security.” Mr.Scarlet was visibly upset. Melissa still couldn’t believe she wasn’t going home. He embraced her and talked calmly.
“Don’t worry, dear. It will not take to long. You will be home before you know it.”
They stood like that until Mr.Scarlet's phone started buzzing.
“I have to go now, stay strong and I will be back to see you soon.” He looked her in the eyes while he said that. Melissa nodded and he left the same way he came. She looked after him until Ashton came and threw his arm over her shoulders.
“This only means one thing, kiddo.”
“That i’m stuck with you.”
“No, you need to get into shape.”
“..What?”
“He pays us enough to retire but none of us wants to sit idle for that long. Which means you are going into training so you will be more than a dead weight.” She looked at him and could tell by that smile that she wasn’t going to like this.
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