Walking Towards Light: Ami Redux
Act 2: A Journey of 6000 Miles
Chapter 9: Happiness is a Warm Gun - wherein Ami and Minako engage in a dangerous game with mobsters
"Mercury-sama! You've returned to us!"
Shit. Fuck. Who the hell are these people? They spoke English, but seemed to think she was this "Mercury-sama". Ami noted the unexpected use of the Japanese honorific with some amusement. Assuming she was this Mercury-sama in question, they must have known her during that missing two week period of her life. She must have done something besides stab Rei at the temple while she was fully under the influence of Queen Metaria. Anything could have happened then...such as her leading this group of mobsters. Ami tried not to look as confused as she felt. One wrong move, and the game was over.
This was bad. Ami took a quick glance around the room. 6 men, humans. Likely all armed. Ami recognized a face or two from Katarina's files. They must have interrupted a meeting of the Blackstone Group. At least now they could tell Katarina what the warehouse was being used for.
Minako was standing frozen in shock behind her. Katarina was in the car outside on watch. Ami calculated their odds in a fight: terrible. Throwing Mercury and Venus into the equation? 6 corpses. No answers. Still terrible.
Only one option then. Ami fervently hoped she was right.
She strode into the room, cold and confident. She locked one of the men at random in a icy glare.
"You're surprised to see me?"
The mobster quailed.
"Forgive me Mercury-sama. Lady Pandora had indicated that she was running the operation now. We were told you were….gone?"
Lady Pandora. That was new information. Good start. Keep going.
"I will deal with Lady Pandora when it is appropriate."
Whoever the hell she was...Ami couldn't risk asking for more details yet without tipping her hand.
Ami walked further into the room, discreetly looking for details and escape routes. She palmed a stray letter opener she saw lying on a desk. Even an improvised weapon was better than none if things escalated.
Minako followed her close, subtly affecting the manner of a subordinate bodyguard. She always did catch on quick.
The men looked at Ami expectantly, clearly waiting for orders.
Alright then, two birds, one stone.
"Give me a status report. I need to know if we are operating on schedule, or if there will need to be changes around here."
Ami left the implied threat hanging in the air. These men answered to Mercury-sama. "Mercury-sama" she could be.
'Wyman lost his youma prototype-"
Wyman. The one they already knew about. Were there others?
"Yes, yes, last month in Hong Kong. Why do you try my patience with minutiae? How fare the others?"
Ami hoped the bluff was vague enough to not blow her cover if there were in fact, no others. Luckily, these men all seemed to be terrified of her. She wondered what she had done to command this sort of respect.
"I don't know. Except for the 'What' youma prototype, Lady Pandora took them all back to Tokyo under her personal command."
Great. Youma prototypes? What the hell was 'What'? No details or anything. The only certain thing was that there were now an unknown number of youma in Tokyo working towards who-knows-what. Just like the bad old days.
Ami thought quickly, processing the limited information she had.
If the loss of one was noteworthy, then there couldn't be too many left. These men spoke with deference to a Lady Pandora and they used to answer to Mercury-sama. They were obviously Dark Kingdom then. They must serve some useful function to have been involved over an extended period of time. Ami tried to figure out what their role was. They all seemed human enough. What could they do for the Dark Kingdom? What could the Dark Kingdom do for them?
These men... one of had to be Smith. The same Smith that fed her mother to Queen Metaria. The pawn that opened the game. Ami scanned the faces of the 6 men, wondering who she was here to kill.
Ami took a deep breath. She needed to calm down. No facial expressions. No tells. Be Mercury-sama. One wrong move now could get Minako killed as well. Focus. What next?
Shit. Focus. The "What" prototype. That almost slipped her mind. It was probably something like the "Why" prototype that Haruka and Michiru took care of in Hong Kong. If this "What" wasn't in Tokyo then odds are that it was here. Fuck. One of men here was probably a youma in disguise. No way to warn Minako either. Ami was on her own for now.
There was no way around it. She needed more data. The glow of a computer monitor a side office caught Ami's eye. She directed her next question to the man who had spoke to her first.
"You. Are last month's records kept on that terminal? I don't have time to wait for your reports."
He was likely not the youma. Ami desperately tried to remember everything Michiru had told her about the Why prototype. It didn't seem very capable of holding a long conversation. She hoped that was true of the "What" prototype as well.
"Yes Mercury-sama."
"Go pull up the information I asked for. I'll be by to review it after I've inspected the rest of this facility. Is the perimeter secure?"
He would do as she asked, Ami had no doubt of that.
"It is Mercury-sama. I saw to it myself."
A thin man spoke up. Ami absently noticed that he was shivering from the cold as she glared at him. Mercury-sama wasn't the type to tolerate anyone questioning her authority.
"And I have reason to trust your competence now?"
She didn't wait for his response. She turned on her heel and gestured for Minako to follow her out of the room.
The two women stepped out of the warehouse, "inspecting" the building.
Minako let out a huge sigh of relief as soon as they were out of earshot.
"Phew! I was shitting bricks in there. Good job "Mercury-sama". That was ice cold."
Ami shot her a look, warning her to be silent.
"I believe one of those men is a youma in disguise. I don't know which one yet though."
Minako rolled with the situation as ever.
"The one with the yellow tie probably isn't. He can't keep his eyes off my boobs. Mustache boy too actually."
Ami reflexively looked at Minako's breasts as well.
No comment. Data was data. Take it and move on.
"The thin man was cold. He was shivering...I don't imagine that a youma would have that reflex. The one in the computer room seems human too based on his speech patterns. Haruka and Michiru mentioned the youma they fought wasn't able to hold conversations for long. I can knock him out when I get back in."
"Doesn't matter. We transform now, go back in. That should draw the youma out."
"No, we need information. We go in as Senshi, they'll have time to scorch earth the place. I need access that computer. We'll be able to track down the whole operation from there. I'll go back in alone. There's no reason for you to be involved. Go get Katarina out of here."
"Hell no. I'm coming with you."
"You armed? There's 6 of them, two of us. This is dangerous."
"Welcome to my life. Order me to guard the door. That will keep them off you while you do your computer thingy."
"Fine. Don't do anything stupid. Rei's going to kill me if anything happens to you."
Minako smiled cheekily.
"She'd kill me too, if anything happened to me. Let's find a way to separate them from each other. Maybe we can take them out one at a time til we win the whack-a-youma grand prize."
Ami nodded, and prepared to step back into the lions' den.
Minako might be crazy, but Ami knew a good plan when she heard one.
"You two, outside. Watch the docks. I don't want any interruptions."
Ami waved two of the mobsters outside hoping to thin the herd.
"I have matters to attend, no one in or out until I say so."
Minako stood by the door, following her "mistress's" command.
Ami walked into the office and closed the door. Approximately 16% chance that she just locked herself in a room with a youma if her any one of her assumptions were incorrect. She drew her letter opener and hoped for the best. Otherwise, this was going to hell in a handbasket.
The mobster she sent in here was occupied with the computer. Busy pulling up the reports for Mercury-sama. He didn't notice Ami step behind him, but he did notice the prick of a "knife" at his throat.
"Gun on the table. Not a sound if you wish to live."
He obeyed, afraid for his very human life.
Ami picked up the gun and put the Mercury Computer on the table instead.
"Good. Now plug this in. Cable jack's on the side...That's it...nice and slow...hands where I can see them. "
The mobster did as she ordered. The little supercomputer copied the contents of everything on Blackstone's server automatically. As usual, the Computer executed its directive flawlessly. She would have smiled at it fondly if she weren't so deep into character. Hopefully, there would be time to go over the data later.
Back to business. 5 mobsters, a youma and the mysterious Lady Pandora were still in play.
"Tell me everything you know about Pandora."
"I don't know anything! She came to us! Told us that if we followed her, we would all have more money and power than we knew what to do with."
Useless. No doubt they were human however. They were in it for money and power.
Ami had to cut the questions short. Not even Minako could keep the mobsters from being suspicious if she spent any more time in here.
"Answer my questions truthfully if you wish to live. Which of you is Smith?"
Ami tapped the gun against his head meaningfully. The mobster seemed to get the point.
When she had all the information she needed, a quick pistol whip to the back of the head ended the interrogation neatly.
Ami opened the door and stepped back into the warehouse proper. Minako stood aside for her deferentially.
The remaining men in the room looked at her expectantly. There was only one she was interested in right now.
Ami looked into the eyes of the man who started the chain reaction that ended with mother's death. He looked back at her innocently. Did he not understand what he's done?
The gun grew heavier in her pocket. What's another kill on her account? At least this man deserved it.
She reached into her pocket.
Just then, the warehouse door blew open. One of the two men she had sent off returned unexpectedly.
Ami was forced to deal with the intrusion.
"Mercury-sama! Apologies. We have a situation outside."
Dammit. What now?
She did the only thing she could. Ami followed the man outside. Minako followed closely at her heel.
There was an extra person outside the warehouse. The Blackstone mobster held a tall woman at gunpoint.
Shit. Katarina had been made. Ami thought quickly. She hoped for both their sakes that Minako's composure would hold just a little while longer.
"What have we here..."
Ami strode forward deliberately. She reached into Katarina's pocket and drew out her badge.
"Police. Fascinating. If I was concerned about law enforcement, then I'd be impressed."
Ami tossed the badge over the guardrail into the river. It sunk without a trace into the dark waters.
Ami trailed a finger down Katarina's cheek. The coldness in her blue-black eyes made a mockery of the gentleness in that action.
"You are very brave, to have come here alone."
Ami's voice rang out clearly in the London night. She leaned in close as a lover might, caressing Katarina's cheek.
"Check your pocket. All the best Agent. My apologies."
The second statement was murmured for Katarina's ears only.
Ami's hand flashed behind Katarina's head and slammed her face down into the guardrail before a stray expression could betray her surprise.
Ami snapped her fingers at Minako and the man with the yellow tie.
"You. And you. Take her somewhere secluded and deal with her."
Ami waved at the river. Troops dismissed.
The mobster grabbed Katarina and started to drag her to the river's edge. Ami walked back into the warehouse with the remaining 4 mobsters-slash-board members.
Fuck it. Minako was just going to call them "the bad guys" from now on. Innocent-until-proven-guilty could wait until after the youma was dead.
Minako frowned. Only one for her to deal with? Mr. Yellow Tie. Minako was insulted. Ami must not think very highly of her skills.
There. The bad guy was distracted, and everyone else was out of sight. Minako quickly and efficiently sucker punched him in the back of the head. He went down like a pile of rocks.
Minako grabbed Katarina before she could hit the ground as well.
"Katarina, Katarina! Are you ok? Can you breathe?"
Katarina opened her eyes. Blood was gushing from her nose. Minako was concerned.
"I'm ok. I think my nose is broken. Bloody hell, your friend is terrifying."
Remembering the last moments before she was smashed into the guardrail. Katarina checked her pocket.
"Looks like she slipped this thing into my pocket. Any idea what it is?"
Katarina pulled out the Mercury Computer.
"Oh shit. Hang on to that. It's probably got all the evidence you'd need to take down the whole board. Ami's going to want that back after though...I hope."
Minako looked up worriedly. A warehouse, by the river. Aw hell...she was getting too old for this shit.
"I have to go. I've got a bad feeling about this. Stay safe. Call for backup."
Once again, Minako ran into a dark warehouse. Katarina watched after her with the worst sense of deja vu.
Minako wasn't sure what she was expecting when she walked into the room, but what she got was scene out of a Hollywood action movie.
One bad guy was unconscious, slumped against a pile of crates, another was face-down on the other side of the room.
A third was on his knees, begging for mercy. Ami held a gun trained at his head.
The fourth was up and sneaking up behind them. Ami didn't appear to notice.
That was a lie. Before Minako could shout out a warning, her fellow senshi whipped the gun around and fired a shot point blank into the fourth man's face.
A.N.
Ouch, poor Katarina. Last time she watched Minako run into a warehouse, bad things happened. It's like deja vu all over again.
I'm not really sure why Ami looked at Minako's boobs as well. Just reflex given the topic of discussion I suppose. Ami-chan, you closet ecchi. Thanks tiffanywillow, my beta, for sneaking that line in there through to the final draft. It cracks me up too much for me to drop it now, even though it's totally inappropriate to the scene. Forgive this author their quirks dear readers.
Anyways, yes. Chapter 9 ends with a bang. Onto Chapter 10!
PM/Reviews always appreciated. Cheers! - Drifter.