[Fic-GW] Masterminds - Chapter Four
Jan. 4th, 2010 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
misanagiNo, you don't need to get you eyes checked, it is an update... I promised ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
keitn that I would start working on this again, so as promised, here's the next part. I hope some of you still remember this fic (and in case you don't and want to give it a try there are links to the previous parts below).
Masterminds
Rating: R / M
Fandom: Gundam Wing
Pairings: 1+2, 3+4+5, 6x9
Summary: Safety is only an illusion. Unexpected events can happen anytime anywhere. The key is learning how to deal with them, and face them head on.
Warnings: AU, School fic, violence, action. Sequel to "Shattered Glass"
Notes: Fusion with the movie "Masterminds".
- Previous parts can be found at Archive of Our Own
- Read other fics of the arc in my Gundanium Line archive or in different LJ posts (I'll try to move them into AOOO soon).
Chapter Four
"So what now?" Duo asked as soon as the mail was sent. "We just sit down and wait like good boys?"
They exchanged looks before Trowa asked. "Why? Do you have an idea?"
"I'm not sure one of his ideas is prudent at this time." Wufei glanced at Quatre.
"Well, the way I see it we're trapped here and the rest of the school is being held at gun point, maybe we should do something," Duo said.
"Like what?" Wufei countered. "We are not the cops."
"Doesn't mean we are helpless," Heero said. He had an idea where this was going and he thought Duo might be on to something.
"Exactly," Duo agreed. "Come on, guys, let's be honest here. We know this school better than anyone, and that's including the freak kidnapping it. Heero has already hacked into their system and I bet he could wreak havoc for them. Trowa actually got Q and me away and no one knows or can navigate the roofs like he does. Wufei," Duo gave him a look, "I've seen you train."
"It's too risky." Wufei crossed his arms over his chest. His eyes darted again towards Quatre and Heero understood why he was being reluctant. Only Wufei had been there when Quatre had been kidnapped before. None of them could understand what Wufei had gone through then or why he didn't want to put Quatre at risk again.
"Is it?" Quatre asked. He hadn't missed Wufei's look. "Isn't it better to risk it than hide here like cowards?"
"It's prudent," Wufei insisted but Quatre shook his head.
"Like when my father wouldn't let me leave the house? Prudent like that?"
Wufei winced.
"I got away from that and I might have been helpless then but I'm not now. Your father and the Maguanacs saw to that."
"We're missing something?" Duo asked, stepping between Wufei and Quatre.
"After the kidnapping my father allowed for Quatre to train with us," Wufei explained. "And you are good, Quatre, but it doesn’t mean you should act foolishly."
"And the Maguanacs?" Duo asked, cutting Quatre's retort.
"A tribe in the desert, right?" said Trowa. "The one you go to every summer?"
"They're more than that," Quatre said and even Wufei looked curious. "They are relatives, from my mother's side. They travel through the desert and protect the Bedouins and traveling tribes. Some parts of the desert are very dangerous, prone to all type of crime because it's so secluded. They protect the people and by birth I'm one of them. After the kidnapping I convinced my father to let me go to them and they helped me."
"How?" Heero asked, already suspecting where this was going.
"To find my strength. To learn to live with what happened and to make sure I'll know what to do if it ever happens again."
Heero locked eyes with Quatre. "What weapons are the kidnappers carrying?"
"M-16 rifles and Berreta 92 pistols as far as I could see," Quatre answered slowly. "But you knew that already, Heero. Didn't you?
Heero nodded. "J."
"My bodyguards carried Berretas," Quatre admitted. "It was the first weapon I shot. The Maguanacs taught me to handle an M-16."
"Wait, Q. Are you saying those desert guys trained you?"
Quatre shrugged. "It's what they do. They are fighters. It's why my father wanted to keep me away from them but in the end he understood that's what I needed." A look of determination appeared on Quatre's eyes, one that Heero knew meant the blond wasn't backing down.
"How old were you, Heero?" Quatre asked.
"Twelve. J was intelligence," answered Heero.
"Which means he's paranoid like hell and put a gun in his hand as soon as he could," said Duo.
It never hurt to be prepared, J. used to say. Heero had always thought it was one of the soundest things the old man said.
"So you can handle a gun?" Trowa asked Heero. "You both." He looked at Quatre too.
They both nodded gravely.
Duo smirked. "See? I told you we weren't helpless."
* * *
It wasn't like Heero to send a mail to him from school. Actually, it wasn't like Heero to initiate communication in any way or form. That was the first thing that made J suspicious.
He didn't open the e-mail until he ran various tracer programs looking for viruses, bugs, piggy-backs, hidden programs, codes and anything else he could thing of.
The message turned out to be disappointingly plain and it was probably only encrypted because J had taught Heero never to send unencrypted information, no matter how mundane it was. There was always someone watching. J should know, he used to be the one watching (and still was but now he wasn't in the government payroll) and he made sure that Heero wasn't foolish enough to be one of the naïve ones being spied on.
Someone has taken over the school. Phones down. Perimeter closed. Hacked into their system. Alert the police.
J read the mail twice before searching for the Saint Charles school system. It took him only a moment to realize that the system was hiding behind so many firewalls and tramps that it would take him a long time just trying to crack it and there weren't any guarantees.
Whoever had taken over the school knew what they were doing. If Heero had managed to hack into their system then he probably had been working on it for a while, probably days before he even suspected the current situation. J let a smile appear on his lips. Apparently not everything he told the boy fell on deaf ears.
Phones down meant that they hadn't only cut the landlines but jammed the cell phones signals too. That in itself wasn't a very difficult feat to achieve but the school perimeter wasn't small so they probably needed to use several small jamming devices or get their hands in one of the more potent ones.
J drummed the fingers of his good hand on the desk. There were only so many places were they could get that equipment here, but of course there was the chance that they had brought it from abroad. That would be more difficult to track. He sent a few mails to his local contacts anyway. It wouldn't hurt.
The stupid boy hadn't given him enough information on the perpetrators and J wouldn't risk contacting him when he was inside the school perimeter. Heero might have hacked into their system but there was always the chance that he would be discovered. A very small chance, thought J proudly. The boy was good, practically invisible and better than anyone J had seen, and he had seen his fair share.
He might be retired but J liked to keep tabs on things and see how they were running. The government still contacted him now and then for odd jobs they needed help with; new developments, codes they couldn't break, new security protocols. J was in the know and he liked it that way.
That was just one of the reasons why he had a handy back door to the police headquarters' system. It took him a few minutes to hack into their system and put their security cameras on display. He browsed through it until he saw something interesting. A young woman seemed to be yelling at the officers in front of her. Her clothes were disheveled, her knee scraped and she looked very angry.
J zoomed in and activated the audio feedback.
"My brother is in there," the woman was saying. "I'm not lying! They shot at me, my car is full of holes in front of the gooddamed school!"
"We know you are not lying, miss," a woman officer said. "Captain Marquise is already on his way to the site with a few units. We just need you to give us your statement."
The woman's eyes narrowed. "I've given you my statement four times already!" She stood up. "I'm not wasting any more time here. I'm going to the school."
The officer tried to stop her but the woman brushed the hand away. "My brother has been kidnapped. Do you get that? He's being held by men who tried to kill me so I'm not staying here talking to you."
With that she turned to leave walking fast. The officer didn't try to stop her.
J shut off the audio and instead tapped into the police radio frequency. Apparently they had already been alerted and were on their way, which was much better than J had expected. Simultaneously he made a search for Zechs Marquise.
He was young to be a captain, barely 27, but his record was flawless filled with high profile cases. He had moved fast up the ranks and he was highly respected. J browsed through the files and suddenly stopped when he recognized a name. He read the information in that case and frowned. Was it possible that this was connected to Quatre Winner's kidnapping four years ago?
The police had apparently arrived on the school and confirmed that a third party had taken control of the premises. A hostile third party by the look of the car destroyed in front of the gates.
They had a hostage situation in their hands and were busy settling a command center for what promised to be very long hours.
J sat back on his chair and picked up a phone. He dialed Marquise' direct line and waited.
"I can help you with the Saint Charles kidnapping case," J announced as soon as Marquise picked up. "I have a man on the inside."
* * *
"I think our greatest advantage is Heero's control of their system," Quatre started. "That not only gives us a tactical advantage but also the element of surprise. While they're aware that we're roaming the school they don't know we have access to their computers."
"Can you get control from them?" Duo asked.
"I've been slowly taking control of several systems away from them for a while but there are too many to take them all and I don't want to tip them off." Heero's eyes didn't move from the computer and he kept typing commands at an impressive speed.
"We also have eyes all over the school, which is another advantage," Quatre continued. "I think our main focus should be to assist the police with this information."
"Speaking of which…" Trowa pointed at the split screen of Heero's laptop. The back gardens of the school were visible and figures clad in black, carrying automatic weapons, were climbing the farthest wall.
Heero closed whatever he was doing and brought up the blueprints of that sector.
"What is that?" Wufei asked, pointing to the tri-dimensional blueprint, specifically to the blinking dots buried underground.
"Mines," Heero said at the same moment as Quatre's eyes widened and exclaimed, "They're walking into a trap!"
Duo grabbed his radio and started changing frequencies. "Go back! Abort! There are mines!" There was no answer so he switched to another one. Solo had once told him the police usually used one of three frequencies and when Duo was twelve he would spend the afternoons hidden in Solo's room scanning police frequencies. "Mines! It's mined!"
A loud noise that rumbled the very walls of their hideout interrupted Duo's efforts. He moved his eyes quickly to the screen and watched in horror as another policeman walked into a mine which exploded in a chaos of blood and dirt.
No one spoke for a moment and they watched as the special forces pulled back, dragging the injured with them. One of them wasn't moving and Duo doubted he was even alive. "Fuck!" Duo clenched his fists in frustration.
"I don't think we can hope for a rescue," Trowa said, his voice even. He hadn't turned his eyes away from the screen.
Another silence followed that statement and then Wufei said, "Then we'll just have to do something ourselves." He was looking at Quatre and a small smile appeared on his lips. Quatre's eyes and Duo turned his head away, feeling as if he had just intruded in something private.
"Alright," Duo said. "Sounds like a plan."
"A very basic one," Heero added.
"But a plan," Duo insisted, emphasizing the plan part of the sentence.
Trowa rolled his eyes and said in his most deadpan tone, "We're doomed."
"No," Duo smirked, feeling the fear and wariness give way to a genuine feeling of hope. "They are."
* * *
TBC (hopefully soon. At least sooner than this update, though I know that's not much to say)
keitn that I would start working on this again, so as promised, here's the next part. I hope some of you still remember this fic (and in case you don't and want to give it a try there are links to the previous parts below). Masterminds
Rating: R / M
Fandom: Gundam Wing
Pairings: 1+2, 3+4+5, 6x9
Summary: Safety is only an illusion. Unexpected events can happen anytime anywhere. The key is learning how to deal with them, and face them head on.
Warnings: AU, School fic, violence, action. Sequel to "Shattered Glass"
Notes: Fusion with the movie "Masterminds".
- Previous parts can be found at Archive of Our Own
- Read other fics of the arc in my Gundanium Line archive or in different LJ posts (I'll try to move them into AOOO soon).
Chapter Four
"So what now?" Duo asked as soon as the mail was sent. "We just sit down and wait like good boys?"
They exchanged looks before Trowa asked. "Why? Do you have an idea?"
"I'm not sure one of his ideas is prudent at this time." Wufei glanced at Quatre.
"Well, the way I see it we're trapped here and the rest of the school is being held at gun point, maybe we should do something," Duo said.
"Like what?" Wufei countered. "We are not the cops."
"Doesn't mean we are helpless," Heero said. He had an idea where this was going and he thought Duo might be on to something.
"Exactly," Duo agreed. "Come on, guys, let's be honest here. We know this school better than anyone, and that's including the freak kidnapping it. Heero has already hacked into their system and I bet he could wreak havoc for them. Trowa actually got Q and me away and no one knows or can navigate the roofs like he does. Wufei," Duo gave him a look, "I've seen you train."
"It's too risky." Wufei crossed his arms over his chest. His eyes darted again towards Quatre and Heero understood why he was being reluctant. Only Wufei had been there when Quatre had been kidnapped before. None of them could understand what Wufei had gone through then or why he didn't want to put Quatre at risk again.
"Is it?" Quatre asked. He hadn't missed Wufei's look. "Isn't it better to risk it than hide here like cowards?"
"It's prudent," Wufei insisted but Quatre shook his head.
"Like when my father wouldn't let me leave the house? Prudent like that?"
Wufei winced.
"I got away from that and I might have been helpless then but I'm not now. Your father and the Maguanacs saw to that."
"We're missing something?" Duo asked, stepping between Wufei and Quatre.
"After the kidnapping my father allowed for Quatre to train with us," Wufei explained. "And you are good, Quatre, but it doesn’t mean you should act foolishly."
"And the Maguanacs?" Duo asked, cutting Quatre's retort.
"A tribe in the desert, right?" said Trowa. "The one you go to every summer?"
"They're more than that," Quatre said and even Wufei looked curious. "They are relatives, from my mother's side. They travel through the desert and protect the Bedouins and traveling tribes. Some parts of the desert are very dangerous, prone to all type of crime because it's so secluded. They protect the people and by birth I'm one of them. After the kidnapping I convinced my father to let me go to them and they helped me."
"How?" Heero asked, already suspecting where this was going.
"To find my strength. To learn to live with what happened and to make sure I'll know what to do if it ever happens again."
Heero locked eyes with Quatre. "What weapons are the kidnappers carrying?"
"M-16 rifles and Berreta 92 pistols as far as I could see," Quatre answered slowly. "But you knew that already, Heero. Didn't you?
Heero nodded. "J."
"My bodyguards carried Berretas," Quatre admitted. "It was the first weapon I shot. The Maguanacs taught me to handle an M-16."
"Wait, Q. Are you saying those desert guys trained you?"
Quatre shrugged. "It's what they do. They are fighters. It's why my father wanted to keep me away from them but in the end he understood that's what I needed." A look of determination appeared on Quatre's eyes, one that Heero knew meant the blond wasn't backing down.
"How old were you, Heero?" Quatre asked.
"Twelve. J was intelligence," answered Heero.
"Which means he's paranoid like hell and put a gun in his hand as soon as he could," said Duo.
It never hurt to be prepared, J. used to say. Heero had always thought it was one of the soundest things the old man said.
"So you can handle a gun?" Trowa asked Heero. "You both." He looked at Quatre too.
They both nodded gravely.
Duo smirked. "See? I told you we weren't helpless."
* * *
It wasn't like Heero to send a mail to him from school. Actually, it wasn't like Heero to initiate communication in any way or form. That was the first thing that made J suspicious.
He didn't open the e-mail until he ran various tracer programs looking for viruses, bugs, piggy-backs, hidden programs, codes and anything else he could thing of.
The message turned out to be disappointingly plain and it was probably only encrypted because J had taught Heero never to send unencrypted information, no matter how mundane it was. There was always someone watching. J should know, he used to be the one watching (and still was but now he wasn't in the government payroll) and he made sure that Heero wasn't foolish enough to be one of the naïve ones being spied on.
Someone has taken over the school. Phones down. Perimeter closed. Hacked into their system. Alert the police.
J read the mail twice before searching for the Saint Charles school system. It took him only a moment to realize that the system was hiding behind so many firewalls and tramps that it would take him a long time just trying to crack it and there weren't any guarantees.
Whoever had taken over the school knew what they were doing. If Heero had managed to hack into their system then he probably had been working on it for a while, probably days before he even suspected the current situation. J let a smile appear on his lips. Apparently not everything he told the boy fell on deaf ears.
Phones down meant that they hadn't only cut the landlines but jammed the cell phones signals too. That in itself wasn't a very difficult feat to achieve but the school perimeter wasn't small so they probably needed to use several small jamming devices or get their hands in one of the more potent ones.
J drummed the fingers of his good hand on the desk. There were only so many places were they could get that equipment here, but of course there was the chance that they had brought it from abroad. That would be more difficult to track. He sent a few mails to his local contacts anyway. It wouldn't hurt.
The stupid boy hadn't given him enough information on the perpetrators and J wouldn't risk contacting him when he was inside the school perimeter. Heero might have hacked into their system but there was always the chance that he would be discovered. A very small chance, thought J proudly. The boy was good, practically invisible and better than anyone J had seen, and he had seen his fair share.
He might be retired but J liked to keep tabs on things and see how they were running. The government still contacted him now and then for odd jobs they needed help with; new developments, codes they couldn't break, new security protocols. J was in the know and he liked it that way.
That was just one of the reasons why he had a handy back door to the police headquarters' system. It took him a few minutes to hack into their system and put their security cameras on display. He browsed through it until he saw something interesting. A young woman seemed to be yelling at the officers in front of her. Her clothes were disheveled, her knee scraped and she looked very angry.
J zoomed in and activated the audio feedback.
"My brother is in there," the woman was saying. "I'm not lying! They shot at me, my car is full of holes in front of the gooddamed school!"
"We know you are not lying, miss," a woman officer said. "Captain Marquise is already on his way to the site with a few units. We just need you to give us your statement."
The woman's eyes narrowed. "I've given you my statement four times already!" She stood up. "I'm not wasting any more time here. I'm going to the school."
The officer tried to stop her but the woman brushed the hand away. "My brother has been kidnapped. Do you get that? He's being held by men who tried to kill me so I'm not staying here talking to you."
With that she turned to leave walking fast. The officer didn't try to stop her.
J shut off the audio and instead tapped into the police radio frequency. Apparently they had already been alerted and were on their way, which was much better than J had expected. Simultaneously he made a search for Zechs Marquise.
He was young to be a captain, barely 27, but his record was flawless filled with high profile cases. He had moved fast up the ranks and he was highly respected. J browsed through the files and suddenly stopped when he recognized a name. He read the information in that case and frowned. Was it possible that this was connected to Quatre Winner's kidnapping four years ago?
The police had apparently arrived on the school and confirmed that a third party had taken control of the premises. A hostile third party by the look of the car destroyed in front of the gates.
They had a hostage situation in their hands and were busy settling a command center for what promised to be very long hours.
J sat back on his chair and picked up a phone. He dialed Marquise' direct line and waited.
"I can help you with the Saint Charles kidnapping case," J announced as soon as Marquise picked up. "I have a man on the inside."
* * *
"I think our greatest advantage is Heero's control of their system," Quatre started. "That not only gives us a tactical advantage but also the element of surprise. While they're aware that we're roaming the school they don't know we have access to their computers."
"Can you get control from them?" Duo asked.
"I've been slowly taking control of several systems away from them for a while but there are too many to take them all and I don't want to tip them off." Heero's eyes didn't move from the computer and he kept typing commands at an impressive speed.
"We also have eyes all over the school, which is another advantage," Quatre continued. "I think our main focus should be to assist the police with this information."
"Speaking of which…" Trowa pointed at the split screen of Heero's laptop. The back gardens of the school were visible and figures clad in black, carrying automatic weapons, were climbing the farthest wall.
Heero closed whatever he was doing and brought up the blueprints of that sector.
"What is that?" Wufei asked, pointing to the tri-dimensional blueprint, specifically to the blinking dots buried underground.
"Mines," Heero said at the same moment as Quatre's eyes widened and exclaimed, "They're walking into a trap!"
Duo grabbed his radio and started changing frequencies. "Go back! Abort! There are mines!" There was no answer so he switched to another one. Solo had once told him the police usually used one of three frequencies and when Duo was twelve he would spend the afternoons hidden in Solo's room scanning police frequencies. "Mines! It's mined!"
A loud noise that rumbled the very walls of their hideout interrupted Duo's efforts. He moved his eyes quickly to the screen and watched in horror as another policeman walked into a mine which exploded in a chaos of blood and dirt.
No one spoke for a moment and they watched as the special forces pulled back, dragging the injured with them. One of them wasn't moving and Duo doubted he was even alive. "Fuck!" Duo clenched his fists in frustration.
"I don't think we can hope for a rescue," Trowa said, his voice even. He hadn't turned his eyes away from the screen.
Another silence followed that statement and then Wufei said, "Then we'll just have to do something ourselves." He was looking at Quatre and a small smile appeared on his lips. Quatre's eyes and Duo turned his head away, feeling as if he had just intruded in something private.
"Alright," Duo said. "Sounds like a plan."
"A very basic one," Heero added.
"But a plan," Duo insisted, emphasizing the plan part of the sentence.
Trowa rolled his eyes and said in his most deadpan tone, "We're doomed."
"No," Duo smirked, feeling the fear and wariness give way to a genuine feeling of hope. "They are."
* * *
TBC (hopefully soon. At least sooner than this update, though I know that's not much to say)
