Well, sorry for the wait guys, I felt bad since you were all being so patient and supportive. I've just been, super busy, HUGE amounts of school work, lots of extra-curriculars, and then no extra-curriculars but a broken ankle/fibula and too much painkillers to write. All in all, no down weeks. I probably won't be able to write the next chapter until after exams in May now. I shouldn't even have written this... I just reeeeaaaaallly don't want to open up physics. Plus I thought I should explain myself.

As always Read&Review! Thanks Everyone!

Head hazy, I sat up. As my blurry vision slowly focused, two things became apparent, I was bound and gagged in a cold cement room and, I was in deep trouble. Some muffled squeals caused me to turn around. Ai was here too. I looked at the poor girl in pity, though I was not really in any position to pity.

Her hair was a mess and there was dirt on her clothes from where she must have been laying on the dirty ground. No doubt I must have looked the same. Her eyes echoed desperation, tears began to well up they asked why? Why? Why?

My heart sank in guilt, this was my fault, all my fault. They were after me after all. I looked up at the small slit of a window at the topmost part of the wall, Yata, where are you?

"From this day forward, I, Inoue Tsukiko, refuse to be a burden!"

I was a fool, a complete fool. By cutting my hair I thought I'd changed? I was completely powerless, a disgrace to the HOMERA insignia on my arm.

HOMERA… That's right, I was a member of HOMERA, I wasn't powerless any more, and surely there was something I could do! As a member I had that aura… although I had never tried to use it before.

If I could just muster a spark, in just the right place, I might be able to free myself from my bindings. The other problem of course was that I could not see my hands tied behind my back. I glanced around the room, there was a large puddle of water in the right corner. I wormed myself over and faced my back to the puddle.

I strained my neck to look back in the reflection. My hands were bound pretty tightly by the wrists but I could just barely reach my middle finger over the rope. Then I just had to concentrate. I imagined red flowing from my hand. Nothing.

I imagined power flowing to my fingertip. Nothing.

AH JUST BURN ALREADY! That did it. Small red sparks danced of my finger tip and scorched the rope. I tried to pull free. The binging snapped and I threw off my gag. "Ai!" I called. Running over I untied her ropes and gag.

"Tsukiko-san" She cried, "Where are we?"

"I'm sorry." I said softly. "It's my fault we're here but I swear I will get us out in one piece."

"How?" She asked through sobs.

"I'm working on it." I said surveying the area.

The room was locked… probably, if it wasn't there would be a guard stationed nearby that would stop us the second we got out.

I scanned the room for something we could use. It was for the most part, empty. I spotted a pipe running along the ceiling. A part of it was detached and dripping, thus the large puddle. "Ai," I said standing under it, "prop me up."

She came over and gave me a boost. Through a combination of prying and strategic melting, I broke a piece of pipe free. Just in time too, Ai's arms gave out and we both tumbled to the floor. Into the puddle. Yuck. I took a moment to straighten myself out, I combing my fingers through my hair and brushed off some mud. "What now?" Asked Ai.

"We have leverage right now." I said.

"We are locked in a cell being held hostage by some powerful men." She said dryly, "How on earth are we the ones with the leverage?"

"First, the think we're tied up and helpless." I said, "Second they don't know we have a weapon." I lifted the pipe slightly. It was surprisingly heavy.

I walked over to the door. "HELP! HELP!" I cried banging on the door. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT BUT WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"

I leaned against the wall next to the door brandishing the pipe.

"Why did you do that?!" Asked Ai angrily in a hushed tone, "Now they'll come to re-bound us."

"Yup." I said.

The door swung open and I whacked the man entering on the head as hard as I could with my pipe. He fell unconscious. I blinked, "That was pretty satisfying, I get why your brother likes it so much."

"Misaki?" She asked in surprise.

"Never mind that." I said hurriedly, "let's just get out of here."

I took her hand and we sneaked through the building. The rest of the structure did not look much better from the room. We stopped suddenly at a corner as we heard voices down the connecting hall. "So we called her daddy." Said a man.

"Yeah, an' what'd he say?" Asked the other.

"Get this, he said she wasn't worth the price!" Exclaimed the other.

"Of all the heartless… Well, what do we do now?" Asked the man in surprise.

"Kill 'er, I guess…. That's what ransom is."

"Shame." Said the other man without much sympathy.

By this point I was shaking with anger. I had been abandoned by my father. I peeked out from the corner. The pair were walking this way so I quickly retreated. Motioning Ai to step back I waited at the corner. The first man became visible around the corner and I swung, I miscalculated a little and hit his shoulder instead of head. He grabbed it in pain and reached for his gun but I gave one more swift blow to his head and grabbed the gun, I turned it to face the other man.

In that time he had also pulled out a gun and we were left in a stand-off. A bead of sweat rolled down my cheek. We were at a stale-mate and I had no idea what to do. I couldn't let my guard down. The man grinned triumphantly, and I grit my teeth. "Sorry little lady." He said, "But your safety's on."

My eyes widened, I dropped it and dove. A gun shoot rang out and I covered my ears and cowered for a moment… I felt nothing?

I opened my eyes in confusion just as the man grunted and fell to the ground.

"Tsukiko!" A pair of shoes in front of me. Attached to those shoes, legs. Attached to those legs…

"Yata-kun!" I called in delight and threw myself onto him. He was caught off guard and stumbled back a step. An awkward lop-sided smile played on his face and he patted my back.

"Misaki!" Cried Ai. He let me go and she gripped onto his arm. "What's happening?! Where are we?"

"We're in an abandoned factory by the waterfront." He said. "You guys were snatched and brought here for ransom."

Her grip on his arm tightened and she began to tremble. "I though this kind of thing only happens in movies." She looked up at her brother pleadingly, "How are we going to get out of here?"

"We force our way out." He said confidently.

"So you have a plan?" She asked.

"We force our way out." He repeated. She sighed, defeated. "Well you better do it right, our lives are on the line."

We made our way down the hallways. So far so good. The hallway opened up into a large room, paying no heed to our surroundings we ran until a gun shot rang out. I quickly glanced to Yata and Ai, we were still good. The bullet was embedded in a hole inches from Yata's left foot.

Ai clung to me but Yata grinned manically. He looked down at the hole and then traced an invisible trail with his eyes up to a higher platform in the room. "Found you." He said with dark glee. He dropped his skateboard and did a series of tricks which somehow had him scale the wall.

"I had no idea he was that good." Whispered Ai to no one in particular.

The sniper panicked and fell backwards aiming his gun at Yata. He shot three rounds but Yata dodged with minimal movement. He grabbed the gun from the man and melted it in seconds. I made a mental note to learn how to do that.

The man screamed in fear. "Who are you?!"

Yata grabbed the collar of his shirt about to pull his trademark 'We are HOMERA', but remembering Ai was present he resisted. "Just a brother." Then he swung his bat and the man fell.

He hopped down to our level ignoring that he probably just flawlessly landed a six metre drop. "Is everyone good?" He asked. Ai nodded wordlessly, staring at her brother as if his fiery hair really was on fire.

We sprinted out of the warehouse and it seemed like we were home-free, until three black cars pulled up. I blinked in the blaring light of the headlights. Several men in sunglasses swarmed out including good 'ol scar-face. Yata clicked his teeth in annoyance. "You two go back in, I'll finish this up and then we can go.

"We can't do that!" Cried Ai but I placed a hand on her shoulder and shook my head. "He can handle himself, we'd just be in the way."

"But there is so many of them" she said in a soft whisper.

"I've seen him in worse situations." I said leading her in. We hid behind and metal bin in the warehouse which I assumed was bullet proof.

She began to sob. "Why are you crying?" I asked, "We're almost home-free."

She turned to me and glared. "No we're not! My brother is out there against a dozen armed men, they're going to kill him." She hugged her knees, "He's going to die thinking I hated him, and then we're going to die!"

"No we won't!" I said determinedly. I snuck up to the front. I checked the gun I nabbed from the goon, six bullets. Hands shaking, I aimed out the door and pointed at the closest man in black. I had been taught once by and old security guard how to use a gun. My father being who he is and with my weakness she thought I should be able to protect myself. Of course when my father found out, he fired her immediately and never hired another woman bodyguard again. I suppose he didn't want me to think woman or I myself could be powerful.

Yet here I was holding a man life at my fingertips. It was at that moment where I realized that all humans are frail, pathetically frail. No matter how much larger this man was, how much fighting experience, or money he might have, a single bullet could end either of us.

I held the gun pointing at him for another couple moments. He and his comrades had Yata surrounded, each with a gun trained on him. Yata glanced around calculatingly, waiting for an opening, one that I would provide to him.

I shot six times shattering all of the car headlights. The men dropped their guard for a moment in surprise. At this time, Yata had an advantage, the men in sunglasses would not be able to see a thing. He had them all rolling on the floor in an instant. I dropped the empty gun in relief, there was an awfully low chance I was going to hit them all. Although I probably wouldn't have needed to.

He rolled over on his board. "Nice shooting," he said in mild surprise and extended a fist. I looked at it.

"Are you threatening to hit me?" I asked.

He sighed, "You're supposed to bump it with your fist."

I looked at him skeptically but 'fist-bumped'. "You commoners sure are strange."

He grinned, "But you're one of us now princess."

I grinned back, "I suppose I am."

Ai cleared her throat behind me. "Shouldn't we go before, like, more people come to kill us?"

Finally safe, we stood outside Yata's house.

"I don't know what just happened," started Ai, "but I have a test at school this morning so I'm going to sleep for the next-" she checked her watch, "2 hours." She sighed in defeat and began to trudge up the porch stairs.

"You were just kidnapped and you're thinking about school." Mumbled Yata. "You truly are our parents dream child."

She stopped, "You might not have had good grades…" She started, "but I think you're pretty cool." With that she ran into the house embarrassed.

Yata turned to me and I began to tremble. "Are you alright?" He asked tentatively.

"I was bound and gagged, I hit two thugs with a steel pipe I pried from the ceiling, I had a gun stand-off and shot six headlights-" I started not meeting his eye.

"Tsukiko-" He started.

"It. Was. AWESOME." I launched myself at him in glee and wrapped my arms around his torso, he blushed in surprise. "I never thought I could do something like that!" My eyes sparkled, "and I used a bit of that aura stuff too!"

He smiled down still a little uncomfortable and tentatively placed his arms around me.

"I'm sorry I put Ai in danger." I mumbled into his shirt, suddenly shifting from glee to remorse.

"No… It's not your fault." He said comfortingly. He gave he a gentle squeeze, "Thanks for protecting her."

At this point the door opened again. "Yo, lovebirds." Called out Ai in a disinterested tone, we broke apart suddenly and Yata looked away but even the back of his ears were red. "Aren't you gonna get in before mom and dad get up?"

We hurried in timidly avoiding eye contact.