Helen was standing in the middle of her kitchen, watching her mom baking, her little sister playing on the floor, and her father doing work at the table. Funny, she thought they had all been killed. She didn’t care; all she cared was that they were back together. She moved to help her mother with the cooking, when there was a sudden rumbling sound.
Helen looked out the window with her mom and saw three missiles heading their way. She gasped and her mom screamed. Erin looked up and ran to the window as well. Ann clutched Erin tightly against her and watched in horror as the missiles got closer. Rob was horrified also, and the pen he was chewing on fell out of his mouth.
"They’re heading straight for us." Ann gasped. "They were…meant for us."
Helen didn’t know how she knew this, but it terrified her. Her mother would be so upset, knowing that she was the cause of the death of thousands of people.
"It’s not you mom," Helen insisted, "It was me! It was my fault!" But Ann wasn’t listening to her, she was watching as the weapon filled the whole of the window. The impact, not the following explosion, was what killed her family.
Helen watched in horror as he adoptive mother was thrown off her feet and across the house, along with the debris from the walls. Erin was lost underneath the missile when it hit. Her father…oh god…her father was literally blown apart from the force of the impact. Helen screamed and covered her face. She didn’t want to see anymore. Dirt, debris, ruins flew at extreme force and pelted her body. But she was not dying. She wanted to die. She had to die along with her family.
It was after that that the missiles exploded, sending a wall of fire across the city of Toronto. It was like a wave, and Helen could feel the terrible heat on every inch of her body…it was so painful, a scream escaped her throat before it finally ended.
Helen gasped and bolted upright in her bed. She was sweating all over, and her breath was gone. She could still feel the burning sensation on her arms and legs.
"Helen! Helen what’s wrong?" Indigo was shaking her.
Helen wiped the sweat-drenched hair from her face and looked at her friend. Jasmine was also looking over her bunk, and she could see Brittney sitting up from across the room.
"I…I don’t know." Helen panted, "I had this dream…I was…with my parents when they…were…when they were killed." She looked down at her blankets. "I’m sorry I woke you guys up."
"Oh Helen," Jasmine gasped "You should have heard yourself! It scared the shit out of us!"
"Just like you did this afternoon." Helen chuckled.
Jasmine smirked. "You gonna be able to sleep?"
"Yeah," Helen nodded. She lay back down and her friends returned to their own bunks. Helen shuddered and tried to wipe the images from her mind. She couldn’t sleep that night, not at all.
~~~
"Good news everyone!" Cheryl exclaimed happily as she entered the conference room the next morning. Everyone had been gathered there for a meeting about their attack.
"What is it, mom?" Brittney asked.
"The new Gundams will be complete very soon. Within the next week."
"Wonderful," Noin sighed with relief. "Then we can include Brittney and Seth in our next attack. That will be good. Thank you Cheryl."
"No problem,"
"Now, let’s get down to business. Cassius is moving a lot faster than we expected. And some people haven’t been paying a lot of attention to what’s happening."
Jason swore she was looking right at him, of course, she could have meant Seth who was sitting right next to him. Jason gulped and shifted in his seat. Heero raised his eyebrows at his son, but didn’t say anything.
"We know that Cassius had a base not far from Moscow. It’s vital to her mobile suit manufacturing. It will be a good first target. It’s nothing really special, but there will be a good deal of resistance. I suggest you fit mobile suit practices into your training schedules, that is, if any of you plan to stop acting like sex-deprived teenagers and start being more responsible."
No one was spared from Noin’s wrath. Except for maybe David; he only spent every spare moment on the phone with Alexis. And soon their parents would learn of what the kids had been doing in their spare time.
As the meeting was closed, everyone had something separate on their minds.
David was itching to run to the telephone, while Helen wondered how she could continue training rookies, more specifically Jeff and even Saber. She knew for sure that Saber didn’t need to be in a rookie class. She would put in a request for him to be moved up in ranks to Noin. Although, stealing a mobile suit the way he had would not be overlooked.
The rest of them were just concerned about what Noin would say to their parents about their activities just before the base was destroyed.
~~
As Noin left the room, Hilde, Dorothy and Relena caught up with her.
"Miss Noin, you’ve been acting rather tired lately." Dorothy commented. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Oh no, not you too," Noin rolled her eyes. "Listen guys, I’ve just been under a lot of stress lately, that’s all!"
"Are you sure?" Relena asked with a false note of concern in her voice.
"I’m positive." Noin groaned. "Zechs already been treating me like a child for nearly a month now. I don’t need it from you too."
"Something’s going on Noin, and we’re not going to leave you along until you tell us what’s happening."
Noin grit her teeth as she marched into ‘her’ office. The other three women began to talk to her at once, and they started fawning over her, like she was sick.
"Listen guys, Zechs has been bothering me about this all month!" She screamed. "Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I’m incompetent!"
The chattering stopped at the women all started at her.
"Oops, I wasn’t supposed to tell you that."
Relena squealed with delight. "I’m going to be an Aunt! This is so great Noin! When did you find out?"
"Last month,"
"Why didn’t you tell us? We all told you right away."
"That was just to get out of work." Noin hissed. "And we were going to wait until the last minute to tell you guys because we knew you were going to react like this."
"Like what?" Relena wondered.
"Like this" Noin seethed. She threw her arms up into the air in exasperation and sat down at her desk. "Don’t tell the guys, please. I’ll do it myself."
"When?" Hilde asked.
"Later! Now get out!"
They all sighed and nodded as they filed out. All but Dorothy of course, she smirked at Noin for a moment, "Congratulations Miss Noin," She curtsied and then left. Noin sighed, she never could figure out that woman.
"Well," She said to herself, "Now that they know, I guess I’ll have to make the announcement. Otherwise it will be all over the base in a matter of days." She was not going to enjoy that, but it had to be done. "Oh well…my secret’s out."
~~~
"Was it just me, or was Noin talking directly to us in there?" Jason asked.
"I don’t think it was just us," Brittney replied, "It looked like everyone else was just as uncomfortable."
"Wow, maybe there was a full moon that day," Jason said, scratching his chin. Brittney rolled her eyes and continued on her way.
"Hey Brit! Where are you going?" Jason called after her.
"To get some training done. I need to brush up on my computer skills if I’m going to pilot a Gundam. Care to join me?"
Jason grinned and ran after her. "You really should have an expert with you to help you out." He explained. Brittney laughed and headed for the ZERO simulator. "I hope I get to pilot soon."
~~~
"You want me to do what?" Noin gawked at Helen.
"I want you do move Saber Trong out of training up to a pilot level position in the Preventors." Helen repeated.
"Why would I want to move a rookie up to pilot status?"
"Were you even watching that last fight?" Helen sighed.
"Well ‘m sorry, I was a little preoccupied."
"Saber is probably the reason weren’t slaughtered. "He’s an excellent pilot and I think he should be moved up."
"Wait a minute, how did a rookie get a mobile suit."
"Well, I guess he took it without permission…"
"Meaning he stole it," Noin snapped.
"Well…I guess if you want to put it that way…" Helen quickly continued. "But you should be glad he did. He obviously has previous experience with mobile suits, and he’s a very good student. Besides, who are we to turn away a good thing when it comes along?"
Noin sighed. "Alright Helen, I trust your judgement. I’ll give him the exam and if he passes I’ll move him up. That is, after I deal with the fact that he ‘borrowed’ one of our suits without permission."
Helen smiled, "Thank you Noin,"
~
Helen’s first order of business after her meeting with Noin was to go talk to Saber. She found him with the rest of the rookies, just as David was getting them ready for training in a new location.
"Helen!" He gasped with relief. "I’m so glad you’re back."
"Yeah sure, Dave. I need to speak with Saber for a minute."
"Um, well OK." David said uncertainly, "But then will you come back?"
Helen laughed, "Yeah sure Dave."
He smiled and went back to his work. Saber had heard Helen speaking about him and stepped up to her. The rest of the rookies were quiet as they strained their ears to hear what Helen was about to say.
"Aren’t you supposed to be training?" Helen snapped at them. Immediately, they went back to work. Helen was glad she hadn’t lost her control over them.
"You wanted to see me, Instructor Helen?" saber said. Helen couldn’t help but notice the sarcastic edge in his voice. She ignored it.
"You should be thanking me, Saber." Helen said impishly. "Noin has agreed to let you take the final exam early so you can be moved up to pilot status. That is, if you’re interested. Saber couldn’t help but smirk inwardly. "Thank you, Instructor Helen." He said simply. "I appreciate it."
Helen hardly believed it, but it would be good to have a skilled pilot working with them. "No problem," She answered dryly. She walked back over to David to give him the help he needed.
~~~
"Ta da!" Cheryl grinned as she unveiled the two newest Gundams. "I give you, the Gundams Hell’s Angel, and Hell Razor!" She grinned broadly.
"Cool!" Brittney squealed. "Which one is mine, mom?"
"The Hell’s Angel." Cheryl smiled. Brittney grinned as she looked up at her new Gundam. It was dark black with purple accents and huge dark black wings. And for some reason, it had a skirt-like thing around its waist. It held a glath as its weapon.
Seth’s Gundam, the Hell Razor, looked something like the Nataku, only it was dark purple, and it almost looked black. Instead of a triton it was holding a huge sword and a gun on its back.
"Why don’t you two go try them out? They haven’t been on a performance test outside yet anyway."
"Yeah!" Brittney cheered and hopped up inside her Gundam. She ran her hands over the controls and could barely contain her excitement. She was the first out of the hanger and immediately started trying out all her weapons and skills.
"Thanks mom! This is so great!"
Seth came out after her, just as excited. "Whoa," He gasped, "Now I realize why the Gundams are such awesome suits. These are amazing!"
"I’m glad you like them guys, but remember, all the bugs haven’t been worked out. If you find anything at all, tell me right away so I can fix it. We don’t want something small developing into a major problem, no do we."
"Got it mom, don’t worry, we’ll try out everything."
Inside, Midii smirked at her friends. "They’re pretty excited, aren’t they?"
"Like kids in a candy store," Noin replied as she rolled her eyes. "We might as well let them goof around for a bit. They deserve to play with their new toys."
"Yeah," Midii agreed. "They’re good kids. Let’s go,"
~~~
"Helen! I was hoping to see you before you disappeared."
Helen turned around slowly to face the owner of the voice. "Jeff, what do you want?"
"Just to talk," He shrugged. He fell into step beside her. "Listen, Helen, about that last night on the base, I…"
"I don’t want to talk about it, Jeff." Helen snapped. He was taken aback by her harsh tone.
"But Helen…" He paused and tried to figure out how to work his sentence.
"I was in a bad mood that day, Jeff." Helen sighed, "I’ll admit it, I was feeling vulnerable and you just happened to be there. Please don’t think anything of it."
Jeff stopped as she continued walking.
"I was hoping it could be more!" He called after her. Helen almost tripped over her own feet as he said it, but managed to keep her balance until she disappeared around the corner. She had to be on time for Saber’s exam.
His words echoed through her head and sent butterflies fluttering in her stomach. Why was she reacting this way to some poor rookie with a crush? She shook down her feelings and continued down the dark hall to the gym, where Saber would be waiting for her.
~~
Saber tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Helen to show up. She wasn’t normally this late. He glared at the door until, miraculously, it opened and Helen stepped in.
"Sorry I’m late," she apologized, but offered no explanation. "Let’s begin," And get this over with. She added silently to herself. She gave Saber some final instructions and eased down into a chair to watch. As Saber ran the tests, her mind was elsewhere. But it didn’t matter. She knew Saber would be brought up to a higher position in the Preventors, and they would have one more great pilot, and one less annoying rookie to look after. She tried to pay attention and take notes, but she just couldn’t. What was wrong with her?
~~
Only Jason remained behind as the others left the hanger to wait for Brittney to finish goofing around with her new mobile suit. When she finally came back with her brother, she was very excited.
"Hey! Brittney!" Jason waved to her.
"Jason? Have you been waiting here this whole time?"
"Pretty much," Jason shrugged. Seth snorted at him, but left reluctantly when Brittney shoed him away.
"You didn’t have to, you know." She said as she approached him.
"I know, but I wanted t watch you. Besides, I needed to be here when you finished."
"Oh? And why is that?" Brittney rose her eyebrow at him.
"Because we need to celebrate. You’re first mission with the Preventors, and a new Gundam! I’d say that’s worth a celebration, don’t you?"
Brittney laughed. "I suppose so. What do you have in mind?"
"Well…" Jason pretended to think for a moment. "This for starters." He closed in on her and swung his hands around her waist. Pushing her back against the wall, his mouth captured hers and he eagerly began to explore her soft mouth. Brittney moaned and tentatively returned his kiss.
Jason pulled back and grinned.
"That’s not all is it?" Brittney pouted.
"Of course not," Jason chuckled. Brittney smiled and kissed him again, this time with more passion. Jason laughed and started to push her down towards a private, empty room near the edge of the hanger. He shut the door with his foot and dropped her down on the couch.
"Is this a good enough celebration for you?"
Brittney didn’t answer; she was to busy covering his neck with kisses. Jason decided it was better than an answer and placed a long trail of butterfly kisses along her neck. Brittney moaned and gave into him completely. She couldn’t possibly think of a better way to spend her evening.
He was just lifting up the fabric of her shirt and placing soft kisses along her slender stomach, using his fingers to unclip her bra, when the impossible happened. The door flung open and the light switched on. Jason jumped and fell off of Brittney and onto the floor. Brittney quickly yanked her shirt down and stared at the man in the doorway. It was Heero Yuy.
She tried to fix her bran underneath her shirt and kept her head ducked in embarrassment. And to add to her discomfort, Cheryl came up behind him. "I left them in here, Heero, I…" She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw her daughter and Jason Yuy. It didn’t take her long to figure out what was going on.
"Brittney! What is the meaning of this!" She gasped.
"Um…I can…explain…?" Brittney said uncertainly.
"You’d better!" Cheryl hissed.
Heero just kept glaring at his son.
"Dad…this is almost not what it looks like…"
~
"But we didn’t do anything!" Jason whined as his father dragged him down the halls. Behind them, he could hear Cheryl screaming at Brittney.
"You were about to." Heero hissed.
"Well…maybe, but nothing happened!" Jason insisted. "I swear…"
"Shut up,"
Jason closed his mouth and tried not to think about what his parents were going to do to them. Whatever his dad had planned, it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
~
"Irresponsible, disobedient, immature, little… Cheryl wanted t say more. He had been spewing names at her daughter for ten minutes already, and Brittney just sat and listened to them all.
"I’m sixteen, mom," Brittney reminded her. "And I’m much more mature that most kids my age. I knew exactly what I was doing."
"No you didn’t! You realize that he…"
"Mom," Brittney sighed her mother started freaking out again. "Mom…MOM!"
"Please calm down. You know I would never…"
"Don’t give me that! You…you…" Her mothers face went red as she tried to think of a suitable punishment for her. "You are not seeing him, at all, unless it’s absolutely necessary."
"But…the missions not for another week!" Brittney protested.
"I don’t care, you’re under complete house arrest until then, and then again afterwards. And when you’re there, I’m going to have someone keep an eye on you!"
"That’s not fair!"
"It’s plenty fair." Cheryl hissed. "No go to the girls dorm before I come up with something worse."
Brittney pouted and tried the puppy dog look on her mother. It didn’t work, so she dropped her head and headed for her room. She climbed up onto her bed and sighed. "Well, she took that well…"
~~
Jasmine and Seth heard all the racket Cheryl was making from another room close-by. The young couple had snuck into an empty dorm room and locked the door.
"The same thing we’re doing?" Seth suggested.
"Not quite, but I bet they got close." Jasmine chuckled.
"Hm," Seth rose his head up and smiled at her. "You should take your clothes off more often." Jasmine rolled her eyes.
"I mean it! You look so much better." He said as he buried his face in her neck. Jasmine giggled and tilted her head to give him greater access. They went back to their own business.
~
Seth carefully slipped out of the bed they had ‘borrowed’ and gathered his clothes, Jasmine moaned and felt around the bed, and opened her eyes slowly upon discovering that Seth was not there.
"Seth? Are you leaving me?" She pouted.
"The rookies will be finished training soon." He explained. "We should really get out of here."
"Oh, right." She yawned. "Too bad, I was having a nice nap." She stretched and stared at the bed.
"Maybe we should change the sheets…" She suggested and made a face.
Seth laughed, "Don’t bother, the laundry people will be down here soon."
"Are you sire, I…"
There was a soft knock on the door and she froze.
"Laundry," The person called. Seth resisted the urge to laugh, and Jasmine paled, since she still didn’t have any clothes on.
"Um, yeah, just a minute!" She called.
On the other side of the door, the confused woman looked over at the sign that read ‘boys’ dorms’ and shook her head.
In a few minutes the door swung open and Seth let the woman in, Jasmine was in the bathroom changing.
Even more confused, the woman sighed and gathered the sheets quickly and threw them into the bin. The Preventors were all too strange for her. Muttering to herself, the woman left.
After a few minutes Seth gave Jasmine the ‘all-clear’. She came out, fully dressed and made sure there was no one else in the room. "Maybe we should get out of here." She said. She grabbed Seth’s hand and pulled him towards the door. But as she opened it, she heard the voices of the rookies coming down the hall. She slammed the door shut and thought.
"The rookies?" Seth wondered.
"Shit," He cursed; he hurried to lock the door.
"No, leave it unlocked!" Jasmine cried.
"Why?"
"Just trust me," She hissed. She went to the middle of the room and pretended to be studying something.
"Hey! What are you doing in here!" One guy cried as he entered the room. He was rather shocked to see a beautiful girl standing in the middle of his dorm room, and so were his roommates. Jasmine thought fast, "What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" She snapped.
"This is my room," He answered.
"Didn’t anyone inform you?"
"No…inform us of what?"
Jasmine sighed and pretended to be annoyed. "This area has been sealed off until we’re finished, we’ve been asked to inspect the rooms for signs of asbestos."
"Asbestos?"
"Yes, its been known to be hazardous to your health. So far we’ve found nothing, but you should stay out until we’re done."
"O…OK…" He stuttered. Jasmine nodded and watched them leave.
"How on Earth did you do that?" Seth asked with admiration in his voice. Jasmine only shrugged. They waited a few more minutes before they left.
"Hey!" One of the boys called after her.
"Can we go in yet?"
Jasmine nodded, "Yeah, all clear." She grabbed Seth’s hand and they ran.
"Hold on a second," One boy said to his friends once the couple was gone.
"What?"
"Isn’t asbestos usually found in insulation?"
"Yeah…so?"
"So then they would have to rip out the walls to check it. Or at least open up the ceiling." He scratched his chin and got lost in thought. The others ignored him.
"Can’t you guess what they were doing in there?" Jeff laughed as he stepped up behind them. He had been listening to them from his room next door.
"What?"
"That’s Jasmine Chang and Seth Hamilton! Two of the Gundam pilots, and also a very serious couple."
"A…couple…?"
"Aw! You mean that guy was her boyfriend!" One of them said in disappointment. So she’s not free?"
"Nope," Jeff laughed.
"But wait, if they were dating, and alone in a dorm room then…" He paled.
Jeff laughed at his face; he had figured it out.
"So…who’s bed did they use?"
~~~
The eight Gundams were all lined up and waiting to leave the base. Jason was humming the funeral march quietly to himself.
Helen was about to go crazy, and she slammed her fist on the button of the Com Link and screamed, "Jason! If you don’t knock it off right now I’m going to cut your tongue out in drop it in the mystery meat in the cafeteria!"
Jason gulped and stopped humming. Brittney rolled her eyes and tapped her fingers impatiently as she waited for the last of the preparations to be made. The hanger doors opened slowly and a whirlwind of dust entered.
"Oh great," Jasmine groaned, "A sandstorm."
"We’re still going." Helen hissed, "we’ll just have to use our other equipment to navigate, other than visuals. This will be a good test for you two, Seth, Brittney."
They agreed as they took off from the hanger and through the storm. It was a good thing the base they were attacking was in the jungle, and not the desert. Sa the storm wore on, the kids slowly left it, and climbed over the mountains to where the jungle lay, on the other side.
"We’re getting close," David whispered. "Be careful from now on. Use any stealth equipment you have."
"Got it," Brittney answered. But she was the only one.
They made their way through the forest carefully, trying not to attract attention before they arrived.
After only an hour, they got a bit more nervous about their first mission in over a year. The forest had suddenly became very quiet, and something appeared through the trees in the distance. "There it is," Jasmine whispered.
