A/N. Fair warning. The first part of the chapter will focus on our new OC's that are vital to the plot. I'll try to keep it short and to the point.
...
"If we ever hope to rid the world of the political AIDS of our time, terrorism, the rule must be clear: One does not deal with terrorists; one does not bargain with terrorists; one kills terrorists."
-Meir Kahane (1932-1990)
…
03 The Message
…
The US Navy tends to name its boats after people, most of them Presidents. The George Washington, The JFK, even a planned Supercarrier was being named after Barack Obama. The USS Jack Ryan was no different.
Jack Ryan was once with the CIA, managing to stop World War III on a few occasions. That was in the early to mid 80's, some time passed and before you knew it, he became President of the United States (two full terms and the ending of the previous president's term.)
Needless to say, Ryan became a bit of an icon, not as much as a few other people in the world, namely John Clark, but he did manage to assure safety for the world. Hence the Naval supercarrier named after him.
It made sense too that the boat was home to his own special ops team, Rainbow. Over the years, many things have changed here and there. Nothing that would overall change the way the team functioned (too drastically anyway.)
They were still lead by a Major with a Sergeant Major as his second in command. There still remained a sniper and even a bombs expert. For cost efficiency, the team was shrunk from 10 active operators, to 6. It would be 7 if you were counting the Intelligence officer. However they still function the same as always, just with nicer more expensive toys to play with.
One of those toys was a supercomputer.
Enter 2nd Lieutenant Okazaki. Permanently stuck in a wheelchair, she was delegated to the job of the Intelligence Officer. She was once an active operative just like the others, but made a rookie mistake early on and was left paralyzed from the waist down.
It's a shame too, she was all around a pretty girl to look at. Eye candy by most standards. Long and straight brown hair, cute face, amber eyes, and C cups. It was impossible to imagine she was, at one point, one of the deadliest people alive.
Anyway.
She sat staring at the screen, sifting through on going situations around the world, even blowing up various Al Qaeda soldiers with a remote controlled drone hovering around somewhere in Iraq.
She stretched her arms out.
"Damnit." She groaned to herself. "What does a girl have to do to get some decent food?"
The door behind her opened without her knowing. "Probably take off your shirt."
She turned around, almost surprised the Major was here.
She sighed. "Sir, respectfully, I don't think you could afford another SHARP complaint."
Cox sighed. "Whatever. Anything new?" He asked.
She shook her head. "Nope, it's looking pretty dead in the Pacific right now."
Cox shook his head. He always was in a perpetual bad mood, it was made evident in his voice. Low, sounded like a growl, and completely done with your shit. He was a lot like most other older Rainbow members, got into their respective militaries during Vietnam. Hasn't really stopped since.
Cox, in particular, was recruited just before the Soviet Union collapsed, he lead a team of other operatives in basically delivering the final blow to the crippling government. 20 or so years later he ran his own team, then 9/11 happened. It's been a perpetual state of things blowing up since then. Hence, his perpetual bad mood.
"Feels like the calm before the storm I guess."
"Please don't jinx it sir." She asked him.
"Why, so you can play Galaga on the helicarrier when no one's looking?" Cox told her. "Besides, it would give us something to do."
"Sir. Respectfully, MacTavish has his hands full in Iraq right now, would you rather we be there rather than a civilized country?"
"Civilized being the relative term." Cox replied. A light suddenly came on the computer screen and the sound effect for rings being collected in Sonic sounded. "Email by the way."
"I see it, I see it." She groaned. She started opening up the account with the email. She looked up the Major. "Sir I can do without you breathing down my neck."
He backed up. "Sorry." He mumbled.
She opened up a few accounts before coming across the one she was looking for. "Okay. Here's a video file from someone in Japan. Looks like it was sent from the Prime Minister's office?" She looked at it again. "That can't be right."
She looked it over a few more times.
"No, definitely from his office."
"What the hell does he want?" Cox asked.
"No clue. Guess we should find out." Okazaki said opening it. This was one of her primary jobs, investigating most forms of crap that comes their way. Which includes but is not limited to mysterious video files. The computers here were more than well protected against cyber attacks, so there wasn't much danger in viewing it.
She pulled the video up onto the main screen.
"Um… Shit." She hissed to herself.
"What the fuck?" Cox asked himself. "Sakamoto?"
On the screen, several men stood, most wearing balaclava of some form on their faces. Except one. He was wearing a greasy looking white shirt and black combat pants. The same face as his former operative.
Most of the men stood looking threatening with primarily AK-47's and other similar looking firearms. In between them were two high school girls, one with short ash brown hair, the other with Dark red long hair. Both of them had a piece of cloth wrapped around their mouths, preventing them from talking. Tears dripping down their faces.
Hideyoshi was in the middle.
"Dear Captain Cox. I know this must be the first thing on your mind, but Goddamn has it been a while. Almost 20 years ago, you locked, me up in Guantanamo Bay for doing absolutely nothing wrong. On top of that, you had the audacity to make someone a hero for doing it."
He then grabbed You and Riko by their hair.
"I'm certain you recognize these two right? Captain Watanabe's little girl, and that bastard Sakurauchi, right here." He let them go. "You probably get a lot of these, so you probably already know how this is going to go down. I make a bargain, and then you refuse to listen because you 'don't negotiate with terrorists.'"
He moved over to the side of the screen and grabbed something off a table. He came back with a glowing metal rod.
"If you don't listen to my request…" he trailed off putting the weapon near Riko's neck. "Well… you're probably smart enough to figure that out."
He moved onto his demands.
"Listen. I want one thing, and one thing only. Your blood, and the dissolution of Rainbow. Otherwise…"
Okazaki suddenly winced at the sound of agonizing muffled screams. Cox remained unchanged.
"These demands are to be met before tomorrow morning." He said, setting the rod down. "If not, then I'll be leaking the personal info of every Rainbow member to the public personally. And I'll also be killing everyone, and then I'll do it again…"
This video suddenly ended.
Okazaki suddenly shook her head around in disgust. "Woah, what the fuck?" She asked herself. "Did he just brand her?"
"Yeah…" he groaned. "That's Hideyoshi alright.
"Who?"
He sighed. "You remember 8 years ago, right? When that guy broke out of Guantanamo and you and MacTavish had to deal with him."
She looked down to her useless legs.
"Oh yeah."
"This is him." Cox told her.
"Who is he?" She asked curiously.
…
England. 2002.
Several boots landed on top of the school's main building. The helicopter that dropped them there flew off into the rainy storm. Hideyoshi turned to his team. Weather forecasters said it would be a bit stormy, but this was fucking ridiculous.
There was enough rain coming down to fill a cup in under a minute. The lightning and intense winds didn't really help either. It made this one of the worst conditions to perform under.
"Check your fire, there are hostages inside." Captain Cox told his team. "Move."
Their heavy bootsteps were drowned out by the sound of rain. Cox moved to the door, Sakurauchi and Hideyoshi on the other hand walked over to the ledge.
As Sakurauchi began setting up a rappel cable, Hideyoshi couldn't help but ask. "Who are these guys using anyway?"
"Intel says some kinda mix of Bulgarians and Islamic guys, they're using mostly AK's and AR's." Sakurauchi replied tying the cable down. He handed it to him. Hideyoshi looked over to the others. Cox and the Brit went into the door while the Sniper and his spotter went down the other side.
Hideyoshi turned back to his partner. "Alright." He grabbed the cable too and started rappelling down. He stopped at the first window. It looked like a hallway. "See anyone in there?"
"No one important." He replied. "Wait a moment."
Hideyoshi looked confused for a moment. The rain continued to pour profusely as he readied his gun.
"What are we waiting for?" Hideyoshi asked.
"Little trick I learned about a year ago. Use the weather to your advantage." Sakurauchi told him.
At first Hideyoshi didn't understand. Until suddenly Sakurauchi leaped up at the sight of lightning. He crashed into it, just in time for the thunder to echo loudly. "Hmm…" Hideyoshi thought to himself as he entered with him, with less dramatic flair. "Seems like the weather doesn't provide only disadvantages." He took a step in to hear his wet clothes were making noise from the rain. "Almost anyway."
Sakurauchi looked down the hall. "Intel said there were hostages in six different rooms, this is one of them." he pointed to a room.
"Divide and conquer." Hideyoshi chuckled.
He planted himself flat against the wall and waited. "Now what?"
"Wait for Captain's orders." Sakurauchi did the same on the adjacent side of the door.
It wasn't too long before someone came walking down the hall with a gun. Sakurauchi recognized the threat and dropped him in a single round before returning to the wall.
"We're in position." The radio informed him, indicated Cox was in the next room ready to take out his own target. Sakurauchi looked to Hideyoshi.
"Ready?"
"Guess so." He got into a firing position. Sakurauchi pulled out a flashbang and pulled the pin. He held the lever, preventing it from detonating until Cox said so.
After a few seconds of waiting. "Flash and Clear."
Sakurauchi flung the door open, tossing his Flash bang inside. The explosion blinded everyone inside as Hideyoshi shot everyone of them dead. His suppressed rounds flew through the air, killing each terrorist in the process. The two entered with the guns drawn, moving towards the hostages.
Sakurauchi started cutting the restraints from their wrists. The first girl, as soon as her hands were free, ripped the duct tape off her mouth. Hideyoshi wasted no time liberating the others.
As soon as Hideyoshi cut last one free, she started begging to him. "Please help, my boyfriend is being held downstairs. You have to help him."
"Slow down, we'll get him." Hideyoshi tried comforting her. "Sakurauchi?"
"Down the hall. He's down the hall!" She panicked.
"Damnit calm down woman." Hideyoshi tried lowering her intensity. "You heard him, we'll get him, but for now, you need to relax." He told her. "Stay here and wait."
"Hideyoshi, I'm heading outside. You go down the stairs." He commanded. Hideyoshi nodded. Sakurauchi quickly ran over to the window and attached his rope to it.
Hideyoshi, on the other hand, made his way down the hall. He quickly ran down the stairs to the next floor, keeping his weapon at the ready. He quietly peeked into the next hallway and slowly rounded the corner. All clear so far. He slowly moved down the hall, making sure to not make a whole lotta noise.
He came upon a door. His radio began going off in his ear. "Alright. I'm in position Sakamoto."
He put himself on the side of the door, preparing for his dramatic entry. "I'm in position." They were at separate entrance points in the room. Hideyoshi at the front door, Sakurauchi was at a window.
He opened the door the second he heard the word "breach."
As he crashed in, several men with rifles stood in wait. Hideyoshi came in quickly with his own right at the ready, and began gunning down anyone that wasn't Tetsuyo. A few bullets breezed through a couple of them, managing to kill all but one, the one who managed to dodge it.
Hideyoshi realized this mistake and tried correct it. The aforementioned terrorist quickly jumped behind a thick desk and returned fire, loudly echoing bullets through the room.
"Fuck!" Hideyoshi dropped himself to the floor to avoid the blindfire.
Sakurauchi was in the room, but wasn't in a flanking position. The terrorist quickly ran into another door and retreated screaming for help.
"Shit." Hideyoshi hissed to himself.
"You had one job." Sakurauchi told him.
"Ah fuck off, I got him." He chased after him. Everywhere else in the building was suddenly alerted to their presence. Hideyoshi gave chase to the terrorist and followed after him. Sakurauchi remained freeing hostages.
Hideyoshi crashed through the door firing a few pop shots at him, missing every round, but startling him enough to drop his strapless AK. The bad guy in question managed to escape to another room. Hideyoshi followed him, passing his weapon on the floor. He made sure to throw a flash bang through the door before entering.
He entered with his gun ready to a hilariously empty room. "Okay what the fuck?" He asked himself before something latched onto his back, forcing him to drop his G36. The guy managed to hide behind the door and jumped onto his back. "Damnit." He screeched as his he did what basically amounted to a WWE move on him.
Hideyoshi grabbed the guy and threw him over his shoulder, causing him to crash full force onto the floor. It didn't take very long for the terrorist to get to his feet. Hideyoshi quickly drew his sidearm and held him at gunpoint when he got back up.
"Stop! Don't kill me, I give up. I'll tell you whatever you want!" He cried out to him. The terrorist was nothing more than a college age student. Besides for the tactical gear, he didn't look like the military type.
Hideyoshi may not have liked this guy, but he did know when he would be violating a geneva law by killing him now. Besides, he could always find out who he was and what he's doing.
"Why are you doing this?" Hideyoshi asked him.
"The, the thing here? We…" He was next to petrified by fear. "I don't know man, I'm just following orders."
That sentence suddenly realized intrigued Hideyoshi. "Following orders? Who's?"
Suddenly he looked panicked. "I don't know. They call them Lokluvfaain."
"What the fuck is that?" Hideyoshi asked him.
"I don't know man, I just-"
Before he could continue, someone else entered the room behind him. Hideyoshi turned just in time to see it was Cox. He, without thinking, jumped out of his way for him to gun down the terrorist. Hideyoshi watched as the boy fell to the ground.
"Damnit Cox!" He shouted.
"Relax, I just saved your life."
"He surrendered!" He defended himself.
"And you were wasting your time interrogating him during an operation?" Cox asked him. "Get your shit together. The whole building knows we're here."
Hideyoshi felt cheated by that. Cox left the room to continue his sweep of the building. Hideyoshi watched him leave as he looked back to the kid on the floor.
Why would his orders be to do this? He wondered to himself. Lokluvfaain? He thought. He knew he would have to figure out what it was on his own, but for now, he'd have to take out the rest of the terrorists.
Hideyoshi quickly grabbed his G36 and followed Cox out.
…
Chika looked around the room. No sign of Riko or You. It concerned her greatly because of how close they were to her. She couldn't imagine life without either of them; yet some madman just grabbed them both and went off somewhere with them, God knows if they'd even come back.
Chika panicked more and more, trying to find comfort in her fellow survivors. She turned to Hanamaru, the only one within immediate range of her that she trusted.
"Hey Maru." She asked her.
"Zura." She muttered, as usual.
"Do you think they're okay?" Chika asked her.
"I don't know." Hanamaru replied. Even Yoshiko, who was sitting a few spots away, had no clue what to do or even what to make of it.
Before long, the answer was provided to them. Out came a few of the guys from before, minus their leader Hideyoshi. They were carrying the two idols, Riko and You. They were both shoved into a chair and zip tied down.
"Stay here." One of the terrorists told You.
Chika saw the two and tried to get their attention. "Riko. You." She said quietly shouting (that's an oxymoron.)
"Chika?" You muttered. You saw Chika and was relieved to see she was still okay, despite evening happening here right now.
"You-chan." Chika quietly called out again.
"Chika. Chika are you alright?" She tried asking without drawing too much attention to themselves. It's not like they were very far away, only a couple yards.
She nodded. "What about Riko? Is she okay?"
You turned to the only other important person in the room. Riko's face flowed with tears. There was a large brown and red spot in her shoulder near her arm where Hideyoshi basically torched her arm. "Riko. Riko you okay?"
Suddenly she came back around looking over to Chika. "Chika?"
"Riko…" she muttered raising out her hand towards her. Riko tried something similar, but couldn't as she was thoroughly strapped down.
"Chika are you okay?" You asked as quietly as she could without alerting anyone else.
"Yeah I'm okay, so is Yoshiko-chan and Hanamaru." She replied. "I think Mari's okay too."
You gave a slight sigh of relief. "I'm glad you're okay Chika."
"I am too." Riko replied as much as she could.
Chika looked around the room, trying to figure out what she was looking at. All of the guards here were all heavily armed and possessed the knowledge to use the weaponry they came here with. She didn't know what the explosion was earlier, but she knew it had something to do with these guys.
"We need to get out of this." Chika chimed in. "We need to organize everyone in the gym and revolt."
"Ummm, Chika that's a pretty terrible idea." You admitted to her.
"I'm with You on this." Riko groaned lightly. "That's dangerous and I don't want to see you get hurt."
"Well we have to do something Riko. We can't just sit here and let these people do this to us." Chika told them. "We can do this. We're going to make it if we just band together."
Almost as if they knew what she was plotting, two of the terrorists approached Chika. Without warning, one of them drove the butt of his stock into Chika's face, immediately bloodying her nose and knocking her down.
"Chika!" Riko and You both cried out in terror, both lurching forward as if they were going to help her. The other terrorist who came with him pointed his own weapon at them.
"Sit back down." He gave them a simple command.
"You can't-"
"Sit back down." He told them again.
You and Riko both slowly calmed themselves down as Chika slowly sat back up. She was still holding her nose as blood flowed down her face.
You turned to Riko. Riko's look of sheer terror told her it was okay. You looked back to the terrorist and did as he asked her, leaning back into her chair.
Riko may have been injured, but she was definitely still concerned about Chika. She also got back into her chair.
After a few moments the two terrorists went back to their jobs, whatever they may have been. Riko and You realized they wouldn't be talking to their idol leader any time soon.
You sighed as she began to quietly confide in the only other person in the same position anymore. Riko.
"Hey. Riko…" she tried asking her.
"What?" She replied, not knowing what she might have to say.
"Are we going to die?" She asked.
Riko, at first, seemed a little taken back by the statement. "No." She replied. "I think we'll be fine. The Police can handle this."
You looked around. "Are you sure about that?" You asked her.
Riko nodded. "Yeah. I think so."
A few moments of silence between the two passed before Riko broke the ice. "Hey You."
"Yeah?" She replied.
"How long have you known Chika?" She asked.
"What?"
"Well. I know you two have been friends since you were kids. But that's a pretty broad timeframe." She started.
"Why do you want to know this?" You asked her.
Riko looked over to Chika. "I just want to know a little more about her. That's all." She replied. "Just in case something happens to one of us. Besides, we're gonna be here for a while. Might as well find something to talk about."
You sighed. "Well. It's a long story."
…
Outside the school, hundreds of concerned parents and family arrived outside the school. They were all situated behind the barricades set up by the police. Uranohoshi was being quickly surrounded by hundreds of police officers. Among the concerned families were Mito and Shima Takami. Chika's older sisters.
They were next to the barricade on the road. The second Mito heard police cars zooming by, she went outside to see what was happening. It didn't take long for them to show up and find this fiasco going on.
They could still hear automatic fire in the distance, but it was dying down a bit. Enough anyway for some of the police officers to get out of the front lines.
Mito was the first to arrive on scene and start panicking. "Shit. Shit. Shit." She rushed the crowd, heading to the front. She came upon some of the officers forming a blockade.
"Hey. Hey!" She tried getting their attention.
They continued to ignore her, along with the rest of the people.
"My sister's in there. Aren't you going to do anything?" She yelled.
Little does she realize that her voice was merely one in a large crowd, all of which were asking the same question.
"Hey! Shouldn't you guys being something to get her out?"
Before Mito could finish her rant, Shima grabbed her shoulder.
"Hey, it's no use. They're more concerned with stopping the attack right now." The oldest sister tried telling her.
"But Chika's still in there."
"We don't know that yet. For all we know, she got out or even ditched school." She told her. "Besides. It would be best if we just left them to do their jobs.
Mito was about to say something about that, but she stopped herself, realizing she was right. She groaned. "Fuck. What if something happens?"
Shima grabbed her tighter and suddenly got a new determined look on her face. "No. That won't happen. We just have to give her time."
Mito had to calm herself down. She breathed slowly. "Okay. Okay. Let's just hope mom doesn't-"
Ring ring.
A loud cell phone ringer went off, playing what sounded like the Tetris theme song from Mito's pocket. She digged into her pant leg and pulled out an old flip phone she's been hanging onto. The caller ID simply said mom.
Mito sighed as Shima patted her in the shoulder. "You have a bad habit of jinxing it, you know that?" Mito rolled her eyes as she answered the phone.
"Hey mom." She tried answering.
Meanwhile. Across the chaos of the crime scene, and at the front lines was an officer.
He kept his back pinned to the squad car he arrived in. Bullets crashed into the surrounding area, damaging his car and the roads he sat on.
"Jesus Christ, how much ammo do these people even have?" He yelled to himself, attempting to return fire from behind cover. He poked his pistol out and fired as rapidly as he could, not knowing if any of it was having any effect. "Fuck. FUCK FUCK." He panicked more and more before something hit the back of his squad car.
He looked back to see a large SWAT truck pull up and hit his car. He couldn't hear anything do to the gunfire. Several officers piled out of the back, returning fire. One of the officers signaled to the rookie to get out of there.
He nodded faster than a Lamborghini and peeled out just as quick. He basically ran into the SWAT officer and was quickly brought away from the scene with a few officers providing covering fire. By the time he was out of the way, he couldn't hear anything except a loud and constant ringing.
He was breathing hard, trying miserably to find his breath. The SWAT officer tried getting his attention. By the time he heard anything, he was already screaming. "Can you hear me?! At all?"
He nodded.
The officer in black simply pointed him in the direction of the crowd. He didn't have to be told twice what that meant. He hobbled over there as fast as he could. His light blue uniform, tarnished by blood and dirt. He passed the barricades and was greeted by another officer. The Police Captain for the city.
"Hey. Otonashi? Otonashi, you with me?"
The poor rookie had no clue what was going on.
The captain pointed back to an ambulance. He nodded and wandered over to it. He sat down next to some other people who were caught in the crossfire. A few officers and a teacher from the school. The cops just seemed to be covered in a few bruises whereas the teacher's whole left arm was scarlet red. An old woman with short brown hair and glasses was tending to them.
The rookie sat down next to some fellow officers.
"Hey Otonashi." The one right next to him asked. "You good man?"
He shook his head. "I have no idea."
"You aren't hurt are you?"
He shook his head. "No. I don't think so."
It didn't take long for the woman tending to the teacher to turn around and see the newest arrival. The old woman seemed a little surprised to see him. "Oh hello Kouta. Fancy seeing you again."
"Hi miss Kunikida." He muttered.
"You don't look so good." She asked him.
He sighed. "I just went through actual combat for the first time. That… and my sister is still in there. Odds are that Hanamaru is too." He told her.
She finished tending to the teacher and came over to the young officer.
"Well Kouta, you just need to have some faith that they're okay." the seemingly wise old woman had reassured him, kneeling down in front of him so she can begin her first aide administration.
He groaned a bit in direct response. "I don't know."
She sighed as she looked his body over for injuries. "You and Tomoka have been through a lot, I'm certain she's okay right now. She's like your mother, resourceful." She said chuckling. "You are remarkably resilient."
"Oh God. If mom were around to see me now." he groaned to himself.
"She'd be proud of you." Miss Kunikida replied.
"I let Tomoka in there."
"You didn't know. Don't beat yourself up over it." She told him.
"I can't leave her in there."
"You'll get her out. I promise that."
He turned to her. "Aren't you worried about Hanamaru?"
"I am." She replied, still patching up any wounds he had. "But I know she'll be fine."
"How?" He asked her.
"I remember when the Americans came and bombed us. I remember when I was nearly killed by my own father. I believed I'd be fine. I prayed and I prayed and look, almost 70 years later and I'm still here." She told him. "I believe my granddaughter can make it. So therefore, she'll make it. The same goes for your little sister Kouta. Even if not, there's not much I can do out here about it is there?"
"No."
"Exactly. Is there anything you can do right now?" She asked him.
"No…" he answered.
"Exactly. So for now, just have a little faith that they're okay."
"Well how do we know that-"
"Have you heard gunfire from the school lately? Gunfire not directed at us?"
"Uh. No?" He was confused.
"These boys told me that they're taking hostages, not killing them all." She told him.
"So you're saying that they might just be hostages and not hurt?" He asked. She nodded in response.
Behind her, a couple of SWAT officers passed by carrying a body. Officer Otonashi watched them drag an Uranohoshi student away in blood. He recognized her to be Kanan Matsuura, mostly because she was in the town's pride and joy, Aqours.
He and his sister were at the first Aqours show, back when it just consisted of Kanan, Mari, and Dia. It was also back when he was still in high school. His personal favorite was Kanan, despite never actually getting the chance to really talk to her.
"Someone should probably tell Matsuura his daughter is dead." he sighed, seeing his deceased idol.
…
A/N. And I'm back. Well that's a hell of a… let down considering how long I've been gone. Anyway, next chapter's gonna be a little slower.
What do you guys think our villain's plan is?