Gundam Wing - Quantum Duo 'Quantum Duo' Part 1
Rated pg
By Wyvern
([email protected]
http://moonmonkey.iwarp.com)
Pairings: Meh…none really. Yet. Mwa~~~ah…

Notes: Hi hi! Alllrighty, this is my attempt at a Quantum Leap, Gundam Wing crossover. *wince * I know, it's techinically impossible…but since when does fanfiction adhere to any of that b.s.?! …Anywhoo…I'm doing my best here at this, since I know nothing about science. To anybody who would read this and go, "That makes NO sense," please just keep in mind that yes, I AM a dumbass.

Oh, and BTW, I'm using a bit of artistic license in the 'Quantum Leap' aspect of this fic. Y'know how in the show, we don't see the body of who Sam leaps into, but Sam himself? Okay, well, for this, you have to imagine Duo. 'Cause really, Duo's braid doesn't just go away because Sam has leapt into it! I would think Sam has to react to the physicality of those he leaps into like we would a new haircut. Sorta. *sighs* Hope y'all can see what I mean.

^.^ Hope y'all enjoy, and please, don't sue! For if I owned any of these boys, they'd be chained to my bed 24/7.

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The blue light faded in front of his eyes, replaced by a dim glow and the flashing of dozens of tiny buttons. His neck was craned back, his arms folded in front of him. Sam's feet were propped up on the dashboard of what he thought was...a car, maybe? He brought them down and sat up in his seat, to which he was tightly strapped to. His foot caught on a lever that clunked down, and suddenly the steady thrumming that had moments before been fairly dormant became much louder, and the car picked up speed.

"What the---what did I do?!" Sam looked around on the dashboard, but the lever he'd hit was one among many. "This is no car!" He looked up, and out the front window. Countless stars winked through the windshield, and the mother earth herself stared back out at him. "Oh boy."

~~~

"GEEZ! I'm in space!" Sam pushed himself back into his seat, his breath picking up in speed. The space ship he was in was heading amazingly rapidly towards the growing earth, and he didn't know how to land it.

"Duo, what are you doing?" The voice came from a screen to the right of him, and he turned to see the face of a young man. The glare that boy gave was one of the hardest Sam had ever seen, which only served to further worry his nerves. "You need to slow down your acceleration speed or re-entry will be dangerous."

"RE-ENTRY?!" he yelled, starting to panic just slightly. "Isn't re-entry ALWAYS DANGEROUS?!'

"Duo," the image changed to show a young blond boy who sported very effeminate features, bright blue eyes attempting to reach the panicking pilot. "Are you all right?"

'Duo...what kind of name is that?' Sam thought fleetingly. "Uh...I'm...not sure. I sped up and I'm not sure how to slow this thing down."

"Ha!" snarked an Asian boy with a sharp smirk pasted across the face that suddenly appeared on the screen. "The mighty Maxwell doesn't know how to control his beloved Deathscythe? Have you gone completely weak?"

"Deathscythe? What the heck is a Deathscythe?" Sam wondered aloud. The Earth was steadily approaching, and he still didn't know how to stop..whatever it was he was in. He frantically turned back to the screen, and he saw there a boy with the largest bang hanging over one eye he'd ever seen. Things just kept getting stranger and stranger, and it certainly wasn't helping Sam's state of mind. "Is this some kind of video game? Please say this is some kind of video game."

"Did you suffer any damage during the battle?" the boy asked, very soft-spoken.

"Uh...yeah…maybe...I dunno," he stuttered, staring back out at the stars. "Wait, b-battle?"

"Duo, perhaps you could latch onto me and I'll guide you into the atmosphere. I think maybe you were hurt during the fight," the blond one suggested.

"Hit his head, maybe?" the one with the huge bang asked.

"Maxwell is just being as spacey as always, most likely," the Chinese boy snarked.

'I thought my name was Duo!' Sam thought.

"Shut-up, Wufei." That stern one was back on. "Duo, slow down and hitch onto Quatre."

"Who?"

"Uh...me, Duo," the blond one said. "I'll give you a lift, but you've gotta slow Deathscythe down."

"How the heck do I do that?!" he screamed.

"Holey mackerel, Sam, where the hell are ya?"

Whipping around, Sam smiled in relief to see the familiar hologram standing in the cock-pit with him. "Al! Al you've got to help me! Where am I?"

Punching a few keys on his mini-computer, Al actually shrugged. "We're not sure, but you're in the cock-pit of uh..yeah...something." His gaze caught the view. "Hey! You're in space!"

"Al?" Quatre asked.

"Duo, who's Al?" the uni-banged boy asked.

Turning back to the screen, Sam licked his lips and hurried to think of one of his witty excuses that had been so useful in previous leaps. He failed. "Uh...nobody. C-could you guys remind me..how to slow uh..Deathscythe..down?"

Knitting his brows in worry, Quatre nodded slightly. "Sure Duo. Did you hit the boosters?"

He looked down around where his foot had landed, which helped not at all. "I-I guess so."

"Geez Sam, this is weird. Y'know it wasn't easy to find you. You'll never guess where you are."

"Not NOW, Al!" he hissed through his teeth.

"What's with the 'Al' thing?" Wufei remarked.

Ignoring him, Quatre reappeared. "The boosters, that lever with the orange flashing light beneath it. You must've pulled it down. How'd you do that?"

"I uh...put my feet up on the dash-board and when I moved them down I must've hit it with my foot..I think."

Wufei snorted. "It figures."

"Wufei!" Quatre snapped. "Okay, Duo, just push that up slowly and you'll slow down."

He spotted the lever and pulled it back up towards him. The loud roar of his engines died down, and his speed decreased substantially. Too much, in fact. He jerked back in his seat, his head smacking into the chair's head rest. "Ouch..."

"SAM!"

Opening his eyes, the view was a little different. The Earth and stars were the same, but now there were robots, three of them, staring back at him. He flailed back in his seat. "Holy geez!"

"Sam, you're surrounded by Transformers!"

"That was a little too fast Duo, but it's okay, I've got you," Quatre said kindly. Suddenly the cock-pit jerked, and the sound of machinery at work throbbed around him. "Okay, we're connected. I think that when we're back home I'll let my doctor take a look at you."

"Sure Q-Quatre. Thanks."

"Hey Sam, ya think you're in one of those? They're mighty impressive," Al commented, sticking his cigar in his mouth. Slumping in his chair, Sam shut his eyes and let out a breath of air.

"Thanks Al. Thanks so much."

~~~~

Sam stared up at a ceiling, one bordered with gold painted wood carved in the most intricate of patterns. Every other wall was painted in a marble design, and to top off the look of extreme elegance, hanging from the center was an exquisite crystal Chandelier. "And this is just the waiting room," he muttered. He lay on the couch in one of the home's of the boy named Quatre. Just one of the mansions that covered his huge estate.

The ride back down to Earth had been quite the experience, it being his first and all. When Quatre had banked him down in some kind of hanger, Sam had just sat there in this cockpit for a few minutes before the hatch door air-lifted open and the banged boy stuck his head in, inquiring why he'd yet to get out. His reply had been, "I felt like just sitting put for a sec." In truth, he'd had no idea how to exit.

Thanks to a bit of conversation, since Al had left upon touch-down to see what more he could dig up about the situation, Sam had soon learned the names of all the boys. The one with the crazy hair was Trowa Barton. The stern boy was named Heero Yuy, and as he already knew, Quatre Rebarbera Winner had helped him. Wufei Chang didn't seem to like him very much. Quatre had been the most concerned for him, leading him by the elbow to the room he now lay in after being given the once over by the family physician. Sam knew he wasn't sick, but boy were his nerves tight. What had he leapt into?

Sam sat up on the couch and ran a hand through his bangs. As he'd discovered when he'd sat on it, Duo had a massive head of hair. He reached back and pulled around a long brown braid that had to reach past his back when it was down. He looked around the room for a mirror, and as it happened there was one on the far wall. As he approached, Sam was struck by his own appearance. It was about as odd as being a woman. Striking violet eyes stared back him, light brown bangs falling into them. Around his neck was a priest's collar, fitting with his odd black attire. He fingered the dickey at this throat gingerly. "I'm a clergy-man?"

"You're a robot-flying-space-priest!"

Sam sighed. "Took you long enough, Al."

The man waggled his cigar in Sam's direction and said, "You were not easy to find this time. You're in an alternate universe."

He spun around, his mouth gaping in shock. "What? That's not possible!"

"Well, apparently there's been some kind of rip or whatever and you are in the year...get this, 'After Colony 196.'"

"After Colony?"

"A.C. This is off the map in weirdness this time."

Turning back to the mirror, Sam ran a hand down his braid. "How is this possible?" he murmured.

Al shook his head. "We've got no clue, Ziggy's totally out to lunch on this one. We can't figure out how you managed to get yourself here, Sam. All we can figure is that a lot of 'supposed sci-fi wackos' have been right for years, and you've slipped through some kind of.." he waved his hands for emphasis, "space-time-hole…thing."

Sam gaped and mulled it over in his genius brain, conclusions and information buzzing through it. "You...you know what this means?! It's a scientific breakthrough! We can travel to...to other worlds!"

Al shrugged uneasily. "Yeeeah..kinda. Sorta...not really." When Sam gave him a bland look, Al flailed his hands in that signature manner of his and spluttered a little. "Well c'mon Sam! I mean, we have no idea how we got here! We're totally guessing that this alternate time of theirs must be within your life-time, but as to why you made it through that rip is just....beyond us completely."

"Can you figure that out, somehow?"

"We could, but that would take up time and power we don't have, considering we have to spend it all on scenarios and keeping me here with you."

Sam's shoulders slumped a little, but he nodded. "Fine. It'll just have to wait or…I guess." He leaned back against a small mahogany table, propping his hands up beside him. He blew a few of his bangs out of his eyes, but shot Al a hopeful look and his usual question. "So, what have you got for me?"

Al's handset squeaked and gurgled as he pressed the buttons. "Actually, quite a bit. We're slowly getting full history."

"How's that work?"

"As far as any of us can figure, you've slipped through some kind of hole between universes or dimensions of some kind, and you're in the past of that other universe. See, if you compared our time to this place's time, you've gotta be in their past. Ziggy's been able to hack into their computers and databases, which is might I add, heavily coded so it's taking a while. Anyway, we're gradually figuring stuff out and running scenarios." He checked the hand-link. "Stuff like...your name. It's-"

"My name is Duo Maxwell," Sam interrupted, nodding. "Al, how old would you say I am?"

Al looked over the young body and shrugged. "Sixteen at the most, we haven't got that info yet."

Again burying his fingers into his hair, Sam sighed. "A sixteen year old space pilot. This is like some weird TV. show."

"Duo?"

Sam jerked a little in his seat, shooting up to a straighter posture. The voice that called to him from the door belonged Heero. A shiver ran over Sam's skin at the sight of the youth, one he couldn't explain. The blue eyes of the Japanese boy pierced into his even from the other side of the room. "Hi, Heero."

"English, Duo?"

Sam blinked. "Wh-what?"

"Sam, you're in Japan, you've gotta shift over languages."

"Really?" he asked Al, surprised.

"What?"

Looking back to the boy, Sam chuckled nervously. "I was? Really? Eh...gomen."

"Such a beautiful language. Such beautiful women.."

Sam sent a little 'shut-up' glare to his holographic companion.

Heero raised his chin a little bit and motioned the boy forward with a small gesture. "What damage did you receive on the mission?"

A little hesitantly, Sam walked over to the couch and sat down, Heero soon beside him. "Not much." He chuckled a little nervously. "I guess I bumped my head."

He started when he felt the other pilot's fingers in his hair, gently feeling along his scalp. Pulling away, Sam looked over at him. "What are you doing?"

Heero didn't look surprised, or hurt, or even angry. Just the same neutral expression that he'd worn each time Sam had seen him. "Checking for bumps."

"Yuh-huh," Al muttered.

Scooting over to the other side of the couch, Sam said, "That's okay, no need."

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah...yeah I'm fine." Suddenly looking up, he said, "Are you?" 'Maybe I'm here for Heero?'

"Yes. Duo, you've never acted like you did in the cockpit before."

Sam's expressions abruptly shifted, a broad grin splitting across his face, his weight leaning itself over towards the other boy. "Worried, Hee-chan?"

"Sam?" Al asked in a surprised tone. "What the heck was that?"

Blinking a little bit, Sam sat back and replied, "I don't know.."

"What?"

Once again uncomfortable, Sam fidgeted and moved to get up. "Um...Heero, where's my room? I'm feeling kind of tired."

With an odd look, as much as the poker-faced boy could give, Heero jerked a thumb out the door. "You know where. First door next to the kitchen, just like you asked for."

Standing, Sam walked out of the room after saying, "Yeah, right. Thanks Heero."

He could feel the blue eyes watch him leave, and it was a cool caress to his back. Unsettling? Quite.

"Sam, this is getting weirder," Al said when they were in the hall.

Sam scoffed a little, the humour in it strained. "As if it could." He sighed and leaned against the wall momentarily. "But I know, I don't know why I said that back there."

Fiddling with the cigar between his fingers, Al said a little slyly, "Y'know, I've seen the kind of look you gave him before. It was rather..."

"What? Rather what?" Sam blurted. "That was Duo talking, not me. I think he's left some of himself behind. More than usual."

"Duo likes Heero, I'm thinking," Al suggested.

Sam stopped and shook his head at the hologram. "They're sixteen..maybe fifteen year old boys, Al. Why would they like each other? That's just...weird."

"See? What did I say? This whole situation is weird. And Ziggy..." he punched the key-pad a few more times, "has still got next to nada." Sam sighed. "No wait! Hey hey! Whaddya know?" Al sent a kiss out to the sky. "Ziggy my dear, you're amazing."

"What?"

"It looks like there's a 65% percent chance you're here to stop one Quatre Rebarbra Winner from getting killed."

"That's the boy who helped me."

"Right. Apparently he goes off on some mission and disses." He paused and then smacked the controller. "Disappears."

Sam reached Duo's room and opened the door. "So Ziggy used their data banks to find that out?"

Al nodded. "Yup."

Sam flopped down on the bed and grunted. He sat up a bit and pulled his braid out from under him, then lay back again. "The logic to that is warped."

"I don't care, just so long as it works."

"So when does Quatre vanish?"

"Uh....two days from now. He was supposed to return from a mission that he leaves on tomorrow, and never makes it back. Look, I'm gonna go back and see what more I can figure out about this universe. Maybe talk to Duo in the waiting room, see what goes, kay?" He pulled up a door behind him and gave a little wave as he walked through it.

Left alone in the room, Sam barely had enough time to close his eyes before he heard a knock on the door. Sighing heavily, he sat up and plastered on a grin. "Come in."

It was Quatre who's head popped through the door. "How are you feeling?" he asked a little timidly.

Sam smiled a little more naturally. The boy had a warmth about him that eased his anxiety. "Much better, domo."

Stepping into the room, Quatre closed the door behind him and sat down in a chair next to a small desk. "We were all worried about you. That was very odd behaviour you exhibited."

Grinning a little sheepishly, Sam sat back on the bed. "Yeah, I think that I was just a little stressed from the..uh..mission."

Quatre rose his eyebrows. "You? Stressed? Duo, I think you're the least stressed person I've ever met," he said with a chuckle.

"Is that so..." he murmured in reply. There was a silence for a few moments, then Sam asked, "do you have a mission coming up, like in the next couple days?"

The blond shrugged. "Can't say. It's not as if they come with much warning, ne? When it comes, and if it's for me, I'll go." He gave a happy body sigh and smiled brightly. "Until then, however, we have much to do!"

Sam was almost afraid to ask. Another mission of blindingly frightening proportions? "Like what?"

Bright blue eyes sparkled. "Dinner!"

Sam slumped in his seat and pulled again at the tie around his neck. "I hate this," he muttered beneath his breath. The soft classical music drifted in the back-ground, blending with the murmurs and little chortles from around the table. Quatre apparently had pre-planned a very formal dinner with many of this Earth's aristocrats some time ago, and lucky Sam leapt in just in time for it.

Really, he couldn't quite figure out why he was detesting the entire ordeal so much. He'd worn tuxedo's before, and been to countless dress parties, but for some reason that night he itched to run out of the dining hall with a triumphant cackle. 'Shinigami doesn't DO dinner parties,' he thought. Then, 'what?!'

Heero leaned over to him and said quietly, "Sit, up."

Sam flashed a sharp glare over to the boy. "Iie. I hate this. Why do I have to be here?" he whispered.

The stern young man reached behind Sam's back and suddenly gave a hard pinch to his lower spine. Barely containing a yelp, Sam leapt up in his seat and landed with solid posture. He glowered over at the other pilot, whose mouth could have been curved just slightly with an infuriatingly smug smile.

Blowing a few of his bangs from his eyes, Sam just accepted the situation for the moment, and picked up his fork. 'Grilled pheasant on a bed of risotto and baby potatoes, spiced with only the finest Arabian herbs. Boy, this kid's loaded.' He sent a glance over to Quatre, who was apparently entwined in conversation with a middle-aged man sporting a military uniform and a fine silk sash tied about his waist. At the boy's elbow sat Trowa, slowly and gracefully finishing his meal. Sam had noticed those two together, and their chemistry. Could Al have been right?

Wufei ate directly across from Sam, and not once did his eyes leave his plate. It was quite apparent that he was detesting this as much as the braided boy did, but was struggling not to show it. Sam glanced to an older man seated beside Wufei. With his slick brown hair and sharp features he was handsome, debonair, and very blatant in his interest of the Chinese pilot. In only those few minutes that Sam watched them both, his gloved hand disappeared beneath the table twice. Wufei lifted his own down, but with a fork in his fingers he 'persuaded' that hand to reappear.

"So, Heero, how have you been?" The voice came from a young woman, perhaps their age, with long dirty-blond hair and a lovely face. She sat at the end of the table, surrounded by her own eating space. Sam could tell this was a girl of stature.

"Fine," Heero replied.

Sam lifted an eyebrow. How curt of him.

The girl continued, her silky voice now taking on a slightly more purposeful edge. "Just fine? I would love to hear anything that has happened."

A man sitting beside her, one with long blond hair and striking features, rolled his eyes. He leaned over to the girl. "Relena, tone it down."

"Shut-up, Zechs," she snapped in a whisper. Zechs sat back up and stuck his tongue in his cheek. Relena turned her attentions back to Heero and smiled sweetly.

Sam's eyes narrowed.

"God, I love dinner parties. Look at all of these sophisticated women." Sam flicked his eyes over his shoulder, but said nothing to acknowledge Al's presence.

"Nothing has happened, Relena," Heero replied, again very coldly.

Sam almost grinned.

"Oh really, I'm sure you're just being modest," she said with a little laugh. "After dinner, I'd be only too happy to be a subject of your indulgence and," she actually flicked her eyes up and down his seated figure, "attentions."

Sam's blood boiled. He dropped his fork and nestled his elbows on the table, folding his hands over each other. "Come now Relena, we all know so much about Heero," he smiled, "most of us anyway, but so very little about you!" He sat back in his chair and motioned. "Please," he wrinkled his nose in a cute gesture, "indulge us."

Relena sent him a deadly glare.

"Ooooh...if looks could kill," Al remarked.

Dabbing the corners of her petite mouth ever so daintily with her napkin, Relena replied, "Actually, Duo," she might as well have spit out his name, "I have been very involved in furthering the negotiations among colonies. We can't all pilot Gundams you know. Some of us have to work a little more subtly, so to speak."

"Zing!" Al shot. Sam could almost hear his eyes bug out behind him before he said, "Wow, would you look at her? Hello there you pig-tailed cutie.."

Sam shifted his jaw. "I see. How very, astute, of you," he said carefully. "If only all of us could be the woman that you are, Relena."

"Wow Sam, you really don't like her, huh?"

Standing, Sam pushed his chair in beneath the table and excused himself. Before he left, however, his hand brushed the back of Heero's neck and sifted through the brown strands. "Well, maybe not all of us," he said softly, staring directly into the debutante's eyes. He then proceeded to saunter out of the dining hall.

"Ziggy says that this is a universe constantly at war. It has been for decades, apparently, and there's very little sign it'll let up soon."

"Who's at war? Space people?"

"Pretty much. There are these colonies out in space right now Sam, and each of them has their own little agenda. They fight against this corporation called 'OZ', a group that basically wants to control just about everything."

Steepling his fingers, Sam leaned his elbows down onto his knees. "So, what does this war have to do with a group of sixteen year-old boys?"

"Fifteen, actually. Looks like you guys are the white hats," Al replied, consulting his hand-link. "You fight in what are called, 'Gundams', against the robots or whatever of OZ. You destroy them and bring down the numbers."

Sam started. "We kill people?"

"Yup. That tends to happen when you blow things to bits, Sam."

Pulling at his bangs, Sam growled in frustration. "I don't know if I can take this Al! Being a teen is incredibly tough!"

"What are you talking about?" Al asked incredulously. "You're not fifteen, Duo is!"

Standing up, Sam shook his hands. "That's just it! Duo has left a pretty good chunk of himself behind, and it's really screwing with me."

Al rose his eyebrows. "I.e., your little display at the dinner table."

"Exactly! Where did that come from? I barely even know Heero, but when Relena was looking at him that way I wanted to run over there and strangle her with my braid. And I can't even do that, 'cause she's the friggin' Queen of the world!"

Chuckling a little bit, Al stuck his cigar in his mouth. "You definitely sound like a teen Sam. And a bitchy one, too. Did you really get that jealous over ladies in Indiana?" He waggled his eyebrows.

Foregoing the glare, Sam just sat back down on the bed. "Aaahh...I hate this."

"Just don't forget your mission, huh? Keep your eye on the little golden prince, and you should be okay."

"I know, I know. I will be after I get a bit of sleep." He suddenly thought of something. "Say, how's Duo taking the waiting room?"

Al laughed fully this time. "He's a fun kid, actually. I like him. He was at first, y'know, pretty spooked, was rather frantic 'til we got a translator in there."

"Japanese?"

"Of course. He kept saying, "Shinigami" this, "Shinigami" that. Apparently, he likes to think of himself as 'Death'. See, Shinigami in Japanese is-"

"Yeah, the Grim Reaper, I know that Al," Sam interrupted, tapping one of his temples with a digit.

"Right, anyway, he's taking the whole situation pretty well. He finds it amusing, actually, and he's quite the little engineer. Gooshi likes him lots." Al grinned broadly. "Not to mention, he hits on the soldiers like there's no tomorrow."

======= Bum bum! So? Likies? Dislikies? C&C pureasu! Bai bai!