23-Sep-2000
Presenting a GW/Gatchamen Fusion
The story thus far: One day, Duo finds Widget, a small round object that transforms into a multi-dimensional gateway when supplied with a source of energy. Heero accidentally triggers Widget when he feeds him a beam rifle, sending all five GW pilots into another world. They discover that the parallel world's Duo is a powerful sorcerer, who casts a spell on Heero, giving him wings. When they escape, they find themselves in a world where a dark version of Trowa is leading the Oz army. Quatre makes a deal with that world's Duo Maxwell, also working on the side of Oz, and the GW pilots leave the second world. As the GW pilots enter Track 3, Widget drops to the ground and is picked up by a mysterious blond man wearing a purple masked costume.
'What do you think they're going to do?' Duo asked nervously as he nibbled on the end of his braid, while kicking the leg of the sofa.
Quatre shrugged in silent response, his attention wholly focused on the information scrolling past him on the computer screen.
Duo gave his friend a nasty look before turning to Wufei, who refused to open his eyes as he leaned against the sofa, with his head resting back on his folded arms. Duo looked at the silent boy for a few minutes longer before deciding to give up with a heavy sigh. He then got up from sofa and started to pace around the room, as he furrowed his brow in deep thought.
'Why don't you just sit down and wait?' Trowa suggested coolly from his position near the doorway. The tall redhead was leaning against the wall, in his customary pose, with his arms folded casually across his chest.
'Nah.' Duo grinned at him, as he stuck his hands deep inside his pockets. 'I prefer to keep moving and drive all of you crazy.' His eyes darted around the small room, noting the lack of windows and the Spartan simplicity of the furniture. Apart from the large three-seater sofa in the middle of the room, and the small desktop station on the corner, there was nothing else in the white walled room. 'You'd think that they'd keep a vid viewer or at least a couple of magazines around here. It's not exactly hospitable is it?' He said out loud in mock disgust.
'It's not meant to be.'
Duo turned around, his brown braid whipping behind him. His violet eyes narrowed suspiciously as he saw the familiar face in the doorway.
'Heero.' He greeted the dark haired youth with cold politeness.
The slender young man with shoulder-length, dark-brown hair, tucked his own hands into the pockets of his white jeans and grinned widely in reply.
'Yeah. And you're Duo.' He answered with a low laugh. 'I'm afraid that our Duo still hasn't fully recovered from the shock of finding out that he isn't unique in the universe. So you'll just have to excuse him if he seems a bit surly at first.'
'Hey, no problem.' Duo retorted spiritedly, 'as long as you keep the violent psychopath far, far away from me.' He sniffed crossly as he remembered his encounter with the hot-tempered man in the black costume.
'Where's Heero? Our Heero?' Trowa broke in, concern evident in his green eyes. 'We haven't seen him since he was taken away by your Doctor J. Is he all right?'
Heero flashed a bright smile at the redhead, and his voice softened as he replied. 'Of course. Doctor J was just a little curious about his wings. That's all. I've been sent to bring you all to meet the Chief of operations, Hakase(1) Khushrenada.' Heero continued serenely, not noticing the sudden start Duo had given at the mention of the Chief's name. 'Heero will join us in the Hakase's office. So if you're all ready. ?' He waited politely for Quatre and Wufei to join them at the doorway.
'Does this mean that you intend to tell us what's going on?' Quatre asked sharply, irritated by the lack of progress he had made in searching the net for background information to the world they now found themselves in, as well as the organization called ISO.(2)
'Sure.' Heero replied easily with a smile, as he directed them down the corridor, 'as soon as you people tell us how you got here and where you came from. Not to mention what you are doing here. Does that seem fair enough?'
Quatre hesitated then nodded curtly.
Behind them, Duo whispered to Wufei, 'is it me, or do you find it a bit creepy seeing Heero smiling constantly?'
Wufei grunted softly, then nodded unwillingly as Heero smiled widely and stopped to chat vivaciously for a few minutes with a man wearing a white lab coat walking past them. The man looked a bit hurt when the other four men simply stared at him without greeting him, then Heero whispered something to him and he nodded happily and left.
'We're definitely going to have to do something about you guys.' Heero spoke in thoughtful deliberation as he stared at his friends' doppelgangers. 'Otherwise, a lot of people at Centre Crescent(3) will get confused between you guys and my lot. And that would pose an unacceptable security risk.'
'Well, why don't you just stay in those... birdy costumes?' Duo suggested with a sudden gleam in his violet eyes. He bit back a smile as Heero gave him a pained look. 'I thought they were very... becoming.' He blinked innocently as Wufei suddenly snorted loudly in disdain.
'Owl.' Wufei suddenly blurted out crossly. 'Who's ever heard of a green owl? And what kind of an idiot agrees to prance around in green tights and wings!'
Duo started to laugh, 'oh I don't know Wufei.' He giggled, 'I thought you looked rather fetching in that outfit. Besides which,' he added in a consoling voice, 'it could have been worse.' He finished solemnly, while sneaking a look at Quatre who glared coldly at him, 'you could have been an orange falcon.' Duo chuckled loudly to himself, as he remembered the look of appalled outrage on his blond friend's countenance as he gaped at a vision of himself in a brilliant orange and yellow outfit.
Heero sighed as he stared at the sight of the chestnut haired man, who started to clutch his stomach as he got carried away with laughing. 'Hasn't he gotten over this yet?' He muttered, looking slightly strained.
Trowa shook his head in silent resignation. He thought that Duo was definitely over reacting to the unusual and he admitted privately to himself, the overly colourful, costumes worn by their counterparts in this world. But Trowa also suspected that Duo was deliberately exaggerating his response somewhat, partly to compensate for the stress he was experiencing from all the travelling they've been doing, and probably, partly to hide the worry he felt about Heero.
On their arrival at Centre Crescent, the Gundam pilots had been sent straight away to the small room where they had remained confined till now. All except Heero, who had been taken away by Doctor J, and Trowa remembered the way his friend's eyes had widened with surprise, when the familiar scientist appeared, with kind looking brown eyes and a normal arm, instead of the metal prosthetics they had been used to in their world.
'Just ignore him.' Trowa advised calmly, 'that's what we do.'
'Oy.' Duo looked up with a look of indignation. 'don't you dare ignore me.' He scowled when the other men started to walk away and trotted after them, calling out loudly. 'I said, don't you dare ignore me...'
'I've been thinking about your costumes.' Quatre smiled sweetly at Heero, who looked at him with silent speculation, before smiling back, just as sweetly. 'The way you guys can fly for example.' Quatre continued quickly as Heero opened his mouth to interrupt. 'Oh I know, it's more like gliding but still... considering the wing span ratio to your body, not to mention the distances involved, it shouldn't be physically possible for you to fly around the way you did back when we first met. And then there's the way Raven just picked up Duo with one hand. Even accounting for the extra adrenalin you get from rage, what he did isn't possible with normal human strength. And then there's...' He came to a stop as Heero held up both hands in mock surrender.
'Enough already Quatre.' Heero laughed, 'I'm not allowed to talk about this. Why don't you just wait till you meet the Hakase?'
Quatre frowned at the mention of the Hakase, his green eyes looking troubled as he spoke slowly. 'Hakase. As in Hakase Khushrenada. As in Hakase Treize Khushrenada?'
Heero nodded coolly, 'I gather you are familiar with a version of the Hakase in your world then?'
Quatre shared a grim look with Trowa, while Wufei flushed angrily. 'You could say that I suppose.' He responded carefully. 'So this Hakase is the head of this organization then? And I suppose... sort of your boss?'
'More than that.' Heero replied with cheerful eagerness. 'He's also my guardian. He's been looking after me since I was seven.' He turned to Wufei in sudden concern, 'hey, are you okay?'
Wufei, who had paled dramatically, simply shook his head. He was feeling decidedly unhappy about meeting up with another Treize, just when he had barely laid the original's ghost to rest(4), he thought resentfully.
'My god. You've been raised by Treize?' Duo blurted out before Trowa could stop him. 'Man you must have one messed up childhood.'
Heero stiffened, and for the first time, Duo suddenly saw a resemblance between his Heero and this one. The dark cobalt blue eyes flashed arrogantly and his smile died away. 'I think you better remember that you are in my world now.' Heero warned in the familiar emotionless low voice, 'and that you are our guests. Please try to observe a minimum of courtesy in the future. Hakase is like my father. I don't appreciate your comments.'
Duo nodded guiltily, he hadn't meant to be rude, not this time. 'I'm sorry.' He muttered penitently.
'It's okay.' Heero suddenly smiled, the stiff mask suddenly disappearing behind a dazzling display of white teeth.
Duo exchanged meaningful looks with Wufei as they fell in meekly behind Heero and Quatre, remembering his earlier remark about the disconcertingly sunny and bright disposition of this particular Heero. Wufei scowled blackly, a leaden sensation in the pit of his stomach as he tried to brace himself for the coming meeting. 'Treize. Of all the people, why did it have to be Treize?' He thought sourly.
'Well, here we are.' Heero knocked on the door politely before opening it up and inviting the others through.
Trowa walked through quickly, followed by Quatre, and Duo who looked back and grabbed Wufei's hand, when the black haired youth hung back, reluctance written plainly on his face, and half dragged, half pulled him inside.
'Okay. Lets recap on what we've been told so far.' Duo held out his hand and started to count off his fingers as he spoke. 'One. You guys are something called the Kagaku Ninja Tai(5), and you call yourselves after birds, like Eagle and Raven, as code names. Two, you work for an organization called ISO to secretly battle against another organization called Galactor.' Duo was unable to suppress a disdainful snort as he said the last. 'Third, Galactor is a group of terrorists working to destabilise the world governments and they are really being controlled by an alien. So... you guys play hero and attack them, again in secret, bombing their bases and destroying their mecha, to save the world from an alien invasion.' Duo stared at Hakase Khushrenada who simply nodded in response, his face deadly serious. Duo heaved a sigh of resignation then sent a beseeching look at Heero, his Heero, who sat calmly sipping his tea, 'how do we get into these messes?'
Hakase Khushrenada smiled thinly, noticing that of the five doppelgangers of his team, Wufei still refused to meet his gaze directly.
'I suppose you can put it that way.' He steepled his hands in front of his face as he spoke, the light glinting faintly off the metal rims of his glasses as he leaned forward. 'And now I'm asking you five to join us in our battle. The Raptors(6) have been working under a great deal of strain from the moment their team has been operational. From what you've told me, you've fought and won your own battle to win freedom from conflict for the people in your world. Why don't you stay here and fight with us?'
'Um... excuse me Hakase, but like you said, we've just finished with fighting in our world.' Duo replied uneasily, 'we aren't really that keen to get involved in another battle. Even if it is against the evil alien invaders who are plotting to secretly take over the world.' His lips twitched involuntarily as he finished his sentence.
'We don't need these weak fools.'
Duo looked up sharply and glared at Duo, who had finally decided to speak up, after standing in sullen silence throughout the meeting, his arms folded, behind his Commander.
'We're doing fine by ourselves.' Duo continued arrogantly, his violet eyes flashing angrily as he stared at his mirror image, who glowered back. 'And besides which, these guys can't use the birdstyles. They'd be useless in battle.'
'Hey, Mr Macho man.' Duo spat out angrily, ignoring the restraining hand on his arm from Heero. 'I don't need to wear some silly looking tights and a bird beaked helmet to fight. I'll take you on in my Shinigami, anytime, anywhere.'
'Duo.' Heero admonished sharply and his friend settled back in his chair, still muttering indecipherable insults under his breath. He turned to Hakase Khushrenada who was rubbing the temples of his head with a pained look. 'I'm afraid I would have to agree with your Duo's assessment. According to Doctor J, the Raptors had been implanted with cerebonics,SUP>(7) during their prepubescent period, allowing them to utilize their birdstyle. Since we are obviously past that age group, I'm assuming it's too late for us. So I doubt that we could function properly as replacement crew, which I'm assuming is what you had in mind?'
Hakase drummed his fingers on the table, his voice darkening with disapproval. 'Doctor J will have to be reminded not to be so careless when speaking to you in the future. He shouldn't have mentioned anything about cerebonics. And no, Heero, I didn't intend to use you or your friends as replacements for my Raptors. I simply felt that given your militant backgrounds, you could make yourselves useful in our battles against Galactor. And I'm not trying to force you to agree either.' He added heavily, 'I'm simply asking. It'll be up to you, as a group, or as individuals, to decide whether to aid our cause.'
'While our primary objective has to be to return to our world,' Quatre spoke up at last, 'I think that maybe we should work together. At least,' he gazed at his friends until one by one, he received a reluctant nod, even from Wufei, 'until we can recover Widget and find a way to power him. If that's okay with you?' He looked at Hakase and received a short nod in confirmation.
'I still think this is a big mistake.' Duo hissed out of the corner of his mouth to his Commander, who simply shrugged before walking off to face his counterpart.
Heero smiled widely at Heero and stuck out his hand in greeting. 'Hi Heero.' He laughed happily as he stared into the solemn blue eyes. 'Hello. Heero.' Came a quiet reply, as Heero took Heero's hand.
'This is really not going to work is it?' Heero laughed again. 'Why don't you call me Eagle? That way we can keep ourselves separately by name, at least. Okay?'
[Author's insert: you should be able to figure out who is who in the above paragraph, if you can't, mail me and I'll tell you]
Heero nodded politely.
Eagle grinned as he pointed to the sulky looking youth who refused to approach any closer. 'And from now on, we can just refer to him as Raven.'
'Thank heaven for that.' Duo muttered under his breath as he exchanged grimaces with his counterpart. 'And I thought Colonel Maxwell(8) was bad.'
'And this is Hawk,' Eagle beamed warmly as the tall silent redhead walked up beside him and bowed politely to the Gundam pilots. He reached out his hand and grabbed Hawk's hand and gave it a warm squeeze. It was obvious that the two men shared a close relationship from the warm looks they exchanged.
Trowa blinked a little as he stared at the two men and blushed.
'I can introduce myself Eagle.'
Quatre stared hard at the blond boy who had walked up to him. The two were identical copies of each other except, one of them was obviously still a just a teenager.
'How. how old are you?' Quatre asked through dry lips.
'I'm thirteen. How old are you?' The green eyes were studying him with considerable interest.
'I'm eighteen.' Quatre answered hollowly. 'Why are you.' he turned to Hakase with a bewildered frown. 'Why is he younger than the others?'
'Hey.' The younger Quatre answered sharply. 'I can speak for myself you know. Don't you dare look down me just because I'm a couple of years younger. I'm as much a Raptor as the others.'
'Chill Falcon.' Eagle admonished mildly. 'You can't really blame Quatre for feeling a bit confused. By all rights, you should have been the same age as the rest of us.'
Falcon sniffed disdainfully, his green eyes hard as he stared at the taller, older version of himself. 'Yeah well. According to my birth certificate, I am the same age as you. Minus the five years I had to spend in the cryo(9). It's kind of depressing to meet an older me though.' He rolled his eyes at Eagle, 'I was hoping to be a lot taller and better looking by the time I turned eighteen.'
Quatre swallowed his reply, even as he heard Duo sniggering loudly behind him, and forced his hand to unclench, slowly.
Eagle gave Quatre a silent look of apology before dragging forward a blushing Wufei from behind him.
'And here's our final member. Owl.' Eagle introduced the black haired, muscular young man, who smiled shyly and ducked his head in greeting.
'What I don't get is why Owl is about twice Wufei's width. Was it something he ate?' Duo muttered under his breath, as he stared at the stocky looking young man shuffling his feet in embarrassment, then at Wufei, who was also looking rather flushed, except in his case, it was more with annoyance. Then he yelped as Trowa quietly trod on his feet.
'Do I have to stay around for any more of this or am I dismissed now, Hakase?'
Quatre looked at Raven with disapproval and whispered to Wufei, who nodded his agreement. 'I'd say that our Duo's not the only one who needs to work on his manners.'
Wufei stared open mouthed through the observation window, his attention arrested by the incredible grace and power displayed by the two inside the practice chamber. This was the first time he had an opportunity to observe the Raptors in training. He had been disconcerted when he learned that all the Raptors possessed enhanced strength. Surpassing even Heero's when in birdstyle, much to the surprise of the Gundam pilots. But what made them such peerless warriors were their extraordinary speed and agility. After having seen the Raptors in action, Wufei finally understood why Raven had been so scornful of the prospect of working with them. Still, Wufei smiled to himself as he remembered the way Duo had outfought Eagle in a simulation of an aerial dogfight, he was pretty confident that even without enhanced abilities, he and his friends were capable of pulling their weight in a real battle.
The two Raptors in the practice chamber were barely visible, white and black blurs passing each other, with an occasional spark when their weapons clashed together. After a while Wufei noticed that the Eagle possessed slightly higher speed while the Raven seemed to have the greater strength.
'So who are you backing?'
Wufei shrugged as he moved aside to allow Duo to join him at the window. The chestnut haired pilot looked down at the mock battle below and shook his head in disapproval.
'Do you believe this place?' Duo spoke out in disgust, his attention focused on the duelling pair. 'Taking little boys off the streets and performing surgery on them. Making sure they were all orphans to avoid any trouble with parental consent. Then experimenting on them until you got this.' He slapped the window before him. 'A bunch of totalitarian freaks who live only to kill on order. This is sick.'
'It's not our place to make such judgements.'
Duo and Wufei turned around to see Quatre standing in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest.
'I've been talking to Falcon. The one that had to spend five years in a cryogenic chamber while Doctor J and his friends tried to figure out exactly what went wrong with the cerebonics implantation in his case?' Quatre joined his friends in the observation booth. 'They didn't have to fight so hard to save Falcon's life if they are as bad as you seem to think Duo. They could have just replaced him with another child. But Falcon wasn't expendable. Not to them. This isn't about right and wrong. We don't live here remember?'
'Yeah, you said that before.' Duo retorted coldly, his violet eyes hardening as he faced his friend. 'I'm just not too sure if I buy your theory of elastic morality. That's not what you thought back in our world Quatre. We can't just close our eyes to unpleasant realities because we are just passing through. I'm still not sure that we did the right thing in abandoning Senator Yuy(10). Maybe we should have stayed and tried to help. Maybe we could have made a difference in that world. But you never gave us the chance. And now, you've gone and agreed to work with these people. But only until we find Widget.'
Quatre looked at Duo, feeling heavy hearted as he saw that his friend was genuinely angry. 'I thought we all agreed to stay and help until we find Widget.' He said at last, his green eyes looking lost and helpless as he faced Duo's anger. 'Don't you want to go home Duo? I'm not trying to impose my morality on anyone. I'm just trying to get us home as fast as possible. Don't you understand that we can't afford to get too involved in these other worlds? We don't belong here Duo. The Raptors do. This is their fight and the only thing that we can do is to help out until we can get Widget back and get out of here.'
The violet eyes remained cold and hard as Duo stared silently at Quatre. The American knew that he wasn't being fair but he was tired, tired of constantly being on guard and of trying to deal with these unsettling copies of himself, not to mention his friends. He wanted to go home. He wanted everything to be the way they were and he was having a hard time accepting the changes that their travels had wrought in his closest friends. Duo felt angry and betrayed in particular by Quatre's unexpected ruthlessness and though deep down he did agree with the blond pilot's reasoning, he didn't want to acknowledge the reality of the harsh choices their travels forced on them. He turned away abruptly and strode out of the small booth.
'Duo.'
Quatre called out softly after the disappearing American, his green eyes filled with hurt. He started as a hand came to rest on his shoulder and turned his head to see Wufei's concerned face next to him.
'Leave him alone for now.' Wufei advised quietly. 'He's having a hard time.'
'So are we all.' Quatre retorted, though without vim.
'Yeah, but he's the only one who's really hated every single one of the alternate selves that we met so far. It can't be pleasant to see only the negative reflections of yourself. And don't forget, he's still recovering from our encounter with that Colonel Maxwell.' Wufei winced involuntarily as he remembered the cruelty lurking underneath the charming smile, 'I still haven't gotten over meeting that manipulative son of a bitch. Imagine how bad it must be for him.'
Quatre nodded, then added in a tart voice. 'It still doesn't excuse him treating me like I'm the bad guy.'
Wufei grinned as he turned his attention back to the duelling pair in the training room. 'I'm sure after he gets some quality time with your delightful younger self, he'll learn to appreciate you properly.'
Quatre rolled his eyes at the mention of Falcon. 'You know,' he said pensively as he joined Wufei at the window, 'I don't remember being such a pain when I was his age.'
'Are you sure you aren't dating Trowa?'
Falcon stared hopefully at Heero's back, making a face when the dark haired young man refused to look up from the computer. He ducked around to the other side and tried to insert his head between the screen and Heero, forcing the other man to grunt softly and move the laptop to another position on the table.
'What about me? Are you dating me?' Falcon elaborated when he still didn't get any reaction from Heero. 'That is your version of me? The old guy?' He glared crossly at Heero, irritated by the sheer impassivity of his expression and the way he obstinately refused to acknowledge his presence. He trotted around the table, and slapped his hands down on the table hard, hoping for a response.
'Don't tell me that you are a couple with that long haired looney version of Raven!' Falcon yelled out loudly, attracting the attention of the other people in the canteen, who looked at the pair curiously. But Heero simply continued to type, not bothering to even look up from the screen.
'You can't possibly in interested in Duo. You have much better taste than that. At least Eagle does. Or did.' Falcon babbled on, determined to force a reaction from Heero, one way or another. 'It was so sneaky of Hawk to take advantage of poor Eagle. Just because I was stuck in a cryo for five years.' Falcon sniffed loudly as he sneaked peeks at Heero to see if he was reacting, and continued on with a renewed vigour when he registered the faint frown on Heero's forehead. 'Of course now that I'm out, things will have to change. I've told Eagle that I was willing to forgive him for turning to someone else. After all the poor man was incredibly lonely without me. I can understand that.' Falcon nodded smugly, 'but it's time we got back together. And Hawk will just have to.'
Heero looked up from his console at last when the annoying patter suddenly ceased. He couldn't suppress a faint smile when he saw Hawk standing on the other side of the table, with his hand over Falcon's mouth.
'Thank you.' Heero nodded politely to Hawk.
'I'm terribly sorry.' Hawk answered apologetically. 'Don't pay any attention to what he said please.' He glared down at the smaller boy who was still muttering behind his hand. 'And when we're alone, I want to hear what else you have to say for yourself, Falcon.'
Heero sighed with relief as the tall redhead dragged the blond boy away from him. He wasn't sure if he would have survived hearing all that rubbish for one more minute without throwing the laptop at the pesky child and with the brat's enhanced reflexes, he mused, he'd probably have missed.
'Hi Heero.'
Heero looked up and wilted visibly when he saw Duo standing in front of him. Then he frowned with concern as he realized that Duo was uncharacteristically angry and subdued.
'Duo?' He asked hesitantly, closing his laptop firmly and turning his attention on his agitated friend.
'Heero.' Duo paused as he tried to sort out his jumbled feelings. 'Let's leave.' He blurted out at last then shook his head when Heero started to stand up. 'No, not right now. I mean, let's leave this place. We should be looking for Widget. Not waiting around here to play soldier. I don't like it here.' He scowled as he stopped talking.
Heero felt torn between confusion and concern as he stared at the upset American. He sat silently trying to figure out what had happened to agitate Duo so much and what he should do or say, to try to help him.
'Where do you want to go?' Heero asked gently, finally breaking the long silence that had stretched between them after Duo's last words.
'Anywhere. Nowhere. I don't know.' Duo's shoulders slumped despondently as he rested his chin on his folded arms on the table. 'Damn. I just feel... never mind.' He sighed. 'I don't know what came over me just then. Don't worry about it.'
Heero nodded silently, his eyes still filled with concern as he stared at his friend. He reached out his hand to the bowed chestnut head then paused, unsure as to what he should do. After a minute, he dropped his hand to his side, still unseen by Duo who hadn't looked up from his slumped position. Heero thought for a moment then decided to see if he could distract the depressed American out of his bad mood.
'I think I've figured out who this Katze person is.' Heero mentioned casually, waiting to see if Duo would react to the bait.
'Yeah?' Duo sat up immediately, his violet eyes sparking with interest as Heero had hoped. 'So who is the idiot in the purple suit? Do we know him?'
Heero swallowed a laugh as he answered with deliberate casualness. 'I think so. I think that Katze is this world's version of Zechs.'
'No!' Duo howled with delight, drawing the attention of the other people who started to whisper as the chestnut haired man jumped to his feet with a wide grin on his face. 'You're kidding. Zechs? As in Mr Metal helmet!' Duo collapsed back into his chair shrieking with laughter. 'Man, talk about bad karma. I don't believe it. You're telling me that the poor sucker not only wore that silly metal bucket in our world but has to do waltz around in a purple outfit, that I wouldn't be seen dead in, wearing a Doberman mask! No way!'
Heero couldn't stop himself from laughing as well as a metal picture of the leader of Galactors(11) suddenly flashed inside his head.
'Heeeey!' Duo suddenly sat up with an unholy gleam in his eyes. 'What about his sister? Ms holier than thou Relena! Don't tell me she's one of these goofy Galactors. Oh, that'd too much!'
Heero shrugged at the mention of Relena, 'I have no idea. There isn't that much data on Galactors. I was studying the file picture they had of Katze and don't forget, unlike these guys, we have seen Zechs sans the mask in our world. But it's still only a conjecture. And it doesn't really mean anything.'
'Oh yes it does.' Duo giggled loudly. 'It means a lot to me.' He clutched his stomach as he collapsed into another bout of laughter. 'Have you... told this.. to any of the others?' Duo panted out at last, wiping the tears from his eyes as he finally stopped laughing.
Heero shook his head solemnly, 'no. And I don't intend to. I don't have any proof.'
Duo's violet eyes glittered mischievously as he spoke. 'What if we can get proof?' He continued eagerly as Heero frowned disapprovingly, 'like we sneak into a Galactor base and snap a photo of the mighty Katze without his mask?'
'And the point of this mission would be?' Heero replied in his driest voice. He was beginning to think that maybe it had been a mistake to tell Duo.
'Who cares?' Came the predictably irresponsible reply and Heero grunted softly. 'I say we go in, get the picture and get out. No problem.'
'No.'
'What do you mean, no?' Duo protested crossly as he glared at his taciturn friend who now had his arms firmly crossed in front of him. 'Come on Heero. This is Shinigami you are talking to. Stealth is my middle name.' He flung his arms out expansively. 'This is be a piece of cake. Let's do it. Please?' He finished coaxingly, with a pleading look.
Heero stood up and shook his head silently before walking off. 'Next time I think about trying to cheer Duo up, I'm going to shoot myself first.' He thought grimly, loud complaints dogging his steps as he left the canteen.
'So the reason you're um. wider than Wufei is because there was a complication with your glands when they implanted the cerebonics?' Trowa spoke gravely, all the while wondering how the hell he had found himself alone with Owl who seemed intent on treating him as a father confessor.
'Yeah.' Owl blushed shyly, he felt amazingly comfortable next to Hawk's doppleganger for some reason. 'When the five of us underwent the surgeries, there were complications. Falcon almost died when his system rejected the cerebonics and they had to freeze him until they could figure out a way to shut down his immune system, then reactive it. As for me, I got all this additional mass and there's nothing they can do about it. It was kind of embarrassing when it first happened though. I kept on growing out of my clothes.' He sighed unhappily as he plucked at the T-shirt he wore.
Trowa nodded silently, trying to figure out what he should say.
'So... um, Heero... that is Eagle,' Trowa corrected himself absently, 'is the Commander of your unit? And what about you? What's your role?'
'I'm the navigator of the Phoenix. That's our ship.' Owl added proudly, 'you remember? You guys rode on it when we rescued you from the Galactor mecha.'
'Yes.' Trowa answered weakly, 'thanks for rescuing us.' He added perfunctorily because Owl seemed to be expecting him to continue.
'Hey. Don't worry about it.' Owl smiled widely and Trowa relaxed a fraction, obviously he had given the correct answer. 'That's what we are here for. The Raptors that is.' Owl beamed happily, 'I love being a part of this team. I just wish that I could join the guys more often on their missions.' He elaborated as Trowa blinked at him in confusion, 'I usually stay in the Phoenix when the team infiltrate a Galactor mecha. I know that someone has to mind the store but I miss all the action. And besides which it's kind of boring being stuck in the Phoenix all the time.'
'Yes. That must be boring.' Trowa answered mechanically, his eyes glazing over from panic as Owl stared at him fixedly until he responded.
'I knew you'd understand.' Owl grabbed Trowa's hand gratefully. 'The guys on my team tend to take me for granted most of time. Except of course when they need a ride after they've blown up the Galactor mecha.'
Trowa was unable to stop himself from blurting out, 'you do that often, do you? Go around blowing things up I mean.'
'Well. that's about all we can do really. We don't know where the Galactor headquarters are so we can't attack them directly. And to be honest,' Owl sighed regretfully, 'even if we did know, we still don't have the manpower to engage in an all out war. So it comes down to stealth operations. We keep an eye on them and when we can, we take out their mechas.'
Trowa nodded in a daze, he was having a little difficulty following the unusual rules of engagement between the Raptors and these Galactors.
'And these Galactors,' he couldn't help asking curiously, 'they just wait until you, that is the Raptors, show up? Don't they try to find out where you are operating from and so that they can get in the first strike, if they have superior numbers and firepower?'
Owl shook his head solemnly, 'not really no. They don't know our real identities.' Trowa looked blank so Owl explained patiently. 'It's our costumes. They don't know who we really are. Just that there are five of us. I think most of the Galactors aren't all that bright to be honest.' He wrinkled his brow quizzically as Trowa started to cough. 'Are you all right?' He asked earnestly, his black eyes never leaving Trowa's flushed face.
'I'm... I'm fine. Thank you.' Trowa managed at last, he thought frantically while Owl stared at him with mournful black eyes. 'Um... what about Raven? What's his specialty?' He asked desperately, wishing that he could think of a way to slip away discreetly.
'Raven?' Owl repeated blankly, then blinked and smiled, 'oh yeah. Raven. He's a racing driver.' He stopped short as Trowa burst into an alarming bout of coughing. 'Are you sure you're okay?' He hesitated while Trowa, looking very red, had finally managed to stop coughing. 'Raven uses a specially modified car when he's in his birdstyle. His favourite weapon is the feather shuriken. And he's the best sharpshooter on the team. I can't understand why Eagle doesn't let him fire the bird missiles more often.'
'Bird missiles.' Trowa repeated numbly, 'of course,' he muttered to himself under his breath. He was definitely getting desperate to finish this mind numbing conversation with Owl so that he could find his friends and tell them that they had to get out of this world. Fast.
'And as for Hawk.' Owl sighed happily, a big smile on his face as he said 'Hawk'. Not noticing the sudden sharp glance from Trowa, he continued, 'he's our explosives expert. Trowa, that is Hawk not you,' he added, unnecessarily in Trowa's opinion, 'is also our communications officer. And he's really nice.' Owl heaved another sigh, 'I think he and Eagle were made for each other.' He finished glumly.
Trowa looked at Owl with a pang of sympathy. He was beginning to understand why this Raptor seemed to be so interested in him. He couldn't help thinking though, that he could also understand why Hawk had chosen to be involved with Eagle. This Owl could literally talk a guy to death. Trowa was wondering if he should apologise to Duo for all the times he had tried to avoid the chatty pilot. At least Duo didn't try to share his innermost feelings, thank god. He smiled automatically when Owl stopped talking and looked at him anxiously. Trowa felt himself start to sweat from the continuous stress he felt in the insecure Raptor's company.
'So.' Trowa said at last, fidgeting slightly from the constant and fixed attention he was receiving from Owl. 'Didn't you say that you were going to show me the training room next?'
Owl nodded happily, 'yeah, that's right.' He looked at his wrist chronometer and slapped his forehead. 'Oh no. Look I'm sorry Trowa but I'm going to have to go. Is it okay if we take a raincheck on that tour?'
Trowa nodded enthusiastically, 'not at all.' He smiled with genuine warmth. 'Go ahead. I'll just see if I can find Heero, or Wufei,' he added swiftly when the Owl looked depressed at his mention of Heero's name. 'I'll um. see you later, Owl.' He finished with a limp grin.
'Definitely.' Owl called back eagerly as he turned around and started running.
Trowa winced to himself and reminded himself to try to make sure that he was busy, very, very busy during the time he was stuck in Centre Crescent. Hopefully far too busy to take another tour, or at the very least, he promised himself grimly, he was going to make sure that the second tour would also include one or more of his friends.
'I don't trust them.'
'You don't trust anyone.'
'Well. yeah. But I definitely don't trust them. Especially him.'
'You wouldn't.'
'You are not taking this seriously enough.'
'And you are over reacting as usual.'
'I think that we are making a terrible mistake. They should all be locked up.'
'We can't just throw these people in jail. They haven't done anything.'
'They are a security risk. Just today, one of the technicians told me that he passed on the data file on Eagle 1 to Heero by accident. That's a major security breach.'
'I know. Heero gave it to me, immediately.'
'Obviously a ploy to try to win your trust.'
'Look, Raven.' Eagle glared at his second in command, his patience worn to a thread, 'I know you don't like having a copy of yourself but get over it already. It's been a month since we first met them. And frankly, I'm getting very tired of this conversation.'
Raven snorted unrepentantly, his violet eyes flashing angrily, 'So am I. I'm sick of you dismissing my opinion. I bet if it had been Hawk who had misgivings, you would have listened.'
Eagle reddened at the mention of the third Raptor. 'Maybe that's because Hawk doesn't waste my time with paranoid delusional ravings unlike someone else.'
'What!' Raven yelled furiously, grabbing Eagle's shirt with both hands. 'How dare you!'
Eagle grabbed hold of Raven's wrists and tried to pull him off. 'Let go of me. Now.' He spat, his usual good humour absent from the angry blue eyes. Raven glowered for a few more moments then backed off, slowly.
'Listen Raven,' Eagle added, trying to calm his voice, 'it's not that I don't value your opinions. Really.' He added emphatically when Raven snorted disbelievingly. 'But you really have to stop reacting purely on instinct. These guys may look like us but that doesn't mean that they are anything like us. And I don't trust them just because of the way they look. I've seen the way these guys fight, hell, that Duo's even better in a plane than I am. And don't think it doesn't hurt to have to admit that.' He added tartly. 'I'm not telling you to trust them blindly. I'm just asking you to open your eyes and see them for the decent people they are. Or is that too much to ask?' He finished impatiently.
Raven scowled, 'Maybe.' He replied shortly. 'I still don't trust them.'
Eagle rolled his eyes.
'But for now, I'll work with them.' Raven admitted in a surly voice.
Eagle beamed at his sulky friend, relieved to receive even such a grudging agreement to co-operate with their guests.
'Because I trust you.' Raven said flatly, his violet eyes fixed firmly on his Commander's happy face. 'And you better be right about them, Eagle.'
Eagle grinned as he slung his arm around Raven's shoulder. 'Sure. Right. Whatever. Now let's get going. The others are waiting for us.'
Raven grimaced and added, 'and I refuse to be partnered with that long haired idiot who happens to look a little bit like me. Is that clear?'
'Oh don't worry.' Eagle reassured him airily, 'I've already told Duo that he doesn't have to worry about being partnered with a psychopathic Neanderthal throwback, whose only saving grace is that he's good looking. You are going to be partnered with someone who's incredibly good looking and very, very quiet.'
Raven, looked at his grinning Commander suspiciously and remained silent.
'I hope you don't mind working with Heero.' Eagle said innocently. 'He was the only one who didn't scream when we suggested you as a partner.'
Raven sniffed faintly but didn't protest.
'So,' he said at last, 'who's working with who on this stupid mission?'
Eagle stifled a chuckle as he said, 'Well, it wasn't all that easy to find partners for everyone. As I said, there's you and Heero. And I'm going to be working with Quatre.' He stopped as Raven sniggered rudely and knowingly. 'Yeah,' he sighed, 'Falcon's still not talking to me. Still,' Eagle brightened up, 'he seemed to be getting along quite well with Duo.'
Raven rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath. 'Great. The two of them should relate real well. They're at the same mental age anyway.'
Eagle wisely decided to ignore that and continued, 'And Trowa's going to be working with Hawk. They are both specialists in explosives after all.'
'What about the Owl?' Raven asked curiously. 'Is he pairing up with Wufei? They didn't seem to be too fond of each other.'
'Actually,' Eagle admitted, looking a bit flustered, 'I kind of forgot about Owl. It's just that he's always needed in the Phoenix.' He added defensively as Raven snorted, 'and anyway, Wufei told me that he wanted to work alone. He's not really into group work.'
Raven shook his head, 'in other words, you basically let people pair up with who they wanted. Geez. What a leader.'
'Oh be quiet.' Eagle snapped reflexively. 'I'd like to see you do better. And besides which, we are not assigning dates for the prom you know. This is a serious mission. We are going to try to infiltrate the Galactor Headquarters. A mistake can get us all killed.'
'Very inspirational, Eagle.' Raven retorted sarcastically, 'I feel so much better now. Why don't you just tell us to write our final wills and testaments before we leave?'
Eagle glared and cracked his knuckles pointedly. 'You should definitely get yours ready.'
'Oooh. Watch me shaking in my... ow!'
Raven turned around, rubbing his head. 'Who the hell...? Oh.'
'If you two have finished 'bonding',' Hawk frowned disapprovingly as Eagle blushed and avoided his gaze, and Raven looked sullen. 'The rest of us have been waiting for you in the debriefing room. For a while now.' He shook his head crossly as the two youths quickly ducked behind him and entered the room. 'Idiots.' He muttered under his breath. 'Still,' he grinned privately to himself, 'at least the Eagle is a cute idiot.'
End Part 6
Notes:
(1) Hakase is Japanese for Doctor as in Ph. D. (I
think, that's how it was used in the Gatchamen OVA
anyway)
(2) ISO is from Gatchamen. I think it stands for
International Science Organisation but if I'm wrong
please feel free to correct me.
(3) Centre Crescent is the operational base for the
Gatchamen. It's an underwater base underneath a
crescent shaped island. (hey, don't blame me for that
one, it was the Tatsunoko people who came up with
that)
(4) This is a reference to 'Endless Waltz'.
(5) Apparently this means Science Ninja Team in
Japanese. If you were a fan of the Battle of the
Planets, you knew these guys as G-force.
(6) I gave this name to the Kagaku Ninja Tai because I
felt it's less clumsy than having to say KNT all the
time. Besides which, I thought that G-force was corny
and as for Gatchamen. ::sigh:: I really didn't want to
have to call them that all the time. Okay? So they
are 'Raptors' in my fic. As in birds of prey.
(7) I think this is actually mentioned in the series.
Either that or I picked it up when I used to pore over
Gatchamen fics on the net. Don't ask me to explain
cerebonics. Because I can't.
(8) This is another AU Duo in an earlier part of
'Shadows and Reflections'. So far, Duo has been very
unlucky with his AU selves. He hasn't liked any of
them at all. LOL. The only AU self he kind of liked
is in 'Storm Riders', a 'Broken Shards' fic. (a
companion series)
(9) Cryo is short for Cryogenics. As in frozen sleep.
(10) This is another AU Heero. From the same world as
Colonel Maxwell.
(11) At the end of last part of S & R, Heero met
Katze. Very briefly.
Kat: Whew. I've finally got this one under way. The reason why it took so long for me to get started on this Track was that I kept on recasting the AU roles. The only ones who kept their roles were Heero, Duo and Zechs. Everyone else kept on changing their parts while I tried to make up my mind. In the end, I went with the five bishonens, though ^_^ I did make minor modifications, such as making Quatre younger and Wufei (poor thing) gain a few extra kilos, to bring them in a bit closer to the original team. I've been a huge fan of the Gatchamen/BOTP (Battle of the Planets) for a long time and a bigger fan of their fanfics. Some of the most fun fanfics I ever read were on Lori's Gatchamen site and I owe a lot of the characterisation of the Raptors to them.
Katana
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