Four days had passed.  Daniel was still laughing himself sick over the plight of his two brothers.  Though he personally was safe in his role as Duo, Dante and David were not so lucky.

David, after receiving a massive beating from both Heero and Wufei, had begun glaring daggers at his brothers.  They knew perfectly well that when the time came, they would both be dead.  But for the moment, David was too busy defending himself from two furious pilots who believed that Darren had molested them.  Even though Wufei was correct in that assumption, he still had the wrong Maxwell.

No matter how badly David was being beaten, Dante still was convinced that he had the worst problem of the three.  Even taking into consideration that David was being beaten to within an inch of his life every day and that Daniel, who was normally very quiet, had to chatter endlessly, he was still convinced that he had caught the worst of the deal.  Dressed and padded as Deut, he had to endure admiring glances from all of the other pilots, particularly Heero and Trowa.  Quatre was too polite to openly stare or flirt and Wufei would rather castrate himself before approaching a girl, thus saving him from open advances from at least two of them.  Trowa, however, seemed content to stare incessantly.  Heero was worse.  Thinking that Deut might be interested in him, he hounded Dante endlessly.  The stares, he could ignore, but if Heero 'accidentally' touched him one more time, he would pay in blood.  There were drawbacks to being the only supposed female in a house full of males.  He decided that in the future, he would take special care to watch how Deut was treated by the others, just on principle.

Dante shifted on the sofa of their newest safehouse, which was surprisingly one of Quatre's mansions, silently praying that someone would finish their mission soon and relieve him.  He squirmed again, distinctly not liking the way that Trowa was staring at him from across the room from beneath his bangs.  He was only seconds away from storming across the enormous room and throttling the brunette when he heard his communicator beep.  Suspicious, he snapped it open and held it to his ear.

"Yes?" he asked testily.

"Yo, Dante!" Donovan greeted cheerily.  Much too cheerily for Dante's tastes, who was in something of a murderous mood.  "What's up?"

"Trowa, for one," he muttered.  Donovan almost choked on his tongue with the force of his laughter.

"And Heero?" Donovan couldn't help but ask.

"Probably already made a mess," Dante snapped.  "What do you want?"

"Well, we're finally free and we thought that the three of you should meet us a mile behind Quatre's mansion.  We have news from G."

"And what is that?"

"We'll tell you guys when you're out here."

Dante scowled at the communicator in his hand.  While still years ahead of any phone or satellite relay, it still didn't have the capacity to carry images across to the other speaker, a feature that he would have loved at that particular moment.  Donovan was never that happy unless he was planning something that would result in many, many gray hairs on his victims.  He severely wanted to be able to glare at the mad scientist, just knowing that something was brewing.

"Fine," he snarled, closing the connection.

Ignoring the curious look from Trowa, he walked stiffly out of the room to collect Daniel and David.  He knew without checking that the two were busy shredding each other somewhere where they wouldn't be disturbed.  It was easy to find the two surly teens, knowing that when they wanted to hide that they'd simply be in the last place anyone expected to find them.  Knowing that the other pilots thought of them as complete idiots, he immediately started toward the massive library in the north wing of Quatre's mansion.  He had to search all three floors before he found them in the far corner, pounding on each other with encyclopedias.  Had it been anyone other than the two of them being pelted with such monstrous books, Dante would have been certain that countless bones would have been shattered by now.  As it was, he was convinced that both of them would be sporting livid bruises.

Dante cleared his throat loudly.  The two combatants on the floor paused to glare at him, temporarily releasing each other from the death grips they had on each other's throats.  Daniel pulled back a little bit to relocate his shoulder, still glaring furiously at David.  Despite the ongoing war, they listened to Dante's announcement.

"Donovan said he wants to speak with us behind this monstrosity of a house."

David snorted.  Just like the clothes Quatre constantly wore, his mansion was a soft, powdery pink.  Despite being an eyesore, it was actually safe.  No self-respecting Oz officer would ever demean themselves far enough to investigate such an atrocious waste of a mansion.  That safety, however, didn't prevent numerous jokes and lewd comments from appearing within the Maxwell ranks.

Still glaring daggers at each other, David and Daniel called a temporary truce in their quests for blood.  They would hear what Donovan wanted and then they would proceed to kill each other.  Shooting murderous glances at each other every few minutes, they followed Dante out of the house.

*     *     *

Donovan scowled darkly at the small communicator in his hand, barely resisting the urge to break it.  He had to wait.  The three traumatized Maxwells were coming and he couldn't tell them yet that they no longer had to hide their numbers.  Well, he could, but not if he wanted to pull his next joke on the other pilots.

Darren had just called to inform him of G's new orders.  The other four pilots were to be sent to the Oz base in Spain to sabotage the new mobile suits they were working on.  Both prototypes and system blueprints had to be destroyed.  G had ordered all ten of them to follow the other pilots and make sure they succeeded.  Which meant that if they still wanted to pull their prank on the others, they had to somehow hide their numbers at the Oz base while still protecting their friends.  They didn't want the pilots to discover them on base.  Shock could put them in danger, but even so, they still wanted to play a joke on their friends.  They'd just have to make sure that they weren't seen.  But with so many of them in one place, that was going to be a difficult task.  He swore loudly.

"What is it?" David snarled, snapping him out of his daze.

"Eh?  Oh, um, we've been ordered to go to Spain," he stuttered.

Dante glanced at David and Daniel, both of which were eying Donovan suspiciously.  To catch him off guard was difficult enough, but to actually make the insane scientist stammer was an impossibility.  He saw their guarded looks and shrugged.

"Sorry.  I was thinking about something else.  Now, basically, we're just backup while the others go in, run their raid and get out.  I think that some of us should stay with them and the rest of us can scatter and make sure no one bothers them while they work."

"What's so important about Spain?" Dante asked.

"They're working on a new type of mobile suit.  Since G doesn't want something like that running around, we have to destroy it."

"Destroy?" Daniel asked, perking up.

"Big robot go boom," Donovan confirmed.

"When do we leave?" David asked, sounding eager.  He, understandably, wanted far away from the other pilots before they turned him into mincemeat.  Dante just looked happy to be able to get rid of the padding, which he was already in the process of shucking.

"Tomorrow, the other pilots will leave.  Two of us will go with them."

"Two?" David asked.

"Yes, two.  Deut and Dustin will accompany then.  Duo's still limping, so he's no good.  Darren, for obvious reasons, cannot go.  Neither can anyone they assume to be Darren.  The last thing we need during this mission is Maxwell pieces strewn across the Oz base.  As amusing as Wufei would find it, we just can't have that."

 The last statement brought another round of smirks from every braided figure present.  In the true Maxwell spirit, David, Daniel and Dante had continued to give the Chinese pilot constant, eye-twitching, ulcer-forming, run-for-your-life-before-it's-too-late-because-here-he-comes-now, grief.

"Besides," Donovan continued.  "This way, if they happen to stumble across one of us while running around base, they'll assume that it's just Darren and they won't question it.  If three of us are with them and they find one of us… well, that'd be interesting at the very least."

"This means that the rest of us have to remain solo while running around base," Dante muttered.

"Good point.  Perhaps we can change things and separate from the pilots from the beginning.  Or just have one of us with them so the rest of can pair up."

"Even if only one of us follows them and the rest of us stay in pairs in case they find us, that still leaves one of us running solo," David protested.

"When have we ever needed to stay in pairs?" Daniel snapped.  "This will work fine.  I say that we all run solo just to cause Oz as much grief as possible.  Only one of us actually has to stay with them.  If we need help, when have we ever had to worry about finding each other?"

"It takes time to congregate in a new base!"

"We'll have the layout of the base before we get there!"

Dante and Donovan remained silent as the perpetual war between the two bodybuilders flared up yet again.  They exchanged exasperated glances and proceeded to ignore their brothers.

"I think the solo idea is a good one," Donovan said.  "They'll never be able to run into enough of us at any one time to suspect anything."

"Who should we send with them?"

"I still say Dustin."

"I think Derrick would do better," Dante argued.

"Possibly.  Having a pyromaniac with you is always a good thing.  He's not as fast or as strong as most of us…"

"He's faster than you," Dante reminded him, smirking.

"Yeah, but I'm stronger than him, so stuff it.  And if you want someone fast to go with them, you should have suggested Deut or Dustin."

"I'd actually have said Duo, but he's still limping and the last thing we need is him slowing them down."

"He's going to have to stay with somebody," Donovan sighed.  "We can't allow him to be captured because Zechs actually managed to land a good blow the last time we went to Oz to play."

"Let Dustin stay with him.  They're both equally nuts, so they work very well together in causing chaos.  Besides, I still think that Derrick should be the one."

"Derrick it is," Donovan conceded.  "We'll have to make sure that he doesn't blow up on them, though.  The last thing we need is a Gundam pilot a flambé."

"He'll behave if he knows what's good for him.  If I have to, I'll sick Darren on him," Dante huffed.

"That's no punishment," Donovan protested.  He stepped aside as David and Daniel rolled past him, fists and feet flying as they did their best to dismember each other.  "He'd like that."

Dante snorted at the casual statement and idly stepped out of the path of destruction as David and Daniel made another pass.  Both of them were dusty and sporting numerous bruises.  Dante stuck out one foot and tripped Daniel as he passed.  Donovan grabbed David's braid and pulled him onto his butt.  Both grounded Maxwells glared at him murderously.

"You guys need to go pack whatever you need and prepare to wreak havoc," Donovan said firmly, proceeding to recap their decisions for the two who had been too busy fighting to hear the plans.  "Deut, Dustin and Demitri are already headed back to the mansion.  We'll swap out tomorrow during our flight to Spain so that Derrick can stay with them at the Oz base.  Everyone else is going solo."

"Done," David and Daniel snapped simultaneously.  They paused to glare at each other before getting somewhat stiffly to their feet.  Donovan quickly relayed the orders to everyone else as the four black-clad figures vanished into the night.

To Be Continued…

Oops.  Did that again.  My bad.  *snickers and ducks thrown items*  Sorry about that, but I'm in the middle of messing with finals.  ^_^;  I'll keep working on it though.  Comments and suggestions loved, craved and desperately needed to feed my starving ego.