Chapter Three----
Heero stared blankly into the glowing computer screen. He covered
the keys with his typing fingers. A disk popped out of the drive.
He picked it up opened the door.
A guard approached him. "Identification?" he demanded. Gun shot
greeted his demand as Heero wasted his last bullet.
"No one can stop me from completing my mission," Heero observed
as he walked calmly down the corridor.
He stepped into the armory. Five Aires suits sat unattended.
Heero strapped himself in and blasted a hole in the door, flying
into the sky.
The guard tower sounded the alarm. "Alert! A spy has stolen
required information! Destroy on sight!"
Ten Aires units launched into the air, in hot pursuit of Heero.
Guns fired in a fury of blasts, all missing the determined Gundam
pilot.
Heero landed in a small clearing in the dense forest, the
pursuing Aires wandering aimlessly over the foliage, looking for
the pilot. He ran up to a large covered truck and pulled the tarp
off the cargo: Wing Zero.
As Aires pilots scanned the area, Wing Zero rose from the forest.
One of the Aires pilots turned. "Look out!!" he yelled right
before his suit was slashed in two.
The other suits barely had time to react. Two Aires began an all
out run toward Zero. Heero emotionlessly fired his beam cannon.
The pilots' screams filled the air.
As Heero blasted into the air, two grim, empty words floated from
his mouth. "Mission complete."
Reylin searched the sky for words to describe his emotions. None
were found. He was alone again. His desires unforetold. He stared
coldly into the night sky. Oz would no longer control him. He
would be his own.
Setris loomed in the forest. Reylin approached it. "Setris, my
friend. No longer are we servants of Treize Kushrenada. We will
be free. I have a destiny to make for myself."
Strapping into the cockpit, Reylin read the mission itinerary on
the screen. Destroy a functioning mobile suit plant near the Gulf
of Mexico. Reylin didn't care. He rammed his fist into the
screen, breaking the glass monitor into pieces. Blood streamed
freely down his hand. He smiled. For the first time in a long
time, he felt something.
Heero stood in the hallway. A new school. A new mission. He had
to keep it up. His job was not through yet.
He walked up to a classroom door and entered without even warning
by a knock. The teacher looked toward him in surprise. "Oh!
Heero, I didn't know you'd be here so soon! Class, I'd like you
to meet our newest student, Heero. I hope you all make him
welcome here. Heero, there's a seat for you over there by the
window," the teacher pointed out.
A small group of huddled girls giggled as Heero walked by. He
didn't bother to turn. He sat down quietly at his assigned desk
and stared at the chalkboard.
The female teacher seemed hesitant. Heero could see her
nervousness whenever she caught his gaze, as empty and foreboding
as it was.
Then Heero turned around and looked toward the desks in the back
of the room. Three boys... and one girl.
She had long, golden locks of hair that fell softly over her
charming, green eyes. A smile sat gently upon her lips. It was no
surprise to Heero that she was a project for Oz. They came in all
forms.
When Oz first began, it had formed a special research team to
train children to be true fighters. A plan to make soldiers as
good as Heero. She was designated to Heero as "expendable."
Reylin looked at the clock on his console. Then he looked at the
objective ahead. The local town was the first place to be
annihilated. Nothing could stand in his way. Nothing.
Setris raised its beam cannon as it stood calmly and silently in
the nearby forest adjacent to the city.
Heero flinched and spun his head toward the window. Something
was.... off. Something was wrong. A red glint caught his
attention off in the forest. The glowing protruded from a high
vantage point, and seemed to run down straight into the trees. It
had to be a mobile suit.
Heero raised his hand.
"What is it, Heero?"
"I would like to be excused to get a drink of water."
"You'll have to wait until the end of cla--" stumbled the teacher
as a huge explosion shook the classroom. The students shouted and
pointed and rushed to the window. Heero remained seated. So did
the girl he was after. Taking the opportunity to his own
advantage, Heero removed himself from the classroom and went out
into a nearby area of the dense forest, where he had hidden his
mobile suit.
As he started to pull off the tarp, he heard the click of a gun
safety being released. He stood still.
"Pity that you Gundam pilots always have to be around when you
shouldn't be," remarked the young girl. "Now I'll be forced to
kill you in the honor of Oz."
"Oz will soon be a hollow corpse," muttered Heero, spinning
around and kicking the gun out of the girl's hand. She let out a
small yell and fell onto the grass. He picked up the gun and
pointed at her. The rumble of another explosion halted his
murderous mission as he climbed into the Gundam and took off,
leaving the girl to live for a while longer.
Reylin withdrew his hands from the controls of the Setris. He
unclenched his fingers. His violent tendencies were settled for
the present. But he could feel the Gundam pilots nearby.
His sudden and unexpected senses caused him to pan Setris' camera
view toward the sky. That's when he saw it. Wing Zero.
The angel that brought with it death without the commodity of
mercy struck down upon Reylin as if with an untamed fury that bit
at his own severed soul. Reylin, though quick to respond in
battle, was unable to block such a blow; the best he could do was
to brace Setris. A startling blast threw Setris to the ground, as
the Wing Zero prepared its cannon to finish off the mobile suit.
It came to no surprise that Reylin was willing to fight back for
the justice of being alive; for in Reylin's mind life was
essential, but if necessary would be sacrificed in emergency and
in will of the heart.
Never had such an intense display of power been demonstrated
before. Heero, already noting the superior structure of the
mobile suit of that to Oz's inferior Leos and Aires, intertwined
his fists and slammed them into the mobile suit's side. Setris
reacted to a disadvantage, stumbling back and crashing into the
ground once more. Reylin dare not try to contain his rage. His
fury unkempt, he threw his suit into Wing Zero, launching them
both down into the civilian areas of the city. Heero needed not
bother to care about the civilians; they had mostly evacuated the
main areas of the city near the wrecks of the explosions. Jamming
the butt of his gun into Setris, Heero's perfect soldier persona
came into play as a ruthless tool of combat. No more did citizen
safety matter. He was free to annihilate anything that eased the
battle. He ripped his beam saber out, a menacing shadow crossing
Zero's facade. Reylin only stared as he too pulled out a beam
saber. The two stood tangent, both willing the other to make the
first strike.
In the end it was Reylin who made the first move, his blade, a
long green citadel of hunger biting down upon Wing Zero's left
leg. The opportunity finally there, Heero thrust his sword
upward, slashing a long, thin scar vertically up Setris' black
mask. The Setris replied with swordplay that would have been
superior to that of any man, withstanding blows from Heero and in
turn delivering his own deadly combinations of hits and cuts. The
two pilots were at their peak of aggression. Neither was of a
higher degree. And the strength of Reylin's heart surely covered
up for the vast difference between strength in the Setris and the
Wing Zero.
Reylin wiped his sweaty brow with a free hand. The two were at a
standstill. Neither moved. Neither spoke. Neither flinched. And
after an instant, a short interval of a mere slab of seconds, the
two were once again upon one another, their savage metal hands
grabbing for each other's suit like an ever moving concord of
battle.
"I WILL NOT SURRENDER!!" blurted Reylin in a fit of frenzy as he
shoved his battered Setris into Heero's damaged Zero.
The two played their way backwards, until they had reached a
vantage point high above the city, on a large flat encompassing
the ocean to the sides.
To the battle there seemed no end in itself. The two pilots were
each determined, driven by their own wills and beliefs, to defeat
their enemies in battle.
Setris, injured and marred as it was, still held motion in its
shell. Heero looked through his monitor with a tainted expression
of malicious bloodshed within his eyes. What the battle came down
to was a final charge.
Screaming with the fury of a hundred murdered souls, Reylin
forced Setris forward with all of his remaining strength, all of
his left spirit. Heero, drained of emotion and will, struck a run
with the Wing Zero, an uncaring heart waiting for death or for
victory.
And then, as quick a motion as any, it was over. Reylin thrust
his beam saber squarely through Wing Zero's chest, pushing the
mobile suit back until it at last plummeted over the edge of the
battlefield and to what uncertain horrors laid beneath. Zero was
dead.
Reylin shut down the Setris and staggered out of the mobile suit
and over to the cliff. He grasped the edge with his bloody hands
as he looked for the enemy. On the rocks were the shattered
scraps of what had once been Wing Zero. But the shell was nowhere
to be found.
Reylin's eyes filled themselves with an eerie voice of insanity,
touching the coarse strings of his mind, reeling over what had
occurred only a few minutes ago.
"Mission failed."
Heero stared blankly into the glowing computer screen. He covered
the keys with his typing fingers. A disk popped out of the drive.
He picked it up opened the door.
A guard approached him. "Identification?" he demanded. Gun shot
greeted his demand as Heero wasted his last bullet.
"No one can stop me from completing my mission," Heero observed
as he walked calmly down the corridor.
He stepped into the armory. Five Aires suits sat unattended.
Heero strapped himself in and blasted a hole in the door, flying
into the sky.
The guard tower sounded the alarm. "Alert! A spy has stolen
required information! Destroy on sight!"
Ten Aires units launched into the air, in hot pursuit of Heero.
Guns fired in a fury of blasts, all missing the determined Gundam
pilot.
Heero landed in a small clearing in the dense forest, the
pursuing Aires wandering aimlessly over the foliage, looking for
the pilot. He ran up to a large covered truck and pulled the tarp
off the cargo: Wing Zero.
As Aires pilots scanned the area, Wing Zero rose from the forest.
One of the Aires pilots turned. "Look out!!" he yelled right
before his suit was slashed in two.
The other suits barely had time to react. Two Aires began an all
out run toward Zero. Heero emotionlessly fired his beam cannon.
The pilots' screams filled the air.
As Heero blasted into the air, two grim, empty words floated from
his mouth. "Mission complete."
Reylin searched the sky for words to describe his emotions. None
were found. He was alone again. His desires unforetold. He stared
coldly into the night sky. Oz would no longer control him. He
would be his own.
Setris loomed in the forest. Reylin approached it. "Setris, my
friend. No longer are we servants of Treize Kushrenada. We will
be free. I have a destiny to make for myself."
Strapping into the cockpit, Reylin read the mission itinerary on
the screen. Destroy a functioning mobile suit plant near the Gulf
of Mexico. Reylin didn't care. He rammed his fist into the
screen, breaking the glass monitor into pieces. Blood streamed
freely down his hand. He smiled. For the first time in a long
time, he felt something.
Heero stood in the hallway. A new school. A new mission. He had
to keep it up. His job was not through yet.
He walked up to a classroom door and entered without even warning
by a knock. The teacher looked toward him in surprise. "Oh!
Heero, I didn't know you'd be here so soon! Class, I'd like you
to meet our newest student, Heero. I hope you all make him
welcome here. Heero, there's a seat for you over there by the
window," the teacher pointed out.
A small group of huddled girls giggled as Heero walked by. He
didn't bother to turn. He sat down quietly at his assigned desk
and stared at the chalkboard.
The female teacher seemed hesitant. Heero could see her
nervousness whenever she caught his gaze, as empty and foreboding
as it was.
Then Heero turned around and looked toward the desks in the back
of the room. Three boys... and one girl.
She had long, golden locks of hair that fell softly over her
charming, green eyes. A smile sat gently upon her lips. It was no
surprise to Heero that she was a project for Oz. They came in all
forms.
When Oz first began, it had formed a special research team to
train children to be true fighters. A plan to make soldiers as
good as Heero. She was designated to Heero as "expendable."
Reylin looked at the clock on his console. Then he looked at the
objective ahead. The local town was the first place to be
annihilated. Nothing could stand in his way. Nothing.
Setris raised its beam cannon as it stood calmly and silently in
the nearby forest adjacent to the city.
Heero flinched and spun his head toward the window. Something
was.... off. Something was wrong. A red glint caught his
attention off in the forest. The glowing protruded from a high
vantage point, and seemed to run down straight into the trees. It
had to be a mobile suit.
Heero raised his hand.
"What is it, Heero?"
"I would like to be excused to get a drink of water."
"You'll have to wait until the end of cla--" stumbled the teacher
as a huge explosion shook the classroom. The students shouted and
pointed and rushed to the window. Heero remained seated. So did
the girl he was after. Taking the opportunity to his own
advantage, Heero removed himself from the classroom and went out
into a nearby area of the dense forest, where he had hidden his
mobile suit.
As he started to pull off the tarp, he heard the click of a gun
safety being released. He stood still.
"Pity that you Gundam pilots always have to be around when you
shouldn't be," remarked the young girl. "Now I'll be forced to
kill you in the honor of Oz."
"Oz will soon be a hollow corpse," muttered Heero, spinning
around and kicking the gun out of the girl's hand. She let out a
small yell and fell onto the grass. He picked up the gun and
pointed at her. The rumble of another explosion halted his
murderous mission as he climbed into the Gundam and took off,
leaving the girl to live for a while longer.
Reylin withdrew his hands from the controls of the Setris. He
unclenched his fingers. His violent tendencies were settled for
the present. But he could feel the Gundam pilots nearby.
His sudden and unexpected senses caused him to pan Setris' camera
view toward the sky. That's when he saw it. Wing Zero.
The angel that brought with it death without the commodity of
mercy struck down upon Reylin as if with an untamed fury that bit
at his own severed soul. Reylin, though quick to respond in
battle, was unable to block such a blow; the best he could do was
to brace Setris. A startling blast threw Setris to the ground, as
the Wing Zero prepared its cannon to finish off the mobile suit.
It came to no surprise that Reylin was willing to fight back for
the justice of being alive; for in Reylin's mind life was
essential, but if necessary would be sacrificed in emergency and
in will of the heart.
Never had such an intense display of power been demonstrated
before. Heero, already noting the superior structure of the
mobile suit of that to Oz's inferior Leos and Aires, intertwined
his fists and slammed them into the mobile suit's side. Setris
reacted to a disadvantage, stumbling back and crashing into the
ground once more. Reylin dare not try to contain his rage. His
fury unkempt, he threw his suit into Wing Zero, launching them
both down into the civilian areas of the city. Heero needed not
bother to care about the civilians; they had mostly evacuated the
main areas of the city near the wrecks of the explosions. Jamming
the butt of his gun into Setris, Heero's perfect soldier persona
came into play as a ruthless tool of combat. No more did citizen
safety matter. He was free to annihilate anything that eased the
battle. He ripped his beam saber out, a menacing shadow crossing
Zero's facade. Reylin only stared as he too pulled out a beam
saber. The two stood tangent, both willing the other to make the
first strike.
In the end it was Reylin who made the first move, his blade, a
long green citadel of hunger biting down upon Wing Zero's left
leg. The opportunity finally there, Heero thrust his sword
upward, slashing a long, thin scar vertically up Setris' black
mask. The Setris replied with swordplay that would have been
superior to that of any man, withstanding blows from Heero and in
turn delivering his own deadly combinations of hits and cuts. The
two pilots were at their peak of aggression. Neither was of a
higher degree. And the strength of Reylin's heart surely covered
up for the vast difference between strength in the Setris and the
Wing Zero.
Reylin wiped his sweaty brow with a free hand. The two were at a
standstill. Neither moved. Neither spoke. Neither flinched. And
after an instant, a short interval of a mere slab of seconds, the
two were once again upon one another, their savage metal hands
grabbing for each other's suit like an ever moving concord of
battle.
"I WILL NOT SURRENDER!!" blurted Reylin in a fit of frenzy as he
shoved his battered Setris into Heero's damaged Zero.
The two played their way backwards, until they had reached a
vantage point high above the city, on a large flat encompassing
the ocean to the sides.
To the battle there seemed no end in itself. The two pilots were
each determined, driven by their own wills and beliefs, to defeat
their enemies in battle.
Setris, injured and marred as it was, still held motion in its
shell. Heero looked through his monitor with a tainted expression
of malicious bloodshed within his eyes. What the battle came down
to was a final charge.
Screaming with the fury of a hundred murdered souls, Reylin
forced Setris forward with all of his remaining strength, all of
his left spirit. Heero, drained of emotion and will, struck a run
with the Wing Zero, an uncaring heart waiting for death or for
victory.
And then, as quick a motion as any, it was over. Reylin thrust
his beam saber squarely through Wing Zero's chest, pushing the
mobile suit back until it at last plummeted over the edge of the
battlefield and to what uncertain horrors laid beneath. Zero was
dead.
Reylin shut down the Setris and staggered out of the mobile suit
and over to the cliff. He grasped the edge with his bloody hands
as he looked for the enemy. On the rocks were the shattered
scraps of what had once been Wing Zero. But the shell was nowhere
to be found.
Reylin's eyes filled themselves with an eerie voice of insanity,
touching the coarse strings of his mind, reeling over what had
occurred only a few minutes ago.
"Mission failed."