Disclaimers: I own Tei and Miry. The rest of Weiss (and Schwartz) are not mine, much as I wish they were.
Warnings: swearing, some shonen-ai-ish stuff…. Errr… read to comprehend
Weiss Season III
Episode Two:
Fight or Flight
Ken rushed to the door of the shop, but no one was there, so he came thudding back downstairs to where Tei was smacking Aya around as he tried to help her to the couch. Yoji stood aside, watching them and laughing.
"You could help, you know!" grunted the redhead irritably as Tei tried to break his arm. She was still pretty weak, though, from blood loss if nothing else, and all she really did was end up giving him a really bad Indian Rub.
Yoji grinned. "No thanks. I like this angle better than yours…"He looked up as he saw Ken. "Anyone there?"
The brunette shook his head. "Street's empty. I think Tei may have been wrong, for once."
A series of taps came from the back door and the young woman gave him one of her most cynical smirks. Ken sighed and returned it as he opened the back door a fraction of an inch, gripping his gun against his leg, just in case.
A familiar pair of blue eyes met his, set in a handsome face that had grown up so much in the months since he'd last seen it. He tried not to gasp.
"Omi?"
"Yes, Ken-kun, it's me…. but can you let me in, please? This is important." The younger man sounded so hurried, so… desperate.
"Of course I can! It's so good to have you back!" he cried, opening the door and giving his old friend a quick hug. He froze, however, at the sight of the foursome standing a few feet behind Omi. "The—the Schwartz?"
A series of very loud curses erupted behind him and Yoji came over, his own gun at the ready. Omi paled.
"Wait. There's a lot of explaining to be done, you guys, and they're part of it," he said, pushing some chocolate brown hair from his eyes.
"Like hell!" shouted Tei, right in Ken's ear. He winced and leaned away from her. "Those guys come in here and I'll kill every one of them! Especially the German."
Farfarello, the insane silver-haired Irishman, crossed his arms and smirked. "Killing Schuldig will make God happy. I can't let you do that."
"Fuck God!" she shouted at him, nearly falling over. The air seemed to catch her before she could hit the pavement, and then it lifted her to her feet.
"You're welcome," said a calm, quiet voice. The telekinetic boy stepped forward, dark eyes unfeeling as always.
Tei glared at him and Aya chose that moment to haul her away from the door.
"I guess you can come in, but if this is a set-up…" said Ken, looking at the Schwartz dubiously.
"If it were a set-up, you'd already be dead," said the precognitive American leader with his usual unpleasant smirk, as he pushed his way inside.
Yoji gripped his gun a bit tighter and looked down at the shorter Omi. "I never thought you'd be fraternizing with the enemy, Omi," he said, giving the younger man a cold look. Omi looked away, hurt, and bit his lip as everyone stepped inside.
"Okay, Omi, I don't think you and Tei have met," said Ken awkwardly.
The young woman crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. "I'm Tei. Piss me off and I'll kick you so hard your testicles will shootout of your nose."
Everyone blanched at that, except possibly Farfarello. Sex and pleasure weren't priorities for him, and he couldn't feel pain, so it didn't matter. Schuldig and Yoji both looked like they were going to be sick.
"I, uh, read your file at Kritiker… they don't have much on you, but I know a little bit. You're a ninja, right?" asked Omi nervously.
She shook her head, black and purple hair rippling. "I trained as one, but they never gave me the title because I'm a woman."
"Oh. But you are a psychic?"
"Not really. Not much more than the average person," she said, quirking the corner of her mouth upwards mockingly. Her weird, glowing eyes flickered a bit. "Of course, enhancer drugs do make me stronger…"
"Shall we get to business?" asked Crawford, folding his arms and staring around. He'd slicked back his black hair, but had trimmed it at the neck so it lacked the longish strands poking out behind his ears, and was wearing a Bond-esque suit with a greenish tie. Everyone looked at him, and Weiss glowered a bit.
"Yeah, Omi, why are you here with Schwartz?" asked Aya, looking at Crawford menacingly as he asked the question.
Omi took a deep breath. "Your last mission was a load of crap, guys. Kritiker was trying to get you killed, or at least to get rid of Tei, whom they regard as the most dangerous member of Weiss."
Ken felt his stomach coil. "What the hell are you talking about?" he cried, resisting the urge to go straight to Kritiker HQ and tear open everyone there with his claw.
Tei chuckled mirthlessly. "Aya's just as dangerous as me, and so is Yoji. Ken, too, when he's not being a jackass and letting his temper get to him," she said in a dull, cool voice.
Omi blinked. He'd never thought of his teammates as a danger to his person, but he couldn't help thinking that woman wouldn't hesitate to slit his throat if she had to. "Anyway, Kritiker wants to rid themselves of you. Their new head, Hirhoto Agumi—"
"Agumi?" demanded Yoji, jumping up from where he'd been leaning on the armrest of the sofa and knocking a lamp over. Omi flinched, at the yelling or the crash that ensued, it didn't matter. "Did you say Agumi?"
Aya looked at him curiously, raising an eyebrow. "What about him?"
Yoji clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, green eyes blazing with fury. "That bastard was a lawyer back when I was an investigator—I arrested a murderer and rapist and he got the sick fuck off. Next time I came across that guy, I shot him, and it turns out he's Agumi's brother…"
"What?"
The blonde nodded tersely. Schuldig raised a red brow lazily as he dropped bonelessly into an easy chair, and Crawford sighed. Everyone else stared in shock.
"You mean—he's got a grudge against you?" asked Ken after a long time.
"Good reasoning, there, Sherlock," muttered Nagi. Ken gave him a murderous look and the telekinetic smirked.
"Where does he live? I'll kill him myself! He's gotten so many psychos into the streets, it's not funny."
"It's never funny when psychos get loose in the streets," pointed out Farfarello reasonably, making the Weiss members blink. Then he grinned. "Except when they hurt God."
Schu rolled his eyes. "Whatever the case, he wants your asses on a platter."
"Yeah? And where do you come in? Something tells me it's not altruism that's motivating you," snapped Tei, snatching the cigarette he'd put between his lips before he could light it.
"That's mine," said the telepath coldly. She took his lighter, too, and lit up, giving him a 'come-take-it-if-you-want-me-to-skewer-your-intestines' look.
Crawford rolled his eyes at their idiocy. He knew Schuldig was a jackass, but having a petty fight with someone over a cigarette should've been below him. "We're here because Kritiker is playing us, too. They hired us to grab you and analyze you all for psychic abilities, then kill anyone without them and give them the psychics. What they didn't mention was that they planned to gas us and take us for testing, too." He sniffed the last part as though the fact that they'd thought they could take him was offensive.
"So you decided to warn us?" Ken asked sarcastically.
Omi stood up, intervening. "Listen. They've got an arsenal of psychic drugs that they can use to control any psychic. The stronger you are, the easier it is to control you. Which is why, for once, the Schwartz's powers are a hindrance, rather than an asset. So they need our help as much as we need theirs. We've got a common enemy, which should make us allies."
"An alliance with a snake could hardly be considered intelligent," snapped Aya.
"Well, you sure are sticking up for your new buddies," sneered Yoji at the same time, acidic contempt clinging to his voice.
Omi shivered and tried to ignore the blonde's words. "Is there a choice?"
"Yeah," said Ken, slamming his fist into his hand threateningly, "We could go down there and beat their asses!"
Nagi snorted sarcastically. "You realize they expect you to do that? They're actually surprised that you haven't figured it out yet. Bakas."
Aya proudly displayed his new American gesture, prompting a smirk from Crawford. "You know, we only ever see one person. And we're not mind-readers, baka."
"She is." The telekinetic pointed at Tei, who was glowering at every member of Schwartz she could fit into her frame of vision.
"Not a strong one," she said absently. "But I am strong enough to know that neither Yoji nor Mastermind are wearing underwear right now."
Everyone startled at this and edged away from the two who had been named, while the woman smirked. Omi glanced at Yoji, forcefully shoving his thoughts away from what came to mind at the mention of the blonde's lack of underwear. He didn't notice Schuldig smirking at him.
"Anyway," continued the ninja, "The only reason anyone knows I'm psychic is because people stuck needles into me and tested me out when I was a kid. Anyone of Weiss could also be psychic, but we just never noticed."
Crawford nodded, smirking. "As a matter of fact, we should get to that issue."
Omi blinked. "What? You never mentioned this to me," he said, eyes widening.
Schu shrugged. "You didn't ask. If you'd thought to, though, we wouldn't have been able to lie to you, libeling, because you would've noticed."
"What—what do you mean?"
"Ah, Bombay, so naïve. You're an empath. Didn't you ever notice?"
Omi sat down heavily on the coffee table, too shocked to do anything else. Aya glared at Schuldig.
"You're full of shit, Mastermind," the redheaded swordsman growled.
An orange eyebrow arched. "Am I?" he asked, leaning forward with his lighter and igniting Aya's pants. The swordsman jumped, as his pant-leg went up in flames, and everyone gasped. "Put it out, Abyssinian."
Aya bared his teeth at the other man, slapping at his leg. "I'm trying, dickhead."
"Use your thoughts," smirked Schuldig.
Aya actually stopped stamping and jumping around to roll his eyes and glare at the other redhead. "You have got to be making a bad joke," he said.
"Are you experiencing pain?" The German decided to try a different tactic. Omi suddenly noticed one of his former teammates was on fire and leapt up from the coffee table with an incoherent shout.
Aya blinked. "Uh…"
"My point exactly. Now, concentrate on the fire and tell it to snuff," commanded Schu. He took out a new cigarette and lit it, inhaling lazily.
"Fine," snapped the swordsman. He gritted his teeth, eyes closing slightly as he concentrated, and the flames died down slowly. Every man of Weiss stared, shocked. Aya's skin, under the charred bits of pant-leg was unscathed. Sooty, but unscathed.
Schuldig offered one of his finest shit-eating grins. "Told you so."
"This is too weird," muttered Ken, staring at his teammates. He dropped some faintly smoldering fabric from his own hand, not noticing that his skin was in the same condition as his teammate's.
Aya shrugged. "If Tei can be psychic, why can't I?"
"Because you're Aya. That's just not your thing!"
"Why are we wasting our time here?" demanded Yoji suddenly. "We should be making a plan to go get Agumi."
Nagi snorted rudely. "You go left, I'll go right, and we can tear him limb from limb, how about it, Balinese?"
The blonde man gave him a venomous look. "What, are we supposed to run? Like little girls?" he snarled. He glanced at Tei. "Uh, no offense."
Omi's pocket began to ring in that electronic cell-phone ring that one heard all the time in large cities like Tokyo. He pulled out his phone and answered it, moving into the kitchen as he spoke.
"You know, we could try doing this with a bit of sense. A good plan will take planning. But then, you wouldn't know that, would you?" sneered Crawford.
Yoji seethed. "Or I could shoot you and kick you all out of my house!"
"I wouldn't recommend that," said Nagi quietly.
"I don't recall saying I gave a shit what you recommend!" shouted the blonde.
Tei grabbed her teammate's wrist. "Hey, Yoji, how about we give them a try? Without a good strategy, we're dead. This is Kritiker, after all," she said in her dull voice.
He turned on her. "You mean you're going to side with them?" he asked incredulously.
She rolled her eyes. "You need to suck it up. Or else kiss your ass good-bye. And I'm not siding with anyone. I side with my knives. You should know that by now."
Omi stepped out of the kitchen, his face pale. "We need to go," he said tersely.
"What? When?" asked Ken.
"What the hell is going on?" Aya demanded.
"Get your things. Kritiker is coming, and Miry can't do anything to stop them…" replied Omi, reaching under his jacket to check the two guns that none of Weiss had noticed he had there.
"What about Tei?" asked Aya, who had hauled the young woman to her feet and had a hand around her waist, to her obvious annoyance.
"I'm fine," she hissed.
"You can't even stand on your own; how do you expect to fight?"
Omi looked at her. "Carry her. We're leaving."
Amidst much grumbling and loud bitching from Yoji and Ken, Weiss grabbed duffels of clothing, their weapons, and a couple other necessities. They piled into their cars and began to drive through Tokyo, following Omi.
Somehow, Yoji and Schuldig had managed to get into the archer's car, much to his displeasure. Yoji was a cold, furious force beside him, and Schuldig kept smirking or outright grinning at the tension between the two. Omi pressed harder on the accelerator, hoping to get there faster. He skidded to a stop as flames suddenly shot up before him in the road, the car fishtailing around and halting so close that Yoji could've rolled down his window and stuck his hand into them. The others screeched to stops in a similar manner.
"Shit!" cried Yoji. "What's going on?"
Omi opened his door and leapt out of the car, when flames suddenly sprang up before him, encircling his car and the other ones closely enough that they couldn't get out without being burned. Schuldig reached forward and smacked Omi's arm.
"Look," he said, pointing out the window, across the wall of flame. A series of angered swat-agents in black were emerging from the shadows, cursing and pointing at the fire. Omi frowned. This seemed like just the sort of thing Miry would do, but…
"That's a bunch of Kritiker agents! How did they know we'd be here?" cried Yoji.
Schuldig closed his eyes for a moment. "Nagi is doing his best to get us out of this, but we don't have much time. The minute those flames hit the gas tank…"
"Fuck!" hissed Omi. "Can you do anything? Like seeing who's behind this at least?"
The telepath nodded and his eyes closed. A few seconds later, they opened, looking a bit dazed. "There's a pyro here. What Aya is, only a lot stronger. She's trying to help us, but she doesn't want to kill anyone." He smirked. "Not a lot of help. As long as she holds back the fire around us, we won't die, but then we've got a horde of Kritker agents on our ass."
"Looks like your partner set us up, Omi," growled Yoji, slamming his fist angrily against the window.
"My partner would never do anything like that!" snapped Omi, resisting the urge to slug the older man. Schu grinned faintly.
"What's her name, anyway? This girl isn't even Japanese, and she's thinking in half a dozen languages at once…" tried the German.
"Her name's Miry… Miriam Bennet-Smith. And she's a psychic, and a lingual genius," replied Omi softly.
Yoji grunted, defeated. Schuldig smiled.
"One point for the Bombay kitten," purred the German's voice in his thoughts.
"You mean she's a pyro? Miry creates fires?" pressed the archer.
The telepath nodded and absently lit a fresh cigarette. "And she's damned powerful. To create the fires is one thing, but to control all of them? That takes amazing strength and skill." He smirked. "I, for one, can't wait to meet her…"
Omi narrowed his eyes. "Not a chance in hell."
"Oh, come now, surely you can't be as selfish as that? Won't you share with me?"
Yoji turned and glared at the redhead. "Would you please shut up? We're still trapped in a car, surrounded by fire, and pyro or no pyro, I don't want my dying moments filled with the sound of your obnoxious voice!"
Schuldig smirked as, a moment later, the fire around their car died out. Or rather, it snuffed instantly. Yoji made an obscene gesture and leapt out of the car, gun in hand. A circle of flame surrounded the agents, who were growing panicked and furious, and he wasted no time in shooting one of them.
"Stop that!" screamed a feminine voice. The fire flickered and lapped closer, and a series of multilingual curses erupted from the shadows. "Drop your weapons, Kritiker!" cried the voice. Squinting, Omi thought he could make out a female figure, black on black, against the wall of an alley.
"Hell no!" shouted Yoji, plugging another guy. A moment later, a slim, chocolate-haired man crashed into him, tackling him to the ground. "What the fuck? Omi, what're you doing!"
"She told you to stop!" yelled Omi, wrestling with his once-teammate. The gun had skittered off, out of reach. "Don't kill them!"
Yoji punched the younger man in the stomach, making Omi gasp and drive the heel of his hand into the blonde's diaphragm. An angry fist connected with the archer's jaw and his head snapped back. Yoji shoved him over and grabbed him by the shoulders; shaking him and making his head knock against the asphalt of the road.
"What the fuck is wrong with you? You're a traitor! We don't need you anymore, and we sure as hell don't want you! Why'd you come back, anyway?" screamed the blonde.
"I came back to save your asses! And you're the only one who seems bothered by it! What the fuck is your problem?" Omi retaliated, gripping his old friend around the throat and trying to throw him off. Their position was certainly of two combatants, but Yoji's weight was pressed right into his hips in an uncomfortable pressure. Or maybe it was too comfortable.
"You abandoned us! You just walked out, and you expect us to greet you with open arms? You showed up at our doorstep with the Schwartz, for fuck's sake! Do you really have to ask?" snarled Yoji.
"Hey!" shouted the woman in the shadows. "Anyone have an idea of how to disable these guys—temporarily?"
Omi and Yoji didn't hear her. They didn't want to; they were too absorbed in their own problems. Schuldig did, and he cast his mind out, drawing on the strength of Nagi, who stepped up next to him and put a hand on the German's shoulder to help. Together, their power was enough to erase the past fifteen minutes from the agents' memories, gracelessly enough that they were left unconscious at the end.
Omi twisted his elbow up to catch Yoji in the cheekbone, whacking him hard enough to overbalance him. With that advantage, he drove his knee around and to the side, forcing them to roll. Unfortunately, his pulled punch left the blonde time to recover and keep their tumble going, each one grappling for the upper hand.
"Get off him!" yelled an angry voice, and suddenly Omi, who was on top for the moment, felt himself lifted off the ground by the unpleasantly familiar grasp of Nagi's telekinesis. Yoji sat up, glaring hatefully, but he was pinned to the ground. He had a trickle of blood coming from his mouth where he'd apparently bit his tongue, and his hair was mussed, face and arms covered with scratches and small scrapes from the pavement. Basically, he wasn't injured.
"Let me go!" roared Yoji, struggling against the youngest Schwartz's psychic hold. Nagi smirked and shook his head.
The woman who'd been in the shadows, a tall figure dressed in all black, hair hidden under a stocking cap and face smeared with black paint, crouched in front of him.
"Listen, mister, if you're gonna act like a kid, I have no problem stickin' you in diapers and strappin' you to a carseat, got it? I don't care who the hell you are, you need to get a little bit of fuckin' perspective," she said, her words a scathing, burning blow. The blonde man stared at her, taken aback, and then actually looked away, downwards, in… shame? Yoji Kudou, ashamed?
She stood and turned around, eyes widening when she saw it was Omi dangling in midair and struggling in vain. With a yank, her cap was off, flying to the side and letting shoulder-length gold-streaked red hair tumble down like liquid flame. She leapt up and onto the hovering Omi, wrapping her arms around him tightly.
"You baka! I can't believe you! I was so worried about you guys! I didn't realize they'd tapped my phone until a bunch of those gods-damned swats walked by talking about an ambush! Oh, gods, I was worried I'd be too late! I hate you! Don't ever, ever scare me like that again, Omittchi!" she cried, in a rush. She hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek. He yelped and flinched away.
"Miry-kun! Owww, you burned me!" he said, easing his own embrace to move his skin away from hers.
"Oh, shit! I'm sorry, Omi-kun!" she gasped, tilting his head sideways with a leather-gloved hand. "Lemme see it…"
"Ouch. Itai. Miry, you're a sadist!" He sniffed at her shoulder. "Have you been smoking? You said you'd quit!"
Schuldig grinned. "I knew I'd like this one."
Farf gave him a sidelong glance. "You can't even touch her. How do you plan to play with something you can't touch?"
Crawford sighed as Nagi let the pair lower to the ground. "We need to get moving. You're little lovers' reunion can wait," he said impatiently.
Miry blinked, though the motion was hard to detect, seeing as her face was painted black. "Lovers?"
Omi snorted. "Miry?"
Yoji stood up with a silent hand from Aya, crossing his arms and looking at them angrily.
"Whatever you are, we need to go. Everyone get back in the cars and start driving, okay?" Crawford snapped.
"Dude, who shoved a pole up your ass?" muttered the pyro in English, eying the American pre-cog. Then she spoke up to everyone. "Hey! Wait, before you do anything, you should know they've got their place built up like there's a damn siege, okay? You guys won't be getting past them anytime soon."
Review. Or don't. Feedback is appreciated. This is a re-do of my other chapter 2, after complaints about Tei…
Upcoming: They go… camping? People chat, and we find out more about psychic Weiss….
