The sun shined down on a waking city, glinting off of the windows and possibly blinding all of those unfortunate souls who forgot to grab a pair of sunglasses after their evening of partying. The pigeons and sparrows were unphased by the brightness as they picked at the trash that lined the streets and targeted tourists for scraps of food.

"Yo, make a hole!"

"Coming through!"

"Stop those kids!"

The birds scattered as two teenagers raced past on skateboards, a portly cop struggling to keep up with them. Many a few bystanders were pushed to the side by the rotund man as he gave pursuit. The teens, a boy and girl with bright blonde hair that gleamed in the morning sun, were much more effective in not taking out anyone in their flight from the police.

"Go eat a donut or something, bro!"

"You should give up before you have a heart attack, sir!"

The boy's hair, windblown from the escape so far, was dyed green at the ends. The girl's hair, which would have gone down to the small of her back if it wasn't pluming out behind her in the breeze, was dyed orange at the ends. They both wore black backpacks that were splattered in a range of paint colors. A can of spray paint could be seen in each bag's side pocket.

"Sammy, you go left and I'll go right, meet back up at Trace's?" The boy asked as he spotted two more cops up ahead.

"Alright. See ya, Stephy!" The girl flashed a grin and a peace sign to her brother as she quickly changed directions, hanging a tight turn down a narrow street bathed in the shadows of the skyscrapers.

"Just try and get me, ya damn coppers!" She had to snort as she heard her brother's wild yell as he darted across the street.

He'd be just fine.

Her attention shifted to the pounding steps and huffing breaths of the officer still chasing her. "I forget the statistic, but don't men over fifty have an elevated risk for heart attacks?" She asked as she looked over her shoulder at the sweating man.

"Just... stop... running! You can't... evade arrest... forever!" The cop panted out.

"Well, I think your heart's gonna give out before these wheels will." Sammy replied bluntly, allowing her board to slow down so that she could talk with El Cop-o. "Why are you chasing us anyways? I never see you chasing down sidewalk artists. Get them instead, they're more aggravating than us. Getting all that chalk dust on everyone's shoes, the nerve!" She sped up a bit as the cop tried to take a swing at her. "At least the spray paint doesn't mess up anyone's shoes unless they're the ones doing it!"

Again the cop tried to make a grab at her. "How the hell are you still running? Do you smell the donuts in my bag?" She sped up a bit, gaining some distance. "Oh shit, he does!" She laughed.

Hanging a right out onto one of the main streets again, her sharp brown eyes locked onto a subway station that was gated off for construction. She doubted that Officer Tubs back there would be able to hop a fence, so her target was decided. She easily rode through traffic, none worse for wear as she hopped the curb on the other side. The traffic would hold up the cop for a while. And there was a hospital two blocks down if he did get hit or have a heart attack, so she didn't feel too guilty about putting him through a run.

A newspaper flew up as she skated along, the front page story read, "TUNNEL PROJECT DELAYED." Sammy didn't care much about about the slowdown, since she primarily stayed above ground for transportation. She didn't care about much, to be honest. As long as her and her brother had a roof over their heads, good food, and stuff to paint with, she was a happy camper.

She came to a stop by the fence and kicked up her board, stuffing it in her bag. A glance over her shoulder showed that the cop was halfway across the street. With that knowledge, she quickly climbed over the fence and dropped down on the other side. She pulled out her board and took off, grinding down the railing into the dimly lit subway. Only the emergency lights were on.

She jumped off her board and over the turnstile, gracefully landing back on the board. She got off the board at the edge of the platform. The line that ran along this road was shut down for the construction project. So it was technically safe to walk up a few stations. She'd just avoid the third rail, and she'd be fine.

It beat waiting around for El Cop-o, that was for sure. She hopped down onto the tracks, board in hand in case she needed to crack some skulls. Or whack some rats. She hated rats. Well, she hated just about all the rodents. Except for squirrels. Squirrels were cute. Rabbits were too, but they seemed too cute, like they were just waiting for someone to let their guard down and then murder them in cold blood.

Her focus shifted as she noticed yellow lighting up ahead. It looked like they were digging a new tunnel. But, there weren't any construction noises, and there was a significant lack of workers wearing hard hats. A deep voice carried out of the new tunnel, causing Sammy to flinch. "What do you think, Weismann?"

Another voice sounded, a bit lighter than the first speaker but still clearly masculine. "It's releasing energy, for sure. But not enough to cause the formation of new Kings. Most likely, this is what caused the number of Strains to increase in the city in the past week."

Sammy narrowed her eyes and creeped closer to the tunnel mouth. Peering in, she saw a few scientists all gathered around different computers, while one stood next to two men. The man on the left, next to the presumable head scientist, had long silver hair. The one on the right was wearing a blue... tailcoat? And he had a sword strapped to his hip. But the big attention grabber was the massive stone tablet that took up the entirety of the tunnel. It had weird glowing inscriptions on it and totally didn't feel ominous at all.

"Should we move it to Tokyo?" The blue guy questioned, looking at the silver guy.

"I don't think so. Shipping it would be too risky. And since it was found in American soil, the United States do have jurisdiction over it." Silver replied.

"Is there any way to stop the leakage of power?" The scientist asked.

"It is very similar to the Dresden Slate, but the markings are different. I'd have to conduct some more research to see if it will respond the same to an attempt to switch it back into complete dormancy." Silver replied thoughtfully.

"SCEPTER4 is willing to provide protection of the plate until the NYPD sets up a special task force to guard it." Blue offered.

"Captain Munakata, if I may speak freely, your group hasn't had the best of luck protecting this sort of artifact." The scientist stated bluntly, and Blue visibly jerked at the statement. Silver snickered slightly at the reaction. "Though, Weismann, you have no room to talk here either." That shut up Silver really quick.

Sammy frowned as she listened to them. So this thing was similar to the Slate over in Tokyo that caused the entire world to erupt in a Strain breakout. Her and her brother were lucky to be at the hospital with their Grandma at the time, because their apartment building had been burnt to the ground by one of those Strains.

A flash of light caught her eye and she felt a hand roughly grab her shoulder. This wasn't a cop. This was a lady wearing a blue coat like the guy in there. "Miss, you shouldn't be down here. It's dangerous!"

Sammy let out an ear-piercing scream and pushed her hand away, taking off at a sprint down the tunnel. Weismann and Munakata both hurried out of the tunnel, both watching as the blonde haired girl disappeared into the tunnel.

"Awashima, your report?" Munakata asked, still watching where the girl disappeared to.

"Everything was clear, except for the girl that was spying on you." The woman explained with a confused expression on her face.

"I don't think that we've seen the last of her." Weismann stated, following Munakata's gaze.

• • • •

Welcome to my K Project fanfic. I figured that with all of the incompletes or one shots, you guys would enjoy a solid book. This is set about five years after the Dresden Slate was destroyed, in modern day NYC. Several characters from the anime will be appearing in this book, not just Shiro, Munakata, and Awashima. If you enjoyed this chapter, be sure to vote!

Sneak peek at the next chapter:
"Yo, sis, calm down! What were you saying?"

"They found another Slate in the subway, that's why the project got slowed down!"

"Another Slate? What do you mean there, Sunny?"

"Trace, I told you to stop calling me that! But anyways, you remember that Strain outbreak, right? How it was caused by Japan's Dresden Slate?"

"Ok, I follow. So you're saying they found a new magical rock here, in the subway?"

"Yes! I saw it!"

"Are you alright?!"