Hey everyone, I have returned and Chapter 2 of "Megas 00" is here. Thank you guys for the early support and reviews for this crossover story between Megas XLR and Gundam 00, and I appreciate it a lot for it. As M.E.G.A.S. is currently in the hands of Celestial Being, it will take some time until the arrival of Kiva and her remaining Earth Coalition Drones since they haven't used the giant robot and accidentally triggered the Tachyon Beacon, the one Coop did twice in the canon, yet.
Thank you fnplra for the ideas and suggestions for this chapter. :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam 00 and Megas XLR and their characters. They belong to their respective owners, Sunrise and Jody Schaeffer and George Krstic.
Enjoy and don't forget to review. :)
Chapter 2
Within the hangar of Krung Thep
"I see. So you're telling me that this Megas came from the future?", Tieria Erde inquired after inspecting the recently-refurbished M.E.G.A.S. and the footage on the pad provided for him to see the headless 80 feet tall mobile suit emerging from the blue portal and crash landed on the asteroids prior to Ian and his fellow Celestial Being members moving in to retrieve it before the A-Laws took notice of the anomaly.
Megas looks more like a mobile armor than a Gundam!, Tieria thought after comparing the height of M.E.G.A.S. and the Alvatore mobile armor's remains that Celestial Being had recovered for study.
He had recently returned from Lagrange 3 a week ago after testing out the 00 Gundam to activate the theoretical Twin Drive System but unfortunately his Virtue's GN Drive didn't work at all with the 0 Gundam's. And now, it was back to the drawing board to try again with Kyrios' solar reactor.
Ian nodded as he explained, "Yup, I know it sounds like it came out of a sci-fi movie but we found out that it has the Time Flux capable of time travel. But it has sustained damage and is currently sealed away in the vault by Commander Chall's orders. Even if we did fixed it, we don't know what will happen if we tried using it without causing consequences to the space time continuum. Like time paradoxes and alternate timelines, you know sci-fi stuff."
The purple haired Gundam Meister frowned but understood the chief engineer's logical reasoning. It was indeed tempting to go back to the past and save the lives of their comrades Lichty, Christina and Dr. Moreno especially Lockon Stratos most of all during Operation Fallen Angels with the 3.5 Generation Gundams that Celestial Being is developing.
But they have to keep moving forward and build up their strength in secret until it is time to reveal themselves to the world once more and take down the A-Laws for perverting Aeolia Schenberg's plan with their senseless massacres under the façade of world unity.
"Very well then, who will pilot the Megas?", Tieria asked, wondering who will be chosen to be its new Meister.
"We already have some candidates in mind among the Reserve Meisters. But the problem is that Megas has its own biometric system within the black box that prevents anyone from using it and since the pilot from the future is dead after the head cockpit exploded, which I still hold against whoever who made that design flaw in the first place, we have to find the one who shares the same DNA.", Ian stated with a huff of annoyance.
The glasses wearing young man suggested the simple solution, "Why don't you just hack into the black box or simply remove it from the mobile suit?"
Then, Tieria and Ian's attention were drawn to the voice of a man with slicked spiky blonde hair, a goatee, green eyes and large build in a standard Celestial Being uniform who raised his hand as he lowers two fingers and explained. "If only that were easy. One, Megas' black box is from the future with technology far more advanced than even ours. I don't think that our computer experts and Haros could crack into it and allow our new friend to be pilotable without unlocking the DNA lock. And two, it is embedded too deep within Megas. We can't remove it without damaging the interior of our newly-acquired mobile suit too much."
"That's a fair assessment.", Tiera accepted as he gazed upon the giant mobile suit having a Gundam head.
"Ah, Coop. Good to see you.", the older man greeted him as he fist bump with his fellow engineer and did the gang signs together.
Tieria raised an eyebrow while interested on their form of greeting, "Coop?"
Ian elaborated for him, "We call David Cooplowski Halevy that nickname back when we were getting our mobile suit engineering degree because he got cooped up in his room all day long creating new mobile weapons designs long before Celestial Being recruited us respectively. At least he got to be invited to join while I and Joyce had to be spared from being ordered for execution by Veda when we saw the Astraea accidentally."
He smiled with fondness and amusement, "Back in the day when we were in the AEU military's mobile suit development division together, Coop had made so many crazy designs of his own the AEU outright rejected most of them. They claim that his designs are being way too impractical, inefficient and over the top when he proposed them. He resigned out of protest."
"Oh come on! It's not my fault that the heads of the AEU are a greedy bunch of cheapskates who'd rather steal designs from the Union and make knockoffs out of them like that Enact than try create their own original mobile suits that stand out from those from the Union and the Human Reform League. Totally not a Flag, my freaking ass.", Coop angrily protested with a huff, folding his arms.
His friend rolled his eyes and waved off, "Oh relax big guy. At least we had kept some of your designs that are more sensible in mind and make good use of them. It will come in handy when the time comes."
"You'd better be.", Coop hmphed before deciding to change the subject and gave out the pads of the results to Ian and Tiera for inspection. "Anyways, the progress on studying the GN Tau Drives inside out is going well after we had recovered the relatively intact remains of the few UN Forces' GN-Xs and the GN Tau Drive-Powered Mobile Armor Alvatore. I figured that we should improve the GN Drive chassis technology by miniaturizing it to a small size. We would be taking cue from the Tau Drive's chassis design."
Ian rubbed his chin with interest and noted, "By reducing the size of the surrounding parts that stabilize the core, the said core would be compact enough for the solar reactor to be placed in a self-contained unit. This miniaturization would allow the GN Drives to have more specialized roles if they can be easily mounted in a lot more places on the Gundams. Impressive."
Tieria nodded in agreement, "Indeed, this could be useful for our next generation of Gundams against our enemies in the battlefield. Is there anything else?"
Coop shook his head and stated upon looking at the Celestial Being-modified M.E.G.A.S. with an interested smirk, "Nope, I believe that's all for now. You know if it weren't for that future black box, perhaps I could pilot the Megas myself and give the A-Laws or anyone that hurt my niece a butt-whooping they won't forget."
"I feel bad for the poor schmucks that would fight you if you got in the suit. You could cause some real damage. Even though you are not properly trained to pilot one, you were a menace at fighting video games that we played together back at high school.", Ian deadpan snarked which the large blonde man smirking at him that he always win.
"I would advise you not to do that.", Tieria warned with a straight face. The last thing he needs is an untrained man or woman in Celestial Being piloting a Gundam mobile suit or GN Arms without knowing how to use its controls properly even with the help of a Haro unit.
He dislikes amateur pilots after all.
Looking at each other, Coop and Ian laughed out loud together after hearing that from Tieria, whom they view him as the comically serious even though Tieria had made great improvements with his human aspects to socially interact more with fellow members of Celestial Being. It was refreshing from the old Tieria who was seen as a negatively-stoic person; distrusting, strict, and self-righteous pain in the ass.
Wiping a tear from his eye, Coop straightened up and retrieved his pads. "I gotta go pay Louise a visit here and check on her condition before I get back to Earth. Hopefully the GN T Particle poisoning treatment is still working. The doctors should be able to come up with something, cure or not. See ya later!", he said with a a wave of goodbye.
"Will David Halevy please report to the briefing room? Commander Chall requests your presence.", the announcement called out in the hangar.
Rolling his eyes at the bad timing, the older blonde man grumbled before heading to the briefing room, "After I deal with this first, of course."
"Who is Louise?", Tieria asked with a look of curiosity as he watched Coop leave.
Sighing, the chief engineer explained, "Louise Cooplowski Halevy. Bright, sweet, and carefree girl, albeit little spoiled. Studied aerospace engineering in Japan as a transfer student before dropping out due to continual suffering from those GN T particle poisoning. She was the only survivor of the attack by the Gundam Thrones that took out her family on her cousin's wedding day. Damn those Trinity brats."
Tieria grimaced, remembering that notorious incident which was one of the last straws that prompted him and Setsuna to take action and confront the three rogue Gundam Meisters, whom they unanimously deem as a source of conflict to eradicate, head on. If it weren't for the unexpected interference that cut off Tieria from his connection to Veda, he would have slain both Johann Trinity and Nena Trinity with his Nadleeh's Trial System that disabled the Gundam Thrones while Setsuna finish off Michael Trinity as punishment for being disgraces to the Gundam Meister name.
"David had to drop everything in his work here and acquired permission to return to Earth where he found his niece to be the only one left. As the only remaining oldest relative of Miss Louise and the brother of her mother Layla, he currently holds the Halevy fortune as the head of the family. After learning that those pseudo solar reactors' particles are the reason behind her condition, the first thing he did to help her is to bring her to us for medical treatment in space.", Ian finished.
"That explains about the loud screaming at the infirmary.", the purple haired Gundam Meister noted with a straight face as he recalled such screeching noises filled with hate and anger that woke him up in the middle of his recovery from the nearby room of the Krung Thep's infirmary. In his honest opinion, he could have sworn that it was one of the female members of Celestial Being's rank and file who was about to give birth to a baby as a soon-to-be mother and shouting profane language toward her spouse in a space colony.
But Tieria would rather keep that to himself until he dies.
Cringing, Ian said, "Yeah, Miss Louise didn't handle the revelation well that she was taken to a paramilitary organization that had Gundams upon recognizing the symbol. Especially the fact her favorite uncle works for it all along. We had to sedate her and knock her out before undergoing the procedure to try stabilize her body from the GN T particle poisoning like we did for Lasse."
It wasn't easy but with the few intact GN Tau Drives retrieved for study, the nanomachines used for Commander Chall's affliction and dedication of Celestial Being's professional doctors, despite the loss of their chief doctor Joyce B. Moreno, they were able to temporarily halt the conditions happening on Louise Halevy and also Lasse Aeon too as well.
Unfortunately the GN T particle poisoning were still on their bodies but the pain had been lessened to some extent. Even then, they couldn't save the life of Fon Spaak who had succumbed to his own GN T particle contamination that is far more direct and potent into his body after his near fatal encounter with Team Trinity which resulted with his explosive collar detonated at his neck directly and suffered fatal bleeding.
The psychotic Fereshte Gundam Meister had held out long enough with sheer willpower and fought to stay alive but unfortunately for him, in the end, Death cannot be denied.
And that regrowing an amputated arm is still an issue though, which is why Louise had to be given a lifelike prosthetic replacement instead.
"And where is she now?", Tieria wondered.
Ian replied, "Currently, Miss Louise is at the combat simulation chamber. Originally, we let her use it to blow off some steam by setting up virtual enemies as Gundams and the Thrones too for her to take down. But it seemed that she has the potential to be a Meister and is undergoing training with Lasse as he's a Reserve Meister too and a former candidate of Exia before Setsuna came along."
Nodding, the glasses wearing Gundam Meister hoped that his comrade is still alive out there somewhere with Exia had disappeared and the only thing Celestial Being found from the battlefield where Setsuna's Gundam was last located in the aftermath of the Operation Fallen Angels was a GN Flag bereft of the pilot seemingly dead or rescued by the UN Forces.
"At least Miss Louise had calmed down eventually and got to open up with my daughter Mileina, Feldt, and Sherilyn Hyde and the Haros too. She has grown attached to a red one. It took a while for her to reconcile with her uncle and he had to correct her that Celestial Being had nothing to do with the wedding attack and tried to destroy Team Trinity. He even told her that they had died during the Operation Fallen Angels and calls it justice. It was a hectic moment back there to be honest.", the chief engineer finished with a relieved look.
Tieria narrowed his eyes suspiciously because the last time he checked, only Johann and Michael had perished at the hands of Ali al-Saachez, who somehow hijacked the Throne Zwei for his own personal use, while Nena had managed to disappear without any trace after Setsuna had sent a report about it prior to the Ptolemy crew being under attack by the UN Forces.
At the mobile suit combat simulation chamber, Krung Thep
"Battle Ended! Battle Ended! Victory! Victory!"
The Red Haro announced the defeat of the virtual A-Laws mobile suits in a simulated battle as Louise Halevy exited the cockpit of the simulation room and removed her helmet to breathe and steady herself. "Not a bad score. I am getting the hang of this.", she commented at the high scores of hers as she dusted her hands off and picked up Red Haro from the terminal, holding him affectionately.
"Great job there, Louise! You really didn't hold back there. I never took you for being a big fan of wrestling.", Lasse complimented as he supervised her combat simulation routine and witnessed the results which are pretty impressive from his point of view.
Louise brushed it off as she chuckled, "It's nothing really. I just wanted to try out some moves and I can't believe they worked honestly."
Rubbing her medium-length blonde hair of her head affectionately like a big brother to her, the helmsman of Ptolemy advised her, "Maybe in that simulation but in a real fight, those wrestling moves would be very impractical. I don't think the group of enemies would just stand there and let you hit them like that."
"Not with that attitude.", she protested with a pout.
Lasse chuckled before ordering, "Alright whatever you say. You're dismissed. Go freshen yourself up and relax."
"Roger that.", she nodded with a playful salute.
Leaving the combat simulation chamber, Louise headed towards her room to refresh herself and get dressed up in a standard Celestial Being female uniform with a knee length skirt like her friend Mileina in the Krung Thep. It felt surreal for her to be a member of Celestial Being after they had went through all the trouble to try help fix her particle poisoning condition and she acted like an ungrateful brat to them before calming down and realized her mistake.
She had to repay them back somehow.
Sitting on her bed, Louise still felt bad for violently expressing her explosive words of anger and hate towards her uncle, who just took it with stride instead of lashing out on her and didn't seem to regret revealing his affiliation to her that he was a member of an organization that claimed to end war with Gundams' armed interventions just to save her life.
Uncle David knew that I hurt him but he still cares for me and forgives me..., she thought with regret. Her favorite uncle often pay visits to spend time with the family away from work in a space colony and she enjoyed playing video games and watching pay-per-view wrestling shows with him. Her parents were often exasperated at Uncle David and his antics involving her, wanting Louise to focus on studying.
After that unprovoked attack by a Gundam Throne on her cousin's wedding, her uncle is all she had left and he often returned back to Earth, covering her absence up and taking care of the family estate and its fortune. It is no big secret that the members of rich families don't want to get out on public appearances often if they don't want to, preferring to stay out of the spotlight from the annoying paparazzi.
No one is going to question her disappearance and life goes on as usual.
After learning what A-Laws had done to innocents with every bloody atrocity in their so-called world unification attempt and got away with it, Louise wanted to help Celestial Being. Unfortunately, Commander Chall wanted her to finish her education on the Krung Thep alongside mobile suit pilot training that she happened to have potential as a Meister after using the combat simulation originally given to her for stress release.
Ever since her near fatal encounter with a Gundam Throne that killed her family and relatives in an unprovoked attack, she had to drop out of aero-engineering school due to her particle poisoning ravaging her body, hampering her attention and focus, and her uncle had to bring her to Celestial Being for long periods of time for recovery.
"I hope Saji is doing alright on Earth...", Louise muttered, as she held up a wedding ring wrapped around her like a necklace.
She wondered if he had eventually reached his dream to become a space engineer and is working in space, even though it became more dangerous than it seemed due to the colony revolts and the brutal A-Law suppression that are being covered up from the public. Louise hoped that Saji will be safe while she will find a way to reach out to him.
After all, Louise made Saji swear a promise to her that he will wait for her in space. Although she didn't expect her uncle to derail that unintentionally.
But what will he think of me if or when he finds out I'm part of Celestial Being?... , she thought with a worried expression.
Although she is allowed to communicate with Saji to keep in touch with him under the condition to keep her affiliation with Celestial Being a secret via encrypted messages or even writing letters, which was the far safer option, so that they won't be traced back to them by the A-Laws, Louise learned from her boyfriend that he had lost his older sister Kinue, who died investigating Celestial Being after getting too close, and blamed the organization for it.
Since she had calmed down, Louise knew that Celestial Being had nothing to do with Kinue's murder and asked Commander Chall about it. The older woman had granted her request to find out the truth and tasked Hixar Fermi or even Wang Liu Mei to investigate the truth. It would take time and effort though especially when Celestial Being is doing its best to lay low and not get attention from the Federation.
Then there is Nena Trinity, the one responsible behind the wedding attack after Louise was informed of the truth when she had calmed down and think clearly. Her uncle claimed to her that Nena and her two brothers had perished at the hands of the United Nations Forces during the Operation Fallen Angels and called it justice for their murdered family.
But why do I have a gut feeling that she's still out there somewhere? Either way, I hope she stayed dead or else she's going to wish she had..., Louise suspiciously thought with hint of anger as she gripped her fists and wanted nothing more than to rip Nena Trinity apart piece by piece in her imagination which she had kept mostly to herself.
"Are you alright? Are you alright?", the Red Haro asked with a chirp as it flapped its mechanical wings and bounced in front of her.
Snapping out of her negative thoughts, the blonde young woman reassured to the adorable mechanical ball AI with a smile. "I'm fine, Haro. Just thinking stuff."
The Red Haro inquired, "You hungry? You hungry?"
Louise felt her stomach grumble and blushed. "I guess I am. Come on, let's go to the mess hall."
With that, Louise and her Haro companion left their room.
At the mess hall of Krung Thep
Having filled out her tray with food after waiting in line with other members of Celestial Being, Louise found a table and took seat with Red Haro where Feldt Grace and her Orange Haro who welcomed them. The two Haros are enjoying each other's company like mood kindred, while the two young women are helping themselves with their meals respectively.
"So, um Feldt, have you found Setsuna lately?", she asked, trying to make a small talk to pass the time during meal time.
Back then, Louise had never thought that Saji's socially aloof next door apartment neighbor in Japan was actually one of the four Gundam pilots of Celestial Being before she learned the truth. In her honest opinion, she never really got to know Setsuna on personal level compared with her boyfriend who at least tried to interact with him to little success.
Shaking her head, the pink-haired young woman replied, "None so far unfortunately. He has been elusive. I checked for rumors of a Gundam flying around, hacked into the ESF Army's communication lines for any Gundam sighting and the E-Sensors couldn't pick up Exia's GN Drive signature at all. But I know he is still out there somewhere."
"Setsuna still out there! Setsuna still out there!", the Orange Haro chirped.
"You really miss him don't you?", Louise noted as she understood the same way she felt about Saji who's on Earth.
"Miss him! Miss him!", the Red Haro repeated.
Feldt nodded as she remembered her fallen comrades with a mourning tone, "Yeah, everyone in Ptolemy is like a family to me. We lost Lichty, Christina, Dr. Moreno and... Lockon. We don't know where Alellujah is but Setsuna is the only one confirmed to be alive."
The Orange Haro sadly chanted, "Lockon... Lockon..."
Deciding to change the subject and try get her mind out of things, Feldt asked her with curiosity, "So what was Setsuna like when you met him, Louise? You mentioned that he lived next door with Saji Crossroad at Japan."
Trying to recall anything about the Exia's Gundam Meister, Louise replied. "Well, Setsuna was pretty closed off and doesn't talk much. He mostly kept to himself. And I never really had a chance to know him like Saji did. The last words I said to Setsuna is that I called him a big jerk when he left for some important business he claimed."
Chuckling, Feldt commented, "Yeah, Setsuna is not really good at social interacting with others and focus on the mission and its objectives. Then again, so was I in the past."
"Better hope he improved his social skills by the time you find him sooner or later. Speaking of which, what if Setsuna became hot with a pack of abs that you can grind meat on? That would weird, but I could see it just like I can see Saji too. What do you think?", Louise wondered out with a mischievous look on her face.
Feldt blushed slightly at the image of an older Setsuna without his shirt in her mind, "He's a crew member and a friend. He's precious to me because of that."
"Riiight. Just because he's a crew member?", Louise smirked with a teasing tone, clearly enjoying this levity and wanted to milk it.
"A-a-anyway! Have you heard about the new addition to Celestial Being lately?", the pink-haired young woman quickly changed topic again before things get out of hand and recomposed herself.
Orange Haro chirped, "Gundam Megas! Gundam Megas!"
Disappointed that Feldt had to dodge her teasing but interested of the new subject, Louise commented. "I did overhear the personnel talk about it. They said it is like a gigantic mobile suit that is way taller than the Gundams. Like an Xtra Large Robot. Then I heard that they say it cannot be piloted due to some blackbox installed inside Megas."
"Blackbox?", Feldt wondered after learning about it.
"It is DNA-locked! It is DNA-locked!", the Orange Haro informed her through his fellow bots that worked on refurbishing M.E.G.A.S. sending him info.
Red Haro followed suit, "No one can use it! No one can use it!"
"So that means Megas is going to stay unpiloted for a long time. What is the point of having such gigantic mobile suit if it cannot be used at all?", Louise frowned before having an idea forming and suggested. "Hey Feldt, maybe we should go and take a look at the blackbox of Megas. Maybe they are missing something that you can spot."
She knows that Feldt is very good with electronics especially at fixing and hacking things too as well. Her friend stated that she learned them while growing up in Celestial Being under care of her aunt Commander Chall, Ian and the late Dr. Joyce.
Feldt contemplated the idea from Louise before responding. "Well, I might as well give it a try and see what I can do."
Within the briefing room of Krung Thep
At the briefing room of Celestial Being's command center with soundproof walls to prevent eavesdropping from anyone stumbling, Commander Chall Acustica watched the several holographic visuals of Katharon mobile suits clashing with the A-Laws and the ESF Army in various skirmishes on Earth. They were specially modified with their own variant of the GN Tau Drives and/or high powered rocket boosters, alongside anti-beam coating protection, and conventional laser beam & armor-piercing linear round armaments and weapons.
That made them a bit faster, more agile, and harder to kill, which it gave Katharon a bit of an edge in battle against the more advanced GNX types from the ESF Army and A-Laws in ranged and melee combat.
Eco Calore whistled at the one visual of several blue rocket booster-enhanced Fantons and GN Tierens exchange fire with the large squad of red GN-XIIIs but suffered some casualties themselves as he commented about the overall battle, "Damn, those pseudo solar reactors had really improved the combat performances of the "outdated" mobile suits at the hands of Katharon and they kicked some serious ass there. Even then, the A-Laws still had the upper hand against them."
"It can't be helped but it seemed they have proven to the Federation that they won't go down without a fight so easily. After recovering the GN Flag that was left empty in the aftermath of Operation Fallen Angels, we made it possible for Katharon to modify their mobile suits with their own GN Tau Drives, which they can derive their power source from the very same GN particle outlines that are meant to choke out the Middle East's economy. Hoisted by their own petard.", Commander Chall remarked as she observed a blue GN Enact with a rocket booster-propelled Agrissa ramming through the GNX-704T Aheads.
Before looking at the older blonde man who had heeded her call to the meeting, she asked. "Wouldn't you agree, Goliath-13 of Katharon's mobile suit development division?"
Looking away from visual battle of some blue rocket booster-enhanced Anfs firing anti-tank linear rounds at the ESF mobile suits, David Halevy shrugged as he stated, "What can I say? It's not easy but I did manage to discreetly transfer the schematics for fake solar reactors, mobile suits and underground factories to produce or jury-rig them, and funds and resources to several of Katharon members' accounts with help from Hanayo. Even then, it's the best I can do underneath the Federation's nose while keeping my cover."
Sherilyn Hyde frowned as she watched the blue GN Flag take on a red GNX-704T Ahead that had a samurai-themed helmet for some reason and they clash with each other almost evenly in a skilled sword-to-sword combat with beam sabers on the visual screen, "This is wrong. I mean we are Celestial Being. We're supposed to end war, not perpetuate them."
"No need to sweat the small stuff, kid. Besides only you Fereshte guys here know that I am a double agent within Katharon, the largest anti-Federation rebel army on Earth with mobile suits. Gotta give them something to even the odds against A-Laws a little until Celestial Being is ready to make its return before the world.", he waved off before giving out his other pad to the Commander of Celestial Being.
He stated, "By the way, I found an interesting candidate for Cherudim when I was at Katharon, Commander Chall."
Taking the pad, Chall analyzed the contents and raised an eyebrow, "Lyle Dylandy, Jean-1 of Katharon's spying and intelligence division. Hmmm, he looks exactly like his brother Lockon Stratos or Neil Dylandy albeit too alike. He actually had combat experience in a mobile suit while with Katharon and had scored several victories as a pilot. Are you suggesting that we should scout him to be the new Gundam Meister?"
David nodded as he explained, "Yup, he's really good at marksmanship at sniping and firearms, both inside and outside of a mobile suit, even though he scored lower ranks in accuracy compared to his brother. I think that he is the perfect guy for Cherudim. Plus I think it'd be humorous to see him try be a double agent for Katharon if he joins Celestial Being, not knowing about me way ahead of him of course."
Chall had to resist from rolling her eyes, but saw the merit of having new Lockon as the records speak for themselves. Even though it could potentially cause some confusion and uncomfortable reaction from the Ptolemy crew and its Gundam Meisters when they meet and work with the man who bears too much resemblance with their dead comrade.
"Hey, what about me?! Why can't I get to pilot that Gundam?! I am a Meister too you know!", Eco protested as he is not pleased that he is passed over again.
"A sub-par one to be exact. You lost to Louise in the combat simulation despite being part of Celestial Being longer than her.", Sherilyn snickered with Hanayo nodding.
Eco comically shouted, "I DIDN'T EXPECT HER TO USE PEOPLE'S ELBOW OF ALL THINGS ON ME IN A GUNDAM FIGHT!"
"It was unorthodox but effective.", Hanayo commented with amusement.
Ignoring a verbally roasted Eco crying and sitting on the corner of the briefing room, Commander Chall stated with a nod, "Very well then, Lyle Dylandy will be scouted as Cherudim's new Meister. When the time comes for our official return, we will send someone in Celestial Being to pick him up and he will take up his mantle as the new Lockon Stratos."
Sherilyn asked her Fereshte superior officer, "What about Miss Sumeragi? Will we get her back when Celestial Being make its official return to the world? Ptolemy 2 won't be the same without its captain."
Chall frowned as she remembered the tactical forecaster/coordinator of Ptolemy had resigned from Celestial Being out of guilt for the loss of her fellow comrades and went to Earth, keeping a low profile. No doubt Sumeragi Lee Noriega was running away from her problems with heavy drinking. While a more paranoid individual might think she would accidentally loose lips to anyone affiliated with the Federation or those overhearing her to report to the authorities due to her drinking habit, Chall knew that despite her loss of faith in Aeolia Schenberg's vision, Sumeragi won't spill the beans about Celestial Being.
"We will cross the bridge when we get there. Anything else?", the former Second Generation Gundam Meister stated as she was about to end the meet and call it a day for now.
"Yeah, what does the acronym M.E.G.A.S. mean? That really bothered me when I looked at it.", Eco wondered out loud after recovering from his verbal roasting.
Suddenly, a loud blaring noise echoed across the Krung Thep with every single Haro chirping together as one, which caught all of the members of Celestial Being by surprise.
"DNA CONFIRMED! DNA CONFIRMED! MECHANIZED EARTH GUARD ATTACK SYSTEM UNLOCKED! MECHANIZED EARTH GUARD ATTACK SYSTEM UNLOCKED!"
While Commander Chall and her fellow former Fereshte members are shocked from the collective Haros' announcement that they didn't expect to have found the pilot they were looking for so soon, David nonchalantly commented, "Huh, so that's what the name Megas meant."
Author's Note: Okay, the second chapter of "Megas 00" is done with a cliffhanger of M.E.G.A.S. unlocked by a certain someone and I bet that you didn't see that coming huh? Louise Halevy is with Celestial Being instead of A-Laws and Innovators group of Ribbons in canon. Thanks to intervention by her uncle David Halevy (yeah I based his name from Coop's voice actor) to bring her to Celestial Being for treatment, she never got in with the bad crowd. And that, Louise has the Red Haro, the same one Saji had as a companion/aide with the 0 Raiser in canon.
Due to M.E.G.A.S. not being sent far back to 1930 and remained at the New Jersey junkyards until in 2004, the original Coop or Harold Cooplowski never found the giant robot and lived his casual life of a gearhead as usual until eventually at some point he met Brigitte Halevy which he had cleaned up his act, became a self-made man (this is the same guy who had mechanical knowledge on modifying Megas and its technology despite it's way more advanced, and is smarter than he looked when being motivated in canon), and moved to Spain with her.
And the rest is history. Apparently, uptown girls meeting backstreet guys (like Louise and Saji) and motivating the latter to be better occasionally runs in the family, lol.
Enjoy and don't forget to review. :)