More keeping track of RP posts! (eventually I'll have to copy/paste these into NovaShots, I just know it. XD)
~**~
Mine:
Dahlia noticed the perplexed look on the technician's face as he stared down at the computer screen. Maybe Iris had been a little TOO thorough in deleting the system. Sighing mentally, she decided to put her cards on the table in order to distract him. "Is your son's name Seth? I may have met him recently..." /Come on, open up and stop looking at the computer.../ She mentally instructed him. Her hands fidgeted in her lap; an effect of not having any coffee to drink yet that day besides her breakfast fix.
(Neko: >_> I've made Dahlia an addict...)
~**~
The two policemen got out of the car, the driver directing Sho to a nearby sturdy-looking pole and handcuffing him to it. The driver, whose tiny name bar glinted 'John' in the afternoon light, then turned to Maui with a puzzled expression. "You sure you want to store the prisoner -here-?" He questioned. Maui shrugged. No one else knew of the plan to apprehend Sho's gang as they tried to rescue him and this fellow didn't need to know either. "I received my orders from a superior. It'll be fine." "Yes sir." John walked out of the warehouse and Maui leaned back against the wall to wait for Sho's group to appear. This actually didn't seem like a very good plan in hindsight, but Randome assumably knew what he was about. The FBI agent had instructed him quite explicitly that Sho was to believe he'd been betrayed or none of this plan would be accomplished.
Even so... this still sounded like it could go really wrong at a moment's notice.
~**~
"Okay... you do that." Iris replied, not knowing if the woman even heard him, she was in such a fury. He would NOT like to be Maui at the moment...
And what about Seth? Not that he should care what happened to the psycho-ex-puppeteer that had threatened to kill him... but unfortunately, everyone had a human side. Iris had seen Seth's (if only slightly), and he found himself heading back to where he had seen Kura and Seth with the determination to tell Seth that Sho had been captured. On approaching them, he slowed down the near-run he'd been in, making an effort to look more casual. "You might want to go find Sho. Maui arrested him." He didn't know a better way to say it so he just blurted out the bare truth.
Mr. Kirson glanced up with a worried look. “I hope he hasn’t done anything to hurt you! Oh, I shouldn’t say that about my son,” he said, looking back down with shame. “Is he okay? He’s not getting himself caught into anything dangerous, is he? He’s never been a fighter, you know, so he wouldn’t be able to fight for himself when the time comes…” The comment had effectively worked when it came to side-tracking.
~*~
A young male approached the warehouse and knocked on the side of the building. “Hello? This is Officer Derek; I’m supposed to report for helping guard the prisoner. I’m new around here, so I don’t know all the briefings and it kinda confuses me. I mean, why use a warehouse, don’t we have nearby stations or stations in other towns if need be? But um… I don’t mean to be rude. As I said, I’m just here to work.” He gave a sheepish grin. The male was obviously young with beach blonde hair and grayish eyes, but he had spirit.
Sho gave Derek a vague glance, not seeming to care any more. Apparently the betrayal of Maui and his fated capturing had made him calm and practically an empty shell.
~*~
Kura was halfway leaving when he heard Iris’s comment. He grinned at the opportunity of getting Kuroto back. Seth, however, looked shocked. “What?!” He stood up, letting his hood fall off as he started to talk to himself. “I knew this would happen. Sho does not get along with the law, that cop was bound to betray him one of these times; he’d fall for the fear of breaking a law or something.” He spun on his heels and faced the back of his boss. “Kura, let’s go.” “You stole the words right out of my mouth,” Kura replied, still grinning.
Dahlia looked out the window, wondering what exactly to tell the man. “Well… he’s fine, as far as I know. He may not be traveling the best path, but it’s the one he chose.” Suddenly, she caught sight of the boy in question just outside and was startled to see him get agitated enough that his hood slipped off. His face looked bruised from some kind of fight, completely different from how it had looked the night before. She felt a pang of pity and got to her feet, apologizing to the man. “I’m sorry, I must go.”
~*~
Maui didn’t know how he was supposed to deal with some officer appearing out of nowhere. Randome had said he’d take care of everything involving the men set up to ambush Sho’s gang. Then again, why would Sho’s group show up all together? They weren’t that moronic. This was getting more convoluted by the moment. Maui frowned. “Randome should’ve briefed you already.” He was on his guard; the uninformed ‘officer’ having tweaked his suspicions. He opened the door to the warehouse, one hand on his gun.
~**~
Iris wasn’t too happy with the idea of being abandoned for the second time so he chased after the pair.
He held one hand out as the lady vanished out the door. “Wait! Your computer!” He glanced down at the machine and then out the window where she went. Hesitantly, he began to return to the computer into he caught a glimpse of silver hair. Gasping, he unplugged the computer and dashed out, laptop in tow.
~*~
Derek chuckled a bit and then remembered his rank, nodding. “I got the briefing, but, as I stated, I’m new here so some things stated I didn’t get exactly.” He shifted his gaze to Sho and nearly paled. “What’s wrong with him? D-Don’t prisoners usually struggle? He looks like… like a lifeless puppet.”
~*~
Seth stopped in his pace just long enough to turn around to Iris and spot Dahlia. “Hurry up!” he yelled back, making it seem only to Iris. Dahlia was friends with the cop too; she had the right to see what he had done. He sped up a bit so he was just one step behind Kura again.
Maui caught Derek’s eye. “He’s probably caught between believing he deserves jail and planning his revenge on me for betraying him. Not that I blame him… Or at least I assume so. I don’t know why he isn’t struggling.” Maui suddenly realized that Derek’s eye was undeniably feminine. That was quite strange. On an impulse, he asked, “What rank is Randome?”
~*~
Iris fell behind since Dahlia had longer legs, ending up running next to Kirson who was carrying his laptop. Dahlia ran smoothly next to Seth, her face in an uncommon expression of worry and fear. “What’s going on?” She asked. “Why are you beat up? Where are we going?” Everything had happened while she was in the coffee-shop with Kirson so she had no idea what was going on.
Derek rocked back on his feet and laughed a bit. “Haha, it looks like I should’ve done just a bit more information hunting. As far as I know, there was no Randome listed in the police officers’ so he must be something else, wouldn’t you think Maui? But who knows what? Maybe he’s from one of those secret organizations where they use acronyms instead of actually saying what they are. But just as a note, my dear police traitor, are there any other people here? They would certainly notice an extra person, I was waiting to be shot at anytime, but I’m not. Makes you wonder where everybody went?”
~*~
There was a pause before Seth decided to reply. “Ask your brother, I don’t want to explain it all over again. It gets complicated somewhere around the part of Boss being involved, right Boss?” Seth nodded his head at Kura, who just shrugged since he had no idea what the conversation was about. Kura had other things on his mind.
Kirson stopped for a moment, panting since he wasn’t used to this exercise and he was kind of the last person until this other teen fell behind too. “What’s going on?” he asked the person next to him as he sped up again.
Maui was surprised and struggled not to show it. Randome just probably had some… other plan in mind. One that didn’t involve people being here when he said they would be? He’d asked the question to make sure that the officer was legit but since Derek had checked around the building and found no one, he hadn’t been briefed, there was no record of Randome… probably even the higher-ups didn’t know he was there. Wait… his mind stalled. Derek had just called him a ‘police traitor’ and his attitude was insubordinate in tone. The cop stepped back, giving himself more room if this turned into a fight. “You aren’t from the station.” He stated. “Impersonating a police officer is a crime, but I really doubt it’s your first.” There was no time to ponder Randome’s weird agendas right now.
~*~
Iris thought for a moment, pausing next to the man. “Okay, easy version: Maui (cop ally) has arrested Sho (fighter ally) causing Kura (fighter foe), Iris (hacker ally), Dahlia (ally) and Seth (puppet-master neutral) to go to where Sho is being kept, hopefully to find out what’s going on. Got it memorized?” The catchphrase came out of nowhere and Iris evaded questions by starting to run again, not wanting to fall too far behind the rest of the group. “Oh, didja fix my computer?”
Chuckling, Derek stuck his tongue out. “Duh, Maui, I thought you had gotten that before the last comment you made. Well, I’m not necessarily not from the station. I’m just not assigned to the mission. Understand?” He rubbed his nose. “So go ahead and take a guess, but be careful what you choose.”
~*~
“Not yet,” Mr. Kirson called out. “My client ran out before I got done. Wait—” Iris was a hacker, so that would explain the computer’s problem, “Why did you contact me of all people? Is it because of my son?” He gave a worried glance at the boy talking to his client further ahead. He tried to get more speed but failed, slowly drifting behind. Oh well, he’d have to live with it. He was getting too old for this kind of running.
Maui glared at him. “I’m not in the habit of playing guessing games. Are you trying to stall for time or something?” The desire to just scrap the whole plan and take Sho to a normal jail was rapidly making itself appealing in Maui’s mind. Maybe Randome was just late.
Maybe he was a gullible idiot and this Derek had more common sense then he did. Neither of these were very comforting thoughts.
~**~
Iris slowed down again, pitying the man slightly for forcing him to run so fast. How they even knew WHERE they were running was a mystery. Or at least it was a mystery to Iris. “I contacted you because my sister needs your son, well, basically they need each other, but neither of them has figured it out yet. It doesn’t make much sense.”
Derek gave a small shrug. “Maybe, maybe not, I wouldn’t be foolish enough to answer either way. So, for now I will make apparently small talk which may be trying to pry secrets from you or something.” He laughed loudly this time, stretching his arms as he spoke.
~*~
“Why would they need each other?” Kirson panted, glad Iris slowed down a bit.
Ahead Seth turned his conversation to Kura. “So, where pray tell are Ed and Di?” Seth asked his leader. Kura closed his eyes to think for a moment and then opened them and turned. “Ed should be patrolling the streets around where Sho was staying at the time and Di should be at our base.”
“Is it wise to bring outsiders to our headquarters?” Seth muttered, thinking Kura hadn’t mapped it all out. Kura proved otherwise though.
“I’m heading for Ed and I’ll contact Di instead. That way we can get together, plan, and then split up the search. Our prime target will be the jail, though, but we’ll just want to be sure in case this is a trap set by Maui, Iris, and Sho.”
Randome showed up from the back of the warehouse all of the sudden, appearing behind Sho. “Good afternoon Kuroto. Been a while, hasn’t it? You probably don’t even remember me.” The man was talking in a tone loud enough to be heard by Sho, but not by the other two people near the door. “You and I met a few years ago, in a street fight for control of Kura’s gang. You beat me that time, sent me back to my superior humiliated. But, thanks to the idiot over there, that’s not going to happen again. You see, he thinks that if he captures your gang, you’ll stay out of jail. That’s why we’re here and not in a jail, because it’ll be easier for your precious friends to sneak in. However, what no one knows but you and me is as soon as they’re all in here, the door locks and the building explodes. Call it payback with interest.” He stretched, looking pleased with himself. He wasn’t well versed in how Sho would react so he hesitated, wanting to see if he should gag the ex-gang member or not.
~**~
”Well, because my sister has been abandoned by important people…. Like me and our dad, so she started closing herself off to people, which is bad. But I think she has a crush on your son, which is good (well, hopefully), but she also is mad at him (which is bad.) Seth… well, Seth’s complicated, but unhappy because the group he’s with is abusive to him (which is bad.) Does that make any semblance of sense?” Iris sighed, assuming that it didn’t. “Basically, they’re both lonely, empty people who feel like few people care about them.”
Silence followed Iris’s words as Mr. Kirson contemplated the follow up. “But Seth seems to be fine with the red-head up ahead. Is that guy part of the group he’s with?” “He’s the boss, actually, sir,” came a young boy’s voice. Kura stopped for a moment in his run and spun around. “Eddie! There you are! We were about to search for you down at the arcade or by the cop’s old apartment which you proudly wrecked.” Kura brushed a few bangs to once again cover the slightly bald spot he had. Eddie nodded and opened his mouth to respond only to get cut off by Seth. “What are you doing here?” the silver haired teen questioned. Eddie pouted. “Responding to duty.” “Not you, kid, he was talking to me,” Mr. Kirson noted before Seth jumped down Eddie’s throat. He stepped in front of Eddie as if to protect the kid (though the kid could easily take Seth, but he doesn’t know that so it’s okay). “I was following a customer who had their memory completely wiped. Ask the young lady over there.” He gestured to Dahlia which made the glare redirected. “Now, now, Seth, it’s not her fault I followed. But I couldn’t just abandon my own son. When I saw you running off, I had to know what was up. I apologize for interrupting. I’ll be at my work…” The father turned around to leave. Seth paused in his glare and then held one hand out. “Wait!” he called out before he could think twice. Instantly, the two members of his gang turned on him with their own set of glares. Seth stood silently at his father, who had stopped walking but hadn’t turned around.
~*~
Sho shivered for a moment but seemed to do nothing else. He glanced over where Di and Maui talked. Half of him didn’t care. Let himself be taken with the same two groups of people that betrayed him. He had no need of them. But there were also fond memories of them, like the fun fights he did with the cop. Plus, he didn’t want a rival to think he had won. “Maui,” he said, looking to see if the cop would part from his conversation with Di enough to pay attention to the ‘criminal’. But didn’t Maui see him as a prisoner, what if he didn’t listen. No, the guy behind him said that Maui was just trying to get the others.
Iris carefully edged away from the ‘Bubble of Confrontation’ as he had nicknamed it in his head. He’d wanted this to happen, just not right now, while things were still up in the air with Sho and co. (Hey! That’d rhymed!) He moved next to his sister, having gotten his laptop from Kirson, and flipped it open. He reinstalled the hard drive in less than a minute and went searching for the GPS systems of cop cars. “Okay,” He commented to no one in particular. “Sho’s in a warehouse on the south side of town. That’s where the car dropped him off.” This was said in a quieter undertone, not wanting to poke a hole in the BoC.
~**~
Randome strode forward as Sho spoke. Maui turned to pay attention to his friend but Randome caught his attention instead. “Maui, this is one of my men. He’ll just have to wait in here; the others are already in hiding. Sho’s gang shouldn’t be long in showing up now.” Maui shook his head, confused. “But no one’s here. This guy hasn’t even been briefed. What’s going on?” “The station knows what’s going on, they’ll send backup as soon as they can.”
There seemed to be a stand still until Seth’s cell phone rang. It was a cute ditty that fit to some kind of song from Phantom of the Opera. Seth jumped a bit and pulled out the cell phone. “It’s a text message from Di,” he stated to his boss. “She says that someone has backed her up in her lie, she can’t figure out what’s going on so she’ll wait for back up, though it seems to be a trap. Or at least I think that’s what she said. Not only is it in l33t, but I think she did it blindly.” He closed the message and looked over at Kura who nodded. Mr. Kirson stared at Seth now. Kura quickly mapped out the plan. “She also says that she’s in the warehouse ***, about a mile from HQ. Seth, you and I will go on ahead. Just in case it is a trap, we’ll keep Eddie behind so that he can at least escape or free us or both. It’s pretty obviously a trap, but I’ll contact the others and get them to help Eddie and send about three or four with us.” “Wait, you’re just going to waltz into a trap, and what about us?” Kirson asked. Kura turned to the father. “Yes, it’s best to try and help those in need in out group, and it may win our little Strike back on our side. And I want you two mind your own business. Hacker and his family may stay behind as well. However, to be honest, I couldn’t care less what you do. We’re off.” He headed off to the warehouse. Seth nodded at his dad and trotted after his boss while typing a text message to the rest of their gang. Eddie waved good-bye and went towards his stash of guns so he could be of help when he was needed.
~*~
Derek held his hand in his pocket that made very silent beeping noises. “Yeah, as I said, I’m just a bit confused. It’s not that I haven’t been briefed, it’s just that even with the briefing I’m a confused puppy.”
Sho focused his eyes again, struggling to stand but failing since his leg was still injured. “Maui, listen to me,” he growled.
If there was one thing Dahlia hated, it was being useless. Glancing over at Iris, she asked. “Can you get a car?” A few keystrokes later, the hacker nodded. “We’ll have a PT Cruiser in about… now.” A car pulled up carrying one very surprised driver. Iris grinned. “I love computerized cars. Have fun, don’t shoot too many people. And don’t shoot allies.” Dahlia got in, apologized to the driver, and Iris began navigating the car to the warehouse; a much faster route then running (which was Seth and Kura’s method).
~**~
The cop was listening; unfortunately ears don’t work well when trying to listen to two people at once. It could turn nasty if he took his attention entirely off the ‘officer’ who didn’t appear to be an officer, and it could be deadly if he continued to ignore Sho. Opting for avoiding death, he looked back at the other man. Randome suddenly began talking loudly (and perkily) to Derek in an effort to drown out Sho. Maui moved away. It was a surprise that Sho was even talking to him, just one more thing to add to the confusion list.
Kirson had pulled in next to Dahlia, silently. “This is getting ever so confusing, but I won’t keep avoiding my son like I have. I apologize if I bug, though.” He shifted himself comfortable and sat with a serious face.
~*~
Sho grunted and finally gave up sitting, just glancing over at Derek and the other man’s positions and then back to Maui. “This place is going to explode with or without you. The sick man over there plans on bringing my ex-gang down with me, even going as far as using you and maybe others. We have to get out of here, though.” He glanced back at the wall behind him. “Save as many people as you can. Considering Di is here, the others probably know. Tell them to leave and try and come up with a reason for Derek to leave. I’ll stay here for a while so you guys aren’t stop. Leaving at the last moment is my best option.” He shook his head, still not sure if Maui would obey him or anything.
~*~
A car pulled up near where Iris was sitting or standing or whatever. It was an old hotrod painted black with white wings on the doors. A young lady stepped out, her hair black with blue and purple highlights. She was tall, thin, and basically had the body of a model. “Excuse me, sir. I’m searching for someone who may live in this town,” she stated to Iris, a very apparent Japanese accent in her voice.
Iris stared up at her. He’d never seen anyone so pretty. Then again, he was a hacker, and she was a model, so it could never work out and he dismissed the notion. “Okay, what’s his name? I can probably find out.” He was still piloting the computerized car onscreen, which had almost crashed when he stared at the attractive woman for three seconds. He pushed the intercom button on the keyboard; making his voice heard in the car Dahlia and Kirson were in. “Sorry about that; won’t happen again.”
~**~
Maui absorbed all this and looked thoughtful. There was still the fact that Sho could be making the entire thing up. He had been sitting there silently for an hour. He could’ve come up with some gigantic plot for his revenge by now. Or… he could be telling the truth.
Decisions, decisions…
Randome came up behind him, leaning on the cop in a friendly manner. “You’re not thinking of believing him, are you? He’s had all this time to plot up revenge; you think he could possibly tell the truth?” Maui looked over his shoulder at Derek, saying in an offhand tone. “Of course not. But shouldn’t Derek go back to the station? There’s no use for him here.” He shrugged Randome off and walked over to the ‘officer’. “Go tell any more backup that’s coming that they aren’t needed here. The situation is entirely under control and we should be done within the next hour.” Randome smirked at Sho; gloating that Maui didn’t believe him.
The lady sat down next to Iris and peered over his shoulder. “A hacker? Interesting, but I’m searching for a man named Kuroto Niwa. He’s very important to me, so please tell me where he is?”
~*~
Derek pouted and turned and left. “Fine, I’ll be at the station.” He paused, getting the subtle hints in the cop’s phrasing. The backup… there wouldn’t be any except for Orphan.
Sho glared at Randome. “Allow me to quote someone. ‘You may have won the battle but you shall not win the war.’ Maui considers, or did at one time, me a friend so he knows me better than you.”
Iris looked at her oddly, and then quickly returned to piloting the car. “You want him too? As long as you’re not trying to arrest him, I guess you’re okay, somebody already got to him on that count. He’s at warehouse #317, Block A.” As the computerized car pulled up in front of the building, he pointed at the screen. “It looks like that.” Shutting the laptop, he got to his feet. “What’s your relation to Sho then?”
~**~
Dahlia got out of the car with Kirson. The poor owner of the PT Cruiser peeled out of the parking lot, leaving behind nothing but skid marks and the smell of burning rubber. The girl walked forward into the building as a uniformed officer walked away.
~**~
Randome smirked, leaning back on his hands in a pose that dripped with confidence. “Maybe, my dear Sho, but I believe you should consider the past tense in your sentence. The fact that Derek left probably has nothing to do with your ridiculous advice about a conspiracy on my part to off you.” Randome was distracted as he heard footsteps. The agent nodded to Maui, indicating that it might be a member of Sho’s group. The cop reacted automatically and ducked back into the corner, gun at the ready, as Randome hid close to the doorway. Dahlia walked boldly into the warehouse, spotting Sho first, then Maui due to a flurry of movement that was him putting down his gun. The next second, she was attacked as Randome launched himself as a cheery rocket at her, glomping her from behind. “Dahlia! You should have told me you were coming! I would’ve made cookies or something.”
Maui stared, open-mouthed, at the unlikely pair. Randome was perky, sure, in his ‘normal’ persona, but this was hyperactive energy bundled inside a body that had been gloating and superior a moment before. Dahlia looked surprised at the blonde’s energy but not repulsed, strangely enough.
“You arrested Sho.” Her tone, however, was anything but pleased.
Randome waved a hand in the air lightly. “A necessary evil. The others are on their way, aren’t they?” “What do you mean others? And why is Sho here instead of at a jail?” Dahlia found that once she started asking questions, more came quickly. She was angry at Maui and Randome for this little scheme they’d evidently concocted but at least Randome was answering her questions.
“Convenience,” the agent replied enigmatically. “I thought he might accept visitors easier in here.” Dahlia couldn’t look him in the eye for the reason that he was still holding her from behind. “What are you talking about?” She twisted to look for the older Kirson, noting that Randome’s arms wouldn’t release her as easily as they seemed. “And let go of me.”
~**~
A cloaked figure, who had been sitting on the second-floor balcony, watching the scene below for the better part of the hour, quietly thunked his head against the wall. /Morons. I’m surrounded by morons./ He groaned mentally. A strand of his dyed blonde hair escaped his hood and he pushed it back. /At least it won’t be much longer until things start happening./
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