Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ The Game ❯ Strangers from an alternate universe ( Chapter 16 )
[ 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: 07.25.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 275 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Fantasy / Adventure | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 07.25.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 275 | Status: Work In Progress
Note: If you're having trouble viewing part 10, click the 'view' button instead of the "next part" link. I've replaced the chapters, but they won't refresh for some reason. You have to 'view' chapter 10 - after that you can go back to clicking 'next' for each part.
The 'Import Queue':
http://arigatomina.com/fanfiction/crossovers/thegame/importqueue15.html< br />
The Game
Part 16: "Strangers from an alternate universe"
Heero and Wolfwood knew something was wrong the moment they arrived in the new realm. They'd stepped through the portal with Duo between them, where he'd once again caught hands just in case. There was no sight of him now, just the blurry void they usually saw before the task was explained.
"What happened?" Heero asked sharply, his question directed at Setsuna.
"What's wrong?" asked Quatre.
"Duo's gone," said Wolfwood. "We went together. He couldn't have gotten separated from us!"
Heero didn't spare them a glance. He was glaring straight ahead at the blurry gray wall. "Setsuna!"
"The task," Setsuna said, as calmly as if they hadn't just lost one third of their team, "is to get Duo and Hiei out of the base they have been imprisoned in."
Wolfwood flinched. "Oh, shit. You didn't import Hiei-" The change in scenery caught him mid-sentence and he grimaced painfully. "Again," he finished in a weak whisper. "We are so dead..."
A sudden eruption of explosions and gunshots had him snapping his eyes open just as someone caught his arm and jerked him to the side. He hit his knees and found himself facing an ashen Quatre, who was staring at him in shock and disbelief. He mirrored the expression as soon as his brain started functioning again.
"Quatre?"
"You know me," the blonde boy gasped. He pulled Wolfwood to his feet and further to their right, where they were shielded by the others. His voice almost cracked as he strove to be heard over the war going on around them. "What happened to Jin! What kind of mutant power let you-...a game? You came through a game? Duo and Heero, too. Who are you?"
Wolfwood managed a stunned blink. "You don't know me? Is this from your past as a Gundam Pilot, or..."
A cool voice interrupted him. "I seriously doubt he's who you think he is. I've known Yusuke for years, and that is not Yusuke. Considering this is your game, one would think you'd be quicker to adapt to the unexpected."
Wolfwood couldn't help but marvel at how calm Kurama was considering their surroundings. The blonde boy, who was clearly Quatre, but wasn't, remained leaning over him. There was a tall man with white hair keeping watch behind them, something on his face saying he'd somehow heard every word they said, or was reading their minds. The 'Yusuke' person Kurama had waved at was a black-haired boy who appeared to be punching the air and sending shockwaves of white energy out through the air, where they collided with military trucks and soldiers alike. Another black-haired boy was standing a few yards to the right and appeared to be directing lightning bolts at his discretion. And a tall brown-haired boy was flying back and forth in front of the group, blocking bullets with a glowing green energy field. That didn't even touch on the rest of the yard, where an entire army of men in uniform were spread out and firing on the little group.
Wolfwood gave a slow blink. Then he shook his head fiercely and snapped himself out of the daze he'd fallen into. He shoved himself to his feet and checked his right arm. His weapon was in its original form, firmly attached around his forearm and ready for immediate use. Even if the blonde wasn't the Quatre he knew, he was still clearly one of the good guys. Bad guys wouldn't have bothered saving him from being shot up when he first arrived on the scene.
There were numerous gray buildings on the yard, but one was closer than the others. Wolfwood began firing on the soldiers closest to the door of it. He tilted his head and filled Kurama in at the same time.
"The game drug you guys into this," said Wolfwood, "I swear. You don't have to believe or forgive, but that's the way it is. The task is to break Duo and Hiei out of the base they've been imprisoned in. I'm guessing it's that door there. I'm not sure where Heero is in all this, but we need to get in there and-"
"That's enough information," Kurama cut him off, before sighing in exasperation. "If Hiei doesn't kill you people, I might..."
The blonde boy who wasn't Quatre turned a wide eyed look on Kurama. "You know him?"
"He's not our Kurama," said the white-haired man behind him. "You're not reading minds right now, so you wouldn't know. Just leave them. It would take too long to explain what they're doing here."
"It'll all go back to normal later," Wolfwood said quickly, sparing a glance at the blonde, who really was Quatre, even if he wasn't. "Don't worry so much!"
Kurama pulled a dark seed from his hair and lit up with a fiery red glow. Then he tossed it in the direction of the door. A moment later something huge and ungodly erupted from the tiny seed to feast on the screaming men nearby. It was wet and green and bigger than the building by the time Kurama ran for the now-cleared door. It also had fangs and, apparently, a very big appetite. Once it ran out of living victims, it extended tentacles and went squirming across the yard after anything else that moved. Wolfwood was quick to notice that the group of strangers around Quatre were careful not to move. Even the green-glowing flying guy dropped to a standstill. He spared them one weak, apologetic, grin, and then took off for the door Kurama had disappeared into.
Hopefully the thing wouldn't decide to eat them when it finished with the army. But if it did, they had Setsuna's word that they wouldn't remember their untimely and exceedingly painful - and wrong, for that realm - deaths. Somehow he didn't think that would make the real Quatre feel any better about it. He really hoped it didn't eat them.
Duo had come to the conclusion that he hadn't given Wolfwood enough credit for that second task. Being put into the role of rescuee sucked. Being put into it with someone who was, but wasn't, his old roommate, sucked even worse. Finding out their captors were a military group that went by the name of OZ just made things so much worse. He was convinced his brain had imploded or begun devouring itself in an attempt to escape having to make sense of the situation.
He'd found himself in a cell. A very familiar looking cell. Aside from the fact that there was a little light in the room, it was identical to the one he'd been held in the first time he was captured by a military group calling itself OZ. The only difference was this time he was in a cell with Hilde. That was a pretty big difference. She was a mutant, too, which was an even bigger difference. And according to her, he could turn invisible and teleport himself out of the cell - if he didn't mind the cell being blown up with them in it the second he tried.
"I don't think I'm who you think I am," Duo mumbled, from where he'd backed himself into a corner away from the look-alike who said things that hurt his brain. "We've never lived together, right? So you're not the Hilde I know, either. Wow. I bet this is what Wolfwood felt like in that desert realm, too. He really has been getting the bum rush. At least no one's trying to eat me..."
"What are you babbling about?" Hilde scowled. "The guards are going to be rushing in here any minute. You said you were going to take point by the door."
She certainly sounded the same, and aside from her hands being bound with big metal...mittens...she looked the same. Slender, a little shorter than him, with short dark hair that tended to flash dark blue in the light, same colored eyes, a stubborn streak that rivaled his own. The scowls were identical, too.
"I said that...?" asked Duo.
"Yes."
"Must have been the other me..."
For a second, Duo wondered if maybe she was his Hilde. She growled and scrunched up her face, and he was pretty sure if they hadn't been locked in a cell together, she would have turned on her heel and left him and the argument behind until she cooled off. Then her scowl turned into an actual glare and she stalked over to shove him away from the door with her bound hands.
"Oh, you," she gritted out, growling something that might have been a curse word. "Get out of the way! I don't know how you managed to stay alive so long. You're useless in a crisis."
"Hey," Duo frowned, "I resent that! It's not my fault the game stuck me in here without a weapon."
"If those guards try using you as a hostage, I'm gonna let them kill you."
Then again, maybe she was Hilde. Duo scowled and took point across from the girl. Suddenly he was very glad he'd never gone on missions with Hilde, his Hilde, or any Hilde for that matter. The only solo mission she'd ever gone on had ended with her nearly getting killed for a disc of information that Heero probably could have hacked on his own if she'd simply contacted them and told them what was going on. This Hilde had more in common with his than not, the mutant thing notwithstanding. They were both even more headstrong and risk-taking than he was. That was just scary.
"Look," Duo muttered. "I don't care if you're a game character or not. If guards rush in here trying to kill us, you better not get yourself shot. You might not keep the memory of it when this realm is reset, but I will. I can use an elixer when this is over, but I don't have any on me if you pull something incredibly stupid."
"Have you gone completely crazy?" the girl demanded.
"Yeah, sure," Duo shrugged, "but I'm still a former Gundam Pilot."
"A what?"
Duo heaved a long sigh. "Nevermind..."
If the other two were mentally lost, Heero was literally lost. He found himself sneaking through a base that could have been modeled after any number of ones he'd gone through in the past. He'd had no idea where Duo and Hiei were supposed to be in the base, so he did the normal thing. He found a computer terminal and tapped into their system. That was where things turned weird. He'd been breaking security systems for years and while he did cover his tracks, he could recognize his own markers anywhere. As far as he could tell, he'd already broken this system once. Recently. Like an hour ago at most. He'd even gone so far as to shut down the auto-destruct on one cell in particular. So...he'd already found out where Duo was before he even entered the realm. Except he obviously hadn't.
He immediately thought about the invisible walls and one-way water wheels in the last realm. Reality check. Reality and logic was whatever the game made it out to be in each realm. So if it appeared he had already broken this system and made plans to rescue Duo, then he had. It didn't have to make sense. At least it saved him a few minutes of work. His weapon saved him a few minutes more. Apparently when he'd planned to infiltrate the complex, he hadn't accounted for having a miniature beam cannon available. It made him wonder how he'd expected to get through the ridiculously thick doors sealing Duo's cell.
He also didn't seem to have taken Hiei's captivity into account in his plans. Maybe he'd known Kurama could get there faster than he could. All it took was a glance at the security cameras going offline all over the base to know the redhead could locate his friend without bothering with computers. It was probably a demon game character thing. He intercepted Kurama halfway between Hiei and Duo's cells. As far as he could tell, Kurama was more adept at this particular task than he was. The redhead had Hiei in tow, keeping a hold on his arm so he couldn't attack Heero on sight, and Wolfwood was right behind them. That was almost embarrassing.
"I've located Duo," said Heero. "The task is to get them both out. Outside, most likely."
"I'll back you up," said Wolfwood.
He didn't mention Kurama and Hiei. They would probably wait outside for them. From what he'd seen, Kurama didn't need backup. At least he wasn't furious anymore. That cold anger of his had broken the moment he burst into the cell where Hiei was being held. Wolfwood still didn't know why Kurama had found Hiei's predicament so amusing. His friend had been trussed up against the wall with a little blue-haired teenager holding an icy sword to his throat. Kurama had taken one look and started laughing. He'd then apologized to the blue-haired guy, calling him Touya like they knew each other. And he'd only freed Hiei on his promise that he wouldn't gut or flashfry the three of them before they finished the task. As suddenly amusing as Kurama found the realm, he still didn't want to be stuck there if Hiei killed the players.
Wolfwood was naturally surprised when the pair followed him and Heero instead of exiting the building without them. Kurama was still sporting a glitter in his eyes and a faint smirk, and Hiei was glowering and growling under his breath - but not making any attempt to free his arm from the tight hold Kurama had on it. Wolfwood didn't know which of them was more intimidating. He was leaning toward the smirking redhead. Scary and worrisome smiles seemed to be Kurama's expertise. Hiei, at least, was open about his intentions.
Heero led them straight to Duo's cell and blasted open the door. He then stopped midstep. Wolfwood wondered if they had invisible walls in this realm, too.
Heero hadn't know what to expect. If there was an auto-destruct on Duo's cell, the guards would likely try to kill him in the event of an escape attempt. They should have stormed the cell, either to relocate the prisoner, or to kill him before his rescuers could arrive. One look at the four bodies lying on the floor of the cell told him that the guards had tried the relocating idea. The discarded weapons were dart guns rather than rifles. It wasn't the bodies that made Heero stop in his tracks, an inch inside the doorway. Duo knew enough hand to hand combat to take down a lot more than four soldiers armed with nothing but dart guns. No, he wasn't shocked to find that Duo had held his own. What shocked him was Duo's current position. Duo was lying on his back in the center of the cell. A very familiar dark-haired girl was straddling his waist and threatening to knock him over the head with her bound fists.
"Duo?"
Duo had thrown his arms up to protect his head the moment Hilde first tackled him. Now he peeked around his arm and blushed dark red at the sight of Heero in the doorway.
"It's not what it looks like!" Duo blurted. Hilde glanced over her shoulder suspiciously, and he took the chance to roll out from under her. "Well, okay, it is what it looks like, but it's not what you're thinking. Close your mouth, Wolfwood. You say one word and I'm siccing her on you next."
The furious girl, who was definitely not Hilde, turned sharply to glare at him again. "Don't talk about me like that. You lying chauvenist pig! If you knew how to fight like that, why the hell didn't you do it the last time those guys came in here? I knew I shouldn't have trusted you from the start."
Heero blinked at the idea of Duo being called a liar. "Hilde...?"
"How do you know my name?" the girl scowled. "Are you a telepath?"
Duo sighed in exasperation. "I keep telling you, we're not mutants. We're players. In a game. And I'm not the one who was in this cell with you earlier, so I have no idea what you're talking about. Anyway, I'm ready to go now, Heero. It was, um, nice meeting you - er - Hilde. Yeah. Let's go, Heero. Quickly, please."
He scrambled to his feet and pushed Heero back out of the cell. He barely spared a relieved look at Kurama and Hiei, who fell into step right behind Wolfwood.
"What did you do to that girl?" asked Wolfwood.
"Nothing!" Duo scowled. "I just pushed her out of the way of a dart and took out the guards. Then she went off on me, like I'm not supposed to know how to defend myself or something. I think she has a real women power issue..."
He sent a disgruntled look at Heero, "She's definitely not the Hilde I know. I wouldn't have survived one week living with that girl."
He turned on Wolfwood next. "I completely get how you felt now, having someone think you're someone else. This whole doppleganger thing is dangerous..."
They left through the same doors Kurama and Wolfwood had entered earlier. And they had one brief glimpse of the yard. Five familiar faces were standing over the mushy remains of a green...monster plant thing. Duo gaped at the scene and heard Kurama mutter something about the wasteful killing of imported Makai pets and an endangered species. Then they were back in the port, now lit with orange, and Quatre was speaking from the red wristband.
"What happened?" asked Quatre. "I lost all contact with you. I couldn't even map your location."
"I'm still not sure," Duo muttered, still stunned by the weird scene they'd glimpsed. "That was one messed up place..."
"The task was simple to complete," said Heero. "We broke Duo and Hiei out of the military base. The Game imported Kurama to help with the task."
"There was a Hilde in the cell with me," Duo put in. "Not the real Hilde, but it looked just like her, and she acted really similar at first. Before she went nuts on me..."
"You were there, too," said Wolfwood. This got startled looks from Duo and Heero. "There was someone who looked just like you, Quatre. Same name and everything. Kurama saw two people he recognized, too, but they weren't the people he knew."
He turned to Setsuna, who was watching silently from amid her pillar of flames. "Would any of those people be in our 'Import Queue'?"
Setsuna didn't bother to answer. The moment Wolfwood asked, the queue appeared in front of them. Sure enough, there were a handful of extra profiles at the bottom. Some of them were shadowed strangely, but the familiar faces caused both Duo and Heero to flinch in surprise.
"That's definitely you, Quatre," Duo said quietly. "There's Trowa and Wufei, too, and Hilde and even Zechs. I don't know the other two."
"Kurama seemed to recognize those two," nodded Wolfwood. "But they weren't from his realm. That white-haired guy heard me talking to Quatre - the fake one - and he acted like he could read my mind or something. Some of them were flying and doing weird stuff, too."
"You said there was a base involved in the task," said Quatre. "Are you certain it wasn't some version of our past?"
"Not with the mutant power thing," Duo frowned. "Hilde said it was an OZ base, but not the OZ we knew. It was similar, but definitely not the same."
"I see..."
There was something strange in Quatre's voice that made Duo sigh in frustration. He decided to take the direct approach this time.
"Do you know something, Quatre?"
"I do," Quatre said, immediately, surprising them with his straightforward response. "You should have gained a resume by now. Use it to exit the game. There's something I need to talk to you about. Without The Game listening in."
.-.
TBC
Notes: The realm in this chapter comes from Part 38 of my GW-YYH fanfic, Gmen. I needed something to throw the players for a loop and get Quatre talking. It was self-serving and contrived, but sort of fun screwing with my own plot. ;p
The 'Import Queue':
http://arigatomina.com/fanfiction/crossovers/thegame/importqueue15.html< br />
The Game
Part 16: "Strangers from an alternate universe"
Heero and Wolfwood knew something was wrong the moment they arrived in the new realm. They'd stepped through the portal with Duo between them, where he'd once again caught hands just in case. There was no sight of him now, just the blurry void they usually saw before the task was explained.
"What happened?" Heero asked sharply, his question directed at Setsuna.
"What's wrong?" asked Quatre.
"Duo's gone," said Wolfwood. "We went together. He couldn't have gotten separated from us!"
Heero didn't spare them a glance. He was glaring straight ahead at the blurry gray wall. "Setsuna!"
"The task," Setsuna said, as calmly as if they hadn't just lost one third of their team, "is to get Duo and Hiei out of the base they have been imprisoned in."
Wolfwood flinched. "Oh, shit. You didn't import Hiei-" The change in scenery caught him mid-sentence and he grimaced painfully. "Again," he finished in a weak whisper. "We are so dead..."
A sudden eruption of explosions and gunshots had him snapping his eyes open just as someone caught his arm and jerked him to the side. He hit his knees and found himself facing an ashen Quatre, who was staring at him in shock and disbelief. He mirrored the expression as soon as his brain started functioning again.
"Quatre?"
"You know me," the blonde boy gasped. He pulled Wolfwood to his feet and further to their right, where they were shielded by the others. His voice almost cracked as he strove to be heard over the war going on around them. "What happened to Jin! What kind of mutant power let you-...a game? You came through a game? Duo and Heero, too. Who are you?"
Wolfwood managed a stunned blink. "You don't know me? Is this from your past as a Gundam Pilot, or..."
A cool voice interrupted him. "I seriously doubt he's who you think he is. I've known Yusuke for years, and that is not Yusuke. Considering this is your game, one would think you'd be quicker to adapt to the unexpected."
Wolfwood couldn't help but marvel at how calm Kurama was considering their surroundings. The blonde boy, who was clearly Quatre, but wasn't, remained leaning over him. There was a tall man with white hair keeping watch behind them, something on his face saying he'd somehow heard every word they said, or was reading their minds. The 'Yusuke' person Kurama had waved at was a black-haired boy who appeared to be punching the air and sending shockwaves of white energy out through the air, where they collided with military trucks and soldiers alike. Another black-haired boy was standing a few yards to the right and appeared to be directing lightning bolts at his discretion. And a tall brown-haired boy was flying back and forth in front of the group, blocking bullets with a glowing green energy field. That didn't even touch on the rest of the yard, where an entire army of men in uniform were spread out and firing on the little group.
Wolfwood gave a slow blink. Then he shook his head fiercely and snapped himself out of the daze he'd fallen into. He shoved himself to his feet and checked his right arm. His weapon was in its original form, firmly attached around his forearm and ready for immediate use. Even if the blonde wasn't the Quatre he knew, he was still clearly one of the good guys. Bad guys wouldn't have bothered saving him from being shot up when he first arrived on the scene.
There were numerous gray buildings on the yard, but one was closer than the others. Wolfwood began firing on the soldiers closest to the door of it. He tilted his head and filled Kurama in at the same time.
"The game drug you guys into this," said Wolfwood, "I swear. You don't have to believe or forgive, but that's the way it is. The task is to break Duo and Hiei out of the base they've been imprisoned in. I'm guessing it's that door there. I'm not sure where Heero is in all this, but we need to get in there and-"
"That's enough information," Kurama cut him off, before sighing in exasperation. "If Hiei doesn't kill you people, I might..."
The blonde boy who wasn't Quatre turned a wide eyed look on Kurama. "You know him?"
"He's not our Kurama," said the white-haired man behind him. "You're not reading minds right now, so you wouldn't know. Just leave them. It would take too long to explain what they're doing here."
"It'll all go back to normal later," Wolfwood said quickly, sparing a glance at the blonde, who really was Quatre, even if he wasn't. "Don't worry so much!"
Kurama pulled a dark seed from his hair and lit up with a fiery red glow. Then he tossed it in the direction of the door. A moment later something huge and ungodly erupted from the tiny seed to feast on the screaming men nearby. It was wet and green and bigger than the building by the time Kurama ran for the now-cleared door. It also had fangs and, apparently, a very big appetite. Once it ran out of living victims, it extended tentacles and went squirming across the yard after anything else that moved. Wolfwood was quick to notice that the group of strangers around Quatre were careful not to move. Even the green-glowing flying guy dropped to a standstill. He spared them one weak, apologetic, grin, and then took off for the door Kurama had disappeared into.
Hopefully the thing wouldn't decide to eat them when it finished with the army. But if it did, they had Setsuna's word that they wouldn't remember their untimely and exceedingly painful - and wrong, for that realm - deaths. Somehow he didn't think that would make the real Quatre feel any better about it. He really hoped it didn't eat them.
Duo had come to the conclusion that he hadn't given Wolfwood enough credit for that second task. Being put into the role of rescuee sucked. Being put into it with someone who was, but wasn't, his old roommate, sucked even worse. Finding out their captors were a military group that went by the name of OZ just made things so much worse. He was convinced his brain had imploded or begun devouring itself in an attempt to escape having to make sense of the situation.
He'd found himself in a cell. A very familiar looking cell. Aside from the fact that there was a little light in the room, it was identical to the one he'd been held in the first time he was captured by a military group calling itself OZ. The only difference was this time he was in a cell with Hilde. That was a pretty big difference. She was a mutant, too, which was an even bigger difference. And according to her, he could turn invisible and teleport himself out of the cell - if he didn't mind the cell being blown up with them in it the second he tried.
"I don't think I'm who you think I am," Duo mumbled, from where he'd backed himself into a corner away from the look-alike who said things that hurt his brain. "We've never lived together, right? So you're not the Hilde I know, either. Wow. I bet this is what Wolfwood felt like in that desert realm, too. He really has been getting the bum rush. At least no one's trying to eat me..."
"What are you babbling about?" Hilde scowled. "The guards are going to be rushing in here any minute. You said you were going to take point by the door."
She certainly sounded the same, and aside from her hands being bound with big metal...mittens...she looked the same. Slender, a little shorter than him, with short dark hair that tended to flash dark blue in the light, same colored eyes, a stubborn streak that rivaled his own. The scowls were identical, too.
"I said that...?" asked Duo.
"Yes."
"Must have been the other me..."
For a second, Duo wondered if maybe she was his Hilde. She growled and scrunched up her face, and he was pretty sure if they hadn't been locked in a cell together, she would have turned on her heel and left him and the argument behind until she cooled off. Then her scowl turned into an actual glare and she stalked over to shove him away from the door with her bound hands.
"Oh, you," she gritted out, growling something that might have been a curse word. "Get out of the way! I don't know how you managed to stay alive so long. You're useless in a crisis."
"Hey," Duo frowned, "I resent that! It's not my fault the game stuck me in here without a weapon."
"If those guards try using you as a hostage, I'm gonna let them kill you."
Then again, maybe she was Hilde. Duo scowled and took point across from the girl. Suddenly he was very glad he'd never gone on missions with Hilde, his Hilde, or any Hilde for that matter. The only solo mission she'd ever gone on had ended with her nearly getting killed for a disc of information that Heero probably could have hacked on his own if she'd simply contacted them and told them what was going on. This Hilde had more in common with his than not, the mutant thing notwithstanding. They were both even more headstrong and risk-taking than he was. That was just scary.
"Look," Duo muttered. "I don't care if you're a game character or not. If guards rush in here trying to kill us, you better not get yourself shot. You might not keep the memory of it when this realm is reset, but I will. I can use an elixer when this is over, but I don't have any on me if you pull something incredibly stupid."
"Have you gone completely crazy?" the girl demanded.
"Yeah, sure," Duo shrugged, "but I'm still a former Gundam Pilot."
"A what?"
Duo heaved a long sigh. "Nevermind..."
If the other two were mentally lost, Heero was literally lost. He found himself sneaking through a base that could have been modeled after any number of ones he'd gone through in the past. He'd had no idea where Duo and Hiei were supposed to be in the base, so he did the normal thing. He found a computer terminal and tapped into their system. That was where things turned weird. He'd been breaking security systems for years and while he did cover his tracks, he could recognize his own markers anywhere. As far as he could tell, he'd already broken this system once. Recently. Like an hour ago at most. He'd even gone so far as to shut down the auto-destruct on one cell in particular. So...he'd already found out where Duo was before he even entered the realm. Except he obviously hadn't.
He immediately thought about the invisible walls and one-way water wheels in the last realm. Reality check. Reality and logic was whatever the game made it out to be in each realm. So if it appeared he had already broken this system and made plans to rescue Duo, then he had. It didn't have to make sense. At least it saved him a few minutes of work. His weapon saved him a few minutes more. Apparently when he'd planned to infiltrate the complex, he hadn't accounted for having a miniature beam cannon available. It made him wonder how he'd expected to get through the ridiculously thick doors sealing Duo's cell.
He also didn't seem to have taken Hiei's captivity into account in his plans. Maybe he'd known Kurama could get there faster than he could. All it took was a glance at the security cameras going offline all over the base to know the redhead could locate his friend without bothering with computers. It was probably a demon game character thing. He intercepted Kurama halfway between Hiei and Duo's cells. As far as he could tell, Kurama was more adept at this particular task than he was. The redhead had Hiei in tow, keeping a hold on his arm so he couldn't attack Heero on sight, and Wolfwood was right behind them. That was almost embarrassing.
"I've located Duo," said Heero. "The task is to get them both out. Outside, most likely."
"I'll back you up," said Wolfwood.
He didn't mention Kurama and Hiei. They would probably wait outside for them. From what he'd seen, Kurama didn't need backup. At least he wasn't furious anymore. That cold anger of his had broken the moment he burst into the cell where Hiei was being held. Wolfwood still didn't know why Kurama had found Hiei's predicament so amusing. His friend had been trussed up against the wall with a little blue-haired teenager holding an icy sword to his throat. Kurama had taken one look and started laughing. He'd then apologized to the blue-haired guy, calling him Touya like they knew each other. And he'd only freed Hiei on his promise that he wouldn't gut or flashfry the three of them before they finished the task. As suddenly amusing as Kurama found the realm, he still didn't want to be stuck there if Hiei killed the players.
Wolfwood was naturally surprised when the pair followed him and Heero instead of exiting the building without them. Kurama was still sporting a glitter in his eyes and a faint smirk, and Hiei was glowering and growling under his breath - but not making any attempt to free his arm from the tight hold Kurama had on it. Wolfwood didn't know which of them was more intimidating. He was leaning toward the smirking redhead. Scary and worrisome smiles seemed to be Kurama's expertise. Hiei, at least, was open about his intentions.
Heero led them straight to Duo's cell and blasted open the door. He then stopped midstep. Wolfwood wondered if they had invisible walls in this realm, too.
Heero hadn't know what to expect. If there was an auto-destruct on Duo's cell, the guards would likely try to kill him in the event of an escape attempt. They should have stormed the cell, either to relocate the prisoner, or to kill him before his rescuers could arrive. One look at the four bodies lying on the floor of the cell told him that the guards had tried the relocating idea. The discarded weapons were dart guns rather than rifles. It wasn't the bodies that made Heero stop in his tracks, an inch inside the doorway. Duo knew enough hand to hand combat to take down a lot more than four soldiers armed with nothing but dart guns. No, he wasn't shocked to find that Duo had held his own. What shocked him was Duo's current position. Duo was lying on his back in the center of the cell. A very familiar dark-haired girl was straddling his waist and threatening to knock him over the head with her bound fists.
"Duo?"
Duo had thrown his arms up to protect his head the moment Hilde first tackled him. Now he peeked around his arm and blushed dark red at the sight of Heero in the doorway.
"It's not what it looks like!" Duo blurted. Hilde glanced over her shoulder suspiciously, and he took the chance to roll out from under her. "Well, okay, it is what it looks like, but it's not what you're thinking. Close your mouth, Wolfwood. You say one word and I'm siccing her on you next."
The furious girl, who was definitely not Hilde, turned sharply to glare at him again. "Don't talk about me like that. You lying chauvenist pig! If you knew how to fight like that, why the hell didn't you do it the last time those guys came in here? I knew I shouldn't have trusted you from the start."
Heero blinked at the idea of Duo being called a liar. "Hilde...?"
"How do you know my name?" the girl scowled. "Are you a telepath?"
Duo sighed in exasperation. "I keep telling you, we're not mutants. We're players. In a game. And I'm not the one who was in this cell with you earlier, so I have no idea what you're talking about. Anyway, I'm ready to go now, Heero. It was, um, nice meeting you - er - Hilde. Yeah. Let's go, Heero. Quickly, please."
He scrambled to his feet and pushed Heero back out of the cell. He barely spared a relieved look at Kurama and Hiei, who fell into step right behind Wolfwood.
"What did you do to that girl?" asked Wolfwood.
"Nothing!" Duo scowled. "I just pushed her out of the way of a dart and took out the guards. Then she went off on me, like I'm not supposed to know how to defend myself or something. I think she has a real women power issue..."
He sent a disgruntled look at Heero, "She's definitely not the Hilde I know. I wouldn't have survived one week living with that girl."
He turned on Wolfwood next. "I completely get how you felt now, having someone think you're someone else. This whole doppleganger thing is dangerous..."
They left through the same doors Kurama and Wolfwood had entered earlier. And they had one brief glimpse of the yard. Five familiar faces were standing over the mushy remains of a green...monster plant thing. Duo gaped at the scene and heard Kurama mutter something about the wasteful killing of imported Makai pets and an endangered species. Then they were back in the port, now lit with orange, and Quatre was speaking from the red wristband.
"What happened?" asked Quatre. "I lost all contact with you. I couldn't even map your location."
"I'm still not sure," Duo muttered, still stunned by the weird scene they'd glimpsed. "That was one messed up place..."
"The task was simple to complete," said Heero. "We broke Duo and Hiei out of the military base. The Game imported Kurama to help with the task."
"There was a Hilde in the cell with me," Duo put in. "Not the real Hilde, but it looked just like her, and she acted really similar at first. Before she went nuts on me..."
"You were there, too," said Wolfwood. This got startled looks from Duo and Heero. "There was someone who looked just like you, Quatre. Same name and everything. Kurama saw two people he recognized, too, but they weren't the people he knew."
He turned to Setsuna, who was watching silently from amid her pillar of flames. "Would any of those people be in our 'Import Queue'?"
Setsuna didn't bother to answer. The moment Wolfwood asked, the queue appeared in front of them. Sure enough, there were a handful of extra profiles at the bottom. Some of them were shadowed strangely, but the familiar faces caused both Duo and Heero to flinch in surprise.
"That's definitely you, Quatre," Duo said quietly. "There's Trowa and Wufei, too, and Hilde and even Zechs. I don't know the other two."
"Kurama seemed to recognize those two," nodded Wolfwood. "But they weren't from his realm. That white-haired guy heard me talking to Quatre - the fake one - and he acted like he could read my mind or something. Some of them were flying and doing weird stuff, too."
"You said there was a base involved in the task," said Quatre. "Are you certain it wasn't some version of our past?"
"Not with the mutant power thing," Duo frowned. "Hilde said it was an OZ base, but not the OZ we knew. It was similar, but definitely not the same."
"I see..."
There was something strange in Quatre's voice that made Duo sigh in frustration. He decided to take the direct approach this time.
"Do you know something, Quatre?"
"I do," Quatre said, immediately, surprising them with his straightforward response. "You should have gained a resume by now. Use it to exit the game. There's something I need to talk to you about. Without The Game listening in."
.-.
TBC
Notes: The realm in this chapter comes from Part 38 of my GW-YYH fanfic, Gmen. I needed something to throw the players for a loop and get Quatre talking. It was self-serving and contrived, but sort of fun screwing with my own plot. ;p