Retrievers, Transporters and Ducks! Oh My!
By: Alicorn
Rating: T For... well... blatant innuendo /dies/
Betas: Riyuji and Rabid Lola
Note: Ionly skimmedthis over for any omissions that FFNet may have created, eg: loss of symbols and formatting, so if you notice something, I'd really appreciate it if you told me. THANKS!
Ban had nodded off to sleep again, although this time his dreams were a lot different.
They involved beautiful women, bubble baths, and a helluva lot of Pocky.
Hey, don't EVER say that the man doesn't have any imagination ... he just chooses not to use it.
He could be heard muttering under his breath, "Ayumi-chan! You naughty girl! Rubber ducks don't go THERE..."
Mr. No-Brake grunted, and stuck his hands over his ears. "I think I preferred it when he was just spazzing in a corner."
The problem with fighting in closed hallways was the fact that your senbon (1) just keep getting stuck in the damn walls, Amayako thought to herself. Pulling a senbon out of the overhanging lights with an annoyed twitch of her hand, she amended that thought. The low ceilings were a bitch too.
Ginji was also having his own problems. It was all well and good to shock lightning all over the place, but when one of your companions is hitting the metal walls all the time with metal weapons, it's difficult to keep them from being electrocuted.
"Screw it." Shinigami finished off the last in the wave of guards. "This isn't working. I keep getting my senbon stuck in the walls trying to avoid you two, and Ginji-kun keeps missing and giving me hair messier than yours, onii-san."
Indeed, if you looked at the girl, her hair was rather frizzy, even though the headscarf kept most of it back.
"What should we do then, Shinigami-chan?" Ginji turned to her, and both he and Akabane looked on expectantly.
Amayako thought for a minute, tapping her finger on her chin, then she grinned, "Got it! I'll throw, and then he can use my senbon as markers to aim! Onii-san can avoid my senbon, and if Ginji-kun stays right behind me, I don't need to worry about hitting him." Smugly proud of herself, she cocked her head to the side, and asked, "Is that ok?"
Ginji frowned, thinking to himself. "Can I see one of your needle-things, Shinigami-chan?" Taking one from her, he flipped it around in his hands. "I think I can hit these. They're different from the metal on the walls."
"I'd hope so. I purchased them for her, after all. The dealer promised me that they were pure titanium." Akabane's scalpels flashed as he looked out from under his hat. "I'd hate to have them be less than satisfactory."
Ginji gulped, and JUST managed to keep from popping tare.It would be a Very Bad Thing to do that. He still had to find Ban-chan after all.
"Let's get going then!" Shinigami tapped her foot impatiently, gesturing with her arms. "We'll never get to Brakee-tan if we stand here!"
"Indeed. Ginji-kun, are we close to Midou-kun yet?"
"Un! Close!"
The sound of screaming was the only warning that Midou Ban got that his partner was coming to rescue him.
"Secure the cells!"
"Shit!"
"He's got a taser!"
"My legs! I can't mo-"
"What the hell do you think's going on?", asked Ban, turning to Mr. No-Brake after failing to see what was happening outside.
Mr. No-Brake yawned and stretched. "That sounds like Jackal. He must be having some fun." Rubbing his shackled wrists, the big man stood up. "Looks like your partner and Jackal's little sister are with him too, judging by the shouts."
Screams of "My eyes!" and "Not the face!" made their way through the uncomfortable silence as Ban rolled over this incomprehensible idea in his mind. "Little sister?"
"Yeah, surprised me too, but, whatever. His parents must have been pleased that at least their second child turned out a little better. (2)Shinigami-chan's not nearly as ... homicidal, shall we say?"
Ban's response was cut off as something thudded against the door to the cell. He saw a guard's head hit the small barred window, then sink down, and then Ginji's smiling face peered through.
"Ban-chan! We'll get you out of here in no time! Shinigami-chan's good with locks!" Ban was about to ask, "Who the heck is Shinigami-chan?" when the door swung open, the click of the lock muffled by the screams that were still echoing down – Jackal was obviously bringing up the rear.
A smiling girl bounced into the room eagerly, shouting, "Brakee-tan!" and hitting the man with a flying tackle-hug, red headscarf flaring behind her like some sort of abnormal tail.
No-Brake took the glomp with an "Oof!" and hugged her back tentatively. She reminded him of his daughter, strangely enough... except for the weird nicknames. If only he could stop her from using the weird nicknames.
Meanwhile, Ginji was mirroring Amayako, popping into tare form and glomping the heck out of Ban, all the while crying, "Ban-chan!".
Ban responded in his usual way, shouting, "ARGH! Get OFF Ginji!", swinging the poor tare into a wall.
At this, Shinigami and Mr. No-Brake gave the pair a Look of WTF-ness, and Ban sweatdropped, tugging at the tearing tare on his shirt.
"He's not usually like this..."
Akabane decided to poke his head in at that moment. "Much as reunions warm my heart, we really must get going now."
Shinigami poinked over to Ban, and grabbed his wrists before he even realised what she was doing. Pulling out a pair of senbon, she chirped, "Just stay still mister man! I'll have these off in no time!" With some careful fiddling, Ban's shackles opened, and he rubbed his wrists thoughtfully.
"So you're Jackal's little sister, are you?"
"Yup! But we'd better get going now!"
Shinigami tugged Ban out into the hallway, where Akabane waited, while Ginji and Mr. No-Brake followed.
"Which way, onii-san?"
"Hn. I suppose we'll go back the way we came. I believe that I saw a set of stairs. Perhaps those will lead us somewhere to get our bearings. Follow me."
With that, Dr. Jackal turned on his heel, and ran smoothly down the hall. The rest of the little party followed, while Ginji filled Ban in on the predicament.
The group actually made it up the stairs and into a large main hallway without anything more than a few mishaps. Most probably they had wiped out the guards on the lower floor as they went to get Ban and Mr. No-Brake. However, as in all anime, their luck was about to change.
"Prisoners! Halt!"
A row of guards ran out from the three doorways leading into the large room, and circled the group.
Ban cracked his knuckles.
"I've been meaning to beat the shit out of something for a while now. It might as well be you. SNAKE BITE!"
Following Ban's lead, Ginji shouted and started hitting guards with lightning-coated fists with abandon. After all,he had so much lovely space to run around in. Why not use it?
"Don't forget the game, onii-san! I'm only trailing by 3 points!"
Chuckling his scary I'm-amused laugh(3), Akabane pulled out a new set of scalpels and started hacking at things as Shinigami threw her senbon into the air, creating a rain of metal shards. It was hard to tell which sibling was doing better, Dr. Jackal who was hamstringing people at a rather quick rate, or Shinigami, who was paralyzing soldiers with deadly accuracy.
Meanwhile, Mr. No-Brake sat back in a quiet corner and watched them go at it. He was just the driver after all. Shaking his head, he muttered, "They don't pay me enough to do this job."
(1) Senbon – metal needles used as weapons... basically I switched them with 'senbon', since they're a more technical term. Hope I don't confuse!
(2) Yes, No-Brake only has limited knowledge about Amayako. After all, he's known her for less than a day. How's he supposed to know that she and Jackalaren't blood-related?
(3) Not to be confused with his "You-die-now" laugh, or his "Aren't-you-CUTE?" laugh... although the three are all scarily similar.
Thank you to:
Atropos' Knife/swt/ Sorry if I scared you with my crazy fan-girlness. I'll tone it down X3 Thanks for the complimenting of Brakee-tan, BTW XD I love him to to bits... he's just so fun to write/teehee/
Sylerna: Thank you! It's a joy to know that Amayako's not too Mary-Sue-ish... She was actually created a while ago for an English writing project. I was re-reading my notes, for some reason, and found the story, and then she wouldn't stop haunting me /hehehe/ So that's how she came to be
Rabid Lola: Yes, Glomping is good /purr/
marbles: Yeah, I know how that is... I've done the "let's just ignore it for now" thinf before /swt/ And yes, the duckies should be returning in this chapter /swt/ Oh boy, do they ever
bLuELuNa: Yeah, Ginji's not that bad in the anime, but he can be a bit perverted in the manga... not to mention that Hevn's boobs are just hypnotic... it's hard NOT to look at them, especially when they move in such interesting patterns... but I digress XD BTW, the Ban/Himiko will be extremely sparse, but there will be a couple moments in the future...
To my betas: Akabane… as a horse? O.o. I didn't think of it that way ...
And yes, Mr. No-Brake is so unloved TT In my head, he's a pretty good guy ; The spiffy one-liners make me happy XD
AN: Alright, we shall call Amayako by her real name if the writing if from her point of view or Akabane's. In all other points of view, she'll be Shinigami . I guess it'll be confusing at first but that's how each person would think of her, right? It's like, you know when some one talks about Lady Poison, they mean Himiko, and vice versa? So yes… tell me if you think I could fix it better /heh /
I've got some fun things planned for the future, including aa rather large and convoluted fight scene... but seeing as how I've never actually written any fights other than that really short snippet in a previous chapter, please don't mind if I do a really bad job of it.
And there will be ducks.
Indeed, there will be ducks.
Alicorn