Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Lives Crossed ❯ Hell Cat Part 2 ( Chapter 6 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: miaka sukunami 
Continuation of the first mission.
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Romance / Adventure | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.01.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.4K | Visits: 444 | Status: Completed
Continuation of the first mission.
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Romance / Adventure | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.01.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.4K | Visits: 444 | Status: Completed
Lives Crossed
Chapter Six - Hell Cat 2
One week later...
The night had gone as uneventful as they all had hoped for. Each of the six-gundam pilots taking turns to keep watch throughout the night. At the request of the other guys Serena had been chosen as last watch so that she could sleep most of the night and just keep a look out for the final hours before morning. Not that Serena had managed to sleep much anyway... In the past week they had been staking out the facility getting a feel for the daily activities, which turned out, didn’t vary at all. That was a good sign. If they could calculate every movement and possibly have a rough estimate of what they were dealing with in terms of Oz agents there wouldn’t be any surprises when they busted the place. None of them had slept for more than three hours maybe four. By the final night, Serena was anxious so even after they had made her take the last watch -they had agreed that the night before the assault they would put in a good nights sleep instead of staking out the place - she didn’t sleep at all. She was just too nervous.
Serena stretched as the first rays of light flitted though the curtains of the living room. She was sitting her back to the wall beside the front door. One leg stretched out lazily in front of her and the other pulled up to her chest, her standard issue 8000 Cougar Series Beretta clutched tightly in her right hand, fully loaded with a fresh magazine. Earlier on, Serena had maintained a better posture and an awareness that had kept her jumping at the slightest sound but at the first rays of sunlight, she had visibly relaxed sure, that no one would be crazy enough to attack in broad daylight at least not with out a damn good arsenal and the manpower to back it.
She glanced at her wristwatch dutifully noting that her shift was up and as if on cue, Wufei Chang emerged from the upstairs rooms. He was clad in nothing but a pair of black pajama pants and a towel draped lazily around his neck reminding Serena that she was also wearing sleepwear. A cami and dark green pants with her hair delicately framing her face. She lowered her Beretta greeting him with a small smile.
"Morning."
"Morning" he replied in exchange.
He smiled back at her as she got up from her position on the floor. Then Serena watched in curiosity as he moved the coffee table aside and started on stretching exercises. She decided that it was a good idea as any to join him in the exercises it would do her some good after the amount of time she had spent in her position by the door. She put the safety on her weapon, set it on the table along with her waist holster, and then just set to work on the exercises. At first, she was able to mirror his every move until the whole thing evolved into something different. Wufei's exercises had become more difficult to follow and they required a lot more discipline and patience. Intrigued by what her teammate was doing she continued to try to mirror his actions.
Wufei watched out of the corner of his eye how Serena managed to follow him in the first part of his Kata but then failed at her last few attempts. He was rather impressed not many people could even begin to execute a proper set of Kata. Regardless that she was interested in trying had merit in itself. He decided that if she was interested he was going to teach her at least enough to practice one complete set.
Serena felt strong arms circle her waist and she immediately tensed.
"Relax, I'm just going to teach you the Kata that I was doing just now. You have to relax, slow your breathing don't think just move." His voice sounded authoritative but without any sort of force or command behind it. This was enough to make Serena relax again to following his request.
Then with out speaking, he began guiding her through the first set. At first, he showed her basic positioning then when he thought she was ready just had her follow his movements correcting her along the way. She was surprisingly a very good student. They were both about finished when the others emerged from upstairs. Heero as expected just walked passed them already dressed and carrying his laptop into the kitchen. Quatre, Trowa and Duo planted themselves on the couch watching Wufei and Serena intently.
"Don't tell me you’re turning her into another Wufei." Duo said sounding amused, "I think one of you is more than enough."
Wufei and Serena both stopped what they were doing apparently finished for the day and Wufei smirked at the braided American.
"Fine I won't tell you, She can speak for herself." he replied.
The group simply laughed.
"So what's on today's agenda?" Serena asked while heading to the kitchen for a couple of water bottles and to start breakfast.
The group followed her in taking seats around the round kitchen table. Serena grabbed a water bottle for herself from the fridge and then tossed another bottle to Wufei. Serena took a swig from her bottle and then started on breakfast. The kitchen was fully stocked so there was a fresh carton of eggs, a package of bacon and toast. Taking two frying pans out she set to work and before long, she was serving breakfast. It wasn’t till everyone had eaten that Heero answered her previous question.
"We're going in tonight at 2330 hours, fully armed from separate points of the facility. Maxwell will hotwire the place with the explosives and set them to go off for 0 hours. The rest of us have 30 minutes to investigate the facility gathering any information possible and then get out by the time Maxwell's explosives turn the site into a hellhole. Avoid confrontation if at all possible but do not hesitate to engage if necessary. Do not forget that we only have a 30-minute window. Get in and out. We meet at the evac site. According to the information we have there are some of the factory's employee's being held captive. They are not priority but if possible we need to get them out of the facility to the evac site where a transport will pick them up however we are not to compromise the mission for their safety." Heero explained.
His voice was methodical almost sounding mechanical from the series of times he had lead missions the only sign of emotion crossing his face as he spoke was at the last statement where Serena noticed his jaw clenched in almost an angry manner but it was there and gone so fast it may have gone completely unnoticed by the others. Heero for the most part usually remained impassive and expressionless; however maybe there was more to him. Serena was seeing more and more proof of this as she got to know her leader.
"I assume everyone has studied the layout maps?" Heero asked rhetorically as his fingers practically flew across the keyboard of his laptop. When he finally pressed enter after encoding several things into the small computer a holographic image of the layout map appeared.
He set the laptop in the center of the table for everyone to get a good look then went on to point out the entrances each of them were going to take. He pointed out the few computer panels depicted across the inner layout. The rest was pretty self-explanatory. Each of them were to carry their own equipment, weaponry and the like including of course a small PDA in which they would store any data from the computers found on the facility.
They all talked through the mission clear through lunchtime debating all possible scenarios then finally broke so Trowa could make a few sandwiches for lunch. After the sandwiches, they all went to prepare.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
12-year old Rebecca Michalca didn’t know how her whole world could turn upside down in a span of a few hours. A week ago, she had been captain of the track team at her middle school. A week ago, she had been planning to go play a round of paintball with her friends and a week ago, she knew her father would be waiting when the bus dropped her off at home from school. Becca didn't know much of anything anymore.
It had been a Friday that much she did know, when she and her best friend Blaise Richards had accompanied her father to his job at the Gundanium factory. He needed to pick up a few papers then he would drop the children off at Berkley fields for the paintball war. It was then that all hell broke loose. It was common knowledge that the main function of Berkley was in fact the Gundanium factory. There weren’t many jobs in the town that didn’t deal with the factory. Oz picked that day to attack, the day Becca had wanted to play paintball, the day that was going to be completely perfect because well, Becca loved playing paintball and she was good at it- real good.
The factory was hit first. All the employees were rounded up and locked in make shift cells. The storage rooms had been divested of their regular doors and fitted with a special kind of electro magnetic bars. Anyone who tried touching them would be in for quite a shock. The few employees that were of any use to the Oz soldiers were removed and forced to do their jobs. One of those people was Becca's father. So she was locked up in a cell with Blaise apart from everyone else not knowing what had happened to her father or if she would ever see him again. All she had to hold on to was Blaise and the backpack she had been carrying which surprisingly hadn’t been taken from her. She was grateful for that at least. Oz wasn’t exactly a good host. They gave one meal a day at best and it was really horrible. Who the hell lived off of cafeteria food anyway? In her bag, though she kept all the snacks she had packed for their paintball game. She had rationed it off the second day when she and Blaise realized that the snacks and the one meal was all they had.
Food didn’t matter to her anymore though. Rebecca was loosing hope and she had stopped eating since the day before. She sat in silence on the cot that she was to share with her best friend. Her emerald eyes stared at the floor blankly most of her long brown hair obscuring her face. 'I want Daddy' she found herself thinking. She hadn’t said the words aloud since she did not want to sound weak in front of her friend. Becca was strong, the tomboyish athletic type who was never afraid and could defend herself even if she had to kick a boys ass. Girls like Becca didn’t beg for their parents when things got rough.
Becca wasn’t sure of what time of day it was because she had stopped asking Blaise a long time ago but she felt tired. She had the feeling it was late and Blaise confirmed that when she felt a slight shift of weight on the cot. Blaise had been on sitting on the floor using one of Becca's folders, a sheet of paper, and a pencil to draw but now he had joined her on the cot.
"Bec it’s late we should get some sleep,” he said. His voice was tentative as if asking.
Rebecca nodded.
They settled on the cot together curled up as close as possible, partly for warmth partly because they didn’t want to be separated and eventually they settled into an uncomfortable sleep.
Hours Later..
Click, click, click.
Blaise stirred when he heard the faint noise. He was about to scold himself for hearing things. The sound had been so faint that he thought he hadn’t really heard anything at all. Then he heard it again. He nudged Becca to wake her up. Her eyes flew open quickly with a worried look on her face. Blaise motioned for her to be quiet. She nodded mutely and listened in the silence then she heard it too. It was the sound of boots on pavement. It was so faint that both children knew it couldn’t be a guard they didn’t have to sneak around.
"I think something is going on. We might actually be getting out of here." Blaise whispered.
Rebecca smiled and nodded again. Both children remained in quiet waiting.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
Serena crept through the hall from what she had seen on the map it was supposed to be a storage bay. Then again, things weren’t always what they were supposed to be. She noticed a faint light coming from further down the hall. She flattened herself against the wall in the darkness and peered around the corner. She was dressed in all black so it was doubtful that she would be seen and from the looks of the two guards that she had just spotted they had no clue that anyone had entered the facility. They were much too busy enjoying their take out pizza to take notice of anything. Serena smirked; getting the drop on the Oz goons was going to be fun. She crept towards the first unsuspecting guard that was too busy enjoying a slice of his pizza while the other fussed with one of the security cameras that was currently displaying nothing but static haze. Serena had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.
They didn't even hear her sneak up on them. Raising her Beretta, she brought it down hard over the ignorant guards head. The guard groaned and fell over, remaining limp on the ground beside his chair. The guard’s partner reacted instantly but Serena was faster. Before he had even managed to un-holster his weapon Serena executed a perfect spin kick to his stomach, which sent him careening into a wall, smacking his head against it. He slid down the wall unconscious landing with a dull thud. Serena knelt down to bound and gag them both before searching their pockets for anything useful. She grinned triumphantly when she discovered a small remote in pizza boy's jacket that was draped over the back of his chair. She watched as one by one the monitors turned to the same static haze as the first.
Duo must be doing his job.
She turned to the computer on the guards desk the screen displayed an authorization code panel. The computer workstation was locked and it required an authorization password. A minor set back, but it could be by passed. She rebooted the computer and hacked into the main frame. With in a few seconds she was granted access. She downloaded all of the information she found in the computer for Heero to sort through later but from what she could see there was one particular document that would be exceedingly useful. It was a full diagram of the facilities new security system. Apparently Oz wanted to turn the factory into a permanent base and was going to have their own security installed. The file even included passwords to everything, even higher-level clearance codes to other similar facilities. When the file transfer was completed, she placed the PDA back into her pack and finally got a good look at the room. She noticed a series of make shift cells along one side of the corridor.
Serena instantly knew what the remote was used for. She walked slowly past illuminating each cell with her flashlight only to find them empty. There were five and she had already passed the first four when she had just about given up. Curiosity got the best of her so in the end she decided to check the fifth one. There were two children. The boy was holding the girl in his arms protectively with a hardened expression on his face giving Serena the impression that she would practically have to kill him to separate him from the girl.
"Hey, it's okay I'm going to get you both out of there." Serena assured them both.
The boy visibly relaxed and they both stood from the cot as Serena used the remote to deactivate the electro magnetic bars.
"What are you kids doing here? Where are your parents?" Serena asked in concern.
"My Dad works here. When the take over happened my dad was here to pick up some paper work, we came with him because he was going to drop us off at the park later on."
The girl’s voice sounded small, underlying her fear. Serena nodded in understanding.
"Who are you?" the boy asked.
"My name is Serena. I'm here with my team on a mission to gather information and shut down this factory. Are there any more prisoners?"
The children both nodded in confirmation.
"I'm Becca and this is my best friend Blaise," Rebecca explained, "Everyone that was working that day got locked up around here but we've heard so many things going on that I don't know what has happened to them."
Serena shook her head quietly. This was bad. No one else was in the cells. What could Oz have done to the other prisoners? Serena didn't have a clue but she couldn’t risk the mission to go looking, not to mention that the children would already be a hindrance.
"Well come on we have to keep moving before someone figures out that the guards down here aren't reporting. Just keep quiet and stay close to me."
The children nodded simultaneously again and started following Serena out of the room. They had walked through several corridors when Serena felt a tugging on her sleeve.
"Serena," Becca whispered, "My Dad's office is down that hall. I want to see if we could find him."
Serena bit her bottom lip debating it over. It would set them back by a few minutes but if she were lucky they would find her father and possibly some concrete information in the office worst case scenario there would be nothing at all. Serena wasn’t sure if she should risk it but the pleading look on Becca's face made her mind up for her.
"Fine, but this place is wired to blow soon so we have to be quick." Serena informed them.
Serena led the way down the corridor Rebecca had pointed out and they all stopped at the door labeled: Plant Director - Alexander Michalca.
"Here." Becca whispered.
The whole situation didn’t bode well with Serena. The fact that the door was left a few inches ajar meant something was up. Serena motioned for the children to stay back and then she edged towards the door using the mussel of her semi-automatic to push the door open further. There was no motion from with in the room so Serena took the chance and stepped a bit closer. She checked the door for any sort of alarm trips after finding nothing she stepped inside. The room was empty, at least at first glance though everything looked thoroughly thrashed. She scanned the room, nothing looking overly suspicious other than the chair that was turned around facing the wall instead of towards the desk. If someone was sitting in the chair, they were severely dense after having not noticed someone had entered the room.
Serena crept up to the chair and in a quick fluid motion spun the chair around instantly aiming her Beretta. She was hardly prepared for what she found. There was, in fact, someone sitting in the chair, a man in about mid thirties with a similar shade of Becca's brown hair. He was wearing what looked to be the facilities employee uniform. Serena hoped that this man wasn't Rebecca's father because he was dead. She didn’t need to check vital signs to know this because there was a bullet hole right between the man's eyes. No one normal survived a headshot like that and he looked too pale to be alive. She checked the id badge clipped onto his shirt and it confirmed her suspicions. Alexander Michalca, Becca's Dad.
"Damn it." Serena thought to herself.
How was she going to tell that little girl that her father was dead and that they didn’t even have the time to get his body out for a proper burial? He would burn with the rest of the factory and whoever else was caught in the blast. Suddenly memories of the remains of her palace in crystal Tokyo came to mind. None of her people were given proper burials. She felt guilty for having left all of them on that day, but now wasn’t the time for such thoughts. Serena had a job to do and she needed to be quick. The kids wouldn’t be safe out there on their own for long. She took out her PDA from her pack and approached the computer, turning on the monitor. She was in luck. The computer was still booted up and only the monitor had been turned off. Someone had left in haste because they had not locked the workstation like the guard's computer had been. Hooking up the PDA to the computer, she started searching around for anything important. She checked the recent applications and found that there had been several file transfers with in the last two hours and something even more important. Said files had been backed up on the computer's hard drive. Serena grinned. Apparently, they had been forcing Michalca to do the file transfer and the man had intelligently made a back up file to be found. This also explained the unlocked workstation.
"Thank you Mr. Michalca." Serena thought to herself as she loaded the information onto her PDA.
The information consisted of several files of shipping arrangements, shipments that had been made, shipments that were being scheduled and more importantly where everything was being shipped. All the files would definitely be useful. She was finished with the transfer and quickly unhooked the PDA from the computer's USB port. She took one last glance around the room and left.
"What did you find?" Becca asked anxiously.
Serena hesitated.
"What?" Becca insisted.
"I found your father."
Becca smiled happily and looked expectantly towards the door for her father to walk out. Serena sighed, dreading having to tell the little girl the news but she had no choice.
"He's not coming Becca. He was killed."
Becca felt as if a huge bucket of ice water had been just dumped on her. Tears slid down her cheeks.
"What?" she asked again. Her voice was weak and small she could barely recognize it.
"He's Dead." Serena affirmed.
More tears came and she tried rushing into the room only to be met by the warmth of Serena's arms. Serena held her back from going into the office.
"I'm sorry, I truly am. But you need to be strong right now. We have to get out of here. Your father would have wanted you to live and for that we need to get going."
"He's all I had - what am I supposed to do now?" Rebecca asked through choked sobs.
"Shh... don't cry. Right now, you have your life. That is something you need to cherish above all else."
Blaise put a hand on Becca's shoulder and she turned around finding comfort in his arms. Blaise ran a hand through her hair soothing her.
"She's right Bec. We have to get out of here alive. We owe your Dad that much."
After a moment, Rebecca pulled away and nodded.
"Yea okay let’s go." She finally managed.
They continued down the hall cautiously though still not how Serena would have wanted. The children were a hindrance even if they were quiet. One set of footsteps was a lot quieter then three. Not to mention the children knew absolutely nothing about stealth. Regardless she couldn’t leave them behind nor could she blame them for their lack of skills. These were children after all.
She stopped suddenly holding up her hand to stop the children as well. Voices were heading towards their direction. Serena took a quick glance at her surroundings and instructed the children to hide. They bolted in different directions and Serena was left alone to approach the problem at hand. Again, she flattened herself against the wall right at the edge of the corner. From the voices, Serena figured on three to four agents.
As the first guard rounded the corner, Serena's Beretta came down hard on the back of his head just before the neck area. He was knocked unconscious and fell over sprawled against the cold pavement. The other two weren’t so easily taken down. They had spotted her. One of them managed to draw his weapon but again Serena was faster twisting his arm behind his back. She heard the distinct crack of bone and figured that she had probably broken his wrist. He dropped his weapon crying out in pain just before Serena pulled him by that same broken wrist and flipped him over her head sending him into the third guard. They both toppled over, the third guard accidentally firing into his partner and having his weapon knocked out of his hand in the process.
The remaining guard angrily shoved his dead partner off and stood not bothering to recover his semi-automatic. Serena was more than ready for him when he lunged at her. It was pretty pathetic at how poorly trained the guards were, definitely lower ranks. She dodged his first attempt and this seemed to aggravate the guard even more.
"I see they have women doing a man's job now," he taunted about ready to attack again.
Serena smirked at him as she got into her own defensive stance, "Well this woman just knocked the shit out of your partners. Care to join them?"
The guard responded by lunging at her again and she quickly stopped him with a hard strike to the face with just the heel of her hand. She had hit the perfect mark right at the nose applying enough pressure to break the bone , pushing in and slightly upwards for more damage. A fatal blow if Serena had wanted it to be, but she wasn’t finished there. She ducked down dodging a halfhearted swing from the guard and knocked him off his feet. The guard was effectively subdued and unconscious. She bound and gagged the two guards that remained alive and wiped her hands off on her fatigues. Serena was ready to move on and get out of the place. She whistled for the kids to come out of hiding and started to lead them back the way she had come in. Leaving would be a lot faster since she no longer had to make a trap and trip wire search. She had cleared them out on her way in.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
They were outside and near the evac site with ample time to spare. As the trio entered the clearing Serena was greeted by the barrel of Heero's Glock right at the side of her head, her own gun aimed right back at him. Blaise shoved Becca behind him and took a few steps back staring at Serena and Heero in shock. Heero instantly lowered his gun and Serena followed suit.
"It's alright you two." Serena assured the two frightened children.
Both visibly relaxed and approached Serena again. Most of the team was assembled at the site except for Quatre and Duo as far as she could see until the chestnut haired American in question dropped down from one of the trees.
"Quat is on his way," he announced.
Serena nodded as she holstered her Beretta.
"So who are the kids?" Duo asked curiously.
The children were both standing to either side of Serena quietly and subdued for the most part.
"Rebecca and Blaise. They were the only prisoners I found at the facility. I see you guys didn’t have much luck with finding anyone else either." Serena replied observantly.
Duo shook his head, "If there were any others I think they've either been moved somewhere else or they're dead."
Serena frowned contemplating why there had been no one else. The only sense she could make out of the situation was that any other captives were disposed of and they used the children as hostages to make Rebecca's father follow their orders. A sudden rustling in the bushes interrupted her thoughts and just as she was about to draw her weapon Quatre emerged into the clearing. They were all extremely jumpy it was a good thing their job was over. Serena checked her watch, which currently displayed 23:59 and watched as it turned 0 simultaneously with the start of the explosion. The initial blast punctuated the silence and illuminated the sky even from their position. Serena found herself feeling no sympathy for the Oz Agents trapped inside.
"Let's get moving." Heero said finally after a few minutes.
The other's wordlessly followed his lead. Heero took point followed by Quatre, Wufei, Trowa then Serena who placed the children between herself and Duo who covered their backs. They were headed back to the Gundams and hopefully would be able to get back home with out too much trouble.
End Chapter
A/N: Wow another exhilarating chapter after so much time of not updating. I must say I apologize for my procrastination this should have been out months ago really but I’ve been kind of at a stand still with my writing. Writer's block mostly among other things but I won’t bother you with those details. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter please read and review. The next chapter should be out real soon. I'd also like to take the time to announce a side fic to Lives Crossed. It is based on the DBZ special "History of Trunks" When I post the fic I encourage everyone who is following Lives Crossed to check it out. Well gotta jet! Thanks everyone!
Chapter Six - Hell Cat 2
One week later...
The night had gone as uneventful as they all had hoped for. Each of the six-gundam pilots taking turns to keep watch throughout the night. At the request of the other guys Serena had been chosen as last watch so that she could sleep most of the night and just keep a look out for the final hours before morning. Not that Serena had managed to sleep much anyway... In the past week they had been staking out the facility getting a feel for the daily activities, which turned out, didn’t vary at all. That was a good sign. If they could calculate every movement and possibly have a rough estimate of what they were dealing with in terms of Oz agents there wouldn’t be any surprises when they busted the place. None of them had slept for more than three hours maybe four. By the final night, Serena was anxious so even after they had made her take the last watch -they had agreed that the night before the assault they would put in a good nights sleep instead of staking out the place - she didn’t sleep at all. She was just too nervous.
Serena stretched as the first rays of light flitted though the curtains of the living room. She was sitting her back to the wall beside the front door. One leg stretched out lazily in front of her and the other pulled up to her chest, her standard issue 8000 Cougar Series Beretta clutched tightly in her right hand, fully loaded with a fresh magazine. Earlier on, Serena had maintained a better posture and an awareness that had kept her jumping at the slightest sound but at the first rays of sunlight, she had visibly relaxed sure, that no one would be crazy enough to attack in broad daylight at least not with out a damn good arsenal and the manpower to back it.
She glanced at her wristwatch dutifully noting that her shift was up and as if on cue, Wufei Chang emerged from the upstairs rooms. He was clad in nothing but a pair of black pajama pants and a towel draped lazily around his neck reminding Serena that she was also wearing sleepwear. A cami and dark green pants with her hair delicately framing her face. She lowered her Beretta greeting him with a small smile.
"Morning."
"Morning" he replied in exchange.
He smiled back at her as she got up from her position on the floor. Then Serena watched in curiosity as he moved the coffee table aside and started on stretching exercises. She decided that it was a good idea as any to join him in the exercises it would do her some good after the amount of time she had spent in her position by the door. She put the safety on her weapon, set it on the table along with her waist holster, and then just set to work on the exercises. At first, she was able to mirror his every move until the whole thing evolved into something different. Wufei's exercises had become more difficult to follow and they required a lot more discipline and patience. Intrigued by what her teammate was doing she continued to try to mirror his actions.
Wufei watched out of the corner of his eye how Serena managed to follow him in the first part of his Kata but then failed at her last few attempts. He was rather impressed not many people could even begin to execute a proper set of Kata. Regardless that she was interested in trying had merit in itself. He decided that if she was interested he was going to teach her at least enough to practice one complete set.
Serena felt strong arms circle her waist and she immediately tensed.
"Relax, I'm just going to teach you the Kata that I was doing just now. You have to relax, slow your breathing don't think just move." His voice sounded authoritative but without any sort of force or command behind it. This was enough to make Serena relax again to following his request.
Then with out speaking, he began guiding her through the first set. At first, he showed her basic positioning then when he thought she was ready just had her follow his movements correcting her along the way. She was surprisingly a very good student. They were both about finished when the others emerged from upstairs. Heero as expected just walked passed them already dressed and carrying his laptop into the kitchen. Quatre, Trowa and Duo planted themselves on the couch watching Wufei and Serena intently.
"Don't tell me you’re turning her into another Wufei." Duo said sounding amused, "I think one of you is more than enough."
Wufei and Serena both stopped what they were doing apparently finished for the day and Wufei smirked at the braided American.
"Fine I won't tell you, She can speak for herself." he replied.
The group simply laughed.
"So what's on today's agenda?" Serena asked while heading to the kitchen for a couple of water bottles and to start breakfast.
The group followed her in taking seats around the round kitchen table. Serena grabbed a water bottle for herself from the fridge and then tossed another bottle to Wufei. Serena took a swig from her bottle and then started on breakfast. The kitchen was fully stocked so there was a fresh carton of eggs, a package of bacon and toast. Taking two frying pans out she set to work and before long, she was serving breakfast. It wasn’t till everyone had eaten that Heero answered her previous question.
"We're going in tonight at 2330 hours, fully armed from separate points of the facility. Maxwell will hotwire the place with the explosives and set them to go off for 0 hours. The rest of us have 30 minutes to investigate the facility gathering any information possible and then get out by the time Maxwell's explosives turn the site into a hellhole. Avoid confrontation if at all possible but do not hesitate to engage if necessary. Do not forget that we only have a 30-minute window. Get in and out. We meet at the evac site. According to the information we have there are some of the factory's employee's being held captive. They are not priority but if possible we need to get them out of the facility to the evac site where a transport will pick them up however we are not to compromise the mission for their safety." Heero explained.
His voice was methodical almost sounding mechanical from the series of times he had lead missions the only sign of emotion crossing his face as he spoke was at the last statement where Serena noticed his jaw clenched in almost an angry manner but it was there and gone so fast it may have gone completely unnoticed by the others. Heero for the most part usually remained impassive and expressionless; however maybe there was more to him. Serena was seeing more and more proof of this as she got to know her leader.
"I assume everyone has studied the layout maps?" Heero asked rhetorically as his fingers practically flew across the keyboard of his laptop. When he finally pressed enter after encoding several things into the small computer a holographic image of the layout map appeared.
He set the laptop in the center of the table for everyone to get a good look then went on to point out the entrances each of them were going to take. He pointed out the few computer panels depicted across the inner layout. The rest was pretty self-explanatory. Each of them were to carry their own equipment, weaponry and the like including of course a small PDA in which they would store any data from the computers found on the facility.
They all talked through the mission clear through lunchtime debating all possible scenarios then finally broke so Trowa could make a few sandwiches for lunch. After the sandwiches, they all went to prepare.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
12-year old Rebecca Michalca didn’t know how her whole world could turn upside down in a span of a few hours. A week ago, she had been captain of the track team at her middle school. A week ago, she had been planning to go play a round of paintball with her friends and a week ago, she knew her father would be waiting when the bus dropped her off at home from school. Becca didn't know much of anything anymore.
It had been a Friday that much she did know, when she and her best friend Blaise Richards had accompanied her father to his job at the Gundanium factory. He needed to pick up a few papers then he would drop the children off at Berkley fields for the paintball war. It was then that all hell broke loose. It was common knowledge that the main function of Berkley was in fact the Gundanium factory. There weren’t many jobs in the town that didn’t deal with the factory. Oz picked that day to attack, the day Becca had wanted to play paintball, the day that was going to be completely perfect because well, Becca loved playing paintball and she was good at it- real good.
The factory was hit first. All the employees were rounded up and locked in make shift cells. The storage rooms had been divested of their regular doors and fitted with a special kind of electro magnetic bars. Anyone who tried touching them would be in for quite a shock. The few employees that were of any use to the Oz soldiers were removed and forced to do their jobs. One of those people was Becca's father. So she was locked up in a cell with Blaise apart from everyone else not knowing what had happened to her father or if she would ever see him again. All she had to hold on to was Blaise and the backpack she had been carrying which surprisingly hadn’t been taken from her. She was grateful for that at least. Oz wasn’t exactly a good host. They gave one meal a day at best and it was really horrible. Who the hell lived off of cafeteria food anyway? In her bag, though she kept all the snacks she had packed for their paintball game. She had rationed it off the second day when she and Blaise realized that the snacks and the one meal was all they had.
Food didn’t matter to her anymore though. Rebecca was loosing hope and she had stopped eating since the day before. She sat in silence on the cot that she was to share with her best friend. Her emerald eyes stared at the floor blankly most of her long brown hair obscuring her face. 'I want Daddy' she found herself thinking. She hadn’t said the words aloud since she did not want to sound weak in front of her friend. Becca was strong, the tomboyish athletic type who was never afraid and could defend herself even if she had to kick a boys ass. Girls like Becca didn’t beg for their parents when things got rough.
Becca wasn’t sure of what time of day it was because she had stopped asking Blaise a long time ago but she felt tired. She had the feeling it was late and Blaise confirmed that when she felt a slight shift of weight on the cot. Blaise had been on sitting on the floor using one of Becca's folders, a sheet of paper, and a pencil to draw but now he had joined her on the cot.
"Bec it’s late we should get some sleep,” he said. His voice was tentative as if asking.
Rebecca nodded.
They settled on the cot together curled up as close as possible, partly for warmth partly because they didn’t want to be separated and eventually they settled into an uncomfortable sleep.
Hours Later..
Click, click, click.
Blaise stirred when he heard the faint noise. He was about to scold himself for hearing things. The sound had been so faint that he thought he hadn’t really heard anything at all. Then he heard it again. He nudged Becca to wake her up. Her eyes flew open quickly with a worried look on her face. Blaise motioned for her to be quiet. She nodded mutely and listened in the silence then she heard it too. It was the sound of boots on pavement. It was so faint that both children knew it couldn’t be a guard they didn’t have to sneak around.
"I think something is going on. We might actually be getting out of here." Blaise whispered.
Rebecca smiled and nodded again. Both children remained in quiet waiting.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
Serena crept through the hall from what she had seen on the map it was supposed to be a storage bay. Then again, things weren’t always what they were supposed to be. She noticed a faint light coming from further down the hall. She flattened herself against the wall in the darkness and peered around the corner. She was dressed in all black so it was doubtful that she would be seen and from the looks of the two guards that she had just spotted they had no clue that anyone had entered the facility. They were much too busy enjoying their take out pizza to take notice of anything. Serena smirked; getting the drop on the Oz goons was going to be fun. She crept towards the first unsuspecting guard that was too busy enjoying a slice of his pizza while the other fussed with one of the security cameras that was currently displaying nothing but static haze. Serena had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.
They didn't even hear her sneak up on them. Raising her Beretta, she brought it down hard over the ignorant guards head. The guard groaned and fell over, remaining limp on the ground beside his chair. The guard’s partner reacted instantly but Serena was faster. Before he had even managed to un-holster his weapon Serena executed a perfect spin kick to his stomach, which sent him careening into a wall, smacking his head against it. He slid down the wall unconscious landing with a dull thud. Serena knelt down to bound and gag them both before searching their pockets for anything useful. She grinned triumphantly when she discovered a small remote in pizza boy's jacket that was draped over the back of his chair. She watched as one by one the monitors turned to the same static haze as the first.
Duo must be doing his job.
She turned to the computer on the guards desk the screen displayed an authorization code panel. The computer workstation was locked and it required an authorization password. A minor set back, but it could be by passed. She rebooted the computer and hacked into the main frame. With in a few seconds she was granted access. She downloaded all of the information she found in the computer for Heero to sort through later but from what she could see there was one particular document that would be exceedingly useful. It was a full diagram of the facilities new security system. Apparently Oz wanted to turn the factory into a permanent base and was going to have their own security installed. The file even included passwords to everything, even higher-level clearance codes to other similar facilities. When the file transfer was completed, she placed the PDA back into her pack and finally got a good look at the room. She noticed a series of make shift cells along one side of the corridor.
Serena instantly knew what the remote was used for. She walked slowly past illuminating each cell with her flashlight only to find them empty. There were five and she had already passed the first four when she had just about given up. Curiosity got the best of her so in the end she decided to check the fifth one. There were two children. The boy was holding the girl in his arms protectively with a hardened expression on his face giving Serena the impression that she would practically have to kill him to separate him from the girl.
"Hey, it's okay I'm going to get you both out of there." Serena assured them both.
The boy visibly relaxed and they both stood from the cot as Serena used the remote to deactivate the electro magnetic bars.
"What are you kids doing here? Where are your parents?" Serena asked in concern.
"My Dad works here. When the take over happened my dad was here to pick up some paper work, we came with him because he was going to drop us off at the park later on."
The girl’s voice sounded small, underlying her fear. Serena nodded in understanding.
"Who are you?" the boy asked.
"My name is Serena. I'm here with my team on a mission to gather information and shut down this factory. Are there any more prisoners?"
The children both nodded in confirmation.
"I'm Becca and this is my best friend Blaise," Rebecca explained, "Everyone that was working that day got locked up around here but we've heard so many things going on that I don't know what has happened to them."
Serena shook her head quietly. This was bad. No one else was in the cells. What could Oz have done to the other prisoners? Serena didn't have a clue but she couldn’t risk the mission to go looking, not to mention that the children would already be a hindrance.
"Well come on we have to keep moving before someone figures out that the guards down here aren't reporting. Just keep quiet and stay close to me."
The children nodded simultaneously again and started following Serena out of the room. They had walked through several corridors when Serena felt a tugging on her sleeve.
"Serena," Becca whispered, "My Dad's office is down that hall. I want to see if we could find him."
Serena bit her bottom lip debating it over. It would set them back by a few minutes but if she were lucky they would find her father and possibly some concrete information in the office worst case scenario there would be nothing at all. Serena wasn’t sure if she should risk it but the pleading look on Becca's face made her mind up for her.
"Fine, but this place is wired to blow soon so we have to be quick." Serena informed them.
Serena led the way down the corridor Rebecca had pointed out and they all stopped at the door labeled: Plant Director - Alexander Michalca.
"Here." Becca whispered.
The whole situation didn’t bode well with Serena. The fact that the door was left a few inches ajar meant something was up. Serena motioned for the children to stay back and then she edged towards the door using the mussel of her semi-automatic to push the door open further. There was no motion from with in the room so Serena took the chance and stepped a bit closer. She checked the door for any sort of alarm trips after finding nothing she stepped inside. The room was empty, at least at first glance though everything looked thoroughly thrashed. She scanned the room, nothing looking overly suspicious other than the chair that was turned around facing the wall instead of towards the desk. If someone was sitting in the chair, they were severely dense after having not noticed someone had entered the room.
Serena crept up to the chair and in a quick fluid motion spun the chair around instantly aiming her Beretta. She was hardly prepared for what she found. There was, in fact, someone sitting in the chair, a man in about mid thirties with a similar shade of Becca's brown hair. He was wearing what looked to be the facilities employee uniform. Serena hoped that this man wasn't Rebecca's father because he was dead. She didn’t need to check vital signs to know this because there was a bullet hole right between the man's eyes. No one normal survived a headshot like that and he looked too pale to be alive. She checked the id badge clipped onto his shirt and it confirmed her suspicions. Alexander Michalca, Becca's Dad.
"Damn it." Serena thought to herself.
How was she going to tell that little girl that her father was dead and that they didn’t even have the time to get his body out for a proper burial? He would burn with the rest of the factory and whoever else was caught in the blast. Suddenly memories of the remains of her palace in crystal Tokyo came to mind. None of her people were given proper burials. She felt guilty for having left all of them on that day, but now wasn’t the time for such thoughts. Serena had a job to do and she needed to be quick. The kids wouldn’t be safe out there on their own for long. She took out her PDA from her pack and approached the computer, turning on the monitor. She was in luck. The computer was still booted up and only the monitor had been turned off. Someone had left in haste because they had not locked the workstation like the guard's computer had been. Hooking up the PDA to the computer, she started searching around for anything important. She checked the recent applications and found that there had been several file transfers with in the last two hours and something even more important. Said files had been backed up on the computer's hard drive. Serena grinned. Apparently, they had been forcing Michalca to do the file transfer and the man had intelligently made a back up file to be found. This also explained the unlocked workstation.
"Thank you Mr. Michalca." Serena thought to herself as she loaded the information onto her PDA.
The information consisted of several files of shipping arrangements, shipments that had been made, shipments that were being scheduled and more importantly where everything was being shipped. All the files would definitely be useful. She was finished with the transfer and quickly unhooked the PDA from the computer's USB port. She took one last glance around the room and left.
"What did you find?" Becca asked anxiously.
Serena hesitated.
"What?" Becca insisted.
"I found your father."
Becca smiled happily and looked expectantly towards the door for her father to walk out. Serena sighed, dreading having to tell the little girl the news but she had no choice.
"He's not coming Becca. He was killed."
Becca felt as if a huge bucket of ice water had been just dumped on her. Tears slid down her cheeks.
"What?" she asked again. Her voice was weak and small she could barely recognize it.
"He's Dead." Serena affirmed.
More tears came and she tried rushing into the room only to be met by the warmth of Serena's arms. Serena held her back from going into the office.
"I'm sorry, I truly am. But you need to be strong right now. We have to get out of here. Your father would have wanted you to live and for that we need to get going."
"He's all I had - what am I supposed to do now?" Rebecca asked through choked sobs.
"Shh... don't cry. Right now, you have your life. That is something you need to cherish above all else."
Blaise put a hand on Becca's shoulder and she turned around finding comfort in his arms. Blaise ran a hand through her hair soothing her.
"She's right Bec. We have to get out of here alive. We owe your Dad that much."
After a moment, Rebecca pulled away and nodded.
"Yea okay let’s go." She finally managed.
They continued down the hall cautiously though still not how Serena would have wanted. The children were a hindrance even if they were quiet. One set of footsteps was a lot quieter then three. Not to mention the children knew absolutely nothing about stealth. Regardless she couldn’t leave them behind nor could she blame them for their lack of skills. These were children after all.
She stopped suddenly holding up her hand to stop the children as well. Voices were heading towards their direction. Serena took a quick glance at her surroundings and instructed the children to hide. They bolted in different directions and Serena was left alone to approach the problem at hand. Again, she flattened herself against the wall right at the edge of the corner. From the voices, Serena figured on three to four agents.
As the first guard rounded the corner, Serena's Beretta came down hard on the back of his head just before the neck area. He was knocked unconscious and fell over sprawled against the cold pavement. The other two weren’t so easily taken down. They had spotted her. One of them managed to draw his weapon but again Serena was faster twisting his arm behind his back. She heard the distinct crack of bone and figured that she had probably broken his wrist. He dropped his weapon crying out in pain just before Serena pulled him by that same broken wrist and flipped him over her head sending him into the third guard. They both toppled over, the third guard accidentally firing into his partner and having his weapon knocked out of his hand in the process.
The remaining guard angrily shoved his dead partner off and stood not bothering to recover his semi-automatic. Serena was more than ready for him when he lunged at her. It was pretty pathetic at how poorly trained the guards were, definitely lower ranks. She dodged his first attempt and this seemed to aggravate the guard even more.
"I see they have women doing a man's job now," he taunted about ready to attack again.
Serena smirked at him as she got into her own defensive stance, "Well this woman just knocked the shit out of your partners. Care to join them?"
The guard responded by lunging at her again and she quickly stopped him with a hard strike to the face with just the heel of her hand. She had hit the perfect mark right at the nose applying enough pressure to break the bone , pushing in and slightly upwards for more damage. A fatal blow if Serena had wanted it to be, but she wasn’t finished there. She ducked down dodging a halfhearted swing from the guard and knocked him off his feet. The guard was effectively subdued and unconscious. She bound and gagged the two guards that remained alive and wiped her hands off on her fatigues. Serena was ready to move on and get out of the place. She whistled for the kids to come out of hiding and started to lead them back the way she had come in. Leaving would be a lot faster since she no longer had to make a trap and trip wire search. She had cleared them out on her way in.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
They were outside and near the evac site with ample time to spare. As the trio entered the clearing Serena was greeted by the barrel of Heero's Glock right at the side of her head, her own gun aimed right back at him. Blaise shoved Becca behind him and took a few steps back staring at Serena and Heero in shock. Heero instantly lowered his gun and Serena followed suit.
"It's alright you two." Serena assured the two frightened children.
Both visibly relaxed and approached Serena again. Most of the team was assembled at the site except for Quatre and Duo as far as she could see until the chestnut haired American in question dropped down from one of the trees.
"Quat is on his way," he announced.
Serena nodded as she holstered her Beretta.
"So who are the kids?" Duo asked curiously.
The children were both standing to either side of Serena quietly and subdued for the most part.
"Rebecca and Blaise. They were the only prisoners I found at the facility. I see you guys didn’t have much luck with finding anyone else either." Serena replied observantly.
Duo shook his head, "If there were any others I think they've either been moved somewhere else or they're dead."
Serena frowned contemplating why there had been no one else. The only sense she could make out of the situation was that any other captives were disposed of and they used the children as hostages to make Rebecca's father follow their orders. A sudden rustling in the bushes interrupted her thoughts and just as she was about to draw her weapon Quatre emerged into the clearing. They were all extremely jumpy it was a good thing their job was over. Serena checked her watch, which currently displayed 23:59 and watched as it turned 0 simultaneously with the start of the explosion. The initial blast punctuated the silence and illuminated the sky even from their position. Serena found herself feeling no sympathy for the Oz Agents trapped inside.
"Let's get moving." Heero said finally after a few minutes.
The other's wordlessly followed his lead. Heero took point followed by Quatre, Wufei, Trowa then Serena who placed the children between herself and Duo who covered their backs. They were headed back to the Gundams and hopefully would be able to get back home with out too much trouble.
End Chapter
A/N: Wow another exhilarating chapter after so much time of not updating. I must say I apologize for my procrastination this should have been out months ago really but I’ve been kind of at a stand still with my writing. Writer's block mostly among other things but I won’t bother you with those details. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter please read and review. The next chapter should be out real soon. I'd also like to take the time to announce a side fic to Lives Crossed. It is based on the DBZ special "History of Trunks" When I post the fic I encourage everyone who is following Lives Crossed to check it out. Well gotta jet! Thanks everyone!