Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of the characters. Don't sue me, you'll get nothing but pocket change and lint.
A.N. - I'm sorry everyone for taking so long to get this chapter out. I've either been really busy or not had access to an internet connection. Plus I now have two original novels on the go. I got stuck on one, so decided to start writing on an idea I've had kicking around in my head for awhile. I must be insane, to have this much on the go.
I will be changing the rating next chapter, just to make sure. I don't want my stories to get deleted, and I'm used to a different rating system. We don't rate things as high in Canada.
Last Chapter:
"Aren't you going to get some sleep, Heero?"
"No, I don't really need any, and someone needs to watch the plane. Go to bed, Duo. I don't want you handling explosives on no sleep."
"Are you sure you'll be all right?"
"I'm sure. I've kept far worse hours than this before, during the war. Thanks for worrying though." After Duo went to bed, Heero sat in the pilot's seat going over all possible alternatives to the plan, but he couldn't think of a better way to do it. "I just hope this goes well."
Chapter 14:
Despite his assurances to Duo, Heero did doze fitfully in the pilot's chair, although it wasn't a very restful sleep. His mind insisted on conjuring up all the things that could happen if the mission didn't go as planned, and he woke every time something beeped. Finally came the beep that meant they had reached their destination. He gently set the plane down on an abandoned back road and taxied it into the cover of some trees before going to wake everyone up. Heero met up with Zechs as he turned the corner to the crew quarters.
"Are we there? I thought I felt the plane touch down."
"Yes, we've arrived. I was just on my way to get everyone up. Care to help?"
"Sure. I'll go wake up Noin and Sally." The two parted ways to wake the others, and soon everyone was assembled in the cargo hold. The forms of the five Gundams, Tallgeese, and Taurus loomed over them as they assembled their gear. Shortly after they heard a knock on the outer door of the cargo hold. All went silent, and Heero gestured for Duo and Wufei to go see who it was. Both drew their guns and slid silently across the matte grey metal surface of the hold. They disappeared behind one of the giant suits and the whoosh of the small outer door being opened echoed in the large space. A few startled exclamations followed, and then Wufei and Duo came back into sight, followed by a sheepish looking Quatre.
"Sorry for startling you, I just thought it might be easier for me to meet up with you. I would've contacted you first, but I didn't know how to get in touch with you."
"That's alright Quatre," Heero said. "Alright, we'll go back to the crew quarters and explain the plan to Quatre." Once the plan was explained, Quatre got a frightening smile on his face.
"I like the plan, Heero," he said. "Let's make sure to plant lots of explosives, show these guys what happens when they mess with one of us."
Duo leaned closer to Heero. "Is that what he was like when he used the Zero system for the first time?" he whispered. Heero nodded. "I'm sure glad he's on our side."
"Are there any questions?" Heero asked. Noone said anything. "Good. Use of code names begins now. We attack at 05:00." The old abandoned road that Heero had used as a runway used to be an access road for the base before they built a better one on the other side. He used it now to taxi the plane down until they were close to the perimeter of the base, then hid it again as best he could. They draped a camouflage net over the exposed parts, taking care to ensure that the cargo hatch could still be opened. It was 04:45.
Noin and Zechs set themselves up on a small rise with sniper rifles. They would kill anyone who noticed them off before they had a chance to set off the alarm. Sally was nearby with an assault rifle and her medical kit. She wouldn't get involved unless it was absolutely necessary. Heero, Duo, Quatre, and Wufei crept carefully towards the electric fence. Heero helped the other three over it and the barbed wire on top before jumping it himself. Once inside the compound, they separated: Quatre and Wufei heading for the duct system, Duo for a small personnel door, and Heero for the sewer pipe.
"Is everyone in place?" came Heero's voice over the headsets when everyone had reached their entrance. The replies came in quickly, one after the other.
"Water here."
"Fire and Wind ready."
"Dragon and Sand are in place."
"Shadow's ready to blow shit up."
"Ice here. Go!"
Heero's first obstacle presented itself almost immediately. A rusted grate covered the entrance to the sewer pipe, but he tore it off with ease, the old bolts shrieking at the abuse. It had been abandoned long enough to be completely dry, instead of slimy like Heero had half expected. He crawled quickly up the tunnel, reaching the point where it joined the base rapidly. The grate in the floor of what appeared to be a boiler room wasn't screwed into the floor, and lifted off easily. Drawing his pistol, he carefully checked the hallway for guards before heading towards the computer room. He passed a few slumbering men on his way there, the scent of alcohol on their breath revealing why they were passed out in the halls.
Shortly after, he reached the computer room. A glance through the window revealed one lone tech checking the system. Heero snuck up behind him and knocked him out with a single blow from the butt of his gun. He dragged the now unconscious man to the supply closet and jammed the door shut, crushing the lock in his hand. Taking a seat, he quickly began to work, downloading all the files onto disks he had stuffed into his bulletproof vest, deleting them as soon as they were copied. He'd analyse the data on them later.
While the last of the files finished copying, he created a virus that would wipe out the entire system and added enough redundant files that they'd never be able to find the real virus before it was too late. As an extra precaution, he erased all evidence that he'd even been in the system. Once he had all their information, he activated the virus and sat back to watch it go to work.
In the meantime, Duo had been carefully working his way to the hangar. He found the same thing that Heero had: most of the guards were passed out drunk.
"Heh, makes my job easier," he thought to himself. Once in the hangar, he took the first of the explosives out of his black duffle bag and got to work. He scrambled up to the catwalk, using the support girders as a ladder to plant his explosive presents. Before long the hangar was festooned with bombs, all in the most inaccessible points possible. At least if you weren't a certain braided pilot.
Wufei and Quatre had the most difficulty reaching their target. The ventilation shafts were fairly narrow, and they had grown since the first war. In the end they had to take off their bullet proof vests and find somewhere else to conceal all their equipment. Crawling on hands and knees they headed towards the cell where Trowa was being kept. On the way, they spotted a pair of soldiers snoozing near an empty room, and quickly climbed out of the ducts. Wufei quickly snapped the guards necks and both got down to the task of stripping the bodies. Once they had the clothes, they hid the bodies in the empty room and climbed back up to resume their trip. Trowa's cell wasn't that much further on and Quatre used a small bomb that Duo had thoughtfully provided to blow the lock.
As the door opened, Quatre rushed into the cell and hugged Trowa tightly. Trowa made a muted sound of pain at the close contact, and Quatre drew back again to evaluate the damage.
"Status?" Wufei asked.
"Bullet in the shoulder, four cracked ribs, a deep gash on my left side and more smaller ones, and lots of bruises," Trowa replied with a grunt. "How'd you get here?"
"Through the ventilation system. It doesn't look like we can get you out that way though." Suddenly Heero's voice crackled over Wufei's headset.
"Dragon, this is Ice. How is Air doing?"
"He's pretty beat up, but we should be able to get him out. We took a couple guard uniforms on our way in here."
"Good. The cameras should be down by now, so go ahead." Switching channels on his radio, he asked, "Shadow, how are you doing delivering the packages?"
"All the packages for the hangar are delivered."
"Right. Rendevous by the central command post."
"Roger."
Heero planted a few of the bombs he'd brought with him in various places around the computer room before leaving to meet up with Duo. All the bombs were linked to a central detonation unit, so they'd blow once the pilots were out of the compound.
"Are the computers down?" Duo asked as he met up with Heero.
"Yes." Suddenly Zechs' voice came in over their headsets, along with the 'pfft' sound of a silenced rifle.
"Fire and Wind have been spotted. We're eliminating them now, but they may have had a chance to sound the alarm." Just then a bullet shattered the wall behind Heero and Duo, a fragment imbedding itself in Heero's earpiece and rendering his headset useless. Both pilots dove for cover, returning fire at the same time. The guards who'd been shooting at them went down as the pilots' bullets found their mark.
"Shadow, tell Dragon and Sand to get out of here as fast as possible," Heero yelled.
"What?"
"Tell the others to get out of here!"
"I can't hear you!"
"Damn," Heero swore to himself. "Well, I did want to try using my telepathy. I hope it works now." [Everyone, my headset is not working. If you want to tell me something, you'll have to think it at me.]
{Think it at him?} was the unintentional response of most.
[Yes. I can hear all of you. Sand, Dragon, and Air, you have to leave the base as soon as possible. Fire and Wind, you look for them leaving and back them up. Shadow and I will finish planting the bombs.]
{Roger,} everyone replied. Heero ran over to Duo, and they dashed through the base, planting more bombs as they went. After a while, Heero noticed something strange. All the guards they ran into were shooting at him, not Duo. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the other pilot and was surprised to see that he was hard to see. If Heero hadn't known Duo was there, he would have said that he was alone.
[Duo, I think you're using your power.]
{Huh?}
[I don't think the guards see you. Take the rest of my bombs, I'll distract them]
{Alright. Just be careful.} Heero tossed the rest of his explosives to Duo and dashed off down another hallway. As he had suspected, the soldiers followed him and left Duo alone. The continued shooting, but Duo's use of his power had given him an idea. He tried to build a telekinetic shield around himself so that all the bullets veered off course. It called for attention to detail, to keep track of all the bullets he was diverting. The shield worked for a few moments before failing. A bullet seared Heero's upper arm, and he went back to dodging. Eventually he got tired of it and shot his pursuers. Finally he heard Duo's voice inside his head.
{All the explosives are planted.}
[Good. Rendevous at the transport.] Heero turned and dashed headlong back towards the plane, shooting guards as he went. When he reached the outside, he saw the others trading gunfire with a group of soldiers. He picked off a few from the back, having to reload quickly.
[Dragon, you're supposed to be able to create fire. Give it a try.]
{How am I supposed to do that?} was Wufei's irritable response.
[Just try.] Heero saw him furrow his brow in concentration before a tiny flame appeared in his palm. Wufei's face betrayed his surprise, but it was soon lost in his effort to produce a larger flame. The tiny flame soon went out though, and he was unable to make another one. The small flame was enough for the time however. A large number of their opponents fled at the sight of him creating fire in his hand, and the ones remaining were easy to dispose of. They took a few moments to catch their breath before Duo's voice came in over their headsets and in in Heero's head.
{I'm clear of the base. Blow it.} Heero pushed the little red button and they watched Duo's handiwork decimate the base. Huge chunks of walls and ceilings blasted sky-high and flames engulfed the shell of the base. There was an even bigger blast when the flames reached the fuel depot. In the space of about a minute, the huge base was reduced to cinders and rubble. The weary pilots just stood and watched it burn until Duo rejoined them.
"Wasn't that a bit of overkill?" Heero asked dryly.
"You did tell me to blow it up. Is it my fault for wanting to do the job as thoroughly as possible?"
Quatre's eyes shone as he replied. "I think this is satisfactory," he said before trailing off into eerie laughter.
Trowa looked at him strangely. "Heero, did you give him the Zero system again or something?"
"No. This one's all your fault for getting yourself captured. First he was hysterical, then he became homicidal."
"Oh. I'll have to make sure never to let it happen again then. Quatre's really dangerous when he's like this." Just then he had an armful of said pilot as Quatre launched himself at Trowa, sobbing about blowing up Vayate with Trowa inside.
"And now he's hysterical again," commented Wufei.
"It's time to head home," said Heero.
"I want to stay a little longer. The base is so pretty now that it's on fire."
"No Duo. If we stay any longer, you'll want to blow something else up."
"Spoilsport."
"So much for an easy mission," said Trowa.
"I'm sorry. I should have researched the mission myself before giving it to you."
"It's not your fault Heero. Quatre and I could have looked into it ourselves as well, and should have before deciding on our mission plans. It was just sloppy, and we'll have to be more careful in the future."
"But for now, both of you are coming to the medical room with me," ordered Sally. "I can't believe you're standing around talking when you both have bullet wounds. I'm going to treat you right now."
"Yes Sally," they chorused. Noone argued with Sally when she took that tone.
"Zechs, could you and Duo take care of the ship? The rest of you, go get some sleep," Heero commanded before following Sally to get his bullet wound taken care of.
Clarobell - Thank you muchly.
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Aaries - Not that much 3/4 stuff in this chapter, but I promise there will be more in the future.
Chaos - Baby chaos in this chapter. All the explosions have to happen at once. But since Duo likes bombs, we'll be seeing much more chaos in the future.
Angel - :-)
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