Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Mission Complete ❯ And This Is What We're Up To ( Chapter 21 )

And This Is What We're Up To

It's 2:00 AM, Colonial Standard Time. Normally, you wouldn't be up at this hour, and nothing less than a full-scale MS attack on the base would be able to wake you up enough to get out of bed. Anyone who tried usually got themselves literally kicked out of the room, with you still half-asleep. So it was that you were about a mile outside your base in the middle of the night, peering towards it and accompanied by five boys who looked about as awake as a person could get. And then, of course, there was you, who looked and felt like you were about to lie down and sleep.

You yawn slightly, rubbing at your eyes. "I can't believe you got me to do this. After all, even Doctor Y knows better than to wake me up this early in the morning. Of course, that might be because I've punched him into the wall every time he's tried…"

Duo laughs quietly. "Remind me never to wake you up in the morning."

"Look who's talking…" Wufei mutters. You sweatdrop.

Heero, who doesn't seem to be paying any attention whatsoever to your conversation, is staring intently towards the base. After a while, he nods sharply and turns to you. "It seems like it's clear right now. If you're ready, we can head in."

You sigh, not liking his tone of voice. "Yeah, yeah. Roger that, Commander." You take your own look outside, and as much as you hate to admit it, Heero seems to be right. "Okay, let's go." The six of you head towards the base as quietly as possible, the only noises the occasional snapping twig and a slight yelp as a branch whacks Duo in the face. You snicker and almost end up being whapped by the same branch. From then on, you force yourself to pay more attention to the pathway.

After a while, you're within ten feet of the base, and close enough to see the little password/eye scanner/card reader security thing on the door. The others turn to you expectantly. "Well?"

"I'm going, I'm going. No need to rush me. Geez…" You slip out of your hiding spot with almost no sound, heading for the door and not much caring if you're seen. If anyone spots you, they'll know you're on their side, and the worst that'll happen is that you'll get a tongue-lashing from Doctor Y. As to where exactly you've been, you can make it up; you're not exactly the best liar, but you've snuck out during the night before and that's what he'll think you've been doing if he senses you're not telling the truth.

After getting past the security clearance with no problem (why should there be a problem? This is your base, after all), you beckon the five boys in and all of you go down a hallway. You whisper to them, "I suggest you be quiet… we don't need any extra attention drawn to us. I might be able to get us out of a few sticky situations, but don't count on it."

The others nod, and you continue down the hallway. As you pass by the barracks, you hear footsteps coming down the corridor and freeze. "In here!" you snap, pushing them into an empty room and darting in behind them, closing the door behind you as quietly as you can. You put your ear to the door, listening intently as the footsteps come closer, pass the room you're in, and turn the corner. As soon as you can't hear anymore, you slide open the door, take a quick glance around, and step outside. "Okay. It's clear." As the pilots step outside behind you, the hilarity of the situation hits you and you stifle a giggle. As the others look at you strangely, you mutter, "This is by far the strangest mission I've ever been on. I can't believe I'm doing this."

Duo grins. "Well, more proof that life is completely unpredictable."

You shrug and give him an answering grin before the six of you continue down the hallway. You make a quick stop at the hangar on the way to the control room and spend a few minutes showing off what will soon be your Gundam, as well as bragging that you can probably beat a certain God of Death in an MS fight if you put your mind to it. Duo replies that you should just try it, and the next time you end up fighting OZ with mobile suits, the two of you should have a little competition to see who's truly better. You, being you, agree and accept his challenge. After all, what's the point of making friends with the Gundam pilots if you can't show them up once in a while?

All too soon for your liking, you reach the command center and the others ask you to show them anything of interest in the database. You sigh and give in, knowing that you can't fully gain their trust without doing it.

Duo watches over your shoulder curiously as you work. "Mind telling us why you're hacking your own system?"

"Well, the identification process would register that I was here, and that'll lead to questions as to why I didn't report in, where I was between the hours of now and whenever I decide to make my official reappearance, etc., etc.," you reply. "This may take a while - Doc Y designed this system himself. Of course, that doesn't mean that I can't hack it, but it'll take longer than usual."

A few minutes later, you're sitting back and gloating while the pilots scan through the information in your computer system, repeating any useful information that they find and obviously believing that you're against OZ at this point. As your eyes focus lazily on Duo's computer screen, you notice something that you haven't seen before. Your brain takes a few moments to process the information before you sit bolt upright and stand up abruptly, causing Quatre and Duo to jump.

"Sorry about that…" you mutter. "Hey Duo, can I see what you're working on? I thought I spotted something interesting…"

Duo gives you a strange look, but he agrees. You move to his terminal while he sits down in the place you were in before, watching you work. You scroll back up a bit to find the information, click on the link, and start reading.

"What is this?" you murmur quietly to yourself. "I've never seen this in here before…" Duo leans in closer, and the other four abandon their stations and come to look at what you're doing. Quatre reads it aloud for the benefit of anyone who can't see the screen that well.

"Let's see… this is from when this whole organization was started?" You nod absently, never having really gone through this before. "Well… okay. Objectives: to fight OZ, protect the colonies, keep Earth from exploiting the colonies, keep the peace by any means possible. Use force if necessary…" Quatre pauses. "How long ago was this again?"

"About a year," you mutter. "Shortly after the Mariemaia incident." You're about to go down and continue reading when the terminal Heero was at starts beeping. "What the heck…?"

He stands up and walks over to it. "I programmed it so that it was directly connected to the security cameras here at the base. Someone's heading toward this room." He pulls up a visual, and you quickly identify Doctor Y, accompanied by about five soldiers.

Duo turns to you. "Well, no problem here. You can just introduce us, right?"

You frown and chew on your bottom lip. "Well… no, not exactly. I'd get in trouble for breaking just about every rule this place has by inviting you guys over here. And besides… I want to take a closer look at that document before I make any more decisions. What do you think?"

Quatre and Duo shrug and Wufei and Heero just give you stoic looks. It's Trowa that answers your question. "This is your home turf. We'll leave that up to you."

"Well, then…"

"I think I'll keep reading that information. Something just doesn't seem right about it, and I want to take a closer look… and besides, maybe they'll just pass by this room." - go to page thirty-nine

"It's best if we close all this stuff and leave no evidence of what we were doing, and try to avoid notice until they leave. I don't want to get caught doing something I'm not supposed to when I'm not even supposed to be here." - go to page forty