Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Palace of Justice ❯ 5 ( Chapter 5 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Lethanon 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Sci-fi / Thriller | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.15.2011 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.5K | Visits: 323 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Sci-fi / Thriller | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.15.2011 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.5K | Visits: 323 | Status: Work In Progress
5:
His dreams were aged, old things that crept up on him unawares and haunted him into waking, leaving a stale taste in the back of his throat and an aching in his chest. Trowa shook them off into the fog of that place between waking and sleep and stumbled to the shower, coming fully aware as the cold water broke over his skin.
He was fastidious in his preparations for the day, ensuring everything he might possibly need was packed, including any tools he might need for last minute adjustments or preparations. If he was only going to get one chance, then he was just going to have to get it right the first time he tried.
He had Tracey make him two muffins, and had his coffees extra strong, and he got to work an hour before anyone else from his hanger. The clerk laughed at his punctuality and put it down, once again, to the nerves Trowa made sure were on clear display. He spent his extra hour going over his manual and running last minute simulations, though he doubted he was going to have any trouble at all piloting the SiS-50. It was a dream machine, and dream machines practically flew themselves. It was no heavyarms, that was for sure.
When his superior officer finally got in, it was a remarkably simple process of clearing the few people from their hanger for guard and getting them in and then Trowa was lost to the temptation of it all. Flying was a rare thing, Preventers having their licenses locked up tight in their vaults and only letting them out with Preventers clearance, and flying something like this, that Heero and the others hadn’t even seen yet, that was a treat. Trowa ran through his start up check list with a grin plastered firmly on his face, feeling like he had the first time he had flown a Gundam. It wasn’t the same, was an entirely different sort of craft altogether, but the excitement of it, the thrill...that was still there. It was nice to know he could still feel it. That while other things changed, it was still there under the surface waiting to be discovered all over again.
“You are clear, Pilot Bloom.”
Why thank you, pompass jackass. You are clear? What was that? Trowa snorted softly and fired up his engines, a little let down when there was no sign they were even on; no whoosh or boom or splurt and whirr. Just a green light on the dash, just like in the simulator. It was really rather creepy, to know you were in an entirely invisible space ship. Reading about it was one thing, being in it another entirely.
“Launch,” Trowa noted softly in his headpiece, then turned off his mic and set his co-ordinates for his external transfer point. He only hesitated a moment over the go button, then he was wondering why he was spinning in space, or why space was spinning, and why he had thought two muffins this morning had been a good idea.
“Nataku better be right, and that better get better the more times you do it,” he grumbled to himself, taking a few minutes to just breathe, listening for any sign of the others but it was strict radio silence on guard duty. They’d recommended he take a book, of all things. Hilarious. A book! They were ridiculously confident of themselves, and not being caught, but he supposed they had good reason to be. Preventers had barely caught glimpses of Frank, and even then only because he’d let them. Their SiS fighters really were invisible; didn’t exist, as far as the rest of the universe was concerned.
Trowa didn’t take a book. He got to work immediately on checking over his communications system once more, took a few deep breaths and turned it on. Then he just waited. And waited some more.
After an hour, he was confident the others weren’t picking up on it, and he was almost sure Frank wasn’t either, or if he was he was assuming it was coming from somewhere other than one of his own fighters. Trowa put his laptop on his knees and plugged the system in, syncing them and then launching the Preventers code.
There were no signals in their area. It didn’t surprise him, he hadn’t been able to build a large signal with what he had, and he’d had to limit himself even then to what he thought would be unlikely to be picked up. He was confident he had succeeded, it just meant he had to rely on Frank to do his bit, and Heero and Duo to pick up on what was going on.
After the first hour of waiting, he had to admit...he wished he had brought a book. He occupied himself with thinking of what everyone had been doing since they last put the Gundam’s away for good. Funny how that worked...putting something away for good more than once.
Wufei had joined the Preventers for a while, then gone for that weird ass job interview and no one had heard from him since. Had to be a damn good job, but whatever, he’d managed to convince Heero to join before bailing and where Heero had gone Duo had followed, though by all accounts the fight to get him to follow had been something worth seeing, if the fact Heero had turned up to the office one day with Duo slung unconscious over one shoulder. He wished he’d seen the look on Une’s face. How Une ended up leading Preventers was still a mystery to Trowa, and one he didn’t really want to look into. Some mysteries, he was of the opinion, were much better off left entirely alone. Especially psychopathic ones like Une.
Quatre...Quatre was the strange one. He’d taken over his Father’s company, put most of its subsidiaries in the competent hands of his sisters, and then gone and bought Preventers, privatising what had been a public enterprise on the agreement that he send all reports to the United Council for Intetglobal Peace, which Relena was currently leading. Why Quatre had felt inclined to buy Preventers, Trowa didn’t know, and it was one of those mysteries he intended to actually solve, in the future when Quatre had maybe toned down his entrepreneuring ways and could actually have a conversation longer than five minutes.
In short, Heero had mellowed, Duo had calmed, Wufei had opted out, Quatre had turned into a mad horse and Trowa had remained quiet on the sidelines watching the circus for once instead of being the guy everyone tried to throw knives at. It had been okay, but this was so much better! Granted, he would have preferred to infiltrate Frank on his own without the whole breaking down his self molecule by molecule and having to put himself back together thing but he was learning that it was just part of getting involved with Frank. You had to be willing to have a few breakdowns to get inside.
Maybe that was why everyone was so content to be inside Frank? The idea of leaving made their stomachs turn...literally.
Radio chatter came through his headset and he sat up straighter, turning his SiS-50 to scan the area and sure enough, ahead was a satellite. He looked up at the front of Frank and the eye on the pyramid was already open, the strange light flaring out and then the satellite was gone.
Was that how it had been when he went in? Obviously, but watching it was eerie. He wondered just how badly Duo had freaked out, and if Heero had actually sworn, of just stuck with grunting in annoyance. He was sure Duo would have done them all proud and occupied himself by dreaming up things Duo might have said when he disappeared.
Dude. There would definitely have been a few Dudes involved, which reminded him that he needed to raid their house and erase Duo’s vintage movie collection before any other ridiculous words made it into his vocabulary. Or at least tell Heero to screen them and delete any that looked dangerous.
Dude, Frank ate Trowa! Yeah, that was likely.
Dude, Frank devoured the T-man! T-man? Really? Trowa shook his head and tried to come up with something better.
WTF! Would he say the letters or the words? There was that whole period in the 00s when kids started using the letters instead of the words, and Quatre still insisted that was the end of good English. If he’d been watching crappy old vintage movies he might use the letters. The look on Heero’s face would be good...
“Can’t believe Frank ate another freakin satellite! Do you reckon the panels get stuck in his teeth?”
No, Trowa didn’t think he would have said that...Wait. He sat up straight and scanned the area again, and sure enough there was the blinking dot on his radar that indicated the Preventers shuttle. They were even early. Duo must have been flying, Heero would have been trying to run scans and get more information. So predictable, it made Trowa smirk.
“Not sure about the panels but if he has braces the wiring is going to be a bitch to untangle.”
“Trowa!” Duo sounded stunned and thrilled at the same time. It was nice to know he cared.
“Duo. No time for explanations, just do what I say. Trust me.” Yeah, right, like Yuy knew how to trust anyone, but he was just going to have to take the gamble on this one.
“Alright. What’s the plan?”
“Grab your laptops and any weapons you have, put them in a bag, put yourselves in space suits and get to the eye. You have six minutes to get there. If you’re late, you’ll get squashed when Frank moves and die.”
“Make me a pancake and I will come back and haunt you for the rest of your life!” But Duo was panting, clearly already doing what he had said and Trowa marvelled that a plan so simple could go so well, but then it had depended entirely on Duo and Heero seeing the missing satellite message and responding. They were the only two people he could think of who would have just jumped in. Quatre, after losing three men already, would have sat back and just waited to see what happened next, taking his time to plan a response. Wufei would have angsted for hours over the right thing to do. Trowa would have tried to decide which satellite would be next so he could sneak on board, because if this satellite had already disappeared he’d already missed his chance. Heero and Duo were the immediate response team, and they just happened to be the ones in the area, making his plan possible.
That didn’t mean it felt any less awesome to know his plan was working. The Preventers shuttle came into view and Trowa shook his head at how fast Duo flew it in before slamming on the breaks, stopping a hundred metres from Frank’s nose. The shuttle would be completely destroyed when Frank moved but that was fine, as long as Duo and Heero weren’t in it. Trowa moved around them anyway, just in case they missed the window and he needed to grab them, still not sure how he would explain two extra passengers in his cockpit when he got back, but that was for thinking about later. It was an ‘if’ scenario and he had faith in Nataku, if only because she seemed to be working for Frank.
“Okay, Tro, we’re ready to go. You sure we don’t need anything else?”
“I just need you. Go.”
“Aww, Tro! I didn’t know you...”
“DUO!” Heero snapped and Trowa barely restrained his laughter as he saw the shuttle hatch open and Heero dragging Duo out of it. They were laden with several large bags and Heero launched them directly at the eye, using strength as much as possible before he relied on the propellant packs they each held. They likely only had just enough to make the jump and Heero was cautious enough to use it only at the last minute.
Trowa checked their timing and worried his lower lip nervously, because they were cutting it close. They’d taken time packing, but they’d had enough to spare, and it was worth it. They wouldn’t have packed anything useless.
The clock was counting down, just a minute to spare when they each landed on the pyramid’s closed eye. Trowa wished he had a camera to snap a picture, but there wasn’t one.
“This better work Barton.” Heero didn’t sound overly impressed but there was relief in his voice as well. He was likely just glad to be doing something; to have found Frank again, and Trowa, and to be able to move forward with the mission. It would have been killing him sitting in the shuttle with no clues.
“It will. Just...take deep breaths and try not to move too much.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Duo’s frown was audible in his voice and Trowa just shrugged apologetically, not caring that they couldn’t see it because there wasn’t really anything else he could do at the moment. They would find out soon enough how sucky going inside Frank was.
The eye moved and they stumbled around on it, avoiding the sliding edges and landing instead on the glass front, facing out to space. Trowa imagined it was an amazing view, but then they were engulfed in light for several seconds.
And then they were gone, and seconds later the satellite reappeared, its lights blinking, still functioning perfectly. Trowa shook his head, wondering what they were going with the satellites. It was good that he was able to cover bringing Heero and Duo on board by timing it with the expulsion of the satellite, but it also made him realise he had made a grave error.
He’d forgotten what his mission was. Sure, Frank had a mission for him, but he was supposed to be figuring out what Frank was up to with the satellites, and that should have taken priority over Frank’s strange missing person. Though really, he thought he could be forgiven, considering the circumstances. Still, he spent the rest of his afternoon flying the area, examining the satellite and trying to determine what uses Frank could have had for it.
Supposedly it would explode this afternoon...or maybe it wouldn’t. Not all the satellites had exploded, right? He would have to ask Yuy.
He made sure he was last to go back in, not just because he was putting off the re-molecularization for as long as possible but because the nervous rookie had gotten over his nerves and couldn’t get enough of being out there now! Everyone chuckled when he got back in and he was sent home with a pat on the back and a well done which he felt in the core of his being. He had done well; damn well.
He still didn’t hurry back. He took his time about it, bought extra food at the supermarket on the way home and made sure he greeted his friends. He did everything he’d done every other day, and when he passed Nataku at one of the interchanges he pretended not to know her and went to shake hands with the builder he’d run into once from Sector 80 on Level 4.
That didn’t keep his heart from pounding as he opened his door and stepped in to find Heero at his desk and Duo pacing in circles.
“What the fuck did you do to us, that was the weirdest shit I’ve ever been through!” Duo froze in the middle of the room, one arm across his stomach and the other pointing accusingly. Trowa just smiled and came in, dumping his back, setting the door to lock and admiring the haul they had managed to bring in. It had looked like a lot from the outside...it really looked like a lot now.
“They call it molecularization. It’s the only way in or out.”
“How did you contact us?” Heero asked, looking genuinely curious. Trowa dug out his SiS manual and dumped it on the desk.
“I’m a Pilot. It was my maiden flight today. I rigged a second communication system into my cockpit and had Frank help my lure you in.”
They were both silent, Duo moving to look over Heero’s shoulder as he flipped through the manual, and finally Heero grunted, leaning back in the chair and Duo scratched his head. They both turned to look at him then.
“Frank helped you?” Duo blinked, eyes a little wide.
“Well, he wants my help. I made him understand he couldn’t get it without helping me first.”
“Frank wants your help?” His eyes were definitely getting wider.
“Yes. He asked for it, on my message board.”
“Frank talks to you...on your message board?”
This was going to take a while. Trowa went to the fridge and got out the juice, bread and peanut butter, putting it on the desk for the others to make food while he rummaged through the closet. He only had enough clothes for one, which just wouldn’t do.
“Look, I need a shower. While I do that, go shopping. You need to buy clothes...here.” He turned on the computer, aware of Duo hopping excitedly from one foot to the other, clearly wanting to have a go. He launched the shopping application and left it at that.
“Clothes, food...leave anything else until we’ve talked.”
“Roger...” But Duo was already shopping, Heero throwing in advice from behind him and Trowa left them to it, going into the bathroom and taking his five minutes of blessed quiet alone, washing his hair and getting rid of the scent of metal and sweat that stuck to him after being in the flight suit all day. The helmet was necessary and exceptional, but it was a sweat box and it flattened his hair!
He put on his house pants and wandered back out, grabbing a t-shirt from the closet at the last minute, frowning because he hadn’t had to bother when it had just been him, which made him wonder where they were all going to sleep. Three would be very uncomfortable in that bed...
But when he came out, Duo and Heero were sitting together on a large sleeping bag, still shopping, looking like they were at a sleepover. Trowa just stood silent, and waited. When Duo turned to look at him, Trowa realised he had a teddy in his lap. So much for them bringing nothing unessential.
“He’s essential!” Duo argued before Trowa could even say anything.
“He keeps him wrapped in the bag so you can’t grab one without grabbing the other,” Heero grumbled and it was clearly an argument they had had before. Trowa still wasn’t sure why they had bothered to bring a sleeping bag, but he wasn’t about to argue when it meant he still got his bed to himself.
“This is pretty cool system,” Duo noted softly, but he’d given up on shopping and was focussed on Trowa now.
“You have no idea.” Trowa sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, running a hand through his hair so it would dry in the right position.
“Barton. Just explain.” So he did. He told them what had happened since he disappeared from the Preventers shuttle. He told them about Nataku and Frank, about his job and the work he’d done so far laying a recognisable local personality, about his bank account and the fact it had been set up years ago, supposedly, about bringing them on board and the military...everything he could think of. Duo’s eyes were wide, Heero’s were narrowed, Trowa just felt tired.
“It really is a colony. How did they build an entire colony without anyone noticing?” Duo shook his head, and clearly didn’t expect an answer. No one knew, that was the point. Frank was still as much a mystery as ever, even from the inside.
“So, Frank...or whoever he is, wants you to save someone.”
“Apparently. He hasn’t been too forthcoming on that front. I wanted to get you in here as fast as possible, so I’ve just been focussing on that, and on making sure no one noticed I was here.”
“Hence becoming a local.”
“Exactly.”
“So, we have two objectives,” Heero noted softly. “The first is still to gather intel on the craft, and whether it’s a danger, and secondly to figure out who this person is you’re supposed to save and whether we do in fact save them or not.”
“That was my thinking on the matter,” Trowa agreed. “Now that there are three of us...If Heero is based permanently in My Room, that leaved Duo and I free to infiltrate and do the leg work.”
“Makes sense,” Heero agreed.
“Your Room?” Duo arched a brow and Trowa just shrugged. It was His Room. It had his name on it. “Dude, you have a room inside Frank.” Clearly. Neither Trowa nor Heero wasted time pointing out that that was entirely obvious and didn’t need to be pointed out.
“The Computer is great, but if you can hack it, find a way to get to Frank...”
“I’ll find a way,” Heero agreed immediately. He’d likely already been thinking much the same thing.
“And I’ll work on finding information on the colony,” Duo agreed, already following their line of thought. “Leaving Tro free to figure out the mystery of saving Frank’s random person.” They all nodded, having clear ideas of what had to be done. Duo was the hardest, because he didn’t know the colony yet, but he would have an advantage Trowa didn’t have, in that Trowa could introduce him to a lot of things, and then he would do much as Trowa had done; blend in and hope he didn’t look like a fool in the dark.
Heero was already unpacking their laptops and Duo reached for the bag of weapons they had brought so Trowa logged in to his message board and tried to think of what to say. Now that Heero and Duo were here it felt like someone was invading his privacy and he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of having a conversation with Frank while they were there. While he was trying to think he attempted a call to Frank but no one answered. Not that he had expected them to.
“Thank you Frank.”
“I’ve helped you. Now you have to help me.”
Duo jerked at the voice and came to sit beside Trowa on the sleeping bag, taking apart a pulse rifle while he stared at the screen with wide eyes, watching the conversation appear there as if by magic.
“I need more information. Who is my target?”
“Find my room. That’s all I can tell you.”
“Because people can find you?”
“Because that’s all I can tell you.”
It was hard to tell what he really meant but Trowa was sure he was being monitored and was worried someone might see their conversation and figure out what Frank was up to. The less information Frank gave out the better.
“Frank?”
“Yes, Mr Maxwell?”
“Oh wow, Frank knows my name! Heero, he knows who I am!” Duo was turning around to grin at Heero and Trowa just slumped forward, letting his head fall into one hand and he laughed softly.
“I know everything, Mr Maxwell.”
Unforunately, Trowa was sure that was true. It was disturbing, but it might also have something to do with what Frank was doing with the satellites. He shared a knowing look with Heero, reassured by the nod Heero gave him. Heero would look into it.
He didn’t bother trying to continue his conversation with Frank, despite the fact it seemed Frank was for once not preoccupied with other things. He logged off the message board and went to lie on the bed instead. Duo sprawled out on the sleeping bag, fiddling with the Computer still, running through the options and just learning how it all worked much as Trowa had done when he first got there. Heero watched him, learning just by watching.
“I have to work tomorrow, but I have the day off after that. I’ll take Duo as far as my last interchange, show him how the shuttle system works, and we can meet back there when I finish.”
“Sounds good,” Duo agreed, but he was distracted by the music player. Heero left him to it, lying on his side where he could see Trowa, pinning him with that all too familiar glare. Trowa wondered if his eyes got sore, or if he’d maybe had plastic surgery to pull his eyebrows that low permanently. It was the same look Heero had given him when he first woke up after self destructing, demanding silently to know why he was still there. Self destructing was, after all, supposed to be the end. Waking up clearly made you a failure at it.
“Dying still hurt?”
He saw the recognition in Heero’s eyes and they both chuckled, Heero reaching down to rub his stomach with a look of wry understanding.
“Molecularization. I think I prefer the old way of just opening a damn door.”
“You don’t say,” Trowa grinned at him, amused because it was a little known fact that even Heero Yuy could feel pain and would go a little out of his way to avoid it where possible. “Clever though. Explains why Preventers never got a shot of the doors opening. They don’t actually open; they’re each individual Molecularization pads. You can read about it in my military manual.”
“Why the eye then?”
“It’s more advanced. The pads are set to only recognise the SiS fighters. It makes it impossible for anything else to use the bays. The eye is able to break down the molecular structure of anything, but can only be activated from somewhere in here.”
“You don’t know where?”
“No idea. I’m guessing the controls are with Frank.”
“And your rescue mission is apparently in Frank’s room.”
They were quiet for a long time, wondering if perhaps their two objectives weren’t closer linked than they realised. Trowa sighed and rolled onto his side, looking over Heero’s shoulder at Duo where he sat still entranced by the computer and would likely remain til the early hours of the morning. Duo had never needed much sleep to be on top of his game. Trowa doubted much had changed. Heero and Trowa, on the other hand, took sleep when they could, always aware they might not get it later and always determined to be at their peak performance, regardless of whether they needed to be or not.
“Where is Frank’s room?”
“I’ve only got one clue.”
Heero just raised a brow at him expectantly and Trowa got up to grab the manual for the computer, looking up the section for making phone calls.
“Usually, when you make a call, you call the number associated with the room. My room number has ten numbers.”
“That’s a lot of rooms.”
“I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but I think there’s a lot more than that.” He sighed and moved so he was hanging off the side of the bed, pointing to the images in the manual upside down, so Heero could see it the right way up. Sectors are horizontal sections of the colony, Levels are vertical. There are five traversable Levels and a hundred Sectors. The first number in the phone system indicates the level, the next two the sector, and from there...the room number.”
“So each Sector has a possible 9999999 rooms?” Heero looked incredulous, as one might when they realised just how many people could live inside of Frank. And that was when you thought only of one person occupying each room. If you thought of a family in even half those rooms, the number was staggering.
“I don’t think it’s quite that bad. Far as I can tell, I live in Chinatown. Rooms are smaller, cheaper and easier to get...”
“And easier to hide,” Heero agreed, nodding as he perused the manual.
“Dude, you live in Chinatown?” Duo was snickering.
“When I first went out, every person I saw was Asian. I thought I was never going to be able to blend in. Then I found out most Europeans lived on Level 3 and I started to feel better.” Duo was laughing outright now and Trowa and Heero shared a long suffering look.
“So Frank’s going out of his way to hide the fact you’re here,” Heero mused. “What’s your clue to where Frank is? You can’t just go checking every room.”
“I know. The problem is, when I call Frank I call 37265.”
“That’s not ten digits,” Heero pointed out stoically.
“No, but it spells Frank on the numerical keypad,” Duo supplied immediately and Trowa just smiled at him. Trust Duo to know immediately. “You really dialled Frank, and what...hoped for a miracle?”
“I thought it was funny. I didn’t expect it to work,” Trowa mumbled defensively. “It’s all I’ve got. But if you assume other Sectors have larger rooms, and hence less available phone slots...”
“Theoretically you could have Room 0037265.”
“So what...we’re looking for the rich end of town?” Duo snorted, finally turning the computer off and joining the conversation, lying down to sprawl half on top of Heero. That Heero allowed it spoke volumes but Trowa didn’t comment.
“Would help if we knew who had funded or made Frank,” Heero mused. “If the colony is as racially segregated as you say, it would narrow down where the money is.”
Trowa just shrugged because he had no idea who the mastermind behind Frank had been. Someone rich. Quatre might have been able to narrow down the candidates, but he wasn’t here and the fact was Quatre’s name would have been high on the list. Few people could match bank accounts with a Winner.
“So tomorrow, Trowa goes to work and finds out what he can from the contacts he’s made. Duo goes to the Sector’s Trowa hasn’t made it to, and I try and hack the Computer.” Heero nodded and Duo hummed softly in agreement. Trowa didn’t bother replying, just flopped back into the centre of the bed and stared at the ceiling.
The lights were turned off, but Duo and Heero sat with a torch, reading the manuals Trowa had collected into the early hours of the morning. At some point Trowa fell into a restless sleep.
His dreams were aged, old things that crept up on him unawares and haunted him into waking, leaving a stale taste in the back of his throat and an aching in his chest. Trowa shook them off into the fog of that place between waking and sleep and stumbled to the shower, coming fully aware as the cold water broke over his skin.
He was fastidious in his preparations for the day, ensuring everything he might possibly need was packed, including any tools he might need for last minute adjustments or preparations. If he was only going to get one chance, then he was just going to have to get it right the first time he tried.
He had Tracey make him two muffins, and had his coffees extra strong, and he got to work an hour before anyone else from his hanger. The clerk laughed at his punctuality and put it down, once again, to the nerves Trowa made sure were on clear display. He spent his extra hour going over his manual and running last minute simulations, though he doubted he was going to have any trouble at all piloting the SiS-50. It was a dream machine, and dream machines practically flew themselves. It was no heavyarms, that was for sure.
When his superior officer finally got in, it was a remarkably simple process of clearing the few people from their hanger for guard and getting them in and then Trowa was lost to the temptation of it all. Flying was a rare thing, Preventers having their licenses locked up tight in their vaults and only letting them out with Preventers clearance, and flying something like this, that Heero and the others hadn’t even seen yet, that was a treat. Trowa ran through his start up check list with a grin plastered firmly on his face, feeling like he had the first time he had flown a Gundam. It wasn’t the same, was an entirely different sort of craft altogether, but the excitement of it, the thrill...that was still there. It was nice to know he could still feel it. That while other things changed, it was still there under the surface waiting to be discovered all over again.
“You are clear, Pilot Bloom.”
Why thank you, pompass jackass. You are clear? What was that? Trowa snorted softly and fired up his engines, a little let down when there was no sign they were even on; no whoosh or boom or splurt and whirr. Just a green light on the dash, just like in the simulator. It was really rather creepy, to know you were in an entirely invisible space ship. Reading about it was one thing, being in it another entirely.
“Launch,” Trowa noted softly in his headpiece, then turned off his mic and set his co-ordinates for his external transfer point. He only hesitated a moment over the go button, then he was wondering why he was spinning in space, or why space was spinning, and why he had thought two muffins this morning had been a good idea.
“Nataku better be right, and that better get better the more times you do it,” he grumbled to himself, taking a few minutes to just breathe, listening for any sign of the others but it was strict radio silence on guard duty. They’d recommended he take a book, of all things. Hilarious. A book! They were ridiculously confident of themselves, and not being caught, but he supposed they had good reason to be. Preventers had barely caught glimpses of Frank, and even then only because he’d let them. Their SiS fighters really were invisible; didn’t exist, as far as the rest of the universe was concerned.
Trowa didn’t take a book. He got to work immediately on checking over his communications system once more, took a few deep breaths and turned it on. Then he just waited. And waited some more.
After an hour, he was confident the others weren’t picking up on it, and he was almost sure Frank wasn’t either, or if he was he was assuming it was coming from somewhere other than one of his own fighters. Trowa put his laptop on his knees and plugged the system in, syncing them and then launching the Preventers code.
There were no signals in their area. It didn’t surprise him, he hadn’t been able to build a large signal with what he had, and he’d had to limit himself even then to what he thought would be unlikely to be picked up. He was confident he had succeeded, it just meant he had to rely on Frank to do his bit, and Heero and Duo to pick up on what was going on.
After the first hour of waiting, he had to admit...he wished he had brought a book. He occupied himself with thinking of what everyone had been doing since they last put the Gundam’s away for good. Funny how that worked...putting something away for good more than once.
Wufei had joined the Preventers for a while, then gone for that weird ass job interview and no one had heard from him since. Had to be a damn good job, but whatever, he’d managed to convince Heero to join before bailing and where Heero had gone Duo had followed, though by all accounts the fight to get him to follow had been something worth seeing, if the fact Heero had turned up to the office one day with Duo slung unconscious over one shoulder. He wished he’d seen the look on Une’s face. How Une ended up leading Preventers was still a mystery to Trowa, and one he didn’t really want to look into. Some mysteries, he was of the opinion, were much better off left entirely alone. Especially psychopathic ones like Une.
Quatre...Quatre was the strange one. He’d taken over his Father’s company, put most of its subsidiaries in the competent hands of his sisters, and then gone and bought Preventers, privatising what had been a public enterprise on the agreement that he send all reports to the United Council for Intetglobal Peace, which Relena was currently leading. Why Quatre had felt inclined to buy Preventers, Trowa didn’t know, and it was one of those mysteries he intended to actually solve, in the future when Quatre had maybe toned down his entrepreneuring ways and could actually have a conversation longer than five minutes.
In short, Heero had mellowed, Duo had calmed, Wufei had opted out, Quatre had turned into a mad horse and Trowa had remained quiet on the sidelines watching the circus for once instead of being the guy everyone tried to throw knives at. It had been okay, but this was so much better! Granted, he would have preferred to infiltrate Frank on his own without the whole breaking down his self molecule by molecule and having to put himself back together thing but he was learning that it was just part of getting involved with Frank. You had to be willing to have a few breakdowns to get inside.
Maybe that was why everyone was so content to be inside Frank? The idea of leaving made their stomachs turn...literally.
Radio chatter came through his headset and he sat up straighter, turning his SiS-50 to scan the area and sure enough, ahead was a satellite. He looked up at the front of Frank and the eye on the pyramid was already open, the strange light flaring out and then the satellite was gone.
Was that how it had been when he went in? Obviously, but watching it was eerie. He wondered just how badly Duo had freaked out, and if Heero had actually sworn, of just stuck with grunting in annoyance. He was sure Duo would have done them all proud and occupied himself by dreaming up things Duo might have said when he disappeared.
Dude. There would definitely have been a few Dudes involved, which reminded him that he needed to raid their house and erase Duo’s vintage movie collection before any other ridiculous words made it into his vocabulary. Or at least tell Heero to screen them and delete any that looked dangerous.
Dude, Frank ate Trowa! Yeah, that was likely.
Dude, Frank devoured the T-man! T-man? Really? Trowa shook his head and tried to come up with something better.
WTF! Would he say the letters or the words? There was that whole period in the 00s when kids started using the letters instead of the words, and Quatre still insisted that was the end of good English. If he’d been watching crappy old vintage movies he might use the letters. The look on Heero’s face would be good...
“Can’t believe Frank ate another freakin satellite! Do you reckon the panels get stuck in his teeth?”
No, Trowa didn’t think he would have said that...Wait. He sat up straight and scanned the area again, and sure enough there was the blinking dot on his radar that indicated the Preventers shuttle. They were even early. Duo must have been flying, Heero would have been trying to run scans and get more information. So predictable, it made Trowa smirk.
“Not sure about the panels but if he has braces the wiring is going to be a bitch to untangle.”
“Trowa!” Duo sounded stunned and thrilled at the same time. It was nice to know he cared.
“Duo. No time for explanations, just do what I say. Trust me.” Yeah, right, like Yuy knew how to trust anyone, but he was just going to have to take the gamble on this one.
“Alright. What’s the plan?”
“Grab your laptops and any weapons you have, put them in a bag, put yourselves in space suits and get to the eye. You have six minutes to get there. If you’re late, you’ll get squashed when Frank moves and die.”
“Make me a pancake and I will come back and haunt you for the rest of your life!” But Duo was panting, clearly already doing what he had said and Trowa marvelled that a plan so simple could go so well, but then it had depended entirely on Duo and Heero seeing the missing satellite message and responding. They were the only two people he could think of who would have just jumped in. Quatre, after losing three men already, would have sat back and just waited to see what happened next, taking his time to plan a response. Wufei would have angsted for hours over the right thing to do. Trowa would have tried to decide which satellite would be next so he could sneak on board, because if this satellite had already disappeared he’d already missed his chance. Heero and Duo were the immediate response team, and they just happened to be the ones in the area, making his plan possible.
That didn’t mean it felt any less awesome to know his plan was working. The Preventers shuttle came into view and Trowa shook his head at how fast Duo flew it in before slamming on the breaks, stopping a hundred metres from Frank’s nose. The shuttle would be completely destroyed when Frank moved but that was fine, as long as Duo and Heero weren’t in it. Trowa moved around them anyway, just in case they missed the window and he needed to grab them, still not sure how he would explain two extra passengers in his cockpit when he got back, but that was for thinking about later. It was an ‘if’ scenario and he had faith in Nataku, if only because she seemed to be working for Frank.
“Okay, Tro, we’re ready to go. You sure we don’t need anything else?”
“I just need you. Go.”
“Aww, Tro! I didn’t know you...”
“DUO!” Heero snapped and Trowa barely restrained his laughter as he saw the shuttle hatch open and Heero dragging Duo out of it. They were laden with several large bags and Heero launched them directly at the eye, using strength as much as possible before he relied on the propellant packs they each held. They likely only had just enough to make the jump and Heero was cautious enough to use it only at the last minute.
Trowa checked their timing and worried his lower lip nervously, because they were cutting it close. They’d taken time packing, but they’d had enough to spare, and it was worth it. They wouldn’t have packed anything useless.
The clock was counting down, just a minute to spare when they each landed on the pyramid’s closed eye. Trowa wished he had a camera to snap a picture, but there wasn’t one.
“This better work Barton.” Heero didn’t sound overly impressed but there was relief in his voice as well. He was likely just glad to be doing something; to have found Frank again, and Trowa, and to be able to move forward with the mission. It would have been killing him sitting in the shuttle with no clues.
“It will. Just...take deep breaths and try not to move too much.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Duo’s frown was audible in his voice and Trowa just shrugged apologetically, not caring that they couldn’t see it because there wasn’t really anything else he could do at the moment. They would find out soon enough how sucky going inside Frank was.
The eye moved and they stumbled around on it, avoiding the sliding edges and landing instead on the glass front, facing out to space. Trowa imagined it was an amazing view, but then they were engulfed in light for several seconds.
And then they were gone, and seconds later the satellite reappeared, its lights blinking, still functioning perfectly. Trowa shook his head, wondering what they were going with the satellites. It was good that he was able to cover bringing Heero and Duo on board by timing it with the expulsion of the satellite, but it also made him realise he had made a grave error.
He’d forgotten what his mission was. Sure, Frank had a mission for him, but he was supposed to be figuring out what Frank was up to with the satellites, and that should have taken priority over Frank’s strange missing person. Though really, he thought he could be forgiven, considering the circumstances. Still, he spent the rest of his afternoon flying the area, examining the satellite and trying to determine what uses Frank could have had for it.
Supposedly it would explode this afternoon...or maybe it wouldn’t. Not all the satellites had exploded, right? He would have to ask Yuy.
He made sure he was last to go back in, not just because he was putting off the re-molecularization for as long as possible but because the nervous rookie had gotten over his nerves and couldn’t get enough of being out there now! Everyone chuckled when he got back in and he was sent home with a pat on the back and a well done which he felt in the core of his being. He had done well; damn well.
He still didn’t hurry back. He took his time about it, bought extra food at the supermarket on the way home and made sure he greeted his friends. He did everything he’d done every other day, and when he passed Nataku at one of the interchanges he pretended not to know her and went to shake hands with the builder he’d run into once from Sector 80 on Level 4.
That didn’t keep his heart from pounding as he opened his door and stepped in to find Heero at his desk and Duo pacing in circles.
“What the fuck did you do to us, that was the weirdest shit I’ve ever been through!” Duo froze in the middle of the room, one arm across his stomach and the other pointing accusingly. Trowa just smiled and came in, dumping his back, setting the door to lock and admiring the haul they had managed to bring in. It had looked like a lot from the outside...it really looked like a lot now.
“They call it molecularization. It’s the only way in or out.”
“How did you contact us?” Heero asked, looking genuinely curious. Trowa dug out his SiS manual and dumped it on the desk.
“I’m a Pilot. It was my maiden flight today. I rigged a second communication system into my cockpit and had Frank help my lure you in.”
They were both silent, Duo moving to look over Heero’s shoulder as he flipped through the manual, and finally Heero grunted, leaning back in the chair and Duo scratched his head. They both turned to look at him then.
“Frank helped you?” Duo blinked, eyes a little wide.
“Well, he wants my help. I made him understand he couldn’t get it without helping me first.”
“Frank wants your help?” His eyes were definitely getting wider.
“Yes. He asked for it, on my message board.”
“Frank talks to you...on your message board?”
This was going to take a while. Trowa went to the fridge and got out the juice, bread and peanut butter, putting it on the desk for the others to make food while he rummaged through the closet. He only had enough clothes for one, which just wouldn’t do.
“Look, I need a shower. While I do that, go shopping. You need to buy clothes...here.” He turned on the computer, aware of Duo hopping excitedly from one foot to the other, clearly wanting to have a go. He launched the shopping application and left it at that.
“Clothes, food...leave anything else until we’ve talked.”
“Roger...” But Duo was already shopping, Heero throwing in advice from behind him and Trowa left them to it, going into the bathroom and taking his five minutes of blessed quiet alone, washing his hair and getting rid of the scent of metal and sweat that stuck to him after being in the flight suit all day. The helmet was necessary and exceptional, but it was a sweat box and it flattened his hair!
He put on his house pants and wandered back out, grabbing a t-shirt from the closet at the last minute, frowning because he hadn’t had to bother when it had just been him, which made him wonder where they were all going to sleep. Three would be very uncomfortable in that bed...
But when he came out, Duo and Heero were sitting together on a large sleeping bag, still shopping, looking like they were at a sleepover. Trowa just stood silent, and waited. When Duo turned to look at him, Trowa realised he had a teddy in his lap. So much for them bringing nothing unessential.
“He’s essential!” Duo argued before Trowa could even say anything.
“He keeps him wrapped in the bag so you can’t grab one without grabbing the other,” Heero grumbled and it was clearly an argument they had had before. Trowa still wasn’t sure why they had bothered to bring a sleeping bag, but he wasn’t about to argue when it meant he still got his bed to himself.
“This is pretty cool system,” Duo noted softly, but he’d given up on shopping and was focussed on Trowa now.
“You have no idea.” Trowa sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, running a hand through his hair so it would dry in the right position.
“Barton. Just explain.” So he did. He told them what had happened since he disappeared from the Preventers shuttle. He told them about Nataku and Frank, about his job and the work he’d done so far laying a recognisable local personality, about his bank account and the fact it had been set up years ago, supposedly, about bringing them on board and the military...everything he could think of. Duo’s eyes were wide, Heero’s were narrowed, Trowa just felt tired.
“It really is a colony. How did they build an entire colony without anyone noticing?” Duo shook his head, and clearly didn’t expect an answer. No one knew, that was the point. Frank was still as much a mystery as ever, even from the inside.
“So, Frank...or whoever he is, wants you to save someone.”
“Apparently. He hasn’t been too forthcoming on that front. I wanted to get you in here as fast as possible, so I’ve just been focussing on that, and on making sure no one noticed I was here.”
“Hence becoming a local.”
“Exactly.”
“So, we have two objectives,” Heero noted softly. “The first is still to gather intel on the craft, and whether it’s a danger, and secondly to figure out who this person is you’re supposed to save and whether we do in fact save them or not.”
“That was my thinking on the matter,” Trowa agreed. “Now that there are three of us...If Heero is based permanently in My Room, that leaved Duo and I free to infiltrate and do the leg work.”
“Makes sense,” Heero agreed.
“Your Room?” Duo arched a brow and Trowa just shrugged. It was His Room. It had his name on it. “Dude, you have a room inside Frank.” Clearly. Neither Trowa nor Heero wasted time pointing out that that was entirely obvious and didn’t need to be pointed out.
“The Computer is great, but if you can hack it, find a way to get to Frank...”
“I’ll find a way,” Heero agreed immediately. He’d likely already been thinking much the same thing.
“And I’ll work on finding information on the colony,” Duo agreed, already following their line of thought. “Leaving Tro free to figure out the mystery of saving Frank’s random person.” They all nodded, having clear ideas of what had to be done. Duo was the hardest, because he didn’t know the colony yet, but he would have an advantage Trowa didn’t have, in that Trowa could introduce him to a lot of things, and then he would do much as Trowa had done; blend in and hope he didn’t look like a fool in the dark.
Heero was already unpacking their laptops and Duo reached for the bag of weapons they had brought so Trowa logged in to his message board and tried to think of what to say. Now that Heero and Duo were here it felt like someone was invading his privacy and he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of having a conversation with Frank while they were there. While he was trying to think he attempted a call to Frank but no one answered. Not that he had expected them to.
“Thank you Frank.”
“I’ve helped you. Now you have to help me.”
Duo jerked at the voice and came to sit beside Trowa on the sleeping bag, taking apart a pulse rifle while he stared at the screen with wide eyes, watching the conversation appear there as if by magic.
“I need more information. Who is my target?”
“Find my room. That’s all I can tell you.”
“Because people can find you?”
“Because that’s all I can tell you.”
It was hard to tell what he really meant but Trowa was sure he was being monitored and was worried someone might see their conversation and figure out what Frank was up to. The less information Frank gave out the better.
“Frank?”
“Yes, Mr Maxwell?”
“Oh wow, Frank knows my name! Heero, he knows who I am!” Duo was turning around to grin at Heero and Trowa just slumped forward, letting his head fall into one hand and he laughed softly.
“I know everything, Mr Maxwell.”
Unforunately, Trowa was sure that was true. It was disturbing, but it might also have something to do with what Frank was doing with the satellites. He shared a knowing look with Heero, reassured by the nod Heero gave him. Heero would look into it.
He didn’t bother trying to continue his conversation with Frank, despite the fact it seemed Frank was for once not preoccupied with other things. He logged off the message board and went to lie on the bed instead. Duo sprawled out on the sleeping bag, fiddling with the Computer still, running through the options and just learning how it all worked much as Trowa had done when he first got there. Heero watched him, learning just by watching.
“I have to work tomorrow, but I have the day off after that. I’ll take Duo as far as my last interchange, show him how the shuttle system works, and we can meet back there when I finish.”
“Sounds good,” Duo agreed, but he was distracted by the music player. Heero left him to it, lying on his side where he could see Trowa, pinning him with that all too familiar glare. Trowa wondered if his eyes got sore, or if he’d maybe had plastic surgery to pull his eyebrows that low permanently. It was the same look Heero had given him when he first woke up after self destructing, demanding silently to know why he was still there. Self destructing was, after all, supposed to be the end. Waking up clearly made you a failure at it.
“Dying still hurt?”
He saw the recognition in Heero’s eyes and they both chuckled, Heero reaching down to rub his stomach with a look of wry understanding.
“Molecularization. I think I prefer the old way of just opening a damn door.”
“You don’t say,” Trowa grinned at him, amused because it was a little known fact that even Heero Yuy could feel pain and would go a little out of his way to avoid it where possible. “Clever though. Explains why Preventers never got a shot of the doors opening. They don’t actually open; they’re each individual Molecularization pads. You can read about it in my military manual.”
“Why the eye then?”
“It’s more advanced. The pads are set to only recognise the SiS fighters. It makes it impossible for anything else to use the bays. The eye is able to break down the molecular structure of anything, but can only be activated from somewhere in here.”
“You don’t know where?”
“No idea. I’m guessing the controls are with Frank.”
“And your rescue mission is apparently in Frank’s room.”
They were quiet for a long time, wondering if perhaps their two objectives weren’t closer linked than they realised. Trowa sighed and rolled onto his side, looking over Heero’s shoulder at Duo where he sat still entranced by the computer and would likely remain til the early hours of the morning. Duo had never needed much sleep to be on top of his game. Trowa doubted much had changed. Heero and Trowa, on the other hand, took sleep when they could, always aware they might not get it later and always determined to be at their peak performance, regardless of whether they needed to be or not.
“Where is Frank’s room?”
“I’ve only got one clue.”
Heero just raised a brow at him expectantly and Trowa got up to grab the manual for the computer, looking up the section for making phone calls.
“Usually, when you make a call, you call the number associated with the room. My room number has ten numbers.”
“That’s a lot of rooms.”
“I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but I think there’s a lot more than that.” He sighed and moved so he was hanging off the side of the bed, pointing to the images in the manual upside down, so Heero could see it the right way up. Sectors are horizontal sections of the colony, Levels are vertical. There are five traversable Levels and a hundred Sectors. The first number in the phone system indicates the level, the next two the sector, and from there...the room number.”
“So each Sector has a possible 9999999 rooms?” Heero looked incredulous, as one might when they realised just how many people could live inside of Frank. And that was when you thought only of one person occupying each room. If you thought of a family in even half those rooms, the number was staggering.
“I don’t think it’s quite that bad. Far as I can tell, I live in Chinatown. Rooms are smaller, cheaper and easier to get...”
“And easier to hide,” Heero agreed, nodding as he perused the manual.
“Dude, you live in Chinatown?” Duo was snickering.
“When I first went out, every person I saw was Asian. I thought I was never going to be able to blend in. Then I found out most Europeans lived on Level 3 and I started to feel better.” Duo was laughing outright now and Trowa and Heero shared a long suffering look.
“So Frank’s going out of his way to hide the fact you’re here,” Heero mused. “What’s your clue to where Frank is? You can’t just go checking every room.”
“I know. The problem is, when I call Frank I call 37265.”
“That’s not ten digits,” Heero pointed out stoically.
“No, but it spells Frank on the numerical keypad,” Duo supplied immediately and Trowa just smiled at him. Trust Duo to know immediately. “You really dialled Frank, and what...hoped for a miracle?”
“I thought it was funny. I didn’t expect it to work,” Trowa mumbled defensively. “It’s all I’ve got. But if you assume other Sectors have larger rooms, and hence less available phone slots...”
“Theoretically you could have Room 0037265.”
“So what...we’re looking for the rich end of town?” Duo snorted, finally turning the computer off and joining the conversation, lying down to sprawl half on top of Heero. That Heero allowed it spoke volumes but Trowa didn’t comment.
“Would help if we knew who had funded or made Frank,” Heero mused. “If the colony is as racially segregated as you say, it would narrow down where the money is.”
Trowa just shrugged because he had no idea who the mastermind behind Frank had been. Someone rich. Quatre might have been able to narrow down the candidates, but he wasn’t here and the fact was Quatre’s name would have been high on the list. Few people could match bank accounts with a Winner.
“So tomorrow, Trowa goes to work and finds out what he can from the contacts he’s made. Duo goes to the Sector’s Trowa hasn’t made it to, and I try and hack the Computer.” Heero nodded and Duo hummed softly in agreement. Trowa didn’t bother replying, just flopped back into the centre of the bed and stared at the ceiling.
The lights were turned off, but Duo and Heero sat with a torch, reading the manuals Trowa had collected into the early hours of the morning. At some point Trowa fell into a restless sleep.