Lina looked at her report schedule for the day. Ever since she had been starting this little case with Vernas she hadn't been given any new assignments so it really seemed pointless for her to even go to the report center. But her mother and father had been nagging at her to still go check anyway so she had been even though Leviathan wasn't going himself. So here she was looking at her report schedule and to her surprise she had a new assignment on her sheet.
"What the hell is this?" She also had in hand Leviathan's report schedule whom also hand the same assignment that she had been assigned. Lina looked at the reception person who gave her sheet. All she did was shrug, which didn't help Lina that much. Lina also noticed that she needed to go see a green agent in about ten minutes about her new assignment. Which gave her just enough time to get over there in time.
Lina walked into the room where she needed to meet this green agent who was going to inform her about this new assignment. When she did walk she didn't see anyone, but then a chair move to reveal to be a guy with green hair and red eyes. He also had this odd red jewel on his forehead.
"So why the hell was I given this assignment?!"
"Well good morning to you too Ms. Inverse."
"Yeah, yeah whatever, get to it."
"First of all I'm Carbunkle Garnet. (Relm: Well since he was the one who gave me the idea for this one I'd thought I'd put him in. And besides he did say that I could borrow any of his characters anytime I wished. ^^) Alright what your assignment is, is to deal with the increased criminal activity which we believe to be an organized crime ring-"
"What?! What increased activity?! It's been deader then hell out there! When did this happen?"
"Yesterday."
(Lina facefaults) "So let me get this straight you want me and the other people on this list to deal with some increased criminal activity that you think to be an organized crime ring just because there was some actual crimes that happened yesterday?" (Ooh the bitter sarcastic overtones!)
"Yes."
"Why are you asking me to do this rather then someone else?"
"Because if ends up being something serious then we'd rather have someone who can deal with it quickly and easily rather have someone else who would have trouble with it. And also we'd like to let the new special red agents have some experience as red agents."
"It's not like they haven't done any street work before, they are LPD officers."
"You know what I mean. Please tell your brother and the others about the case please? You all need to report to briefing room 4a in about an hour from now."
Lina just shock her head and left the green agent without saying anything else to him. She left to do some Leviathan hunting.
Somewhere in the organized crime ring headquarters…
A boss and three of his henchmen are in the boss's office.
"Boss why exactly are we doing this crime thing now? There's been like nothing going on for like days now." One of the henchmen asked their boss. It had been weird these days, everyone had been preparing for the upcoming event that barely anyone bothered to commit any crimes. But then all of a sudden Deverold (the boss of this new crime ring) got his boys together and set this crime ring in motion.
"Well it's quite simple we've been ordered to do it." The boss said with a crooked smile.
"But boss I thought yous the boss. Why you'd be taking orders somebody?"
"Ever a boss has to answer to someone else. You could say that we're pulling in a favor for someone. This crime ring has more of a purpose then just to get merchandise."
"Duh? What other purpose would it have?"
"I could tell you but you'd probably mess it up in someway."
Now where is Leviathan? Well he was actually sitting in the indoor gardens laying on the grass taking a little siesta. However he was woken up when a piece of paper had landed on his face.
"Huh? What's this? My schedule report for today? What?!" Leviathan got up and glanced over at Lina whom had dropped the paper on his head.
"Yeah I was surprised too. I didn't think that they would give us an assignment either."
"Oh Lina do we have to?"
"Yup let's go get the others."
A little under an hour later Zelgadis, Lina, Zangulus, Martina, Gourry and Leviathan were all sitting in briefing room 4a waiting for the person who was supposed to debrief them about the case only that green agent happened to be late.
"Where the hell is he?!"
"Lina are you sure that it was supposed to be an hour from when you talked to that other guy?"
"Yes Leviathan I'm sure of it."
Well speak of the devil and it shall come because that very same green agent that Lina had spoken too earlier just happened to come in at that time.
"Hello everyone sorry I'm late." The green agent assorted his papers and sat down. "I'm sure that Lina has told you some things about this case. Even though this little crime spree only started yesterday we do have reason to believe that this a specially organized crime ring. We think that it might be spurred by what has happened here in STF headquarters recently."
"What are you talking about?! They haven't let any information to the press of public at all. As far as the public is concerned nothing bad ever happened at the STF at all."
"Well yes that's true but information may have leaked out. From what we have managed to gather the leader of this crime ring is Deverold Felmen," Carbunkle handed out Felmen's file for everyone to look at, "Basically he's not too unfamiliar around the STF criminal records bank. He has a lot of hired men and usually has lots of resources to his disposal. What we need you guys to do it is to find Felmen and terminate this crime ring. The way things currently stand with STF we can't afford right now to have multiple crime rings pop up which might be the case if other criminals follow suit like Felmen. We've actually been lucky over here with the decrease in crime. It gives us more opportunities to use our resources to deal with the maters at hand. But this case will give you all except Lina and Leviathan experience as red agents. And I know that Lina has pointed out that you've already done street work before but this is slightly different. So get going on the case and report back with any information."
Lina rolled her eyes and got up with the rest of them to go outside.
"I can't believe we're stuck doing some stupid crime ring and Felmen of all people is running it." Lina grumbled as they headed out the numerous security measures to get to the parking lot.
"What's so bad about that Lina?"
"Well the reason is Zel because I haven't worked on a Felmen crime ring case ever since I was a level two red agent. And every time they all ended the same way. We got everyone busted except Felmen who had magically disappeared." Lina pushed in her password with her key card and opened the next door and they walked down another large hallway. Some people in STF had even gone mad because of all the long hallways. There was just too many of them in the building, but then the building itself was too big.
"Lina could he do magic?" Gourry of course asked that. General reaction: facefault and/or sweatdrop.
"No Gourry she was merely using it as a figure of speech. Somehow he always managed to get away. He has to be one of the most criminally active people in crime history. He's technically guilty of many crimes. Only if we ever tried to get them stick on him he'd just get off free anyway." This time Leviathan took care of the next door. Only three more doors four hallways and two flights of stairs left.
"If that's true then why would he get off free?"
"Because besides being an overactive criminal he also happens to be a mastermind. He's done so many crimes but because he's so smart about them we don't have any evidence to make the charges stick. That could be one of the reasons why they sent us rather then other agents. They want to see if we can actually get charges that stick on him and get him arrested."
"But Leviathan that still doesn't explain why they chose us instead of someone else. If that was the case then they could get some people who are even higher ranked then we are to do the job. There has to be a special reason why they want to us to do it."
"Basically you're saying that they've got some special motive that they aren't telling us? Do you really think that STF higher officials would keep information from us?" Leviathan asked her sister all naive showing his obvious sarcasm. Which in turn caused a few chuckles.
Carbunkle sat back in his office talking on his phone to one of his fellow superior green agents.
"Well why did they even want them to take this assignment anyway? When and why couldn't you guys have told me? I had make up things from the top of my head that made sense. I sounded stupid."
"But how is that different then any other time?"
"Why you! You are evil you know that?"
"So I've been told. But no Carbunkle there is a reason why they have been sent on this case. You see we've been given actual information that this is an organized crime ring. And well there was some mention about Lina and Leviathan."
"What?"
"Well I don't know. They don't tell me everything you know. But oh well we'll just have to wait and see."
Lina and the rest of them reached the parking lot and all of them got on their respective jet bikes.
"Hey Lina do you know where to go?" Martina asked as she got her bike ready.
"Yup. Just follow me."
A few minutes later they ended up in one of the shadier parts of Vald.
"Lina why are we here?"
"To get some information." Lina said with a smile as she walked into what appeared to be just an ordinary general store. The store clerk looked at them with worried eyes. That's one thing about being an STF agent and wearing your uniform in public everyone thinks that you are going to bust them for something. Which is probably why the store clerk didn't say anything when Lina went in back and opened up the secret door in floor. The door had stairs that lead down. The lighting in the store itself wasn't so great but you could barely see anything down there. But that didn't stop Lina, down she went with everyone following. What they found down there was five guys at a table that had a small light overhead. Four of the five when they saw them freaked and ran out in other secret passages while the last one just gave Lina a cold stare.
"Lina you know you are scaring away my business." The last man sat down at the table and motioned for the others to join him.
"I need some information Rusty." Rusty which wasn't his real name by the way, was Lina's main source for street and crime information. He may be a criminal himself but with his connections he knows practically everything that's happening.
"What else is new?" Rusty rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair.
"Why is Felmen starting up another crime ring?"
"What's it too you? I don't have to tell you nothing." Of course Rusty knew that Lina would let off that easily. If you are a crook you don't keep information from an Inverse. Because if you did you'd most likely answer to Luna or Blitz. (Or if you were really unlucky Faithe.)
"You're right but I don't have to keep my mouth shut about your whereabouts to STF headquarters. You still are wanted aren't you?"
"Alright I'll tell you what I know. Geesh I was only kidding with you. Man always threatening people aren't you Lina? Alright sources say that Felmen isn't doing this as his own gig."
"What do you mean?"
"I hear that he's taking orders from somebody else."
"Do you know who?"
"Nope but someone real smart and powerful."
"Do you know why this person wants Felmen to start up this ring?"
"Same as before. I don't know much about the guy who Felmen is taking orders from. Don't have a name or a face to tell ya."
"What about Felmen?"
"Well that I can give you a little more information about." The man smiled as he pulled out some papers. It was the record of all of Felmen's purchases lately. Only it didn't have Felmen's name as the purchaser, it was five of Felmen's newest aliases. And they all could be trace back to one address.
With the information Rusty gave them they were at Felmen's current address. They actually had gotten a permit to search the building due to all proof of the fake IDs. Of course even though they did have a permit they weren't exactly going to go in the front door. So they came around the back and broke in. What they didn't expect was that they were being expected. Once inside the building a gas filled the room from the vents. They tried to get back out but they couldn't the room had completely sealed itself off. It was hopeless. The gas took effect and they found themselves totally immobile. The bodies had stiffen and froze in place like they had turned to statues or something.
"Well, well if it isn't my dear old friends Lina and Leviathan. Oh look and they brought others too." Deverold Felmen came in the room with his henchmen after the gas had cleared away. "I bet you are probably wondering why we knew that you were coming? Well you see the whole reason for this little crime ring wasn't to acquire items but in fact to lure you into a trap. My boss is quite content of having you all killed." Felmen laughed as he took an especially illegally enhanced bio gun and pointed it right at Lina.