Shiris closed her eyes as Trowa took aim and fired.
Her eyes snapped open when she realized her arms were loose.
Her chains had fallen, a bullet in the spot where they hooked to the wall.
She saw Trowa turn around and train the gun on the leader.
She looked over, praying the others had not been killed. Duo hadn't even fired the gun, and Mayumi had a hole right next to her head. Duo was also training his gun on the leader, and Hiiro was staring at his gun.
"Hiiro! Get over here!" Duo shouted.
Hiiro jerked up, face scared. Then it closed again and he joined his friends. Shiris ran over to Trowa.
"Can I borrow your gun?"
He gave it to her, and she quickly turned and fired off two shots. Mayumi and Julie then held out their hands and she shot off the handcuffs, Julie doing the same for her. All three rubbed their wrists gratefully as the chains fell away. Julie returned the gun.
"How dare you!" The leader snarled. "Do you think you can just waltz out of here?"
"Why not?" Duo sneered.
"Because I have an alarm button right under my desk."
"You tripped it," Mayumi muttered grimly.
"You got it. And now, all of you are going to die instead of three."
"What do we do now?" Julie asked. "Franz and the others will be joining the party at any minute!"
"First," Duo whipped his gun into the leader's head. He dropped like a stone.
"Now, we have to get to the elevator. Lets go!" The six ran to the door.
Before Mayumi could open it, it burst in and Franz and his pals stormed in, now armed with guns.
"Okay…anyone have a plan B?" Trowa asked, backing up as guns were trained on them.
"Drop the guns!" Franz shouted, gesturing to the weapons in the boys' hands.
They did so without a fight.
"Now move!" Franz shoved Mayumi out the door and into the hall. The other two men ushered the rest out behind her, and began leading them down the hall.
"Now what?" Shiris whispered to Mayumi and Julie in Japanese.
"I don't know." Mayumi replied.
"Can we attack?" Julie suggested.
"Possibly. We'd have to be fast, no mistakes."
"Well, I vote for that idea, cause its gotta be better than this one…" Shiris murmured, pointing to a door a head of them. Through it, they could see at least 100 guards, all armed to the teeth.
"Yeah, I'd say we try our plan!" Julie agreed urgently.
"No talking!" Franz shouted, hitting Julie in the back. She glared at him.
"I get to take him out," Julie muttered, rubbing her back.
"Okay. Ready… set…" the girls tensed, "now!" Mayumi shouted, and spun around to punch the guard behind her in the face. A river of blood flowed from his nose, and then he crumpled as Mayumi brought her knee up.
Julie whipped around and kicked Franz in the face. Then, with a scream, she leaped on him and brought him to the ground. He couldn't stop the barrage of punches that hit his face.
Before the third guard could react, Shiris kicked his gun out of his hand. Fear on his face, he turned and ran.
"Oh no you don't," she muttered, and raced after him. A few inches away from him, she leapt up into the air and flipped over his head. She landed in front of him and punched, catching him square in the jaw. He fell over with a thud, and Shiris stepped over him.
All of this had taken place within a minute.
"Wow…very nice!" Duo complimented, surveying the giants sprawled on the floor.
"Thank you!" Julie said, taking Franz's gun and walking over to Duo. Mayumi and Shiris joined them, both armed. The men in the room beyond the door hadn't moved.
"Now we have to get out of here," Hiiro ordered, starting to run for the corridor that led to the elevator.
The other five quickly followed him.
"Hey, that wasn't so bad," Duo, commented as they ran towards the elevator. Suddenly he slammed into a door. "What the hell?"
"What is that?" Julie cried, looking at the door that had slid down from the ceiling. "Now we cant get out!"
"Come one, this way," Trowa said, turning around.
"Look out!" Shiris shouted, grabbing his waist and pulling him back. A door slid down right where he had been standing.
"That was very close," he murmured shakily, Shiris' arms still around him.
"Now what?" Mayumi asked Hiiro. "You know this place better then we do. We're stuck in a corridor, with no way out, and I'm guessing something else is about to happen."
"Such as?" he retorted, angry at how the situation was turning out.
"Gas!" Julie shrieked, pointing at a stream of air that was coming from a hole in the ceiling.
"We have to get out of here!" Duo shouted above the hiss of the gas. "Most likely the gas is not a nice, sleepy type of gas!"
"How about that vent?" Trowa suggested. Looking up, everyone saw a small vent about 8 feet up.
"Its our best shot," Shiris agreed, coughing. The gas was starting to fill up the room. She put her shirt over her mouth and nose.
"Hoist me up! I'm the lightest!" Mayumi called above the hiss of air. Hiiro positioned himself just under the vent and lifted Mayumi up onto his shoulders.
She pulled at the vent.
"Hurry!" Julie shouted, eyes tearing up form the gas. It was getting harder to breath. A green mist was starting to form inside the corridor.
Mayumi gave a final tug and almost went flying off Hiiro as the vent came loose.
"Got it! I'll climb in and lift Hiiro up! Then he'll lift someone up, and so on!"
They all nodded. At this point, anything would have sounded like a good idea.
Mayumi slithered into the shaft. It was about three feet tall and four feet wide, just enough room for her to turn around and grab Hiiro's hands. She pulled him up and then turned back around to inspect the vent.
Hiiro flipped around. "Duo! Come on!"
"Julie, you go first!" He pushed Julie over to Hiiro, who grabbed her hands and hoisted her up. She then reached down to grab Duo's.
"Okay Shiris, come on!" He called down. She was quickly lifted up, and then reached down for Trowa. He gratefully gripped her hands and slid into the vent.
"Okay, we're all in! Lets go!" Shiris shouted up to Mayumi, who had already started to move forward.
"I'm going!" She yelled back. Slowly, the line started to move. Mayumi blindly followed the vent. About 50 feet from the opening, the vent curved left.