Disclaimer: No relation to Gundam Wing. No own Gundam Wing. No relation to anything Gundam. No own anything Gundam. No making profit from this. All of the above is very obvious, otherwise why would I be writing this? Disclaimers are a pain to write.
Pairings: 1x2, 3x4, 5xS, past 5xM (she's dead)
Summary: Gangs rule the Outlands, and shoot any OZ soldiers that enter their turf. The solution? Use ex-gangers, now OZ prisoners, to infiltrate them. What OZ doesn't know is that these five prisoners have something else in mind…
Fighting Fire with Fire
Chapter Three: The House
Une herself showed them to their new house a day after they signed the contracts. It was a simple affair, a square two-storey cottage with a back and front porch, in the middle of a rectangle of dying garden. It was the last in an entire row of similar houses, in better-kept condition, of course. Beyond their house was a grassy plain stretching a half-mile or so to end at a large forest.
"This is the most remote place we could find that has easy access to both the city and the Outlands," Une informed them. "We're in the Northern outskirts of the city now. More of North-West-North, really. The Outlands are to the West of the city, as you know, and it's open grassland between here and there, with a large forest somewhere in the middle – it's a part of that forest over there."
Their eyes followed her pointing finger to the trees they had seen. "Cool," Duo grinned. "A real forest! Bit far out, though."
"That's because the trees were cleared to make way for the city," Quatre explained. "They cleared more than was necessary, though, thinking that the forest was large enough already, and didn't bother replanting when they were done with the city, only substituting grass for the lost trees."
"A pity," Wufei said quietly.
"Yes, it is."
They went in, leaving their new Jeep and Une's car just inside the fence. On the first floor, there was a small bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room with a television, a three-seater couch and two two-seaters forming a rough square, with a low table in the middle.
"Not bad," Duo commented, slightly surprised. He turned to Une. "After all we'd demanded, we almost expected some dingy apartment somewhere."
Une raised an eyebrow. "If we'd known that was all you were expecting…"
"Is the TV working?"
"Limited basic channels only, though it also tunes in to radio channels."
"Cool."
"We cleared out years' worth of dust for you when we moved all this in. You'll find the kitchen equipped with the basic cooking materials and plastic cutlery, and cleaning supplies are there as well. There is a basement, and only three rooms upstairs, so I'm afraid you'll have to share. There are two rooms with one Queen-sized bed and one room with a single."
The boys saw the knowing glint in Une's eyes and hid satisfied smiles. Hook, line and sinker. "Uh – that's great, lady! We don't mind at all!" Duo assured her, grinning broadly. Une smirked at him. Duo restrained the urge to smirk back. Although none of them had tried sleeping so close to another person before, it was worth it to know that OZ bought into their cover story. And besides, he kinda looked forward to it.
"The rest of your things will arrive soon – all the clothes and so on. The weapons you will pick up from Headquarters tomorrow morning. For now you'll stay in your standard issue clothes. Microwave TV dinners are in the fridge, warm them up yourselves for dinner. Take this time to rest after all the health and physical tests you've had the past day, and I'll expect you in OZ headquarters at ten in the morning. You do know how to get there? Good. Here are your passes. Don't be late."
"See ya tomorrow, lady!" Duo called as she left. When the last sounds of her car had faded into the distance, he turned to grin at the others. "Let's do some recon, huh?"
They explored the house's every nook and cranny, Wufei doing the basement, Heero and Duo the first floor, and Trowa and Quatre the second floor. Five minutes later they reconvened in the living room.
"Windows secured," Quatre reported.
"Only one entrance to the basement," Wufei put in.
"Windows and back door secured," Duo said cheerfully. "Let's go look outside!"
They locked the front door behind them; all the other entrances to the house already secured, and then began walking towards the forest in the distance. When they were in the middle of absolutely nothing but grass, a few minutes' walk from their new house, Quatre stopped. "This is safe," he decided.
"Hn." Heero stopped as well, and the others followed suit. They sat down in a circle without any regards to the ground or the state of their clothing once they sat.
"So, we've got all we wanted, and more – this house isn't half bad!" Duo chortled. "And fully furnished, too. Oh, we disabled one in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in the dining room, one in the hallway."
"One disabled in the basement."
"And we disabled one in each room, none in the bathroom. Actually, I don't think there are any more hidden ones," Quatre said thoughtfully, "but better safe than sorry, I guess. Oh, yes – did anyone put rewiring tools on the list?"
"I did."
"Yeah, Heero's anal about small details like that," Duo grinned. "Do you think we need a security system? No, it's open land all around the house – but we will need an escape route if something ever happens."
"We could dig one to the forest, but it would take weeks, even with the right equipment," Quatre murmured thoughtfully. "And it would be terribly obvious."
"We will talk about that later, once we have scoured the house," Heero interrupted. "For now we will discuss our plans for the Outlands. I want to know the extent of your capabilities. It is unacceptable if we all cannot jog for more than three kilometres without starting to get tired."
"Aw, Hee-chan, you should know that none of us are as weak as we made ourselves seem in those stupid tests," Duo protested.
"I do not know how much your abilities have deteriorated after a period of imprisonment. We tested out around the same levels, and I know mine was a large underestimation of my actual level. We need to know each other's true abilities and specialties in order to work out a feasible plan."
"If you want to know, Yuy, tell us your status first."
Heero spared a glare at Wufei before nodding once, sharply. "I am versed in all aspects, but trained specially for field command and tactics. Most of my abilities were at no more than thirty percent."
Duo whistled. "Wow, looks like you haven't deproved at all!"
"Duo, there's no such word as 'deprove'."
The braided boy waved a hand dismissively. "Doesn't matter, Q, you all know what I meant."
Heero ignored him and nodded at Wufei. "Well, Chang?"
Wufei grimaced. "My specialty is close combat, and most of my abilities were at thirty to forty percent. I still cannot measure up to you, Yuy."
"Same. Pinpoint accuracy and sabotage."
Quatre smiled at Trowa. "Thirty to forty percent as well. Trained extensively in strategy and analysis."
"And I was using roughly up to thirty-five percent of my skills," Duo finished. "Best at sabotage and demolitions, and stealth operations – hey, don't give me that look! It's all pretty impressive, since I overheard the testers talking and it seems that we're just below average OZ soldier levels. That's a bit pathetic, actually."
"Better for us. We will hold practice matches against each other using different scenarios to determine exactly what level each of us is at, and through these matches, pinpoint reactions times, fighting styles, and efficiency with various weapons. Now. Is there any information about yourself that you might have left out in front of OZ? Anything that might affect our productivity as a team – weaknesses, favourable surrounding conditions, preferred fighting arrangements?"
At the others' blank looks, Duo jumped in. "Heero and I should work better together," he offered. "You've come across us; you know we've spent time together. Well, we never talked, just sat with each other, sometimes doing a little sparring if there's space. So I'm more familiar with his movements and reflexes than any of you are, and he's the same with me – right, Heero? Yeah, thought so. Uh, what else… oh, yeah. I don't like close combat – I can handle it, but…"
"You overdo it."
Duo sighed, and smiled ruefully. "Putting it mildly. If you guys researched, I'm sure you've seen what's become of my hand-to-hand opponents."
Quatre turned slightly green, and Trowa patted his knee.
"If we should need to pair up, Duo and I would be a good choice," Heero interrupted firmly, getting back on topic. "I assume you two as well?" He looked at Quatre and Trowa.
The blond nodded. "Trowa and I didn't talk much either, though. Just – enjoyed each other's company, like you did. We didn't end up fighting, so we might not be as familiar with each other's styles as you two are. We just – er, did… non-talking things. But only once or twice," he added hastily, blush spreading.
Duo winked at Quatre, pretending to leer. "Ooh, care to share details?"
Heero smacked Duo on the head. "Behave," he ordered.
Watery violet eyes accompanied by a pout blinked up at him. "Hee-chan…"
The Japanese boy ignored him. "So I assume that you work better alone?" he asked Wufei, who nodded.
"Hee-chan…" Duo tugged on his shirt, and Heero glanced over to see those violet eyes downcast and biting his lip, his other hand tracing invisible patterns in the dirt, and Heero had the sudden feeling that he had been prodding puppies with sharp pointy things. Giving in, he laced his fingers through Duo's and glared at the others, daring them to comment. Quatre just smiled, looking pleased; Wufei rolled his eyes while Trowa blinked serenly. Duo, however, was beaming at him so happily that he had the insane urge to smile back.
He resisted, and continued his previous train of thought. "Alright. We will not make our move until we can at least predict each other's moves in any given situation, and that will only come after the practice matches. We will arrange those later. Right now we will move on to our plans for the Outlands, not Oz's plans. Anyone who wasn't thinking along those lines?"
Four smirks answered his.
"Well then. Quatre? You have the training in strategy and analysis, I believe."
The blond smiled. "First off, I'm sure you've spotted the few loopholes in our contract…"
I was planning to make this a longer chapter, which included their new clothes, equipment, weapons sort of thing, but then I realized I was getting absolutely nowhere with that second half and it was already a really long time since I last updated. So, I decided to just cut the chapter here and make it into two chapters.
So sorry this is so late, then! And not as interesting as well; there's no action or anything. That comes in the second half. I promise not to make the wait for that half as long as the wait for this; it's half-done already, anyway, so yeah.
Please review!
I would dearly love to thank all those who reviewed before – but then I kinda have no time, and am rushing to update this soon. I'll get back to all your questions and responses in the next update, I swear. Anyone who wants to threaten me with a fish is welcome to do so, I know I deserve it. -grimaces-
-Ashen Skies-
"Hook, line and sinker."