Sleepwake (Part 7/?)
See Part 1 for disclaimer.
This was not good.
More than a half dozen Tekkenshu soldiers formed a wide semicircle, their weapons raised and edged in moonlight. Xiaoyu's breath hitched. Do something, screamed her body, do something now! But what could she do that wouldn't result in a bloody, lead-filled death? With Jin hanging over her shoulder, she could hardly stand, much less fight the Tekkenshu while avoiding their bullets.
This was not good at all.
As though hearing her thoughts, Jin whispered, "Run," his breath warm in her ear.
I can't leave you behind, Jin, she thought. And I can't defend us without risking your safety. She stood frozen in indecision.
Hwoarang stepped forward.
"Well?" he said, smirking at the Tekkenshu, "Let's get started."
With that, his foot whipped up, striking the helmet of a nearby soldier, hard enough to bruise but not knocking him down. Hwoarang's sudden movement had an immediate effect: all guns simultaneously swung to aim at him, and opened fire with deafening loudness. The redhead ducked behind the soldier, taking advantage of the other's armor so that the Tekkenshu fired fruitlessly into one of their own. Safe behind his human shield, Hwoarang kicked the gun out of the stunned soldier's hands, catching it before it hit the ground. As he looked up, his eyes met Xiaoyu's. 'Hide' he mouthed to her.
Shaking off her shock, she nodded and scrambled towards the nearest car. Nobody gave them a second glance while she pulled Jin with her behind a dirty white van. All attention was on Hwoarang, and he was attacking again. Out of the corner of her eye, Xiaoyu saw him roll, kick, shoot, kick, and suddenly two men were on the ground.
Jin slumped against a car tire, his chest rising and falling rapidly as though he was out of breath. Xiaoyu's brow furrowed. His condition wasn't good.
"This might be your last chance. Take it," he said softly to Xiaoyu, his eyes shut with the effort of breathing. His clenched hand lay near hers on the rough blacktop, and she almost reached for it. She stopped herself, realizing that what Jin wanted was distance. From her.
"Jin, don't you get it?" Her whisper was harsh with frustration. She felt angry and wounded, searching for the words that would convince him he was stuck with her.
But Xiaoyu didn't get the chance to form her brilliant counter argument: stray gunfire riddled the top of the van with bullets, a reminder of the danger at hand.
"Hwoarang needs my help. Stay down, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, Xiaoyu swiftly crept out from the side of the van. She crouched behind a tan Honda, peeking over the hood.
Xiaoyu blinked.
Four of the Tekkenshu were down: one was lying immobile, neck at an odd angle, another sprawled over the trunk of a car, and two more were in various stages of injury, tentatively trying to stand. Hwoarang stood in the eye of the storm, back to Xiaoyu. His left foot jutted up and kicked a fifth soldier in the face, then below the jaw, hard enough to almost lift the man off his feet. His right foot struck the soldier's head twice more before he spun around and kicked the man's limp body six feet away, knocking down another one who had been advancing towards them. Less than three seconds had passed for him to dispatch the two Tekkenshu.
"I'm glad you're on our side," Xiaoyu murmured to herself, dazed by the power in Hwoarang's actions. The Korean looked utterly in control over every muscle in his body.
But there were still more of the armored soldiers. One struggled to his feet in front of the Honda, partially blocking Xiaoyu's vision. She realized that he was armed, but Hwoarang was unaware of his approach, busy savaging a new soldier. Xiaoyu leapt high over the Honda, twisting in midair to land on top of the man. Kneeling on his shoulders, she socked his temple and hopped back as he fell face down, his gun hitting the pavement with a clatter.
A sharp noise sounded behind her. Xiaoyu's left ear was suddenly ringing: someone shooting at her. Without turning, she tucked her knees and rolled backwards, pushing both her feet up. The kangaroo kick launched the final Tekkenshu soldier into the air. She heard cracking bone as his body met the ground.
Xiaoyu glanced over at Hwoarang, who was wiping somebody else's blood off his cheek.
"That's the last of these, but there must be more on their way," he said, his hand smoothing back copper hair. Hwoarang's appearance was pale, drained. Not elated the way she would have expected.
"You okay?" She asked. He looked surprised for a second, before his face became cool and unreadable. Xiaoyu guessed that this was the mask he wore most of the time.
"Still alive." Then, gruffly:
"You?"
"I'm okay, I think."
"Good, grab Kazama." Hwoarang turned his attention to a smooth black sports car and pulled a familiar metal strip from his pocket. Xiaoyu returned to the van, helping Jin stand.
"I think we really should get you to the hospital, Jin." she began.
"No, no. I'm fine-" and he interrupted himself with another coughing fit. Xiaoyu gave him her sternest look, but Jin only stared at his feet.
"Much as I hate to say it, he's right," Hwoarang spoke up, still inspecting the metal strip, "the hospital is the first place they'll look, once they find out he's not here." Shaking his head, he replaced the strip in his pocket, and took out an even longer one. He slid the metal piece between the window of the sports car and the door. Hwoarang swiped the strip to the side, and grinned when he heard a soft "click". The car-pick was placed back in the depths of his leather jacket.
"Easy as pie," he said, swinging open the door and settling into the driver's seat. He gave them an impatient glare when they didn't follow suit.
"What are you waiting for, New Year's Eve? Get in!"
Jin frowned. "This is-"
"Illegal? In case you didn't notice, Sherlock, the Tekkenshu were using us for target practice. We're already screwed."
"I think I hear sirens," said Xiaoyu. Were those lights police cars on the horizon?
Hwoarang cursed. He bent and his hands made a few quick movements under the dashboard. The engine roared to life.
"Jin, does Heihachi have any connections with the p-"
"Yes." Jin maneuvered into the passenger's seat.
"Just checking," said Xiaoyu, jumping into the back. She looked over her shoulder at the prone Tekkenshu on the ground, their figures becoming smaller as the car moved away. Movement caught her eye. She gasped, realizing what it was.
"Duck!" she screamed, a split second before the glass of the rear windshield shattered in a shower of glass. Hwoarang floored the gas pedal, throwing Xiaoyu against the seat as they sped forward. He made a sharp right and the car veered onto the street, thankfully empty at quarter past midnight.
He let fly a string of profanity, and drove even faster. Those were definitely sirens screeching in the distance.
"Xiaoyu, are you all right?" Jin turned to her, his eyes wide and wild.
"Yeah. A few, a few scrapes," she stammered, wiping blood out of her eyes with her palm and trying to fasten the seatbelt with the other shaking hand.
"Here." Hwoarang tossed a packet of heavy duty Band-Aids in Jin's lap. The Japanese youth twisted back with some difficulty, and began to apply the adhesive bands on Xiaoyu's cuts.
"Stop squirming," he ordered. She sighed in defeat.
"You always carry Band-Aids on you?" she asked Hwoarang.
"They come in handy," he said. Then:
"Damn, they're gaining on us. Hold on to something."
The redhead wrenched the steering wheel to the side, and the car shot into an alley. It was no use, the whine of the sirens were still close. The alley was long and dark, and the headlights were off. Xiaoyu crossed her fingers. Please, please don't let it be a dead end.
It wasn't. They swung out of the alley, right onto a road feeding into the highway. Hwoarang's eyes lit up as he caught sight of the sign, while Jin turned slightly green.
"Too fast. Motion. Sickness," he moaned. Hwoarang rolled his eyes.
The scenery seemed to blur by, and Xiaoyu's watch told her they drove for over half an hour. It felt longer. Hwoarang took exits, changed directions, pulled driving stunts that Xiaoyu didn't think were possible. But every time it seemed like they had lost their pursuers, the sound of sirens would come back and prove them wrong.
"We can't go on like this forever," said Xiaoyu, her eyes glued to the cars behind them, "they're too persistent."
"We can," Hwoarang said through gritted teeth, his knuckles white from clenching the steering wheel, "and we will, until we run out of-"
The car sputtered. A red light flashed on the dashboard. Jin slapped his hand over his face.
"Gas?"
Author's notes:
Tired. So. . . tired. Must. . .sleep.
::head konks keyboard::
(sorry, more ranting tomorrow people ^_^. Editing too. ::yawn:: Good night.)
::next day:: so yeah, I'm more conscious now, although that's not saying much ^_^. "Maomi," you ask, "why haven't you updated for so long? And when you finally do so, why are you half dead?" Well, gentle reader, the answer is: school, homework (from school), piano practice, school, five seconds of free time, insomnia (because of school), and strangely enough, Christmas caroling rehearsals.
Did I mention school?
But anyways, I have some 'thank-you's to hand around: first, gracias again to Sam Blackcrow for a great job in beta-reading! And reviewers, you do not know how much you guys have made my day. Sleeper, your enthusiasm touches my heart. ::wipes away a tear::. ^_^ Seriously people, it's _such_ a good feeling to come home after a long day and see more reviews for Sleepwake.
And in another installment of "Maomi Tells Readers To Look At Nifty Stuff", I have two words to say: Ender's Game. It's a literary masterpiece, and so are the sequels; I'm currently rereading "Shadow of the Hegemon". Okay, so that's more than two words, but who's counting ^_^.
Constructive criticism will be printed out and framed. Flames will be used to toast marshmallows. Yum.
See Part 1 for disclaimer.
This was not good.
More than a half dozen Tekkenshu soldiers formed a wide semicircle, their weapons raised and edged in moonlight. Xiaoyu's breath hitched. Do something, screamed her body, do something now! But what could she do that wouldn't result in a bloody, lead-filled death? With Jin hanging over her shoulder, she could hardly stand, much less fight the Tekkenshu while avoiding their bullets.
This was not good at all.
As though hearing her thoughts, Jin whispered, "Run," his breath warm in her ear.
I can't leave you behind, Jin, she thought. And I can't defend us without risking your safety. She stood frozen in indecision.
Hwoarang stepped forward.
"Well?" he said, smirking at the Tekkenshu, "Let's get started."
With that, his foot whipped up, striking the helmet of a nearby soldier, hard enough to bruise but not knocking him down. Hwoarang's sudden movement had an immediate effect: all guns simultaneously swung to aim at him, and opened fire with deafening loudness. The redhead ducked behind the soldier, taking advantage of the other's armor so that the Tekkenshu fired fruitlessly into one of their own. Safe behind his human shield, Hwoarang kicked the gun out of the stunned soldier's hands, catching it before it hit the ground. As he looked up, his eyes met Xiaoyu's. 'Hide' he mouthed to her.
Shaking off her shock, she nodded and scrambled towards the nearest car. Nobody gave them a second glance while she pulled Jin with her behind a dirty white van. All attention was on Hwoarang, and he was attacking again. Out of the corner of her eye, Xiaoyu saw him roll, kick, shoot, kick, and suddenly two men were on the ground.
Jin slumped against a car tire, his chest rising and falling rapidly as though he was out of breath. Xiaoyu's brow furrowed. His condition wasn't good.
"This might be your last chance. Take it," he said softly to Xiaoyu, his eyes shut with the effort of breathing. His clenched hand lay near hers on the rough blacktop, and she almost reached for it. She stopped herself, realizing that what Jin wanted was distance. From her.
"Jin, don't you get it?" Her whisper was harsh with frustration. She felt angry and wounded, searching for the words that would convince him he was stuck with her.
But Xiaoyu didn't get the chance to form her brilliant counter argument: stray gunfire riddled the top of the van with bullets, a reminder of the danger at hand.
"Hwoarang needs my help. Stay down, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, Xiaoyu swiftly crept out from the side of the van. She crouched behind a tan Honda, peeking over the hood.
Xiaoyu blinked.
Four of the Tekkenshu were down: one was lying immobile, neck at an odd angle, another sprawled over the trunk of a car, and two more were in various stages of injury, tentatively trying to stand. Hwoarang stood in the eye of the storm, back to Xiaoyu. His left foot jutted up and kicked a fifth soldier in the face, then below the jaw, hard enough to almost lift the man off his feet. His right foot struck the soldier's head twice more before he spun around and kicked the man's limp body six feet away, knocking down another one who had been advancing towards them. Less than three seconds had passed for him to dispatch the two Tekkenshu.
"I'm glad you're on our side," Xiaoyu murmured to herself, dazed by the power in Hwoarang's actions. The Korean looked utterly in control over every muscle in his body.
But there were still more of the armored soldiers. One struggled to his feet in front of the Honda, partially blocking Xiaoyu's vision. She realized that he was armed, but Hwoarang was unaware of his approach, busy savaging a new soldier. Xiaoyu leapt high over the Honda, twisting in midair to land on top of the man. Kneeling on his shoulders, she socked his temple and hopped back as he fell face down, his gun hitting the pavement with a clatter.
A sharp noise sounded behind her. Xiaoyu's left ear was suddenly ringing: someone shooting at her. Without turning, she tucked her knees and rolled backwards, pushing both her feet up. The kangaroo kick launched the final Tekkenshu soldier into the air. She heard cracking bone as his body met the ground.
Xiaoyu glanced over at Hwoarang, who was wiping somebody else's blood off his cheek.
"That's the last of these, but there must be more on their way," he said, his hand smoothing back copper hair. Hwoarang's appearance was pale, drained. Not elated the way she would have expected.
"You okay?" She asked. He looked surprised for a second, before his face became cool and unreadable. Xiaoyu guessed that this was the mask he wore most of the time.
"Still alive." Then, gruffly:
"You?"
"I'm okay, I think."
"Good, grab Kazama." Hwoarang turned his attention to a smooth black sports car and pulled a familiar metal strip from his pocket. Xiaoyu returned to the van, helping Jin stand.
"I think we really should get you to the hospital, Jin." she began.
"No, no. I'm fine-" and he interrupted himself with another coughing fit. Xiaoyu gave him her sternest look, but Jin only stared at his feet.
"Much as I hate to say it, he's right," Hwoarang spoke up, still inspecting the metal strip, "the hospital is the first place they'll look, once they find out he's not here." Shaking his head, he replaced the strip in his pocket, and took out an even longer one. He slid the metal piece between the window of the sports car and the door. Hwoarang swiped the strip to the side, and grinned when he heard a soft "click". The car-pick was placed back in the depths of his leather jacket.
"Easy as pie," he said, swinging open the door and settling into the driver's seat. He gave them an impatient glare when they didn't follow suit.
"What are you waiting for, New Year's Eve? Get in!"
Jin frowned. "This is-"
"Illegal? In case you didn't notice, Sherlock, the Tekkenshu were using us for target practice. We're already screwed."
"I think I hear sirens," said Xiaoyu. Were those lights police cars on the horizon?
Hwoarang cursed. He bent and his hands made a few quick movements under the dashboard. The engine roared to life.
"Jin, does Heihachi have any connections with the p-"
"Yes." Jin maneuvered into the passenger's seat.
"Just checking," said Xiaoyu, jumping into the back. She looked over her shoulder at the prone Tekkenshu on the ground, their figures becoming smaller as the car moved away. Movement caught her eye. She gasped, realizing what it was.
"Duck!" she screamed, a split second before the glass of the rear windshield shattered in a shower of glass. Hwoarang floored the gas pedal, throwing Xiaoyu against the seat as they sped forward. He made a sharp right and the car veered onto the street, thankfully empty at quarter past midnight.
He let fly a string of profanity, and drove even faster. Those were definitely sirens screeching in the distance.
"Xiaoyu, are you all right?" Jin turned to her, his eyes wide and wild.
"Yeah. A few, a few scrapes," she stammered, wiping blood out of her eyes with her palm and trying to fasten the seatbelt with the other shaking hand.
"Here." Hwoarang tossed a packet of heavy duty Band-Aids in Jin's lap. The Japanese youth twisted back with some difficulty, and began to apply the adhesive bands on Xiaoyu's cuts.
"Stop squirming," he ordered. She sighed in defeat.
"You always carry Band-Aids on you?" she asked Hwoarang.
"They come in handy," he said. Then:
"Damn, they're gaining on us. Hold on to something."
The redhead wrenched the steering wheel to the side, and the car shot into an alley. It was no use, the whine of the sirens were still close. The alley was long and dark, and the headlights were off. Xiaoyu crossed her fingers. Please, please don't let it be a dead end.
It wasn't. They swung out of the alley, right onto a road feeding into the highway. Hwoarang's eyes lit up as he caught sight of the sign, while Jin turned slightly green.
"Too fast. Motion. Sickness," he moaned. Hwoarang rolled his eyes.
The scenery seemed to blur by, and Xiaoyu's watch told her they drove for over half an hour. It felt longer. Hwoarang took exits, changed directions, pulled driving stunts that Xiaoyu didn't think were possible. But every time it seemed like they had lost their pursuers, the sound of sirens would come back and prove them wrong.
"We can't go on like this forever," said Xiaoyu, her eyes glued to the cars behind them, "they're too persistent."
"We can," Hwoarang said through gritted teeth, his knuckles white from clenching the steering wheel, "and we will, until we run out of-"
The car sputtered. A red light flashed on the dashboard. Jin slapped his hand over his face.
"Gas?"
Author's notes:
Tired. So. . . tired. Must. . .sleep.
::head konks keyboard::
(sorry, more ranting tomorrow people ^_^. Editing too. ::yawn:: Good night.)
::next day:: so yeah, I'm more conscious now, although that's not saying much ^_^. "Maomi," you ask, "why haven't you updated for so long? And when you finally do so, why are you half dead?" Well, gentle reader, the answer is: school, homework (from school), piano practice, school, five seconds of free time, insomnia (because of school), and strangely enough, Christmas caroling rehearsals.
Did I mention school?
But anyways, I have some 'thank-you's to hand around: first, gracias again to Sam Blackcrow for a great job in beta-reading! And reviewers, you do not know how much you guys have made my day. Sleeper, your enthusiasm touches my heart. ::wipes away a tear::. ^_^ Seriously people, it's _such_ a good feeling to come home after a long day and see more reviews for Sleepwake.
And in another installment of "Maomi Tells Readers To Look At Nifty Stuff", I have two words to say: Ender's Game. It's a literary masterpiece, and so are the sequels; I'm currently rereading "Shadow of the Hegemon". Okay, so that's more than two words, but who's counting ^_^.
Constructive criticism will be printed out and framed. Flames will be used to toast marshmallows. Yum.