*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by the Bandai Co. and should not be used for anything to gain profit from. That's the legal stuff... or maybe I should continue on.... Nah.
Chapter 3- Consideration: Battle cry
Location: San Jose Facility
Cafeteria
Date: 22, 5, AC-199
Breakfast time
John quietly ate a club sandwich, and had a little smile on his face. Larry Saylor walked up behind him and patted John on the back. John practically spat out his food, but somehow managed to hold it in. Larry sat down across the table from John. John managed to swallow his food.
"If you had been a few seconds later, I might have choked." John said with a nervous chuckle.
Larry had his typical jolly smile on him. "Sorry about that. I was just wanted to speak to you real quick before I left for home."
"Fine by me," John took another bite out of the sandwich; the words "What do you want to talk about?" were muffled by the food as John spoke.
"I heard about your run in with those three cadets. I wanted to make sure that ... you know." Larry began to whisper.
"They didn't find out anything." John swallowed his food. "They were merely curious, nothing more."
"That's good to hear, since Lady Une pulled a lot of strings to get you this job. You don't want to go through the mess of gaining a new identity."
"Thanks for your concern. I know she did a lot to get me here, but so did you."
"It's the least I can do. Me and Rio were good friends, he would do the same if it was my brother or son."
John was silent for a moment, "I know, that's why I'm so grateful for this opportunity. I've learned so much about Rio since I got here."
"He was a good man, and you should be proud to have lived with him." Larry looked down at his watch. "Oh yeah, before I forget. Quatre Winner is visiting this facility today at about 1400 hours."
John looked at Larry in a depressive state, and put his hands up to support his head.
"Something wrong?"
"He thinks I'm dead. How would you react, if someone you thought was dead was suddenly alive?"
"The others haven't told him?"
"Correct. Lady Une thought it was best to keep the knowledge of me being alive to a very small circle. Quatre isn't in that circle."
"Gotcha. That means you are going to avoid him today, I'm assuming?"
"Exactly." John took another bite out of his sandwich.
Larry got up and began to walk away.
"It's been good talking to you. Enjoy the rest of the day."
John continued to eat what was left of his sandwich. He just hoped that he would be able to completely avoid Quatre today, along with those three cadets if he could.
Misao silently walked up and sat where Larry had sat a few moments ago. John glanced up after he took another bite and saw Misao at the table. John was startled for a second, and pounded his chest with his right hand to make the food go down.
"What brings you here Misao?"
"I was just wanted to tell you something."
"Shoot."
"I meant to say this earlier, but I kind of forgot about it. Anyway, thank you so much for helping me out yesterday."
"It was no problem, but I thought you already said that."
"I didn't. Kaori kind of made me forget about it."
"It's alright as long as you said it."
"Did you hear about Quatre Winner, the head of the Winner Corpation, visiting this facility today?"
John ate the rest of his sandwich and tried to be as sincere as possible. "Of course I have."
"You have to see him, I mean when was the last time you saw a head of a corporation?" Misao was all excited.
"I have to clean the hallways, no time to see the guy."
"It would only take a minute of your time."
'Your wrong about a minute; it would only take a few seconds for him to recognize me.'
"Come on, you have to go at that time." Misao almost went into fake tears. "Please?"
"Oh alright, I'll go. Only for a minute though."
Misao had a big smile on his face. "Alright."
John now had to come up with ideas of how to get out of the mess he had just got himself into. Unfortunately, Misao blocked his train of thought.
"I wish they had told us a few days ago, that he was coming. I mean a few hours before he comes isn't letting people enough time to have a facility to be prepared."
"I agree." The words 'I would have had a sick today, if I had known' came to John's mind.
Misao got up and waved at Kaori and Toki as they entered the room. John got up and looked in the direction that Misao had waved. Kaori and Toki lunged under a table at the sight of John about to get up. John gave a perplexed look at Misao.
"Whom were you waving at?"
"I guess... no one."
John shook his head and walked out of the cafeteria.
Once John had walked out of the cafeteria, Toki and Kaori reappeared from under the table.
"That was too close." Toki breathed a little bit fast.
"Agreed. He might have seen us if it weren't for Misao."
Misao was completely confused by the two's action and walked over to them.
"What in the world are you guys doing?"
"Trying not to be spotted by that psychopath."
"Psychopath! John isn't a psychopath."
"We have proof that he has been lying." Toki patted his laptop.
"Everyone lies about something, even the nicest people."
"John isn't John, Misao." Toki and Kaori became furious with Misao when he didn't accept their story.
"If he isn't, then I suppose that makes both of you rulers of the earth?"
"Don't give us that sarcasm."
Misao sat down in a nearby booth, and the other two sat down across from him.
"Show me this proof then."
Toki laid his laptop on the table and opened the data files from the night before. He then turned around the laptop, so that Misao could see it. Misao's eyes grew wide as he read the information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time: 1:50PM
Location: Custodian Locker Room
John looked at his closed locker door while he sat on a bench. He didn't have a shirt on, not even the under white t-shirt that he normally wore. For the first time, his back had seen the light of the world outside of a shower. John had done this for good reason, for his back was heavily scarred.
John glanced down at his watch and saw that Quatre should be here any minute. He reached over and opened the locker door. As he stood forward, John grabbed a white t-shirt and put it on. Pain rushed through his body as the garment was put on, and then subsided. He promptly put on the rest of his casual clothes. A blue baseball cap was the last thing John put on before he headed out of the locker room.
Once he left the locker room, John stared right at Toki, Kaori, and Misao as they stood with intimidating looks.
"John, we've been expecting you." Kaori had a devilish smile.
"Now is not a good time." John coughed heavily and covered his mouth with his hand.
"I think it's the right time." Toki snapped.
"You have some explaining to do." Misao tapped his right foot.
"Alright, I'll come out with it." John paused for a minute while the three had stunned faces. "The club sandwiches should never be served with soy sauce."
John grabbed his mouth and then charged through the three of them. He gained distance as he ran down the hall. Toki and Misao stood mystified while Kaori was on the ground from being knocked over by John.
"That jerk!" Kaori stood back up and her voice was full of rage. "After him!"
"It's not necessary." Toki stated and Misao nodded.
"What?" Kaori shouted.
"We know where he lives, besides...."
"We just talk to the director of this place and Mr. Winner about it." Misao continued on Toki's remarks. "Surely, they can handle this matter better than us."
Kaori cooled down and nodded her head after she heard the new option. She glanced down the hall to see if John was still in sight, but he was gone by this time. She let a sigh and walked past Toki and Misao.
"I hope Mr. Winner is on time."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Thirty Minutes Later*
The city, which was a neighbor to San Francisco and Oakland, had blossomed the years during and after the time the earth-colony conflict took place. In a sense, San Jose replaced the New Edwards base of old and promised to bring mobile suit development to more of helping people rather than fighting other mobile suits. The skyscrapers were of moderate nature, but didn't want to rival those of the New York and San Francisco. The city was relatively clean due to environmental laws passed several decades ago. It was simply a nice city to look at.
John sat atop of a hill that over looked the San Jose area. The San Francisco bay glittered a good distance away, and gave a nice feel to the area. John didn't mind this at all, and even partially stared at the sight. The earth was a nice place, John thought. There was no air conditioning or recycling of the air like that in the colonies. It got stale up there, yet the colonies used to be his home. A cool breeze stirred John as he looked at the city, and partially smiled.
Quatre slowly put his right foot forward followed by his left, as he tried not to get John's attention. He silently walked up to John and stood in such a way that his shadow wasn't cast onto John.
"Quatre, I thought I eluded you."
Quatre looked at John with confusion in his face. He thought the man hadn't seen him approach, let alone who he was.
"How did you know it was me?"
"Only three people that are alive can sneak up on me like that." John said with a smile. "Secondly, your the only one of those three that wears cologne with that brand."
'The breeze gave me away.' Quatre shook his head a little. "Alex, I thought you were dead." Quatre sat down on the grass next to John (Alex).
"I know you thought I was dead. Lady Une didn't tell you, because they weren't sure if it was necessary."
"Yet they told me that Trowa and Wufei were dead." Quatre let out a sigh. "Why shouldn't they just tell me, and not get so much trouble boiled over this."
Alex didn't respond.
"Please tell me why you did those things."
"I don't know why... I wasn't myself."
"I know how that feels. The Zero System made me mad with rage, and I couldn't see clearly."
Alex turned toward Quatre and grimly shook his head.
"I partially remember what happened, but I don't want to remember those memories for they are too painful."
"Memories of what?" Quatre glanced over at Alex, but returned his stare to San Jose.
"I don't want to describe them, let alone say their name." Alex stood up.
"Is there anything you wanted you say, other than that?"
"Quatre, don't try to make me a mobile suit pilot again. I've caused too much pain, being a janitor is fine enough for me."
Quatre stood up and began to walk away, disappointed at his comrade's comments. He stopped in his tracks and looked back at Alex.
"Why did you help that one cadet then?"
"He needed the help. I merely told him how to get there. He should...."
"I mean the real reason."
Alex hesitated. "There is no other reason."
"Don't lie to me like that. I know the real reason. It's the fact that you can't pass up a fight, even if it's a hopeless one. You want to go back to the battlefield, but are afraid that you'll hurt another person." Alex tried to raise his voice, but Quatre continued on. "Heero and Duo know this too well, along with me. Don't give us that old excuse." Quatre stopped his shouting and walked away again.
Alex looked resentful, and didn't move.
"One last thing Quatre," Quatre turned around. "How did you know I was here?"
"I was told about you from three cadets."
Alex sat back on the hill and stretched out his legs. "Why aren't they here? Those three have made a habit of following me lately."
Quatre stood still with a smile on his face. "I told the director of the facility to hold them until I got back. That way no one could interfere with me talking to you."
Alex chuckled at the thought of the three cadets being held against their will on the facility's grounds. His eyes let out little tears; he didn't know what to do next.
"So are you going to come back?" Quatre's left hand pointed at himself and his right arm pointed down toward San Jose. "Or are you just going to watch this city?"
Quatre took a better look at the city below him, and saw a pillar of smoke that came from the downtown area. His eyes opened wide with horror as one of the buildings exploded and he glared down at Alex. Alex was mystified by the sight in front of him, and could only look up at Quatre.
"A mobile suit attack... I'm going down, you are welcome to come with me."
"I refuse to go back to the battlefield, besides you and the Preventors should be able to handle."
Quatre shook his head in disappointment at Alex's words and let a sigh out. He ran away so that he could stop the attack.
Alex looked back at the city with pity in his heart, but didn't want to get involved. The memories, he had been put all his strength to keep away, might come back in horrific force and he simply couldn't handle them. A glimmer of light came from the San Francisco bay caught Alex's eye, and it opened wide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sandrock sliced through a Leo like a hot knife through butter with one of the heat shotels. The other shotel impaled another Leo through the cockpit, and Sandrock upper cut the Leo, which left two upper parts that swayed a little bit. Both Leos exploded at the same time.
This was Quatre's first battle since he had encountered Alex's mobile suit at Lunar Base. Quatre saw that he needed to get of his rusty combat style, but he just fine otherwise. He continued to think of how Alex responded to his questions earlier. 'Coward' came to his mind first, but he understood that every pilot needed to get over this fear, even if it took years. Quatre had Sandrock slice through another Leo, while he tried not to think of the pilot in the mobile suit. Any thought that came to his mind had to be on this battle, and nothing else.
Quatre looked around and saw Preventor Leos engaged in battle, and were pushing back what remained of the attacking force. He practically heard the men as they cheered from the mobile suits without the use of communication links. Quatre smiled a little, but the smile was cut short, as a volley of missiles flew past Sandrock and wiped out several Preventor Leos.
Quatre didn't know what to think, but came up with one conclusion. "No Leo can carry that kind of firepower. The situation has just gotten more dire."
Sandrock stepped out into the open and its cameras were filled with images of missiles were headed toward it. Sandrock thrusted back behind a building, and could only watch as the missiles laid waste to several buildings. Quatre tried to think of a way to face the new enemy, but before he could make a move, another volley of missiles blew up on the street where he was about to make his move.
"This guy has me figured out... and pinned." Quatre breathed a little roughly, but calmed down to think of another plan.
Sandrock jetted off to get behind another building, and just as it got into the open, two volleys of missiles crashed into more buildings, and leveled them. Sandrock was now in the open and had no cover. The thick smoke around him was only pierced by the glowing heat shotels.
'This is bad.'
Quatre couldn't move Sandrock for fear of another attack of missiles, but at the same time he couldn't just stand there. To his amazement, the missiles didn't come while the smoke was thick. The smoke dissipated to a large degree but left the air murky and very uncomfortable to breathe, let alone see through. Quatre saw an image of a blue mobile suit about a block away from his position, but couldn't make it out anymore since the smoke had messed up the view.
"Trowa... It can't be."
A bright light resonated from upper part of the mobile suit, and this meant more missiles. Sandrock activated its thrusters and flew backwards to avoid the missiles. Just as he got back far enough though, something happened to the left of Sandrock and the cameras picked up small remnants of explosions. A blue mobile suit was seen in Sandrock's cameras, but was much clearer than the first one.
This blue mobile suit stood 16.3m tall. It had only one camera lens in its head, and the head itself had a rounded slope, which came to a sphere point near the camera lens; there was also two straight antennas mounted on the rear of the head. The area that held the camera lens was jagged, which made the face look demon-like. The main body frame was much like that of a Virgo, except it lacked a beam cannon and had two spheroid shoulders. The shoulders had small circle hatches, which stored missiles. The feet of this mobile suit were also very similar to that of the gundams. At first glance, this blue mobile suit appeared to have mobility issues much like the Virgo, except it had thrusters on its back, arms, legs, and very small ones in its shoulders to counter the mobility issue.
The pilot of this mobile suit looked in frustration that his missiles had been shot down. He had Sandrock owned, but something got in the way and that was unacceptable. His red eyes seemed to almost burn with anger at the sight of Sandrock as well, and his short blonde hair dripped with sweat.
"No one will stop me. I must avenge my family!"
Sandrock prepared to charge at this new mobile suit, but a Preventor Leo ran in between the two mobile suits and was seemingly on guard of Sandrock. This fearless Leo pilot surprised both pilots. Quatre's response to this action was to try to get the mobile suit out of there.
A message flashed up on his screen before he could do anything.
Mr. Winner
Fallback with the other Preventor Leos, and I will cover you guys.
Please do as I ask.
Sincerely,
Liet. John Henderson
Quatre wondered what this man was thinking, but he doesn't deny he needed the break. Sandrock backed off and disappeared amongst the buildings that had yet to collapse.
The pilot of the blue mobile suit fired a volley of missiles toward where Sandrock fell back. He saw the missiles approach the area, and then watched one after one explode in mid-air except for one that crashed into the ground. The blue mobile suit looked back at the Leo and saw its back turned to the blue mobile suit along with its Leo rifle with fresh smoke that fumed out.
"How dare you stop me!" The pilot opened a communication link, but got static. This action made him even more pissed off.
The Leo turned around to face the new mobile suit and began to open fire on it.
The blonde haired pilot laughed at the foolhardy Leo as the bullets bounced off of its armor. The blue mobile suit reached to its torso area and pulled out an unignited beam saber.
"I don't waste anymore of my missiles on you. Prepare to die."
The blue mobile suit ignited its beam saber and at lightning speed charged at the Leo. It took a downward swipe at the Leo. The Leo barely dodged the attack with use of its rear support thrusters to spin to the right. The Leo fired more shots at the blue mobile suit, but the bullets bounced off the armor. Opportunity knocked for the blue mobile suit; the blonde pilot did a slight, quick slice at the Leo. The rifle fell into two pieces and exploded. The Leo flew backward to take cover. The red-eyed pilot smiled to his amusement as the Leo flew backward, and fired a set of front missiles at the Leo. In desperation, the Leo spun dodged to the left and right to no avail as the missiles made contact with its legs. The Leo uncontrollably smashed into buildings, and crashed out of sight of the blue mobile suit.
"Gotcha."
With satisfaction, the blue mobile suit made its way toward the downed Leo. The pilot looked down at the Leo with a smirk on his face, but the smirk went away when he saw the cockpit door already opened with no trace of the pilot in sight.
"Damnit."
The blue mobile suit smashed the cockpit area with its right foot and the Leo exploded.
"I wanted to kill that pilot for interfering. Oh well." The pilot chuckled a little bit. "I better get rid of that gundam now."
A communication link popped up on the pilot's screen and a female officer was on the other.
"Orza you have to pull back immediately."
"Why should I? I have them on the run." Orza looked further down the street and didn't make eye contact with her.
"You have lost the element of surprise and their defenses will be stronger further on. We can't risk losing you and Flugtod here."
"This is a golden opportunity, I can't just let one of those scumbags get away."
"I know you can't, but you'll get the chance again."
"I'm taking him out now and I'm not going to listen to you."
"These orders came from Eizo."
Orza looked her straight in the eyes with a lot of resentment.
"Affirmative, I'm pulling back."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quatre surveyed the remnants of one of the Leos that lay on the streets of San Jose. He breathed a sigh as he recognized it as being the Leo that came to save him. Most of the mobile suit was intact, but aside from the burnt marks was the crushed cockpit.
'I guess Liet. Henderson didn't make it. I should have been there.'
Rescure workers moved around him as they tried to put out fires that had sprung up nearby, and Preventor salvagers began preparation to take the Leo back with them. Quatre lowered himself down to the street below and began to walk out of the area. A Preventor pilot stopped him before he got too far.
"Your the pilot of the gundam that fought today, aren't you?"
"Yes, what do you want?"
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to assist you in the battle today."
"It's alright."
"I would have been in the battle, but the thing is that a janitor from the Preventor Combat Training Facility knocked me out just as I was suiting up."
"What..." Quatre stopped in mid-sentence. "Who are you?"
"I'm Liet. John Henderson."
"A janitor you say...." Quatre smiled a little. "I think it was for the best, Liet."
"But..."
"I have business to attend to. Don't worry about anything."
Quatre causally walked away from the pilot, who simply wasn't able to think of anything to say to him.
'I should have seen it. The evidence was right in front of me.' Quatre smiled while he shook his head. 'I need to find him then.'
Chapter 3- Consideration: Battle cry
Location: San Jose Facility
Cafeteria
Date: 22, 5, AC-199
Breakfast time
John quietly ate a club sandwich, and had a little smile on his face. Larry Saylor walked up behind him and patted John on the back. John practically spat out his food, but somehow managed to hold it in. Larry sat down across the table from John. John managed to swallow his food.
"If you had been a few seconds later, I might have choked." John said with a nervous chuckle.
Larry had his typical jolly smile on him. "Sorry about that. I was just wanted to speak to you real quick before I left for home."
"Fine by me," John took another bite out of the sandwich; the words "What do you want to talk about?" were muffled by the food as John spoke.
"I heard about your run in with those three cadets. I wanted to make sure that ... you know." Larry began to whisper.
"They didn't find out anything." John swallowed his food. "They were merely curious, nothing more."
"That's good to hear, since Lady Une pulled a lot of strings to get you this job. You don't want to go through the mess of gaining a new identity."
"Thanks for your concern. I know she did a lot to get me here, but so did you."
"It's the least I can do. Me and Rio were good friends, he would do the same if it was my brother or son."
John was silent for a moment, "I know, that's why I'm so grateful for this opportunity. I've learned so much about Rio since I got here."
"He was a good man, and you should be proud to have lived with him." Larry looked down at his watch. "Oh yeah, before I forget. Quatre Winner is visiting this facility today at about 1400 hours."
John looked at Larry in a depressive state, and put his hands up to support his head.
"Something wrong?"
"He thinks I'm dead. How would you react, if someone you thought was dead was suddenly alive?"
"The others haven't told him?"
"Correct. Lady Une thought it was best to keep the knowledge of me being alive to a very small circle. Quatre isn't in that circle."
"Gotcha. That means you are going to avoid him today, I'm assuming?"
"Exactly." John took another bite out of his sandwich.
Larry got up and began to walk away.
"It's been good talking to you. Enjoy the rest of the day."
John continued to eat what was left of his sandwich. He just hoped that he would be able to completely avoid Quatre today, along with those three cadets if he could.
Misao silently walked up and sat where Larry had sat a few moments ago. John glanced up after he took another bite and saw Misao at the table. John was startled for a second, and pounded his chest with his right hand to make the food go down.
"What brings you here Misao?"
"I was just wanted to tell you something."
"Shoot."
"I meant to say this earlier, but I kind of forgot about it. Anyway, thank you so much for helping me out yesterday."
"It was no problem, but I thought you already said that."
"I didn't. Kaori kind of made me forget about it."
"It's alright as long as you said it."
"Did you hear about Quatre Winner, the head of the Winner Corpation, visiting this facility today?"
John ate the rest of his sandwich and tried to be as sincere as possible. "Of course I have."
"You have to see him, I mean when was the last time you saw a head of a corporation?" Misao was all excited.
"I have to clean the hallways, no time to see the guy."
"It would only take a minute of your time."
'Your wrong about a minute; it would only take a few seconds for him to recognize me.'
"Come on, you have to go at that time." Misao almost went into fake tears. "Please?"
"Oh alright, I'll go. Only for a minute though."
Misao had a big smile on his face. "Alright."
John now had to come up with ideas of how to get out of the mess he had just got himself into. Unfortunately, Misao blocked his train of thought.
"I wish they had told us a few days ago, that he was coming. I mean a few hours before he comes isn't letting people enough time to have a facility to be prepared."
"I agree." The words 'I would have had a sick today, if I had known' came to John's mind.
Misao got up and waved at Kaori and Toki as they entered the room. John got up and looked in the direction that Misao had waved. Kaori and Toki lunged under a table at the sight of John about to get up. John gave a perplexed look at Misao.
"Whom were you waving at?"
"I guess... no one."
John shook his head and walked out of the cafeteria.
Once John had walked out of the cafeteria, Toki and Kaori reappeared from under the table.
"That was too close." Toki breathed a little bit fast.
"Agreed. He might have seen us if it weren't for Misao."
Misao was completely confused by the two's action and walked over to them.
"What in the world are you guys doing?"
"Trying not to be spotted by that psychopath."
"Psychopath! John isn't a psychopath."
"We have proof that he has been lying." Toki patted his laptop.
"Everyone lies about something, even the nicest people."
"John isn't John, Misao." Toki and Kaori became furious with Misao when he didn't accept their story.
"If he isn't, then I suppose that makes both of you rulers of the earth?"
"Don't give us that sarcasm."
Misao sat down in a nearby booth, and the other two sat down across from him.
"Show me this proof then."
Toki laid his laptop on the table and opened the data files from the night before. He then turned around the laptop, so that Misao could see it. Misao's eyes grew wide as he read the information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time: 1:50PM
Location: Custodian Locker Room
John looked at his closed locker door while he sat on a bench. He didn't have a shirt on, not even the under white t-shirt that he normally wore. For the first time, his back had seen the light of the world outside of a shower. John had done this for good reason, for his back was heavily scarred.
John glanced down at his watch and saw that Quatre should be here any minute. He reached over and opened the locker door. As he stood forward, John grabbed a white t-shirt and put it on. Pain rushed through his body as the garment was put on, and then subsided. He promptly put on the rest of his casual clothes. A blue baseball cap was the last thing John put on before he headed out of the locker room.
Once he left the locker room, John stared right at Toki, Kaori, and Misao as they stood with intimidating looks.
"John, we've been expecting you." Kaori had a devilish smile.
"Now is not a good time." John coughed heavily and covered his mouth with his hand.
"I think it's the right time." Toki snapped.
"You have some explaining to do." Misao tapped his right foot.
"Alright, I'll come out with it." John paused for a minute while the three had stunned faces. "The club sandwiches should never be served with soy sauce."
John grabbed his mouth and then charged through the three of them. He gained distance as he ran down the hall. Toki and Misao stood mystified while Kaori was on the ground from being knocked over by John.
"That jerk!" Kaori stood back up and her voice was full of rage. "After him!"
"It's not necessary." Toki stated and Misao nodded.
"What?" Kaori shouted.
"We know where he lives, besides...."
"We just talk to the director of this place and Mr. Winner about it." Misao continued on Toki's remarks. "Surely, they can handle this matter better than us."
Kaori cooled down and nodded her head after she heard the new option. She glanced down the hall to see if John was still in sight, but he was gone by this time. She let a sigh and walked past Toki and Misao.
"I hope Mr. Winner is on time."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Thirty Minutes Later*
The city, which was a neighbor to San Francisco and Oakland, had blossomed the years during and after the time the earth-colony conflict took place. In a sense, San Jose replaced the New Edwards base of old and promised to bring mobile suit development to more of helping people rather than fighting other mobile suits. The skyscrapers were of moderate nature, but didn't want to rival those of the New York and San Francisco. The city was relatively clean due to environmental laws passed several decades ago. It was simply a nice city to look at.
John sat atop of a hill that over looked the San Jose area. The San Francisco bay glittered a good distance away, and gave a nice feel to the area. John didn't mind this at all, and even partially stared at the sight. The earth was a nice place, John thought. There was no air conditioning or recycling of the air like that in the colonies. It got stale up there, yet the colonies used to be his home. A cool breeze stirred John as he looked at the city, and partially smiled.
Quatre slowly put his right foot forward followed by his left, as he tried not to get John's attention. He silently walked up to John and stood in such a way that his shadow wasn't cast onto John.
"Quatre, I thought I eluded you."
Quatre looked at John with confusion in his face. He thought the man hadn't seen him approach, let alone who he was.
"How did you know it was me?"
"Only three people that are alive can sneak up on me like that." John said with a smile. "Secondly, your the only one of those three that wears cologne with that brand."
'The breeze gave me away.' Quatre shook his head a little. "Alex, I thought you were dead." Quatre sat down on the grass next to John (Alex).
"I know you thought I was dead. Lady Une didn't tell you, because they weren't sure if it was necessary."
"Yet they told me that Trowa and Wufei were dead." Quatre let out a sigh. "Why shouldn't they just tell me, and not get so much trouble boiled over this."
Alex didn't respond.
"Please tell me why you did those things."
"I don't know why... I wasn't myself."
"I know how that feels. The Zero System made me mad with rage, and I couldn't see clearly."
Alex turned toward Quatre and grimly shook his head.
"I partially remember what happened, but I don't want to remember those memories for they are too painful."
"Memories of what?" Quatre glanced over at Alex, but returned his stare to San Jose.
"I don't want to describe them, let alone say their name." Alex stood up.
"Is there anything you wanted you say, other than that?"
"Quatre, don't try to make me a mobile suit pilot again. I've caused too much pain, being a janitor is fine enough for me."
Quatre stood up and began to walk away, disappointed at his comrade's comments. He stopped in his tracks and looked back at Alex.
"Why did you help that one cadet then?"
"He needed the help. I merely told him how to get there. He should...."
"I mean the real reason."
Alex hesitated. "There is no other reason."
"Don't lie to me like that. I know the real reason. It's the fact that you can't pass up a fight, even if it's a hopeless one. You want to go back to the battlefield, but are afraid that you'll hurt another person." Alex tried to raise his voice, but Quatre continued on. "Heero and Duo know this too well, along with me. Don't give us that old excuse." Quatre stopped his shouting and walked away again.
Alex looked resentful, and didn't move.
"One last thing Quatre," Quatre turned around. "How did you know I was here?"
"I was told about you from three cadets."
Alex sat back on the hill and stretched out his legs. "Why aren't they here? Those three have made a habit of following me lately."
Quatre stood still with a smile on his face. "I told the director of the facility to hold them until I got back. That way no one could interfere with me talking to you."
Alex chuckled at the thought of the three cadets being held against their will on the facility's grounds. His eyes let out little tears; he didn't know what to do next.
"So are you going to come back?" Quatre's left hand pointed at himself and his right arm pointed down toward San Jose. "Or are you just going to watch this city?"
Quatre took a better look at the city below him, and saw a pillar of smoke that came from the downtown area. His eyes opened wide with horror as one of the buildings exploded and he glared down at Alex. Alex was mystified by the sight in front of him, and could only look up at Quatre.
"A mobile suit attack... I'm going down, you are welcome to come with me."
"I refuse to go back to the battlefield, besides you and the Preventors should be able to handle."
Quatre shook his head in disappointment at Alex's words and let a sigh out. He ran away so that he could stop the attack.
Alex looked back at the city with pity in his heart, but didn't want to get involved. The memories, he had been put all his strength to keep away, might come back in horrific force and he simply couldn't handle them. A glimmer of light came from the San Francisco bay caught Alex's eye, and it opened wide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sandrock sliced through a Leo like a hot knife through butter with one of the heat shotels. The other shotel impaled another Leo through the cockpit, and Sandrock upper cut the Leo, which left two upper parts that swayed a little bit. Both Leos exploded at the same time.
This was Quatre's first battle since he had encountered Alex's mobile suit at Lunar Base. Quatre saw that he needed to get of his rusty combat style, but he just fine otherwise. He continued to think of how Alex responded to his questions earlier. 'Coward' came to his mind first, but he understood that every pilot needed to get over this fear, even if it took years. Quatre had Sandrock slice through another Leo, while he tried not to think of the pilot in the mobile suit. Any thought that came to his mind had to be on this battle, and nothing else.
Quatre looked around and saw Preventor Leos engaged in battle, and were pushing back what remained of the attacking force. He practically heard the men as they cheered from the mobile suits without the use of communication links. Quatre smiled a little, but the smile was cut short, as a volley of missiles flew past Sandrock and wiped out several Preventor Leos.
Quatre didn't know what to think, but came up with one conclusion. "No Leo can carry that kind of firepower. The situation has just gotten more dire."
Sandrock stepped out into the open and its cameras were filled with images of missiles were headed toward it. Sandrock thrusted back behind a building, and could only watch as the missiles laid waste to several buildings. Quatre tried to think of a way to face the new enemy, but before he could make a move, another volley of missiles blew up on the street where he was about to make his move.
"This guy has me figured out... and pinned." Quatre breathed a little roughly, but calmed down to think of another plan.
Sandrock jetted off to get behind another building, and just as it got into the open, two volleys of missiles crashed into more buildings, and leveled them. Sandrock was now in the open and had no cover. The thick smoke around him was only pierced by the glowing heat shotels.
'This is bad.'
Quatre couldn't move Sandrock for fear of another attack of missiles, but at the same time he couldn't just stand there. To his amazement, the missiles didn't come while the smoke was thick. The smoke dissipated to a large degree but left the air murky and very uncomfortable to breathe, let alone see through. Quatre saw an image of a blue mobile suit about a block away from his position, but couldn't make it out anymore since the smoke had messed up the view.
"Trowa... It can't be."
A bright light resonated from upper part of the mobile suit, and this meant more missiles. Sandrock activated its thrusters and flew backwards to avoid the missiles. Just as he got back far enough though, something happened to the left of Sandrock and the cameras picked up small remnants of explosions. A blue mobile suit was seen in Sandrock's cameras, but was much clearer than the first one.
This blue mobile suit stood 16.3m tall. It had only one camera lens in its head, and the head itself had a rounded slope, which came to a sphere point near the camera lens; there was also two straight antennas mounted on the rear of the head. The area that held the camera lens was jagged, which made the face look demon-like. The main body frame was much like that of a Virgo, except it lacked a beam cannon and had two spheroid shoulders. The shoulders had small circle hatches, which stored missiles. The feet of this mobile suit were also very similar to that of the gundams. At first glance, this blue mobile suit appeared to have mobility issues much like the Virgo, except it had thrusters on its back, arms, legs, and very small ones in its shoulders to counter the mobility issue.
The pilot of this mobile suit looked in frustration that his missiles had been shot down. He had Sandrock owned, but something got in the way and that was unacceptable. His red eyes seemed to almost burn with anger at the sight of Sandrock as well, and his short blonde hair dripped with sweat.
"No one will stop me. I must avenge my family!"
Sandrock prepared to charge at this new mobile suit, but a Preventor Leo ran in between the two mobile suits and was seemingly on guard of Sandrock. This fearless Leo pilot surprised both pilots. Quatre's response to this action was to try to get the mobile suit out of there.
A message flashed up on his screen before he could do anything.
Mr. Winner
Fallback with the other Preventor Leos, and I will cover you guys.
Please do as I ask.
Sincerely,
Liet. John Henderson
Quatre wondered what this man was thinking, but he doesn't deny he needed the break. Sandrock backed off and disappeared amongst the buildings that had yet to collapse.
The pilot of the blue mobile suit fired a volley of missiles toward where Sandrock fell back. He saw the missiles approach the area, and then watched one after one explode in mid-air except for one that crashed into the ground. The blue mobile suit looked back at the Leo and saw its back turned to the blue mobile suit along with its Leo rifle with fresh smoke that fumed out.
"How dare you stop me!" The pilot opened a communication link, but got static. This action made him even more pissed off.
The Leo turned around to face the new mobile suit and began to open fire on it.
The blonde haired pilot laughed at the foolhardy Leo as the bullets bounced off of its armor. The blue mobile suit reached to its torso area and pulled out an unignited beam saber.
"I don't waste anymore of my missiles on you. Prepare to die."
The blue mobile suit ignited its beam saber and at lightning speed charged at the Leo. It took a downward swipe at the Leo. The Leo barely dodged the attack with use of its rear support thrusters to spin to the right. The Leo fired more shots at the blue mobile suit, but the bullets bounced off the armor. Opportunity knocked for the blue mobile suit; the blonde pilot did a slight, quick slice at the Leo. The rifle fell into two pieces and exploded. The Leo flew backward to take cover. The red-eyed pilot smiled to his amusement as the Leo flew backward, and fired a set of front missiles at the Leo. In desperation, the Leo spun dodged to the left and right to no avail as the missiles made contact with its legs. The Leo uncontrollably smashed into buildings, and crashed out of sight of the blue mobile suit.
"Gotcha."
With satisfaction, the blue mobile suit made its way toward the downed Leo. The pilot looked down at the Leo with a smirk on his face, but the smirk went away when he saw the cockpit door already opened with no trace of the pilot in sight.
"Damnit."
The blue mobile suit smashed the cockpit area with its right foot and the Leo exploded.
"I wanted to kill that pilot for interfering. Oh well." The pilot chuckled a little bit. "I better get rid of that gundam now."
A communication link popped up on the pilot's screen and a female officer was on the other.
"Orza you have to pull back immediately."
"Why should I? I have them on the run." Orza looked further down the street and didn't make eye contact with her.
"You have lost the element of surprise and their defenses will be stronger further on. We can't risk losing you and Flugtod here."
"This is a golden opportunity, I can't just let one of those scumbags get away."
"I know you can't, but you'll get the chance again."
"I'm taking him out now and I'm not going to listen to you."
"These orders came from Eizo."
Orza looked her straight in the eyes with a lot of resentment.
"Affirmative, I'm pulling back."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quatre surveyed the remnants of one of the Leos that lay on the streets of San Jose. He breathed a sigh as he recognized it as being the Leo that came to save him. Most of the mobile suit was intact, but aside from the burnt marks was the crushed cockpit.
'I guess Liet. Henderson didn't make it. I should have been there.'
Rescure workers moved around him as they tried to put out fires that had sprung up nearby, and Preventor salvagers began preparation to take the Leo back with them. Quatre lowered himself down to the street below and began to walk out of the area. A Preventor pilot stopped him before he got too far.
"Your the pilot of the gundam that fought today, aren't you?"
"Yes, what do you want?"
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to assist you in the battle today."
"It's alright."
"I would have been in the battle, but the thing is that a janitor from the Preventor Combat Training Facility knocked me out just as I was suiting up."
"What..." Quatre stopped in mid-sentence. "Who are you?"
"I'm Liet. John Henderson."
"A janitor you say...." Quatre smiled a little. "I think it was for the best, Liet."
"But..."
"I have business to attend to. Don't worry about anything."
Quatre causally walked away from the pilot, who simply wasn't able to think of anything to say to him.
'I should have seen it. The evidence was right in front of me.' Quatre smiled while he shook his head. 'I need to find him then.'