Author's Note: As always, I need to give credit where credit is due and since some new OCs are being introduced, you guys get the idea, right? Risk is the creation of ShadowMajin, Kyle McSwords is Archsage Soren, and Yun is shinigamiinochi's. I hope I met your guys' expectations and interpretations of these. As for the rest of you, enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, ShadowMajin's Risk, Archsage Soren's Kyle McSwords, or shinigamiinochi's Yun.
Warning: language
Join the Circus
Jason watched eagerly as their backup finally arrived; two vans bringing in their reinforcements. Curiously, Jason wondered why there were two vehicles when last time there had only been one.
"Here come the freaks," he heard Mobias mutter next to him but he paid it no mind. The fire wielder was really getting on his nerves; perhaps these newbies might be able to calm his more homicidal tendencies.
Stepping out from the passenger side of one of the vans, a large man with black hair tied into a short pony tail and the most dispassionate gaze one could ever see marched over to him.
"10615?" the man questioned.
Jason gritted his teeth and one of his eyes twitched. What was up with the numbers? He had a name, you know.
"Yes," he answered nonetheless, working to keep his ire out of his voice even though he wasn't quite successful. He wanted nothing more than to tear this man apart limb from limb but the guy was holding one of those tazers and he had seen what they could do.
Either oblivious or plain out ignoring the tone of his voice, the large man turned away and motioned back to the vans. Immediately, the backs of both vans opened and five new boys came out.
Jason immediately recognized all of them. One of them was a tall, lanky, blond guy who called himself Risk. Shy brown eyes were lowered and the guy scuffed the bottom of one of his boots on the uneven ground, consciously trying to make himself smaller. Despite this pose, Jason knew of the other side of this kid, the more annoying side of him that is. The guy just wouldn't shut up about how fast he could go or anything relating to speed for that matter. And that was only when he started talking, which, oddly enough, wasn't very often. Needless to say, this guy was the quickster of them all, a speed demon as it were.
Taking a place right next to Risk was a slightly shorter boy by the name of Curtis who had a more comfortable pose as he stood casually, resting his weight on one foot as if he was bored. Unlike most of the company he kept, Curtis was more olive complected, his brown hair more of a curly frizz, and his dull brown eyes only served to make him look even more bored.
Standing slightly a ways from these two stood a more average sized male whose finger seemed to be constantly in motion, slithering against one another and twitching sporadically. From that alone, Jason knew this guy to be Kyle McSwords, another of the very few males to recall or retain their last names. Unlike most of the others, Kyle stuck out of the group like a fruit loop in a bowl of cheerios. His hair was red and short but not to the point that it looked buzzed; his eyes were a calm green that didn't look frazzled in the least and matched with his calm body pose. Another peculiar physical trait on this guy was the goatee on his round chin, making him the only teen Jason knew who had facial hair.
Jason made a little quick mental note to keep a bit away from Kyle; the guy was a klepto, which explained why his fingers were moving a lot. Addicted to stealing, sheesh.
Standing alone as if the others were quarantining him was a tow headed brunet with baby blue eyes, a cherubic face, and a slight body. Jason had to retrain himself from rolling his eyes at this one. Even though his real name was Victor, this boy preferred having everybody else call him Vera for some reason. Probably had something to do with his lisp or something or maybe it was the way "Vera" had tried to come on to him once like he was a fairy. Actually, that would explain a lot about him. Nevertheless, Jason had made it a top priority to put as much distance between himself and the guy who currently was giving him a wink.
He visibly shuddered at that fact.
The last of them was known to Jason as simply Yun, a guy who towered over all of them easily not just in height but in build wise as well, which in turn only served to make him seem even taller. Long white hair, bleached to that color due to all sessions he had endured, blended well with his pale skin and silvery eyes, making him almost ghostly in appearance, the black uniform suit that he wore the only thing contrasting with his looks. He gave the impression of a feline, especially in the way he walked, making one identify him with a stalking predator.
Jason knew Yun as a sadist, especially with the way he used to toy around with the others, burning them with his uniquely acidic tentacles that somehow melded into his body, hiding just beneath the surface of his skin, ready to come out at a second's notice. Yeah, you heard correctly: used. A while back, Yun was the main reason why the guys with the tazers had to come in and zap him, what with his severe homicidal tendencies and all. It raised the question of whether the guy was a masochist, a question that to this day remains unanswered. One day, the big guy with the weird eyes paid him a visit after one especially bad episode where Yun had actually killed a kid and for weeks on end he hadn't been seen. When he did come back, though, he was completely different. No longer did he actively go out to harm any and everybody. If there was a word to describe him, it would be "puppet"; Yun had lost all his free will, as it were, and whenever some sort of tune was played, whether someone was tapping it out on a table or even humming it, he would freeze in his tracks and remain frozen until someone gave him a command or order.
It was really creepy, really, and Jason had distanced himself from Yun ever since, worried that the same thing that was done to Yun would be done to him.
As the vans drove off, Jason took into account every person around him; these were what he had, what he had been given. Add him and Mobias to the mix and the two traitors didn't stand a chance.
"What are we doing?" Kyle was the first to speak, looking pointedly at Jason.
Taking the metaphorical ball, Jason took center stage among the group of seven. "The two traitors are currently running around somewhere in this desert. Our orders are to find them and capture them, alive. However, that doesn't mean we can't rough them up a little bit while we're at it."
A chuckle from Yun stole the spotlight momentarily before it returned back to Jason.
"Yun's got the right idea," Jason continued. "Now, we need to find them quickly. Does anybody want to volunteer?"
"Ooh! Ooh!" came the overenthusiastic response from Risk, the boy hopping from one foot to the other excitedly.
"Yes Risk?" Jason sighed.
"I can find them!" Risk exclaimed. "I'm real fast, ya know? I can find them and bring them back here and then we can go back home and did I say I was fast? Did you know that the speed of sound is 767 miles per hour? That's 1125 feet a second! And I can go faster than that! How—"
"We get it Risk," Jason interrupted, not caring as the boy's shoulders slumped. "Just get on with it and find them first. Scout out the area then come back and tell us where they are, okay?"
"Okay," Risk answered in a quiet tone of voice. In the next second, he was gone, a small trail of dust rising in the distance as Risk began his search.
Damn, the kid really was fast…
"So what now, oh glorious leader?" Mobias asked snarkily.
Before he could answer, he was cut off by a teasing Vera. "Ooh, are you jealous?" the feminine male asked, slowly coming up to Mobias' side and rubbing his body up against him.
"Get away from me you freak!" Mobias nearly shrieked as he shoved the gay boy away.
"Touchy," Vera sniffed but winked suggestively at the fire wielder.
"Guys," Kyle intervened, stepping between the two just as small flames began to smolder from Mobias' hands. "It's pointless to fight between us. It's not like anything will come out of it."
"I just love it how you're so logical and stuff," Vera sighed dreamily at the redhead who too began to give the homosexual a look. Doubts of whether or not to let Mobias have his way with the shorter boy flickered through his eyes and he looked like he was about to actually step out of the way until…
"Why don't you two just get a room already?" Curtis spoke up for the first time. "This soap opera is getting boring already."
"You're welcome to join us," Vera winked at the other.
This was getting out of hand. Jason buried his face into his hands as if trying to block everything out. Feeling a presence next to him, he peeked an eye out to catch sight of the ever silent Yun.
"Annoying, aren't they?" the ghostly teen asked conversationally, jerking his head towards the other four.
"Just get them to shut up," Jason ordered, exasperated at how quickly he had lost control of the group.
Eyes lighting up with a malicious light, Yun replied, "No problem."
Letting Yun have his way, Jason sighed. They were going to have to leave soon and despite hearing a shriek of surprise and pain coming from the others, he ignored it and began to think of what they're next move would be. The path of destruction that the tornado had made would definitely be a good place to start at and just head forward in that direction until either they found their prey or Risk returned to them.
Still, he had the feeling that this was going to be a long day.
---
Solo found himself blinking dumbly for about five minutes before a childish grin on his face nearly split it apart. For years, while he was still on the streets, he had dreamed of doing something like this, anything to ensure that he had some sort of roof over his head and three meals a day, maybe two.
This parade of RVs and eighteen wheelers weren't just any kind; they were a circus, a traveling one at that and the blond couldn't help but let out all his childhood dreams about it come out.
Lady Luck seemed to have changed her mind again and liked them.
"Um, Solo?" a violet eyed Duo asked hesitantly.
Turning his head to look at the braided kid, he nodded, letting Duo know that he was listening.
"What's a circus?" Duo asked, his face turning red from embarrassment.
Solo could only chuckle lightheartedly and tousle the kid's chestnut locks. As he opened his mouth to answer, he paused. He knew what a circus was, that was the easy part. The hard part was how could he put it into words? When someone heard the word circus, immediately that person would know what it meant. However, Duo did not, telling by how confused he was at this news, and while Solo did know, he couldn't put it into words.
Fortunately, the driver's woman companion, a gal named Catherine was right there to answer for him seeing as she had taken a liking to Duo's innocent charm.
"Well, Duo, a circus is a group of performers and entertainers who go around performing tricks and acts of wonder for people's entertainment," Catherine explained to the braided boy who was looking up at her with a contemplative expression and lapping up her words eagerly.
"Like what?" the boy asked.
"Well, like knife throwing," Catherine began counting off, "the trapeze act, the human cannon ball, the lion and tiger's cage, the clowns and elephant…"
By this time, Solo had tuned out instead looking ahead towards their driver who was in the midst of a conversation with the China guy with the hidden porno (which Solo had smuggled on with them). The two blonde girls were resting in the back room of the RV, probably lesing out or something, Solo supposed.
The trip with the circus had begun with them heading back towards that town that was destroyed but instead of continuing that way, they took a right turn at an intersection they had passed before the China guy crashed his truck. Speaking of crashing, the blond wondered how the driver who had hair covering his face hadn't done the same thing as the China guy yet. Could he see through his unibang or something?
He decided to ignore that for now in place of more pleasurable thoughts, such as how he was going to convince these circus guys to let him and Duo join up with them. A traveling circus would be the last place those military assholes would think to look for them, wouldn't it? Hopefully it wouldn't take much but with the way their luck kept switching from good to bad then back to good, who knew what he could expect.
---
The caravan of trucks and RVs came to a halt just outside of a small town that no one knew the name to except for the Ringmaster whose job was to know.
While it wasn't the best, Heero breathed a sigh of relief nonetheless. At last they were starting to get somewhere. From here on in, he and the girls just needed to come up with a way to get to Las Vegas and the convention that his parents were attending. The thought to call the two adults first never came to the Asian youth but could it have been his fault?
No, he was still on edge due to the fact he was still in the presence of the two guys who had held him prisoner in his own house, forced him to cook for them and then tied him to a chair. Of course, that wasn't all, far from it. The duo just had to take things a step further and utterly destroy his hometown to the point where he was sure only one large scorch mark would mark the remains of what used to be Boulder, Arizona. And then, the two had the gall to show his girlfriend his—er, his dad's porn collection that just happened to be in his truck's tool chest.
Huh, made he could treat Relena to a night at the circus? Yeah, maybe that could repair the damage Solo and Duo had done to his relationship. Speaking of those two, Solo had this odd happy look on his face for some reason and Duo was busy talking with Trowa's friend, Catherine, for most of the ride. The two didn't look to be mad dog killers as they had yesterday. In fact, they seemed almost like…children.
Pfft, as if those two and the word children could even be in the same sentence.
Currently, said duo was out and about, exploring with wonder the makings of a circus ground. Trowa and Catherine were with them and Heero had no choice but to trust the two circus folk to keep an eye on the two long-haired guys and keep them out of trouble. Right now, though, was a prime time to try and talk with Relena, provided that a certain blonde didn't teasingly interfere. Dorothy was like the devil's advocate at times.
Knocking lightly on the thin door that separated the majority of the RV from the small bedroom, he said out loud, "Relena? Are you awake?"
A minute passed with no answer and he shifted his weight from leg to leg in nervousness. The longer he had to wait, the less confident he became. He must really love this girl for that to happen. Relena was the only one he knew who could put him in such a position so easily and she didn't even have to be face-to-face with him for that to happen.
Finally, the door opened to reveal Dorothy who was giving him a small, encouraging smile. "She's all yours," she said quietly to him before making her way out of the RV and out onto the circus grounds beyond.
Swallowing consciously, he entered the small bedroom where Relena sat on the two-person bed, looking at him expectantly. This was it, he supposed, and he sat down next to her, his hands gripping onto one another in his anxiety.
"Relena…" he began just as Relena said, "Heero…"
They jerked their heads to face each other, Heero a bit sheepish, Relena surprised.
"You go first," Heero acquiesced, an uncharacteristic blush pinkening his cheeks. Relena then gave him a small, warm smile, one that had the Japanese male's heart racing and butterflies fluttering in his stomach. How could she do that to him so easily?
"I've talked with Dorothy," Relena finally said after a short pregnant pause, "and she brought up some reasonable points. You're a guy, after all, and it's only natural for you to be a hormonal time bomb."
What on Earth had Dorothy been filling her head with? Honestly, that girl was the devil himself! Or was that herself?
"I should have expected you to look at dirty magazines," Relena continued, her face lighting up like a Christmas light. "You have needs so I couldn't have expect—"
Heero immediately cut her off from that train of thought as he smashed his lips up against hers. It had been spontaneous, not planned whatsoever, yet it was the most natural thing he thought he could have done, especially since Relena was leaning into him and allowing him to deepen the kiss.
As he gently pushed her back, he came to the determination to show her just who the hormonal time bomb was around here.