Kimiko: Mwa-ha-ha! I feel like I accomplished so much! But maybe that's because I got so into this as I wrote it. I didn't get Flanagan to look too closely at this one, so there might be some mistakes. And I'll try to get out the last one by tonight [in my time zone, anyway]!

Power of Reason

Shinichi, Kaito, Mitsuhiko and Eisuke were in an empty room of the headquarters. Shinichi was pacing, Kaito was pretending to sleep, Mitsuhiko was tapping on the windowsill while looking outside and Eisuke was staring at the wall while muttering incomprehensible things to himself.

Their side of the operation wasn't supposed to start until about 1:10, when they would have to be ready for the fourth team of terrorists. But the headquarters should be 'alerted' at 12:00 of the car bomb outside the main headquarters and the attacks afterwards. Some of the police would start heading over there at noon, but they still had time until then.

Shinichi looked up at the clock again. 11:44. Time seemed to go by much too slowly now.

All of the nervous ticks of each person were starting to drive Kaito crazy. He felt like doing something to relieve the stress, but he had his mind full of other matters. And whatever he did now would not help the mood.

Kaito was about to tell him that he would wear a hole in the floor when they heard a distant explosion. Everyone in the room jumped and looked at the clock. 11:48.

"It's too early," Eisuke whispered. "It wasn't supposed to start until noon."

"One explanation," Shinichi replied. "They felt uneasy because they didn't get their information from us and they've changed the times of their operation. We just have to hope they didn't change anything else."

A policeman burst into the room. "The Superintendent wants to speak with you guys, now!"

Shuuichi Akai, self-proclaimed Independent Studies teacher, computer enthusiast, and firearms collector, knew that the timing was off. But, as he knelt at a window with a sniper rifle he had convinced Heizou Hattori to let him bring into the building, he knew that the starting time didn't matter once it started. They just had to deal with the situation as best they could.

He aimed at another terrorist through the smoke below and shot expertly. The man fell, but he was not killed. A calm voice came from beside him.

"So, you say you've never been in any police before?" Miwako Sato said casually as she aimed at a car that some terrorists were hiding behind. "What about a government agency?"

"Oh, I wasn't involved with any government before," he answered. If he shot at the ground right there, it would make the people behind the car move out. He tried it and, just as predicted, the terrorists shifted their positions. The policewoman took advantage of this and incapacitated two before they hid again. "But I did indeed do some interesting things before I became a teacher. I personally think it's much more fun to mold the minds of tomorrow's leaders than anything I've done before." He found a new target and smiled through his scope. "Besides, I get to meet and befriend such amazing young people."

"Like the Kurobas and Superintendent Hattori's son?"

"Them and the others: Kojima has a lot of unlocked potential; Tsuburaya is rather one-track focused, but he's determined; Hondou has some amazing talents hidden; and Yoshida has a good heart but she's also rather hardy beneath it all. Rather like a certain female policewoman I met while shooting out a third-story window."

Shinichi had lost track of what was going on a while ago. The last thing they were sure of was that the main headquarters was under a lot of pressure from the terrorists and the second bomb hadn't shown up yet.

The secondary headquarters they were at was also being fired upon, by a surprisingly large terrorist team. They were focusing on the front, though they would throw explosives at the windows every now and then. From the sounds he could hear, they had already gotten into a portion of the ground floor.

They hoped the second bomb wasn't coming to this location. The bomb squad was at the main headquarters, expecting the bomb to show up there.

Though, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. They hadn't been split up by the chaos.

Kaito was the one with the radio. He held it against his ear, interpreting the messages that came across it. There hadn't been a good report for a while.

Then he said, "Someone on the ground floor has just noticed a terrorist bringing something in. He says it might be explosives." Kaito looked at Shinichi, exchanging worried glances. Mitsuhiko and Eisuke were fearful as well. The clock read 12:53. Once again, Eisuke voiced their fears.

"I don't know if the bomb disposal people will make it in time."

"No, even when the other departments get there, they'll probably have set it off before." Heizou said over the communicator, the only solid link with the second headquarters. "You're going to have to deal with it yourselves. Either get it away from the terrorists and out of the city, or disable it. I'm sorry, but we're tied down. I'm trying to make some sense of this myself."

"Dad," Heiji said earnestly. "Logically speaking, if the bomb is set to go off there, the helicopters, if they do come, will probably be here. It's too risky dropping to the ground, so the terrorists are maybe planning on getting into a nearby building if they can't take this one."

"Yes, but we can't let them into either option." Heizou Hattori contemplated the dilemma.

Shinichi's voice came over the device. "Listen, you have to give them at least some leeway. Let them think that you're tiring out. Wait until you hear the helicopters to spring the trap."

Heizou considered this third option. "Well, it's a risky bet, but I suppose it's the best one we have. That'll take care of our end, but what about you?"

"Don't worry too much about us. We still haven't shown them what they're dealing with yet."

Shinichi handed the communicator back to the policeman and faced the bomb before him.

"Was it alright to say that?" Mitsuhiko asked. "We still don't have a way to disarm this and there are still terrorists below.

"Have a little more faith in him," Kaito said, backing up his brother. "We can get control of this situation."

"You can disarm a bomb?" Mitsuhiko said skeptically.

"Well," Shinichi told him. "If Kaito can build a hang-glider, than I should be able to stop a bomb from going off."

Kaito looked at him in surprise. "How did you know?"

Shinichi smiled. "You don't make it easy, but I can guess what you're doing when you leave no trace of leaving but an open window. Plus, I saw you once. Getting back to this, I'm sure I can disarm it."

Kaito regained his composure. "I'm sure you can. Now what can we do?"

The policeman answered for Shinichi. "I need you two," he said, pointing at Eisuke and Mitsuhiko, "to bar this door and help keep any terrorists after their missing bomb out. And the twin can help his brother with whatever he needs. I know that the job you're about to do can take more than one set of hands."

The boys nodded and got to work.

"Now," Shinichi said, beginning to unscrew the cover from the ticking bomb, "Let's show them the power of reason. I'll show them that when you logically work out a situation, you will overcome people who rely on chaos."

Kaito held his brother's hand steady as he reached into the complex-looking device. "All we have to do is trust that the other does his part. This will work."

It had better, the policeman thought. The timer showed that they were running out of time.

Kimiko: Apparently there are different superintendents for the different sections. That's why I mentioned two superintendents. They're the ones in charge of handling this, though the one at the second HQ is letting Shinichi handle the technical stuff while he directs the fighting. And if this chapter feels rushed, I'll make up for it with coolness in the next chapter, which will be titled, "Conan Edogawa, Detective"