[Fic] Here There Be Reptiles 1/?
Feb. 5th, 2004 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saffiter**Thoughts**
"Speech"
_emphasis_
//computer stuff//
THANKS BRONZE!!!!!!
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Life was good. It was summer, the weather was mild and to make matters even better there was no school. To top it off there hadn't been a single mission for over a month so Duo found himself indulging in a luxury he hadn't been able to enjoy for quite some time: reading.
He was curled up in a corner of in a corner of the large, well-stocked library of the current safe-house - a mansion belonging to Quatre, though _he_ insisted it was only a house - in one of the large easy chairs under the library window. In his lap was a random book and several more could be found on the floor beside him. The book may have been open but Duo's mind was far from caught within the volume's pages. He was staring out the window watching Trowa and Quatre wander around in the gardens.
**I wonder where the other two are? Let's see now... Heero, that's not too hard to guess, he'll be in his room mushrooming and typing on that damned laptop of his. Ch'. I swear he was born with that thing physically attached to him!** He started to snicker at the mental images that bought up. **Wu'll be outside somewhere, meditating I'll bet. Or maybe he's practicing his martial arts. Shirtless. Sweat pouring down taut musc... _down_boy_!**
He sighed and hung his head. This was becoming too common an occurrence. He'd been thinking about Wufei more and more often. He wasn't quite sure when it started but he really had to stop it. Quatre had caught him the other day. He hadn't said anything but he'd given Duo a sly grin and a wink. **I don't know why everyone thinks blondie is so innocent. Heh, if he's innocent then I'm the Queen of Sheba.**
As if merely thinking of the Chinese pilot had summoned him, Wufei appeared in the library door. With his shirt on, much to Duo's disappointment.
"Maxwell, what the hell are you doing here?" the look on the Chinese teens face was priceless.
"What does it look like I'm doing Wu?" Duo grinned and flashed the cover of his book at him. "I'm reading." **Floored him! I bet I'm the last person he expected to see in the library.**
Internally Wufei sighed. "Wu_fei_, Maxwell, Wufei."
He'd always suspected there was a lot more to the American than met the eye. He really shouldn't have been surprised to see him in there but he'd always pegged Duo as more of a Manga reader than a bookworm [1].
Duo Maxwell was a veritable puzzle. As a scholar Wufei had always prided himself on his ability to solve puzzles, yet the enigma that was the American pilot remained.
"Whatever Wuffy." Duo's face contained just enough of a smirk to be annoying. It was almost calculated the way he did that, almost as though Duo knew _just_ how much to push to get him annoyed or angry.
**Sometimes I think he purposefully tries to antagonise me. Scratch that, I _know_ he does. That smirk was just too _something_ to be natural.** "As much as I enjoy discussing your various pronunciations of my name," he leaned idly against the door frame and gazed coolly at Duo. "Yui is looking for you. It appears that we have a mission."
Without a word Duo stood up, placed the book with the others on the floor, and walked out the door - well, swaggered out would probably have been a better description. Duo bounced, he swaggered, but he didn't just _walk_ anywhere. Wufei followed him with his eyes until he was lost around the corner. Belatedly he realized that he'd forgotten to tell the boy where Yui was. Of course Duo would probably find him within five minutes flat anyway, he had a knack for that sort of thing.
Looking at the large pile of books on the floor he shook his head. Duo Maxwell was a puzzle, one which he intended to solve.
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Within the hour they were gathered in one of the many drawing rooms in Quatre's mansion, already deep into planning their mission - no matter how odd it seemed.
"Sooooo... we gotta go to this island and stop OZ from capturing the local wildlife? Right. Ooookay..." This had to be the _strangest_ set of orders he'd ever received, and he'd thought he'd had some strange ones. "I don't suppose they were kind enough to mention exactly _what_ the 'local wildlife' _is_ did they? Or was that too much to ask?"
"No." Heero gave a minute shake of his head. "The doctors have no idea what lives on Isla Sorna." Pressing a couple of keys on his laptop called up a map of the local area and he began to point out different spots. "Oz will be landing here on the North side. We will land here on the North-eastern side. Camp will be on the cliff here."
Quatre peered over Heero's shoulder. "Where is the OZ camp?"
"Here." He tapped a section of the screen which turned red.
"Transport?" Trowa moved to join Quatre at Heero’s shoulder.
"We go by shuttle to this island where we will be met by a contact with our equipment for this mission. We then go by boat to Isla Sorna. Questions?"
"Yeah, I've got one." Duo eyed the map. "Does anyone else think this is weird?"
"It is odd that OZ would be interested in the wildlife of this island. World domination seems more their style." Wufei glanced over at Duo who had curled himself up in a nearby couch. He reminded him of a cat curling up in a warm spot. "I do not believe there should be any difficulties."
"Famous last words Wu." Duo tugged on his braid. "Famous last words."
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Two days, and innumerable miles later, found Trowa and Quatre standing in the middle of a busy market place, their first and last stopover of the journey, awaiting the arrival of their contact. Their shuttle trip there had been relatively uneventful. Duo had thrown around many different propositions, many of them bordering on the outrageous at times, over what the 'local wildlife' actually entailed. He'd then alternated between teasing Wufei, and to a lesser extent Heero - contrary to popular belief he did have _some_ self-preservation instinct - and casting what he thought to be secretive glances at the Chinese teen.
**It's cute how he does that when he thinks no-one is looking.** Quatre scanned the crowd again for any sign of their contact. **He knows I know he likes him, but I don't think he realises that Wufei returns the feelings... actually, I don't think _Wufei_ quite realizes that he likes Duo. If they don't do something soon I'm going to be tempted to play matchmaker.**
If the first leg of their journey was any indication then this mission was going to go off like clockwork, a nice change as far as he was concerned. That would leave plenty of time to get Wufei and Duo together. At least he hoped it was going to go off like clockwork. He'd had a dull ache in his chest since they'd taken off. Absently rubbing at it while he kept an eye out for their contact he mulled over what type of wildlife would interest OZ so much, and how to give Duo and Wufei a push in the right direction.
"Something the matter, Quatre?" Trowa murmured placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "That's the fourth time in as many minutes you've rubbed at your chest like that."
"Am I being that obvious?" He went to rub his chest again but caught himself in mid-motion. Chuckling softly he looked up at his lover - he'd just answered his own question. "I guess I am. I just... have this feeling, this ache in my chest. I _think_ my uchuu no kokoro is trying to tell me something but I'm not sure [2]."
Trowa glanced at the smaller blonde standing next to him. There were a few things he'd learnt about Quatre early on, some of them the hard way. The first thing He had learnt was _never_ underestimate what Quatre was capable of doing. It was the first mistake many people made, himself included. If you were an enemy you got rather dead. If you were a friend it severely pissed him off - and a pissed off Quatre was not something you wanted to face alone and unarmed. He may look like a small, innocent, fragile boy, and he had been known to play that to his advantage - big blue eyes could be a _lethal_ weapon - but he was anything but.
**Small, yes. Fragile, no. Innocent, definitely _not_.** He had to fight back a grin.
The second thing he'd learnt? _Always_ trust Quatre's _feelings_. They were usually right. He'd lost count of the number of times they had saved his life.
"You're not sure?"
"Well..." Quatre grinned impishly but it didn't reach his eyes. "It could have been those sandwiches I had for lunch."
Smirking softly Trowa put his arm around Quatre's shoulders. **He's trying to make us both feel better by cracking jokes. His humour could use a bit of work though.** "We'll just have to keep our eyes open then." A flash of movement in the crowd off to his left caught his attention. Someone was trying very hard to look inconspicuous - and failing miserably in the process [3]. Tapping Quatre on the shoulder he nodded in the general direction of their bobbing, weaving... contact he guessed. The doctors had said to look out for the weird guy. "I believe our contact has arrived."
Quatre turned to where Trowa had indicated. "Trowa, where... " He blinked as a man materialized in front of him from the crowd.
It wasn't the man Trowa had first seen.
He wasn't much to look at. Probably in his mid to late twenties, casually dressed in jeans and a while 'Bite ME!' T-shirt. He casually looked Quatre up and down before shifting his gaze to Trowa. "Ignore the idiot over there," he jerked his head quickly to where the man, that Trowa had _thought_ was their contact, was hiding behind some potted roses. "Decoy."
Trowa arched an eyebrow as he surreptitiously reached for his gun. The man rolled his eyes and initiated the pass phrase. "The wizard is feeling restless tonight."
Trowa relaxed slightly. "And Dorothy has gone and lost her shoes." Duo had fallen out of his chair laughing when he'd heard the pass phrase, asking, between giggles, something along the lines of 'Who thinks up this stuff?!?' Trowa tended to agree with him; some of the stuff that had been thought up recently defied description.
Seemingly satisfied with their answer the contact continued. "Your boat is at the South Docks, pier 46. All of your equipment is stowed onboard and you have all of the nautical charts for the area in and around Isla Sorna."
"Thank you," said Quatre, ever the polite one no-matter what the situation - and this guy was giving him the creeps.
The man grinned and looked at both of them, a mildly unsettling look in his eyes. "You know, none of the locals will go near the place."
"And why is that?" Their contact didn't seem ready to leave and, no matter how creepy the guy was acting, as far as Trowa was concerned any information they could gain on their destination would be useful.
"They call them, the chain of islands that Sorna belongs to, the Five Deaths. Nobody, sailors and locals alike, will go near the place. People have gone there and never returned so now _no-one_ goes there." Giving a cheerful wave their contact turned and vanished back into the crowd. Moments later the decoy stood up, brushed himself off, and moved nonchalantly into the moving press of bodies, vanishing within moments.
Quatre absently rubbed at his chest as the man disappeared. He had a _bad_ feeling about this.
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Wufei had always considered himself something of a watcher. He may not be as good at it as Barton was - no-one was as good at it as Barton was - but he still liked to watch, to sit back apart from everything and figure out how people ticked.
He was currently watching a Hurricane. Said Hurricane was the black-clad pilot of Gundam Deathscythe known as Duo Maxwell and, as hard as he tried, he _still_ hadn't figured the boy out.
"Oh _wow_! Hey, Wu, WU! Check this out. Oh this is so totally cool! This place had everything _including_ the kitchen sink."
It hadn't taken Duo long to start exploring their gear, acting a lot like a child tearing through wrapping paper on Christmas morning. He was currently bouncing around the trailer that was to be their base of operations - practically tearing the place apart in the process. The mess was surprisingly small though; it appeared as though Duo was placing everything back where he found it after examining it.
Wufei was staying well out of his way and watching him intently. **He seems fine now. I'm not sure why Quatre's news had him so upset.** Duo had been nearly shaken up as much as Quatre had been when he returned from meeting with the contact. **I admit the stories of this chain of islands are mildly disturbing, equally so since we know _something_ there has caught OZ's attention.**
After meeting with their contact Trowa and Quatre had gone about asking discreet questions on the Islands. Some of the tales they had bought back, from the people who hadn't turned them away with fearful looks, were quite disturbing - if not a little fanciful. 'Hell spawn' indeed.
Something fell into Wufei's line of sight. Looking up he jumped, tried to rise, tripped over one of the numerous crates of gear scattered around the deck, and fell on his back. At least he had been sitting down, it would have hurt a lot more had he been standing.
Belatedly he realized that it had only been Duo... wearing some strange goggled contraption over his head and eyes. Said pilot was now sprawled against the side of the trailer laughing loudly, still wearing the odd contraption.
"Maxwell! What the hell are you wearing?!" Duo held out his arms and did a small pirouette, braid swinging in a lazy arc over his behind. **And what a lovely behind that is!** Mentally slapping himself he dragged his eyes back up to Duo's face.
"They're night vision goggles. You like? You flip this switch here and... OW!" Duo quickly pulled the goggles off his head and began blinking rapidly. "Ooooh, after image. Cool! Hey, Wu, you gotta check out some of this stuff. C'mon!" Without any room for argument Duo grabbed Wufei's arm and dragged him into the trailer.
"Maxwell, unhand me!"
So much for watching.
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Heero was worried, not that you could tell but he was. After Trowa and Quatre had returned with those stories... well, let's just say it set off warning bells in his mind - large ones in fluorescent colours and flashing lights. He had run a search on Isla Sorna and he didn't like what he had found, he _really_ didn't like it. In the past twenty years alone over one hundred people had gone missing on that island alone - that wasn't counting the other ones.
**That's one hundred too many for my liking.** The other pilots were the closest thing to a family he could ever remember having. Consequently he was rather protective of them, not that they were ever going to find out about it - and if they did he'd just deny everything.
**Let's see what else is on this island. I don't like going in uninformed.** Running a full search on Isla Sorna would take time. He checked their ETA: two hours. **I just hope two hours is enough time.**
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Delicately juggling two cups of tea Trowa made his way over to Quatre, who was watching Duo drag Wufei around. He had the strangest look on his face. "Quatre," he called so he wouldn't startle the blonde Arabian. "I brought you some tea."
"Thank you Trowa." Quatre accepted the cup and went back to watching Wufei and Duo.
Trowa studied him as he watched the other two pilots. **He seems calmer now, at least he's not constantly rubbing at his chest anymore. I don't know whether that's a good sign or a bad one.** He took a sip of his tea, wincing slightly as it burnt his tongue.
"Those two are so clueless... It's cute!" Quatre turned to Trowa, his face taking on an expression he had grown to dread, and he'd only ever seen it once before. It was his I-know-I-shouldn't-do-this-but-I-really-want-to-and-it's-going-to-drive-me-insane-if-I-don't. The last time Trowa had seen that look Quatre had talked him into helping set up one of the Manguanacs... The result had been... interesting to say the least.
He looked at the pair in question and studied them for a moment. **Quatre's right, they're clueless. I'm tempted... but then again, I remember the last time he played matchmaker.** "No."
"No _what_?" His face was entirely too innocent.
"Don't interfere."
"But..."
"No!" With that Trowa picked Quatre up, slung him over his shoulder, and carried him like a sack of potatoes towards the cabins. He fully intended to put Quatre's mind to _other_ uses.
"TROWA!!"
It would be some time before either of the pair would be seen again.
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Duo started to snicker when he heard Quatre's shriek. "Somebody's gonna get lucky tonight."
"Pardon?" Wufei looked up from where he was sitting and gave Duo a confused look.
**He's cute when he does that.** "Oh, nothing. Just talking about Quatre. Trowa just gave into his caveman tendencies. Slung Q over his shoulder and headed towards the cabins. I doubt we'll be seeing either of those two for a while."
"Oh..." Realization flooded Wufei's face and he blushed. "Oh!"
This set Duo off into another round of snickering.
"I fail to see what is so funny, Maxwell."
**Oh, nothing much. You're just too cute when you do that.**
"Nothing, Wu. Say," he looked around, noticing who else was missing from their merry little band. "Where's Heero? I haven't seen his soldierness since we left port. _Don't_ tell me he's gone and holed himself up with that damned laptop of his _again_? I swear that guy's permanently attached to that thing. Spending so much time in front of it can't be healthy. Y'know, the last time we roomed together - and I'd _love_ to know how he manages _that_ all the time, we're not even s'posed to _know_ each other at those places - I could've sworn he spent more time on that thing than he did off it!" Taking in a deep breath he plowed on before Wufei could get a word in edgewise. "I s'pose I'd better go and get him off it. Again. Don't want his eyes going square, they'd make him stick out and _then_ where would he be? Sticking out is bad for the mission and we can't have that now, can we?"
He started toward the doorway intent on finding Heero and dragging him off that thrice damned laptop if it killed him - or he killed him, or vice-versa, whichever came first. "Hey, Wu, you coming or not?"
"Wu_fei_, Maxwell, Wufei."
"Yeah, whatever. Coming?" He hadn't bothered to turn around. If he had he might have noticed the strange look his friend was giving him. Or the way his eyes seemed to follow how he walked, focusing on the braid and how it almost lovingly caressed his behind.
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It had only taken him an hour to find something on their destination. It also explained a possible interest OZ might have in the island.
Heero didn't like surprises. He _really_ didn't like them! So he was more than _slightly_ pissed with the information on his screen. To top it off it looked like the doctors might have known what was going on in the first place and they hadn't _told_ them.
//Ownership: InGen Corporation. Biological Research Facility. Site B.//
//Details Y/N?//
**Biological research? I do _not_ like the sound of that. If the doctors knew why didn't they tell us?** he hit the 'Y' key with a bit more force than was probably necessary.
//Accessing... Please wait... //
The information flashed up on the screen and Heero's eyes widened. "Masaka..."
He really, really _hated_ surprises.
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"Sir!" One of the many officers assigned to the mission saluted. The commanding officer had just appeared on the bridge. "We will reach Isla Sorna in just under two hours."
"Very good ensign. Maintain the ship's present course."
The ensign saluted, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, and returned to his post, proud to have spoken to, and received praise from their commander.
Metal glinted as the lights reflected off the commander's mask. **Time to see if the rumours I've been hearing are true.**
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tbc
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[1] Why does everyone that I've ever met seem to think that people that read books don't read comic books? I'm a self professed bookworm and I'd like to introduce you to my exceptionally _large_ collection of Phantom comic books (the collection would include manga but it's just waaaay too expensive for this poor Uni student at the moment... maybe after my birthday and christmas...)
[2] In this fic I have Quatre's Uchuu no Kokoro, or Space Heart, or whatever you want to call it, acting kinda like the force does for a Jedi (no mind tricks, levitation or stuff like that though). It tells him when his friends and other people are in danger, he can tell people's emotions, and he can sense when danger is coming.
[3] Anyone ever seen that Bond movie with Rowan Atkinson in it? Remember what he was doing? *snicker*
