Episode 18: Black Grasp (Beginning)

{Episode 18}


Opening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t5Nc0VVmjU&feature=related
Gin: [Cue Title]
{Black Grasp (Beginning)}

3...
2...
1...
Gin: [Cue Scene]
{Nighttime at Hakase's. Conan is sleeping over tonight. It's about 2am or so right now.}
* EdogawaConan is asleep on the couch.
HaibaraAi: She silently sneaks up on Conan. "Kudou-kun." She harshly whispers. "Just why are you here tonight? There is usually something going on, but you haven't said a thing." She looks at him.
* HaibaraAi pulls the pillow from underneath his head.
* EdogawaConan wakes with a start.
EdogawaConan: Oi, Haibara, what was that for? *sleepily*
HaibaraAi: "Answer my question. You'd never come over here if there wasn't a good reason for it." She narrowed her eyes.
EdogawaConan: Occhan's drunk off his ass again, and Ran's away on a school trip.
EdogawaConan: I can't sleep at my house 'cause Okiya-san is there, so I came here instead.
EdogawaConan: That a good enough answer?
HaibaraAi: "Hmm." She smirked. "That's fine then." She shrugged her shoulders. "You just better not be hiding something from me. Letting that man live in your house is bad enough." She made her way back to the lab
EdogawaConan: Can I have my pillow back?
HaibaraAi: "Ah." She threw the pillow over her shoulder, not paying attention where it was aimed.
* EdogawaConan gets the pillow in his face.
EdogawaConan: Thanks.....*grumpily*
* EdogawaConan puts the pillow back in the right spot and curls up to sleep again.
* HaibaraAi lets out a small yawn and goes to her lab.
HaibaraAi: \Idiot...\
* Gin steps out of the shadows as the door to the lab closes, advancing on the seven year old, turned away from the door in his slumber.
* Gin cracks a silent grin, glancing at the door before arriving momentously over his target.
* Gin mutters to himself, "Our Organization has made do without some of our more talented chemists, but perhaps you can help me find the one I'm looking for. You're not new to being a guinea pig for drugs, so I'm sure you won't mind."
* EdogawaConan is actually awake, but faking sleep while he tries to figure out a way to escape from this mess.
* Gin pulls out a syringe. He closely observes the measurement of the liquid inside, squirting the slightest bit out the end. A single drop cascades onto Conan's cheek.
* EdogawaConan suppresses the reflex to twitch in response to the drop on his cheek.
Gin: Far more aggressive than sodium pentothal, with retrograde effects of Scopolamine. We'll see how willing you are to talk.
* Gin casts a dark hand over Conan's mouth, pulling it tight before jamming the syringe into his arm, injecting it.
* EdogawaConan jerks in response to being injected and attempts to pull away.
* Gin grips his struggling corpse as his target's reactions begin to slow, mind becoming foggy by way of the drug.
Gin: Let's go somewhere quiet, shall we?
* Gin grins darkly before carrying the body upstairs.
* Gin walks into a bedroom and closes the door behind him, before setting the child up against a bed.
* Gin takes his hand lightly off the child's mouth, raising his chin to face him with the barrel of his gun.
Gin: I trust you're awake now, tantei-san?
EdogawaConan: Sorta...
Gin: Good. You've been busy in the last few months, from what I understand, isn't that right, Kudou Shinichi-kun?
* Gin cracks a smile.
EdogawaConan: Busy? Busy chasing the kids around....
EdogawaConan: The other kids....in my class...
Gin: You've got a secret you don't tell them, though, don't you?
Gin: You're not Edogawa Conan at all. You're just pretending, aren't you?
EdogawaConan: I pretend lots of things....
Gin: So I hear.
EdogawaConan: I suppose you hear a lot of things, don't you? There are a lot of things to hear...
EdogawaConan: Where do you hear things from?
EdogawaConan: The kids talk a lot...but not much of anything useful...nothing interesting...
Gin: I'm sure. But let's talk about something interesting.
EdogawaConan: I want to go home...
Gin: Fine.
Gin: I'll make you a deal.
Gin: Tell me who else knows about who you really are, and I'll let you go home.
EdogawaConan: I want to go back to sleep.
EdogawaConan: And occhan's snoring makes it really hard to sleep...
* Gin presses the gun against his Adam's apple.
Gin: I'm going to make it hard to sleep if you don't answer me.
EdogawaConan: Answer what?
EdogawaConan: That's cold....
Gin: Who else knows about who you really are, Kudou Shinichi?
EdogawaConan: Sometimes I don't even know who I really am...
EdogawaConan: Why would anyone else know?
Gin: Fine. If you're not going to cooperate, there's no reason to let you live.
EdogawaConan: You were gonna kill me anyway.
EdogawaConan: You were gonna kill her too...Sherry....
Gin: Where is Sherry, anyway?
EdogawaConan: Dunno....she stole my pillow....
EdogawaConan: She threw it in my face when she left, so I didn't really see where she went...
* Gin narrows his eyes.
* HaibaraAi is in the lab on her computer.
Gin: What about the girl?
Gin: The one you came to save?
Gin: Does she know about your little identity crisis?
EdogawaConan: The little girl? She's a kid, what would she know?
EdogawaConan: She's never even met Kudou Shinichi....
* Gin facepalms with his other hand.
Gin: The other girl! The one we chained up.
EdogawaConan: Ran?
EdogawaConan: No....
EdogawaConan: *sadly* Ran doesn't know anything....
EdogawaConan: *mumbling* vanished on her....mad at me....
* EdogawaConan continues mumbling about how he's always vanishing.
Gin: That's good enough for now. If I give you any more juice you'll be useless to me.
EdogawaConan: Can I have some apple juice?
EdogawaConan: My mouth feels funny...
* Gin stares at him for a moment.
EdogawaConan: And it tastes weird...
* Gin throws him onto the bed.
EdogawaConan: Please?
* Gin storms out of the room.
EdogawaConan: Oof! Ow, hey that hurt...
EdogawaConan: Hey, that wasn't nice!
EdogawaConan: What'd you do that for?
EdogawaConan: Mmm, comfy....
Gin: Don't worry, you'll be out soon.
* HaibaraAi hears faint sounds upstairs.
* EdogawaConan curls up on the bed and falls asleep again.
Gin: Sherry took his pillow, hm?
HaibaraAi: \What... was that sound...\
* Gin's phone buzzes softly.
* Gin reads a short message.
* Gin makes his way for the door he entered from.
HaibaraAi: \Burglar?\ She grabs her stun watch and quietly up the stairs and puts her ear to the door.
Gin: Anokata calls. I'll be back for you, Sherry.
* Gin walks to his car.
* HaibaraAi gets shivers up her spine. \No...\
* Gin gets in and takes a long glance at the house, but hits the gas once his phone buzzes again.
Gin: Never giving me time for the finer pleasures in life, are you, Anokata?
* Gin drives away.
* HaibaraAi slowly opens the door seeing Conan isn't on the couch and notices the blanket got knocked off. Her eyes widen.
HaibaraAi: \Kudou-kun!\ She listens for anything else and slowly creeps around. "Kudou-kun!" She shouts. "Where are you?!" She goes up the stairs and enters the room Conan is in. "KUDOU-KUN!" She screams seeing him sleeping, but thinking he is dead. She hops on the bed and shakes him. "Kudou-kun!"
* HaibaraAi breathes heavily and sees he's just sleeping. "You really are an idiot... Then if they were here..." She looks out a window. "Then...” She narrows her eyes already having an idea what they did
* EdogawaConan wakes a little at being shaken...
EdogawaConan: Huh? Wassa matta?
EdogawaConan: Where's my blanket? It's cold....
EdogawaConan: I wanna sleep...
HaibaraAi: \Damn it!\ "You were injected with truth serum, weren't you?"
HaibaraAi: "Kudou-kun..."
EdogawaConan: With something...
HaibaraAi: ! "What exactly did you tell them?!"
EdogawaConan: My mouth feels funny...
EdogawaConan: Tell who?
EdogawaConan: You stole my pillow...
EdogawaConan: An' then you threw it at me...
EdogawaConan: An' I didn't see where you went.
EdogawaConan: Did you steal my blanket too?
EdogawaConan: It's cold...
* HaibaraAi eyes widen realizing that he just told Gin that he knew her. Which meant they were in danger.
EdogawaConan: I dunno who I am.....why would anyone else know....?
EdogawaConan: Little girl doesn't know anything...never even met Kudou Shinichi....
HaibaraAi: "You idiot...” She gritted her teeth. How the heck were they supposed to get out of this...? “At this very moment people could be dying." Starts imagining people being shot.
EdogawaConan: Vanished....*mumbling incoherently now*
EdogawaConan: Idiot? Yeah...idiot....stupid Conan...
HaibaraAi: Lets go of Conan's shirt and lets him fall to the bed. "Kudou-kun... What are we supposed to do...?”
EdogawaConan: Do with what?
EdogawaConan: Why do you call me that? He called me that too....
HaibaraAi: "They know now...” She grabbed his shirt again. "You IDIOT now they know your identity and mine and are going to kill everyone around us!" She screamed in his face.
EdogawaConan: Told him they don't know....
HaibaraAi: "Yoshida-san and Tsuburaya-san were seen by those two... They are in just as much danger...”
EdogawaConan: Told him Ayumi doesn't know anything....told him Ran doesn't know anything...
EdogawaConan: Didn't mention the others...he didn't ask...
* ProfessorAgasa breathlessly charges in the door.
ProfessorAgasa: What's wrong?
HaibaraAi: "It doesn't matter. Yoshida-san and Ran-san were in that warehouse. It doesn't matter if Ran-san doesn't remember what happened. They will kill our friends because of that! The fact they were there! It doesn't matter."
HaibaraAi: She gets off the bed.
* ProfessorAgasa relaxes and releases a yawn.
ProfessorAgasa: Are you still arguing about the warehouse?
HaibaraAi: "They were here, Hakase. They drugged Kudou-kun and he unknowingly told them."
* ProfessorAgasa stares.
ProfessorAgasa: WHAT?!
ProfessorAgasa: THEY WERE HERE?!
EdogawaConan: Head hurts enough....no more yelling, OK?
* ProfessorAgasa speaks barely above a whisper, "They know where we are..."
EdogawaConan: Can I have some apple juice?
EdogawaConan: My mouth feels weird...
HaibaraAi: "Yes... And he's too drugged to see the severity of this situation...”
* ProfessorAgasa stares at Conan.
ProfessorAgasa: He'll need to sleep it off. If the mind is continually strained, it won't help the situation at all.
ProfessorAgasa: We need to discuss this elsewhere. He needs to get to sleep.
EdogawaConan: Sleep sounds good...
EdogawaConan: He stole my blanket...
HaibaraAi: "Fine...” She clenches her fists.
EdogawaConan: It's cold....I want my blanket back...
* HaibaraAi storms out of the room
ProfessorAgasa: We'll come up with a plan. We'll check on him in the morning.
* ProfessorAgasa closes the door.
* EdogawaConan falls over and is back asleep by the time his head hits the pillow.
ProfessorAgasa: Ai-kun... why didn't They kill him, or us? Why would they just leave?
HaibaraAi: "Something must have stopped Them for now... Planning for a bigger murder that wouldn't seem so suspicious. With so many to kill…"
ProfessorAgasa: Has that stopped Them before? They usually just burn it all down...
HaibaraAi: "Three high school detectives dying in a short span would definitely look suspicious. They are just waiting for the chance now...”
HaibaraAi: "They would just burn it down. There are more ways than one... "
HaibaraAi: "But what I don't get is how they made the connection. How did They- No. He wouldn't have in the warehouse, right? Revealed his identity...” Her eyes narrowed more and more
ProfessorAgasa: That only begs the question... how much do They know? Do they know about your condition? Do they know how Kudou-kun became Conan?
HaibaraAi: "Probably. Since I betrayed Them, there's no doubt They'd look back at my files."
ProfessorAgasa: If that's the case... We have the night at the very least.
HaibaraAi: "Yeah...” \If we are lucky...\
ProfessorAgasa: We can make some sort of escape plan by morning. There's no reason they would come back after all this to finish the job.
ProfessorAgasa: Get some sleep. I'm sure we'll have more options by morning.
* HaibaraAi walked back to her lab silently. There was no hope after all of this.
* ProfessorAgasa goes to his bed.

{Meanwhile...}
* Gin stands against his car, smoking, on level 1 of a parking garage.
* Vermouth parks next to Gin, and gets off her motorcycle, with an angry but confident look
Vermouth: Gin...
Gin: You have something talk to me about, Vermouth?
Gin: Or is it that I've had something to talk to you about for a long time... and now you finally want to chat.
* Vermouth raises an eyebrow
Vermouth: Explain yourself... But hurry up. I have something important to tell you.
* Gin grinds the cigarette in his mouth.
Gin: What have you got to tell me?
Soundtrack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSXpY4WSoAU&feature=related
Vermouth: ... Beika district?
Vermouth: You're chasing someone.
Gin: I know what I'm doing, Vermouth. Certainly you have something better to tell me than that.
Vermouth: Where's Vodka, Gin?
Gin: Clearly he's not here.
Vermouth: And that's weird. You're into a mission. And he's not with you. You don't have a partner. So, you don't want him to know about what you're doing.
Gin: That's very suspicious of you, considering you've never had a partner.
Gin: Doesn't being Anokata's favorite require more of you than stalking trusted members of the Organization?
Gin: If you absolutely must know...
Gin: I'm taking care of something you should have done yourself.
* Gin tosses his cigarette onto the ground.
* Gin grinds it into the cement with his shoe.
Vermouth: Stalking? Suspicious?
Vermouth: What are you doing in Beika district?
Gin: Picking up your slack.
* Gin narrows his eyes.
Vermouth: My slack? So... The bodies...?
* Vermouth forces her voice to sound less worried about cool kid and Angel.
* Gin searches for a new cigarette.
Gin: No bodies tonight.
Gin: Reconnaissance.
Vermouth: ... Reconnaissance *raises an eyebrow*
Gin: The latest drug from our wonderful organization.
* Gin lights his cigarette and puts it in his mouth.
Vermouth: What? *stares at him in surprise* 'Cool guy... Damn!'
Vermouth: T-- The drug, what about the drug?
Gin: You didn't think our labs were finished when we lost Sherry, did you?
Gin: It's a truth serum. Ten times as powerful as Sodium Pentathol, has the retrograde amnesia effects of Scopolamine.
Gin: I found some very interesting information with it this evening, Vermouth.
Vermouth: Sodium pentath--- Ah... *glares at him* Truth serum. And... Who was your victim?
Gin: That's information sensitive to our organization. That said, I presume you already know who.
Gin: Am I wrong?
Vermouth: I think I can picture it...
Vermouth: Does Anokata know about this? And you know I'll ask him... *walks, getting closer to Gin*
Gin: What Anokata doesn't know won't hurt him. I have the best interests of our Organization in mind. Unlike some of us.
* Gin returns the glare.
Vermouth: *grabs his hand and puts his finger in her head, as a gun* I know you dream about killing me. But I'm in a better position, Gin. Anokata will know about this.
Gin: I don't think so.
* Gin cracks a smile.
Gin: Maybe you're in a better position with Anokata... but you want something from me. Otherwise you wouldn't have come here.
Vermouth: Bingo~
Gin: If you tell Anokata, you lose that leverage.
Vermouth: *winks and smiles*
Gin: You won't tell him.
Gin: What are you after, then?
Vermouth: I'll expose myself if I tell him
Vermouth: I want to... protect something...
Vermouth: *lights up a cigarette*
Gin: Spit it out, and I'll consider it.
Vermouth: *laughs* No, you won’t. I don't trust you.
Gin: Then why even ask?
Vermouth: But... That something is happy when certain someone is around.
Vermouth: And that certain someone is the only one who can protect her.
Vermouth: That kid. Edogawa Conan.
Gin: He's a liability.
* Gin takes a puff.
Gin: Mark my words, Vermouth.
Gin: One way or another, even if you won't let me act immediately...
Gin: Edogawa Conan will die.
Ending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDN_9V71reQ

{And there we have it, the beginning of a new Black Org arc! Expect a lot of high action and higher suspense through the next few episodes! Join us again on Sunday at 23:00EST (11pm Eastern/10pm Central/9pm Mountain/8pm Pacific) for the next exciting episode! As always, all episodes will be posted the next day.}