Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, or any of its characters, so don't sue me!
Pairings: 1x2 3x4 5x6x13 (thanks to the person who reviewed and corrected my number mistake - I don't know french I'm afraid) maybe SxR and HxDxN not sure yet…
Plot: Pretty usual fare. Governments experimenting on people in an attempt to create the 'perfect' agents. Unfortunately for them they aren't quite sure what they've succeeded in creating this time. Their masterpieces complete missions with ease and are more than the governments ever thought they'd get, but…the governments don't know just what the extent of those capabilities really are, and whilst they appear to be loyal at the moment, they don't know how long that will remain to be the case.
}Telepathic speech{
}Comm Link speech{
Chapter One - Mission Underfire
A strand of mahogany hair dropped in front of his eye, but a negligent flick tossed it out of the way again, all attention remaining riveted on the interesting person whose presence had created the most unusual of problems.
Duo Maxwell, scientist extraordinaire, had been through a lot in recent times. Almost as much as he'd been through earlier in his life, and about ten times more damaging to his psyche. Afterall, when you finally manage to land the job of your dreams, at the tender age of twenty, after struggling on the streets all of your childhood, the last thing you expect to happen is to be abducted by your co-workers and then illegally experimented on!
Still, he could cope with that - it wasn't exactly something he'd been anticipating, but Duo was good at adapting. Even better than before thanks to the procedure they had forced him through.
Now though, when he and his fellow captive - a quiet, but brilliant, scientist called Trowa Barton - had finally succeeded in putting an escape plan into action, and it was actually going well, this had to happen.
Duo had been merrily going about his business of hacking into the security systems via the mainframe computers, when along comes somebody else to also hack into the mainframe. Not only that but the guy had to be the hottest thing Duo had ever seen - and seemed as mean as a snake with it, from what Duo could tell.
The guards at the door, who Duo had skilfully slipped past, had been brutally neutralised by the newcomer. Then those who were manning the computers at the time - on whom Duo had used his powers to keep from noticing anything out of the ordinary - were put out of the equation with a single, deadly shot, from the new guy's gun.
From what Duo had seen it was obvious the guy was a professional at this sort of thing, unlike himself who merely happened to have an affinity with computers and such thanks to his brain's capacity for knowledge. The guy had calmly strolled in, ignoring the bodies littering the room, and immediately set to work on the computer - laying his gun on the counter top in front of him.
Luckily, Duo's instincts from the streets were still fully operational, and he'd moved from his position an instant before the dark-clothed figure had nicked his computer console. Probably the smart thing to do, given the others either had blood or a body on them. But this posed a problem for Duo a minute later, when the product of the guy's activities shut down all of the computers barring the one he was still using. If Duo were to hack into the mainframe and disable the security in order for him and Trowa to escape, he needed to use the computer that the homicidal maniac was currently leaning over.
To begin with he'd decided to wait until the guy had finished his job and gone - but Duo wasn't exactly known for his patience, and, given there were probably a lot of people searching for him and Trowa by now, he was beginning to feel distinctly edgy.
A familiar feeling of panic descended over him, as his mind revisited on him all of the times people had been after him, and what had happened to him when he'd stopped running, hesitated or simply gone too slowly.
Letting the killer in him surge forwards, Duo dropped down from the ceiling, eyes burning an eerie amber glow.
Landing on his feet behind the guy in black, Shinigami silently swung his fist at the back of the guy's head. One quick blow and Duo would have the computer to himself.
A callused hand caught Shinigami's fist in a crushing grip. Raising startled amber eyes, Shinigami found them met and challenged by a pair of deep prussian blue. Letting loose an unbalanced cackle, Shinigami grinned maniacally as he watched metallic silver ice over the previously human-eyes.
Ripping his hand loose, Shinigami quickly kicked the gun out of his opponents' hand, as Duo idly wondered where it came from - given that the one he'd used upon entrance was still on the counter. Shrugging off the query as unimportant, Shinigami ignored Duo in favour of the tousle-haired man before him.
His brief distraction had evidently been distracted enough however, as a searing pain erupted in his torso, where the other person had rammed a knife in to the hilt. Twisting to the side, Shinigami rolled backwards, taking the piece of metal with him.
Rising to a crouch, Shinigami barely had time to catch the foot aimed at his head. Whilst his hands were still occupied with one booted foot, the other of the pair swung up and caught him in the torso, making him release the foot and retreat once more.
Not hesitating to crouch this time, he ripped the knife out of his side and came up swinging.
A line appeared on his opponent's bare arm, just below where the black sleeve ended, but the man bent over backwards to avoid Shinigami's follow-up stab. Kicking straight out while still bent over, he managed to catch Shinigami in the chin.
Flipping over 270°, Duo's body landed face down with a thud. Feeling the swish of air above him, he swiftly rolled to the right. Glad to have avoided the sword which was stuck, quivering, in the floor, Shinigami grabbed his opponent by the legs and kicked at the guy's shoulder, flipping him over.
Going with the motion, Shinigami trapped the guy's legs into place with one of his own, then arched over the figure's body in order to pin his head down with one forearm against his neck. Trapping both of the guy's arms with his other leg, Shinigami used his free arm to raise the bloody knife he'd kept a hold of.
Seeing a brief flicker of blue peek through the silver, Shinigami could have sworn he also saw those eyes widen slightly, but brushed it off and prepared to kill the guy. Not exactly something he wanted to do, but on a par with killing a pig at the moment.
However, before he'd even finished drawing the knife back for the plunge, the body beneath him gave a massive shudder and arched upwards. Caught by surprise, Shinigami found himself flying through the air, only to stop when he reached the wall.
Rising from the floor, Shinigami shrugged the impact off with a fluid movement, then turned to meet with the other once more.
Moving from their particular positions, they came to meet on the middle of the floor, blade of choice in hand, eyeing each other's movements for weak spots.
Shinigami had just started to make the first move, when the door to the office opened, and a blonde figure entered the room.
Seeing the two figures' and their condition, as well as the fact that one of them was in motion, the blonde newcomer held out one hand, his golden eyes glinting with urgency.
A sudden overdosing of regret and sorrow swamped Shinigami's system. Forcing his retreat, and driving Duo to his knees on the floor. A glance up a moment later showed his opponent leaning weakly against the computer counter top, no tears on his face, but a dazed expression non-the-less.
An instant later the emotions retreated, and Duo could breathe easier - well comparatively easier, considering the hole in his stomach. At the sound of clapping, Duo looked up, surprised to see the source of the sound was Trowa, who was leaning casually against the doorframe as though such a sight were an everyday occurrence.
Noting the look of rebuke the blonde aimed at Trowa, Duo took an immediate interest, but a glance from his friend told him now might not be the best time for such a question. Later would have to do.
Feeling Shinigami hovering at the ready, Duo cautiously eased himself up into a crouch. When that garnered no attack from the brunette, he found himself slowly rising to his feet. Once there however, he was unable to contain his wince, as the belated pain from the stab wound kicked in.
"Number One, what did you do!"
The alarmed voice immediately drew Duo's attention away from his wound, and a sharp glance up showed it was the blonde who was now berating his opponent for something. That wasn't what caught the ex-scientist's attention however, it was the robotic tone the blonde spoke with that accomplished that. Almost like he was going through the motions of having feelings, but he already knew what 'Number One' had done, and had in fact been expecting it.
Angling his violet eyes towards his friend, Duo knew his expression would have broadcast his query well enough, but a brief touch from his mind helped it along just in case. An acknowledging glance from Trowa told him his guess was correct, and Duo was incapable of remaining silent.
"Holy Mary Mother of God!! You two are the real deal?!" Eyes sparkling with excitement, Duo moved towards the group near the doorway, mouth already moving nine to the dozen in an attempt to keep up with his thoughts.
"You guys were among the first to be experimented on? That makes you like the shepherd to our sheep, the frog to our tadpole, the cheesecake to our cheese!…You get the picture."
Shaking his head slightly to get rid of the mental image of a giant cheesecake with a fork sticking in it, Duo recognised the fact that he hadn't eaten anything in a while, and the therefore strong likelihood that he'd start making even more food references if he wasn't careful.
"Is it true the originals are stronger, faster…just generally better than those of us who were experimented on later - or is that just what they say to make you train harder? Mind you, we weren't actually turned when they told us that stuff…and we haven't been trained as such either…"
"Duo!"
"Yeah?" Big, violet eyes blinked innocently at shadowed green, ignorant of the two 'originals' blinking in robotic bemusement, and rather in the dark on what he was talking about.
"They're just like us, only they've been subjected to who-knows what training, which has basically stamped out their morals and emotions. As such they can't understand how to react to your behaviour, and can you please knock off the questioning? You're still treating the whole thing as an experiment, nevermind the fact that we are the subjects of said experiment, and are now at the mercy of those who masterminded the whole operation!"
Blinking in his own bemusement, Duo watched the exasperation flicker across his friend's face, and could think of only one way to respond.
"Wow, Trowa - I think that's the most I've ever heard you say!"
Giving an exasperated grunt, Trowa's green eye flicked over to the other two who had yet to add to the conversation. Taking in their expressions, he rather imagined that was how they'd look if they'd been hit by a truck.
Turning away slightly to hide the twitching of his lips, Trowa had to concede with his other half, in that Duo did tend to have that effect on a person, so who knew what damage he'd wreak at the facility where Quatre and the new person, Number One, were kept.
}The prospect of seeing that is more than enough to make me 'give myself in' to those bastards - it would serve them right, and I definitely want to see their faces.{
Silently agreeing with him, a warm flood of approval was the only way his other half articulated his opinion to him.
Approaching his partner in science, Trowa ripped a strip of cloth from the white medical gown he'd been forced to wear since the experiment had been performed on him. Putting pressure on Duo's stab wound, he deftly wrapped the material round the slim man's waist a couple of times, before securely tying it off.
Giving Trowa a wry smile of appreciation, Duo then transferred one of his own hands to the job of keeping pressure on the bandage, at least until it could be tended to properly. "Thanks Tro-kun!"
Noticing the neutral gaze of Number One taking in the action, Trowa figured this was probably the first time he'd seen someone aid a person in such a way, without even asking for the help. Maybe they're going back with them would do more then just screw up the Romefella project.
"They probably expect you two to have finished up here by now, right?"
"Yeah!" Quatre quickly jumped into the gap, back on more familiar ground, and obviously glad to be there - despite the neutral expression also masking his emotions.
"Why don't you blow the place, Number One, and we can fill Duo in on the way back? I already briefed Trowa."
"Hn." Pulling out a slim black object from one of the many pockets on his black combat pants, Number One pressed a button with an inscrutable expression on his face.
It was only as they were exiting via the vents, that Number One spoke.
"My name is Heero Yuy."
I didn't think this chapter was too bad, until the end - that kind of came out a bit crap. Oops! Oh well, I hope it doesn't effect the rest of the fic negatively.
Long wait between chapters I know, sorry! I've been trying to write and update my fics for weeks now, but I keep getting sidetracked and my muse appears to have wandered off as well recently - everything is conspiring against me!!
R&R, please - I really need the encouragement right now! chocolate brownies to those who review