Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Diablo ❯ And then there were five ( Chapter 3 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

So there's our boys walking down the muddy dirt road towards the town of Tristram. Heero's point as usual, behind him walked Duo and Quatre and bringing up the rear is Trowa. They decided to move on, because there were signs that there are more of those creatures out there. They picked up a lot of interesting things in the camp though. Arrows for Trowa, bottles of health and mana potions that have their seals intact, gold coins with strange stamps on them, chipped gemstones, some weapons and pieces of armor.


Quatre got leather armbands to protect his forearms, and plate armor for his legs. Trowa picked up a horned helm and wore it, Duo got a thick belt that had hooks on it where he hung some of the potions he found. But they did not touch the creature's food.


And so they walked following the dirt road Heero and Duo were on.


"Trowa and I were assigned to take-out that supplies and munitions dump in Chile. It was key to the South American division of Oz. It was situated at that high altitude desert to preserve some important gundam parts. It was so out of the away they secured it with only a unit of Leos. We were in and out of there within an hour. Blitzkrieg." Quatre said recounting their mission.


"Cake walk you mean?" Duo asked


"Yes exactly," he smiled sunshine at the Duo "but it was late and we did some heavy duty fighting. So we decided to go down to this beach in the Cocos Islands for some R and R." he continued. "We hid Sandrock and Heavy arms in the ocean. The night was so beautiful, there's a full moon out and the island we went to was just perfect. White sandy beaches, coral reefs, I bet the ocean must be that shade of bluish green tropical oceans always have... we never got to see it because it was night."


"R and R Trowa?" Heero asked a hint of anger in his voice.


"Yes, you've got a problem with that Yuy?" He replied. Heero stopped and glared at Trowa.


"Heero we accomplished our mission we were planning on staying only till lunch the next morning." Quatre said defending Trowa he stood between the two glaring pilots.


"Guys see, me and Heero were stuck in our mission. Wu Fei couldn't get us out because an entire division of suits were sent to guard the perimeter of the base area. The cabin we were in had no heating or electricity, WuFei said he will try and contact you but he never called back."


Quatre stared at Trowa "We recieved no calls." Trowa said.


"I'm sorry Heero, Duo, but we didn't know. We'd never go out and have fun while our comrades are in danger. You know that." Quatre said apologetic.


"We are also 2 hours behind your longtitude, we have no idea what was going on." Trowa said.


"Hn." Heero grunted glaring at the road ahead.


They resumed walking in silence.


Duo's skeletons walked ahead and around them stopping then running catching up and lagging behind always alert. Eventually though one of the skeletons was right besides him walking with them.


"Peeyew man!" Duo said to the warrior. "You smell like death. Next big body of water we encounter your having a bath d'ya hear?" The skeleton went on as usual waving it's weapon at the trees. "You don't talk do you?" Duo asked "Nope? I guess not... can I order you around?" He said to the warrior who walked ahead of them "Hey, stop." it did. "Cool, uh, raise your arms." It walked away to guard their rear. "Hey! Come back here I'm still talking to you." Duo stopped and glared at the skeleton. "Okay guard our rear." he said "Good boy." he said like he was congratulating an obedient puppy.


Trowa stared at Duo and at Quatre who had a worried look on his face. "Duo I don't think they can do anything else other than attack enemies." The archer remarked.


"Yep says so in the scroll." he said looking intently at the walking collection of bones and gore. Trowa looked up at the sky and asked himself why he bothered. Quatre shook his head and walked on, it was creepy enough with those things walking around them without Duo talking to them. And now he found out Duo was talking to them even though he knew they weren't going to respond anyway.


"Crossroad ahead." Heero announced. It was getting late the sun was starting to set "Let's camp her for the night." No one complained as they found a clearing that had been used by other campers. It was like the clearing Duo and Heero found themselves in.


"The last occupants passed by here 3 days ago." Trowa said as he touched the cool ashes in the fire pit.


"How'd you know?" Duo asked.


"Same way you knew how to curse in that language I suppose." He said he looked at Heero who was looking at the sign on the road "Do you know where we are going Yuy?"


Heero stared at the signs. "I think we should go to Bloodmoor first there's an outpost there, it's nearer. We might figure something out and we need provisions." Trowa nodded. He stood besides the pilot of Wing. The other sign pointed to the Stony Field and the other to the Cold Plains. The arrow pointing in the direction they came from was blank.


"I'll gather some wood." Quatre volunteered as he hefted his axe and went fearlessly into the woods.


"I'll help." Duo said and his skeletons followed.


"Duo's right. Peeyeeew." Trowa said looking at the receeding backs of the blood and gore decorated warriors. "I wonder if he can get rid of them if he wanted to."


"I wonder if Duo and I will survive." Heero said.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They gathered wood and piled them in the firepit then Heero jabbed his staff into the middle and it burned. Very useful.


Trowa had gone into the woods after seeing wolf paws and deer prints. they only had dried old bread, cheese and the now smaller lump of ham Heero had so Trowa the Archer decided to go hunting, Quatre had gone with him. Duo's skeletons have set up a perimeter on their own, so he decided to kick back, relax and get everything ready for the night.


Bedrolls out, sacks of wine, crusty old bread... and Heero poring over the map Trowa had. It was strange, Trowa did not have a skill scroll like Quatre and the rest of them did. He had a map instead, they woke up in the middle of the woods and was heading in the direction of this crossroads because they were also headed for Tristram. A red X marked the map over Tristram and a question mark well North of their position to a place called The Cloister.


They heared a twang just a few minuites later. Duo and Heero listened, "He got one." Duo said. "Hmmmmmm, venison.... roast venison.... venison au naturelle.....smoked venison....." Heero glared at him the skeletons came to full alert and looked inwards at them. Specifically at Heero.


Heero glared at the skeletons.


"Guys, calm down, Heero is just being Heero k?" The skeletons lost interest and resumed threatening the trees. "Wow, so they respond to hostility directed at me." he laughed "Oh poor Heero, if he can't glare at me like that anymore who can he glare at?" he said but before Heero could snap at him and before Duo could say something more to diffuse the situation they heard Quatre cry out. Wolves howled.


Heero and Duo were up in a snap. "Duo-" Heero said as he started for the forest.


"No Heero, you cover me I have melee advantage, I don't have your range capability." Heero looked at the pilot of Deathscythe. He nodded agreeing with his logic, Duo flashed him a grin then went into the brush "Follow me men!" He cried and the skeletons followed. Heero waited then followed at a tangent. It was dusk Heero could hear Duo and his minions breaking through bush as noisily as they could trying to attrack whatever it was that had caused Quatre to cry out.


"Quatre!!" Duo shouted, no response. "Quatre!! Trowa!!" he tried again.


"Duo! Here!" It was Quatre followed by a female's scream. Duo broke through bush and came to a clearing, he saw his skeletons leap ahead of him so he stopped and he saw why.


A woman barely clad engaged the 4 minions in a sword fight. She howled as blows were landed and her face was just plain scary. Duo was thinking mad PMS woman in a rampage. She hacked at the minions not minding the deep cuts the skeletons have inflicted on her. It was horrible to look at because she has such a sexy body...


Duo swung his Scythe and cut the... whatever it was, in half. A scream and something that looked like a demon escaped from the dying flesh. "What the fuck was that!" Duo shouted and barged in to find Heero blasting away at another pair. Quatre was swinging his axe in circles and 2 wolves were fighting besides him. Trowa was standing over a deer fighting with his javelins the minions engaged battle. Duo cursed again and started hacking away at the dozen or so possesed women. They were harder to stop than the carvers and their shamans because they are stronger, tougher, and can loose an arm and still go on fighting.

They also look and sound human.


In the after math they counted 14 dead bodies, Duo lost 3 minions, Heero had a bad cut on his leg, Quatre was shaking at the horror of what he did and Trowa was right besides him comforting him.


"What the hell was that?" Trowa asked.


"They used to be human... Rogues, they were corrupted." Quatre said in a solemn voice as he rubbed his chest. The 2 wolves came closer and they could see how Trowa remained calm as the huge beasts sat by Quatre's legs and began whinning licking his face trying to comfort him.


"Wolves?" Heero asked.


"Quatre attracts them, like a magnet, he can understand them." Trowa held a hand out and one of the wolves let him pet him. Quatre put his arms around both. A black male with malevolent yellow eyes and a silver grey female with blue eyes, which reminded them of Quatre.


"We were in the woods when the first pair came and decided to stay with him. It was their death that triggered Quatre's change." Trowa continued.


"Pet wolves?" Duo asked as he looked at his last remaining minion. "Hope they won't eat my boys."


"Oh no Duo they wouldn't." Quatre said with a weak smile. "I told them not to."


"You mean you talk to them like Dr. Doolittle or something?" He asked walking over to the wolves.


"Doctor who?" The blonde asked.


"No, not Doctor Who, Dr. Dolittle." when Quatre looked at him confused Duo sighed "Never mind, I'm the only 20th century reruns fanatic here I think."


"We better get back to camp." Heero said as he leaned on his staff, "We are injured we need to be well if there are more of those around."


"Yes, just give me a sec." Duo said he went over the corpses and summoned 3 minions one after the other. The fresh warriors picked up the weapons the Rougues were carrying, sword and shield, lance, and axe. "Ohhhh." Duo moaned and sat down heavily.


"Quatre, Heero and I need to carry the deer to the camp." Trowa said.


He nodded "You alright Duo?"


"Yep it's not as bad as the last time, I only summoned 3 but I guess all the cursing I did also takes mana. I feel burned-out." He forced himself to stand up. "Lemme see..." He tried raising another skeleton but his old one collapsed into a pile of bones and a new one appered. He followed the way of his old minion and fell on his knees then on his face. "Ow." he muttered.


"Duo!" Quatre was besides him in an instant. "What were you thinking?"


"I thought maybe I can make more than just 4. Oooohhhh that hurt." he put a hand on his head as Quatre helped him up to his knees.


"Here." Heero handed him a bottle of untampered mana potion. It was covered in blood though, so they knew exactly where it came from.


"Uh thanks Heero, is this kosher?" he asked as Quatre took the bottle from him and started wiping the gore on the grass.


"Hurry Duo, I need some too." he said, he helped Trowa truss up the deer on a spear one of the possesed rogues dropped.


Quatre popped the seal and gave the bottle to Duo. He shrugged and drank half of it. "Hmmm that is so good." Quatre took the bottle from Duo and handed it to Heero. Who emptied it with a wipe of his lips, he threw the bottle away. "Hey! I wasn't done." He whined.


"You'll have more when we get to our packs I'll give you one of mine, Heero needs some and we are still a ways off. Who knows what we'll meet along the way." Quatre said worried.


"Let's go." Trowa said and Heero hefted the other end of the spear. "At least we are going to eat well tonight. If the camp hasn't been ransacked yet."


As it turned out they needn't worry about the camp. Duo and his minions were at point and as they came to the clearing where they set up their camp something dark and swift like a shadow attacked his skeletons. He heard them shatter one after the other.


"Hey!" he cried as he came to the clearing with his scythe held ready for attack. Wolves barged in around him and Quatre, Heero and Trowa came out weapons at a ready, deer dumped unceremeoneously somewhere in the bush. "Something attacked my minions!"


"Maxwell those we're yours?" A disembodied voice said and everybody visibly relaxed. Heero and Trowa went into the bush to retrieve their supper and Quatre put his hands over his hips.


"And these are my pets, you keep your hands off them WuFei." He said.


"My minions!" Duo mourned. "Do you know how hard it is to summon them? Shit man, now I have to go back to goresville in the middle of the night to summon more skeletons when I've barely recovered from a mana drain." He kicked the pile of bones at his feet. "Here, Quatre, supper for your pets."


"How the hell was I to know they we're yours? I was attacked by creatures like those and possessed women and reviving carvers and men with goats heads and walking cadavers and..."


"Shut up WuFei and show yourself." Heero said.


"What?" A shadow disentangled itself from a tree "I'm always out, you mean you never saw me?" He was dressed all in blackened armour, no hint of metallic shine like Duo had and on his face a demon mask with eerie green eyes. He put his helm visor up, savage claw katars on his hands looked like they've seen recent use.


"Cool man!" Duo said as he approached the pilot of Nataku, "What are you suppose to be?" he asked.


WuFei looked at him strange "I'm not sure, I have a scroll and it says I'm a mage hunter. An assasin." He took his katars off and hung it on his belt. "What the hell is going on? And what are all of you doing in my nightmare?"


Duo did the same thing he did to Heero then.


"ITAI!!!" WuFei shouted as Duo pinched his neck hard he then ran and hid behind Heero. "MAXWELL!!! What the hell was that for?!? " Wufei brandished his claws and went after Shinigami.


"I'm only trying to prove a point man!" he shouted in self defense Heero tried shrugging Duo off but where ever he went Duo remained at his back "Heero man, save me!"


"He did the same to me." Heero said annoyed, "He pinched my neck when I told him I was dreaming."


"Man I cut my own hand on my Scythe just to prove to myself I'm awake. The pain is real, I just pinched you and your still here." Wufei snorted and turned his back on Duo who put his arms around Heero "Thanks man." he said and let him go before Heero can retaliate.


"How are we going to get out of here then?" Quatre asked the million dollar question.


"Get out? We don't even know how we got in." WuFei countered with the other million dollar question.


"We can discuss this later, if there are more of those creatures out there we will need Duo's minions to help watch when we go to sleep tonight." Trowa said


"We'll find a way Q-man, after all nothing lasts forever." Duo said "Now Wuffie, you need to come with me and cover me while I go back to that pile of carcasses and get me my minions back."


"Why? Can't you summon them out of the bones you have here?" he asked rubbing his neck "Dammit Maxwell, this will look like a hickey."


Duo laughed "Sorry man, better than cutting you up, my dagger is poisoned, and nope can't summon from used bones. Need fresh corpses." he said with a wink.


"Ugh." Wufei said "Disgusting..." but he accompanied Duo as the Necromancer made his way back to the clearing where they destroyed the camp of Possesed Rouges.


"Just tell me Fei if someone teases you about your hickey I'll kick their asses for you." They heard Duo say as they dissapered once again into the bush.


"Shut up Maxwell."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Tell me Yuy, that Virus you uploaded, Maxwell made it right?" WuFei asked.


"Hai. Why?" He asked as he cut a slice from the roasting deer.

"Oz is in an upproar over it. Une wants all of us dead. She upped the prices on our heads and put all units on red alert." he said


"That seems a bit over much." Quatre remarked as he licked his fingers and tossed the leg bone over to his pets.


"Hn." Heero said with a grim smirk. "It was effective then."


"They are such spoiled sports." Duo said "It's not even a good one..."


"What's he talking about Yuy." Trowa asked.


"Duo's virus blanked out the main computers in the lab and filled it with a loop serial program. Then it goes on the net and damages other computers silmilarly, it attaches itself to Oz home pages The entire Oz network is in a blitz. The thing is everyone wants to see the attachment but once you see it it's too late, your computer is dead. My laptop died that way." Wu Fei said as he chewed on his venison rib.


"Why Wufei! I didn't know you were such a hentai! I 've found a fellow." Duo said putting an arm over the pilot of Nataku who shrugged his arm off.


"Get off me baka." he muttered. "I am not a hentai."


"What attachment?" Quatre asked.


"You explain it Maxwell." WuFei said thanking the dim lighting the fire was giving them, he was blushing from Maxwell's remark.


"I designed that virus ages ago, I just kept upgrading it, and I found a real cool packaging, while I was surfing online."


"You were surfing for porn or for kinks?" Wufei asked.


"Both and more." Duo said without batting an eyelash.


"Get to the point Duo." Trowa said.


"I am! But Fei man keeps interrupting. I found this picture of an arab humping a goat, I spliced Treize's face on the goat and spliced a song from a 20th century band called Nirvana to the mpeg. The song is "Rape Me"." The boys stared at him, then Trowa started laughing.


Heero smirked "This would be the best time to attack their main asteroid base, unfortunately we are still here."


Quatre chuckled "Duo!"


"It's dishonorable." WuFei muttered.


"Heero's right, it would have given us the element of surprise." Trowa said sobering really quick from Heero's remark.


"What? It was effective, everybody wanted to see it." Duo said defending his choice with a grin and a shake of his head "Including you, sorry about the laptop Fei."


"Ngggrrrrr." WuFei dropped the rib he was nibbling on and made fists, but Duo remained calm as his skeletons came in to surround The Dragon assasin.


"Wufei, calm down, they respond to aggression directed at him." Heero said as he took a drink of wine from the skin.


"Boys, boys settle down, Master is being annoying." Duo said but his minions remained close.


"Come on Wufei, quit it, they smell." Trowa complained.


"They do not!" Duo said "They stink." he added, "Wish I had some Lysol or Febreeze. I'm sure rotting flesh on bones aren't healthy specially this close to our food. Ugh!" he said pushing one of his minions away from the fire with his scythe.


WuFei closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he settled back. The skeletons lost interest and returned to their post. "I swear Maxwell one of these days...." he said at the braided Necromancer who held up a fresh rib for him.


"Here Fei have another." Duo said with a wide grin, WuFei snagged the rib from him and forced himself to calm down.


"We need to figure out how we got here." Trowa said in a somber note.


"Wu Fei? what were you doing before you woke up here?" Heero inquired.


The chinese boy frowned and looked down at the rib Duo gave him "I was in that base that was suppose to be our allies I did not want to go there but the blizzard did not give me a lot of choices. I landed Wing in a secure hanger, Po was there, then I went to the communications tower to check the weather and the bands for Oz communications. I got tired around midnight and decided to sleep inside Wing because that is the most secure place around, I was foolish for walking alone and it was late. I got cornered by soldiers who engaged me in conversation, I thought they were the security assigned to guard Wing. One of them hit the back of my head."


"Crap." Duo muttered. "Me an Heero were in that hunting lodge, freezing our butts off. We patched the holes up with snow and ice and branches but it's still freaking cold even if we have a fire. We slept in the same sleeping bag in full thermals for warmth."


"I did not intend to fall sleep, I do not sleep on a mission." Heero said.


"You must have fallen asleep anyways coz man, your right here." Duo said stating the obvious.


"Trowa and I went to sleep on the beach with just blankets on the sand. It's warm and breezy. We swam in the ocean before that." Quatre volunteered.


"I don't see any connection except it all happened during the night, sleep isn't even a factor because I was hit on the head." Wufei said.


Can't be the food, we haven't eaten together in days..." Quatre said softly "we can discount drugs I think."


"Been clean for ... 5 years and counting." Duo said they all looked at him. "What?" He asked. "I needed it to keep from getting hungry, the doctor made me quit cold turkey k?"


"Any one else uses or used drugs?" Heero asked. There was a long silence.


"Methyl Amphetamines, during my merc days." Trowa said. "I keep a few as a last resort. Used one about a year ago."


"The doctor used cocktails on me for training purposes." Heero said "I'm clear."


"Had an appendicitis operation..." Quatre shrugged "that dosen't count."


"Never. Clarity of mind and body is required of a warrior." Wufei stated proudly.


"Food, water, drugs, sleep I don't see a connection." Duo tossed his rib to a wolf and held his greasy fingers out looking for something to wipe it on. "What I'd do for some wetwipes right now." he muttered. He opted to wipe his fingers on the underside of his bedroll.


"So it's a dead end, what do we do now?" Trowa asked.


"I suggest we head on to Bloodmoor like Heero suggested, there's a camp there, we can ask questions and maybe get more clues." Quatre replied.


"We seem to be being led that way." Heero remarked.


"Our map was marked for Tristram, you guys woke up near a signpost pointing you to Tristram." Trowa nodded at Wufei "Where were you headed?"


"Same. I woke up sleeping against a tree with a small but dead fire in the middle of the forest I walked aimlessly until I found a dirt path that led to that dirt road you guys were walking on."


"So it's agreed? Bloodmoor first to that camp there and then Tristram?" Duo asked. He recieved nods and affirmations. "'K who's taking first watch? I'm soooo tired." he groaned.