Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Jokers Wild ❯ Seven ( Chapter 7 )

Seven

Wufei ran a hand through his hair as he stopped in the command room. He moved across the thing, though, offering a cup of coffee from his carry-tray to Jaden.

"Oh, morning," Jaden muttered, turning to look at him and smile as he took a cup. "Thanks. You sleep okay?"

"Yeah, actually," Wufei returned, smiling more and moving around to offer one to Qingfu.

"You alright?" Qingfu muttered, studying him as he took his own.

"I'm good," Wufei agreed quietly. His friends weren't giving him those searching looks...well, Blake and Matty a little bit—Jinli was thinking about it. But the rest had moved on—was that a good thing? He wasn't sure, but he wasn't going to let it get him down.

"Captain," someone muttered in alarm from the monitoring console. "Captain...there's something happening."

Jaden, Qingfu, and Wufei turned as one toward the machine. It took them all of two steps to reach the man, and they studied the screen in confusion.

"What..." Jaden started.

"Is...that..." Qingfu muttered.

Wufei didn't bother with words. He hit the red-alert.

Sirens screamed through the ship as Wufei typed the code for 'battle stations'. It wasn't until he'd entered it and the recorded message was playing that he realized this wasn't his ship. Actually, he'd thought that sort of system had been disarmed before selling it to be a civilian craft.

Either someone cut corners, or he was wrong. It was really a fifty-fifty chance there.

"What?" Duo demanded, his voice breaking into the ship's system to play on the screen.

"It looks like twenty MS have just left Obsidian," Wufei returned as he did the quick mental calculations. "Heading toward in an undetermined direction—at least in specifics. We'll send the information to the suits."

"Right," Duo agreed.

"Captain?" someone asked nervously from the vid-screens.

"I'm going to ship," Wufei informed the others seriously, then turned to dart away.

"What do you mean twenty suits?" Blake demanded as he fell in with his group.

"Roughly...as many as thirty," Wufei glanced briefly to Heero.

Heero looked away.

Wufei closed his eyes, mouthing a silent prayer of protection for Jinli.

Again, incense would be more...reassuring.

Blake squeaked at him when Wufei decided on expedience. He lifted the younger male from the ground...and jumped with him as Matty actually cried out. They had about three seconds before the vacuum of space took them, and he didn't plan to use that running down stairs.

Heero cast Wufei a look as they dove in the last possible space they could make it, falling into the ship proper as Blake clung and Matty protested more.

Was the pilot an ass or confident?

Wufei smirked wickedly at Blake, turning and snatching up space-suits. He had his on in about a heartbeat, then turned to truss Blake up properly as Heero repeated the actions with Matty.

The ship lurched, and both younger males purposefully looked away from the room's window. Deathscythe shot by, and seemed to have Demigod holding its ankles—he'd have to complain to Jin about that later...but Heavyarms was close enough behind that the pilot was probably having a heart attack.

Wufei sniggered, darting up the walk and snatching up one of the ship's command consoles—laptops. Most ships had two or three of them, and he hadn't had time to grab his own laptop.

He'd have to remedy that.

"Uh," the pilot turned to look back at them briefly, then cursed and shifted their direction slightly...as another suit pelted past them.

"Quatre," Matty noted, looking around. "That was Quatre..."

"And all our MS," the pilot agreed, taking a deep breath.

"Let me," Heero instructed, sliding into the seat before the poor man realized he was displaced.

The pilot didn't protest, sliding down to the floor as he clung to the chair. Heero's hands started moving across the controls instantly, and Wufei smiled grimly at the boys.

"Uh..." Matty started.

"Sit," Wufei ordered, shoving them both to seats. "We may start playing acrobatic in a minute here, depending on what mood your husband is in."

Heero laughed happily. "Fuck you, Chang."

"Blow me," Wufei retorted, booting up the console.

"Bring the lube and I might."

"You'd never be able to handle me."

"Oh, but I'd love to try," Heero started laughing wickedly.

Wufei snickered himself.

"Wow," Blake muttered dryly to Matty. "That was...special."

"They were...both serious," Matty returned, sounding uncertain.

Wufei laughed delightedly, connecting the machine to Illicit properly.

"Boot up mine," Heero ordered, looking back. "Fei will code it when you get it on...ready?"

The pilot lurched toward a seat himself as Matty passed the laptop he was holding to Wufei.

"They're heading for L-4!" Qingfu gasped. "Jaden's getting a suit!"

"Yay! Playtime for Quatre!" Wufei finished connecting his laptop to the gundams.

"What?" Quatre snapped.

"Our little brigade is heading toward L-4," Wufei returned. "Didn't you see that?"

The projected flight-path settled on a colony before Quatre could respond, and Wufei wasn't the only one who stopped.

"That son of a bitch," Quatre hissed. "That god-forsaken whore of a half-skinned goat!"

"What?" Matty asked.

"22," Wufei supplied, his own heart constricting.

D17622. Quatre's home colony.

There was no way Gerrange didn't know that.

Matty stopped, his eyes widening.

Heero'd already started cursing.

"It's a farce," Quatre snapped as Jaden's screen popped up in the ring. "It's total bullshit. That mother-fucker would never try and pull that shit on me."

"What?" Jaden asked blankly.

"Your would-be god wants me to cuts his balls off and sauté them for supper," Quatre supplied.

Jaden glanced to the other screens.

"He's heading for L-4," Duo said shortly. "Toward 22 specifically."

"Where Quatre's family is," Trowa agreed. "Where Quatre's new-born nephew is."

Jaden looked around uncertainly again.

"Twenty ships toward 22," Duo added quietly. "You call it farce. Why?"

"Because it is," Quatre growled, looking the screens over. "Marshal would never have the balls to fuck with me like that."

"He wasn't like, some secret boyfriend, was he?" Duo asked almost nervously.

Quatre flashed him a feral grin. "Oh, you start putting merit to me being a sex-toy now?"

"Well...yes," Duo hazarded, then flashed his lover a grin.

"No, he appealed to me for family funds at one point," Quatre rolled his eyes. "And when I told him no he tried to cow me."

"That...sounds..." Trowa glanced around briefly. "Dangerous."

"Yeah," Quatre agreed dryly. "I broke his nose, dislocated his shoulder, and got him in the groin for good measure," he laughed wickedly. "I was also in a three-piece at the time, didn't even ruin the shine on my shoes."

Jaden ran a hand across his face.

"You know," Wufei muttered, looking up to Heero. "I never thought to...ask...what happened," he glanced toward Jinli to be sure he looked okay. "I...always just assumed he had it out for rich kids who actually earned their shit."

"Thank you," Quatre returned almost primly, then flashed the camera his wicked grin. "So what's the least likely thing for him to do now?"

"You mean aside from attacking 22?" Heero called back.

"Yes," Quatre agreed.

"He can hear you?" Blake muttered.

"If he tries," Heero agreed. "Is mine on yet?"

Wufei typed in the final code and smirked at the little picture of himself that showed up on the screen. He smirked like that a lot, it looked naughty—no wonder no one believed he was innocent.

He had to grin at that thought process as he passed the machine back to Blake.

"Yes, I mean aside from actually attacking 22," Quatre informed them all when the view settled on Heero and not random ship-bits. "What do you think?"

"I think he's got twenty suits heading for your colony," Jaden snapped. "He hates you, Winner."

"And I'm sure I deserve it," Quatre purred. "I didn't tell anyone what he'd done, so it's got to be his own personal and festering shame. He probably came in expecting to get the shit beat out of him and..." he laughed a bit, "found out that I'd risen to colonel."

Duo snickered. "Oh my god, I love you," he noted. "You're such a delicious asshole."

"Um, ew?" Wufei gave them both looks.

The outburst of mixed disbelief, disgust, and utter amusement that met the comment was instantaneous. Blake and Matty were blushing and all but giggling while Jinli closed his eyes. Heero was almost laughing hard enough that he shouldn't be flying, and Duo had to hit the auto-pilot.

"Mm," Quatre muttered. "I'm not going there."

Matty covered his face with his hands, actually starting to giggle.

Wufei grinned proudly, meeting eyes with Jinli. It'd been a long time since he'd actually blind-sided his friends...well, aside from the order he'd put in the last time they'd fought.

...and considering that most of the toiletries he'd ordered were gone, he probably wasn't the only one happy with the situation.

"Quatre!" Lu's face broke into the screen-links, her face pale. "Quatre, they're heading for 22!"

"That's some sort of rouse," Quatre returned, instantly going serious—when Lu realized that Jaden's cheeks were a fiery red, she might wonder what they were talking about, but for now it was all business.

"What?" she demanded. "How can you tell?"

"I just can," he returned, his eyes narrowing. "Wufei, what's Obsidian doing?"

"It's not..." Lu was typing quickly.

Wufei realized that he didn't have his fucking laptop, so he couldn't get to Heero's bug.

"Uh...p...patch," Qingfu half sputtered, his fingers flying over buttons. "Sorry!" he added when the whole screen went to a view of Obsidian's bridge.

Heero grunted, looking around to Wufei.

They didn't have their machines, and unless Heero hooked his phone up, they weren't going to have that control.

He shook his head.

The screens flickered back to the multi-display.

"The assholes fell for it," Rab's voice came. There were several men clustered around a console.

Quatre sneered, his lip curling up. He looked like a different man, really. Wufei had never seen that expression on his friend, and realized vaguely that he hoped never to see it again.

"By the time they realize what we're doing, we'll be there."

"What is this?" Lu asked hesitantly.

"I hacked into their surveillance," Heero reminded her.

Actually, Wufei couldn't remember if she'd been on Illicit when they'd done that.

"What do we do, Quatre?" Trowa demanded.

Quatre glanced at that screen, then all of them. His eyes changed focus, and Wufei caught Matty's head lifting from the corner of his eye.

"It's...there," Matty muttered.

"You can't even make it out," Quatre shot back.

"What?" Lu asked.

"Sorry," Quatre returned, nonplussed. "Fei?"

"It's...not moving," Wufei returned instantly, changing screens to start typing.

"Why are you doing this?" Duo asked dryly.

"Because Heero decided he should fly," Wufei shot back. "I'm sorry I can't make it all happen at your whim."

"You should be," Duo retorted.

"Can you at least pretend to be professional?" Trowa asked curiously. "Just as a purely scientific test, of course."

Duo snickered at that.

"Ready?" Rab asked. "I think that should be enough for them."

"Lu, send out a squad for 22. Make sure 22s defenses are scrambled," Quatre was considering the screens.

"You sure?" someone else asked from Rab's screen.

"Yes...engage, now."

The monitoring systems picked up the main thrusters of Obsidian firing up. The whole machine seemed hesitate...before it shot off.

"27," Matty breathed as Quatre took back the steering of his machine. "They're going to 27."

"What's going on?" Lu asked. "What do we do?"

"It's 27, Lu," Quatre returned as all their suits changed course.

"They're attacking 22!" Jaden snapped. "They are!"

"Do what you have to," Quatre shot back. "And I'll do what I have to."

Jaden swore.

The ship lurched, and Matty squeaked as he and Blake both grabbed the armrests.

"Wait!" the pilot protested.

"Jaden? I'm stealing your transport," Heero noted happily. "I suppose that makes us even for you kidnapping us."

"What?" Lu demanded. "Officially?"

"Nothing, nothing at all," Heero returned.

"Damn it, Yuy!" Jaden shouted in obvious frustration, pounding his own controls. "We can't leave a colony undefended!"

"We have the entire ESA," Heero shot back. "They've been waiting for orders, and Quatre gave them, right, Lu?"

She nodded.

"But you're just going to take off to some unknown place!" Jaden was evidently incensed.

"If my family dies," Quatre said in a level voice, "then I will personally skin every fucking last man from that half-baked rebellion."

Jaden focused on his screen.

"I will hunt them down to the man if any of my family is any more than vaguely alarmed."

Jaden focused away from all of it.

"But I'm going to 27," Quatre added. "And when I've taken the lead, I'm in charge."

"What should we do?" Lu asked quietly. "The ESA, I mean."

"Send a few units," Quatre returned. "Be ready for anything, because all we have is a destination."

Lu nodded, shifting back in her seat to focus on another screen.

"I can't leave 22 to these machines," Jaden said in a low voice.

"Then don't," Quatre returned evenly. "That is your call to make."

Jaden closed his eyes.

Wufei realized that Matty and Blake were watching him, probably for any form of emotional response. He smiled at the pair of them, clicking through a few more options before shifting back. He pulled his phone out, then set it down and stood.

"What?" Matty asked, half rising.

"I have to grab the connector," Wufei returned, starting away.

"Hey, Qingfu?" Heero muttered quietly. "Could you get someone to go power-up my laptop? It should just be sitting on the table in my room—and if it's not someone's losing a hand."

- -

Trowa shifted around where he sat, watching his screens as he piloted swiftly toward the colony all the bullshit had started at. In a way, it was suiting that it'd all come round full circle. The whole ordeal had started out of nowhere, as far as he and his friends were concerned...why not let it end the same?

It was strange, though, to think that this stupid shit had taken the better part of a year. He supposed it probably could have been shot down a lot faster if they hadn't taken the beginning of summer off to play. If they hadn't done that, and had just searched out Wing Gundam, it'd all have been done already.

But still, there was too much that had been markedly changed by this whole thing. Quatre's angry expression was utterly new, and Jinli being there at all...piloting.

He sighed, shifting his screens around as he pulled up the vid.

"What?" Quatre asked, blinking at him.

"I'm calling home," Trowa returned, dialing Tim's number.

"If you start doing that," Duo retorted, "you'll end up dying. You watch the movies!"

"I think I owe it to my friends," Trowa shot back. "I'm not saying good bye, I'm warning them that...this could be it."

They all exchanged looks.

"It?" Jaden asked quietly.

"It's all come around full circle," Trowa supplied quietly. "We started as a motley crew playing in space, and that's just about what we've ended with now—back on 27 with Matty not making the good decision of staying behind."

Wufei and Heero smirked.

"I heard that," Matty called from behind somewhere.

Trowa smiled, wanting to tell Blake he loved him. He didn't think he'd ever actually said it, though, and this didn't seem like the time. Duo was right—if he started saying his good-byes, he'd be willing to die.

"Hello?" Tim asked, then blinked. "Trowa?"

"Hey, Tim," Trowa returned. "I just wanted to call and tell you good-bye."

Duo tsked.

"What?" Tim demanded, looking alarmed.

Trowa snickered. "Sorry...no...we're going to a fight now," he shrugged. "This could be it."

"But..."

Trowa snickered more. "Actually, I was gonna see if I could beg you to go clean our place—dusting and the like, you know? Make sure there's no nasty garbage and stuff. I tell you, I want my own bed back."

"You said any bed was fine, with me in it," Blake shot, appearing behind Heero.

Heero tsked, and tried to brush him away.

"And then what did I do?" Trowa retorted.

Blake sniggered.

"What?" Tim asked blankly. "Uh...I can...if you're sure you're not...I mean..." he hesitated.

"Just like, run the vacuum around a bit," Trowa encouraged. "Maybe check the fridge. We didn't have time to dump our perishables this time."

"Or any time," Heero noted.

"I'll pay you to do it before we get back," Trowa added.

"How much and when," Tim shot back.

"I'll figure that out when we get home," he noted with a grin. "I'm calling my sister now."

"No you're not," Heero shot back. "You get Cathy on the line and we'll all die."

"That is the least reassuring thing any of you bastards have ever said," Tim informed them irritably.

Heero snickered. "Sorry—movie etiquette, right? You start calling people to say goodbye and you're willing to die. We told Trowa not to call you, but he's like, wanting a flag in the memorial or something."

"I do not," Trowa shot back. "I want a star on the wall."

"Ooh, we're getting rank upgrades," Quatre called happily. "I decided I wanna be a full-blown general."

"That's a scary idea," Blake noted happily.

"Suck my what?" Quatre shot back.

Blake snickered.

"Uh...cool?" Tim hesitated. "Where are you?"

"In Heavyarms," Trowa returned happily. "I'm gonna do the expedient thing and hang up on you, though. Just to be safe."

"Trowa..." Tim started.

Trowa ended the call, then reset his screens to grin a bit.

It would be nice to have the house cleaned when they got back to it...and then maybe they could figure out what to do with all the extra room.

- -

Jaden's unit fell on Rab's from behind, not giving the suits time to reorient on them. He hated doing it like that, but their force wasn't great and they didn't have any gundams, despite how the little foray had started out.

He wanted to kick Yuy's ass for that...or maybe Winner's.

. . .but what Quatre had said made far too much sense to Jaden. He'd never asked why Rab hated the heir as bad as he did, but after hearing that little retelling, he had a feeling they'd found the answer.

The suit in front of Jaden ripped open.

Oh shit...

Before the full concept of killing a man like that could work into Jaden's mind, though, he realized something that the suits around him were shouting.

Empty. Dolls.

They weren't even programmed to fight.

"What do we do?" one of his men snapped.

"They have the destination already," Jaden snapped back. "And they're armed. We can't have them flying around here!"

"Stop them!" someone else shouted in alarm. "They're going in too fast!"

Jaden realized the truth of that himself.

The soldiers from 22 would be waiting for the men to come in and attack...but this barrage of suits could puncture the colony.

Jaden swore viciously as their little group headed on, ripping into more of the machines.

Winner's orders to the ESA had been dispersed, but everyone had been going under the assumption that those suits had men in them with the intent to attack.

It was a good thing he hadn't given up this part of the mission.

They tore through the suits as fast as they could manage, sending the suits off into space if they couldn't rip them apart...and working their way through the larger section of suits.

"Thank you, Jaden," Quatre muttered quietly. "Come after us when you're done there, the ESA will mop up."

"Right," Jaden agreed dryly.

Didn't it figure that the man had been bitching and half threatening him before, and was now treating him respectfully?

Well, they were young.

"Hey, guys?" Wufei muttered. "Is it just me...or is Obsidian not slowing down?"

"Well, we're in space," Heero pointed out.

"No...docking routine and all," Wufei supplied. "I don't think he's planning to dock Obsidian."

They all went silent.

"He sent dolls at 22," Duo noted quietly. "He doesn't care if they make it there or not—and if they do, how many people could potentially die from that?"

"How many people are stationed on 27?" Trowa demanded.

"It's a small contingent," Noin returned promptly. "Not many at all. Civilians haven't been allowed to return yet."

"Tell the men to get suited up and brace themselves," Duo ordered her in a quiet voice. "I may not know much...but I don't think Gerrange cares anymore."

"Rabid," Qingfu admitted quietly, looking away.

"Dead," Quatre returned in a flat voice.

"Quatre," the woman chided. "Officially."

No one responded to that...but Jaden had more important things to do...like saving a colony before a certain half-sane man reaped dead-fall vengeance.

Blue eyes landed on his, penetrating and serious.

"What did you think?" Heero asked dryly. "You realize our space-heart is pissed, right?"

"Sorry," Jaden muttered, looking away from that cold gaze. It was just as bad as fuckin' Barton when he was pissed.

Quatre snorted. "You're just lucky I'm not near you. If I told them what I just picked up from you, what do you think they'd do?"

"Oh, probably kill me slowly," Jaden returned dryly. "No worse than the threats I was under to start with anyway."

"Mm, good point," Duo noted in amusement. He smiled a very cold smile. "You wanna say that to me again?"

"Ooh, pissed off my lover," Quatre snickered wickedly.

Jaden shook his head. It was weird to think he was more worried about what Maxwell would do than what Winner himself would—on that same hand, though, he had a feeling Maxwell would be worried about Qingfu if the tables were turned.

"Aw," Quatre added after a moment. "Qingfu, he loves you!"

Qingfu focused on the screens skeptically.

"Quatre, quit being mean," Matty chided, moving up to Wufei's screen.

"Wait, why are you on his lap?" Duo asked blankly. "Isn't Heero in arms reach of you?"

"No, Heero is flying," Matty retorted. "And Blake is in the spot I'd take if I could, so there we go."

"You're all awful casual for me being fighting," Jaden snapped as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

"You're tearing up dolls," Quatre shot back. "I'm sorry, Den, I respect you more than that—you can handle un-programmed dolls. In your sleep."

"That's a round-about sort of compliment," Blake mused.

"He called you Den," Qingfu muttered with a little happy dance.

Jaden smiled at his lover, shaking his head.

"See?" Quatre beamed at Duo. "Even when I'm being a dick I can make friends."

"I would say something to that," Duo informed him, "but the open-channel and official quality a certain beauty has..."

Noin snickered. "Alright...we have them suiting up. What's your ETA?"

"Oh, ten minutes?" Quatre looked around. "Or more if we need to."

"How about Obsidian?" she asked wryly.

"Mm," Heero muttered, typing on his laptop.

"You're flying," someone protested.

"You come fly," Yuy shot back...and moved from his seat with the laptop in hand.

There was some swearing as people moved around on the transport, and Jaden had to grin to himself as he realized his man deserved something for all of this.

He'd just have to figure out exactly what. Probably rank, if he was keeping his cool with that lot of psychos around.

"Jaden?" Quatre's tone was half sing-song.

"Quit reading me, Winner," Jaden retorted.

"Ah, but you're a friend," Quatre protested. "I get pissed and all my friends have their input."

Jaden focused on his screen, giving him a look.

...actually, that was another compliment, wasn't it? He still wanted to smack the man for good measure, but...that had been a compliment.

Quatre grinned at him.

"Alright," Wufei muttered. "It's looking like Obsidian will be in some form of docking in about eight minutes."

Jaden groaned to himself as his team started on the last little group of suits. "God have mercy on us all."

"Or us, at any rate," Duo agreed, looking around. "Do we go?"

"We'll have to get in before the colony seals," Quatre agreed. "If we don't, we'll be stuck outside while they're all playing inside."

"Right," Duo agreed, and started maneuvering his controls.

Jaden watched as the tracker he had opened showed the acceleration of the suits of the team, then shook his head as he tore through another doll.

This...was not what he had in mind when he'd run for a ship...but at least he hadn't had visions of glory.

He focused back on task.