Chapter 10

Finally, it was Quatre and Dorothy and Duo and Hilde who decided to
answer the
pilot's challenge.

"For heaven's sake, be careful, all of you," a worried Cathrine said.
"I know
I don't know too much about this, cause all I am is a demented circus
freak and I'm not sure why I'm here in the
first place ... but just watch television, okay?"

"Don't worry so much Cathrine," Hilde said, trying to cheer her up.
"We know
how to take care of ourselves so leave us the hell alone."

Cathrine nodded uncertainly, but inside, she thought, "But if you know
how to
take care of yourselves, why did last night happen?"

at the moon...

"I still remember how I came here to pick up Relena's wedding present,"
Dorothy
said wistfully. "It was really heavy. My arms were sore for a week."

Quatre nodded absently, and said "Maybe we shouldn't have gotten her
that sack of lead." but was scanning the
crowd more than he was listening to
his wife. He really doubted that scanning the crowd would give him any
hint of who the pilot
was, I mean he hadn't given them ANY distinguishing features to go by
at all. "How they heck am I supposed
to pic out an incredibly muscular woman wrestler mooning the first
floor of the shopping mall..." Quatre
thought to himself. He also kept checking
the device on his wrist every few seconds. Catherine had told him it
was a strange device called a WATCH. With
this device, if any of them disappeared, they wouldn't know where. So
far, he counted
four blinking numbers. They read 12:00.. Quatre wondered what the
strange blinking numbers meant. Quatre
allowed himself a small sigh of relief, then turned his attention
back to Dorothy.

"Let's go there," Dorothy said, tugging on his arm. Seeing her husband
hesitate, she smiled sadly. "I know, it sounds shallow, but we need to
act normal don't we?
Plus, I'll go crazy just standing here, waiting for something or
someone to swoop down on me."
Quatre smiled, and nodded. Putting his arm around her, he said,
"Alright, let's go."

elsewhere...

"Duo, checking that thing every five seconds is not going to help!" an
exasperated Hilde said. "I mean, I know we should be cautious, but we
stick out like sore thumbs here, just standing
around!"

Duo glanced at his wife, sighed, and said, "Okay, you win. Let me just
talk to
Quatre, and we'll go and try to look normal, okay?"

in a store...

"Quatre? Hey Quatre, you there?"

Quatre jumped at the sound of Duo's voice, nearly dropping the crystal
poodle he
was holding.

"Yes what is it?!" he said frantically. "Is Hilde okay? Are you okay?
Oh
no, don't tell me..."

"Quatre! Relax! I'm just checking to see if you're okay, and since
you obviously are, I am now going to pretend to go
shopping with my ugly wife like any other guy,
okay?"

Quatre breathed a sigh of relief. "No! That is NOT okay! You are not
allowed to have any fun at all! ...I'm doing
the same right
now."

"Okay man. Over and out."

Quatre sighed. "Whew," he thought. "I nearly just had a heart
attack."

"Quatre! Come over here!" Dorothy called.

"Okay," Quatre said, and started to make his way through the crowded
store. As
he fought his way through the mob, he felt something prick him. Too
late, he
realized that he had just been stung by a bee, and he sagged down, and
was promptly dragged
through a door that was standing in the middle of the store, seeing as
how this WAS a home decor place. The
figure found the WATCH, plucked it off, and pocketed it. He figured he
could pawn the crappy watch for at least
five bucks. Then the figure
looked at the device on his wrist and noted the positions of the other
dots.

"Quatre? Oh, where did he disappear to?" Dorothy said in an
exasperated voice.
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Dorothy's heart gave a
lurch and she
frantically checked her tracing device. Her face drained of blood when
she slit her throat.

in another store...

"Duo! DUO!"

At the sound of the voice, Duo quickly turned from the naked woman he
was admiring and dove into a corner.
"Dorothy?"

"Oh God Duo! Quatre's gone!"

"Holly macaroons!," Duo breathed, checking his tracing device. Sure
enough, there were
only three dots. "Okay, Duo, breathe in, breathe out," he told
himself, then went back to Dorothy. "Dorothy, I want you
out of there pronto! Get yourself in this store okay? Use the force!"

"I don't know where the hell you are, stupid!" Dorothy sobbed. "Oh my
God, they got Quatre!"

"Dorothy! Listen to me! You can't do anything for Quatre right now;
just get
your butt over here now!"

That unpleasant exchange over, Duo hurriedly found Hilde, and filled
her in on
what had just happened. Hilde's face drained of blood because she too
slit her throat, just as Dorothy's had done.

"Oh my God, now what do we do?"

"We stick together, that's what," Duo said grimly, linking his arm
through
Hilde's. "And we wait for Dorothy. Even though Dorothy is standing
right next to you but we must wait. Then we
stay with people and hope that when this guy comes back for the second
round, one of us sees him and finishes him."

"Duo, I am so constipated!"

"I understand perfectly... it happens to the best of us."

It wasn't easy passing time. Both Duo and Hilde periodically checked
their
watches to make sure Dorothy was on her way. Sure enough, soon her
golden haired head was visible on a pole
outside of the home decor place.

"Dorothy!" Hilde cried, running to embrace her pole, and then leading
her over to
the nearest bench.

Dorothy's head was shaking in the wind, her face pale and her hands
obviously missing. She was repeating
nothing over and over again since she couldn't really talk. Hilde
didn't know what to do; she felt the exact same
way.
Glancing over to Duo, she could see fear in his eyes, but also blazing
anger.

"I can't believe the nerve of this guy," he said furiously. "He stole
my idea!" But at the same time, he was thinking,
"This guy's efficient. He abducted Quatre right under our noses
without being anywhere near us, let alone under
our noses. Who's next?"

Hilde shoved a water bottle at Dorothy. "Drink this," she ordered, but
Dorothy's head didn't really have any way to actually grasp onto the
bottle. Duo in the meantime was trying to
talk with the device to figure out what time it was. The pilots really
didn't understand the concept of this "watch"
do-hicky. Suddenly, there was static cling on the devices, and a sock
floated over, followed by a veterinarian.

"I have neutered Quatre Raberba Winner. One down, five to go."

"Neutered?!" Dorothy's head somehow gasped, her already pale face
turning paler.

"He is still alive, Mrs. Winner," the voice continued. "Over and out."

And that was all.

"Okay, we're out of here!" Duo said firmly. "I'm tired of playing this
guy's
game. I'm not winning and it's no fun!"

Hilde nodded, and helped a shaky Dorothy to her feet, which had been
tied to the pole with some string.
"Dorothy, please be
strong," Hilde urged. "You need to be strong if you are to help
Quatre."

Dorothy nodded, actually the wind just caused her head to bobble around
a bit, and, shoving aside Hilde's arm,
fell over.

Hurrying out, the trio caught the nearest shuttle to the station, where
their
shuttle was waiting, courtesy of Quatre's incredible wealth. The
shuttles didn't really do anything, they were just
hired to sit around forever at random spots, should Quatre ever come by
and want to go home. Hilde shoved
Dorothy's head and pole on the
shuttle first and told her to sit down, then went back out to join Duo,
who had hesitated at the door.

Duo was staring into space, a glazed look on his eyes. He was dreaming
of donuts... lots of them. Laying a hand
on his
arm, Hilde said, "Let's go Duo. We can't do anything..."

"I know," he said dully, "But still! I feel like we let Quatre down,
like-"

Duo's words were cut off by the sudden ignition of their shuttle.
"What?" he
said, spinning around. Suddenly, things got chaotic. The people hired
to drive the shuttle were actually doing
there job and starting the engine. Shame on them! First Duo saw
Dorothy's head leaning on the
window, and the look on her face told him that the shuttle had started
itself, and there was
nothing she could do about it. But really, she was just a head. The
look on her face had no significance
whatsoever. The driver was just doing his job and driving Dorothy's
head back home. The next glance told him
that the shuttle doors were locked.
Then, he heard a choked cry. Whirling around, he saw a cloaked figure
who had a gun to Hilde's
head. Duo reached for his own gun, but the figure said, "You have a
choice. Come with me,
and both you and your wife will be treated uncourteously. Or I can
kiss you both right here,
right now. Either way, my objective will be completed. Your friend in
there can tell your
comrades what happened."

Glowering at the speaker, Duo flung his gun to the ground, and raised
his arms
in surrender and said, "Can't you just kill her and leave me alone? I
mean, come on, we'll both be a lot happier
that way! And after all how is a head on a stick going to tell anyone
what happened?"

"Good," the figure said briskly. "Now, follow me." Helpless and
enraged, Duo
could only comply, while Dorothy's head did nothing as the shuttle
lifted off.