Up with the Dawn

by Fuchan

Dozens of OZ soldiers are turning up dead in the Gundam Boy's residing town, and normally that wouldn't be a concern for them, but when they find out that the victims are being killed by a vampire, they decide to investigate and end up involved in a lot m

1. Chapter one

Up With the Dawn: part one

Disclaimer: Heya everyone! Time for a little violence… You knew it was coming! But first. We don't own Gundam Wing or any of it's characters! They belong to Saban and their respective companies and we love them for bringing this wonderful series to us! ^_^ However, the original characters who appear in this fic is ALL OURS!!! OURS OURS OURS! Hee hee, so there, um, read and enjoy!

Warning: Violent / MAL / Yaoi

Pairings: 1*2 / 3*4

Status: Ongoing

Parts: 3/4 complete

Key:

//.....// Thoughts

"......" Dialogue

-.....- stressed

Stressed

------------------------------

It was early morning, and the sun was only just beginning to think of

rising.

A lone figure was stalking across the rooftops. It moved as silent as a cat

on the prowl, each footstep not making so much as a sound as it leaped

gracefully through the night with superhuman strength. It was on a

mission, and nothing could, or would, get in the way. It must find its

prey, it was a matter of life and death. And this particular warrior wasn't

about to be defeated.

Very abruptly the figure came to a stop as it spotted the newest victim.

The figure down on the street, a male of the human species, quite

attractive by human standards. //There you are, trying to hide from me

are you?// A sadistic smile crossed the figures face, revealing sharp teeth

as it moved in for the kill. The prey appeared nervous and kept looking

around its surroundings, but he never saw his attacker coming and was

easily subdued.

An ear-piercing scream split the silent night air once, then it was muffled

and all fell quiet again. Lights from a nearby house flicked on, then

shouts and murmurs could be heard coming in the figure's direction. The

figure sprang to their feet and watched from the safety of a dark alleyway

as the neighbors found the lifeless body sprawled out on the street. A

woman screamed, 

No one saw the dark figure lurking off into the night…

-------------------------

(At the Gundam Safehouse / Eleven hundred hours )

"Maxwell! What did you do with my clothes?!" Wufei screamed. His

outraged yell was heard throughout the safehouse and all the way into

the living room.

Duo Maxwell sat on the floor of the Gundam pilots safehouse reading a

newspaper article. When he heard Wufei screaming his name and saw him

come storming into the room, looking about for the young pilot, wearing

only a bath towel, Duo burst into a loud fit of laughter.

Wufei turned an enraged glare in Duo's direction. "You think its funny?!"

The braided American boy wasn't able to answer because of his laughing

and instead rolled across the floor in a hysterical fit.

Heero Yuy watched from a nearby table as he assembled and

disassembled his gun in rapid succession.

Wufei's face grew red and steam could almost be seen spewing from his

ears as he grabbed a still laughing Duo's braid and shoved it down the

smart aleck's mouth. "ACK!!! What the hell are you doing Wufei, trying to

kill me?!"

"Precisely. Now where are my clothes?"

But the sixteen-year-old wasn't ready to submit. "How should I know? I'm

not the one who took your clothes. Although, I have been eyeing that one

shirt of yours…"

"AHHHH! Duo, sometimes I could just…" He trailed off as he gesticulated

strangling Duo with his own braid. "You're so, you're really… ARGH!"

Heero snickered quietly and watched as Wufei walked away angrily and

flustered.

"One of these days he's going to cut your braid off with his sword."

Duo's face showed hurt as he cradled his braid in one hand and pulled

hair from his mouth with the other.

"Heero, Duo, Wufei, come check this out!" Trowa yelled, they followed the

sound of his voice to the TV room where a news reporter stood in front of

a long bright yellow string of police tape reading, "Do not cross".

"Whats going on?" Duo asked,

"There's been another murder."

"So," Heero said without concern or emotion, "People die everyday. Whats

so different about this one?"

"They said his whole head was twisted backwards."

Duo's violet eyes grew wide, "Okay, now you have my full attention."

"Shh, there's more." The reporter was now speaking with a police officer,

Quatre reached forward and turned up the volume on the TV.

Trowa looked at Wufei curiously and grinned, "Why are you wearing a-"

"Don't ask."

The reporter held a microphone up to her mouth. "Now, you said the

neck was twisted completely backwards, anything else, odd, about this

case?"

"Well, there were two small puncture wounds found on the neck of the

victim. Similar to a snake bite or, maybe a bat or,"

"A vampire?"

The officer chuckled, "Lady, everyone knows there isn't any such thing as

a vampire."

"But the victims neck has been bitten, those look to big to be just bat

bites."

"We believe, the victim was attacked by someone late last night, and there

was a struggle. He'd probably been bitten before the fight. There are

some snakes known to this area."

"Thank you for your time officer."

"Sure,"

"So who will be the next victim in this string of gruesome homicides? Could there really

be a vampire among us? Stay tuned, this station will be keeping you posted with the latest

on-" Trowa flipped off the TV suddenly.

"What a baka, everyone knows vampires aren't real!" Wufei exclaimed.

"Yeah, and besides, vampires don't kill unless they're really hungry. Then

they drink all your blood and leave the body completely dry." Duo said

bearing his teeth.

"How would you know?" Heero jumped in coolly, "Have you ever met a

vampire?"

"No, of course not. They're not real." Duo said nonchalantly.

"They, they can't be real, can they Wufei?" Quatre's emotional blue eyes

sparkled with fear.

Wufei shook his head, "Of course not. They're only myths. Just like Loch

Ness and ware-wolves…"

"Yeah, I guess you're right…" Quatre said nervously.

Duo snuck up behind Quatre and peeked at him over his shoulder. "You

aren't scared… are you Quatre?"

"Me? Scared of vampires? Of course I'm not. They don't exist."

Duo raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Well, all this talk has made me hungry,

for blood." Duo teased.

Trowa moved to slap Duo but surprisingly enough, it was Heero who

grabbed Duo by the braid and led him away saying; "You're just setting

out to get yourself killed today, aren't you Maxwell…"

Quatre sighed and grabbed his drink, heading for the door. "I'm going to

sleep. Wake me if anything interesting happens."

Wufei turned to Trowa. "You look worried, are you okay Trowa? Don't tell

me you buy into that stuff."

Trowa smiled lightly. "You never know Wufei, maybe vampires really do

exist…"

"Ooookay Trowa, I think you've had enough to drink." He said taking

away the alcoholic beverage from his fellow Gundam pilot.

----------------------------------

(Unknown location / One hundred hours)

"No, please. I'll do anything, just don't hurt me!"

"You know what I came here for. You're friend told me you have it,"

"I, I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Last chance, give it to me or I kill you here and now." The figure held the

man up by his collar,

"I don't know what the heck you're talking about! I don't have anything

on me look!" the figure dumped his pockets out and every other possible

hiding place. She double-checked, he sure enough didn't have it. "Don't

drink my blood, I'm allergic to vampires!"

The figure groaned, I do hate it when they make things difficult…

"Hey! What's going on over there?!" A man in uniform off in the distance,

no threat. The figure turned back to her current victim.

"I don't have time for games. Now if I can't get the information from you

I'll find another source. You can live if you tell me. Where is it, who has

it…" She said coolly,

"You can't do it, you don't have he guts. A killer vampire with a

conscience." She dropped him onto the ground and held him there.

"Hey! I said stop!" the guard was getting closer, but not enough to see

her. He was busy trying to draw his gun.

With another groan the girl grabbed the man's head firmly in both hands

and leaned down face to face with him. His eyes went wide with shock

when he saw her young face. "Sorry," she said in a monotone voice. "no

prisoners… no witnesses…"

SNAP

Without another thought she dropped the lifeless body face down to the

ground and quickly disappeared into the shadows.

----------------------------

(Three hundred hours)

The whirring sounds of the hunting / killing machines were getting

closer, still she ran on. Her face was stone set in a grimace, she ran on a

broken leg, which she had earned early in the chase.

She looked ahead and saw a cliff face and automatically she ran for it,

ignoring the searing pain in her leg and the branches scratching at her

clothes, hair, and face.

At the cliff face she came to a screeching halt and looked down. The

ocean was rushing up the rocks to eat up the shore. She looked closer

and saw what the waters edge was hiding from view. There were rocks

below, sharp and deadly, just below the surface. She imagined herself

landing on the rocks, could feel the sharp points impaling her there

under the waters surface where if by some miracle she survived, she

would drown.

She looked again, even avoiding the rocks and cliff face, any human

would die making that jump. She leaped out into open air and plummeted

to the ground below. The robots saw her form disappear over the face of

the cliff and flew down to search for the remains under the ocean surface.

-----------------------------

(Back at the Safehouse / Twenty four hundred hours)

"MAXWELL!!!"

"Chill out Wu-man! I was only kidding around!" Wufei stalked towards

Duo menacingly with his sword drawn. Duo watched the blade nervously.

"Hey Heero, a little help?"

Heero sneered from his spot on the floor in front of the couch, "I warned

you Maxwell…" Was his only response.

Wufei sneered and put the sword away. "Don't worry Duo, I won't cut off

your precious hair, or head." Duo breathed a sigh of relief,

"Thanks. I am kind of attached to them both."

"Because I'm going to strangle you with that damned thing instead!"

Wufei lunged at Duo with both hands but the wily American was too quick

and ducked around the coffee table. After another grab Wufei had

grabbed both the boys arms and twisted them around his back, thereby

rendering him helpless.

Trowa looked on and turned up the volume on the TV where the news

reporter was reporting yet another gruesome death. "Hey you two calm

down for a second. I wanna hear this."

Duo's face landed on the floor in front of the TV with a smack just as the

camera was zooming in on a lifeless body on a stretcher. The skin was as

white as a sheet. Duo's jaw fell open.

"We're here at the scene of another crime where this employee of OZ was

found just an hour ago. The blood seems to have been completely

drained from his body and upon closer inspection you can clearly see the

puncture wounds on the neck."

A large security guard was seen making his way over, he looked

thoroughly pissed to see the camera crew. "Excuse me, do you have

permission to be here with that camera? If not I'll have to ask you to

leave."

"I think the people of this town have a right to know what's going on in

they're own backyards."

"Man does she know how to milk it." Duo snickered.

"I'm sorry, you and this crew have to go. Now." The guard suddenly

reached out and shut off the camera, but he obviously hadn't used the off

switch.

Duo dusted himself off as he stood to his feet. Duo said, "I think maybe

we ought to investigate this."

"Why? If someone else is out there taking out OZ then why should we

sweat it?" Heero's cold voice replied.

"It isn't just OZ employees, there are other supposedly innocent people

out there being killed." Quatre said, Trowa gave him a suspicious glance.

"Maybe Heero and Quatre are right. Besides, I want to find out if this

whole vampire thing is true or not."

Wufei snorted, "Do you ever shut up Duo?"

"Actually,"

"Don't even say it Maxwell…"

-----------------------

(Unknown Location / Twenty two hundred hours)

The young girl dragged herself up the cliff. The robots were long since

gone, satisfied with thinking she was dead already. She had survived her

fall by landing onto a ledge, but had injured her head in the fall. She had

just managed to roll out of sight before she went unconscious and there

she had remained hidden until the robots gave up the search.

She grunted and tested her limbs, the pain in her left leg had intensified.

She grunted, This won't do at all. she thought. She grabbed her leg

and pulled it as hard as she could.

KRACK!

The bone snapped back into

place. She stood up and tested it. She could walk on it for a while, but

she'd have to rest soon so it could heal all the way. Her head was

bleeding but already the blood was drying and clotting in her choppy

black hair. Before long the wound would be closed.

Her strength was leaving her, she was weak with hunger and now

everything else was catching up to her. She ignored it all for as long as

she could and began to walk towards her next destination.

----------------------------

(Town morgue / twenty four hundred hours)

"Duo you baka! Get off my foot!"

"Sorry Wufei," Duo stepped back and into Heero. Heero grunted once and

Duo jumped away. You definitely didn't want Heero cross with you.

"Shh, both of you! You'll give us away." Trowa's strict tone cut through

the dark. He and Heero led the way forward into the dark.

Wufei and Quatre followed and Duo brought up the rear. "When I became

a Gundam pilot I never thought I'd have to break into morgues." He

grumbled. Heero's cobalt blue eyes penetrated through the dark and

silenced Duo instantly. "Ok, ok, I'll be quiet."

"What would we ever do without Heero?" Trowa grinned,

"Probably we would have killed Duo already," Wufei answered willingly.

"I could take you all on," Duo bluffed to recover his wounded pride.

Besides, Duo thought, I'm meant to be killed by Heero and Heero

only.

"You can't even take me on." Wufei spat.

"Oh yeah," Duo challenged, Wufei grinned and grabbed the boy by his

braid. "Hey!" Duo yelped as he began to pull. "Let me go Wu-man!"

"I've told you not to call me that a thousand times! My name is Wufei, and

not Wu-man or Wuffie. Is that clear MAXWELL!? " He whispered sharply.

"No, Wufei don't!" To late to stop him, Wufei released Maxwell's braid and

he went flying backwards and through a curtain. "Duo!" Quatre called

softly, there was no answer. And then suddenly they heard him yelp. They

rushed forward guns drawn.

"Hey guys, look what I found,"

Duo stood beside an examination table, on it was the latest homicide

victim's body. Heero glared at Duo and checked the room for anyone else

before sitting down at a computer to hack for the necessary files. Trowa

and Wufei stood watch.

Quatre sighed and walked over to Duo. "Can you imagine how many

people in here have died?" Quatre said a prayer for the people

surrounding them who'd lost their lives. Duo waited until he'd finished

before he lifted the blanket back to look.

Wufei and Trowa walked over to look as well. "He's dry as a bone!" Duo

stated.

"Are there any bite marks?"

"I don't see any," Duo gestured to some gloves, "give me a pair of those

will ya?" Quatre obediently gave Duo the gloves and watched as he turned

the head over in his hands to examine the neck. "I don't see anything like

a bite mar- hey wait! Whats that?" He reached down to finger two small

marks on the victims neck about two inches apart.

"This is insane! Vampires don't exist!!!"

"Well Wufei, maybe you should tell that to the creature who did this!"

"Maybe someone drained him with a syringe?" Quatre suggested,

"They'd have to have an awful big syringe to do that. And why would

someone go to all this trouble to have someone knocked off? Heero?

Anything yet?"

"I'm in, what's the guys name?"

"Roberts,"

Heero's face was lit by the eerily green glow of the old computer as he

searched the files. He nodded when he'd found the one. "Says he was just

an average middle aged man, had a job at a power plant, no family.

Nothing interesting." He muttered,

"Well then maybe we have to accept the possibility that vampires exist."

"But that's crazy!"

"Yeah, what else could it be? Let's check the other bodies. Heero, we need

the names of the latest victims."

Heero replied as he began to read off a string of names. Duo ran his

flashlight over the nameplates as he searched. When he found a name

he'd heard Heero read off he yanked it open. He looked the body over

and noticed a bulge in the chest pocket. He pulled out a long silver chain

with an odd medallion on it. "Guys, I think I found another one."

Wufei, Trowa and Quatre rushed to Duo's side and looked on, following

the direction of his flashlight. They all thought 'Nothing unusual', until

they saw where the face should be. This person, their entire head had

been twisted backwards to face down on the examination table. They

were staring down at the back of this person's head.

Duo reached forward slowly to look for the tell tale bite marks, his fingers

were only inches from the neck. Closer, closer, closer…

BANG

"AAAAHHHHHH!" They all whirled around to see Heero sheepishly trying to pick up a

fallen metal tray. He glared his hatred at the object in question and finally simply kicked

it aside.

Duo snuffed, "Check out this medallion I found."

"Weird. Wonder what it is."

"I don't know, yet. But I'm going to find out."

"You're taking it?"

"This guy doesn't need it. Just look at him. Besides, it might answer some

questions about these murders."

Quatre sighed and shrugged his shoulders in surrender. "Maybe we

should just go, before someone finds us here."

"Too late." They whirled around when they'd heard the voice. There

before them stood a figure, they couldn't make out the face or any other

features for the hood the figure wore over their face. Heero whipped out

his gun from its unknown location and leveled the weapon with the

persons head. "Go ahead, do it." The figure dared coolly. Heero fired shot

after shot, the figure dodged nimbly aside. "Too slow," they taunted in a

monotone voice, Heero fired again and again.

The newcomer's hands flew fast as lightning and when they opened for

all to see, there sat all five of Heero's bullets. Heero growled and rushed

forward, the stranger tried to move but Heero was to fast, and he/she

stumbled on a weakened leg. Heero put all his weight into his attack,

tackling his opponent to the ground. "Now who's too slow…"

The figure groaned, Heero felt something-warm trickle down his hand

and jumped to his feet. He could now make out the blood trickling down

the side of the person's head and the hand where the bullets had been

caught. He leveled his gun with the strangers head and set it.

CLICK

Heero growled. Duo and Wufie rushed forward. "Heero, what is it?"

"Out of bullets,"

"We can't leave him here. We'll take him back with us and figure out why

he attacked us."

Heero shrugged and hid his gun away, then bent to pick up the attacker

and threw him over his shoulder as they calmly left the same way they'd

come in.

-----------------------------------

(Gundam Safehouse / Seven hundred hours)

"Hey Heero, be a little more careful with his head will ya? We want to get

information from him not knock him senseless!" Heero glared at Duo,

making him shut up instantly.

"Set him down there," Heero tossed the body down onto the floor of the safehouse and

stalked off to get some ropes and bullets for his gun. Once Heero was gone the remaining

four pilots turned over the body of the attacker and propped it up onto a chair. Heero

returned and tied the captive's hands and legs to the chair.

"Now what,"

"Now we wait for him to wake up and answer some questions."

"Who's going to keep watch?"

"I will." Trowa volunteered. Heero nodded and stalked away to do who knew what,

probably repair his Gundam. Quatre followed Wufei into the TV room and Duo stayed

with Trowa.

--------------------------

Ungh, where, am I? She tested her arms and legs to find them tightly tied and going

numb. Now I remember, I was taken captive by the bungling idiots. She opened her

eyes and took in her surroundings, careful not to make any sounds or sudden moves.

This must be their little hideaway. I can only estimate how far away from the rest of the

city we must be. Quite a ways from civilization would be my guess… She carefully

looked up to see her captors, she smiled, The braided one is quite impressive, good

build, but no match for myself. The other will be a problem though, She listened hard,

she could just hear the others moving about the house.

She shifted to see further, the door was in the other room. The question remains, can I

make it to the door before the others get here… She eye measured the distance to the

door and calculated her own speed-

"He's awake." Heero announced to the other pilots. Duo and Trowa looked up from their

activities to see Heero checking his gun. "Wufei, Quatre, get in here."

She first heard the sounds of light, delicate footsteps, soft like a cats. Then the slightly

heavier sound but not clumsy or heavy like the one in the spandex shorts or the braided

boy. When she saw who had entered she caught her breath. She had just picked up a

strong feeling from one of the boys in the room. She couldn't tell what it was, just that it

was familiar. She pushed it aside to try to figure out later, when she was untied.

The one in the spandex stepped forward and aimed a gun to her face. She took in every

detail of him, from his strong upper body to his cobalt blue eyes to the way his mouth

remained in a permanent straight line. She could feel a strange connection towards him

though it took her by surprise.

He spoke, a low tone, dry of emotion, "Who are you, and what were you doing spying on

us?"

She remained silent and refused to look at any of them. The braided boy spoke next,

"Look pal, I don't think you want to do this the hard way so how about answering the

question while you still can."

"Hnnnn," She growled.

Duo turned to Quatre and whispered, "It looks like he's as stubborn as Heero is."

"Yeah,"

"Tell us who you are, don't think I won't kill you." Heero said in an icy tone.

Heero reached forward and pulled the hood away and even he was shocked when he saw

the girl sitting in the chair staring back at them. Wufei's eyes went wide. "He's a

WOMAN!"

"Brilliant observation." She snapped.

-------------------------------------------

(Gundam Safehouse / Nine hundred thirty hours)

There's something odd about this girl. Trowa watched her suspiciously. What is it

you're hiding from us Mia Aino? The seventeen-year-old pilot of Heavy arms looked

this newcomer over for the second time since they'd found her.

The first thing Trowa had noticed about this girl was her baby blue eyes, speckled with

occasional streaks of silver. Her eye color was a complete contrast with her short,

cropped midnight-black hair. But an even bigger contrast to that was her skin tone; which

was almost as white as Duo's.

As he was taking in her facial features his eyes took in the parts of her clothing where her

feminine figure should be. No wonder we thought she was a guy, look at her clothes.

With her green/camouflage army fatigues, fitting combat boots, and the oversized,

hooded dark brown sweater, she looked like anything but a girl.

"What are you staring at you oversized Ken doll?" Duo, who'd been drinking something

at the moment, erupted into loud laughter at Mia's comment, causing the drink to spew

from his nose.

As angry as Trowa was, he couldn't help but grin. His only reply was to say, "No

comment…"

Quatre looked on, his anger coming to a high boiling point. Maybe I should have let

Heero kill her…

Heero glared at her from the opposite side of the room. "Now we know your name, tell us

why you were at the morgue." He began.

"You say that as if you really think I'm going to answer."

That's it! Heero thought angrily as his temper reached its limit. He reached back for

his gun and brought it around to aim at her forehead with every intention of emptying the

entire magazine into her. Everyone else in the room was frozen with shock, all but Duo.

He leaped in front of Heero's gun and held up his arms, "Heero, don't do anything you

might regret later!"

"Like I give a damn about this stupid girl."

They both looked up at the sound of Mia's laughter.

When she stopped laughing she stared at Heero mockingly, "Go right ahead," She dared,

Duo's jaw fell to the floor but he still had the sense to get the hell out of the way. Heero

re-aimed the gun and his finger was about to press the trigger when the door exploded

open and Relena stepped inside…

"Heero!!!"

"………"

"Relena-sama what are…?" Quatre's question was interrupted by a loud thud. Everybody

looked at the gun on the floor, then slowly at the Japanese boy, who was now standing in

the middle of the room, staring at Relena in utter disbelieve, his jaw hanging.

What the hell is SHE doing here?! Just when Relena was about to move towards him

he turned away and said, "I'm going to get myself some Aspirin, I suddenly have a

terrible headache." With these words he left the room.

Relena appeared somewhat hurt, but she quickly masked it up. "OK, what's wrong with

Heero? I know he's not normally very happy to see me, but I can't be that bad."

Duo looked from the door to Relena and back again. " Relena, I have to agree with

Heero, there's just no way in hell you could've picked a worse day for a surprise visit,

but let me assure you it's not your fault." He turned to the only other two pilots in the

group who showed any real courtesy towards women. "Trowa, Quatre, please take care of

this. I'm gonna see what's up with him."

------------------------------------------

Duo didn't need much time to find the outraged Wing pilot. He knew exactly where to

find him.

"Heero, what the hell was that? The last person I would have expected to see loose

control was YOU."

"……."

"I would have more luck talking to a brick-wall." Duo ground out, he was beginning to

really loose his patience.

Heero gave Duo one of his famous death glares and said in his common monotone voice,

"Will you just shut up."

This comment hit the mark. Duo's violet eyes danced dangerously. "No, Mr. Perfect

Soldier Heero Yuy I won't shut up! You know what you are? You're an ice-block! You

know why? Because you don't care what other people are thinking! You only care about

your damn mission, nothing else matters to you! That girl really cares about you and you

know it!" Duo inhaled deeply. Heero opened his mouth but Duo interrupted him sharply.

"No, now it's my turn Heero! You treat her like shit and worse! You know what else?

Keep that up and I can guarantee you'll end up alone!"

Heero looked at Duo, his eyes wide with shock. Where the heck did that come from,

Duo? What happened to your joker-mask? Just when he was about to say something,

Duo's face softened.

"Heero, don't block out the people who care for you."

Should I risk it? What if he doesn't feel the way I do. "Do you care?" Heero asked. He

had said it so quietly that Duo thought he had imagined it.

"Say that again Heero. I couldn't understand you."

"Never mind, it's not important"

Duo's heart sank when he heard those words. Ah, I should've known. "Ok… if you

say so." With those words Duo left the hangar.

Heero couldn't help but see the hurt in Duo's eyes, when Duo was gone Heero pulled out

a picture of him and stared at it blankly. "I'm sorry, but, I can't tell you how I feel. I'm

just afraid you would be disgusted if you ever found out. And what would I ever do if I

lost my only friend?"

-----------------------------

Fuchan: Hey ppl, I'm only putting up part two when we get feedback of some sort!

Quatre: What if you get flamed?

Fuchan: ::Gives him a sweet grin::

Quatre: ::Sweatdrop::

Fuchan: ::Tight smile:: Then I'll post it anyway! Got a problem with that Q-man?

Quatre: N-no! Heh heh! ::Backs away::

Fuchan: Good! ^_^ Feedback goes to dragonriderkdt@core.com and is forwarded to Cryingangel!