Shattered Reality Part 4
The Verdict
by
Sailor Janus
"You must push her harder! We can not have a weak and sensitive weapon on our hands!" Professor T. growled to a short, balding man dressed in a lab coat holding a clipboard.
"But Firefly has already met her limit, excelling at every single task we set upon her. There is nothing more we can accomplish at this point. Her skills are quite remarkable and very effective," the younger man nervously answered as he turned to the training laboratory where the dark-haired girl had beaten ten men without aid to weapons.
Unknowing to the two scientists, Hotaru was listening to every word said, hidden underneath the desk, which was only by pure coincidence. The girl was trying to reach her favorite silver ring she had dropped when the two men entered the small office, trapping her beneath the metal piece of furniture.
"Well, then, what is the problem?" the professor inquired, sounding very bored now.
"She refuses to complete mission: Time Bomb. Hotaru says that there should be no reason to kill a man that promotes pacifism and that was the end of the discussion."
"Damn that girl! Can't we intensify the training? Burn that insipid conscience out her?!" the white-haired man challenged.
"Not if you don't want her dead! Hotaru has been pushed way beyond her limits. We'll just have accept it and see if we can hire someone else for the job," the other man sighed as Professor T slammed his fist down on the desk.
"Nonsense! We will intensify the training to twice that of Firefly's limit. That should make the girl even more powerful, and perhaps smother that conscience of hers."
The assistant dropped his jaw at the Professor's suggestion. "That-that's insane! Professor T, she is only a child!"
The white-haired man glared at the other's outburst, but disregarded it. "Are you forgetting that Firefly is also an orphan? Society does not care what happens to orphans as long as they are kept away from stealing." Turning back towards the training room he continued. "I want that conscience of hers muted, do you understand me?"
"How do you expect to achieve that goal with so little time left?"
Prof. T grinned fiendishly. "I have a much better plan. We will still increase the training, but not to the degree I previously mentioned. I have worked much too hard to have an insolent little brat ruin everything! She will, complete that mission and I know of a way."
Hotaru sat frozen on the floor as Professor T and his assistant left the office, quietly closing the door behind them. Slowly she slightly rocked back and forth, bobbing her head at the same time. She was only fourteen; she couldn't kill an innocent man. But from the tone of the Professor's voice, relentlessly, she would.
"Where is that damn girl? HOTARU!"
*~*~*~*
"Huh?!" the girl gasped snapping out of her daydream.
Trowa and Heero glanced strangely at the girl before returning their attention to the three newcomers, Duo, Wufei, and a bandaged Quatre. Hotaru could not help but feel guilty from succeeding in shooting the blonde. She knew bullet wounds hurt worse than almost anything.
Suddenly, the dark-haired girl began to feel a little faint, probably because she cannot recall having eaten anything, either that or the flashback. Whatever was the reason, she didn't feel the need to mention it. 'How long was I out for?'
"Anyway," Heero continued talking to the other ex-gundam pilots. "Firefly over there says she was brainwashed with a tiny machine which was implanted in her ear, controlling her. After being tripped by Wufei when she was attempting to assassinate us, her head was forced against the wall, causing the device to malfunction."
"A likely story. She is making it up. Weak woman," the Chinese teen growled, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
"Actually, that part does seem legitimate. There was a micro programming disk in that device, which we played on Heero's computer, specifically ordering Hotaru to kill us," Trowa admitted quietly, indicating, the disk, which the Perfect Soldier began to play.
"Firefly, you must exterminate, the gundam pilots, Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Quatre Winner, Trowa Barton, and Chang Wufei. They must be eliminated for the better of the future. Do not fail us, Firefly. They will destroy everything. They are vermin. Kill them."
Heero, once again, shut the machine off, starring at the computer screen. They had been wanted dead several times, but there was always a reason why. This time, he could not figure out the motive unless of course someone held a long overdue grudge.
"Gee, that was sweet. I feel so loved right now," the braided-boy sarcastically said breaking the silence. "I wonder what type of future they are planning if they want us dead?"
"That was really haunting. You had to listen to that?" Quatre questioned Hotaru who nodded her head.
"Repeatedly. I always wanted to know what it was like to be a schizophrenic. Now I wish I never knew," the girl grimly stated.
"Firefly has also said that she does not have the desire to kill us any longer. In fact she wants join us, for vengeance reasons," the dark blue-eyed ex-pilot abruptly said, turning everyone's attention back to him and then to the Hotaru. "The question is should we let her? She also mentioned she can get us into the headquarters where she came from, which could help us find the answers to what they are planning. What do all of you think?"
"She is truthful," the green-eyed circus performer whispered. "They did something to her, I have no idea what, but Hotaru is angry and will probably go after whoever was in charge of whatever she was put through. She seriously means business."
The ex-gundam pilots thought about Trowa's words, sneaking glances at the girl who was studying the carpeted floor.
"If any of you were wondering. I could have killed you last night while you slept," Hotaru darkly said, as she looked at the five boys out of the corner of her eye. "I have a detonation device which you did not remove, hidden in my boot, and well as a very sharp knife, and a tear gas tablet."
Bring her bound legs up; she reached inside her shoe with her handcuffed hands, revealing the items she spoke of as the pilots gaped at her.
'How could we have forgotten to check her shoes?!' Heero thought as he gritted his teeth recalling, the fact they remembered to take her jacket, but never fully checked the rest of her. 'Stupid! She could have blown us sky high if she wanted to.'
"Now do you believe me?" the violet-eyed girl arched her eyebrow.
"You have to admit, she got us there," Quatre sighed. "I think we should give her a chance. We did not trust each other when we first met."
"But we didn't try to kill each other when we first met!" Wufei argued as the others shook their heads in disagreement.
"Actually...we did. The only difference was that we were in the gundams. Unless of course you count the time I shot Heero," Duo reminded them, as he scratched his head. "But yeah, let's give the babe a chance. Who knows, she might prove to be useful."
Wufei and Heero still did not indicate whether they agreed with Quatre and Duo or not, as they tried to decide whether allowing the girl which tried to murder them, help.
"I agree. There may be more to her than we think," Trowa nodded his head making it possibly three against two.
"Fine, we'll see what this headquarters of hers has to offer, but I still do not trust her," Heero firmly stated, as he glanced over his shoulder at Hotaru.
"And that leaves me the odd man out. Injustice," Wufei grumbled as he sighed in defeat. "All right. Let the girl help us."
"Firefly, Do you have a plan?" Heero questioned the girl who nodded her head.
"Yes I do. But I first need to be untied. Oh, and do you have any paper and pencils?" the girl inquired as the guys exchanged glances.
*~*~*~*
"Okay, so we decided Heero and Duo will be coming with me to Station Red. What we need to do is get from here to here without getting you two discovered." Hotaru explained as she pointed out the threshold to the entrance on the map she had hand-drawn of the outside and inside of the building as the others looked on. "We could probably take out two guards and borrow their uniforms, so you two look less suspicious."
"Easy. Guards can be so dumb, always falling for the stupidest stuff," the cobalt blue-eyed teen grinned.
"Hn." the perfect soldier replied, nodding his head.
"From, there it gets tricky. I may have all the security codes, but that does not mean we are in the clear," the girl continued.
"Don't worry. We'll just do what we do best. Improvise," Duo smugly grinned.
"Just don't forget that this needs to be a quick in and out. We can't get distracted or things can get very dangerous. They do not call it the experimental station for nothing."
"What do you mean?" the blonde Arabian curiously asked.
"A lot of experiments are concocted here, some very fatal. I have witnessed what happens when someone has betrayed them, which is why I need to go back there to begin with and collect some stuff. If they find out I am working with you five, lets just say, the punishment will be severe," Hotaru explained edge-wise.
"So you have now basically placed your life in danger?" Trowa questioned the girl.
"My life is always in danger, just this time, it's more critical," Hotaru softly said without a pint of emotion in her voice. "We should probably set out now. The sooner, this is over with, the better.
*~*~*~*
Author's Notes: Finally I'm getting the point in the story where it really starts taking off which may give it an R-rating, but it fits it perfectly. From here on out, it's going to get a lot more action-packed and suspenseful.
Once again, thank you for all the reviews. I really look forward to reading what all of you think. By the way, don't worry about me not finishing this, lol. It's going to be a fairly long story, but that is the only way it can actually make sense and look less forced. But, yes, I am not going to stop and leaving you all thinking, why did I start something if I don't finish it? I make it a point to finish what I start.
I have a lot of stuff that I must do (school related stuff) during next week so the next chapter may not be out until next weekend, but I'll see if I can sneak it in, if possible Tues, or Wed. Try is the key word, lol.