13-Jun-2001
Hi hi!
Part 3 of my cross-over between Gundam Wing and Young Hercules.
Previous chapters can be found at www.gwaddiction.com
"All we learn at the Academy is responsibility."
"That's right. If something goes wrong, Iolaus is responsible."
- Young Hercules - " Inn Trouble"
"Excuse me for being a mere mortal. "
- Duo Maxwell - "Gundam Wing"
Quatre unlocked the door of their latest safe house and then turned and waited. Behind him, Trowa and Heero gestured impatiently for their 'guests' to follow the Arabian. The tall, dark-haired man folded his arms and rested against the car, as if daring them to try and force him to move. The sandy-haired boy shrugged and moved up towards Quatre. He saw the watchful eyes of Trowa on his back and he turned and raised his hands, smiling somewhat hopefully.
"Must be the universal symbol for, 'we come in peace'," he commented dryly. The boy sighed in what appeared to be frustration and faced the man, Ares, they'd heard him call the other. He said something, in a rather caustic tone of voice, and the dark-haired man smirked and shook his head. Heero growled.
"This is getting annoying," he spat out as the foreign words brushed past him without an ounce of comprehension.
"You're telling me."
The three pilots snapped to attention as they addressed the man who'd spoken so casually. Ares smirked at them.
"Boo."
"You understand English?" Heero asked in a tone that seemed deceptively calm. Ares shrugged.
"If that's what you call it, then I guess I do."
"Omae o koruso." Heero reached into the back waistband of his impossibly tight spandex shorts, determined to eliminate the cause of such wasting of time. He could understand English. He was faking. He was therefore lying. He would die. Heero's eyes flitted over to the other one and nodded once. It was probably that he was faking too. They would both die, he would take the green crystal back from the other boy, and he would determine a way to get Duo back. Mission accepted.
Quatre hastily stepped in front of Heero, holding his hands up.
"Wait a minute Heero! You can't shoot them yet!"
"The hell I can't!" Heero snarled, pulling his gun out and levelling it. "They've been faking the entire time!" His eyes narrowed dangerously. "They're Oz spies."
"Oh I like you," Ares chortled, drawing their attention. "You'd make a great general in one of my armies, kid."
"Armies?" Trowa questioned quietly. Suddenly the other stranger grew impatient and stormed down to where Ares stood and gestured wildly.
"Give up the act," Heero said frostily. Ares threw him a bemused look.
"Actually, he doesn't understand a word of what we're saying. And neither did I until my powers kicked in." Raising one hand slightly, he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, brow furrowed somewhat. "My powers are practically non-existent here. This sucks."
"Powers?" asked Quatre.
"Spell?" Trowa added.
"He's lying." Heero remained steadfast.
The man's lighter mood seemed to darken and a cold chill swept over all three of them. "Watch your mouth, little boy."
Quatre shrank back slightly until he bumped into Trowa who stood his ground. Heero merely stared back at the man, unfazed.
The sandy-haired stranger growled and said something, making Ares laugh.
"What's he saying?" Quatre tried to make out the words but couldn't. Some of it vaguely sounded like ancient Latin and Greek, though completely garbled. "I don't recognize the language."
"He's mad because I won't let him speak English," the man chuckled. Trowa was about to ask for clarification when the boy, apparently tired of trying to argue with the other, suddenly reared back and slammed his fist into the other's chin.
Now, a punch to a Gundam pilot is not an extraordinary thing. For ones accustomed to violence, the occasional fight and/or scuffle was a paltry thing, not worth taking notice of when you're used to battles between huge mecha. But this was different, something noteworthy.
Because that slender young boy standing a full foot shorter then his companion, landed a devastating shot that not only lifted Ares into the air, but threw him nearly twenty feet across the street, through a hedge and coming to rest where once stood the roses of old lady Pierson who would have wept, had she been alive, to see the three- foot crater that now resided there.
A few seconds later when Wufei arrived on his bike, the three Gundam pilots were still staring at the boy who was dusting off his hands. Quatre summed it up.
"Whoa."
The boy turned around and the pilots instantly went on the defensive. Suddenly the boy grinned.
"Sorry about that," he said. "That shot broke Ares' concentration." He walked over to them, oblivious to the threatening stance Heero had taken, and stuck out his hand. "I'm Hercules. Pleased to meet you."
"Hercules," Quatre echoed, recognizing the famous name. "How did you..." his voice trailed off as he gestured with his hands, mimicking the shot that had thrown the other that distance. Not even Heero could boast strength like that!
The boy - Hercules - grinned sheepishly. "I uh, kinda lost my temper," he said apologetically. "But he was pushing it with the language barrier thing."
Wufei finally spoke up. "Who ARE you?" he asked incredulously. Before Hercules could answer, a blast of light streaked across the road, slamming into Hercules and throwing him into the side of the safe house with an audible CRACK. The pilots whirled around to see Ares stalking over to them, looking none the worse for wear.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now!" he snarled, his voice dripping with anger.
Coughing briefly, a dusty Hercules pushed himself up and cracked a wry grin at his attacker. "'Cause I have this-" he pulled out the sack with the Chronos Stone in it."- and without me, you can't get home."
Ares twitched with impotent fury as the truth of Hercules's words sunk in. The fire that raged in both his eyes and his hand roared for an instant - and then vanished, leaving a smoky cloud in the air where a fireball had been, moments before.
Hercules smirked at his half-brother and then looked at the boys who had taken them to this place in the wondrous metal creature. Four pairs of wide eyes were glued to him and his half-brother, and he chuckled.
"I guess you're wondering about the fire display and the language thing, huh?"
The one with the clump of brown hair that hung to one side of his face, completely obscuring his right eye, nodded fractionally, still staring.
"Those were just simple God powers."
"How dare you call my powers simple!" Ares shouted. Hercules gave him an amused look.
"Please Ares - even I can tell you're running on empty."
Ares fumed. Heero blinked.
"God?"
Hercules blinked back. Didn't these people know who the gods were?
"Yeah," he said slowly. " Gods. Ares is a god - my half-brother, to be exact."
"Half-brother?"
"God of what?" Wufei asked suddenly, watching Ares with an interested expression.
"I'm the God of War, mortal," Ares boomed. " And don't you forget it."
"Shut up Ares," Hercules said tiredly. " You don't look particularly threatening right now." He considered this. " I wonder how come..." His eyes widened. " You don't have your War Blade!" A smile threatened to burst on his face.
"Bastard-child, if I didn't have access to my War Blade, I'd be human right now." Ares concentrated and generated a small bluish ball of light in his hand. " Do you want me to prove I'm still a God?"
"That's pretty weak Ares," the demi-god noted with a grin. He turned to the golden-haired boy. "Where are we?"
Quatre had to think about that for a minute, so shaken was he. "Ummm... Near the Sank Kingdom."
Hercules shook his head. "Something tells me we're nowhere near home." He tapped the pouch with the Chronos Stone. "It contains the powers of time, right?"
Ares nodded shortly and sighed in frustration. "We're in the future, nitwit." He flung his arm out as though to point out everything in their immediate vicinity. "The distant future at that."
"Oh."
"The God of War." Heero finally spoke up, staring at Ares with a strange look on his face. Ares sneered.
"That's what I said. Are you hard of hearing?"
Something hardened in Heero's eyes but he refused to rise to the bait. Quatre stepped forward, suddenly realizing something.
"You're Hercules? THE Hercules?"
"Umm... yes?" Hercules scratched his head. "Why? Have you heard of me or something?"
"Or something," Quatre nodded, staring at the demi-god in awe. Wufei snorted, and Trowa blinked. "You could say that."
Something occurred to Heero just then.
"You're from the past?" His eyes fixed on the pouch Hercules held. " And that thing brought you here?"
Ares nodded shortly. Wufei saw where Heero was going with that line of thought and latched on to it.
"Does that mean Duo and that irritating onna are in the past?"
Hercules hefted the Chronus Stone in his hand, musing thoughtfully. "That would be the logical thing to assume."
"So how do we activate that thing to bring them back, and send them home?" Heero asked somewhat detachedly. His mind was still racing to absorb all of the information being hurled at them, and he noticed the others were still wearing shell-shocked expressions. Hercules offered them a rueful smile.
"The thing about that is... I have NO idea."
TBC, and C&C!
Notes:
This took forever to write and I'm still not happy with it at all.
Too incoherent and jumbled to me, but I had to get this out of the
way. Next chapter is going to deal with Iolaus, Duo, Aphrodite and
Relena. To be honest, Hercules and Ares aren't going to be a big
thing here - they're kind of sequestered with the other pilots until
they can figure out a way home. But Duo and Iolaus on the other
hand... ^_^ Since when have these two characters ever remained
inconspicuous?
Comments appreciated! Flames, even more so - they help light my BBQ!!
Stormy
Please send comments to: dingostorm@hotmail.com