Welcome to the final chapter of Green Circle Blues. It is here that Sousuke and the others have some needed help in re-taking the algae plant as well as defusing the mini-nuclear bomb along with its stolen detonator.

The three lined quote below is both to give you a glimpse of what would be the climax of this fan fiction and also to give you readers a quirky bit of Agent 007 humor.

As for the chapter title, the reason for that is because the mission objectives that were implicitly stated in the story are: VIP escort and bomb defusing.

Both of these were presented as map specific missions in the first person shooter computer game- Counter Strike, which I do not own but Valve Software sure does. There was even a mention of a hostage rescue in Shinji and Kyoko's flashback last chapter.

Then again, it is probably a weird coincidence that the story turned out that way.

As with the last chapter, there will be two more cameos but this time, they will be from a recent released role playing video game.

Added disclaimer: I do not own Starbucks Coffee, although I wish I could.

Read and enjoy, everyone.


"Wait a minute. Are you going to do what I think you are going to do?"

"What do I need to defuse a nuclear bomb?"

"Me." - Special Agent James Bond and Dr. Christmas Jones from the Agent 007 movie "The World is Not Enough"

Chapter 4 – Counter Strike

As the two Mithril vehicles had entered Ellensburg through Exit 109, its armored occupants had noticed that only one truck stop was still open at this early hour (4:30 AM).

The truck stop itself was smaller in comparison to the one in Pendleton but still larger than the one the Arbalest had charged itself back in La Grande.

Its single gate was in the middle of a twelve feet high concrete wall topped with barbed wire. On each of the twelve inch thick wall's four corners has stood a steel turret, and each turret is equipped with two blast cannons.

On the other hand, Pendleton's truck stop has military Gatling guns on each of its four turrets.

As the convoy of two cars had entered the truck stop's premises, their occupants had seen that the buildings were arranged in a U-shape pattern.

The two-car garage was located at the far end of the truck stop or the bottom end of the "U". At its right were the low cost two story motel and its accompanying night club.

On its left was the truck stop's well-known restaurant as well as its convenience store. The two charging generators were placed in the middle of the "U" with a roof above them as their only shelter from the elements.

After parking the cars in front of the charging generators, each one of the mercenaries and scientist had taken turns in answering to the call of nature to make sure someone was left behind to guard the vehicles.

It was decided that the order of taking turns in the rest rooms would be Kyoko, Richard, Shinji, and finally Sousuke.

To while away the time, Sousuke had asked the teen aged charging station attendant about the road conditions and bandit activity. Shinji was already in the garage's small but homey office asking for a quick armor patch up to his dueling vehicle.

Before the bespectacled merc had left, he had given his auto bank card to his fellow mercenary and friend.

"Well, the road itself is a clear path heading for Seattle. Since you guys are in a hurry, you can even break the speed limit if you haveta. Jus' be careful of the speed radar-toting state patrol troopers and the tight curves up the Cascade Mountains." The teen as he was removing the magnetic plug between the cars' battery receptacles and the charging generators. "As fer the reports about the Snoqualmie Forest Rangers that were blocking both lanes of the I-90, the bus that I rode yesterday passed by Snoqualmie Pass with no interruption at all."

As the teenager received the auto bank cards from the black haired mercenary, the scientist had by then arrived at the cars' location looking relieved. He then opened the door to the Arbalest's gunner seat and buckled himself up.

The two mercenaries then left one after the other for the bathroom. As for the only girl in the group, she made a brief stop at the truck stop's convenience store to buy a few sticks of chewing gum and some souvenirs.


In the men's rest room, Shinji was asking Sousuke to let him have the Altron fixed up to prepare for future ambushes by Green Circle.

"Sousuke, Dr. Mardukas. I promise that the repairs will not take long. They had even bought both a MTB and a BRS maintenance robot to compensate for the lack of mechanics in this truck stop. So how about letting my car be fixed, please?"

"Mr. Kazama has made a valid point in pointing out the green Acura's damage. The Altron's rear armor was damaged in the last attack. Its AI - Nataku has told me as much and is requesting the same thing that his owner is asking." added Al from the mercenary's wrist communication link. The said device was cleverly disguised as a digital watch.

"Alright, the Altron will be fixed. Just try to keep from speaking in front of other people. Is that clear, Al?" The impromptu team leader - Sousuke had answered to both Shinji and Al, his grating tone had shown his exasperation.

"Affirmative, Sousuke."

"Thank you, Sousuke. We'll be ready to go before you even know it," Shinji added as he had turned the ignition and was already driving his car towards the rear garage. Sousuke had followed his friend as he too had realized that his own car had some rear armor damage too, even it was trivial compared to Shinji's.

By the time Kyoko had returned to the newly fixed Altron some fifteen minutes later, she was already carrying her newly bought items. After everyone had buckled up, the convoy had left the city via Exit 106 on the western part of Ellensburg.

The convoy had been traveling for nearly five minutes, having just passed by Cle Elum and were now approaching the little town of Easton.


A sudden flood of lights had greeted the travellers as they had passed by Exit 74 in Nelson. After Al and Altron's AI - Nataku had partially polarized their respective cars' windscreen, they reported another transmission on the short wave radios. The frequency was the same as the one that Green Circle had used to scare them off earlier.

"Congratulations Mithril on reaching this far. But as far as we're concerned, this is the end of the line for you." The slick voice was not scrambled this time and was immediately recorded in the car's vehicular computer for future identification.

The Arbalest had made the first shot as the Altron sped up to give the lead car some cover fire while coming to its right side. As the convoy had positioned themselves for battle, their hidden weapons were again brought back to firing position.

The three enemy cars had occupied both lanes of the interstate as they had returned fire at the charging Mithril vehicles. The first two cars, a black Chevrolet Cobalt and a gray Subaru Legacy, were spraying the Mithril vehicles a horizontal rain of recoil-less rifle rounds and a stray heavy rocket to boot.

The metallic green BMW E66 had stayed a car's length behind the other two so it could destroy the Mithril car that would have escape the highway melee.

The other four cars' front armors were slowly whittled down by High Explosive Anti-Tank or high density machine gun rounds fired at nearly point blank range as the said cars had charged at each other.

Still, the Green Circle's two vehicles were the first to explode since the Arbalest's and Altron's turret weapons had enough power to penetrate the armored hoods and continue on to the enemy cars' power plants after the front machine guns had done their part at whittling the said cars' outer armor.

The supersonic needles and pulsed laser beam had holed the enemy cars' inner armor, inches beneath their exterior one on their way to the cars' power plants.

Jagged chunks of glass and plastic from the front grilles and headlights had also rained down the highway's asphalted surface as the battle continued.

Due to the intensity of the battle, both Sousuke and Shinji had ignored the little pieces of debris covering the road where the Arbalest and Altron fought savagely. As a result, their car's tires were lightly punctured by the sharp debris. Their only saving grace was that their tires are specially made to resist punctures up to an inch deep and even then, still run for a distance of ten miles before becoming completely flat.

The Arbalest itself was nearly hit by the stray heavy rocket. It was only through Sousuke's sudden turn to the left and Al's accurate aim at the streaking projectile that had saved them from a fiery end. It then pulverized the Subaru Legacy (Busting Braun) with a combined machine gun and Gauss gun fire.

The Altron, on the other hand, was faring well against its own enemy. The Chevrolet Cobalt (Zulu Surprise) was getting hammered between the machine guns and pulse laser as the smart linked weapons were all hitting the compact car's hood at about the same spot.

After bypassing the two cars that skidded off the road, the Arbalest and Altron had turned their gun sights on the lone luxury (Cosimo). The BMW was already turning around after firing two short bursts from its two linked machine guns and continued firing with the turreted Vulcan machine gun as it was escaping.

With a twinge of regret, the two Mithril vehicles had destroyed the retreating car with their front facing weapons fired one after the other.

After destroying all three Green Circle vehicles, they plowed on towards their objective with the slowly rising sun lighting the way.


By 5:15 in the morning, the convoy was now passing through the small town of Easton. This time, the convoy had stopped for a quick tire change at the town's truck stop as well as needed top up recharge.

As they were leaving Easton, Kyoko had taken a quick picture of Lake Easton as she could not help but be amazed at the lake's beauty in the dawn light.

It was after that they had passed Snoqualmie pass that they saw a holed aluminum sign that says "Snoqualmie National Forest" and a few meters past it is a large wooden hand-painted sign with this written on it:


Cared for in public good by the Snoqualmie Preservation Society.


The first sign was placed on top of two steel poles while the second was simply nailed on a large trunk of a Pacific Silver Fir.

"I've heard of these guys. They're simply misunderstood persons who love nature a bit too much," The scientist had commented as soon as he saw the wooden sign.

"I have to agree with you there, Sir. " gushed Kyoko as she had snapped picture after picture with her pink digital camera. "I think I can understand their love for nature though. I mean, look at this place. It's so beautiful that it can take your breath away."

"Yeah, if we weren't in such a hurry, I would have suggested stayin' here for an hour or so." added Shinji as they had passed the woodland around them.

"After we finish this mission, we'll all come back and have a picnic here." the scientist said in reply. "After all, my daughter had told me that she would follow us in Seattle along with Belfangan and the others."

Eyes still on the road, Sousuke was thinking about Kaname and how she would react if she was with him in this place.

'Maybe she would suggest that they fish for some salmon in the nearest river as they camp out in the nearest camping grounds,' he had thought with a wry smile.

"Earth to Sousuke, the Altron has already passed you." Dr. Mardukas was already shaking the mercenary's shoulder roughly as the former was impatiently waiting for the latter to snap out of his daze.

"Um… I-I apologize for daydreaming, sir. I promise that it won't happen again," The mercenary responded as he had again focused on the road ahead as well as depressing the accelerator pedal.

"You better, we're just lucky that we are currently not in an auto duel or we may not be even speaking to each other like this." Richard then leaned back to his seat, his arms akimbo.

As the convoy had traveled further in the forest, its passengers had to marvel at the beauty that surrounds them. In the air, bald eagles had given a soft but shrill cry followed by nearly inaudible grunts as they had migrated to their winter homes in Northern Mexico.

On the ground, glimpses of Northern spotted owls were seen as the said nocturnal birds of prey had readied themselves for sleep. These scenes had alternated with glimpses of Marbled Murrelets taking off for their fishing spots on the off-coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean.

At times, the travelers had even saw an occasional sighting or two of a gray wolf, a grizzly bear and even a lynx. The fact that such wild animals could roam around in the forests around the road had successfully changed the mercenaries' minds about pulling over and enjoying the sights.


About fifteen minutes later, the travellers had seen yet another hand painted sign, this time on a brown trunk of a Western Hemlock. These words were written on it:


Makeshift Snoqualmie Preservation Society toll booth- 500m ahead. Please prepare one thousand U.S dollars or the equivalent amount in Canadian dollars for immediate payment. Credit cards are not honored here.


Every one had felt a rather large bead of sweat accumulate at the back of their heads as soon as they had read the sign's message.

"Ok…someone likes to write on wooden signs a little too much." Kyoko commented in the radio as she had taken yet another picture for her funny road signs scrapbook.

"I definitely agree with you there, Kyoko. And why am I not surprised that the Washington Highway Patrol ignored all of this since they know that the Snoqualmie Rangers probably meant no harm to ordinary travelers anyway based on that sign they made." Shinji added, his chuckle barely heard in the Arbalest's radio speakers.

"I see the 'makeshift toll booth' dead ahead. The problem is we don't have much time to wait for them to move that big log that is blocking the road. Sousuke had told them over the laser communication system. "It's nearly six in the morning and the early morning gridlock may slow us down even more once we enter Seattle itself. We'd better jump over it and fast."

After he had put down the mike, Sousuke had depressed the accelerator pedal hard while deftly shifting the manual transmission to fourth gear.

"I'm right behind ya, boss." Shinji had replied on the airwaves.

Turning to his gunner, he then added. "Better hold on tight, honey."

Shinji had also shifted gears after depressing the accelerator pedal and also counted to five under his breath.


The Snoqualmie Forest Rangers that were assigned at that very moment, had never expected two heavily damaged luxury size cars to barrel down on their makeshift tollbooth before igniting their Jet Assisted Take Off units hidden in their respective undercarriages.

The JATO units had propelled each car over the large hunk of wood before landing far beyond the dumbstruck toll chargers' hand weapons' range.

All of the rangers present were in awe at how the two drivers had timed each others jump over their log, which was about five feet in diameter, excluding branches.

One ranger had even commented that the cars had jumped thrice the diameter of their blockading log and made their escape as soon as all their tires had touched the warming asphalt.

"Alright, how're we going to tell the boss that two cars had escaped by simply pole vaulting over our big log." The ranger beside the said log had asked his comrades as he stood up from his cowering position.

"We don't. I jus' saw these two paper bills flutterin' down as the cars jumped over you guys," replied another ranger, who was reading a comic book in his pick up truck when the curious incident occurred. He then showed two crisp 1,000 dollar bills on his left hand to his companions.

"Well I'll be. Mebbe we should ask the boss t' make this toll gate business legit," A third ranger suggested after he had recovered from shock.

The rest of the assembled group had looked at the white haired ranger like he had grown another head. "What?! Is there somethin' on my face?"

His companions had just rolled their eyes as they slowly returned to their respective posts. One of them had even thrown a dirty rag right on the speaker's face in his disgust.


Back at the speeding convoy, Sousuke had finally asked about the faxed message that his gunner and client had sent earlier. He had thought it was probably a call for back up but something still bothered him about the quickness of the reply.

"Actually, I sent them a fax before I even left my laboratories in Los Angeles and boarded that United American airship bound for Boise. I knew that you'll need back up, the moment Andrei had called me up with more news about the stolen detonator." The scientist had told him as well as the other two mercenaries through the radio.

"I understand, sir. " Sousuke replied as he had rubbed his chin with his free hand. "Still, it would have been better if we had all met in Boise prior to the mission."

"Maybe so, but Green Circle would have been onto us had they spotted the Altron heading for Boise," Richard said with a resigned sigh.

"He's right, Sousuke. Kyoko and I actually just busted a recent operation of theirs in Salem last week so it would be suspicious fer us to head for Boise for no apparent reason other than meeting up with you. I'm just glad that we did meet in Pendleton, rather than on the I-82." Shinji had added over the radio.

The dark haired mercenary had thanked all of them for giving him the needed answers to his earlier questions. He then turned the knob on his car radio to a local AM radio station for a traffic report.

To no one's surprise, the traffic report had started with an advisory for inbound motorists coming from the east to take the nearest exit due to a traffic build up at the interstate as it went further in Seattle.

The convoy's occupants had seen that the gridlock has not reached Exit 18 yet and followed the side streets from the said exit, that were thankfully still clear, towards Route 520 before turning at Interstate 5.

Once there, it was a short spurt towards Harbor Island where the Seattle Food Technologies main plant is located.


When the conyoy was about to enter 11th Ave SW from Spokane St SW, the Seattle Police Department and the FBI had already barricaded the whole block. Dr. Mardukas then exited the Arbalest to talk to the person in charge both to assess the situation and to let them through.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Mardukas but we cannot let any civilians pass... even you. Only those with FBI access could enter the area beyond the blockade," The FBI agent in charge of the blockade had told the scientist in his most apologetic tone.

"I do have the damn access, jus' let us in and do our jobs. You should know that I'm the only person in the world who can defuse that detonator. Even those bastards holed up in there knew it," Richard had spoken harshly while shakily pointing at the algae plant only a block away from them.

"Let them through, Agent Reinhardt. Those people are with me," A calm bass voice with a Russian accent said from behind the surprised FBI agent. The embarrassed agent then went to his men and told them to move the police blockade to the side.

"Thank you, Andrei. I was about to lose my patience with that idiot if you had not intervened," Richard said as he shook the Russian's gloved hand. He then signaled the two-car convoy behind him to continue on their way to the besieged plant. "Let us talk later, old friend. The children and I still have to defuse that bomb."

"No problem, Richard. We'll handle things here. Also, a team of Texas Intelligence agents has arrived two hours before you and had made quite a show too."

After the scientist returned to his seat, Andrei had waved at his "son" and his friends as the latter group continued on to the plant's parking lot.


As the two car convoy had arrived at the front parking lot, its occupants were dismayed at the carnage that greeted them. The plant's front gate was swinging lazily in tune with the wind blowing from the south.

Dead bodies had littered the front of the main building, all of them still clutching their spent AK-47 assault rifles.

The whole area in front of the building looked like a recently fought battlefield with plants uprooted as its concrete holders where destroyed. The parking lot itself was holed in some places and the building windows were cracked and even broken through.

Burning wrecks could be seen scattered through out the parking lot.

The only things still standing besides the building itself were a few duel cars and a black Dodge Sprinter van with two machine guns in front.

On the van's sides were slits that had signified the fact that they hold hidden pylons big enough for guided missiles and on its top was a sign of a pop up sponson turret.

From the direction of the black van, a broad shouldered man with straight red hair falling past his shoulders had approached them in a crouching run, his facial expression a cross between embarrassment and pride.

From his vantage point, Sousuke could guess that the man was about Kurz's height with a more muscular build.

A petite woman with shoulder-length blond hair curled at the tips was following him and her expression was simply that of pure disgust. Both had worn military grade improved body armor, with their rifles slung on their backs.

"Ah, so you mus' be the Mithril bomb defusing team that came from Boise?" The man said as his face slowly changed to a satisfied smirk.

"Yes, and you are?" Sousuke replied for his team, his expression unreadable.

"I'm Special Agent Luke fon Fabre, leader of the assault team from Texas Intelligence. We were assigned ta assist you in the defusing of the mini-nuke. " The man continued as he had placed an armored arm around his shorter wife's frail shoulders. "Standin' beside me is my lovely wife and the only sniper of the team, Natalia. By the way, every sniper has his or her spotter and that role's mine. Get my drift?"

"A pleasant good morning to all of you. Things would not have been as hectic as it is now if a certain someone had not used a wire guided missile simply to blast the front doors of the plant open." Natalia said in a haughty manner, while glaring up at her red-faced husband for both his earlier actions as well as his infuriating possessiveness.

"Aw c'mon, Nat. At least, we flushed out that pesky sniper fer you." Luke had replied with a slight whine. "Besides, with some well placed smoke grenades and flash bangs, we can enter that glorified food processor much easier"

"Whatever. Since the Mithril team's now here, let us now make our way into the plant. We'll save further introductions for later," The blonde sniper said as she had readied her M24A2 Sniper Weapon System for use.

Seeing that the conversation is over, the rest had also prepared their respective gear. Luke was a bit surprised to know that Mithril personnel also carried CornerShot Assault Pistol Rifles to combat.

He hid his surprise by telling his men through his walkie-talkie to throw smoke grenades or flash grenades on the blasted doorway on the count of three.

On the first count, the mercenaries and agents were walking briskly while crouching towards the opened doorway. They had also used whatever structure or wrecked vehicles that were in their path to cover their movements from look outs.

By the time Luke and his second in command on the second team had counted two, both teams were already leaning on the wall beside the opened door, readying their weapons, flash bangs and/or smoke grenades. Richard was clutching his briefcase with the special defusing kit inside, tightly with both hands.

On the third count, everyone except Dr. Mardukas had thrown a grenade inside the building's interior and ducked from the back blast.

The grenades had detonated inside the building with audible booms. Some white smoke, and flashes of light came out of the doorway. On Luke's command, everyone had gone inside the building, two by two with him and his second in command taking the point.


The combined force of Mithril mercenaries and Texas Intelligence agents had assembled just in front of the reception desk in the main lobby. It was then that introductions were in order.

"Alright, so far so good. So which one of you guys is the technical expert?" The assault team leader had asked the puzzled mercenaries after taking a peek further in with his gun's video camera.

"I am," Shinji answered as he raised his right gloved hand.

"Alright then. Yo, Dusty, get in here and coordinate with Sergeant Kazama...and bring the plant's blueprints with ya." Luke said in a stage whisper at the assembled group to his left.

A sandy blond agent had come over to the Mithril side, carrying a set of rolled blueprints.

"Hi, my name's David Ishtar and I'm the technical expert of our team," He said as his introduction to the mercenaries and scientist.

"Quit yapping and jus' do yer stuff, damn it. This whole place could blow any minute now," Luke said as he had roughly pushed the two men out of the assembly.

As a result, Both Shinji and David had fallen to the dirty floor face first before recovering quickly.

"Luke!" Natalia said angrily with both gloved hands on her slim hips. Kyoko was also glaring at the red headed leader at his rough treatment of her fiancé.

"Alright, alright. Here's what we will do. Sousuke, you'll take out the tango guardin' the bomb. Bring Natalia, Dusty, and the 'Doc' with you so that he can quickly disable it." Luke replied with an unconcerned wave of his hand.

"Humph. 'Doc' indeed," Richard said with contempt.

"Anyway, I'll take Shinji, Kyoko and Castello ta take out the remaining three tangos upstairs." Luke then turned to two agents standing just at the edge of the circle and who were now pointing at themselves and said. "Jack, you and Speck'll have ta go 'round the back and take out any tangos still trying to escape."

Once his gaze had returned to the rest of the assembled group, he simply said. "Any questions?"

When he heard nothing, he added with a satisfied grin. "Let's get this party started."


At the plant's sprawling floor, Sousuke had led the two agents and the scientist through a maze of plant machinery and conveyors. Every so often, he had signaled them to stop and take a peek at the corner with his weapon's video camera.

David had already told him on where the terrorists would probably plant the bomb for maximum effect.

At last, the group had found a single Green Circle member standing along side an opened briefcase. From what they could see, there were red, white, and green wires that seem to crisscross the entire luggage interior.

As for the guard, he had gone away a bit to take a look around for a few minutes before stopping in front of the bomb. He had never found the four people that were hiding behind a large titanium tank, only a few feet away from him.

Sousuke had put his forefinger near his lips before tiptoeing slowly towards the bored terrorist who was looking the other way. In moments, a loud crick was heard and the dead terrorist was dropped to the concrete floor with his neck broken.

"Ok, Dr. Mardukas. You can start disarming the bomb now." The Mithril mercenary was saying with no change in his tone as he had dragged the dead terrorist towards the nearest empty room.

The scientist had knelt down in front of the mini-nuke and detonator, right after recovering from shock. He then carefully opened the back panel of the detonator so he could push the nearly invisible switch inside with the flat edge of his screwdriver.

Sweat flowed freely over Mardukas's angular face as he had slowly removed each screw holding the aluminum panel.

After wiping the sweat off his face and putting the panel on the concrete floor beside him, the scientist then carefully pushed the tangled wires away from the blue switch hidden beneath them so he could manipulate it with his trusty screwdriver.

It was only when Mardukas had heard a faint beep that he had let out the breath he was unknowingly holding in relief.

He then went to work on unplugging the detonator from the mini-nuke as well as crippling the mini-nuke's computer brain as well so it could never be triggered ever again.

Natalia, meanwhile, had recovered from her shock at how quickly Sousuke had taken care of the terrorist. She had also drawn her hand weapon and was looking around any large machinery near her, wary for any surprise attack.

Her heart was racing like mad since Murphy's law could still cast its chaotic spell at any given moment.

She knew that until the bomb was defused and the remaining tangos dead, their shared mission with Mithril's own operatives could never be completed and thousands of people would die as a result.

Her fellow agent, David was also peering past the various machines and structures in search of any terrorists lurking about in the shadows. He was murmuring a silent prayer both to calm himself and to ask for divine providence.


Up above, Luke was already leading his small squad across the overhead walkways as they had looked for the remaining terrorists. He had stopped abruptly when his hand-held radio that was clipped on his back pack's shoulder harness, softly buzzed for his attention. The rest of the team had also stopped and checked for anything out of the ordinary.

Pulling it off its plastic clip and then holding it close to his left ear, the leader of the Texas Intelligence team was relieved to know that Dr. Mardukas has successfully defused the bomb. But his relief was short lived when he had seen a man pointing his AK- 47 assault rifle at something below.

"Oh no, you don't!" Luke yelled as he had initiated a barrage of rifle fire at the shadowy figure. In his panic, the lead agent had accidentally dropped the held radio just as he was grabbing his own rifle. The assault was over before the Green Circle member had even fired a single shot.

After the shooting itself had stopped, Luke, rifle still cradled in his arms, had run to where the man was aiming his rifle. To his shock, he had seen his wife breathing heavily from her close call with death.

Both of her armored legs were splayed beneath her and her Colt .45 pistol was still held by her hands that were now touching the concrete.

"Next time, Nat. Please double-check if someone is about to shoot you from above, alright."

"Y-yes, I will... and thank you."

Natalia's blue eyes had suddenly widened as she instantly raised her hand gun at her husband's direction, her gamine legs forming a triangle to support her slowly bending body.

"Natalia, what the he-" Luke never got to finish his sentence as four gunshots had echoed throughout the plant's interior. The terrorist behind the red head had dropped the bowie knife he was holding before going over the railings himself.

He also fell to the floor below with a loud thump, scaring the dickens out of the sniper nearby.

Sousuke, David, and Richard had run to Natalia's side as soon as they heard the commotion, with the Mithril mercenary holding the defused mini-nuke in his left hand.

"Thanks, I guess it's my turn to eat humble pie." Luke had grumbled to no one in particular as the others laughed heartily despite the situation they were in.

Again Luke's hand-held radio buzzed as it was being given to him by his fellow agent. The red haired agent had raised it to face level and pressed the talk button before saying. "What is it?"

"Sir, we just tagged a certain tango trying to escape through the back. How are things on your end?"

"Never better, Jack. The 'Doc' had disabled the bomb and we tagged the other two remaining tangos. Report back to the van, we will be joining ya shortly."


Later that day, Sousuke was sitting in an outdoor steel table of a local Starbucks outlet. He had skimmed through his memory of everything that happened after they had stopped Green Circle from blowing up the Seattle Food Technologies main plant as he was sipping on a Cappuccino.

There was a post-mission debriefing followed by a "thank you" party courtesy of the plant's owner where smiles and back slapping was the order of the day. He even had a chance to talk with his foster father for the few minutes available to both of them.

That was before Sousuke was again sent on another mission. This time, he would meet his client in an outdoor table of Starbuck's Seattle outlet in 3rd Avenue by four o' clock in the afternoon.

Unfortunately for the dark haired mercenary, he was actually tricked by his friends and foster father. This fact had become clear to him when a certain blue-haired twenty year old young woman wearing light green improved blended body armor had slowly walked to his table.

She then sat quietly in front of him. Her red ribbon at the lower part of her hair had swung slightly with help from the soft ocean breezes that was common in this city.

"Kaname…when did you arrive in Seattle and how did you know where to find me?" Sousuke still could not believe that his ex-girlfriend was now sitting in front of him.

"Sousuke, I was sent an e-mail telling me to meet you here so I took the first flight here yesterday. I'm still not sure who it was from but I have some ideas." The young woman was trying to calm herself at seeing her ex-boyfriend again after a span of three months.

"Oh, who do you think it might it be?" The mercenary was curious as to who she though it might be. He himself had thought that it was probably Melissa or Shinji who had sent her that e-mail.

"It was your foster father, Sousuke. He knows how much you have been hurtin' because of what happened between us three months ago. He even told me what you 'ave been doing in Boise since then."

"I see." The mercenary had silently thanked his foster father- Andrei and the others for giving him another chance with the one girl he loved.

"Sousuke, I-I'm sorry for acting like a spoiled brat before." Kaname said as she had held back tears.

"Negative, I should be the one who is asking you for forgiveness. Next time, I will choose my missions so we can always be together." Sousuke said quietly as he had stood up and wiped her tears away with his gloved hand.

"Oh yeah, about that always bein' together part." She said as she had played with her gloved fingers. "Um, I have another confession to make. I-I'm now a field agent of Mithril, still on probationary status of course."

Having confessed with her blue eyes closed, Kaname did not understand why her ex-boyfriend was silent all of a sudden. When she had finally opened them, she did not see him at first, but found him lying on the cemented ground still sitting in the steel chair.

His brown eyes were twitching and his whole body was shaking like a leaf.

"Oh, Sousuke. What am I going to do with you?" Kaname said as she had knelt down in front of the shaking mercenary and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"You could do this," Sousuke replied as he had wrapped his arms around her back and kissing her lips as well to stop her from squealing in joy.

"Get a room, Sagara." a gruff male voice had shouted from across the street.

"Luke, you big idiot! You just gave us away!" a high pitched female voice had followed the first one accompanied by a distinct sound of a leather handbag hitting a thick skull. Finally, a loud cry of pain made by the first voice himself was heard from the same direction.

Sousuke could not help but laugh at the realization that both he and Kaname were being watched by all his friends including those from Texas Intelligence.

The young woman was confused at first but when she had seen the huddled group silently emerge from their hiding places across the street with their heads bowed in shame, she had joined in the dark haired mercenary in his laughter.


For those who were waiting for a Sousuke and Kaname moment, here it is.

Both Luke fon Fabre and Natalia Luzu fon Fabre nee Kimlasca-Lavaldear are from the Japanese role playing game - Tales of the Abyss. And it is in that sub-section that Mean Streets will be posted since most characters from the said game will be featured there along with a few others.

Oh yeah, I had borrowed the term "tangos" from Ominae. Sorry for the trouble, my friend. Tango means terrorists in law enforcement and military lingo, by the way.

So I guess it is time for me to say good bye to the anime/manga section as I will finally post my last story for the Anime Car War series in the games section instead.

After that, maybe I will post maybe one or two fan fictions if inspiration manages to hit me.

Read and enjoy, everyone and good bye for now.