Niki had gone to the kitchen to make some drinks as this was likely to be a long process and it seemed Relena had Matt well in hand , of course she was followed by Wufei who had offered to help out but really he had just wanted away from the fit that Duo was throwing. Heero had focused more on trying to track where the others had been taken while Trowa backed Quatre up in trying to get Jason to calm down.
"Why would anyone want a bunch of college kids?" Nikita asked Wufei , trying to figure it all out and thanking her lucky starts she had not gone with the lab assistant to check out some of the tanks he had offered to give her a personal tour of earlier.
Wufei stopped getting the cups down and almost seemed to stare off into space for a moment , trying to find the right words for this. "We did not find out the reasoning behind it , just a sketch plan to take your group where they felt the safest. In our dimension you would have been guarded , either by each other or by our presence , but here ..." he let it fall away to silence.
"Here we are just ordinary kids again , no reason to bother hiding ourselves right?" She finished for him , it was true that they hadn't bothered to hide away and had put every effort forward incase the original pilots had wanted to find them , but since the phone lines had been working for such a short time they hadn't even tried , they had given up on the others looking for them and had concentrated on just getting back.
He nodded , in his own dimension most of them worked as Preventers so they had relaxed some but not nearly enough to become easy targets , and that whomever it was that now worked against them thought that going after the American counterparts was better because they were easy targets had just angered him when he had first heard it. Now he was calm but the fact that they had failed to safe guard all of them had proved them right , look how easily he had walked right into Nikita's house and gotten the information from her family.
"They can't go to far and I doubt they'll get to far with the ones they did get anyway" she said trying to lighten the mood , she had seen Amy and Savanna practice Karate against one another in the gym and was sure they'd end up being a handful , and Trel had enough street smarts to get them back if they ever did get out.
Wufei would have responded if he hadn't heard music blare out from one of the rooms just around the corner and it definitely was not quiet.
Niki checked the kettle before going around the corner and stared down the hallway towards Trel's room , door wide open and music blasting out of it. "He's not taking this as well as the others are"
A few minutes later both Niki and Wufei walked out , hands full of coffee mugs and tea cups , setting them down and returning with the jugs of tea and coffee plus sugar and cream. They had just about set them down as Heero jumped up to answer an e-mail that had popped up on the one lap top , almost knocking the chair over in his scramble.
The music continued to fill the bottom floor as some took cups and served themselves drinks , but Jason had gone to see what had Heero's full attention , an e-mail sent days ago finally being uploaded with the warning message , it had been sent 4 days before hand to Trel's laptop which she had insisted on keeping as a separate account from the ones they created for the college. All that time they had a warning on an account only to be retrieved by a computer that had not been connected to the Internet.
An hour later while they sat in relative silence Matt had started to pull out of his drug induced stupor but it took a small amount of time before the fog cleared enough for him to catch on to what had happened and the lack of his friends.
While Relena explained what had happened to bring him up to speed Heero had gone to join Jason as he again reviewed the tapes he had set up on the security cameras , trying to get even an idea of who they were up against or any kind of identifying marks they could use.
"Think we should call the cops?" He asked as Heero pulled up a foot stool next to him , it was one option but exactly how they'd explain it all was the part he hadn't yet figured out.
"Maybe , I'm still debating whether they'll stay around to try and get the rest of you or be content with what they have , my bet is they'll try again ... what we found was for 6 pilots , not just 3" he was distracted at best , his only hope was that they had stayed in the area which made the chances of finding the others greater.
"Hmm , what bothers me is why would they come here , wouldn't they be as powerless here as we are , what good is a Gundam pilot without a Gundam really?" He knew it could just be a revenge thing but that wouldn't require all 6 at once , and it wasn't like they'd come here without some kind of plan.
Heero had been wondering that himself , but he had always assumed it was just to get his own group , but what good would that do in this world as the plans they had stumbled upon was still likely un-known to have even been discovered so what was the connection. "This is looking worse every time I think about it"
The music again started up from a room that had the door closed now but at least it was quieter then listening to Duo freak out in the middle of the living room.
Matt finally sat up against the protest his head had waged. "You don't think they have a way to get back to the other dimension do you , they did after all get two of our top scum bags there so what would stop them from doing it again."
The whole thing finally hit home , the only problem was how would they manage to let the other side know they were ready , that type of machine was not as easily moved and to adapt it to the energy used here would take a genius or two not to mention setting it all up.
"But we dismantled that machine after the last incident so it couldn't be from there ... that is at the Preventers head quarters from what I last heard" added Quatre , but that would matter little as they had not gotten those technicians that had created the blasted thing in the first place.
"Guess that means finding them will be left to time alone. If they try again we have a chance" Wufei commented , he wasn't about to give up on the others that quickly as Nikita did seem confident in their abilities which he could only hope was well placed for her sake as well as that of the others.
Quatre walked down the hallway towards the source of the music , knowing it was not a good thing to leave Duo uninformed but he also wanted to check up and make sure he was okay , if they were right anyone left alone was bound to be a target and he had managed to isolate himself somewhat.
He opened the door and walked in , shutting it after him just incase but when he turned around he was met with a room that barely had anything in it , the walls were decorated with pictures and posters but what little furniture there was made the room look huge. Duo was laying on what looked like a couch with the music on full blast looking over a book of pictures , two others lay on the table between them but his entry had drawn no attention from the other pilot. He went and turned the music down , then waited till Duo was ready to talk , he seemed off in is own little world.
When the book ran out of pages he flopped it down where the other sat and looked to Quatre. "Well , is it good news or bad?"
"No news really , just a few thoughts being tossed around out there like why 6 pilots , and where would it get them in this dimension" he shrugged , moving over to the couch and finding an empty spot at the foot of it , hoping Duo had settled down by now.
"That's simple , the plan to rule in ours failed so they want to start here" he snorted back , sitting up to give Quatre some room.
"But with what , they couldn't get all their army and weapons here let alone hide a mobile suit , something just doesn't fit" it was the same thing that didn't fit a week ago but they had put the 'why' off till after they had the other pilots , now the 'why' question was what they had to figure out and fast.
"A Gundam pilot is only good when they have a Gundam to fly really" was his sarcastic reply which had been Quatre's biggest worry , if they managed to get all 6 and take them back how where they going to make them all do it.
He had worried this was the goal but had thought it outlandish at the time , if they put them all in Gundams or Mobile suits what would guarantee the Americans wouldn't use those weapons against those who sought to use the pilots as the new enemy. "Duo , you'd better come out to the living room , if what you just said is right we are going to need to stay together.
They had left the room but Duo refused to leave the music behind so he had brought a small CD player along with the CD he had been listening to , closing the door and quietly listened as Quatre raised his concern now before them all.
It was the only thing that really had made sense , track down and grab the American pilots to use in a new war , the only thing left was to figure out how they were going to do it , how would one force a whole group to fight against their friends , but no one had come up with an answer for that one. Supper had ended up as a quiet affair with most wracking their brains for more answers that just wouldn't present themselves but as night pressed further on they decided to get some sleep , but no one was to be alone so they camped out in the Gym leaving a guard for each of the doors and taking turns during the night but the expected disturbance never did come.
The next morning seemed just as bad as the day before with one difference , they had lost one day and were still no closer to nailing those who were responsible for it all. Heero had taken the first watch on the door closest to the stairs to both the living room and the roof so when he had finally gone to sleep he had heard nothing but upon waking he noticed a new message flashing away on the screen he had set up beside where he had fallen asleep. He opened it and his face fell as he read it out loud for everyone to hear.
Dear whomever:
As the last message was received we have to assume this account is active so we have to inform you of our apologies , although we do not know how many of your once group is now missing we have confirmed that once again some of your signatures are now showing in the Gundam world which means we have failed in our attempt to keep this from happening.
We will have to assume those that are missing are now somehow about to be used against the peace keepers of that dimension and can only hope that this message reaches you in time , it would be best if you once again returned in the hopes we can avert this from happening and hopefully recover your comrades.
The Force.
It took little time for the American pilots to get ready , they had no idea of exactly how they were going to get there but they really didn't care at this point , the one thing they had been working towards they were finally going to do and even if it was just to get their group back there was a chance that after this they may just get to stay , it was safer in that world for them then it was here it seemed as no one had ever been nabbed over there.
They had packed very little , and returned to the gym quickly looking at each other with the same question written across their faces but the original pilots didn't look as concerned as they got everyone in a close group and pulled out what looked like detonators , long thin tubular objects that would fit in the palm of ones hand.
"Oh man , if blowing ourselves up is the only way to get back then I am not so sure about this" commented Jason as he looked at Quatre.
Quatre looked confused for a moment and then almost laughed but couldn't conceal the smile that swept across his face. "Nope , not that easy I am afraid , but it does let the doctors know were ready to come back."
Jason quirked an eyebrow just as they hit the button , and a familiar wave of nausea flooded over him as they all seemed to fall into blackness to which even the sudden stop at the end of the ride had not fully roused him from , but for the first time in a long time he felt like he had finally come home.