CHAPTER IV- Zapped

A/N: Sorry for all of the delays...real life was horribly mean to me and kept me away from adding to this....as well as writer's block...and Rose's little fanfic contest ::scowls:: I was diverted by...Fate! That's it! Fate intervened and said: "MOONKITTY thou shallst not write more of Heroes...or Wandering...or any other fic until I deem thyself worthy." Well, Fate and I made a deal, and here's another chapter.

Relena grinned at the saleslady as she did another twirl in front of the mirror. The gauzy skirt she was posing in flowed out and then collected at her ankles. She giggled and moved back into the dressing room to take it off.

Six shirts, three pairs of pants, two sweaters, and one skirt later, Relena returned to Heero's apartment. She had only gone down to the corner shop down the block and had rushed herself in order to arrive home early. She wanted to catch Heero and learn more. Relena was cursed with the burden of immense curiosity.

She had no idea what she was getting herself into.

She put the bags by the wall in the corridor and crept silently towards the door to Heero's apartment. Pressing an ear to the door, she listened eagerly to the muffled voices from within.

"....rumors that Romafellar is moving into...."

"...increase of hold ups at gun point...."

"...drug-dealing down at the water front...."

"...sources won't talk....something about a right hand man...."

"...highly organized...."

"Young lady, what are you doing?!"

Relena looked up. A neighbor had gone outside and seen her at the door. She remained frozen at the door, her panicked mind at a loss at what to do. She gathered her wits and stood up, stretching her back and grinning, "Just checking to see if my brother had brought any girls home."

"Your brother? Bringing girls home?! Do you mean Mr. Yuy?"

She nodded, smiling.

"I don't think he would know how to talk to a girl. He's the quietest teenager I've ever met." She said, frowning, her ancient eyes sweeping over Relena's blond hair and European features, "You're his sister?"

She smiled weakly, "Half-sister. Same mother, different fathers."

"I see." She fingered her rolled hair idly, "Staying here long?"

Relena shrugged, "Just for a little while. I haven't seen my brother in such a long time, I feel like I hardly know him!"

The older woman nodded, losing interest, "Well, I had best be going...."

Relena smiled and nodded, "Nice to meet you!"

The old lady gave her one last, slightly puzzled look, and nodded, "Yes," before turning back into her apartment.

Relena sighed.

Suddenly, the door behind her flew open, and a fully dressed superhero stood in front of her.

The color black was her first impression of the vigilante known as Zero, and then that observation became more specific as she noticed particular items of clothing- a dark, tight fitting spandex costume, an intimidating black mask, and a long black cape.

She grinned at him and wondered if he would kill her if she called him 'Zorro.'

"You," he growled, "get your bags and get in here."

"Sure thing!" she replied, and cheerfully did his bidding.

When they were just inside, Zero slammed the door furiously, "You said you'd be gone for an hour."

Relena shrugged off his accusation, "I'm a fast shopper."

"We have a deal, if you breach it--"

"Wo-ho-ho! Looks like Zero isn't the emotionless prick I thought he was!"

The dark superhero leaning over Relena paused and turned, allowing the girl to get a look at the casually poised Shinigami rubbing a finger over the blade of his scythe.

"Shinigami, this is not your concern."

"Well, Heero, I know we discussed keeping Relena silent, but I didn't think you'd make her move in with you!"

Both superhero and his houseguest turned bright red, "It's not like that, Shinigami."

"Yeah, sure," he said skeptically, waggling his eyebrows cheerfully, "That's what they all say," the mischievous enforcer of justice turned his head and called inside, "Yo, dudes! Heero brought his date to our meeting!"

"I did not--" Heero protested, but he was soon cut off by the pale haired heart throb, Sandrock, peeking around the doorframe saying, "Is she cute, Zer---woah!!! Isn't that Relena?! The new girl?!"

Relena took advantage of Heero's furious silence to shove him out of the way and stretch out a hand in greeting, "You must go by the name of Sandrock. I know about six girls with serious crushes on you."

What was visible of the vigilante's face went bright red, "H-H-How did you--"

Another boy came to the door behind Sandrock, his face emotionless behind a painted clown mask.

"Heero, these meetings are confidential." He said, and the girl knew immediately that she was looking at Trowa Barton.

Relena smiled, "It's okay, I already know your identities anyway. How about I go get some drinks for everyone? Fighting crime must be thirsty business."

Humming cheerfully, the confident young woman set down her shopping bags and strolled casually into the kitchen.

There was shocked silence for a minute, and then Shenlong, recently renamed Nataku, leapt out of the room and pounced on Heero, "You told her our identities?!" he hissed pushing at Heero until he was on the floor and under a stranglehold.

And then, quite suddenly, Heero's dark blue eyes changed. It wasn't a physical change, more like a sudden vacancy of emotion, of thought, of humanity. He lifted a hand and pressed it against Nataku's head. There was a jolt, and suddenly the Asian fighter was flung across the room and into the nearest wall.

Slowly, Heero stood up, his wide, vacant eyes darted to each one of them, "Who is my enemy?" he hissed, "I will kill you all!"

Trowa was the first to act, "Duo, get some water! Quatre! Restrain him!"

It was at that moment that Relena chose to walk back in, "Sorry, folks, but Heero is a boring person! All we have is milk and water...err...guys?"

She found herself suddenly under the scrutiny of four men--three of them worried for her, one of them annoyed at the interruption. Nataku, the fiery Asian boy who protected the slums of New Port, was unconscious by the wall. Relena bit her lip and went to help him.

"Oh my God, you guys! What happened to him? He should get help right away!"

Relena reached out to him, but found her wrist caught by the fighter's quick hand, Wufei was glaring at her with dark and furious eyes, "No woman will ever help me. Go away. You are in danger."

The man in traditional Chinese clothing snapped the others out of their spell. Trowa spoke again, "Duo! The water!"

He was gone in the flash of a braid, and Heero shook his head, expression blank, posture menacing. Without another word or warning him moved forward towards Sandrock, his hands crackling with electricity, "You will be the first to die."

Relena, not quite sure about what was going on, but wise enough to know her new roommate was up to no good, tried to pushed past Trowa to intervene. To her shock and dismay, the clown-face superhero held her back, "Wait, Relena. Duo will come in time."

And with that, Duo ran into the room, wash-bucket in hand, and dumped the contents on Heero's head.

There was silence. Slowly, ever so slowly, Zero's hands lowered back down, now completely normal. The rest of his body went limp and he pitched forward in a dead faint.

Sandrock caught his friend and lowered him slowly onto the wood floor.

Relena rushed forward and knelt by Quatre's side, her brow creased in concern. "What happened to him? Why did he do that?" she asked partly in fear and partly in worry.

Sandrock pressed a hand to Heero's forehead and slid his eyes shut for a moment, "He's still alive, just unconscious. We need to get him to his bed."

Shinigami and the Clown moved forward to carry him off while Nataku leaned against the wall and glared at everyone menacingly.

"Quatre?" Relena repeated, "How did he get that way?"

The princely vigilante shook his head, " I don't know. When I brush his mind, I get images of a tank...some machines...but nothing more than that. He keeps his thoughts closely guarded--" Sandrock's green eyes flickered up to the girl before him"--as do you."

Relena looked away, silently returning to the kitchen for a rag and the recently emptied bucket to clean up the mess. Quatre quickly took the bucket from her and proceeded to help, "The most frustrating thing about Heero is his refusal to reveal anything about his past. He may be our best fighter, but I'd like to know why he came to Newport. He should be fighting in New York or Chicago or some other big name city if he's drawn to fighting. The rest of us have ties to Newport that make us want to stay here. Heero's bound to nothing and no one. Not even to us really. I wish..."

Relena wrung out the cloth in the bucket before attacking the floor again. "Maybe Heero is bound to something, Quatre, and we just don't know what it is yet."

Sandrock smiled at this, the easy smile of someone who had just found a friend, "I like you Relena. Are you sure you aren't a superhero? We could use a sixth member."

She smirked, "Positive."

"You know," he said carefully, making sure the others in the bedroom could not hear, "Newport City won't be the safest place around for a while. There's a gang called--"

"Romafellar." Relena completed for him, "Come on, Quatre. I'm living with Zero, for heaven's sake."

"You've got to be careful around him, Relena. The minute he feels threatened, he goes into that 'kill everything" mode you saw. Only water can bring him out of it. He'll wake up and he won't even remember what happened either, so you've got to watch out for that."

Relena smiled warmly at him, "Thanks for the advice, Quatre. I promise I'll keep a water bottle by my bed."

"Truthfully?"

"Scout's honor!"

"I'm serious, Relena."

She sobered, "I know. So am I."