CHAPTER 2

MS

Pang Tong and Kira reached the hangar quickly. Inside there was a buzz of commotion as people started getting ready for the battle ahead. "Kira," called Athrun. Kira and Pang Tong turned to look at Athrun. He was wearing a red one-piece jumpsuit and a helmet under his arm. What a lack of style, Pang Tong thought. "Who's attacking us," Kira asked. "Zaft," Athrun said. "Take care out there," Kira said. "You too," said Athrun, and he left for the Justice. "Hey, let me help," Pang Tong said. "You don't know how to pilot a mobile suit," Kira said. "Well, actually," Pang Tong said, "I've been reading a book here called 'MS piloting for idiots', so I know a little." "Hmm," Kira said, clearly worried. "Ah, come on, please?" Pang Tong said in a mock pleading voice. "Well, we do have a spare M1," Kira said. "Great!" Pang Tong said, "Don't worry, I won't be in the way." He left for the MS. "What have I done," Kira asked himself worriedly, then left.

As the mobile suits left, an operator noticed the M1 was preparing to launch. "Ma'am, the M1 is preparing to launch." "What," said Lacus surprised, "But who's the pilot?" "I am," said a voice through the intercom. "Pang Tong," Lacus said. "The one and only," he said. "Are you sure you can pilot the MS," Lacus asked. "I'm pretty confident," Pang Tong said. "Very well, take care," Lacus said. "Yeah, you too," Pang Tong said, "Bitch," he said between coughs. "What," Lacus said. "Oh, nothing," Pang Tong answered, "M1 launching," His mobile suit launched, and he saw the vastness of space, and the hundreds of Ginns in front of the ship.

"Well, this should be interesting," Pang Tong said. He saw the Justice and Freedom shooting a lot of Ginns with ease, while other mobile suits of similar appearance where lending support to the ships. "They seem to have everything under control here," Pang Tong said, and opened the book. "Okay, let's see here," he said, "Movement of mobile suit with pedals, yeah, I read that… Ah, Here it is. How to shoot. Just aim with the gun at your target and press the trigger button. The MS should do the rest." He looked at the joystick that controlled the arm. "That seems easy enough," he said. He took the joystick, aimed and fired. Instead of hitting the Ginn he was aiming at, he hit another M1. He stared in horror as the mobile suit exploded, the pilot probably unaware that he or she was shut down by an idiot of their side. "Okay," he said, "How do I get out the beam saber?" He read the book again and found what he was looking for. He drew out the saber, and prepared for the fight. "All right, let's see if I'm cut out to be a mobile suit pilot." He flew forward.

The Ginns noticed Pang Tong's brash action and fired. Pang Tong dodged with ease and slashed two of the Ginns in half. The Ginns exploded as Pang Tong continued to attack other Ginns. "What a bunch of losers," Pang Tong said as he easily destroyed five more. "Pang Tong," Kira's voice called. "Huh, Kira," Pang Tong said, looking around, trying to see where the voice came from. "Up here," said Kira. Pang Tong looked up and saw Kira in a small screen. "Hey, Kira what's up," Pang Tong asked. "I just wanted to ask you if you could, you know, stop destroying Ginns?" Kira asked timidly. "Huh," Pang Tong said confused. "Well, it's just that we have a sort of no-kill policy, you see, and--" "That's all right," Pang Tong said, "I'll try. Although, that's one rule that Lacus doesn't really advocate, now does she?" "No, I guess not," Kira said, "Still, I never thought she'd be that way." "We'll worry about it later," Pang Tong said, "Right now, let's worry about the fight." "Right," Kira said, "Kira out." Pang Tong turned his attention again to the overwhelming number of Ginns in front of him. "No-kill policy, huh," Pang Tong said, "This could get difficult." He charged for the enemy, wondering how he was going to fight them without destroying them.

The battle had gone on for one hour, and there were dozens of destroyed ginns. Most were simply incapacitated, blown arms and weapons. As for the battle, it was still as chaotic as it could be. The Buster gundam was lending support fire to the Archangel, taking a few hits but dishing out huge damage. The Eternal was also taking heavy fire. The Freedom and Justice were on the front, destroying enemy mobile suits. As for Pang Tong, he was finding it impossible to not destroy a Ginn. But although they were fighting fiercely, Pang Tong could see that they couldn't keep up this sort of battle with few forces for long. Eventually they'll be overwhelmed. "There has to be a way to end this quickly," he said. It was then that he saw an enemy ship in the distance. It was large, and Pang Tong was sure that that was their command center. If I can destroy that, Pang Tong thought, I could confuse the enemy forces, making the fight easier. He resolved to destroy that ship, despite the huge number of enemy forces. "Kira," he called. "Yeah," Kira responded. "I'm heading straight for the enemy flag ship," Pang Tong said, "Please provide supporting fire." "What," said Athrun. "Pang Tong, wait," Kira said, but too late. Pang Tong had already charged forward, going through the ranks of ginns at high speed. He cut through the ginns that got in the way, not stopping for anything.

The battleship Starblade was on the back of the lines, giving out orders to the ginns. "Ha!" said the captain, "Were finally breaking through." "Sir!" said one of the operators, "A mobile suit is approaching!" "What?" yelled the captain, "Have you identified it?" "It's an enemy mobile suit!" said the scared operator. Suddenly, Pang Tong's M1 appeared right in front of the ship. The captain and his crew stared at the barrel of it's beam gun. "But…how?" said the captain. The gun fired, and the captain and his crew knew no more.

Pang Tong backed away as the ship exploded in front of him. "Well, that worked," he said. But when he turned, he found himself face to face with at least a hundred angry ginns. "O-kay," he said. He took the book from earlier and searched desperately. "Okay, here. 'When finding yourself in a desperate situation, turn on the MS computer located under the seat.' Right, so, what's a computer?" He looked under the seat and found what he supposed was a computer. It had numbers on it. "Okay, now type the numbers 2-5-7-5-1." He did. "Press enter." He did. Suddenly, a fifteen second timer appeared. "Huh?" He read again. "Congratulations. You have activated a small nuclear self-destruct device. May you die for whatever it is your fighting for." Pang Tong looked at the timer again. "Oh," he said, suddenly realizing what it meant. "Pang Tong!" yelled Kira. "Kira," Pang Tong said. He saw behind the ginns a string of explosions. The Freedom was heading straight for him. Kira had gone into seed mode, although Pang Tong didn't know this. "Pang Tong, don't do it," Kira yelled, "You don't have to die this way! We can still make it through!" (Apply sad or dramatic music here) Apparently, Kira thought that Pang Tong was going to self-destruct on purpose. If only he knew, Pang Tong thought. And where was that sad tune coming from? "Well, might as well make this look good," he said. He put Kira on screen. "I'm sorry, Kira, but this is the only way," he said in a fake sad voice, "Pang Tong out." Well, that sounded corny enough, he thought. He saw the timer again. 5 seconds. He decided to look at the back of the book to see who was the author. It read Heero Yuey and Lacus Clyde. Lacus, Pang Tong thought. "Son of a--" Pang Tong said, but was interrupted by a bright light that appeared from the computer, then exploded.

Kira saw in horror as the M1 that Pang Tong was piloting exploded in front of him. It was a huge explosion, engulfing the ginns surrounding it. The Freedom was knocked back by the explosion. "Pang Tong!" Kira yelled again as he tried to regain control of his mobile suit. The explosion lasted ten seconds. After the explosion, Kira was able to regain control of the mobile suit. What he saw before him was a scene of destruction. There were destroyed ginns everywhere. Apparently the explosion engulfed all the ginns of the force. But Kira wasn't preoccupied with that. He had just seen Pang Tong, who had offered to help, who had gotten the worst treatment possible, die saving them. He saw something floating towards him. He recognized it as Pang Tong's hat. He grabbed it and went back to the Eternal.

When he got out of the Freedom, he saw Athrun, Cagali and Lacus all standing in front of him. They all looked sad. He jumped out and showed them the hat. "This was all I could find of him," he said and started to cry. "I can't believe it," Cagali said, "And after everything I said to him." "I never trusted him that much either," Athrun said. "He died saving us," Lacus said, "We will never forget him." Kira was still crying. "Pang Tong," he said tearfully, "Why did you have to die?" They all just stared at the hat. Then, unexpectedly, it went up in flames. Green flames. "What the--" said Athrun. The flames went into the shape of a bird, soared around the hangar, and landed on the ashes of the hat. Suddenly, a shape came out of the hat. And Pang Tong came out of the ashes, mask and all. "Missed me?" he asked, standing up and patting away some of the ashes from his clothes. He looked at Kira, who had tears in his face. "Has anyone ever told you that you cry too much for a guy," he asked. Pang Tong looked at everyone's shocked faces. "I guess I have some explaining to do, huh," he said. If there was one thing that Pang Tong was sure of, it was things would get more complicated from now on.