DISCLAIMER: I do not own Vandread or any of the Gundam series, but like always, I own OCs and their mechs.
TO BECOME STRONGER
Taiho was now sleeping after a hard day of training on controlling the ZERO system and making up new formations for the pilots with Meia,' man, this life sure takes a lot out of me, but…' his thoughts then started to lean towards a certain blue haired woman who he had taken most of his time with,' I guess it beats being at home,' he thought as a smile crept upon his sleeping face.
"You don't have time to relax in your sleep, Taiho Lobo," A familiar voice called out to him.
"Huh??" was Taiho's reply as his eyes shot open to see he wasn't in his room on the Nirvana," how the did I get here?" he asked himself as he looked at the scenery from a cliff. The scenery itself looked real familiar to him," where have I seen this?"
"These are the Guyana Highlands," the Gundam pilot then turned his head to the voice behind him, to reveal none other than Domon Kashu, the King of Hearts himself," we meet again," he said casually.
After hanging his mouth open with wide eyes for a moment, Taiho composed himself and stood up from his position. He then gave a serious look to Domon," alright, I want answers. Why are you here? What did you mean by awakening, and what's with that title you gave me?"
"I'm here because both your Gundam and your soul have called my spirit to help you in preparing for a coming evil within this universe. This evil is one you have seen before, but I won't tell you what it is, as I am bound by a sort of law not to disclose that information," Domon said as he leaned back on a tree.
"And? You still haven't answered my other questions," Taiho said as he sat crossed legged in front of the King of Hearts,' I should have known the Gundam itself had some consciousness in it, considering it has the ZERO system and other components.'
"What I meant by awakening and the title is that exactly, now that you have gone into training your spirit and mentality, you are starting to unlock a powerful spirit within you. You are the Guardian Spirit Dragon of the East. Along with you are the Tiger of the West, the Phoenix of the south, the Tortoise of the North, and the Kirin (Chimera or Giraffe) of the Central," he said as he got up from his position and stood over the Gundam pilot.
Taiho then got up himself and prepared himself for anything unexpected from him,' I know I shouldn't be wary of him, but when he did the whole 'Undeafeted of the East school' thing, well, I just don't want to take any chances,' he thought as he stayed in a relaxed position.
When Domon reached for something in his cloak, Taiho got into a quick defensive stance. What he pulled out was…a headband," I lost my last headband because I gave you my last one," he said as he as he tightened the red headband around his head," now then," he then slid into a offensive stance," it's time your training began."
"What?!" he asked, only to be answered by a punch to the face. Getting his senses back, he retaliated back at the King of Hearts.
This seemed to go on for at least four hours. When we look back, Domon just gave a hard hook that sent Taiho skidding on the forest floor dirt. Once Taiho stopped, he charged back in with his own hook, Domon saw this and went for the block, only to get kneed in the gut. Taiho then followed up by side kicking him with his other leg and sent Domon falling over. Taiho saw this as an opportunity and jumped right in the air, with his both his feet aiming to crush the King of Hearts' torso. But once he got within range, Domon flipped himself up halfway to spring kick Taiho right in the gut himself. This made the Gundam pilot almost throw up. They were both continuing upward, and once Taiho got his senses back; he saw this as a chance to do a move. Once he got in position, he quickly lowered himself behind Domon's back. He then wrapped his leg around his torso and locked his head with his ankles and latched his lower torso with his arms. Domon tried to get out of the hold, but he could hardly do anything as they both start to fall fast toward the ground. When they hit the ground, Domon's head went straight into the earth and caused a big shockwave to occur.
Once the Gundam pilot saw that he wasn't moving, he slowly got back up and started to gather his breathing, but not long after that, Domon jumped right out of the ground. He then dusted himself off like the fight didn't even happen," good, you seem to be learning how to adept to the situations in battle more and more," the King of Hearts said as he turned his body to him," we will now begin on teaching you the techniques from the School of the Undefeated of the East."
"What? Are you serious, I'm going to learn how to do those techniques?" Taiho asked as he looked at him as he nodded," HELL YEA," he yelled,' and soon, if I master some of the technique, I may be able to do the Sekiha Tenkyoken technique,' he thought as he could only dream of doing such an incredible technique. But he then thought of something," hey, could I at least teach some of my friends what you teach me?"
"Sure, it would benefit you if you do so, seeing as how I won't be able to fight alongside you," Domon answered as he turned his back to him," until the next time you rest," he said as he faded out of view.
Taiho then slowly opened his eye from his sleep. As he started to wake up, he got a smile on his face," looks like things just got more interesting," he then got up and got dressed.
Once he got dressed, he went over to see how Parfet was coming along with what he requested the other day. Once he got there, he sees the tech girl getting busy with keeping up the maintenance on the Paksis," hey Parfet, did you complete what I requested?"
Parfet looked from what she was working on and got a big smile on her face," yeah, hold on, I'll be right back with it," she answered as she got up from her position. When she came back, she held a sword that was similar to the Dark Angel Gundam's sword," I basically did the electronics and security on it, Gascogne took care of the everything else on this sword."
Taiho took the sword from the tech girl's hands and tried to get a feel for its weight," hmm, it nice and light, yet big enough to do some damage," he then did some practice swings and was satisfied with the way it moved," you two sure know how to work together to make a good weapon," Taiho said as he strapped it on his back with the strap that was attached to it. He then heard a communication from the custom watch Parfet made for him," Taiho here, what's going on?"
Meia's face then appeared on his watch," we've found a mission where we will re-supply our goods; I've notified everyone of this. Meet us in the hangar as soon as you can," she then ended the communication without so much as a goodbye. Taiho just did as she said and got there as soon as possible. Once he got there, they all went to the mission.
"Hey, if you guys find any pretty clothes, they all mine, okay?" Jura asked over a communicator in a sweet tone. After everyone had got on board, they all went their separate ways to salvage whatever was on board the mission. Right now, Taiho, Hibiki, and Meia were seeing what they could get from the core of the mission.
"I'm surprised the captain remembered this space station," Dita said as she looked at the tall tower that was the core.
"This place isn't actually a space station, it's officially called a mission," Pyoro said as he corrected the bubbly redhead.
"Oh," she replied simply.
"Alright you two, cut the chitchat, we got our jobs to do here," Taiho said as he tried to see what they could get from the core. Meia seemed to nod at his comment.
"You two call this work, all your doing is looting the place," Pyoro said as he floated up a bit to look at them better.
"Consider this salvaging abandoned assets," Meia replied as she continued her work.
"You two should make you orders clearer," Pyoro said as he scratched his head a bit.
"You're so picky," Dita said as she pouted a bit to the tiny bot. But then a figure passed over the group, which only Taiho and Hibiki noticed at the moment. Hibiki looked to Taiho and nodded and let him go to investigate.
"Hold on a second," Pyoro said as he tried to catch up to the short navy haired man.
"Where'd it go?" He asked himself, as he looked left and right for the figure. They both then notice something jump off from a high bridge. Once the figure lands, it reveal the person to be…a monkey, one that smiles and chuckled a bit at them," what the hell is this thing?" Hibiki asked, as he had never seen a monkey before.
The monkey then jumped over Hibiki and grabbed onto Pyoro and started to lick the tiny white bot. Pyoro didn't like this and started to call out for help," knock it off Utan," a voice said behind Hibiki.
Hibiki turned around quickly to see a man in what seemed to be brown Indian like clothes. Hibiki was about to start asking if he was here to save him and the guys, but caught himself as he remembered a lesson from Taiho,' don't be too trusting of everyone you meet at first, that could lead to your own downfall,' once he remembered that, he gave got serious with the man in front of him," who are you?" he asked as he stepped up to him.
The man only scowled a bit as he quickly drew a gun and pointed it at point blank range at Hibiki, which stunned the navy haired man, because he didn't think this old man would be so fast at drawing a gun. This made him berate himself for another lesson Taiho taught him,' never underestimate your opponents, or they'll definitely get the upper hand on you,' he made a mental note to start doing some extra training to get those lessons back in his head.
The man in front of him then noticed something behind him, so he quickly went behind Hibiki and put him in an arm lock from behind. As he did, he pointed the gun to the woman who aimed a laser ring right at his head, who revealed to be Meia," you're a woman, huh?"
"So what if I am?" she asked in cold voice.
"It's my policy never to kill women," he said as he let go of Hibiki's arm, but still head the gun aimed at her. But then he heard the sound of a sword beside him, which was quickly under his chin, with the bladed side close to his throat," alright, looks like you've got me outnumbered, doesn't it?"
"You bet your ass pal," Taiho said as he held his new sword in place of his throat. He then turned to Jura and Barnette, who had just gotten there," Barnette, take the guys weapon away from him."
"Sir," she said in a professional tone as she went up and took the man's gun and leveled her own gun at him.
"I suppose you all are some kind of gang?" he asked as he stayed relaxed, which made Taiho a bit nervous.
"You could say that, but I like to think were more of the pirate types than some gang," Taiho answered as he pressed the button to activated the beam on his sword, which almost made the man flinch a bit from the heat it was giving off.
"Oh? I see," he replied casually.
'Wait, wasn't he supposed to insult Hibiki about being a guy,' he then took a quick glance at his student,' well, I can see why he didn't say it,' he thought at as he didn't take a good look at his students new build, which made him look more like a body builder than some stringy armed mechanic.
They all then heard a scream from behind them, only to be revealed that the monkey named Utan was licking Dita's leg. The guy just looked back and gestured if he could take care of the little problem. He got his answer as both Meia and Taiho nod for him to got and take care of it.
"Alright, that'll be enough out of you, Utan," he said as he picked the monkey up and had it released the redhead," your partner is in trouble over here if you haven't noticed and all you're doing is being useless," he said to the monkey as he put a hand on the clutched bot," now," he said as he threw Pyoro toward Meia, only to have Taiho take her down before it even hit her.
Barnette took quick action and was about to shoot him, but Utan jumped on her to stop her. Utan then used her as a springboard and jumped up to a higher platform, which made Barnette fall down from being used as a springboard. Jura though, tried to cut down the other male, but he just jumped back and rolled out of the way.
"You asshole, get back here," Taiho called out as he picked up his blade to give chase to him. But he stopped as the mission started to rumble a bit.
"What's going on?" Hibiki asked as the mission continued to shake from the attack. After getting the hint, they all started to run for their individual machines," this sucks, what the hell is going on now?"
"I guess pirates like us aren't really welcomed around here," Meia answered as they continued to run.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure pirates are welcomed anywhere in the universe nowadays," Taiho replied sarcastically, which earned him a glare from his superior and made him raise his hand in defense.
Once they got to the mechs, Barnette made a report," hurry, I've confirmed sightings of multiple targets."
"Okay guys, we need to take them all down before they reach the Nirvana," Taiho said as he readied his hand rifle.
"Right, just leave the big ones to me leaders," she then looked around for something," hey, where'd Mr. Alien go?"
Hibiki then came at that moment from the mission," Hibiki, you need to hurry up, we need to commence the attack now."
"Yeah, yeah, sure thing sensei," Hibiki replied as he readied his own battle-ax in his hand.
"Oh, hey Mr. Alien, let's combine," Dita said in a cheery tone as she waited for him to do so.
"Thanks, but no thanks," he said as he blasted off paste her to take down his own number of enemies.
"Aaawww, why not?" she asked in comically sad tone.
"Focus now, they're coming," Meia said as she tried to snap Dita from her conversation.
Taiho then blasted off himself as he started off by taking down a few of them by using the shoulder gatling guns. Once he took down some of them, he quickly shot down a few with his beam hand rifle. He then saw one coming up from behind on Meia," OH NO YOU DON'T," he called out as he cocked his long range beam rifle from his back and fired.
He hit his mark and got a thumbs up from Meia for watching her back, which he returned. He then noticed some were getting a little too close, so he pulled out the beam boomerangs from his shoulder and released them on the enemy. The boomerangs whirled around and took down the enemies quickly. As they come back, Taiho easily caught them and put them back in their place.
"Okay, time to get real close and personal," he said as he gripped the sword on his back and took it out, it then elongated as he flung it out. Once out, he puts it in front of him and bursts out his energy wings, he then slings the sword back as he leaves after images of himself behind to confuse the enemy.
He notices something at the corner of his eye,' huh?' but just as soon as he saw it, it was gone,' what was that? I know I'm not seeing things, so what was…' he was cut off as he saw Vandread Dita just took out the mission with its shoulder cannons and destroyed the remaining enemy forces. But then he saw some enemies go for Rabat's ship, but not soon after, Utan came out and went ammo crazy on all them and were destroyed not long after that.
During Utan's little attack, everyone went back on board the Nirvana and went to command deck to see what happened after that. Once it was done, the two ships opened communications with each other," what a shame, all those supplies gone to waste," Magno said to the man who appeared up on the screen with the name of Rabat to show who was talking.
"That's my line," Rabat said to her," my engine was damaged, because I was trying to be nice and help you ladies out. So what are you going to do about it?" he asked as if he were going to threaten them with something.
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Magno snapped back at the Indian clothed man," we're pirates, and we never ask for help."
"Oh, is that so," he said in a mischievous voice as he pulled out Pyoro in front of them all," then I guess you won't mind leaving this guy behind?"
"Oh my, they've got Pyoro," Dita said as she covered her mouth in shock.
"Nice deduction Sherlock Holmes," Taiho said under his breath, so as not to let anyone else know what he said. He then turned to Meia who seemed to be mouthing something under breath,' did she just do that same thing I just did?' he asked himself in his thoughts, but just shrugged,' ah well, it's not like it matters.'
"I guess we have no choice, come on board," Magno said as she restrained a hard scowl at the man on the vid screen.
"Right, right, now that that's settle, I'll come up their and set up some business," he said as he gave them a thumbs up and turned off communications.
"Is this wise captain?" BC asked her, as she felt suspicious of this male that was coming on board.
"Pyoro is apart of our crew BC, and besides…if he tries anything, we'll just go and relieve him of all his worldly possessions," Magno answered her with a big smirk on her old face.
Once everyone was going to go and greet the jerk, Taiho stopped Meia," what is it Taiho?"
"I'm going to let you handle this, I need to go and see something on my Dark Angel Gundam," he answered as he gave off a serious face and tone.
"Why, what's wrong?" she asked as she knew he wouldn't be worrying over any minor details if he was telling her about it.
"I don't know, but keep to yourself for now, we may have more enemies than just the Harvesters," he said as he left a little stunned Meia.
Once he got into the hangar, he immediately went into his Gundam's cockpit,' okay, now let's see if I can get a recording of the battle from earlier,' he thought as he started to go through the Gundam camera systems,' ah there we are,' he said as he got into the camera recording system.
Once he started to got through the battle frame by frame, he saw a shadowed figure behind one of the meteors that were around the mission,' now let's see if we can get a close up on you my friend,' he said as he zoomed in on the figure and started to lighten the color on the monitor a bit,' wha-what the hell is that thing doing here?' asked himself as she saw a Gundam like head with a mouth that had fangs and a worm like body, all of it was almost completely green,' that's a Gundam head from G Gundam, if that thing is here, then that means…' he then slowly came to a realization to the second reason why Domon was training him,' that means, along with the Harvesters, is the…Dark Gundam.'
"This is bad," he said to himself,' I'll need to have Domon really train me hard to learn those technique, god knows we'll need them when we go up against the Dark Gundam,' he thought to himself, as he knew he shouldn't tell them about the Dark Gundam yet, it just wasn't the right time, since if he told them about the evil Gundam, he might have to tell them the truth about himself,' but I don't want to do that until the time is right.'
He then heard his stomach growl a bit," well, I guess I can't worry on an empty stomach," Taiho said as he got out of his cockpit and ran off to get some grub.
Once he started down the hall, he saw that Dita was leading Rabat towards the hangar,' oh this should be fun to watch,' he thought as not long after that, he saw Hibiki dash down towards the hall, in the same direction the other two went. Taiho followed the short navy man's example and sprinted towards the hangar.
When he got there, he hid behind a crate and watched the scene unfold," HEY, YOU GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER," Hibiki called out as he saw Rabat was about to forcefully kiss Dita.
"MR. ALIEN," she called out in worry.
"Shoot and just as it was getting good," he said to taunt the short man," you're a snotty boy, you know that?"
"Who you calling a boy? Is that one eye of yours working right?" he asked as he got ready for a scrap with this man,' good thing I trained with Taiho, even if this guy is skilled, I should give him a good run for his money,' Hibiki thought at that moment.
"It sure is," he said as he pointed to his left eye, but then lifted up the red glass like patch on his right eye to show a perfectly healthy eye," so is this one," he said as he mocked Hibiki.
"You," he said in a growling voice," it really makes me sick to my stomach to think someone like you is a man same as me. My sensei is more of a man than you, you asshole…now get the hell outta here," he called out as he raised his fist to him.
"And what if I don't wanna?" he asked in a mocking tone.
"Then I'll have to throw you out by force," Hibiki said as he settled into a loose stance.
Rabat gave a little glare to Hibiki at that moment," interesting," he said as he got down from the catwalk and stood in front of him.
Having enough of the wait, Hibiki charged in to take him down, only to get flashed by the eyepiece on Rabat and temporarily blind him. This was all Rabat needed to knee the short man in the gut. But what he didn't expect was the short man to take advantage of him being lifted off the ground to grab onto his head in a headlock and use his weight and force to bring his head crashing down into ground.
"Why you little brat," Rabat said as he got back up and kick Hibiki right in the face. But once again, Hibiki took in the pain and latched onto the leg and brought his elbow down on Rabat's kneecap. This made Rabat cry out in pain and hit Hibiki square in the jaw. As he got free, he stepped back a bit with a limp,' I didn't expect the runt to be this good, who the hell has been teaching this kid?' he asked himself as he himself got into a sort of boxer stance.
"What's the matter asshole? Your leg getting to ya," Hibiki said with a busted lip smirk on his face.
Ignoring the insult, he waited for the kid to make a move. Which he did as he charged in with his hand cocked back to deck him,' okay, time to really give this runt something to worry about,' he then pulled out a two little needles in each hand. Just as Hibiki closed in, Rabat came in quick and stuck the tiny needles in each of his arms as he weaved through his attacks, but was soon met with a kick to the face that made him skid a bit," I gotta admit, your good kid," he said as he wiped some blood from his mouth.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm still gonna…huh?" he asked himself as his arms felt numb and couldn't move," WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?"
"Nothing that should stop you from fighting, now where were we?" he said as he shot off towards the short man. The fight went for at least five minutes, but it was clear that Rabat was winning, due to his underhanded tactics.
Having to decided to she had enough of watching the man she liked getting beat, Dita yelled out," STOP."
Rabat pauses a bit, but smirks as he stood over Hibiki's beaten body. But the smirk didn't last as he got bit on the ankle from Hibiki," ahh, get off me you fucking brat," he then started to boot him off his ankle," GET OFF," he said as he gave one last hard boot to the face, which made Hibiki take a piece of cloth with him.
"Mr. Alien, are you okay?" Dita asked as she looked over his injured body.
"Get out of the way," Rabat said as he booted her away from him. He then slammed his foot down on Hibiki's face," you little punk," he then started to force his foot down harder on his face," I'm gonna finish you right no, ahhh," he was then hit by a metal object, right in the face.
As Rabat got back up, he saw Taiho, standing in the same position with his sword out. When he looked at the sword, he saw that he got hit by the flat end of it," that's enough, you've had your fight with my student, and I think that was enough for you to fight," he then turned his body towards Rabat with a hateful scowl on his face," but if you want a real challenge, come and fight me," he said as he plunged the sword into the metal floor and had both his hands over the end of the hilt.
"Right, whatever," he said as he got up, he then noticed the glares he was receiving from everyone that was in the room," right, I know when I'm not needed," he said as he went to leave in his ship.
"Mr. Alien," Dita said quietly to his unconscious body. She was then startled as Taiho picked him up and started to walk off. She was about to ask what he was doing, but he cut her off.
"When he wakes up, he's going to feel like crap. As his sensei, I have a duty to talk to him when the times are bad for him," he said as he walked off towards the garden, knowing that the Nirvana would not be able to catch up to Rabat's ship and loot it.
About half an hour later, Hibiki started to stir," Ah, you're finally waking up," Taiho said in a cheerful tone.
"Don't talk like that now sensei, please? I'm not in the mood right now," he said in a groggy voice.
After some moments of silence, Hibiki was about to say something, but Taiho cut him off," you probably wondering what you can do to become stronger right?" he looks to see him nod his bruised head," there are many things that can make a person truly strong Hibiki. You can become strong when you protect someone dear, have strong beliefs, a goal, and many others things. But do you know what they all have in common?"
"What, what do they have in common?" he asked in a dry and hurt voice.
"They are all something that one person can call on their own, to truly become strong, you must use what is yours instead of things that are someone else's," he said as he looked up to the star above them," I'm searching for that something myself, and I feel that I'm real close," he then turned his head to Hibiki and gave off a genuine smile," remember, we made a promise to each other to always become stronger and protect the weak, that is something we both need to obtain together, my friend," he said as he extended his hand.
Giving him as much a smirk as he could at the moment, he took his hand and shook it," thank you sensei," he said in a low, but very grateful voice.
A/N: well, that's CH.7, to let you guys know, the Dark Gundam isn't the only big enemy to worry about, but you'll just have to see who else will get caught up in the mix of bad Gundam villains to come. If you want to know anything else, post it on the reviews, ja ne.
ShadowDragonGX