Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Mission Complete ❯ Knock, Knock ( Chapter 28 )

Knock, Knock

"Well…" you drawl quietly. "Let's start with my name, shall we?"

"That'd be nice…" Pilot 02 mutters. You grin, knowing perfectly well that the others can't see you.

"Wouldn't it?" you ask delightedly. "Since it's obvious you don't trust me, and I don't trust you, how about you just call me 06?"

"A name, please?" 04 asks politely.

You chuckle. "Aw, c'mon, that's too much to ask! I mean, we just met, and you already want to know so much about me! Well, if you must know, the name is…"

"Is what?" Heero asks.

"Is top-secret," you finish, trying not to burst into laughter. "Classified. Confidential. Not for you to know. Get the picture yet?"

"You do realize there's five of us and one of you?" Pilot 03 asks you ever-so-calmly.

"Oh really, I hadn't noticed. I didn't even know I could count!" Laughing quietly to yourself, you add, "Well, this little meeting was fun and all, and it proved that we're both against OZ, even if we don't seem to be allies. With that said, I need to disappear off somewhere now, before my supervisor bursts a blood vessel about me not following orders without me there to witness it. Bye now!" As you power up your boosters and shoot into the sky, they're caught by surprise for a split second before Heero, 02, and 05 give chase. 04 stays behind and 03 moves elsewhere, obviously planning to try and cut you off. Smirking, you dodge the shots from Heero's buster rifle. There's no way they can catch you; you memorized the terrain around here in preparation for the mission, and if you remember correctly, there was a small canyon near here that would be perfect to throw them off…

Quickly maneuvering around 03, who somehow managed to end up in front of you, you speed up, heading as fast as you can toward the canyon. Reaching it, you duck inside, spotting a river flowing through a forest nearby. Now, if you remembered correctly… going lower and weaving through the rock ledges that stick out from the canyon edges, you reach a large lake before your pursuers are even in the canyon. Grinning to yourself, you submerge yourself in the water, turn off all unnecessary functions to minimize the chance of them finding you, and head forward a bit. Finding what you're looking for, you head towards the waterfall, staying underwater, and go through. On the other side is a large cavern, and you move your Gundam inside, turn off everything but communications, and wait.

It doesn't take too long for you to find their "secure" communication line. "Where is he?" Duo asks, sounding intensely frustrated. "I don't know about you guys, but I lost him a while ago. He's got to be in this canyon somewhere…"

"Heat sensors aren't picking up anything," Trowa responds. You roll your eyes; of course they wouldn't be sensing anything. You're under fifty feet of solid rock and inside a Gundam, so they'd have to be pretty darn close to find you. Opening the hatch and stepping out a bit, so you're directly in front of the cockpit, you take a deep breath of fresh air and watch the waterfall thundering before you as you continue listening to their conversation.

A few hours later, the five of them finally give up, and you wait another half-hour before you decide that it's safe to leave. Grumbling about annoying boys who are too persistent for anyone's good, you slip back inside your Gundam's cockpit, fire up all systems, and fly off. You stay inside the canyon for a bit, checking radar to see if anyone was left behind, and finding nothing, you finally decide that they left for good - either that, or 02's the only one left, and you're sure you can take one of them on. With that decided, you fly out of there and back to base, trying to figure out all the ways you can avoid getting yelled at by Doctor Y.

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Walking out of the control room at base, you grumble under your breath, not at all pleased with Doctor Y's rant about following orders. Of course, you'd told him as innocently as possible that you didn't hear him clearly, since communications were messed up, but did he listen to you? No! Stupid superiors… oh yes, that reminds you…

You sneak down the hallways to the MS hangar and peek inside. No one's there anymore; they must've given up on fixing the bug for today and gone to get some sleep; it is about three AM, after all. So, going inside, you pull out your laptop and hook it up to the system. It takes about three minutes for you to get rid of the bug, and, grinning, you leave. It's no use trying to get any sleep; you'd only get to rest for about three hours anyway. With that decided, you wander off to the training room for a bit of practice.

Half an hour later, you're going through a sword routine calmly, all of your moves smooth and well-practiced. As much as you try to concentrate, the fact that you can do this without even thinking finally gets to you, and your mind starts to wander. You think back to your mission a few hours ago, how much more powerful OZ has gotten, and the Gundam pilots who saved you… You find yourself thinking of Heero Yuy again, the pilot of Wing Gundam ZERO. You had to admit, he was a pretty good fighter… it's too bad you never got to talk to him face-to-face after the fight, but then again, that might have been a good thing. Just hearing his voice was enough to send pleasant shivers down your spine. 'I wonder what he would look like shirtless…'

"WHAT?" you burst out, stopping your routine in mid-swing and relaxing slightly. Where had that come from? Okay, so maybe Heero was kind of cute, plus he was a great pilot, and from what you'd heard, he was completely dedicated to keeping the peace, but that didn't mean you liked him…

'Yes you do,' a little voice in your head whispered.

'No I don't!' your conscious mind yelled back.

'Stop lying to yourself. You have a crush on him, and you know it.'

'SHUT UP!'

'Fine, I will. Just think about that for a while.'

"But I don't like him," you whisper quietly to yourself. "I only met him a few days ago! And besides, soldiers aren't supposed to have feelings…"

That's right. You feel yourself calming down slightly at that thought. You aren't supposed to have emotions, they only got in the way… but then again, you'd never quite gotten that part down. Somehow, a life without human contact or anyone who you could consider a friend was one of the worst things you can imagine… and besides, you aren't exactly the model for soldier behavior. But even the little voice in your mind agrees with you there; anything past simple friendship would only get in the way of your mission. As soon as the threat was over, then you could sort all this out; for now, you have to shove it to the back of your mind and forget about it. With that decided, you nod quickly, then pick up your sword and start your exercises over again.

A few minutes after you'd started, however, you were once again interrupted. Irritated, you open your eyes and glare at the alarm blaring on the wall. "Oh, what is it this time?" At that point, an announcement comes out over the system, telling you to report to the command center immediately. Sighing, you put away your sword and head out, glancing at the clock as you do so. The sight almost makes you stop in your tracks; it's almost 7:00 already! Wondering how exactly time passed by so quickly, you dismiss it as your spending too much time… thinking.

You walk into the command room, not too happy with Doctor Y for bothering you. "What?" you snap, incredibly short-tempered because you're going on almost no sleep and the last time you were here, he yelled at you for a good thirty minutes straight.

Y doesn't seem to notice, however. "Five objects approaching on radar," he tells you tersely, and you immediately snap to attention and make your over to one of the computer terminals. Pushing the guy in front of it out of his seat, you bring up the radar on the screen in the front of the room. Studying it, you notice five objects flying in from the west side, and you bring up a visual of the area.

You inhale sharply at what you see. "The Gundams!" The five of them are flying straight towards you, and you're sure this is more than a coincidence. The last time you checked, they didn't normally go on flights across the area for no reason, much less all of them together… so they must know you're here. But how?

Reaching up to run a hand through your hair in frustration, you stop when it hits something solid. Pulling it out slowly, you see it's a tracer. Letting out a loud and very explicit curse, you smash it with your fist, then throw it on the floor and stomp on it a few times for good measure. But the damage has already been done; they know you're here. You feel a sudden rush of anger towards Heero; he put that on you when you weren't paying attention! They probably knew the whole time that it was you in that Gundam! And even worse… you growl as you realize that they probably weren't at the OZ base on accident. They'd followed you there… and they could've found you when you ran away from them, but they let you get away.

At this point, you're very frustrated, and ignoring everyone else around you, you open a communication link with the Gundams. "What do you want?" you snarl.

Pilot 02 answers you. "Touchy, touchy… not even a hello for your old friends?"

You growl audibly, any feelings you thought you might've had for Heero disappearing in that moment. "I asked you WHAT YOU WANT!"

At this point, the Gundams have reached your base and surrounded it. "We have some things to discuss with you," Heero tells you calmly. "Don't try to fight, it's useless."

"Shut up," you hiss dangerously. "I'll decide what I will and will not do, thank you very much."

At this point, you notice that the rest of the people in the control room are all staring at you. "What?" you snap.

Doctor Y clears his throat. "You didn't mention you met them."

"Well, you DIDN'T FREAKIN' ASK!"

"And as such," he continues, ignoring you, "this situation could be blamed on you. Any decisions about this are up to you."

"All right then, so what's it gonna be?" 02 asks you. You only hesitate for a moment…

You close your eyes for a brief moment. "Fine, we'll talk, but we won't tell you everything. What is it you want to know?" - go to page fifty-two

There's no WAY you're going to let those idiots get their way. Turning away from the computer panel, you shut off communications and open the inside announcement system, telling everyone who's able to get themselves to the hangar - you're going to fight the Gundam pilots. - go to page fifty-three