A/N: Hello people. I decided to try something new. Yes. It's amazing, I don't do anything thing new very often. Actually, my friend gave me the basic idea when I couldn't think of a story to write. Then it just flowed from there.
Disclaimer: The character Sets belongs to my good friend, Sets aka Invader Setsuna. I own the character San. Also, I don't own Gundam Wing, I'm just a growing possessive fan. Well, to tell you the truth, I read my first Gundam wing Manga yesterday. See how easily I obsess?
Okay so anyway, I don't own any of the characters either. Real simple. And sorry if this story sucks because it's my first. It's a warm up okay? Thanks. Flames are welcomed graciously.
Bitter Sweet Symphony
~Journey to another Dimension~
Setsuna, or Sets, sat on a park bench. She was tall with dark green hair pulled back into a long French braid that fell down to about her waist. She sighed and shifted her position. She wore a pair of dark blue jeans with a silvery shirt covered in a trench coat.
She looked nonetheless, suspicious sitting on the park bench alone and at night. One could easily mistake the nineteen-year-old girl for someone plotting dastardly deeds in the dark.
A/n: Oops, too many deeds on that last phrase.
In reality, she was expecting her friend, San to come. San was her best friend and tonight they did indeed have a plan, and it wasn't exactly exempted from dastardly.
Both Sets and San were fed up with their lives. Neither had any parents and both absolutely hated the school system.
School was nothing short of hell, as few people liked them because they were so different. So, what does one do when they are a teenager and they hate their life. Well, run-away of course. They were at a legal age to do so, though performing some illegal acts in the process.
Sets stood up, she saw her friend jog over to her, her short brown hair pulled out of her face. She wore a pair of baggy khakis with a blood red tank top. Her expression was set and grim. She was ready.
"Let's go," said Sets.
They set off across the park, towards the building that they sought. The building was actually an extension of a college, the one that Sets and San were attending. Within this building though was something that San and Sets were not obligated to leave behind.
The building was made from bricks, all stained over time.
They knew there would be high security. The building was only used for advanced college students because it was normally one of the most advanced and exalted scientific research facilities in the country. San and Sets had both taken an advanced class there and had been given permission to use most of the equipment.
And so they did. They worked on a research project and by the end of the semester had compiled an extensive research on alternate dimensions and had come closer than anyone in history to solving the mystery of otherworldly dimensions.
Until the board found out. They were genuinely fascinated by the research and stressed that they felt two teenage girls were not capable of handling such valuable information. And thus it was gone. Sets knew it was all complied on a micro-disc, heavily guarded and kept safe from any preying eyes.
Before they disappeared from the face of the earth, so-to-speak, the two girls set out to recover what was theirs.
Sets tapped the glass of the front door slightly. It was a thin Plexiglas, not even real, but nevertheless even harder to get through quietly. She looked at San who looked up and down the street.
"Ready?"
"Wouldn't I be?" said San, sliding out a concealed gun. "Let's hope this is quiet."
Sets smiled but picked a rock off the ground. She pulled it behind her and if a lightening quick motion launched the heavy stone at the teasing glass.
It shattered like ice, falling in shards of the pavement. The two walked inside, and looked around. They heard the sound of quick, rubber soled footsteps and dived behind a large oriental plant that concealed two of them. An security guard appeared at the scene. He glanced about, he ran over, inspecting the damage at the door and scratching his head, clueless.
His hand rested noticeably on the gun in its holster. San didn't wait another second. She stood up, sneaking slyly and quietly across the room and behind the man. She raised the gun and just as he turned around there was a bang and the man feel to the ground, a shocked look on his face.
"Sorry," said San, expressionless. Then she turned to Sets. "Let's hurry, somebody's bound to notice he's gone and find his body. We need to be out before that happens."
"Okay," said Sets pulling out her handheld computer as they raced down the shining marble halls.
"Okay, I uploaded a map and a locator. The disc is on the third floor, we can follow the map from there," the two girls ran onto the elevator punching in the number three. Sets cradled her handheld computer praying nothing would happen to it; they would be completely lost in this maze of test tubes and corner offices without it.
The elevator shuddered to a halt.
"Get ready, The third floor will be heavily guarded because of the disc," she cautioned.
"Okay, ready," said San raising the gun and pointing it at the door. The metal doors slid open, revealing nothing. Holding their breath, the two leaned out looking both ways. The coast was clear. They walked out and the doors closed behind them.
"Something's wrong," said Sets, "they should be some kind of security. They are obsessed with projecting our work."
"Oh," said San, "What is that?"
Sets hadn't noticed but her handheld computer had started beeping. She looked at it curiously, bringing up the map of the building. She raised an eyebrow.
"Weird, it found the disc," she said.
"So?"
"It found two," said Sets.
San growled. "Bastards," she hissed.
"What?"
"A decoy," she said.
"Oh jeez," said Sets, "they knew we were coming. They didn't know when but they had a plan! God, how are we supposed to know which one it is? We don't have time to check both."
"We have to split up," explained San.
"Okay," said Sets, "Listen, I'll go to the north one. You need to go to the west stairwell. In that hall is the room, 401. Be careful," she added.
"Yeah, good luck," said San flashing her friend a smile as they headed in opposite directions. Sets' path seemed completely cleared, she was certain she had the decoy. She just hoped that San wouldn't have any trouble with security.
She turned a corner, her gaze shifting back and forth from the computer screen and the hallway, searching for any sign of danger. A shadow.
God, said Sets freezing in her tracks. From around the corner, she could see two shadows and hear deep voices. She slowly took a step back. Please don't come around the corner, she thought, please don't come around the corner.
Blip.
No hesitation, she took off, running past the guards cursing her computer for blipping at a time like this.
"Shit!" she yelled, not bothering to try and be inconspicuous. The door that she needed to go through was heavily guarded. A guard stood on either side of the door, both armed to the teeth in weapons that could destroy half the world in a single second.
Sets skidded to a halt, her canvas boots leaving a black scrape on the floor. She snarled and looked at her map. Why had she let San take the weapon?
Dodging around the corner before the guards could raise their weapons Sets crouched low, pondering how to quickly and efficiently get by the duo.
~*~*~
Meanwhile, San was having a very different sort of luck. He peered around the edge of the wall, holding the gun close to her. Her ears and eyes were on full alert, her senses going frantic at the slightest sound. She saw nothing, no sound, no movement, coast was clear.
She took silent steps the rubber sole of her boots was nothing short of nerve-wracking ever time the soft sound echoed through the empty halls.
She froze.
"My aren't we clever," she said in a evil tone mixed with another, one might use on a naughty child. Taking out a pair of contact lenses that no one could find out of the ordinary she slipped the clear, plastic things onto her pupils. Instantly, the room went dark.
The only thing now visible were red beams of light criss-crossing in every direction only inches away from where she stood. Through the jungle of beams, San could she the room 401 at the end of the hall, sitting like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Flexing her muscles and stretching her limbs, San prepared herself for a challenge. Never before had she seen such a complex maze of electronic trip wires. One wrong move and she'd be dead before she could put her handle on that glassy, bronze doorknob.
San tucked the gun safely in her belt, putting it within easy reach but where it wouldn't be in the way. She took off her clunky leather boots, they were not natural and she couldn't predict their bulk and movement as she could with her boy. She took one deep breath and looked listened in the dark for any sound. Hearing nothing but the gentle hum of the electric beams, she took her first step forward. Bending her back forward and spreading her arms, she slipped another sideways step.
She stood upright, sliding between two vertical beams. She dropped slowly and cautiously to her stomach, using her hands to pull her body slowly under an low shining beam. A but of a challenge, but not a hard as slipping through the two foot square gap that shone at about waist height. She almost touched the beam, but she made it through.
Anyone watching without seeing the beams would think that she was doing some kind of intricate, slow dance, moving into her odd positions that only someone with fairly great flexibility could pull off. In fact, it almost looked like a form of Yoga to an amateur, but anyone who could see the beams would realize that it was a matter of fight or die. San had to keep up this flexing movement and narrow misses or die trying.
The door was getting closer, though San couldn't see it, she could tell because there were few beams of light left to go. She weaved her way in and out of the motion detecting patterns concentrating as best she could. She tried her best not to let her mind wander, as much as it wanted to. She had a mission at hand. An important one at that.
"Whoa," she said suddenly, her foot slipping from beneath her. Her bare feet caught the floor in a half-split just above a beam. She rested a hand on the ground for support, a diagonal beam missing her left ear by only inches.
She let out a sigh of relief, thanking the gods that her hair was pulled up, otherwise loose strands may have set off the alarm. She carefully slid out of the position and past the last beam. All right.
She looked around, and took out the contacts. The lights were instantly back on and she could see the door only a foot away. The numbers 401 were written in silver paint.
"Thought you could fool me," said San, silently cursing the men and women whom worked here. She put her hand on the doorknob and pushed. The room was pitch dark. San fumbled for a light switch. She found one and false luminescence filled the large room.
There it was, carelessly laid on the wooden table as if it were nothing of importance. San knew this was a decoy though, they wanted her to think that this was not the real disc and then go and retrieve the other one. But she and Sets were too smart for them. She'd have to match wits. She snatched the disc up and pocketed it. She was about to walk out when she noticed something across the room.
Her jaw dropped. The machine was about seven feet high and very basic looking. It was mostly an upright silver and blue oval, polished to a point. Gray tubs and wires snaked up its gleaming side and the thing hummed ever slightly.
San stared and ran her hand of the liquid steel surface. It was beautiful. It was magnificent. It was theirs. San and Sets' plans for a possible machine to op[en otherworldly dimensions had been stolen and constructed and now lay before her very eyes, beautiful and powerful.
She'd kill them. She'd kill the Assholes for stealing their work.
~*~*~
Sets ran looked around, she was hidden around the corner and round after round of bullets were being fired at her. The guards didn't know if she had any weapons or if she was dangerous and for now, stayed at a distance. But it wouldn't be for long. Sets had to make her escape. Recovering the disc was hopeless, they would never let her pass through those doors alive. She looked around. There was a window about thirty feet away. Unfortunately, it meant she'd have to come out of her hiding spot, and there was a good chance she'd hit the floor before five feet.
"No choice," she told herself and stood up, hugging the wall. She took a deep breath and tensed her muscles, getting ready to run. She waiting till the guards finished their round of fire and booked. She ran as past as she could, well aware of the bullets singing her skin, missing her by millimeters at the most.
God, she thought, the one time the guards aren't complete, slaking idiots with bad aim.
The window…
"No! Why does it have to be closed!" moaned Sets to no one. Wait, she thought. She had one option, and though she didn't like it, it was her only choice. If she stopped for even one minute, she'd be giving those sharp-shooting guards the prefect opportunity.
Sets pulled the hand held computer from her pocket.
"Adios," she said to it five feet from the window. She hurled the thing as hard a she could at the window. The glass shattered on impact and fell away and the screen was knocked to the ground, three stories below. Praying that there was something for her to hold onto, Sets leapt through the window, bullets still scraping by. She grimaced as a piece of glass ripped through her trench coat sleeve and into her skin.
She twisted around and her hand shot out as she fell, grabbing onto a metal pipe that ran vertically. Thinking quickly, Sets wriggled out of her trench coat, throwing the black cloth to the ground. The jacket landed spread out and in a mangled position.
Perfect, thought Sets. It looked just like a dead body. It was guaranteed to fool the guards. Sets flattened her body against the wall, the windowsill luckily concealing her from view. She held hr breath as she saw the guard lean out and look down. He spied the trench coat and grinned, seemingly pleased. He went back inside.
Sets breathed a sigh of relief. All was not safe though, it wouldn't be long before they put two and two together. Sets looked up. Two stories away was the roof.
"This'll be fun," said Sets through gritted teeth as she changed positions. The black pipe that ran the height of the building was smooth and slippery. Although Sets found it difficult to sustain her grip every now and then, for the most part, climbing the pipe went quickly and smoothly.
"Ouch," said Sets as she swung herself onto the roof. She looked at her now bare arm. The long cut was deep and killed like hell. Luckily, the glass had fallen out.
Sets looked around. Time for another escape route…but where was San? She ran around the edges searching the ground and the roof for her friend.
"San! Why do I always have to chase after you!" she screamed to the empty night sky. Sets ran to the eastern side of the building. Looking over the edge, Sets could see the open window; the lights were on. Bingo.
Climbing over the bricked edge and onto another pipe, Sets climbed down along the wall. She swung through the open window, grimacing at her arm but landing gracefully on hard linoleum. She saw her friend immediately examining a large silver and blue machine.
"San?" she said curiously. Her friend looked up, shocked and surprised.
"Sets, oh…I got the disc," she held up a tiny, circular black disc.
"What are you doing?" asked Sets walking over and standing next to the girl.
"Look," came the reply, "it's the machine. The one that can splice time and space; open other dimensions. The one we theoretically designed!"
"Are…" started Sets but then there was a bang on the door. Sets glanced at San. "they figured it out. We're out of luck."
"Oh, shit," said San, leaning out the window. "They're out there too. We're totally surrounded! What the hell are we going to do!"
Sets looked around. "We aren't completely trapped…" she started her eyes fallign on their key out of the building.
"What…no…Sets!" San moaned. She was cut off when the guards stared firing their weapons at the door.
"San, listen, it's either this or that!"
"We could die! We don't know if that thing is stable!" San pointed furiously at the glimmering machine.
"We could die right here!" yelled Sets.
San paused, considering it. "Do you think you could get it to work?"
"I designed the mechanics."
"Then do it…fast," said San. Sets smiled and got to work, setting up the machine that would decide their fate. San took her own gun and emptied it on the door within ten seconds. They heard a yell and a loud thud and knew that one guy was down.
"The red wire to the blue…this knob at a 56 degree angle," Sets muttered to herself, fiddling with the buttons knobs and wires in the side of the machine. Suddenly the lights on the machine turned on and a loud steady hum started up. The shooting stopped. The guards were now well away of what was happening in the room and set about to trying to break down the door with their own bodies.
"Okay," said Sets, "ready San? One push of this button…"
Her finger hovered over the bright blue button on the panel on the machine.
"Yes, hurry up and push it before I change my mind and get us killed," said San frantically.
"Okay then," said Sets, "three…two……..one."
She slammed her hand on the button. A blinding light flashed and the world disappeared from the two now, fugitives eyes. All their senses were suddenly gone, they couldn't see, hear, smell or anything; they weren't even aware of anything going on. Not that it made a difference, nothing was going on. Only the flash of white that faded to black and the two girls were torn most forcefully from the room, the planet, and then the dimension.
~*~*~
San opened her eyes, her senses flooding back to her. She smelled the stench of rotting food and felt the puddles of polluted water that she lay in. The ground was a hard concrete. She stirred, rolling over on her stomach and stood up. Sets whom had also awakened did the same, casting each other a confused glance.
Nothing prepared them for what happened when they turned around and came face to face with the muzzle of a gun.