*Sniffle* I think I'm getting a cold. Oh well, more time at home to work on this monster. This chapter's much shorter than some of the other ones, which is a relief for you readers out there, I'm sure. This one's a bit more lighthearted though I must say it doesn't say a while lot complimenting human mentality. There's a bunch of Duo-bashing (can't resist) and some comedy.
If you need a catch-up: In the year AC 206, Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre and Wufei have signed a contract allowing them possession of the rebuilt Wing Zero, Deathscythe, Heavyarms, Sandrock and Shenlong, in exchange for crowd-pleasing and peace-keeping in the restless outer colonies. Out of concern of another war, and their growing families, they accept the terms.
Heero Yuy is married to Relena Darlian and has a daughter, Akiko. Duo is married to a somewhat frantic but large-hearted woman named Sophie and is on his way to having a son, and Wufei is engaged to a Thai woman named Phailin, an excellent martial artist who can beat Wufei at whatever he's doing (poetic justice . . . ahh).
Enjoy. Please r&r
AC 206: The Change Time Brings (Part VII)
When Civil Strife Makes Civil Hands Unclean
"Roger. Get ready for the performance of a lifetime, guys!" Duo punched the air and banged his fist on the bulkhead. "Argh!"
"What was that?" asked Trowa.
"Nothing . . ." Duo grumbled, sucking at his knuckles.
"Brilliant, Maxwell," chuckled Wufei.
"Shut up." Deathscythe-RB stamped its foot on the ground in a very childish gesture.
"You look ridiculous when you do that, you know. If you damage the equipment I know a lot of people that are going to be very unhappy," Heero said.
"Lighten up, man."
"I would like to keep my gundam until I figure out how to get rid of it."
"Isn't that kind of a contradiction?" asked Duo, but no one was listening to him.
The gundams stood in on a gigantic track, behind a starting line. Mounted on their wrists were tiny lasers that would act as markers on the targets; illusionary weapons were being projected from small hologram devices in their hands. It was a game. Millions of people relaxed around the stadium, sipping drinks, eating peanuts . . . like a sport.
"I'm just glad we aren't playing baseball," Muttered Quatre. "I'm not good at it."
"Don't mention it or it'll end up on the list," Trowa told him. "I regret throwing out cracks at the brainstorming meeting."
"W-E-E-E-E-L-L-COME TO THE FIRST ANNUAL GUNDAM GAMES!!" Boomed the loudspeaker, ten seconds behind schedule by Duo's watch.
"Here we go," Wufei muttered.
"HERE TODAY IN REAL LIFE ARE OUR FIVE FAVORITE REBELS AND THEIR PILOTS! PLEASE WELCOME NUMBER ONE, WING ZERO AND HEERO YUY—" Not feeling particularly enthusiastic, Heero spread his gold-plated wings (see footnote) to their fullest, adopting a stance of readiness. The screams and whoops could be heard even through his armor.
"DEATHSCYTHE AND DUO MAXWELL—" "Yeah, baby!" Duo shouted, punching the air again and swinging his holographic scythe.
"HEAVYARMS AND TROWA BARTON—" Trowa merely nodded in acknowledgment.
"SANDROCK AND QUATRE RABERBA WINNER—" Quatre charged his imaginary sickles until the computer program controlling them changed their color to red.
"AND THE SHENLONG GUNDAM AND CHANG WUFEI—" Wufei performed a complex and impressive series of martial-arts moves, ending by jabbing his trident into the ground. (Well, not really, because he didn't have one.)
The crowd roared and almost drowned out the loudspeaker. "SO LET'S GET STARTED, LADIES, GENTLEMAN, AND KIDS OF ALL AGES! OUR FIRST EVENT TODAY WILL BE A SHOOT-OUT. THAT IS, THE FIVE PILOTS HAVE TWENTY MINUTES TO DISABLE AS MANY OF OUR TARGETS AS POSSIBLE, USING ANY TECHNIQUE THEY WISH. READY? SET? GO!!"
Heero drew a beam saber and remained at the starting point while the other's fanned out. The minus thirty seconds turned to zero and hundreds of tiny robotic drones (controlled by specially selected members of the audience) were launched. One hovered just out of his reach, taunting him. Heero waited patiently for a few seconds and it flew too close. He then sliced it with the holographic weapon, causing the light on the drone's casing to change from red to blue, signaling that it was neutralized.
Quatre sliced with his sickles, hitting two of the little toys at once. They buzzed around him like insects. Despite himself, he was having fun. The games were light-hearted and the atmosphere was relaxed. Maybe there's more effectiveness to this than I realize, he thought as the counter under his name went up by two.
Duo was using both ends of his scythe quite effectively, although another one of the pesky little fly-shaped things was playing with him and caused him to get angry and swing at it, almost losing his balance in the process. The commentator noticed and Duo knew it would be headlines tomorrow: Gundam Pilots out of Practice. "We could have at least had a rehearsal," he muttered.
Trowa grimaced, discarded his arm-mounted cannon and drew a beam saber. The dry-firing was damaging the equipment and the targets were too small to hit with projected bullets. This wasn't his style. Heavyarms was too slow for this kind of combat. "Anyone else find this lacking in anti-war messages?" he asked the others on their private channel.
"Of course. This is what's called, as Relena's told me, a publicity stunt," Heero told him. We get the crowd on our side before we argue for a cause."
"I like having a scythe again," Duo contributed, three points appearing on his score.
"Now that's encouraging," Trowa said under his breath.
"Just enjoy it while we get to goof off. I have a feeling things will turn nasty no matter what," Heero countered quietly. "I just have a bad feeling about it."
"My morale just shot through the roof," Trowa responded dryly. "Thanks a lot."
"I got another one!" Quatre shouted, sounding like a kid.
Wufei was definitely being the crowd-pleaser. It wasn't fair; Shenlong was designed to be more agile, faster, and flexible than the other gundams. It was designed for a Martial Arts master, and definitely had an advantage in this kind of situation. It wasn't, however, as if any of that at all mattered to the girls under the Official Wufei Fan Club banners. Security guards were already tearing apart catfights.
Duo swung at the same drone that had been giving him trouble earlier, Deathscythe's hand smacking another of the robots and knocking it to the ground. He hadn't even realized one was down until he stepped back and felt something crunch. A roar arose, outside of Duo's hearing, from one of the managers of the Gundam Field. The machines were fairly expensive. "Take it out of his salary, the blockhead!" He yelled.
Twenty exhausting minutes later, the timer buzzed and the holographic weapons faded the final score was Shenlong: 206, Wing Zero: 158, Sandrock: 143, Deathscythe: 127, Heavyarms: 91. Targets remaining active: 25.
"We did pretty good— uh oh." Quatre said, spotted the crowd at the gates that led into the field. "Let's get the gundams out of reach, you guys. Our contract says to avoid gundam to public contact and vice versa." The cargo ship that had carried the five mobile suits to the stadium was off in the corner. The pilots all slunk away to hide within it.
The scene switches to a wide pan of the ship, and then zeroes in through the cockpit into the corridor, where Duo is yanking on Heero's arm. "Aw, come on," he begged. "It's fun. You get to see all these girls just go wild! Some of what I've seen—"
"No way," Heero interrupted, his fingers gripping a nearby convenient doorway. "I'm not signing autographs."
Wufei laughed, arms crossed over his chest. "Don't make him go if he doesn't want to, Maxwell. Although I do admit it would be entertaining to see the picture on the front page of the newspaper containing a struggling Heero being dragged by you into a crowd of screaming teenagers."
"Nothing wrong with a crowd of screaming teenagers," grunted Duo, starting to lose his grip. "C'mon, shorty."
"I'm definitely not going after you called me that," Heero said stubbornly. The top of his head only came up to Duo's eyes. True, he was the shortest of the five men, thanks in part to his Japanese heritage (Wufei wasn't much taller than he was), but that didn't mean he was going to stand for name-calling. Even so, he hated having to look up at Trowa, who'd apparently grown another half-meter since they'd piloted together in the war. It made him feel as if they weren't on the same level any more.
His aforementioned lanky fellow, slightly sick at seeing the two grown men argue like children, Seized Duo's hand and peeled his fingers off Heero's arm. "Autographs are voluntary, Duo. It's not anywhere in our contract."
"Man, why'd you have to say that?" Duo grumbled, massaging his numb fingers as Heero made his escape into the rec room. "I almost had him!"
"Not trying to make friends, I suppose?" asked Quatre. "Forcing someone to do something they don't want to isn't the best way to earn someone's trust. I think that's been the problem all along with you."
In a huff, Duo stomped down the corridor and out into the crowd, who had now stormed the field. Grinning, he posed with fans and signed photos of himself. Trowa poked his head out and heard a girl yell, "Marry me, Duo!!"
"Sorry, hon," Duo yelled back, pointing to the band around a finger on his left hand, "too late."
"Disgusting," Wufei said. "Doesn't he ever get sick of it?"
Trowa shook his head, walking away toward the cockpit.
A moment later, something banged against the side of the ship with a slightly soft sound. Duo, eyes wide, ran into the hallway and slammed the door. He lunged forward, trying to grab onto Quatre's arms but was jerked back suddenly because his long braid had become undone and was caught in the door. "It's a mob out there!" he shrieked, tugging at his hair. Wufei opened the door as he was trying to yank himself free and Duo, subsequently, hit the wall opposite him at a considerable speed. "Someone's throwing rotten fruit, and fights have broken out."
Something hit the ship that sounded a lot harder than food.
"And I'm guessing rocks, too," Quatre said. "We'd better get Heero. He'd probably know how to handle this."
Wufei was already running for the rec room. He burst in, damaging the doorframe as he busted the lock, and saw Heero lounging on a cot with a book. "What is it now?" he asked, looking peeved. "Never mind, I don't want to know. Take care of it yoursel—"
"It's turning violent," Wufei told him shortly. "You're the one who knows how to handle this stuff. You're in charge. You have an obligation to command us. Winner has no idea what to do."
Trowa came running down the hall. "We had better do something quick. We need something to overwhelm those people. This is supposed to be a peace mission!"
"Get to your gundams," Heero said, standing up. He looked very angry indeed. "We'll give them what they want. Watch where you're stepping—"
"Oh, shut up," Duo growled—
"— and don't hurt anyone. Just scare the living Hell out of them. Go!"
The others scrambled to their charges. The cargo bay doors opened and the five menacing gundams made their way out onto the field. "What is this?" Heero shouted over his loudspeaker. "This is unacceptable! This is not what I came out here to see!"
Most of the people stopped, but two boys who looked about fifteen were rolling around on the ground. Quatre took two gigantic steps and grabbed them delicately around their middles, lifted them into the air. "Sorry," he whispered at the frightened boys. "It's for your own good."
"This is incredible!" Heero continued to lecture the crowd. "We came here to entertain you, and this is how you show your courtesy? We came all the way out here, away from our homes and our families, as a gesture of goodwill and peace. We're here to stop things from escalating into more and more violence. Don't you want the terrorism here to end?"
Many of them hung their heads.
"Well, do you? Or would you rather live with anxiety and threat to everything you care about? Tell me!" Heero stepped out of his cockpit, holding the tiny microphone in his hand. "I demand an answer. You, tell me. Do you want to live like that?" He pointed to a man who was looking up at him, mouth open.
The man swallowed. After a moment, he said, "I have a young son. I'm afraid for him."
"You look no older than I. What will your violence here do to help your son?" Heero clenched his fist in anger. The nerve!
The man looked at his feet. "I have to defend him."
Duo stamped his foot, making the ground quake. "Baka! What does he think of you, huh? Brilliant parenting, man. I'm sure he sees a real hero in you, picking fights."
"Go home!" Wufei shouted, his voice hard. "You all should be ashamed of yourselves. You act like children."
Heero nodded, surveying them. "This is over. If this occurs again, here or otherwise, I'm backing out on our contract. You won't see Wing Zero anymore. Understand, this is not earning you people respect from us. Wufei's right, go home. The stands are closed, and we're leaving the colony. We'll not be involved with a colony that chooses to act this way. This is the only warning anyone's getting." Without another word, Heero went back to the ship.
The other's followed, Quatre depositing the two boys outside the field fence.
"You serious?" Duo asked Heero in the rec room as Heero once again settled himself into his book.
"Dead serious," he answered.
~~@[~*~]@~~
"Oh, Heero! How'd the premiere go?" Relena went to greet him with a peck to the cheek. She looked like she'd just gotten home herself, due to the dark blue business suit. (He'd finally persuaded her to buy one that wasn't pink.)
"Don't talk to me about it right now," he told her, rubbing his sinuses. He felt a headache coming on. "I think I'm going to lie down for a while."
"You're not going to eat? I have some chicken warmed on the stove for you."
"I'm not really hungry. Where's Akiko?"
"She's watching TV. She didn't hear you come home. Want me to tell her not to bother you?"
"No, actually. I wanted to talk with her some, but if she's busy I won't disturb her. I think I'll go take some aspirin."
"Tell me you'll let me know what happened sometime soon, okay?"
"Just not at the moment. Maybe later tonight."
Heero trudged up to his bedroom and swallowed some pills. He pulled off the stuffy pilot uniform and changed into an old t-shirt and shorts. Sighing, he closed his eyes and let himself drift off.
A while later, he heard the door open. "Daddy? Did you wanna talk to me?"
Heero sat up, feeling a little better now that the medicine was easing his head. "Kind of. I just wanted to know how you're doing."
"Pretty good." Akiko climbed into his lap. "Mom said you had a rough time out at the colony."
He hugged her. "Some fighting broke out. It made me mad, how we'd gone out there in the name of peace and they'd shoved it back in our faces."
"You can't expect everything to work at once. You've said that before."
"I know. But, honey, what I wanted to talk about was you. I know I'm going to be doing a lot more of this kind of thing from now on, and you're mom's not going to be able to be the most active with you with the new baby coming. I'm worried about how this is going to affect you. We're not going to feel like a whole family all the time for much longer, and your little brother or sister's going to need a lot of attention." Heero looked at her, studying her small face, so much like her mother's.
"I've thought about it," she told him, looking back at him earnestly. Her blue-gray eyes were soft and understanding. "But I know what's at stake here. I can give up having you around all the time if it means keeping the Nation together. I know for sure that I don't wanna grow up with war around me all the time. I know that's what you want for me, too. As for the baby, I'm old enough to help out, aren't I?"
Courageous child, Heero thought, but can she really handle it? "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. It's gonna be tough, but I'll make it. Just like you and mom, right? You don't tell me much about what you were like as kids, but from the way you talk you saw war."
"I was older than you, but yes. I experienced and participated in horrible things, sweetheart, and I don't want you to have to see what I saw. I've always sworn that if I ever had kids, I wouldn't let them do what I did. I'm not proud of most of it."
Akiko leaned against him. He could tell she was tired, more worn out then she knew. "It's okay, dad."
"I'll take your word on that. I'm holding it to you, now." He stroked her hair. "I'd never let anything happen to you, aijou," he whispered.
"I know." After a few minutes, Akiko yawned. "I gotta go to bed, Daddy. I've got school in the morning." She kissed her father goodnight and left.
Relena, who'd been peeking in on them, walked up to her husband and sat down beside him. "Amazing what she can do to you, Heero."
"Isn't it? And think, soon we'll have two kids. I can't believe how things turn out."
She slipped her arm around him. "It still seems unreal."
"Which brings me to something I was going to ask earlier. Why were you going out again? We're going to be discovered if you don't settle down."
Relena sighed, knowing the mood was broken. "It was important, trust me. No, I told Representative Beliv that I was taking a leave of absence on an indeterminate basis. He's the one that's been bothering me about it."
Heero gripped her shoulder. "I don't like him. You be careful. Something seems wrong about him."
She brushed the mop of hair of his out of his face. "He's young and mischievous. I can tell he's up to something and my taking this leave all of a sudden piqued his curiosity, I think. Don't worry, I'm being cautious."
Heero lay back down. "So worrying about you is just another thing I have to have on my mind. I need a vacation."
Relena got up and walked into the bathroom, emerging a moment later with some muscle relaxant. "Here, take off your shirt. You need to sleep well tonight to face the committee that will be demanding your head for defying orders yesterday."
Heero complied, pleased at her thoughtfulness.
"You've done the same thing for me before," she said, knowing what his thoughts were.
Under her firm hands, Heero told her about the colony. She made no reply, no comment, though she gripped him harder. When he was done talking, however, he began to feel his stress fade away. Once again, his mind began to drift until finally he blacked out.
Relena smiled at him, wiping the rest of the creme off her hands with a towel. She didn't much like the strong peppermint smell it had, but Heero's doctor recommended it for his fits of anxiety. Never before had it ever put him to sleep, though. Oh well, if he was that tired he probably wouldn't have wanted to anyway, she thought to herself, crawling into bed beside him. I hope everyone takes this seriously. I've never known him to make idle threats.
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Footnote: In the novel that Gundam Wing is based after, Wing Zero-Custom's wings are made of gold. I thought it sounded cooler.
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See? It's short. Well, it's short for me, anyway. Next, things start to heat up as the Gundam Project is sent to court. In addition, Duo faces a legal battle for the drone he smashed up. The gang travels to Rome, and discovers even Earth isn't even as peaceful and safe as they thought it was. Relena particularly suffers a lot in the next chapter. When in Rome . . . make sure you're wearing a bulletproof vest! The next chapter of AC 206: The Change Time Brings: "Dangerous Ways".