After Dark
Part XIV
By Mieren
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Duo, huddled protectively under a hooded trench coat, scurried to the opening of the nightclub where the whole mess had started. It was still light out and would be for another few hours. With the nature of the occupants of the underground labyrinth, he expected no resistance or guards yet beyond a few vampires' slaves. Wufei knocked them out while Duo planted a few of his toys. Out of sheer spite, the American infected the slaves to turn them to werewolves. If their masters survived, they were in for a surprise.
Once a divider in one of the glass containers snapped from the gentle movement, causing the first two compartments to mix together. Duo went very still for a moment before planting the device anyways.
"Is that safe?" Wufei mouthed.
"Not for long," Duo returned silently. "We need to hurry."
"You never did tell us what was in there."
"A type of self perpetuating enzyme that acts both as an extreme acid and base, destroying the chemical composition of whatever it touches," Duo mouthed. "Gotta love zwitterions." Wufei only gave him a quizzical look.
"Two things, Maxwell. One: I didn't know you knew biochemistry. And two: such an enzyme does not exist."
"Does now," Duo smirked. "Even makes more of itself as it goes along."
"That's it. I know that's not possible."
"Want to find out?"
"Hell no," Wufei breathed, ebony eyes wide. "How…"
Duo grinned at the halted speech from his companion. "Are we still on time?" he asked, hoping to distract the unnerved Chinese pilot. Wufei quickly checked his watch.
"Barely," he hissed. "We need to move faster. It's almost dark."
"I know the sun is setting," Duo groused. "I can tell. Just like I can tell where… fuck."
"What?" Wufei demanded, freezing.
"Xellos isn't here!" Duo exclaimed. The ebony-haired pilot drew up short, his arm halfway extended towards setting a bomb full of Duo's mystery compound. He ground his teeth audibly and set the charge anyways.
"He'll come," Wufei said with cold certainty.
"Even if he doesn't, I intend to do a lot of damage," Duo ground out, changing attitudes in the blink of an eye. He let loose a blood-chilling grin. "Watch this."
"Maxwell…"
Duo shot off, hand rifling through his duffle bag. He came up with a small black sphere the size of a baseball, affixing it to a wall.
"Done."
"What is that?" Wufei demanded, eyeing the explosive apprehensively. He hadn't seen it earlier when they were packing the explosives. Duo mumbled something so quickly that it was incomprehensible. "Maxwell!"
"I took over a genetics lab last night. I made the werewolf virus airborne," Duo forced out. Wufei paled.
"For the love of Nakaku, tell me you're joking," Wufei breathed, feeling his chest constrict. Duo only offered him a sheepish look and shrugged.
"Look at it this way," Duo caroled. "When it goes off, any vampire within breathing distance will melt into a pile of mush."
Wufei fell silent, realizing the ramifications. If Duo wasn't extremely careful, he would suffer a gruesome death at his own hands. The American seemed to sense his thoughts and he glared balefully.
"Knock it off," the brunette snapped. "If we die, we do it blowing this place sky high." He forced a feeble smile. "Either that or doing something extremely stupid."
"Maxwell, this is extremely stupid."
"Both are good. Right?"
Wufei sighed, declining to respond as he set another charge packed with plastic explosives. He nervously checked his watch again, visibly jerking when he registered what he saw.
"The sun," he hissed.
"I know," Duo returned, hurriedly setting the last of his bombs. He fastened the final glass tube of pure evil to the wall and ran for the exit, Wufei right by his side.
"Too late to escape," a bored voice drawled, drawing them up short of leaping up the stairwell. Duo paled and backpedaled quickly.
"Anyone but you," Duo breathed, scrabbling for his gun.
"Maxwell?" Wufei asked, his gun already out.
"Kentaro," Duo muttered to the Chinese pilot. Seeing the blank look he received in return, he elaborated slightly. "He's the one that messed me up so badly that first time."
"Shit," Wufei said, quickly reassessing the abilities of the muscular man. The man was over seven feet tall and looked to be nearing four hundred pounds of sheer muscle. That added to the vampire aspect made Wufei sincerely consider running for his life.
"You know, boy, that you are too weak to defeat me," Kentaro taunted. "You're younger, weaker and slower. All the things that come with time… you are too new to possess any of them."
Wufei shot the large man several times, his ebony eyes growing wide when the tainted bullets didn't seem to have the effect they had hoped. The wounds closed slowly, seeping melted tissues as it did so, but it healed. Duo had already put his gun away at the beginning of that display and had pulled something out of his duffle. In one hand, he had fisted some small object. In the other was a long curved sword.
"Wufei, run," Duo said. "I'll meet you above if I survive."
"Maxwell…"
"Go!" Duo roared, eyes flashing gold. Driven partially by his own fear and from the sheer force of Duo's mind, Wufei ran for the nearest exit almost a mile from the one being guarded. The seething American stayed to fight, painfully aware that others were emerging from their nocturnal states and would present an immediate threat.
Using the blade in his hand, he made a few well-aimed swipes at innards that while not exactly dangerous, would be rather painful. Both he and the massive guard were aware that he was stalling for time until Wufei was out of range of the toy in Duo's other hand.
Duo let loose a grin that even the bravest of souls would deem eerie. Kentaro stepped back instinctively. Throwing down his sword, Duo braced his right hand with his left and pressed the small button on the side of his toy. A single buster rifle burst shot forward from the device, throwing Duo onto his back and inflicting the enormous bodyguard with partially melted limbs and third degree burns across his entire body. Duo scrabbled for another buster burst, fully expecting Kentaro to get back to his feet. He was shocked when the massive vampire remained motionless. Duo flashed his fangs in a grin.
"Microtechnology rules," he breathed.
Duo struggled to his feet, scowling when he noticed that his blast had seriously burned him as well. He swore luridly as he hurried after Wufei, hearing movement stirring in all directions as he ran towards the surface. He was in too much of a hurry to see what was behind him.
A pale light flickered off of incandescent violet eyes in the darkness.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
The moment Duo had reached the surface, he scanned the area for Wufei. He spotted the Chinese pilot in a small black sports car, waving wildly at him. He made a run for the car, trying to escape the blast range of the detonators they had set. A heavy hand fell on Duo's arm and pulled him aside, causing the American to yelp in surprise.
"Let me go!" Duo howled, scrabbling for his gun. He loosed a dozen shots at point blank range into the man's abdomen before realizing who the cloaked figure was. Cursing, Duo changed guns, unloading a clip of bullets Trowa had tainted. Xellos seemed only mildly annoyed with the attack, casually disarming Duo and throwing the smaller man to the ground. Knowing that Xellos's presence was his death warrant, Duo decided to go down fighting. Surging forward, he pushed his last handheld buster rifle against Xellos's lower abdomen and savagely yanked the trigger.
Finally, Xellos seemed to stagger slightly, having some difficulties with his balance with a basketball-sized hole in his gut. It also had the side effect of ticking him off. He kicked Duo in the stomach and picked him up by a fistful of hair. The American watched dejectedly as the hole began to close itself.
"You have made many mistakes," Xellos hissed in Duo's face. "Firstly, you are never to escape once you have been claimed. Secondly, you never attack someone more powerful than yourself." With a quick flick of his staff, he had forced Duo to go sprawling across he ground, a good amount of hair remaining in his other hand. Wufei had looked back, considering helping, but continued driving when he received a firm mental order from the downed American. "It doesn't matter where you send him," Xellos taunted. "He's yours, and you're mine!"
Duo watched defiantly as the staff was brought around again, a blood red stone set in the end of the wood. He hated the staff, silently wishing that someone would shoot it as he was out of bullets. The ruby sphere flared, forcing Duo's mind to submit. He fell to his knees in defeat, gold-violet eyes staring raptly at the dome that would soon turn his mind to mush for the second time. Pain shot through him and he could feel fangs lengthening and his strength increasing. Asphalt crumbled underneath his hands as he curled his fingers. His senses told him that somewhere far off, a vehicle had crashed. Probably the sports car that Wufei had been driving. That thought no longer seemed important. Nothing was important except what he was told to do. Duo had almost given up when he saw Trowa standing atop his Gundam some distance off, a rifle braced against his shoulder. Xellos ignored the distant pilot, knowing that no bullets could hurt him. What he failed to realize what that tranquilizer darts filled with werewolf blood could very well hurt Duo.
Duo crumpled under the single shot, a whimper escaping his throat as he pulled the syringe from his arm. He offered a sickly smile towards his friend for saving him. He hoped that Trowa saw the grateful look before his eyes rolled back his head and he collapsed to the pavement. Barely conscious, he was shocked to see Trowa break formation with Heavyarms to run forward to claim both himself and Wufei in his Gundam's gigantic metal hands before he ran to safety. He was barely in time to avoid the explosion.
Vampires screaming in agony could be heard for miles as buildings and vampires alike melted into slag. Within the center of the blast, Xellos blinked out of existence momentarily, completely avoiding the rain of chemicals. When he reappeared, he looked extremely upset. In preparation for the final battle, Trowa set both Wufei and Duo onto a nearby roof before rejoining the other two Gundams. The three surrounded Xellos while Trowa ordered all werewolves in the area to go after any rouge vampires that somehow survived. The burly wolves could be seen running in and out of buildings, picking careful paths around molten stone.
Buster rifle shots from the Gundams and bursts of unidentifiable light from Xellos covered the area as the four titans battled for power. Quatre was the first out, a particularly lucky blast destroying his navigation systems almost entirely. Gundam down, he backed towards the building where Trowa had placed Duo and Wufei, jumping free from Sandrock to assess his friends' conditions. Behind him, he could hear Heero and Trowa fighting relentlessly against Xellos. Knowing that he was unable to help, he checked the downed pilots. As far as he could tell, Wufei was simply unconscious. Duo, however, was curled into a ball, keening loudly as he writhed, gasping for breath. Suddenly, Duo shot to a semblance of rationality and grabbed Quatre's arms, his golden eyes wild.
"Fight!" Duo huffed, looking rather disoriented.
"How? My Sandrock can't be used," Quatre said.
"Use your head… Fight…" Duo mumbled, quickly becoming incoherent, his breath rattling painfully in his throat.
"I don't understand," Quatre cried.
"Warlock!" Duo hissed. His breath caught in his throat on the final syllable and he shuddered, curling up slightly before going still.
"Duo?" Quatre asked, shaking the brunette's shoulder. "Duo!" A movement to the side caught his attention and he lurched towards Wufei's shivering form, appalled that he had forgotten the Chinese boy. "Wufei?"
Wufei twitched, black eyes slitting open. He blinked fuzzily once before jerking fully awake, a look of abject horror crossing his face. Quatre spun to look behind him, shocked to see how quickly Heero and Trowa had been pushed back, the two Gundams almost upon the building. Regretting the necessity of the action, Quatre ignored Duo's unmoving form and physically dragged Wufei from the rooftop and half-climbed, half-fell down a fire escape. Wufei struggled briefly, trying to climb back up the ladder.
"We have to go!" Quatre said urgently, trying to overpower the delirious Chinese pilot.
"Duo…"
"Is dead! Let's go!" Quatre yelled. He succeeded in tumbling to the ground with Wufei still in his grip. He punched out a window of an old junker in the alley and flung the door open, forcing the raven-haired teen inside. He was hotwiring the car when he heard Wufei muttering angrily in the back. "What was that?"
"Duo's still alive," Wufei said, trying to get out of the car again. Quatre had to alternate starting the car and struggling with his comrade. The blond managed to start the beat up car and floored it, trying to gain distance before they were crushed by an errant step of a Gundam. "Go back! He's alive!"
"Can you hear him?" Quatre asked tensely.
"No…"
"Then how would you know?" Quatre finally snapped.
"Because so am I!"
Quatre stamped the brakes, skidding the junker to a halt. He turned in his seat just in time to watch the building they had been on top of explode in a burst of red light. Blazing rubble rained from the sky. For one brief instant, a black form was visible through the flames, disappearing from sight again when Wing Zero was flung past the smoldering ruins of the building, missing one arm. Alone and out of ammunition, Trowa set Heavyarms to self-destruct and leapt from the hatch, shifting smoothly into lupine form as he sprinted from the scene. Thinking quickly, Quatre shot out the back window of the old car, allowing Trowa to leap in unhindered. The moment the pilot turned wolf landed on Wufei, Quatre floored the car again, trying to get out of range of the blast. Heero stubbornly stayed in position with Wing Zero, trying to corner Xellos into the center of the blast radius.
A mushroom cloud rose into the sky. The leading edge of the explosion repeatedly rolled the old car containing the three escaping pilots. Between the force of the blast and the previous speed of the car, the vehicle was thrown into a mile long, tumbling skid, flinging one of the pilots out the side window just before rolling over him. In the center of the blast, Wing Zero was torn to pieces.
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To Be Continued…
This part written because I received a random review even though I hadn't updated for awhile. This is why you review. It goads me into doing something. R&R! ^_^