Part Two: All in the name of Tyr

The five Gundam pilots had been lost in a world of Dungeons and Dragons, goblins and ghouls with one especially nasty Lich for the past twenty four hours and the horizon was beginning to darken again outside as the battle-cry of an overzealous Paladin of Tyr ripped the silence of the new dusk.

Wufei valiantly rolled his attack dice. Who knew the staunch Chinese would get so into a game like this but Wufei was enjoying himself immensely. True the game ended up basically revolving around his character but beyond that he was fighting- figuratively at least- for Justice! All in the name of TYR (God of Justice- who'd ‘uv thunk it)

The simple adventuring party had been drug through a series of standard level building mini missions to get the hang of the game and had subsequently traveled every inch of the sword coast in the process. Heero was the navigator, having read Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast cover to cover by the time Duo was finished with his character. They had marveled at the majesty of the Cloakwoods and seen the streets of Waterdeep on Dige's flickering screen. The digital graphics really added something to the game as they could see every room and alleyway they entered as if they were looking at their cockpit's view screen. Now they found themselves looking down a long dark tunnel deep below the ruined castle above in search of the evil undead sorcerer that was wreaking havoc on their lands and had burned a temple of Tyr to the ground, declaring outright War on the order.

Wufei's Paladin, Nataku, was on a quest for revenge and he, accompanied by his companions; the cold and detached warrior from Icewind Dale called only Odin, the darkly charming quick to smile ‘bounty hunter' Shinigami in the black robes, the pleasant and helpful although blasphemous cleric/mage of Mericuil- the elf with hair of gold and silver, Raberba de' Sandrock and the expressionless half-elf ranger by the name of Nanashi. They had come a long

way and were now trapped between walls of stone and seas of goblins. Nataku shouted a prayer to Tyr and plunged in headlong to the green mass of stinking, soon to be dead evil.

Sharp and efficient katanas tore into the growling green as a large claymore slammed down on the horde whilst the mage whispered spells in the background and the ranger's longbow sent arrows whirring into the fray. The thief was, of course, no where in sight. Battle ragged in the dark tunnel underground, a loud crash heralded the strong magic as fiery light gathered around the blonde caster. Arching out over the fighters a deadly spray of flame washed over the goblin army sending half it's numbers retreating into the dark or falling scorched to their deaths. As they turned to run three unlucky goblins met the sweeping blade of the smiling Death behind them. Shinigami turned to make his presence, or at least his scythe, felt by the other mongrels running from the battle. The party quickly finished off the last of the goblins and pressed on deeper into the labyrinthine halls.

"Come on, Nataku, you didn't even give me a chance to search the bodies. One of those filthy warts could have something valuable on ‘em." Shinigami protested at their hasty withdraw from the battle scene.

"Just like a thief to think of something like that, have you no respect for the dead?" Nataku snapped.

"Not goblin dead, and for the last time it's Bounty Hunter!" Shinigami rose his voice to the troublesome Paladin. Bright cobalt eyes turned on the two of them and with a sharp hiss Odin silenced them both nodding to the little blonde elf beside him.

"I hear something." Raberba whispered turning his long delicately pointed ears to one side then the other. With naturally better elvin hearing, the others waited to see what Raberba would hear a the half-elf strained in the other direction to catch a sound as well.

"I don't hear anything." Shinigami whispered to the others growing impatient with the silly elves' precaution.

"Shh." Odin pushed the thief back and looked about straining through the dark.

"There, Nanashi, did you hear it?" Raberba glanced to the taller boy. The half-elf nodded and came up beside the golden haired youth.

"What is it?" Shinigami questioned never one to enjoy being left out. The elves put their ears to the slick cold stone of the right wall and listened.

"There's something on the other side." Nanashi concluded.

"Is it Tregard?" Nataku pried. The evil necromancer turned Lich had eluded him for many months and he was not about to let him get away again.

"I'm not sure." came the reply from both.

"Let me see." Raberba breathed, chanting some faint phrase of magic. Minutes passed as the elf's eyes glazed and his expression became distant. His eyes looked about as if searching for something but saw nothing there then they focused and he jolted up blinking away the haze he frowned and nodded slowly.

"It's a large room, books and a table. It was dark but I saw... the Lich." he breathed and fell into Nanashi for support, the spell took a lot out of him.

"What was he doing!?" Nataku demanded.

"He was, preparing for, something. Preparing some strong magic."

"Good, then we may still have time." Nataku grinned wickedly at the thought of revenge.

"There were stairs, they led up and at the top of them light shone down faintly, he could still get away easily by the time we find our way yo it." Raberba warned.

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Nataku growled and held out a small dark brown stone. "And you said this wouldn't come in handy." he smiled to the black clad boy beside him gripping his scythe indignantly. With a few whispered words the old artifact sprang to life and did the bidding of it's wielder cracking the thick stone of the corridor wall and giving the party entry into the startled Lich's haven.

It was a long and bloody fight the lich making good use of his spells until the elf mage silenced the room sacrificing his own talent to the greater good. In the end it was a swift blow from the Paladin's Holy Sword that took the evil undead down. They stayed there the night licking their wounds and waiting till dawn to venture into the deep enchanted marsh above.

Shinigami wasted no time in stripping the Lich's lab of all objects of considerable value. Books, staves, wands, papers, jars, gems, and gold especially all fond their way into his accepting bag of holding [1] with the miscellaneous jewelry he fond strewn about. One ring in particular caught his interest. A simple ring of fine silver inlaid with a line of onyx and carved on the inside in some strange script he couldn't read.

"What's that say, Raberba?" he showed the elf the ring who shrugged then stopped short and took it from the questioning thief. "Hey!" Shinigami began but Raberba hushed his protest with the wave of a slender hand as he inspected it more closely.

"What is it?" Shinigami pressed.

"It's a ring of wishes." the elf finally replied after a murmured spell and quick inspection.

"Really!?" Shinigami chirped, "Give it back."

"Oh no you don't. There's no way I'm going to let you have a dangerous item like that, don't you know wishes come at a price." Nataku intercepted the ring and placed it gingerly into his own pouch.

"So why should we trust you with it? You'd probably waste it on some ridiculous favor to your god or just give it to the church." Shinigami laughed easily procuring the pouch and slipping out the ring onto his own finger.

"You blasphemous Thief!"

"Zealot!"

"Why I aughtta'!"

"Wufei, Duo! Both of you calm down!" Quatre squealed over the heated shouts as Trowa and Heero pulled the boys off each other.

"I think we should quit for the night." the taller boy observed as he tossed Wufei into a chair.

"That's a good idea, we're all tired and tempers are getting a little... well..." Quatre trailed off not being able to think of anything properly diplomatic and yet strong enough to accurately describe the two bantering idiots... enthusiasm.

"Short." Heero cut in setting Duo in his chair and starting to clean up the scattered papers and books.

"I guess you're right," Duo sighed and bent over to help pick up the mess. Wufei grunted and began stuffing papers into the box.

"Done for the night?" a soft feminine voice cut in.

"Yes, Dige, we're going to bed. We can finish later." Quatre answered the smiling screen.

"I'll save your progress and we can continue at a latter date." she smiled.

"Thank you Dige." Quatre sighed and shut the program off then wandered upstairs to bed, Trowa following close behind. Duo and Wufei picked up papers as Heero packed Dige away in the closet.

"Fanatic." Duo whispered across the table to Wufei staking papers in the box. The Chinese glared up indignantly.

"Pickpocket." Wufei returned.

"Extremist."

"Cheat."

"Fiend."

"Hoodlum."

"Psychopath."

"Liar."

"Hey! I am Not a liar!"

"And I'm not a Psychopath."

"That's debatable." Duo huffed and it once again degenerated to blows. Wufei reached over the table briskly pulling Duo up and throwing him over his shoulder and halfway across the room, scattering the box and its contents on the floor. Duo pulled himself back and was about to return the favor when he caught a stalking figure loom up behind Wufei and smiled diabolically.

"What are you smiling at?" Wufei spat just in time to feel the answer. Heero's hands gripped around Wufei's throat pulling him back onto the ground. The Wing pilot stood threateningly over the young Chinese who glared defiantly up but dared not move. Heero waited until Duo stood smirking beside him to step away from the captive boy.

"Go on to bed, we'll clean up." Heero commanded and grudgingly Wufei obeyed, happily once he saw Duo's face fall with one look at the new mess. Trowa and Quatre stared on from the door and shaking their heads returned to bed once the situation had defused itself. Duo knelt down and began picking up papers, roughly shoving them back in the box. Heero took the box and began to straighten the papers and stack what Duo handed him neatly inside.

Duo was picking up the scattered dice as Heero tried to fold the maps that had gotten scattered in his and Wufei's little outburst. Heero wasn't having much luck getting them back the way they were. Duo suppressed a wry smile and continued picking up stray dice. He spotted one under the couch and reached under to get it. Feeling it he noticed it wasn't a die at all but a hollow smooth circle of cool metal. Duo pulled the ring out from under the couch. ‘I wonder where this came from?' he questioned his mind as he inspected the ring. It was a simple ring of fine silver inlaid with a line of onyx and carved on the inside in some strange script he couldn't read. A strange recognition hit him suddenly.

"Hey, Heero, check this out. It's that wish ring we found!" he laughed ironically.

"Hn." Heero glared at the ridiculous accusation and kept fighting with the maps. Duo shrugged and slipped it onto his index finger. He frowned as it slipped easily off, too big. Duo resigned to slide it onto his thumb where it would stay and keep picking up his mess.

Heero's head snapped up at the soft beep from his laptop in the corner. He sprang out of his bed despite the minuscule hour of sleep he'd gotten that night. It took only seconds for his computer to decode and scan the message for viruses and less than a minute for Heero to scan the text for content. Five minutes after receiving the message all five pilots were hastily packing away their gear in the small study they had gamed in just hours before. Quatre brought in a trey of fruits and warm pancakes with orange juice for breakfast drowsily setting it on the table as the others stuffed laptops, ammunition clips, guns, smoke bombs, swords and automatic rounds into ragged duffle bags. Duo grabbed a stack of pancakes and shoved them in his mouth as he trotted out the door to load up Shinigami. Heero strode out the door without a word and Wufei followed suit. Trowa stopped and picked up a pancake and an apple before giving Quatre an apologetic shrug and going out to ready Heavyarms. Quatre sighed and dumped the fruit and pancakes into plastic bags then tucked them gently into his duffel before trotting out after them.

Five Gundams sped hastily off over the horizon to their target, all in a day's work. They located the Oz base easily enough, landed their Gundams inconspicuously in a convenient large forest just to the east of the compound and trudged through the wood into the base. It wasn't too hard to slip past the guards and once inside they split up to locate their objectives. A few minutes latter the loud explosion followed quickly by the ringing siren told Heero that Wufei, Duo and Trowa had done their jobs, all that was left was for him and Quatre to finish theirs.

Quatre watched the door nervously as his file downloaded a bit too slowly. Across the hall he saw Heero's face illuminated in the light of another screen as his file copied itself to the one of little discs they kept always on hand. He heard footsteps down the hall and watched as Heero gracefully pulled his gun and leveled it on the approaching blur of black and brown color speeding down the hall followed closely by a taller green and blue.

"Black Sector blown to Hell!" Duo mirthfully chortled as he slid to a stop between the two rooms, grinning widely at the gun pointed to his head. "Pleased to see me Heero?" he smiled.

"Green Sector down." Trowa informed as he stopped by Quatre's door.

"Where's Wufei?" Quatre asked worriedly not seeing the dark Chinese. Trowa turned and stared, Duo shrugged. More footsteps echoed in the hall, followed closely by gunshot.

"Disc." Heero demanded turning off his computer and striding to the door by Quatre. The Arab quickly pulled the disc from his laptop, closed the cover and stuffed it into his bag. The quartet turned the corner of the hall just when a white streak passed them by and soldier's shouts rang out in the direction from which it came. Seeing the rank of soldiers in pursuit they joined Wufei's flight for the only not smoldering exit left. They ran at a dead run from the hail of bullets, extraordinarily lucky not to get hit as they turned the corner, the door now in their sights, unfortunately it was behind a row of Oz soldiers and a few Leos. The five pilots ducked hastily into an adjacent hall and suddenly realized, a little too late, their error as they saw the wall at the other end. Dead End!

They could hear the soldiers approaching, laughing it seemed. As Heero banged his shoulder

against a large steel door about halfway down the hall. A large Leo loomed into view at the open end of the hall, the boys backed slowly away.

"I wish I were anywhere but here." Duo quietly moaned nervously spinning the ring on his thumb. The boys backed a few more steps into the shadowy depths of the hall then suddenly were surrounded in a glittering gold haze.

[1] Bag of Holding- one of my personal favorite magical items out there (I play thieves, does it show?) A simple looking bag that holds an extra-dimensional pocket where one can easily store up to 15 square feet or 1500 lbs of junk- whichever comes first, perfect for sneaking in contraband and reducing the visible size of one's party.

Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing © Sunrise, Bandai, and Sotsu Agency.