Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ In the City at Night ❯ The Pantheon ( Chapter 24 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The Pantheon

"So, great divinity," Heero muttered, turning to look tiredly at Jordan. "What say ye now?"

"I say you need to stop reading old epics," Jordan returned with a yawn. "I'll be your moon."

Heero considered that as Tirone blinked tiredly at them. "You realize that makes no sense, right?"

"I was gonna say I'd be your god," Jordan shrugged, "But you know." The man shrugged, looking back to Beedus with a grin. "Don't mind us."

"I believe in gods now," Tirone informed him though something suggested it was a stupid thing to say. "I had a god watching out for me today...what god are you?"

"The god of death," Heero returned in amusement.

"Not my time to come in, huh?" Tirone rolled onto his side, pulling the blankets up around himself. "And what is the devil's due?"

"Go to sleep," Jordan muttered, looking to Heero. "We can talk more tomorrow."

"Mm..." Tirone's eyes drifted closed...and he fell into sleep.

"What is the devil's due?" Heero teased as he followed his friend from the room.

"You know, between me and you the god thing is just our joke," Jordan muttered, turning to meet his eyes. He shook his head, "Don't be telling people that...especially not when he's just decided he has faith in something."

"I suppose," Heero noted with a grin. "He was a full-fledge atheist before tonight. I guess getting beaten for weeks on end might do that to a man, though."

"Why did you tell him that shit?"

"You're the one who saved his ass," Heero noted, taking a drink of the fountain drink he was holding before recoiling in disgust. It was watered-down and flat...when had he even...

"Yuy, is Mr. Beedus asleep?"

Heero threw the cup Jordan had given him hours before into a trashcan and nodded at the nurse. "He just fell asleep as we were leaving."

"He's on a high dose of Remalene for tonight," she noted, then shook her head. For a moment, she wrung her hands together as if thinking, then raised her face to meet his eyes, "Thank you."

Heero rested his hand on her shoulder, then started down the hall again with Jordan in tow.

"I'm curious to know where your loyalty lies," Jordan muttered as they moved toward the SUV.

Heero shook his head as he studied the slight dings and smudges where bullets had hit the side of his car. "Man...this is gonna take forever to get fixed..."

"Chance?" Jordan asked, tilting his head at the man.

Heero met and studied his eyes a moment, then looked back to the car. "With you, divinity. Get in. I need some sort of soda to get that nasty taste out of my mouth."

Jordan gave him a look, then followed him into the vehicle.

X x X x X

"So I jumped onto the roof of the car, I swear Heero was trying to throw me, and kept shooting at the fuckers..." Jordan was spiritedly reciting their adventure to Chai, Quatre, Paris, and his team—full pantomime spirited reciting.

Heero rolled his eyes when Quatre looked to him, rising from the couch and moving into the kitchen...to stare at Morgan in disbelief.

"What?" Morgan demanded, frowning at him as Wufei lay a hand on the man's forearm. He was watching Heero expectantly.

"He didn't seem to appreciate that I was hungry, though," Jor continued his recital. "But you'd think I hadn't eaten all day..."

"You're all fuzzy," Paris informed him.

"Fuzzy?" Jordan demanded in disbelief, then, "What the hell does fuzzy mean?"

Quatre laughed, "Excitement, Duo...and if I have to say more than that..."

Jordan laughed evilly. "...So they came back on us again about a block later..."

"I just didn't realize you were here," Heero returned, moving toward the fridge to pour himself juice.

"Tro and Deb are out back," Wufei noted.

Heero nodded and moved to the back door, studying his friend until the man pulled away from the girl to give him a look. "You listening to this?" he asked the pair of them, indicating Jordan's story.

"I imagine it went drive, shoot, win," Trowa noted. "With the two of you there's no other options."

Heero grinned at him, downing the last of his cup and moving to grab a bottle of Amber from the fridge. He had a feeling Chai'd never had Amber before Jordan went out and bought some for Eastland. The man'd probably bought it for his house as an afterthought.

"He didn't appreciate my offer to chew his food for him," Jor noted to snorts before going on in detail about the drive home and how many frivolous turns Heero...no. No. He was saying Chance.

Heero blinked.

"So now we're speeding down a straight stretch of road...and I shit you not, an entire squad of police cars swarm us..."

"Shock of shocks," Quatre noted...which caused Chai to giggle.

"So Chance holds up his badge," Heero could imagine the pose his friend had struck for the comment. "Doesn't even look away from the car-window, just holds up his badge, makes some random-ass gesture...and the cops just drop back!"

"Yeah, Heero would be a person of rank and power," Quatre's tone was highly sarcastic. "They probably shot the scanner at his badge and got blasted with shouts or screams to back down before they got the entire office in trouble."

Heero grinned.

"You guys are all right, right?" Morgan muttered, studying Heero seriously.

"We're fine," Heero agreed, downing a large drink from his bottle. "Things worked out."

"But we've had an assassination on the base," Morgan muttered, looking slightly worried. "You got good people on the leaders, don't you?"

"My team is split up between'em," Heero reassured him. "Zechs came with a few of his own personal men. That makes it easier."

"Where's Jon?" Morgan looked to Wufei, who had an expression of amazement on his face.

"Probably in lock-down," Heero took a long drink from the small bottle.

"You're gonna be smashed in about ten seconds," Morgan was giving Heero a look.

"He...he drinks a lot," Wufei's voice was almost a breath. "If he downs another one like that, then he'll get smashed."

"I'll be nice'n buzzed in a second," the Japanese male reassured the man, finishing off the bottle. "Man..." he turned to the fridge and pulled out another of the small red things, taking another deep drink.

"You're a bastard," Quatre noted suddenly from the space between the living room and kitchen.

"Huh?" Jordan's story was interrupted, though he'd made it to the point of Heero informing Tirone that he was the god of death.

"You bought Amber," Quatre retorted, turning to glower at him. "Do you have any idea how much I want some?"

"So have a bottle," Jordan sounded confused.

"It's too high an alcohol content," Heero noted, clearing his throat some and swirling the liquid in the container. He offered it to Quatre, "Have a drink?"

Quatre gave him a disgusted look, moving around him to dig into the fridge and come out with a juice-bottle. "I hate fuckin' Prozac," he grumbled, moving back toward the living room.

X x X x X

"Just leave me alone," a man called Crater snapped at Danielle. "You're just some two-bit whore and I'm not interested."

Danielle blinked at him in amazement. She thought she'd approached the topic of the line of power obliquely. He'd muttered about it being an interesting topic, then fell silent. When she'd asked if he wanted to dance, he'd decided to flip out on her.

"Jeeze," Judas muttered, turning to look at him from the far side. "She just wanted a dance...I'll dance with you," he added, looking to her.

"Yeah, take the whore," the man grumbled, turning back to the bar and focusing on his drink.

"He got pissed when you noted your family has money," Judas muttered as they started to move. "It seemed to offend him."

"Shit, I was just saying I could afford my own tab," she shook her head.

"What'd he say before that?"

"He couldn't believe who was picked," she supplied, thinking about it.

"A gentlemen was asking me to dance," Judas explained, rolling his eyes slightly. "I missed parts of the conversation."

"Where's our resident demigod?" she muttered, looking around the dance floor.

"Demi?" Judas repeated the word, thinking about it, then nodded toward the doors. "He said to meet him at...our usual place."

"Ah," Danielle looked around to see that Crater was distracted, then nodded. "Let's go."

X x X x X

"You look a little worn," Trowa noted as he moved up the stairs of the apartment building his friends lived in. Matthew Corringer was standing in the door to his apartment with dark rings under his eyes.

"I had a long night," the man explained, looking away. "What're you up to?"

"No good, as usual," Trowa smirked at him. "You should join us."

"What are you doing?" Mat pressed meeting his eyes.

"There are questions about the legality," Tro returned sarcastically, starting up the isle. "If anyone finds out I'll kick your ass."

"I thought you stopped doing that..."

Trowa turned to focus on the man, blinking, then smirked. "We're leaving base to get Parmer drunk. He's only twenty."

"Oh!" Mat laughed a bit at that, then shook his head. "I'm not up to drinking...especially with your crew."

Trowa laughed a bit naughtily, winking broadly at the man. "Me'n you'll have to go get ourselves in trouble some time."

"No real offense intended, buddy, but you scare me."

The laughter there was an evil delight as Trowa turned and ducked in so he was an inch from the man's face, "And I like you, man. What does that tell you?"

Corringer blinked at him, not sure how he was supposed to respond. Somehow, the comment failed to reassure him as he watched the former Gundam pilot swagger, yes, swagger, down the breezeway.

X x X x X

"You're not serious," Jordan muttered as he looked at the listing Xane gave him, looking up to the man and shaking his head. "I am not following him into any of those fuckin' backrooms."

Xane shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then shrugged slightly. "He wasn't on the raver side."

Jordan blinked.

"I...I talked to him."

The re-instated soldier pressed the fingertips of his left hand against his eyes. "You went by yourself into the backroom with a possibly hostile client?"

Xane shrugged again, "I've...before..."

"You're a backroom fan?" Jordan opened his eyes to study the guy. "You see Chance back there ever?"

Xane stared at him in utter amazement.

"It's dark back there," Heero noted, moving up behind them. His tone was amused, "You're never really sure who anyone is unless you take the time to find their name or number."

Xane, who'd jumped hard, looked away instantly.

Jordan studied his protégé a moment thoughtfully, then tilted his head to the side. "I need to know what you're willing to do. Unless I absolutely have to, I don't want to do something that goes against your morals."

"I..."

"Wanted to make you happy," Heero noted, patting Jor on the arm once before offering him the fountain drink he was holding. "I know you haven't seen too much, but our groups are loyal to us. The fact that your swat is only five people makes it that much more. Once you get yourselves working smoothly, they'll willingly die for you."

Jordan took the drink and offered Xane a slight smile, "I'd return the favor." He looked to Heero again, "What all did Tirone say?"

"Well, we're dealing with fundamentalists...that works, right? These people are offended by the old money families being in power. Whoever was talking to Tirone was really ramming home the fact that he pulled himself up through the ranks from the streets."

Jordan closed his eyes, feeling his tension headache blossoming again.

"Whoever it is really wants Shifton to be in charge. You sure Shifton didn't do it?"

"I was sure, but it's not like I'm infallible."

"So...my divinity," Xane muttered, smirking at Jordan slightly. "What would you ask of me?"

The old friends hadn't been aware they'd played their joke so hard that the people who didn't know them when it started had picked up on it. They blinked at the younger male in disbelief, then looked back to each other.

"I...suppose...we can...I dunno," Jordan shook his head slightly. "We need to wait for Riley'n'em. You have a report typed up, Yuy?"

"You be my sun?" Heero demanded, shifting back with a slight grin.

"Sure, I'll be your moon," Jordan agreed, turning toward the canteen. "As long as you have me that report."

"That one still escapes me," Xane informed them, following almost like a little brother. "Why do you say sun and he says moon?"

Heero snickered slightly, "We've never been able to agree which would be better. We used to throw mythology at each other about the power of the sun gods and the moon gods."

"Sun gods are stronger," Jordan shrugged. "Life, sustenance, and renewal, all that jazz."

"Moon gods," Heero disagreed, "gain their powers from the night itself...and are connected with females. It doesn't take a genius to note that females propagate the species, so that's the power of creation."

"So...you ask him to be what he believes is more powerful...and he agrees to be what you think is more powerful?" Xane considered that a moment. "And it doesn't seem weird to you?"

Heero snickered as Jordan pulled the door open to allow the pair entrance. "It's fuckin' whacked out shit, but we've never pretended to be normal. Fuck, I call him my god. I'm not running for the sanity merit badge here."

Xane smirked, then turned to look at Jordan, "The spring brings life."

Jordan gave him a very level look, then led them toward a window-booth.

"Just don't make it something anyone else'll focus on," Heero muttered to the guy. "Ask him to be your god without making it seem like it means anything. I bet you fifty dollars he'll agree to be your spring."

Xane smirked more at that, sliding into the booth next to the guy. "I'm really hungry."

"It's nine," Jordan agreed, glancing to his watch as the waitress moved toward them. "The others will start showing up soon."

"Order them all food?" Xane suggested.

"Yeah," Jordan agreed, studying him. "I want to know how well you know them. Order all our stuff."

"Uh," Xane looked to Heero uncertainly, then back to Jordan. "All?"

"Active male with a high metabolism," Jordan noted. "I'm thinkin' a salad'd be a bit understated."

Xane considered that information, then looked to the waitress.

"If that's the case, I'm gonna go get the report...divinity high," Heero flashed Jordan a smirk, and disappeared toward the door.

Jordan gave Xane a very level look, and grabbed Heero's fountain drink.

X x X x X

Quatre grinned as Paris tucked his small collection of books into a box, then started tucking random objects with them. He was almost scared of the fact that he was moving out of the one place he'd called home for five years. The idea of waking up and not having Heero already in the kitchen with the coffee brewing and breakfast cooking seemed odd.

That one was an always. Heero loved to annoy his roommates by being the first one awake in the morning. For a long time none of them were even sure he slept...until they realized he slept light. How he'd predict....that was beside the point. Heero always woke up, started the coffee, and made some sort of breakfast food.

"What are you thinking?" Paris muttered, looking around to his friend.

"Heero is a creature of habit," Quatre explained. "Duo used to get him to make their breakfast when we were in the studio apartments. He gets up every morning and does that...he gets addicted to things really fast."

"Ah," Paris crammed a few things on top of the boxes and moved it to the other box they'd packed. "Clothes?"

"Sure. I'm just thinking about that fact that I'm moving out of here."

"You've thought about it before," Paris noted, starting to pull the folded clothes from the drawers into another box. "You get sick of them every six months."

Quatre laughed, giving the guy a look. "It's different," he explained. "When I get disgusted with them I generally want to get away for a while. I'm actually leaving."

"Ah," Paris nodded, then grinned at him, "It's about damn time."

Quatre laughed, "Yeah, if only it was into a place of my own."

"You don't want to be alone," Paris noted.

"See, here's the thing," Quatre returned with a larger grin, "you would be there."

Paris smirked at him, then tilted his head. "Why don't you just buy a place, really?"

"Because the family's not entirely sure I wasn't disinherited. There's a bit of debate going on, and since I'm still military it's not going out any time soon. I hate fuckin' pacifists," the blond tossed a handful of CD cases into his box, "they can never get anything done."

Paris started laughing.

X x X x X

"You're one twisted bastard," Judas noted to Xane in amusement, studying the guy over. "Did you go in?"

"Does it matter?" Xane demanded skeptically.

"What time did he leave?" Heero muttered, poking Jordan's shoulder.

"At about seven," Jordan replied.

"Twenty minutes in," Heero noted, thinking a moment. "Five minutes across the club...so about a half hour to get back there...add in the time to find the guy?"

"Ten," Xane muttered, looking away.

"So that's forty minutes...and then to leave and come back is an hour five...no. He didn't join the fun."

Jordan raised an eyebrow at his friend.

"What?" Heero asked, sitting back and looking at Xane. He turned his head slightly to look at Jor, "the question is how you get back there, get the info, and get out without raising suspicion."

"They reached capacity," Xane suggested, grinning as he studied the man.

"One-fifty? You tryin' to tell me that on a Sunday night they got one hundred and fifty people into the back room?"

"They ran out of Pearl," Xane grinned more.

"They have Pearl running on tap from the basements to the entire club...this includes the casino and the buffet. They would never run out of Pearl."

Xane laughed almost delightedly, thinking a moment.

"See his eyes?" Heero asked, pointing at the guy's face. "He's making something up."

The group blinked at each other, then focused on Xane, who was grinning at them.

"Remembering," Heero muttered, his eyes shying up and toward the right, "Is...um..."

"That's remembering," Jordan noted, smirking slightly.

Heero grinned and shrugged, looking back to Xane expectantly.

"You recall the bit where I'm training them, right?" Jordan asked curiously, studying Xane. "I mean...minor functions like hiding a lie are like breathing to me."

"And that's a lie, isn't it?" Heero muttered, studying Jor seriously. "I hate that I can't tell for sure."

Jordan laughed himself.

"The lockers were full," Xane shrugged. "I coulda left my shit out, but I sorta have base passes in my pocket and things...that sort of thing needs locked up."

"So you were gonna go in?" Heero's expression turned very serious as he looked to the guy.

Xane smirked at him, then went back to his food. Jordan patted Heero's shoulder, and also focused on the food.

"I claimed expensive phone after we'd talked a bit and took my leave," Xane added after swallowing since he was still being watched. "He didn't think twice about it."

"You don't need to expound a good lie," Jordan noted. "He was content with the lockers being full. Just remember that if we're on an extended outing we have to make what we say true. Keep your lies simple, even to the extent of saying you have a boyfriend instead of that you're single. You know? Nothing that you can't fake on the spot." He looked from one of them to the other, "And gods above, if one of them," he indicated Heero, "tells you to do something you better do it with gusto. I use them, and if I'm using you and them both we all have to work together. Even if it means disobeying my direct orders."

"If I'm coming in with my swat," Heero noted, "I'll come in first with my gun, and that's your cue to drop everything and get your asses out of there. There are only five of you for now," he surveyed the group in a way that reminded Jor of the officer's club. "But there will be more. You five will be the leads. You five will be the ones I'll search out...and you five will be the ones I will recover."

They blinked at him.

"Ah, that's very nice," Jordan muttered, almost mock-flattered as he sat forward to face his friend. "It's a very nice speech."

"Thank you," Heero returned, grinning a bit, then shrugged. "I expect the same in return."

"So tomorrow," Jordan noted to his group, "We'll be meeting Yuy's crew."

Danielle giggled slightly.

"And then they'll drop us off with a paperclip, a string, and a stick of bubblegum and we'll see if we can survive a week in the woods with nothing but the clothes we were born in."

Heero started laughing.

"Um...don't you think...that'll be a bit...cold?" Judas asked, mocking an uncertain expression.

Jordan joined Heero's laughter.

X x X x X

Wufei sighed as he exhaled, watching the cool wind whip the smoke away. He was sore all over, and very tired. He'd been wanting to drink more than his normal, and had even considered heading off base to Sins. Carson, one of his men and a friend of he and Morgan, had talked him out of that in favor of some quiet time on the roof.

Morgan laughed evilly, "Tro's comment was that it went something like drive, fight win...and he has a point."

"I thought you didn't like Yuy," Carson protested, moving to sit on the edge of the railing deal. "I thought you two couldn't exchange a civil word."

"It's Chai," Morgan grinned. "She informed us that there'd be no fighting in her house and shoved our faces in the fact that we're both grown men. She does funny things to people...I think I could actually like Yuy."

Carson laughed, "I like him. He's one of those action heroes, you know? The kind that show up out of nowhere and disappear into the night? Super Yuy!"

Wufei choked, starting to laugh a bit helplessly at that. The comment had been complete with Superman extended arms.

"Seriously," Carson protested to the Chinese man. "He kicks almost as much ass as you do!"

Wufei grinned at that.

"You know, it's a funny thing," Morgan added, thinking, "But I kinda like Winner, too...he's still an asshole, but I kinda like him."

"Haha," Wufei muttered, grinding his cigarette out, "I told you you'd like my friends."

"It just took a few years."