Chapter 6: And at the End of the Rainbow? (Part 1)
And so we begin the third episode of Gundam 0080! That's right, we're about halfway through this story already. It's a good thing this OVA series is kinda short, otherwise I'd have my work really cut out for me transcribing these episodes. Well, even more than I currently do, anyway. But hey, at least it's worth it if you guys keep on liking the story! Now, let's get to it!
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Once again, the upbeat theme song, "Itsuka Sora ni Todoite (a.k.a. Reach Out to the Sky Someday)" plays over the images representing innocence and childhood. After about a minute and a half of this, the song fades away, beginning the episode.
The episode picks up where it left off, with Al catching up to the trucks being driven by Cyclops team and managing to get a hold on the last one in the convoy, Garcia's. A title card flashes on screen, displaying the name of the episode.
After the card fades out, the shot cuts to Al climbing along the back of Garcia's truck. Garcia himself almost sees Al in one of his rear-view mirrors, but Al ducks out of sight just in time. After that close call with being caught, Al then inspects the large crate on the back of the truck. He knocks on it with his fist and puts an ear up the crate's metal.
"Gotta give Al some credit, he's got some good grip to be holding onto a truck like that." Yang noted.
"It's still incredibly reckless though," interjected Weiss. "Especially for someone with no Aura."
"I wonder what's in this thing…" he briefly wonders, before getting his attention drawn to a passing road sign. "That's 38th Street there, so…"
Before Al could finish his thought, the convoy comes across a t-shaped intersection. Garcia throws the wheel around the corner hard, and Al isn't able to keep his grip onto the truck. Al is flung from the railing of the truck and into some nearby shrubs.
Al groans as he climbs out of the bushes. "Aww…" he mutters, seeing that the trucks are now gone. Then, feeling something on his arm, Al notices the road rash that formed on his elbow after being thrown from the back of the truck.
Weiss nodded to herself. It felt good to be instantly validated like that. "See? I told you so."
Instead of being hurt or otherwise annoyed by his injury, Al chuckles to himself. With a formulaic grin across his face, Al runs off with a plan in mind.
"That's the spirit, Al!" Yang commented. She didn't notice Weiss shaking her head in disapproval.
A short while later, Al arrives at the local police station. Among the prostitutes and the other undesirables one would find in a city's police station, Al tries to tell his story to a nearby police officer.
"It was a trailer with a big yellow-green container. It was headed to Vera Cruz from Blueplot Avenue. You gotta listen to me! They were big ones, like they use in factories! Four of 'em! I think you guys should go look for them, don't you? It'll be easy for you cops to check them out with your computers! Hey, are you listening?!" Al rants.
The police officer who Al was telling this to turns away from the secretary he was flirting with. "Yeah, okay kid, I'm listening." he tiredly says.
"Wow, these cops are just as bad as the ones in Vale City." commented Blake.
Roman grinned. "It's one of the easiest cities to work in for a reason!"
Frowning in Roman's direction, Ironwood said, "If it was up to me, you would be in a max-security cell already."
"And yet I'm not. Ah, jurisdictional boundaries sure are nice!" Roman retorted smugly.
"I remember the license plate number!" Al continues. "S63D0018!". Al then furrows his brow at the cop, who went back to hitting on the same secretary. "Hey, c'mon, listen to me!"
The cop, more annoyed now, turns back to Al. "Okay kid, drop it. You can quit playing detective now. We're busy around here."
Al starts to follow the obviously busy cop, who has started to walk away. "Hey, wait a minute!" Al complains, pulling back the officer. "It was a hit and run, you guys!"
Al shows the scrape on his elbow as proof. "I got hit right there!" As the officer looks, Al then turns around to pull down his shorts a bit, revealing a large bruise on his tailbone. "And look, over here too!"
"I bet you get your pants pulled down in police stations a lot, Roman." taunted Yang.
Roman shrugged. "A few times. I guess those cops can't save their grabby hands for the leather bars."
Nora couldn't help but laugh at Roman's insult. She got an elbow to the side from Ren for that.
The officer groans before the shot cuts to a few officers driving down the road in a police cruiser. "Yeah, this is car sixteen," one of the cops says into his radio. "We're in route to Vera Cruz, sector 422, uhh, searching for the hit and run suspect."
"Roger." says the officer on the other end of the radio. Clearly, Al's excuse worked flawlessly.
Turning to Al, who's in the back seat of the cruiser, the officer with the radio asks, "Now kid, can you remember what the driver looked like?"
"Yes sir, I can remember!" Al nodded.
Now having arrived at where the trucks are parked in front of a warehouse, the officer notes the license plate number on one of them. "S63D0018. That's the one, alright. Now kid, are you sure that this is the truck you saw?"
Al replies, "Yes sir, that's the one."
Inside the warehouse, Misha and Garcia are watching Bernie try to unload the crate. As Bernie reaches out to grab a cargo hook that's a distance away from him, the others start to heckle him.
"Now you got it. Bernie, reach for it!" calls out Misha.
Garcia adds, "C'mon, get it!"
"Always gotta haze the new guy…" Jaune said, with a measure of bitterness in his voice. The scars from Cardin's bullying were still there, even after months had passed.
Before the heckling can continue, Cyclops Team is distracted by the buzzing of the warehouse's door pager. Steiner looks on a security camera to see the officer that Al is with ringing on the buzzer.
"Can I help you?" Steiner asks over the external intercom.
"This is the police. We need to ask you a few questions." the officer responds.
"I see," says Steiner. Turning to Misha, he orders, "Misha, open the gate. Everyone else, hold the work."
Cyclops Team is put on edge as Steiner decides to open the gate himself. Garcia pulls out a knife and keeps it at the ready below his waist, while Misha readies a pistol behind his back. Bernie is looking rather nervous about this development.
"Damn it, Al…" Weiss groaned, pinching her nose. To her, Alfred was topping the charts of the stupidest kid she'd ever seen, even over her (recanted) opinions of when she first met Ruby.
As the gate opens, Bernie is rather shocked to see that Al is standing next to the police officer that got allowed in.
"Tell me men, who's in charge here?" the officer immediately asks.
"That would be me, sir." Steiner replies, walking up to the cop. "Well officer, what seems to be the problem?"
Pointing his thumb over to the trucks, the officer explains, "Yeah, that truck rig over there? It doesn't happen to be yours, does it? Well?"
Steiner glances over to the truck and the other cop standing nearby. "We're just renting it, sir."
The cop then walks past Steiner. "Alright, just a few more questions…"
Misha shoots a look over at Steiner, non-verbally asking if he should kill the police officer already. Steiner shakes his head 'no'.
"Don't do it…" Pyrrha whispered under her breath.
"Kid, come over here!" the police offer calls, and Al runs into the warehouse. "Look around. The man who hit you, do ya see him in here?"
"What?" Steiner protests. "Hit him? Officer, there must be some kind of mistake!"
"Hey, I didn't ask you!" the officer snaps at Steiner. Turning to Al, the officer then asks, "Well kid, do ya recognize him?"
"Ummm…" Al thinks. "That guy!" Al levels his pointer finger at Garcia. "Him! He's the one who hit me!"
Garcia mutters something under his breath as the officer walks over to him.
"Where were you this morning at six o'clock?" inquires the officer.
"I was in a trailer headed here from the spaceport." Garcia replies, glaring at the cop.
"Oh yeah?" presses the officer. "Which route did you take?"
"Blueplot Avenue to 38th street," says Garcia. Behind him, Al flashes a smile at a rather confused and concerned Bernie.
"I see. That's exactly what the kid said." the officer leers.
"Aw come one! He's completely lying to you! Can't you see that?" Garcia lashes back, still hiding the knife behind his back.
"I wouldn't even bother with this song and dance," said Roman. "I'd just cap them right then and there."
By now, the awful looks that nearly everyone gave Roman whenever he said something were starting to become routine.
"You guys are acting awfully suspicious…" the officer observes, "Like you're hiding something. I'd like to know what's inside those containers. I say we have a look."
The officer then starts to walk over to the truck. "Foreman! Where's the open switch on this thing? I don't want to ask you again now!"
"Right. I will get that for you." Misha offers, walking over to the cop.
Al lets out a small gasp at what he sees. Behind Misha's back, he sees the pistol being readied to kill the police officer. As Misha starts making excuses about needing a key-card to open the trailer, Al realizes that he needs to do something, to avoid getting everyone killed.
Amping up to yell, Al shouts, "Big brother!" Getting everyone's attention that way, he then starts crying and clinging to Bernie.
Walking past Misha, the cop asks, "Hey kid, what is it now?"
"B-big brother, don't you remember me?" Al cries into a confused Bernie's chest.
"Huh?" Weiss grunted.
"What's he doing?" Jaune couldn't help but ask.
Picking up on Al's diversion, Bernie says, "Al… Al it's you! You've gotten so big!"
Crying a little bit more onto Bernie, Al turns around and says, "I'm sorry, officer! I made up the story about the hit and run! I haven't seen my brother since my parents split up four years ago and they left me!" Al throws in a few sniffles and wipes away his fake tears for good measure. "And when I saw him in the trailer, I lied so you could go look for him!"
Ren raised his eyebrows. "Unexpected, coming from him. Al's a fast thinker."
"And yet he caused this situation in the first place…" Winter observed.
Weiss nodded, following her sister's lead. "So really, he's only stupid when he wants to be. Figures."
The cop continues to hear Al out as he rambles on. "I got the bruises because I fell down. They don't have anything to do with the hit and run. I'm sorry, I really feel bad…"
"Is this true?" the police officer sternly asks.
"Yes sir!" Bernie quickly replies. "Al, shame on you! You know it's wrong to lie to the police like that!"
"I'm sorry, big brother…" Al sniffles.
The scene transitions from there to later, when the police officers had left. Cyclops Team and Al are gathered in the warehouse's office area.
"That was disappointing." Neo's Scroll said for her. She looked legitimately disappointed at not seeing police officers getting murdered.
"Damn you, kid! What's the matter with you, going to the cops? Are you nuts?!" scolds Bernie.
"Exactly!" Weiss cried.
Al snottily replies, "I wanted to know where you were!"
"Oh great," Bernie bitterly quips. "And now that you do?"
"I want to be on your team!" demands Al.
"Our team?! We're not playing silly games here, you know!"
"I'm not playing!"
Misha, Garcia, and Steiner all play witness to the argument going on between Bernie and Al.
"Captain," Garcia asks, "What do we do with this kid?"
Having had enough of this, Steiner gets up from his seat and walks over to Al. "Your name is Alfred, right?"
"You're the captain, right? You better put me on your team!" Al says, as if he has the power to declare such things. "Let me be a Zeon soldier. I've always wanted to be a soldier!"
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Al…" said Ruby.
"Look who's talking," Yang teased. Ruby really was lucky to be going to Beacon at this age.
"Yeah, but we're not fighting giant robots." added Ruby.
"Are you saying you don't want to be around cool giant robots?" slyly said Yang.
Ruby conceded that point. "…Okay, you got me there."
Steiner kneels down to look Al in the face. "Well, alright, but with a couple of conditions."
"Conditions?" Al parrots back.
Steiner nods. "Uh-huh. First of all, it's top secret. You can't tell anybody we're here."
Al beams at this. "I promise! I promise I won't tell anyone!" he squees.
"And one more thing," Steiner adds. "I need to know where you were when you shot that video."
Later, over a schematic of the space port, Al points out where he took the footage of the special Earth Federation cargo crate.
"I was hiding right over here… The container was over here at gate number eight. I guess they probably took it over to block number twelve." explains Al.
"Well, what gives you that idea?" Steiner poses.
"Well, I know that they use a seal on gate number eight, and it's the only one that goes down to block number twelve." Al replies, as if it's the obvious answer.
Steiner pats Al on the head. "Heh, you're one smart kid, Alfred."
"Debatable." stated Winter flatly.
Ironwood murmured in thought. "Still, he's a valuable intelligence asset for them. In enemy territory, anyone giving out information like that is important enough to take notice of."
"So captain, what was it carrying anyway?" asks Al.
"Well son, I'd say that our mission is to find that out." Steiner politely answers.
Al gets a gleam in his eyes. "Do I get to help out, captain?"
"No Al, you've done more than enough for one day." says Steiner.
Just then, Misha walks back into the room, carrying something in his closed and. When Steiner turns to face him, the pair share a sly smile. Misha hands over a Cyclops Team badge, and Steiner turns back to face Al.
"Thanks for your help, son," thanks Steiner. Handing the badge to Al, he then says, "I'd like for you to have this," Al gasps in elation. "It's our unit insignia. Don't lose it now, son."
As Steiner pins the badge to Al's shirt, he explains, "If anyone asks where you got it, just say that you found it, okay?"
Al chuckles, then flashes a salute. "Aye-aye! Whatever you say, captain!"
"Now you be a good boy and go with Bernie. He'll drive you home." Steiner orders.
Some time has passed, and Bernie is now dressed in casual clothes, a leather jacket over a white shirt and some jeans.
Starting up the small red car, Bernie snarks at the smiling Al, "What's the matter? You've never been in a car before?"
"Not with a pilot for the driver!" Al smiles. Bernie groans and frowns at that.
"Boy, you're something…" the pilot mumbles under his breath.
The rest of Cyclops Team watches from the office window as Al and Bernie drive out of the warehouse complex.
"I'll let Bernie keep a close eye on him, just to be safe," Steiner comments.
Garcia gestures with his knife. "I still say we should have killed him. Keep the kid's mouth shut for good. There's no telling when that kid'll spill the beans and screw everything up."
"You want a kidnapping investigation?" Steiner rhetorically asks.
"…Okay, now it's a bad idea," Yang sighed.
"Now you see!" Weiss exclaimed. "Why is this even happening? Shouldn't someone have stopped this somehow?"
"Plot convenience." Blake flatly replied.
"Well, at least they're being smart about it." Ironwood then said. "Keep the kid at a reasonable distance, while still keeping the framework of the plan in place. He has no business getting too involved in their operation anyway."
"And it does prevent him from getting killed by them." added Winter.
"Well boss, at least there is one thing," Misha notes. "It'll keep Bernie out of the way."
Closing the window blinds, Steiner mutters, "You're right about that."
As Bernie and Al drive down the colonies' city streets, the two chat about what could happen in battle.
"Getting killed in space is the worst thing," Bernie chats. "There's no gravity, you know? And the blood just forms these huge wobbly globs that float all around the cockpit. It must be worse than Hell!"
Teams RWBY and JNPR collectively shivered at that description of dying in space. It sounded too nightmarish to them.
"Woah!" Al exclaims.
Bernie continues, "I've seen more of my buddies die out there and been in more battles than you can even imagine". As the car stops at a light, Bernie then says, "I shouldn't even be associating with a kid like you…."
"Hey Bernie?" inquires Al. "Have you, you know, killed anybody before?"
"Wha?" Bernie stutters, before coming up with an answer. "I never wanted to kill them. But if I don't get them first, they'll get me. You have to get your target, right?"
"Geez, it sounds rough…" Al drawls out.
Ironwood closed his eyes and sighed. "It is. It never gets easier, even if you think it does."
Sagely nodding, Winter then said, "That's why we fight, to end conflict." She did her best to ignore both Neo and Roman audibly scoffing at her comment.
"You bet, kid! I was one kill away from becoming an ace when they shot me down," Bernie lies.
"Was the other pilot really good?" Al presses, believing Bernie's words.
"Nah, I was careless. They told us that this was a neutral colony. A GM just popped out at me, and well… What could I do?" Bernie explains. The light that the car is stopped at changes to green.
"Yeah…" Al agrees as the car drives down the street. Suddenly, he says, "Down here, turn right! Turn right!"
The car skids and careens around the nearby corner. Apparently, being a mobile suit pilot doesn't translate well to driving cars. This seemingly applies to all of Cyclops Team.
Now at Al's house, Al manages to sneak in quietly through the front door. As he sees that nobody else is around, he begins to quickly and quietly try to climb up the stairs to his room. Just before he makes it to the top, he's caught by his mother, who pokes her head into the hallway.
"Al, I don't care if you had the day off today. You should tell me when you go out." she scolds.
"Yes mom." Al replies, in his most snotty tone yet.
"I got a letter from your school today," Al's mother continues, "It's about your grades. They want to have a talk with me". Al can't help but shove his palm in his face at that news. "You did really badly on your test, didn't you?"
Nora could feel Ren's eyes bare down upon her. For some reason, she started to sweat rather uncomfortably under his gaze. Ren could get rather serious about Nora keeping up on her grades. It was one of the few things that was scary about him.
Al decides to dampen down the bad news. "So-so."
As Al keeps on arguing with his mother, Bernie sits inside his car parked on the street outside. He smiles as he listens to the conversation, due to the hidden microphone Misha had hidden in the badge for safety.
After the argument is over, Al sits in his room, smiling at the badge still on his shirt. Reaching into his desk, he pulls out the badge he had gotten from Bernie the other day and puts it on his collar. He chuckles as he fastens it on. However, he's interrupted by his mom yelling up to his room. "Alfred?" Al's mother calls.
"What?" Al shouts back.
"I'm going to the Woman's Association meeting now, so be sure to do all your homework, okay?" his mother orders.
"Yes mom!" Al replies. He bitterly takes off his badge, his fun ruined.
Outside, Bernie is sleeping in his car across the street from Al's home. He's woken up by the passing lights of Al's mother's car. Seeing his chance to keep a closer eye on Al, Bernie decides to make his way over to the house.
"X equals… and Y equals… Hmmm…" Al thinks out loud as he does his math homework.
Outside, a sudden thump is heard, followed by a pained groan. Al is pulled away from his homework by the sound of Christina yelling to her parents.
"Dad! Mom! Call the cops! A prowler! I just caught a prowler out here!" Chris cries out.
"Trying to look in a kid's window at night? Not a good look there, Bernie." Yang joked.
"Trying to look into anyone's window at night isn't a good look." Blake further clarified. She knew that one from personal experience. The White Fang didn't exactly enhance her image back in the day.
Curious, Al walks over to his window and opens it. Looking outside, Al sees Chris angrily holding a baseball bat, and Bernie lying prone on the ground, collapsed on his back.
"Bernie?" Al asks to himself.
Chris hears Al's muttering and looks up at him. "Al! I couldn't believe it! He was trying to break into your house!"
"Chris, he's no prowler!" lies Al. "He's my brother!"
"He's your brother?" Chris asks as Al runs down to meet them. "Well, what do you know…" Seeing Bernie start to breathe again after being knocked out, Chris drops the bat and says to her parents, "Mom! Forget the phone call!"
Kneeling down, Chris checks Bernie's eyes for any signs of life. Seeing his eye move, she sighs, "Thank goodness, he's alive". Breathing a sigh of relief, Christina relaxes as Al runs up to her side.
The image of Al and Chris looking over Bernie's unconscious form pulls out and takes the scene into the middle intermission card.
"Girl meets boy, boy meets baseball bat. Reminds me of when my sisters started dating." chuckled Jaune.
"I'd be okay with that," Nora said. "You only really get to understand people when you're fighting, you know?"
Only Yang and Ruby nodded at Nora's sage wisdom. Everyone else gave the sisters an odd look.
INTERMISSION CARD
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How're you guys feeling about Alfred, by the way? Like yeah, I think he's annoying and situationally dumb for sure. But hey, it pays off, trust me. It all pays off at the end of the series. Those of you who have watched Gundam 0080 know exactly how this all ends up.
Anyways, that's it for this half of the episode. This has been The Draigg, and I'm signing off here for now!
