Chapter Fourteen - In over thy head...
The Albatross was about sixty percent full at this time of the night. Gamblers were at the various card tables and the different slots machines that were set up all over the place. The heavy smell of alcohol and cigarettes hung on the air along with the deafening sounds that went along with the place. It was a spectacle of sights, sounds and smells of a world that was rarely seen in more legal establishments
A lone figure dressed in black made its way through the throng of people inside the Albatross, the person looking very much out of place among the flashing lights sweaty patrons that jammed the place. The person stopped to talk to a few people intermittently, then would simply continue on deeper into the gaming slum that was the gambling hole
The dark figure was Robin, who looked more than a little shell-shocked, as the place was not like anything she had ever experienced in her short life. The feeling of the room made her very uncomfortable, to the point that she contemplated more than once in the few minutes she had been there of just leaving this place as fast as she could. Thinking about the missing Nagira, and the need to find out a few things to locate him with, made her keep on searching in this den of vice.
Older men leered at the pretty Robin as she passed, while wizened ladies who were hanging around with the men shot her hatred fueled looks when they noticed her, and her young beauty that shone even in the dim light of the place. The girl just ignored them all the best she could, and kept on walking through, pressing deeper into the crowds as her eyes scanned the crowds for any signs of the tall lawyer.
A man in a very outdated suit suddenly had stepped in front of the girl. He looked at her with a very cross look on his plumping face as he chewed hard on the remains of a very well used cigar.
" What the fuck are you doing in here, little girly?" He said, his arms folded in front of himself.
" I am here looking for someone..." Said Robin, in her usual polite way.
The man looked at the girl with a very strange look, as it seemed as if he was staring straight through her eyes.
" What... did yer momma sent you to pull your father out of here or something?" He spat.
" No sir." She said, feeling a little uneasy with the man who stood there in front of her.
" Then why are you here then, girl?"
Robin stoically looked right at the man, showing that she was not going to be intimidated by him in any way.
" It a man that I am looking for..." She began again, feeling nervous as the man seemed to be eyeing her up and down hungrily.
" Aren't you a little young for peddling your ass in here?" He said gruffly, his eyes leering at her with his insinuation that hun on his lips.
Robin gasped, and shook her head very hard. The man's very callous innuendo caught her really off guard.
" That is not why I am here, sir..." She stammered with a bright red face, knowing exactly what he was implying as to her reasons to be here. "I am looking for someone in particular... Nagira Syunji.."
The man's face softened a touch, as he heard the name spoken to him. He loosened his arms and took a step towards the girl.
" You're here looking for Nagira, hu?" He said, looking at the girl with a calculating stare.
" Yes sir...That I am." She said, leaving out the why she was looking part. " I am looking for Nagira..."
The man nodded.
" Saw him yesterday... around ten or so last night..." The man said, seemingly feeling that this girl might not a threat to his place, but still he was wary of her. " All he did was meet with one of my people here, then just left after a few minutes."
" Who did he meet, Sir? Would you please tell me?" She asked, her politeness making her questions come out with a tight tone.
The man did not say anything for a few moments, as he seemed to be staring right at her.
" Why should I end up telling you anything, kid?" He snuffed, being back to not trusting this girl that was asking such questions of him. " My business is my business here...I should just toss you pretty ass out of her right now for asking such a thing of me, I have a reputation to keep here..." He waved his hand, and two very burly me appeared, waiting for the man's order... and it was not in a welcome wagon sort of way either.
Robin looked at the two man, and knew that the mane were hired muscle for the owner of this pit. She took a long breath in, showing that she was not going to go away.
" I am his friend... and he has not been seen in awhile.." She said plainly, trying to explain herself a little more.
The man's beady little eyes seemed to read the girl's face, watching her every expression for a very long few seconds. Something in his eyes had turned soft, despite the rigidity the man had been exhibiting towards Robin. He rubbed his cheek with a ring filled hand, as he tool a long look at the girl
" If you are a friend, and not some spy or something like it... I will then just ask you something that only I would know, and Nagira had told me if this would happen..." He said finally.
Robin nodded her understanding, and waited for the man to ask his question, knowing that it was a test.
" What is his brother's name?" He said, his eyes locked right on to Robin's bright emerald eyes.
" Amon!" She said softly, without blinking once.
The man blinked many times in a row, obviously Robin had been right. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, then motioned for the girl to follow him.
" Come on then, girl... I'll take ya to the guy he met..." He said, adding. " I think your not with the cops or something."
" I know." She said in a whisper.
The man led the pretty teenager through the growing crowd, straight to the back of the expansive place. Robin walked slowly, noting that the two guards had peeled off and left her with the sleazy little man. She felt uneasy a little, but kept on telling herself that she needed to do this, no matter how awkward this was making her.
In a small cramped room behind where the place's lounge was, sat two men who were playing cards together. Both were very portly built, one of the men had glasses and a grotesque pair of gold teeth in his mouth that went with is many gold chains he wore, the other man was dressed in a very blatantly bad outfit that was a very awful color of purple. Each seemed to have been a life time members of this sort of places.
The two men looked up at the man and girl as they entered the small room. The then turned to look at one another. The one then looked at Robin, like as if he was undressing her with his eyes.
" If this is my belated birthday present..." The man with the purple suit on said with a lecherous smirk at the girl. " I have to thank you, boss..."
" Cut the shit there, Kero..." The man in the outdated suit said. " She's come here to talk to Yukito..."
The man with the glasses looked up at the man, a little shocked. He fixed his glasses that had slid down his chubby nose, and looked at the girl that was standing right there.
" Why?"
" She said that she was looking for Mr. Nagira... and needs to know what you know and told him last night ..." He explained.
The short but very chunky man stood up and looked at the girl. He was not looking at the girl like the other man was, he seemed to be reading her face. Robin looked back, not feeling as uncomfortable as she did with the other men.
" You a friend of Mr. Nagira, are you?" He asked, smiling..
" I am." Said Robin, looking right at the man who seemed to have been named Yukito.
" I see that is the truth your telling about trying to find Mr. Nagira..." Said the man, grinning a little. " I also can see that he is a little more than a friend to you, young lady."
Robin's face contorted into a mask of not understanding what the man was getting at. She frowned a little.
" He is a friend of mine..." She said strongly. " He is missing, and if I can get what you told him, I might be able to find him."
" And I shall do my best to explain what I had reported to him to you..." He said.
The first man pulled the purple wearing man out of the room, leaving Robin and the man alone. The man , even tough very sleazy looking in his own right, seemed to change to a more friendlier tact than the girl originally thought.
Yukito motioned for her to take a seat on a chair, and he stayed standing.
" Now... What is you need to know?"
" What was the exact information you told Nagira the other night..." She said, firm in her need to know the info. " I don't have much money to offer you at the moment, but I can give what I have..."
The man shook his head, which shocked the young hunter.
" For Mr. Nagira and his safety thereof..." He said, smiling to reveal his golden teeth to sparkle in the low light. " I will be giving you the information you seek 'on the house', so to speak."
" You know Nagira well? Then..." She asked., hearing how he spoke of Nagira.
The man looked at her, his eye locking on to her and his face braking into a even larger smile than he had in the first place.
" Little lady... I rarely get to say this about the clientele I have in my little profession here... but he is one I truly have come to respect." He said, without a ounce of sarcasm in his speech.
" So you will tell me then?" The girl asked, making sure that was what the man had said to her.
The man started to tell her exactly what it was that Nagira had been asking about, giving the many details exactly as he had delivered to the tall lawyer. Robin sat quietly listen, recording ever single word into her memory like if her life depended on it. In fact, she knew that it could save the life of the thin man who was Amon's brother.
Soon she had the information she had came for, and a little bit more aside from that. She could really breathed a sigh of relief for the moment, in finally knowing the information. The man seemed to be happy that he did, looking at the girl with a broad smile that was refreshing in the place that she was finding herself in this night.
Robin took the time to thank the man, as she hurried to leave the room with her knowledge. Her mind was already pinpointing that she needed to see this person who had saw the family she had been told had been taken. This person was the obvious choice to go to and ask where Nagira might be, or that he might be simply checking out the home where it had happened. It was not much to actually go on at the moment, but it was something.
She thought of contacting the STN-J to get help in locating this witness and to investigate the disappearance of the family, but she had not been given the communicators the had used when she had worked with them before. She decided to head back to Raven's flat and to tell them of what she knew... provided that they were there. With Nagira still missing, she had to make herself trust her one time friends as she had done, because his life was depending on her and she had to take that chance.
Out into the night, Robin hurried out to where she had parked her beloved Vespa. She was glad that she had some information, and thought that she could find Nagira on her own with it, but she knew that many bodies on this were better than one anytime. That was another thing that her Grandfather had taught her.
She was nearing where she had parked to head out of this part of the town, beside a older model of car at the far end of the block. As she approached her vehicle, something was not feeling quite right, and she quickly scanned the darkness around herself to see just what it was that her instincts were picking up. It was as if she was being watched or something.
Looking through the night murk, Robin saw four people standing there, looking right at her, flanked by a large metal covered truck behind them She saw that they were dressed in the silver styled suits that the informant had described to her, and quickly mad the connection that these were probably the same people that had captured the family she had been told about.
Three of them were holding up large guns up and pointing them right at her, while the smaller person that stood just a little behind the others, seemed to have no weapons. Robin could only gasp and take a fast step backwards, as she knew that she was unprepared to repel any sort of attack on her.
The smallest of the four looked at her from behind the others. The person stood there unmoving for a second, pointed right at the tawny haired girl.
" Bring her down!!" The person shouted out with great authority, in a female voice. " I want her dead or alive!"
The three cocked their weapons in unison, and Robin had only time to pitch herself off to one side behind a car parked near her. She heard the sounds of gunfire ringing off the metal shell of the car in front of her, making the vehicle jump with every hit it took. She dropped to the ground for more cover, while her one hand fished her glasses from the pocket in her dress. Smoothly Robin slipped them on and rolled again to give a little space between her and the car, needing a moment to set herself for a counter move of fire.
The armed people came around the automobile on a dead run, and started to fire directly at her. The tawny haired hunter put up a wall of fire to stop the rounds from getting to her, struggling to make a plan to even the odds out a little bit. The wall of orange flames went up and very high, blocking the twenty feet or so that was the only distance between her and her would be attackers
A cold grip of fear went trough Robin, as the unexpected happened. She found the bullets were going right through her flaming wall like it was nothing, and passed her so closely she could feel the movement of the air hitting against her body.
" ORBO!!" She said, as she suddenly realized that the bullets were indeed made with that hideous green stuff, and the ORBO felt way stronger than what it had been when she was working with the STN.
As she reeled from her discovery, the girl felt two rounds suddenly strike her in the arm and the upper chest, those shots knocking her off of her knees and back to the ground like if she had been punched hard. Unbelievable searing pain shot through her like she had never felt before, as the ORBO quickly seeped into her body. She groaned, as the pain burned her from the inside out, sapping her strength with each second that passed
Badly wounded and knowing that she was, Robin scrambled behind another car as luckily the men had bee stopped briefly by the flames that obscured her for a moment. She could feel her power ebbing away a little at a time, the pain replacing it with intensity. She gasped and tried to fight off the effects that were gripping her, knowing that the flames would only stop them for so long.
As the men soon broke through the flames, she knew that she was trapped and almost helpless. She set herself with her last strands of determination, knowing that she had to fight, her life was now in the greatest of jeopardy. Being wounded, she knew her chances were already cut far below half, and dropping like a stone. The ORBO now gave who ever these people, the firm upper hand on her.
Robin already could feel that she may have only one good blast of flames left, before the ORBO finished invading her body and would then render her basically defenseless against them. Flame-flickers flashed her green eyes, readying herself for her last Hail Mary attack, and found her whispering a small prayer.
One of the three advancing silver covered people suddenly fell, with a groan of pain, then a red stain appeared on its chest. Robin was stunned, as she had not flashed her powers again, as the weakening feeling grew in her. Through the flames and smoke that choked the air, the girl could see a figure with a gun behind the three, shooting as he advanced into the scene. To her shock and relief, it ended up being Nagira.
The remaining attackers turned to return fire, but three more people had joined Nagira where he stood. In an blink of an eye, the arriving group blasted away with a tempest of gunfire that lit up the darkness with muzzle flashes, while scared people poured out of the gambling place to escape the sounds of the battle that was going on still.
A very weakened Robin could see that the people that had came to her aid were not strangers. Karasuma, Dojima and her Grandfather were the ones that were returning fire on the ones that had attacked her.
" We are here!!" Shouted Nagira, as the last of the attackers were quickly gunned down in the hail of bullets that flew through the air.
The smaller figure that had been the leader of the people in the silver suits had suddenly vanished, as had the truck. Robin could see that truck speeding away into the night as Nagira and the others fired on it. The bullets sparking and clanked on the metal side of the big transport, but bounced of it's metal shell. In a flash, the vehicle was swallowed up into the night as it escaped with whoever it was.
Nagira hurried over, seeing the girl had not moved from where she layed on the cold ground. He knelt down the moment he got to her side, his elongated features showing a great amount of concern on it.
" Oh gheesh kid..."He said, seeing the blood pouring from where the bullets had hit her arm and chest and was staining her dress with it's crimson ooze. He took out a large handkerchief and put pressure on one of the wounds for a moment. " We got you. Your in our hands now!"
" Nagira..." Robin managed to say weakly, feeling herself whole body starting go limp as he then hoisted her in his arms. " How..."
The man shook his head at the girl in his arms as he got to his feet with her as if she weighed nothing at all.
" Don't talk right now, Robin.. I will explain that later..." He said, as the others got to his side.
" But..." She said, as her mind began to shut down, her limbs were feeling like they weighed tonnes.
" Robin!" He said sternly, cutting off her weak attempt at speaking. " No talking right now...please!"
" You heard the man..." Father Juliano said, looking down into his granddaughter's pale face as she limply hung there in Nagira's gentle cradle. " We need to get you to a hospital."
She tried to say something more, but she was feeling that she was slipping into a world of sheer blackness, her friends faces were slipping form her consciousness. She could feel the ORBO take her last piece of strength from her battered body, and she finally slipped into the blackness she fought so hard against.