STARTING A NEW PATH
Chapter Three
Written by Ice Dragoness
The next day . . .
Relena waited at the hangar entrance for any sign of her friend. All she could see was dust and sand, in every direction. Vaguely, she could see a dark spot against the honey-colored sands, and hope rose in her chest.
As the spot drew nearer, Relena realized that it was indeed Hilde. Finally! Someone my own age! But as Hilde drew nearer, she realized that Hilde had a gun out pointed in her direction.
"Hey, Hilde! No need for the gun, it's just me!" Relena called, hoping that Hilde had heard her.
Finally, only a few yards away, Hilde's gun-hand dropped and she breathed an audible sigh of relief and spoke hoarsely. "Thank goodness! I came here thinking that it might be a trap, and -" Hilde stopped short as she glanced around the hangar. "Impressive," she conceded.
Hilde grinned. "I came the long way, you know, walking five miles across this desert. Mind if I get a drink?" she asked, gesturing at Relena's canteen.
"No problem," Relena responded with a shrug as she handed the red canteen to Hilde.
"So, how long have you been training here?" Hilde asked after she slaked her thirst.
"Just a couple of days," Relena said with a shake of her head. "Come inside, Doctor J's got a mobile suit for you."
"A suit for me? And isn't Doctor J supposed to be dead?" Hilde demanded.
Relena sighed. "It's a long story. Basically, he survived and he's helping me learn how to pilot a suit."
"I see."
"You're not surprised I'm not a pacifist?" a surprised Relena queried.
Hilde shrugged embarassedly. "I had my suspicions," she admitted. "But I never confronted you, 'cause I knew there was a big chance I would be wrong."
"You want to see your suit?"
"Wow, it's incredible!" exclaimed Hilde passionately. "More than I could've ever dreamed of!"
"Here are the stats," Relena said through a mouthful of muffin as she handed the same type of paper to her friend.
Armament-
Beam Saber x1
Gatling Gun x1
Beam Cannon x1
Vulcan Gun x2
Basic Stats-
Height: 16.5
Weight: 7.1
Armor: Gundanium/Titanium alloy
Fighting Stats-
Fighting: 180
Weapon: 190
Power: 210
Armor: 220
Speed: 180
The Gundam itself was more like Sandrock than anything else, in terms of battle strategy. The head was a mixture of red, gold and black, with a similar gold dragon crest on hers. The "face" was black with burning golden eyes, eyes that bore into your very soul. The torso was mainly red with three gold "V"'s on the front. The arms were black with gold hands. The shoulder extensions were shaped like Deathscythe-Hell's wicked, curved claws and colored red. The legs, like Draco's, were all one color: red.
All in all, it was very imposing. And Hilde obviously thought the world of it.
"Settling in, Hilde?" said Doctor J, rather pleasantly as he entered the hangar. "Your Gundam is named 'Phantasm'. Taking a look at it?" At Hilde's nod, Doctor J continued. "Good. I'll show you how to link to your Gundam."
Relena left the room and headed to her personal room. As she started to stretch out on her mat, she let her mind open and wander.
FLASHBACK
"Never forget how beautiful the earth looks from afar."
END FLASHBACK
Now, with her adoptive father's words coming back to her all of a sudden, Relena felt dizzy as she sat up and rested her forehead in her palms.
Gradually, Relena's headache faded away, leaving only a dull throb behind. But it still lingered, mocking her as she stood up and started her katas. Step forward, down block, guard, reverse punch, front kick, down block, guard, side kick, step around, repeat, she ordered herself firmly, determined to overcome this obstacle.
Relena had just drawn her sword to practice her kendo when Hilde and Doctor J entered the room. "Meiun? I need to speak with you on a very urgent matter," he said firmly.
"Yes?" Relena was vaguely annoyed at being interrupted, but resheathed her sword.
"I just got a message from Heero," he announced gravely. Relena's head jerked up. "He and the other Gundam pilots need lodging here, to rest and recuperate between battles and train. Ryuujin - I gave Hilde a code name as well - has a situation here. You know how Duo would react if he knew she was here, fighting. Does it matter if you need to be hidden, too?" he questioned.
Relena bit her lip. "I don't know," she answered slowly. "But I probably wouldn't want them to know I was here."
Doctor J nodded solemnly. "Very well," he said. "It won't be that hard; we have a huge base here." But it sounded as if he was trying to convince himself.
Two weeks later . . .
Relena sighed. Hiding from them is getting harder and harder, she reflected. We have to duck into empty rooms every time one of them comes through a corrider on their way to start or end a mission or whatever.
Hilde seemed to pick up on what Relena was thinking. "You're absolutely right. We're not going to pull this off for very much longer."
Their reverie was broken by the now-familiar sound of Doctor J's voice. "I have your first mission information."
Relena and Hilde jumped up immediately, their faces tinged with anxiousness. "Really?" Hilde asked, trying - and failing - to keep the excitement out of her voice. She swallowed, trying to keep her composure. "So, what are we going to do?" she asked, slightly calmer now.
"Just basic mass destruction," he told them offandedly. They both blanched. "I have the coordinates for one of the Viper Clan's main bases. They're loaded into your Gundam databases. You two will go there, and destroy as much as possible. They're developing new mobile suits and mobile dolls."
Relena took a deep breath as she nodded. Hilde voiced what she was thinking. "Let's get ready," Hilde said with a grin.
Duo glanced up at the seven Gundams, all lined up in a row. That sounds like a fairy tale. "All lined up in a row," he mused with a slight smile.
"What's funny?" Quatre asked, coming into the room with a cup of coffee in one hand.
Duo grinned his Cheshire-cat trademark grin. "Just thinking. What do you think of those two new Gundams there, eh?"
Quatre shrugged. "I don't really know," he admitted, taking a sip of his coffee.
"I think something's wrong," Duo said after a pause. "I mean, why build Gundams if they're not going to be used? It's been half a month, no pilots," he pointed out.
"Yeah, you're right. You think they have pilots?" Quatre questioned, setting the coffee cup down and running a hand through his blond hair.
"I don't know . . . I wish I did," Duo said, and they both laughed.
"Oh, great," Hilde muttered as they quickly and silent walked past Quatre and Duo's door. "They've caught on to us."
"But they don't know," whispered Relena quietly.
"Did you hear something, Duo?"
As Hilde commanded Phantasm to come on-line, she smiled. She'd never seen anything like this mobile suit before, and likely wouldn't again. As the cockpit lights turned on, she noticed a red, blocky message on a small scree. It read -
Viper Clan Database Information
Hilde stared curiously at it. Database? Information on the Viper Clan? "Wait a moment, Meiun," she commanded softly through the speech-link their Gundams shared. "There's something I want to take a look at real quick."
"Sure, but hurry. It's almost 1400 hours, time for the mission." Relena's firm voice filtered through the speakers.
Knowing she had little time, Hilde pressed her finger on the words. Instantly, one of the larger screens lit up. On it was listed some sketchy information on the modern Viper Clan, as well as all the places they terrorized. Then she noticed something. There was a small list of confirmed former members of the Clan, who either died or dropped out. One of the names was "Odin Lowe".
Odin Lowe? Who the heck is that? she wondered, then heard Relena's voice.
"We have to leave, now," Relena ordered urgently. "It's time!"
Hilde shook her head to clear it, and fired up the thrusters on Iris. Doctor J had made sure they had a secret exit out of the other side of the base. It was soundproofed, so that the other Gundam pilots wouldn't hear them leaving and coming.
They raced across the desert at near-top speed southwest. The base they were aiming for wasn't very big on the outside, according to Doctor J, but it harbored an underground MS factory. They had recently constucted a prototype mobile suit with titanium armor, which they called "Venom". It was imperative that they destroy it.
"Got it!" Relena shouted as they neared it. She pulled out her twin buster rifle as a dozen Taurus mobile suits, piloted by humans, started pouring out of the entrance, which happened to be to their upper-left. Hilde readied Phantasm's beam cannon to shoot. The automatic targeting system kicked in, and after a few seconds she murmered, "Locked on target."
Without warning, one of the suits pulled out a gatling gun, and took a shot at her. "Chikuso!" she hissed as she shot back, dead on-target, totally by reflex. Can't get cocky! she thought. Five of the other Tauruses cornered her, while the other six teamed up on Draco and Relena.
Hilde whipped out the beam saber and ignited it, slicing through one of the dolls. It was another lucky shot, 'cos the suit was slightly off balance.
Relena wasn't doing much better. She had ignited her beam glaive early on, and had destroyed one suit and incapacitated another, which blew up a minute later. But there were still four left. She swung the glaive in a wide arc. The dark purple beam sliced through yet another suit. I'm glad these aren't dolls, she thought grimly as a Tauros punched and she blocked. As she did, she unlocked her knife on that hand, and it sliced through the lower half of the suit's arm, making parts of it explode.
Hilde was starting to feel a little more confident about their odds. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something that made her heart thump. A shockingly golden suit - which managed to blend in well with the sand all around them - was rising out of the sand. No, wait, Hilde thought, Not out of the sand, but out of another entrance.
Relena stared at the new suit in wonder. Now that is one heckuva mobile suit, she thought with a slight smile. I'm honored they thought us this good.
Ten minutes later . . .
"That pilot must've been training for years! We're not a match for it, even if it's alone!!" gasped a breathless Hilde. But there was no time to say anything more, because the pilot decided to attack again.
"There's only one way to win," Relena stated, both grimly and hesitantly after the attack ceased for the moment.
"As long as you don't self-destruct, be my guest!" Hilde cried, fending off a beam saber with a shield.
Relena took a deep breath, and glanced down at her keyboard. She typed in the word "AZERO" and closed her eyes, waiting for it to take effect.
Hilde watched in both fascination and astonishment as Relena completely decimated the Venom suit singlehandedly. And it was obvious Venom's pilot was just as surprised and shocked as she was. Draco hasn't even take a single hit! she thought in amazement. Draco was like a black bullet, and when she was done, all that was left of the Venom suit was a bunch of scrap metal.
"Hey, Meiun, what'd you do?" Hilde asked her partner. When she didn't get an answer, she called out again. And again. Finally, a frustrated Hilde rested Phantasm in front of Draco and got out of the cockpit. As she did, she covered her face with the material of her light shirt; it was a windy day, and that was a bad thing in the middle of the desert.
She pushed the button to open the cockpit and climbed in. Doctor J had designed it so that if there was trouble, Hilde could get inside Draco's cockpit, and Relena could come into Phantasm's cockpit, but no one else could. Not much different than Phantasm, she thought vaguely. Then she noticed Relena.
Relena was unconscious, her cheek resting on the control panel - fortunately not activating weapons or anything. Her brown hair spilled over her face and onto the keyboard. Hilde shook her shoulders gently, trying to wake her up. "You know, this isn't the best time to be takin' a nap," she joked half-heartedly.
After ten minutes, Hilde started to get desperate. Am I gonna have to leave her here? she wondered, knowing that she couldn't, for more than one reason. One, Relena was in a Gundam in the middle of the desert. Bad. Noticeable. Two, her conscience wouldn't let her.
Blackness . . . darkness . . . I can't move . . . I can't see . . .
What's going on? Where am I? It's so dark in here. What am I doing here? Where can I go? Why am I here? Am I dead? Have I been killed? I-
"Go, and live," said a voice, warm with emotion and crystal clear. "Be free of this monstrosity and awake."
With an abrupt start, Relena woke up. Hilde breathed a sigh of relief as she saw her companion open her eyes. "What happened?" Meiun murmered groggily.
"Don't worry about it," Hilde said quickly. "I'll tell you later. C'mon, let's go back to base."
"I wonder if anything on the Viper Clan's here?" Duo wondered aloud as he sifted through various black floppy disks. One in particular caught his eye. "It's labeled 'Viper Clan Information Database'." Intrigued, Duo grinned as he took the floppy disk back to his and Heero's room.
As he inserted the disk into Heero's laptop, Duo once again thought about those two mysterious Gundams. Draco and Phantasm, Doctor J had called them. What else had Doctor J said? Oh yeah, he was just fooling around with some designs. Yeah, and I'm the Pope, Duo thought with a smirk.
The braided boy clicked on the file that popped up in a window. Security codes, he thought disinterestedly. Pretty simple ones, too. It only took a couple of minutes to disable them.
He opened up the only file on the disk. But something out of place caught his eye. The title of the file was "Draco-Phantasm Gundam Database," not "Viper Clan Information Database"! "He knew someone might get a hold of the disk, so he disguised it," Duo guessed as he toyed with his braid.
Duo's eyes narrowed as he clicked down the list of statistics for the Draco Gundam. The description made it sound as if it did have a pilot. Aha! Duo thought as he came across a pilot profile. Holy --! he thought, shocked. If Relena's the pilot of Draco, then who pilots Phantasm? It better not be - His suspicions were confirmed as he read the rest.
The pilot's name in the pilot profile for the Phantasm Gundam read "Hilde Schbeiker".
"How dare you?!?!" Duo shouted at Doctor J. "Why didn't you tell us that Relena and Hilde were here?! We have the right to know!"
"What are you talking about?" asked the doctor irascibly. "Relena Peacecraft and Hilde Schbeiker aren't here."
Duo slammed the disk down onto the desk, with so much force the desk shook. "Gee, I wonder how I knew?" he said sarcastically.
Doctor J's eyes narrowed. "Fine, they're here. But I most certainly won't tell you where they are or what they're doing."
"I'll find out myself!!" With that, Duo stormed off. Doctor J shook his head as he watched Duo leave.
Duo was so incensed that he didn't watch where he was going. A half-second too late, he noticed vaguely that he was about to walk into a wall. He readied himself for impact, but didn't come across one.
"Wha-?" Duo asked to thin air as he walked through the wall. Turning around, all he could see was a grayish blur. Duo reached out tentatively ahead of him, and he noticed as the lower half of his arms moved straight through the "wall".
Oh, it must be a hologram. Wait, hologram?!! Why?! His own question was answered when he turned around once again. Directly ahead of him - just a few inches ahead of him, actually - was a door labeled "D-P Hangar". D-P? Draco-Phantasm? he wondered.
As he opened the door, he was treated to the sight of Hilde and Relena getting out of their Gundams.