Urashima Keitaro, Super Spy
Disclaimer: Love Hina is not mine in any way, nor shall it be mine ever. Give your praises to Ken Akamatsu, and not me.
Summary: AU. Urashima Keitaro, secret agent and super spy, is sent to the Kanagawa prefecture to join his former partner from years ago, who is stationed at a local inn, the Hinata-sou. There, they must prevent a crime boss from kidnapping a candidate for world domination? Who is this boss? And why does his partner act really weird around him?
A/N: This is my first AU, and I hope it's good. Any suggestions, comments, and other things you just might want to say are appreciated. Please R&R!
"…" Denotes speech
Italics Denotes thought
Bold Denotes sound effects
Certain Sounds:
GOOMPH! Means Fainting
DOOONG! Means Shock
:blah: Denotes time/time change
A scene/scene change is denoted by an extra line.
Prologue: The Magnificent Tongue Lashing of 888-4 of 2000
"Agent four, come in. Are you there Agent four?" a short figure spoke into a radio, huddled between two massive skyscrapers in New York City. The radio crackled, then a voice responded.
"Agent 888, I am in position. Ready to commence operation. Just give the sign." The figure turned off the radio and stood up. Pretty short, being 151 cm tall, the person was wearing a hooded cloak, wrapped around like a towel hiding most of the features. Suddenly the cloak was thrown off, revealing a woman of small stature and with straw colored hair. Her skin was a shade of brown that was exotic and beautiful that only peeked out from beneath the suit she was wearing. The suit was interesting; a jumpsuit, but with various soft dials and buttons all showing on the suit that seemed to be painted on rather than actual buttons.
The woman scanned the opposite street. There were tall buildings – malls, but big ones where she spotted another figure on the roof. She made a "peace" sign with both her hands and crossed her arms, to which the figure on the roof promptly jumped of the building. A quick confirmation that he was falling and the woman went back into the alleyway and took the manhole of the cover of a sewer line. BOOOOOOOM! An explosion suddenly rocked the streets, causing flying debris to be thrown every where. Water from the pipes started to leak and there were horns, sirens, and screaming. Smiling, the woman descended into the depths of the sewer. She tapped a button on her suit.
"Four, are you there?" she asked. She heard a crackle, then a long "whooshing" sound that surely was air rushing by the mike on agent four's piece.
"Yes…I'm a bit busy though," he said. "But how is it down there, triple eight?" Agent 888 put on a mask and smiled again.
"It's okay, but smells a bit like your cologne you sometimes wear," she said. She continued run along the edge of the sewer pipe. She could get wet, but it was preferable if she didn't actually dive into the raw sewage of New York City.
"Hey, you picked that one out!" Agent four responded, when suddenly the whooshing stopped. Agent 888 also stopped, glancing at the top of the pipe above her. She placed four coin-shaped objects in a diamond shape arrangement and stepped back. Taking out a small remote, she pressed a large green button. There was a hissing, and the suddenly a thick diamond-shaped cement slab fell and splashed into the sewer. A green glow could be seen in the hole that remained and agent 888 heaved herself up into the room. It was filled with pipes, large machines, and she assumed that it was an air exchange room she had entered.
"I'm in," Agent four reported. "Window cut perfectly." She heard him unclip himself from the line he was on.
"Me too. Okay, remember to keep all contact to a minimum," agent 888 said.
"I'll try not to kill anyone," Agent four told her.
"And no more contact," agent 888 reported. "They might be listening in."
"I'll try not to, but what if you want to hear my melodious voice?" Agent four asked. Agent 888 just laughed and turned it off. A quick preliminary scan had told her that nobody was here, but they could still have safeguards she didn't know about. A classic approach was to climb through the air vents, but she was agent 888. She would not sneak in, but bust the door down. She approached the door and pressed herself against the wall, pressing several buttons on her suit. It beeped softly and from her leg a small pen appeared. She detached it and held it to the doorknob where there existed a primitive key-lock. A thin metal wire protruded from the pen and she fiddled with the lock for a few seconds. Click! The door swung open creaking as it did. It revealed a dimly lit hallway, telling agent 888 that no one ever came down here. Still, she was cautious as she snuck down.
"Agent 888!" she heard over the mike.
"Four! What did I tell you about contacting me!" she hissed. But Agent Four kept talking.
"We've got a problem," Four said. "I—" then suddenly he was cut off.
"Four? Four?" Agent 888 asked, but there was no response. I told him not to contact me, but now he did, she thought. The hallway took an abrupt turn to the left, where you could see stairs running up the 10+ floors of the skyscraper. On the left of the stairs, a huge storage elevator stood. Agent 888 snuck by it and looked at the stairs. The stairs ran along the wall, leaving a hole in the middle, which was perfect for agent 888 to shoot a repel rope. Lucky for me, she thought, and with one deft motion she withdrew a repel gun from the inside of her suit and shot a rope that whizzed through the air and stuck to the ceiling. Crack! She tugged on the rope to see if it was sturdy enough. Satisfied, she pulled the trigger and the gun slowly started to wind the rope back up, pulling agent 888 with it. It whirred as the motors turned, but the repel gun was satisfactory and she made it to the 13th floor with no problem. She hopped lightly from the rope onto the stairwell and left the gun hanging mid-air.
She reviewed her plan. The 13th floor, where she now was, was crucial because even though there were several more stories above until the penthouse on top, to access the hidden part of the building she had to enter from the 13th floor. And I used to wonder why buildings jumped from the 12th to the 14th floor, Agent 888 thought grimly as she adjusted the dials on her suit. Although it was perfect for sneaking around, if she happened to meet anyone in here…well, let's just say it would be better to be well protected. The suit hardened and was no longer made of padded nylon, but of a material like Kevlar. Only better, agent 888 thought as she opened the door. The sight that met her eyes comforted her, because no one was around. If it was all going to plan, they should be distracted just enough from the explosion in the front that agent four and she could sneak in, steal the necessary files, and get out. The disturbing contact that agent four had made replayed in her mind, but she put it away with her other worries. She was a professional, after all.
The stairwell she had just left was at the end of a hallway. It was a very long hallway, and rooms which looked like labs were at the right and left. One of these labs had a hidden stairway, which would lead to the control center. Once there, she would have to deactivate all the cameras and possibly gun turrets (who knows?) before agent four grabbed the files, which were stored on the mainframe on the 20th floor. Of course he would have to download them and erase them. Hmm…he probably has to take the elevator, agent 888 thought, knowing how lazy he is. However, they were supposed to meet here before they started. Where was he?
She continued to walk towards the lab, holding out a device that looked like a palm pilot, but on it there was a simple 2D layout of the floor she was on, and a bright blinking red dot indicated where the hidden stairway was. Luckily our intelligence is good, she thought. As she reached the place where the blinking red dot indicated, she slowed down and reached once more into her suit and pulled out a pistol and a silencer. She really didn't know what could be in there, and she just had to be sure. Screwing on the silencer, she slowly slid along the wall to the edge of the door. 1…2…3…she thought. Now!
BAANG! She kicked open the door with her pistol out and ready held firmly with two hands. An empty room stared back at her. Lucky, agent 888 thought, and although it seemed that way she still was cautious as she went around the lab tables, benches, chairs, equipment, and machines. She reached her destination and waited for agent four. He should be here anytime.
He didn't appear. She waited five minutes, ten, then when fifteen minutes passed she decided that the contact he left meant that he had been captured. She looked at the fume hood that sat in front of her, and she reached behind it and felt for a hidden switch. Click! That was easy, she thought, and behind her the lab table spilt in two and stairs led down. Down? Agent 888 thought suspiciously. Intelligence had told her that the stairs led up not down. Perhaps, though, they had out-dated information. The reconnaissance mission through here had not been as successful as the agency had liked, and perhaps in this part they had thought it was up when it truly went down. If they bothered to come all the way they should have done it themselves, agent 888 thought. Sometimes the agency was too thorough for her; why send agents through this building and not have them complete the mission?
"Because you guys are the best and we don't want you to go MIA simply because you didn't know where you were headed," they had told her. She continued down the stairway that was unlighted and she faced a hallway that was pitch-black. She either would have to turn on the lights or use night vision goggles. Since turning on the lights would probably alert whoever was down there to her presence, she chose the night vision goggles. Plus, why not use the technology if she had it? She strapped them on. The pitch-black darkness turned into a world of green and at the end of the hallway there was only had one door. She could only assume that this would lead to the control center of the building, at least for the top seven floors. She slid along the wall slowly, moving her legs so fluidly that there was no noise from her movements. When she reached the door, she found it unlocked. Not that it mattered anyways as she kicked open the door with her gun ready. But before she react, a giant of a man grabbed her wrist and twisted, making her cry out in pain and drop her gun. She turned to face the man, but from behind another man she didn't see swung a giant metal bar across her head and she blacked out.
She woke up tied to a chair. A man 171 cm tall sat next to her already awake but it seemed that he was tired. He had black hair and a black eye to match.
"So you two think you can just waltz in here and steal our important files?" a man that agent 888 recognized as the man who had first grabbed her wrist said.
"And that there would be no consequence?" a second man growled. He had a metal bar that he pounded in his hand occasionally. She looked around and shuddered. She realized that she was almost naked – apparently they had stripped her of her Kevlar like suit and all she was wearing was a very thin spandex-material jumpsuit. Agent four who sat next to her was also similarly undressed.
"Well," agent four replied groggily, "that was the plan." BAM! The second man struck his face with the bar, but not hard enough to send him to unconsciousness, only to hurt him.
"Insolence!" he screamed. The first man held back the second man.
"We are not to kill them…yet," he told him. The second man made a threatening motion with the metal bar that included some violently graphic scenes. "But what we are to do is make them tell us who sent them and what their plan is. The boss said so." Agent 888 was slightly disappointed that all she had to deal with were oversized stupid goons.
"So ah," agent four started again, "I guess this boss doesn't want to show his face."
"He doesn't need to deal with minor pests like you," the first man told him.
"Oh. And here I was under the impression that he just had a very ugly mole on his face. You know the kind of mole that has hair growing out of it?" Agent four asked. BAM!
"Our boss has no such thing!" the second man shouted, striking him again. "He is the very epitome and zenith of perfection!"
"I don't know about that," agent four said, smiling through his bloody face. "Our intelligence is pretty good." BAM! This time the first man punched him in the gut, leaving agent four breathless.
"Silence! No more trivial banter," he said. "Who sent you?" He grabbed agent four by his spandex shirt and lifted him still tied to the chair up by it. "Who?"
"Your dad," agent four said through gritted teach and swung the chair into the big man's gut. With a howl, the big man let go and agent four fell to the floor. The chair shattered and before the other man could swing his metal bar down onto agent four, agent 888 had grabbed the chair she had been tied to and slammed it down on the man's head. She had been untying herself while agent four had been trading banter with them, and now was ready to get back at them for all they did. The man with the bar yelped and swung at agent 888, who barely managed to block it with the chair she held. However, this block sent the chair into to pieces, forcing her to back away into a wall.
"I've got you now," he snickered.
"Not yet," agent 888 replied with a polite tone. She backed further into the wall and the man snickered again. He swung, and as he did agent 888 jumped, pushing off from the wall and slamming with all her might into the man. He fell. Meanwhile, agent four was in a lock with the first man, wrestling but losing to the enormous strength that the goon had.
"You'd better give up or you might actually die," he said through clenched teeth. He started to exert more force, pushing agent four down lower to the ground.
"Funny," agent four told him, "I was just going to say the same thing to you." And he flipped the first guy over, throwing him into the wall behind him. The man slumped unconscious. Agent four and agent 888 both caught their breath.
"Well," agent four breathed, "That went well." Agent 888 glared at him.
"That was your fault!" she shouted. She pointed an accusatory finger at him. "What did you do to get caught?"
"Oh I tripped over a wire and set of an alarm. Heh heh!" agent four chuckled nervously. "But all's well that ends well, eh?" Agent 888 snorted.
"As if it's ended. Come on, we have to finish our mission," she said. She moved towards the door.
"Where are we anyways?" agent four asked. Agent 888 made a quiet sound with her hand, then slowly glanced through a window in the door. There was a long hallway illuminated by dull flickering ceiling lights.
"Huh," agent four murmured coming back to agent 888. "This is the hallway I entered. That means the control center is….here?"
"What are you talking about?" agent four asked. "This is a dungeon or whatever. The control center you're supposed to infiltrate is up."
"What? That's what I thought, but the signal led down here!" agent 888 exclaimed.
"You dummy. They obviously jammed your GPS mapping device," agent four said, and he looked around. "Rats. I have no clue where they put our suits. PHB won't like that." PHB, their boss, was always angry whenever they lost/destroyed expensive equipment. It was not a quality only James Bond had.
"Yeah, well…if we are able to finish this mission then we might get away with only a scolding," agent 888 told him. "Well…let's go." They both walked slowly through the hallway, looking around cautiously for enemies, but it seemed those two thugs were the only enemies around. They walked up slowly into the lab again, emerging from the middle table.
"Well," agent four said, "Since we're here, we might as well do it together, eh?"
"Don't be silly," agent 888 told him. "I have to watch the cameras to warn you about any dangers and to stop anyone else from entering the control center and alerting them to your presence. Up on the 20th floor they're sure to have more than two stupid goons."
"Right…" agent four agreed slowly. "Oh well."
"Don't worry," agent 888 said, smiling. "I can still hear your melodious voice over the com. Just don't treat me to it too much. I'll do most of the talking. You on secure channel alpha beta phi?"
"Yeah," agent four said, tapping his head. They both had integrated radios implanted into their ear, so only they could hear the transmission. It tapped directly into the bones in their ear, so the faintest whisper could be heard over this radio. Additionally, it made a wonderful pair of headphones that they could connect to almost anything, including their iPods, hearing surround sound while no one else heard a thing.
"Ok, so where is this control center anyways?" agent 888 asked. She went back to the fume hood and felt behind the glass shield. She flipped the switch she had first hit and the stairs in the middle of the room were sealed again. Agent four was at the door.
"I'll be at the elevator waiting for your signal when you clear the control room," he said, and snuck out and left. Agent 888 flipped the switch several times, but the same stairs opened and closed.
"Where is the switch for the control room?" agent 888 asked herself as she watched the stairs seal themselves again. "Darn it!" she cried in frustration, and hit a beaker in the fume hood over. Immediately she withdrew her hand so nothing was spilled on it, but strangely enough, the liquid inside did not spill. In fact, it seemed as the liquid was actually a solid.
WHIRR! Agent 888 whirled around and saw the sink in the corner sink into the ground, and a pod came back up, replacing the sink.
"Ok, our intelligence sucks. The switch is in the fume hood…couldn't they have been clearer?" agent 888 asked no one again as she walked towards the pod and entered.
Elevator
Agent four kneeled by the elevator. He whished secretly that he had his gun. Things just usually run smoother if he can put someone out with one tranquillizer dart then if he had to manually make someone black out. He wondered if agent 888 would actually find out where the control room was. He, of course, didn't know the instructions given to agent four, just as she didn't know the instructions given to him, just in case one of them actually talked. They also couldn't even tell each other what they had been told.
"But what if I need to complete the mission by myself?" he had asked the agency, and later PHB. "Let's say agent 888 is hurt?"
"You both have the objectives. Just not the specific details," PHB had answered. "Do it your own way. We don't want the enemies to catch you both if one is caught." The agency always cared more about its agents being caught then the safety of the agents themselves.
"Oh well," agent four said. He couldn't help it anymore than he could fly. If he protested, he'd probably be erased. They did that often. His com buzzed.
"Ok, I cleared the control room. Apparently, those two goons were from here because there was no one in this room and the chairs are, uh, rather large," Agent 888 paused. "And rather disgusting." Agent four heard agent 888 complaining about junk food wrappers, and other disgusting pieces of trash.
"Anyways," she continued, "that elevator you're by will open in a couple seconds" (it did) "and then you have to push a certain code to get to the 20th floor. If you notice, there is no 20th floor." Agent four entered the elevator and did notice there was no 20th floor. The buttons ended at the 19th floor. The elevator dinged as the doors closed. "So…pull the stop stick out and then enter this code in…hold on…" Agent four pulled out the red stop stick and the elevator jerked.
"Couldn't they have told me this before?" agent four grumbled.
"You know them," agent 888 replied. "Policy. Here it is…ok, enter one-five-six-eight. You got that?"
"Yeah," agent four answered. "One…five…six….eight," he repeated as he entered the numbers. The elevator jerked again and began to move up. "Ok…I'm going."
"Good. Keep me posted," agent 888 said, then fell silent. The elevator hummed up one story…two stories…three…and slowly went up seven stories then stopped.
"Okay, I arrived at the 20 floor," agent four reported.
"Now slowly push in the stop stick and the doors should open," agent 888 told him. Ever so carefully and slowly, agent four pushed it in and the doors opened slowly as the stick returned to normal position. Huh, things are actually going according to plan? Agent four thought. CLICK! As agent four stepped out of the elevator and into a room full of large shelves that were really computer servers for the whole building, a gun was leveled at his head held by a man who reminded agent four somewhat of the two men he had just taken down with agent 888. That meant he was very big, very strong, and probably very very dumb.
"Please," he growled, "don't move." He motioned with his automatic rifle and another man quite like all the others appeared. Do they purposely hire big, dumb, and strong people as guards? Agent 888 thought as the other man patted down his jumpsuit that obviously contained nothing.
"He's clear," the man who patted him down said. Luckily for agent four, his com was still on, so agent 888 could hear everything that agent four said.
"So I'm caught eh?" agent four said. BAM! The man with the automatic slammed it into agent four's gut, knocking the wind out of him and he fell to the ground.
"Shut up," he told agent four. Agent four was in a bind. He didn't have anything on him, not even a paper clip. And he couldn't defeat a man with an automatic rifle unarmed; he may be pretty good at unarmed fighting, but with two men…plus he didn't want to hurt any of the computer servers because he wasn't sure if destroying one would affect the others, including the one he wanted to get files from.
"Agent four!" agent 888 asked, sounding worried. "Are you alright?". Agent four sighed mentally. As if he could respond without being found out or killed. Not that being killed was not an option now. That automatic rifle looked a lot more threatening now that he was on the ground panting for air.
"Why are you here?" the man without the automatic growled. Agent four didn't respond. What was there to say? BAM! A punch to his face tried to convince him otherwise.
"He said," the gun-toting man said, "Why are you here?" Agent four smiled.
"To see how many dumb faces I can make dumber," he replied. CRUNCH! Agent four's ribs were smashed into, but not broken yet.
"Those replies will only shorten your lifespan," the man without the rifle threatened. "Now, again. Why are you here?" Agent four knew that he was hard pressed to come up with something. He only hoped that agent 888 could somehow manage to slip in and take the files so at least she wouldn't be punished for failing the mission. He had to keep their attention distracted.
"Can we play 20 questions?" agent four asked. WHAMMO! The man without the automatic had suddenly brought out a crowbar and slammed it down on his head. Again, agent four thought, I blacked out again. He slumped over.
Control Station
"Agent Four!" agent 888 cried out in despair as she witnessed and heard the sickening crunch of his head being bashed in by a crowbar. "Can you hear me? Agent four, come in!" However, she shouted to no avail and it seemed that agent four was unconscious.
"Worthless piece of trash," the man that had slammed the crowbar over his head muttered. Agent four had slumped over on the ground and now was in a heap.
"I don't know…" the rifle toting man said. "I got a report that this man had single handedly taken out Hisaki and Kano." Those must be the names of those guys we took out, Agent 888 thought.
"Maybe he's too dangerous to keep alive then?" the man with the crowbar asked, picking up the unconscious form. "We should throw him off the roof, since we're already at the top floor." Oh no! I have to save him! Agent 888 thought. But what about the mission? Surely he would rather have the mission done than himself saved, after all, every agent swears to this principle.
"Let's throw him off the roof," the other man agreed. They started to walk to the exit of the room. Agent 888 had to act fast if she wanted to do anything, but both choices led up to the 20th floor so she decided to choose on the way there. Only seven stories up. And she would walk.
20th Floor Server Room
A door creaked open somewhere, spilling light into the temperature controlled room. It was temporarily blocked, but then shone again. Finally, the door closed silently and all the light from there was shut off, leaving the room in darkness except for the red exit sign above the door and a red lamp placed above each row of computer servers.
A noise. No, it was nothing. Just imagination. The figure slipped continued to creep further inside the room, closer to a particular data bank. When it reached the correct one, the figure then took out a device that looked like a small box, but it had a wire coming out of it. CRACK! With a swift jab the front panel of the computer server bank in front of her cracked and she pulled away the pieces, revealing a mess of wires that connected to somewhere deep into the server. Looking through and carefully selecting a couple, the figure cut them and connected them to the device in its hand, carefully twisting them together. Beep! Boop! Beep! A couple buttons were pushed, and a few minutes later the wires were disconnected. The figure then went to the end of the row, where a small display panel was placed. Activating it, the figure did several things with the interactive touchpad, smashed it, then crept away and exited the room.
"Memory wipe will commence in 5 minutes," a synthetic voice that was not quite female announced through the room, breaking the silence suddenly. "If you wish to cancel, please enter the password now." No one was in the room to oppose this memory wipe or to oblige to the wish to enter the password now. The silence obliged the computer in fact to proceed with the memory wipe countdown.
"Memory wipe will commence in 4 minutes," the same synthetic voice announced. "If you wish to cancel, please enter the password now." Again, the silence happily obliged to let the memory wipe commence in 4 minutes. In fact, the silence seemed to encourage the computer to hurry its way on, would it please?
"Memory wipe will commence in 3 minutes. If you wish to cancel, please enter the password now," the voice announced. This time, the silence did not even bother with an answer, and went about its business, and let the memory wipe countdown to continue.
"Memory wipe will commence in 2 minutes. If you wish to cancel, please enter the password now." Now the silence may have been a bit irritated, and may have begun to tell the computer to bloody well finish the blasted memory wipe, but was interrupted by a female voice shouting from the blast of light that came from the door slamming open, the one where the figure had emerged from and had just exited.
"Ahhhh! We need to stop that memory wipe Agent four!"
"I know! Stop shouting, blast it!" a male voice replied, and the owner of that voice scrambled through the open door with the first figure not far behind.
:Half an hour before:
Stairs
Agent 888 ran over the possibilities in her head once more. These possibilities only included two major courses of action: one, get the files and get out, or two, get agent four and get out. If she wanted, she supposed that she could try to mesh both together in a sort of get the files/agent four, then get the other, and then get out but she seriously doubted that once she got one she would be able to get the other. After all, their security must have seen past something they had or agent four wouldn't have been caught in the first place. Or would he have been? Agent 888 thought again. Aside from agent four's inherent unluckiness, perhaps they had known two agents were going to come in? How come they had managed to be caught twice when usually they were never caught? As she raced up the stairs, she thought she would have to have a very long talk with the PHB.
Numbers flew by her. 14, 15, 16, and all the way up till 20. One more flight of stairs lead to the roof where she knew (hoped) that agent four was, ready to be thrown over, and the door in front her lead to the rows of computer servers that she needed to take the files and then erase.
"Oh, agent four if you only weren't so stupid," Agent 888 whined to herself softly. The door in front of her had a tempting look to it, but then again the flight of stairs up… who could deny their allure? She didn't want to lose her partner of 5 years after all. Ever since they had both entered the academy at 10, well he had been 10 she had been 9, they had been together. Okay, that was not quite true. At that age, you all start in a class with about fifty people in it and they sat at opposite sides of the room, but hey, they were in the same class! Agent 888 looked at herself, and imagined the PHB shouting, and then imagined the PHB congratulating her. She didn't like either one, so she shook her head violently. Resolve… she thought as she, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes, reached out for the door handle.
"ARGGHH!" she heard over her com, a scream of pain and suddenly without knowing her feet rushed her up the stairs and to the roof. The door burst open as she kicked it and she saw apprehensively the same two men, one with a crowbar and one with an automatic rifle slung over his back, were holding agent 888 out over the side of the building. They were trying one last attempt at getting from him the reason for him coming here and who sent him, but his torture/interrogation resistance training had been successful. He had not revealed anything yet, or at least nothing agent 888 had heard. And she assumed that she would hear everything he said, because of their com connection. Unless he had somehow turned it off between the time he shouted out in pain and the time she kicked the door open and confessed everything in that time, they were safe.
"Who's that!" the man with the gun asked, turning to look at the door way. Agent 888 stood up, realizing she had no good plan on how to save agent four.
"It's just a kid!" the man with the crowbar said. "I'll take care of her." He lumbered over to where agent 888 was standing.
"Ok…I'll move," the man with the automatic said, throwing agent four to the ground. The roof was flat but big, and a lone building stood in one corner that was clearly for watching for helicopters because the roof was a helicopter landing pad with a huge circle around a giant H in the middle of the roof. He picked him up again and moved behind the building.
"So little girl…" the man with the crowbar said smiling. He tapped the crowbar in his hand. "I think you should go back through that door. I suggest it very strongly," he said, pointing with the crowbar. Somehow his brain did not connect the fact that anyone to even get up her to the roof must not be a little girl, which was the deciding factor that let agent 888 grab the crowbar that he was holding and with a swift kick to his arm make him release it. CRACK! His arm made a sickening noise and bent the wrong way.
"ARGHH!" he cried, but before he could even swear at agent 888, she slammed the crowbar on his head and he slumped to the ground unconscious.
Easy, she thought and a few moments later the other man, taken by surprise, was unconscious too with a similar wound and from a similar condition.
"Agent 888!" agent four cried when he saw he was free. "What did you do? You were supposed to go and get the files!"
"Hey! I saved your butt and this is the thanks I get!" agent 888 asked.
"You were not supposed to save my butt!" Agent four cried as they both started towards the stairs.
"Well…too late," she replied testily and they flew through the open door and came to a screeching halt. Twenty armed men faced the door to the 20th floor, and somehow did not notice them. Agent four motioned, and they slowly backed out.
"What are they doing?" agent four asked, slowly peering around the corner. The twenty men seemed to be focused around the door, all pointing their guns at it, just…waiting.
"Waiting for someone to…come out? Otherwise then they would be pointing their guns outwards, right?" agent 888 said.
"I think so," agent four said. "Well…what should we do?" Agent 888 peered back in, and without warning the door opened and a man slipped out facing the door as he slowly closed it. CLICK! The sound of twenty rifles being cocked and armed behind the man must have made him turn around very slowly.
"Who are you!" one of the twenty men, who must have been the leader, shouted.
"Oh…just a nobody," the man asked. One of the other men pointed with his rifle to the bag that he was carrying.
"What's in there!" he shouted. Apparently, these security guards liked to shout a lot.
"Nothing," the man said. "Maybe some food." The leader pointed the gun directly at the man's temple.
"What…is…in…there?" he asked very slowly. "No games now." One of the men suddenly ripped the bag from his hand, and started to open it.
"We'll find out what's in here soon enough!" he shouted, and unzipped the top. FLASH! A bang of bright light blinded everybody in the room.
"Ahh!"
"Aieee!"
"Argh!" All agent four and agent 888 could hear was a loud banging and shouts of pain. When they could finally see, all twenty men were down and the figure was nowhere in sight.
"What the—?" agent four asked. Agent 888 quickly checked the pulses of several of the men.
"All dead," she said quietly. Agent four bent down over one of them.
"No visible signs of wounds or bruises. Must be internal," he commented. Agent 888 looked at the door to the room where they were supposed to go.
"You don't suppose that he has taken the watch off of us do you?" she asked. Agent four opened the door.
"Memory wipe will commence in 2 minutes. If you wish to cancel, please enter the password now," a female voice announced.
"What?" agent four asked, surprised.
"Ahhhh! We need to stop that memory wipe Agent four!" agent 888 shouted, running in suddenly forgetting about the twenty dead men outside
"I know! Stop shouting, blast it!" agent four cried, racing in after her. They both knew what row they had to get the files from, but when they reached that area, to their horror, saw that the panel which would effectively stop the wipe (if they could guess the right panel) was smashed to bits. And it was a touch pad.
"Memory wipe will commence in one minute. If you wish to cancel, please enter the password now," the voice announced.
"What are we going to do?" agent 888 asked in horror as agent four tried to do something, but the screen would not respond.
"Maybe we can override the wipe with something else…something to distract it…" agent four said.
"But we don't have the computer in our suits to even do anything with it!" agent 888 hissed.
"I know…"
"Memory wipe will commence in 30 seconds. If you wish to cancel, it is too late. Please leave," the voice said.
"Please leave?" agent four asked in wonder. He looked at agent 888. She shrugged.
"Maybe it doesn't want us to be here for…" but agent 888 had no answer.
"Memory wipe will commence in 15 seconds," the voice announced. "All in the area are advised to leave."
"I think…" agent four said, backing away suddenly, "I remember something about an explosion after the memory wipe."
"Oh," agent 888 said, and they sprinted out the door as fast as they could.
"Memory wipe will commence in 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1. Thank you, and have a nice day," the voice announced, and promptly blew itself up.
The Agency
:Some undetermined time later:
Sometimes a failure is avoidable, and sometimes it is not. Sometimes the consequences of both choices are bad, and usually one choice is worse. This time, apparently, agent 888 had chosen not only the worse choice of the two, but the worst choice.
"YOU DARE COME BACK HERE WITHOUT THOSE FILES!" the PHB screamed loudly. Agent 888 and agent four both meekly hung the heads in shame. "AND YOU LOST THOSE SPECIAL TAILORED HIGH POWERED STEATH SUITS!" he screamed again. Agent 888 and agent four both had been yelled at, but always had they both somehow managed to complete the mission in a little bit of a satisfactory way. "AND YOU SAY THAT SOMEONE ELSE TOOK THE FILES!" However, this had been the worst tongue lashing that had ever been heard in the history of the Agency. Yes, there had been the great Troy-Rhodes tongue lashing of 1920, and the wondrous Homes-Watanabe lashing of 1985, but those two paled in comparison with this new lashing, forever to be labeled as the magnificent 888-four tongue lashing of 2000.
"We said that there was nothing we could do sir—" agent four started but the PHB pointed one finger accusingly at agent 888.
"You STOP right there. I know what you are doing, and I've read the mission report! She COULD have gotten the files before that…that...interloper took them and initiated the self-destruct. But nooooooo!" This time he shook his huge finger at agent four, who happened to notice the huge amount of hair on the PHB's knuckles. "SOMEONE HAD TO GET CAPTURED!" he shouted and slammed his other hand on his desk that had already been slammed twice this one shouting session. Usually, once was bad enough, twice meant that you might be demoted, and three times…well, they just don't talk about what happened to Lee.
"YOU GUYS ARE OUT!" he screamed. Agent four and agent 888's head were hung low in shame, but that didn't mean they didn't know when to protest.
"What!" agent 888 asked.
"Are you joking!" agent four cried. They both had nowhere else to go, nowhere else to be, and no one else to be with. Sure they could defeat plenty of people in unarmed hand-to-hand combat, but that didn't mean they could get a job and…have a life!
"NO! NO! AND NO!" The PHB slammed his palm one last time during this tongue lashing. "YOU GUYS ARE OUT! I WANT YOUR RESIGNATIONS ON MY DESK TOMORROW MORNING!" The PHB was breathing heavily now, and even though he paused to wipe the sweat off his brow, it didn't mean that his threat was any less frightening. What the PHB said, he usually got.
"What…" agent 888 started, but agent four shushed her.
"Listen…sir…it's all my fault," agent four started. "If you want to fire somebody, then you should really fire me. I mean, if I didn't know agent 888 that well then she wouldn't have bothered to save me and the mission would have been completed as planned." The PHB stopped mopping his brow for a moment and straightened his tie he was wearing, along with a collared shirt and nice pants.
"That's right," a voice said from the screen above the PHB's desk. This man was the head of the entire agency and so had to have his identity saved, but always listened in on important conversations like this. "The only problem is their bonds of friendship to each other. I think we should keep this strictly professional. Perhaps a few years apart might solve it…"
"A few years?" agent 888 asked incredulously.
"Yes," the voice answered. "A few years. In fact, I have the perfect job for you, agent 888." Agent 888's mood had sunk even lower, if possible. Didn't she save agent four so they could continue to be partners? She almost wanted them both to be fired together.
"What is it?" agent 888 asked reluctantly.
"It involves a secret monitoring of a vitally important person. The details are in this file." And a hole appeared in the PHB's desk where a file popped out. Agent 888 took it and started to read.
"Please fulfill this to the best of your ability. You are dismissed," the voice said, and agent 888 walked out of the room, and took one last look at agent four who was standing very still not saying of doing anything through the window of the PHB's office. Then she went to her office.
"Agent four," the voice said, and agent four stood up straighter involuntarily.
"Yes sir?" he asked.
"You will remain on active duty. Please take this mission and fulfill it to the best of your ability," the voice said. "I'm counting on you." And the link died, indicating that whoever controlled the place (he was referred to as the Top Boss) had left.
"Agent four," the PHB said. "You are dismissed." He turned back to the mounds of papers on his desk and agent four started to leave.
"Sir, if I may ask?" agent four asked at the door. The PHB looked up.
"Yes?"
"What is the duty of agent 888?" The PHB sighed.
"You know as well as I do that one agent cannot know the doings of another," the PHB said. Agent four nodded, and turned around to leave.
"Agent four!" the PHB said right before he left. Agent four popped his head back into the PHB's office.
"If you, you know, do well for these couple years and survive…" the PHB started.
"You don't need to say anything sir," agent four said, and he left.
:Several Years later, 2004. Saturday:
BANG! A sound rocked through an old wooden building, which looked like a Japanese inn. BANG! The sound came out again, shaking the whole inn. Smoke poured out from a window, a specific room, 301.
"SUUU!" someone screamed. The room from where the smoke poured out of opened, and a straw haired 151 cm tall middle school girl, who looked foreign to the country she was in and just slightly exotic, walked out.
"What do you want?" she asked. Apparently she was Su. A tall Japanese girl sporting the traditional Japanese kendo uniform, a long white shirt called a gi and long pants that were so baggy they resembled a skirt (called a hakama), also with long black hair came out.
"I want you to stop creating these crazy inventions that will destroy the Hinata-sou!" the girl cried.
"Aw…come on Motoko!" Su exclaimed to the long haired girl, who was apparently Motoko. "I was making a robot swords fighting robot so you could practice better!" Su clung on to Motoko.
"I don't need that!" Motoko shouted, "And all the smoke gets into my room and stains my clothes so they smell like smoke!"
"You don't hear Shinobu complaining, and she's right below me," Su said.
"The smoke doesn't go through the floor!" Motoko yelled. She decided to walk away from this nonsense and walked down the stairs to the living room. Su shrugged, and went back inside her room.
"Having trouble?" a brown haired girl asked. She was average height, around 165 cm tall, but her hair was long, down to her waist. It was also untied.
"Su is just crazy," Motoko said. "Nothing to worry about Naru." Motoko entered the kitchen.
"Ah, Motoko-sempai! Dinner will be ready in a moment," a girl shorter than Su said. She had black hair cut short, not reaching her shoulders.
"No problem Shinobu. I'm just grabbing some water," she said and did so, grabbing a cup and filling it with water.
"Ah…" she said, sighing in relief. She had just come inside from the roof where she practiced kendo with a devotion that matched many monks. Everyday at five in the morning she woke up and practiced for two hours before getting herself ready for school. She was only in her first year of high school.
"Dinner's ready!" Shinobu cried, and all of the other tenants of the dorm mingled in, including Su, Naru, and Kitsune (whose real name was Mitsune, but because of her foxy ways she was nicknamed Kitsune, combining Kit, fox, and the last part of her name, sune). In actuality, Kitsune stumbled in, in a half-drunken stupor that always happened on Saturday evenings. Having left high school, Kitsune had decided not to attempt college, having what she liked to call a bad case of "naturally induced and chronically occurring sluggishness" (i.e. she was lazy), and instead worked freelance, sponging often off her best friend, Narusegawa Naru, who was still in high school, albeit a third-year.
"ITADAKIMASU!" Su shouted and jumped into her seat ready to gobble down everything in front of her.
"Su! Wait a moment first," Naru ordered. The oldest and most responsible of the bunch Naru was the unnamed leader of this little group. Looking sad, Su waited while everybody sat down. Kitsune took the longest, but finally she too sat down in her chair.
"Ok Su, now you can—" Naru started, but before she could even finish her sentence Su had started to eat. "Never mind. Itadakimasu!" she cried, and everybody started to eat.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! A rapping sound was made against the door and an older woman, although still only 27 and in her prime, walked in. Her hair was shoulder length and black, indicating that she was also Japanese. The only real foreigner was Su here.
"Haruka-san!" Naru greeted. "What's up?" Haruka was the owner of the Hinata Tea Shop, a few steps down the hill from the hill that the Hinata-sou was built on, and the current manager of the Hinata-sou.
"Everyone," she said. "I would like you to meet my nephew, Urashima Keitaro!" she said, and pushed a young man about 19 years old in to the room.
"Err…hi," he greeted.
"Hello," Kitsune responded, drunk. "Who's this sexy looking thing?" Needless to say, Urashima Keitaro blushed.
"And from today onwards he will be your new manager!" Haruka said.
"WHAAAAATTT!" was the general reply. Perhaps a little explaining is in order. They are not in an inn, per say. It used to be an inn, run by an old woman who they (the tenants) affectionately called Grandma Hina (although she was not a grandma to any of them). But seeking a more fulfilling retirement and life than running an inn, Grandma Hina had left the inn to travel the world, ordering her daughter (Urashima Haruka) to take care of it. She also turned it to a dorm, a female dorm specifically, so that it would be easier to manage and slowly these five people, Aoyama Motoko, Kaolla Su, Narusegawa Naru, Konno Mitsune, and Maehara Shinobu came to live in it. So the idea of making a man the manager of a women's dorm was not very appealing.
"He's Grandma Hina's grandson, and my nephew, and she just faxed me a letter stating that Urashima Keitaro is to be the new manager of the Hinata-sou," Haruka said, waving a piece of paper around.
"Give me that!" Naru grabbed the paper. It was indeed a paper that said Grandma Hina had willed his son to be the manager of the Hinata-sou, with her name signed hastily at the bottom.
"No…way!" Motoko complained.
"Err…" Keitaro stuttered.
"Grandma Hina ordered it. I'll let you guys deal with it," Haruka said, and she left. She breathed in the cool air.
"Ahh…that feels good," she sighs, then glances at her watch. "I give them five minutes."
:Five Minutes Later:
"AIEEEEEEE!" BAAAAAAAAAM! The body of a certain manager who had just been introduced to Naru, a part of her anatomy that he probably shouldn't have touched even if he had just tripped, came flying out of the Hinata-sou and landed squarely at Haruka's feet; Haruka had been waiting for him to land.
"Oww…" he groaned. "What's her problem?"
"Welcome to the Hinata-sou Keitaro!" Haruka said. "Want to come inside for a talk?"
A/N: Ok, that was a good start I think. More to come if I feel like it, but I must warn you…it might take a while to think about the exact way this story will go. Also, I'm busy with school since second semester promises to be harder than my first semester. But as my first AU, how was it? Honest reviews, and I really don't mind criticism, but just saying "your story sucks" doesn't really help me. So honest, even brutally honest reviews help! Please R&R!