Duo Maxwell
Chapter 2 - Shinigami Lives!
Himalayan Mountains
Two weeks was just way too long to be stuck in a cave with nothing to talk to but a Gundam. Much as Duo loved Shinigami, he had to admit that the machine didn't talk back too often.
Not that that was stopping him... "You know, Shini," he commented to the machine beside him as tried piece engine back together with nonessential bits of leg servos, "I really think they're gettin' closer. drone a random MS's engines faded away in distance, and let out carefully concealed sigh relief. "Yeah, guess we'd better skip pretty soon. Got any ideas?" >
If the mobile suit did, it kept them to itself. Duo nodded, and tightened a bolt. "I'd better avoid the Ozzies, though. I don't think I took anythin' out of your weapons systems, but it's not like you're ready ta fight off another fifty of the bastards." He frowned at a few charred wires, checked their insulation, groaned and reached for replacements out of his swiftly dwindling store of cannibalized parts. "Chi', I can't keep yankin' stuff out of your innards TA get these engines back together! I hope those guys got their asses chewed off by a superior officer for lettin' us go... they deserved it for screwin' ya up like this!" Twisting the wires back together and wrapping them with a carefully rationed slip of tape, he sat back on his heels. "I think that's it! Lemme go check the diagnostics..." His legs tingled with a vicious case of pins and needles as he stood up and jumped to the cockpit. Leaning in, he hit the familiar self-diagnostic button and cheered as both engines lit up bright green. The rest of the Gundam, carefully cannibalized to repair the engines, was mostly yellow to red, but Duo ignored that. I fixed the engine, I fixed the engine... sugoi!!
He leaned even more precariously into the cockpit and grabbed one of his dwindling stash of ration bars to celebrate. "It isn't a banquet," he apologized to Shini, "but it'll do, right?"
No objections were posed. Duo sat on the edge of the cockpit, crossing his legs and swinging his feet like a kid too young to touch the floor. Biting off a hunk of the tasteless (but nutritious) rat bar, he said with a spray of crumbs, "So, Shini, where to next? I figure we ought to find that Howard guy, but I dunno if you can make it to the Pacific. Short range, right? And someplace where I can get the rest of you put back together." He frowned absently, ticking possibilities off on his fingers. "Junkyard somewhere... yeah, right... maybe I could raid a OZ base and carry a couple of Leos off with me? Aw, kuso. Forget that, I took stuff out of your arm servos, didn't I? Well, I guess I'll just have to track down a really extensive junkyard."
He stuffed the last bite of rat bar into his mouth and jumped down off the edge of the cockpit to land on the seat. Shoving his bag of tools to its spot behind the seat, he strapped himself in and muttered, "Final test."
The engines caught on cue. *Both* of them. Duo let out a yell of triumph and aimed Shinigami's head carefully at the snow-covered entrance. Mobile suits rose like startled flies around them as Duo pushed his Gundam to its limits, but they didn't seem too eager to follow.
"That's right," Duo yelled, "you better give the God of Death a lot of room!" He eased Shini's engines faster, carefully edging the power up. I don't wanna push that engine too far, but if they catch me I'll be in a lot worse shape than this! The OZ suits were being left in his dust. He grinned cockily as they lagged farther and farther behind, checking his jury-rigged sensors for any collection of metal. It'll be easier to hide Shini in a pile of busted Leos than in a stinking ice cave, too! I'm a genius... There it was, low in the foothills, on a major road. Chi'. The road could be a bad thing. I guess I'll just hide Shini real well, then... He checked his sensors, and grinned again. They're still struggling through the mountains. Man, what losers. He cut Shinigami's engines and did his best controlled drop into the heavily wooded hills.
"Good thing I didn't use the camouflage net to repair the engines, huh, Shini?" he caroled cheerfully, unsnapping the shoulder straps and bouncing to his feet. The bay door slid open with a teeth-jarring squeal. Wincing at the damage to his eardrums, Duo grabbed the edge of the opening and hoisted himself out. He perched atop his Gundam, surveying the area, for a long moment. It was a deserted clearing, closely ringed by thick oak trees. The moss-green boles closest to the clearing were scarred with fresh white wood where the Gundam's descent had brushed them.
"No one's gonna spot us here," he informed the silent machine, and started dragging the heavy camouflage net out of its compartment and across the Gundam's metallic skin. It was a lot harder than he'd expected it to be, and by the time he finished concealing Shinigami the sun was brushing the treetops and he was sweating like he'd just run a marathon. "Chi', I'm gonna have to talk to the Prof about fixin' up some kind of automatic camouflage machine," he groused, slumping against the still-warm black metal. "Either that or find a really big cave somewhere..."
A sound alerted him, and he was on his feet in seconds, gun held ready. At the edge of the trees, another boy froze.
"Who are you?" Duo demanded. I'm so dead! Hopefully he's just a kid... hopefully he'll keep his mouth shut...oh, shit, I don't want to shoot an innocent bystander!
The kid stammered something, and Duo groaned. He hadn't even thought about language barriers. Rather hopelessly, he switched to Japanese. "Who are you?"
"Shung Ki," the kid responded in an accent that made it clear Japanese wasn't his native language, relaxing a little. Duo sighed and let his gun drop to point at the ground.
"That's your name, right? Well... hi." Duo ran a hand through his bangs, muttering about his own stupidity for not watching his back.
"Hi," Ki responded, looking at the Gundam. After a moment, he said, "I saw on the news that there were meteors hitting the Earth's atmosphere, and that they weren't really war machines from the colonies. That's a lie, isn't it? That," he pointed at Shinigami, "was one of the meteors, right?"
Duo's gun was pointed at the kid again. "You're gonna keep your mouth shut about that, right?"
Ki frowned, puzzled. "Sure. Why would I help the Oz soldiers find you? I hate Oz."
"Really," Duo said, and (getting tired of changing targets) holstered his gun. "Huh. Can I borrow some mobile suit parts from you?"
With a sudden dazzling smile, the boy nodded. "I know where a mobile suit crashed near here! The Oz people came and went already, and most of it is still intact. Just not enough for them to take it and repair it."
But enough for me to yank parts for Shini. Duo grinned back at Ki. "Sugoi! Can you show me where it is?"
The boy nodded, then added, "Do you want to stay with my family until you're done fixing your mobile suit?"
"No." Duo's face grew suddenly serious. "Just keep quiet about seein' me, and I'll sleep by Shini here. You'll get fried by the Ozzies if you get too close to me." Just like everyone else. Duo couldn't go back in time to repair his old mistakes, but at least he could protect this kid and his family. Even if it means livin' on rat bars for the next coupla weeks. I think they actually make those things out of rats...
Uncertainly, Ki nodded. "Do you want me to show you the mobile suit now?"
Duo pasted a grin back on his face, mentally kicking himself for letting the mask slip. "Sure! Let's go!"
The crashed mobile suit wasn't in as good shape as Ki had said, but there was a lot of the legs left. In fact, Duo wondered whether the suit had been a victim of his scythe. There wasn't *anything* left of the head or of one arm. I guess that's recycling or somethin'. Makin' my own spare parts.
I've gotta get back to human society soon, my jokes are getting *too* lame, Duo lamented, and tightened one of the connectors that he was replacing. With all the parts Ki had helped him carry back from the wrecked Leo, he was nearly done with the entire leg. He'd be out of Asia in days instead of weeks. He was really looking forward to it.
"Those mountains are makin' me claustrophobic," he continued quietly to Shinigami as he tightened the last bolt and checked the local diagnostics. Straight green. Starting to close up the panel, he added, "I dunno why, but the back of my neck keeps itchin'. Probably 'cause all those Ozzies are around lookin' for me... suicidal morons. They're not so fast to follow when they actually spot me!"
"Pilot?" someone called. Duo, recognizing the voice, cursed and turned around.
"Ki," he said in exasperation. "God, haven't I told you enough! Stay away from me, or OZ will find me *and* your family!" Not like I care if they find me... but no way in hell I'm gonna let any more innocent people die 'cause of me. Too damn predictable: I'm Shinigami, and if anyone gets too close they end up dead.
The boy sniffed. "They aren't going to even see me. There are enough animals in the forest that they couldn't pick me out with a thermal sensor even if they tried." He held up a small bag. "My mother made you lunch..."
Duo groaned. His whole *family* knows about me now?! Man, this kid is the worst security leak... Reluctantly, he jumped down from Shini's reconstructed knee and accepted the bag of food from Ki. "Thanks," he said. "But I'm serious! Don't come back here anymore!"
Ki looked at him strangely. "How old are you?" he asked curiously.
"Fifteen," Duo shrugged. Not like *that's* classified, he can tell I'm young just by looking at me.
The other boy gaped at him. "You're younger than I am! How'd you get to pilot this thing?"
"Well, it wasn't luck, that's for sure," Duo said, looking back up at the silent bulk of his Gundam. "Unless it was bad luck." Sorry, Shini--but it's true.
"Don't you want to pilot it?" Ki said. "I'd give anything for a chance like that!"
It's not that I don't like piloting Shini, Duo replied silently, it's that I don't like having nothing left except piloting and killing... He grinned at the kid, recapturing his outward breeziness. "Naah, I like piloting, but peace would be fun too. Look, why don't you go back home. I don't want Oz getting any clues."
"Okay," Ki said, smiling back and waving good-bye as he vanished into the underbrush.
Duo sighed as the boy left. He couldn't believe that Ki was older than he was. Maybe on the outside, but he's a hell of a lot younger inside. Maybe that's how kids turn out when they have a real childhood. He headed over to the pile of scavenged parts, picked up an armful, and scrambled up the side of Shinigami's other leg. After prying open the access plate, he glanced over at the bag lunch Ki had brought him, shrugged, and opened it. A few boxes inside wafted scents a lot more appetizing than anything he'd smelled in years. Duo happily dug into one of the boxes (a sort of noodle dish with chicken and some weird sauce) as he loosened the malfunctioning parts of the joint and started fitting the others into place. Hey, Ki's mom is a good cook. This beats rat bars any day. But he'd better stop following me...
It only took Duo two more days and one more trip to the wrecked mobile suit to finish repairing his Gundam. The helpful boy hadn't come back. I finally got through to him. Good thing, Duo thought, and grinned up at Shinigami.
"Ready to go, partner?' he asked. "There's a lot of work out there for us."
Shinigami didn't respond. Duo took his Gundam's silence for agreement and pulled himself up to the cockpit, slipping comfortably into the pilot's seat and tightening the shoulder straps. The familiar confines of the cockpit comforted the vague fear tightening his throat.
Me scared? he scoffed, initializing the engines and watching tensely as the two of them scaled up to full power. -Come on, work, please... It did, and Duo swallowed regret.
I wish I could just quit doing this, he thought sadly. Just walk away and stop being Shinigami. He winced at the faint whine in his voice and scoffed at himself. It was stupid to whine about fate, 'cause it didn't listen and wouldn't care. The only thing to do was to go out and change it yourself. A passable imitation of a carefree grin pasted itself across his face, and he activated the thrusters. The black Gundam soared out of the trees, and Duo looked around, enjoying the full sensor field. The sensor array he'd stolen had been a bitch to patch into Shini's systems, but it looked like it worked.
"Sugoi!" he exulted. "The Prof wouldn't believe I actually listened TA all those lessons." His grin vanished abruptly as he noticed that there were OZ mobile suits on his newly repaired scanner. Flocking like the vultures they were. "Chikusho..." he breathed, and followed them. The prey they were chasing might still live.
The mobile suits started up from the ground as they noticed Death's approach, and his grin grew coldly exultant. "That's right--time to dance with Death!" he warned them, and drew his scythe in a great, glittering arc to bisect the boldest suits.
Another pair rose up behind him, but Duo was not in the mood to be caught by the same trick twice. Shinigami pivoted with balletic grace, thermal blade outstretched one-handed. Two explosions washed the black Gundam in bloody light as it rose above the suits to attack from above. Duo's grin grew faintly more manic as the mobile suits shattered under his blows. Ha! I trained in space. These morons always think in two dimensions...
There were only eight suits. They didn't have a prayer. The last tried desperately to escape--probably lookin' for reinforcements, Duo thought scornfully--and he released the projectile blade from Shinigami's hand to burn through the suit in midair. It resisted for a desperate moment before succumbing and dying in fiery throes. The fragments plummeted toward the forest below, and Duo looked for the first time at the mobile suits' target. His breath stopped for a moment. It felt like someone had just punched him in the gut, hard--an experience the former street rat was too familiar with.
It was a home--or, more accurately, *had been*. Now it was a shattered heap of wreckage, flames dying to baleful embers in the ruins.
Kuso! Let it just be some poor bastard who got in OZ's way, Duo pleaded unfairly. He didn't know who he was asking. He didn't believe in God.
And as he fiddled with the sensor system that didn't quite mesh with his Gundam's computer, finally convincing it to focus on an enlarged image, Duo discovered one more reason not to believe. Another prayer had gone unanswered. Ki was crushed under part of the wreckage, very clearly dead. Duo swallowed, his hands clenching so tightly that his ragged nails cut into the skin.
"All he did was show me a damn mobile suit wreck," he whispered. "Those--" Even a life on the streets hadn't provided him with adequate vocabulary to describe the recently deceased OZ pilots. He swallowed sour anger and took the controls of his mobile suit again. A hard smile curved his face. "Congratulations. You are going to get the *personal* attention of the God of Death!" The black Gundam soared toward the open sky, its engines making a funeral pyre for OZ's latest innocent victims.
And no one, seeing Duo's smile, would have mistaken him for a child.