My Life as a Gundam Pilot: The Not a Mary-Sue FanFic, Really!
Chapter 1

My day started out ordinarily enough...

I was walking back to the studio to keep working on a project that was due in the next couple of weeks after a morning of putting together costumes with my good friend, Kat. We'd been working on anime-based clothing recently, and I had just finished a jacket and shirt based on Gundam Wing's Duo Maxwell. I decided, in my ever hopeful way, to wear it to work to see if anyone would get the joke. I heard "Duo!" shouted behind me, and thought it was Kat bringing out some important article I had left behind, but as I turned, I realized it was a male voice - just barely. The blonde-haired kid that barreled into me was pretty frantic looking, and I asked him what was wrong before I thought to ask why he'd call me Duo.

"Duo! Thank goodness I've found you! We've got to hurry - the transport will be leaving any minute!" The kid explained, grabbing my arm and starting to head off in the direction he'd come.

"Wait a minute!" I exclaimed, following his impatient lead, "I'm not really Duo. Who are you anyway?" With his hair and eyes, he looked a dead ringer for the fourth member of the Gundam Team, Quatre Raberba Winner.

"Duo! This is no time for jokes," the kid responded, looking at me with huge puppy dog eyes, "Now come on!" He had dragged me near an alleyway, and Gundam pilot number three stepped out of the dimness. "Trowa, help me convince Duo to stop kidding around," the blonde kid pleaded, "We're running out of time!"

'Trowa' gave me an inscrutable look and said, "Quatre's right. Come on," and headed back into the alley.

That was as far as I was willing to step into this little fantasy. These kids were way too close to the characters for this not to be some sort of practical joke. Perhaps Kat and Jocelyn had arranged this, and would now show up as Wufei and Heero, respectively. I glanced around for them, and said laughing, "Look guys, I guess Kat and Joc set you up to this, but it's really beginning to weird me out! Now stop pulling on me, kid," I said, retrieving my arm from 'Quatre', "I really have to get to the Studio, I have a lot of work to do today."

That's when they showed up, but it wasn't Kat and Jocelyn. "We don't have time for this," Heero said, and Wufei nodded, scowling.

"Really... " I started to grin, when the punk hit me in the stomach, and then caught me with a neat upper-cut to the jaw. I was caught before I hit the ground, but I dropped my portfolio and couldn't breathe or see.

"Oh, Heero," Quatre sighed, and I felt myself hoisted over someone's shoulder just before I blacked out entirely.

**********

I woke up rather suddenly and found myself strapped into a chair and dressed in a... spacesuit!?! Wufei was there and glared briefly at me before buckling his own harness as Quatre came through a portal that must have led to a cockpit. "Are you okay?" He asked, handing me a cold cloth to press against my sore jaw. "I really don't think that was necessary, but at least we all made the launch window." He got to his own seat and buckled up just as the ship began to shudder and boom.

"Uh, guys? The real Duo is going to be pretty upset when he's found out you've left him behind," I managed, just before the G-forces plastered us to our chairs and made conversation impossible. Poor Quatre looked really worried about me, but Wufei ignored me entirely. I had the sinking feeling that I had stepped into a really odd dream.

No one said anything else until the shuddering stopped, and Trowa and Heero came back to join us. "He still says he's not Duo," Quatre said, concerned, "Do you think he has... amnesia?" He glanced at Trowa guiltily, but Trowa had no readable expression.

"I'm not Duo, and I don't have amnesia!" I said.

"Then why are you wearing his clothes?" Wufei demanded.

"This is a jacket I made myself, just this morning," I tried to explain, and tired of the blank looks, burst out, "Geez, I'm not even a guy!"

"What?" Heero actually twitched, looking at me with a glint in his eye that I didn't like.

"If you even try hitting me again, I will hurt you!" I glared back, fumbling without luck for the harness release, "I'm serious!"

He didn't look intimidated in the least, and just my luck, the others felt a need to get in on the action they saw coming. Wufei came up behind me, grabbed one arm and put me in a choke hold, then Trowa took possession of the arm I was trying to pry Wufei off with so I could breathe. I was completely immobilized, and Heero advanced to pat me down. I may not have a Playboy-Bunny build, but he backed up suddenly, the open shock on his face quickly mirrored on each of the others'.

"She's right," he said, "This isn't Duo."

On to Chapter 2 or back to the main fic page.