A voice vibrated through the pay-phone, making the receiver grimace.
"Sir, are you sure you wan-"
He was interrupted by yet another verbal torrent.
"But-"
He stopped, this time of his own accord. He really had no excuse, did he? The voice on the sending end was barely audible over the foot-traffic.
"There will be a team that will breach at approximately…" The voice suddenly cut off. The man already knew the plan. And how he dreaded it. The man sighed and put down the phone, alone in his thoughts. And as he stood on the sidewalk, he wondered for his future, and how his actions in the next few hours would change it.
Hisao felt his inertia shift as the car accelerated. The smooth, dark interior of the luxury sedan remained static, but Hisao felt himself press into his seat. Eventually it equalized as they continued on a long straight-away.
They were in Akira's car, a left-over from her days at the law firm. The interior of the sedan was similar to the outside, carrying carefully crafted curves. He sat in the passenger seat, Akira of course was driving her own car. Behind them, Miki and Kenji both sat apart from each other. Miki was busy looking tiredly out of the window, and Kenji was face-deep in a phone.
The rain continued, pattering against both sides of the window. Both sides? Hisao looked in both directions to confirm his suspicions, which were affirmed. How strange. He then noticed that he felt no vibrations from the currently active engine of the sedan, it felt as if he were soaring on a cloud. If the other three noticed, they didn't show it.
He felt for the gun he currently had in a hip holster. It was similar to the Glock he had when… she was taken, albeit a newer model. Miki had insisted that they all pack heat, after all they were headed to a shady deal, Kenji had met the man online only 30 minutes earlier. The dealer had seemed awfully insistent about meeting as soon as possible, which had made Akira's expression change to one of suspiciousness. However, no matter how shady, they needed that device in order to save her.
'PASIV', the acronym rolled off his tongue, pronouncing it as 'passive'. The work they were going to be doing with it would be anything but passive however.
Suddenly, Hisao's nose felt blocked, so he reached up to close one of his nostrils to breathe out. He clamped his finger on his left nostril and blew as hard as he could… and air exhaled out of both nostrils.
The car had been silent up until that point, Miki snapped out of her thoughts, looking lazily towards the front of the car.
"Jesus Nakai." Akira grinned, not taking her eyes off the road. "Use a tissue." None of them felt his current confusion. First the rain, then the engine, now this?
What was going on?
Suddenly, the car in front of them suddenly stopped, earning a bout of hushed cursing from Akira. The car in front was similar to his, a black sedan, possibly a different make. Akira slammed on the breaks and managed to stop the car before they collided with the one in front of them. They were in the middle of an intersection now, and Hisao felt a strange sort of dread. One that Hisao hadn't felt since that night.
All was quiet. The car infront of them remained static, Akira tapping a finger on the wheel, obviously impatient. She huffed, and leant out of her window to get a better look.
After considering the thought for a few moments, Akira turned to the three others in the car. "I'm going to take a look." She said simply before stepping out of the vehicle, leaving the door open. She walked to the driver side window, and her face became one of shock. Stunned, she stood there for a few seconds before walking back to the car.
"There's nobody in there." Akira said, a peculiar look overtaking her face.
"What?!" Miki and Kenji said at the same time, Hisao remaining quiet. Miki and Kenji looked to each other, then back to Akira.
"B-but nobody got out!" Miki said, beginning to question the nature of the reality she was currently occupying. Akira sighed, and got into the driver's seat, closing the door.
"Whatever." She said, shifting the vehicle into drive. "We'll just go around it." Akira swerved past the unoccupied car, into the intersection. It was then Hisao noticed something incredibly strange, he chastised himself for not noticing it earlier.
There was no traffic. This wasn't exactly the busiest part of the city, but…
He didn't recognize the buildings. Their drab concrete shapes held no recognition in his mind. He began to see billboards for products that didn't exist, advertisments for events never to happen. Impossible geometry spiraled into the air. He swallowed, his throat suddenly becoming incredibly tight, his heart rate quickened.
This wasn't real.
As if the dream itself had sensed thoughts, the unoccupied car behind them exploded, sending shrapanel into the back of the sedan. Luckily, none seemed to penetrate, but the rear windshield was all but shards. Miki expressed a cry of surprise, as did Kenji. Akira however remained stoic, giving the burning wreckage a quick glance.
A car bomb?
That wasn't the end of it, however. Hisao's worst fears were confirmed when he heard the hissing and cracking of bullets being fired near him. Some of them impacted the car, making the four sitting ducks. A bullet collided with the front windshield, shattering the frame and landing itself between Miki and Kenji.
"Get out!" Akira screamed as she kicked open the driver-side door. They didn't need to be told twice, the rest of them opened their doors, crouching outside to use the thin metal as a shield.
More hisses. The bullets were becoming more accurate, landing themselves more and more into the thin metal shields they possessed. Akira and Hisao faced the worst of it, however the two taking cover behind them didn't miss out on the action.
With shaky hands, Hisao reached for his pistol, then risked a glance upward to find out where he should return fire. He barely got a look before another round of bullets sent him into cover. Behind him, Miki drew her gun, only using her right hand, and proceeded to blind-fire over the windshield, making Hisao cringe from the closeness of the shots.
With this, the rest of them returned suppressing fire, the sounds of the firefight surrounding them until it was all Hisao could think. His mind turned into a binary state; was he safe or not? Right now that was a solid one.
He fired a couple more shots over the door, hand recoiling due to the force involved. It seemed ineffective, as the firerate of the enemies only increased. Hisao felt something pooling underneath his feet.
It was a cloudy crimson that swirled through the cracks in the sidewalk, flowing around his shoes. It was blood, not his. But who's?
His question was answered by a groaning coming from behind him and to the left, Kenji had been hit. He barely had time to consider this fact before another barrage of bullets threatened his cover. He heard the bullets impact flesh, and the sound a body made when it hit concrete. Another person was down.
Hisao tried to peek over again, but he was shut down by a live round, the shrapnel imbedding itself in his leg. The pain jolted him awake, and he fell back onto the concrete. It had hit an artery, and he was slowly but surely bleeding out. The warm river cascaded down his leg onto the ground below. He didn't feel any pain.
He heard footsteps approaching him, and he barely held the strength to look at the man looming over him, gun pointed at his head. Hisao didn't have the time to spit out a witty one liner before the man pressed down on the trigger…
…and Hisao woke up, gasping for breath. The room was brought to focus around him. A warehouse, neglected for years possibly, surrounded the space around. He realized he was sitting back, in a recliner. He looked to his left. The three others were spread around the table. Miki was busily pulling an IV out of her arm, Akira sat with her head in her hands, and Kenji simply sat, dazed. He noticed he was still connected to the machine via a canulla, so gently he pulled it out, drawing a minute amount of blood with it,
Why were they here? Hisao struggled to remember the events of the last few hours. As if answering his question, the sound of a door-creak could be heard, drawing the four's attention. He looked to the right to see a tall, burly man. His face was fitted with a mask, hiding every detail from them. The man had a strange device around his throat. It was then that Hisao remembered, this man was the dealer.
The dealer reached to his throat, pressing a button on the device fastened around it.
"My employer's consider that to be satisfactory work. It's rare a team survives for more than 20 seconds." The man spoke, his voice warped and tinny due to the voice changer's influence.
"So, we get the job details now?" Akira said, obviously impatient to get this deal over with. Her voice carried the tone of someone who'd done this before.
"…Not yet." The dealer said, putting a hand in his pocket. "My employers don't think your team has the training required to take on this job." The dealer put an emphasis on 'my employers' as if he didn't want to reveal to them who he really worked for. Fair enough.
This time Kenji spoke up. "What more training would we need? I can already find out a person's background in about 3.-"
He was interrupted by the dealer. "Field training."
This made Kenji quiet down. No matter how experienced he was at finding information in reality, it was finding it in the dream world that made their job so important. It was the only way to find her after all.
"Thom." The dealer used economic words, not wanting to say much unless they determined his identity even through the mask and voice changer. Sure enough, the man was answered, and the same door the dealer had entered through squeaked once more.
This man was different. For starters, he didn't bother hiding his identity. His dirty blond hair was neatly kempt, contrasting with Hisao's own. His green eyes carried a sharp undertone to them, motivated by something. His suit was slightly dirty, as if he had spent the last week in a damp pit.
The man opened his mouth. "Good afternoon, I'm Thom." He continued his stride until he stopped infront of the four, still reclined. Something about this man's voice cut into Hisao, the vague undertones cutting into his flesh like knives.
He was about to continue speaking before he was interrupted by the dealer himself. "I'm sorry, but I can't spare any more time. The device's yours, you'll get the job offer soon enough. I trust Thom will be able to teach you." The dealer left as quickly as he arrived, through one of the back doors. Hisao was about to wonder why he had left so suddenly, sharing the same thought with the three others, before he heard the sound of a car engine outside. Multiple engines.
Thom looked towards the commotion, his face suddenly darkening significantly. He looked as if he was having an internal conflict. His face scrunched as he tried to make sense of the situation. Thom's hand reached for his hip, as he came to his decision.
Unholstering his gun, he brought it near his eyes, checking to see if it was loaded. Satisfied with the result, mystifying the four of them, he spoke once more.
"I hope you can fight better in reality."