Chapter Two
The Return of OZ
"What the-" Duo shouted.
Another shock wave threw the men to the ground. Duo's children were crying and Trowa's daughter was clutching him tightly.
"What's going on here?" Heero asked pushing himself to his feet.
Most of the women in the room were screaming and the men were rushing around in a panic.
Heero looked around and stopped at a man sitting at a table with a laptop looking very flustered. He ran to him.
"May I borrow this?" He didn't wait for an answer before he took the computer and attached his mobile phone to it. His fighting instincts taking over, he began thumbing through files and web pages as the other pilot's gathered around him and watched. He hacked into the old OZ files. Reading quickly he found his goal, the OZ main frame.
"I knew they wouldn't just give up." He muttered angrily.
"What? Who hasn't given up?" Duo asked. He had been pushed to the back of the group and was now jumping up and down trying to get a view of the computer.
"OZ. They planned this gathering so that all of the colony fighters would be in one place. If they destroy all of us, there will be no one stopping them from taking over the colonies again."
Another blow rumbled the structure of the building and crashing sounds signified the breaking of champagne glasses.
Wufei smashed his fist into the table. "This whole celebration was a set up." His eyes flared with rage.
Trowa ushered the three children under the table to protect them from falling objects and looked at his friends.
"We have to do something."
Quatre nodded. "But what? We've destroyed the Gundam's. And this colony doesn't have any mobile suits."
"Yes they do." Heero was still tapping away at the keyboard. "They just got a shipment in yesterday. Their in the hanger."
"That's on the other side of the colony!" Quatre gasped. "We'd never get there in time!"
"We have to try." Heero stood up and looked at the others. He turned to Wufei.
"Wufei, is your wife capable of watching Duo and Trowa's children?"
Wufei turned to his wife and she nodded. He looked at Heero and nodded curtly. "What is your plan?"
"Unless anyone has a car in their pocket, then we'll have to borrow one. There are plenty in the parking lot. We can borrow one to get to the mobile suit hanger. I don't think it will be a safe ride for the children or for your wife. We can leave them here and they can take cover with the other guests while we stop OZ from blowing a hole in the colony."
The others nodded and with small good-byes to Jun, Adiana, Ryo and Nura, the ex-Gundam pilots ran out of the ballroom and into the parking lot. Three Leo mobile suits had already infiltrated the colony and were terrorizing the town, headed straight for the ballroom.
"This changes things." Duo said and turned nervously back to the ball room.
Wufei touched his arm. "Jun will take care of your children. I assure you, they will be safe."
Duo nodded at his friend and ran to an abandoned convertible. "We should split up then! Make it harder for them to contain us!" He yelled as he jumped in.
The others agreed and split into groups. Trowa hot-wired a sports car with Quatre, Wufei joined Duo in the convertible and Heero jumped onto the back of his Ninja and all three vehicles sped off, straight in the direction of the mobile suits.
Duo reached under the car and dug his fingers around.
"This is no time to stall, Maxwell." Wufei complained.
"I know, I know, I'm goin'!"
Finally his fingers found their target. He grabbed at the small wires and touched them together. The engine roared to life. Duo sat up with a smug grin on his face.
"And he still has it!"
Wufei rolled his eyes annoyed. "May we drive now?"
"Thought you'd never ask." Duo grinned and hit the accelerator.
The car screeched and zoomed out of the parking lot. Since Trowa and Quatre had already headed down the west path and Heero zoomed down the East path, the only one left was to do straight down the middle…and straight into the Leo's path. Duo accelerated and glanced at Wufei.
"Hold on, this may get rough."
"I can do rough." He hissed, glaring at the mobile suits.
Duo maneuvered the car down the road and thought at first that he would get passed them without any conflict, but just as he was approaching the center suit, it turned on him and stopped right into the middle of the street.
"Shit!" Duo shouted and turned the car in a sharp right turn straight into an alley between two large buildings. The car bounced and roared through the alley leaving Duo and Wufei nothing to do but hang on for the ride.
"The hanger should be just beyond these buildings." Wufei voiced.
"Then all we have to do is get through that guy!" He motioned forward. A second Leo had positioned itself at the exit of the alley. Both of its feet were directly in Duo's path. Duo looked over at Wufei and his eyes shown with a fiery lust for action. Wufei recognized that look and smirked in reply.
"Hang on!" He yelled and pressed the accelerator down to the floor. At the last minute before reaching the Leo's feet, he veered the car to the left and slammed into a trash can. As the car was flipping, Duo and Wufei dove out and rolled across the street. The car flipped and smashed into the Leo's left leg. The Mobile suit was thrown off balance by the blow and fell hard into a near-by house. Duo landed hard in the grassy front yard of an apartment complex, while Wufei rolled along the sidewalk nearby. He stood up and brushed himself off with a smug grin. Duo pulled himself up and was about to complain that Wufei hadn't even received a scratch when he saw the result of the mobile suit. He pointed and laughed with a smug grin on his face.
"The God of Death lives again!" He yelled at the wreckage.
He turned to Wufei, who nodded, and the two ran down the street to the hanger.
Trowa made quick work in hot wiring the sports car that he and Quatre now drove in. Deciding to avoid as much conflict as possible, he took the path that lead them around the mobile suits and took the "scenic" route to the hanger.
Quatre watched the scenery pass by out the window. It wasn't a pretty sight. The Leo's were tearing up the town. He sighed and looked back at Trowa.
"You know, it's funny. It's been so long since the war, I was actually starting to think that we would have peace forever."
Trowa nodded gravely. "There is no such thing as peace forever."
Quatre nodded and sighed heavily. He began to think out loud.
"You know, it seems odd that this colony would get a shipment of mobile suits in when there hasn't been a need for them up here."
"Yes it does. Perhaps the colony officials were planning to make an addition and needed the mobile suits for the heavy lifting."
"Perhaps," Quatre mused. "But even so, wouldn't there be construction notices around the city?"
"Perhaps it is not in the city." Trowa voiced though he sounded unsure himself.
The two men sat in silence for a moment.
"We'll be there soon." Trowa said.
Heero raced out of the parking lot first on his bike. He was grateful now for bringing it and not his car. It would be easier to avoid the Leo's in his bike. He rode off to the right of the Leo's, through a residential zone. The faster he rode, the angrier he became.
It's all about death with you, isn't it OZ? He thought. Who cares about a few innocent by-standards as long as you get what you want, eh?
"Will there ever be enough death!" Heero yelled at the top of his lungs. The Leo closest to him turned and began to stomp towards him. Heero accelerated and went straight for the Leo. At the last second he turned and rode straight through the suit's legs. The modal was too old and low-tech to turn around quickly so Heero had already managed to put plenty of distance between he and the suit before he even knew what happened.
Bakas, Heero cursed them and rode on to the hanger.
Heero pulled up to the hanger and quickly jumped off his bike. He ran to the front door and pulled.
Locked
He studied the lock closely and noticed reddish-brown stains around the lock. Trowa and Quatre pulled up and met Heero at the door.
"The lock is rusted shut." Heero said standing up.
Trowa looked around. "Perhaps that window" He pointed to a rusty old window.
Quatre rubbed the glass with his sleeve and peaked inside.
"Well, it's dark, but it looks clear. I think we can get in here."
"Right." Heero walked up and smashed the class with his elbow.
The three men climbed in and looked around. Shadows loomed in the darkness and shallow light poured in from random windows throughout the hanger. Scattered around were pieces of old mobile suits; large hands, shattered legs, broken heads.
"All of these are broken." Trowa said kicking a piece of metal siding away.
"But, the new shipment…" Quatre hesitated.
"It has to be somewhere." Heero said and continued to search the old broken suits.
A loud crash echoed throughout the hanger. Trowa, Heero and Quatre turned to the sound with a start. Duo lay on the floor under the broken window. Wufei stood above him shaking his head.
"You haven't changed, Maxwell." He glared and walked into the hanger.
Duo stood up and brushed himself off.
"Wow, it's hard to fit through windows when you're older, isn't it?" He laughed.
The others rolled their eyes and turned back to the darkness.
"So, where are these new mobile suits?" Duo asked brushing himself off.
"I don't think there are any." Quatre muttered.
Duo looked around at all the wreckage.
"But…the computer-"
"Was wrong." Heero reappeared from behind a giant mobile doll. "Someone altered the shipping arrangements on the company files."
"How can you be sure?" Wufei asked.
"I just found a shipping log here in the hanger. There have been no shipments since February 22, 196 A.C.
"Why would the company files be altered that drastically?" Duo asked.
"If it was a trap." Trowa said.
The lights came on and the five ex-pilots were surrounded by twenty armed OZ soldiers. A steady clapping echoed through-out the hanger.
"Very good, Mr. Barton. Very good indeed."