Log: The Workshop
Characters: Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell
When: A little while after Heero returns from his excursion.
Where: Their apartment building.
Rating: G
Summary: Heero wants to see the pilots' workshop and Duo is happy to show him, and together they hatch the beginnings of a plan.
Duo stretched his arms over his head. He'd seen Heero's message, and knew the pilot was back at the building. He glanced around the apartment to see if he was in his room or out in the living area or kitchen. "Heero?"
Heero was poking around the kitchen, examining their food supplies. Not terribly impressive. He turned and closed a cabinet when he heard Duo. "I'm here."
Duo headed into the kitchen. "Watcha doin'?" he asked.
Heero glanced at him. "I wanted to see what sort of supplies we had," he admitted.
The American nodded. "Yeah... it hasn't been easy to find them. Going outside the Safe Zone risks coming across some weird dangerous creature or getting lost when the whole world around you changes. And supplies do run out inside the Safe Zone. Unfortunately, the scientists in the center building don't exactly seem to be willing to share what they've got." Duo frowned. "I'd considered trying to break in and see what I can grab from them. Just haven't found a good way in, yet." He shrugged.
"Is it heavily fortified?" Heero asked.
"It's got a wall around it... pretty high. The gate's pretty large and almost always locked. You rarely see the guys around anymore." Duo frowned. "When I first got here, it apparently had just happened... the compression, that is. Now, they're in there supposedly trying to fix it and leaving the welcome wagon to us."
"Hm." Heero pondered this. "If they don't come out much, it would stand to reason that they must be well supplied."
"Or have a way of making stuff we don't know about," Duo said. He slipped his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He frowned a bit in thought, then shook his head. "So... you wanna see downstairs?"
"Yeah," said Heero. He was interested in what Duo had down there.
"Alright. C'mon." He headed to the back of the apartment instead of out front. There was another door that led to a private back stair for their apartment only. It went right down into the back shop room on the main floor. In the front of the building was a small store front for doing business... in case they ever branched out in to bartering repair services and salvaged items for other things with people around. For now, it was unused.
Heero followed him. He had seen the stairs and wondered about them. He ran his hands along walls and shook supports as he walked, bouncing a bit on the steps, testing the structure of his sudden residence.
Duo chuckled, waiting at the bottom while Heero double checked everything. "It's pretty sound. I wandered through a few places before picking this one. Even fell through the floor of one."
"Quatre fell through a floor too, didn't he?" Heero asked, his gaze sweeping the room, checking for exits, hiding places, and vulnerable spots without really realizing he was doing it.
Duo nodded. "Top floor of this building," he said. There was no basement. The floor of the workshop was cement. There was a closed off area that looked like a storage closet where the utilities for the building were. "We hadn't gotten the chance to finish fixing that particular apartment, and he went up there looking for the cat."
"Right. The cat." He had received a couple visits during his down time. "So what exactly do you work on here?"
"Pretty much anything I can find," Duo said. "I've got stuff in the yard out back that I've gathered. Fixing stuff... I figured in a place like this, it could come in handy. Up until now, most of the stuff we've fixed down here has been for the apartments upstairs."
Made sense. Heero nodded, looking over the tools with genuine interest.
"Trowa found some power tools and got the power working pretty steadily," Duo told him. "It's been iffy."
Heero glanced at him. "Has it?" he asked. "I'm honestly surprised there's a source here."
"I was, too... and once we found a way to keep it from going out every couple of hours, it made a lotta the work a lot easier." Duo chuckled a bit. He wandered over to show Heero the tools they'd found and refurbished as needed.
Heero followed him. "What is the source? Is there a...a plant or a reactor?" The thought of a nuclear plant in this place was an unsettling one.
"I'm not sure, to be honest," Duo said. "Another thing I think comes from the center." He frowned a bit. "It's one of few things they're actually sharing.'
"Hm. Nice of them. I think I'd like to see the center sometime," he admitted quietly as he examined the tools.
Duo smirked suddenly. "We could always make it 'mission'," he said in a conspiratorial tone.
Heero paused and looked at him. The urge to find the center of this place and see what made it tick was quite a tempting one. "It's possible. Has anyone ever attempted an infiltration?"
"I think one guy did early on," Duo said. "He met with guards, from what I heard. I don't know the details... but he's still around... unless he died and came back."
There was that "coming back" thing again. Heero just looked at him. "It would be prudent to learn all we can about any previous attempts."
Duo nodded. "Yeah. I'll see what I can dig up. I think the guy's network name is 'mechlogic'." He leaned back against the workbench, taking his weight off his left leg. Looking somewhat pensive in thought, he bit his lip slightly for a moment. "I wonder where he went in..."
Heero shrugged. He had no mental picture of the center...yet. He turned his attention back to the power tools, picking one up and turning it in his hands.
Duo watched him looking things over. "They're not top o' the line or anything, but better than nothing." He smiled a bit.
Heero nodded. "Not bad," he admitted, peering more closely at the small mechanism and poking at what might be a loose wire.
"Wouldn't mind the extra hands in keeping them working and doin' stuff around here," Duo said.
Heero nodded. "Sure. What sort of stuff?"
"Well, we're pretty much done with this building," Duo said, "but it's time to start doing some work that'll earn us something in return. I'm thinkin' of putting up an announcement offering to work on things for people if they need it."
Heero's gaze was questioning. "You mean work for hire?" he asked.
"Well... yeah... I mean, we can't keep scrounging for stuff. If other people have stuff, we can trade."
"Do other people have stuff?" Heero asked.
Duo nodded. "Jin's been pretty generous with some stuff... especially when we were hurt and couldn't get stuff on our own."
Heero grunted the slightest bit at the doctor's name, examining the tool a bit before looking up at Duo again. "You were hurt?"
Duo sighed. "Well, I did fall through a floor, Heero," he said. "Into a basement. It wasn't exactly pleasant." Ah... sarcastic wit... it never failed him, but the moment faded quickly as he thought about the other 'incident'. Duo suddenly looked rather haunted as he thought about it. He shook his head. "I got into a fight, too," he said quickly, looking down and away.
Heero watched him. "Quatre seemed to think there are people here looking to hurt us. I wasn't attacked, though..." Some of the things he had seen defied description. He shook his head. "Did someone attack you?"
"Well, there's a few things going on," Duo said. He sighed. "The people Q's worried about... Well, that's one thing... What happened to me wasn't related."
Heero frowned. "Does that sort of thing happen often?"
"Weird shit happens all the time around here," Duo grumbled. "And I'd put what happened to me that night well up there under weird... and creepy... and down right terrifying..." He actually shuddered.
Heero was somewhat interested, but he didn't want to push Duo into talking about something that disturbed him. He merely gazed at him, waiting to see if he would elaborate.
"This... thing... it was just... it was just out to kill. It was wearing... skins... human skins..."
Heero's eyes widened.
"The only thing that saved me was the fact that the damn siren sounded..." Duo shook his head. "It was weird, Heero. There was this siren... and when it sounded, a heavy fog rolled in or disappeared... that creature came with the fog."
"That's...bizarre," Heero murmured.
Duo nodded, still not meeting Heero's gaze. "The other stuff..." He shook his head. "Even having Quatre turned into something like a zombie wasn't as bad."
"A zombie?" Heero would have snorted with laughter but he had already met far weirder things than that.
"Yeah... that wasn't exactly pleasant, either," Duo said, taking a deep breath. "He just... dropped dead. It was the freakiest thing. For the whole week, he had no pulse, didn't breathe... but he was... 'alive' at night. Every morning at sunrise, he was dead again." The long-haired pilot shuddered slightly again. "Then, it was over. He was normal again."
"That's impossible," Heero said before he could stop himself.
"Yeah... I thought so, too."
Heero blinked. "Was he...himself when he was alive?" he couldn't help but ask.
Duo nodded. "He was completely normal... other than the lack of a pulse, ultra pale skin, and the freezing cold body temperature."
Heero shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense," he sighed.
"I was scared, Heero," Duo admitted. "The first three days, I sat there all day and waited... not knowing if he was gonna wake up again at sunset. It was just the two of us here... I didn't know anyone else, really."
Heero couldn't help a slight shiver at Duo's tone. He sighed and looked away. "This can't be real," he murmured.
"That's the thing... I haven't found anything that proves it isn't." Duo's hands tightened their grip on the edge of the workbench.
Heero shook his head. He still hadn't been able to wrap his mind around this situation.
Duo rubbed his forehead as if he was trying to rub the memories from his mind. "Sorry..." he said quietly.
"For what?" Heero asked.
"Bein' a downer..."
"I don't think it's you," he replied.
He shrugged. "I guess. This place sucks."
Heero smirked a bit. "Yeah."
Duo rubbed the back of his neck. "Think of another topic," he said suddenly. He didn't want to talk like that anymore.
Heero paused a moment, leaning on the workbench and picking up yet another interesting tool. "So, you want to barter supplies for work?"
"It could work," Duo said, looking over at the tool Heero'd picked up.
Heero nodded. "It might. If it's something people truly need."
"Can't see why they wouldn't... unless they can fix it themselves... but not everyone's handy, yanno?" Duo smirked.
"I guess." Heero hadn't really thought about it before.
Duo chuckled. "We're used to bein' able to do stuff on our own. Fixing things and what not... but there are actually people out there that don't know which way tightens the screw."
Heero actually straightened a little to look at him, a little skeptically. Everyone should know that, at least.
The American shrugged. "I've seen it. It's scary."
"Sounds it," Heero replied.
Duo grinned.
Heero nodded. "I guess it's better than sitting around, especially if we need supplies."
"Yeah... 'cuz I can tell you that Q ain't gonna be happy with the idea of any of us going to raid the center building."
Heero shifted some. "Calling it a raid is premature. We need a reconnaissance mission first."
"Well, yeah..." Duo looked thoughtful. "Plus... I need to see if that guy remembers anything about going in there."
Heero nodded. "That would be helpful."
The American smirked. "Good... then we've got a plan. Ask around, case the joint... see what we can come up with."
Heero liked having a plan. "Sure," he said.
Duo liked having a plan, too. It usually meant things were about to get interesting.
When: A little while after Heero returns from his excursion.
Where: Their apartment building.
Rating: G
Summary: Heero wants to see the pilots' workshop and Duo is happy to show him, and together they hatch the beginnings of a plan.
Duo stretched his arms over his head. He'd seen Heero's message, and knew the pilot was back at the building. He glanced around the apartment to see if he was in his room or out in the living area or kitchen. "Heero?"
Heero was poking around the kitchen, examining their food supplies. Not terribly impressive. He turned and closed a cabinet when he heard Duo. "I'm here."
Duo headed into the kitchen. "Watcha doin'?" he asked.
Heero glanced at him. "I wanted to see what sort of supplies we had," he admitted.
The American nodded. "Yeah... it hasn't been easy to find them. Going outside the Safe Zone risks coming across some weird dangerous creature or getting lost when the whole world around you changes. And supplies do run out inside the Safe Zone. Unfortunately, the scientists in the center building don't exactly seem to be willing to share what they've got." Duo frowned. "I'd considered trying to break in and see what I can grab from them. Just haven't found a good way in, yet." He shrugged.
"Is it heavily fortified?" Heero asked.
"It's got a wall around it... pretty high. The gate's pretty large and almost always locked. You rarely see the guys around anymore." Duo frowned. "When I first got here, it apparently had just happened... the compression, that is. Now, they're in there supposedly trying to fix it and leaving the welcome wagon to us."
"Hm." Heero pondered this. "If they don't come out much, it would stand to reason that they must be well supplied."
"Or have a way of making stuff we don't know about," Duo said. He slipped his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He frowned a bit in thought, then shook his head. "So... you wanna see downstairs?"
"Yeah," said Heero. He was interested in what Duo had down there.
"Alright. C'mon." He headed to the back of the apartment instead of out front. There was another door that led to a private back stair for their apartment only. It went right down into the back shop room on the main floor. In the front of the building was a small store front for doing business... in case they ever branched out in to bartering repair services and salvaged items for other things with people around. For now, it was unused.
Heero followed him. He had seen the stairs and wondered about them. He ran his hands along walls and shook supports as he walked, bouncing a bit on the steps, testing the structure of his sudden residence.
Duo chuckled, waiting at the bottom while Heero double checked everything. "It's pretty sound. I wandered through a few places before picking this one. Even fell through the floor of one."
"Quatre fell through a floor too, didn't he?" Heero asked, his gaze sweeping the room, checking for exits, hiding places, and vulnerable spots without really realizing he was doing it.
Duo nodded. "Top floor of this building," he said. There was no basement. The floor of the workshop was cement. There was a closed off area that looked like a storage closet where the utilities for the building were. "We hadn't gotten the chance to finish fixing that particular apartment, and he went up there looking for the cat."
"Right. The cat." He had received a couple visits during his down time. "So what exactly do you work on here?"
"Pretty much anything I can find," Duo said. "I've got stuff in the yard out back that I've gathered. Fixing stuff... I figured in a place like this, it could come in handy. Up until now, most of the stuff we've fixed down here has been for the apartments upstairs."
Made sense. Heero nodded, looking over the tools with genuine interest.
"Trowa found some power tools and got the power working pretty steadily," Duo told him. "It's been iffy."
Heero glanced at him. "Has it?" he asked. "I'm honestly surprised there's a source here."
"I was, too... and once we found a way to keep it from going out every couple of hours, it made a lotta the work a lot easier." Duo chuckled a bit. He wandered over to show Heero the tools they'd found and refurbished as needed.
Heero followed him. "What is the source? Is there a...a plant or a reactor?" The thought of a nuclear plant in this place was an unsettling one.
"I'm not sure, to be honest," Duo said. "Another thing I think comes from the center." He frowned a bit. "It's one of few things they're actually sharing.'
"Hm. Nice of them. I think I'd like to see the center sometime," he admitted quietly as he examined the tools.
Duo smirked suddenly. "We could always make it 'mission'," he said in a conspiratorial tone.
Heero paused and looked at him. The urge to find the center of this place and see what made it tick was quite a tempting one. "It's possible. Has anyone ever attempted an infiltration?"
"I think one guy did early on," Duo said. "He met with guards, from what I heard. I don't know the details... but he's still around... unless he died and came back."
There was that "coming back" thing again. Heero just looked at him. "It would be prudent to learn all we can about any previous attempts."
Duo nodded. "Yeah. I'll see what I can dig up. I think the guy's network name is 'mechlogic'." He leaned back against the workbench, taking his weight off his left leg. Looking somewhat pensive in thought, he bit his lip slightly for a moment. "I wonder where he went in..."
Heero shrugged. He had no mental picture of the center...yet. He turned his attention back to the power tools, picking one up and turning it in his hands.
Duo watched him looking things over. "They're not top o' the line or anything, but better than nothing." He smiled a bit.
Heero nodded. "Not bad," he admitted, peering more closely at the small mechanism and poking at what might be a loose wire.
"Wouldn't mind the extra hands in keeping them working and doin' stuff around here," Duo said.
Heero nodded. "Sure. What sort of stuff?"
"Well, we're pretty much done with this building," Duo said, "but it's time to start doing some work that'll earn us something in return. I'm thinkin' of putting up an announcement offering to work on things for people if they need it."
Heero's gaze was questioning. "You mean work for hire?" he asked.
"Well... yeah... I mean, we can't keep scrounging for stuff. If other people have stuff, we can trade."
"Do other people have stuff?" Heero asked.
Duo nodded. "Jin's been pretty generous with some stuff... especially when we were hurt and couldn't get stuff on our own."
Heero grunted the slightest bit at the doctor's name, examining the tool a bit before looking up at Duo again. "You were hurt?"
Duo sighed. "Well, I did fall through a floor, Heero," he said. "Into a basement. It wasn't exactly pleasant." Ah... sarcastic wit... it never failed him, but the moment faded quickly as he thought about the other 'incident'. Duo suddenly looked rather haunted as he thought about it. He shook his head. "I got into a fight, too," he said quickly, looking down and away.
Heero watched him. "Quatre seemed to think there are people here looking to hurt us. I wasn't attacked, though..." Some of the things he had seen defied description. He shook his head. "Did someone attack you?"
"Well, there's a few things going on," Duo said. He sighed. "The people Q's worried about... Well, that's one thing... What happened to me wasn't related."
Heero frowned. "Does that sort of thing happen often?"
"Weird shit happens all the time around here," Duo grumbled. "And I'd put what happened to me that night well up there under weird... and creepy... and down right terrifying..." He actually shuddered.
Heero was somewhat interested, but he didn't want to push Duo into talking about something that disturbed him. He merely gazed at him, waiting to see if he would elaborate.
"This... thing... it was just... it was just out to kill. It was wearing... skins... human skins..."
Heero's eyes widened.
"The only thing that saved me was the fact that the damn siren sounded..." Duo shook his head. "It was weird, Heero. There was this siren... and when it sounded, a heavy fog rolled in or disappeared... that creature came with the fog."
"That's...bizarre," Heero murmured.
Duo nodded, still not meeting Heero's gaze. "The other stuff..." He shook his head. "Even having Quatre turned into something like a zombie wasn't as bad."
"A zombie?" Heero would have snorted with laughter but he had already met far weirder things than that.
"Yeah... that wasn't exactly pleasant, either," Duo said, taking a deep breath. "He just... dropped dead. It was the freakiest thing. For the whole week, he had no pulse, didn't breathe... but he was... 'alive' at night. Every morning at sunrise, he was dead again." The long-haired pilot shuddered slightly again. "Then, it was over. He was normal again."
"That's impossible," Heero said before he could stop himself.
"Yeah... I thought so, too."
Heero blinked. "Was he...himself when he was alive?" he couldn't help but ask.
Duo nodded. "He was completely normal... other than the lack of a pulse, ultra pale skin, and the freezing cold body temperature."
Heero shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense," he sighed.
"I was scared, Heero," Duo admitted. "The first three days, I sat there all day and waited... not knowing if he was gonna wake up again at sunset. It was just the two of us here... I didn't know anyone else, really."
Heero couldn't help a slight shiver at Duo's tone. He sighed and looked away. "This can't be real," he murmured.
"That's the thing... I haven't found anything that proves it isn't." Duo's hands tightened their grip on the edge of the workbench.
Heero shook his head. He still hadn't been able to wrap his mind around this situation.
Duo rubbed his forehead as if he was trying to rub the memories from his mind. "Sorry..." he said quietly.
"For what?" Heero asked.
"Bein' a downer..."
"I don't think it's you," he replied.
He shrugged. "I guess. This place sucks."
Heero smirked a bit. "Yeah."
Duo rubbed the back of his neck. "Think of another topic," he said suddenly. He didn't want to talk like that anymore.
Heero paused a moment, leaning on the workbench and picking up yet another interesting tool. "So, you want to barter supplies for work?"
"It could work," Duo said, looking over at the tool Heero'd picked up.
Heero nodded. "It might. If it's something people truly need."
"Can't see why they wouldn't... unless they can fix it themselves... but not everyone's handy, yanno?" Duo smirked.
"I guess." Heero hadn't really thought about it before.
Duo chuckled. "We're used to bein' able to do stuff on our own. Fixing things and what not... but there are actually people out there that don't know which way tightens the screw."
Heero actually straightened a little to look at him, a little skeptically. Everyone should know that, at least.
The American shrugged. "I've seen it. It's scary."
"Sounds it," Heero replied.
Duo grinned.
Heero nodded. "I guess it's better than sitting around, especially if we need supplies."
"Yeah... 'cuz I can tell you that Q ain't gonna be happy with the idea of any of us going to raid the center building."
Heero shifted some. "Calling it a raid is premature. We need a reconnaissance mission first."
"Well, yeah..." Duo looked thoughtful. "Plus... I need to see if that guy remembers anything about going in there."
Heero nodded. "That would be helpful."
The American smirked. "Good... then we've got a plan. Ask around, case the joint... see what we can come up with."
Heero liked having a plan. "Sure," he said.
Duo liked having a plan, too. It usually meant things were about to get interesting.