by

13-May-2000

Wings by Aki

Part Three

He landed heavily on a concrete slab. What had looked like a chamber was in fact a long tunnel, which seemed to run for at least a few hundred meters straight ahead before curving out of sight. He guessed that beneath the domes was a network of similar tunnels; there had to be some system of communication and transport in a complex of this size. As he started forward eyes glowed in the darkness behind him; Deathscythe was there.

"So they are connected," he surmised.

"Nope--not all, at least not directly. I can't see any other domes, just yours. We must've picked a linear bunch."

"Hn."

"It narrows rapidly. We won't get much further," Maxwell observed.

"Aa." It had not been constructed for Gundams.

"Probably transported them prone, then assembled and stored 'em outside." He thought for a moment. The complex was much larger than anticipated; he was uncertain that their resources alone would be enough to raze it completely.

"Destroy as much as possible."

"No--all of it! Let's clear this place out, man, those things make me sick."

The braided pilot was surprisingly vehement. However, he had no argument. He wanted to follow the original orders as closely as possible. "Save it for the labs then. Maximize each shot. Take the right. I'm going left."

He went on ahead, then stopped. "Maxwell. Did you receive that?" He waited again. "Duo?"

"Yeah, I heard you. C'mon, get going. I doubt they'd fit, but I don't want those things swarming after us like rats in a sewer." The words were grim but trembling with unsuccessfully suppressed pain. The boy hadn't been trained hard enough, and his injuries weighed on him.

"Wait. If we split up we may be sidetracked. There should be a central facility somewhere. It would be more efficient if we attacked it together."

"Oi, Heero--"

"Let's go." He moved down the tunnel. After a moment he quickened his steps as Shinigami began to follow. They strode by stretches of smooth wall, until with no warning the lights went out.

"K'so! What's going on?"

"They're trying to slow us down."

"What're the chances that they've got those things running down here too?"

"Hn."

"I'm going to switch to infrared just in case. Chikusho...it's impossible to see," he heard the other pilot grit. "Why the hell is the dark getting darker?"

"Duo..." and he could feel the panic definitely now, beating at the back of his face. Loss of vision was a bad sign. He heard a jolt of activation and suddenly pale green fire flickered over the walls. Shinigami's scythe swung forward like a ghostly torch.

"There...that's better," the braided boy whispered. "They know we're coming anyway."

They went on and strangely the space did not narrow further. The two Gundams could move single file without great difficulty, and he wondered why the researchers had bothered to dig such a large passageway. "Testing," he realized.

"What's that?"

"They must test the dolls in these passageways."

"It's true that there's not much room up there. They must have worried about being spotted if they cleared too much land..." the L2 pilot mused.

"Good."

"Good?"

"They wouldn't test far from the construction site. It would be too inconvenient. We must be almost there."

"You mean we just happened to break through a stone's throw from the main lab?"

"Aa."

"Well aren't we a pair of lucky bastards!"

He caught the muttered comment and wondered if Duo was smiling.

After about five minutes the tunnel began to broaden and he could see the well-lit mouth of a hall. "I'm using the cannons."

"Heero! Watch it when you blow stuff up, ok? Don't get too enthusiastic and leave us with no way out. I'm just dying to get home and put my aching ribs to rest." Duo stopped and coughed.

The sound was tearing, and in the back of his mind he considered future options. Returning with suspicious injuries was not feasible; it would draw more attention than a mysterious disappearance in a large school. They'd have to resort to the safe house. "I'll go first."

This was already taking too long. He heard the rattle in the breath and wondered if the lungs had been punctured. He hoped not. He didn't have a plan for that yet.

"Have it your way..."

He drew his saber out and took the room at a dash. Then he lowered it. "They're gone already."

Deathscythe came behind him. "Running, eh? Shall we chase 'em?"

"Ninmu. Destroy this lab first."

"More like a factory," Maxwell muttered as they smashed their way through the chamber. There was enough heavy equipment to justify his statement; clearly the faction had planned the manufacture of those...things on a large scale.

"Well, that wasn't so bad," Duo gasped. "'Course, it also gave 'em time to get away. They obviously had a contigency plan."

"Hn." He surveyed the remains of the room. "Two," he realized.

"Yep." By the tone he knew that the other pilot had understood. "No help for it now. We know they were here, this has to be the central station. They've split down one of these tunnels; probably got a back door to this place somewhere out there."

He knew what the pilot was saying, and slammed his hand against the panel angrily. The tunnels ran in opposite directions; in a short time they would be out of intercom range. He studied the two carefully. They were identically unmarked. "I'm taking this one."

"Saa...see ya later, man. Don't worry, if I find 'em I'll save some for you."

The place was too narrow to use his thrusters, so he settled for a mechanical stride and set off down the next tunnel.

"Oh, and Heero?"

"Hn."

"Ki o tsukete ne."

He stopped.

"Aa."

The tunnel went on for several hundred feet, growing narrower the entire way. A suspicion formed slowly in the pit of his stomach, and instinct warred with training over the idea of turning back. The internal struggle stopped abruptly as he came face-to-face with a blank wall.

He had picked the wrong one.

"Shimatta."

He turned around and began to run.

AKI-babble: I do realize the horrid inconsistencies of this fic, especially when you try to mesh it with the actual storyline, but let's just pretend that Heero and Duo had more missions together than anyone knew. *grin*

The walls seemed even longer as he ran back. Maxwell must have caught up to them by now. Or they had caught him. He reached the chamber and jetted through, blasted on down the first few lengths of the other tunnel. He could feel his heart throbbing and subconsciously began to monitor the sudden rise in the pulse rate. Nothing had been strenuous enough to such autonomic system responses, and he took deep, controlled breaths as he plunged onward. Still his palms sweated against the controls and as the distant sound of conflict reached his ears he recognized the symptoms for what they were. He nearly spat the word out in shock.

Fear.

That was ridiculous. He was a soldier and soldiers felt nothing, especially not fear. He had found himself in the hands of the enemy, fought down fifty-to-one ratios and tried to kill himself in order to protect his identity (albeit unsuccessfully). Now he was running after a gang of helpless scientists in the most advanced form of personal weaponry and his palms were sweating.

Ridiculous.

The sounds were drifting closer now and as his com gave off a burst of static he registered another jolt of adrenaline. He manipulated the Gundam in jerks, trying to make it move more swiftly. Footsteps shook the tunnel as Wing advanced in a strange parody of a sprint, and beneath the loose tank top muscles bunched irregularly. More static and a few defiant words poured out of the intercom. He was almost there.

"...Chikushou...don't underestimate me, you bastards...Ore wa Shiniga--" the transmission cut off abruptly.

So there were dolls down in the tunnels as well. He bit his lower lip. This facility was well-prepared and it forced his mind to work faster, the strategy becoming more blurred. He entertained few illusions like the pilot Chang; if the enemy was weak then the mission was more sure. Gunfire echoed up ahead, but the com-link remined silent. Deathscythe's radio was dead. He knew it for a fact, but fought down the urge to attempt to establish contact regardless. His chest was tight and he wondered vaguely if he were suffering severe cardiac stress.

This is inefficient, sounded the inner warning. You know better. Heero gritted his teeth. Then he forced his training reflexes to the surface, letting everything else sink beneath the calculations. He needed it now, the comfortable blankness. It brought certainty and stability and increased his reaction time by over 53 percent. It was only one mental push and everything whirled away: the confusion, the tension, and fastest of all, the fear. All of it moved, swirling down like water in a drain. Gone.

The results, as always, were helpful. Almost immediately he could feel the increase in control and coordination. Muscles were loose but ready. Breathing was stable. Focus became small but sharp, like the light at the end of a tunnel.

By the time he rounded the curve and saw Deathscythe toppling backwards, scythe flung wildly to the side as it fell, he was perfectly ready for battle.

AKI-babble: First Wac-a-mole, and now bowling??? Wing makes quite a ball...

The mobile dolls reoriented their targeting as soon as he had appeared. There were about twenty, but the width of the tunnel allowed them to stand only in semi-circles of five, layered in concentric shells. This was to his advantage, as only the front rank would be able to fire effectively. He looked at the black Gundam and noted that it had relatively light external damage. A quick scan proved that most of the power systems were intact. Most likely the unexpected appearance of the dolls had allowed them to overpower the mecha with sheer firepower before Shinigami had gotten close enough to strike. That was the problem with thermal blades; they were flexible and devastating at short range, but took up too much power to allow for much additional weaponry. It left them relatively defenseless at a distance.

Briefly a thought rose up to his contained space of operation: if the Gundam was intact but inoperant, that meant that the pilot--He tamped the thought back down and contemplated his alternatives. Firing the beam cannon in the tunnels was a foolish risk; he would incinerate the enemy at the cost of burying himself in a collapse. He had the impression that the tunnel had been sloping downward for the past 1.5 kilometers or so; a wrong move could mean being trapped under fifty meters of earth. It would not accomplish his mission to be buried alive--

He wrenched Wing sideways as a missile rushed by, introducing another factor to his tactics: The utter lack of situation parameters in the programming of the dolls. They would destroy the entire tunnel insensibly if it seemed an expedient way to reach their target. It was another example of their incompleteness, lack of instinctive self-preservation, or the utter disregard of their creators. Behind him the missile exploded against the wall, raising a hail of debris which pattered against his back. For a moment he stood still, then as the dust and smoke cleared he saw that the structure had remained basically intact. This made things more difficult; he had only a very small window of time to work with. He took one final look at the prone black Gundam, and went to work.

Ignoring the sizable risk that the dolls could knock out a vital system before he reached them, he took the only viable course of action, and ran. He ran straight toward the gleaming group clustered so ominously in the gloom of the tunnel, until there were only fifty meters left between them. As he had hoped, the dolls based their target trajectory upon linear calculations, and by alternating his angle of evasion he was able to escape direct damage. When he judged that he had gathered enough speed and closed enough distance, he slid. The gleaming Gundam crashed its side in a screech of metal. He activated its thrusters, accelerating straight into the ranks of the enemy MS.

The impact of collision threw him forward in his harness hard enough to snap the first metal buckle, and he felt the suit slow down. He forced his hand forward and pushed the buttons which boosted the engines temporarily. He needed to knock out all four ranks, or the remaining dolls would occupy him long enough for the others to recover. There was only one chance to eliminate them all, and no excuse for him to die just yet. The last five dolls were just ahead, and Wing was stopping. On his side, he fired one short, controlled blast that swept through them just as he slid to a halt.

For a moment he lay there, chest sore and shaken. Then he forced the Gundam to its feet, breath leaking out in a hiss as he did so. The dolls were re-mobilizing as well. He moved back into their midst and swung the thermal blade in wide, destructive strokes. One semi-circle...two... There was one row left and it had nearly locked on its target. He moved for the closest one and slashed harder, faster but there were two dolls left and they were ready to fire.

That's it, then, he thought. He raised the beam cannon and prepared to bring everything down.

A green flash whirled by and sliced neatly through the two dolls. He disabled them quickly, then straightened. "I didn't know it was capable of releasing the scythe."

"Only if I ask it to." Duo was conscious. And, through the labored gasps of his words, even a little smug. Of course, he realized, if he had yet to show the full potential of his own mecha, it stood to reason that the others had similar intricacies. Deathscythe's flexibility had been useful. And the boy was much stronger than he'd thought.

Suddenly, he was grateful.

"Sorry about making you take on those things alone. I got knocked down by the first of 'em coming around the corner. The shots must've hit a battery or something; a few systems went down. I would've explained after I came to, but the intercom was one of them. It took me the rest of the fight to re-route the energy."

The other pilot had only passed out for a moment or two, then. "Don't bother explaining. We haven't accomplished the mission yet."

"Hai, hai," the other pilot sighed. "This is turning into a real bitch of a job. Let's get them this time, yes?"

"Just handle yourself," he returned curtly. On the snowy vid screen in the corner of the monitor, eyes rolled. "Ryoukai." Then he broke into another fit of coughing, and shut off the link.

The two Gundams trudged onwards, following the tunnel past the smoking broken bits of mobile dolls. Suddenly Deathscythe stopped, and the com-link roared softly to life. Duo's voice came through, distorted by static and pain. "Oi, Heero. What's that?"

He couldn't help himself. "What?" he snapped. "Look down," the other replied quietly. He adjusted his visuals and examined the ground, searching for traces of mines or traps. Although it seemed unlikely that he would have missed them on the first scan, Duo's intuition had proved him wrong once already. But it seemed like there was nothing--he froze.

A thin ribbon, that widened even as he spotted it, was trickling around the mecha's feet. He followed it back, initially suspicious that Deathscythe was losing fuel or coolant, only to find that it originated beyond the site of conflict. In fact, it was leaking out of the wall which had been damaged by the first and only missile fired in the tunnel, the liquid making a dark streak down the smooth concrete that flowed its way steadily in their direction. He considered the implications of that streak.

"Kuso," he said quietly.

"Heero--why is that wall leaking? Tell me this isn't what I think it is." Maxwell's voice was grim and nervous.

There was no need for explanation.

"Run."

They ran, and within seconds he heard an ominous crack. Behind him the sound of water was now audible, and he tried to estimate the distance the researchers had gone. If the tunnel didn't end soon--the water had caught up to them already, washing across the floor in an increasingly strong wave. Within moments the entire wall could give way under the uneven pressure, and the tunnel would be flooded, sweeping them along.

"Chikushochikushochikusho" he heard over the com, which he had left on. "Where in the name of Deathscythe's jammers is all this coming from?"

"We're under the lake."

"NANI???" came the screech. "Of all the freakin' places to build a tunnel, they pick the lake??"

"Aa." The volume of water suddenly quadrupled, bursting forward to gush around them.

"Kuso!" Duo exploded. "If I'm going to die, it sure as hell won't be by drowning like a rat!" The words were both angry and a plea. He agreed; they hadn't even come close to completing the mission. He eyed the walls once more, then turned on his thrusters. It was carelessness on his part not to have finished installing the auto-pilot maneuvers.

"Omae nani ga yattenda?" the L2 pilot screamed. "The guidance system's not operational yet! You're going to run yourself into a wall and then we'll have TWO holes!"

"It's the only way we'll get out fast enough," he replied. "Just navigate well."

"Navigate well--Heero, you're crazy." It was stated with conviction.

"There is no alternative."

"Chotto--"

He took off.

The walls came at him with dizzying speed as the tunnel grew twists, but he focused harder and slammed forward, just ahead of the water. In a way it was a relief that it was becoming more difficult to react in time; it meant that they were nearing their goal. The tunnel would have been constructed in a linear fashion along the softest bedrock, then redirected towards the destination at the end in order to make drilling easier. The goal in all probability was very close. They only needed to survive a little longer.

"BAM"

Deathscythe had clipped another wall; the sound of the collisions was coming more frequently. Its reaction time was simply inadequate by at least a fourth of a second, and over-compensation would cause direct impact sooner or later. He could not adjust his vid-screen, had no time for it. But he flicked his wrist to the side and flipped the switch opening a frequency between the two Gundams.

At first he thought it was broken; there was only silence on the other end. Then the L2 Gundam steered slightly too far to the right in a turn, and the echo of shrieking metal transmitted to his cockpit, piercingly clear. Apparently the comlink was still intact; the lack of response was because the other pilot had failed to notice the light blinking on his panel. The environment was a distraction. It seemed odd that they had chosen this route to dig the tunnel, and he considered the possible motives behind such a decision. He had created a probable scenario and was about to relay it when a soft stream of invective opened from the channel.

"Damn...faster...Shinigami doesn't die, I can't fail--damn, my head won't stop spinning!"

It was a mistake. He should have simply interrupted. But without knowing why, he left one hand to wrench the control and used the other to flip the switch again. Off-On. The second time it was quiet again and he said, "Duo."

"Nani?" The word was grunted quietly and he knew that the pilot had no attention to spare.

"Slow down."

"With _that_ behind me?" The question was slightly hysterical. The wall of water chased them even more closely now, thundering fierce and foaming at their heels.

"Then let me lead."

"I can pilot as well as you! And this is my fault! I should have put in that damn guidance system--"

"Are you a soldier? Then fall back and watch me before you destroy your Gundam!"

"Ore--" Duo cut off abruptly and shut the link off. Soon Deathscythe slowed for a fraction of a moment, enough to trail Wing by a short gap. He powered the engines and concentrated even harder. A single mistake, the slightest flaw in judgment was unpermissable. Were they to collide at this speed, heavy damage would be sustained by both suits. In all likelihood they would also be drowned. It was a grueling race of water against Deathscythe, Deathscythe against him, him against the tunnel and all the time seconds were slipping away with their chances of accomplishing the mission. He agreed with Duo. There was no time to die.

After half a minute more he executed a sharp left and found himself in what seemed like a hangar, with two metal plates in the center of the floor. It confirmed his guess and as the water rushed in a split second behind he aimed for the plates, fired the beam cannon, and jumped straight where he had fired.

The two Gundams landed in the remains of the floor simultaneously--and sank right through. He was right; it did open into the lake. Before they were fully submerged, water from the tunnel surged from behind, buffeting them forward, thrusting them deeper into the murk. Soon, however, they were able to escape the main force of the stream and move away from the broken structure, into the calmer coldness. He could make out some feet beyond his monitor; above him there was moonlight somewhere.

The comlink light flashed. "What now?" The transmission was somewhat garbled. "They must have escaped by submarine. Turn on your radar."

"Water..." Duo muttered. "Please let there be no Cancers in this thing." The voice was edging on exhaustion.

"I've got it." The blip was moving towards the edge of the lake; if they were able to disembark and escape into the trees finding them would become even more difficult. "Hurry."

Through the dim moonlight that filtered through the waves, it was impossible to make out the sub. But the radar displayed its location accurately enough, and just before it reached the shallows they caught up. He saw it pulsing hurriedly away. The turbines whirled with a frantic hum, but there was no escape. Had never been. The past few hours had only been a delay. He raised the sabre to dispatch it--and heard, for the second time that night--

"NO!"

Somehow, Deathscythe was ahead of him, thermal blade out and blazing in the liquid dark.

"Get out of my way. You're not fit to fire a missile right now." There was no telling when he would collapse.

"They saw me. I didn't kill them. That's what happens when you don't follow the rules, na. I can handle this." The pilot sounded stable, though slightly gasping, his casual cynicism creeping back into place. The vidscreen stayed blank, leaving him without an accurate guess as to the boy's condition. He estimated at least a few bone fractures, possibly a mild concussion. Depending on how the ribs had broken, there could be internal bleeding as well.

He didn't move. There was no harm in letting him try. If 02 failed he would finish the job himself. Deathscythe moved in front of the sub and slowly, almost lazily fended off the small torpedoes that came from the desperate crew. It seemed that he was indeed capable of handling things. Good, he thought, this has taken too long already. The sub drifted closer, unable to reverse its engines quickly enough to avoid the mecha.

"It's fair!" he heard Duo say in a strangled voice. "It's fair...I tried! But now--you have to die," he heard, and as the scythe came swinging inexorably down, there came a whisper. It hit his mind and resonated deep down where he'd heard the words before.

The sub exploded.

Wing was pushed back by the force blowing out. Amidst the sediment and debris, he thought he could see the outline of the L2 Gundam sinking in the dark. But when everything had settled it was moving up to the bank, emerging from the water, gleaming and dripping like a massive, weary angel. It was evident that it would need heavy repairs, as would the pilot.

He followed it.

He looked back once at the lake, at moonlight rippling like torn white feathers. It was close to calm again, but not yet entirely clear.

It would never be entirely clear.

End part 3

(:./aki/wings3)

Gundam Wing Addiction Archives