Heero was there, surrounded by little plastic learning toys that all looked like laptop computers, only in a choice of primary or pastel colors. Heero had managed to find the only grayish-silver one in the bunch. It was actually a phonics-learning toy, but the Perfect Soldier had reprogrammed it and now it was connected with the rebel network on the colonies. He was staring intently at the grainy little screen and muttering, "No mission orders yet," when I walked up. With the help of a Barbie cell phone that Relena had given him (so they could stay in constant contact) he managed to use the little vowel keys the crack OZ's main computer. He was starting to look a little maniacal, so I leaned down and whispered, "Dr. J is building a new gundam for you in aisle 10."
"Hn," he replied eloquently, as he closed the phonics toy and tried to carry it off. It had been attached to its shelf with a thick steel cable, but Heero simply bit the cable in half and headed for aisle 10.
By this time I just wanted to buy my little 1/144th scale Deathscythe-Hell model and get the heck out of there. Hopelessly lost, I saw a crowd of people around the TV set the store used to demo it's Playstation games. There was someone at the front of the group who was obviously playing a flight simulator game and the crowd was loving it. The plane appeared to to do loops, rollovers, stalls, and other wild stunts (including a fly-under of the San Francisco Bay Bridge that turned several of my hairs white.) I poke my way into the knot of customers and found Lucrezia Noin at the controls of the console, her violet eyes intent on the screen in front of her, working the joystick like a real pro. Every once in a while she would pull some amazing stunt and then laugh harshly and say, "Ha ha! Try that one, Zechs!" I smiled and backed out of the crowd. She was having far too much fun to interrupt.
This put me in the Lego aisle and there, sitting on the floor amidst 30 or so open Lego robotics kits, was a familiar the Hawaiian-shirted figure of Howard, trying out a prototype of Tallgeese IV he had constructed out of blue and white bricks and God knows what else. "Look at this! Look at this!" he cackled, waving me forward. The gundam-like invention rolled smoothly towards me, spun in a little circle, then launched a volley of tiny plastic rocks and miniature samurai swords at me, obviously borrowed from a Lego Ninja set. "It works!" he hooted, doing a warped version of the Chicken Dance. I looked around desperately for the exit but only saw Duo again. He came racing down the aisle waving madly at Howard to get the old engineer out of his way. Luckily Howard was slow enough that Duo had to coast to a stop and I was able to grab a hand of braid.
"Hey, not the hair! Not the hair!!" he whined as I spun him around to face me. "
Look Death Boy," I said waving my D-Hell model kit in front of him, "this excellent mech is just waiting to be put together, but I can't find the cash registers to buy it. Do you have any idea where they are?"
He grinned (of course - this is Duo we're talking about.) "Sure, I've passed 'em ten times already, grab on! I'll getcha there in - whoa boy! Here he comes, we gotta jet!" I was reaching for his shirt when Duo spied Wu Fei, now riding in a red, low-slung, electric Ferrari and packing a Supersoaker Bazooka water gun. The faster-then-planned exit left me holding on for dear life to the end of the boy's braid as we whizzed across the store.
End of Part 4
(:./kumiko/toysrus4)
