Do please enjoy this next chapter! It took me forever to complete! :) Thanks to PeggsterLover for speeding up my progress! It's pretty long and the drama now ensues starting here!
The six of them were pounding heels into pavement before anyone bystander could do anything. Even if it wasn't their protectee, it was still a priority to make sure the area was safe for her to reside in, if only temporarily.
"Alley on the east side." Ethan triangulated the cry's origin quickly. "Jane and I will head down the alley straight on. Benji and Sheri, hit the alley from the short cut route by the strip mall. Brandt and Addie, head back in and come out the kitchen door to corner them."
With silent nods of acknowledgement, the team split off into their pairs and headed to their assigned destinations.
"Closing in on the alley, Echo. We can hear the disturbances now." Benji informed as he and Sheri neared the alley behind the Wal-Mart beside the hotel. They decided on using military phonetics to refer to each other based on the first letter in their names.
"Same here, Bravo." Ethan confirmed as he and Jane approached the direct entrance and exit of the alleyway, quick on their feet as they ran down.
"Approaching the kitchen door! Get ready to jump, Echo and Bravo!" Addie told them, rushing past the bewildered cooks in the kitchen on Brandt's tail.
"Ready when you are, Alpha." Jane replied. She and Ethan had crouched behind a dumpster and watched Julia struggle with the three masked men surrounding her.
The tallest of them grabbed her arm and held her against the wall as the other two smaller men whipped out switchblades. A jarring bang caused all of them to turn their heads to Brandt (having just kicked the door open) storm them with Addie right behind, guns at hand. The moment they appeared, Ethan and Jane emerged from their spot and held the barrels of their weapons at the three men as well. Benji and Sheri sped in merely milliseconds later.
"Try it. I dare you." Adelaide spoke icily, gun aimed at the tallest one. "I don't shoot with hesitation."
Begrudgingly, the man holding Julia backed away and let her go. The frightened young woman rushed over to Addie, who let her take refuge right behind her.
"Take her up to her room, Alpha. Explain the situation to her." Ethan ordered, watching the three men under his steely-eyed gaze. "We'll take care of these three."
Addie nodded curtly and holstered her gun. She put a gentle, caring arm around Julia and swiftly walked her back into the hotel through the kitchen.
Then, the tallest one jumped at Brandt, pulling out a switchblade as well. He sliced upward at the analyst and bright crimson quickly bloomed out of the tear in his shirt. Brandt cursed under his breath briefly before grabbing the man's wrist and twisting him around to constrict it behind his back like a winding snake. His attacker dropped his knife, letting out a cry and grunting as his face hit the alley wall, hands behind his back.
Jane looked to the other two men. "Either of you two want to try anything?" She asked, a threat underlying her tone.
The two of them simultaneously shook their heads, dropping their weapons.
"That's what I thought."
Brandt yanked the mask off of his captive to reveal the guitarist they had been watching for the last week, Adam Neely. Benji rushed over and pulled the masks of the other two off. None of them recognized the co-conspirators, but Adam gave a slight struggle in protest.
"Just leave 'em alone, they're not really involved in this!" He insisted with a frustrated sigh.
"Who are they anyway, Adam?" Sheri questioned sternly.
"My younger twin brothers, now just let 'em go!"
"Not until we get some more answers from you." Ethan gestured for Benji and Brandt to sit the three against the wall. Once they did, he noticed Brandt's injury getting worse little by little as it was still bleeding out.
"Whiskey," Ethan caught his attention. "Why don't you go up to our room and take care of that?"
"But—"
"The rest of us can handle them. Just go clean up."
Brandt holstered his weapon with a slight begrudging sigh and headed back inside the hotel the same way he came out.
"… Sierra, go with him. Make sure he doesn't do something stupid." Ethan gestured for her to go after him after a few minutes of debating.
Slightly surprised, Sheri nodded and hurried in as well.
Ethan turned to the three against the wall, being watched after by Jane and Benji closely. "Time to explain."
-l-
'As much as I hate to admit it, Ethan's right. Again. If I know Brandt, he'll make a fit about it and decide he'll be just fine without patching himself up.' Sheri thought, sighing at his stubborn personality as she stepped out of the elevator.
She took quick, calculated steps to the room he and the other two boys shared and opened the door without any hesitation.
"Brandt, Ethan sent me up to—" She stopped suddenly at what she saw.
Brandt had turned to the door as it opened and was rather surprised at the sight of Sheri entering. He had unbuttoned his torn shirt to be able to better reach his wound so he could take care of it when she had walked in. The expression on her face made him want to laugh. She blinked once, then twice, then turned a humble shade of pink, trying to look away from him. She went from being elegant, mature agent to bashful and blushing china doll in about five seconds flat.
"You were saying, Blushing Beauty?" He smirked as she got flustered and gave him an embarrassed glare.
"Ethan sent me up to make sure that THAT," She stabbed a finger at his wound, "Got taken care of. Sit down and I'll take care of it."
Sheri motioned for him to sit down and snatched up the first aid kit on the table. "Sit."
"Sheri, I can handle it myself."
"You'd do a shitty job. Now just sit down, take off your shirt, and shut up while I work." She ordered again.
Rolling his eyes, he gave a small sigh and smile and sat down, pulling off his no longer useful shirt.
"Good boy." She patted his head with a goofy grin and plopped into the chair next to him. Gently, she laid a hand near his wound and examined it. It was a large slice that went from his right collarbone area down to his waist and was bleeding pretty heavily. The wound was deep, but not enough to need stitches.
"I should be able to just clean up the wound and wrap it so that it stops bleeding and all. No stitches required for Mr. Suave Agent Man." She chuckled and began pulling out a towel, antibacterial, gauze and bandages.
"You know, the only one who calls me that is you, Sheri." Brandt teased as she began cleaning his wound. He gave a hearty laugh at her increasing blush.
"Sh-Shut up so I can clean your wound without you moving you ass." Was her snarky reply. "Or maybe I'll decide that I need to stitch you up in more places than one."
"Oh yeah? Like where?"
"Like your mouth, you moron." Sheri slathered on the antibacterial, watching him wince and twitch as if he were being pricked for acupuncture. "Oh grow up! You're being overdramatic."
"Am not! It stings!" he replied back with a childish tone.
"Puh-lease."
"You want me to give you an injury to match it?" Brandt threatened lightly.
"I'd take you down in seconds flat."
"You? Take me down?" Brandt gave a laugh of disbelief. "Yeah right."
"You forget that my brother is Ethan Hunt, Brandt. I had him breathing down my shoulder with the kick ass stuff since his day one at the IMF." She reminded in a maternal tone.
"So?"
With a sharp smack, she put the gauze on his wound and then began wrapping it up. "So don't be a smartass, smartass."
He grabbed her wrist firmly but carefully. Brandt had noticed that she started to avoid eye contact with him long before she had begun tending to him. "Hey, look at me." He asked gently.
Meekly, Sheri finally looked into his forest green eyes with her chocolatey brown ones. He liked how deep her eyes looked. They had insight, experience.
And pain.
He didn't understand why someone would want to inflict pain on a woman like her. Maybe he could get rid of that pain…
"A-Ah, ahem!"
Brandt blinked and sat back. He didn't even realize he was leaning in until Benji had spoken up. By the looks of it, Sheri didn't either. Timidly, she brushed the moment away in her mind and turned to Benji. "Hey Benji. What's the latest?"
"Ethan and Jane let the local authorities take care of Adam and his crew. Oh, and I sent some friend of the senator's up to Julia's room. He knew who we were and apparently it's a scheduled visit and all…" Benji trailed off, shrugging off the information like it wasn't important.
Only it wasn't.
"Benji…" Sheri frowned deeply. "There was never anyone scheduled to come and see Julia. We weren't even allowing that at all. And the senator never told us about any friend visiting."
At this, everyone froze in terrifying realization.
Shit.
-l-
"S-So you're friends of my father? Trying to keep an eye on me so that I'm not kidnapped?" The 21-year-old Julia asked. "Some sort of super special secret agents?"
"Pretty much." Addie chuckled sheepishly as the younger woman let her into the room.
She noticed Julia's arms were littered with bruises from her threatening bandmate and his accomplices. Her skin was pale and she shook from the scare she was given.
"Why don't you shower, clean yourself up, and change? Calm yourself down a bit, dear." Addie told her kindly.
"I think that sounds like a really good idea." Julia replied with a weak laugh. "Thanks."
She shuffled into her room and when Addie heard the shower going, she relaxed a bit and looked around the room. Suddenly, there was an ominous feeling in the pit of her stomach that she couldn't shake. It churned in her stomach and made her feel rather ill. She tried to shake it off as nothing, but soon found out it wasn't.
A hand was slammed over her mouth and her back hit a body behind her. She grabbed the unknown's arm and flipped him over her shoulder onto his face. With a sickening crack, Adelaide knew she had broken his nose. Her ears picked up another man in the room and she turned, sending a roundhouse kick at the man's face. He grinned maliciously, wiping away the blood on his lip from her high heels. The man ran at her and rammed her into the ground on her rear.
Growling, she jumped to her feet again, but wasn't prepared for what came next; the first man from before had miraculously pulled himself back up and pulled out a rag with chloroform. He put it over Addie's mouth like a gas mask and she instantly could feel her head spin. Before she passed out, she saw the second man pull a bag out from his inner suit pocket and shove her head into it.
Then, darkness engulfed her world.
-l-
The three of them ran up the stairs to Julia's room.
"Echo! Echo we may have a situation here!" Sheri shouted into the speaker.
"What's the issue, Sierra?" He replied calmly.
"We may have been compromised!"
"Kidnappers might be in our target's room and may have outnumbered Alpha! We're on our way to see now! Stand by for back up!" Brandt added as they sped up.
"Roger that, Whiskey!" Jane confirmed.
Sheri barged in through the door gun out and prepped to fire. Brandt followed her in and Benji would have as well when he saw two shady men headed towards the fire escape with a bag thrown over one of their shoulders. Locks of hair peeked out of the bag and he knew instantly what had happened.
"Addie!" He cried, running after the men with his gun out.
Sheri followed after him, leaving Brandt to watch after Julia. The men picked up on Benji's panicked and angry voice and fled down the fire escape as fast as possible.
"Echo and Juliet! He's coming out the fire escape! Trying to stay on Bravo's six! Watch out for any suspicious vehicles or activity, be ready to pursue!" Sheri spun out orders from her mouth like yarn, speeding after the male Brit as fast as her legs would allow her to.
Benji ran after the men, his legs burning like the fires of hell. He wasn't about to let them get away with the very girl he had been chasing since the first day they'd met. Not a chance.
He chased them down to the garage below the hotel, closing in on them. He had lost Sheri on the stairs sometime back so now it was all up to him and any possible back up he had from Ethan or Jane. All up to Benji. He had to succeed on this or he was always going to feel like a rookie failure to the rest of the team.
'Oh crap!' He wasn't paying attention. One of the men had stopped and waited for Benji. With a startlingly robotic force, the man's fist connected to his face and the tech flew back into the ground in seconds. His head harshly collided with the pavement and he blacked out.
Sheri managed to catch up just in time to watch him get slammed down and slid beside him, watching his attacker speed away. "Echo they're headed out! Please pursue! I'm watching out for Bravo! He's temporarily out!"
"We're on it." Came the reply, followed by the shrieking of tires on pavement.
She watched as Ethan's car drove by, doing at least 75 miles per hour, after the white van that was screeching its way out of the parking garage. Only moments after both cars were out of sight, the gut wrenching sound of crunching metal echoed in the silence of the parking garage.
"Echo? Juliet?" Sheri tried to contact them. There was no reply. "Echo? Juliet! You guys? Hello?"
Still no reply. Sheri's stomach did flips.
What had happened?
Cliffhanger~! Hope you enjoyed! Please review! ;)
Much love~ xoxo