FIVE
Sutoomu
I'm amazed at myself, I really am. I wrote a chapter this morning before work in an hour, and it didn't turn out too bad, considering it was written at seven forty in the morning. Which is normally too early for my thinking processes to work right. But it came out okay, at least, I think it did. Tell me your opinion in a review after.
As to my reviewers for chapter eighteen-wow, I have a lot of chapters in this fic-thank you to Kami-Crimson, EternalDragonOfShadows, Vitanie Tora, catc10, Reikan, Backwards Bandit, Tanya, SanzoGirl, bloodredblack, purpleeyednekoyoukai-love your name, just because-anissa32, summersarebright-actually, I always liked your name too-shadowdreamer Lady Fate, orphen chica, NaraOccult, Trixters' Muse, Dead Rvn, Kerrilea, phoenixfirekitsune, Tears Falling Freely, chibihitomi, and chinese gal, who gave me a wonderfully written review of constructive critism. I'm not changing the story, though. I love my Five. And I love my reviewers.
Read...
"Like Quatre said, Heero gets most of the credit," Duo explained.
"While I ranted and Quat cried and Trowa comforted us, Hee-chan read your note and figured it out that Tao Shen was the cause of you leaving us, though we didn't know why then. Good ol' faithful 'Ro," Wufei winced at the perhaps unintended barb. "Decided he was gonna track you down. He checked the phone record and saw that the taxi company was called for a ride, and we went down to the taxi place to talk to the driver that picked you up and then picked Tao Shen up and took you to the airport. Then Ro found your uncle's purchase of two tickets to here and we grabbed our gear and came after you."
"Duo is making it sound easy, too," Quatre replied with a weary memory. "Doing all of that wasn't a joyride. Heero had to hack into the phone service records, we had to expensively bribe the taximan to talk, we had to break into the airport flight records to know where in the world you went."
And then we had the annoying trouble of tracking you down, which was hard as hell," Duo groaned. "This house is four hundred and forty two miles from the airport. That's a lot of searching and narrowing down. And what we got wasn't even you, though I can't exactly complain." Duo ended, grinning smugly, happy with his memories.
Wufei looked to Quatre for further explanation, but it was Heero who spoke up. "We found Tao Shen's home first," he said in a mild monotone, his dark blue eyes flashing. "After further investigation, we learned that Taia was being held prisoner in the basement of his four car garage."
"And that's when it all fell into place," Trowa finished. "That was when we understood why you left."
"And it pissed me right off," Duo growled. "Tao Shen must die."
"He's not dead yet?" Meiran blinked in surprise.
"Listen to the story, woman," Wufei hushed her, and she smacked his shoulder in annoyance.
"We decided we would infiltrate Tao Shen's home and rescue Taia," Heero summarized.
"And then we decided we would kick Tao Shen's ass," Duo said fiercely. "For blackmailing you. And basically being an asshole." He walked back to the second car and leaned against it, smirking.
"But how did you get Taia free?" Wufei asked, prodding for more details. "What was it like where he held her?"
"You want a detailed explanation?" Duo asked, and Wufei nodded. "Well…we decided to take the element of surprise…"
"Damnit, Duo," Heero huffed in slight annoyance as Duo winced against the sharp alarm bell. "I told you there were alarms on the door in the car. Don't you understand the meaning of 'surprise'?"
"Hey, buddy," Duo replied, deciding to ignore the fact that he had just set off the alarms and they had only just managed to enter the house after sneaking across the entire grounds of the three story manor. "You're talkin' to the God of Stealth here."
"I thought it was death," Quatre mused, stepping by the screeching alarm speakers above the side house door with a simple sigh. Trowa followed behind him, and he paused at the door to pull out the alarm wires behind the bell. The ringing ended, but now they could hear other bells and alarms going off all over the house, and shouts of startled people. The whole house was now alerted, when the plan had been to sneak Taia out before going full force to find Tao Shen.
"And it wasn't very stealth-like," Trowa added to the conversation.
"Your plan is no fun and takes too long," Duo grinned. "So let's go with the flow, 'kay? Loosen up, guys. We can take these idiots!"
"Heero looked at the sky, as though asking 'why me?', before he sighed and turned to Trowa. "You and Quatre go get Taia. We'll find Tao Shen and take the attention of you."
"Yeah," Duo chuckled darkly, then walked the five feet to a hallway intersection. "Now…if I recall, we go this way, right?"
"No, we go this way," Heero corrected, prodding Duo to the left. "Taia is that way." Trowa and Quatre turned the other way and headed off with a 'good luck' from Duo, and then everything became serious.
They hadn't gone a hall before two men, both dressed in the loose outfits of martial artists. Having gone to watch Wufei at the dojo, they recognized this, and that fact made the whole situation a bit more difficult. Heero had warned them that they might have to fight, especially in the capture of Tao Shen, and he had warned them that the style of fighting here was martial arts. Wufei was an incredible adept and skilled master of martial arts, but he was supposedly elite. If that was true, then beating these men should be easy. Unless they were as elite in martial arts as Wufei. Then, it might be harder. Much harder. Wufei was damn good.
Both men advanced steadily, while Heero and Duo stood still, watching and observing them. "I say we just knock their heads together and move on," Duo inhaled in anticipation, cracking a few knuckles to loosen them up.
"Eager to get to Tao Shen?" Heero asked with a knowing smirk.
"Damn right, and you are, too," Duo nodded, tensing his muscles and preparing for action. "Tao Shen has gone too far this time for me not to beat the hell out of him."
"Let's hurry with these then," Heero replied. "So you can vent some anger off."
"Sounds lovely," Duo grinned dangerously at the chinese men, and one of their steps faltered before renewing the steadiness. They were now about ten feet away, almost within reaching distance, but Duo decided to be the bold one and use the element of surprise.
So, with a wild battle cry of anger, Duo leapt and tackled the closest one in the legs. Unfortunately for Duo, he had chosen the older man, the martial arts veteran. The man Duo was fighting had been fighting with martial arts for over thirty years, and had learned many tricks of the trade. Thus, when Duo tackled him to the ground, this man simply rolled with it, absorbing the impact before hoisting Duo off him with a somewhat painful heels in the ribs. Duo rolled to his own feet and glowered at the man from a crouch, annoyed that his moment of dramatic bravery was ruined. Old onyx eyes gazed serenely at him, and Duo finally realized the challenge he faced. Anyone who could hold meditation and not get bored in their head was a good fighter. Duo was a damn good street fighter
Or didn't face, as Heero suddenly stood behind the man, smashing him in the tender back of the head. And even age old veteran martial artists will fall under a blow from Heero with a sword pommel. A golden sword pommel.
"Hey, that one was mine," Duo protested, straightening to full height and huffing.
"You wouldn't have been able to handle him…"
"Don't tell me what I can't handle…"
"Duo, he's a master," Heero explained, gesturing to the ancient looking but well tended sword at the man's hip. "He's an elitist, like Wufei, or maybe better."
"No one's better than 'Fei," Duo grumbled in weak protest, his pride wounded by the fact Heero noticed things he hadn't even thought to look at.
"He," Heero pointed at the other lying a few feet back in the hall, limp and unconscious, and missing the sword in Heero's hand from his hip. "Was still in training, I'll bet. I believe he had his wealthy family bribe him into this position, since he was an amatuer."
"And what position is this?"
"Tao Shen is not a complete idiot…
"That's a matter of individual opinion," Duo disagreed. "And I'd say he's a dumbass."
"He may very well be a dumbass, Duo," Heero repeated. "But that doesn't mean he didn't think of bodygaurds. Wufei can be a vengeful person, I'm sure, and Tao Shen is human and can make mistakes. Tao Shen planned for the event of Wufei wreaking havoc, in the emergency of Taia's rescue. And you can only beat an elite with an elite. So the rest of Tao Shen's bodygaurds will be like this one," Heero pointed at their feet. "Elite."
"Well, if he planned for a vengeful Wufei, then we'll just have to make our chinese boy proud, 'cause he's getting you an' me," Duo almost, almost, felt sympathy for Tao Shen, but he couldn't quite feel sorry for the man. He didn't mind, as he was fine with hating Tao Shen's guts, but the man had a very angry God of Death and a perfect ex-assassin after him. He was doomed.
"We should try and avoid as many of them as we can," Heero murmured, nudging the old man. "We'll get to Tao Shen quicker, and then there's less of a chance he'll know about Quatre and Trowa."
"Right," Duo nodded, setting off down the hall once more, Heero at his side. "He can't order any of these guys after Quat and Tro if he's got a broken jaw."
"Quatre and Trowa will probably have to go through a few of them to get to Taia. And we don't know what other traps Tao Shen might have laid, for us or for Quatre and Trowa. We have to be careful," as if to prove his point, someone came out of a door right behind Duo, who whirled just in time to knock aside the large knife wielded by what looked like a young housemaid. He held her wrists as she stared at him with wide, fearing little black eyes, then Heero pinched a nerve in her neck and she slumped down. Duo laid her gently on the floor.
"Bravery must hold a lot of sway, here," Duo mused as he brushed her straight black locks out of her smooth face. "Hee-chan, I have an idea. You're probably gonna say I'm crazy and nuts, and that I'm too impulsive, but…"
"Go ahead," Heero ordered, letting Duo know he was truly listening. Duo always had a lot of stupid, impulsive ideas, but whenever he hesitated, it usually meant there was worth that time.
"Well…you know where we are, right?"
"Hai."
"And you know where Tao Shen's room is, right?"
"Hai," Heero nodded. "Duo, what are you getting at? You helped with the information gathering and stake out. You know just as much as I do."
"But you tend to know it better," Duo admitted. "I tend to forget things, sometimes. Look, what I'm saying is that Tao Shen holds the keys to everything. He holds the keys to these bodygaurds, to the housemaid, to Taia. He's the master of keys."
"…hai," Heero replied slowly, now deep in thought. He understood where Duo was headed.
"If you're doing a major stealing job at a warehouse lot, you don't go and noisily break into every door one after the other. You knock out the guard and steal his keyring. It makes things fifty times easier," Duo paused for emphasis. "That's what I'm saying. Let's just charge into Tao Shen's rooms and grab the guy now, right now! These bodygaurds are all chinese, right?"
"Hai."
"And chinese dudes tend to be very honorable, so they won't use guns, right?"
"Hai," Heero blinked, realized he had been repeating himself in japanese, and shook his head briefly. "So you want to just wildly bust in with physical strength and brute force, grab Tao Shen as our hostage, and use him to call off the bodygaurds, send all the maids out of the house, unlock Taia's room, etc."
"Exactly!" Duo breathed, at the end of his point. "We can do whatever we want with Tao Shen's authority."
"You do know that these bodygaurds are chinese and might be loyal to Tao Shen?" Heero supplied.
"Nah!" Duo waved the concern away without any hesitation, as though he thought it absurd. "He hasn't lived here for years and his family clan isn't big enough to afford loyal bodygaurds for someone as low in status as Tao Shen. 'Sides, he's only been here for a few weeks now. Loyalty takes a long time to earn. I'd say he got these guys off some mighty clan with the brand new Chang Clan money."
"Mercenary martial artists, is what you're saying," Heero summed it up.
"Yup," Duo beamed. "And mercenaries tend to quit the instant the paycheck is compromised."
"And the paycheck is Tao Shen," Heero nodded in complete agreement. "Duo, you are crazy, nuts, insane, too impulsive, and utterly lovable. That has to be the smartest thing I've ever heard you say."
"You're just saying that 'cause I make you happy," Duo batted his eyelashes, and Heero rolled his eyes, the moment over and long gone. When he looked back down, he saw Duo at the corner of the hall, peeking around and waving at him to hurry up with his hand. Heero joined him and looked at the group of six bodygaurds standing about thirty feet down the hall.
"Now is the perfect time to put my plan into action," Duo whispered softly, his eyes shining with eagerness.
Heero looked at the men, then at Duo, then back at the men and shrugged. "Why not?"
With two wild battle cries, they charged down the hall, through the startled men who fell like bowling pins before Duo the bowling ball, and aroudn the end corner of the hall, vanishing from sight and leaving six stunned men blinking from their behinds.
I hope that was up to par and satisfactory for you. I'm slightly worried I may have rushed it, but I think it's okay. Is it okay? If it sucks, I'll rewrite it for my reviewers. Opinions are needed, please review. If this is okay and acceptable, I'll get the next chapter started.
Storm