Copy-Part 1

By: Emiko

=^.^= =^.^= Disclaimers and Stuff =^.^= =^.^=

I don't own anything but a sucky computer and a rather lovely collection of Pixy Stix. I don't want to give up my rather lovely Pixy Stix anytime soon, so please don't sue me. I blatantly refuse to hand over Comp-chan, no matter how sucky it may be.

This story started out as a very serious matter, but as I kept seeing places where I put jokes in, I did. I don't like things being *too* serious.

Oh, yeah, there's some light shounen-ai in here... Don't mind it, it's pretty much insignificant to the story.

~~~^_^Read On!^_^~~~

"Relena-sama!" A man in a business suit came running up to her. It was Leonard Springs, heir to Springs Enterprises, a prosperous agricultural company, and the most important person involved in the food distribution problem in the L-2 colonies. It seemed that the people couldn't afford the high prices, and if Springs Enterprises didn't lower them...

"Yes?" Relena spun around.

"I was wondering, Relena-sama..." Springs scratched the back of his head. "Would you like to accompany me to a dinner party this evening?" He tried his best to look a little sheepish, but he was renowned as the space colonies' Casanova.

"I don't know if I can, I have a lot of paperwork..." She looked away through the one of the hall's gigantic windows, admiring the gardens.

"Please?"

"Well, Mr. Springs..."

"Leonard, please."

"Leonard. What time is this part--" A shot rung out, sending everyone within hearing range to the ground in fear. The bullet whizzed past Relena's head through one of the windows. A second one hit her in her arm, sending her to the ground.

The assassin wasn't hiding at all. He was standing in plain sight, not twenty feet from the Vice-Foreign Minister. His messy brown hair hid his face, but she could tell by his trademark tank top and spandex shorts who he was.

"Heero....?" Relena blacked out.

~~~

"Hn." The assassin lowered his gun. His target was unconscious, and witnesses didn't matter. He began to walk toward her, but a figure burst forth from the shadows, knocking away his gun. He gasped. "It's you!"

Heero spun around and pulled his own gun on the assassin. "Who are you?"

"Heero Yuy desu. Pilot 01." He pulled out a second gun and aimed it right at Heero.

"Like hell you are." Heero glared at the man who could very well be his twin.

The impostor smirked. He bolted through the shattered window into the gardens, Heero following close behind, just as an ambulance arrived.

Heero chased him through the gardens, over the rear fence, and onto a busy street. He followed him for a few blocks, until they turned into an alley, where there weren't any other people. Heero opened fire on him, two shots into his knee.

"Who sent you?" He demanded. His look-alike toppled over, holding his injured knee. He only glared up at him. Pointing his gun between his opponent's eyes, he repeated the question, slower this time. "Who. Sent. You?"

He only smirked again. "You'll find out." His gun was out again, but instead of firing at Heero, he pointed it toward the ground. He blasted three shots into the ground, but when the bullets hit the cement, they emitted thick clouds of smoke (Don't ask me, ask Technology Boy over there. //points to chibi-Heero//). The Heero look-alike was gone in an instant.

~~~

The apartment door slammed.

"O-kaeri, Heero," greeted an exceptionally chipper Duo.

"Hn." Heero glared in reply.

"What? Bad day at..." he made invisible quotation marks with his fingers. "'Work'?"

"Someone managed to get a shot at Relena."

"Whoa!" Duo nearly fell off his position on the couch. "As in literal *shot?* As in, bang?"

Heero nodded, and Duo suddenly turned serious.

"Do you know who he was, or who sent him?"

"He said I'll find out."

"What did he look like?"

"Me."

"You?!? Where could they find a guy who looked exactly like you?"

"I'll find out."

"Well, you're both very helpful."

"Hn." Heero walked to his room and slammed the door.

Duo blinked. "Damn. He's pissed."

~~~

Armed with his laptop, Heero set about finding out who was after Relena. After reading through information on the meetings she was attending, and info on Springs Enterprises, he brought up a search on, well, himself. "Heero Yuy, pilot 01."

After filtering out countless amounts of fan clubs and how-to-build-bombs pages (//innocent giggle//), he found what he was looking for. Apparently, it was some old OZ information. There were pages of data on his fighting abilities, the ZERO system, and personal information. Hair and eye color, height, weight, along with a few photos, it was all there.

The biggest surprise was the information on his gene code.

Even though the page was heavily encrypted, it wouldn't surprise Heero if someone else got a hold of this information. If someone had the proper technology, they could easily... No, that would be impossible. But then again, that look-alike...

Heero closed his laptop and headed out the door.

"Heero?" Duo said.

"I'm going to see Relena-sama."

"Oh... Okay."

~~~

The princess woke up in a hospital bed, the vision of Heero pointing a gun at her still in her mind. Her hand immediately went to her upper arm, which was now heavily bandaged. The door creaked open, resulting in a little jump from Relena.

"Sally Po?"

She nodded. "When I heard about what happened, I had you taken to the hospital in the L-2 Preventer headquarters. I figured you'd be safer here."

"...Thank you." She looked around the room, trying to figure out why Heero would do something like this.

"Relena-sama." Sally put a hand on her uninjured arm. "You're safe here. You have some of the best protection the Preventers can give you."

Wufei glanced through the door for a moment. Sally smiled at him.

Relena still looked troubled. "How could Heero do something like this?"

"When I arrived at the scene, there were two Heero's running away."

She shook her head. "No, he was alone. I was talking to Leonard and-"

"Leonard Springs?"

Relena nodded.

Sally spun around. "Wufei! Have someone do a background check on Leonard Springs!"

Wufei gave her an annoyed look and called over another officer. "Anything else?"

"No, just keep an eye out for Heero."

He sniffed. "Heero didn't shoot Relena."

"I saw him!" Relena exclaimed, getting frustrated. "I was talking to Leonard springs and all of a sudden Heero appeared right behind him and fired at me twice."

"It wasn't him."

Sally gave him a look. "How do you know?"

"Heero wouldn't miss. One shot hit the window, and one hit her arm. The real Heero would've killed her, unless he wanted her alive."

The women blinked. Relena looked confused. "Then who was it?"

"I don't know, onna. Why don't you ask him?" Wufei pointed at the window. Heero himself was crouched on the windowsill, watching them. "That's the real Heero."

Heero nodded and stepped down. Sally blocked the way between him and Relena. "Just what the hell is going on here?"

"An impostor is trying to kill Relena." He said simply.

"How do we know you're not the impostor?"

"I would've tried to kill her again by now."

Relena stared at him. "Heero..."

Sally moved out of the way, letting Heero stand next to her. "He appeared out of nowhere..."

Relena gave him a little smile. "Don't be sorry. I'm still alive. And I know now that you're not..."

"Heero." Wufei interrupted.

"Hai."

He motioned for him to follow, and they left Relena and Sally alone in the room. Wufei shut the door. "This is really getting to you."

"..." Heero stared at the ground, frowning.

"Relena will stay at headquarters for a while, until we can capture this guy."

"Have you heard anything?"

"No one informed me of anything, and then Sally ran by my office earlier, yelling something about Relena being hurt... I only found out exactly what happened a few hours ago."

"Duo already knows about it. Have you informed Trowa or Quatre?"

"Not yet."

"I'll call them." Heero headed back into Relena's room.

The women looked up at the creak of the door. "Well?" Sally looked expectant.

"I'm going to inform Quatre and Trowa. They might know something that can help." With that, Heero leapt out the window.

Sally shook her head. "Why doesn't that man ever use the door?"

~~~

"Moshi-moshi?" A tired Quatre appeared on the screen. All traces of fatigue disappeared when he saw who was calling him. "Heero! It's been a while."

"Aa." Heero stared at the screen for a moment before continuing. "Have you heard about Relena-sama?"

Quatre nodded. "I heard that there was an assassination attempt, but they're not giving out that much information..."

"He shot her in the arm."

"Oh, I'm sorry! Is she all right?"

"Sally Po and Wufei have her in Preventer headquarters. She's fine, but they have to get her out of a room with a window."

The Blond One blinked. "Hang on, I'll go get Trowa." He stood up from his leather chair. "Trowa-koi-- I mean, uh, Trowa!!!"

Both their voices could be heard in the background. "Hai."

"Heero's on the phone. It's about Relena-sama."

"About the assassination attempt, huh?"

"Hai."

"I bet he's real pissed about this one." Now both Quatre and Trowa appeared on the screen. "Nan desu ka?" Trowa asked him.

"Meet me and Duo at Preventer headquarters on the L-2 colony tomorrow morning. Before nine." Heero said.

Quatre sighed. "So much for getting some sleep tonight."

~~~

All the pilots arrived at five-thirty a.m.

Duo yawned. "I'm not used to getting up this early..."

"At least you got sleep." Wufei said. "I've been up all night guarding Relena and finding out about Springs Enterprises, along with Leonard Springs himself."

"What did you find out?" Heero asked.

"Technically, his father still owns the company, but Springs pretty much runs it himself. If anything happens in the company, it's because of him. He gave the okay to a top-secret company project involving illegal cloning..."

"He had animals cloned?" Duo said. "Oi..."

Wufei nodded. "Cows and pigs. Apparently, the production rate wasn't good enough for him. He ended up getting caught, but after talking the judge and jury out of it in court, he eventually was proven not guilty. He said that he had no knowledge of that kind of activity in his company."

"That's all?"

"Hai. He's pretty powerful. He could probably blackmail half the politicians in L-2 alone, with all the connections he has."

Quatre glanced from one pilot to the other. "Springs was only talking to Relena when she was shot. In fact, he was blocking her from him, wasn't he?"

"He gave him a signal just before the assassin appeared." Heero said. "The shooting started right after he scratched the back of his head. They weren't counting on him to miss; that's why he didn't move out of the way. They probably figured he'd shoot Relena from behind, instead of behind Springs." He turned to Wufei. "What about that assassin?"

"Nothing. No one has apprehended him yet." He replied.

"How's Relena?"

"She's out of bed, and she demands that we let her finish her paperwork instead of getting her much-needed rest." Sally appeared behind Wufei with a smile.

Duo laughed, and Quatre smiled. "I'm glad she's all right."

"Can we go see her?" Trowa spoke up.

"Sure." Sally led them through all the security and directed them to Relena's room. Once there, she rushed off, saying that there was a lot of work yet to be done.

Relena was wearing a sleeveless soft pink dress, a welcome change from that uncomfortable hospital gown. She wasn't wearing any makeup, and her hair was a little messy, but it didn't seem like she cared at the moment. She was busy digging through cabinets and drawers looking for where they put her attaché case. The creak of the door once again gave away Heero's presence. She immediately jumped up, being careful of her arm and the corner of the tabletop.

"You seem better."

Relena only smiled in reply, then she noticed the other pilots standing behind him. "Ohayo gosaimasu..."

"Hey, 'jousan," Duo said. "We all decided to make a lil' visit."

Once everyone was finished with their greetings, and Wufei had situated himself leaning against the doorway, Heero said, "You're supposed to be in bed."

"I can't just lie around while there's so much work to do. I have paperwork..."

"Sally has your case along with all the papers. She's looking for anything the assassin would've wanted."

Relena paled, but it was almost unnoticeable. "All... The papers? All of them?" (//Emiko dances around Comp-chan// Love letters to Hee-chan! Love letters to Hee-chan!)

Wufei nodded. "Don't worry, she knows they're confidential. That's why she's going through them herself."

"You... didn't see any of them, did you?"

He looked away. ".........Iie..."

"Good."

"I don't think you should concern yourself with work right now," Quatre said, interrupting. "You should really rest."

"I can't sit around while someone is trying to..." Relena sat on her bed. "I don't know *what's* going on..."

"Relena." Heero said. She looked up at him. "Stop worrying so much." He walked toward the window.

"Heero," Trowa said. "The exit's this way." Sweatdrops all around.

Heero glared at him. "I saw something."

The pilots gathered around the window. Relena crouched behind the bed. "What is it?" Quatre asked.

"The assassin." Four guns were immediately pulled.

"Which way did he go?" Duo said.

"He's still in that tree."

"Oh, I see a boot!"

Wufei gave Duo a look. "Maxwell..."

"Hn... They're Heero-boots all right," Quatre muttered.

Trowa asked, "Should we go after him?"

Heero didn't say anything. He just jumped out the window (...again -_-;;), heading for the tree the assassin was hiding in. Duo, Trowa, and Wufei followed. Quatre used the stairs.

The Heero impersonator spotted them immediately. He tried shooting at the pilots, but his aim was bad, and he kept missing. Trowa returned fire, hitting him in the shoulder, but he jumped from the tree and started running, holding his wound with one hand.

Quatre appeared from the stairway exit at just the right moment and managed to knock him over. (//chibi-Emiko dances around with two cheerleading fan-thingies// Waa~! Go Quatre! OOC as heck, but still! Go Quatre! ^_^)

The others reached them seconds later, and Duo and Wufei helped to hold him down.

Despite the pain he was in, the Heero look-alike managed to give them all his best deathglare.

"Why are you after Relena-sama?" Duo demanded.

"Why don't you go ask Springs?"

"He's the one who sent you?" said Quatre.

"He'll tell you what you want to know." With that, he hit a switch on his watch, causing a small explosion. When the dust cleared, the assassin lay dead.

Trowa checked out the body. "There was a miniature bomb under his shirt."

Duo sighed. "He's just like Heero all right. 'Cept he can't shoot worth--"

Two Preventer officers came running to the scene. Wufei explained the situation, and they went off to get Sally.

"We're going to have to get to Springs." Heero said. The others nodded in agreement.

~#*#~

Okay, that's it for part one. Neko-Wufei keeps complaining to me that his part isn't big enough, but I don't really care. Okay, yeah I do, my shoulder's getting a beating. ^_^;; Um... Stay tuned for part two! We'll find out what's up with that Hee-clone (that's my nickname for him. ...I need one of those...), and just who sent him. And are there more? Hn... //dons a Sherlock Holmes hat and bubble pipe// It's all elementary, minna-san. Jaa ne!