AN: This is a cute insert. Hope you guys will enjoy it!
But first, to my wonderful and faithful reviewers, I like to thank: Magical WiseSkill, ShadowStar21, Raizard333, Shini no Tenshi, Bunny, Moon Fighter and haguregumo! Thanks very much for sticking around me for sooooooo long. (Smiles real big)
And two newcomers! I like to welcome: Athene Saile and Sozoku! Just to let you know, I'm a bit of a slow updater. But I rather regular, I believe. Just check my fic once every two or three weeks. I usually update around that time. : Hope you will enjoy future fic's chapters to come.
On with the fic!
Chapter 48 – subfic"I'm going to take off this stifling costume," Duo announced the moment they stepped out the doorway of the control room.
"Save it," Jess intoned, looking at the list she was holding in her hand. "I need you guys back at the dressing room again for another briefing. I totally forgot to give you one last essential equipment."
"What?! There's more?" Duo exclaimed in his surprise.
"Yeah. Could you be so kind as to get Wufei, Heero?" Jess requested the Japanese boy without looking up from her list.
"Hn." And he was gone on his new mission.
". . ."
"Oh, you can change back, Trowa. No need for you to be in that dress any longer."
". . . Waste . . ."
"Quatre?"
"He means that it will be such a pity to see all the clothes you bought go to waste like that, now that he will not be needing them anymore," Quatre explained with a resigned sigh. Sometimes, he wondered why the others found it so hard to understand Trowa when all was needed was a little common sense and perhaps some thinking.
But the girl flipped over the page, looking nonplussed.
"Don't worry," the girl quipped, her eyes scanning the next page of the list. " You guys can spilt the clothes between yourselves. And for the bras, Wufei can have them all since they are the same size as his."
"I reserve the white silk blouse and red side-silt cotton skirt!" Duo quickly whispered his demands to the blond.
"I'll take the black cotton pants and T-shirts," came the quick response to his reservations.
"Why?"
"Have you seen my clothes? They are all dresses and gowns!"
"Cool! Swap you that silver glittery gown for my green summer dress?"
"If you lend me the matching shoes to go with it."
". . ."
"Ahem!" Jess gave out a loud cough, deciding that the conversation had gone far enough. It was bad enough the girls in her world did that in front of her all the time, especially the gorillas' fan club. All of it aimed to make her feel inadequate, of course. But these were boys!
"I like the purple gemstone butterfly clip. Care to trade?" Duo whispered out of the corner of his mouth, in his last ditch effort to get things done before they had to disband to pack for the trip.
"No!" The blond cried out in dismay. "I like that clip!"
Jess slapped a hand to her face as they came a stop in front of the elevator. This was like dealing with young girls at their first dress up party!
"I can Still. Hear. You," she gritted out slowly, making sure she emphasized each word clearly.
"Okay, okay . . ." the American relented, putting up his hands in a show of surrender. "So when are we getting those shimmery things that I see some females put on their eyelids?"
Jess sighed and gave up.
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Finally, after an hour, all the boys were assembled in front of her, wearing their usual attire and looking more relaxed and comfortable.
"So what's so important?" Wufei asked, breaking the silence first.
"Ok, I need all of you, excluding Trowa, to put these things at the furthest end of your tongues and swallow," she instructed, placing the tiny voice scrambler devices in the palm of each designated boy's hand. "Mesh wire side face down, please."
"Wha Hey Ho?" (What they do?) Duo asked with his mouth opened, his hands placing the device, as told, on his tongue.
"Make you sound more feminine," Jess replied, deciding not to go into details yet.
"Swallow please," she requested, once sure everyone had done as instructed.
And they did as they were told.
Nothing prepared the boys for the excruciating pain that came next. Unknown to them, as they swallowed, the devices unfurled three sharp, cone-shaped, jointed legs and dug themselves deep into the soft and unsuspecting muscles at the back of their throats, pinning the device there firmly.
Eyes bulged and hands went to grip the sore throats as each boy slowly sank to his knees on the floor. Even Heero was forced to kneel on one knee, trying his best to adjust to this sudden and unexpected pain. The only one left standing was Trowa, who by some turn of luck, managed to avoid such a fate.
"Ac . . . . . .k . . ." was all Wufei could wheeze out as the pain shot right through his brain. Meanwhile, Quatre went white in the face and dropped to his knees in a near faint. Duo looked like he was caught between coughing and vomiting, gripping his throat with both hands as his body heaved in automatic defense to get rid of the foreign body that was causing him so much pain.
And as each boy kneeled hacking and coughing, small droplets of blood started dripping out of the opened mouths. Splashing themselves onto the clean metal floor and alarming the girl.
"My goodness!" she whispered, clasping her two hands over her mouth. It seemed Doctor J failed to explain the other undesirable consequence of swallowing the device. Reacting fast to his friends' predicament, Trowa had his gun out and aimed at Jess.
"What did you just feed them?" he demanded in a soft voice, his eyes staring unnervingly at her with a steel quality behind them. Jess swallowed thickly and decided it was time to talk.
"Doctor J told me they were tiny voice scramblers. They would help the boys sound like females!" In her confusion and worry, Jess babbled out the explanations, her words tripping all over themselves. "He said they would attach themselves to the back of the throat but I didn't know it would come to this!"
Surprisingly, it was Heero who came to the girl rescue by grabbing hold of the gun's opening and pulling it down. Averting danger from the girl to the floor.
"J," Heero spoke in a much softer, gentler tone. Eyes popped wide opened and looked at him in disbelieve.
Then Duo decided he would like to try his new voice as well. "Hello? I'm Dorine. I'm a 15 year-old girl who likes the colors blue and purple, and my favorite past time is painting," he quoted the lines of the script, relishing the sound of his new voice
"Hey, I can get use to this!" he squealed and than broke into a wide grin. "No one is gonna know it is us!"
"It is . . . simply . . . wonderful," Quatre praised, sounding a bit uncertain on hearing his voice sounding like a much softer, feminine version of his own.
"Wonderful, my foot! Great! Now I sound like a weak woman too!" Wufei complained, looking terribly disgruntled. Slowly, the boys got to their feet. Duo looking extremely pleased with the outcome, Wufei looking extremely unsatisfied and Quatre looking extremely anxious. Only Heero looked neutral, as if his expression was carved in stone.
On seeing that his friends were recovering from the side effects of the device, Trowa calmly sheathed his gun; sliding it under his vest.
"So how do we switch off these things?" Wufei grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest once again. "What's the magic word for it?"
With surprise, they watched as the girl made straight for the door. Then she was out of sight, through the doorway. The door sliding silently closed behind her.
"Wha . . ." Wufei stuttered, caught off guard by this unexpected reaction.
"Perhaps she went to get the password from the doctors on how to switch these devices on and off," Duo offered an explanation. And on catching sight of his reflection whilst talking, he added in a softer voice: "I hope . . ."
Just seeing his normal boy image talking while the words uttered was that of a young girl, was pretty unnerving.
Fifteen minutes went by without any sign of the girl appearing.
"You think she got lost?" Quatre suggested, a look of doubt crossing his face. He started fingering his long hair unconsciously. Wounding it round his fingers in an absent-minded way.
"Perhaps," Heero agreed, pushing away from the wall where he was leaning against, while waiting for the girl's reappearance.
Together as a group, they marched to the door, pausing only for the door to open fully for all of them to exit the room as one.
In front of them, on the opposite wall, a piece of paper was stuck. Held in place by a piece of gum.
Moving forwards, Heero squinted at the tiny words, deliberately written in such a manner, on the paper. The rest crowded around; all eagerly waiting to hear him read aloud the written words.
"The Doctors said . . . to get re . . . rid of them . . . , you need . . . Sah . . . Sally to . . . re . . . remove them. There ain't . . . any . . . on and off switch!" Heero finished reading the tiny sentences with jubilant delight. Then his delight melted as the meaning of what he had just read, sunk in. Meanwhile, the others were terribly silent around him, each deep in thought as to what to do next.
"I don't know about you. But my hands are itching," Duo spoke up, always being the first to find his voice. Sadly, the voice scrambler made his voice sound too sweet and sugary to put across the menacing meaning behind the words uttered.
"Hn." Short and sweet, music to the ears of the listeners around.
"I need to get my sword." Typical Wufei attitude.
"I'll be glad to assist," Quatre pitched in, smiling as beautifully as he sounded. A shiver ran through the group. He just brought deception to another level.
Trowa shrugged his shoulders in reply. He didn't mind joining them even if he was unaffected. Besides, it might just drive home a point to the doctors he would appreciate to go to his missions as manly as possible.
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"Arhoo!" All three doctors sneezed at the same time.
"What a coincidence," Doctor J stated, rubbing his nose to ease the itch. "I think the room's dirty. When was the last time we maintained it?"
"I think last week," Doctor G replied, taking out a hankie to blow his nose.
"What's wrong, O?" Doctor J asked, noticing the worrisome look on his colleague's face.
"No . . . Nothing."
"Right . . . If you call that mad twitching of your left eyebrow normal."
"Spit it out, O! What's wrong?" Doctor G demanded, supporting his colleague to get to the bottom of his friend's sudden queer attitude.
"I . . . I'm getting a bad feeling," the Master finally admitted, getting out of his chair and pacing. "You know . . . that ole sinking feeling."
"No way . . . O . . ." Doctor J stammered, looking at him in horror.
"What? You're feeling it too?"
"Oh no, old pal . . ." Doctor G replied, taking him gently yet firmly by the shoulders, and guiding him to the door. "Only you."
"Excuse me?"
"It's obvious, O. You're falling sick. I suggest you go to your room and take a rest."
And the door slid close in Master O's face.
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Three hours later, the doctors had a really different opinion on Master O's gut feeling.
"Next time," Doctor G muttered to J as he hang upside down, suspended in mid-air from the ceiling, "Next time when O gets that "Ole Sinking Feeling", I say we go on vacation!"
In reply, his buddy nodded his head. All the while trying to look dignified as he stood precariously on a stack of chairs, out of reach from a small minefield of bombs set up around him.
"How long will it take for you to get out and set me free?" he asked his friend hopefully.
"An hour more, I think."
"Ah . . ." And Doctor G lapsed into silence, feeling very single drop of blood rush into his head while wondering what ever did he do to deserve this.
