Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Appleseeds ❯ Episode 6: Solo's Kids ( Chapter 6 )

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Episode Six: Solo`s Kids (December 27-28, 279 AE)

Noin stalked into the basement office muttering obscenities under her breath. “Tell me I haven't missed the transmission from L2!” she begged the three individuals seated at the conference table.

“No,” Sally replied, “they should be reporting in any minute now. Have you had time to go over our findings?”

“Yes,” Noin answered, “but barely. You wouldn't believe the morons I had to deal with all day, and at the worst time possible!”

“Politicians or incompetent greenhorns?” Wufei queried.

“Both,” Noin grumbled. “I'm just praying that we can contain the situation on L2 in time.”

A loud beeping filled the air as the large screen facing the table flickered to life to reveal the helmet-encased faces of Heero and Trowa.

“Report,” Noin commanded.

“We have secured the lab and finished dumping all retrievable data from the mainframes. The files have been uploaded to server XC8Q, acknowledge file transfer?” Heero informed his colleagues succinctly.

“Affirmative,” Quatre replied. “The files have been downloaded and are now being processed and decrypted as we speak.”

“Have you found anything else?”

Trowa nodded. “I have determined that only ten canisters of the airborne QR145 virus were created. All canisters were still in the lab and their contents were all accounted for.”

The four agents in the basement office let out deep sighs of relief.

“Thank Allah,” Quatre breathed, “at least we now know they weren't able to distribute any of the virus to another location.”

“Biohazard and biosystems scans of the rest of the lab reveal no other hazardous substances,” Heero continued. “Based on the temperature of the lab, we approximate that the six scientists have been dead for at least two weeks but no more than a month. We've collected blood and tissue samples, as well as photographic evidence. Should we bag the bodies for transport?”

Noin shook her head, “Negative. We can't risk possible contamination by transporting the bodies. Sorry Sally, you'll have to determine what you can from the samples. The risks associated with holding the bodies for transport outweigh any benefit we might glean from their autopsies.”

“I understand,” Sally nodded gravely, “it's not ideal, but I agree that it's safer to destroy the bodies. Have you been able to determine cause of death?”

“Direct shots to either the head or the heart,” Trowa reported, “all clean and likely instantaneous. I've extracted the bullets; they all appear to be from the same gun. There's something strange about the bullets too, they seem to be handmade and coated with cobalt.”

“Cobalt?” Noin sucked in a sharp breath. “That's a strange metal to have in bullets.”

“Do you think this could be the work of the same UNDIS who attacked the L2 Liberators base?” Quatre asked.

“Possible,” Wufei concurred, “it would explain why the L2 beam cannon was calibrated to self-destruct and destroy the colony.”

“We may have to employ the same strategy,” Noin declared, “but on a smaller scale of course. Anything else I should know about?”

“Yes,” Trowa announced, “we discovered an incinerator that had been used recently, quite extensively too. We suspect it was used to destroy organic matter, possibly human remains that were stored in the secondary morgue. We swabbed all the drawers for trace DNA.”

“Do you think the scientists were destroying their evidence?” Sally wondered.

“It's possible,” Heero confirmed, “we also found melted metal fragments in the incinerator.”

“Strange,” Quatre muttered, “organic matter and metal? What could they have been destroying?”

“We won't know until we decrypt and analyze the data,” Wufei sighed. “Did you find anything else?”

“Negative. What are your orders Commander Noin?” Heero requested.

Noin bit her lip, drumming her fingers on the table as she deliberated their next course of action. “Po, Chang, are you confident of your calculations?”

Both nodded. “Yes, it's possible to create a controlled blast large and hot enough to destroy the virus without compromising the integrity of the colony,” Wufei confirmed.

Noin remained silent for another moment before coming to a conclusion. “Destroy the lab, Chang will send you the calculations. Be sure to be well beyond the blast perimeter and carry out a final biohazards check once the lab has been destroyed. Do you have enough explosives on hand?”

“Yes,” Trowa verified.

“Mission accepted,” Heero added.

“Good. I want a report as soon as you've completed the mission.”

“Commander Noin?”

“Yes Heero?”

“Permission to search for the UNDIS subject once mission has been completed?”

Noin nodded curtly. “Granted.”

“Thank you.”

Just as Heero moved to end the transmission, Quatre suddenly jumped out of his seat. “Wait, Heero! I managed to bring the L2 colony's life-systems scanning program online. You should be able to connect your own scanners to the system to scan areas beyond your perimeter. It might help in your search.”

Heero nodded curtly, a faint trace of emotion entering his normally distant gaze. “Thank you Quatre. You are a good friend.”

Quatre beamed. “Anything for a friend Heero. If there's anything else I can do to help, don't hesitate to let me know.”

“Roger.”

~*~

“Unstable & Distorted?” Duo frowned at his small device. “I don't like the sound of that…”

He glanced over at the family currently nesting in the section of broken pipe. “Hey, lil' mother. Do you believe in fate? Yep, I thought so. Neither do I, it's a bunch of crap if you ask me.”

“But omens, especially bad ones… I believe in those. Hell, I am one!”

Removing the small bag from his pocket, he extracted another fuzzy leaf and chewed through his intermittent coughs.

“But time's just another luxury I don't have.” Duo stood up and brushed off his ragged black plants and pulled his crude coat tighter around his thin frame.

“Thank you for the company lil' mother. I bet those pups of yours are all going to grow up to be handsome guys and gals, just like their mother! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with several bastards. Shinigami's been callin' for a long time and it's time they met their maker.”

Turning abruptly, Duo Maxwell sauntered down the tunnel, his bare feet never making a sound.

Left behind in her cozy nest, the small rodent watched with beady eyes as the human who reeked of death and disease disappeared from sight, taking his overwhelming aura of kindness and loneliness with him.

~*~

The light from the dying flames danced along the two agents' helmets as they silently watched the results of their carefully placed explosives. Only a charred crater of twisted metal and concrete remained where a foreboding block of prison structures once stood, small fires still hungrily consuming everything in their vicinity.

“Did you get all the readings?”

“Yes,” Trowa replied, consulting his tablet. “Core temperature reached 1,130 degrees Celsius, remained above 1,000 degrees Celsius for 13 minutes. I highly doubt anything in the lab could have survived that.”

Heero nodded, consulting his own tablet. “Vital colony systems still online, all central infrastructure structures of Quadrant 9 are intact.”

“Good, I'll send Noin our preliminary report.”

“How much longer until the blast site is cool enough for an accurate biohazards and life-systems reading?”

Trowa scrutinised the smouldering ruins, his eye flicking once more to the readings on his tablet. “I would say midnight at the earliest, so at least another eight hours or so. I suggest we take advantage of that time to eat and rest.”

Heero glared in response.

“You could also use some of that time to start looking at some of the evidence we retrieved, perhaps find some further clues as to where your mystery UNDIS disappeard?”

“Do you think it was him that attacked the lab?” Heero asked, clearly agitated.

Trowa shrugged. “You obviously think it's him.”

~*~

Duo crouched in the shadows, anxiously scanning his surroundings. In front of him, the small square remained deserted. `What the hell is going on?' he thought to himself, `they should have been here by now.' Shifting his position slightly, he clasped his gun tighter. Something was wrong, the back of his neck itched. Squinting, he searched for any sign of movement among the multitude of statues and columns.

“How nice of you to come out and play with us!” a voice cackled gleefully behind him.

Duo whirled, staying low to the ground. Perched on the wall above him, like some sort of grotesque oversized spider, was a madly grinning man. Duo froze momentarily in shock, staring transfixed at the man's mouth. Something was very, very wrong with that mouth.

“Speechless? I like it better when my playthings scream,” the mouth stretched wider in its sickening version of a smile.

A muffled click alerted Duo to a second presence behind him. On instinct, he dove behind a statue, the bullet missing him by a hairsbreadth.

“Hey! You can't start the fun without me!” the figure on the wall yelled, diving towards Duo.

“You and your big mouth were taking too long,” the second man retorted, stepping out from behind another sculpture.

Duo rolled out of the path of the madly grinning man and leapt to his feet, twisting in midair to fire off a shot at the second man. The moment he fired, Duo realized he was off his mark; he was too off center for a clean kill shot.

`Only a flesh wound but at least it'll disarm him,” Duo thought as he traced the bullet's trajectory towards the man's dominant arm.

Duo had only a moment to blink as he heard the bullet ricochet off the man's arm and felt blood run down his cheek. `How?' he wondered desperately to himself as he landed off balance, his body weight crushing his awkwardly angled wrist, causing him to lose his grip on his gun.

“Mine!” the grinning man howled in triumph as he rushed towards Duo, teeth gleaming.

Duo scrambled to his feet, his uninjured left hand reaching for the knife he kept hidden in his jacket.

“Freeze! Preventers!” twin shouts rang out from across the courtyard.

Duo knew an opening when he saw one. As the two men were momentarily distracted by the newcomers, Duo hurdled over the low stone wall, his long braid escaping from his jacket's collar with the force of his leap. Hitting the ground running, he sprinted into the maze of narrow walkways and alleys, twisting and turning until he reached a main road and slid through the nearest gutter opening to the underground tunnels. He tumbled into the tunnel and landed clumsily, his lungs wheezing for breath.

Without waiting to catch his breath, he pushed himself painfully to his feet and stumbled further down the tunnel, his steps uneven and shaky.

~*~

Trowa's green eye scanned the readings one final time. “All clear, no trace of biohazards or life-systems within Quadrant 9. I'll send the final report to Noin.”

Heero nodded absently, engrossed in scanning his own readouts. “All colony functions normal, infrastructural systems intact and…” Heero suddenly tapered off frowning. “The scan shows a small power system failure to an energy hook-up between Quadrant 9 and Quadrant 7.”

“Quadrant 7's power systems have been inactive for years now. And the blueprints show no power connections between Quadrants 7 and 9…” Trowa uttered in confusion.

Heero quickly tapped some commands into his tablet. “There was no sign of any activity when I last searched the area with the colony's life-system scanner. I'm running the scan agai-”

Heero fell silent in mid-word, his eyes widening. “This is impossible. The scan is now showing a fully operational life support program in the sub-levels of Quadrant 7!”

Trowa's brow furrowed in thought. “We might have accidentally cut the power source to some sort of cloaking device… do you think it could be another lab?”

“No,” Heero declared, “Quadrant 7 housed the old UNDIS orphanages. I think we found the rebels' hideout.”

Trowa sighed and slipped his tablet into his duffel. “Only one way to find out.”

Heero was already off and running towards Quadrant 7.

~*~

“I am very unhappy with you Dorothy. What strange madness possessed you to cancel my meeting with `Midek'?”

“It was to ensure your safety Grandpapa. I discovered that one of our transmissions to Midek was intercepted.”

“WHAT?! Was it the Preventers?”

“No Grandpapa, I don't think it was the Preventers. I think it was a rat.”

“A rat?”

“Yes Grandpapa, a very dead rat. I arranged to have the twins do a little pest control. I should be hearing from them shortly.”

~*~

Noin pinched the bridge of her nose and prayed for patience. “Calm down! I can't understand a single word either of you is saying!” she growled.

The two young agents standing before her fell silent at her outburst.

“Good. Now agents…”

“Wallins and Anderson ma'am!” the pimply-faced agent replied, fiddling nervously with his tie.

Noin suppressed a sigh as she looked at the two agents standing across from her. Wallins looked to be in serious danger of strangling himself with his own tie, while Anderson was sobbing hysterically into her handkerchief. There was no way out, she needed to get to the bottom of… whatever bizarre situation this was.

“Let's try this again,” Noin said in a gentler tone. “Agent Wallins, start from the beginning; and in chronological order this time.”

“Yes ma'am. Anderson and I were out on patrol…”

“You two are still rookies; you are not yet qualified to go on patrols much less the night shift!”

Wallins gulped while Anderson sobbed harder. “I know ma'am! I'm sorry ma'am! But we didn't think it would do any harm see… Agent Nikol said that he had a family emergency and that his partner was sick. He said that he was in a serious jam and there was no one to cover for him. He said it would be a piece of cake, that the route was deserted at this time of night. And he really seemed troubled and we just wanted to help and oh God! You're not going to fire us are you?”

“Not yet,” Noin muttered under her breath. “Just continue with your report if you would please, Agent Wallins.”

“So, we went on patrol. Everything was fine, honest! We were taking the route past the Kushrenada Gardens when we heard voices so we went to investigate. Just like protocol and all… we really did follow protocol ma'am!”

“I'm sure you did,” Noin reassured with a strained smile.

“So, we went to investigate these voices and then we heard a gunshot. And then another gunshot!! So we drew our weapons and shouted that we were Preventers. There was three of them, and then before we could do anything one jumped over the wall and the other two went after him and-”

“Stop right there, can you describe the three suspects.”

“I'll never forget them!” Anderson wailed loudly before her partner could reply. “They looked right at me with their horrible eyes. They were something out of a nightmare! And one of those monsters, he looked like he was going to eat my soul!”

Noin gritted her teeth as the young female agent continued to rant and rave at increasingly loud decibels.

`It's going to be another long night,' she thought to herself.

~*~

Heero and Trowa gazed around the ramshackle room they had discovered deep within derelict underground tunnels of Quadrant 7. After disabling a deceptively complicated lock on the dilapidated door, they found themselves in a large open space. One side was filled with a myriad of scrap metal and broken down electronic equipment, while the other side housed a tattered row ragged cots. At the very back of the dusty room were two more doors.

Heero checked the scanner strapped to his wrist. “No human life readings.”

Trowa glanced at his own scanner and nodded. “No sign of human life, but my scanner is picking up a life support program providing light, recycled oxygen and heat to this area.”

Heero clenched his fist. “He's not here.”

“No,” Trowa agreed, “but it is evident that this place once housed quite a number of people. Your UNDIS could have been among them.” Glancing towards the doors he continued, “Door number one or number two?”

Heero didn't reply and simply wrenched the first door open.

“This is amazing,” Trowa mumbled under his breath as he stepped into the room behind Heero.

Both agents looked at the greenery around them in awe. A row of cacti-like plants stretched along the back wall while various potted shrubs and plants sat on a long table pushed against the right wall. On their left, the agents noted tubs over-flowing with a moss-like substance.

“They've created an advanced level greenhouse,” Trowa remarked in awe. “It looks like they managed to divert a water source to this room and purified it using the cacti.”

Heero motioned towards the plants along the right wall. “Those look medicinal.”

Trowa nodded in agreement. “The moss looks like an edible species. The rebels could have been using it as their food source and fortifying their diet with the medicinal plants. Whoever cared for these plants was highly skilled.”

“We should gather evidence from this room for Sally and the team to analyze.”

With a final glance around the room, Heero headed towards the other door. Cautiously easing it open, he froze when he caught a glimpse of what was inside.

“Heero?” Trowa called worriedly, pushing his way past his immobile friend and into the room.

Both agents stood rooted in place, silently surveying the large airy room. “A mausoleum?” Trowa finally wondered out loud.

Tinted glass covered the lights, bathing the room with colour. Suspended high on the back wall was a large cross created from intricately woven strips of metal. Below it hung the words `Solo's Kids'. A single line of continuous shelving ran below the words, housing a long row of urns. And most strikingly, centered in front of the shelves was a pedestal, a scratched and worn tablet resting on its faded cushion.

Stepping towards the back wall, Trowa examined the metal urns in front of him, noting each was unique in its design. Some were covered with fragments of coloured glass; others were embellished with delicately melded metals. Fastened to the shelf below each urn was a metal nameplate, every name carefully engraved by hand. Behind him, Heero reached forward and hesitantly tapped the tablet to life.

“It's a list of names.”

“A list of the departed no doubt.” Trowa replied solemnly. “It appears as though these urns are placed chronologically from left to right.”

Moving away from the pedestal, Heero joined Trowa at the back wall.

“These two,” Trowa pointed to the last two urns. “Seem to be the most recent.” Carefully lifting one of the urns off the shelf, he gently pried open the lid. “These ashes are fresh,” he noted.

“'Solo' and `Hilde Schbeiker',” Heero read off the nameplates. Glancing further to his right, his eyes widened. “Trowa…”

“Yes?” Trowa asked, replacing the urn to its rightful place.

“There's a nameplate here without an urn,” Heero uttered stiffly. “What does that mean?”

Trowa glanced at the lone nameplate and at the ground below it. Noting the disturbances in the dust, he calmly picked a tattered blanket off the floor. “I think it means you've found your mystery UNDIS.”

“Duo Maxwell”

Frowning at the ragged blanket in his hand, Trowa examined the room once more. “He was waiting to die,” he mused softly to himself, “I wonder what changed?”

~*~

Duo groaned and pushed himself up from the spot where he had collapsed hours earlier.

“Who the hell were those guys,” he muttered to himself, “and how the hell did they know I was gonna be there?”

A fit of coughing wracked his thin frame as he propped himself into a sitting position and struggled to breathe.

“Damn this cough. I used to be able to run so much faster before I got sick,” he gasped between coughs. “At least I managed to outrun those bastards.”

Reaching into his jacket, he searched for his small bag of leaves. Finding nothing, he groaned pitifully.

“Damn, what a fuck up. Sorry Solo, all that work for nothin'. I really let you down buddy.”

Letting his head fall back against the cold wall of the tunnel, Duo gazed unseeingly at the ceiling.

“Please Shinigami. I'm begging you. Just one chance, just one more chance to get those bastards. That's all I'm askin'. You owe me that much don't you?”

~*~

AN: This was a tough chapter, nothing seemed to flow right. I think I`ve set enough of the background for the story now… well, more like sprinkled enough hints so that the story makes sense in the future. I really want to avoid plot holes but they might be unavoidable since the middle section of this story keeps evolving.

Anyways, please ignore my confused ramblings, it`s late at night.

Again, thanks for reading.