The Tomorrow We Fight For
A Gundam Wing/Tomorrow People crossover
Part 2
By Marika
:How�s
it going?: Megabyte�s voice said into her head.
Ami
sighed. :Nothing yet,: she
replied as civilly as she could. :And
we�re never going to find anything if you keep interrupting me.:
:Sorry,: he said,
not sounding sorry at all.
Ami
sighed again. They�d only been in this
world for less than a day, and already she wanted nothing more than to go home
and not even think about Tomorrow Person business for a month or so.
They�d been at the library for close to six
hours now, and they still hadn�t identified whatever it was that Adam had
seen. Well, they had� sort of.
They knew it was a mobile suit, which was a
gigantic robot with a human sitting in the chest area to guide it.
Everyone used those to fight as opposed to
tanks, airplanes, or whatever else they used on their world.
It also appeared to be the future, kind
of. It was hard to tell, because they
used a completely different standard here.
Megabyte
had almost had a fit when they found an abandoned paper and saw the date August
12, 195 AC. What sort of date was
195?! And what was AC?
Some quick research told them that AC stood
for After Colony � that would be after the first space colony was built, which
took place sometime in the late twenty-first century.
� Which put them sometime in the twenty-third, if Adam was doing
his math properly. Things hadn�t
changed much, except for the colonies themselves, mostly because of the
war.
This
world had been at war almost constantly since before the colonies were built,
almost two hundred years ago. It was
hard to imagine a world where everyone was at war for hundreds of years, but
apparently they�d managed it here without ever resorting to nuclear weapons,
which was amazing in itself. The mobile
suits only had conventional weapons, which had prolonged the war but kept it
from ending in nuclear holocaust, which was a good thing.
But none of the mobile suits they�d seen
looked anything like what Adam had seen.
:Adam!:
Jade suddenly exclaimed. She�d
gotten bored with looking through old newspapers and encyclopedias and was now
watching the news over one of the librarian�s shoulders.
:What?:
:It�s here!
Look!: she exclaimed, her eyes
fixed on the screen.
Adam,
Megabyte, and Ami all jumped to their feet and rushed over to look.
Ami got there just in time to see the huge
machine that Adam had seen use some sort of weird stick with a glowing thing at
the end to slash through the side of a huge ship, then spin and chop three
normal mobile suits in half. Ami felt
vaguely nauseous, looking at the violence.
There were times that she was very grateful that she was a Tomorrow
Person, knowing that she could never possibly commit such acts of
violence. It got in the way sometimes,
but she couldn�t imagine actually wanting to do that, ever.
She wondered what the pilot was
thinking.
:That�s
it,: Adam said grimly, his face pale.
�The
Gundam known as 02 destroyed three ships and just under thirty mobile suits off
the east coast, less than thirty miles from the Westwood base,� the announcer told
them, his image taking the place of the destruction.
� �Casualty estimates are in the hundreds, but so far names are
being withheld.� The announcer went on
to discuss the reactions to the attack by various influential political
figures, but there were no more pictures show.
�Gundam,�
Adam repeated out loud, then looked at Ami.
�What�s a Gundam?�
The
librarian overheard him. �What�s a
Gundam? Where have you been, boy,
another planet?� Adam smiled shyly and
shrugged. �The Gundams are the mobile suits
sent by the colonies to strike against the Earth-sphere Alliance.
But since the Earth-sphere Alliance broke
up, they�re mostly striking Oz facilities.�
�Oz?�
Ami repeated. The only Oz she knew of
was in the Wizard of Oz, and that couldn�t be right.
�Where
have the two of you been?� the librarian asked, raising an eyebrow.
�Oz is what�s left of the Alliance Special
Forces. They broke off from the rest of
the Alliance a couple of months ago, right after the Gundams killed the
Alliance�s pacifists.� She shook her
head. �Disgraceful.�
�What
do the Gundams want?� Adam wondered out loud.
�Something
to do with the freedom of the colonies,� the woman said with a shrug and a
sniff. �Terrorists, that�s all they
are. Things can�t possibly be that bad
in the colonies.� She gave them a sharp
look. �Where have you been that you
didn�t know all this?�
�Wilderness
retreat,� Megabyte jumped in. �You
know, go off in the woods with no outside connections for months?
Very theraputic.�
The
woman gave them a strange look, but went back to watching the t.v. without
further comment, and they walked back to their seats.
�
:Well,
on the good side, I guess we don�t need these anymore,: Megabyte said
cheerfully, closing the book he�d been leafing through.
:On
the bad side, a murdering terrorist saw me teleport,: Adam responded, and
Megabyte winced.
:Yeah,
I guess so.:
:But the guys that were there, those were Oz soldiers, I
think,: Ami interjected.
:I�ve seen the uniforms a couple of
times.:
:So the government brought us here, but the terrorists�
what did they want?: Megabyte asked.
:How
about that machine, whatever it was?: Jade added.
� :Was that what brought us here?
� What do they want with us?:
:I don�t think they wanted us, specifically,:
Adam said thoughtfully.
:Remember how surprised they all looked?
� They were expecting something, but it wasn�t us.:
:Great,
so we ended up here because of someone�s science experiment gone wrong,: Megabyte
groused.
:Yes,
but if they got us here, maybe they can get us back,: Jade said
excitedly.
:We
don�t have such a great record concerning us and the government,: Megabyte
pointed out. :How do we know that
they aren�t going to experiment on us?:
:We don�t, but right now they�re the only chance we have
of getting back,: Adam replied.
Ami could sense his anxiety, and she
agreed. They had a very bad record of
dealing with government groups, but he was right, this was their best chance at
getting back.
:Well,
if you want to talk to one of them, you�ve got your chance now,: Jade said
suddenly. :There are a couple of
those soldiers in that uniform looking for us.:
:What?:
Adam asked, starting to rise, then forcing himself to sit back down when he
realized that it would just draw attention to them.
� Ami turned and looked out of the corner of her eye.
Jade was right, there were a couple of the
soldiers talking to the librarian they�d spoken to, and in their hands were
some drawings of the group. :Come
on,: Adam said tensely, rising and walking back to the bookshelves, turning
the first corner he came to so that they were out of sight.
:I
thought you wanted to talk to them,: Megabyte muttered.
:Not here. If I
go talk to them, I want to be able to run if I have to,:
Adam replied.
:I?:
Ami asked. :You mean we, right?:
:No, I mean I.
You guys stay out of sight unless I say otherwise.
There�s no reason for all of us to risk
ourselves.:
:There�s no reason for you to risk yourself, either!:
Megabyte protested.
:Ami or I can do it, too!:
:Hey, what am I, chopped liver?:
Jade demanded.
:Shut
up, kid,: Megabyte said impatiently.
:Why should you be the only one to risk yourself?:
:Because I�m the oldest.:
:All the more reason for you to not be the one risking
his neck!: Megabyte exclaimed.
:We need you around.
What are the rest of us going to do if you
get yourself captured?:
:This is not open to discussion,:
Adam told him firmly, glancing at Ami for support, but she
leveled a glare of her own at him. She
didn�t like the idea of risking one of the younger kids any more than he did,
but Megabyte had a point � Adam was their leader, whether he wanted to admit it
or not, and if he got caught, they would be losing the one person they all
looked up to. :Come on, let�s get
out of here first. Go into the bathrooms
and teleport to the alley we arrived in, OK?:
:Fine,
but we�re going to discuss this some more before you do something stupid,
right?: Ami asked firmly, and Adam nodded.
Ami
grabbed Jade�s hand, squeezed it once, then the two of them walked straight towards
the bathrooms. Ami didn�t look behind
her, but she felt Jade go tense beside her.
:They�ve seen us,: Jade squeaked.
�
:Just
keep walking,: Ami said firmly.
Hopefully the soldiers wouldn�t follow them into the bathroom.
She
pushed open the door, and thankfully, there wasn�t a line inside.
They waited for a few seconds for the one
woman inside to finish washing her hands, then both stepped into the stalls,
pushing the door closed. Ami
concentrated and teleported to the alley.
Jade
appeared beside her at almost the exact instant that she arrived, and the boys
were already waiting for her. �Come on,
we�d better get out of here,� Ami said nervously, eyeing the library across the
street. �We think the soldiers saw us
just before they went in the bathroom, and it won�t take them that long to
figure out that we aren�t coming out.�
Adam
nodded and they walked quickly down the street until they came to a large park,
and walked into it, keeping an eye out for more soldiers.
When they didn�t see any, Adam suggested
they all sit down at one of the tables that were scattered around.
They did, and Megabyte immediately said,
�All right, so are we now ready to discuss why risking yourself is a stupid
idea?�
�It
is not a stupid idea,� Adam said impatiently.
�On top of everything else, I�m the fastest runner.�
�You
know, that�s what I love about you, Adam, you�re such an optimist,� Megabyte
remarked sarcastically.
�And
you�re not the fastest runner, I am,� Ami corrected him while giving Megabyte a
stern look, then she blushed when he turned to stare at her.
�I was on track team when I was
younger. Megabyte was right, we do need
you. And what if they catch me?
You�ve got a better chance of getting me out
than I do of getting you out. Besides,
you�re better at tackling people than I am,� she added with a smile.
He
groaned. �This is a bad idea��
�What,
it was a good idea when you were going to do it and it�s a bad idea now that
I�m going to do it?� she asked sharply, crossing her arms.
�Don�t you trust me?�
�You
know I do,� he said helplessly.
�Then
you have to let me do this,� she said, putting a slight accent on the �me�.
He
frowned at her, but eventually nodded agreement.
�All
right, lets go!� Megabyte said enthusiastically.
�Now?�
Ami asked uncertainly.
�Sure,
what are we waiting for?�
Ami
decided that it would probably be a good idea to do this before she lost her
nerve entirely. �Fine,� she said,
nodding in what she hoped was a confident manner.
� �Does anyone see any of those soldiers?
� Preferably only one or two of them,� she added as an
afterthought.
�Not
a problem � there are a couple of them right over there,� Megabyte said,
pointing over her shoulder.
Ami
spun around, ready to run� but there was nothing there.
She turned back to glare at Megabyte, who
was attempting (mostly unsuccessfully) to hide his grin.
�Megabyte, I�m going to kill you,� she
threatened, mostly without any conviction.
There were only so many times you could make the same threat before it
lost strength.
He
laughed, and she ground her teeth.
Suddenly he paled, looking at something over her shoulder.
:Ami, you�re about to get your chance,
because there are a couple of them in the street.:
�You
might fool me once, but not again so soon,� she sniffed.
:Ah,
he�s not kidding,: Jade said.
Ami
very slowly turned her head to the side, so that she could look over her own
shoulder. Sure enough, the two soldiers
they�d seen before were now walking down the street.
� Great. Just
great. Ami squared her shoulders.
:Here goes nothing.:
:Wait,:
Adam told her, grabbing her arm. :Let
us circle around so we can get behind them.:
:Good idea,: Ami
said. She didn�t want to tell anyone,
but she had a bad feeling about this entire plan.
� Too often her �feelings� were vague premonitions of the future,
but sometimes they were just her being nervous.
� She didn�t think that Adam was going to give up on this idea, so
there was no use worrying them. :Just�
be careful.:
Adam
gave her a sharp look, as if he knew that she was holding something back, but
finally he smiled encouragingly, nodded, then he, Megabyte, and Jade, ran off
through the park. Ami stood but made no
move to walk towards the soldiers, waiting for Adam to tell her they were
ready. Maybe by the time they were
ready she could get her heart to stop trying to jump out of her chest�
�I
really don�t see what they expect us to do,� Duo complained to Quatre as they
strolled through the park. �Oz has got
a million people, and they can�t find them � how are we supposed to?�
�We�re��
Quatre dropped his voice, �Gundam pilots.
We�re supposed to be able to do anything,� he smiled weakly.
�Which
is great for destroying bases, but not great for finding four humans,� Duo
retorted. He hesitated slightly when he
saw the two Oz soldiers walking down the street in front of them, but only for
an instant before logic kicked in and he kept walking.
The Ozzies couldn�t possibly know what he
looked like. They wouldn�t even know if
he bumped into them. Not that he was planning
to do that � there was such a thing as pushing your luck.
�I think�� he broke off as something slammed
into him from behind, causing him to stumble and knock over someone standing to
his right.
He
scrambled to his feet in time to see a bunch of kids running down the path,
running over everything in their way.
Then he looked down at the person he knocked over.
It was a pretty black girl, a few years
older than himself, with a startled look on her face.
� �Man, I�m sorry,� he apologized, holding out a hand to help her
up. �Kids these days��
�It�s
all right,� she said, grasping his hand and pulling herself to her feet.
She was speaking English, but had a strange
accent that he couldn�t quite place. As
soon as her hand touched his, however, her eyes unfocussed and she gasped.
Eyes wide, she stumbled back a step.
�I� I�m fine,� she said, breathing
hard. �I�ve got to go,� she stammered,
backing up several more steps before turning and running out of the park.
Duo stared after her.
�Weird,�
he muttered, then something else occurred to him.
� Turning to look at Quatre, he asked, �Did she look familiar to
you?�
Quatre
has his hand pressed against his heart.
�She was terrified,� he murmured.
�What?�
�She
was terrified of you. Of us,� Quatre repeated,
staring after the girl.
Duo
shook his head. �Nah, she was probably
just pissed that I knocked her over.�
Quatre
shook his head. �No, she was
terrified. I can feel it.�
He glanced over at Duo.
�Why would she be so scared of you?�
Duo
shrugged. He�d seen a lot of people who
were afraid of him, but usually they waited until he was in Deathscythe to
start being terrified. This was the
first time he could think of that anyone had been terrified of him without him
even pointing a gun at them. Very
weird.
The
girl fled to the edge of the park, but stopped a few steps short of the street,
like she was caught between two things.
She looked nervously back at Duo and Quatre, then looked down the
street� at the Oz soldiers? What was
going on? �She�s looking at the
Ozzies,� he muttered to Quatre.
�You
don�t think�� Quatre trailed off, but Duo noticed him reaching for the gun
hidden in a holster under his shoulder.
He�d been surprised when Quatre showed it to him, but it did explain why
he always wore that little vest.
�Nah!
What�s she going to say, �This guy knocked
me over and I think he�s a wanted terrorist?�
Let�s get out of here.�
�Sure,�
Quatre agreed, but he remained, staring at the girl, for several seconds.
She�d suddenly gone completely still, and
her eyes had a distant look to them.
Probably some sort of nutcase.
But Duo couldn�t shake the feeling that she looked vaguely familiar, if
he could only remember where he�d seen her�
Finally
Quatre turned and they started to walk down the street, away from the
Ozzies. They�d barely made it a block
when a voice with a familiar accent rose above the din of the crowd.
�Ow!
Stop it, you�re hurting me!�
Duo
and Quatre both spun around. The two Oz
soldiers had the girl shoved up against the wall of a building, her arms
twisted behind her back. As they
watched, the girl cried out in pain again as one of the soldiers pulled out a
pair of handcuffs. The girl�s head was
turned towards them, her cheek pressed against the brick wall, but there was
something about her face� there was fear there, a lot of it, but under that was
sheer determination. She was scared,
but not frozen in panic. And in that
instant, he remembered where he�d seen her before.
�
�Shit!�
Duo exclaimed, pulling out his gun.
�What?�
Quatre asked, his hand slipping under his vest.
�It�s
that girl! She�s one of the four we saw
before! The ones that Oz brought here!�
Quatre�s
eyes widened. �What?
How��
�I
don�t know, but we can�t let Oz get her,� Duo said, starting to run towards
them. There were too many civilians in
the way to get a clear shot.
Before
he got a clear shot, two figures flung themselves out of an alley, knocking
over the two Oz soldiers and the girl before they could handcuff her.
The red-haired boy they�d seen before
immediately picked himself up and rushed back into the alley, while the older
boy stood up and then pulled the girl to her feet.
� By then one of the soldiers had regained his feet and grabbed the
boy�s arm. The boy swung around with an
incredibly clumsy punch that nevertheless managed to connect with the soldier�s
chin. It apparently wasn�t much of a
punch, since the soldier remained conscious, but he did fall over backwards,
somehow managing to land on his companion, knocking him to the ground
again. They were almost funny, and
would have been except for the desperation on the faces of the boy and girl.
The
two of them started running down the street, and one of the soldiers struggled
to his knees, drawing a gun. �Stop
where you are!�
The
appearance of a gun had an immediate effect on the crowd that had gathered �
panic. In just a few seconds there was
no one within fifty feet of the soldiers, which simplified Duo�s life
considerably. The kids kept
running.
The
soldier fired a single shot, and the boy suddenly collapsed.
The girl skidded to a halt, then ran back to
him, looking anxiously between him and the soldier who had shot him.
�Adam!� she shrieked, pulling at the boy.
�Just
go!� he shouted. He had an accent too,
although it was different than hers.
�I�m
not leaving you!� she shouted back, turning and putting herself between the boy
and the soldier who was now approaching them, gun still drawn.
�Bastard,�
Duo muttered. They�d just shot an
unarmed boy who�d committed no crime worse than being from another world, and
it wasn�t even his idea! He aimed
carefully and fired a single shot. It
passed through the man�s head, and the body actually stood upright for a few
seconds before collapsing.
The
girl didn�t scream. Instead, she raised
a hand to her mouth and turned to look directly at him, an expression of fear
and disgust on her face. The boy was
also staring at him with a similar expression, although his grimace of pain
made it difficult to tell. His hand was
clamped down on his left thigh, which was rapidly turning dark red as the blood
from his wound seeped into the cloth.
For a moment time seemed to slow down.
Then
the second Oz soldier realized what had happened and spun around, drawing his
own gun. Duo saw his brow wrinkle in
confusion when he saw the two of them, looking like a couple of kids (kids
holding guns), then his training took over and he fired at them.
His mediocre training, seeing as he missed
both of them, allowing them to dive for cover behind a nearby building.
Out of the corner of his eye, Duo saw the
boy fling his arm over the girl�s shoulder and stumble to his feet, then the
two of them began to flee again.
The
Oz soldier fired at them for several key seconds, then there was silence.
Duo risked a glance around the wall, and saw
that the soldier was running off after the kids.
� �We can�t let him catch them,� Quatre said seriously.
Duo
nodded. �Come on, I think we can cut
them off if we go this way,� he said, and took off down one of the side
streets. Sure enough, less than a
minute later, they were back out on the main street.
� There were more people here, but in a few seconds he saw the
pair, doing their best to approximate a normal walk despite the fact that he
was still bleeding quite heavily. It
was obvious that they didn�t want to show his (their?) unique abilities while
in public.
Duo
knew how to deal with that � he raised his gun and fired a single shot into an
empty car, or more precisely, into the fuel tank.
� It exploded marvelously, and succeeded in clearing the street of
most of the people � the few curious souls that remained all left when he blew
up a second car. All of them except for
the pair, who obviously couldn�t move very fast right now.
Duo grinned to himself, then met Quatre�s
shocked stare. �What?
I didn�t kill anyone.�
Quatre
shook his head wearily. �Never
mind.� The two of them walked out into
the street and up to the pair, who seemed to be expecting them.
The boy managed to pull himself completely
upright despite his leg, and pushed the girl behind him.
For once his face was completely
expressionless as he stared at them, first at Duo, then at Quatre.
When
he looked at Quatre, his eyes got a little wider.
� �You�re one of them too?� he asked.
� �But you�re just kids��
�Hey,
I don�t think we�re just anything,� Duo said.
�And what do you mean, one of them?�
�You�re
one of the terrorists,� the boy stated confidently.
� �In those huge machines.
You tried to grab me in the woods.�
�How��
Quatre started to say, but Duo beat him to it.
�How
the hell do you know that?!�
�You
feel the same,� the girl said softly.
Duo
didn�t know how to deal with that, but he moved his hand so that they could see
the gun he held, without actually pointing it at them.
�So what are you going to do now?� he asked
casually.
The
boy�s eyes widened and grew guarded as he backed up a step, the girl supporting
him. Suddenly there were two bursts of
light and the other two appeared.
�So
you can all do that?� Duo asked, and the redhead winced.
�You
OK?� he asked the older boy. He was
also speaking English, but it was a more familiar form than the other two.
�That soldier guy is coming,� he added,
glancing nervously behind him before returning to watching the two Gundam
pilots warily.
The
older boy didn�t respond, just staring at the smaller boy, but the redhead
lowered his head and the two younger kids disappeared again.
The older boy looked at the pilots again,
shaking his head. �We don�t want any
trouble, we just want to go home.
Please, just leave us alone,� he asked softly, then he and the girl
disappeared in their own flashes of light.
Just
then the second Oz soldier came running around the corner.
Duo killed him with a single shot.
No one who saw a Gundam remained alive, and
someone who saw the actual pilots was even worse.
� Quatre didn�t comment, either on the strange kids or on the
killing. His hand was once again pressed
against his chest, and he had a distant look in his eyes.
When he didn�t look like he was going to
move, ever, Duo gave him a discreet nudge.
�Come on, Q. We�d better get
back and report all this.�
�I
thought the point of Ami doing this was to keep you from getting into trouble!�
Megabyte complained once they were back in the Ship.
�
�Megabyte��
whatever Adam was going to say was cut off as he gritted his teeth in an
attempt not to cry out in pain as Ami poked at the wound in an attempt to
determine how bad it was. All he knew
was that it hurt a lot, and that his healing powers weren�t working right
now. It was really great when they did,
but it was so random that it was like he had no control over it at all.
Megabyte
immediately looked repentant. �Sorry,�
he apologized, walking over. �Ami, how
bad is it?�
�Not
too bad, I don�t think,� Ami said, wiping her bloody hands on one of the
blankets. �I�m pretty sure it�s just a
graze, but I�ll feel better when Jade gets back with some antiseptics,� she
said worriedly.
:Ami?
Tell me honestly, how bad is it?: Adam
asked, trying his best to shield so that she wouldn�t feel his pain.
He wasn�t sure whether or not she was being
honest, or whether she was trying to keep Megabyte from worrying � or trying to
keep him from worrying. That�s what he
would do under the same circumstances, anyway.
:It�s
exactly like I said,: she told him with a slight wince that told him his
effort at shielding wasn�t completely successful.
� :You�re going to be fine.
The bullet only grazed you. I
just want to make sure it doesn�t get infected.
� And Megabyte was right, the whole idea was to keep you in one
piece!: she scolded gently.
Adam
barely held back a groan. He wasn�t
sure he could take much more of Megabyte�s unique brand of humor.
Megabyte
looked at them suspiciously, recognizing the signs of telepathic
communication. �All right, that�s not
fair,� he complained. �What did you
just say?�
�I�m
just trying to convince Adam to go to a hospital,� Ami lied, giving Adam a
stern look. Actually, she had brought
up that possibility when they first got back to the ship and he almost lost
consciousness when he accidentally banged his leg against one of the
walls. He�d refused � that was the
quickest way he could think of to end up in a lab somewhere when the hospital
tried to figure out who he was. Ami had
insisted, and he�d managed to convince her to take a look at it to see how bad
it was before he went to the hospital.
Luckily it hadn�t been too bad, he wasn�t sure if he was up to arguing
it out with her.
There
was a flash of light, and Jade appeared with several boxes and bottles in her
arms. �I wasn�t sure what to get so I
just grabbed a bunch,� she explained as she dumped them on the floor next to
Adam. �And I grabbed a bunch of
bandages, too. Here are the
painkillers,� she added, pulling a smaller bottle out of her pocket and handing
it to him.
�Thanks,�
he said, sighing in relief. He managed
to lever himself into a sitting position and reached for the glass of water
that Megabyte silently held out. He
swallowed several of the pills and then leaned back.
Ami
was looking through the various bottles and boxes that Jade had brought back,
occasionally glancing at Adam. �What is
it?� he finally asked.
�I�m
sorry, but we�re going to have to get your pants off first, or at least that one
leg. And unless someone stole a pair of
scissors��
�I
got it,� Megabyte announced, pulling something out of his pocket.
�My dad gave me a Swiss army knife.�
He examined it and selected a small blade.
�Now just stay still��
�Megabyte,
if you cut me, I�m never going to forgive you,� Adam said seriously.
�Give
me some credit � I was a boy scout when I was little.�
�When
you were little� how little?� Adam asked suspiciously, but before he could
follow up on those suspicions, Megabyte inserted the knife between his pants
and his skin and made a quick thrust, slicing open the material all the way up
to his hip. Then he did the same thing
on the other side of the wound, all the way down to his ankle.
Even Adam had to admit that it hadn�t hurt
at all.
�OK,
let�s get this off,� Ami said, slowly peeling the bloody cloth away from his
skin, and despite himself, Adam winced.
�Adam, this might be easier if you went to sleep while I cleaned this,�
she said. �It�s going to hurt a
lot. Besides, you�ve lost a lot of
blood.�
Adam
considered. It did hurt a lot, but
still� He felt the Ship reach out and
touch his mind gently, and the pain suddenly lessened greatly.
�It�s all right,� he said, shaking his
head. �The Ship is helping.
I think it can help me heal faster,
too.�
�It
can?� Jade asked, glancing up at the walls of the ship.
The great column glowed a little more
brightly and moaned at them. Jade
grinned at it. �Yeah, you�re right.�
Adam
deliberately avoided his eyes as Ami put some liquid from one of the bottles �
a disinfectant, he hoped � on one of the gauze pads and carefully started
wiping away the blood around the wound.
There was a lot of it. To keep
his mind off of what was happening, he asked, �So what happened, exactly?�
He knew, in a kind of indirect way, from
what he�d observed and from what Ami�s mind told him, but he wanted to hear it
from her.
Ami�s
hand faltered for a moment before continuing her gentle strokes.
�I� I walked up to them and I said that I
thought they might be looking for me, and that I wanted to talk to their
superiors. They looked at me for a
second, then they grabbed me and shoved me up against the wall.�
She rubbed her cheek with her free hand
before continuing. �They were going to
handcuff me, and the things I could feel�� she shuddered.
�What?�
he pushed.
�Just�
darkness. They were killers, and they
enjoyed it. They knew they were hurting
me, and they did it on purpose. And
they�ve done it before.�
�What?�
�To
people, normal people, they push them around, take supplies and other things
whenever they want�� she shuddered again.
�I don�t think we want to go to an organization that has that sort of
people working for it.�
�They
can�t all be bad,� Adam protested.
�Maybe.
But you know what the weird thing is?� she
asked.
For
a moment, Adam�s mind flew back to the various adventures he�d lived through
since becoming a Tomorrow Person. He�d
discovered that �weird� was entirely relative.
Please don�t let it involve aliens, psychotic mosquito-loving
scientists, or ancient gods, he prayed quietly.
� That would be a little much right now.
� Gigantic robots and space colonies were bad enough.
�What?� he asked warily, then winced as she
poured some of the liquid directly over the wound.
�
�Sorry,
I just want to make sure there�s no bacteria or anything in there.�
Ami stared at the wound for a few
seconds. �I think it�s OK.
Now let me just wrap this�
The weird thing was that I didn�t get that
feeling from the kids. You know, the
terrorists.�
Adam
frowned. �What?�
�I
didn�t get that sort of darkness from them.�
�Hello!
They�re terrorists!
Of course they�re killers!� Jade exclaimed.
�I
know! I know it�s crazy, and I never
said that they weren�t killers, I just said that they didn�t have that sort of
darkness. It�s like they kill, but they
don�t enjoy it,� Ami defended herself.
�And they did try to protect us, I think.�
�
�What?�
Megabyte asked.
�The
one with the braid shot the soldier that shot Adam,� Ami replied as she
continued to wrap gauze around Adam�s leg.
�Having
a homicidal maniac on our side is not a good thing!� Jade exploded.
�Hey,
guys?� Megabyte said with an unusual hesitancy in his voice.
Unusual for him, anyway.
�I hate to bring this up, but just because a
person carries a gun and because they may have to kill people doesn�t make them
evil,� he finished, staring at the floor.
Adam
could have smacked himself. �You�re
right, but your dad doesn�t go around attacking people,� he said gently.
�I
was just saying that just because they�re soldiers doesn�t mean that they�re
bad people,� he said grumpily. �And
what�s up with them being my age? I
mean, OK, I have a weird life, but they�re normal, right?
Do people here normally start killing at a
young age or is it just them?�
�What
difference does it make?� Jade asked.
�They�re the terrorists, we can all feel it.�
� Adam took a good look at her.
Something was really bothering her, something about those pilots, and it
was something that she wasn�t ready to share with them yet.
He considered pushing, but decided to give
her some more time to come out with it on her own.
� �You can�t possibly mean that you think the terrorists are the
good guys?� she asked, her voice rising on every word.
Megabyte
shrugged. �They didn�t try to shoot
us.�
�Neither
did Masters,� Jade pointed out, then grimaced at the reminder.
She hadn�t been around when Masters tried to
capture them all to use in experiments, trying to create the perfect soldier,
but she�d heard enough to know that it was a very sensitive topic with those
who�d managed to live through it.
�Sorry.�
�I�m
just saying that we need to find out more about what�s going on,� Megabyte
said. �I mean, America was started by a
bunch of rebels. Just because you�re
going against the government doesn�t mean you�re bad.
� I mean, just look at us.�
�That
wasn�t really the government,� Ami said.
�It was just a bunch of people who wanted to�� she cut herself off.
�It wasn�t legal.
� And the government was the bad guys there.�
�So
what if the government is the bad guys here?� Megabyte challenged.
There
was a long silence after that comment. Great,
Adam thought to himself. Not only
are we in another time and another world, we�ve slid into the middle of a Star
Wars rebels-vs-the-evil-empire scenario.
So now what? We go up to the
terrorist kids and ask them to nicely explain why they�re going around killing
people? He knew better than to
voice his doubts out loud. He was
supposed to be the leader of their group, and that meant not showing how
confused he was, even when he had no idea what to do.
�
Luckily,
Ami wasn�t under those constraints. �So
what do you expect us to do? Walk up to
the nice terrorists and ask them to explain the situation to us?�
Megabyte
shrugged. �It�s worth a try.
At least we know they won�t shoot us out of
hand. And they already know we can
teleport, so it wouldn�t be like we were giving anything away.�
�Maybe,
we might try that, if we knew where they were, but we don�t, so we can�t,� Ami
replied uneasily. She looked very
relieved that that was the case.
Suddenly
the uneasy feeling that Adam was getting from Jade intensified.
Apparently everyone else felt it too,
because they all turned to look at Jade, who was studying the floor with quiet
intensity. �Ah, if you guys want to
find them, I can do it.�
�What?�
Megabyte exclaimed. �How?�
If
anything, Jade looked more uncomfortable as she said, �One of the terrorists�
the blond one� he�s sensitive. An
empath, at least. He�s got a really
strong aura. Really distinctive.
I guess you guys missed it because you were
concentrating on�� her gaze drifted to Adam�s leg before returning to the
floor. �� other things.
But I�m pretty sure I could find it again,
especially if the Ship helps me.�
Adam
couldn�t get his mind around something she�d said.
� �How can an empath be a terrorist?�
�I
guess we�ll have to ask him when I go talk to them,� Ami said suddenly, and
Adam�s head snapped up.
�No!�
�Why
not?� she demanded. �I thought we just
decided it was a good idea.�
�We
said that it might work, not that it was a good idea, and that was when we were
talking about it theoretically,� Adam returned.
�
�So?
It�s still a good idea,� Ami replied.
�Jade can find them and then give me the
placement. I�ll go and see if they�ll
answer some of our questions. If they
won�t, or if anything starts to look dangerous, I�ll just teleport back
here. Simple.�
�And
what if something else happens? What if
they trick you�� Adam suddenly cut himself off, realizing that wasn�t the
brightest thing he could have said.
Ami
glared at him and crossed her arms.
�Well, even if I am an idiot and they trick me and knock me out or
something, all you guys have to do is teleport in, grab me, and teleport out.
At least then we�ll know that they�re not
the good guys.�
�I
should��
�You
can�t even stand up right now, and if you try it I�m going to step on your
leg,� she threatened.
He
had a feeling she was serious and didn�t try to move.
� �This is a really bad idea, a stupid idea.�
�Oh?
Better or worse than tackling an armed
soldier?� she asked, raising an eyebrow.
�Besides,
this won�t be the first stupid thing we�ve done,� Megabyte said
cheerfully.
�Yeah,
but it might be the last,� Adam snapped.
�If
there�s any trouble, I�ll just teleport out,� Ami said consolingly, and Adam
knew that he wasn�t going to win this argument.
�
He
was silent for a full minute, letting them know that he was very unhappy, then
finally turned to Jade. �Do you need
any help?�
She
cast him an apologetic look at having provided the method for finding the
terrorists, but shook her head. �I can
do this, but it might take a while.�
�In
the meantime, you�re going to have some food, and then go to sleep,� Ami said
firmly to Adam, making him feel as if he were four years old instead of
nineteen. But he knew better than to
argue with Ami when she was in this mood.
�Fine,�
he sighed, trying to get comfortable on the floor with only one thin blanket as
padding between him and the cold metal floor.
At least, they thought it was metal � it was a little hard to tell.
He closed his eyes.
A few seconds later he opened them again as
he felt something pass through the air right above his head.
He
saw a grinning Megabyte standing over him, a wicked grin on his face.
He waved his hand in front of Adam�s face
again and then chuckled to himself. �I
just wanted to see if you were still awake!�