Chapter 12: Trolley

Somewhere in the Nevada Desert, two lone figures walked briskly in the moonlight. They were careful as to not stray too far from their chosen path, so they wouldn't get too close to any cities. These two figures were moving quickly, methodically, and purposefully; they were on a mission, a mission of immense importance.

"Master, what are we to do in the case of the corrupted crystals?" asked Koichi.
"My friend, I've told you...in most of these cases, and in particular those of the corrupted crystals...we are to abstain from contact with them. We will locate them, tail them to determine their identities and where they live, and be sure that they are safe and otherwise unknown. For the time being, the main focus of our duties is to locate the new bearers and to create and maintain a list of their identities and last known whereabouts." said Beschermer.
"Shouldn't we warn them? At least the bearers of the Pure Crystals?" asked the younger.
"The time will come for that, but we need to at least track them down as quickly as possible. When we move on to a new continent, we will need to look into a new mode of transportation...but the matter of obtaining the amount and type of currency we will need is a difficult one. Drake and Erika might be able to help us out in some way with that..." answered Beschermer.

It was almost sunrise when the two reached the outskirts of their target destination, the place where the closest crystal now resided, according to Koichi's heightened senses, and the equipment he had managed to fabricate to manifest his powers. They had been led to California, San Francisco, to be exact.

"Somewhere in this city lies another crystal, master." said Koichi. "Hopefully soon I will be able to tweak this contraption to be more specific as to which crystal we are looking for. For now, we will have to make due with our senses, I suppose."
"Ah, that would be nice, my friend... make sure to work on that as soon as you can." he said, heading off towards the heart of the city.

Koichi had another particularly useful ability in his repertoire; the ability to change his physical appearance at will. He could make himself look like a more human version of himself, or any other person in the world that was around his size. He could change any individual part of his appearance to match that of any he had seen before, adding to his bag of tricks with every human he laid eyes on. This particularly came in handy when entering a big city. Hiding his draconian appearance was critical when moving among average humans, as it would give both he and Beschermer away if his true form had been seen.

Today, he was sporting the look of a young boy, roughly sixteen years old with short jet black hair that was spiked up in the latest fashion and piercing green eyes. His imitation of a boy he had seen back in Tampa was spot on, down to the last freckle. He needed to work on portraying actual people, as it was bound to affect someone, somewhere eventually...causing someone to think they had seen that individual a world away when they had, in fact never left their hometown within months or years. Today, he felt a little lazy and went with this kid who had worked in a music store across the street from the hotel they were staying at.

Koichi looked down at his instrument, it had a greenish screen with a brightly colored map of the area within10 miles. They had narrowed it down within 8 miles of their target, but needed to wait until they got within 5 to reduce the range, thus enlarging the map. "Their location hasn't changed at all in the past two hours, master." he said
"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if they were at school. it seems a nice chunk of this generation is turning out to be children and young adults." he said
"Good point." replied Koichi

They saw a sign advertising a free Trolley ride in exchange for taking a survey about the city and decided to check it out. "Koichi, quick, change your appearance to look more Japanese, so your name fits you better. You don't look like a 'Koichi' to me." Beschermer said with a grin on his face.

The young kid walked down an alley and reappeared moments later, now looking like a Japanese tourist, here to see the sights. They walked to the booth and sat through the whole speel about what they were doing today and how they could get a free Trolley ride by just answering a few questions and providing their names. They filled out cards in the names 'Koichi' and 'Ben' Sugimura. Luckily, Beschermer had the look about him that allowed him to pass for virtually any race on the planet. Once they answered a few vague questions about the city, rating the sights, food, etc on a scale of 1-10, they were thanked and given a special token that was to be presented to the Trolley man when their trolley came and they were ready to go.

The trolley ride was fairly relaxing for the two, they took in the sights and sounds of the city, keeping an eye on their target, a small blinking dot on the monitor. They were now within 2 miles and could see almost exactly where the person was. They had it pinpointed to a large building, somewhere near the East side of it. Soon the trolley was within a hundred yards of where they needed to get off to cut across, so they got up and walked to the trolley man, telling him where to let them off. "No problem guys, that's actually one of the scheduled stops anyways!" said the man, easily amused.

They got off and crossed the street quickly before the next wave of traffic hit. five minutes later, they had reached their target area. The building was a library, an excellent place to observe someone undetected. Koichi pinpointed the location to the second floor, east wing, so the walked in and browsed a bit before heading upstairs.

When they reached the top of the stairs, they found three people in the area they needed to search. Unfortunately, the machine could not determine which of the three, they were in close proximity...all sitting at a round table along the wall. The two set up at a table a few yards away, both sitting where they could watch, yet seem like they were actually doing something. Koichi walked over and got a couple books to pretend to read.

"Which one is it, Master?" Koichi asked.
"I...I'm not sure. Whoever it is, they have the crystal on them, but it's not visible. None of them are wearing anything around their necks, and none have bracelets or anything. It's probably in a pocket." answered Beschermer, glancing in their direction before looking at his book.
"Master, look at the boy on the left's leg pocket. There's a bulge about the size of a crystal, do you see it?" he asked
"Mmm, that I do. That is more than likely our target, I just wish I could see it, even for an instant. We need to identify it before moving on." he said

Just then, as if on cue, the boy reached into his pocket and pulled something out, showing it to his friends. His arm was in the way for a moment, but then it was clearly visible to Koichi, just for a moment. The boy then placed it on the table, and out of their sight.

"Did you notice what color it was, Koichi?" Beschermer asked
" It was a light color...either white or a light blue color." he answered.
"Well, that narrows it down to one of six crystals then...he possesses one of the spirits of either Light, Ice, or Wind."

End Ch. 12