Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ There Goes the World ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: It's sad but true, I do not own Gundam Wing.

AN: Hello, I just wanted to thank everybody that's reading, and a special thanks to nyan-nyan, who was kind enough to review my fic. It's nice to know that someone likes what I'm doing. Anyway, here's the third chapter, as always enjoy and please review.

"Eagles may soar, but weasels are never sucked into jet engines."
---Unknown

There Goes the World

Chapter 3

Heero woke up early the next morning, and immediately went to work making preparations for his meeting, which was easy, since all he had to do was make sure that the friend he had in mind still owned a bar deep within a seedy section of L1. Heero pulled up a local phone directory on his computer, and checked the listings. He found it easily; Harper's Ferry owned by one John Brown. With knowledge of his contact's location secure Heero decided that it was time for Duo to get up.

He headed up the stairs and into Duo's room. Just as he suspected, Duo was sprawled out on his bed, fast asleep. Heero momentarily paused to consider the best way to wake the other pilot. He quickly made his decision, walked over to the bed and ripped the covers off it.

"Just a few more minutes." Duo mumbled into his pillow as he unsuccessfully groped for his blanket.

"Get up."

Duo opened his eyes to see Heero scowling at him, which was not a sight that anyone would like to wake up to. Duo sat up, and rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes. "Why? Are we going somewhere?" Heero nodded. "Where?"

"Out."

Duo rolled his eyes. "You ever planning tell me what the hell you're doing?"

"No. Now, get up."

"Fine, I'll get up, but at some point in time you're going to tell me what's going on."

With a simple "Hn." Heero left the room.

Duo appeared in the kitchen a little while later, freshly showered and hair neatly braided. He was gathering everything he would need to make a spectacular omelet, complete with gummy worms, when Heero stopped him and threw him a bagel.

"Come on, we're going."

"What about my omelet?" Duo whined. Heero eyed the assembled ingredients. He didn't know much about cooking, but the omelet was promising to be as appetizing as yesterday's sandwich. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I am a growing young boy," Duo chirped with cheerful grin.

"You're nineteen, the only place you're growing is the waist," Heero informed him coolly.

A mock pained look crossed Duo's face. "Are you saying I'm getting fat, Heero?"

Instead of replying Heero turned around and walked out of the kitchen. Duo looked fondly at the ingredients of his omelet before following, with his consolation bagel in hand.

Both grabbed their jackets before leaving. Once outside, they started walking through the streets of the slum, with Heero in the lead. Surprisingly, Duo said nothing for a while; he was too busy eating his breakfast. Heero knew that when the bagel was gone Duo would talk. Unfortunately, for Heero, the bagel did not last very long, and Duo was soon inquiring of their destination.

"So where are going, anyway?"

"A bar."

Duo was slightly confused by this answer. He knew that Heero drank, he did too, but it wasn't even noon yet. "Isn't it a little early to go out for drinks?"

"We're not going there for drinks."

Duo considered this for a moment. Why would anyone want to go to a bar if he didn't either want to get wasted or pick up girls? The first option had already been ruled out, and Duo just couldn't picture Heero trying to flirt with a random girl at a bar. He looked around; the buildings surrounding them were even shabbier then their townhouse. With this simple observation, Duo understood. "One of your contacts?" The taciturn pilot nodded in response.

After walking further into L1's slums Heero stopped in front of a building that was showing its age, a sign that read 'Harper's Ferry' hung over the doorway. They walked into the bar, and were greeted by the distinctive odors of smoke and booze. The bar was dark despite the hour, as any seedy bar in a bad neighborhood should be. A single patron sat at the bar conversing with the middle-aged bartender. Heero and Duo walked up to the bar, while the bartender excused himself from the patron to tend to the newcomers.

"What do you want?" he asked with a thick Irish accent.

"We need to talk with the manager."

The bartender eyed them suspiciously before speaking. "He's busy."

Heero moved the front of his jacket just enough for the bartender to see his hand resting on the hilt of his gun. "Tell him it's important."

The bartender eyed the pair again before nodding and disappearing into a back room. He emerged a few minutes later and nodded for the pilots to follow him. He led them down a dark hallway that stank as much as the bar and into a small office.

"This is them, John," he said to a middle-aged man with graying hair and a strange glint in his eye. The man nodded and the bartender left the room. John Brown looked his visitors over, and stopped when he reached Heero's face. A small smile crept on to his lips.

"Well, I never though I'd see you again, kid." He stopped to see if Heero would reply, when the young man remained silent he continued. "Still not much for talking, I see. Go ahead and sit down." He waved at two chairs situated in front of his desk, and leaned back in his own chair. "So what brings you to L1? I thought you'd got yourself a cozy little job on Earth with the Preventers."

"We need information."

John raised an eyebrow with interest. "Oh, there's something you and your Preventers can't find out, is there?" He paused again to see if Heero would react. "Well, go on and spit it out, kid, I'll tell you what I can."

"We're looking for Nezumi Houkyo."

John's eyebrow quirked up again. "So the Preventers are looking for the little mouse now too, are they? Not surprising, since the Bolsheviks have been spending so much time looking for her."

"The Bolsheviks know that Nezumi is Mouse?" Duo asked.

"Of course they know. Not that it matters two shits, because they still can't find the girl." A slight smile played on his lips. "That girl ain't called the little mouse for nothin'. Bolsheviks got a big enough bounty on her pretty little head to have half the hunters in the Earth sphere after her, but they can't find one crumb of her anywhere."

"So, you don't where to find her?" Duo asked.

"Not a fuckin' clue, kid. She's still on L1, I know that, but where on L1," he shrugged, "well, you're guess is as good as mine."

"You ever meet her?" Heero asked, in his usual cool monotone.

"Yeah, you'd probably like her, kid." He nodded at Heero. "She doesn't talk much. Real smart kid, too, good with computers and all that shit. Course, that's what got her into this little mess."

Heero searched the older man's face. Something about the way he said that made Heero think that Nezumi was rather good acquaintance of John's. "Sounds like you know her rather well," he stated coolly.

"No, better then anyone else around here."

Heero's usual scowled deepened. The ambiguous reply gave him all the more reason to suspect that John had been lying when he said he didn't know where Nezumi had hidden herself. Heero casually withdrew his gun from his jacket, and pointed it with a steady hand at John's head. Duo decided to follow suit.

"Where is she?" John did not look surprised to see Heero draw a gun on him, but the Japanese pilot could see the fear in his eyes that was a natural part of being on the wrong end of a deadly weapon.

"I don't know, kid. I already told you that."

A click sounded through the room as Heero removed the safety. "You're lying."

John's face hardened into a frown, but the slight fear was still present in his eyes. "So, what if I am? Even, if I told you she'd be gone by the time you got there. Like I said that girl can hide as easy as a mouse."

"Tell me where she is." There was another click as Duo removed the safety on his gun.

John glanced nervously between the two pilots. He didn't know what Duo would do, but he knew that Heero would not hesitate to shot a hole in his skull. This knowledge made his decision easy to make. "She's in the Rouges' Island area. It's not far from Dr. J's old place. The people over there will be able to tell you more about where she's hiding than I can."

Heero and Duo lowered their guns and put the safeties back in place. The tension left John's body in the absence of someone threatening to shoot him.

"Thanks," Heero said, and left the office, Duo right behind him. When they were outside again Duo turned to face his friend.

"So where do we go now?" Even though, for once, Duo knew what Heero was going to tell him.

"Rouges' Island," he said and turned to head even deeper into the heart of L1's slums.

*******

AN: Just out of curiosity, how many of you caught the two historical allusions that I put in this chapter? Anyway, I hoped you liked the chapter, and since you've finished reading it please review.