::“Agent Night, keep within mission protocol, over.”::

“Yeah, yeah, still got that stick up your ass, Heero,” Duo muttered to himself. Into the mouthpiece he said, “Sure thing, Agent Earth. Say that to me again when I find out there were a bunch of civvies on the base I could’ve gotten out, but chose to listen to you instead. Over.”

::“Just get out of there, Night. We haven’t got time to pull your ass out, over,”:: Wufei’s voice crackled over the intercom.

Duo rolled his eyes, sprinting through the maze of hallways that he had memorised previously. Coming to his destination, he ripped a panel off the wall and manually overrode the settings on the cell doors. Metallic clanks temporarily deafened the grating, blaring alarm.

“Cell 46, cell 46, cell 46,” Duo muttered as he jogged down the row, eyes flickering occasionally to the numbers painted at the top of each cell.

“Aha! Cell 46!” Peering in, he made out four forms slumped on the floor, a couple stirring. “Yo! People! Unless you want to be reduced to a bunch of carbon molecules, get up and come with me now!”

“What?” one of the forms asked dazedly.

Duo cursed. “Shit, man, how simple is this? The place is gonna blow! Get up off your ass and run!”

“Understood,” a cold, deep voice said, sounding far more awake than the other one. “Siberian, get Bombay. Balinese, can you stand?”

“Yeah, yeah, quit yapping at me,” what had to be this ‘Balinese’ said.

“Can we cut the chitchat?” Duo asked. “I’m kinda in a rush he—” he winced as the loudspeaker with its lovely automated voice started up again.

::This station will self detonate in ten minutes. Please evacuate the area.::

“I’m tryin’, lady!” Duo yelled at it. “Move!”

They moved. All were standing, one supported by another, but they followed the braid as Duo ran like a bat out of hell.

“This is Agent Night, I have four civvies and no co-pilot, repeat four civvies and no co-pilot,” he yelled into his com. Yelling was the only way to get heard in this place.

::“Agent Night, you are departing from mission protocol and endangering the team! Just get your own ass out of there!”::

“And leave them to fry? Not bloody likely!”

::“Forget it, Agent Earth. Concentrate on getting us through this battle and worry about Night later.”::

“Good ol’ Quatre, ever the voice of reason,” Duo muttered, not checking to see if he was still being followed by the mysterious four. Hell, it wasn’t his problem if they didn’t want to live.

::This station will self detonate in five minutes. Please evacuate the area.::

“Fuck,” Duo whispered, and ran faster.

The bay he’d parked his shuttle in was deserted when they arrived. Duo activated the remote and opened the rear hatch, charging straight up it without slowing down. He heard the loud clang of running footsteps following him even as he began shutting the hatch.

Skidding to a halt in the cabin he threw himself into the pilot’s seat and began flipping switches and pressing buttons, powering the ship up as quickly as he could. “Strap yourselves in and hang on,” he yelled to the others, grateful that his status as a top agent gave him a larger shuttle with more seats and greater firepower than the normal agents got. He yanked off his headset, throwing it wildly to his left without looking.

Flipping the comunit on, he heard, ::“. . . ucking shit! Where the hell did these guys come from?”::

::“The base, dumbass. They had a whole fleet of these bastards, remember?”::

::“And if Agents Night and Day did their part right, they should’ve been blown to kingdom come!”::

Duo swore. “We got a battle out there, guys?”

::“Agent Night? Why the fuck didn’t you blow these guys to smithereens?”::

“Got ambushed, moron. Flying without co-pilot and extra weight.” Duo twisted and yelled back, “You’d better have your seatbelts on!” before firing the thrusters and sending the shuttle hurtling forward as fast as it would go. Behind them, he heard the first of the explosions setting off.

::“Extra weight?!”::

“The bastards left some civvies in to fry,” Duo reported, trying to outrace the massive explosion erupting into a fireball behind him. The shuttle was being jolted wildly, despite his best efforts in smoothing its course. Duo gritted his teeth and held on. “Please, let us outrun the shockwave,” he prayed. If that hit before they got far enough away, all electrical circuitry would be shorted and, to put it bluntly, they’d be fucked.

“Anything we can do to help?” a voice asked from behind him. He didn’t recognise it as either Balinese or the unnamed cold voice.

“You can keep out of my hair,” he gritted out, desperately trying to think of a way to make the shuttle go faster than didn’t involve shucking some unexpected weight. Heero was right, his altruistic tendencies would get him killed one day. “Unless you happen to know how to make this shuttle go at light speed.”

There was no reply.

“Fuck!”

There was no way they could go any faster without the engine magically transforming to an upgrade, and even considering that Duo was the only person in the Earthsphere (with the possible exception of Heero and Trowa) who knew enough about mechanics to upgrade it that wasn’t gonna happen. Even without the ‘magically transforming’ bit.

Duo stared at the sensors. The exploded station was at the imploding stage, meaning it was reversing back in on itself as it tried to compensate for the sudden lack of matter in the area, sucking in any ships in the area as well as floating debris. In a moment, it would explode again, sending a powerful shockwave out for miles around. He could only pray that they were far enough away to not only escape it, but to avoid getting sucked back in.

Teeth rattled in their sockets as the shuttle struggled against the backwards pull, then lurched forwards as it was suddenly released. Duo shut his eyes, the controls held in a white-knuckled grip, and prayed to a god he didn’t believe in that they were far enough away.

The shockwave hit.

The shuttle lurched as the lights flickered wildly, then failed completely. Duo opened his eyes and stared hard at the glowing controls and sensor windows, praying that only the lights would go. He could deal without lights. He could not deal without the ship’s controls.

A sudden thought hit him. He yelled into the com, “Caught in the shockwave, controls might go out any minute—”

The lights came back up.

“—but it seems like someone up there likes me,” he continued without pausing for breath. “Location of battle?”

::“Sending information to you,”:: Heero’s voice floated out of the com. Duo heard a sudden hissing intake of breath from behind him, but ignored it. ::“I keep telling you, you’re gonna get yourself killed one day with those—”::

“Damn altruistic tendencies, yeah, I know, Heero,” Duo finished up for him, peering at the incoming data. “Don’t tell me you’d rather I left them on the base.”

::“I didn’t say that. Get your ass over here now. We need backup.”::

Duo entered the location to the navigation system and wrenched the controls, sending the shuttle into a near 180 degree spin and hurtling in that direction.

“Estimated ETA eight minutes,” he said. “Think you can last that long without my gorgeous self?”

::“I could last a bit longer without your ego,”:: a woman laughed over the radio. ::“Fucker!”:: she yelled in the next breath. ::“Not you. Some cheese-ass decided it’d be fun to shoot my rear end off.”::

“Noin, daaaaaaarling,” Duo drawled. “I keep telling you, swearing at ex-boyfriends is not going to make you appealing to anyone else.”

::“Stuff it up your craw, Maxwell,”:: Noin griped. ::“I always find swearing helps in the middle of a battle.”::

“Ah, the joys of stress relief. And what, pray tell, is a cheese-ass?”

::“Look in a mirror.”::

Someone behind Duo snickered. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” he called back to them. “By the way,” he said into the com, “I’ve got civvies on board—”

::“—and no co-pilot. We’ve heard all about it in great detail when Yuy was ranting and forgot to turn his com off.”:: Gunfire sounded over the radio, followed by a loud crow of ::“Hah! Gotcha!”::

“Heero doesn’t forget anything.”

::“Probably his way of letting us know about the damn fool stunt you pulled and that he’s pissed. We’re all gonna stay out of his way.”::

“Good idea. I think I’ll do the same.”

A few moments later, Duo twisted the controls and went hurtling into the middle of the battle. Shots were flying everywhere, mobile suits and shuttles twisting and dancing in and out of each other. Explosions from all directions rocked the ship, and it wasn’t long before the enemy units noticed the new addition to the battle.

“Yeehaw!”

Duo was in his element. Rocketing around and blasting through the ranks of suits and shuttles that tried to attack him, he fired on anything without a Preventers logo emblazoned along the side. With the skill that made him the top field battle agent the Preventers had, he eliminated a good quarter of the enemy units within moments of his entry.

“Phew! You know, you’d be surprised what a difference one ship can make!”

::“I would be if I hadn’t just seen it myself,”:: Wufei said over the com. ::“Thanks Maxwell, we were getting overrun.”::

Duo faked a heart attack. “My God! Did the immutable Chang Wufei actually deign to thank someone? Let alone me?!”

::“Shut up, Maxwell.”::

Duo shook his head, angling the shuttle to take out an unmarked suit creeping up on Noin’s distinctive white Leo. “Knew it was too good to last.”

::“Yo, Agent Night!”:: a young male voice that Duo didn’t know called. ::“You got the Rubber Biscuit song?”::

“Bwahahahaha! Someone of taste!” Duo crowed, punching a couple of buttons on the console. “Come on now, all of you sing along!”

Out of the speakers began blaring inoffensive trumpets and drums in a jazzy tune. A ragged cheer went up among the surviving Preventers as a man identified by someone on the recording as ‘Elwood’ began singing something unpronounceable with no real words in it. “Sing along to all the bits you know!” Duo yelled, cackling.

As the shuttle dodged various blows and shot down further targets, the song played. After a moment the music stopped and the Preventers joined in with the singer. ::“Have you ever heard of a WISH sandwich? A wish sandwich is the kind of sandwich where you have two slices of bread and you . . . mhehehehehe . . . WISH you had some meat boaw, boaw, boaw. . . .”

Duo heard a slightly choked sound come from behind him and snickered as the music started again. There were a couple more pauses in the music with ridiculous phrases in between.

::“The other day I had a ricochet biscuit. A ricochet biscuit is the kind of biscuit that’s supposed to bounce back off the wall into your mouth. If it don’t bounce back . . . mhehehehehe . . . you go hungry! boaw, boaw, boaw. . . .”::

::“Mhehehehehe. . . . What do you want for nothing? Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-rubber bisCUIT? Boaw, boaw, boaw, boaw, boaw!”:: [1]

::“As amusing as this is,”:: a flat voice cut in over the com, ::“do you think we could get on with it?”::

“HEERO?” Duo yelped, peering at the small ship making its way to the fight. “You’re supposed to be on the Libra co-ordinating the mission!”

::“There’s a fight, baka. No way I’d miss this.”::

Duo frowned suddenly. There was something . . . not quite right with the way Heero was talking. “Okay, Heero,” he said slowly. “Just watch it, okay?”

::“Hn.”::

He’s got the intonation down pat, Duo thought. But Heero wouldn’t say something like ‘no way I’d miss this’, and he certainly wouldn’t do anything that might endanger the mission. So this is my chance to catch the orange-haired bastard! [2]

Duo kept one eye on ‘Heero’ as he fought, and simply from watching him he confirmed his conclusions. Switching off the main com, he opened a line to Wufei, Noin and the Libra. “I’ve got some guy here who claims to be Heero,” he said quietly. “He’s fighting, but Heero doesn’t fight like that. He’s not that fast—or that sloppy.”

::“Are you sure, Maxwell?”:: Wufei demanded. ::“What if it is Heero? You can’t expect him to be fighting the way he usually does with an injury like that.”::

“’Fei, this guy blew himself up and set his own leg. He doesn’t function on the same levels as the rest of us, and he sure as hell wouldn’t go against a mission plan and potentially endanger it. I’m telling you, THAT’S NOT HIM.”

::“You’re correct in thinking that, Night,”:: Zechs’ cool voice came over the monitor. ::“I called Sally in the medical bay where Heero got sent after coordinating the mission. He’s still there, asleep on his cot.”::

::“Fuck,”:: Noin swore. ::“So that is. . . .”::

“The orange-haired bastard,” Duo finished up grimly. “I’m gonna see if I can get a shot at him.”

::“Careful, Duo,”:: she told him. ::“You know what he can do.”::

Duo switched the com back onto the mainstream. “Yeah, I know,” he muttered, then raised his voice. “Yo, Heero!” he called cheerfully. “Wanna hook up and take out the rest of ’em?”

The voice that came back was tinged with the slightest hint of wariness. ::“We’re doing just fine this way, aren’t we?”::

Another mistake, Duo thought. Heero never asks for anyone’s opinion. “Yeah, guess so,” he replied, and appeared to forget about the conversation. Out of the corner of his eye, he still watched the ship.

After a moment, it lined up behind a Preventer MS in exactly the right position to take it out. And of course, the suit wouldn’t notice because it thought it had an ally at it’s back. . . .

Duo didn’t think, he just fired. And not a moment too soon, because he hit the gun straight on and deflected the shot away from the mobile suit. “Unit 285 is an enemy! Repeat, unit 285 is an enemy!” he yelled, firing incessantly at it. The ship dodged them all seemingly effortlessly, even as a loud snarl came over the radio. As soon as it saw a gap, the ship ran.

Duo followed, weaving his way in and out of the floating debris and battling units and firing every time he had a chance of a hit. “Get back here, you bastard,” he growled, feeling his ‘Shinigami’ mode—essentially berserker—begin creeping up on him. He welcomed it, until. . . .

Fuck! I can’t go Shinigami on his ass, not with civvies on board!

The momentary distraction was enough. Duo found himself heading straight for a tight melee of ships and suits with random fire shooting off in all directions. He wrenched the shuttle to the right hard, twisting away, but lost sight of unit 285. Scanning in all directions did nothing to help; the ship was gone.

“Fuck!” Duo smashed his fist down on the console. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

::“Are you hit?”:: Noin asked.

“The little fucker got away!”

::“That wasn’t what I asked, Agent Night. Are you hit?”::

“No, goddammit!”

There was a pause, and then a chuckle. ::“You sound almost disappointed.”::

“The bastard got away!”

::“Yeah, I heard.”:: The pause was more ominous this time. ::“Fuck. I was so sure—”::

“—that I could get him, yeah, I know.” Duo punched the console one more time.

He heard Noin sigh. ::“Ah well. Agent Night, report to the Libra. Battle’s over, let’s go home.”:: The com crackled off.

Duo shut his eyes and slumped in his seat. “I nearly had him,” he muttered. “So close. . . .” He sighed, and entered the coordinates of the Libra into the autopilot as well as authorising evasive manoeuvres if necessary. There was just so much debris floating around. . . .

Duo unbuckled his seat harness and stared out the screen sadly. Another waste.

He stood and stretched, then swung around to face the four he had dragged off the exploding station with him, one leg hooked up on the back of the seat and the other trailing to the ground. He crossed his arms over his chest and grinned at them, eyebrow cocked.

None seemed to be seriously injured. The smallest of them, with shaggy blond hair, had a small cut above his eyebrow, but that had scabbed over. He couldn’t have been more than seventeen, with huge blue eyes that could rival Quatre’s in size. His baggy shorts and shirt made him seem even younger and smaller. Something about the boy reminded him of Quatre and Heero—a weird combination if there ever was one. Maybe it was the fact that despite having been through a battle in which he could do nothing, he didn’t look at all frightened. Indeed, he was looking at Duo as though he was an interesting lab specimen.

Seated next to him was a man with short brown hair and blue eyes, looking a little confused and scared by what was going on. He was older than the kid by a few years, but in some ways looked younger. More innocent.

The next one had a rather . . . interesting appearance. Apparently Japanese from the epicanthic fold over his eyes—come to think of it, they all had that—his eyes were violet and his hair a deep red, like blood. He had an impressive glare, although not a patch on Heero’s when the boy was in a bad mood, but he looked confused as well. Looking at him, Duo decided he was most likely younger than he acted, and probably had problems with self esteem reminiscent of Trowa’s. He just looked like it.

The last one didn’t seem to fit with the others at all. He lounged in the chair, there was no other word for it, wavy blond hair falling to his shoulders and wide green eyes. It looked like all he needed was a cigarette to be completely at home.

He reminded Duo of himself.

Duo grinned a little wider at all of them. “Hi, I’m Duo Maxwell. Who are you lot?”

The redhead spoke first. “What the fuck was that?”

Duo blinked wide violet eyes at him. “Well, hello to you too, whatthefuckwasthat. Interesting name, I must say.”

Snickers came from the other three, and the redhead’s glare increased in intensity. Duo cocked his head to the side and just grinned insolently at him. He knew from experience that it was the only way to deal with people like this when they got pissy.

The lounging blond waved his hand and caught Duo’s attention. “Ignore him,” he advised. “He’s just in a permanently bad mood. I’m Kudou Yohji, the kid over there is Tsukiyono Omi, the one with the orange sweater around his waist is Hidaka Ken, and the one glaring at me is Fujimiya Aya.”

Duo nodded and grinned. “Thanks. Okay, second question: what the hell were you doing on a base that was marked by both sides of the war to be destroyed?”

The kid—Omi—spoke up. “That’s the thing—we don’t know.”

Duo looked at him disbelievingly. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

Omi shrugged helplessly. “I mean, I don’t know. One minute we were in the shop getting ready to open up, the next—wham! I’m in a cell waking up with you yelling at us to move.”

Duo narrowed his eyes at the boy. From body language and voice inflection alone, he wasn’t lying, but he’d have to get Quatre to check it out. He wasn’t the empath.

“All right,” he finally said grudgingly. “I’ll accept that for now. Third question: why did he—” he waved at the redhead, Aya, “—refer to you as Bombay, Siberian and Balinese?”

Three heads swivelled around to look at Aya. Their looks weren’t quite glares, but came close. The man held up remarkably well; he sat straighter and glared coldly at Duo.

After a few minutes of holding the stalemate glaring competition, Duo rolled his eyes and sighed. “If you really think you’re intimidating me, you should meet my friend Heero. You ain’t got a patch on his glares.”

“What will happen now?” the final member of the oddly-assorted group, Ken, said.

“Now?” Duo shrugged. “Now we go to the Libra and I get you checked out to make sure you’re not enemy spies.”

“And who is the enemy?” Aya asked, chin raised.

Duo stared at him as if he was crazy. Didn’t everyone know? “Estet, duh.”

[End Part 1]