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Chapter 2
"Time to go get the food," Heather stood up from where she was sitting on her bed and stretched.
"Yep," Nicole put the computer to sleep and followed Heather upstairs.
"It's so quiet here since everyone left on vacation..." Heather looked around as she put her shoes on. "Not even anyone to tell me to be home by twelve."
"They'll be back more than soon enough for you," Nicole grabbed her wallet and grinned. "Enjoy the peace while you have it."
"I guess," Heather grinned. "I'm not used to being able to hear myself think, let alone hear myself do anything else!"
"You make more than enough noise on you own," Nicole walked out to the car parked on the road above.
"I know! I try hard," Heather shut the door and ran after Nicole.
"Hey!" Heather and Nicole looked up as someone called to them from the coffeeshop across the highway and up the block.
"...Omi?" Heather waved back to the two figures who were running down the back steps of the shop and across the highway.
"Look like him and Ken," Nicole put her bag in the car.
"What are you two doing in Rossland?" Heather asked as soon as they were close enough to hear her voice at a normal volume.
"We've been looking around and were waiting for Aya and Youji to meet us," Ken grinned.
"Is this where you live?" Omi looked at the house curiously.
"Well, where I live anyway," Heather smiled. "Nicole and I were going to get our take-out from the Village Resturant and go back to her house in Fruitvale."
"Wow, you two live a long ways apart," Ken said as he eyed a soccerball laying in the yard, partially under a bush.
"Not really," Nicole shrugged.
"We had most of the same classes togather anyway so it hasn't relaly been a big deal to see each other," Heather leaned on the plum-colored Honda Civic. "That belongs to one of my brothers, but you can play with it if you want."
"You don't play soccer?" Ken looked at her in suprise.
"Have you been friends for very long?" Omi asked Nicole.
"Since late September or early October," Nicole returned the younger boy's smile.
"I do, just not very well. All three of my little bros are better that I am," Heather smiled ruefully.
"I'll teach you sometime," Ken decided.
"Um, sure... I guess there's not much else besides the Bio course to do unless I get a job," Heather walked down the hill and grabbed the ball to put it away inside the door. "Sounds like fun! Would you mind if another of my friends came along? She like soccer a lot too."
"So you've been taking the same courses at Selkirk?" Omi seemed to be genuinely interested. "How do you like the college?"
"It's not bad." Nicole looked up the road towards the coffeshop. "Aya and Youji are over there waiting for you."
"Alright, we'd better get going. See you in class on Monday," Omi smiles and waves as he dragged Ken towards the waiting men.
"Bye!" Ken called.
"See you later," Heather waved and climbed into the car.
"Bye," Nicole got into the passenger side.
"They're really nice," Heather smiled as she started the vehicle.
"Yeah." Nicole put her seatbelt on and put a CD into the CD player. "They don't seem to be too bad."
***** Later that Night *****
A few kilometers out of Rossland Youji was attempting to evade the security system in a well disguised complex hidden deep in the mountains. Picking the lock of the southern entrance he slipped inside and slunk down the hallway.
"I'm in, Bombay," Youji whispered into his headset as he began to poke through the rooms in the first hallway. "Where are we supposed to find this information?"
"It should be in the main office, Balinese" Omi's voice crackled over the 'set.
"Abyssinian in," Aya's voice followed on the heels of Omi's.
"Siberian in. The alarm system is very sophisticated, be careful what you move," Ken warned.
"No problem," Youji glided silently through the halls keeping both ears and eyes open for guards. A few minutes later he had reached what looked like the main office. "I found the main office."
"Are you sure?" Ken sounded confused. "I thought I'd just found it..."
"It says main office on the front door, Ken, you have to be mistaken," Youji tiptoed into the room and started going through the drawers of the desk.
"So does mine, Youji," Youji stopped dead as the impact of Ken's words hit him.
"I've found another," Aya spoke in a quiet monotone. "This must be some kind of thief trap."
"All of you should get out of there now, we'll come back when we have more information from Kritiker," Omi continued hacking into the computer system with his laptop from the car.
"All right, I'm going to get out of here before the next round of guards shows up then, Ken out," Youji heard the small click that meant one of them had turned off a headset.
"Aya out," Aya's voice clicked out.
"I want to check through here a little more, then I'll go," Youji told Omi and before the boy could protest turned his headset off as well. "Now, if I could just find why all these rooms are labeled Main Office..." Youji continued poking through the desk until he found a disk that looked useful. Tossing it into his pocket he quickly left the room and began to creep back through the halls to where he'd entered.
"Yeah, Josh was saying he heard something earlier but I haven't seen a thing..." Youji ducked into a doorway until the uniformed guard passed and continued on his way. He was getting clumsy if someone had heard him so he was as stealthy as possible on the last leg of his journey back to the exit. Quietly pushing open the door and relocking it behind him Youji began to circle through a patch of nearby trees to the car.
"I'm sorry, Balinese, but I can't let you take that disk," Youji looked up just in time to see a gun point at him and a smudge of orange.
"Hello Weiss," A smooth voice slid into all of their heads. "So nice to see you again."
"Youji, lookout!" He whirled as Omi's voice called from the still distant car and managed to dodge a knife blow to his head, wincing as it sliced into his ribs instead. Blood trickled down his stomach as he flung his wire around his attacker and attempted to subdue him. A nanosecond later he felt a streak of fire enter his lower left arm as the gunman took advantage of his distraction. When the wire wavered as his lower arm fell uselessly to his side the man with the blade swung again and slashed across his back. Desperately Youji tried to hold off the sword with the wire in his mobile hand and whirled out of the way of another stroke which nicked his side slightly.
"Youji! Try and move towards the car!" Omi hollered, "I can't get a clear shot!" Youji grunted an affirmative he knew Omi wouldn't hear and did his best to keep moving towards the car while avoiding most of the hits his opponent aimed at him. He took another step backwards and wobbled slightly as his blood loss started to effect his equilibrium. Taking advantage of this slight misstep the white-haired man attacked with more brutality than before and gave Youji two more deep cuts to deal with. Then Youji was thrown backwards as another bullet struck him in the shoulder and he bashed his head into a rock. Through the bright colors in his sight Youji saw Ken slash his bugnuks across the arm of the amber-eyed man carrying the long knife before scooping Youji up and running towards the car. Then everything spiraled into blackness.
*****
"Omi, start the car," Aya opened the back door of the car before hopping into the front seat beside the youth who was frantically stowing his crossbow and computer.
"Right," Omi turned the key in the ignition and listened to the engine roar as Ken raced towards them as fast as his legs would carry him and his burden.
"Go, go, gooo!" Ken dove into the back seat and Omi was off before he even had time to close the door. "He needs medical attention now," Ken hissed as he tried to stanch as much blood as possible with Youji's coat.
"We have nowhere to deal with this, Ken," Aya turned to offer what assistance he could with the heavily bleeding Youji.
"I know somewhere," Omi winced as he piloted the car down the highway and into Rossland. "I hope she's home, though..."
*****
Heather was curled up on the couch alone and asleep when Omi hit the doorbell three times in a row. She was still asleep when Omi picked the lock and Ken carried Youji into the house to lay him on the wooden floor while Aya began unpacking a box of medical supplies.
"Heather! Heather wake up!" Omi gently shook the girl's shoulder and she opened her eyes to stare up at him blearily.
"Omi...? What the hell are you doing here?" She rubbed her eyes and tried to clear the sleep from them.
"Omi, help," Aya ordered as he walked over and glared down at Heather. "Youji is injured and this was the only place we could bring him. Assist Ken and Omi."
"Huh?" Heather sat up and looked up at the clock which read 12:45 AM then down at Youji. "Holy fuck..." She was instantly awake and on her feet.
"Heather, can you get me some warm water and soft cloths?" Omi asked her as he carefully unwound the bloody coat from Youji's limp form and began to cut away the man's tattered shirt.
"Yeah, sure," Heather bolted to the hallway closet and then the kitchen. She swiftly returned with a large bowl of warm water and a pile of cloths which she set by Omi who was looking at Youji's shoulder.
"Ken, hand me the long tweezers," Aya reached for a cloth and wiped down Youji's left arm. "He's got a bullet."
"Two," Omi corrected as he washed Youji's shoulder.
"Here," Ken passed Aya the tweezers and started setting out the stitching supplies for both of them. "Heather, could you please start dealing with his minor wounds."
"Right," Heather took a damp cloth and cleaned off Youji's chest then began to bandage the larger cuts that wouldn't require stitching. Luckily the long slash across his ribs was shallow...
"Put some gloves on," Heather looked up to see Aya glaring at her again and quickly put on the gloves Ken tossed her before edging towards Aya. She noticed that Ken was putting on a pair as well to assist Omi.
"Now hold the wound closed," His glare intensified for a moment before his gaze turned downwards as he wiped down the bullet wound with antiseptic and took up the needle and thread.
"Kay," Heather carefully applied pressure to the wound as Aya demonstrated and tried to convince herself that this was no different than dissections biology class and she could handle it.
"Don't let your fingers shake or I'll make a wrong move," Aya told her curtly.
"Sorry," Heather held perfectly still watching the needle stab in and out until Aya tied off the last stitch and leaned back.
"Cover that with gauze and bind it," Aya stripped off his gloves and washed his hands in the bowl.
"Yes," Heather pulled out a length of gauze and carefully folded some into a pad that she secured to his arm by wrapping more gauze around it.
"We need to turn him over and treat his back," Ken motioned for Aya to help him carefully flip Youji over.
"That one will need stitches, too" Omi grabbed one of the rags and began to clean Youji's back.
"Pass me clean gloves," Aya accepted the fresh pair of gloves Heather held out and took up the needle again. "You'll need to hold the wound closed again."
"Right," Heather bent over the wound and pushed the skin together. She began to stare off into space as Aya worked away following his instructions to the word but no more. As he finished she pulled out the gauze and began to bandage the stitches carefully.
"Heather, pass me some of the gauze would you?" Ken looked up from the cut he was dealing with when she didn't respond. "Heather? Are you listening?" He waved his hand in front of her face. "Omi, she's not responding..."
"She's gone into shock," Omi cleaned one of his hands off and slapped Heather across the face.
"Huh?" Heather blinked and refocused her vision on Omi. "You... slapped me? Why?"
"You were going into shock," Omi told her and began to clean the last of the blood off of Youji's back. "Why don't you clean up some of this mess while we finish tending Youji?"
"Could I have the gauze, Heather?" Ken held out his hand.
"Sorry..." Heather quickly passed Ken the gauze and started cleaning up the bits of gauze and other supplies lying around.
"Don't worry about it, you've probably never had to deal with injuries like this before have you?" Ken bandaged the last cut on Youji's other arm.
"No, nothing anywhere near this bad," Heather began to mop up the blood on the floor with an extra cloth.
"Then you've done very well with something like this tossed in your lap," Ken smiled at her as he packed away the medical supplies.
"We need to find him somewhere more comfortable to stay," Omi washed to last of the blood from Youji.
"Okay, I'll be back in a second," Heather left the room for a few minutes and returned with an armful of old-looking sheets. "We'll put him in my parents room, I've changed the bedding already. If you put him on these before moving him it might not hurt him so much..."
"Thanks," Omi took the sheets and helped Aya and Ken place Youji on them before heaving the dead weight up. They carried him into the room Heather led them too and gingerly set him down on the bed. As Aya headed back into the living room to clean up the medical supplies Ken and Omi pulled the improvised stretcher-sheet out from under Youji and Omi tucked the blanket Heather provided up around the invalid.
"Are you going to be staying here with him?" Heather inquired as she pulled some more rags out of the hallway closet to clean the blood in the living room.
"No," Aya answered crisply. When she opened her mouth to reply he cut her off. "We have other duties we must attend to. Youji will stay under your care temporarily."
"W-will you be coming back for him?" Heather gave Aya a stunned look.
"Of course we will," Omi smiled slightly down at Youji before turning and following Aya back to the living room.
"We are going now," Aya turned to head for the door.
"Wait! How will I contact you if anything else goes wrong?" Heather almost panicked for a moment until Aya stopped.
"Give us your phone number, we'll call you at regular intervals," Omi handed Heather a block of note-paper and a pen he found on the coffee table.
"Okay, but what if something goes wrong?" Heather scribbled down her number before handing the paper to Omi.
"Nothing should go wrong but if it does call this number and ask for Manx, okay?" Ken passed Heather a plain business card with a long-distance number on it before turning to follow Aya.
"We'll contact you when we want to check up on him," Omi had picked up Youji's slowly stiffening jacket and was the last to the door.
"Okay. Um, bye," Heather called as Omi closed the inner door, not noticing as he locked the outer door and checked it to make sure it was secure before leaving. She slowly walked back into her parents room and sat on the foot of the bed where she could clearly see Youji.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with you...?" She mused quietly to herself as she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them. She was too worried about the blond to go to sleep now so might as well keep an eye on him in case he had difficulties.
*****
"Oi, Crawford! Why didn't you bother to tell us that Weiss was going to show up tonight?!" Schuldig strolled up to walk beside the somber American.
"I foresaw you dealing with the situation so I did not deem it necessary," Brad Crawford pushed his glasses up his nose and continued to search his visions of the future for any clues as to where Weiss had taken their injured member. "Keep looking for any familiar mental patterns, Schuldig."
"Ja*, ja, I'm looking," Schuldig pulled his jacket more tightly around his frame to forestall a shiver. "Why couldn't we search in the car?"
"Because they are somewhere around here and walking will look less suspicious than driving slowly enough for you to scan the minds of all the occupants of each house," Crawford rationalized. Schuldig conserved body heat and didn't bother to reply.
The two men had left their teammates in the car while they went searching through the neighborhood for the injured rival assassin. Thanks to his talent as Oracle, Crawford knew the approximate location of the house they were looking for but couldn't identify the building itself until Schuldig found the particular mind they were looking for. He was rather annoyed at the fact the Schuldig and Farfarello hadn't been able to finish the pest in the first place but was pleased that at least he hadn't been able to limp far and make things that much harder.
"I've found something, Crawford," In a flash Schuldig had quit slouching and grumbling about the temperatures under his breath and was completely attentive. "The end house on the right side of the road has an agitated mind dwelling on blood and what looks like Weiss." Slinking quietly through her mind he didn't bother to reveal the fact that this one actually knew a great deal about Weiss and Schwartz as well.
"I need a positive or negative, Schuldig," Crawford glared at the orange-haired man.
"Positive, I can see him in the conscious mind and there's another mind who's too far unconscious to be just sleeping," Schuldig smirked. "Conveniently the resident girl's family is out of town for the next two weeks."
"Good," Crawford nodded to himself. "We'll go collect the others and infiltrate the premises in half an hour. You keep your mental eye out and make sure she doesn't try to leave between now and then," Crawford wheeled on his heel and kept walking at a constant pace.
"No problem, she seems too tired and stressed to be going anywhere soon," Schuldig gave the house a last thoughtful look before turning to follow Crawford back the way they had come.
Dictionary:
Ja - Yeah
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