2. The Rescue As he crawled stealthily down a ventilation pipe, peering out at people in white coats, scurrying about like mice, and important looking business people who strutted among them like peacocks, even though they probably had no idea what the various contraptions around the room did, Shun wondered how they had coerced him into doing this. It had to be illegal -Sneaking into a high security building via the ventilation system, but then again, he'd done a significant amount of things that could be considered as illegal when the bakugan were around, so he shrugged this off. Skyress would have been useful in this situation however - she could have undone a window, or checked to see if anyone was coming. Shun let out a muffled sigh, he would have to make do on his own - Skyress wasn't here.
His feet touched down noiselessly in the basement of the building, and the end of the shaft he had been crawling down. The door was firmly locked, and as he walked around the room, the dust he kicked up meant it probably hadn't been used for an age. There was a small window however, through which he could see Marucho's feet. Shun tapped the window calmly, two times, succeeding in getting the small blonde s attention, if only by making him jump. Marucho crouched down; looking around to make sure nobody was looking whilst Shun let him in.
Marucho landed in the dusty room with a thud, and a sneeze. Shun clapped his hands around the blonde s head, and listened for any approaching security. When there were no sounds that would indicate a coming threat, the ninja dropped his hands to his sides, and the blond sniffed, grateful that the sneezing had been stopped, even by an unorthodox method. He brought out a small laptop from under his arm, the same one from the last night, in fact, and brought up a radar tracking program. Shun peered at it, with a concerned look, "Are you sure this is the right building?"
Marucho gave a small huff, "Yes Shun, this is the right building. I told you, as long as she's wearing her bakupod-"
Shun cut him off, "What if this is a trap, or she dropped it?"
"Then we'll just have to take that chance, won't we?" Marucho closed the computer with a click, "This isn't like you, Shun, what's the matter?"
"I'm just... Worried about Alice..." Shun started towards the ventilation shaft, "Let's get going."
In the meantime, Alice woke up, feeling her surroundings with blurry vision. Why was she so cramped? Had she rolled under her bed in the night? No... no... She was in a cage. The memories all came flooding back to her - The men, Masquerade, the kidnapping, all of it. Her eyes welled up, and she began sobbing quietly. What were they going to do with her? Somebody aimed a vicious kick at the cage, making a loud noise, and tipping it over.
"Quiet in there!"
Alice lay there, stunned and miserable, for a long while, before she took a look at her surroundings. Four bare white walls, a greyish ceiling, dusty looking white carpet, and people dressed in white coats running about. She had entered a world of monochrome, with the only real colour being the chemicals in the various flasks around the room, and her pale yellow dress. Sitting up in her cage, she wondered if Masquerade had a hand in all this, after all, it did seem as if he had distracted her so those men could catch her, however, if he did, then why help her up? It could have been anyone doing that, of course, but she doubted even Shun could move out of sight that quickly. Resting her head on her knees, Alice closed her aching eyes, and fell once more into the realm of dreams.
Marucho and Shun were now out of the ventilation shaft, as Marucho had fallen on Shun several times, and they were unlikely to get anywhere with the rescue attempt if the spent hours climbing up a pipe, so they opted to use the stairs - A risky, but quicker method. Shun muttered words of the plan through his green bakupod to Dan, who waited just outside, whilst Marucho did the same with Runo. If they were going to rescue Alice, their plan needed careful co-ordination and co-operation. They reached the top of the stairs, and whilst Shun peered down the plush white interior of a corridor, Marucho checked the signal that Alice's bakupod was giving out. He really, really hoped that Shun was wrong, and she still had it on her.
Having decided that the corridor was safe, Shun grabbed Marucho, and they headed down it,
in the direction that the blond kid with the computer said was the best course to take. As Shun ran, he thought about how easy it had been to get this far. Raucous voices were heard in a large room at the end of the corridor however - Possibly the guard room. And by the sounds of the merry-making inside, possibly the reason why they'd got there so easily. Shun and Marucho dropped into crawling positions, and Shun again spoke to Dan, positioning him outside for the distraction he and Marucho needed to get through.
There was a thump of something hitting the window, and Shun subconsciously held his breath, waiting for the people inside to rush over to the window. Dan, it seemed, had no disappointed with his flour bombs, at least, but whether they worked was an entirely different story... There was some shouting, and the sound of several feet running over to the window, and then more thumps. The ninja and the small blond started off past the room, and around a kink in the corridor, where they ran straight into possibly the largest security man that either of them had ever seen. Shun kicked away from the man's grasp, however, he still had Marucho, and Shun, though he felt as if he were betraying Marucho somehow, took a last, lingering look at the blond, and ducked into a ventilation shaft, clambering into it so far that the security guard would have no hope of following. He had to rescue Alice. That was imperative. Shun was sure...No, he hoped Marucho would understand.
Meanwhile, after Marucho had been unceremoniously dumped outside the building, and given a stern scolding on sneaking into offices, he met up with Dan and the other brawlers, who had mixed reactions about seeing him, since it meant that he was okay, but it also meant Shun was now alone in enemy territory, and the plan had gone terribly wrong. Dan growled and threw a small stone, striking a road sign with a sharp clang. Muttering something unintelligible, he stormed off, angry at Shun for abandoning Marucho, angry with Marucho for getting caught, and most of all, angry at himself for not being more helpful. "If Drago were here..." He began, feeling miserable at his mention of his departed friend, and the helplessness he felt without him.
Julie watched from a distance, wanting to say something to try to cheer Dan up, but knowing that nothing would really help. She knew what he felt - The same pain was locked up inside her. Inside all of those who had bakugan, really. Her eyes became a little watery as she thought of Gorem, but she wiped them away. Julie was determined to be strong, if only as a facade to hide the pain. She eventually turned back to the remaining brawlers. "So what do we do now?"
Marucho was the first to speak, and as usual, he was trying to apply logic: "The best thing we can do now is hope that Shun succeeds in finding Alice, I think." He looked up as there was a loud sound - Dan punching a metal road sign. He sighed, and then continued, "As a ninja, he is best suited for this kind of rescue."
Julie tilted her head to one side, and frowned, "So we just leave Shun to it? Really?"
Marucho shrugged, "Logically speaking." Runo inched over to Julie, in order to speak with her whilst watching the small blond attempt to comfort Dan, "I don't think we should just sit here y'know?"
Julie replied, whispering behind a hand, "I know, but what can we do? It's not like Tigrerra and Gorem are here to help."
Runo rolled her eyes, "Then we'll just have to figure something out ourselves, won't we!" She grabbed Julie's arm, and dragged her off, unnoticed by Marucho and Dan, who had sat on the grass, both thouroughly depressed, thinking about their bakugan.
Masquerade however, did notice the girls sidling off, and suppressed an irritated growl. They were never going to rescue Alice this way. But what could he do? He had very little influence on the human realm without a body - As a spirit, not only could very few people see him, but he couldn't talk to all but a very few people, and had no means to pick anything up. He began pacing slowly, as he usually did when he thought, hands linked together behind his back, until an idea came to him. Masquerade grinned, and walked away from the building slowly, planning his plan.