Running Edge

kaleb kicked a rock in the road.
"i knew this didn't make sense. i've been down this road so many times that a warehouse couldn't have just magically appeared."
he grunted in anger and disbelief. he needed to meet with ryku. something very wrong was about to happen. he wasn't sure whom he should give the upper hand to at the moment, the EBO or the Runners, but one of them needed it. right now it seemed like neither of them had it.

alex stood there with everyone else confused.
"so...where should we go...?"

 

The rock Mya kicked bounced off several walls and other larger stones before dropping down what seemed to be the floor and...kept falling. It clanged on the bottom of what sounded to be a metal floor after a ways down.

Hikaru and Kaoru glanced up to the third level of the department store and nodded to one of their subordinates. "Pretty soon, Lynne, and you'll be a free girl again. Unless...Lazard decides to contact your friends again with someone else and demand a ransom? What do you think Hikaru?" "It's not going to happen, Kaoru. There's no way Lazard would take money from people like the Runners. Not when he wants revenge. This isn't a kidnapping...it's premeditated murder." Lynne held her breath and dipped her zip-tied hands into the fountain water. I have one shot...one shot to slip out of these, knock these two idiots out and get the bloody hell outta here.

 

Kurisu immediately noticed the weirdness of the set of noises the rock that Mya had kicked just made. "I think we may just have an answer..." he said darkly as he took the first steps forward towards where he believed they would find exactly what and who they were looking for.

 

kaleb reached inside his jacket to grab his gun for protection, but stopped once his hand was inside and slowly pulled it back out empty handed. he remembered runners don't use weapons and would have completely given himself away and caused quite a scene in a hostage situation if he had. the twins were supposed to be on the good side, but what they were doing was far from good. he looked back at the others hesitantly and then continued to ease forward towards the hole in the ground.

alex noticed kaleb's bizarre behavior, but tried to ignore it since there was a good chance that they were all headed to their deaths.
"guys...in case this is the end...i just wanted to say...it's...it's been a pleasure working with you all."
alex choked back a tear and bit her lip as she approached the entrance and took a step down the stairs.

 

"Don't worry about it to much Alex, I'm sure we'll get out of this mess." Ren said trying to reasure her. The truth was that he had no idea what to expect, but it was pointless to think about the worst.

 

alex smiled halfheartedly. she slowly continued to descend the stairway into the darkness. it was quite terrifying, like every single one of them was willing walking to their deaths. with every step they took that was one less minute of their life. alex wrapped her arms around ren's bicep gingerly and was glad kevin wasn't with them. there was no way he could have managed to go down these stairs and hopefully back up them with ease.

 

Mya followed them down the stairs, angrily responding to Alex's comment. You say that again, I will shoot you myself. You will NOT die on me today you understand? If you die, I'll pull you back from hell and kill you again. She hated people saying that they were on their last moment when they truly aren't. It's as if they expect to die.

 

alex looked at mya and glared.
"WHAT on earth makes you think i'm going to hell? the fact that we're trying to overthrow a corrupt government or the fact that i work so hard to help keep you in working condition? i feel like i'm pretty heaven worthy..."
she sighed. alex knew mya meant well, it was just hard to keep up the cheery facade when they were obviously walking into a trap and have know idea if lynne was even still alive.

 

Mya stepped back nervously. Ack don't drop a hammer on me. I didn't mean it literally. I'm just not liking the pessimist mood right now.

 

Kurisu sighed. "Focus guys... we don't know what may be coming around the corner."
He looked at them before looking ahead again. "We're a family right? We need to stick together. We'll all be fine as long as we can watch each others backs. I don't intend to let a single back go unwatched. So while I'm watching your backs. You all watch mine and each others. Mm'kay?" he told them as he continued to move again.

 

Down the stairs, and around a muddy corner, the space widened to what appeared to be the inside of a large warehouse. The twins hadn't lied, simple not specified. A man sat huddled in a corner, eventually chains jingled as he fell over, his head falling underneath a single lightbulb. He looked deprived of everything; food, water, sunlight, fresh air...and now he was dead.

Lazard crouched behind his desk, stuffing papers into a briefcase frantically.

 

alex unwrapped one of her arms and reached out to grab kurisu's shoulder.
"don't worry. i've got your back. i realize you were kidding mya. i was too. except the last part. i'm pretty certain i deserve heaven. i wasn't trying to be pessimistic, i just wanted everyone to know how i felt since we've had a lot of close encounters recently."
she glared at the back of kaleb's neck as if it were his fault.
"i think i'm going to go to church on sunday, if we...i mean...when we make it out of here."
alex almost tripped when she finally realized there were no more stairs to go down. she saw the light from around the corner and what she saw under it made her want to through up. alex hurried over to the freshly fallen body and did a pulse check.
"he's dead. probably for quite some time. at...at least it's not lynne...that's a good sign right?"
alex and lynne weren't nearly as close as she and hanna, but it still would have been horrifying to see her in this state.

 

Mya reached the bottom and stared grimly at the dead body. If this is what these monsters do to prisoners, I'll make sure they suffer if I find a single scratch on Lynne. Her voice was full of rage. She truly meant it. No one messed with her friends.

 

ooc: O.o Poor Lazard...mya's gonna kill him.

bic:

Lazard stood, holding his briefcase tightly in one hand and a pistol, aimed at Alex, since she was the first he saw. "I dentify yourself! Y-you're not welcome here! This warehouse is under EBO jurisdiction!"

 

"So you EBO bastards are behind this huh?!" Kurisu yelled, running forward and tackling Lazard before he could get a shot off. There was no way he was going to let one of his family be hurt again. He even ignored the possibility of being shot himself.

 

Lazard cringed and fell to the ground under him. "Oh, Lord, please don't hurt me! I...it wasn't my idea! I didn't want to do it!" his hands trembled and the gun slipped from his hand.

 

"Like I'm gonna fall for that!" Kurisu shouted into Lazards face, knocking the gun away from them with his hand as he bought the other one back and smashed it hard into the side of Lazard's head. "Now where is Lynne?"
He glared down at the man he had pinned down. "Trust me... you don't want Mya to get her hands on you. So you best tell me now before you regret it. We don't normally like to take such methods, but when someone we care about is in danger, let's just say we don't play so nice."

 

Lazard shut his eyes and cleared his throat, "Is that right? So it's only the girl you care about? What about billions of other innocent people? Lynne will be fine, as long as she can maintain the right rhythm. If she can't...POP goes the weasel." his expression and tone of voice changed drastically. A cold, glint cleared his brown eyes of fear and his voice had a cold, calculating tone and even a mocking undertone to it. "You'd best let me up and go peacefully, or one phone call and your girl is panicking like a small rodent." His fingers rested on a speed dial number on his phone he'd pulled from his inner jacket pocket.

Lynne bathed her hands in the fountain, struggling silently to slide the zip wire from around her wrists. It was harder than she thought.

 

Ren didn't like the way he said that. They weren't left with many option, but there was noway they were going to abandon one of there own. Great, another standstill.

 

alex stood there frozen. there was only one thing lazard could have meant.
"you don't, you don't mean...a bomb..."
her eyes had grown more wide then they had ever before.

as soon as it was confirmed that the ebo were involved kaleb took a step to the back of the group. he knew lazard, but just barely. it might have been enough however for him to identify him. this didn't seem right though. what was going on here was beyond the ebo. it was corrupt and not something the ebo would do. this was far far worse.