Okay, first and foremost; I am so sorry I've been gone for so long! But I've been really busy, and then I got into Teen Wolf, and I bought Pokemon Soul Silver and...yeah...busy...

And thank you to anyone who followed/fave'd, it's been so long I can't even remember if anyone did but if so, thank you!

Also many thanks to Neko-fire demon tempest

and LindyLinn for your reviews! As asked, I am trying to space things a little more but no promises cuz this site loves to screw me over.

Also, shameless self-promoting, I'm starting another fic for Pokemon. It's a yaoi/yuri/het crack shippy fic that will probably be posted alongside this chapter. Check it out? Pretty please?

And again, sorry for taking so long.

Other than that, enjoy. I own nothing.

Chapter 11: True Friends

"What are you trying to say?" Silver asked Gold slowly. Gold rounded on him.

"What are you trying to say?" Gold demanded, "they've gone too far, someone needs to get rid of them and since no-one else is offering I say we do it."

By we, he basically meant him, Gold's over-protectiveness meant he'd pitch a fit at the idea of any of us going anywhere near that building.

I hated to disappoint, but Gold was going near that building alone when they start having snowball fights in Hell.

Silver's mind was racing, he was considering all possible moves we could make starting with a (comparatively) harmless break in to rescue Ash and ending with a blowing up the building. Gasoline, matches and a scary amount of the chemicals from their chemistry closet at school would all be useful in doing so.

I rested my hand on his arm, "slow down," I said, "we need to decide what we're doing first." While I was all in favour of blowing the place up, we needed to think rationally. This building was staffed by supernaturals, there was no way we'd get close enough to do anything to it without getting caught. Our best hope was to sneak in and hope we found Ash before they found us. I didn't like our chances, even with Crystal who Gold would never allow near the SRCC.

Then Green had an idea, "there's an incredibly simple way for us all to get into the building. Silver and I work there, and this year we're on extermination and round-up duty-"

"-Not that it's called that," Silver assured us.

Green went on as though her brother hadn't spoken, "if I say that we're delivering you guys to be experimented on then they'll let us take you through the front door no questions asked!"

There was dead silence, "do you, uh, do that often?" Asked Gold eventually in a mild voice. I put my head in my hands wishing Green had some sort of filter between her brain and her mouth.

"No, no we don't," Silver said firmly, "but no one would question it if we did."

"Besides," said Green, "it would be fairly easy to take out any of the staff we come across, they all have fairly useless powers, that's why they're stuck as staff. As long as we don't trip the alarm that sends the guards after us we should be good." We'd be able to sneak in with Green's 'plan' but there was no way we'd be able to sneak out with it.

"That's all hinging on the hope that we don't trip the alarm," I pointed out, the chances of that were about fifty-fifty, Green and Silver knew the place but anything could happen.

"And if they have terrible supernatural powers, or even if they have good ones, they're likely to carry guns," said Gold. He was right, the guards did.

Ruby calmly turned a page of the fashion magazine he'd pulled out of his backpack, "which means I'm going."

Everyone stared at the thirteen year old, the others were taking too long so it ended up being me who said what we were all thinking.

"No you are not!"

"You're right Blue; your totally mental, completely non-physical, ability to read minds is going to stop bullets for you," Ruby said in an infuriatingly calm tone, the kind used for placating angry idiots, not looking up from his magazine.

"You're thirteen!" Green exclaimed.

"And you were doing what at thirteen, exactly?" Asked Ruby, turning a page.

"Green and I have been trained since childhood," said Silver when his sister wouldn't answer that one.

"I don't suppose this has occurred to you, but I've been using my powers since birth too, and unlike yours, they can be used to stop bullets." Ruby set the magazine down and pointed at me, "completely non-physical power, might have admittedly significant martial-arts skills but have no way of stopping a bullet from hitting you or healing if you do get shot." He'd dropped the condescending air and his face was serious.

He pointed at Green, "you change into other people. I suppose you could change into a linebacker and tackle a guy with a gun but that would make considerable noise and won't stop any others from tripping an alarm or shooting one of you. And that's assuming you do manage to tackle the guy before he shoots you. And if he does have an offensive power of his own, what then?" He pointed at Silver, "you can control one, possibly two people at a time. Assuming you're facing them, assuming you can see and make eye-contact with them, assuming you can yell 'stop' before they trip the alarm or turn you into Swiss cheese and assuming there are only one or two people. That's a lot of assumptions."

Silver's face was taunt, "I have other skills beside my powers."

"You all do, will any of those skills stop five or more bullets? Stop random janitors from shouting and raising the alarm. Stop someone with fire powers, for example?" He didn't wait for an answer, just turned from Silver to Green and back again, "do either of you even carry a gun of your own?"

This time it was Green who answered while Silver refused to do so, "no, we aren't authorised."

I can see why, you're both totally insane, I wouldn't trust you with a gun either. Thought Ruby, but he knew better than to say it within Silver's hearing.

Most people don't realize it, but Ruby's actually a really smart kid. And he knows weapons and he knows fighting.

His dad's a martial-arts teacher and weapon's dealer to law enforcement, what can I say?

Ruby turned to Crystal, "you're luck won't last forever. You're lucky, but do you think you're lucky enough to get in, find Ash, free him and get him out all without being seen, heard, shot at, hopelessly lost, killed or captured?" Crys didn't answer, the answer was obvious.

Ruby rounded on Gold, "you, on the other hand, have super strength along with notable senses, speed, reflexes and healing, making you the most likely one to survive being shot at, minus, perhaps, Crystal. But what if it's not you that's shot at? And unlike Blue, Green and Silver you have absolutely no training. Oh yeah, and you can go through a possibly lengthy, excruciatingly painful transformation into a wolf. Wait, I'm sorry," he smirked, "no you can't."

Gold growled.

"And then there's Ash who, as far as we know, is totally useless and might even be there willingly. And what if you do get hit? Are you just going to leave that person to die? Carry them? Bleed out on the floor?"

"Look, we know it's a stupid plan!" I yelled, losing patience, "It's a terrible plan, even for us it's terrible. But we have to do something and anyone else would try to stop us." I paused, "and no, you don't count as anyone else. You're still not coming."

I was disturbed by the idea of myself and my friends going into an incredibly dangerous, super-secret supernatural facility to rescue the guy I was kind-of in love with. I was perturbed by the idea of Ash dying in a couple of days or weeks if we didn't rescue him.

But what really bothered me was that this metrosexual thirteen year old brat was acting as our voice of reason. And doing a pretty damn good job of it.

Like I said, terrible plan.

"So you'd be okay with Gold getting shot?"

I swore mentally, that was fighting dirty.

I told you guys about the Three Best Things that had Ever Happened to Me, didn't I? The first one was meeting Red; the second one was being shipped off to Chuck...

Well the third one was Gold. Is Gold.

Ruby had found my Achilles Heel. Yes I was more than willing to risk my own life to save Ash and yes I was willing to bring Green and Silver with me, they'd been trained.

But not Gold, he might be super strong with super reflexes and healing but he wasn't like Green and Silver. Take away the wolf-ness and Gold was pretty much an ordinary teenager, albeit one really good at seduction.

But even I had martial arts training, Gold didn't have that and if anything happened to him I...

Well I don't know what I'd do.

I didn't reply, I didn't need to, Ruby knew he'd won.

"So I'm going," he said calmly, I just sighed, beaten in a logic match by a thirteen year old. This plan really did suck.

"So when do we start?" Asked Sapphire, speaking for the first time. I didn't need to read minds to know what Ruby was going to do before he did it.

"We?" He raised an imperious eyebrow, "who said you were coming?"

Sapphire blinked, ya didn't need to... she thought. "Well if yer goin' then I'm goin'." She said, as though it was obvious.

Guilt stabbed at Ruby's heart like shards of broken glass but he'd gotten really good at hiding how he felt over the years and kept his expression disdainful, "actually you can go home, we don't need you." He said bluntly.

"Pfft..." Sapphire spluttered, "Don't need me?! Ya need all the help ya can get!"

"Actually the more people who go, the more likely we'll be discovered," said Ruby, back to sounding almost bored, "all you have to offer is super-strength and we already have that. You're, like, totally unnecessary."

Gold started to protest but a look from Silver cut him off, Silver knew what Ruby was really doing.

Sapphire wasn't protesting anymore, just opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water, eventually her pale blue eyes filled with tears.

"Yer an asshole!" She slapped Ruby around the face, her skin hitting his with a crack that would've knocked him on his ass if Gold and I hadn't been there to catch him. Then Sapphire burst into tears and raced out the door.

Ruby gestured frantically at their third companion and Emerald raced after her, "that was harsh dude." Said Gold when Emerald was gone.

Ruby winced as we set him on his feet, "harsh, but necessary. She'll figure it out sooner or later. But hopefully not until it's too late for her to come after us and get herself hurt." He rubbed his mouth where Sapphire had hit him, then glanced up at Gold and I apologetically, "I'm sorry guys, she was right, we'll need all the help we can get. But if anything happens to her or Emerald I..."

"Ruby we know," I interrupted, "we get it. Trust me."

Ruby stared at me wordlessly for a few minutes then shook himself off, he straightened his hat and walked over to his bag, movements brisk, eyes hard. He pulled out a large sheet of blank paper and a pencil and unrolled the paper, "right, Green, Silver I need you to draw up blueprints of the building to the best of your memory." While Green started doing that Ruby rapped his knuckles on my coffee table to get the attention of the rest of us, this was the side of him he didn't want Sapphire to see. Not the air-headed diva he'd purposely moulded himself into but the fighter who's father had drilled survival and fighting techniques into for as long as he could remember. "Here's what we do..."

After Ruby had finished explaining I turned to Green, "what about Yellow?" I didn't want to drag the innocent little healer into it but Ash was her friend too. She'd known him for way longer than the rest of us, she deserved to at least know.

Green, who was just putting the finishing touches on her blueprints (well, they were mostly Silver's blueprints) hesitated for a second. "I'll call her and ask her what she wants to do," she said eventually. I nodded.

After we'd finalized everything Ruby rolled up the drawing with brisk, efficient movements. "Okay, let's go," he said. We all nodded and set out for what was easily the dumbest thing any of us had ever done... yes, even Gold.

Green never called Yellow and I never said anything about it. Ruby wasn't the only one who wanted to protect the ones he loved.

It was pretty much all just talking and for that, I apologize. But after this will be the action-packed rescue sequence, the dramatic twist that pretty much everyone saw coming (except for Blue, he didn't see it coming), and the resolution to the whole Ash x Blue thing. And then the end. So we can afford one boring chapter.

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Bye guys!