OK, I'm finishing uploading this. The whole thing. I've gotta be quick, bros got an assignment to do....
~~~
Kyle Rem watched as the loads of crack were loaded onto the small boat, accepting his suitcase back. It had been empty, but now it was full. Full of thick wads of hundred-dollar bills, that is. He took a quick inventory before shutting the case again.
"Pleasure doing business," Rem stated smoothly to the Italian. "Although I do wish to make a point; you now have two assignments. Peacecraft no doubt told her substitute about the assault on her life. Kill her. Then kill the sub."
"It is done no sooner than sunset tomorrow," stated the Indian meticulously. "I will not fail again, Milord."
"Good. I trust no ill will to come from this meeting or any other," Rem did an about face on the Indian and Italian and walked toward his Mustang without any more comments. The Indian and Italian were gone before anyone could see them.
Or so they thought.
"Got it," Trowa Barton stated as he hopped out of the oak tree he'd used to hide in. The walkie-talkie clipped to his waist gave a bit of static before another voice came over it.
"Good. Return to base. Over." As soon as "over" was out of Wufei's lips, Trowa heard a screech and knew that Duo had instigated yet another fight with the Chinese boy. In the absence of other people, he shook his head, smirking ever so much. Even the silent soldier could smile more than the Perfect Soldier.
~~~
If I had been any other person, I would have screamed along with my friends. Somehow or another, though, I had known, somewhere inside me, that Joshua Harding was no Harvard grad, nor was he a teacher, in all matter of speaking. I hadn't known how I'd known. Just that I knew. What did surprise me was the fact that he was a mere small child when he began his training. That scared me most of all.
A crash from the basement made me jump. The fact that my friends were screaming "WHAT?!" at the exact same time made me leap four feet in the air. And I stayed there for a good five minutes while the crashes continued to ensue, until I saw two boys suddenly race up the stairs, one being chased by the other with what seemed to be a katana.
Despite that fact, I calmed down. Which, if I had been a normal person, should have alarmed me even more. A step between them threw what was left of my own sanity out the living room window.
"Onna! Injustice, get out of the way!" yelled the katana-wielding boy. In the seconds that I saw him, in my face and on target, seemingly the braided boy cowering behind me, I was able to gather five facts about him. One, he was cute. Two, he had black hair. Three, he had a pale face. Four, he had black eyes. Five, he was one really, really angry Chinese boy.
"One, I am not giving an injustice, however you may see it," I stated calmly, as though we were having a nice, polite conversation about the difference in the weather last week. "Two, I am not a woman, I am a girl. Three, I don't care who you are, you do not threaten others' lives through any means. It may upset what little peace we have left on this planet."
I had almost broken out into rage. I had almost cursed, something in my honor system that would have immensely hurt my pride. I had almost wavered and allowed the Chinese boy to kill the cowering boy behind me, who I knew only two things about; one was the fact that he was scared. Second, his hair rivaled mine in thickness and in color.
"Hn. Leave him be for now," Heero stated calmly.
"What, you're taking the baka onna's side?" the Chinese boy sounded surprised, but feigned bravado. Apparently, Heero knew this boy better than that.
"Hey, who are you to call my friend a baka onna!?" Raine shouted, gathering more courage than she seemed to have. "She just said she is a girl, not a woman, and Siri is far from being an idiot or a fool!"
With more bravado and strength then I knew I'd had, I snatched the katana from the Chinese boy's hands and turned his own weapon upon him. Held at his jugular, he had no choice but to obey me.
"Leave the kid alone," I growled. The only thing he could see of my face were my eyes, but they spoke loud and clear, I was pretty sure. He backed off and sulked at a corner of the room.
"Thank you!" the braided boy shouted and threw his arms around my neck tightly. I stiffened under his hold. Oh, how I hated being touched. More than anything in the world, I hated to have another lay their hands upon me. I had been hurt too much to see what beauty there could come of such a simple touch.
"Let go," I stated, in a clear and concise voice. He immediately dropped his arms to his sides but watched me curiously, probably wondering why on Earth I still had my hood up in the heated living room of Ms. Peacecraft's home.
"Are these the five you were speaking of, Ms. Releena?" asked a platinum-blond boy as he, too, came up calmly from below.
She tried to nod, but I noticed she couldn't.
"Yes," she finally stated.
"I'm sorry for my comrade's rudeness, ladies," the blond said, smiling. "I'm Quatre Raeberba Winner, and this is Wufei Chang, Duo Maxwell, and I'm pretty certain you've already met Heero."
"We have," Tari said, scowling. Not that these boys weren't cute, but her Jim was better. Probably had a much better attitude, too. The brown-haired Duo Maxwell looked like Siri, almost; happy-go-lucky, chocolate-brown hair, and a great attitude about everything.
"I'm sorry myself," I said, smiling gently. "I probably should not have broken up that small fight without knowing the full parameters of the fight itself. But, if I may, I will introduce myself. I am Siri Capri, and these are my friends, Hawatari Indigo, Toraneko Sawaguchi, Raine Waltz, and Telex Vega."
"A pleasure to meet you, I'm sure," Quatre smiled.
"Yes, yes, now that the 'greetings and salutations' are over, can we please find out why we are here?" Telex asked, finally getting fed up with technicalities.
"I second her motion!" Toraneko stuck her hand up.
"We third it!" Tari and Raine and I all said in unison. (AN-Can anyone say "sweat drop"?)
"Barton should be getting back soon," Wufei stated. "I had just gotten his confirmation when Maxwell decided to mess up the computer."
"It was an accident, I swear!" Duo cried.
"Yes, I have to agree with Maxwell this time," Wufei grumbled. "Stupid braid of his pulled out several of the cords. Barton will have to fix it."
"We need it now," Heero did not whine, nor make fun of Duo. He simply stated the facts. I wondered if it was some side effect of being raised as a soldier from the start.
"I can fix it," Toraneko offered. "I'm good with computers."
"You?" disbelief was written all over Wufei's face.
"Don't look so surprised," Tari waved it off.
"Yeah, Toraneko's been able to take apart motherboards since she was three!" Raine added.
Blank stares. Oh, this was funny. Real funny. Guess who was toying around with her silver pendant again?
"Are you guys on Mars or something?" Telex asked, only half-joking.
"Of course not," Wufei grumbled. "Baka onna. You can't be on two planets at once. Impossible and preposterous."
"What she meant was, are you guys' brains functioning properly?" Tari said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, when was their last CAT scan, Ms. Peacecraft?" Raine asked her. "Yuy definitely needs one. Look at him, he hasn't smiled all day as far as I know."
"Yeah, smiling is as important as breathing is," I added, grinning away.
Blank stares.
"Jeez, tough crowd," I muttered.
"Don't worry, Siri, they're always like that," Ms. Peacecraft smirked through her body cast. "And while you're here, you can call me Releena."
"Y-You're sure?" Raine asked.
"Of course, Raine."
"Okay, Releena," I paused for effect. "What exactly did Heero ask us here for? Not for a tea party or nothin', I know that for sure."
"Are you all right, Siri?" Releena asked carefully. "You don't usually drop the 'g' on an '-ing'."
"Just crazy Dragons messing with us," Tari said. "Frank's been kinda pushing her around. Asking for dates and stuff."
"Oh, my...you should talk to Mr. Rem about that, Siri," Releena told me gently. "He may help you."
"Unfortunately not," stated a brown-haired boy as he entered the room from the front door.
"Trowa, what happened?" Quatre asked.
"I followed the main suspect, Frank Ichinoku, to the docks. Kyle Rem followed. It seems to me that Rem was behind the whole thing. He asked the Indian and Italian to destroy not only Releena, but Heero too."
"T-That's no-not possible..." Toraneko was suddenly at a lost for words. We all had fallen silent. Mr. Rem was a very trustworthy person. However...Heero had seemed the same way before we knew him. But he was there to uncover the plot of drugs.
"Information on the Indian and Italian?" Trowa asked, sitting down on the couch. The five of us, along with the other four boys, also took seats.
"We found things, all right. Loads," Duo suddenly looked very, very tired.
"The Indian's name is Deer Waterweed. He has been convicted of several crimes, including rape and murder. He is a four-time offender. If he does one more of any of his previous crimes, he is to be immediately sentenced to the Death Penalty," Quatre informed us carefully.
"And the Italian?" Telex asked, watching Releena and Heero worriedly.
"His name is Michelangelo Ravioli, but most people call him "Vince". He has been proven guilty in only three cases, all of unintentional murders and one rape case, but he's been called into so many not-guilty cases the state stopped counting them. He spends half his time in the court and half outside, getting into more trouble."
"You mean Vince Ravioli Caprice?" I asked, swallowing hard. My pendant was going to be worn away by my fingers' touch by the time this meeting was through.
"I don't know who you mean," Quatre said slowly. "Perhaps. His identity has been changed many times to protect him."
"From what?" I asked, getting angry. "If you ask me, he should be in bars for the first two murders and the rape! Same goes for the other guy!"
"We all believe that way, Siri," Tari said calmly. "But, unfortunately, if we locked up every person who ever committed murder and rape, we'd be half out of our population. Most people in it have killed before just because they are ex-soldiers."
The boys remained silent.
"Like the Gundam Pilots, for example?" Toraneko asked darkly.
Oops.
"Toraneko..." Releena said gently. "I've been trying to get it through to the entire class, dear. The Gundam Pilots were the whole reason that the war ended."
"But Ms. Peace-Releena. Why do you stand on their side?"
"Because we have no side," Quatre stated quietly.
Toraneko's eyes widened. "Oh, no, I'm soooo sorry, I completely for-"
"You forgot, TN," Tari said calmly, trying to help. "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, dear."
"Yeah, Toraneko," Telex grinned. "Forget it!" Raine remained silent.
"Why are we here?" I asked. "It's not like we can help much."
Wufei muttered something under his breath, but I was pretty sure it was something smart.
"Siri, listen," Releena said. "The school is being used to transport drugs. The boys want you to try and come up with a list of suspects."
"What?!" Telex shouted. "There are five thousand kids in that school, minimum! How are we going to find these people and then find out if they're in on the drug plot?"
"You don't do the latter," Quatre replied. "You find people you think are suspicious, and report back to us."
"Okay," Tari nodded. "Sounds easy enough, right, guys?"
"Yeah, I suppose," Toraneko sighed. I don't think she was completely won over on the Gundam issue yet.
"Hey, where'd that Trowa guy disappear to?" Raine asked.
"He's fixing the computer," Duo grinned. "He's like that. Pops in and out, completely unnoticed."
"Unlike you," Wufei muttered, hardly concealing his amusement.
"What?!"
"You heard me, baka!"
"Baka! Why you-AH!"
Wufei had, once again, pulled his katana on the braided boy. I couldn't stop him if I tried, for they were off like a shot elsewhere in the house.
"Is that an hourly occurrence?" Tari asked, fully serious.
We all laughed anyway.