Episode 1: The Meteor the Boy Saw

“Lt. Noin a report just came in regarding some falling meteors,” a brown haired pilot informed the dark haired, and silver masked, woman sitting behind him in the shuttle.

“Ah,” the silver masked woman nodded looking over the report. “The crew on the satellite must be blind. If they’re meteors why are they approaching on a re-entry angle? It must be the Operation Meteor headquarters warned us about. How many are on our radar?”

“Just one landing in East Eurasia,” the brown haired man replied as he looked back trying to take in as much of the masked woman’s face as possible.

“That should be enough. There’s no reason for us to be overworked for meaningless honor,” Noin responded a small sardonic grin on her face.

“That’s a very dangerous statement, sir,” the man said neutrally, noting to himself that the woman behind him was in no way a ‘sir’.

“As I’ve said before… I’m only a soldier,” she replied, tapping the report on her leg as the craft maneuvered to intercept the meteor.

As the sun peeked over the blue earth a birdlike shuttle made the final approach to the planet. Inside sat a figure in an orange-brown space suit, strapped in place, and delicately piloting the craft.

“On schedule, eight minutes to re-entry,” a low-pitched feminine voice said from inside a space suit as a panel near her head beeped displaying a shuttle. “Commercial shuttle…?”

Inside the white walled shuttle sat dark bearded man and his son.

Across the intercom crackled the stewardess voice, “Mr. Yuy. The shuttle will re-enter the atmosphere soon. Please remain seated and buckle your seatbelt.”

“What’s wrong, Heero?” Mr. Yuy asked turning to his son, a boy with dark brown, ruffled, hair and piercing cobalt eyes. “Don’t you want to go back to earth?”

“No, I don’t,” Heero replied, turning away from the window with a deep frown chiseled across his features. He truly hated the trips back and forth from the colonies; but staying with his mother on earth usually proved more painful. Since she insisted on turning him into a gentleman.

“I feel bad about taking you from place to place; but it is my job,” Mr. Yuy tried to explain to his son though he knew it was pointless.

“Dad, please make the stay longer next time. Or let me stay there alone,” Heero snapped slightly annoyed as his father turned away, to look out the window on the other side of the shuttle. “What is it, Dad?”

The screen blinked blue and white, showing the shuttle’s trajectory and speed.

“Target’s relative speed: 01545,” the low voice uttered, a gun appeared on the nose of the craft as the pilot manipulated the controls. “Auto lock: on. Any obstacles must be shot down.”

The panel to her right beeped and blinked a bright red, demanding attention.

“Patrol craft,” she near snarled as the craft invaded her scope.

Inside the patrol craft the silver masked Noin sat back as her pilots took the craft closer to the supposed meteor.

“We got it,” the pilot, with dark curly hair and bony features, announced. “I’ll put it on the monitor.”

“Just as I thought,” Noin said, tilting her head down in thought. “That is the carrier for the weapon which might cause us a lot of trouble in the future.”

“Hmph, Operation M?” the brown haired pilot mused.

“There’s a commercial shuttle in front of it,” Noin frowned slightly. “I guess we’ll let the fighter go for now.”

“Do you think it’ll shoot down the shuttle?” the brown haired pilot asked worriedly.

“That fighter must know we’re behind it. I doubt it’ll attack the shuttle,” Noin replied with a slight grin on her face. “This is, after all, a secret mission for them.”

“Damn, the Federation’s here,” the suited pilot said to herself as she narrowed her eyes. “No choice then.” With that she maneuvered the controls to take her in at an angle that should have burned up anything entering the atmosphere.

“This is it,” she whispered softly to herself as she closed her eyes, noting as she did that the patrol craft was following her. “This is the earth.”

Reopening her eyes she tapped the buttons to her left, keying the thruster to full and sending her careening at unbelievable speed to the planet below.

“The fighter has changed its course,” the curly haired pilot noted out loud.

“That’s suicidal!” Noin remarked, eyes widening a bit behind her mask before they narrowed again in thought.

“Trying to burn itself up so they can keep their secret; maybe that’s it,” the brown haired pilot suggested as he made sure they were not doing the same.

“But it’s accelerating it’s speed,” the curly haired one replied. “I think it’s trying to get away from us.”

“Impossible,” the brown haired pilot disagreed, turning to search what he could see of Noin’s face to make sure his next statement was true. “No spacecraft could endure the heat of re-entry at that speed.”

“No, it could,” Noin disagreed, her eyes trained past the pilot to the speeding object ahead. “It looks like our enemy possesses some advanced technology.”

As the commercial shuttle carefully re-entered the atmosphere, rolling ever so slightly so not to go out of control, a bored Heero rolled down the shade of his window. “That thing’s re-entering the atmosphere too,” he noted with some curiosity, as the object seemed red from the re-entry burn.

“Operation Meteor…?” his father said with reverence.

Heero turned at the odd sound in his dad’s voice. “Eh?” he queried.

As the outside of the craft burned red the pilot felt her shoulders being pushed back against the seat. Pushing the slight discomfort from her mind she began to push the buttons to release the outer shell of her ship.

With a resounding crack, in which she was sure something important broke, the outer shell flashed along concealed lines and broke off; burning away in the atmosphere. As it did the wings of her inner craft unfolded and she continued her breakneck pace toward earth.

The monitors let out a small pained squeak as they analyzed the object’s new configuration.

“Lt. Noin, is this…?” the brown haired pilot gasped as he pushed back in his seat and re-read the schematics as they showed the approximate geometry of the object. “So this is the secret weapon of the colonies.”

“It looks like a bird,” the curly haired pilot commented.

Remembering his piloting duties the brown haired pilot notified Noin that they were reaching the aerodynamic cruising altitude. “We can attack the fighter now,” he said as he lowered the shields used to protect them from burning up in re-entry.

“Okay,” the curly haired pilot nodded, activating the weapon systems. “We can fire a warning shot.”

“No,” Noin stated as she rose to her feet, her mind analyzing the fighter’s actions thus far. “It won’t listen to a warning. Just shoot it down!”

“Are you sure?” the curly haired man asked, a bit shocked at Noin’s sudden overreaction.

“At first I thought it was smuggling a weapon onto earth,” she replied more to herself than the two men, “but it looks like it is the secret weapon.”

With a slight nod the curly haired pilot began to fire on the fighter, which easily avoided the barrage with simple maneuvers.

Inside the fighter the pilot sturdied the craft and looked back at the craft firing upon her.

“I can run away from you,” she informed it solemnly as the console beeped with new information. “It’s a carrier also? It must be carrying at least three mobile suits. It’s changing speed to intercept me.”

With a frown and grim determination she kicked in the boosters and flipped the ship around in a tight turn.

“Change in orders are required,” she informed the communication link, and with grim determination added, “I’m shooting down that ship.”

With that she accelerated toward it.

“The enemy fighter reversed it’s course and is coming this way,” the curly haired pilot said in shock as he double checked the information he just read.

“Is the Leo repaired?” Noin asked keying open the door and turning to wait for an answer.

“Yes,” the brown haired pilot answered. “But are you really going to try to destroy that fighter with a mobile suit?”

“Yes,” Noin replied already turning to leave.

“Then isn’t Aries more suitable than Leo? Aries is much faster and it’s made for air battle,” the pilot suggested.

“My Leo is fast enough,” Noin said over her shoulder somewhat possessively. “Besides, I should pay some respect to our enemy.” With that the door closed and the pilots went back to their piloting.

“Lt. Noin, as soon as the Arieses are ready we’ll dispatch them to join you,” one of the pilot’s voices echoed over the Leo’s communication panel.

“Roger,” Noin acknowledged as her Leo did a back flip out of the ship. Powering up her thrusters she lunged forward to find the enemy fighter. Suddenly a beeping began and she looked up, “What? Above me?”

Shocked into action she turned her Leo harshly and fired upward at the fighter in a blinding flash, and missed. Throwing her suit into a slight roll she barely was able to get out of the way and fire again as the fighter barreled past. This time her shot nicked the tip of the fighter’s wing and the incurring explosion sent it careening to the side.

Inside the fighter the pilot struggled to pull it out of a roll as the console informed her that the blast had done damage to the left engine.

“Damn it!” she cursed as her eyes narrowed in anger. No one destroyed her ship, except her.

“That was great Lt. Noin,” someone applauded over the radio; but Noin paid little attention. “That’s it?” she asked, staring at the smoke trail the wounded craft was leaving. She had expected much more of a fight, a real challenge for once. “They’re finished?”

“Sir, should we take you in, or should we chase that fighter in our Aries?”

The question jerked her away from her thoughts and she shook her head slightly. She should have known a weapon sent by the colonies would pose no real threat or challenge. “Let it go down,” she replied. “We’ll investigate on the ground. It’ll be a good opportunity for us to find more about Operation M.”

“Don’t you think it’ll self destruct?” one of the Aries pilots asked.

“No one wants to die up here, without seeing the beauty of earth,” she replied thoughtfully.

Below, however, it was payback time. As Noin continued to watch the fighter descend her jaw nearly dropped as the birdlike craft twisted into a mobile suit. “It transformed into a mobile suit?” she said in an almost questioning voice to see if the Aries saw it too.

“Lt. Noin, do you know what type of mobile suit that is?” an Aries asked with a slight quiver in his voice.

“No,” Noin answered quietly as she thought to herself ‘I can’t believe anyone besides the Federation and OZ have the technology to build such an advanced mobile suit.’

She felt her Leo jar slightly as one of the Aries attached a landing parachute to her back. “Sir, let us take care of it,” one of the Aries said already beginning to pull away.

“All right,” she agreed as the parachute opened and the two Aries lunged toward the unknown mobile suit.

Noin watched closely as the Aries fired on the mobile suit. The suit easily avoided most the onslaught; but two missiles finally hit directly in the back, and the suit did a complete turn. For a second she thought the Aries had got it, but dismissed that from her mind the second the suit stabilized it’s descent.

“What strength,” she said with reverence as she watched the Aries continue to fire until the unknown suit turned.

“It’s turning around,” she heard the panicked voice of one Aries pilot say over the radio. “Never mind that!” the other pilot snapped. “Keep firing!”

She felt a twinge in her stomach as she watched the unknown suit turn completely, in the barrage of fire, and lift it’s gun.

Suddenly she heard two screams, a deafening explosion, and nothing where the Aries’ used to be.

Inside the unknown mobile suit the pilot leaned forward with a slight smile twitching on her lips, her shoulders shaking slightly. Then she threw her head back and let out a psychotic laugh at the destruction of the Aries.

Opening her eyes, still laughing, she spotted the Leo. “One more to go,” she laughed twisting the controls to put her suit on the attack.

“Two Arieses with one shot,” Noin said in shock. “Interesting.”

Then, gritting her teeth, she ejected her gun and parachute. As she began her fall toward the other suit she ignited her beam saber; which had been tucked behind the Leo’s shield. The unknown mobile suite fired again. Noin rolled inches out of it’s way and rolled back to continue her attack. Lifting the beam saber high over her Leo’s head she brought it down in a killer stroke.

The other suit easily grabbed the arm with the beam saber; but was unable to do anything as the Leo grappled it into a strangle hold. Letting out a sigh Noin struggled into her parachute and opened the Leo’s hatch. She hated losing her suit; but losses were to be expected. With that she jumped away from the grappling suits, hoping the weight of the Leo was enough to take the unknown suit down with it.

As the parachute opened she heard a voice on her radio ask, “Lt. Noin are you alright?”

“Yes, don’t worry,” she replied, looking mournfully down at the quickly falling suits. “I did what I had to.”

“We analyzed the data from combat,” the voice over the radio informed.

“And?” Noin prodded.

“Considering the strength of the armor, it has to be Gundanium alloy,” the voice reported.

“So… That’s a Gundam,” Noin said, wincing a bit as she watched the suits hit the water in a huge splash. “Even if the mobile suit survives that impact, the pilot won’t.”

“Sir,” the radio crackled again. “And aircraft carrier from the Federation Navy is asking if it should go ahead and start searching for the downed mobile suits.”

“Let them go ahead,” Noin replied, annoyed they even had to even ask. “Tell them it sunk around point J-A-P in East Asia.”

“Yes sir.”

“If they should go ahead and start searching…” Noin mocked in annoyance. “I don’t think there are any bright futures left in the Federation anymore.”

“Mr. Yuy,” a reporter rattled as the clicks and whirrs of cameras played. “What did you discuss at the Colonial Summit this time?

Heero made a slight noise, wondering how much trouble he would be in if he shoved one of the reporters down the escalator. He closed his eyes ignoring one of the camera peoples request for him to pose with his father.

He knew they couldn’t care less that he was here and he wished they weren’t.

“Give us a comment,” one of the reporters begged, as Mr. Yuy remained stonily silent.

“Everyone wants to know if they will declare was on earth,” another said, shaking Heero enough to open his eyes and look back at his father. It was something he wanted to know as well; but from the look on his father’s face no one would be getting answers, so he simply turned and wondered why the escalator ride seemed so long.

After what seemed like forever he and his father stepped off the escalator only to be greeted by three military types. “Welcome back, My Yuy,” the highest ranking one greeted, waving a hand toward the door. “A car from the Defense Department is waiting outside. Please, follow us.”

“So soon?” Mr. Yuy asked as Heero heard the reporters step away, obviously intimidated by the military. “This is not convenient. I have to prepare a birthday party for my son this afternoon.”

‘Well at least he remembered it’s tomorrow,’ Heero thought, looking away.

“We have prepared another car for your son, also,” the military man informed.

“Please, don’t worry about me,” Heero said, making a half bow out of politeness, not respect. “I know how to get home.”

With that his father got in the car with the military men and left.

Heero watched then drive off with a frown on his face as he turned the opposite direction to return home.

As the sun arched low in the sky, sending golden paint across the pale gray concrete, Heero walked home in silence his mind working over how to approach his father. Stopping on the sidewalk he took a deep breath.

“Dad,” he said to the imaginary father he was talking to. “If you don’t give a fuck about my birthday just say so! “

Shoving his hands in his pockets and taking two steps forward he shook his head, “and seconds after I said that, mom would be washing my mouth out with soap, and lecturing me about not respecting my elders.” As he finished his statement a plane’s shadow crossed over him. With a deep frown he looked up, “Damn military planes! If there weren’t any, this would be such a peaceful spaceport.”

“Time to go home,” he decided looking down from the sky to the ocean and over the beach. As he did he spotted a human figure lying, washed up, on the shore. “A person?” he said; his curiosity peeked as he ran down the step to the body. “A spacesuit? Is it a soldier? I’d better get help.”

As the opera entered it’s third act, a lady in the balcony delicately put down her opera glasses on the table before her.

“You lost three mobile suits?” she asked, making sure she had heard right. Her brown eyes narrowing a bit as she pushed away a lock of brown hair.

“Yes,” answered the communication console before her.

“That doesn’t should like something you would let happen,” she admonished slightly. “It will give me hours of headaches to come up with a suitable excuse for the federation leaders.”

“The enemy turned out to be a mobile suit made of Gundanium alloy,” said the masked figure of Noin, on the screen, leaning on a nearby wall.

“What?” asked the lady, though she had heard perfectly well.

“If it was actually built on a colony,” Noin continued, letting her comment linger.

“If you and I had been with OZ from the beginning, I’m sure such a mess would never have occurred,” the lady stated, putting a finger to her temple in thought.

“So, you do think it’s a Gundam…” Noin asked, her image flickering slightly.

“What else could it be?” the lady asked rhetorically. “The Federation should have paid closer attention to each colony.”

“The navy is trying to recover the suit,” Noin said, her voice showing she had little faith in the navy.

“I’ll tell them we’ll take care of it,” the lady said. “I’ll also send you a special undersea unit. You will be in charge.”

“Yes, sir,” Noin replied.

“As you know, time is of the essence,” the lady said, her voice holding a snake like lethalness. “I don’t want to provoke the Federation leaders unnecessarily.”

“I’m aware of the sir,” Noin said with a smile on her face as she ended the communication.

The room was filled with doddering old men sitting at a single long table and all scowling or frowning. It was silent as the lady walked in. “I’m sorry I am late,” she apologized waiting for the barrage to start.

“Lady Une, is it true that one of your people lost three mobile suits when her freighter re-entered the atmosphere?” a bald man in a Federation uniform asked before she ever got seated.

“Yes,” she answered as lightly as if he had asked her about the weather. “Is that a problem?”

“You wasted three of out precious mobile suits for just one spy,” the rat like man next to her spat.

“But because of that we successfully prevented the enemy conspiracy,” she replied calmly, not even bothering to turn her head to look at the man.

“I’m not talking about the results,” the rat man snapped hostilely. “What do you think about this waste of precious Federation materials?”

“Precious materials?” Lady Une mused. “Excuse me, but do these ‘materials’ you’re talking about include the military personnel or simply the mobile suits?”

“Damn you!” the rat man snapped as he slammed a hand on the table. “Don’t be smart with me.”

“Now, now…,” a calmer individual with graying hair said. “Lady Une… next time, be more careful.”

“Yes, sir,” she agreed, bowing her head slightly.

“Now, let’s move to today’s agenda. How to prevent the colonies from forming a New Alliance…” a dark haired man began as the lights went down and an image appeared on the far wall.

Lady Une feigned interest with a small catlike smile on her face. ‘After al these years of peace the Federation knows nothing of war,’ she thought as the man droned on. ‘No doubt, only one organization can determine the future of earth. Only OZ…’

Heero gave a little jerk and finally pulled the helmet of the space suit free. He blinked a little as he got a good look at who was under there. “It’s a girl,” he stated a bit in shock. “About my age…”

The girl twitched a little making minor sounds as she struggled to consciousness. Her long blond hair blended in with color of the sand and was tied back in braids. Suddenly her eye flashed open, the dark blue of it glaring into Heero so hard he flinched.

She jumped to her feet almost faster than sight itself, her hand in front of her face, hiding it.

“Don’t move,” Heero ordered her. “The ambulance it coming.”

“Did you see?” the girl snarled from behind her hand as the ambulance stopped on the road above.

“What?” Heero asked, deciding the girl must have hit her head or something; but she was cute.

“That must be her,” said a voice from above as the medics clambered out of the vehicle.

With a slight look to the side the girl hit something on her space suit and slammed her wrist. There was an explosion on the stomach of her suit knocking her to the ground. Much to Heero’s shock, as well as her own, she was unhurt. Glaring at the suit and then at the medics she jumped to her feet and ran toward the stairs. The three well meaning medics getting thrashed and knocked down by the girl.

Heero winced as one of the medics landed beside him. That looked like it hurt. Jumping to his feet Heero watched as the girl kicked through the glass of the passenger side window and knocked the driver out of the ambulance.

Running up the steps he watched as the girl drove away.

“Hmph,” he frowned. “My name is Heero Yuy,” he introduced himself, with some disgust that he actually wanted to see the obviously insane girl again. “You’re cute…”

Night.

It was a quiet night at the mobile suit factory; the only sound was a few suits patrolling for security.

Then there was an explosion.

“Enemy attack!” screamed one of the patrolling Leos’ pilot, seconds before his suit was cut in two. His two buddies quickly becoming diced as well.

Through the smoke and fire the silhouette of a large, death-like mobile suit, wielding a scythe could bee seen.

“This is Hilde,” said a cheerful voice, originating from a spiky, dark haired, girl with light blue eyes. “Primary mission complete. Now I think I might as well play with these guys a bit longer!”

Spaceport.

The Leos laid down rapid fire as their radio’s crackled with calls for help.

“We are under surprise attack,” one of the Leos screamed into his radio.

“Attack? Who the hell is it?” was the response as it became apparent.

Walking toward them was a walking armory, painted in red-orange, white, and yellows. As the gun arm raised and began to fire the pilot, with shoulder length brown hair and violet eyes, spoke into the recorder.

“Well, now that they’ve seen me, I have no choice. I thought destroying the port was enough,” she said with little inflection. “But now I have to destroy you all.” Her hands moved over the controls, commanding the chest cavity to open and the rounds there to fire. Missiles launched from the shoulders and legs, destroying the last of the buildings.

“Battle record: Number 001,” she said with slight hesitation. “Recorder… let’s just say Catherine for now…”

Desert.

The Leo’s twitched impatiently as they scanned.

“Are you sure this is the area where the enemy fighter fell?” one asked. “Yes,” replied another. “I don’t see anything,” the other complained as several mobile suits hidden in the sand came to life and began to fire.

“Enemy attack! Enemy attack!” a Leo screamed as they were quickly and efficiently wiped out of existence.

“We’re surrounded. It’s a trap,” the lead Leo snarled, skidding down a sand dune.

“Commander!”

“What?!” screamed the commander in horror as he gazed upon the white and black mobile suit before him; backed by many less impressive suits.

“Drop your weapons and surrender,” the mobile suit ordered. “I have no intention of harming you.”

“Fire! Fire!” the commander screamed.

The other suits ducked as the main one leapt into action; drawing the huge swords attached to it’s back and cutting through the two Leo’s like butter.

“This is Iria. The commander’s suit has been destroyed,” the pilot said mournfully, lifting her goggles away from her blue eyes and into her blond hair. “I told you to surrender…”

Sea.

The ships were torn apart and sinking fast, many on fire.

Atop one of the ships was a mobile suit with a dragon like arm that spewed fire, destroying the remaining two jets. As the ship the suit stood on began to sink the pilot introduced herself.

“I’m Sally,” said the girl with blond hair pulled into two curls on either side of her head. Her slanted blue eyes scanning the horizon. “I won’t hide or run away, until I win this…”

“What is taking the undersea unit so long,” the brown haired pilot grumbled.

“They say they’ll be here in two hours,” the curly haired man assured.

“What are they having a coffee break or something?” the brown haired one snapped.

“Easy, men,” Noin soothed as she looked over the pictures, “That mobile suits not going anywhere. Besides this sea trench is very deep, it will take time.”

“But,” the brown haired pilot began.

“And,” Noin cut him off, not wanting to hear more whining, as she rose from her chair. “I have something interesting here,” she said holding the pictures of the destruction of the ships in front of them.

“Those are…” the pilot gasped.

“Taken by an OZ spy aircraft,” Noin filled in as she flipped to another picture. This one of the Gundam Shenlong destroying part of the navy with it’s dragon arm. “It looks just like the one we fought the other day, doesn’t it?”

“So there’s another one?” the curly haired pilot asked, looking in horror.

“And that’s not all,” Noin continued, not wanting to answer stupid questions. “I just got a report a mobile suit factory and a space port, as well as one recovery unit like us looking for a fallen object, have been devastated by an unknown enemy.”

“So there are four more?” the brown haired pilot asked, staring at the picture.

“And the one that fell, that makes five all together,” Noin nodded.

“Five?” the brown haired pilot stated out loud in shock, trying to read Noin’s reaction. “Five gundams?”

“I guess we were lucky,” Noin said, leaning away from the pilots. “We seem to be the only ones to have seen a gundam and gotten away alive.”

“Well, isn’t it a shame Heero isn’t here for the first day of the semester,” a boy in a school uniform said. “Hey, don’t jinx it,” another laughed, elbowing the first in the ribs. “Maybe we can get a chance at the girls for once.”

“When is he coming back?” asked a girl with stars in her eyes.

“He got back yesterday,” answered one of the boys. “So not til at least tomorrow.”

“Aw!” the girl pouted, laying her head on the table. “It must be great. I wish I could go into space one day.”

“Well, a wealthy dad is all it takes,” a boy informed her.

“It’s his birthday tomorrow isn’t it?” the girl said looking up. “I wonder who’s invited?”

Suddenly everyone started rising. The girls got starry eyes and the boys got respectful. “See you jinxed it,” a boy said as Heero Yuy walked onto the balcony.

The class was noisy, most of the chatter about Heero’s big birthday bash the next day, until the nun came in trailed by a student. As the nun ascended the stairs to the podium the class hushed and Heero looked up.

“That’s…” he said sitting up in his chair.

“Class please quiet down,” the nun said politely. “I would like to introduce a new student.”

“My name is Relena Darlian,” said the girl in the standard maroon uniform. Her blond hair tied into two braids behind her and cold blue eyes scanning the classroom.

‘That’s her,’ Heero thought, ignoring a rather off color comment made by the boy sitting next to him. ‘That’s the girl.’

“Miss Relena,” the nun said, “why don’t you sit next to Mr. Heero. If you have any questions, he will be glad to help you.”

Relena quietly made her way up the steps and took the seat next to Heero.

“Now, let’s start class…” the nun began in the front of the room.

“Hey Relena,” Heero greeted politely. Relena said nothing and simply gave him the cold shoulder. Heero looked at her with determination as one of his classmates made the comment ‘this was one chick he wasn’t getting.’

Relena stood on the high balcony, leaning backwards and staring off into the distance.

The rest of the students on the balcony milled around as if she wasn’t there. The few girls who had tried and to make friends with the girl were in the bathroom crying there eyes out and the few guys who approached her would be singing alto for the next year.

Heero stared at the girl with determination.

“Uh, Heero,” a boy, Rick, said. “That’s one crazy woman. Be careful.”

Ignoring the fact Rick had even opened his mouth Heero walked over the Relena.

“Hey,” he greeted not expecting, nor getting, a reply. “I’m having a birthday party tomorrow, if you want to come. It’s one of those things parents throw together, but at least the food is good.”

Relena said nothing. She simply glared.

“Damn! She even blew Heero off,” Rick murmured.

“Is she crazy?” one of the girls screeched.

“So, you coming?” Heero asked, not expecting a response; but he could always claim it was a maybe.

“No,” she stated in a calm, low voice as she pushed off the railing and began to walk away.

“Damn,” Heero muttered. “You are one cold lady…”

He trailed off as Relena’s cool fingers stroked his cheek gently and with a slight smile she said what only he could hear, “I will kill you.”

With that she walked off leaving Heero to wonder what the hell he’d gotten himself into.