Chapter 4: International Lobster of Mystery.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Shinji said as he, Kaname and Sous- Sora, he reminded himself. Sousuke, when he was female, something he was trying to get used to, preferred to be called Sora, for whatever reason. Anyways, Shinji, someone who had been blackmailed into scaling a building to steal a girl's panties, was standing with both Sora and Kaname, looking across the yard at the boys who had taken his photographs for ransom.
"Don't worry, it'll be just fine," the long-tressed girl said. "You give them that pair of panties and get your photos back." With a sadistic grin and a crack of her knuckles, she crowed, "And then they'll get their just desserts!"
"Yes, this venture should prove satisfactory," Sora agreed before shouldering a long bag and heading off to the side of a nearby building. Once there she pulled down the fire escape and made her way to the roof.
Shinji took a big breath before letting all the air in his lungs out. "I guess this is it," he said before walking towards the group of boys, the 'pilfered' garment in his hands.
Kaname, for her part, found a convenient bush to hide behind, a detonator remote in one hand and a pair of binoculars in the other.
"Hey, it's Kazama!" one of the boys called as Shinji approached. "Do you think he got the goods?"
"I hope not. I wanna burn these stupid things," another said, waving a manilla envelope.
"Takado," another tough sighed. "We're talking about a hot girl's panties, here. Panties, man, panties."
"You said it, Lee," the first boy agreed. Turning to Shinji, he called out, "You got the goods?"
"R-right here!" Shinji called, holding the folded fabric up. "You have my pictures?"
"Don't know why you'd want pictures like that," Lee commented. "Takado, give him the envelope."
"Here you go, now give me the panties." Shinji grabbed the envelope, tossed the boy the panties he had been carrying, and ran. "Huh, guess we're pretty intimidating, right, guys?"
Over in the bush, Kaname sat waiting. She watched as Shinji tossed the panties at the boys and ran, following him with the binoculars. After the boy checked the envelope to make sure all of his precious negatives were there, he looked her way and drew a finger across his throat. Kaname grinned ferally and hit the big, red, shiny button.
The boys were surprised, to say the very least, when the pair of panties they were pawing exploded. The explosion had very little force and barely singed them, but it also created a cloud of acrid, white smoke that left them somewhat confused.
And then the pain started. Each boy was hit several times before they could even think to move. Once they did move, however, the source of the pain seemed to single one of them out at a time, hitting each a few times before moving on to the next. Finally, after receiving a number of bruising strikes, each of the boys found some measure of safety. None would ever touch a pair of panties again, even when their eventual girlfriends asked them to.
Ten minutes later had Shinji, Kaname, and Sora meeting up again. As Kaname handed the detonator back over, she muttered, "I still think we should have used C-4."
HR
"Let's see, cameras with I.R. and U.V. attachments every fifteen feet, an alternating guard patrol every five minutes, what looks like pressure detectors and laser grids on the doors, and I think I heard a dog barking," a black clad figure sitting in a bush several dozen meters away from a large, grey building in the middle of the Chinese wilderness muttered to himself, peering through a pair of binoculars. "The only good thing I can see is that there probably won't be any cats."
"If you say this'll be easy, I'm going to kick you in the ass when you get home," a female voice came through a headset attached to the dark clad figure's ear.
"Nope," he replied. "I'd say it'd take me about a day to bypass, and I still could get caught."
"So... what, are we going to have to call in a full strike team?" the female voice asked, somewhat worried, especially since she and her partner had been on this case, tracking some random kidnapped girl for two and a half days now, and having to turn the final apprehension over to a bunch of A.S. pilots irritated her.
"Nope," the man retorted, pulling off the hood he wore to reveal the face of Ranma Saotome. "I've got a plan."
"Is this one going to involve a bunny outfit, a lobster and a bucket of paint?" his contact asked, dubiously.
"I thought I asked you to never speak of that again," Ranma grumbled, ignoring the snickering from his headset.
HR.
"I... don't get this at all," Sousuke Sagara muttered to himself, as he stared at a pile of trash, apparently practicing for his job as 'Garbage Chief' on their next class trip. Kaname had informed him that it was one of the less pleasant jobs, but about all he was feeling about it right now was confusion. "So... why can't we just bury all of it, again? That would make us much harder to track."
"Sousuke, we aren't trying to avoid trackers," Kaname grumbled, rather thankful that he hadn't asked the question at school that afternoon. "We just need to sort it so the recycling and incineration collectors will take it."
"I see," the military boy replied, holding up a piece of packaging and glancing at the two bags. Kaname sighed, picking it out of his hand and dropping it in the garbage one.
"So, why are you going like this? I'm sure if you called off and Sora came, some 'gallant hero' would volunteer to take the garbage shift," Kaname offered.
"I have been informed that my attendance at this institution has been substandard and that I must improve upon it," Sousuke replied succinctly. "And it will be easier to watch for trouble if Kyoko isn't trying to set me up on a date."
Kaname chuckled. "Yeah, that's true," she replied, remembering that her best friend had seemed to take Sora in as easily as she had the newly arrived Kaname a year before... and then proceeded to try and find her a 'nice boy.'
"You are going to have some fun on this trip, right Sousuke? You're not just going to stalk me all around the city?" Kaname demanded, as she began helping the brown haired boy sort things out.
"I fail to see how the two are mutually exclusive," Sousuke replied, confused.
"Well, maybe I don't want you following me everywhere, did you ever think of that?" The teal haired girl growled, tossing one soda can into the recycling bag slightly too hard. Sousuke thought of opening his mouth to ask for clarification, but was cut off as the Chidori girl continued. "You and Uncle Ranma have been around, apparently watching out for me, for over a week, and I have no idea why. It's just... I either want some time to just go around myself, or I want you to tell me WHY you're so intent on protecting me!"
"It's my mission," Sousuke replied, as if nothing else needed to be said, and as Kaname looked over at him, she realized that he probably thought exactly that.
Sighing, she stood up and headed for the door. "Just... keep your distance on the trip, okay?" she asked.
Sousuke considered for a moment, running Kaname's request against the orders he had, but then caught her eye, noticing... something in it that he couldn't really figure out. "Affirmative," he said without really thinking.
Kaname shook her head for a moment, before turning and leaving the apartment, its very confused occupant sitting in a pile of garbage.
HR.
"Oh, trouble in paradise," Kurz commented, leaning against the edge of the surveillance desk.
"Hmm?" Mao asked, struggling off of the couch, as she'd had a little too much to drink.
"The Angel and lover boy had a bit of a fight," the sniper reported. "Apparently Kaname feels a bit too restricted with her new shadow."
"Well, we can't really do much about that," the sergeant major said, staggering over to Kurz's side to rewind the footage of Sousuke's apartment. Hearing Sousuke's response to Kaname's demand, she slapped her forehead. "Don't tell me he just agreed to back off."
"Um, he didn't just promise to back off?" Kurz attempted, with a smirk that fell flat when he saw his superior officer's expression. "Look, he's a teenager, he's finally starting to show it! He was kinda creepy there, for a while."
Mao found herself nodding in agreement, but then she shook her head. "A hell of a time for him to start noticing girls," she grumbled. "What are we supposed to do if he upholds the promise?"
"I dunno," Weber offered, looking back at the monitors. "How would you feel about being a tourist?"
HR.
"All right," Gauron said, deceptively calmly. "What exactly happened here?" In front of him, several very nervous looking security officers were standing, a guard on one side of the group looking as though the hand of God was descending to kill him manually.
"Um, well, sir," the security man said. "There was a breech of security, and the subject was taken."
"Yes, I gathered that," the brown haired mercenary snorted, rather impatient that his trip out to this isolated facility to transport the whispered back to Amalgam central research facilities had been a total waste.
"Well, it was... that is..." the chief of security stuttered, before giving up, moving slowly to the surveillance terminal that took up most of the main wall of the security office and tapping several controls on a panel beside it. Mutely, he pointed to the monitors, and Gauron watched.
HR.
A black clad figure walked up to one of the security doors on the east side of the facility, carrying a backpack over one shoulder. Immediately upon seeing them, the guard at the gate raised his rifle, calling "Who's there?"
"Security forces commander, division 6," the dark clad man said in a clipped, rushed tone. "I've been ordered to transport one of the prisoners here to another secure facility."
"You've got to be kidding," Gauron mumbled, his eyes lighting up in recognition of the face on the screen.
"Can I see your identification and transfer papers?" the guard asked, causing the figure to roll his eyes.
"I lost them on the hike out here from where my transport flipped on that damned mountain road," he said, sounding disgusted. "Don't suppose you could order me one from the motor pool?"
"Sir, I'm really not sure," the guard started, only to be cut off by the dark clad man's hand.
"Look, no hard feelings, but I've got to get this done. If I'm delayed, higher-ups are gunna be pissed at both of us, and that especially applies if you bother 'em with a background check on a routine prisoner transfer order."
"Yeah, I guess," the guard said, his face suddenly going pale, before he rapidly typed in the code that opened the access door. "I'll get a car around for you by the time you get out."
"So, who were you so afraid of?" The guards jumped at Gauron's voice, all of them having been distracted by the train wreck they were witnessing on the screen. Hearing no response, the brown haired man repeated, "Who was it you were so afraid of annoying? Was it me?"
"N... no, sir," the guard responded, instantly, and at Gauron's upraised eyebrow, he continued, "Dr. Gates, sir."
"Hmm, smart man," Gauron noted, before returning to the video, by which point Ranma was leaving out of the building, holding a young, black haired Japanese girl in his arms, and having apparently walked through the heavily populated facility to get her.
"I asked him to stop when I saw how he was transporting her, sir," the rather nervous guard started, "But he just broke for the car, and I'd left the keys in it, and..."
Gauron watched silently for a moment as the video showed the mentioned events, before a small jeep sped through the complex at high speed. "Well..." he said, bringing a hand up to stroke his chin. "Well, well, well." He hid a smirk as he saw the other men in the room twitch with every repetition of the word. "The security at this base was supposed to be top notch, and yet all you worried about was the exterior perimeter?"
"It was unbreachable, sir, I..." the security chief objected, hurriedly.
Gauron didn't answer directly, just pointing at the screens and smirking nastily. "You," he said, pointing at the guard who was at the door. "You were an idiot, but justifiably so." He turned to the chief, reaching for his belt and removing a pistol. "You, however," he fired the gun, the report echoing around the room and the man falling to the ground, "are too dumb to live. Clean this up, I've got a plane to catch."
"Y...yes, sir," the remaining security men stuttered, before grabbing their former leader's body and dragging it out.
HR.
"Are you all right, kid?" Ranma asked, somewhat concerned, as he and the whispered he'd rescued sat in the jeep he'd... well, technically not stolen from the enemy base's motor pool, him trying to drive despite the crack running through the front window where someone's pistol shot had gotten lucky.
"Oh, I'm fine," the girl said in a soft, dreamy voice, the same one she'd been using ever since she'd rather casually let him carry her out of the base. According to the records, which were probably drawn from past experience he wasn't allowed to know about, the girl should be shuddering in a corner and going through severe drug withdrawal.
"Those eyes are kinda creepy, huh?" his control offered through Ranma's headphones, causing him to sigh.
"She's probably in shock, and you're making fun of her for being creepy?" he hissed, hopefully too quietly for the girl to hear.
"Oh, it's okay, lots a people think I'm strange," The girl said. "Once, Tomo even thought I was possessed by an alien or something."
"Oh?" Ranma asked, cursing himself for under-estimating the girl's hearing. "Who's Tomo, one of your friends?"
"Mmhmm," the girl replied, nodding slowly. "Her, Yomi-san, Chiyo-chan, Kagura-san, and Sakaki's not here, 'cuz you're not Mrs. Kuonji."
"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking over at the girl for a moment, before remembering and bringing his eyes back to the road.
"Huh, she knows about your curse?" his control asked. "And Mrs. Kuonji, huh? Wonder who Mr. Kuonji is?"
"Be quiet," the mercenary hissed. "She's probably hallucinating or something."
"Yeah, prob'ly," the girl agreed, before staring out the window, watching the landscape pass silently.
'Only an hour 'till we get to the retrieval point,' Ranma thought, rather thankful, as the girl's last few statements made him rather agree with Hikari. She was definitely creepy, and she apparently knew something about both his curse and one of his oldest friends.
He shook his head, trying to dismiss that thought, and returning his attention to watching the road for obstacles.
HR.
"This isn't exactly what I had in mind for my next vacation," Melissa Mao complained as she stood in the customs line, hoping that she wouldn't be held up. At the moment, she could still see Sousuke and Kaname's class, the target talking to one of her friends while Sousuke did the same with the boy who'd snuck into his apartment a few days earlier, the two talking over an issue of an Arm Slave magazine, while Sousuke occasionally took covert glances at Kaname.
Looking away from them, the dark haired woman tossed her duffel bag on the scanner, walking through the metal detector and sighing in relief that it wasn't giving a false positive. Mithril had just barely managed to arrange her placement on the flight at short notice, and the plane was already set for boarding.
As she walked across the lobby and into the boarding ramp, she caught a glimpse of Kurz, standing down below on the tarmac, waving up at her, then giving her a thumbs up. "Idiot," she muttered, quietly.
"Did you say anything, Ma'am?" a stewardess asked, touching the soldier on the arm.
"No, nothing," Mao replied, slightly embarrassed to have said that out loud, but pushed it out of her mind as she walked up to Kaname and her friend with the glasses and ponytails. She'd ended up with a seat right behind them, allowing her to keep a much closer eye on them than Sousuke, who had requested placement in another class entirely.
Settling back for what she thought would be a very boring flight, the Mithril sergeant major wondered if she could get any alcohol on the flight.
HR.
It had been over an hour, and Mao was getting rather sick of hearing about Kyoko's guy problems and the porn collection of the two students behind her, when something finally happened. Of course, she was nominally supposed to hope that nothing would happen on the flight, making it perfectly routine, but it was getting so boring at the moment that she was wondering if they might even hit some turbulence.
Looking out the window, which she hadn't done since right after take-off, the mercenary blinked down at several jagged mountain peaks which were passing beneath them. "This doesn't look like anywhere near Okinawa," Kyoko said, giving voice to Mao's thoughts, as Kaname leaned over the other girl to get a look at the window.
The teal haired girl frowned worriedly, finding herself glancing subconsciously back for Sousuke before scolding herself for the action. "Maybe we're diverting to another airport, for weather or something," she offered.
Mao frowned, somehow doubting that, as they were descending already, and the landscape didn't look anything like any part of Japan she was familiar with.
As she thought this, a small lake and airport hove into view from the cloud cover, and her eyes widened, quickly cataloging a vast array of military hardware arranged on the tarmac to greet them. 'I shouldn't have thought it,' she instantly thought. 'I should have just enjoyed the vacation.'
END.
The chapter's a little short, but we wanted to start the next arc off straight, and Weebee really wanted to publish the infiltration scene tonight, so... yeah. Stuff. We hope you enjoyed, and please R&R!