Gundam-fall: Changing Fate
Episode 40: What's Next
A/N: If anyone's still reading this in 2020, I salute you. I apologize for the extremely long delay, but the trials of the insanity that is life, writer's block, and depression, plus lots of anime and video games to numb all of that got a hold of me. This chapter is most likely lackluster compared to previous ones but I've had a struggle trying to beat writer's block just to get this much out. Some future plans and stories involving a multiverse built around this story also played a major role in the months long hiatus. I'M SO SORRY, PLEASE FORGIVE ME!
It was a sunny morning in the city of Hong Kong, rays of light glistened on the surface of the blue seas that stretch on towards the horizon. Cooper was hanging around on a rooftop with Lin standing beside him. They were watching the conversation between Amuro and Mirai aboard the cruise liner and her children, the conversation had been going on for a short time but it felt like an eternity to the two pilots on overwatch. The militia pilot looked over the side of the building to take a quick glance at his protégé. He could see the rookie was not having the best time just sitting around in a car, waiting for time to pass. Cooper sighed, sharing the feeling of boredom with the teenage pilot. Kamille looked up at the rooftop and met Cooper's gaze with look of annoyance on his features. Cooper juggled a thought or two in his mind before he simply shrugged in response to his student's expression. With that exchange over, the militia pilot sat back on a stool to rest his legs.
"They still talking?" The militia pilot asked his teammate.
"Yep." Lin replied as she observed Mirai and Amuro through the scope of her Kraber AP rifle.
"Figures." Cooper sighed.
"They're old friends, right?" The Polaris sniper asked.
"I've heard that Amuro served with her and the Argama's captain during the between the Feds and Zeons." Cooper said coolly.
Lin zoomed in her scope to focus on Amuro. "The one-year war. Interesting read. So, are those two close or what?"
"I think she's captain Bright's wife, and the little ones running around the deck are hers." Cooper pointed at the two children playing around on the ship's deck.
The Polaris sniper scooted her view over to the children. "They look adorable." Lin cooed at the view of the two happy kids enjoying life.
"Yeah, they are." Cooper said in a relaxed tone as he recalled his own childhood.
"Ahhhh, I was so innocent back then." Lin Mumbled in pleasant recollection. "Ever did anything fun as a kid, Coop?"
"A few things, playing around on a farm on The Frontier certainly had its moments. Always liked how my old man worked on his Atlas and showed me a few things." Cooper replied casually to her question and couldn't help but to smile fondly at the warm feelings his old memories brought about. "Of course, he was more of the local engineer in our settlement, he solved 'practical problems' as he put it. That was how we moved from earth to deep space."
"Aaaaw you're a country bumpkin." Lin teased her fellow pilot.
"I guess you can say that." Cooper admitted.
"Aaah, I'm a City girl. Spent most of the time with the other kids at park or school. It was a nice neighborhood." Lin chuckled.
"Let me guess, Angel City on planet Kaliso?" Cooper leaned against an air conditioning unit.
"Yep. My dad worked at a Hammond Robotics service depot, his job was to fix up Titans. That was one of my inspirations to become a Pilot in the first place." Lin gave her friend a thumb's up.
"I remember you said that during your interrogation back on the Argama. Strange to think about how destiny played out for us isn't it? Feels like someone's changed our fates." Cooper remarked with a small laugh at the oddness of their overall situation.
"Hah. Yeah. God it feels like it's been years... Since how I got here was me getting my ass beat by my psycho ex-best friend. I can't wait to get back and give her the other end of the stick." Lin said as she recalled what she'd done in their own universe.
Suddenly, Cooper tensed up and clenched his fists. "I think I just felt a disturbance in the force."
"Have you been going through Simons movie playlists?" Lin didn't pick up on his movements since she had her view facing away from her colleague.
Cooper relaxed and decided to agree. "Yep. It's a piece of interesting cinematic history, the earlier movies anyway."
"That old junk?" Lin joked as she briefly turned her head back to face him.
"One person's junk is another one's treasure... wait that came out wrong!" Cooper retorted, only to catch his own fault in the wording of it.
Lin did everything she could to not bust a gut from her intense laughter. "Eh...eheheh...haaa... Talking from...experience."
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Cooper said sarcastically in response to Lin's humor.
"So anyway, what was it about? Your bad juju vibes or whatever." She said with a hint of her own sarcasm.
"I can't say exactly. It's like when you know something's wrong but you can't tell what it is. For now, let's just call it a bad feeling and leave it at that." Cooper told her in the best way that he could, but it was still something of a weak response.
"Huh, Serah gets the same feeling...just before things go wrong." Lin remarked.
"I can tell ya it's not like that, more like something's changed." Cooper shook his head.
"So, we're NOT about to be ambushed?" The snippy sniper raised an eyebrow.
"You and I both know that can happen at any time." Cooper gave her a deadpan response.
"Ah, yeah. Thanks for reminding me about the fact that we're on a hostile planet." Lin groaned in annoyance. "These feds are pretty damn determined, about as much as the IMC. It's really getting annoying the longer we have to deal with them." She pressed a button on the side of her helmet that popped open the visor of her helmet. Doing so, allowed her to rub her temples.
"Agreed, but we can't do a thing about it. So, it's best that we just not let it bother us." Cooper shrugged. "Anyway, I do recall you mentioning that someone stole the ring from you last night."
Lin's Helmet closed back up after she took a drink from her canteen, and the she put her focus back on the scope. "Tsk, yeah, he tried to run off with it after I got it. Got it back. And...erm... yeah I have my ring."
"Good. But I get the vibe the vibe from you that there's more you still aren't telling me about that by the way." Cooper nodded and pointed a finger at her.
"Erm, Well I'm not too sure about it myself. There's plenty of things about my family history that even I don't know." Lin rubbed the back of her helmet.
Cooper pulled out his canteen and took a swig. "An answer that cryptic usually comes with a story."
"Well... there's not much information on my Mother's side of the family. Anything that is passed the when space travel was starting to become more common place and safe is lost to the ages. As for my old man's side of the family, they've always been tech-heads. But mom always says 'That's his family's cover, and they're secretly master thieves'. I just usually laugh it off as a Joke. My grandfather always said, 'Lupin Stole my pills'!" The Polaris pilot explained her limited knowledge of the subject.
"Thieves eh? Guess some people have secrets." Cooper joked with a relaxed shrug of understanding. "And they're often secrets for a good reason."
"Ain't that the truth?" Lin replied in solidarity.
"Yeah. Anyway, it looks like their conversation over there is finally over." Cooper pointed over at the cruise liner where Amuro and Mirai were talking.
Lin brought her wrist watch into view to check the time. "Wow, It's been a few hours."
"Really? Your watch is off, It's only still morning." Cooper said lazily.
"Y-yeah... Guess I was that bored." She gave him an awkward shrug.
"I'm glad the talk speed a few things up at least." Cooper sighed as he stretched his legs. "Amuro and his girlfriend are heading out-" He squinted to get a better view as a new contact came into the area. "Hold on… I got a blue haired civilian approaching the boat, she's got the kids' toy."
"I see her... Aw, isn't that sweet, she's returning it to them." Lin remarked as she watched the teenager hand the toy back to the little children.
"There's something off about her, I'm sure of it." Cooper furrowed his brow at the presence of the strange girl at the dock.
"Is it her blue hair? I wasn't going to comment on it…." Lin trailed off awkwardly.
"What?" Cooper shot her an incredulous look, and immediately shook it off. "No! If someone wants their hair blue that's up to them!" To put it bluntly, my spidey sense is tingling."
"As I have said a few times before, both you And Serah have that spidey sense. So, is it the possible ambush that I mentioned earlier?" She female pilot snorted.
"Could be, just keep an eye on her for the time being." Cooper crossed his arms and frowned.
"Aye, aye, mon cap'n." Lin gave a mock salute and fiddled with the scope of her high powered rifle. " If she tries anything, there won't be a discussion on what color her hair is."
"Take it easy, she's about the rookie's age. So if I were you, I'd think twice before you blow the head off of a little girl with that cannon of yours. But, you can at the very least shoot to wound if she becomes a threat." Cooper calmly scolded her for her itchy trigger finger.
"Woops, sorry, sorry. Got a bit overzealous." Lin rubbed the back of her helmet nervously as she apologized.
"Just keep it tight." Cooper said firmly. 'Overzealous, more like bloodthirsty. That's not like her at all.' He thought to himself.
"Roger that." Lin replied with a confident nod of her head. Several minutes later she watched the blue haired girl walk away. "Well, seems like everything's over. You want to pick up Kamille and head back?"
"Hold on she's approaching the rookie, I want to see how he handles this. If anything happens, she won't get far before we catch her." Cooper said in a pragmatic tone as he waited for the right opportunity to act.
"That's for sure." His associate shared the sentiment for the most part. "Although if she just asks him for directions, I swear your 'Spidey sense' is going to need a software update." Lin grumbled under her breath in annoyance.
"Can you repeat that? I wasn't listening." Cooper said cluelessly.
"I said-!" Just as she was about to respond, she froze for a moment while she peered through the scope. A tick mark appeared on her helmet's forehead area. "Oh you little... grrrr."
"What? Having trouble with your helmet? Or is there something wrong with the kid?" Cooper cocked his head to the side.
A blood vessel pulsed on her forehead under the helmet's visor. "C'mon. I'll take the left you take the right." The Polaris pilot stood up from her position and prepared to leave.
"Hold it right there, I don't know why you just got all steamed, but we're just watching! Right here is good enough." Cooper sternly scolded her again.
"Ok, fine. But this is getting me all kinds of antsy." Lin chilled out instantly and sat down on the edge of the roof. The pair watched as the girl approached Kamille's car. She asked him innocently enough for a ride to another part of the city. The rookie shrugged and allowed her into the car and began to drive away. "Should we give chase? Also, when did the kid get a license?"
"Beats me, maybe he knew how to drive already, we'll leave it at that. Now let's get a move on, I'm sure Amuro's lady friend should be fine." Cooper shrugged and then stood up to get moving.
"Alright, then. Let's 'hop' to it." Lin punned as she followed his lead. The two pilots then began running along the rooftops to keep pace with the vehicle. Cooper leapt over a an air duct with a graceful flip while Lin slid right under it. A long gap between the buildings came up and the Typhon Veteran was quick to jump at it, he was able to get half way on his own strength and was lucky to have his jump kit for the extra boost to reach the other side. Lin hopped upwards and fired her grapple line to the next rooftop, with the line attached she was yanked across the gap in seconds. with a quick bounce she grappled to a water tower on the next roof and swung herself forward with a ninja-like pose. "Well this is some good exercise!" She huffed confidently.
"Just keep moving, we'll hang off one of those trucks when it goes through the tunnel up ahead." Cooper pointed at tunnel coming up on the street below them as they ran to keep up with the rookie.
"Copy that." Lin said coolly as she grappled onto a street lamp.
The Polaris pilot shot dethatched her grappling hook from the lamp and used to the forward momentum to get closer to the back of a cargo truck that was trailing closely behind Kamille's car. Without a second to lose, she fired the grapple line at eh truck's rear doors and zoomed forward. She flopped against the steel surface of the truck's rear container with mild bang. It wasn't the most disorienting hit she'd taken while in parkour but it did still take her a moment to readjust. With a quick shake of her head, she climbed to the top of the container, then turned around to face Cooper and called him on commlink.
"Come on, I'll catch you!" She yelled to her leader. Cooper snorted and took off in a hard sprint before he leapt skyward. He barely managed to lock hands with Lin as they hung off the back of the speeding delivery truck. "URGH! Hang onto me!" Lin grunted while she tightly clutched onto Cooper's hand.
"Trying!" He grunted as she struggled to pull him up.
With a mighty heave, the lady sniper hauled her associate onto the truck's roof. Both of them plopped down on the steel surface and breathed in relief as the vehicle sped toward its destination. Several minutes passed as the cargo truck drove through the tunnel and onto a bridge that crossed over a large expanse of water. During that time, the two pilots kept their focus on the two teenagers driving along in the small car. Aside from a slightly erratic lane change or two, everything seemed to be going fine with Kamille from what Cooper and Lin could tell. Eventually they came upon the other side of the bridge and into what appeared to be an older, nicer section of the city.
"We should get to a rooftop, get a better view of the area." Cooper replied as the truck reached the other side of the bridge.
"Good Idea. Building with a fire escape, on the left side!" Lin pointed to a building on the side of the road.
"On it." Cooper said coolly.
As the truck drove closer to the building, they used their jump kit to reach the lower rungs of the fire escape. After hanging for a quick moment, the both of them ascended to the upper platform and then to the roof. Cooper leapt over the top of the roof's upper ledge, with Lin following right behind him.
"Pretty nice view from here, makes me feel oddly at home despite all dimensional craziness. So where's the kid in all that commotion?" Lin scanned the surrounding area for the teenage rookie.
"Down there, he has somewhere else to be. The girl though, she's getting into another car, that's interesting..." Cooper kept his eye the girl that Kamille had been traveling with.
"Think we should stay on her?" Lin asked her leader.
"That's a tough one, we can't get closer to hear what she's talking about without being seen." Cooper crossed his arms.
"We could give Kamille a call and ask him why he's taking so long while you get closer. You're the one with the cloaking tech here so this is your area of expertise." The Polaris pilot gave a snarky remark.
"That only lasts a few seconds." Cooper replied flatly. Suddenly a tone sounded over the radio and Cooper immediately put a hand to his ear.
HISSSSSHH
"Cooper, it's Hayato. Do you read?" The Karaba director asked urgently.
"I copy, director. Your connection is a bit spotty but I can hear you. I'm busy tracking a suspicious target at the moment." Cooper told him.
"You need to hear this, things just got far more complicated." Hayato replied.
Cooper stood silent for a moment as he listened to what the director was putting over the channel. The pilot froze stiff for a second and then began to quiver ominously. Lin raised an eyebrow at what her leader was doing but decided not to interrupt and wait until the conversation seemed finished before she would speak again. A minute later, Cooper sighed and flared his visor's color brightly for some reason. The suspense was killing the female pilot and she felt she could take it no longer after such a long pause.
"Alright, what the hell is going on that is so important that I wasn't allowed to be in the conversation?" She asked in an annoyed tone.
"Bright's family, while we busy chatting and chasing shadows like idiots, they got kidnapped by the damn FEDs." Cooper snarled.
"Oh shit." Lin gasped.
-END CHAPTER-