24
by Aspirator
At the Fifth Hour
4:07
They were running. No, they were sprinting.
It all happened so quick. Once the little girl grabbed Sakura's hand, she dragged her along with a sudden burst of energy. The Cavalry kept up easily behind the little girl's small strides, but they were all so confused. As much as Sakura asked the little girl, she wouldn't explain - Until they reached Carlisle Square, where three teenagers were laying about nursing different wounds.
So here Syaoran was, sprinting along the paved roads behind a bloodied teenager, who apparently was leading Syaoran to his friend in trouble. Amber eyes glanced backwards swiftly. The roads were empty, the sky was still dark, and the buildings were cold and faceless.
"Do you know where you're going?" Syaoran wasn't even panting yet.
"Yeah, yeah," the boy breathed heavily, "it's just up there!" He pointed north.
4:08
Each of the Cavalry members had followed a teenager, all running off in different directions. Tomoyo was the last Cavalry left to investigate the trail of blood heading south.
Within minutes, the footsteps faded from Carlisle Square, and it was just Sakura and the little girl.
Her name was Saira, she told Sakura.
Sitting by the marbled fountain at the center of the square, Sakura shivered. She glanced sideways at Saira, who was fidgeting with the hem of her knit dress and biting her lip.
"Don't worry, Saira." Sakura smiled consolingly, and the light blue eyes of the little girl flashed up to her green ones. "My friends will get your friends out of trouble. They're really good at it, they've done it billions of times before."
If possible, Saira looked even more bummed out. "I'm not worried," she shook her head adamantly, "my friends will be fine."
"Of course they will." Sakura nodded in agreeance. There was a beat of silence, in which Sakura couldn't help but try to fill up. "They're called the Cavalry - my friends I mean."
"I know." Saira nodded. She shrugged, glancing up at Sakura then looking away. She swung her legs, visibly relaxing. "But he said I should get four people," she mumbled, "I guess you're here so I won't be alone!" She cheered up at the thought.
"Who said?" Sakura frowned, suddenly alarmed. A bad feeling entered her chest and sunk into her stomach.
Saira gasped, slapping bloodied - which turned out not to be hers - hands to her mouth. She shook her head furiously, her light blue eyes wide and terrified.
"Saira," Sakura coaxed gently, removing the hands from her mouth. "Who told you to get the Cavalry?"
"He told me not to tell anyone." Saira shook her head again, but it was gentle this time, and her light blue eyes were already surrendering.
"I can keep a secret." Sakura convinced the little girl, gently patting down her head and wiping the blood off her face.
"You promise?"
Sakura nodded convincingly.
So the little girl began.
4:14
Yue smiled smugly at the display before him. His stood still at one of the highest buildings of Carlisle City, looking over the metropolis. With modern Enforcer technology, he laid before him many holographic screens and 3D topographic maps of certain parts of the city. All of which are live feeds from the Enforcers' secret (and not-so-secret) cameras. They were separated into four sections, each following the path of one Cavalry member.
The brown-haired, golden-eyes sword-wielder sprinting up 34th and Sixth Ave right behind a bloodied teenager, and moving quickly in the northerly direction.
The magician with the disappearing act was following a stumbling teenager towards the Lower East Side.
The paper blades fighter, that woman with the striking red eyes, was spotted in a car moving fast towards the Western Commercial District.
And the lady with the purple eyes, the one who doesn't fight...she's walking daintily and impressively cautiously towards the southern part of Carlisle City.
All were going according to plan.
4:21
He should've known - dammit - he should've known! The moment the teenager led him into an abandoned factory -
Syaoran was surrounded at all sides by rough looking adult men and women, who all looked as if they worked out on a daily basis. He whirled in a circle, his eyes constantly moving as he assessed each and every human being that occupied the circle. It also helped that he never kept his back to one person. If he hadn't accidentally counted twice, there were at least twenty people surrounding him. And they all looked dangerously vehement.
fuck fuck fuck - how could he have been so dumb?! - and he just left Sakura all by herself with the little girl - DAMN IT! The other Cavalry members could take care of themselves. But Sakura - she couldn't let her Variant powers show - and what about Tomoyo? Or Meiling? Eriol probably could just faux teleport himself out of any situation - but Meiling only kept a spare supply of paper with her -
"We were all equal." One spit out, uncrossing his arms and fisting his fingers.
"Until you came." Another sneered. "The Cavalry." He scoffed, flexing his biceps to warm up.
"You think you're all that. Coming here and saving people."
"We don't need saving. We were all-"
"-equal."
"Balanced."
"You unbalanced the harmony of the world."
"You have yourself to blame for this."
The animosity was unquestionable. Syaoran knew there was no talking out of this, no walking out of this unscathed. He jerked his right hand downwards, his sword materializing within the next second.
But it was useless.
In the same second, yellow laser dots appeared on Syaoran's head and chest.
All twenty men and women were holding a complex black sniper gun in their arm, finger on the trigger, and the yellow laser dot trained on him. Their eyes were cold and hard. They weren't going to hesitate.
Red laser dots were alarming. He couldn't react with his sword fast enough to try to deflect the bullet.
Yellow laser dots, on the other hand, meant surrender. Only a few sniper guns out there had yellow laser dots - and that was only because the bullets were especially customized to move at the speed of light.
4:21
"Good thinking hiring radicalists." Nakuru's smooth voice sounded in Yue's ear. "Not so much with giving them the fancy toys, though. Then again, they believe in equality, so they probably won't steal it unless everybody was going to get a FW 67770 Sniper gun."
The commander frowned, not bothering to grace the comment with a response. At the moment, actually, he was starting to regret activating his ear piece. Then again, the little miniscule wire resting peacefully on his earlobe wasn't exactly the one to blame, really.
Instead, he inquired, "are you in position?"
"Am I ever not in position?"
"Am I ever going to get a direct answer?" Yue mimicked her tone, with an underlying annoyance and irritation.
She scoffed, "of course not. Now where's the fun in that?"
The commander was not going to answer that question. Yue checked the time on his thin electronic wristband. "It's almost time, General Colonel." And as he said this, he began to pack up the monitoring station he had set up for himself.
"Why am I doing all your dirty work?" Yue could practically hear the scowl in her voice. "Why don't you run around the city picking up four people?" It was a testimony to their friendship that she was allowed to be so brave against the commander.
"Because I have a meeting." He responded monotonously, glancing around again to make sure he had left no trace on the roof.
"At four in the morning? Holy Clow," Nakuru cussed lightly, "You know normal people sleep, right?"
"Who I'm meeting is far from normal." Yue vaguely responded before their connection was cut off and he was on his way back to the Enforcer's headquarters.
4:25
He was thirteen and his name was Josh. He had a stomach wound, but it wasn't going to kill him. No, at this rate, blood loss was going to kill him.
So to help, Eriol had stripped off his coat and wrapped it tightly around Josh's waist to try to contain the blood.
Now they were stumbling East, and Eriol was trying to bite back that foreboding feeling in his chest. It's the buildings, he told himself, they were looked more and more ruined, deserted, and dark as they went on. It seemed like they were venturing into the slums of the city.
The slums. Eriol frowned as he glanced around. It was oddly quiet. Sure, it was four in the morning...but there was always that one insomniac, the one lit up window, the few stray cats, the group of rebellious teenagers hanging around at the wee hours of the morning…
"Doesn't it seem very quiet to you?" Eriol spoke up, causing Josh to glance sideways at him.
Something in Josh's eyes twisted Eriol's insides.
He shrugged. "You been to Carlisle before?"
"A few times." Eriol responded vaguely. After all, he was friends with Yukito, who allowed the Cavalry to hideaway in the Renege headquarters.
The teenager grunted. He fiddled with something in his pocket with one hand, and held Eriol's jacket to his waist with his other hand.
"How do you know where you're going?" Eriol asked, partially to strike conversation, but also because he was truly curious. "You familiar with this area?" Eriol glanced over the teenager's clothing. "You don't seem like the type to live here." In fact, the teenager was wearing a very nice pair of sneakers. One that even Eriol himself had been eyeing for a while.
"Yes. No. I guess not." Josh apparently wasn't a very talkative type. He shrugged again.
"So how do you know where you're going?"
After a momentary pause, Josh answered irritably. "I just do."
But you said you didn't know the area.
"Wait a second-" The Cavalry member stopped in his footsteps, fully intending to question the teenager.
Josh, too, quickly realized the man's intentions. Abruptly, he grabbed Eriol's left arm. Before Eriol could react, the teenager clamped a silver bracelet onto Eriol's wrist. The flexible steel tightened immediately and latched onto his wrist like a second skin. "What the-"
With his other hand, Eriol yanked at the thin steel. He was trying to take the bracelet off, but it wouldn't budge. It was as if superglued to his skin.
"What is this?!" Eriol demanded, but he was met with a rush of air. Josh sprinted away from him. Eriol growled, balling up his hands to break out into a sprint, too.
One block...two blocks….a sharp corner...moldy buildings...drawn windows.
A slow smirk started to grow on Eriol's face when he began to gain speed. The boy had a knife wound after all. The boy knew, too, for he kept glancing back in panic, his eyes widening when he saw Eriol was right on his heels.
Josh was starting to dart around corners. Left, right, left, left. Did he even know where he was going?
Josh breathed heavily, cussing under his breath when he spotted a chain link fence rising up from the ground and blocking off the other end of the street.
Apparently not.
Eriol slowed down to catch his breath. "Who are you working for?" He called out.
The boy didn't respond. Apparently, Josh was adamant on escaping. He sprinted a full speed towards the wall, jumping up to latch onto the chain link like a spider.
"Oh no he didn't." Eriol grumbled under his breath. He hated climbing. No, fuck that, he'll just use magic. He evened out his breathing, concentrating on separating his bodily molecules so it can fly full speed past the fence and re-form on the other side.
The gentle humming of his plain magic didn't come. Instead, static electricity burst through his veins. Eriol stumbled in his steady walk, crumpling to the ground in pain. His azure eyes burst open, lightning blue in panic and realization.
4:32
This was a staged ambush.
The moment Meiling had turned the corner, the teenager she was following disappeared into the shadows and in came a rain of bullets. How did they know?
Meiling somersaulted on the ground, firing tiny paper blades randomly as she dodged the bullets.
She should've seen it! They all went in separate directions! That couldn't have been coincidence! Ugh!
Half-sprinting, half performing speedy gymnastics, Meiling was centimeters away from fatal bullet wounds.
Shit, Sakura! She was all by herself! So was Tomoyo! And what about Syaoran? He can take care of himself...if there was hand to hand combat. But these people seemed equipped with ammunition. Syaoran would be dead in a second when guns were involved.
The small metal objects dug into the ground by her feet and the walls by the sides of the narrow alleyway around her.
Dammit!
She was blindsided. She had nowhere to aim, for there was nothing to see. All the snipers were coming from the shadows. She tried to aim where she thinks the bullets are coming from but she can't see much - she was too busy running away from the bullets themselves.
Oh, and Eriol!
Actually, nevermind, Eriol'll be fine. Tomoyo probably will too. Even if she can't fight, she'll use that brain of hers.
Meiling didn't have time to hover on her thoughts, she ducked to the ground, somersaulting again, and quickly dove into a corner. She sat on the ground with her back against the cement wall, catching her breath. She wiped a hand down her face as she breathed heavily into the cold air. It was the only bullet-free lane she had encountered since five streets ago -
Scarlet irises widened in realization and shock. Meiling stood up quickly, but not quick enough.
A single blow to the head and she was out like a light.
4:52
It was all dark.
There was shuffling.
And there was a lot of heavy lifting.
Tomoyo was bagged by an unknown kidnapper the moment she followed the trail of blood into a dark, narrow alleyway. She struggled hard, having learnt a few tricks from her Cavalry team members, but to no avail. Her kidnapper was strong, that was for sure.
She had been dumped gracelessly somewhere soft. She felt the ground - no, carpet - underneath her bound hands. She was bound by rope. She could just feel the coarse string digging into her skin.
Heavy breathing.
Tomoyo tried to concentrate her plain magic on the air molecules around her. She increased her sensory skills in her other four senses, now that her sight was no longer needed.
Stale air. She was in some kind of container. Perhaps the back of a truck, or van? Cars nowadays were hard to discern from solid ground, though traveling at the speed of sound, they were as stable as the earth itself.
Either way, that meant the air molecules were being recycled. And (one of) her captor(s?) is sitting with her in the same recycled-air environment.
Perfect.
Tomoyo let a smile make its way up her face.
4:58
"Lower East Side, Northern Factory District, Western Commercial District, the Southern Cultural District…" Sakura whirled around in her spot as Saira looked up with wrinkled eyebrows and a frown at the older lady. Forgetting the presence of the youngling, Sakura muttered under her breath. "Should've seen this, I should've - shit shit shit shit. What to do - dammit - what do I do?"
Sakura bit her lip indecisively, her eyes darting at the four different directions. She had to make a choice. She can only come the aid of one of them.
Who will it be?
5:00
*Insert intriguing question in attempt to increase reader participation but fails miserably with only one or two lovely reviews*
*Sighs miserably*
*writes with a heavy heart*
Special thanks to Broken Reveries & dokiwuvnabi (aka my only fans.)