11 liam

“Careful… Please be careful,” Ichiro begged as he floated three tall stories above the ground.

“Shhh,” Hikari shushed him from the window. “Don't interrupt him, he needs to concentrate.”

“Freela falore,
Imasu demore,”

Kobayashi sang the song of synchronicity as softly as he could, so as not to be heard too far, but just loud enough that it had the desired effect. Ichiro wavered in the air, his legs softly kicking in a quiet panic. He couldn't help but watch as Kobayashi slowly moved the ping pong ball in his hand, puppeting Ichiro through the air. “Why did I volunteer myself for this!?” he questioned before looking just past Kobayashi, and seeing the other alternative to have hovering over a potentially lethal drop. He would volunteer again is the situation arose.

“Me adorne forlai,
Ipa fro luma…”

The song continued, and Ichiro braced himself against the wall. “Ouch!” he grunted as his face mushed against bricks, porous solid clay prickling his skin. Kobayashi's eyes widened with muted apology as he didn't dare stop singing to give it voice, instead slowly shifting the ball over until Ichiro was about a foot away from the surface. He kept floating, finally grabbing the window. “Be unlocked! Be unlocked! Be unlocked! Yes!” he silently cheered as his fingers gripped the edge and slide the window open. Two rooms over, Hikari gave a double thumbs up while Kobayashi lifted the ball slightly, moved it inward, and stopped the song, dumping Ichiro on the floor. “…Ugh,” he groaned as he slowly got to his feet, trying not to make too loud of a sound, otherwise he would have had some choice words for that unceremonious deposit.

He looked beside him, and there was Liam, sleeping. Monitors beeped and read numbers he didn't really understand. An IV plugged into his arm, a milky white liquid dripping in the bag. He snored softly, his beard fluttering with each breath. A light blue hospital gown mostly covered him, but a large bandage was taped to his chest, just below his left shoulder, the hospital gown open on top to leave it exposed.

“Hey, Liam. Wake up,” Ichiro coaxed, shaking his other shoulder gently, then roughly. The large man just slept through it. “Come on!” he whisper-shouted, not wanting to alert the agents outside the room. If they caught him, Ichiro wasn’t sure about how attentive Kobayashi was in the case that he took a nose dive out of the window. “Wake up already!” He grabbed the foreigner’s collar, and slapped him across the face. The only result was that his hand stung and the rhythm of the snoring shifted ever so slightly.

Ichiro waved a hand out of the window, not that the gesture was needed as he then saw that Kobayashi and Hikari were both already staring at him. “He’s not moving!” he called over, directing his voice as best he could to avoid the sound filling the room. “He’s just laying there. I can’t wake him up; I shook and even slapped him!”

Neither of the other two responded immediately, but after a pregnant pause, Kobayashi replied with a “Does he have an IV or something?”

“Yeah.”

“What is it?”

“It’s plugged into his arm,” Ichiro elaborated.

“No, I mean what’s in the IV bag!?”

Ichiro stepped back to look at it. While the technicalities of the mechanics of the equipment were beyond him, it did not require a genius to see that what went into the bag went into the body. And other than a saline solution, the milky white colouring that tainted the supply came from a second, smaller bag with a clear label on the side.

“Something called Propofol,” he reported back.

“Ok, you need to take the IV out of his arm.”

Even Hikari just blinked sideways at him as he told Ichiro that. “Kobayashi,” Ichiro slowly said, “I am in no way qualified to take out an IV…”

“Can he just fold or pinch it?” Hikari suggested.

Kobayashi nodded. “That can work, just do it as close to his arm as possible. It can take a good moment or two before he wakes up.”

Ichiro did not like the sound of ‘a good moment or two’, quickly getting a head start on that timer. They had no idea if or when the guards would poke their heads into the room, and it was a decent given that Nurse Oda likely didn’t let their disappearing act go ignored, whatever the ramifications of it may be. He grabbed the tubing close to where it was taped to the man’s wrist. It shook slightly on the injection point, the sight making Ichiro cringe; he had a very strong aversion to needles. But a sharp pinch in the tube stopped the slow trickle of fluid. “I hope this doesn’t take too long,” he muttered under his breath as he stood there, anxiously waiting, checking to make sure the fluid wasn’t moving. Time flowed through a funnel as he stood there, the seconds passing through a pinhole.

“…Hnn…” Ichiro heard a small groan. Liam’s eyelids fluttered slightly and he shifted just a little, like someone slowly coming out of a long deep sleep. Then his eyes snapped wide open and he bolted upright, the hospital bed creaking under him. His expression was wild, confused and angry, and he suddenly took a deep breath.

“No!” Ichiro whisper-shouted as he wrapped his free hand over Liam’s mouth to silence him, making sure the IV was still pinched. The man looked at him shocked as if only now realizing he was there in his peripheral. He tried to pull away at first touch, grabbing for Ichiro’s wrists and squeezing hard enough to bruise, but after blinking twice, his grip relaxed while recognition touched his countenance. “It’s me, Yamada, Hikari and Shizu’s friend. You were shot and are in the hospital. There are agents just outside this room, and they could come in at any moment. Oh, and there’s some drug in this IV that kept you knocked out.” He tried to run through the explanation as succinctly as he could, while Liam processed the information. He nodded, already having let go of Ichiro’s wrist and patiently waiting for the teenager to release him. As soon as he could speak. He muttered something in English that sounded less than pleased before untaping the IV and sliding the needle out. In only a second he was to his feet, looking at the IV supply before nodding and muttering more in English. The edge of the bed shook as he immediately grabbed the railing of it for support, holding his forehead as some sort of dizzy spell passed over him. His other hand wrapped around the small cords that attached to his chest, feeding information to the monitoring machines, but he didn’t pull them free.

“Alright, Japanese-kun, what’s the plan?” he finally asked in Japanese, still clearly groggy enough that Ichiro let the hopefully temporary nickname slide.

“We needed to talk to you about Shizu. She—”

“Shizuko!” Liam latched onto that name. “Is she ok? What happened!?”

Ichiro shook his head, but also motioned to the door to try and mime to Liam to keep his voice down. “She was caught. We came to you to see if you have any information on how to help her and get her out of there.”

“Yes, get her out of there,” he quickly responded with a nod. “I’ll come with you, but we just have to get out of this guarded room first… How did you get in?”

Ichiro hooked a thumb at the window. “Hikari and another friend are here to help. They used the song of synchronization of hover me over here, but we don’t know if we have anything like that to get you over or sneak you past the guards.”

Liam nodded, but didn’t look like he was fully listening, glancing between the door and the open window. “Ok, go ahead,” he said. “The guards could look inside at any minute. You can talk to me over there,” he said, motioning to the other room where Kobayashi and Hikari were waiting.

Ichiro gave Kobayashi a thumbs up, pointed outside, and then stepped back. For a second, all was calm. Then he felt himself lifted, rising up before drifting out of the window and hovering back to the room and Hikari’s assisting hands.

Alarm sounds and screaming machines erupted from behind him. Ichiro suddenly started to fall. He gasped, letting out a yip before Kobayashi resumed the song. He wanted to scream at him for almost dropping him like that, but as he turned, his mouth gaped as he saw Liam clinging to the side of the building, beginning to keep pace as his fingers and toes dug into the brickwork. Sticker pads clung to his chest and arms where he had torn off the sensors, explaining the sudden noise, as the monitoring machines likely suddenly detected no signs of life, and screeched for attention from whoever was passing by. Unfortunately, those outside of the room were not ones that the group wanted the attention of.

A soft song parted Liam’s lips as he free climbed behind, each step leaving a small hole as his feet dug into the wall. Ichiro realized why he didn’t immediately pick up recognizing the song of steel flesh, which normally required a sharp flute or shrill reed instrument, but Liam as singing it a bit fast, in time with the beeping monitors and high pitched alarm, something Ichiro had never heard of as a substitute.

Within ten seconds, they had both reached the window on the other side of the corner, pulled in by eager hands. And one second after that, a suited man stuck his head out of the window, saw them, and yelled something as he darted back into the room.

“Run!” Hikari yelled, though only because she was the only one not partially out of breath. They all bolted, Liam taking charge alongside Hikari with Ichiro and Kobayashi right behind.

“Get back here!” a man yelled with authority at them from behind. Ichiro stole a look back, seeing that the two agents that were guarding their room were now indeed chasing them down the hall.

“There!” Liam pointed to a door with a stairs sign. “Stairs! We have to get out of here!” He kicked the door open and ran in, only to be greeted with a stairwell that, despite being on the third floor, only went up. The agents though were behind them and so he led the group as they ran up. Just before they touched the handle for the fourth floor did they hear another pair of steps racing after them. The door was locked, however, and they bolted up another flight, huffing as the door for the fifth floor took pity on them.

They broke out into a hall, causing a young orderly to scream in shock as they almost bowled him over, bed sheets flying in the air. “We need to get out of the building!” Liam told them. “Any shortcuts!?”

“This way! Should be a fire escape ladder!” Kobayashi directed, running in the lead as they pushed through a door that left them on a porch with no escape.

“You!” An old lady’s voice echoed through the hallway, loud enough to make Ichiro stiffen. He didn’t have to turn as she had slid into the hall in front of them only a second after the orderly screamed, cutting them off. Nurse Oda.”You’re in big trouble, young man!” she yelled at Hiroto.

“Nope! Nope! Nope!” Kobayashi scrambled, slipping on the floor and grabbing onto Ichiro to not fall, as he suddenly turned the corner before they would be forced into running into her. The rest of the group followed.

“Hey! Hiroto! Get back here!” she yelled as she crouched before breaking into a dead sprint.

“There they are!” they also heard the agents already pursuing them shout from behind. There was a scuffle and a small crash but they didn’t stop running, especially as heavy footsteps pounded after them, three distinct sets.

Ichiro looked back. “Turbo Granny’s joined the chase. Where’s that fire escape, Kobayashi!?”

“Uh,” the other boy scrambled, trying to lead them down another hall only to be blocked by a gurney. “In here!” he ordered as he brought them into a room. “This should be— No!” He looked around, eyes widening, realizing he had made a fatal error.

Bang!

The glass door slammed as Liam closed them in, just as the two guards were about to enter. He punched the scanpad beside it and it buzzed, the small green light on it turning red. “Where to now?” he asked, looking around, as if the room was the intended destination. It was small, not a patient room, but with some chairs and a balcony that opened outside. All four of them looked around as if staring could make an exit materialize while the agents pounded and yelled at them through the locked door to come out.

Beep!

The door unlocked as Nurse Oda held her badge to the scanpad outside, a smug look on her face, until the agents roughly shoved past her. “Stay there!” one shouted as he grabbed for his radio. The other kept his focus on their group, pulling out a pistol and pointing it directly at them.

Ichiro bumped into Kobayashi as they each stepped in from either side, putting a barrier between the agents and their target. The two whirled though as Hikari screamed, eyes widening at what they saw. Liam’s arm was wrapped around her, her toes dragging on the ground, as he pulled them out to the balcony. He closed his eyes as he tipped back and carried them both off of the edge. “Hikari!” the boys both yelled as she and Liam fell from the fifth floor.

“I-pa-ma-su…”

Even in the wind and over the yelling, Ichiro heard Liam chant the godsong as soon as they began their freefall; the song of weightlessness. With one hand on Hikari, the other pressed against his chest, the effect didn’t appear to be visible in any way as they fell downwards, but he saw Liam land on his feet, holding Hikari in a princess carry.

Seeing their main targets go over the edge, one of the guards angrily barked something into his radio while the other brandished his gun. “Don’t you two move!”

“Did you hear that?” Ichiro asked Kobayashi. The other boy didn’t respond but the look on his face gave all the answer Ichiro needed. “That song. It’s just like on the bike. You know it. You can sing it again,” Ichiro insisted.

“No, that’s insane!” Kobayashi snapped, though with more fear and panic than anger as he found himself looking down the barrel of a hand gun.

“It’s our only option.” Ichiro hooked his arm around the other boy’s chest and threw his weight off of the edge, taking them over. “Sing it, Hiroto!”