Author's Note: I'll admit, this was going to be shippy, but halfway through the first part it occurred to me how long and boring that would take so I just cut between nonsense conversations… Uh I guess you could say it's maybe the beginning to a beautiful ship?

Anyways this story takes place in Season 1 sometime before the LaCroa episodes.

P.S. Sorry for the reupload, FFnet is messing with my story and I can't fix it.

"Urrgh…" Shute groaned. His head felt like the train brother's had gone on another rampage through it. Actually, every part of him felt sore and if that wasn't enough something spiky was digging into his back. The boy moaned again in pain, and brought a hand up to brush back his bangs as he slowly pushed up.

"Huh?" the familiar sensation of smooth metal underneath his palm drew the kid's attention.

"WAH!" Shute yelped at the sight of the even more familiar red mech he sat on.

The mecha stirred at the boy's shout and let out his own groan of pain; spurring Shute to leap off and put some distance between them. Without the human's weight on him, Zapper Zaku sat up, a hand craddling his helmet and grumbling about "darn noisy zakos".

A growl worked it's way from the zaku's vocals and he snapped his head up ready chew out whatever idiot woke him- But the words choked in his throat as his one eye met with two human ones.

In a comical motion Zapper jumped to his feet, with a wide a eye and an accusing finger pointed straight at Shute, "You're that annoying bug!"

"I'm not a but!" the boy snapped back, his posture changing from tenseful apprehension to rigid anger, "And my name, is Shute!"

Zapper growled loudly and shook a clenched fist in the air, "You're gonna be stone in a minute once the- Once the…" The mech's threat trailed off as he took a look around them.

Rocky walls stretched almost as far as the eye could see, and even farther above a thin strip of blue sky divided them.

"Where are we," Zapper mused aloud, his eye not leaving the only thing that wasn't brown.

"How should I know!" Shute griped, his arms coming to cross over his chest, "It's your fault we're down here in the first place!"

"What?! As if, it was probably that hot-headed gundam of yours!"

"Then why are there bullets all over the ground," the boy pointed to one of the empty shells. Its' golden casing glinted back at them traitorously in the bright sunlight.

"Urr… Well those are… Uh-" sweat dripped down the red mech's helmet while he tried to think up another excuse.

Shute huffed, exasperated and tired of the over zealous mecha, "Aw whatever, I'm gonna try to find a way back up." He moved to turn away from the zaku; resting his weight on the heel of his foot, and almost toppled over as pain shot through his leg.

Zapper watched the human fall into a squat and clutch at his ankle with pained hisses. Curiously he attempted to peer around the boy's back, and the sight of a wet glistening in the corner of his eyes sent a shock through Zapper's system that could rival the Commander's funnels.

He didn't anything about organics, aside from that they were soft and easy to injure, but he hadn't expected to see one cry! Of course he knew knight gundams were capable of doing such a thing, and he'd heard from the zako busshi's that a musha could cry an entire river. Still he'd never come across a crying human before, or perhaps they just always turned to stone too quickly.

Zapper swallowed the lump that had grown in his throat from watching the boy. His one eye narrowed, "Right then," he grumbled low, the words bordering a growl.

The sound of heavy metal clattering to the ground caught Shute's attention. With a sniff the boy squinted over shoulder, but found that whatever was going on behind him to blocked by a mass of red.

Shute fell backwards with a surprised cry as he tried to get away from the arms reaching out towards him.

"Quit squirming," the Axis lord hoisted the boy up, careful to avoid the spikes on his armor.

Shute steadied himself against Zapper's chest and tried to push himself away. "Wh-what are you doing?" he sputtered, and spotted the heap of bullets behind them.

"Huh? You wanted to find a way out didn't you?" Zapper's eye glanced down at the human child in his arms, "Besides those gundams of your's are probably about to pop a circuit."

When Shute said nothing in return, the zaku took it as a silent agreement and began walking down the bottom of the ravine

"And then he ate my piece of cake right of my fork! And I had already eaten off of it! Can you believe it!"

"Well, if you asked me I'd say knight gundams don't have any manners. ...Or any gundam for that matter."

"Tell me about it!" Shute waved his arms in a gesture of frustration, "Zero and Baku are the worst!"

Zapper chuckled for probably the hundredth time as he listened to the boy's rants. None of the kid's stories provided any useful information to the Dark Axis, but all the same he was enjoying listening to their squabbles and failures. If only the gundams could be here to hear their precious pet insult them so much, Zapper was sure the looks on their faces would be priceless.

"Ughhh," Shute groaned, "It's way too hot down here." He tugged the bottom hem of his shirt up to wipe sweat from his face, having long since untucked it from his shorts to cool his belly.

"You told me that one already," the red mech chided, and he was right. Shute had complained multiple, each one accompanied by adjusting his clothing in some way. He had his socks pushed down as far as they could go, and Zapper had even let him hang his overshirt on his command fin.

"I can't help it!" the boy whined, humoring the zaku, "There's no shade anywhere and these rocks are heating up like a sauna!"

"If we don't find a way out of here soon, I'll probably be what cooks you alive, not some dumb rocks," Zapper grunted, mostly to himself.

Shute sighed and sagged in the mech's arms, "Gee it's so hard to choose becoming Shute barbeque or not being able to walk again."

"Isn't that a bit dramatic?" Zapper turned a surprised eye to the human, he vaguely wondered if it was a trait the kid picked up from being around the gundams too long.

"It's what my mom says," he calmly replied and met the zaku's eye, "I twisted my ankle once before at a Little League meet, and mom made me sit out for a whole week, it sucked! I missed the championship, and our team totally bombed."

"Little League?"

"Huh? Oh! It's a baseball thing for kids," a smirk wormed its' way across Shute's face suddenly, "You didn't think I won our match just by chance did you?"

The mech was more than ready to spit out the offer of a rematch, but his words were lost in the familiar sound of wind picking up.

With a glance over his shoulder, Zapper could see the tell-tale beginnings of a swirling purple vortex. A noise started in his throat to warn the boy.

"Hey look! It's a gunperry!" Zapper started at the boy's cheerful exclamation. Sure enough a strange looking vehicle was lowering down into the ravine, the "S.D.G" logo emblazoned on its' sides. The mech could hardly believe Shute had noticed that hunk of junk over the - "Whoa, is that the Zakorello Gate!" - nevermind…

Behind them the gate had completely appeared and not even seconds after it was fully formed Zapper's two comrades had materialized through it.

The gunperry, however, was still quite a ways up but that didn't appear to deter its' occupants as two of the Gundam Force jumped out and the third gracefully floated down to their level.

It was hard not to miss the sudden tension in the air as both groups met. Axians and gundams watched each other carefully, with weapons at the ready. Sparks practically flew between the two groups and-

"Would you guys cut it out!" Shute's voice cut through the quiet; the atmosphere plummeting along with the mechs.

All five of the newcomers sputtered in surprise at the sight of the two, not a single one able to come up with a word at what they saw.

Zapper let out an aggravated sigh and approached the gundams, ignoring the calls of his friends and the estranged looks from the Gundam Force. He pulled Shute's shirt from his fin and practically shoved it and the boy into the waiting arms of Captain.

"Keep a better eye on the kid would you? You should know organics are fragile," he grumbled at the young boy's guardian and absently pet Shute's hair. Suddenly the red mech yanked his hand back and marched over to the gate.

Shute watched Zapper brush off the concerns and accusations of Grappler and Destroyer, quickly turning the argument to the subject of why he'd been left her for so long. Had they seriously forgotten where he was?! Or perhaps they were trying to get him killed! Whatever reason, the Commander had better have fried them good for it!

"Shute?"

"Shute!"

He turned away from the disappearing Axians to find a faceful of concerned gundams.

"Are you injured Shute?"

"That fiend didn't lay a finger on you did he?!"

"Those cowards better not have hurt you!"

A wide smile spread across Shute's face, much to the confusion of his friends, "Don't worry guys, I'm okay! But uh… We're gonna have to figure out how to tell mom how I sprained my ankle and got a sunburn…"