Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt

P.S. – Unedited because I'm a lazy fuck :P

Chapter 21: First Loss

"What do you mean? What happened to the Captain?" one of the other officers shouted from down the hall, his hand pressed over the receiver to his cell, "What happened? Is he okay, or does he need an ambulance?"

"He needs an ambulance!" another female called back, her hysteria growing by the minute, "I don't think he's going to make it!"

"What?" the man called back in surprise and a little bit of fear. He turned back to his cell, spouting off the information before ending the call and running after the others. No matter how much they gripped or disliked their Captain, they cared for him as much as they cared for each other. They wouldn't just leave him to die. "What happened? Who did it? How did it happen?" He burst through the front doors in time for another officer, Annabeth's partner, so hear the questions.

"We're not sure about the who. All we're sure of is that someone shot him with his own gun, muffling it with what we think was a jacket, and then the person tried to strangle him," he told the other man, his face set in a scowl.

The pair rushed around the corner Annabeth's partner had rounded, and hurried over to the scene the SPR team was standing beside. They stood rigidly, their arms crossed over their chests. Naru stood just in front of the group, surveying the scene with a blank mask, taking in the details as analytically as possible. He watched with curious eyes as the officers went about securing the securing the scene and collecting evidence as they waited for the ambulance.

The woman shot an accusatory finger at the group. "What are they doing here? They're going to contaminate the scene. What if they were the ones who assaulted the Captain?" she shot at the other officers even as she went tramping through the scene herself.

"If I may point out, you're contaminating the scene more than we are," Gene shot back at her, his polite attitude gone in the blink of an eye. The kidnapping of Annabeth and Mai had sucked all of his kindness out through a straw and spat it on the ground.

The woman snarled at him, her hand pressed to the Captain's uninjured shoulder. She glanced down at him in concern, registering his labored breaths. "You're not trained officers."

"And obviously you weren't trained that well so we're even," Gene muttered under his breath, casting his eyes down the length of the cement wall.

Before the woman could growl a retort, Naru intervened with his own two sense. "My people were all in the room we've been allotted except for five of our males who were going to check on the person who screamed after they screamed. We were all in the room before then. We have video proof if that's what you need."

The look on the woman's face was priceless. She looked absolutely shocked that someone had actually stood up to her. It was like she expected respect just because of her job. A lot of the other officers, for obvious reasons, did not like her in the slightest.

"Meisa, get out of the way!" Annabeth's partner shouted at her, his eyes narrowing on her, "You in the way and in my crime scene."

The woman shot him a scathing look, but moved away. "You need to get them out of here," she growled, pointing to the team as the medics came through with a neon orange stretcher.

"They're out of the way, and behind the yellow tape," he replied coolly, towering over her, "You, on the other hand, are not. What does that say about you, I wonder?" Alice snickered, and he shot her a glance full of mirth. He was having way too much fun telling this woman off.

She huffed her annoyance, turning on her heel and tramping out of the little box of yellow tape. Annabeth's partner sighed a long suffering sigh, running his hand through his hair. A woman in a deep blue jump suit and black plastic gloves shouldered past him. "Come on, Ryuu, stop getting in the way," the woman said playfully, her eyes darting to meet his.

He laughed nervously, "Sorry, Yumi, I'll get out of your scene." He turned towards the team, dropping under the yellow tape line. "Do you think…?" he started, but couldn't finish the ludicrous thought.

Naru was quiet for a moment, his eyes scanning over the scene once more. "Yes, it's very likely and possible. The signs are all there, or more lack of signs. There's no indication that another person was here," he pointed out.

Ryuu sighed, dropping his head. "I was afraid you'd say that. Oh, our superiors are going to hate this," he sighed, running a hand back through his hair, "What can we do?"

Another moment of silence. "We need permission to destroy some things," Naru said, eyes staring off down the wall. Gene had moved down the wall, trailing his fingers along the smooth surface.

Ryuu watched him warily. "What things?"

"A few walls, well, put a few holes in them at the least, and we need to tear up a section of the floor," Naru replied nonchalantly, his brow furrowing the longer he watched his twin.

The other man groaned. "Do you think this'll help find the girls?" he asked hesitantly.

"Possibly," Naru said, effectively distracted from the conversation now.

"I'll get the permission for the boss," Ryuu told him, but Naru was already moving to where Gene had paused.

"What did you find?" he asked, his fingers moving to trace the path Gene's fingers had taken. His eyes grew the few centimeters it took to make his look surprised. "Is this…" He trailed off, feeling along the dip.

"I think so," Gene murmured back, his eyes sparkling with hope.

"We need to get behind this wall," Naru called, glancing over his shoulder to see Ryuu with his cell already pressed to his ear.

…..

"The Captain didn't make it," Ryuu announced hours later as he and the team sat around Base. He stared with wide, shocked, incredulous eyes at his quietly beeping cell. The line had disconnected. "I never thought that'd ever happen to him. He seemed so strong."

"You don't have to be weak to die. The strong die too," Jessica murmured sagely in English. Damien, John and Alice nodded their agreement, leaning against each other by the door. John had a protective arm wrapped around Alice's shoulders. Damien was doing the same to Jessica.

She received bewildered looks from the rest of the team, save for the other three English speakers in the room. From them, she received muted solemn looks.

"What did your boss say?" Naru asked after a moment of uncomfortable, stifling silence. He leaned back in his swivel chair, arms crossed tightly over his chest. Even if Ryuu's boss had said no, then they'd still do it anyway and deal with the consequences later.

Ryuu sighed. He seemed to be doing that a lot over the last couple of hours. "My superiors have allotted you the destruction of one section of wall, and one section of floor, so they said choose wisely," he told Naru before muttering under his breath, "Though if they really cared about the lives of two young women, then they should have given you free reign."

"I agree," Alice interjected, having heard his muttering.

It seemed that the entire room had heard him as Ayako jumped in as well, "Yeah, I mean, it's not like we'd tear the entire building down, just part of it." A hot blush crawled up the back of his neck, but he made no show of the embarrassment.

"That won't be hard," Naru answered, ignoring the two females with a shake of his head.

"We already know the two places to check," Gene finished for him, his eyes downcast towards the carpet.

Impatient, Naru pulled himself from his chair, closely followed by his twin. They seemed to be on the same wavelength for the past couple of hours. "We begin preparations now," Naru started, moving towards the door.

"And we start at dawn," Gene finished for him.

They paused at the door, turning in sync to stare at the team. "We will find them by the time the sun falls."

Well, there you go, I hope that chapter was interesting enough. I didn't get to write yesterday because I actually went to morning practice today. That was killer. I was tired all day. Any who, I have finals tomorrow and more swim practice, so I'll see if I can post tomorrow as well, but not making any promises. Review, yes? :D