It was, Ryou thought, a perfect night.

This was how he'd always dreamed it would be. He was standing on the roof of an office building, looking down at the slowly moving city traffic. It was night now, and faintly drizzly, so that every light had a faint halo around it, shining in shades of street lamp yellow, brake light red, and all the rainbow tones of neon. The world smelled of hot asphalt, exhaust, human bodies, and the smoke and grease scents of fast food. Above it all, Ryou stood watchful, silhouetted against the flat black sky. He felt invigorated, ready for anything the world might throw at him. More than he ever had in his life, Ryou felt like a hero.

In an alleyway somewhere below him, Fubuki and O'Brien were keeping similar vigils. They didn't know yet where their quarry was going to strike first, or even if they were going to move tonight at all, so they were spaced out at various strategic points, ready to move as soon as they got the signal. All of them were outfitted with a relay system, courtesy of Edo's bag of tricks, so that they could keep tabs on each other at a distance. Edo had promised that absolutely no one would ever be able to eavesdrop on their conversations, and Ryou wouldn't be surprised if that were true. In the meantime, Edo himself was scouting across the rooftops with his usual cool flair, while Jim and Johan exercised their own particular talents at ground level. If there was anything out there to find, they would find it. As for the others...

Well, Asuka at least was being put to good use. The drawback to Johan's skill of astral walking was that he had to leave his body behind while he did it. It was currently tucked safely into the corner of the vacant office they were using as their headquarters, peacefully sleeping away while the rest of him wandered off on its own. As long as he was in that state, he was vulnerable to anyone who might happen upon him, so Asuka was there to stand watch over and protect him if anything should try to interfere. She hadn't been pleased by the assignment, but she had at least been willing to allow that someone had to do it. Juudai and Shou had been somewhat more sanguine about their position as radio controllers, which wasn't a strictly necessary job but at least they couldn't do any real harm while they were doing it.

Ryou forcefully pushed his worries out of his head. He'd never wanted to be a team leader. He'd always imagined himself as the lone hero, swooping in to right wrongs and then fading away again as quickly as he'd arrived, answering to no one. He didn't like having all these people underfoot.

No, that's not right. Be honest with yourself, Ryou: you don't like having them depending on you.

Ryou was, as Fubuki might have said, not a people person. He had never asked to take responsibility for anyone but himself. The idea of having a team of people, an uneasy mixture of people he barely knew and people he cared deeply about, counting on him to make the right decisions and tell them all what to do, was daunting. If this had been a solo mission and he had failed, he would have gone back to school humbled but prepared to work towards improving himself so that he would succeed next time. If he did something wrong and one of his companions got hurt, it would be his responsibility but they would be the ones to suffer for it. That was why he had tried so hard to keep people like Asuka and Edo out of the line of fire.

A vibration in his pocket jolted him out of his fretful thoughts, and he reached for the device he'd stowed there.

"What is it?" he asked.

Juudai's voice crackled over the speaker. "Johan says he's spotted something. Head five blocks east - it's the white building across from the shipping place."

"Understood," said Ryou. He ran a few paces and jumped, lofting easily into the air. "Where are the others?"

"Shou's calling Fubuki and O'Brien now. Johan's following Asuka. I'm going to call Jim and Edo soon as I stop talking to you."

"Do that," he said, and signed out.

Juudai's directions had been good. He found the shipping business, dark now but with a cheery yellow sign that read "Packin' It In!" plastered over the door. Across from the shipping business was a nondescript white building, without any sort of signage or ornamentation - just a flat white front of grubby bricks, a few windows too high and narrow to let anyone see inside, and a heavy blank door. There didn't seem to be any light inside. Ryou landed lightly on the roof. A moment later, Edo bounded over from the other direction.

"What are you doing here?" Ryou hissed. "You're supposed to be providing backup!"

"I'm supposed to be doing recon," said Edo amiably. "The badguys are here. I can't watch them if I'm somewhere else, now, can I?"

Ryou sighed. "Just don't do anything stupid."

O'Brien and Fubuki arrived moments later, which was good. They arrived by climbing up one of Asuka's invisible staircases, which Ryou thought slightly less good, but he supposed there was no point in arguing about it now. If he really looked, he could see the rest of the team hiding in an alley nearby, but at least they were hiding and not trying to shove themselves into the fight.

"Are we sure this is the place?" Ryou asked his companions.

Edo nodded. "Johan went in and searched the place. This is some kind of medical supply warehouse, and there's a bunch of guys in there with checklists and flashlights, going through the boxes."

"Maybe they're just taking inventory?" Fubuki suggested, without much conviction.

Edo rolled his eyes. "With flashlights? What, are they trying to save on their electricity bills?"

Fubuki looked sheepish. "Well, they might be."

"I think these are our men," said Ryou. He tapped his communication device. "Somebody get me Johan on the line."

"He's here," said Juudai's voice, and then there was a scuffle.

"What's up?" Johan asked.

"We need to know the layout of this building," said Ryou.

"The front door is locked," said Johan. "The guys are getting in through a loading dock in back. There weren't any other entrances. The ground floor is all open, and there's a staircase on the right-hand side going in that leads up to some offices and storerooms. I didn't see anybody up there but you should be careful about it anyway."

"Noted," said Ryou. "We'll split up, then. O'Brien, Fubuki, guard the front door. Edo and I will go in the front and round up as many as they can. If any try to sneak out the front door, stop them. Asuka, how long do you think you could keep one of these characters incapacitated?"

She frowned. "I can keep one person still for about fifteen minutes before my strength gives out, but the more people I'm trying to control at once, the harder it will be. I don't think I could manage more than half a dozen without them just breaking out again."

"All right," said Ryou. "In that case, your job will be to keep them from swarming us all at once. See if you can funnel them a few at a time."

She nodded. "I ought to be able to manage that."

The five of them continued talking for a few moments more, refining their plans. Then, when Ryou felt they couldn't reasonably wait any longer, he gave the order to move.

A moment later, a thin man dressed in a black jogging suit came staggering out of the building, carrying a cardboard box. The weight seemed to be almost more than he could manage, and he wasn't paying attention to anything but where he was putting his feet.

Ryou's arm looped around his neck and jerked him backwards. The box slipped out of his hands and hit the ground with a glassy clank.

"Good evening," said Ryou calmly. "I wonder if you'd like to tell me where you're going with that box."

The man made an unintelligible strangled noise.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you," said Ryou, and loosened his grip just a bit. "Want to try that again?"

"Just... taking inventory..." the man gasped.

"I don't think so," said Ryou. "Edo, perhaps you can persuade him?"

Edo stepped into view, smiling sweetly and adjusting the collar of his pristine gray suit.

"Hi there," he said. "So, you don't want to talk to my friend, huh?"

"Uh, no?" the man replied.

Edo grabbed the man roughly by the shoulders and jerked him around.

"Now," he said, "you see my pal here? See how tall and serious and generally badass he looks? He looks like he could really mess up your day, doesn't he?"

The man hesitantly agreed that yes, Ryou did.

"Now," Edo continued in that same sweet voice, "do you want to know why he gave you to me? Because of the two of us, well... he might knock you around a little, maybe even break a few bones. But me?" Edo stood on his tiptoes to breathe right into the man's ear. "I might do something creative."

A few moments later, the man, having spilled everything he knew, was tied up in the back of the truck he'd been loading things into. Edo had done most of the tying up. In the time it took to get a confession, Ryou had caught and disabled two more men, likewise carrying boxes, and began tying them up too. They had the beginnings of a nice pile of annoyed thieves by the time they finally moved into the building.

Having decided that any chance of subtlety had been lost once they started taking hostages, Ryou decided that the best thing to do was to take the direct approach. He walked up to the door, and as he came to within about ten feet of it, he raised both hands, fired off two bolts of energy and blew the door off its hinges.

There was an instant of startled silence, followed by a great deal of yelling. Ryou couldn't see much in the dark warehouse, just a lot of dancing flashlight beams and flickering shadows. He fired a few more bolts at the ceiling, trying to up the level of chaos and keep them from having a chance to stop to think.

"Close your eyes," said Edo's voice behind him.

Ryou obeyed. The light level suddenly went up; apparently Edo had found the light switch. Ryou let his eyes blink back open. He'd been standing in the relatively well-lit outdoor area, where there were at least some street lights to see by. These people had been working in complete darkness for who-knew-how-long, and with the lights back on again, they were momentarily blinded. In that moment, Ryou and Edo went to work. Ryou fired off two more energy blasts. One went wild, but the second one hit one of the thieves and sent him staggering backwards into a heap of boxes. Edo, meanwhile, whipped a weapon out of his pocket - actually a thin piece of strong rope with a weight on one end, which he swung around with great precision, striking people with the weighted end or using it to entangle them and jerk them off their feet.

That's one I haven't seen before, Ryou mused as he wrenched a flashlight out of the hand of a man who'd tried to strike him with it. I wonder how long he's been practicing that?

It wasn't long before people began deciding that they were better off not standing and fighting. Someone broke ranks and ran for the front door to wrench it open. He took one step towards it and was instantly flung back by a powerful jet of water. Fubuki followed close behind him with O'Brien in his wake. People who had been thinking of going out the front door quickly changed their minds, probably because O'Brien was holding a ball of fire in either hand. Asuka slipped in behind them and began quickly putting her force fields into play, pinning down men who had already been stunned and holding them in place until one member of the team or another was able to move in and secure them. Ryou began to enjoy himself. This was what he'd always wanted to do, what he'd been born to do, and he was glad to be doing it.

And that, of course, was the moment it all started to go wrong.


"Everything seems to be under control," said Johan, as he stepped through the wall.

Juudai was not as bored with waiting as he thought he'd be, in large part because watching Johan do his thing was interesting. He could still talk when he was out of his body, and it was peculiar to see him walking around in one part of the room while his voice came out of his peacefully resting corporeal half. He'd been popping in and out of the alley they were hiding in, giving a running commentary on what was going on. Apparently he got tired if he stayed away from his body for too long, and they had been working him hard tonight. Now he seemed to be taking a breather. He pulled a water bottle out of the pack he'd brought with him and took a long drink.

"Want some?" he asked, offering the bottle to Juudai.

"I'm good," Juudai assured him. "Does all that walking through walls make you thirsty?"

"Kind of," said Johan. "It's tiring, anyway. You really have to focus your attention."

"So, kind of like having to pay attention to one of Professor Chronos's lectures?" Juudai joked.

Johan laughed. "Something like that!"

Juudai grinned. He'd decided by this point that he liked Johan. He hoped they'd have chances to work together again in the future.

"Is Big Brother okay?" Shou asked from across the room. Jim had produced a deck of cards from somewhere, and with his usual nonchalance, had talked Shou into playing a game with him. Of course, given Jim's particular skill set, it was no surprise that he was winning consistently.

"He looked fine last I checked," said Johan. He screwed the cap back on his water and set it aside. "Seemed to me they're having a good time knocking thugs around. Just what they planned to do. They should be done pretty soon, at the rate they're going."

"Too bad we can't watch," said Juudai wistfully.

"I'll check in again as soon as I've caught my breath," said Johan. "They're probably going to want me in a minute for healing, anyway."

"If you can watch, we ought to get to watch too," said Juudai.

Johan laughed. "Well, it's kind of different for me. No one can see me when I'm in spirit form."

"Huh?" said Juudai. "But I can see you just fine."

There was a sudden stillness in the alley. Juudai was aware that everyone was looking at him oddly.

"Well, I can," he said defensively.

"You're not supposed to!" said Johan. He sounded almost offended.

"I didn't know that," said Juudai. "It's not like I'm doing it on purpose."

"I want to test this," said Johan. "Okay, I'm going back out again. You tell me where you see me going."

Juudai shrugged. "Sure, if you want to."

"Please do," said Jim, sounding interested. "I want to see this."

Johan settled back against the wall and closed his eyes. His breathing began to slow. After a few seconds, he stepped out of himself, as easily as stepping out behind a curtain.

"Okay, you're out," said Juudai.

Johan looked surprised, or at least his spirit-self did. His physical body didn't move at all.

"Well, that's new," he said. "What do I look like?"

"Like you," said Juudai, "only I can see through you, and there's kind of a... a glow around you, all rainbows and sparkles. It's kind of pretty, actually."

The spirit Johan stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Well, what do you know. You're the first person I've ever met who could see me when I was in spirit shape. Is that your talent?"

Juudai made a face. "Geez, I hope not. No offense, but that's not my idea of useful talent, you know?"

"You know what this means, don't you?" said Shou. "It means you really do have some kind of powers."

Juudai brightened. "Hey, yeah, that's right! Only... there's gotta be more to it than that. They wouldn't have let me into the school if all I could do was look at people walking around without their skins on."

Johan laughed. "That's one way of putting it!"

Jim was frowning at Juudai, his expression thoughtful. "I think you're right, though. There's more to you than that. I can see the potential for it hanging around you like a big thundercloud getting ready to dump a load of rain down on us. I just can't get a fix on what it is."

"We'll have to experiment later," said Johan. "Right now? Kinda busy. Guess I'd better go check on the others."

He drifted through the wall. A second later, Juudai heard him gasp. Johan burst back through the wall in such agitation that he seemed to be throwing off sparks.

"You gotta get in there now!" he shouted, even as he began fusing with his body once more. "Something's really wrong!"

HR

Ryou looked up sharply at the sound of a door opening. He'd been in the middle of rounding up the last of the men on the ground floor and had just started to relax. Now he realized that he'd stopped thinking about the upstairs floors.

"Heads up!" he shouted to his team.

The men upstairs were shouting orders, too. One of them produced some sort of rifle and aimed it over the railing. Ryou stared at it, momentarily shocked. He knew guns. He'd been forced to study them extensively in his advanced classes. He knew a great deal about the many different types and what they could do to a person, but he'd never seen one like this. If he had to guess, he'd have thought it was some sort of dart gun, but...

Before he even had time to finish that thought, the gun went off. Ryou flung his arm up, reflexively trying to protect himself.

Asuka was faster. He heard a rubbery twang, and opened his eyes to see a silvery blur strike an invisible barrier above him and go ricocheting away. Ryou raised a hand to shoot back, but Edo grabbed his wrist and yanked it back.

"Idiot!" he said. "Don't shoot till you're sure she's taken the shields down!"

Ryou winced. Of course he should have realized that the barriers worked both ways.

This is what comes of never working as part of a team before, he realized. He kicked himself for not practicing with them more when he had the chance.

O'Brien, unhindered by any sort of shielding, hurled a fireball up at the balcony. The man with the gun dove out of the way, but didn't lose his grip on his rifle. He fired again, blindly, shooting off two more darts. Ryou and Edo dove out of the way, but the shot passed harmlessly between them and thudded into the floor. Ryou noted with detachment that it was a dart, filled with some sort of unhealthy-looking yellow liquid. He had a fleeting moment to think, I'm glad I didn't get hit with that!

Then all other thoughts were driven out of his head by a hoarse scream. His head whipped around in time to see Fubuki double over, clutching at his shoulder, where a dart was buried in his skin. He dropped to his knees and toppled over, writhing and gasping.

"Fubuki!" Asuka screamed, rushing to his brother's side.

"We got one!" shouted one of the men upstairs. "Come on, people, let's get out of here! Grab what you can get and go!"

They began rushing towards the doors. Ryou looked back and forth, torn between a desire to attend to his friend and a desire to stop the people who had hurt him. Vengeance won out. He hadn't come all this way to let someone hurt his best friend and get away with it. He made a flying lunge and managed to tackle one of the escaping men. Edo lashed his whipcord around another one, but there were still more coming. O'Brien, seeing their prey trying to escape, threw a rapid-fire series of fireballs at the fleeing thieves. One man was hit, and flung himself at the floor shrieking as he tried to roll out the flames. Others struck the walls, leaving scorch marks. One hit a heap of cardboard boxes, which instantly caught fire.

"Not helping!" Ryou shouted.

"I'd like to see you do better!" O'Brien shouted back.

Ryou struck the head of the man he'd caught against the concrete floor, knocking him senseless. He might have done worse than just stun the man, for all he knew, but just at this moment, he didn't care. He didn't care about being heroic or doing the right thing or even about delivering just punishment. At that moment, all that was in his mind was that someone had hurt his friend, one of the gentlest and most caring people he knew, and he wanted to hurt someone in response.

For the first time in his life, Ryou realized that he might be capable of killing someone.

He abandoned the still figure on the floor and began firing off rapid-fire energy beams, trying to stun a few of the fleeing thieves. As fast as he was, though, there were still a few who slipped past him.

"No!" he shouted. "Get back here, you...!"

There was a sudden commotion at the front door. The first thief to reach it had glanced back at the sound of Ryou's shout, and a long leg extended into his path and tripped him. He fell flat on his face, and two of his friends couldn't stop in time and stumbled over him. The others backed away, evaluating this unexpected obstacle, and Jim Cook stepped into the doorway. He tipped his broad-brimmed hat to Ryou.

"Need some help, mate?" he asked.

"Yes!" Ryou shouted back.

Johan shoved Jim aside, bowling over a few more thieves in his efforts to get inside.

"Coming through! Outta my way!" he shouted. He skidded to a halt next to Asuka. "Don't worry, I've got this. Help the others!"

She nodded, still looking stunned, and got up to move towards Ryou and Edo.

Juudai and Shou made it in last. Ryou felt a twinge at seeing them. They were absolutely helpless here, without even the sort of fighting skills Edo had to protect them. Fubuki had already been hurt. If something happened to Shou... No, he couldn't think of that. He had to get them out of here.

"You two!" he barked. "Help Johan get Fubuki out of here! He's hurt!"

The two of them nodded and hurried over to where Johan appeared to be trying - without much success, Ryou realized with a sinking feeling - to revive Fubuki.

What in the world was in that dart?

With the addition of Jim and Asuka, there was finally enough manpower to get the last of the thieves rounded up and incapacitated. That was a good thing - the flames from the burning boxes were climbing rapidly, and the room was steadily filling with flames and smoke. The smoke smelled foul. Whatever was in those boxes, Ryou had a feeling it had never been meant for human inhalation.

"We need to get out of here, now!" he ordered.

Juudai and Shou were trying to hoist Fubuki onto their shoulders. He was taller than either of them, and they were forced to half-drag him. His head lolled; he seemed to have lost consciousness. Ryou refused to consider the other possibility. Fubuki was too strong, too vital not to be all right. He'd get over this. Even now, Johan was walking with one hand resting on Fubuki's shoulders, eyes half-closed and faintly glowing as he channeled healing energy into Fubuki's body.

"We're going as fast as we can!" Juudai shouted back.

There was a bang and a flare of greenish flame. Ryou winced as bits of broken glass sprayed across the room. The fire had apparently reached a container of chemicals that were flammable. The flames were spreading more rapidly now. If something didn't stop them soon, this whole building would be destroyed.

"Damn it," Edo muttered. "Why did it have to be Fubuki they took out? We need him!"

Ryou was forced to agree. He looked up at the spreading flames with a sinking heart. This was turning into a fiasco - first he got his best friend poisoned, and now he'd managed, if only by way of one of his teammates, to burn down the building they were supposed to be protecting. He'd never felt like so much of a failure in his life.

"Keep moving!" he shouted. "Get these guys out of here if you can and leave them if you can't," he added, gesturing at the bound and in some cases unconscious thieves. "Get yourselves out first!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" said Edo.

O'Brien said nothing. He was busily hauling criminals out the door two at a time, apparently unconcerned by the smoke and flames. Jim was dragging them out by their feet one at a time, and even his pet crocodile was grabbing men by the foot and hauling them backwards out the door. They were making what Ryou might have called speedy progress under other circumstances, but right now...

I don't care if they all die. I just want my team to get out of here safely.

Even as he was thinking that, there was an alarming creak. Ryou turned to see a section of shelving beginning to fall, as one of its corners burned and crumbled.

"Everybody move!" Ryou shouted. Edo, O'Brien, and Jim ran for the door. Asuka lingered, for good reason. She didn't want to leave her brother behind, and Juudai and Shou were still laboring to get Fubuki out of the building. Ryou dashed across the room, moving to snatch Fubuki out of their grip. Fubuki groaned at the rough treatment.

"Get out of here! Go!" Ryou ordered, already moving towards the door.

It was already too late. The shelf began to topple. Ryou stared. He could have tried to block it, but even with his enhanced strength, he knew he couldn't protect everyone else from the flaming fragments that would inevitably result when it struck him.

"Asuka, block it!" Ryou ordered.

She raised her hands, looking panicked. "I don't think I can! It's too heavy!"

The shelf continued to plummet down on them. Ryou watched it, thinking that this was how it was going to end. Fubuki and Shou and Asuka and Juudai were going to be crushed by a falling piece of furniture, because he hadn't been enough of a hero to stop it from happening.

The shelf crashed down on them, trailing smoke and fire. It stopped six inches from the top of Ryou's head. He stared at it. It continued to stay suspended there, and if he squinted, he could see a faint glow - no, two glows, one blue, one pale green - holding it up. He turned his head and saw Asuka with both hands raised, face a mask of concentration as she worked to keep her shields in place.

And behind her, Shou also held up his hands. His expression was determined and oddly confident, as if he'd known he could do this all his life, as if this was merely an inconvenient part of his routine. Ryou nearly dropped Fubuki.

Juudai shoved him.

"Come on!" he said. "I don't think they can keep this up forever!"

Ryou started moving again. The five of them made it safely out from beneath the shelf and let it crash to the floor behind them. There was a gush of smoke and debris, but it sailed harmlessly over and around their shields. Juudai had to drag Shou the last few steps because he seemed to be nearly in a trance. In the end, they all made it out of the building, and found Edo and O'Brien shoving the last of the crooks into the back of their van.

"Is everyone all right?" Jim asked.

"Except for him," said Ryou, nodding to Fubuki. "Johan, is there...?"

"I'm trying," said Johan, sounding frazzled. "Whatever they shot him with, it's no ordinary poison. I can't get a handle on it."

"We need to get back to the island as soon as possible, then," said Edo.

"We need to make sure the police to show up," said O'Brien. He cast a meaningful glance at the truck full of bound bodies.

There was a crash from inside the warehouse. Flames and smoke began rising through a new hole in the roof.

"Don't worry," said Jim. "I think they'll know to come here."