- Part Two: Gundam, Interrupted
The L1 colony cluster, main colony, Preventors station. Monday March 11th, 6:45 a.m.
Noin sat at her desk in disgust. There was just too much paperwork. It was good to be in outer space, but this was not what she had imagined in a trip up.
A knock at the door caused Noin to crane her long, graceful neck around the ungainly stack of papers that sat precariously perched on her desk. "What?" she snapped.
"Well, that's a fine good morning," said Zechs, scoffing.
"You. Take. Fill out. Get lost," Noin replied, reaching her last nerve. She pushed half of the pile onto Zechs' waiting arms.
"Can't we get machines to do this?"
"Last time they tried that, we got mobile dolls."
"Can you at least scratch my nose? I'm a bit tied up." Noin leaned over and raked a fingernail down his nose. He winced. "Gee thanks." he staggered away.
"Zechs!"
"What now, more paper?"
"No," she paused. "Do you really think this plan is going to work? I mean, we've known those pilots and Relena's your sister and all and--"
"Don't worry about it. He knows what he doing," Zechs left, closing the door with his foot. Noin heard a yell and a thud, followed by some screaming and harsh tones. Sounds like the God of Death has crossed Preventor Wind once again.
The doors buckled and there was a groan. Moments later Duo stumbled into the room, holding his stomach with one hand while pushing the door open with the other.
He managed to muster up a weak grin. "Was it something I said?"
"I'm surprised you're actually here this early, Agent Maxwell," Noin mused. She vented her frustrations on him, the easy target. "Usually you're up late partying instead of sleeping. It's a godsend to see you here before 10:00."
Duo groaned before glaring, returning the comment with one of his own, "Gimme a break! First I gotta get up for some meeting at the most ungodly hour, get kicked in the stomach by Zechs, or Milliardo or whatever the hell his name is, and then you literally add insult to injury!"
"Aww, is widdle Duo having a bad day?"
The God of Death's face contorted into some mockery of irritation as he tried not to laugh of Noin's baby voice. "Meeting...where...?"
"Third door on the left."
"Thanks," he said as he dashed out. Boisterous laugher echoed through the hallway as he slammed the door.
Noin marked off Duo's name on her list, nearly complete except for Trowa. Now where could he be all by his lonesome? she wondered. The phone rang and Noin answered it.
Never one to be counted out, it was Trowa on the other end. "Ms. Noin?"
"Trowa! Where are you?" She heard a grunt and the dull thud of a body hitting the ground. "Trowa?!"
"I'm fine. I met some people that might interest you. Send a car down to 3rd and Main."
"What happened to yours?"
"Currently..." Trowa turned to the smoldering wreck that had been his blue sedan. "In desperate need of repair."
"I'll take your word it, Fire out," Noin ended.
Soon, Quatre pulled up to the site, as indicated by the pillar of smoke visible in the rising sun. The myriad of colors bathed the city in a rainbow, and the sky as an artist's canvas. Trowa, however, merely stood darkly on the corner, an aura of negative emotion emanating out and enshrouding the area in darkness.
"Trowa!" Quatre called. Looking up, the young man's face and mood did not change, what light could touch him looking dreadfully out of place. Slowly he made his way over to the car and lugged the suspect, dressed in a now rumpled shirt and sport jacket, into the back, then went to the passenger's side and fell in.
"Let's go," he noted quietly. Quatre eased the car around and left for Preventors HQ. He looked over to Trowa a few times, but his friend, Quatre hoped, at least, remained silent, not talking his eyes off the road for a minute. Not that Quatre could see, but a single tear rolled down Trowa's right cheek out of his heart's emptiness.
They pulled in without a word and dragged the suspect up to the meeting room. The other Gundam Pilots and Vice Foreign Minister Dorlain, along with her aides Hilde and Dorothy, were all waiting for them.
"Good to see that we're all here," Hilde smiled as the others filed in, but Trowa's expressionless face made her put it away in an instant. Lady Une, now in her old OZ uniform, gestured to Trowa to sit. Trowa deftly ignored her and shoved the suspect into the room.
"Our friend has a lot to tell us," he said, flatly as usual.
"I'm not saying anything until--" the man heard Trowa's knuckles pop and his lips pursed.
"Talk, now," Trowa hissed.
Trowa was oblivious to the others, now slightly frightened by Trowa's frigid tone, and Quatre moved toward him slowly, attempting to keep the former pilot of the HeavyArms from exploding on the OZ flunky.
"Ok ok, OZ is going to start producing MS again, so they can start...I don't know what, but they told us to kill you Preventors at any cost!"
"Who is behind this?" Trowa snarled, trying to keep his voice even.
"I don't know! He's a--"
"Shadow on a viewscreen," Heero finished. "Same as last night."
"That didn't work either, huh?" the man groaned.
"You're not telling us something, I want to know what," Trowa hissed, roughly grabbing the man by his lapels.
"Whoa, dude, calm down!" Duo yelled. "Leave the poor guy alone!"
Trowa remained undiscerning and continued to shake the man down, then punched him in the stomach. "Talk, damn you!" he yelled as he threw the man across the table.
"I don't--" the man was cut off with a punch.
"LIAR!" Trowa yelled and reared back to hit him again. A hand grabbed Trowa's wrist and he spun around to face him.
"Care to try that on me?" Lady Une snarled.
"Don't tempt me," the ex-OZ officer scowled.
"Trowa, that's enough!" Quatre yelled. "If you should hit anyone, it should be me." He lowered his head and waited for Trowa to strike him. Trowa's scowl relented for a second, but returned and he pulled his hand away. He stood and left the room, without a word to anyone. The door slammed behind him and the room remained silent.
Dorothy and Quatre looked to each other, worriedly, knowing that they wore the blame for Trowa's uncommonly violent outburst. Lady Une broke the silence as she sat down.
"This is not our concern at the moment" she said, crossing her legs. She spun her chair around to face the group. "We've received coordinates from an anonymous tipster of the location of the main base," the lights dimmed and a holographic map of the Earth Sphere appeared. Lady Une stood again and pointed at the map with a laser pointer. "You are to travel from this colony, to this point. There as Preventors station with reload and refuel your ship and you'll continue to this asteroid, near the L3 colony cluster."
Zechs sighed, allowing a slight sound of contemplation to escape. "We can reduce our time by at least 40 hours if we go directly there," he noted, doing the calculations in his head.
"In what, my dear Preventor Wind?" Une asked, a slight scoff in her voice. "The only thing that could go directly there would be a Mobile Suit, equipped with a megavernier booster, which, if you'll recall, we don't have. Which is why we're trying to keep anyone else from getting them!"
"On the contrary, Ms. Une, I've got the perfect suit for the job parked right outside the colony."
"So that's the suit that's double parked outside the hanger!" Duo joked.
Zechs paid him no mind, continuing, "The Tallgeese Mark III can be prepped for transport duties in under 6 hours, 4 if I work fast."
"Well, it'll go a lot faster if you get us working on it," Wufei told him. "In which case, I'd suggest we get moving."
"I'll get on it and report this to the ESUN Delegation," Relena nodded. Being the Vice Foreign Minister, she worked closely with the Preventors to keep the peace, as while the Delegation of the Earth Sphere United Nation kept the homefront safe. Being an autonomous body outside of the government, Ms. Relena was assigned to watch the Preventors, as they still did not trust the recently commissioned Gundam Pilots to make sound judgments on political hot spots. She had offered Hilde and Dorothy spots as her aides, because of Hilde's close ties to Duo and Dorothy's instrumental part in the Mariemaia Revolt earlier in the year. The fact that they were all close friends had nothing to do with it, she had said. Yes, even Relena could be sneaky.
"Very well then," Lady Une finished. "Dismissed."
"Roger. I will wipe out OZ," said Heero, his flat tone sending chills down Lady Une's spine.
After the others had left, Noin and Zechs looked to Une. "I know what you're thinking," she said, tapping her hand on her glasses. "I'm sure that this will work."
"Hm, I wish I had your confidence," Zechs said.
"It will work, my friend," said a voice from behind them. The wall had opened up, and a figure stood in its place, cloaked in shadows. The voice was all too familiar to the three. "I have foreseen it, and there is nothing that shall stop me from achieving this goal. I'm leaving it up to you to make sure that you stay alive throughout all this. I'd keep an eye on that 03 pilot if I were you though. He seems to have a bit of a temper."
"I think that's a job best kept to the pilots," Noin noted.
"Ow..." said the suspect, now awake from the merciless beating given to him by Trowa Barton. "That son of a bitch..."
"Calm down, Casval. It's nothing more than a flesh wound, if that."
"I'll give you a flesh wound..." Casval murmured, removing his tattered suit, revealing a red outfit under it. He rummaged through the pockets of his and found a pair of white gloves, then opened the inside of his suit jacket up and removed a cloak. It was split in the middle of the front, with a great golden bird-design on the front and two shoulder pauldrons with tassels.
"Is this...kid the operative you told us about?" Noin asked.
Casval buckled a white belt and shot a dirty look at Noin. "Who's a kid? I've got more experience than the three of you."
"Casval, can it," the shadowed figure said, tossing a helmet to Casval. The front had a bottom heavy diamond with two horns coming from the middle, while the back flared out and came around. "My helmet! You remembered!"
"Well it was in the books. Look inside, there's a mask too."
"Thanks," Casval said, as the figure stepped out of the shadows, "Mr. Trieze."
The former sovereign of the Earth Sphere merely smiled.
"I don't know about this, Heero, old buddy."
"Doesn't feel right to you either, huh, Duo?" Heero looked to Duo as they walked to the hanger to help Zechs.
"Well, what are we going to do about it now?" Quatre reminded them. "We've just gotta make sure that this mission doesn't go straight to hell."
Wufei Chang followed behind him, an irritated Trowa Barton behind him. "Regardless, we have to keep them from their plots. After all, it's because of us that there's peace at all!"
"I've just got a feeling that we're biting off more than we can chew..."
Later, the Tallgeese Mk. III was ready to transport them all. It was a tight squeeze for the six of them, all piled in there. Very tight.
"Maxwell! Your braid is in my eye!"
"Then get your elbow out of my spine!"
"I can't until Winner gets his head out of my shoulder!"
"Trowa is using me for a foot rest..."
"Trowa, get off me," Heero ordered.
"Sod off."
"SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO PILOT HERE! Zechs yelled
Zero gravity didn't help the situation.
"Maxwell! BRAID IN MOUTH! SPLIT ENDS!"
"I got something else for you to suck on!"
"Don't look at me, that's Barton's area!" A thud was heard and Wufei's forehead hit Duo in the shoulder. "Injustice!"
"DAMMIT, DON'T MAKE ME TURN THIS SUIT AROUND!"
It was to be a long trip.
Upon arriving at the asteroid base, the five could breathe easier, now that breathing was indeed possible.
Heero looked around, eyes scanning for enemies out in the airlock. Seeing that there were none, he continued through.
"I'll just have to defeat this leader too," Wufei
noted to no one in particular.
"Please, Mr. Chang, he flew into your freakin'
trident," Duo remarked.
"Bite me, Maxwell."
"I'm starting to rub off on you."
"Just go." They entered the base.
Meanwhile on the other side of the base, a man in a black cloak slipped in towards the mobile suit hanger. He grinned as his drew his prized Colt .45 pistols and took aim from the rafters. Suddenly another figure in black and white dropped from farther away, his face covered by a mask split down the middle into black and white, matching the motif of his costume. Alternating patches of black and white covered him in a uniform pattern and he withdrew a longsword from his back. The OZ soldier never knew what hit him and the man in black and white continued on.
"Is that the...Jestre?" the cloaked man hissed. Wow, they got all sorts on this mission... Even heard those Gundam pilots were here.
The Jestre suddenly spun and what appeared to be sparks flew from his hand. The cloaked man jerked back as three shurikens paid a visit to his right arm. He looked at his single right glove and pulled the shurikens out. "Jerk." He removed the glove and looked over the uncovered mess circuitry and metal rods that comprised his right hand. "Ok...looks fine, works..." He thanked his lucky stars, which happened to be just to the left now, that his girlfriend/mechanic was such a techno-genius, or else he'd be known as Stumpy instead of the Rev Raptor. Hm, the Rev Raptor...like to hurt the guy that came up with that one...looks like Jestre is gone, so we're good to continue.
He leaped down and looked around. He felt a tap on his shoulder and he spun around. There was the emotionless mask of the Jestre. "Stay out of my way," came the rasping order.
"No one gives orders to Rico Khushrenada!" the Rev Raptor stated defiantly.
Jestre seemed to grin under his mask. "Well, then, Mr. Khushrenada, let's see how much like Treize you are!"
"Hey, I'm not--" Rico attempted to say before Jestre tried to run him through. Rico wheeled to the side and connected with a backhand to Jestre's head. "Don't ever compare me to that loser! I have nothing to do with him, so let him rot in his grave."
Hmm...Jestre thought, This one is forceful. I may be forced to kill him for my poor judgment. "Just keep your...spiky haired head out of my business."
"Leave my hair out of this," Rico said, now annoyed. His hair had a mind of it own, as far as Rico could tell, it spiked forward about as far as that Heavyarms pilot's did and had an odd little 'command spike' at about the top of his head. "Just assassinate whoever you're after and let me get my job done."
"What job is that?"
"I'm shopping for Late-Model Gundams."
"I see that our objectives aren't so different, my cloaked friend," Jestre said. Friend was merely a pleasantry, Jestre could already feel that he didn't like this green eyed kid.
"Just go, will ya? I've got enough problems without having a nut like you following me," Rico grinned. He'd heard of the violent deaths that Jestre had caused in the past, and was confident that he'd be fine if Jestre tried anything.
"You're quite the egomaniac," said Jestre, before dropping out of view. Rico suddenly saw the ceiling appear in his line of sight and felt the ground meet his spine.
"Ow." When he got up, Jestre was gone. "Well, next time I'll get him. Right now I've got a mission to complete." He walked off.
At the same time, the Gundam Pilots had reached a three pronged path.
"Lovely," commented Zechs. "Ok, Heero and I will go down the center, Duo and Wufei will go down the right, and Trowa and Quatre will go left."
Quatre looked to Trowa, who remained stoic. The teams went off and as soon as the others were gone, Trowa looked to Quatre and said only one word:
"Why?"
"Trowa... I feel really bad about it but...it just feels right to me."
"Just feels right. Great, what about me?!" Trowa said, raising his voice above his usual deadness.
"Oh, Trowa..." Quatre said, trying to keep his voice even. He looked to Trowa's hurt face.
"Well, I guess we live and learn...You've moved on, right, Quatre?"
This didn't help Quatre's aching heart in the least. "There's nothing I can do to mend your heart, I know, but at least know that I'm sorry."
"Thanks, Quatre..." Trowa nearly broke into tears but he resisted. "Let's get this over with huh?" They continued towards the interior of the base.
Meanwhile, both the Lightning Count and the Perfect Soldier couldn't believe their eyes. There before them stood the weapons of mass destruction known as the Wing Gundam ZERO and the Gundam Epyon. The Wing ZERO's massive angel wings wrapped around it concealing, for the most part, the titanic beam cannon known as a Twin Buster Rifle. The Epyon's whip-like heat rod encased in its forearm shield came spiraling out and stopped with a loud thunk.
"Angel and demon, huh, Zechs?"
"In your case it's both in one neat package."
"Yeah..." Heero removed his radio. "Perfect Soldier to Crying Clown, come in Crying Clown."
"Crying Clown here, what's up Heero?"
"You'll never believe what we found."
Hideo Shinitama crept stealthily along the wall towards the door that may have contained the plans for the Gundams or this new chemical miracle. Something about turning metals into Gundanium...what a load. But people want that formula. He wasn't what one would think of an ex-hitman, clad in a button-down shirt and vest with dress pants, but it had been his job for the last seven of his twenty-four years of living. That was until that run-in with Jestre.
An explosion ripped the door off its hinges and a man came flying out, dressed in a black cloak. He grabbed the wall with a gloved hand and shot with a very antiquated gun at the approaching soldiers. He hopped down and saw Hideo, which caused Hideo to draw his handgun.
"Hmm... I remember you," the spiky haired, cloaked man said. "Let's get out of here."
"Remember me?" Hideo asked, but the man simply ran past him and Hideo followed. "What'd you blow up in there?"
"Formula for some metal-morphing thing. F91 I think it's called."
"What?! I was supposed to get that!"
"God, I just keep running into you mercs today! First Jestre, now you."
"Jestre's here?!"
"Yeah, why you wanna tangle with him again?"
Heavy machine gun fire cut them off, heavy machine guns from an OZ-07MS Aries air combat Mobile Suit.
"SHIT!" They both yelled, diving to either side. Rico held up a hand to stay the other mercenary. He then proceeded to hop onto the Aries' leg and scale it. The Aries pilot was quite confused by the actions of the cloaked gunfighter, until the cockpit opened and two black boots said hello to his mouth and chest.
The Aries' hatch closed, a uniformed figure falling out of it, and began shooting at the oncoming troops. The Aries failed to notice the Leo coming up behind him though.
Hideo leapt into action, squeezing off two rounds and damaging the optics of the Leo. While the Leo attempted to reorient himself, the Aries turned and put three shots through the Leo's cockpit.
The black cloaked man hopped out of the Aries. "Nice save."
"You're not bad yourself, uhh..."
"Rico. Let's get these Gundams and scram."
"Right."
"Oh yeah," Rico reached inside his cloak and handed Hideo a slip of paper. "Not my problem anymore."
Written on it was the Formula F91.
Duo and Wufei had wound up in a tight spot. Not only had they been captured when Duo sneezed, but now they were being taken to the leader, who'd probably kill them. They entered a room with a desk and a chair, turned around.
"Nice to see you boys again," said the voice from behind the chair.
Wufei's eyes widened and he spun the chair around. Around came none other than Treize Khushrenada, gun in hand.
"Why, Wufei, how uncommonly rude. You could at least wait for me to turn myself around before you try to rush me," Trieze said with a grin. Lady Une went over to Wufei and removed his radio. Treize dialed in a certain frequency that he knew Zechs would pick up.
They should be in position for Treize to make his ultimatum now. Zechs thought as he and Heero ducked behind a corner to escape gunfire. His radio vibrated. And now the fun begins.
"Attention Gundam Pilots! 02 and 05 are now in my custody. You will follow the troops if you wish to see them again," Treize informed them all over the intercom. "Zechs Marquise, get into the Epyon."
"What? Why?!" Zechs yelled back.
"You still owe me a duel. Meet me out in space. I'll be waiting," Treize finished. He stood and went to the hanger, with his second in command, General Dutra, close behind.
Dutra was a grizzled old man, but a good strategist and sneaky as all get out. As Trowa had once said, 'the right kind of person for OZ.' But he didn't like this idea of Treize's to duel one single bit.
A young man with a long pair of bangs framing either side of his face snapped to attention as the two highest ranking officers in OZ approached.
"Is the Hydra prepared, Lt. Collins?" Treize asked.
Collins perked up. Treize Khushrenada knew his name! "Yes sir, just as you specified! Right this way!" He opened the door and ushered them through.
The Hydra Gundam was a monster of a mobile suit. Its head was surrounded by a pair of retractable beam cannons, giving the effect of many heads to the enemy. The feet also spoke of demonic heritage, massive spikes tipping them. The skirt armor housed close to 100 vernier and boosters, and it's beam saber glowed yellow, signaling that was as powerful as the Epyon's wide beam sword.
Lt. Collins suddenly jumped as he got a message on his ear-piece. "What?! Well, get them back!"
"What happened?!" Dutra bellowed.
"We... lost the Gundams...sir...all except the Ballista..." Collins stammered.
Dutra's hand swung around, swatting Collins like a fly to the ground. "Idiot!" He raised his hand to hit Collins again when Treize stopped him.
"That's enough, General, I was planning on this from the beginning. The Ballista remains in our hands and Collins here will pilot it."
"Sir?" Collins asked, as if Treize was some sort of drooling idiot. "Why are you letting me off so easy? It was--"
"Inconsequential. I've got a duel to fight," Treize said with a grin.