Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Deuces Wild ❯ Chapter 5

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A/N: Okay, folks, here's my apologies. Real life, work, chasing down runaway muses, and forcing the
newly captured muse to be helpful took quite some time. I hope this chapter captures a little bit more
of the flavor of the early chapters. I feel like I've been losing the spark that made this interesting in the
first place. -_- On a related note, more work obligations (with no net access for 10 days) is going to
make it unlikely that I'll update again until closer to Thanksgiving.

Much love to my readers! All like, 5 of you. ^_~

Nat

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Trowa and Wufei were shoulder to shoulder as they hunched over the computer terminal, analyzing the
data that Heero had brought back. Occasional excited murmurs escaped them, their fingers stabbing
at lines of data or parts of diagrams. Heero sat back and watched them. He had already looked
through the data several times before he had gotten back to Earth.

They didn't know about Duo, yet. And Heero still wasn't sure how to tell them. 'Hey guys, guess who I
ran into the other day!' Or even better, 'Did you know that Duo's taken up piracy? He's doing well and
seems happy.' He snorted. He needed to tell them, and soon, or they'd think he'd been hiding it.
Heero had always had a soft spot for Duo, even if it wasn't particularly obvious. But how do you tell your
comrades that one of your former comrades has probably gone to the other side?

"Earth to Yuy."

Heero snapped out of his reverie to find Trowa waving a hand in front of his eyes. Wufei stood beside
him shaking his head. "Okay, Yuy, spill."

"Spill?" Heero blinked. "What in the hell are you talking about, Chang?"

Wufei smirked as he took a seat. "You only get THAT particular expression when you're thinking about
Maxwell. AND a lot of this data bears his stamp, so to speak."

Heero found himself unaccountably nervous, forcing him to swallow before he could speak. "I did see
Duo. I... acquired the data from him."

Trowa tilted his head, frowning at Heero's unaccustomed behavior. "Where did you see Duo?"

"On the pirate ship." Heero answered quietly, both reluctant to speak and relieved that Trowa had cut
straight to the point. But once the barrier had been breached, the words began to flow. "He's... well,
he's apparently the captain. He's been making the raids, but I can't even hazard a guess as to his
motivations. I pulled the data from his computer before he apparently drugged me and dropped me off
on L3. From what I could tell, the raids have been primarily on the questionable shuttles, but there's
been enough other activity to definitively count as criminal conduct. I just... I don't understand."

A long silence met his pronouncement, speaking volumes to the mixed emotions of his companions.
Finally, Wufei broke the silence with a sigh.

"Maxwell is honorable," a wry smile curved his lips, "if in his own twisted way. If he's been targeting
those shuttles in particular, there's a good reason. We just need to find it."

"Duo adheres to his own code of right and wrong, even if that means breaking the law. If he let you
leave with the data, then there's something he's trying to tell us. We trusted him with our lives during
the wars, the least we can do is trust his instincts now." Trowa smiled gently at Heero. "I'm sure it will
all come into focus once we figure it out."

Heero smiled back, but he couldn't dismiss the feeling that things were going downhill, fast.

~~~~

The Deuces Wild made their standard approach to the latest shuttle, the maneuver executed with the ease of long familiarity. Duo had high hopes for this one. The manifest actually suggested mobile suit parts this time. It would be about time, since he had yet to find any. Duo certainly wouldn't mind some proof of his suspicions. Hell, if he could find any actual proof he'd be willing to take it directly to the Preventers himself, even if it meant that Heero might personally arrest him.

With a slight shake of his head, Duo opened a comm channel. "Shuttle Bravo Papa 9732, stand to and prepare to be boarded."

"Hope you're prepared, 'cause we sure are." The shuttle came about, accelerating toward the Deuce. At the same time, the cargo bay doors started to open.

"Evasive maneuver 2 Alpha. Forward batteries, disable the shuttle. Do not, I say again, do NOT destroy the shuttle. I want it in one piece." A feral grin curved Duo's lips, his expression disturbingly returning to the Shinigami mask he had worn during gundam battles. He murmured under his breath, “They finally made a move. About damn time."

"All batteries, lay down suppressive fire. Assume mobile suit assault." Duo's eyes remained locked on the opening bay doors. The streak of light that marked the departure of the rapidly accelerating mobile suit came as no surprise. It was a tactic he might have used, if he were in Grant's position. "This gets better and better. Helm, transfer pilot control to the Captain's station."

With the light of battle in his eyes, Duo threw the Deuce into a wild flurry of maneuvers, leaving the now motionless shuttle behind. Ordinarily, a ship, no matter how fast and maneuverable, would be at an extreme disadvantage in a one on one battle against a mobile suit. But Duo gave himself better odds than an average ship. He had anticipated coming against a mobile suit, especially after the intell he'd gathered. Since he couldn't build his own mobile suit without being any better than Grant, he had instead incorporated design upgrades in the Deuce that should minimize a mobile suit's advantages.

Still, since the pilot that Grant had recruited seemed to be pretty good, it was likely to be very close. He needed to get proof of this to Heero now, just in case.

"Open a comm channel to 157.31.92.101. Make it secure."

~~~~

Discussions were interrupted in the Preventer conference room, which acted as Trowa, Wufei, and Heero's base of operations, by the vid screen on the wall flashing to life. {INCOMING SECURE TRANSMISSION. PLEASE STANDBY.}

"What the hell?!"

All three turned to face the screen as the display changed again. {TRANSMISSION SECURE. INITIALIZATION COMPLETE.} The words promptly disappeared to be replaced by a burst of static from which the bridge of the Deuce appeared, with Duo centered in the scene. His focus was clearly on his piloting via a control yoke installed at his chair. In the background, they could hear a female voice speaking, "Cap'n, the secure transmission you wanted is up."

"Good." Duo tapped a key, causing a small comms window to open in the corner of his display. Hopefully it wouldn't prove too great a distraction. "Gentlemen, I had such great news to share with you that it just couldn't wait. I thought you might be interested in my latest partner in a game of minimalist tag. He was a passenger on Shuttle Bravo Papa 9732."

With a tight grin as he threw the Deuce into a diminishing spiral, Duo flipped the view to show the Preventers the battle outside. Showcased in absolute clarity against the background of space was a red and white mobile suit. It looked like a combination of the Mercurius, the Vayate, and Barton's Serpents. It was also far too reminiscent of general gundam design for comfort.

"Maxwell, how in God's name did you run into him?!" Wufei's tone was incredulous as he stared at the mobile suit which was being piloted with a decent amount of skill.

"I TOLD you. He was a passenger aboard Shuttle Bravo Papa 9732, bound for L1 with medical and computer supplies for Marathon Industries. And forgive me if I'm wrong, but that does NOT look like medical or computer supplies!" Duo's tone was clipped, sounding almost as if he was speaking through clenched teeth.

"You're STILL going after shuttles?!" Heero was both surprised and disappointed.

"I can't exactly stop now. I'm a bit committed." The unspoken rebuke that he shouldn't have been the only one who noticed this threat didn't go unnoticed. "SHIT!"

The vicious curse was accompanied by the sudden swirling of the star-scape that Heero associated with rapid evasive movements.

"Duo! Status!" Trowa snapped, worry tingeing his tone.

"I'm TRYING...keep my ship...in one.... fucking! piece! While fighting.... mobile suit... pilot... too damn good!" Duo's response was disrupted by bursts of static and his own panting breath. "You... all my data... Do something! Anything..."

More static fuzzed the image and audio, but it didn't hide the sounds of an explosion, another curse from Duo and a wave of static followed by a final word before the link went dead. "Please!"

Heero was able to restrain himself from jumping out of his chair, but couldn't control his voice. "Duo? Duo!!!"


~End Part 5~

Sorry, couldn't resist a cliffhanger. And if the next part goes as roughly planned, you won't get any word
of Duo until Part 7. *evil smirk*