So sorry for the wait

Chlorine

Crap crap crap crap crap. I am so screwed. Len had no idea how long he had been in that shaft, crawling aimlessly. He had long since lost track of time and direction. Gakupo had given him a holographic watch with a map of the place but given his current cramped position, it would just be a waste of time and effort.

I think I'm going in the right direction… Thankfully the path he was taking had not branched at all. From what he remembered, the layout of the facility was not complicated at all. Gakupo had mentioned he only had to skirt around the outside of the place, avoiding the generator-room and taking a detour to the back of the lab, where the storage rooms were located. It's a rectangular-shaped facility meaning I'll need to make one, maybe two right angle turns.

He was lost in thought, and the constant action of crawling was so monotonous he did not see the wall right in front of him. The clang of his forehead hitting metal resounded through the tunnel; yet another item to add to his growing list of failures.

Those researchers below better not have heard that. Len grumbled as he turned ninety degrees to the left, continuing his advance. His forehead throbbed and his joints ached. Idly, he wondered how his other two companions were faring…

The boy had passed another dozen rooms, all empty. There were surprisingly few researchers for such a large corporation. That or they might have been all scattered about in the main rooms. It was just their rotten luck to have been caught in one of the smaller, usually unoccupied private research spaces.

Len was crawling above yet another seemingly empty room when a sudden humming startled him into almost bumping his head on the shaft ceiling. He immediately flattened himself against the vent and observed the room below.

Nothing seemed to be amiss. Len's sea green eyes scanned the area like a hawk. The humming did not seem to be getting louder or softer…

Suddenly the door slid open. Len's heart nearly jumped up to his throat when a robot entered the room, smoothly gliding from one end of the room to the other. Without stopping to pause for even a millisecond, it opened the door on the other side and exited as suddenly as it had entered.

But the humming did not stop.

His palms were getting sweaty, his breathing quickened. Len was not a boy who fared well under pressure. He tried to calm himself, took some deep breaths, steadied his heart and listened.

The noise suddenly faded.

Len's reaction to this strange phenomenon was to stick his ear even closer to the metal, straining his ears. Thus it was no surprise that when the humming started up again, the poor boy jumped and really did bump his head this time. Then he belatedly noticed the noise was not coming from below, but from his left side. Then he mentally slapped himself as he realised he must be in the room next to the generator, the source of the humming.

The boy chided himself for wasting precious time and moved on. The second turn was coming up. He would not make the same mistake, and so he kept his eyes peeled. Thus when he did drop into the storage room at last, his green orbs spotted not only the blueprint in question, but also a dazzling violet gem.

Hm, what's this? Blueprint rolled up in his left hand, Len grabbed at the small stone with his right. It was cut beautifully, and rested on pure white podium. It was almost clear, with a tinge of bluish purple. If teardrops were crystallised, they would probably look something like this, he thought.

Len stood rooted to the spot for a good couple of seconds, unsure what to do with the gem in his palm. Should he steal it? He had no idea how valuable it was, did not even know what it was. It was certainly beautiful though…

"…Kaito would probably like it…" the blonde mumbled with a blush on his face as he pocketed the stone.

Eyes lowered to the ground in embarrassment, he did not notice the presence of another figure behind him until they whispered right into his ear, chilling him to the bone.

"How cute."

A jolt as sudden pain assaulted his back, and then he blacked out.

Sparks flew, blindingly bright and dangerous. Kaito made sure to stay as far back as possible from the man busy melting the legs off the steel table. Gakupo seemed to have experience with this, and equipped with safety mask and gloves he looked rather professional. Which was great, because the last thing any of them wanted in this kind of situation was another injury.

"Kaito-san, I have finished, come over." Gakupo held up the table leg. Kaito moved as if to grab it but instinct and quick reflexes saved him as he suddenly ducked.

Kaito quickly glanced to the left to see a small singe mark on the wall, still smoldering. The robot standing guard at the door that had not moved at all since locking them in had just attempted to shoot him. And worse, it was completely silent.

Gakupo had not noticed a thing as he curiously stared at the ducking man. Kaito suddenly leaped in his direction, dodging another bullet, and grabbing the table leg in the process. And not a moment too soon.

The doors suddenly opened, revealing rows upon rows of laboratory robots, each wielding similar gun-like weapons. They advanced into the room, but Kaito did not back down. He swung the table leg like a baseball bat, hitting the first robot square in the chest area. It flew out the door, crashing into a good couple of its brethren before collapsing in a metal scrap heat some metres away.

For such a high-tech robot it was surprisingly light and fragile. But that was probably why it waited for backup.

"Gakupo-san, quick! Melt off another table leg, I can't handle them alone!"

The purple-haired man complied and set to work. "Kaito-san!" he shouted above the sound of his tools, "Do not be afraid to be reckless! These robots were not designed to harm, those bullets should only paralyse!"

"Not like that's going to be any better!" Kaito gritted his teeth as one of the bullets did graze his arm. His whole right forearm was afflicted with a sudden numbness, causing him to drop his weapon. "Ahh, pins and needles, this is the worst." He had to grip the affected arm with his other hand to control the trembling. "Gaah, Gakupo-san you jinxed me."

"Sorry Kaito-san. Ah, watch out behind you."

Kaito swung around and roundhouse-kicked another five of the robots. "Crap, my arm's totally useless like this." He kicked the discarded table leg to Gakupo, but in doing so was shot in the leg. The man fell to the ground as his companion picked up the weapon. Gakupo immediately began clearing a path to reach the paralysed man, but his combat skills were nowhere near as adequate as Kaito's and he was soon swarmed.

From his position on the ground, Kaito saw the purple-haired man struggling to reach him. But it was too late. A decent crowd of robots had now gathered around him, poised weapons glinting.

A cynical smirk. "Sorry Gakupo-san." The bullets were fired silently. Kaito jerked as a dozen hit him right in the chest.

I'll be leaving it up to you now…

I'm so sorry…

Len woke up seeing black. He could not feel his arms or legs. He turned his head but could not see nor speak. It was dark, and stifling, and he felt very, very vulnerable.

Suddenly there was a green flash. Len whipped his head in that direction but could not make out anything else. His vision was hazy, as if there was a screen over his eyes. The green was gone but he could tell now there was some sort of light, albeit very dim. He could make out a silhouette shuffling about in the darkness. The figure moved towards him, and the light source seemed to move as well. Closer and closer, Len wanted to shuffle backwards but was unable to.

The darkness was in his face now. His breathing quickened. Suddenly the light was trained onto him and he was momentarily blinded. Another flash of green.

Then it was gone. No more light, no more silhouette. His head began to ache and he flinched at the sudden pain. A rush of strange emotions and images overwhelmed him.

Helplessness, Anger, Defiance, Fear…

…Kaito, Miku, Gakupo…Rin

His breath hitched as something ghosted across his face. His blood ran cold. A sinister voice, smooth and velvety, resounded in his ear.

"…You can't save anyone…"

Dry throat, heavy breathing, light-headedness, emotional turmoil. Then blackness once more.

"…Kaito-san…Kaito-san…Wake up! Kaito-san…"

Kaito groaned as he opened bleary sapphire eyes. Is that…Gakupo…?

"Gakupo-san…What happened? Where are we?"

The blue-haired man gazed around him. It was dark. The sky was blanketed with stars and the two of them were surrounded by trees. Kaito felt dirt underneath his hands.

"Are we…outside?" Gakupo nodded gravely. "What about Len?"

"…" The purple-haired man's silence told him all he needed to know.

Kaito stood up. There was no more numbness or pain. His legs probably needed a good stretch though.

"We have to go back."

"…I do not think we can…"

"Where are our coats?"

Neither of them was wearing a coat anymore. Gakupo explained that during the scuffle with the robots another researcher happened to pass by the corridor. He knocked him out and changed coats with him which was enough to confuse the bots to give Gakupo the chance to drag Kaito out of the fray and do the same with his coat. Having no other choice, he then escaped with him, depositing their coats right outside the waiting area. By then the system had sense something was wrong and sent the whole place into lockdown. Gakupo and Kaito had just managed to escape, but it seemed rescuing Len was going to be very difficult now.

"We can't just leave him in there!" A frustrated Kaito was now pacing about in anxiety. "What's going to happen to him?"

"The worst that could happen to him would probably just be a prosecution. They can't harm her, Kaito-san."

"Screw that Gakupo, Len's a guy." The fact did not really matter at this point but Kaito was panicking. "We can't just ditch him for the cops to deal with! We just got out a court case for Pete's sake!"

"O-oh… I see…"

Heavy silence ensued as Kaito continued pacing, periodically running his hands through his cobalt hair, urging his brilliant brain to not fail him this time.

"If Kaito-san is so insistent, I can tell you where he is."

"What?" Kaito stopped pacing, turning to Gakupo in disbelief.

"There was a tracker in the watch I gave him. The one with the map," explained the older man. "If I use my phone…Ah, he is in one of the rooms at the back." He indicated the blinking yellow dot on his phone.

"Wow…this thing's great," Kaito muttered in awe. "What should we do now though?"

At this point Gakupo could see he was going to have to go through this with Kaito, whether he wanted to or not. So he decided he might as well throw caution to the wind if that was what they had to do.

"I do not see any way of getting in, other than directly blasting a hole in the wall."

"I was told you were at a court case and now you need a bomb…Yes…Yes…Fine, I know…Yeah I'll send Dell-san, it'll be over in about an hour…Hm? Yeah, text me the address…Ok, I know. Yeah, ok, bye Kaito."

Miku huffed as she hung up. She put away her leek-shaped phone and cradled her head in her hands.

Kaito…what am I going to do with you…

Meanwhile, Rin was getting ready for bed, blissfully unaware. It seemed she was used to Len's frequent unexplained absences. Miku truly envied the younger girl at times.

Her phone buzzed as she received Kaito's text. She sighed as she dialled another number.

"…Hello? Dell-san? Yeah, it's about Kaito again…"

The bomb was compact, tiny, almost cute. It seemed to be a popular aesthetic trend of Miku's inventions. But that trend came in handy this time as the device could be placed in position discreetly and quickly.

Gakupo planned on counting down the seconds until detonation and held up three fingers in preparation but Kaito decided he just could not wait any longer and detonated the thing almost immediately.

The tiny bomb blew a sizable hole in the wall. Alarm bells immediately went off but Kaito paid them no heed. They had bombed closest to where they thought Len was, and because he was only travelling through the outer rooms it was not long before they located him. The boy was lying unconscious in the storage room, blueprint gripped tight in hand.

"He fainted… was it the robots?" inquired Kaito.

Gakupo hummed to himself. "I'd find that quite unlikely. Len-san did nothing that might warrant their attention and label him a suspicious individual."

Kaito believed stealing a coat, crawling through ventilation shafts and travelling with individuals that were deemed a threat by the robots should have been suspicious enough. Not to mention even while unconscious, the fact that he had that blueprint in his hands clearly revealed he was guilty of something.

But that did not seem to matter for now.

"Let's get out of here." Due to the earlier commotion caused by the two older males, the robots were all concentrated at the other end of the facility, buying them precious time to escape. Kaito handed Gakupo his blueprints while he hoisted Len onto his back. The blue-haired man led them to Dell's helicopter, while Gakupo loitered behind looking guilty.

"Kaito-san, I am so sorry. I did not mean for any of this to happen, and I sincerely hope Len-san will recover-"

"Gakupo-san. Please be quiet." Kaito took a deep breath, put on his most reassuring smile and turned around. "Stuff like this happens all the time in my line of work. All's well that ends well, right?"

The purple-haired man had a wry smile on his face as he wordlessly entered the helicopter after the thief, his new boss.

I have certainly met some very interesting individuals.

Thank you so much for reading :'D