Chapter Six: Predators
Stalking Prey
*As Hiiro looked up at the building for possible
entrances, he noticed that each floor had many thick glass windows. Dangerous
if guns were fired because of the shattering effect, the windows were also one
of the best possible entrances or escape exits.
"I say we go in straight, right through the
front doors. They won't be expecting it, and we'll have the
advantage of starting on the ground floor and working our way up." Wufei
said calmly, analyzing the situation. Hiiro had to agree; it seemed like the best
option right now.
"Wufei had a good point. Shall we get to it
then?" Quatre said with a small smirk. These gang members were going to
regret ever going wayward, that was for sure. As the pilots quickly snuck up on
the building, each assessed their own plans for destroying the enemy and
liberating the children in their minds. Finally, all five of them had snuck up
on the giant wooden doors. Their plan was simple so far. To get in, they would
bring one of the demands the gang wanted, the ice cream. Each carrying their
own carton of the cold treat, Trowa managed to know on the doors.
"Who is it?" Came a muffled voice form
inside.
"We have the ice cream, we're just
delivering it." Called out Quatre.
"Leave it on the stoop where you are."
Came the voice again, this time more clearly and closer.
"But it'll melt. Come on, let us at last
put it in the freezer in the school kitchen for you." Called back Quatre
in his most pleasant and innocent voice possible. They did have to sound
innocent and stupid after all.
"Well, alright. But come in quickly."
'We're in.' Thought Hiiro silently. 'Ben Tsukino,
kindergarten…' Hiiro tried to drop the thought, but fond for some
strange reason he couldn't get Serena, or her son, out of his head. She
was clouding his judgment and distracting him from his mission, even while he
was so far away from her. Waking from his reverie, he saw it was his turn to
quickly enter the school. Following behind Duo, he walked through the doors and
into yet another mere life or death situation. Funny how fate works. He finds
someone, and all of a sudden he needs to risk his life… back up. Who said
he had found someone? Sure Serena was nice and pretty and smart and caring and
loyal and he was going mad, now he was sure.
)(
Serena watched as Hiiro and his friends Duo, Quatre,
Trowa, and Wufei all made their way through the fenced off area around the
school with ice cream in their hands. Hiiro's actions had surprised her
slightly. She had never expected him to tell her what they were planning on
doing; she thought he and his friends would just go do it and then she would
know afterwards.
Poor Ben. He was still stuck in that god-awful
building as she just stood by helplessly. He was probably cold, hungry, tired,
and scared. Her poor, poor son! Oh she would give anything in the world to have
traded places with him, just so he wouldn't have to suffer this emotion
damage, but no! She was stuck here, on the ground below, waiting for some small
sign of hope.
But Hiiro had given her hope. She had seen it in his
eyes; in that momentary flash of passion and rage she had seen his
determination to resolve this situation quickly and without harm to the
hostages. And she trusted that he would. Anyone with that much drive would
succeed, no matter what the odds stacked against them were.
"Serena! Hey Serena!" A voice called out
to her through the crowd. She slightly tilted her head to see who was coming
towards the yellow tape in the dark. "Serena! Over here!" Called
the voice again. Finally able to see in the dimness of the flares, Serena could
make out the face of her only friend, Hilde.
"Hilde." Serena said quietly. "You
can come under the tape if you want."
"I'm coming, hold on." The petite
girl made her under the tape and around the cops, who had by now learned that
when Serena didn't get her way she could be very disagreeable. Serena
watched as Hilde came closer to her. Her only friend, Hilde had short bluish
purple hair and violet eyes. A slim form was visible beneath the tight stretch
pants and giant sweater she loved to wear. Both had met when they began
stripping the same nights at the club, but because of certain circumstances,
Hilde had been able to finally leave her world as an exotic dancer behind.
"Hey Hilde. I'm so glad you're
here." Serena said quietly, still sitting on the trunk of Hiiro's
car and hugging her knees into her chest.
"No problem. I'm only sorry I
didn't get here any sooner. So how did you get around the tape
rule?" Hilde asked her, bubbling with energy Serena had long since lost.
"It's alright. I knew one of the SWAT
team members." She told her.
"You knew one of them? How? Why didn't
you ever tell me before?" Hilde spilled quickly, slightly wondering if
her friend's friend knew her boyfriend.
"Well, I don't exactly, know, him. He
was at the club last might and we caught each other's eye. Then this
happened, and, well, he came over and let me in when I gave him my
purse."
"What? Why did he want your purse? Did it
match his shoes or something?" Hilde tried to joke. So maybe she had been
wrong, Serena's friend probably didn't know Duo…. Serena
broke a small side smile.
"No. One of the demands of the terrorists was
five women's purses." She answered her energetic friend.
"Oh, right, gotcha. So what's the latest
news?"
"The Gundam SWAT team has just begun an
infiltration of the school." Serena shuddered and looked up. 'Poor
Ben.' She thought.
"Wow. They're already moving in?
That's fast. Don't worry Sere. They'll have Ben out in no
time, you'll see, I promise." Hilde reached over to hug her friend.
So it was Duo's SWAT team after all, Serena just didn't know it
yet. This could be fun! After all, it wasn't everyday that something like
this happened to some one she new, and Serena was bound to be having a hard
time dealing with it, and maybe the only single member of the team could help
her somehow… Nah, that would be wistful thinking. Hiiro wasn't like
that…
)(
Hiiro looked around the floor for the walkie-talkie.
"Kurt? Are you there Kurt? Kurt!" Was
heard throughout the room. Finding the walkie-talkie beneath the heavy corpse
of the once living gang member, Hiiro picked it up to respond.
"Kurt here. Sorry it took me so long. Nature
called." Hiiro did his best imitation of what he thought the boy might
have sounded like.
"Oh. Sorry for bothering you. Did you here
anything?" The other voice responded.
"No." Hiiro lied. What the other boy had
heard was him killing his friend, not that he needed to know that. Yet.
"Oh. Well, keep on guard."
"Will do." Hiiro
responded before cutting off all transmittion. After dropping the walkie-talkie
back where he had found it, Hiiro he quickly and quietly moved down the hallway
of lockers towards the steep, metal staircase. Stepping on the first stair, he
tested it before putting his full weight on it. It wouldn't do for him to
give away his position now, he was one step closer to succeeding in his
mission. Using the railing to help him keep balanced, he tested each step after
the next in much the same way he had tested the first stair. Only ten more
steps to go before he reached his final destination, the fifth floor.
Quatre and Trowa had the
easiest of the mission, at least in their minds. Only having to climb one set
of stairs helped the greatly. However, before they could take out any of the
gang members, they had to do a reconnaissance of how many there were and where
they were stationed strategically. Quatre had split from Trowa, taking the
first floor while Trowa took the second.
Looking around, he found
that there was a guard in every other room of the hallway. This was no minor
operation as the cops had lead his team to believe. The gang was huge, at least
thirty members, if not more. How sad, all these bright young students with so
many problems. What in the universe was wrong with society today?
Trowa, on the other hand,
was having an even easier time. He found guards every four classrooms. Vaguely
wondering how the rest of his teammates were doing, he didn't stop to
ponder too much. Turning back around, he left the hallway to meet Quatre at
their rendezvous point.
"Hey Trowa. What did
you find out?" Quatre asked him as soon as he stepped back into the main
lobby of the school, far away from any prying ears.
"They have guards
every four classrooms. The guards have guns and knives." Trowa stated
simply.
"Well, I found almost
the same thing, except the guards were stationed in every other classroom in my
side. Should we just take them out classroom by classroom?" Quatre
suggested.
"Sounds fine. But we
need to make sure the children or teachers don't interfere of get
injured. No gun shots at all costs. The upper levels hear guns and we're
as good as dead, along with the rest of the hostages."
"Good point. Well,
I'll see you in about a half and hour, alright? Try not to make your
'kills' to bloody. The kids are young and innocent." Quatre
warned Trowa.
"I know Quatre, I
know." Quatre just nodded in response, and soon both were off on their
missions.
Duo and Wufei had just
finished their recon. of the third floor. Meeting back at the stairwell to
convene, they had a harder time keeping silent then Trowa and Quatre had.
"So Wufei, did you by
any chance see that hot teacher in room 87?" Duo joked slightly.
"Maxwell! Idiot! We
are on a mission, we should not be fooling with such irrelevant
nonsense!" Wufei almost blew their cover.
"Hey, chill Wu-man,
I'm sorry dude. I didn't know you and Sally were that hot and
heavy. If she's got you wrapped around her finger so much, why
don't you go and…"
"Injustice! Such a
weak woman as Sally will not rule me! Tell me what you saw on your route on the
floor above." But Duo and Wufei himself knew Wufei was blushing furiously
in the darkened shadows of the stairs at Duo's suggestion.
"Fine sure, what do I
care. Just tell me one thing, is she really that good in bed?" No comment
was heard for a minute. Duo thought Wufei had passed out, or gone into shock,
or something when he heard no noise. Then it came.
"She's better
than what Hilde gave me the other night." The comment was imply and
quiet. Duo nearly had a heart attack.
"WHAT?" He
practically bellowed.
"Maxwell, no matter
how poor you woman did in bed, we need to stay alive so you can go back to her.
That means shutting up before we're caught. I'll take the guards on
the top floor. You do this one. No guns, and prevent them from shooting at all
costs. See you in half and hour." Wufei smirked to himself in the dark
and silently slipped away, leaving a stunned Duo with his jaw on the floor
behind him.
Hiiro was done checking and
clearing the fifth floor by now. All of the guards had been stationed three
classrooms apart. While his other team members preferred to check out the
entire situation before acting, Hiiro worked as he went. No matter. It
didn't matter how he did his job, the objective was success. Hiiro Yui
had never failed a mission. Never. Looking back veer his shoulder, he felt
nothing when he saw the bodies of the gang members he had killed lying in the
middle of the hall. He had been sloppy; he should have hidden them better. Oh
well, there wasn't enough time…
Yet another guard was
coming. The difference was, this one was coming from the floors below. As the
two guards met, they turned to survey the scene before them. Hiiro's
brain began to function overtime. This was not good. Not good at all.
Surprisingly, the guards didn't scream or go berserk. They just stood
there, surveying the rest of the scene. This gave Hiiro a chance to ready his
knife again. But he only had one, and there were two guards…
)(
