Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered Remains ❯ “Hurry up and start a war!” ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Three: “Hurry up and start a war!”

~Dorothy, episode 29~

 

 

A/N: Big shout out to Duo Maxwell for all his help on this one! (If you want more details read the notes at the bottom)

 

 

Gundams. Standing in front of them were two, by all appearances, fully functioning Gundams. And they were with out a doubt in anyone's mind two of the most outstanding that any of them had ever since. The one nearest them stood a shimmering green with all of its finer trimmings in a silver to equal a midnight moon. And if that were to hold true then the gigantic, near feather like, wings that came out of its back were the midnight sky, so pure and deep in there black colorings. Twin silver dragon heads rested calmly, yet even in that looked ready to strike out at any moment, on each shoulder. Both arms had easily identifiable shielding mechanisms that were more then likely the housing for thermal swords. It looked as if some one had taken the blueprints to both Wing Zero and Shenlong (1) and chose only the best parts to mesh together to form this Gundam before them.

 

The other one stood back a little and to the side, but was still easily enough seen by the stunned pilots. It was obvious immediately that it had been modeled after Deathscythe Hell, or as things were certainly getting cloudy at this point maybe it was Deathscythe Hell that had been modeled after this one, but either way the similarities were there. Its main base was a dark purple that seemed to almost glow in the radiance of the rooms lighting. All of its trimmings seemed to melt in to it and disappear as they were made out of such a deep black. It also had wings, though they looked nothing like the feathers on Zero, they were comparable to the giant bat like wings on the Deathscythe, a clocking devise for stealth purposes it could be assured. These wings though were colored in a silver so pure and glimmering that there was nothing they could use to reference its color against. A large black handle could be seen reaching out from over one shoulder, a thermal weapon of sorts. And based on the mimicking of Deathscythe, they could all guess it was a Scythe much like that one.

 

“Man, well, this is…unexpectedly shocking.” Duo finally said as he moved forward by the barest inch at a time towards the new Gundams.

 

“If it could even steal words from your mouth Maxwell, then I would have to agree.” Wufei responded as he too began to approach the Gundams. But while Duo seemed drawn to the one that mimicked his, Wufei was of course drawn closer to the one that held similarities to his own. Suddenly the sound of a hammer of a gun being drawn back filled the silence in the room. Duo, Trowa, and Quatre all turned to look at Heero. Once realizing that his gun wasn't in his hand they turned to follow his own stare, at Wufei. And Wufei was busy looking down the business end of a .45.

 

“You lay one fucking finger on MY Gundam, and Omae o korosu.” Came the steely cold voice from behind the gun. Wufei put his hands up in surrender and stepped back away from the Gundam. When the person holding the gun decided he was far enough away, the gun was tucked back away with a soft click as the hammer was returned to its normal position. The five pilots now got their first good look at the person. It was a girl who couldn't be any older then them.

 

“And close your damn mouths before the drool puddle reaches over this far.” She snapped as she crossed her arms in front of her chest with a scowl on her face. Her jet black hair fell gently past her shoulders, falling forward to rest on her chest, reveling striking highlights of bright green through out it, nearly the same color as the Gundam she was standing next to. She didn't seem to mind though as glaring the life out of all of them was her priority. She was wearing tight black jeans, with a rip in both knees. Peaking out from under the bottoms of each were black boots, but the flames on the tips showed they weren't military. A simple red tank top covered her chest, and an oil rag was slung over one shoulder. Her eyes glared out at them even harder as the silence lingered on, reveling a steal color that could have been almost silver, if she wasn't currently so pissed.

 

“Damn Heero, you never told me you had a sister.” Duo finally said, his manic grin coming back on to his face.

 

“I don't.” he snapped out as he gave his own glare to the new girl in response. And very seriously contemplated drawing his own gun right then.

 

“So, just who are you?” Quatre asked, from slightly behind Trowa, where he'd retreated to once he realized that this new person had a temperament that easily matched Heero on a bad day, and didn't want to be in the way of the explosion.

 

“The names Zai, Nanatsu Zai. (2) And I am the pilot of Mantis Hail.” She told them in an even tone, but with enough threat behind it that none of them were going to contradict her words. At her words through everyone did turn their attention away from her and to the Gundam she was standing next to. The green one, with wings like Zero. The one they now knew as Mantis Hail.

 

“Mantis Hail, that sounds kinda goofy for a Gundam.” Duo piped up suddenly. He was reward with a glare from Zai's silver eyes that could have frozen the air.

 

“Oh and all of your names make so much more sense. I mean, Wing, Sandrock, and Heavyarms for Christ sake. Yeah, sure, but Mantis Hail you find `goofy'.” She snapped at the still grinning idiot.

 

“Well, it is. Why not, I don't know Ladybug Hell or something?” He asked her right back. He was too used to dealing with Heero's moodiness and glares to even be fazed by Zai.

 

“Ladybug? Where the hell did that come from you braided moron?” she snapped.

 

“Well, it is green after all.” He defended.

 

“And ladybugs are fucking red!” she was getting more then a little agitated now.

 

“Well, yeah, but ladybugs are cool! I love those little guys.”

 

“And I can just see the enemy fleeing from the dreaded `Ladybug Hell'.” Wufei mocked them both.

 

“Maybe if Relena had ever had a Gundam, she would have named hers Ladybug.” Quatre joked suddenly. The tension in the air was fleeing fast thanks to Duo and his unconventional ways.

 

“Relena piloting a Gundam is going to give me nightmares for a month.” Trowa grumbled, though his mouth was twitched up in a half smile.

 

“Yeah, and hers would have to be that god awful pink too.” Heero added as even he joined in on this.

 

“Ladybug's fruity enough for Quat though! Maybe he should change his name…” Duo said suddenly, before he cut himself off in laughter from the bright red that was flooding the Arabians cheeks at his words.

 

“See, he's even turning red to match.” Wufei added, seemingly absent-minded.

 

“Maybe you should Quatre. Ladybug would almost be fitting.” Trowa added, but also but his arm around his boyfriend to lighten the comments. Quatre just buried his head in to the taller teens shoulder and groaned.

 

“Guys! Stop it. That's just not nice. Quat here is our friend.” Duo suddenly said, almost defensively.

 

“You started it.” Heero told him bluntly. But before anyone could continue anything else along those lines, Zai broke in. (3)

 

“Will all you just shut the hell up!” the silence that echoed through the room was only broken by an almost quite giggle from Duo.

 

“You sure you aren't related?” he managed to get out finally to Heero.

 

“Shut up baka.” He snapped. Trowa meanwhile had maneuvered towards the other Gundam in the lull.

 

“Ah, Zai was it, you don't have any qualms about inspecting this one up close do you?” he turned and asked the girl before getting too close to it though. He didn't really feel like a fire fight at the moment.

 

“Nah, go ahead and jiz yourself happy on that one, it ain't mine.” She told him flatly. She rolled her eyes at the expressions, and coughing fits that accompanied her statement.

 

“It's not huh? Man it looks kick ass though. Dark purple is my favorite color.” Duo rambled on as he recovered and stalked over to it. “Well, just purple in general at least.” He said as he realized he was getting a few skeptical looks.

 

“Coming from a moron with a three foot braid, it doesn't surprise me.” Zai responded to him as she too moved closer to the other Gundam. “And no, its not mine. I'll gladly tell you that I more then believe I'm the best pilot around, even I cant fly two Gundams at once.”

 

“Whats the designation on it?” Heero asked simply.

 

“I think its like, Hellstorm, no wait that ain't it, Hellfire. That's what it's designated. But the dumbass never calls it that.” Zai all but spit out in answer.

 

“Hellstrom, now THAT would have been a sweet name.” Duo chirped out as he stared up at the towering suit.

 

“How is it you don't know the designation?” Wufei asked her then, catching her earlier stumble.

 

“Dunmbass, what the hell is that supposed to mean?” Heero also questioned her.

 

“Dumbass, the other pilot that came with me. And I can't recall the designation that well cause like I said, dumbass calls it something else instead.” She answered them in a clipped tone.

 

“And what is that?” Quatre asked her after it seemed she wasn't going to say it on her own.

 

“Strawberry Kisses.” Zai grumbled out with a slight roll of her eyes. It obviously wasn't something she liked to talk about. Duo promptly burst out laughing and would have fallen to the ground if Heero hadn't anticipated his boyfriend's actions and was ready to catch him.

 

“And that's all your going to get from me. I have been up for the past 46 hours and need to crash.” Zai said as she abruptly turned and began to walk away. “And if I find even ONE fingerprint on my Gundam, you ALL die. Same goes for waking me up.” She called out over her shoulder. And there wasn't a single person in the room who was going to argue with her. Not even Heero, who was only used to hearing that tone of voice coming out of his own mouth.

 

 

 

The five pilots were glad at this point that they had taken the time to clean out Kade's office as they were now all crammed inside of it, trying to force answers out of the woman about the unexpected events the afternoon had thrown at them.

 

“If all of you just SHUT UP for five minutes, I can tell you what I know!!” the woman screamed out finally to get things settled down. And so that everyone would stop trying to talk at once. She had dealt with the new pilot, Zai, half the morning and that had left a headache that still wasn't going away. And the rest of them weren't helping to make it any better.

 

“You never told us they had GUNDAMS!” Heero snapped out at her.

 

“I didn't know!” She shot back defensively. Once it seemed that everyone was going to finally give her a chance to talk, she continued.

 

“I didn't know anything about the pilots, or their suits, before last night. I was woken up at 3 in the morning by the security officer to let me know two mobile suits had shown up and were requesting to dock. Once docked I went in to the bay expecting to find a couple of Taurus or Aries suits. I was probably just as shocked to shit as you all were to see two fully operational Gundams.” She explained to them.

 

“Well, we saw that one ourselves, so what else ya got for us?” Duo popped in to the lull with. They had had questions before this, but now they wanted the answers.

 

“Not much else at the time being. I didn't get that much info from Zai, and I never even met the other pilot. By the time I was in the bay, they were in bed. And all Zai would tell me about them was to say, `The dumbass that pilots Hellfire already crashed. Deal.' But this I can tell you, a full debriefing with the both of them is my first priority in the morning. From there I plan on a pilot debriefing slash introduction for everyone. I will try and get as much out of the new guys about the past they've dealt with, so that you know where everyone stands. But I know that they are going to want the same from you all. Agreed?” she asked out to the five before her, but made sure her tone of voice on that last word showed it was less question, more order. As the five heads nodded in agreement, she finally let her self take a deep breath and begin to relax the tension that had been building in her since that call had come in that morning.

 

“When will we get our full mission briefing?” Trowa asked her. They hadn't heard anything else about the actual mission since that day in Lady Une's office.

 

“Not until we are set up at the base safe house on earth.” Kade told him. “We will be moving out there as soon as the Gundams are ready to transport.”

 

“What, after all this we're just going to sit around even longer to finish everything up?” Wufei asked bitterly. If this was such an important thing, he didn't see how they had all this time to waste.

 

“No. When I said Gundams, I meant Hellfire and Mantis Hail. They have some minor repairs needed due to the close calls they faced getting here. Once their set, yours are going as is, ready or not. That's why it was so imperative that you five got up here as soon as possible to start work, being that the parts you need can only be manufactured in space. (4) And once the new flyboys are ready, that's as long as you got. We already wasted more time then we wanted just getting them this far, we cant risk anymore time before we get everyone on earth and ready to go.” Kade explained to them.

 

“How long?” Heero asked. He knew they were all almost set, but still a set time would be nice to know.

 

“I don't know for sure. It could take at most a week. But to be on the safe side, I suggest that you're ready to move out within the next 48 hours.” She told them, knowing that as much work as Zai had already done today alone on her Gundam it might even be before that.

 

“Why Earth?” it was Quatre's turn to question the major now.

 

“It's the best location we can have within reach of the Colonies, without arising too much suspicion. We don't know exactly what the whole situation of the colonies is, and it's too much of a risk to be stationed on them. And if we were on any satellite nearby, we would be suspected immediately. Earth is the best chance we have, while hopefully not pulling down any extra fighting to the planet.” Everyone seemed to except that answer, even if they weren't all that pleased with it. They didn't want to pull any more fighting down to earth, but it would be the best, and possibly only place, they would have to hold out. Especially considering that up until now the emergency `safe' location they had had WAS the back colonies. And that was definitely not an option anymore.

 

“That's enough for now. I will call you tomorrow for the debriefing as soon as I can. Until then, goodnight.” With that she dismissed them, giving them a sort salute to show it. And even at Duo's `sandwich' salute, she only gave a halfhearted groan. She was more then exhausted and even he couldn't get to her at the moment. The pilots filed out then, ready to put a few more hours in to their Gundams before they finally crashed.

 

“Whats wrong?” Heero asked Duo suddenly as they headed down the hallway, noticing how down cast the teen looked.

 

“She's getting immune to me already. I figured I had at least another month to totally bug her brains out.” Duo grumbled slightly, referencing Kade's almost acceptance as they had left. Heero just cracked up laughing at Duo's comments. Shocking everyone around him enough to stop and stare at him.

 

“But I can see your picking up where I left off, so I guess its okay!” Duo cheered instantly at Heero's reactions. Letting his Cheshire grin back on to his face as they all started moving forward again.

 

 

 

“NOOO!!!” the scream shattered the stillness of the night hours through out the entire ship. Heero rolled over with more then a little anger radiating off of him. They had only gotten to bed a few hours ago after working most of the night on the Gundams, and they had to but in only another two. And he was ready just to throw a punch, knock Duo unconscious, go back to sleep, and deal with the consequences in the morning. That was until he realized that the first thing to meet him upon opening his eyes, were a pair of shocked violet eyes, still laying next to him in bed.

 

“Duo?” he asked out quietly.

 

“That, that wasn't me Heero.” He whispered back with a puzzled look burrowing in to his face.

 

“Then who…?” Heero never finished as a shout was heard from the hallway, followed by a slam of a door. He was instantly out of bed, gun in hand, and at the door.

 

“God fucking damn it. That FUCKING DUMBASS!” was the muttered cursing shouts that greeted him as he opened the door. The sight that met him was Zai in a pair or boxers and gray tank top, storming down the hall with a pillow in tow.

 

“What the fuck is going on?” He asked her evenly, but with ice in his tone as he leveled his gun at her. For a second deep blue was met with cold silver as his eyes locked on hers. Then just as suddenly his eyes had to land on the matching gun in her hand.

 

“I'm fucking finding a nice floor space in the meeting hall to sleep until the dumbass learns how to stop fucking dreaming. You got a problem with that?” she asked him just as evenly, and just as cold. He didn't respond out loud. Instead he gave her a curt nod of his head, and tucked his gun back away. She responded in kind before continuing to head back down the hallway.

 

“You sure she's not related? I mean that gun from gods knows where trick…” Duo's voice asked out, smirk obvious in his tone, as Heero shut the door and headed back to bed.

 

“Shut up baka.” He grumbled out as he curled back behind Duo, arm slung around the teen's waist. “And don't you dare have one of those nightmares either, or I'll go join Zai on the floor.” He told him as they both started to drift off to sleep again, but he tempered his comments with a kiss and half nuzzle against the back of Duo's neck. His only answer was a quite snore from the braided teen.

 

 

 

“…and its just so cool. I mean two more Gundams, and I so want to know how we didn't know, I mean what do you know about us and all too, and then…” Duo's ramblings continued to go on and on. Grating more and more so on to Zai's nerves as she stood near by. All the pilots were assembled and waiting for Kade to come in and get the ball rolling. And with the interruption Zai had had in her sleep last night if Kade didn't show up soon, they'd be down by one pilot.

 

“Hey!” Zai snapped out suddenly towards Heero, cutting Duo off, at least for the moment. “You're his fuck buddy right?” she asked him, quite seriously.

 

“Excuse me?” was the most he could reply with, even as he felt his cheeks heat up slightly.

 

“Yeah, thought so. Anyway, either shut him up, orI will.” She told him sternly, and still just as seriously. “I'm keeping my dumbass quite for once.” She added almost as an after thought, with a slight shrug to the corner. Reveling the back of who everyone had to guess was the other pilot. All that could be seen though was the back of a black shirt, and the top of a backwards black baseball cap, slowly bobbing up and down.

 

“What…” Quatre started to asked, before Zai beat him to the answer.

 

“Headphones. Music, as long as the dumbass doesn't attempt to sing with it, and food are the only things that can shut that mouth.” There was clear bitterness in her tone. Proving that she had to deal with it for longer then she'd wanted to.

 

“Yeah, food always works good to shut me up too. But then..ahh..ok, ok. I'll stop.” Duo changed topics quickly as he suddenly realized that two .45's were suddenly trained on him. Apparently Heero, not just Zai, had taken all he could of Duo's insistent rambling. As both teens tucked their guns back away, Kade finally made her entrance.

 

“LINE UP FLYBOYS!” she called out as she entered in to the room. Using her status as Major for once to get them all to attention. Or at least five of them. Zai just gave her an `excuse me, what did you say' look. Kade rolled her eyes in over exaggeration.

 

“And Fly-GIRLS as well.” She said in Zai's direction. Zai gave a slight nod of her head as she started over then as well. Before stopping suddenly and looking over her shoulder. The other pilot hadn't moved yet, head still bouncing to the music.

 

“DUNMBASS!” she hollered out as she snagged a near by wrench and threw it at the pilot, barely missing their head. The other gave a half turn, pulling an earpiece free.

 

“Get your ass over here!” Zai snapped before taking her place at the end of the line. The other shrugged slightly before flipping the baseball cap the right way, and pulling it down to better cover their face before heading over. The others were hardly able to get a glimpse of them. They had loose black pants on, hanging over on to black combat boots. Their chest was covered in a loose black button down shirt, with only the top two buttons undone enough to reveal a white shirt of some kind under it. It reminded Heero quite a bit of Duo's priest outfit he wore on missions actually. None of them could get a very good look at the face on the pilot at all, the hat covering most of it, and slim strands of brownish red hair slipping out to cover the rest.

 

“All right everyone!” Kade suddenly called out once the pilot was standing on the end of the line next to Zai. Drawing the attention of the room back to her.

 

“Now that we have everyone accounted for, here's the drill, first we are going to have a little story time chat to get everyone acquainted not only with everyone else, but with all the events that have put you all in this very spot. Then the minor repairs to the newly arrived Gundams will be completed. Lastly we ship out to earth, the safe house, and you'll all get the rest of the details. Got it?” she asked simply, taking on the full role of Major, no matter how much she didn't like it, as things were now certainty heating up. As the seven in front of her gave their nods of approval, she continued.

 

“Okay then, so take five minutes to get your collective flyboy, and girl, asses in to the main conference room. We'll start all of this there. DISMISSED!” she called out to all of them, hand coming to her forehead in preparation to salute. And as expected, the braided teen on the one end used his left hand, and ended in a sideways peace sign with his arm straight out. But what wasn't expected, except maybe by Zai who didn't seemed fazed by it, was that the `dumbass' on her end, had done the same exact thing. After noticing that everyone was staring baffled towards her, Zai looked over and seemed to be equally baffled to see Duo's arm still straight out in the peace sign. She looked back over to the person standing next to her, also still frozen in the exact same pose.

 

Silence became the dominate factor in the room as if on some unspoken command both Duo and the unknown pilot both leaned forward to look towards the other at the same moment.

 

“Jelly?” was the bare whisper that came out of the one as they peered over at Duo.

 

“Peanut Butter?” came his only response as he peered back. “SHIT PEANUT BUTTER!” he suddenly screamed back as he stepped out at the same moment the other did.

 

“Duo! Jelly! Its you!” they cried back, as the two of them met in front of the rest of the motionless pilots in a fierce hug. The black hat had fallen off, and ear length brownish red hair, only a shade lighter then Duo's own, spilled forward. As they finally broke apart, everyone else was finally able to get a good look at the pilot. A girl, most likely younger then them all, definitely shorter, with eyes glowing purple in joy. And a Cheshire grin, that even swamped out the one that Duo was currently wearing, spread across her face.

 

“GUYS!” Duo said excitedly as he turned to face his friends again, but picking up the girl's hand and clasping it as he did so. “This is the sandwich!”

 

 

 

 

I know at this point Wufei's Gundam is the Altron, not Shenlong, but this was not a typo. The visual look of the Mantis Hail is a combination of Wing Zero (not just Wing) and Shenlong, not the Altron.

 

 

Just to keep with the whole number theme that the series had going for it, Nanatsu means seven in Japanese.

 

 

That entire `ladybug' conversation gets once again specially dedicated to Duo Maxwell himself, my own personal flyboy and story consultant!!! It's also him who had the honor of naming the two new Gundams. (Except the Strawberry Kisses thing, that was all me!) Thanx flyboy!

~~Jepardy reaches out and affectionately flicks Duo's nose~~

 

 

Actual fact from the series. If you remember right, Gundanium can only be produced in the zero gravity of space. It can't be produced on Earth.

 

 

 

TBC…Please Review…