Chapter 12: We're Leaving
Duo slipped away from the others as they neared the hangar. The others waited patiently outside the hangar until Duo returned, making an 'all clear' signal. After a quick examination to ensure nobody was around, they slipped in silently as Heero made his way to the control panel and the others headed quickly to their Gundams. As the system that held the Gundams in place was removed and the hangar door opened, Heero quickly made his way to the Wing Zero.
The sound of the nuclear generators starting up awoke Kira, who had been hiding in the Strike. "Captain… they're leaving…" He said quietly as the Wing Zero and the others made their way to the launch wing.
"I expected as much… try to stop them at all costs, but be careful. Don't do too much damage to the Strike in the process."
Kira nodded and switched over to the line he knew they were using as the Wing Zero took off. "This is the Strike, please stop now. I don't want to have to use force to stop you." Kira said warily.
Duo shook his head as the Deathscythe Hell looked back at the Strike as it stepped towards them. "Don't try and stop us, kid. It's suicide." He warned as the Heavyarms and Altron left.
"The Captain wants you to stay until we reach Alaska, so you can be commended for your services to the ship!"
Duo's laughter could be heard as the Sandrock took off. "The only thing that'll happen to us is we'll end up in a loony bin, or prison and our suits will land in the hands of greedy politicians who would use them to create weapons that this universe doesn't need. Forget it kid. We're flying solo now." He said as the Deathscythe Hell finally left the catapult region.
Kira muttered under his breath as the Strike followed, being equipped with the Sword Striker pack just in case he had to fight them. The Sword Striker pack was the Strike's close-ranged combat pack and it was rarely used except in extreme situations.
"Tsk. Kid, please don't try and stop us. Seriously, it's a death wish!" Duo warned again as the Sword Strike stood before them.
"It's five experienced pilots against one novice pilot, kid. You'll be dead before you even realize what happened." Wufei snapped in irritation.
"I'm sorry. I have to follow my Captain's orders." Kira said quietly as he nervously stared down the five Gundams.
"Even we don't follow unreasonable orders that'll get us killed!" Quatre said worriedly.
The Wing Zero suddenly stepped forward. "Let me handle this…" Heero said icily.
The other Gundams warily backed off.
"Stand down, Kira. The Wing Zero on its own is enough to utterly destroy the Strike. Unlike the others, I won't hold back if you don't stand down." He warned.
Kira's eyes narrowed. The resolve that had wavered when the others tried to convince him to stop had suddenly hardened. "I'm sorry. I can't." He said simply as the Sword Strike took out a long object from behind its back.
Curious mutters could be heard from the other pilots before the beam activated.
Quatre paled as he recognised what it was. "Heero be careful! That's an anti-ship sword!"
The others looked at the Sandrock in shock. They had never seen one in their universe because a regular beam sabre was enough to take out the sea-based battleships they had to deal with; however, in their research of this universe, they learned that an anti-ship sword was considered to be stronger than a regular beam sabre in close range combat… which could mean trouble for the Wing Zero.
Heero's eyes narrowed. "I had a feeling that's what it was…" He muttered as the Wing Zero brought out its beam sabre to counter the Sword Strike's Schwert Gewehr, as the anti-ship sword was called. "I'll ask one more time, Kira: stand down."
"And I'll say it one more time: I can't." Kira replied as the two Gundams shifted into a ready stance.
"Is it wise of us to let these two battle it out again?" Trowa asked worriedly on their private line.
"We have no choice. Heero's right. We'd go easy on him and with that weapon… it may cost us our lives, or at least do irreparable damage to our Gundams." Quatre said with a defeated tone.
Wufei shook his head. "So it's better if we let the Wing Zero possibly get damaged, but not our Gundams?"
"Heero knows the Strike. He examined the files on it very carefully. I'm sure he's devised a strategy to use against all of its different forms." Trowa said calmly as the Wing Zero and the Sword Strike stared at each other, neither suit appearing to want to make the first move.
Wufei muttered something under his breath in frustration, but the Altron made no moves to join the fight.
The Wing Zero lunged forward, its beam sabre blocked by the Schwert Gewehr as the force pushed the Strike back a few paces.
"Is Heero going to knock him into the ocean?" Quatre asked worriedly.
"It looks as though that may be one strategy he's going for. I doubt the Strike is as water-friendly as our suits are. If Heero can knock the Strike into the ocean, it'll give us some much needed time to get away while the Strike tries to reach the surface again." Trowa said calmly as the Strike grabbed one of its non-beam daggers, the Armour Schneider, and tried to attack the Wing Zero while it was locked with the anti-ship sword.
Duo's breath caught as the dagger got close to the Wing Zero's side, only to be blocked by the activation of another beam sabre that was connected to the one currently engaged with the Schwert Gewehr, knocking the Armour Schneider out of the Strike's hand and into the ocean.
"He's got a dual beam sabre? How fair is that?" He asked indignantly.
"I guess that means we should look over our weapon systems closely when we have a spare moment." Trowa said mildly surprised as the Wing Zero twisted and forced the Strike to back down as the other beam sabre began to burn into its side.
"Is Heero holding back?" Quatre asked as the Strike charged the Wing Zero again, the two beam weapons connecting to a fury of sparks generated by the energy used by the weapons.
"I think so… He normally would have had the Strike tossed into the ocean by now… Damn hypocrite. Telling us we'd hold back and damage our suits, yet here he is holding back!" Wufei growled.
"He could be getting the Strike to lower its guard. You know Heero. In battles against weaker suits, but strong pilots, he likes letting the enemy think they have the upper hand before they're blasted into oblivion without even realizing what happened to them." Duo said dismissively.
"Since when?" Wufei asked in irritation as the Wing Zero suddenly threw the Strike against one of the back fins of the Archangel.
"Since he's bored from fighting mass-produced pieces of crap for the past few weeks." Duo said in amusement as the Wing Zero charged the Strike.
The Archangel gave a severe tilt as the ship gained too much weight on one side.
"Guys, get over there!" Quatre ordered as the Gundams separated, evening out the weight on the ship and making it level again.
Murrue braced herself as the Archangel tilted severely before levelling out. "This is going too far! Where's Lieutenant La Flaga?" She snapped to Miriallia in frustration.
"I've found him, he's in the cafeteria!"
"Send him out in the SkyGrasper! We need to stop this before something happens to the Strike!"
"Are you nuts? The SkyGrasper will be destroyed by those two! Plus, there's still the other four to contend with!" Mwu's indignant voice was heard from the console.
"We have no choice, Lieutenant. We need to do something or else this ship will be defenceless. Besides, if something should happen to the one SkyGrasper, we have two of them." She said sternly.
Mwu sighed. "All right… but if something happens to either the Strike or the SkyGrasper…" A click announced the cut off of his communication.
Murrue sighed in frustration. "I wish they wouldn't be so difficult about staying…"
Natarle shook her head. "It may be because they're worried about what will happen when we reach Alaska. Those suits of theirs are nothing like our suits, so maybe they're worried that the Earth government will want to examine them to enhance its own weaponry against ZAFT."
Murrue smiled in amusement. "Isn't me that's usually the calm one?"
"Usually… but whenever you're feeling hot-headed, one of us has to be the calm one." Natarle said as they watched the hangar wing open again to allow the SkyGrasper to leave.
The duel between the Wing Zero and the Strike had moved to the hangar wing, with both suits trying to throw the other off the ship.
"Is it me or is Heero being way too nice?" Duo asked worriedly.
"It could be that, despite the disadvantages the Strike has, Kira is stronger than we thought…" Trowa frowned at the thought.
"It's like he suddenly became stronger after that blow to the back wing he took." Quatre observed.
"Still, the Wing Zero shouldn't be having this much difficulty with one machine that even the Wing Gundam could probably take on with little effort!" Wufei growled as the hangar wing opened, forcing the Wing Zero and the Strike apart.
However, that didn't last long as the Wing Zero's thrusters burst to life, and with agility rarely seen by the Gundam, it slammed into the Strike.
The Strike was forced over the edge of the ship, using it's thrusters to get back close enough to grab onto the ship's edge as it fell.
"I think Heero's finally stopped messing around." Trowa said simply as the Wing Zero landed above the Strike, raising its beam sabre with the intention of destroying the Strike's fingers and forcing it off the ship.
"Hey! Knock it off! This has gone on long enough!" Mwu's voice rang out from the SkyGrasper as it flew in front of the Wing Zero, forcing it off balance and making it back away from the edge.
The Strike used that instance to activate its thrusters again and get back onto the Archangel. The Strike's time on the ship didn't last long as the Wing Zero ploughed bodily into it, sending both suits into the ocean.
"Damnit Heero!" Duo yelled in annoyance as the SkyGrasper flew in circles around where they had fallen in.
"Damnit! The Strike can't fight in the water!" Mwu growled.
"Well then, you can kiss goodbye your pilot and mobile suit…" Wufei commented icily.
"What do you mean by that?" Mwu snapped.
"He means our Gundams can fight under water with only minimal trouble. They were designed to be efficient in combat under any extreme circumstances, no matter where we're fighting… especially in space, the Poles and underwater." Trowa replied with a shake of his head.
"You should be thankful that it's just Heero against him… even if they're always at each others' throats and have been looking for an excuse to murder each other." Duo said with a roll of his eyes as they watched the water's surface for any sign of either of them resurfacing.
Under the water, Kira cursed repeatedly in frustration as the Strike seemed to have stalled. He kept a wary eye on his radar for any sign of the Wing Zero, but had a feeling that any warning the radar would give him would come too late.
The Wing Zero seemed to have mysteriously vanished as soon as they hit the water, and he wasn't sure whether he had simply fallen deeper than it had, or if their Gundams had a higher manoeuvrability in water than the Strike did.
The black water around him made him fearful as a flash of white appeared on his visual. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was only a school of fish, but that didn't lessen the fear that was slowly gnawing away at his anger with the older pilot. The Schwert Gewehr had gone dead as soon as it touched the water, making it nothing but dead weight.
Kira sighed as he got the Strike's thrusters working, making it head for the surface. The Strike managed to get above the water long enough to throw the Schwert Gewehr onto the deck of the Archangel before the Strike began to sink again.
"What the hell?" Kira asked to the air in shock before he realized that the Wing Zero had grabbed one of the Strike's legs and was purposely dragging it underwater.
"Where did he come from?!" Anger managed to flare up again for a moment before he noticed a green glow in the murky dark of the deeper waters. "It… can't…" His voice was weak as he realized it was the Wing Zero's beam sabre, fully functioning and more than likely just as deadly under the water as it was above water… and he was defenceless without any weapons.
Fear piled on top of more fear as the low battery alert began to go off: it still hadn't fully recharged after the battle against Andrew Waltfeld. Suddenly, he remembered the Panzer Eisen that sat on the Sword Striker's left arm.
As the Wing Zero aimed its beam sabre at the Strike, Kira aimed the rocket anchor that doubled as a shield and fired. Despite the water resistance, the Panzer Eisen did its job: forcing the Wing Zero to let go of the Strike's leg in order to dodge it.
Kira slammed the thruster controls as soon as the Wing Zero let go, rocketing up as fast as the thrusters could go. Kira paled as the Wing Zero was right beneath him and coming up faster than the Strike could go. He was worried he wouldn't make it, when suddenly the Strike was in the air. The lack of resistance sent the Strike into an uncontrolled flight that almost sent it into the side of the Archangel.
Kira quickly got control and landed on the ship, realizing he had beaten the Wing Zero up to the ship.
"Man, they nearly gave me a heart attack!" Duo growled in annoyance as the Strike appeared seemingly out of nowhere and landed on the Archangel.
Trowa frowned in concern. "We should end this soon, we don't know when…"
An alert sounded from the ship just as the Strike retrieved the Schwert Gewehr and aimed it at the Wing Zero as it landed to face off with the Strike again.
"Thank you ZAFT!" Duo said in relief as the outlines of several battleships appeared in the darkness.
"Fall back." Heero said calmly as the Wing Zero transformed and flew away, leaving the nearly drained Strike to jettison the Sword Striker pack.
The other Gundams leapt off the side of the Archangel, their thrusters bursting to life as they skimmed the surface of the ocean and followed the Wing Zero away from the Archangel.
"Will they be okay?" Quatre asked worriedly as the Strike turned grey before another pack launched from the Archangel for it.
"They'll be fine. They know how to deal with ZAFT, and I didn't really do any major damage to the Strike." Heero said sternly as the Archangel faded in the darkness.
Author's Notes: Yes, you see your e-mail correctly. Winged Destiny is back. The problem with my computer is that the clock battery is dead, so my computer can still function without it. I'll be dropping back to every other week though because of how annoying it is to keep correcting the time and date. Sorry for the double e-mail, but its been so long that I forgot to add this section to the chapter, so I removed the chapter. Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Author's Reply: Secret Weapon Unit 06: It seems as though we got off on the wrong foot, so to speak. Text makes it hard to understand a person's intentions with their words. I apologize for my reaction to your critism. I happen to enjoy constructive critism because it's helped me become a better writer (at least, people say I am. I doubt it.). The details you have problems with tend to be only noticed by extremely detail-oriented readers who know every single detail of a Gundam, down to the last placement of a bolt (slight exaggeration). If you have a messaging service or can unlock your inbox, we can talk easier and hopefully understand each other better than simply through reviews and replies, which makes things a lot harder.