Catherine strolled over to the boy in the bed. The cold window radiated onto her skin, cold cold air. the poor guy. But all didn't seem so poor-- the boy began to move and his eyes twitched.
"Oh my!!" Catherine gasped. She rushed back to the bedroom to fetch more blankets. When she came back he had turned way from the freezing window. "Are you okay?"
"Mmph" he replied.
Oh.. okay. She tossed the blankets over him then looked at his face. His Prussian blue eyes were open. He examined Catherine and the blankets. He tried his hardest to put a blanket over his head, all but one eye to peer around with.
"What am I" he attempted to talk.
"Pardon?" Catherine politely asked.
"WHERE AM I??...is what I said."
"You're in mine and Trowa's trailer, in a traveling circus. Whats your name?"
"Hrrrmphg" his muffled voice said.
"Excuse me?"
"HEERO, dammit!" the boy yelled in a quiet, angry voice. He looked at the clock, 9:30pm. The calender read a month passed since he last remembered. Heero rolled overand stared out the foggy window.
"Sorry, Heero. My name is Catherine."
"Nmphm.." his deep voice rumbled.
Catherine gave Heero another blanket and went to the kitchen. She grabbed a plate and a bowl. "Would you like some dinner?"
"Yah."
~~*
"Hey! Look ahead!" Chantal called to everyone over the radio.
"We're here?" Duo said in almost disbelief.
"Duh" Pippa snorted.
"It's already 10! Lets hurry up!" yawned Shanell.
"Now, dont fall asleep on us" Quatre poked fun.
"I wont"
"Are you still alive, Trowa?" Quatre radioed him, jokingly.
"Yes." Trowa replied in a monotone voice.
Right ahead of the four suits was a giant building with lights lit up all over. An OZ base. There were no visible Leos or Aries. Perfect.
"Everybody is asleep, no guards." Duo noticed.
"Yeah... we need to get a plan, though" Chantal said.
"Of course" Pippa sighed. "Lets stop here." Pippa began descended abruptly. Soon the other did as she did, after a few rude little comments were made.
"I still think we should just free-for-all" Pippa said after they had all exited their suits and sat around an old picnic table.
"No no no, we needa formation! We can surround and destroy" Shanell commented.
"Those are both good ideas, ladies. But I have a better one." Trowa spoke up. HE was propped against a tree, watching them with folded arms. "Combine them."
"What?" Pippa and Shanell both said at the man.
"Oh, I get it... I see what your saying, Trowa" Chantal blanky said, watching still the sky for Quatre.
"So, what you're saying, Trowa, is that we can utilize both air and land suits with an ambush post a straight on air attack?" Duo sounded very intelligent.
"Us three, Quatre, you and me will head out after the air attack and ambush them. They wont see us if we distract them with the girls. You ladies will have to decide how youre goingto work out your part." Trowa looked over at the three, who were looking at him now.
"Okay! Come on you two-- we gotta plot and fast!" Shanell said as she grabbed the other two females and brought them away from the guys to plot.
"Shouldn't we let them in on our plans?" Chantal asked, referring to the guys.
"Nah, they'll figure it out on their own." Pippa ripped her arm from Shanell's grasp, glaring at the curly haired blonde.
~~*
"Here, Heero" Catherine smiled as she set a little table near to Heero's bed. She brought a tray cautiously over to him. "Pizza and green tea and a nice, healthy salad."
"Thanks" muttered Heero, sitting up as best he could. How long had he been out? A month? A year? Maybe a week? Heero glanced over his shoulder at the food Catherine had left. It looked good.
"Is..everything ok?" Catherine asked, still looming near the table.
"Im fine."
"Then eat up! You need to get better fast!" Catherine waltzed away and Heero watched the brunette leave. Once he was gone, he let out a slow sigh, turned and grabbed his fork. He held it tight in his fist, drinking the tea from the delicate cup. He slowly wedged the fork int othe piza and tok a bite. Not bad.
~~*
"Right, so we split up, bomb the suit hangar, then prepare for possible retaliation?" Chantal went over the plan.
"Yeah" Shanell replied. She glanced at the watch on sleeping Pippa's wrist. 11o'clock. "We better get going."
"Okay, Ill go tell the guys. You wake it up." Chantal said and she started walking towards her male companions.
Shanell looked at the Japanese girl and took a deep breath. "PIPPA! WAKE YOUR LAZY ASS UP!!!!!" She yelled louder than loud.
Pippa's eyes shot wide open and she stood up, saluting Shanell. "Yes, Fa--" she began to say until she realized who she was saluting exactly. "Oh... what the helll did you wake me up for!?"
"We're leaving now"
"What? You guys attacked without me!?"
"Yes, now come on" Shanell said sarcastically. Pippa glared at her as they both left for their suits.
"Okay, time to go, guys! Remember! After we go, you follow up!" Chantal was perky.
"Well, okay, I guess.. we.. uhm... uh.. nevermind." Duo stuttered.
"What?"
"Nothing..." Duo muttered, standing up. Trowa did the same as did Quatre, who had just arrived not 20 minutes ago. Everyone stretched a little and boarded their mobile suits.
"See ya later" Chantal said to Quatre.
"You too" he replied, smiling that wonderful smile of his.
Slowly but surely the very quiet sound of engines rose. The six giant mechas grouped off and headed where they needed to be.
"Lets go!" Howled Duo.
"Okay" said Trowa.
One by one, the 3 flight Gundams took to the sky. Pippadarted left of the base, Chantal to the right and Shanell headed straight at the main building.
"C'mon guys" Duo saidm heading up the three ground models. The yall walked in opposite directions. Trowa to his left, Quatre to his right and, you guessed it, Duo forwards.
"On the count of 3..."Chantal told the other two girls over a vid link.
"Then count already" Pippa snapped.
"1..." they grabbed their acceleraters.
"2...." They got ready.
"3!" The three planes jetted off at half speed each, faster than befor, leaving a green, blue and read streak behind. A long silver cylinder emerged at the front of Pippa's suit. In its hollow center a glowing green orb grew. She darted around the buildings, eventually heading towards the arms hangar.
"Check" she said to the others, signaling she was ready.
Chantal blasted forwars towards another hangar, labeled as "2" and hovered near it. out of the two wings of her mobile suit came two heavy rifles. They turned and aimed down towards the hangar. The two opening glowed blue. "Check.
"Just...a...minute..."Shanell said, hitting various buttons. Her craft circled the "3" hanger. Just as with Pippa and Chantal, three guns emerged from her suits outer casing, glowing bright red."Check!"
"On three! 1.2.3!" Said Chantal. Cimultaneously, the 3 guns fired. A humongous explosion of fire and debree flew up at the retreating suits. It lit up the night sky for miles.
"Yes!" Shanell shouted.
"We did it!" cheered Chantal.
"Oh, we're not done yet" Pippa's suit turn around to face the base.
Yelling. Screaming. Blinking lights. Screeching sirens. The OZ base was in a state of chaos when a huge door on the ground swung up and open.
"What the hell!?" Shanell shouted.
"Those are the minutemen."Chantal explained, circling up and around, gettingready to fight.
Several huge explosions arupted on a watch tower. nother gundam. He was firing at the buildings around. From the opposite direction, a giant green scythe sliced through a metal garage, hitting a lone leo firing up at him. And ,across the whole mess, two giant metal sicles sliced through two low buildings. Soldier dorms.
"Its them" Shanell was glad they arrived.
At least thirty leo suits marched up from under ground, firing madly at the invading suits.
"Hurry up and get to the entrance!" Duo shouted through his PA system. Shanell turned her suit and pulled a lever, hiting a pedal on the floor. The gian mech landed on its two feet, turning humanoid once again. Its wings folded back into themselves. Its head appears from its chest, decorated with razors and sparkling green eyes.
"What the-- theres 5 of them!" yelled an OZ officer.
"6, you idiot! Get moving!!" called another.
"No, 5, sir! OZ's test dummy is out there! But why is out he--AHHHGGG!!!" the leo exploded.
"No fight for you!" Shanell cackledand she shot that and other leos down. She slammed her fist down on a giant green button and her gundam faded out from view. Thermoptics. Shanell walked over near the opening of the leo's underground base andbegan firing wildly in, firing her huge lazer cannon down at them.
Chantal flew over to the opposite side of the base, a dark deserted corner. She pulled on a shifter and her suit changed back to its humanoid form. Only the bright green eyes and camera were visible in the black of night.
"Chantal, what are you doing over there?" Pippa said to her over the vid, shooting some loose leos down.
"There are some minutmen over here somewhere... but I cant see them..." she replied. "Ive been here before..."
"Kay, hope your right" Pippa flew away.
From thin air, as it seemed, came round after round of bullets, hitting unsuspected leos. Any suit who was lucky enoughto escape didnt last too much longer, being either subdued by a single swipe of Duo's scythe or Trowa's incessant fire. Every now and the na shot woul hit Shanell, not even a dent was made.
"Hey, where's Chantal?" asked Quatre,who was checking out all his accomplise's conditions.
"She's on the west strip" Pippa told him, flying across the whole base to finish off more building and leos.
"Thanks" Quatre headed westward.
"Damn" Shanell muttered, realizing she was out of fuel for her beam rifles. The giant metallic arm of her Gundam dropped the useless piece of machinery, it appearing on the ground below, baffling onlooking leos.
"Where did that come from??" said an escaped leo. It immediatley began firing at the area above the dropped rifle. He hit something to his amazement. But there was nothing there... The lone soldier fired and fired until he was bombarded by bullets from the invisible object.
"Damn him" Shanell said as she saw the camoflauge mechanism on her suit give a little.
"You okay" Duo asked.
"Good as ever" Shanell replied. She began aproaching the thin trickle of enemies with a beam sabre at hand. As the giant white arm rose above the leos to give them a nice swift slice, something hit her. Strong. A bomb from a leo with a missle launcher. Her camoflauge had totally faded.
"Hey, watch out!" Trowa shot the leo that hit Shanell. It immediatley exploded, hitting her suit.
Across the base, Chantal sensed the aries approaching. They werent on radar yet, but she knew they were there. The suit began to shake just the tiniest bit.
"Chantal, I'll help you" Quatre told her as his giant gundam approached hers.
"What?? Well, hurry up and hide! They're almost here!"
"Who?" Quatre asked.
"Minutemen... Aries..."
The ground began rumbling a little more and a trap door opened in front of the two Gundams. Aries began flying out in trios. As they did so, Chantal and Quatre fired at them, knocking most of them out of the sky to crash to the earth before they even got a glimpse of they're killers.
"They're coming too fast!" Chantal said, struggling to keep up her firing pace. She grabbed a huge beam glaive and turned it on She swung att he aries, her aim much better now than with her rifles. Quatre whipped out his two giant crushers and began chopping away at the airborne enemies. Only a few escaped towards Shanell, Duo and Trowa.
"Three more??"One OZ pilot said.
"Who cares! Just fire at them!" another shouted. Thousand of the small bullets went flying from he aries' rifles, plenty hitting Shanell. More than the others.
"Aah!" She screamed as she realized they were hitting a weak spot in her suit. Shanell turned and began firing at the aries. Trowa and Duo finished most of the leos off and began helping with the aries, more than before, flooding in towards the three. Trowa, almost out of ammo, whipped out his army knife and did his best.
"Get the hell away!!" Duo yelled at the aries. Trowa ran towards where the aries were coming from leaving Shanell and Duo alone to fight.
Wit hevery shot, Shanell's defense weakened. her beam sabre was shot from her hand and went flying behind her. Finally, one of the attacking aries remained. Out of ammo and out of luck, Shanell prayed for Duo to do this right. The lone aries, avoiding Duo's shots, launched a large bomb at Shanell, the closer of the two suits. It hit dead on the mark.
"Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!" Shanell screamed. Her whole body flung forward and hit the main control panel. Her head hit the screen, smashing the glass to pieces. Shards flew everywhere, ripping into her body. She was knocked unconscience. The only thing keeping her from dropping was he seat belt, which was unusually loose. Her limp hand fell onto the emergency release button, turning the machine off. The metal doors ahead of her flung open and her legs fell forward, dangling. The blast left the suit on its hands and knees. Dead.
After Chantal and Quatre's attacks, there were but 5 aries left, who retreat into the distance as fast as they could. All theleos had been demolished long ago.
"NOOO! DAMMIT!!" Duo yelled, seeing Shanell's dead suit and her legs dangling from inside. He pounded on the dash of his suit. "Pippa! Get over here! I need your suit!!" He yelled through a video.
"What??" Pippa asked, flying over to the two suit. "Oh my hol--"
"Hurry up!!!" Duo said, jumping to the ground from his cockpit. Pippa hopped out and ran to him. She told him some codes and Duo told her what happened. He boarde the giant black mech and flew off into the night, after the escaped aries that had done this to Shanell.
"Hey! Trowa! Come help me!" Duo told the man.
"What?" Trowa watched as Duo flew by.
"Just hurry up"
Trowa began running after Duo, and jumped with all his suits might and grabbed onto the bar beneath Pippa's suit.
"Hey! Where are you..." Quatre tried to talk to Duo through radio, but couldnt find the frequency. "Chantal, do you know where they went?"
"Do I wanna know?" she sniggered, then looked serious. " I have no idea.."
Out from the opposite direction some came runing towards the two giant suits. Both Quatre and Chantal zeroed in on the person, Pippa.
"Hey! You guys! Hurry up and help me! Shanell's, like, dead!" she yelled up at the mechs.
"What??" Quatre was alarmed. His face turned worried and he clenched his fists around the controls of his Gundam. He ran towards where Shanell was. Pippa ran over and hopped onto a joint guard on the giant blue foot of Chantal's mech. They followed him. Up, in a charred spot of cement, sat Shanell's suit. It was scarred, black and brown around the edges. Boy is that Gundanium Alloy strong! Quatre had already hopped out of his suit and was running to the open spot under the fallen metal man.
"Chantal, let me off on top of her suit" Pippa said, Chantal's suit picked up her voice.
"On top?" Chantal asked. When they neared the suit, Chantal lifted teh foot of her Gundam up above the back of Shanell's downed suit, letting Pippa jump off onto a wing plate.
"Quatre! How bad is she??" She hollared down at the man.
"Bad" he replied loudly. The tip of his shiny brown shoes were splattered wit ha few drops of blood before he moved them out of the way. He looked up at her limp body, worried. Chantal stopped her suit right next to Quatre's and hopped out. She ran up next to him adn examined her friend.
"Pippa, hurry!" Quatre called up at her. She climbed skillfully around to the front of the giant suit, holdiing onto anything she could find.
"Oh my god-- Pippa, be careful!" Chantal yelled. "Shes nuts" she whispered to Quatre.
"Yes, but thats a good thing now" Quatre replied.
Once inside the cockpit, Pippa was perched on the side of the control panel. She unlocked the rope and tossed it down. "Hey! Qu-- uh, Chantal! Climb up and help me!"
"Okay!" Chantal said, removing a pair of gloves she had been wearing, tossing them to the ground. She grasped the rope between her hands and gradually began to scale the rope. When Chantal wasnt to ofar off, Pippa slowly undid the seat belt holding Shanell in and held on tight to the limp girl while Chantal got in position to help.
"Ready?" Pippa asked. Chantal nodded, "Yeah."
Pippa turned and grabbed the rope opposite of Chantal. She slid Shanell down onto their shoulders and began systematicalyl descending. Quatre ran and steadied the rope for them as they neared the ground. He grabbed Shanell's legs and helps hold her up while they dismounted.
"Oh, man, how are you gonna get her to a hospital?" asked Pippa, sitting on the ground next to Chantal and above Shanell.
"I dont even know of one near to here."
"we coulkd fly your suit and say its a personal carrier" Quatre suggested.
"Yeah, but mine shows up as an OZ craft on radar." Chantal explained.
"Great! We're stranded!" Pippa complained.
"Shes gonna get hypothermia at this rate" Quatre looked down at the fainted girl in Chantal and Pippa's arms.
"Im already cold" Pippa snickered sarcastically.
"And our coats are in the carrier...5 miles away."
"Oh, shi-- oot! Duo has my cra--coat!!" Pippa burst. She saw the queer looks Chantal and Quatre were giving her and she shut up.
Pippa looked over at the other two, shivering as they were. Quatre moved across and sat next to Chantal for warmth. Pippa scooted away.
"And you both know what we have to do to keep her warm.." Chantal smirked at Pippa.
"Yeah... and you're not cold, Pippa." Quatre noted, giggling.
After a few seconds, Pippa caught on to what they were saying. "Oh-ho, no way! No way in freaking hell!!"
~~*
Duo still had his foot jammed down on the pedal of the craft. His usually smiling face was cold and angered.
'Dammit, if they killed her...' he thought. 'I'll kill them all!!'
"Duo, I see them" Trowa interrupted. "Do you know how to use her Lazer Cannon?"
"Yes" Duo said, gritting his teeth.
"You're going to have to confess what this is all about sooner or later."
"I know."
~~*
"He's been gone so long.." Catherine said looking out the frost bitten window. "So has everyone else.."
"Why dont you call" suggested Heero.
Catherine looked at Heero, then at a piece of paper laying on the table near the phone.
"Oh my lord!" catherine grabbed the paper-- it was a phone number. She picked up the phone and dialed the number as fast as she could.
~~*
A phone rang near them. Chantal woke up from 'resting her eyes' as did Quatre. Pippa crawled over to Shanell and grabbed the little phone from her pocket."Hello?" Pippa answered the phone.
"Hello? Trowa?" Catherine spoke up.
"What? Catherine? Oh! What luck! We need your help! Desperatley! Shanell is unconcious!"
"What? Where are you guys?"
"Illinois"
"What!?" Catherine shouted in surprise. Pippa heard a muffled 'Keep it down' in the background.
"We, uh, were taking care of busines at our firm..when, uh ... Soldiers raided the building!"
"Oh dear! Tell me where you are so I can send help!"
"At the former Oz base in Chicago."
"Okay! Ill send for a Flight for Life!"
"Good! Thank You!" Pippa hung up and put the phone on the ground.
"What luck" Quatre sighed happily. He pulled a thin army green shirt over Shanell, closer to her face. Chantal sighed happily, then giggled a little as she looked over Pippa. She was off looking at the stars now, in her under clothes-- a tanktop and men's boxers, along wither her "biker" gloves and tall boots. She was a sight for sore eyes.
~~* Review *~~
