Naruto Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Since When Do Heeros Have a Sense of Humor? ❯ Chapter Ten At Last! Plus Backstory!! ( Chapter 11 )

Disclaimer: I own nothin’ and no one ‘cept Armina, Ketric and the Original Character idea, which anyone can grab if they want so long as you credit me with the initial idea as I have Songwind with the initial idea of the Bish world. Damned good idea she had too.

AN: Hell with it, this is chapter Ten. I said Nine C, but… the hell with it. Chap nine has to die somewhere.

~*~*~

“So you’re the first person to ever have an Original Character?” Breena demanded. ‘Mina finished swallowing her tea.

“The very first, LSS-sama checked.” She said, “Surprising isn’t it, I’ve never been the ‘very first’ anything before. But I’m supposed to call her weekly for the first six months and then monthly until she says otherwise to keep her up to date on Ketric’s development. Apparently there are still a heck of a lot of unknowns about OC’s, and she wants to know what they are in case they aren’t good things.”

“Shrimp are good things.” Kiba said shamelessly from ‘Mina’s elbow. While rolling her eyes she speared a few for the begging wolf. The group, ‘Mina and her Bish, Breena and her Bish and Kaede and her Bish, were at a Chinese restaurant eating lunch. ‘Mina had a seat at the end of her table and Kiba had placed himself right next to her. He had his own dish, or rather bowl, of chow mein, but had apparently decided that whatever ‘Mina had was better.

“You’re pathetic, you know that?” Heero told the wolf, who was ignoring him in favor of his shrimp in oyster sauce.

“What kind of unknowns is LSS-sama looking for?” normal Miroku asked, gracefully ignoring both Heero and Kiba.

“Growth rate, habits, tendencies to which types of combats.” ‘Mina replied, “Just… stuff. She and Tokio-sama don’t know much about OC’s, apparently what they do is tell the system ‘this would be neat, with this and that parameters’ and the system does the rest. She also said that there might be some bugs that may need to be worked out.” She glanced over at Ketric, who was making a happy mess out of his chow mein, just as any three-year-old would do. Kaede and Heero were fussing over him, trying to keep him from making too much of a mess. “Not that I can see any problems.”

“Looks like every other Chibi I’ve ever seen,” Gangster Miroku drawled lazily from his seat wedged in the corner. Normal Miroku ignored him; Gangster Miroku couldn’t have cared less.

The only thing that he was concerned with was the fact that Wufei and Kaede’s other Bish, Samuri Champloo Mugen, were between him and all the nearby succulent lady flesh that he could… admire.

“So, what are you going to do now?” Wufei asked. Once he had learned that Ketric was legitimately ‘Mina’s, Wufei’s attitude had improved dramatically. “If you go back on the road you can expect a lot of what you’ve gotten already, until the kid’s Evolved that is.” He warned.

‘Mina sat back and tapped her lips with a finger, she hadn’t thought of that. “Heero, Kiba, would you two be opposed to staying here for awhile?”

“There’s a gym here” Heero answered absently, “Why would I be opposed to staying near a gym?”

“I wouldn’t mind either,” Kiba said, eyeballing a teriyaki pork rib, “the city’s small enough and there’s woods nearby. Can I have that?” ‘Mina sighed and passed him the rib.

“That answer your question, Wufei?” ‘Mina asked.

“Yeah, but I got another, for Heero.” The Chinese pilot said. He suddenly had Heero’s full attention. “Wanna fight?”

Heero leaned back against his seat, “Only if you don’t waste my time.” He drawled.

Wufei didn’t blink, “They have a Mecha Arena here.” He said by way of answer. ‘Mina suddenly found Heero clamped around her waist.

“Can we go? Can we go now? Please? Please?Please?Puh-lease?” Heero begged desperately. ‘Mina’s eye twitched.

“Heero, you okay?” She asked, “You don’t have a Gundam do you?”

“‘Course, I do, right here.” He lifted out a Capsule with a winged zero decal on it. “So, can we go? Can we go? Please? Please? Can we? Huh-huh?”

“Hai, hai” ‘Mina sighed, already wearied by his behavior

“NOW!”

“Eehhh….&# 8221;

“Sure, why not?” Kaede said cautiously.

“YES!” the Gundam Bish said.

~*~*~

“Wow, I didn’t think a town this small would have a gym this big.” ‘Mina commented casually, trying to pretend that she didn’t know Heero. He was practically dancing with excitement; but then again so was Wufei, much to Kaede’s shame. The group walked towards the ten story building, shielding Ketric in the middle of the group from the glares of other Bish.

‘Mina wasn’t allowed a chance to enter the building under her own power, she found herself being pushed up to the desk by an over-eager Heero who thought she was going much too slow. The receptionist and her Advent Children Sephiroth sweat-dropped in unison at the sight.

“Er, is the, uh, Mecha Arena, eh, available?” ‘Mina asked when she reached the desk, as Heero pranced beside her.

“Is it, is it?” Wufei badgered as he leaned over the desk in excitement, “Please say it is? It is right? Please!”

“E-eh-eh….” The receptionist and Sephiroth chorused, weirded-out.

“I-it’s free…” the receptionist was able to say.

“Woo-hoo!” the two Gundam Bish cheered, both tossing a fist into the air. Kaede and ’Mina twitched.

~*~*~

The group entered the huge, vaulted, metal paneled room that was the Mecha arena. It lay somewhere along the lines of the DBZ Room of Spirit and Time (horridly dubbed as the ‘hyperbolic time chamber’), or the bathroom and workroom Washu from Tenchi made. It didn’t really exist in the ‘Real World’ so nothing that happened inside it could affect anything outside it.

This was a good thing as Heero and Wufei walked to opposite ends of the arena and unCapsulized their Gundams. Wing Zero Neo, from Endless Waltz, and Altron from the later half of the Gundam Wing series suddenly loomed into sight. Heero and Wufei entered their Gundams, expressions tense with anticipation.

A mechanical voice suddenly squawked from a speaker located above the door.

“Combatants Heero Yuy, Chang Wufei, do you consent to fight?”

“Yeah.”

“Hell yeah!”

“Consent given. Battle start in 5… 4… 3-” The mecha crouched into battle ready stance. “…2…1- BEGIN!”

The two Gundams launched immediately into the air and both drew their beam weapons; Zero drawing its sword, Altron its triton. The fight was at too high a speed for ‘Mina to track easily, mostly she saw bright flashes and brief moments where the two Gundams were locked blade to blade. The noise also was tremendous, the roar of engines, the whirring gears and the thunder-like noise of the blades crackling against each other.

Suddenly, she saw the Altron gain the superior position and fling Zero, hard, into the arena floor, back down. To follow up on that, the dragon Gundam landed on top of the belly of the other mecha, equally hard.

It hopped off, mechanical head aimed towards the winged mecha. The winged mecha didn’t move. Oh Gods, is Heero okay? Is this why there are so few mecha arenas, because it’s too dangerous?

“Winner: Chang Wufei, in Altron Gundam.” The voice squawked. ‘Mina started to run across the floor to check on her Heero, when the hatch opened up to reveal a slightly bruised-looking Heero. Wufei also emerged, and the moment he did so Heero unleashed a stream of the most potently colorful language ‘Mina had ever had the misfortune to hear while he shook his fist at the other pilot.

She continued her sprint across the arena, climbed up the mecha’s side and walloped Heero across the backside of his head with her tessen as hard as she could.

“Holy- What the fuck was that for!” He demanded, whirling to stare at his Trainer, whom he hadn’t known was there a moment before. ‘Mina whapped him again.

“In case you’re so idiotic as to forget, there is a Chibi present and you will watch your language when you’re within earshot of him!” She glared, and then hopped off the Gundam in a huff. “And to think, for a moment I was really worried about you!”

Heero gapped at her, eye twitching slightly as Wufei proceeded to almost fall out of his standing Gundam due to the fact he was laughing so hard.

“You shut up!” Heero snapped, “You had to have cheated! I want a re-match!” Any further outcries that may have come from Heero were waylaid as he got pegged from behind by the blunt end of ‘Mina’s tessen. He glared at her as he rubbed his head, she ignored him. She was very busy informing Ketric that if he ever used language like Heero had just used, he could expect to not be able to sit for a month from all the spankings she’d give him.

“And that goes for you too!” She suddenly declared, pointing fiercely at Heero. He jerked his head back in offended shock and tried to come up with some response. Since Wufei was now laughing so hard at him that the Chinese pilot couldn’t stand, the Japanese pilot deemed it wiser to go after him with ‘Mina’s tessen. Hand to hand combat he could do. Fighting his Trainer when she was in this mood however… scary thought.

~*~*~

‘Mina slumped into the chair in her hotel room and watched as her boys began their nightly ritual of getting ready for bed. Kiba ‘argued’ with the extra blankets ‘Mina had requested for him until they were in a shape that the wolf found acceptable. Heero snagged some extra clothes out of the Capsule dresser and stripped off his sweat sodden shirt, obviously heading for the shower. Ketric hopped up onto on of the beds and discovered the joys of cable TV. Kiba glanced up at him fondly and chuckled as he flipped through the channels at high speed.

‘Mina lurched out of her chair and went over to help Ketric find something appropriate and entertaining. Settling on a Disney movie, ‘Mina sat back against the bed pillows with the Chibi tucked under an arm and watched the movie with more enjoyment than she had had the first time she’d seen it. It was amazing how a child’s innocent happiness could alter one’s perception.

Heero finished his shower and traded places with ‘Mina so that she could have her nightly shower, which she took with gratitude. She may not have fought as Heero had, but the day had been stressful and she reeked of nervous sweat. She luxuriated in the heat of a long shower, being on the road with a finite water supply forbade her this ‘simple’ pleasure.

Apparently she took longer than she thought, for when she came out, all the Bishonen were asleep. Heero and Kiba must have been more tired than I thought they were, but that only makes sense, if I think about it. They were on guard all day today, and that has to be exhausting. ‘Mina carefully extracted the remote from Heero’s hand and turned off the TV, then flipped off the light over the bed he and Ketric occupied.

As she sat down on her bed, she stared at the Chibi. He was a miracle, a totally unexpected gift. I didn’t think I’d ever… As tired as she was, fully as exhausted as the two adult Bishonen, her emotions hit her like a hammer blow, one she couldn’t guard against. Nor could she guard against the memories she’d been trying to shield against ever since she’d woken up in the hospital six months ago.

~*~*~

(I hate Flashbacks, but how do you avoid them when you’re finally revealing character back-story?)

~*~*~

It was the tail end of Thanksgiving Holiday and she and her parents were driving back up the coast from the LA basin. It had been a good Thanksgiving, all of her family had been there for once; all three grandparents, her Minnesota cousins, aunt and uncle as well as her Connecticut cousins, aunt and uncle. But it was over and she and her parents were glad; family gatherings were good, but only in small doses.

That, and her parents had moved out of LA for the sparsely populated central coast for a reason.

It had been raining all day, but no worries, ‘Mina’s dad was an excellent driver. So good a driver was he that ‘Mina had been getting ready to take a nap. She had picked up her pillow and hugged it to her chest absently, laughing over some joke her mother had made, when it happened.

They were going seventy-five mph in the fast lane, a medium sized pickup pacing them on the right. It was being driven by an eighteen year old college student; perpetually broke. So broke in fact, he had pushed replacing his tires as far as he could. That’s what went wrong. His left front tire blew, and since he’d only had his license for a year and a half, he didn’t know how to control his car.

He swerved right into her father’s car, her father being unable to cope with the swiftly occurring accident in time, no matter how skilled he was. Neither could the huge pickup behind them cope. The massive truck slammed into them hard, pushing them into the van that was just in front of her family’s vehicle. It was a four-way pile up, going at high speed and heading straight for the guardrail.

The guardrail did its job of preventing the accident from growing worse preventing the vehicles from entering the opposite flow of traffic, but it brought its own threat to bear on the helpless victims. Individual rails had sheered off their supports and lanced into the vehicles. One had headed straight towards ‘Mina. That was the last sight she saw before the Paramedics revived her; the jagged end of the rail smashing through the window aiming low.

When she had woken, she had been in so much pain that her body shut off that sense temporarily. In fact, all of her senses seemed to have been shut off, except sight and sound. She heard the sound of rain, the wail of sirens. She saw the twisted metal and broken glass. She saw the mangled front end of the car where her parents had been and heard the first paramedic to arrive telling her not to look. It didn’t matter; her shock was so deep that at first she couldn’t comprehend what her eyes told her brain. Only later in nightmares would she understand what the blood-splatter, crushed, upholstered seats meant. She fell into unconscious again.

She had been in a coma for a month, which allowed her body to heal from the terrible damage done to it. The guardrail had sliced through her lower belly, cutting through organs and major blood vessels like the proverbial hot knife through butter. If it had gone three inches deeper, that ‘butter’ would have been her spine. Surprisingly, it was her pillow that had saved her; it hadn’t slowed the rail at all, but it had prevented her from bleeding to death. She, the van driver and the teenager who had accidentally started it all were the only survivors.

But the victims had been more than the ones in the vehicles however. First it was her father’s father, a widower, who had died of the shock from hearing that his eldest son had died. Next was her mother’s father, who had had a bad heart to begin with, who had died upon learning that his beloved youngest daughter and husband were dead and that his only granddaughter might not live. Finally, ‘Mina’s surviving grandmother had passed away, with her husband gone and most of her other family gone, what reason did she have to live?

All this ‘Mina learned upon waking from her coma; that and the other bad news. She had never desired children, but now it seemed her only option for creating a family that she was close to, unlike her other family in far off corners of the nation. But that course was now denied her as well.

The doctors had been able to repair her digestive tract and major blood vessels well enough for her to function. But her pastimes had to be limited to passive activities because of the fine mesh screen inwardly supporting her lower abdomen. It would there for the rest of her life. They hadn’t been able to repair her reproductive system well enough to allow her to ever bear young however. Armina was now sterile.

Perhaps- no, that was the reason that she had adapted so well to the Bish world. She had no hope for happiness in the Old World. Her parents had deeply loved her, their only child, and she had returned that love full volume. Having them die was like plucking the sun out of the solar system. It was a wonder that she hadn’t committed suicide.

Now I have a hope for a family, she thought as she looked at Ketric’s sleeping form cuddled next to Heero. Can you see this, Mother, Father? Can you see these friends, and this wonderful, beautiful little boy? Isn’t he perfect?

Tears streamed down her face unheeded. Emotion and memory still held her captive. It hurt, but it was also a relief to run over these painful events in her mind. Like lancing an infected wound, she thought bitterly as she wiped her eyes. Finally the moment had run its course and she collapsed back into her bed, utterly drained. A few moments later she was deeply asleep.

~*~*~

Kiba had roused the moment that ‘Mina had left the bathroom and had watched as ‘Mina had cried silently. He smelled the emotional pain, so intense that he had nearly sneezed to clear the scent from his nose. Should I-, he wanted to go and comfort her, no, not now, not like this, some inner instinct prompted.

He hadn’t been invited; he had no right to intrude into ‘Mina’s privacy. Even if she was weeping not five feet away from the wolf. I’ll be here when she does need a shoulder to cry on; he told the part of himself that still wanted to rush to her side.

Kiba cared deeply for ‘Mina, she was his Leader, his Alpha. But more than that, she was his true friend, unlike his last trainer. She had been a Collector, so over-zealous in her drive to have all Bish that she had captured the Chibi wolf when Wolf’s Rain Bish were still extremely rare. She had been very peeved that he had never changed into his human form for her and had abandoned him. Fortunately, she wasn’t so peeved as to kill him and had released him honestly. Still, the abandonment and the reason for it still rankled, even if he had hated her.

The fact that ‘Mina had accepted him, helped him and then treasured his friendship for friendship’s sake made the young woman very precious to him, although not in the way she was to Heero.

I still don’t know just how I feel about her, save that it isn’t romantic. Sibling bond, protector bond, comrade bond; any of those would work to explain his feelings. It didn’t really matter though; Kiba would stay by ‘Mina’s side for as long as she needed him. He hoped that would be for the rest of his life.

‘Mina finally cried herself out and lay back on her bed. Kiba carefully tested the air and found that ‘Mina’s scent had changed to purged pain mingled lightly with relief and an odd joy. That all changed to peace as she fell asleep. Satisfied with what he scented, Kiba relaxed into sleep as well.

~*~*~

A.S.: GAH! Jesus cluny frog on a pogo stick, was that hard to get out!
Heero: #stares at one scene# ............ I lost.......
A.S.: I've had that flashback scene planned for a while, but getting it out finally? That was not easy, which is why this chap's short.
Heero: ………... I lost..............
A.S.: Well, that and revamping my ultra, super-duper, mega sucky first chap.
Heero: .......not..........right…….... I ……….lost……..
A.S.: As I mentioned in the new first chap A.N.'s the stats between my first chap and second chap were painful, as of today, 3-15-06, they are: 174 hits for the first chapter and, drum roll please, a whoppin' 24 hits for the second chapter! Woot...
Heero: ……...don't understand……...I lost...........
A.S.: So I did a total and complete rewrite. It was well worth the effort and it allowed me to insert some things that will help make later chapters make more sense.
Heero: …….... it doesn't……..it's not………...I lost………....
A.S.: Now I just have to do a minor tweak in chap two and, Houston, there are no problems!
Heero: ………….I need a hug………...I lost………….
A.S.: Oh will you get over it already? You can't be a perfect fighter or else you become a male Mary Sue!
Heero: But-!
A.S.: You still kick ass in hand-to-hand, what more do you want?
Heero: #sad puppy face#
A.S.: Yeah, right, whatever. Next chap features my current favorite BandWagon, NARUTO!