[FIN] The Griffin's Call

[Blood_Goddess]

His knuckles were turning white with how tightly he was gripping around his cell phone, His lips were thin, tight with the pointed effort to keep his mouth shut and completely silent.
Icy blue eyes were staring down at the desk he was seated at, the position of a man who was being scolded, only there was no yelling that could be heard from the other end of the call, in fact there was no noise to be heard at all.
The voice on the other end was calm, almost soothing as the man who ran a growing criminal world reviewed the information that his dark haired Lieutenant was telling him.

“I see…”
A pause as a slow clicking of a keyboard followed his almost audible thought process.
“... You’re telling me, that this loss of profit was due to one person?”

“Kind of...” Damin replied lifting his eyes to look across his desk to a man with tied back silver hair and dark eyes sitting at the other side, it bothered Damin how calm he looked.
“It’s a few people, but I’m sure that this women is at the head of it,”

There was a sigh from the man on the other side of the phone, and Damin closed his eyes slowly.
“One… small group of trainers…” He repeated “Damin… I feel like I would have to express how exceedingly disappointed I am if I didn’t already hear the terror in your voice.”

“Griffin, you know I’m not a pushover, I don’t let you down, but please just trust me when I tell you that we’re up against someone who knows not only what they’re doing, but much more about pokemon.”

“And of course i’m willing to understand your side, Damin, as I always have… but right now, what I want to know, is what you’re going to do about getting me all this money back.”

“I want to contact someone who might be able to find these people.” Damin replied almost too quickly. “And then we can work on getting an upper hand… it helps that we already know one of them has the Jirachi that went missing.”

There was a pause as more clicking from the computer. “Okay. I’m emailing you a link to a website. His name is Andre, ever since Izaya went awol, this guy has been circulating around Kodo as a reliable rouse of information, give him a call, tell him Griffin needs his services.”

Sure enough, an email popped up with a link from his boss. Damin quickly clicked on it, though a knot in his brow showed that he wasn’t expecting such a… normal looking website.

“Damin.”
Griffin’s voice snapped the lieutenant's attention back to the phone.
“As understanding as I’m being, if I don’t see my profits returning, you know I’m going to have to take personal action, and I won’t ignore that a small group of people is getting the best of you for long… you understand that.”

Damin swallowed “I understand that.”

“Okay, good. Take care.”

Damin let out a breath, dropping the phone onto the desk and rubbing his face anxiously. Only allowing himself a few moments of silence, further granted by the other man watching him in the room, before he snatched up the phone again.
“Let’s hope this guy is half as good as Izaya.” He breathed, and dialed the number that was provided on the website.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Things had been surprisingly calm.
No, perhaps surprising wasn’t the right word. It was...eery, just how normal things had been around the house as of late. Andre was seemingly content to spend time with Akira and Zacharie, taking jobs that he would have deemed ‘boring’ just a few short years ago, and simply doing normal things.

It was a bit unnerving if Louis was being completely honest with himself. He was glad that his employer had found a sort of peace in the ordinary but he couldn’t help but feel that something was coming.

The blond released a soft sigh as he absently shuffled through paperwork. Lost family members, petty fighting over wills, even pettier requests for not so savoury information on competitors...when had this business gotten so tame? He began the tedious process of sorting the requests into piles, things he could handle himself and things Andre might find some interest in. It seemed that the latter was growing smaller and smaller with each passing day and while he didn’t mind doing the more pedantry things for his boss...he worried that soon the purple-haired man might snap if not given something more stimulating than…

...Wooing some politician’s daughter in hopes of a scandal.

Louis gave a scoffed in disgust but set the paper in Andre’s pile all the same before his phone began to buzz. He leaned slightly to the left to check the glowing screen, an unknown number. A client. The man cleared his throat softly as he took up his phone before swiping to accept the call. “Hello?”  

[Blood_Goddess]

There was a pause on the other side of the phone, before an uncertain voice replied with a
“... Is this Andre Dubois?”
Damin quickly slid his gaze over the number displayed on the website, wondering for a moment if he had dialed the wrong number by mistake, taking enough time to even double check his cell phone before returning it to his ear. Surely Griffin didn’t make a mistake?  

[insidiousEnigma]

“This is Louis Roux, Mr. Dubois’ personal assistant.” He leaned back in his chair as his gaze moved idly over the documents on the table. “All business calls are routed through me for security purposes.” While the man didn’t sound put off, there was a certain amount of detached professionalism in his tone that spoke of many years of practice. “What can I assist you with today, Sir?”  

[Blood_Goddess]

“Oh, geeze, good.” Damin sighed, relieved that he didn’t actually have the wrong number “My name is Damin Royal, I’m a Griff lieutenant calling on behalf of my boss Griffin, we’re in need of an informant, so can we speak to Andre?”  

[insidiousEnigma]

Louis swiveled in his chair so he could face his laptop, his head tilting to cradle his phone between his head and his shoulder so he could type a few keywords into the appliance. Briefly, he scanned over the notes that Andre had taken on these Griffs.

Ah...so his premonition had been correct.

“Yes, of course.” The blond stood from his seat and swiftly left the office in search of his boss. “Granted, if this is a secured line. Please do not take offense but Mr. Dubois does have a reputation to keep.”  

[Blood_Goddess]

“Our end is secure.” the gangster reassured “but to be on the safe side, we’ll want to discuss the actual job in person. We have our own interest to protect, and you never know with phones.”
A hand tapped on his desk, before moving over to flip through a pad he had next to an ash tray packed with cigarette butts.
“For now we just want to set up a meeting point.”  

[insidiousEnigma]

Understood.” Louis poked his head around the corner into the kitchen to see Andre sitting quietly at the island. He watched his employer idly flip through the newspaper in front of him, absently taking a few sips from the mug beside him. “Andre, a Mr. Damin Royal on the phone.”

Said man looked up from the newspaper with a rather disinterested expression. “Mr. Royal is calling on behalf of his boss Griffin.” It took but a brief moment for the information to click but as soon as it did he was instantly reaching for the phone.

Louis handed the phone over with no complaint and stepped to stand beside his boss just in case he needed to fetch something. “This is Andre.” He said by way of greeting, his finger running absently along the rim of his mug. “What can I do for you, Mr. Royal?”  

[Blood_Goddess]

During the transition, Damin looked up to the man sitting silently in the room with him, the knowing tilt of his silver head and a slight grin showed a pleased air of how he felt this interaction might go.
Damin really hoped that he was right. As soon as a new voice spoke into his ear, Damin leaned onto his arm.
“We have a job proposal for you, we need information, if you’re interested, where can we set up a meeting to discuss it?”  

[insidiousEnigma]

Andre tapped his phone to bring the screen to life and began flipping through his calendar. “I'd be happy to lend you my services.” He hummed lightly as he double-tapped the current date and looked over his to-do list. “Wherever is convenient for you works well enough for me, Mr. Royal, but I have a limited time frame I'm afraid.” Absently, he drummed his fingers against the table. “I'm open 2pm to 4pm, will that be sufficient time?”  

[Blood_Goddess]

“As soon as possible,” Damin replied rather quickly, an instant after biting back his words. They were in desperate need of his help, but he hoped that desperation hadn’t shown through so obviously in his tone.
“So yes, we can work around you. That time works... Thank you. We’ll send you the location of our safe house to meet. you can bring your associate if you want, assuming he’s just as professional?”  

[insidiousEnigma]

A broad smile spread across his face and he tapped his fingers against the table twice more before pushing himself to his feet. Whatever it was they needed him for, it sounded urgent. How fun~ “I understand,” he said blithely, motioning for Louis to follow him as he started towards his room. “Louis is my most trusted confident, you can trust him as much as you can trust me.” Which, granted, shouldn't be very much if these guys were smart. “I look forward to our meeting. Thank you for the call.” With that he hung up and handed the phone back to Louis.

“Louis, it looks like something interesting has finally appeared.” He bounded happily up the steps to get dressed, his associate following close behind at a more moderate pace. “....It would appear so, Sir.”  

[Blood_Goddess]

Damin once again placed the phone down onto the deck, leading the screen dark as he rubbed his face.
“We’re meeting at 2PM at the closest safe house.” Damin breathed, feeling the expectant look on his comrades face.

“A new informant huh? I wonder how different this one is going to be compared to Izaya.” The silver haired man stood, stretching out his back and putting a closed fist hand on his hip. “We going now?”

“I need to prep the materials, and we’ll leave.” Damin replied, lowering his hands from his face and reaching to pull his lap top closer to him “Contact Hollow, I want him to come with.”


Sevv rolled a tan shoulder and turned to leave. “I sure hope this words Damin, for all our sake.”
He didn’t need to see the color drain due to the man’s stress to practically feel the air in the office get heavier.

+ + +

The safe houses were nothing fancy, but they were as they were described… safe.
Damin had no idea where Andre was coming from, but he could assume it was from one the of the larger cities of Sandalwood and Camphoreon.

The Griff’s owned a fair number of establishments in the bigger cities, any one of them was considered a safe house to the gang, usually set up with a number of Griff Soldiers to guard from unwanted eyes, or provide warning when needed.
Damin had selected one of the higher class bar’s in Sandalwood, not only was this one of the closer locations to Sagestone, making the trip for him and his small team much easier, but also to take the opportunity to try and impress their possible ally.

The two Lieutenants of the Sagestone branch, Damin Royal, a youthful blacked haired man with piercing blue eyes and a tall almost stiff posture, and Sevv Nen, a newly appointed pokemon expert, as would suggest the Scizor standing by his side. He was taller than Damin, with a bit more bulk to go with his naturally tanned skin. Eeary black eyes carried a much more carefree air to him, than Damin.
They were joined by one other, a youthful man, standing at Damin’s height, he had a more delicate look to him, his soft sandy hair and lavender eyes misplaced him with the two much harder looking men.

Damin lead the way to the back room, without so much as a glance to any of the other griff’s he recognized.
“When Andre shows up, take his drink and bring him to the back.” He told the bar keeper as he passed.

“You should try and relax a little.” Sevv grunted as he dropped himself down into one of the plush seats.
“I’ll relax when we have something to work with.” Damin retorted, not taking one of the seats, but instead opting to pace the length of the small room.
The third man took it upon himself to close the door behind them, and instead of taking a seat he stood by the door, watching Damin pace, and the Scizor with Sevv take a place kneeling next to the lieutenant.
“Your head is on the chopping block too, even if I am first in line, so this is just as much for you as it is for me, so don’t tell me to relax.”

Sevv clicked his tongue but avoided responding.  

[insidiousEnigma]

A shiny, nondescript, tan car rolled to a stop in front of the safe house. “Let's go see what they need, Louis~” Andre grinned at his companion before the blond exited the car.

Louis stepped from the car and quietly shut the door behind him before adjusting the high collar of his crisp, white button up that was neatly tucked into black, finely pressed, high-waisted trousers. He took a look around their surroundings, golden eyes narrowed and attentive, before stepping to open the door for his boss.

“Thank you.” Andre gracefully slid from the car, adjusting the striped sleeves of his coat before sweeping his hair over his shoulder. He checked his phone for the time, 5 minutes to 2. “Perfect timing as usual, Louis.” He started towards the front door, the click of dress shoes echoing after the soft tap of his own boots signifying that Louis was just behind him.

He smiled politely at the men at the door and quietly followed behind as they were led into the building. Only speaking to relay his drink preference. “Whatever tea you have on hand with 4 sugars would be delightful, thank you.”

When they finally reached the room, Louis put a hand on his shoulder and gave a brief squeeze before stepping into the room first. His gaze slid over the occupants of the room before he bowed his head ever so slightly. “Hello.” He greeted blandly, his gloved hands moving to clasp behind his back. “I’m Louis Roux. As is standard procedure I'm required to inform you that Andre and I are both armed.” He glanced at the pokemon standing near whom he assumed was its trainer.

“I have three guns, one in a holster at my right calf and two in the holsters at my waist.” He lifted his arms to show the men in the room the weapons at his waist. Each were enclosed in a secure, black, leather holster. “Andre has one gun holstered at the small of his back beneath his coat and three pokeballs on his left hip.” He paused for a brief second to let the information process. “We have no intention of using any of these but it pays to err on the side of caution. I hope you understand.”  

[Blood_Goddess]

Damin stopped pacing as soon as the door opened, arms falling to his side as he turned to greet who he expected was the informant Andre, only the man introduced himself as Louis, the man that had originally picked up the phone.
Damin’s eyes widened in something of surprise as he looked over how well dressed and… well, kinda proper this man looked. Clearly he wasn’t expecting that.

The blond that came with the Griff’s was still standing by the door, his own mild surprise in his widened eyes, though as the other man started to present where the weapons were, he took note, then looked to Damin.

“Louis, we talked to you on the phone.” Damin got his surprise under control, looking over the weapons as they were announced. “Thank you, you’ll find that we’re unarmed, you’re free to search us if you like. Our pokemon are kept at the bar, six are honedge, five Scizor. And the only one present is the one sitting here.” Damin looked to the pokemon next to Sevv, who was now standing and holding his hands up to show he was not armed.
With that out of the way, giving Louis the chance to search them is he so pleased, naturally his gaze passing Louis, wondering is Andre was far behind.