Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Wild Wings ❯ Chapter 21

ToniK- thanks for the read! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

Dark Princess- I love you, you're amazing, just FYI :D The masturbation bit in the previous chapter was partially for answers and partly because T recognized that Duo was having issues accepting what he saw as abandonment of Q. He apparently felt the need to correct that line of thought.

 

Re: Long time between chapters—So I'm finishing my last semester of college as we speak (omg scary) so that's why I haven't been posting at all recently. I'll be done in may and you can expect a resurgence of new chapters soon afterward. Until then, here's one more to keep you going. I'm still around, I promise!

 

 

 

Chapter 21

 

The floodlights bathed everything in a yellow haze that was trying valiantly to produce a monster of a headache between Duo's eyes. Between Alpha and this job his entire body was on high alert. Everything was tense. The hair on his arms stood on end. The rumble of the truck undercut his ability to hear with precision and that, more than anything, annoyed him.

 

The wolf inside him wanted forgiveness but now was definitely not the time for a friendly petting session. Then again, how do you explain to a feral creature the subtleties of politics? The details of a copy and corrupt mission? The strain of danger, imminent death?

 

Death? Oh, the wolf knew Death quite well.

 

The truck slowed for the first checkpoint and Duo had to stare out the window so his feral grin wouldn't tip anyone off. The high alert in his body changed from tense unease to anticipatory. The wolf could handle death just fine. They danced together often.

 

The truck rumbled to life. They passed the first checkpoint and Duo hadn't heard a word of the exchange.

 

He shook his head hard and rubbed his hands together. “Time to get your head straight, Duo.” He muttered at himself.

 

“Problem?”

 

“Not anymore.” Duo smiled.

 

The second checkpoint waved them through. The guards on duty were playing cards and didn't seem to care. The pilots took the blessing without comment. Trowa drove the vehicle a little slower than necessary, it gave them both time to glance around and memorize troop positions, lights, doors, windows, anything at all that would help them out.

 

They turned around the far side of the building where a gaping hanger stood open. Several suits were stored inside. Trowa parked.

 

This was it. The wolf in him paced, impatient for action and yet driven to do this right. Duo took a breath and held it for a moment. He avoided Trowa's glance as he let it out slowly thought his teeth. The fact that he might not walk away from this had crossed his mind. The fact that Alpha might not was something he didn't want to poke at too closely. The very idea sent a spike of fear through him, deep into his gut. It was a sensation too profound for the short time he'd known the stoic pilot.

 

But he couldn't figure it out until they were safe and sound away from this place, with or without Heero.

 

He had few qualms about that, as well. Heero had been caught, there was no telling what kind of shape he was in, if he was even alive anymore. It would be a loss, a big loss, but Duo would rather get out with his hide than get caught trying to rescue a corpse.

 

“Two hours.” Trowa said, low.

 

Duo looked up. “What?”

 

“Two hours then we're out of here, no exceptions.”

 

Duo's mouth pressed into a thin line. It seemed the two of them understood each other. He nodded once and checked his watch.

 

“Mark.” Trowa breathed.

 

He committed the time to memory down to the second. Like a unit, they exited the truck and strode in opposite directions. Duo headed directly into the hanger and picked up a battered cap as he passed a tool box. He took a moment to conceal his braid under the stained hat and by the time he reached the end of the hanger he managed to smudge some grease over his hands and up his arms. He stained the uniform and wiped the back of his hand over his forehead to complete the effect.

 

When he stepped into the base proper no one so much as glanced in his direction.

 

He felt the wolf crouch in the middle of his chest like a waiting time bomb. From his position at the hanger his closest stop was the security room. From there, the servers. He touched the cargo pocket on the side of his leg to count the flashbombs again. Trowa had the backpack, the bigger explosives, and a better chance at finding Heero.

 

That was fine with him. At the very least the Wing pilot wouldn't be able to walk out of here on his own. Duo wasn't happy about wishing a hard time on Trowa, but the man really was better equipped for it. Duo wasn't sure who the better marksman was but Alpha was the stronger by far, he could handle a dead weight if that was what it came to.

 

Duo paused at plain looking door that Trowa had named the control room. He turned the knob and stepped inside with very little idea of what to expect. Improv was more his style anyway.

 

Three sets of mildly-irritated eyes looked up at him. Another man remained firmly interested in his computer screen.

 

“Evening, folks.” Duo touched the brim of his cap with a slight smile, “Can I get one of you boys to pull up a camera feed for me?”

 

He drifted around the left hand side of the room and had to remind himself he was not stalking prey, don't make too much eye contact it wasn't a challenge and why, yes, that was a live feed from pilot 01's cell. Duo's steps arrested. He leaned over the shoulder of the man in front of the computer in question.

 

Heero looked bad. Real bad. He wasn't chained but if the loll of his head was anything to go by he was definitely drugged. Duo couldn't see any blood but every inch of visible skin was some color of semi-healed or fresh bruise. He was propped at the end of a cot, feet flat on the floor and right hand cradled in his lap. The left dropped past his hip and his fingers lay curled on the cement floor.

 

What bothered Duo most, though, wasn't the bruising or obvious drowsiness. The thing that caused his nose to curl was the very slight flinch Heero gave when his door swung open. Duo had seen the man set his own broken femur without much more than a grunt of mild annoyance. That small flinch told him more than any series of bruises possibly could.

 

“I'd like a visual on the hanger at oh-two-hundred this morning.” He said, glancing up from the computer to look at the soldier next to him. “Inside.” He specified. It was a random time, he didn't expect one of the men to roll his eyes.

 

“We've already sent a report on the assault. The Count has enough footage to make a movie.”

 

Duo straightened with a mild look in his eyes. “I'd like to see it anyway.” He stated flatly and filed the title of Count away for later. There were no royalties that followed the Count and Countess laws of rule anymore… as far as he knew, and if they did they certainly wouldn't have their title in the middle of a military base.

 

The protester sighed and began typing. “I'm telling you, there's nothing new. We've been over the feed so many times the data's degrading.”

 

Duo stalked around the long table. “Then one more time can't hurt.” He stopped behind the protester and waited the last few seconds it took for the man to call up the right camera. When the hanger flashed onto the screen Duo smiled carefully. “Thank you.” He said.

 

He patted the man's shoulder. Quicker than a blink he brought both hands around the man's head and snapped it sharply to the side. He jerked his hand against his neighbor's neck. The windpipe collapsed under the side of his palm.

 

Chairs scraped but it was too late. Duo stepped around the table and forced his palm up the third soldier's nose. He pushed the bleeding man back into the fourth. They both tumbled to the floor. He delivered a harsh blow to soldier three's forehead. The skull bounced against the floor. The last man was struggling backward, wide eyed. Duo planted his foot beside the man's torso and kicked his chin up like a tethered soccer ball. Teeth clicked. Bone cracked.

 

He moved back to the second soldier. The man was clawing at his throat, unable to breathe and unable to scream the pain. Duo pushed him gently back into his chair and felt under the jaw until he located the artery. The soldier made a horse gasping sound. He cut off the blood flow and began counting. Without air to the lungs or brain it wasn't long before the soldier fell unconscious. Duo continued his count until a last feeble writhe indicated the man was indeed dead.

 

“Better luck next time.” He muttered. “Alpha's man lasted almost four minutes.” He tilted the man's head to his other shoulder with a frown. “You barely made two. Oh well.”

 

Duo stopped dawdling after that. He ignored the mute image of a man in the hanger attacking someone else. History didn't matter to him. He called up images from the opposite side of the base in rapid flicks. He found Trowa in a nearly-deserted hallway. A set of doors at the end of it were locked electronically.

 

Duo smiled. He couldn't tell Alpha where their target was, but he could lead him there. A short hack opened the seal remotely. The doors clicked open, one eased back against the wall under its own weight. Duo watched his alpha eye the passage for less than a heartbeat. Trowa trotted through the door and looked directly up into the next camera. He nodded just slightly.

 

Between pointing the cameras and unlocking doors Duo guided Trowa around a group of soldiers, skirted the Mess, and pointed him toward the holding cells. Once he was sure the man knew where he was Duo took it upon himself to dismantle the system. He yanked cords from the walls, the computers, the monitors. He pulled six hard drives out and when he stepped back into the hall he shut the door firmly behind him.

 

Next stop, the server room. No doubt he looked a bit odd; a mechanic carrying computer hardware, but no one stopped him. No one seemed suspicious yet.

 

The explosion was small but its sound echoed like a break in the sound barrier.

 

People around him ducked instinctively, dropped papers and pens, glanced around at each other and looked confused. A second later a siren screamed through the hallway and everything was chaos. Duo sighed, murphy's law always came to bite him back.

 

He broke into a trot and zagged through a few buzzing corridors full of yelling soldiers with guns at the ready. The server room was empty when he smashed the glass and opened the door. A white sign with large black letters declaring `Server Tower A' graced the bookshelf-like side of a row. The letters stretched to `D' at the end of the room.

 

Duo bolted between rows B and C, ducked under a hanging cord of wires, and knelt. The EMP could take out this room, he was sure, but not much beyond it. Hopefully all these wires led to some important hardware elsewhere in the base. He dropped five of the six hard drives around the electronic bomb and set the timer for half a minute. It was time to bail.

 

Another explosion rumbled in the hallway. Duo fished in his pockets for a flashbomb and hit the door running. He chucked the tennis-ball sized object down the first available corridor. The light flooded behind him. People shouted.

 

But apparently a mechanic was beneath notice. The pilot headed back toward the hanger. He set off his last two flash bombs to help the chaos and slammed the doors of the hanger open. The truck was still there.

 

He sprinted for the car. Keys on the seat started the engine in record time. He yanked the truck into reverse, spun the tires forcing it back into drive, and blazed between personnel and other vehicles.

 

Trowa burst from a doorway three feet ahead. Duo stood up on the break and fishtailed in the dirt. Bullets peppered the hood. He pushed the passenger door open and yanked one of the small bombs from another pocket. Heero's body hit the seat. Duo passed the bomb to Trowa and forced the transport back into drive.

 

The engine screamed protest. The bomb popped into flame before it ever hit the ground, seared the closest soldier, superheated the transport's door, and caught Trowa's extended arm in the blast. The pilot grunted. Duo disregarded it all and gunned the truck through the first checkpoint. The transport door slammed shut. Heero bounced on the seat, unconscious.

 

The second checkpoint had a flimsy barricade across the road. It became toothpicks. They turned onto paved asphalt and put distance between them and the base.

 

“Definitely using a Gundam next time.” Duo muttered.

 

“Company.” Trowa intoned, eyes intent on the side mirror. Duo glanced behind them. A riot of dust was all he could see. It could only mean one thing: more cars were exiting the base.

 

“Plan?” Duo asked.

 

“Thinking.” Trowa responded.

 

Duo pushed the transport's engine as far as he dared and frowned. Trowa bent over Heero and began checking him for major injuries. He found no broken bones but Heero had been favoring his wrist. His torso was a painter's palette of bruises.

 

“The turnoff is coming up, stop the car.” Trowa finally spoke up.

 

“You want to switch cars? Are you nuts?”

 

“Just oh-one and I.” He explained. “You get to loose the pursuit. That strip mall isn't far, get them off the highway. Make sure you're not followed back to the safehouse.”

 

The wolf in him bristled that he might compromise their den but he shoved the sting away and pulled the truck off the road. Trowa was out of the vehicle before Duo could snap at him and pulled Heero over his shoulder. The door slammed shut. Duo spun the tires again and roared back onto the road. With any luck, their chasers wouldn't notice his pit stop.

 

He glanced at his side mirror as Trowa became a smaller dot in the distance and frowned.