Gundams

"It's that building over there," said Ami as she pointed from where she and Heero were parked on the side of the road. "And there is the car."

"It seems quiet enough," commented Heero. "Maybe we were worried for nothing."

One second later it was obvious that Heero spoke too soon. With a thunderous boom, the building Heero and Ami were watching exploded from the inside out, sending flaming pieces of wood, metal, glass, and concrete almost as far as the area where the car was parked.

As soon as they saw the explosion, Heero and Ami both sprang into action, jumping out of the car and running to the building. Heero busted through the front door at full speed, shielding his face from the heat, with Ami right on his heels. Once inside, with guns drawn, Heero and Ami scanned the area for any sign of either their comrades or any enemies. Neither Ami nor Heero could find any sign of an enemy, but Ami did notice some of their friends lying on the floor under a fallen catwalk. Heero and Ami quickly made their way over to their friends as they were very worried at the fact that none of them seemed to be moving.

Heero may not have been as big as some of the other gang members, but his muscles were so well toned that he could hang with almost anybody in terms of strength. Momentarily putting away his guns, an adrenaline filled Heero strained his entire body and managed to pull the heavy piece of steel off his friends. Heero and Ami inspected the unmoving bodies of Mamoru, Noin, and Usagi, and Ami buried her head in Heero's shoulder as she started to break out into tears when they discovered everyone was dead.

From the wounds on the three warriors, it wasn't too difficult for Heero to discern a likely hypothesis about how each of them had died. It looked like Mamoru had tried to protect both Noin and Usagi from the explosion, and he had paid a severe price for his unselfish actions. The deadly explosion had caused the clothes and skin of Mamoru's back to be completely ripped to shreds, leaving only heavily charred flesh and muscle, and even exposing bone in a few places. It appeared that Usagi had also died as a direct result from the explosion. The right side of Usagi's head was bleeding rapidly, making it fairly clear that she had been killed instantly by some type of severe impact to the head, which Heero assumed was probably due to a large piece of shrapnel. The rest of the long blonde haired girl's perfectly formed body, minus a few small burns and cuts, looked to be completely protected, indicating that Mamoru would have been successful in protecting his fiancée were it not for the one chance injury. It seemed as though the explosion itself didn't directly steal the life of the beautiful Lucrezia Noin. She looked to be barely burned at all, probably due to Mamoru's attempted heroics, but the collateral damage had finished the job that the explosion had started. The catwalk that Heero had pulled off the bodies of his three friends had left a small portion of itself behind. A steel bar, probably part of a guard rail, had been completely detached from the metal structure and, unfortunately for Noin, was now rammed right into the chest of the beautiful woman, piercing through her heart, and going all the way into the floor.

Heero continued to scan the area as he and Ami knelt by the bodies of their comrades, while his beautiful short blue haired friend cried into his shoulder, until he spotted some slight movement from above him. Heero quickly withdrew a gun and looked up in the direction of the movement, and then just as quickly holstered his weapon when he saw who it was. He quietly told Ami to stay where she was, then stood up, and moving as fast as he could, Heero ran up the steps to the skyway where Milliardo Peacecraft was positioned near the edge. Heero reached his fallen leader, but unfortunately, Milliardo was just about as bad off as the others. He was bleeding unceasingly from his head, leg, and stomach, and although he was alive and had had just enough strength to crawl to the edge of the walkway and get into a sitting position against the railing, it was clear he wouldn't live for more than another couple moments.

"Did any of the others make it?" coughed out Milliardo in a strained and hoarse voice when he caught sight of Heero through his one eye that was still functioning. Heero got down on a single knee, held Milliardo's hand in his own, and shook his bowed head slowly from side to side.

For the next few moments, nothing was said between Heero and Milliardo, as the Gundams leader's breathing grew more and more strained and haggard. When it was clear his body was about to finally give out, Milliardo spoke for one last time. "It's in your hands now." As he squeezed Heero's hand, Milliardo expelled his final breath, and Heero watched as his friend and leader's eyes slowly closed and the life of Milliardo Peacecraft came to a tragic end.

Heero knelt over the lifeless body of Milliardo Peacecraft and a single tear escaped his deep blue eyes as he mourned his fallen leader. He looked up from Milliardo's body when he felt the gentle hand of Ami Mizuno on his shoulder. It was the first time Heero had ever been so distracted that he hadn't noticed what was going on around him.

"Look," said Ami quietly as she pointed down toward the open back entrance to the building.

Heero looked down to where Ami was pointing to see a sight that caused his blood to boil. Walking through the door were none other than Touya Kinomoto, Botan, and Yukito Tsukishiro. As soon as Heero saw the three Captors, he immediately pulled out his two Desert Eagles, and without even saying a word to Ami, he did a flip over the railing and landed in a single-knee crouch on the ground with head down and guns to the side, right in front of the Captors. All three Captors were so surprised when the unknown teenager landed in front of them that they didn't even think to draw their guns.

Heero raised his head to glare at his enemies with pure rage burning in his cold cobalt eyes. He only gave one word of warning before he made his move. "Die." Then in a single motion, Heero fired off a total of ten rounds from his two guns. Three bullets went into each chest area of both Botan and Yukito, and the remaining four shots all impacted Touya. The shots by the high power guns at such short range, sent all three Captors to their backs on the ground. Both his guns still had smoke coming from the barrels when Heero stood up. He slowly took the few steps forward to stand over the three fallen Captors and pointed the guns at the three, all of whom were still alive. Heero was an exceptional shot and had purposely shot Botan, Touya, and Yukito in such a way to be sure that they would not die instantaneously.

From his position on his back, Touya saw the vengeful stare in the eyes of the teenager who shot at him, and tried to move his body in order to draw a weapon. Unfortunately for Touya, his assaulter had shot him two times in each shoulder, tearing ligament and destroying cartilage, resulting in Touya being unable to move either limb.

Heero stared straight into the eyes of Touya Kinomoto as he towered over the incapacitated leader. Without even shifting his gaze, Heero aimed each of his two guns at the heads of Botan and Yukito. Touya glared back at Heero, now knowing he must be the previously never seen killer in the Gundams' ranks. All Touya could do was watch as Heero, without so much as a flinch in his cold stare, unloaded the last two rounds from each of his guns into the heads of Botan and Yukito, finishing off the assassination. His two Desert Eagles now empty, Heero unceremoniously dropped the heavy guns to the floor and withdrew his two black 10mm Glocks. Touya didn't show it, but at that moment he was afraid. He wasn't afraid for his life, for he was prepared to die, but he was afraid for the rest of his gang. This teenager with the unwavering facial expression and cold, hard, cobalt eyes, had the look of unrelenting vengeance upon him. It was clear he had the skills to take on anybody alive, and he was obviously not afraid to take life nor risk his own. Touya closed his eyes and silently prayed for the safety of the Captors, especially his sister Sakura, as the last sound he ever heard was the loud bang of two Glock pistols simultaneously firing two bullets into his head.

Heero stayed unmoving over the dead body of Touya Kinomoto until Ami came down the stairs and stood in front of Heero. Ami placed her hands gently on Heero's waist as he put his guns back in his belt holsters. Heero placed his hands on Ami's waist in much the same way as Ami had her hands on his own waist, and then bowed his head until both Heero's and Ami's foreheads were touching. Both teens closed their eyes and together silently mourned their friends' deaths.

Heero opened his eyes a moment later when he thought he heard a noise, and then quickly pulled himself and Ami to the ground when he saw a young girl with brown hair and glasses, start firing a handgun at them. Heero acted just in time as the flying bullets passed just over the falling bodies of Heero and Ami. Heero positioned his body to break Ami's fall with himself, then rolled to the side as soon as he hit the floor so that his back was to the attacker and Ami was protected.

When Heero had unexpectedly pulled her to the ground, Ami had been quite surprised. However, as soon as she heard the gunshots, Ami's natural battle reactions kicked in. From the position she was in, Ami couldn't reach her own guns, but since her arms were still wrapped around Heero's waist, Ami withdrew the Glocks from Heero's belt holsters instead. She was unable to see the attacker because Heero's body was blocking her view, but based on where the sound of the gunshots came from, Ami aimed and then unloaded the remaining bullets from each clip.

After Ami was done shooting, both she and Heero jumped to their feet. Simultaneously, Ami tossed Heero one of his guns back, and Heero tossed a new clip for the other gun to Ami. In a matter of seconds, Ami and Heero were both reloaded and pointing their weapons at the location of their attacker. Unfortunately they were only just in time to see a body slip around the corner and out of sight. The two Gundams were about to give chase when they heard the distant sound of approaching emergency response police cruisers, fire trucks, and ambulances.

"How long until they get here?"

"Three minutes max," answered Ami. "Probably closer to two."

"Dammit," swore Heero. He then holstered his two 10mm handguns and picked up his discarded empty Desert Eagles from the ground. "Let's go," said Heero reluctantly.

Ami knew why Hero was pissed, and in truth it hurt her as well, thinking about what they had to do. "I'll send Quatre and Trowa to get their bodies from the morgue tomorrow morning."

"Get everyone back to the house," said Heero. "We have to let them know that a war has just begun."

Captors

"Hello?" answered Sakura as she answered her cell phone from within Syaoran's black Aston Martin V12 Vanquish sports car.

"Sakura," came a very strained female voice from the other end of the line.

"Naoko? Naoko, is that you?" said Sakura worriedly when she heard Naoko's weak and strained tone of voice.

"Sakura. I'm sorry." That was all Sakura heard before the line clicked dead.

Putting her phone away, Sakura turned toward Syaoran. "We need to get to that meeting right now."

Syaoran had overheard Sakura's conversation and had already been expecting a change in direction. Since the meeting place was in the opposite direction from their current heading, Syaoran tapped the brakes and turned hard on the wheel, causing the car to do a skidding 180. He then hit the gas and the car shot down the road toward the meeting building.

Syaoran and Sakura arrived at their destination in extremely quick time as a result of constant breaking of speed limits and other traffic laws by Syaoran. Unfortunately they were still not fast enough. When they arrived, the entire area was already swarming with firefighters, uniformed police officers, special task force detectives, and news media personnel. Syaoran parked a couple blocks away from the mayhem and he and Sakura studied the site from afar.

"What the hell happened?" asked Syaoran rhetorically when he saw the heavily damaged building and the plethora of city officers.

"I don't see the car anywhere," commented Sakura. "Maybe they aren't even here anymore."

"Bring up the tracker on the car," said Syaoran.

"Way ahead of you," answered Sakura, who was already pressing the correct sequence of buttons to find the location of the Mercedes S600 sedan her brother had taken. "Got it," she said after a few seconds. "The car is a few blocks away. It looks like they stopped in some alleyway."

Syaoran took a look at the map displayed in the center dash and then started the car and headed toward the alley where the other car was. When they arrived a minute later, Syaoran and Sakura stepped out and cautiously approached the parked car. It looked like nobody was inside, so Syaoran and Sakura each withdrew one of their two guns in case it was a trap. Syaoran's guns were a pair of black HK MK23 .45 Caliber pistols with a dark green wolf emblem on the handle, and Sakura was carrying a pair of silver plated 9mm SIG handguns with white handles engraved with her signature pink cherry blossom emblem. Syaoran crept along the driver side of the car, while Sakura approached from the passenger side. When they reached the front of the car, both Syaoran and Sakura took a look inside and immediately holstered their weapons when they saw the single occupant. In the drivers seat, slumped over the steering wheel was Naoko Yanagisawa.

Syaoran opened the driver side door and carefully positioned Naoko in a sitting position in the chair. When he sat her back, Syaoran caught a glance of Naoko's shirt and the ever expanding blood stain in the stomach area. Syaoran cringed a bit when he saw the volume of blood that was coming from the wound in her stomach, as well as the color of the blood, which was almost black, indicating she must have been shot through the liver and left pretty much no hope that she would survive.

"Naoko. Naoko," gently said Sakura, who had climbed into the passenger seat and was trying to wake up the semi-conscious Naoko.

"Sakura?" asked Naoko weakly.

"It's me. What happened Naoko?"

"Sakura, I'm sorry. I couldn't stop it," said Naoko softly as her eyes started to water, causing tears to run down her soft, but at the moment, ghostly white cheeks.

"What happened Naoko?" repeated Sakura.

"Gundams. They killed everyone."

At hearing this, the tears that had started to form in Sakura's eyes began to pour down her face.

Before Sakura or Syaoran could say anything else, Naoko continued. "When we arrived, the building was already on fire. Touya told me to cover them from the outside. A minute later I heard gunshots, so I put my rifle back in the car and took a handgun. By the time I got to the door, Touya, Botan, and Yukito had all been executed. There were three or four Gundams dead in the building too, but the assassins were still standing over the bodies so I shot at them."

"Did you recognize who they were?" asked Syaoran.

"No," answered Naoko with a cough. "I had never seen them before. But they are good. I don't think they even saw me, but they still knew to duck out of the way before I even got off my first shot. Then one of them, I think it was a girl, started shooting rounds at me while they were still falling to the ground. Before I knew what happened I felt two shots hit my stomach. Then I crawled to the car and drove away. I guess I only got this far before I passed out." As soon as Naoko was finished speaking, she broke out into a fit of violent coughing and wheezing. It was clear she had used the last of her strength to tell Syaoran and Sakura what had happened at the warehouse.

"Thank you, Naoko," said Syaoran softly.

"We'll miss you," added Sakura as she gave a final hug to her friend.

"Say goodbye to everyone for me," whispered Naoko into Sakura's ear. Her last testament said, Naoko let out one final breath before her faint heartbeat finally ceased and Naoko Yanagisawa's life came to a sorrowful conclusion.

As her friend passed to the next world, Sakura silently cried to herself and gently closed the eyelids of Naoko. When Sakura finally let go of Naoko, Syaoran carefully picked her up out of the car's driver's seat and laid her in the back. Sakura was still crying, but got herself together enough to make her way to the car she and Syaoran had taken and followed Syaoran, who was driving the car Touya and the others had taken, back to the Captors house. Once there they got back to the house, they would contact the rest of the gang and then attempt to discover all the details of what had just happened on the tragic night.