OK, folks im back…again. Please forgive me for the long awaited update, but a got a call from a friend of mine. It seems that he lost one of his teammates for a paintball tourney in Vegas, because he broke his leg. So I get a phone call asking me how fast I can get down to Vegas with Charlene (my gun), and my gear. Well, long story short drove my ass down to Vegas kicked some ass, and got a 4th place finish and a 5 grand pot for my troubles. Not bad for a paintballer, ne? Well, enough bragging, and lemme go on with this story.

Payback

Ch. 3: Meeting Duo Maxwell

Heero took another puff of his cigarette as he looked of at the medium-sized building that was South End Taxi. It appeared to be dilapidated but then again looks can be deceiving. He looked over to the right of the building, and saw a large parking lot where a bunch of yellow taxi cabs lay parked. Heero put out his cigarette and calmly walked up the small amount of steps leading up to a large double door.

As Heero walked in, he noticed a large lobby type room with a large desk sitting towards the back of the room. Behind the desk sat a fairly large, well-built black man reading a newspaper and chewing on a toothpick. Heero stood there and looked at the man, as he just continued to read his paper, not even looking up to acknowledge Heero. Heero sighed as he stood from the door and walked up the desk where the man was reading his paper.

"Im looking for Duo Maxwell." Heero spoke up.

"He aint here, something I can help you with?" The dark skinned man asked, as he put his paper down and removed the toothpick form his mouth, looking up at his newest patron.

"No, you can't. Where is he?" Heero asked again.

The black man simply shrugged his shoulders "I don't know he's not here." He said again.

Heero rolled his eyes in frustration "Take a guess." The man raised his eyebrow "What?"

"Take a guess," Heero said again "about where he is."

The dark skinned man merely scoffed at him and gave a small chuckle as he put his toothpick back in his mouth and went back to reading his paper.

Heero sighed in frustration, as he leaned over the desk and lowered the man's paper to look at him again. "Is he at home?" Heero asked. The black man glared at Heero as he once again set his toothpick and paper down and rose up from his seat to stare down at the much shorter Heero.

"Why don't you go fuck yourself!" He spat at Heero. Heero looked down and sighed. Why must people act like such assholes sometimes?

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"OK, here we go!" Exclaimed loanshark/imformant/drug dealer/taxi cab owner, Duo Maxwell, as he shook a pair of red dice and tossed them on a billiard table. Duo stood and an average height with cobalt blue eyes and dark brown hair that was twisted up in a long braid and ran down to the crack of his ass. Duo was a shady individual know to have his hands involved in anything shady in this city and is a valuable informant for the right price.

"Heh, looks like you crapped out again." Spoke a calm, cool voice as he reached over the pool table and collected his money. He was a rather person with a strong muscular build under his brown suit and yellow tie. He had piercing dark green eyes though only one of them were visible due to the fact that his long brown bangs covered one of them. He was quiet and more collected compared to the person standing next to him.

The person standing to the green-eyed man immediate right was almost as tall he and dressed in a blue suit with a yellow tie. At first it would appear that he was male, but upon closer inspection, the slight bulge in his chest, and the feminine voice, she was a woman.

She had sandy blonde hair and dark blue eyes and was bit more talkative as well as aggressive then the brown haired man.

"Ah, damnit! OK one more time!" Duo exclaimed as he picked up the dice and prepared to shake them up, but was broken from his concentration as the door to his office flew open and in walked his dark-skinned dispatcher holding the side of his head in annoyance as he was trying to stop the bleeding from the wound he had just received.

"There's somebody here to see you." He grunted out, as he walked out of the doorway to sit down, revealing the person standing directly behind him.

"Im looking for Duo Maxwell." Heero spoke up to the stunned and quiet group of gamblers. Duo was a bit taken back at this guy. He was a well dressed, menacing man, with a very cold and murderous look in his eyes slapping his men around, oh yeah, either he was very dumb or he had a really big set balls.

"Who the hell are you?" Duo finally managed to speak up.

Heero looked over in the braided man's direction. "Im Heero."

"Well, Heero…" began the woman in the blue suit, point at the bleeding dark-skinned man sitting on a nearby couch, "That looks like assault to me." She finished, pulling her coat back slightly to reveal a badge and a gun hanging off her waist. She was a cop.

"Yeah, and Heero looks like the kind that likes to resist arrest." Spoke the taller green-eyed man next to her, who also slightly pulled his brown coat back, showing a badge and a gun. Another cop.

"Trowa, Hakura! Easy now, take it easy." Duo said. Heero remained impassive, and he proceeded to reach into his coat pocket. But right as he did so, the 2 cops saw this as a threat and drew to their guns. Heero abruptly stopped, and Duo stepped in front of the 2 cops.

"No! Not in here, guys calm down. He just wants to talk!" Duo reassured, as Heero slowly pulled his hand out of his coat pocket with a leather pouch in his hand. Trowa and Hakura relaxed and holstered their guns, and Duo breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you Maxwell?" Heero asked again, directing his question at the braided man.

Duo gave Heero a questioning glance. "Maybe. What do you want?" He asked.

"Your boy didn't make his delivery." Heero said, as he tossed the leather pouch on the pool table where they were playing. Duo's eyes went with surprise as he tried to grab the pouch off the table. But Trowa beat him to the punch as he quickly grabbed the pouch and held it in his hand.

"Ah, what do we have here?" Trowa asked, as he opened up the pouch to see a small amount white power inside.

"Hey don't worry about it." Duo said in a nervous tone of voice. "Why don't we talk outside." Duo said towards Heero, trying to change the subject.

"Maxwell, are you a dealer? And you never told us?" Trowa questioned with a smirk.

"Ah, just forget about it, alright." Duo replied with a very nervous grin. The last thing he wanted was to owe these 2 another favor.

Hakura stuck her pinky finger into the substance, tasted the small amount, and smirked "Is this heroin?" Hakura questioned in a mock tone. Trowa proceeded to taste the substance as well before he smiled and came to the same conclusion "This is heroin."

"Guys, just—don't worry about, alright." Duo said quickly before grabbing Heero, who was watching all this with amusement, and leading him outside.

Trowa watched Duo as he quickly grabbed his guest and exited out of the room. He then closed the pouch that had the heroin in it and tucked it away in his pocket.

"It seems that Mr. Maxwell has been holding out on us." Trowa said calmly. Hakura nodded in agreement. "Ill go check it out." She said before walking out the room as well.

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"Mamoru Chiba." Heero brought up out of nowhere, once they had reached outside. Duo raised an eyebrow at the mention of the name.

"What about him?" He asked.

"Your gonna tell me where he is." Heero said

"No. No, even if I knew where he was the answer would still be no." Duo replied "Now, where did you meet up with my delivery boy?" Duo inquired.

"At his drop." He answered simply

"Well, is he dead?"

"No, but she is. She OD'ed on that crap you been sending her." Heero stated. "Yeah, so what do you care?" Duo replied with a nonchalant shrug. Heero glared daggers at Duo's comment and he simply took a step back in fear. "Im her husband." He stated.

Duo went pale at the revelation and took swallowed the lump his throat. "Your not gonna fucking kill me, are you?"

Heero looked at him, contemplating the idea, but he still needed to find out Mamoru's whereabouts plus he really didn't want to kill him in front of some kids that were playing not to far away from where they were talking.

"Hn, not in front of these kids. Now, where is he?" Heero asked again changing subjects, much to Duo's relief.

Duo breathed a sigh of relief at Heero apparent mercy, when he caught out of the corner of his eye, Hakura watching them through a window wanting to know what was going on.

"I don't know. And that's the truth. You see this stuff get delivered to me, too. It was last night, and I won't see anyone again for a month at least." Duo confessed.

Heero nodded "OK, why all the trouble?" Heero asked.

"Well, he's afraid of the girl. You know, I mean, of—of…Mrs. Heero. I mean, that's how it looks to me." Duo stammered out, quickly looking up at the window Hakura was at only to find that she had already left.

"Look, I don't know anything about this, OK? I know Mamoru from the old days. 3 months ago he shows up, asks me to do him a favor, I make an extra grand a month, so I figure, what hell, right? Now you come around threatening to kill me? Believe me, that much of a buddy of Mamoru's I am not. He is in the city, that's all I know." Duo suddenly confessed "I got a game going on in here, I gotta get back!" Duo said as he tried to walk back inside, but Heero cut his path off.

"How do you know that?" Heero asked

"He said so." Duo answered

"When?" Heero asked again

"When he—then. When he came around, he said that he had squared himself with the syndicate, said that he was back in the big time, back for good. He was very excited." Duo stuttered out. Heero was now becoming annoyed at Duo constant rambling.

"Well you tell him that Heero is back, too. And Heero wants his money back. Or ill come back here and pay you a visit when these kids are not around." Heero said in a low venomous tone, referring to himself in the third person. Duo reeled back slightly at this sudden change, and paled even more. Heero gave him one last glare before walking off, leaving a stunned and relieved Duo there to collect his thoughts.