CHAPTER THREELethal Eliminator

by jolibrix and ThatGingahNinja

WARNING: *This will be a full length story that contains canon typical violence, language, mature adult themes, and sensitive topics. If those bother you please do not read this fic.

Ginoza

Inspector Ginoza waited for the rest of Division One to gather around the dominator cart to finish the briefing. They needed to move quickly, and there was no room for error. Plus, this was going to be Nakamura's first time out, which made him nervous. She had a defiant streak that could be dangerous, on top of that, he had already threatened to send her to rehab once that day. There was a chance she might be frightened enough to try and run. For the millionth time since they rushed out of the CID, he wished that there was a less intense case to have her out on. As it was, he arranged for her weapon to be locked, just like they had done with Kunizuka on her first outing.

He looked over at Erra and felt a pang of jealousy at her calm demeanor. She seemed to have no qualms bringing along their newest hound. Composed though she was, her face was set in a grim expression, belying her anger at the nature of their target. In fact, he had yet to see her so angry. He couldn't blame her. This case was particularly heinous.

When everyone gathered, he brought up a hologram of the man they were going to look for. "We have to be quick, so everybody arm yourselves while I talk. This is Mori Sato." The face of a balding sallow cheeked man floated into view along with his age and vital statistics. His teeth ground with the next statement. "Four children have been abducted and are considered to be in serious danger." A quartet of chubby cheeked little boys appeared along with their data. "Kunizuka will stay behind. Kougami, you're with me, and Nakamura and Masaoka will provide assistance for Inspector Kamiya."

A map replaced the pictures, and Erra chimed in, "The cameras have followed him to this area, here in this shopping mall, and he is effectively trapped there, but it is a lot of ground to cover. Enforcer Kunizuka, as Inspector Ginoza said, you will stay with the equipment here and help navigate us through this shopping center. We need your eyes to help us know when we're facing blind spots.
The rest of us, we go in as a team. This man is considered armed and very dangerous, and our first priority is getting the children away from him. As of now, we have no recent visual on the kids, so be careful and observant. They could already be gone."

Ginoza watched his partner swallow hard and take a deep breath before finishing commandingly, "No matter their fate, it's our job to ensure this trash will face Sybil's justice."

Gino felt a strange fluttering over her surging confidence. As they walked toward the double doors that would get them the closest to their target, he watched as Kou explained the dominator to Nakamura. Inspector Kamiya took the lead, motioning for Nakamura to follow. Masaoka tailed, eyes already scanning every possible corner.

Ginoza hadn't needed to motion his enforcer to follow. He felt a pang of nostalgia for the days they spent as partners, as he and Kou moved like a well-oiled machine, opening the doors and jogging into the mall. This was exactly the reason he generally didn't partner the man, but Kamiya had insisted that Nakamura go with her. Yayoi piped in through their feed, breaking his momentary distraction and checking that she could keep in contact with every member of the team.

The squeaks, clicks, and thuds of shoes echoed in the now empty shopping center, heralding their entrance. The flashing lights from the many billboards added to an atmosphere of desolation. If time were not an issue, he would have warned them to be quieter, but they had to move swiftly. With a series of hand motions, he communicated that they should stay close to the storefronts and under the large balconies. Sufficient cover was few and far between. They passed dozens of shops all empty and barred for the lock down. Hound 2's voice warned them that the target had moved down a narrow hallway about 12 feet to the left, but there were no operational cameras for her to follow him past that point.

They paused at the hallway, assessing the danger. It was a choke point, and if the kidnapper was smart he would use that to his advantage. He looked at Kamiya and nodded. There was no need to signal his intention, she could read him well enough by now. His partner motioned for Masaoka to take lead, as he did the same for Kougami. Sticking close to the wall, they filed in, each team taking a side. Ginoza felt his anxiety rise the further they moved, reacting instinctively when the lights above flickered out. He grabbed Kougami by the shoulder and roughly pushed him against the wall and into a crouch. The sound of bodies hitting the wall across from them indicated that the second team was doing the same. Before the call for retreat could be made, sounds echoed through the hallway... running feet, the feeble screams of children, and slamming doors.

Much to his dismay, there was no way to regroup, because his Shepherd Two's group was moving forward with haste. As his eyes adjusted to the weak emergency lighting that finally kicked in, both he and Kougami moved. It only took a moment to realize that the other team was following a trail of blood. The small scarlet spread seemed to make everything around it black and white. Pushing harder, they sprinted to catch up to the rest of Division One. Without realizing it, he took the lead. If they couldn't get to the kids in time...he couldn't go there. Not now, while they still had a chance.

The team came together, but didn't stop.

"Were you able to see anything?" he asked his partner as they ran.

She spoke over in hushed tones, "A man dragging a boy, but not much else. It was too dark." He could tell that seeing the boy was affecting her stress level by the way she bit her bottom lip. He didn't want to bring up the fact that she'd only mentioned seeing one child.

It wasn't long until they exploded into a huge warehouse space. Cautiously, all of them slowed to gain their bearings. Dimmer light made towers of 10 to 20 feet stacked boxes look like huge monoliths. The smell of cardboard, plastic wrap, and the copper of blood invaded his nostrils. A quick look above made it apparent why the kidnappers came this way. A metal staircase curved its way around the storage room, allowing access to all the levels of the mall.

"Shit!" Erra's curse echoed around them. When Gino turned he realized she was pointing at the wall. He had to step forward to see that it was the breaker for lights, with an ax in it.

He stared at it for a moment, not quite getting what made her so infuriated, and then it dawned on him. "There's more than one man. He couldn't have been here to destroy the breaker if he was in the hallway with us! Damn it!"

"We're going to have to split up to make sure they don't make it to the stairs. The mall's on lock down, but we need to find them before the kids get hurt," came Masaoka's suggestion. The old man's voice was less than a whisper.

"He's right," Gino conceded. He hated splitting up, but knew it was the best way. "Inspector, take your team to the left. Tight line search...no more than one stack of boxes between you. Hound 3 and I will search towards the bottom of the stairwell— try to cut them off. Don't get too far away from each other. Keep in contact."

The situation was more dangerous than expected and Ginoza watched briefly as his partner's team headed away, suddenly guilty with the knowledge about Nakamura he hadn't shared.

Erra

Erra, Masaoka, and Mina formed a line, and as directed kept no more than one pillar of boxes between them. She was itching to move faster... to run. If something happened to a single one of the children, she wouldn't be able to deal with the guilt. No child deserved to have something like that happen to him. Vehemently, she cursed the stars for not having more people. The space was too big for only Division One to search effectively. Her ears strained to hear the slightest out of place sound. Kamiya moved as smoothly as possible, dominator at the ready. Every time she turned a corner, Erra expected to see a dead child. This was the most stress she had ever felt on a case.

To her right, she heard a scuffle, and then Pops was speaking loudly and clearly. "Put the boy down!" She had never heard him sound that way before, so guttural and commanding. His tone of voice made it clear that he was not playing games. Kamiya moved as quickly as she dared. If the old man hadn't fired yet, it meant that the child was in the line of fire.

Luck was on her side. She had managed to position herself behind the kidnapper. From her viewpoint, all she could see was the bright blue of the boy's tennis shoes between the attacker's legs. At one point, the kid's ankles buckled, but then righted. He was still alive. Masaoka was across the way, a decent distance.

"I already told you, old man. Drop the piece, and I won't cut him to shreds," the disturbed Mori Sato demanded.

The little boy's whimper made her grit her teeth. Disgusting bastard!

"I won't do that. Just let the kid go." The old man sounded like he wanted to rip the guy's head off.

Erra slowly moved from her crouch and into Masaoka's view. The index finger of his left hand twitched slightly at the sight of her. Smartly, he was making sure the guy didn't discover her presence by keeping him focused on the dominator.

With a grace that at any other time would have been impossible, Kamiya's feet made next to no noise as she came closer to the cretin's back. Within a foot of her destination though, all hell broke loose.

Masaoka crumpled, and it wasn't until he fell that she saw that the other attacker was behind him, brandishing a baseball bat. The old man was holding the back of his head, groaning. Another scream told her that second attacker was dragging one of the children along. She flinched as he lifted the bat for another hit to her Enforcer's head. She managed, "Masao..." and the old man got it. Sluggishly, he moved out of the way as the bat came down. Then the massive stack of boxes between the two parties started groaning and leaning. She heard a feminine grunt and the stack did it again. The grunt turned into a full out battle cry, and the boxes fell. As the monstrous pile of cardboard formed, Erra used the distraction to its full advantage.

At the sound of her voice, her target had turned. She closed the space quickly, and efficiently pulled the arm holding the kid back by its elbow, in attempt to wrap her other arm around the monster's neck. He turned out of it, to face her. The child was screaming as the man used his free arm to grasp at him again. The arm she had control of was brandishing a large knife. The fist that came at her wasn't practiced, and with ease was dodged. Her other hand was activating the dominator. The weapon was useless until the little boy was out of the way, but her perp didn't know that. She caught enough of a glimpse of the kid to see that his clothes were cut open, and the outrage she felt couldn't be quantified.

"You son of a bitch!" Erra quickly slid her hand down from his elbow to his wrist and with a circular motion, stripped him of the blade. The dominator indicated that, for the first time, she would be using lethal eliminator mode. He broke free of her hold on his wrist and tried to grab at her throat, but with a quick motion, she threw her forehead against his nose. A satisfying crack let her know his nose was broken. The bastard grunted and whined, much to her delight. Unfortunately, he still kept hold of the child.

Just when Erra thought she was going to have to beat the pervert into submission, Mina quickly but clumsily made her way through the cardboard pile, snuck up, and snatched the kid, moving as far out of the way as possible. Without thought, Kamiya fired, and was immediately covered with blood, guts, and other pieces of Sato.

In the distance, she saw Pops come to his feet, but then fall back to his knees. He had been hit pretty hard. His arm was motioning behind him, and Erra quickly realized the second attacker was getting away.

"Mina! Go." She pointed. "That way. The other guy has a hostage, one of the kids."

When Mina looked at her like she was crazy, she yelled, "Go!" Hound 4 was on her feet, making sure to set the boy down carefully, and moved rapidly out of sight.

She used all her willpower not to vomit as she scraped the remnants of assailant off of her arm to get to the communicator. Moving toward the child she reported, "Target Mori Sato has been eliminated. Nakamura is trailing second perp. Masaoka probably has a massive concussion. If you guys could join us, it would be fantastic." Inwardly, the redhead decided to lay into her partner for not describing exactly what 'lethal eliminator' mode was.

"Repeat, did you say you've encountered two..." Gino asked. He sounded out of breath.

"Yes, neutralized one threat. Nakamura's after the other, headed back toward the stairwell, I think."

"Fuck, that means there are three..." she heard faintly in the background from Kougami.

"I'm after a third. Can you follow Hound 4?" Her partner sounded stressed.

"Negative. I have a victim and Masaoka to look after. She can handle it, Inspector Ginoza!" Of all the times to doubt Nakamura...

"As soon as you get them stabilized, follow Hound 4, Kamiya! That's an order!" At that, communication was cut. That was a direct order, and she wasn't going to take it lightly, but the victim came first. Being covered in human detritus was probably not the best way to approach the child, but he would need immediate attention, and she wasn't just going to let him sit there. So, after a few more swipes to rid herself of the gunk as much as possible, she called in the medical personnel and crouched to the boy's level. A quick glance showed that the old man was still breathing and attempting to get up.

She used every technique she knew to try to calm the boy, and was thankful when Masaoka finally made it over and handed her his jacket to cover the child up.

The inspector's focus fell on Masaoka long enough to say, stunned, "You didn't tell me it had a blood piñata setting." Pointedly, she gestured to the people remnants all over her person.

The chuckle he gave was full and hearty. "I figured your partner had covered that." He smiled and winced, grabbing at the back of his head. "You know, there are two of you right now. Even covered in slime, you're both terribly stunning." Even with a concussion, he was cheeky.

"Tch. Hush, old man," she smiled. Changing the subject she asked, "Did you tell Nakamura to knock over those boxes?"

"Ha, not exactly— I told her to create a distraction. She knew that using the dominator would do no good because it would hit one of us… luckily."

With both adults working to put him at ease, the kid calmed down enough to ask Pops about his metal hand. It came as no surprise that Masaoka was absolutely great with kids, and soon he was talking to the boy about everything from trains to jets.

The kid's name was Rei and his chubby little hand never left Erra's. It was so small, and something about that fact made her want to cry. He should have never had to go through this.

A beep issued from her wrist, and soon, Gino was speaking. "Inspector Kamiya, do you have Nakamura?" She really didn't get his worry. It couldn't have been more than four minutes since their last communication, and she was about to tell him as much, with sass, but he was yelling again. "Her dominator is locked!"

Kamiya didn't even hear the second part before she was nimbly navigating through the cardboard maze. "Shit, Ginoza! You couldn't have told me that before now?"

Mina

Mina was hiding, like Ginoza had told her—waiting like Kougami had ordered. It was nerve-wracking to just sit there, listening to the creep tell the kid to sit, tell the kid to shut up, and one time, she heard the distinct sound of a slap. It just made the poor child cry harder.

It made her angry that they told her to wait for backup. No one else seemed to get that kind of treatment, and Mina could only assume that they thought she couldn't handle the situation. As it was, if it became critical, acting would be the only option, forget punishment. She couldn't afford to err, but the cries from the captive boy were pitiful and hard to withstand. She wasn't made of stern enough stuff to listen to those cries.

Hands and feet twitching, needing to move, the woman peeked around the corner. The guy looked entirely unstable as he paced the floor. Every ten seconds or so he stopped and touched the kid, muttering something to himself.

If he just stays like this I can wait it out. I can do this. Mina told herself these things, but still had trouble keeping still.

"I don't know if you can, little sister. You've never been able to watch as someone is being hurt." Kishio, her smart ass of a brother's voice rang true. Using the communicator crossed her mind, but was immediately shot down. They would just tell her to wait.

Another glance around the massive stack of boxes made her blanch. The man was on top of the boy, giggling, and stifling the kid's screams with one hand while the other tore at his clothes.

Nakamura saw red as her chest constricted. The giggling made her want to shove her fist through the guy's teeth. There was no way she could just stand by and watch. So, stepping from behind her cover, the little brunette drew her dominator and adopted the stance that Kougami had taught her in training.

"Get off of him! Right now, or I will shoot you."

The man looked at her. Then he looked at her dominator, and Mina was tired of waiting, so she applied pressure to the trigger. "You are an invalid user. Trigger will remain locked," SYBIL's voice echoed in her head. She tried again, and received no results.

The target seemed to realize that something was wrong. "I guess that thing is nothing but a toy. I should've known better," he said, and then he giggled again. Large hands grabbed at the boy again, this time managing to rip his shirt. "What's little ol' you gonna do about it?" The guy spared her a glance and then went back to what he had been doing.

Nakamura was smart enough to realize that there was something terribly wrong with the man's sanity, and she had to stop him. So, after careful consideration of her options, she chucked the dominator as hard as possible at the giggling bastard's head. It connected and made him pause his actions. She had been hoping to knock him out, but it didn't.

Well, I guess I'm losing my touch. As it was, Mina saw the opportunity to attack.

With a shout she barreled toward the man, intent on getting him away from the little boy. The crash into man's body had them rolling well and far away from the poor kid, but now she had to worry about the knife still in the abductor's hand. Mina landed on the bottom, and he tried to use his superior strength and force the weapon into her eye. Using both hands to hold him back, she waited until he seemed to be pushing all his weight toward her and pulled him forward, leading him away. Her shoulder was nicked, but he was thrown off enough that she could use her hips to roll their positions. In the process, a fist collided with her face, knocking her off. She was up in less than a second though.

"Never underestimate a live blade," her brother's advice rang through her aching head.

He slashed at her chest, an inaccurate movement that indicated how little he knew about the weapon he was wielding. Mina dodged his first two attempts to cut her, and then on the third she saw her opportunity and disarmed the man. Now, it was time to take vengeance.

Kougami

Kou finished helping the kids onto stretchers, wishing that he could use lethal eliminator mode on the fucker all over again. One of the kids was on the brink of death and had been horribly abused. When he had knelt to assess the child's wounds, his teeth had clenched so hard he thought one of them would crack. For once, SYBIL had administered correct justice.

The guy had been huge, and unnaturally fast. Three flights of stairs was how long it took them to catch up, and the bastard had been carrying two kids. Shinya had paused at the landing, assessing the situation, but Ginoza...usually the cautious one, had actually been the one to sprint forward and kick the guy right in the spine. The kids flew forward and rolled, and the enforcer had seen his chance.

It took both of them to subdue the guy, and not without their own set of bruises and scrapes. Ginoza was acting like it was nothing, but Kou knew there was no way his wrist wasn't at least sprained. It wasn't even that the bastard had been trained. He had just been really big and really crazy...maybe even a little high on something.

Kougami rose from his crouch, noting the pain in his left foot, and reasoning that he had injured it, again. It always seemed to be his left one that got hurt. Approaching Gino, who was looking at his communicator, he noted that his superior seemed more than harried. "How's the other team doing?" He asked.

"We need to get to Hound 4. Her dominator is locked."

Kou didn't even give the inspector time to explain where Nakamura was. He had overheard the message from Kamiya, and had a pretty good idea of where to search. He was taking the stairs two and three at a time, until the pain in his foot dictated less impact.

This was unacceptable. His mind, as it so often did nowadays, fragmented with worry. What if he discovered her cut open and bleeding, the way he had found Akane? Would she blame him for convincing her to join Division One? Would this finally be what brought his crime coefficient over the line? How would Gino handle having, yet again, someone else on his team die? There was no way to avoid thoughts of Kagari. He severely missed that kid, and he mused, Ginoza probably did, too. He knew that not even his faithful-to-Sybil inspector believed that the boy had just run away.

He looked down and realized that he could see Mina, the kid, the criminal, and a flash of red hair told him that Erra would reach them before he would. He kept moving, as fast as possible on his now throbbing foot, whilst watching the scene below.

He saw that she tried to use the dominator, and he also saw that instead of just dropping the weapon she chucked it at the bastard's head. Kou was sure he would laugh about that later.

Mina was holding her own against the assailant. The more distance he closed between himself and the action, he realized that she was fending off a knife. That wasn't what caught his attention though. What did was the way she was moving and deflecting the blade. It looked familiar, like Silat. The more he watched, the more he was sure that was the style of fighting she was using. It made him think of Sasayama. The pain of it was still heavy in his chest, even after all this time. He was almost down the last staircase when he saw her gain control of the weapon, and throw the man to the concrete. Nakamura didn't stop there, though. The little brunette brandished the blade in such a way that he was sure she was about kill the guy.

This was not good, and he drew his dominator, hoping that he was in range, dismayed to find that he wasn't.

But Erra was, and soon Mina was slouched over the pedophile. Apparently, even though she was about to kill the asshole, her crime co-efficient didn't warrant lethal eliminator mode, and for that he was grateful. Now they had to worry about the creep who was attempting to get up and use Hound 4's body as a shield.

Inspector Kamiya was unable to do anything with Mina blocking the dominator, and as he edged closer he heard her mutter a litany of curses. She moved slowly forward and to the right, and he realized that the redhead was moving to get to the victim. At least they could get the boy to safety. Kou limped his way to circle around, determined to make sure the crazed bastard didn't get away.

Erra who was now standing in front of the kid protectively, and looking completely worse for wear covered in blood and guts, had noticed his arrival and was engaging the kidnapper in conversation. Shinya took the opportunity, and rushed behind the guy, immobilizing his knife arm and putting him in a choke hold. He heard Hound 4's body fall, and soon the guy was slumping. He moved back and gladly fired his dominator, destroying the last of the criminals.

Assured that the threat was neutralized, he went to check Mina's wounds. Before kneeling, he looked at Erra and thanked her. She nodded in acceptance of his gratitude.

He couldn't stop himself from asking, "What the hell do you have all over you?"

The pretty redhead threw up her hands in exasperation. "I don't even want to talk about it, Kougami. I'm saving that conversation for Inspector Ginoza."