By Mink
Author's Notes: Jink/Kirsten, thanks for all your help
in completing this chapter
The rumbling sky was a flat shade of sulfur, glimpsed above and between the dark monoliths of the looming buildings, their windows black and lifeless. The empty street was like a long bleak corridor, colossal in size, the car cluttered streets deserted, a distant creak and groan of settling wreckage the only sound save for their own footsteps. There were vague shapes hidden in the swirling sluggish vapors above them. They played tricks on the eyes, the dark curled and flowed, seeming to form sweeping arches, and even kawara textured towers, but that of course was ridiculous.
Duo glanced behind him nervously, his eyes narrowing in the gloom. "Do you think they're following us?"
Heero did not answer him. He had let the weapon slump lifelessly to the ground to climb a crumbling pile of concrete. The weapon was pale, its flaxen hair damp on its face. It hadn�t revived, and knowing the nature of the drug Heero had used, it wasn�t going to any time soon.
Heero�s head cocked slightly to one side.
A noise.
"What's that?" Duo heard it now too. It was a steady tread, somewhat like the violent clang of battle they had heard before but different. It was rhythmic, and measured, not chaotic.
They both glimpsed a shadow, appearing and vanishing between the far end of an alleyway, followed by another and another. Duo knew that sound well enough, it was the steady march of soldiers.
Oz! Duo smirked. So they were here. He crept through the dark narrow alley and pressed himself back against the damp cool brick wall.
He scowled.
The soldiers were almost close enough to reach out and tap as they passed single file down the cracked sidewalk.
But these were unlike any Oz infantry he had ever seen before. They moved in perfect synchroneity. The placement of their armored step was too finely in synch, none faster or slower than the other. He had experienced fully automated robotics, some models even similar to these but he could hear something strange under the steady stomp of their passage. Instead of the whirling and tell tale click of machinery, he heard low moaning as if their forced march was ghastly and pained them. Instead of the acrid stink of oil and hydraulic fluid, he smelled damp soil, like a slow rot underneath it all.
He held his breath as the battalion strode listlessly past them. Faces were not visible on these models, the weapons almost crude, just spears. No guns. Duo was puzzled. What kind of damage did they think they were going to do with no people around? What was left to skewer? Besides them.
Duo gnawed at his lower lip. He had one word for it that he would never admit out loud, but it was all that came to mind.
Spooky.
Duo decided he should get out of there.
He turned ready to sprint, nearly crashing into Heero who had abandoned the weapon to join him.
"Woah!" Duo skidded to a halt his eyes round with a breathless panic. Heero 's eyes were scanning the ranks of living metal behind him.
"Biomekku?" He asked.
Duo shrugged, attempting to feign ease."Definitely mech, probably dangerous. Maybe more freaks like that one." He tried to shake the feeling that had overcome him. Knowing he couldn�t explain it, and knowing full well his companion would not give a damn, he turned to watch the procession with Heero.
He drew his gun just in case they took any notice. They waited and waited, listening to the seemingly endless clamor. Finally, the last ranks were pulling out. A sudden explosion of noise crackled from above and Duo recognized the telltale sound of debris falling from the rooftops. A large greyish blur of falling cement sent one of the mechs crashing into the asphalt. Nothing stopped for it, the rhythm unwavering eerily, entirely inhumane. The ranks moved silently on.
So much for comradeship.
Duo waited until Heero moved, scurrying out from the alley to inspect the fallen soldier. Heero stopped abruptly at first, testing the distance. When the soldier beneath the fallen chunk made no move to aid itself, he peered down for a closer look. The face under the helmet was black as pitch, and only two steady glow of red eyes could be seen.
Heero's gun rang out in abrupt fire, shattering the armor of the thing as it shuddered on the ground. Duo sent a descending kick to its throat to snap its neck.
The helmet rolled off the armored body and something that could only be steam emanated from it, leaving the armored shell like smoke.
Duo kicked again at the thing and it collapsed in on itself, like an empty shell. "It's empty." He croaked.
Heero looked down at it for a moment and made a small face.
"Garakuta." He said. Trash.
Nothing worked. No orders had been received. Couldn't be received, Duo reminded himself looking at his dead comlink in disgust. Even the small battery cell in his link had failed.
Leaving them no point B. The only structure closest to standing was a church. That would be point B...for now.
Heero sat unmoving under the cob web like shatter of the cobalt blue window, the violence that had created it long gone, leaving the delicate stained glass suspended at the brink of its own end. He watched the deserted streets with a patience Duo couldn�t manage without booze.
St. Thomas's was silent like the rest of the city, one wall crumbled inwards exposing the office buildings at its side, and the oak pews scattered and splintered like dominos fallen. The altar was a shattered ruin, the vestibule tipped onto its side.
Heero had taken time to secure the weapon much more soundly than he had before.
Taking the baseball cap he had stashed in a deep cargo pocket and pulling it on backwards, Duo had to admire his work.
They had found metal cord wire in the wreckage and had bound the cyborg with it, convinced it would not break free without its outer armor. Even if it regained full consciousness, the binds were tightly and professionally administered. The weapon wasn�t going anywhere.
It still had not reactivated, and was cold and limp under their hands while they worked.
Duo had searched its pockets, wondering as he did, how human this weapon was that it required or even desired clothing while not using its power. The thing�s body underneath the fabric of its clothing was hard and finely muscled. Its breathing was shallow but steady, and its skin was cool to the touch. Its eyes struggled open when he pulled the shirt free to check if it was concealing anything. Duo could see where it had been wounded previously and healed or had been repaired. Its eyes closed soon afterward, it was too dazed and sick to even do that much.
He found nothing on it but a small marble.
Duo sat, his back against one of the few remaining upright wooden benches. It was pretty really. He rolled the cool sphere in his finger tips, watching the way the scant bit of luminescence that remained glimmered and flashed in its core.
Studying it even closer, he was convinced that it was his eyes playing tricks and not the small marble.
Then he heard a low groan.
The weapon, who had been sprawled on his back, had rolled onto his side, drawing his knees up to his chest, its eyes struggling to open.
Duo frowned, watching as it tried to free the bound hands behind it, and then thankfully failing. Its legs were bound from ankles to the knees, making the range of motion very limited.
It looked at him.
The sphere in his hand suddenly flickered and then flared, with a cold green fire at its heart.
Duo gasped and almost dropped it.
It saw what he was holding and its eyes flickered in what Duo could only call alarm, and the marble flickered and pulsed in agitation.
Hmm. Duo crawled cautiously closer to the bound cyborg and watched the marble gleam brighter, a strong steady green light by the time he was next to it. The shine illuminated them both, the cyborg's already pale face, a curious sickly green in its glow.
It suddenly occurred to him, watching the laserlike shafts of light, that the cyborg's outer armor had also been green. "Is this how you use it?" Duo asked softly in wonder rolling the curious sphere in his fingertips, expecting it to grow warm or even hot, but it remained cool to the touch. "Is this how you activate your bioarmor?"
It said nothing, Duo was uncertain if it was even capable, but its cold stare threatened him in ways that words could not.
Duo studied its face instead of the marble in his hand. If the cyborg was anything like a human it wouldn't be feeling that great. The drug Heero had used was powerful, and Duo had suffered its effects before making the worst hang over feel like a joke. Sure, it bled but so did Robocop, right? As far as Heero was probably concerned it was the goal, the mission, just classified goods. Good looking goods. But still not a person. Not like him. So why did he feel wrong about this?
Duo pocketed the orb and the cyborg's ice blue gaze closed.
"Some peashooter." He shrugged, pulling the black baseball cap over his eyes and leaning back against the pews. Duo whimpered trying to get comfortable on the hard wooden bench.
Heero blinked at him. "Nanda?"
"I'm hungry." Duo complained. "How long have we been here?"
Heero didn't answer. Duo wasn't surprised, who could tell an hour from a minute with the sky like that. Something hit him in the back of the head. Duo retrieved the bag of crackers. Heero must have found them when they searched the place.
"Thanks."
Heero resumed his vigil and had permitted himself rest or the closest thing to it, sitting on the pews staring into out into the street. Still, he was awake--no funny business then. Good for him. The crackers were gone.
He wanted a nap.
Duo awoke to a series of piercing blips. Heero 's comlink was going berserk. Duo jolted upright in the pew, tired muscles protesting. Power? He quickly checked his own comlink but it was dead. "What's the verdict?"
Heero was forcing the ill cyborg, none too gently, to its feet, ripping away some of the binds so it could walk.
"Ikou." Let's go.
Duo guessed he'd found point B.
Trowa watched Quatre carefully jump down from the overturned truck, his gaze flickering to the two that had lead them swiftly and confidently through the wrecked city streets. Quatre met and returned his concerned look.
"If they meant us harm, I am sure it would have been done by now." The blonde pilot said softly enough to not be overheard.
Trowa nodded absently, his mind in a whirl. They still had their weapons, and as futile as the dark haired boy in sneakers had insisted they were, he felt better with his gun pressed into his side.
"My friends are just ahead, waiting for us." The black haired boy turned and told them. "They said it's all clear."
Trowa noted that the red armor he had worn was no longer on, and he couldn't make out any kind of communication device. How did he know?
At that moment, the light around the boy leading them flared, and it was back, the red armor they had seen him in. Another gesture and two liquid slivers of light poured into his hands and solidified into the sharp glints of weapons. He held them for a moment before causally slipping them both into the black sheaths on his back. Just like that.
It was astonishing.
Trowa remembered to shut his mouth.
Quatre made a small sound.
"New types."
It halted them both. Trowa looked at him hard. Of course. How could he not have thought of it? Armor that came and went at will, telepathy, the scale of destruction all around them all pointed to the poorly understood and thus far untapped power of this new generation science was just beginning to fathom.
"Huh?" The powerful one with orange metal armor ablaze like a late sunset had paused to look at them.
Quatre stepped forward, his voice wavering in uncertainty. "Is that how you do these things?" He gestured around them. "Are you new types?" He sounded almost hopeful. A simple yes would explain so much.
Trowa frown, he was also just beginning to understand that Quatre was one of these products of evolution, and a tremor of fear went through him at the idea that he might share something in common with the mysteries that stood staring at them in weary confusion.
"New types." The boy in red armor repeated, thoughtfully. "No." He half smiled almost apologetically.
"What the--?" The one in orange made a face. "New types? That some sorta band?" His formidable frame shook with a laugh.
Quatre shook his head and stepped forward. "They're..." he began, then paused, frustrated. "...oh, I can't explain but I ...feel something?" He looked suddenly and absolutely confused.
It disturbed Trowa. He didn't like being so very outside of something Quatre could only barely perceive in his mind.
The one in red and previously in sneakers cleared his throat. "We have a um," He looked to his friend who shrugged, "...a duty. You know, a job?" He looked encouraged by using a word he assumed they would understand. "We have to fight or we won't win."
"Five of you." Quatre said flatly.
"Yeah, hey how did you know that?" The powerful one shifted his spear and eyed him with a grin.
How ~did~ he know that? Trowa looked to Quatre in apprehension.
There was a distant sound, that rang through the silence like a bell tolling midnight.
The two warriors both drew their weapons as one and turned towards it. They spoke curtly to one another, almost finishing one another's sentences.
"It isn't one of the guys-"
"Must be-."
"Yep."
"What's going on?" Trowa reflexively drew his gun.
"There is one near by now." Quatre said and worry dawned in his eyes. "I can feel it."
Unsure if Quatre was concerned because another one was approaching or the fact that he was able to tell, Trowa knew that whatever was on its way, it wasn't any good. A wind picked up, stirring the dust and making a shattered traffic light sway on the lone cable that kept it from crashing down into the street. The sound grew louder and louder bringing the wind to a roar. It made the hairs on the back of his neck rise.
Backing away, Trowa was about to urge Quatre to follow him back into the deserted maze of the city, when the two armored figures that stood in tense readiness both sprang into action.
Without warning, sticky white strands exploded into every direction clinging to debris and the teetering walls of wreckage.
One strand, the size of a thick cable of rope struck Trowa square in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Gasping for breath he realized the colorless substance had flowed over and trapped his arm and neck to the ground. He couldn't move to see what had become of Quatre. Another barrage hit him, slamming and pinning his other arm down, his wrist striking the ground sending his gun skittering across the pavement. The rope like weapon constricted him, making it impossible to breathe. Bright lights exploded in his vision as he struggled to remain conscious.
As he lost the fight, he thought he saw above and about him, strewn throughout the concrete towers and sky, a magnificent spider web stretching between skyscrapers, a city bus was upended, suspended with chunks of debris caught up in massive grotesque threads.
Trowa had one last moment to experience a detached curiosity as to what created it.
And then he was gone.
The Museum of Natural History stood an imposing fortress in the cluttered mess that had become Central Park West. The dark red bricks were distressed here and there but it had been spared for the most part. As they walked its grounds for the exact entrance, he couldn't help but be taken in by the medieval quality of the building, like the home of some mad scientist where chilling oddities and various exotic odds and ends were housed.
It was not an unreasonable comparison.
Weak sickly light through the large windows glazed the still life figures of Native American canteen in the main hall, their outlines eerie in the near darkness. Debris covered everything, crushed tickets and dropped purses, the remains of mass panic littered the floor. Heero seemed to have been already familiarized with the area and Duo followed him, trying not to shudder at the vast size of the place. Being inside the Museum of Natural History was not unlike wandering through the empty streets. Desolate, mazelike and utterly unnatural.
Glassy-eyed creatures from all corners of the Earth stared out at him behind windows of glass, frozen in life. Preserved specimens in jars floated silently, staring eyes in the darkness. Duo talked. He couldn't help it. This entire assignment had him totally freaked.
"Cozy, huh?"
Heero answered with a shrug. The weapon had no comment. Likely it was still coming out of the drug-induced stupor. Or, it was calling their bluff. Duo rubbed the handle of the gun at his hip. Considering what it was capable of, he couldn�t afford to take its compliance for granted. "Who'd wanna pay to see a huge pickled squid?" They were taking a shortcut through the marine life exhibit. Giant clamshells with gaping jaw like bivalves gleamed white, shadowy shapes of creature models hung from the ceiling. He wanted to get this mission over with pronto. Duo kept his eyes on the weapon's back in front of him.
"You know where you're going, right Heero ?"
If he did or didn't, Heero wasn't about to tell him. The thought unnerved him. How the fuck were they supposed to find their way out of this wacky place?
"Kocchi." Heero said. This way.
Duo's heart lifted. They stopped in a room full of skeletal monsters, built tall enough to reach the ceiling. Duo balked at the sheer might of it.
Heero was pushing aside a glass case full of large velocoraptor claws lain out for display. He knelt to the cold tiles, prying a loose one away to reveal the ancient primary base underneath. He stepped on it, kicking away the crumbling matter. Duo understood. Leave it to the freaks running the game to set up shop underground.
The faint outline of a trap door was easily hauled up, exposing a bright square of light.
Occupied voices could be heard, along with the sound of a countless number of machines humming from far below.
Duo squinted at the powerful electric light having spent so many hours in the gloom. "They have power down there." His eyes adjusted enough to make out the steel vertical ladder they would have to climb to get down. He looked at the weapon who was regarding the trap door wearily. Dilemma. "We are gonna have to untie him." Great. Duo didn�t want to be near the thing as it was, who knew what it would do if they freed it.
Heero looked at the bound hands behind the weapon and then the steel ladder and then back to the weapon. Without even a pause he violently shoved the listless weapon forward through the hole in the floor.
Duo gasped and then winced when he heard the weapon make contact with the perforated metal floor far below.
"Oh that�s just GREAT." Duo growled at the serious pilot who was looking down into the fluorescent glare with interest. "That was classified shit! We lug the thing all over the city and you go and break it? What the fuck is wrong with you!"
Heero gestured for Duo to go first.
Grumbling, Duo swung down onto the ladder, looking below him to see the sprawled figure of the weapon laying motionless on the cat walk at its base. "Wonderful, fucking wonderful." He had to make a small jump to clear the weapon's body, and Heero was right behind him.
Duo prodded it with his foot but it did not stir. "What are we gonna tell the Doc?" Duo started to shake his head and put up a decisive hand. "Strike that, what are YOU gonna tell Doc."
"Ikuzo" Heero told the weapon. Let�s go.
Remarkably, the weapon moaned softly and rolled onto its back. It was still working. It struggled to its knees and Heero hauled it to its feet, its lip curled in anger, and its eyes flashed at Heero with exhausted rage. But it was in bad shape, it could barely stand without faltering.
Duo blinked in surprise and looked up the long towering length of ladder. No one could have survived that fall, let alone without serious injury. And the weakness the weapon was experiencing came long before the fall.
Well, that answered that question, it was definitely not human.
It didn't take long to reach the rendez-vous point, a few wrong turns and they were there. Unarmed guards in hazard suits stood before the heavy iron door and demanded the usual song and dance before they were allowed entrance. Even though they were expected.
Duo thought it stupid. Why tight security for a place no one even knew existed in a deserted area? Fear nibbled at his thoughts. They were here to study the weapons. Perhaps the reason for so much security was not what was outside but was what was being studied inside. Duo glanced for the millionth time at the weapon beside him. In its present state, it didn't seem like it could do a whole lot of damage, even for a cyborg. They took it away quickly, treating it much more harshly than Heero had managed since its capture. Duo watched them bully it down the corridor and felt the slightest twinge of regret. He should have told them it wouldn't put up much of a fight. He wondered for the first time, what they planned to do with it.
The central lab had the tightest security, and a mechanical lock the size of a bank vault took several minutes to lurch and clank open. The main lab was a blinking steel wonderland of information. Machines of all shapes and sizes blipped and whirred, monitored and measured, some with functions Duo could not even determine. They were all at work. Where had the old freaks dug up so much power?
"Ah, Heero."
Dr. J hobbled over to greet them, his movements accompanied by the slow scrape of steel against the cement floor.
"We have been told you have secured one. Well done." If the old man's pseudo eyes could light up, they would have. He'd lost the originals a long time ago and was now forced to "see" through a computer. Small round metal disks rotated in the sockets where his eyeballs had once been. A considerable percentage of Dr. J's body was not flesh, turning his already trollish appearance into that of some sort of cyborg dwarf. His short, fat legs were disfigured and bound in metal frames, one arm a metal claw. Yet beside his comrades he was almost unremarkable. All of them were here. They were all misshapen lumps of man but each one brilliant.
"We are glad your comlink functioned, we weren't sure if the range would be a problem." Duo jumped, recognizing the voice even though it was not often heard. Dr. G's wild shock of gray hair flared outward in a thick mushroom, his long, pointed nose standing out in his narrow face. He was after all this time, still stare worthy.
Duo half smiled. "We got it."
"We are trying to determine the efficacy of our technology against these rare prototypes." Dr. J explained. "Our efforts extend well beyond any military engagement. As you might have guessed already, this is no Oz skirmish."
"You captured one alive." Dr. G stroked his pointed chin. "Most impressive."
Duo shrugged, Heero didn't react. "You guys've been busy little bastards." Duo took a quick look at the brightly lit lab, all the advanced equipment. He didn't expect much more than a blender to function in the ruined state things were in.. "How come you have power? The rest of the city is dead."
The doctors all seemed to suppress a smile at once, it was plainly from pride. Dr J took to the question with something like glee. "We have been studying this phenomena for some time now, we finally managed to develop an energy source that is not effected by it." His mechanical hand clicked in agitation.
Phenomena. Duo snorted. But then he frowned. He realized he didn't agree with the Doctor's assessment of the nature of the weapons, and wasn't sure when he had changed his mind.
"Gandamu." Heero said, seemingly confident that they were the next logical course of action against the threat. The Gundams.
The mood of the room was suddenly very serious.
One was tall and stocky with no hair at all on his smooth head. This was Master O who hailed from China. He shuffled forward. "We outfitted Shenlong with this new technology to allow the Gundam to function within the vicinity without the usual power failure. We waited and waited for an opportunity like this one." He explained and lowered his gaze. "However, Shenlong was destroyed testing the abilities of the phenomenon."
Heero considered this and gave the floor a look that was close to frustration. Duo sympathized. If they couldn't use their Gundams what were they supposed to do?
"The pilot has been either wounded or killed, the recovery unit reported him missing." Master O seemed disturbed by this last bit of information, his authoritative voice lowering into bewilderment. "The cockpit was intact, the safety harness had not been released, the command codes had been set for self destruct and activated, but never initialized."
Duo thought about the strange foot soldier on the street, that had vanished like smoke. Maybe that is what became of Wufei, perhaps he had suffered the same fate as the millions of citizens that had up and disappeared into nowhere. Wherever the stoic pilot had ended up, Duo was quite sure he could take ample care of himself. He hoped.
Dr. S was also short and squat with a seedy black mustache and small beady eyes shining in his flabby face. He continued by clearing his throat. "Shenlong was not a complete loss. We were able to salvage one of the weapons which was damaged in the encounter, and secured it before it could recharge itself."
"Mo hitotsu." Heero affirmed softly. Another weapon.
"As you now know, we're determined to combat this threat, we needed to secure one of them ourselves. With the Gundams being as ineffectual as they are, we had no choice." With a brief blurred typing on a keyboard, the broad screen above them smartly clicked onto to three different monitors, revealing three different angles of an empty room. Not quite empty, there was a figure in the far off corner.
It was a weapon.
This one had slits for eyes, its rigid posture disturbingly frozen, like a statue as it sat in the far corner staring straight back up with a serpentine gaze at the camera watching it. It was covered in a deep green armor casing, its pallid complexion and olive hair made it seem almost alien.
"Its helmet was destroyed, and several of its blades were damaged but we managed to salvage them." Dr J said with a fervor he reserved for his science. "It is quite fascinating. It seems to operate with biochemical toxins. Several of our assistants were overcome by the exposure before we managed to contain it."
Duo studied it uncomfortably. "What's keeping it from busting out of there?" Considering what one of these things could do to an entire city block, the tiny clean room with its shiny sterile metal walls didn't seem like much.
The last Doctor also sported wild gray hair, cropped in a messy style. His large, red nose was swollen and framed by a pair of thin wired spectacles. Dr. H continued. "We discovered our technology that provides us power within the outage zones also has allowed us to maintain and regulate the power flow to its armor. It keeps it extremely weak. Of course we have administered very powerful sedatives, we weren't sure it would survive but it's done remarkably well." Dr. H smiled, very pleased with his subject's stamina.
Duo thought of the weapon they had retrieved. It explained why it was so weakened by the time they arrived."Is it human?" He peered into the monitor, leaning close to get a good look at it. This one looked way different from the one they had spent the better part of the day dragging around the New York streets.
"We've sampled its DNA and have yet to determine."
"Some sort of hybrid." Dr. H added. "Reptile."
"Don't let the good doctor fool you with his findings." Dr. S said gravely. " Thus far, we have been unsuccessful in trying to remove the armor from the biomech and subjected it to any useful study."
"Why, what do you want to do with it?" Duo asked, feeling he knew why before he was told. Heero was listening silently, but met Duo's look.
"We want to see if it is compatible with new type biology." he explained. "If it can be removed, perhaps we can use it."
Duo swallowed the lump in his throat, wondering at his own unease. His gaze went back to the odd serpentine stare of the other weapon who still stared at them all through the monitor, unblinking and still. "You are going to put it on a person?"
"This subject has been..." He and all of the other Doctors looked uncomfortable"... uncooperative. Even under controlled pain stimuli."He sighed. "Its only communication has been minimal but in a very old dialect."
The other Doctors collectively sighed at the dilemma.
"We are very pleased you managed to secure one still functioning. We realize it must have been very difficult, but as far as we can tell, these weapons are useless to us if we cannot remove the armor they wear." Dr S finished.
The pilot felt his defeat sink in and tugged at his braid. They had gone through all of that for nothing?
At that moment, another monitor snapped brightly on, revealing another room far below them in the bowels of the laboratory. The despondent group all came to attention, interested in the new arrival.
The tall pale haired weapon biomech was lead in, two assistants on either side of it, faceless in their bio hazard suits and air tanks. They had replaced his clothing with a black form fitted suit, not unlike the ones used in his own initial training with the Gundam. It was a smart piece of thread, shot through with hidden fibreoptic wires, keeping a computerized eye on its wearer's vitals.
Duo looked down, unable to watch it being slammed down onto the sterile table and strapped there. There was a collective weighty silence which made him look back up again.
"Its armor." Dr J stammered. "It hasn't got it on."
Dr. H clapped him on the back. "Your hypothesis was correct all along Doctor! There is indeed an activation and deactivation mechanism. If only we knew how to trigger it."
A trigger.
Duo whipped out the orb that still sat in his pocket temporarily forgotten. "Oh, you mean this thing?" It glinted bright green, flashing like it was alive.
The Doctors all gasped. Dr. J came forward to grasp the shimmering sphere from Duo in his metal claw and examine it.
"Shinmin hitsuyo." Heero stepped forward. You need a test subject.
"Indeed we do." Dr. J looked to Dr. S.
Heero blinked looking between them both.
"Contact Winner."
Dr. S gave a solemn nod which sealed the conversation.
End Part 4