Chapter 5 - It Happened One Night
By Kohikki
Before you read:
Accent notes:
Th = Z in here, always. (Earz = Earth, Neizer = Neither)
Ee or e replaces some 'I's. (Ee'm = I'm, Et = It, so on and so forth)
Z = some 's's. (zpot = spot, zerious = serious)
Other crazy French Hikki notes:
Refers to "Gottel" as "Gotte." Just does it. Don't question.
Znipairs = Snipers.
**********
"Hold on here, two hours?!" someone called from the back.
"That's kind of sudden, don't you think?! Didn't you originally say we had two days?" another said in agreement.
"Well, Ee zuppose eef non of you are willing to rescue Raef, zen yes, perhaps et may be too soon," Hikki sighed, irritated by the silly questions being raised by the crowd.
"Stop making such a huge fuss over every single detail! If we wait too long, then who knows what they might do to him!" Angel snapped at the crowd.
There was silence for a brief moment as the crowd let Angel's words sink in.
"Merci." Hikki turned to Angel.
"Right," she nodded.
The crowd of people gathered in Trunks' Pub began preparing themselves.
"Ahem, Mr. Hikki, may I have a word with you?" A somewhat younger man with black hair approached him.
"And how may Ee help you zen, and please, I prefer to be addressed as Monsieur; much nicer sounding, no?" Hikki said, not looking up from working on the large cake he was preparing.
"Well, my name is Samson," he said, extending his arm towards him.
"Lovely," he said flatly, not really paying him much mind.
"Ah, Monsieur Hikki...I'm going to be your assistant while you're leading this branch, and so it would be good if we could discuss how these people are going to be divided for this and, well, other things, like who should be the head of each group, rendezvous points, codes...ah, that kind of thing."
Zamson, Eencase you didnont 'ear me when I was addrezzing ze group earlier, 'Ee'm bak-eeng a beeg cake,' and zo I believe zat I should be left to do zo. Don't you agree?" Hikki replied, still working on the cake, sounding kind of annoyed.
"M-MR. HIKKI, THIS STEP OF THE PLANNING IS INCREDIBLY CRUCIAL; I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. IF WE COULD PLEASE HAVE A MOMENT TO DISCUSS A FEW THINGS, THAT WOULD BE--" Samson was beginning to lose his calm over the matter.
Hikki gave Samson a stern look and raised his finger to his mouth as his way of "shushing" him. Samson sighed.
"Look, I understand that the baking of the cake is important to the mission, but if we don't plan it, the entire thing will fall apart.
"Monsieur Hikki...I think you should listen to Samson." A bespectacled woman from the back of the room approached him. "I can bake the cake while you plan it with him." She smiled; Samson was glad that someone was helping him.
"Heh, impossible, completely impossible. A cake made by anyone ozer zan myself would be awful," Hikki scoffed.
"Monsieur Hikki, I do believe that the taste of the cake is rather irrelevant, as our goal is not to feed the enemy?"
Hikki, fearful of being killed by a woman for the second time today, was embarrassed and stepped away from the oven, following Samson to the back. "Fine, fine zen, Ee didn't want to make ze cake in ze first place anyway, and neizer of you had to yell about it eizer; I mean, honestly..." he said, embittered.
"Thank you for your help, Miss..." Samson smiled at the woman.
"Ah, Clarice...don't mention it." She smiled back.
"Right, well, thank you for your help."
**********
"Aaaaah, Kiraaaaa, it's sooo booooring around heeere," Emiri whined, tossing and turning on her bed, kicking like an impatient child.
"What do you expect me to do?" Kira Izuru sighed, sounding exhausted.
"Entertain me, obviously...all my beer is gone...my buzz is starting to wear off, everything is becoming boring again, so fix that."
"But what do you expect me--"
"I said fix it!" she drunkenly growled at him.
"...sure." Kira left Emiri's room; he figured that she was probably at her limit and would fall asleep eventually.
She rolled around on her floor after sinking off her bed, as the sheets, made of silk, were very slippery, especially to a person in this state. She made her way over to the window, from which she had a pretty good view of the entire town of Orly, since the room she stayed in was rather high up in the Comdot Estate. "Mmm? There's...gotta be a bar or something down there..."
As she scoped out the streets below, something caught her eye. "What's...what's with those weird people out there?" She assumed she must be seeing things, but upon further inspection, she decided that they were, in fact, real. "The hell?" She slumped down to the floor again.
After lying pressed fimrly against the floor for a few minutes, she suddenly started laughing, as if she'd just figured out why a joke she'd heard before was funny. "Those people," she laughed. "They must be the ones who've been expected to come and rescue the captives!" She let out a thunderous laugh, and then her expression changed. "My, how very intersting," she said, bringing her fingers up to her lips that had found themselves in a rather menacing sneer.
"Kira!" she called, still lying down on the floor."
The man returned. "Yes, Emiri?"
Emiri propped herself in a more upwards position to address Kira by leaning on her elbow. "Bring me my things; it would seem as though I've found something to entertain myself with for tonight," she smiled.
**********
"Alright, I azzume we're all ready zen?" Hikki inpsected the group of people who, thanks to Samson's expert planning, had been nicely grouped for maximum efficiency during the course of the mission.
"Group leaders Zpeece, Angel, and Gotte, please listen carefully. I am giving each of you one of zeeze headphone communicators; if anything is to happen while you are inzide zee Estate, use zem with no hesitation. Zpeece, your group will enzar in from ze back entrance. Angel, yours will be ze onez who cause a distraction with ze cake. Gotte, your group will charge in if zer is any problem or Raef has been located. Lastly, Heero, Riza, you two will come with me; ze position should be fairly acceptable for your zniping needs, I should zink."
"Now zen, with zat all settled, Partons!" (Partons = "let's go," "let us leave" in French)
The groups began to take their leave from the pub. Angel entered the hollow middle of the cake, and her group began to set off towards Comdot Estate, with the others following behind in the shadows.
"Now zen, I zuppose it would be good for us to find a safe zpot to observe from, don't you agree?" Hikki offered Samson and Clarice a set of headphones and beckoned to them and the snipers to follow his lead.
"Wait a tic," a man from one of the groups called out. "Why aren't you three going in on the raid with the rest of us?! I mean, the snipers OBVIOUSLY would wait outside, but what're your excuses?!" he continued.
"Eet's simple. Ee'm but ze leader; my only value is coming up with plans and having good people skills," Hikki said matter-of-factly.
"Well, that makes sense, but what about the other two?"
"Come on now, do you ree-ally zink zese two would be of use if zey were to enter ze Estate? Of course not!"
Over on the rooftop of an inn that approved of their plan, the group got everything set up to begin.
"Tezting, can you hear me Angel?" Hikki's voice sounded from Angel's communicator.
"Yeah, I can hear you fine. We're approaching the main entrance; I'll be in communication with you when we've completed the first page. Over and out." Angel held her breath in fear of them failing right off the bat and being killed before she could have her revenge.
"Well zen, it would zeem as zough we have nuzzing to worry about with our first group," Hikki smirked.
"Don't be too confident; there's still a chance that Gottel's squad will need to be sent in during this phase," Clarice noted, adjusting her communicator.
Heero and Riza began setting up their guns and getting into position.
"As long as everything goes according to plan, we have nothing to worry about," Samson said hopefully.
Ten minutes later, there was still no response from Angel's group.
"Damn it, what on earz could be taking zem so long?" Hikki was beginning to grow impatient and nervous. "I mean honestly, how long does et take to deestract some zimple guards?"
Down near the entrance, things were going smoothly, although rather slowly. Angel, inside the cake, had begun to worry that the plan was failing, because she had yet to be given the signal to jump out and distract the guards.
"Angel, how're you holding up in there?" Samson asked over the communicator. "If you can still hear me, just blow into the microphone."
"Samson, I don't think now is the best time to be talking," Angel whispered in something of a panic. Samson turned his communicator off again.
"Well, it doesn't seem like there's any real problem with group one," he said, somewhat relieved.
"Noh-t yet at least..." Hikki sighed.
Clarice grimaced at him, kind of embarrassed and somewhat disgusted that she was working under someone like him, whom she felt was so incompetent. "What kind of leader are you? Over-confident, then not confident at all," she sniffed.
"Ha, who do you zink you are? And at a time like this...Ee mean, really..."
"I...I don't mean to be a jerk, but I think any infighting between the current leader and members of the Syndicate should be left to a time when we've finished the task at hand," Samson said wearily.
**********
A striptease and some well-executed knocking-out of the guards later, phase one had been completed at the entrance.
"This is Angel. Phase one has been a success; you can dispatch Spice's team at any time. Over and out." With this, Angel's full team left the Estate to return to the safety of the pub.
"Very well zen. Zamson, give ze command to Zpeece's team."
"Right," Samson nodded.
"Spice, your team is free to go. Remember, and I can't stress this enough, your team's goal is only to find the prisoners, nothing else. No unnecessary killing, no explosions...I'd like this to go as smoothly as possible."
"Copy," she said, beginning to relay Samson's message to the rest of her team.
"Good luck." Samson smiled, turning his communicator to mute again.
"Hmm, Zamson, tell Zpeece to turn zat back on."
"What? Isn't that kind of...the opposite of a good idea?"
"Listen to ze order," Hikki said in a stern tone.
"Well, okay, but I don't see..."
Hikki practically tore the communicator off Samson's head.
"Hey, watch it!"
"Oh pleaze, don't whine about eet."
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Clarice ripped her own headphones off to hear what was going on around her.
"Zpeeze, listen. Turn your microphone back on. Leave eet on ze entire time zat you are in ze building," Hikki ordered.
"Uh, okay..." Spice said, a little confused about the order.
"Mr., er, Monsieur Hikki, what exactly are you planning with this? Wouldn't Spice's microphone being on distract her? What if they can pick up the signal and listen in on the conversations due to it being left on for so long...I really think that you should reconsider whatever it is that you're--" Hikki handed the headphones back to Samson.
"Listen to every zing that goes on in zere. If you hear anyzing, anyzing strange at all, let Clareece know to give ze order to Gotte's squad to go ahead."
With the microphone left on, Samson surprisingly wasn't hearing much...the occasional heavy footstep, a door opening here and there. Due to this almost-silence, Samson felt that the mission should be moving along as according to plan.
Suddenly, a burst of noises erupted in Samson's ears.
Various sounds of yelling, seemingly from both sides, concerning the prisoner. Then, shots fired from a gun. And a woman's voice in the quiet after the guns had been fired.
"Spice! Get out of there! Get everyone out!" Samson screamed into the microphone in a panic.
"Clarice! Send Gottel's team in!" Samson ordered.
"Right." Clarice switched on her microphone and gave Gottel the go-ahead.
"Heero, Riza, can you see anything that's going on in there?! Shoot out anyone who isn't on our side," Samson continued.
"There...isn't a window anywhere near their current location," Heero said, examining the building through his scope.
"You'll have to hope your people can make it without our support for the time being," Riza finished for him.
"Zamson, just what ze hell is going on een zere?" Hikki shouted, trying to listen in over Samson's headphones.
"Sir, please! This is no time for questions!" Samson yelled, holding his headphones tightly over his ears. It was quiet again...no footsteps, no moving doors, no gunshots, no voices. Just completely silent...until he heard the woman's voice again. This time with complete clarity.
"Why hello there. And who am I talking to?" the woman said politely.
She had gotten a hold of Spice's communicator somehow. Samson's eyes widened.
"Sir...I think you should hear this." Samson handed his headphones over to Hikki, shaking somewhat.
"Clarice, how is Gottel's squad doing? Switch their top priority to locating the other teams, and get them out of there!" Samson instructed. "Where the hell are Father Sadar and the others?" he said to himself.
"Hello there, who am I talking to?" the woman asked again.
"Ee don't believe zat my name is ze top concern at the moment. What are your demands?"
"Huh? What's with the weird accent; don't you guys have anyone who can speak English over there? What're you guys, some weird foreign terrorist group or something?" The woman, now talking at length, appeared to be drunk from the sound of her voice. "Listen, pal, your kids aren't very fun to play with. Send something more entertaining next time.
Hikki turned the microphone off for the time being. "Zamson, zees ees really ze woman's voice that you heard after the gunshots?"
Samson nodded. "Correct, I'm sure of it."
Hikki turned back on the microphone.
"Hey pal, I'm talking to you. Respond already. Who the hell do you think I am?!"
"A very interesting question. To be honest, Ee haven't zee slightest clue who you might be."
"Hah! You've never heard of me before? The name's Emiri, the one and only kamikaze hardcore lady from hell working under Ozzal, and next time don't send out little toys that're gonna get broken so easily, got it?!"
The woman's use of the word "broken" gave Hikki a chill. He shut the microphone off again. "Clareece, has Gotte's squad found Zpeece's team yet?"
"Ah, yes, the team has been found, and apparently Father Sadar and the others have made it in there at this point. They've located Raef, and they're bringing him out as soon as possible. He says Spice herself is fine, but..."
"What of ze people en Zpeece's squad? How many injured? ...dead?"
"...seven," Clarice answered grimly. "There are...seven deceased."
"GOD DAMNIT!" Hikki clenched his teeth. "Just who ze hell is zis Emiri person; how was she able to take out so many people?! Zat Deeno, he didn't tell me zat zere would be people like zat in the building!"
"S-seven?" Samson was surprised about the number. "That's...impossible. I only heard two gunshots."
"Appa-ree-ntlee, ze person we're dealing with here is skelled, very skelled." Hikki folded his hands.
"Sir...can we really hope to continue the mission? I mean, we've already lost way more people than is acceptable. I would advise we just pull them out as soon as possible."
"No," Hikki said firmly. "We have not yet reached our goal; zerefore, we cannot leave."
"But sir, we've already lost seven of--" Samson tried to argue.
"We are goeeng to continue," Hikki responded before Samson could finish his sentence.
"DAMN IT, SIR, WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO, GET EVERYONE KILLED?!" Samson yelled. "WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU TRYING TO PROVE HERE?!" Samson turned. "Clarice, give Gottel's squad the order to get out of there as soon as possible." Clarice nodded.
"Gottel!" she called over her microphone. "I want you to get every--" She suddenly realized that there was no sound coming from her communicator.
"You...you disconnected it, didn't you?! You son of a bitch!" She gave Hikki a look of fierce anger.
"We are not goeeng to turn and run away wiz our tail between our legs like a cowardly dog," he declared. "We are goeng to finish zis!"
"It's not called being cowardly when there are people's lives at stake," Samson said in a low tone of voice, rather quietly, as though it made no matter at this point.
**********
"This is turning out to be more of a fiasco than I'd planned," Kirara sighed, picking the lock to the cell holding Raef.
"It's kind of a good thing that the other team did so poorly, though. I mean, not that it's good that some of them died...but this is proving to be a very useful distraction," Elizabeth smiled.
"All right, I've almost got it here...can you give me a hand?" The two pulled open the cell, and sure enough, there was Raef. He was somewhat bloodied and was bound to the wall.
"Don't worry, we'll have you out shortly," Kirara assured him.
"Hey, how do you think Sadar and Wyatt are holding up over with Landon?" Elizabeth asked, helping Kirara to unbind Raef.
"Knowing them, probably fine enough," Kirara said, not really paying much attention due to being focused on the task at hand.
Sadar and Wyatt were having a bit harder of a time; as expected, the security around where Landon was being held was tight, very tight. Luckily, the remaining people of Hikki's team managed to aid the two.
"Ah? What's this? More of you?" Emiri walked up from behind them.
Suspecting it would be best, Father Sadar drew the sword from his cane.
"Oh ho?" She chuckled. "This one has some fight in him." Emiri smiled widely.
"Wyatt, you go forward with the others and rescue Landon!" Sadar called.
"...Fine, but you better not die," Wyatt said, as he turned and ran towards the cell where Landon was being held. The remaining people from Hikki's team followed.
"Well, old man, you gonna fight me or what?" Emiri laughed. "Come on, I'll let you have the--"
Before Emiri could finish, she felt herself bleeding from a cut in her abdomen. She reached down to feel it, somewhat startled by the speed of the man.
"I think I've shown you that a fight with me would be silly for the both of us," he said in a serious tone.
Emiri's hands were now covered in the blood from her stomach wound. She looked at the man with the ferocity of a rabid animal as she licked the blood from her hands.
"Ha! We will meet again; I will make certain of it." Her smile was as wild-looking as her eyes. She turned around and walked back up the stairs casually, despite laughing like a maniac all the way up.
Emiri returned to her room, which Kira was attempting to clean up after she messed it up earlier while she was drinking. She lay down on her bed again, not caring if the blood stained her sheets.
"You're bleeding again."
"Clean it," she sighed.
"Did you have fun?" he asked her, removing her blood-stained clothing.
"Fun? Most of those people were nothing; none of them were worth my time.
"Oh, you don't seem to be in too bad a mood, though." He smiled.
"I met...an incredible man," she laughed.
**********
"Sadar, you better come get a look at this," Wyatt called to him from the top of the stairs.
He arrived in the cell that was supposed to be holding Landon.
"There's no one in here. What do you make of it?"
"It's most likely a trap. We need to get everyone out of here as soon as possible." Sadar left the room quickly, and the others followed.
Luckily, everyone in the building managed to make it out, save for the seven unfortunate souls from Spice's team.
Raef was resting on a cot in Trunks' pub, and a lot of the people were celebrating completing the mission successfully, while a few of the others were mourning the loss of the people from Spice's team. Heero and Riza were getting their guns packed away.
"We're sorry we couldn't be of much help this time," Heero apologized.
"Zink nozzing of it; if we ever require znipairs, we will be sure to call you again." Hikki winked at Heero. Heero shuddered a little, and Riza gave him a look that could kill a man.
In the corner of the pub, Hikki could see Sadar and his group getting ready to leave.
"Monsieur Sadar, it is nice to meet you." Hikki was somewhat bruised when he approached Father Sadary, as Clarice gave him a good beating for being so reckless and unfeeling with his orders earlier, but ultimately they smoothed things over. "Your people did a marvelous job; I zank you for all your help." He smiled.
"We help our own," he said, ignoring Hikki's outstretched hand. "Always," he continued. With that, Sadar, Wyatt, and Elizabeth left the pub, presumably to return to their usual spot.
"Such a zerious man..." Hikki sighed.
"Well of course, sir...it's not time to relax yet. We may have gotten Raef to safety, but our battle against Ozzal is nowhere close to finished." Samson sat down for a drink. "I mean, they obviously don't want to make nice with us, going to lengths to set up a trap like that," he sighed. "Despite what happened...I think you did pretty okay as a leader." He smiled.
"Merci." Hikki sat down next to him.
"Just don't expect Clarice to forgive you any time soon..."
Before you read:
Accent notes:
Th = Z in here, always. (Earz = Earth, Neizer = Neither)
Ee or e replaces some 'I's. (Ee'm = I'm, Et = It, so on and so forth)
Z = some 's's. (zpot = spot, zerious = serious)
Other crazy French Hikki notes:
Refers to "Gottel" as "Gotte." Just does it. Don't question.
Znipairs = Snipers.
**********
"Hold on here, two hours?!" someone called from the back.
"That's kind of sudden, don't you think?! Didn't you originally say we had two days?" another said in agreement.
"Well, Ee zuppose eef non of you are willing to rescue Raef, zen yes, perhaps et may be too soon," Hikki sighed, irritated by the silly questions being raised by the crowd.
"Stop making such a huge fuss over every single detail! If we wait too long, then who knows what they might do to him!" Angel snapped at the crowd.
There was silence for a brief moment as the crowd let Angel's words sink in.
"Merci." Hikki turned to Angel.
"Right," she nodded.
The crowd of people gathered in Trunks' Pub began preparing themselves.
"Ahem, Mr. Hikki, may I have a word with you?" A somewhat younger man with black hair approached him.
"And how may Ee help you zen, and please, I prefer to be addressed as Monsieur; much nicer sounding, no?" Hikki said, not looking up from working on the large cake he was preparing.
"Well, my name is Samson," he said, extending his arm towards him.
"Lovely," he said flatly, not really paying him much mind.
"Ah, Monsieur Hikki...I'm going to be your assistant while you're leading this branch, and so it would be good if we could discuss how these people are going to be divided for this and, well, other things, like who should be the head of each group, rendezvous points, codes...ah, that kind of thing."
Zamson, Eencase you didnont 'ear me when I was addrezzing ze group earlier, 'Ee'm bak-eeng a beeg cake,' and zo I believe zat I should be left to do zo. Don't you agree?" Hikki replied, still working on the cake, sounding kind of annoyed.
"M-MR. HIKKI, THIS STEP OF THE PLANNING IS INCREDIBLY CRUCIAL; I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. IF WE COULD PLEASE HAVE A MOMENT TO DISCUSS A FEW THINGS, THAT WOULD BE--" Samson was beginning to lose his calm over the matter.
Hikki gave Samson a stern look and raised his finger to his mouth as his way of "shushing" him. Samson sighed.
"Look, I understand that the baking of the cake is important to the mission, but if we don't plan it, the entire thing will fall apart.
"Monsieur Hikki...I think you should listen to Samson." A bespectacled woman from the back of the room approached him. "I can bake the cake while you plan it with him." She smiled; Samson was glad that someone was helping him.
"Heh, impossible, completely impossible. A cake made by anyone ozer zan myself would be awful," Hikki scoffed.
"Monsieur Hikki, I do believe that the taste of the cake is rather irrelevant, as our goal is not to feed the enemy?"
Hikki, fearful of being killed by a woman for the second time today, was embarrassed and stepped away from the oven, following Samson to the back. "Fine, fine zen, Ee didn't want to make ze cake in ze first place anyway, and neizer of you had to yell about it eizer; I mean, honestly..." he said, embittered.
"Thank you for your help, Miss..." Samson smiled at the woman.
"Ah, Clarice...don't mention it." She smiled back.
"Right, well, thank you for your help."
**********
"Aaaaah, Kiraaaaa, it's sooo booooring around heeere," Emiri whined, tossing and turning on her bed, kicking like an impatient child.
"What do you expect me to do?" Kira Izuru sighed, sounding exhausted.
"Entertain me, obviously...all my beer is gone...my buzz is starting to wear off, everything is becoming boring again, so fix that."
"But what do you expect me--"
"I said fix it!" she drunkenly growled at him.
"...sure." Kira left Emiri's room; he figured that she was probably at her limit and would fall asleep eventually.
She rolled around on her floor after sinking off her bed, as the sheets, made of silk, were very slippery, especially to a person in this state. She made her way over to the window, from which she had a pretty good view of the entire town of Orly, since the room she stayed in was rather high up in the Comdot Estate. "Mmm? There's...gotta be a bar or something down there..."
As she scoped out the streets below, something caught her eye. "What's...what's with those weird people out there?" She assumed she must be seeing things, but upon further inspection, she decided that they were, in fact, real. "The hell?" She slumped down to the floor again.
After lying pressed fimrly against the floor for a few minutes, she suddenly started laughing, as if she'd just figured out why a joke she'd heard before was funny. "Those people," she laughed. "They must be the ones who've been expected to come and rescue the captives!" She let out a thunderous laugh, and then her expression changed. "My, how very intersting," she said, bringing her fingers up to her lips that had found themselves in a rather menacing sneer.
"Kira!" she called, still lying down on the floor."
The man returned. "Yes, Emiri?"
Emiri propped herself in a more upwards position to address Kira by leaning on her elbow. "Bring me my things; it would seem as though I've found something to entertain myself with for tonight," she smiled.
**********
"Alright, I azzume we're all ready zen?" Hikki inpsected the group of people who, thanks to Samson's expert planning, had been nicely grouped for maximum efficiency during the course of the mission.
"Group leaders Zpeece, Angel, and Gotte, please listen carefully. I am giving each of you one of zeeze headphone communicators; if anything is to happen while you are inzide zee Estate, use zem with no hesitation. Zpeece, your group will enzar in from ze back entrance. Angel, yours will be ze onez who cause a distraction with ze cake. Gotte, your group will charge in if zer is any problem or Raef has been located. Lastly, Heero, Riza, you two will come with me; ze position should be fairly acceptable for your zniping needs, I should zink."
"Now zen, with zat all settled, Partons!" (Partons = "let's go," "let us leave" in French)
The groups began to take their leave from the pub. Angel entered the hollow middle of the cake, and her group began to set off towards Comdot Estate, with the others following behind in the shadows.
"Now zen, I zuppose it would be good for us to find a safe zpot to observe from, don't you agree?" Hikki offered Samson and Clarice a set of headphones and beckoned to them and the snipers to follow his lead.
"Wait a tic," a man from one of the groups called out. "Why aren't you three going in on the raid with the rest of us?! I mean, the snipers OBVIOUSLY would wait outside, but what're your excuses?!" he continued.
"Eet's simple. Ee'm but ze leader; my only value is coming up with plans and having good people skills," Hikki said matter-of-factly.
"Well, that makes sense, but what about the other two?"
"Come on now, do you ree-ally zink zese two would be of use if zey were to enter ze Estate? Of course not!"
Over on the rooftop of an inn that approved of their plan, the group got everything set up to begin.
"Tezting, can you hear me Angel?" Hikki's voice sounded from Angel's communicator.
"Yeah, I can hear you fine. We're approaching the main entrance; I'll be in communication with you when we've completed the first page. Over and out." Angel held her breath in fear of them failing right off the bat and being killed before she could have her revenge.
"Well zen, it would zeem as zough we have nuzzing to worry about with our first group," Hikki smirked.
"Don't be too confident; there's still a chance that Gottel's squad will need to be sent in during this phase," Clarice noted, adjusting her communicator.
Heero and Riza began setting up their guns and getting into position.
"As long as everything goes according to plan, we have nothing to worry about," Samson said hopefully.
Ten minutes later, there was still no response from Angel's group.
"Damn it, what on earz could be taking zem so long?" Hikki was beginning to grow impatient and nervous. "I mean honestly, how long does et take to deestract some zimple guards?"
Down near the entrance, things were going smoothly, although rather slowly. Angel, inside the cake, had begun to worry that the plan was failing, because she had yet to be given the signal to jump out and distract the guards.
"Angel, how're you holding up in there?" Samson asked over the communicator. "If you can still hear me, just blow into the microphone."
"Samson, I don't think now is the best time to be talking," Angel whispered in something of a panic. Samson turned his communicator off again.
"Well, it doesn't seem like there's any real problem with group one," he said, somewhat relieved.
"Noh-t yet at least..." Hikki sighed.
Clarice grimaced at him, kind of embarrassed and somewhat disgusted that she was working under someone like him, whom she felt was so incompetent. "What kind of leader are you? Over-confident, then not confident at all," she sniffed.
"Ha, who do you zink you are? And at a time like this...Ee mean, really..."
"I...I don't mean to be a jerk, but I think any infighting between the current leader and members of the Syndicate should be left to a time when we've finished the task at hand," Samson said wearily.
**********
A striptease and some well-executed knocking-out of the guards later, phase one had been completed at the entrance.
"This is Angel. Phase one has been a success; you can dispatch Spice's team at any time. Over and out." With this, Angel's full team left the Estate to return to the safety of the pub.
"Very well zen. Zamson, give ze command to Zpeece's team."
"Right," Samson nodded.
"Spice, your team is free to go. Remember, and I can't stress this enough, your team's goal is only to find the prisoners, nothing else. No unnecessary killing, no explosions...I'd like this to go as smoothly as possible."
"Copy," she said, beginning to relay Samson's message to the rest of her team.
"Good luck." Samson smiled, turning his communicator to mute again.
"Hmm, Zamson, tell Zpeece to turn zat back on."
"What? Isn't that kind of...the opposite of a good idea?"
"Listen to ze order," Hikki said in a stern tone.
"Well, okay, but I don't see..."
Hikki practically tore the communicator off Samson's head.
"Hey, watch it!"
"Oh pleaze, don't whine about eet."
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Clarice ripped her own headphones off to hear what was going on around her.
"Zpeeze, listen. Turn your microphone back on. Leave eet on ze entire time zat you are in ze building," Hikki ordered.
"Uh, okay..." Spice said, a little confused about the order.
"Mr., er, Monsieur Hikki, what exactly are you planning with this? Wouldn't Spice's microphone being on distract her? What if they can pick up the signal and listen in on the conversations due to it being left on for so long...I really think that you should reconsider whatever it is that you're--" Hikki handed the headphones back to Samson.
"Listen to every zing that goes on in zere. If you hear anyzing, anyzing strange at all, let Clareece know to give ze order to Gotte's squad to go ahead."
With the microphone left on, Samson surprisingly wasn't hearing much...the occasional heavy footstep, a door opening here and there. Due to this almost-silence, Samson felt that the mission should be moving along as according to plan.
Suddenly, a burst of noises erupted in Samson's ears.
Various sounds of yelling, seemingly from both sides, concerning the prisoner. Then, shots fired from a gun. And a woman's voice in the quiet after the guns had been fired.
"Spice! Get out of there! Get everyone out!" Samson screamed into the microphone in a panic.
"Clarice! Send Gottel's team in!" Samson ordered.
"Right." Clarice switched on her microphone and gave Gottel the go-ahead.
"Heero, Riza, can you see anything that's going on in there?! Shoot out anyone who isn't on our side," Samson continued.
"There...isn't a window anywhere near their current location," Heero said, examining the building through his scope.
"You'll have to hope your people can make it without our support for the time being," Riza finished for him.
"Zamson, just what ze hell is going on een zere?" Hikki shouted, trying to listen in over Samson's headphones.
"Sir, please! This is no time for questions!" Samson yelled, holding his headphones tightly over his ears. It was quiet again...no footsteps, no moving doors, no gunshots, no voices. Just completely silent...until he heard the woman's voice again. This time with complete clarity.
"Why hello there. And who am I talking to?" the woman said politely.
She had gotten a hold of Spice's communicator somehow. Samson's eyes widened.
"Sir...I think you should hear this." Samson handed his headphones over to Hikki, shaking somewhat.
"Clarice, how is Gottel's squad doing? Switch their top priority to locating the other teams, and get them out of there!" Samson instructed. "Where the hell are Father Sadar and the others?" he said to himself.
"Hello there, who am I talking to?" the woman asked again.
"Ee don't believe zat my name is ze top concern at the moment. What are your demands?"
"Huh? What's with the weird accent; don't you guys have anyone who can speak English over there? What're you guys, some weird foreign terrorist group or something?" The woman, now talking at length, appeared to be drunk from the sound of her voice. "Listen, pal, your kids aren't very fun to play with. Send something more entertaining next time.
Hikki turned the microphone off for the time being. "Zamson, zees ees really ze woman's voice that you heard after the gunshots?"
Samson nodded. "Correct, I'm sure of it."
Hikki turned back on the microphone.
"Hey pal, I'm talking to you. Respond already. Who the hell do you think I am?!"
"A very interesting question. To be honest, Ee haven't zee slightest clue who you might be."
"Hah! You've never heard of me before? The name's Emiri, the one and only kamikaze hardcore lady from hell working under Ozzal, and next time don't send out little toys that're gonna get broken so easily, got it?!"
The woman's use of the word "broken" gave Hikki a chill. He shut the microphone off again. "Clareece, has Gotte's squad found Zpeece's team yet?"
"Ah, yes, the team has been found, and apparently Father Sadar and the others have made it in there at this point. They've located Raef, and they're bringing him out as soon as possible. He says Spice herself is fine, but..."
"What of ze people en Zpeece's squad? How many injured? ...dead?"
"...seven," Clarice answered grimly. "There are...seven deceased."
"GOD DAMNIT!" Hikki clenched his teeth. "Just who ze hell is zis Emiri person; how was she able to take out so many people?! Zat Deeno, he didn't tell me zat zere would be people like zat in the building!"
"S-seven?" Samson was surprised about the number. "That's...impossible. I only heard two gunshots."
"Appa-ree-ntlee, ze person we're dealing with here is skelled, very skelled." Hikki folded his hands.
"Sir...can we really hope to continue the mission? I mean, we've already lost way more people than is acceptable. I would advise we just pull them out as soon as possible."
"No," Hikki said firmly. "We have not yet reached our goal; zerefore, we cannot leave."
"But sir, we've already lost seven of--" Samson tried to argue.
"We are goeeng to continue," Hikki responded before Samson could finish his sentence.
"DAMN IT, SIR, WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO, GET EVERYONE KILLED?!" Samson yelled. "WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU TRYING TO PROVE HERE?!" Samson turned. "Clarice, give Gottel's squad the order to get out of there as soon as possible." Clarice nodded.
"Gottel!" she called over her microphone. "I want you to get every--" She suddenly realized that there was no sound coming from her communicator.
"You...you disconnected it, didn't you?! You son of a bitch!" She gave Hikki a look of fierce anger.
"We are not goeeng to turn and run away wiz our tail between our legs like a cowardly dog," he declared. "We are goeng to finish zis!"
"It's not called being cowardly when there are people's lives at stake," Samson said in a low tone of voice, rather quietly, as though it made no matter at this point.
**********
"This is turning out to be more of a fiasco than I'd planned," Kirara sighed, picking the lock to the cell holding Raef.
"It's kind of a good thing that the other team did so poorly, though. I mean, not that it's good that some of them died...but this is proving to be a very useful distraction," Elizabeth smiled.
"All right, I've almost got it here...can you give me a hand?" The two pulled open the cell, and sure enough, there was Raef. He was somewhat bloodied and was bound to the wall.
"Don't worry, we'll have you out shortly," Kirara assured him.
"Hey, how do you think Sadar and Wyatt are holding up over with Landon?" Elizabeth asked, helping Kirara to unbind Raef.
"Knowing them, probably fine enough," Kirara said, not really paying much attention due to being focused on the task at hand.
Sadar and Wyatt were having a bit harder of a time; as expected, the security around where Landon was being held was tight, very tight. Luckily, the remaining people of Hikki's team managed to aid the two.
"Ah? What's this? More of you?" Emiri walked up from behind them.
Suspecting it would be best, Father Sadar drew the sword from his cane.
"Oh ho?" She chuckled. "This one has some fight in him." Emiri smiled widely.
"Wyatt, you go forward with the others and rescue Landon!" Sadar called.
"...Fine, but you better not die," Wyatt said, as he turned and ran towards the cell where Landon was being held. The remaining people from Hikki's team followed.
"Well, old man, you gonna fight me or what?" Emiri laughed. "Come on, I'll let you have the--"
Before Emiri could finish, she felt herself bleeding from a cut in her abdomen. She reached down to feel it, somewhat startled by the speed of the man.
"I think I've shown you that a fight with me would be silly for the both of us," he said in a serious tone.
Emiri's hands were now covered in the blood from her stomach wound. She looked at the man with the ferocity of a rabid animal as she licked the blood from her hands.
"Ha! We will meet again; I will make certain of it." Her smile was as wild-looking as her eyes. She turned around and walked back up the stairs casually, despite laughing like a maniac all the way up.
Emiri returned to her room, which Kira was attempting to clean up after she messed it up earlier while she was drinking. She lay down on her bed again, not caring if the blood stained her sheets.
"You're bleeding again."
"Clean it," she sighed.
"Did you have fun?" he asked her, removing her blood-stained clothing.
"Fun? Most of those people were nothing; none of them were worth my time.
"Oh, you don't seem to be in too bad a mood, though." He smiled.
"I met...an incredible man," she laughed.
**********
"Sadar, you better come get a look at this," Wyatt called to him from the top of the stairs.
He arrived in the cell that was supposed to be holding Landon.
"There's no one in here. What do you make of it?"
"It's most likely a trap. We need to get everyone out of here as soon as possible." Sadar left the room quickly, and the others followed.
Luckily, everyone in the building managed to make it out, save for the seven unfortunate souls from Spice's team.
Raef was resting on a cot in Trunks' pub, and a lot of the people were celebrating completing the mission successfully, while a few of the others were mourning the loss of the people from Spice's team. Heero and Riza were getting their guns packed away.
"We're sorry we couldn't be of much help this time," Heero apologized.
"Zink nozzing of it; if we ever require znipairs, we will be sure to call you again." Hikki winked at Heero. Heero shuddered a little, and Riza gave him a look that could kill a man.
In the corner of the pub, Hikki could see Sadar and his group getting ready to leave.
"Monsieur Sadar, it is nice to meet you." Hikki was somewhat bruised when he approached Father Sadary, as Clarice gave him a good beating for being so reckless and unfeeling with his orders earlier, but ultimately they smoothed things over. "Your people did a marvelous job; I zank you for all your help." He smiled.
"We help our own," he said, ignoring Hikki's outstretched hand. "Always," he continued. With that, Sadar, Wyatt, and Elizabeth left the pub, presumably to return to their usual spot.
"Such a zerious man..." Hikki sighed.
"Well of course, sir...it's not time to relax yet. We may have gotten Raef to safety, but our battle against Ozzal is nowhere close to finished." Samson sat down for a drink. "I mean, they obviously don't want to make nice with us, going to lengths to set up a trap like that," he sighed. "Despite what happened...I think you did pretty okay as a leader." He smiled.
"Merci." Hikki sat down next to him.
"Just don't expect Clarice to forgive you any time soon..."