The Trip from Hell
(Part Treize)
Meanwhile back at the hotel…
"Foods ready." Trowa said as he walked out of the kitchen a bowl in each hand. He set the steaming dishes on the table and sat down.
Wufei wandered over and sat down in front of his Top Ramen. He grabbed his chopsticks and began eating the noodles hungrily. Trowa picked up his fork and began shoveling Macaroni and Cheese into his mouth.
"This isn't bad." Wufei said around a mouthful of food.
"It came out of a package." Trowa replied blandly. "It's kind of hard to burn water."
Wufei shrugged and the two boys continued eating in silence. Then Wufei asked, "I wonder how everyone else is coping with Duo?"
"Heero has probably threatened him at least five times, Moria has probably hurt him a bit, and Nikana has probably stood up for him through it all." Trowa speculated.
"Just how tall is the Empire State Building?" Wufei inquired.
"I don't know." Trowa answered. "But you can be sure that the height will be of no consideration of Heero's. In fact, he will probably take Duo with him."
* * *
Back at the Empire State Building…
"Ping."
The elevator doors appeared to take an eternity to open. Heero tensed his muscles in anticipation. When the doors were fully open, Heero flew out of the elevator like a bat out of Hell. Well, considering all the occupants thought of the elevator as Hell…
Inadvertently, Heero ran straight for the nearest window. Moria and Nikana exchanged a look and raced after him. Each girl grabbed one of his shoulders and stopped him just short of the window.
"Heero," Moria began loud enough for all the pilots to hear. "No matter how much Duo annoyed you—"
"You can't throw yourself out of the window." Nikana finished. Heero gave each of them a cold look. Nikana and Moria replied with sweet girlish smiles.
"Do you know what kind of a mess you would make on the sidewalk?" Moria asked.
"You would back up traffic for hours!" Nikana answered. "That would just be horrible, especially during rush hour."
"Heero ignored them and shrugged their hands off his shoulders.
"You two couldn't be farther from the truth." Heero finally said. "I was going to throw Duo out the window."
"I'll help with that one!" Moria exclaimed gleefully. Heero and Moria turned in order to grab Duo, but before they knew it, Duo had launched himself at Heero. Deathscythe's pilot tackled Heero laying him flat on the ground.
"Doggie pile!" Duo yelled.
Before Heero could react, Nikana jumped on top of Duo, followed shortly by Moria. Deepfreeze's pilot felt a weight land on top of her and looked up to see Quatre. All the participants of the doggie pile looked over at Kimiko expectantly. Backlash's pilot rested her hands on her hips and tapped her foot.
"Do you think that this is funny?" Kimiko asked.
Everyone but Heero replied, "Yes!"
"Get off of me or I will kill you!" Heero threatened; even though his voice was muffled by Duo, it still carried a venomous tone.
They heard a door creak and they all looked up to find Treize Khushrenada standing in the threshold of his office.
"Ah, I see you have finally arrived." The leader of the OZ organization said. "If you would please step into my office…"
The pilots nodded. Quatre rolled off first and quickly got to his feet. He helped Moria to her feet then assisted Nikana. Duo jumped off and Heero got to his feet giving the other pilots his coldest glare.
"So, Treize, how have you been?" Moria asked.
"Quite well." He replied.
"And Lady Une?" Nikana inquired.
Treize blushed slightly. "She is well. I sent her back to Luxemburg Base to finish the transfer to America."
"Sure." Moria mumbled skeptically and smiled.
"Enough about me." Treize said. "How was your trip over here?"
"Ooo! Ooo! I want to answer that question!" Duo replied and jumped up and down excitedly.
Moria leaned over to whisper in Heero's ear. "I think we should put some newspaper under him."
Wing's pilot raised his eyebrow and answered with his customary "Hmm…"
"Yes, Duo?" Treize asked when he saw that Duo was not going to speak without him saying something.
"First we had to catch a cab and Quatre almost got run over. Then, while in the cab I was threatened by both Moria and Heero and actually physically injured by Heero." Duo began and paused to take a breath. "When we finally got to this building we had to find an elevator. Thankfully, it was empty. Next, I was assaulted by 'Kana then Heero and Heero lost it. Somewhere in there, Moria hurt me and there was this weird lady. Finally we were here and we all doggie piled on Heero." Duo finished in a rush.
"Interesting…" Treize said contemplatively. "I didn't need to know every detail. Anyone mind summing it up for me?"
Five hands shot up in the air. Treize raised his eyebrow and asked, "Are you all going to answer the same?" Five heads nodded. "Then you can all answer…just don't break the glass."
"Hell!" Five voices rang out in unison. Treize visibly winced.
"Come on you guys," Duo said. "It wasn't that bad."
"You're right, Duo," Moria replied. "Hurting you was fun. And don't forget what I promised to do."
"What was that, Ice Queen?" Duo asked innocently.
"Ice Queen?" Treize inquired with raised eyebrows. "That is the first I've heard of this name."
"And it's the last." Moria said her voice as cold as the Antarctic continent. She reached out and grabbed Duo's braid.
"Itai!" Duo screamed.
Moria headed straight for the stair well that lead to the roof.
"Wait a second Miss Kalahari." Treize addressed her formally. At the mention of her name, Moria stopped and turned on her heel, annoyance flashing in her eyes.
"What?" She asked irritated.
"You can't do what I think you are going to do."
"Why not?"
"For one there would be to many forms to fill out and not to mention the questions that would be asked." Treize explained.
"Fine ruin my fun." Moria said and dropped Duo on the ground. She walked back to the group, silently, scowling.
"Now if you will all come into my office I can show you what the problem is." Treize sated and opened the door all the way, motioning them in. The pilots filed in all curious about what Treize's office would be like.
The room was large, though sparsely furnished. There were several paintings of rose gardens on the walls and a few small tables with vases of roses on the top. A large window held a breathtaking view of New York City and beneath it was Treize's desk. It was quite cluttered for someone as organized as the leader of OZ. There were also a few chairs around the desk.
As Moria got closer to his desk, she noticed a vase with a dozen long-stem red roses sitting next to a gold picture frame that held a picture of Lady Une. Her glasses off and her hair down.
"Nice office." Moria remarked as she looked around at everything again. "Very…big."
"So what seems to be the problem?" Kimiko asked as she admired one of the paintings. It was a picture of a white lattice arch covered with rose vines. Under the arch was a white whicker chair, just big enough to fit two people; with a little snuggling, that is. A beautiful sunset filled the background with shades of red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, and purple. Kimiko liked the painting very much and wondered what Heero would think of it.
"I can't seem to get my computer to work." Treize told them all.
"Did you try turning it on?" Nikana asked sarcastically. "That does tend to help, you know."
"Yes, and it is plugged in." Treize replied. "I know that much."
"I'll see what I can do." Heero said and sat down in Treize's chair. Quatre and Moria moved to stand behind him to offer assistance.
Heero pressed the power button.
Nothing happened.
He pushed it again.
Still, nothing happened.
Heero looked up at Treize earnestly. "Are you positive that it is plugged in?" He asked.
"Yes." Treize replied firmly.
"Let me handle this." Moria said. "I'm the smallest." She dropped to the ground and crawled under the desk. The other pilots heard some loud noises and some coughing. "Hey, Treize, don't you ever clean down here?" Moria called out from underneath the desk.
Treize didn't respond.
A few more minutes ticked by; then there was a loud thud, a curse, and Moria appeared from under the desk. She was rubbing the back of her head. "Try it now." Moria told Heero. Wing's pilot pushed the button and a little green light came on signaling that the system was booting.
"What was the problem?" Quatre asked.
"It was unplugged." She replied annoyed.
"Oh…" Treize mumbled.
"Now what do you need help with?" Heero asked as he accessed the operating system and logged on to Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional. A scanned picture of Une holding a bouquet of red roses popped up on the screen and the icons were neatly arranged around it, forming little roses themselves.
Heero looked up at the Leader of the militaristic OZ organization and shook his head.