My brain, let me give it to you.

[ciircee]

Um. Yes. So I have a ton of fic to write but instead I wasted a few hours and did this. It's kind of a mafia AU? It's how I'd put Arashi into a badass action movie? Yeah, I don't know either.



Approaching Storm

The warehouse district in the early morning was all but deserted. Dawn was far off, a pink-gray edge to the fading velvet blue of the sky. Sho looked at the last of the stubborn stars, leaning back against a worn-down, nondescript warehouse with windows high up on the walls. Just one more warehouse in a line of old and forgettable buildings in a warren of unnamed streets. "How's it coming?" he asked.

On his knees beside the door, Aiba gave Sho a nod. "Just about there. Quiet takes longer." He looked up from shaping something around the lower hinge of the door and offered up a grin. "I could have rigged a door-breacher in the car, you know."

"And got the attention of everybody in the district," said Jun, coming around the side of the building. He was holstering a handgun at the small of his back. "There's nothing out the back. They're expecting us at the door."

"We've got a full room downstairs. Gonna be cramped but they're mostly sitting around. Working on something, I guess. I've got some serious movement on the interior second story," Nino reported. He flipped back his thermal optic goggles, leaving his hair in disarray. "Back left corner. Why anybody ever thinks that Captain is the ideal hostage is beyond me."

Spraying insulating foam over the hinges of the door, Aiba stood. "To be fair, he is Captain. We're set. Nice and quiet-like."

Sho pushed off from the wall. "Everybody low as we go in, we're going to take them at the knees and hit them hard once they're down. Nino, stay at the rear and give me a sweep as we go in. No surprises. Weapons and let's blow this thing."

As one they knelt. Aiba set his assault rifle to his shoulder, shrugging another off his other shoulder. Jun was already reaching for it, his hand already at the trigger, finger alongside the guard before he had it in position. Sho un-holstered a machine pistol, tactical grade but still light and braced his other hand on the ground, ready to push up and move in, providing cover while Jun and Aiba gained their feet. Nino tucked his PDW close under his arm and flipped his goggles back down. "Eyes to the side," he said, letting them know he wasn't looking at the door and wasn't going to blind himself even if the odds of it were low.

"Popping it," Aiba said. He pressed a trigger button against the stock of his gun.

There was a sound like lock being thrown, metallic and deep but not loud. A second later the door fell backward into the building with a crash. The interior of the warehouse had a make-shift, open-scaffolding second floor, a kitchen area, a computer area, and an area for downtime. It was packed full of people, as Nino had said it would be. Sho opened fire and the tinny, muffled sound of suppressed gunfire mixed with surprised shouts; Sho made his move into the room, sweeping his gun in an arc as it fired. Jun and Aiba gained their feet as un-suppressed gunfire cracked back at them and the silence in a burst of sound. It went over their heads harmlessly and the sounds was drown out quickly by screams as Sho, Aiba, and Jun moved up from knees to chests and heads.

"We're clear all the way in," Nino announced, backing into the room, close behind Jun, adding in a sweep of bullets on Jun's open flank, just to make sure that anybody lurking was down.

And then silence.

"That was louder than I would have liked," Sho muttered, giving their fallen enemies a sour look.

"It was still good work. Over quickly," said Ohno. He was sitting at the top of the stairs looking ruffled and a little bruised around the eyes and mouth but otherwise unharmed. "Thanks for the rescue."

"This twenty-four hour hold is for the birds," Nino grumbled. He switched goggles, pushing up one pair and pulling a second up from where they hung around his neck. He scanned the room as he said, "We could have got you about an hour after they grabbed you, you know."

Ohno shrugged. "We learn more this way. And it makes them underestimate us."

Jun shook his hair back and handed his rifle back to Aiba. "Did they seriously leave their network down here?" he asked, picking his way over bodies to the computers against the far wall. "Amateurs."

"They're young," Aiba said distractedly. "They're new."

"And they're not stupid," Nino added. "That's a fake setup. There's something in the router."

Sho looked at Jun and then at Aiba. "See if you can find out what it is and what it does. Nino, find their computers for Jun."

"They've got paper files up here," Ohno said, standing and coming down the stairs. "It's locked but I'm pretty sure one of the guys upstairs has the keys."

"Good to have you back, Captain," Sho said, hugging him briefly when he reached the bottom. "We brought you something, by the way."

Ohno beamed as each member pulled out a weapon part. "Is it my two best friends?" he asked, taking the part that Sho handed him.

"Heckler and Koch are not your best friends," Nino said handing off his part absently, staring hard at the walls as Sho took the stairs two at a time. "They're gun makers who love you for your money and dirty, back-door deals to get to them."

"You don't understand," Ohno told Nino "but that's okay, I kind of wanted the AMP DSR subsonic anyway," he went on. He was already snapping the pieces together again from their custom deconstruction, taking the pieces that Jun and Aiba tossed to him. He slid the sling onto his bicep and tightened it. "I'll take the door." He leaned casually in the doorway, eyes on the street. He looked sleepy and slow, a perfect mask to the sharpshooter with the sniping rifle in his hands.

Nino tapped a wall. "There's too many wires here, lots of electricity. I can't see how to get in to them so it must be a concealed server room and not a work station."

Jun ripped a laptop free from the tangle of cords on the table. "Masaki, make me a door, if you please."

Aiba picked up the router and pulled some wire snips from the pouch at his waist. "Sure thing. We can use their boom-boom for it, too," he was laughing under his breath. "Short range but a nice little punch. I love comp B."

"Yeah, it's really quaint," Jun said. "Nino, do you have to?"

Nino looked up from where he was examining one of the fallen, grinning sharply. "Hey, money is money even if there's blood on it. It's launderable on two levels. Want me to pick you up any jump drives if they have them?"

Jun sighed. "Yes, please.

Aiba smiled at Nino's cheerful, feral happiness. "Blowing it, step back." He waved away the drywall dust a moment later. "Captain, do you want me to set up any plate charges anywhere?" he asked as Jun and his laptop disappeared into the hole.

Ohno looked torn. "No," he said at last. "Come take the door. I'm going to take high ground." He glanced at the stairs.

"They were working for somebody else, huh?" Aiba asked quietly as he stepped to Ohno's side.

Puffing out his cheeks, Ohno nodded shortly. "I think so." He paused by Nino as he passed him. "I know this interrupts your fun-times, but check their pockets for…" he made an annoyed face, "stuff."

Nino sat back on his heels. "Stuff. Okay, gotcha." It was a mark of how well they knew each other that Nino knew what he was talking about.

Ohno bopped him on the shoulder. "Keep a listener on. If there are cops, I want to know."

"If anybody calls it, I'll let you know," he agreed, tucking an earphone into one ear as he went through pockets.

"They might have been young but they had good contacts," Sho said when Ohno reached the second story. "The family run by Kinki Kids has apparently opened a few new lines to Korea. Man, I remember when both of those guys were still little brothers."

"Sho," Ohno said. He stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. He climbed on to the filing cabinets and cranked open the window above it, setting the barrel of his rifle on the ledge. "We're being targeted."

"No we're not. Somebody always kidnaps you every year because we look easy and everybody knows we're sitting on a hoard," Sho said absently. His camera clicked as he took photos of the documents he was flipping through. "Hey, V6 is paying off our inside man for way less than we are!"

Ohno looked at the streets. "Did you know Tackey and Tsubasa have separated?" he asked.

Sho looked up. "What?"

"They're both doing solo stuff right now. It's not an official split but the Juniors went with Imai."

"Who would want to stay with the boss that gives them the bad touch?" Nino remarked, wandering by to loot the bodies in the other room.

"Why are we the last to know?" Sho mourned.

"We're not," Ohno told him. He glanced down at Sho. "I think we're the first aside from HeySay. And to be honest? They're dead now so it's just us and whoever put the grab on me. Jin's left Kame's family."

Sho's jaw tightened. "They always had a risk of splitting."

"Pi's got another project in the works, too. Just Pi."

"It could be fake," Sho argued. "Who's that loose-lipped around an enemy boss, even if they do have him tied to a chair?"

Ohno sighted movement in the scope and squeezed off a shot. In the far distance, a body fell. He dropped a red phone, bright against the dingy, aged blacktop. "Somebody who meant to take us out before you guys could get to me. Where is everything?"

Sho flipped and clicked faster, changing memory cards. "On the bus, just like every time you get picked up. We left fakes and old stuff we don't care about in place instead of filler, though. Jun insisted. He's seen something on the wires," Sho realized suddenly. "You've had him more active lately."

Aiming carefully, Ohno took a second shot. A second person fell. "I told him to make it real if anything popped up under the blue line and I wasn't around. Nino?" he called.

Nino ducked his head into the room. "Captain?"

"We're going to need to change cell phones. It looks like something new and AU. We're going to have to swap cases before we bust it up."

Nino looked at the sniper rifle as Ohno continued to scan the streets. "I'll be on the bus stripping the appropriate gear."

"Round up Jun and Aiba," Sho told him, switching to a third memory card. "We're leaving."

"No, leave Aiba," Ohno said.

"Leave me where?" Aiba asked. "Jun says the lines are jumping. He's going to disconnect. He wants Nino to help him jack a few computer parts before we go."

"Sho, help Jun take whatever you can get in the time it takes Aiba to rig this place. Don't let him linger and don't let him get it heavy. We're tight on time." Sho nodded and was gone, Nino with him. "We're taking this place to the ground," Ohno told Aiba. "Make it look messy but cover our tracks."

Through the sniper scope, Ohno watched them as they made their way out of the building. Nino first, heading in the opposite direction from Ohno's targets. He let out a breath, feeling a little easier about things but not enough to be relieved. Jun was next out the door. He had the laptop under his arm and his pistol in hand. Sho was on his heals, carrying what looked to be an entire computer server, his muscles straining with the effort. Aiba was last out, trailing wire in his wake, a thin dark line marking his path. Ohno took one last check on the streets and then jumped down. He met Aiba on the sidewalk just as their bus pulled up.

"Need a ride?" Nino asked politely, hanging over Jun's shoulder at the wheel.

"Head that way," Ohno told Jun, pointing. "Some dead guy seems to have dropped his phone and we're going to accidentally run it over after Nino swaps it out." He headed for the back of the bus, where Sho was sitting with his own laptop, uploading from his camera. "I need to meet with Joushima and Nakai," he said with preamble.

Sho winced. "I'll call Ishibashi."

"No," Ohno looked out the window at the still dark, pre-dawn day. "Just Leaders." Sho nodded and Ohno reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "A storm's coming," he said steadily. He looked up to see the others watching him. A frozen moment stopped beside an unknown cell phone and a plan. "A storm's coming," he told them "but we're going to make sure it's on our terms."




No, there will not be more of this. I don't know where this came from and—let's be honest—the mafia thing has been done way better than I could manage even if I was tempted to try.

Comments

[waxrose.livejournal.com]

SERIOUSLY, HOW ARE ARASHI NOT STARRING IN MOVIES LIKE THIS? :/// This was AWESOME.