SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Title: Trying Normal
Author: GreenLady
Warnings: Violence, mild swearing. Will eventually be yaoi and live up to its rating.
Disclaimer: Don't own them, receiving no monetary compensation. This is only for fun.
Notes: Serious thanks go out to Kasra for helping me overcome my stupidity, hopefully this will be much more readable now. I realize the whole "football players rule the school as insufferable jerks" idea is a cliche, and one probably unfair to football players, but trust me when I say there's going to be way more to the story than just that.
Chapter 2
Quatre was quiet for a minute after Wufei dropped his informational bomb, he could see where this was going, and he didn't like it. "Zechs?" He asked hopefully.
"Heero."
The blond winced. "But how could that be possible? Heero said he never had to kill again, that he didn't want to, it just doesn't make any sense!"
"Our Intel isn't wrong."
"Well then he must have a good reason! This is Heero we're talking about, Wufei."
"Maybe, but if he does have a reason, we haven't figured it out. He didn't infiltrate Quatre, he's leading them."
They stared at each other for a couple of uncomfortable minutes. Then Quatre said quietly, "there has to be a reason. Tell me about this group, what their goals are, what kind of people join."
"We've got quite a bit of information on them. But I won't relay all of it over an unsecured line. Come into headquarters tomorrow, Duo and Trowa will be there too, we'll go over everything then."
"I just started school, Wufei. It's going to be difficult to get away."
"Come in during the afternoon when your classes are finished. Its Friday tomorrow so you'll have the weekend won't you? You can come up with some kind of excuse for however long we need you to be away for the rest of the time. This is important."
"I realize that, I'll be there, don't worry."
Wufei nodded, "Goodbye until tomorrow then." He cut the connection without any more ceremony.
Quatre stared at the blank screen without really seeing it. Heero, what's going on?
Quatre spent the next school day with only half of his attention on class. The other half was on his impending meeting at the Preventers. Last period gym was the only thing interesting enough to break through his inattention.
When the ex-pilot walked into the gymnasium he was happy to realize that he knew some of his classmates already. He waved and called hello to the almost embarrassingly friendly redhead from his history class. (Quatre wasn't quite dense enough to miss the fact that she had a crush on him, though sometimes he wished he were). He also smiled at his lab partner from biology. But he did not stop to chat with either because he recognized somebody else.
Eric stood alone a little to the side of the main group, arms crossed protectively around himself.
Quatre looked him over critically. He had some spectacular bruises, but otherwise didn't look to bad. "Hi Eric, how are you feeling?"
The bespeckled boy looked startled that the blond was talking to him again. "Uh, I'm not feeling to bad, thanks."
Quatre managed to strike up a conversation with him by asking about gym class; what their teacher was like, what kind of sports they had already covered, basically all the mundane, class-related topics he could think of. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's small talk. All those business functions of fathers' actually came in handy for something. He actually had Eric acting more comfortable with him, but then he glanced behind the blond and suddenly froze, his face going pale.
Quatre glanced back, following his gaze. It was two of the football players from yesterday. This time they had two other friends with them, obviously more teammates by the muscle bound look to them. Is the entire team on steroids? Quatre thought with a mental sigh. One of them from yesterday pointed at the small blond and whispered something to his buddy. Luckily the teacher came in at that moment, keeping the bullies from doing anything. She was a tall woman built like an amazon, but she had a kind smile that the students couldn't help but respond to. Today was part of the fitness testing unit, and they were going to work on the rope climb. The teacher explained that she didn't expect everyone to be able to ascend all the way to the top, and that students would be graded on how hard they tried, not how well they did. That's a nice and realistic attitude, Quatre thought. Most people don't have the upper body strength or the training to climb straight up like this.
Unfortunately, not everyone had as enlightened an attitude as the teacher. The football players kept up a derogatory running commentary on those who couldn't do it. They practically reduced the redhead from Quatre's history class to tears. And though the teacher looked like an amazon, she didn't act like one, and the players pretty much ignored her reprimands. Eric took his turn and the taunts with an air of the resigned around him. He didn't even get two feet up the rope, to the delight of his audience.
Then it was Quatre's turn, being the new kid he went at the end, because he was last on the list. The bullies snickered and nudged each other as they watched the fragile-looking blond walk to the rope. But for once they weren't going to have any fodder for criticism. Quatre grabbed the rope and waited for the stop watch to start. When he got the go ahead he shinnied up the rope with the all the dexterity that came from being a gundam pilot. He was used to climbing into a giant mecha, one little rope wasn't going to cause him any problems. For once the audience was quiet, and so it was easy to hear the instructor's quiet voice give him a time that was faster than anyone else, and topped the record the bullies had set by a ridiculously wide margin.
Quatre returned to his seat on the uncomfortable concrete floor beside Eric, ignoring the angry murmurs that came from the jocks whose record he had just squashed. The redhead with the crush turned and smiled adoringly at him from the front of the group, earlier tears apparently forgotten.
Eric leaned over to whisper in his ear, sounding completely stunned. "How the hell did you do that?"
"I told you already, I'm tougher than I look," he whispered right back, lips barely moving. The bell rang, interrupting anything the other boy might have said in reply. Quatre jumped to his feet and hurried out the door, ignoring the bullies who were sending him threatening looks. I'm sure we'll have a confrontation of some sort soon, but right now I just don't have the time. I need to find out what's going on with Heero Yuy.
Several hours later Quatre arrived at Earth's main Preventer head quarters. The building itself was a huge glass plated skyscraper, with the Preventer offices located on the twenty-fifth floor. The Arabian stopped at the reception desk to find out where he was supposed to meet the others.
"Excuse me," Quatre said politely to the thin guy manning the entrance, "can you please tell me where I can find Preventer Chang Wufei?"
The receptionist looked down his thin nose at the small blond. "Do you have an appointment?" He asked frostily.
Quatre blinked, "um, not a specific time, no. He just said to come in during the afternoon . . . maybe he penciled me in somewhere. My name is Quatre Raberba Winner."
The man typed for a second, stabbing the keys viciously. "Nope, your name isn't anywhere on here."
"Then could you please page Wufei and tell him I'm here?"
The man smiled with a look of superiority infusing his features. "I wouldn't presume to bother a peace keeping officer. Come back when you have an appointment," he said, voice clipped.
Quatre stared at him open-mouthed for a second. "Now listen here. . ."
"Quatre!"
The ex-pilot turned in mid sentence, and smiled in relief when he saw whom it was. "Sally! Hello!"
Sally grinned at him, "I was just wondering when you were going to show up. Come on, Wufei and Lady Une are both waiting to fill you in."
She hurried him past the annoyed secretary, who had turned rather pale once he had heard the name of Lady Une.
"Sorry about that, Quatre, the man is an inflated wind bag, but the higher ups like to keep him around, they seem to think he adds a bit of class to this operation.
"It's okay Sally, I'm just glad you came along or I may have had to do something that I'd regret."
"He does seem to have that effect on people, though I'm surprised he managed to get on your last nerve. On more than one occasion I've had to keep Wufei from sticking him with that oversized knife he carries, but he's not exactly known for his serene temper, so that's no surprise."
They arrived at a huge, imposing door. On the door there was a gold plaque graced with elegant black letters spelling out the name of Lady Une. They sure are going to an awful lot of trouble to make the Preventers look legit, Quatre thought. This is all very upscale, it's unusual to spend so much on law enforcement. I wonder who went to all this trouble and why?
Sally pushed the door open without knocking and beckoned him inside. The room was so large that it was intimidating, as it was meant to be, a mahogany desk dominated the space. Trowa and Wufei sat in chairs facing the desk, behind it sat their boss, Lady Une.
Everyone turned and looked at Quatre and Sally as they came in. "Hello Quatre, I'm glad that you could join us," Lady Une said. Trowa smiled at Quatre in greeting while Wufei merely nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Have a seat Quatre, Sally." Lady Une pointed to the chairs between the two ex-pilots. "We're still waiting on Duo Maxwell, so you might as well sit down."
Wufei snorted in disgust, "Maxwell would be late to his own funeral, this isn't exactly a shock."
"Why Wufei, buddy, I'm absolutely wounded that you think so little of me!" They all looked up in time to see the American stroll in with a big grin. "Hey Q-man, long time no see!"
"Hi Duo, it's good to see you too."
Duo pulled out a chair, turned it around, and sat so that he was straddling the back. "So are we going to get this party started or what?"
"Yes Mr. Maxwell, we are," Une replied calmly. "Wufei, it's your case, you have the floor."
Wufei nodded. "We've," he nodded at Sally, "been keeping an eye on the fairly insignificant organization known as Red Thorn for several months now. A week ago we found out that there had been a leadership change, since then they've become much more highly organized, and therefore much more of a threat."
"That sounds like Yuy alright," Duo said, "that guy's middle name is anal, he is so fucking organized."
Wufei frowned at the interruption. "Red Thorn is built on the premise that corporations are destroying traditional life. They claim that these corporations hold to much power, and misuse it. Before the leadership change they took credit for the sabotage of machinery and things of that nature. Nothing was damaged that would cause more than a minor setback in the running of these companies, and we actually caught some of the members responsible. The name Red Thorn comes from the claim that they are, in the words of their members 'a thorn in the side of corporations.' Until recently, they never seemed to have high enough ambitions to be more than the small nuisance that they claimed to be."
"Leave a thorn in long enough and it can cause an infection," Trowa said solemnly.
Duo looked like he wanted to say something to that but Wufei continued before he could. "Unfortunately with Heero leading them that becomes true. Yesterday there was a big explosion in the heart of a building where computers are manufactured. It took out all the important machinery to the assembly process. It was a very methodical attack."
Wufei hesitated, then looked at Quatre. "The building was part of Winner Enterprises."