Chapter 9
Hilde managed the scrap yard she owned through her room's laptop, or from the Preventer base's large section of offices, and the business was going well. The suits that had been destroyed five years ago were still flowing in, being scrapped, and shipped out and sold as spare parts to any number of things. She had noticed something lately, though. Many of the gundamium suits that had been destroyed in their last battle that had been sent to her scrap yard to be stripped down and decommissioned. These were smelted, a lot of the time, and converted back into raw gundamium ore. This was usually purchased for a staggering price by the government agencies that funded and supplied the preventers. The gundamium was used as spare parts and body pieces made for use by the gundams, should they be damaged in combat. The agencies had of late however, been outbid by several private organizations, which had then in turn been shipped very large quantities of the hyper tough metal. The quantities were much larger than anyone would need, unless they were stockpiling it. She investigated this further, becoming suspicious, and was blocked eventually. There were a minimum of ten separate companies buying the material, and only two of them were on the same colony. Several of them were stationed on Earth, too.
Hilde shut down the laptop, figuring this was something the rest of them should know about. She left her rooms and headed for the section of the office block that the Duo and the other pilots used as their private base, mostly hanging around and arguing with each other. Heero, Trowa and Quatre were the only three that you could really count on to be doing something, Duo and Wufei were usually caught up in bothering each other, Wufei threatening Duo and Duo laughing at him.
She had to smile, thinking that most of them actually had what they wanted. Even Trowa, who had softened a bit since the wars ended and he acquired friends, joined in conversation sometimes. He still had his job at the circus, as did Catherine, and she came to visit him and vice versa. He still had his trailer there, and performed with her in the main act. They were the star attraction, unusual for a clown. She supposed it helped to draw a little more of a crowd, though it was mostly female, that he performed with no shirt on. He was absolutely chiseled, like the rest of the pilots. Duo himself felt like living marble wrapped in silk, and had at fifteen when she met him. Six years had put more weight to the muscles, and while he was by no means bulging out of his clothes, every muscle was covered with nothing but skin, sharply defined, well toned…..'Jesus, listen to me,' she thought as she shook her head, trying to clear her mind. Oh, well. He was hers, now, not a distant, unattainable goal.
Heero seemed to have developed some sense of humor, and that helped being around him. He didn't seem as much the unstoppable war machine, and she was beginning to see what Relena did in him, but wondered at how in the hell she had known so long ago. Heero was…..well, the perfect soldier, and she was the princess of a pacifist nation. Odd combination, anyone had to admit.
Even before she had gotten to the doorway, she could hear the beginnings of a heated argument.
"What the fuck did you do to my computer? I am going to KILL you, Maxwell!"
"Oh, come on! Can't you take a joke? I told you you'd get your turn!"
"Where the hell did you even GET that picture, you insolent little bastard?!"
"I just bet you'd pay to find out, wouldn't you?"
Hilde entered the room, and saw Wufei typing furiously at his laptop, a very pissed look on his face, and Duo, across the room, leaning way back in his chair and laughing as hard as he could at the chinese pilot. The room was set up in a circle, Wufei's desk the first on the left when you walked in, then Heero's, then Quatre's, then Jai's, then Trowa's, and finally Duo's, which was on your right when you entered the room. There was a large conference table in the center of the large room, separating the pilots.
She walked over to Wufei, who was trying desperately to get something off the screen, to no avail. The image on the screen was of a half naked woman with Sally's face very convincingly superimposed on it. Hilde stifled a giggle, and watched for a moment. Wufei was able to remove the image for a moment, but the instant he hit another key, there it was again, smiling back at him.
"FUCK!" Wufei shouted, as he slammed his fist on his desk, almost knocking over his teacup, which rattled and settled back onto the saucer.
Hilde heard a small gasp of repressed giggles come from Jai's direction, but it was drowned out by Duo's hysterical howling. He was now face down on his desk, his head buried in his arms, shaking like he was being electrocuted. All the other pilots were either staring at Duo, laughing with him, or listening to everyone while pretending to work. Quatre's lips were pressed firmly together, holding back gasps of amusement, and his face was turning red. Trowa had turned his chair around, and was watching Wufei with a hint of enjoyment tugging at his mouth. Heero, his fingers still on the keys, was looking over his shoulder at Duo with one eyebrow raised.
Jai was simply watching the both of them, a wide smile on her face, her left leg crossed over the right. She was wearing a pair of jeans, and white shirt, and a thin blue jacket. She eventually went back, presumably, to work, and about five minutes later, the image on Wufei's computer was gone, replaced with a small message. It read,
"Well, there you go. Good having a second hacker around, huh? Signed, Jai."
Wufei read the message, his eyes widening, and then his eyebrows shot up, his expression darkened slightly, and he turned in his chair to Jai, who was already looking at him. She smiled sweetly, and went back to work.
"Hey!" Duo exclaimed, and looked at Jai. "Ruin my fun." He mumbled, as he turned and went back to typing.
"Don't think you've gotten away with this, baka. I WILL have retribution."
Duo just laughed, and kept working. Everybody had gone back to their laptops, and started typing again. Just then, Hilde remembered why she had come here. "Hey, guys. Something you ought to know." She drew all eyes, and took a seat at the head of the conference table. All of the pilots turned in their chairs, and wheeled them over to the table.
Hilde put her hands flat on the table in front of her, and spoke. "Well, you all know that the dolls you've been fighting recently are made of gundamium. Many of those suits were sent to my scrap yard, and I've been getting rich off you guys." She smiled, and continued. "Most of these suits are stripped and melted down, and the gundamium is sold at a horrific price. Almost all of it, until recently, was bought by the preventers agency. Now, however, it is being bought at higher prices by a number of private organizations."
The pilots looked at her intently, as they each thought about the implications of this.
"Well, first off, this is bad." Said Jai, in an oddly calm voice, almost amused.
Heero nodded, as he had come to the same conclusion. "Are there any buyers on Earth?"
Hilde thought for a moment, and nodded. "Two or three, I think."
"Well, this is starting to smell bad. Gundamium can only be processed in space. And unless every one of these people is building his own private mega shuttle, there's something wrong here. Gundamium is way too expensive, even in small quantities, and nobody buys it to build a bridge or something." Duo said, obviously getting into battle mode.
"We can expect another battle soon, at any rate. If they are still buying the material, they are still building the suits they've been sending after us. I doubt they will have any more than last time. All they are doing is buying back what we destroy." Heero stated, and everyone nodded.
"Inform Lady Une, and have Zechs ready for backup. Have all satellites on full alert, we want to be ready for them. Tell Lady Une we have reason to believe another attack is on the way, she'll take care of the rest." Jai said, and Quatre started out the door toward their commander's office.
Jai started again, sounding amused. "You know, they may just give up eventually. If they can't beat us even after we hand them the supplies to do it with….."
"Hilde, transfer the names of those companies to my computer when you get the chance. I need to do some research." Heero said, and walked out of the room toward the living quarters.
Duo watched him go, and said, "Well, they can't be building these things too fast, or they'd have attacked sooner last time. I imagine we've got a while before they attack again."
They all discussed this for a while, and eventually Trowa had to leave to get ready for his performance. He excused himself, and left.
When the meeting was over, Duo and Hilde left the room together, and walked down the hall, chatting.
"Hey, Hilde, what do you say to the circus tonight? I saw a commercial on TV last night, and it said there's a new twist to the act. Knowing Trowa, It should be pretty cool."
"Are you asking me out?" Hilde asked teasingly, and eyed him.
Duo pretended to think about if for a moment, and then said, with absolute confidence, "Yes. I am."
"Alright, then." She said, smiling. "I'll meet you in the parking garage in about half an hour. I have to send that stuff to Heero, too. See ya!" she said, and hurried into her quarters.
The crowd was on its feet as the pair stepped into the spotlight. Catherine in her usual shades of dark pink, and Trowa was dressed in a pair of baggy clown pants, oversized red shoes, and a mask that covered half of his face.
"Why does he wear that thing?" Duo asked Hilde, in between mouthfuls of popcorn. "It's not like you can ever see that side of his face anyway."
Hilde smiled at the remark as she watched the act. First, a little tumbling by Trowa, who ran toward a pole that was maybe three inches in width and about seven feet up, leapt, and landed on one hand, the other held out beside him, upside down on the pole. He brought his body down slowly, and then launched himself straight up with one arm, landing on one foot on the same pole.
"How does he DO that? Hilde asked. Duo laughed, and shrugged.
The conversation halted as Trowa jumped straight up again, turning two backward flips in mid air before landing back on the pole.
Duo laughed again, and clapped. Hilde joined in for a moment. Then, Trowa leapt into the air, and turned six rotations during the course of three flips on the way down, landed softly, and bowed. The crowd roared in applause, and Duo and Hilde joined. The next act was about to begin, and the audience quieted down.
Catherine stood about forty feet from Trowa, who was up against a large target. Not tied, just standing there. The first knife was thrown, and as usual, Trowa didn't even flinch. The next time, two knives were thrown. Same result. It kept going until Catherine had three knives in each hand, and threw them all in about one second. The muffled "thunk" sounds resounded, six in a second, and all of them impacted a hair's length from Trowa.
The knives were removed, and handed back to Catherine. Trowa walked away from the target unscathed.
"Now how in the hell did he not just jump and run? I wouldn't be able to last past the first knife."
"Yeah."
The ringmaster stepped into the spotlight, and called out, "For the next act, our stars will need a volunteer! Who has the courage to step down?"
The audience was quiet, and Duo looked at Hilde, who realized what he was thinking. 'NO!' she mouthed, and he snickered and stood up, and started down the stairs.
The crowd cheered, and Hilde silently cursed men in general and Duo in particular. Arrogant, pig headed and over confidant. And hers, she reminded herself, starting to smile again. 'He'd better get back here in one piece, so I can take him apart.' She thought.
Duo reached the center ring, and Trowa's visible eye widened a bit. Catherine recognized him, too, and started, then smiled. Catherine positioned him in front of the target, and strapped him to it. Trowa stood at his side, his arms crossed. Duo was wondering just what the hell was going to happen. Everyone already knew that Cathy's aim was too good to actually HIT him.
The ringleader addressed the crowd again. "The lovely Catherine will launch six, count em'! SIX knives directly at this brave soul! She will not aim to miss! His only hope will be Trowa Barton, his guardian!"
'WHAT?' thought Duo. 'She will not miss? No way!'
The drum roll started, and Catherine took aim. Duo started to sweat, and wondered how the hell Trowa was going to protect him. Catherine suddenly struck, and the knives whizzed toward him. Duo had about enough time to think 'Oh shit.' Before Trowa, standing perfectly still beside him, appeared in front of him, and with two swift motions, snatched the knives out of the air, spun, and whipped the knives back at Catherine. Six knives landed in a row two inches from her feet, side by side, all at the same angle.
The crowd roared, and Duo was beginning to wonder whether or not his heart was going to start again. Trowa bowed, and then stepped behind Duo to untie him. Duo's eyes were still locked in the "open" position, and he almost seemed to be in shock. He was stiff as a board, too, even after Trowa had untied him. He walked back up the steps in the same strange, robotic fashion, and plopped bonelessly back down in his seat while Hilde giggled at him.
After a few seconds, the Humor Cortex in Duo's brain won out over the Fear Lobe, and he burst out laughing, hunched over, his braid dangling over his shoulder, and quivered.
He was snapped out of his reverie by a hard slap on the back of the head, and looked at Hilde, all innocence.
"Don't give me that look. You know exactly what that was for. Eventually it'll turn into a punch, and we'll see how much innocence you can project with a black eye."
Duo had to smile at the thought of that.
"Nothing gets to you, does it? I just threatened to knock you out, and you look like just heard that Wufei had been caught streaking."
This time he did laugh, as that picture formed in his mind. He regained his composure with some effort, and said, "Nope. You oughtta know that by now."
Trowa and Catherine went to their trailers to change, while Duo and Hilde waited for them. While this WAS a nice circus, it really wasn't a place you could just sit and talk, so all four of them would be heading for H.Q. In about half an hour, they were all dressed and heading back, Hilde riding with Duo on his motorcycle, and Catherine riding with Trowa in his black van. He preferred large vehicles, though they still had to handle well, and since he had been, and still was, a gundam pilot, he had beefed up this van to the point where it was one hell of a ride. It had all sorts of equipment in the back, too, and was often used by the pilots when constant surveillance and immediate action was needed. When they were not pilots, they were a virtual bounty hunting team. The word "relax" was not really in their vocabulary. Even Duo, who complained and made wisecracks the entire time, did NOT like to be bored. There had not been one person yet they hadn't been able to catch once they set their sights on him.
Once they reached the garage, and met up there, they all just kind of laughed their way down to the living quarters. Except Trowa, of course who just kind of joined the conversation occasionally, though he was smiling a bit. Duo didn't think he'd ever really seen Trowa…cheerful. He'd been content, but never really happy unless he was with Catherine. Helps to have at least one person that's a little more than a friend in the world. He looked sidelong at Hilde, and realized that he knew that personally. He gave himself another smile, drawing Hilde's attention, and she gave him that odd enigmatic smile again. He wondered if he would ever find out what the hell that look meant.
Hilde spoke. "Hey, Catherine, where are you staying tonight?"
Duo had a sudden, though pleasant, premonition as Cathy spoke. "Oh! Um….."
Hilde smiled. "I thought so. You can stay in my quarters."
Cathy raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Trowa did the same, though he was a little quicker on the uptake. He gave Duo a look, and headed into his quarters with Catherine. Have a lot of catching up to do, she supposed. He recognized that look, too.
Duo and Hilde continued toward his quarters, and encountered no one. Hilde headed off toward her quarters to take a shower and get some things before Catherine took over for the night, and Duo headed in to make some normal food. Cotton candy was great, but it left one strangely unsatisfied. He slid his key card into the slot, and opened the door. He wasn't worried about traps set by Heero, as he would be in little evidence for a couple of days while he deciphered the info Hilde had sent to his rooms. He flipped the light on, and walked toward the kitchen. All of a sudden, he tripped, and fell. At least that's what it felt like to him. The carpet under him was…draining into the floor! With him in it! In about half a second, he was jammed by his shoulders in the floor, the only mobility he had was the ability to move his neck, and his fingers, and his wrists to some extent. He really had no idea that this had happened until he realized his chin was about half an inch from the floor. His arms were folded, so they looked sort of like praying mantis arms. The rest of his body, from the shoulders down, was entrapped in the carpet, dangling into whatever room was below his.
"I'll get him for this." No matter how hard he tried, he could not move anything more than his wrists and fingers. He would have to wait until Hilde got there. Good thing the door was still open. Damn Wufei, he thought as he tried once again to get himself free, but no such luck. Wufei had measured this hole pretty well, and his shoulders were wedged tight, with his hands stuck in front of him, about two inches from his chest. The only semi productive thing he could do was make a weak clap. Oh well, he thought. Might as well make the most of it. This is only temporary, after all. He began clapping a tune with the limited motion available in his wrists, and waited.
Hilde had finished her shower, and began drying herself while she thought. First off, Duo was an ass. But, he was also a generous, funny, smart, strong, and extremely good looking guy. That kind of outweighed the fact that he was an ass. Ironically, it was his ass that was helping Duo's influence in her mind. She smiled at the thought, even as others along the same vein invaded her mind. 'I wonder why I'm even doing this. I know I'm in love with him. It helps that he's not a pockmarked, cross eyed hunchback, of course, but….' She just hoped that he was as much hers as she was his.
She was now dressed, and headed back to Duo's quarters. He was undoubtedly done with whatever he was doing by now, and they were going to be up quite late with whatever he had planned, she would bet on it. The door was still open a crack, and she pushed it open, stepped in, and closed it behind her. Only then did she notice that an area of the carpet fifteen feet in diameter had been cut in a circular shape, and that what appeared to be a hairy snake eating a basketball was in the center of it, looking like it had been sucked in the floor. There was an odd noise, almost a slap emanating from it, set to a tune.
"Hilde? Is that you? If it's anyone else, get out of here and forget whatever you may have seen." Said the snake.
"Duo?! What the….hell..?" she said, realizing what was going on, and starting to giggle. She walked around to the front of him, and saw that he was waving his hands at her, an almost pleading gesture, which only served to make her laugh harder.
"Hilde, I know this is funny, and I'll laugh with you AFTER you get me the hell out of here." He said, looking like some sort of insect waving it's legs at her from the ground. "Now, PLEASE get me out of this damn hole."
Hilde walked back around behind him, and knelt, grabbing each shoulder with one hand and pulled up. He moved, but just barely. Another hard yank, and he was coming loose, and one more hard pull, and he was free enough to get his arms out and hoist himself the rest of the way out.
"I'll get him for this. He sawed a HOLE in my damn FLOOR." He'd been stuck there for forty five minutes, and he stripped off his shirt to survey whatever damage had been done. As he thought, there were scrape marks and brush burns on the sides of his arms, and deep red indents where he'd been wedged in the ground. Bastard. He thought he'd gotten it bad with the stupid computer virus. There were things he could do that Jai couldn't fix, he though, with a sinister smile crossing his face, as Hilde watched him.
Hilde had never seen Duo without a shirt on, and the view was stunning. He was not without his share of scars, but they added to the personality of the flesh. His chest was magnificent, and not steroid use, or pumping iron magnificent. There was a big difference between someone who had worked hard his entire life and someone who spent days at a time in the gym. Each muscle was used and perfected to the maximum extent. And she had been thinking about his ass. If his ass looked half this good when…listen to her, "when", she saw it, she'd be utterly helpless. The aforementioned ass followed Duo into his room to change, while Hilde discreetly watched him go. She could swear that he wore tight pants every time he went anywhere with her. Not that she was complaining. She thought about that for a moment, and laughed a little. She was falling for a baka. And she knew it. And she didn't care.