Chapter 3: Choosing Sides
Gene, Jim, and Chris all stood quietly on the streets, observing the scene for anything too awkward. Just then, Jim spotted someone inparticuarly suspicious walking out from a small corner store. "Hey..." Jim said, patting Gene's shoulder. Gene turned his head, and watched as the strange person exited the shop and looked around. He then began to walk quietly down the street, keeping his head low and not saying a word to anyone. "Why does he matter?" Gene asked. "He could be a regular guy leaving a store. So what?" Gene commented. "Hold on." Jim said, and took out a pair of binoculars he had brought along with him from the ship. He raised them to his viewing and scoped out this other person. Jim went for his pockets first, and saw a glimmer, and then saw the metallic object he had in his pocket. "He has a gun!" Jim shouted. "Lets go then. What the hell are we still standing around for!" Chris yelled, and jumped over the railing and chased after him. Gene and Jim followed in a similar manner. But when they turned the corner, he was gone! "Where the hell is he?" Jim asked. "Start lookin." Chris said, and scanned the area closely. Jim and Gene looked, but all they saw were people. Phi listened in as well, and heard the bell of a nearby store ring, and he looked in that direction, and saw the mysterious person slip inside and out of sight. "Come on." Chris said, and they followed him into the shop. They entered and looked around, seeing nothing but merchandise, such as clothes and antiques. Chris looked around carefully, but saw nothing that looked like it was moving. "All right, we split up then. Gene, you take the left, Jim, you got the right. I got center." Chris said. They all took out their pistols and moved quietly around the store. "Oh and one more thing." Gene said. "Yeah?" Chris and Jim asked. "If you guys get in the shit, you radio in. Check in every 10 minutes." Gene said, and continued to move around. "Copy." Jim said, and searched carefully. Jim checked the back room for any activity, and saw something move quickly. "Gene, I think I might have found something." "Like what?" "I don't know. I'll report in if I see anything else." "All right." Jim looked carefully. When he didn't see anything, he shrugged, and continued. But then something jumped out from behind him, and before Jim could turn around the figure had a knife to his throat and said, "Nice and quiet. I don't want to have to kill you kid." Jim gulped, and the figure tapped his ear a couple of times. Gene's search could have been going better. When he was passing through a clothes-filled hallway, he felt a nudge in his shoulder, and turned to see the tip of a SMB sticking in his arm. "Shh. Don't make a noise. Please. I will kill you if you do" The figure stepped from behind a large pile of clothes and went behind Gene and pointed the gun in his back. "This way." He said, and Gene only smiled. Chris scoped out from behind the counter, and didn't hear anything on the comm-link. "Hey guys check in. Guys, respond." Chris tapped it a couple of times to insure no malfunction was in progress. Someone moved behind him, and Chris felt the wind in his hair as they passed by him quickly. He turned to see, but nothing was behind him. Chris ducked down, and peeked around the corner of the cabinet. He saw Jim being moved along slowly with the knife at him. Chris panicked, and was about to turn and try and kill whoever it was, but when he stepped out, he felt a sharp blow to his head and he felt dizzy. Someone grabbed him and he staggered. They took out their own weapon and held him at gunpoint. "What's so funny?" the figure asked Gene, who was laughing softly, just enough for him to hear. Gene whirled around and ducked down. The figure shot but missed. Gene slapped the gun out of his hand and tripped him. They fell down, but Gene caught him and also the gun in mid-air, and pointed it at their face. "You aren't very good at this are you?" Gene smiled. The person quivered, and Gene saw it was nothing more then a blonde kid, around 16 or 17. Gene straitened him out, and put the gun to his head. "You see kid, that's the mistake of putting a silencer on this thing. No one can hear you shoot, or when you are shot." "Are you going to kill me?" they asked. "Maybe I will. Depends on how well you cooperate." Whoever was holding Jim hostage turned the corner to see his dear friend in a headlock, about to be shot. "Put him down!" they yelled. "Let him go first bastard. Tell you what, I'll trade you. Same time?" Seeing as how there was no other choice, they let go of their grip on Jim, and he stumbled away from the captor. "All right, I'm gonna let you go now kid, but no fancy stuff or I'll blow your head off." But then, Gene felt something hard hit his head, and he collapsed. Jim looked around to see that someone hit Gene with the back of their gun. But then that same person hit Jim too, and everything went black. "Really Duo, did you have to be that careless as to let yourself be seen?" Quatre asked. "Hey, I didn't get captured, so don't call me careless you little wimp." Duo smiled. Quatre was about to respond, when Heero walked out of the shadows. "Both of you, shut-up. Now let's ask where they came from. Maybe we can figure out about this whole mess." "Jack, are you sure about this? Maybe it's someone else." Melfina looked extremely worried. "No it's not. His buddies are coming. And I expect one of the best killers to go right along with the rest of them." Jack strapped the Plasma Rifle to his back, and put some boxes in a bunker position. He sat next to the peephole, and looked out. Nothing yet, but someone was coming. "Listen, Mel, if anything happens to me, I want you to either hide or run." Jack sat against the wall and sighed. "But." Melfina protested. "No buts. My mind is made up. The rest of the crew is probably in the nearest city. At the first sign on trouble, run. Find them and get out of here. But I don't think they will be getting close enough to cause any trouble." Jack said smiling, and pulled the Plasma Rifle from his back, and looked it over. "They're coming." Jack said, and loaded the Plasma Rounds into the weapon and cocked it. "What can I do to help?" Melfina asked. "Hm. Good point. Here." Jack took the pistol lying on the ground. "This is your last line of defense." Jack said. "I hope you don't have to shoot this, so here's your job." Jack pulled a handful of small smoke grenade from the nearby duffel bag. "Lob these at em so they have no idea what's going on." Jack explained. Melfina nodded, and she sat in rest position, and waited patiently. "I think he's waking up." Quatre said. Gene looked up, seeing as how he was on the floor, and they back of his head hurt badly. "Oh, you guys are in for it." Gene said weakly. "I think not." Heero said. Gene tried to get up, but Heero kicked his back, forcing him back down to the ground. "Is this your definition of hospitality?" Gene asked smiling. "No. In fact, you are going to tell us where the hell you came from." Duo said, looking down on him. "Fine, but you will be in for one hell of a surprise when you get there." Gene muttered under his breath. Gene and his two unconscious friends were loaded into a car, and it started up and drove off. "See that out there?" Gene asked, pointing to a gleaming object in the distance. "Yeah. Is that it?" Quatre asked. "Find out." Gene said, lying down out of sheer exhaustion. "Keep driving." Heero ordered, and they drove off towards the Outlaw Star, not knowing that there really was a surprise waiting for them. "Let's see." Jack said, finding something to block the door with. He found quite a few bits of scrap metal, just enough to hold down the door. "Need some help?" Melfina hollered down the hallway. "No." Jack said, observing the job he did on the door. "I think that'll hold." Jack said to himself. "Jack!" Melfina yelled again. "What?" Jack asked, walking down the hallway to his sheltered position. "Something is coming! It sounds like a vehicle!" Melfina said. Jack looked out the windows of the ship. Indeed, someone was coming. "Come on!" Jack yelled, and he dashed behind the crates and metal pieces he had set up. "Ok, you know the drill. As soon as I tell you, throw one of the grenades. Not too soon and not too late. Timing needs to be perfect. Ok, get ready." "It's stuck." Quatre said, trying to budge the door. "Here." Heero said, and kicked it down with one blow. The minutes he walked into the shadows, he moved out of the way of anything that could hit him. Melfina made a small noise as she peeked over the corner of the boxes. "Shhh." Jack said, pulling her back down. He sat there, sweating and thinking of the next move. Heero waved the others in, and they all took positions behind the nearest wall. When Jack heard their footsteps, he waited for them to come into a clear view. Tension was rising. Just then, Jack stepped out from behind the boxes and raised his gun. "Get out of the way!" Jack yelled, and he pushed the beam's ability to full. He pulled the trigger, and a massive wave of pure, green energy shot from the front, and headed strait for the three of them. "Duck!" Duo said, and jumped out of the way. They others did the same. The beam made a large indention in the wall, and they all looked at it. "My god." Quatre exclaimed. "Surely, a gun that powerful takes time to recharge." Duo said reassuringly. But Jack toned it down to its lowest setting, and unleashed entire waves of ammo and pinned them down. "To hell with it." Duo said, and jumped out and fired blindly. The two others followed in a similar manner. "Now Melfina!" Jack said, and she threw the grenade over the barricade. It exploded and smoke filled the hallways. Heero ran from his position, and closed in on a closer spot. Heero reloaded his weapon and as soon as the smoke was cleared, Quatre rolled to a large piece of fallen metal, and began shooting large quantities of bullets from his SMB. Heero saw that Jack was protected by metal and boxes, so the bullets mostly bounced off of the metal, and hit the boxes but didn't go through. "Cease fire!" he yelled. All the noise came to a dead silence. Then Jack spoke up. "Listen, Heero," Jack said. Heero looked surprised to hear his name called from a complete stranger. "I don't want to kill you, Quatre, or Duo. Now, how about we settle this by talking it over?" Jack asked. Heero sat in silence, thinking. "Is this ship carrying any type of illegal supplies headed for the city?" Heero asked. "No. Why?" Jack asked. "Shit. We hit the wrong one." Duo said, leaning back. "All right. I'll consider your offer." Heero said. He rolled his gun across the floor and it tapped the sharp ends of the metal barricade. "You did the right thing. I doubt any of us were getting anywhere at this rate." Jack said, and stood up so they could clearly see him. "My name is Jack. Trust me. I know who you are, and now I beg you to trust me." Jack said, and he put one foot over the barricade and tossed his gun next to Heero's. Quatre stood and rolled his gun across the floor, and Duo followed in a similar manner. "Now, what say you, that we get the others in here? I am dying to tell Gene about what I've seen." Jack said, and Heero made a hand motion indicating that he should come with him. Gene had woken up, and stepped out of the car. He walked to the hole that the rest of them had entered. Jack saw that he had come in, and jumped over the barricade. "Gene! Are you all right?" Jack yelled. "Except for one large headache and a little tension, yeah. I'm ok." Jack looked out and saw that Chris and Jim were in a car and were unconscious. "I suppose you guys did that?" Jack asked. They all looked guilty to him. "Wake em up Gene. We need to straiten some things out. Hey, are those new clothes?" Gene looked at himself. "Yeah. Like em?" Jack nodded his head. After thirty minutes of getting the two of them out of the car, and everyone settled in and awake, they sat down at the busted head of the ship. "So what brought you guys here?" Jack inquired. "We saw the ship go down into the atmosphere and sent Trowa here to investigate." Trowa was awake and well, except he kept rubbing his head because of Melfina's slick move. "You see, recently, there have been ships that have come down to land near that large building. The central one. You must have seen it." Quatre asked. "Can't say I have. Gene, fill me in." Jack asked him. "Well, the place is big, busy, and there's a HUGE tower in the middle of the city. Very eerie." Gene said. "Go on." Jack said. "Well the problem is we cant get 20 feet near the damn thing." Heero said. "We have tried sneaking in, but it's just no good." "Have you tried passing yourselves as one of them?" Jack asked. "We don't see anyone go in or out." Heero said. "But we know it is the cause of spaceship explosions, stolen technology, and even spacestation 'Harkin' was destroyed. Ever since the tower was erected." Quatre filled in. "Have you seen any glass on the building?" Jim asked. "Yes, the very top. What are you suggesting?" Duo asked. "I know what." Gene said, leaning into the fray of thinking. "I still don't catch on." Chris said. "It is very jumbled." "What better way to get in and look around, then break in." Gene said slyly, leaning back. "But the windows are tinted, and possibly barred. We have no way of knowing what is on the other side." Heero proclaimed. "Unless." Jim said. "What?" Chris asked. "Come with me. I have something to show you." Jim said. He stood up, and the others stood in a similar manner. They walked through the messy hallways again, and Jim jogged eagerly to his quarters. He pushed open the door forcefully and looked around in the mess. "A-ha!" he exclaimed. He walked slowly to a small box implemented in the wall. Jim slid it out and pulled 3 Microchips out. "What the hell is that?" Gene asked. "Infrared chips. Attachable to anything. As long as you can see through it, you can see heat signatures, radiation signatures, plasma signatures, which I am seeing right now, and finally, it provides an x-ray of anything with body heat emanating from it." Jim said. "How did you manage to build these?" Gene asked. "Stuff we picked up around the different places we went." Jim confessed. Gene looked at him mysteriously. "Ok, ok, so most of it was finished by those humans we encountered. I just added the x-ray and plasma tracking." Jim said smiling. "Whatever." Gene said, passing it around to everyone. "Now since I messed with them they are a little unstable, and may quit at anytime given. I'm not perfect." Jim said, smiling again. "So what is the plan?" Trowa asked. "Well, I was thinking we check out the place by climbing to the top and scoping it through the windows. That would give us an idea of what goes inside, and we could possibly get inside and have a look ourselves." Jim said, shifting his eyebrows up. "Sounds like a plan." Duo said, agreeing. "Who is going?" Jack asked sincerely. "Uh, well, if I'd pick anyone I'd pick you and two others." Jim said, justifying his answer. "Me? Why me? I hate heights!" Jack admitted. Gene laughed to himself softly. "I just have this thing with heights." Jack said. "No big deal." "Then I see why not to pick anyone else for something like this. You have been on all the others in the past. Why quit now?" Jim asked, narrowing his eyes. "Nevermind. I'll go, but don't expect me to handle myself professionally." Jack replied quickly." Night fell fast after the discussion, and the three new members of the team, Heero, Quatre, and Duo, all left and promised to see each other at 8:00 the next morning. Jack, being so tired after all that was happening, walked to Melfina's room and collapsed on the bed. He covered himself up and closed his eyes, thinking he would pass out soon. But Melfina entered before he could do that. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "I know I shouldn't be here, but my room is a mess. I'll clean it in the morning I swear but for now, can uh, can I stay here?" Jack asked, his eyes half open. "Well I didn't have a problem with it. Yeah, that's fine with me." Melfina said encouragingly, and presumed to get herself ready for the next day. Meanwhile Jack was head- on-the-pillow and halfway under the covers. Melfina came after getting ready and sat next to him. Jack opened one eye and looked around. "Oh and by the way, I never got the chance to that you for saving my life. That was real swell." Jack said, lifting an arm and bringing it back down to rest on the mattress. "Well that's ok. I know you have helped me before." Melfina explained, moving his hair out of Jack's eyes. "Shyeah, well, this is different. I usually shot the perverted bastards, not knock em clean out with a wine bottle. Besides, where did you find that thing?" Jack asked her. "Well I saw Gene drinking out of it much earlier ago, and found it in his room. It is just across the hall so I was able to sneak by easily." Melfina said smiling. "Well if you don't mind, I would like to go to happy-sleepland right now." Jack said, and laid down fully. "What are you thinking about?" Melfina asked. "How I wish you would stop talking and come to bed." Jack said in a frustrated voice. "I have a mission tomorrow. Have to get well rested and all that crap or I'll pass out in the middle of scaling a large building." Jack said smiling. Melfina laughed. "And also, you need sleep so you can worry about me tomorrow." Jack said smiling. Melfina turned around oddly. "Worrying? I'm going with you." She said smiling. "What?" Jack said, sitting up immediately. "Well yeah. I feel I haven't done much to help so I should go on this mission with you. I think having a female along might tip the odds in some cases." She explained. Jack looked at the floor. "Yeah well.you have to realize." Jack said in a muffled voice. "What?" Melfina asked, walking up to him and stroking his forehead. "Just leave all of the dangerous things to me, ok?" Jack asked. She smiled, and gave him a tight hug. "Ok. I wont get in the way." She said smiling, and crawled into the bed herself. "NOW can we go to sleep?" Jack asked. "Yes. We can." Melfina said, and shut off the lights. "Melfina." Jack murmured. "Yeah Jack." She asked, turning to face him. "Are you going to tell me that information I need?" Jack asked. "Maybe later." She said smiling. "Ok. And one more thing." He finished. "Yeah?" she asked. "I hope you know, that the reason I don't want you to go, is because I'm concerned for your safety." Jack stated. "I know." Melfina said, and they fell asleep.
Gene, Jim, and Chris all stood quietly on the streets, observing the scene for anything too awkward. Just then, Jim spotted someone inparticuarly suspicious walking out from a small corner store. "Hey..." Jim said, patting Gene's shoulder. Gene turned his head, and watched as the strange person exited the shop and looked around. He then began to walk quietly down the street, keeping his head low and not saying a word to anyone. "Why does he matter?" Gene asked. "He could be a regular guy leaving a store. So what?" Gene commented. "Hold on." Jim said, and took out a pair of binoculars he had brought along with him from the ship. He raised them to his viewing and scoped out this other person. Jim went for his pockets first, and saw a glimmer, and then saw the metallic object he had in his pocket. "He has a gun!" Jim shouted. "Lets go then. What the hell are we still standing around for!" Chris yelled, and jumped over the railing and chased after him. Gene and Jim followed in a similar manner. But when they turned the corner, he was gone! "Where the hell is he?" Jim asked. "Start lookin." Chris said, and scanned the area closely. Jim and Gene looked, but all they saw were people. Phi listened in as well, and heard the bell of a nearby store ring, and he looked in that direction, and saw the mysterious person slip inside and out of sight. "Come on." Chris said, and they followed him into the shop. They entered and looked around, seeing nothing but merchandise, such as clothes and antiques. Chris looked around carefully, but saw nothing that looked like it was moving. "All right, we split up then. Gene, you take the left, Jim, you got the right. I got center." Chris said. They all took out their pistols and moved quietly around the store. "Oh and one more thing." Gene said. "Yeah?" Chris and Jim asked. "If you guys get in the shit, you radio in. Check in every 10 minutes." Gene said, and continued to move around. "Copy." Jim said, and searched carefully. Jim checked the back room for any activity, and saw something move quickly. "Gene, I think I might have found something." "Like what?" "I don't know. I'll report in if I see anything else." "All right." Jim looked carefully. When he didn't see anything, he shrugged, and continued. But then something jumped out from behind him, and before Jim could turn around the figure had a knife to his throat and said, "Nice and quiet. I don't want to have to kill you kid." Jim gulped, and the figure tapped his ear a couple of times. Gene's search could have been going better. When he was passing through a clothes-filled hallway, he felt a nudge in his shoulder, and turned to see the tip of a SMB sticking in his arm. "Shh. Don't make a noise. Please. I will kill you if you do" The figure stepped from behind a large pile of clothes and went behind Gene and pointed the gun in his back. "This way." He said, and Gene only smiled. Chris scoped out from behind the counter, and didn't hear anything on the comm-link. "Hey guys check in. Guys, respond." Chris tapped it a couple of times to insure no malfunction was in progress. Someone moved behind him, and Chris felt the wind in his hair as they passed by him quickly. He turned to see, but nothing was behind him. Chris ducked down, and peeked around the corner of the cabinet. He saw Jim being moved along slowly with the knife at him. Chris panicked, and was about to turn and try and kill whoever it was, but when he stepped out, he felt a sharp blow to his head and he felt dizzy. Someone grabbed him and he staggered. They took out their own weapon and held him at gunpoint. "What's so funny?" the figure asked Gene, who was laughing softly, just enough for him to hear. Gene whirled around and ducked down. The figure shot but missed. Gene slapped the gun out of his hand and tripped him. They fell down, but Gene caught him and also the gun in mid-air, and pointed it at their face. "You aren't very good at this are you?" Gene smiled. The person quivered, and Gene saw it was nothing more then a blonde kid, around 16 or 17. Gene straitened him out, and put the gun to his head. "You see kid, that's the mistake of putting a silencer on this thing. No one can hear you shoot, or when you are shot." "Are you going to kill me?" they asked. "Maybe I will. Depends on how well you cooperate." Whoever was holding Jim hostage turned the corner to see his dear friend in a headlock, about to be shot. "Put him down!" they yelled. "Let him go first bastard. Tell you what, I'll trade you. Same time?" Seeing as how there was no other choice, they let go of their grip on Jim, and he stumbled away from the captor. "All right, I'm gonna let you go now kid, but no fancy stuff or I'll blow your head off." But then, Gene felt something hard hit his head, and he collapsed. Jim looked around to see that someone hit Gene with the back of their gun. But then that same person hit Jim too, and everything went black. "Really Duo, did you have to be that careless as to let yourself be seen?" Quatre asked. "Hey, I didn't get captured, so don't call me careless you little wimp." Duo smiled. Quatre was about to respond, when Heero walked out of the shadows. "Both of you, shut-up. Now let's ask where they came from. Maybe we can figure out about this whole mess." "Jack, are you sure about this? Maybe it's someone else." Melfina looked extremely worried. "No it's not. His buddies are coming. And I expect one of the best killers to go right along with the rest of them." Jack strapped the Plasma Rifle to his back, and put some boxes in a bunker position. He sat next to the peephole, and looked out. Nothing yet, but someone was coming. "Listen, Mel, if anything happens to me, I want you to either hide or run." Jack sat against the wall and sighed. "But." Melfina protested. "No buts. My mind is made up. The rest of the crew is probably in the nearest city. At the first sign on trouble, run. Find them and get out of here. But I don't think they will be getting close enough to cause any trouble." Jack said smiling, and pulled the Plasma Rifle from his back, and looked it over. "They're coming." Jack said, and loaded the Plasma Rounds into the weapon and cocked it. "What can I do to help?" Melfina asked. "Hm. Good point. Here." Jack took the pistol lying on the ground. "This is your last line of defense." Jack said. "I hope you don't have to shoot this, so here's your job." Jack pulled a handful of small smoke grenade from the nearby duffel bag. "Lob these at em so they have no idea what's going on." Jack explained. Melfina nodded, and she sat in rest position, and waited patiently. "I think he's waking up." Quatre said. Gene looked up, seeing as how he was on the floor, and they back of his head hurt badly. "Oh, you guys are in for it." Gene said weakly. "I think not." Heero said. Gene tried to get up, but Heero kicked his back, forcing him back down to the ground. "Is this your definition of hospitality?" Gene asked smiling. "No. In fact, you are going to tell us where the hell you came from." Duo said, looking down on him. "Fine, but you will be in for one hell of a surprise when you get there." Gene muttered under his breath. Gene and his two unconscious friends were loaded into a car, and it started up and drove off. "See that out there?" Gene asked, pointing to a gleaming object in the distance. "Yeah. Is that it?" Quatre asked. "Find out." Gene said, lying down out of sheer exhaustion. "Keep driving." Heero ordered, and they drove off towards the Outlaw Star, not knowing that there really was a surprise waiting for them. "Let's see." Jack said, finding something to block the door with. He found quite a few bits of scrap metal, just enough to hold down the door. "Need some help?" Melfina hollered down the hallway. "No." Jack said, observing the job he did on the door. "I think that'll hold." Jack said to himself. "Jack!" Melfina yelled again. "What?" Jack asked, walking down the hallway to his sheltered position. "Something is coming! It sounds like a vehicle!" Melfina said. Jack looked out the windows of the ship. Indeed, someone was coming. "Come on!" Jack yelled, and he dashed behind the crates and metal pieces he had set up. "Ok, you know the drill. As soon as I tell you, throw one of the grenades. Not too soon and not too late. Timing needs to be perfect. Ok, get ready." "It's stuck." Quatre said, trying to budge the door. "Here." Heero said, and kicked it down with one blow. The minutes he walked into the shadows, he moved out of the way of anything that could hit him. Melfina made a small noise as she peeked over the corner of the boxes. "Shhh." Jack said, pulling her back down. He sat there, sweating and thinking of the next move. Heero waved the others in, and they all took positions behind the nearest wall. When Jack heard their footsteps, he waited for them to come into a clear view. Tension was rising. Just then, Jack stepped out from behind the boxes and raised his gun. "Get out of the way!" Jack yelled, and he pushed the beam's ability to full. He pulled the trigger, and a massive wave of pure, green energy shot from the front, and headed strait for the three of them. "Duck!" Duo said, and jumped out of the way. They others did the same. The beam made a large indention in the wall, and they all looked at it. "My god." Quatre exclaimed. "Surely, a gun that powerful takes time to recharge." Duo said reassuringly. But Jack toned it down to its lowest setting, and unleashed entire waves of ammo and pinned them down. "To hell with it." Duo said, and jumped out and fired blindly. The two others followed in a similar manner. "Now Melfina!" Jack said, and she threw the grenade over the barricade. It exploded and smoke filled the hallways. Heero ran from his position, and closed in on a closer spot. Heero reloaded his weapon and as soon as the smoke was cleared, Quatre rolled to a large piece of fallen metal, and began shooting large quantities of bullets from his SMB. Heero saw that Jack was protected by metal and boxes, so the bullets mostly bounced off of the metal, and hit the boxes but didn't go through. "Cease fire!" he yelled. All the noise came to a dead silence. Then Jack spoke up. "Listen, Heero," Jack said. Heero looked surprised to hear his name called from a complete stranger. "I don't want to kill you, Quatre, or Duo. Now, how about we settle this by talking it over?" Jack asked. Heero sat in silence, thinking. "Is this ship carrying any type of illegal supplies headed for the city?" Heero asked. "No. Why?" Jack asked. "Shit. We hit the wrong one." Duo said, leaning back. "All right. I'll consider your offer." Heero said. He rolled his gun across the floor and it tapped the sharp ends of the metal barricade. "You did the right thing. I doubt any of us were getting anywhere at this rate." Jack said, and stood up so they could clearly see him. "My name is Jack. Trust me. I know who you are, and now I beg you to trust me." Jack said, and he put one foot over the barricade and tossed his gun next to Heero's. Quatre stood and rolled his gun across the floor, and Duo followed in a similar manner. "Now, what say you, that we get the others in here? I am dying to tell Gene about what I've seen." Jack said, and Heero made a hand motion indicating that he should come with him. Gene had woken up, and stepped out of the car. He walked to the hole that the rest of them had entered. Jack saw that he had come in, and jumped over the barricade. "Gene! Are you all right?" Jack yelled. "Except for one large headache and a little tension, yeah. I'm ok." Jack looked out and saw that Chris and Jim were in a car and were unconscious. "I suppose you guys did that?" Jack asked. They all looked guilty to him. "Wake em up Gene. We need to straiten some things out. Hey, are those new clothes?" Gene looked at himself. "Yeah. Like em?" Jack nodded his head. After thirty minutes of getting the two of them out of the car, and everyone settled in and awake, they sat down at the busted head of the ship. "So what brought you guys here?" Jack inquired. "We saw the ship go down into the atmosphere and sent Trowa here to investigate." Trowa was awake and well, except he kept rubbing his head because of Melfina's slick move. "You see, recently, there have been ships that have come down to land near that large building. The central one. You must have seen it." Quatre asked. "Can't say I have. Gene, fill me in." Jack asked him. "Well, the place is big, busy, and there's a HUGE tower in the middle of the city. Very eerie." Gene said. "Go on." Jack said. "Well the problem is we cant get 20 feet near the damn thing." Heero said. "We have tried sneaking in, but it's just no good." "Have you tried passing yourselves as one of them?" Jack asked. "We don't see anyone go in or out." Heero said. "But we know it is the cause of spaceship explosions, stolen technology, and even spacestation 'Harkin' was destroyed. Ever since the tower was erected." Quatre filled in. "Have you seen any glass on the building?" Jim asked. "Yes, the very top. What are you suggesting?" Duo asked. "I know what." Gene said, leaning into the fray of thinking. "I still don't catch on." Chris said. "It is very jumbled." "What better way to get in and look around, then break in." Gene said slyly, leaning back. "But the windows are tinted, and possibly barred. We have no way of knowing what is on the other side." Heero proclaimed. "Unless." Jim said. "What?" Chris asked. "Come with me. I have something to show you." Jim said. He stood up, and the others stood in a similar manner. They walked through the messy hallways again, and Jim jogged eagerly to his quarters. He pushed open the door forcefully and looked around in the mess. "A-ha!" he exclaimed. He walked slowly to a small box implemented in the wall. Jim slid it out and pulled 3 Microchips out. "What the hell is that?" Gene asked. "Infrared chips. Attachable to anything. As long as you can see through it, you can see heat signatures, radiation signatures, plasma signatures, which I am seeing right now, and finally, it provides an x-ray of anything with body heat emanating from it." Jim said. "How did you manage to build these?" Gene asked. "Stuff we picked up around the different places we went." Jim confessed. Gene looked at him mysteriously. "Ok, ok, so most of it was finished by those humans we encountered. I just added the x-ray and plasma tracking." Jim said smiling. "Whatever." Gene said, passing it around to everyone. "Now since I messed with them they are a little unstable, and may quit at anytime given. I'm not perfect." Jim said, smiling again. "So what is the plan?" Trowa asked. "Well, I was thinking we check out the place by climbing to the top and scoping it through the windows. That would give us an idea of what goes inside, and we could possibly get inside and have a look ourselves." Jim said, shifting his eyebrows up. "Sounds like a plan." Duo said, agreeing. "Who is going?" Jack asked sincerely. "Uh, well, if I'd pick anyone I'd pick you and two others." Jim said, justifying his answer. "Me? Why me? I hate heights!" Jack admitted. Gene laughed to himself softly. "I just have this thing with heights." Jack said. "No big deal." "Then I see why not to pick anyone else for something like this. You have been on all the others in the past. Why quit now?" Jim asked, narrowing his eyes. "Nevermind. I'll go, but don't expect me to handle myself professionally." Jack replied quickly." Night fell fast after the discussion, and the three new members of the team, Heero, Quatre, and Duo, all left and promised to see each other at 8:00 the next morning. Jack, being so tired after all that was happening, walked to Melfina's room and collapsed on the bed. He covered himself up and closed his eyes, thinking he would pass out soon. But Melfina entered before he could do that. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "I know I shouldn't be here, but my room is a mess. I'll clean it in the morning I swear but for now, can uh, can I stay here?" Jack asked, his eyes half open. "Well I didn't have a problem with it. Yeah, that's fine with me." Melfina said encouragingly, and presumed to get herself ready for the next day. Meanwhile Jack was head- on-the-pillow and halfway under the covers. Melfina came after getting ready and sat next to him. Jack opened one eye and looked around. "Oh and by the way, I never got the chance to that you for saving my life. That was real swell." Jack said, lifting an arm and bringing it back down to rest on the mattress. "Well that's ok. I know you have helped me before." Melfina explained, moving his hair out of Jack's eyes. "Shyeah, well, this is different. I usually shot the perverted bastards, not knock em clean out with a wine bottle. Besides, where did you find that thing?" Jack asked her. "Well I saw Gene drinking out of it much earlier ago, and found it in his room. It is just across the hall so I was able to sneak by easily." Melfina said smiling. "Well if you don't mind, I would like to go to happy-sleepland right now." Jack said, and laid down fully. "What are you thinking about?" Melfina asked. "How I wish you would stop talking and come to bed." Jack said in a frustrated voice. "I have a mission tomorrow. Have to get well rested and all that crap or I'll pass out in the middle of scaling a large building." Jack said smiling. Melfina laughed. "And also, you need sleep so you can worry about me tomorrow." Jack said smiling. Melfina turned around oddly. "Worrying? I'm going with you." She said smiling. "What?" Jack said, sitting up immediately. "Well yeah. I feel I haven't done much to help so I should go on this mission with you. I think having a female along might tip the odds in some cases." She explained. Jack looked at the floor. "Yeah well.you have to realize." Jack said in a muffled voice. "What?" Melfina asked, walking up to him and stroking his forehead. "Just leave all of the dangerous things to me, ok?" Jack asked. She smiled, and gave him a tight hug. "Ok. I wont get in the way." She said smiling, and crawled into the bed herself. "NOW can we go to sleep?" Jack asked. "Yes. We can." Melfina said, and shut off the lights. "Melfina." Jack murmured. "Yeah Jack." She asked, turning to face him. "Are you going to tell me that information I need?" Jack asked. "Maybe later." She said smiling. "Ok. And one more thing." He finished. "Yeah?" she asked. "I hope you know, that the reason I don't want you to go, is because I'm concerned for your safety." Jack stated. "I know." Melfina said, and they fell asleep.