Mobile Suit: Generation
Waking Lions
"Is it better to die than live another day
I'm not afraid
I'm not gonna run from the scars and within, burning your skin
They wanna lay me to rest, but I won't go
Yeah
I won't go
I wanna stand up, a hundred feet tall
'Cause fear will never lead the way
I'm ready to run, a hundred miles strong
I will never be the same
Waking the lions in me"
-Waking Lions by Pop Evil
Zechs and Trowa moved through the chaos, covering their mouths and noses with their Preventer jackets, though it did little to keep the smoke and dust from entering their lungs. Both coughed up dark phlegm.
"I don't understand," Zechs said as they moved through the running crowds. "She called me and told me what happened. I thought she was already with the Preventers."
"Maybe she called as soon as she knew something was happening," Trowa suggested. Zechs shrugged and shook his head. They reached a police barricade. Both flashed their Preventer badges, and were allowed through. "I'm sure she was able to get out in time."
"She would have stayed back to help others. I know my wife," Zechs said. Trowa sighed but continued to follow Zechs through the fray. They found a cluster of ambulances, and Zechs approached, showing the men and women a picture of Noin. All he got was shaking heads.
"You should get out of here while you can, Agents," a police officer said to Trowa, appearing at his side. "We don't know if they're going to come back and attack again."
"What was it?" Trowa asked. The office shook his head.
"I'm not sure, but they almost looked like… like small mobile suits. You're probably too young to remember the wars but…"
"I was there," Trowa interrupted. The officer looked surprised for a moment.
"Then you recall the monstrous suits that roamed the Earth. Well this thing looked just like that, but much smaller," the office explained. "Anyway, you should get out of here if you can." The officer walked away, leaving Trowa to wait for Zechs alone, while he continued to question the emergency services.
Small mobile suits? Relena was going to be pissed.
Zechs hurried back to Trowa. He appeared to be both tense and relieved at the same time. Trowa raised an eyebrow.
"What is it?"
"I think I know where Noin is," he said. "Someone may have seen her before she was transported to Brussels General Hospital." Trowa nodded.
"Let's go."
Marina sat on the couch beside her cousins, bored out of her mind. Her mother had disappeared, but Marina was ordered to stay in the shelter. She and her friends had already exchanged all the relevant gossip, and now the airways were silent. She played a dumb game on her phone for a while, but quickly lost interest.
A commotion at the door to the shelter caught Marina's attention, and the door opened. Her mother appeared, with two others following behind.
Marina's eyes lit up. Entering the shelter were two of her friends: the fair-haired Katherine and the brown-haired Kat, Sally Po's daughter. Marina jumped from her place on the couch and ran across the room, throwing her arms around her two friends. They laughed and hugged her back.
"You're both here!" she cried, smiling ear to ear.
"We just arrived back from the northern shore," Kat said.
"And Quatre and I flew into Brussels illegally," Katherine added, excitement twinkling in her eyes. Marina let out a laugh. But she could feel her mother's eyes on her. She glanced at Relena.
"Yes, mother?" she asked.
"The five of you have to stay down here while we figure out what's going on. I'm going to the Preventer building," she said.
"Mother, we're old enough to go with you!" Marina said, stomping her foot. Relena inhaled sharply and stared at her daughter. Marina immediately dropped her chin and shuffled her feet. "I'm sorry."
"We'll let you know more when we get a handle on the situation," Relena said, nodded to the children, and left the room.
Marina turned and skulked back to the couch and sank down into the cushion. Naina and Milou were both laughing at her.
"Leave it to Marina to throw a fit," Milou said.
"Oh, be quiet," Marina said. Kat and Katherine joined them on the couches. The television on the wall continued to replay the footage of the building collapsing over and over again. "You know, when our parents were our age, they were in the thick of the war," she said, glancing around the circle. "But they treat us like children?"
"We are children," Katherine said. "Quatre and the others fought the war so we wouldn't have to."
"It's dangerous out there," Kat added. Marina rolled her eyes.
"Your mom take you on all kinds of missions," Marina said. "You don't even have to go to school."
"I still have school work," Kat said, crossing her arms. "I'm just on a different path."
"Than what?"
"Than you, Miss Peacecraft-Darlian-Yuy. You have a powerful name, and you'll be powerful some day, just like your parents," Kat said. Marina pursed her lips.
"I don't want to be like my parents," she grumbled. Silence fell.
"Why?" Naina asked.
"All of your parents do cool stuff!" Marina cried. "My mom sits in meetings all day and my dad just tinkers with his toys."
"You're clueless," Milou said. He pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped a few times. He leaned forward and showed the screen to Marina. On his screen was a video of her mother, during her time as Queen of the World. Marina stared into the blue eyes of her young mom, preaching peace for the Earth and Colonies. "Aunt Relena did all this, for us," Milou said. "She sits in meetings to preserve that peace."
"A lot of good that did her," Marina said, waving at the television. Silence fell once more. "I just want to do something."
"We all do," Kat said, her voice low. "You're not alone in your feelings. We've been surrounded by legends our entire lives, and we want to live up to those legends."
"But on my own terms," Marina interjected.
"Of course," Katherine said. Naina and Milou glanced at each other.
"You know, our parents aren't letting us go to Mars right away," Naina said. "I know you think that, Marina, but they're making us go to school first, and get an education that will be useful, if we want to go there."
Marina blinked. She had never considered this. That she might be expected to do something useful. Well, if that was the case, then she would find something useful to do, even if her parents disagreed.
She fell silent and leaned back in the couch in a contemplative mood.
The underground Preventer shelter was over-warm with too many bodies. Everyone gathered shifted around and spoke in low tones, waiting for Une to give a briefing of the current situation. So far, she had not re-entered the room. Heero's eyes shifted around at the faces of his friends and comrades: Duo, Quatre, Wufei, and Sally. Those who had gathered that were able, while the others were out chasing fires. Heero thought of Hilde, and wondered if she'd heard the news yet.
He glanced at Relena beside him, who was fingering a necklace. She looked worried. He leaned towards her.
"What's wrong?" he asked. She shook her head.
"We can talk about it later," Relena said, not meeting his eyes. Heero frowned but didn't press her.
The door to the room opened and Une walked in. She was followed in by the chief of the Brussels police department. They approached the front of the room. The chief stood off to the side while Une stood center in the room. She sighed and turned towards the screen mounted on the wall. She pressed a button on a small remote and a picture of the smoking ESUN tower appeared.
"At approximately 8:40 this morning, the ESUN tower was hit with explosives, multiple times. As of now, we're not sure what weapons were used to attack the tower, but we do have imagery." She pressed the button again, and another picture appeared, this one zoomed in on one of the weapons in the sky, hovering near the ESUN tower. The focus wasn't great, but it certainly looked like -
"Mobile suits."
The room gasped, but Heero nodded his head. He was expecting something like this to happen, based on the intel the Preventers had gathered over the years, along with the types of fires they've put out. Beside him, Relena shook with anger. He reached over and laid his hand over hers, attempting to calm her down.
"Do we know where they came from?" Heero asked, squeezing Relena's hand.
Une shook her head. "Not yet. That's why I brought you all here. Looks like the old crew is going to have to get back together."
"Where's Trowa?" a quiet voice asked from the back. Knowing glances shifted towards Quatre.
"He's with Zechs, keeping him cool, while they look for Noin," Une answered. "Our task is to find out where these suits came from, where they're being manufactured, and who is deploying them. And we have to work fast," Une said, meeting the eyes of everyone in the room. "The Brussels police department is going to work with us, and they'll be our eyes and ears in the streets. For now, I think you all know what to do. Activate Standard Procedure." A quiet murmuring filled the room as the chairs scraped back and everyone in the room rose to their feet. They filed from the room and split off into their known groups and headed for the command center.
Trowa and Zechs strode into the bustling Brussels General Hospital. There were injured people everywhere, lying on the floors, propped against the walls. Nurses and doctors ran from patient to patient, trying to treat everyone the best they could. Zechs stepped towards the front desk. Trowa followed.
The harried looking woman behind the desk glanced up at Zechs and sighed. "If you're here for someone specific, try looking on the floor," she said. Zechs frowned but succeeded in keeping his anger contained.
"I'm looking for Lucrezia Noin Peacecraft," Zechs said, ignoring the woman's comment. She stared hard at him for a moment, then leaned down and typed the name into the computer. She raised an eyebrow.
"She's on the 5th floor in room 506," the woman said, then turned abruptly away from him to talk to someone else. Zechs walked away without speaking and headed for the elevators. Trowa trailed behind, being careful to give enough space around the injured. Zechs pressed the button for the elevator, and they waited, trying to avoid making eye contact with the people lying around them, crying out in pain. Trowa's heart squeezed at the sound.
Finally, the elevator arrived, and they stepped inside. A few doctors and nurses squeezed inside with them, all covered in blood and other substances that Trowa didn't want to know about.
The ride to the 5th floor felt endless, but they arrived, and Zechs pushed through the doctors into the hallway. They hurried down to room 506 and stepped inside.
She was there.
Noin lay on a bed, a bandage wrapped around her head, where a spot of blood bled through at the temple. She wore a hospital gown and her arm was in a sling. She smiled when they stepped inside.
"I'm sorry I couldn't call you," she said. "I lost my phone after the second wave of attacks."
Zechs said nothing, but stepped to her side and leaned down, grasping her good hand and pressing his forehead to the crown of her head. Trowa felt a blush creep over his cheeks, and he stepped out into the hallway, wanting to give them privacy, though there were three other occupied beds crammed into the room with her.
In his pocket, his phone buzzed. He pulled it out and saw a text from Une. It read: Standard Procedure. Activate Agent Seed.
-SE