The (Malevolent) Wizard Of Oz

      The next day, Heero, Duo and Toto, er, Relena, resumed their jolly march along the mobile suit road en route to the Sanc Kingdom. By jolly, it is evident to be taken as miserable, for Heero at least. Duo flicked active orbs at the invincible youth every other second as he was still annoyed at his comrade causing a grievous injury to an honest circus worker. Well, honest when you ignored the clown's many years' experience as a professional thief, and his tendencies to pickpocket during other performances. Of course, nobody could ever recognise him at a police line-up, as they wouldn't see him as the same person if his hair were on the other side of his face. Heero was burnt badly but he ignored it and each time he closed his eyes and reopened them, his body was back in prestige condition. Relena was in tears whenever she saw him hit with the glowing green globules, screaming out the bishounen's name and warning him, telling him to defeat that man periodically, and both of her male companions had successfully learnt to block out her annoying cries. This was the fifth hour of the game after all. Whenever there was a gap in their fighting, she praised her empty candyfloss stick, treating it as her god second only to Heero. Duo was fed up with the other boy dodging some of his orbs without any great effort, so he charged a blue sphere up at full power and threw it at Heero without any consideration for the consequences of his actions. Such as Heero swinging his fist around and sent it back in the braided-hair youth's direction. Duo ducked instantaneously and the ball sailed over his head, crackling as it combined with the static electricity in the air. Duo's hair went completely vertical as it passed, and neither of his companions bothered to tell him since they wanted something to make the dull trek less boring. There's only so often you can scream Heero's name, Relena told herself, but unfortunately that is my purpose in life so it's all I can do. Their journey did pick up interest some minutes later, and it was just as well Duo's hair was in its present condition.

      A clown went sailing through the air and snatched a hold onto the braid, as it was the ideal height to save him from continuing his journey through the skies. He stood atop the hair and walked down it like a tightrope with his hands in his jeans pockets, walking in his own time as if he did this every day. He did his standard flip through the air and landed in front of Duo, who first looked appalled at how his hair had been mistreated, and then he felt glad that it was the circus boy Heero had hurt, who still bore the throwing-dagger in his forehead.

      "Hey you, Heero's got something to say to you!"

      "No I haven't"

      "Heero, apologise for dashing his brains out, NOW"

      "No"

      "Sorry about this kid, what's your name anyway?"

      "I have no name, so if you must call me something call me No-Name"

      "That's a stupid name, how about Daggerhead?"
      "Like that's any better, Heero"

      Heero took aim with his derringer at a scientist that appeared from behind a Leo suit, and shot him without asking any questions. He went over and carefully examined the identity card of the tall but irreversibly dead man, and read the name aloud.

      "Master O, member of the Barton Foundation. Hey kid, do you wanna be called O Barton?"

      "That's a bit plain Heero, would you rather be called something like Trowa? You can join us on the way to the Sanc Kingdom to see if the great wizard will give you brains"

      Everyone stopped and stared at Relena with open-mouths in shock—she'd said something nearly intelligent and had only mentioned Heero's name once in it, then she had even gone as far as to contradict her beloved. A bit of a breeze came from nowhere and Trowa, as Daggerhead was now known as, blew away a few feet since he was too spindly to hold his ground. Heero shocked everyone by helping the circus clown up again, but this was for more selfish reasons than anything else; he felt this quiet clown could act as a shield for some of the orbs and perhaps their silence would weld a friendship between them, which was unlikely as he was a selfish little boy. Heero only did it, as he would at least have one member of his fan club that wouldn't cry out his name every other second or take pot shots at him. He hoped.

*~*~*~AN~*~*~*

Thanks to Pilot-Duo and Blue-Pig for reviewing, your thoughts were very welcome! Are you still a tad confused P-D? I can send you a copy telling you who says what if you like. I know that chapter was short, but the chapters are going to get longer once the main characters are introduced. Please R+R!!!