Chapter 12: War in the Pocket (Part 1)

Hey there, readers! I just wanted to give a quick apology for how slow this story has been coming along. It was my intention to get this story out quicker to you, but the way college had been going, it's been taking longer than I expected. But don't worry! I fully intend on finishing up this little experience of mine for sure, especially now that I have the time to do so. Not that it would be too hard to do, considering we're starting the final episode with this chapter. So, enough with the apologies, and let's get started with the finale of Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket!

XXX

At the crash site of Bernie's Zaku II Kai from the first episode, Bernie and Al are hard at work trying to repair the fallen mobile suit.

"Al, can ya hear me?" Bernie asks through a walkie-talkie.

"Loud and clear!" Al replies.

On the outside of the Zaku, Bernie sits next to an open maintenance panel, where a bunch of cabling is attached to a rather chunky portable device, covered in dials and switches. Bernie talks into his radio while working on the computer. "I'm turning it on now, okay?"

"Okay," says Al.

"Alright, any change on the monitor?"

"Nothing," comes Al's voice over the speaker.

Bernie shifts the radio onto his shoulder and flips a few dials and switches on the large device in front of him. "How about now?"

"I got something, I got something!" Al exclaims. Inside the cockpit, Al is holding his walkie-talkie up to his ear, and is looking at a flashing electrical readout on the Zaku II Kai's primary view monitor.

"D-14, it keeps on blinking," Al then reports.

"How about on the right-hand monitor?" asks Bernie over the line.

"This is fairly accurate to how maintenance checks on our mechanical forces go," observed Ironwood. That statement came out a bit more strained than normal, due to him trying not to comment on the still-unsecured mobile suit.

"Turning a bunch of knobs? Seems boring to me," Nora commented.

Winter shrugged. "It's much different than what you can expect from weapon maintenance. That's what happens when you build things to universal equipment standards."

Al looks over at the right screen. "A-15 is lit up…"

"I see…" Bernie mutters to himself.

"Can you fix it?" Al asks.

"Of course," flatly states Bernie.

"Andbeat the Gundam?" Al then inquires.

"Piece of cake," Bernie says, his voice still rather flat and distant. It sounds like he's more focused on fixing the Zaku II Kai than anything else.

Al pumps his fist. "Yes!" At that small victory, Al proudly puts on his baseball cap, which has the patch that Bernie had first given Al those episodes ago, sewn on it. Al looks determined to fix the Zaku II Kai even more than ever now.

At that, a title card pops up that announces the name of this episode: "War in the Pocket".

"Oooh, title drop," Yang hummed.

Blake shrugged. "Of course the last episode would have one."

Ren cupped his chin in thought. "Shows that usually do that tend to have something really dramatic happen in the episode."

That comment made both Teams RWBY and JNPR a bit anxious. They knew this show didn't pull punches at all with the dramatic moments that happened in it.

A bit later, both Bernie and Al are walking away from the Zaku II Kai, chatting about what they'll need to do next.

"We need three things: tools, certain parts for the Zaku, and some weapons," explains Bernie. Al is marching right next to him along the path, looking rather energized. "We can buy the tools."

"What about parts?" Al asks, beaming.

Bernie gives a small shrug. "We'll have to steal 'em."

Al looks a bit shocked at the suggestion, as if anything else he'd seen in the past week or two hasn't been worse than that. "What? You're gonna be a robber?"

Roman let out a small chuckle that went unappreciated by just about everyone, short of Neo. They were none too pleased that Roman had more or less recovered from his shock treatment earlier in such a short time. If only it had lasted a little longer.

"There're wrecked GMs all over the colony. If I can, I'll salvage parts from them, whatever I can find," explains Bernie further.

"Oh," Roman then said. "That's kinda disappointing."

"I know, it's just like a treasure hunt, right?" adds Al.

Bernie looks a bit concerned. "Well, we could get caught by the Feddies…"

"My mind's made up!" Al states proudly.

"That's well said, Al!" Bernie compliments Al, putting on his shades to look cool. "Alright then! What do you say we go get some weapons?"

Later on still, now Bernie and Al are driving down the freeway in Bernie's tiny red coupe car. The blonde pilot is still going over the things they'll need if they'll have a snowball's chance in Hell of actually being able to repair the Zaku II Kai to fight the Gundam Alex.

"There're still two weapons trailers left. A little gift we can thank Misha for," exposits Bernie.

The car drives out of the tunnel they were in, and the pair inside stop at one of the cross streets near where one of the hidden weapons caches was. Unfortunately, they arrive just in time to see the tractor trailer truck full of useful weapons being hauled away by a large tow truck. A Federal Forces soldier is waving the truck along, guiding it from the nearby sidewalk.

"Well, speak of the Younger Brother," Roman commented. "You see, that's why you always find good places for your stashes. Take note, kiddos."

Weiss turned her nose up at Roman. "As if we'd take any advice from you."

Roman shrugged. "Ah, go ahead and slap the olive branch out of my hands then. Your loss."

"Alright, keep it comin'!" Al and Bernie hear the soldier say not too far from them.

"That's one of the trailers, Bernie!" Al cries in shock. "The Feddies are taking them!"

"There's still one left back at the lot. We've gotta hurry, hold on!" declares Bernie as he makes a fast turn down the road, driving towards where the last weapon cache is.

At the parking lot down the road, the final hidden weapon cache is still there. Unfortunately, some EFF troops in a jeep have just arrived, looking for the truck that has the weapons in the trailer.

"That trailer's been parked here for about three days," the parking lot guard says to the troops. "You're welcome to check it out… Oh right, don't damage it or anything. I'm the one who's responsible for all this."

"Yeah, no problem," one of the soldiers says to the guard.

Unbeknownst to the EFF troops, Bernie and Al drive right past the jeep in their red car, and park inside one of the nearby open parking spaces. They make sure to look at the soldiers as they walk past them. Al in particular notices the guns that the soldiers have holstered on their belts.

"Things are a lot scarier when you realize that you're not playing a game…" Pyrrha commented to nobody in particular.

"Well, the plates match the rental records…" one soldier comments, looking at the parked truck.

"I'll check the parking papers," says the other soldier.

Bernie grimaces as he watches the two Federation soldiers walk around about fifteen feet away from him. However, Al turns to Bernie with a smile on his face.

"I was just thinkin' Bernie, I've got a great idea…" Al conspiratorially whispers to Bernie.

Back out near the truck and trailer, one soldier walks over to the other. "Well, he was right, it's been here for the past three days."

"Alright," says the other one, "let's take a look inside."

However, just as the two soldiers were moving towards the double doors of the trailer attached to the truck, they are stopped by a sudden thumping metal noise nearby.

"Will ya get off our colony, ya lousy Feds?!" Al yells at the soldiers, who turn to see him. As it turns out, his plan was to go over to the soldiers' jeep and start whacking it with a metal pipe. It works, and the soldiers start to yell at Al for hitting their ride.

"Hey kid, what'd ya think you're doing?!"

"Hey, cut that out!"

Seeing that he has their attention, Al then smashes the jeep's front window with his pipe. "Get out!"

Roman snapped his fingers and chuckled. "Ah, the kid trick! That's a good one, right Neo?"

Neo then used her semblance to make her look like she was a girl around Al's age, and then put on her best upset face. However, the audience continued to be unimpressed by the tales of Roman and Neo's criminal exploits.

"You guys are a tough crowd, you know that?" frowned Roman.

"You're under the belief we respect you in any way," Pyrrha flatly stated.

"Ooooooh!" Nora jeered. "Frickin' savage! That burn was as hot as Pyrrha's name!"

Pyrrha blushed at the sudden comment. She wasn't used to being cheered on for insulting someone.

The distraction works, as the soldiers start angrily yelling over one another as they rush over to where Al and their parked jeep is. Bernie, who was crouching behind his parked car, sees the soldiers run past him and goes to make his move to steal the truck from under their noses.

"Give me my dad back!" Al then yells at the soldiers in front of him.

"What're you talking about?" one soldier confusedly asks.

Al points an angry finger at one of the troops. "It was you guys who killed my dad, you rotten creeps!"

"Huh?"

"It's all because you Feds built a base here!" Al shouts, before starting his fake crying routine. "Th-that battle happened to my… And my dad, he… give me back my dad…"

At that point, Al fully gets into his act, dropping his pipe and fully crying. The soldiers are utterly baffled and worried about this kid who is wiping away his tears in front of them. In the background, Bernie succeeds in getting inside the parked truck, and drives it away without anyone else noticing.

Roman smirked. "Works every time."

"Now kid, we know how you feel, but it's not the Feds, it's all Zeon's fault. Now don't do anything crazy like that again, you understand?" the soldier Al had been pointing to explains to him, trying to calm him down.

As the soldiers then turn back to head over to the trailer, they see that it has completely vanished in the meantime. Both of them are shocked that this has somehow happened, all while Al continues to fake cry behind them. His plan has worked without flaw.

Later, back at the crash site of the Zaku II Kai, Bernie and Al unload the weapons that were stored inside of the truck's trailer. Using the crane mounted on the inside, Bernie had hauled out a giant futuristic battle axe and laid it on the forest floor already.

"One heat-hawk and twelve hand grenades," observes Al. "Wow Bernie, we hit it big!"

Ruby perked up upon seeing the heat-hawk. "Ooooh, that's a cool axe! I guess it heats up or something?"

"Yeah, judging by the name," said Jaune.

"If it's for a giant mecha, I imagine it's used to cut through armor easily," Winter observed.

Ruby nodded, thinking about the heat-hawk being used that way. "Now that's a pretty good idea…"

Bernie puts a hand on Al's shoulder. "That's right, we did a good job, Al."

The two briefly admire their handiwork. They do look satisfied with the weapons they managed to steal under the EFF's noses. "Now, what do you say we ditch this trailer and get another car?" Bernie then suggests, breaking the silence.

Later, Bernie and Al are now inside the city area of the colony itself. They're sitting in a non-descript grey van parked in a side alley, and eating a bunch of hamburgers for lunch.

Al turns to Bernie. "Bernie?"

"Hm?"

"Just wonderin' what you're thinking about."

Bernie swallows the bit of hamburger he had been eating before responding. "I just don't have enough weapons."

"Huh?"

The expression on the Zaku pilot's face is rather grim. "Without them, I'll get shot up before I even get close to the Gundam."

Jaune frowned. "He's right. If all he has is a melee weapon for his main attack, then it won't stand up against the Gundam's main arm gun. And the grenades wouldn't do much either, considering how well it fared against the chain mines."

"What would you recommend then?" Pyrrha asked.

Shrugging, Jaune then said, "Probably a gun. Distance matters."

"Bummer that the grenades won't work…" Nora pouted, folding her arms.

"Can't you steal some more?" Al concernedly asks.

"At this point, it's way too difficult. If only there was some way to do it…" Bernie lamented. "Wait!"

Noticing something, Bernie lowers his sunglasses to get a better look. It's a giant inflatable Santa Claus balloon, mounted to the top of a nearby department store. "That's it!" he exclaims.

"Did ya think of a good idea, Bernie?" excitedly chirps Al.

"Mm-hmm. You bet I did."

"Tell me, tell me!"

Outside of the van now, Bernie and Al are looking at the business section of the colony's phonebook, with Bernie resting a payphone between his shoulder and neck. In particular, Bernie points at an advertisement for a party rental company that rents out giant balloons, much like the one he had seen earlier.

"Balloons? What's he gonna do with those?" Ruby asked generally.

"A distraction, maybe?" Jaune suggested. "They're probably as big as those giant robots."

"Ooh, now that's a good idea!" agreed Ruby.

"Here we go…" Bernie mutters as he dials the number to the rental company.

Cut to later that night, and Bernie has just knocked out a night watchman outside of the float rental company's warehouse. Al watches from his hiding spot behind a trash can as Bernie stands over the unconscious guard, holding a club.

Roman clapped his hands together and leaned back in his seat. The thief truly seemed to be having a great time now. "Now this is my kind of speed!"

"Urgh, why didn't getting shocked teach you anything?" Ironwood groaned.

"Seriously, you're one of the worst people to have along for this," added Winter.

"What can I say? I'm a rapscallion who just can't resist!" smirked Roman.

Al rushes out of his hiding spot. "You didn't kill him, did ya?"

"I just knocked him out," reassures Bernie.

At that, Bernie enters the warehouse using the keys from the guard's belt. Once inside, Bernie searches around the shelves and pallets to find what he's looking for, guided only by the shine of his flashlight. It doesn't take too long to find what he was after. There's crate after crate of giant inflatable Santa Claus balloons sitting on a pallet, just waiting to be taken. Bernie can't help but smile at his good fortune.

Back inside the non-descript grey van now with the stolen goods loaded up, Bernie explains his plan further to Al. "We'll set a trap by using the balloons combined with the smoke dischargers. I was thinking the forest near the Feddie base would be the best place."

"You were right, Jaune!" complimented Nora. "Good thinking!"

Jaune scratched the back of his head, looking bashful all the while. "Well, it just seemed like a natural idea to have…"

"That intellect is why you're our leader, after all," Pyrrha said, smiling at Jaune. He couldn't help but smile back in turn.

Nora had to resist making kissing noises at the two. It would've been so easy to do too!

"Why is that?" Al asks.

Bernie responds, "There'll be no civilians to worry about if we fight over there."

"Yeah, right!" agrees Al.

Later still, Al has now arrived back at his house. It's late at night now. All Al can do at this hour is lay flat on his back on his bed while he stares blankly at the ceiling. It's been a long day for both him and Bernie. All the while, he is still remembering the parts of the plan that Bernie had told him on the way back to his home.

"Then what'll you do?"

"Then, I'll draw the Gundam out and attack it by ambushing it in the forest. If I do that, I can beat 'em by just using the heat-hawk. Heh, like I said: piece of cake!"

Al remains silent while recalling that conversation.

Cut to the city area of Libot the next day, where a montage of Al and Bernie preparing for the attack is set to the series' main theme, Itsuka Sora Ni Todoite (And Reach the Sky Someday).

The city, still unaware of the nuclear devastation undeservedly in store for them, is still getting ready to celebrate Christmas. All the while, Al runs around and picks up tools from a hardware store to fix the Zaku II Kai with. Once that's done, him and Bernie head out to the forest near the Federal Forces base, where they set up large trip-lines connected to the smoke machines and inflatable balloon containers. Later that night, Bernie and Al then sneak over to the unguarded GM wreckage left over from the fight with the Kampfer and salvage mobile suit parts from it, just as Bernie said he would. They work through the pouring rain, welding parts back into place on the Zaku II Kai and replacing broken machinery with machinery salvaged from the abandoned GM.

Ruby and Yang hummed along with the song. Blake and Weiss, in turn, gave the half-sisters a sidelong glance.

Yang defended herself with "C'mon, it's catchy!"

Weiss huffed. "I don't see what's so catchy about hm-hm-hmm-hmmmm, hm-hmm-hmm—wait, you've got me doing it now!"

Ruby giggled a little at Weiss' expense as the heiress' face turned to a shade of red. "You don't have to be shy, Weiss. Let's do it together!"

Weiss crossed her arms. "No, thank you," she huffed.

Ruby simply shrugged and kept on humming. She would get her partner to join along in the humming someday. It would be only a matter of time. A singer like her wouldn't be able to resist, anyway.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the audience seating, Ironwood was absolutely fuming. Just how many unguarded pieces of military hardware was this show content to have, anyway?

The next morning, Al and Bernie run a systems check on their project, and all of the readouts read that their mobile suit has been fully repaired. Al and Bernie can't help but give each other an excited congratulatory hug in response to the good news. With the sky blue and their work finished, Bernie lifts up Al in the Zaku II Kai's hand letting him see Libot colony from a high vantage point. All in all, they are successful.

Later that evening, Bernie and Al are watching a Christmas parade going on in the downtown section of Libot's city area from their van. However, in spite of the festive and cheerful mood around them, Al can't help but feel glum about things.

"Hey, c'mon, don't look so sad. Your dad's coming home tomorrow, remember?" says Bernie, trying to cheer his partner in crime up.

"Yeah, I remember," replies Al. He's hunched up on his knees and facing away from Bernie. "But I wanna help you fight… You positively sure that there's nothing else I can do to help?"

"Al, I know your heart's in the right place, but… what can you even do?" Pyrrha asked the screen.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing," Weiss answered for her.

"I can handle the fighting part myself, thanks," comments Bernie. He then reaches over to the glove compartment and pulls out a package and a data disk. "But I've a job for you to do tomorrow. I need you to deliver this for me."

Al looks over the bundle in Bernie's outstretched hand. "Deliver it where, Bernie?"

"I left instructions on the disk. If the plan fails… If I die…" Bernie starts, before trailing off.

Al is confused by that last mentioning of failure. "Huh?"

"You just play the disk and then do what it tells you to do, okay?" is Bernie's instructions. "This is very important, Al. I'm counting on you."

"You mean you really might get killed?" Al asks, this time sounding more serious than before.

Bernie cocks his head and gives a small smile. "It's just in case, Al. You never know. But, I wouldn't worry about it. You probably won't even need to use it."

"He'll probably have to use it," Blake deadpanned. That got her an elbow to the arm from Yang.

"C'mon, why did you have to go ahead and jinx it?" the blonde brawler complained.

Blake shrugged. "I mean, that's pretty much how it always goes."

"She does have a point," added Ren.

"I don't want it to happen though…" Yang grumbled.

A cut to the parade passing by, without a care in the world. Only those two in the van know and care about their world possibly ending the very next day.

"Remember, tomorrow at 2:00, I'm going to destroy the Gundam, and then this colony will be saved," Bernie concludes his talk with.

Not long afterward, Bernie is dropping Al off at his home.

"Merry Christmas to you, Al."

"And to you too, Bernie."

"Goodnight."

Al looks rather unsure of himself as he walks towards the driver-side door a bit closer. He frowns and shakes his head. "Bernie, you won't die, right? You'll win, I know you will!"

"Stop it already, show!" Yang commanded to the screen. "You're jinxing it!"

"They're being pretty unsubtle about it, aren't they?" Ren asked to himself.

At that, Bernie puts his hand gently on Al's head and gives it a light tussle. "Of course I will, kid. Don't you worry about a thing! Get goin', 'kay?"

Al hesitantly walks a few steps towards his house before turning around. "Goodnight, Bernie," he says, before running away at full speed.

Bernie looks slightly melancholic at his and Al's parting, before turning his attention over to Christina's house next door. Inside, Chris and her family are happily opening up gifts and enjoying each other's company, all the while Bernie remains a stranger to their company. After sparing a few more seconds to look, Bernie drives away in the van, and departs Al and Chris' street for the last time.

Inside Alfred's house, Al is near the Christmas tree in his room, which is fully decorated and lit up with a variety of tinsel, baubles, and lights. Although, given how hard that Al is starting to silently beg to a higher power at the foot of his bed, one would think that he was kneeling before a holy altar rather than being near a Yuletide tradition.

"God, please give me this one thing. I don't even need anything from Santa! I swear, I'll be good forever! I won't pull pranks on anyone anymore, I mean it! I promise! And I won't torture or kill frogs for fun anymore, and I won't put snakes or lizards in any of the girl's desks, so please! You've gotta do this one thing for me! Protect Bernie! Please, protect, this colony, don't let anyone here die, don't let anyone die… Amen."

"…So yeah, the blonde kid is fucking dead for sure," Roman casually commented.

INTERMISSION CARD

XXX

So yeah, things aren't going to turn out well. But you already knew that, didn't you? The show is certainly making it as clear as possible. Also, a fun drinking game for you, take a shot every time you see the words "Al" and "asks" together. You'll get hammered in no time. Seriously though, the kid parrots a lot of words. You really notice it when you have to transcribe the episodes. But, other than that stuff, I hope you liked this chapter! Now all that's left is the very finale!

This has been The Draigg, and I'll be seeing you at the finale of Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket!