The Gateway of India, Bombay, India-----

In the light of sunset, the crowd still milled about as many watched the sun finally dip below the horizon. The ambient noise was almost tangible as people went about their business and leisure. Photographers took random pictures hoping the people they photographed would buy a print of the snapshot. Tourists took selfies of the giant structure of the gate and the horse-driven carriages on the roads by the hundreds. All of this energy made it very easy to lose track of what a person might think.

Despite this, there were several individuals in the area who waited desperately for the last of the natural light to fade from the atmosphere. And as soon as it did, they all began to make their way to a corner of the enormous area, weaving through the throng. If one were to examine their movements it would be barely noticeable that all of these people were taking care not be caught in any of the hundreds of picture being taken every minute.

As each of them caught sight of their destination, they looked around and caught sight of each other one by one. Through a series of subtle nods they began to make their way , one at a time, towards a photographer who had actually setup a tripod facing away from the sunset over the horizon. As the first one came within a few feet of him, he made a gesture which seemed to indicate he wanted his picture taken. When the photographer noticed this, he fiddled with the camera for a few seconds and then took aim through the viewfinder, and gave his subject a thumbs-up. There was a flash, and then he just swiveled his camera a bit and took up his previous pose of lounging around.

At this point, the second person repeated the same procedure with the photographer doing the same thing and swiveling the camera on its tripod a bit in a random direction each time after he had pressed the trigger. Nobody paid this procedure any attention as flashes were now going off all around the area due to the declining natural light. As the photographer clicked his camera the seventeenth time, he calmly began packing up as did many other photographers in the area. He chatted up a few of his friends nearby where the discussion was now foreign vs. local tourists and then left slowly with the crowd which had decided it had enough of the monument for the day.

If anybody had paid further attention to this particular photographer's business, they would have noticed that all his subjects had magically disappeared once they got rid of effects of the blinding flash. Seventeen people entered the area but did not leave. Such an occurrence was not really noticeable as seventeen in the sea of people was barely a drop in the figurative sea.

-------- Nightclub Le Baron, Paris, France-----------

The large double doors catered to two lines of people, and as such there was a disparity in sizes of each line when compared to each other. The line on the right-hand side had at least twenty-five people waiting, with a bouncer analyzing each of them, all the while awaiting updates on his earpiece. He gave a quick glance at his partner for the night, the smaller fellow in charge of the other line.

This line had no one in it, but Bouncer #1 knew he couldn't get that position as the requirements were solid judgement of their clientele. And as much of a good character he thought himself to be, he knew he couldn't compete with this colleague. They had gotten along famously off-duty but when on the job, the 5'0" man became the perfect professional bouncer/valet/whatever-role-was-needed-of-him. Bouncer #1 had even teased his friend about his jack-of-all-trades-related-to-nightclubs abilities. He'd even seen the guy behind the bar more than once, whenever one of the regular bartenders had been out sick or away.

There had been only six VIPs who got in through the left door tonight and each had been flashily dressed which was only a bit unusual but not too much so. Bouncer #1 had seen wannabe VIPs and the real deal and it was generally the wannabes who dressed to blind, thinking it would impress. But there were some VIPs who chose to be fashionably eccentric hoping to stir up trouble by making the bouncer mistake them and then show off their 'importance'. But Bouncer #1's partner had never made such a mistake much to disappointment of the fashionably eccentric attention-seekers.

And his short friend knew how to handle himself well. He had been backed up by small man once when a particular bouncee had taken his (/her? who could tell?) bouncing rather personally. Bouncer #1 had been smashed upside the head with a nice looking cane early one morning and struggling to stare down any of the thugs the bouncee had gathered up when the his small colleague had calmly walked out of the nearby backdoor and glanced at the situation.

He gave Bouncer #1 a quick once-over and then swung his right hand outwards. In the next moment all the thugs except the one with the cane and the bouncee crumpled and fell to the ground. As Bouncer #1 felt cold chill of blood-thirst directed at the remaining two standing antagonists, he also examined the unconscious thugs and found a small bruise on each of their heads and a pebble lying near each of them.

As he turned his head painfully to look at his colleague, he realized the man had disappeared and was now holding the cane whilst standing right in front of the bouncee. He looked at the fellow near him who had been holding the cane just a moment ago, but instead found him unconscious minus any pebble though his arm seemed to be bent the wrong way. Next thing he knew he was rising and moving towards the still open door and he noticed his small colleague under his shoulder. Then everything went black.

When he had woken up, he was on the couch in the break room. He gingerly raised his torso off the couch feeling his head slowly. It was already bandaged and he saw his small colleague standing in front of him with a glass containing something that looked very much like the scotch the boss gave out at times to the prettiest waitresses. He gratefully accepted the glass and looked at his colleague in a questioning manner.

The first words his new friend ever told him, "Minor bruise and cut, sewn up already, drink it, food on table, eat it, sleep."

Bouncer #1 had expressed his gratitude and followed his new small friend's instructions and thus began a friendship he cherished like no other.

Shaking off his trip down memory lane, he found his small friend at his elbow with Bouncer #2 next to him.

Looking at his small friend in his usual questioning manner, he received the following reply,

"Break time, #2 will take over, come, want to show something."

Handing over the clipboard and clicker to Bouncer #2, Bouncer #1 followed his friend to the door on the left. Suddenly, his friend took out the club stamp meant for VIPs and gestured towards his left hand. Extending the requested hand, Bouncer #1 watched his friend stamp the limb, then stamp his own hand and slip the stamp into his pockets. Then they entered the club and walked into the VIP room six other people had entered that night. But no one came out of the room and if anyone else had gone in, they would have found the room to be empty.

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Elsewhere-

Marcy twiddled his fingers over the touchscreen in boredom.

"Window's almost closed, I WANNA LEAVE!! The party's about to start and i don't even have a seat yet." She moaned.

"Here you go, enjoy the show"

Marcy squealed out loud at the surprise of someone speaking to her when she hadn't even noticed them standing there.

As her face flushed, she took good look at Mr. Sneaky. He seemed to a middle-aged guy who looked pretty normal except for his twinkling eyes and his smile that almost screamed out 'This smile is for another reason and you'll never know it'. He was wearing a flannel shirt that was a size too big for him with cargo pants which had at least 8 pockets. His weather-beaten face was reminiscent of the blond blue-eyed jock type except for the streaks of grey in his fringe. He seemed well-built and she noticed he was holding a jumbo bag of M&Ms.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU SNEAK UP ON........ is that a front row ticket." her scream petered out as her eyes locked on to the ticket the man was waving in her face.

"Why yes it is, do you not want it?" he teased her.

"Gimme."

"Absolutely, enjoy the show..... what's wrong?"

"I have to wait until the window closes before I can leave."

"Ah, not to worry, I'll take over, please go and enjoy the show without any worries."

She became a bit suspicious and said, "Who are you? Mr. sneaky, maybe I should ask my boss."

"This should clear things up" he said as he took out a card embossed with a image of Sphinx on it.

Giving Mr. sneaky one more glance, she focused on the card and then felt the blood drain from her face as she realized who she was talking to.

"S..s.....sir is... Mr. Snea.." she shut herself up but it was too late as his smile widened.

"Sir, I'm really sorry, I didn't know who you wer......." she shut herself up again as he raised his open hand.

"Don't worry about it, thats the cutest thing I've ever been called. Now, before you leave, could you report the count to me?"

"Yes Sir! As of now, we have 5 entries from America, 30 from China, 14 from Japan, 17 from India, 15 from Russia, 5 from Sweden, 8 from Fran......." She stopped as he raised his hand once more.

"Eh, forget it, just give me the total count, save us some time."

"Er... Yes Sir, total count is 94."

"Alright, thanks, enjoy the show. Want a bite?" He said showing the open bag towards her.

"Ummm.... No .......er... yes, ok, thanks you Sir" she said incoherently.

She reached into the bad and took a handful of the chocolate treats and began walking towards the main stadium giving the chuckling man one last look.

"Wow, he was cute, I thought he'd look scarier from the rumors....... But why would he want to take over registration duty?....... GECKKKK" Her thoughts took a sudden shock as the M&M she had just popped into her mouth exploded with a small plop and made her stumble.

"Did the head of Grey Matter just prank me?"

Looking over her shoulder once more, she dropped the rest of the M&Ms into her belt-pouch and continued walking towards the stadium.

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Please do leave any suggestions or comments on the story. I'm finding the silence a bit unnerving.

The story should ramp up now, but please bear with me as It will be my first attempt at a detailed conflict scenario.