Quatre watched Trowa enter the lab area the next morning noting the smug contentment on his friend's face and in his mind. He couldn't help but be glad his best friend had found his mate. He winced at the thought. He knew "found" wasn't exactly the right term in these circumstances, but he couldn't come up with a better one. Trowa would hate it if he thought he was trapped by destiny.
In the past few weeks he'd gotten a re-education on concepts like 'future' and 'destiny'. It had taken him a while but he was finally getting the hang of being bonded with Anna his soon to be wife. He could clearly see the myriad of futures laid out before them. How the difference between turning left and right could forever affect one's life one day and have no effect the next. There were times when the enormity and complexity of the universe threatened to overwhelm him. On his love's advice he tried to keep his focus on matters that were closer to home.
Quatre smiled a greeting to his friend. "Good morning Trowa, glad you could join us today." Anna and Shelby were being fitted with special flight suits equipped with sensors that would monitor their physical reactions.
"Everyone seems so excited about this test I'm glad I got here in time to see it too. I'm a little curious as to what it is though." His friend asked.
"I have no idea. I gave the job to Rashid and he wants it to be a surprise. He made us promise we wouldn't snoop." Quatre answered as Duo came up behind Trowa.
"Hey Trowa feeling better?" Duo asked grinning like a loon. Trowa blushed a deep pink.
"Yes much better thank you." He answered quietly. The green eyed man then flashed a grin of his own and added. "I've gained a new appreciation for full gravity." Both men had to laugh at the comment. Every single one of them had experienced low gravity sex and came away with the same thought. The effort to keep yourself alive almost ruined the fun.
It was at that point that Heero and Wufei walked in on the conversation. "Care to share the joke?" Asked Heero. Duo draped his arm around Trowa's shoulders and answered.
"Trowa has just discovered the evils of low gravity." The braided man said with a laugh. Wufei's eyebrows shot up and coughed in his hand to hide his smile. Heero's lips fought hard not to smile themselves while he answered.
"Yes it can be very… inconvenient." Heero's mastery of understatement caused them all to start laughing.
"I'd hate to interrupt this testosterone moment, but were ready to go now." Sally yelled over to them.
"Right then lets go shall we?" Duo said clapping his hands together and rubbing them enthusiastically. Quatre wasn't fooled he could tell the other man was nervous. Hell, Quatre was also nervous. He let Rashid know that anything was okay so long as it didn't put Anna in real danger.
They all walked over to a large open bay area that was normally used to house small space craft. Currently it was being used for storage of supplies. The large crates had been stacked haphazardly in two rows forming a long corridor about eighty meters long. A least fifty people both Maganacs and preventers were gathered around holding very peculiar guns. The whole set up screamed 'combat simulation'. Unconsciously Quatre felt the soldier in him tense with readiness, an old habit that would probably never truly go away. Around him he felt Heero, Wufei, and Trowa do the same. Duo just went ballistic. "RASHID! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?! You are NOT going to use my woman as target practice!"
A brief look of chagrin crossed Rashid's face. "My apologies Duo, Quatre, we did have a few other ideas but they didn't seem very challenging. Besides, we're soldiers and when it comes to a measure of strength I'm afraid this was the best we could think of." Duo looked like he was about to argue the point, but was interrupted by Shelby.
"It's alright Duo. It was bound to happen sooner or later." The two test subjects were displaying twin expressions of revulsion and Quatre could easily sense how much they didn't want to do a combat simulation ever again. Not for the fist time Quatre wished he could have five minutes alone with the Caruthers. "Well Anna looks like you're up." Shelby said and everyone in the room looked at her with varying degrees of surprise and disappointment. It seemed everyone's thinking was that the red haired psionic would provide the more spectacular demonstration seeing as her ability was of a more physical nature. The maganacs looked the most displeased because it meant they would have to attack Anna who held special status with them.
"Ms Shelby…" Rashid began politely "we thought you would be better suited to this field test." Shelby turned and beamed Rashid with her most charming smile. Then without showing any outward indication that she was doing anything every maganac and preventer suddenly found themselves floating about two meters from the ground with their weapons wrenched from their grips.
"That's very considerate of you Rashid, but the purpose of this test is to push us to our limits and I'm afraid I need something a little more complex." She replied just as politely. The weapons then returned to their previous owners who were looking a little unnerved as they floated back down to the floor. Duo came up behind her beaming like a proud parent.
"Doncha just love a woman that can kick ass?"
That little stunt earned her a sniff from Anna. "Show off." She said then turned to Rashid "Just what is it that you need me to do?"
Recovering from his earlier surprise he responded "Just get to the end of the corridor with as few tags as possible." He reached out to a nearby table and grabbed on of the odd looking guns still sitting on it. "Normally with combat simulations we would use energy weapons that would give a small jolt to the recipient, but we felt that wouldn't use your abilities to their full potential. Then we found a reference to an archaic sport that used little pellets of paint." For a demonstration, he angled the gun and shot the side of a crate. A small splat of fluorescent pink paint appeared on the side. "The sport is outdated and such weapons don't exist anymore so we had to make our own." He said showing off the odd looking weapon that looked like a hodge-podge of several different items. It looked like they'd modified actual guns fitting them with canisters of ammunition and CO2
"I'm I allowed to retaliate?" the dark haired psionic asked. Rashid seemed to find some relief in this.
"Certainly. We have a few extra weapons and you can tag your opponents if you wish." He replied showing her the table with a few guns left on it.
Anna gave him an amused look "Thank you but that won't be necessary." She let out a nervous sigh taking position at the end of the corridor. "Whenever you're ready." Much to Quatre's horror Heero stepped forward and grabbed one of the guns. He quickly took note of its modifications and fired a sample round like Rashid did into the side of the crate.
"Mission accepted." He said quietly and a little too enthusiastically for the blonde man's comfort. He watched as Heero turned to find himself a position with which to join the test.
"WHAT?! Quatre yelled "Heero that's not funny get back here!" there was no way in hell Quatre would let his friend the perfect soldier fire anything at his fiancée. Knowing Heero he'd find a way to make the harmless pellets lethal. Anna just started to giggle.
"It's alright darling, let him have his fun."
"Good." Wufei said behind him. Then he and Trowa moved forward and grabbed guns as well. Memo to self: Quatre thought irritably horribly maim so called friends when we're finished here.
Duo snickered in his head. Glad it's you and not me he sent. The two of them were getting better at using this form of communication.
Quatre stayed put while the rest of the 'spectators' made the effortless jump to the catwalk several meters above. Looking up he recognized Une, Zechs, Noin, and their daughter Mila. Even more to his surprise were the new arrivals. Howard was there with a few of his sweepers and most surprising the current president of the ESUN with a select few of his entourage. The way Une and Relena were standing nervously next to him Quatre had to figure they were vying for his endorsement of this project and help further their cause. Shelby was right, this party was getting huge.
He returned his attention to Anna when everybody seemed to have taken their respective attack/observe positions. He felt her reach out to the resource satellite's environmental controls and remove the gravity. The blond man felt the little hiccup in his stomach that usually follows sudden weightlessness. Clever he thought to his woman. Free fall would have dual benefits: it would aid her weak kinetic powers as well as throw off some of her attackers when the kick back of their weapons sent them flying.
She held out her palm revealing she was carrying several coins. He'd seen her practice with them before. It was kind of like Trowa's juggling, she was continually trying to see how many she could control at one time. Unlike Shelby who just displayed she could pick up fifty people, Anna started dropping things if she got to a dozen.
Quatre felt her mind expand. Telepathy identified her attackers and cataloged them as potential targets. She then used her psychic ability to categorize them by threat level and readied her telekinetic abilities to respond to the threats as needed. An amused portion in the back of his mind noted that Heero, Trowa, Wufei, and Rashid were on the top of that list. For the first time ever he truly became aware of his lover's potential. She was a living, breathing zero system all her own. Actually, she was better. She'd eliminated the complications encountered when the machine downloaded its data to the person.
Her mind tensed a millisecond before he saw her act. She shot herself forward lying horizontal and low to the left side of the corridor putting her in the blind spot of those on that side. The firing began almost instantly. Sure enough he could spot the less experienced soldiers by the fact they were floating away from the action from the first volley of shots. The coins that had been dormant 'til then flew at paint pellets that were heading for her. But unlike the pellets her coins didn't have a straight path they'd burst one pellet then fly on to its neighbor making it look like paint fireworks in the room. After a dozen or so of such explosions, some of the threats from the left decided to come out from their cover in an attempt to catch her by surprise. Yeah right he thought to himself like it's that easy to catch a psychic telepath by surprise. Those enterprising souls on the left were more surprised to find their comrades shots hitting them. Quatre could tell she wasn't controlling them directly just giving them a little nudge to throw them in the direction she wanted.
Anna quickly moved backwards a few meters then flew straight and high into the air. She used the second or two the others would need to re-target her new location to good use and sent her coin missiles at the people on the left side. Targeting their weapons Quatre could tell she'd successfully managed to disable them. He found himself smiling when he realized Heero and Rashid were among them. Heero looked extremely put out that he didn't even get to fire off one shot.
Now that everyone had targeted her again, Anna performed a half flip in the air and dove low and to the right this time coins zipping back and forth to clear a path for her. She did not stay there however. Instead she changed tactics. She realigned her psychic mind to determine the safest direction to take. Left, roll, up, dive, another roll the dark haired woman was performing an aerial ballet that should not be possible with or without gravity no machine could ever duplicate the intricate movements she was. He should know. Sandrock was a technological masterpiece but next to this it looked like a clumsy tank.
When a large enough break was detected she launched another attack on the weapons firing at her and took out Wufei and Trowa along with a few maganacs. Suddenly something akin to a proximity alarm fired in her head and she rolled in the air just quick enough to dodge a makeshift grenade that Heero had created out of his unused ammunition and the canister it was in. when the canister hit a crate it smashed sending paint and pellets every which way. With so much coming at her Anna could only shove them all away thus spraying almost everyone on Trowa and Wufei's side including some spectators. That gave people on both sides pause. Taking full advantage of Heero's distraction she bolted forward in a burst of speed like the sprint at the end of the marathon. A few tried to still shoot at her but by then she was moving too fast and flew out of the other end of the corridor.
Belatedly Quarte realized he should have been waiting at the other end because he felt her run out of strength at that time. Her forward momentum kept her going and she would have hit the wall painfully. Thankfully Shelby caught her. In real time less than twenty seconds had passed but it felt like an hour.
