Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Mission Complete ❯ Working Together ( Chapter 36 )

Working Together

You take a quick glance at Heero before you make your decision. "We don't know how many of them there are, and we could use as much help as possible to avoid civilian casualties," you say seriously, before hesitating. Your pride strongly protests against what you're about to say next, but you tell it to go hide in a closet somewhere and continue, "So… would you like to help? We could use it, if there will be more soldiers there than I could handle alone…"

He studies you silently before he answers. "Sure. But if you don't mind, I'd like to call some friends of mine to help. Can I use your phone?"

You hand it to him, blinking. "Okay, but who are these friends of yours?"

"You'll see," is his cryptic answer. You roll your eyes. Couldn't he just tell you for once?

You sit back on the bench, listening as Heero makes his phone call. "Duo…? Yeah, it's me. Yes, I met her. No, it's not considered a date." He glances at you, and you try to hide a smirk. He goes back to the phone. "Duo, this is urgent. There's supposed to be an OZ attack, going on right about now… can you get the others? We'll meet you there…" He fills "Duo" in on the mission details as you stare at the sky, waiting for him to finish.

He finally hangs up and hands the phone back to you. "They're coming."

"Okay. If you're ready, let's go." You follow Heero to where his car is parked and slide into the passenger seat, not even bothering to buckle up. As soon as your door is closed, he pulls out of the parking lot and slams on the gas, bringing you to the site as fast as possible.

You laugh as you speed around other cars and run yellow lights, glancing at Heero. "Do you always drive this fast?"

He smirks slightly. "That's one of the perks of being with Preventers. You're allowed to get away with almost anything without being questioned."

"That is so unfair," you grumble, then blink as he stops at a red light. "But if you're with Preventers, don't you have anything that can handle those?"

"Now that you mention it…" Heero reaches over to dig in the glove compartment, finally pulling out a switch and tossing it to you. "Knock yourself out."

You grin evilly, hitting it and watching as the light turns green. "Hehehe… I have the power! I don't suppose you have sirens and lights on this thing too, do you? To get everyone else out of the way?"

Heero shoots you a slightly exasperated look. "This isn't a police car."

"Fine, fine…"

It doesn't take you long to get to the place in question, but what else could you expect, driving as fast as you were? You wonder for a brief moment how you'd take out the OZ soldiers with minimal weaponry, but as Heero threw open the trunk of the car, you could only stand and blink. "Geez, you come prepared, don't you?"

He chuckles slightly as you stare at all the weaponry he has in there. "Well, this could keep a couple armies fully armed for the next century or so…" you mutter, reaching in and pulling out a set of throwing knives. "Not that I'm complaining, of course, but…"

Heero reaches in and pulls out a few pistols and a machine gun. "Take your pick. We'll be fighting for a while, so get as much as you want."

You grin evilly. "Hey, you asked for it." With that said, you reach inside, pull out two more sets of throwing knives, three more guns, a lot of ammo, a machine gun that's almost identical to Heero's, a pair of daggers, ten time bombs, five contact explosives, and a katana and kodachi. Laughing quietly to yourself, you step back and glance at Heero. "Where're your friends?"

He shrugs. "They're coming. They should be here soon."

You glance at the city, and can faintly hear distant screams floating from inside it. "Well, they better hurry, or I'll be tempted to start without them…" You return your gaze to Heero. "Are you sure they'll be here?"

Heero nods. "Yes, but if you're so worried, we can start now."

"Good." Picking up the machine gun, you walk over so you're in one of the alleys, and can vaguely see some OZ troops on the street ahead. "Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

A few minutes later, you spot an alley up ahead that splits into two before hitting the main street. Taking one passageway, you look down it and turn to Heero, giving a brief nod before you continue watching the advancing OZ soldiers. He goes down the other way, and the two of you wait until they're right in front of you before you open fire.

Maybe ten minutes later, you realize your mistake: though you'd gotten all sorts of other weaponry, you'd forgotten to get more ammo for the machine gun. Cursing quietly, you grab your pistols and start firing off at the OZ soldiers some more. Taking a quick look at Heero, you notice that he has the same problem, and you make your way over to him. "Didn't you bring any more ammo?"

He doesn't even glance at you as he shoots a soldier that's coming up behind you. "I didn't have any. I didn't expect there to be this many of them."

"WHAT?" You regain your composure quickly and join Heero in shooting down the rest of your opponents until they're all dead. "Well, where are your friends?"

Heero looks slightly surprised, before his emotionless mask slides back into place. "I don't know. They should be here by now."

"Great," you mutter. "All we're left with is a few pistols and some close-range weapons, not to mention our backup's AWOL. Sounds like great odds to me."

Heero sends you a small half-smile. "They're probably here somewhere, but even if they're not, we'll have to keep fighting."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," you answer, then grin. "But hey, if they don't show up, then we can claim all the glory for ourselves!"

Heero doesn't even try to hide his chuckle. "You're crazy."

"You're not the first person to say that."

The city is completely overrun by OZ troops, so it doesn't take long for you to run out of bullets, even with all the extras you brought. The throwing knives and explosives don't last long either, so within a few minutes, you're left with the katana and kodachi, with both daggers stuffed in your boots just in case. Running one man through with the kodachi and turning to slash another across the chest with your katana, you spot Heero and move closer to him, so you're fighting back to back. Apparently, you underestimated the number of soldiers with this group… You let out a small cry as a bullet pierces your shoulder and lunge forward, quickly killing the guy who shot you, before you return to your original place. "What now? There's way too many of them!" you yell to Heero over the noise of battle.

He doesn't answer for a moment, and you wonder if he heard you. "We just keep going, and hope we survive."

You roll your eyes as you turn slightly to spear someone through. "Great answer, but if that's the best you've got, then we might as well go for it!" You can't see Heero's face, but somehow, you get the impression that he's grinning. Totally out of character, but that's what it seems like at the moment.

Five minutes pass, and you're getting desperate. There seems to be no end to the soldiers coming at you, and for every one you kill, it seems like three more take his place. Actually, it's getting really annoying… Taking advantage of that irritation, you growl softly as you take out two men with both your swords at the same time. A gunshot rings out, and you feel Heero jerk slightly behind you, but can't spare the time to look at him. "You okay?"

"Fine," he answers. "It scraped my arm, that's all."

"If you're sure…" Turning back to concentrate on the battle, you stab here, slice there, run a guy through with the katana… and are abruptly faced with an OZ soldier with a raised pistol. 'Uh oh…'

He gives you a feral grin. "Say goodbye, kiddo." You flinch slightly and start attacking randomly, hoping to take as many of them out as you can before he pulls the trigger. He's too far away for you to reach, and you can't dodge, since Heero's behind you…

His finger tightens. You close your eyes, ready to die, and a gunshot rings out…

…

'Am I dead?' the little voice in your head asks. 'Sure doesn't feel like it.'

"No, you're not," an amused voice answers, and you realize you said it out loud. For once, you thank the little voice in your head, and open your eyes to come face to face with a pair of cobalt blue ones. You yelp slightly as you stumble backward, and the boy jumps back slightly, looking a bit guilty. He rubs the back of his head with the hand not holding the gun, and his chestnut braid swings slightly. "Sorry."

"It's about time!" Heero growls, and you realize three things at once at that moment: One, you are most definitely still alive. Two, the braided teen must be one of the "friends" Heero called. And three? 'You're still in the middle of a battle, and I suggest you PAY ATTENTION unless you want that soldier over there to cut his throat!'

Snapping out of your near-death stupor just in time, you take a quick swipe at the guy with the kodachi in your left hand and watch in slight amusement as Heero's friend jumps. He glances almost fearfully behind him and winces. "That would've hurt. Thanks."

"Pay attention, Duo!" someone else yells, and you notice a Chinese boy with a revolver in one hand and a katana in the other. He must be another one of the people Heero called… along with two others, you note as you glance around. Duo gives you a slight grin as he disappears back into the melee, and you turn back to the task at hand.

The OZ soldiers drop a lot quicker with the help of the other four. You sigh lightly as you back away from the battle, take a quick breather before you leap back into the fray. It doesn't take long for you to finish off the rest of the soldiers, and you meet up with the others and go through introductions quickly.

"Sorry we're late," Quatre apologizes. "We didn't know where you guys were, so we spent most of the time taking down OZ troops all over the city while looking for you. I think we've been here long enough for there to only be about one or two left…"

You nod and clap your hands together. "Okay, then to get this done faster, we should split up into two groups and take down one each. Then we can meet up again and decide to do next."

The others agree, and you end up with Heero and Duo while Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei are in the other group. Splitting up, the three of you head over to the far end of the city, where the rest of the soldiers are wreaking havoc. About ten minutes later, the soldiers disband and run away, and the three of you have the fun job of tracking them down. You slip into a building and turn a corner warily, daggers at the ready, since your katana and kodachi got lost somewhere long ago. You spot an OZ soldier cowering in the corner, and noticing that he's unarmed, you sigh and prod him upright, deciding that you might as well try and see what the whole purpose of the attack was. "Come on. We're going outside." Keeping one of the daggers to his back, you shift your grip on the other so you're ready to throw it if he so much as takes one step without your permission. "And I'm watching you."

Heero notices you as soon as you step outside and walks towards you, his eyes on your captive. Duo's still off somewhere, presumably chasing other soldiers. As soon as Heero comes close enough, he steps up to the man and demands, "What were you doing here in the first place? Talk."

The soldier just stares at him stoically, with a look that reminds you slightly of Heero. You try to stifle a laugh, and Heero sends you an annoyed glare before returning his gaze to the soldier. Noticing a trace of movement over Heero's right soldier, you half-raise the dagger before realizing who it is. At that moment, Duo exits a building in front of them. "Hey guys! How'd it go?" Duo calls out cheerfully, before he notices something. "Where's Quatre?"

They're close enough now for you to hear Trowa's answer. "They caught him."

"What?" You stare at him in surprise.

Behind you, the soldier starts to laugh, almost hysterically. "Hahaha! So it was a success, after all." He eyes the five of you speculatively. "You want to know what the purpose of this mission was? We were supposed to find out who was fighting against us… and since we knew you were here anyway, to capture one of the Gundam pilots. And what luck, that it was none other than Quatre Raberba Winner himself!" He throws back his head and laughs.

You eye him in disgust. "Is that all you have to say?" When you receive no answer, you give in to your impulse and throw the dagger in your right hand. It embeds itself in the middle of his throat, and his laughing stops abruptly, just as blood starts to flow down his neck. You turn away, revolted. You can feel the pilots' eyes on you, but it's a while before anyone says something.

"So what now?" Duo asks softly. You sigh, lowering your eyes to the ground.

"Like he said, if Quatre's missing, it would cause a lot of problems. It won't take people long to notice that the CEO of Winner Corp. is missing." You turn back around and face the others, all of whom have thoughtful looks on their faces.

"So there's only one course of action," Heero says. "We have to find where they're keeping him and free Quatre."

Hey, you're already involved in this… so you're coming too! You're going off to find Quatre… aka page sixty-eight!