*Disclaimer* I don't own the name Gundam. It can't be profitted from in any shape or form.
Chapter 5- Icedig Reborn: Preventor Snow
Alex sat near the rear of Quatre's limo as they pulled away from the police department. Quatre held a cell phone to his right ear and talked business with the person on the other side.
Alex couldn't believe the situations he had gotten himself into as of late, yet he now sat in a luxury item that made him feel completely uncomfortable. Worse than the vehicle he was in, was the thing Quatre had told him before they had left the jail block. Him becoming a Preventor, what the hell had he gotten himself into? He never wanted back onto the battlefield since Orion, but now he had agreed to a deal that would make him go back to that wrecked battlefield to stop the burning hatred. In his mind though, the hatred would have grown even if he were there or not. Even worse was the fact that he used to have been part of that hatred. The thought that he might have wiped out the remaining peace wouldn't let go of him. He had to agree to the deal or else he would be sent to jail for the murders of Trowa Barton and Wufei Chang, which also meant being stuck with Bubba for even longer than he wanted. It was a simple choice; he had chosen to fight again. Alex pounded his right fist slightly against the leather seating in frustration.
'Damn it.'
Quatre folded up his cell phone and looked at Alex with a slight smile on his face.
"We're heading to New Edwards Base to get you acquainted with your new partner." Quatre stuffed his cell phone away into a coat pocket. "They'll also have some tests for you."
Alex gave Quatre one of his rare glares. "Do I need to study for these 'tests'?"
"No studying required."
"Good." Alex broke his glare. "I hate studying."
Alex's throat began to turn itself into a cottonmouth, and now he realized he needed something to drink before it turned into clothing of any type. He frantically looked for where the beverages were stored at, which made him look like a fool as he crawled over seating for something to drink. He felt through cushions while he flipped them over to find some sort of switch.
"What are you looking for?" Quatre gazed at what Alex was doing, not really sure what to make of it.
Alex stopped in the middle of flipping his fifth cushion. "I'm thirsty, where are the drinks at?"
Quatre pointed over to the mini bar that was in plain sight. Alex almost went to tears as he saw the mini bar, and prevented his fists from beating the upside of his head.
"Thank you."
Alex slid over and grabbed a glass while filling it with water. He downed several of the drinks and preceded to fix the mess he had caused.
"Sorry Quatre."
"It's alright."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Located in a dark conference room on one of the L2 colonies, a dark figure tapped his fingers on the desk as he waited for a videophone while he patiently sat. A red light flashed on the videophone in front of him. He reached over and pressed a button to answer the call. Orza appeared on the other side of the transmission.
"Orza Kida reporting in as ordered."
"You are four hours late reporting in."
"I'm sorry, sir. I ran into some difficulty during my mission and had to get things straight before I could contact you."
"What might these difficulties be?" The man leaned forward a little bit.
"I was doing well and all, until...."
"A Leo interfered between you and that gundam. Is that correct?" Orza nodded his head. "Why did I bother asking? I saw your battle, and it was an ordinary Leo. You had no excuse to have it stop you from completing your objective." The man raised his voice out of anger.
"It was my first real fight, sir. I won't fail again. I promise."
"You better hope you don't fail again." A smirk appeared on his face. "Though, your family failed against those forces as well. I shouldn't have expected you to win easily, so I'll forgive you this time."
"Thank you, sir. Thank you, Eizo."
"Wait for further orders, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Over and out."
Eizo pushed a button on the videophone and the conversation closed.
"Lights on."
The dark conference room brightened up and Eizo could now be seen fully. He had a dark shade of gray hair, which made him look a little bit younger than he really was. The man has the looked the age range of the thirties, but was actually around his mid-fifties. Eizo wore a traditional black tuxedo with a blue overcoat on the chair he sat on. He pulled out a cigarette case and got a cigarette. Eizo lit up the cigarette and began to breathe it.
'What am I going to do with that pilot?' Eizo exhaled some smoke.
The videophone lit up again with a green light instead of the red.
"Good, Yasuo Suza you finally called. Took you long enough."
Eizo reached over and pressed the flashing button.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The New Edwards base was all but abandoned after the base nearly exploded back in AC-195. Its missiles had been moved to other bases across the world, thus reduced the possibly of a huge explosion. Shortly before Mariemaea's forces were ready for their invasion of earth, New Edwards base had been converted into a mobile suit storage, analyzing, and maintenance facility. There was a smaller facility for specialized testing of pilots about a mile away from New Edwards. This facility was also nicknamed 'pilot hell' by those that had taken the tests there. Alex now knew too well how this place got its name, and almost wished he had never been sent there.
Alex and Quatre walked along the outskirts of the main New Edwards complex as they proceeded toward the mobile suit maintenance bay. Alex had a look of being slightly pissed off, and had his arms behind his head.
"I can't believe all those tests they gave me." Alex grimly spoke. "I nearly got killed on several of them."
Quatre shook his head at Alex's statement. "You were just fine."
"Just fine! I nearly drowned in that water tank...."
"Only because you forgot to put your air mask on before you went in."
"How was I supposed to know that?"
"Its a given."
"Well then, I wish I had been given that information."
"That was two days ago anyway."
"Oh yes, then there was that 'treadmill of death'." Alex pointed at Quatre. "I got flung off that thing every time I tried walking on it."
"It was only going two miles per hour..."
"So what? Each time I hit that wall with my back, do you know how much pain I was in?"
"The wall was padded."
Alex looked away from Quatre while he partially rubbed his back; even this rubbing caused irritation on the scars of Alex's back. "It hurts a lot more than you know."
"Not as much as I went through recovering from that attack of yours back at Lunar Base."
Alex retreated into silence as he heard Quatre words, and knew too well how much pain he must have went through. Alex decided to leave the topic of pain out of the rest of the conversation.
"What do you make of that cat scan nearly electrocuting me?"
"That, I must say, was unusual." Quatre caught sight of one of the complex's entrances. "I've never seen a cat scan machine go bonkers like that before. Anyway, we have arrived."
"Alright."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alex and Quatre rode on an elevator as it descended down into the complex. Quatre kept an eye on his watch, as he knew that Alex was in for a good surprise. Alex, on the other hand, stared into the elevator doors after his thoughts carried him away from his surroundings. The thought of a new partner confused him for he imagined to train someone, and then to have him or her fight alongside of him, or possibly a veteran pilot. He let his mind wander on the subject, while his eyes stared into the abyss known as the doors.
The elevator doors opened up and Quatre stepped outside; he expected to be followed by Alex, except no one stepped out with him. Quatre looked behind him and saw Alex completely zoned out. He walked back and began wave his hands in front of Alex's face.
"Earth to Alex, do you hear me?" Alex continued to stare and Quatre had only one option, now. He shook Alex furiously, "Snap out of it Alex."
"AH! What was that for?"
"Not paying attention. Let's get going."
Alex followed Quatre out of the elevator and into a hallway lined with offices. The hallway seemed to be dull and ordinary, along with monotonous to Alex, as they continued down it. The hallway gave way to a docking bay as they came into sight of a Leo covered by several groups of maintenance teams. Quatre stopped dead in his tracks before Alex could walk into the docking bay, and he turned around to face Alex along with two people that appeared behind Alex. Alex looked at Quatre for a moment and glanced behind him to see if anyone was behind him. He turned back to face Quatre.
"What is going on here? What are those guys doing here?"
Duo Maxwell and Heero Yuy came into light while Alex continued his stare at Quatre.
Duo put his arm around Alex's neck. "We're here to introduce you to your partner, and catch up on a few things." Heero didn't look at Alex, but rather looked at the Leo being repaired.
"You know...." Alex tried to gasp for air. "I can't breathe...."
Duo let go of Alex. "Alright."
Alex went on his knees and gasped for air. Once he got it back, he stood up and patted Duo on the back. "Thank you for the near death experience, I needed it." Alex put a smirk on his face. Both of them laughed a little bit.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I think your partner is waiting for you." Quatre stopped their laughter dead on. Alex walked into the docking bay. "It should be the third mobile suit on the left."
"Mobile suit? I thought my partner was human." Alex turned back to Quatre. "I must have a different definition of partner then."
Alex looked down the line of mobile suits and saw something that he thought was gone forever. It was Icedig nearly rebuilt. The only differences from the original mobile suit were the silver, pseudo gundam antenna on its forehead and a tattoo of a snowflake on its right arm. The antenna was a pseudo in the respect that there was only one triangle that pointed upward with a pentagon anchor. The tattoo of the snowflake struck Alex as the oddest feature added to Icedig. 'Why would they put a tattoo painted onto a mobile suit?' Other than that thought, Alex was astonished at how the Preventors had rebuilt the mobile suit to look almost identical to the original built by Rio. He turned around to face the three pilots.
"I can't believe they rebuilt that mobile suit."
"It was surprising when Lady Une told us that this mobile suit would be rebuilt." Duo commented.
"There is a difference though." Heero leaned up against a nearby wall.
"What might that be?"
"This version has Gundanium Armor installed on most of it." Duo stated. "Only the joints don't have Gundanium, they were fitted with Neo Titanium." Alex lifted up one of his eyebrows. "They simply ran out of Gundanium for the time being."
"Oh, let me guess Sandrock was the reason behind that?"
"You got that right."
Alex looked back at Icedig. "Why does it have a snowflake tattooed on the right arm?"
Not having a response given, Alex turned around to look at the three, and then a jacket flew into his face. He pulled the jacket down and got a good look at it.
"A Preventor... jacket..." Alex staggered on his words. "Does this mean...."
While in 'pilot hell', Alex had apparently forgotten that he was about to become a Preventor. He practically beat himself up on the inside for letting that thought go by.
"Yep, you are now; Preventor Snow." Duo had a big smile on his face. Alex on the other hand has a grim smile. "You will be unofficially inducted later today."
'Unofficially? What the hell, why can't I be inducted officially? Oh well.' Alex stopped his thoughts. "How long has Lady Une... err... Colonel Une had been planning this?"
"Not long after she and the director of the San Jose facility had a talk." Quatre stated. "That is when she told me, that you were actually alive and well."
Alex sighed for a moment and walked forward. He tried to walk back into the hallway, but an arm caught him on his right side. Heero held Alex firmly as he leaned up against the wall.
"There is something we want you to do." Heero said as he stared forward and didn't make eye contact with Alex.
"Which is?"
"One last test."
"I had enough of tests."
"This test will make or break you."
Alex looked at Heero without any clue what he meant.
"Could you at least tell me, what it is?"
Chapter 5- Icedig Reborn: Preventor Snow
Alex sat near the rear of Quatre's limo as they pulled away from the police department. Quatre held a cell phone to his right ear and talked business with the person on the other side.
Alex couldn't believe the situations he had gotten himself into as of late, yet he now sat in a luxury item that made him feel completely uncomfortable. Worse than the vehicle he was in, was the thing Quatre had told him before they had left the jail block. Him becoming a Preventor, what the hell had he gotten himself into? He never wanted back onto the battlefield since Orion, but now he had agreed to a deal that would make him go back to that wrecked battlefield to stop the burning hatred. In his mind though, the hatred would have grown even if he were there or not. Even worse was the fact that he used to have been part of that hatred. The thought that he might have wiped out the remaining peace wouldn't let go of him. He had to agree to the deal or else he would be sent to jail for the murders of Trowa Barton and Wufei Chang, which also meant being stuck with Bubba for even longer than he wanted. It was a simple choice; he had chosen to fight again. Alex pounded his right fist slightly against the leather seating in frustration.
'Damn it.'
Quatre folded up his cell phone and looked at Alex with a slight smile on his face.
"We're heading to New Edwards Base to get you acquainted with your new partner." Quatre stuffed his cell phone away into a coat pocket. "They'll also have some tests for you."
Alex gave Quatre one of his rare glares. "Do I need to study for these 'tests'?"
"No studying required."
"Good." Alex broke his glare. "I hate studying."
Alex's throat began to turn itself into a cottonmouth, and now he realized he needed something to drink before it turned into clothing of any type. He frantically looked for where the beverages were stored at, which made him look like a fool as he crawled over seating for something to drink. He felt through cushions while he flipped them over to find some sort of switch.
"What are you looking for?" Quatre gazed at what Alex was doing, not really sure what to make of it.
Alex stopped in the middle of flipping his fifth cushion. "I'm thirsty, where are the drinks at?"
Quatre pointed over to the mini bar that was in plain sight. Alex almost went to tears as he saw the mini bar, and prevented his fists from beating the upside of his head.
"Thank you."
Alex slid over and grabbed a glass while filling it with water. He downed several of the drinks and preceded to fix the mess he had caused.
"Sorry Quatre."
"It's alright."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Located in a dark conference room on one of the L2 colonies, a dark figure tapped his fingers on the desk as he waited for a videophone while he patiently sat. A red light flashed on the videophone in front of him. He reached over and pressed a button to answer the call. Orza appeared on the other side of the transmission.
"Orza Kida reporting in as ordered."
"You are four hours late reporting in."
"I'm sorry, sir. I ran into some difficulty during my mission and had to get things straight before I could contact you."
"What might these difficulties be?" The man leaned forward a little bit.
"I was doing well and all, until...."
"A Leo interfered between you and that gundam. Is that correct?" Orza nodded his head. "Why did I bother asking? I saw your battle, and it was an ordinary Leo. You had no excuse to have it stop you from completing your objective." The man raised his voice out of anger.
"It was my first real fight, sir. I won't fail again. I promise."
"You better hope you don't fail again." A smirk appeared on his face. "Though, your family failed against those forces as well. I shouldn't have expected you to win easily, so I'll forgive you this time."
"Thank you, sir. Thank you, Eizo."
"Wait for further orders, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Over and out."
Eizo pushed a button on the videophone and the conversation closed.
"Lights on."
The dark conference room brightened up and Eizo could now be seen fully. He had a dark shade of gray hair, which made him look a little bit younger than he really was. The man has the looked the age range of the thirties, but was actually around his mid-fifties. Eizo wore a traditional black tuxedo with a blue overcoat on the chair he sat on. He pulled out a cigarette case and got a cigarette. Eizo lit up the cigarette and began to breathe it.
'What am I going to do with that pilot?' Eizo exhaled some smoke.
The videophone lit up again with a green light instead of the red.
"Good, Yasuo Suza you finally called. Took you long enough."
Eizo reached over and pressed the flashing button.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The New Edwards base was all but abandoned after the base nearly exploded back in AC-195. Its missiles had been moved to other bases across the world, thus reduced the possibly of a huge explosion. Shortly before Mariemaea's forces were ready for their invasion of earth, New Edwards base had been converted into a mobile suit storage, analyzing, and maintenance facility. There was a smaller facility for specialized testing of pilots about a mile away from New Edwards. This facility was also nicknamed 'pilot hell' by those that had taken the tests there. Alex now knew too well how this place got its name, and almost wished he had never been sent there.
Alex and Quatre walked along the outskirts of the main New Edwards complex as they proceeded toward the mobile suit maintenance bay. Alex had a look of being slightly pissed off, and had his arms behind his head.
"I can't believe all those tests they gave me." Alex grimly spoke. "I nearly got killed on several of them."
Quatre shook his head at Alex's statement. "You were just fine."
"Just fine! I nearly drowned in that water tank...."
"Only because you forgot to put your air mask on before you went in."
"How was I supposed to know that?"
"Its a given."
"Well then, I wish I had been given that information."
"That was two days ago anyway."
"Oh yes, then there was that 'treadmill of death'." Alex pointed at Quatre. "I got flung off that thing every time I tried walking on it."
"It was only going two miles per hour..."
"So what? Each time I hit that wall with my back, do you know how much pain I was in?"
"The wall was padded."
Alex looked away from Quatre while he partially rubbed his back; even this rubbing caused irritation on the scars of Alex's back. "It hurts a lot more than you know."
"Not as much as I went through recovering from that attack of yours back at Lunar Base."
Alex retreated into silence as he heard Quatre words, and knew too well how much pain he must have went through. Alex decided to leave the topic of pain out of the rest of the conversation.
"What do you make of that cat scan nearly electrocuting me?"
"That, I must say, was unusual." Quatre caught sight of one of the complex's entrances. "I've never seen a cat scan machine go bonkers like that before. Anyway, we have arrived."
"Alright."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alex and Quatre rode on an elevator as it descended down into the complex. Quatre kept an eye on his watch, as he knew that Alex was in for a good surprise. Alex, on the other hand, stared into the elevator doors after his thoughts carried him away from his surroundings. The thought of a new partner confused him for he imagined to train someone, and then to have him or her fight alongside of him, or possibly a veteran pilot. He let his mind wander on the subject, while his eyes stared into the abyss known as the doors.
The elevator doors opened up and Quatre stepped outside; he expected to be followed by Alex, except no one stepped out with him. Quatre looked behind him and saw Alex completely zoned out. He walked back and began wave his hands in front of Alex's face.
"Earth to Alex, do you hear me?" Alex continued to stare and Quatre had only one option, now. He shook Alex furiously, "Snap out of it Alex."
"AH! What was that for?"
"Not paying attention. Let's get going."
Alex followed Quatre out of the elevator and into a hallway lined with offices. The hallway seemed to be dull and ordinary, along with monotonous to Alex, as they continued down it. The hallway gave way to a docking bay as they came into sight of a Leo covered by several groups of maintenance teams. Quatre stopped dead in his tracks before Alex could walk into the docking bay, and he turned around to face Alex along with two people that appeared behind Alex. Alex looked at Quatre for a moment and glanced behind him to see if anyone was behind him. He turned back to face Quatre.
"What is going on here? What are those guys doing here?"
Duo Maxwell and Heero Yuy came into light while Alex continued his stare at Quatre.
Duo put his arm around Alex's neck. "We're here to introduce you to your partner, and catch up on a few things." Heero didn't look at Alex, but rather looked at the Leo being repaired.
"You know...." Alex tried to gasp for air. "I can't breathe...."
Duo let go of Alex. "Alright."
Alex went on his knees and gasped for air. Once he got it back, he stood up and patted Duo on the back. "Thank you for the near death experience, I needed it." Alex put a smirk on his face. Both of them laughed a little bit.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I think your partner is waiting for you." Quatre stopped their laughter dead on. Alex walked into the docking bay. "It should be the third mobile suit on the left."
"Mobile suit? I thought my partner was human." Alex turned back to Quatre. "I must have a different definition of partner then."
Alex looked down the line of mobile suits and saw something that he thought was gone forever. It was Icedig nearly rebuilt. The only differences from the original mobile suit were the silver, pseudo gundam antenna on its forehead and a tattoo of a snowflake on its right arm. The antenna was a pseudo in the respect that there was only one triangle that pointed upward with a pentagon anchor. The tattoo of the snowflake struck Alex as the oddest feature added to Icedig. 'Why would they put a tattoo painted onto a mobile suit?' Other than that thought, Alex was astonished at how the Preventors had rebuilt the mobile suit to look almost identical to the original built by Rio. He turned around to face the three pilots.
"I can't believe they rebuilt that mobile suit."
"It was surprising when Lady Une told us that this mobile suit would be rebuilt." Duo commented.
"There is a difference though." Heero leaned up against a nearby wall.
"What might that be?"
"This version has Gundanium Armor installed on most of it." Duo stated. "Only the joints don't have Gundanium, they were fitted with Neo Titanium." Alex lifted up one of his eyebrows. "They simply ran out of Gundanium for the time being."
"Oh, let me guess Sandrock was the reason behind that?"
"You got that right."
Alex looked back at Icedig. "Why does it have a snowflake tattooed on the right arm?"
Not having a response given, Alex turned around to look at the three, and then a jacket flew into his face. He pulled the jacket down and got a good look at it.
"A Preventor... jacket..." Alex staggered on his words. "Does this mean...."
While in 'pilot hell', Alex had apparently forgotten that he was about to become a Preventor. He practically beat himself up on the inside for letting that thought go by.
"Yep, you are now; Preventor Snow." Duo had a big smile on his face. Alex on the other hand has a grim smile. "You will be unofficially inducted later today."
'Unofficially? What the hell, why can't I be inducted officially? Oh well.' Alex stopped his thoughts. "How long has Lady Une... err... Colonel Une had been planning this?"
"Not long after she and the director of the San Jose facility had a talk." Quatre stated. "That is when she told me, that you were actually alive and well."
Alex sighed for a moment and walked forward. He tried to walk back into the hallway, but an arm caught him on his right side. Heero held Alex firmly as he leaned up against the wall.
"There is something we want you to do." Heero said as he stared forward and didn't make eye contact with Alex.
"Which is?"
"One last test."
"I had enough of tests."
"This test will make or break you."
Alex looked at Heero without any clue what he meant.
"Could you at least tell me, what it is?"