Bullet X

Rock couldn't believe how Revy was able to eat so calmly after crawling all over that sewer. He lingered long enough in his shower, it hadn't been enough, it would never be enough, and he wasn't the least bit hungry. But Revy had demanded food as soon as he came out of the bathroom.

"How the hell can you eat?" -Rock asked, unable to contain himself. "I don't think I'll be able to for a month."

Revy was about to respond, but a blank stare from Rock made her first chew her food thoroughly before doing so.

"The thing is..." -she said. "I used to live penniless and nearly starving, so now I never pass up a meal, or anything that's free, if possible. Besides, in this job or any other we can go to prison or die, and I'd rather die than go back to prison. So I want to have my stomach full before I die."

"...That makes me wonder what kind of miserable life you've had to endure."

"It wasn't any fun, or all that interesting." -Said Revy, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "It's none of your damn business either. Now stop making me talk about the past, I hate my past, or I'll shoot you."

"So, they came to an engine room?" -Dutch asked, trying to lighten the mood. Rock was a good guy, never trying to get in trouble with anyone, but he sometimes asked too many questions or made comments he shouldn't have.

"Something like that. There were a bunch of generators and what looked like water pumps. You should ask Ms. Shenhua if she knows anything about that." -Responded Rock.

Dutch nodded. He didn't like the idea of making any more deals with Shenhua, because it would get expensive, but he would have to do it if he had to. "Was it clear?"

"Totally. There were no cameras either, because no guards came to ask us nicely if we could accompany him to the cells. We were able to get out of there to spy, but only a little. Several yards ahead was what I believe to be the official entrance to the prison." -Revy suddenly became serious. "Dutch, the place is crawling with guards armed to the teeth. I'm not talking simple pistols, I'm talking big guns, the kind that will rip you to pieces if they hit you; machine guns, shotguns, and sniper rifles."

"Well, it is a maximum security prison after all.". -commented Rock, who had to stand around waiting for their return and couldn't see the area, though that didn't bother him. "It's a real achievement that a clerk and a pirate were able to sneak in there."

"Yeah, but I'm serious, there's a bunch of guards outside giving patrols. That's why there's no one on the cliff side, they're all focused on the front, and there's possibly even more inside. The idiots think it's the only way in. Still, I don't know how the fuck we're going to get the guy out of there without making a bloodbath, and dying in the process."

Dutch said nothing, because he too was asking himself the same question. They were so used to doing all their jobs on the fly and having that always work out for them. But this mission, because it was more than just a job, required more than going in with smoking guns and blowing things up.

But there was no way to back out now, just keep going forward and hope not to die.

"How about a little fishing game?" -Rock asked suddenly, earning a confused look from both of them.

"What?"

"You know Revy, that game I told you about a while back, the one the kids made up when Garcia and I were fishing."

"Yeah, I think I remember it." -Revy raised an eyebrow. "But how the hell did that...? Oh, ohh, ohhh." -She looked at him with her eyes wide as she understood what he was referring to. "You crazy son of a bitch..."

"What game? What the hell are you talking about?" -said Dutch, who didn't understand a thing.

Rock grinned baring his teeth, almost savagely. "The bait game."

The next morning, Dutch had gathered everyone, that included Shenhua, in the base room for a small briefing.

"So, let me see if I got this straight.". -Said Benny, after hearing Rock's plan. "You want to use Dutch and Revy as bait while you and Shenhua sneak into the prison, take out Fang Jian and then blow up the engine room to cover your escape?"

Rock nodded. "Although Miss Shenhua will already be inside, Hansel and Gretel will come with me. Miss Shenhua will take Fang Jian up to the visiting room, when Dutch and Revy start the distraction, we'll go in and drag Fang Jian out."

"I don't like crawling around in the shit though.". -Hansel commented.

"I'll buy you three bitter chocolates, some really good ones, that are around."

"Make it five and we have a deal."

"Done." -Accepted Rock, then looked at the girl. "What do you want as payment, Gretel?"

"Hmm~, I'll tell you after I do it."

"Ah, smart girl." -Said Rock, patting the girl's head, then returning to the starting point. "But yeah, that's the plan."

Benny looked at him as if Rock had grown a second head. He took off his glasses to squeeze the bridge of his nose. "Are you out of your mind? There's so many things wrong with that plan I don't even know where to begin."

Rock shrugged. "We can also try to go and ask the guards nicely to let Fang jian go, but I don't think that will work."

"There are armed guards in the visiting room. In all prisons there are guards in the visiting rooms."

"Hansel and Gretel will be in the visiting room." -Rock didn't like having to involve the children one bit, but they were perfectly capable of holding a confrontation, although the hard part would be getting them not to kill someone in the process. "And Miss Shenhua will be there too, she's more than enough to take care of several armed guards."

"Wait a second." -interjected Revy, then pointed accusingly at Rock. "Why are you calling her 'miss'?"

"W-What?" said Rock, completely confused not expecting that kind of question.

"Don't play dumb with me, you know what the fuck I'm talking about. You keep saying 'miss this', 'miss that'. When we first met, you never called me in that respectful way."

"You kidnapped me and held a gun to my head." -Rock replied blankly. "At the time, all I wanted to do was respectfully ask you to fuck off, but I was afraid you'd shoot me."

"She almost emasculated you when she threw a knife at your balls, and I don't see you calling her a bitch, a psycho, an asshole or stupid now." -Said Revy grinding her teeth. "What's with the fucking preferential treatment?"

"I never called you an asshole... I guess. " . -Rock defended himself, not sounding very convinced as he didn't remember it clearly, then raising one of his eyebrows. "So you want me to call you 'Miss Revy' from now on?"

"I'll kick your ass if you dare to do that."

"I don't understand what the fucking problem is then!"

"Stop calling that Chinese bitch 'Miss' for fuck's sake! I'm sick of that formal way of talking you have!"

"Well, that's the way I talk, bitch!"

"Then don't do it anymore, bitch!"

"Ignoring these two morons..." -said Shenhua, who had no intention of paying any further attention to those two's discussion. "Fang Jian commented to me earlier that he has bought a few guards, as well as bodyguards, prisoners obviously, and I think we could make good use of them."

Dutch decided to focus on her, and not on the other two who were still arguing. "What's the big idea?"

"Something fairly typical in prisons; a riot."

"...A riot is not so simple to pull off. And as much as Fang Jian pays those guards and prisoners, I don't see them being very willing to stage a riot to get him out of there."

"The guards will have nothing to do, except to give us a little help, you know, suffering from sudden blindness in the middle of our escape-" -Shenhua stopped suddenly and frowned. Chang's stupid way of speaking in code had rubbed off on him for a moment. "...And the prisoners will be happy to help stage a riot, especially if the pay is good."

"I don't intend to pay a dime for the help of who knows how many prisoners." -Recused Dutch at once. Shenhua's little help had already cost him dearly, a payoff that came straight out of his end.

"No, idiot. I'm talking about something more valuable to the prisoners than money. I'm talking about freedom." -said Shenhua, folding his arms. "I know damn well you have plenty of explosives stashed in here..."

That made Rock and Revy instantly stop arguing and look at Shenhua with a stupid expression on their faces. The entire room fell silent.

"What thing?" -Benny asked, raising both eyebrows in a gesture of disbelief. "I think I misheard... Did you say explosives?"

"That's right."

"...By explosives you mean, you know, those things that...explode?"

"A lot of things can explode, but yes, I mean those kinds of explosives. C-4 to be more specific, Chang said he prepared about 100 kg for Dutch in case he needs them." -Shenhua explained, then shrugged. "And it seems to me that this little makeshift plan could use some explosive type help."

Benny turned to look at his boss, clearly horrified. "And when were you going to tell us about that?"

"Never?" -Responded Dutch.

"Why? Seems like a good idea to me to inform us that there's a fucking 100kg of explosives in the fucking house we live in."

Dutch smiled. "In fact, half of that is under your bed."

"But what's wrong with you man!? I smoke in my room, what would have happened if I threw a half lit cigarette under my bed!?"

"Kaboom!" -the twins exclaimed, making an exaggerated gesture with their hands.

"That's not funny kids!"

"In any case, we can use the explosives to collapse the outer walls of the prison. That idea will make it easy for the prisoners to cooperate. Besides, it will be quite an exodus when they escape, causing even more confusion." -Shenhua said. "Fang Jian should simply spread the word and everything will be done on the spot. Though I suppose the guards involved will ask for more money to get involved, though we can simply kill them after we accomplish our goal."

Rock frowned. "I don't like the idea of going around killing people."

"You have a better idea?" -Shenhua replied, giving Rock a sharp look." I'm all ears."

"There are many ways to neutralize someone without the need to kill them."

"That's too easy for you to say, you're not the one who will be at gunpoint. Maybe we should just kill you so you don't bother, after all, I can play translator so I can collect some more money later."

"Or maybe I should just put a bullet in your head after all." -Commented Revy, pulling out one of his pistols. "We don't even need you, any of us can go to that darn visiting room to take Fang Jian."

"I'm afraid not, you'll be too busy acting as bait and taking bullets."

"The only thing taking a bullet in here will be your ass if you don't start shutting your fucking mouth."

"Nobody's taking a bullet in anybody's ass." -said Dutch, slapping Revy's gun down. "You can kill each other after you get this job done, you understand that, Revy?"

"..."

"I asked if you understood, Revy."

"Yes..."

"Good. The same applies to you, Miss Shenhua. Keep your knives under control until we get Fang Jian's ass to Bangkok. If you slip a knife and hurt any of my crew before then, you'll have a serious problem with me, you understand?"

Shenhua shrugged his shoulders. "Sounds good to me."

Dutch nodded and stood up, a sign that the briefing had just ended. "Good. We'll take a few more days to polish and discuss the details a bit more, in case we need to add or change some things. Once that's done, we'll get that Chinese piece of shit the hell out."

Although Rock didn't think discussing a serious topic with the twins in the middle of such a crowded place was right, he decided to listen to Dutch and took the twins to a restaurant, since it was lunchtime and he wanted to have a little private talk with them about what would happen in a few days.

Despite his mistrust, Dutch was right. In a place with so many people chatting, eating and laughing, no one was paying attention to them, except for the waitress who waited on them and then quickly left.

"So..." -Said Rock, not quite sure where to start. The children were eagerly devouring their food, as they had never tasted foreign food before, nor such delicious food, but he had yet to touch their plate. "So..."

"Boss, you sound like a broken record. You haven't stopped repeating that since the food was brought to us." -Hansel said. "What's the matter, are you worried about the prison raid?"

"...Am I that easy to read?"

"Like an open book."

That should have made things easier for him, but it didn't at all. Rock sighed. "Listen, I know I'm a hypocrite to ask you to participate in this big shit... especially after I told you I'd help you out of that darkness replete with blood and death."

"Are you worried we'll kill someone?" -said Gretel, suddenly more interested in moving her food back and forth with her fork. "I don't mind you asking us, you know, I know you're not in this of your own free will. Besides, I was planning on doing it anyway if it was necessary to protect you."

Rock felt a pang of guilt stab his chest. She had already told him she had no desire to kill anyone if possible, now he was dragging her down that road again. It wasn't fair.

"You don't have to do it Gretel, neither do you Hansel, they never have to be forced to kill anyone anymore. That's what I wanted to talk about, I want to ask you to please, unless absolutely necessary, don't kill anyone during the rescue of Fang Jian."

Gretel looked sincerely relieved, relaxing a little, but Hansel pouted. "What you're asking is damn difficult, you know? We'll be getting into an enclosed space, packed with enemies shooting us dead. I'm not saying it's not possible, just that it'll be hard not to kill someone in the crossfire we're not used to that."

"I know, that's why I said 'unless absolutely necessary'."

"...And it will also be a bit boring to go on the defensive."

"Hansel." -said her sister by way of warning.

"All right, all right. I won't kill anyone unless it's 'absolutely necessary' okay? But Boss, if you think the scarred woman and the man with the dark glasses aren't going to ask us to do that in the future, you're just being too dumb or naive."

At that thought, Rock clenched his fists tightly. The debt they owed, Rock was also included in that, since he was the one who had proposed the idea, with Balalaika and Chang had barely started. And it was an expensive debt. A lot of money involved, as well as lives lost that could never be recovered.

In fact, Rock didn't even know if Chang was actually collecting that debt right now... or just testing it to see if he and the kids would keep their word.

"I know. But as long as it's possible, I'd rather they didn't kill anyone else again, okay? Someday there won't be a need for that anymore, and they need to get used to having a normal life that doesn't involve guns, bullets and blood...in fact, I need to think ahead about that."-Roanapur wasn't exactly an environment for the twins to completely disassociate themselves from violence and crime. "And I know it sucks what I'm going to say next, since it's not fair to you; but I'm going to choose to trust that you won't kill anyone in the prison raid."

"Unless it is absolutely necessary. I understand, there is no need to repeat the same thing so many times." -Said Hansel, returning his attention to the food.

"Do I have your word then, Hansel? I need to hear it clearly. Same to you, Gretel." -Rock hated to insist, knowing that it clearly annoyed and made the boy uncomfortable, but he had to pound that idea over and over in the twins' minds until it stuck in their heads.

"You have my word, Boss. I won't kill anyone unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Same here, Boss. I don't plan on killing anyone else."

Rock nodded and smiled. He would trust them, he needed to start doing that and stop fearing that they would cause a disaster if he didn't keep a constant eye on them. "Those are my good kids."

Dutch took Revy down to the Black Lagoon to show her the new 'toy'' that he had gotten after a bit of bargaining with old harpy Yolanda. She had been extremely curious to see what Dutch had in store, but he had refused to show her what it was, arguing that it was a surprise.

Since Benny would be the designated driver to sail the second boat, the one that would transport Rock, the twins and Fang Jian, Dutch and Revy would go on the Black Lagoon to act as bait for the guards. Dutch may not have liked the idea, but Revy was perfectly fine with it, in fact, she was happy that it was so.

For the first time Rock had actually contributed something really clever.

Dutch stopped on the back deck, where a large, heavy, black tarp, secured with several thick ropes, was covering something. He was taking his damn time showing what he had hidden there, and Revy was holding back from jumping up and yanking it all off.

Finally, Dutch removed the ropes and tarp...revealing another black tarp.

"Don't give me that shit!"

"Hahaha, sorry, it was a joke.". -said Dutch, pulling the second tarp off and actually revealing what was there; a fucking M134 assembled on a stand and ready to fire. "Merry early Christmas."

"A miniguuun!" -Almost shrieked Revy, hugging the gun. "Oh, baby. You and I are going to tear up a lot of Chinese shitheads..."

"I'm glad you like it."

"More than liking it, I think I'm in love with this baby." -Said Revy, fondling the big gun affectionately. It wasn't her style to use heavy weapons, those big chunks of steel that slowed her down. No, she preferred her trusty Barretts, light and small, perfect for moving freely, but it was impossible for her to resist playing with a fucking minigun. "How the hell did you get yourself sold to this monster?"

"I simply requested heavy weaponry, to cover our asses if necessary, I was thinking of some RPGs, but Yolanda wouldn't sell them to me. And you know how the old harpy is, I had to cough up a few extra bucks for her to actually show me something worthwhile, that's when she brought me this relic. Heh, brings back good memories of Vietnam..."

"I didn't know you could get good memories there."

"Not really, but if I look properly, I can find a couple that are worthwhile. In any case, I think you know what you have to do along with your new friend."

"Oh, you can be sure of that, how much ammo do I have?"

"Enough to start a new world war."

"Fantastic. Thanks Dutch, I'm going to have a lot of fun with this."

Dutch nodded, pleased with the result. "Just make sure you don't have too much fun. Once Rock gets our package, we'll have to get the hell out of here."

"Aww. I guess you're right, but we can always get lucky and end up getting chased."

"That doesn't sound like good luck to me."

"I never specify whether it was good luck or bad luck..." -Revy patted her new toy a few times, smiling happily. "When do I get to debut this little girl?"

"If all goes well, in three days. Rock wants that time so he can show the kids the way and get them used to climbing the cliff, and the smell of shit." -Responded Dutch, slightly perturbed by her affectionate attitude towards the gun.

"Do I have to go with him?"

"Not if you don't want to, we've already confirmed there aren't any guards around."

"Nhg, I guess I'll go then.". -Grunted Revy.

And that made Dutch raise an eyebrow. "Really? I'm surprised you want to do that, you sure must miss the smell of shit..."

"That's not why I'm doing it, asshole. I'm doing it for Rock, you know, someone's got to keep an eye on that asshole so he doesn't get in trouble and screw up our job. That's all."

"Right..." -said Dutch, avoiding mentioning that that would be what the twins would be for. But hey, if she wanted to crawl in the shit, it wasn't his problem. "Just make sure you're ready for action three days from now, okay?"

"Oh, boy...you can be sure of that."