ºDeceiving Fateº

CHAPTER II:      

            "Whoa…" Courtney stood up uneasily. The floor was spinning… or, it looked like it. She didn't feel the movement, but she sure saw it. All the colors were swirling, constantly moving… But looking at the floor made her dizzy, so she directed her gaze elsewhere. Next to her stood a girl she had never seen before, but she seemed… familiar, somehow. Her long brown hair nearly touched her hips, and she was sort of short; 5' 3", maybe 5' 4". She didn't seem out of shape, either. Courtney studied her face. And then it dawned on her. "Lizz?" The girl turned around. At first she seemed confused at how Courtney knew her name, but then her eyes widened in recognition.

            "Court?" Courtney nodded. "Where are we?" Lizz asked her American friend.

            "I dunno…" was all Courtney could say.

            "You two don't know much of anything, do you?" A man in a lab coat stepped out of nowhere. "I'm beginning to doubt my own decisions…" He shook his head.

            "Who are you?" Lizz asked accusingly.

            "If you must know," he replied rather arrogantly, "I am known as Professor Evers."

            "Well, Evers," Courtney said, "I, er, we want answers."

            "Yeah! First of all-" Lizz started.

            "You want to know where you are. Typical." He turned around. "This," he gestured towards the walls, "is the Internet. Cyberspace. Whatever you people call it these primitive days."

            "Primitive?!" Courtney exclaimed. She didn't like this guy, this 'professor.'

            "You heard me. Primitive." He smirked at this. He paused a moment. "I figured you wouldn't understand." He sighed. "This is going to be a long night." He beckoned them to one end of the room; that is, if you could call it a room. Suddenly a screen popped out of cyberspace and the scene before them was… space? Looked like a satellite of some sort… Of course! It was a colony! This was a Gundam-Wing-era colony! The girls couldn't believe their eyes. "Yes, this is a colony. L2-XC1930, to be precise. Here is where you will be starting your journey."

            "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! What journey?" Courtney asked.

            "Oh, that's right. I have yet to tell of your mission. Silly me." Lizz definitely didn't like the tone in his voice. "The year is After Colony 198. A war has broken out between the colonies and the Earth Sphere. Even I'm not sure why. It all happened so fast…" Both girls caught a glimpse of remorse in his voice. Then he snapped back to life. "We have rebuilt the Gundams, using the old designs and schematics. However," here he paused. "However, the pilots of such Gundams are missing."

            It's just like in the journal…Courtney thought. "Heero's always missing." At this Evers laughed.

            "You know him as well as I do. But I know for a fact that he's missing, as well as the others. You see, I was tipped off that another war may be upon us, so I kept in contact with Yuy for quite some time. We exchanged information, helping one another out." The professor sighed. "Then he just up and disappeared."

            "But that's just like Heero to-"

            "Please, Miss Richards, let me finish." Courtney shut her mouth. "Now as I was saying, he disappeared; about three months ago."

            "Even Heero couldn't stay isolated that long, could he? I mean, not if he was in contact with you." Evers seemed impressed.

            "Perhaps I chose correctly, Miss Wright." Lizz shuffled her feet as Courtney muttered indecipherably. "The other pilots went one after another soon after that; Barton, Winner, Maxwell, and Chang. All at relatively the same time. Someone wanted them out of the way. And, if my theory is correct, all five are dead." The girls gasped. Soon they recovered.

            "So what does this have to do with us?" Courtney asked.

            "Yeah. Where do we fit in? How can we help if they're…" Lizz's voice trailed off.

            "I'm sending you back in time-forward, for you-to before they each disappeared. Your mission is to see that they DON'T."

            "What?!" they exclaimed in unison.

            "How are we supposed to do that?!" Lizz asked, exasperated.

            "You figure it out." Suddenly, Evers was gone, and the floor seemed to turn into a giant warp hole. Both girls were sucked into space. Evers called after them, "I'll be sending you information once you land! Don't screw this up!"

"I'LL GET YOU, EVERS, IF IT'S THE LAST THING-" but Lizz was cut off as the portal sealed. Evers laughed at the look on their faces. "They're perfect for the job." He chuckled as he turned and vanished.