Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Hello ❯ Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

CHAPTER FIVE

 

It was three days later that I noticed the headline under my news and technology feeder. “Elite hacker issues challenge to anyone who will listen.” Normally news of the best of whatever issuing a challenge would not interest me. But… I have always had a soft spot for hacking. I did a lot of it during the war, far more than I needed to do for missions, although I did a fair amount of mission-related hacking as well. Much of my non-mission related hacking was spent funneling funds from Oz to a variety of untraceable accounts. Although I have donated much of that money to support victims of the war, I still have a sizeable nest egg left over.

 

I clicked on the link and quickly read the article. Apparently a hacker calling himself “0010001100110001” issued a challenge yesterday for someone to hack their way through a program he designed. I chuckled at the name, although I was sure the humor was lost on most people. Apparently the hacker claimed that not even a Gundam pilot would be able to crack his program.

 

This wasn't such an unusual claim. Our identities as Gundam pilots were not well known. In the years since the war, Gundam pilots had come to be the boogeyman of the future. It was not unusual to hear someone exclaim, “Not even a Gundam pilot could do that!” It had been truly amusing a few of the times I heard someone say something to that effect. For example, I once overheard two people talking in line at the grocery store. “Man, did you hear about that eating contest?” “What eating contest?” “Some dude ate seven and a half pounds of funnel cake in ten minutes!” “Wow, not even a Gundam pilot is going to be able to beat that record!” I snickered silently to myself. Clearly, they did not know Duo's gustatory abilities, especially when it came to funnel cake.

 

During some of our rare downtime during the war, Quatre had convinced me and Duo to go to a local carnival. I was too busy being stern and imposing to have fun, but Duo was like a small child. He wanted to ride everything, play every game, and eat everything. He ate cotton candy, hot dogs, pizza, fried candy bars, and turkey legs. But his favorite food was something neither of us had ever seen before: funnel cake. I think he probably ate at least seven and a half pounds of funnel cake that today, or at least come close. I never understood how he was able to eat so much without getting sick. When I asked him, Duo told me it was one of the few silver linings to growing up hungry. As a child, his body had gotten used to being filled with as much food as he could find at any given time.

 

Returning my thoughts to the present, I left the article open and went to get ready for work.

 

* * *

 

For the first time that I could remember, I had trouble staying focused on work while at the office. My mind kept going back to the article that I had seen this morning. Something about it just got under my skin. Perhaps it bothered my ego. I know how good my hacking skills are, and it irked me that some upstart had challenged my ability to crack his program. Never mind that he had no idea who I was.

 

I will also admit that another part of me thrilled at the idea of hacking again. Out of all the things I had to do during the war, hacking was the one of the few things that I actually enjoyed. Unfortunately, my combat and infiltration skills are such that I have not been given the opportunity to do any real hacking while at the Preventers. It seems that there are a lot more able-bodied hackers than there are ex-terrorists with super-human abilities.

 

Around noon, Duo appeared in the doorway of my office. As usual, I failed to detect his arrival. One moment, no one was there, and then the next time I looked he was leaning against the doorjamb with his arms casually crossed in front of him. He was watching me work with a small smile on his face.

 

“Wow, Yuy,” he gently teased me, “You're out of practice. I must have stood here for at least a minute before you noticed me.”

 

I snorted and rolled my eyes at him. “There would have to have been something for me to notice. I don't suppose you could teach me how to move like that - without sound or obvious motion?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

 

Duo laughed. “Sorry, man, most of it's innate talent.” His eyes flicked up and down my body and he frowned a little. “I could try and give you a few pointers, if you really want me to. But as I recall, you can move pretty stealthily yourself when you put your mind to it.”

 

I shrugged. “Have I ever managed to surprise you?”

 

Duo chuckled. “Sorry, Yuy. No one surprises me. It's more of that innate talent. So, I know it's probably a lost cause, but do you want to go to lunch with me and Trowa?”

 

I started to say no, in accordance with my usual practice. But then I remembered the promise I had made to myself to spend more time working on my friendships with the other pilots. I nodded. “I'm glad you asked me despite believing it to be a lost cause. Are you two ready to leave right now?”

 

To Duo's credit, he only gaped at me for a few seconds before responding. “Probably in more like five to ten minutes. We were planning on going to Leo's, that sub place around the corner.”

 

I nodded. I had seen the restaurant, although I had never eaten there. “Sounds good. Unless you object, I will shut this down and then go back with you to your office - I have never seen it before.” I turned and began shutting my computer down.

 

When I stood to leave, Duo was still standing in the doorway, but he was watching me with a look on his face that I could not place. I stopped and frowned, trying to identify the expression. When Duo noticed that I had stopped, the expression was replaced with a grin before he stepped into the hallway. “Come on. I'll lead you to my glorious office.”

 

Out in the hall, we fell into step beside each other. “So what made you decide to get two cats?”

 

“Well, Panel wandered around the apartment complex for a while. They were going to call animal control to take him away, but I offered to adopt him instead. He seemed really sweet, even malnourished and half-wild. I got Trigger about a month later when the neighbors across the hall from me had an unexpected feline pregnancy. You should have seen her. She was so amazingly tiny. Now she rules the apartment with an iron paw.”

 

“How long have you had them?” We got on the elevator and Duo pressed the button for the twenty-third floor. I felt disappointed with myself when I realized that I had not even known that we worked on separate floors.

 

“Let's see… I've had Panel for about nine months, and Trigger for about eight months.” Duo gave me a knowing glance. “I hope the little furballs didn't grow on you. Are you thinking of getting one?”

 

I stepped off the elevator with Duo and hummed noncommittally. “They are very charming. But I know nothing about how to care for such an animal. I would be worried about hurting it or unintentionally neglecting it.”

 

Duo shrugged. “Depending on the cat, it might not be an issue. You'd find it difficult to neglect Trigger. She lets me know when she wants something, and generally does it quite forcefully. You could always come over and spend time with them, if you wanted.”

 

I glanced at him and opened my mouth to respond, but Duo suddenly stopped and waved a hand at a door. “Here we are. Office, sweet office!”

 

Duo's office was… not at all what I expected. It was the same size and shape as mine, had the same bland Preventers furniture. Somehow, it being Duo's, I had expected it to be strewn with papers and decorated with personal touches. It was not. It was, in fact, nearly hardly more personalized than my own office.

 

On the wall there was a framed picture of the five of us, taken sometime after the war but before the Mariemaia incident. We appeared to be at a park. On one end, Trowa stood behind Quatre with his arms crossed around Quatre's shoulders. They were both smiling. I wondered if they had been together when this picture was taken. Wufei was in the middle of us, looking distinctly uncomfortable at posing for the camera. On the other side of Wufei were Duo and me. Duo had his arm thrown around my shoulders, and he was smiling broadly at the camera while holding his fingers up in a victory sign. I was scowling and looked ready to attack whoever was taking the picture.

 

Duo let me study the picture for a few moments before speaking. “We were really young, weren't we?”

 

“Hn. Who took this picture? I don't remember it at all.”

 

“I think Sally did. I don't remember why we had all gone out together.”

 

I could not articulate why, but the picture made me sad. I was not at all disappointed when Trowa appeared in the doorway to join us for lunch.

 

At lunch, I learned three things. One, Trowa was leaving the next day for a lengthy undercover field assignment. Two, the subs at Leo's were actually really good - or at least my “garden delight” sub was. And three, it was apparent from the way they spoke with each other that Duo and Trowa were really good friends. I talked very little, and mostly listened to them banter back and forth. I had assumed that Duo and Quatre were close, and that Duo and Trowa were just passing acquaintances. Clearly that assumption was wrong. I envied their closeness, even though I knew I had no one to blame but myself for being left out.

 

As we walked back, Duo nudged Trowa. “The furballs that run my life wore off on Heero. He thinks they're `charming.'”

 

Trowa let out a rich peal of laughter at this revelation. “Heero, you should spend more time with his cats before you decide that they're charming. Trigger can be a real monster when she wants to be.” As we waited to get on the elevator, Trowa showed me a number of fine silvery scars on his hands. They looked almost like spider webs, they were so thin. “See these?” I nodded. “Trigger gave me this the first time Duo was out on a field assignment. She rubbed against my leg like she wanted attention, and then savaged me when I went to pick her up.”

 

I raised an eyebrow at Duo as we got on the elevator. He shrugged. “I think she was nervous because I was gone. She'd known me her whole life at that point.”

 

Trowa nodded in agreement. “She's never attacked me since. But every time Duo's away, they find something of his to destroy. Last time it was a pair of boxers. They shredded it and then left it by the door as a warning. Trust me when I say that they can be real monsters when they put their minds to it.”

 

Shortly after that warning, we arrived at the seventeenth floor, where my office is located. I nodded to both of them. “Thank you for the lunch invitation. Good luck on your assignment Trowa. I will see both of you later.”

 

Trowa nodded in response, and Duo called out, “'Bye Heero!” as the elevator doors closed.

 

It seemed that the more time I spent with my friends, the more I realized how little I knew about them. I turned my mind to work as I walked back to my office alone.