Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing! I didn't create it nor am I making a profit off of it. I simply enjoy writing stories about it.
Chapter 5: Going into the Lionesses Den!
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Heero Yuy was not a normal teenager. Not at all normal by civilization's standards. He was a hard working Preventors officer who had no time for girls or "female civilians" as he preferred to call them.
Heero particularly avoided one girl by the name of Relena Peacecraft. It was much to his chagrin then, when one Duo Maxwell assigned him the task of talking to Relena. And not only talk to her, but somehow persuade her to have a little sleepover with all her girly friends. How he was supposed to accomplish this task he had no idea. But Heero was not one to back down from a challenge or a mission. Oh no, not Heero. He was currently and silently standing in front of an office door with a golden plaque that read "Vice Foreign Minister Relena Peacecraft". Well, here goes. Heero thought to himself.
Knock, knock!
"Yes?" Relena's voice floated through the door.
"Excuse me, Miss Peacecraft." I've have to be diplomatic, and calm. One false move and… "This is Heero Yuy speaking. I was wondering if I could –"
"Hi Heero!" Relena beamed, opening the door before Heero could get another word out. "You wanted to speak to me?"
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"So….Tell me again. How did you manage to persuade Relena to have a sleepover with her friends so quickly?" Duo asked, eyes wide in surprise. It was only Day Two of operation "Think Big" and yet Heero had already convincingly completed Phase One of their plan.
"I simply told her I overheard people saying that she needed to take a break and I thought a sleepover with her friends would be beneficial." Heero replied, annoyed with the stares he was getting from Zechs, Trowa, Quatre and Wufei, who were also attending the meeting.
"Wow! That's impressive Heero." Quatre stated. "Now that we know our plan is working, it's up to you, Zechs, to get us the details."
"And the details I will get! Just give me a day or two." Zechs replied, sitting back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest.
"A day or two?" Wufei replied, Trowa smirking beside him. "Yuy only needed one hour Zechs."
"Grrrrrrr."
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One week later.
"Ok, it took me longer than expected, but I have the details of the sleepover."
"Geez Zechs took you long enough. What happened?" Duo asked, accepting the disc Zechs held in his hand.
"I had to be cautious or Relena would catch on!" Zechs shot a glare over at Trowa and Wufei who were sniggering heartily into their drinks.
"She couldn't catch a cold without help." Trowa said.
"Ok, whatever." Duo replied, scanning the document. "Trowa and Wufei, did you get all the supplies on the list I gave you?"
"Yes Maxwell. May I ask, just what do you plan to do with all this stuff?" Wufei replied, lugging a large bag of products onto the table for viewing.
"Oh right, I almost forgot. Quatre and I are gonna sneak into the mansion when the girls are busy and distribute or replace certain items with the stuff in that bag. Oh man! This is gonna be so much fun!" Duo replied, rummaging through the bag of goodies.
"Oh by the way Q! I hope you have your black sneaking around like shadows in the night clothes ready at hand, because we're gonna need it soon." Duo grinned.
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"I can't believe I'm doing this! I can't believe I'm doing this! Revenge or not, do you know what people will say if we get caught?" Quatre Winner whispered hoarsely as he dashed behind a bush. True to their plan, Quatre had followed Duo stealthily through the grounds of the Peacecraft mansion and they were now approaching the windows of the majestic living room.
"Relax Q!" Duo whispered, his voice getting carried away with the wind. "Just stick to the floor plans Trowa found and the time schedule Zechs wrote up for us….You did memorize the plans, right?" Duo asked anxiously.
"Of course!"
"Good because I didn't!" Chuckling at the look of horror on Quatre's face, Duo jumped when his walkie-talkie earpiece activated.
"Maxwell! Are you saying your not even following your own plans?" A shocked Wufei shouted.
Also true to Duo's plan, Heero, Wufei, Trowa and Zechs were in the get-away car just beyond the gates of the mansion. Having hacked into and disabled the security system, Heero and the others were able to watch the commotion through the cameras inside and out of the mansion on Heero's laptop.
"Ouch! Wufei, not so loud!" Duo complained, rubbing his ears.
"Humph, serves you right" Wufei replied.
"Ok, you guys promise to tell us when the girls move from room to room right?" Quatre asked nervously.
"Yeah, just go in there and make us proud Quatre. Remember, this is a fight for your, and our, dignity." Trowa replied.
"Yeah! That's right" Duo continued. "Ok Quatre I'll take the main floor. We'll meet back at the car at 0200 hours. That gives us a couple of hours to carry out our plan and not get caught"
"Right!" Quatre whispered, nervously peeking through the window.
"Roger that. We'll be ready and waiting." Heero replied.
"Good!" Duo whispered. Signalling Quatre to follow him, Duo crept around the corner to the small side door entrance. Using the security access code Zechs gave him, Duo punched in the sequence of numbers. With a quiet beep the light turned from red to green.
Turning the door handle, Duo whispered "Quatre, this is where I leave you pal! I'll take the kitchen; you take the second floor, ok?"
"Ok." Quatre replied, taking the bag Duo offered him. "Good luck"
"You too!"
"Get going already! We haven't got all night!" Wufei growled into the walkie talkie headset.
As Quatre snuck off towards the staircase, Duo cautiously hugged the wall and set off towards the kitchen. At this moment the girls were watching a movie and were huddled together in the living room. Duo peeked into the room; one, two, three, four…FOUR? Where's the other girl? Duo frantically looked around. Dorothy was missing from the room, which meant she was elsewhere in the house.
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Meanwhile, Quatre had successfully manoeuvred his way upstairs without getting caught and was slowly getting to enjoy his role in the plan. Turning into one of the bedrooms, Quatre rummaged around in the bag Duo gave him. It took him a minute before he realized he wasn't alone.
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Finally in the spacious kitchen, Duo quickly set out to locate where the sugar, flour and oil containers were stored. Grinning mischievously, Duo emptied the salt shaker and filled it with sugar. Than he filled the sugar container with the salt. Biting his lips to keep himself from laughing out loud and getting caught, Duo took a container out of his magic bag. In this container were bugs. Not real bugs, but plastic, rubber bugs that looked as real as…well, as real as real bugs. Taking the lid off the flour dispenser, Duo poured the bugs into the flour, making sure to stir them in nice and deep but leaving one or two on the surface. As he was replacing the lid, Duo heard Noin get up and tell the other girls she was going to pop more popcorn.
Observing the activities on the Heero's laptop, the boys grew apprehensive. "Crap! Hide in the broom closet Duo!" Trowa spoke into the mouth piece.
Taking his cue, Duo grabbed the bag and made a dash for the broom closet. He managed to squeeze himself into the closet only milliseconds before Noin entered the kitchen. Crap! I hope she leaves soon. Duo thought.
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Unaware of Duo's predicament and only too aware of his own, Quatre glanced towards the sound of running water. Uh oh! This bedroom is adjoined with a bathroom! And someone's in there! Panicking, Quatre quickly searched for a place to hide. The closet was too far away. But what choice did he have? Would he even make it there in time? Quietly starting towards the closet, Quatre totally freaked out when the door knob started to turn. No time! In one swift move, Quatre stopped, dropped and rolled under the bed, pulling his magic bag with him.
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Heero, sure that Duo could handle himself, switched the camera view just in time to see Quatre stop, drop and roll under the bed as the bathroom door opened. "Nice one Quatre. You avoided a scene with Dorothy by a millisecond. And Duo's just barely missed detection by Noin. Guess you're both stuck for the time being."
Quatre grimaced as he heard Heero's comment. He couldn't answer for fear that Dorothy would hear him. Great, stuck in the same room with my mortal enemy. Hope she leaves soon!
Dorothy stopped as she entered the bedroom and scanned her surroundings. She could've sworn she had heard a small thud just before she opened the bathroom door. Seeing as she didn't find anything amiss, she decided that what she must have heard was the sounds of the night. With a toss of her head, Dorothy grabbed a hair brush and promptly left the room.
Whew! Quatre sighed as he listened to Dorothy's footsteps fading away, that was too close. Taking a quick peep from under the bed, Quatre crawled out quickly and entered the bathroom. He headed straight for the shelf in the bathtub and picked out a few bottles. The first was a shampoo and conditioner. Uncapping and turning the bottle upside down, Quatre drained it of it's present contents. Chuckling softly, he pulled a bottle of sticky honey from his magic black bag and poured it into the shampoo bottle. He did the same with a hair removal lotion, substituting it with grease from the boys' cars. We'll see who gets the last laugh now!
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Meanwhile, Duo was praying to every divine being he knew of (including Santa Claus and Batman), that Noin would just leave the kitchen. His legs were growing cramped and he didn't even want to know how many spiders were crawling up his back at that moment.
As if answering Duo's prayer, the popcorn stopped popping. Noin, humming softly, refilled her bowl and left the kitchen. Duo himself was about to leave the kitchen, having done all the damage he could, when he got a brilliant idea. He pulled a large box of cream filled double chocolate chip cookies with even more sickening chocolate icing on top, out of the bag. He had originally brought the treat along for a midnight snack in case he got hungry, but his brilliant idea changed all that. Crossing the kitchen on tip toes, he opened a cupboard and grabbed a low fat, no sugar cookie box off the shelf. It didn't take any time at all for Duo to switch the inner cookie trays. I just can't wait to see the look on their faces in the morning! They'll never know what hit them! Hahaha. Mischief done, Duo snuck out of the kitchen and headed for the pool and spa area.
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"Hahaha! Did Duo just do what I thought he did?" Trowa asked, chuckling loudly.
"If you saw him switch their low fat treat for a heart clogging one, then yes, he did what you thought he did." Zechs answered.
"Hmmm. That wasn't part of the plan." Heero said, leafing through a few papers outlining their plans for the night. "He shouldn't have done that. What if a girl is allergic to something in those cookies?" Heero frowned. Zechs and Trowa were still laughing, paying no attention to him whatsoever.
"They're not." Wufei replied with a smirk. "I personally checked their health backgrounds when I found out Maxwell planned on using food in his revenge plan."
"Good." Heero answered. He was shifting through the camera angles and changed the setting on his laptop. This new setting allowed him to see four different views at once. Duo was currently sneaking around the pool while Quatre was still on the second floor.
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Quatre finished switching all the contents of the bottles and was now rummaging through the drawers. He was replacing all of the girls clothes with duplicates the boys' had obtained. These duplicates were the clothing of the same size and colour as the girls' original clothing, with one major difference. Or rather, several major differences. There were large rips and tears in these clothes and stains of every kind.
Once he had done this, Quatre scooped the good clothing into his black bag. "Alright Duo, Guys! I've completed my tasks. I'm going to rendezvous back at the car. Over"
"Roger that Quatre. Good job. I'm almost done here then I'll join you" Duo replied.
"Use the back stairs Quatre. The girls are relocating to the second floor." Heero answered as he observed the activities from the security cameras.
"Ok." Quatre whispered, double and triple checking to make sure he didn't leave any clues behind. Then like a shadow, he disappeared into the night.
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Duo was almost finished his tasks. In his hurry to get to the stereo system, he accidentally brushed past a pedestal holding a priceless ancient vase. In horror he turned in time to see it wobble, tip, and then fall. Shit! Was all Duo thought as he dived, barely managing to catch the vase in his fingertips just seconds before it hit the ceramic tiling around the pool. With a huge sigh, he slowly stood up and replaced the vase upon the pedestal.
Congratulating himself on a job well down, he backed up to enjoy the view of the moonlight shining off the surface of the rippling water….and then he tripped backwards over a cable. "Whoa!" Thud. "Owww. If my friends could see me now…" Duo mumbled as he picked himself up, rubbing his sore back.
"Hahaha! Maxwell, we can see you!" Wufei chuckled. "And you call yourself the master of stealth!"
Duo ignored the laughter in his ears and turned to the task at hand. He walked over to Relena's stereo system and changed the musical selection. I just can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they hear this tomorrow! Duo thought as he slipped through the doorway to the botanical gardens of the Peacecraft mansion.
"Alright guys, I'm coming. See you in a second"
Duo quietly followed a neat brickwork path, being careful to avoid twigs or loose stones that would betray his presence. He doubted if any of the girls would hear twigs cracking from inside the house, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Duo was sure he could find his way back to the car once he recognized his surroundings. And sure enough, in seconds, he could see the door through which he and Quatre had entered. As Duo was passing in front of the door, a shadow as dark and silent as the night dropped lightly to the ground behind him.
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Five minutes earlier.
Quatre caught his breath. He could hear voices approaching. Time to go! Slipping towards the back stairway, he intended to sneak through the house to the pool and patio entrance which overlooked the botanical gardens. However, he had only taken two steps when he realized that plan was not going to work. The girls were approaching from both stairways! His escape was cut off!
Doubling back, Quatre softly ran back into the bedroom, unlocked the window, slid it back and pulled out the screen. In one swift movement he grabbed the top of the window frame and pulled himself through, one hand still holding onto the screen. Sitting on the narrow ledge beside the window and out of view, Quatre hastened to refasten the screen. He realized that from this position, he had no hope of closing the now open window. He would just have to hope that the girls didn't notice or forgot whether they might have opened it or not.
Luck was with him, for one of the girls had entered the room, but paid no attention to the open window. Carefully placing his hands against the brick wall behind him, Quatre barely managed to stand on the ledge. By shuffling along it, he calculated that he would be able to get to the grand oak tree that stood beside the entrance that he and Duo had entered through earlier. Finally reaching his goal, Quatre sighed as he climbed onto one of the sturdier branches just as Duo rounded the corner of the house. With confidence, Quatre made his way down the branches as quietly as he could. Then he jumped and dropped lightly to the ground behind Duo.
Whirling with surprise, Duo gasped. "Geez Quatre! Give me a heart attack why don't you?" Catching his breath, Duo looked up into the branches of the massive tree. "How'd you get up there anyway?"
"Shhh!" Quatre whispered, looking anxiously towards the open window. The last thing he needed was for the girls to hear Duo. "I'll explain later, let's go."