Gundam Wing/Xmen cross over fic - "Zero X" part 5
Wufei sighed as Duo flitted between racks of what to him seemed almost identical black tops. Duo was talking a mile a minute to Jubilee and Bobby who had somehow been sucked into the whirlwind. Kitty Pryde on the other hand hung back almost shyly following Wufei around with an embarrassed hesitance which frankly baffled the Chinese teen but for some reason seemed to amuse Duo to no end. Wufei was more concerned over Duo’s behaviour than Kitty anyway, Duo was speaking just a touch too quickly and his tone and movement had that overly bright and cheerful edge to them which always led to trouble. Wufei snagged Duo’s elbow as he brushed past him, halting the steady stream of jokes and comments “Duo, what do you think about this top?” Wufei asked pulling out the nearest one from the top of the pile
“Well it’s a woman’s top and about 5 sizes too large for you, but you know other than that it’s alright.” Duo grinned at his friend, letting his amusement calm him down “Sorry ‘Fei-chan, I’m not annoyed at you just on edge.”
Wufei sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time “Just tone it down Duo, you know they wouldn’t be keeping secrets if they could help it. Quatre’s planning something.” He replied in Japanese before continuing in English “and don’t call me ‘Fei-chan, the mix of inappropriate and mangled Chinese and Japanese sets my teeth on edge.”
“I know you get this funny little scowl on your face everytime I do it.” Duo grinned “Just like the one you have now.”
Wufei glared at him “Well at least you’ve decided to stop acting like a jealous two year old.”
“A jealous two year old, I’m not acting like a….” Duo trailed off under Wufei’s knowing gaze “So maybe I’m a little pissed, but I’m not jealous there’s nothing to be jealous of.”
“Very true, but that doesn’t change how you feel.”
Duo watched as Kitty wondered off out of earshot looking through other racks “He’s barely so much as looked at me since we left.” He complained quietly “Instead he and Quatre have been whispering in corners. I know he’s never, that is we’ve never… but I thought he felt something for me too.”
“Duo, I neither know nor care exactly what is between you and Yuy except where it impacts upon the team…”
“Oh some friend you are”
“If you would let me finish, thank you, but it is clear that there is something, you only have to look at this morning to know that.”
Duo frowned in confusion “What do you mean?”
“Tell me something Maxwell, what do you think would happen if I stole food off Yuy’s plate?”
The lines cleared from Duo’s face and he grinned “Not really sure but it’d probably involve explosions, a long fight and a trip to the medical facilities.” Duo paused “Thank you man, for someone who hates talking you’re pretty good at it.”
Wufei grumbled slightly “Now perhaps you can stop being such trouble.”
XxX
Quatre Winner slipped carefully from the bed, his feet silent on the cold marble floor as he padded across the room to the computer terminal. He paused before sliding into the seat taking a deep breath to dispel the second or more accurately thousandth thoughts he was having. Pulling up the schematics of the manor was the work of a moment Heero had automatically arranged access for all of them on their arrival. Isolating the room he wanted was also child’s play, he then spent the next twenty minutes flicking through other details to mask his true interest before logging off and slipping back into the bed.
Mentally he reached out to Heero his mind shying away automatically from the streams of computer language sending instead a quick flash of a message “Heero? I need you to hide my access of Cerebro please.”
“Completed 04.”
Quatre winced at the cold precise tones of the Zero system, “Heero?” He asked
“It’s done, I had Zero take care of it when you started accessing Cerebro.”
“Thank you Heero, are you alright? It is unlike you to have Zero respond to me.”
“I had other priorities.”
“Heero?”
“01 is monitoring 02 and 05, and developing the interface with AI unit Cerebro 04.”
“A full interface with Cerebro, are you sure that’s wise?”
“The Cerebro unit shows advanced capabilities and access which augment our abilities.”
“Greetings Quatre Winner, I look forward to working with you. I am Cerebro.”
Quatre flinched as the second stream of computer language increasing his headache “Pleased to meet you Cerebro, Be careful Heero see you later.”
“Acknowledged.”
Quatre winced at the throbbing in his head a sharp reminder that his more empathic driven telepathy does not mix well with AIs. Zero was right if Heero was successful Cerebro would help in fact it was probably necessary, but Heero’s interface with Cerebro still worried him despite his successful link with Zero and the more user friendly nature of Cerebro it was still a risk. Quatre sighed reminding himself that taking risks was what they did as he went back over his own plan he just had to wait for the moment when Heero would be too preoccupied to worry over Quatre.
XxX
The fast food restaurant Bobby Drake had picked out was cheap but overcrowded, he had waited in line for nearly half an hour, staring without seeing at the TV screens above the cashiers heads before they finally took his order. He weaved his way through the heavy crowd towards the table his friends, long experience allowing him to balance a tray in each hand as he twisted round the seething mass of people.
He grinned as he set the tray down on the cheap red plastic table, “Dinner is served.” He ignored the look from Wufei as he split the burgers between the group.
Within ten minutes of meeting Wufei Bobby had decided he was a stuck up jerk, twenty minutes after that he thought that maybe he was just a little too serious but an OK guy he had been wavering between the two opinions ever since. Duo winked at him as he handed Wufei a cheeseburger watching as the Chinese teen wrinkled his nose in disgust but took the offering anyway. They shared a quick grin, Duo was right Wufei was kind of fun to tease.
“You did notice there was a ‘no mutants’ sign in the window when you picked this place didn’t you?” Wufei remarked calmly as he unwrapped the burger and stared suspiciously at the rubbery cheese
“That’s why I picked it man, I’m not going to let those jerks tell me where I can eat.” Bobby said taking a defiant bite of his own burger
Wufei grunted slightly before continuing “I agree with the sentiment but it is foolish to pick unnecessary fights. Besides you have just provided ‘those jerks’ with nearly $40 of our money.”
“So what, we should never eat burgers again just because some morons think we are not good enough to eat alongside ‘normal people’?” Bobby asked his voice rising in annoyance
Kitty ever the peacemaker waved her hands “Shhh… someone will hear you.”
“Oh please we’re not doing anything wrong, if someone has a problem with us that’s their problem.” Jubilee cut in angrily
“You’re going to start a fight and get us kicked out.” Kitty complained quietly
Duo grinned “Oh please this lot, they couldn’t fight us if we had our hands tied behind our backs and power limiters strapped to our necks.”
“Duo! Enough, the last thing we need is more trouble however restless you may be.” Wufei snapped sharply eyes flicking cautiously from side to side taking in the restlessness at the next table and watching as one of them left his seat “We should leave, now.”
Kitty stood up with him and edged away nervously whilst Bobby and Jubilee each set aside their food but didn’t budge. Out of the corner of his eye Bobby could see Duo grinning as he picked up his drink turning expectantly to the man stalking over to their table. Bobby could feel a small flicker of doubt as he watched Duo’s grin grow wider as his eyes grow colder but a moment later the other customer was leaning across their table “Oi Mutie, we don’t like your kind here.”
Somewhere in the background Bobby heard Wufei sigh loudly as Duo turned his cup upside down over the man’s head “Oi, flatscan we don’t like morons in our personal space.” He said with a cold and deliberate flatness
The entire restaurant seemed to freeze for one disbelieving moment, staring silently as coke ran down the man’s face dripping onto the lino floor. Then all hell broke loose.
Bobby ducked a fist shooting out a foot to trip his attacker catching sight of a burst of sparks from Jubilee out of the corner of his eye as he twisted to avoid a chair only to be grabbed roughly from behind.
He spun in his captors grasp stopping short as he recognised Wufei “Take the women and find a defensible position whilst I stop the idiot.” Wufei jerked his head at Duo who was standing in the centre of the mayhem ducking and weaving, catching men and throwing them off balance all apparently without the use of his powers.
Bobby spared a second to nod before moving over to Jubilee and pulling her from the fight which had now centred itself firmly around Duo. Kitty had managed to slide unnoticed into a corner and Bobby and Jubilee backed up against a wall watching the action almost completely ignored now they had moved away. Wufei sprung sure footed up onto a table and shouted “Stop!” a sudden burst of light illuminating him and turnng every eye towards him.
To Bobby’s surprise it seemed to work as people roughly jerked to a stop twisting to see. At the centre of the trouble Duo merely dropped his hands ducking out of the way of the final few punches with a casual ease. Still standing on the table but lowering his voice to a more reasonable volume and allowing the light to fade Wufei continued “My friends and I will be leaving now, as Duo was foolish enough to provoke this we will pay for the damage to this establishment, if you allow us to depart without further incident.” A certain shuffling undercurrent of resentment seemed to pass through the crowd and Wufei spoke up again, his voice cold as he switched tactics “I am sure it can not have escaped your notice, that I and my companions have refrained from using any powers to avoid escalation of the situation.” A shudder of fear seemed to pass through the room and for a moment Bobby thought the fight was over.
He caught sight of the gun swinging round pointing toward him and Jubilee, time seemed to stop for a second as he saw the finger tightening on the trigger, and desperately threw up his hands knowing as he did so that it was too late. The next second something hit him and for a split second he thought he had been shot before recognising the iron grip of an arm round his waist and the sight of Duo. He blinked in disbelief at the sight of the cracked wood where the bullet had hit home. “Fast.” He heard Jubilee gasp out in inarticulate shock from the other side of their saviour.
“That’s me speedy.” Duo quipped lightly “You OK kids, sorry about that didn’t expect anybody to draw a weapon in this place, I was only trying to blow off a little steam. You got everything taken care of over there ‘Fei?”
Bobby followed Duo’s gaze to where Wufei stood one hand wrapped around the shooters wrist and the other shining brightly against the man’s throat. Wufei though was staring at the TV screens as if he had forgotten the man he was holding and Bobby twisted to look at the large font flashing across the screen and the numbers counting down below it
02, 05- 6 XR units on route, fully armed
19…
18…
17…
Bobby watched as Duo and Wufei shared a quick glance “Go Maxwell, I will protect them with my life.” Wufei said solemnly. A moment later and Duo was nowhere to be seen.
next part is here
“Well it’s a woman’s top and about 5 sizes too large for you, but you know other than that it’s alright.” Duo grinned at his friend, letting his amusement calm him down “Sorry ‘Fei-chan, I’m not annoyed at you just on edge.”
Wufei sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time “Just tone it down Duo, you know they wouldn’t be keeping secrets if they could help it. Quatre’s planning something.” He replied in Japanese before continuing in English “and don’t call me ‘Fei-chan, the mix of inappropriate and mangled Chinese and Japanese sets my teeth on edge.”
“I know you get this funny little scowl on your face everytime I do it.” Duo grinned “Just like the one you have now.”
Wufei glared at him “Well at least you’ve decided to stop acting like a jealous two year old.”
“A jealous two year old, I’m not acting like a….” Duo trailed off under Wufei’s knowing gaze “So maybe I’m a little pissed, but I’m not jealous there’s nothing to be jealous of.”
“Very true, but that doesn’t change how you feel.”
Duo watched as Kitty wondered off out of earshot looking through other racks “He’s barely so much as looked at me since we left.” He complained quietly “Instead he and Quatre have been whispering in corners. I know he’s never, that is we’ve never… but I thought he felt something for me too.”
“Duo, I neither know nor care exactly what is between you and Yuy except where it impacts upon the team…”
“Oh some friend you are”
“If you would let me finish, thank you, but it is clear that there is something, you only have to look at this morning to know that.”
Duo frowned in confusion “What do you mean?”
“Tell me something Maxwell, what do you think would happen if I stole food off Yuy’s plate?”
The lines cleared from Duo’s face and he grinned “Not really sure but it’d probably involve explosions, a long fight and a trip to the medical facilities.” Duo paused “Thank you man, for someone who hates talking you’re pretty good at it.”
Wufei grumbled slightly “Now perhaps you can stop being such trouble.”
XxX
Quatre Winner slipped carefully from the bed, his feet silent on the cold marble floor as he padded across the room to the computer terminal. He paused before sliding into the seat taking a deep breath to dispel the second or more accurately thousandth thoughts he was having. Pulling up the schematics of the manor was the work of a moment Heero had automatically arranged access for all of them on their arrival. Isolating the room he wanted was also child’s play, he then spent the next twenty minutes flicking through other details to mask his true interest before logging off and slipping back into the bed.
Mentally he reached out to Heero his mind shying away automatically from the streams of computer language sending instead a quick flash of a message “Heero? I need you to hide my access of Cerebro please.”
“Completed 04.”
Quatre winced at the cold precise tones of the Zero system, “Heero?” He asked
“It’s done, I had Zero take care of it when you started accessing Cerebro.”
“Thank you Heero, are you alright? It is unlike you to have Zero respond to me.”
“I had other priorities.”
“Heero?”
“01 is monitoring 02 and 05, and developing the interface with AI unit Cerebro 04.”
“A full interface with Cerebro, are you sure that’s wise?”
“The Cerebro unit shows advanced capabilities and access which augment our abilities.”
“Greetings Quatre Winner, I look forward to working with you. I am Cerebro.”
Quatre flinched as the second stream of computer language increasing his headache “Pleased to meet you Cerebro, Be careful Heero see you later.”
“Acknowledged.”
Quatre winced at the throbbing in his head a sharp reminder that his more empathic driven telepathy does not mix well with AIs. Zero was right if Heero was successful Cerebro would help in fact it was probably necessary, but Heero’s interface with Cerebro still worried him despite his successful link with Zero and the more user friendly nature of Cerebro it was still a risk. Quatre sighed reminding himself that taking risks was what they did as he went back over his own plan he just had to wait for the moment when Heero would be too preoccupied to worry over Quatre.
XxX
The fast food restaurant Bobby Drake had picked out was cheap but overcrowded, he had waited in line for nearly half an hour, staring without seeing at the TV screens above the cashiers heads before they finally took his order. He weaved his way through the heavy crowd towards the table his friends, long experience allowing him to balance a tray in each hand as he twisted round the seething mass of people.
He grinned as he set the tray down on the cheap red plastic table, “Dinner is served.” He ignored the look from Wufei as he split the burgers between the group.
Within ten minutes of meeting Wufei Bobby had decided he was a stuck up jerk, twenty minutes after that he thought that maybe he was just a little too serious but an OK guy he had been wavering between the two opinions ever since. Duo winked at him as he handed Wufei a cheeseburger watching as the Chinese teen wrinkled his nose in disgust but took the offering anyway. They shared a quick grin, Duo was right Wufei was kind of fun to tease.
“You did notice there was a ‘no mutants’ sign in the window when you picked this place didn’t you?” Wufei remarked calmly as he unwrapped the burger and stared suspiciously at the rubbery cheese
“That’s why I picked it man, I’m not going to let those jerks tell me where I can eat.” Bobby said taking a defiant bite of his own burger
Wufei grunted slightly before continuing “I agree with the sentiment but it is foolish to pick unnecessary fights. Besides you have just provided ‘those jerks’ with nearly $40 of our money.”
“So what, we should never eat burgers again just because some morons think we are not good enough to eat alongside ‘normal people’?” Bobby asked his voice rising in annoyance
Kitty ever the peacemaker waved her hands “Shhh… someone will hear you.”
“Oh please we’re not doing anything wrong, if someone has a problem with us that’s their problem.” Jubilee cut in angrily
“You’re going to start a fight and get us kicked out.” Kitty complained quietly
Duo grinned “Oh please this lot, they couldn’t fight us if we had our hands tied behind our backs and power limiters strapped to our necks.”
“Duo! Enough, the last thing we need is more trouble however restless you may be.” Wufei snapped sharply eyes flicking cautiously from side to side taking in the restlessness at the next table and watching as one of them left his seat “We should leave, now.”
Kitty stood up with him and edged away nervously whilst Bobby and Jubilee each set aside their food but didn’t budge. Out of the corner of his eye Bobby could see Duo grinning as he picked up his drink turning expectantly to the man stalking over to their table. Bobby could feel a small flicker of doubt as he watched Duo’s grin grow wider as his eyes grow colder but a moment later the other customer was leaning across their table “Oi Mutie, we don’t like your kind here.”
Somewhere in the background Bobby heard Wufei sigh loudly as Duo turned his cup upside down over the man’s head “Oi, flatscan we don’t like morons in our personal space.” He said with a cold and deliberate flatness
The entire restaurant seemed to freeze for one disbelieving moment, staring silently as coke ran down the man’s face dripping onto the lino floor. Then all hell broke loose.
Bobby ducked a fist shooting out a foot to trip his attacker catching sight of a burst of sparks from Jubilee out of the corner of his eye as he twisted to avoid a chair only to be grabbed roughly from behind.
He spun in his captors grasp stopping short as he recognised Wufei “Take the women and find a defensible position whilst I stop the idiot.” Wufei jerked his head at Duo who was standing in the centre of the mayhem ducking and weaving, catching men and throwing them off balance all apparently without the use of his powers.
Bobby spared a second to nod before moving over to Jubilee and pulling her from the fight which had now centred itself firmly around Duo. Kitty had managed to slide unnoticed into a corner and Bobby and Jubilee backed up against a wall watching the action almost completely ignored now they had moved away. Wufei sprung sure footed up onto a table and shouted “Stop!” a sudden burst of light illuminating him and turnng every eye towards him.
To Bobby’s surprise it seemed to work as people roughly jerked to a stop twisting to see. At the centre of the trouble Duo merely dropped his hands ducking out of the way of the final few punches with a casual ease. Still standing on the table but lowering his voice to a more reasonable volume and allowing the light to fade Wufei continued “My friends and I will be leaving now, as Duo was foolish enough to provoke this we will pay for the damage to this establishment, if you allow us to depart without further incident.” A certain shuffling undercurrent of resentment seemed to pass through the crowd and Wufei spoke up again, his voice cold as he switched tactics “I am sure it can not have escaped your notice, that I and my companions have refrained from using any powers to avoid escalation of the situation.” A shudder of fear seemed to pass through the room and for a moment Bobby thought the fight was over.
He caught sight of the gun swinging round pointing toward him and Jubilee, time seemed to stop for a second as he saw the finger tightening on the trigger, and desperately threw up his hands knowing as he did so that it was too late. The next second something hit him and for a split second he thought he had been shot before recognising the iron grip of an arm round his waist and the sight of Duo. He blinked in disbelief at the sight of the cracked wood where the bullet had hit home. “Fast.” He heard Jubilee gasp out in inarticulate shock from the other side of their saviour.
“That’s me speedy.” Duo quipped lightly “You OK kids, sorry about that didn’t expect anybody to draw a weapon in this place, I was only trying to blow off a little steam. You got everything taken care of over there ‘Fei?”
Bobby followed Duo’s gaze to where Wufei stood one hand wrapped around the shooters wrist and the other shining brightly against the man’s throat. Wufei though was staring at the TV screens as if he had forgotten the man he was holding and Bobby twisted to look at the large font flashing across the screen and the numbers counting down below it
02, 05- 6 XR units on route, fully armed
19…
18…
17…
Bobby watched as Duo and Wufei shared a quick glance “Go Maxwell, I will protect them with my life.” Wufei said solemnly. A moment later and Duo was nowhere to be seen.
next part is here