Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Masquerade ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two

Sage woke up in a sunny room, much like a hospital room, but the curtains were drab and she could see several bullet holes through the walls, although no evidence of a battle. Sitting up in bed, she groans at the sudden headache and flops back on the pillow. Where am I?? She sighs hopelessly and waits for the next thing to pop up in her face, as it does. A tall silent looking boy walks into the room holding a tray, which he sets on a table beside the bed. Sage feigns sleep, hoping to get a closer look.

"I see you are awake…" the boy says without the slightest tone of amusement in his voice.

"Wh-" Sage begins, sitting up again, ignoring her throbbing temples.

"Trowa Barton." He says automatically, he pours a cup of tea and hands it to her. "Quatre apologizes for his actions as of late. He sent the tea."

"If he's so sorry why isn't he up here telling me so?" Sage muttered.

"He was too ashamed. Winners are Pacifists, he panicked when you got suspicious, so now he's up there suffering in his room, for some unknown reason." He remarks. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you." He warns as Sage examines a button on a platform by the side of her bed.

"And why not?" she asks, she was starting to get mad, he had so many rules! She pushes it anyways, and hears a buzzing travel through a cord on the ceiling and it fades. She waits for a minute before remarking, "That's it?"

"Uh uh. You wait and see, they'll come."

"Who's coming????" Just then, another boy walked into the room. He was wearing a green tank top and black spandex. He was followed by another boy who was wearing a freshly starched priest collar and a long braid that reached below his waist. And they kept coming! Next came Quatre, looking bashful and sorry. Then a Chinese boy waltzed in, glared at everyone, and stationed himself in a corner.

"Heero! Give me back my g-Who's she?????" asked the boy with the braid.

"She's the new hotshot girl Dr.J wanted, Duo," spits out the Chinese boy.

"What's wrong with me being a girl? I mean, you're a boy!" Sage snorts, glaring.

"I hope so!" He says with deep felt amusement.

Duo walks forward and grins. " Hi! I'm Duo Maxwell! You must be Ms. Bennington!"

Sage glares at him. " That would be me. And it's SAGE Bennington." She snorts, why the heck was she here and who were they?

Duo gives her a funny look. "Geez! I was just trying to say hi..." he winks at her and moves back to the door, heading out. The boy with the green tank top marches forward, shrugs, and begins. "I'm Heero. Just Heero." Quatre kicks him and he rolls his eyes. "Heero Yuy." He spins around and stalks out the door. Quatre steps forward and smiles sheepishly.

"Stop it! I forgive you! Good God..." Sage says. She turns to the Chinese boy expectantly and he glares at her, he shifts and follows Heero out. Quatre and Trowa leave also, and Sage is alone.

"Weird." Is all she can muster, but her mind is whirling with activity. Just then, a tall stately girl with waist length auburn hair walks in. She sits on the edge of the bed, but Sage stands.

"I'm Relena Peacecraft, Queen of the Sanc Kingdom." Relena says.

"And I'm Sage Bennington-just Sage Bennington." Sage says. She looks to her then sits down also, she might as well ask Relena, and at least another girl was here…

"Relena? Who were those boys and why am I needed so badly I have to be kidnapped?" she sighs and looks to her.

"They were as they said, but also Gundam Pilots. They fight for the colonies…" Relena begins.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Hold it. I lost you back at the part about Gundam Pilots." Sage rubs her temples, thinking hard.

"Gundam Pilots… where to start? They are brave soldiers who pilot the sleek killing machines we call the Gundams. Made of Gundanium Alloy, the Gundams are virtually indestructible by human forces. There are five, sent to Earth in its time of need, each from a different colony. You will notice Heero leads them…" with a little sigh, she whispers faintly: "Heero!" and goes on. "They fight for peace, although they get-er, a bit excited at times…" Sage decided not to question her further as she had a very dreamy look in her eyes.

"Uh-ok… If it's all right with you, I'm gonna go and uh, look around…" she trails off, looking at Relena strangely.

"Uh huh… Yeah… Whatever…" Relena sighs softly and mutters `Heero' under her breath.

Sage gets up and starts off. Occasionally, she sees a door with a plaque on it, one said `TROWA' very plainly, and Quatre's had lots of little swirls around it. Sage looks around at them all before exploring some more.

Entering what she presumed was the living room, she smiles softly with her hands on her hips. Apparently, Relena wasn't much of a housekeeper. The couches' pillows were strewn all over the ground, and some even had feathers leaking out. Each pilot had a chair, labeled quite plainly with another, smaller plaque. Sage saw her own name, surrounded by a bunch of little curlicues on the back of the one next to Heero's. Sighing softly she pushes open a door and moves into the kitchen.

Her first thought when she saw the kitchen was Ewww! And so it was. The only thing that was relatively neat was the corner where the coffee maker stood, and it was only so because Duo had righted it for the purpose of making a cup of coffee.

He sat on the counter, sipping-what else-Maxwell House Coffee. Balancing precariously on the edge of the marble, he sat in the infamous (Echhemm, Danielle) Duo Sit.

He waved "Hey!"

Sage smiled very timidly and stood standing. "Hey… I'm uh-Sage. But you probably know that..." That had to be the dumbest thing I've ever said!!! She thought.

Duo raised an eyebrow. "Yea, I heard it." He slides down and sticks out his hand. "I'm Duo. But you can call me `darling', cutie!" He winks at her in regular Duo fashion, smiling broadly.

Suddenly, Sage wasn't shy anymore. "Don't call me cutie." Her jaw set, she grimly accepts his handshake, squeezing a little harder than normal, which was usually quite hard.

"Yow! Watch the death grip babe! Er-Sage!" Shaking his hand out, he steps back a ways, looking at her warily. "So-what do you pilot?"

"Er-" was Sage's graceful reply.

"Oh! That's right! You haven't been assigned yet!" He whacks his forehead with his hand, sending his braid flying.

"Er-" came the reply again from our friend.

An exasperated look appeared on Duo's face. "Gundam? Fly? Gun? Wing Zero? Heavyarms? Sandrock? Nataku? (And most importantly...) Deathscythe????? None of that makes any sense? None of it??????" his mouth dropped widely open.

"Er-" once again (I promise, this is the last one folks) Sage replied.

Duo's eyes widened to the size of saucers, and he spilled coffee all over his lap. "Oh…My...Gawd..." he continues gaping at her, then straightens and with a self assured look goes on to say "Well, ask Quatre. Or Trowa. Don't ask Heero, he might shoot you. And don't ask Wufei, hes sexist." He nods knowingly, waving a goodbye as he stalks off to terrorize his next unfortunate victim.

Shrugging lightly, Sage returns the wave very, very carefully, then turns around and sighs again. It's so weird here. To think, I could be home right now, writing that term paper due on Wednesday. Instead, I'm here. With these freaks. If I find a telephone I'm calling the police. With these thoughts on her mind, she starts off, only to turn right into the living room, which had been empty only a few moments before, and now was filled to the bursting point with people. Sage managed to slide unnoticed to her chair, and sank into its comfy depths. She recognized Duo (How could she forget him) and Trowa, but Quatre was nowhere to be seen. Wufei was looking at her hostilely from his chair, although she didn't know it at the time. A very important looking woman with dark brown hair caught her eye, and rattled a small bell to get everyone's attention.

"Everyone!!! Your attention please!!" She cleared her throat and went on. "As you all know, we are under attack by Oz." A few sarcastic gasps of surprise erupted in the room, followed by several sniggers, which were silenced by a quick look from the woman. "Our Gundam pilots have not been able to defeat them, even though they are skillful and wise in their ways. We need someone more, a sixth pilot. And what's more, Duo has graciously suggested for her to be a girl." Duo blushed at his mention in the scheme, and in the blink of an eye disappeared into the kitchen. Sage sighed softly. "This girl, or woman, is Sage Bennington." The woman backed away to let Sage have the floor. Sage stood, she could tell that she looked nervous, as she kept tucking her hair behind her ears. "Er-I'm Uh-Sage. But you already know that. I'm not entirely sure of my part in this, or why you need me, as I cannot and never have ever piloted anything in my entire life. But I assure you, I will do all in my power to help here…" Sage never really finished, as a chorus of cheers drowned her out. As she moved to sit down, she changed her mind and moved out the door instead. Letting her feet wander, she thought about the events of the day so far. So many strange things! Who were those people? And what was so special about her? A sigh of frustration escaped her then, and when she looked up, she found herself in a beautiful garden, the likes of which she had never seen before.