**************
As he burst through the hole in the floor Outlaw 1's eye was already
searching for targets for his big 12 gauge. Spying a man standing gape
mouthed at the apparition ascending from hell before his eyes, Outlaw 1
aligned the scattergun and squeezed the trigger.
The make-shift silencer was shattered by the handloaded subsonic buckshot
load. The 9 balls only spread to a hand-span in the distance between the
muzzle and the man before crashing through his chest and driving into his
heart and lungs, shredding them.
The homebuilt suppressor did it's job and the load report of the Shotgun was
reduced to a loud cough.
"Clear." Came Darth's low pitched voice from behind, his eyes questing over
the top of his blaster pistol's sights still scanning for enemies.
"Clear." Replied Outlaw 1 still covering his sector of the room.
Together the partners moved so their backs were against a wall. "Stoppage."
Outlaw 1 announced his eye still scanning his designated area. Darth quickly
responded with "Covering," and shifted his attention to cover the entire room.
Outlaw 1 swiftly safed his shotgun then removed the remains of the two-liter
bottle from the barrel. He then replaced the spent shell with another from
his bandoleer, this one a tungsten-carbide armor piercing slug.
Securing the shotgun to it's shoulder rig the one eyed author then withdrew
his own
blaster holding it in his left hand while he unsheathed his Katana with the
right.
"Loaded."
Darth grunted in response and together they moved towards the door.
*********
The authors stealthily made their way down the corridor. The subbasement had
proven to be a veritable maze of hallways and rooms. The pair had already
met and dispatched several workers and guards using their blades.
They were now nearing the Southwest stairs, having followed an emergency fire
escape floor plan that Darth had removed from a wall.
Outlaw 1 peered around the last corner separating them from door to the
stairs. There in front of the door were three people in an animated
conversation not ten feet away from his current position.
He turned to his partner and spoke in a low voice. "Three men, no visible
weapons but I wouldn't bet against them having guns under their coats."
"What's the plan?"
Outlaw 1 thought a moment, then replied. "I will go first with my sword,
I'll get the two on the right you come in behind me where they can't see and
take out the one on the right."
Darth put away his blaster pistol and unsheathed his vibro-knife. "Sounds
good." He said switching on the weapon.
Outlaw 1 swung around the corner Darth right behind him. Walking like they
owned the place the pair made it within arms reach before being noticed.
"Hi." Outlaw 1 said, waving his right hand. He then took another step to
close the distance and whipped his Katana out from behind his back in a fast
reverse slash. The cut took his target his target through the throat
severing both the carotid artery and the jugular vein. As the man fell his
life's blood pattering on the floor Outlaw 1 swiftly reversed his grip and
drove the point into his second targets chest.
He was very surprised to hear a loud clank and see his adversary get pushed
backwards by his strike, instead of being impaled. The man smirked and
pasted Outlaw 1 with a side kick that sent him flying into the wall.
The sword wielding author was able to keep his focus as he was being kicked
away and opened a deep gash on the man's leg with his blade. "Well, this is
gonna suck." Outlaw 1 observed as his opponent took up a martial arts stance.
The two quickly became a whirlwind of barely dodged kicks, punches, and sword
strikes. Outlaw 1 finally ducked under a kick that hit the wall behind his
head and broke through leaving his adversary stuck up to his knee in the
sheet-rock. Quickly capitalizing on this the author stepped under the leg
cutting his opponent in the groin as he did. On the other side Outlaw turned
bringing his sword around as he did and took off his enemies head with one
quick swipe.
While this was happening Darth dove for his man swinging the vibro-knife as
he went.
The man instinctively raised his arm to block the humming blade, which went
ahead to remove three of his fingers as the man frantically backpedaled.
Injured but not finished the man retaliated by trying to flick blood from his
new stumps into Darth's face. The blond Author wasn't amused. He quickly
dodged the spray and dove in with his blade in front of him.
The enraged Author savagely cut and thrust at the man, his vibro-blade making
chopped meat of his target, who when he finally fell was barely recognizable
as human.
"What the hell was that about?" Outlaw 1 commented. Looking over at Darth.
Darth was busy trying to keep his lunch down. "I have a little problem with
people trying to throw blood on me." He replied.
Outlaw 1 looked askance at the gore covering Darth's chest and arms. "Right."
He
drawled.
Darth just gazed at him. "Come on we don't have much time. There is no way we
can hide this mess."
"Just a second." Outlaw 1 replied as he approached the headless corpse.
Pulling open the dead man's shirt Outlaw 1 whistled at what was underneath.
"Wow, a tactical assault vest." He said examining the heavy body armor.
Fumbling for a second he removed a heavy metal plate that had been in a pouch
over the man's heart. "Ahh, I thought so I hit his trauma plate." Mystery
solved Outlaw 1 placed the plate on the blood soaked floor.
They returned their edged weapons to their sheathes and pulled out the
blasters again. Taking up positions on opposite sides of the door. Darth
reached over and slid open the door as Outlaw 1 moved through smoothly
keeping his weapon pointed in front of him.
**************
The duo carefully made their way up the to flights of stairs to the basement
level of the office building Thrawn had recently converted into a base.
They silently padded down the hall looking for a door on the right hand side
when they came to a corner. Stopping before going around the two author
strained their hearing as their ears picked up a pair of familiar voices.
************
"You know, that trick with subspace is
cool." Andrew remarked as they continued on
their run. (Having emptied the arsenal.)
"I prefer the term `Mallet-space.' But it is
useful. Who would have thought that it was that
easy?" Came the reply.
Andrew's response was cut off as they came
around a corner to see two figures standing in
the hallway. His response was near-
instantaneous. He pulled out a BIG rifle. Chibi-
Slacker pulled out a Desert Eagle.
Both figures immediately raised their hands
in surrender.
"WHOAH! FRIENDS HERE!" One of them yelled.
"I know that voice...Outlaw?" Chibi-Slacker
called.
"Yup. Me and Darth here know the way out.
Follow us."
The foursome turned to leave when Outlaw 1 turned and looked at Chibi-Slacker.
"Hey, nice hair spore." Outlaw 1 said remembering his own ponytail that had
been lost after the animates had entered his life.
His reminiscing was cut shut by a hard kick to the shin. As he bent down to
grab his hurting leg Chibi-Slacker's hand grabbed the front of his coveralls
and shoved his desert eagle in Outlaw 1's face. "Listen you," Snarled the
author turned senshi in training. "If you call me spore again I will give you
a .50 caliber lobotomy. You understand me?"
Outlaw 1 just cocked his eye-brow at this and stood up with Chibi-Slacker
still attached to his chest. "So noted." He gritted out as he removed
Slacker from his chest and set him on the ground.
Darth and Andrew chuckled softly seeing this. "Come on guys we have to get
back
downstairs if we are going to get out of this place." Darth pointed out.
Andrew looked at him strangely, "I thought we were already in the basement."
He stated.
Darth thought about the trek through the sewers they had ahead of them. "We
are," he said "trust me. You don't want to know" he muttered to Andrew's
questioning look.
The authors led by the chastened Outlaw 1 made there way to the stairwell and
started heading down. When they exited in the subbasement Andrew
Chibi-Slacker looked at the corpses and blood splattering the walls. "Damn
Outlaw you are one psychotic cyclops" Slacker quipped
"Thanks." He replied impassively, attention focused ahead of them.
"Something isn't
right." He finally said.
"Yeah." Darth said, "It's too quiet"
Just then the corridors were filled with the sound of an alarm wailing.
**********
In the hall way where the authors stood doors started opening, sleepy men
stumbling out in various stages of dress some were unarmed but most weren't.
Darth and Outlaw 1 looked at each other. "Run?" Asked Darth.
"Just try and keep up." Confirmed Outlaw 1.
Without further ado they took off running at top speed.
"Hey!" Yelled Andrew as he brandished his/her (damn this is confusing) M-14
battle rifle "Wait for us."
With that he and Chibi-Slacker took off in hot pursuit of the running authors.
Quickly retracing their steps Outlaw 1 and Darth took the lead stiff arming
people out of there way as they went. Most of the men were surprised to say
the least and offered no resistance.
That all changed when the foursome turned a corner and ran right into a group
of soldiers that were obviously part of a reaction team in the process of
deploying to their stations.
The two parties stared at each other for a second then all hell broke loose
as Andrew let loose with a full twenty round magazine of .308 full metal
jacket rounds from his rifle set on full auto. The others quickly followed
suit Chibi-Slacker and Darth's pistols emptying places in the enemy lines.
The carnage was completed as Outlaw 1 joined in with his shotgun. Sending six
rounds of #4 buckshot screaming out as fast as he could work the action,
scattering seventy-two pellets among the enemy troops.
When the fusillade had died out only two men of the original ten remained
standing.
They looked at the four authors and the destruction they had brought in awe.
"Go go go!" Screamed Outlaw 1 as he started pushing the others back in the
direction they had come. He quickly jerked his Colt out of it's holster and
sent five .45 caliber slugs
screaming in the general direction of the survivors forcing them to dive for
cover.
As they rounded the corner Darth primed one of the captured grenades and sent
it flying back in the direction they had just come from. "Fire in the hole."
The authors continued running reloading their weapons as they ran. When the
grenade exploded they were all blown off their feet and landed in one big
mass on the floor.
Untangling themselves the foursome continued running taking random corners
until they were well and truly lost. Looking around Darth spotted a silver
air-duct running across the ceiling. Smiling he pointed up. "Hey guys if we
don't know where we are why should they, right?"
Outlaw 1 looked up with a puzzled expression on his face. "Huh?" "Oh, I get
you he
said."
With an evil grin Outlaw 1 pulled out his black Tanto and handed it to
Chibi-Slacker as Darth started pulling several large smoke bombs he had
bought from a fireworks stand out of his pockets.
Chibi-Slacker looked at the knife in his/her hand and said, "I don't get it."
"Smoke screen." Replied Darth "Outlaw is gonna boost you up and your gonna
cut a
whole in the duct then toss in a half dozen smoke bombs. Simple, no?"
Chibi-Slacker didn't look to thrilled with the plan but Outlaw 1 didn't give
the pint sized author much time to think about it quickly moving into action
Slacker was soon within arms reach and slashing lustily with the knife easily
cutting through the thin steel of the duct. With a little juggling the smoke
bombs were lit and thrown in the hole. Which was then resealed with some of
Outlaw 1's ever-present duct tape.
Shortly air vents all over the subbasement were spewing thick white smoke
causing
massive confusion as it obscured the vision of everyone present.
"So how do we find our way through this crap? Asked Andrew while waving a
free hand to try to clear the smoke away from his/her face.
Outlaw 1's only answer was to remove the GPS device from his belt.
Using the device they quickly navigated the obscured hallways using the smoke
to hide from there enemies. They soon made their way back to the room where
Outlaw 1 and Darth had made their way into the building.
As they made their way into the sewers Darth stopped by the door and busied
himself setting a booby-trap consisting of the thermal detonator turned on
end so its own weight
would hold down the dead-man's switch. The device was set against the closed
door so that when someone opened it the bomb would tip over and explode with
massive force.
**********
The weary authors pulled themselves out of a convenient manhole some blocks
north of the building. The four had just turned their eyes to once again
gaze at the night sky and the freedom it represented when the city of Tokyo
was lit bright as day and nearly deafened by a tremendous explosion.
The writers turned their attention south just in time to witness a miniature
mushroom
cloud rise over the city streets.
Speechless at the destruction their actions had caused the foursome turned
and started walking Outlaw 1 and Darth leading the way to their hotel. It
had been a long night.
*************
Nemesis and Thrawn stood in front of the still smoking crater several hours
after the bomb went off. Officially a gas main had ruptured triggering the
explosion. Unofficially the head of Tokyo's forensic division was taking a
vacation in America this year compliments of Thrawn. His children were
really looking forward to seeing Disneyland.
"Great plan, Thrawn. Tactical genius, my ass."
The brilliant tactician turned to regard his companion. "What makes you say
that?"
Nemesis looked at him strangely. "Well, the fact that our nice, shiny
building is a crater. Thirty-four of our men are now ground hamburger. What
the goddamn hell did you think
I meant?"
Thrawn regarded him coolly. "We didn't lose any men in this action." He said
with a slight stress on the word action. The men that were killed belonged
to Oyabun Bukko Takuan, a local gangster. He found out about our operations
here and tried to force me into an alliance that benefited him. I pretended
to agree, then persuaded him to station a sizable portion of his dedicated
soldiers in this building to act as guards."
"So it was a bunch of worthless yakuza that died, it's still a screw up all
four of our
targets got away scot free, and we ain't got fuck all to show for it."
Nemesis pointed out.
"I disagree." Said Thrawn in a tone of mild reproof. "We have made several
gains from this little episode. First Bukko Takuan's forces are now
significantly weakened. His leverage to try and force an alliance is now
greatly diminished in his eyes even though I could easily crush his forces I
now do not have to, also since the authors are responsible for this they will
now have a much harder time obtaining contacts among the yakuza since Takuan
was well respected in that world. Also and most important I now know how the
author Outlaw 1 thinks in a combat situation. I can now easily outmaneuver
him." "Lastly the building was ugly totally unaesthetic, however it was
insured for significantly more than it was worth. Now, do you have any other
complaints with how I run things?"
"No." Nemesis grumbled. "But if I do you will be the first one to know."
"I'm sure, Thrawn replied. Now let's leave it looks like rain." Without
further comment he turned and headed for the limousine that had brought them
to this location.
To be Continued.
Author's notes.
I would like to take the opportunity to say I think my avatar in this fic is
an asshole who exemplifies my worst qualities taken to the Nth degree. Of
course I do have a reason for that, I will try to make it clear as this
story progresses
Bukko Takuan is a character from the 47 Loyal Ronin of Ako.
This was written to a lot of different music but mainly "12" by Insane Clown
Posse. You can download the Real Audio format of this song from
www.realjuggalos.com it is on the album: "The Riddle Box".
I hoped you liked it. If so let me know. If not, even better please let me
know what you thought and where I can improve my writing.
Tag Darth you're it.
Later
Outlaw 1