Welcome to Chapter eight, everyone!
I've been a little late putting up seven, but I hope you all enjoyed it anyway! Unfortunately, I have no material for a rant in this chapter, but...maybe when I've typed it up I'll have something to talk about. Now you have a general idea of what Leila's gundam looks like, what do you think of it? Granted, I didn't describe it very well, but I think I might do a better job next time!
Right now though, I'm thinking of when Rei and Wufei meet each other. Does she fall for him, try to kill him, or fall for him and THEN try to kill him? Hmm... Though that won't be happening until a lot later on, so I guess I better focus on the present.
Poor Leila, stuck in the ambush... Though it's a good thing she's only afraid of flying and not space...
I now have material for a rant! Though it might not interest you, 'cos I'm just in a bad mood. I was playing this computer game, and I'd just beaten the last boss and everything and I was very proud of myself because I did it all alone without my brother helping (he does that a lot, whether I want him to or not), and DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END?
He died.
The hero of the game died. It turned out the village he came from was actually situated in the underworld, and was created by Dark Gaia (The bad guy we usually know as Satan or the Devil). So the moment he killed Dark Gaia, what do you think happened? Everyone died. He died. Him, his friends, his family, and the one love who waited for him to come back all that time - just died. Though I'm not quite explaining properly. It's not that Dark Gaia kept them alive exactly, but he kept them in existence in the underworld. So without him holding everything together, everyone just fades and their souls get sent into rebirth. But rebirth doesn't really matter, because Ark (or Dark Ark - which is the world he comes from) is the Legendary Hero who is ONLY awakened when the world is in danger. So there goes that.
WHAT KIND OF CRAP ENDING IS THAT HUH?
I mean, he saved the world! He saved two worlds, and it turns out that the Light Ark, who did crap all in the game but die years earlier so WAS COMPLETELY USELESS, gets to go back to HIS world and HIS love, but Dark Ark, who saved both worlds at least three times, did so much work and everything, sacrificed so much, left his girlfriend to enter a world he knew nothing about to save it, just dies.
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?
I know that happily-ever-after is stereotypical and used a lot, but I'm not saying the ending deserved to be totally happy. You'd think he'd be able to live out his life with his girlfriend (who by the way, sacrificed herself for him and was brought back just to die AGAIN), but no, not even that. No goodbyes, no 'maybe I'll stay in this world because I'm happy here' stuff. He just dies. I mean, after everything he deserves at least a half decent ending, right? I swear....
I'll tell you one thing - it was a really good game before I got to the ending. Now I don't ever want to play it again. ARGH! I mean, all that work for such a bad ending!
But don't mind that. I just needed to get it out of my system....
Disclaimer - I do not own either Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon.
P.S - I know some of you have mentioned there's no romance yet... I'd like to say I'm very sorry, because I don't think I'm very good at writing in romance. But I'll try...I really will!
P.P.S I just read my 50th review! WOW! I actually inspired a person to write a fic! That makes me feel really proud of myself! I wish you good luck! And for ALL my reviewers, thanks for the encouragement! Pretty much everyone who's reviewed has told me to - wait for it - write MORE!!!! And I assure you I SHALL! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
P.P.P.S - I'll leave you to the chapter now...
P.P.P.P.S - Does anyone know how to do accents?! Like in deja vu? 'Cos like I said, I really know next to nothing about this stuff...
CHAPTER 8
"Shit!" Duo swore, as literally hundreds of mobile dolls converged on the shuttle. The others were already powering up and heading toward it as he shot forward ahead of them, using every inch of his speed to get there before the enemy could. It was obvious that the small - investigative - task force couldn't help against something as massively staged as what was before him.
"The standard procedure for the task force is to get a scan and as much information as possible and get the hell out of there." Quatre said to them as he tried to catch up with Duo, a hopeless attempt. "They won't be able to help."
"And back up's at least a day away." Trowa added grimly. "It's just us."
"Hn." Heero acknowledged. "Duo, Quatre, protect the shuttle. We can't let them get Relena. Trowa, Wufei, form a point triangle. Don't lose sight of each other, and stay close enough so we can keep an eye on each other's backs."
"No problem." Duo muttered, aiming for a mobile doll that was heading on a kamikaze run for the shuttle. He darted in front of it, blowing it to smithereens before it had a chance to react. "Bring it on, assholes!" He yelled out to the looming wave of mobile dolls, as Quatre maneuvred to the other side of the shuttle.
They were only too happy to comply.
~
Leila had faced a lot of things in her time in the universe. She'd taken on countless youma, the doom and gloom girls, gathered enough strength to return after death and channel the part of the ginzuishou that contained the power of Jupiter to take away the strain of Usagi fully using it - which would kill her. That was pretty hard for a ghost. Then of course, she'd had to take on diabolic evil tree huggers. And then there were the royal family wannabes, the old 'wise' bugger, the flower from hell (which, she thought indignantly, shouldn't have happened - how could something as sweet as a flower be evil?) - Mistress nine, Galaxia, Chaos... And probably stuff in between that she'd missed.
Oh, and the fact that she'd died at least four times over a span of two years. Five over a period of one thousand years.
But, she'd always been one of the first to run in, and one of the first to go down. Granted, that wasn't neccessarily a good trait, but it indicated she always got involved.
Strapped in on a shuttle that could possibly blow up any minute, sitting by and doing nothing was NOT anywhere on top of her to-do list. And it was SO not involved.
Leila's first reaction was to find an escape pod and get the hell out of the shuttle. But a circular little escape pod shooting from what seemed to be a motion dead shuttle would attract serious attention. She wouldn't last a minute. And the shuttle had better defense. So she couldn't really do anything.
Of course, Ami commented. You could do the smart thing and get away from the passenger wing - notice how it has the shiny windows and is so obviously the passenger section that anyone from the outside can see it? It seemed tight situations made Ami more tart.
Well, there was that. Leila unstrapped herself, quickly getting out of her seat and immediately steadying herself for the next jerk. It didn't come. She frowned, looking out of the view.
To be met with the sight of ... nothing.
No stars, nothing.
Looking closer, she saw that the nothing was a hunk of metal. Purple and black metal
Deathscythe Hell was protecting the shuttle. And probably taking any blows coming her way.
But why? They must have known the shuttle was programmed and practically empty except for a skeleton crew... Unless they'd tuned into the nearest satellite -
Kami. Kami. Duo... Something twisted in her stomach before she mentally kicked herself. It was Relena he was protecting, not her. For all he knew, Leila was back at the dorm after school lounging around reading comic books.
But he could die...He had no idea what he was in for...
Probably a better idea than you. Now get your ass out of there! Rei commanded. Leila complied, mind frantically working. But there was nothing she could do. It was up to the boys now.
~
Heero frowned, dodging a mobile doll as he brought his saber on it's back. They were much faster than the usual type, he noted. He wondered what new training the pilots had been subjected to. Then -
"Yui!"
Heero was already on it, swinging his saber up and dodging to the side as the two remaining halves of the other mobile doll collided into one of it's friends.
"No, behi-"
Heero swung, to see it cut down very quickly and efficiently.
"Really Yui, you forgot me. I'm so hurt." Milliardo commented dryly. Heero and the others quickly compensated, forming into a square around the shuttle. The damn dolls just kept coming. They were like a swarm literally rolling forward. "I saw about twenty Tauruses around here somewhere." Milliardo reported quietly to him on a private channel. "But apart from that, I don't think there's any real variety of units. They just got the most convenient. Fairly fast, though."
"Mm." Heero agreed, swerving aside.
"Well," Trowa pointed out. "They don't seem too hard. I don't think we really have to worry."
"Speak for youself, Trowa," Quatre's worried voice said over the speakers. "My scanners say there's at least three hundred, with more still coming. And it's me and Duo they're focusing on!"
"And the assholes won't give up!" Duo yelled furiously. Of all of them, it seemed Duo was recieving the most attention from the dolls. Glancing over, Heero saw why. Duo was blocking the dolls from making any direct hits to the passenger side. It seemed they were quite singular about their target.
Relena.
"Duo, are you alright?" He asked, turning back to his own foes.
"Me? Brilliant!" Duo said grimly.
He was matching his own foes speed for speed, cutting them down as quickly as they came and getting as much advantage out of his long range weapon as he could. All in all, he was doing an impressive job.
Trowa, of course, was making use of his well-known artillery, literally blowing up masses of dolls with carefully planned missiles. Not one had gotten close to him yet. Heero figured he could handle himself.
Quatre, not having as much an advantage of long distance combat as either of them, was doing a very good job, and holding his own with little difficulty, despite numbers.
Wufei was currently locked in single combat with one of the more difficult dolls, blade for blade. The other pilot was, Heero noted, quite crafty, using every known trick in the book, and a few unknown ones, to get Wufei off-balance and at disadvantage. So far none had worked, but he had to give the pilot credit. Heero focused on his own targets, keeping an eye on Wufei.
Block, parry, block, parry. It was a bit eerie the way the doll moved - not quite like a robot - but Heero dismissed it, turning back to his own battle.
Wufei scowled at the opponent before him. It seemed to prefer swordsmanship to the normal battle style, which offput him a little, but he was up to the job. The mobile dolls around them avoided the battle entirely, indicating the doll was probably the leader. That was fine with Wufei. All the more reason to destroy it. He met the opponents blade once more and felt himself pushed back, before sliding the blade aside. The mobile doll took advantage of his openness and raised it's blade for an overhead slice.
Leaving it's torso entirely unguarded.
Which was what Wufei was waiting for.
There were, he reflected, quite a few disadvantages with the conventional sword style. He thrust forward, neatly slicing his sword horizontally through the torso of his opponent with a yell of victory.
"You are down." he declared with satisfaction., before turning to the other dolls.
To find they had all stopped.
"Huh?" What the hell? Had he just started something?
"Chang. Have your dolls stopped attacking?" Heero asked.
"Actually, yes."
"Not mine dammit!" Duo yelled out, slicing another opponent neatly down the middle. Then - "What the - holy shit!" Wufei glanced over.
First he couldn't see what Duo was freaking out over. The doll was entirely still in space, granted. After being sliced the pieces should have floated off, but apart from that...
Wufei then looked at his own former opponent. His eyes widened as he noticed the same had happened with his doll. Except, on both the bottom and top parts...the metal seemed to be - bubbling. Twisting writhing, before something - that looked a lot like metallic flesh - burst through. It was actually a very gruesome sight, if one considered what looked to be green blood and - other stuff - trailing from the blows - no, the wounds now - that Wufei had dealt.
"Holy hell." He murmured. Quite fitting actually. He could think of no other place things like that could spawn from.
"Huh? What's wrong, Wufei?" Quatre asked. From his view he wouldn't have seen either Duo or Wufei, being on the opposite side of the shuttle.
"Duo," Wufei asked, ignoring him. "Are all of them changing or -"
"It's just a few." Heero interjected. His voice sounded very strange. Wufei didn't blame him. He felt like throwing up himself.
Suddenly, the - flesh - grew from both parts of the severed mobile doll, twining and merging together, skin bulging and bubbling as it did so. It was very disgusting. And it was alive. Very sickeningly alive. Wufei watched, transfixed, as veins and arteries began bulging out, only to be hidden by the growing flesh. He watched as the robotic fingers bubbled and lengthened, forming into claw-like appendages. As the form curled in on itself into foetal position. As hair slowly seemed to grow from it's bald, naked head. As eyelids and eyelashed started forming. Bile rose at the back of Wufei's mouth.
And then, it opened it's metallic eyes.
That was about the time all hell broke loose, as Duo's doll uncurled and clawed at him, fangs bared. Duo slashed, but it moved back, not human but a wary animal. Then, without indication, it started to the side, ramming Duo away from the ship.
"Duo!" Quatre yelled out. "I'm reading something big from the sensors!"
Wufei didn't pay attention - he was too busy warding off his own newly reborn opponent.
Milliardo did, though, finishing off his opponent and looking back at the shuttle -
To see a big, organic, flesh-like version of a spaceship literally drop on to the shuttle from nothingness, the flesh reforming and melding itself to get a better hold on the shuttle, the majority of it's mass firmly held in place one the passenger wing side.
If the dolls couldn't destroy the shuttle itself, the enemy would lose on it's own terms.
~
Right. So what exactly does a person do in the middle of a battle if they're not fighting? Leila wondered, almost giddily as she jogged slowly down the hall. She would be running, but her shoes - Relena's shoes, damn that stupid girl's taste in fashion - greatly impeded her movement. There was another jerk, and she tripped on those afore-mentioned heels.
"Stupid pieces of -"
That was before the lights went out. Along with the humming that indicated the shuttle was running.
Well, that was just wonderful. She was stuck on board not only a motion dead, but POWER dead shuttle. Life was good. Without the power for doors to open and shut -
She was stuck. Leila could only thank the gods she'd gotten stuck in one of a numerous maze of hallways. The shuttle was fairly big, despite it's one passenger and skeleton crew of less than fifteen. Come to think of it, she hoped they were okay. At least in the hallways she wouldn't be a sitting duck. She could move if a stray - or not so stray - shot hit.
Right now, though, she felt like sitting down. What was that awful feeling she felt a few minutes ago? She let her mind wonder.
She might be empathic, but with her abilities only starting to take root, it couldn't be that directly...
Leila wasn't psychic. She didn't have spiritual abilities like Rei, but Minako had once told her that after fighting the negaverse for so long (considering she fought by herself for at least two years), she always seemed to break out in goosebumps whenever she was near a youma. It wasn't that she could pinpoint a youma, like Rei, or Ami with her computer, but she just seemed to know when one was nearby. Makoto had found she had a sense of uneasiness when a youma was nearby. Could it be that same sense, but enhanced by her empathy this time?
If that was right, then it meant the youma had started manifesting in their mobile dolls. She wondered what that could do.
Leila once had an (ex)boyfriend from America, who'd shown her a computer game he'd called starcraft. She hadn't really paid attention to the battles and all that, but she remembered a race called zerg or something, which had the ability to take over machines - and humans. They looked a bit - freaky. She hated to admit it, but when her imagination had tried to envision what would happen when a youma took over, it likened it a bit to the zerg - they'd called it infestation, hadn't they?
She shrugged. There was no use imagining what was going on outside. Her responsibilty was to find whoever was on the shuttle and figure out a way to get them out of this whole thing alive. She got back up, and started out for the crew deck.
Leila felt - uneasy. Very, very uneasy. And she didn't know why.
That was of course, before the shuttle lurched violently - a bit like a raft or boat with too much weight on one side. Come to think of it, it lurched back towards the passenger wing -
The passenger wing... It looked like Duo gave out.
Leila shoved aside her worry. It was not time to panic about Duo. Or Quatre. Or any of the other pilots. It was time to find the crew and figure out a way to get off the ship... Without dying. Which meant she'd have to get them in escape pods, but where could she send them? There were youma and mobile dolls everywhere...
She sighed and started running. Before uneasiness tightened around her like a blanket. Everywhere. Leila stopped. It was a lot, lot stronger than before. Something told her the youma were a lot, lot closer. A sense of strange calmness settled on Leila.
Youma had boarded the shuttle.
She kicked off the stupid heels and sprinted. The lurch must have been another shuttle latching on. Which meant the youma would be coming from the passenger wing - that was good. There were at least three double doors for them to break through, not that they'd have much trouble. But they wouldn't try that just yet. They'd be looking for a passenger who'd already high- tailed it out of there.
Before knowing it, Leila had already reached the crew deck. Before coming face to face with a door. And it sure as hell wasn't budging.
Dammit!
She slammed on the door. "Is anyone in there?" She yelled out. Recieving a reply, she looked at the door. "Can you get the door open?" She yelled once more.
"We can try." A different voice responded. "But with the shuttle power dead it's going to take a hell of a lot of time."
Time was the one thing they didn't have. "What type of power do the doors work on?" She asked.
"Electricity." The man sounded puzzled. "What else?"
Electricity. She grinned.
"Do you know where the power comes from for the door to work? Is there a battery or something or -" She shrugged helplessly, knowing they couldn't see. She didn't know much about electronics, but if all she had to do was charge up that battery -
"There's a console beside the door that operates it." The man instructed doubtfully. "But I don't think that's going to help."
Leila ignored him, breathing a prayer to whoever was listening and removing a glove, placing her bare hand on the console. She didn't even know if this would work, but she couldn't run around looking for the main power... She close her eyes, summoning electricity and lightning down her arm.
Instead of frying the circuitry, as she half expected, it followed her will and seeped into the console and door. She hesitated, removing her hand and looking at all the buttons, before pressing the biggest. The biggest buttons, she reflected, tended to be the safest. It was the little harmless looking ones you had to be cautious about...
To her relief, the door slid open without argument. She strode in before -
"Miss Peacecraft!" A man in uniform rose to greet her. "We tried to get to you but the power went out before we could -" Leila waved him silent. She jsut hoped no one would ask how she got the door open.
"Do you have escape pods here?" She asked.
"Of course. And we'll need to get you on one-"
"You can't do that." Leila snapped, without meaning to, If there were youma on the shuttle - and she was sure there were - she needed to get innocents out of the way before she dealt with them. "Is everyone on the shuttle in here?" Recieving affirmation, she nodded. "Good. We've just been boarded. We don't have a chance against -" She bit down on her tongue. "Armed and trained men like these. We need to get off the shuttle, but I need to make sure you'll survive escaping."
"True, Your Highness." The captain agreed. "But my orders were to keep you safe, and that means..." He went on, but Leila didn't pay attention. She should have known hoodwinking Relena would have it's disadvantages. These men would send her off and wait to die. She couldn't let them do that.
Which meant..."I'm not Relena Peacecraft." She said aloud. "I am a decoy used in case a situation like this should pop up." She paused, and waited for that to sink in. "Now, I order you to-"
"With all due respect, Your Highness," Another man interrupted. "That's not going to work. I've seen Relena Peacecraft heaps of times, and you look exactly like her."
This sucked. This really sucked. She could detransform, but then they'd be able to identify her, and they wouldn't listen anyway. They'd start panicking and yelling and pointing and -
She didn't have time for this. Leila felt the uneasiness start creeping up on her. She needed to get these men off and she needed their full obedience and cooperation. "You don't understand. In order to defeat the enemy we'd have to - " But the man was already ignoring her, sending out orders for the officers to escort her to a pod. She panicked, before an idea dawned on her.
It was radical and stupid, and she couldn't believe she even thought of it. But desperate times called for desperate measures. She held up a clenched hand to her mouth, whispering something.
The men all stopped as a silver glow surrounded her, her hair growing longer - and silver. Which was what she wanted. Leila hadn't met an angel in her life and had absolutely no idea what one would look like, but she figured Queen Serenity would do the trick, as long as she let her hair down from the buns. The wings were a good addition.
They all gaped. "Oh my God." A man whispered fearfully.
"I am not Relena Peacecraft." She said calmly. "Relena is currently on Colony L1 in a magical sleep I placed her in. I am an angel. I have been sent from the heavens to watch over you."
She couldn't believe she was doing this.
"I took Relena's place to ensure the safety of the crew on this ship. We have been boarded. But we have not been boarded by normal men, but youma. Demons. Monsters." She gazed around. Well, one thing was for sure - she'd gotten their attention. "In order to destroy them, this ship must self- destruct, which is why I need your help and cooperation. You must leave on escape pods, but I must know the code to self-destructing the ship."
Leila fervently hoped angels could get away with not being omnipotent.
"But there's no power to self-destruct the shuttle!" A man objected faintly, awed at the holy being in their presence. "With the power down it can't do anything."
"There must be power." She replied patiently, as a goodly angel/saint person should. "Because the life support is on. Where do you self-destruct the ship?" It was a good a reason as any if it would get them off ship. She didn't actually intend on doing it. She just needed the crew out of her way. Besides, it never hurt to have the passwirds into the main computer. And self-destruct needed the highest clearance.
"From the main computer." The captain said eagerly. "That's at the center of the ship." He quickly gave her the access codes and instructions, and Leila memorized them easily, though incredulously. Bambi???
"Thank you." She said gravely. "Do escape pods have computer transmitters?"
"Yes." The captain said, bowing his head in deference to heavenly beauty before him. The said beauty gravely inclined her head.
"Good. You must use the rudimentary steering abilities of your pods to get to the task force who will have been observing the battle. But you must send a message to the gundam pilots to get clear. No one must see you. Not the gundams, not the enemy. That will be difficult but not impossible." If the gundams could see them, the enemy definitely could.
"We can dispose of the ship's waste while we're escaping," A man suggested eagerly. "It would provide cover, and no one would go too close in case of being hit by debris."
"Do that. But you must promise me you will get off now. If you do not, I cannot account for what will happen to you." She said softly. "Now I must go. Fare well, and may you return to your loved ones."
With that, she glided from the room, even as men started running for the escape pods with cries of 'Bless God' or something like that. She shut the door behind her and withdrew the electricity from it, to impede any youma heading that way.
She then turned around, changed back to plain old Leila - with sneakers, and ran for the center of the ship.
Way to go Leila, she thought sarcastically to herself. The battle was going fine, and you were safe and out of it, but no, you had to feel useless and want to get in on the action. And now you've gone and got all the bloody action you could possibly want. You just had to bloody jinx yourself, didn't you?
So now she was on a suicide mission with a freaking twist. Leila turned a corner -
And ran into a man.
Hadn't all the crew gotten into the pods by now? She wondered. But her uneasiness level went up by about three hundred. It looked like the bastard was a youma. It was a shame, really. He was a cute one too.
"Um..." What type of stuff did youma talk about? She suddenly wondered to herself. Did they watch T.V shows of Evil Queen Mordicia and her quest to kill Glinda the Good Witch, or did they even have television? Did they talk about boys or girls, or did they discuss whether children's energy was more tasty than adults, or were adults a more refined taste?
"If you're looking for Relena she went that way." she said immediately, pointing to the hallway on her right. If she recalled right it went to a dead end with some room, though it took at least a five minute walk to get there.
The man didn't even miss a step. He nodded at her and headed down the hallway.
Leila blinked. She hadn't actually expected that to work. Was it her, or was that youma extremely stupid?
More men/youma/thingies ran up, in rows of three. "Relena's down the hallway." She said immediately, pointing once more. They ALL turned and rushed down there. They didn't even bother draining her, which was what she had once jokingly deemed 'standard youma procedure'.
All right. It seemed Jadeite was brainwashing his youma to follow orders. Good in a way, but it also made them very, very idiotic. She shook her head and continued the way they came from. Or maybe they were just his cannon fodder. They felt...wrong, really, for youmas. They must be the youma-human hybrids Setsuna was telling her about.
But considering she had just met a little over twenty youma, Leila came to the conclusion that, no, she couldn't take them on. But she couldn't very well let them get away.
Well, it looked like she really was going to self-destruct the damn thing.
Leila swore and changed her course for the center of the shuttle.
~
"My Lord." A voice echoed around the room. "We were unable to destroy the shuttle."
"So I had gathered." Jadeite responded dryly, not bothering to turn around. "A rather pathetic job, considering the odds were in your favour by a few hundred or more dolls. I'm not impressed, Tiami."
The woman stiffened, the vision she projected wavering slightly. "However, we managed to board the shuttle. Our men will presently take care of Relena." To her surprise, Jadeite whirled around.
"How did you manage to board the ship?" He asked curiously, seemingly bored. Tiami wasn't fooled.
"We latched onto the passenger wing of the shuttle with our own commanding ship." She responded, albeit cautiously.
"Ah. That would require dropping the cloaking shield, correct?"
"Yes sir."
"I made it very, very clear to you that wasn't to happen, Tiami. I suppose the youma completely infested their dolls also, correct?"
"The field leader was severely damaged in the battle, my lord."
"Ah. And they had triggered reactions from his own transformation."
"The ones close to him,yes. But not all."
Jadeite stepped forward, and Tiami had to refrain herself from stepping back, reminding herself he was only there in image.
"When I came back for you Tiami," Jadeite told her softly. "I assumed it was because you would prove yourself. Tell me what you have done wrong."
She remained silent.
"You brought yourself from out of cloak. That places yourself in danger." Tiami eyed him questioningly. "If you die, this whole task force will go into disarray. Secondly, you were stupid enough to allow the field leader to become harmed in battle, triggering a reaction from the youma around him. Do you understand exactly what that means?" He continued on, not allowing her to speak. "It means you have given away one of our advantages. Mistake number three - you have given sufficient data to imply we are neither Earth nor colony forces, but an outside party. What was the objective of this mission?"
"To - create strife between Earth and - the colonies - by killing Relena Peacecraft..."
"Correct. Revealing ourselves as an outside force will only serve to unite them. Now, back to mistake number two. What else does revealing ourself imply?"
The answer dawned on her... "It implies...we are not of human origin."
"Correct. We may also be compared to youma occurrences in Japan. What else is in Japan, Tiami?"
"The Sailor Senshi." Tiami replied softly.
"Correct also. Explain to me why I should not kill you now." Jadeite said flatly.
Tiami was silent, regarding him. "Because the battle is still in process," She said, resigned. "It would be wiser to kill me when I return."
To her surprise, he nodded approvingly. "Despite some stupid tendencies, you're a smart girl." He approved. "You see the situation at hand and make no unneccessary presumptions. Where are you now?" Jadeite queried, eyeing the well-lit background behind his lieutenent.
"I am currently at the central mainframe of the colony shuttle." She reported. "The human-youma hybrids have been sent to seek out Peacecraft. I've ordered them to search everywhere. When we latched on we burnt through the passenger view deck to make an entrance. When our ship detaches itself the broken seal will cause the shuttle to implode."
Jadetie nodded. "Continue. Your troops seem to be doing fine. Leave this to the task leader and return via your private ship as soon as possible, preferably before the battle ends. I must speak with you at our next convenient opportunity, to clean up this mess you have caused."
"Yes, my -" But Jadeite had already gone, and Tiami swore, turning on her boot heel as she walked off, directing her troops as she headed back to the passenger wing and the command ship - where her own smaller one was located.
But as she walked down one of the smaller hallways, she noted that there didn't seem to be any troops...
"Kali." She called out.
Kali was a pure youma, one which Tiami thought would be wise to bring along, as the hybrids were nothing more than idiotic grunts. If she was going to leave the mission, she ought to entrust it to someone with brains. Also, Kali was strong as a fighter also, and knew how to cow her troops.
The said woman blurred and appeared in front of her, light violet skin glinting in the shuttle lighting. Her shoulder length pale blue hair shimmered unnaturally. Other than that, she could have been perfectly human. "Lady Tiami."
"I've been summoned, so you'll be in command." Tiami told her. "Think you're up to it?"
Kali nodded, before looking around with a frown. "Where are the troops assigned to this wing?" She asked Tiami. "They should be crawling all over the place."
"That's what I was wondering." Tiami said grimly. "Let's check this up before I leave, shall we?"
Kali nodded as they both located the energy signatures of their troops and headed down a side hallway. They walked a while in silence until they saw men in the hallway, trying to shove in an already crowded room. They literally spilled out of the doorway. "And what is going on here?" Kali demanded softly. Nevertheless, her voice carried. The troops stopped, turning to her.
One stepped forward, saluting. "Lady Kali, we are investigating a room that supposedly holds queen Relena in it."
Kali *looked* at Tiami ruefully. "Ah. All of you?"
The man looked around. "All of us."
"What gave you the impression she was in this room?"
"Well," the man said, "One of the passengers told us she went this way. They seem to believe we are the natural crew of this shuttle."
"They do." She deadpanned. "And she told ALL of you that Peacecraft was down this hallway."
"Correct. This seems to be the only room at the end."
"Ah. What does this girl look like?"
"She was short," One man said.
"Had red hair," Another offered. "And green eyes."
Tiami ignored Kali's questioning, a sign above the door catching her eye. "Soldiers."
"Yes ma'am."
"Are you aware this is the men's room?"
They looked at her blankly.
"The men's bathroom. Are you aware this is the men's bathroom?"
The soldiers nodded, trying to look intelligent.
"Explain to me," Tiami asked testily, "Why a female would be in a MEN'S room?"
They were silent.
"You know, the bathroom - for MEN?"
The soldiers stilled. Something finally began to click in their head.
"How long have you been in here?" Tiami asked.
They were all silent once more. And those were just the ones outside.
"Idiots. Complete idiots." Kali murmured to her. Tiami nodded.
"So why did you all shove yourselves down this hallway when you knew other soldiers were checking it out?"
There was an uncomfortable rustling. "Well, we weren't -"
"OUT! OUT ALL OF YOU YOU PIECES OF -" Kali bellowed. They all jumped and ran, allowing the men inside the room to hear her. Kali didn't bothered shouting even more. Her black orbs flashed blood red -
And they all SLAMMED out of the room. Which, Tiami noted, was pretty impressive. Despite the fact the room was crowded and the doorway was only so big, Kali had managed to drag them all out with her telekinetic ability.
Of course, Kali hadn't actually bothered with the door.
If colony L1 ever got the shuttle back, they'd be doing some massive repairs to the men's bathroom wall.
Kali sniffed scornfully at the bloody mass in front of her and turned on her heel, walking off. Tiami followed suit. "I think you've got things handled." Tiami commented. "I don't know much about computers of this time period, but if you head back to the central computer you can see the whole shuttle via cameras. You may find it easier to locate the girl."
"I am honoured by your confidence in me." Kali responded, nodding.
"Not misplaced, I hope." Tiami said. She doubted it. Kali was efficient. Highly efficient. "I'll be leaving then?" Kali nodded, and they split at the next hallway, heading opposite directions.
~
Leila swore, sliding into the seat and typing in various passwords. There were so many! Though she understood why. She was just glad she'd managed to memorize all those instructions the captain gave her. Who the hell would name a password after what looked to be movies?
Indiana Jones, Star Wars...Bambi??? The computer technician had one hell of a social life, obviously. And the next clearance password was... The Miko.
What was that? Obviously the other titles were american or something, but that definitely was the Miko. A play? A novel by a crappy western writer trying to make eastern culture into something dramatic enough for a western movie? If she knew right, most westerners couldn't have a movie without two things - 1) Action and guns and the good guy winning, and 2) Romance. Take that James Bond person, for instance. He got a different girl every single movie!!!! Talk about horny. Not only that, sometimes he managed to sleep with three or more people in a movie!
Leila *then* started wondering what the hell was she thinking, idly debating about western movies when she was trying to self-destruct a shuttle. her hands quickly typed in various clearances - Kami, she didn't honestly think she'd need all twenty passwords that captain gave her, but it seemed to look like it - she'd already used seven.
Unless, her new found memories said, you take a shortcut.
How? She asked.
Easy. You do this and this and this - She let her memories take over once more, bypassing clearances and finally - FINALLY, typing in the codes for self-destruct.
After she'd pressedd the enter button, she'd have to avoid all those soldiers and *somehow* make a run for the pod before the damn thing blew up.
Within fiften minutes. And with the shuttle modified, there was no way there'd be any nearby pods. She couldn't make a run for them. Or maybe she could... If she stretched it. Leila was a realist. She wouldn't be able to stretch it.
She sighed and accessed the security system on another monitor...infra- red scanners? Why would they use those...Oh. Tracking down intruders.That. She brought it up and the screen displayed a map of the shuttle and its floors, tracking down what had to be hundreds of dots moving around, about fifty holed up in one area near to where she'd been before. Suddenly, she noticed they'd started moving out from there, and very quickly.
The place was crawling with those things. Ugh. Wait. If there was a way to track down what was happening IN the shuttle - then, at the piloting station - she'd be able to find out what was happening outside.
Right. Leila might be going down, but she was sure as hell bringing as many of those bastards as she could with her. If she could pilot a gundam, she could sure as hell pilot a shuttle. How hard could it be?
Smiling grimly, she pressed enter. The self-destruct process had begun. She spun from her seat -
And came face to face to a very pretty woman.
More specifically, a pretty woman with blue hair and purple skin.
Oh. Shit. How screwed was she.
"Hi!" She began, amazingly cheerful. "I don't suppose you're after Relena too?"
Before Leila could blink, she started hurting all over.
That might, of course, be because she'd been thrown into a wall.
She blinked once more before sliding *down* the wall. Battle senses kicking in, she rolled forward in mid-air, landing in a crouch on the floor. Considering the woman hadn't moved an inch from her previous spot, Leila found that a bit concerning. To no avail, she felt herself being picked up again into the air.
Oh no. She wasn't letting that happen again.
Without even thinking Leila felt a ball of energy form in her hands, and taking aim, she threw.
It was not a ball of electricity. It was from Leila's reserves of white magic, and completely harmless. Not lethal in any magical way, except maybe for undead (providing computer games had the right idea).
But even a youma would react to something as hard as a baseball breaking their nose.
In Kali's case, the reaction was going beserk.
~
After determining that running fast tended to throw off the telekinetic youma's ability to get a proper hold on her, Leila was now running for her life, and as far away from her would-be-killer as possible.
It was, she reflected, looking back on her actions, a very stupid thing to piss her off.
'Her' being the scary psychotic evil bitch with glowing red eyes that was flying after her with amazing speed, fangs bared. As Leila didn't feel like being bitten - or clawed, or smashed through any MORE computers - she decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and that keeping alive for the moment was work enough.
Needless to say, this indicated that keeping alive at that point in time was very, very, difficult. Leila was already suffering from numerous bruises spread all over her back, and a sprained right wrist. Her shirt was torn and slightly scuffed at the front from numerous scratches and minor electric burns - courtesy of being thrown ONTO a computer. Her opponent being telekinetic meant Leila didn't need to be close to be 'grabbed', or 'punched', so to speak. It also meant she couldn't get anywhere near her opponent without ending up upside down with endless pains. Usually against some wall. Not only did she have to run extra fast to compensate for the youma's speed in flight, she had to somehow get to the crew deck and the piloting station, which would be extremely difficult, considering what was probably two hundred youma between her and her intended target, the crew deck and piloting controls
How much more screwed can a person get?!
"Oh shit!" Leila instantly regretted her rhetorical question as three of those two hundred youma - previously mentioned - just decided to pop up in front of her and say 'hi!' from a small side hallway.
In an impressive feat of courage and speed (aka - desperation), Leila instantly lashed her foot out, moving into a crouch and footsweeping them hard enough to send two of them into the air (courtesy of the electricity surrounding that said foot), rolling forward underneath one and rising smoothly into a fighting pose, from which she grabbed one man as he came down and threw him back at her other - more important - concern with a quick judo move. She then continued running without looking back.
"I just had to ask, didn't I?" She mumbled viciously between breaths, noting with relief that the crew deck wasn't too far off. Of course, before she went in there she'd have to dispatch of a few slight annoyances tailing her -
Which meant she'd better stand and fight. Well. Now was a good a time as any.
Leila turned to face the hallway she'd just run out of, catching her breath and preparing for a) a bunch of pissed off youmas to burst out, b) being moved/thrown about by no visible means, or c) some new type of youma attack.
Unfortunately, what she hadn't expected was d) gunfire, as she threw herself out of the way with senshi reflexes upon hearing the explosive sound. "Jupiter Crystal power - make up!" She yelled out, coming to her feet and moving into a defensive position.
Nothing happened. "Nande kuso?!" She muttered, waiting to the side for the youma to appear. It seemed the gunfire wasn't stopping anytime soon. If she couldn't transform, she was screwed! The senshi uniform, while skimpy, did provide a lot of protection where it did cover - and it was bulletproof. "Jupiter Crystal power, make up." She murmured again, voice soft. It was then the first soldier burst out of the hall, and Leila was glad it was only narrow enough for one person to fit through at a time, kicking the gun out of it's hands, jump-kicking him in the head as her hand automatically reached behind her without her even realising.
Her hand whipped out with a fire patterned fan - similar to the one on her gundam. Instead of lunging forward, like she would have, she actually *danced* back, left hand swinging diagonally up and across her torso, wrist flicking out the fan gracefully. As the fan flicked out, so did a wave of fire, incinerating the youma easily.
"Courtesy of Mars." She said in satisfaction, whipping the fan sideways into the second youma, this time actually *cutting* through his torso. The cut began to sizzle afterward, like Deathscythe had. Leila focused on the fan, and flapped it once. The cut burst into flames. It was quite impressive, actually.
The third soldier wouldn't be as stupid. Leila flipped back twice, a fan appearing in her other hand, this time - pink? She didn't have time to wonder over it, the man throwing himself out of the hallway with his machine gun firing rapidly, the bullets tracking toward her in a wide arc. She threw the fan at him, and threw herself back instintively, not quite knowing why -
- But understanding a moment later as an explosion of electricity followed. Granted, she was immune to *electricity*, but the shockwave that followed would have really hurt if she'd been closer. Pink sparkles swirled around her right hand as the fan returned to it's owner. Flipping back onto her feet, she raced into the crew deck - how the hell had the youma gotten the power back on?! And waited for the to close behind her, a ball of electricity gathered around one clenched fist. She then threw it at the control panel. It wouldn't be opening for a while, that was for sure, she congratulated herself, looking at the melting area of metal and plastic that was once a piece of complex technology.
She really didn't want to face that woman just yet. Leila trotted toward the piloting console.
~
"Winner!" Heero called over the speaker. "Any info on the shuttle?"
"No." Quatre said, voice tense. As soon as that...thing had settled over the shuttle, it had steered it away into masses of enemy mobile dolls. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get close to it.
"Dammit!" Duo snarled. "What the hell are we supposed to do if we can't get to the shuttle?!"
"We can't keep blasting our way through." Trowa said calmly, but with faint undertones of worry. "There are too many. And I don't know how much my artillery can hold out."
They watched helplessly, regrouping. "Any ideas, Noin?" Milliardo asked.
"Yes." Madam P cut in. "Move as far away from the shuttle as you can."
"What?!"
"The shuttle's their primary concern, you're their secondary. Move away, let them think they've won and figure out a plan while you're not being worn down by mobile dolls." She said, indifferent to their disbelief. "We've recieved a message from escaped crew members asking us to do the same."
"Escaped?" Quatre asked. "I didn't see any escaping."
"The shuttle emptied it's waste materials into space a few minutes ago." Trowa pointed out. "The escape pods could have been hidden among the debris..."
"And here I thought it was a diversion tactic to help us." Duo muttered.
"So now what?" Trowa asked Heero, morosely. Heero knew why.
They'd lost. And they didn't like it one little bit.
"Follow orders." He said softly, eyes on the shuttle.
"P!" Milliardo said. "You know she could still be in there! We can't just pull back and -"
"Pull back." P ordered, voice cold.
They did so, Heero leading them away. He didn't like running. None of them did. He sighed silently, glancing back at the shuttle -
He blinked.
He blinked again, opening his mouth -
~
As Leila gently pressed the joystick, smiling as the shuttle used its, though pretty crappy, adequate firepower, destroying one youma doll.
~
"What the hell are they doing?!" He yelled in shock.
~
Hopefully, she thought, That'll get their attention.
It certainly did, mobile dolls both normal and youma infused turning toward her slowly. Normally, that would have made her nervous. Of course, normally Leila wasn't a suicidal idiot. She smiled grimly. "That's right, you bastards. Keeping looking. Come on over for a better view." Leila then added to her 'acts of stupidity' list by turning the shuttle around and plunging into the hordes of enemy fighters, firing blindly. She'd used the majority of her fire power in that one big blast, though. The blasts she was sending were nothing more than a light show.
But that didn't matter. Leila grinned triumphantly as, looking down at her sensors, at least fifty mobile dolls were close enough for the self- destruct to take them out. The majority, she noted looking through the view screen, being youma dolls.
She briefly wondered why she wasn't afraid of dying. It must have been because this was probably her fifth time. Also, when the ship blew up she'd die instantly, so there definitely wouldn't be any pain.
"You little bitch." A voice hissed behind her. Oh shit. She hadn't even heard the door open.
Leila swung around, hand swinging in an open slap. It never made it. She tried to gasp, and found herself cut off, struggling to breathe. Her eyes widened at the woman before her. The youma smiled back, fangs showing.
Uh oh. This is actually hurting...
In fact, it was hurting a lot. It looked like a painful death after all. Leila's mind totally panicked, knee jerking up. The woman grunted, and her grip only tightened. Struggling was very, very hard, and her limbs couldn't gather the energy to move...
"My name is Kali." The woman murmured, leaning closer.
Pain lanced through her in a jerk as Kali lifted her off the floor. By her neck. Not, of course, that she wasn't hurting before. It just suddenly became a lot more pronounced.
"And you are dead."
Her eyes widened as Kali lifted a claw, slashing down her shoulder. Reacting instinctively a hand lashed out with the last of her strength, this time a plain white fan slashing up, cutting into Kali's face in a shallow cut. It was a weak cut, with barely any strength, but the fan was sharp.
With a surprised gasp Kali let go, Leila throwing herself back and inhaling as hard as she could, before dropping to the ground, heel aimed to the lower part of Kali's knee. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered how much more time was left. Her lips turned into a grim smile as a crack was heard, Kali dropping on one knee. She closed her eyes briefly, reaching out with her mind.
"Sparkling wide -"
Suddenly a jolt ripped thorugh her, cutting her off. Huh? Not another psychic attack... But, strangely enough, it wasn't hurting, exactly. Her body was just throbbing, and Leila felt her vision wavering.
Her hesitancy didn't go unpunished, Kali using the advantage to throw herself forward, claws ripping into her stomach. She screamed out, even as her world turned black -
~
They watched in silence as the ship self-destructed.
"Someone had to be onboard for it to distruct." Trowa said.
"Couldn't they have gotten off?" Quatre asked immediately.
"I don't know." Milliardo said thoughtfully. "That, *thing* latched onto the ship. It must have been boarded..."
There was a short silence. Heero heard a sudden shifting over the speaker, and could see Wufei's intake of breath.
"The self-destruct took out fifty of those...things, and a few normal dolls as well." He said matter-of-factly, hoping to snap them out of it. "If we take them out now, they won't be back to bug us later on."
"Negative." P interrupted. "Even if fifty of the altered ones are down, at least half of their forces are left, considering your previous damage. You'd still lose. Get the hell out of there."
"Sorry, P." Milliardo said dryly. "Looks like it's out of our hands."
Heero grunted, regarding the hundreds of dolls swarming towards them...once again, that was. "Back to back," He ordered quickly. "We'll take it from there." The other's images nodded, flicking off screen. They knew how hectic a battle could get.
They faced outward, waiting for the battle to begin, each preparing themselves for the inevitable.
~
"Leila?! Thank God!"
Huh? Leila found herself with a strange sense of deja vu. Hadn't this happened before?
"Are you - " A bright light flicked on in front of her. She was sure of it; the back of her eyelids had flashed red. "Oh my God! Leila, are you awake?!"
"Mmph?" She mumbled, tearing her eyes open yet again. Definitely deja vu. Now the last time she'd done that she'd died... come to think of it, why wasn't she dead now?
She looked down at her blood covered blouse, then up at Noin. "I'm alive?" She asked wonderingly.
"Yeah. P did give you that warp stone thingy to you didn't she?" Noin asked anxiously.
Warp stone thingy? Leila involuntarily glanced down at her wrist, and the gem pulsing gently on it. Setsuna said it was a mixture of her and Luna's powers. That meant teleporting and...
"Shit." She stated, shocked. "She stuck a whole gundam into Luna Space? That's pretty impressive."
"I'll assume you're not insane." Noin said flatly. "Just delirious from blood loss."
"It's not that bad." Leila said dryly, glancing down at the cut on her shoulder - nothing to the Doom and Gloom girls. "I've had worse, trust me. What's going on? Shouldn't you be with the others?"
"P's with them." Nion said. "You're my charge, remember. It's good you have that cloaking thing on. I didn't even know P developed a cloak, actually. Come to think of it, how the hell's your gundam here when it was it the hangar half an hour ago? How'd you self-destruct the ship? Milliardo's so worried, he's feeling guilty that you - "
"Hey, aren't I supposed to be the hysterical oner here?" Leila asked, a little bemused. Noin shut up immediately.
"Sorry." She said sheepishly, before composing herself. "I needed that. You're a few kilometres away from the major battleground. Your stunt killed at least - let me see - sixty-three of those bastards, mostly the youmas."
"Right." Leila looked down from the communication screen above the main view screen, looking out -
"Well." She said simply, seeing the gundams surrounded on all sides, quickly becoming separated from one another. "Looks like they'll need me after all. Any suggestions?"
"They're good. Really good. But their numbers are the real problem. We could take any of them easy, even the youma dolls. But they're basically crowding around and butchering us." Noin said. "I think we should begin with the explosives before anything else."
Despite being bruised, battered, slashed, in a lot of pain and recovering from a near death experience, Leila found herself grinning. That sounded like a very good idea. "We should go for the youma, ne?" She asked, remembering some of the naive mistakes youma had made before, a plan forming in her head. "Let's hope they're as stupid as those other grunts..."
She smiled, starting up her gundam and flicking off the cloak, setting off for the battle.
~
Quatre threw one of his sickles, dodging the blow of another mobile doll, turning and dispatching it efficiently, mind focused. No matter what, he couldn't allow these things to live and harm the colonies. Or Earth. He frowned again. He hoped miss Relena was alright, but she would have been in one of the first escape pods. She'd probably be fine.
They, on the other hand, he admitted to himself, were not. And probably would not be.
The task force was primarily an in investigation unit. Approximately thwenty-five fighters, also with ship defenses. And against enemies like these, not very effective. Another gundam would have been more helpful. And they'd make a quick retreat pretty soon. Unfortunately, they themselves didn't have that option.
It was then he detected something else on his sensors. Not quite a doll. It flashed differently from the rest of their enemies, whether normal or - demon - based. Come to think of it, he would've thought it was a gundam. He braced himself, looking to his left and expecting some all powerful new enemy to handle.
What he did see made him gape, relieved for the temporary break he had. A mobile doll would've easily killed him. He blinked once, very hard, before closing his mouth, and switching on the speaker.
"Uh guys? There's something odd to my left," He said, rattling off the coordinates.
"We're a bit busy, Winner." Wufei grunted back.
"I thought you might want to know though."
"Yeah, yeah - " Duo paused. "What the -" Quatre winced - " Is that?"
"It appears to be a humungous version of a porcelain doll, actually. I'd say victorian style, judging by the dress." Quatre said faintly.
The speaker was completely silent.
"What?!" He asked defensively. Then - "NO! It's not like that! I have twenty-nine sisters! Do you know how many of those I had to buy for all their birthdays?!"
"Right Quatre. We believe you."
"Maxwell, leave him alone. Just because you're feeling threatened -"
"Excuse me Wu-man?"
"Don't call me -"
"The doll's moving." Quatre reported.
"Wait!" Milliardo said, not stopping at all in his destructive activities. "Does it have a blue, bell skirt type dress?"
"Yes. A slight variation -"
"And a cute looking teddy bear?"
"Huh? Cute?"
"Actually, yes." Quatre reported, looking closer. "She's hugging it to her chest."
"Obviously some idiot's idea of a fun thing to show off at a party." Heero said sharply. "It has no idea what it's getting into. We better protect it."
"About that..." Quatre said, absently destroying another doll as he observed half the attacking forces break off and go after it. "Most of the demon ones are heading it's way. I don't think we can get there in time."
~
Leila smiled to herself, slightly nervous. Most of the youma were heading her way, attracted by the magic aura she'd exuded. That was good. The others would have an easier time with just half the forces - and the regular type. They'd finish them off in no time, and then head over to give her a hand. Hopefully.
"Leila?" Noin said. "I know you probably don't like this idea, but if you're going to blow them up, you have to let off a few missiles and get out of the area. You'll have to use your empathy if things get hot."
Leila didn't really like that idea. "Right." She said reluctantly. But she had a duty, and it meant doing what she had to.
It seemed she didn't have to do much. Tensing up as the youma stopped, regarding the cute little girl before it curiously, obviously amused.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" She yelled furiously. "It's laughing at me! Noin, it's laughing!"
"Well, it's a big youma. You look like a little girl compared to it. You ARE a little girl." Noin pointed out.
"That's not the point dammit!"
~
Quatre looked off to the side, mouth hanging open slightly, face blank and eyes tiny dots in his head. He was seriously starting to concern Trowa. "Quatre?" He asked once more, swinging his gundam to head over to his friend. And stopped short. At the back of his mind, he noted there didn't seem to be as many mobile dolls.
What looked to be a cute little girl was looking up cutely at the monster, hugging her cuddly looking teddy bear close to her in what was obviously a scared manner. Trowa found himself feeling protective, despite knowing full well it was a big metal robot. He blinked, as a monster flew out from the group surrounding her, patting her on the head. He couldn't help it - he gaped too.
"Both of you now?!" Duo yelled, before going silent, obviously observing the same thing. "Now that is just weird."
The girl was now offering the youma her teddy bear, which was held with both of her gloved hands, face tilted up from underneath her wide-rimmed shallow hat, green eyes glowing slightly. Yep. Definitely weird. The thing regarded the bear intently, having never seen one in it's life. It tentatively lifted the bear out of the girl's hands, turning it curiously within it's own claws. The other, well, things, moved back from the girl, regarding the bear and her in turns. The girl's right hand went to her mouth in a silent giggle before turning and gliding away, towards them, at a leisurely pace.
"Now that's some serious bribery." Duo commented. Once she was a considerable distance away, the girl paused, flying with amazing speed and rushing past them. Heero ordered them to follow her, before she stopped and gave them a cheerful wave, before turning and pointing. They turned around once more -
To see the youma holding the bear - and those around it - disentegrating in a spectacular explosion.
They were silent a moment.
"Oh my God! Heero, did you just see that?!"
"..."
"I think," Trowa ventured, "The teddy bear was some form of explosive."
"Don't even go there!"
"Right." Wufei said simply. "Right. Stupid little onna shows out of nowhere, hands over explosive teddy bear and runs."
"I should've known." Milliardo said, amused. They ignored him.
"What do we do now?" Duo asked.
"My scanners report at least fifteen were destroyed in the explosion." Milliardo reported. "That doesn't leave much left."
"About fifty, actually. But they're all 'altered' dolls." P said. "It looks like you got rid of the regular ones."
"Can we take on fifty more?" Trowa asked. "I'm almost out of ammo."
"I think so." P said. "Milliardo didn't mention how many were injured. Not one of them is undamaged. And now my pilot's decided to show up, I think you can split them up seven each-ish. They're on one side, you're on another. Heero?"
"Trowa, Quatre, get behind us and use your long range weaponry." Heero ordered. "Try to take them out before they reach us. Everyone else form a semi-circle around them, a little below so they can aim over us. Duo, Milliardo, take the sides. Wufei, guard the front with me."
"Wait a minute." Trowa objected. "What did you say about the seventh pilot P?"
"I said Pilot 07's arrived and alive." P said, but they could hear relief in her voice. "Sh - He's the one in my customized gundam. Like it?"
Pause. "Oh - That little girl?" Duo asked, incredulously, even as he took his place beside Trowa. "You're kidding me."
"Excuse me?"
"What kind of guy would be gay enough to pilot a china doll?! Seriously -"
"I designed that china doll."
"He'd have to have some wierd sexual pref - Oh, I mean, it's a very cute little doll, and he shouldn't be piloting it because something pretty like that could get damaged in battle."
"A shame. I designed it for battle."
"Well, he obviously -"
"Just shut up Maxwell." Wufei ordered. "Before you put your foot in it. Again. We have dolls to kill."
Duo winced at his choice of wording. "Right. Kill dolls."
"It's not a doll, Maxwell." P said. "It's a gundam."
Wufei snorted. "Gundam my ass!" He said, sounding offended. Most of them felt offended. "That's no -"
"Oh shut up, Chang." P snarled. She didn't seem to be in a good mood. "Just kill them and get the hell out of there." She sounded worried.
~
Leila blinked then, ignoring the throbbing in her shoulder and stomach. She didn't look down. She didn't particularly want to see the mess it made. But one thing was for sure, it probably looked ugly. And she wasn't sure she could fight for much longer. They weren't critical, but...
She sighed. Fifty three of those jackasses left. That was what, seven each? Right. She'd do her quota and they could handle the leftovers. Bringing her gundam behind and above Heavyarms and Sandrock, she proceeded to take her broad-rimmed hat off and throw it, the energy disk destroying two in a straight line before it returned to her. She took out a staff, firing an energy blast as she cought the hat in her other hand, throwing it again. Four. Three to go. Leila sighed. She was tired, in pain, and didn't want to waste time. She fired another blast, this time holding it and swinging the beam, eliminating another five. There. More than her quota, she thought vaguely to herself, somewhat giddily.
"Leila, head back to base." Noin said, voice alarmed. "I'm inputting the coordinates, just press enter. Okay?"
"Mmph." She mumbled, pressing the button, before leaning back and reaching out for her healing magic, bringing it down on her wounds gently. Considering it was her first time,she couldn't expect to heal it fully, but shcould remove most of the damage. She looked down, wincing slightly but watching in fascination as the worst fo her wounds closed up, the gashes becoming more shallow. It would have to do for now. She was too tired to finish the job.
She sighed and leaned back, heading back for base. The boys could handle the rest.
~
Thank you VERY VERY much for everyone who waited, and I'm sorry it took so long. The delay came from a combination of - power shortages, faulty internet connections, school starting again, and a writer's block plus a chapter that just wouldn't end... So thank you everyone who waited, and I hope I didn't disappoint you!
LadyOracle
P.S MUST REVIEW!!!!!
I've been a little late putting up seven, but I hope you all enjoyed it anyway! Unfortunately, I have no material for a rant in this chapter, but...maybe when I've typed it up I'll have something to talk about. Now you have a general idea of what Leila's gundam looks like, what do you think of it? Granted, I didn't describe it very well, but I think I might do a better job next time!
Right now though, I'm thinking of when Rei and Wufei meet each other. Does she fall for him, try to kill him, or fall for him and THEN try to kill him? Hmm... Though that won't be happening until a lot later on, so I guess I better focus on the present.
Poor Leila, stuck in the ambush... Though it's a good thing she's only afraid of flying and not space...
I now have material for a rant! Though it might not interest you, 'cos I'm just in a bad mood. I was playing this computer game, and I'd just beaten the last boss and everything and I was very proud of myself because I did it all alone without my brother helping (he does that a lot, whether I want him to or not), and DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END?
He died.
The hero of the game died. It turned out the village he came from was actually situated in the underworld, and was created by Dark Gaia (The bad guy we usually know as Satan or the Devil). So the moment he killed Dark Gaia, what do you think happened? Everyone died. He died. Him, his friends, his family, and the one love who waited for him to come back all that time - just died. Though I'm not quite explaining properly. It's not that Dark Gaia kept them alive exactly, but he kept them in existence in the underworld. So without him holding everything together, everyone just fades and their souls get sent into rebirth. But rebirth doesn't really matter, because Ark (or Dark Ark - which is the world he comes from) is the Legendary Hero who is ONLY awakened when the world is in danger. So there goes that.
WHAT KIND OF CRAP ENDING IS THAT HUH?
I mean, he saved the world! He saved two worlds, and it turns out that the Light Ark, who did crap all in the game but die years earlier so WAS COMPLETELY USELESS, gets to go back to HIS world and HIS love, but Dark Ark, who saved both worlds at least three times, did so much work and everything, sacrificed so much, left his girlfriend to enter a world he knew nothing about to save it, just dies.
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?
I know that happily-ever-after is stereotypical and used a lot, but I'm not saying the ending deserved to be totally happy. You'd think he'd be able to live out his life with his girlfriend (who by the way, sacrificed herself for him and was brought back just to die AGAIN), but no, not even that. No goodbyes, no 'maybe I'll stay in this world because I'm happy here' stuff. He just dies. I mean, after everything he deserves at least a half decent ending, right? I swear....
I'll tell you one thing - it was a really good game before I got to the ending. Now I don't ever want to play it again. ARGH! I mean, all that work for such a bad ending!
But don't mind that. I just needed to get it out of my system....
Disclaimer - I do not own either Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon.
P.S - I know some of you have mentioned there's no romance yet... I'd like to say I'm very sorry, because I don't think I'm very good at writing in romance. But I'll try...I really will!
P.P.S I just read my 50th review! WOW! I actually inspired a person to write a fic! That makes me feel really proud of myself! I wish you good luck! And for ALL my reviewers, thanks for the encouragement! Pretty much everyone who's reviewed has told me to - wait for it - write MORE!!!! And I assure you I SHALL! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
P.P.P.S - I'll leave you to the chapter now...
P.P.P.P.S - Does anyone know how to do accents?! Like in deja vu? 'Cos like I said, I really know next to nothing about this stuff...
CHAPTER 8
"Shit!" Duo swore, as literally hundreds of mobile dolls converged on the shuttle. The others were already powering up and heading toward it as he shot forward ahead of them, using every inch of his speed to get there before the enemy could. It was obvious that the small - investigative - task force couldn't help against something as massively staged as what was before him.
"The standard procedure for the task force is to get a scan and as much information as possible and get the hell out of there." Quatre said to them as he tried to catch up with Duo, a hopeless attempt. "They won't be able to help."
"And back up's at least a day away." Trowa added grimly. "It's just us."
"Hn." Heero acknowledged. "Duo, Quatre, protect the shuttle. We can't let them get Relena. Trowa, Wufei, form a point triangle. Don't lose sight of each other, and stay close enough so we can keep an eye on each other's backs."
"No problem." Duo muttered, aiming for a mobile doll that was heading on a kamikaze run for the shuttle. He darted in front of it, blowing it to smithereens before it had a chance to react. "Bring it on, assholes!" He yelled out to the looming wave of mobile dolls, as Quatre maneuvred to the other side of the shuttle.
They were only too happy to comply.
~
Leila had faced a lot of things in her time in the universe. She'd taken on countless youma, the doom and gloom girls, gathered enough strength to return after death and channel the part of the ginzuishou that contained the power of Jupiter to take away the strain of Usagi fully using it - which would kill her. That was pretty hard for a ghost. Then of course, she'd had to take on diabolic evil tree huggers. And then there were the royal family wannabes, the old 'wise' bugger, the flower from hell (which, she thought indignantly, shouldn't have happened - how could something as sweet as a flower be evil?) - Mistress nine, Galaxia, Chaos... And probably stuff in between that she'd missed.
Oh, and the fact that she'd died at least four times over a span of two years. Five over a period of one thousand years.
But, she'd always been one of the first to run in, and one of the first to go down. Granted, that wasn't neccessarily a good trait, but it indicated she always got involved.
Strapped in on a shuttle that could possibly blow up any minute, sitting by and doing nothing was NOT anywhere on top of her to-do list. And it was SO not involved.
Leila's first reaction was to find an escape pod and get the hell out of the shuttle. But a circular little escape pod shooting from what seemed to be a motion dead shuttle would attract serious attention. She wouldn't last a minute. And the shuttle had better defense. So she couldn't really do anything.
Of course, Ami commented. You could do the smart thing and get away from the passenger wing - notice how it has the shiny windows and is so obviously the passenger section that anyone from the outside can see it? It seemed tight situations made Ami more tart.
Well, there was that. Leila unstrapped herself, quickly getting out of her seat and immediately steadying herself for the next jerk. It didn't come. She frowned, looking out of the view.
To be met with the sight of ... nothing.
No stars, nothing.
Looking closer, she saw that the nothing was a hunk of metal. Purple and black metal
Deathscythe Hell was protecting the shuttle. And probably taking any blows coming her way.
But why? They must have known the shuttle was programmed and practically empty except for a skeleton crew... Unless they'd tuned into the nearest satellite -
Kami. Kami. Duo... Something twisted in her stomach before she mentally kicked herself. It was Relena he was protecting, not her. For all he knew, Leila was back at the dorm after school lounging around reading comic books.
But he could die...He had no idea what he was in for...
Probably a better idea than you. Now get your ass out of there! Rei commanded. Leila complied, mind frantically working. But there was nothing she could do. It was up to the boys now.
~
Heero frowned, dodging a mobile doll as he brought his saber on it's back. They were much faster than the usual type, he noted. He wondered what new training the pilots had been subjected to. Then -
"Yui!"
Heero was already on it, swinging his saber up and dodging to the side as the two remaining halves of the other mobile doll collided into one of it's friends.
"No, behi-"
Heero swung, to see it cut down very quickly and efficiently.
"Really Yui, you forgot me. I'm so hurt." Milliardo commented dryly. Heero and the others quickly compensated, forming into a square around the shuttle. The damn dolls just kept coming. They were like a swarm literally rolling forward. "I saw about twenty Tauruses around here somewhere." Milliardo reported quietly to him on a private channel. "But apart from that, I don't think there's any real variety of units. They just got the most convenient. Fairly fast, though."
"Mm." Heero agreed, swerving aside.
"Well," Trowa pointed out. "They don't seem too hard. I don't think we really have to worry."
"Speak for youself, Trowa," Quatre's worried voice said over the speakers. "My scanners say there's at least three hundred, with more still coming. And it's me and Duo they're focusing on!"
"And the assholes won't give up!" Duo yelled furiously. Of all of them, it seemed Duo was recieving the most attention from the dolls. Glancing over, Heero saw why. Duo was blocking the dolls from making any direct hits to the passenger side. It seemed they were quite singular about their target.
Relena.
"Duo, are you alright?" He asked, turning back to his own foes.
"Me? Brilliant!" Duo said grimly.
He was matching his own foes speed for speed, cutting them down as quickly as they came and getting as much advantage out of his long range weapon as he could. All in all, he was doing an impressive job.
Trowa, of course, was making use of his well-known artillery, literally blowing up masses of dolls with carefully planned missiles. Not one had gotten close to him yet. Heero figured he could handle himself.
Quatre, not having as much an advantage of long distance combat as either of them, was doing a very good job, and holding his own with little difficulty, despite numbers.
Wufei was currently locked in single combat with one of the more difficult dolls, blade for blade. The other pilot was, Heero noted, quite crafty, using every known trick in the book, and a few unknown ones, to get Wufei off-balance and at disadvantage. So far none had worked, but he had to give the pilot credit. Heero focused on his own targets, keeping an eye on Wufei.
Block, parry, block, parry. It was a bit eerie the way the doll moved - not quite like a robot - but Heero dismissed it, turning back to his own battle.
Wufei scowled at the opponent before him. It seemed to prefer swordsmanship to the normal battle style, which offput him a little, but he was up to the job. The mobile dolls around them avoided the battle entirely, indicating the doll was probably the leader. That was fine with Wufei. All the more reason to destroy it. He met the opponents blade once more and felt himself pushed back, before sliding the blade aside. The mobile doll took advantage of his openness and raised it's blade for an overhead slice.
Leaving it's torso entirely unguarded.
Which was what Wufei was waiting for.
There were, he reflected, quite a few disadvantages with the conventional sword style. He thrust forward, neatly slicing his sword horizontally through the torso of his opponent with a yell of victory.
"You are down." he declared with satisfaction., before turning to the other dolls.
To find they had all stopped.
"Huh?" What the hell? Had he just started something?
"Chang. Have your dolls stopped attacking?" Heero asked.
"Actually, yes."
"Not mine dammit!" Duo yelled out, slicing another opponent neatly down the middle. Then - "What the - holy shit!" Wufei glanced over.
First he couldn't see what Duo was freaking out over. The doll was entirely still in space, granted. After being sliced the pieces should have floated off, but apart from that...
Wufei then looked at his own former opponent. His eyes widened as he noticed the same had happened with his doll. Except, on both the bottom and top parts...the metal seemed to be - bubbling. Twisting writhing, before something - that looked a lot like metallic flesh - burst through. It was actually a very gruesome sight, if one considered what looked to be green blood and - other stuff - trailing from the blows - no, the wounds now - that Wufei had dealt.
"Holy hell." He murmured. Quite fitting actually. He could think of no other place things like that could spawn from.
"Huh? What's wrong, Wufei?" Quatre asked. From his view he wouldn't have seen either Duo or Wufei, being on the opposite side of the shuttle.
"Duo," Wufei asked, ignoring him. "Are all of them changing or -"
"It's just a few." Heero interjected. His voice sounded very strange. Wufei didn't blame him. He felt like throwing up himself.
Suddenly, the - flesh - grew from both parts of the severed mobile doll, twining and merging together, skin bulging and bubbling as it did so. It was very disgusting. And it was alive. Very sickeningly alive. Wufei watched, transfixed, as veins and arteries began bulging out, only to be hidden by the growing flesh. He watched as the robotic fingers bubbled and lengthened, forming into claw-like appendages. As the form curled in on itself into foetal position. As hair slowly seemed to grow from it's bald, naked head. As eyelids and eyelashed started forming. Bile rose at the back of Wufei's mouth.
And then, it opened it's metallic eyes.
That was about the time all hell broke loose, as Duo's doll uncurled and clawed at him, fangs bared. Duo slashed, but it moved back, not human but a wary animal. Then, without indication, it started to the side, ramming Duo away from the ship.
"Duo!" Quatre yelled out. "I'm reading something big from the sensors!"
Wufei didn't pay attention - he was too busy warding off his own newly reborn opponent.
Milliardo did, though, finishing off his opponent and looking back at the shuttle -
To see a big, organic, flesh-like version of a spaceship literally drop on to the shuttle from nothingness, the flesh reforming and melding itself to get a better hold on the shuttle, the majority of it's mass firmly held in place one the passenger wing side.
If the dolls couldn't destroy the shuttle itself, the enemy would lose on it's own terms.
~
Right. So what exactly does a person do in the middle of a battle if they're not fighting? Leila wondered, almost giddily as she jogged slowly down the hall. She would be running, but her shoes - Relena's shoes, damn that stupid girl's taste in fashion - greatly impeded her movement. There was another jerk, and she tripped on those afore-mentioned heels.
"Stupid pieces of -"
That was before the lights went out. Along with the humming that indicated the shuttle was running.
Well, that was just wonderful. She was stuck on board not only a motion dead, but POWER dead shuttle. Life was good. Without the power for doors to open and shut -
She was stuck. Leila could only thank the gods she'd gotten stuck in one of a numerous maze of hallways. The shuttle was fairly big, despite it's one passenger and skeleton crew of less than fifteen. Come to think of it, she hoped they were okay. At least in the hallways she wouldn't be a sitting duck. She could move if a stray - or not so stray - shot hit.
Right now, though, she felt like sitting down. What was that awful feeling she felt a few minutes ago? She let her mind wonder.
She might be empathic, but with her abilities only starting to take root, it couldn't be that directly...
Leila wasn't psychic. She didn't have spiritual abilities like Rei, but Minako had once told her that after fighting the negaverse for so long (considering she fought by herself for at least two years), she always seemed to break out in goosebumps whenever she was near a youma. It wasn't that she could pinpoint a youma, like Rei, or Ami with her computer, but she just seemed to know when one was nearby. Makoto had found she had a sense of uneasiness when a youma was nearby. Could it be that same sense, but enhanced by her empathy this time?
If that was right, then it meant the youma had started manifesting in their mobile dolls. She wondered what that could do.
Leila once had an (ex)boyfriend from America, who'd shown her a computer game he'd called starcraft. She hadn't really paid attention to the battles and all that, but she remembered a race called zerg or something, which had the ability to take over machines - and humans. They looked a bit - freaky. She hated to admit it, but when her imagination had tried to envision what would happen when a youma took over, it likened it a bit to the zerg - they'd called it infestation, hadn't they?
She shrugged. There was no use imagining what was going on outside. Her responsibilty was to find whoever was on the shuttle and figure out a way to get them out of this whole thing alive. She got back up, and started out for the crew deck.
Leila felt - uneasy. Very, very uneasy. And she didn't know why.
That was of course, before the shuttle lurched violently - a bit like a raft or boat with too much weight on one side. Come to think of it, it lurched back towards the passenger wing -
The passenger wing... It looked like Duo gave out.
Leila shoved aside her worry. It was not time to panic about Duo. Or Quatre. Or any of the other pilots. It was time to find the crew and figure out a way to get off the ship... Without dying. Which meant she'd have to get them in escape pods, but where could she send them? There were youma and mobile dolls everywhere...
She sighed and started running. Before uneasiness tightened around her like a blanket. Everywhere. Leila stopped. It was a lot, lot stronger than before. Something told her the youma were a lot, lot closer. A sense of strange calmness settled on Leila.
Youma had boarded the shuttle.
She kicked off the stupid heels and sprinted. The lurch must have been another shuttle latching on. Which meant the youma would be coming from the passenger wing - that was good. There were at least three double doors for them to break through, not that they'd have much trouble. But they wouldn't try that just yet. They'd be looking for a passenger who'd already high- tailed it out of there.
Before knowing it, Leila had already reached the crew deck. Before coming face to face with a door. And it sure as hell wasn't budging.
Dammit!
She slammed on the door. "Is anyone in there?" She yelled out. Recieving a reply, she looked at the door. "Can you get the door open?" She yelled once more.
"We can try." A different voice responded. "But with the shuttle power dead it's going to take a hell of a lot of time."
Time was the one thing they didn't have. "What type of power do the doors work on?" She asked.
"Electricity." The man sounded puzzled. "What else?"
Electricity. She grinned.
"Do you know where the power comes from for the door to work? Is there a battery or something or -" She shrugged helplessly, knowing they couldn't see. She didn't know much about electronics, but if all she had to do was charge up that battery -
"There's a console beside the door that operates it." The man instructed doubtfully. "But I don't think that's going to help."
Leila ignored him, breathing a prayer to whoever was listening and removing a glove, placing her bare hand on the console. She didn't even know if this would work, but she couldn't run around looking for the main power... She close her eyes, summoning electricity and lightning down her arm.
Instead of frying the circuitry, as she half expected, it followed her will and seeped into the console and door. She hesitated, removing her hand and looking at all the buttons, before pressing the biggest. The biggest buttons, she reflected, tended to be the safest. It was the little harmless looking ones you had to be cautious about...
To her relief, the door slid open without argument. She strode in before -
"Miss Peacecraft!" A man in uniform rose to greet her. "We tried to get to you but the power went out before we could -" Leila waved him silent. She jsut hoped no one would ask how she got the door open.
"Do you have escape pods here?" She asked.
"Of course. And we'll need to get you on one-"
"You can't do that." Leila snapped, without meaning to, If there were youma on the shuttle - and she was sure there were - she needed to get innocents out of the way before she dealt with them. "Is everyone on the shuttle in here?" Recieving affirmation, she nodded. "Good. We've just been boarded. We don't have a chance against -" She bit down on her tongue. "Armed and trained men like these. We need to get off the shuttle, but I need to make sure you'll survive escaping."
"True, Your Highness." The captain agreed. "But my orders were to keep you safe, and that means..." He went on, but Leila didn't pay attention. She should have known hoodwinking Relena would have it's disadvantages. These men would send her off and wait to die. She couldn't let them do that.
Which meant..."I'm not Relena Peacecraft." She said aloud. "I am a decoy used in case a situation like this should pop up." She paused, and waited for that to sink in. "Now, I order you to-"
"With all due respect, Your Highness," Another man interrupted. "That's not going to work. I've seen Relena Peacecraft heaps of times, and you look exactly like her."
This sucked. This really sucked. She could detransform, but then they'd be able to identify her, and they wouldn't listen anyway. They'd start panicking and yelling and pointing and -
She didn't have time for this. Leila felt the uneasiness start creeping up on her. She needed to get these men off and she needed their full obedience and cooperation. "You don't understand. In order to defeat the enemy we'd have to - " But the man was already ignoring her, sending out orders for the officers to escort her to a pod. She panicked, before an idea dawned on her.
It was radical and stupid, and she couldn't believe she even thought of it. But desperate times called for desperate measures. She held up a clenched hand to her mouth, whispering something.
The men all stopped as a silver glow surrounded her, her hair growing longer - and silver. Which was what she wanted. Leila hadn't met an angel in her life and had absolutely no idea what one would look like, but she figured Queen Serenity would do the trick, as long as she let her hair down from the buns. The wings were a good addition.
They all gaped. "Oh my God." A man whispered fearfully.
"I am not Relena Peacecraft." She said calmly. "Relena is currently on Colony L1 in a magical sleep I placed her in. I am an angel. I have been sent from the heavens to watch over you."
She couldn't believe she was doing this.
"I took Relena's place to ensure the safety of the crew on this ship. We have been boarded. But we have not been boarded by normal men, but youma. Demons. Monsters." She gazed around. Well, one thing was for sure - she'd gotten their attention. "In order to destroy them, this ship must self- destruct, which is why I need your help and cooperation. You must leave on escape pods, but I must know the code to self-destructing the ship."
Leila fervently hoped angels could get away with not being omnipotent.
"But there's no power to self-destruct the shuttle!" A man objected faintly, awed at the holy being in their presence. "With the power down it can't do anything."
"There must be power." She replied patiently, as a goodly angel/saint person should. "Because the life support is on. Where do you self-destruct the ship?" It was a good a reason as any if it would get them off ship. She didn't actually intend on doing it. She just needed the crew out of her way. Besides, it never hurt to have the passwirds into the main computer. And self-destruct needed the highest clearance.
"From the main computer." The captain said eagerly. "That's at the center of the ship." He quickly gave her the access codes and instructions, and Leila memorized them easily, though incredulously. Bambi???
"Thank you." She said gravely. "Do escape pods have computer transmitters?"
"Yes." The captain said, bowing his head in deference to heavenly beauty before him. The said beauty gravely inclined her head.
"Good. You must use the rudimentary steering abilities of your pods to get to the task force who will have been observing the battle. But you must send a message to the gundam pilots to get clear. No one must see you. Not the gundams, not the enemy. That will be difficult but not impossible." If the gundams could see them, the enemy definitely could.
"We can dispose of the ship's waste while we're escaping," A man suggested eagerly. "It would provide cover, and no one would go too close in case of being hit by debris."
"Do that. But you must promise me you will get off now. If you do not, I cannot account for what will happen to you." She said softly. "Now I must go. Fare well, and may you return to your loved ones."
With that, she glided from the room, even as men started running for the escape pods with cries of 'Bless God' or something like that. She shut the door behind her and withdrew the electricity from it, to impede any youma heading that way.
She then turned around, changed back to plain old Leila - with sneakers, and ran for the center of the ship.
Way to go Leila, she thought sarcastically to herself. The battle was going fine, and you were safe and out of it, but no, you had to feel useless and want to get in on the action. And now you've gone and got all the bloody action you could possibly want. You just had to bloody jinx yourself, didn't you?
So now she was on a suicide mission with a freaking twist. Leila turned a corner -
And ran into a man.
Hadn't all the crew gotten into the pods by now? She wondered. But her uneasiness level went up by about three hundred. It looked like the bastard was a youma. It was a shame, really. He was a cute one too.
"Um..." What type of stuff did youma talk about? She suddenly wondered to herself. Did they watch T.V shows of Evil Queen Mordicia and her quest to kill Glinda the Good Witch, or did they even have television? Did they talk about boys or girls, or did they discuss whether children's energy was more tasty than adults, or were adults a more refined taste?
"If you're looking for Relena she went that way." she said immediately, pointing to the hallway on her right. If she recalled right it went to a dead end with some room, though it took at least a five minute walk to get there.
The man didn't even miss a step. He nodded at her and headed down the hallway.
Leila blinked. She hadn't actually expected that to work. Was it her, or was that youma extremely stupid?
More men/youma/thingies ran up, in rows of three. "Relena's down the hallway." She said immediately, pointing once more. They ALL turned and rushed down there. They didn't even bother draining her, which was what she had once jokingly deemed 'standard youma procedure'.
All right. It seemed Jadeite was brainwashing his youma to follow orders. Good in a way, but it also made them very, very idiotic. She shook her head and continued the way they came from. Or maybe they were just his cannon fodder. They felt...wrong, really, for youmas. They must be the youma-human hybrids Setsuna was telling her about.
But considering she had just met a little over twenty youma, Leila came to the conclusion that, no, she couldn't take them on. But she couldn't very well let them get away.
Well, it looked like she really was going to self-destruct the damn thing.
Leila swore and changed her course for the center of the shuttle.
~
"My Lord." A voice echoed around the room. "We were unable to destroy the shuttle."
"So I had gathered." Jadeite responded dryly, not bothering to turn around. "A rather pathetic job, considering the odds were in your favour by a few hundred or more dolls. I'm not impressed, Tiami."
The woman stiffened, the vision she projected wavering slightly. "However, we managed to board the shuttle. Our men will presently take care of Relena." To her surprise, Jadeite whirled around.
"How did you manage to board the ship?" He asked curiously, seemingly bored. Tiami wasn't fooled.
"We latched onto the passenger wing of the shuttle with our own commanding ship." She responded, albeit cautiously.
"Ah. That would require dropping the cloaking shield, correct?"
"Yes sir."
"I made it very, very clear to you that wasn't to happen, Tiami. I suppose the youma completely infested their dolls also, correct?"
"The field leader was severely damaged in the battle, my lord."
"Ah. And they had triggered reactions from his own transformation."
"The ones close to him,yes. But not all."
Jadeite stepped forward, and Tiami had to refrain herself from stepping back, reminding herself he was only there in image.
"When I came back for you Tiami," Jadeite told her softly. "I assumed it was because you would prove yourself. Tell me what you have done wrong."
She remained silent.
"You brought yourself from out of cloak. That places yourself in danger." Tiami eyed him questioningly. "If you die, this whole task force will go into disarray. Secondly, you were stupid enough to allow the field leader to become harmed in battle, triggering a reaction from the youma around him. Do you understand exactly what that means?" He continued on, not allowing her to speak. "It means you have given away one of our advantages. Mistake number three - you have given sufficient data to imply we are neither Earth nor colony forces, but an outside party. What was the objective of this mission?"
"To - create strife between Earth and - the colonies - by killing Relena Peacecraft..."
"Correct. Revealing ourselves as an outside force will only serve to unite them. Now, back to mistake number two. What else does revealing ourself imply?"
The answer dawned on her... "It implies...we are not of human origin."
"Correct. We may also be compared to youma occurrences in Japan. What else is in Japan, Tiami?"
"The Sailor Senshi." Tiami replied softly.
"Correct also. Explain to me why I should not kill you now." Jadeite said flatly.
Tiami was silent, regarding him. "Because the battle is still in process," She said, resigned. "It would be wiser to kill me when I return."
To her surprise, he nodded approvingly. "Despite some stupid tendencies, you're a smart girl." He approved. "You see the situation at hand and make no unneccessary presumptions. Where are you now?" Jadeite queried, eyeing the well-lit background behind his lieutenent.
"I am currently at the central mainframe of the colony shuttle." She reported. "The human-youma hybrids have been sent to seek out Peacecraft. I've ordered them to search everywhere. When we latched on we burnt through the passenger view deck to make an entrance. When our ship detaches itself the broken seal will cause the shuttle to implode."
Jadetie nodded. "Continue. Your troops seem to be doing fine. Leave this to the task leader and return via your private ship as soon as possible, preferably before the battle ends. I must speak with you at our next convenient opportunity, to clean up this mess you have caused."
"Yes, my -" But Jadeite had already gone, and Tiami swore, turning on her boot heel as she walked off, directing her troops as she headed back to the passenger wing and the command ship - where her own smaller one was located.
But as she walked down one of the smaller hallways, she noted that there didn't seem to be any troops...
"Kali." She called out.
Kali was a pure youma, one which Tiami thought would be wise to bring along, as the hybrids were nothing more than idiotic grunts. If she was going to leave the mission, she ought to entrust it to someone with brains. Also, Kali was strong as a fighter also, and knew how to cow her troops.
The said woman blurred and appeared in front of her, light violet skin glinting in the shuttle lighting. Her shoulder length pale blue hair shimmered unnaturally. Other than that, she could have been perfectly human. "Lady Tiami."
"I've been summoned, so you'll be in command." Tiami told her. "Think you're up to it?"
Kali nodded, before looking around with a frown. "Where are the troops assigned to this wing?" She asked Tiami. "They should be crawling all over the place."
"That's what I was wondering." Tiami said grimly. "Let's check this up before I leave, shall we?"
Kali nodded as they both located the energy signatures of their troops and headed down a side hallway. They walked a while in silence until they saw men in the hallway, trying to shove in an already crowded room. They literally spilled out of the doorway. "And what is going on here?" Kali demanded softly. Nevertheless, her voice carried. The troops stopped, turning to her.
One stepped forward, saluting. "Lady Kali, we are investigating a room that supposedly holds queen Relena in it."
Kali *looked* at Tiami ruefully. "Ah. All of you?"
The man looked around. "All of us."
"What gave you the impression she was in this room?"
"Well," the man said, "One of the passengers told us she went this way. They seem to believe we are the natural crew of this shuttle."
"They do." She deadpanned. "And she told ALL of you that Peacecraft was down this hallway."
"Correct. This seems to be the only room at the end."
"Ah. What does this girl look like?"
"She was short," One man said.
"Had red hair," Another offered. "And green eyes."
Tiami ignored Kali's questioning, a sign above the door catching her eye. "Soldiers."
"Yes ma'am."
"Are you aware this is the men's room?"
They looked at her blankly.
"The men's bathroom. Are you aware this is the men's bathroom?"
The soldiers nodded, trying to look intelligent.
"Explain to me," Tiami asked testily, "Why a female would be in a MEN'S room?"
They were silent.
"You know, the bathroom - for MEN?"
The soldiers stilled. Something finally began to click in their head.
"How long have you been in here?" Tiami asked.
They were all silent once more. And those were just the ones outside.
"Idiots. Complete idiots." Kali murmured to her. Tiami nodded.
"So why did you all shove yourselves down this hallway when you knew other soldiers were checking it out?"
There was an uncomfortable rustling. "Well, we weren't -"
"OUT! OUT ALL OF YOU YOU PIECES OF -" Kali bellowed. They all jumped and ran, allowing the men inside the room to hear her. Kali didn't bothered shouting even more. Her black orbs flashed blood red -
And they all SLAMMED out of the room. Which, Tiami noted, was pretty impressive. Despite the fact the room was crowded and the doorway was only so big, Kali had managed to drag them all out with her telekinetic ability.
Of course, Kali hadn't actually bothered with the door.
If colony L1 ever got the shuttle back, they'd be doing some massive repairs to the men's bathroom wall.
Kali sniffed scornfully at the bloody mass in front of her and turned on her heel, walking off. Tiami followed suit. "I think you've got things handled." Tiami commented. "I don't know much about computers of this time period, but if you head back to the central computer you can see the whole shuttle via cameras. You may find it easier to locate the girl."
"I am honoured by your confidence in me." Kali responded, nodding.
"Not misplaced, I hope." Tiami said. She doubted it. Kali was efficient. Highly efficient. "I'll be leaving then?" Kali nodded, and they split at the next hallway, heading opposite directions.
~
Leila swore, sliding into the seat and typing in various passwords. There were so many! Though she understood why. She was just glad she'd managed to memorize all those instructions the captain gave her. Who the hell would name a password after what looked to be movies?
Indiana Jones, Star Wars...Bambi??? The computer technician had one hell of a social life, obviously. And the next clearance password was... The Miko.
What was that? Obviously the other titles were american or something, but that definitely was the Miko. A play? A novel by a crappy western writer trying to make eastern culture into something dramatic enough for a western movie? If she knew right, most westerners couldn't have a movie without two things - 1) Action and guns and the good guy winning, and 2) Romance. Take that James Bond person, for instance. He got a different girl every single movie!!!! Talk about horny. Not only that, sometimes he managed to sleep with three or more people in a movie!
Leila *then* started wondering what the hell was she thinking, idly debating about western movies when she was trying to self-destruct a shuttle. her hands quickly typed in various clearances - Kami, she didn't honestly think she'd need all twenty passwords that captain gave her, but it seemed to look like it - she'd already used seven.
Unless, her new found memories said, you take a shortcut.
How? She asked.
Easy. You do this and this and this - She let her memories take over once more, bypassing clearances and finally - FINALLY, typing in the codes for self-destruct.
After she'd pressedd the enter button, she'd have to avoid all those soldiers and *somehow* make a run for the pod before the damn thing blew up.
Within fiften minutes. And with the shuttle modified, there was no way there'd be any nearby pods. She couldn't make a run for them. Or maybe she could... If she stretched it. Leila was a realist. She wouldn't be able to stretch it.
She sighed and accessed the security system on another monitor...infra- red scanners? Why would they use those...Oh. Tracking down intruders.That. She brought it up and the screen displayed a map of the shuttle and its floors, tracking down what had to be hundreds of dots moving around, about fifty holed up in one area near to where she'd been before. Suddenly, she noticed they'd started moving out from there, and very quickly.
The place was crawling with those things. Ugh. Wait. If there was a way to track down what was happening IN the shuttle - then, at the piloting station - she'd be able to find out what was happening outside.
Right. Leila might be going down, but she was sure as hell bringing as many of those bastards as she could with her. If she could pilot a gundam, she could sure as hell pilot a shuttle. How hard could it be?
Smiling grimly, she pressed enter. The self-destruct process had begun. She spun from her seat -
And came face to face to a very pretty woman.
More specifically, a pretty woman with blue hair and purple skin.
Oh. Shit. How screwed was she.
"Hi!" She began, amazingly cheerful. "I don't suppose you're after Relena too?"
Before Leila could blink, she started hurting all over.
That might, of course, be because she'd been thrown into a wall.
She blinked once more before sliding *down* the wall. Battle senses kicking in, she rolled forward in mid-air, landing in a crouch on the floor. Considering the woman hadn't moved an inch from her previous spot, Leila found that a bit concerning. To no avail, she felt herself being picked up again into the air.
Oh no. She wasn't letting that happen again.
Without even thinking Leila felt a ball of energy form in her hands, and taking aim, she threw.
It was not a ball of electricity. It was from Leila's reserves of white magic, and completely harmless. Not lethal in any magical way, except maybe for undead (providing computer games had the right idea).
But even a youma would react to something as hard as a baseball breaking their nose.
In Kali's case, the reaction was going beserk.
~
After determining that running fast tended to throw off the telekinetic youma's ability to get a proper hold on her, Leila was now running for her life, and as far away from her would-be-killer as possible.
It was, she reflected, looking back on her actions, a very stupid thing to piss her off.
'Her' being the scary psychotic evil bitch with glowing red eyes that was flying after her with amazing speed, fangs bared. As Leila didn't feel like being bitten - or clawed, or smashed through any MORE computers - she decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and that keeping alive for the moment was work enough.
Needless to say, this indicated that keeping alive at that point in time was very, very, difficult. Leila was already suffering from numerous bruises spread all over her back, and a sprained right wrist. Her shirt was torn and slightly scuffed at the front from numerous scratches and minor electric burns - courtesy of being thrown ONTO a computer. Her opponent being telekinetic meant Leila didn't need to be close to be 'grabbed', or 'punched', so to speak. It also meant she couldn't get anywhere near her opponent without ending up upside down with endless pains. Usually against some wall. Not only did she have to run extra fast to compensate for the youma's speed in flight, she had to somehow get to the crew deck and the piloting station, which would be extremely difficult, considering what was probably two hundred youma between her and her intended target, the crew deck and piloting controls
How much more screwed can a person get?!
"Oh shit!" Leila instantly regretted her rhetorical question as three of those two hundred youma - previously mentioned - just decided to pop up in front of her and say 'hi!' from a small side hallway.
In an impressive feat of courage and speed (aka - desperation), Leila instantly lashed her foot out, moving into a crouch and footsweeping them hard enough to send two of them into the air (courtesy of the electricity surrounding that said foot), rolling forward underneath one and rising smoothly into a fighting pose, from which she grabbed one man as he came down and threw him back at her other - more important - concern with a quick judo move. She then continued running without looking back.
"I just had to ask, didn't I?" She mumbled viciously between breaths, noting with relief that the crew deck wasn't too far off. Of course, before she went in there she'd have to dispatch of a few slight annoyances tailing her -
Which meant she'd better stand and fight. Well. Now was a good a time as any.
Leila turned to face the hallway she'd just run out of, catching her breath and preparing for a) a bunch of pissed off youmas to burst out, b) being moved/thrown about by no visible means, or c) some new type of youma attack.
Unfortunately, what she hadn't expected was d) gunfire, as she threw herself out of the way with senshi reflexes upon hearing the explosive sound. "Jupiter Crystal power - make up!" She yelled out, coming to her feet and moving into a defensive position.
Nothing happened. "Nande kuso?!" She muttered, waiting to the side for the youma to appear. It seemed the gunfire wasn't stopping anytime soon. If she couldn't transform, she was screwed! The senshi uniform, while skimpy, did provide a lot of protection where it did cover - and it was bulletproof. "Jupiter Crystal power, make up." She murmured again, voice soft. It was then the first soldier burst out of the hall, and Leila was glad it was only narrow enough for one person to fit through at a time, kicking the gun out of it's hands, jump-kicking him in the head as her hand automatically reached behind her without her even realising.
Her hand whipped out with a fire patterned fan - similar to the one on her gundam. Instead of lunging forward, like she would have, she actually *danced* back, left hand swinging diagonally up and across her torso, wrist flicking out the fan gracefully. As the fan flicked out, so did a wave of fire, incinerating the youma easily.
"Courtesy of Mars." She said in satisfaction, whipping the fan sideways into the second youma, this time actually *cutting* through his torso. The cut began to sizzle afterward, like Deathscythe had. Leila focused on the fan, and flapped it once. The cut burst into flames. It was quite impressive, actually.
The third soldier wouldn't be as stupid. Leila flipped back twice, a fan appearing in her other hand, this time - pink? She didn't have time to wonder over it, the man throwing himself out of the hallway with his machine gun firing rapidly, the bullets tracking toward her in a wide arc. She threw the fan at him, and threw herself back instintively, not quite knowing why -
- But understanding a moment later as an explosion of electricity followed. Granted, she was immune to *electricity*, but the shockwave that followed would have really hurt if she'd been closer. Pink sparkles swirled around her right hand as the fan returned to it's owner. Flipping back onto her feet, she raced into the crew deck - how the hell had the youma gotten the power back on?! And waited for the to close behind her, a ball of electricity gathered around one clenched fist. She then threw it at the control panel. It wouldn't be opening for a while, that was for sure, she congratulated herself, looking at the melting area of metal and plastic that was once a piece of complex technology.
She really didn't want to face that woman just yet. Leila trotted toward the piloting console.
~
"Winner!" Heero called over the speaker. "Any info on the shuttle?"
"No." Quatre said, voice tense. As soon as that...thing had settled over the shuttle, it had steered it away into masses of enemy mobile dolls. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get close to it.
"Dammit!" Duo snarled. "What the hell are we supposed to do if we can't get to the shuttle?!"
"We can't keep blasting our way through." Trowa said calmly, but with faint undertones of worry. "There are too many. And I don't know how much my artillery can hold out."
They watched helplessly, regrouping. "Any ideas, Noin?" Milliardo asked.
"Yes." Madam P cut in. "Move as far away from the shuttle as you can."
"What?!"
"The shuttle's their primary concern, you're their secondary. Move away, let them think they've won and figure out a plan while you're not being worn down by mobile dolls." She said, indifferent to their disbelief. "We've recieved a message from escaped crew members asking us to do the same."
"Escaped?" Quatre asked. "I didn't see any escaping."
"The shuttle emptied it's waste materials into space a few minutes ago." Trowa pointed out. "The escape pods could have been hidden among the debris..."
"And here I thought it was a diversion tactic to help us." Duo muttered.
"So now what?" Trowa asked Heero, morosely. Heero knew why.
They'd lost. And they didn't like it one little bit.
"Follow orders." He said softly, eyes on the shuttle.
"P!" Milliardo said. "You know she could still be in there! We can't just pull back and -"
"Pull back." P ordered, voice cold.
They did so, Heero leading them away. He didn't like running. None of them did. He sighed silently, glancing back at the shuttle -
He blinked.
He blinked again, opening his mouth -
~
As Leila gently pressed the joystick, smiling as the shuttle used its, though pretty crappy, adequate firepower, destroying one youma doll.
~
"What the hell are they doing?!" He yelled in shock.
~
Hopefully, she thought, That'll get their attention.
It certainly did, mobile dolls both normal and youma infused turning toward her slowly. Normally, that would have made her nervous. Of course, normally Leila wasn't a suicidal idiot. She smiled grimly. "That's right, you bastards. Keeping looking. Come on over for a better view." Leila then added to her 'acts of stupidity' list by turning the shuttle around and plunging into the hordes of enemy fighters, firing blindly. She'd used the majority of her fire power in that one big blast, though. The blasts she was sending were nothing more than a light show.
But that didn't matter. Leila grinned triumphantly as, looking down at her sensors, at least fifty mobile dolls were close enough for the self- destruct to take them out. The majority, she noted looking through the view screen, being youma dolls.
She briefly wondered why she wasn't afraid of dying. It must have been because this was probably her fifth time. Also, when the ship blew up she'd die instantly, so there definitely wouldn't be any pain.
"You little bitch." A voice hissed behind her. Oh shit. She hadn't even heard the door open.
Leila swung around, hand swinging in an open slap. It never made it. She tried to gasp, and found herself cut off, struggling to breathe. Her eyes widened at the woman before her. The youma smiled back, fangs showing.
Uh oh. This is actually hurting...
In fact, it was hurting a lot. It looked like a painful death after all. Leila's mind totally panicked, knee jerking up. The woman grunted, and her grip only tightened. Struggling was very, very hard, and her limbs couldn't gather the energy to move...
"My name is Kali." The woman murmured, leaning closer.
Pain lanced through her in a jerk as Kali lifted her off the floor. By her neck. Not, of course, that she wasn't hurting before. It just suddenly became a lot more pronounced.
"And you are dead."
Her eyes widened as Kali lifted a claw, slashing down her shoulder. Reacting instinctively a hand lashed out with the last of her strength, this time a plain white fan slashing up, cutting into Kali's face in a shallow cut. It was a weak cut, with barely any strength, but the fan was sharp.
With a surprised gasp Kali let go, Leila throwing herself back and inhaling as hard as she could, before dropping to the ground, heel aimed to the lower part of Kali's knee. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered how much more time was left. Her lips turned into a grim smile as a crack was heard, Kali dropping on one knee. She closed her eyes briefly, reaching out with her mind.
"Sparkling wide -"
Suddenly a jolt ripped thorugh her, cutting her off. Huh? Not another psychic attack... But, strangely enough, it wasn't hurting, exactly. Her body was just throbbing, and Leila felt her vision wavering.
Her hesitancy didn't go unpunished, Kali using the advantage to throw herself forward, claws ripping into her stomach. She screamed out, even as her world turned black -
~
They watched in silence as the ship self-destructed.
"Someone had to be onboard for it to distruct." Trowa said.
"Couldn't they have gotten off?" Quatre asked immediately.
"I don't know." Milliardo said thoughtfully. "That, *thing* latched onto the ship. It must have been boarded..."
There was a short silence. Heero heard a sudden shifting over the speaker, and could see Wufei's intake of breath.
"The self-destruct took out fifty of those...things, and a few normal dolls as well." He said matter-of-factly, hoping to snap them out of it. "If we take them out now, they won't be back to bug us later on."
"Negative." P interrupted. "Even if fifty of the altered ones are down, at least half of their forces are left, considering your previous damage. You'd still lose. Get the hell out of there."
"Sorry, P." Milliardo said dryly. "Looks like it's out of our hands."
Heero grunted, regarding the hundreds of dolls swarming towards them...once again, that was. "Back to back," He ordered quickly. "We'll take it from there." The other's images nodded, flicking off screen. They knew how hectic a battle could get.
They faced outward, waiting for the battle to begin, each preparing themselves for the inevitable.
~
"Leila?! Thank God!"
Huh? Leila found herself with a strange sense of deja vu. Hadn't this happened before?
"Are you - " A bright light flicked on in front of her. She was sure of it; the back of her eyelids had flashed red. "Oh my God! Leila, are you awake?!"
"Mmph?" She mumbled, tearing her eyes open yet again. Definitely deja vu. Now the last time she'd done that she'd died... come to think of it, why wasn't she dead now?
She looked down at her blood covered blouse, then up at Noin. "I'm alive?" She asked wonderingly.
"Yeah. P did give you that warp stone thingy to you didn't she?" Noin asked anxiously.
Warp stone thingy? Leila involuntarily glanced down at her wrist, and the gem pulsing gently on it. Setsuna said it was a mixture of her and Luna's powers. That meant teleporting and...
"Shit." She stated, shocked. "She stuck a whole gundam into Luna Space? That's pretty impressive."
"I'll assume you're not insane." Noin said flatly. "Just delirious from blood loss."
"It's not that bad." Leila said dryly, glancing down at the cut on her shoulder - nothing to the Doom and Gloom girls. "I've had worse, trust me. What's going on? Shouldn't you be with the others?"
"P's with them." Nion said. "You're my charge, remember. It's good you have that cloaking thing on. I didn't even know P developed a cloak, actually. Come to think of it, how the hell's your gundam here when it was it the hangar half an hour ago? How'd you self-destruct the ship? Milliardo's so worried, he's feeling guilty that you - "
"Hey, aren't I supposed to be the hysterical oner here?" Leila asked, a little bemused. Noin shut up immediately.
"Sorry." She said sheepishly, before composing herself. "I needed that. You're a few kilometres away from the major battleground. Your stunt killed at least - let me see - sixty-three of those bastards, mostly the youmas."
"Right." Leila looked down from the communication screen above the main view screen, looking out -
"Well." She said simply, seeing the gundams surrounded on all sides, quickly becoming separated from one another. "Looks like they'll need me after all. Any suggestions?"
"They're good. Really good. But their numbers are the real problem. We could take any of them easy, even the youma dolls. But they're basically crowding around and butchering us." Noin said. "I think we should begin with the explosives before anything else."
Despite being bruised, battered, slashed, in a lot of pain and recovering from a near death experience, Leila found herself grinning. That sounded like a very good idea. "We should go for the youma, ne?" She asked, remembering some of the naive mistakes youma had made before, a plan forming in her head. "Let's hope they're as stupid as those other grunts..."
She smiled, starting up her gundam and flicking off the cloak, setting off for the battle.
~
Quatre threw one of his sickles, dodging the blow of another mobile doll, turning and dispatching it efficiently, mind focused. No matter what, he couldn't allow these things to live and harm the colonies. Or Earth. He frowned again. He hoped miss Relena was alright, but she would have been in one of the first escape pods. She'd probably be fine.
They, on the other hand, he admitted to himself, were not. And probably would not be.
The task force was primarily an in investigation unit. Approximately thwenty-five fighters, also with ship defenses. And against enemies like these, not very effective. Another gundam would have been more helpful. And they'd make a quick retreat pretty soon. Unfortunately, they themselves didn't have that option.
It was then he detected something else on his sensors. Not quite a doll. It flashed differently from the rest of their enemies, whether normal or - demon - based. Come to think of it, he would've thought it was a gundam. He braced himself, looking to his left and expecting some all powerful new enemy to handle.
What he did see made him gape, relieved for the temporary break he had. A mobile doll would've easily killed him. He blinked once, very hard, before closing his mouth, and switching on the speaker.
"Uh guys? There's something odd to my left," He said, rattling off the coordinates.
"We're a bit busy, Winner." Wufei grunted back.
"I thought you might want to know though."
"Yeah, yeah - " Duo paused. "What the -" Quatre winced - " Is that?"
"It appears to be a humungous version of a porcelain doll, actually. I'd say victorian style, judging by the dress." Quatre said faintly.
The speaker was completely silent.
"What?!" He asked defensively. Then - "NO! It's not like that! I have twenty-nine sisters! Do you know how many of those I had to buy for all their birthdays?!"
"Right Quatre. We believe you."
"Maxwell, leave him alone. Just because you're feeling threatened -"
"Excuse me Wu-man?"
"Don't call me -"
"The doll's moving." Quatre reported.
"Wait!" Milliardo said, not stopping at all in his destructive activities. "Does it have a blue, bell skirt type dress?"
"Yes. A slight variation -"
"And a cute looking teddy bear?"
"Huh? Cute?"
"Actually, yes." Quatre reported, looking closer. "She's hugging it to her chest."
"Obviously some idiot's idea of a fun thing to show off at a party." Heero said sharply. "It has no idea what it's getting into. We better protect it."
"About that..." Quatre said, absently destroying another doll as he observed half the attacking forces break off and go after it. "Most of the demon ones are heading it's way. I don't think we can get there in time."
~
Leila smiled to herself, slightly nervous. Most of the youma were heading her way, attracted by the magic aura she'd exuded. That was good. The others would have an easier time with just half the forces - and the regular type. They'd finish them off in no time, and then head over to give her a hand. Hopefully.
"Leila?" Noin said. "I know you probably don't like this idea, but if you're going to blow them up, you have to let off a few missiles and get out of the area. You'll have to use your empathy if things get hot."
Leila didn't really like that idea. "Right." She said reluctantly. But she had a duty, and it meant doing what she had to.
It seemed she didn't have to do much. Tensing up as the youma stopped, regarding the cute little girl before it curiously, obviously amused.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" She yelled furiously. "It's laughing at me! Noin, it's laughing!"
"Well, it's a big youma. You look like a little girl compared to it. You ARE a little girl." Noin pointed out.
"That's not the point dammit!"
~
Quatre looked off to the side, mouth hanging open slightly, face blank and eyes tiny dots in his head. He was seriously starting to concern Trowa. "Quatre?" He asked once more, swinging his gundam to head over to his friend. And stopped short. At the back of his mind, he noted there didn't seem to be as many mobile dolls.
What looked to be a cute little girl was looking up cutely at the monster, hugging her cuddly looking teddy bear close to her in what was obviously a scared manner. Trowa found himself feeling protective, despite knowing full well it was a big metal robot. He blinked, as a monster flew out from the group surrounding her, patting her on the head. He couldn't help it - he gaped too.
"Both of you now?!" Duo yelled, before going silent, obviously observing the same thing. "Now that is just weird."
The girl was now offering the youma her teddy bear, which was held with both of her gloved hands, face tilted up from underneath her wide-rimmed shallow hat, green eyes glowing slightly. Yep. Definitely weird. The thing regarded the bear intently, having never seen one in it's life. It tentatively lifted the bear out of the girl's hands, turning it curiously within it's own claws. The other, well, things, moved back from the girl, regarding the bear and her in turns. The girl's right hand went to her mouth in a silent giggle before turning and gliding away, towards them, at a leisurely pace.
"Now that's some serious bribery." Duo commented. Once she was a considerable distance away, the girl paused, flying with amazing speed and rushing past them. Heero ordered them to follow her, before she stopped and gave them a cheerful wave, before turning and pointing. They turned around once more -
To see the youma holding the bear - and those around it - disentegrating in a spectacular explosion.
They were silent a moment.
"Oh my God! Heero, did you just see that?!"
"..."
"I think," Trowa ventured, "The teddy bear was some form of explosive."
"Don't even go there!"
"Right." Wufei said simply. "Right. Stupid little onna shows out of nowhere, hands over explosive teddy bear and runs."
"I should've known." Milliardo said, amused. They ignored him.
"What do we do now?" Duo asked.
"My scanners report at least fifteen were destroyed in the explosion." Milliardo reported. "That doesn't leave much left."
"About fifty, actually. But they're all 'altered' dolls." P said. "It looks like you got rid of the regular ones."
"Can we take on fifty more?" Trowa asked. "I'm almost out of ammo."
"I think so." P said. "Milliardo didn't mention how many were injured. Not one of them is undamaged. And now my pilot's decided to show up, I think you can split them up seven each-ish. They're on one side, you're on another. Heero?"
"Trowa, Quatre, get behind us and use your long range weaponry." Heero ordered. "Try to take them out before they reach us. Everyone else form a semi-circle around them, a little below so they can aim over us. Duo, Milliardo, take the sides. Wufei, guard the front with me."
"Wait a minute." Trowa objected. "What did you say about the seventh pilot P?"
"I said Pilot 07's arrived and alive." P said, but they could hear relief in her voice. "Sh - He's the one in my customized gundam. Like it?"
Pause. "Oh - That little girl?" Duo asked, incredulously, even as he took his place beside Trowa. "You're kidding me."
"Excuse me?"
"What kind of guy would be gay enough to pilot a china doll?! Seriously -"
"I designed that china doll."
"He'd have to have some wierd sexual pref - Oh, I mean, it's a very cute little doll, and he shouldn't be piloting it because something pretty like that could get damaged in battle."
"A shame. I designed it for battle."
"Well, he obviously -"
"Just shut up Maxwell." Wufei ordered. "Before you put your foot in it. Again. We have dolls to kill."
Duo winced at his choice of wording. "Right. Kill dolls."
"It's not a doll, Maxwell." P said. "It's a gundam."
Wufei snorted. "Gundam my ass!" He said, sounding offended. Most of them felt offended. "That's no -"
"Oh shut up, Chang." P snarled. She didn't seem to be in a good mood. "Just kill them and get the hell out of there." She sounded worried.
~
Leila blinked then, ignoring the throbbing in her shoulder and stomach. She didn't look down. She didn't particularly want to see the mess it made. But one thing was for sure, it probably looked ugly. And she wasn't sure she could fight for much longer. They weren't critical, but...
She sighed. Fifty three of those jackasses left. That was what, seven each? Right. She'd do her quota and they could handle the leftovers. Bringing her gundam behind and above Heavyarms and Sandrock, she proceeded to take her broad-rimmed hat off and throw it, the energy disk destroying two in a straight line before it returned to her. She took out a staff, firing an energy blast as she cought the hat in her other hand, throwing it again. Four. Three to go. Leila sighed. She was tired, in pain, and didn't want to waste time. She fired another blast, this time holding it and swinging the beam, eliminating another five. There. More than her quota, she thought vaguely to herself, somewhat giddily.
"Leila, head back to base." Noin said, voice alarmed. "I'm inputting the coordinates, just press enter. Okay?"
"Mmph." She mumbled, pressing the button, before leaning back and reaching out for her healing magic, bringing it down on her wounds gently. Considering it was her first time,she couldn't expect to heal it fully, but shcould remove most of the damage. She looked down, wincing slightly but watching in fascination as the worst fo her wounds closed up, the gashes becoming more shallow. It would have to do for now. She was too tired to finish the job.
She sighed and leaned back, heading back for base. The boys could handle the rest.
~
Thank you VERY VERY much for everyone who waited, and I'm sorry it took so long. The delay came from a combination of - power shortages, faulty internet connections, school starting again, and a writer's block plus a chapter that just wouldn't end... So thank you everyone who waited, and I hope I didn't disappoint you!
LadyOracle
P.S MUST REVIEW!!!!!
