I'll admit, this came about purely because I found out there are no Gundam Wing/MHA crossovers. It only took a few minutes for a plot bunny to form. Also, props if you can guess what Heero's name USED to be.
This was it. This would be the beginning of everything. For good or for ill, it would change the world.
He could only hope he wasn't branded a full villain by the end of it. While he would never be a true hero, like he had naively wanted when he was still innocent, he wanted to at least make some sort of difference for the better of everyone.
At the very least he wanted to put a stop to the fact that certain factions of the Alliance government...or those affiliated with them...kept sending quirkless people to space. Like they were anomalies they wanted to get rid of as quickly as possible.
Heero's hand clenched the hand rest on his suit. It didn't matter how many years had passed...the very mention of the fact that certain people were deliberately singled out to be sent to the colonies via 'surprise jobs' or other thinly veiled lies never failed to piss him off.
All those people had one thing in common...they were either quirkless or were the guardians of quirkless children. On the surface everything seemed nice and friendly, but when someone actually bothered to look underneath the underneath, an obvious and blatant pattern emerged.
Heero wouldn't admit it, but he had the names of the main supporters of the unofficial movement on a very specific list. And if he ever found out who had singled his mother out, he would pretend ignorance if they 'just so happened' to be stepped on by his new mobile suit. He didn't care if they were a hero or not, he would get his payback.
"You have t-minus five minutes to launch. I hope you're ready for this...there is no going back."
"I've been ready since that day," said Heero calmly. There was no second-guessing. He had come too far, trained too much to second guess his course of action. He was prepared to see it through to whatever end came.
"Then may whatever gods are watching be with you," said Doctor J.
He cut off the communicator. Heero was tense, as the countdown began.
Then...he felt the launch pad under him rumble to life before it sent him out into space.
This was it.
He just didn't expect there to be some...complications...on the way to Earth.
Later that night...
Heero ignored the pain in his body with the ease of long practice. Sure, the landing might have been rather flawed, but he was here. On Earth. And somehow, despite all the areas he could have landed it, he made it back to his home country.
It was somewhat fitting, in a way.
Heero cast a thought, however briefly, on his unexpected...savior.
Relena Darlain, daughter of a known pacifist and a major player against the Allaince's more bloodthirsty policies. In short, she was someone to be protected, if for no other reason than to prevent her from being used as a hostage against her father.
Fortunately for his peace of mind, she hadn't seen his Gundam. He wouldn't need to silence her.
Heero would have to be very careful around her. Every instinct he had told him that Relena wasn't a threat against him directly. His mission, on the other hand, was another story entirely. In any event, he knew that somehow, Relena was going to be a key player in the events to come.
Did not make dealing with her any less awkward.
He would have to stick to the task at hand, lest his hormones made a unneeded and unwanted appearance. It had been bad enough when his voice started to break, especially considering what he had gone through just to be able to pilot his Gundam in the first place.
Heero's initial meeting with another Gundam pilot could have gone better. However he felt the fact that he swiped several parts from the other Gundam justified...the jerk had gotten him captured after all.
He didn't know that Duo had privately noted the way his eyes lingered just a bit too long on the All Might poster one of the men had in the hallway as a joke.
As Heero worked through the night, he also discreetly added a small camera to the top of Duo's Gundam. Undoubtedly the other pilot would spot it once they started doing repairs, but he could at least capture the guy's reaction to his payback prank.
(Heero had to bite back an evil cackle at the enraged and betrayed howl Duo let off the next morning. So worth it.)
Completing the mission was easy. Dealing with Relena...was still incredibly awkward.
And then she went back to space, and things became even more complicated.
At least he wouldn't have to worry about silencing her, if Doctor J went so far as to protect her. Clearly she was important enough for the Doctor to reveal himself personally.
Some time later...
Now he knew something was up, if Oz was willing to go so far as to try and assassinate Relena so openly. His instincts told him that she was too important to lose, so he reached out and shielded her from the debris.
Though why Oz called off the attack shortly after, he had yet to figure out.
Heero couldn't sleep. J had warned him this might happen. That he might start to get nightmares from the guilt of killing soldiers. It would take time for that to fade, but until then he had to find something that would calm him down long enough to get at least a little rest.
It was why the doctor hadn't tried to break him of his fascination towards the Symbol of Peace. Just watching the videos of All Might seemed to have a strange tranquilizing effect on Heero's mind. It was to the point Doctor J actually recorded every time All Might was on the air, either as a hero or during an interview.
He pulled out his laptop and logged into the special storage J had made just for Heero. Watching All Might's first official appearance soothed his nerves.
Once it ended, he had to remind himself that he wasn't doing this out of some warped sense of what a hero should be...he was doing it because it was necessary and because someone was already stirring up trouble between the colonies and Earth to the point that war was bound to start up any time now.
The Gundams were just there to level the playing field and act as a wild card that neither side would be able to control, and if they were lucky, direct the war to a more positive outcome. If any such thing existed when it came to the horror of war anyway.
Heero had no delusions about how All Might would react to what he was doing. He would never approve of it.
He had to fight back the sigh and tried to sleep again. He had a mission in the morning and he wouldn't be able to perform properly if he was too tired from insomnia.
At least he could catch the latest All Might interview. He was curious was the Symbol of Peace had to say about the current tension between the colonies and Earth.
He honestly didn't know when he fell asleep to that, just that he woke up from his internal alarm going off.
It was with great difficulty that he reminded himself he had a mission to complete. A quick glance at the nearest reflective surface reminded him of something else to.
He needed to re-dye his roots...they were beginning to show again.
Heero was less than amused seeing Duo again. Was it fate, or was something drawing the five pilots together?
"Yo! Load yours on too, I'll handle the cockpit!"
"Do what you like," said Heero. His instincts said he could trust the long haired pest.
As they escaped the base (having stolen one of their heavy transport carriers), Duo decided to fill the silence.
Heero, mostly through extensive training to get rid of a habit that had annoyed J to no end, had learned to limit how much he spoke.
"Just think, if we do this right then the war won't even happen!"
"Your childish naivety is almost charming," said Heero.
"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Duo, offended.
"Oz knows how important this meeting is too. And their leader is no fool... he will undoubtedly set a trap for us," said Heero without thinking.
This was bad...if he didn't shut up now, his bad habit would start up again, if only out of nerves.
Duo, however, looked thoughtful.
"You might have a point," he conceded. "But what sort of trap?"
Heero didn't have to think too hard on the matter. J had been somewhat surprised, then delighted at his analytical ability being so high, even from a young age. A fact he took great advantage of.
Duo had to stare as Heero systematically mentioned all the ways Oz could screw them over, almost rambling in a way. Then he abruptly clammed his mouth shut.
"Wow... I never pegged you as a mumbler," he said after a moment.
Heero glared at him.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Dude, seriously? That was a mumble attack if I ever saw one! The way you rattled off all that information without taking a breath is characteristic of it!" said Duo.
One of the kids at the orphanage had that problem, except he would go on and on about colony statistics no one really cared about.
Heero glared that console, refusing to speak. He had though J had gotten rid of that habit by now...it looked like his nerves were getting to him after all. This mission was simply too important to miss though...
Rather than be offended by the silence, Duo was downright chipper. Finally, proof Heero wasn't a complete robot like he assumed by this point.
So he tried turning the conversation (one-sided as it was now) to what he considered a safer topic.
"So...what's your quirk?" he asked cheerfully.
"You first," Heero bit back, making it obvious that it was a sore subject for him.
Duo grinned.
"I can analyze and break down any machine I get my hands on, regardless of whether I've come across it or not," he said, rather proudly. It was one of the reason the scientist had picked him out of all the candidates. Not having to explain overly much about the mechanics of the Gundam was too useful to ignore.
Heero, rather than be annoyed by this information, went into a habit J hadn't tried to break.
"What are the specifics?" he asked, openly curious.
Duo, happy to get Heero at least talking again, cheerfully went into as much detail as he was willing to give.
He was not expecting the sheer deluge of potential applications, or possible training methods, that came out of Heero's mouth at even the least bit of information Duo gave him. He even guessed at some of the abilities Duo had that he hadn't given out personally!
Duo stared at him, shell-shocked.
"Dude...how the hell did you guess all that?"
"Analyzing quirk is a hobby of mine. I can break down a hero or villain's ability and potential attacks within five minutes of observing them," said Heero flatly.
"That's one hell of a hobby," said Duo, openly impressed. So in a bit of fun, he decided to quiz Heero about the few Pro Heroes he knew about.
It was when he mentioned All Might that he hit paydirt on potential blackmail on the stoic pilot.
Duo made another check mark to Heero being a closet fanboy of All Might. He wasn't going to hold it against him though...out of all the Pro Heroes, at least All Might was actually pretty cool.
Some time later...
Heero wouldn't be able to adequately explain it. Just that he knew in his heart that destroying the plane was the worst possible move.
His instincts panned out when a mobile suit that had avoided detection by the others, suddenly fired not at Wing, but at the plane.
Heero barely managed to shield it, but the plane was still heavily damaged. It attempted to make an emergency landing, but the systems failed, causing it to crash.
There were no survivors.
Heero wanted to scream. This was not how he wanted this mission to go. And to add insult to injury, Oz felt their presence was dangerous enough to attempt to blow up the entire base with them on it.
He was going to need a marathon of his favorite videos just to come down from how pissed he felt right now. And even that might not be enough to calm him down.
Either way, the analytical part of his mind was already hacking the base's cameras, if for no other reason than to figure out where everything went wrong.
It would later be the ONLY copy of what truly happened on the base, as Oz made a point to erase the evidence of their deceit.