[log] Oshitari, Kamio, Saeki
Apr. 27th, 2006 10:54 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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tenipuri_xpDate: 04.27.2006
Rating: PG-13 [violence]
Summary: Mission -- Rescue Saeki.
Saeki no longer knew how long it had been, how long things had been like this. The rage and hatred were still there, but tinged with desperation now. Periods of lucidity were few and far in between. He felt as if he was dangerously close to an edge that he couldn't reach, and Saeki hated it, hated this suspension, not able to move either way. It tired him, more so because the aches and the pains throbbed, not sharp enough to keep his mind alert, not dull enough to ignore, and it was slowly driving him crazy.
"... --day? But t-- ... fine, fine ... jab him ... --ways sedated ... --ding? ... harmless ... sedated ..."
Saeki heard broken phrases, but it didn't make sense yet. He tried to pull his flagging attention span and concentration together, trying to catch more of the conversation.
" ... vet ... afraid of the tiger ... nah, he's fine ..."
Tiger ... oh, that was him. Saeki tried to flick his tail, but the sedatives weren't allowing anything of the sort. He tried to snarl with frustration and rage, but all that came out was a guttural growl, all his heavily drugged body would allow.
The growl brought someone to the cage; Saeki could hear and feel the rattle of the bars, and the sliding open of the cage door. He tried to snarl, to attack the other, but he only managed a feeble shake and another low growl. There was a dismissive laugh, and then he was being held down. Saeki knew what was coming, and tried to struggle, but he was no match for three strong men, not when he was as drugged as he was right now. A sharp jab of pain broke through the haze, and then it was over, they'd let go now and backed off, out of the cage again. Fucking sedatives, Saeki thought, he'd sedate them alright, just wait, he'd get out of here, and get to Yuu and Kira and make sure they were okay, then he'd be back and ...
He drifted off, the drugs taking their effect.
There was something very unsettling about this rescue mission, Oshitari thought as he settled beside Kamio in the darkness of the tunnel. It wasn't the same tunnel their last mission had been, and he might have avoided being in another one altogether had the bastard humans moving Saeki chosen to transport him in the night rather than late afternoon.
They really couldn't attempt this sort of rescue in the light of day, so he'd improvised, taking in the route the truck would have to follow and finding a handy tunnel that no doubt the military had already set up as unusable so that their transport wouldn't be followed.
How thoughtful of them. Akira and he would have to thank them for that.
The plan was simple enough. Oshitari was expecting an escort along with the transport. Kamio would take out the first car, and he would handle anything following the truck. With their bodyguards out of the way, they could pick off the humans on the transport between themselves and get Saeki out of there. He'd already worked out several contingency plans in case something went wrong, something a significant lack of confidence drove him to do.
But, he was determined as Kamio that they were going to get their lover back, at any cost. Preferably, the humans'.
Everything was set. When the first car stole across the road blocks into the tunnel, Oshitari froze, watching its advance through slit, ice cold eyes. Beside him he felt Kamio fidget, ready to move. With one hand wrapped tight around his gun, Oshitari reached the other back to brush the redhead's leg gently, a wordless promise that they'd come out of this together, with Saeki.
The first car rolled by them slowly. He could see where he was going to have to intervene though...Akira needed to be able to take them by surprise. The last time, he hadn't been able to distract the driver and it had fallen apart in the melee. This time, he wouldn't fail.
Using all of his determination, Oshitari watched the car start to pass them completely, and then he struck. Opening the floodgates of his power, he felt the psionic energy latch onto every mind in the tunnel. He blinded them all, including himself, for a handful of seconds, hearing the squeal and whine of brakes being slammed.
When his own eyesight returned, he saw that Kamio had recovered first, already leaping down to race to the first car crashing into the wall ahead of them. Oshitari sprung into action himself, unfolding from his position to sprint to the rear car that had just clipped the back of the truck.
Raising his gun, equipped with silencer, he opened fire on first the driver, then the other occupants, trying to concentrate on killing all of the humans rather than what they would find in the truck when they were done...
Kamio stiffened as he was plunged into complete darkness. It was a risky maneuver, letting Oshitari use his power like he was, and deprived them all of their sight. However, the sound of screeching tires filled the air and Kamio counted to three. His vision wasn't back completely as he raised off the ground and moved in the direction of the first car, but that didn't really matter.
It wasn't like he could see much when he ran at full speed to begin with.
His vision was cleared enough that he could make out the vague shape of the car in the glaring headlights of the transport behind it. Staying low as he ran along side the car and swung one fist towards the first tire. The blades of his bugnuck caught and slashed, the sudden expulsion of air sound creating a small bang.
The occupants of the vehicle were already scrambling out, guns lowered at the redheaded blur that streaked by them. Three of them. Kamio saw their movements as indistinct shapes, but that was enough. He hit the first one easily, the bugnucks burying deep in his stomach, before he caught the man again with a second blow across his throat. The man gave a strangle cry, his blood splattering across the redhead's face and onto the red-tinted lenses of the sunglasses he wore.
Gunshots rang out behind him. Kamio gritted his teeth, ignore the fear that coiled inside him. Oshitari was fine, he told himself. They weren't going to screw this up.
The next gunman aimed at him, but Kamio was dodged to one side and cutting the man open just as he pulled the trigger. He heard the bullet hit the car, ricochet off who knew where. It didn't matter. Two quick slashes, and the man's body was a heap on the ground while the redhead circled around the car to get the driver. The man was trying to run -- that would be funny later -- throwing his arm back to fire wildly at the red and black streak that zigzagged towards him. A moment later, and the redhead had passed him and was running towards him, his fist drawn back. It hit the man's stomach squarely before he could even turn around and scramble the other way. Fist buried in to gaping wound, the redhead slashed up.
The body fell limp on the ground, blood pooling around it.
Oshitari, on the other side of the tunnel, was waiting the last man out. He'd gotten the first two as they'd tumbled out of the car, each of them taking a silenced bullet to the head before the third man had ducked and rolled out of the car, unloading his own gun at the blue haired mutant.
A bullet had grazed Oshitari's upper arm, but he ignored the sting, crouched down on the other side of the car. He growled under his breath. This was taking too much time. Already he could hear the two drivers of the transport truck exiting the vehicle. He couldn't be sure, but he guessed they would be armed too. He couldn't leave Kamio to have to take them out alone.
Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he carefully laid flat on the ground, eyes adjusting to the darkness to see the man's knees and lower legs on the other side. A very wide maniacal smirk blossomed on Oshitari's face as he aimed and fired. A high pitched scream erupted all over the tunnel as the last man jerked backwards, clutching his shattered kneecap. Still on his stomach on the ground, Oshitari aimed again, clipping the man in the throat into his brain. The screaming stopped abruptly.
Scooting under the car as he heard footsteps rush towards him, he saw the boots of one of the transport drivers and dropped his empty clip, reaching around to his back pocket for a fresh one. Slapping it into his gun, he waited for the boots to stop near one of the fallen bodies before he took the man out in the same fashion. He didn't see another pair of feet as he rolled back out from under the car.
Which meant the man was heading towards the front. Heading for Akira. Cursing under his breath, Oshitari made his way over the corpses to the first car. If the man reached Akira before the men in the first car were taken care of...he broke out into a short run, suddenly afraid.
Kamio was beyond the flood of the headlights, his black uniform blending into the shadows as he crouched down. He'd heard the sounds of men moving about, heavy footsteps as they ran in two different directions, but no gunfire. Not sure if he was reassured, the redhead checked around him for a gunman again, then darted back to the side of the car. Hunched down near the back fender, he stilled himself as much as he could and peered over the trunk.
The headlights from the transport were off, plunging the entire tunnel into darkness. The redhead frowned. He could hear movement -- footsteps towards the back of the tunnel and heading his direction, but the other set had faded off completely.
"Hell," he cursed softly. Darting forward again, he pressed himself against the side of the truck and watched as a figure came from behind it. It only took an moment for him to recognize the build of the other mutant; Kamio sighed in relief.
"Fi--Yuushi," he hissed, keeping his voice low and damning the codenames.
Padding quietly alongside the truck, Oshitari paused at Kamio's hiss. Had the redhead already taken out the last man? He drew closer to where Kamio was crouched, looking the other over for any injuries.
He didn't see any, but Akira was covered in sprays of blood from his victim. Not a lot; the speed mutant was fast enough in his work to be out of the way of madly pumping arterial blood, but his weapons up to his wrists were thick with the dark red stuff, and spots of it dotted the sides of his face alongside his neck. The sight was...strangely riveting. But Oshitari shook himself mentally; they were both unharmed, and they needed to get Saeki out of here.
"I thought perhaps there was another...I suppose not. Bring the car in, to the back of the truck while I get it op-Akira?" He looked back to find his lover's hands peeling back the torn section of his uniform's arm sleeve.
"Just a graze", he assured him.
"Didn't see anybody," the redhead answered as he tugged the torn uniform open enough to see the wound in the dim light. "He might have bolted, but watch your back just in case." His voice was tight as he spoke, wary of the inherent danger to leaving just one of those men wandering around.
Kamio also wasn't satisfied with the blue-haired mutants dismissal of the injury, at least not until he'd tugged off both bugnuck and glove and ran his own finger across the wounded flesh. He frowned and sighed -- risks, he knew, were part of the job. "Yeah, sure," he replied. "Looks like it's not too bad." Leaning forward, he stole a quick kiss. "I'll be right back. You'd both better be here."
Then he turned and darted back over to the other side of the tunnel, where a discarded coat lay. The redhead wiped the small splatters of blood from his face, then pulled it on. Quickly shoving blood-covered weapons into the deep pockets of the trench and switching to a pair of clean gloves, he picked up an old coat hanger they'd brought with them and moved out of the tunnel.
The speed mutant paused long enough to check the area around him, insuring the no one was there and no one was coming before he took off to the nearby parking lot.
Licking the taste of Kamio from his lips slowly, Oshitari stole a cautious glance to his right, then his left before lightly jogging to the back of the truck.
Sliding his hands along the cool metal of the locked door, Oshitari closed his eyes for the briefest of seconds. Saeki had to be in there...alive, whole...
Shaking himself mentally, the lock was easily taken care of with a careful point of his gun. Pulling away the twisted metal and tossing it aside, the door slid upwards with one easy shove.
The cage was the first thing he saw, large and barely anchored in the cargo bay. Vaulting into the truck, he walked towards it.
And saw it. The large white tiger motionless on the floor of the cage. Crouching down by the cage, he slipped a hand between the bars, barely brushing against the soft fur. Clenching the hand into an impotent fist of absolute cold fury at what had happened to his lover, Oshitari withdrew to take care of the lock on the cage.
This one was tougher, and it took three bullets to twist the metal into something that resembled silver taffy. Seething, Oshitari stood over it, bring a foot down sharply on it, attempting to knock it apart. It took four kicks, each hard enough to jar his whole foot, even bruise it. But they didn't have time; Akira would be back any moment with the car, and they couldn't chance taking too long. With the lock finally out of the way, Oshitari huddled down, flipping the cage door open and crawled partway into the metal contraption.
"Koujirou", he murmured, hand ghosting along the massive feline face as the rhythmic bellows of breath told him the mutant was still alive, just asleep. Drugged, no doubt. Feeling another sharp dagger of cold anger at Saeki's captors, Oshitari drew up on his knees, each hand tucking underneath Saeki's forelegs to tug the transformed mutant out of the cage.
He was so heavy...Oshitari knew just how much Saeki Koujirou weighed; he'd studied all the pertinent medical records and he knew he could have lifted his lover had he been more or less his normal self. But Saeki as a full tiger was enormously difficult to maneuver.
By the time Kamio had returned with the car, he'd gotten Saeki as far as the end of the truck bed, the great tiger's massive front paws dangling over the edge as the illusionist hopped down to the ground.
Kamio slammed on the brakes, parking the car as close to the back of the truck as he could. His fingers were shaking; crap, he hated moving when he wasn't moving. Then again, so far as the redhead was concerned, getting the damn car had been too slow. At least someone had been dumb enough to leave their vehicle unlocked, and the make was old enough that he could hotwire it easily.
Swinging open the driver's door, the redhead scrambled out and caught the backdoor's handle in his fingers. He left both doors open before turning and actually looking at the large, white feline Oshitari had drug to the edge of the truck bed. Blue eyes were wide, scanning the motionless feline.
"Fuck," he whispered, breathless. Then he darted forward, stopping short of the rear of the transport. "Kou?" Pulling off the heavy gloves, the redhead slid his hand under the large cat's chin and lifted the heavy head. He could hear the rhythmic breathing; that, at least, was reassuring, but it still left the matter of getting the other into the backseat of the car.
He was being moved. The thought came to Saeki, and stayed there for some time. Trying to gather his scattered wits about him, he lay for a bit, aware of his slowly returning consciousness. Moving ... but a strange kind of moving. It wasn't the movement of the cage, but rather of him, Saeki's instincts offered helpfully.
Not the movement of the cage?
He was more alert now, hope forcing its way into his drugged mind. A ruffle of his fur. A hand, brushing his cheek. His head was somewhat misplaced, not quite in the same position it would be had he been left to lie down. Saeki could smell blood and dirt and iron, and underneath it all, scents he had not smelled in a long time, that he had been afraid of losing, of never smelling again.
His heart leaped, and Saeki forced himself to concentrate, to focus his entire being on the single task of opening his eyes. He could see, but there were no faces in sight. He didn't have to--the trembling of too much adrenaline coursing through the arms holding him could only be Kira. Behind, another, familiar figure, and even if Saeki couldn't lift his head to look at Oshitari's face, the feline knew who it was. If Kira was here, that meant Yuu was, too, wasn't he?
Saeki tried to speak, to say their names. Weeks of disuse and parched throat combined, contributing to a scratchy growl that to Saeki sounded nothing like his usual voice. Even so, the joy at seeing his lovers again brought him more strength.
A car was parked outside beyond the open truck doors, Saeki noted, and realized that his lovers were trying to move him. He was heavy as a tiger--the combined efforts of both Kira and Yuu were unlikely to succeed. This was no time to try again to become human in case he tired out, Saeki thought. Do something...
He struggled, and a paw moved. Pushing off the lorry bed, Saeki tumbled to the ground, hitting the asphalt on his side. He growled in pain as wounds were jolted, and one reopened. Nevertheless, Saeki was winded, but determined.
Sheer stubbornness pushed him on. He couldn't hear anything, couldn't feel anything, completely single-minded on the task he had settled on in his head: get in the car. Shuffle paw. Breathe. Shuffle paw. Breathe. Shuffle paw. Breathe. Rest head briefly on cushion of back seat, lift paw. Breathe, gather strength ... pull self onto seat somehow ...
Somehow, Saeki didn't know how, he got there, or perhaps they had helped. Saeki had used up all the strength he had left for a while. Tired eyelids closed, and he lay there, almost instantly asleep again as the drugs won this round.
Struggling not to wince as one of the tiger's rear claws dug into his hand, Oshitari silently helped his transformed lover into the backseat, deftly maneuvering the already unconscious mutant so that he was more comfortable before ducking his head back out of the car and closing the door.
Turning to Kamio, he ignored the slight trickling of blood from the shallow puncture wound to his hand and brushed back a lock of dark red hair from his lover's face, turning those blue eyes back into his.
"Akira, can you stand to sit in the car this long?", he asked, concerned about the way the redhead was already twitching and jittering. "We cannot afford to be pulled over; I am going to have to drive us carefully back to the house."
He was just as shaken as Kamio was at the sight of their changed and wounded lover, but one of them had to keep it together until Saeki was safe and home. And the subzero fury Oshitari had against the humans that had harmed Saeki was still thundering through his veins...if it hadn't been a sheer waste of bullets he might have unloaded the rest of his clip into the littered corpses all along the tunnel.
They had him back…they actually had him back.
Kamio's mind was racing, the one thought on repeat as he'd helped lift the drugged tiger into the backseat of the car. While Oshitari struggled with their lover's hindquarters, the small speed mutant lifted the front of Saeki's body. Once the tiger was settled, Kamio stepped back and watched as Oshitari closed the door. His hands were shaking, fingers twitching at his sides, and he could feel the adrenaline rushing through his body.
The redhead jumped at the feeling of fingers brushing aside his hair, his gaze shifting from the closed door to Oshitari's face. He blinked and shook his head. "I'll be fine, Yuu," he insisted, leaning into the touch. Even he ran ahead, the only that would do would be to get him back to the Brotherhood's manor sooner and leave him waiting for Oshitari to arrive with the other mutant. Waiting…and wondering. As difficult as riding in a car would be, he'd rather know right where the two of them were than be pacing the floors back at the manor.
"Just…we'll need the radio on or something," he sighed. That, at least, would give him some distraction to help him calm down.
They were taking too much time. If someone happened to look down the tunnel out of curiosity, or the lab awaiting Saeki thought to see what was taking the truck so long to arrive...Worried, Oshitari nodded, disregarding the little urge in his head that was telling him to ransack the vehicles for other information.
Instead he ducked into the driver's side, glancing to make sure Kamio was secured in the passenger seat before flipping on the radio, carefully adjusting the dial. Something slow, something slow...ah, a classical station. It would do, he thought as he strapped the seatbelt over his chest and concentrated on steering the car carefully out of the tunnel, running over one of the bodies in the process.
The rest of the drive was excruciating, the both of them thrumming with impatience to get the transmorph mutant to the manor. Questions such as how Saeki had even come to transform all the way into tiger form flitted through Oshitari's mind, but he was too concentrated on the road and keeping a scrutinizing, paranoid eye on the road around them, watching for anything suspicious.
Still, they managed to make it back without incident, and Yuushi was out the car door almost an instant before Kamio, his power washing over him and immediately locking with every mind inside.
All of you come out immediately and assist Koujirou to his room!
The auditory hallucination rang in his own ears as well, as sharp a command to himself as it was to the other members of the Brotherhood.
Rating: PG-13 [violence]
Summary: Mission -- Rescue Saeki.
Saeki no longer knew how long it had been, how long things had been like this. The rage and hatred were still there, but tinged with desperation now. Periods of lucidity were few and far in between. He felt as if he was dangerously close to an edge that he couldn't reach, and Saeki hated it, hated this suspension, not able to move either way. It tired him, more so because the aches and the pains throbbed, not sharp enough to keep his mind alert, not dull enough to ignore, and it was slowly driving him crazy.
"... --day? But t-- ... fine, fine ... jab him ... --ways sedated ... --ding? ... harmless ... sedated ..."
Saeki heard broken phrases, but it didn't make sense yet. He tried to pull his flagging attention span and concentration together, trying to catch more of the conversation.
" ... vet ... afraid of the tiger ... nah, he's fine ..."
Tiger ... oh, that was him. Saeki tried to flick his tail, but the sedatives weren't allowing anything of the sort. He tried to snarl with frustration and rage, but all that came out was a guttural growl, all his heavily drugged body would allow.
The growl brought someone to the cage; Saeki could hear and feel the rattle of the bars, and the sliding open of the cage door. He tried to snarl, to attack the other, but he only managed a feeble shake and another low growl. There was a dismissive laugh, and then he was being held down. Saeki knew what was coming, and tried to struggle, but he was no match for three strong men, not when he was as drugged as he was right now. A sharp jab of pain broke through the haze, and then it was over, they'd let go now and backed off, out of the cage again. Fucking sedatives, Saeki thought, he'd sedate them alright, just wait, he'd get out of here, and get to Yuu and Kira and make sure they were okay, then he'd be back and ...
He drifted off, the drugs taking their effect.
There was something very unsettling about this rescue mission, Oshitari thought as he settled beside Kamio in the darkness of the tunnel. It wasn't the same tunnel their last mission had been, and he might have avoided being in another one altogether had the bastard humans moving Saeki chosen to transport him in the night rather than late afternoon.
They really couldn't attempt this sort of rescue in the light of day, so he'd improvised, taking in the route the truck would have to follow and finding a handy tunnel that no doubt the military had already set up as unusable so that their transport wouldn't be followed.
How thoughtful of them. Akira and he would have to thank them for that.
The plan was simple enough. Oshitari was expecting an escort along with the transport. Kamio would take out the first car, and he would handle anything following the truck. With their bodyguards out of the way, they could pick off the humans on the transport between themselves and get Saeki out of there. He'd already worked out several contingency plans in case something went wrong, something a significant lack of confidence drove him to do.
But, he was determined as Kamio that they were going to get their lover back, at any cost. Preferably, the humans'.
Everything was set. When the first car stole across the road blocks into the tunnel, Oshitari froze, watching its advance through slit, ice cold eyes. Beside him he felt Kamio fidget, ready to move. With one hand wrapped tight around his gun, Oshitari reached the other back to brush the redhead's leg gently, a wordless promise that they'd come out of this together, with Saeki.
The first car rolled by them slowly. He could see where he was going to have to intervene though...Akira needed to be able to take them by surprise. The last time, he hadn't been able to distract the driver and it had fallen apart in the melee. This time, he wouldn't fail.
Using all of his determination, Oshitari watched the car start to pass them completely, and then he struck. Opening the floodgates of his power, he felt the psionic energy latch onto every mind in the tunnel. He blinded them all, including himself, for a handful of seconds, hearing the squeal and whine of brakes being slammed.
When his own eyesight returned, he saw that Kamio had recovered first, already leaping down to race to the first car crashing into the wall ahead of them. Oshitari sprung into action himself, unfolding from his position to sprint to the rear car that had just clipped the back of the truck.
Raising his gun, equipped with silencer, he opened fire on first the driver, then the other occupants, trying to concentrate on killing all of the humans rather than what they would find in the truck when they were done...
Kamio stiffened as he was plunged into complete darkness. It was a risky maneuver, letting Oshitari use his power like he was, and deprived them all of their sight. However, the sound of screeching tires filled the air and Kamio counted to three. His vision wasn't back completely as he raised off the ground and moved in the direction of the first car, but that didn't really matter.
It wasn't like he could see much when he ran at full speed to begin with.
His vision was cleared enough that he could make out the vague shape of the car in the glaring headlights of the transport behind it. Staying low as he ran along side the car and swung one fist towards the first tire. The blades of his bugnuck caught and slashed, the sudden expulsion of air sound creating a small bang.
The occupants of the vehicle were already scrambling out, guns lowered at the redheaded blur that streaked by them. Three of them. Kamio saw their movements as indistinct shapes, but that was enough. He hit the first one easily, the bugnucks burying deep in his stomach, before he caught the man again with a second blow across his throat. The man gave a strangle cry, his blood splattering across the redhead's face and onto the red-tinted lenses of the sunglasses he wore.
Gunshots rang out behind him. Kamio gritted his teeth, ignore the fear that coiled inside him. Oshitari was fine, he told himself. They weren't going to screw this up.
The next gunman aimed at him, but Kamio was dodged to one side and cutting the man open just as he pulled the trigger. He heard the bullet hit the car, ricochet off who knew where. It didn't matter. Two quick slashes, and the man's body was a heap on the ground while the redhead circled around the car to get the driver. The man was trying to run -- that would be funny later -- throwing his arm back to fire wildly at the red and black streak that zigzagged towards him. A moment later, and the redhead had passed him and was running towards him, his fist drawn back. It hit the man's stomach squarely before he could even turn around and scramble the other way. Fist buried in to gaping wound, the redhead slashed up.
The body fell limp on the ground, blood pooling around it.
Oshitari, on the other side of the tunnel, was waiting the last man out. He'd gotten the first two as they'd tumbled out of the car, each of them taking a silenced bullet to the head before the third man had ducked and rolled out of the car, unloading his own gun at the blue haired mutant.
A bullet had grazed Oshitari's upper arm, but he ignored the sting, crouched down on the other side of the car. He growled under his breath. This was taking too much time. Already he could hear the two drivers of the transport truck exiting the vehicle. He couldn't be sure, but he guessed they would be armed too. He couldn't leave Kamio to have to take them out alone.
Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he carefully laid flat on the ground, eyes adjusting to the darkness to see the man's knees and lower legs on the other side. A very wide maniacal smirk blossomed on Oshitari's face as he aimed and fired. A high pitched scream erupted all over the tunnel as the last man jerked backwards, clutching his shattered kneecap. Still on his stomach on the ground, Oshitari aimed again, clipping the man in the throat into his brain. The screaming stopped abruptly.
Scooting under the car as he heard footsteps rush towards him, he saw the boots of one of the transport drivers and dropped his empty clip, reaching around to his back pocket for a fresh one. Slapping it into his gun, he waited for the boots to stop near one of the fallen bodies before he took the man out in the same fashion. He didn't see another pair of feet as he rolled back out from under the car.
Which meant the man was heading towards the front. Heading for Akira. Cursing under his breath, Oshitari made his way over the corpses to the first car. If the man reached Akira before the men in the first car were taken care of...he broke out into a short run, suddenly afraid.
Kamio was beyond the flood of the headlights, his black uniform blending into the shadows as he crouched down. He'd heard the sounds of men moving about, heavy footsteps as they ran in two different directions, but no gunfire. Not sure if he was reassured, the redhead checked around him for a gunman again, then darted back to the side of the car. Hunched down near the back fender, he stilled himself as much as he could and peered over the trunk.
The headlights from the transport were off, plunging the entire tunnel into darkness. The redhead frowned. He could hear movement -- footsteps towards the back of the tunnel and heading his direction, but the other set had faded off completely.
"Hell," he cursed softly. Darting forward again, he pressed himself against the side of the truck and watched as a figure came from behind it. It only took an moment for him to recognize the build of the other mutant; Kamio sighed in relief.
"Fi--Yuushi," he hissed, keeping his voice low and damning the codenames.
Padding quietly alongside the truck, Oshitari paused at Kamio's hiss. Had the redhead already taken out the last man? He drew closer to where Kamio was crouched, looking the other over for any injuries.
He didn't see any, but Akira was covered in sprays of blood from his victim. Not a lot; the speed mutant was fast enough in his work to be out of the way of madly pumping arterial blood, but his weapons up to his wrists were thick with the dark red stuff, and spots of it dotted the sides of his face alongside his neck. The sight was...strangely riveting. But Oshitari shook himself mentally; they were both unharmed, and they needed to get Saeki out of here.
"I thought perhaps there was another...I suppose not. Bring the car in, to the back of the truck while I get it op-Akira?" He looked back to find his lover's hands peeling back the torn section of his uniform's arm sleeve.
"Just a graze", he assured him.
"Didn't see anybody," the redhead answered as he tugged the torn uniform open enough to see the wound in the dim light. "He might have bolted, but watch your back just in case." His voice was tight as he spoke, wary of the inherent danger to leaving just one of those men wandering around.
Kamio also wasn't satisfied with the blue-haired mutants dismissal of the injury, at least not until he'd tugged off both bugnuck and glove and ran his own finger across the wounded flesh. He frowned and sighed -- risks, he knew, were part of the job. "Yeah, sure," he replied. "Looks like it's not too bad." Leaning forward, he stole a quick kiss. "I'll be right back. You'd both better be here."
Then he turned and darted back over to the other side of the tunnel, where a discarded coat lay. The redhead wiped the small splatters of blood from his face, then pulled it on. Quickly shoving blood-covered weapons into the deep pockets of the trench and switching to a pair of clean gloves, he picked up an old coat hanger they'd brought with them and moved out of the tunnel.
The speed mutant paused long enough to check the area around him, insuring the no one was there and no one was coming before he took off to the nearby parking lot.
Licking the taste of Kamio from his lips slowly, Oshitari stole a cautious glance to his right, then his left before lightly jogging to the back of the truck.
Sliding his hands along the cool metal of the locked door, Oshitari closed his eyes for the briefest of seconds. Saeki had to be in there...alive, whole...
Shaking himself mentally, the lock was easily taken care of with a careful point of his gun. Pulling away the twisted metal and tossing it aside, the door slid upwards with one easy shove.
The cage was the first thing he saw, large and barely anchored in the cargo bay. Vaulting into the truck, he walked towards it.
And saw it. The large white tiger motionless on the floor of the cage. Crouching down by the cage, he slipped a hand between the bars, barely brushing against the soft fur. Clenching the hand into an impotent fist of absolute cold fury at what had happened to his lover, Oshitari withdrew to take care of the lock on the cage.
This one was tougher, and it took three bullets to twist the metal into something that resembled silver taffy. Seething, Oshitari stood over it, bring a foot down sharply on it, attempting to knock it apart. It took four kicks, each hard enough to jar his whole foot, even bruise it. But they didn't have time; Akira would be back any moment with the car, and they couldn't chance taking too long. With the lock finally out of the way, Oshitari huddled down, flipping the cage door open and crawled partway into the metal contraption.
"Koujirou", he murmured, hand ghosting along the massive feline face as the rhythmic bellows of breath told him the mutant was still alive, just asleep. Drugged, no doubt. Feeling another sharp dagger of cold anger at Saeki's captors, Oshitari drew up on his knees, each hand tucking underneath Saeki's forelegs to tug the transformed mutant out of the cage.
He was so heavy...Oshitari knew just how much Saeki Koujirou weighed; he'd studied all the pertinent medical records and he knew he could have lifted his lover had he been more or less his normal self. But Saeki as a full tiger was enormously difficult to maneuver.
By the time Kamio had returned with the car, he'd gotten Saeki as far as the end of the truck bed, the great tiger's massive front paws dangling over the edge as the illusionist hopped down to the ground.
Kamio slammed on the brakes, parking the car as close to the back of the truck as he could. His fingers were shaking; crap, he hated moving when he wasn't moving. Then again, so far as the redhead was concerned, getting the damn car had been too slow. At least someone had been dumb enough to leave their vehicle unlocked, and the make was old enough that he could hotwire it easily.
Swinging open the driver's door, the redhead scrambled out and caught the backdoor's handle in his fingers. He left both doors open before turning and actually looking at the large, white feline Oshitari had drug to the edge of the truck bed. Blue eyes were wide, scanning the motionless feline.
"Fuck," he whispered, breathless. Then he darted forward, stopping short of the rear of the transport. "Kou?" Pulling off the heavy gloves, the redhead slid his hand under the large cat's chin and lifted the heavy head. He could hear the rhythmic breathing; that, at least, was reassuring, but it still left the matter of getting the other into the backseat of the car.
He was being moved. The thought came to Saeki, and stayed there for some time. Trying to gather his scattered wits about him, he lay for a bit, aware of his slowly returning consciousness. Moving ... but a strange kind of moving. It wasn't the movement of the cage, but rather of him, Saeki's instincts offered helpfully.
Not the movement of the cage?
He was more alert now, hope forcing its way into his drugged mind. A ruffle of his fur. A hand, brushing his cheek. His head was somewhat misplaced, not quite in the same position it would be had he been left to lie down. Saeki could smell blood and dirt and iron, and underneath it all, scents he had not smelled in a long time, that he had been afraid of losing, of never smelling again.
His heart leaped, and Saeki forced himself to concentrate, to focus his entire being on the single task of opening his eyes. He could see, but there were no faces in sight. He didn't have to--the trembling of too much adrenaline coursing through the arms holding him could only be Kira. Behind, another, familiar figure, and even if Saeki couldn't lift his head to look at Oshitari's face, the feline knew who it was. If Kira was here, that meant Yuu was, too, wasn't he?
Saeki tried to speak, to say their names. Weeks of disuse and parched throat combined, contributing to a scratchy growl that to Saeki sounded nothing like his usual voice. Even so, the joy at seeing his lovers again brought him more strength.
A car was parked outside beyond the open truck doors, Saeki noted, and realized that his lovers were trying to move him. He was heavy as a tiger--the combined efforts of both Kira and Yuu were unlikely to succeed. This was no time to try again to become human in case he tired out, Saeki thought. Do something...
He struggled, and a paw moved. Pushing off the lorry bed, Saeki tumbled to the ground, hitting the asphalt on his side. He growled in pain as wounds were jolted, and one reopened. Nevertheless, Saeki was winded, but determined.
Sheer stubbornness pushed him on. He couldn't hear anything, couldn't feel anything, completely single-minded on the task he had settled on in his head: get in the car. Shuffle paw. Breathe. Shuffle paw. Breathe. Shuffle paw. Breathe. Rest head briefly on cushion of back seat, lift paw. Breathe, gather strength ... pull self onto seat somehow ...
Somehow, Saeki didn't know how, he got there, or perhaps they had helped. Saeki had used up all the strength he had left for a while. Tired eyelids closed, and he lay there, almost instantly asleep again as the drugs won this round.
Struggling not to wince as one of the tiger's rear claws dug into his hand, Oshitari silently helped his transformed lover into the backseat, deftly maneuvering the already unconscious mutant so that he was more comfortable before ducking his head back out of the car and closing the door.
Turning to Kamio, he ignored the slight trickling of blood from the shallow puncture wound to his hand and brushed back a lock of dark red hair from his lover's face, turning those blue eyes back into his.
"Akira, can you stand to sit in the car this long?", he asked, concerned about the way the redhead was already twitching and jittering. "We cannot afford to be pulled over; I am going to have to drive us carefully back to the house."
He was just as shaken as Kamio was at the sight of their changed and wounded lover, but one of them had to keep it together until Saeki was safe and home. And the subzero fury Oshitari had against the humans that had harmed Saeki was still thundering through his veins...if it hadn't been a sheer waste of bullets he might have unloaded the rest of his clip into the littered corpses all along the tunnel.
They had him back…they actually had him back.
Kamio's mind was racing, the one thought on repeat as he'd helped lift the drugged tiger into the backseat of the car. While Oshitari struggled with their lover's hindquarters, the small speed mutant lifted the front of Saeki's body. Once the tiger was settled, Kamio stepped back and watched as Oshitari closed the door. His hands were shaking, fingers twitching at his sides, and he could feel the adrenaline rushing through his body.
The redhead jumped at the feeling of fingers brushing aside his hair, his gaze shifting from the closed door to Oshitari's face. He blinked and shook his head. "I'll be fine, Yuu," he insisted, leaning into the touch. Even he ran ahead, the only that would do would be to get him back to the Brotherhood's manor sooner and leave him waiting for Oshitari to arrive with the other mutant. Waiting…and wondering. As difficult as riding in a car would be, he'd rather know right where the two of them were than be pacing the floors back at the manor.
"Just…we'll need the radio on or something," he sighed. That, at least, would give him some distraction to help him calm down.
They were taking too much time. If someone happened to look down the tunnel out of curiosity, or the lab awaiting Saeki thought to see what was taking the truck so long to arrive...Worried, Oshitari nodded, disregarding the little urge in his head that was telling him to ransack the vehicles for other information.
Instead he ducked into the driver's side, glancing to make sure Kamio was secured in the passenger seat before flipping on the radio, carefully adjusting the dial. Something slow, something slow...ah, a classical station. It would do, he thought as he strapped the seatbelt over his chest and concentrated on steering the car carefully out of the tunnel, running over one of the bodies in the process.
The rest of the drive was excruciating, the both of them thrumming with impatience to get the transmorph mutant to the manor. Questions such as how Saeki had even come to transform all the way into tiger form flitted through Oshitari's mind, but he was too concentrated on the road and keeping a scrutinizing, paranoid eye on the road around them, watching for anything suspicious.
Still, they managed to make it back without incident, and Yuushi was out the car door almost an instant before Kamio, his power washing over him and immediately locking with every mind inside.
All of you come out immediately and assist Koujirou to his room!
The auditory hallucination rang in his own ears as well, as sharp a command to himself as it was to the other members of the Brotherhood.
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Date: 2006-04-28 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-28 12:57 pm (UTC)