T. K.: *standing next to a sandy blonde named Suisho Amora Mokuren* Hi!
Neko-Kun: Hnnn.
Amora: I'm sorry, Neko-Ch--Kun.
T. K.: *scowls briefly* Amora said she was sorry! I said I was sorry!
Neko-Kun: There is still a new muse in this house.
T. K.: OH! By the way, we're moving.
Neko-Kun: No da.
T. K.: I was talking to them. *Motions towards audience* We're in Florida, but we are moving to Tennessee.
Neko-Kun: For those of you who don't know where that is, it's next to N. Carolina, below Kentucky and Virginia, and above Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. *Smug smile*
T. K.: *looks blandly at muse* Anyways, that is why it's taken so long to get this chapter out as well as why it's so short. I hope the next one is longer *glares at Neko-Kun*.
*A white ferret runs threw doorway*
T. K.: This is Tsuki.
Tsuki: *blinks*
Amora: *digging threw hammer space pouch* Ah, here we go. *Pulls wand from bag* I got this for you at Ollivander's Wand Shop. It's made specifically for muse use; you tap the muse and say, 'Niku'.
T. K.: *taps ferret* Niku.
*A cloud of smoke engulfs the room but quickly clears. Where the ferret was now stands a man about 5'10" with platinum blonde hair, stormy gray eyes, whiskers, and a bushy tail the same color as his hair. *
Tsuki: *with a British accent* Ah, hullo.
Amora: If you want him back in animal form say, 'Ferroto' and for Neko-Kun say, 'Tigai'.
T. K.: Well, arigato, Amora. Would one of you two please do the disclaimer? I'm sure our audience is sick of this muse soap opera.
Neko-Kun: *mutters* I know I am.
Tsuki: T. K. doesn't own Gundam Wing. Bandai does.
T. K.: If there are any Harry Potter fans out there, can you please tell me what color Ginny Weasley's eyes are. Review! Arigato!
______
Nothing was said, there just weren't any words important enough to break the silence, which filled the plane that carried Ayame, Trowa, and Wufei. Noin, Sally, and Zechs had taken the other plane. Wufei was meditating while Trowa and Ayame sat in the cockpit mulling over whatever crossed their minds. Finally, a loud beeping from the communicator drew their attention and broke the suffocating silence.
Pushing a button, Ayame said, "Go ahead."
"Ayame Suisei?" asked a mousy, brown hair and brown-eyed man.
"That's me."
The man on the other end nodded. "Name's Melvin Fennec calling from Thomas Base, there's a woman hear that says you called her. Name's Brandy Adams," he said reading from an ID card then holding it up for her to see.
"Yeah, she's with me."
"Okay then. What's your ETA?"
Ayame glanced at the controls in front of her and said, "Twenty minutes."
"See you then. Over and out."
"I see you called in your friend," Trowa said.
Ayame shook her head, "Yeah, I did. She's not only good at gathering information, but she good with explosives as well."
"I see. You should go change into your cold weather gear."
"Going," she said. "Oh, and Trowa, thanks for coming."
Ayame quietly made her way through the plane past Wufei who had been in the Lotus Position for two of the almost four hours they had been flying. 'He's going to be stiff,' Ayame thought as she closed the door to the small water closet to change.
Over the PA system Trowa cleared his throat loudly and said in his usual monotone voice, "We are about to land. Please finish all boring activities and return to your seats in the next fifteen minutes. That is all."
"INJUSTICE, BARTON!"
_____
It was almost -15 degrees when the two planes touched down at a little past midnight Tokyo time and a little past 10 o'clock in Noril'sk. Stepping out of the plane, Ayame noticed two people standing in the doorway of the former Thomas Base.
"Ayame!" Brandy Adams called out before barreling her over in a bear hug, Ayame would have never known it was her under that heavy fur parka. She laughed out loud at Brandy's appearance, although most of the others, with the exception of herself, Noin, and Zechs, were dressed the same, she looked like the common conception of an Eskimo.
"What?" Brandy asked. Ayame motion towards her snow gear. "Oh, you!" Brandy put her hands on what Ayame assumed to be her hips. "Sorry, we can't all be as fashionable as you are!" She was right; Ayame looked like she was modeling the latest winter gear in a lightweight dark gray long coat with fur lined cuffs and hood with a matching jumper underneath.
Ayame looked at herself and said yelling over the high winds of the Tundra, "What? This old thing... I've had it for years."
Ayame knew that Brandy scowled then smiled widely. "I remember; I had one too. But mine got ripped."
"Adams..." Ayame paused and shook her head in exasperation, "it's great to see you again!" Ayame said.
The second person had stepped out of the doorway and was standing behind Brandy. "Sir! Ma'am!" The person said saluting Zechs and Noin.
"Fennec, that's not necessary," Zechs said.
"Sorry," he said. "Hello, name's Melvin Fennec. But, please, call me Mel. I have the materials and snowmobiles you asked for... Oh, and Sir, it's a pleasure to be helping you." Everyone introduced her or himself then filed into the former Thomas Base. All eight people, Ayame Suisei, Brandy Adams, Chang Wufei, Lucrezia Merquise-Noin, Mel Fennec, Sally Po, Trowa Barton, and Zechs Merquise settled into the large hangar area.
Ayame was the last one to sit down at a table that had been set up, laid the schematics of Verhelst's Base down and everyone quieted. "I want to put a disclaimer here--- this is NOT Preventer approved and if you are here under any other impression, you are free to leave." Everyone laughed relieving some of the tension and Ayame allowed herself a small smile. Zechs nodded and Ayame started to explain the plan that she had made. "From here, Chang Wufei and I, with Zechs and Lu as back up will head for Verhelst's base. But there is a tracking system that goes along the area surrounding the base, making a boundary of sorts. We will wait for our four computer specialists to jam the enemy's tracking systems and give us the advantage, at which point, we will infiltrate Verhelst's base what used the Kara Sea Base, plant our explosives inside.
"Zechs and Lu will place theirs explosives on the outside of the base, Wufei and I will retrieve Heero Yuy, we then back track and leave through the same vent we came in through, meet Lu and Zechs outside, and blow the place to Hades. The whole plan takes an hour, tops. Have you-"
Brandy, who was a dirty-blonde, doe-eyed girl about Ayame's height, cut in, "The explosives are ready."
Ayame smiled, 'Still the same Adams I've known all these years.' Ayame and Brandy had a long history; Ayame had actually been friends with April Adams, at one time. But April had started to grate on her nerves and Ayame found herself growing closer to Brandy and further from April until she stopped talking to April and started being friend with Brandy. But by then Brandy had been 15 and enrolled in Specials training and went off to Victoria. Then in some twist of fate, Ayame had ended up there herself a year later; Ayame figured somebody up in the Heavens must like them. Since then, they had been pretty close friends.
"All right then!" Ayame said clapping her hands together. "Let's get going, shall we?"
Trowa, Sally, and Mel walked off to a makeshift computer room that he had set up. Ayame, Wufei, Noin, and Zechs followed Brandy back to a workbench where she showed them her handy work. Noin felt proud of her former students; she also felt a little sad for everyone.
'This is the life we lead, Lucrezia,' she told herself.
______
Heero cried out as something hit his ribs, pulling him from a troubled sleep. The thing hit him again but Heero held his tongue this time and rolled over onto his hand and knees.
"What?!" he asked all but yelling between coughing fits.
Verhelst looked down on his prisoner and delivered another vicious kick to his mid-section, a look between a sneer and smirk crossing his face. "Get up and come with me," he said.
Slowly dragging himself off the floor, Heero ordered himself to remember his training. Standing up to his full height of 5'10" he glared at Verhelst and exhaled slowly, his eyes becoming cold, hard, and unforgiving. Under the stare of the Perfect Soldier Verhelst felt something foreign and unfamiliar in the pit of his stomach... he felt fear. Heero watched Verhelst with dead eyes; Heero knew Verhelst from somewhere but just where escaped his grasp.
"Your arms, please," Verhelst said. Heero did as he was told and held out his arm and watched as Verhelst clasped the cuffs on. "Out," Verhelst ordered and watched as Heero walked out then followed, the cell door closing firmly behind him.
______
"Ayame!" Mel called.
"Yeah?"
"Tracking will be down in half an hour."
Ayame looked at her watch. 'Good,' she thought, 'if we leave now, we'll enter their boundaries just a few minutes after the feed goes off.'
"All right. How long before they can get it back on-line?" Ayame asked, moving from the table where she had been talking with Brandy and slipping a pager onto her waistband.
Mel thought for a second then answered, "Twenty minutes... give or take."
'Give or take,' Ayame thought. 'Kami-Sama. Okay, from the boundary in is about ten minutes to the base on foot. It's just a chance we'll have to take...' Brandy handed her the pack that carried a fourth the hardware, Wufei, Noin, and Zechs carried the others one-fourths, there were twenty-eight devices in all.
Brandy hugged Ayame and said, "Be careful."
Ayame gave her a lopsided smile. "Always am."
"No you're not," Brandy argued. Ayame winked and walked to her snowmobile.
"Let's move out!" Ayame yelled. Zechs, Noin, and Wufei all mounted their snowmobiles and followed Ayame's lead through the thick forest surrounding Thomas Base.
There seem to be an absence of sound as the four moved across the Tundra, the motors of the snowmobiles' engines were mere hums, and, like the time, were instantly swept away by the wind. The naked branch were the only thing obscuring the sky filled with millions of stars and a half moon.
Ayame watched the area ahead of her, watched as what was a speck on the horizon grew into the military complex. Her pager went off, Fennec had shutdown the tracking system; Ayame gunned the snowmobile for the last minute then stopped at the edge of the clearing and dismounted, the others following suit.
"On foot from here," she said before taking off in a crouched sprint. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Zechs and Noin go off to one side of the building while Wufei followed her. The snow beneath her feet gave way easily as she quietly made her way to the north side of the building. Ayame scanned the north wall for her choice of entrance, and found the three-by-three ventilation grate... twenty feet off the ground.
"Kisama," Wufei swore.
"Agreed," Ayame scowled.
Wufei sidled the wall next to Ayame as she tried to figure out what to do.
______
Verhelst had lead Heero to a room filled with stuffed animal and dazzling art then told him sit.
"My trophy room," Verhelst said as if he were showing it to a friend for the first time.
"Hnnn," was Heero's reply.
Verhelst looked affronted. "You don't like it?" he asked.
Heero eyes scanned the room seeing the objects without truly seeing them before focusing on the glass case.
Verhelst smiled, not kindly, and said, "That will soon hold the greatest trophy of all."
Heero narrowed his eyes, trying to read the plague from where he sat.
"Go and read it," Verhelst said with a flick of his hand. Heero instead leaned back into his chair, the warmth of the fire drove the numbness from his body. "Don't want to?" Verhelst asked. "That's fine, I need to have it changed." Heero laid his head back, trying to drowned Verhelst's voice out but still aware of his every move, the soft footsteps edging towards the chair, a rustle of cloth, then a small pop.
Verhelst stopped behind Heero's chair; leaning close to Heero's ear he whispered, "I do hope you like this room, you and my sister will be spending eternity in it." A quick prick and Heero knew what that pop was, it was the cap coming off a syringe.
'His sister, oh Kami, the picture in the cabinet! AYAME!' Heero mind was going a mile a minute as the room grew dim and soon it seemed that the fire was extinguished.
______
"Rope?" Wufei asked as if offering her a cigarette. Ayame turned to him, looking incredulous, as he removed a rope with grappling hook from his pack.
"Wufei," she said, her voice full of happiness, "I would kiss you if I wasn't dating Heero."
Wufei smirked. "I'm afraid it'd probably get back to Maxwell and then I'd be sleeping on the couch for months."
Ayame smiled watching Wufei swing the hook up and smiled wider she heard the familiar clinks as it hit home and grabbed onto something.
"Let's go," Wufei said mounting the rope.
Ayame watched Wufei shimmy up the rope, then called up and asked, "Anyone ever tell you you've got a nice ass?"
Wufei stopped on the rope and looked down. "On'na..." he said but his smile took the sting out of his voice.
Ayame held up her hands. "Sorry, humor is just my way of dealing with reality," she explained. Scanning the grounds, she noticed absence of light; all the base's windows seemed to be covered or boarded up.
Wufei swung the grate open and said, "I'm in." Ayame quickly scaled the wall and followed Wufei into the enemy's HQ.
Neko-Kun: Hnnn.
Amora: I'm sorry, Neko-Ch--Kun.
T. K.: *scowls briefly* Amora said she was sorry! I said I was sorry!
Neko-Kun: There is still a new muse in this house.
T. K.: OH! By the way, we're moving.
Neko-Kun: No da.
T. K.: I was talking to them. *Motions towards audience* We're in Florida, but we are moving to Tennessee.
Neko-Kun: For those of you who don't know where that is, it's next to N. Carolina, below Kentucky and Virginia, and above Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. *Smug smile*
T. K.: *looks blandly at muse* Anyways, that is why it's taken so long to get this chapter out as well as why it's so short. I hope the next one is longer *glares at Neko-Kun*.
*A white ferret runs threw doorway*
T. K.: This is Tsuki.
Tsuki: *blinks*
Amora: *digging threw hammer space pouch* Ah, here we go. *Pulls wand from bag* I got this for you at Ollivander's Wand Shop. It's made specifically for muse use; you tap the muse and say, 'Niku'.
T. K.: *taps ferret* Niku.
*A cloud of smoke engulfs the room but quickly clears. Where the ferret was now stands a man about 5'10" with platinum blonde hair, stormy gray eyes, whiskers, and a bushy tail the same color as his hair. *
Tsuki: *with a British accent* Ah, hullo.
Amora: If you want him back in animal form say, 'Ferroto' and for Neko-Kun say, 'Tigai'.
T. K.: Well, arigato, Amora. Would one of you two please do the disclaimer? I'm sure our audience is sick of this muse soap opera.
Neko-Kun: *mutters* I know I am.
Tsuki: T. K. doesn't own Gundam Wing. Bandai does.
T. K.: If there are any Harry Potter fans out there, can you please tell me what color Ginny Weasley's eyes are. Review! Arigato!
______
Nothing was said, there just weren't any words important enough to break the silence, which filled the plane that carried Ayame, Trowa, and Wufei. Noin, Sally, and Zechs had taken the other plane. Wufei was meditating while Trowa and Ayame sat in the cockpit mulling over whatever crossed their minds. Finally, a loud beeping from the communicator drew their attention and broke the suffocating silence.
Pushing a button, Ayame said, "Go ahead."
"Ayame Suisei?" asked a mousy, brown hair and brown-eyed man.
"That's me."
The man on the other end nodded. "Name's Melvin Fennec calling from Thomas Base, there's a woman hear that says you called her. Name's Brandy Adams," he said reading from an ID card then holding it up for her to see.
"Yeah, she's with me."
"Okay then. What's your ETA?"
Ayame glanced at the controls in front of her and said, "Twenty minutes."
"See you then. Over and out."
"I see you called in your friend," Trowa said.
Ayame shook her head, "Yeah, I did. She's not only good at gathering information, but she good with explosives as well."
"I see. You should go change into your cold weather gear."
"Going," she said. "Oh, and Trowa, thanks for coming."
Ayame quietly made her way through the plane past Wufei who had been in the Lotus Position for two of the almost four hours they had been flying. 'He's going to be stiff,' Ayame thought as she closed the door to the small water closet to change.
Over the PA system Trowa cleared his throat loudly and said in his usual monotone voice, "We are about to land. Please finish all boring activities and return to your seats in the next fifteen minutes. That is all."
"INJUSTICE, BARTON!"
_____
It was almost -15 degrees when the two planes touched down at a little past midnight Tokyo time and a little past 10 o'clock in Noril'sk. Stepping out of the plane, Ayame noticed two people standing in the doorway of the former Thomas Base.
"Ayame!" Brandy Adams called out before barreling her over in a bear hug, Ayame would have never known it was her under that heavy fur parka. She laughed out loud at Brandy's appearance, although most of the others, with the exception of herself, Noin, and Zechs, were dressed the same, she looked like the common conception of an Eskimo.
"What?" Brandy asked. Ayame motion towards her snow gear. "Oh, you!" Brandy put her hands on what Ayame assumed to be her hips. "Sorry, we can't all be as fashionable as you are!" She was right; Ayame looked like she was modeling the latest winter gear in a lightweight dark gray long coat with fur lined cuffs and hood with a matching jumper underneath.
Ayame looked at herself and said yelling over the high winds of the Tundra, "What? This old thing... I've had it for years."
Ayame knew that Brandy scowled then smiled widely. "I remember; I had one too. But mine got ripped."
"Adams..." Ayame paused and shook her head in exasperation, "it's great to see you again!" Ayame said.
The second person had stepped out of the doorway and was standing behind Brandy. "Sir! Ma'am!" The person said saluting Zechs and Noin.
"Fennec, that's not necessary," Zechs said.
"Sorry," he said. "Hello, name's Melvin Fennec. But, please, call me Mel. I have the materials and snowmobiles you asked for... Oh, and Sir, it's a pleasure to be helping you." Everyone introduced her or himself then filed into the former Thomas Base. All eight people, Ayame Suisei, Brandy Adams, Chang Wufei, Lucrezia Merquise-Noin, Mel Fennec, Sally Po, Trowa Barton, and Zechs Merquise settled into the large hangar area.
Ayame was the last one to sit down at a table that had been set up, laid the schematics of Verhelst's Base down and everyone quieted. "I want to put a disclaimer here--- this is NOT Preventer approved and if you are here under any other impression, you are free to leave." Everyone laughed relieving some of the tension and Ayame allowed herself a small smile. Zechs nodded and Ayame started to explain the plan that she had made. "From here, Chang Wufei and I, with Zechs and Lu as back up will head for Verhelst's base. But there is a tracking system that goes along the area surrounding the base, making a boundary of sorts. We will wait for our four computer specialists to jam the enemy's tracking systems and give us the advantage, at which point, we will infiltrate Verhelst's base what used the Kara Sea Base, plant our explosives inside.
"Zechs and Lu will place theirs explosives on the outside of the base, Wufei and I will retrieve Heero Yuy, we then back track and leave through the same vent we came in through, meet Lu and Zechs outside, and blow the place to Hades. The whole plan takes an hour, tops. Have you-"
Brandy, who was a dirty-blonde, doe-eyed girl about Ayame's height, cut in, "The explosives are ready."
Ayame smiled, 'Still the same Adams I've known all these years.' Ayame and Brandy had a long history; Ayame had actually been friends with April Adams, at one time. But April had started to grate on her nerves and Ayame found herself growing closer to Brandy and further from April until she stopped talking to April and started being friend with Brandy. But by then Brandy had been 15 and enrolled in Specials training and went off to Victoria. Then in some twist of fate, Ayame had ended up there herself a year later; Ayame figured somebody up in the Heavens must like them. Since then, they had been pretty close friends.
"All right then!" Ayame said clapping her hands together. "Let's get going, shall we?"
Trowa, Sally, and Mel walked off to a makeshift computer room that he had set up. Ayame, Wufei, Noin, and Zechs followed Brandy back to a workbench where she showed them her handy work. Noin felt proud of her former students; she also felt a little sad for everyone.
'This is the life we lead, Lucrezia,' she told herself.
______
Heero cried out as something hit his ribs, pulling him from a troubled sleep. The thing hit him again but Heero held his tongue this time and rolled over onto his hand and knees.
"What?!" he asked all but yelling between coughing fits.
Verhelst looked down on his prisoner and delivered another vicious kick to his mid-section, a look between a sneer and smirk crossing his face. "Get up and come with me," he said.
Slowly dragging himself off the floor, Heero ordered himself to remember his training. Standing up to his full height of 5'10" he glared at Verhelst and exhaled slowly, his eyes becoming cold, hard, and unforgiving. Under the stare of the Perfect Soldier Verhelst felt something foreign and unfamiliar in the pit of his stomach... he felt fear. Heero watched Verhelst with dead eyes; Heero knew Verhelst from somewhere but just where escaped his grasp.
"Your arms, please," Verhelst said. Heero did as he was told and held out his arm and watched as Verhelst clasped the cuffs on. "Out," Verhelst ordered and watched as Heero walked out then followed, the cell door closing firmly behind him.
______
"Ayame!" Mel called.
"Yeah?"
"Tracking will be down in half an hour."
Ayame looked at her watch. 'Good,' she thought, 'if we leave now, we'll enter their boundaries just a few minutes after the feed goes off.'
"All right. How long before they can get it back on-line?" Ayame asked, moving from the table where she had been talking with Brandy and slipping a pager onto her waistband.
Mel thought for a second then answered, "Twenty minutes... give or take."
'Give or take,' Ayame thought. 'Kami-Sama. Okay, from the boundary in is about ten minutes to the base on foot. It's just a chance we'll have to take...' Brandy handed her the pack that carried a fourth the hardware, Wufei, Noin, and Zechs carried the others one-fourths, there were twenty-eight devices in all.
Brandy hugged Ayame and said, "Be careful."
Ayame gave her a lopsided smile. "Always am."
"No you're not," Brandy argued. Ayame winked and walked to her snowmobile.
"Let's move out!" Ayame yelled. Zechs, Noin, and Wufei all mounted their snowmobiles and followed Ayame's lead through the thick forest surrounding Thomas Base.
There seem to be an absence of sound as the four moved across the Tundra, the motors of the snowmobiles' engines were mere hums, and, like the time, were instantly swept away by the wind. The naked branch were the only thing obscuring the sky filled with millions of stars and a half moon.
Ayame watched the area ahead of her, watched as what was a speck on the horizon grew into the military complex. Her pager went off, Fennec had shutdown the tracking system; Ayame gunned the snowmobile for the last minute then stopped at the edge of the clearing and dismounted, the others following suit.
"On foot from here," she said before taking off in a crouched sprint. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Zechs and Noin go off to one side of the building while Wufei followed her. The snow beneath her feet gave way easily as she quietly made her way to the north side of the building. Ayame scanned the north wall for her choice of entrance, and found the three-by-three ventilation grate... twenty feet off the ground.
"Kisama," Wufei swore.
"Agreed," Ayame scowled.
Wufei sidled the wall next to Ayame as she tried to figure out what to do.
______
Verhelst had lead Heero to a room filled with stuffed animal and dazzling art then told him sit.
"My trophy room," Verhelst said as if he were showing it to a friend for the first time.
"Hnnn," was Heero's reply.
Verhelst looked affronted. "You don't like it?" he asked.
Heero eyes scanned the room seeing the objects without truly seeing them before focusing on the glass case.
Verhelst smiled, not kindly, and said, "That will soon hold the greatest trophy of all."
Heero narrowed his eyes, trying to read the plague from where he sat.
"Go and read it," Verhelst said with a flick of his hand. Heero instead leaned back into his chair, the warmth of the fire drove the numbness from his body. "Don't want to?" Verhelst asked. "That's fine, I need to have it changed." Heero laid his head back, trying to drowned Verhelst's voice out but still aware of his every move, the soft footsteps edging towards the chair, a rustle of cloth, then a small pop.
Verhelst stopped behind Heero's chair; leaning close to Heero's ear he whispered, "I do hope you like this room, you and my sister will be spending eternity in it." A quick prick and Heero knew what that pop was, it was the cap coming off a syringe.
'His sister, oh Kami, the picture in the cabinet! AYAME!' Heero mind was going a mile a minute as the room grew dim and soon it seemed that the fire was extinguished.
______
"Rope?" Wufei asked as if offering her a cigarette. Ayame turned to him, looking incredulous, as he removed a rope with grappling hook from his pack.
"Wufei," she said, her voice full of happiness, "I would kiss you if I wasn't dating Heero."
Wufei smirked. "I'm afraid it'd probably get back to Maxwell and then I'd be sleeping on the couch for months."
Ayame smiled watching Wufei swing the hook up and smiled wider she heard the familiar clinks as it hit home and grabbed onto something.
"Let's go," Wufei said mounting the rope.
Ayame watched Wufei shimmy up the rope, then called up and asked, "Anyone ever tell you you've got a nice ass?"
Wufei stopped on the rope and looked down. "On'na..." he said but his smile took the sting out of his voice.
Ayame held up her hands. "Sorry, humor is just my way of dealing with reality," she explained. Scanning the grounds, she noticed absence of light; all the base's windows seemed to be covered or boarded up.
Wufei swung the grate open and said, "I'm in." Ayame quickly scaled the wall and followed Wufei into the enemy's HQ.
