Title: A Fishy Adventure 7b/??
Author: Little Angel +
Disclaimer: I own not GW…. Tis sad…
Pairings: 1+2, 3+4, other?
Last Time…
Duo released one of Heero's hands, which Heero used to move some of his partner's bangs away from his eyes. Their other hands remained clasped between them. Duo moved his chair to his and Heero's were touching and leaned against his side. Duo's other hand snaked around and under the green tank top at Heero's waist.
"Baka," Duo gently admonished the other merman, "you should've waited until you were stronger for that."
"Would you rather I started shooting?" Heero asked with the smallest touch of amusement in his voice. He reached next to his chair, where he had placed the water bottle when he sat down earlier and took a big sip. Duo mirrored his actions, and when both water bottles were placed back on the floor, their hands were re-clasped together.
Sally was the first to put three and five together to get two.
Two mermen to be specific.
Her jaw hit the floor in shock as she looked between the pair of them, each of whom starred back with open amusement in their eyes.
Zechs, Noin, Snider and Billings looked between the 3 other Gundam pilots who didn't seem as confused as the rest of them, the pair starring at Sally with amusement in their eyes, and Sally.
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"What the hell is going on here?!"
Snider's statement of complete bafflement seemed to do two things. The first, send Duo into fits of howling laughter, and the second, draw Sally out of her own state of disbelief and shock to start shooting off questions and theories at an amazing rate, which in turn just made Duo laugh even harder.
"What was that thing that the two of you just did? Do you have some kind of telepathic connection? Is that how you communicate when underwater? I wonder how much more advanced your minds must be for that to happen….. Is it possible for you to communicate like that to others? Is that how Quatre knew you could speak even though you weren't talking? Do you also have empathic abilities like him? Heero!!! How were you able to survive in space!? Don't you need to be near the ocean? Couldn't you dehydrate being so far away from your home? How did you handle it? Did your contacts know about you? Wait!! Is that how you survived that explosion?!?" Sally looked like she wanted to pull the two mermen into a lab and start running tests. She would've kept up her questioning, however, the gleam in her eyes sobered up Duo's laughter and both sea creatures began looking a little uncomfortable.
Heero, not liking the way Sally was starting to look at them, turned on his warning glare, tightening his hold on Duo's hand.
Duo squeezed his hand back and also started glaring at Sally. Sally, noticed the wide range of looks she was getting from everyone present, going from shock, to amusement, to anger, to the warning look from Quatre and the mermen. She cut off her questioning and held her hands up in a surrender position.
"Sorry, my mind started to get carried away with the possibilities. This was just a huge shock and it defies all the laws of nature! You guys don't need to answer all of those questions, no matter how much I would love for you to. And I promise I will not be pulling anyone into a lab to start experimenting or running tests… unless it is to check on your health."
The mermen nodded and lessened their glares. The room suddenly became much less tense, as everyone became aware of how much they expected some type of fight to break out. A universal sigh left everyone's mouths and shoulder's sagged in relief. Duo raised an amused eyebrow, but didn't start laughing again and neither rebel made any move to answer any of her questions.
During Sally's rapid question session, the other ex-Oz rebels began putting the pieces of the puzzle together and realized what Sally had realized first.
Zechs was the first to pose a question, one that Trowa had also asked Heero upon his waking from his coma. "Why are the two of you fighting in a human war if you are not human?"
Heero gave him an answer much like the one he gave Trowa, "The Earth is as much our home as it is yours. We just happen to live in a different part of it, a part that humans have always been trying to conquer. We are fighting to keep our home in the oceans safe just as much as you are fighting to keep the colonies and the Earth safe."
Billings was the next to pose a question and being a doctor he was concerned about he other rebel's health (part fish or no), "What was that thing you guys just did? And what did you mean Heero wasn't strong enough, will he be alright?"
Duo was the one to answer that question, "In our mer-forms we are empathic just like Quatre. And as he mentioned before, when you were doing your rescue mission, I was able to sense your presence and help guide you to my location."
Duo glanced over at Heero before continuing with, "But as humans, our empathy is cut off, unless we are joining hands with the human we are attempting to read. What Heero did was basically read my emotions on certain things that happened in the last few days."
This wasn't exactly what happened, but emotions were being read, so Duo didn't feel too bad about misleading the others. Quatre had a feeling Duo was leaving things out because they had talked telepathically when Duo was recovering in the ocean and had kept him from having a panic attack. But the blonde pilot also knew that their communication was another thing the couple wasn't keen on sharing with humans. Their kind was a mystery as it was, and they were definitely not about to give up all their secrets to a race that's been trying to take over their world for who knows how long.
"Our next question, if everyone is done with the 'interrogation' of Duo and Heero," Wufei looked pointedly at Sally and Billings, who only looked slightly put out that they needed to stop their questioning, "Is to figure out our next move."
"Was everyone at that base destroyed or inactivated in some way, shape or form?" Trowa, who was with Heero during the rescue mission wanted to make sure they wouldn't be getting surprise visits from 'mad scientists' so to speak.
Zechs answered with, "When we started the attack with the Gundams, we kept clear of the research center and cell blocks, which were located in the same building and focused on the hangers and barracks. Because it was more of a research center than anything else, there was a smaller amount of workable mobile suits to retaliate against us. We did a heat scan when we were finished the attack and checked for any casualties but both scans came back negative. Rashid and I also did not catch anyone trying to escape the base during the attack."
"Quatre? Sally? Did you leave any survivors?" Trowa knew how much the doctors and Quatre hated killing, but in cases like this it was a necessity of war.
Sally shook her head negatively. "The scientists were taken out by Snider and me as well as the guards in front of the main door to the room Duo was in."
Quatre also answered with a negative, "Billings and I had to enter the observation room through the ventilation system and we took out the guards that were in there from the vents. The only door we saw after a quick scan was the one leading into the main room."
Something about Quatre's answer bothered Duo for a reason he couldn't pinpoint. There was something off about the lack of doors in that observation room. Being in a large tank for his stay at the research base didn't leave him much room for playing games like hide and seek with the soldiers, or causing other such mischief, but he still had his empathy and telepathy because he was in the water.
/Why do I get the feeling we are missing something about that room…. / Duo thought back to the time he spent in the tank from the moment he woke up and realized he wasn't in the ocean. /There had been a couple of humans in that room right away… but only two left through the door into the main room, though at different times. While I was awake anyway. What if they came and went while I was drugged into sleep? No…. there were times when I was awake for a long time and there seemed to be someone in that room… "But they didn't go through the door!" /
Duo shot up straight in his chair as he stated/thought, "But they didn't go through the door!" Not realizing he had finished his thought out loud, Duo got up, letting go of Heero's hand in the process, and started pacing behind the chairs they were sitting on.
He was muttering something about ventilation systems apparently being the newest fad in OZ base development.
All other conversation stopped at Duo's seemingly random outburst, and Heero's warning bells started going off when Duo voluntarily let go of his hand to start pacing. Something was definitely wrong with the braided merman, but nobody was sure what that was… even his soul mate.
Quatre could feel concern and worry rolling off of Heero in waves, at Duo's behavior, which sent off alarms for the blonde as well. "Duo? Is everything alright?"
Duo paused momentarily in his pacing and turned to the others. "Billings, Quatre, are you absolutely sure there was no others doors in that observation room, other than the on leading into the main lab?"
Both rebels thought a moment about the question, racking their brains as they reviewed what they remembered about the room and the layouts. After a moment they both shook their heads negatively. "The only other thing in the room was a set of two filing cabinets against the back wall."
Duo glanced around the room at everyone and noticed he had their attention, "I feel like we are missing something about that base. There were times when I was in the tank that I felt a presence in that observation room, however no one had gone into it through the door in the main room."
Noin posed a question, "Are you sure it wasn't from something they were doing in their… experiments like messing with your emotions or causing hallucinations?"
Duo shook his head, "No, they were unaware of how much intelligence I had, and had no idea of my empathy because I was very careful about hiding it. Also, none of them had any empathy (in more ways than one) so they wouldn't know what to look for if I used it on them in any way." He looked at them with the utmost innocent expression….again.
Heero snorted and everyone could almost see the halo over Duo's head as he admitted that.
And again, nobody bought the look for a minute. A few of them were even kind of glad the mermen were on their side and not Oz's at this point.
Duo seemed to be guessing at their thoughts and grinned.
Heero was the first to get back on track, since he was more familiar with his koi's antics and "unique" sense of humor. "Do we have a blue print of the base and the surrounding areas?"
Snider spoke for the first time since his other outburst earlier even as he gathered the blue prints in question, "We went over it backwards and forwards when we were planning the mission, and there was obviously no indication of any type of secret passage way into or out of that room. Not that I doubt you Duo; I'm just stating what we went over when we were planning and such."
"Let's assume there was a secret passage leading into that room. The question is, where would it lead to and from and would it take anyone off base undetected?" Zechs was already scanning the perimeter of the base and the surrounding area looking for a spot that would seem likely to be an outlet for a passage.
Everyone gathered around the maps and began searching around with him. There was some muttering every once and a while when they thought they found something important, but other than that they kept looking. Heero suddenly shot up from his seat and turned towards the door.
"Heero?" Quatre's question barely stopped him.
"Laptop," was all the blue eyed pilot said in response.
A universal "ah" left everyone's mouths.
When he returned, Zechs and Wufei joined him in searching the surrounding area and pulling up any earlier plans they could on the Oz base. Aside from a very uncharacteristic whistle from Zechs at Heero's hacking skills and overall computer abilities, the next hour was spent in relative silence.
When everyone started to get more an a little frustrated, Heero finally made a break through. "Duo, do you remember ever seeing the commander of the base?"
The blue eyed pilot turned his laptop screen around so everyone could take a look at what, or more importantly, whose file was open.
Everyone looked over the main bits of information on the file, before looking over to the other side of the screen to look over the picture.
Name: Jonas Sebastian
Rank: Commander
Age: 35
Date of Birth: June 21, AC 160
Status: Military Leave
There was nothing note-while about his photo that stood out to any of the ex-Ozzie's or the Gundam pilots. He had dark brown hair, cut slightly longer than the official crew cut and very dark brown eyes, bordering on black. His face had a wind worn yet tan look about it, like he grew up on or around salty waters.
The file went on to talk about his awards and accomplishments as well as give brief descriptions of the centers or ports under his command. It turned out that he was a very good soldier. He had some of the highest recommendations, top grades in the Academy, and some of the highest military metals one could get, second only to one Trieze Kushrenada. He also seemed to be a big supporter of Oz's underwater mobile suite production and a naval fleet commander to boot.
Zechs whistled when as he read the file. "I believe he was the one in the Academy that Trieze always told me he was trying to top."
Noin caught his eye and winked. Zechs smiled at a memory, as Noin had done something similar during their time climbing the Oz ranks.
"Is that our guy?" Snider seemed to be considering how this could be the officer they were looking for, since Duo had yet to name him as the base's commanding officer.
Many suspicions were confirmed when Duo stated, "I never saw the commander's face, but I can attempt some things later to locate him."
"Heero?" Quatre prompted Heero enlighten them all when it looked like the Wing pilot was waiting for them.
"Hn. I hacked the Oz files looking for potential officers and his name was one of the ones that came up fitting the criteria we are looking for. He's been on military leave for almost a month now, his last official posting was commander of a submarine that specialized in the Cancer's underwater repairs, and his submarine just happened to be in the area of Duo's last mission."
"All of that is pretty convincing information. Does that make him our guy?" Noin seemed to be processing all of the said information the fastest and came to the conclusion, "and does that mean we missed one? There must be more to this base than meets the eye."
Ever one for a mystery, Snider posed the next question, "Where you able to find anything on the base itself?"
Wufei shook his head in answer, "It was apparently abandon in AC 190 because of huge base wide computer malfunction. It was already old and the government didn't want to spend the money to get it up to code."
Everyone looked over at Duo, who just raised his hands in the universal sign of surrender and shook his head, "It wasn't me!! I swear!"
Sally, Zechs, and Noin also declined any knowledge of an attack.
"Maybe what we need," Billings chimed in, "is an up-close visual of the base. Poke around the area surrounding it, maybe look through the rubble and see what comes up. We might figure out how someone might've escaped or if there are any clues as to who this commander could be."
The question now was who would go? Not to mention the fact that Wufei and Zechs' Gundam's needed to be repaired, restocked and refueled, from their part of the rescue.
Everyone looked at each other and started talking at once about who should go where and where those places actually were. Finally, to get everyone's attention, Noin let out a shrill whistle, (the kind where you use two fingers).
All noise in the room stopped and all eyes turned to Noin, "Thank you. Now, before we all get into some kind of fight over this, we should decide where we are taking Zechs' and Wufei's suits. Zechs, I'm not sure how much you are going to like this… but I think we should take the suits to the Sanq Kingdom –" Heero's right eye twitched, but only Duo caught the slight movement.
"No." The artic winds were apparently residing within Zechs from the chilled tone of his answer.
Everyone else in the room backed away a few steps and let the two Ex-Ozzie's duke it out over the base. Duo and Wufei shared a look, both thinking about taking bets on who would win the argument.
"And why not?" Noin, it seemed, was not at all perturbed by Zechs' tone and was quite capable of glaring very efficiently. Not quit up to Heero's everyday glare, but a very close second. "The facilities there are completely stocked enough to fix both Gundams, Relena is unaware of it's existence, and YOU even mentioned that it was high time someone started acting as a body guard for her, now that she knows her heritage as the Sanq Princess and is trying to rebuild the Kingdom."
As Zechs was unsure of how much the Gundam Pilots knew about his past and being formally known as Milliardo Peacecraft, the long lost Sanq Prince and heir to the thrown, there was very little he could respond with and not reveal too much about himself in the process. Even Sally didn't know the whole story, which was the way he wanted it.
He settled for upping his glare a notch above Noin's and simply stating, "You know exactly why I don't wish to go back there."
Noin raised an eye brow, "Yes I do. And YOU know that I think you are being a big baby about this whole thing!"
Duo, Sally, Billings and Snider, found that rather amusing and were unable to hold in said amusement without letting a couple of chuckles out first.
Quatre and Wufei, who were of a wealthy family upbringing, covered their amusement with polite coughing or a head turn and snort. Trowa's and Heero's lips twitched upwards, but that was the only change to be seen outwardly. Empathically, Quatre could feel their amusement, which just added to his own.
"Since Zechs has a problem with returning to the Sanq Kingdom at this time, maybe he should go with the team going to the base?" Quatre's question stopped Zechs from making a comment he would definitely regret saying later, especially when Noin would've been drowning him.
"What about my Gundam and it's repairs?" Just like the Gundam Pilots, Zechs wasn't too happy about leaving his Gundam in the hands of others, especially when it needed to be worked on.
Noin muttered something under her breath about boys and their toys, but no body seemed to be listening to her, instead all eyes had turned to Heero at his declaration of, "Duo could pilot it and help with the repairs."
Said violet eyed merman was leaning against the wall where he had earlier used as support to catch his breath at hearing Zechs be called a "big baby." He had an eye brow raised and a smirk on his lips when everyone turned to look at him after Heero.
"I thought you were only trained in land and sea infiltration and explosives?" Wufei recalled that coming up at some point earlier that day and voiced his concern out loud while Zechs processed that bit of information.
Duo, who was still a little miffed about the sword incident that morning, just nodded in return to the inquiry and helpfully added, "Don't forget stealth."
His smirk grew and mischief began to dance in his eyes as the rest of them tried to work out how he would be piloting and repairing a Gundam when he apparently never had any experience with the machines.
Zechs fought the urge to rub his temples at the possibilities they were discussing. He also wasn't about to ask the other pilots to take care of his Gundam either. He felt it was his responsibility, as the pilot, to keep it in repair after all.
"Why don't we establish who is going where to do what, THEN figure out what to do about the Gundam." Sally broke the rising tension as everyone focused on who would go where.
After much debating, arguing, and one, "He could use the practice" comment about Duo being the one to pilot Zechs' Gundam, it was decided that Heero, Duo, Wufei, Trowa, Noin and Billings would go to the Sanq Kingdom to start repairs on the Gundams as well as prep the base for the arrival of more forces. Zechs, Quatre, and Snider would stake out the base and look for any lose ends in regard to trap doors, secret passages, or random OZ personnel wondering the area. Sally would go to the Oz rebel's old base and begin the evacuation of the troops to the Sanq Kingdom as quickly as possible.
To take care of the security measures it needed to move the Gundams to Sanq as well as get to the destroyed base undetected, Heero would wire the satellite feeds to loop according to where the rebels were in reaching their destination. It would take about one day for him to complete the task, and it required that no one left the house under ANY circumstances for the duration of the time it took.
When the loop was in place, everyone would have one hour to get their planes in the air and out of the area before the loop moved into the next areas. In essence, to anyone on the ground looking up at the planes, it would be like watching ghosts floating. There would be a sighting of it, but there would be no pictures or video detailing the plane's path. But since most of the travel would be taking place in the dead of night, there would be very little chance of someone of a high enough risk to cause the rebels problems.
This was especially important because of Relena's claims of wanting Total Pacifism for the world. It wouldn't look go to if during the day she was making speeches of peace, and at the same time having Gundams brought to a base right under the mansion she was living in.
With all of that taken care of, the rather long debriefing was disbanded and everyone went their separate ways, being very careful to stay in the house at all times. The three leader Oz rebels went to talk about what would go where from the old base, Wufei went off to clean his sword, and Quatre and Trowa went off to be on their own…somewhere in the house.
Snider and Billings went to ask Duo about how he would be able to pilot the Gundam when he had no experience with them, outside of the Cancers.
Duo's only response was to stand up straight, and in a strong confident voice proclaim, "I had a dream. A dream that one day a merman and men would be able to pilot Mobile Suits together in harmony…ack! Heero!!"
Anything else he was going to say was cut off as Heero grabbed his braid and dragged him away from the horribly confused pair of Ozzie rebels.
Time moved forward, in a way it has a habit of doing and all too soon it was time for the group to take their leave from the safe house. Heero was able to successfully begin the loop, despite his apparent tiredness from the injuries he still had. Everyone had stayed up that night with 01's pilot, so they wouldn't be sluggish the next evening when they would be taking their leave.
It was about one o'clock in the morning when everything was finally in place and everyone was about to leave. Duo and Heero would be swimming, for obvious reasons, to Sanq and would meet to the plane carrying the others at the base. Relena would not be told of their presence, which pleased Heero immensely, but he refused to admit that out loud.
Heero was standing on the rocks surrounded by ocean on three sides, as he waited for the plane to take off so he could also take his leave. He was supervising the others incase they needed assistance in the take off. Duo was waiting on the beach with Sally, who would be driving to another location then taking a plane to the old base.
Zechs, Quatre and Billings had taken off ten minutes prior, as scheduled and were already in the air on their way to the Oz Base. The Sanq planes still had about five minutes before they could leave safely, so everyone was counting down the time as patiently as possible and going through the pre-flight procedures.
Trowa and Noin would be flying, and had a clear view of Heero on his place on the rocks in case they needed to communicate with him.
So it was with great surprise for everyone who could see it, when a very large, very dark blob like creature shot out of the water, smashed right into a still injured Heero and pushed him into the ocean, following the same path as him in its own decent into the water.
---End Chapter 7 ---
Happy Holidays everyone!! Please let me know what you thought of the chapter! More to come… next year… .