Chapter 6

Wufei arrived outside Zech's house in record time. Walking up to the door he thought about the possibilities of things that could go wrong and hoped that none were too serious or severe. Zechs hadn't provided much detail about Heero's condition, only that he had been acting up. Wufei shook any pessimistic thoughts out of his head and knocked on the door. Hopefully everything would be ok.

When Wufei saw Zechs answer the door he breathed a sigh of relief. His facial expressions showed no signs of stress or worry and this was a good sign.

"How is he?" asked Wufei. "What has Heero done that had you call me? I hope that it is nothing too serious."

Zechs closed the door after the Chinese man. "Its not what he's done. Its how he has been behaving."

"Behaving? Explain."

"You know that I've known Heero for a long time now. He's a quiet man, rather reserved, polite, courteous, always ever so hardworking and trying to be the best. He rarely smiles but always shows some form of happiness when I ask him about his latest achievements. Well I asked him about the last few days and what he had been up and he's not responding."

"Not responding? What do you mean?"

Zechs looked at the ground and sighed. "I don't know how to say it. Maybe you should have a look at him yourself." He led the way to the living room where Heero was sitting, watching television and sipping a cup of tea.

"Heero?" asked Wufei with caution. "How are you feeling?"

Without turning around Heero answered in a soft monotonous voice. "Fine."

The response was curt, too short for Wufei's liking as Heero usually elaborated when he spoke. The Chinese man knew that that one of Heero's strengths was detail and that something must be wrong if the man wasn't adding description in his speech.

"Heero, you're not usually this quiet. Are you sure that everything is ok?" Wufei asked as he approached the Japanese.

"I'm all right." He said in the same tone of voice as before but Wufei couldn't agree with his statement as his employee's eyes were staring straight ahead and looking very very blank.

Dorothy on the other hand was having a hard time trying to keep Duo in line as she drove him back to the lab. Apparently the boy loved everything moving and cars were no exception.

Duo had his head hanging out of the car window, his eyes following every moment intently. The multi-coloured flashing lights had easily become Duo's main interest and zooming cars no longer frightened him after Dorothy had explained that they were used as modes of transport. Later she had been tempted to tell him that the cars were also capable of killing but decided against it in might she frighten the boy and cause him to slip into his own world of pessimism.

"So where are you taking me again?" asked Duo for the 65th time.

"Back to the labs. We received an urgent call regarding Heero and we think that it might affect you as well. This is why I'm taking you back. Don't worry, its just for overnight inspection and I will be there to look after you." She said as she turned into the car park. Then she added just for safety measures" Remember no one will hurt you. There will be security guards looking after the place."

"Ok. Security guards are cool!" announced Duo with the enthusiasm of a seven year old. "Now lets go. I may be scared of Heero but I don't want him to be in pain or trouble because of me." He said and trotted off in the direction of the entrance.

Quatre was still staring at the machine with great wonder. Having finally gathered the courage to test the machine without the usual safety precautions he sat down in the cubicle. Apprehensiveness showed on his face as he put on the helmet. He pressed the start button and sleeping gas slowly began to fill the chamber. He never heard the Dreamer hum into life.

Duo burst into the testing labs, smiling and waving to all the large security guards happily.

"Hey Dorothy. Which way do I go to get to the right room?" he yelled.

"Two doors down and then turn left. Follow that corridor and its room 210." Shouted back Dorothy. "Just remember not to touch anything when you get there. I don't want you pressing any of the buttons."

"Right. Gotcha!" replied Duo and he sprinted down the corridors. Finding the right room he entered. The room was covered with panels of buttons and switches. Just looking at them made the braided boy nervous.

He continued to scan his gaze across the panels and noted that one panel was lit up. A slight humming also caught his attention and Duo panicked. Did he accidentally press a button? Quickly he ran back out of the room and down the corridor.

"DOROTHY!!!" he screamed when he located her talking to a person in a lab coat. "I promise I didn't do anything but there are like these lights that are flashing...like the lights I saw flashing when you were driving." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Then I heard this humming noise. I...I promise I didn't touch anything. I swear!!!"

Dorothy put a hand on Duo's shoulder to reassure him. "You could have accidentally pressed a switch. You don't have anything to worry about as we at Virtual Reality Inc have already foreseen this problem. You to use a manual remote switch or know the password to operate the Dreamer."

"BUT IT WAS FLASHING!"

Dorothy sighed. "Look if it makes you feel any better I will come over and check the machine with you."

Duo nodded, and followed Dorothy back to the room repeating that he had done absolutely nothing and it wasn't his fault.

Dorothy opened the door and peered inside. Sure enough, the one side of the panels had flashing lights. Upon closer inspection she noted that only somebody with knowledge of the secret password or had access to the remote operator could have turned this section of the machine on.

"...uh I really didn't do this." Said Duo after a long period of silence. The quiet had caused Duo to panic.

"Only Wufei, Quatre and I know the password and have access to the remote." Muttered Dorothy to herself.

"Excuse me?"

"Shhh" said the blonde and she waved Duo away. "Wufei should be with Heero and I'm with you...Quatre...I didn't see Quatre on the way in!"

"Quatre? No I didn't see him." Duo said scratching his head.

"No he wouldn't be using the machine now! Not without supervision. He's not stupid enough to do such a thing." Cried Dorothy and she rushed out of the room and down to the testing area."