Gundam Wing
Episode 5 *Surprises
11:00pm
A handful of police officers on motorcycles begin to show up. Sally looks at the house puzzled. Where did all that smoke come from?
"We can take it from here." Sally turns to see a Chinese boy around Wufei's height with a police officer's uniform on. He had short black hair and dark green eyes. "My name is Officer Tembo. You probable think I'm 16, but I implore you; I'm older than I look . . . Wufei, long time no see. How's Sophia?"
"I can't say." Wufei takes good hard look at him. "Last time I heard she was somewhere in the L3 colonies."
Meanwhile inside the house, Sophia regains consciousness and realizes that Quatre was on top of him unconscious. She gasps when she saw that the sword had cut though the collar of her training uniform then closes her eyes and reaches into her pocket pulling out a pair of heat vision glasses. Putting them on, she sees that the burly man is feeling for them with his giant hands.
The smoke starts to find its way to the floor as Quatre slowly regains consciousness. Quatre begins to cough uncontrollably; Sophia takes one big breath, holds it, and covers Quatre's mouth as the burly man comes their way after hearing Quatre's coughs. He finally stops when the burly man was a few feet away from them. Sophia gets an idea when she looks straight up and sees the handle of her Cobra sword.
The smoke was a good idea, but now I have to find a way out of here. Sophia starts to slide from under Quatre when a giant hand grabs her ankle and pulls her up. Sophia's first reaction is to grab hold of the sword on the way up, but she doesn't get a good enough grip. She hangs upside down holding the sword between her index and middle finger as the cloak drapes over Sophia's head and begins to come off. If I can just get a good grip. Wait, the cloak. Satisfied with his first capture, the burly man listens carefully for Quatre's coughs.
Taking one hand out of her cloak Sophia wraps it around her sword with the other. She finally takes her other hand out of the cloak holding both ends throws the cloak with the sword at the burly man. It happens to hit the burly man in the balls and he lets go of Sophia. As he falls to the ground in pain, Sophia takes this chance to pick up Quatre and climb the stares to the second floor. Sophia enters a bedroom and opens a window for some fresh air so Quatre could breathe normally.
"I don't understand. Why did you bother trying to save my life?" Quatre manages to say without coughing.
"Did you want me to leave you there?" Sophia annoyed avoids his gaze as she peeks through the door then quickly closes it without making a sound.
"No, but-"
"Good, now be quiet so I can think of a plan to get out of here without being noticed." Sophia walks up to the window after placing Quatre on the bed.
After a long pause, Quatre looks at Sophia. I have a feeling I've met her before but where. "Thanks."
"I guess I'm not as heartless as you think. Now, I know I do have a conscious."
"I'm sorry if-"
"Don't be. What we need to do is to think of a way to get out of here."
Quatre walks to Sophia then looks out the window. "We could make it to the tree if we use that ledge."
Damn, did it have to be something I wasn't good at? Sophia starts out on the ledge followed by Quatre. As they start to make it to the end, a giant hand smashes through one of the nearby windows and lunges for Quatre, but he moves just in time and he only manages to snag Quatre's suit jacket. Sophia grabs Quatre's coat sleeve. "Take off your coat jacket and grab my sleeve so you won't fall!" Quatre listens, but misses Sophia's sleeve. Sophia grabs his wrist as he falls and swings Quatre to the ledge on his left closest to the tree. "Come on, we have a little more to go." Maybe I'm starting to have some good luck, finally.
Suddenly, a piece of the wooden ledge breaks off, Sophia falls to her knees, and then the rest collapses from under her. "Are you ok!"? Quatre's voice brings her back from passing out.
"Ow, I landed on my back! What do you think?!" Sophia rolls over to his right and stands up. Damn! I lost my glasses. This day just can't get any worse.
"Hey!" Sophia looks up just as Quatre plows into her.
"Maaan, someone just doesn't like me today. Do you mind getting off me? I'm done being your safety net."
Quatre gets off and helps her up. "Do you think everyone got out safely?"
"Don't worry they left way before we did." Sophia looks for his glasses in the bushes. "They're most likely on the front lawn." She kneels to get a better look since the only light source was the back porch light.
"What are you looking for?"
"My heat sensor glasses, I lost them when I fell." She stands up and looks at Quatre for a moment. "Go, your friends are probable worried about you."
"Are you sure you'll be ok by yourself?"
"Just go, I'm seventeen years old and I know I look fifteen. I've done this hundreds of times; unlike you, I know what I'm doing. GO!" Sophia watches him leave and takes off herself.
?_^ "I can't believe this! We were this close to capturing Sophia and you screwed up, and Mr. Winner wasn't supposed to die until we got control of his business and resource satellites. I'm actually glad Sophia screwed it up." Li says to Min through a screen who was sitting uncomfortable in the limo driving down an empty street. "And it's bad enough that you left your brother to die, who was carrying important papers I asked for."
"Sorry, Master Li, I'll go back for the papers."
"No, need, you're worthless to me, now. This was your last assignment, goodnight Min." As the screen goes black, the limo explodes.
Li turns in his seat. "Black Panther it's your turn to step up to the plate or so Americans say. It seems the Hyena Brothers weren't able to meet up with my standards." He begins to tap on his desk. His fingers get longer ending in a sharp point.
"Yes, Master Li, I'll start my first assignment right away." She keeps her ground knowing when he changes it was dangerous to be alone in the same room as him. He tends to kill senselessly especially when he's angry.
"And one more thing; I want Jeff disposed of. He'll talk when he finds out his brothers are dead. A hyena is useless without its pack." Li digs his nails in the desk as though trying hard not to do something. He looks Black Panther straight in the eyes his eyes shining. "I'm counting on you. Don't fail like the others."
"Don't worry about Jeff; I already sent one of my men to take care of him."
~_^ "I'm sorry Duo, but left last night and said he'd e-mail me." Duo nearly chokes on his last pancake. "If you want to find Fox, you'll have to wait till he e-mails me or try and figure it out where he is." Heero follows her to the next room. "Here's all Fox left behind." Hilde stacks a bunch of newspapers and magazines on each other. "From the looks of it Fox was trying to find a job that's why she . . . stayed with us for a while, but you can rule out the L5 colonies."
"Why is that?" Duo and Trowa enter the room.
"Well . . . Fox lost everything there: family, friends, and even the colony he was actually born in, all destroyed in the war. He was 14 when it happened."
"So, how did you guys meet, anyway?" Duo sits down listening to interested.
"Well, it was after the start of the war and school was starting its second term. Teri, the name he used at the time, and some guys were messing with a kitten while I was on my way home from school. Teri told them to stop after picking it up; he looked seven or eight years old back then so they started a fight that ended rather quickly, but the kitten died before we could get it any help. Teri blamed himself for it after I helped him burry it. I let him spend the night a few times. He didn't say a word to me since we met and when I tucked him into bed one night he said to me, 'I shouldn't have fed it; it was better off scared of me. I should have left well enough alone.'"
"So, what happened after that?"
"We became best friends from there. Well if it helps, Fox said he cut off some guys hand and that maybe he could get some info from him before moving in. Maybe we could catch him."
"He's being held at the police building a few miles from here." Trowa moves around some newspapers. He looks up at them. "The problem is getting to him without being noticed."
"Don't worry as always we'll fond a way." Duo sits back confidently. "Lets go, check it out then think of a plan so we'll know what we're up against."
;-`{ Light shines through the window of Quatre's office as he picks up a white teacup. He sits back in the chair sipping his tea. Suddenly, there's a knock on the door in the other room and looks up when he hears the door open. After he stands up, he walks in the other room. A young woman in her early twenties looks at pictures on the wall. "Hello, may I help you?"
She turns around and looks at him with dark green eyes, black hair, and wears a red business suit with matching shoes. "So, you're Mr. Winner." She walks to him and shakes his hand. "Hi, my name is Ms. Hiyami Taichi, and I'm here as construction inspection for the new building you're going to build."
"I was expecting you yesterday, but I guess traffic was a mess this morning. Everywhere traffic is bad for some reason. I had a little trouble getting here, myself."
She smiles at him. "Yeah, you literally have to kill someone to get where you want to go."
~_@ "And why do I always have to be the dangerous criminal that has to be locked up?" Duo asks before they enter the building. Heero escorts Duo with Hilde and Trowa not far behind up to the desk. Heero talks to the man at the desk while Trowa slips away from the group and quickly enters a stairway climbing them to the tenth floor. He enters an intersection in a long hallway and goes straight, but hides behind an opening door as two police officers talk. After they're a safe distance away, he enters the room they were in which is empty except for the master computer at his disposal.
Trowa notices that the room was connected to another room by a one-way bulletproof glass window with him able to see a man in the other room while he couldn't see him from his side, and Trowa quickly recognized him to be Jeff from the circus incident and that Fox cut off his hand. The reattached hand seemed to have had almost all function restored. He goes straight to the computer and down loads what info the police already got from him on a CD Rom then puts the Rom in his pocket when he hears voices.
"So, far all we have is a big zero to where Sophia is and I doubt he knows where she is." Sally turns on the lights. Sally looks behind her when Wufei turns toward the door. "Trowa?"
The jail bars clang shut on Duo as Hilde and Heero are about to begin plan B when they hear Sally's voice. "I wish you guys would ask for me, first, before testing out the security."
"Hey, thanks for the guided tour. I'm out of money right now, so I hope you're not expecting any tips." Duo says when he's out of jail and in the elevator.
"Don't worry, Duo, I wasn't expecting any." Sally enters the room noticing a man cleaning the windows and Jeff stands suddenly. "Get Down!" All of a sudden, there's a large explosion as everyone ducks taking Sally's hint. The glass shatters as Jeff flies through it. Everybody gets up unharmed except Jeff.
Duo whistles. "Man, I'd hate to be the one that has to clean this up." Fox enters the room from one of the vents and walks over to Jeff to see if he's still alive.
"Fox, I bet you never thought you'd see us here." Duo motions to the others that he'll take care of the situation and walks over to Fox. Fox stares at Duo for a moment then goes back to what he was doing. "Hey, I know you don't like me, but let s talk, ok." Fox stands up looking at Duo. "Whoever these guys are, we can help you. What do you say?"
"He's dead."
". . . Um yeah, I kind of figured that out when he went flying through bullet proof glass."
Fox looks at Duo, again. "You talk too much. You know that." He brushes past him and goes into the next room in which the explosion came from. "I came, too, late."
"Fox, wait!" Hilde runs up to him, she grabs his arm. "At least tell me where you're going, Fox."
Fox looks at her. "How would your best friend feel if I let you tag along and you were killed? She'd never forgive me or herself."
Hilde takes a step back and looks at him a strange way. "Are you . . . okay?" He seems different somehow, but I don't know how.
"Go, "I know you'll at least be safe with them and I have some unfinished business . . . I'm not who you think I am." Hilde gasps as a blade of a sword emerges from his stomach.
Fox falls to his knees as the man with the sword removes it from his body. "So, the notorious Fox can be distracted."
"Fox!!" The blade of a sword stops Hilde before she could try to help Fox.
"All of you stay where you are." The man tells the others then looks at Hilde and grabs her arm. "You're going to be my safe ticket out of here." Sally reaches for the gun in her pocket. "And don't try anything funny or I'll kill her."
Fox stands up which surprises everyone. "Let her go!"
"Fox you're not dead yet? A mater a fact, I'll put you out of your misery right now. Say Good bye, Fox!!"
The man swings the sword at Fox, but he catches it with his hand. "It seems you have the wrong Fox." Fox's eyes glow red as he snatches the sword from him and sparks start to fly from where he was stabbed.
Hilde takes a step back. "You're . . . you're one of Sophia's robots aren't you?"
"Yes, I am . . . if I were you I'd, leave before I self destruct. I wasn't supposed to be found out." Fox's body begins to glow bright.
"Hilde! Come on!" Duo grabs Hilde and runs for the hallway as the robot explodes.
%_% A Chinese boy looking about fourteen or fifteen walks into a large room and looks around. He raises an eyebrow then it returns to its lifeless state as he realizes he was in the wrong room. This is why I hate mansions. He notices the room's walls were all body length mirrors and walking to the nearest one looks at himself. He quickly straightens his black tie on his black tuxedo and fixes his cufflinks hopping it wouldn't look a size too big. At least my pants fit. He looks down at his Chinese slippers that didn't match his tuxedo. "I new I should of bought those dress shoes."
The boy in the corner of his eye notices as someone walks up behind him. "May I help you?" a deep booming voice asks. The boy turns around and sees a navy blue belt, blue shirt, and the end of a navy blue vest. He looks up and slams into the glass in shock; he closes his eyes as glass shatters everywhere.
He opens one eye then the other looking at the wreckage he cased. "Oops" The tall man glares at him as the boy gives him a big, but quick nervous smile that didn't match his face.
"Let me guess, new kid." The man says looking at him a moment as he shakes his head yes. Well, that's coming out of his first paycheck. "My name's Rashid, and from what I just witnessed; I might have to keep an eye on you."
"So, the new kid finally decided to show." Three men walk into the room. "Wha, what happened here?"
"Tikki, you'll be working with these three a long with myself; this is Abdul, Auda, and Afmahd." Rashid ignores their comments. "Afmahd I want you to give Tikki here a tour of the mansion so he won't get lost any more... I'll clean up this mess."
"And here's the kitchen." They both enter. "This is the most important room in the whole mansion." He opens the fridge and takes out bread and sandwich fixings. He puts the ingredients on the table and starts making sandwiches. "Here you go; take it; I know your hungry it's written all over your face."
Tikki sits down and takes the sandwich Afmahd hands to him. "Thank you." He eats it quickly.
"You want another one?"
"No thanks, I don't want to . . . stuff myself." Tikki watches Afmahd start on his forth one. Wait a minute what's that?
"Something wrong?" Afmahd notices Tikki looking at something on the wall.
"You're not eating, again, already, Afmahd." The pleasant voice knocks Tikki out of his thoughts.
"Master Quatre! Are you hungry?"
"No thank you, I already ate lunch." Quatre looks at Tikki as he walks over.
He bows to Quatre. "Hello my name is Tikki Rembu."
"Hi my name is Quatre Raberba Winner. Please to meet you, so you're the new worker Rashid was talking about."
Sudden blushing interrupted Tikki's blank expression, which surprised Quatre because of his dark completion. "If you'd accept my apology for the glass . . . you see . . . I wasn't expecting Rashid . . . to be so . . . big."
"It's ok, don't worry about it; it's easily fixed. Come, let me issue you your uniform; we won't be starting until Friday morning." Tikki follows Quatre into a storage room with vigorous sizes of uniforms and helmets. Quatre takes out two different sizes and hands them to Tikki. "Try both of them on and see which one fits best. You can always switch it out for another on." Tikki then follows Quatre to another room. "You can change in here."
Tikki opens his coat and pulls out a laptop computer then setting it on a small table it automatically opens as Tikki begins to change. The screen starts out fuzzy, but finally clears and the screen reveals an old man with short, heavy gray, mop top hair, long nose, and a scar just under his left eye. "What do you want?"
"Is that anyway to talk to someone who called to see if you're still alive and is wiring you money?" the old man says in an angry, lifeless voice.
"If you don't mind, right now I don't need any help. I'm starting my job tomorrow. You know I hate to ask anyone for anything, and quit keeping tabs on me Professor."
"If you want to know it wasn't my idea." His voice is cold as the screen splits into two and another face emerges.
"Doctor S!" Tikki looks up in surprise as he finished putting on the first uniform that fit quite nicely and goes on his knees in front of the laptop. "Why must you keep tabs on me? I've been doing this kind of thing since I was eight." Just as he finished the screen split into thirds. "Instructor O, not you too?"
"Is it so wrong to make sure you're, ok." Another familiar voice as the screen splits again into fourths. "Ok, ok. I know you guys all worried about me . . . where's Doctor J?" Then Doctor J pops up in the middle of the screen with a big toothy smile.
"I see you missed me . . . oh, what is it, now? Tikki Rembu." The five scientists laugh at once sending a chill down Tikki's spine.
Just then, there's a knock on the door and Tikki shuts the screen on his hand so he wouldn't hand up as the door opens. "Hey, Tikki some guys are going to a party. Want to come?"
"Sure, but first I have to say goodbye to some nosy uncles of mine." Tikki says to a new face holding in the pain. After she closes the door, Tikki wonders aloud. "I don't remember Afmahd showing me any women workers." He lifts the screen off his hand somewhat lost in thought."
"Uncles?" Tikki looks back at the screen.
"You guys know you're like family to me. I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you guys." Tikki's voice is sympathetic.
"Where did you get this from?" Tikki closes a binder in surprise and is thrown a set of keys.
"Lets just say Professor G and the others wanted to give you an early birthday present." A man with sunglasses stands next to Tikki with the binder in a store, but that happened to be next to a bar.
But there's no way! . . . It has a lot of information about Osprey and a new organization called Black Zoë. "But how did they get all this? It doesn't make any sense," Tikki looks down at the binder then hands it back to Sunglasses. . . . Unless we still have a spy somewhere . . . but who's left? We lost so many.
"I don't know, Tikki, you'll have to ask them, yourself. They say you change your name a lot and that it's hard to keep track of you. I'm starting to believe them. G said to give you a bike he finished for you, and you should pick it up tomorrow."
He begins to leave. "Wait! What's your name?"
"My name's Howard." Howard exits the store leaving Tikki alone.
Howard's Used and New Parts Tikki stuffs the keys in his pocket after reading the inscription on the keys. He heads out the store and goes back to the bar. He walks into the bar surprised as Afmahd wraps his arm around his shoulder.
"Hey, Tikki, where were you?" Afmahd has a heavy smell of liquor on his breath. "We were looking all over for you?"
"Sorry, I slipped out for a moment," Tikki says as he sees the others even more drunk than Afmahd himself. "Maybe . . . I was gone a little too long."
+_+ "Mariemaia are you sure you want to postdate your birthday party for next mouth." Lady Une looks at Mariemaia as she stares out the window.
"Yes, Sophia's right. I shouldn't have my parties before my birthday like I usually do. I should have a change this year. Besides it will give Sophia enough time to find me a present." The longer I give her the better the present. She giggles aloud then stops as quickly as she started. I hope she's well and nothing bad has happened to her.
"Understand, I don't want you to get your hopes up and she isn't able to make it." She walks up to the desk where Mariemaia's sitting with the chair facing slightly towards Lady Une.
"Sophia said she'd be at my party." Mariemaia turns to face Lady Une not making eye contact with her trying hard not to show her worry. "And she always keeps her promises . . . I'm just wondering where she could be right now."
"It depends; it could be night where she is."
"I won't worry too much. Where ever she is I know she's having a ball." But, I can't shake this feeling that something awful is going to happen.
$_$ Quatre closes the door to another empty room puzzled. "Where is everyone?" He turns as someone walks up to him from the shadows.
"Is something wrong, Mater Quatre?" Rashid walks out of the shadows.
"Oh, it's you Rashid."
Rashid opens a few windows. "Have you seen Abdul?"
"That's the thing, I can't find anyone." Quatre starts down the hall with Rashid not far behind.
"That's weird; I thought for sure they'd be home by two." They make it to the end of the hall.
"You mean you didn't go with them." Quatre stops at the elevator.
"No, Ms. Taichi needed some assistance so I couldn't go with them."
"Well." Quatre and Rashid enter the elevator. "Maybe they're at breakfast, already."
"They probably had such a blast that they forgot the time." Silence fills the elevator as Rashid looks at his watch. Quatre stares out the widow at the scenery of the colony a little uneasy. "Well the good news is they finished the building while we were gone and we can start on the building for Miss Relena Darlian."
"We're already almost a week late in staring that building, too. Hopefully, Tikki will help speed up construction and not hinder us." They exit the elevator and head for the kitchen; they're stopped in their tracks at the kitchen doorway in shock to see it filled with sleeping Maganacs. It looks like they're all here. Quatre gives a sigh of relief.
Rashid still bewildered by the sight of his men notice a pot on the stove. Who would be eating soup this early in the morning? Then he noticed Tikki sitting in a chair a sleep. Looks like the guys tired him out, already and it's not even his first day, yet.
Quatre carefully makes it up to the table without stepping on anyone. I wonder why everyone's in here. "Hum" Quatre looks down as Auda takes a hold of his ankle. Quatre crouches down. "Auda" He shakes him a bit. "You can let go of me, now."
"Give me a kiss first, Sasha." Auda puckers up his lips as he says this.
"Sasha?" Quatre is bewildered as Auda tries to kiss his fantasy girl that was unfortunately Quatre. Rashid hits him on the head with a newspaper snapping Auda out of his dream sequence.
"Hey! Why 'd you do that for!" Auda lets go not noticing Quatre. The ruckus wakes a few Maganacs.
"Maybe that will teach you to listen to a girl when she says to let go, especially, if Quatre says to let go."
"That must have been some party, huh." Quatre half laughs.
"Master Quatre! I'm sorry." Auda stands up quickly helping Quatre up as well. "Are you hungry?" The others stand up to make more room for Quatre.
"It's ok I can get it." Quatre looks around. "I'm surprised you all managed to fit in the kitchen none the less find a place to sleep. What time did you guys come home last night?" By the look on their faces, Quatre could tell they didn't know. "Then, how did you all make it home?" They look at each other confused. "Well, whatever you did sure knock Tikki out. He looks over worked already and today's his first day."
"Okay, everybody up! Come on!" Rashid yell to wakes the rest when he noticed Tikki and a few others were still asleep. Hum, looks like Tikki isn't a light sleeper.
Quatre walks over to Tikki and shakes him. "Tikki"
"Hum." Tikki whispers without opening his eyes. "Just give me ten more minutes, dad."
Quatre looks a little bewildered by the comment. "Tikki, I think you're still half asleep."
"Hum." Tikki opens his eyes to see Quatre, Rashid, and a few Maganacs hovering over him. "Quatre!" He jumps back in surprise and loses his balance on the chair falling backwards. Tikki sits up realizing to late that he landed on Afmahd who accidentally flings Tikki into the wall behind him when Afmahd stands up, quickly.
"Ooh," They wince as Tikki hit the wall.
"Sorry about that, Tikki, you ok?" Afmahd helps him up.
"Yeah. I'm ok." He feels the back of his head. "That's the first time I pile forty guys into a kitchen."
"You brought them home?" Quatre looks at him surprised as well as impressed.
"Sure, I thought I'd pay you back for the broken glass- Fed the ones that could eat and the ones that couldn't . . . I gave Saltines, Spite, or Mountain Dew which you currently have none."
"So that explains the soup."
"Well, fellow soldiers tend to put up with you more when you can cook and plus, it's either that or starve." Tikki rubs the back of his head. "I guess I'm a little clumsy."
A handful of police officers on motorcycles begin to show up. Sally looks at the house puzzled. Where did all that smoke come from?
"We can take it from here." Sally turns to see a Chinese boy around Wufei's height with a police officer's uniform on. He had short black hair and dark green eyes. "My name is Officer Tembo. You probable think I'm 16, but I implore you; I'm older than I look . . . Wufei, long time no see. How's Sophia?"
"I can't say." Wufei takes good hard look at him. "Last time I heard she was somewhere in the L3 colonies."
Meanwhile inside the house, Sophia regains consciousness and realizes that Quatre was on top of him unconscious. She gasps when she saw that the sword had cut though the collar of her training uniform then closes her eyes and reaches into her pocket pulling out a pair of heat vision glasses. Putting them on, she sees that the burly man is feeling for them with his giant hands.
The smoke starts to find its way to the floor as Quatre slowly regains consciousness. Quatre begins to cough uncontrollably; Sophia takes one big breath, holds it, and covers Quatre's mouth as the burly man comes their way after hearing Quatre's coughs. He finally stops when the burly man was a few feet away from them. Sophia gets an idea when she looks straight up and sees the handle of her Cobra sword.
The smoke was a good idea, but now I have to find a way out of here. Sophia starts to slide from under Quatre when a giant hand grabs her ankle and pulls her up. Sophia's first reaction is to grab hold of the sword on the way up, but she doesn't get a good enough grip. She hangs upside down holding the sword between her index and middle finger as the cloak drapes over Sophia's head and begins to come off. If I can just get a good grip. Wait, the cloak. Satisfied with his first capture, the burly man listens carefully for Quatre's coughs.
Taking one hand out of her cloak Sophia wraps it around her sword with the other. She finally takes her other hand out of the cloak holding both ends throws the cloak with the sword at the burly man. It happens to hit the burly man in the balls and he lets go of Sophia. As he falls to the ground in pain, Sophia takes this chance to pick up Quatre and climb the stares to the second floor. Sophia enters a bedroom and opens a window for some fresh air so Quatre could breathe normally.
"I don't understand. Why did you bother trying to save my life?" Quatre manages to say without coughing.
"Did you want me to leave you there?" Sophia annoyed avoids his gaze as she peeks through the door then quickly closes it without making a sound.
"No, but-"
"Good, now be quiet so I can think of a plan to get out of here without being noticed." Sophia walks up to the window after placing Quatre on the bed.
After a long pause, Quatre looks at Sophia. I have a feeling I've met her before but where. "Thanks."
"I guess I'm not as heartless as you think. Now, I know I do have a conscious."
"I'm sorry if-"
"Don't be. What we need to do is to think of a way to get out of here."
Quatre walks to Sophia then looks out the window. "We could make it to the tree if we use that ledge."
Damn, did it have to be something I wasn't good at? Sophia starts out on the ledge followed by Quatre. As they start to make it to the end, a giant hand smashes through one of the nearby windows and lunges for Quatre, but he moves just in time and he only manages to snag Quatre's suit jacket. Sophia grabs Quatre's coat sleeve. "Take off your coat jacket and grab my sleeve so you won't fall!" Quatre listens, but misses Sophia's sleeve. Sophia grabs his wrist as he falls and swings Quatre to the ledge on his left closest to the tree. "Come on, we have a little more to go." Maybe I'm starting to have some good luck, finally.
Suddenly, a piece of the wooden ledge breaks off, Sophia falls to her knees, and then the rest collapses from under her. "Are you ok!"? Quatre's voice brings her back from passing out.
"Ow, I landed on my back! What do you think?!" Sophia rolls over to his right and stands up. Damn! I lost my glasses. This day just can't get any worse.
"Hey!" Sophia looks up just as Quatre plows into her.
"Maaan, someone just doesn't like me today. Do you mind getting off me? I'm done being your safety net."
Quatre gets off and helps her up. "Do you think everyone got out safely?"
"Don't worry they left way before we did." Sophia looks for his glasses in the bushes. "They're most likely on the front lawn." She kneels to get a better look since the only light source was the back porch light.
"What are you looking for?"
"My heat sensor glasses, I lost them when I fell." She stands up and looks at Quatre for a moment. "Go, your friends are probable worried about you."
"Are you sure you'll be ok by yourself?"
"Just go, I'm seventeen years old and I know I look fifteen. I've done this hundreds of times; unlike you, I know what I'm doing. GO!" Sophia watches him leave and takes off herself.
?_^ "I can't believe this! We were this close to capturing Sophia and you screwed up, and Mr. Winner wasn't supposed to die until we got control of his business and resource satellites. I'm actually glad Sophia screwed it up." Li says to Min through a screen who was sitting uncomfortable in the limo driving down an empty street. "And it's bad enough that you left your brother to die, who was carrying important papers I asked for."
"Sorry, Master Li, I'll go back for the papers."
"No, need, you're worthless to me, now. This was your last assignment, goodnight Min." As the screen goes black, the limo explodes.
Li turns in his seat. "Black Panther it's your turn to step up to the plate or so Americans say. It seems the Hyena Brothers weren't able to meet up with my standards." He begins to tap on his desk. His fingers get longer ending in a sharp point.
"Yes, Master Li, I'll start my first assignment right away." She keeps her ground knowing when he changes it was dangerous to be alone in the same room as him. He tends to kill senselessly especially when he's angry.
"And one more thing; I want Jeff disposed of. He'll talk when he finds out his brothers are dead. A hyena is useless without its pack." Li digs his nails in the desk as though trying hard not to do something. He looks Black Panther straight in the eyes his eyes shining. "I'm counting on you. Don't fail like the others."
"Don't worry about Jeff; I already sent one of my men to take care of him."
~_^ "I'm sorry Duo, but left last night and said he'd e-mail me." Duo nearly chokes on his last pancake. "If you want to find Fox, you'll have to wait till he e-mails me or try and figure it out where he is." Heero follows her to the next room. "Here's all Fox left behind." Hilde stacks a bunch of newspapers and magazines on each other. "From the looks of it Fox was trying to find a job that's why she . . . stayed with us for a while, but you can rule out the L5 colonies."
"Why is that?" Duo and Trowa enter the room.
"Well . . . Fox lost everything there: family, friends, and even the colony he was actually born in, all destroyed in the war. He was 14 when it happened."
"So, how did you guys meet, anyway?" Duo sits down listening to interested.
"Well, it was after the start of the war and school was starting its second term. Teri, the name he used at the time, and some guys were messing with a kitten while I was on my way home from school. Teri told them to stop after picking it up; he looked seven or eight years old back then so they started a fight that ended rather quickly, but the kitten died before we could get it any help. Teri blamed himself for it after I helped him burry it. I let him spend the night a few times. He didn't say a word to me since we met and when I tucked him into bed one night he said to me, 'I shouldn't have fed it; it was better off scared of me. I should have left well enough alone.'"
"So, what happened after that?"
"We became best friends from there. Well if it helps, Fox said he cut off some guys hand and that maybe he could get some info from him before moving in. Maybe we could catch him."
"He's being held at the police building a few miles from here." Trowa moves around some newspapers. He looks up at them. "The problem is getting to him without being noticed."
"Don't worry as always we'll fond a way." Duo sits back confidently. "Lets go, check it out then think of a plan so we'll know what we're up against."
;-`{ Light shines through the window of Quatre's office as he picks up a white teacup. He sits back in the chair sipping his tea. Suddenly, there's a knock on the door in the other room and looks up when he hears the door open. After he stands up, he walks in the other room. A young woman in her early twenties looks at pictures on the wall. "Hello, may I help you?"
She turns around and looks at him with dark green eyes, black hair, and wears a red business suit with matching shoes. "So, you're Mr. Winner." She walks to him and shakes his hand. "Hi, my name is Ms. Hiyami Taichi, and I'm here as construction inspection for the new building you're going to build."
"I was expecting you yesterday, but I guess traffic was a mess this morning. Everywhere traffic is bad for some reason. I had a little trouble getting here, myself."
She smiles at him. "Yeah, you literally have to kill someone to get where you want to go."
~_@ "And why do I always have to be the dangerous criminal that has to be locked up?" Duo asks before they enter the building. Heero escorts Duo with Hilde and Trowa not far behind up to the desk. Heero talks to the man at the desk while Trowa slips away from the group and quickly enters a stairway climbing them to the tenth floor. He enters an intersection in a long hallway and goes straight, but hides behind an opening door as two police officers talk. After they're a safe distance away, he enters the room they were in which is empty except for the master computer at his disposal.
Trowa notices that the room was connected to another room by a one-way bulletproof glass window with him able to see a man in the other room while he couldn't see him from his side, and Trowa quickly recognized him to be Jeff from the circus incident and that Fox cut off his hand. The reattached hand seemed to have had almost all function restored. He goes straight to the computer and down loads what info the police already got from him on a CD Rom then puts the Rom in his pocket when he hears voices.
"So, far all we have is a big zero to where Sophia is and I doubt he knows where she is." Sally turns on the lights. Sally looks behind her when Wufei turns toward the door. "Trowa?"
The jail bars clang shut on Duo as Hilde and Heero are about to begin plan B when they hear Sally's voice. "I wish you guys would ask for me, first, before testing out the security."
"Hey, thanks for the guided tour. I'm out of money right now, so I hope you're not expecting any tips." Duo says when he's out of jail and in the elevator.
"Don't worry, Duo, I wasn't expecting any." Sally enters the room noticing a man cleaning the windows and Jeff stands suddenly. "Get Down!" All of a sudden, there's a large explosion as everyone ducks taking Sally's hint. The glass shatters as Jeff flies through it. Everybody gets up unharmed except Jeff.
Duo whistles. "Man, I'd hate to be the one that has to clean this up." Fox enters the room from one of the vents and walks over to Jeff to see if he's still alive.
"Fox, I bet you never thought you'd see us here." Duo motions to the others that he'll take care of the situation and walks over to Fox. Fox stares at Duo for a moment then goes back to what he was doing. "Hey, I know you don't like me, but let s talk, ok." Fox stands up looking at Duo. "Whoever these guys are, we can help you. What do you say?"
"He's dead."
". . . Um yeah, I kind of figured that out when he went flying through bullet proof glass."
Fox looks at Duo, again. "You talk too much. You know that." He brushes past him and goes into the next room in which the explosion came from. "I came, too, late."
"Fox, wait!" Hilde runs up to him, she grabs his arm. "At least tell me where you're going, Fox."
Fox looks at her. "How would your best friend feel if I let you tag along and you were killed? She'd never forgive me or herself."
Hilde takes a step back and looks at him a strange way. "Are you . . . okay?" He seems different somehow, but I don't know how.
"Go, "I know you'll at least be safe with them and I have some unfinished business . . . I'm not who you think I am." Hilde gasps as a blade of a sword emerges from his stomach.
Fox falls to his knees as the man with the sword removes it from his body. "So, the notorious Fox can be distracted."
"Fox!!" The blade of a sword stops Hilde before she could try to help Fox.
"All of you stay where you are." The man tells the others then looks at Hilde and grabs her arm. "You're going to be my safe ticket out of here." Sally reaches for the gun in her pocket. "And don't try anything funny or I'll kill her."
Fox stands up which surprises everyone. "Let her go!"
"Fox you're not dead yet? A mater a fact, I'll put you out of your misery right now. Say Good bye, Fox!!"
The man swings the sword at Fox, but he catches it with his hand. "It seems you have the wrong Fox." Fox's eyes glow red as he snatches the sword from him and sparks start to fly from where he was stabbed.
Hilde takes a step back. "You're . . . you're one of Sophia's robots aren't you?"
"Yes, I am . . . if I were you I'd, leave before I self destruct. I wasn't supposed to be found out." Fox's body begins to glow bright.
"Hilde! Come on!" Duo grabs Hilde and runs for the hallway as the robot explodes.
%_% A Chinese boy looking about fourteen or fifteen walks into a large room and looks around. He raises an eyebrow then it returns to its lifeless state as he realizes he was in the wrong room. This is why I hate mansions. He notices the room's walls were all body length mirrors and walking to the nearest one looks at himself. He quickly straightens his black tie on his black tuxedo and fixes his cufflinks hopping it wouldn't look a size too big. At least my pants fit. He looks down at his Chinese slippers that didn't match his tuxedo. "I new I should of bought those dress shoes."
The boy in the corner of his eye notices as someone walks up behind him. "May I help you?" a deep booming voice asks. The boy turns around and sees a navy blue belt, blue shirt, and the end of a navy blue vest. He looks up and slams into the glass in shock; he closes his eyes as glass shatters everywhere.
He opens one eye then the other looking at the wreckage he cased. "Oops" The tall man glares at him as the boy gives him a big, but quick nervous smile that didn't match his face.
"Let me guess, new kid." The man says looking at him a moment as he shakes his head yes. Well, that's coming out of his first paycheck. "My name's Rashid, and from what I just witnessed; I might have to keep an eye on you."
"So, the new kid finally decided to show." Three men walk into the room. "Wha, what happened here?"
"Tikki, you'll be working with these three a long with myself; this is Abdul, Auda, and Afmahd." Rashid ignores their comments. "Afmahd I want you to give Tikki here a tour of the mansion so he won't get lost any more... I'll clean up this mess."
"And here's the kitchen." They both enter. "This is the most important room in the whole mansion." He opens the fridge and takes out bread and sandwich fixings. He puts the ingredients on the table and starts making sandwiches. "Here you go; take it; I know your hungry it's written all over your face."
Tikki sits down and takes the sandwich Afmahd hands to him. "Thank you." He eats it quickly.
"You want another one?"
"No thanks, I don't want to . . . stuff myself." Tikki watches Afmahd start on his forth one. Wait a minute what's that?
"Something wrong?" Afmahd notices Tikki looking at something on the wall.
"You're not eating, again, already, Afmahd." The pleasant voice knocks Tikki out of his thoughts.
"Master Quatre! Are you hungry?"
"No thank you, I already ate lunch." Quatre looks at Tikki as he walks over.
He bows to Quatre. "Hello my name is Tikki Rembu."
"Hi my name is Quatre Raberba Winner. Please to meet you, so you're the new worker Rashid was talking about."
Sudden blushing interrupted Tikki's blank expression, which surprised Quatre because of his dark completion. "If you'd accept my apology for the glass . . . you see . . . I wasn't expecting Rashid . . . to be so . . . big."
"It's ok, don't worry about it; it's easily fixed. Come, let me issue you your uniform; we won't be starting until Friday morning." Tikki follows Quatre into a storage room with vigorous sizes of uniforms and helmets. Quatre takes out two different sizes and hands them to Tikki. "Try both of them on and see which one fits best. You can always switch it out for another on." Tikki then follows Quatre to another room. "You can change in here."
Tikki opens his coat and pulls out a laptop computer then setting it on a small table it automatically opens as Tikki begins to change. The screen starts out fuzzy, but finally clears and the screen reveals an old man with short, heavy gray, mop top hair, long nose, and a scar just under his left eye. "What do you want?"
"Is that anyway to talk to someone who called to see if you're still alive and is wiring you money?" the old man says in an angry, lifeless voice.
"If you don't mind, right now I don't need any help. I'm starting my job tomorrow. You know I hate to ask anyone for anything, and quit keeping tabs on me Professor."
"If you want to know it wasn't my idea." His voice is cold as the screen splits into two and another face emerges.
"Doctor S!" Tikki looks up in surprise as he finished putting on the first uniform that fit quite nicely and goes on his knees in front of the laptop. "Why must you keep tabs on me? I've been doing this kind of thing since I was eight." Just as he finished the screen split into thirds. "Instructor O, not you too?"
"Is it so wrong to make sure you're, ok." Another familiar voice as the screen splits again into fourths. "Ok, ok. I know you guys all worried about me . . . where's Doctor J?" Then Doctor J pops up in the middle of the screen with a big toothy smile.
"I see you missed me . . . oh, what is it, now? Tikki Rembu." The five scientists laugh at once sending a chill down Tikki's spine.
Just then, there's a knock on the door and Tikki shuts the screen on his hand so he wouldn't hand up as the door opens. "Hey, Tikki some guys are going to a party. Want to come?"
"Sure, but first I have to say goodbye to some nosy uncles of mine." Tikki says to a new face holding in the pain. After she closes the door, Tikki wonders aloud. "I don't remember Afmahd showing me any women workers." He lifts the screen off his hand somewhat lost in thought."
"Uncles?" Tikki looks back at the screen.
"You guys know you're like family to me. I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you guys." Tikki's voice is sympathetic.
"Where did you get this from?" Tikki closes a binder in surprise and is thrown a set of keys.
"Lets just say Professor G and the others wanted to give you an early birthday present." A man with sunglasses stands next to Tikki with the binder in a store, but that happened to be next to a bar.
But there's no way! . . . It has a lot of information about Osprey and a new organization called Black Zoë. "But how did they get all this? It doesn't make any sense," Tikki looks down at the binder then hands it back to Sunglasses. . . . Unless we still have a spy somewhere . . . but who's left? We lost so many.
"I don't know, Tikki, you'll have to ask them, yourself. They say you change your name a lot and that it's hard to keep track of you. I'm starting to believe them. G said to give you a bike he finished for you, and you should pick it up tomorrow."
He begins to leave. "Wait! What's your name?"
"My name's Howard." Howard exits the store leaving Tikki alone.
Howard's Used and New Parts Tikki stuffs the keys in his pocket after reading the inscription on the keys. He heads out the store and goes back to the bar. He walks into the bar surprised as Afmahd wraps his arm around his shoulder.
"Hey, Tikki, where were you?" Afmahd has a heavy smell of liquor on his breath. "We were looking all over for you?"
"Sorry, I slipped out for a moment," Tikki says as he sees the others even more drunk than Afmahd himself. "Maybe . . . I was gone a little too long."
+_+ "Mariemaia are you sure you want to postdate your birthday party for next mouth." Lady Une looks at Mariemaia as she stares out the window.
"Yes, Sophia's right. I shouldn't have my parties before my birthday like I usually do. I should have a change this year. Besides it will give Sophia enough time to find me a present." The longer I give her the better the present. She giggles aloud then stops as quickly as she started. I hope she's well and nothing bad has happened to her.
"Understand, I don't want you to get your hopes up and she isn't able to make it." She walks up to the desk where Mariemaia's sitting with the chair facing slightly towards Lady Une.
"Sophia said she'd be at my party." Mariemaia turns to face Lady Une not making eye contact with her trying hard not to show her worry. "And she always keeps her promises . . . I'm just wondering where she could be right now."
"It depends; it could be night where she is."
"I won't worry too much. Where ever she is I know she's having a ball." But, I can't shake this feeling that something awful is going to happen.
$_$ Quatre closes the door to another empty room puzzled. "Where is everyone?" He turns as someone walks up to him from the shadows.
"Is something wrong, Mater Quatre?" Rashid walks out of the shadows.
"Oh, it's you Rashid."
Rashid opens a few windows. "Have you seen Abdul?"
"That's the thing, I can't find anyone." Quatre starts down the hall with Rashid not far behind.
"That's weird; I thought for sure they'd be home by two." They make it to the end of the hall.
"You mean you didn't go with them." Quatre stops at the elevator.
"No, Ms. Taichi needed some assistance so I couldn't go with them."
"Well." Quatre and Rashid enter the elevator. "Maybe they're at breakfast, already."
"They probably had such a blast that they forgot the time." Silence fills the elevator as Rashid looks at his watch. Quatre stares out the widow at the scenery of the colony a little uneasy. "Well the good news is they finished the building while we were gone and we can start on the building for Miss Relena Darlian."
"We're already almost a week late in staring that building, too. Hopefully, Tikki will help speed up construction and not hinder us." They exit the elevator and head for the kitchen; they're stopped in their tracks at the kitchen doorway in shock to see it filled with sleeping Maganacs. It looks like they're all here. Quatre gives a sigh of relief.
Rashid still bewildered by the sight of his men notice a pot on the stove. Who would be eating soup this early in the morning? Then he noticed Tikki sitting in a chair a sleep. Looks like the guys tired him out, already and it's not even his first day, yet.
Quatre carefully makes it up to the table without stepping on anyone. I wonder why everyone's in here. "Hum" Quatre looks down as Auda takes a hold of his ankle. Quatre crouches down. "Auda" He shakes him a bit. "You can let go of me, now."
"Give me a kiss first, Sasha." Auda puckers up his lips as he says this.
"Sasha?" Quatre is bewildered as Auda tries to kiss his fantasy girl that was unfortunately Quatre. Rashid hits him on the head with a newspaper snapping Auda out of his dream sequence.
"Hey! Why 'd you do that for!" Auda lets go not noticing Quatre. The ruckus wakes a few Maganacs.
"Maybe that will teach you to listen to a girl when she says to let go, especially, if Quatre says to let go."
"That must have been some party, huh." Quatre half laughs.
"Master Quatre! I'm sorry." Auda stands up quickly helping Quatre up as well. "Are you hungry?" The others stand up to make more room for Quatre.
"It's ok I can get it." Quatre looks around. "I'm surprised you all managed to fit in the kitchen none the less find a place to sleep. What time did you guys come home last night?" By the look on their faces, Quatre could tell they didn't know. "Then, how did you all make it home?" They look at each other confused. "Well, whatever you did sure knock Tikki out. He looks over worked already and today's his first day."
"Okay, everybody up! Come on!" Rashid yell to wakes the rest when he noticed Tikki and a few others were still asleep. Hum, looks like Tikki isn't a light sleeper.
Quatre walks over to Tikki and shakes him. "Tikki"
"Hum." Tikki whispers without opening his eyes. "Just give me ten more minutes, dad."
Quatre looks a little bewildered by the comment. "Tikki, I think you're still half asleep."
"Hum." Tikki opens his eyes to see Quatre, Rashid, and a few Maganacs hovering over him. "Quatre!" He jumps back in surprise and loses his balance on the chair falling backwards. Tikki sits up realizing to late that he landed on Afmahd who accidentally flings Tikki into the wall behind him when Afmahd stands up, quickly.
"Ooh," They wince as Tikki hit the wall.
"Sorry about that, Tikki, you ok?" Afmahd helps him up.
"Yeah. I'm ok." He feels the back of his head. "That's the first time I pile forty guys into a kitchen."
"You brought them home?" Quatre looks at him surprised as well as impressed.
"Sure, I thought I'd pay you back for the broken glass- Fed the ones that could eat and the ones that couldn't . . . I gave Saltines, Spite, or Mountain Dew which you currently have none."
"So that explains the soup."
"Well, fellow soldiers tend to put up with you more when you can cook and plus, it's either that or starve." Tikki rubs the back of his head. "I guess I'm a little clumsy."
