There’s a chance so don’t miss it [Closed]

[candothismuch]

Who: Eiji, Shingo, Nia, Ankh
What: Two rescuers walk into a studio to stage a rescue, only one comes back out
When: Mid-April, Afternoon, after the Ghost Event
Where: One of Virgo's recording studios
Warnings: Potential language courtesy of a punk bird with an attitude



Eiji and Shingo had talked about it and planned everything as best as they could. It was risky but they already knew that. They were no strangers to dangerous situations either so the risk factor was more of an after thought than anything else. It was also something they were willing to weather knowing what was at stake here.

They were going to get their friend out no matter what, along with whoever else they could free at this time.

Making use of Shingo's inside information courtesy of working Virgo Security, the managed to find a day when Surviving Friday would be heading out to a recording studio and chose it for when they would enact their rescue plan. This was it, it was now or never. Eiji glances over at his friend who was holding the bag that held the invisibility device in it. It had already been some time since the band disappeared into the studio.

"Should we move now?"

Comments

[possessedbygreeed]

Shingo, meanwhile, probably looked a lot calmer than he felt. And he didn't feel all that comfortable in his clothes. He had shredded jeans on, and a hoodie that looked more punk rock than one would ever expect him to wear. But he had a part to fit.

This was far from his first sting, but it felt like there was a lot more on the line this time than usual. But he had to stick to the plan, if they had a chance at this working. In the back of his mind, he remembered that conversation he had with that ghost, if that was what it was. He'd asked for the strength to do his part, when it mattered. Eiji had OOO, Ankh definitely had the wits, and the capability to analyze a situation in an instant. If power was what they needed to level the playing field, then he'd happily take what was given.

"Yeah. Wait here." He put on a pair of over-ear headphones, cranked the volume loud enough that anyone walking nearby him could hear, and flicked up his hood. He shrugged the red backpack with its peacock feather charm onto one shoulder, and stuffed his hands into the front pocket of the hoodie.

In the bag was some brief, written instructions on how the device worked, including its 30 minute limit, and where Eiji was waiting with a general description of the car he'd won in Fairy Trial, as well as the device itself. So long as it was attached to the backpack, it would conceal both the bag and the wearer.

With one last adjustment of his sunglasses, he went down the block and across the street, into the main entrance of the studio. Once off the street and in the lobby of the place, the high volume of his headphones was even more apparent. He was practically dancing on his way in. He did a spin on one foot, making little "Da-da da da-dah!" sounds in time with it. He definitely could pass for an exuberant musician on his way to some recording time.

He passed by the lounge area on the way to the main door that lead to the studios themselves. He went straight to the door and tugged on the handle. "I need to see your ID, kid," came the voice of the crotchety old man at the nearby window.

He didn't seem to notice he was being spoken to at all, since he couldn't hear over the music. In his own time, after a moment, he spotted the old guy and gave him a big grin as he came over to talk to him. He lowered his headphones and let them hang around his neck, but didn't lower the volume at all. "What's the deal, Old Man, can't you cut a guy some slack?"

"The rules apply to everyone!" he snapped. The rumors about this guy being a stuffy old codger looked true. So far so good.

He set the backpack on the floor, under the window, way out of the line of vision of the old guy seated in the window. He started patting his pockets. "Aw, man, I forgot it. Can you cut me some slack, just this once?"

"No! Never! No ID, no booth!" He jabbed a sign that said basically that but in much more genteel language.

"Fine, fine," he finally acquiesced, put his headphones back up, stuffed his hands back in his hoodie pocket, and made his way back out through the lounge again. He pulled his phone out and acted like he was sending a text message as he went.

He didn't realize how hard his heart was pounding until he was back on the street again. He went about 10 feet down the street and casually found a wall to lean against, in plain view of Eiji. Now they just had to wait.

[connivingbird]

Fours hours into a jamming session with people pulled to cover spots that were left open was not the best day of Ankh's life. In fact, as far as he could remember, weird dreams aside about having his soul crushed by the king, it was one of the worse days ever. It was compounded by the fact that Nia acted like he was going to disappear if he snapped one too many time at the poor session artists.

After the fifth time he snarled at them to get into the fucking rhythm already before he choked them, their manager told him to quit it. He tried but even with the added pressure to obey didn't make his temper last much longer and with that, he demanded some outside air and food. Luckily, a run to the nearby ice cream place was allowed and with one last huff at the session artists, he took Nia and swept out of the studio and outside. The ice cream did improve his mood, though the idea of having to go back into that room with those people and pretend that things were fine was really putting a stone in his caw.

But he had someone to protect. Glancing down at Nia he felt the surge of annoyance and anger that his humans were getting caught up in this mess. And there was Kise, who was somewhere else and he is just not going to keep things together much longer. He was going to get into a full on temper and that never did him any good, if the half-dreams could be trusted. All thoughts fled the moment they stepped back into the studio and the ancient human in the booth started to yell at him about leaving his shit laying around. Ankh was going to protest that he didn't when he noticed that it was a red backpack with a peacock feather charm.

Shingo. That idiot was taking too many chances, but Ankh took the backpack and glanced down at Nia before announcing that they need to clean up before going in and ushered her over to the unisex restrooms. Luckily for them the guards don't follow them here.

"Don't say anything and keep watch."

And with that, he dug the gear out and gave it a once over.

[loveconservative]

Nia's been trying to play peace keeper. She's tried to smile. And every day, more and more memories assaulted her. Bringing food and trying to console a boy around her age. And every time she saw him her heart felt emptier and emptier. Losing Tsuna seemed to only remind her of the fact she's lost someone bigger. Someone more important. The only person she's ever truly loved.

She's lost Simon.

And as much as she feels like her chest is going to crack at the slightest pressure, she is spending most of her time following Ankh around. She's all smiles and kindness and trying to console any replacements who he's threatened. She's not used to playing the role of damage control.

But at least she seems to be good at it. She's too cute to get mad at for most people, really. It takes a special kind of asshole to be angry at a cloud child.

When Ankh pulls her away, she's about to ask what is going on, opening her mouth before he tells her to keep silent. And she immediately snaps back to watch the door.

She's content to follow orders. Fighting with the last person who seems to genuinely care about her might cause that crack to shatter.

[connivingbird]

It can't be right. They were going to do this today? At this time? Ankh read the instructions over and then looked at the device, double checking to make sure it was charged and ready to go before going over the facts in his head. The guards outside... Well, he could feel the low thrum of desire from the one - bored, wishing that the job was over and he can get back to the game - but the other hadn't even twitched at the worse of Ankh's little fits earlier today. Like their manager, there wasn't anything human about the way that one acted. Could this device get them past that one?

He looked at Nia and then let out a puff of air, crouching down to talk to her without raising his voice to a whisper.

"Listen. This is from a couple people I know. They're idiots, but they want to get us away before we end up like Tsuna, gone or something. This will sneak one of us out of here where they can get us away."

He hoped they knew what they were doing, that they can get rid of whatever was tracking them. He didn't think he could survive the Cores leaving him again. He couldn't the dreams had showed him that much; they were him and he couldn't go back to nothing like that again.

"I want you to go first." He had more mobility then her. He was older and faster and he knew she wouldn't fight while he would. Take my humans, take my wings, you will burn burn burn.

[loveconservative]

Nia stares at him. She almost doesn't understand--but she cringes at Tsuna's name. She doesn't know if she's allowed to talk, yet, either so she just... clenches her fists in her skirt for a moment uncertainly.

This could go badly. She's trusted people who've tried to hurt her, or get her to hurt other people before. She doesn't think she's met any of his friends. What if they aren't as kind as he thinks they are? What if this is how people like Tsuna disappear. She blinks back tears at even the thought of him.

But she trusts Ankh. With her life and with more. He'll go without her, she thinks. He'll go and leave her behind. And she can't have that. So she looks at him and nods, firmly as she can.

Her voice is quiet and almost cracks when she speaks. Her nervousness is evident. "Where will I go? Do they know of me?"

[connivingbird]

He hates that sometimes he says things and the words hurt her. So many things have happened in to their band and while she came in to replace his guitar and he was shuffled to singing, he didn't hate her. Maybe he was indifferent to it, but now he felt so protective of her, almost in the way someone would feel protective of a precious gem. He now knew a bit why he did that, why his thoughts didn't seem human, but he wasn't going to say. There were too many ways for someone to hear him and have the memories rip from him again.

Instead, he reached over to smooth his finger tips along her cheeks, being careful of the picks he was wearing. This was going to be scary. This was going to be them running and hoping that they get away fast enough before Blanche realized it. There was a way to keep them from getting tracked down. He had to believe that so she could believe it too.

"One of them looks exactly like me save for his hair color. Remember the talk about me having a twin? That's him. He's much nicer then me and there should be an idiot hobo with him, wears a lot of loose clothing and some of it will be purple in color. Ask him about tomorrow's underwear if you want to see his face light up."

No, not really a twin, the true connection was complicated, but it was close enough. And the hobo. Ankh remembered that too, the talk about the importance of underwear and knew the underlying reason for that talk. Humans. His humans.

"According to this note, he's going to be to the left right around the corner of this place."

Ankh picked up the bag and handed it to her. "You have to wear this as you leave; the device will be on and inside it, okay?"

[loveconservative]

She's careful to listen to what he's saying. She doesn't want to mess up and lose track of things and cause trouble for him and his friends, but... He didn't answer as to if they expected her or if she'd be a surprise.

She takes the bag with a frown on her face, staring at it before looking back up at him.

"And what about you? If I am taking this..."

[connivingbird]

"I'll be next."

He released the breath he had been holding when she agreed and turned the instructions over to write a few quick lines on the back. Starting with an 'IDIOT!' of course, but after that was a simple 'This is Nia I won't leave without her. Bring the backpack into the bathroom with the device for me to get out.' and he shoved it at her to take.

"They'll just have to bring it back for me to get out, right?"

Everything goes south

[candothismuch]

After Nia had been ushered into the car and the backpack retrieved it was Eiji's turn to head inside. He'd made himself as unassuming as possible before walking inside. He already knew what he was going to do in order to get the bag to Ankh. It was supposed to be simple; pretend he was lost and looking for another building then ask if there was a bathroom he could use somewhere.

Unfortunately, it seemed that security had other ideas.

"Hey, you."

Eiji stopped when one of the security guards walked over to him and he put on a confused expression, "Is something wrong, sir?"

Inwardly however he was on edge. He needed to navigate this carefully or else they would get caught. The security guard scrutinized him, eyes flicking from the backpack then back to him. He was going to be here a while it looked like. Eiji kept his facade up as the questions began to flow forth.

[connivingbird]

What in the..?

Ankh was waiting impatiently for something to happen since sending Nia out. He hoped she would be okay. He hoped that she would accept the other two and that they wouldn't scare her (Eiji shouldn't; he was a gentle person and how he knew that he didn't know), but there were so many little factors that could have happened that he couldn't be sure of. He had to crouch on a toilet seat and hope that no one came down to see what had happened to him, but then he heard the raised voices.

Well, one raised voice of the security guard. Eiji wouldn't be yelling, not even if he had to, at least not here. It wasn't as if... He frowned and snuck out of the stall, going to peek out to see what was going wrong. He had to know, okay?

[candothismuch]

Eiji is indeed not raising his voice, keeping it very level and civil. But with the security guard interrogating him it was catching some other people's attention.

[connivingbird]

What had they been thinking? They should have at least make it look different or something but now Eiji was seriously attracting too much attention and Ankh couldn't just sit here any more. They would notice him and then, well, he would probably end up a little like Luci at the beck and call of that asshole at the top. And Eiji end up like him if not killed outright... Why was his mind going in that direction?

But the longer he delayed the more people were going to find out, so he shot out of the bathroom to grab the human's arm and tug him away from the guard's station.

"Great, you brought it! I was hoping that you knew what to look for since I had to have one just like that."

[candothismuch]

There's a momentary widening of eyes on Eiji's end when Ankh suddenly appeared and tugged him away from the security guard. But it doesn't take him long to recognize the opening for what it was and he covers his initial surprise up. It could have easily been written off as reflexive because he hadn't seen the other coming.

"Ah, yeah. It took me a while to find it but I did!"

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