Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman Fan Fiction ❯ Friendly Fire ❯ One-Shot

All the Gatchaman stuffs belong to Tatsunoko

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Friendly Fire - A Gatchaman fanfic by Yuki W.

The setting sun painted the sky a lovely crimson as early evening stars started showing up on this Valentine's Day Eve.

Silhouetted against the sunset, sitting on the hillside overlooking the Red Rangers camp on UtoBeach Island were a young couple. The guy was Sergeant Colin McGill of the Rangers Team 23, codenamed Blue Fire. The girl was his fiancee, Natalie, a lovely young teacher from his hometown.

It was the last hour in his final duty shift before their wedding, scheduled for the next day. Natalie had arrived early to pick him up and his lieutenant, seeing that it was quiet, had let him slipped off to keep her company.

"Are you nervous, Colin?" Natalie asked, as she gently caressed his soft, wavy, brown locks, while he laid resting his head on her lap.

He looked up at her with his clear blue eyes and smiled, lifting his calloused fingers to trace her lips. "A bit. It's so funny, my love. I could face the enemy fighters up there and laugh in the face of death without being the least bit nervous. But I am actually antsy facing my own wedding." he replied.

Natalie smiled down at him gently, her soft blonde curls floating round her small oval face in the soft evening breeze. "Me too, my love. I haven't been able to sleep all night last night. I must have been too excited and I am so afraid that something bad might happen that would put off our wedding." she said.

With a short brisk laugh, he sat up and drew her into his chest, cuddling her. He reached down and gently kissed her sweet lips of wine. "Don't be silly, my love. Everything's gonna be alright. And by this time tomorrow, we'd be man and wife. Isn't it just amazing?" he asked.

Natalie smiled back at him, her soft gray eyes twinkling in the rays of the setting sun. "Definitely my love. I have been waiting for that all my life. You won't know how happy I was when you asked me to marry you." she replied.

"So have I." He reached down and took her hands up to his lips and gently kissed the ring and then her fingers. She softly giggled.

Without any prior warning, the loud scream of the siren cut through the air, making them jump, killing any traces of romance left on the hillside. Colin shook his head and quickly leapt to his feet, "Damnit! Just couldn't believe that I still have to head up there before our wedding."

From the horizon, two black spots were quickly approaching. The blue and red of the Phoenix could be seen enlarging by the second, leaving a trail of smoke behind from it's tail. Not far behind it, in hot pursuit was an enemy mecha in the form of a giant bat. The announcers on the base started blaring, "Team 23 assemble!"

Colin quickly gave her a kiss and whispered to her, "Wait for me Natalie, I will be back soon. I love you, darling!" He ran towards the base, turning back to wave at her one last time before disappearing down the slope.

"I love you too, Colin" Natalie yelled after him.

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"Blue Fire, the Phoenix is having trouble.. I am going in from 1 o'clock, you take 11. We try to get that ugly bat off the tail of Big Bird." came the voice of his commander through the communication link.

"Roger, Iceman." Colin replied. He quickly swerved his jet into position and went in for attack, sending trails of bullet holes into the hull of the enemy mecha. Iceman gave him a thumbs-up as their jets passed one another above the enemy mecha and he returned one. They turned their jets around and found the mecha still hot in pursuit of the Phoenix which seemed to be having some problem with one of it's engines.

"Looks like we need another round, Iceman."

"Definitely, Blue Fire. Let's have another round."

They brought their jets into position and were in middle of the attack when communications from the Phoenix came through, "Rangers, get out of the way. We are about to fire here."

"Shit!" Colin glanced behind to find that the Phoenix had turned around and was readying its missile bay.

"Get out, Iceman. They mean business." Colin started pulling out of the way when one of his engines died.

"Damn it, one of my engines died."

"Get out of their way, Blue Fire."

"I am trying to. I should be out of their direct line of fire."

A bird missile swerved past the ranger's jets.

"Damn, do they have to be so impatient?" Colin swore under his breath.

"I bet it's the Condor on the button." His teammate laughed. "Oh gosh! They are going Firebird mode. Get out of the way, Blue Fire."

"Roger."

The observers on the ground watched as the Red Rangers' jets scrambled to clear out of the area, as the Firebird hit the enemy mecha in the middle, leaving a huge charred hole behind. Explosions erupted everywhere on the bat and soon, it went up in a huge orange ball of flames.

It was then when it became obvious that one of the Ranger's jets had not been able to clear out in time. The observers watched in horror as a big piece of debris hit the jet and sent it spiraling down to the ocean below.

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"And that was the end of my story." The young man in Red Ranger uniform, who was sitting in the dark at the corner booth, said quietly.

A short period of silence entailed, then the other patrons of Snack J started bursting out with tons of questions.

"Was it Colin's jet?"

"Was the pilot hurt?"

"Did they married the next day on time?"

"Was anybody in the KNT hurt?"

The young man smiled softly and ran his calloused fingers through his wavy brown hair. He downed his bourbon and stood up to go.

"Ready to go, Colin? We are going to be late for Aunt Gertie's Valentine's Day Party." A sweet crystal clear voice rang up in the other side of the bar.

"Coming Nat," replied the young man. "Just let me pass the relics along and then we can go."

The young man walked casually towards Ken and Joe who had been sitting in their regular booth listening to the entries in the Valentine's Day Story-Telling Competition. They looked up as the young man came over to them. The young man held out his hand to Ken. Ken frowned, but seeing the friendly look on the Ranger's face, inhaled deeply and held his palm out. The young man gave him a wink and dropped two small metal subjects onto Ken's palm.

"For you as a token." He said, then went over to wrap his arm round his companion's trim waist and walked towards the back of the bar with her.

Ken watched them walk away with his head tilted in askance. He then opened his palm and looked over the content with Joe. They frowned and then exchanged glances. One of them seemed to be a small black piece of shrapnel from some sort of mecha while the other one was one of those dog-tags worn by air-force pilots. Scripted on the tag was :

Blue Fire . Red Rangers Team 23

Ken gasped and they both looked towards the direction to which the couple had gone in. They were waving at Ken and Joe, so Ken smiled back at them.

However, his smile did not last too long.

It faded as he watched them vanishing into the wall..

*** The End ***