The Gundam Boys: Off Duty =P

The Homepage of Duo and Quatre

Photo so generously donated by Star Crystal!! Thank you!

Haha, imagine that....

The G-Boys: Back to School Special!

Part 1: Mystery....

The taxi whooshed off into the distance, leaving a trail of dust in the G-Boy’s wake. They coughed and sputtered.

“It’s all your fault Trowa,” Duo gasped, eyes red-rimmed. “You and your stupid trampoline.”

Trowa shrugged. The trampoline was the only thing that Trowa ended up bringing to the Sank Kingdom. They had tried to fit Trowa’s suitcase into the taxi, also, but it wouldn’t fit. Given a choice between the two, Trowa had immediately clutched onto the trampoline as if it was the most precious thing in the world. Needless to say, it had been one hell of a taxi ride.

“So, we are all set?” Quatre asked with a brilliant smile.

Everyone glared at Quatre. The goodie two shoes had actually looked forward to coming to the Sank Kingdom. ‘The ribbons aren’t that bad’, he had said. For some reason, they looked natural on him.

Duo looked around. He couldn’t say the same for everyone else, though. For one thing, Heero’s expression was too…tight. He made the uniform look as if an army sergeant had been spritzed with silly string. Wufei, well, Wufei looked absolutely ridiculous, since the westernized clothing made him look somewhat like an alien. Then there was Trowa, who looked…well…just right. He’d always had a knack for uniforms.

Duo looked down at himself. What with his braid…he looked like a girl. He was probably the most pissed-off of the group.

“So let’s get this over with,” Duo said gruffly. He took a step forward. SQUEEK. SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK.

“Do you mind?” Heero asked. “That noise is really distracting.”

“I can’t help it!” Duo cried. “It’s these retarded boots!” He continued walking. SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK.

Everyone sighed and followed suit.

*********************

“Welcome, welcome all,” said Relena from behind her HUMOUNGOUS desk. The G-Boys were all standing around uncomfortably in her head office, boots as tight as anything and uniforms, well, let’s not go there. Each one of them had the odd feeling that Relena made them dress this way…for ulterior purposes. And why was she smiling so much? Duo shivered.

Her desk is too big for her, Wufei realized. She must be making up for her unworthiness.

Relena got up from her desk and walked around to stand in front of the boys. It took her a full 45 seconds. She did a mock salute to them. No one saluted back. Quatre was about to have the urge, then, seeing what his colleagues were doing, forcefully restrained his hand.

“Thank you for choosing Relena’s School of Pacivism as your place of study for the next few months. I am your headmaster, Relena Peacecraft…” Duo rolled his eyes. Like they didn’t have to meet her a second time! “…and I hope you enjoy your stay here, although I must say your tardiness is a little out of fashion with school rules.” Everyone looked at Trowa accusingly. Trowa did a tiny crooked smile that was totally out of sync with his character. It looked really scary. Trowa treated his trampoline better than he treated real people, unfortunately. Or fortunately.

Just then, the school bell rang. Everyone but Relena nearly jumped out of their tights, if that was at all possible. They were THAT tight.

“Classes have been cancelled this morning so that students could adjust to their surroundings,” Relena said enthusiastically, glancing at Heero. He didn’t appear grateful. “So you may now attend to your personal needs. DISMISSED!” Relena waved a kerchief in the air and pointed her nose up nonchalantly. The G-Boys gladly rushed to the door.

“Oh, Heero!” Heero ignored Relena’s voice, even though she was standing a metre behind him. “Good luck!” and with that, she slapped him on the butt.

Heero’s eyes widened, then he skedaddled out of there.

*********************

“She’s not allowed to do that, you know,” Trowa said, rolling his large trampoline down the hall. Heero’s face was red. He felt…violated. All everyone heard was Heero’s grumbling as he sped down the hall.

“Well, this is where we separate,” Quatre proclaimed. He gestured to the left hall, where Heero and Trowa’s room would be, then to the right hall for Duo and Wufei’s. Himself, he had to take the elevator to the third floor.

Duo stopped him. “Hey, how come you get your own room? What about the rest of us?”

Quatre turned around. He was careful in composing a reply. “Because I requested a room beforehand that I would like to have for myself. I have known from past experience that sharing a room with you boys would result in either a) Wufei accusing me of owning nonexistent weaponry or b) being bitten by Duo. I would not like to experience that again. So, goodbye.” Quatre pressed the button for his elevator and promptly stepped inside.

“But you still haven’t answered my question!” Duo called. Right before the doors closed, Duo thought he heard a muffled “because I have loads of money” but he wasn’t sure. He shrugged. Nothing he could do about it now.

He turned to Wufei. “Well, ready, my man?” and gave him a friendly punch. Wufei looked confused for a second, then smiled. Clenching his fist, he gave Duo a SOCK! back that sent him reeling backwards onto the floor.

“Yes, I am ready, Maxwell. Shall we proceed?” Wufei picked up his baggage and, as an afterthought, courteously picked up Duo’s also and started walking down the hall, while Duo slowly sat up and rubbed his face. Wufei calculated. Hmmm…was a punch supposed to be some form of western greeting? And, if so, was it appropriate to punch women? And were there different types of punches for different occasions? Wufei knew about 40 different kinds, but all seemed inappropriate. Oh, well. He shrugged, despite all the baggage he was carrying. If Maxwell wanted to punch him, then there was nothing he could do but punch back. He had to learn to blend in.

“Man, I have got to teach Wufei about traditions.”

*********************

After dumping all their things in their respective rooms, the G-Boys all met up again on the first floor, where the classes were generally held. First there would be one class, then lunch, then a couple other classes, and then they could retire.

Duo looked at his packed schedule and nearly fainted. This was ridiculous. It was like slave camp! “Hey, you guys,” he called out, but everyone had left, searching for their own classes. Duo sighed. This was going to be a long day.

*********************

Heero walked into the empty room and took a seat at the far back. Surrounding him were several other long pink tables along with matching pink stools. No doubt Relena’s doing. He shivered, despite himself. He wondered if there was an electrical outlet where he could plug in his laptop.

In a few minutes, students began to crowd into the room, laughing and jostling each other. They wondered at the strange boy with the laptop but decided not to say anything. Unbeknownst to Heero, the girls thought he was cute.

Heero found an outlet, plugged in his laptop, and started typing away.

“Welcome to chemistry class,” announced the uptight-looking teacher from the front of the room. He didn’t sound like he meant it.

Heero’s computer: TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP…

“My name is Mr. Humphrey…yada yada yada…”

TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP

“…and today, we will…”

TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP

“…so, would you please…”

TAP TAP TAP TAP…

SLAM!

Heero gazed cooly upwards as Sir Humphrey glared down upon him through the rims of his glasses. “What have we here…?” Humphrey began.

“Merely taking notes, sir,” replied Heero boredly. At Humphrey’s doubtful look, Heero turned his laptop around and showed it to the teacher. Everyone crowded around in curiosity.

<Welcome to chemistry class. My name is Mr. Humphrey, and today we will be doing an experiment that involves the introduction of qualitative and quantitative observations, so would you please get into partners and>

Everyone looked on, dumbfounded.

“You were saying?” Heero asked.

“Carry on,” Humphrey said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Heero shrugged, flipped his laptop back around, double-clicked on a particular icon, and continued typing. Maps of the school layout magically reappeared.

“Pssst,” someone whispered. Heero glanced irritably up. He was staring into the eyes of one of the most beautiful girls in the school. He waited patiently.

“Do you want to be my lab partner?” she asked, in the most lilting of voices.

“No.”

“Why not?”

Heero clicked some more buttons on his computer and up popped a data file. Hmmm…Name: Summer Sanders, Date of Birth:…

As Heero continued scrolling through her stats, the girl began to get all huffy. Summer was not used to being rejected.

GPA…

“You are SO stupid,” she said.

…1.3.

Heero looked up. “No. You are stupid.”

Summer’s mouth transformed into an O-shape, so surprised she was. How dare this hot-looking piece of meat call her stupid?

Heero continued typing away on his computer, oblivious to the girl named Summer. He was searching for something.

None too gracefully, Summer got up, turned her back on him, and started looking for the second-best-looking guy in the class. If she couldn’t have Heero, then at least she could make him jealous.

Heero scrolled scrolled scrolled through different screens, then, finally, shut his laptop. Carrying it, he got up and started walking. He was heading in a definite direction. People around him gave way.

Heero’s terminator-laser-vision scanned the crowd, then, spotting his victim, stalked over and slammed his laptop down on top of a desk. “You will be my laboratory partner,” he said tonelessly.

The boy opposite him looked up in fear. He looked like the kind of guy who got picked on a lot, and Heero’s killer gaze did NOT help. The boy did a quick nod.
It was time to do some chemistry.

*********************

Duo watched the clock tick by. Tick tick tick. Tick tick tick. He yawned. Tick tick tick. Tick tick tick. Raising a pencil, he began to use it to scratch the inside of his hair, the part he couldn’t reach because of his braid. Then, seeing a girl look upon him in disgust, he stopped. He sighed.

How could he have got stuck in physics class? he wondered. Must have been Relena’s doing. This stuff was sooooo Greek.

He looked up at all the equations that the teacher was writing on the board. He didn’t understand why you had to know how to get from point A to point B. Everyone knew that if you wanted to get anywhere, you just hopped on a gundam.

Duo yawned again. This was so ridiculous. He wished he had a class with one of the other boys. In fact…. Duo got a bright idea. Why don’t he just find out what they were doing right now?

Digging around in his pocket, Duo scrimmaged around until he found it…his transistor radio, complete with audio and visual output. It was usually in standby mode. Duo flipped it on. He searched the channels until he found Quatre’s line.

Quatre’s face promptly appeared on the screen. He looked completely startled. “Duo, what do you want?” he whispered.

Duo gazed into the classroom Quatre was in. Looked pretty bland, much like his own. “I’m bored,” he moaned, quietly.

“Well, I am currently occupied at the moment,” Quatre continued on, looking over his own shoulder. “I am in mathematics class. What about you?”

“Physics.”

Quatre winced in sympathy, then suddenly dropped his voice low. “I must leave you now. But I think that Trowa is not busy. Let me switch you over to him.”

Sure, why not? Duo thought. Compared to boring physics, even Trowa seemed full of life.

There was some static, then Duo saw this brown smudge on his screen. Huh? He started tweaking some dials, thinking that the reception wasn’t good, but nothing changed. He tried banging the transmitter on the desk. The teacher looked over at him. Duo quickly hid the radio beneath the desk and did one of his infectious smiles. The physics teacher, glad that someone was finally liking physics, let it pass.

Duo looked down again. He watched as the brown smudge finally zoomed out and became Trowa’s hair, then, gradually, into Trowa’s solemn face.

Duo did a double take, despite himself. One can never get used to Trowa’s presence, even onscreen.

“Yo, what class are you in?” Duo inquired.

Onscreen, Trowa looked about him, as if he had no idea himself. Finally, he gave his reply: “Sewing”.

Duo guffawed, then quickly clamped his hand above his mouth. He snickered. “So, what are you sewing?” he asked. “Little sweaters?”

Trowa shook his head, taking what he said seriously. “We are just practicing,” he said. He held up a piece of fabric. “Look.”

Duo zoomed in on the piece of fabric that Trowa had been working on. Haphazard rows of stitching from the sewing machine adorned Trowa’s piece of fabric, with no sense of order whatsoever. “Nice….” Duo said.

Trowa smiled. “Wait,” he said. He disappeared from the screen for awhile, and Duo could hear rapid sewing noises coming from offscreen. Then Trowa reappeared again, holding up another piece of fabric, this one blue. He mashed it up to the screen for Duo to see. Trowa had always had vision-depth problems.

Duo zoomed out for a better look. What the…?

It was a heart. A perfect pink heart on blue background. Bizarre.

Duo shook his head. “I’m going to be going now,” he babbled. “You continue working on your little sewing, old buddy, and I’ll meet you at lunch period.”

Duo quickly changed the screen before Trowa could answer. He breathed a sigh of relief. Thank the god of death that he wasn’t dorm partners with Trowa.

“Duo Maxwell.”

Yikes! Duo nearly jumped out of his seat. What now? Duo quickly shoved the transmitter somewhere deep in his pants/tights, but too late – the teacher had seen (besides the fact that the transmitter left a VERY noticeable bulge through his tights).

The physics teacher (Duo had nooooo idea what his name was) came over and stood above Duo. “What have we here…?” he asked, much like Sir Humphrey.

Duo grumbled. He never liked school when he was young, and it didn’t look like it was going to change. Duo reluctantly pulled out the transmitter. Everyone got a very grossed-out look on their faces at the realization of where the transmitter had just been.

The physics teacher clapped, and Duo looked up. “Duo, my boy, this device is absolutely wondrous! May I take a look?”

Duo shrugged and handed him the visual radio. The physics teacher oohed and ahhed over it, then switched it on.

Wufei’s face appeared on the screen, a sheen of sweat on his face. “Maxwell, what do you want?”

Ooops! He got Wufei on the line! “Uh, sir…” Duo began.

“Hello?” the physics teacher asked, shaking the transmitter up and down.

 “Who are you?” Wufei asked.

“Well, who are you?”

“I asked you first. And where is Maxwell?”

“You mean, Duo Maxwell? He…”

Duo scrambled over the desks, in his desperateness to pick up the transmitter. “Just a second….”

“I do not have times to play games with you,” Wufei continued. “Now, where is Maxwell?”

“Well, that was quite rude of you, boy. Who’s class are you in?”

“Where is Maxwell? And why do you have his receiver?”

Duo tried to get his face onscreen. “Wufei, I…”

“Duo, have you been captured? And who is this man?”

“Captured?” the physics teacher gasped. “Who has been captured?”

“Oh, so now you are playing games with me,” Wufei began. His knuckles could be heard cracking in the background. “You had better put Duo on the screen, or else….”

“Duo!” the physics teacher called. “I think someone is looking for you.”

“Thank you!” Duo gasped. He took the receiver, and was faced with a glaring Wufei.

“What is the meaning of all this, Maxwell? I am currently on a mile-long jog and do not have times to play games with you.”

“Tell you later, Wu-wu,” Duo said, and quickly turned the transmitter off. Oh, great. Now, he had to face and angry Wufei back in their dorm rooms.

The classroom was silent. Duo looked up, and realized that everybody was looking at him. For once, he was speechless. Then, as one, “Wow, that was soooooo cool, may I see?” and “Duo! Over here, sit beside me!” and “Hmmm, that Duo IS pretty cute…” and so on and so forth until Duo got soooo confused that his transmitter was gone before he knew it.

“My radio?” he proclaimed, among his group of admirers. “Who has it?”

The physics teacher clapped again. “Everyone, take your seats. I think we have had enough fun for today.”

“But, my radio…!”

“I will have a talk with you later, Duo Maxwell,” the teacher said.

Duo sighed and reluctantly took his seat. This was NOT turning out to be a good day.

****************

Above the physics classroom, the P.A. system winked, its light turned on. After Duo’s little scuffle with the radio transmitter, it discreetly switched itself off. Nobody noticed.

*********************

After switching his transmitter off, Quatre turned back around in his seat and continued working on his math. That Duo, he never realized how much trouble he would get others into. The transmitters were provided only for emergency situations.

Quatre continued working on his math problems for a little while, then stopped. He stretched. A girl sitting beside him gave him a little wink. Quatre, flabbergasted, quickly grabbed his pencil and started working on his paper.

After a little while, he paused. Something was not right.

Quatre gazed about the classroom, trying to figure out what was bothering him. The windows, the pink drapes…no, that wasn’t it. Although most everything in this classroom was pink and could easily turn into an eyesore (Mental note: do not tell miss Relena about what he just thought), Quatre couldn’t figure it out.

He looked to the front of the blackboard, where his math teacher was writing some equations on the board. He looked above the board.

Right then, the P.A. system winked off. Strange. He hadn’t noticed it being on before. Usually, it was only on when there were announcements to make from the headmaster/owner (which was Relena) or else it was the principal (who was in charge of academic affairs). Either way, communication between rooms was usually kept to a minimal.

Quatre shrugged. Now, the strange feeling was gone. But still…he looked beside the blackboard, where pictures of important people from Relena’s School of Pacifism were displayed. Yes, there was Relena, wearing her pink commander’s outfit with all the ribbons. And there was the man in charge of dorms. The personal communications assistant, the administrator…Quatre had looked over this plaque before, but now he furrowed his brows. A picture was missing. Quatre squinted as much as he could, and read the tiny golden words beneath where the picture should have been:

Principal: T. Khushrenada

He gasped.

*********************

Wufei wiped the sweat from his brow and continued running. This was turning out to be a better workout than he thought! Despite the brief interruption from that weird character using Maxwell’s transmitter, everything had been going well, so far.

He glanced behind him. The rest of the students were lagging far behind.

Wufei grinned, something that he rarely did. Physical Education was an excellent course. It showed real strength, that of integrity, and it was something that he did well in, even though this was a school for pacifism. And even though he had to wear pink.

Wufei looked down at his pink gym outfit in disgust. This was not a manly colour. In fact, nothing had been manly since he arrived. Pink walls, pink gym equipment…everything! How could anybody stand it?!

He looked down at his watch. Gym class was nearly finished. Too bad.

Just then, an enormous BOOM! came from behind the gymnasium. Wufei ducked and covered his ears. What in the world…. It had come from somewhere within the vicinity of the school. Wufei paused and looked at the fireworks. This day was turning out even better than he’d thought.

*********************

“EMERGENCY EMERGENCY! Everyone exit the school building. There has been a fire. Please line up neatly by the emergency exits….”

Trowa looked up from sewing his umpteenth patch of square fabric. He was right in the middle of a smiley face when, all of a sudden, the alarms went off and everyone panicked. How rude.

Trowa looked down at the half-finished smiley face sadly, then ripped it from the machine’s needle. Then he took up the rest of his finished pieces of work and stuffed them down his shirt. There. Safe and sound.

He lined up by the doors, just like everybody else. He was the only one who was calm. Everyone else was screaming at each other at the disrupted peace in this pacifistic school. He was used to emergency situations.

Trowa, being taller, looked over the heads of everybody else. He thought he spotted Duo shuffling among the midst of the crowds but he wasn’t sure. Half his vision was blocked by his hair.

Someone bumped into him. Trowa looked down. It was Relena.

“Trowa, have you seen Heero anywhere?” Relena asked, panic making her shriek. She was even louder than the fire bell.

Trowa shook his head and Relena dashed away, pushing among the crowd.

Trowa sniffed the air. He could smell the fire, and it was coming from a definite direction.

While everybody panicked and ran in the direction of the closest fire exits, Trowa ignored them and veered right. He was in an empty hall and smoke poured forth heavily. He ducked down and began moving towards the smoke. He arrived at a classroom.

It appeared to be some sort of a chemistry class. Broken glass was littered everywhere, along with scorched pink stools. As if sniffing out buried treasure, Trowa the bloodhound crawled around on the floor until he reached a pile of upturned tables. Looking under, he spotted a body. Heero.

Trowa sighed. Not again. Picking Heero up like a baby, he began piggy-backing him outside towards the nearest exit and out onto the field, where everyone would be waiting for them.