Julie and Duo leapt on Trowa as he returned bearing trays of food.
"Mmm, tans o muc, twa!" Duo garbled, mouth full of food. Julie simply smiled and nodded.
"You hungry?" she offered, holding out a tray. His stomach immediately let out a grumble, and he sat down behind Duo.
"Thanks."
Once he was done the warm chicken, mushed spinach, and thoroughly disgusting mashed potatoes, he leaned his head gently against the wall, gazing out the window. The sky was getting dark, and a few stars were twinkling into sight. The last thing he saw was a flash of light jet across the sky and then extinguish before sleep overcame him.
"Look, he's asleep," Julie whispered, gesturing to Trowa, smiling gently.
"Wouldn't mind joining him," Duo commented, slouching down in his seat even more.
"Maybe I don't want to be a pilot," Julie agreed, staring at the stars flashing in front of them.
"So what do we do after this?" Duo asked in the pervading silence.
"I don't know. Right now I'm just worried about the laptop." Julie was only concerned with the present; she didn't like having the future mapped out, she liked having it open, free to do as she chose.
"Maybe you can join the Alliance?" she suggested.
"Yeahh, maybe. That would be really cool. We could work together, the six of us. We could get any mission done!"
"Yeahh! And we'd have fun too!"
"Tons of it!"
They both smiled, imagining the adventures and journeys they would go on together.
Trowa felt someone shaking him, but refused to get up. He was too tired, his back hurt, his feet hurt, and his shoulders were now hurting…
"Trowa!"
He shot up, bumping his head painfully into the consol above him.
"Ouch! What? What is it?" he said wordily, glancing around. He found Julie and Duo grinning at him, and Shiris, hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh.
"Nothing's wrong, but I do need help cleaning up the food. We land in half an hour," she answered, waiting for him before she went out the door.
"Did I sleep for that long?"
"Yep. But don't worry; nothing went wrong. Oh, except for Hiiro falling flat on his face when we hit some turbulence, and Mayumi getting thrown up on by a baby. Other than that, it was fine," she grinned again, picturing their indignant faces.
"Damn, I wish I had seen that," Trowa smiled, picturing it as well.
They made their way slowly down the aisle, picking up the trash as they went, asking everyone to put their tray tables back in the arm rest and bring their seats to their upright and locked position. Then they strapped themselves into the two chairs in the back in preparation for landing.
Downstairs, Hiiro and Mayumi slowly made their way down the two aisles collecting the trash, and then buckled themselves in.
"Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain again. We are about to land, so if you would please make sure your chairs are in their upright and locked positions and your tray tables are up, we will have you in Japan shortly!"
She flicked it off and gripped the wheel.
"I'll land," she said to Duo, steering the huge plane gently to the ground. The landing gear came down, the flaps lifted up, and the engines slowed down. They swiftly coasted to the ground, and landed with a light bump. Then the brakes kicked in, and they were pushed forward as the powerful engines reversed and they slowed down.
"Alright!" she exclaimed, steering to the gate indicated by the radio control. "We made it! Now, are you sure you know where this place is?"
"I'm sure. We've been there a few times."
Julie got on the intercom again as they wheeled into the gate.
"Thank you for flying, we would love to have you again. Please enjoy your stay in Tokyo, Japan!"
Mayumi and Hiiro unbuckled themselves and stood as the passengers made their way off the plane, Hiiro getting a few nasty glares.
"I think you might have caused a few derogatory letters," Mayumi snickered as the little boy went by and stuck out his tongue.
Hiiro glowered at the boy, who looked coolly back.
A few seconds after the first class and coach had emptied, the other four spies came down.
"Okay, let's get a car, new clothes, and find the place," Mayumi said, leading the way off the plane.
They entered into a very oriental looking terminal. There were glass cases set up everywhere with different gorgeous kimonos inside, some pretty fans, and even one or two samurai suits. Then, as they walked further down the hall, posters advertising the latest technological advances bombarded them.
"Wow, talk about two totally different ends of the spectrum," Shiris murmured, reading something about a computer that fit in your pocket, but opened to the size of a TV.
"Lets get a taxi," Julie suggested when they reached the end of the terminal.
"Yeahh, sure, but how do we pay for it?" Hiiro asked. "Lets get a car form the parking lot."
Shiris turned away and sighed as they began arguing.
Across from her was an advertising screen, only it wasn't an advertisement being shown. It was a story about an airport, the one they had just come from in Russia…
"And now for this breaking story," an announcer began, "it appears that six crewmen were attacked earlier this morning at the Moscow airport in Moscow, Russia, and two pilot uniforms and four attendant uniforms were stolen from the locker rooms. Police are looking for six people dressed in the stolen uniforms that may be impersonating pilots and attendants and have just landed at the Tokyo airport."
As she walked closer, she could discern six badges being shown, and then the woman they had talked to by the gate. The hair on the back of her neck stood up in fear and she sucked in her breath as she heard the woman start talking.
"There were six of them, three girls and three boys. I remember one boy well, because he had a long braid."
Duo whirled around as he heard what had just come from the screen.
"One of the girls was a pilot, or should I say dressed as a pilot," the woman continued.
Julie stared at the screen. Trowa and Hiiro opened their eyes wide as a picture taken by a security camera showed them walking out of the men's locker room. Their faces weren't clear, since they were looking at the ground, but they could tell it was them by the way the clothes fit. Hiiro's outfit was clinging to him and Trowa's was hanging off him.
Then a shot of Mayumi and Shiris going through the door that led to the plane. Once again, their faces were unclear, but they knew it was themselves.
"They seemed like such nice people, but I knew something was wrong when Tatiana wasn't there. I had talked to her that morning, and she had been fine. I didn't believe that she had the flu for one minute. But I will admit, the tall brunette was a very good liar,"
"Not good enough," Shiris muttered, pulling her cap to cover her face more as a group passed by them, but not pausing to look at the TV.
"How did they find out?" Trowa asked.
In response, the camera panned to six people standing by the gate dressed in attendant uniforms. Four had bruises on their faces.
"Great, the real people woke up. Fabulous. How did we screw that up?" Julie muttered, removing her ID badge and slipping it into the trashcan.
"I didn't even see him," one man began. Trowa recognized the man he knocked out.
"I managed to see him. He had on a flight attendant uniform, and he had shocking blue eyes,' another added.
Hiiro cursed, clenching his fists.
"I saw my attacker, too. It was a woman in an attendant's uniform with short, dark brown hair, very tall."
This time Shiris uttered an expletive.
"I just want to know why we were chosen to be attacked," the last man said. "I mean, we were going to Japan. Why didn't they just buy a ticket? The plane didn't crash, they weren't hijacking the plane or anything."
"Yeahhh, we just didn't happen to have any money with us, we abandoned our agency, and we can't contact the other, that's why," Duo muttered, and tucked his long braid into his shirt.
The newswoman returned to the screen, mike in hand.
"The security at the Tokyo airport is on its highest alert. You can be assured that these criminals will not get away, but will brought to justice."
"Aw, cut the crap!" Duo exclaimed, furious. As if things weren't bad enough, now everyone was looking for their face.
"At least they just found out about it and we were able to get off the plane before they found out. We better get out of here, though," Mayumi commented, also ditching her ID badge. "Lets get that car," she said to Hiiro.
They quickly made their way down the terminal. The car parks were in the terminal across from them, and they needed to pass by security to get to it.
As they neared the group of armed guards standing at the junction of the terminals, they stopped.
"There is no way we can make it through there without causing a shootout," Julie realized.
"So we just blow through. Hope they're bad shots. Plus, they wont shoot at civilians." Mayumi suggested, ready to go for all or nothing.
"Is there any way we can get clothes?" Shiris asked, eyeing a bathroom.
"Maybe…but it'd be difficult to knock out six people without a seventh finding out," Trowa said hopelessly.
"Okay, here's what we do. Mayumi, they never got a good look at you form the security cameras or eyewitnesses. You go to the bathroom, change clothes, and distract the guards. Get them to follow you someplace else, we'll slip by, and you meet up with us at the buses." Hiiro directed, whispering quietly to them.
"Sounds good. I'll be right back."
Mayumi went into the bathroom, following a young woman who looked about her size, dressed in blue jeans, sneakers, and a green camaflogue short sleeved shirt.
When Mayumi returned, she had also donned dark sunglasses and a bandanna.
Discreetly nodding at the group huddled over against the wall trying not to look extremely suspicious, she first went past the guards, who didn't give her a second glance. Then she doubled back, pretending she had seen the imposters fleeing down the hall.
"Officers, I think I saw those impersonators, the ones that were on TV!" she exclaimed, "hurry! You have to catch them! What if they attack someone else?" she added, trying to get a damsel in distress voice. It came out sounding like an order, which worked just as well.
"Which way did they go, miss?" one burly man asked, apparently the leader of the troops.
"That way! Towards terminal A!" she commanded, pointing down an adjacent hall from the one that the others were in.
As the men turned to go, the five began speed walking across the open room and down to terminal D.
Julie and Shiris had almost made it all the way across, walking quickly, trying to keep their poise. Hiiro was behind them, head down, hair in front of his eyes. Only Trowa and Duo were left, the others were up ahead, not looking back or to the sides, only looking straight ahead.
Duo was next to Trowa, head down, hands in his pockets, when a shout caused him to turn his head to the right and look up. It turned out someone had spilled his hot coffee, and he relaxed. Then he felt something soft against his arm, and looked down. His braid was loose and out of his shirt.
Panicking, but trying not to draw attention to it, he shook his head to get it to the other side, away form the security guards. Trowa had seen it, immediately knew what could happen if the men saw it, and switched sides to cover it.
He wasn't fast enough.
"Hey! They're over here!" a guard shouted, racing towards them. "Halt! Stop right there!" he ordered, raising his machine gun, aiming with a steady hand.
Duo and Trowa broke into a run, ducking as bullets whizzed over their heads. They surely would have been killed if Mayumi had not tackled the man and kicked his gun away, bandana flying off, sunglasses smashed into the ground as she stepped on them in her hast to get away.
"Hey! She's one of them!" the guard called from the ground, causing his team to return in full force.
Trowa and Duo swiftly caught up with the others, while Mayumi raced toward them, not far behind.
"I hate heels!" Julie shouted, not caring if anyone heard. She knew she would eventually sprain something.
"Just keep running," Duo warned, the guilty braid whipping behind him.
"Duck!" Mayumi shouted frantically from behind them as a guard stepped out of a door behind the main group and started firing.
Julie dove to the ground, her cap flying off, a bullet puncturing it in mid-air. Shiris landed next to her, her brown eyes flashing and chest heaving.
Mayumi leapt on the man before a second round could be fired and wrenched the gun out his hands and whipped it back into his head. But this was a tough guy-he retaliated with a karate chop to the neck, which Mayumi deftly deflected, countering with a side kick to the head. He was dazed, and she moved in for the kill. With a cry, she whirled around, her foot connecting with a solid thud with the man's jaw, and he hit the ground. She grabbed the gun and aimed back down the hall.
She couldn't get a clean shot of the other men, since panicked bystanders were running in every direction but away.
She kept the gun but continued running towards her friends, who were now all up and running as well.
"How far to the parking lot? And what do we do when we get there?" Julie asked, panting. The hallway seemed to stretch on forever, and there were no moving sidewalks to speed their trip.
"Not far, just around this bend, I think," Hiiro answered, leading the pack. He was the lucky one-when more guards lunged from a doorway, he was already past them.
With a grunt, Julie was thrown to the ground as a huge man lunged at her. Trowa was grabbed from behind and lifted off his feet, while the third man tackled Duo.
Shiris immediately attacked the nearest man, who happened to be grappling with Duo. Hiiro leapt at the one trying to get a grip on Julie, and Mayumi raced in and lunged for Trowa's adversary.
Shiris finally managed to get the guard off of Duo after she kicked him repeatedly in the side, the high heels making the job much easier. She helped Duo up, and they proceeded to finish off the man.
Just as Hiiro had shoved the guard off of Julie, a burst of gunfire sped over his head. He looked up and down the hall, afraid the other guards were firing. To his surprise, he found two of them lying on the ground, blood gushing from their legs.
Trowa and Mayumi looked up as well, and saw Shiris and Duo standing with guns. Duo with the machine gun, Shiris with a small automatic handgun, one smiling in satisfaction, one with lips pressed thinly together.
"Don't move, or I wont be nice!" Duo called to the remaining five men, who were helping their disabled comrades.
The guard who had leapt on Trowa tried to go forward, but a single bullet to the knee stopped him, Shiris' gun smoking.
"You too," she ordered, standing with her feet slightly apart, arms extended in front of her.
The four on the floor got to their feet, each taking a gun from the wounded or unconscious guards.
Slowly they backed up, facing back down the hallway, making sure no one moved.
When they hit the glass doors leading outside, Hiiro pushed them open, and they filed out, still not talking their aim off the guards, who were standing, looking furious and humiliated.
"Now what?" Duo whispered out of the corner of his mouth. He and the others knew that the second they left, the men would be after them.
"Someone go get a car," Trowa said.
"I will," Julie volunteered, and swiftly left.
She went into the deserted underground parking lot, trying to find a car that would fit all six of them.
She ran in-between the cars, occasionally splashing through a puddle of dirty rain water. The lot was not clean by any standards, and the lights were dim. It smelled like stagnant water. She felt like she was in a horror movie, right at the part where the naïve girl is in a creepy place, being chased by a monster, and the monster jumps out—there! She found a black SUV with an interior of seven leather seats.
Taking out the trusty paperclip from the locker rooms, she picked the front door of the car and jumped in.
Hotwiring was also on her list of job skills, although it did take her a few minutes to find the right wires. She managed to get the windshield wipers going, the lights to go on, and the doors to lock before she got the engine to start. With a rev, she steered the car back to the doors, tires squealing on the pavement.
"Get in," she called as she pulled up with a jerk behind the others, who had not moved.
One by one they climbed in, Mayumi and Trowa in the way back, Shiris and Duo in the middle, and finally Hiiro in the passenger seat.
As he was getting on, he never took his eye off the guards, even as he closed his door. With the window rolled down, he made sure they didn't move.
"Okay, you have to move very fast. Do not stop for anything," he warned Julie, who nodded.
"Now!" he shouted, and she took off, smoke flying up as the tires sped forward. Quickly spinning around and looking out the back window, Mayumi could see the guards immediately move forward—then they were gone, behind a pillar of concrete as they swerved around the corner and up into the twilight, blazing past the ticket booth.
None of them noticed a small, black Honda pull out of the parking lot behind them, its lights off.