Chapter Six: Predators Stalking Prey

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…

Finally beginning to make his way to the top floor, he breathed lightly, then caught his breath and melted into the shadows. A guard was coming from the sixth floor down. If that guard saw the dead guards in the hallway below, he would alert the others. That was not be a good thing. As soon as the guard passed him, Hiiro took out his knife. It was the quietest weapon he owned. Readying to throw it, he was forced to step back into the shadows from which he had come.

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…

)(

She sat, idly watching the entrance to the building and waiting. It had only been half an hour since the SWAT team Gundam had infiltrated, and so far no news had been heard. The building was as silent as before. No one had come out, and no one had gone in. No screams, no gunshots. Serena supposed that was a good thing because no gunshots meant no one was getting hurt so far. But that was just so far. Her son was still up there, on the sixth floor…

"What are you thinking about?" Hilde asked Serena.

"Ben. He's all the way up there on the sixth floor Hilde, all the way and all alone. I'm so worried about him, so scared he's not going to make it." Serena buried her face in her hands and shook her head. Though she wasn't crying, her shoulders began to tremble and shake with fear.

"Don't worry Serena. I'm sure Duo'll get him out alright." Hilde said, trying to be perky for her melancholy friend. She certainly did get Serena's attention.

"Duo? How do you know Duo?" Serena asked her suddenly.

"Duo? Serena, Duo is my boyfriend. Remember, I told you I met a really great guy one night after dancing, and he turned out to be in law enforcement?" Hilde told her.

"But, do you mean Duo Max…"

"…well. That's him. Great isn't he? Though his teammates are strange. Take Trowa. He's so quiet. And Wufei is forever threatening my poor Duo with his katana. And Hiiro? Well, we won't go there. That boy is just plain crazy. As for Quatre, well, he's the most normal one of the whole bunch. How Duo got mixed up with them I'll never know, nor do I really want to."

"You mean to tell me that you know all of them? For how long?" Serena pressed her, everything else forgotten about in the moment.

"For about three months now. If you ask Duo, he'll know the exact time. He even knows the exact hour, minute and second we met for our first actual date. That's when I met the guys, the same night."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know. I guess it wasn't important at the time. I'm sorry. But hey, why do you care so much?"

"I… I… well, you see, Hiiro promised and…"

"You mean Hiiro Yui? You got Hiiro Yui to speak to you, let alone look at you? Wow! You're my hero!" Hilde gushed. Serena took this into her memory banks and compared it with the other information she knew about Hiiro. Was he really that reclusive? He didn't act that bad around her… he even stared her straight in the eye, more than once too. Why was Hilde so shocked? Hiiro seemed so nice, so, accepting…

"What did he promise you Serena?" Hilde asked her suddenly.

"Hmm? Oh, that he would bring Ben out safely." Serena said, lost in her own thought.

"What?? When did you meet him anyway? Just today?" Hilde pressed for more answers.

"Last night he was at the club while I was dancing. He… he… has these amazing eyes…" Answered Serena, still very much in oblivion to what she was saying to Hilde.

"He was at the cub!? Amazing eyes? Are you sane? Sure, he had gorgeous eyes, I'll admit it, but he's so cold and distant… Serena? Serena? Are you listening to me? Earth to Serena!" Hilde's yelling didn't reach Serena's brain. 'She must really be out of it.' Thought Hilde. 'She's must really have fallen hard for him… I can see why, he is hot… not as hot as Duo of course…' Her thoughts trailed off as well as they both continued to wait for the safe return of the SWAT team with Ben. *