The Replacement Assassins
Ch. 9: Car Wash Shootout
"Alright, Nikk come on, what have you got for me." Quatre asked the department resident computer expert. She was currently working on the ghost image that they pulled from Usagi's computer and trying to restore the picture, to see the last person Usagi serviced and the one responsible for the 4 dead bodies in her apartment. Because even through Usagi has done a lot of shady shit in the past, she was no killer and he knows for sure the she cant viciously snap a grown man's neck with her bare hands. Quatre was loosing his patience, Nikk was not moving fast enough.
"You know my kid works faster." He taunted.
"Hey! There's not much there, bear with me here." She defended. She frantically typed on the keys trying to reconstruct the image finally after a couple seconds, she smiled.
"I think I got it." She said, as the picture slowly brightened and came more into color, then the picture of Heero Yui finally came into focus and was clean and clear.
"There's your ghost." She replied satisfied at her accomplishment.
Quatre didn't respond for a moment, he was taken back by the image in front of him. His eyes…they were so detached…so void of emotion. Quatre had never quite seen anyone like him before but then again he wasn't totally surprised. Someone who single handedly killed 4 people in the manner he had, had to be at least hardened and somewhat detached.
"Good stuff, Nikk." He finally recovered.
Heero had "borrowed" Usagi's black 64' Impala and the 2 arrived at Max's Car Wash and Garage. It was late afternoon so it was closed to the public, which was a good thing, because the less Heero was seen the better. He and Usagi got out and Heero grabbed her by the arm as they entered the back way into the car wash area of the building. This area consisted of a 75 foot long hall way, on the right side were windows that looked into the car wash were you could see your car being washed if you didn't wish to ride in the car, on the left were room varying from Max's office to a janitors closet and a soda vending machine backed against the painted brick wall. Heero knocked on Max's office door "Max?" he asked knocking harder. After getting no response he turned the knob to go inside anyway, but it was locked. Heero emitted a low growl from his throat and he, with Usagi in hand, walked down the long hallway to the garage area of the building, hoping Max was there.
When he arrived to the garage, the lights were out and it was deathly quiet. Growing suspicious at the scenario, Heero drew his gun, and let go of Usagi, telling her to stay put. He carefully walked around looking for any signs of the old man. "Max?" He yelled, hoping that he would get an answer but to no avail. Usagi looked around as well not liking the fact that Heero was tense all of a sudden. She looked down below her feet, she was standing on top grill of what appeared to be a giant oil pan built into the ground, and she noticed that a body was floating in the oil.
"Oh shit!" she yelled backing away off the grill. Heero looked down into the pit to find Max, with a bullet wound in his head, he had been killed, but by who?
His question was answered as 3 men all armed with machine guns, and dressed like the men from Usagi's office walked in and surrounded the pair. Heero immediately pointed his gun at the man standing in front of him and a standoff occurred, but even he knew it was all in vain because even if he killed him the other 2 would kill him. One more person walked into the garage with them with a rather arrogant smirk on his face.
"You 2 make a cute couple. He got something I don't Usagi? I thought you hated the strong silent type?" Mamoru mused as Heero now had the gun pointed at him while Usagi glared at him.
"You're welcome to try." Mamoru taunted, almost daring Heero to pull the trigger. Heero was crazy but he wasn't stupid, as he reluctantly lowered his gun in defeat.
"Take his gun. Check them." Mamoru commanded, and the 3 gunmen took Heero's gun and frisked both he and Usagi. After they were completely disarmed, Mamoru walked up real close to Heero. They stared each other down for a few seconds, and then Mamoru smirked.
"I beat my head against the wall trying to anticipate your next move." He told Heero in a superior tone, like he accomplished something great. But then again, track down the infamous Heero Yui was quite a task, but killing him was another thing.
"Actually I beat Max's head against the wall..." Mamoru laughed, walking away from Heero "trying to anticipate your next move." He finished, proud of the fact that he tortured a man to death, it made Heero sick.
"Treize will be very pleased we found you." Mamoru informed him, staring Heero right in the eye.
"Okay. Obviously this situation has nothing to do with me. So I'm just gonna walk out that door, and pretend I saw nothing." Usagi spoke up, trying to reason with Mamoru.
"I'm sorry Usa, but this time you're in a little too deep. You picked the wrong boyfriend." Mamoru said. Calling her "Usa" made her skin crawl, she's made a lot of bad decisions in her life, going out with Mamoru briefly was one of the worse.
"Boyfriend? No, wait. I'm his goddamned hostage. I hate this asshole, and I hope you shoot him in the nuts!" Usagi exclaimed. "I just met this loser, this morning. And he told me his name was Heero Yui. I mean come on, really, what the hell kinda fake name is Heero Yui?" Usagi pleaded trying to get out of this.
Mamoru walked away from Heero and approached Usagi and smirked which made her wanna slap that smirk right off his face, but she decided against it, considering that she was begging for her life. "His name IS Heero Yui." Mamoru informed her, "And you know what happens to hostages, they tend to get killed." He whispered to her in a low icy tone, which made her shudder.
"Cuff him." Mamoru ordered, walking away. He then stopped turned around and looked at Usagi briefly "Cuff them both." He corrected and walked out.
Usagi glared daggers at Heero, he had just gotten her into a whole world of shit, and he didn't look sorry in the least. One of the gunmen forcefully grabbed Usagi by her jacket and dragged her over to one of the hydraulic car lifts that were currently raised. The gunman pushed her down under it and grabbed her hand cuffing it to the lift, during the struggle; Usagi kicked the gunman in the shin hard. The gunman responded by kicking her backhanding her in the face. After she was securely locked down, Usagi wiped the blood from her lip and smirked at the gunman.
"How's the leg?" She taunted. The gunman answered by kicking her right in front of her knee. A loud pop was heard was and Usagi screamed in pain as her right knee was dislocated, and her kneecap shifted. "How's yours?" He taunted back seeing the extreme paint she was in.
Heero watched the whole scene with disgust. He never meant to get Usagi into this, he just planned on detaining her long enough to get her to make his passport, after all he had already paid her in advance. But what they were doing to her was just wrong, and in some way he felt responsible for her life. His thoughts were cut short and a fist collided with his stomach. It caught him off guard more then it hurt, as he didn't really see it coming. The gunman who punched him pulled out a pair of handcuffs and tossed it over to the man standing behind him. Heero saw his chance.
As soon as the cuffs were in the air, Heero quickly spun around and grabbed the gun from the gunman behind him, and put him in a chokehold, using him a human shield. Heero immediately fired shots at the gunman in front of him and a few at the other one off to the side who was tending to Usagi. Heero quickly looked behind him and found a door that led to the long hallway of the car wash, he shot the lock off and ducked out of the garage. The gunmen not caring for the life of the other gunman being used as a human shield, fired away hoping to get Heero, but it was too late, he had already been long gone and the gunman collapsed to the floor, dead.
As soon as Heero reached the hallway, he was greeted with another gunman on one end, and Mamoru on the far end. He immediately fired shots in both directions until he ran out of bullets. After he ran out, he ducked behind the soda machine waiting for the firing from Mamoru to cease. When Mamoru let up, Heero took the opportunity to dive through the window and into the actual car wash itself. Mamoru and his men quickly arrived and tried to shoot him through the window he just went through but Heero was too fast and managed to lose them through the big hanging brushes of the car wash.
"Bring the car around! Flush him out!" Mamoru shouted. Half of the men went to get the car to cut off Heero's escape, while the other half stayed with Mamoru to try and kill him before he gets out.
Heero ducked down behind a barrel, thinking. He needed to get out before he flushed out, and he needed to rescue Usagi in the process. Looking up he saw the power switch to the car wash. He quickly turned the switch on, and the brushes, rollers, water jets, and dryers came to life. Mamoru's gunmen slowly trekked through the loud car wash, wiping water out of their eyes and trying to block out the very loud noise that the giant machine was emitting.
Heero saw that the gunman was having difficulty seeing, and took his chance to attack him. He quietly grabbed the gunman in a chokehold and snapped his neck, and picked up 2 of his handguns. Heero then sensed 2 more goons coming from both sides who had apparently heard him kill the other gunman. As soon as they appeared, Heero took out the one coming from his right easily, and pointed the gun in his other hand to the head of the goon coming the left. The gunman had a very shocked look on his face as Heero had the gun pointed to his head, Heero didn't hesitate to pull the trigger, but to the gunman's delight, it was empty. He gave a "you're fucked now" smirk to Heero, but too his dismay, Heero smirked too, and he brought the gun in his other hand and unloaded 3 shots into his chest. Heero watch him fall down, with machine gun in hand, and landed right next to roller board, the kind used by mechanics when they worked on cars and had to work under them.
Heero tossed the empty gun aside and placed the loaded gun on his waist. It wasn't long before more men showed up, and when Heero saw another one come up behind him, he dove and landed on the roller board back first, grabbed the machine gun that lay on the floor and shot at the gunman, killing him, and continuing rolling backwards under the swinging brushes. The last of the gunmen in the carwash with Heero was slowly walking through the brushes, when he heard a weird noise, it like something was rolling. It got louder and louder and then it stopped. He looked down to find Heero laying down under the brushes with a big machine gun pointed at him. It was the last thing he ever saw as Heero unloaded the whole clip into his body. Mamoru, who had just arrived at the scene, gritted his teeth in frustration, as empty roller board stopped by his feet, and his men were wiped out.
Usagi was frantically trying to stand up, but it was quite a task when your knee dislocated. She finally managed to get up on one leg and tried to slip her hand out of the handcuff, but it wasn't working. Looking up she saw some grease that was all over the bottom of the hydraulic lift, smiling, she grabbed some and rubbed it all over her cuffed hand. It seemed to be doing the trick as her hand was slowly working is way out. Suddenly Heero came out of nowhere and grabbed her cuffed hand and proceeded to uncuff her with keys be pulled from the dead body of one the goons he killed. Usagi, as much as she hated him, couldn't help but smile and sigh in relief.
"Jesus! I wondered if you were coming back." She told him in a surprisingly refreshing tone of voice. Heero put her arm over his shoulders and allowed her to use him as a crutch to get out.
When the pair reach outside, the quickly ran to the black car they arrived in. But as soon as they got there, Mamoru was they're waiting for him with another gunman.
"Shit! Get down!" Heero commanded Usagi, as he ducked behind the car, and opened the door for Usagi. Usagi quickly complied as she crawled in avoiding gunfire. Heero on the other hand returned fire with his machine gun, when another car pulled up. Mamoru had called for back up as the car unloaded with more gunmen. Heero exchanges fire with the Mamoru in front of him and the men behind him. Heero then dove in the car and lay down as he avoided gunfire coming from both sides. Usagi, who had somehow made it to the backseat, reached into her pocket and handed Heero the car keys.
"Keys, take the keys!" Usagi offered as Heero quickly grabbed the keys and started the car up.
"Give me your gun!" Usagi yelled, offering to return fire, Heero wasn't going to argue with that, and he tossed one of the last 2 handguns he had left to her. Usagi was returning fire with the gunmen out side and she noticed that they weren't moving yet.
"Get this car moving. Come on!" Usagi yelled at Heero, but trying to turn a car on when you're under very heavy fire can prove to be a daunting task. Heero finally got engine running and threw the car into reverse and stepped in the gas. Heero seeing the only way out was through the car wash, drove through it in reverse avoiding the ever-present gunfire from Mamoru and his men.
Quatre finally arrived on the scene after getting the call of gunfire at the car wash. Quatre pulled up at the exit of the car wash and drew his gun. Upon seeing Mamoru's gunmen, Quatre sprang into action.
"Freeze! Put that gun down!" Quatre ordered. But the gunman merely turned around and pointed his gun at him. Quatre reacted by shooting him first killing him. Quatre then saw a car speeding through the carwash like a bat outta hell. Reacting on instinct, he turned around and pointed his gun at the driver.
Heero was charging hard through the car wash in reverse, his vision obscured by the steam in the carwash. When Heero reached the exit, he saw another car blocking the way out.
"Oh shit!" Usagi screamed, as she saw the car blocking the way out. Heero drew his gun and pointed it at the figure standing behind the car, who had his gun pointed at him. He quickly recognized the person behind the car as the cop that took Treize's sons life, Quatre Winner. Heero in that split second looked into his eyes and knew that he didn't want to kill him. Heero dropped lowered his gun and instead decided to drive through the car. Quatre seeing what he was trying to do dove out of the way of the car and Heero plowed right through the blocking car. Once Heero reached the street, he threw the car into drive and sped off down the street.