Gundam Wing: La Femmes

A Fanfic by Lady Lye

(c)2001

Battle Chapter: Who Can Win The Stars (Part Three)
aka Chp 40

Rated for strong language on behalf of the characters. Remember- it's not the author w/ the potty mouth-it's her potty-mouthed characters.

Disclaimer: I do not own the whole GW thing... If I did I sure as h*ll wouldn't be here wasting my time writing fanfics about them- I'd be using them as my you-know-what slaves per my latest obsession. So don't try to sue me- it ain't worth it.

Note: rough translation for my rough use of Spanish can be found at the bottom of the chapter. This will include all previous phrases.

GAK! *falls backwards* This is embarassingly short if you ask me... T_x Gomen... I will absolutely post Chp One of BC: The Perfect Heart tomorrow in light of recent discoveries... man, I suck...
WARNING: Frustrated Quattie ahead >.>

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Gundame: (pronunciation varies between gun-dum-eh and gun-dam-ay, but never gun-dame.) The mobile suits used by the five new girls. They are made of gundanium alloy but are coated with a newly developed substance making their shell even tougher than the gundams. Their pilots are known as the Dames.

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Another meeting. Another awful, horrible, BORING meeting. Quatre managed to restrain himself some, though not all of his glare was directed at the innocent presenter, who was beginning to sweat and stumble in his speech. His superior, if his junior, continued to glare, tapping his pen on the table, unable to hide all his anger, and making everyone in the room, the floor, yes, the entire building nervous. But right now, the guy with the Slide Show Presentation was in the spotlight.

He fumbled and tripped his way through, sweating horribly and growing more and more nervous and uncomfortable under that unrelenting, unreadable glare. He finished weakly, waiting in silence with the rest of the audience for Mr. Winner's reaction.

The pen tapping continued, Quatre's expression never changing as they waited breathlessly. It slowed to a stop, the Winner heir continuing to stare straight ahead. In one smooth movement, he had stood and was gathering up his papers.

"Thank you, that's enough for today. My secretary will get back to you," just as quickly, he had left the room.

Quatre's closest assistants glanced at one another worriedly and followed quickly. "Mr. Winner? Mr. Winner, are you sure-?"

"Yes. That's all for today. Cancel the rest of my appointments for today."

"Mr. Winner!"

"That will be all, Ms Riley!"

They both watched their young boss go. He had seemed so young and cheery before… what was eating him!?

(AN: I TOLD you he was frustrated!!!!! And if anyone makes any baka hentai comments on what KIND of frustrated, I'll smack 'em.)

Estelle glanced up from the detailed map of the city's sewer system as the front door slammed, rocking the house. Alarmed, she blinked and stared to the doorway, listening to the sound of pounding feet before Quatre came into the study, dropping his briefcase haphazardly on a chair and going to pace by his desk, a scowl on his face. She watched warily, as he turned towards his desk, riffled through it, slammed the drawer shut without taking anything out, began to pace again- and then collapses in his desk chair with a weary sigh.

"Rough day at the office?" she asked after a moment.

"That's an understatement," he groaned and leaned back in the chair, turning it around to look out the large windows.

"Well, I think I know just what you need," she said, folding the map and putting it and her other files away.

"And what's that?" he asked tiredly.

"To come on my mission with me tonight. You've been really restless lately and the exercise will do you good. Promise you'll come?" she pinned him with her intense green eyes.

He swallowed hard. "How can I refuse?"

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"How CAN I refuse?" Quatre begged, already dressed for their mission.

"You can't. That's the beauty of it," Estelle replied lightly, checking her equipment. "The mission is this: Large, and I mean HUGE shipments of certain alloys have been delivered to a warehouse in this area. We go in underground, infiltrate, have a look around and regroup. Understood?"

"If I knew this was purely to find out information, I could have stayed behind," Quatre muttered irritably, completely out of character.

Estelle spared him a bemused glance, noting the change. "What alloys could possibly be important enough for us to investigate?"

He frowned and paused to think- then flushed as he realized his stupidity. Of course. How obvious. Gundanium.

Estelle watched it register on his face and nodded. "Titanium, too. Now let's cart our arses out before somebody decides they want to know where we are."

Quatre didn't protest and they slipped out into the night. The industrial sector of the city was quiet, a few late workers, but other than that, very few people to call the alarm if they were spotted. They slipped among buildings easily, silent in the dark.

Estelle had chosen what seemed to Quatre the world's tightest, sleekest black jeans and turtleneck he had ever seen. Her hair was back in a ponytail and it fell in honeyed waves loosely to her shoulders, a few tendrils framing her face in the light filtering from other sources. Quatre swallowed hard and picked up his pace, following her lead. He couldn't afford thoughts like that. (AN: *evil cackle* I adore this job… OOC? HAH. Welcome to my world.)

He stopped himself from running into her as she raised a hand and peered carefully around a building, then waved them on. Before he could quite realize what was happening, she had darted ahead and was instantly lost in the darkness. He searched wildly with his eyes for that flash of honey, but found none- and nearly had a heart attack as a hand grabbed his and yanked him inside a warehouse building.

Unrelenting green eyes held him in place as she held up a finger for quiet and then she released him, away again and almost gone in the dark once more, like a wraith. Barely there. He hurried to follow and they stopped before a seemingly ordinary door. Estelle examined it thoughtfully and then reached into one of the pouches at her belt. She pulled out a skeleton key and knelt to get to work, while Quatre kept watch, both of them growing edgier as it became clear that the lock wasn't going to give easily.

Suddenly the tumblers fell into their place by chance, and triumphantly Estelle stood and eased the door open. It was an ordinary room; more storage space. Nothing out of the ordinary, not too neat, not too messy.

"This has got to be it," Estelle muttered and moved forward to run her hands along the seams of the metal sheets that lined the walls. Something caught Quatre's eye and he moved forward to examine it. If he didn't know better, he'd say that that looked like a very old lock system panel- his eyes widened and he motioned her over. Her eyes lit and she quickly fished out the combination to open the lock, keying it in.

A panel on the far wall slid away, barely creaking at all, indicating that it was used frequently enough to be oiled. They glanced at one another and then followed the revealed steps down at least five stories underground. Just as it seemed they might have made a mistake in coming down here, the stairwell opened onto a much larger room, dimly lit by hundreds of lights hanging from it's ceiling suspended by their cords. It seemed to be a cave, carved into the earth and supported by man made supports and engineering.

But it wasn't the room so much that baffled… it was its contents. The two intruders hung back, their jaws both lax. Both uncomprehending.

Massive. Powerful. Thought never to be seen again.

Very much still alive.

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End Battle Chapter: Who Can Win The Stars?

*cue music* Next time, on La Femmes:
The highly anticipated detailing of Heero and Andria in Darkest Africa! (
Love it? Hate it? Lemme know!

-Lady