“So they’ve taken the bait, have they?” Cassius smirked as she watched the Gundams pour from the Preventor hanger.
“I never would have expected it to be this easy. You know what to do, right Brittney?” Cassius looked at the screen displaying Brittney inside her Gundam.
“Yes, Cassy,” The girl answered.
“Good, I’ll have the troops ready to back you up.”
Brittney nodded and disappeared from the screen.
Cassius looked down at the mangled control board in fury. “Even though those brats took the dream inducer, I will still defeat them,” She vowed, “They will not get past this final battle.”
~~~
“Helen, slow down!” Jason begged as he raced after the blue-haired teen. “Think for a second!”
“That’s pretty funny coming from your mouth,” Helen retorted over the Com Link.
“He’s right Helen,” Jasmine joined as she, Joel, Wufei and Carol caught up with her.
“You should think about what you’re doing. It’s most definitely a trap.”
“I don’t care!” Helen seethed, “This is it, guys; the final battle. I can feel it. This will determine the outcome of the war. We don’t have the time to think!”
“The child is right!” Wufei’s angry voice cut into the conversation. “Now is the time to act!”
The others looked concerned, but they knew better than to argue with Wufei or Helen; it would be a losing battle.
”Well, I guess we’re all in agreement, then.” Helen said with a smirk. “Brittney is just ahead. You gonna be OK in a real MS battle, Carol?”
“Don’t worry about me!” Carol chimed, “I’ll be just fine!”
“Good,” Helen leaned forward and pushed down on the controls. The Gundam picked up speed and went crashing towards the Hell’s Angel waiting in the distance.
~~~
“It doesn’t look good.” The head of the team of doctors sighed as he looked down at his patient.
“The damage done to her spine is worse than we had expected.” The nurse cut in.
The team was discussing their patient, and their boss, Major Doctor Sally Chang.
“It’s sad really, she was such a good doctor. Now she’ll never walk again. And practicing medicine…” He trailed off and shook his head sadly.
“Doctors!” A young intern rushed into the room, interrupting their discussion. “You should come quickly, it’s Dr. Chang!”
Immediately expecting the worst, the doctors jumped up and ran for Sally’s room. If anything happened to her, Wufei would have their heads.
“Why couldn’t she have married someone other than a Gundam pilot?!” The head doctor complained. As he reached the room he braced himself for an ordeal.
But something was not right, or rather, not wrong. All of the machines beeped and hummed steadily, indicating that Sally was doing just fine. If anything, her condition was improving.
“Dr. look!” The nurse gasped.
Sally’s eyes were slowly flickering open, and she glanced at them tiredly.
“Hey guys,” She smiled weakly.
“Sally! You’re OK!”
“You’re surprised?” Her voice was very strained, and she was fighting back exhaustion. The head doctor quickly began double-checking her vitals, just to be sure.
“How are you doing, Sally?”
“It’s Doctor Chang to you.” She coughed jokingly, “And I think you would know better than I do. What’s the diagnosis?”
He frowned and told her slowly. She took the news pleasantly well.
“Never…walk…?” Her lip trembled slightly but she held it in. “Well, it won’t keep me from being a doctor.” She vowed. “As soon as I’m better I’ll be back on the job, I promise.”
The other doctor just smiled and nodded weakly. He couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to practice medicine from a wheelchair.
~~~
Brittney was surprised at how quickly the Gundam pilots reacted to her message, but not concerned. She couldn’t wait to get this over with and win the war. She looked out across the vastness around her and saw something moving towards her. As it got closer she saw it was a Gundam. And not just any Gundam either, it was the Tyrant.
“Figures,” Brittney snorted. She adjusted her grip on the controls and prepared for impact.
The Tyrant came crashing forward and slammed into the Hell’s Angel. Dust rose around them in a violent cloud. That was all the others saw when they came over the horizon. When the dust settled they saw that the two were deadlocked.
“You’re not going to get away with this,” Helen hissed.
“Oh, I’m shaking in my boots.” Brittney rolled her eyes. “Please Helen, spare me the lecture. I know you’re here to kill me.”
Helen smirked, “Damn straight I am.”
”Well, I supposed that’s fair, but I’m not going to let you succeed.”
Brittney and her Gundam broke free of the Tyrant and swung at her with her glaive.
Helen quickly blocked it with her scythe.
The others were fast approaching.
“Onna! Where is she?” Wufei was the first to reach them. “Where is that dishonorable little…” Wufei stopped in mid-sentence and swiped at her.
Brittney gasped and jumped away from Helen, narrowly escaping Wufei’s attack.
Jason joined the group next and fired at Brittney, purposefully aiming to only disable the suit. He still couldn’t bring himself to hurt her.
That too, Brittney dodged. She glared at the three Gundams and the other three coming up behind her. She slammed her fist down onto a button on the control board. “Now!” She screamed, “Send them in!”
In an instant, hundreds, probably thousands, of mobile suits emerged from the sand, clouds, and from all around them.
“Damn! How did we miss all those?” Jason cried.
The twins and Carol stopped dead in their tracks. They could see they were blocked form getting to Brittney.
“Looks like we’re going to have to fight our way through. How’s that dream thing coming, guys?” Jasmine asked.
“It may be a while,” Seth admitted over the Link. “You’ll have to hold them off until then.”
“No problem,”
Jasmine lunged at the nearest suit and Carol and Joel followed her lead.
At first the twins were having no problem with the suits, and Carol too, was doing well.
But their sheer number soon overwhelmed them.
The Matatara’s suits were attacking from all angles.
Carol was doing her best in her White Taurus. She swung viciously at the suits. An MS to her right raised its gun and pointed at her. Carol turned quickly and slashed it through the middle. She smiled as it slid apart and exploded. But her triumph was short-lived; her controls beeped a warning at her. A suit was attacking from behind! She spun around but it was too late. There was no time to react. The Matatara suit had its saber raised above its head, less than a second away from attacking.
Maybe I’m not OK on my own, Carol thought sadly, I’m too young to die…what’s that noise? It was her screaming.
Just as the suit was only an inch away from ending her life, another suit came crashing into it: knocking it away from her and destroying it at the same time. Carol blinked a few times, trying to figure out what was going on. She knew that suit, but it couldn’t be… “Joel…?”
“Next time pay attention,” He hissed. And he went back to helping his sister. Carol didn’t even have time to thank him before she was pulled back into the battle.
~~
Brittney was beginning to have some trouble battling the three Gundams. Even though the dolls and other pilots were helping her out, it was obvious she was the only one the Gundams were interested in.
She called Cassius, “I’m bringing them in now.”
“Good, I’ll be waiting.”
Brittney closed the link, swung at the Gundams, causing them to move back a bit, and then took off.
As expected, the three Gundams followed. “Fools,” She chuckled.
In the distance, Cassius had managed to set up a base only a few hundred kilometers from where the Preventors had their headquarters. They were so busy with Sally that they didn’t even notice.
~
“What the hell is that?” Helen asked as Brittney flew into a building on the horizon.
“It would seem that the Matatara has set up a base here without us knowing.” Wufei sneered.
“Fuck!” Jason cursed, “Come on, we can still catch her.”
They followed Brittney into the appropriate hanger of the Matatara base.
They arrived in time to see the door leading from the hanger fall closed.
Wufei was the first out of his suit. He quickly ran into the base after Brittney, leaving the two teens.
“We should follow him,” Helen suggested. She started to go after him but Jason stopped her. “Hold on a second,” He looked around, “Someone’s in here…”
”Huh? What are you talking about, Jason? Are you trying to impress me?”
Jason just glared at her. “I’m sure Brittney’s setting us up. Just trust me for once, OK?”
Helen stared at him for a long time; he looked pretty convinced. Finally, she sighed, “Fine,”
~~~
“Almost done,” David sighed with relief. “All we have to do is crack the pass codes and create a vision for Cassius.”
Indigo and Seth agreed and continued working. ”I wonder what the others are doing?”
~~~
“I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up!” Carol cried. She was bleeding in several places and was far beyond exhausted.
“Just hang in there,” Jasmine encouraged her, “We’ve been through worse.” It was a lie. Even Jasmine doubted their ability to win this one. The Matatara suits just kept coming. It was like there was no end to them.
“We’re never going to make it,” Carol whined.
“Shut up!” Joel hissed, “Don’t talk like that!”
Carol pouted but didn’t say anything more. She just kept fighting. But deep down they all knew what Carol said was true. Unless some kind of miracle happened they were doomed.
As the Matatara suits pressed forward, they forced the Gundams back.
Suddenly, the enemy mobiles were showered with a barrage of bullets.
The young pilots looked around, trying to find the source.
Behind them, hundreds of deep red mobile suits rose up from the horizon.
“What the…?”
Another, bigger suit, that was painted a lighter shade of red stepped forward.
“It looked like you needed some help.” The pilot of the bigger suit said. Carol recognized the voice immediately and she gasped.
The pilot’s face appeared on their screens. “Sorry I’m late,”
“Saber!” Carol cried, “Where’d you go? What are you doing here? What took you so long? Why…” ”I’m sorry,” Saber bowed his head. “I should not have left in the first place. Can you forgive me?”
Carol didn’t know why he was directing his apology at her, but she smiled anyway. “Sure! Now let’s go kick some Matatara butt!” She pumped her hands in the air and then lunged for the nearest suit.
“Someone up there loves us.” Jasmine gawked before she too joined the fight. Finally, they were in the lead again.
~~~
Wufei’s footsteps echoed hollowly behind him as he made his way through the hall. He still had not seen Brittney or Cassius, and he was beginning to get frustrated.
He stepped around another corner and looked around. There was nothing. He groaned; he needed to find that woman and punish her for what she had done to his wife. No one got away with hurting the family of Wufei Chang.
“Well, well, well…I never thought I’d see you again, Fei.”
Wufei nearly jumped and spun around to face her. Cassius stood behind him, smirking. She had a gun held level with his head.
Dammit! How did she sneak up on me like that? Wufei cursed himself. Suddenly it seemed like he was in over his head.
~~~
“Done!” Seth cheered. “Come on Indy, your turn!” Indigo nodded and stepped up to the machine and started tapping.
“David, give me a hand.” She ordered. As she typed, she smirked. “In a few minutes, Cassius will be even more disturbed than she already is.”
~~~
Helen and Jason were searching the hanger for Brittney. They had split up to look for her.
Helen rounded the Gundams while Jason checked out the Matatara mobile dolls.
He glanced up and down, holding his gun ready. As he stepped onto the catwalk, he thought he heard something. He spun around and looked, “Helen…?” There was no answer from the blue-haired teen. His eyebrows drew together in a glare, “Brittney…?”
”Why’d you do it, Jason?” Brittney’s distinct voice echoed through the hanger, making it impossible to tell where it was coming from.
”Do what?” He asked, still searching for her.
“You know…” He heard her clearly this time. He looked up and saw her standing on the shoulder of a mobile suit.
“Why didn’t you choose me…?”
“That’s just the way it happened Brittney!” Jason cried.
Brittney glared at him and jumped down from the mobile suit, landing right in front of him.
“You made a huge mistake. Helen is a bitch, you…”
“SHUT UP!” Jason snapped, “You have no right to talk about her like that!”
Brittney’s eyes shone with fury. He had never expected her to react so violently.
Brittney was mad with rage when she knocked the gun from his hand and grabbed him around the neck. Jason choked for air; her grip was strong.
“Helen…” He choked, “HELEN!”
Brittney tightened her grip even more and pushed him up against the rail of the catwalk.
Helen heard the noise and decided to investigate. She made her way back to where Jason had been looking. She gasped when she turned a corner and saw what was happening.
“Jason!” She started to run.
Brittney let go of his throat and punched him in the face a few times.
Helen ran faster.
Brittney was attacking him viciously, until finally, he started to topple backwards.
“No!” Helen tried to grab him but she didn’t make it in time. She grabbed at his hand but it slipped out of her reach. Jason fell backwards off the three story high catwalk and landed with a sickening ‘smack’ on the cement floor below.
“JASON!”
