A.N.: Like I typed previously, this is a short chaoter, but here you go!
Oh, yeah, and I know there are a lot of wrong technical details in this (and in previous chapters), especially regarding the rocket/spaceship thing, but PLEASE work with me here!
THE WAY YOU ARE IS FINE ENOUGH
CHAPTER 4 – DESPERATE TIMES
Suoh and Akira panicked: the small spaceship where their unconscious kaichou was trapped in was about to take off on a one-way trip to the sun… and they couldn't do anything unless they wanted their kaichou back with a hole in his head.
Things were looking really bad for them.
"How are you going to get back!" Akira shouted as he tried to think of something to stop them while stalling the CLAMP Gakuen Elementary School Student Council President's kidnappers.
"Oh, don't worry about us, we'll be fine, but blondie here…" The brunette said as he tugged at Nokoru's hair, pulling the boy towards him as he smirked cynically at the camera he knew was transmitting the scene to the big screen outside. "We'll be in one of the compartments that will come back to the Earth, but let's just say genius boy here won't have the same destination."
It seemed hopeless, it really did, and Suoh couldn't help but feel again that he had failed his one. "What kind of a Takamura am I that I can't even protect the one person I swore to!" He asked himself mentally as his soul agonized and twisted inside him.
"We'll see you around, boys!" Came the blonde's voice. "I would get away from this spaceship if I were you!" He said, and right then, the ceiling opened to reveal the beautiful night sky, making way for their escape. "We're ready for takeoff in TEN, NINE, EIGHT…"
Suoh closed his fists with such force, they started bleeding.
Was there really nothing they could do to save their kaichou?
"SEVEN, SIX…"
Akira, silently agreeing with Suoh that they would not leave the small rocket's side should a miracle happen, looked at his senpai's hand and gasped.
"Takamura-senpai! Your hand! It's bleeding! Please stop hurting yourself!" The black-haired boy said as he picked up the older one's injured hands and enveloped them in his own.
"FIVE, FOUR, THREE…"
Producing a handkerchief out of one of his pockets, the 4th-grader wrapped the blue-haired boy's hands after tearing it into two almost identical pieces.
The older boy only looked at him through glossy eyes, his mind lost somewhere far away…
"TWO…"
Right then, everything went silent and dark.
Suoh seemed to come back to reality and the two boys looked startled for a moment, but a cheerful voice soon enlightened them.
"Oi, Takamura-kun, Akira-kun! We've turned out the lights! They don't see us anymore, so they'll have no idea what hit them!" Erii yelled.
"Yes they will! They'll hear us coming!" Akira protested.
No sooner had she said, Kotobuki also gave them a shout. "And I've just finished cutting their power through the outside panel… it should be quite dark in there, so here, grab a flashlight and go get the Imonoyama kid!"
Catching the tossed object despite the darkness by pure reflexes, the other blue-haired boy turned to his kouhai, a renewed serious and determined look on his face. "Not if there's a louder distraction, they won't hear us. You four make as much noise as you can, enough to nullify this door breaking down! And keep on doing it until we come out!" He ordered.
As soon as he said that, the Dunklyon team started causing as much havoc as possible, which was saying something, and Suoh started pounding on the door again… until it finally gave in two minutes later.
Before the door hit the floor, the two boys were already inside, losing no time in running down the corridors and climbing up the ladders, using the flashlight to search for the next doors, since there were lots of them, hastily knocking down the ones they couldn't open in less than three seconds.
"James! What the heck is going on!" The brunette shouted. "How come we're still here and in this dark! I can't see a thing!"
The blonde, pressing all buttons possible on the keyboard before him in a useless attempt to reactivate the rocket, replied with great distress. "I don't know! The lights suddenly went out outside and our energy is gone too!"
"What, how can that be! We're supposed to have enough energy to reach the sun's gravitational pull!"
"The power must have been cut outside… somehow. I don't see how those kids could have done it, but that's the only solution possible!" Michael, the blond guy in a black suit, answered thoughtfully, still trying to reactivate the spaceship.
"Those kids must be crazy! They're exploding bombs everywhere! I can barely hear you talking! Wasn't this supposed to be sound-proof too!" The brunette asked, his voice higher than normal, as he watched from his seat beside the unconscious boy's what four of the intruders were doing outside through the one-way transparent material in front of him. He could see them because of the lights the bombs provided when exploding, but said invaders couldn't see inside due to the material the windscreen was made of.
"Michael, get the kid! They've probably got some plan to get him back and we can't allow that! Our orders were specific: to make sure no one ever gets the chance to use his intelligence against NASA! We must remain the only ones to house such noticeable and knowledgeable people!" James shouted, taking his gun from its hiding place inside the black suit he was wearing.
"Roger!" The brunette shouted, but as he was about to comply, his attempts to get out of his chair proved to be useless as again and again his body would end up sitting on it. "What the…"
"Oi, Michael, what's wrong?" The other said wearily as he heard his companion making weird noises. "Michael!"
"I can't…" the brunette tried to reply, but a voice interrupted him.
"He can't get out of his seat… because Takamura-senpai has just stuck him to it with a few kunais." Akira stated coldly, his voice no longer holding its usual cheerfulness, and it was all due to his anger… anger that was directed to the two men before him for taking and, even worse, for hurting his kaichou.
James was about to use the blond hostage as free passport to safety for him and his companion, when an eerie voice spoke just behind him, freezing all his movements in fear.
"Ijyuuin, turn on the flashlight and untie kaichou. This guy is mine."
Startled, the blond man looked as a light was turned on and directed at the unconscious boy tied up to the leather armchair. His smug reaction, however, did not match his body's paralyzed state, "Do you really think you're going to be able to free him? That's a professional scout knot and there's just no way a little boy like that can…" James started saying with a smirk on his face, but the expression soon turned to a surprised one and the words died on his lips as his eyes sent his brain the message it had just registered… the boy had been successful in untying the skillfully made knot... and quite easily it was done. "How…"
"A professional scout knot is nothing for me… I'm quite used to untying knots, whichever may they be, because my mothers made sure I was able to do it in case of emergencies…" Akira interrupted the man's unfinished question with a look deadlier than a murderer's before killing his or her victim, completely mischaracterizing his usual cheerful expression. "Your turn," the 4th-grader whispered, directing the light to the standing two.
"Indeed, it is." Replied Suoh. "Thanks for taking care of kaichou." The Takamura boy whispered coldly against the other's ear before completely beating him like there was no tomorrow. He knew he shouldn't be doing that, after all, he usually avoided useless violence and such, as is right, but like Akira, the blue-haired boy was completely taken by rage, and thus… the outcome: a professionally beaten blond American was lying on the floor.
Not because he was American, but because he had messed with the wrong Japanese.
Feeling that it was enough, Suoh tied the guy to the leather armchair in front of the other NASA worker, who was still speechless and surprised, and replaced his kunais on the latter for the same rope that had been previously holding his kaichou to one of the seats. As he finished, the 5th-grader ran a hand through his hair and let a sigh escape his lips as a little bit of relief ran down his body… a little, but not complete.
With two steps, he reached the place the plder boy was still sitting on, but no longer tied up. Akira, who was on his knees in front of the seat, was already gently shaking the blonde by the shoulders, but he seemed to be achieving no success, fact that was clearly expressed by the desperate look on his face. "Kaichou, please, wake up! It's all over! Takamura-senpai has just defeated the NASA workers and Dunklyon-san-tachi 1 finished the rest! Kaichou!"
Suoh neared them and looked closely at the unconscious 6th-grader. His eyesight may not be as good as Nokoru's, but he definitely wasn't blind either, so he succeeded in seeing what Akira had failed to notice in his distress.
"Ijyuuin…" Suoh whispered, fear evident in his voice. As the 4th-grader turned around to face him, the Takamura boy pointed to the blond boy as he continued. "Call the limousine, we need to get him to the Hospital and fast!"
Akira was about to ask what was going on, when his hand, which had just touched the base of Nokoru's neck because of turning around, suddenly felt a bit wet… and sticky. Bringing it back to his view, the young thief was surprised to see it was painted in crimson… The red liquid was coming from his kaichou's head.
He would have panicked more, had Suoh not shouted to him yet again. "Ijyuuin, NOW!"
Startled, the black-haired boy raised himself and, using the flashlight, he found his way out while hastily calling the limousine in urgency to their current location: storage #21. Once outside the small rocket, he immediately told the Dunklyon team to stop all the chaos they were causing, as he and Suoh already had successfully rescued the Elementary School Student Council President, and ordered them to turn the lights on so the Secretary could bring their choukan out…
Once the lights were back and Kotobuki temporarily restored the spaceship's energy, since the real reserve was already dead, Suoh picked up Nokoru in his arms as if the blonde were his bride and brought him out as carefully as possible, avoiding any more damage to the President's body.
"Forgive me, kaichou, even though I have sworn to protect you always... 2" He murmured. Seconds later, he set foot outside, carefully setting the only son of the Imonoyama family inside the black limousine.
When all the others and himself were also in the long car, Nokoru's head resting on his lap, Akira told the driver to head towards the Hospital… again.
END of CHAPTER 4 – DESPERATE TIMES
A.N.: Poor Nokoru-sama! There's still one more chapter concluding this phase, but the story's not over. Originally it would have been finished in the next installment and it was a THREESHOT, but I decided to merge a lot of my CCD/CGT ONESHOTs into this one, thus it got ahem a bit longer and a LOT more angst!
1 Dunklyon-san-tachi - this means something along "the ones from the Dunklyon team". The suffix "tachi" is usually added to signify plural or other people who are along the name said. For example: Nokoru-tachi would mean "Nokoru and the others with him" (ususally Suoh and Akira, but that depends on the occasion)!
2 Originally I typed this phrase in Japanese, but because I get a lot of complaints about frequent use of this language when ususally no one knows of it, I decided to just leave it in English. For anyone who's interested, here's the original speech: Sumimassen, kaichou… zutto mamoru yakusoku o shimashita no ni…
Anyhow, I've updated. I won't leave this story hanging unfinished unless I die first, so if suddenly stop putting up new chapters, you'll know something drastic happened to me or anything like that.
I think that was all...
Syaoran-Lover KaiLi signing out!