Chapter 8: Over the River and Through the Woods (Part 1)

And we're back! Get ready for the fourth episode of Gundam 0080, because this is the part when things really go to shit for everyone. Who could've guessed that from a Gundam series, am I right? Right. Maybe it was a bad idea to bring Al along on a secret mission. Who knows! Read and find out!

XXX

After the credits, we follow Alfred where the last episode left off. He continues to take pictures of the Gundam Alex as two Federation soldiers walk down the hallway, towards Al. Looking to the side, Al sees the guards coming towards him. Thinking quickly, he hides on top of a pipe hanging from the ceiling. Just in time too, as the guards stop at the vending machine to get a drink.

Weiss fanned herself, slightly shocked at how close Al got to being caught. "That's too close!"

Blake shrugged. "Admittedly, it's not a bad hiding spot. Speaking from experience here."

"Yeah, I can totally see that!" Nora nodded. "Imagine how much candy you can hide up in a place like that!"

"So anyway, I set up over the phone. I waited in that restaurant for two hours. And she never even showed up! Two hours, man, two hours! I'm telling ya, it was hard on my self-confidence!" chats one soldier to the other.

"You should use that self-confidence for better things." the other soldier remarks.

"I finally scored some leave, and she ruins it for me! Man, of all the lousy luck…"

"Yeah, I guess so. But hey, in life you win some, you lose some. You know what I mean?"

"This sounds like the start to some gay porn." Yang commented. That got her some rather suspect eyebrows raised in her direction. "C'mon, you can't say that it doesn't!"

"Ew ew ew, I don't wanna know what porn you watch!" Ruby cried, covering her ears.

"Yeah, I'd rather not get an insight into your… habits, thank you." chided Weiss.

"Your tastes are vanilla, blondie." Neo's Scroll said for her. Roman let out an ugly cackle, clearly enjoying the increasingly flustered look on Yang's face.

"Why do I open my stupid mouth sometimes…" muttered Yang to herself.

As the soldiers walk away with their drinks, Al decides it's time to leave. He sneaks back to the vent he crawled into in order to access the base.

Bernie isn't exactly too happy at Al as he shows back up. "Al… you little…" he seethes.

Unfettered, Al says, "Hey, I found a mobile suit!"

Bernie grabs Al by the lapels. "Idiot, forget about the mobile suit—Wait, a GM? What did you see?" he asks.

"I have no idea what it's called, but I got a picture of it." Al says.

At that point, the shot cuts to the title card, announcing the name of the episode.

"I wonder if that's a reference to something…" Ren wondered out loud.

Jaune shrugged. "Probably nothing we'll get, anyway."

After the card fades away, news report fills the screen.

"At the top of this news hour: In response to the second treaty violation by Zeon forces at the colony, Riah issued a strong protest against Zeon. The Principality's refusal to apologize has led to unfortunate repercussions." one news anchor says.

The second anchor then adds, "A cabinet bill that will enforce the barring of all Zeon ships from Riah was submitted today and approved with a wide majority, with little discussion. Earlier this afternoon, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that all Zeon ships within Riah will be deported within twenty-four hours. This bill comes as no surprise to—"

Steiner, who was watching the news broadcast, turns off the television. He looks concerned at what he just heard.

"Honestly, that's not very surprising." Ironwood said. "The Atlas Council would probably do the same thing if some foreign ships associated with another kingdom were acting the same way that these Zeon are. It only invites trouble if they're kept around."

Meanwhile, Garcia heads to a bar in the seedier portion of the colony city. Walking into the bar, The Pink Elephant, Garcia sits down at the counter.

"It's late. Sorry son, but we're closed for the night." the older bartender says, polishing a glass. Regardless, Garcia sits down on the long counter.

"Didn't you hear me? I said we're closed." repeats the bartender.

"I'd like to order a bottle of flat beer." Garcia calmly says.

The bartender is taken a little aback. "Uh, that's a hell of an order." he says back.

"As long as it's better than horse piss." says Garcia.

"Blehh!" Nora loudly complained. "That's gross!"

"The horse urine, or the flat beer?" Pyrrha asked.

"Both!" replied Nora.

"Yeah, fair enough." Pyrrha nodded, Jaune silently agreeing with her.

"Oh yeah, right." the bartender says. He walks towards a back room and beckons to Garcia. "C'mon, in the back."

"I appreciate it." thanks Garcia.

Inside the back storage room, the bartender is typing in inputs onto a computer. "So, a Feddie base, huh? It's a big thing to look for."

"We think they might be using a rented-out civilian facility." explains Garcia.

"Oh, it's a front for spies. That weird order makes sense now. It was a password." Blake observed.

"Hey modern major general," began Roman towards Ironwood, "do you guys have any places similar to this bar around somewhere?"

Ironwood rolled his eyes and didn't dignify the criminal with an answer.

"That was a pathetic attempt at fishing for information, and you know it." scolded Winter.

Roman shrugged. "Can't blame me for giving it a shot."

The bartender sighs a little. "This might take a while. Why don't you head to the bar and finish your beer?"

A few minutes later, the bartender meets Garcia back out in the main bar area.

"Sorry for the wait." the bartender apologizes.

"Did you find it?" Garcia asks.

Handing the Cyclops Team member a few papers, the bartender says, "Here's the location. Looks like an old converted factory. There's a map and the factory blueprints. The blueprints are from long before the current renovations, so I wouldn't trust them."

"Thank you for the help." thanks Garcia as he handles the files, a small envelope among them.

As Garcia walks away, the bartender adds, "And be sure to give that letter to Steiner, will ya?"

"Yeah, sure." Garica says dismissively.

"Looks like some kind of shared history there." said Jaune.

"I'd imagine that intelligence agents would be somewhat acquainted with special forces operatives. Right, Winter?" asked Weiss.

Winter nodded. "It always helps to have someone 'in the know', so to speak. Intelligence and special forces always make an effective team."

Back to Bernie and Al, they have left the service tunnels, and are now walking back towards their car parked up above the sharp slope.

"You had it in camera mode, right? You sure you got the pictures?" Bernie asks Alfred.

"Yeah Bernie, they're fine!" Al chirps back.

"You're a real optimist, aren't you? You know that?" snarks Bernie.

"An optimist?" Al parrots back, confused.

"Don't you ever think things will go wrong?" Bernie asks back.

"Never!" is Al's reply.

Yang gave Ruby a slightly ribbing look upon hearing that exchange. Ruby just pouted and focused on the screen. She knew that Yang supported her rather optimistic outlook about helping the world out as a Huntress, but that didn't stop her from occasionally making fun of her for clearly being inspired by fantasy heroes. Maybe it was something that all older sisters did, supporting your ideals while also joking around about it.

Later, as the pair drives back to Al's home to drop him off, Al prints out one of the pictures from his camera.

Showing the picture to Bernie, Al cries, "Hey, look!"

Looking at the picture, Bernie jokingly leer and whistles, as if he's looking at a picture of an attractive woman. Both Bernie and Al share a good laugh at this as they continue their drive, their giggles filling the car's interior.

Smiling, Pyrrha said, "Awwww, that's sweet. They're acting like real brothers."

"Sometimes, the closest family you can have is the kind you choose." noted Nora. That elicited some rather surprised looks from the others.

"What? It's true!" Nora said, punctuated by giving Ren a side-hug. Ren lightly smiled and returned the hug.

Later, back at the warehouse hideout, Bernie receives a less than polite welcome.

"You idiot!" Garcia yells. Bernie has barely any time to react to the punch that Garcia lands on his face. "Are you trying to wreck this mission? Huh?! That was a stupid stunt!"

Pyrrha's smile immediately dropped. "So much for that nice moment..."

Garcia slams his fist on the photos of the Gundam. "What would you do if you got caught, huh? We're not playing games here!"

"Okay Garcia, knock it off already!" Steiner irately orders.

"Yeah, slow down buddy," Misha adds, patting Garcia on the shoulder. "What's done is done."

"Garcia, go on back to the bar. Get an order for some uniforms," Steiner then orders.

"Roger sir…" Garcia mutters, leaving the room.

Misha and Steiner focus their attention on Bernie, who's leaning against the wall.

"Bernie, where do you got the kid at?" asks Steiner.

"He's, uh, in the car. Sleeping." Bernie replies.

"Go and drive him home." Steiner orders.

"Yes sir." Responds Bernie.

"And don't pull a stunt like that again. If you don't want to die, you'll have to follow orders." Steiner adds, sounding tired.

"That's just plain common sense." Winter said with a light frown. "They've been pulling a lot of gambles with this mission so far. It's best not to push it."

"Well hey, they got the pictures, didn't they? You can't argue with results!" Yang offered in Bernie's defense.

Winter shook her head. "I understand where you're coming from, but even then, it's too much of a risk. Especially with someone as young as Al involved with Bernie."

Yang's shoulders drooped. "Yeah, I guess you've got me there."

As Bernie drives Al home, Al is slumped up against his shoulder. Bernie doesn't look too irritated about it as he parks across the street from his house.

"Al, we're here." Bernie tells his sleeping companion. "Al, c'mon, you're home."

Al is too deep in his sleep to wake up. Shaking his passenger's head, Bernie says to Al, "C'mon Al, wake up."

As he's shaking Al, Bernie notices the school bag Al brought with him fall to the floor. Bernie gathers it up, muttering, "Ugh, all his stuff…"

Bernie picks up the sketchbook that was among Al's belongings, and sees that it's open to a drawing. It's a badly made drawing of an angry looking Garcia holding a wrench. "Heh, looks just like him," Bernie chuckles.

Flipping through more of the pages, Bernie sees drawings of Misha and Steiner, before stopping on a picture of Al and Bernie standing next to each other, with his hand on Al's shoulder.

"Huh?" Bernie mumbles. Then, smiling, he notes, "The hair's all wrong."

Pyrrha couldn't help but smile at Bernie and Al's relationship. Even if Bernie was a soldier working on a shady military operation, that didn't mean that he wasn't capable of being a good person. Good could still exist even in those with complicated motives.

Putting down the sketchbook, Bernie opens the car door and grabs Al. Heaving him in his hands, Bernie starts to carry him over to Chris' house.

Inside the house, Chris is playing with her pet cat when she hears the doorbell ring.

"Chris, there's someone at the door!" Chris' mother cries from off screen.

"Okay mom, stay in bed, I'll get it!" Chris says back to her.

Answering the door, Chris finds Bernie standing on the porch, waiting to be let in. Without a word, she stands aside for Bernie, who walks inside to the living room. There, he places the still sleeping Al on the couch. Chris is right on the ball as she places a spare blanket over Al.

Turning to Bernie, Chris suggests, "Let's go outside so we don't wake him."

Bernie and Chris walk outside to the front porch, where then Chris turns to face Bernie. "I'll just tell Al's mom that he was playing over here and then fell asleep." she says.

Bernie smiles. "You're a life saver. Thanks, Ms. Mackenzie."

As Bernie walks off of the porch and back to his car, Chris says after him, "See you later, Mr. Wiseman."

Just as Chris opens the door to go back inside, Bernie stops in place. "Oh, Ms. Mackenzie?"

"Hm?"

A silence is held between the two as they smile at each other. "…You don't have to call me Mr. Wiseman," Bernie finally says. "You can call me Bernie."

"And you can call me Chris, okay?" Christina says, still smiling. "Well, goodnight Bernie!"

"Goodnight!" echoes Bernie as Chris goes back inside.

Bernie walks back down the sidewalk towards his car. "Chris huh?" he says to himself. His smile grows a little larger as he walks past the house. Inside, Chris' parents are watching him from the window, and smile at him approvingly.

Nora whistled loudly at the screen. "Go get 'em, tiger!" she cheered. Then, looking directly over at Jaune and Pyrrha while grinning like a loon, she wiggled her eyebrows up and down to make her implications abundantly clear.

At that, Jaune just resorted to letting out a frustrated scream into his pajama sleeve. Pyrrha, on the other hand, had the most tired-looking expression possible while rubbing small circles on Jaune's back to get him to calm down. Who could've guessed that just watching a show like this would somehow turn into a trying, pseudo-romantic doppelganger scenario?

Thankfully, Ren just took hold of Nora's shoulders and turned them around to guide her attention back to the screen. Jaune and Pyrrha's silent thankfulness was palpable.

Fade into the next day. It's now closer to Christmas, and the city is decked out in all sorts of Yuletide decorations. Walking past all the trees covered in ornaments and the Santa on the street corner advertising a department store sale, Misha makes his way into a hardware shop.

"Uh, let's see…" the clerk in the shop says to Misha. "To the GK Motor Service… Yes, it's arrived. Extra strong pliers, heavy duty drill, special steel-use burner. You can cut open a battleship with all this stuff!"

Misha chuckles at the clerk's (rather appropriate) joke. "Or maybe a colony wall!"

"That's not good…" Ruby whispered to herself.

Meanwhile, as shown through the use of clever editing, Garcia is in the service tunnels under the Federation base. Opening up his tool box, Garcia plants an explosive charge into an open piping panel, as a distraction for the upcoming operation. Before closing the panel, he makes sure to blow the explosives a kiss for good luck.

As he leaves the base area, Garcia stops by the guard post to tell them about the 'repairs'. "Well sir, your fuses are fine now. I also adjusted your breakers. See ya later!"

"Thanks, pal." waves off the guard, before returning to his ever-important magazine.

"At this point, I really shouldn't be expecting anything from their security standards…" Ironwood groaned.

While that is going on, Misha makes sure to park his truck not back over at the warehouse hideout, but over at a rental parking lot not too far from the Federation mobile suit facility. Clearly, he has something else in mind for that truck.

While all of this is going on, Al is at school, absentmindedly doodling in his sketchbook during the break between classes.

One of his fellow classmates walks up to him and looks at his drawing. "What're you drawing, Al?"

"A mobile suit," Al replies, not looking up.

"A Federal Forces one?" the classmate asks.

Al adds a few details to the chest of the Zaku II he's drawing. "Nah, a Zeon one."

"Huh? Why're ya drawing an enemy mobile suit?" the boy asks.

Looking up, Al furrows his brow and asks, "What? What'd ya mean 'enemy'?"

"They're bad!" the boy exclaims. 'C'mon, don't ya ever watch the news?"

"Huh? Who cares about the news?" Al counters. Before he can say any more, Chay and Telcott walk into frame.

"Hey Al!" Chay greets.

"Al, what're you doing?" Telcott asks.

Al gets a smug look on his face. "Hey Chay, this guy says that Zeon are our enemies." he sneers, expecting some kind of back up.

"Yeah, sure, that's right," Chay replies. "What's so weird about that?"

A look of confusion grows on Al's face, before turning to his other friend. "Telcott, what do you think?"

"Well, the Zeon are stuck-up bad guys. My mom says so." answers Telcott.

Glaring at his friends, Al grumbles, "Does your mom tell you everything?"

"Well, grown-ups are supposed to know—" Telcott says before being cut off.

"The Zeon are way cooler! Zakus are really powerful and GMs are totally wimpy and they suck!" Al rants.

"But the best one is the Gundam, right?" the random classmate interjects.

"What the heck is a Gundam?" Al asks, now fully irritated.

"We'll probably getting the full answer to that shortly." Neo's Scroll quipped for her.

"Everything coming from you is 'shortly'." Yang verbally shot at Neo.

That insult actually managed to get to Neo, her eyes rapidly switching colors in anger. She got up to confront the blonde brawler, only to feel an invisible force return her to her seat against her will. After a minute of struggling against it, Neo resigned herself to just sitting in her chair and giving Yang a nasty glare.

"Please stop having to make us intervene." the mysterious voice said out of nowhere.

"The Federation's most powerful mobile suit. Don't you know about it?" the classmate asks back.

"Yeah, I've heard of it!" Chay adds. "It's killed more than a hundred Zakus already!"

"Whoa!" Telcott exclaims.

"A hundred?" Al protests. "Nun-uh, you're making it up!"

"It's true!" Chay retorts.

"You know, you're really clueless…" adds the random classmate.

It's about at this point that Dorothy walks across the argument and decides to listen in on the boys.

"Yeah, the Zeon are total scum!" Chay says.

"I'd say both sides are coming off pretty bad in this show, actually." Weiss said.

"Such is life. It's rarely something that can easily be categorized into what is good and bad. Anyone can go to certain lengths to get what they want." Winter agreed. Blake nodded at what Winter had to say, knowing this from her experience with the White Fang.

Telcott adds, "And only scum likes scum ya know."

"Did your mom say that too?" Al shoots back.

"Al, what's with you?" the classmate can't help but ask.

"Eh, he's been acting weird lately…" Chay explains. "He doesn't even play with us anymore!"

Thankfully, before the fight can drag on even more, Dorothy decides to intervene on Al's behalf.

"You guys shut up and sit down! Class is going to start already!" she exclaims at the group. "Leave Al alone, just cut it out!"

Chay chuckles at Dorothy's outburst. "Oh, I get it. You two are going out, right?" he comments.

"Chay!" "What're you talking about?!" Al and Dorothy reply simultaneously.

"Sorry for butting in," Chay teases. "We'll just leave you two love birds alone! Heh, lovebirds!" The rest of the group takes that as a sign to leave with Chay. And so, the school boys walk off, away from Dorothy and Al.

"See, Nora? That's what it's like with you recently." Jaune complained.

Nora shrugged. "You can't stop me. I call it like I see it."

"Thanks a lot!" Al complains to Dorothy.

"Look, the teacher's back…" Dorothy whispers back.

Looking at the head of the class, Al notices the teacher staring directly at him and Dorothy.

"You two back there!" the teacher yells from the front. "Quiet down now, please!"

Al frowns and looks down. He isn't too happy at both being yelled at by the teacher and having that argument with his friends.

Meanwhile, at an otherwise serene park elsewhere on the colony, Steiner and the bartender that gave Garcia the information earlier are sitting on a bench. Despite the calm surroundings, the expressions on each of their faces looks somewhat grim.

"It's been a long time, Charlie" Steiner says. "How've you been?"

"Still alive Hardy, somehow..." deadpans Charlie.

Cutting to the chase, Steiner then adds, "Well, I'm listening."

Staring at the ground, Charlie says, "You guys are decoys. They're playing you, you're just here to locate the Gundam."

"I know that." Steiner admits, somewhat resigned.

"And how did you know?" Charlie asks in return.

"When Andy went down, they assigned me some kid rookie," explains Steiner, "And they leave us to find an escape ship of our own. I'd have to be stupid not to see it. I suppose the brass have other plans, don't they?"

"Their commanding officer from a few episodes ago certainly didn't seem to like them very much…" Ruby mused out loud.

"It's just ineffective leadership." Ironwood observed. "It's hard to avoid personal feelings sometimes, but this is just a plain waste of resources. They better have a better plan in place if they decided to have this operation be a decoy."

Winter nodded. "Agreed. There's plenty of better ways they could've gone about this, considering they already had an intelligence presence in the city."

"It wouldn't be the first time a leader ruined their own allies for their own reasons, and it probably won't even be the last." Blake said, a hint of bitterness at the corners of her sentence.

Charlie nods. "Well…"

The scene cuts to across the pond where Steiner and Charlie are sitting, to a small family racing RC boats. "I'm winnin', dad!" the child cheers.

"You sure are, son!" beams the father.

Cutting back to Charlie and Steiner, Charlie hands over a nondescript shopping bag over to Steiner. "Here you go, your uniforms. Your passports arrive in two days. I'd run, if I were you, Steiner. I feel that the war is gonna end very soon."

Steiner stares straight on ahead. "We're not gonna win."

"You're right." Charlie agrees, his expression stone-faced.

Looking up, Steiner fixes his gaze on the family racing their RC boats from a nearby bridge. "It's a nice colony, isn't it Charlie?" he comments.

"Yes… yes it is, Hardy." agrees Charlie again.

Ironwood sighed, sounding a bit emotionally tired. "It can be hard being the only person seeing how things are going to end up because of your higher-ups. I used to be in Steiner's position a lot before I got to the rank I am today."

"That's why it's better to be in business for yourself." Roman noted. "At least then you'd have an idea of what to actually do and how to get it."

Even if Ironwood didn't vocalize it, he did admit that Roman Torchwick had the faintest whiff of a point. But it certainly wouldn't do him any good agreeing with someone of his ilk. That, and when people and nations were on the line, one couldn't afford to look out for just themselves. Duty just wouldn't allow for that.

The scene cuts away to what Al and Bernie are doing, now that Al is out of school. The both of them are currently on the rooftop of the warehouse that Cyclops Team is renting to be their temporary base of operations. They have a nice view of the colony city as they chat.

"What you took a picture of, Al, was a new model Gundam. It's a Feddie secret weapon!" Bernie explains to Al.

"A Gundam?" Al questions. "Like the one that shot down a hundred Zakus?"

"Wow, you know a lot, don't you?" exclaims Bernie.

"I guess so." Al says. "So Bernie, can ya beat it?"

Bernie puts on a confident face. "It's a piece of cake."

Al leans in towards Bernie closer. "A piece of cake?!"

"Well, at least half a piece," clarifies Bernie. "I'd say our chances are fifty-fifty."

Al looks back down towards the ground. "The Gundam's pretty powerful, huh?"

"Don't say that…" Bernie chides. Then, after a small bout of awkward silence, Bernie decides to switch towards a more pertinent subject. "Has Chris said anything to you, or has been asking anything about me?"

"Nope, Bernie. Nothing." Al replies.

Bernie sighs a dejected, loveless sigh. "Well, you know, she's a Feddie soldier, right? I was thinking, if I had the chance, I could get some information from her. That's all."

"Suuuuuuuuuuure." Yang smirked. "I've heard that one a lot before."

"It's like the 'it was just a social experiment' excuse for when someone asks you about a crush." added Blake.

Nora moved like she was about to add something, but she could feel Ren's gaze bore into her skull. She decided to let it slide just this once. Once.

"I can try and ask her!" offers Al.

"I guess that'll be okay…" Bernie acquiesces.

Another cut, this time to Cyclops Team looking over a map of the colony city on a computer screen. Some building blocks are labeled and colored in with blue, while others are colored in with red.

"The blue signifies the known Feddie-controlled buildings." Steiner's voice explains. "The green lines are underground passages. The red one is the factory where they stashed the Gundam. There, you have the Feddie base layout. Memorize everything."

At this point, Misha comes in with his own commentary. "I have several weapons for the mobile suit in three locations: here, here and here. Your turn, Garcia."

With that verbal transition, Garcia adds, "We're going to blast a large hole in the colony wall at this point right over here." He then jerks his thumb at a cross-shaped mark on the map. "It should be big enough to get a suit out of. I set a pretty big charge!"

Winter ran a hand through her hair in shock. "Madmen. They're madmen. Blowing up a colony wall?"

"That'll suck out everyone's air!" Ruby cried.

Ironwood frowned. "At this point, they don't care. All that matters is the mission, and getting out alive. That's the best they can wish for, with how this operation has gone… even at the expense of others."

"Horrible. Absolutely horrible…" Weiss spat.

"At 1800 hours, Misha's suit will create a diversion. They'll cross from here to the factory perimeter through the city." Steiner continues.

Bernie pipes up, "So this diversion means that he'll be a decoy, right?"

Steiner grimaces, while Misha gives a more confident answer. "They will not dare attack me, I will be hightailing it down that street."

"The three of us will enter the base through the underground passage. We're not sure if the Gundam is operational. If we can't steal it, then we will just have to destroy it." further explains Steiner. "No matter what happens, when we leave the factory we will all escape, each one using different routes. We will meet tomorrow, 1600 hours. That is all."

With the planning meeting now concluded, the Cyclops Team then gets to making their final preparations for Operation Rubicon. Garcia is busying himself with loading all the pistols and guns the ground team are going to use, while Bernie checks out some bulletproof vests in a box they have.

"Have you ever worn body armor before?" Garcia asks Bernie out of nowhere.

Bernie tilts his head slightly. "Uh, no…"

Garcia gives Bernie a look, before getting back to loading the guns. "Bernie… You already know that you're the only guy in this unit who ranks below me. I don't want to lose someone I've got rank on. …Don't get killed, okay?"

Pyrrha tilted her head a bit. "I guess they made up from earlier."

"I guess his anger earlier was more from a place of concern, or something." Jaune posited.

"Battle is the great equalizer. You can't go in with any personal grudges, otherwise you're guaranteed to fail when you need your allies the most." was Ironwood's rather sage observation.

Bernie can't help but smile slightly. It seems like Garcia really does care about him to a degree, even if that haymaker to the face earlier in the episode seemed to prove otherwise. However, not long after, a ringing phone breaks up the nice moment of comradery in the warehouse. It's Al calling.

"Bernie! Listen, I asked Chris if I could visit the base, and she said I could!" Al begins to explain over the phone to Bernie. "So, I might get a chance to get into that place again, right?

"When are you going?" Bernie asks.

"Tomorrow." Al replies.

Bernie looks shocked. "Tomorrow?! No, Al, you can't go there!"

"But why, it's a great chance! What's wrong?" Al argues into the phone.

"I said don't do it, and I mean it! You hear that? Al, you stay away from there!" Bernie yells back into the phone.

"But… but Bernie, why?!" Al loudly asks again. He doesn't get an answer, as Bernie hangs up the phone without further explanation. If only he saw Garcia polishing the guns on Bernie's end of the line, he would understand why. Instead, Al simply glares to himself, and resolves to needlessly get himself into a dire situation.

"Damn it, Al!" Weiss groaned. "Just stay away!"

"He's… just really set in his ways, Weiss." was Pyrrha's rather weak defense. At this point, even she was finding it hard to defend Al constantly planning on throwing himself into danger's way.

Steiner lights up a smoke and Misha loads up his flask with whiskey as the Kampfer they plan on using gets ready for tomorrow's deployment. Climbing out of the mobile suit's cockpit, Misha raises the half-empty whiskey bottle to Steiner. "To victory, life or death!" he cheers. Steiner simply smirks while Misha takes a swig.

Steiner flicks away his cigarette and watches it hit the floor. "To victory. Life or death."

INTERMISSION CARD

XXX

Are you ready for shit to hit an industrial-grade ventilation fan, and turn into a fecal mist? I bet you are! You're just gonna have to stick around for the next chapter to see everyone's reactions, though. Hopefully it's worth it to you.

This has been The Draigg, and I'm signing off of this chapter for now!