Duo grunted as he was kicked in the back and thrown bodily against the far wall of the small room. The air in his lungs left him in a great rush and he doubled over, wheezing breathlessly. Before he could gather himself, he was disarmed, even of the small knife he had hidden in the sleeve of his jacket. He started to rise, but a big black boot kicked him solidly in the stomach. Duo groaned and collapsed again, trying hard not to throw up his breakfast.
But he didn't lose his wits. Even as he hung over, winded and apparently powerless, he reached for his communicator by his belt and pressed one of the quick dials. He typed in the warehouse's house number, 2456, a dash, and 911. Hilde would want to know he was in trouble and might not come back with those parts... He smiled at the thought. After that, he attempted to try another number, this one Heero's, or what had once been Heero's number some time ago. God only knew if it still was; no one had seen or heard from Heero in forever.
The man who had kicked him snarled and swiped the communicator from his hand. He got another kick in the stomach directly following. Duo slumped a little and grimaced, but there was little he could do. So much for Heero coming to the rescue. So what. He didn't need him anyway. He might need somebody, though. He grinned weakly to himself.
"What happened to the little minx?" the man Duo who had chased away snarled as Duo began to rise again.
Duo masked his surprise and coughed weakly. "She took off," he said. They did not ask when and he didn't supply more information. For all they knew, she had never entered the building. But the question still remained. Had Felicia fed him to these hounds, or not? By this brute's tone, they seemed not to like her much, and that was what surprised him. When the door opened, he had sensed betrayal, but now he wasn't so sure. Well, if not betrayal, at least abandonment. Even so, he would not give these dogs any information about her, not until he had a plan. He had his pride after all.
The other man, the one who had twice kicked Duo, smirked over his shoulder. "Easy, Joe. That little vixen's no threat, whatever Teleb rants about." He swallowed a little nervously, though. It took Duo a moment to realize it wasn't Felicia that made him anxious, but Teleb.
"I don't like it, Greg," Joe muttered. "She wasn't scared of me before and I'm tellin' ya, Teleb seemed uneasy when I told him there was a short little brunette skulking about outside."
Greg just shook his head. "Teleb doesn't get uneasy and I'm telling you not to worry." He grabbed a fistful of Duo's hair and yanked his head back. "We've got the important one right here."
Duo concentrated on his breathing, and his temper. He could feel anger boiling in his gut, expanding every horrid moment he spent with these pitiful jerks. They were just thugs. He was the God of Death, Gundam Pilot 02, a great hero and veteran of the gundam war! These guys were gonna get it. They were gonna...
Greg kicked him again and this time he collapsed, wincing in pain on the floor. He choked in air through his mouth, but he still felt positively ill. He even seemed to be shaking a bit.
"Why are you here, kid?" Greg demanded, cold gray eyes peering into his own from above. "What do you know?"
Duo squeezed his eyes shut. "Just that you're a bunch of thugs who..."
The back of Greg's hand collided with his face and his head rolled. Coughing, Duo turned his face again toward his attacker and managed a sickly grin. "I just hear you got diamonds," he said hoarsely. It was only the truth. He could buy time.
And then he realized he really didn't know any more than that. Until minimal physical abuse he had spilled everything he knew! It was both a horrifying thought and kind of a funny one. He had meant to banter with these guys and tell them nothing really important, keeping the important stuff close to his heart under even the worst torture, but he hadn't realized that he didn't really know anything important until just now. He had stumbled in on this on accident and committed to it out of some sort of bizarre sense of chivalry. Really, the most important information he knew was his own identity and his knowledge of Felicia in this building. Well, if that was all he had, he certainly wasn't going to mess it up. No way.
Greg frowned at him. "What are you, some kind of thievin' pirate?"
"Hell no," Duo said indignantly. Pirate indeed! "I'm a solider."
"Don't play with me," Greg snapped. "You want another blow?" He raised his hand threateningly. "Who are ya'?"
"Hey, I may run and hide, but I never lie!" Duo laughed sorely. It hurt his stomach to laugh. "I really am a soldier. Veteran."
"Kinda young, isn't he, Greg?" Joe said uncertainly. "Don't you have to be at least eighteen to be a soldier?"
"Depends where you're from, I think," Greg muttered. "How old are you, kid?"
"Seventeen," Duo said. "Truthfully, I'm seventeen."
"Gundam Pilots were only fifteen, they say," Greg said. "I guess youngsters sometimes sneak in. I don't quite understand why they want to die so bad."
Duo laughed weakly. Maybe that was Heero's reason for becoming a Gundam Pilot, and maybe Trowa's too, but he had just wanted to fight for the colonies. He'd made somewhat of a mess of it, but that had been his chief prerogative. But these guys didn't have to know any of that. They probably wouldn't understand anyway.
"All right," Joe said grimly. "Here's what's gonna happen. You..."
Suddenly, there was a loud explosion from down the fall. Heads turned as a wave of sound and energy rolled through the hall. The door creaked on its hinges, seeming about to implode inward. Even from inside the small little room, Duo could see a brilliant flash of red light seep through the doorframe. A second hollow boom followed the first. Something shattered. Someone screamed, or several people. Duo heard three distinct emotions: pain, fear and rage, all mingled together. Thug Greg and Thug Joe snapped their heads up at the commotion.
Duo saw his chance. Reaching out, he grasped Greg by the leg and pulled him over. Scrambling to his knees, he reached inside Greg's coat and grabbed his gun. Crouching on one knee with his foot stradding over his opponent, Duo held the barrel not two feet away from his foe's face. Joe gasped. Duo caught the shine of silver in the other side of Greg's jacket flap and pulled out a second gun with his right hand. Without taking his eyes off of Greg, the closer enemy, he aimed the second weapon at Joe with his left hand. His hands and eyes were steady.
"You guys had better stick to petty theft and small-time embezzlement in the future," Duo said quietly. "You're not cut out to take me on."
"I had you down," Greg gasped.
"No," Duo refuted. "You had me winded. There's a difference, or we would not now be in this situation."
"I surrender!" Joe wailed suddenly. Duo spared him half a glance. He stood trembling, hands shaking, eyes wide in fear. Duo shook his head and said nothing. Greg was not so pathetic, even in his worse situation, but Duo was taking no chances. He kept both guns steady.
"What's this Teleb guy's full operation?" Duo demanded of Joe, who seemed broken just by being threatened with death.
"We don't know him that well," Joe stammered. "He hired us yesterday morning and asked us to guard this warehouse, keep a lookout. There are more, other hirelings, on different floors."
"What about Felicia?" Duo asked. "Why does this Teleb guy seem concerned about her?"
"I don't know," Joe said, almost on the verge of tears. "She's just a little girl. Doesn't seem dangerous, but what do I know? Maybe she has information on him or something."
Duo considered this, but said nothing. What about that explosion? Had Felicia been carrying grenades, flash bombs? It would have been nice to know about it before this mess. "What else do you know about Teleb?"
Joe licked his lips. "He looks like a fairly young guy, late twenties. He's got a pretty face, dresses well, has a high-society look about him. I don't know why he's after some woman's jewelry. I don't know why he hired us or why that girl is following him. All I know is that he promised me a paycheck for a simple service. That's it!"
Suddenly, Duo heard a voice in the hallyway calling his name frantically.
"Hilde!" Duo shouted. "I"m in here!"
Moments later, Hilde opened the door to see Duo crouched over one fallen man and holding another, plus the first, at gunpoint. She closed the door behind her. At first she was all astonishment, then disapproval, then worry, but as she looked at him, his rumpled clothes, his smudged face, her face darkened and her attention and all her negative emotions diverted to his captives. Duo held back a grin. That was his Hilde.
Suddenly, Joe went wild. He sprang back, grabbing a simple wooden stool from the corner and ripping the leg off of it. Duo cursed.
Hilde gasped. From her purse, she took out her own little gun, and held it at Joe. "Drop your weapon!" she said firmly. "I've been trained in the OZ military. Drop your weapon and surrender or I will shoot!"
Joe dropped his cudgel and sunk low, cowering in the corner. Seeing that Hilde had that pretty under control, Duo lowered his left arm and pointed both guns toward Greg. In a low voice, he asked him the same questions he had asked Joe. Greg merely shook his head and spoke plainly the same answers as his comrade.
"Duo, what's this all about?" Hilde asked.
"In a minute, Hilde," Duo said, concentrating still on Greg. "And the girl?"
"I don't know anything about her either. Teleb just said that if we came across her to knock her out as quickly as possible and bring her to him. He gave us a description of her too. Joe thought it would be better if we captured her, so when Teleb took that old man's wife to her rooms to collect his jewels, we made it seem as if one of us was Teleb coming in this room. We were surprised when it was you in the doorway and not the chick, but..."
"Yeah, I remember the rest of it," Duo interrupted. "What do you know about Teleb and where is he now?"
Greg shook his head. "Teleb's a weird guy. We'd never heard of him before, but he knows stuff and he pays well. We've never had contact of any of this sources either. We don't even know if he really has any, but he must somewhere. He dragged that old biddy off with him and told us our payments would appear in our bank accounts. Honestly, I don't think we were supposed to see him again, not unless we captured the girl, but we haven't seen her. He's probably even gone by now. The guy wasn't one to waste time."
Duo mulled this over in his head, but he had one more question. "Do you have any idea what that explosion a moment ago was?"
Greg shook his head. "No idea. It scared the living daylights out of me. I've never heard of an explosive that makes that much noise and light that wouldn't blow this whole area to pieces."
Duo nodded. "Well, thanks for the information anyway." Without further conversation, Duo knocked Greg across the side of the head with the handle of his gun, sending him into a state of complete unconsciousness. As Greg collapsed, Duo twisted to his feet and approached the still-terrified Joe. "Don't move your sights off of him, Hilde." Hilde didn't budge as Duo approached Joe and hit him similarly across the head.
Now, standing in a plain little room with two unconscious hooligans and Hilde, Duo wasn't sure what to do.
Hilde lowered her gun. "Who are these guys, Duo?" she said. "You took so long coming back I thought you got distracted by something, so I came down to look for you when I got your 911 page. I'm glad I brought my gun from home now, but I never expected this."
"How'd you know where I was exactly?"
"Well, you gave me the building number, and then there was this great flash of light and an explosion. I ran up all the stairs and then I heard voices."
"Did you see what happened with the lights flashing?" Duo asked her. He opened the door to the small room and held it open for Hilde.
"No, nothing," Hilde said, her brows lowered in confusion as she stepped out into the hall. "Just a great flash and a loud booming noise."
Duo followed her. He expected there to be debris littering the
floor, perhaps gaping holes in the walls made by the explosion, but there
was no such evidence. The hallways was completely intact, clean and
quiet. "This is odd," Duo muttered.