Gundam Wing: Vengeance
Part V
By Shawn Gealow
(wing_zero_pilot)
son_of_vegeta@hotmail.com
www.geocities.com/wing_zero_pilot195
Hello. It's me again.
Well, as it turned out, I will have
to finish off the Vengeance saga in a fifth chapter! Five just seems like a nice, round number to me. This will be the FINAL CHAPTER in the Gundam
Wing: Vengeance saga. I know, I know . . . I'm sad, too. This one will be much longer than the others, so be sure to make
some popcorn or something before reading this final chapter!
The reviews still aren't really
coming in too fast. I only got two
reviews on my last chapter, and those were from people who have been reviewing
my work from the start! C'MON
PEOPLE! REVIEW THE WORK! I put way too much time and effort into this
stuff for it to be ignored! PLEASE
REVIEW IT!
Anyhow, this is the ending chapter
for those not paying attention. Secrets
will be revealed that will certainly surprise you and give you new thoughts
about our "friend", Two. Perhaps his identity will come out into the open!
Sorry this one took so long to
release. I know it's been a while, but
homework, housework, and constantly working on my webpage has kept me kind of
busy! I'm only a junior in high school,
and I'm in all the tough classes, so homework takes up most of my life right
now! Anyhow, about my site, I've got
some GW animated GIFs up (I'm working on ones for the Vengeance and Tallgeese
IV right now!) and I'll be starting up my own fanfiction sections, so be sure
to submit your stories to my site! (Please visit the site first, so you know the various stipulations to
submitting a fanfic. It's under the
Misc. Gundam Wing Section)
On with the story!
************************************************************************
Outside Colony L1
After Colony (A.C.)
189
There he is! Two's adrenaline raced through his veins as he saw the outline of
an impossibly-fast mobile suit in more of a jet-shape configuration speeding
towards him. It has to be! Nobody else from
the secret training camp would dare to come out and fight me!
After
stealing a prototype of the Wing Gundam, Two had escaped. Gathering weapons that were used by mobile
suits, he had hastily grafted them onto the prototype's outer skin. Had the prototype been made of Gundanium
alloy, such welding would have been nearly impossible, but the prototype had
been made of a strange titanium-like metal.
Must have been that Neo Titanium the old
fool was babbling on about. Two
smiled, thinking of Doctor J's idiotic glee at finding a large deposit of the
so-called "Neo Titanium" metal in a rogue asteroid.
He said the use of such a metal wouldn't be
for another half-decade. He must have
meant the outside world, the Earth Sphere Alliance. His grey eyes flashing fire, even such a
casual mentioning of the phrase "Earth Sphere Alliance" sent pure
rage seething through his veins.
It is because of that "government"
that my parents died without justification. Without revenge! Keying on
the poorly-constructed weapons-control panel he had added to the cockpit with a
smashing finger, he growled to himself in anger.
I will make up for the Sphere's lack of
justice! I will have my revenge!
"Two,
this is One. Do you copy?" A flat, monotone voice came out of the boy's
mouth. Not feeling a hint of anger or
vengeance, but instead hinting on the edge of mild annoyance, the boy repeated
himself. "Two, respond. This is One. Do you copy?"
"What
do you want?" the voice from the speaker barked back at him. The pure anger and hatred in the voice was
practically palpable.
"Doctor
J and the others want me to try and bring you in alive, but, if I have to, I
will be forced to--"
"To
what, One? Kill me?" The voice responded with pure, unadulterated
sarcasm and feigned innocence.
Nodding,
the youth responded, "Those were his orders."
"Oh,
please! I'd like to see you try! Then again, I doubt you can even reach the
control yokes at your feet!"
What a pitiful attempt to get me angry. All he's doing is saying that he's taller
than I am. We both know that, so why is
he trying to anger me?
Dodging
a blazing yellow beam fired straight at his Gundam's cockpit area, the answer
hit him like a mobile suit transport.
He wants me angry so I'll take stupid risks
and get myself killed. He knows that my
suit is more powerful, durable, and maneuverable than his, so he's trying to
make up for it by getting me to make mistakes.
Too bad for him.
Purposefully
maneuvering his Gundam past Two's suit, One used the lateral thrusters to spin
himself around a full 180, hauling forward on a lever to his right as he did
so. During the maneuver, the Gundam
changed from a plane-like form to the familiar mobile suit shape seen
throughout the Earth Sphere.
"You
can't win, Two. You must see
that," One said in his maddeningly-calm voice, though he made sure to add
more force to it than the "conversational" tone he used before. "Your suit's power is no match for this
Gundam's."
"I
will win because I have to win!"
Two's voice responded, with an equal amount of bitterness and, strangely
enough, desperation. "You don't
know what would have happened to me if I stayed! What they would have done to me!" Using his own lateral thrusters, Two's suit spun around to meet
the business end of the Wing Gundam's buster rifle.
As
the two suits stayed there, locked in seemingly-eternal checkmate, One's voice
came back to Two, this time in more of a personal, pitying tone.
"Yes,
I do. I also hacked into Doctor J's
personal files. I know all about
Operation Meteor. I know the identities
of the other pilot candidates. The ones
who died. Yours, however, I could not find. But, yes, I do know what the plan was with
the other candidates. I do know what
was going to happen."
"Then
you'll let me go, so I can stop them from executing me."
"They
won't execute you, Two. Not
anymore. Doctor J changed his
mind. You've proven yourself, Two, to
them," another voice said over the comm system. It was Burke, the chief trainer at the camp. "You've shown yourself to be a superior
pilot, so you won't be killed."
"Then
what will happen to me? What will you
do to me? I already know you consider
me a security risk." Two's voice
carried a slight bit of hope in it, though the hatred still remained.
"We'll
have to discuss that later. For now,
you'll have to come back. Please come
back to the facility. We'll etch out
the details later."
"Let's
go back, Two," One's voice resumed control of the comm system. "You heard them. You won't die."
Suddenly,
the arm of Two's mobile suit lashed out, grabbing the buster rifle away from
the Wing Gundam. Holding the gun at
One's suit, Two laughed over the comm system. "You will not tell me
what to do, One!" Two's voice
seethed anger from the speakers. "I will decide for myself if I will come back or not! Whether you
go back or not, we'll decide right now."
"What?!"
"This
sort of battle has been a long time coming, One! It's time for us to decide which of us should really deserve the number 'One' slot in
the pilot's ranks!"
"You
were supposed to come back with me, Two! You were ordered--"
"I
lied to them! I never had any intention
to surrender to you! I truly thought
that you wouldn't be fooled so easily, but apparently I was wrong. Too bad for you, though. After I finish killing you, I'll go back to
the facility, all right. I'll go back
and destroy it!"
As
Two's laughter ruled the comm system, One keyed the system off with the quick,
angry swipe of his index finger. The
switch, which wasn't built to take a lot of punishment, flew to the ground,
broken.
So much the better. At least I don't have to listen to Two's
idiotic tricks anymore.
Switching
his Vulcan gun system on, One scolded himself for being so foolish.
I should have known better. I should have known not to trust
people. Well, after this fight, that
habit will be corrected, one way or another!
Pressing
the FIRE buttons on his control sticks, One maneuvered to the right of Two's
suit, taking himself out of the firing crosshairs of his own buster rifle. As he maneuvered, the suit brought its arm
up, taking a beam saber out of its shield. Igniting it, he slashed down, expecting the arm of Two's suit to go
flying away. Unfortunately, all that
was accomplished was knocking the buster rifle out of the suit's hand.
Damn. That suit's armor is stronger than I expected. Another lesson learned.
As
the prototype brought a basic beam rifle to bear on the Wing Gundam, One shook
his head.
Even he should know better than that. A basic beam rifle will have no more effect
on this Gundam than throwing rocks at it.
One
soon had to eat those words, as the blasts rocked his mobile suit.
Underestimated him again. Dammit!
Finally
losing his temper, One let loose with a series of complicated maneuvers,
bringing himself closer to Two's suit, until they were practically
eye-to-eye. As Two attempted to scare
One away with a flurry of blasts from his modified beam rifle, One countered
with a horizontal slash that cut the barrel in half, leaving only a smoking
stump.
Tossing
the useless weapon aside before it exploded from a feedback overload, Two
brought a dober gun that was cleverly hidden amongst his Vernier engines to
bear on the Gundam. Firing one round,
Two's aim was dead-on as it his the Gundam directly in its head.
Dammit! The Vulcans are off-line. Then
again, most of the head's structure is gone, so it's no real surprise there!
One thought to himself with grim humor.
Two
more shots eliminated the shield attached to the Gundam's left arm, leaving
only a floating, glowing cloud of Gundanium debris. Another shot destroyed the beam saber that the suit was holding
in its left hand, along with the entire hand itself.
He knows exactly how powerful a blast needs
to be to destroy Gundanium, and exactly where to shoot to kill me. I have do eliminate him now!
Maneuvering
left and right, One shot his suit past Two's. Two's suit took a short amount of time to get a target lock on the
Gundam again, but that short time was enough for One to grab what he needed to
win this fight.
"Dammit!"
Two shouted as he saw what he was targeting.
The
business end of One's buster rifle.
Imagining
how the rifle's single blast would shred through his suit like so much vapor,
Two fired up his modified Vernier engines, shooting away from the Gundam's aim.
I have to get out of that rifle's range
before he shoots!
In
the end, it would have seemed like a very close race. In the time it took One to establish a clean lock on Two's suit,
Two had almost reached the outer edge of the buster rifle's range.
Unfortunately
for Two, he didn't make it in time.
The
golden beam sheared through the lower structure of the Gundam prototype, taking
the waist, legs, and one hand out of the picture. Even though the suit was almost entirely made up of Neo Titanium,
the metal choice didn't make a single bit of difference. In the end, the resulting explosion was the
same.
Fire
engulfed the suit, destroying everything attached to the outer hull, followed
by the outer hull itself.
One
watched the explosion, feeling a twinge of envy for Two.
I hope that, when I die, it's that fast. Dying of old age is more of a form of
torture than life.
Turning
his suit back to the colony, One used his fingernail to flip the broken switch
on the comm system.
"This
is One. Mission accomplished."
************************************************************************
A.C. 204
Former Sanc Kingdom
Capitol Newport City
Evening
"Well,
Heero! How are the repairs coming
along?" Howard asked cheerfully as he walked by the Wing Zero in the
primary repair bay.
After
waiting for Heero to reply for a solid minute-and-a-half, Howard sighed
loudly. Shaking his head at the young
man busy welding armor plates to his suit, he walked back to the
cafeteria. He smiled when he saw Duo,
Trowa, and Quatre all sitting down at a table. Dorothy leaned over Quatre's back, asking him something in a
whisper. He smiled and nodded, thanking
her. She got up and went toward the
nearest food bar, preparing two plates of food. Both of them seemed more cheerful than ever.
"Hey
guys. How are your suits doing?"
he asked them all. Duo frowned at the
question. Quatre smiled. Trowa's face seemed to refuse to take any
expression at all.
"Well,
considering the fact that we didn't get into any real action at all so far,
they're as good as they were when they were rebuilt," Quatre answered.
"Yeah,
no kiddin'," Duo added, looking glumly into his cup of coffee. "Wish he had sent down some of those
dolls for me to play with."
"Duo! You shouldn't say that!" Hilde scolded
as she walked up from the food bar. Sitting
down, she frowned. "He thinks that
just because he destroyed those
Vayeate and Mercurius mobile dolls makes him better than everything that can
pilot a mobile suit."
"And
just who was it that I was saving . .
. OW!" Duo's ripose was cut short as Hilde stomped her heel down on
Duo's toes.
She
smiled sweetly at him and the others, as though nothing had happened.
"Duo,
I've seen the recordings on those new mobile dolls. Save for Two and Heero, those things are faster and more powerful
than any mobile suit I've ever
seen." Howard looked up from the
coffee machine where he was standing. "We're gonna have to tinker around with your suits again if you
want to stand a chance. I know we were
ordered to stay out of Heero and Two's cross ways, but we have to do something!"
"I
agree," Trowa piped up.
"Same
here. Too bad we'll have to go behind
Miss Relena's back on this one," Quatre agreed.
"Just
when I had my suit back the way I liked it . . ." Duo said morosely. After taking another sip from his coffee
cup, he smiled. "Strange, isn't
it?"
"What?"
Trowa said, looking up from his tray of food.
"Here
we go again, about to fight a more powerful breed of mobile suits. And what do we need to do? Modify ours again to compensate!"
"Duo,
if we didn't have the modifications to our mobile suits, OZ would still be in
power and most, if not all, of us would be dead." Howard looked over at Duo, reigning him in
from the train of thought he was taking. "You would have never met Hilde, since she would still have been in
OZ's space forces. Treize would still
be alive. Need I continue?"
"Nah,
you're right. I like my ol' buddy just
the way he is, though. Too bad I have
to go and mess around with his insides again. You know, that last batch of modifications almost killed me?"
"And
how did they, or should I say you,
manage that one?" Howard asked critically.
"Well,
that oversized beam scissors I had made myself? Well, it mostly ran off of power from the central power generator
in my suit. As long as my suit held
onto it, the beam could work. Unfortunately, this drew a lot
of power to use. So, here I am, in the
middle of Brussels, fighting a few dozen Serpents on my own, and the power grid
in my suit fries! It was pretty much
overheated from the stresses I put onto it, running the beam scissors for so
long. It took me the better part of two
minutes to get it restarted without climbing outside of my suit, which would
have gotten me killed."
"Well,"
Howard responded, "that'll teach you to make modifications without me there to supervise you!"
************************************************************************
Space
Small Mobile Suit
Space Transport
Approaching Earth
"Do
you think we'll make it there on time, Zechs?" Noin asked for the third
time in the last hour. She was getting
increasingly nervous, worried about what would happen if they were too late.
Zechs,
who was incapable of getting annoyed by such a trivial thing, simply smiled
through his long, platinum-blond hair.
"I
hope so, Lu. I truly hope so."
As
Lucrezia went back to double-check the status on the two mobile suits they were
transporting, Zechs double-checked some things of his own.
Dammit. If the Gundam pilots start a battle as soon as I think they will, we
won't make it in time. There's only one
other option we have.
Keying
on the ship's intercom system, he spoke into the small handset that was
attached to the control board.
"Lu,
we aren't going to make it on time in this sluggish shuttle." After waiting for her to get to a intercom
console, he spoke again. "We may
have to abandon the shuttle and proceed in our suits."
"But
Zechs, that'll take up too much fuel that, frankly, we don't have."
"I
know, I know." Frowning, he
thought as quickly as he could of places that could refuel their suits after
they approached the Earth. "Unfortunately, we're out of options right now."
Slamming
a fist down on the arm of his chair, he gritted his teeth.
"After
all we've gone through, after all we've fought for . . ." he growled, more
to himself than Noin. "The
Alliance, OZ, White Fang . . . That's
it!"
"What
is it Zechs?" Noin's voice came
back, surprised at his exclamation.
Why didn't I think of that before?! "There's an old White Fang resupply
depot near the old Lunar Base that I left the Epyon in after the Eve Wars. It has enough fuel and parts to supply a
thousand mobile suits."
"Feed
me the coordinates so I can program them into both of our suits."
"Transmitting
now." Reaching down to press a
series of buttons on another panel, Zechs smiled.
Looks like we may be able to help Earth,
after all.
************************************************************************
Newport City
As
Heero climbed up into the Wing Zero's cockpit, he looked back down to where
Relena stood diligently, at the feet of the suit.
"Don't
leave me waiting again," she had said to him as he grabbed ahold of the
tether that lifted him up to the cockpit. "Come back in one piece."
"I
will," he had responded. A tight
ball had wormed its way into Heero's stomach. He wasn't quite sure how to define it, but he had felt a sudden urge to
stay in Newport City with Relena. His
sense of judgement and responsibility had overridden that urge.
I must complete this last mission. Then, and only then, can I come back here.
Only then . . .
Now,
as he looked back to her, he could faintly see her shimmering, golden-brown
hair blowing to the side in the wind. Although he had once promised to kill her, he once again found himself
feeling the impulse to protect her, even if it meant sacrificing his own life
to save hers.
After
throwing a mild salute back to the small crowd watching him lift off and
starting up the suit, did the ZERO system start to bring up various thoughts
that had once crossed his mind.
I know it can't be love. I was supposed to kill her. It couldn't possibly be love.
Could it?
"Damn
system," Heero said out loud to himself. I will find out for myself what it
is that I'm feeling. I won't have a
damn computer system telling me about my emotions.
Hauling
back on a lever in front of him, he changed the mobile suit from its humanoid
form to its Neo Bird Mode, giving it a boost off into the sky.
I will finish off Two and his dolls. After that, I will come back.
I promise you, Relena. I will come back.
************************************************************************
Moon
Former OZ Lunar Base
Yes, One. Say your good-byes now, while you still can.
Two
stood by the communications console, receiving the news broadcast of the
"brave young man who won the Eve Wars, defeated Mariemaia's army, and
brought peace to the Earth Sphere" get into his mobile suit to go and
"kill the bad guys."
The bad guys being me and my ZERO
dolls. Oh, well. It's time the people of Earth learned that
the bad guys can win, too.
Walking back through the halls of the
Lunar Base, Two felt something like a swell of pride rise up in him as he
walked past the room where all the ZERO doll primary control systems were. He himself had designed the system, taking
what he knew about mobile dolls and the advanced ZERO system, extensively
modifying them both so that they would be compatible with each other. It had taken him the better part of four
years to finish the systems. The mobile
dolls that were left over from the Eve Wars and the whole Mariemaia incident
had been thought to have been destroyed, but the destruction of the Lunar Base
had not been as complete as was thought.
Instead,
there were many underground levels that only Treize himself could access. They were armored heavy enough that they
survived the rest of the base's destruction. The destruction, however, also opened these chambers up to whoever could
find them.
When
Two had found the wreck of the Wing Gundam, he had stolen an abandoned mobile
suit space carrier, launching up to the Lunar Base. He had known that it had been destroyed, but he didn't care. If he had to, he would have waited even
longer for his revenge just to build up a few pressurized rooms to rebuild the
suit.
It was a gift from whatever gods may exist
that the databanks and lower levels of the base were mostly intact. If they weren't, I would have had to wait a
few more years to exact my revenge. It
was almost as great as finding the mobile dolls and the Epyon wreckage.
Smiling
to himself, he opened the door to the makeshift hangar bay where he kept his
beloved Wing Vengeance. As the lights
turned on two at a time, first at the feet and leading up to the head of the
suit, Two began to laugh.
And that foolish Doctor J thought that One
would be the only one to ever pilot this suit!
I will show them what happens to
those who get in my way!
************************************************************************
Newport City
"C'mon,
guys! We've got to finish up these
upgrades!" Duo shouted to the overly large group of technicians crawling
about the Deathscythe Hell.
"Sir,
with the modifications we're making, it'll take at least another hour to
finish!" the senior tech's peeking head replied from behind the rear left
wing of the suit.
Sighing
to himself, Duo walked over to Trowa's mobile suit, which was also being
refitted at the time.
"Well,
how's yours coming, Trowa?" Duo shouted up to the pilot in the Gundam's
cockpit.
Looking
down to where his fellow Gundam pilot was standing, Trowa replied in a quieter
tone, "I've almost completed the final modifications to the
Heavyarms. The engine upgrades and
weapons modifications will be much more advanced than before."
"Who
was helping you out with that stuff?"
"No
one. I did the work myself."
After
Duo's jaw regained its ability to rise, he spoke. "What?!?! If you did
that the same way Heero repaired his Gundam the first time we met, I'm gonna .
. ." Stressed out too far, Duo put
a leaning hand against Heavyarms' foot structure.
"No. I know better than that," Trowa replied
as the cord near the cockpit brought him down to ground level. "I know my suit better than anyone
else. Remember, I helped build it, both
times."
"Oh,
yeah. I remember. Well, it'll take another hour for the crews
to finish my upgrades, so I figured I'd grab a bite to eat while I'm
waiting."
"You're
not worried about something going wrong with the upgrades? You're sure you don't want to
supervise?" Trowa's single showing
eye, since the other was covered by his hair, gazed into Duo.
"Hey,
can't go into battle on an empty stomach, can we? C'mon. I'll buy."
************************************************************************
A Small Distance from
the Moon
As
Wing Zero blasted forward in its Neo Bird Mode, Heero checked his scanners for
enemies for the third time in five minutes.
I'm too anxious. I must calm myself if I expect to survive.
Punching
a few keys, he was somewhat surprised when he saw a single red dot on his
screen.
Another
dot appeared.
Then
another. One after another, red dots
began to swarm around his screen, showing him that he was outnumbered at least
fifty to one.
So what? I've been through those kind of odds before he thought, smiling
grimly to himself. Hauling back on the
lever to his right, he changed the suit to its combat form.
Here's where the battle will begin.
Two
smiled to himself as he watched Wing Zero go through several complicated
maneuvers, dodging blast after blast, attempting to get to the moon as soon as
possible. the image was from one of the
many Virgo II ZERO dolls he had made, only with a small camera built into the
head structure.
Fool. He can't dodge forever. Eventually, they'll wear him down.
Suddenly,
the small image of Wing Zero was replaced by a split-second of golden sheen,
followed by static.
Buster rifle. Oh, well. I've seen the
specs of Wing Zero. A few more shots
and that weapon will be out of the fight.
Putting
the buster rifle away, Heero pressed a few more keys on his control panel, as
his suit ejected a small cylinder, grabbed it, and ignited the incandescent
green blade from one of the ends. Using
the beam saber and the Wing Zero's superior maneuverability, Heero made a few
of the ZERO dolls into glowing red clouds of debris. The others, however, combined the power of their planetary
defensors and forced Heero to abandon the "slice and fly" technique.
Weaving
back and forth, Heero spotted a gap in their protective field. Arming his head Vulcans, he made short work
of the hapless Virgo that was caught off-guard.
Unfortunately,
he paid the price for such an easy kill.
Eight
of the ZERO dolls had closed around Heero's suit, each one blasting away with
their beam cannons.
The armor can't take this kind of punishment
much longer. I have to destroy these
things now!
Rearming
the buster rifle, Heero fired five quick bursts, overwhelming the defensors
protecting most of the dolls. After the
golden explosions died down, six more Virgos took the place of the five
destroyed ones.
One shot left before the cool-down program
takes over. Gotta make this one count!
Aiming
the buster rifle at the largest cluster of dolls, Heero pressed the FIRE
button, sending a ribbon of pure energy lancing out at the group of mobile
suits. It came closer and closer--
And
separated into six separate ribbons as the complex network of defensors
deflected the powerful blast.
Heero's
jaw dropped. That blast was capable of destroying an entire colony! Two must have really outdone himself on
those things!
Bowing
his head in dismay, he waited for the return fire from the dolls to shred
through the structure of his suit, incinerating it and him.
Laughing
uncontrollably, Two's eyes began to mist from the pure merriment and joy of
watching Wing Zero's blast being intercepted by the advanced defensors he had
made from the experimental logs of the five Gundam scientists. The logs were still intact from the old
Lunar Base's computer core. Two had
helped himself to their developments when he took over the abandoned base.
Using his mentor's own research against
One. What could be better?!
Heero
sat waiting for a solid ten seconds, before he realized that the shots weren't
going to come. He looked at his
targeting screen and realized why.
Keying
on his comm system, his voice took an extremely annoyed tone.
"I
told you to stay on Earth."
From
the cockpit of Deathscythe Hell Omega (as it became known), Duo laughed very
hard.
"Sorry,
pal, but you know you can't get into a fight without us getting involved,
too!"
"That's
right," Quatre added from his Sandrock Nomad, in front of the suits of the
Maganac Corps. "Besides, the odds
are a lot slimmer with us fighting by your side, Heero."
"Yes. Quatre is right," Trowa said flatly
from the cockpit of Heavyarms.
"Two
has committed a crime that cannot be forgiven," Wufei said across the comm
from Nataku's cockpit. "Besides, I
wanted the pleasure of taking on some of Treize's old toys, too."
"Very
well," Heero replied. "Let's
put an end to all this."
Blasting
forward on their hyper-Verniers, the Gundams loomed like the embodiment of the
Apocalypse and his four horsemen in front of the moon's glow.
"Damn
fools!" Two shouted as he saw the other Gundams appear on his
monitor. "They really think that
they can beat me?! Hah! I will show them a new definition of fear!"
Pressing
a few buttons, he released all of his ZERO doll troops into combat against the
five Gundams and forty Maganac suits. After releasing his toys to fight, he made his way down to the primary
hangar and prepped four special suits for launching.
"Here
they come!" Quatre said over the comm system as the ZERO dolls poured out
of the once-abandoned hangar bays of the Lunar Base. The dolls tended to group together in groups of four, separating
themselves by order of suit class.
A
full wing of Serpent mobile suits blasted forward, engaging the Gundams and
Maganacs.
"This
is tense!" Duo said, fighting a few Serpents on his own. The twin blades of his beam scythe sliced
one Serpent into two pieces through the waistline, but three more replaced it,
firing their gatling guns at Duo. His
protective covering came down just in time to intercept their shots, but they
managed to disorient Duo somewhat. The
Deathscythe's left arm raised up and the buster shield mounted there shot off,
tearing holes in two Virgo IIs, but the shield soon became debris under the
barrages of incoming Serpents.
Two
suits to Duo's right exploded, victims of Wufei's dragon claws. Two long streaks of flame came from his suit
a fraction of a second later, destroying another half-dozen Serpents. The green-and-white "tail" of his
suit swung up, firing at seven Virgo suits, but most of the shots were
deflected by the planetary defensor fields set up. A squadron of Taurus suits came up and fired on Wufei,
temporarily stopping his attacks.
Trowa's
Heavyarms exchanged fire with a half-dozen armed Virgo IIs, the fight
temporarily ending in four explosions and one mildly damaged Gundam. The gatling guns for both arms had been
modified so each now had three barrels, and even more rocket launchers had been
added to the shoulders and legs. After
destroying three more Tauruses, Trowa let loose with the rockets and the five
gatling guns hidden in the suit's chest. Most of the rockets found their intended targets, while a good dozen
managed to accidentally destroy five other suits. Through the glowing debris of those five suits, eleven Virgo IIs
and seven Serpents came through and attacked the unsuspecting Trowa, damaging
his suit.
Two
Tauruses became glowing balls of flame as Quatre sliced through them with his
huge, glowing heat shotels. Just as
soon as he had cut through them, he grabbed the modified beam rifle in the back
of his suit and shot three Tauruses flying at him, guns blazing. As he was shooting, four Virgos hit him from
behind with their beam cannons, cutting his attack short. Rasid's suit started to come to Quatre's
aid, but he was intercepted by a half-dozen Tauruses.
The
Maganac Corps seemed to hold their own in the battle at first, but as time went
on, weariness began to settle into the pilots. Trying to fight for so long was taking a lot out of them, and it was
starting to hurt. Whispers of survival
were met with a few screams of death over the comm system, as some Maganac
soldiers gave their lives to fighting the ZERO dolls.
Heero,
for his part, was nothing short of amazing. Using combinations of attacks from his Vulcans, beam saber, and buster
rifle, he had already destroyed twenty ZERO dolls, but the attacks were
obviously not working as well as he had hoped. Most of his rifle or Vulcan shots weren't penetrating the stronger
defensor shields, and the suits he was fighting were keeping their distance
from him, preventing any kind of close-range attacks from his beam sabers. Even when he did get up close, the dolls'
reactions were just too quick for him to track as well as regular dolls. While he was destroying more suits than
everyone else, the pure power was starting to wear off, as each ZERO doll
destroyed was replaced with two more.
Somehow,
by fate or just plain luck, the dolls had corralled the Gundams and the
Maganacs together. With their backs
together, most of the pilots began to wonder how in the hell they would get out
of there. Ten of the ZERO dolls began
to cluster around them, moving in for the kill.
"I'm
out of ammunition," Trowa said. "The most I could do is attack them with my combat knife, but
they're out of range for that right now."
"Don't
try it Trowa," Quatre replied. "I'm all out for my gun, too. How about the rest of you?"
"My
flame-throwers are at twenty-five percent capabilities right now, but they need
to cool off, so I can't use them yet," Wufei growled.
"My
Vulcans are out, and my buster shield got blown to hell, so no long-distance
attacks are gonna be from me any time soon," Duo said glumly.
The
pilots waited for Heero to say his status, since most of his weapons were
long-range. Heero, however, never had
the chance to say anything before all ten of the dolls exploded from fire to
the upper-right of his targeting screens.
"Looks
like you guys could use some help," Noin's voice said over the comm. Her white Taurus suit flew in to meet the
Gundams, stopping when it was level with the other suits.
"Miss
Noin!" Quatre exclaimed, clearly surprised.
"Is
Zechs with you?" Heero's
no-nonsense tone cut through the emotional tones of the comm system like a
razor.
"Yeah,
but he won't be here for a little while longer. We had to stop on the moon to refuel our suits, and his Tallgeese
does take up a lot of fuel!" the smiling image of Lucrezia Noin said.
"Be
careful. These suits aren't like the
mobile dolls you encountered in the Eve Wars. They've been combined with a form of the ZERO system and are much more
dangerous," Heero cautioned.
"Don't
worry. Looks like you guys managed to
take care of most of them yourself. Zechs should be along shortly, so you'll have more backup if you need
it."
"Roger,"
Heero replied.
As
the Wing Zero quickly changed to its faster Neo Bird Mode and blasted towards
the Lunar Base, Noin's suit looked back at the other Gundams.
"Well,
he hasn't changed much."
"No,
Miss Noin, he hasn't," Quatre answered. "Uh-oh."
"Yeah,
uh-oh," Duo added. "Looks
like we've got more ZERO dolls to play with coming here right now. My screens show four suits veering off and
heading towards Heero's path!"
"Leave
them. I think he can handle them
himself," Wufei said, ending all conversation as the ZERO dolls poured out
towards them.
Jetting
towards the Lunar Base, Heero triple-checked his weapons systems.
A half-dozen shots left for the buster rifle,
a few rounds of Vulcan ammunition left, and the power cells for one of the beam
sabers is depleted. Gotta make what
I've got count.
A
loud beeping came from his threat-indicator screen. Jerking the controls to port, he barely missed a powerful blast
from near the moon's surface. Glancing
at his starboard screen, he saw the figures of three scarlet mobile suits that
were vaguely reminiscent of the Virgo line, but had larger cannons, a
twin-machine gun mounted between two engines that looked like exact copies of
the Tallgeese models', and twice as many planetary defensors. A fourth suit was in a form that was like
the Neo Bird Mode the Wing Zero was currently in, but it could easily be
identified as the so-called Wing Gundam Vengeance.
So it's been modified so it can fire the
buster rifle while in Bird Mode. Clever.
Hauling
back on the familiar lever to his right, the pilot changed the suit from its
Neo Bird Mode to the combat mode it had taken earlier.
"Hello,
One." The pure venom in Two's voice
sent a shiver down Heero's spine--a very small shiver, but one
nonetheless. "Like what I've done
with my time in the past eight years? I
call them the Virgo IIIs. You'll find
that they're a bit more difficult to destroy than their predecessors."
Aiming
his buster rifle, Heero took no time to wait as he fired the powerful weapon at
the nearest red mobile suit.
He
naturally expected the blast to be deflected by the fields generated by the
advanced defensors. That is why he
keyed his weapon to send out just enough energy to make it look like a real
blast. A fraction of a second after
firing, Wing Zero spun down and left, using a clear target behind the
single-direction field. Heero used that
split-second it took the defensors to move to fire a real blast at the scarlet
Virgo.
Heero
was speechless when he saw that he had cleanly missed his target.
The
pesky Virgo had such quick response time that it had maneuvered out of the way
and managed to take advantage of Heero's momentary hesitation to fire its
oversized beam cannon.
The
blast rocked the suit, vaporizing much of the additional armor Heero had added
earlier. The suit itself was mostly
intact, but much of the armor was simply gone.
Those cannons are powerful enough to
vaporize Gundanium in one shot! I have
to take these things out now!
Maneuvering
left and right to avoid fire from the three scarlet Virgos, Wing Zero grabbed
its second beam saber, igniting the glowing green blade. Weaving in and out of the fields protecting
the Virgos, Heero managed to slice through the barrel of one of the attacking
suits. The whole weapon exploded,
taking half the suit with it. The rest
of the ZERO doll blew up soon afterward, showing a drastic weakness to Heero.
"You're
a fool, Two," Heero said as he switched the comm system on. "These dolls are no better than the
ones Treize used. The only thing
they're good for is long range attacks!"
"Fool!" Two's reply came back cold and vicious. "You never did understand!"
"Understand
what, Two?" Heero barked back as he sliced another of the scarlet ZERO
dolls. "How can anyone understand
insanity?!"
"I
was never insane!" Two's voice
seemed to waver at that last come-back. "Once again, you demonstrate your ignorance!"
"Ignorance
to what?!" Heero's annoyed reply cut through the comm
system as he in turn cut the last Virgo III to shreds of glowing shrapnel.
"That
old fool never could see past his own nose. He cared so much for you! What
he didn't realize is that you were just a
ward! I was to inherit the suit
from him!"
That
last comment startled Heero. Instantly,
gears began turning in his head. Suddenly, the answer came to him.
"Doctor
J was you father?"
"No,
fool! He was my grandfather! He never did care about me! That's why I had the other candidates
killed! I knew that, if he had to, he
would have killed his own grandson for that damned mission! He never cared! Nobody ever has!" Pain and sorrow fused with anger and hatred as Two spilled his heart out
over the comm system. "But now it
doesn't matter. He's dead. And now you'll be joining him!"
Blasting
forward on his modified Vernier engines, Two's suit quickly changed from its
Bird Mode to combat form, instantly aiming the equally modified buster rifle at
Heero's suit.
Cartwheeling
around with one engine, Heero dodged blast after searing blast, each meant to
rip his suit to pieces.
As
he maneuvered, he keyed the comm so that only he and Two could hear each other.
"Tell
me, Two. How did you survive that
prototype's explosion? I must
know!"
"Oh,
that, One? I'm sure that's been eating
at you for years, hasn't it?" Chuckling, he continued. "It's simple, really. I had
modified that suit so much that I built redundant bulkheads around the
cockpit. I knew that if the suit
exploded, I would survive. That's what
we do best, isn't it One?! Survive?!"
Finally
getting an answer to a question that had laid in the back of his mind for
years, Heero keyed the comm system off again, not wanting to hear Two's voice
any more.
Thrustering
to the left, Wing Vengeance swept around the Wing Zero. Turning its head, it fired its Vulcans on
the back of Heero's suit. Serving as
little more than a distraction, the Vulcans turned Heero's attempted maneuver
into a slow, bounding spiral.
Turning
about, the Wing Zero took aim with one of the halves of its buster rifle. Firing, Heero let a small sigh out as he saw
the blast hit dead-on onto the back of Two's left knee assembly. While the blast didn't take the whole leg
off as Heero wanted, it did manage to disable and fuse so much inside the leg
that it quickly became useless.
Turning
around, One let off a quick rapid-fire burst from his buster rifle, surprising
Heero slightly.
That rifle was never able to do that when I
piloted it!
Using
the additional power from the two engines hanging from Wing Zero's back, Heero
managed to dodge most of the blasts, but three managed to hit, damaging the
left arm's elbow joint.
With
each suit now sparking and crackling from a joint, the two pilots took a moment
to re-evaluate one another. The two
suits stared at each other for but a few scant seconds, but the time seemed
agonizingly long for both pilots.
The
momentary peace was broken when Two shot something out of his shield. It was a small, rotund canister. It crossed the gap between the two suits in
such a small amount of time that Heero never really had time to react before
the canister exploded.
A
glowing cloud of fletchettes spread across in a sphere, damaging the Wing Zero
in a thousand places. While most of the
damage by itself was not that threatening, having thousands of razor-sharp,
nearly-molten shards of Gundanium metal playing across a mobile suit's body can
never be seen as a good thing.
Heero
was quick to counter, firing a powerful shot at the Wing Vengeance from its
buster rifle. The beam took the entire
left arm of the opposing suit apart, taking the shield with it.
Two,
for his part, was even quicker in returning fire. He weaved back and forth, but left his buster rifle behind. The right arm reached for the skirt armor
and pulled out a large handle.
A
monsterous bright green blade sprung forth from the pointy handle, which had a
cable leading from the bottom of the cylinder to the back of Two's suit.
"Like
it, One?" Somehow, Two's voice
came back on the comm system. Heero
looked down at the switch and found that, in the heat of battle, he had
accidentally hit it and broke it. He
sighed, knowing that there would be only one way to shut Two up. "I would think you would recognize
it. After all, it did belong to a suit
you once piloted. But, like the others,
you abandoned it, too. A pity."
"As
a matter of fact, Two, I do recognize it. It belonged to Epyon," Heero answered. Pressing buttons, Wing Zero soon armed itself with its own beam
saber. "I've already fought
against that blade, and won. If I have
to, I'll do so again."
"Foolish
talk from a foolish mind," Two spat back as his suit rocketed forward
towards the Wing Zero. Cutting
laterally, Wing Vengeance spun around with its slice, as though Two expected to
destroy Wing Zero in one lunge. Luckily, Heero's blade met Two's in a clash of sparks that created deep,
ghostly shadows in the faces of both suits.
"Listen
to reason, Two! You have to! What you're doing isn't going to make
anything better for anyone!" Heero shouted across the comm system. "It's no better than when OZ killed
your family, your grandfather."
"Shut
up!" Two spat back. "What do
you know?! He gave you the royal
treatment and I got the raw end of the bargain!"
"You're
wrong, Two. I was given the countermand
orders for your termination. I tried to
tell you, but you refused to listen. You would have never been killed. Doctor J would have never destroyed you or the others."
Flying
back, Wing Zero's blade powered down as Heero spoke to the crazed Two.
"You
must listen, Two. You must."
"Bastard! I'll kill you!" Lunging forward, Wing Vengeance swung down
in a diagonal cut that would have sliced Wing Zero from shoulder to hip if
Heero not powered up his own blade at the last minute.
Warning
lights on both suits began to blink uncontrollably as the stresses from the two
combatants' blades stayed locked against one another became too great for
either one to bear. Just before the
entire servomotor system could blow, Two launched back, prepping for another
attack. Heero braced himself, expecting
a full-out head-on attack that would send his suit to its limits and back
again, but was surprised when he found the attack coming from behind.
Two's
cut sliced off the right arm of the Wing Zero, sending it flying away. It exploded soon after, taking the beam
saber with it.
With
no more significant weapons to use within grabbing range, Heero knew that he
was defeated. Evil laughter plagued the
comm system.
I'm sorry, Relena. I promised you I would come back and stay this time. I'm afraid that promise won't be kept.
I'm sorry.
A
short, surprised yelp came over the comm system as Two found himself under
attack from another mobile suit.
Checking
his screens, his jaw dropped.
"Where
in the hell did the Tallgeese come from?!"
"Gundam
pilot, I think you dropped this," Zechs Merquise's voice said over the
comm system. The white-and-grey
Tallgeese IV was rocketing towards the fallen Wing Zero with a large, gray
object in its left hand.
The Wing Zero's buster rifle! Heero
thought.
"I'll
take it from here Zechs," Heero said to the other ace pilot. Grabbing the buster rifle, Heero searched
his screens for Two's suit, but became concerned when he couldn't find it.
"Where
the hell did he go?" Heero said, more to himself than anyone else.
Suddenly,
a blast hit the Tallgeese from its left, taking most of the arm assembly and
part of an engine out in the resulting explosion. A large suit loomed behind Zech's Tallgeese, holding a buster
rifle.
Two! He used jamming technology like Duo's to disguise his trail as he snuck
up behind us and took us by surprise! Son of a bitch!
Laughing
at the Tallgeese's incredible weaknesses, Two kept his position in front of the
damaged suit. Taking aim once again, he
fired, taking off everything of the Tallgeese's below its knees.
Now
crippled, the Tallgeese could do next to nothing to survive. Because its engines were damaged, it could
only do so much in terms of maneuvering. Its weapons had been destroyed, and its shield had been built into the
left arm, which had exploded. It was
essentially a sitting duck.
Taking
his time, Two let another solid lock ring out for a good ten seconds before he
decided to press the FIRE buttons.
Just
as he was about to press the buttons, the Tallgeese's single working engine
opened up and fired, using up the last of its fuel in a last-ditch effort to
get out of the way.
Idiot. What's he trying to accomplish by doing such a poor maneuver?
As
the Tallgeese shot off in a gradual spiral, Two realized half-a-second too late
what was happening.
The
Tallgeese had blocked his view of the Wing Zero as it took its aim with its
powerful buster rifle, aiming directly for the Wing Vengeance's cockpit. Now that the Tallgeese was gone, Two could
see the Wing Zero plainly now. Surprise
overrode every sense in his body, freezing him in place for a solid second.
Heero
took half that to let Two know he had made his final mistake.
The
golden beam sheared through the cockpit, vaporizing the inner workings of the
suit and the insane man who piloted it. Bulkheads or not, armor or not, Gundanuim or not, blasting any suit with
the buster rifle always ended in the same result--an explosion that took the
rest of the suit into hell with the pilot.
"Heero?" Quatre's voice rang out over the comm
system, interrupting the golden silence that had followed shortly after Two's
death. "Heero, this is Quatre. Please respond."
"I'm
here, Quatre. What is it?" Heero's voice was much more weary than it
had ever been before.
"All
the ZERO dolls are deactivated. Seems
like the Wing Vengeance was part of the ZERO doll network, so when it was
destroyed, the whole network crashed."
"Good,
Quatre, good."
"What's
the matter, Heero?" Duo's cheery
voice contrasted greatly to the mood Heero was in at the moment.
"I'll
tell you later, on Earth. Let's just go
home."
************************************************************************
Newport City
One Week Later
Shutting
the door and locking it, Heero Yuy crossed through his room, plopped down on
the bed, and shut his eyes.
That damn reporter girl has been stalking me
every day for the last week, trying to get me to talk to her. She's more annoying than Relena or Dorothy
were in the Eve Wars, in terms of stalking me. At least they had reasonable modivation to.
He
allowed himself a slight smile.
Maybe I'll just shoot her.
A
knock on the door forced Heero's eyes to spring open.
If that's her . . .
Getting
up and answering the door, he was mildly relieved when he saw that it was, in
fact, the rest of the Gundam pilots (except Wufei), Hilde, Dorothy, Catherine,
and Relena at his door. Then, thinking
of what they'd probably say to him or make him do, he decided he'd much rather
have dealt with that reporter girl.
"Hey,
Heero! You always answer a door with
your gun?" Duo's cheery voice
dropped lower as he spotted the gun in Heero's right hand.
"Are
you kidding?" Quatre answered, as he was holding Dorothy's hand. "Everything Heero does involves
weapons."
"Oh
yeah, I forgot."
"What
do you want?" Heero's no-nonsense
tone cut the conversation short.
"Well,
Heero, we were wondering," Relena answered. "The wars are over, and you need a job. Would you like to stay here and perhaps
teach at the academy?" Her hopeful
eyes gazed into him.
"I'm
a soldier. Not a teacher."
"Maybe
hall monitor or crosswalk guard would suit you . . ." Duo started, but
ended abruptly as Hilde elbowed him in the ribs.
"Perhaps
assistant principal would work," Trowa suggested. "Everything they do you have experience
in already."
"Hmmm
. . ." Heero pondered. "I'll
think about it."
As
he started to shut his door, Relena stuck her foot in its path.
"Not
so fast, Heero. I know what you're
about to do."
Heero
glanced up at her questioningly.
"You're
about to shut that door and forget about everything we just said. Not this time. C'mon." Stepping in
the doorway, she grabbed hold of Heero's elbow. "We have dinner made up already and there's a celebration
ball afterwards, and I need a date."
Heero's
eyebrow arched as he looked towards the other pilots, hoping to get help from
them. As he looked at each one, they
pulled their dates to their sides one by one. Trowa had invited Catherine, though it was more of a sibling thing than
a real date, Duo had Hilde, obviously, and, surprisingly to Heero, Quatre had
Dorothy. He already knew that Wufei
would have invited Sally Po, so he couldn't expect any aid from him.
Seeing
that he had no other choice, he nodded.
"Very
well. I will need half an hour to
prepare."
"Fair
enough, Heero," Relena replied, smiling from ear to ear.
Well, that's it! That's the end of the GUNDAM WING: VENGEANCE saga! I'm misty-eyed, to be honest. I can't believe it's over!
MAKE SURE TO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU
THINK! I can't know what to do in the
future if you don't tell me what you do or don't like!
Sorry I didn't include more
Tallgeese combat stuff. I just had
trouble fitting it all into one chapter! I know there's already enough here for two chapters, but I really wanted
it in five chapters total, so I had to edit and add stuff so it would be. I'm sorry to all those die-hard Tallgeese
and Zechs fans. I feel your
sorrow. I'm a big fan, too.
Well, I hope you were surprised at
Two's identity! It was kind of a
revelation to me as I worked on this in the wee hours of the night. Note that this story was finished at 12:19
AM on Tuesday, February 20. My parents
will kill me if they find this out, but I'm an insomniac, so I really don't
mind!
I really hoped you enjoyed my
story! If I've offended anyone in the
course of writing this, I'm sorry. As I
say, I don't intend to offend. Please
don't hate me. I hate confrontations!
Anyhow, if you have any suggestions
on future writings, PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO TELL ME! I appreciate any reviews, good or bad.
PLEASE
VISIT MY SITE! It's at
www.geocities.com/wing_zero_pilot195/wing_zero_pilot195
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DBZ and
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