I am not a perfect soldier, a nameless child mercenary, a street urchin, a rich kid or hell, a martial artist. Just some L2 Joe Schmoe who likes to read comic books, plays video games and hang out with my friends. But for some reason, I became a Gundam pilot. Yeah, that's right. A Gundam pilot like you see in those old-school films back in the mid After Colony 190s. But we'll get to that later. After the Eve Wars of After Colony 196, many people speculate on the identities of the Gundam pilots. But those theories are all just a bunch of rumors make up by nut jobs. Like how industrial billionaire Quatre Raberba Winner is a Gundam pilot or several of the Preventers are Gundam pilots.
"Dude, I still think that bodyguard is a Gundam pilot!" That's my friend, Diego; he's one of those nut jobs. His eyes were glued to the flat-screen television bolted to the wall. Why the manager of the comic store is showing his customers the news instead of superhero cartoons? I don't know.
"Dude, what are you talking about?" My mind is on this new comic book than Diego's conspiracy theories.
"Foreign Minister Darlain's bodyguard is a Gundam pilot. Yo, man! Turn it up!" The clerk behind the counter sighs as he turns up the volume of the television a few notches.
"Foreign Minister Darlain will be finally taking a break from her political duties for a while to spend time with her family as they will be vacationing in this colony for a week." A female reporter said while cut to a clip of Foreign Minister Relena Darlain and her husband, dressed up in a Preventer uniform guarding her and two grown children. I can see their daughter, also in her Preventer uniform, guarding her brother and sister behind Relena and her Preventer husband. I must say, if Darlian wasn't married, she would be a beautiful and classy cougar. "And who will be filling in her shoes is Vice Foreign Minister…"
"You mean, Relena Darlian?" My girlfriend, Margot said. She looks up at the television as she leans to my side and rubs my flannel covered forearm, "I still think she made a bad choice marrying that bodyguard of hers as well as taking a winter vacation in L2, especially in this colony. I mean, look at this place, it's not exactly Earth where it has castles and real trees."
"They've been married for what? Two decades". Diego said, looking at the titles in a big box of comic books, "I think she made a right choice".
Margot shifts a little; she doesn't like it when she's wrong. "True" She tries her best to acts nonchalant. "But! I still question her choice of coming to this place."
"I think it's nice", I replied, rubbing her back, "at least, she's not like the rest of these Earth-born elites." Damn, now I sound like my mother. She doesn't take kindly to people on Earth, with certain exceptions like Darlian.
"Darlian is a diplomat; maybe she needs to be with one with the people and whatever." Diego shrugs his shoulders. "Anyway, that bodyguard husband of hers, I been reading a lot online about that guy and he might be a Gundam pilot."
"Like that time you thought one of my neighbors was Gundam pilot?" I said. There are times where I got really annoyed by Diego's crazy ideas. It's a wonder that we both like video games, comic books and random internet videos. "For god sakes, Mr. Maxwell is a mechanic and a salvage dealer; he's not making a Gundam or at one point, piloting it! And another thing-"
Diego covers my mouth as he saw some guy walking through the door. "Shh! Quiet!" He whispers as Diego point to the person of interest.
Solo Maxwell, he's a quiet scrawny-looking kid from our school. Unlike his dad or any other of his older siblings, he has short brown hair which was covered in a black hat. I don't know why everyone in the Maxwell family have long braided hair; I guess it's a cult thing or something. Except for Solo and his mom who don't have long hair.
"Hey." Solo greeted all of us. Also, he's our friend too.
"Hey." We all chimed in unison.
Margot smiled at Solo, she finds him cute, like you see in a little brother or a puppy. "Fancy you seeing here."
"Yeah," I replied, it's unusual for him walking in this place on a weekend. "I thought you're working at your dad's shop." When I mean working, I mean Solo Maxwell sitting behind a desk doodling until a customer walks in.
"I was but my dad, Jonas, Lukas and D.H. was approach by these guys in weird uniforms. Mom was worried so she told me to go to outside until she called me."
Diego gives him a quizzical look. "Must be serious."
I assure him. "They must be some religious fanatics and your family doesn't want you to be brainwash. You have a tendency to be gullible."
Solo laugh as he playfully smacks my arm, "I do not!" He pulls up his backpack and looks down at the box of comics we're browsing. "So what you guys talked about?"
"Nothing!" We all said in unison again. Jesus, that was weird.
"Well," I cleared my throat. "We were talking about Foreign Minister Darlian coming to this colony for a post-Christmas vacation."
Solo looks confused as his body shifts a little and turns his eyes away from us, but kept his happy-go-lucky expression with a grin and chuckle. "Since when you guys talked about politics? We don't worry about that stuff until college."
"I watch a lot of TV." Margot replied with a chuckled.
I laugh at Margot's lovely wit and looked at Solo, "It's related one of Diego's wild theories about the Gundam pilots."
"Oh?" Solo shifts his body again. I guess this subject made him feel uncomfortable.
"But you know Diego" I laughed as I tried to assure Solo. I have no idea which topic made him more uncomfortable, the Gundam pilots or Darlian? "He always has something to say about anything!" I ruffled his greasy hair.
"Hey!" He laughed back, but trying to be serious. "I have connections that this can be true."
"Let's talk about more important things," I said, trying to steer the subject far away from Gundams and politics, "Like my Mom will be doing a lecture at the University tonight. You know what that means?"
Diego's eyes light up, "Pizza!" He always gets excited for food, especially the fried and processed kinds as his slightly pudgy belly doesn't give anyone a hint. His face gets so close that he fog up my glasses. "Dude, I have this new robot game we should try?"
Margot's face also lights up in excited. She can't turn down a good video game about giant robots beating each other senselessly. "That should be a fun night."
"Aw, I can't tonight." Solo said, again shifted his body and turning his eyes away from us. Maybe he sees something he likes. "My parents want me to be home for dinner. We have company coming over."
"Aw, man. That sucks." Diego console him with a pat on the back. "I bet that would so boring. At least, your mom's a great cook."
Solo shrugs his shoulders. "I'm not too upset. My parents' friends have a hot daughter."
Margot cocked her eye brows. "I guess it won't be a total loss." She giggled and Solo smiled.
"Hey, Solo". A tall, beautiful woman of twenty-one walk into the comic book store; she has these big blue eyes and a dancer's body, her black hair was tied up into two four-foot braids, it had to be Deux Helen Maxwell or D.H., for short. For someone who wears black all the time, she is pretty cheery. "Mom said you need to come back home."
"What?" Solo's eyes widen at the news. "I thought Mom is going call me."
D.H. shrugs, "Apparently, she wants you to have a sibling escort". She smiles as she points at herself.
"See ya." I wave him good-bye.
"Text us if you get bored." Margot said.
Solo nodded as he follows his older sister out of the comic book store.
"So" Diego said, getting in between me and Margot, patting both our backs, he was grinning ear to ear as he led us out of the store and into my house a few blocks from here. "Let's go. Pizza and robots waits for us!"
Three or four hours of nonstop virtual robot thrashing and gulping down a box of pizza and sodas, I watch Diego and Margot leave and said my good-byes. I would let Margot stay in a little bit longer for few steamy sessions in my bedroom, but her mom and grandpa would kill me if I let her break her 6PM curfew. On second thought, it wasn't a curfew mandated by Margot's family; it was by the government, especially this new political party that has been taking over this colony in the past year, making things slightly less comfortable around here, such as curfews, weird yet disturbing adverts on the walls and Special Forces agents at every corner.
"Hmm…" I stand on my porch, looking up at the night's artificial sky. "That means Mom will be staying at the university for the night".
I ponder for a moment, Mom have going to the University for these lectures more and more frequent than usual. Like four times a night since October instead of once of month during the fall and spring semester. But school hasn't even started yet. I know my mom love the field of engineering and astrophysics but this is ridiculous. Damn it, why am I so dense? What's going on?
A shiny black car pulled next the Maxwell house. It must be the company that Solo was talking about. Wait a minute, what is appearing underneath the front door light is Relena Darlian and her husband. What are they doing here and with Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell? They both look pretty grim. They were followed by their three children. All of them have their heads lowered as they were in a funeral. Opening the door is Mr. Maxwell and his wife along with- Wait! Those are my parents. Both Mom and Dad? They haven't been together in one room since I was seven. What are they doing here? Does Solo know about this?
I better call Diego about this; I grabbed my cell phone, "Hey, Diego. It's Trey."
"Hey, did you miss me kicking your butt?" Diego laughed.
"Haha, very funny. Anyway, remember you mention that Darlian's husband and Mr. Maxwell might be Gundam pilots?"
"Yeah. Why do you want to know this now?"
I walked into my house and into bedroom where my laptop awaits as well as a window towards the Maxwell house. "Would you email me those websites now? You might going to like what I'm going say."