Pre-Brat HQ

Hotaru's condition, much to the relief of those around her was not permanent. After half a day's rest she awoke to the delight of her family, and to Hotaru's delight she found her mommy to be perfectly fine. The fear though that was there during her time sleeping however had not faded. The pilots rarely let Hotaru out of their sight, afraid she might collapse again. They had never seen anyone heal another before, and no one knew what kind of effect it would have on the human body. For days and days after the incident they continued to take Hotaru to Preventer Headquarters, as Sally ran test after test to determine if any harm was done. Test after test had shown her to be perfectly normal in everyway.

As the adults mused and worried about Hotaru's strange condition; Hotaru herself grew as one week passed and then another. By the near end of November Hotaru was the picture of a happy, healthy ten-year-old girl. Nearly everyday Heero and the others would bring Hotaru to Preventers. For a few hours every day Hotaru would be left with Sally to try to figure out what had been done to her. When her tests were done, Hotaru would wait for her fellow Pre-Brats to come after school. She still wore the leather jacket Jace first gave her, as for Jace himself. He had gotten himself a new jacket, with a bit of help from Duo of course. The Pre-Brats took Hotaru's condition in stride; to them it was kind of cool. To them, Hotaru would always be the kid of the group. So it was no surprise with that amount of acceptance from the ground that Hotaru would eventually get into trouble, as all Pre-Brats did.

The PreBrats, as far as anyone knew hung out wherever there was room. At times the 'room' was an empty hallway or even the cafeteria when it wasn't being used. In a sense the whole building was their playground, but to Hotaru it was odd that they didn't have a place to call their own. So it was no surprise really that it would be Hotaru who brought up the subject.

"Jace," Hotaru looked at up their leader.

It was a chilly November afternoon, and the kids had just finished conning sweet Uncle Quatre into giving them hot chocolate. The sight was an amusing one; five kids lounging in the hallway holding cups of steaming hot chocolate the way adults would lounge while drinking their coffee.

Jace looked back down, "What's up?"

"We always hang around in this building right?"

"Jace nodded thoughtfully, "Pretty much, our parents tend to be glued here."

"And every Preventer knows we exist right?"

"Or at least the ones warned about us," Zack grinned wolfishly.

"So why don't we have our own place? You know, just for us?"

"Uh…"

"Uhmmm…"

"Well…"

"Eh…."

The four remaining Pre-Brats looked at each other with bemusement. No one had ever asked that, nor did any of them given it much thought before. They had just accepted the fact they ran rampage in Preventers' HQ. Besides who would give them a place to stay? Half of the time they were complete pests.

"Well… truth is, we really don't have a place to stay," Jace admitted.

Dana nodded, "Yea, I mean…. The grown-ups use every part of this building at one time or another."

'Unless it's off limits," Zack added in a voice that suggested he had tried to break in at one point.

"They just let us run around," Diana said wisely, "But it is the grown-ups that own the building."

Hotaru thought about this, after all her friends were older than her, and therefore wiser. Still, Hotaru was anything but ordinary. Only a child like Hotaru could come up with something childish and yet insane at the same time.

"We could make our own HQ!" Hotaru exclaimed as if struck by inspiration.

Jace gapped, "How?"

"Where?" Dana raised a brow.

Hotaru was silent, but not deterred from her idea. She stared at the ceiling, paced and murmured thoughtfully to herself. Spinning on her heels a few times, she stopped and turned to the others with a mischievous grin on her face. Somehow Jace had the feeling Hotaru had been hanging around her Uncle Duo too long

"Easy," Hotaru girnned, "On the roof, it's not used for anything. Helicopters land on the next building over, Daddy said so."

"We need something water proof," Diana pointed out.

Hotaru replied quickly, "Metal scraps, from the repair hangers. We could… use superglue to put it together!"

"This is insane," Jace shook his head, "Those hangers are off limits."

"Well.." Dana drawled out, "It has been a while since we went into any off limit areas…"

"And if the superglue fails, there is always ductape," Zack added his sagely advice, "If all else fails use ducttape, it's the thing that keeps the whole universe together."

Everyone stared at Zack as if he had lost his mind.

"I think we were struck dumb by the stupidity of that comment," Dana commented dryly.

"Jace sighed, "Well, I'd have to admit it's better than being here doing nothing. It's chilly though so bundle up."

Hotaru's eyes lit up at the idea of Jace agreeing to the place, "So what's your orders captain?"

All eyes on Jace, the boy wondered how he always got talked into these messes. Then he remembered why; it was always fun to get into a bit of trouble now and again.

"Dana, Diana, check out the roof, Zack and I will show Hotaru the off limits areas and get the stuff."

"Yes sir!"

As Dana and Diana scrambled towards the roof, Zack put his arm around Hotaru's shoulders He always wanted a little sister to teach his tricks to. Thoughts of him and Hotaru playing all manner of pranks danced in his head. He could imagine the three of them making their way into the off limit areas with the stealth of ninjas. Between his pranking expertise, Jace's brains and Hotaru's innocent looks there was no such thing as 'off limits'. Zack daydreamed all sorts of schemes, so deep in thought was he that he didn't notice that Jace stopped walking. At least Zack didn't notice until he rammed head on into Jace, landing on his ass with a large 'thud'.

"Shh…." Jace turned around for a moment, motioning for the two of them to move back.

The trio dashed around a corner at Jace's signal, pressing his back against the wall, Jace peeked over into the other corridor. He frowned as he motioned for the others to crouch down.

"Hey, bud," Zack whispered, "What's the hold up? Some adults having to guard the place? That's normal ya know… they wouldn't have gotten suspicious unless we kept on walking."

"Yea… but it's not normal when there is no guard guarding the place," Jace pointedly replied back.

"Eh?"

Zack peeked his head around the corner to catch a glimpse of what Jace was talking about. Sure enough, there was no guard; Zack cocked his head for a moment; he heard no sound.

"Maybe the guard went on a coffee break?" Zack suggested uncertainly.

Their leader snorted, "And Yuy would have their as-arse…"

Hotaru looked up at Jace, "Maybe we should tell someone Captain?"

Zack, getting bored of just seeing nothing turned back to his friends putting his hands behind his head. Whatever he was about to say however was lost as the boy's jaw dropped to the ground in dump shock. Jace, noticing Zack's unusual silence (seeing as the boy rarely ever shut up to begin with) turned to ask what was the matter.

"Zack… what's the matter?"

"Uh… uh…. Uhm…. B-b-behind you…." Zack stared ahead past Hotaru and Jace.

"Behind me?"

"My, my, my…. They sure are recruiting them younger and younger every time," a velvety voice murmured softly behind the trio.

Jace stiffed, there was nothing malicious in the voice to speak of, but there was something about it that caused hairs on the back of his neck to rise and a chill shivering up his spine. Something in which Hotaru despite being already ten years of age seemed to be immune to; in fact she saw nothing wrong at all.

"Hello mister," Hotaru turned around to cheerfully greet the man; it was hard to be scared of a man who smiled.

Smiled indeed, Jace turned to look at the man Hotaru had greeted so cheerfully and found himself as speechless as Zack had become. Standing behind them was a tall lanky man with long black hair. Not that there was anything wrong with tall lanky men who happened to have long black hair. There was certainly nothing wrong with a man who smiled politely at a bunch of kids as if nothing was wrong. It wasn't a crime for a man who was tall and lanky to wear a long, flowing black trench coat with a matching wide brim hat and white gloves. Though Jace had to admit those gloves reminded him of surgical gloves, but it was not a crime to do so. Yet here was this tall, lanky man in a long, flowing black trench coat, looking down at them from under his wide brim hat smiling as if nothing at all was amiss. So why did Jace feel as if he was prey about to be eaten by a larger, much more dangerous predator?

"I am afraid…." The stranger continued, "That I seem to be quite lost, Preventers HQ is a very large place. Perhaps one of you three young ones could show me the way out?"

Zack and Jace were rooted to the spot, Hotaru looked up at the man curious seeing as this was suppose to be an area they weren't suppose to be in.

"We're going to die. We're going to die. We're going to die," Zack thought in a panicked state of mind.

The stranger focused on Hotaru, "Will you help me?"

"Okay," Hotaru smiled.

The boys watched dumbstruck as Hotaru innocently took the tall man's hand and walked with him to the elevator. Jace wish he could have said something, but the man had shown to be nothing more than overly polite and kind, okay so he was also scared stiffed too.

"Bye bye. It was nice meeting you Jace and Zack," the man waved as the elevator door slowly closed them.

Zack was still standing stark still with his hands frozen to his sides, "He… he knew our names."

"Which means, he probably knows Hotaru's…"

"What just happened?"

Hotaru looked curiously at the strange man, who was simply holding his hat smiling at nothing in particular. She knew she probably shouldn't be going with him, but he did need help. Not to mention Hotaru doubted she would have been given a choice otherwise.

"Is something wrong Hotaru?" the man asked kindly.

"How did you know my name?"

He smile, if possible got wider, "I overheard you and your little friends talking earlier, please pardon me for eavesdropping, but what were you three doing all the way there?"

Hotaru brighten under that question, "Oh! Well you see…."

Meanwhile Jace and Zack were arguing on their next course of action, seeing as they just met a strange (and freaky) man in a place where they weren't even suppose to be. They had gone ahead into the off-limits area to see if they could find the guard, dreading that they might find the dead body of some guard that use to greet them everyday. However, much to their surprise there was no body, or any guard for that matter.

"Maybe he really isn't such a bad guy," Zack said thoughtfully after a while, "I mean, maybe the guard just happened to be not around when we ran into him."

"And what is a guy like that doing all the way inside here?" Jace pointed out.

"So what do you want to do? Tell Mr. Yuy? What if the guy really was just lost?" Zack didn't know who he was more scared of, Heero or the strange man, "We're so screwed!" he kicked air.

At least he thought it was aiming for just air, as it happened his foot hit something with a soft 'thud'.

"Thud?" Jace thought to himself as he moved forward, with Zack behind him.

Jace was born at first as a military brat, and when the Preventers came into existent he became a Preventer brat instead. He had spent enough time in buildings similar to Preventers to know that in a place like a scrap hanger one could expect a 'clang' or even a 'thunk' if there was a crate made out of wood. A 'thud' though was an unusual sound, not one that a person would find in a hanger like this. The two boys looked around the crate, keeping themselves at a distance in case the 'thing' turned out to be dangerous. There, propped up against a large metal crate was the guard the two boys had been looking for. A young man, probably an ensign by rank was slouched against the crate, his head limping hung.

"He's dead…" the darker boy was really scared now, "He's dead… that stranger killed him."

"And Hotaru went with him," Jace added.

They paused for a moment before running back the way they came shouting, "Mr. Yuy!"

Ding

Shiny metallic doors opened slowly to reveal two occupants a mysterious man and Heero Yuy's young daughter happily skipping along side the man.

"A headquarters just for you Preventer Brats? How quaint," the man smiled softly, "I do agree, it is not at all fair that you children have not a place to call your own."

"Uh huh," Hotaru nodded, "That's why we were there, looking for stuff to built our headquarters with."

"How smart, I must admit I would have thought an older child than you would have come up with such a plan… yes… I had expected you to be much older…." He drawled out lazily.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Hotaru asked nervously.

"Why there is very few people who have not heard of Heero Yuy's genius child, so I had assumed you were older," he explained kindly.

"Oh…. Do you work here? You're not wearing a uniform, but…"

"Oh no no, you mistake me dear, I'm just a simple transporter."

"What do you transport?" Hotaru asked.

The man lifted the brim of his hat as he peered down at her, "Oh….. All sorts of things, I transport anything, no matter what it may be… or whom…."

They pasted by the front desk, where the secretary just happened to look up from her magazine to see Hotaru walk by. She did a doubt take, pulling her magazine down just so her eyes could peek over, seeing the man smile and tip his hat at her. Silently he laid a hand on Hotaru's back, and ushered her past.

"Hello Mr. Yuy? I just saw your daughter walk past the front desk with a unknown man dressed in all in black."

"Shit!" Heero slammed the phone down on the hanger, grabbing his jacket on the way out.

"Hey, Heero, what's wrong?" Duo looked up from his paperwork.

"Hotaru was since walking out with a stranger," Heero growled as he reached for the doorknob.

The doorknob was yanked out of his hand as Jace and Zack bowled into him. Duo rose, noticing that both boys seemed to be very panicked, which was weird since it was them.

"Hotaru…. Creepy…. Man…" Zack panted out.

"What do you know about this," Heero glared at the boy, angry to just be delayed.

"We found the guard to the scrap hanger between some crates, we think that the creepy man we ran into killed him," Jace explained.

"What!" Duo shouted, "What were you doing there? That's off limits, never mind, Heero you go and get Hotaru, I'll get Trowa and Wufei to check out the hanger. You two, stay here and tell me everything about this guy."

Both boys nodded wordlessly as they tried to catch their breath, making way so Heero would hurry down. So much in thought, Heero barely even notice Millardo running beside him pulling his gun out. In fact nearly all of Preventers was in frenzy as word about Hotaru and the guard spread like wildfire.

"Here we are," the man said in a sing-a-song voice as they stopped in front of a black car, "It's time to go I think…"

He couldn't see her through the glass doors; he couldn't see Hotaru in his line of sight. Heero's heartbeat quicken, as he sped up, so certain he wasn't going to see her as he burst through the door.

"Hotaru!"

It was like a dream, seeing Hotaru turned around and wave, "Daddy!"

"Are you alright? He did hurt you anywhere?" Heero got down on his knees and grabbed her by the shoulders, deathly afraid that maybe she wasn't alright.

"Of course I'm okay," Hotaru looked confused, "Who are you talking about."

"The man everyone saw you walk out with."

"Oh…. Mr. Jackal?" Hotaru smiled again, "He just left."

"He didn't do anything to you?"

"No… we just talked, he says I remind him of his dear Ginji," Hotaru answered happily.

Far away from the Preventers building, in another city, in a small café called the Honky Tonk a genki blond shivered in on his stool. The waitress who was cleaning cups looked up from her work.

A spiky brown hair man chewed the end of his cigarette, "Yo Ginji, what's the matter? Cold?"

"No… but… I feel like someone walked on my grave," Ginji scratched his head in confusion.

Heero patted Hotaru down, checking for any injuries, even though Hotaru had assured him that she was perfectly fine. Trowa silently walked up behind the two, waiting for Heero to finish his parental moment.

"Well?" Millardo inquired.

"The guard was actually just sleeping, the moron decided it was a bright idea to take a nap in between the crates, and since he was such a heavy sleeper the kids thought he was dead," Trowa replied dryly.

Millardo looked very pissed at this news, "So in other words the whole Preventers was put into a panic for nothing."

"Judging by the security cameras, probably not," Trowa shook his head, "That man gives him a bad feeling, all the same though, the ensign will be put on suspension."

"You think that'll be the last time we'll see that guy?" Heero questioned as he hugged Hotaru.

"Who knows, as far as we can tell, there is nothing missing or taken," Trowa shrugged, "But we won't know for certain until we do a full check."

"Any idea what he might have been after?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

A Day Later

Five kids, frolic within the courtyard of Preventers HQ seeing as their respective parents were busying with yesterday's fiasco. More specifically they were playing tag, or at least they were until Dana stopped running and looked like she had swallowed a fish. Four heads turned towards the object of their friend's shock, to see that same tall, lanky man, in that same long black trench coat smiling pleasantly at them. He was standing beside what looked to be a playhouse, only bigger seeing as it went up to his shoulder and took up the majority of the clearing within the courtyard. Upon the top of the door to that playhouse read "Pre-Brat HQ".

"Hello children," the man purred, "Hotaru told me so much about you all…"

"Hey Heero," Duo nudged his friend, "I got something interesting you might want to see."

"Found anything on that man?" Heero asked taking the file.

"No, but we have got this tip that someone wanted to blackmail you by kidnapping Hotaru, so we acted on it," Quatre answered as he came into the office, "But…"

"But?" Heero raised a brow.

"But Yuy," Wufei answered gruffly, "When we got there, we had all the information to prove the guys wanted to blackmail, but the perpetrators are dead."

Heero gave them the look to keep on going.

"The weird thing is," Duo chewed the end of his braid, "All those guys had the letter J cut into their backs. We would say a serial killer go to them, but it's all too neat…"

Jace stared in surprise at the playhouse, or rather their hideaway, "Wow thanks mister."

"It is not a problem, think of it as my way of thanking Hotaru for helping me out of the building."

"Heh, thanks, maybe you aren't so creepy after all," Zack beamed.

"Zack!" Diana scolded him, "That wasn't nice."

"Oh that's okay," the man smiled, in almost a predatory way, "It is a good way to think young Zack, in fact I'd suggest you continue thinking so."

With that the mysterious man turned to leave, it was almost something out of a movie as he held his hat to his head and his trench coat billowed behind him as he left. He pulled his wide brim hat over his eyes, as if to hide the fact he seemed to be smiling at an inside joke.

"Yes… it would be for the best to keep thinking that way," he murmured to himself as he walked farther and farther away, "It will be great fun when young Hotaru is all grown up, yes… I do think so. It shall be lots of fun seeing her be all grown up, much more pleasure than what my job could have been…"

For back at the little café only known as the Honky Tonk a little plushie like figure was running around like a chicken with his head cut off, because he knew what it was like to be on the receiving side of such a man's interest.

"It can't be as simple as a playhouse," Ginji squealed waving his chibi little arms, "I mean it's Akabane! Poor little girl, Ban… we have to do something!"

"What do you make of this Threadspool?" Ban turned to an effeminate young man, "After all you're the one bringing news of this."

"I have to admit," Kazuki murmured fiddling with one of his bells, "I too am curious, for no one really knows what goes on in his head."

"Feh… true enough…" Ban muttered as he watched Ginji run in circles.

Author's Notes:

Originally this was supposed to be funny, and now it is mysterious, but I had toyed with the idea quite a bit. For those that know who these guest characters are, well I'm sure they are not going to show up again, or at least I'm sure Jackal isn't going to show up again. Actually I don't know… we'll see. For those that don't know who these characters are… well the more mystery to you. Watch the show, it's great, I don't like Jackal as a person personally, but I like him as a character to be written about. He is very strange, and he borders along many lines.

It was suppose to be a filler, though I don't think it was much of a filler. Oh well, I got to mess with Jackal without actually writing at Getbacker's story. Though the idea of doing so would greatly amuse me one day. At any rate we're getting there… slowly but surely.