Out of nowhere, two guards jumped out and started shooting at her. Callisto dodged easily and knocked them out with a roundhouse kick to the head.
Her sneakers squeaked slightly as she raced over the tiles and crawled back into the air vent she had dropped out of minutes ago. The dark haired girl wriggled out of the tiny space and made a beeline for the silver gundam hidden in the surrounding forest. As she stood on the wing of StarBlade�s bird form, Callisto withdrew a detonator and pressed the button. One by one, sections of the base went up in flames. A slight smile touched her lips. "Ninmu kanryou."
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Half an hour later, a silver bird-like jet streaked across the sky. It landed in a patch of forest near Animal Kingdom and the hatch opened up. Callisto, now clad in jean shorts and a white blouse, jumped out and ran for the side gates. "Hope West�ll excuse five minutes." John West was waiting by the dolphin tanks, looking at his watch and looking annoyed.
"You�re late, Callisto." "I can explain." "Then explain." Callisto never backed down as she said simply, "I was gathering research in a base and the building started to go up." Now she wasn�t telling a complete lie. After all, she *had* been in the base, gathering research, or really, stealing it. And the building did go up in smoke because she was the one who rigged the base to explode. The man shook his head and muttered, "Alright. Just don�t be late next time. Go change."
Five minutes later, Callisto stood by a tank inside the marine building, wet suit and all. John walked down the hall, clipboard in hand. Thinking that he had given a signal, she dove in, not bothering to read the sign on the wall that said Great White Exhibit. "Wait! That�s the wrong tank!" Too late. He whipped out his walkie-talkie and yelled, "Get paramedics down here! NOW!" John leaned over to see if his newest employee was still alive and nearly fell into the tank when he saw that Callisto was just fine. Holding onto a shark�s fin, she looked up at him and asked, "What do you want me to do now, Mr. West?"
The marine trainer leaned against the wall and mumbled into his walkie-talkie, "Forget about it. It�s okay."
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The other six certainly didn�t expect Callisto to walk in, wet hair dripping onto her shirt. "Er� hard day at work?" Violet asked. She flopped onto the couch, spraying water on Trowa. "The guy almost got a heart attack just because I dove into the shark tank by accident." The French pilot scratched his head and replied, "That would generally scare most people, you know." Callisto turned and smirked at him. "Hey, what about you and not dodging Catherine�s knife, just because no one told you that was in your job description? Yeah, Duo told me and I think it�s really goddamned funny."
The brown haired boy glared at Duo, who simply stuck his tongue out. Ever the one to avoid conflict, Quatre stepped between Trowa and Duo. Violet ran her fingers through her pale hair and pushed her laptop at her friend. "Wanna read my newest story?" Callisto�s dark eyes ran across the screen and she exclaimed, "V, it�s great! Is it for the kids?" The American girl shrugged and replied, "Maybe." Violet pushed the laptop into Quatre�s hands and beamed at the Arabian with glittering amber eyes. "I like to write stories and I sometimes go to the libraries to read them to little kids. What do you think?"
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Always the antisocial one, Heero Yuy had stepped out and was currently gazing at the stars. He didn�t bother to say anything when Duo came out and joined him. "Great night, huh?" "Hn." "Y�know, Violet really is a great writer." "Hn, I�m sure she is." Duo rolled amethyst eyes and twirled the tip of his braid around one finger. "You�re thinking about this new situation, aren�t you?" "Hai." "Listen koi, just because this new pilot cracks more smiles than you do doesn�t make her any less the Perfect Soldier." "It�s not that Duo, and you know it."
The Japanese boy ran his hand through his unruly mop of hair and turned to his lover. "This war is tearing everyone apart and it will continue to tear everyone apart. More people coming into this chaos will only complicate things, even if they�re nothing short of superhuman." Duo blinked and slowly snaked an arm around the wiry shoulders. "We�ve come this far, we can go a little further. Besides, it�s nice to have other pilots suffering with us, ne?" "Hn, come here baka."
As they had done so many times before, their lips met in a soft, heartfelt kiss. Both youths pulled away and found Violet and Callisto staring at them from the doorway. Violet blinked and stuttered out, "Y-you two are�" "Hai," Trowa said from behind them, "They are. And so are Quatre and I." Instead of saying it was unnatural or wrong like they had expected, Callisto crossed her arms over her chest and said calmly, "Why didn�t you just tell us?" Duo�s eyes bugged out as he babbled, "We thought you guys would-" "Say it�s wrong?" The dark haired girl flashed a wry smile. "Duo, after everything I�ve done, I�d be a hypocrite if I called that wrong."
Violet smiled and threw an arm around her cousin, who promptly scowled at her. "Go ahead, you two. Make out all night, we don�t have a problem with that." Then turning to Wufei, she chirped just a tad bit too brightly, "But I bet my stick-up-his-ass, *straight* cousin does, ne Wu-chan?" "WuFEI, onna!" "Not again�"
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Dr. Misha Ling wandered through the market aisles, a basket in one hand. Her shockingly bright green eyes searched the shelves and widened when they landed on a young man with waist-length platinum blond hair. Ice blue eyes stared right back at her and a husky voice said, "Dr. L, I presume." Not even bothering to see if anyone was watching, Dr. L dropped her basket and took off down the aisle, with Lieutenant Marquise not far behind.
Pushing through a crowd of startled people, she ran out of the market and hurtled over a wall. Landing in an alley, Dr. L looked around and saw nothing but walls on all sides. She was trapped. Less then five seconds later, Zechs jumped over the brick wall and stared right at a dead end. Scratching his head and muttering, he gave up on pursuing the woman and walked away. When she was certain it was safe, Dr. L jumped down from the rusty drainpipe against the wall and hurried back to her lab.
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Violet was tinkering on her jet when she heard a low grunt behind her. From spending her time with the five Gundam pilots, she had recognized that particular grunt as Heero�s. Picking up an out of place brush from her tool chest, she ran it through her lavender hair and turned to face him. "Hey, Hee-Chan, What is it?"
Never one to beat around the bush, the Japanese boy said, "Tell me everything about Callisto *and* this new gundam." Violet rolled her amber eyes and booted up her laptop. After typing up various commands, she pushed it into his hands and said, "Here�s everything you need to know." Heero turned it off and glared at her. "Hn. I said *tell* me, not show me."
The American teen rolled her eyes again. She thought there couldn�t be another person on this earth whose personality matched her cousin. Of course, she was so wrong it wasn�t even funny. "Say please." "Tell me." "Say please first." "Are you crazy?" "Say. Please." Heero rolled Prussian eyes and muttered, "Fine, *please. *" Beaming happily, Violet reached up, grabbed his hand, and pulled the stony boy into a sitting position. "So just what do you want to know?" "Everything." "Even what I did for summer vacation?" "Violet�" "Fine, fine."