"Our files have been hacked into."
The room instantly went silent.
"Whoa, way to get our attention, Noin." Duo choked as he recovered from spewing his drink all over his wife. Hilde glared at him and Duo shifted nervously.
"Are you sure?" Heero asked.
"Of course I’m sure! There’s evidence that someone got into the Preventor mainframe. But…we can’t tell if it was from here, or from an outside computer."
"Did they get to anything important?"
"Not that we know of, so far all of our top secret files are safe."
"But if they can get into our computers, how long will it be before they find something important?" Quatre asked.
"Exactly," Noin sighed, "We need to act quickly. Cheryl, how are those Gundams coming along?"
"Well, we’re starting construction tomorrow…"
"Start it today," Noin ordered, "and get someone else to check over the other Gundams as well for any bugs."
"Yes ma’am." Cheryl agreed.
"And where are the kids? I haven’t seen any of them but David all morning. And he’s having a heck of a time trying to get those rookies in shape."
"Do you think we could get the rookies into mobile suit training now?" Trowa wondered, "We may need more soldiers soon than we thought."
"Good idea Trowa, I’ll look into it." She paused, "and he rest of them are going to be in for it when I find them." Noin fumed. She then turned around and stormed out of the room.
"I wonder what’s up with her? She’s been really moody lately." Duo commented.
Hilde glanced over at Relena and smirked. They both had an idea what was going on with Noin. Unfortunately, Duo caught this exchange of looks and jumped out of his chair. "Hey! Hey guys! These two know something we don’t!"
Zechs ignored the commotion and got up to follow his wife.
~
"Noin," Zechs quickly caught up with his wife easily. She was slowing down. "All this stress is getting to you. Maybe you should rest. I’ll go find the kids…"
"Oh no you don’t! You are not going to start treating me like an invalid."
"Noin, you shouldn’t work so hard. Go and relax."
"No way!" Noin shouted. "Those kids are going to get it from me!"
"Noin…" Zechs sighed. He followed as Noin continued down the hall, muttering angrily under her breath.
Those kids didn’t know what they were getting into.
Noin got halfway to the kids’ rooms when she heard shuffling behind her. She stopped and turned around and waited until Helen and someone else she didn’t know came around the corner.
"Helen! Where have you been? It’s already nine in the morning!"
Helen froze and then blushed; "I’m sorry Noin. Jeff and I went out and…"
"Jeff?" She eyed the young black teen suspiciously. "You ditched your duties as a Preventor for a rookie!"
"I didn’t exactly ditch them, what happened was, we went out and then I kinda fell asleep and…" She looked at Zechs for some help. Zechs only shook his head.
"I can’t believe this! Where are the rest of them?"
"Well uh…I haven’t exactly seen anyone yet. We just got back."
Noin growled and headed for the next closest room. "You two had better get ready. You both have work to get done."
Helen and Jeff nodded and gladly disappeared.
Noin opened the door to Jasmines’ room and was in for another surprise.
"Come on Jazz, please?" Seth begged from inside.
"No," Jasmine snapped from the bathroom.
"Jazz, this isn’t funny anymore!"
"I never said it was funny."
Seth’s face darkened and Noin raised her eyebrows. Seth wasn’t really wearing much more than his boxers.
"Jazz! Give me back my uniform!" Seth pounded on the bathroom door.
"Wear something else." Jasmine chuckled. "I can’t! Noin will kill me if she sees me running around out of uniform."
"Too late for that." Noin said dryly.
Seth jumped and stared at Noin for a long time before cursing. He quickly tried to explain. "Noin, I can explain this, I…"
"I don’t think you have to Seth." Noin rubbed her temples, trying to ward off the migraine that was threatening to come.
"Seth…is someone here?" Jasmine asked.
"Just Noin," Seth groaned.
"Noin!" Jasmine pulled the door open and jumped out. But Seth was leaning on the door and he tumbled down to the floor.
"This isn’t what it looks like, Noin." Jasmine assured her. She was wearing her underwear and a small tank top.
"I’m sure it isn’t." Noin grumbled.
"Seth! Get up and get dressed!" Jasmine kicked Seth roughly in the ribs. He moaned and grabbed his uniform from her.
"I can’t believe this." Noin groaned. She left Jasmine’s room for Jason’s.
She turned the knob and opened the door slowly. At first she thought there was no one there. All the lights were out, and any possible source of light had been eliminated.
She eyed the tray of strawberries next to the bed, and then looked at the bed. There was a big lump in it. "Jason?" She called.
The ‘lump’ jumped fell out of bed and there was a flurry of voices. Someone fell to the ground, and there was someone else still in bed.
"What the hell is going on here!" Noin shouted.
"Miss Noin!" The person on the bed gasped. It was Brittney. She stood up and wrapped the sheet tightly around her body. "Wha-What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you guys. I guess I see now why no one showed up for work this morning."
Jason moaned from on the floor and pulled himself up to looked over the edge of the bed. "Did you two…?" Noin started.
"Well uh…" Brittney turned bright red.
Jason cut her off, "Does…"
"STOP! I don’t want to know what counts!" Noin wanted to kill someone. "I can’t believe this. The world is in danger from a psycho, the Preventor files are being hacked into and we’re at the beginning of a major war and the world’s last hope is a bunch of HORNY TEENAGERS!!" She slammed her fist into the wall continuously.
"Noin…" Zechs warned, "Remember, don’t overstress yourself."
Noin finally broke down into tears and fell into her husband’s arms. Brittney and Jason were in shock to say the least. "What’s wrong with her?" Brittney wondered.
Jason just shrugged.
"Don’t worry about her," Zechs sighed. "She’s not feeling well. Just…put some clothes on, please."
"Yes Sir!" Brittney and Jason said as Zechs pulled his sobbing wife out of the room.
"I am in so much shit." Brittney gasped.
"You and me both." Jason agreed. "And you’re father isn’t the perfect soldier."
~~~
"So, how mad do you think Noin will be when she finds out where we’ve been all night?" Indigo giggled as she and Joel walked back towards the Preventor base.
"I don’t know, it’s not like we have anything better to do anyway. She probably never even noticed we were gone."
"Yeah, maybe," Indigo agreed. She munched on a piece of leftover pizza and yawned. "I’m going to sleep as soon as we get back." She said.
"Yeah, me too." Joel agreed. He and Indigo had gone out for pizza and then to a bunch of clubs on the colony. They had been out very late, and then decided to stay for breakfast before they went back to the base. Someone would be suspicious if they saw them heading back at five in the morning.
They saw the entrance that led to the underground part of the colony, which the Preventors used as their base.
"Well, here goes nothing," Joel sighed. "Just hope we don’t get caught."
They opened their door and showed their ID to the guard at the entrance. "Noin’s been looking for you kids." The guard told them as they entered.
"What! She has?"
"Yeah, she’s under a lot of stress though, so you might want to bring her some coffee when you go to see her or something. I ran into her this morning and she was not in a good mood."
"Merci," Indigo gulped. She looked at Joel nervously and they descended down the elevator together.
Nothing could have prepared them for the scene down below.
People were running in every direction, and David was in the gym, screaming something at the rookies. Jason and Brittney dashed passed them as they entered. And Noin’s office was not far away. They could hear her crying.
"Is that…Noin?" Joel wondered, listening more closely to the sobbing noises.
"Please cam down Noin," They heard Zechs say.
"Yep, its Noin."
"Whoa…I’ve never heard her cry before." Joel gulped. "Something big must be going on."
Together, they walked slowly to Noin’s office and knocked softly on the door before Zechs told them to come in.
"Its about time, I hope I can count on you two. A lot’s going on, have you heard?"
"Heard what?"
"Some files in the Preventor mainframe were hacked into."
"What! What kind of files?" Indigo cried.
"Some stuff on our mobiles suits, and the locations of a few Preventor facilities have been compromised."
"Uh oh…if someone got into those files, then…"
"What if they get into something more important. Like information on our Gundams?"
"Exactly."
"What do you need us to do?" Indigo asked.
"You two can go and help out with the mobile suits…"
He was cut of by an explosion that rocked the entire base; the two teens were nearly thrown off their feet.
"Ques que c’est?!" Indy cried as she regained her balance.
"I don’t know," Joel answered.
"Sir!" A Preventor stopped outside the office, looking very flushed.
"What is it, soldier?"
"That woman is on the line. She has a whole fleet of mobile suits with her!"
"What!" Zechs hissed. He got up and ran for the control room, and Indy and Joel took off after him. Noin stopped crying and blinked away the tears as she watched them leave. "Hey! Hold on! Wait for me!" She cried as she ran after them as well.
~
In the control room, Cassius was waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.
"Finally," She groaned as Noin and Zechs ran in. "You’re lucky I’m such a nice person. Otherwise I would have started attacking without informing you of my demands first."
"What do you want?" Heero growled.
"Hey, no need to be rude, Mr. I’m-seriously-allergic-to-combs! I was going to tell you exactly how I hacked into your computer mainframe. But I guess now it’s too late."
Heero glared at her, and Duo started laughing. "You have to admit," Duo chuckled, "She does have a point about your hair."
"Oh, and I guess you’re hair is better?" Cassius snapped.
"Wha…?"
"That’s right, I’m talking to you! If you want to wear that hairstyle for much longer, I suggest you get a sex change." She then decided to turn on the rest of the guys. Trowa was next on her list. "And you…don’t even get me started on you! Mullets were never really in, so what made you think a backwards mullet would be any better?"
"And you…" she looked at Wufei. "You are so hideous…you’re actually kind of cute…" Wufei rose his eyebrows at her.
"Damn, and I was on a roll too." She sighed. "Oh well, back to business. I’m going to attack you now. Oh, and I suggest you evacuate the colony quickly, because in two hours, I’m going to destroy it."
"What!" Noin shrieked. "How could you possibly…"
"Oh, well that’s simple." Cassius chuckled. "You see, since I have associates on this colony, I’ve ordered them to program the colony’s self destruct mechanism. I guess in all the commotion about your stolen files, you never noticed."
Noin grit her teeth in anger as Cassius disappeared. "Everyone who knows how to pilot a mobile suit, get out there!" She screamed. "Send out the mobile dolls. And set off the alarms; evacuate this colony immediately."
"It could be just a bluff." Duo pointed out.
"I don’t care, we don’t want to risk it. And I think we learned last time that this woman doesn’t bluff."
Joel and Indigo looked at each other. "Well, I guess we’re finally back to work." Indy sighed. The couple took off for the hanger where their Gundams were waiting.
~~
Indigo and Joel ran into Helen in the hanger.
"What are the orders, guys?" Helen called. She had only felt the explosion and instantly ran for the Tyrant.
"Cassius is back, she’s going to destroy the colony in two hours!"
Helen’s eye’s widened and she jumped into her mobile suit. "We can’t let that happen. We’ll show this bitch who she’s messing with!’
The others agreed and climbed up into their own Gundams. As they were leaving, Jason and Brittney appeared and David was screaming instructions at the rookies.
Seth and Jasmine were the last to arrive at the hanger.
"Seth Brittney, your mobile suits aren’t completed yet. I want you two to take some Taurus’ and help evacuate the colony!"
"Got it Noin," Seth answered. Brittney said nothing as she ran to another Taurus. In a few minutes, the two siblings were off.
~
The fight outside was intense. Cassius had brought a fair amount of mobile dolls, as well as manned suits with her.
"She’s pretty bold, attacking the Preventor headquarters as her first move!" Helen seethed as she went after a mobile doll with her double scythe.
"Yeah, but she’s not match for us, not here at least." Jasmine answered. "Joel cover me!" She screamed. She moved into a group of mobile suits. In the distance was Cassius’ personal ship.
"We should go for that." Jason suggested.
"Yeah, any ideas on how to get there?"
"Um…divide and conquer?" Jason asked.
"No good, we’re toast if we split up," Jasmine said, eyeing the amount of mobile dolls around them.
"So are you suggesting we go right through?" Indigo asked.
"We don’t have much of a choice." Helen responded. She swiped away a couple of suits.
"Where is David?" Jason groaned. "We sure could use his help."
"He’s probably still dealing with the rookies."
~~
Saber was unusually impressed. He had expected David to crack under the pressure of an attack, but he seemed to be very efficient. His fellow ‘rookie’ Preventors were in total chaos. Only Saber remained calm. He waited to see if David would notice him and give him orders, but the boy was very busy. Saber decided instead to do his own thing.
He turned slowly and walked deeper into the hanger. He saw a nice, shiny new Space Leo and decided to see how well it would perform in a real battle.
~
Their idea to plow right through the enemy’s defense wasn’t working as well as they had hoped; and the kids were in pretty serious trouble.
"All in favor of changing our plan say ‘I’." Jason joked.
"Shut up," Helen hissed. Sweat was pouring down her face and she was having trouble keeping the suits away from the base.
"How much time do we have left?"
"Only an hour," Jasmine gasped. "Hopefully someone will disarm that self-destruct mechanism."
"No good, Noin’s been concentrating on evacuating the colony." Indigo said quickly.
"What! So we’re going to lose out base?"
"Looks like it,"
"Then why are we even bothering to fight?"
"Just to hold them off and aid in the civilians’ escape." Helen told her. "Just keep it up, and try to get to Cassius!" She narrowed her eyes into slits and focused on Cassius’ ship. She remembered what Cassius had done to her family on Earth. In the distance she could see the ruins of her home. That woman had to pay for what she had done. Helen was in a near rage as she dashed at full speed towards the craft. She darted around enemy mobiles and sliced them in half if she couldn’t get around.
"What’s Helen doing?" Joel scoffed.
"She’s going after Cassius!" Jasmine cried.
"What! Why would she do that?"
"Don’t forget how Cassius destroyed her home." Indigo reminded them. "She’s thinking of revenge."
"Someone call her back then!" Joel insisted.
"No Joel," Jason sighed, "She won’t come back. We’re better off just covering her." Jason ran after her, followed by Indigo and Jasmine. Joel sighed and eventually went as well.
~
"All civilians have been evacuated, with fifteen minutes to spare." Brittney wiped the sweat from her forehead.
"Yeah, but now it’s time to save our own hides." Seth said. "We should get off of this place before it blows."
"But…what about the base?"
Forget the base. Everyone else will be OK. We shouldn’t cause any more trouble by getting in the way."
"I guess you’re right," Brittney sighed. "Come on, let’s go."
~
"Helen! This isn’t working!" Jason complained. "We’re not getting any closer to her!"
Helen ignored him as she continued towards Cassius’ ship. But she was getting stuck as well.
Just as Jason was about to retreat, a Space Leo streaked through the crowd of mobile suits and headed straight for Cassius’ ship. They stopped and watched the Leo raise its beam saber high above its head and get ready to strike the ship.
Cassius watched the small suit heading for her at top speed. "What is that pilot thinking? There’s no way he can get through here." She laughed at his pitiful attempt. But, as she studied his movements, she realized he was a great pilot indeed. Even with a powerless Space Leo, he was making good progress.
"What’s up with that suit?" She demanded. "Why aren’t you stopping him?"
"Miss! We can’t! He’s an excellent pilot Ma’am."
"Fine," She snorted, "We’ll evacuate, but that will not spare the colony. Give the order, and let’s get out of here."
"Yes Ma’am." They got onto the escape pod just as the Leo sliced the shuttle in half.
The shuttle exploded and then so did the colony. Helen watched the destruction wide-eyed. "No!" she gasped. "Indy! Did everyone get off safely?"
"Looks like it," Indigo said after a moment. "The other suits are retreating." She breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"So what do we do now?" Jason asked.
"We wait for orders from Noin as to where to go." Helen instructed them. "And you…" She looked over at the Space Leo. "Who are you?"
A face of an Asian boy came up on the screen. His eyes were deep black, and his hair was in a high, short ponytail and it was saved underneath. "My name is Saber Trong," He said, "I am under the instruction of David Winner and Helen Maxwell on the L1 Preventor Headquarters."
"Y-You’re a rookie!" Jasmine gasped. "Well what are you doing in that mobile suit! That is against regulations…"
"Hold on Jasmine," Jason said. "Why are you a rookie! You’re an excellent pilot! You should be in a suit more often."
Saber did not acknowledge his complement.
"Is everyone alright?" Noin’s face suddenly appeared on the screen. She was in a shuttle passing by.
"We’re fine Noin. What are our instructions."
"We head to Earth; to the Preventor base in Zimbabwe. Preparations are already being made for our arrival.
"Yes Ma’am." Helen saluted and connected to the rest of them. "Looks like we’re headed to Earth. See you guys there."
