Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Gundam Wing, Endless Waltz, Sailor Moon, Trigun, Evangelion, Lupin the Third, Outlaw Star, Rurouni Kenshin, G-Gundam, any other Gundam Series, Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, any movies, books, or any songs that are used in this story. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Notice to Readers: To understand certain parts of this story, you'll have to read the other stories before this one. It is recommended by not required.
The DarkTower:
Anime's Unite
Chapter 7: The Eastern Group
Friends of Old
It was only within a few minutes that the Shuffle Alliance had gone through the tear. Before any of them had to make their move in any direction, they first had to figure out where exactly they where or at the very least what the terrain was like all around them.
All of their eyes were feeling a burning sensation like going from a dark room back into the precious light. They waited for their eyes to adjust to the bright sun; it felt like the sun even within the cockpits of the Gundams they could feel the heat and rays of it. None of them even dared to take a step, for all they knew they were on top of some high plateau that had nothing but rocks at the bottom of the drop.
Moments later, their eyes were beginning to adjust and see their surroundings clearly, like watching a Polaroid picture start to develop. As soon as they did they saw that it was just like the Guyana Highlands that Domon had trained in during the 13th Gundam Fight. Each direction that they looked they saw mountains, tall, vast, and snow capped mountains, at least in every direction except one that seemed to head southward.
"I know where we need to go." Domon called out, "I suggest we all head out in our core landers."
"Why's that?" Sai-Saici asked
"Take a look to the south." Domon said and they saw his reason for saying that. The passage between the mountains was very narrow, only narrow enough for a car or a core lander to go through. Of course some of the Gundams could fly, but not every one of them could do it. So, it seemed more practical to Domon to just go in the core landers, after all they could just call for their Gundams since the landers all have a link to the Gundams themselves.
Domon had explained his reasoning and it seemed very logical to the Shuffle Alliance.
"I don't like the idea of leaving Maxter behind." Chibodee said in a very leery tone like a man cautiously trying to buy a car from a sleazy dealer, "But looks like we don't have any other choice."
"I have to concur with Messiour Domon." George agreed, "We can't risk loosing our Gundams to some canyon or God knows what else is in this place. The Core Lander would be the best option."
"Then let's go." Sai-Saici said as he disengaged his MTS system and boarded his core lander.
As Domon was about to disengage the Mobile Trace System, they ran into a small snag. He heard a small voice calling to him; he opened up the speakers of his Gundam and heard the voice a little louder. It was a voice that was instantly familiar, like seeing the face of a family member.
"Dad!" The voice called, "Dad!"
Domon looked down and found the children. They were standing there at the feet of the God Gundam like ants going to an ant hill. There was Kyoji, Champ, Juliet, Sai-Saici III, Natalia, and Amalyee.
"What the…" Domon asked as he opened the cockpit and came down immediately to his son, "Kyoji. What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you to stay at the DeSand Mansion?"
"We were dad, I swear." Kyoji said with a pleading tone, "We were all there and we were about to have lunch and then we all found ourselves here."
"Domon!" Rain called out from the God Gundam cockpit, "Is everything alright?"
Domon stood up after looking Kyoji in the eye, "Rain, it looks like Kyoji and the other children followed us through the tear."
"We did not." Juliet objected, "I'm appalled that you think that I Juliet Francoise DeSand could be a stowaway like some kind of juvenile delinquent!"
"I take that back, Rain." Domon corrected himself, "The children are here with us."
"Kyoji Kasshu!" Rain yelled, "You are so grounded when we get back home young man!"
"I swear, I didn't stowaway mom!" Kyoji yelled back, "We just arrived here."
By the time that the argument between the Kasshu's had erupted, the other Shuffle Alliance Members had already brought down their core landers and joined in the discussion. It did concern them all since they were parents of these children.
"I believe him, Domon." George said, "I know that Juliet would not do such a thing. It isn't very lady like and not quite what we taught her."
"We're not the only one's that arrived here." Amaylee Beardsly pointed out, "It looks like you're wife is here as well."
George looked sharply behind him and saw Marie Louis DeSand standing there between the legs of the Gundams. Her doll-like face had taken upon a face of sadness that only George could notice and be in distress about.
"Marie Louis." He uttered as he went to her, "What happened?"
"I was at the balcony of the mansion about to have tea and lunch with the children and the next thing I knew I was here."
"Well we can't leave anyone here." Chibodee said, "So I think that they should come with us."
"It may be dangerous, are you kids sure you want to come with us?"
"Whatever you can face dad, I'll face with you." Kyoji said proudly as Domon took his hand and placed it on top of his sons head as if saying that's my boy.
"You wouldn't leave me behind, would you dad?" Champ asked
"Heh." Chibodee laughed, "I was just joking son."
So that was decided. All of the Shuffle Alliance brought in their family members onto this unknown quest. All of them boarding their own core landers; there was Domon, Rain, and Kyoji in the God Gundams' lander; Chibodee, his wife along with the other girls, and Champ in Maxter's Core Lander; George DeSand, Marie Louis DeSand, and Juliet in Rose Gundams Lander; Argo Gulski, Nastasha, and Natalia in Bolt Gundam's core lander; and last of all Allenby Beardsley and Amaylee in Noble Gundams Core Lander. All of them traveling south through the mountain pass. If any of them had studied Earth's history, they would know that their migration was much like that of the covered wagons that moved across the Great American West to its western coast searching for gold.
As the Core Lander Train moved southward, some of them were starting to wonder how long it would be before they would even run into another person or if they were lucky any kind of human settlement.
On the other hand, many of them were taking in how beautifully scenic every direction was. All of the rocks painted from millions of years of tectonic movement, earthquakes, volcanoes, ice ages, and a few more million years of build-up. All of these forces working together to create rocks of such beautiful splendor.
As the rest of the Core Lander Train was looking around at this beautiful place like tourists at the Grand Canyon, they began to slow down.
Up ahead, to those who could see it, there was a great bridge. It's black stones showing the signs of age with moss, dried streaks of water from when it rained, and its stone gargoyles over looking the entrance to it. Yet, it was not only the gargoyles that were guarding the entrance to the bridge. There was a man standing there, but there was something that was very strange about him.
With Domon's core lander stopped, the others began to gather around him like a herd of cows seeing something that their minds can't comprehend. They all looked upon the Guardian of the Bridge.
He was dressed entirely in black armor and chain mail, like an old medieval knight. Upon his black tunic, Domon Kasshu could see the red print of a boar's head. The knight wore a black helmet that covered all of his face except for a small opening in which his eyes looked out upon the world or to any who would approach him. He stood like a statue with his sword in front of him, its tip in the ground while his hands were perched on its pommel like the claws of an eagle. To the knights right there was a small camp for the knight, a tent, a fire, as well as a few weapons scattered about the ground. Such as a whip, a mace, a shield that had that same red boars head upon it, and a few packs that no doubt carried some supplies for the knight.
Domon opened the hatch of his core lander and in silent exchanges, he told his wife and son to stay in the lander. Like a policeman reaching for his sidearm, Domon reached for his weapon. The beam saber that was given to him by Heero Yuy, he wanted to make sure that he could reach for it just in case this black knight would try to attack him. He came close to the knight and called to him.
"Who are you?" He asked
But the Black Knight was silent only staring from behind the slit in his helmet at the people who had approached his bridge.
"Can you tell us what this place is?" Domon asked again
Again, the knight was silent.
Domon shook his head and was about to head back to his core lander. He felt somewhat defeated since he got not a single answer out of the black knight.
"None shall pass!" The knight declared
Domon turned around and asked, "What did you say?"
"None shall pass my bridge." The Knight reiterated
Domon approached the knight once again, "I'm in no mood to start a fight with anyone." Domon explained, "But my friends and I must continue southward."
"Then you and your friends will die."
"I warn you" Domon stated, "If you're looking for a fight then you'll have one, but if not then get out of our way."
"I move…for no man!"
Domon drew his beam saber sending out its bright hues of blue in contrast to the Black Knights armor. He held it in his hands as if he was back in his God Gundam ready to start the next fight.
"Oh, going that way, eh?" The Black Knight asked as he drew a weapon from his side. Domon looked at it and made the lightning fast connection that it too was a beam saber as well. He watched the Black Knight activate it sending out a beam of a bright crimson red.
For a split second the two of them seemed as though they were staring each other down in a Mexican stand-off. Until the fight began with the Black Knight making his first attack, but Domon was quick to block and the Black Knight was quick to make another attack. In each slash that the knight tried to take, Domon had already seen his weakness. He saw that the knight was throwing himself into each blow like a lumberjack swinging an axe. As soon as Domon made the connection he didn't even need to block. He just made a few side steps and made the knight wear himself out on his own. Until the knight held up his beam saber like a jousting stick and charged for Domon and with one slice the Black Knights arm came off. It came off rather easily, the blood spurting from the wound like a hole in a garden hose, and with no pain being shown by the Black Knight.
"I'm sorry." Domon apologized as he bent his head asking for the Black Knights forgiveness.
"'Tis but a scratch!" The Black Knight said with pride.
Domon immediately brought himself back up from his bowed position. He looked at the arm on the ground and at the knight and asked, "A scratch? I just cut your arm off!"
"No, you didn't." The Knight refuted
"Well, what's that?" Domon pointed to the severed limb on the ground
The Black Knight looked at it with the blood from his wound stopped and then back to Domon, "I've had worse."
"Worse?" Domon asked in great surprise
"Come on, you pansy!" The Black Knight continued to fight the King of Hearts with only one arm still attached to his body. To Domon this whole situation had taken the greatest leap to the absurd. He thought that the knight would be riving on the ground in pain from loosing his arm, but instead he was still ready to fight.
The Black Knight had only made a few blows before he made another charge at Domon, with his beam saber coming down at his other arm and severing it just like the other one.
"This fight is over!" Domon shouted at the knight as he headed back to the core lander with his beam saber deactivated. As he was making his final steps, he felt a hard shove in his right side which sent him face first into the dirty ground. He quickly got up and saw the black knight still standing and kicking him.
"Come on then!" The knight coaxed
"What?!" Domon asked sharply
"Have at you!" The Knight called as he made another kick
Domon got to his feet with his beam saber in hand, "I don't know which you are, incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. You don't have any arms!"
"Yes I have!" The Knight said proudly
"No you don't! Look!" Domon shouted in his frustration of the absurdity
"Just a flesh wound!" The Knight reassured himself as he continued to kick Domon Kasshu in his sides and his ass as well.
"Stop that!" Domon demanded
"Chicken!" The Black Knight called, "Chicken!"
"You're really asking for it!" Domon warned, but the Black Knight took no heed, and Domon drew his beam saber and sliced off the Black Knights leg. The very leg that was kicking him.
"Right!" The Black Knight said hoping on one leg, "I'll do you for that!"
"You'll what!?" Domon asked
"Come here!" The Knight screamed as he hopped
Domon shook his head, "What's the worst you can do? Bleed on me?"
"I'm invincible!"
"You're crazy is what you are!"
"The Black Knight always triumphs! Have at you!" The Black Knight continued to hop only on one leg still ready to fight like an eager schoolboy wanting to take on the big bully. "Come on then!" He coaxed
But Domon wasn't going to have any more of the absurdity as he sliced off the very last leg of the Black Knight which send him to the ground as a limbless torso. With the Black Knight down on the ground surrounded by his own severed limbs he looked all around himself as if finally realizing that he no longer has any limbs left.
He looked back up at Domon, "Alright, we'll call it a draw."
"Go core lander!" Domon called to his core lander.
It came to him as if there was a driver inside it and he hopped in taking the controls with the Core Lander Train following him behind on the great stone bridge.
"Oh, oh, I see!" The Black Knight screamed out at the core landers that were passing him by as if he was some lonely bum on the highway, "Running away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off!"
After going through the tear, the Preventer Ship Relativity began to experience something very odd. In space, there's always a more "lighter-than-air" experience because with a good enough shove a person can float right through a room. Which is one reason why there were those handle bars in the hallways in the days of the Eve Wars so that people could get down the halls quicker. Yet, thanks to higher gravity simulators there was a heavier feeling almost like the gravity on Earth, but still it felt a lot lighter than that. Passing through the tear, the full force of gravity was felt by all the crew members on the Relativity. As if everything had gotten heavier in one second.
"Lady Une." The helmsman reported, "We're experiencing planetary gravity. Distance to the surface is one hundred thousand kilometers."
"Begin landing procedures."
"Beginning landing procedures, aye!" The Helmsman acknowledged, "Deploying landing struts! Firing Breaking Thrusters!"
Outside the Relativity the landing was rather quick, unlike how it would have handled it on Earth. With that there was time to plot everything since there were a million things that could go wrong and incinerate the Relativity in the Earth's Atmosphere.
The landing gear of the Relativity deployed. It wasn't like any normal landing gear like with jet's and helicopters that were just simple rubber tires. The gear on that ship was more like metal feet that extended out of its hull. The feet themselves were designed much like the Gundams themselves in which they could adjust to any type of solid terrain and still keep the Relativity level.
The Breaking Thrusters on the other hand were just as their title said. The speed of going through the atmosphere is what was causing so much friction and heat. So they needed a way to slow down the process and soften the impact. Thus the instillation of the Breaking Thrusters, roughly thirty of them installed systematically across the Relativity's hull, only fifteen which were installed in the lower half of it were firing.
"Our speed is slowing down," the helmsman reported, "landing gear is deployed. Distance to surface is fifty thousand kilometers…forty-nine thousand…forty-eight…"
The countdown went further and further down as Lady Une looked out the window and saw a small glimpse of the land. She saw a vast range of mountains that stretched from north to south like the back of some obscure animal. There were forests, all lush and thickly green like the rainforests of Earth, and then there was an ocean to the northeast. Until the descent to the ground had placed the Relativity behind the range of mountains blocking out everything to the Northwest.
"Distance to surface ten kilometers." The helmsman reported, "nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one kilometer….brace for landing."
All over the Relativity there was an enormous thump upward, like the feeling of an elevator coming to a stop on its way downward. The landing feet of the Relativity had adjusted themselves to bring it to level ground.
"Any damages?" Lady Une asked
The Helmsman looked on his screen and assessed the damages that the ship would report to him. He tapped his touch screen seeing the lists upon lists of systems throughout the ship. Electrical, Computer Core, Thrusters, Engines, Landing Gear, and so on.
"No damages, Lady Une." He reported
Looking out the windows of the Relativity at the land that they had just arrived at, it was time to try to figure out what was going on. Lady Une knew that the ship was in tact, but they needed to know more about this place.
"Make a sensor sweep of the surrounding areas." She ordered to the helmsman, "Report everything, and leave no detail out."
"Aye, Lady Une." The Helmsman acknowledged as he went to work on sending out his sweep of the surrounding area. Though the sensors on the Relativity were fairly limited to a 500 kilometer (310 mile) radius, they would only get reports of what was outside their ship in that distance, but at least it was better than being in the dark about it.
"Lady Une to all Gundam pilots." She called, "Report to the Conference Room."
Within a matter of minutes, Lady Une was sitting down with all of the Gundam Pilots going over what they had just gone through.
"I just received the reports from the sensor sweep." Lady Une had told her pilots, "From what the reports say, the atmosphere shows little traces of the gases that our world has. So it can be concluded that this world may be pre-industrial, but there are several settlements to the west of the mountain range…"
As Lady Une read off the report to the Gundam pilots, the only one who wasn't listening was Johan. Ever since they went through the tear, Johan felt something very strange about this place. Almost as if he had been there before. Then again ever since he came into contact with that object, the pink glass sphere known as the Wizard's Glass he had been distracted. At least that's what his dear wife Haruka noticed about him. As if his mind was somewhere else while his body still remained.
Though the thing that did bring Johan's attention back to reality was the next piece of report that Lady Une had read.
"The most unusual thing that the sensor sweep picked up was a small settlement to the Northeast and even stranger, trace amounts of Gundanium."
"Gundanium?" Johan asked, "Here?"
"We couldn't localize what it was because it was so far away and so faint." Lady Une explained, "It could be anything."
"I think we should take our Gundams out and investigate." Trowa suggested
"I beg to differ." Johan said with great confidence in his voice, "I think we should take our core landers out of our Gundams and travel to the settlement and see what we can find out. Then we'll head to that area where the Gundanium is."
"Why not take the Gundams?" Heero asked, "If there are any hostiles out there we should at least be prepared to fight."
"I can say the same thing with the Core Landers." Johan stated, "If the need arises we can use the Core Landers to call for our Gundams, plus if we do find anyone out there who poses no harm towards us, then we shouldn't appear hostile to them."
"Point taken." Lady Une said, "Here's what you'll do. Each of you take your core landers and scout the surrounding areas. Report whatever you find every hour on the hour. Dismissed"
Down in the Mobile Suit Bay of the Relativity, all of the pilots were taking out the core landers out. While the bay door was wide open exposing everyone inside to the wonderful warm rays of the sun. Of course, the core landers didn't just come out on their own like they do when there's no help. They were pulled out of the Gundams thanks to the help of the mobile suit equipment at the Preventers disposal.
Though some of the landers were changed slightly, such as Johan's was originally a motorbike, but in the reality of what he needed to do he needed it to be car-like. Thus the Gundam Ryu's core lander was made into the same type of vehicle as the others.
The plans were set, most of the Preventer Gundams made their scouting in different directions from the Relativity. That was except for Johan, he couldn't ignore the report that he got about what lied to the north. The small settlement and the traces of Gundanium, he as well as the others in Preventer knew that Gundanium isn't something that's found in nature. It's an alloy that brings together several different metals, but this alloy needs to be manufactured in space, because oxygen, gravity and bacteria dilute its pureness. Only the non-gravity vacuum of space would facilitate the need to create this metal. That's what made Johan think to himself that it must be something there, but the others ignored it because it was so faint. Had it been something larger the computers would have identified it, but Johan couldn't ignore such a hunch.
He took his core lander and made the journey northward. He did notice something that everyone else did take a notice in. Near where the Relativity had landed was a great tree. It was beyond anything that Johan or any of the others had seen in their entire lives. The trunk itself could rival that of the petrified forests in the United States. The Great Tree could even rival the thickness of a building; it even reached the sky much like the skyscrapers of the greatest cities with its branches spreading out with thick growths of leaves like a thick green cloud. It seemed almost like the tree was a monument to some great event that happened in that place. As Johan had seen, the tree stood alone. There were no other trees, in every direction there was just hay and grasslands, which made it somewhat monotonous as Johan drove his way northward.
After passing one river, he looked at his watch and saw that it was coming to the time when he would have to stop and make his report back to the Relativity. That was until he looked away from his watch and towards the horizon where the mountains were coming to meet each other like the hands of two lovers. Upon the plain, Johan saw what his eyes could make out as something like a train. He only saw it as small blocks that seemed to move in the same direction as if they were connected. He stepped on the accelerator of his core lander sending the speedometer needle near the red as he kept his eyes on the blocks at the horizon. As he came closer, he began to make out their shapes.
As he came closer he saw something very familiar about them, until he was within a mile of them and saw that they were core landers. He stopped his lander, opened the hatch and called out to them.
"OVER HERE!" He called as he honked the horn of his lander. "HEY!"
The Shuffle Alliance had been traveling for at least a few hours through the mountains and over several rivers before they had reached the plains. All the children of the Shuffle Alliance had noticed something strange happening with their parents. They never wanted to say anything at first because they didn't know how their parents would react to what they would say. It seemed as if the Shuffle Alliance were growing younger with each passing hour. Such as Argo being the most obvious, to Natalia he seemed to be loosing his gray hairs, as if his natural hair color as well as hair line were beginning to take over. Even the network of wrinkles were beginning to be absorbed into his face. All of the children felt that it was too weird to say to their parents faces, at least not until they knew that they should be told this.
The Core Lander Train had kept on going southward, until Kyoji Kasshu noticed something in the distance.
"Dad." He called to Domon
"What is it, son?" Domon asked
"I think there's someone out there." He pointed out the window where he saw an object coming in over the grasslands. Rain and Domon looked and saw it only as a small dot at first but then it became larger and larger and they saw that it was a core lander. When the connection was made, the core lander stopped, its top opened, and someone came out of it. The person who was in it began to scream out to them, the voice carrying over the noise of the landers engines.
"Over here!" The voice said faintly, "Hey!"
Domon opened the COM to the other landers, "Does everyone see what we're seeing?"
George responded, "I'm seeing it, and I think I've seen that person before."
"I'm having the same feeling." Domon said, "I'm going to meet him."
Domon broke away from the Core Lander Train and went to meet whoever was there.
Johan watched as one of the Core Landers come closer and closer to him until it stopped just a few feet away from him. Slowly the others that were following this one behind had followed suit like a crowd following its leader. Johan felt his own knees shake as the first core lander opened its lid, and there he saw someone that he had not seen in a very long time.
"Domon Kasshu!" Johan cried with joy, "Is that you?"
Domon looked across the grasslands and saw that boy that he and the Shuffle Alliance took in along with his co-workers, the Preventers, as their own students of the Gundam Fight. Yet, to Domon it looked like that boy, but at the same time he looked like an older man.
"Johan?" Domon asked
"Yes, it's me, but what are all of you doing here?" He asked as the other core landers opened up.
"That's a long story." Domon said as he and Johan began their exchange.
Preventer Report:
Officer: Johan Peacecraft Rodriguez
Code-name: Star Dragon
Date: June 16, A.C. 216
Report: After making a survey of the surrounding area of where the Relativity had landed, I had found a group of people that the office of Preventer had not run into for a very long time. This group was encountered over 15 years ago when the leaders of Preventer were taken by an unknown Gundam. Of course, I'm speaking of the Shuffle Alliance, a group of fighters from a different universe and from different nations of the world. I've made contact with them and it appears that they have traveled to whatever this world is by means of the tear.
It is clear to me that someone or something had brought us all to this place for some purpose. The purpose of which I have no idea of what it is.
After Johan had made his report and had caught up with the Shuffle Alliance on old times he received a call from the ship.
"Go ahead." Johan called as he put the call on speakerphone
"Johan." Lady Une called, "I think that you and the other Preventers should get back to the ship. I think we have some stowaways."
"What do you mean?" Johan asked
"Ask them yourself." Lady Une said as Johan heard another set of voices over the speakerphone.
"Hi dad!" One girls voice said as a boys voice said, "Hey dad."
"Julia and Leto?"
"And they're not the only ones." Lady Une reported
"I'm on my way back with the Shuffle Alliance."
To be continued…