Unwelcome Bodyguard

[Mr. Moon]

Alistair #1

After what happened with Jade, Alistair stayed on the Strawberry Hill for several days, hoping that he will b able to finally enjoy his well deserved vacation. And for a time, it worked just as he wished. For two days he could enjoy a sightseeing, the local restaurants and many more. And than, when the agent finally decided its a time to finally cross the Red Line and enter the Grand Line everything went wrong.

The well dressed gentleman was just heading towards the port, with a suitcase containing all of his worldly belongings and a small bag with some souvenirs, when someone bumped in him. Young woman, three, maybe four years younger than him, short and petite looking with a thin figure, gentle, innocent looking face and long, brown, braided hair.

Normally, the Reaper wouldn´t pay much attention to such small incident, as the port was overcrowded and people were bumping into each other left and right. However he could clearly feel her small and swift hand reaching into his pocket.

“Your wish...”

The agent muttered for himself. His own hand swiftly reaching for her wrist to catch the cheeky thief in her act. However he stopped, before he could even release the bag he was carrying.

“Good morning Alistair.”
She whispered so quietly, that was barely audible, but he heard her alright. After all, all CP-1 agents were trained to notice these words no matter the situation, as they were the code that was summoning them back to active duty.

With a gentle sight, the agent continued in his walk as if nothing happened. Actually, even if someone would watched them very carefully they wouldn´t probably noticed, that there was any exchange between the two of them at all. So naturally they both carried out their duties.

“Let´s hope it won´t take long.”

Alistair muttered for himself, as he turned behind a corner, saying silent goodbye to his cruiser that was about to leave the port in less than two hours.

[Aromancer]

Revos - 1

"Sir! Captain Roja!"

"C'mon, Tonii, no need to stand on formalities." The tall, blond-haired man smiled at his subordinate in a friendly manner. "We're all friends here."

Tonii sighed, nodding his head. "I know, but it makes us sound more... impressive? More like an army! We're rebels, we should act like it!"

Sute Roja nodded. "Well, I can't argue with that logic," he replied, chuckling. "Anyway, what's the word?"

Tonii jumped with a start. "Right! Um, so we've located a gap in Lady Margaret's schedule!" He held a sheet of paper out to his superior. "She should be totally unsupervised for one hour in about two days; her usual bodyguard is taking a leave of absence, but she'll still be taking her usual route through the gardens around her manor!"

Suti took the sheet and investigated it closely. "I see..." He smirked and turned to his fellow revolutionaries. "Men! And woman," he said, nodding to the one female member of their team, "prepare yourselves! Because in two days, we kidnap lady Margaret!"

A cheer rang out from the small band of revos. Sute allowed himself a small smirk. Things were really starting to look up around here.

[Mr. Moon]

Alistair #2

Alistair continued his stroll through the city, without even looking at the message in his pocket. He sincerely doubted that someone was watching him, but better to be safe than sorry. Only thirty minutes after the initial encounter he reached into his pocket. What he found there was a small piece of paper with an address written on it.

Even though he already spent some time in the city, he wasn't really familiar with all of its streets and so it took him a while before he found the right place.

It was an old apartment house. One, that was occupied by the members of the local working class, factory workers, and housemaids. The paper with the address was accompanied by a set of keys, so the agent had no trouble getting in.

Climbing to the third floor, he found the right apartment and got in without meeting anyone except a young woman with a small baby, who was just heading out.

"Couldn't you pick a better place? I am sticking out here like a sore thumb."

Alistair complained, right after the door closed behind him.

The apartment was small, old, and dusty. Comprising just two rooms, kitchen, and bedroom.

"Sorry, but we are on a budget, you know that."

Mary, the girl who invited him, was already inside, sitting behind the kitchen table, with a thin paper folder in front of her.

"Also, I didn't expect you would wear a suit on vacation."

The Reaper left this remark unanswered and walked across the room to sit across the table from her.

"So, what is so important that you had to pull me from my vacation. If I remember correctly the boss told me he doesn't want to see me sooner than in six months and it was barely six weeks."

Instead of responding, Mary just pushed the folder closer to him.

“Just take a look.”

She smiled.

[Aromancer]

Revos - 2

"So, what's the plan, boss-man?" One of Sute's subordinates had entered his tent and was now standing a short distance away, hoping to prepare before the big strike.

Roja looked down at the town map. "Well... we can't assume capturing Margaret will be an easy task," he explained. "Even if she's going to be officially unsupervised, I doubt that the guildmaster would leave his daughter completely unattended. This operation will have to be perfect."

The man let his mind wander to thoughts of his one true love. Oh, Margaret... with her gorgeous flowing locks and soft, warm eyes... soon, they would be together once again.

"Right, so... what are we going to actually do?" The subordinate asked once more.

"Ah, yes! Of course!" Roja coughed slightly, bringing himself back down to Earth. "We're going to go scout out the manor gardens tomorrow, and try to find some good vantage points to hide and monitor the situation. We'll spend about half an hour in those areas on the day of the mission and make absolutely sure that Margaret is alone before we make our move."

He pointed out a small passage through the gardens. "This is our escape. It's small and out of the way, so we should be able to get out unnoticed. I've got Patch on guard duty; if anything shows up on that route, he'll alert us and we'll call off the mission."

"Call it off?" The subordinate looked confused. "But this is our first chance in months! You can't just scrap the operation if it doesn't go your way."

"I can, and I will," replied Roja sternly, his eyes narrowed. "Our cause is more important than my personal wishes. If I endangered the lives of my men just to fail to rescue Margaret anyway, I am an utter failure as your leader."

[Mr. Moon]

Alistair #3

So it was a guard duty in the end. Reading through the papers given to him by Mary, Alistair learned, that one of his colleagues found out, that small group of revolutionaries was intending to kidnap daughter of local noble. To what end he didn´t know, but Alistair could imagine, that they were planning to use her as a leverage against him to gain foothold on the island or something similar. Anyway, the agency contacted the nobleman and together they came to agreement that the best course of action will be assigning one of their agent as a bodyguard to the young miss for the time being and Alistair was the only one nearby, who could jump in quick enough.

And so there he was, kneeling in the dirt in large garden, pretending to be a gardener tending some begonias, while keeping an eye on the young lady, who was siting on a bench under nearby walnut tree, reading “Count Tremere” notoriously known book from Peter Raskrie.

She was young, eighteen, maybe twenty years with long, curly brown hairs and gentle, oval face. She was pretty, although from what he could say from their short conversation also pretty naive for someone who was receiving fairly good education since childhood. But perhaps that was what life in a golden cage was doing with people? The agent could hardly say as he joined the CP-1 too young to know.

Anyway, he turned away from the girl, before she could notice his gaze and start making wrong assumptions, looking around to get a general idea about the garden and possible entry points, which were several as the mansion was everything but a defensible fortress. Well, truth to be told, he didn´t expect that anyone would be stupid enough to try to kidnap her during the day, but one had to be prepared for every possibility, including the utter stupidity of their enemy.

[Aromancer]

Revos - 3

"Hey cap. We've got a problem."

The baby snail on the rebel's wrist relayed the message back to Roja, who swore.

"What's up?"

"Turns out you were right; Daddy got a substitute bodyguard. Tall, scary-looking, wearing a suit. Really good poker face; whoever this guy is, he's a pro."

Roja groaned. "Dammit... where'd the king find this guy on such short notice? Whoever this guy is, he's not on the payroll!"

"What should we do, captain? Do we scrub the mission?"

"No, not yet," Roja replied. "All we need to do is cause a distraction, get this guy's attention, and grab Maggie while he's looking the other way."

"Good idea," Tonii said from next to the captain. "It's only one guy, and we only need to distract him for a few minutes! The extraction will be super quick!"

"Even so..." Roja shook his head. "...I don't like not knowing who he is. I'll have Anders do some digging. Fall back for now; we don't need this guy catching on to us."

"You got it, Cap." The scout left the garden and rushed back to the base.

"You're up, Anders," Roja said, using another snail to contact their inside man.

"No worries, Captain," came a sophisticated voice on the other side. "His Highness is eating out of my hands right now! I'll get you your intel quick as a cricket!"

Anders left his room and headed down towards the records room. Hopefully there he would learn about the castle's new "guest."

[Mr. Moon]

Alistair #4

In the end, the job seemed to be surprisingly easy. The agent spent most of his day in the garden, tending for the flowers there, or rather pretending to do so, as his gardening skills definitely needed some polishing, but as far as he could say, no one noticed or cared about that. Since the weather was nice, the young lady spent most of her day in the garden, reading on a decorated bench under a tree, only stopping when two friends of hers came to visit. The agent wasn´t really concerned about them. Just a few minutes of careful watching told him, that these two were real noble ladies and not some revolutionaries sympathizers. Just to make sure, he verified it with the gate guards, who confirmed him, that these two were lifelong friends of the young lady who were visiting her quite often, especially now, when she was under house arrest of a sort from her father.

The three young ladies were strolling through the garden, talking about all sorts of girlish things, only to disappear into the house for a snack. Alistair didn´t follow them there and didn´t even have to, as the dining room was on the ground floor with windows to the garden, so he just had to make sure, he was tending some flowers nearby.

His mission started to be hard only after these girls left, as the young lady retreated to her room on the second floor. The bodyguard didn´t have any believable reason to be there, and so instead of breaking his cover, he patrolled the gardens around the estate as it was the only entry point to the building anyway. Only after the darkness fell did he enter the house for dinner and after that into the room her father assigned to him. Luckily right next to her bedroom, where she was spending most of her evenings.

[Aromancer]

Revos - 4

"More bad news, boss."

Roja looked down at the snail, hearing the familiar sound of Anders' voice on the other end. "What now?"

"Looks like his highness outsourced the bodyguard search to Cipher Pol. I don't know who this guy is, but if he's with the CP, he's gonna be trouble."

Roja swore to himself. Cipher Pol... the name alone sent shivers down the spine of revolutionaries everywhere. Cipher Pol agents were few and far between, but each of them was a master spy and a formiddable combatant. And due to their secretive nature, very little was known about any given individual member... except for CP-9, thanks to that Buster Call incident from a year or two back.

"Hold on, don't most of the CP organizations specialize in espionage and intrigue?" Roja asked Anders. "What's this guy doing on guard duty?"

"Maybe he's undercover?" Came the reply. "Fair warning, though; even if he IS a spy, I'm sure he's more than up to the task of bodyguarding."

"Yeah, yeah. You're right." Roja's hopes sank. Oh, well. Better to keep expectations of success low. That way he wouldn't be disappointed.

"So, where to from here, boss?"

"Stick to the plan. Cause a distraction, sneak the princess out under cover of darkness."

"You got it."

---

And it was when night came that the plan began to come together. A few rebels came up the garden path, while Roja and a few trusted associates made their way up to Margaret's window via grappling hook. Both infiltration plans were exhaustively planned out ahead of time, with no flaws in them save one: the garden rebels were to create a loud noise that would rouse Alistair and cause him to come check it out, at which point they'd let out a bird call to signal to the others that they were in the clear.

[Mr. Moon]

Alistair #5

While in his room, Alistair did some small changes. Namely, he lifted his bead and carried it silently to the other side of the room, so he could sleep next to the wall, that was between his and the princesses’ room. Next, he opened the window leading to the garden to make sure that any careless movement down there would wake him up. Only then did he go to sleep, still fully clothed with his boots on.

He had a very light sleep, so when the Revolutionaries started doing mess in the garden, he was back on his feet almost immediately.

“That was faster than I thought…”

The agent muttered to himself as he ran toward the window, looking down to the garden. It was very dark, with the hedge around it blocking the light from the street, but still, there were several silhouettes visible moving through the garden. Well, he wasn´t the only one noticing the noises as two or three guardsmen ran from the main entrance to deal with the intruders, meaning, he should do his job as well.

Running outside the doors, he stormed inside the princess’s room, quickly looking around to identify potential danger.

“Your highness, you are in danger! Someone attacked the mansion; we have to move.”

Noticing that her window was open as well, Alistair grabbed the protesting girl for her arm, pulling her off her bed in her pajamas.

“What…no…who are you…”

She tried to protest sill half asleep, but Alistair ignored that.

“No time to explain, we have to move you somewhere more safe, go.”

Pushing her in front of himself, he maneuvered her towards the door, while keeping himself between her and the window, just in case some intruders would try to enter the room that way and kidnap her.

[Aromancer]

Revos - 5

Fortunately for Roja, Alistair's back was turned as he began escorting the princess out of the room. When the Revolutionary leader climbed up to the window, he saw the man's turned back and instantly darted down below the balcony once more.

"Shit," he hissed to himself, before pulling out the transponder snail. "This is Roja to Extraction Team B. The Cipher Pol agent is escorting the princess out of the palace. What's your status?"

Extraction Team B had dashed into various hiding spots around the courtyard after their loud noise, and were presently incapacitating the guards who had come to apprehend them from their stealthy positions. "All good, Sir," came Tonii's voice on the other end. "No problems here. We're infiltrating the mansion now."

Roja's mind raced. On the one hand, his part of the plan had been foiled. On the other, Extraction Team B had just achieved their ideal outcome. Was it possible that they would be able to defeat the man guarding Princess Margaret?

"Alright," he finally said, thinking quickly, "rendezvous with Anders inside the building and ask him if there's any secret passages they might be trying to take. Then take him back to cover the main entrance; pretend like he's a hostage. Observation Team, you're on backdoor duty. I'll try and cut them off at whatever secret passage Anders points out. Stay out of sight, do NOT engage unless everyone is there. The Cipher Pol agent is an unknown factor, and I don't want us confronting him unless we're in peak condition. If he attempts to engage, retreat immediately. My love life is not worth the lives of my men."

"Roger!" ETB and OT replied over the snail as Roja rappelled back down to the hedge maze below. Now all he could do was wait.

[Mr. Moon]

Alistair #6

The agent left the room with the struggling noblewoman across his shoulder.
"Let go of me! Do you hear me? Let go of me!"
She screamed, punching his back repeatedly in anger and frustration. But with her strength or rather lack of it, she could barely annoy her bodyguard.
As they left the room, the house was already in chaos. Other guards were running through its halls, while the remaining staff was looking from their rooms with a mixture of curiosity and fear. Alistair would ignore them just as he was ignoring the woman across his shoulder if not for one young bodyguard who stepped in his way.
"Hey! Hands off the young lady you creep!"
He yelled at him with a hand on the handle of his pistol. For a split of a second, Alistair was playing with the idea of knocking him out, but he showed him his badge instead.
"Relax, I am from CP see? Her father asked me to protect her."
Both the young lady and the guardian looked at him with a hint of disbelief.
"What do you think I'll believe you that…?"
With a sigh, Alistair lunged forward, knocking the overzealous lad down with a single well-placed uppercut.
"I don't really have time for this…Soru"
He growled angrily, moving through the corridor with a blinding speed. The woman on his shoulder gasped as she left her dinner behind during that maneuver, but the agent couldn't care less. He was tasked with protecting her safety, not comfort. And the last thing the agent wanted was to get stuck in a corridor, where enemies could come from either side.
Reappearing at the beginning of the staircase, he ran downstairs towards the cellar as that was one of the few dependable places in the whole building.

[Aromancer]

Revos - 6

Whoosh.

Anders was just leaving his room to rendezvous with Extraction Team B as the plan demanded when he felt a strong gust of wind blow past him; for a moment, he thought it must have been a tornado! ...But in fact, it was that bodyguard the king had hired, blowing past him at mind-boggling speeds. White as a sheet, the man ran to the rest of the team as fast as he could go; naturally, only a fraction of what Alistair could accomplish.

A few minutes later, another communication came over the snails: "Extraction Team Beta here; we've got Anders. The man says this Cipher Pol agent can move faster than the eye can see, and took out one of his own allies, over."

Roja's face paled at the statement. He'd heard rumors of Rokushiki, the martial arts technique practiced by some Cipher Pol agents; but he hadn't expected to be up against somebody who could actually use it! What was this, CP9? He hastened to reply: "We're out of my element. Get out of there men, I don't want to risk you on this. We'd have better luck against her usual body guard. Over."

"That's a negative, Sir," came the reply. "Anders' cover is blown now. If we want to extract the princess, it's gotta be tonight. Don't worry; we'll get her back for you. Over."

"Wait, no! Dammit! Lieutenant, get out of there!!!" No response; the man had shut off his snail. Roja growled in annoyance. Damn loose cannons. He began making more calls. "Observation Team, you got eyes on the Lieutenant?"

"Yes, Sir. Looks like he's heading towards the cellar Anders mentioned."

"Got it." He switched calls. "Anders, you're with me. Take me to that cellar, then take Team B and get out of here. The rest of Team B, neutralize any threats between us and the exit. I'm going to get the Lieutenant before he gets himself killed."

"Roger that, Sir."

This was a bad idea. They should've just run. But Roja wasn't about to let his own men throw their lives away for the sake of his personal desires. He ditched his hiding spot, heading to the front entrance and meeting up with Anders.

"Right this way, Sir!" Anders said, pointing the way to the cellar before rushing in that direction.

As they ran to catch up, Tonii was busting down the door of the cellar. "Hey, big guy!" He called out, pointing to Alistair. "You're gonna turn over that girl right now, so my boss can marry her and they can have a beautiful wedding!" He adopted an aggressive combat stance.

[Mr. Moon]

Alistair #7

The unwelcomed bodyguard was rushing down the staircase, towards the cellar, basically jumping several steps at a time, while the noble girl on his shoulder was screaming, cursing, and beating him with her tiny weak fists. They moved past several people, but since they weren´t acting hostile towards him, the agent was ignoring them, to get his person of interest into the safety first.

And a few minutes later, they were there. The cellar was the oldest part of the building, that existed even before this house replaced a much older mansion built from stone. And true to its origin, it was composed of large stone corridors with arched ceilings, the only new addition there was electricity that was powering the lights.

“Someone really had to be rich to be able to afford these…”

Alistair thought for himself before stopping suddenly, as someone called him from behind, just as he opened the doors leading towards the wine cellar.

Frowning, the agent simply threw to woman in, before turning around to face his adversary.

“I…whooooa ouch!”

The girl cried out as she hit the cold and hard stone floor, but Alistair simply ignored that.

“Is he now?”

He asked, his voice drenched with sarcasm. Something with this whole thing didn´t seem right. Was this really a kidnap job? Or was that woman trying to run with them? Some of her behavior would suggest that. Unfortunately for her, his orders were clear and didn´t concern her happiness, only safety.

“I have to say, it could be a good joke if you didn´t hurt so many people on your way here…some random dude falling in love with a noble girl going to ask for her hand…”

He shook his head.

“But why not, I have a very generous mood today so, let me give you a chance. Turn around, walk away, forget you ever have been here, and I´ll let you live. Sounds good? I´ll give you to the count of 5 alright? 1…2…3…”

“Rankyaku!”

As he reached number 3, Alistair whipped his leg in a wide arc, sending a crescent blade of compressed air towards the revolutionary.

[Aromancer]

Revos - 7

"What can I say?" Tonii replied cockily to Alistair's provocation. "We're revolutionaries! If we gotta take out a few of the Guildmaster's men to get the boss his girl, well, that's less we need to deal with later!

"Besides," he returned to his combat stance, "not like you're one to talk. You're taking out the same men we are. Some "bodyguard" you turned out to be!"

Alistair began counting. Tonii took a deep breath, preparing for the five count. He was a little caught off-guard when Alistair hit three and began to attack, but was able to duck out of the way of the oncoming slice of air with a loud yelp.

"You cheater!" Tonii rushed the man, firing his rifle as he did so. The bullet's trajectory was carefully crafted so it wouldn't have any chance of hitting the princess; Tonii didn't want to break Roja's heart by being the one to kill his lover. As a result, Tonii's moves were slow, careful, and deliberate. And predictable.

---

"Right down that hallway, Sir," Anders told Roja, pointing to a corridor. "There's a staircase on your left that will lead you to the cellar! Tonii probably left the door open, so you should be able to find it with little trouble!"

"Thank you, Anders," Roja said, clasping his fellow rebel's hands tightly. "If I don't make it out of there alive, I'm entrusting my men's safety to you."

"Sir, I-"

"Please, Anders. Stay safe."

"...Yes, Sir."

Roja turned towards the hallway. "Alright, Extraction Team Alpha! We're going down there to bail out Tonii! Fall in, men!" The Cipher Pol agent may have had Rokushiki on his side, but Roja had the advantage of numbers. Surely, all of them together would have a chance!

He hoped.