1 Hey, I hope you like this chapter. By the way there's two new gundams,
you'll read about them. One is the Scorpio, and I know that Oz already had
a Scorpio, but I like that name so I gave it to the gundam. Thanks for
reading. ^.^
2 Chapter 4
In the tenth test we'd fight each other. Because there was only three of us we'd all go out at once. But before we went we drew straws. The shortest would choose a number first, and therefore chose the first suit. There were five suits to choose from, three of which we were told we had seen before today, two of which we were told we'd probably haven't seen. V had the short straw; I had the long, leaving Zechs in the middle.
V chose number one, reveling the Vay-ate. It had fully equipped weapons, beam sword, two beam guns and a few extra tid-bits.
"I thought those were dolls," I said.
He replied, "They are, but they're also a special model that can also be used as a regular suit. Though if I'm correct rules are you have to beat one before you can pilot one." He paused a moment. "I think they also have a new system in them."
Zechs chose next, number four. It was a suit I hadn't seen before, I hadn't even heard of it, which made me wonder how good our spies were. The suit reminded me slightly of a gundam, it could certainly hold it's own against one if they had to fight, and if it had a good pilot. Most soldiers would die in one, but if you were good enough… It had the potential to do a great deal of damage. The suit had a machine gun, a beam cannon and rifle, a beam sword and a blade that came from its arm much like the Heavyarm's had. Stats flew up on a board nearby, listing the general things about the suit, also stating a weapon I hadn't noticed. On the back of the suit was a whip like device much like what the Epyon had, with the exception of a very sharp blade on the end. The entire suit was black and a very dark purple, all of it giving a very nice, dangerous appearance. It all fit the name; the suit was indeed a Scorpio.
Zechs was staring at the suit, studying it. It didn't take a rocket scientist to tell he liked it, and it didn't hurt that he, too, was a Scorpio. In this suit I knew he'd be dangerous, down right impossible if I didn't get something good.
It was my turn to choose and I didn't know what number to pick. I licked my lips nervously and closed my eyes. Well my lucky number's thirteen and one was taken so… "Three."
It was rather ironic that the Gemini was the third suit. It was also the third sign of the Zodiac and my particular sign. The suit's main color was black, though it had some yellow spread all over it, including the weapons, which were all yellow. It was the equivalent to the Scorpio in a complete and totally different way. Two long metal swords were strapped to the back while it also carried a beam sword. A beam cannon attached to it's left arm. A shield much like the one the Mercuriouses had was set up behind the metal sword's sheaths. Small machine guns were attached to the face, right beside the 'eyes'.
I starred at the suit, surprised. It was great, not the best, but still great. I looked it up and down, amazement on my face. It was the equivalent of a gundam, and I was sorry for V. He clearly had the weakest suit. Glancing again at the stats I saw that both the Gemini and Scorpio were made out of Gundanium alloy.
"Those are…" I whispered, surprised and terrified at the same time.
"Gundams?" V suggested, his voice sounded amazed, though he betrayed no emotions on his face. "They never mentioned anything to me…"
"Yes, well we didn't mention it to anyone." Behind us stood a man. He had dark brown hair and emerald green eyes. He stood a couple inches taller than V, but was vaguely similar in other characteristics. He wore dark blue slacks and a polo shirt, yet still managed to look rather official. He smiled at me, not looking in least a pretender. "I'm Mathew Barton, Vince's father."
"And you were in charge of the new gundams?" I asked.
He nodded, "I saw that the original gundam pilots had managed to make new gundams for their children and I decided to help design some for Oz." He looked at the gundams. "They're quite remarkable, I had hoped Vince would get one but you'll have to test it instead." Well, he seemed nice enough.
I told him my name, Thomas, and then V and I had to get to the suits. In my new, temporary gundam I set things up, knowing the programs and codes to fix things to my likings. I did so wondering if anyone would notice the changes. I hoped they wouldn't, I didn't want anyone guessing I'd been in one before.
We shot out into space as a unit, allowing each other to gather their wits before we started fighting. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I felt something with me, something familiar, something that reminded me vaguely of RedZero. I opened my eyes and everything became red.
The Zero system… how'd they get this into the gundam? How… how'd they get RedZero's particular system into this gundam? I recognized it as my own, not a similar one.
I saw something, someone, in my gundam, but I couldn't tell who, everything had a red fuzz around it. They took something out, a disk. I could barely make out the writing on it.
ZERO SYSTEM, it read.
Someone had stolen the Zero system from RedZero. Had they put the same thing in the Scorpio?
Suddenly I was back in the gundam. The red faded from the Gemini cockpit as I saw V begin to move towards the Scorpio. It wasn't the best choice, I knew Zechs would win the fight, V didn't have a good enough suit to beat a gundam, but I did.
I raced after him, coming at Zechs from the other direction.
"Are you going to kick me out so you could just get rid of V, Conway?" Zechs asked over the com, sneering as he said my name. He didn't move as we kept coming, waiting for an answer. "If you are I won't fight, I don't stand a chance with both of you on me, it wouldn't really be worth the effort, you're good enough t beat me without V's help."
I stopped.
"Are you just saying that to get me to let you finish off V?"
"No, I'm just wondering if you want me out of this fight. If both you and V attack that's obviously the answer," he stated, his voice light and almost happy, as if this meant nothing.
V stopped, too. "I can stand this out if you two want to go for each other. I'm going to lose anyway so I shouldn't interfere with who moves onto the next level." He said. Neither of them seemed to be bothered with this, which made me feel all the stupider for just that. I didn't like the fact that V didn't stand a chance simply because Zechs and I ended up with gundams, I'd hate to be in that position.
"You sure?" I asked.
He began backing off. "Go for it, good luck."
"Thanks," I said.
I could almost see Zechs grinning. This was what he wanted, a fair fight with me. That bothered me a little, he only wanted fair fights when he thought he'd have the best chance of winning. I backed off a little, too, as I waited for Zechs to make the first move. I'd let him choose how he'd attack me, I didn't mind blocking a bit. Yet he seemed to be waiting as well, it seemed this would be the first challenge, who would attack first.
"You make everything into a fight," I declared.
He laughed, "Only 'cause you keep winning."
He came for me, the Scorpio moving faster than I'd expected. Using his machine gun he shot at me as he prepared to attack with his sword. Dodging his attacks I backed up, ready to block and attack back. I slowed down allowing him to catch me. He swung at me, I was able to block and we both pushed back, attacking again at a different spot. He was pretty good, but neither of us was getting anywhere. Pulling back Zechs shot his beam rifle at me. My shields instantly came out to block it, then strapped back to my back as I attacked with my sword. He was ready for me, complete with his arm blade on his left arm. With the sword in his right it was hard to block both attacks. I moved back again, giving him more time to attack. Managing to block I pulled out one of my two metal swords. It was three times as long as Zechs's arm blade, giving me a better chance of hitting him, and with it the tides turned. Zechs was having a hard time blocking my attacks, and decided to switch to a different tactic.
At full speed Zechs headed away from me, preparing his beam cannon to shoot me. My shield came up, but I wasn't sure that'd be enough. Logically, though, to make it a better shield it should be able to block any weapon you had. Of course not everyone was logical, but I could hope. He fired the cannon, and it hit with force. I slowly moved back, keeping up with my shield as the force of the blow pushed it. When the cannon stopped my shield was still intact, though I could tell it wasn't as strong as before. A couple more hits and it'd be gone. Next time I'd just dodge the attack.
"Not a bad trick there. I'd like one of those," Zechs said.
I answered, "Ask V's dad to add it to your suit, he made these after all."
"It'd get in the way of the whip," V pointed out, "else he would have put it on."
"You knew about the gundams?" I asked.
"He told me he was designing a new suit and asked for my opinions," V explained. "He never said they were gundams."
Zechs didn't waste anymore time talking, but instead remembered the whip. My shield was back on my back but I still had both swords out. I blocked the whip with my sword, but it wrapped around it, trying to twist it from my suits grip. Thanks to some quick thinking on my part the trick didn't work, but it could have and wasn't a bad idea for me to remember in case I ever piloted that suit.
Zechs came at me again, both beam sword and whip ready to be used. I fired the machine gun at him, slowing him a little, but not much. Things got rather confusing when he got into close range. Fighting off the whip and swords weren't as easy as I had thought. I began retreating more and more, eventually ending up close to V.
V backed up a little, but he wasn't really watching us for sudden movements. That made it so easy for Zechs when he turned to him and cut through his suit with the whip, 'killing' him.
"What! Hey, that's not fai-" called V, his voice being cut off before he could finish the sentence, though it wasn't hard to figure out what he was gong to say, and frankly I agreed.
"Now no one can hear us talk," Zechs said.
My nose twitched as I licked my lips. "Is that why you got rid of him?" I asked.
"Not really, but it was one of the reasons," Zechs stated. "I just wanted to have a private conversation as I fight you. And by the way, I'm going to win this fight." The last statement was accompanied by another round of attacks, all of which were easily taken care of. We continued to fight as we talked.
"So what makes you so sure you'll win? We seem even matched to me," I informed him. "You may have some good tricks up your sleeve but so do I, and my guess is that if you can handle mine I can handle yours."
He laughed. "You're right, but Thomas Conway's going to make a mistake when I use one of those little tricks, a very common mistake for a not so common attack," he stopped a moment to attack harder than normal, than continued, "so Alex Yuy can remain secret in this complex operation. She wouldn't want everyone to know that the famous Conway is actually Oz's greatest enemy, would she now."
"Damn it," I muttered, returning his hash attacks with equally deadly ones of my own.
He tisked. "Don't try too hard," he warned. "My attack's coming up. You'll know it. Make that mistake and let's end this game."
The screen turned red.
I saw myself at age thirteen, six years after I'd started my gundam training. Eight years after I'd started training in mobile suits. My dad was in Trowa's suit, he'd 'borrowed' it while Trowa was out of town. He came at me with both sword and the blade, but right before hitting me did one of Trowa's spin moves, though not as neat as Trowa did it. It had the same effect. I'd been unprepared. It had lost me the fight.
So he'd use one of Trowa's moves? What would happen if I didn't lose? What If I didn't 'accidentally' screw up? Damned if I knew, and I couldn't take the chance. One prick wasn't worth losing this opportunity to be in Oz. I could just hear the 'I told you so' from each and every one back at the hanger.
Homesickness suddenly swept over me. I missed the hanger, even with Julia and everyone else's bickering. It was better than being blackmailed by an unwanted jerk of a cousin. If I'd know he would be here I wouldn't have even considered joining Oz, but hey, you can't know everything.
The move came, I did me best to look like I was trying to block it, and I knew I looked convincing. I blocked part of the attack, as my father had shown me how, and I knew it wouldn't be enough. I could have avoided the whole thing. I don't think I hated Zechs more than I did the moment I saw the red dead flashing across my screen. I'd finally been knocked out of the game.
I got to the doc before Zechs did. The moment I stepped out of the Gemini cheers went up all over the place. I didn't see a person standing still and all my new friends were there to great me. I walked down the ladder to the ground, surprise clear on my face. Congratulations and slaps on the back were all that greeted me. I almost began to wonder if they knew I had lost.
"Why's everyone cheering?" I asked Mike, who was closest.
He grinned, "You probably don't know but Zechs is the best pilot in Oz. You gave him a run for his money, and you almost stopped his last attack. Most people are amazed that a rookie could do that good, and operate the gundam so well."
The operating a gundam part bugged me a little, but I could handle it. "There was something in the gundam that helped, it was as if I sometimes knew what he was going to do," that would describe the Zero System a little, and get me out of doing too well with the gundam. The fact that I could easily handle the system might be a problem, but I'll face my demons as they come my way, and that one wasn't here yet.
"If he hadn't done that move, you would have won eventually," Rob said, "He gets arrogant after awhile, thinking he can handle anything you throw at him." That was probably the best compliment I'd even get from Rob, and I smiled and thanked him for it.
Zechs got back into the docks and the cheers renewed themselves. Everyone was louder and more excited, but I didn't mind, much. He was arrogant about it, boasting every chance he got. Glancing my way he chuckled softly, murmuring something to his group of friends he'd gathered around him.
One of these days, I vowed, blackmail or not I'd beat him and everyone would be watching us, and know he should never have won.
2 Chapter 4
In the tenth test we'd fight each other. Because there was only three of us we'd all go out at once. But before we went we drew straws. The shortest would choose a number first, and therefore chose the first suit. There were five suits to choose from, three of which we were told we had seen before today, two of which we were told we'd probably haven't seen. V had the short straw; I had the long, leaving Zechs in the middle.
V chose number one, reveling the Vay-ate. It had fully equipped weapons, beam sword, two beam guns and a few extra tid-bits.
"I thought those were dolls," I said.
He replied, "They are, but they're also a special model that can also be used as a regular suit. Though if I'm correct rules are you have to beat one before you can pilot one." He paused a moment. "I think they also have a new system in them."
Zechs chose next, number four. It was a suit I hadn't seen before, I hadn't even heard of it, which made me wonder how good our spies were. The suit reminded me slightly of a gundam, it could certainly hold it's own against one if they had to fight, and if it had a good pilot. Most soldiers would die in one, but if you were good enough… It had the potential to do a great deal of damage. The suit had a machine gun, a beam cannon and rifle, a beam sword and a blade that came from its arm much like the Heavyarm's had. Stats flew up on a board nearby, listing the general things about the suit, also stating a weapon I hadn't noticed. On the back of the suit was a whip like device much like what the Epyon had, with the exception of a very sharp blade on the end. The entire suit was black and a very dark purple, all of it giving a very nice, dangerous appearance. It all fit the name; the suit was indeed a Scorpio.
Zechs was staring at the suit, studying it. It didn't take a rocket scientist to tell he liked it, and it didn't hurt that he, too, was a Scorpio. In this suit I knew he'd be dangerous, down right impossible if I didn't get something good.
It was my turn to choose and I didn't know what number to pick. I licked my lips nervously and closed my eyes. Well my lucky number's thirteen and one was taken so… "Three."
It was rather ironic that the Gemini was the third suit. It was also the third sign of the Zodiac and my particular sign. The suit's main color was black, though it had some yellow spread all over it, including the weapons, which were all yellow. It was the equivalent to the Scorpio in a complete and totally different way. Two long metal swords were strapped to the back while it also carried a beam sword. A beam cannon attached to it's left arm. A shield much like the one the Mercuriouses had was set up behind the metal sword's sheaths. Small machine guns were attached to the face, right beside the 'eyes'.
I starred at the suit, surprised. It was great, not the best, but still great. I looked it up and down, amazement on my face. It was the equivalent of a gundam, and I was sorry for V. He clearly had the weakest suit. Glancing again at the stats I saw that both the Gemini and Scorpio were made out of Gundanium alloy.
"Those are…" I whispered, surprised and terrified at the same time.
"Gundams?" V suggested, his voice sounded amazed, though he betrayed no emotions on his face. "They never mentioned anything to me…"
"Yes, well we didn't mention it to anyone." Behind us stood a man. He had dark brown hair and emerald green eyes. He stood a couple inches taller than V, but was vaguely similar in other characteristics. He wore dark blue slacks and a polo shirt, yet still managed to look rather official. He smiled at me, not looking in least a pretender. "I'm Mathew Barton, Vince's father."
"And you were in charge of the new gundams?" I asked.
He nodded, "I saw that the original gundam pilots had managed to make new gundams for their children and I decided to help design some for Oz." He looked at the gundams. "They're quite remarkable, I had hoped Vince would get one but you'll have to test it instead." Well, he seemed nice enough.
I told him my name, Thomas, and then V and I had to get to the suits. In my new, temporary gundam I set things up, knowing the programs and codes to fix things to my likings. I did so wondering if anyone would notice the changes. I hoped they wouldn't, I didn't want anyone guessing I'd been in one before.
We shot out into space as a unit, allowing each other to gather their wits before we started fighting. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I felt something with me, something familiar, something that reminded me vaguely of RedZero. I opened my eyes and everything became red.
The Zero system… how'd they get this into the gundam? How… how'd they get RedZero's particular system into this gundam? I recognized it as my own, not a similar one.
I saw something, someone, in my gundam, but I couldn't tell who, everything had a red fuzz around it. They took something out, a disk. I could barely make out the writing on it.
ZERO SYSTEM, it read.
Someone had stolen the Zero system from RedZero. Had they put the same thing in the Scorpio?
Suddenly I was back in the gundam. The red faded from the Gemini cockpit as I saw V begin to move towards the Scorpio. It wasn't the best choice, I knew Zechs would win the fight, V didn't have a good enough suit to beat a gundam, but I did.
I raced after him, coming at Zechs from the other direction.
"Are you going to kick me out so you could just get rid of V, Conway?" Zechs asked over the com, sneering as he said my name. He didn't move as we kept coming, waiting for an answer. "If you are I won't fight, I don't stand a chance with both of you on me, it wouldn't really be worth the effort, you're good enough t beat me without V's help."
I stopped.
"Are you just saying that to get me to let you finish off V?"
"No, I'm just wondering if you want me out of this fight. If both you and V attack that's obviously the answer," he stated, his voice light and almost happy, as if this meant nothing.
V stopped, too. "I can stand this out if you two want to go for each other. I'm going to lose anyway so I shouldn't interfere with who moves onto the next level." He said. Neither of them seemed to be bothered with this, which made me feel all the stupider for just that. I didn't like the fact that V didn't stand a chance simply because Zechs and I ended up with gundams, I'd hate to be in that position.
"You sure?" I asked.
He began backing off. "Go for it, good luck."
"Thanks," I said.
I could almost see Zechs grinning. This was what he wanted, a fair fight with me. That bothered me a little, he only wanted fair fights when he thought he'd have the best chance of winning. I backed off a little, too, as I waited for Zechs to make the first move. I'd let him choose how he'd attack me, I didn't mind blocking a bit. Yet he seemed to be waiting as well, it seemed this would be the first challenge, who would attack first.
"You make everything into a fight," I declared.
He laughed, "Only 'cause you keep winning."
He came for me, the Scorpio moving faster than I'd expected. Using his machine gun he shot at me as he prepared to attack with his sword. Dodging his attacks I backed up, ready to block and attack back. I slowed down allowing him to catch me. He swung at me, I was able to block and we both pushed back, attacking again at a different spot. He was pretty good, but neither of us was getting anywhere. Pulling back Zechs shot his beam rifle at me. My shields instantly came out to block it, then strapped back to my back as I attacked with my sword. He was ready for me, complete with his arm blade on his left arm. With the sword in his right it was hard to block both attacks. I moved back again, giving him more time to attack. Managing to block I pulled out one of my two metal swords. It was three times as long as Zechs's arm blade, giving me a better chance of hitting him, and with it the tides turned. Zechs was having a hard time blocking my attacks, and decided to switch to a different tactic.
At full speed Zechs headed away from me, preparing his beam cannon to shoot me. My shield came up, but I wasn't sure that'd be enough. Logically, though, to make it a better shield it should be able to block any weapon you had. Of course not everyone was logical, but I could hope. He fired the cannon, and it hit with force. I slowly moved back, keeping up with my shield as the force of the blow pushed it. When the cannon stopped my shield was still intact, though I could tell it wasn't as strong as before. A couple more hits and it'd be gone. Next time I'd just dodge the attack.
"Not a bad trick there. I'd like one of those," Zechs said.
I answered, "Ask V's dad to add it to your suit, he made these after all."
"It'd get in the way of the whip," V pointed out, "else he would have put it on."
"You knew about the gundams?" I asked.
"He told me he was designing a new suit and asked for my opinions," V explained. "He never said they were gundams."
Zechs didn't waste anymore time talking, but instead remembered the whip. My shield was back on my back but I still had both swords out. I blocked the whip with my sword, but it wrapped around it, trying to twist it from my suits grip. Thanks to some quick thinking on my part the trick didn't work, but it could have and wasn't a bad idea for me to remember in case I ever piloted that suit.
Zechs came at me again, both beam sword and whip ready to be used. I fired the machine gun at him, slowing him a little, but not much. Things got rather confusing when he got into close range. Fighting off the whip and swords weren't as easy as I had thought. I began retreating more and more, eventually ending up close to V.
V backed up a little, but he wasn't really watching us for sudden movements. That made it so easy for Zechs when he turned to him and cut through his suit with the whip, 'killing' him.
"What! Hey, that's not fai-" called V, his voice being cut off before he could finish the sentence, though it wasn't hard to figure out what he was gong to say, and frankly I agreed.
"Now no one can hear us talk," Zechs said.
My nose twitched as I licked my lips. "Is that why you got rid of him?" I asked.
"Not really, but it was one of the reasons," Zechs stated. "I just wanted to have a private conversation as I fight you. And by the way, I'm going to win this fight." The last statement was accompanied by another round of attacks, all of which were easily taken care of. We continued to fight as we talked.
"So what makes you so sure you'll win? We seem even matched to me," I informed him. "You may have some good tricks up your sleeve but so do I, and my guess is that if you can handle mine I can handle yours."
He laughed. "You're right, but Thomas Conway's going to make a mistake when I use one of those little tricks, a very common mistake for a not so common attack," he stopped a moment to attack harder than normal, than continued, "so Alex Yuy can remain secret in this complex operation. She wouldn't want everyone to know that the famous Conway is actually Oz's greatest enemy, would she now."
"Damn it," I muttered, returning his hash attacks with equally deadly ones of my own.
He tisked. "Don't try too hard," he warned. "My attack's coming up. You'll know it. Make that mistake and let's end this game."
The screen turned red.
I saw myself at age thirteen, six years after I'd started my gundam training. Eight years after I'd started training in mobile suits. My dad was in Trowa's suit, he'd 'borrowed' it while Trowa was out of town. He came at me with both sword and the blade, but right before hitting me did one of Trowa's spin moves, though not as neat as Trowa did it. It had the same effect. I'd been unprepared. It had lost me the fight.
So he'd use one of Trowa's moves? What would happen if I didn't lose? What If I didn't 'accidentally' screw up? Damned if I knew, and I couldn't take the chance. One prick wasn't worth losing this opportunity to be in Oz. I could just hear the 'I told you so' from each and every one back at the hanger.
Homesickness suddenly swept over me. I missed the hanger, even with Julia and everyone else's bickering. It was better than being blackmailed by an unwanted jerk of a cousin. If I'd know he would be here I wouldn't have even considered joining Oz, but hey, you can't know everything.
The move came, I did me best to look like I was trying to block it, and I knew I looked convincing. I blocked part of the attack, as my father had shown me how, and I knew it wouldn't be enough. I could have avoided the whole thing. I don't think I hated Zechs more than I did the moment I saw the red dead flashing across my screen. I'd finally been knocked out of the game.
I got to the doc before Zechs did. The moment I stepped out of the Gemini cheers went up all over the place. I didn't see a person standing still and all my new friends were there to great me. I walked down the ladder to the ground, surprise clear on my face. Congratulations and slaps on the back were all that greeted me. I almost began to wonder if they knew I had lost.
"Why's everyone cheering?" I asked Mike, who was closest.
He grinned, "You probably don't know but Zechs is the best pilot in Oz. You gave him a run for his money, and you almost stopped his last attack. Most people are amazed that a rookie could do that good, and operate the gundam so well."
The operating a gundam part bugged me a little, but I could handle it. "There was something in the gundam that helped, it was as if I sometimes knew what he was going to do," that would describe the Zero System a little, and get me out of doing too well with the gundam. The fact that I could easily handle the system might be a problem, but I'll face my demons as they come my way, and that one wasn't here yet.
"If he hadn't done that move, you would have won eventually," Rob said, "He gets arrogant after awhile, thinking he can handle anything you throw at him." That was probably the best compliment I'd even get from Rob, and I smiled and thanked him for it.
Zechs got back into the docks and the cheers renewed themselves. Everyone was louder and more excited, but I didn't mind, much. He was arrogant about it, boasting every chance he got. Glancing my way he chuckled softly, murmuring something to his group of friends he'd gathered around him.
One of these days, I vowed, blackmail or not I'd beat him and everyone would be watching us, and know he should never have won.