Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam Wing or The Parent Trap.

~*~

The Maxwell Trap

by Dorothy Winner

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A horrible honking noise blared throughout the campgrounds, shattering the peaceful quiet of the morning.

"Aaaaah!" Sydney yelled, promptly falling out of bed.

"Who's killing the elephant?" Alexandra shouted, bolting upright in bed.

"No," Gabrielle yelled, covering her ears, "it's someone playing the trumpet! Very badly!"

"Is that supposed to be reveille?" Alexandra asked, putting her pillow over her head.

"If it is, their intonation is shot!" said Gabrielle.

"Aaargh! Whatever it is, I'm going to stop it right now!" Sydney shouted, kicking her sheets off from her place on the floor and getting up, slamming the cabin door open with a bang. Alexandra and Gabrielle watched, stunned, as Sydney stomped out of the cabin, barefoot, and upon seeing the nearest speaker blaring the offending racket, climbing the pole and snapping the speaker off with her bare hands. She marched back to the cabin, the speaker dangling by its wires from one fist. She slammed the cabin door open, walked inside, slammed it shut, and dropkicked the speaker so it hit the opposite wall with a loud crash.

A sweet, placid expression returned to Sydney's face. "Girls, we're going to need an excuse."

~*~

"We're so sorry, Mariemaia, a bear must have gone and tore it off in the middle of the night," said Sydney, holding up the broken speaker, into which Gabrielle had artfully gouged several claw marks.

"Yeah, we found it this morning on our way to the bathrooms," said Alexandra.

Mariemaia took the broken speaker and looked at it. "How odd… we don't see any bears around this area anymore… I'll have the forest rangers look into it. As for the speaker, I'm afraid it'll take a while to fix… it's the only one around your area too, isn't it? You'll just have to figure out another way to wake up then; you won't be able to hear the reveille…"

"Oh! That's too bad," said Sydney, her face twitching.

"Yes…" said Mariemaia, shaking her head. "Oh well… since you girls are here, I might as well give you your schedule of activities for this week… I still have to go around to all the cabins… here you go, girls," she said, giving each of them a piece of paper. "You remain with your cabinmates; however, you'll get grouped with different cabins for different activities. As it so happens, I'm going to be your instructor for your first activity… mobile suit combat! See you soon!" she said, exiting the office.

The three girls looked at each other eagerly. "Mobile suit combat?!"

~*~

"I should have known," said Sydney, looking at the two helmets sitting next to each other on the table.

"Yeah, we should have," said Alexandra, looking at her schedule, "it says rec room on here under location, not 'big open field.'"

"And I was hoping to knock down some trees or something," said Sydney.

Mariemaia walked into the room, in which twenty other girls had gathered in addition to Sydney, Alexandra, and Gabrielle. "These, girls," she said, gesturing to the helmets, "are mobile suit combat simulators. The Preventers still occasionally use this technology. It is similar in design to the mobile doll control helmets used on the Battleship Libra in the first Eve War.

"This allows you to choose a mobile suit or Gundam of any type and battle against an opponent, in the other helmet. You put this helmet on, and you see the inside of the cockpit of the suit. These gloves allow you to manipulate the virtual controls. The helmets transmit images of the battle to this screen here so that the rest of us can see what is going on. Unfortunately, these things are very expensive and we only have one set… I was thinking of having a tournament of some sort, after we learn the basics of using these things…"

Sydney cracked her knuckles, grinning wickedly. "Let me at 'em…"

~*~

"This sucks," said Heidi, looking at her schedule. "We don't even have our first activity until after lunch. And it's tying knots. Boooooorrrrinnggg…"

"But look," said Megan keenly, "we get to go fencing after that, with Mariemaia…"

"I much prefer a katana," said Liane, "but they wouldn't let me bring mine… of all the injustice…"

"At least you guys know how to fence," said Heidi. "I expect I'll get disarmed in two seconds…"

"Look, why don't we go to the rec room?" suggested Julia. "They've got all sorts of stuff in there… ping pong, shuffleboard, a dance room, and an arcade—"

"An arcade?" said Heidi eagerly. "I can do arcade games! Let's go! It beats sitting around in here…"

~*~

"Ooooh, what is that?" asked Heidi, pointing eagerly to a screen where twenty or so girls and Mariemaia were watching a Deathscythe whipping a Taurus as two girls in helmets stood several feet apart, their gloved hands making motions in the air.

"Oh, it's a new thing here at camp… supposed to simulate a real mobile suit battle," said Julia.

"Seriously?!" Liane whipped out her schedule. "Drat… we don't have it until Friday!"

The four girls watched, the arcade forgotten, as the Deathscythe sliced the Taurus right in half. Amid cheers, Mariemaia raised the arm of one girl, still in her helmet as the other girl took hers off. "The winner and still undefeated champion, Sydney Maxwell!"

Alexandra and Gabrielle applauded the loudest, even though they had lost to her; Sydney had managed to defeat Alexandra by knocking her Wing Zero buster rifle out of her grasp, then grabbing it and shooting Alexandra down with it. Sydney was also able to beat Gabrielle by biding her time until Gabrielle had used up all her ammo, and then going in and slicing the head off of her Heavyarms.

"So, do we have any more challengers?" asked Mariemaia.

Heidi went forward and took the helmet from the other girl, putting it on. "Sure. I'll give it a try."

Mariemaia looked a little surprised as Heidi put the gloves on. "Um… all right…"

Sydney smirked under her helmet. "Do you even know how to use one of these things?"

"Unfortunately for you," said Heidi, flexing her fingers within the gloves, "my mom is a Preventer, so yes, I do. I'm quite proficient with it actually. Which mobile suit are you choosing to fight in?"

"I'm sticking with Deathscythe," said Sydney.

"Good choice," said Heidi. "Hmm… I think I'll go with Deathscythe too, actually, do you mind?"

Sydney was taken aback but wouldn't let it show. "No. D'you wanna pick the location?"

"Yes I would; space all right with you?" Heidi asked lightly.

"My best surroundings," said Sydney as Heidi's Deathscythe appeared on her screen. "You ready to lose?"

"I don't lose," said Heidi in a low voice.

"Neither do I," said Sydney in the same deadly voice.

And the battle began.

Vernier engines at full power, both girls charged toward each other, scythes raised high. The blades collided in a shower of sparks and locked together, each girl trying to overpower the other. They broke apart and Sydney immediately charged again. Heidi brought her scythe up to block again but Sydney swung her scythe up in front of her and with a triumphant "Ha!" sliced the staff of Heidi's scythe in half.

"You're in way over your head!" Sydney said mockingly.

"This battle isn't over yet!" shouted Heidi, throwing the scraps aside as Sydney drew back for another strike. Heidi shot her buster shield at the right leg of Sydney's Deathscythe, severing it completely.

Sydney's Deathscythe went into a spin as she suddenly lost control and let go of her scythe. Heidi flew forward and quickly caught it. She drew back, spinning the scythe over her head in a high arc and brought it down, slicing Sydney's Deathscythe in half.

The screen inside Sydney's helmet went white with the explosion and then black. Sydney pulled off her helmet angrily. "Dammit! I can't believe I lost!"

"Looks like we have a new winner! Heidi Schbeiker!" announced Mariemaia. "Why don't the two of you shake hands?" said Mariemaia as Heidi took off her helmet, her face flushed with triumph.

Sydney refused to turn around as she took off her gloves. This was too much; she had already lost, and now it was just adding to the humiliation by having to shaking hands with the person she had lost to…

"Sydney…" Mariemaia said sternly.

Sydney huffed angrily and turned around.

Both girls froze.

It was like looking into a mirror. The same shade of blue-black hair, the shape of their faces, the arch of their eyebrows, the same slight pout in their lips; their bangs even fell over their eyes in the same exact way. Identical violet eyes met for the first time as Heidi and Sydney reached out to shake hands. The moment they touched, it was as though an electric shock passed between the two of them. They quickly drew back their hands.

Everyone around them had gone quiet, stunned at the resemblance between the two.

"Why is everyone staring?" asked Sydney, shaking herself out of her shock.

"Duh, can't you see it? How much we look alike?" said Heidi.

"Really?" said Sydney. "Let me look at you. Turn around."

Heidi turned around, feeling a bit annoyed.

"Okay, now to the side… and to the other side," said Sydney. "Sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, your ears stick out, one of your eyes is slightly bigger than the other, your nose is bigger than mine, and your teeth… well, they have braces to fix that kind of thing."

Alexandra and Gabrielle giggled.

Heidi's eyes narrowed. "When was the last time you washed your hair? Bird's not ready to fly from that nest, I take it?"

That did it. Sydney leapt at Heidi. "Don't you dare diss the braid!"

"Break it up! Break it up!" Mariemaia shouted, barely managing to pry them apart. "Heidi… Sydney…" she said, looking from one to the other. "Er… Sydney… Heidi…" She shook her head. "Who is who, again?"

"Sydney's the one with the rat's tail for a braid!" shouted Heidi, trying to claw at Sydney.

"Heidi's the one who had to depend on luck to win a mobile suit battle!" Sydney yelled.

The lunch bell rang. "Girls! Girls!" yelled Mariemaia. "Off to lunch, all of you! And I'd better not see any more fights between the two of you or you'll be packing before you can say Gundam, got it?"

Sydney and Heidi desisted, although they continued to glare at each other.

"Let's go eat lunch," Sydney said to Alexandra and Gabrielle, "she's not worth my time."

"Oh, stick to the salads, by the way, you can stand to lose a couple of pounds," Heidi called after her.

Sydney spun around and raised her middle finger at Heidi.

"Hey! She flicked me off!" Heidi glared angrily at Sydney's retreating figure. "Ugh, imagine if we were sisters," she said. "What a nightmare that would be…"

~*~

TBC…