Usual Disclaimer: I'm an engineer, not an anime producer. Hence, I don't own 'em. I'm just playing nicely with them for a little bit.
Author's note: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! I really appreciate your feedback.
Warnings: There's some OCs (Original Characters) introduced in this chapter that have alot of "screen time." This is necessary for the plot, and they won't turn up nearly as much in future chapters. If I could have used Gundam Wing characters for the parts instead, believe me, I would have. Other than that, no warnings.
Pairings: none in this section, future 1+4/1x4 (undecided)
Chapter 2
Heero Yuy was already exhausted, and the day was barely half over yet.
Less than three hours had passed since he had received his mission from Chang. Une had decided that the mission was top priority and immediately had him placed on one of the Preventer private shuttles. He had had to run to the spaceport in order to make it on time, and once on the shuttle, he had spent his trip studying the latest newsfeeds of the accident. When he stepped off of the shuttle, a taxi was waiting to take him straight to the site.
It dropped him off about a block from the site, which was as close as it could get with all of the roadblocks surrounding the place. Heero exited the cab and walked in the direction of the accident.
Seemingly the instant that Heero stepped into view, all eyes turned to him.
Within a cluster of suits, a middle-aged Asian male in glasses separated from the crowd to greet him.
"Preventer Yuy, I presume."
Heero nodded silently in acknowledgement.
"Mister Yuy," the man began. "My name is Bruce Maeda. I am the president of Isomer Industrial."
Maeda extended his hand in greeting, which Heero grasped in a firm handshake.
Heero intently studied the man in front of him. His fine charcoal suit jacket and pants were coated with dust; his starched collar was gray along the edges; his glasses were sprinkled with enough dust to scatter to the sunlight that show through them when they slid down the bridge of his nose.
A slight twitch in the man's handshake betrayed Maeda's hidden exhaustion. Heero released the other man's hand but held his gaze.
Maeda continued, "I wish I could say it is a pleasure to meet you, but under the circumstances, I think you can understand my reluctance." He gestured toward the smoldering remains of the building behind him, company smile fixed firmly in place.
"Indeed," Heero responded absently. His attention was drawn off to the far right side of the building, where a temporary first aid station had been set up. Workers shuffled in and out of the trailer, some of them taking supplies to a small hastily constructed tent shelter next to the trailer where makeshift cots had been set up for the non-critical patients waiting for a doctor's clearance to go back to work.
His eyes trailed one of the workers, a tall attractive Asian male in his late thirties, arm freshly bandaged, as he walked out of the trailer and back towards the ruined building.
Heero had not been the only person to notice. "Excuse me," Bruce demurred, turning in the direction of the building. "Glenn! What do you think you're doing?"
The man paused in an undamaged doorway of the building he was about to enter and turned around. Heero surmised from the surprised expression on the man's face that he had not been expecting anyone to stop and question him. "Bruce?" his voice called out as his eyes settled on the president. He hesitated a moment, glancing between the building door and his boss, debating. Coming to a decision, he addressed Maeda. "I'll be right there." He stepped out of the doorway and walked over to where Heero and the president were standing.
Maeda cleared his throat and started introductions. "Glenn, this is Heero Yuy. He's the Preventer agent assigned to this investigation." Heero's cool eyes met Glenn's sharp analytical gaze. "Mister Yuy, this is my Manufacturing Production Manager, Glenn Okazaki." Another firm handshake, another piercing gaze. "All right Glenn," Maeda began again, "What were you doing back there?"
"I was going to go look for Jason. He's missing," Okazaki replied firmly.
"You're sure of it?" Maeda seemed surprised. His left hand slowly clenched and unclenched into a fist.
"I've gone all over the site looking for him, and he wasn't in the trailer a couple of minutes ago," Glenn said, motioning to the right with his head to indicate the first aid station.
Ignored by the exchange, Heero held his tongue regardless, intrigued by the proceedings. He observed how the interplay of worry lines seemingly transferred from the manager's brow to the president's own as the men discoursed.
"Have you tried calling his home? Paging him?" Maeda pressed.
"No response." The flat line of Okazaki's mouth suggested to Heero that this was more typical than perhaps Maeda realized.
A flicker of annoyance stole across Maeda's face before he schooled his expression. "Well," Bruce drew a deep breath. "There's plenty of other things that need to be done right now, and we need every man we can get on the job. Keep an eye out for Jason, will you? I'll want him to speaker with Mister Yuy as soon as possible." Glenn nodded.
Heero placed a restraining hand on Okazaki's shoulder as he turned to leave. "If you have the time later, I'd like to speak to you," he requested softly.
That analytical gaze again. "Certainly, Mister Yuy. Nice meeting you."
Heero turned back to the president as Glenn made his way back to the building remains. Maeda adjusted his glasses on his nose. "My apologies, Mister Yuy. I did not intend to get off-track so quickly."
A few years ago, Heero would have been irritated by the man's manner, he somberly reflected. Instead, a different Heero Yuy nodded in understanding. "Please continue."
"Well, I'm certain you have a lot of questions about what happened. I'll be happy to answer as many of them as I possibly can. You'll probably also want to talk to some of employees who were inside of the building when it collapsed." He turned in the direction of the tent shelter. "Most of the employees have been treated on-site, but a few were serious enough to require hospitalization. The hospital is three blocks east of here." He seemed lost in thought for a moment, and then turned to Heero. "Please, I ask that you hold off on questioning them as long as possible. They've been through a lot of trauma in the past twelve hours."
Heero didn't need to ask to know that "they" meant the hospitalized patients. Unfortunately, "they" were also the ones most likely to have the information he needed most about the accident.
Bruce continued, "You might want to take a look around the building. I've got the footage that the Vidbots took right after the accident, which I'm sure you'll want to look over." Heero nodded silently.
Bruce took a deep breath before continuing. "I know you're probably not going to like this, but right now I've got engineers inside trying to reinforce the building to prevent it from collapsing." Heero's eyes narrowed. Maeda's eyes took on a defiant glint as he continued. "I know how you feel about it, Mister Yuy, but I have a responsibility to my workers' lives that precludes waiting for the investigation to finish. Given the choice, I would rather do it your way, but my employees' health is far more important."
"You misunderstand me, sir. Your workers' health is of the utmost concern. I am distressed that the building's structural integrity may have been compromised." Heero allowed the smallest of smiles with his statement, to ease Maeda.
It worked. Bruce returned a tired smile. "My apologies again. It has been a long day, but that does not excuse me from my poor assumption."
Heero shook his head dismissively. "Please, let's leave it behind. Was there anything else you wanted to tell me?"
Maeda spent the next half hour recounting the events that transpired earlier in the day as he had seen them. He then led Heero around the site and introduced him to a flurry of people that he expected Heero to be working with for the duration of the investigation.
As the last person introduced to Heero hurried back to his task, Bruce turned to Heero and asked, "Any questions?"
"Yes, in fact," he answered, pinning his gaze on Maeda's gentle countenance. He paused for effect. "How did anybody survive this destruction?" He swept his hand out in an expansive gesture to encompass the remains of the half-collapsed building. "More so," he pressed, not giving Maeda the opportunity to answer first, "how did everybody survive?"
Bruce averted his eyes, nervously wringing his hands together. "A miracle," he mumbled.
"What?"
The president continued, seemingly oblivious of Yuy's response. "A miracle..." he trailed, "A very stubborn miracle named Jason Yoest."
*****
Heero worked tirelessly through the remainder of the day, speaking with every Isomer Industrial employee he could find on-site concerning the accident. Just as he had expected, none of the available employees had been in the affected areas of the building when the accident happened. He was informed by one of the nurses at the first aid station that most of the workers in those areas had been immediately sent to the hospital as a precautionary measure.
He briefly debated the merits of stopping by the hospital, and decided against it. The additional rest would be far more beneficial to the patients than would any answers they could give him about the accident.
Heero found himself wandering in the direction of the building. Perhaps he would be able to get some useful information out of the engineers, he mused.
Glenn was hard at work overseeing a group of engineers when Heero stepped inside. He finished the task at hand and called a break for everyone. While wiping his brow with napkin, he poured himself a glass of lemonade from a cooler that had been set up in the room by one of the more thoughtful employees. "Care for some?" he offered.
"No thanks," Yuy declined.
Glenn leaned against the wall behind him and took a long swig of the tart drink, relaxing. He refilled his glass and turned to Heero. "So, have you found anything yet?" he asked conversationally.
Heero sighed in frustration, shaking his head. "Not really," he began. "It seems that everyone who witnessed the accident is still in the hospital."
The light in Glenn's eyes flicked far away for a moment, and Heero could almost see the gears turning in the man's mind. He mouthed what could only be a list of names, counting off on his fingers.
Abruptly, Glenn snapped his fingers and straightened his posture, the flame returning to his eyes. "Maureen!" he yelled, "are you still here?"
"On my way out!" called a voice two rooms over. "What do you need?"
"Preventer Yuy here has yet to interview anyone who witnessed the accident from the floor. Are you available?"
"I'm afraid not," the voice called back. It sounded regretful. "I have to go pick up Maria from daycare. Can it wait until tomorrow?"
Glenn turned to Heero for confirmation. He shrugged his shoulders, indicating his own lack of control in the situation. "Yes, Maureen," he answered, "it can wait."
He seemed to be silently contemplating something again. After a moment, he yelled, "Maureen - I know you're busy, but is there any chance that you could stop over here on your way out and meet Preventer Yuy? It'll just take a second." He turned and winked at Heero.
Heero was taken slightly aback by the gesture, not certain of what to think of Okazaki's machinations. He did not have long to mull over it as a flush-faced woman in her early-thirties burst into the room. "All right Glenn," she panted, "you have exactly three minutes, and I'm counting."
Glenn chuckled and motioned towards Heero. "Maureen, this is Heero Yuy, the Preventer agent assigned to investigate today's accident. Heero, this is Maureen Robinson, Senior Automation Engineer."
Maureen strode forward and eagerly grabbed Heero's hand, pumping it in an enthusiastic handshake. "Pleased to meet you! Sorry I have to run - we'll talk tomorrow," she promised, releasing his hand from her strong grip. "And a good day to you too, Glenn," she tossed over her shoulder as she left the room.
"Hey! I still have two minutes!" Glenn yelled back. Receiving no answer, he sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, that was Maureen. I was hoping she'd have time to talk to you, but I forgot that she has to pick up her daughter from daycare."
Heero shrugged noncommittally. He was still a little winded from his whirlwind introduction to the automation engineer. He decided that now might be a good time for that glass of lemonade that Glenn had offered earlier.
As he sipped the cool drink, his remembered the question he had wanted to ask Okazaki. "So," he asked lightly, "did you ever find Jason?"
Glenn's eyebrows constricted together in scowl. "No," he responded, "In fact, I got so caught up in the work that needed to be done in here that I never had the chance to look. Why?"
Heero absently fingered the zipper on his Preventers jacket. "I was hoping to get the opportunity to talk to him." He noted that the production manager's scowl had not changed. "What?"
Glenn shook his head and waved his hands in the air in front of him to break the image. "Nothing, never mind. Jason's strange, that's all. Although speaking of the devil, someone should really go check up on him. I'll bet he he's still around here somewhere."
Heero opened his mouth as if to ask a question, then closed it when he noticed that Glenn was no longer in the room. He's probably looking for Jason, Heero realized. He had wanted to ask Glenn about what Maeda had said about Jason. Well, perhaps if we find him I can ask him myself.
Heero walked outside to look for Glenn. The artificial sun was setting, casting elongated distorted shadows over the rubble. Heero carefully picked his way around the building to its rear. It was only when he got there that he realized that he had no idea of what Jason Yoest looked like. He could have smacked himself for forgetting to ask Glenn when he had the chance.
A glance to his left revealed a figure cloaked in the late day shadows, staring off into the distance. "Glenn!" he called out, hoping to draw the man's attention to him. He started walking in the direction of him.
The figure turned at the voice, and Heero quickly realized his mistake. The man was far too short to be Glenn, who was easily over six feet tall.
As the details of the other's features came into sharper contrast, Heero picked up his pace. He was beginning to make out more details...
Blue eyes...
Delicate hands...
Blond hair....
It couldn't be!
"Jason!" he half-heard in the background. Heero sprinted ahead, intent on his target. "Heero! That's Jason!" At the sound of Heero's name, the other's eyes went wide with shock. He turned and started to run away.
Heero sped up and closed the distance quickly. He reached out and grabbed the man on his bare forearm, pulling him close. A shock of electricity seemed to jolt through the contact point, and the man gave a strangled cry before passing out.
Heero threw his arms around the slim body as it collapsed bonelessly against him. He carefully lowered himself to the ground, holding the man tightly against his chest, while he waited for Okazaki to catch up.
Gently, he ran his fingers through fine golden strands of hair. "Quatre," he whispered aloud dazedly, hugging the body tight against himself, "What the hell are you doing here?"
tbc...
