Miranda Shadowind
Chapter Two: It's All About the Scheduling, Baby
"Simply changing into a costume or wearing a teensy mask can make you utterly unrecognizable to even your closest friends and relatives."
-#46: Law of Flimsy Incognition (from the "Laws of Anime" site by Ryan Shellito and Darrin Bright)
"This is gettin' more complicated than I thought..." Krysta whispered as she slunk toward the staff computer lab for the second time that week. She'd noticed a conveniently-sized window of free time after her second class and decided to use it to tie up a few loose ends.
Unknowingly, Quatre had been half right. Kayle had transferred in prior to the Gundam pilots' arrival, it just wasn't the real Kayle. But Krysta's appearance was no coincidence, she had set up a schedule consisting of courses she would take as one twin or the other. In this manner she planned on living a dual life of sorts as a means of getting to know the other pilots better. Granted, there was a greater chance of them finding out what was really going on, but she planned on telling them the truth at somepoint anyway.
Krysta had already hacked into the database earlier in the week when she'd first come as Kayle. She made sure she would have a room to herself for the duration of her stay, and made sure her two sets of classes didn't overlap anywhere. It would be hard enough remembering which class to attend as who without having to be in two places at once. It was also then that she registered herself under an altered name.
Since she'd done the scheduling herself, it would have made more sense to "arrive" as Kayle once the other pilots showed up instead, but the looks on Duo's and Quatre's faces First Period had been priceless. She was currently playing Kayle, as she had been Second Period. But between switching outfits and finding her next class she'd barely made it on time, so there had been no interaction between her and the other pilots.
Her reason to remain dressed as her twin for this excursion was simple. From what she had learned, one of her teammates was the group's designated hacker, the one who tampered with their financial records. If she ran into him during her current task, it would make more sense for him to see Kayle hacking into the system as opposed to a mysterious, innocent-looking foreign exchange student.
Finally, Krysta reached the lab and peered in the door's window. To her relief, though it was locked, it was also empty. She produced a pair of lock picks from the inside of her jacket cuff and quickly utilized them. Within less than a minute, she was in; she hadn't been nicknamed "The Fastest Fingers in all England" for nothing after all. After making sure all the shades were drawn, she booted up a computer in the back and began hacking into the student database to modify her profile.
She needed to clear the tuition fees and make sure that she would remain the sole occupant of her girls' dorm room as well. Having a roommate in either dorm would complicate things even more. She also made sure that she and Kayle had different lunch periods. Those pesky things were always last minute staff decisions. Obviously she would only use one, but it helped to have a free period in case she needed one.
She was so engrossed in her work that she paid no heed to the warnings her sixth sense was sending...
- - - - - -
Just outside the lab was Heero, who had come to do the usual revisionary work on the pilots' profiles only to find the room occupied. But by whom? 'The teachers should all be in their classrooms at this hour, so who is this?' He tried the door, which opened easily. 'The lock's been picked, so it must be a student...'
Heero crept into the lab toward the delinquent student, ready to draw his gun if necessary. But once he got a better look at him he realized that there would be no trouble. He recognized that eyepatch and those brown bangs that parted in the middle, though somehow it seemed like he'd seen the latter elsewhere before... Kayle had appeared in Second Period, but as he was one of the last to file in, his seat had been situated far from the other pilots'.
"You're Kayle Riannese, the British Gundam Pilot we've been waiting for," Heero stated rather than querried, stepping around the corner of the back row.
Startled, Krysta looked up at him, grateful that she'd followed her instincts and that the uniform was loose enough to hide her small cleavage. Apparently, after the other day's battle Duo and Quatre had spread the word about Kayle and given a physical description.
"Aye, tha be me. Jus' transferred in this mornin'. An' you are?" She recognized him as the boy who'd sat in front of Duo in First Period but hadn't caught his name.
"Heero Yuy, the leader." Maybe now he could get some answers. "You weren't present in First Period English today."
Krysta surpressed a smile. Good, he hadn't noticed the resemblance. She always kept her ears covered while playing Kayle to conceal the voice-altering earpiece she wore. The real Kayle's hair was cropped, but no one else knew that. "Was too, those gits must've put me in a different section."
"Usually our schedules are synchronized so we can move fast if a problem arises."
She nodded. "Tha's undastandable, buh the transfer was kinda last minute. Now tha the 'ole lot of us are 'ere m'sure we can work somethin' out."
Normally the scientists were in charge of enrolling the pilots when a mission required that they attend a nearby school. But "Kayle" had been so impatient after his sudden "recovery" that Professa Q barely had the chance to check the status of the last mission and where the team would be headed next.
But Lady Luck had still been on her side, as she'd been able to make her two mini-schedules coincide with Duo's and Quatre's (which happened to be the same. Now she understood why). They'd been the only pilots she knew at the time, and she'd figured that worse came to worse it would at least give some indication that Kayle was present. Hopefully her luck would hold out and the school board wouldn't grow suspicious. She'd managed to put a separate password lock on both schedules, but one never knew.
"Krysta Michaels" (after her middle name of Michelina), had been scheduled to arrive later in the week, when the rest of the Gundam pilots would surely be there. Her classes, English included, obviously consisted of the ones she wasn't taking as Kayle.
She casually got back to work and changed Kayle's arrival date accordingly as a precaution.
"Hn..." Heero walked past her and sat down at another computer to do what he'd come to do.
'Not exactly the talkative toipe, is 'e?' Krysta silently observed.
Though a bit glad that he'd finally made contact with Kayle, Heero was annoyed that the Brit wasn't concerned about the scheduling problem. Maybe he had managed to get himself into a few more of the same sections as Heero and the others, but then why hadn't he said so?
This mixed with the "coincidental" transfer student that had appeared earlier was sounding more and more suspicious. Then again, Heero supposed it could be worse: it could have been Relena that transferred in instead of Krysta. But in his experience, such coincidences usually led to nothing but trouble. He had to get to the bottom of all this before disaster could strike.
Finishing up first, Krysta logged out, shut down the computer, and headed for the door. "Well, it was noice meetin' ya 'eero. See ye in class, 'opefully." She gave him a mock salute, opened the door a few inches, and peered out. And heard approaching footsteps. "Shit."
Though soft, the curse had been loud enough to reach Heero's ears. He quickly stood up, stoic expression never changing. "What is it?"
"Someone's comin' this way! I think we'll be alroight if we duck into tha bloody closet ova-" Krysta had turned her head just in time to see Heero dive out a now-open window. "Bleedin' Christ, is 'e crazy!" The lab was located on the building's second floor for crying out loud!
She dashed to the window and gaped as he hit the grass but didn't go splat. Instead, Heero slowly got to his feet, popped a dislocated shoulder back into place, and walked away as if suicidal leaping was nothing new to him. Which it wasn't, but Krysta didn't know that. Thankfully, from what she could see that section of the grounds was otherwise devoid of students, so no one else had seen his stunt.
"Bloody 'ell... Wot've I gotten m'self into..?"
Krysta then remembered the potential intruding teacher on the way and quickly shut the window. It was most likely too late for her to duck into the aforementioned closet, but with Heero gone that was no longer necessary. She closed her eyes and concentrated hard on the inside of her room in the girls' dorm, then simply vanished into thin air.
- - - - - -
Moments later, she reappeared in her intended destination with the beginnings of a headache. This teleportation power of hers was something that came naturally, though she didn't understand why. For her own sake she kept it a secret, usually covering the move up with a well-timed smoke pellet.
And even then it was used sparingly and mostly on spy missions because constant use gave her a headache for some reason. One of these days she'd have to look up her ancestors and see if they'd held similar powers, and why.
One look at her watch, however, told her there was no more time for contemplating anything. Her free time was almost over and she was due in History Class in five minutes! Krysta quickly changed uniforms (her standard blouse was thankfully hidden by Kayle's closed jacket) and turned her ponytail into a bun. Still panicking, she grabbed the first backpack she saw, stowed her voice alterer and eyepatch inside, and raced out the door.