After Dark
Part XVI
By Mieren
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The five reached the safe house just before dawn, Quatre waking up shortly before they arrived. Finding the house in a pathetic state of disrepair, they had no choice but to stuff Duo into a closet, tiny and filled with cobwebs. That resulted in a great deal of cursing in just about every language known to man. The American apparently knew how to tell someone to perform physically impossible acts on themselves no matter what their nationality. He yelled something in Chinese that Wufei refused to translate, though he did turn bright red. Though it was probably intended to be insulting, whatever the Latin phrase yelled at them meant, Trowa began laughing hysterically. Hysterically for him, anyways, which meant soft chuckling for any other mortal.
Quatre became so curious at their reactions that he tried to mimic what had happened before when he spoke to Heero. He pressed his mind towards his friends as though trying to get a reading of their emotions, but put more energy into his attempt. He was beet red instantly, fighting to withdraw his mind before his blood pressure rose to a lethal level. Wufei had been told to do something that was illegal all over Earth and on every colony, the act including an orgy, a chandelier and superglue. The suggestion made to Trowa was so physically impossible that it was a wonder that anyone could even think of it, let alone perform it. It involved seventeen hairpins, a toaster, a barbell, a clove of garlic and a set of tongs.
"Why am I now afraid of L2?" Quatre muttered. Heero made a face at something Duo was shouting before answering.
"Probably because of his interest in ball bearings," Heero said. "Or at least I'm hoping that he said ball bearings." Duo growled something through the door. Heero actually paused, looking vaguely shocked. "Can you do that with a cheese grater?"
"Do what?" Trowa asked curiously.
"Say it and I'll fry both of you," Quatre threatened. He pounded one fist on the closet door. "Calm down and try to rest. We'll let you out when the sun goes down." Duo snapped something in Arabic. "No, that is not edible." More Arabic. "Neither is that." Something else was called through the door that caused Quatre to clench his eyes shut and shudder. "They don't make those for Gundams."
"You're only encouraging him," Wufei sighed.
Duo went off on another tirade, this time in Spanish. Trowa, being the only one who spoke the language, started sniggering again. Pausing, Quatre tried his best to translate the phrase since he knew a few words Latin based after spending so much time with Trowa.
Seeing his efforts, Trowa cut him off before he could continue that line of thinking. "Trust me, you don't want to know," the European pilot said helpfully.
More Chinese followed. Wufei turned brick red. "Even if you could find a pack of llamas and a sheep, you'd never manage that!"
"This is kind of fun," Trowa murmured, smirking. When he was upset, Duo was apparently very creative, not to mention more than a little perverted.
"Duo baiting," Heero said solemnly. "I like it." He cocked his head to listen to the latest string of ranting. Duo had slipped in a new phrase. "Now, now… That won't fit there." He paused, cobalt blue eyes glinting with mirth. "That's a waste of a perfectly good rubber chicken!"
For another two hours, the four pilots teased the braided pilot before finally leaving to get ready for their next battle. Even if Xellos wasn't done for, the Mad Five still warranted a visit. Needing any and all help they could get, they cracked open the door to the closet and slipped Duo a laptop, that act alone doing much to calm the trapped vampire. Hours of planning later, they decided that there was no way to sneak up on the old scientists. The Mad Five knew of their intentions by now and were probably preparing a defense as they studied. Exchanging grim looks, they decided to do the inevitable. Charge in with guns blazing and do as much damage as fast as they could before the old coots managed to mount a decent defense.
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Despite initial protests from Duo, the pilots concocted a solution to his eating while his body tried to decide which way to turn. Steak tartar meant that cow blood would be palatable to even a human's stomach. Similarly, sushi was also safe, so fish blood could be used as a supplement as well. Although clearly not happy about it, Duo accepted his new liquid diet. It stayed down, and he did have to eat after all.
They were up the moment the sun went down, striking hard and fast as they'd intended. Duo whipped up some more of his mystery vials of mass destruction, and for his own amusement, loaded the dangerous chemicals into a bazooka. The remaining mercenary werewolves were dismissed with the order to dispatch any vampire they found alive after the first brutal assault. Knowing their charges were coming for them, the five old scientists split up and tried to go into hiding.
They found G first, the old man holed up in a lab with an assortment of guns and chemicals at his disposal. Duo beat him to the initial assault, which turned out to be the final. He turned his chemical loaded bazooka to blast the old man with the deadly chemicals, watching with absolute glee as the man seemed to melt into a pile of slag under the goop. Unfortunately, it also melted the last foot of his bazooka, leaving the weapon useless.
H was much harder to deal with. For someone who had trained gentle Quatre, he was a paranoid nutcase. He'd somehow managed to find a bunker and loaded the surrounding area with landmines, which naturally led to the loss of the jeep the pilots had commandeered. Seeing a gas mask strapped to his face was the only warning they'd had before he unleashed both tear and sleeping gasses into the small, unventilated area. While the others choked and gagged on the wretched fumes, Heero and H both surged forward, guns leading. Heero took a hit to his leg, but ignored it as he did all injuries, taking more time to aim than the old man had. Duo managed to clear his head minutely enough to land a dagger in the scientist's thigh, distracting him from the real danger from the pilot of Wing. A clean shot to the head ended H's life. Afterwards, Heero had to help his mostly blinded and half coherent comrades outside.
J attempted to overturn the systems on their gundams to use against them, but the pilots stayed well away from the metal giants until they'd managed to override the new programming, a process that took them several days and tries to manage. His virtual attack allowed the five angry pilots to trace him back to his hiding place, and while the others stayed behind to seem as though they were debugging the systems, Duo was gleefully sending in viruses that were demolishing the old man's computers, rendering him unable to track the strayed pilots. Wufei skulked in and cleanly decapitated the mad scientist from behind with his sword.
By request, the other pilots stayed well away from the battlegrounds as Trowa slunk in after S, though they watched avidly from a distance. The reason for their banishment was instantly obvious. The old scientist stood waiting for them, knowing there was little use in hiding after watching his colleagues fall one by one. Trowa approached him calmly, unarmed, and the two stared each other down for several seconds before Trowa began stripping to spare his clothes the rigors of transformation. It was a little more appalling when S began to do the same, no one wanting to see the unclothed vision of a three hundred year old man.
Like his student, S had been infected. Matching Trowa claw for claw, he descended into another form, more lupine in nature. An old gray wolf and a younger, sleeker brown one faced off, black eyes boring into green. For a little while, it looked to be a stalemate as the two circled and slashed at each other. Trowa was younger and stronger, but S had more weight in muscle to protect him from taking a vital hit and more experience fighting in that form. In the end, it was Trowa's youthful stamina and speed that allowed him to suddenly close the distance between them the moment S started to show the first signs of weariness. The old gray wolf had his throat ripped cleanly out in an instant.
O was hard. The moment he saw Quatre, he snarled and raised his arm. An instant later, the blond was flung through a door with third degree burns. Glowering, the smallest blond pilot raised his own arm and unleashed an inferno, blasting the older man through a wall and incinerating both of his arms when he tried to block the attack.
Quatre rolled to the side, his arms and chest burnt severely. Fireball by nature, the blond extended one hand and unleashed an inferno, flames erupted from his palm but O calmly rolled out of the way. A deep brown wolf darted out of the shadows and latched onto one of the warlock's ruined forearms, rolling several times in a fashion unsuited for an animal. Several distinct snaps sounded as bones shattered in the razor sharp teeth. Cursing, O slammed his charred but otherwise intact hand into the canine's side, causing the beast to roll away with a sharp yelp of pain.
The distraction had served a purpose, one that would cause the final scientist his life. Quatre had redirected his attention to his hands, focusing all of his energy there in aquamarine flames. Surging forward to attack, he did the unthinkable. Sorcery was never meant to be hand-to-hand, but the blond ignored the rules and began striking strategically in deadly areas. Throat, abdomen, chest and nose were struck rapidly in that order, ruling out any possibility of the scientist capable of breathing. He staggered back two steps and stared at the blond in hatred with quickly fading eyesight. His lips curled back into a fierce sneer.
"Xellos will end what I have started," he rasped.
"Unlikely," Duo smirked, stepping forward. He chuckled at the writhing figure on the ground before him. "I am Shinigami, now more than ever." The old scientist managed to offer him a glare of pure malice before passing away.
"What do we do about Xellos?" Heero queried.
"You've seen eighteen," Duo drawled idly. "Care to see thirty two?"
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To Be Continued…
I am SO sorry that it took this long to update. A combination of writer's block and a few problems at work have left me behind in everything. I swear I'm trying to catch up. Please R&R.
Just guess what thirty two is. Come on. GUESS!