AUTHORS: Mel
& Christy (and their muses)
WARNINGS: Language? Violence! 'They Might Be
Giants' songs! Collateral Damage!
CHRISTY: We just LOVE collateral damage!
DRAGON SLAAAAAAVE!
DUO: WRONG anime, C-chan...
PAIRINGS: 1x2, 3x4,
5x?
DISCLAIMER: They still aren't ours. We tried theft, but the
security systems were too good. Wufei was slightly injured during the making of
this fic, and Duo got a concussion, but they got better. (And Trowa just brushed
his bangs back into order.) No money is being made from this fic, and if there
was we'd just spend it on more tapes, so that's OK.
Wufei raised his head groggily. All around him, Nataku's
internal screens hissed static and amber status lights flashed from every panel.
He blinked, confused, trying to think past the pounding headache.
What
happened...?
* * * * *
"WAAAHAHAHAHAHA! It's time to meet your
maker!"
Duo's wild laughter blasted out of the com and Wufei grimaced,
tuning it out. The L2 pilot might sound like he was enjoying himself immensely,
but there was an edge to his voice that told Wufei otherwise. They were in
trouble, and the braided baka knew it.
OZ was slowly but surely losing
the war, and in a last-ditch effort to turn the tide Lady Une had laid a trap
for all five Gundams -- using what had to be all OZ's remaining
resources. For every mobile suit they destroyed, there seemed to be fifteen more
appearing; out of hidden bunkers, out of the overturned train that had been
their original target, flying in from over the horizon. And only four of the
Gundams could fight them; Wing was fully occupied with Tallgeese, fighting high
overhead.
Cutting down the two Leos directly in front of him, Wufei
spared half a second to glance quickly around the battlefield. Heavyarms had
space around it, blasted clear by a hail of bullets, but as he watched, the huge
Gatling gun dropped to the ground. Rockets continued to streak from the chest
launchers, but there couldn't be many left if Trowa was already out of
bullets.
Sandrock and Deathscythe were fighting back to back, slashing
enemies to bits with scythe and blades. They seemed to be holding their own for
now, but were so tightly encircled that there was no way they could break off
and retreat. Wufei scowled, turning back to his own opponents. He and Trowa had
enough space to engage their boosters and escape, but -- obviously!
-- neither of them intended to. Wufei because he refused to leave fellow
warriors in a deathtrap like this; Trowa because it would have meant leaving
Quatre. Quatre had reported earlier that the Manganacs were on their way, but it
didn't look like they would arrive in time to help.
Slashing at an Aries
with Nataku's dragon-arm, Wufei began moving towards Duo and Quatre, intending
to go to their assistance, when his com crackled to life again.
"Trowa,
Wufei, there's some sort of energy weapon on that southern hill," Quatre said
urgently. "It looks like they're aiming at Wing--"
"On it," came
Trowa's flat voice.
"No, I've got it," said Wufei. "You've got a clearer
path to help 2 and 4."
"Ah, yeah, Tro-man, not that we need a hand really
-- but I'm sure you'd hate it if we trashed them all by our*OOF!*" Duo's
voice cut off briefly, then returned in a stream of curses as an Aries and a
Taurus slammed into Deathscythe and grappled, latching onto his right arm and
leg. Seeing that he was hampered, others began to move in; Quatre had problems
of his own.
"Right. Coming," said Trowa.
Wufei could see the
weapon now, moving out of a bunker in the hill; he could see why Quatre was
worried. It didn't match any type of weapon he'd ever encountered, but it was
HUGE; a red glow was already flickering around some kind of emitter rod as it
moved into view, swiveling upwards to point at Wing. Whatever it was, he doubted
it was anything good.
He slapped a button and Nataku's thrusters kicked
in, punching him into the air and bowling over the nearest mobile suits as he
arrowed towards the new weapon. It's definitely something experimental,
he thought as he swung his staff around and activated it; it doesn't even
look finished -- there's no armour around the
base--
And then it was whipping down with surprising speed to
point at him, and he thought he heard Duo screaming "LOOK OUT, WU-MAN!"
as his staff hit it--
--just as it fired, directly at him,
at point-blank range.
----------
Duo swore as he finally
got his scythe into his -- Deathscythe's -- left hand and chopped
the mobile suits off himself. Free of the restriction, he whipped around in a
quick half-circle, slashing through the front rank of mobile suits.
"Hah!
Take that! Think you can take Shinigami down that easily? Not a chance,
you--"
He glanced up just in time to see the glowing rod whip down
to point at Shenlong.
"Oh shit -- LOOK OUT, WU-MAN!"
And
then his view of the battlefield whited out as a massive explosion sent
Deathscythe sprawling.
----------
Quatre curled into a ball
in Sandrock's cockpit as the Gundam tumbled, clutching at his chest as a
sickeningly hollow feeling blossomed in his heart.
I can't feel him
-- he's gone--
----------
Trowa found
himself flat on his back, with three mobile suits on top of
Heavyarms.
"...what the hell was
that?"
----------
Heero managed to bring Wing out of its
dive just above the ground. Fighting the controls -- the systems didn't
seem to be answering properly -- he pulled up, gaining
altitude.
The scene that greeted him was one of total devastation.
Shattered mobile suits lay everywhere, smouldering, obscuring his view... he
could see Tallgeese, crashed into a hillside to the north and not moving, but
couldn't make out the other Gundams... and to the south was a huge crater.
Quickly, he slapped at the com, bringing up a static-streaked video
screen.
"Duo! Trowa! Quatre! Wufei! Check in!"
Duo's image was the
first to come up, wincing and rubbing his head. "Ow... Heero, man, stop
scrolling... I love you, but you're making my headache worse. Oi, is Wu-man
okay? That thingy changed targets to him..."
"I don't know," Heero said
flatly, not showing his relief. "I was concentrating on things up here. Where
was he?"
"To the south; he was going after an energy weapon on that hill
over -- oh. Oh, shit. Um. Uh, Heero... there was a hill
there. Can you see Shenlong?"
"Not yet. My instruments don't seem to
be--" Heero broke of as another image came up.
"What happened?"
Amazingly, Trowa's hair was mussed.
Gee, thought Duo dazedly,
not even Quatre manages that... whoa, focus. Important stuff happening here.
No time to be concussed, Maxwell. "It looks like the thing Wufei went to hit
has gone 'boom' big time. The hill's not there any more."
"..." Trowa
didn't respond audibly, but Heero could see Heavyarms standing up and moving
unsteadily southwards.
"Quatre?"
Silence.
"Q-man? You
there?" asked Duo. "Oi! Answer me, dude..." ow ow shit this hurts... ow...
okay, outta the harness... annnnnd... that button, yeah... mm-hm, I'd say
I'm concussed. He clambered laboriously to his feet, ready to climb out of
the cockpit and go over to Sandrock, but was forestalled as a third image
flickered to life on his com screen. "All right! Q-man, don't scare me like that
-- uh... Quatre? You okay?"
Quatre's eyes were hidden behind his
bangs, head down. He didn't look up as he whispered, "He's gone. Wufei... I... I
didn't feel him die, but he's gone..."
* * * * *
Wufei
scowled, more frightened than angry but he _definitely_ wasn't going to admit
it. He had managed to restart Nataku's computers, but something was definitely
wrong; although all the diagnostics he'd run on the remaining external sensors
came back 'functional', as far as they were concerned there was nothing
out there. Not even space; nothing. Zip. Nada. Void. And why hadn't the
others contacted him yet?
He sighed as his com's status light finally
blinked green. Now he'd get some answers...
"Maxwell? Winner? Barton?
Come in, over." I won't call Yui just now -- if he's still fighting
Tallgeese, I can't afford to distract him... "Hello? Come
in!"
Static.
Wufei swore softly and began unsnapping his safety
harness. He hadn't felt any shocks or movement since he'd woken, so the battle
was almost certainly over; it should be safe enough to leave the cockpit. And he
had to find out just what the hell was going on!
He pushed the
control to open the cockpit and stood, moving forwards as the armoured hatch
slid down--
--and stopped, frozen, staring in wide-eyed
shock at what was revealed outside.
Nothing.
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