Chapter 2: Monday, Monday

I know it's not Friday but I've been wanting to write a new chapter cause I'm having fun with it, plus I haven't added anything since Thursday so I thought I would write a new chapter to make up for it. Hope you enjoy.

2. July 23rd, 2140

The Muerta in Violet walked through a dark alley as the rain fell, alleys always made her feel safe for some reason, maybe it was the fact that people stayed away from them out of fear, or the fact that she always carried a weapon on her, she didn't have much to fear.  Her violet outfit didn't shine as brilliantly as when out in the open, but the sun was down, so there wasn't much she could do. She came out of the alley passing by a Homeless Man wearing rabbit slippers and a far off look, "Hey, you gotta dollar for an old Man?" he said, she looked at him and shook her head no, but preceded to take a Violet stone out of her coat and gave it to the old man. "Here is something for your trouble kind sir." She said. The Homeless Man was wary of the gift, she said "Don't worry, take it, I'm sure you could get a decent price for it." The Homeless Man took it and watched as the Muerta in Violet walked away, "Oh" She said, "And you can call off your men Colonel, I don't have anymore rare stones on me, but I am armed with a Muerto Weapon, have you ever seen one in action?" He stood there frozen, how did she know who he was? Who was this Muerta? Had she come looking for him? "You are the one they call Colonel aren't you?" She asked, he shook his head affirmatively. "Well Colonel, perhaps you can help me, people say you are in charge of this part of Grey City, where is the office of a Mr. James Rojo?"
"Rojo? What you need him for?" 
"I've got a job for him"
"Anything me or my men can help with?"
"No, this job is a bit too delicate for an old colonel who has lost his way."
"Lost my way?"
"You should concentrate on serving and protecting, not robbing and laundering sir"
"Lady who are you?"
"Just a Muerta is all you need to know, now can you take me to Rojo or not? I need to get there before someone else, or we will all be in grave danger."
With that the Colonel showed her the way to the street Rojo lived on. The Colonel had hired Rojo a few months ago to help him find his missing sister, Judith. he was a pretty good P.I. nothing fancy, just pretty good at finding things out, asking the right people the right questions, how did he get mixed up with Violet City scum like this Muerta? Who was she trying to beat to his place? And what in the world was this Violet Stone? They reached Union St. and he showed the Muerta to his building telling her that Rojo's office was in the attic. And he left her there, to rejoin his men and to think about some things.  The Muerta in Violet realized she was too late, someone was already in there with Rojo, Damn! She thought, Good thing I came armed then isn't it?

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"Well, aren't you going to invite me in?" The imposing figure in the hallway said, James' front door lying at his feet.
"I'd really rather not, but," he sarcastically offered "Come on in, take a load off, and at least pick the door up off the floor."
The large man picked the door up and set it in it's place That'll have to do for now James thought. He got a better look at the man, he was wearing a light blue suit, his hair was cut short and his beard was sharply shaped and trimmed, very much unlike James who hadn't trimmed in a month and who was still wearing the clothes he slept in, last week. "Mr. Rojo, you look a mess, is now a bad time?"
"Jeez, aren't you a sweet talker, I always look a mess on Mondays, what can I do for you Mr...?"
"Mr. Clef, Mr. Bass Clef"
I really hope that's a fake "What can i do for you Mr. Clef?"
"Well Mr. Rojo I'm looking for someone in Grey City, and according to reports you're the man who can find people in Grey City."
"Who told you that?"
"Reports"
"Well I'm no one big, very small time, and something about you tells me that you're not small time, so I'm really ok with not taking the job."
"Mr. Rojo, once you hear me out you'll want to take the job"
"No, I really think I'm ok, I'm going to go back to my nap and you can just leave the door propped up and go, thanks for all your time and for my broken door Mr. Clef."
"Have you heard of the Twelve Stones Mr. Rojo?"
Jame's ears perked up at those two words, of course he'd heard of the twelve stones, that Muerto told him all about it before he disappeared, how did this man know about the Twelve Stones and how did he know that James knew about them?
"No, what's that?" James said.
"You are a very bad liar James, you always have been."
Always have been? What? "I think I'm a pretty good liar, how else could I have gotten so far in this business?"
"I can only guess really. So you do know about the Twelve Stones?"
"What about them?"
"That they really aren't just stones, they're an old Undead Magic, twelve ordinary stones, sure a few maybe expensive looking, some just river rocks, or even coal, but they are actually made from the souls of six undead and six living beings, and that they hold the key to the moon."
"If that's what you've been told, then that's what you've been told"
"You hear something different?"
"I never said that" James said, of course he had heard something different.
There was an old Muerto living in the building a couple of months ago, James assumed he was old because he wore the same type of clothes as his grandpa, he never actually knew his age, or his name until the day before he disappeared. This Muerto would come over, the first time was to introduce himself as his downstairs neighbor, then he came looking for help looking for his limbs he would misplace sometimes, or just to chat about the weather, or the Underworld weather, James assumed they had their own weather system, at least it sounded like it the way the old Muerto talked about it. Sometimes he would have this serious look on his face and he would tell James about his old life, that of a high member of the Undead Society, he didn't say too much about what he did, but he did tell James the story of the Twelve Stones. From what he remembered it went like this:

The Government was beginning work on the Moon Colony for the wealthiest and most important members of society, Human and Muerto alike, no Zombi and none of the people living west of Gate C really had a chance, in those days it was still the United States. But to make certain cities feel important and equal they made these Twelve Stones and told everyone that it was old Muerto Magic, it wasn't it was pure technology, sure they could have used old Muerto Magic, but then they wouldn't serve their real purpose, as computer memory banks. Each stone held a specific part of the blue print for the Moon Colony, and a part of the code to get it up and running. These Stones were really just a novelty idea for the opening ceremony, something about Twelve Stones representing Twelve Cities, three from each District, a united Earth, or some stupid shit like that. Well things started getting out of hand, cities were chosen from around the globe, but other cities got jelous, so they sent people to assassinate Stone Holders, assuring their city would be a part of the Moon Colony. Wars began between cities over the stones, and there was nothing that the government could do, these wars were small and secretive, taking place in the shadows of large cities. All they could do was wait and hear who had what stone when. Well the Old Man Muerto had gotten tired of it, he was the one who created the stones, and he knew the codes to disable them, he sent out a signal that made them no different then any other stone one might find on a dirt road, blocking all computer access. That was 50 years ago, many people forgot about the stones, figuring the government must have come up with something new, the Moon Colony was still being built, surely the government still had a plan. "Why are you telling me all this old Timer?" James asked him one day.
"Had to tell someone before I died"
"But you're already dead"
"They'll come for me, I'll die a second death, been a long time coming, I'm done running, I'll live out the days I got left here in Grey City, swappin stories with you Red" That's what he called James, Red, "But before I go I want to give you this" It was a blue sapphire with a piece missing in the middle.
"Is this one of the Stones?"
"Yup, now keep it safe, no one needs to know about this Red, just keep it to yourself, and watch out for devils, they don't always have horns." Sometimes they wear suits James thought as he looked over the man in the blue suit claiming to be named Bass Clef.
"Well as you know Mr. Rojo the stones are very important for getting to the moon," God that's annoying, Mr. Rojo, Mr. Rojo, did you know this or that Mr. Rojo? Do you have a cat Mr. Rojo?  Did you eat breakfast Mr. Rojo? Actually he hadn't... "And if you didn't know someone has been going around collecting stones, murdering their carriers."
"So what's this all got to do with me?"
"Well Mr.-"
"James, for christ sake, just call me James."
"Alright, James, I want to hire you to find the person going around collecting the stones, word has it they are here in Grey City, I want you to find them and the stones for me."
"And what makes you think I can find them?"
"Well I've heard tell that you had quite a chummy relationship with Hex Achord before his untimely second passing, I'm sure that will come in handy"
How? How did this guy know all of this information? As far as I know I was the only one who knew the Old Timer was Hex Achord. Who is this guy?  But before James could ask any questions he heard someone running up the stairs, in heels it sounded like, and before he could see anything else Bass was shoving him to the ground as he heard a large CRACK! that sounded like a large whip, as a giant whole appeared in his wall. There in his doorway stood a tall Muerta in Violet holding some sort of weapon. "Come on!" Bass yelled as he grabbed James in his arms, the man was a giant and lifted James easily and threw him out a window following shortly after, "Go to the next roof" as he pulled out a handgun and fired it at the Muerto. Oh shit! The Old Timer's stone! James ran back to his window, almost slipping in the rain and narrowly dodging bullets and what appeared to be white lights that made the loud cracking sounds, he flipped his bed, the Muerto, who actually appeared to be a Muerta was only concentrating on shooting at Bass left him mostly alone. He found an old box that he kept the stone in and the Muerta called out to him, "Mr. Rojo, please you must come with me, I need you to give me that stone."
"James, don't listen to her, bring to stone to me" Bass yelled from outside.
He didn't know what to do, but clearly going with either of them was a bad idea, and giving anyone the stone was out of the question, he reached in the box and found some old white rocks the Old Timer showed him once, he threw them on the ground and a white flash blinded the Muerta. James ran out onto the roof into the rain away from Bass Clef and away from the Muerta. Shit, now what?