Two hours after his unfortunate wakeup call, Dou along with Heero found themselves being led, by a miss Misoto, into the bowels of the NERV compounds. Heero was aware that she was trying to engage in a conversation, but he was to preoccupied with the fear that his wings might show from beneath his cloak, and Duo was pretending to not understand Japanese. He glanced up to find her staring at him angrily * oh shit * he thought
"Hey! Aren't you even listening I asked you what your name was!" she fumed. Heero nearly laughed aloud in relief
"Michael Lowell" he said the pulling out his K-bar to polish its gundarium blade, ignoring the young officer once more.
"OK" she said ... a little two excited in Heero's opinion "This is the airlock into the base. The air always rushes out really fast, and blows my skirt up." Heero was unimpressed by this attempt to get him to look at her personals, "then don't wear a skirt!" he retorted and spun the dagger in his hand as he sheathed it. "It's your own damn fault for wearing clothes that expose your undergarments!" *Oh yes, that felt good … almost as good as throttling Duo … almost.* Misoto blanched, that had not been the response she had expected, this man was no cryptographer, she could feel it, he was too … confident, too sure of himself. His companion was almost too interested in the control buttons on the lift, at this rate they'd both miss seeing unit 01 … the best part of the whole tour.
No sooner had Misoto thought of the massive creature, than it loomed up from below. While she herself had almost missed it, Heero had not. With a quick twitch of Heero's hand, and a nod from Duo; the American's "curiosity" led his hand to the emergency stop button, and then … all hell broke loose.
Misoto turned on Duo like a west Texas tornado in June, "Do you have any idea how long we could be stuck here!!" with out so much as a blink Duo stared strait at Misoto, with an infuriatingly blank stare that gave the impression that he did not understand Japanese. This of course did little but agitate her further. "I am not going to give any support for your pointless stupidity to Dr. Ikari!" Just for added effect Duo pulled out a fresh pack of gum and casually stuck two sticks in his mouth.
While duo distracted their "tour-guide" Heero pulled out his micro camera equipped shades, identical to his current pair and swapped the two. Quickly he began to transmit Images of the object and its holding bay back to the Fire-sword. After several minutes the car began to move once more, and Heero leaned back against the wall to enjoy the continuing drama between a now beet red Misoto (from all the yelling) and the hilariously (in Heero's view) oblivious Duo. He had to hand it to the American; the skill with which Duo was angering the woman was genius. Misoto's voice would begin to rise in tone as she ran out of breath, and duo would take that as his cue to begin blowing a bubble with his gum. Then when her voice cracked from lack of air, Duo forced a burst of air into the bubble to pop it at the same time. By the time the lift had reached the bottom Misoto was thoroughly enraged and convinced Duo was deaf. As the door opened She fought back the urge to scream as she realized the little pest was between her and the door. When he refused to move she glared at him. *Here it comes* Heero mused *the coup de tat.* Duo stared at Misoto opened his mouth and smoothly pronounced "Gomen-nasai Misoto-san" and left, With Heero not far behind. As Misoto stared at empty space the two angels in disguise entered the compound.
The twisting labyrinthine passages of NERV were very different from the shattered city above; the greatest of hospitals could not match the austere cleanliness of the halls. Duo was nearly distracted to the infirmary before Heero sternly reminded him that now was not the time to be doing house calls. On and on the winding tunnel drove, the echoing thud of three pairs of boots accentuating the emptiness of the base. Duo noted the air was thick with the smell of ozone, probable from a large capacitor bay exposed to open air. His nose had always been sensitive to the stuff, now it burned profusely, and he scratched it every few seconds. Heero smelled it as well but he was focused more on a strange aura he detected towards the area marked "EVA PERSONEL," the aura was faint but it was definitely not human.
Misato dreaded having to present these two … characters two Gendo, but such was her job. She had cooled down (almost) and was now standing at the door to the "chamber," Gendo's office. Slowly, both for dramatic effect, and to make sure the American didn't break something, Misoto opened the large door, lead the two into the chamber, and announced the two to the shadowy figure seated at the desk.
"Commander Ikari, sir, This is Michael Odin Lowell, a professional cryptologist, and Duo Maxwell master non-linear mathematician. They are here to discuss the terms the implementation of their new Decoding device."
Heero stepped forward, taking of his shades and placing them casually into his pocket. As he approached the weathered desk he took the heavy case they had brought with them from duo. Placing the case with an echoing thud on the desk, Heero waited for Gendo to speak.
Gendo raised an eyebrow before saying, "Mr. Lowell is it? I take it this is the Decoding device?" with a slow nod Heero answered, "yes, this is Archon, a poly-processor, non-linear, self calibrating, multi-phase decryption device. It is capable of decrypting any piece of data run through its circuit."
Gendo seemed to be deep in thought, his brow furrowing deeply. The tension built steadily, and duo, who had been leaning casually against the back wall stood up, taking a few steps forward before Gendo made his decision, "We accept your hired." Heero smirked, "Mr. Ikari I will assure you Archon needs no help from me, I will set it up, but then you just run the data through like a photo-copier. … but, I do have another proposition, I am opening a dojo, and I was wondering if you would like me to give some training to your young pilots."
Gendo smiled, "Can you take them tomorrow?"
Heero laughed, "anytime!"
"They'll be there as soon as you open," Gendo declared
"OK that will be 4:30 am" Heero responded, "you certain they are up to it?"
"Yes, you have a deal, they will be there, Mr. Lowell"