Chapter 4: Reflections in a Brown Eye (Part 1)
Okay, now we're moving onto the second episode of Gundam 0080, of which you can see the title of in this chapter heading. I hope I'm doing it justice, being a big Gundam fan myself. Hopefully you fellow Gundam fans are feeling positive about it all. But enough talk, let's get going!
XXX
The upbeat theme song plays over the opening credits, over the still shots of pictures representing innocence and childhood. A toy robot (not a mobile suit), a tricycle, children in boats, and a colorful mural are displayed alongside the credits.
"Hmmmm hmm hmm, hmm hmm hm hmmmm, hm hmm hmMMm hm hm hmmmm…" hummed along Yang.
"That'll get annoying fast if you keep on doing that." Weiss commented. She looked to Ruby for support.
"HMM hm hm hmmm, hum hm hm hum hmmm…" Ruby hummed alongside Yang. She was rocking in her chair along to the beat.
"Figures…" Weiss muttered.
"It's a rather upbeat song, considering that this show is about war." Blake noticed.
"I like it," smiled Pyrrha. "It has a nice tune to it."
A brief montage of Al running towards the crashed Zaku II is played, catching viewers up to what happened in the last episode. Once the shot pans up to the armed pilot again, the title card displays the episode's name, "Reflections in a Brown Eye".
The young looking pilot and Al stare at each other for a brief moment. The pilot partially relents at seeing that Al's just a kid, and slightly lowers his pistol.
Pointing to the Zaku, Al stammers out, "Uh, uh, did you pilot this thing?"
The pilot doesn't respond to Al's question. Instead, he hops down from his spot on the crashed Zaku's knee and onto the ground. Standing back up, he aims his pistol at Al again.
Al and the pilot meet eyes again. Al decides to press his luck with another question. "Hey, you can fly this thing, right?"
The pilot lowers his pistol fully.
Pyrrha let out a held breath. "Oh, thank goodness."
Neo in turn typed on her Scroll. "Bummer."
Pyrrha shot the small umbrella-wielder a nasty glare.
Again, the pilot doesn't respond to Al's pestering questions. Instead, he waves his hand for Al to move along, as if nothing happened there at all. Ash he starts to walk away, Al won't stop asking questions.
"Hey, you got yourself shot down, huh?" he presses more. The pilot clenches his fists and groans in frustration.
"Whoa, is that thing a real gun?" Al pesters. "Aw, please man, let me hold it! Will ya?"
"He's such a moron…" Weiss muttered. Children like that have no business casually asking to hold and look at loaded guns. Over in the corner of her eye, Weiss then saw Ruby lean forward to get a better look at the pistol. She could only let out a long-suffering sigh at the sight.
The frustrated pilot finally speaks. "No, you can't!"
"Aw, just for a second!" Al wines.
"I said no!" the pilot says firmly.
Regardless, Al jogs towards the pilot. However, he stops a short of him, as the pilot is pointing his gun towards him once again. "Huh?" Al grunts.
The pilot's features soften up as he lowers the pistol again. Turning around and sitting on a nearby rock, he groans, "Aghh… I didn't come all this way to be hassled by some stupid kid…" Al looks annoyed, having actually listened to what the pilot said this time.
As the pilot hunches over the rock, his blond bangs cover up his face slightly. He and Al look at each other silently again.
"…That's Jaune!" Ruby said, as if something dawned on her.
"Huh?" the others sounded.
"He looks totally like Jaune!" clarified Ruby. Looking closer, the resemblance was almost uncanny. The pilot had the same haircut, skin tone, body type, and kind of whiny voice as Jaune.
"You're right…" Weiss slowly said, as the realization dawned on her.
"Now that's just freaky," observed Yang. "First Pyrrha, now Jaune?"
"Oh come on, I don't sound that whiny!" Jaune complained, accidentally proving Ruby's point.
"I still feel like you're all just seeing things." Pyrrha stated, putting a hand on Jaune's shoulder for moral support.
"Not affected by the war…" the pilot mumbled. Looking directly at Al, he then asked, 'Well kid, don't ya have any soldiers on this colony?"
"It's the first time I've ever seen a battle!" Al enthusiastically exclaims. "And also real life mobile suits!"
The pilot leans forward and balances his head on his fist. "No GMs?"
"Nuh-uh"
The pilot looks away over to the side. His vision drifting downwards, Al notices the gun held limply in the pilot's hand. A cheeky smile crosses Al's face. The pilots notices this out of the corner of his eye.
"Well, you can stand there all day, but I'm not letting you hold my gun!" the pilot says sternly.
Al pouts at the pilot. "Meanie! Hmpth!"
"I understand the fixation children can have on military equipment, but this is…" Ironwood trailed off, grimacing slightly at Al's obsession with weapons.
Al then starts to walk away, still inspecting the fallen Zaku. Behind him, the pilot stands up from his rock chair.
"Hey!" the pilot calls out to Al. Having gotten Al's attention, the pilot holds out his gun. "Here."
"You're gonna let me hold it? Alright!" Al cheers, throwing a happy hand in the air and twirling.
"That's irresponsible at best," Winter noted. "But that's just stating the obvious."
"Yeah, no shit." chided Roman.
Al runs over and marvels over the gun in the pilot's hand. "Whoa…" he says to himself. As he's admiring the pistol, the pilot suddenly snatches the camera from Al's hand and walks away. "Hey!" Al protests.
As the pilot holsters the gun, he looks through the viewfinder of the camera. "Now, what were you taping here…" he says under his breath. He plays the footage that Al has saved to the camera's internal storage, including the footage of the Zaku crash landing and the gun being pointed at Al. "Ah, what a handsome fella!" the pilot remarks. "Now, let's see what else ya got in here..."
"Hey, give it back, you!" Al angrily yells at the pilot. "That's mine!"
"You've been busy, haven't you?" remarked the pilot. "Whoa!"
The pilot by now has come across the footage of Christina that Al had shot that morning. "She's cute!" says the pilot, looking at Chris' smiling face. "Is that your sister?"
"See? He's totally you, Jaune!" Nora pointed out.
Jaune cupped his face in his hands. Nobody was going to let this go, it seemed.
"C-can we just keep on watching the show?" Pyrrha asked, embarrassed by the implication.
Al doesn't bother to answer that question. "Hey, give it back! Give it back!"
"Hold on, kid…" the pilot dismissively says as he keeps on watching the footage.
The next thing recorded on the camera is the footage that Al took while inside the space port. It's a clear view of the shuttle, along with the crate that escaped the Antarctic base a while ago.
"A lotta activity for a normal cargo container…" the pilot notes.
Suddenly, Al leaps on the pilot's back and drags him down to the ground the pilot yells in shock as Al tries to wrestle with him over the camera.
"I'm not sure if it's brave or dumb for a kid to fight a guy like that…" Jaune observed.
"Brave!" Ruby replied.
"Moronic…" Weiss groaned.
"Hey, cut it out!" the pilot yells, trying to stand up. But Al grabs his leg and forces him to fall over again.
Al climbs onto the pilot's chest and grabs his arm. As he tries to pull his camera away from the pilot's hand, Al keeps on yelling at him to give it back. The pilot doesn't let his grip on the camera up. Eventually, Al decides to bite the pilot's hand. As the pilot cries out in pain, Al manages to grab his camera back and climb off of the pilot.
"Ow…" the pilot moans, massaging his bitten hand.
As the pilot clutches his injured hand, Al notices the rank badge on the collar of the pilot's space suit.
"Why you…" the pilot begins to say, before noticing Al staring at his badge. Looking around briefly, the pilot then removes the badge from his collar and shows it to Al. He moves it around his head to see if Al really wants it. Al follows the badge like a fish looks at bait on a hook.
"What, you want it?" the pilot asks with a clever look on his face. "What do ya say, I trade you for the camera?"
Al considers this. "Hmmm… Do ya mean it?"
"Sure!" the pilot swiftly replies.
"No tricks. Promise?" Al cautiously asks.
"Yeah, promise!"
Al nods at the pilot's words in confirmation. He holds out his camera for the pilot to take. "Here!"
Taking the camera away from Al, the pilot then hands him the badge, just as he promised.
"Yeah…" Al marvels. "Wow! Cool!"
The pilot stands up as Al walks a ways away to gush over the badge in his hands. Meanwhile, the pilot takes out the memory disc from the camera. It looks like an old floppy disc.
"Isn't this the future? Why do they have floppy discs?" Ruby wondered aloud.
"Maybe all the good science went to making cool robots!" offered Yang. Ruby nodded at the suggestion, as if that explanation made complete sense.
Looking at the camera, the pilot notices the name "Alfred Izuruha" stenciled onto the side. "Hey, Alfred! Catch!" he calls out, before tossing the camera back over to Al. Al manages to catch it at the last minute, but overdoes it and falls on his rear end.
Al looks slightly bewildered at this turn of events. "You don't want it?" he asks. The pilot flashes him the memory disc that he just removed.
"Got what I want." the pilot says with a smile.
The both of them hear a loud noise coming from above. Looking up, they search for the source of the noise. It's the engines of a Zaku II, coming to a landing a distance away from the pilot's crashed mobile suit.
Turning to Al, the pilot says, "Keep this a secret, okay?"
"Sure!" Al readily agrees.
"Wow Jaune, you're cutting deals with kids now?" Yang teased.
"He isn't me!" Jaune huffed.
The pilot turns around and starts jogging towards the now landed Zaku. "See ya, kid!" he says over his shoulder, punctuated with a small wave of his arm.
Al follows after the pilot a short ways, before stopping to look at the landed Zaku some more. He stares at it with some wonder as the Zaku lets the downed pilot into its cockpit area, and then swiftly flies off.
"Wow, way cool!" Al comments.
"Yeah!" Nora cheered.
The Zaku flies off up above, into the horizon of the colony. Al looks absolutely ecstatic watching the mobile suit take off, and then at the badge in his hand.
"A real badge!" Al cheers, pumping his fist into the air. "Alright, alright!" He skips away merrily, with his new prize in hand.
The next shot isn't as merry. Parts of the city are still smoking from the battle between the mobile suits, and the wail of sirens fill the air. People are crying and yelling in panic as emergency services try to reach everybody. Injured and dead people are lying in the street, as others call for help. Glass and smoldering wood litter the streets as Al walks down them.
"Geez…" Ruby remarks, looking at the destruction on screen.
"I hope we never have a war like that." added Blake. Weiss and Yang nodded in agreement.
"That's what war looks like, unfortunately…" Ironwood lamented.
"I at least hope we all learned our lesson from the Great War," Winter added.
Roman scoffed, "Aren't you military types supposed to be all for war? It's your job."
In turn, both Ironwood and Winter glared at Roman. "My job is to protect lives, not to end them."
"A true soldier knows that we are here to keep peace. That applies above all else!" scolded Winter.
Roman shrugged. "Whatever…"
Al climbs onto the top of a car to get a better view of the carnage. As officials try to sort out what's happening, Al watches people being carried out of buildings on stretchers, into waiting ambulances.
Suddenly, Al feels someone tug at his leg. It's his friends, Chay and Telcott.
"Hey!" Al cries, hoping down from the car.
"Where've you been? We've been looking all over for you." asks Chay.
Al replies nervously, "Umm… uh, nowhere… Is the teacher mad?"
"She cancelled all the morning classes," explains Telcott.
"Cool!" Al exclaims, starting to run down the street. Chay and Telcott follow after him.
"Cool?! You just saw dead people in the street! What's wrong with you?!" Weiss shrieked at the screen.
"He's just a kid, Weiss. Let it go." stepped in Pyrrha.
"That's no excuse. Shouldn't they be learning about this in scho-…" Weiss cut herself off, not finishing that thought in light of the obvious answer.
Back at the school, the students have pushed together their desks for lunchtime. Students are gossiping about what they've seen, and what they've heard about. And, more distressingly, how cool some of it is.
Weiss grumbled something unintelligible under her breath.
Focusing on Al's group, Chay begins to talk.
"Hey, look at her." he whispers, referring to Dorothy. "That face…"
Chay begins to talk loudly in her direction. "Hey, the Federation doesn't have any mobile suits, huh? Idiot!"
"Humpth!" Dorothy sneers, turning her head away from the group that got her attention. "Creeps!"
Al and the rest of his friends start to laugh at Dorothy's expense. However, about a minute later, a student comes running into the room with some exciting news for them.
"Hey guys? They cancelled today's classes! We're free!" the student exclaims. Everyone cheers in delight at the news.
Back at Al's home later, AL excitedly pins his new Zeon pilot badge to his jacket. Putting on his baseball cap, he stands at attention, as if he was a real mobile suit pilot. He smiles at his reflection in the window and salutes.
"Right, sir! Petty Officer Izuruha, moving out!' he barks at the reflection.
Dashing over to his desk, Al then starts to pretend like he's piloting a mobile suit. He makes an assortment of "pew pew" noises, and movies his arms like he's controlling the joysticks of a mobile suit.
"… I still kinda do that…" Ruby meekly admitted to herself. Jaune nodded sagely, as if perfectly understanding Ruby's dork tendencies.
Fading out of a shot of Al's house, the scene transitions to a bright white moon. The shot then moves in closer to a large facility built into one of the moon's craters. This is Grenada Base, one of the operating bases of Zeon.
Inside an office, the footage of the container that the pilot swiped is being reviewed on a large screen. Steiner, Garcia, and Misha observe the images from some couches, while a man looks on from behind a desk.
"There's no doubt about it," Steiner remarks, "That's the thing they launched from the Arctic base. And this video?"
The bespectacled man behind the desk replies, "One of our soldiers was fortunate enough to secure it during a battle with the Federal Forces on Side Six when he was shot down." He then shoots Steiner a contemptable look. "It looks like our guys on Luna saved you. It could've been a North Pole failure."
Garcia and Misha shoot looks at the man. The glasses-wearing man smirks in return.
"I seem to recall that sending in only one team was your idea, seeing how the base was just a laboratory… With all due respect, sir." Steiner bitterly remarks.
"You want me to say I should've acknowledged and listened to you before, right?" the smirking man responds.
"The reason why we failed was because—" Steiner's comeback is cut off by the smirking man behind the desk.
"The enemy was determined. I'd say that the Feddies were very clever this time." The man then pulls up a thermal image of the artic base on the large screen. "In camouflaging that shuttle, they were being far too careful. Whatever it is, they definitely didn't want us to get to it."
Garcia kicks the table between the couches, interrupting the important man behind the desk. Seeing that the others are looking at him, he mumbles, "Sorry."
The important-looking man continues where he left off. "In order to improve our situation, no matter what it takes and whatever cost, we either obtain or destroy it immediately."
"So what do you think it is?" Steiner asks. "Newtype use Gundam?"
"They're throwing out a lotta words." Nora mentions, not understanding what Steiner just said.
"Newtypes are individuals with extra-sensory abilities. They can have abilities very similar to what you know as Semblances." explained the voice out of nowhere.
"Interesting. So these people aren't as underpowered as we thought they were..." Ren murmured in thought.
"A mech that can interface with a Semblance…" Ironwood muttered to himself. Now that would be an interesting technology to pursue. He'd have to bring that up to some of his Department Heads later.
The man clasps his hands together as he replies to Steiner. "For the mission, I have decided to listen to your recommendations. I've had a new soldier transferred to your group, and as you requested, he's an excellent pilot. In fact, he's one of the best. Take very good care of him."
The smugness and contempt doesn't escape Steiner, judging by the look on his face.
The scene then cuts to the pilot that got shot down earlier walking down the hall, with someone else in tow behind him. The pilot doesn't look to happy at the moment.
"Hey man, sorry. That's really too bad, losing a Zaku on your first time out. They'll get you for this!" the man following the pilot teases.
"Lay off, will ya?" the pilot annoyedly warns.
"Hey Jaune—" Nora started, before being cut off by Jaune.
"I know, Nora…" He seethed, rubbing his face. Being compared to this guy just didn't feel good.
"I'll bet they'll send you to Solomon, another wasted sacrifice in the war." the other man continues to tease.
The pilot turns on his heel and leans his angry face towards the following soldier. "I said lay off!"
"Don't go in angry, Bernie!" the following soldier says. "Otherwise, you'll make a bad impression!"
"Mind your own business!" Bernie yells back. He walks past a blue mobile suit undergoing repairs, and towards a door down the catwalk.
Waiting at the door, Bernie notes the time to himself. "15:30 hours. Alright!"
Bernie stands at attention and announces at the door, "Petty Officer Bernard Wiseman, reporting!"
Opening the door, Bernie makes himself know to the rest of the Cyclops Team. "Excuse me sir." he politely states.
Cyclops Team pays him no attention. Misha is trimming his nails with a combat knife, Steiner is filling out paperwork and chain-smoking, and Garcia is doing the great male pastime known as looking at porno magazines.
Bernie stands in the doorway awkwardly as he watches Steiner put out an only partially-smoked cigarette and pull out a fresh one with his teeth.
"Geez, what a waste!" complained Yang.
"Why should you care? You're not a smoker, right?" Weiss pointed out.
"Oh god…" Blake groaned, hearing Weiss set up a comeback for Yang.
"True… But I'm smokin' hot!" Yang said with a dumb grin. That got universal groans from everyone, especially Weiss.
"Why…" the heiress moaned in auditory agony.
"Something wrong, Wiseman?" Steiner asked, not looking up from his paperwork. "Officer, take a seat."
"Yes sir." Bernie stiffly replies, before taking a seat at the table.
Looking up, Steiner begins to directly talk to Bernie. "Now then, listen up and I'll explain the mission to you."
"Mission, sir?" Bernie asks.
Misha gets Bernie's attention by stabbing his knife into the nearby corkboard. He and Garcia give Bernie judging looks as they join Bernie at the table. Bernie can clearly feel the heat.
"Excuse me sir, what mission?" Bernie asks further.
"Here," Steiner says, tossing a badge at Bernie, "I got a little something for you."
Catching it, Bernie looks at the badge in hand. He immediately recognizes the symbol it displays. "Special forces…"
"As of today, you've transferred into our unit." informs Steiner, while Bernie's still fixated on the badge.
Steiner begins to introduce the team to Bernie. "To my right is Mikhail, over there is Garcia. And I'm the Captain. You'll follow my orders."
"Well, okay sir." Bernie replies.
"Well, okay sir?" Garcia mockingly parrots.
"You don't sound very sure of yourself," Steiner notes, leaping to a position of judgement. "If you hesitate, you'll wind up dead."
"True in all combat encounters." Ironwood said.
"Yep, that's one of the basic lessons of being a huntress!" agreed Ruby.
Before Bernie can get a word in edgewise, Steiner begins to read off the mission plans from his paperwork. "This is how it goes: We'll be holding a major operation in the colony that you attacked. The mission is to enter its port with a vessel disguised as a commercial trading ship. Inside will be a new model mobile suit. The three of us, disguised as civilians, will infiltrate ahead of you and arrange the cargo offer. Your job is to fly though the battle zone and head for the spaceport. Any questions?"
Bernie still looked stiff. Watching Misha and Garcia go over their mission plans, Bernie couldn't help but tenuously ask, "Sir… Well, I'll be disguised as a civilian transport. Isn't there a chance I'll get shot by one of our guys?"
Misha and Garcia start laughing at Bernie's suggestion.
Steiner chimes in with, "Well son, the plan for our team is not to get killed by friendly fire like a bunch of idiots."
"If only those Federation soldiers had that common sense…" Winter mumbled.
Garcia and Misha still chuckle at Steiner's response. "Any other questions?"
"Uh, no sir…" Bernie nervously mutters.
Standing up, Steiner takes the cigarette out of his mouth. Leaning on the table, he says, "The mission's codename is Operation Rubicon, and it will commence at 23:00 hours. That is all."
"Ruby… Con…?" Ruby pondered. "It sounds like a convention named after me."
"Who'd want to go to a convention to see just us?" Blake rhetorically asked.
"We're not famous enough for that. Well, except for Weiss and Pyrrha." replied Yang.
"It sounds like a waste of time and lien to me," Weiss huffed. She never really did understand the appeal of pop-culture conventions, even if they did have special guests. "It's like I'm being used as some kind of attraction."
Pyrrha piped up, "I don't know, I like meeting my fans at those! Even if it can get tiring after spending a whole day signing autographs…"
Bernie looks nervous as the screen fades to black. The intermission cards come up, signaling where a commercial break would be normally.
INTERMISSION CARD
XXX
And there you have it, the first half of another episode down! Once again, I'll ask you if you're liking it all so far. And if you aren't go ahead and watch the actual episode itself. It's leagues better than me just describing it to you anyway.
Anyway, this has been The Draigg, and I'm signing off for now!
