Perfect Prey.

Natea <natea2x1@btinternet.com>
Title: Perfect Prey
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: AU, sap, angst, squick, shounen-ai, possible yaoi and citrus content.
Pairings: Focusing mainly on 1+2+1 leading to 1x2x1, other pairings 3x4, 5xS.
Summary: Heero and Duo end up fighting for their lives after getting washed up on island following a crash. But it\'s not just nature they\'re battling; it\'s something intrinsically worse.
Disclaimer: None of the boys belong to me and I\'m not making a single penny from the writing of this fic (shame)...the idea for the story is inspired in part by a published work by Richard Connell called \"The Most Dangerous Game.\" Excellent story!

Perfect Prey.

Chapter 1.
Stormy Beginnings.

\"What\'s the news?\"

Duo sighed as he flipped the headphone system to internal and replied, \"I got through to Singapore base but the reception was bad to say the least. Quatre said it\'s going to get worse. We\'re roughly in the centre now and it\'s turning into a real son of a bitch apparently.\"

The whine of the shuttle’s labouring engines was the only sound to be heard for a while as Heero pondered their situation. \"Hn.\" He nodded and tightened his hold on the shuttle controls.

Duo continued, unfazed by his partner\'s lack of conversation, \"According to the MET office it wasn\'t supposed to come down this far. It was going to hit the Spratly Islands before veering off to the east.\" Heero snorted at that. The MET office was good at forecasting weather on the whole but in the end Mother Nature was the dictator. What she said...went. It was that simple.

\"Can\'t you climb any higher?\"

Heero spared his partner a sidelong glance before returning to focus on the scene outside the shuttle; what little could be seen of it. \"We\'re pushing the shuttle\'s ceiling limit already and we\'re heavily weighed down with the equipment. We\'re running dangerously low on fuel, if we waste it in trying to fly above the storm we won\'t have enough to make Singapore.\"

Duo heaved a sigh, \"With this head wind we\'ve most likely used up too much fuel for that already. We could stop off at the military airbase on Borneo for a fill-up and wait for the storm to pass?\"

\"Iie.\" The answer was short and un-arguable; \"I don\'t want to risk it. We’re running low but we should still make it without having to refuel. It\'s making too great a detour from our flight-path and in this weather it\'s too dangerous. The more stops we make the higher are our chances of being uncovered. And,\" the Japanese pilot glanced over at Duo quickly to make his point; \"the apex of the storm is most likely higher than we can fly.\"

\"Yeah I see what you mean.\" Duo sighed in frustration; \"Still, it would be a helluva lot easier on my nerves if--\" He broke off and grasped at the armrests on the flight seat reflexively as the plane seemed to drop away from beneath them.

\"K\'so!\" Heero swore under his breath as the shuttle hit another air pocket. The altimeter ticked off a good three hundred feet from their height as they plummeted straight down, the motion leaving the two Preventers with the feeling that they had left their stomachs high above them. Finally the small shuttle \'hit bottom\', shuddering throughout its entire length as it did so, Duo said nothing but gripped the sides of his chair even tighter. Heero smirked as he caught sight of the faint greenish cast to the braided boy\'s face.

\"Worst one yet.\"

\"Aa.\" Heero agreed.

\"I never thought air could be so...hard.\" Duo muttered as the shuttle juddered from the force of the gale. \"I swear, I\'m gonna need professional chiropractory help when we get back to HQ, Heero.\" Heero remained silent, choosing to focus on navigating the shuttle through the worst of the storm clouds. Duo continued despite his partner\'s silence, he was used to it. \"It\'s getting worse out there. You think we\'re the only ones out in it?\" Duo focused his gaze out of the side window, watching the swirling grey mass that surrounded them thoughtfully.

\"Hn. Probably.\" Heero muttered, knowing that Duo wasn\'t really expecting an answer, just talking to distract them both from the seriousness of the situation.

And it was serious. The weather forecast that morning had been for mild to moderate south easterly winds with patchy cloud, a scattered covering of six tenths over the sky. Before the two boys had left Darwin the presence of a small storm had been brought to their attention. It was brewing up just south of Hong Kong but hadn\'t been predicted as causing any troubles, most likely it would burn itself out over the sea before even touching land. They had deemed it safe to fly and logged their flight plan with the tower.

At 5.00AM in Darwin it had been fine flying conditions for two supposed tourists on a whistle stop aerial holiday to take off for their next exotic locale. Perfect weather for two undercover Preventers agents to wrap up the final few loose ends of their mission and head out to the relative safety of international airspace.

After contacting Trowa and Quatre, who were currently stationed at the Preventers base in Singapore, and informing them of their intentions, they had taken off from a small airbase on the outskirts of Darwin at 5.05AM under a brightening sky. There had been a slight following wind at the time and the temperature had been bearable. There had been nothing to indicate what was on the horizon; the ferocity of the storm they had hit less than five hours later had been completely and dangerously unexpected.

It had swept up on them frighteningly quickly, in under five minutes the visibility was practically zero; dark, stormy clouds completely covering the cerulean sky they had been flying through just over an hour and a half earlier. Rain, and on one occasion, hail, beat down on the flimsy aircraft mercilessly, reducing the visibility even more and creating a noise much akin to gunfire. Both the boys had taken to using their internal microphone system to talk to each other even though they were sitting practically elbow to elbow in the cramped cockpit.

The winds were frighteningly unpredictable, more than once Heero had found himself suddenly thrown to the side as the gales wrenched at the rudder and ailerons outside, trying to steal control of the small vehicle and send the two boys spiralling to their deaths. His hands and arms were aching from the strain of holding their aircraft on a reasonably level flight and he\'d only been flying for half an hour. Duo was currently resting after the controls had twisted in his grasp causing them to sideslip and lose almost half of their valuable height. He\'d been flying for over an hour at the time and had been surprised to find his arms shaking and numb from exertion as he\'d relinquished control.

\"Heero?\" Duo took advantage of a slight lull in the rain to talk to his partner.

\"Hn?\"

\"You think we should turn back?\"

\"You know we can\'t.\" Heero grunted as he wrestled with the controls once more, the shuttle shuddering violently beneath them. \"If we turn back we\'ll be heading right into the heart of the storm. Besides...\" he continued, \"we\'re over the Java Sea now, Borneo is out there somewhere,\" he tossed his head in the direction of the starboard window as a general indicator. \"Singapore is straight ahead. From the looks of things the storm seems to be calming down a little now, we\'re probably through the worst of it. We\'re almost there.\"

Duo grinned at the news, \"Thank the Gods ne, Heero?\"

\"Aa.\"

\"Were ya scared?\"

\"Baka.\"

Duo leaned over as far as he could without unhooking the safety harness and poked Heero in the ribs slightly; \"You were, weren\'t you?\" He grinned even wider as Heero squirmed slightly in his seat, trying to get away from Duo\'s finger, \"Sugoi Heero, I knew you were human inside there--Jesus!\" The lightening forked down directly in front of them, flashing and crackling murderously...for an instant Duo could almost smell the ozone. Before he could react properly the shuttle shuddered along its entire length, the controls appeared to wrench themselves from Heero\'s iron grip, and suddenly they were sideslipping ocean-ward at a frightening speed.

\"Heero!\"

Heero didn\'t look at him, he couldn\'t, all his attention was focused on maintaining control of their shuttle, \"Get on the radio!\" He barked. \"See if you can get through to Singapore!\" He pulled back at the joystick, practically dragging the shuttle back to some semblance of level flight. They both noticed the sudden sloppiness of the controls and the craft\'s sluggishness in responding to their demands; Duo glanced over at Heero\'s strained expression for a second, horror spreading across his face as he realized what had happened.

\"The rudder\'s gone.\"

It wasn\'t really a question but Heero nodded in answer. \"I think the cables have snapped.\"

Duo adjusted the headphones; His face grave he switched to external broadcast, choosing a channel that they knew Preventers monitored around the clock, and began to talk. Fast.

\"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is shuttle XK-452-0201-T codename Dingo. We are flying at nine thousand feet,\" he glanced at the controls to confirm the settings, \"...on a flight plan from Darwin to Singapore via Bali. We left Bali two hours ago after refuelling and are on a compass heading 335 degrees magnetic, airspeed 220 cruising. Visibility is zero, weather conditions are worsening. Fuel is limited and we have lost rudder control of--Shit!\" It was as if the air had been snatched from underneath them; the shuttle dropped like a stone from the heavens, even Heero closed his eyes as they fell.

The shuddering when they hit the updraft was different this time, working its way through the frail machine mercilessly and threatening to tear the craft apart. They knew then that they weren\'t going to make it. Flying a machine of this calibre that had lost its rudder was bad enough in good weather. In the middle of a torrential storm it was downright impossible.

\"Jesus!\" Duo cleared his throat before continuing, his voice slightly more shaky than usual. \"Repeat...we have lost rudder control of the craft and are unable to maintain current course. Preparing for emergency landing. Please acknowledge.\" Heero grunted in acquiescence, still wrestling with the controls in a futile gesture as the machine seemed to rear back on its axle under the influence of a particularly vicious gale.

Glancing at the altimeter again Duo was shocked to see just how much height they had lost from the drop. The needle was barely pushing the 1000 feet limit now, still falling steadily despite Heero\'s battle to rectify the situation, zero was sea level and it appeared to be getting closer every second.

\"Get ready!\" Heero gritted out.

\"But we--\" Duo motioned to the headset as he switched it eceieceive.

Heero shook his head, \"We haven\'t time to repeat the call Duo or to wait for acknowledgement, we\'ll just have to hope they heard us. We\'re going down.\"

\"Can you see anything?\" Duo pressed the headphones more firmly to his head, listening for confirmation absently while scanning the greyness outside for anywhere suitable to attempt a landing.

\"Iie.\" Heero replied, his face tight with the strain of keeping the plane on an even keel. \"We\'re over open water. There is nowhere to land.\"

\"So we\'re ditching?\"

\"Aa.\"

\"Shit.\"

\"Aa.\"

\"Heero Yuy.\" Duo exclaimed, glancing over at the Japanese boy incredulously. \"You sure picked a helluva time to develop a sense of humour.\"

\"Hn.\" Heero muttered, \"Keep watching the ground, if we can get to land we\'ll have a better chance. There may be an islet too small to be marked on the map.\"

\"It\'s doubtful.\"

\"It\'s our only hope.\" Heero glanced at the altimeter briefly, \"Two hundred feet and falling.\"

There was something surreal about the whole situation, Duo thought, searching out of the portside window for the faintest glimpse of anything that could be called land. They were encompassed in swirling greyness unable to see past the nose of the aircraft for the most part. He knew the Earth was out there but it was hard to imagine it at the moment. He could barely tell they were going down; if it hadn\'t been for the altimeter and the false horizon he would have sworn they were flying even. Well...as even as they could be in the circumstances, the aircraft still bucked and shook, held firmly in the grasp of the storm.

Unbidden he closed his eyes as a mental image of the small recreational plane breaking apart in the air came to mind. They couldn\'t use their parachutes in this weather; the wind would throw them around like rag dolls. They were at the complete and utter mercy of Nature.

\"One hundred feet and falling.\"

And it seemed that Nature was pissed at the moment.

\"Flight XK-452-0201-T repeat y......atus.\" The radio crackled into life, fuzzy with static and surprising the two boys with its sheer unexpectedness. \"Repeat, Flight XK-452-0201-T coden.....Dingo, this is Sin......if you are........ able please confi.........ur earl........adcast.\"

\"It sounds like Quatre.\" Duo shouted to Heero, preparing to answer the radio call. Heero stopped him suddenly, eyes widening in horror.

\"We\'ve no time! Forty feet and falling! Get ready! Crash positions!\" Heero yelled. Duo followed the path of Heero\'s eyes and baulked at the sight. They had visibility back; the greyness of the cloud covering the front window had been whisked away, suddenly replaced by the equal greyness of the turbulent ocean below them. Whipped into a frenzy by the gale force winds, white-capped waves reached for them hungrily, trying to pull the craft down into the deadly cradle of the sea.

\"Shit!\" The radio was forgotten as Duo practically threw himself into a protective position, hoping to escape serious injury in the approaching crash by making himself as small as possible. Heero kept control for as long as he could. At the speed they were travelling a nosedive into the sea would have deadly consequences but if he could maintain the level flight and belly flop them to a landing they might just survive long enough to be rescued.

Thirty feet and falling.

Might.

He gritted his teeth as the white tipped waves seemed almost to float towards them. Spray from the ocean was being whipped up around them, battering the outside of the aircraft, robbing them of the little visibility they had gained, and deafening the two occupants. Besides him Duo was slouched into a ball, face hidden and protected by the shield of his arms. It seemed a futile gesture but it was all they could do in the circumstances.

Twenty feet and falling.

Still Heero held his path, the longer he could control the flight the better their chances. At the last second before impact he released the controls, took in a deep breath, and threw his arms over his face.

The altimeter ticked down to zero.

Left to its own devices the plane tilted slightly, its nose arching downwards almost lazily. One wing dipped down gracefully, reaching out to touch the ocean. The crest of a wave larger than the rest reached up, lapping at the unprotected underbelly of the aircraft.

Another wave loomed up directly in their path even as the wingtip was engulfed by a third.

And then the world went crazy.

tbc........