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Chapter Nine
Counter-Attack
After their weapons were taken and they were bound up with rope Squall and Laguna found themselves sitting on the ground in the corner of the warehouse. Ellone was also tied but she was taken and put on the other side of the room.
The sergeant who was apparently the leader of the group approached Squall and Laguna and knelt down in front of them. "So you walked right into our trap! I would have expected more from a SeeD."
Laguna, sitting back to back with Squall, tried to turn to talk with their captor but only managed to pull the rope tighter and put pressure on Squall's already injured shoulder. "Let Ellone go you bastard! I'm the one you want. She has nothing to do with whatever it is you need me for."
"Heh," laughed the sergeant, "On the contrary! We don't want either of you. It was the bitch we wanted. Nothing personal but orders are orders."
"What! You want her! Why you fu…"
Squall hissed at Laguna to calm down and turned his attention back to the guard. "Why does Seifer want her?"
The sergeant looked startled that Squall knew about Seifer but quickly recovered before continuing. "Well I guess it doesn't matter now anyway's. Seifer and the boss want her because she has a certain potential that could be beneficial to our cause."
"You mean her ability to send people back into the minds of others in the past?"
"Exactly! The boss thinks she might have a small amount of Sorceress ability." He replied.
Squall remained silent for several seconds as he processed this new information. "So that's why you kidnapped Rinoa. Because of her Sorceress powers! Where is she? She had better be alright."
"Oh come on now! You think I'm gonna tell you everything!" The sergeant asked sarcastically before glancing at his wrist chrono and standing up. "Well, if you two will excuse me, our transport should be here any moment."
He turned and motioned to the guards watching Ellone; who roughly grabbed her and began pulling her towards the exit. Stooping one last time he patted a stuttering and extremely pissed off looking Laguna on the top of the head.
"Uncle Laguna! Help!" Ellone yelled as she struggled to pull free and run to Squall and Laguna's side.
Squall, still tied, could do nothing but watch as she was hit on the head and dragged out the door. Turning back to the guard he decided to try one more question. "What about us?"
The sergeant ignored Squall's question but stopped at the door and turned back to the two remaining guards standing next to him. "Wait until you get my signal that we've taken off and kill them!"
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"So, Quistis, any idea where to go from here?"
"I'm not sure, Selphie, I thought maybe we could check in with Galbadia Garden and see if they would give any details on their pursuit of Squall." She answered the perky girl next to her as they stood on the boarding platform in Deling City. "What do you think Irvine?"
When Irvine didn't reply immediately, the two girls turned to see the problem. Irvine, who's attention was drawn by two scantily clad girls walking by, hadn't heard the question. He did notice the slap across the cheek he received from Selphie. "What huh? I was watching for snipers! Yeah that's it."
"At the risk of sounding like a certain commander of ours; WHATEVER!" Selphie snapped before repeating Quistis' previous question.
"Yeah' lets check out Galbadia Garden. Maybe we can pretend that Cid sent us to help and tag along with that team. That way we'd kill two chocobo's with one stone."
Quistis thought about it for a second but could think of no better ideas. So far they had had no luck looking for Rinoa. Her trail had ended on the train. They had left Zell in Balamb to check out the crime scene and would contact him later to figure out where to meet back up.
"Ok then, lets head for Galbadia Garden and see what's happening." She finally replied.
As they walked towards the Car Rental Agency they failed to notice a man step out of the shadows and start following them.
While the three went inside and rented a vehicle he snuck around to the side to watch for which car pulled out. After making a note of which car it was he pulled a cell phone out and dialed.
"Yeah it's me."
He listened for a few moments to someone on the other end before continuing. "Yeah, they just left Deling City. I listened in on their conversation at the Train Station. They're heading for Galbadia Garden. I want you to contact the Galbadia Team. I'll get a hold of the sleeper team inside Balamb Garden and tell them to keep an eye open. And make sure that the Galbadians know that I want them eliminated! Make sure their bodies don't turn up later."
He hung up his phone and turned to walk back the way he had came.
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"What are we going to do? You got any bright ideas, son?"
"Yeah, quit calling me son."
"Oh sorry! What I meant was do you have any ideas on how to get out of here."
'Whatever.' "I know what you meant and yes I do so let me concentrate!"
'Do you think it will work? Even if you get loose, you still don't have your sword.'
'I know that Bahamut but if I can surprise them long enough I might be able to hit them with Sleep spells again.'
Squall figured that they were down to a few minutes before the order came to execute him and Laguna. He had a plan, in fact that had been why he kept talking to the sergeant. He was trying to buy time to work. While the guard had been gloating, he had been carefully rubbing his rope against a sharp piece of metal sticking out of the ground under him.
Now he had it almost completely worn through. The next minutes seemed to drag by as he worked carefully at the last thread of rope.
He almost had it when one of the guard's communicators started beeping. The guard quickly grabbed and flipped it on. After listening for a few moments he flicked it back up and nodded at the other soldier.
Several things happened in the following moments. The rope snapped freeing Squall! The guards saw him free his hands and immediately brought their weapons up to track him and the lights snapped off.
Not caring what caused the outage, Squall grabbed Laguna and rolled sideways across the room. Bullets bounced harmlessly off the wall behind him. After coming to a stop, Squall shoved Laguna behind a storage container and immediately dove towards where he had just seen gunfire.
He slammed into someone and was awarded with a grunt of pain as he knocked the wind out of them. Squall immediately pulled back and slammed his elbow into the guard's nose before grabbing his neck and snapping it.
Shoving the body to the side he stepped silently the opposite way and remained quiet. Squall knew his only chance was to find the guards position and hit him with a sleep spell. 'Boy I hope they don't have night vision goggles!'
The guard still had an advantage though. He had his gun. If the guard decided to stop waiting and unloaded his clip across the room then Squall would be in trouble. Deciding to take a risk he stepped out into the middle of the room and away from the relative safety of the wall. If the guard decided to shoot blind then chances were he would aim for the wall instead of the center of the room.
Squall had just made it to the center when his plan backfired. The lights snapped back on and he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.
The guard smiled and was just about to pull the trigger when a fire extinguisher bounce of his head and he slumped to the floor. Standing behind him was a sheepish looking Laguna scratching his head and smiling.
"You okay?"
Squall nodded while looking around. Spying his gunblade nearby he grabbed it and bolted out the door leading outside. The road was completely empty and there was no trace of Ellone.
Cursing mentally he walked back inside to see Kiros and Ward standing next to Laguna.
Squall noted that Ward was holding what looked like a handheld computer. Kiros noticed him looking and answered his unspoken question. "It's a security monitor. We were worried when Laguna didn't answer his door so we've been tracking you guys by camera. I saw them getting ready to shoot so we killed the lights hoping to give you an advantage."
"Thanks Kiros. I have a favor to ask. Can you guys run this talisman through the computer and see if anything comes up. It might give us a clue as to where Ellone was taken. And Rinoa hopefully." Squall pulled the talisman out of his pocket and handed it to Ward.
Turning to Laguna he checked to see if he was alright. Other than looking like he had a cramp in his leg he seemed OK. "By the way. Laguna thanks for the help. You saved my life. I guess you could call me son once in a while. Just don't over do it. Now lets go see what we can find out about this talisman. We have a score to settle!"
To be continued…
Authors Note: Thanks for all the reviews everyone. All my previous reviewers along with Team-senshi, the-angel-of-the-lion and blackadder.
