11-Jul-2000
Title: Mission Arcadia
bonnejean & vonceia *present*Category: yaoi, AU
RavynFyre & Kateri Marie
in The B&V Guest Authors Series!
Duo - words, thoughts, actions - RavynFyre
Heero - words, thoughts actions - Kateri Marie
Rip & Jack, Their World and General Production - bonnejeanne & vonceia
Duo looked up and met Heero's gaze. "Okay, sensei... what's the plan?"
Heero took a deep breath and crouched beside his partner. "Simple. The three of us are going to level 4. We need more weapons, the mecha are likely to be heavily guarded. Then we find the mecha and destroy them if possible. Seek and destroy."
"Seek and destroy. I can do that," Duo quipped with a grin.
Kenny heard the words, 'the three of us' and looked at Heero, keeping very still. Just in case so he wouldn't change his mind. He did throw a look at Duan that was almost a guilty apology.
Duan looked up at Kenny and smiled suddenly. He walked up to Heero and stood in front of him. "When you get to Level 4 there is a door with a security lock. You punch in this word.. E - P - Y - O - N. Epyon," he said. "Then it'll ask ya for the other code. That one is easy. Final Battle. Those two will get ya in. The first word is the trickiest. You got that?"
Heero winced slightly, memories attached to that word flooding his mind before he cut them off ruthlessly. "Understood."
"We have GOT to have a talk with Jack about this... parallels my ass!"
Duan sighed, then stood up straight. "Good luck, Commander," he said and saluted Heero.
With perfect precision and the faintest of smiles, Heero saluted back. "Hn."
Duan glanced over at Duo and gave him the thumbs-up and a wink. Then he went to stand next to Kenny, pulling his bill cap low on his forehead.
Kenny said softly, "We need a place to meet outside... where, Duan?"
"The big tree where we first got out," Duan said, looking up at Kenny and swallowing hard.
"The lightning-split one? Hn," Kenny nodded, unconsciously imitating Heero. "We'll be there. You be there. Deal?"
"Deal," Duan said, looking at his friend and trying to be brave as he could.
Kenny reached out and grabbed the end of Duan's braid. He didn't jerk it, just held it and looked at the other boy, trying to promise with his eyes that he would be by the big tree come hell or high water.
Duan smiled a little sad smile, then took for him was a very deep breath. He took Kenny's hand and squeezed it. "I'm gonna go, now." he said.
"When Heero says," Kenny whispered.
Duan looked big, wide eyes up at Heero and nodded.
Heero looked down on both boys for a moment, considering. They were both so young. Too young to be acting like soldiers.
"So were we," Duo said, answering Heero's thoughts.
Heero nodded at his lover's words and then turned back to Duan. "Go." He said simply.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't," Duo said with a grin and a wink.
"Of course, I guess that's not really saying much, is it?" He laughed, reaching into his jacket to withdraw a couple of the vials he'd concocted.
He pressed them into Duan's hands.
"Dark one's smoke. Light one's flash. Use them wisely, my son," he deadpanned.
Duan's eyes widened and he tucked the precious loot in the pockets of his outfit. "I will. Thanks, Duo!" he said, excitedly.
"You bet!"
Kenny grabbed the braid and gave it a last tug. "Don't blow yourself up!" he hissed, sotto voce.
Both braided boys turned and gasped at Kenny, clutching at their hearts with the same look of comic disbelief and indignant surprise on their faces.
"Have some faith!" they said in stereo.
"Hn." Heero snorted, shaking his head at the two. "Bakas."
"Hn," Kenny muttered, sufficing with a nod to agree with Heero.
Duo winked at Duan, flashing him a "V for Victory" sign.
"Have fun storming the castle."
Duan winked back. "Time to run and hide!" he replied.
Duo blinked, at a loss for all of a whole second. For someone like duo, that was damn near an eternity.
A chuckle, barely audible, escaped Heero at the sight of his partner's speechlessness. But then his face schooled itself into its neutral mask and he nodded his head towards the out, "Get going."
Kenny sighed silently, and tried not to show his own sense of fear watching his best friend go off into the unknown dangers to come.
"Yes, sir!" Duan said, then melted into the darkness.
Heero marked the time on his internal clock and tallied how long they had. Forty-five minutes.
Duo did likewise. Anything left in here after then was toast.
He liked toast.
"We should go." Heero stated flatly, shifting his body to grab the bag smoothly.
"Gone man. Solid gone."
Kenny made it to the door first, opened it and peered around, checking for clear. Then he disappeared around the edge.
Heero followed at a gait, securing the bags on his back even as he moved.
Outside the door was a corridor going left and right, with plain service lighting turned to low setting. Kenny was waiting a few feet down the right passage, looking back, his body close to the far wall as he waiting. When he saw Heero, he nodded in the direction of that passage, silently telling him which way to go.
Heero nodded affirmatively and slid down the passage, back against the wall, to catch up to the boy.
Duo brought up the rear, a silent, ghosting shadow.
The corridor continued for some distance and finally was blocked by a sealed door. On the left of the door was what looked like a powered lift and on the right, a dogged door.
Kenny pointed to the door and made motions like going up or down a ladder. He pointed to the lift and made a motion with his hand of a smooth up and down motion.
Heero nodded and moved forward, cocking his head towards the boy and gesturing to the three of the and then to the lift.
Kenny thought furiously. Then he slipped up very close to Heero.
"On Four, the lift is guarded," he whispered softly. "Not on Two or Five."
Heero considered for a moment, then leaned in just slightly to glance at the ceiling of the lift. Still thinking rapidly, he turned to Duo, eyebrow lifting just slightly in query.
Heero does see a service hatch in the top of the lift that clearly leads to the ceiling of it for maintenance.
Heero shook his head at the easy access hatch and motioned Duo to come forward. With a concise gesture, he waved at the hatch. The wave was enough for such an old trick.
Duo nodded, his eyes sparkling with mischief as he knelt and cupped his hands for Heero.
Without missing a beat, Heero used his partner's lift to reach the hatch and pushed it off with a small oof! Then he grabbed onto the sides and pulled himself up with the bags, perching securely on the edge of the opening and reaching down. "Kenny." He commanded in a low tone.
Kenny came up quickly, looked from Duo to Heero. He didn't think he could jump it.
Duo picked the boy up and lifted him towards his partner.
Heero swung the boy up and settled him on the roof of the lift, safely out of reach of the cables. He looked down at his partner and nodded, "Quietly." The admonition was firm but doused with affection.
Heaving a disappointed sigh, Duo nodded. He turned and punched the button for the fourth level, plastering his best Shinigami grin on his face.
The lift moved, going down, and giving the two on the roof a view of the inside of the shaft. Heero could tell by looking that this had been an extremely well-designed, bunker-type base. There was a great deal of reinforcement in the structure. It showed signs of age and wear - had not had full maintenance in a decade at least, but was clearly built to survive some kind of major attack.
The lift moved smoothly and large, grimy numbers painted on the inside of the shaft showed when they passed level 2, then three. The lift stopped. The doors opened.
Outside the lift doors, a man stood on guard. He was not at attention and his rifle leaned negligently against his leg. When he heard the lift open behind him he straightened up suddenly, pulling the weapon up to his shoulder. He glanced back into the opening doors, and blinked, looking at Duo in surprise.
"Hey!" he said.
"Avon calling," Duo giggled, dashing forward and cold coking the guard across the temple.
The guard dropped like a stone. His gun fell to the floor making a slight clatter.
Duo scooped the weapon up and cast a quick look around. There had to be more guards. Really.
The problem was, there wasn't a really good view of the level from the door of the lift. Large objects were blocking the view. Less that a few yards beyond the door, stood rows of tall metal objects. Mobile suits.
From the left, a voice called, "Rogers! Stand your post dammit!"
Duo's eyes shot towards that voice as he grabbed the unconscious guard and yanked him towards the open lift.
Heero hissed down from the opening and gestured towards the rifle, making waving motions with his arm.
"Wave the gun, baka." He mouthed, wanting to slow down the other guards.
Duo held the rifle up, waving it over his head.
"Idiot." the voice called.
Duo spared a second to peer around the edge of the lift door, trying to get a better view of the level while staying as out of sight as he could.
Heero cocked his head and leaned closer to the opening, not wanting to relinquish his advantage quite yet.
They heard the tread of booted feet approaching.
"Rogers, dammit, this is the last..."
Another man moved into view, dressed in similar fatigues, also shouldering a rifle. He was clearly looking for the other guard and expecting him to be napping or goofing off or something. He saw the open lift doors and frowned. Then he saw the prone body of his comrade. "Rogers?" The guy was so focused on the prone guard he didn't see Duo flattened by the entrance. He came into the lift, bending down to shake the other man awake.
Sick of waiting, Heero grasped onto the edge and jumped through the opening, curving his body as he dropped. Thanks to his iron strong grip, he curved perfectly, impacting the guard with a most satisfying dull thump! and landing with catlike grace.
Now there were two unconscious men in the lift.
Heero darted a look either way, though he couldn't see much more than Duo had, and returned to the opening holding up his arms to help Kenny down. Placing the boy on the floor in the corner of the lift, he turned back to the unconscious guards and his partner and motioned to their feet.
Kenny touched Heero's shoulder.
He pointed to the mobile suits. "Put them in there," he whispered. "Those don't work!"
Heero looked at the suits for a moment, assessing the way there. He looked over at Duo and lifted his chin towards the mecha.
Duo nodded and knelt down to pat the unconscious guards down for other weapons, radios, and assorted fun toys he could appropriate.
The guards each had a sidearm and spare clips, no radios. Both had field knives.
There were also small plastic badges with name and a serial number on each of them, along with a bar code.
"I'll take these, if you don't mind, boys," Duo whispered to himself as he confiscated the lot from the bodies.
Heero shook his head but came over to inspect the badges his partner held. His eyes crinkled at the bar codes and he pointed to them. "Passcodes?"
"Prolly," Duo agreed.
Kenny nodded. "They put these against the light to go in some places. Some of em only go a few places, some go more."
Heero nodded, he'd suspected as much. Then he turned back to the guards. "Let's get to work." He said lowly, picking up one of the guard's heads.
Duo grabbed the same guard by the feet and helped Heero to carry the dead weight over to the mobile suits nearest them.
The suits resembled Leos in general shape and structure. There were differences. If either of them had seem on of these suits back home, they'd have though there was something damn odd about it. Here the odd thing was how similar they were.
"Weird... Swear to god if I find some freaky version of Deathscythe here, I'm gonna flip my gourd," Duo muttered darkly.
Heero ignored his partner's mutters and closed the guard in the suit, returning quickly for the other one. Time was counting down on them.
Duo sighed, his bangs blowing up around his forehead as he exhaled sharply. "Not that you'd probably care," he said with a grin.
Heero glanced over briefly and threw over his shoulder, "There'd be a difference?"
Duo grinned widely at that.
"Dear lord... is that a sense of humor I see peeking out there, Mr. Yuy?"
"Hn." Heero grunted, turning back to the other guard.
"Woops. Spoke too soon."
Duo followed Heero back to the other guard, helping to quickly stuff him into another suit.
As they were doing this, they could see more of the area. They saw that they were in a fairly large space, with walls visible at a distance in each of the three remaining directions. This area seemed to be used for the storage of large items. There were about twenty mobile suits there, as well as larger artillery pieces and stacks of shells.
Heero's eyes gleamed as he took in the stacks of shells but he dismissed them quickly - too unwieldy. He turned back to Duo, wondering what his partner would make of it. Improvisation always had been Duo's strong suit.
Duo grinned, peering around for any stray guards or other people before he started rummaging through everything he could reach.
"Little C-4... some Amfo... anything would be nice here... whadda we got?"
There did not seem to be the type of explosives Duo was looking for - mostly packaged and crated shells and small rockets, launchers etc. The order of things suggested that there might be other rooms in this level for smaller firearms, ammunition for same, and probably bulk materials.
Duo's face slowly fell, disappointment overtaking his manic grin.
"Damn. Oh well. How big is this level, Kenny? Any idea?" he asked, surveying the room as far as he could see.
Kenny nodded. He squatted on the floor and drew with his finger in the dust. He drew something that looked like a doughnut, and on each of four sides, little dots, and then cut the doughnut up into six sections. He pointed to one of the dots, at a compass point on the simple diagram and then pointed to the lift. He pointed to the room they were in, and then pointed to one of the six sections. "Five more rooms, big like this," he said softly.
"Any idea how many more guards?"
Kenny furrowed his brow. "There are 3 more of those,
Kenny furrowed his brow. "There are 3 more of those," he pointed to the lift again, "With guards... there's a guy... the.. the sergeant, who gives permission for stuff to go in and out, like if you need something. And sometimes a guy works with him. And then people come and go if they need stuff. But that's about it, or at least it was."
Heero scowled at the information and his eyes darkened.
Duo met his gaze and quirked an eyebrow. Between the "patrol" and these guards on this level, plus the women and other people, it was beginning to sound a little bit more like thirty to forty rather than twenty to thirty people.
Heh. Oh well. Just more people to play with.
"Where does the sergeant hang out?"
Kenny thought hard. He looked back at the lift, which had a sign painted on, "Lift 2". Kenny pointed to the right. "Um... I think, two rooms that way, by Lift 1."
Heero looked down at the diagram quickly, "Do you know where the explosives are?"
Again the boy thought deeply. He'd snuck into every nook and cranny of this base in his young life, especially places he wasn't supposed to go. He'd never expected to have to remember it all but it was coming back. He nodded. He pointed to the left. "Next room. And the.. the guns are in the next one after that."
Heero nodded and started to move towards the door, pulling Duo along with him. "Time to live up to your motto."
"Avon calling? But Heero... I forgot THAT bag back on earth!"
Heero tugged sharply on the braid and added a glare for good measure, eyes flaring in warning as they went further into the huge room.
A small hiss of pain escaped Duo's lips and he growled at Heero.
"Relax. I won't blow it. Yet."
Kenny stuck to Heero like a burr.
Duo broke away from Heero's grip and slunk through the room, vanishing between crates and stacks of munitions.
Heero took one last look over the rockets and shells and followed his partner, motioning to Kenny to come with them.
Kenny still stuck to Heero like a burr.
Duo was careful to keep to the shadows. Those first two buffoons may have been a joke, but this was no time to be careless. It would be just his luck to run into someone who actually knew what he was doing.
One of Heero's hands hovered over the space where the gun was stashed, while the other was extended just in front of Kenny, so that he could signal the boy on a moment's notice.
Duo finally came to the far left wall, there he could see a wide doorway, closed, with a small scanner on the wall beside it.
Duo took the name badge out of his pocket and considered it for a second, before he held the barcode up to the scanner.
The light flashed and a mechanical voice said, "Rogers, admit." and the door unsealed and opened.
The wide door moved back into the wall. One thing Duo noticed as he moved cautiously through it - it was wide. The wall was very very thick. This level had been designed to store munitions and hade been made with potential accidents in mind. Each section was heavily armor plated all the way around to seal it in the event of an explosion inside, making it containable to each of the six sections as long as the doors were sealed.
Duo paused in the doorway, waiting for his partner to arrive.
Heero slid in behind Duo stealthily and glanced around.
The next room was Duo heaven.
Duo's eyes lit up at all the fun toys he could pick out just from the doorway. He wrung his hands together unconsciously as he crept forward and started poking through boxes and crates.
He quickly started making several piles, sorting items as he found them.
"Kenny? Duan said you were good at this stuff too... wanna play?" he asked in a whisper, tossing a wicked grin over his shoulder as he sorted out another slab of C-4... or something that looked an awful lot like C-4.
Kenny's eyes widened, then he looked at Heero, leaning but not budging without an ok.
"Hn." Heero nodded an affirmative before searching through a nearby box of guns. "Just remember. No more than we can carry."
"Heh. Sugoi."
Kenny darted off, disappearing from sight. He reappeared in a few moments with a small crate. He presented it to Duo. It was a box of small, sophisticated detonators.
Then Kenny reached up, touching one of the confiscated knives tucked in Duo's gear and looking at him questioningly.
Duo sighed softly to himself. Damnit. He really didn't want to give him any of the weapons. Kenny didn't need to be doing any of this. He was so young. But he was right. Wasn't fair for Heero and Duo to have all the toys. He only hoped that he boy wouldn't have to actually use it.
Plastering his normal manic grin on his face, he handed over one of the knives.
Kenny took the field knife, opened a package of C4 and began cutting it neatly into chunks. He laid out a series of evenly cut blocks along the floor and then placed a detonator with each one. In a few moments he had ten easily carryable but fairly large impact bombs that could be placed almost anywhere. He glanced at Heero and said softly, "We hafta hurry." In his eyes, worry for Duan was clearly visible.
Heero's eyebrow had raised when he saw the skill with which the boy prepared the bombs but he had ceased to be surprised at anything this world produced. The boy's words carried to him and he nodded quickly, grabbing a pistol to bring just in case. "Ready?" He asked his partner.
Duo nodded, having slapped together several of his own C-4 surprises while Kenny had been working on his. He bundled them all together, tossing a few more largish chunks of explosives and a handful of detonators and timers into one of the bags.
Ready. You want me to set up a timed device in here?" he asked, eyes seeking out Heero's.
Heero met his lover's eyes and shook his head. "We'll let the explosion work it's way up later." He stated decisively.
Duo nodded and then shouldered the bag he'd packed possessively.
"Let's go."
Heero turned quickly and lead the way back to the first room, picking up speed with every step.
Kenny continued to stick to Heero like a burr...
Now that they knew the guards were taken care of, Heero sped back towards the lift, hearing the almost soundless echoes of his partner and their companion behind him.
Back at the lift they converged quickly.
"I'm guessing the second level will be a little bit better guarded than this one... What do you think?"
Heero nodded and then looked down at Kenny. "Do you know how many guards?"
Kenny looked down. He shook his head. He looked up. "It's not just guards there. That's where almost everybody who can do stuff works. There's always people around. It's not so much like this, the guards where you come in, but the look at you more when you come out. The... the sections are bigger... there's only two, like each one is half the level. There's lots and lots of suits. The place... where most of the people are is on one side... like where... where lift 1 is. That's where they work on the system that makes the suits work without someone inside."
"Are the workers armed?" Heero asked, the intensity of his eyes frightening as he brought his full concentration to bear.
Kenny nodded. "Pretty sure."
Heero's eyes clouded for a moment. That was a very large problem.
Kenny looked from one to the other and then said softly. "Um... it's easy... I go in first, get everyone's attention. They won't shoot a kid and they know me. They'll wanna know why I came back an... and why I didn't die out there alone..." He held his breath.
Duo scowled at that, his jaw tightening and his entire posture one of denial, although he didn't speak.
Heero looked down at the boy for a long moment, searching with the full intensity of his gaze. This wasn't just showing them the way to the compound, or giving them some codes, his plan was dangerous. "You sure?" He spoke curtly, not liking the idea much himself, but unable to come up with anything that didn't use the boy as bait.
Kenny nodded. "I can do it," he said. He went to Duo and looked up, his deep blue eyes very wide and serious.
"It's okay," he said. "There's... there's something I didn't say. I'm sorry I didn't say it before. I just... I didn't talk to people much back in Arcadia. But there might be... the General says there are other bases. Far away. I keep thinking maybe... maybe someone should find out... about them."
"I did not come here to create copies of us," Duo said tightly, his eyes darting up to catch his lover's gaze.
"Damnit. damnit."
"The copies were already made." Heero said softly in reply.
Kenny reached out tentatively and took Duo's hand.
"We're not copies," he said softly. "We're not as good as you. But I know... I know you don't hafta do this. You're not... from here. I'm glad you came."
"Heh. We may not be from here, but you're wrong, Kenny. We had to do this. I just don't have to LIKE doing it. I don't like you being in danger. That's all."
It was tough enough watching my own partner being in danger throughout the last two wars, without having to watch a .. a more innocent version of him going through it. Or at least a version of him that should have been more innocent, Duo thought to himself.
Kenny said, "I didn't like it when they sh-shot Ma either. I couldn't make it stop though. But I... know you won't let me...die."
"No." Heero said firmly. He was not going to watch another child die. He would not be the cause of another innocents death.
Heero's eyes swept over the two. "We should be going. There's not much time."
End of Part 7
bonnejeanne & vonceia present
RavynFyre and Kateri Marie
Please feel free to direct feedback to any or all of the authors!
ravynfyre@hotmail.com,
HematiteSalaris@aol.com,
vonceia@yahoo.com,
bonnejeanne@yahoo.com.