Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ The Game ❯ Game over... ( Chapter 10 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Arigatomina 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Fantasy / Adventure | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 07.22.2006 | Updated On: 07.23.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 290 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Fantasy / Adventure | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 07.22.2006 | Updated On: 07.23.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 290 | Status: Work In Progress
The Game
Part 10: “Game over…”
The airship was about the size of the satellite Heero and Duo had met up in, and twice as old. They abandoned their ‘elevator’ in favor of a shallow deck on the nose of the ship. Like the town and canyon, the deck was dusty gray and corroded from blasts of heated sand. And like the canyon, there was little shelter against the violent winds.
Heero’s first thought upon seeing the airship was that it had frozen in place during a crash landing. The sheer size of it, easily as large as the town they’d passed through, told him that it was most likely a transport ship. It was somehow floating in midair, the narrow nose and deck were slightly tilted toward the ground, with the thick insect-like backside lifted in the air to mark the angle it had taken when entering the planet’s atmosphere. Any question of lost technology was answered. A society capable of making such a ship was far removed from the old fashioned town below.
There was a moment of concern when they approached the dull airlocked doors that undoubtedly led into the ship. Vash tried to forestall them, once again telling how much the inhabitants didn’t like strangers. Heero hadn’t decided what sort of role the blonde man had, but he was beginning to see him as an obstruction to their task. The man wanted them to stay outside, which would make completing their task all but impossible. Even if they were lucky enough to avoid being blown off the deck, they wouldn’t be able to locate the girl, let alone protect her.
It would have been much easier if they could simply explain the game to Vash. Duo and Wolfwood were eager to do just that - Duo because he was getting so much sand in his braid it would take days to wash it all out, and Wolfwood because pretending to be someone, when he didn’t even know who he was supposed to be, was a lot harder than it looked. Heero was growing a tad resentful of the pointed looks they were sending him. As far as he could tell, the game had to have a reason for making Vash ‘know’ one of them, when all the other characters they’d encountered had immediately identified them as strangers. He was convinced the game had done it so they wouldn’t tell anyone in this realm what their true purpose was. For all they knew, breaking Vash’s assumption that he knew Wolfwood might cause them to fail the task before they really had a chance to attempt it.
Duo felt as if he’d been rolling in sand, the heat was ridiculous so close to the sun, and the wind kept jerking him off balance. And he swore, if the ragged tatters of Vash’s coat slapped him one more time, he’d rip the thing off the man and toss it to the wind. He had an idea why Heero was stubbornly refusing to do anything about the situation. His partner was waiting till he understood it before acting. That was all good and well, but Duo hadn’t entered the game to be stuck clinging to a door they couldn’t open, all because they were afraid to be rude to a man they didn’t know.
“Look,” Duo muttered, sarcasm thick on his voice. “If you don’t want us inside, that’s your choice. Leave us out here to die. Just don’t stand there like you want to watch it happen. I never liked voyeurs. It’s not like we asked for a tour. We just want to get out of this wind.”
The blonde man flinched and sent a wide-eyed look over the windswept deck. He fidgeted, shuffling his feet a little, and looking generally uncertain. Then his shoulders slumped in visible defeat.
Duo watched Vash approach the door and flashed a knowing grin at Heero’s quirked eyebrow. The man had gone on about wanting to keep the occupants of the ship from being influenced by outsiders, which told him the guy was the ‘soft’ sort, like Quatre had been during the war. A light guilt trip and it was pretty easy to manipulate that type of person. Heero and Wolfwood were lucky to have him along. Duo was sure if he’d left it up to them, they’d be standing outside that door until the wind snatched them off, too afraid to be ‘rude’ to just open it themselves.
“Just don’t talk to anyone, okay?” Vash mumbled, flashing a resentful look over his shoulder. “The wind should calm down in a while, so I’ll take you guys back down when I’m done here.”
There was a deep rumble from inside the ship as the door shook and slid to the side, revealing a dusky interior. Vash led them into what appeared to be an unused hallway. The air was dusty, but noticeably cooler than the desert outside. What little light there was seemed to come from the walls themselves, pale gray metal that just managed to illuminate the narrow passage. A door at the end of the hall opened with a smart snick of well-maintained machinery, and they emerged in a bright, modern hallway.
Vash stopped and looked back at them, probably planning to tell them to stay right there. He never got a chance to do more than open his mouth. An official looking man called out to them as if he meant to order them off the premises. His angry words were drowned out by an excited, high pitched cry. The girl from the photo rushed down the hall and threw herself into Vash's arms.
.-.
"You guys can wait here," said Vash, his eyes flicking back to where the uniformed man stood glaring at them, "as long as you don't move from this spot. Otherwise, you'll have to stay by the door at the end of the passage..."
Duo's expression had tightened as he watched the man greet Vash. The instinctive distrust and contempt on the man's face reminded him of L2, namely the first and second wards. The standard of living had been better there and the residents had guarded that viciously. Rarely were workers allowed entrance into the city proper. They were driven out by the private militia, since the colony's official police force had no control over residential matters. That uniformed man, with his modern clothing clean and cool in the air conditioned hallway, reminded Duo of the boy he'd gotten directions from in the town below. He was sure if that scruffy boy had been standing in the hall, asking for nothing more than a shelter from the storm, that uniformed man would have glared at him the same way he was now glaring at them.
Duo gave Vash a quick smile that didn't reach his eyes. "No problem. It looks a little cold and stuffy in there, anyway."
Heero's gaze snapped to Duo, taking in the cool tint in those otherwise expressive eyes. He'd seen his partner react the same way during the war, particularly when they came into contact with nobility. It had taken months before Duo finally dropped his defenses around Relena, who had been raised to speak as if she were more important than those around her. Although Duo eventually realized she did this unconsciously, his first appraisal of her was that the girl was a pampered hypocrite, calling to help the suffering while wasting wealth that could have sustained entire colonies. That instinctive reaction had eased over time, but there remained a distance between them. Duo had explained it to him before. Relena might mean well, but she'd never understand how her elitist lifestyle alienated the very people she most wanted to help, the working class.
Heero stepped close to his partner, giving what little support he could without addressing the issue. "Here is fine."
Vash appeared to accept their promise on face value. He still looked a bit uncertain, but he didn't hesitate long. The girl caught hold of his hand and beamed happily as she pulled him down the hall. With one more distrustful glare at them, the man in uniform followed. Wolfwood sagged a little the moment they were out of sight.
"Okay, Quatre," Wolfwood muttered into the band on his left wrist. "What do we do? You said to tell characters about the game, but this guy thinks he knows me."
A long silence followed before their interface answered. Quatre's voice was so quiet Heero and Duo eased closer to hear.
"There is precedence for this," Quatre said slowly, as if carefully choosing his words. "Some realms bear similarity to each other, even to the real world. It's possible you bear a visible resemblance to the 'Wolfwood' character you've replaced. In that case, explaining shouldn't disrupt game play any more than it would in other realms. But..."
Heero's eyes glinted. "But," he put in, "if he did replace a character so similar that characters in this realm can't tell the difference, then breaking the illusion could aversely affect our task. Right?"
"Yes," Quatre said, with audible reluctance. "As I said, some realms appear to have been modeled after our own. We've only recorded two cases of mistaken identity since beginning these forays into the game. In the first case, revealing the players had violent results. The characters refused to believe it, and the task was an outright failure. In the second case, the players went along with it, but they had considerable trouble later, when they tried to import characters from that realm."
Duo rolled his eyes, still feeling moody and pessimistic. "So either way, we're screwed."
"I'm afraid so," said Quatre. "I have a direct order from the programmer. You are to attempt the task without revealing the game. In future tasks, you are not to import any character from this realm. As this is a direct order, any failure that may result from following the order will not count against your record as players."
There was another pause. When Quatre spoke again, Duo had the distinct impression the boy was smiling gently. For the first time since meeting on the satellite, Quatre sounded like the kind and sensitive friend Duo had always considered him to be.
"Don't worry," said Quatre. "Normally if players fail two tasks, the team is pulled. But like Duo said, this is a lose-lose situation. You will never be held responsible for a failure that comes from following a direct order. Just focus on the task and do your best."
"Of course we'll do our best," Duo grinned. "Heero's on this mission."
Heero smirked, more for Duo's sudden mood change than the reference to his old 'mission accepted' attitude.
"Good luck," Quatre said, his smile more evident than ever. "I recommend turning the blue band off for the rest of this task. Even if I remain silent, the activated light may attract unwanted attention. Just don't forget to turn it back on afterward."
"Got it," said Duo. "Be hearing from you soon, Quatre."
"Good luck," Quatre said again.
Wolfwood removed the band and slipped it into his pocket. He was worried about having to keep up the ruse. Duo's suddenly cheerful smile caught him by surprise.
"You aren't worried?" asked Wolfwood.
"About the task," Duo nodded. "But it's worth it to have Quatre back. That's the first time he's really sounded like himself since we started."
"He has been pretty tense since we started playing," Wolfwood admitted. "But he's always tense when he refers to The Game. They've put a lot into this."
Heero turned a suspicious look on him. "How did you meet Quatre? And how much do you know about The Game? "
Wolfwood winced and gave the two a weak smile. "I've known him for a few months now. I was actually one of the maintenance workers helping them get the satellite ready for the simulations. There was an accident and Quatre was in the infirmary when I came to. I think he took responsibility for it, or something. He's a really nice kid, but a little too quick to blame himself, if you ask me. That's the only reason I ended up getting included in the groups - he sort of took me under his wing for a while there. Once we got the place ready for the participants, he invited me to stay on. I didn't think he actually expected me to make the cut, though. To hear him talk, he didn't want any of his friends involved in this thing."
"Then you already knew who we were?" asked Duo. "Why didn't you say anything about Quatre being behind this?"
"Oh, no, I didn't know you guys were friends of his till we met up with him in the amphitheater. He'd never mentioned anyone by name. It's just that the guys - you know those tired looking guys who read the instructions? - they let slip that he'd been isolating himself a lot since the last test runs. I'm pretty sure they were trying to encourage me to talk to him more. I couldn't tell if they were afraid of him because he's their boss, or if they were just too uncomfortable to try approaching him."
"So you were there before any of the other participants showed up," said Heero. "Do you know what happened with the last test run? Or where The Game came from?"
"Don't know a thing," Wolfwood said quickly. "As far as I can tell, not even the guys knew anything more than rumors. Something about the last test going bad, people getting hurt or dropping out. They didn't even know who the programmer was. I figured it was Quatre, since he's the only one I've seen giving orders around there. But he's just an interface, so...your guess is as good as mine. The only thing I know about The Game is that it's impossible technology and they're trying to crack it to see what's behind it. And for some reason I ended up getting to be one of the lab rats instead of a janitor. All it took was a hard knock on the head and one guilt-prone kid."
"That's one way to get promoted," Duo smirked. "I wondered how you ended up in the group without having military experience. So Quatre took a shine to you, eh?"
Wolfwood blinked at Duo's suggestive smile and waved his hand suddenly. "Come on, it's not like that. He's way too young for me, for one thing. You guys are like, what, sixteen? Seventeen? I'm probably going on thirty. Not to mention that I think I'm straight..."
He grimaced and ran a hand over the light stubble on his face from that extended stay in their first task. He missed seeing Duo and Heero exchange a sharp look.
"You don't know how old you are?" asked Duo.
"What sort of accident were you in?" Heero asked a moment later.
Wolfwood gave that embarrassed wince again. He was saved from having to explain in detail.
A light tremor shook them as something exploded nearby. Screams and thumps sounded down the hall and people began peeking out the doors. A small cluster of men, dressed in the same uniform as the guard, approached them with accusatory glares on their faces. They made it four feet before being taken out by what looked like a tan humanoid robot.
"I got a knock on the head a few months ago,"Wolfwood said quickly. "Things have been a bit fuzzy since then. Doesn't seem to have affected my trigger finger, though. It looks like this is where we go save that girl."
Heero shoved his suspicions to the back of his mind and drew his cannon. The robot resembled nothing so much as a headless mannequin. It had a human shaped torso, a triangular head, and slender extensions for arms. Whatever it was, one short burst of his cannon had the thing exploding into little shards. The three of them passed the guards, who were battered but still alive, judging by their groans. Their task was to protect the girl. Finding her was their first priority.
A door opened as they ran down the hall, and more of those uniformed men rushed out to block their way. Heero scowled past them. They didn't even know where the girl had gone. He knew they should have followed her, whether the people here agreed to it or not. At this rate, even if they found her they'd be too late.
"It's them!" one of the men yelled.
Duo tossed his head in exasperation. "Do we look like killer robots? Get out of the way and we'll take care of them. Go help your friends over there."
A choked scream and muffled thumps erupted from a closed room to their left. Duo freed his scythe and made short work of the door only to find lifeless corpses and no sign of their target or the enemies that had done the work. The display silenced the group of men, either because of Duo's weapon, or the murder that had taken place while their suspects were in clear sight of them.
"We have to find that girl," said Wolfwood. He turned on the staring men. "Vash! Where did Vash go?"
"That's how they got in," one of the men growled. "I knew we shouldn't keep letting him in here. He brought strangers - with weapons! Now look what's happened!"
"How many more of you are there?" another man demanded.
"What the hell?" Duo blurted. "We were standing right here. What makes you think we had anything to do with that?" He waved a hand at the room without actually looking at the bloody scene.
"We don't have time for this," said Heero. He leveled his cannon on the men blocking their way. "We're looking for a girl, dark hair in tails. She's in danger and we plan to help her. She's a friend of Vash. They were together the last time we saw them. Tell us where they might be or get out of the way. Now."
He was about to fire a short burst as a warning when the hallway lurched around them. That guard who'd glared at them earlier suddenly darted out of the hall the other men had come from. He barely even looked at them. He caught one of the uniformed men by the arm.
"What are you doing?" the man demanded. " I told you to lock down the corridors. We don't have time to deal with them. Reinforce the second plant. If we lose that the entire ship will go down!"
Heero stiffened and rounded on the guard. "This plant, generator, where is it?"
"You stay out of this," the man snapped.
Duo growled and snapped back at him, "We're trying to help, you bigoted ass!"
A hand shot out and pulled Duo back. Heero gave him a sharp look and spoke in English. "Arguing with them won't help. We don't have time to convince them. If this ship crashes, it won't just be that girl, we could all die."
"A hostage?" asked Duo. He was still furious with the idiots, but it was easy to check his anger when Heero was being so calm. "Force one of them to take us there?"
Heero gave a sharp nod that Duo never got to see. One moment they were standing together in the trembling corridor and the next there was nothing but black silence. Duo reached out blindly for where his partner had been standing, and a hand fumbled against his back. He caught it before it did more than pull at his coat.
"Heero?"
"Not so tight," said Wolfwood, somewhere to his left. "You'll break my wrist. Damn, you're strong..."
"I'm here," Heero said at the same time. He barely twitched when a hand promptly closed over his shoulder.
Duo let out a weak laugh and pulled the two of them closer. "What happened...?"
"You have failed the task," Setsuna's voice said from somewhere in front of them. Her familiar fire flickered into sight, such a dark purplish black that it didn't fully illuminate any of them.
"What?" Duo blurted. "How? Was there a time limit? Or were we supposed to stay with her after we first saw her?"
"If I give you the details, it will nullify your chance to attempt the task again," said Setsuna.
"That's not it, then," said Wolfwood. "So if we fail a task, we get to try it over?"
"There's no way," Duo protested, scowling at his friend's shadowy form. "We couldn't have followed her from the start. And we don't know if we failed because the ship crashed or because someone killed her while we were stuck with those morons in the hall. Unless we just go in and kill everyone who stands in our way. The only person who has to live is that girl, after all."
Even as he said it, his disgusted voice made it clear he wasn't serious. Especially after the death in their last task. Whether the realms were 'real' or not, there was no way he could just kill randomly like that. He'd wanted to beat that guard senseless, but he hadn't wanted to kill him. There just didn't seem to be any other way to ensure they could complete the task if they were to try it again. And he didn't want to give up on the game this soon.
"What are our options?" Heero asked Setsuna. "Redo the task or leave the game?"
"You have the option to do this task over," she said. "If you decide to do so, the stakes will be higher the second time through. If you fail again, one of you will remain incorporated into the game."
"Incorporated?" asked Duo. "What does that mean?"
"An incorporated player is absorbed into the failed realm, with all memories replaced."
"The game can do that?" asked Wolfwood. He shot a look in Heero's direction. "I think Duo's right - there's no way..."
"What are our options if we choose not to retry the task?" asked Heero.
"If you do not complete this task, you will be required to enter the realm at a later point and attempt a different task. In order to come back later, you must complete the next task you are given or forfeit your 'Light Trip.'"
"We don't even know what this 'Light Trip' thing is," said Wolfwood. "Of course we'd rather risk forfeiting that, than losing someone."
"Not that we'll fail another task," Duo added. "Seems a little too good to be true, doesn't it? This 'Light Trip' must be something worth having. But not worth risking someone's life over."
Heero nodded and turned to Setsuna. "We'll complete the alternative task."
The guide hesitated for a long while, but the fire was so dark they couldn't see her expression. When she spoke, it was in a quiet voice. "Good luck, then."
The room shifted to black and then to blurry tan, a warm droning sensation all around them.
"Your task," said Setsuna, "is to keep your comrade from dying."
.-.
TBC
Part 10: “Game over…”
The airship was about the size of the satellite Heero and Duo had met up in, and twice as old. They abandoned their ‘elevator’ in favor of a shallow deck on the nose of the ship. Like the town and canyon, the deck was dusty gray and corroded from blasts of heated sand. And like the canyon, there was little shelter against the violent winds.
Heero’s first thought upon seeing the airship was that it had frozen in place during a crash landing. The sheer size of it, easily as large as the town they’d passed through, told him that it was most likely a transport ship. It was somehow floating in midair, the narrow nose and deck were slightly tilted toward the ground, with the thick insect-like backside lifted in the air to mark the angle it had taken when entering the planet’s atmosphere. Any question of lost technology was answered. A society capable of making such a ship was far removed from the old fashioned town below.
There was a moment of concern when they approached the dull airlocked doors that undoubtedly led into the ship. Vash tried to forestall them, once again telling how much the inhabitants didn’t like strangers. Heero hadn’t decided what sort of role the blonde man had, but he was beginning to see him as an obstruction to their task. The man wanted them to stay outside, which would make completing their task all but impossible. Even if they were lucky enough to avoid being blown off the deck, they wouldn’t be able to locate the girl, let alone protect her.
It would have been much easier if they could simply explain the game to Vash. Duo and Wolfwood were eager to do just that - Duo because he was getting so much sand in his braid it would take days to wash it all out, and Wolfwood because pretending to be someone, when he didn’t even know who he was supposed to be, was a lot harder than it looked. Heero was growing a tad resentful of the pointed looks they were sending him. As far as he could tell, the game had to have a reason for making Vash ‘know’ one of them, when all the other characters they’d encountered had immediately identified them as strangers. He was convinced the game had done it so they wouldn’t tell anyone in this realm what their true purpose was. For all they knew, breaking Vash’s assumption that he knew Wolfwood might cause them to fail the task before they really had a chance to attempt it.
Duo felt as if he’d been rolling in sand, the heat was ridiculous so close to the sun, and the wind kept jerking him off balance. And he swore, if the ragged tatters of Vash’s coat slapped him one more time, he’d rip the thing off the man and toss it to the wind. He had an idea why Heero was stubbornly refusing to do anything about the situation. His partner was waiting till he understood it before acting. That was all good and well, but Duo hadn’t entered the game to be stuck clinging to a door they couldn’t open, all because they were afraid to be rude to a man they didn’t know.
“Look,” Duo muttered, sarcasm thick on his voice. “If you don’t want us inside, that’s your choice. Leave us out here to die. Just don’t stand there like you want to watch it happen. I never liked voyeurs. It’s not like we asked for a tour. We just want to get out of this wind.”
The blonde man flinched and sent a wide-eyed look over the windswept deck. He fidgeted, shuffling his feet a little, and looking generally uncertain. Then his shoulders slumped in visible defeat.
Duo watched Vash approach the door and flashed a knowing grin at Heero’s quirked eyebrow. The man had gone on about wanting to keep the occupants of the ship from being influenced by outsiders, which told him the guy was the ‘soft’ sort, like Quatre had been during the war. A light guilt trip and it was pretty easy to manipulate that type of person. Heero and Wolfwood were lucky to have him along. Duo was sure if he’d left it up to them, they’d be standing outside that door until the wind snatched them off, too afraid to be ‘rude’ to just open it themselves.
“Just don’t talk to anyone, okay?” Vash mumbled, flashing a resentful look over his shoulder. “The wind should calm down in a while, so I’ll take you guys back down when I’m done here.”
There was a deep rumble from inside the ship as the door shook and slid to the side, revealing a dusky interior. Vash led them into what appeared to be an unused hallway. The air was dusty, but noticeably cooler than the desert outside. What little light there was seemed to come from the walls themselves, pale gray metal that just managed to illuminate the narrow passage. A door at the end of the hall opened with a smart snick of well-maintained machinery, and they emerged in a bright, modern hallway.
Vash stopped and looked back at them, probably planning to tell them to stay right there. He never got a chance to do more than open his mouth. An official looking man called out to them as if he meant to order them off the premises. His angry words were drowned out by an excited, high pitched cry. The girl from the photo rushed down the hall and threw herself into Vash's arms.
.-.
"You guys can wait here," said Vash, his eyes flicking back to where the uniformed man stood glaring at them, "as long as you don't move from this spot. Otherwise, you'll have to stay by the door at the end of the passage..."
Duo's expression had tightened as he watched the man greet Vash. The instinctive distrust and contempt on the man's face reminded him of L2, namely the first and second wards. The standard of living had been better there and the residents had guarded that viciously. Rarely were workers allowed entrance into the city proper. They were driven out by the private militia, since the colony's official police force had no control over residential matters. That uniformed man, with his modern clothing clean and cool in the air conditioned hallway, reminded Duo of the boy he'd gotten directions from in the town below. He was sure if that scruffy boy had been standing in the hall, asking for nothing more than a shelter from the storm, that uniformed man would have glared at him the same way he was now glaring at them.
Duo gave Vash a quick smile that didn't reach his eyes. "No problem. It looks a little cold and stuffy in there, anyway."
Heero's gaze snapped to Duo, taking in the cool tint in those otherwise expressive eyes. He'd seen his partner react the same way during the war, particularly when they came into contact with nobility. It had taken months before Duo finally dropped his defenses around Relena, who had been raised to speak as if she were more important than those around her. Although Duo eventually realized she did this unconsciously, his first appraisal of her was that the girl was a pampered hypocrite, calling to help the suffering while wasting wealth that could have sustained entire colonies. That instinctive reaction had eased over time, but there remained a distance between them. Duo had explained it to him before. Relena might mean well, but she'd never understand how her elitist lifestyle alienated the very people she most wanted to help, the working class.
Heero stepped close to his partner, giving what little support he could without addressing the issue. "Here is fine."
Vash appeared to accept their promise on face value. He still looked a bit uncertain, but he didn't hesitate long. The girl caught hold of his hand and beamed happily as she pulled him down the hall. With one more distrustful glare at them, the man in uniform followed. Wolfwood sagged a little the moment they were out of sight.
"Okay, Quatre," Wolfwood muttered into the band on his left wrist. "What do we do? You said to tell characters about the game, but this guy thinks he knows me."
A long silence followed before their interface answered. Quatre's voice was so quiet Heero and Duo eased closer to hear.
"There is precedence for this," Quatre said slowly, as if carefully choosing his words. "Some realms bear similarity to each other, even to the real world. It's possible you bear a visible resemblance to the 'Wolfwood' character you've replaced. In that case, explaining shouldn't disrupt game play any more than it would in other realms. But..."
Heero's eyes glinted. "But," he put in, "if he did replace a character so similar that characters in this realm can't tell the difference, then breaking the illusion could aversely affect our task. Right?"
"Yes," Quatre said, with audible reluctance. "As I said, some realms appear to have been modeled after our own. We've only recorded two cases of mistaken identity since beginning these forays into the game. In the first case, revealing the players had violent results. The characters refused to believe it, and the task was an outright failure. In the second case, the players went along with it, but they had considerable trouble later, when they tried to import characters from that realm."
Duo rolled his eyes, still feeling moody and pessimistic. "So either way, we're screwed."
"I'm afraid so," said Quatre. "I have a direct order from the programmer. You are to attempt the task without revealing the game. In future tasks, you are not to import any character from this realm. As this is a direct order, any failure that may result from following the order will not count against your record as players."
There was another pause. When Quatre spoke again, Duo had the distinct impression the boy was smiling gently. For the first time since meeting on the satellite, Quatre sounded like the kind and sensitive friend Duo had always considered him to be.
"Don't worry," said Quatre. "Normally if players fail two tasks, the team is pulled. But like Duo said, this is a lose-lose situation. You will never be held responsible for a failure that comes from following a direct order. Just focus on the task and do your best."
"Of course we'll do our best," Duo grinned. "Heero's on this mission."
Heero smirked, more for Duo's sudden mood change than the reference to his old 'mission accepted' attitude.
"Good luck," Quatre said, his smile more evident than ever. "I recommend turning the blue band off for the rest of this task. Even if I remain silent, the activated light may attract unwanted attention. Just don't forget to turn it back on afterward."
"Got it," said Duo. "Be hearing from you soon, Quatre."
"Good luck," Quatre said again.
Wolfwood removed the band and slipped it into his pocket. He was worried about having to keep up the ruse. Duo's suddenly cheerful smile caught him by surprise.
"You aren't worried?" asked Wolfwood.
"About the task," Duo nodded. "But it's worth it to have Quatre back. That's the first time he's really sounded like himself since we started."
"He has been pretty tense since we started playing," Wolfwood admitted. "But he's always tense when he refers to The Game. They've put a lot into this."
Heero turned a suspicious look on him. "How did you meet Quatre? And how much do you know about The Game? "
Wolfwood winced and gave the two a weak smile. "I've known him for a few months now. I was actually one of the maintenance workers helping them get the satellite ready for the simulations. There was an accident and Quatre was in the infirmary when I came to. I think he took responsibility for it, or something. He's a really nice kid, but a little too quick to blame himself, if you ask me. That's the only reason I ended up getting included in the groups - he sort of took me under his wing for a while there. Once we got the place ready for the participants, he invited me to stay on. I didn't think he actually expected me to make the cut, though. To hear him talk, he didn't want any of his friends involved in this thing."
"Then you already knew who we were?" asked Duo. "Why didn't you say anything about Quatre being behind this?"
"Oh, no, I didn't know you guys were friends of his till we met up with him in the amphitheater. He'd never mentioned anyone by name. It's just that the guys - you know those tired looking guys who read the instructions? - they let slip that he'd been isolating himself a lot since the last test runs. I'm pretty sure they were trying to encourage me to talk to him more. I couldn't tell if they were afraid of him because he's their boss, or if they were just too uncomfortable to try approaching him."
"So you were there before any of the other participants showed up," said Heero. "Do you know what happened with the last test run? Or where The Game came from?"
"Don't know a thing," Wolfwood said quickly. "As far as I can tell, not even the guys knew anything more than rumors. Something about the last test going bad, people getting hurt or dropping out. They didn't even know who the programmer was. I figured it was Quatre, since he's the only one I've seen giving orders around there. But he's just an interface, so...your guess is as good as mine. The only thing I know about The Game is that it's impossible technology and they're trying to crack it to see what's behind it. And for some reason I ended up getting to be one of the lab rats instead of a janitor. All it took was a hard knock on the head and one guilt-prone kid."
"That's one way to get promoted," Duo smirked. "I wondered how you ended up in the group without having military experience. So Quatre took a shine to you, eh?"
Wolfwood blinked at Duo's suggestive smile and waved his hand suddenly. "Come on, it's not like that. He's way too young for me, for one thing. You guys are like, what, sixteen? Seventeen? I'm probably going on thirty. Not to mention that I think I'm straight..."
He grimaced and ran a hand over the light stubble on his face from that extended stay in their first task. He missed seeing Duo and Heero exchange a sharp look.
"You don't know how old you are?" asked Duo.
"What sort of accident were you in?" Heero asked a moment later.
Wolfwood gave that embarrassed wince again. He was saved from having to explain in detail.
A light tremor shook them as something exploded nearby. Screams and thumps sounded down the hall and people began peeking out the doors. A small cluster of men, dressed in the same uniform as the guard, approached them with accusatory glares on their faces. They made it four feet before being taken out by what looked like a tan humanoid robot.
"I got a knock on the head a few months ago,"Wolfwood said quickly. "Things have been a bit fuzzy since then. Doesn't seem to have affected my trigger finger, though. It looks like this is where we go save that girl."
Heero shoved his suspicions to the back of his mind and drew his cannon. The robot resembled nothing so much as a headless mannequin. It had a human shaped torso, a triangular head, and slender extensions for arms. Whatever it was, one short burst of his cannon had the thing exploding into little shards. The three of them passed the guards, who were battered but still alive, judging by their groans. Their task was to protect the girl. Finding her was their first priority.
A door opened as they ran down the hall, and more of those uniformed men rushed out to block their way. Heero scowled past them. They didn't even know where the girl had gone. He knew they should have followed her, whether the people here agreed to it or not. At this rate, even if they found her they'd be too late.
"It's them!" one of the men yelled.
Duo tossed his head in exasperation. "Do we look like killer robots? Get out of the way and we'll take care of them. Go help your friends over there."
A choked scream and muffled thumps erupted from a closed room to their left. Duo freed his scythe and made short work of the door only to find lifeless corpses and no sign of their target or the enemies that had done the work. The display silenced the group of men, either because of Duo's weapon, or the murder that had taken place while their suspects were in clear sight of them.
"We have to find that girl," said Wolfwood. He turned on the staring men. "Vash! Where did Vash go?"
"That's how they got in," one of the men growled. "I knew we shouldn't keep letting him in here. He brought strangers - with weapons! Now look what's happened!"
"How many more of you are there?" another man demanded.
"What the hell?" Duo blurted. "We were standing right here. What makes you think we had anything to do with that?" He waved a hand at the room without actually looking at the bloody scene.
"We don't have time for this," said Heero. He leveled his cannon on the men blocking their way. "We're looking for a girl, dark hair in tails. She's in danger and we plan to help her. She's a friend of Vash. They were together the last time we saw them. Tell us where they might be or get out of the way. Now."
He was about to fire a short burst as a warning when the hallway lurched around them. That guard who'd glared at them earlier suddenly darted out of the hall the other men had come from. He barely even looked at them. He caught one of the uniformed men by the arm.
"What are you doing?" the man demanded. " I told you to lock down the corridors. We don't have time to deal with them. Reinforce the second plant. If we lose that the entire ship will go down!"
Heero stiffened and rounded on the guard. "This plant, generator, where is it?"
"You stay out of this," the man snapped.
Duo growled and snapped back at him, "We're trying to help, you bigoted ass!"
A hand shot out and pulled Duo back. Heero gave him a sharp look and spoke in English. "Arguing with them won't help. We don't have time to convince them. If this ship crashes, it won't just be that girl, we could all die."
"A hostage?" asked Duo. He was still furious with the idiots, but it was easy to check his anger when Heero was being so calm. "Force one of them to take us there?"
Heero gave a sharp nod that Duo never got to see. One moment they were standing together in the trembling corridor and the next there was nothing but black silence. Duo reached out blindly for where his partner had been standing, and a hand fumbled against his back. He caught it before it did more than pull at his coat.
"Heero?"
"Not so tight," said Wolfwood, somewhere to his left. "You'll break my wrist. Damn, you're strong..."
"I'm here," Heero said at the same time. He barely twitched when a hand promptly closed over his shoulder.
Duo let out a weak laugh and pulled the two of them closer. "What happened...?"
"You have failed the task," Setsuna's voice said from somewhere in front of them. Her familiar fire flickered into sight, such a dark purplish black that it didn't fully illuminate any of them.
"What?" Duo blurted. "How? Was there a time limit? Or were we supposed to stay with her after we first saw her?"
"If I give you the details, it will nullify your chance to attempt the task again," said Setsuna.
"That's not it, then," said Wolfwood. "So if we fail a task, we get to try it over?"
"There's no way," Duo protested, scowling at his friend's shadowy form. "We couldn't have followed her from the start. And we don't know if we failed because the ship crashed or because someone killed her while we were stuck with those morons in the hall. Unless we just go in and kill everyone who stands in our way. The only person who has to live is that girl, after all."
Even as he said it, his disgusted voice made it clear he wasn't serious. Especially after the death in their last task. Whether the realms were 'real' or not, there was no way he could just kill randomly like that. He'd wanted to beat that guard senseless, but he hadn't wanted to kill him. There just didn't seem to be any other way to ensure they could complete the task if they were to try it again. And he didn't want to give up on the game this soon.
"What are our options?" Heero asked Setsuna. "Redo the task or leave the game?"
"You have the option to do this task over," she said. "If you decide to do so, the stakes will be higher the second time through. If you fail again, one of you will remain incorporated into the game."
"Incorporated?" asked Duo. "What does that mean?"
"An incorporated player is absorbed into the failed realm, with all memories replaced."
"The game can do that?" asked Wolfwood. He shot a look in Heero's direction. "I think Duo's right - there's no way..."
"What are our options if we choose not to retry the task?" asked Heero.
"If you do not complete this task, you will be required to enter the realm at a later point and attempt a different task. In order to come back later, you must complete the next task you are given or forfeit your 'Light Trip.'"
"We don't even know what this 'Light Trip' thing is," said Wolfwood. "Of course we'd rather risk forfeiting that, than losing someone."
"Not that we'll fail another task," Duo added. "Seems a little too good to be true, doesn't it? This 'Light Trip' must be something worth having. But not worth risking someone's life over."
Heero nodded and turned to Setsuna. "We'll complete the alternative task."
The guide hesitated for a long while, but the fire was so dark they couldn't see her expression. When she spoke, it was in a quiet voice. "Good luck, then."
The room shifted to black and then to blurry tan, a warm droning sensation all around them.
"Your task," said Setsuna, "is to keep your comrade from dying."
.-.
TBC