Broken Reflections by
Angel Barton
• Chapter Three: Liberation •
"Howard.
Hey, Howard!" yelled Duo. "I
could use some help over here!" At his
call, a middle-aged man with gray hair, sunglasses, and a rather loud Hawaiian
shirt suck his head out of a door farther down the steel corridor.
"Hey Duo.
Whatdaya got there?" questioned the engineer.
"Some guy I got in a bit of a tussle with. Don't ask, it's a long story. The short of it is this guy's got a shot
wound on his head that needs to be looked at, along with an arm injury," said Duo, looking expectantly at Howard.
"Hey, you know just as much as I do, probably
more. But bring him in here. I'll see what I can do," said Howard,
motioning to the door across the hall from the room he had appeared from.
Once inside, Duo was more than happy to deposit his
load on a vacant cot. He stepped back
as the older man began checking the boy's wounds. Leaning against the wall, Duo rubbed his shoulder absently as he
wondered about the whereabouts of the other stranger. Alliance personnel must
have picked him up by now. They've
probably got him held in Alliance's medical building. I might just have to pay him a visit.
"Duo, you said this was a shot wound?" Howard questioned. The braided boy pushed himself off the wall to look at the small,
bloody furrow on the left side of the boy's head. "Yeah. What's wrong?"
"Nothing, it's a minor wound. But…" the older man paused, looking
thoughtful. "Where were you standing?"
"Me?" asked Duo.
"I didn't shoot him. Well, if
you don't count the hole in his arm," he said, grinning slightly.
"Okay, then where was the shooter standing?"
Duo wracked his brain. "Above and slightly behind and to the right of me, about 75 or
100 feet from this guy, who was moving at the time."
Howard let out a long, low whistle. "It would have taken a hell of a marksman to
hit this guy just enough to knock him out without causing any major
damage. Unless he meant to kill him and
missed. Still, even from such a close
range…" Howard shook his head in
disbelief. "Well, I'll go get some
bandages and antiseptic. Stay here in
case he wakes up."
Duo watched as Howard walked out the door. He's
just exaggerating, he thought. But
as he replayed the events over in his head, he realized just how hard it must
have been to make that shot, especially with a moving target. Unless
Howard's right about him missing. He
shook his head as he remembered the boy's gun being shot out of his hand. I
don't think we're dealing with a guy who misses, though. Crossing his arms over his chest, he
stared at the wall in front of him. Just who is that guy? he thought.
• • •
"Yeah, that'll do.
Also, both of the pull carts are broken, so I'd like you to have my
lunch ready in the back of the wheat field.
Thanks, I'll help you thresh the wheat later."
Hanging
up the phone, Duo turned to look up at the towering building before him. "Now,
I should go visit that patient."
In
a bright, sterile white room on the 50th floor of the Alliance
Military's Number Three Medical Building, the very person Duo spoke of lay
strapped to a medical examination table, unconscious, or so it seemed to Sally
Po and her assistant monitoring their patient.
Looking over the data on the screen in front of her, Sally sighed. "Over 200 bruises and broken bones shot
wound to the left arm, and a possible concussion. The kid's lucky."
"Yeah," her companion replied absently. He stiffened as he caught a glimpse of
motion in the room below the observation window. "Huh?"
"What is it?" Sally asked, following his gaze to the
still figure on the table.
"Nothing. I
thought I saw something move. Guess it
was just my imagination." He turned back to the monitors. There was no telltale blip in the vitals
that would signal the patient's return to consciousness. Sally turned in response to the hailing beep
of the video monitor.
So intent was she in her conversation and her
assistant in his medical report, neither noticed as their patient's eyes opened
alertly and bound arms strained against their restraints.
As
the captive figure struggled to get free, a video monitor turned on near the
head of the table. The stranger watched
as Duo's face appeared on the screen with a finger to his lips. The figure complied to the command as the
braided boy's lips began to move silently.
Duo stood with his hands splayed on either side of
the monitor in the control room next door.
The technician who had previously occupied the room lay sprawled in an
undignified heap against the wall. Duo
looked at the stranger on the screen before him.
Wow, he thought. He
looks pretty beat up. Still clad in
the jumpsuit, the person's head was swathed in white bandages, allowing Duo to
see only the guys right eye, nose, and mouth.
Any hair that he had lay underneath the wrappings. His left arm was also bandaged just above
the elbow. Hmm, must be where I hit him.
"I'm sure a talented guy like you would be able to
read my lips," said Duo, smirking.
"Well can you?" The shrouded
face turned away from him. "You're
acting is just amazing," said Duo with genuine awe in his voice. "You've managed to regain consciousness
without increasing your pulse or your brain waves." Now, more than ever, he wanted to know just who was under those
bandages. "I've got a few questions I'd like to ask you. If you're feeling up to it, I thought I'd
help you break outta here."
A moment later, an explosion rocked the
building. Duo stepped through the
resulting opening. Gotta love those instant doors, he thought cheerfully. Moving quickly, he reached the edge of the
examination table. Looking the ties
restraining the person, Duo muttered, "Man, how do you get these things
off." Whipping out his knife, Duo
easily sliced through the bonds. He
shoved the extra pack he was carrying at the person, who nodded and slipped
into the parachute. Together they ran
through the gaping hole in the plaster wall, past the motionless technician,
and out into the adjoining hallway.
Duo smiled crazily as he spotted just the thing they
needed. Ahead of them was an expansive,
open room whose entire outer wall was composed of large picture windows. Reaching into the pack on his back, he
pulled out a small explosive and hurled it at a window, throwing himself to the
ground in the process. His companion
followed suit.
The window exploded in a shower of glass and
concrete. The two jumped to their feet,
the ringing of the blast still in their ears.
They ran headlong for the open portal and leaped out into
nothingness. Duo flipped himself over
in midair and activated the helicopter-like blade of green energy built into
the end of the metal shaft he had attached to his forearm. He held his breath as the plummeting figure
below him tugged on the cute release cord.
Nothing happened.
"Damn!" he
said. Shouting as loud as he could, he
yelled, "Pull the reserve!" To himself
he muttered, "Oh man, I'm gonna have nightmares about this one!" He could only watch in horror as his
companion struggled to reach the release handle. As the smaller chute finally deployed, his heart sank. It's
too late, he thought grimly.
His fears were confirmed as the figure slammed into
the side of the steep cliff below.
Luckily the guy had enough sense to release the straps on his chute in
time to avoid becoming entangled in the fabric and ropes. After long tumble down the rocky grade, the
stranger finally rolled to a stop on the sandy beach at the base of the
cliff.
Duo landed lightly switched off his propeller, and
walked over to the guy. He watched in
amazement as the guy stood slowly, apparently uninjured despite his rough
spill. However, as he got nearer, it
became clear to Duo that his rescuee was favoring his right leg. Stepping close, he reached for the
stranger's arm and draped it over his shoulder. The injured person turned his head away, showing his reluctance
to accepting his rescuer's help.
"Look, I'm not asking you to trust me or anything," said Duo, "but right now, I'm the
only friend you've got." His companion
remained silent as the pair began walking towards the road.
• • •
Duo looked on as he, with the help of a rather large
crane, pulled the red, blue, and white Gundam.
The suit's pilot, the brooding, dark-haired boy he had brought back
earlier stood alongside him, watching the salvaging operation intently. Duo had already retrieved his own Gundam
from the ocean floor where the two suits had come to rest after that crazy guy
had sunk them.
"I still don't know what you think you were doing,
launching those torpedoes at Mobile Suits that didn't even belong to you," said
Duo, turning to look over his shoulder at the stranger he had rescued. "Huh?
What's he doing?" he wondered out loud.
At this, the other boy turned to look.
The stranger
was lying on his back, bandages and all, hands gripping his right leg
above the knee. Grunting in pain, the
guy rolled back and forth until Duo heard a sickening crack. Guess
I don't have to worry about his broken leg anymore. "Geeze, you could have at least waited till
we got you some anesthesia or something," he quipped. "That just totally grossed me out." He and the other boy watched as the stranger bandaged a wrench to
his leg for a brace. Then, for the
first time, Duo noticed an rather large bulge underneath the bandages on the
back of the guy's head. Huh, must be an ice pack or something.
The boy began to slowly unwrap the bandages covering
his head. Looking on, Duo was anxious
to finally see the face of this mysterious guy.
The boy tilted his head down slightly as he removed
the dressings from his face. Duo gasped
in surprise as the bandages slipped off the boy's head, releasing a cascade of
brown hair. As the guy looked up at Duo
and his companion, an expression of shock flooded the boys' features, more so
Duo's than his stoic friend.
Sky blue eyes, set in a soft face with an elegant
nose and full lips framed by gracefully curving bangs, looked steadily at Duo
and Heero.
"Not quite what you were expecting, huh?" she said.
