A Series of Unfortunate Events
Chapter 2
Summary: Post-GSD. In which a bachelor's party was destined to go downhill from the start…
Disclaimer: I do not own GS/GSD.
Characters: Kira Yamato, Athrun Zala, Dearka Elsman, Yzak Joule, and Shinn Asuka.
Warning: This chapter has not been fully proofread yet. Please excuse any grammatical errors.
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ZAFT Military Colony, Armory One
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Shinn Asuka looked at his commanding officer with a pair of warily and surprised red eyes.
The question that was asked by the man sitting before him was still ringing in his head. There were a few things in this world that somehow bypassed his guard as a soldier. One of them would be his girlfriend, Lunamaria. She would always, always managed to throw him off guard. She would surreptitiously sneak up behind and scare him senselessly. Till this day, he was still perplexed—and a slightly annoyed—of how she managed to disturb his equilibrium so easily. But perhaps it's the stealthily tip-toeing antic she acquired back in the Academy when approaching cautiously to a target. A few other things he'd rather not mention—especially that one time when he was mauled by an army of the Chairwoman's Haros—but right now a question has thrown him off guard that pertains quite a peculiar topic.
"I beg your pardon, Sir, but would you kindly please repeat the request to me once more?" he said, not quite understanding what the White Coat brown-haired just told him. Perhaps he did, but he needed verification from the man across him to know whether or not his ears had deceived him.
His commanding officer, Kira Yamato, sighed out loud and ran a hand through his brown locks in frustration, clearly feeling unease about repeating it. "It's not a request, Shinn. But I would like your presence in my upcoming bachelor's party tomorrow," the commander repeated, slowly as he stared cautiously at his Red Coat subordinate.
Shinn blinked. Okay, maybe he heard it right in the first place.
After serving under the Yamato Team for as long as he could remember since the Second Bloody Valentine War, he had never recalled being requested to do such a…personal entreaty from his commander. It was quite an odd request. Both Shinn and his commander were currently on break for lunch in the cafeteria, sitting on a table that was far away from the earshot of other ZAFT soldiers. Earlier, the Red Coat was eating lunch with a few comrades just like any other day until unexpectedly their commanding officer showed up and requested to 'borrow' Shinn alone for a bit. Everyone was perplexed by this sudden and peculiar demand, especially Shinn. Their Commander almost never eat together with the rest of the Yamato Team, let alone in the cafeteria. He would either be seen eating with the other commanding officers, with the chairwoman, or in solitary confinement alone in his office. This indeed was a rare occasion. But like every good soldiers, they did not question a command from their superior officers and Shinn went off to follow the Commander to a secluded table in the room.
Both superior and subordinate ate their respective lunches silently. A cumbersome silence fell between the two and all of the sudden Shinn felt extremely uncomfortable eating alone with his commander. It wasn't the fact that he did not like Kira, it was far from disliking, he respected him. He truly believed that the brown-haired White Coat did a remarkable job learning quickly from Commander Yzak on how to be a commander since the former did not received any formal military training. He was a fair commander, always looking out for his team members. But whenever Shinn is with Kira, he would either be in company of Lunamaria or other ZAFT soldiers but almost never alone.
Now all of the sudden the White Coat had requested an offer that truly threw him off guard and he does not know what or how to respond to such question.
"Commander…is there something I should be afraid of? Perhaps something has happened?" The Red Coat soldier bashfully asked, skirmishing uncomfortably as he began to play around with the food on his plate with a fork. "This is rather a personal affair that you're asking me to meddle in."
His Commander gave him a soft reluctant smile. "Ah, again, it's not a request from a Commander, Shinn. This rather an invitation as a friend. You see, Captain Elsman planned this whole thing for me. So far, it's only going to be me, him, Commander Joule, and Athrun who are coming with. My other friends, Sai and Kuzzey, are unable to make it because of work. I'd figured you'd tag along since you might not be busy."
The subordinate went silent, as if he's trying to make any sense of the current situation at hand. So if he were to go, he'd be stuck with not one, but two commanding officers; his own Commander and Commander Joule? Should he be worried? Commander Joule is not your typical commander after all, he ruled and reigned his team with an iron fist. A Red Coat soldier he knew from the Joule Team would complained about how much of a slave driving beast Commander Yzak Joule was. He had heard rumors that he made a young Green Coat girl who's fresh from the Academy cry because of his shrill demeanor simply because she was 'incapable of executing such an elementary task that even a five year old can accomplish'; the commander's words not his. He cannot quite pictured Commander Joule partying, and if he tried, the image would go blank. Captain Elsman was a different story. A man oozing with charisma and has an amiable and easy-going aura, it's a wonder how the blonde captain was best friend with the hot-tempered White Coat. Lastly, Admiral Athrun Zala of Orb who was a former Red Coat Elite Soldier in the ZAFT forces. He has no problem with the dark blue-haired man since he was practically akin to his commanding officer.
So why would his Commander invite an underling like him to go to such a personal event?
"Oh why don't you just agree already, Shinn?" A voice piped in, circling an arm around his neck and pulled him close to the owner of the voice.
"Captain Hawthorne!" Shinn exclaimed in surprise. Another fellow he knew who somehow manages to throw him off guard.
"Yo," his captain cheekily greeted with a salute. "Afternoon, Commander."
Kira nodded and return his informal greeting with a smile. "Good afternoon, Daniel." Lieutenant Captain Daniel Hawthorne was assigned to the Yamato Team shortly after the Second Bloody Valentine War. A fierce man at the battlefield and an expert in hand-in-hand combat with a mobile suit, he was considered one of ZAFT's most prized and prominent war heroes. A man slightly older than Shinn himself with wavy dark brown hair and a pair of golden eyes that would always seems as if they're looking for adventure. With a pair of dimples on his cheeks, he looks younger than his age as well. He tends to act a bit childish, an uncanny resemblance to Commander Joule's second commander, Captain Dearka Elsman. Unlike Captain Elsman who was a charismatic and easy-going fellow through and through, Captain Hawthorne seems to be a tad bit too soft—in Shinn's opinion, at least—hence his tendency to interact with his subordinates as if they're old pals.
"Captain, why aren't you invited?" Shinn asked, looking at his Captain with curiosity.
His captain scoffed and released the younger companion from his grasp. "I was, but then I realized if I were to come, who's going to be in charge? Certainly not you," his captain explained, displeasure shown in his face indicating that he was clearly upset about his temporary status.
"But Captain Elsman is coming along with Commander Joule," the Red Coat logically reasoned.
The Black Coat Captain rubbed his chin as he looked thoughtful for a minute. "True, but Lieutenant Hahnenfuss is practically Commander Joule's right-hand man, er, woman. From what I've heard, she's capable of handling the Commander's affair in his stead. Unfortunately for me, I am stuck with the rest of the Yamato Team while the Commander here is having fun." His commander chuckled at his displeasure. Although that may be true, Kira knows that Daniel didn't mind one bit in taking care of his share of duty as Kira's second-in-command.
"So what do you say, Shinn?" Kira said, bringing the younger man's attention to him once again. "Would you like to come?"
The Red Coat soldier hesitated. "Well, I don't know…" After all, he too has loads of work to do being one of the elite pilot of the Yamato Team. These past few weeks, he was in charge of training newly recruits from the Academy about air combat battles and other formal trainings.
"He'll come," Captain Hawthorne rectified firmly, clasping a hand on the younger lad's shoulder.
The Red Coat subordinate gave his captain an incredulous look. "Captain!"
"That's…an order." The captain winked at his flustered subordinate before saluting his commander a goodbye and went off his way.
Shinn frowned as he watched the latter's silhouette as it gets farther away. "Don't mind him, Shinn. It's not an order, he's just bitter because he couldn't come. It's all up to you."
The red eyed lad sighed out loud before giving his commanding officer a reluctant nod. "An order's an order, Sir. I'll be honored to come with. If that is all, I shall go back with the others." He saluted his commander, in which Kira returned with a smile, before picking up his tray of food and going about his way. He can't help but to wonder just what kind of mess he got himself into.
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Aprilius One, Aprilius City PLANTs
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"Kira, are you sure having Dearka plan this whole thing out was a good idea?" a voice whispered skeptically next to Kira.
Kira glanced to his right to find his best friend, Athrun Zala, looking rather anxious than excited. Somehow, Kira couldn't blame the dark blue-haired Admiral for feeling unease about their current situation. After all, it was Dearka who planned tonight's event.
"It'll be fine, Athrun. Although Dearka may be the goofball amongst us, he's not incapable of making bad decisions." At least, he hoped so, Kira thought optimistically. Athrun gave Kira a doubtful look but nevertheless he dropped the subject.
Both Kira and Athrun were waiting for the rest of their group members to show up. They agreed to meet up in town in Aprilius One. For tonight, both soldiers were clad in civilians' attires. Truth be told, it felt oddly weird to be wearing jeans and t-shirts out in public since it has been quite a while since Kira had worn civilian outfits. He would always be seen wearing his ZAFT white coat attire and when he's not wearing his military uniform, he would dressed smart in suit and tie. Athrun on the other hand was wearing a thin long sleeve shirt with long khakis instead of his white Admiral uniform.
Athrun had arrived in PLANTs yesterday evening after being invited to tonight's event earlier this week by Dearka. As the best man of the groom, he was naturally inclined to come. But after finding out that the Elsman heir was in charge of the party, he hesitated. Athrun suddenly had flashbacks of all their escapades that he and his friends had done back in the Academy, almost all of them were orchestrated by the one and only Dearka Elsman. The dark blue-haired Coordinator mentally shuddered as he remembered a time when he and the rest of his friends were reluctantly coaxed by the blonde friend on pulling a prank on the girls at the Academy by switching their shampoos with bright orange hair dyes. Dearka had reassured them that all the girls were still going through their training and would not be in their dormitory until later afternoon. Unfortunately, their plan had gone spiraling downhill.
They were caught red-handedly in the girls' bathroom by a girl who unexpectedly decided to go use the shower room earlier than the boys had anticipated (the girl had screamed and alarmed the rest of her companions to see what happened). He and the rest of his squad were put on garbage disposal duty for two weeks and in addition, their squadron was assigned to do a ten mile run after their general training with the other squadrons every day for one week. After the whole fiasco of constantly being smelled like rotten food and having sore backs and aching legs, the group unanimously decided to ban Dearka from planning anything ever again.
After many attempts to coax the Admiral, Dearka managed to use the guilt trip of dropping that fact that Athrun was Kira's best friend and how Kira would be sadden that his longtime friend refused to come along. So now here he was, waiting anxiously for what's to come.
"Do you have any ideas on where we're actually heading tonight?" Athrun asked in wonder.
Kira shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. I tried asking earlier but all Dearka said was 'Don't worry about it, buddy. You'll find out soon enough.'" Athrun frowned.
"I don't like the sound of that," the Orb Admiral confessed. His brown-haired companion nodded in agreement. "Cagalli told me to make sure that no harm comes to you."
Kira smiled at the mention of his twin sister. "She needs to stop worrying. Nothing bad is going to happen."
Athrun chuckled, "I'll hold your words against you if something does actually happens."
"Evening, Commander, Admiral," a voice greeted.
Both men turned to find their young friend, Shinn Asuka, saluting as he trudged towards them. He was clad in his civilian attire that consist of dark khakis and a red short sleeves shirt.
Kira smiled and returned the salute. "Good evening, Shinn. You don't have to be formal with us. Tonight I'm not your commander but a friend," he corrected his subordinate in which Shinn slightly flushed in embarrassment.
"I apologize…Kira," Shinn managed to muster out, eccentrically calling his commander by his given name. It felt foreign on his tongue since habitually he referred the brown-haired man as 'Commander'.
Athrun chuckled at the younger man's discomfort. "It's nice to see you again, Shinn." Shinn offered a small smile in return.
"Where are Dearka and Yzak?" Kira wondered out loud, frowning at his wristwatch. "They said to meet up around six in town."
"Oi Kira! Athrun! Shinn!" A boisterous voice called out. All three lads cringed at the sound of the familiar voice. Oh boy, here comes the troublemaker.
"Comm—er, Kira, are you sure about this whole thing? After all, Captain Elsman was the one who coordinated this event," Shinn muttered next to Kira. Kira sighed, why is everyone doubting the blonde's plan? All of these doubts are beginning to make him doubt this whole thing, too.
"Trust me, Shinn. I'm beginning to think that this is all going to be one very bad idea," he professed to the younger Coordinator.
"Elsman, we are in a civilian area, be a good soldier and shut the hell up," his silver-haired companion ordered in annoyed.
The Elsman heir gave the group a sheepish grin as an apology as he scratched the back of his head. "Ah, sorry, sorry, as you can see, I'm pretty hyped up about this."
"No kidding," Athrun muttered.
Dearka winked at the four gentlemen behind him. "Now, let's get the show on the road, shall we?"
Four soldiers sighed. One in irritation, another in worried, while the last two in resignation. Whatever they were facing tonight, they just hope that they'll be alive to see another day.
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Unknown Location in Australis Colony, Mars
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The mistake that Kira Yamato immediately realized the moment he woke up was the fact that he had opened his eyes way too abruptly.
In a matter of seconds, blinding rays of yellow spectrum stabbed his groggily sensitive eyes, jolting them with excruciating pain as a wakeup call. A hiss of agony escaped his lips as his eyes adjusted themselves to the new light after their deep slumber. After blinking rapidly for a few minutes, a stab of ache twanged around his brain, making it feel heavier than it's ever been before after his attempt to see clearly. His head felt as if someone had driven a screwdriver through his brain which was rewarded by a massive pounding of headaches. His throat felt dry like the Sahara Desert of Africa, almost as if someone had deprived him of the natural essence of life for weeks. His whole body felt sluggish and hefty as his muscles refused to budge an inch of movement. Whatever he may be feeling right this moment, his consciousness tells him that he must get up and maneuver his aching body around.
His weak body protest his attempt in getting up off of whatever he was leaning against but in the end his desire to sit up won. A rush of spasm circulated his body the second he sat up.
Ugh, what the hell did he do that made him in such a miserable state?
He blinked once more to observe his unfamiliar surroundings and frowned. He concluded that he was currently inside some sort of ship judging by the machines around him—a ruined one considering that there was a huge hole on top of the raft—and found his comrades in various positions inside.
He found Dearka in the corner with a party horn still intact in his mouth. A party hat was placed on top of his mop of tousle blonde hair. The tanned blonde was currently still in deep slumber as he softly snores. But what perplex the brown-haired was the fact that blonde was currently topless and is splattered with what it looks like disoriented colors of paint on him.
Kira looked to his left to find Athrun in a similar state. He too was topless and splattered with paint all over his physique. But what caught the Ultimate Coordinator's attention was a rather dark and bold ink that somehow salvaged itself from the paint war around the blue-haired Coordinator's body. Kira blinked. Holy crap, was that a tattoo on Athrun's back? Since when did Athrun has a tattoo? From the looks of the freshly glaze ink, it still looks pretty new. He cannot believe what he was seeing. Athrun with a tattoo. This was getting even more comical by the second. Another figure caught his eyes to Athrun's right.
A silver-haired man was currently laying on the floor. Kira quickly surmised it to be Yzak. He noticed the man was on the ship's floor sleeping in a rather obscure position. He too was covered in paint but minus the topless part. The silver-haired Commander's face was flushed red as he softly snores in his state of slumber. A shiny figure on Yzak's ear caught Kira's attention and after squeezing his eyes in attempt to decipher the object, Kira succeed and his eyes went wide.
No. Freaking. Way.
Although his eyes may be in a sorry state but he cannot not believe that his eyes were manipulating him that much. If whatever his eyes were seeing and processing those images to his brain was true, then those (one…two…three…four…five?!) five shiny bright objects hanging on Yzak's right ear were piercings. Kira suddenly flinched from his seat when he suddenly saw Yzak yawned out loud and turned to sleep on his back before quickly continuing his deep slumber. With his new position, Kira's eyes discovered yet another newly addition to Yzak's body. This time it was a bright red ink that was meticulously painted on the left side of the man's face. Oh lord, once Yzak wakes up, he was not going to be amused by his newly decorations that were added on to his body, particularly the one on face.
Okay, calm down, now is not the time to be wondering how his friends have gotten rebellious and did something out of their character to get tattoos and piercings. Right now, he needs to figure out where in the solar system they are in so that he could get himself, Athrun, Yzak, Dearka, and Shinn—
Kira's eyes went wide from the epiphany. Holy crap, Shinn! Where is Shinn?! He could not locate his red eyed subordinate anywhere! He quickly looked around and found no sight of the black-haired soldier. His current state is hindering him to recall what exactly happened last night, let alone what happened to the poor boy.
Looking at the bizarre situation before him, an overwhelming feeling of hysteria begins to surface. What the hell happened last night?
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"Guys! Guys, wake up! Athrun, hey Athrun!" Kira frantically exclaimed, shaking his best friend ferociously.
The dark blue-haired Coordinator groaned in pain. "S-stop...yelling…" he managed to croak out.
Kira paid no heed to his plea and continued on shaking. "No! Wake up! We have a problem! Shinn is missing!"
At the mention of the youngest soldier amongst them, Athrun immediately got up which he promptly regret a second later.
Pain. Pain. Pain.
That was the one word that currently describe his miserable state. "Ugh," he groaned in displeasure. "W…what do you mean…Shinn's missing?" He managed to muster up the question without opening his eyes.
"It means Shinn is not with us! He's nowhere to be found!" Kira told him in frustration. The brown-haired Coordinator quickly made his way across the ship to wake up the sleeping blonde. "Dearka! Dearka, wake up! C'mon we need to get out of here! I have no idea where we are!"
The blonde made a groggily noise and swat an arm in annoyed. "Leave me alone," he protested quietly. Kira cringed. The smell of strong alcohol still lingers in the blonde's breath. "Dearka, please wake up!" Kira shook him once more with no vail but did not give up in attempt to wake the heavy blonde.
Athrun managed to gain his equilibrium quickly and decided to wake up the sleeping silver-haired beast next to him. At first, he was rendered speechless as he peeked at Yzak's face. There lies a tattoo; a rather long bright red dragon tattoo that was inked from the temple of his left face all the way down to his left jaw line. Athrun was awestruck by the artwork and wondered how the hell did the silver-haired fellow managed to get a tattoo on his face? He shook his head. Now's not the time to be wondering about such thing. They need to wake up so they can get the hell out of where ever this place was.
"Yzak. Hey, Yzak, wake up," Athrun hissed at the drunk commander but all he received was a snarl from his friend before the latter went on sleeping.
"Yzak," Athrun called impatiently. The Joule heir won't budge. Sighing in irritation, Athrun did the one thing he could think of without caring about the consequences of his action. Within a blink of an eye, the dark blue-haired Admiral flicked a finger onto his friend's forehead hard. Immediately, pale blue eyes shot wide open in mixture of shock, anger, and pain. He got up to touch his forehead that was inflected with pain and yelled, "Who the hell are you, you scumbag?!"
Athrun rolled his eyes. "Yzak, it's me, Athrun."
The hot-tempered heir blinked rapidly to adjust to the morning light before glaring ferociously as his eyes zeroed into the culprit who had flicked his forehead. "And who gave you the rights to flick me on the forehead, Zala?"
"Yzak, please calm down," Kira coaxed the silver-haired commander. "Right now we need to get up so we can get out of here."
The silver-haired grunted after realizing that they weren't in a familiar place. "Where are we?"
"In a ship," Athrun answered. "Somehow by the looks of it, we crash landed. For now, I could care less about how in the world we got here in the first place. What we need to do right now is try to find Shinn who's currently missing."
The Joule heir furrowed his brows. Now that the dark blue-haired Coordinator mentioned it, the youngest member of their company was nowhere to be seen.
"Does anyone know how to wake Dearka up?" Kira wondered out loud in frustration.
Yzak huffed in annoyed before muttering Kira to move out of his way. He jerked his feet back and kicked blonde Coordinator on his shin. Both of his awake companions look at their silver-haired friend in horror.
"Wake up, you idiot!" Yzak growled.
Alarmed by the loud voice, the blonde-haired captain's eyes shot wide open and instantly scurried up. "W-what happened?" Dearka spluttered, looking around. He flinched as he began to feel the consequences of excessive drinking and the sudden pain on his left shin. "Who the hell kicked me?"
"I did, now wake up, Elsman," Yzak commanded without remorse about kicking his best friend.
"How you are feeling, Dearka?" Kira asked, pitying the poor blonde.
His friend in question groaned in pain and covered his sensitive eyes. "As if someone had ran me over with a car repeatedly and drove a sledgehammer to my head, pounding on it constantly. It hurts like hell."
"Now that all of us are up, can we please figure out a way to get out of here?" Athrun stated factually. All three of his companions nodded almost grimacing at the poor state that they are in. "Alright, then. From the looks of it, the door is jammed. Our only option out of this forsaken ship is that hole up there." As the boys were trying to figure out a way to climb up through the wrecked raft, an unfamiliar voice began to interrupt their search.
"Whoa, look at what I found!" a loud voice from above exclaimed excitedly.
All four soldiers looked up at the hole above them in alarmed at the intruder.
"Who the hell are you?" Yzak spat out, attempting to glare daggers but was instead developed into squint at the newcomer in consequence of the glaring light above. The sun was making it impossible for them to see their intruder clearly.
The owner of the voice suddenly got up from his crouching position on top of the ship's raft and jumped inside, startling all four Coordinators. Three Coordinators looked at their newly intruder with distrust and went battle ready while the last one was trying to figure out where he had seen the familiar man before him. The man has spikey brown hair with a blue band wrapped around his forehead. He was wearing a worn out black t-shirt with dark blue jeans. He waved a friendly hand as a greeting.
"I thought this ship was abandoned, I never thought to come across civilians in here," the man whistled in amused as he looked at the strangers one by one. "Man, you guys looked like you survived a nuclear attack."
Something inside Kira's brain must've clicked since the brown-haired Coordinator snapped his fingers and pointed at the intruder. "Lowe? Lowe Guele of Junk Guild?"
At the mention of his name, the man turned to the last stranger and his eyes went wide in recognition. "Kira? Kira Yamato! Oh man, is it really you?"
Both friends clasped their hands together and engulfed in a brotherly hug. "How are you, Lowe?"
"I've been great! I've heard you're getting married, so congratulations are in order?" The Natural slyly grinned at the blushing Coordinator.
A stern cough brought both friends back to reality. "I would hate to break a touching reunion, but we have a dire situation at hand," the silver-haired commander reminded everyone, casting another distrust look at their supposedly new ally. "Since you seemed to know where we are, mind sharing the information with us?"
The friendly Natural gave a questionable look. "You guys have no clue where your ship crash landed?" he queried, doubting the silver-haired.
"I wouldn't be asking if I knew," Yzak snappily remarked.
The Natural regarded his words before nodding in acceptance. "Well then you, my friend, have crash landed in the Australis Colony in Mars," Lowe answered with a cheeky smile.
Four Coordinators stared at the Natural with disbelief in their eyes. Naturally, finding out that they're stationed at the one place they least expected to be would rendered them in shock.
"...Did you just say…?"
"...Australis Colony…"
"...As in the colony…"
"…In the red planet Mars?!" Yzak screeched, finishing the statement for the rest in consternation.
"Yup," Lowe confirmed with a nod. "By the way, why are you guys here? Shouldn't you be preparing for the wedding?"
Three Coordinators look at each other and communicated silently with their eyes. They nodded in agreement and finally turned to the one and only culprit who was to be held responsible for their current situation. All three glaring menacingly at the blonde Coordinator.
"H-hey wait a minute, guys!" Dearka nervously exclaimed with both hands raised, taking the obvious hint why his comrades were giving him the look.
"Damn you, Dearka!" Yzak screeched before attempting to launch a punch to the pitiful blonde captain.
All hell broke loose as Yzak charged blindly to attack but Kira and Athrun constrained him from attempting to murder their only blonde friend.
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Side Story:
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"Sir, you called for me?" Shiho Hahnenfuss, Yzak's most trusted subordinate besides his second commander and ace pilot, stood before him and saluted.
Yzak stared blankly at the brunette before him. After his encounter with the chairwoman earlier today, the Joule heir has been in constant irritation. In addition, he was stuck training incompetent soldiers for the rest of his morning. Hence, he was currently one very unhappy camper.
Every year a pool of recent graduates of the ZAFT Military Academy were assigned to various teams. This year was his first time training and meeting the group of rookie soldiers on his own within the first week they were assigned to the Joule Squadron. In the past years since he had been assigned as Commander, he relied on Dearka and Hahnenfuss to deal with the new leaves in hopes to give them the basic rules, procedures, and daily routines of how the team operates. Once the recruits were established and well-trained, he would then occasionally be present in the training grounds. In addition, he would acknowledge the new faces throughout the year—rarely by names, but mostly by their accomplishments—and would make some kind of bond with them (be it yelling or lauding at them).
This year, a certain General, specifically General Yeager, had commanded the young Commander to be present at one of their early trainings. Mind you, Yzak was a busy man. A busy man who neither has the luxury nor the time in teaching soldiers who he has not familiarized himself with. Unfortunately, the ones who would usually conduct the trainings of the rookies were not present. Dearka has been called to a meeting with the other ZAFT black coat captains and his ever reliable assistant, Hahnenfuss, was currently operating a training stimulation with the other Red Coats in his team. Honestly, he believed that the old man General Yeager had purposely made his most trusted subordinates busy so that the young commander had no choice but to comply with the General's order.
With the pressure and irritation of training newly recruits today, he became a walking demon. To show just how much he abhorred being with incapable soldiers, he had trained them without mercy taking no excuses. He remembered a certain incident that was the highlight of the training and couldn't help but to cringed in disgust at the memory.
"Listen here, you maggots. Captain Elsman and Major Hahnenfuss are unable to conduct today's training exercise. I will be their replacement for this brief period of time," Yzak began, unfazed by the confused looks on many of the soldiers before him.
"And who are you?" A cockily voice questioned from the crowd.
Yzak quickly glared at the direction of where the bastard was currently located. The fool had the audacity to interrupt him let alone ask who he was. Whoever that soldier was, he would make sure that the name Yzak Joule was engraved finely inside the little tart's brain.
"You, Soldier. Step forward and introduce yourself," Yzak coolly commanded, keeping his inner beast at bay until the righteous moment to strike at the bastard.
An elite Red Coat soldier confidently walked passed the sea of green coats in front of him and stood tall and proud before mockingly saluting the commander with a smirk. "Sir, I am Lieutenant Stilt of the Joule Team."
Yzak observed the boy before him front top to bottom and scoffed. This soldier standing cockily in front of him is a prime example of why he leaves the verbal and physical training to his subordinates so that the latters can virtually suck all the air of inferiority that rookies like this buffoon are oozing with.
The White Coat Commander placed both hand behind his back and strolled around the younger lad. "Is that so? Interesting." He stopped to look at the crowd of rookies staring expectantly at him. "Listening up, soldiers! I am going to give you all a little demonstration with the help of Lieutenant Filth over here."
"It's Lieutenant Sti—"
"Did I give you permission to talk, Lieutenant?" Icy cold blue eyes glared daringly at the younger lad.
"Sir, no, sir," the younger man spat angrily but managed to still show respect to his superior.
He could tell that the youngster was trying so hard to keep his emotion at bay. Yzak almost laughed out loud at the irony. He had once been a cocky inferior-complex soldier like the one before him. But after surviving two bloody wars, having seen the ugly sides of the both the military and politics, and witnessing many deaths of both his comrades and enemies at the tender age of sixteen and eighteen, he had become a wiser man. Not a better person, but wiser than he was before.
"Good, this is a little demonstration I'd like to call…'How Commander Joule put an idiotic, cocky, S.O.B. in his place.'"
"Wha—"
Before the younger lad could comprehend anything he was grabbed by the hand within seconds, catching him off guard. And the next thing he knew, he was mercilessly pummeled to the ground. Both of his hands were constraint behind him with such strong grip that he could not even move a centimeter in resistant.
"Listen well, you little cocky crook of a filthy worm. If I find you pulling that stunt in front of me once more, I will boot you off to the next kin of concentration camp in the USSA and make you do manual labor for months with only one loaf of bread and a half ass bottle of water as your meal for one very long week. You will be deprive of shelter and I will make sure that you sleep in a pile of shit as your mattress since you're full of shit yourself. In addition, I will toss your sorry ass in Area 3 with a bloodthirsty bulldog that the ZAFT military has secretly trained to maul and ruthlessly kill humans and within a blink of an eye your sorry worthless life with scum so low that you will die in the hands of a mutt. Do you understand me, Soldier?" He whispered coldly next to the lad's ear.
The Red Coat visibly gulped, clearly realizing his mistake and nodded. "S-sir, yes, sir."
"I can't hear you soldier. Mind speaking up you worthless scum." His hold on the younger man's hands tightened.
"Sir, yes, sir!" the Red Coat cried out loud.
"Very well," Yzak said, releasing his hold on. "Now get your ass back in line!" The young soldier didn't need to be told twice as he was already making his way towards his spot.
"Now," he began, looking back at the now frightened crowd. "Let's get this training started with, shall we?"
Seeing the flabbergasted looks on their faces made him felt a little smug. Good. They should be. The shock after discovering that the one who was leading their training was their one and only commander was almost comical. And within thirty minutes into their training, the newly recruits finally understood why Commander Joule was dubbed as 'The Slave Driving Demon' by many. The man showed no hesitation and ruled with an iron fist. Even his icy glares has sent some of them to tears. A ruthless and merciless Commander was something that the soldiers did not want to piss off. They did what every good soldiers would do, obey and never question an order for a commander's command was absolute. Every single one of them heed to his demands without questions.
After three long, gruesome, and strenuous hours with the newly appointed ZAFT soldiers, Yzak quickly dismissed them off to lunch with a dismissive wave which the young soldiers immediately did not hesitate to escape from the clutches of their demonic commanding officer.
And now here is the particular woman, the main source of all of his irritation, standing a mere few feet away and was giving him a rather peculiar look.
"Sir?" The brunette called, bringing the young commander's attention back to hers.
"Yes, I did," the Joule heir said, frowning. Why did he call her again?
"Is something the matter, Sir?" The Red Coat subordinate asked, furrowing her brows together.
"Read my schedule for the rest the day," he snappily commanded. He didn't know why he requested such an odd thing from her but his mind suddenly went conspicuously blank all of the sudden. To uphold his proud image as a ruthless and flawless commander, he needed to amend his sudden moment of being spaciously silent. And the only thing that popped out from his mind was his schedule for the duration of the day.
"Sir, at 1400 hours you have a meeting with General Yeager regarding the new recruits assigned to the team. At 1530 hours you have a team meeting with Commander Yamato, Commander Arqulet, and Commander Ulrica along with their squadrons about the training stimulation at Carpentaria Base next week. At 1745 hours you have a video conference with Orb's officials. At 1855 hours you will have dinner. Today they are serving meatloaf with a side of fresh rolls and mash potato, a side of salad, a choice of cranberry juice, orange juice, mineral water, or sparkling flavored water of either lemon or raspberry, and finally for desert you have a choice of a slice of cheesecake or chocolate gnash. After dinner, at 1900 hours you will have your daily routine of checkups on the artillery units at the hangar. Finally at 2130 hours you will end your day with a cup of tea at your office before leaving for the rest of the day," Shiho biblically recited his agenda without hesitation.
Being reminded of his busy schedule made the Joule heir cringed in distaste. From the looks of it, he was to be stuck at meetings once again. It wasn't the fact that he loathed meetings (perhaps just a tad bit), it was more of the verifiable truth that almost half of the other commanders are incapable of executing their jobs properly. For lack of a better word; they're stupid. There, he admitted it. With a handful of few exceptions (Yamato included), he considered the rest of the old potentates offensively idiotic. "Right," he muttered as he remembered begrudgingly.
"Is there anything else you'd like me to do, Sir?" his assistant offered, quirking a brow up.
"Where did you go last Saturday?" he animatedly blurted out of the blue. He had now remembered the very reason why he suddenly called his loyal assistant to his office. Subconsciously, his mouth worked faster than his brain could process which resulted in spilling out the question out of character in hopes of not forgetting it again.
The brunette blinked. By the looks of it, she was quite caught off guard by his sudden question. Yzak cursed under his breath. So much for asking coolly.
"Sir?"
"You heard me loud and clear, Hahnenfuss," he spat out, flustered. No way in hell was he going to repeat that obscure question.
She went silent at first. After a few seconds has lapsed—potentially trying to get over her initial shock—she answered him. "I was working that day. With you, sir," she accentuated the the last part. By her tone of voice, she sounded as if she's talking with a mentally handicapped person in which Yzak found very insulting. "Would you like me to write a full report on what I did during my work hours on Saturday, Sir?"
"No, I don't want a goddamn report on what you did at work last Saturday, Hahnenfuss!" The hot-tempered officer barked out.
"Then I'm afraid I am not quite understanding your question, sir," she replied, unfazed by her commanding officer's sudden raise in volume.
"Goddamn it, Hahnenfuss! Would you stop—"
"Er, pardon the intrusion, Commander," a soft spoken voice awkwardly called out, oblivious of the presently tension in the air.
Two pairs of eyes turned to look at the newcomer who was hovering across the threshold in surprised. Yzak was the first one to initially recover from his and suddenly glared icily at the unwanted intruder.
"Who the hell are you and what do you want, Soldier?!" He roared out loud. The poor Green Coat shivered and flinched in fright. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of something?!"
"Um…er…sir…I'm Lieutenant McIntyre…C-Commander B-Bristle….s-sent…" the lad nervously began, stammering.
"Oh, for the love of PLANT speak up you stuttering mutt!" The impatient Joule heir roared once again as his glare multiplied tenfold.
"C-Commander Bristle sent me here to p-pick up the documents he requested f-from you, sir!" The Green Coat managed to say, amusing Shiho to no end.
Yzak went quiet. That's right, Commander Bristle did send him a message via e-mail earlier that he was going to send in his assistant to pick up some documents. Yzak's sharp eyes scanned his desk until they located the targeted files and grabbed them. He motioned the soldier to come hither towards him which the latter quickly complied. Yzak handed the soldier the documents and the Green Coat lowered his gaze, an action that was duly noted by the White Coat, and bowed deeply to the superior officer.
"T-thank you, sir!"
"Now get the hell out of my office! Next time your commander sent you, knock the goddamn door you imbecile!"
"Sir, yes, sir!" The newly recruited Green Coat saluted looking quite pale before practically scurrying out of the door. Two pairs of eyes stared at the retreated soldier, one with amused, another with a look of irritation.
"Hahnenfuss, why is it whenever others talk to me, they won't look at me in the eyes?" Yzak distractedly asked frowning, looking at his reliable assistant with genuine wonder.
"Sir, perhaps it's your irascible rash demeanor that makes others tend to avoid you, sir," the Hahnenfuss heiress unequivocally pointed out. After serving under the silver-haired Commander since the day she graduated from the ZAFT Military Academy, she grew accustom to his fits and hot-tempered persona. Hence, over the years she became boldly vocal about her opinions to him.
"So what you're saying is that they're afraid of me," he flatly surmised, taking a bit offense to the brunette's blunt words.
"Sir, it's up to you to decide how you want to take my words. After all you did asked for my opinion, sir." she replied, shrugging indifferently.
"Hahnenfuss."
"Sir?"
"I suggest you shut up."
The brunette didn't reply but gave him a small smugly smile. The silver-haired gritted his teeth in annoyed.
"Go fetch me the documents that Yamato finished for me," he ordered all of the sudden, hoping to shoo her away since he was now mildly annoyed by her presence.
When he heard no response from the Red Coat subordinate, he looked up and gave her miffed look. "Aren't you going to reply to me?" He demanded, expectantly waiting for any acknowledgement on whether or not she understood his order.
Shiho looked at him blankly and gave him a shrug. "I believe earlier you told me to 'shut up.' I thought I was incline to follow your order, sir," she politely reminded him.
Something inside of him snapped. He stood up from his seat and banged a fist on his desk. "Oh for the love of the ZAFT force, get out!" He snapped in irritation, pointing towards the threshold that was the only connection to his solitary domain and the rest of the ZAFT Military Headquarters.
Yzak could've sworn he saw the damn irritating witch slightly smirking at him before returning to her expressionless façade and saluted. "Sir, yes, sir." She pranced out of his room within seconds and left him to a solitary confinement.
The Joule heir exhaled a long dragged breath—he didn't even realized that he was holding one—and slowly sat back down on his chair. Evidently, the silver-haired Commander had not been expecting to be outwitted and retaliated by the woman.
It finally dawned to him that the cunning woman managed to escape from answering his true intention of calling her to his office in the first place. Damn that Green Coat to the pit of hell for distracting his interrogation. He made a mental note to send a message to Commander Bristle to never let that Green Coat step foot in his office ever again.
Yzak mentally slapped himself before muttering a colorful choice of words under his breath. He hastily got up and ran out of his door to chase down the irritably cunning woman.
.
Outside the man-free zone office, ZAFT soldiers of all rankings were peacefully performing their duties and going about their ways. Some were sociably greeting each other while others were saluting superior officers as they passed by. The peace was suddenly disturbed by a certain silver-haired commander as he begrudgingly marched down the hall. Many soldiers recognized the commander and went pale. The dark and gloomy aura surrounding the man was not unnoticed by many and those who were in his way parted to the side like the Red Sea, allowing the angry commander to quickly pinpoint his target ahead of him.
"HAHNENFUSS GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE RIGHT THIS MINUTE! I AM NOT DONE WITH YOU!" The commander roared impatiently, causing many of the innocent soldiers to flinched and quickly scurried off. Some stayed out of his way but decided to remain where they are, eager to find out the drama that was about to unfold in front of them.
"I cannot, Sir. You've sent me on an errand, remember?" The sole culprit of the silver-haired commander sudden irritation calmly reminded as she continued her way to her destination.
"WELL I REVOKED THAT REQUEST! I REQUIRED YOUR PRESENCE IN MY OFFICE! NOW!"
The brunette ignored the commander in which the bystanders around them could've sworn that the White Coat snapped mentally out loud.
"DON'T YOU DARE IGNORE ME, WOMAN OR I WILL DEMOTE YOU TO GARBAGE DISPOSAL DUTY FOR A MONTH!" He threatened darkly, quickening his pace to catch up.
"You know very well that you are in need of my assistance, Sir. If I were to be gone, who is going to replace me? Surely not Captain Elsman?" She chimed tauntingly.
The cunning minx had him practically wrapped around her fingers.
And so, our very angry commander trailed—correction, stomped—behind his Red Coat subordinate as he yelled out colorful words along with threatening demands until they've finally reached the latter's destination.
Poor Kira had to witness a heated gruesome exchange between an irritated White Coat and his calmly expressionless assistant until the White Coat finally decided he had enough because he had ran out of breath. He said a few colorful parting words to the brunette—forgetting to acknowledge the owner of the office—and tore down the other commander's door out of spite as he marched out of the room.
After being silent for quite sometimes, Kira finally decided to speak out. "Shiho, what was that about?" The White Coat Commander asked warily looking at the Red Coat brunette in wonder.
Shiho shook her head and smiled knowingly. "It was nothing, sir, nothing at all."
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A/N: Meh, I wasn't so sure about this chapter but hey, this was one long chapter to write. I read in Gundam Wiki that there was a colony in Mars most notably the Australis colony. From what I read, it was a safe haven for many Coordinators and Naturals who wished to escape the war on earth and PLANTs. I'd figure since the Mars colony was almost never mentioned in the series, I might as well put it to good use since by the looks of it, the boys had never stepped foot on Mars yet. I was unsure about the time differences amongst PLANTs, Mars, and Earth, but let's just say for the sake of this fanfic that the time differences scale is not that big. I know I put Shinn somewhere in god knows where but I can assure you, without spoiling, he's fine, for now (hehe). The plot structure is going to be in a series of flashbacks so please bear with me!
I've created a lot of OCs to filter this story. So no worries, those characters are purely from my imaginaton.
For my silent readers out there, it would help me out tremendously if you were to leave a review about what you think about the story so far. I just need some feedbacks and opinions on what you all think about the whole plot and perhaps what adventure I may write next. Till next time!
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tinylittlerobots- Thank you so much for being the first one to review! Haha I'll keep that idea in mind!
Lenora Jime- Thanks for reviewing! I'm trying to not go overboard on their adventure since I'm trying to make it realistically possible for them to be crazy for one night!
fhkes- Thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you like it!
blackberrymint- Thanks for reviewing! Any ideas on what adventure the boys should do? I'm open for opinions!