Deadly Research
Disclaimer: The usual stuff. That and I love red velvet cake. Mmmm . . . red velvet cake! Other than that, I'm not much of a cake person. On to reviewers!
Bloody Kitsune: Thanks for the compliment! Yes, you are correct when assuming that this takes place during AC 3: Silent Line. Gundam Seed was cool, but I got to go back to what started me off in the Gundam Series. I'll have a Seed fic going soon, or I might draw in the Seed cast in the later chapters . . . ;)
Awbachellor: Thanks for the support! I hope you enjoy the rest as it comes out.
Dra Gan the Draco King: (Gomen! The name's HUGE.) That and your e-mail's . . . well, HUGE too! Thanks for the review and I hope that you enjoy this fiction.
Kenshkrix: Ah, yes; I know exactly what you're saying. As said in the previous chapter, I know that the Karasawa rifle is not the most powerful with a single shot. However, what I think makes it superior to other laser weapons is its rate of fire combined with its superior ammo storage compared to the ten shot 2550 attk pwr plasma right arm gun. (And others like it.)
As for the battle tactics? This fic is not the game even though it evolves around and falls in its storyline. If I did the fights like a normal AC battle in the arena or missions, the story would get stale and boring; for both the readers like you and for the writer (ME!).
Also, no, I haven't discontinued SCARS, it's just that I've hit a road block . . . or writer's block. The next chapter will be completed after this story's chapter is. Thanks again!
Onto the Fic! MWUHAHAHAHA!
Recap
The AC team and Global Cortex thought the Gundams were going to be the end for their civilization while the Gundam team began to plan for the possible deaths of all they worked for to get to Mars and peace back on Earth a mere two years ago.
Little known to the two factions, a third set of eyes stared down on the scene from the safety of space. The huge satellite cannon hadn't interfered with the newcomers from Earth. It merely let the two warring sides wear each other out, gathering information as it did so. Unlike the other two, it knew the exact abilities of the Gundam Team and Global Cortex's Raven pilots.
In its mind . . . the two sides were equal on the Scales of Power. Both were a threat to it, and it wanted both sides gone . . . permanently.
Mission 3: Who's Interrogating Who Again?
Global Cortex HQ
"The Fallen Angels are WHAT!" The desk of the speaker rattled as he slammed the mission report down. The mug of coffee fell off, leaving a dark stain on the plush ivory carpet.
In the red folder he had be given contained the mission log from Sword Maiden and Dark Heart. It started from their departure from the hangar bay to the time they cut off all communications.
The last transmission had been fuzzy, but the intention was crystal clear.
Fallen Angels. . . . . . . descended. . . . . . .abyssal . . . . rld . . . . . . . . . . . . . rise again. . . . . . new power. . .crush. . . . . . . . . . . . trespassed . . . . . .nst us.
"You're saying that they accepted capture to gain information concerning this new weapon?"
The secretary meekly nodded, hoping that he wouldn't totally go nuts. The president of Global didn't like things to get out of hand on a mission; it made for far too much paperwork. Her hopes were in vain as he punched the desk.
"IDIOTS! Go get me Mobius and Shade!" The young woman paled, but obeyed his command. He was getting serious, maybe too serious.
Prison Cell Block 76
" . . ." SLAP!
Melissa reeled at the force of the backhanded strike across her face. The interrogator wasn't getting anything out of her despite nearly everything he did. She knew what would happen if anything really bad happened to her during this idiot's questioning.
Dark Heart was being forced to watch as she was beat on whenever she didn't answer a question. He smirked confidently when the guards looked for a pained reaction out of him. His wife was tougher than what they were dishing out despite her beauty. He didn't care about Melissa's looks, but her fortitude and professional's dedication. The beauty to him was just a bonus that came with her.
They were both bound with synthetic ropes with their hands tied behind the cold steel chairs they sat in. None of them seemed to notice the details that hinted at an escape artist. He had already popped his wrist joints and was just waiting for the men to try something drastic to get her to talk. He'd give each one the beatings of their lives if something happened.
This level of interrogation was a walk on the beach compared to what they had been through when the pair began to work together. It had been before they had gained the nickname of The Fallen Angels. He had been eighteen and she was twenty-one.
The two AC pilots had been assigned to work as a pair to destroy a high-speed transport before it reached its relay point. What they hadn't been told was that it was armed to the teeth with gun points and a twin mounted plasma cannon. They had been captured and tortured for information about the rival corporation that had hired them.
Melissa still had the scars from that experience on her back. What people couldn't see was the livid scar across her face and chest from the blunt knife that had been used that long, painful night. The latest reconstruction surgery had removed the scars from her face, but not her chest or back.
It had been then that he fell for her, not just in body, but in spirit and mind too. The look in her eyes hadn't been despair at her disfigurement, but determination to show everyone that she wasn't just a surface deep beauty, but a soldier in heart.
CRAACKKKKK!
"Aughh!" Melissa fell over, still tied to the chair. The loud clash of metal against the hard concrete floor assaulted the room. The man stood over her with a stun baton. It looked like he was finally fed up with her attitude.
"Stupid bitch! Why won't you answer the questions!"
He approached her and turned her belly up, the chair and her own weight bore down on her arms. She winced at the uncomfortable position. He came to her, a knife drawn as he cut her jacket open from chest to hips. Melissa froze as her mind suddenly shifted back to that night four years ago.
"Maybe getting to know me better will loosen up things a little."
The sudden screams of the guards behind him, followed by a gunshot and the splintered cracking of bones made him spin around. He dropped his knife.
Dark Heart stood there with the back of his boot heel in the back of one of the soldier's skull, his face implanted into a small crater in the wall. The spinning back heel kick had sent him literally head long into the reinforced concrete wall and shattered his skull.
Letting the dead man fall, his blood oozed down the now battered wall. The other guard was rolling around on the floor grasping a spewing stump that was his right hand. Dark Heart held a bloody boot knife by his thumb and index finger, coppery scented fluid dripped from the point. Blood from the now amputated hand.
Melissa smiled at the sudden turn of fortunes. He never failed to show his dark side when she was in trouble she couldn't get out of. That night four years ago, he had lost his right leg from the knee down in addition to his right eye. He was doing his favorite trick by her guess as her tormentor backed up, visibly scared to death.
Catching a glimpse of his face, the right eye had turned golden yellow, the synthetic eye now active. When he wasn't using it, not only was he limited to just his left eye vision, but it looked like a normal, brown eye. It was his favorite scare tactic simply because it just worked.
There were only three times when that eye would turn on. When they were alone at home, on a mission or in the arena, and when he was extremely ticked. The last one was definitely true here. Either her questioner was about to die, or be in serious pain. She hedged her bets on death.
"Damn it! Die!" The guard pulled his pistol and fired.
Dark Heart kicked the steel chair up in defense as it took the bullet. The guard couldn't believe his eyes as the pilot immediately spun in the air as the chair rose. He turned a full 540 spin before letting loose a killer roundhouse with his right, hurling the chair at his assailant. The flying hunk of metal caught the interrogator of guard and slammed him back to the wall.
He found a knife sticking out of his throat, pinning him to the wall as Dark Heart came running up from his original position. The Raven rammed the knife completely into his neck with a palm heel strike before gripping his neck in a vice hold.
"Don't ever . . . mess with a fallen angel, no matter how beautiful. They tend to have a vengeful side, and show no mercy, as they received none when thrown from heaven." The dead man's eyes rolled into his head as Dark Heart let go.
The last guard who had lost his right hand had stopped moving. Going over to check, Dark Heart felt for a pulse and found none. In seconds, the man had bled to death, the crimson life force spilt, in a massive, slick pool under his corpse.
"Thanks."
Dark Heart cut her bonds with his second sleeve knife. They had been taken directly to the questioning chambers instead of their cells. Being pilots, they hadn't been frisked for any weapons, as they apparently 'didn't' have any.
"I can't let them harm my other half now can I?" He gave her a gentle smile as he attempted to hack the electric lock. She walked over to the knife embedded guard and took his pistol; a semi-auto 9mm field pistol. Its weight pleased her well enough as she stuck it in her belt.
Going through his pockets next, she found her target, the electronics key card. The swish of a door caught her attention.
"Your search was a little slow Maiden Sword." Dark Heart stood in the open door, the machine gun the first guard had along with his sidearm in hand.
"Well sorry Dark Heart. I like being thorough. One of us has to think rationally instead of on instinct." Her husband chuckled at her sarcasm despite the urgent need to escape before security arrived. She was right.
As they snuck around the base, Dark Heart kept his synthetic eye on, using its sensors to measure distances, detect trip lasers, oddly placed cameras, and soldiers moving about. He liked to joke saying that it was an AC radar for his brain. His joke wasn't off the mark. Mirage had made it for him at his request, and it was a radar; given its specs.
Just around one corner, a small group of guards stood chatting about their homes, or superiors. His eye couldn't calculate their numbers. He shook his head when Maiden Sword motioned for a number count. They had gotten into the central infrastructure and left several unconscious guards in boxes, chests, restrooms . . . anything they could hide them in.
Dark Heart had gone so far as to send one of them down the air conditioning shaft when they couldn't find a place to dump his body. She was pretty sure whoever found him before he woke up would wonder what he'd been doing.
She took up a spot beside him and held a small metal mirror close to the floor and around the corner to get a count. She grimaced. Ten guards in all; and they were dressed like elites. Shaking her head, Dark Heart took her message and pointed up.
Following his finger, her eyes fell on the ventilation shaft. A quick nod found her being lifted up to the grating. It slid open without a sound to her surprise as she climbed into it. Dark Heart followed with a wall hike and little trouble. The shaft was large enough to crawl two across in, but they went one behind the other.
Using the voices as a beacon, the pilots scurried over the group's location and into the next room. Another set of voices met their ears. A confident female's voice sounded like she was in an argument with several important people.
Looking down into the room, the pilot's could make out a young woman standing at the center of a small stage. She had light brown hair, almost blonde when the light hit it. She had blue eyes and held a diplomat's aura. She looked younger than Dark Heart.
"You must stop this fighting! We are not here to start another war! Don't you see? These people are far more advanced than we thought they were. It looks as if they have been fighting for ages and have far more experience and technology. We must try to talk peace."
Talk peace! Who is this person? She looks important enough . . . but she obviously doesn't know how far the damage has gone for both sides.
A quiet movement from his left told him that Melissa had left to find another grating in the room. A paper note rested on his left hand. He stared at it for a minute.
How did she get that! Never mind . . . I don't want to know. Let's see . . . I'll shoot out the door controls and drop in on the other side of the room. Take the girl hostage? What? Great . . .
"Miss Darlien! We can't stop this battle! We have just completed the weapons that will tip the scales in our power." One of the ministers said as he stood. The woman hesitated, but asked her question.
"And what are these weapons?" Her voice held venom in them that he had never seen in a girl her age. It was a shame he had to take her hostage like this. She had fire; that was certain.
"Gundams."
The woman paled and looked as if she was about to faint. Melissa took that as her cue as he heard the gunshot ring. Everyone in the room panicked at the gun's roar. Melissa dropped down just before Dark Heart and shot out the other door panel; effectively locking it down.
He took up position behind the girl and held her arms behind her as he took a shot at one of the three guards in the room. The bullet caught him in the hip, sending him to the floor, his left leg at a sickening angle. The other two were dispatched by Melissa, one with a knife in his chest; the other with a shot between his eyes, the splatter marks from the exit wound covered the wall.
"Who are you!"
"Quiet. You're in no position to ask the questions now. These men beat my wife trying to get answers out of her." He gestured with the barrel of the handgun to Melissa, who was keeping everyone quiet with her own firearm.
The girl gasped. Melissa was looking worse than the beating she had received. Her lip only slightly swollen and cut open. A bruise had formed from the stun baton on her forehead. Her jacket looked shredded from the knife. She probably had more bruises elsewhere across her arms and legs, but those weren't seen.
"What's going on in there? Vice Foreign Minister Darlien! Are you okay!" one guard's voice came from the other side of the doors.
The AC pilots looked at each other, then to the girl in his hold. A Vice Foreign Minister at her age? What was going on here? Shoving that aside as another question to ask later, Dark Heart pointed the gun at the door and let loose a shot. The whole room erupted in screams. Most only lasted a few seconds at best.
"I've got some questions for the Vice Minister here soldier. You open that door, or the other one and we'll dispatch a few of the civilians in here!"
The sound of boot steps running the opposite direction was the only answer he got. Melissa looked at him with half scorn, half shock. He shrugged his shoulders.
"I've always wanted to say that. Sue me!" She slapped her forehead and groaned.
"I give up! Questions first though!" He nodded and lead the Minister to a chair and sat her down in it. He took one himself and sat down, holstering the gun in his belt again. The machine gun on the floor behind the podium; he gave her a small smile.
"Miss Darlien. I have some questions as I've said before. I'm sure you also have a lot of questions for me too." She nodded once as a scowl on her face. Her eyes told him she knew where this was going.
"You wish to speak with me on a political basis, right?" He smiled openly. He hadn't seen another girl who possessed some sense in her head for some time. He was going to enjoy this exchange of information for once.
"Yes I do. I'm glad to see that someone around here doesn't think with a trigger finger."
Melissa took the joke in stride, laughing lightly despite the looks she got in return from everyone in the room.
"Now, let's begin my half of the questions. I still consider this an interrogation though. So not answering is not in your best interest. Understood?" He merely tapped the pistol in his belt and pointed into the crowd. She swallowed and nodded.
"Good, now first . . ."
WHEW! That was pretty rough. Out-of-mech fight scenes are way tougher than some people think they are to write.
Relena Darlien has been taken hostage AGAIN! But Dark Heart isn't threatening anyone yet. The Minister and AC Pilot begin a battle that doesn't involve bullets and bombs. It's a mental game where either one could fall into despair. What will happen now when Relena finally realizes why Heero vowed never to hurt anyone again?
Want to know what the full transmission sent by Dark Heart was?
Fallen Angels have descended into the abyssal world, but will rise again, with a renewed power to crush all who have trespassed against us.
Reviews please!