Hi everybody!
Random people: Hi doctor Soul!
Ahem. I'd like to thank everyone that reviewed me… all three of you!
Reha: You know what, before you asked, I hadn't actually thought about pairings. To tell you the honest to Mike truth, I've never written 1x2, 1+2, 3x4, 3+4, or any other pairings in my life. I'm just not a very romantic soul. But… perhaps. It all depends on whether anyone else wants pairings, and whther I'm emotionally prepared to write them.
Goddess-of-Death: Your prayers have been answered.
Random people: Halleluiah!
What's up with that…
ShadowEyedCat: I've updated already! Don't hurt the authoress, or you'll never get any more chapters…. Heh… you wouldn't really hurt me, would you?
Random person #1: *pulls out kazoo and plays X-files theme on it*
Okay, that's it… *pulls out bazooka*
Avalan: Okay, ignoring the carnage, here's the next chapter!
Duo leant back in satisfaction, and stretched. That guy hadn't been kidding. He really was the heir to a very, very substantial sum of money. Duo slipped his VR helmet back on, and started where he sat.
There was a thoroughly menacing looking teen sitting opposite him – with steel grey hair tipped with blood red, cut short, but with an unruly fringe still half-covering his stormy eyes.
"Um… Hi there!" Duo greeted cheerfully, hiding his suspicion with a remarkably blank look and lop-sided grin. It worked wonders at school, leaving most people thinking he was a perky idiot as well as a weakling, but it did help make people avoid him.
The boy opposite him, whom Duo recognised to be about his age, glared.
"What were you just doing?"
"Me? Just…" Duo trailed off into silence and leant back casually in his booth. Did not actually admitting that he was hacking into the account of a future multi-billionaire count as lying?
The newcomer raised a silver eyebrow. Heero decided being polite as a tactic.
"Mr. Shinigami, you would probably find it much easier to just tell me. You don't want things to seem suspicious, do you?"
Shinigami stared levelly at him for a moment, suddenly seeming serious and mature, before his face crumpled, and he burst out laughing.
"Mr. Shinigami!?! That sounds SO corny!"
Heero groaned inwardly. This was going to be a long night.
*~*~*~*
Sandrock sat forward again and smiled.
"So, how are you?"
Triton shrugged and replied simply with: "Usual."
Sandrock resisted the urge to roll his eyes with almost inhuman restraint enforced by boring board meetings. His friend must have almost used up his word limit for the night.
"How's your sister?" Sandrock asked, trying once again to stir up some conversation.
Triton frowned slightly. "Same as usual."
That generally meant suborn and sometimes scary. After their parents had died, Triton's older sister, just out of high school herself, was forced to look after Triton herself. Thankfully enough, they had been left a large lump of money, enough to get Triton though a decent private school as well as the welfare money. Catherine was very protective of what he did and who he talked to, so he generally found talking to people over the internet was easier than inviting them over.
Sandrock shook his head, vaguely amused. He had seen the mood that his friend had been in after the siblings had fought over whether or not Triton could go to a concert in town. From the way it had been described it sounded like the whole thing had been a clash of the titans.
"I don't know which of you two is more stubborn." He explained, smiling wryly.
Triton opened his mouth to reply, but shut it quickly when a gunshot sounded from inside the building.
*~*~*~*
Both Heero and Duo jumped at exactly the same time, leaping up from their spots opposite each other to face the attacker.
The bar was substantially emptier, the people who were still thinking reasonably having gone off line. The others were screaming and cowering away from the man in the doorway.
Keeping his shotgun trained on the people in the room, the frantic man screamed "Get on the floor and stay there or I'll blast your brains out! Gimme your account numbers!"
Duo crouched, and started creeping forward on his hands and knees. A hand caught one of his legs, stopping him, and he turned and glared at 01.
"Get back and stay down." 01 monotoned, his eyes somehow empty of all emotion. If Duo hadn't been so full of adrenaline, he might have been scared of the boy.
"Not a chance."
01 dragged him back by his ankle like he weighed nothing until he was behind, then let go. "Stay here." He said, slight urgency in his voice. He continued on ahead, leaving Shinigami behind to fume.
*~*~*~*
Wufei stopped as he heard screaming from inside the door of the chat room where he was supposed to be meeting his business partner and long-time friend, known only as Shinigami. Something was definitely up, and he something twisted in his gut.
He pushed the door slightly inwards, and his black eyes instantly widened.
It was a hold up, most likely for pin and account numbers. When working in a team, bandits could clear out many people's life savings before they could alert the manager. It cost many people their livelihood, and was virtually untraceable.
Thankfully enough, this criminal didn't seem particularly smart. Not only was he robbing a room filled with hysterical teenagers (who weren't known for the size of their bank accounts), but also he was standing close enough to the door that if he swung it hard enough, Wufei might have been able to hit the felon hard enough to make him drop his gun.
It was worth a shot if he could help save some innocent people. The weak shouldn't be fighting, but they shouldn't they be caught up in it either.
*~*~*~*
Duo sat, his back against the table leg that he had been sitting at what seemed like ages ago, but in reality, only a few moments had passed since 01 had started off on his own. He was pondering.
There had to be a way he could help without getting in 'wonder boy's' way. He planned out what he would do. First, he would get over to the only other two people that appeared to be thinking reasonably, which was, ironically, the heir to the Winner fortune, Quatre Winner, and his friend. Then, he would plan and cower with them. It was all he had, but it was good enough for the time being.
He checked to see what the stocky man with the gun at the front of the room was doing, then when he deemed it was clear, he sprinted out, behind the bar, and gestured wildly to the other two.
Quatre's friend looked up, double-took, then tapped the other man's shoulder. After a few seconds of whispered arguing, the tall, lanky friend started off first and dove behind the bar. They were both whispering frantically at him and gesturing madly when the man turned and pointed the gun straight at Quatre.
"Winner!" He cried, sounding almost triumphant, and took steadier aim.
Duo didn't even think, but just shot forward in front of the frightened heir, pushing both of them over slightly, as the gun went off.
"NO!"
*~*~*~*
Heero dove for the man's legs a split-second too late, just after he had fired, and knocked him backward, clinging fiercely to his shins. At the exact moment that he started to fall, the door to the chat room swung violently open, and slammed into the side of his head.
An unknown Asian boy dove on top of him, cursing in what Heero identified as Chinese.
To both of the boy's amazement, the gun was still in his hand. It was like it was super glued in place. Heero glared, then turned back towards his target.
"You shot him, you bastard!" the other boy yelled, practically strangling him as he beat his head again and again into the ground. The man with the gun shook the two of them off and sat up, swearing violently. He trained the gun at Heero's head and was about to pull the trigger when it suddenly disappeared.
After a moment of stunned silence, the two attacked once again.
*~*~*~*
Duo tried to ignore the pain in his shoulder as he, for the second time in a night, removed his visor. He had worked it out.
There was no way in hell that the man could actually have a working gun on the internet. It wasn't feasible that a person would be able to buy one, as sales were banned, and even if they had been bought, they would be delivered to a person's home, like any other sale. That meant that the man had somehow managed to include the gun as a part of himself, and item that he was automatically supplied with.
It was the only possible answer.
So he had to get the gun out of his program.
The thick and warm blood running in rivulets down his arm didn't help his typing very much, but Duo somehow managed to have the man hacked in record time.
Running though his profile like a man possessed, Duo finally found the appropriate file, and deleted it.
*~*~*~*
"Oh Allah, there's so much blood!" Quatre sobbed, tying a torn piece of his down shirt around the young man who had possibly just saved his life's shoulder. His finger shook, but eventually he got a knot tied.
Trowa, sitting next to him and cradling the unknown boys head was trying to comfort him, but to not avail. His wide, lavender eyes were staring vacantly at the ceiling, and both seemed to have forgotten that the world that they were in wasn't real. Trying to stop the bleeding here wouldn't help in the real world. Only the boy could save himself.
Over by the front of the bar, the two other boys were still struggling to subdue the man. The Asian one was swearing the entire time, but the other only grunted when their assailant landed a punch.
Heero suddenly met the eyes of the boy struggling opposite himself, then let go of the arm of the attacker. He sprang out of their grip, and stumbled out the door.
The boy in Quatre's lap suddenly blinked and started breathing steadily again, instead of the shallow, widely spaced breaths he had been taking before.
"Did I get there in time?" He asked shakily.
"Yes I'm fine, but oh god, you were shot, how can I ever thank you…" Quatre's lower lip trembled, and the started sobbing again.
Duo blinked, unsure what to say. Blood loss was leaving him slightly dizzy, and so he just said "Yes, but did I get rid of the gun in time?"
Heero strode though the discard chairs and frightened people milling around to where Shinigami lay.
The Asian followed, ranting.
"How could you let him go like that, you weakling?!" He demanded through a split lip.
Heero turned, inwardly annoyed and glared with a black eye. The left side of his face would be a wonderful mixture of brised purple, blue, red and black when he woke up the next morning.
"I managed to access his stats. I know exactly who he is, and where he lives." Heero reasoned.
The asian boy quietened abruptly, and turned to look Shinigami, who was wake, though only barely, with his whiter hair splayed out on the black-wearing boy's lap.
Heero frowned. He didn't know what to say. He hadn't been trained to deal with sobbing boys, or attempting congratulatory speeches.
"You got rid of the gun?" he finally asked.
Shinigami nodded smiling faintly. "Some of my best work yet. Record time, if I must say so myself." Somehow, he still managed to sound cocky. Even being shot couldn't silence this boy's cheerful spirit.
Heero grunted and turned away.
The Asian crouched next to Shinigami.
"What took you so long, Shen-kun?"
'Shen-kun' frowned. "It's Shenlong. Argh, what am I talking about, you should get out of here and get yourself medical attention!"
Shinigami gave him shaky thumbs up and a wink, then disappeared.
"That boy saved my life… Who was he?" Quatre said quietly.
Shenlong grunted. "A friend of mine. Shinigami."
Quatre looked up, pale, but determined. "I have to meet with him again."
*~*~*~*
Duo stumbled back downstairs and into the sitting room. The former sister Helen, his adopted mother, looked up from her book and screamed.
"Duo, what's happened to you, you're as white as a sheet…. Oh, look at all that blood, just sit there on the couch while I get an ambulance."
Duo complied and stared dreamily about. He could barely feel his wound anymore, even though it was throbbing.
"It's just a scratch…"
Helen put her hand over the receiver and glared fiercely, tears standing out in her eyes.
"'Just a scratch' my… oh, hello officer, it's my son, he's bleeding…"
*~*~*~*
Quatre stared defiantly up at his father. It was time for a reality check. Ever since the night that the valiant Shinigami had thrown himself in front of a bullet that was intended for himself, he had felt weak. He was the best fencer in the state and one of it's best horse riders, but what was that going to get him in the long run? He needed experience. He needed to get out of his stuffy private school filled with ludicrously rich people and back with the normal people.
"Father, I want to change to a normal high school."
"What? But Quatre, I've placed you in that school for your own good. It will supply you with the best education that money can buy!"
"But that's the problem, father, it's your money." Quatre said, perfectly seriously, but almost sad and subdued. "I want to know that if I ever need to, I can get though life on my own. I need to feel more independent. Besides, I'll already have a friend there, Trowa, a boy from my class transferred today."
His father spluttered for a few seconds, then went silent. Something in his boy's eyes wouldn't accept 'no' for an answer.
"… If you insist."
Oooh, and we have high school! ^__^ I liked this chapter, even though I did write it all in one shot. Sometimes that's the best way for me to write things, all in a clump. Well, that's left me feeling happy, and I only need to update one more story before I can do other stuff! *sigh* It's gonna be a looooong night.
Avalan: You said it sister.
Hn.