(Duos upset because he found out that the Deathscythe is actually Two meters shorter than the Strike and Heero won't let him give me Gundam Wing. Nicol's upset Because I spelled his name wrong in his debut chapter so he won't let me have Gundam Seed)
It was quiet that night, perfectly calm. Or at least as calm as a night could get on the streets of L2. Solo's breathing had become a little ragged but he kept saying that he was fine; the unnamed boy next to him didn't believe it though
"Are you sure about this Solo?" the boy asked
"I'll be fine" Solo replied
"But you're coughing really badly"
"He'll be fine" another man said. The boy blinked the brightness of the artificial sun hitting his eyes
"Are you sure father Maxwell?" the boy asked worriedly "the kid's really sick" the black haired man laughed
"Don't worry its just a cold" he said
"Colds can kill" the boy huffed; the man laughed again and then that laugh became younger more crazed, or maybe it was an adrenaline rush from destroying that group of mobile suits,
"You know Heero..." the fifteen year old boy said to his friend "you're laughs pretty creepy"
"NO PROBLEM NO PROBLEM... Lets DO THIS!" said a mechanical voice
Duo's eyes inched open to the sound of muffled voices.
C.E. 71
"Well Kira?" Sai asked "what's going on here?"
"What were you planning to do with her?" Miriallia queried then her eyes widened in realization "you weren't gonna-"
"Please pretend you never saw us" Kira replied cutting her off "I don't wanna get you guys involved in this... but I just can't let this go on any more" there was silence for a moment, and then clapping? The group turned to see none other than Duo Maxwell leaning against the door frame that Kira had past not too long ago.
"Nice little speech kid" he remarked "But it's stupid to go this alone how about this" and then he smiled "I'll be your escort"
"Bu-" Kira began to protest but Sai interrupted
"I agree with Duo besides" he rubbed the back of his head "I don't really approve of keeping a girl hostage... that's something the bad guys are supposed to do" Kira looked at his friend in astonishment "I'll help too" Miriallia put in.
later on
while Kira was getting Lacus into a space suit Duo headed off to the left hanger. as soon as he made it to the Deathscythe he hopped in and began hacking into the Archangels computer systems you know what this means don't you? His mini self smirked evilly you're getting involved Duo opened the hanger doors successfully without raising an alert shut up, this isn't getting involved this is checking out the system the miniature Duo leaned back with a chuckle whatever you say the console beeped and Duo answered the call
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kira asked "You don't have to"
"It's fine Kira they won't even see me" that is if the O.S is properly written but Trowa would be better at telling me that Duo glanced at the screen and then did a double take. Kira blinked at Duo's astonished face.
"What" he asked; Duo shook his head
"Sorry it's just, you coordinators are amazing not even Hilde could get that pregnant that fast" Kira face palmed
"Not you too" he complained "that's her dress!" Duo chuckled
"I'm just messin with ya" Duo launched a few minutes later Kira spoke on all frequencies
"This is the pilot of the mobile suit Strike, I am from the earth alliance vessel archangel; I am bringing Lacus Clyne to you; the NASSCA class is to cut its engines I will hand her over on the condition that we are met only by the pilot of the Aegis if you do not meet these demands, I cannot guarantee her safety"
"Yeah that doesn't make you sound like a bad guy at all" Duo muttered. To his surprise the Aegis came out a moment later; the Strike brought his gun out and aimed it directly at his enemies cockpit. At this point Duo was feeling somewhat guilty considering he hacked into all frequency's
"Athrun... Zala?" Kira's voice sounded through the speakers and this is why I will not choose sides
"Yes that's right" why am I not surprised that they know each other?
Kira made the Aegis pilot open up and the transfer actually went rather smoothly... but that didn't account for why Duo had a really bad feeling about it. The time Kira began to withdraw was the time it all fell apart. The NASSCA class fired up its engines and a mobile suit launched; Duo immediately rammed his controls only to curse when nothing happened. I thought I reset the weapons module! he panicked
"Commander Rau La Creuset" Lacus'svoice came in loud and clear "stop this at once! Are you attempting to make this place a battle field in the presence of a memorial representative like myself?" Duo smirked I knew there was a reason I liked this chick...
Interlude
"All hands level one battle stations" the voice rang over the speakers making Duo jump and unfortunately his head collided with the outer edge of his cockpit "I repeat, all hands to level one battle stations" Duo cursed there was no way he would be able to get the Deathscythe up and running in time. Rubbing his head he reconnected the system this is not gonna work! He glanced at his monitor the light was flashing
"Duo!" Kira's voice bounced out of the radio "aren't you coming?"
"Sorry kid" Duo replied jumping into his seat and maneuvering levers "but I'm grounded, you're gonna have to start without me"
"But..."
"Liston it's your fault I can't fly... I had a systems failure when that GINN attacked" Kira looked down guiltily and Duo's eyes softened "Look don't take it so hard, just get out there and knock them dead for me, I'll be there as soon as the system finishes rebooting" Kira took a deep breath and nodded
"Okay... I'll see you on the outside" he said before disconnecting
"Yeah" Duo replied slowly as he got back to his work
A little way from the archangel
why is he not contacting me yet the dark haired youth glared at his message screen (Of which was empty) Duo should have called by now unless... is he a prisoner? No he wouldn't allow himself to remain a prisoner for that long... of course there was that one time but that was a completely different matter. Duo should have called me by now... this must mean that my message never reached him DANG IT! The pilot slammed his hands on the control panel I should have found him myself...
Back on the archangel
the Blitz shot the Archangels side bringing everyone to jolt at the sudden impact
"Cant lose the canons" Natarle muttered, in a louder voice she said "where is the strike!?"
Meanwhile in the Deathscythe's cockpit Duo was cursing hard enough to make a crewman blush. He was at the point were the download screen read 99% and it was inching its way up to one hundred this was why Trowa was better at these sorts of things. Why of all times do you have to stop at 99% NOW! if he went into battle now his only weapon would be his scythe and though that is not necessarily bad he would have to start from scratch again and he would prefer to have his guns for the next fight. This is gonna get messy by pure chance he glanced at his vid screen shock became prominent as he saw the Strike dodge the Duel's sword with the ease and grace of Zechs Marquez parrying with a strike of his own the Duel turned and shot at him and he dodged easily What did Quatre jump in and replace the kid or something? The Strike wasted no time attacking the Blitz. This is impossible, it's like he's a different person entirely... almost like... Duo's eyes widened. No, that's not possible, there's no way, the zero system can't be on that mobile suite I checked but then how was he predicting moves like... Duo's shock was interrupted by beeping sound, looking down he frowned. The 100% signal was blinking innocently at him.
"Look at that! They're gone" Mu's voice crackled over the speakers before Duo could so much as scowl at the device. "You were terrific kid" he continued obviously talking to Kira.
"Lieutenant" Kira replied (Definitely out of energy and somewhat pained)
"Wow you..." Mu said somberly and then changing his mind he said "no you're more than that... you're unbelievable"
"Not really" Kira said humbly, Duo couldn't help but laugh
"Hey Kira" he said amused
"Um... what?" Kira asked confused he hadn't realized that Duo was still on the line
"Remind me to introduce you to Quatre if I ever get the chance" he could just picture the amazingly polite conversations they would have. And he couldn't help but chuckle at the image...
In the hanger
As soon as Kira had gotten out of the strike Duo was on him, he had a hold of the poor boys chin and was staring into his eyes as if expecting something to be in them (though Kira couldn't imagine what) then he suddenly smiled "you should rest kid, I'm sure that battle took a lot out of you" with that said he walked away hands behind his head in a relaxed position. Okay that was weird shaking off that thought Kira headed for the dorms a nap sounded good right about now
Somewhat later
Duo cursed, for the life of him he couldn't find a Zero system on the Strike, it was annoying him to no end. His eyes were dilated; during the war Duo had noticed that at least half the time Heero (or any other pilot) encountered the Zero system they're eye's would dilate. The problem was that even though Duo was looking he couldn't find hide nor hare of that system on the Strike, admittedly he was hacking into the Strikes systems and thereby stealing information (not like that's never happened before) so it wasn't always accurate, he would probably get better details if he were in the Strike.
"What have we here?" the voice came so suddenly that Duo was thankful he was sitting in zero gravity otherwise one lieutenant Mu La Flaga would have definitely seen him jump.
"Nothing really" Duo replied calmly turning his screen off, he didn't miss the narrowing of Mu's eye's "so what brings you over here Mu?" said man cleared his throat
"The Captain was wondering if you would deem yourself useful enough to help in repairing the ship"
"In other words she's asking for help and you still don't like me" Duo mused aloud
"Pretty much" Mu replied with a shrug; to which Duo muttered a whatever and followed him to the second hanger (or in this case the first hanger) as soon as they got there Duo immediately got to work it was a few minutes, maybe an hour, before Kira popped out of the Zero's cockpit (the mobile armor).
"We've already hooked up with the fleet" he said exasperatedly scaring poor Mu (who was lounging in the air) half to death "So could someone tell me why we're in a rush?"
"I don't feel secure while its still damaged" Mu replied
"the pilots joining us from the eight fleet are all wet behind the ears" Murdoch said floating up to them "If anything happens to them we'll need the lieutenant here to sortie"
"Yeah but what do we do about the Strike? Is it really okay if we leave it as is?"
"Huh? uh..." Mu thought aloud "Good point I never thought of that but I'm not sure we should return it to it's original state since that will reduce it's performance"
"At the same time that leaves no one to pilot the strike" Duo decided to join the conversation "unless your planning on having him pilot it" He gave Kira an appraising look, Kira didn't seem to notice.
"Well then lets hope we can get someone who can pilot it as is" Murrue said
"Uh captain?" Kira said uncertainly
"What's this? To what do we owe the honer?" Mu said
"Sorry to interrupt" Murrue apologized "I just wanted to have a chat with Kira" Kira shot her a doubtful look "oh don't give me that suspicious look of yours" Murrue admonished "Although I can't really say that I blame you"
elsewhere
"The Ziegler and the gamma w have joined up with us" Captain Heine said
"The enemy hasn't noticed us yet have they?" La Creuset questioned
"No the fleet has descended to a lower orbit" Heine replied
"I thought the legged ship would be headed to their lunar headquarters but after reassessing their movements I believe they will be landing on earth"
"They're intended target appears to be Alaska"
"I'd somehow would like to finish them off while they're in our own backyard" La Creuset looked at his comrade "what say you?"
"well the Ziegler has thirty GINNS we have ten machines including the Aegis, the gamma w can send out the buster and the blitz along with twenty suits of they're own" La Creuset hummed in agreement and said
"the infamous Halliburton it's time the Admiral took his final curtain call"
Farther out in space a lone pilot waited for a friend to show himself
Back on the Archangel
"You're sending civilians to Earth on that shuttle!?" Duo shouted
"Yes we're sending them to the Alaska base and you're problem is?" Mu said cleaning an ear out (on the side Duo shouted in)
"My problem is that is a military shuttle!" Duo explained
"And in case you haven't noticed we are on a military ship" Mu countered "we've got lot's of military shuttles"
"Is anyone going to protect the shuttle?"
"Of course" Murrue replied "we're going to have at least four mobile armors deployed for that purpose"
"That's not enough" Duo said angrily
"I quit agree with you young man" the Admiral said from the doorway, Murrue and Mu quickly stood and saluted him "Unfortunately four mobile armors is the most that I can spare as an escort, unless..." he trailed off but Duo picked up on his line of thinking
"That's not funny old man" Murrue gasped and Mu stared in shock at Duo's blatant disregard for authority. But he was ticked and not even Lady Une got his respect when he was ticked "if you want me to be the escort then you've got another thing coming I'm not getting involved in this new war!"
"Then I guess we're settled"
"Yeah... don't send that shuttle out there they'll all die if you do" with that said Duo left the room.
"I'm sorry for his behavior sir but-" Murrue tried to apologize but was cut off by the Admirals hand
"It's quit alright" he said "I can understand his sentiment about not wanting to fight..." the man looked thoughtful for a moment "I wonder what he meant by 'New War' he obviously has seen his fair share of battle but... the only war of note before this was..."
"Sir?" Murrue asked the Admiral waved it off
"It's nothing really what I actually came here for was to discuss battle strategy"
with Duo
It's stupid... stupid, stupid, stupid! It was definitely going to fail there was no way someone was not going to mistake that shuttle but then again it was planned for you to mistake that Alliance shuttle the little voice all but demanded in his head
"thank you for protecting the rest of us till now" a small voice said breaking through his thoughts, he looked up to see a little girl in pigtails giving Kira a paper flower. Duo knew the little girl, her name was El and her mom and dad got separated at Heliopolis; Duo knew all the children because he often played with them. At that moment El noticed him and let out a small squeal of "Duo" before jumping over to him and tackling him with a bear hug. When Duo set her down the little girl dug into her satchel and pulled out a dark purple paper flower
"Thank you for always playing with me!" she said enthusiastically
"It was my pleasure" Duo said with a smile "I hope to get to play with you again real soon" El smiled and ran back to her mother.
At the time the shuttle was to launch Duo was sitting in his cockpit you have to go out there now they're innocents they need to be protected! A mini white Duo was yelling from his right shoulder yeah but what have they ever done for you I mean come on you're in a completely different dimension another mini Duo had decided to make an appearance on his left shoulder don't listen to the horned freak over there think of the children the one to his right said says the guy who has a freaking light floating over his head! At least my horns are natural- Duo tuned out the thoughts in his head (or on his shoulders you pick) and decided to go ahead with his angelic side. Again he hacked into the Archangel and opened the hatch.
Mid Battle
Duo kept close to the shuttle so far no one had noticed it which was only somewhat good... a warning light made Duo curse as he expertly blocked the shot well so much for going unnoticed. after that first shot came more and soon Duo had at least thirty suites apparently competing as to who would get him first Duo was struggling as it was with the first ten Dang it sometimes I wish that I never swore off killing! Of course he wasn't the only one each of the guys had decided that it would be better for Relena's ideal world if they set an example but it did put a hamper in his work at times. And it was one of those time's, he was distracted someone was behind him he wouldn't be able to save himself without the other pilots death; then the warning lights lit up Duo immediately jumped out of the way when a large beam shot came his way taking the arms of the guy getting ready to skewer him (and the heads, arms, legs, of about ten other suits along with it) taking it out of commission.
"Heero? It's about time!" Duo exclaimed and indeed floating not eighty yards away was the Wing Zero fully restored and transformed into his suit mode "Cutting it kind of close there ain't ya buddy?" he received no answer blinking Duo tried calling his friend again "come on Heero your not still mad cause I accidentally died your clothes pink are you" again no answer. He was sure that code would work. that was the code last time suddenly his eyes widened and he face palmed of course Heero would have changed the codes by now he changes them every year great so now we're screwed because he refuses to talk on an open line! At that moment Duo turned to see to see a scene that made his blood run cold, the Duel had his gun pointing at the shuttle. Bad memory's ran through his mind as Duo raced to stop it. But he never mad it. The shuttle exploded in a brilliant array of light that from the earth would look like fireworks in the daylight. Duo wasn't sure if he wanted to be disgusted by this, or grieve stricken from the lose, But he didn't have time for either, immediately afterward he was caught in the earths pull and was on collision course to earth. By some odd coincidence Duo had been farther away from Kira and the shuttle but closer to the Archangel. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the two reckless pilots now hurtling towards earth. While the Archangel was calling desperately to Kira, Duo was more concerned for Heero. It had taken a few minutes to get Kira on but Heero was still free falling at this rate he was going to crash land into the desert. Last time it was the ocean this time the desert Heero sure loved going to the extremes that was for sure with one last effort Duo called on the Archangel
To say Murrue was surprised when Duo came calling for help on her vid screen was beyond an understatement
"So let me get this strait you want us to possibly risk our live so that you can save you friend, when you didn't even want to help us in the first place?" Mu asked
"I know this is selfish of me and all" at least Duo had the decency to look sheepish "But this guy is the whole reason I was out here in the first place, I would like to talk to him but I can only do that if he's alive"
"I'm not sure if that's a-" Mu started but Murrue cut him off
"We'll do it" she said "just tell us what to do" Duo smiled
"Just get me under him... I'll do the rest"
as the Archangel moved under the Zero, Deathscythe's hand reached out an caught it's arm almost falling off the ship was not part of the plan but in the end it worked out with more or less no injury.
As soon as the Deathscythe and the Zero landed in the hanger Duo immediately punched in the code to unlock the suit (thankfully Heero hadn't changed that code) as soon as the cockpit opened an unconscious Heero fell strait to the ground. Jumping down with him (though at a much slower pace) Duo soon had him against his shoulder and was on his was taking his friend to the infirmary.
In the infirmary Duo found it slightly harder to relax than he thought, he was edgy, alert and worried about his friends pale complexion that was when Murrue decided to be a ,somewhat,helpful distraction
"How is he?" she asked
"So far? Not too good but he doesn't survive half the stuff he's been through by quitting after a little turbulence" Murrue hummed just as Mu entered the room he took one good look at the man laying on the bed and said
"Hey isn't that sergeant Barton?"
"No..." Duo said slowly "this is my friend Heero Yuy"
"That's odd"Mu muttered "he said his name was sergeant Barton"
"And when did he say this?"
"On the Artimas before he gave us the letter" Murrue explained
"What letter?" Duo asked
"The letter he asked us to give you" at Duo's confused look she asked "you didn't get a letter?"
"No" now it was Mu's turn to look sheepish
"Well you see" he said "i wasn't too sure if I should give it to you"
"Give it to me now" Duo said icily Mu complied and Duo looked at the note
Baka of course he would start with Japanese and then end in french Duo began to read his mind automatically translating the text
What are you doing here... more importantly how did you get here? Here is the scrambler for my suit I'll be waiting for your call.. 03812927483629465937120137460901
Duo glared at the paper this would have been useful several hours ago
a few minutes later in the cafeteria
"I wonder what it was that Duo was so mad about" Kuzzy said while getting a glass of water
"What do you mean?" Miriallia asked
"Well he came grumbling though the halls mumbling about annoying lieutenants not giving messages when they are supposed to" Kuzzy replied
"Beats me" Tolle shrugged "sounds like he's going bonkers personally"
"Tolle!" Miriallia admonished
"just saying" Tolle said his hands up in surrender oh if only they knew.
preview
"It's about time you woke up"
"I'm sorry dear but I was a little busy fending off mobile dolls"
"who is in my suit?"
(yay it's the end of the next chapter I hope you people had a good Christmas I know I did I got a new computer lap desk from my sister and so I thought I'd give her this latest chapter in return and you know what? It's not too late to give me present! See that blue box? Yeah that thing no over here no no a little bit over there you are right there okay click on that and give me the gift of reviews!)