Why does she keep starting them? You may ask this... but don't expect an answer. I have a tendency to start a hundred storys, and I will slowly finish them all. This one's a short story, and it was writing in response to a challenge.

Incident's Do Happen

by Kimra

She didn't move, didn't dare.

Her breathing had become harsh, strained. Small beads of sweat had formed in her palms, the temptation to rub them against her pants nearly overwhelming, but her body remained frozen.

Cold metal pressed against her head and even the breathing stopped.

"Do what I say and the little girl lives." The scratchy voice behind her shouted against her ear. Somewhere between holding her breath and realizing she had to breath a small sob escaped her. The metal pressed in harder, her body went to stumble forwards but the arm around her waist holding her against his front refused to budge. She bit back on the next sob, held the tears out of her eyes and tried once more to remain still.

"You listening?" There was a slur to his voice; a thick quality that suggested liquor had been consumed.

Someone began to move and her eyes shot open to see who. The thunder of her heart told her things where going to get worse. But the man moving did only as he was told, his motions slow, the grating of draws as he open them stretching her nerves to their limits.

If felt like forever, as the banker obeyed the gun wielders commands, forever as secrets came closer to being discovered. She closed her eyes against the time, focusing on the man behind her, the gun at her head. The threat was real, it could kill her. The hand about her waist fiddled idly with the skin below her shirt hem, repulsion settled into her gut.

"Good." Her captor grunted. "Now give the girl the bag."

Those words she understood so too did the crowd, but no one objected. She opened her eyes again when material brushed her hand, looking down to the man before her who held the bag out to her with trembling limbs. She smiled at him, her smile wavering with her own doubt.

"Take it girl." The voice by her ear growled and obediently she clasped at the bag, the banker slowly returning to the rest of the crowd. "Now we're going to slowly back out of here, and if I hear so much as a sneeze I'll blow her head off...got me?"

His body moved back, pulled her back with him. She stumbled and righted herself knowing this was not the time to klutz out. He tightened his grip around her waist, pulling her hard against his body.

He lent in close to her ear, a sick sense of invasion swamping her with his presence. "You and I, are going to have some fun." He murmured his voice low and intentions easy to understand.

"No!" Movement broke the sense of tension in the room as Rei jumped from the ground, ready to defend.

Usagi heard the click of the gun, readying to fire. She moved with instincts honed by those few who spent their every day fighting for their lives. The bag dropped from her hold; her body twisted and ducked, she grasped his hand and redirected the gun by snapping his wrist back.

He gave a cry of start; the gun shot into the roof; she increased the pressure. The gun fell from his hold, into her's and she spun, bringing the hilt against his forehead with maxim force. She took a breath as he fell to the ground; the gun already directed to his head should the force used be too little. She was accustomed to enemies that fell harder that took more energy to overcome. And as the human slumped to the ground, a line to blood seeping from the already formed bruise on his skull she wondered if it had been too much force.

"Shit!"

Usagi stepped back as Ami rushed to the man's side. Pulling her computer from her subspace pocket to check the damage her leader had inflicted. Usagi stepped back again, the gun still clasped in her hold. Water began to build in her eyes.

"Oh gods, I thought he was going to take her, I didn't think. I'm sorry." Rei whispered frozen in place. "I'm sorry." Her voice was breaking. Usagi couldn't respond her eyes fixed on the bleeding man. Ami had stopped typing, the computer was gone, and her large eyes stared at the wound inflicted.

"His going to be okay." Makoto stated, her voice harsh. "His going to be okay. Right Blue? His going to be fine!" She was making demands on the impossible. But she'd answered her own question when shed spoken in code.

"Girls. It's time to get out of here!" Mina snapped in a command that made them all look from their dilemma's. "You!" Mina pointed at the banker who had braved the enemy. "Call an ambulance." The man scuttled to obey. "Pink?"

Usagi met her friend's eyes briefly and looked back to the body. Siren's sounded at the edge of her hearing. She took a breath, ordering control into her body and mind.

Then she clicked into action. Sharply she raised the gun, shooting out the cameras visible. The few crowd members who had begun to rise to view the drama fell back to the ground, covering their heads.

"You three!" She pointed to Rei, Mina and Makoto. "Out the front, take it slow, do what you have to. Blue, find the camera's I missed." At her commands the four girls moved into action, her unspoken commands holding more sway then the ones voiced. The computer fell back into Ami's hand, numbers punched at franticly and she pointed out three cameras' Usagi had been unaware of. Usagi shot them out swiftly her aim impeccable. "Find me security." Her voice was low, and she saw her friend's eyes widen.

"But-"

"Now!" It was a command like she had never given; an order against the better judgment of her peers, but it was an order she had to follow through. No human moved as she had, she knew as they all did that the simple disarming of one man had signaled her out as something not quite mortal.

Ami typed only for a minute before shouting out. "This way."

And the two girls made for the stairs, Usagi following her friends every move as they wormed themselves deep into the structure. Out of eyesight they did the logical thing, calling form transformations that would grant them more protection and power then their human forms held. They used that power to swiftly break their way into the banks security system.

The sirens became louder. The sense of doom stuck deeper. The beeping of their communicators and Usagi jumped to answer it, letting the blue haired genius tamper with the security tapes in whatever fashion she deemed necessary.

"Moon here." Usagi snapped.

"Police just entered the building, so did the paramedics." Mina reported in a whisper. Usagi knew her friends had not ventured far, but it had been necessary to remove as many as possible as quickly as possible.

"The people?"

"It doesn't look like their leaving yet. Have to go." Was hissed and the communication was terminated. Usagi closed the communicator and looked to Ami who was frowning down at her computer.

"How long?" Her gut told her they didn't have enough time, that it was probably useless anyway because surely someone in the crowd had seen them clearly enough to describe them. And perhaps, far worse, someone in the crowd had recognized them.

"Longer then we have." Ami replied quickly. Her eyes where unwaveringly focused before her, her fingers drifting from one computer to the other as she worked her own type of magic.

"I'll buy time, you get out of here when it's done." Without another word Usagi followed the path they had traveled, already able to hear the police approaching. She wondered as she breached the distance between herself and them if meeting them as Sailor Moon was advisable, but with the only option being Usagi she knew which it had to be.

She walked into someone. Her surprise brought the gun up between herself and the unheard stranger, as her eyes following only to find he was no stranger at all.

"Tuxedo Kamen." She wondered what he was doing there, if he had been in the bank and seen it all, or if he had come to the scene as he always did when she was in danger.

"Perhaps you should put that away." He suggested mildly, eyes on the gun she held. She marveled the control in his voice even as she slipped the gun into her subspace pocket, aware that his instructions where advisable. What she would do with the gun would have to be thought on later, but right now it had her fingerprints all over it… one of the benefits of the Sailor Suits she rarely considered, gloves.

Aware of him now she moved past him, there was no chance for frivolous conversations or flirtations this time. He followed her closely, a strange action considering his covert tendencies.

"What are we doing?" His voice just as mild as before was softer, perhaps in response to the ever approaching foot falls that sounded through the thick corridors.

"Buying time." She responded with an equal softness. He didn't question her, and it made her wonder again when his presence had arrived at the bank. She tried to remember who had been inside the bank, curious if one of them where him though it seemed doubtful.

"Are you going to throw your tiara at them?"

"Of course not." She snapped a bit annoyed that her mind had stopped to think about him instead of considering what she would do with the police who approached, for police she was certain they where.

"Then might I recommend something?" He pulled her to a stop, the contact of his arm on her bare skin far more pleasant then the robbers touch had been. She went to glare at him, realized the frivolity of the action and instead glanced where he pointed. He pointed no less then directly up the corridor they where walking. Frivolity be damned he was wasting her time and she was going to glare. "Ricochet your tiara up the corridor."

"What?" It sounded like a plan and she was annoyed she couldn't decipher the reason.

"Do you have time to think of a better plan?" He was annoying when he took that kind of tone, not that he ever had before but she was still willing to hold it against him.

Wanting to retort that it didn't sound like he had a plan she bit her tongue and instead concentrated on the task allocated her. Her hand went to her tiara as she filled it with enough power to destroy a Youma. Then following his command she threw it, aiming for the wall and willing it to ricochet. At her command the tiara did as it was bid, biting into the wall's as it went, sending flecks of concrete and dust through the air. The sound of people grew closer. Then the foreboding sound of cracking filled the air. Her tiara returned safely and she slipped it into place listening intently for that cracking noise.

"Let's move." He hissed at her, his grip suddenly on her arm and biting with it's intensity. Something snapped, the groaning sound of something straining, and as the dust settled she saw the thick cracks that lined the wall above each tiara mark.

She realized what was happen as he pulled her away, but the walls tumbled faster then he moved and even as she went to assist in the escape the roof began to fall above them.

----------

To anyone out there listening. I'm a highly unorganised person, and therefore I've set up two mailing list's. One for my Original works and one for my Sailor Moon Fan Fiction.

To sign up for either of them:

Go to

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lelanst/join

to join the 'lelanst' mailing list for updates on my Original Works

or

Go to

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ksmff/join

to join the 'ksmff' mailing list for updates on my Sailor Moon Fan Fictions

Oh yeah, and if you liked this story please review it.