Started: January 25, 2001 Finished: January 26, 2001 Disclaimer: I'm babysitting the G-boys. Gawd... it's so much more fun than babysitting my cousin or brother... *wince* Or at least, it will be. But anyway, don't worry! I'm not going to kidnap any of them, I'm just baby- sitting them for the "offical" people. Yup. That's right. 1+2/2+1. Tiny bit, hopefully more in the future. *pouts* Feedback? Please? Imminent Fate, part 4 Shamera sitafire@hotmail.com "They won't let us out." Heero Yuy, the Perfect Soldier, was under stress. Serious stress. One reason was because he was trapped in a house that was being invaded (and this was how he saw it) by black clouds of dust that possessed some form of intelligence, and the second stronger reason was because the boy he had besides him saw something other than black dust. He saw creatures in the clouds of black. But try as he might, Heero could not make out any forms in those black dust clouds. He could see right through the cloud, could see how thick it was and that it would probably choke someone if the person's lungs were filled with that thing. He could see that it was a danger. But... no winged creatures. "Even if they won't let us out," Duo supplied evenly, "We've got to give the others time to get out." "Ryoukai." There was a low hum in Heero's ears for a moment, and he saw Duo wince out of the corner of his eyes. The self-proclaimed Shinigami must be hearing and seeing things that were different than what Heero was seeing. He tangled his fingers with Duo's boldly, hoping that the other boy wouldn't pull away. He didn't. In fact, Duo only tightened the grasp as his eyes survayed the situation. There was a warm feeling that almost made Heero smile, but it was heavy stomped upon before it actually whispered itself to his facial muscles. This was no time for other thoughts. "They're everywhere." Duo said miserably. His violet eyes tracked the movements of the dust clouds. "It's almost as if... they've been brainwashed or something." Heero ignored that statement. His first concern was innocents... until he saw Quatre and Trowa silently herding the crowds in one direction, Quatre looking very pale. "We've got to allow Quatre and Trowa room to work." Duo pointed out. "But how can we distract those things?" Heero narrowed his eyes, his vision darting from one point to another. Duo was right. How could they distract those black things? Hmm... a vaccum sure sounded nice at the moment. Duo watched in horror as one of the girls at the party went the wrong way and dropped lifelessly to the ground as the winged creatures got a hold of her. Man! All those things had to do was touch her! It seemed as Heero had also seen it, for he snarled and dropped Duo's hand in search for something that could be used as a weapon. But unless food and glass could be used as a weapon, (which Duo seriously doubted) they were at a loss there. But of course, with Heero, there was always a weapon. If there wasn't anything he could use in the area- improvise. Pulling out a gun from the back of- (spandex-space? I donno... *eyes bug out*), he ignored how the other kids just screamed louder at the sight and shot one of the dust clouds. Once. Twice. Three times. There was no change. The bullets went straight through and embedded themselves onto the wall behind. By now, the boys were pretty sure they were dealing with something that wasn't scientific. This would be their first enounter with the super- natural. By now half the children at the party were outside and running about wildly. Yet the half that was still inside were in full-blown panic, one which was making themselves targets. Heero narrowed his eyes as a boy ran across his point of range, and then an entire group of people. Either they hadn't seen that he had a gun, which was unlikely due to how loud it had been when he fired it, or they were extremely stupid. Then he slowly lowered his gun. He wouldn't be one to hurt civilians. Especially not children. The bullets had no effect on the creature anyway. Suddenly Duo yelled for him to get down and he dropped, watching in dumb facination as one of the clouds disbust into the air and drifted away. There was a stick lying on the ground next to the once-cloud. Feeling fingers on his arm, Heero quickly pulled away and rolled, knowing that he couldn't have the other kids blocking his view now. How the hell did that happen? Stopping when he heard his name being shouted, Heero looked uo to Duo as the other boy carefully took apart a small model mission, made of sticks. Duo picked a long stick and threw it at one of the clouds, right in the middle and disbursting that cloud to dust. Was wood how to stop those creatures? After seeing that those clouds had a weakness, Heero discovered some- thing seriously wrong with the picture. There was no more sound around them as the other children had all dropped to the floor in a deep unconciousness. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> "Shit! Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit!" Duo grimaced as he quickly ran out of the dark wooden sticks, and didn't run out of enemies. It was strange to see, but he had once tried using the same stick twice. It didn't work. Once the stick went through one of the winged creatures, it turned a complete white. _I really need help here..._ he thought desperately. _Those creatures didn't even touch the other kids! What happened?!_ He spared but a glance to the kids were all knocked out where they were. That included Quatre and Trowa. Thankfully, (and he hated himself for thinking this) Heero was still with him, even as they were back-to-back surrounded by those creatures. All options had run out, and the creatures that were circling was closing in, almost shark-like. _Please..._ Duo gripped his cross tightly, cursing himself as he didn't bring his gun, even though he knew it wouldn't work. He just needed to feel that he had some sort of weapon on him. _Shouldn't my cross work with the super-natural? Those creatures are like vampires.. killed only with wood._ "Duo." Duo only grunted in response to his partner. "Don't give up, Duo. We're not done yet." Duo almost laughed. It was usually him encouraging others, not the other way around. Especially not with Heero. He felt Heero's hard grasping his again, and smile despite himself. Yeah. They weren't going to go down that easy. There was an inhuman (but musical) sound of anger as Duo tried to change at one of those creatures. Something heavy and black shoved Duo back as he was within inches of his tearing the winged creature apart with his hands. "Duo!" Duo fell to the ground hard, but sat up almost immediantly, one hand clutching his head as the world refused to stop moving. "What the hell-?!" Before him stood a small black mare, (with wings!!!) snorting at the other winged creatures and looking mad as Hell. There was a long black horn on the mare's forehead, reminding Duo of the old legends of unicorns. The black mare tossed her head in the air, aiming the horn frightfully close to the other winged humans. The strange thing was, though, that those winged creatures *were* backing away. Yet they didn't look like they were backing away out of fright. They looked more angry than frightened. Duo felt Heero help him up before he realized what the winged creatures were going to do, "Look out!" There was no need to warn the strange unicorn standing before him. As the first wave of those creatures attacked, the mare was up and at them, prancing on her rear legs before impaling her horn though the first of them. Again and again she did that, movements quick and angry as she killed the creatures with much more effectiveness than the sticks that Duo threw did. But even if she was able to kill them neatly- it didn't mean that she was that fast. Already the creatures were surrounding them again, this time aiming their harm at the mythical creature. "They're going to kill her," Duo said in horror as his mind still raced at lightning speed trying to figure out how that horse like creature was so familiar. There was a haze blocking the information in his mind, though. He turned his head slightly to look at Heero, wondering if the other boy could see the alicorn. The wide, grim look in Heero's eyes confirmed it. "We've got to *do* something." Duo said, stronger this time. Taking a moment to catch his breath, Duo shook himself free from Heero's embrace and stepping forward to try and stop those creatures. "Wait." Duo looked back at Heero. "We might just be getting in the way." Heero's mouth was set in a grim line, betraying no emotion other than the acknowladgement at their situation. "Look for something to attack with, and then do so when the things turn dire." Duo calmed down just a little. "We have nothing to attack with, though...." "Which is why I stopped you." Duo watched as the black mare killed off the winged creatures in the house, glancing at the fallen figures of his friends every few seconds. "We've gotta help." He whispered once again desperately, but made no move. There was a hard mental scream as a long, bloody scratch appeared on the alicorn's flank. Duo winced as he saw that, wanting very much to help but not knowing what he could do other than being a burden. "Those sticks," he muttered. "Why are those being killed by sticks? And an alicorn's horn? What's so special about the both of them?" Well, vampires were killed by wood. Did that count? But then, there was never any alicorns in vampire stories. So assuming that wood killed those entities... Glancing around nervously, Duo dimmly noted that Heero still had a grip on his arm to prevent him from doing anything stupid. "Wood," he said to Heero, not caring if the other boy understood or not. "Maybe we can help if we have wood." Heero nodded, and released the grip on his arm. But before Duo could actually do anything, Heero gestured, "Stay here." And with that, he jogged towards the closest piece of furniture, which was an overturned chair. Good thing big houses often had wooden furniture. It would be bad if there was nothing but metal and wood all around. Breaking a leg of the chair easily, Heero beckoned Duo over. Then he broke the leg into smaller bits, so that they would have more projectiles. "There should enough here to take out the rest." Duo nodded, and fingered the broken wood. There were many splinters now that it had been ripped apart, but he thought it was for the better as it just might take out something if he missed his intended target. Watching as Heero quickly disposed of the chair, he aimed the piece of wood at the shadowy mass and threw. Heero did the same from where he was, and the two reached back for more wood as their targets stayed true. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> It wasn't hard to get those shadowy creatures running off. Or the correct term would be flying off. Either way, it didn't take long. After a few hours of restoring the peace and order once everyone woke up, the guys were finally home, Quatre reviewing the story to Wufei the best he could. Of course, considering that he was out for most of the important moments, it didn't really amount to anything. Not that Duo was going to tell anyone about the alicorn. He found it a relief that Heero had seen her, which meant he didn't have to hide form Heero. But OTHER than that... he didn't want to talk about it at the moment. Leaning on the window facing the approaching sunset, Duo contemplated on what happened. Then he smirked. Oh, he remembered this position last week now, when he had been brooding and sulking. Only it had been raining. Now, he supposed, he was allowed to keep those memories, instead of having them slipping off into the sand(1). The others were all downstairs, Heero having told Duo that he wouldn't say anything the other boy didn't say. Somehow the soldier had realized the alicorn had been something private, and he was just glad enough to know of her presense. (flashback) Duo took a swing at the last of the shadowy creatures, gritting his teeth and holding his breath as thick black dust blew past him. It had been easy once those creatures realized that all three were armed. Well, somewhat armed anyway. Blowing a deep breath to try and shake the dust from his bangs, Duo decided that he would be having a loooooong shower once he got back. This was really stupid, killing one of those creatures and getting blasts of dust from where he stood. Why couldn't they just spurt blood or something? On second thought, maybe the dust was better. He fought back a griamce as he thought about those creatures exploring in blood instead. Not a pretty picture. One that he didn't want to see or know about. Dropping the pure white stick, Duo tilted his head to meet the stare the alicorn was giving him. If felt Heero coming up behind him as he stared into the sad, liquid eyes. The shine of the horn was dimmed by the layers of dust, which was also sticking to the dark mane of hair. There were two large wings folded onto the back, and Duo swallowed as the alicorn walked up close to him. Stopping barely a foot away, the alicorn tilted her head expectantly, and continued to stare at him. Duo cringed back a little. He knew that the alicorn meant no harm, but after seeing it endlessly kill those shadowy beings, the kindly image was replaced by one that screamed, "Danger!" Seeing Duo take a step back, the alicorn bowed her head a little, not moving foreward yet not backing off. She looked at him with liquid back eyes through the dark lashes, making some part of Duo feel guilty for feeling so... precautious. He turned his head back to glance at Heero questionably, wondering what opinion his partner would harbor of the mythical creature. Heero had a scowl on his face, but there was a glint of concern in those blue depths of his. Seeing the questioning look, he shook his head slightly, indicating that this was Duo's decision. Giving in to a quick sigh, Duo reached out a hand and rested it on the alicorn's flank. End part 4 1. Sands. Of time? Y'know....? Yeah. Okay, *rubs eyes wearily* It's seven in the morning, and I REALLY need to get to school... damn Alycilos made me wake up at five in the morning to continue since I had a Bug on me yesterday. Damn Bug... I was on a roll, too... Oh, this is what happens when I stop writing whenever a Ranma or Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne song starts playing. I loose my train of thought VERY easily.