Chapter 22: Enter Heero Yuy

Somewhere on the grounds just outside the perimeters of the held-hostage Sanc Kingdom palace...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Look. The basement of this pool connects to that of the Sanc Kingdom's castle." Quatre Winner's finger traces the underground stone corridor that made a path between this groundskeepers' outbuilding and the main castle's basement it was detached from. This old, worn with time cottage's unassuming face and proximity to the palace made it the perfect command center and strategic planning room, just in case any threat arose around or in the Sanc Kingdom.

Of course, an attack like this was to be expected. The peaceful pacifist Nation's beacon of light was the most prime target for each and every terrorist and threat to peace in the world. And though most of the complacent citizens around the world were not prepared for such an attack--some of us were.

At least, Lady Une made some provisions here. Chang Wufei "hmphs" crossing his arms as he listens to Winner explain the large open map on the table in the middle of the secret, underground complex.

"Isn't that where he hid the Wing Gundam once?" The Chinese boy murmurs, recalling from data history he had perused. Penned by Preventer Fire during her early days as a member of the group. Weakling woman. Glad she's not here to mess things up, the bleeding heart.

"Yes." Quatre answers. He didn't need to read files on this particular subject. Both he and Heero personally became acquainted with Sanc's secret underground complex that was large enough and well equipped enough to house several MS covertly --

And yes, even a Gundam the size of Wing Zero.

Only he, Heero, Miss Noin and Pagan, the old faithful butler, knew of the secret entrance to Sanc that the street smart Belgian heiress along with Pagan had completed and updated during Sanc Palace's reconstruction a few years back. Not even the pacifist princess was aware that this complex even existed for a time.

And though Wufei doubted Relena Peacecraft's sanity--he sure hoped she had learned by now how, and when, to keep her mouth shut about such secrets. After all, their whole entire plan about to take shape on how to rescue Sanc and free the hostages, rested on the element of surprise.

Speaking of which, something that really wasn't a surprise...

"I couldn't find Heero ANYWHERE." THUMP! The door slams closed and Preventer Water (Sally Po) walks in with frustrated look on her worn face. She had spent far too much time on the search for a man harder to keep track of than the wind.

Let's hope he hasn't gotten "wind" of the situation yet, either. The very last thing we need is one ballistic Peacecraft older brother on the loose--again....

Sally didn't even want to think of what that could mean. What you don't know...

"Oh, Heero wouldn't sit still at a time like this." Quatre Winner didn't seem to be taking Sally's frustration at not locating Heero Yuy much to heart. He knew Heero well enough to know that he was a man of action more than words. A man who never flinched, never faltered, never wasted valuable time or turned a wrong step in combat. Heero Yuy was the kind of person they could rely on.

CLACK!

Another door hidden behind a false bookshelf clicks open. Wufei didn't need to look up to see who had just entered the strategy room behind him.

"Yeah, he's already here."

"Huh?!" Sally was standing facing the table where both Quatre and Wufei had the looks on their smug faces of tomcats who had just licked their paws.

"So let's hear it." It wasn't either of their voices that answered her question. Sally swivels on her heel to see Heero Yuy's dark, foreboding eyes staring her down.

There was something about Heero that was unexplainable. It wasn't exactly his fierce look in those dutiful glassy eyes. It wasn't the wild, dark shock of brown hair that was tossed unconcernedly from bangs to scruff of neck. It wasn't the set jaw or even the no-nonsense way his rather short 5'3" frame faced you down. No, it more something about his entire presence--something in his monotone voice and sparse get-to-it statements that made everyone else stand to attention, well aware that this young man, that this hardened assassin had the heart of a warrior who could make anything happen, accomplish any task no matter how difficult. No matter how drawn out---And both Sally and Quatre knew that it was that denied heart that brought Heero Yuy to them today.

The heart of a fighter to protect his mate.

"Well," Quatre doesn't even bother to greet his fellow soldier. He learned a long time ago that Heero Yuy wasn't one for chit-chat or friendly repertoire, or even questions of how he knew to come or how to get here. (Never mind how he had acquired his Preventer jacket). Especially not when Miss Relena's welfare was at stake.

"Duo and Trowa are surveying the castle interior right now." The blonde boy says in a serious tone. Heero merely nods, taking a seat at the map table.

"I've made a little toy on the way here. It should come in useful." All business, that was Heero. He produces a little black box in his hand and presses a button on it.

CLICK!

"Point D here. No problems."

The voice on it was obviously Heero's but Quatre was pretty smart himself as he recognized what the little recorder's intent was.

"A voice coder." He says. Heero nods again.

"I see." Wufei works what such a device could do for them. It, no doubt, once attached to the enemy's own communicator would send out the new recorded voice message to the others in the terrorist's own simulated voice.

"It'll answer for the guards that we take out then."

Pretty nice piece of technology. Wufei smirks to himself at Heero's well thought out ingenuity as he palms the lightweight gadget.

"That'll sure come in handy." Sally nods. Her faith in Heero Yuy was not unfounded.

"Perfect. Thanks!" Quatre exclaims, glad once again that Heero was on their side.

The rest of their little team comes in the door just then.

"Whooo-weeee! That castle's been turned into a fortress! There's video cameras installed EVERYWHERE! Armed soldiers keeping watch in one hour shifts...They've got eyes in the back of their---Oh! Hey, Heero! Knew you'd pop up sooner or later, considerin'" Duo Maxwell's mouth finally takes a breather. It smirks from side to side after giving that fast and furious report of the enemy's holdings from his and Trowa's stakeout of their layout.

The smirk stretches as he stares into Heero's eyes. He was just itching to say something smart about the reason he was here.

It's good-lookin' you came to save, ain't it? He found some twisted pleasure in irking Heero as far as he could go.

"The problem is," Responsible Trowa Barton doesn't seem to share Duo's warped sense of humor in such a delicate and dangerous situation. He dismisses the teasing look on Maxwell's face as he and Heero both ignore the man entirely. "We still don't know exactly where they're keeping the hostages. If we storm in and the terrorists use the hostages as human shields or threaten their lives--we'll have to give up." The precise and articulate soldier that Trowa was is overtaken by the compassionate hero. He didn't want to have a single innocent's blood spilt, especially if they could find a way to prevent it.

"Unless we go in driving tanks!" Duo Maxwell cackles out his own frustration. Heero rolls his eyes as Wufei turns his back on the idiot.

"Nope. We don't need tanks." Heero and Wufei turn to look back at their strategist's calm words. Trowa, Sally and even Duo give the gentle boy all their attention. The next statement uttered from his lips certainly garnered that completely.

"Just the one mobile suit."

"A mobile suit...?" Heero says in that trained, deadpan voice. Since the end of the war, all MS had been destroyed, even their own Gundams. And new ones had been prohibited from being produced. Relena Peacecraft had voted to pass that bill into law in the United Earth Sphere Alliance herself.

"Of course it's a fake." Respected representative of Colony L4 knew the laws well enough himself, but a shell of an MS that didn't have any firepower or real usuable weapons didn't fall in the restricted range.

"But we made it look like Wing Zero exactly. No one would know the difference." Quatre's big toothy grin wasn't all that convincing a smile. Thinking how nifty at making in-scale recreations Abdul was becoming, under Rasid's tutelage of course.

"A FAKE?!" Duo says incredulously. He had somehow been hoping their ace up their sleeve was a little more capable of destruction.

"Yes, all it can do is walk." Sally was in on this fraudulent Gundam's construction. But Duo still wasn't that taken with the idea.

I'm all for stealth sure, but...a buster rifle or two wouldn't hurt as backup, huh?

"Hey! Are you sure that's gonna work?" Duo airs his doubts, slinging his arms over his head like he does when he's really skeptical of something.

"Listen." All the eyes that were just glued to Duo's loud display of doubt are called back almost involuntarily by Quatre R. Winner's demanding voice.

"We'll prioritize human life on this mission. There will be NO casualties." Quatre states forcefully with emphasis on the words. The others watch him intently. "Of course," Quatre says thoughtfully, looking down to gather his thoughts. He wasn't used to being so forceful with either word nor deed. He was of the belief that most conflicts could be solved by talking things out and coming to compromises--most conflicts.

"We won't allow them to use that nuke either." He finishes his statement, looking to each face around the table with the intense sentiment. In turn, each one looks from Quatre to one another with what he had just aggressively stated in their minds.

Ah, the plan.

"I have no objections." Heero finally gives his nod to the plan after a long, uneasy pause. "But is that possible if we don't use force?" Heero wasn't always one for the direct approach, but even the indirect approach usually ended up with some casualties.

"Just listen to me." Quatre demands. Everyone was at first shocked at his unusually aggressive stance and voice. It was as if, even more than his compassion for human life, Quatre had something further at stake here...

"First, Trowa gets into their monitor room and sends a dummy image to all their monitor screens." The strategist at last. Quatre takes his team step by step through the ingenius plan already well plotted in his eager mind.

"It's dangerous, Trowa. But only you can do it." Quatre says, half apologetically, half proudly to his best friend.

"I don't mind. I'm pretty good with tightropes." Trowa modestly states his phenomenal acrobatic skills.

"Good." Quatre smiles, glad for his support as his tactical mind moves on to the next step.

"Meanwhile," The strategy chief turns his golden head around to face the Chinese boy. "Wufei, you and Sally, as government employees, take the ransom over."

"And this is where I get killed." Sally picks up her part of the plan that they had already discussed. Quatre nods.

"By Duo, who's pretending to be a berserker soldier."

Sally can't help but smile at that particular thought. It was little too close to the truth in Duo's case.

"Sure! That'll cause a RIOT!" Duo picks up on their idea of shooting Sally much to eagerly for any sane person's sake.

"The timing will be crucial." Quatre continues explaining his plan. "Wufei MUST get away in the scuffle so that he can unlock the secret entrance to the Sanc Castle from the inside and let me in."

"Oh, I know that part." Wufei states.

"Hey, Wufei." Duo sidles up to Wufei's chair, elbowing his shoulder playfully. "You want me to use REAL bullets?" Duo whispers mischievously, evilly, with a wicked heh-heh and a wink under his breath.

"Hmph." Wufei mutters, his own evil snide smile creeping across his face. He understood Duo's drift exactly--and a few choice words would make sure Duo got his drift too. "I might end up killing you first if you do." Said in a hiss, it was a blatant threat. An out and out "You hurt my woman, I'll hurt you" kind of statement that Duo was a little...stupefied...to find such passion for another--a woman no less--so obvious in Chang Wufei's macho demeanor.

Sally Po? Well, whatever suits your fancy. Duo gives Sally a raised eyebrow look. She cocks her head at both he and the lacquered black hair China boy she has become....close to.

"Wufei will remain in the castle and meet me as I make my way through the basement. There we'll walk in this underground shelter." Quatre was now using a pointer on the Sanc Castle's schematics on the location where he and Wufei would meet up at underground.

"Duo will probably be confined as a rebel--" Quatre is cut off by Duo's gulp.

"Probably?!"

"That, or get killed on the spot for ruining their plans." Trowa "helpfully" reasons out, crossing his long arms seriously.

"Gee, thanks, Trowa. That sure helps my psyche." Duo mutters sarcastically.

"So, wherever they hold you, we'll hope that Miss Relena and the others will be there, too. Then you can signal on your hidden communicator to Trowa and Wufei and I below as to where the hostages are being held. We can all sneak in and rescue --"

"And if they don't put Duo in with the other hostages?" Heero, quiet up till now, was forever the pessimist. He found, through all his years of combat and war, that generally the first, best laid plan--was not the scenario that really happens. And in a scenario where Relena was concerned, Heero wanted every contingency covered.

"That's why we've prepared the fake Wing Zero." But Quatre R. Winner was ready for Plan B as well, it seemed. He turns to Heero with full focus now. "You'll pilot it and say that you've come to stop the terrorists and bring them under control." Quatre was using his hands now to act out the scene. "They'll probably say, 'Wait! We have a nuclear weapon! You'll be killed to!' to try to scare you off. And you'll say 'So what? That's my girl. Life's not worth living without her.' When they hear that, they'll run to the nuclear shelter." Quatre's wriggling hands scurry down the map's main corridors in demonstration of running baddies.

Duo looks to Trowa and then to Wufei with a blank look. "Either that or they'll call Dr. Hearts and Flowers, the love psychologist on the tube." Duo quips one too many times as he receives a backhanded smack in the jaw by the "psycho" patient Heero he was unfortunately perched on the table beside.

Ouch.

"Even if they buy it, they might not take the hostages to the shelter." Wufei too, was a pessimist. All that talk of "My girl" and "love" of Winner's got his male macho ire up now.

"If we play our cards right, they will buy it." Sally gives her partner a pair of strict eyes.

"And then we can lock up the shelter and save the hostages at our leisure." Master Strategist Quatre comes to a flourishing end. "Does everyone know what they're doing." He asks as Sally goes to a locked cupboard, punches in several numbers on the keypad, and removes several machine guns and small firearms that were in the place of several broken and chipped teacups and saucers.

She hands each man a loaded revolver complete with silencers, knowing full well that every one of them was expert in dealing with such deadly weapons.

Even the cutest and sweetest of them, Sally marvels at how versed with the weapon Quatre was. He pulls back the cock and double checks the bullets with the precision of a seasoned veteran. Cute, yet deadly.

We're depending on them to be just that. Deadly, even without their machines.

CHIK!
CHIK!
CHIK!
CHIK!
CHIK!

The sounds of five guns at the ready, the nods of five soldiers brought together for a dangerous mission. The looks of raw determination in each set of their five steely eyes. Conflict, war, battle, destruction, death--all are unnecessary in this world of peace. Unnecessary, unwanted, and yet needed for freedom loving peoples to exist in this world.

"Okay? Perfect!" Gold leader Quatre looks into each of his compatriot's eyes. They all saw in each other's reflection just what they must do.

"All right! Let's go!!!" He cries out with a nod. Each young man races to his part of the mission. After all they only had a few hours left to accomplish the impossible.

But they've changed worlds in less.

"Mission commenced!" Heero Yuy states with the determination of a man whose entire life was at stake in this one. If not his own---

Hers....