Mel: *grins* Hiyas!
Tsuru: Finally….
Mel: *glares at Tsuru* Yeah… you finally got off your lazy ass and helped me type.
Tsuru: What about the new kid?
Mel: Who? Daichi? He's busy trying to put together the next chapter for Kioku Soshitsu. He's now officially in charge of that one.
Tsuru: Joy….
Mel: *sighs* Fine… let's just cut to the chase….
Legal Crap: Don't own it. Got it? Good.Lawyers: ….
Mel: Grr…. WHY CAN'T I GET RID OF YOU!!!!!
Lawyers: Eep! *run away*
Mel: ^___^ Well, that was easy enough….
Tsuru: *sighs*
Warnings: Remember what was said in chapter one? *holds up the oversized rant on no yaoi or shounen ai* This is what I think of it… *rips it up into little pieces* I'm sick of finding loopholes. From now on, anything goes. I don't think there's any direct shounen ai in this chapter, but I'm sure as hell gonna imply it! I can tell you this, it will be 3x4 because I already cut off my chances for anyone with Wufei or Heero…… Oh well….Mel: On with the fic!!!!!! *beams*
Duo is sick, chapter 7
Duo cried out in pain as he was thrown against the control panel, his head crashing into the monitor, shattering the glass and exposing bare wires.
"Heh, you call that a hit?" Duo taunted as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Even with no one else around, he had to keep up this facade. Every muscle in his body was on fire, and the itching in his head had returned. He could get it to go away if he tried, but then he would get a horrible headache. It was best to put up with the annoyance.
Another MS seemingly appeared out of nowhere and began to relentlessly attack DeathscytheHell. Duo managed to focus enough to slice the thing in two before he could do any more damage to his Gundam.
"Who's next? Just try to hit me!" Almost as soon as the words escaped his lips, the MS stopped attacking, and backed off. "What's wrong? Afraid of Shinigami?" Another stupid mistake, he had let his guard down again.
Electricity visibly traced its way across the shell of DeathscytheHell, like fingers trying to pry the demonic angel apart. The deadly digits spread from a long shaft, now pressed through the gundam's midsection, just missing the cockpit and self-detonation explosive. Duo did nothing but stare as his attacker slowly extracted the long metal rod.
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Midii watched on with little interest as Himitsu backed away from the 02 gundam. She was hoping for a challenge to test her skills, but it was obvious that this pilot was in no shape for battle. After being released, DeathscytheHell made no move to attack.
"Weakling." The thought wasn't directed at anyone in particular. Midii wasn't even sure if she was talking about the idiot pilot. She was just fed up with this useless battling. They had been sent to ambush people who didn't come. Everything was so annoying.
"Snap out of it, Une. We have visitors." Midii smiled at Nakushita's gruff order, before turning to face the newly arrived Sandrock and Altron.
"Finally…" Midii looked over the two gundams quickly, sizing up the situation. "We're missing one."
"Meisho can be on guard for it. Watch this one while you're at it." Himitsu gently pushed away from the seemingly dead gundam. "I'll take care of the 04. Une, you take 03." With the official orders out, the battle had begun.
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Without warning, the new gundams began to attack. They seemed to have picked targets already, which left Quatre and Trowa at a disadvantage. "Trowa! What do we do about Duo?" After a period of static, and a few sloppily avoided attacks, Trowa answered.
"Leave him alone for the time being. The blow didn't puncture the cockpit, and these people don't seem to be doing anything to hi––" He stopped in mid sentence as his attacker fired with a hidden blaster.
"Trowa! Are you alright?" Quatre scrambled to help, but was too busy with his own problem. The gundam before him thrust his stick at him, but Quatre parried the blow, knocking himself further away from his friends.
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Trowa twisted to the side, not yet used to Altron's controls. The gundam in front of him was the same one that had destroyed Heavyarms, and was promising to be a tough opponent.
The dragon fang launched out to grab at the gundam, but it moved before it could latch on. Trowa gasped in surprise as a beam narrowly missed him and hit his opponent square in the chest.
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"Trowa. Where's Duo?" Heero tried to hide his fear as he asked the question. Trowa popped up on his vid-screen and sighed.
"He was hit pretty badly. We haven't heard from him since we got here." Heero scanned the area for anything that looked remotely like Duo's gundam. He found it and began to fly towards it.
Zero screamed in his head that something was behind them. Heero instinctively shot at the supposed danger, saving his life. An MS had taken advantage of Heero's distracted state and tried to strike. The blade on his left arm had been broken by the blast, giving Heero the upper hand. Heero watched for a moment, trying to get an idea of what his opponent's strategy was so he could beat him. He couldn't figure it out….
The offending Gundam started by attacking violently with his good blade. Strike after strike was dodged and returned, but every offence Heero made was blocked.
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'What is he doing? Is he trying to miss?' Quatre tried desperately to figure out his assailant's plan before he was put in a position where he couldn't win.
"Quatre? Where are you?"
"I've lost sight of you… I don't know which way to go, I've spun around so much…"
'That's it!' Quatre's mind finally began to grasp the situation with total comprehension. 'He's trying to separate us so we can't work together.' Quatre could now see why each blow was directed oddly. Each one was meant simply to move him to another position. If he continued this, his enemy would surely use the opening to attack. The next blow was set so he could easily dodge it, but then he would leave himself wide open for another attack. Instead, he decided to take the hit and use the opportunity to strike.
His blade cut through the metal on the side of the gundam as his other arm was run through, making it unusable. But his sacrifice was worth it, for the wiring that controlled the entire right side of his foe was severed. He had won.
"I don't want to hurt you. Please tell me, who are you?" Quatre opened a connection with the gundam he had just disabled. He didn't get a video picture back, but there was sound.
"We're just soldiers doing our job. You should get your friends out of here before we kill you as ordered."
"But—" Before Quatre could finish his sentence, the gundam in front of him struck with his pole, now transferred to his good hand.
'How on earth did he do that? His actions are too smooth… to human-like…. Unless…." Quatre gasped as he realized what should have cost him his life. The pilot had been hooked up to the prototype system he had helped design. It was supposed to allow the pilot to control the MS using their mind. He thought that the project had been terminated after he left and refused to fund it.
"Don't make me hurt you. Please…" Quatre continued to dodge the attacks. He was afraid that if he damaged the MS any further, the pilot would feel pain as if it were his own body being attacked. Unless the plans had been modified, Quatre had cut the connections that should have kept that from happening when he disabled the right side.
His foe continued to attack, and Quatre continued to dodge, hoping that he wouldn't have to fight back. He had been the first test for the first version, and that system could be worse then death…
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"Himitsu!" Nakushita growled as he watched his lover's status plummet on the moniter to the side. If he didn't get out of battle soon, his body would shut down. It could take him as long as 3 months to recover from that….. if he recovered….
He quickly focused his anger on his opponent, using his rage to increase his speed and strength. After being in a cold stale mate for countless long minutes, Nakushita finally began to hit his target. Using a random combination of guns and his blade, he had managed to thoroughly confuse the 01 pilot. He was lucky to be stuck with him, because the pilot had access to the Zero system. The problem was, the zero system predicted the next most likely move based on the pilot's strategic methods. Nakushita fought with his heart rather than his head. Although Himitsu had always lectured him about that, and he had gotten into countless problems because of it, it was now saving his life.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Heero was tired of his opponents blind attacks, and set up a quick blast to catch him off guard. Once the gundam had flown a good distance away from him, Heero turned his attention to the unmoving DeathscytheHell floating not too far away from him.
"Duo. Are you operational?" Duo had always made fun of Heero's way of phrasing 'are you alright?'. He always complained that it made it sound like he was talking to a piece of machinery instead of a person.
"…H-Heero…." Heero nodded to himself, relieved that Duo was still alive.
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"….H-Heero…." Duo forced his mind to wake up. He wasn't too happy with the results. His muscles burned from fatigue, and he was seeing double. Not to mention, his head hurt like hell. One of the first things he realized when his mind was working halfway normaly was that he was in the cockpit of his gundam.
'Shit! I fell asleep in the middle of a battle! What the hell's wrong with me?' Duo turned his attention to the battle outside. One of the new gundams Trowa had been talking about was charging up a mean looking gun, and Zero wasn't moving out of the way… 'God! What's Heero doing? Does he want to get himself killed?' Duo mentally slapped himself. 'Of course. That baka is always trying to pull a stunt like that…'
"…H-Heero…. move…." Duo's voice wouldn't come out like he wanted it to. Heero wouldn't be able to hear him, not that he would listen if he could. Duo quickly sized up the situation. He could move in time to attack the thing trying to kill Heero…if he could move….
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"Aaaaaah!" Quatre cried out as a sudden pain overtook his body. His chest felt like someone was trying to pull him backward by his sternum. He let out a whoosh of air as his lungs emptied under the pressure. Duo…. it was Duo…. Quatre had to get to him…
The blond boy reversed the direction of his boosters and flew over in the direction he knew Duo was in as fast as he could. He arrived in time to watch DeathscytheHell's long green blade disappear into another Gundam's arm, severing it completely. As soon as the deed was done, the eyes flickered off, and Quatre felt the pain inside him diminish. He was anything but releived.
"Duo! Duo! Are you alright?" Quatre knew his voice couldn't be heard by the braided boy even before he said anything. But he didn't know what else to do.
"Quatre. Calm down." Trowa sounded quieter then usual as he tried to calm his friend down.
"But he's…. Oh God, what if he's—"
"Leave. We won't go after you. Get your friend the help that he needs and we'll continue this later." Quatre blinked as the voice that had threatened to kill him now gave him and his friends a safe exit.
"T-thank you… I won't forget your kindness…" Quatre then headed to help Heero connect Duo's gundam to his own so they could transport it home.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Once safely landed in the hanger, Trowa followed Quatre and Heero to check on Duo's health. Quatre was literally bouncing on his heals, unable to keep still as the door to the cockpit slowly opened.
"My god….." Duo was barely sitting in his chair, his head resting on his shoulder. His eyes were wide and empty. They looked almost like twin cameras, looking out into the world, but not able to process the information they collected.
Quatre sunk to his knees and put his head down on Duo's lap. His hands shook for a few moments before he went still. His breathing was so shallow that if you had looked at him, you would have thought him dead.
"Q-Quatre?" Trowa put his hand on the said boy's shoulder, trying to snap him out of his state. It unnerved Trowa to see him like that… to see either of them like that. It just wasn't right….
"I'm alright Trowa…. Let's just find Duo a bed. Then we can try to figure out what's wrong with him….." Trowa looked to Heero, who nodded. Trowa suddenly found himself wondering what was going on in the mind of the perfect soldier. Heero's expression was normal, but his eyes held a strong sense of self blame. No one seemed to be themselves at the moment…. and nothing seemed to be going well for them…
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
"Himitsu? Are you alright?" Nakushita slipped into the cockpit of Ukiyo, wanting to help his koi. He was surprised to see the blue haired boy leaning against the wall, still hooked up to the system. "Mitsu-koi, do you want help?"
"….yes….." Himitsu's voice was quiet, but clearly heard. Nakushita carefully took the many patches attached to his love's fair skin. When he finally removed the helmet, Himitsu's legs gave way under him. Nakushita caught him under the arm and allowed him to use him as a human crutch. "….tired….."
"I know…. You shouldn't have fought so hard. You need to learn when to back off."
"..….you too….." Nakushita laughed softly as he brought his lover to his room where he wouldn't be disturbed.
To be continued….
Mel: And that's that for now. I'm sorry it wasn't as long as some of the other chapters, but I've discovered that I can get things out quicker if I don't feel obligated to write extremely long chapters….
Tsuru: I still don't believe you're going to keep this pace up.
Mel: *sticks tongue out* Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?
Tsuru: Because I already lost $40 that way….
Mel: *gasps* She learns!