bunnyfic 36, 37
Okay, it never occured to me to cross-platform check a blog entry. So, I'm sorry if I inadvertently skewered anyone's eyes in IE (and its defaults, I suspect) with fluro green end notes due to using "grey" instead of "gray" with . American and British spellings get mixed up in my head sometimes and since it was fine in Firefox, I didn't think I'd gotten the wrong one, ahaha. :| Anyway, fixed now. 8Db
For the first time in a long time, A DOUBLE CHAPTER UPDATE(!!) lol. On a roll~ ♥ 6.3k in the last few days. 8| THIS FIC WILL BE DONE SOONER OR LATER. >:D
K17, 21-K; the Second and T41.
( 36: liar liar )
It took three rows of zombie people and a full ten seconds before it occurred to Nikaido that he didn't actually know what Miyata looked like for real -- and yet there he was trying to find the other in an MPT full of people who all looked more or less the same (especially with their eyes closed). A preliminary glance around hadn't shown up anybody immediately obvious, annoyingly enough; there was only one person awake on the transport, but she was a woman and Miyata was a guy. Or Nikaido was pretty sure that Miyata was a guy anyway.
He tsk'd to himself. Kitayama would probably know. If Nikaido got how missions worked at Tackey's place right, then Iida or Yokoo would have briefed Kitayama about the job before they'd left. Which meant Kitayama'd probably seen at least a mugshot or something of the real Miyata, if they were supposed to be picking him up.
So it wasn't like Nikaido wouldn't be able to find Miyata, if pressed: it would simply be a matter of going back out the hatch to ask the old man.
But Nikaido patently refused to do that. Kitayama'd laugh and why didn't you think about that before you jumped in in the first place? and probably not even tell him and just go grab Miyata himself in like two seconds flat. The mere thought got Nikaido annoyed. If Kitayama had pulled Nikaido out of Senga's room for no reason, then Nikaido was going to make there be a reason, damn it. And that meant he was going to find Miyata by himself.
And so he peered at the 'sleeping' online faces one by one, figuring his gut would tell him if he had the right guy. Miyata probably looked something like his avatar for starters. Tamamori had used his real face after all, and if Tamamori and Miyata were such good friends or whatever then it'd probably stand to reason that Miyata'd use his real face, too. Because that'd be fair. (His nose though, that had to be some kind of caricature feature. It was too big to be real for sure.)
As Nikaido worked his way down the MPT's aisle, the awake woman at the back of the transport grew increasingly more agitated until she burst out, "Don't come any closer!" Her voice was high-strung and wavering.
Nikaido glanced up, tilting his head with a grin. "I'm not gonna hurt you, don't worry. Unless you're name's Miya-- heyyy." His words died as the figure across from the woman's seat caught his eye, and Nikaido nearly laughed aloud. That was a nose. "Gotcha," he chuckled, skating over to where Miyata sat with his netgear on. So maybe Miyata's virtual face hadn't been a caricature after all...? Amazing.
"I said don't come any closer!" the woman shrieked from close range, and Nikaido nearly tripped over his own feet.
"Hey, hey? What's all the fuss?" Kitayama called, popping his head down through the hatch.
"Nothing!" Nikaido yelled back, giving the woman a dirty look. He had little patience for Legals who freaked the hell out every time they saw something against Government law.
"There's more of you?" she asked, wide-eyed and half hysterical.
"Can you just shut up?"
Kitayama tsk'd. "Nika-chan, that's no way to speak to scared civilians~"
"You can shut up too, Kitamitsu," Nikaido told him loudly. "I already said I wasn't gonna hurt her!" How Nikaido did his job was his own business -- Kitayama didn't have to nitpick everything just because he could (maybe) do it better. He wasn't doing the dirty work right now. Pulling off Miyata's netgear, Nikaido hefted the other's body out of its seat, shifting its deadweight awkwardly over one shoulder.
Miyata was heavy and Nikaido's skates slowly warmed his feet for the added strain they were under. But that was okay. Nikaido was going to lug the big nose back to base, and then Tamamori was going to owe him big time for it. ♥ Debts like that were always handy to collect on in a pinch.
"Here," Nikaido said, back under the hatch. He tossed Miyata's netgear up to Kitayama, and set about shifting Miyata's weight a little more evenly across his shoulders.
"What is this," Kitayama deadpanned.
"His netgear obviously," Nikaido told him.
"I can see that!" Kitayama said. "But what on earth did you take it off him for?" Nikaido quirked a brow and jumped his skates, clambering up through the hatch. Kitayama helped haul Miyata up by the arms, flopping the government agent unceremoniously atop the transport roof. "See? He's deadweight now. Useful to exactly nobody."
"Whatever," Nikaido said. "People're waking up in there. Like, the alarm went off and the Gov must've cut the connection in the area, so everyone's logging off. That awake woman must've called an emergency."
"Or, you know," Kitayama said archly, "the fact one of their transports stopped in the middle of nowhere."
"Yeah, either way," Nikaido said, not rising to the bait this time. "My point is like," he paused for articulation purposes and gestured to Miyata. "My point is, he would've woken up, then it would've been a pain in the ass explaining why he's being kidnapped. And like, we're supposed to make like we're gonna kill him, right?"
Kitayama looked almost surprised. "Yes, but who told you that particular part of the plan?"
Nikaido grinned. "I'm not just a pretty face, y'know. Figured it out. It's not like Tackey can be sheltering a live government agent under his roof."
Kitayama snorted. "Alright, one point to you, fifty to the world. Especially since Yokoo was supposed to have explained to Miyata why he's being kidnapped while we were kidnapping him, so we wouldn't have had to do it even if he had woken up."
"...well how was I supposed to know that!" Nikaido scowled. "Would it kill you to like, work with me next time?"
Kitayama grinned. "Next time, maybe. But now, I'm going to go loot his apartment." He pointed to Miyata. "You FD'd him, you carry him back to base."
Nikaido blinked, feeling a little clammy hand grab at his stomach. "You're not coming back with us?"
"You remember the way, don't you?" Kitayama said with a casually superior tone.
"Of course I do," Nikaido lied, brows knotting. Well, maybe he didn't know exactly, but underground was his domain. He'd be able to get wherever he wanted eventually. With or without a dead weight across his shoulders.
"You'll want to get going, then," Kitayama grinned, and gestured behind himself.
Nikaido squinted, then his eyes grew wide and the ghostly, clammy hand squished at his stomach some more. "What the hell, they're here already?" Quickly, he hauled Miyata's body back up. Still some way down the Mass Public Transport tracks but coming inexorably closer like a trickle of black-clad ants, security was headed straight for them.
"They were dispatched from the next stop down when the alarm was sounded, so yeah," Kitayama said, helping to settle the government agent over Nikaido's back. "Obviously."
"What? It's not obvious for someone who doesn't hijack these things on a regular basis!" Nikaido exclaimed. "Why the hell didn't you say so earlier?" His heart was racing. "Okay, I'm going."
"I'll head them off," Kitayama told him. "Get to ground as quick as you can."
"You'll what?" Nikaido shouted back. But Kitayama was already gone, skating fast up the tracks right in the direction of the oncoming guards. Nikaido shook his head hard as if to clear it. Crazy. Half the people at Takizawa's place were batshit crazy. Quickly, he jumped from the transport's roof and kicked in his skates, Miyata heavy on his back as he leaped from balcony to balcony and stairwell, heading down, down, down.
*
Fujigaya stopped and Kawai swore aloud, barely avoiding a collision with his back. "Watch it, Taipi! Brake any more suddenly why don't you?"
But then Fujigaya turned around and Kawai shut up at the look on his face. "He's... not wearing them," Fujigaya said.
"Who's not wearing what?" Kawai demanded.
Fujigaya raised one shoulder, lifting Tamamori's legs slightly. "Watta's skates."
"What," Kawai frowned, "why would he be? He had them?"
"He had them," Fujigaya said, looking perplexed. "Ii-chan said Watta gave them to him. I totally forgot 'til just then."
"Oh," Kawai said. Then, "Ohhh..."
"Yeah," Fujigaya agreed, and tried to smack himself in the head without dropping Tamamori. "Shit, do you remember seeing them in the laundry?"
Kawai benevolently smacked Fujigaya in the head for him, drawing a wince. "I don't think so, but I wasn't looking. They might've been sitting on the floor beside the washing machine or something... between that and the storage unit?"
"...I don't know." Fujigaya closed his eyes momentarily, trying to recall the eighth building first floor where they'd just been, but... nothing. He squared his jaw. "Alright. I'm going back."
Kawai rolled his eyes. They were already halfway to Takizawa's place. "Come on, why bother. You've got a passed-out princess to escort, and he needs a shower pretty much asap."
"Fumito, they're skates," Fujigaya protested. "The reactors alone'd cost Tono like a full 'nother registration, if not two. And they're Watta's-"
"Yeah, so I'll go look for them," Kawai snerked. "Genius."
Fujigaya frowned. "You can't. You're injured."
"Do you see me complaining?" Kawai countered.
Fujigaya didn't, but that didn't mean he was going to let his veto card slide. "Chasers are going to be there. Possibly soon. Possibly while you're there."
"Taipi, seriously. I could take ten of them with my eyes closed, let alone an arm tied behind my proverbial back."
"Braggart," Fujigaya said.
"Fact," Kawai smirked.
But Fujigaya still wasn't convinced. Consideringly, he looked from Tamamori at his shoulder, to Kawai's hoverboard...
"No," Kawai pre-empted, reading his mind. "I am not navigating the underlayers on foot while towing that deadweight along." He posted his good hand on his hip, impervious. "The hoverboard isn't a sled, and if it throws him I'm not gonna be able to get him back onto it. If he doesn't fall eight kliks down to the bottom and die."
"...right," Fujigaya said. Well, there went that option.
"Look," Kawai said, "I'm gonna go back and look for Watta's skates. I'll be in and out before the Chasers even get there - in fact, you know what? I bet I can beat you back to base."
Fujigaya rolled his eyes. "Just stop with the false bravado already, Fumito."
"Are you saying it's baseless?" Kawai grinned and swerved a U-turn. He jumped his hoverboard over the gap the way they'd come.
"I'm saying I'm worried about you!" Fujigaya snapped at his departing back.
"Yeah, yeah~" Kawai laughed over his shoulder. "I love you too, Taipi. Last one home gets to clean Tamamori's pants."
Watchtower; the Second and T41.
( 37: wingmates fly )
"Update me on Kitayama," Yokoo demanded, re-entering the whiteroom from Miyata's cottage.
"He's on track, according to the satellites?" Iida said. "Security is on the way, but not up to them yet. Why, should he be in trouble?"
Yokoo snorted, seating himself and calling up a screen of scrolling code. "Trouble gets him and Taipi like STDs and skates in tractor mode. Miyata disappeared on me in the cottage, so I want to know if anything happened... oh, they cut the net service to the transport's occupants?"
"Right," Iida hummed, prioritising recent events in his memory for reporting purposes. "As they do in case the person who stopped the transport was someone aboard it, working with others. However, Miyata's was a regular FD, not a Government disruption. Update: Nikaido has Miyata's body. Miyata and Nikaido are headed away. Update: Kitayama has gone kamikaze."
"What?" Yokoo called up the satellite feed in a second screen to see for himself. The frame refreshed every second or so, lagging slightly from real time. He frowned. "I'm guessing that if we pull at a faster frame-rate, they'll detect our back door sooner..."
"Correct," Iida said.
"Mitsu's not even properly visible," Yokoo complained. "This is no fun."
That drew a chuckle. "He's moving a little too fast," Iida said. "Okay, here we go." Constructing a list, he displayed it on a third screen in the whiteroom for Yokoo's benefit. It contained a couple of columns of security agent contact sequences: S74 through S97 inclusive.
As Yokoo watched, first one, then two - three of the numbers were scratched over in red ink. A grin formed on his face. "Those are the guards that were moving on the transport Mitsu hijacked. He's picking them off."
"I'm striking them through as Central loses contact with their sequences," Iida confirmed. "I bet Kitayama will come out with at least eighty percent crossed out." Another name struck through with red. On the satellite feed screen, the security guards' formation began to crumble in front, guards scattering progressively wider frame by frame as Kitayama cut through them like a molecular blade - all but invisible, but no less effective.
Yokoo's smile was sharp. "Eighty isn't a bet, Kyon. I'll give the servers a coolant change if he makes the first pass with anything less than thirty percent of guards down. I bet he'll take out ninety-five percent overall."
"All but one, before he decides he can't be bothered cleaning up the dregs and would rather be back here sleeping?" Iida laughed. "You never gave me such good odds out in the real world."
Yokoo smiled wryly. "You never went berserker."
"Because I had someone I had to be looking out for," Iida said, and Yokoo imagined he could hear a teasing lilt in the other's synthesized tones. "I could never afford to go so nuts without looking back."
Yokoo rolled his eyes, though the smile easily remained on his face. "I'm sorree we were partners out there."
"I'm not," Iida said, "even if your back needed a lot of watching."
"Oh come on, Kyon," Yokoo laughed. "As if I never saved your skin ever."
"Often enough," Iida chuckled. "...should we send him backup?"
"Mitsu?" Yokoo snorted. "Tsukada'd love to join him in there, I bet."
"So in other words, no. Right?"
The satellite feed showed a small break in the black dots' scurrying. They shifted back up into a loose formation - except for the handful that weren't moving at all. Yokoo grinned as he counted that number against the crossed-out names on the board. "He's looping back around. First pass? Nine down. That's thirty-seven point five percent. He doesn't need backup, Kyon."
Iida chuckled. "Okay. I'll wager the next lot of registration paperwork that he gets sick of kicking heads in somewhere between eighty and ninety percent of guards down." Another two names struck through on the list. "...which will be within the next five minutes if the current rate continues."
"Security's fanning out," Yokoo smiled sharply. "Don't count on it."
"Challenging targets do seem to appeal to Kitayama's competitive side," Iida allowed. "But security's tendency to hide rises in direct proportion to the number of them that get knocked out."
"You think having to hunt them down will make Mitsu quit sooner?" Yokoo asked.
"Yes," Iida said.
Yokoo laughed. "You underestimate his pride, Kyon. Bet's on."
"Acknowledged. Prepare for paperwork, Yokoo-san."
"In your virtual dreams, Iida Kyohei."
*
"Tamamori Yuuta, huh," Kawai said to himself, back at the eighth building a short time later. There was nobody there - both Fujigaya and Tamamori were probably at Takizawa's by now (Kawai had maybe exaggerated a little about making it back before them) - but Kawai liked the sound of his own voice. It was either he talked or he sang, and he was too annoyed to be singing at the moment. "Where the hell did you put Watta's skates, Tall Boy?"
There was no answer, so Kawai went on looking.
The skates weren't beside, below, or behind the washing machine. They weren't in the washing machine. They weren't in the storage unit beside it. (And Kawai didn't know how to fix the locks on its drawers that he'd broken to look inside, either. Where was Tottsu when you needed him?) They weren't on the shelving unit above the storage unit, and Kawai was currently sitting on his hoverboard, attempting to force the locks on the storage unit above the washing machine without falling off. He mightn't have bothered but for the fact they were electronic locks, so it would stand to reason that a decent hacker could bypass them...
Kawai was unfortunately not a decent hacker. And his brute strength (ordinarily so epic and legendary and amazing and all that, really, truly, honest to god)... wasn't really getting him anywhere at the moment.
He sighed, running low on energy. His tirade against the world at large would have been louder than the mere trickle of Old Local curses that currently ran from his mouth otherwise. Wiping a bit of sweat from his brow, Kawai winced as his shoulder cracked again. His wrist or forearm (or both) probably was fractured, though he'd never have told Fujigaya. His arm was hurting. Nothing so acutely painful as a shattered femur, but dull waves of pain were numbing his brain and washing over every movement he made.
Nauseating.
Annoying.
Frowning, Kawai focused his mind and eyes on the locks before him by sheer force of stubborn will, determined to get the damn things open if it killed him. At least that Chaser (...potentially 'those Chasers', plural) hadn't shown up yet-
A crash at the back door nearly felled him from his hoverboard in surprise. Kawai looked up, ready to fight (or something like it) - the door swung open; it had to be a Chaser.
And... it was.
Sort of.
The man was unconscious and missing his helmet, dragged in by the uniform collar after one Fujigaya Taisuke.
Kawai stared. "Oyy..."
"Gonna thank me, Fumito?" Fujigaya asked, a cocky grin on his face. "I have officially done all of the grunt work on this run."
"As if I'm gonna thank your cheating ass," Kawai said, flopping back down atop the washing machine in what was Absolutely Not relief. "Where'd you stow the body?"
Fujigaya glanced down. "This guy's?"
"No," Kawai said, "Tamamori's. You did not get all the way back to base and then all the way back out here just like that. Where'd you stow him, and is he safe there?" Kawai had been working at the storage locks for what seemed to him like a very long time, but he refused to believe that it actually had been a very long time. It had not. With a small huff, he let his eyes slip shut, no longer bothering to even pretend to be on edge.
"He's fine." Fujigaya left the Chaser's body in the doorway with a dull thud and skated over. "You look like death warmed up, Fumi~kyun," he teased with the tearing of velcro. "What'd you have done if I hadn't got back in time?"
"I would've been fine," Kawai grunted, then gave an undignified yell as Fujigaya lifted his bad arm.
"You big sook," Fujigaya chuckled, slipping a cold sleeve over Kawai's hand. He smoothed it down with deceptive gentleness; slowly the sleeve expanded and stiffened around Kawai's arm from elbow to knuckles, letting out a small puff of cold vapour as it took on the form of an instant ice-pack and makeshift splint in one. Kawai stifled a groan of relief as the cold sank through. It felt good~
"That should hold you 'til we get back and Watta can deal with your idiocy properly," Fujigaya told him, cutting through the thought.
"I resent that," Kawai said. "Where'd you get a medkit anyway?"
Fujigaya laughed. "I told you I ran into Tottsu on the way back."
"You said nothing of the sort," Kawai grumbled, leaning over to poke at the small bag, familiar from Totsuka carrying it around a lot now that Kawai thought about it. "Where are the painkillers?"
Obligingly, Fujigaya popped one of the pills into Kawai's palm. Kawai took the little white capsule without water. "More technically, I ran into what turned out to be Hashimoto's little robot-"
"That kid still needs to be shot."
"-and it led me to them. Then I gave Tottsu Tamamori and made it all the way back here just in time to save your sorry ass."
"Which did not need saving."
"That Chaser was a sneaky one," Fujigaya continued as if Kawai hadn't spoken, packing up Totsuka's medkit. "He was spying on you through the window, you know."
"...creepy."
"You can say that again. He-"
pshht~
Fujigaya spun at the sound and Kawai lunged forward as the Chaser in question shot a hook from his air pistol. The hook's small grappling claws found no purchase on Kawai's cast; Fujigaya snatched the weapon's trailing wire before it could auto-retract, one hard yank taking the pistol from the Chaser's grasp as Kawai kicked his hoverboard and it shot toward the man's head-
The Chaser ducked the oncoming board just in time to collect a follow-up faceful of Kawai's boot.
"Nice timing with that kick," Fujigaya observed, retracting the air pistol's wire manually before tucking the little weapon into his pocket, their Chaser dead to the world for real this time. "Making him duck; I doubt you'd have been able to kick him in the head otherwise."
Kawai smirked, making a show of dusting his hands off. The painkillers had apparently taken quick effect. "I think you're getting rusty, Taipi," he said.
Fujigaya spluttered. "What?"
"Last I was aware, anybody taken out by the Great Fujigaya Taisuke was out for at least an hour."
"Rusty? Me? Says you and your broken arm?" Fujigaya was indignant.
"It's not broken, and we've obviously gone too long without sparring for real," Kawai laughed. "You're getting soft. What do you think, a few rounds once we get back to base?"
"Once we get back to base and you're not an invalid anymore maybe," Fujigaya retorted. "I'd get more out of fighting Tsuka-chan."
"Heyyy, but you haven't made it back yet, have you?" Kawai grinned as he retrieved his hoverboard from where it had smacked into the door. "That means I still have a chance on that last bet we made~"
"What - wait, the one about Tamamori's pants?" Fujigaya made a face. "You can't be serious."
"Thinking you're going to lose?" Kawai laughed.
"I'm thinking the cosmic balance might get me yet," Fujigaya snerked, "since you've already racked up so many points on the Lose tally today."
"Ow, Taipi~" Kawai clutched at his heart, staggering. "Give an old dog a bone."
"There's nothing old about you except your face," Fujigaya said. "Now where are Watta's skates?"
"..." Kawai straightened up, blinking owlishly. "Right, those."
"...I take it you haven't found them yet."
Kawai tsk'd in disgust with a broad gesture at the storage unit back above the washing machine. "No, they're in there. I can practically feel them."
Fujigaya gave him a curious look. "So you're telling me you've turned psychic now, too?"
Kawai opened his mouth-
"Watta's feet don't smell that much," Fujigaya snerked.
Kawai grinned. "Well," he said. "Then call it a hunch."
*
"Your hunches are retarded!"
The virtual rendition of Fujigaya's face in the whiteroom was turned sideways, as if he was yelling over his shoulder. Yokoo blinked. Iida's silent laughter ran as a background process.
"Taipi?"
"Yokoo-san, we can't find your skates."
"Where's Tamamori?" Yokoo demanded, completely unsure what his skates had to do with a search-and-retrieve order and not liking that fact.
"Left him with Tottsu," Fujigaya said, his avatar showing some distaste. "Your skates aren't here."
"No," Yokoo agreed, crossing his arms. "They're not even in your quadrant. What are you even looking for them for?"
"They're not even what?" Fujigaya stared. "Ii-chan said you gave them to Tamamori!"
"I did. Then Tamamori left them at his grandfather's-"
Fujigaya made a noise of disbelief. "How do you know that?"
This time it was Yokoo's turn to be disbelieving. "I've had a tracker in them since they were given to me. They're my skates, I like to know where they are-"
"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Fujigaya demanded. "Fumi's been here trying to get this stupid storage unit open all this time, and-"
"Why didn't you ask earlier?" Yokoo snapped. Iida's laughter redoubled, CPU usage spiking. "Look, you and Fumi just get back here already, okay? You even accounted for the Chaser, so there's no reason you should be still out, especially since you don't even have Tamamori anymore."
"...on our way," Fujigaya reported sullenly, and logged off.
"So," Iida chuckled into the ensuing silence. "What was this thing you said about having a homing missile named Fujigaya Taisuke that basically does what he's told?"
Yokoo frowned, reproachful as he called back the screen showing Kitayama's progress. "The way this place is run is clearly in need of an overhaul."
1- sadistic love. ♥ but sometimes, kawai has a broken arm. and goes on pretending it is not. (scanned by je_for8ver!)
2- i think tamamori's been KO for like ten thouuusand words now. xD fail.
3- BEHOLD i have discovered the html for the m-dash, ahaha~ ♥ /abuse
For the first time in a long time, A DOUBLE CHAPTER UPDATE(!!) lol. On a roll~ ♥ 6.3k in the last few days. 8| THIS FIC WILL BE DONE SOONER OR LATER. >:D
K17, 21-K; the Second and T41.
( 36: liar liar )
It took three rows of zombie people and a full ten seconds before it occurred to Nikaido that he didn't actually know what Miyata looked like for real -- and yet there he was trying to find the other in an MPT full of people who all looked more or less the same (especially with their eyes closed). A preliminary glance around hadn't shown up anybody immediately obvious, annoyingly enough; there was only one person awake on the transport, but she was a woman and Miyata was a guy. Or Nikaido was pretty sure that Miyata was a guy anyway.
He tsk'd to himself. Kitayama would probably know. If Nikaido got how missions worked at Tackey's place right, then Iida or Yokoo would have briefed Kitayama about the job before they'd left. Which meant Kitayama'd probably seen at least a mugshot or something of the real Miyata, if they were supposed to be picking him up.
So it wasn't like Nikaido wouldn't be able to find Miyata, if pressed: it would simply be a matter of going back out the hatch to ask the old man.
But Nikaido patently refused to do that. Kitayama'd laugh and why didn't you think about that before you jumped in in the first place? and probably not even tell him and just go grab Miyata himself in like two seconds flat. The mere thought got Nikaido annoyed. If Kitayama had pulled Nikaido out of Senga's room for no reason, then Nikaido was going to make there be a reason, damn it. And that meant he was going to find Miyata by himself.
And so he peered at the 'sleeping' online faces one by one, figuring his gut would tell him if he had the right guy. Miyata probably looked something like his avatar for starters. Tamamori had used his real face after all, and if Tamamori and Miyata were such good friends or whatever then it'd probably stand to reason that Miyata'd use his real face, too. Because that'd be fair. (His nose though, that had to be some kind of caricature feature. It was too big to be real for sure.)
As Nikaido worked his way down the MPT's aisle, the awake woman at the back of the transport grew increasingly more agitated until she burst out, "Don't come any closer!" Her voice was high-strung and wavering.
Nikaido glanced up, tilting his head with a grin. "I'm not gonna hurt you, don't worry. Unless you're name's Miya-- heyyy." His words died as the figure across from the woman's seat caught his eye, and Nikaido nearly laughed aloud. That was a nose. "Gotcha," he chuckled, skating over to where Miyata sat with his netgear on. So maybe Miyata's virtual face hadn't been a caricature after all...? Amazing.
"I said don't come any closer!" the woman shrieked from close range, and Nikaido nearly tripped over his own feet.
"Hey, hey? What's all the fuss?" Kitayama called, popping his head down through the hatch.
"Nothing!" Nikaido yelled back, giving the woman a dirty look. He had little patience for Legals who freaked the hell out every time they saw something against Government law.
"There's more of you?" she asked, wide-eyed and half hysterical.
"Can you just shut up?"
Kitayama tsk'd. "Nika-chan, that's no way to speak to scared civilians~"
"You can shut up too, Kitamitsu," Nikaido told him loudly. "I already said I wasn't gonna hurt her!" How Nikaido did his job was his own business -- Kitayama didn't have to nitpick everything just because he could (maybe) do it better. He wasn't doing the dirty work right now. Pulling off Miyata's netgear, Nikaido hefted the other's body out of its seat, shifting its deadweight awkwardly over one shoulder.
Miyata was heavy and Nikaido's skates slowly warmed his feet for the added strain they were under. But that was okay. Nikaido was going to lug the big nose back to base, and then Tamamori was going to owe him big time for it. ♥ Debts like that were always handy to collect on in a pinch.
"Here," Nikaido said, back under the hatch. He tossed Miyata's netgear up to Kitayama, and set about shifting Miyata's weight a little more evenly across his shoulders.
"What is this," Kitayama deadpanned.
"His netgear obviously," Nikaido told him.
"I can see that!" Kitayama said. "But what on earth did you take it off him for?" Nikaido quirked a brow and jumped his skates, clambering up through the hatch. Kitayama helped haul Miyata up by the arms, flopping the government agent unceremoniously atop the transport roof. "See? He's deadweight now. Useful to exactly nobody."
"Whatever," Nikaido said. "People're waking up in there. Like, the alarm went off and the Gov must've cut the connection in the area, so everyone's logging off. That awake woman must've called an emergency."
"Or, you know," Kitayama said archly, "the fact one of their transports stopped in the middle of nowhere."
"Yeah, either way," Nikaido said, not rising to the bait this time. "My point is like," he paused for articulation purposes and gestured to Miyata. "My point is, he would've woken up, then it would've been a pain in the ass explaining why he's being kidnapped. And like, we're supposed to make like we're gonna kill him, right?"
Kitayama looked almost surprised. "Yes, but who told you that particular part of the plan?"
Nikaido grinned. "I'm not just a pretty face, y'know. Figured it out. It's not like Tackey can be sheltering a live government agent under his roof."
Kitayama snorted. "Alright, one point to you, fifty to the world. Especially since Yokoo was supposed to have explained to Miyata why he's being kidnapped while we were kidnapping him, so we wouldn't have had to do it even if he had woken up."
"...well how was I supposed to know that!" Nikaido scowled. "Would it kill you to like, work with me next time?"
Kitayama grinned. "Next time, maybe. But now, I'm going to go loot his apartment." He pointed to Miyata. "You FD'd him, you carry him back to base."
Nikaido blinked, feeling a little clammy hand grab at his stomach. "You're not coming back with us?"
"You remember the way, don't you?" Kitayama said with a casually superior tone.
"Of course I do," Nikaido lied, brows knotting. Well, maybe he didn't know exactly, but underground was his domain. He'd be able to get wherever he wanted eventually. With or without a dead weight across his shoulders.
"You'll want to get going, then," Kitayama grinned, and gestured behind himself.
Nikaido squinted, then his eyes grew wide and the ghostly, clammy hand squished at his stomach some more. "What the hell, they're here already?" Quickly, he hauled Miyata's body back up. Still some way down the Mass Public Transport tracks but coming inexorably closer like a trickle of black-clad ants, security was headed straight for them.
"They were dispatched from the next stop down when the alarm was sounded, so yeah," Kitayama said, helping to settle the government agent over Nikaido's back. "Obviously."
"What? It's not obvious for someone who doesn't hijack these things on a regular basis!" Nikaido exclaimed. "Why the hell didn't you say so earlier?" His heart was racing. "Okay, I'm going."
"I'll head them off," Kitayama told him. "Get to ground as quick as you can."
"You'll what?" Nikaido shouted back. But Kitayama was already gone, skating fast up the tracks right in the direction of the oncoming guards. Nikaido shook his head hard as if to clear it. Crazy. Half the people at Takizawa's place were batshit crazy. Quickly, he jumped from the transport's roof and kicked in his skates, Miyata heavy on his back as he leaped from balcony to balcony and stairwell, heading down, down, down.
*
Fujigaya stopped and Kawai swore aloud, barely avoiding a collision with his back. "Watch it, Taipi! Brake any more suddenly why don't you?"
But then Fujigaya turned around and Kawai shut up at the look on his face. "He's... not wearing them," Fujigaya said.
"Who's not wearing what?" Kawai demanded.
Fujigaya raised one shoulder, lifting Tamamori's legs slightly. "Watta's skates."
"What," Kawai frowned, "why would he be? He had them?"
"He had them," Fujigaya said, looking perplexed. "Ii-chan said Watta gave them to him. I totally forgot 'til just then."
"Oh," Kawai said. Then, "Ohhh..."
"Yeah," Fujigaya agreed, and tried to smack himself in the head without dropping Tamamori. "Shit, do you remember seeing them in the laundry?"
Kawai benevolently smacked Fujigaya in the head for him, drawing a wince. "I don't think so, but I wasn't looking. They might've been sitting on the floor beside the washing machine or something... between that and the storage unit?"
"...I don't know." Fujigaya closed his eyes momentarily, trying to recall the eighth building first floor where they'd just been, but... nothing. He squared his jaw. "Alright. I'm going back."
Kawai rolled his eyes. They were already halfway to Takizawa's place. "Come on, why bother. You've got a passed-out princess to escort, and he needs a shower pretty much asap."
"Fumito, they're skates," Fujigaya protested. "The reactors alone'd cost Tono like a full 'nother registration, if not two. And they're Watta's-"
"Yeah, so I'll go look for them," Kawai snerked. "Genius."
Fujigaya frowned. "You can't. You're injured."
"Do you see me complaining?" Kawai countered.
Fujigaya didn't, but that didn't mean he was going to let his veto card slide. "Chasers are going to be there. Possibly soon. Possibly while you're there."
"Taipi, seriously. I could take ten of them with my eyes closed, let alone an arm tied behind my proverbial back."
"Braggart," Fujigaya said.
"Fact," Kawai smirked.
But Fujigaya still wasn't convinced. Consideringly, he looked from Tamamori at his shoulder, to Kawai's hoverboard...
"No," Kawai pre-empted, reading his mind. "I am not navigating the underlayers on foot while towing that deadweight along." He posted his good hand on his hip, impervious. "The hoverboard isn't a sled, and if it throws him I'm not gonna be able to get him back onto it. If he doesn't fall eight kliks down to the bottom and die."
"...right," Fujigaya said. Well, there went that option.
"Look," Kawai said, "I'm gonna go back and look for Watta's skates. I'll be in and out before the Chasers even get there - in fact, you know what? I bet I can beat you back to base."
Fujigaya rolled his eyes. "Just stop with the false bravado already, Fumito."
"Are you saying it's baseless?" Kawai grinned and swerved a U-turn. He jumped his hoverboard over the gap the way they'd come.
"I'm saying I'm worried about you!" Fujigaya snapped at his departing back.
"Yeah, yeah~" Kawai laughed over his shoulder. "I love you too, Taipi. Last one home gets to clean Tamamori's pants."
Watchtower; the Second and T41.
( 37: wingmates fly )
"Update me on Kitayama," Yokoo demanded, re-entering the whiteroom from Miyata's cottage.
"He's on track, according to the satellites?" Iida said. "Security is on the way, but not up to them yet. Why, should he be in trouble?"
Yokoo snorted, seating himself and calling up a screen of scrolling code. "Trouble gets him and Taipi like STDs and skates in tractor mode. Miyata disappeared on me in the cottage, so I want to know if anything happened... oh, they cut the net service to the transport's occupants?"
"Right," Iida hummed, prioritising recent events in his memory for reporting purposes. "As they do in case the person who stopped the transport was someone aboard it, working with others. However, Miyata's was a regular FD, not a Government disruption. Update: Nikaido has Miyata's body. Miyata and Nikaido are headed away. Update: Kitayama has gone kamikaze."
"What?" Yokoo called up the satellite feed in a second screen to see for himself. The frame refreshed every second or so, lagging slightly from real time. He frowned. "I'm guessing that if we pull at a faster frame-rate, they'll detect our back door sooner..."
"Correct," Iida said.
"Mitsu's not even properly visible," Yokoo complained. "This is no fun."
That drew a chuckle. "He's moving a little too fast," Iida said. "Okay, here we go." Constructing a list, he displayed it on a third screen in the whiteroom for Yokoo's benefit. It contained a couple of columns of security agent contact sequences: S74 through S97 inclusive.
As Yokoo watched, first one, then two - three of the numbers were scratched over in red ink. A grin formed on his face. "Those are the guards that were moving on the transport Mitsu hijacked. He's picking them off."
"I'm striking them through as Central loses contact with their sequences," Iida confirmed. "I bet Kitayama will come out with at least eighty percent crossed out." Another name struck through with red. On the satellite feed screen, the security guards' formation began to crumble in front, guards scattering progressively wider frame by frame as Kitayama cut through them like a molecular blade - all but invisible, but no less effective.
Yokoo's smile was sharp. "Eighty isn't a bet, Kyon. I'll give the servers a coolant change if he makes the first pass with anything less than thirty percent of guards down. I bet he'll take out ninety-five percent overall."
"All but one, before he decides he can't be bothered cleaning up the dregs and would rather be back here sleeping?" Iida laughed. "You never gave me such good odds out in the real world."
Yokoo smiled wryly. "You never went berserker."
"Because I had someone I had to be looking out for," Iida said, and Yokoo imagined he could hear a teasing lilt in the other's synthesized tones. "I could never afford to go so nuts without looking back."
Yokoo rolled his eyes, though the smile easily remained on his face. "I'm sorree we were partners out there."
"I'm not," Iida said, "even if your back needed a lot of watching."
"Oh come on, Kyon," Yokoo laughed. "As if I never saved your skin ever."
"Often enough," Iida chuckled. "...should we send him backup?"
"Mitsu?" Yokoo snorted. "Tsukada'd love to join him in there, I bet."
"So in other words, no. Right?"
The satellite feed showed a small break in the black dots' scurrying. They shifted back up into a loose formation - except for the handful that weren't moving at all. Yokoo grinned as he counted that number against the crossed-out names on the board. "He's looping back around. First pass? Nine down. That's thirty-seven point five percent. He doesn't need backup, Kyon."
Iida chuckled. "Okay. I'll wager the next lot of registration paperwork that he gets sick of kicking heads in somewhere between eighty and ninety percent of guards down." Another two names struck through on the list. "...which will be within the next five minutes if the current rate continues."
"Security's fanning out," Yokoo smiled sharply. "Don't count on it."
"Challenging targets do seem to appeal to Kitayama's competitive side," Iida allowed. "But security's tendency to hide rises in direct proportion to the number of them that get knocked out."
"You think having to hunt them down will make Mitsu quit sooner?" Yokoo asked.
"Yes," Iida said.
Yokoo laughed. "You underestimate his pride, Kyon. Bet's on."
"Acknowledged. Prepare for paperwork, Yokoo-san."
"In your virtual dreams, Iida Kyohei."
*
"Tamamori Yuuta, huh," Kawai said to himself, back at the eighth building a short time later. There was nobody there - both Fujigaya and Tamamori were probably at Takizawa's by now (Kawai had maybe exaggerated a little about making it back before them) - but Kawai liked the sound of his own voice. It was either he talked or he sang, and he was too annoyed to be singing at the moment. "Where the hell did you put Watta's skates, Tall Boy?"
There was no answer, so Kawai went on looking.
The skates weren't beside, below, or behind the washing machine. They weren't in the washing machine. They weren't in the storage unit beside it. (And Kawai didn't know how to fix the locks on its drawers that he'd broken to look inside, either. Where was Tottsu when you needed him?) They weren't on the shelving unit above the storage unit, and Kawai was currently sitting on his hoverboard, attempting to force the locks on the storage unit above the washing machine without falling off. He mightn't have bothered but for the fact they were electronic locks, so it would stand to reason that a decent hacker could bypass them...
Kawai was unfortunately not a decent hacker. And his brute strength (ordinarily so epic and legendary and amazing and all that, really, truly, honest to god)... wasn't really getting him anywhere at the moment.
He sighed, running low on energy. His tirade against the world at large would have been louder than the mere trickle of Old Local curses that currently ran from his mouth otherwise. Wiping a bit of sweat from his brow, Kawai winced as his shoulder cracked again. His wrist or forearm (or both) probably was fractured, though he'd never have told Fujigaya. His arm was hurting. Nothing so acutely painful as a shattered femur, but dull waves of pain were numbing his brain and washing over every movement he made.
Nauseating.
Annoying.
Frowning, Kawai focused his mind and eyes on the locks before him by sheer force of stubborn will, determined to get the damn things open if it killed him. At least that Chaser (...potentially 'those Chasers', plural) hadn't shown up yet-
A crash at the back door nearly felled him from his hoverboard in surprise. Kawai looked up, ready to fight (or something like it) - the door swung open; it had to be a Chaser.
And... it was.
Sort of.
The man was unconscious and missing his helmet, dragged in by the uniform collar after one Fujigaya Taisuke.
Kawai stared. "Oyy..."
"Gonna thank me, Fumito?" Fujigaya asked, a cocky grin on his face. "I have officially done all of the grunt work on this run."
"As if I'm gonna thank your cheating ass," Kawai said, flopping back down atop the washing machine in what was Absolutely Not relief. "Where'd you stow the body?"
Fujigaya glanced down. "This guy's?"
"No," Kawai said, "Tamamori's. You did not get all the way back to base and then all the way back out here just like that. Where'd you stow him, and is he safe there?" Kawai had been working at the storage locks for what seemed to him like a very long time, but he refused to believe that it actually had been a very long time. It had not. With a small huff, he let his eyes slip shut, no longer bothering to even pretend to be on edge.
"He's fine." Fujigaya left the Chaser's body in the doorway with a dull thud and skated over. "You look like death warmed up, Fumi~kyun," he teased with the tearing of velcro. "What'd you have done if I hadn't got back in time?"
"I would've been fine," Kawai grunted, then gave an undignified yell as Fujigaya lifted his bad arm.
"You big sook," Fujigaya chuckled, slipping a cold sleeve over Kawai's hand. He smoothed it down with deceptive gentleness; slowly the sleeve expanded and stiffened around Kawai's arm from elbow to knuckles, letting out a small puff of cold vapour as it took on the form of an instant ice-pack and makeshift splint in one. Kawai stifled a groan of relief as the cold sank through. It felt good~
"That should hold you 'til we get back and Watta can deal with your idiocy properly," Fujigaya told him, cutting through the thought.
"I resent that," Kawai said. "Where'd you get a medkit anyway?"
Fujigaya laughed. "I told you I ran into Tottsu on the way back."
"You said nothing of the sort," Kawai grumbled, leaning over to poke at the small bag, familiar from Totsuka carrying it around a lot now that Kawai thought about it. "Where are the painkillers?"
Obligingly, Fujigaya popped one of the pills into Kawai's palm. Kawai took the little white capsule without water. "More technically, I ran into what turned out to be Hashimoto's little robot-"
"That kid still needs to be shot."
"-and it led me to them. Then I gave Tottsu Tamamori and made it all the way back here just in time to save your sorry ass."
"Which did not need saving."
"That Chaser was a sneaky one," Fujigaya continued as if Kawai hadn't spoken, packing up Totsuka's medkit. "He was spying on you through the window, you know."
"...creepy."
"You can say that again. He-"
pshht~
Fujigaya spun at the sound and Kawai lunged forward as the Chaser in question shot a hook from his air pistol. The hook's small grappling claws found no purchase on Kawai's cast; Fujigaya snatched the weapon's trailing wire before it could auto-retract, one hard yank taking the pistol from the Chaser's grasp as Kawai kicked his hoverboard and it shot toward the man's head-
The Chaser ducked the oncoming board just in time to collect a follow-up faceful of Kawai's boot.
"Nice timing with that kick," Fujigaya observed, retracting the air pistol's wire manually before tucking the little weapon into his pocket, their Chaser dead to the world for real this time. "Making him duck; I doubt you'd have been able to kick him in the head otherwise."
Kawai smirked, making a show of dusting his hands off. The painkillers had apparently taken quick effect. "I think you're getting rusty, Taipi," he said.
Fujigaya spluttered. "What?"
"Last I was aware, anybody taken out by the Great Fujigaya Taisuke was out for at least an hour."
"Rusty? Me? Says you and your broken arm?" Fujigaya was indignant.
"It's not broken, and we've obviously gone too long without sparring for real," Kawai laughed. "You're getting soft. What do you think, a few rounds once we get back to base?"
"Once we get back to base and you're not an invalid anymore maybe," Fujigaya retorted. "I'd get more out of fighting Tsuka-chan."
"Heyyy, but you haven't made it back yet, have you?" Kawai grinned as he retrieved his hoverboard from where it had smacked into the door. "That means I still have a chance on that last bet we made~"
"What - wait, the one about Tamamori's pants?" Fujigaya made a face. "You can't be serious."
"Thinking you're going to lose?" Kawai laughed.
"I'm thinking the cosmic balance might get me yet," Fujigaya snerked, "since you've already racked up so many points on the Lose tally today."
"Ow, Taipi~" Kawai clutched at his heart, staggering. "Give an old dog a bone."
"There's nothing old about you except your face," Fujigaya said. "Now where are Watta's skates?"
"..." Kawai straightened up, blinking owlishly. "Right, those."
"...I take it you haven't found them yet."
Kawai tsk'd in disgust with a broad gesture at the storage unit back above the washing machine. "No, they're in there. I can practically feel them."
Fujigaya gave him a curious look. "So you're telling me you've turned psychic now, too?"
Kawai opened his mouth-
"Watta's feet don't smell that much," Fujigaya snerked.
Kawai grinned. "Well," he said. "Then call it a hunch."
*
"Your hunches are retarded!"
The virtual rendition of Fujigaya's face in the whiteroom was turned sideways, as if he was yelling over his shoulder. Yokoo blinked. Iida's silent laughter ran as a background process.
"Taipi?"
"Yokoo-san, we can't find your skates."
"Where's Tamamori?" Yokoo demanded, completely unsure what his skates had to do with a search-and-retrieve order and not liking that fact.
"Left him with Tottsu," Fujigaya said, his avatar showing some distaste. "Your skates aren't here."
"No," Yokoo agreed, crossing his arms. "They're not even in your quadrant. What are you even looking for them for?"
"They're not even what?" Fujigaya stared. "Ii-chan said you gave them to Tamamori!"
"I did. Then Tamamori left them at his grandfather's-"
Fujigaya made a noise of disbelief. "How do you know that?"
This time it was Yokoo's turn to be disbelieving. "I've had a tracker in them since they were given to me. They're my skates, I like to know where they are-"
"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Fujigaya demanded. "Fumi's been here trying to get this stupid storage unit open all this time, and-"
"Why didn't you ask earlier?" Yokoo snapped. Iida's laughter redoubled, CPU usage spiking. "Look, you and Fumi just get back here already, okay? You even accounted for the Chaser, so there's no reason you should be still out, especially since you don't even have Tamamori anymore."
"...on our way," Fujigaya reported sullenly, and logged off.
"So," Iida chuckled into the ensuing silence. "What was this thing you said about having a homing missile named Fujigaya Taisuke that basically does what he's told?"
Yokoo frowned, reproachful as he called back the screen showing Kitayama's progress. "The way this place is run is clearly in need of an overhaul."
1- sadistic love. ♥ but sometimes, kawai has a broken arm. and goes on pretending it is not. (scanned by je_for8ver!)
2- i think tamamori's been KO for like ten thouuusand words now. xD fail.
3- BEHOLD i have discovered the html for the m-dash, ahaha~ ♥ /abuse