Disclaimer : I don't own Death Note.
The next morning, after breakfast was finished, Mello, Matt, and Near recollected themselves in Mello's room. They only had about an hour until classes started, so they had to work out as much of their plan as they could. There was, of course, time after classes; but that time would be needed for other things, preparations.
When everyone was established in Mello's room, he began the meeting. "Okay, so we obviously have to help L, he doesn't know what he's getting himself into. We can't let him go in alone, we have got to have his back. This Ryan guy could have guns, lots of guns. Or maybe a bunch of security guards. There are too many unknowns, and too many possibilities that something could go wrong, against our favor."
There was a collection of head nods throughout the group, Matt took the opportunity to interject. "So how are we gonna go about doing this?"
A mischievous smile played across Mello's lips, "We follow him tomorrow and help him take out the bad guys."
"Wait a minute," Near interrupted, "we need to think this through. Won't L know if we are following him? This needs to be very well planned out."
Mello scowled at the white-haired boy; he didn't particularly like Near trying to show him up at his own idea. "Shut up Near, L won't know that we're following him… we'll be sneaky."
Matt frowned and sighed, glancing at Mello. "Man, Near's right. We have to be careful, we're more or less going in blind here."
Mello's eye twitched, "Matt, shut up! I'll figure it out. Besides, we have to follow him, because we don't know where to go otherwise. We'll follow him carefully, making sure not to give away our whereabouts, and after we get inside, we'll spread out, making sure we got L covered." Mello paused, gauging how his plan was being received so far. Both boys looked thoughtful, so he continued. "We'll make sure we have sufficient weapons on us, enough to defend ourselves, and L, if things turn violent or get out of hand."
Near looked up and gasped, "Weapons? Like guns and stuff? Mello! We can't use guns, we can't even cut cake with a dull knife! L nor Watari would want us playing with even more dangerous weaponry!"
Mello rolled his eyes and scowled, "Well! How else are we going to fight them off? Are you going to throw rubber ducks at their heads?!" he nearly shouted.
Matt acted quickly, he pulled Mello back, who had been slowly rising and inching forward towards Near. Matt held Mello back until he had stopped convulsing in fury, and released him. "Mello, stay calm. We have to work together on this, we need all three of us, if we want to help L save Watari. Don't lose your head, okay? Near, we have to use weapons… otherwise, we would be completely defenseless against Ryan, and whoever else might be there. There is a good chance that the group isn't as intelligent as L or us, but who knows? We need to be able to defend ourselves." He paused a moment, and then continued, "Okay, Mello, you have your gun, I have mine. Near, do you have any kind of weapon?" Near gave him an incredulous look, as if he had any kind of weapon, he was the good child. Matt continued, "Right, can you handle a gun if we gave it to you?"
Near gasped in shock, "I just turned five years old! I don't play with guns, how should I know if I can handle one!?" He paused for a moment, contemplating something. "I can make a weapon though, many of one kind of weapon, and I could use those, would that be okay?" he asked.
Mello scoffed. "What kind of weapon can you make?" he sneered.
"A bomb."
Mello rolled his eyes, but Matt narrowed his, considering. "You are sure you can make them, and they will work, without fail?" he asked.
Near nodded, "It's a project I've been working on for awhile, it's nearly complete. I can have… oh… probably about fifty made by tomorrow."
Once again, Mello scoffed, not believing his companion. However, Matt once again worked his magic as peace-maker. "That would be great, thanks Near. Now, Mello, where do we secure more ammunition for our guns?"
"Oh! Doesn't Watari have a sniper-rifle? He should have ammunition, right? We could take it from his office. I don't think he'd mind, under the circumstances," Mello chimed.
Matt nodded in agreement. "I don't think he'll mind. Okay, so we'll follow L cautiously, and once we're in, we'll fan out, making sure we keep L's back covered. We shouldn't fire anything unless we, L, or Watari are in immediate danger; we don't want to alert anyone that we are there if we can avoid it. We're only there for backup, to cover L incase Ryan and his crew turn on their word or start getting violent."
Mello and Near nodded, agreeing to Matt's logic, but Mello disagreed on one portion of the plan. "Matt, if we had the opportunity to free Watari, or do something else, shouldn't we seize the opportunity? If L was busy and couldn't get away, then shouldn't at least one of us run ahead and try to secure Watari?"
Near was the one who answered, "But if we left L to go get Watari, wouldn't it be kind of defeating the purpose? At least one person would have to stay behind and help him, especially if he were so overwhelmed that he couldn't leave himself. I think we should leave that decision for if it actually happens; there are way too many 'what-ifs' in this mission, we can't dwell on each and every one individually."
The two older boys agreed. Matt glanced at the clock on the wall; there was only about ten minutes until their classes began. The meeting dispersed, each of the boys heading to their own classes. After their classes were over, they'd each be making their own individual preparations for the next day. Near would be assembling his bombs, Matt and Mello would be 'borrowing' ammunition from Watari's office, without being spotted by suspicious eyes of their classmates. They would be gathering their essentials for the mission; making sure everything was in order for tomorrow, everything must go flawlessly.
---
While the three younger boys were making plans for the next day, L was sneaking into a shabby, run down warehouse. It hadn't taken him long to creep to the entrance, because no one was outside. Now the tricky part was getting in and out without getting caught. L reviewed his odds, there was now a seventy percent chance of being discovered; he didn't want to know what would happen if he got caught. Therefore he would try his best not to be. Nobody would be expecting him, since the meeting day was actually tomorrow, but still; L had to be careful.
L sighed, calming himself for what he was about to do. He gently and silently pushed open the beat-up door and slinked inside slowly. He did a quick once-over of the place. It was a fairly big building, as most warehouses are, with hundreds of boxes filled with who knows what scattered and stacked thoughtlessly on the floor. Dust covered everything, from the ceiling to the uneven floor boards. L approximated that the room hadn't been used for many years, outside of storage, that is.
There didn't seem to be anyone around, fore the spacious room was eerily silent. L crouched down, and continued to inch his way forward, using his hands as guides, as he began to explore the inner workings of the hideout. He crept around a stack of boxes, and hid behind them. There was still no one insight, so he seized the opportunity to further examine his surroundings.
To the north, there was a large emergency exit, tightly sealing out the rest of the world. To the east, there was a narrow hallway, encasing many smaller rooms. He decided to explore the hallway first. L crept his way east, careful to always remain hidden behind at least one large storage box. When he finally made it to the hallway, he hid behind the wall; peeking out to see if anyone was coming toward him.
L began to sneak down the hall, stopping at each room to either peek in the window of the door, or push it open to discover it's hidden contents. Most of the rooms were empty of anything of importance; there was dust, and more boxes, and the occasional miscellaneous object scattered across the floor; but nothing significant. L continued his search though. He was starting to breathe easier, he hadn't found anything too terrifying yet, so his odds were beginning to improve, but the search wasn't over yet.
On the left-hand side of the hall, L leaned against the door, checking that no one was inside before slipping in. Inside, there were many guns, which, unlike everything else in the building, were leaned up against the walls carefully, free of dust and clutter. The weapons lined each wall of the room, several layers thick. L's eyes widened… that was a lot of weaponry… he continued on down the hallway, stopping at each door. Several doors later, another room was filled with more weapons; though this time, knives accompanied the guns. He slipped out of the room, and crept to the next door.
There were voices coming from inside this room. L sat for a moment, listening, trying to decipher if he recognized any of the voices; he didn't. Not wanting a confrontation, he continued on, making a mental note to check back later and see what was in the room.
Again, most of the rooms were empty, but he came across several more with weapons and ammunition in them. Finally, at the end of the corridor, a new hall opened up, leading into a medium sized open room with a single door in the back right-hand corner. There were tables and chairs set up; where people were playing poker, arm wrestling, and glaring at each other. L did a double take; he wasn't expecting so many people. There were easily fifty men sitting before him, but he was willing to bet there were at least seventy or even eighty. How, and why, in the world did Ryan have so many thugs working for him?
L backed up, fearing a confrontation with all of the men at once. As quickly as he could, he snuck back down the hall to the main room, completely forgetting about the one room he hadn't checked. He wanted nothing more than to get out of there, and quickly. He wasn't prepared for a fight today, especially not one against fifty; those odds were definitely not in his favor!
L slipped out the exit that he entered from, and started heading back to the orphanage, to home. He had made it out alive, this time.
A/N : phew! so i finished another chapter; it's a bit longer to make up for chapter 13 being kinda short. i'll try to post at least 1 chapter a week until it's finished, maybe 2, if i'm feeling ambitious. ^_^ i'd like to encourage everyone to leave reviews! they mean the world to me, and provoke me to keep writing; it get's me inspired! much luv, until next time -Rhea.