Heero resisted the urge to yawn. He had kept vigil the whole night over Duo, making sure that he was all right. It was late in the morning now, and he had actually gone off to have breakfast, returning immediately by his lover's side. Duo showed no signs of awakening; his face was blank with the peace of deep sleep.
Heero had been tempted many times in the past few hours to kiss his lovely visage, but he knew all too well that he would wake up the sleeping boy. What Duo needed the most was sleep and time to think it over, so all he did was sit by the side of the bed, ready for whatever Duo would need of him.
Hephaestus Base - proving grounds
Banzai Leader was not in a good mood; his squad was the assigned enemy group for the day, and he'd heard of the strange new mobile suits he was up against. The proving grounds of Hephaestus base were the remains of a volcano, long since dead. Large lava fingers and microcraters were all over the landscape, making target acquisition difficult, to say the least. The high content of iron and other metals in the surrounding area also made detection difficult, and the quartz flecks in the lava fingers played havoc with computer-aided visual targeting systems.
"Banzai Two, take the point. Banzai Three and Four to the back. Banzai Five and I are Main Force." The purple-and-black-colored mobile suit with the number two stenciled on its left shoulder went ahead, its only weapon the standard rifle system given to Leos. Two other suits with the numbers three and four disappeared from his view; they were armed with long-range laser rifles, while Five and Leader had two rifle cannons each.
Banzai Leader knew that he would have to be bait, so that Three and Four could knock the enemy from long range. Two was the spotter; his job was to lead the two enemy suits to the trap.
Banzai Leader's sensors suddenly flashed an alarm; there was a gigantic heat build-up from somewhere straight ahead.
"This is Two! Mayday! They're - " Two's transmission was suddenly cut short, segueing into a cacophony of static noise.
"Damn! Plan B1!" Banzai Leader shouted over the frequencies. Three and Four started to converge on a predetermined meeting point with Five and himself.
A beam of energy lanced across the grounds from somewhere to his right. It tagged Five in the torso. "This is Five! I'm down! I'm down!"
"Oh my god! It's coming at me!" Three's transmission got cut abruptly.
"Four converging on your position! Three got hit by Bogey Two. It's a swordsman!"
Banzai Leader paled at the term. Great, he thought to himself, I've got a melee specialist.
Four was now right next to him, covering his right flank, when he saw Bogey Two.
It looked like a Leo, but it had a backpack full of discreet vernier systems, and its arms and legs had what seemed to be booster systems, one at the side of each shoulder and on each knee.
In its hands were beam sabers that were as long as the Leos were tall. In one swift turn aided by its multiple thrusters, it had positioned itself behind Four and plunged both swords into Four. Static electricity arced over Four's armor plates, and then Four dropped to the ground in a clanging of metal plates.
Banzai Leader had Bogey Two dead to rights, however, both his cannons locked onto Bogey Two's torso area.
"Gotcha!" Banzai Leader shouted.
That was when hell broke loose all around him. All of his onboard systems started whining and whistling. Reports of his leg plates being shredded by armor-piercing rounds mixed with his torso and shoulders being hit by missiles. When he turned to face the enemy, all he saw was the outline of a Leo with various weapons systems on its legs and shoulders, when Bogey One's shoulder-mounted electromagnetic railgun fired a finger-sized bullet at ten times the speed of sound. The slug hit him square in the torso area.
Everything went black.
"Tag."
Banzai Leader heard Test Pilot Ocho's voice in his internal speakers as his Leo reactivated its systems; it had sustained no actual damage. One of the miracles of using virtual combat was that one could walk away from death. The destruction of his squad had been merely a projection of manipulated images to his onboard systems.
Bogey One and Two were not imaginary, however. Ocho was climbing out of Bogey Two, other wise known as Leo Striker, while Major Diez was looking at his suit from the vantage point of Leo Hammer's cockpit - Bogey One.
"Two minutes flat." Diez smiled, running his fingers through his brown hair.
"Don't feel bad, Banzai-man. You lasted longer than most."
"Yes." Ocho curtly replied.
I wouldn't want to be their real targets, Banzai Leader thought. His feelings of sympathy promptly disappeared when Two came over from his suit with a cooler full of beer - the price of losing was a round of drinks, on the house.
Safehouse Forest-1
"Finally."
Duo got up slowly, looking at Heero. He looks so fresh, Duo thought to himself, but I bet he's been up all this time. He had a slight headache, and his mouth tasted a lot like battery acid.
"So... anything to eat?" His voice was still a croak, his words slurred.
"Yes. It's in the kitchen." Heero was still impassive, just sitting there on the chair by the bed. Duo took Heero's hand into his, and he smiled weakly. Heero wanted to pull away, but he knew that Duo probably needed this. It was then that Duo suddenly yanked him into bed. The action was so unexpected that for all of Heero's augmented strength, he didn't have a chance to react.
Heero tumbled onto the mattress, and Duo rose forward to kiss him. It was a savage, almost animalistic kiss; Duo gripped him by both of his hands, and their legs ended up intertwined, with Duo on top.
When they parted, Duo started to cry, his tears flowing down, dripping onto Heero's face. Heero, acting on instinct, shifted their positions and cradled him like a baby, not saying a single word until Duo's intense sobbing had subsided to an occasional sniffling.
"I saw the battle tape," Heero said quietly, with as much gentleness in his voice as he could muster. "It wasn't your fault. In the heat of battle, you couldn't have avoided-"
A finger came up to shush him. Duo's eyes filled with sadness, but he didn't start crying again.
"I know," Duo whispered as his head tilted, his eyes hidden by his brown forelocks. "But it doesn't make it any less painful, Heero. Our being what we are is part of why that girl died. But we are what we are, Heero. Remember when I asked you about the future? I don't know if we have one, Heero. Maybe we are destined to die, like that little girl."
Heero met what Duo said with silence. Heero bit his lip.
He took the initiative this time, carefully unbuttoning Duo's shirt, starting with the collar snap, and worked downwards. Duo realized what was happening, and at first looked dumbstruck. After a short while though, he smiled that Cheshire-cat grin that Heero hadn't seen in the past few days.
"Aha," Duo said, his voice carrying a sad, but bemused tone.
"This can be all we'll ever have, you know." Duo looked wistfully at Heero, his hands beginning to go underneath Heero's tank top.
"Duo?"
"Yes?"
"Shut up. And next time you kiss me, it better be not after a whole day in bed. I can still taste it."
Duo started to giggle, and then he burst out laughing, his shirt sliding down to the bed as his body shook with mirth. Heero was perplexed. All he wanted was to ask Duo how to be more romantic in his eyes.
"Heero, you really do make me laugh," Duo stuttered with glee.
Duo's hands started to finger Heero's waistband, and Heero's hands were busy with Duo's body.
"Yeah, maybe I should shut up."
Duo kissed Heero again.
Unnoticed for the moment, Heero's laptop on the nearby workdesk suddenly sprang to life. It had been on standby, waiting for special encrypted messages. Now, after it had decrypted the latest message, its monitor activated, and on the mission window, there were the words:
[Hephaestus. Hammer, Striker. Confirm kill.]
End Part 3
(:./lee/dogs3)
