Disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan. It belongs to Gosho Aoyama. I do own the crime group I created for this story. I tried being as original with the names as possible, but the thirty trillion different suspects that have passed through the manga and anime originals from case to case is quite hard to keep track of, so any identical names to existing characters is purely coincidental.

Note: The events of this story take place at around Chapter 708 in the manga. If there's any questions about what's going on in the story up to that point (and what of that is relevant to this one), feel free to PM me or ask in a review.

Chapter 1: The Storm

One month ago…

"You've done well, Makuto" said a man from the shadowy corner of the warehouse, "Very well for your first assignment. I don't need you anymore tonight, get on out of here."

The man named Makuto nodded and turned to leave. He walked out of the warehouse located on the edge of Tokyo, and to the bus stop a small ways up the road. Makuto got off at the stop nearest a small diner on a busy street corner. He stopped to get a small coffee, then unlocked and drove off in his car parked behind the building. From there, Makuto drove to the closest hotel, and stepped out of the car cautiously. Once he was sure he wasn't being followed for the umpteenth time since he left the warehouse, he continued inside and up to fourth floor. He knocked twice on door 403.

"Who is it?" a man inside asked.

"It's me," said Makuto.

He heard the lock click as Inspector Megure opened the door and allowed him inside. Once he was sure there was no one lurking in the hall, he closed and locked the door before turning to his guest.

"Okay, Takagi-kun, what information do you have for us?"

"I've been doing this for a month now, and just finished my first assignment, and apparently he was pleased with the results," said Takagi, collapsing into a chair, "I got him the information we planted and allowed them to get."

"Do you think Toshiro suspects you at all?" asked Shiratori.

The young detective shook his head, "I don't think so. Toshiro hasn't shown any indications, so I can assume my cover hasn't been blown." He sat next to Shiratori, "I do know of two more members of this organization though. I met them today."

"Are they high up in the chain?" asked Megure.

Takagi nodded, "The first is Aiku Hidemi. She seems to be very close to Toshiro. Aiku is also an excellent shot. I saw her practicing on a dummy."

"We've heard of her," said Megure, "She's already on the wanted list. Who's the other one?"

"He only goes by the name of 'Ichiro', if that's his real name," said Takagi, "This is one big guy. He could probably take out Satou-san."

Shiratori and Megure exchanged looks. There weren't all that many people who could take out Detective Satou in a fight.

"Did you get any news on where Toshiro lives or goes after these meetings?" asked Megure, "If we could catch him alone, it would make cracking down on this organization easier, especially since he's the leader."

Takagi shook his head, "I've only seen him during meetings. Every time is a different warehouse or abandoned building outside Tokyo."

Megure nodded, "Shiratori-kun will get those names investigated further. In the meantime, why don't you go home? You look ready to collapse from exhaustion right here…."

Present time…

"The suspects have run into an old warehouse," said Takagi into the radio. With a screeching halt, Satou pulled up her car behind the suspect's and looked over at her partner.

"What did Megure-keibu say?" she asked, but Takagi held up a hand, still on the radio with headquarters. She nodded and looked out her driver-side window. The rain was pouring down harder than before. If she didn't know any better, Satou would have thought her car was sitting under a waterfall. With the extreme downpours and the wind gusting it everywhere, she was barely able to see the car in front of her.

Takagi sighed, placing the radio back into its hook. He turned to his partner, "Satou-san, Megure-keibu says the storm is even worse back at headquarters and that he can't send us any reinforcements, but there is also the chance that Toshiro might have some of his own."

"Well we can't stay in the car while he and his cronies get away," said Satou, "But if they aren't sending us backup, how are two officers supposed to stand up to one of the largest crime organizations we've ever faced?"

Takagi frowned, looking out the window into the rain. "What if we were able to stall them until the storm lets up and Megure-keibu can send some help?"

"Hmm," Satou said, "Two officers, two sets of handcuffs, and two government-issued pistols against who knows how many gun smugglers and killers. Stalling could end up in suicide, Takagi-kun."

"Are you sure we can't send them help? Not even one group?" Shiratori asked, "This might be too big for Satou-san and Takagi-kun to handle."

Megure nodded, looking out from his desk at the city below, "I know, but we can't risk putting out more officers into this weather, and it's only going to get worse. The only thing we can do right now is to call Satou-kun and have them hold back until we can send assistance." He sighed, and then the phone on his desk rang. "This is Megure. Oh, Satou-kun, listen…what? I can hardly hear you in this…what!? Are you crazy!? …I see…I'll send help once I get the approval. …What's that? Oh, the weather. It's bad, and going to get worse before it gets better…alright, we'll be there as soon as we can." He hung up and sighed.

Shiratori raised an eyebrow, "What's going on?"

Megure faced him with a worried glance, "Satou-kun said that they're going inside before Toshiro can try to escape and before his help can arrive. There's no telling how the storm is by them, but apparently not as bad as it is here. If they can catch Toshiro quickly they're going to try and return here."

Shiratori's eyes widened, "They must be out of their minds! They know that that warehouse had a strong possibility of being one of their main hideouts. Satou-san should have waited for backup."

"I know," said Megure, "But if they can catch him, who's almost at the top of their chain, it could definitely help us shut down their operation for good."

Shiratori looked back outside, frowning, "I still don't think sending Takagi-kun back to the organization, even to make an arrest, was a smart idea. After being undercover for two months he was able to get far in their ranks. We can't say how suspicious Toshiro and the others may be of him, but they might become more violent when they find out he's a cop."

"If they find out," said Megure, "If for two months they haven't suspected him at all, then there's the chance they still don't. Besides, there's no way of knowing whether or not Toshiro is still in that warehouse. In the storm he might have already fled."

Shiratori crossed his arms, "It could be a trap," he said worriedly, "Lead him up the totem pole and give him pieces of information to see if and how the police act on them." He sighed, "I still think it's a –"

"Megure-keibu!" Chiba called from across the room, "There's another severe storm warning!"

"Another?" Shiratori asked, "That must make what, five now?"

"Shh! Don't jinx, Shiratori-kun," said Megure, "Well, what is it?"

Chiba told him.

"Shiratori-kun, get in contact with Satou-kun and Takagi-kun and get them to take shelter! We've lost enough lives because of this organization and I will not let two more be lost because they were out in a storm!"

"I can't believe we left our raincoats in your car," Satou sighed, taking off her high heels and shaking a river's worth of water out of them. They were standing under a tiny overhang by a side door to the warehouse. The overhang was barely large enough to keep both detectives dry from the monsoon.

Takagi shook his head, "I can't believe my car broke down two days after I had it fixed!" There was a sudden gust of wind, spraying the already soaked detectives. "Figures we parked on the other side of the building."

Satou tried the doorknob, "Um, Takagi-kun?"

Takagi slapped a hand to his forehead, "Please don't tell me this is locked too?"

"No – stuck." The wind picked up again as they busted through the door, narrowly missing getting drenched for a third time.

The warehouse was dark and from their position there was no one inside. "This place is bigger than it looks," said Satou, "We could be in here for a long time."

"So much for the movie we were going to see after work tonight," said Takagi, sighing.

Satou peered carefully around a corner, "Ah well. We'll do it tomorrow. Besides, the weather probably knocked out the power at the cinema anyways. Not to mention, after hearing my cousin on the phone yesterday talk about how many times she watched The Wizard of Oz while babysitting, I don't know if I want to watch anything. We'll see how things go tomorrow."

Takagi held up a hand, "Did you hear something, maybe from up there?"

The two detectives crept towards the stairs as quietly as possible. Getting their pistols ready, they slowly moved up the nearest staircase. Takagi could hear voices the farther up they went.

"The hallway seems to split from here," said Satou quietly, as they reached the top, "I'll take this corridor and you can go that way, and we'll meet up at the end."

Takagi grabbed her arm before she moved away, "Wait, Satou-san!" he whispered, "While I was undercover I met one of Toshiro's cronies. I know you can probably take out anyone who tries to pick a fight with you, but this man is one big guy! He probably weighs more than both you and I combined with muscles to back it up."

"Don't worry about me, Takagi-kun. I'll be fine. After all, you should be the most careful if they figure out your identity. I'm sure if any of Toshiro's friends are here, we would have heard them by now."

"Maybe we shouldn't split up, just in case," said Takagi, looking cautiously over his shoulder. It wasn't until he looked forward again when the two detectives heard two distinct metallic clicks.

"Now what do we have here?" said a deep voice from behind, "Drop your guns and turn around, nice and slow – and don't think of trying something funny."

Takagi and Satou shared a worried glance. Takagi watched his gun fall as he turned towards Ichiro. There goes my cover….

"I'm sorry we won't be able to have dinner tonight," said Shiratori, "Megure-keibu isn't letting anyone from his division out of here until the weather improves."

"Oh, that's alright," Kobayashi-sensei smiled, transferring her phone to her other hand while picking up a stack of papers, "The schools were let out early and I've been home since late morning. The roads are terrible, but I hope you'll make this up to me. Those reservations were hard to get!"

"I will," Shiratori smiled, glancing down at his watch, "I'm going to have to get off now. I need to try and get in contact with Satou-san and Takagi-kun again."

"I hope it's just bad reception that's keeping you out of contact," she said, "I'll talk to you soon!"

Shiratori hung up and dialed Satou's cell phone.

"Anything?" asked Megure.

Shiratori waited a moment, and then shook his head, "No. Satou-san isn't answering her phone and I tried Takagi-kun's earlier, along with the radio in Satou-san's car. They're not responding."

"Their phones might be in Satou-kun's car," said Megure, "But with this storm, I don't think the reception would be good wherever they are."

"Maybe," Shiratori looked at Chiba and Megure in horror, "Maybe they were caught by the suspect."

Megure cringed. Chief Matsumoto ordered everyone at headquarters to stay until conditions improved. But if there was some way to get help just to check on them…. He grabbed the nearest radio, "Any units already near the Tsukido warehouses move there immediately and aid Satou and Takagi! Repeat – any and all units near the Tsukido warehouses move there immediately!" He was placing the radio back when a crash was heard on the floor below.

"What was that!?" Chiba cried.

Soon after, the doors to Division One opened and a rather wet Inspector Nakamori came in.

"I don't usually see you up here, Nakamori-kun," Megure asked, "Were you just out in the rain?"

"Sort of," Nakamori scowled, "I'm recruiting your men, Megure. Two windows blew out in Division Two and we could use some help getting the floods under control before they flow into the forensics labs."

"Shiratori-kun, you stay here and keep trying to get Satou-kun and Takagi-kun, the rest of you go help downstairs," said Megure to his department. Many of the homicide detectives didn't look excited at the prospect of getting drenched trying to seal up windows, but left anyway.

Once the room had emptied, Shiratori looked at the phone sitting on Inspector Megure's desk. "I swear, if they hurt Takagi-kun or Satou-san in any way, those criminals will rot in the deepest, darkest cell I can find."

"So there is no Makuto Akiro, but really Takagi Wataru," said Toshiro, leaning against a desk, "I never would have thought it was you leaking information to the cops over our operations. You covered your tracks so well. But really now, did you really think that arresting me would be easy? Is that why it's just you two instead of the whole police force?"

With the focus on Toshiro and Takagi, Satou took the room into account. It was rather dark, but she could make out at least two people with guns aimed at them. She and Takagi were both sitting on the floor handcuffed to a pole running vertically near the side of the room. Besides Toshiro there was a young woman, presumably Aiku Hidemi, holding both of their pistols. The man who had found them was holding a bat that had being lying in the corner of the room and was giving Takagi a look saying he'd love nothing more than to beat the detective into a pile of goo. She turned back to Toshiro just in time to see the large man strike Takagi hard in the right shoulder with the bat, and his following gasp of pain. "Takagi-kun!"

"You were much more talkative when you were deceiving me," said Toshiro, "Answer me – where are the rest of your men staked out? I know you plan to have me arrested once we leave this warehouse, I'm no idiot."

Takagi glared up at Toshiro from his spot on the floor and didn't say a word.

Toshiro bent down to eye level with Takagi, "Who else in the organization are cops? If you're one of them, I'm sure there's more!" He stood up and crouched down next to Satou, "I'd talk, Takagi, or we might have to harm your beautiful partner."

Takagi struggled against the handcuff binding his left wrist to the pole, "Don't even think about harming Satou-san!"

"Well, you're not being very cooperative," said Toshiro, "Now answer me, or your partner will have a bullet in her brain. Where are your reinforcements? No one would be stupid enough to plan a high profile arrest with only two cops."

"I suppose we're just two stupid cops then," said Takagi said darkly.

Aiku snorted, "Please! If you were smart enough to cover your tracks and put suspicion on someone else these past two months, you wouldn't screw this up! You're just stalling. Toshiro, we should just kill them now. It's obvious they aren't going to give us information. We should just dispose of them and get out before their reinforcements do arrive."

"No," said Toshiro menacingly, "He will tell us…" he got up and took the bat from Ichiro, "And if we have to use his partner to get it out of him, so be it."

The moment he took a step closer to where Satou sat on the ground, the warehouse gave a loud and violent shake. The two detectives gripped the pole tightly as the others tried to keep their balance.

"What's going on?" Ichiro demanded, "What is this, an earthquake?"

"The storm is getting much worse than I thought," said Toshiro, looking towards the door, "This old warehouse might be on its final hours." He heard the wind blowing into the sides of the building, "I say this is the perfect time for an exit."

"What about them?" asked one of the men with a gun.

"Leave them; by the time any officers arrive for them we'll be long gone. If we're lucky, the warehouse will collapse and we won't have to deal with them anymore." He leaned over Takagi again, "This isn't over. You should know by now that no one in this organization betrays and lives. And so you know I'm not playing any games with you…." He quickly swung the bat into Takagi's skull; the impact sending his head into the pole. "If you survive the storm...," he began menacingly, "...We'll meet again." He and his cronies all dashed from the room, leaving the two detectives alone.

"Takagi-kun? Are you alright?" Satou asked, trying to break out of her restraints.

"I think so."

The building shook again, and they could hear the winds picking up even more from outside. They could hear a crash from somewhere else in the warehouse.

"Satou-san, I think the warehouse might be closer to caving in than Toshiro thought. If I remember correctly, there was once a fire in one of the mechanical rooms on the first floor. I don't know how well supported the rest of the place is because of that."

"Collapsing or not, we need something to break us off of this pole. Takagi-kun, can you reach those pliers on that table over there?"

"Not sitting down, at least," said Takagi. Gripping the pole for support, he heaved himself up and stretched toward the nearby table. "It's still too far away!"

Satou stood up as well and watched him worriedly, "Are you sure you're alright? Toshiro hit you rather hard."

He shrugged it off, "I'm fine."

The winds began howling at a much greater force this time. "And I thought this day couldn't get any worse," Takagi muttered. The building shook again, this time jolting the pliers onto the floor – thankfully within reach. Twisting around, he freed Satou from her handcuffs, but as he turned to free himself, the building violently shook again. Satou lost her balance and hit her head on the table as she fell.

"Satou-san? Satou-san!"

The building jerked a second time, and with this shake, there was another crash elsewhere inside. As it shook, Takagi was jolted backwards (as far as the handcuffs allowed) and the pliers slid out of sight. The area of his head that Toshiro had struck hit the wall hard and he slid down to the floor….

…Satou opened her eyes and sat up slowly; her head was rather sore. When she looked around, she saw that most of the room had collapsed around her and Takagi.

"Takagi-kun?" She looked towards the pole they had been chained to. He was nowhere to be seen, but there was a pile of debris obstructing her view. Slowly and carefully, Satou made her way over and found her partner unconscious and still stuck. The pliers, where did they go? Takagi began to stir as she cut him loose. "Are you alright, Takagi-kun?"

"I think so," he nodded, rubbing his head, "And what about you?"

Satou shrugged, "I'm not hurt, and I think the storm has stopped, at least for now. We should try and find our way out of this mess and contact Megure-keibu. They can track Toshiro from our phones since his men took them."

Takagi looked around, "If this is what the inside of this place looks like, I don't want to see the outside…" The two stumbled around until they were able to find the door they came in through. Slipping under a fallen beam, they made their way outside and looked around.

Satou's car was nowhere to be seen, as well as any other building in the vicinity. Instead of their normal surroundings, there was a red brick path which led into one of yellow bricks. Flower patches were all around as well as small colorful buildings. No cars, paved roads, or even people were in sight.

Takagi looked at his partner, confused, "Eh, Satou-san, I have a feeling we're not in Tokyo anymore…."

This first chapter went through soo many edits, I hope it made sense. If any of this is confusing, let me know! In the meantime, anyone want to take a stab on who might show up as whom later on?

An added disclaimer, I don't own any of the Wizard of Oz themes to come either. I'm just warping it around for fun!

The "review" button likes to be poked, so if you'd like, feel free to send your questions, comments, and complaints its way!