Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing.
AN: Hey you all. Sorry for taking so long but I've been very busy with high school and crushes and all. I'm surprised I'm able to upload a chapter. Been too depressed to write... I still am, too many problems... anyway, Enjoy. Oh, and get ready for a boring chapter, but please finish the chapter. It gets better as it goes. I promise.
Melodrama Version II- Episode 2: The Light at the End of the Tunnel
~ Fallen Firefly ~
"So Hotaru, since you are earth's top soldier, what type of training did they give you?" Duo looked at her from across the dining table of their rather large Winner estate. All of the soldiers looked at her now, waiting for her answer.
Hotaru lifted an eyebrow. "Is this your idea of small talk?" She asked.
"No it isn't." Duo said. "I know how to small talk."
Quatre laughed. "Sure does."
The pilots, except for Heero of course, smiled.
"So?" Duo asked, waiting for a reply.
Hotaru shrugged. She didn't want to get into too much detail about her earth training. It would take too long. Besides, Hotaru is known for either being silent or sarcastic and she would much rather be silent than sarcastic at the moment. Realizing that she had to answer or they wouldn't leave her alone, she said, "It's nothing that you've never done I'm sure." Hotaru stood up from the table and to the immense sink and placed her dishes in them. Then she began to wash them herself.
"Oh no! It's ok! You don't have to wash them." Quatre said getting up and stopping her from getting the sponge.
Hotaru lifted an eyebrow. There were so many dishes in the sink that it made Hotaru sick to her stomach that these boys can live with a sink piled high with greasy dishes. The least she could do was wash at the least some of them.
"It's all right. One of the maids will get it." Quatre said grabbing Hotaru's palms and pulling her away from the sink.
"Ok." Hotaru said snatching her hands away and walking towards the corner of the giant living room where all of her luggage was sitting.
"Don't pick them up! A maid will help you with it, that's ok." Quatre said to Hotaru as Hotaru bent down to try to pick up one of her heavy bags.
"Damn, do these maids feed you too?" Hotaru asked crossing her arms.
"Well, if you want them to." Quatre said honestly.
Hotaru scoffed and shifted all of her weight to one leg. "So where am I staying?" She asked.
Quatre clapped twice. A small little girl ran up to him wearing a maid's outfit. "Get someone to do the dishes, get someone to get Hotaru's luggage, and escort Hotaru to her room." Quatre ordered and then walked to his seat in the dining table.
The little girl bowed and ran away. Then came back out, this time with two older girls. One of the girls went towards her luggage while the other towards the sink. The little girl pulled grabbed Hotaru's hand and walked her towards the giant marble staircase.
Hotaru felt sorry for the little girl. She looked so serious and behind that, Hotaru knew sadness was lying there as well.
Hotaru turned around and saw one of the older maids struggling with two bags on her shoulders, a backpack on, and struggling to get the giant bag up the stairs. Hotaru began to make her way down the stairs to help the girl but she only looked at Hotaru as if she was crazy.
"I got it." She said. She smiled and Hotaru let her go in front, making sure nothing fell or she didn't tip back or something.
"You will be staying here." The little girl said while pointing one of the doors in the hallway. "The maids stay in the hallway next to this one if you want anything."
"Where does everyone else stay?"
"In this hallway." The girl said and ran down the stairs.
Hotaru opened the door and saw a beautifully furnished room. The walls were a light shade of purple, which Hotaru found beautiful. The room had a desk right next to the window where there was a desktop computer and a laptop computer. Hotaru didn't need that laptop computer because she had one of her own.
There were two windows. One right in front of her desk so she can look out of the window right past her computer screen, and a giant window on a different wall. It had a giant sill where Hotaru can sit on and look out. Right next to it she saw these two glass doors. She walked to them and opened them and saw that it was a beautiful balcony that looked out into a bunch of gardens. She walked and leaned on the stone railing. She looked to her right and saw that there were more balconies. Five of them. She wondered of they belonged to those boys she was staying with.
Hotaru heard a throat being cleared and she turned around and saw the boy with messy hair standing there just staring at her, a stone expression. Hotaru returned the stone expression easily. He began to talk.
"You have to come out to the battlefield. I have to make sure you know what you are doing when you are fighting. So hurry up and get settled."
"It's not settling if you have to hurry up."
The boy lifted an eyebrow. "You know it is mandatory for you to go through an obstacle course before you are able to begin to fight side by side with us. Hurry up so we can get it over with." He said getting ready to leave the room.
Hotaru scoffed. "Did you have to go through one?"
"I was trained by some of the greatest military minds. I don't need to go through an obstacle course." He left.
"I was trained by some of the greatest military minds. I don't need to go though an obstacle course, whatever." Hotaru mocked Heero. She opened her luggage cases and began putting clothes inside the giant walking closet.
***
"So what you are going to do," explained Trowa while signaling to different places on the field, "Is you are first going to attack one mobile doll, which shouldn't be hard for you, seeing as how you are Earth's top student and all." He smirked when Hotaru rolled her eyes. "Then you are going to try to fly while about four dozen mobile suits shoot at you first bullets, then missiles. Then, you will have to try to fly through the maze, following Heero because he is the only one who knows the way out. You are going to try to fly through without messing up while it's exploding. You take the wrong way, and your Gundam will fry along with you. Then in the end... if you survive... you will have to battle one on one with Heero. Got it?"
"Affirmative." Hotaru said in monotone.
"Oh, and when you fight Heero, it will be in the sky, not on the ground." Trowa said. He chuckled as he walked off. Obviously because he knew that she was Earth's top student, which means that she specializes on ground battles but that she probably sucked in aerial battles.
But little did Trowa know that this was something Hotaru was looking forward to. Hotaru has had this secret about her Gundam that none of the other pilots knew about. It was that she custom built her own Gundam and named it Firefly Gundam. She knew that they were completely unaware that her Gundam didn't use joysticks or small buttons running about. That her Firefly Gundam didn't have a self-destruct button but that if she wanted to self-destruct, she will have to do it the hard way and not through some little red button. That her Gundam was made for agility and not for shooting like the HeavyArms. That there was a special coating that went around her frail body allowing her to have complete control of her Gundam, meaning whatever move she made- the Gundam made as well due to the dark purple coating.
"That won't be a problem." Hotaru said.
"Oh yeah, you will be using one of our Gundams instead of your own. You get to use your own when you are battling Heero."
Hotaru shrugged. This really wouldn't be a problem if she had to fight Heero with one of those Gundams that the boys use. She was trained with them anyway. She was secretly happy, thought, because she was able to fight Heero with her own Gundam.
As Hotaru made her way towards the Gundam assigned to her, which was coincidentally, the WingZero, she heard Duo tell Quatre that Heero has decided to use the WingZero Custom instead of the Mercurious II that they told him to use in the first place.
Hotaru smiled when she heard this. All he was doing was trying to make it harder on her obviously to prove to her that he was, and always will be, better than her in the Gundam battling.
"Are you all strapped in and ready to go?" She heard a voice say. A voice that matched Quatre's. An image of his kind face popped up on the screen.
Hotaru looked at her small, skinny body strapped in three seatbelts. Her two hands were firmly on the two joysticks while her feet where on the slides that controlled the Gundam's feet. Hotaru sweatdropped. How can she not be strapped in?
"Affirmative."
"All righty then. Be careful k Taru?"
Hotaru lifted an eyebrow. Since when did she tell him to call her Taru?
It was as if he read her thoughts because he cleared his throat and said, "I'm sorry. I meant Hotaru. A thousand pardon's." His eyes became watery.
'Damn, he's sensitive.' Hotaru thought, then said, "No problem."
He smiled at her and then his image disappeared. Hotaru shrugged and started the Gundam. Then, using the two boosters that were rarely touched flamed erupted from the Gundams' heels and she was off in the air. First fighting the single mobile doll that Trowa had told her she was going to fight. Then being bombarded by first bullets, and then missiles coming from Gundams.
The only disadvantage to this was that Hotaru couldn't completely destroy all of the Gundams because those shooting at her were real people. Hotaru did the next best thing. This involved a lot of hand-eye coordination- something that Hotaru wasn't used to since her Gundam didn't need any of this. She did this though, with what looked like great ease because she didn't break a sweat. She took out two of the second largest guns and with a series of about a dozen shots through each one, she shot the gun right out of the hands of those Gundams firing at her.
Seeing as how the bunch of Gundams couldn't fire at her anymore, they began to fly off.
Hotaru looked ahead and saw the WingZero Gundam standing in front of a tunnel. An image of Heero popped in front of Hotaru and he said, "Follow me, don't go wander anywhere else. Got it?"
Hotaru smirked. "Cool it. I've got it. And don't talk to me with that tone, got it?"
The image of Heero scoffed and rolled his eyes. Then his image disappeared and Hotaru noticed that the WingZero Custom Gundam flew into the tunnel. Hotaru pushed to boosters of the Gundam and flew right after Heero.
The second after Hotaru flew past the entrance of the tunnel; it burst into flames making it impossible for her to turn back if she became too scared.
"Like that's gonna happen." Hotaru mumbled.
"Did you say something?" Hotaru heard Heero's voice say.
"No." Hotaru said. 'Crap, I gotta watch my mouth. I didn't know he could hear what I say!' Hotaru thought.
Hotaru noticed that the tunnel only got deeper and deeper and that the flames behind her easily catching up to her. Hotaru slowly sped up and when Heero saw her nearing him, that was when he noticed the flames rising closer and closer to her and he purposely slowed down. He knew that there was no possible way she was allowed to get in front of him.
And Hotaru, seeing that there was no possible way to get in front of him without failing the obstacle course, slowed down because she had absolutely no other choice.
The flames began to slowly burn the Gundams' feet. Even though the Gundam was fireproof, it still became rather hot.
Heero immediately turned to his left. A sharp turn that was hard for Hotaru to copy, but she did it nonetheless. The next five minutes was a series of more sharp turns. Once even, Hotaru saw two ways to turn. Heero went right and she slowed down to see the left entrance and saw that it exploded. She jumped in her seat and quickly followed Heero.
Where Hotaru's feet were was extremely hot, so hot that Hotaru's Black Puma's began to melt. "Damn it Heero go faster!" She screamed. He acted as if he didn't hear here when he could hear her screams.
"Heero!" Hotaru screamed again seeing him staying at his slow speed.
Hotaru took off her shoes because the sole of her shoe was completely melted. "You bastard!" She screamed. Her feet were now hot, but this was better that having to peel melted rubber from between her toes later on.
Hotaru couldn't control the bottom part of her Gundam anymore due to the extreme heat. The fire damaged the Gundams legs. This totally pissed Hotaru off because it was all Heero's fault and she knew that he was doing this on purpose to test her patience.
Hotaru nearly cried of happiness when she saw a light at the end of the tunnel. That light that Hotaru was so happy to see had practically saved her life because she was about to explode with her Gundam.
Hotaru and Heero shot out of the hole in the ground and flew a few thousand feet in the air.
Heero sat in a fixed position in the air looking at Hotaru and her wrecked Gundam fly out of the hole and just keep on going up and up and up. To Heero's surprise, the cockpit door to Hotaru's Gundam opened and Hotaru began to rapidly take off her seatbelt, wind flying all around her. He zoomed in on her and nearly wanted to scream of shock when he saw her take a dive out of the Gundam.
From the base, the boys, who were monitoring every single move through several cameras from everywhere, were surprised to see that small frail body that belonged to Hotaru fly out of that Gundam.
Hotaru now closed her eyes. The ground was nearing her every second and, from Heero's point of view, it looked like she was getting ready to commit suicide, when, at the top of her lungs, Hotaru screamed, "RISE FIREFLY GUNDAM!" and she snapped. Heero raised an eyebrow when he saw and heard this.
Near the base, everything began to shake and then right next to the building where all the other pilots were, a pod broke from the ground and flew up in the air. Then it opened and there stood a beautiful purple and black Gundam on one knee. Then, as if it were alive, it stood up while the pod still shot upward.
Then the Gundam flew out of the pod and towards Hotaru. To Heero's surprise and to practically everyone else who was watching surprise, the Gundam caught Hotaru without causing her any harm.
Immediately after Hotaru stepped inside the cockpit of her Firefly Gundam, she began to strip her clothes off. Then she stood in, only in her underwear and strapless bra, in the smack center of the cockpit. Then a golden ring passed from over to underneath her once, twice, and the third time, the ring was producing a purple substance. By the time the ring was going to pass Hotaru down, the purple substance came out and covered Hotaru. It was like a substance that only squeezed Hotaru's body. It perfectly silhouetted her body. It looked like she was wearing a purple body suit. Hotaru grunted as she felt the covering go over her body, completely constricting it just like an anaconda would to its prey.
Heero could only watch in horror. He had never seen anything like this before.
Seeing that all of her systems were all green, she began to move her fingers and wrists and kick this way and that making sure that her Gundam was able to move freely, this way she can kick Heero's butt without any disturbance.
"You bastard!" Hotaru screamed as she put her hands in front of her. She looked like she was holding an invisible sword and that was when, out of nowhere, a sword of the purest energy appeared in her hands. It glowed a bright purple. "You will pay with your life." Hotaru now muttered. Heero heard this perfectly though.
She charged at him and began to move with such agility, it was almost impossible for Heero to counter these attacks because he couldn't move that fast using only joysticks and buttons.
Hotaru began to kick and kick faster and faster. "Let's see what you would do when you hear that I am the second undefeated of the East! Master Asia's granddaughter!" She screamed as she took out a gun from nowhere and shot Heero straight in his Gundams head, causing it to crush into tiny pieces.
"Chapter twenty one section seven of the International Gundam Fighting Regulations: Once a Gundams' head is destroyed, the Gundam and it's pilot is immediately disqualified." Hotaru muttered.
Heero had no idea of when Hotaru was talking about. He could still fight with his head off but he decided against it seeing as how he had to go to the bathroom because of all of this excitement that he felt battling Hotaru. (AN No! Not like that you perverts!)
The other Gundam pilots just stood there, completely shocked at how Hotaru had crushed Heero's Gundam head without even trying and how Hotaru's Gundam didn't even have a scratch.
Hotaru scanned the base around her and to her dismay, she zoomed at what she thought was Shinji, and it was. He was holding a girl's hand. A girl who was much more prettier than her. Hotaru couldn't really get a good look at the mistress but she was heartbroken nonetheless.
(AN You all must be wondering why I'm speeding through this, but I gotta get off the computer soon so... ^_^;)
***
That night during dinner was a night that neither Hotaru nor Heero will ever forget, because it was the night that completely changed their lives.
It was all of them eating dinner together. A pasta that Hotaru had cooked immediately after her battle with Heero.
"This is very good Hotaru." Quatre complimented. He smiled at her from across the table.
"Hey Quatre, I can't help but wonder if you are crushin' on Hotaru." Duo said snickering.
Hotaru looked at her food. She was outraged. She was completely ignoring Quatre's blushing, Duo's teasing, and Wufei's and Trowa's chuckles, but she was completely aware of Heero's glares. All Hotaru did was glare back until she couldn't take it anymore. She stood up, threw her napkin on the table, and walked to her room.
"Ey Heero, I suggest you apologize to her." Trowa said in between chews. "You know that you nearly killed her."
Little did they know that it wasn't Heero who Hotaru was mad at.
Hotaru sat in the corner of her room, rocking quietly humming to herself. A special song she was humming. It was the song Shinji would hum to her when she was sad. Hotaru was trying to comfort herself by singing the song Shinji would sing with his perfect voice, which was coming from his perfect lips. Those lips that used to be Hotaru's.
Hotaru began to cry. She began to cry like she had never had before while she rocked slowly. A voice from behind startled her.
"Eh... don't you think you are overreacting a bit?"
Hotaru turned around, tears streaming down her face. It was Heero. "What do you want?" Hotaru asked.
"I was told to apologize to you."
"You were told to?" The telephone rang but Hotaru ignored it. Instead, she went to Heero and tried to slap him. "You know what pain you were making me go though in that tunnel?!" She nearly screamed.
He blocked her hand. She tried to kick him and he blocked that too. (AN I know you guys must be bored... but keep on reading please!) The voice mail on Hotaru's answering machine came on. "Hotaru? Hotaru this is Shinji. Hotaru I really need to talk to you. Hotaru? I know you saw me today Hotaru and I'm sorry. Hotaru? We really have to talk so please call me back. You have my number." A click was heard signaling that he hung up.
"Whose that?" Heero asked.
Hotaru tried to smack his face but he blocked her and a small chuckle escaped his lips but soon Heero's breathing became uneven.
This was the first time that Hotaru and Heero have locked eyes. This was the first time that they actually noticed what the other person looked like. This was the first time that Heero felt his face get hot. He quickly turned away and left the room. Hotaru grabbed her wrist where he was just holding and she sighed.
"What's this feeling?" She asked herself.
AN: OMG I'm so sorry about the boring chapter! Please forgive me! And I'm sorry for rushing in the end like that but I had to get off the computer and I wanted to finish as much as possible. I hope I didn't get rid of any of my readers because of this. I'm really sorry for the boring chapter! Please... please forgive me! Anyway, here are the voting results. Those in first place are Minako and Makoto, each w/ three votes.
I don't want to put who else was up here but I'll assure you that every scout got voted at least one. If you want someone other than Minako or Makoto to come, then I suggest that you start voting. I personally want Minako or Ami or Rei. I'm not so sure you guys have to decide who out of all the scouts you want to come and join Hotaru. Of if you want Hotaru to be by herself, you can vote for that too! ^_^ I just want reviews ok? Ja!