XTRAVAGANZA

Chapter 3: Deathly Deal

An officer enters the building, using one of its various back doors.

His gun is drawn, expecting there to be a threat around every corner and yet, the place the is silent. A place that should echo the conversations of people now only echos the slight buzz of the lights above him.

As he ventures deeper into the complex, the silence grows more apparent. Suddenly, that silence is broken by the sound of footsteps. They echo loudly, the direction of them becoming unclear.

The officer raises his gun as he looks around himself in all directions, trying to figure out where the footsteps are originating from.

As he turns his head rapidly around him, he eventually spots a faint silhouette in a dark hall way in the southern part of the building. "Hey! Put your hands where I can see them!" He shouted, putting his finger over the trigger of his own weapon.

The silhouette remained silent, continuing his march towards the officer.

As he drew closer, the cop backed up slightly. "Put your hands up! Don't make me shoot!" He yelled, preparing to squeeze down on the trigger if necessary.

Despite the officers warnings, the figure didn't stop his approach. Eventually, he was illuminated by a ceiling light above. He had a bluish gray colored hoodie, pants, and gloves. Along with a dark gray colored mask and bandaging that wrapped around his neck.

The officer held his gun up to head level with the man. "I'll only ask one more time...put your hands in the air" The figure however, did not comply.

It suddenly drawed its own weapon, shooting the officer right in the chest.

As the officer laid on the ground, writhing in pain, the figure walked over to his body, standing over him.

"Who the hell are you?" The officer weakly asked. The figure didn't comply. Instead, a part of his mask illuminated in a blue glow, creating an X like shape. The unknown man put his finger back on the trigger, aiming the gun at the officers head.

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X rose up from his bed, rubbing the back of his head. He walked into the bathroom, looking at his face in the mirror. "Who actually was he...what was he?" he thought to himself, touching the X shaped scar that strewed across his face.

Suddenly, he got a call from the twins. Picking up his phone, he answered. "Hello?" He asked, waiting for one or both of the twins to make a response. "Hi, X. It's Lila. We've found this Siobhan person you were talking about" she said, the sound of traffic buzzed in the background of her speech. "Great! Just text me his location and I'll make sure to have a little conversation with him" with that, X hung up the phone, turning his head to look back at himself in the mirror. "Let's get to work"

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As he walked down the crowded streets of Neo City, he saw it, the building Siobhan was supposed to be in.

It was a nice, lavish hotel, reversed for only those of the highest paying dollars.

As he entered the hotel, the woman at the front desk greeted him. "Hello! You hoping to book a room?" She asked. She had long brown hair that shined in the glowing orange lights that made up the hotel. Her eyes were filled with joy and passion, and she had a smile that X had never seen before. A smile with no hostility hiding deep down beneath it, an actual, pure joy filled smile.

"Hello? Sir, are you ok?" The woman asked a few seconds later as X just stood there in silence. "Oh right, forgive me. But nah, I'm just here to visit a friend" he said, widening his own smile on his face. "Right. What's your name, I'll give you a visitors pass" she said, walking a step or two over to the computer on the front desk. "A visitors pass? I've never heard of any visitor passes in hotels?" X said, confused. "We have a visitor pass system here because a lot of big business men, politicians, governmental figures, etc, stay here quite often." She replied, with the exact same pure smile as before. "I wasn't aware of any visitor pass system..." he said, glancing towards the ground. "If that's the case then I'm afraid I can't let you inside the hotel if your name isn't on the visitor approval list. I'm sorry sir"