Rosati-Kain--Chapter 8
By Axisor :þ
Hello again! Yup, it certainly is time for me to get another part up, right? Well here it is. Sorry for the wait, but with being out of country and then going on college visits, I have had only so much time to work on this. I also have been splitting that time with the other series that I started (cheap publicity ad!) "Job Hunt" starring Heero, the out-of-work reference-free ex-Gundam pilot, in his attempt to find his way in the real world without even a GED. Sound interesting? Check it out when you're done here (don't worry... there will be a reminder at the end of the fic... I told you--cheap publicity).
The disclaimer we all know and love: AU-fic, Gundam stuff ain't mine, though I wish it was... school exist but belongs to the archdiocese and the OOC of Trevor is ALL MINE! Merci, Arigatou, and read on...
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Wufei heard the announcement summoning him to the office. On the verge of _actually_ grinning, he looked up at Mrs. Pelker and said, "That's me--I must be going then..." Surprisingly, it wasn't until he was almost into Sr. Joan's office that he realized that there was even a _possibility_ of trouble in being summoned.
Quatre too had heard the call to the office; it came at a point where the police and Maguanacks were at a standoff. Just before, the officers had all yelled "Release the boy-hostage and we'll work out a deal."
After a short time had passed, Quatre had managed to weave his way to the front of his side to say, "Hostage?! I'm not a hostage--I'm the one conducting these soldiers. Who's in charge of your side?" He stopped at the water fountain on the left that marked the middle of the narrow hall.
"I am," a female voice came from the opposite end of the hall adding, "and since you must not be in danger any more," and as soon as she finished saying that the officers began to fade. "I can deactivate these guys, but if I get anymore trouble, young man, they can always go back up and fight with your troops again; that was a successful test run," she added.
"Not quite," Abdul said suddenly the only one behind Quatre, with no other Maguanacks in sight. "Holograms against holograms does not make for a very good test, and since we out number you 2," then Rashid came out, "correction 3 to 1, we'll be in charge of whatever 'negotiations' that occur."
Rashid stood in front and just to the right of Quatre, "And you can't take him anywhere," he added to Abdul's statement.
Not letting the two large men intimidate her, the young officer said, "You 2 must be the two remaining intruders. You're coming with me... all 3 of you." Then on went a set of super cuffs on all 3 sets of wrists and before any objections could be made about Quatre, "You too, young man. You already admitted to being the leader, so you have to be brought in for questioning."
As she led them all down the narrow hall, she began to talk into her headset to her unit, "Officer Jenny here. I'm in the convent on my way to the main building with the last 2 intruders and the leader too. Where is Captain McGuilility--what do you mean he's no longer in charge of this operation?... Lt. Colonel Po? Who's that and what's 'Special Forces'?"
"Sally? Sally's in charge?" Quatre asked enthusiastically, "We'll just explain this to her. Then it'll all be straightened out."
"Hold on a second. The leader seems to know the new Chief of Operations--so do the other intruders?! Did her credentials pan--they did? What about conflict of interest on her part? So there no--there is no way to have her pulled on that?... Fine. Where do I take them?... To the principal's office? On our way..." she ended the conversation with a sigh.
"I wonder why Colonel Une isn't leading whatever-is-going-on," Quatre said out loud what obviously, he was wondering, "and why were the 'Special Forces' called in, though it might have been to rescue us... or everyone since work's been slow and 6 _is_ an extreme number but still..."
As they left, the forgotten girls in the priest's office heard everything, and once all had left the hall, once girl ventured to admit, "Maybe he's not as boring as we thought he was..." Everyone else just nodded.
Trowa ignored the announcement. He was told to stay put until the Colonel called her phone, which he had. He just hoped she didn't switch personalities to the Lady because then he could be forgotten up in the lighting booth since not all information carries over between Lady and Colonel.
The Lady waited patiently--much more patiently than anyone else did--for all who were summoned to arrive and enter the increasingly small office. All that was left was for Trowa to show up. No one knew where he was. They had even sent some of the random Preventer soldiers to scour the area he was suppose to patrol; they had no luck, however.
Everyone had gathered off in various groups to talk about what was going on. Heero even managed to get his file folder of pictures back from Zechs, with a promise of "never having looked at the pegasuses, unicorns, or griffins drawings." Heero was mildly suspicious and had to be on guard from the bored Duo who was attempting to snatch the file and see the previously mentioned "unseen" pictures. You know how much Duo loves mythical creatures like that and the God of Death and so on... about as much as he loves to annoy Heero.
Anyway, it's a good thing all the teachers had been sent off to their homerooms or else it would have gotten even more crowded, with Mrs. Hargis taking over Mr. Wallace's, to take roll of the students who were receiving police and Special Forces' escorts back. Security yada-yada essentially.
Finally when Sr. Joan could no longer stand waiting and had already made 3 announcements explicitly requesting Trowa Barton to report to the office she gave up waiting. As soon as the Lady started to tell the explanation of who she was, the nun-principal stood up saying, "I knew I recognized you! You're the person I talked to on the phone about trading 'prisoners.'"
"I don't know what you are talking about," she replied honestly.
"Wait a second," Sally said getting up from her chair, taking the glasses out of Une's pocket and placing them on here face. After waiting a few seconds, she asked, "We're in the boys' principal's office, and she'd like to know if you knew where Trowa is and if you can get him to come down here, so can you?" All the non-Preventers staff present looked at Miss Po like she was insane.
"I can get a hold of him, if we are in negotiations."
When she was told that they were, she just grabbed up Sr. Joan's phone, dialed 9 out, and then continued dialing away. A few minutes later, Trowa came in with a recovering Mr. Wallace. Mr. Wallace was shocked back into reality with the sight in the office. There were 4 unknown people to the right, all 5 boys, plus a girl, to the left, and an unknown man with a police women discussing particle and wave light theories just inside the narrow alcove of the room. To top that off, the crazy women who wanted him killed conversing with Sr. Joan and Ms. Lydon at the desk as if this was a semi-regular occurrence. Finally, he was able to stammer, "What's going on in here?"
"Well, Chris, that's what we're here to find out," Ms. Lydon said with an eerie calm. "So far we know that the boys aren't what they appear to be."
"I could have told you that!" Mr. Wallace strongly retorted. "That one," he continued pointing to Trowa, who had taken to carelessly leaning against the wall--his typical position, "was enough to convince me of that--and he's somehow involved with the Gundams!"
"Now why would you think such an absurd thing like that?" Quatre said with a confused expression on his face. Then he leaned on Heero's shoulder as he released an uneasy laugh... until he felt the muscles tense further under him, and decided to stand up tall again. He stood up just in time to catch an attacking Trevor in his arms, though Quatre did quickly have the savaged beast subdued to a mere purring kitten within moments of apply the ear-scratch defensive maneuver.
"He's right, guys," Heero said, as monotone as ever. "We might as well tell them..." He let them complain for a little bit before he continued in his bland tone, "They already figured most of it out... We might as well tell them that we are the _mechanics_ of the Gundams."
Over false complaints about security breaches, "That does explain the Gundam line... and how Wufei knew so much about the properties of Gundamium," Mr. Wallace muttered, sorting through the bits of information he had gathered so far.
While he was thinking about that, Ms. Lydon was working on the little bits of oddness that she found with the situation, "Why you guys, and why this school and... and just why?"
Duo gave her his classic "I-look-like-I'm-on-crack-and-I-don't-care" grin and added in a dash of the "Isn't-it-obvious" head tilt along with a hint of the ideal "You're-an-idiot" body posture just before he gave his simple explanation. "Some boys work on cars in their spare time; we just happened to work on Gundams in our spare time during the War. With a few words dropped by the pilots, we got hired by the Reconstruct-O-Replicate Agency for work on the life-size models," then he finished off with a "Whatever" shrug which nicely complimented his "Well-duh!" tone of voice.
"As to why we are here," Wufei said, more polite than expected but of course, their cover was on the line. "Education is a law that couldn't be worked around, even for us, and the schedule here is such that if there was a problem at work, at least one of us could have gone, fixed it, and returned without missing a class, or many classes... not to say that we enjoy playing hooky..." Trowa elbowed Wufei right in the middle of his ribs... dead on the bruise he got from his many elbowings the day before.
"But why not just get tutoring? Like the stars do?"
"Well, Sister," Rashid said, "It doesn't quite work out right for why they go to school. They pretty much know everything any school could teach them--except some minor points and religion--"
"So they're here for a religious education?" Sister Joan asked with surprise in her voice.
"Not really--Duo's early education apparently was geared more for the priesthood, until a tragedy killed Father Maxwell..." Even Heero saw the shadow of pain lingering at the edges of Duo's face, which was why he stopped talking.
"The real reason," Quatre said, "why we are going to any school has many parts--most we can't tell you, some you wouldn't understand, and the rest won't make sense without everything else. Please understand, we didn't come here to cause trouble or to hurt anyone but to learn to be as 'normal' as any teen can be." He let out a silent sigh as he gave his words a little time to sink in as well as the vague, but forceful, look of "you better agree" he gave to everyone who knew the truth.
Eventually he continued his "political magic" once he received signs of acknowledgement from all who had received the look. "The circumstances surrounding each of our lives before and during the war didn't really prepare us for life after the fighting. Out of that--" meaningful look again but just at the intruders this time, including, somehow, Hilde who was right behind him. "--grew today's problems as we struggled to live in this time of peace while holding onto what we were before."
Quatre's explanation was punctuated by a silence no one wanted to break until Officer Jenny could no longer hold her tongue about the points that frustrated her. She started off by apologizing then, "If you, Quatre, are _just_ a Gundam mechanic, then why were you leading a band of soldier--holographic ones, but still--with this big guy over here calling you 'Master'?"
If this had been a show like Pokémon, every one of the boys would have massively sweatdropped and fallen over making incohesive sounds. As this show is not like the aforementioned one, the reactions were quite different and varied, thus showing how much more realistic this show is than the other one.
Une didn't have a reaction; though Sally (who collapsed into the chair she was already starting to sit in) had just administered something that was suppose to help bridge the gap between personalities. Une may still have been dazed by that, however in contrast, the people in her head fighting for how to react very well could have caused being dazed.
Another one who didn't know how to react was the blond Arabian himself; he couldn't believe he had completely missed those. Quatre started off by looking dumbfounded and shocked, but soon began to start growing a ZERO-crazed look in his eye. The "calm" part of his mind made him absently pass the "monster"--who thoughtfully was providing purring background music for all the following reactions--to a fish-mimicking Hilde (so the fish was holding the cat for once).
Just as he reached the brink of snapping, he cracked. He started evil-laughing and then spontaneously pulled a Goku (or a Genki for MR fans) with an embarrassed laugh, one hand up and behind his head with a foolhardy explanation about being a "Master Mechanic" and the perks which go along with it. Abdul and Rashid vociferously gave agreement, and muttered excuses for their different excuses previously given by themselves.
On a different noted reaction, Mr. Barton pulled down his famous bangs, for lack of a cap to hide his face behind. The next stage of his reaction to Officer Jenny was wishing to be absorbed by the wall, another purpose, perhaps, of pulling in the protruding hair. Finally, the Silencer failed to silence his mutters of how it had to be a horrible nightmare and he'd wake up any moment with Leon on the base or Catherine throwing knives at the circus and all would be good again.
Officer Jenny's accusations' response from Duo would have been his psychologist's dream. His mutters, which bordered on mumbles, kept switching from 3rd to 1st person POV as he rationalized why it had to be true in terms Shinigami and he had to be the God of Death for Shinigami was he. There was also something about her being quiet before he had G.O.D. seek her out. Though if his psychologist had this directed at him or her and realized how serious Duo was about it, it would be more of a nightmare than a dream.
Another person caught in the middle of a nightmare was Wufei. His eyes went into a black blank stare and his alto voice joined the Muttering Chorus, harmonizing with singing of how Quatre was blond and that Justice (the officer) was ruining them. He increased his volume when he reached the part about expecting it from a woman and so on until he was back at Quatre's blond-ness. Luckily it was all in his native tongue or else the percussion of hands slapping face would have joined the chorus.
In another area of the small room, Noin--sitting quietly behind Zechs-- honestly wasn't paying attention at all to what was going on. Instead, she was braiding the end of Zechs' hair--knowing how well Quatre can talk the boys out of any situation, and becoming bored with the old routine. She knew the cues for when to make eye contact and nod. She was just pulling out her 3rd braid when she was snapped back into reality by Zechs' sudden dart across the room to cover Heero's mouth and hopefully stop his reaction. Unfortunately, the Lightning Count wasn't fast enough to stop the huge boo-boo the Perfect Soldier just made.
See, the problem Heero had was that the very large doses of stress and unusual circumstance he had been put through recently combined with his very much lack of sleep to give him only a thread of nerves still connected to his already screwed up reality. Then Officer Jenny snipped that, allowing the sanity to float away into oblivion and sent him spiraling into his interrogation training.
The only things Heero would say in this mode were his name, rank and serial number... over and over again until his interrogators relaxed their guards enough for him to escape. Zechs managed to muffle the number, but his serial number wasn't that bad, just 0101010101010101. Unfortunately, name and rank came first, and they were pretty bad. "Name: Unknown. Call name: Heero Yuy. Rank: Gundam Pilot First-Class comma Major. Serial number: Zero-one-zero-one-zero-one-zero-one-zero-one..." was what he said in an unimaginably more monotone voice than what he normally used.
Then, as Duo commented on how it couldn't get any worse, Heero made it worse. Zechs was so busy muffling the struggling cover-breaker, he didn't notice Heero's twitching right hand grab his unprotected gun until he had his hands wrenched away with Heero's left-hand and kicked in the stomach to the ground--gun cocked and almost point-blank range from the middle of his maskless face.
No one moved--well, Officer Jenny drew her gun, or tried to but Abdul disarmed her for her own safety before Heero could do her any harm.
Suddenly Sr. Joan stood up and yelled, "HEERO YUY! What do you think you are doing?!? Guns aren't allowed on school property!"
As his head snapped around to the yelling woman, Duo took his opportunity to tackle the crazed maniac and knock the gun out of the room and into the hallway. Then Quatre came over and helped hold his arms down while Wufei and Trowa held down the feet... all of them yelling for everyone else to stay back.
"Let me go!" Heero yelled, actually having intense passion present in the voice. "I will get out sooner or later, enemy!"
"Enemy? We're friends Heero." Trowa said, very worried about his comrade.
"Is anyone else getting 'Trevor Yuy' flashbacks here?" Duo said as his grip slipped.
"THAT'S IT! You're a genius Maxwell!" Wufei yelled, somehow, through clenched teeth.
"I am?" he said, totally puzzled. Wufei was acting very OOC.
"Heero! Listen to me! Look at that cat that onna has in her arms..." Wufei grunted. When Heero finally locked eyes on the semi-still purring beast (who was too confused to do anything else) he continued, "That's your pet" the word spat out "and if HE trusts us, then shouldn't you. Remember all the hours of training you put into him... He's your pride and joy."
"YEAH! You gotta remember Heero! You just gotta," Hilde pleaded. "We're all friends here... take a breath and understand. You're going to hurt yourself!"
He finally stopped struggling, and Trevor jumped from her arms and rubbed his head up against his confused master. "Meow? MRAww..." he said when he received no begrudged response, aside from, "I've never had a pet."
"Come on Heero! We are just trying to help... Does anyone happen to have some rope on them?" Duo said that as he tried to keep his best friend pinned while he realized how much of a losing battle it was.
Noin volunteered the rope she was carrying around in her purse, and refused to answer questions about it just as Hilde pulled some bun-g cord from her duffel bag which she brought... "I was planning on strapping you to the chair to interrogate you..." she explained with a shrug handing it over to Duo in a moment of calm in the struggle.
"Gee... thanks..." he said. Just as he turned his face back toward Heero, the Arab's grip slipped and Heero punched Duo square in the jaw and then came back with a swift elbow making contact on the other side of the jaw. Next with just as swift a movement, he jerked his other hand free and knocked Quatre back into a chair; Heero pushed Duo into Wufei and Trowa and then was swiftly caught up in a wrestling match with Zechs as those three were knocked back into the wall.
At a crucial moment where the two were apart, Trevor went into fight for his master, and a "Trevor--Back!" automatically escaped from Heero's lips.
Surprisingly, all the young pilots were caught up in Heero's sudden memory surge that they all rushed him and actually had a massive group hug, which quickly ceased when they regained control a moment later. Sally, who admitted to not being a psychologist, gave a guess at him suffering temporary insanity and was given permission to tend the wounded in Ms. Lydon's office with Hilde acting as her nurse aide.
Abdul retrieved the gun from the hall while Officer Jenny was sent off to return to her unit now that the building was officially secure. With the principal's office now consisting of Ms. Lydon, Sr. Joan, Une, Rashid, Abdul, and Noin, the discussion began on what to do about the boys, with just about all the cards being laid on the desk, for lack of a table.
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I know... another evil cliffhanger. I really do realize how horrible these can be, and at least it isn't as bad as some are--and could be! There was just too much to write and too little time before I head off to more college stuff/torture.
Okay... my notes to you guys:
Kaen-chan --nope, not the same Ms. Mueller but thanks a bunch for all your suggestions
Gothic Valley Girl (and others who requested it)-- I found a better place to put the betting scene and Heero's admittance to his undying love... but you'll have to wait a bit to get there
Fox Goddess--I tried to write out the numbers, but it has become a habit to just hit the keys when doing fanfics... and with the time crunch this time I couldn't but I will attempt to in RK9--promise and I will eventually get around to e-mailing you... OI! I almost had more downtime with school in session
Okay... as you can tell, reviews do mean much to me... and I do read them and try to work the suggestions in. So now that you read, please review and I apologize that this wasn't my normal level of humor because the end of it did turn into a rush job. That's why there is at least 1 more part to this story, so I can tie up all the ends and have many of the earlier things come back and bite the boys in the butt! (Got guesses and suggestions?)
1 more thing!
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Silver Dragonfly-- I LOVE YOU!!!!! You guys (a.k.a. readers) have no idea how much this girl has helped me on this story... I came to SO many dead ends and corners... yeah-- go check her stuff out; it's only fair! And you should (and probably will though it's not up at this exact moment in time) see some of the stuff for Job Hunt she's helped me come up with... like (yup--the cheap commercial) Kindergarten teacher, Commercial Airplane pilot... Burger King and McDonald's (at the same time) employee...
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Thanx always to my beta, SilverTenshi (who retired from writing so there is no need to advertise for her anymore...)! To you Sil, send me the beta's and I'll implement them when I get back--k? And to you all, the mistakes in this part were my own because I was too impatient to wait for the file from her to arrive.
Axisor
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By Axisor :þ
Hello again! Yup, it certainly is time for me to get another part up, right? Well here it is. Sorry for the wait, but with being out of country and then going on college visits, I have had only so much time to work on this. I also have been splitting that time with the other series that I started (cheap publicity ad!) "Job Hunt" starring Heero, the out-of-work reference-free ex-Gundam pilot, in his attempt to find his way in the real world without even a GED. Sound interesting? Check it out when you're done here (don't worry... there will be a reminder at the end of the fic... I told you--cheap publicity).
The disclaimer we all know and love: AU-fic, Gundam stuff ain't mine, though I wish it was... school exist but belongs to the archdiocese and the OOC of Trevor is ALL MINE! Merci, Arigatou, and read on...
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Wufei heard the announcement summoning him to the office. On the verge of _actually_ grinning, he looked up at Mrs. Pelker and said, "That's me--I must be going then..." Surprisingly, it wasn't until he was almost into Sr. Joan's office that he realized that there was even a _possibility_ of trouble in being summoned.
Quatre too had heard the call to the office; it came at a point where the police and Maguanacks were at a standoff. Just before, the officers had all yelled "Release the boy-hostage and we'll work out a deal."
After a short time had passed, Quatre had managed to weave his way to the front of his side to say, "Hostage?! I'm not a hostage--I'm the one conducting these soldiers. Who's in charge of your side?" He stopped at the water fountain on the left that marked the middle of the narrow hall.
"I am," a female voice came from the opposite end of the hall adding, "and since you must not be in danger any more," and as soon as she finished saying that the officers began to fade. "I can deactivate these guys, but if I get anymore trouble, young man, they can always go back up and fight with your troops again; that was a successful test run," she added.
"Not quite," Abdul said suddenly the only one behind Quatre, with no other Maguanacks in sight. "Holograms against holograms does not make for a very good test, and since we out number you 2," then Rashid came out, "correction 3 to 1, we'll be in charge of whatever 'negotiations' that occur."
Rashid stood in front and just to the right of Quatre, "And you can't take him anywhere," he added to Abdul's statement.
Not letting the two large men intimidate her, the young officer said, "You 2 must be the two remaining intruders. You're coming with me... all 3 of you." Then on went a set of super cuffs on all 3 sets of wrists and before any objections could be made about Quatre, "You too, young man. You already admitted to being the leader, so you have to be brought in for questioning."
As she led them all down the narrow hall, she began to talk into her headset to her unit, "Officer Jenny here. I'm in the convent on my way to the main building with the last 2 intruders and the leader too. Where is Captain McGuilility--what do you mean he's no longer in charge of this operation?... Lt. Colonel Po? Who's that and what's 'Special Forces'?"
"Sally? Sally's in charge?" Quatre asked enthusiastically, "We'll just explain this to her. Then it'll all be straightened out."
"Hold on a second. The leader seems to know the new Chief of Operations--so do the other intruders?! Did her credentials pan--they did? What about conflict of interest on her part? So there no--there is no way to have her pulled on that?... Fine. Where do I take them?... To the principal's office? On our way..." she ended the conversation with a sigh.
"I wonder why Colonel Une isn't leading whatever-is-going-on," Quatre said out loud what obviously, he was wondering, "and why were the 'Special Forces' called in, though it might have been to rescue us... or everyone since work's been slow and 6 _is_ an extreme number but still..."
As they left, the forgotten girls in the priest's office heard everything, and once all had left the hall, once girl ventured to admit, "Maybe he's not as boring as we thought he was..." Everyone else just nodded.
Trowa ignored the announcement. He was told to stay put until the Colonel called her phone, which he had. He just hoped she didn't switch personalities to the Lady because then he could be forgotten up in the lighting booth since not all information carries over between Lady and Colonel.
The Lady waited patiently--much more patiently than anyone else did--for all who were summoned to arrive and enter the increasingly small office. All that was left was for Trowa to show up. No one knew where he was. They had even sent some of the random Preventer soldiers to scour the area he was suppose to patrol; they had no luck, however.
Everyone had gathered off in various groups to talk about what was going on. Heero even managed to get his file folder of pictures back from Zechs, with a promise of "never having looked at the pegasuses, unicorns, or griffins drawings." Heero was mildly suspicious and had to be on guard from the bored Duo who was attempting to snatch the file and see the previously mentioned "unseen" pictures. You know how much Duo loves mythical creatures like that and the God of Death and so on... about as much as he loves to annoy Heero.
Anyway, it's a good thing all the teachers had been sent off to their homerooms or else it would have gotten even more crowded, with Mrs. Hargis taking over Mr. Wallace's, to take roll of the students who were receiving police and Special Forces' escorts back. Security yada-yada essentially.
Finally when Sr. Joan could no longer stand waiting and had already made 3 announcements explicitly requesting Trowa Barton to report to the office she gave up waiting. As soon as the Lady started to tell the explanation of who she was, the nun-principal stood up saying, "I knew I recognized you! You're the person I talked to on the phone about trading 'prisoners.'"
"I don't know what you are talking about," she replied honestly.
"Wait a second," Sally said getting up from her chair, taking the glasses out of Une's pocket and placing them on here face. After waiting a few seconds, she asked, "We're in the boys' principal's office, and she'd like to know if you knew where Trowa is and if you can get him to come down here, so can you?" All the non-Preventers staff present looked at Miss Po like she was insane.
"I can get a hold of him, if we are in negotiations."
When she was told that they were, she just grabbed up Sr. Joan's phone, dialed 9 out, and then continued dialing away. A few minutes later, Trowa came in with a recovering Mr. Wallace. Mr. Wallace was shocked back into reality with the sight in the office. There were 4 unknown people to the right, all 5 boys, plus a girl, to the left, and an unknown man with a police women discussing particle and wave light theories just inside the narrow alcove of the room. To top that off, the crazy women who wanted him killed conversing with Sr. Joan and Ms. Lydon at the desk as if this was a semi-regular occurrence. Finally, he was able to stammer, "What's going on in here?"
"Well, Chris, that's what we're here to find out," Ms. Lydon said with an eerie calm. "So far we know that the boys aren't what they appear to be."
"I could have told you that!" Mr. Wallace strongly retorted. "That one," he continued pointing to Trowa, who had taken to carelessly leaning against the wall--his typical position, "was enough to convince me of that--and he's somehow involved with the Gundams!"
"Now why would you think such an absurd thing like that?" Quatre said with a confused expression on his face. Then he leaned on Heero's shoulder as he released an uneasy laugh... until he felt the muscles tense further under him, and decided to stand up tall again. He stood up just in time to catch an attacking Trevor in his arms, though Quatre did quickly have the savaged beast subdued to a mere purring kitten within moments of apply the ear-scratch defensive maneuver.
"He's right, guys," Heero said, as monotone as ever. "We might as well tell them..." He let them complain for a little bit before he continued in his bland tone, "They already figured most of it out... We might as well tell them that we are the _mechanics_ of the Gundams."
Over false complaints about security breaches, "That does explain the Gundam line... and how Wufei knew so much about the properties of Gundamium," Mr. Wallace muttered, sorting through the bits of information he had gathered so far.
While he was thinking about that, Ms. Lydon was working on the little bits of oddness that she found with the situation, "Why you guys, and why this school and... and just why?"
Duo gave her his classic "I-look-like-I'm-on-crack-and-I-don't-care" grin and added in a dash of the "Isn't-it-obvious" head tilt along with a hint of the ideal "You're-an-idiot" body posture just before he gave his simple explanation. "Some boys work on cars in their spare time; we just happened to work on Gundams in our spare time during the War. With a few words dropped by the pilots, we got hired by the Reconstruct-O-Replicate Agency for work on the life-size models," then he finished off with a "Whatever" shrug which nicely complimented his "Well-duh!" tone of voice.
"As to why we are here," Wufei said, more polite than expected but of course, their cover was on the line. "Education is a law that couldn't be worked around, even for us, and the schedule here is such that if there was a problem at work, at least one of us could have gone, fixed it, and returned without missing a class, or many classes... not to say that we enjoy playing hooky..." Trowa elbowed Wufei right in the middle of his ribs... dead on the bruise he got from his many elbowings the day before.
"But why not just get tutoring? Like the stars do?"
"Well, Sister," Rashid said, "It doesn't quite work out right for why they go to school. They pretty much know everything any school could teach them--except some minor points and religion--"
"So they're here for a religious education?" Sister Joan asked with surprise in her voice.
"Not really--Duo's early education apparently was geared more for the priesthood, until a tragedy killed Father Maxwell..." Even Heero saw the shadow of pain lingering at the edges of Duo's face, which was why he stopped talking.
"The real reason," Quatre said, "why we are going to any school has many parts--most we can't tell you, some you wouldn't understand, and the rest won't make sense without everything else. Please understand, we didn't come here to cause trouble or to hurt anyone but to learn to be as 'normal' as any teen can be." He let out a silent sigh as he gave his words a little time to sink in as well as the vague, but forceful, look of "you better agree" he gave to everyone who knew the truth.
Eventually he continued his "political magic" once he received signs of acknowledgement from all who had received the look. "The circumstances surrounding each of our lives before and during the war didn't really prepare us for life after the fighting. Out of that--" meaningful look again but just at the intruders this time, including, somehow, Hilde who was right behind him. "--grew today's problems as we struggled to live in this time of peace while holding onto what we were before."
Quatre's explanation was punctuated by a silence no one wanted to break until Officer Jenny could no longer hold her tongue about the points that frustrated her. She started off by apologizing then, "If you, Quatre, are _just_ a Gundam mechanic, then why were you leading a band of soldier--holographic ones, but still--with this big guy over here calling you 'Master'?"
If this had been a show like Pokémon, every one of the boys would have massively sweatdropped and fallen over making incohesive sounds. As this show is not like the aforementioned one, the reactions were quite different and varied, thus showing how much more realistic this show is than the other one.
Une didn't have a reaction; though Sally (who collapsed into the chair she was already starting to sit in) had just administered something that was suppose to help bridge the gap between personalities. Une may still have been dazed by that, however in contrast, the people in her head fighting for how to react very well could have caused being dazed.
Another one who didn't know how to react was the blond Arabian himself; he couldn't believe he had completely missed those. Quatre started off by looking dumbfounded and shocked, but soon began to start growing a ZERO-crazed look in his eye. The "calm" part of his mind made him absently pass the "monster"--who thoughtfully was providing purring background music for all the following reactions--to a fish-mimicking Hilde (so the fish was holding the cat for once).
Just as he reached the brink of snapping, he cracked. He started evil-laughing and then spontaneously pulled a Goku (or a Genki for MR fans) with an embarrassed laugh, one hand up and behind his head with a foolhardy explanation about being a "Master Mechanic" and the perks which go along with it. Abdul and Rashid vociferously gave agreement, and muttered excuses for their different excuses previously given by themselves.
On a different noted reaction, Mr. Barton pulled down his famous bangs, for lack of a cap to hide his face behind. The next stage of his reaction to Officer Jenny was wishing to be absorbed by the wall, another purpose, perhaps, of pulling in the protruding hair. Finally, the Silencer failed to silence his mutters of how it had to be a horrible nightmare and he'd wake up any moment with Leon on the base or Catherine throwing knives at the circus and all would be good again.
Officer Jenny's accusations' response from Duo would have been his psychologist's dream. His mutters, which bordered on mumbles, kept switching from 3rd to 1st person POV as he rationalized why it had to be true in terms Shinigami and he had to be the God of Death for Shinigami was he. There was also something about her being quiet before he had G.O.D. seek her out. Though if his psychologist had this directed at him or her and realized how serious Duo was about it, it would be more of a nightmare than a dream.
Another person caught in the middle of a nightmare was Wufei. His eyes went into a black blank stare and his alto voice joined the Muttering Chorus, harmonizing with singing of how Quatre was blond and that Justice (the officer) was ruining them. He increased his volume when he reached the part about expecting it from a woman and so on until he was back at Quatre's blond-ness. Luckily it was all in his native tongue or else the percussion of hands slapping face would have joined the chorus.
In another area of the small room, Noin--sitting quietly behind Zechs-- honestly wasn't paying attention at all to what was going on. Instead, she was braiding the end of Zechs' hair--knowing how well Quatre can talk the boys out of any situation, and becoming bored with the old routine. She knew the cues for when to make eye contact and nod. She was just pulling out her 3rd braid when she was snapped back into reality by Zechs' sudden dart across the room to cover Heero's mouth and hopefully stop his reaction. Unfortunately, the Lightning Count wasn't fast enough to stop the huge boo-boo the Perfect Soldier just made.
See, the problem Heero had was that the very large doses of stress and unusual circumstance he had been put through recently combined with his very much lack of sleep to give him only a thread of nerves still connected to his already screwed up reality. Then Officer Jenny snipped that, allowing the sanity to float away into oblivion and sent him spiraling into his interrogation training.
The only things Heero would say in this mode were his name, rank and serial number... over and over again until his interrogators relaxed their guards enough for him to escape. Zechs managed to muffle the number, but his serial number wasn't that bad, just 0101010101010101. Unfortunately, name and rank came first, and they were pretty bad. "Name: Unknown. Call name: Heero Yuy. Rank: Gundam Pilot First-Class comma Major. Serial number: Zero-one-zero-one-zero-one-zero-one-zero-one..." was what he said in an unimaginably more monotone voice than what he normally used.
Then, as Duo commented on how it couldn't get any worse, Heero made it worse. Zechs was so busy muffling the struggling cover-breaker, he didn't notice Heero's twitching right hand grab his unprotected gun until he had his hands wrenched away with Heero's left-hand and kicked in the stomach to the ground--gun cocked and almost point-blank range from the middle of his maskless face.
No one moved--well, Officer Jenny drew her gun, or tried to but Abdul disarmed her for her own safety before Heero could do her any harm.
Suddenly Sr. Joan stood up and yelled, "HEERO YUY! What do you think you are doing?!? Guns aren't allowed on school property!"
As his head snapped around to the yelling woman, Duo took his opportunity to tackle the crazed maniac and knock the gun out of the room and into the hallway. Then Quatre came over and helped hold his arms down while Wufei and Trowa held down the feet... all of them yelling for everyone else to stay back.
"Let me go!" Heero yelled, actually having intense passion present in the voice. "I will get out sooner or later, enemy!"
"Enemy? We're friends Heero." Trowa said, very worried about his comrade.
"Is anyone else getting 'Trevor Yuy' flashbacks here?" Duo said as his grip slipped.
"THAT'S IT! You're a genius Maxwell!" Wufei yelled, somehow, through clenched teeth.
"I am?" he said, totally puzzled. Wufei was acting very OOC.
"Heero! Listen to me! Look at that cat that onna has in her arms..." Wufei grunted. When Heero finally locked eyes on the semi-still purring beast (who was too confused to do anything else) he continued, "That's your pet" the word spat out "and if HE trusts us, then shouldn't you. Remember all the hours of training you put into him... He's your pride and joy."
"YEAH! You gotta remember Heero! You just gotta," Hilde pleaded. "We're all friends here... take a breath and understand. You're going to hurt yourself!"
He finally stopped struggling, and Trevor jumped from her arms and rubbed his head up against his confused master. "Meow? MRAww..." he said when he received no begrudged response, aside from, "I've never had a pet."
"Come on Heero! We are just trying to help... Does anyone happen to have some rope on them?" Duo said that as he tried to keep his best friend pinned while he realized how much of a losing battle it was.
Noin volunteered the rope she was carrying around in her purse, and refused to answer questions about it just as Hilde pulled some bun-g cord from her duffel bag which she brought... "I was planning on strapping you to the chair to interrogate you..." she explained with a shrug handing it over to Duo in a moment of calm in the struggle.
"Gee... thanks..." he said. Just as he turned his face back toward Heero, the Arab's grip slipped and Heero punched Duo square in the jaw and then came back with a swift elbow making contact on the other side of the jaw. Next with just as swift a movement, he jerked his other hand free and knocked Quatre back into a chair; Heero pushed Duo into Wufei and Trowa and then was swiftly caught up in a wrestling match with Zechs as those three were knocked back into the wall.
At a crucial moment where the two were apart, Trevor went into fight for his master, and a "Trevor--Back!" automatically escaped from Heero's lips.
Surprisingly, all the young pilots were caught up in Heero's sudden memory surge that they all rushed him and actually had a massive group hug, which quickly ceased when they regained control a moment later. Sally, who admitted to not being a psychologist, gave a guess at him suffering temporary insanity and was given permission to tend the wounded in Ms. Lydon's office with Hilde acting as her nurse aide.
Abdul retrieved the gun from the hall while Officer Jenny was sent off to return to her unit now that the building was officially secure. With the principal's office now consisting of Ms. Lydon, Sr. Joan, Une, Rashid, Abdul, and Noin, the discussion began on what to do about the boys, with just about all the cards being laid on the desk, for lack of a table.
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I know... another evil cliffhanger. I really do realize how horrible these can be, and at least it isn't as bad as some are--and could be! There was just too much to write and too little time before I head off to more college stuff/torture.
Okay... my notes to you guys:
Kaen-chan --nope, not the same Ms. Mueller but thanks a bunch for all your suggestions
Gothic Valley Girl (and others who requested it)-- I found a better place to put the betting scene and Heero's admittance to his undying love... but you'll have to wait a bit to get there
Fox Goddess--I tried to write out the numbers, but it has become a habit to just hit the keys when doing fanfics... and with the time crunch this time I couldn't but I will attempt to in RK9--promise and I will eventually get around to e-mailing you... OI! I almost had more downtime with school in session
Okay... as you can tell, reviews do mean much to me... and I do read them and try to work the suggestions in. So now that you read, please review and I apologize that this wasn't my normal level of humor because the end of it did turn into a rush job. That's why there is at least 1 more part to this story, so I can tie up all the ends and have many of the earlier things come back and bite the boys in the butt! (Got guesses and suggestions?)
1 more thing!
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Silver Dragonfly-- I LOVE YOU!!!!! You guys (a.k.a. readers) have no idea how much this girl has helped me on this story... I came to SO many dead ends and corners... yeah-- go check her stuff out; it's only fair! And you should (and probably will though it's not up at this exact moment in time) see some of the stuff for Job Hunt she's helped me come up with... like (yup--the cheap commercial) Kindergarten teacher, Commercial Airplane pilot... Burger King and McDonald's (at the same time) employee...
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Thanx always to my beta, SilverTenshi (who retired from writing so there is no need to advertise for her anymore...)! To you Sil, send me the beta's and I'll implement them when I get back--k? And to you all, the mistakes in this part were my own because I was too impatient to wait for the file from her to arrive.
Axisor
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