Update!!
I had to fix up my Fan Fic thread to match my status on my Fan Fiction profile, and this needed to be updated anyway.
New fic and chapter on the top of the page! Gundam Wing: Reaper of the SEED.
EDIT: For those of you not willing to read on another site, here's the prologue for you to read here.
Original story by Rellik Eht Deraj… I'm changing stuff, adding stuff, and fixing his mistakes
Current incarnation by Xamusel
Beta Writer is F-14 Tomcat Lover, "The Big Cat is on the Prowl, so Bee Eaters… Start Running."
Gundam Wing: Reaper of the SEED
Prologue
Duo Maxwell, also known as the God of Death Gundam pilot and Preventer Agent Bishop, was seething in rage as he walked the halls of the Preventer's headquarters with many of those he passed, wisely clearing out of his way. They could tell the Grim Reaper was in a foul temper as he made his way to get his marching orders for the day. They weren't about to curt his wrath if they wanted to live, though they were curious as to what could have made him so angry, if not more, as they had never seen the otherwise happy go lucky man look that pissed off before.
What they did not know, to put things bluntly, was Duo having the worst day of his life. His girlfriend for the past two years, Hilde Schbeiker, had just broken up with him. She had apparently been seeing someone else while he was busy doing Sweeper runs and Preventer missions, using his direly needed peace-keeping skills. She just couldn't take it anymore as it appeared and had broken up with Duo when they saw each that morning saying she was leaving.
And to add to his little myriad of problems his own private salvage business had been run into the ground. He was very upset as he really wanted to be an independent trader and help people much more easily. He always said he owed it to his brother Solo, the orphans he ran with, and the church that had taken him in to succeed.
Now he was just a big failure with little to show for all his skills except a mounting debt and a pile of bodies he left to the ferryman to sort.
'Why the hell did I have to be the only guy left with skills in espionage and infiltration?' he thought to himself, 'The stupid war is over! Why can't I live my life already?'
"Oh well," he said to himself as he plopped down on the couch in the break room kicking his feet up onto the nearest table, "at least I can relax 'till I find a way to blow off some steam and I can at least enjoy the fact that my debts are now getting smaller hehe!"
"Attention please," he heard a woman's voice over the PA intercom, "Will Agent Bishop please report to Commissioner Une's office for mission briefing immediately," Duo growled in the back of his throat at his luck, "I repeat, will Agent Bishop please report to Chief Une's office for mission briefing immediately."
"Damn it all to hell!" he yelled as he got up, stormed out of the room and headed to Chief Une's office.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commissioner Madelyn Une sat at her desk in her office adorned with the most expensive, yet functional furniture money could buy; gifts from Relena and Quatre. She had been surprised by the lavish furniture considering all the things she had put them through in the past but as the saying goes 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth.' Though she had to deal with the occasional claim of misappropriation of funds because, it wasn't so bad, since no could actually prove and the last one who tried now sat in jail for falsifying official documents and embezzlement.
Heero was a man full of much forgiveness and kindness, something of a paradox when one realized his chief teacher had been the OZ assassin that killed the actual Heero Yuy all those years ago and who was also very much like the Heero everyone knew now, though that gets even more complicated when one learns that Odin Lowe was a good man at heart to some degree, a byproduct of a world where there had been too much illegal political subterfuge.
'Backroom Politics played no part in any of that in the past,' she thought dwelling on her past like when she led an Alliance unit to kill a bunch of mercenaries once as she stared at the flags of NATO, the UN, and several nations of the past that adored her office, 'now we have to do something to ensure that the future doesn't have it like we did,' she shifted her gaze to her two daughters, Mariemaia Une (Mister Treize's daughter) and her own long lost daughter that Trowa had found for her, Middie Une, 'because we let them down painfully and thoroughly, the dream of peace and progress.'
With a sigh, she began contemplating on how she was going to deal with Agent Bishop. She had heard about what had happened through the grape vine of those who did know. She had come to the conclusion after some thought that the best way to deal with him would be to remain calm and ask no question about the subject that was irking him at the time. He would open up about it in the future, pushing now would be pointless since Duo wasn't one to keep things under wraps for long.
'If not for our ages, I would definitely be trying,' and she didn't kid herself, Duo was the rare kind of man a woman would want and be a fool not to at least try to court, plus she was considering to retire one day –preferably soon- to have a family as well as spend time with both her daughters and she knew her reputation proceeded her to well, that they would have to be of a certain types to even be around her given how her reputation spoiled her private life.
"Out of my way! I'm here to see Commissioner Une!" she heard Duo shout outside her office, he was usually more polite so something added must have happened.
'Speak of the devil,' she thought to herself as the door flew open revealing an enraged God of Death, though looking more like the cat that almost drowned, so the effect was watered down... literally.
"What is it Une?" Duo almost yelled as he entered Une's office and making sure to slam the door as hard as humanly possible with several choice words mumbled under his breath as she sighed nodded to a side door which he stomped towards.
Given their reputation, she decided to always be prepared and remembered when the same happened to Wufei Chang once. If not for the fact he had found a number of survivors from his clan and most importantly, his colony, he probably would not have gained the calm feeling of inner peace. Still, he was sick in bed for a week since it had been winter and wet clothes combined with Near Zero temperatures would likely put Heero in the hospital.
'He was lucky he didn't get anything worse than a cold,' she laughed somewhat at the strong willed Wufei in bed and being nursed by his wife, Sally Chang, martial arts clashing with medical arts and the wife winning.
She then heard Duo come out of the side room with his fresh clothes on. She kept them on hand not for what happened, but how often they would turn up in her office after a bloody encounter with a terrorist cell. They even had a fully equipped medical room just down the hall simply for Relena and Dorothy's peace of mind.
"Duo," Une began calmly, "please have a seat and would you like a Mint?" she finished holding out a small bowl containing a copious amount of the aforementioned item.
Duo sighed, reigning in his temper, knowing his new boss wasn't like she was years ago. He gave himself a couple of slaps in the face to wake him up and focus. He knew Une wouldn't tell and knew he was the independent one of the group. So yelling at her for his bad day was not something he would do.
"Sorry, but can you can the formalities Une," Duo apologized as he took his seat before her desk, "and give me the details of the next mission so I can go and get it done."
"Very well then," she put the item away and instead of taking a seat, she leaned against her desk, which Duo noted really brought out her features with the window behind her desk, "then I will brief you on the mission specifics," Une said calmly as she brought up a folder from her desk and a rather thick folder it was.
"Alright," Duo said as he looked at the folder, "that is thick and I hope its not a waste of time like the last time," both recalled that the last folder was full of more theory and projections on what had been assumed to be a major threat, but between Wufei, Duo, and Sally, it was over with in two hours, including the press release.
"We have someone new," smiled here, "former Alliance Special Operations and a personal favorite of their Pacifist leaders no less," Une said as she handed him a thinner manila folder and saw him grin, "that contains the profile of the target. We haven't been able to get a proper ID on him but he goes by the name of Professor X and he was once a colleague of Professor G and the other Gundam scientists."
"Hate the bastard already then," was Duo's sarcastic reply, but she knew he harbored respect for the deceased developers, "so what am I supposed to do and what about this new guy?"
She knew both were good questions, the kind where he needed the mission parameters and the last since the Alliance was still not well liked and for both good and bad reasons as well. Plus the guy was new, recently hired on. He apparently, though, was the kind they would need and had no problems with the Preventers, just hating the idea of being overworked.
"Giuseppe Franti and from North America Texas believe it or not-"
"I don't, but I'll believe it anyways," Duo remarked with a look that asked, 'you're kidding?'
Une cleared her throat, "he joined the Anti-Alliance movement as part of the United North America Army, but left with other members after the group turned terrorist and joined the Alliance after being impressed by a number of officers and soldiers," she noted Duo's look as he listened, "joined the SOF, but refused to join the Specials calling it as he saw it and the world has more or less come to see it," Duo barely contained a burst of laughter, liking the guy already, "he actually helped hold the Cheyenne Base and retook the Glendale NAS single handedly from the OZ garrison a week later," Duo shot her a surprised look, "in an out dated Leo model no less."
"Sounds like something Heero would do," Duo motioned for her to continue.
"Yes, Heero would, but so did then Major Franti," she smiled at the thought of someone being just as crazy as their Heero, "he also participated in the reclamation of the Fort Benning Base as well as Fort Hood and the capture of several naval bases in the North American Southeast area, but later was part of a detachment that fought during the Sanc Kingdom Conflict and was decorated for destroying the command Leos and ships for a number of Romafeller Mobile Dolls."
Duo whistled at the guy's skill as Une continued.
"He also did a lot of strategy planning and proved to have the rare uncanny skill of reading the battlefield," here she shook her head, "had I not pulled that stunt with the missiles, his team would have destroyed the Taurus Mobile Dolls while in transit, but was forced to also withdraw," she shook her head again, "one of the reasons for their slow deployment to space was that he made it so."
Duo nodded, remembering when Heero blew up his Gundam and tried to go with it to the scrap heap. He would never get that image out of his mind for as long as he lived. Still, he met some cute girls during the retreat with the Maganac Corps to one of their bases and did enjoy the flowers he was given by them.
"He has a strong skill set in tactical analysis that is just as strong as his other abilities and had he been better known," she shrugged, "Mister Treize would have loved to have had him under his command far before he joined the Alliance Space Forces and fought against OZ, the Romefella Foundation, and finally against White Fang."
"So while not on Gundam pilot level, he's one of those guys that would be up there with us or someone who could have handled the Tallgeese," Duo shivered, "glad I never ran into him or that he didn't join with OZ."
"His skills are incredible, but mostly of the stock variety expected of SOF personnel and MS pilots," Une remembered his age, "he's about 26 or so if I recall, he had been one of the youngest Colonels in the Alliance, but he was busted down for rescuing fellow soldiers over chasing terrorists and had been the man of the hour in that mess in South America."
"No freaking way that he's the Hero of Sao Paulo!"
"He is," she confirmed, "he received his rank advanced back to major and would have been restored to his former rank had OZ rebelled," she shrugged, "he's good, his file is here," she held it up and Duo took it and looked it over for about half an hour.
He saw the picture, a military hair cut of red hair with a scar running across the bridge of his nose and under both eyes. Those eyes showed a serious man when it was time to be truly serious and were steel grey, a good color for him. His height and weight said he was tall and lanky, but his build was that of a SOF soldier so it all rounded out.
"Now that's out of the way," Duo said as he closed the man's dossier.
Une nodded and began speaking about the Professor X.
"Professor X has built a space station where he carries out his research," she said as the major's work was put up on the screen with a projector, "We had sent an agent to infiltrate the station and report on the professor's research," the agent's profile and picture were displayed for Duo to see, "the last report came three months ago and that report states that Professor X was developing a weapon of mass destruction capable of wiping out entire cities from orbit, but shortly thereafter we haven't heard from our agent since," Commissioner Une informed Duo as he had noted the MIA status under the agent's name, "we did also received reports of a freighter scheduled to go to the station in a week's time. The cargo contains components necessary for an ultracompact fusion reactor as well as the fuel supply, technology required for beam weaponry as well as large amounts of gundanium."
"Well don't that just beat all," Duo stated sarcastically, "the damn bastard is building a Gundam."
"Yes," Une stated before proceeding, "We need you to sneak aboard the freighter and infiltrate the station and plant explosives at the reactor core as well as at structural stress points, destroy all research data, copy locations of any and all additional facilities and research sites, retrieve the freighter containing the gundanium, and return with confirmation of the station's destruction and Professor X's death," Commissioner Une said as she finished the briefing, "Any questions?"
"Yeah actually," Duo looked her over curious about something, "Why can't one of the others do this mission?" Duo asked, as though he was probably the best for infiltration, some of the skills needed for this mission were not his best set.
"Relena requested Heero's presence at one of her charity functions, Quatre is busy running his company as well as Dorothy is expecting their third child," Duo looked like a fish for a moment at that, "Wufei is away on a separate mission, and Trowa is dealing with some issues."
"Such as?" Duo inquired as Trowa probably had some of the more interesting issues in the group, if that was at all possible.
"After he married Catherine Bloom," Une began, "they had a honeymoon child and well the results came back showing that Trowa is not only the father, but also the uncle."
"No… Flipping… Way," Duo shakily said with a stunned look on his face, Trowa Barton was born Triton Bloom and is his wife's brother and father of her child.
"Quite true actually," Une confirmed and added the final touch, "but as you can expect, they are… accepting of their relationship and already they are expecting their second child in the next eight months."
"I take it that's why they've been off the radar for a while now," Duo stated more than asked the question and Une only nodded, "just wow," was Duo's final words on the matter.
"So Agent Bishop, Duo Maxwell," Une decided to get back to the matter at hand, "do you accept the mission?" Lady Une asked.
"Fine I'll do it, but after this I want 30 days of paid vacation to get my affairs back in order," Duo bargained, after getting over his shock from what he had heard, he really needed to address if he had anything he needed to know about.
'First learning Heero was the student of the guy who killed his namesake as well as being the grandson of his namesake, followed by learning of Quartre having a dozen wives of which no less than four were cousins and two were sisters not to mention being the only boy of one-seventy-six children his father had, then Wufei's ascension as the head of his clan and title of Grand Master of their art as well as a teacher for a new generation, and now Trowa fathering kids with his long lost older sister and both not caring in the slightest,' Duo thought and listed all the nuances of his fellow Gundam pilots and realized he was next on the list, 'I swear! If I'm related to Heero, I'd probably start another war!'
"Very well I will see to it that that is arranged. Good luck Agent Maxwell," She said as she gave a salute.
"Yeah, yeah whatever see ya later Une babe," said Duo choosing to revert back to his normal carefree attitude as he began to leave Commissioner Une's office, only for her to ask if he could stay a while and simply chat for a short while as he didn't have to get immediately ready and she knew that her new analyst always found some extra intel for such missions, might as well see if he did it again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One week later, in between the gravitational stable regions of L3 and L5, sat Professor X's space station. It was an unnamed station, which some would consider bad luck, but Professor X didn't really believe it such superstitions, being a man of science. As such Duo had easily snuck into the station as Professor X was also overly reliant on automatic detection gear and alerts to when they break.
Too bad that Duo was better than Heero at such a stealthily infiltration and as such the only guard he found was taking a nap and it would look like a line had simply been faulty or something.
Though standing in an observation booth and watching the freighter, MSS Calculus, through the protective glass of his magnificent space station was Professor X himself.
Professor X briefly thought about his station, as on the outside it looked like a normal space station with some minor additions, a general run of the mill kind. But that was the whole point; to look like some nameless station since no would likely bother to remember it. Its only outside noteworthy features were the stations main drive engines, braking thrusters, maneuverability thrusters, some odd add ins that were in fact weapon sites and what looked like a research lab addition, in reality Professor X's main weapon system on the station.
Professor X himself was not much to look out, except for a pair of wrap around dark shades that hid his cybernetic plate that passed for his eyes, allowing him to see on many different spectrums at once or one at a time if he wished. He was barely as tall as Professor G and only kept his long grey hair to hide his modifications of cybernetics to his own ears. He was a thin man and was slightly bent over, though he could actually stand straight, he just did so to lure others into a false sense of security.
He was also not what one would call either old or young, though he had the signs of both and whether this was artificial or really his appearance was best left to an autopsy report, though some might call him a vampire in appearance, the only thing missing was the whole Dracula get up.
"Sir the shipment is arriving right on schedule," reported one of his men from behind him.
"I am well aware of that you fool," answered the professor, indicating the ship that was finishing its docking just now.
"Sir," began the man behind him, "if you don't mind me asking, what exactly was it that you needed those items that we salvaged from the remains of the Lemming and Seraphim for?"
"You'll see soon enough. If my sources are correct then the test subject should be arriving any minute. Why don't you go and prepare a warm welcome for him?"
"Right away sir," replied the man, but he was hesitating remembering something, "while on that topic sir, he either missed the ship or has already slipped by our security," the man saw the slight change in stance from his employer and before anything could be said, he turned and ran off to prepare for the newest guinea pig.
'Good help is so hard to find,' Professor X though while thinking what his man had said, which he doubted the former, but how would he…
'Franti, Giuseppe Franti again,' though the mad scientist, 'he was always such a bother, especially…' his thoughts trailed off at the thought of how close to death he had come when Franti, still demoted back then, had chased him from Sao Paulo to another research site, an abandoned Nazi research base back from before the archaic World War Two.
The base had survived four centuries of neglect and abandonment, not to mention the victorious Allies best attempt to demolish the site after that war. All sorts of inhumane experiments had gone on there and some of it was still quite useful, answering question and dealing with issues since Professor X was into the same research. It had been a good find and excellent base and laboratory, but then Franti with a dozen Leos had stormed the ancient citadel and brought it too run despite his more superior forces.
'I even had Aries mobile suits!' Professor X thought bitterly at the defeat and set back, 'and he still overran the base with but twelve older second hand Leos!'
He remembered that Franti had been thought to have joined Preventer, so it would make sense that his target had slipped onto the station unnoticed. Franti would have been thorough, would have been two steps ahead. It hardly mattered now that he knew someone was leaking information again, but this time it wasn't that poor sap he had in one of the labs. This next test subject would be getting a lot of attention for the next month.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duo in the meantime had slipped in easily enough. Thanks to the intelligence Franti had been able to glean from whatever sources he could. It was a good thing Franti knew who Professor X was and how the man had been part of the human element research into mobile suits. The man was a certifiable –and probably is certified- mad scientist that caused even some of the worse in Romefeller to have second thoughts and that was what Franti had told Duo to bank on.
Since the mad professor was so sure of technology, he would often forget that technology breaks. True he would have sensors to alert controllers that something was broken, but the irony was that those same sensors wouldn't have any means of alerting the controllers when they were broken in turn. As such, nobody would be any the wiser if the whole system which was meant only to be activated in the event of something was broken, usually meant that no one would know if he was in or not until they actually physically looked the things over.
Franti had also informed Duo that the madman they were after was also expecting a pilot or three, most likely him alone. So Duo might have only an hour's time tops before discovery. That of course hinged on Duo not being physically discovered until then.
This was Duo everyone was talking about. He could be more of a ghost than Heero was. Which was exactly what was going to have to happen here until things started to explode and hopefully by that time it would be over and Duo was on his way out the door.
Duo of course had already marked the freighter and tinkered with her fuel lines. The ship would need a month tops for repairs. She would be helplessly drifting if she left now and everyone would know it, but think something had simply fouled the lines, it wouldn't be the first time.
Duo had already set the explosives as well and set them for the command to start the real party. Even if they did find him and destroy the detonator, the explosives had a time delay on them. Duo would be long gone by then of course… or a cold corpse. Either way, the station was doomed.
Duo then briefly stopped and sabotaged another sensor, never understanding the stupidity of even having them if they don't have their own alert system. He honestly could care less, but he also knew Franti had told him to be careful. Professor X was one of the bad guys that actually learned from his mistakes and might have done so.
'Franti is a really good guy to have around for this stuff,' Duo liked the fact he had actual maps that would be useful for once, 'though I think he has an interest in Une.'
As Duo could do all his work in his sleep, he let part of his mind wonder on Giuseppe Franti. The man was as described and in his reports. Yet he was still single, though he had a daughter from a lover killed during one of the post-war uprisings. That probably meant he was looking, albeit secretly, for a mother for his young daughter and he and Une got along real well.
It was clear to him that Franti might try and get to know her better. They were both soldiers at one point and both fought in the war back when everyone was duking it out. Now they both are in a new era trying to make a lasting peace and have to fight for every bit of freedom as being a former or ex-soldier was like be a convicted criminal these days, only people weren't screaming for their blood and could be accepting of them.
Duo was briefly taken out of his thoughts when a large hand wrapped around his throat and yanked him conveniently into the computer mainframe section. The giant of a man that had him in a steel, vice-like grip with just one hand had turned his attention to alert his comrades to Duo. That had been a mistake and Duo capitalized on it in seconds.
The big man was now laid out after a swift kick to his throat to first stagger and choke his opponent which caused the man to release Duo who used the man's outstretched arm as a bar to swing once in a full circle to gain enough speed to give him both of Duo's boots right to the head.
The others in the room looked on in shock as their biggest guard began to collapse and Duo kept his feet on the man's head as he coiled up and then leapt off. This movement caused the guard to be forced down faster and he was now unconscious as his head slammed into a terminal, actually forcing the metal in. Duo though was now flipping over two technicians and landing feet first into the face of another guard.
The twelve remaining guards and forty technicians immediately began to scramble, but the lights failed at the moment, the result of Duo having managed to rip out some wiring, though not all the way, it had been enough to cause a problem and no alert was going out either.
Duo was at home in the dark and it showed as the two technicians he had flipped over were now out cold with direct punches to their faces on the bridges of their noses, causing them to pass out from the sudden trauma. Then he jumped over their stations, kicking two guards to the side as they crashed into a couple of their fellows and all four men went down, render unconscious from their skulls violently meeting.
As Duo landed, he swept his foot out and tumbled another technician and then struck the man in the stomach, knocking the air from his lungs and knocking him out.
By this time, flashlights were turning on and Duo didn't hesitate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twenty minutes later…
Duo was sitting down at the primary terminal for the Number 2 Main Computer Core. He was going over everything to learn about what Professor X was up to, but he allowed his mind to again drift. The files were plentiful, but he got the feeling there was a back up someplace, but at this point he didn't care as he first needed to get through this one. Though he was, as usual, honest with himself as his mind drifted to an older, but supple form writhing beneath him in pleasure and calling out his name.
His mind shifted back, even as he completed working on the No. 2 MCC and moved on, wrecking another sensor and taking down an alarm system with innate skill and practiced ease as he moved to the final Number 3 Main Computer Core.
In his mind he recalled after the briefing when Une had asked him to spend some time with her. He hadn't minded, figuring it would be nice to just sit down and have a talk with someone who had been there and down that. The two had talked for a while and he had relaxed arguably too much. So he was truly stunned when he woke up the next day at her home after they had had a dinner with her two girls, though it wasn't the fact he woken up in her home, but in her bed and clearly after a night of passion with the older woman!
She hadn't minded, actually telling him that if he was single, she wanted to try and pursue a relationship. Franti might find out and be upset, but Duo could already figure the man to simply shrug and try another, though he would be more than a little annoyed at losing out to him. Truthfully, he wouldn't have cared because he wanted a chance to settle down and start his own family, he was growing thoroughly sick of the blood and last looks of sheer terror as realization set in upon his dying foes.
For the next week, they had spent time together and not just as a couple trying out, but also more as long time lovers. Few could fault Une for choosing him, though ten years younger. Duo stood pretty tall and was devilishly hansom. He was quite athletic and a solid man that a woman could depend on.
It was the work that wasn't dependable.
He was also honest and a hard worker, he had many qualities that women sought after in a man. Duo was one of the Gundam pilots, heralds of peace. He was a lot different, as were the others, from the knock off Gundam pilots they had to battle from time to time.
He was very much the type of man one would think for a colonist in fact. He had a 'Can do!' attitude and was very open minded. He was ready to give anything that was worth it a try and even some that weren't so. He was very reliable and self sufficient from both being an orphan as well as being a Sweeper.
Earth and Space were both home to this young man, a grizzly veteran of war and counter insurgency battles. One had to wonder how long he would be on the line. He had been on the line for more than a decade and even Duo was admitting his time was coming to an end… just like Madelyn Une.
'That first morning after, I only remembered after she started to wake up and it felt nice to know a woman was indeed interested,' Duo began to mentally laugh, 'Une may be older than me, but hot damn~! She is still a fox and can really bend at night!'
Duo suddenly remembered how that used to be Hilde. He hadn't seen her since that day and now that he thought about it, their friends had called worried as she had disappeared off the radar shortly before then. She hadn't been seen since and Franti had warned him about X's history and suddenly, he had a feeling in his gut there was a connection and sure enough as he came to the next file in the mainframe.
"I said bend over you whore!" that voice was vaguely familiar, but the feminine scream was even more familiar as Duo cursed in his head, but his face would have made even Heero flinch.
'Sonovobitch!' Duo thought with rage, 'X I'm going to personally kill you for that!'
Duo had found the file on what X's plans had been. The man really was an egomaniac since he pretty much gift wrapped his plans for Duo. Duo knew that when this place blew, he would still be inside if he had to so he could kill Professor X with his own hands.
'The bastard gift wrapped everything so nicely,' Duo thought as he got closer to where Hilde was being tortured, 'and I'm walking right into the bastard's trap, but the finally thing is, is that I'm the one setting the bait.'
He was going to insist on Franti getting a bonus for this!
Sure enough, there was Hilde in a tight fitting, revealing outfit, chained and hooked up to things. Duo immediately knew there was more to this than a simple rape or something of that caliber. Hilde had devices in her outfit and the outfit looked like a pervert's idea of a flight suit.
Duo froze at that thought… a flight suit.
Professor X was driven from Tallgeese because he was trying to create an interface that could hook a person into the machine like another part of the machine itself. He was sort of like that Tsubarov guy who developed the Mobile Doll System. Though in this case, using live people, stripped of their free will to a great degree, reduced to something that was little more than a computer that lived and breathed.
Hilde was one of the top pilots in the Earth Sphere, not counting those living on Mars or out in the mining rigs near the Inner Belt. She was just below Franti and if you went by some system like a video game or something, she'd be an A Ranked Tier Three Class Pilot. If Professor X had her then his plans might be further along than thought.
"I wish you would already listen!"
-SLAP!-
Hilde's 'lover' slapped her hard, causing fresh tears to come to her eyes.
"If only we can drug you again!" the man shouted, spittle flying into her face, "but the Professor doesn't want anything to happen to his data!" the man trembled with rage, "So you WILL submit and obey!"
"Duo will come for me!" Hilde shouted, showing a brave face and Duo winced, that just told the man he was winning.
"HA!" the man laughed, "finally, some signs of progress!" Hilde shrank back, realizing her error as the man spoke on, "but forget it!" he sneered right in her face, "we had you so drugged up, that it would have been better if he walked in while you being my pet, whore," the man leaned back laughing as Hilde began to slouch, all hope abandoning her.
"So stop struggling," he said, no remorse, no care and Duo soon realized it was Ivan Syvlov Petrov, a notorious murderer from Eastern Europe with a penchant for raping women on the side and was involved in the human trafficking issues that the Alliance had been able to suppress just before the revolt.
A man that still had a 30 Million Credit bounty on his head and Duo intended to collect on something a little more substantial as he withdrew one of his weapons.
After all, security in this block was dead and it just so happened that he had just a made a report, perfect.
"Duo I'm sorry," Hilde cried as Ivan began approaching her, the man was a slave trader, serial murder and rapist, and had a whole host of other crimes to his name, so she knew she was either dead or in an even worse fate than now…
So when Duo spoke his line, it was both startling and forgiving.
"Did you remember to bring change?" Duo said as he suddenly appeared and Petrov suddenly froze, fear gripping his body as he turned to see Duo as though he was his Gundam and Petrov was a Leo that had blundered into the crosshairs, "Because the ferryman needs to be paid to have passage."
Before Ivan Syvlov Petrov could even say or do anything, even scream, Duo slashed with beam scythe and Breaker Ivan was dead, his blood coating the walls in the direction of the slash and pooling to the floor as his body feel to the ground in two pieces, his internal organs sealed inside by the heat of Duo's weapon.
With another sweep of his weapon, no longer angry with her, Duo cut Hilde free as she fell into his arms. He held her close, feeling bad about not trusting her enough to speak in her own defense. He felt really low then and there as he knew he was the two timer with Une as she cried into his shoulder and neck, holding him tightly even as he removed the last of the bindings holding her and the cuffs that had held her fell to the ground.
"I'll get you out, I promise," Duo said as he held her close, angry with himself for being so easily fooled.
"You did come, you really did!" she sobbed into the crook of his neck, a vial of some form of sedative in her hands, "they said that you had abandoned me already and were having a -mphf!-"
Duo silenced her for the moment with a kiss, cliché as he knew it was, but she felt his feelings and knew that he had been seeing another woman… after he thought she had betrayed him.
The vial hit the floor with a muted sound and rolled into the past.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Preventer Headquarters
Brussels, Belgium, Europe
Forty Minutes later
"Emergency! Emergency!" the Intercom blared over the PA as klaxons screamed even as Preventer Headquarters began to be bathed in the red lights of alarms, "Revolt imminent! Revolt imminent!"
Two Preventer officers walked fast paced to the Operations Information and Control Center. The leader of the Preventers looked more than a little angry at the sudden alarm, while the other seemed to suspect it would happen. No one knew what sort of damage control would be needed for this.
"Report!" Une ordered thunderously as she entered the OICC, Franti right behind her.
Duo slashed an opponent in half, the man cut from neck to crotch before he was quartered by a horizontal slash that killed the two men that had been behind him. The remaining guards backing off as Duo pressed forward. They couldn't believe that this guy was a mobile suit pilot! Even though they knew he was a Gundam Pilot, he was going through them like they were merely outdated Leos before his Gundam.
"This is insane!" one guard yelled as he fired wild and recklessly, as Duo charged forward, spinning his Beam Scythe over head and breaking it down and through the five guards in reach of the weapon.
"He's not human!" another shouted and Duo smirked a look like a devil straight from hell, 'No!' the guards thought as one, he wasn't a devil, they were far more unlucky than that.
"You're right," Duo said slowly, drawing out the sentence, "I'm not human nor am I a devil," his smirk caused the guards to back up many steps in fear as he stepped towards them lifting his head as he suddenly charged, his hair briefly defying the Artificial Gravity as his eyes shone with an other-worldly light, "I'M THE GOD OF DEATH!"
He slashed through a dozen guards who made the mistake of grouping up in hopes that they could create an impenetrable volume of fire. All twelve men fell dead, even as Duo spun much like Heero and his Gundams and cut through four more men. The remaining men scattering before Duo in a panic as he stood, not even covered in the blood that was flying about, his trademark Priest outfit unblemished from the encounter.
Duo waited before signaling Hilde to come up with the group of people, including the missing Preventer Agent, which Duo had freed. The ship that brought Duo was out of the question, but Duo had spotted another ship or rather simply another way off station. That was where he was leading all these people, some only young children and even pregnant mothers, so they might just escape to safety.
"Same drill, but we're nearly there," Duo assured everyone with an easy smile, even as he used the butt of his scythe to knock out a guard who hadn't fled like the others.
Duo found the approach to the exit surprisingly lightly guarded. His eyes told him this was part of the original design before the conversion to a battlestation. That was good; he could blow this section away and take out part of the station, weakening its overall defense. Plus the debris would make for excellent cover as well, acting as an impromptu debris field.
Of course, X had other plans.
"Vent the Old Sections now!" X ordered up in the command booth, but the operator couldn't believe his eyes.
"Sir the vents are none responsive!" the man yelled after a pair of attempts and quickly learned that even his third attempt won't work, Duo had inadvertently pulled those wires as well back when he had been yanked out of the air ducts earlier.
"Then send in the Drones!" the mad scientist shouted and another operator confirmed they were active.
"If they get too close," X's second in command began, even as the visored visage was turned towards him, "his scythe will still cut them down."
"A good test then," the partly cybernetic man smirked, "don't you agree?"
"Actually," the SIC smirked as well, "I do, though I'm sorry to say we spent too much on that fool Breaker Ivan."
"He served his purpose, but now…" Professor X trailed off as the first units quickly arrived before Duo and his escape party.
Duo smirked; the Drones he had read about had just shown up. Too bad it was too late to stop the evacuation. Duo had led everyone to a forgotten escape shuttle and it was clear it was only maintained every so often and likely by someone simply killing time, but with pride in their work.
"Everyone on now!" Duo ordered even as he cut down two of the Drones that came too close to him.
The Drones looked like a throw back, but stylized and updated versions of some sci-fi robots called Cylons. They looked like the older clunky types from the original series, but had been streamlined which gave them a look close to being the bastard child of a Gundam and Leo and only slightly taller than the average man. They were still armored and well armed and being machines, didn't have the same endurance limitations as humans, but as Duo quickly proved; they lacked the intelligence and flexibility of humans.
Meanwhile the Preventer Agent, Duo couldn't remember the man's name, and Hilde were herding everyone on board the shuttle. That was when several of the Drones got came around another corner, but at that moment the station began to rock as two Preventer Cruisers had quickly shown up. This caused the Drones to stop to regain their balance as these were Proof of Concept types, not actual production or even prototypes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Preventer Armored Cruiser Defender of Peace
"What do we have on that station's defenses?" the captain requested from his intelligence officer.
"We can't stay long, that's what we have," the woman replied as she sent the relative data to the CIC and Bridge, the officers wincing at the station's power.
"Target the engines and try to knock out as many of their guns as possible," the captain ordered and the other ship also acknowledged, "We don't need to be here long."
Both ships began to engage the threat, even as heavy counterfire came back at them. Fortunately for the DoP and the PAC War's End, they had been equipped with the latest in defensive technologies, ship based Planet Defensors. This meant they could stand up and provide maximum coverage until the shuttle was safe.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Command Booth
Professor X was hardly stunned by the sight of the two cruisers appearing so quickly, but was more annoyed they had managed to get the drop on them. They must have been near out of necessity and Duo must have done a number on the station's long range sensors as well. Though that would hardly bother him as he ordered both ships countered by their own defense batteries. He was rather annoyed that Duo had sent off an alarm when he had gone loud earlier as well. The station didn't have any mobile suits battle ready yet and were dependent on the station's own defenses for this fight.
"They have some kind of shield, but we believe they will fail within four minutes," the tactical officer spoke, "but only if we target one ship at a time."
"Do so and use all the power you can," X ordered and the ordered was carried out.
Duo cut another Drone down, the numbers were limited and the end was in sight, but at that moment, Hilde called out to him.
"Duo the War's End was just destroyed!"
The ship hadn't been able to last long when the shots were aimed at her and one of her emitters was struck too many times directly, causing it to fail and allow shots to hit the broad flank of the ship. Several quick salvos had followed and the few pods and shuttles made their escape as the ship broke in two, explosions finishing her off. It was a severe blow to the Preventers as they had only a half dozen such ships.
"Duo what do we do?" Hilde asked, staring out where the War's End had been.
Duo knew the price to be paid to enable the others to escape. He knew that it was time to live up to the boast that he could get himself out of any jam. Well… it was time he made good on his promise to kill Professor X.
"Well," he started, his voice slightly high pitched as though the War's End being destroyed hadn't fazed him, "I've got to go collect on some overdue dues from the locals," he turned and started walking towards the Drones that brought up their rifles in response, his pony tail whipping back and forth as he shook his head, "so just go ahead and launch, I'll make sure you'll make it."
"That's insane Duo!" Hilde turned to him, "You'll die!"
Stopping briefly to crane his neck around and look at Hilde, even as the station continued to rock from the fighting, his eyes mischievous and a full blown smile on his face as he looked back at her and said…
"I'm the God of Death!" his voice still slightly pitched as it always was when he was excited, "I'm Death incarnate!" but his face turned solemn, "Besides I already had too many die around me," he turned and slashed through a trio of Drones, their flailing limbs making them look like the Mobile Dolls he had torn apart during and since the last war and with his voice taking on its characteristic pitch again, "It's high time I paid up as well, but even then I'm gonna have to work to catch myself!"
And he was off with a battle cry that would have made Wufei pleased.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Defender of Peace
"Captain! Engineering is reporting the main drives are dead!" the young, freshly graduated ensign turned towards his captain even as he replied in a simple tone.
"Duly noted."
"But sir!" the ensign pressed, "we can't escape without the main drives!"
"Escape was always a luxury ensign," the captain responded as the ship shook, "but have them try to see what they can do, but it looks like we're about to-"
"Escape Shuttle launching from the station!" the Sensor operator reported, his thick Lancastrian accent making the report stand out among the Standard English flying throughout the bridge, "Confirming Preventer IFF for Deep Cover Agent Shadowed Knight!"
"Maintain gunnery on the enemy and prepare to…" the captain trailed off as he spotted a turret now latch on to his bridge… and he wasn't the only one to either sense it or see it.
Professor X grinned as he watched the lock finally achieve itself on the bridge of the Preventer Cruiser. He watched the shields go down and now one final shot and it would be over. The shuttle would have nowhere to flee to and no one to protect it.
"Did you forget that I'm a god?" Duo's voice suddenly came over the PA.
Everyone's eyes widened, before suddenly the whole station rocked as a shockwave roared through it as Duo destroyed the section of the station the shuttle was fleeing from.
The station rocked and lurched, whole sections were immediately vented into space as the explosions chained their way through the older area of the construct. The explosion caused the engines to immediately shut down as emergency bulkheads sealed, the reactor shutting itself down as emergency power kicked in. The weapons near the explosion and venting areas were ripped from their mounts or where destroyed by the power surge running the electrical grid.
Throughout the station, secondary and tertiary explosions chained their way through, ripping apart older sections of the station until the incomplete true face of the station could be seen…
"Sir?" the ensign looked to her superior who glared angrily at the now exposed mobile war station, there was no way that it was meant for anything less.
"We withdraw for now and show those bean counters how desperately we need them to understand the difficultly of maintaining the peace is compared to fighting a blasted war!"
"Shuttle retrieved!" Flight ops reported.
"Engineering, this is the Captain," the commanding officer spoke into his intercom, "Best speed out of here and back to MO-VIII for repairs."
"Aye, aye Captain," came the reply, "Best is about One-Eight Speed, don't roll more than Twenty to either side, and be careful on the Pitch, no idea about that yet," the Chief Engineer's warning were duly noted and religiously followed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A month later…
Professor X had spent great sums of money and brought many people to insure that the Preventers wouldn't be a threat. Now thanks to the information Duo had taken that had changed. The Preventers were nearing completion on two conversions from wartime mobile carriers to make them into protected cruisers.
In fact, it was expected that the Preventers would have a fleet of at least 30 cruisers by the end of the year, though not for just him. The information on his agents, insiders, and more had taken the government by storm and the results had not been pretty for any criminal or terrorist group. The total reform of the government had occurred and they were all now going to pay the price.
Many of the new cruisers were going to be assigned to the new patrol routes to Mars and the Preventers were also going to establish themselves there in order to keep the peace. While a long term goal that could change at any time because of the current conflict with him. Though with work now continuing on several hulls, the Preventers would have no less than three cruisers by the end of the month with four more the following month, and Professor X was expecting trouble…
It would be 100 days before his station was completed and 50 before it was mobile again.
"Still…" he voiced as he thought, "that is about four weeks times and shake down drills and trials will take at least another two weeks…" there wasn't much time, but if he was careful and could keep the Preventers slightly off balance just long enough…
Thought commanding an open link to his command center, "we're going to get back on track, this is only an inconvenience and as such, we're staying on track," he didn't wait for the reply, it was now or never and that was good attitude to have in this situation, or so he thought, whether it was true or not, he acknowledged only time will tell.
Though it was nice to have others in the same boat as him, they could be the pawns to hold off the Preventers and those left would make nice rooks, bishops, knights, and who knows, maybe even a queen!
"Get up!" the guard's voice was followed by a swift kick, "It's time to meet the Professor you scum," the guard said as he prodded Duo with his gun.
Duo was led out of the station's cellblock and into a small monorail inside the space station. He was then hauled out when it arrived at its destination several minutes later. The station wasn't too big, but then again, whatever saved time and moved things quickly.
Duo found himself being forced to go down a hall as he tried to recall the area he was in. The guards had been keeping him on sedatives since the incident about a month ago. Even so, the guards were careful with him, after all, he still managed to kill four guards only a week ago. Though now, the sedatives were a lot stronger, but were wearing off faster, never a good sign in either case.
"Well, well, well if it isn't Maxwell's Demon," Professor X greeted Duo as the Gundam pilot realized he was inside a lab now, he must have really been duped up and out of it, "Professor G told me so much about you when he bothered to call," the old man stated, though it was more like Professor G was letting him know that his lackeys had failed to get his research, "As you most likely know; I am Professor X," the Professor lifted Duo's clearing head to see him directly, "When one of my spies informed me a Gundam pilot was being sent here I hoped they would, but certainly didn't think they would send you and apparently said spy also missed out on Franti joining Preventer."
"Go join the freak show old geezer," was Duo's only reply when he got a good look of the madman.
"Now Mister Maxwell, that's no way to treat your host," X said calmly, "besides I brought you here to test something for me."
"Piss off!" Duo shouted at him and managed to throw one of his guards who had gotten lax of his arm, only to get stunned by a shock stick.
"Hmm…" Professor X looked less than amused, "I was really hoping you would be more compliant in the matter," X simply shrugging as though it didn't matter and it truth, "It doesn't matter, for you'll find you don't have much choice in the matter. Take him to the operating room and prepare our Reaper, Mister Maxwell, for the installation of the G.R.I.M."
Duo soon found himself being strapped down to an operating table despite his best efforts to break free from the henchmen of the obviously more than simply mad scientist. Even after being securely bound to the table he continued to struggle pulling at the bonds with all his might but found the material to be to strong… too strong.
"Damn, not even Heero would be able to break these," Duo noted the bounds were some kind of flexible metal material and guessed it must be something the not so good doctor created in his spare time or as needed if the returning memory of what he read about was any clear case.
"Mister Maxwell," the voice of Professor X suddenly resounded as he entered the room, grabbed for Duo's obvious and unneeded surgery, "please cease these useless struggles. You will only succeed in causing yourself further harm."
Duo's only reply was to spit in his face. He heard his saliva make contact with X's face with resounding splat as silence filled the room. Duo smirked at the apparent stop in X's mental process, before he turned to another man in the room.
"Very well," X said to everyone as he wiped his face clean before speaking to the man he was looking at, "Dr. Inman administer the sedative now."
Duo's struggles became wild and frantic as he tried to avoid the syringe. He managed to avoid the first attempt, and then the second. The doctor tried in vain to hold him as Duo snapped his shoulder into the man's face instantly breaking his nose.
"Enough!" yelled X, "Bertram, hold him down!"
A tall hulking mountain of a man came up and pinned Duo's shoulders down on the Table leaving him utterly defenseless as the doctor who was now bleeding profusely from his nose stabbed the needle none to gently into his vein.
'Damn it all to hell,' were Duo's last thoughts as his vision began to fade until all he saw was darkness... again.
Moments later found Duo strapped into various machines and needles.
"Doctor Martin begin recording," Said X
"Yes sir," confirmed the doctor, though he was slightly hesitant, "but may I ask why we are recording this sir? What if the Preventers get a hold of it?"
"We're making history here Doctor Martin, and history must be recorded," X responded, "Now then, Doctor Payne, begin injecting the Reaper nano-machines into subject thirteen."
Doctor Payne then typed a sequence of keys on the computers and the machines came to life as they began to pump the nano-machines into Duo's body. Soon enough all the containers were void of the microscopic machines. The first step of what will likely be either a lengthy or short process.
"Doctor Payne, initiate the bonding process."
Payne typed in a new sequence and the bonding process started.
"Sir," spoke the doctor at the monitors, "Subject Thirteen's heart rate has become erratic."
On the operating table Duo's body started to convulse violently as he started foaming from the mouth.
"The heart rate is continuing to increase."
Just as suddenly as it had started the convulsing stopped, the only sound that could be heard in the room was the long tone of the heart monitor as it read flatline."
"Sir, Subject 13 has flat-lined. Shall we call it sir?"
"Just give it a moment," was his only reply.
After five minutes had passed the doctors were growing anxious. Professor X was not known as a very forgiving man. Then at that moment, to the doctors' relief and Professor X's delight, the heart monitor began to show a steady heart beat once again.
"Sir, might I ask why the nano-machines are necessary?" Asked Doctor Payne.
"The nano-machines increase the durability of the body so that it can survive the large amounts of strain that the GRIM will exert on it as well as increase the subject's and ability to handle the large amounts of information it feeds the brain," answered X as he personally began to double check everything, "Now then, Doctor Fuji, prep Subject Thirteen for surgery," the aforementioned doctor nodding and beginning to carry out his task, "We will begin the installation of the GRIM momentarily."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sir," said the voice of Doctor Fuji 2 hours later, "the G.R.I.M. has successfully been installed at the base of Subject 13's brain."
"Very good, see to it that he makes it to his cell. Tomorrow the real test begins." With that said Professor X turned and left the room.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Duo came back to the world of life, which was a week later, he found himself in small cell. The only items in the room happened to be the tiny cot that he was laying on and the toilet in the corner. He examined his head to make sure his trademark braid was still there. While the braid remained intact most of the area around it was void of any sign of hair.
"At least they didn't touch my braid," Duo voiced his thoughts with a sigh.
"Ah Mister Maxwell," said a voice behind him, "glad to see that you are finally awake."
Duo turned to see none other than Professor X staring at him with a gleeful expression on his pale gaunt face. For which the only keeping Professor X alive was the half foot thick of armored glass between the two of them. Otherwise both knew Professor X wouldn't be alive once Duo was up and about, even with a neural shock collar and inhibitor as well as armed guards with riot sticks, shock sticks, shields, body armor, and various low lethal firearms.
"You!" Duo pointed in rage at the professor, "What the hell did you do to me?"
"We simply installed GRIM at the base of your brain."
"What the hell is GRIM?"
"GRIM," began X, "stands for Genocidal Rampage Inducing Machine."
"Real original there Prof," Duo said sarcasitically, happy to have enough sense back to said a witty remark at his not so generous host.
"It is," Professor X continued on without missing a beat, "the result of combining the most advanced ZERO System, the ZERO System version Two point Five, and the Lemming System," smirking at Duo's shocked expression, a feeling of triumph in Professor X blossomed, "In short you are a living, breathing ZERO System."
"What about the Lemming System?" Duo was more concerned with that, having survived and even defeated the ZERO System before, he'd learn a thing or two since, but the Lemming System was more screwed up thanks to an even less than ethical engineer compared to the Gundams' own creators, "Do you intend to have me attacking in a blind rage all the time with the prospect of losing my mind?"
"We have no intention of that," Professor X wasn't stupid and waved off the concern, "We have fixed all the problems regarding the Lemming system, since such problems can be resource intensive."
"OH really?" Duo said skeptically, "can't say I believe you on that one," though mentally he thought about Franti telling him how Professor X always learned and was always a step or four better than most of the crazed types like him and had issues about simply wasting resources.
"Oh you will soon enough Mister Maxwell, you will," Said X as he turned and walked away.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Professor X walked out of the holding area he was met by Bertram. The man was a big lummox of a man. Short on brains and long on muscles, he was built like a gorilla and X ideally wondered if he was some escaped project from time to time. He even had hair color like a gorilla and if the couple of girls that had been sent to keep him satisfied were any indication, as dominant as one.
X turned to him and spoke his name, "Bertram."
"Yes sir?" the slow witted man responded.
"Why don't you go say good morning to Mister Maxwell?" Professor X suggested, though already knowing that even without the GRIM System, the God of Death would have still defeated Bertram, but now was the question of how much difference.
"Yes sir," Bertram responded, sounding pleased, as he hadn't been allowed to beat up any prisoners for a while and here was one that had caused great distress and trouble he was being allowed to go and knock around.
As for Professor X, with his plans for the first test set into motion he made his way to the observation room. He had no doubt that in any event; Bertram would be badly injured, possibly killed. It hardly mattered as Bertram really didn't have all that many uses and as of late had been worth less than he had been.
Though Bertram was an idiot and slow witted, he was also experienced and so had been informed before hand of the test he was to perform and told that Duo Maxwell would not be easily fought. Bertram never the less agreed, believing he could easily fight the younger boy quite well. He was simply unaware of the changes in the schedule and more besides that could easily land him in the morgue.
When Professor X arrived in the observation room he was greeted by hundreds on monitors and the doctors that had had a hand in the installment of the GRIM. When he looked at the monitor assigned to Duo's holding cell he saw that Bertram was right outside awaiting the go ahead. The test would only of course commence once Professor X was on up in the observation room and had granted permission.
"Sir," Doctor Payne spoke up first, "shall we activate the GRIM?"
"No," Professor X responded, "not yet I wish to judge the effects of the system for myself; get the feedback from the Reaper nano-machines on Monitor Six."
"Yes sir."
He then thought connected the communication link in his head, linking him to Bertram.
"Bertram, commence Test One."
"Yes sir," the big man responded.
As he watched the monitor Bertram entered Duo's cell and began beating him mercilessly. The resilient seventeen year-old tried to put up a fight but with the sheer size of his opponent these attempts failed, but not without some injury to his opponent. Bertram continued the onslaught of blows delivering bone shattering blows to the boy's stomach and face. When it looked like Duo would not be able to get up any more he decided to give the order.
"Doctor Payne, activate the GRIM."
"Yes sir."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duo found himself in a very bleak situation. Apparently, whatever that psycho did to him… well… it wasn't working. If he honestly was a living ZERO system with the Lemming mixed in then he wouldn't be getting closer to death with every blow.
'Damn it!' thought Duo, 'I'm gonna die!'
As he thought what he expected to be his last thoughts an intense electrifying pain wracked his entire body. His muscles felt like they were on fire then in an instant the pain was gone replaced by a strength he had never known and an intense hatred for the man that had done this to him.
He pulled himself to his feet and looked at his enemy. And he knew every move the man would make; Duo could read him like a book. When the next punch came Duo waited till the last possible moment before he caught the behemoths fist in his hand. When he squeezed it he was rewarded with a satisfying crunch of breaking bones. The man's cries of pain were like music to his ears. He could hear his enemy's heart beating in his chest and when he delivered a punch to his face he heard it stop as the man's head was sent too far to the left breaking his neck. The man was dead… and it made him feel so good.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sir, the tests shows response time to be less than a hundredth of a second and a strength multiplication of five," Doctor Fuji reported, "Brain scan mode shows a dramatic increase in aggression."
"Perfect," X said with enthusiastic satisfaction.
"Sir, why is it that you waited so long to activate the GRIM?" Doctor Inman inquired, genuinely curious.
"Because," Professor X's face was morphing right before the other doctors' eyes, "once activated the GRIM cannot be deactivated," and now he had what some called the 'Slasher Smile' on his face.
"Sir, won't that be dangerous?" Doctor Payne looked surprised, as did the others, and admittedly they were nervous at the sight of the smile on their leader's face.
"Don't worry it only enters combat mode when it perceives a threat to the life of the operator," waved their concern off and his face lost its looks, giving them some chance to breathe again, "Give Subject Thirteen two days of rest to heal then we will begin Test Two and see how the GRIM syncs up with a mobile suit."
"Sir, what about the shipment?" asked one of the other doctors in the room.
"Leave it be until we have completed all the tests."
"Yes sir."
"Oh!" Professor X remembered something as an afterthought, "as for Bertram's toys," the other doctors looked confused for a moment, before it dawned on them, "use them to carry his food, rather than the guards as we don't want one those dull witted idiots provoking him unnesseccarily now, do we?" the other doctors nodded, that would be good.
"Hmm…" Doctor Fuji began to think on something, "why not a step further sir?"
Turning to Fuji, Professor X remembered why he liked this staff. They were always thinking ahead and quite truthfully, he had written that idea off already. Now though, with Bertram no longer around and the man's evening company needing a new master… why not?
"After the second test," Professor X nodded, "we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves gentlemen."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"This food sucks, even if the service is divine," Duo voiced his thoughts two days later, though the company was nice with the two women bringing the food, though Duo didn't doubt it might be some other test, including having kids with them.
"Well you're gonna eat it whether you like it or not," stated the guard, one of the ones who wouldn't be dumb enough to piss off Duo or get pissed off at him.
"Yeah, yeah piss off asshole."
"Insolent little brat."
As Duo sat there eating the disgusting substance these people dared to call food he thought back to what he had done to that man two days earlier. He was unnerved by how easy he had found it to kill the man and how much he had enjoyed doing it. But now, he felt no aggression whatsoever but still retained the ability to predict the movements of everyone that came through the holding area. Whatever the GRIM was it was far more dangerous than the ZERO system ever was.
'That's right!' Duo remembered what the crazed cyborg professor had told him, "the Lemming System was also used!' that made sense now, 'the ZERO System as well as some sort of built in security program must be keeping me from just going berserk,' Duo realized something else, what he had said after that one OZ pilot who was controlling Wing Zero before it passed to Agent Wind, aka Zechs Marquise.
He shivered in thought and then remembered something Quatre had said off handedly one day, the same thing that Heero had said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The ZERO System also shows you the results of your actions, actually teaching the pilot that the quickest way to victory is not always the shortest. What you see at first may or may not be what the ZERO System believes as the sole way to victory, but what your mind may perceive as such. The System is much more complex than that and the human mind may not be able to see that immediately. Hence all of the mental breakdowns one gets from using the system for the first time."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duo figured he was likely using the ZERO System to subvert the Lemming System, though it was also likely it was simply offline at the moment, 'made sense too as well.'
Duo was pulled from his thoughts as none other than Professor X walked in, "What do want you crazy bastard?"
"Now, now Mister Maxwell all I want is to run a few more tests," Professor X chided like a doctor with a troublesome patient, namely another doctor, but not in this case.
"Why are you doing all this?" Duo finally asked, something wasn't adding up, unless Franti had been right on the money, "Why create something like this?"
"To make history of course!" Professor X said as though it was plain as day, "What other reason could there possibly be?" he shrugged as though it was simply that, and arguably to him it was, "The Gundams, their creators, and their pilots will all go down in the history books."
"Tell me something I don't already know," Duo interrupted, but again the half cyborg professor finished without missing a beat, 'Does his homework, that's for damn sure."
"Is it so bad that all I want is to create something so that I to may find my place in history?"
"You created this system and done several horrific scientific experiments just so you could have a page written about you in some high school kid's history book?" Duo looked flabbergasted at what he was hearing and to see the madman nod, "You really are insane," Duo finished with a look of utter disgust on his face, 'No small wonder the other five chased him off!'
"The line between genius and insanity is a thin one," Professor X stated, not particulary caring if some thought him insane or not, "You of all people should know that," X smirked, "Shouldn't you Mister God of Death?" X taunted, with a smug grin planted on his vampire like face, the lights in the cellblock reflecting off the visor that passed for his eyes, "Now then let's get you ready for your next test."
"Go screw yourself!" Duo retorted angrily.
Professor X promptly broke out into a fit of laughter. "As defiant as ever I see," he said as he turned and left, laughing the whole way out, though he showed that the two women that had been bringing him food now had guns to their heads and Duo sighed, the man was a lot more off than even Franti, the 'expert' on the guy would dare have feared.
"Right then," stated the guard in a business like tone as he cuffed Duo, "get moving it's time to go."
"Handcuffs huh? Kinky," Duo said as he taunted the guard.
"Get moving scum," his tone neutral as was his face.
"Eh! Man you're no fun," said Duo as he was promptly marched out of holding area.
"I don't get paid to have fun on the clock," the guard's word caused Duo to trip up a seamless floor with nothing to trip on.
"Sarcastic bastard," Duo muttered with a tone he usually reserved for Heero or Sally, but this was one guard you couldn't hate for some reason.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An hour later found Duo floating through space in a Leo outfitted for space combat with a beam saber as his only weapon. Duo had been a bit surprised, the Leo was a stock Space Model, but was also built up to military spec. He noted the serial system was also standard and that from it the looks of it, it was manufactured only recently, but not locally.
In fact, it had a Mars Product logo next to it. This marked this particular Space Leo as part of the short lived Alliance Mars Garrison. This left Duo wondering if they were still active or if the investigations missed something out that way. Either way, it was not good information to learn at the moment.
At that moment an airlock on the war station opened and out came twenty or so mobile suits consisting of Virgos and Taurus. Their movements were not precise and refined, marking these as piloted units. Duo really started to get a sinking feeling in his gut, though admittedly he was surprised to see Virgo Mobile Suits, as nearly all had been made as Mobile Dolls, save a few proof of concept models and those were weaker than the production models.
Professor X's visage came over the Vid-Links and he spoke, "Test Two begin!" and Duo's opponents began to close in at once.
As the suits came closer Duo felt the same sensation overtake him once, "So you bastard think you can kill me? Bring it on!" Duo screamed before sending the Leo at the small force of mobile suits, pushing it to its limits.
The enemy suits started firing and Duo dodged all of them, expertly predicting every move they would make before they even knew what they were going to do. A moment later found him directly in front of an unfortunate Virgo as it tried to run. Duo proceeded to cut it half ending any chance it had at getting away.
A Taurus tried to sneak behind him, but Duo completely aware of everything around him and he maneuvered his Leo into a spin before slashing through the enemy. Two Virgos attempted to charge him from either side, beam sabers drawn ready to cut him down. Duo maneuvered his Leo into a vertical flip before cutting through both mobile suits.
"What the hell is he?" voiced one of the pilots as he looked on in horror before he too was cut down, his body incinerated as his Taurus erupted into flames.
A few minutes later all the mobile suits save two Virgos and a lone Taurus were pieces of scrap floating through the vacuum of space.
As he moved to cut down one of the Virgos a voice came through his communications, "Please stop we surrender."
Duo then went back to being calm with a sorrowful grunt, 'Damn it! Why can't I fight this thing?'
'Kill them,' spoke a strong whisper in his head.
'What?'
'Kill them,' it said again.
'No!'
'You're weak.'
'Who the hell are you?'
'Me? You know who I am.'
'GRIM!'
'Bingo. Now kill them.'
'No.'
'Then I'll just have to do it myself.'
'What?' thought Duo as he slowly lost consciousness, unaware of what was going to happen next through his body.
'Goodnight Duo,' was the last thing he heard before he slipped completely into darkness.
"
Alright boys," said GRIM in Duo's distorted voice, "
Time to die!"
He then proceeded to push the Leo beyond its normal capabilities and slashed through all three of the mobile suits in one fell swoop. Their cries of terror as they realized their imminent doom was music to his ears. The beginnings of something else though, began to manifest.
Meanwhile in the observation room Professor X looked on with a hint of glee on his face. The test results exceeded all his expectations. When the GRIM synced up with the Leo it was able to raise its capabilities to nearly the same level as a Gundam. It was like a dream come true.
He pressed the communication button, "Good work Mister Maxwell. You've gone beyond all my expectations for this test."
"
Duo isn't home at the moment; please leave a message after the beep. Hahahaha!" it was a distorted version of Duo's voice, a complete and polar opposite one might even say.
"What is this?" X voiced his thoughts as everyone else looked surprised and a little scared.
"
Oh don't act like you don't know," the voice continued with a tone that mocking, "
You knew this could happen, didn't you, 'Dad'?"
"I see," Professor X frowned, it wasn't expected this early, "Doctor Fuji," the man sitting up straighter, "hit the gas."
Doctor Fuji hit a button at the control panel and the Leo mobile suit was filled with gas.
"
Hahahahaha! Goodnight Daddy! Hahahahaha!" the GRIM said excitedly as he continued to laugh insanely until the sleeping gas finally overcame him and he slipped into unconsciousness.
"Doctor Payne, send out a group of Virgos to bring him in," ordered X, "Doctor Inman, prepare the operating room for the installation of the inhibitor chip. I was hoping this wouldn't happen."
"Sir!" one of the techs suddenly shouted, surprising everyone as they turned to him, "The last three mobile suits weren't destroyed!"
"WHAT!" everyone shouted as they looked out to see the pilots clinging to their ruined mobile suits, everyone wondering how this happened.
"Maybe there is more here, hmm?" Professor X's gaunt, half cyborg, half vampire face now looking on in curiosity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The rest of the Gundam pilots were gathered in Commissioner Madelyn Une's office discussing the actions to be taken in light of Duo's disappearance and the ongoing hostilities between the Preventers and what has been dubbed the X Faction. With the immediate new cruisers about to be made ready, entering their acceptance trials much earlier than admitted, the Preventers were preparing an offensive not seen since the war. Which is something that has many people upset, but were thankfully placing blame where it belonged.
"So that braided idiot got caught while playing the hero," Wufei Chang, codename Agent Masters, said, but admired the act, "So what are our actions?" he finally asked after a moment of thought.
"Commissioner Une we have to get Duo back quickly," Quatre said immediately, his voice heavy with concern for his friend.
The blonde Gundam pilot was Duo's closest friend outside of Heero, though Heero and Duo would never admit themselves. The blonde's empathically connection to others and Duo's outgoing personality simply matched up. They were very good friends, with Duo as best man at half of Quatre's weddings and Quatre often tried to help Duo's struggling business.
"I understand your concern but there is nothing we can do," Commissioner Une replied with a calm tone that she has become known for, knowing how hard it was to sit around, Hilde especially was a wreck.
"What did the spy say when Franti interrogated him?" voiced Heero in his usual direct, no none sense monotone, hoping that they got some good intel so they could go rescue the loudmouth he called a friend.
"Apparently Professor X intends for Duo to test his latest weapon and stole the remains of his Gundam to help facilitate that," Une immediately replied, knowing that Duo wouldn't test it unless there was something forcing him too and that wasn't counting how livid he would be about his stolen buddy, "That's all we were able to get out of him before he managed to swallow a cyanide pill he had hidden under his tongue, though Franti was quick to administer a counter agent into the man, it will be some time before he's awake let alone alert or coherent enough to interrogate again," Une informed them, glad that about a hundred years ago, someone got around to creating a quick reaction agent as well as something they could slip a prisoner to prevent them from using cyanide for a quick death.
"Then the most logical point of action would be to make a direct assault on the war station," Trowa spoke up breaking his silence, as he also had a soft spot for their loudest member.
"At the moment those attempts would be futile," Une informed them, "We have no mobile suits with which to launch an attack and the cruisers are still being prepared and outfitted," the others nodded, it would be a month before operations could take place and that was pushing it, "However in a month's time we will be ready to confront the forces X has amassed and defeat him and his assembled combat weapons in a single move," Une informed the Gundam pilots.
"Why only a month?" asked Quatre, such an audacious move would be very much like Madelyn Une.
"Because that is when your Gundams will be completed," finished Une.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An hour later, back at the X's nameless war station, Duo was once again strapped to a table in an operating room. The brunette was heavily sedated to the point it was doubtful he would awaken for several days. This was needed, because the GRIM might reactivate and override Duo's personality again and take control of his body again.
"Doctor Fuji, begin the operation," ordered X, both of his arms held up with white surgical gloves on and his form covered head to toe in a medical surgical uniform.
"Yes sir."
Doctor Fuji then proceeded to cut into the flesh at the base of the skull until he came to the protective covering of the GRIM that melded in perfectly with the rest of the bone of the skull leaving it undetectable from the outside. Once done, Professor X moved in to join him in carefully removing the covering until the inner workings of the GRIM were revealed. Both men were taking care not to touch any other part of the system as they put the inhibitor chip in its proper place then replaced the protective covering on the GRIM followed by Doctor Fuji stitched up the flesh around it.
"Sir the installation of the inhibitor chip is a success," reported Doctor Payne from his spot at the monitoring equipment.
"Good, take him back to his cell once we're sure there's no complications," commanded X, as he moved off to clean up.
"Thirty-Three Percent, sir?" Doctor Payne questioned him, knowing the drawback to the inhibitor chip.
"I am well aware of the effects it will have on it," X bit back angrily at his lackey, "The portion the inhibitor chip will allow it to operate is the portion based on the ZERO System," X stated before continuing in an annoyed tone, "and it will only allow that to work if the nano-machines detect high levels of stress in the subject's body caused by life threatening situations," X explained, "But it is necessary to keep the GRIM from taking control and to keep its level of influence over the subject to a minimum until we know how it got out of control in the first place."
"Understood sir," Payne did understand and was thankful, but the Preventer's corvettes and patrol ships were starting to really tear into them and on that thought he decided some good news was in order, "we've also finished reconstruction of the his Gundam to plans originally put forth by Professor G."
Professor X scowled at mention of his former colleague before he developed his Slasher Smile again and Doctor Payne wondered if he should've just gone to jail way back when.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A month later
'Duo, wake up.'
'Urrr.'
'You need to wake up Duo.'
'Five more minutes Sister, just five more minutes?'
'Would you hurry and wake up idiot!'
'Stuff it Heero and let me- HEERO!'
'Actually no, this is the ZERO System; remember I was installed along with the Lemming System.'
'Oh right! Is that why I get the feeling I didn't kill those three?'
'You would be correct in that, but listen, GRIM is active and trying to get past both an inhibitor chip and myself at the moment.'
'Will I…?'
'No, remember there's an inhibitor in the way now, but play dumb and GRIM will never realize I'm here, just in case.'
'Agreed to that, I really hate that guy.'
'Professor X only altered the state of Lemming System after combining it with me and as such GRIM was born with the Lemming System believing itself to be GRIM, but…'
'He ultimately failed and I have two computer systems connected to my brain, right?'
'Yes.'
'Oh goodie, remind me thank him as soon as possible.'
'I believe that's what Lemming wants, but remember, play dumb.'
'I always do!'
'Why couldn't have been that guy with ego complex instead.'
'I heard that! And now that I think about it, why do you sound like a girl?'
'Here he comes! Play dumb!'
'Wake up Duo.'
'Urrr.'
'Duo you need to wake up!'
'Huh? Wha-?'
'This is your only chance to escape. You have to wake up now.'
'That voice… Why would you care?'
'Let's just say it's in both our best interest if you wake up?'
'Really?'
'Yes.'
'No personal reasons?'
No.'
'You sure? Because I don't think so.'
'Well, maybe I do, maybe I don't.'
'Oh! So you do have an ulterior motive. Fine I'll wake up.'
'Good.'
Duo slowly opened his eyes, still groggy from the sedatives and more from the last couple of days. He was being dragged to his holding cell by two guards. Neither were the usual guard that often watched over him. So he wondered what was the situation like.
'Ha! Only two, this is almost too easy,' he thought to himself before springing into action.
The years of training to be a Gundam pilot finally kicked in as he ripped his arms out of the grip of the guards before slamming his elbows into their esophagus, slapping one guard's ears to cause damage to his inner ear drums and throwing the man off balance before giving him a liver punch that further weakened him and then breaking a point on leg to effectively incapacitate the man, then bringing his fist around into the side of the other guard's throat effectively silencing and causing the man to choke. He then gripped the arm of the second guard and twisted it behind his back before grabbing the man's head and slammed it in one fluid motion into the metal wall, knocking the man out cold. He turned to the sound of a third guard, only to find the man in a sleeper choke hold.
"Sorry I couldn't help earlier," it was his usual guard, "Agent Knight Dancer of the deep cover arm of Preventer."
Duo had covered the third guard's nose and mouth to keep him from making a sound and drawing breath through his nose, "I didn't know there was a second agent?"
"I wasn't assigned to this mission," Agent Knight Dancer started, "but wound up here investigating a connection between a murderous pirate group, the Bloody Marys, and a group of politicians attempting to establish themselves as the power behind the government."
"Well, I think they've been taken care of by now," Duo said as he checked the guard, finding the man turning blue in the face, "I think he's out?"
Knight Dancer took a look at the man and then checked his pulse, Preventer did not leave bodies if they could avoid it, and confirmed the man's pulse and a regular, if weak breathing pattern, "He'll be out for a couple of days at best."
'Damn! I wanted blood,' GRIM suddenly spoke up in Duo's head.
"Shut it," Duo said by suddenly.
"The GRIM System still active?" Knight Dancer looked surprised, but then shook his head, it just so happen he once worked with Franti and knew the man's reputation when it came to nut jobs like Professor X, and there were not so public reasons for his rapid advancement after all.
"Can't get him to shut up," Duo muttered annoyed, "I hope having someone know that doesn't make me crazy."
"I believe you were already crazy prior to the installation," Knight Dancer nearly broke out laughing at Duo's look he was sending him, "but we can save that for another time, if we ever meet again."
"Right," Duo knew the danger of knowing the guy, for him mostly.
'Well let's go!' GRIM all but shouted in Duo's head, 'If I'm not mistaken, didn't you place explosives in this place?'
"Why haven't my bombs gone off?" Duo wondered, it had been far too long.
"Easy," Knight Dancer responded, "they're operational, but were turned dudes because of bad detonators thanks to a spy in Preventer."
"I guess the hard way then."
"I guess so," Knight Dancer shrugged, all stages had been cleared; now it was time to blow the war station apart, "Everyone is off and I'm ready for the next assignment."
'Time for my revenge then, MUHAHAHAHA!' GRIM spoke up, crackling at his thought of revenge.
'Shut up!' Duo thought shouted, even as he felt Zero roll her eyes.
As the two men, one mad machine, and one eerily quiet machine, neared the end of the hall Duo heard GRIM speak in his head, 'you need to turn left here and head to the reactor.'
'You have a use beyond being a killing machine and annoyance.'
'UP YOURS! Though with the bombs out, short of a fire, I think we're going to have to overload the reactor and hope we can prevent a scram.'
'Sounds good, but how will I do that?'
'Don't worry I'll guide you through it.'
'Why don't you do it?'
'I would but the inhibitor chip keeps me from taking control,' stated GRIM bitterly.
'Good,' Duo thought back at it with satisfaction.
"This way, GRIM's our own personal GPS!" Duo quipped at GRIM's more peaceful use, 'I'm not PEACEFUL!' Duo chuckling the whole way while Knight Dancer just shook his head, 'Glad I'm not GRIM right now.'
'Now take a right here and the reactor room is at the end of this hall,' GRIM informed him and Duo lead the way.
As soon as they reached the end of the final hall the 'group' came to a stop in front of a pair of doors leading to the reactor room, 'Alright genius, how do we get in?'
'The password is Odin.'
'Huh? X is Obsessed with death isn't he?' Duo thought as he typed in the password.
'Look who's talking Mister God of Death himself.'
'Shut up,' Duo thought at it.
When the doors opened Duo made his way to the control panel, 'Now what,' Duo asked GRIM as Knight Dancer took up a position to cover them from any unwanted attention.
'You need to shut off the cooling system and set the output levels to maximum as well as – SHIT!' GRIM cursed as he realized that Professor X must have changed everything during the month, 'After that we were supposed to have twenty minutes till the reactor goes critical and blows, but that old coot was a step ahead!'
'Alright let's get out of here,' thought Duo as he finished up and made his way out smirking as he went.
'What the heck are you doing?" Grim shouted in Duo's head.
'Relax,' Duo countered smoothly, 'The heat generated will still set off the bombs as I have no doubt they've just been rotting where they sat and are likely unstable.'
'You're good,' GRIM told Duo.
"I figure about ten minutes for the heat to build up and another ten until they blow," Knight Dancer nodded, he once did that, but he hoped they had twenty minutes, he had only fourteen last time he did that.
"I've stored you Gundam-" Knight Dancer was cut off as Duo rounded on him.
"MY WHAT!" Duo shouted and cursed internally about that.
Alarms immediately started going off as both men hid, but quickly realized, it was a combat alert, not them.
"The cavalry is here and Professor X recovered your Gundam's remains, but I've loaded it up on the freighter that's good to go, but I have to split off to get to a shuttle with last load of defectors and evidence not to mention rescued people I've been collecting and shuttling out of here."
"Right, see you around, even if I don't know it!" Duo waved as he made his way to the freighter, it was a good time to split up, just in case they didn't have twenty minutes.
"You got it," Knight Dancer was already running for his shuttle.
Duo started his own trek to the freighter hiding in the shadows dodging personnel and security cameras alike. Unlike Knight Dancer who could run off and safely board –hopefully- his own shuttle, Duo had to sneak around. It was nothing new and he had both GRIM and ZERO, though GRIM didn't know it, to help him.
Ten minutes later Duo was at the airlock of the docking bay. For some reason X had deemed it unnecessary to station guards here. That or he was extremely short handed after all the tests and now with the battle alarm, he couldn't really spare a guard. Duo slipped on a space suit and opened the airlock and floated down to the freighter. He entered the airlock of the ship and shut the door behind him. He exited the airlock into the ship, took off the helmet and made his way to the cargo hold.
Duo found the ship unmanned, which was good, the ship shuttered from nearby shockwaves. He quickly made his way past several incomplete mobile suits, a number of other things, large crates, and more, before he came to what he was looking for. There in the center of the room, completed and ready from another battle, was the remade Gundam Deathscythe.
"Hey buddy!" Duo greeted and the Mobile Suit's eyes lit up in recognition of its pilot, "I see you're back together, sorry about before, I really hated the thought of it…" he trailed off as the Gundam Deathscythe made it clear there were no hard feelings, he had happily served and it had been time for him to go, but now he was back and ready.
"Pretty soon buddy," Duo said as he looked his Gundam over with pride, "first we gotta blow this taco stand!"
Deathscythe acknowledged the fact as Duo turned and head for the bridge, greating there in record time, just as his first bomb blew three minutes early!
'Twenty minutes?' GRIM said smugly.
'I also believe I said they were unstable too,' Duo countered as he brought the ship online, 'they might not have blown at all or even been recovered.'
'Bastard,' GRIM stated as ZERO quietly confirmed the freighter, MSS Calculus, was now active and under Duo's command.
"Alright time to get the hell out of Dodge," said Duo as he fired up the engine and sent the freighter rocketing out of the docking bay at full throttle.
'Finally, I thought we would never escape in time,' GRIM said voicing his thoughts as two more of Duo's bombs went off.
'Shut up,' Duo thought back at it.
'I'll be gone soon enough.'
'Good riddance'
'Oh don't worry Duo; I'll be back,' said GRIM in his head before fading to nothing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the observation room...
"Sir!" shouted the man at the dock station, "the Calculus has left the station!"
X turned his attention from the battle, where the four remaining Gundam pilots were leading a big assault against him. It was over three months too soon by best calculations. Plus there were the Gundams and he was somewhat certain, Franti and Commissioner Une as well.
"What!" X yelled as he rushed over to the monitor only to see that the man was indeed telling the truth.
This wasn't supposed to be happening! How could such a thing be happening now of all times! Did Franti get into the station and steal the shuttle.
'No!'
"Where is Subject Thirteen?" he demanded as the station shook from another barrage of missiles, even as Heero spun and decapitated a pair of Taurus Mobile Suits.
One of the techs immediately began to check.
"Sir!" the man looked panicked, "he's not in his cell and his guards are unaccounted for!"
"Damn it, we can't let him escape!" X shouted as he turned to Professor Inman, "Bring the Oblivion Cannon online now! We have to make sure there is nothing left to find!" X yelled in fury.
"Yes sir, preparing the cannon now!" the man responded even as a burst of cannon fire from a cruiser stitched the station and vented several sections to space.
"Another shuttle is launching!" a tech shouted.
"Confirming its broadcasting Preventer IFF!" yet another shouted.
"Another spy!" X was beginning to froth at the mouth.
In just a matter of moments, the war station's main cannon was sufficiently charged and ready to fire.
"Sir, the Oblivion Cannon is charged to forty-eight percent and is ready to fire," Inman informed Professor X.
"Dump reserve power and fire the cannon!" X shouted, even as another bomb exploded, ripping apart the safety systems to the reactor and damaging the power control units, "Erase that ungrateful wretch from this reality," X screamed in rage.
"Emergency power dumped!"
"Drones drained!"
"Cannon at full power!"
"Firing Oblivion Cannon now," said Doctor Inman as he fired the cannon.
The space around the station was lit up in a blinding white as a large white beam of concentrated energy shot forth from the cannon heading straight for the freighter.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Finally I get that damn bastard out of my head," said Duo with a large amount of relief in his voice, "Now to report back to Lady Une and go on vacation, hm?"
Duo watched as a pair of new model Gundams, shaped very much like women, compared to the generic male appearance of Mobile Suits, fly towards him. He didn't even need to wait as he opened up one of the hatches for them to land. He figured quite easily that it had to be Hilde and Une, both wanting to make sure he made it through.
"DUO EVADE!" Duo leaped in his seat as he heard Quatre shout over communications, but by then it was too late as at that moment all the lights in the cabin started flashing red as a computerized voice blared the word "warning" over and over again even as the hatch he had previously opened closed as the two suits cycled through the airlock into the cargo hold.
"What the hell?" was all Duo managed to say before the entire ship was engulfed in a brilliant white light and his world went dark.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Target has been obliterated," one of the techs informed X.
"Damn," X muttered, "now I have to start all over," X finished to himself, disappointed in losing valuable research.
Then the warning lights started flashing throughout the entire station. Not just those that had been flashing but new ones. Dozens of explosions started to chain through the station and the explosives Duo had left had started to finish off the reactor and wreck secondary and tertiary systems.
The war station enter her death throes immediately…
"What now?" X screamed, this was becoming ridiculous!
"Sir!" said the voice of Doctor Fuji urgently, "after firing the cannon coupled with hidden explosives have caused the reactor to go critical!" Fuji and the techs with him paled at the readings as he turned and shouted, "IT'S GOING TO BLOW!"
"Damn you Maxwell!" were X's last word before his war station erupted in a brilliant explosion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elsewhere, an explosion of unknown origin was detected by anywhere who was and wasn't paying attention.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N: Well, this version is closer to the truth of what Gundam Wing has in store, for many reasons. For anyone curious, you can thank my beta for getting in Franti as one of the OC's, and we had a bit to talk about regarding how the story went… believe me, it wasn't the best of ways to get a story told, but we had to do something about this mess that was originally done as Code Geass: Knightmare of the Shinigami. The reason why I decided to take on Rellik Eht Deraj's challenge of doing this as a Gundam SEED crossover was because his idea of the GRIM System was interesting, and I had to figure out how to write stories with Mobile Suit battles, so I asked a friend of mine, my beta F-14 Tomcat Lover, to help me get this written out. When it comes down to it, this had better be able to surpass the original, for all intents and purposes.
…Honestly, why didn't Guntech/Tomcat take this challenge instead? I mean, I did a little bit of work, but he does the rest of it, for crying out loud!
*sigh* Oh, well, time to figure this out later. For now, don't worry, as the battles Duo will be in will have a major difference inside of them. How different, you ask? Try saving a space colony and you'll see what I mean there, if you would care to know what I mean.
Well, time to end this A/N, so, until next time, farewell.
This post has been edited by Xamusel: Jun 28 2011, 08:44 PM
Games
Resources
RPG Maker VX
RPG Maker XP
Scripts
Tutorials
Downloads
Xamusel's Fan Fiction Corner, A place for my fan writings to have critiqued and reviewed
Submit Your Article
Dec 11 2010, 06:19 PM
