Melissa Mao watched the tender scene through the Arm Slave M9’s cameras. Most of her conscious mind was devoted to figuring out who this unknown male was. She wasn’t able to catch his name …it ended in ma, but at least he identified himself as her fiancé. There was no mention of any such relation in her dossier. Heck, it basically listed that she was a girl that other girls looked up to, but no boy wanted her as a girlfriend.
Part of her, buried deep under the professional solider, marveled at the romantic scene. Kaname’s initial passionate kiss ended with her resting her head on the guy’s shoulder. No words were spoken between the two, but he stroked her hair as she held on tightly, almost as if she was afraid he was going to disappear. He looked at Kaname with a gentle smile. No words were exchanged, but their smiles grew even wider as they looked into each other’s eyes. Nothing mattered to them except the eternity of this moment.
“You go girl!” crackled over the radio. “Angel, you so rock. Wow dry humping in the middle of a public park. That’s HOT!”
“Urzu-6,” Melissa said as she gritted teeth, “I am ordering you not to say another word.”
“I can feel the love tonight,” Kurz continued, “and I know he is!” Veins marked her forehead as she took a moment to calm herself. She decided to ignore the insubordinate sergeant and focused on the injured one.
“Urzu-7. What is your status? I saw him disarm you. Can you recover your gun?”
“I’ve sustained minor bruises. Negative,” there was a pause as Souske considered how to report what happened and finally decided the basics of WHAT happened would do. The HOW would have to come later, “he rendered my weapon inoperable.”
Melissa considered for a moment. Being able to disarm and dismantle a weapon and have time enough to subdue Souske was pretty damn good in her book. Her gut feeling was that this guy was not a threat and apparently was quite capable of protecting his fiancée. Coming to a decision, she said,
“Urzu-7. Fall back. You can’t do any good with them alerted to your presence. Rearm at Uruz-6’s position if need be. Urzu-6 will take over tracking the target. Hopefully they’ll stay in areas the AS can go. Otherwise, we’ll have to send you in again.”
“Acknowledged.” Souske replied. He wasn’t too worried about blowing his cover. Miss Chidori has always been quick to forgive and forget. At worst, she would retaliate with that damn harisen she always seem to have on her. Too bad those weren’t banned like firearms in Japan as well. He turned to walk away from the embracing couple when he sensed something amiss. There! On the back on Miss Chidori’s head was the red pinpoint of a laser! “SNIPER! Get down!” he yelled as he jumped to push the couple out of the line of fire.
The boy, Ranma was his name, must have detected the danger as well. The pig-tailed boy shifted Miss Chidori out of the line of fire and got a face full of laser. He shoved the boy out of the way and wrestled Miss Chidori to the ground. Unfortunately, she landed badly and bounced the back of her head a bit. Souske reached for his ankle holster to pull out his back up Glock 26, and began scanning for the sniper.
Ranma, who was still standing and staring at the building skyline, turned to face them. He noted that his fiancée was still slightly dazed, but mostly unharmed. Ranma apparently decided that he was trustworthy enough as he pointed a finger at him and said,
“Make sure Kana-chan stays safe or else! I don’t what’s going on, but I’m going to find out!”
“I’ll guard Miss Chidori with my life!” Souske replied as he helped the dazed girl get behind the bench for cover.
“You better.” was all he heard as Ranma ran toward the park entrance.
On the top of an apartment building, the form of a heavyset man in a fendora hat and trench coat was chuckling at the chaos that was unfolding. Intelligence Department operative Code Name Wraith knew this was pushing it with Uruz-6 being this close, but had hope that Souske was going to be decked again by the pig-tailed boy. The young mercenary had messed up the touchy feely moment, but then Souske just took cover and the fun was at its end.
Wraith saw the pig-tailed boy run towards the park exit and then lost him in the tree cover. Damn, that would mean relocating. However, there no need to hurry too much. It was a good 15 minutes before he would even reach the edge of the park.
The Intelligence operative had just dismantled the sniper rifle when a clank came from the balconies, followed by another. It’s not possible Wraith thought as a red shirted streak jumped up to the balcony. Reflexively Wraith drew a 44 mag and cocked it. Damn, should have grabbed the stun gun instead. However, this should scare him enough to let me get away without hurting him.
“Don’t move boy.” Wraith’s raspy voice commanded, “Lie down on the ground and put your hands on your head and you won’t get hurt.”
“Why are you after Kaname?” The boy snarled.
“Get down. I won’t ask again.” Wraith gestured with the gun.
The split second the gun was pointed slightly away was enough for the boy to kick the gun away. Wraith couldn’t believe how fast the boy was. He was able to land several punches to the body before the agent could even begin to react. Good thing the padding took most of the force away. The wheel gun landed and went off. By a stroke of luck, the bullet grazed the boy in the back. This distracted him enough for Wraith to pull out the stun gun and stick the business end into the boy. Wraith snorted in disdain as the pig-tailed boy dropped in a boneless heap.
A gunshot rang across the deserted park.
“NO!” Kaname cried, “Ranma’s been shot. He’s gone…” She couldn’t feel him anymore. He was gone. For the first time as far as she cared to remember, she was truly alone. Even when he slept, she could feel his presence on some level. She collapsed by the bench sobbing.
“Shots fired! Shots fired!” Souske called into his headset, “Requesting backup.” Chidora said the boy was shot. He had learned to trust whispered information and reported, “Also, the boy might be down. I saw him running toward one of the buildings near the north entrance of the park. He must have spotted the sniper on one of them.”
“@;%&!” Melissa cursed. They were supposed to keep the presence of the A.S. as quiet as possible, but if Souske thought the threat great enough, then it couldn’t be ignored. “Urzu-6, inspect the buildings near park entrance and see if you can spot the sniper. If possible, find the boy and we’ll give what aid we can and for Christ’s sake watch where you’re stepping!”
“Hey, no worries. I’ll find that perverted voyeur mood-breaking sniper!” Kurz cheerfully replied. Melissa stared at the radio speaker with a sweat drop on her head.
Kaname punched the bench with every sob. It wasn’t fair! They had just found each other! They were supposed to live happily ever after! If she had let him marry that other girl…she …she would not be able to have him, but at least he would still be alive. Damn it! She was going to avenge Ranma…or die trying.
She dried her tears on her sleeve and ran toward the park entrance. Souske tried to follow, but his bruised ribs protested the sudden movement. He stumbled a bit, took a few deep breaths, and then forced his body to forward.
Wraith staggered toward the edge of the building and cursed at what came over the ear radio. The damn AS was coming. Have to make a break for it and leave the equipment. Ow …How strong is that damn kid? Even with the padding, I’ll be feeling these bruises for a week. Ow …ugh…feels like the boy cracked a rib. Wraith started to slide down the ladder when a hand came over the side and pulled the agent back up.
“Impossible!” Wraith gasped as the red shirted youth came into view.
“I …won’t let you hurt her!” The youth slurred as his facial muscles had yet to recover full motion. Hell, he shouldn’t be moving for at least a few more minutes.
Wraith’s kicked at the head, but was blocked by the boy, who then retaliated with an upper cut. The pig-tailed youth then followed with a roundhouse kick that propelled the agent into the metal roof door. There wasn’t much padding around the head to protect the luckless agent from the impact, the concussion or the lost of consciousness.
“I won’t let you hurt her.” Ranma softly repeated as he looked down at the unmoving sniper. His muddled mind wasn’t sensing his other half. That stun gun seemed to have messed up their connection. He tried to reach out again and this time he faintly felt her again, “ Kaname… ”
Suddenly his limbs suddenly felt like lead as his body ran out of adrenaline. “Oh hell.” He said as the sudden vertigo caused him to fall backwards …over the ledge.
Kurz ran and grabbed the edge of a building that he would have chosen if he were sniping someone in the park. As he pulled himself up, he heard a thump against the AS.
Ranma flew into the sky in a classic Takahashi pain position.
Kurz checked his cameras, but didn’t see anything obstructing his way. He pulled the AS up a bit and congratulated himself as his instincts proved correct as he spotted the sniper gun and a figure in a trench coat. He felt something shift under the AS’s hands and quickly let go. He quickly reported his findings.
Normally, Souske would have easily over taken Miss Chidori. However, today she ran with such a fierce determination that he estimated that even uninjured he would be hard pressed to keep up.
“Ranma…,” she suddenly gasped. “He’s alive,” she whispered too low for Souske to hear. He caught up with her as she stopped running.
“Miss Chidori,” he urgently said as he pulled her behind a large sakura tree, “you must stay behind cover!” He was surprised the suddenly happy girl gave no resistance. Maybe battle shock setting in Souske sadly thought.
“I found the sniper’s nest,” Kurz’s voice crackled over the radio, “M90 … nice scope. There’s some big guy who’s laid out up there, might be the sniper. No sign of the boy though. Urzu-7 I need you to come up to the roof and secure everything. I don’t think this building will hold up an AS’s weight.”
“On my way.” Souske acknowledged as he got the coordinates.
“Urzu-6,” Melissa commanded, “watch over our Angel while Urzu-7 moves in.”
“Got it.” Kurz said as he made his way toward the park. “Oops.” He said as the AS kicked a small garbage can. It bounced a few times and rolled in front of a passing cop car. He decided the play it safe and take an extra minute or two to walk the long way around while the cop looked about from his car with a mag light.
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(Posted Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:39)
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