Playing Catch-up


Today, we have two Gundam Wing summaries, and tomorrow we will have two more. But probably you're also interested in yesterday's entry, which describes an adventure in the demented environs of New York and New Jersey. Go! Click that Previous button! Now! Now, damn you!
Gundam Wing #15 - "To the Destination - Antarctica"
and
Gundam Wing #16 - "The Sorrowful Battle"

Heero and Trowa are wandering around in a city. We're not sure where it is, but it's got palm trees, so it's probably Detroit. Anyway, they've finally visited all of Marshal Noventa's family, and Heero has failed to find anyone who'll kill him. Heero and Trowa soon realize that they're being followed, as someone from OZ security has finally noticed these two random kids showing up at the houses of every member of the dead Marshal's family.

In a bit of trickery, Heero and Trowa give the OZ types the slip, and Trowa shows off his mightiness while Heero, still banged up, skulks off. However, when they make it back to Trowa's Gundam and start remarking on the fact that they've probably been found out, who shows up but... Noin?

Noin explains that she'll offer then the use of her personal shuttle to fly to Zechs' location, since Zechs wants to meet Heero and have another fight with him. Heero and Trowa, who are by this point bored with wandering around, shrug and accept, possibly hoping that Noin will just get this over with and kill them. So off they go to the shuttle with a member of the military they've been fighting all this time. Heero, why are you a moron?

Nearby, the oily looking OZ investigator watches the shuttle slip away. Busted!

Elsewhere, Relena's butler is searching the Internet for information on Heero. Or something like that. He uncovers the fact that Noventa's wife, who Heero recently visited, is also looking for Heero. Relena decides that this means Heero is probably alive, and sends her butler off to talk to Noventa's wife.

Elsewhere, Treys muses on the rumors about Zechs keeping Gundam 01 intact, but thinks that Zechs would never do anything to inconvenience him. To show what a bastard Treys is, we now get a scene where he spots a couple of women watching over some children on a pier. He wanders over, which distracts the women - meanwhile, one of the children toddles after a butterfly, right to the end of the pier. One of the women, naturally, starts to go after him, but is stopped by Treys, who just... watches. The child, though, manages to toddle to his feet, and is distracted by this, toddling on back instead of following the butterfly off the end of the pier. Treys looks amused. Yep, definitely the kind of guy who'd knock over an ant-hill just to see what would happen.

Down in Antarctica, Zechs has his minions work on Gundam 01, fixing it up to its full capacity, and using some of the parts from his Talgese to do it.

On the way to Antarctica, Heero tries to get a feel for Trowa's Gundam, which is made harder by the fact that his left arm is injured, and the left arm of the Gundam is weighted oddly. One of the OZ troops on the transport remarks to Noin that they could just dump the Gundam pilots out the back, but she wouldn't dare to interrupt Zechs' fun. Of course, it's about this point that they finally realize they're being followed. Noin and a minion decide to launch in Ares suits to stop the pursuit. Trowa remarks that Noin is heading out herself, which is probably not too bright, but she says she'd do anything to help Zechs. Yeah... sacrifice your life so that Zechs can have an entirely pointless fight. Gosh, it's brilliant!

Meanwhile, Relena's butler comes in and gives her a letter which he got from Mrs Noventa, who wants her to give it to Heero. It's all in the "Stop angsting, you goofball, you kids should be working to a better world, you couldn't help your idiotic mistake, these things happen in war" mode. Relena realizes this means Heero's still alive, and gets all happy. Off they'll go to seek Heero.

Noin and her minion whup up on the pursuing forces, cheerfully betraying their own troops. Now that's loyalty for you. However, Noin's minion makes a goof, and is brought down. She lands to guard him, while the surviving enemy transports land more mecha, trapping Noin and her minion. They fight on for a bit before finally surrendering. But no, the oily OZ guy is in one of the mecha, and won't accept her surrender. Around this time, the pilot of Noin's transport can't bear to abandon his commander, and turns around to help out. OZ transports actually have guns mounted on them, unlike the normal "shoot me, please" generic transport planes that we generally see, and so there's more shooting, until the transport, too, is brought down. Trowa finally resigns himself to having to clean up this mess, and heads out, calmly laying waste to the OZ forces. The oily guy, however, is in a mech that doesn't explode when Trowa bashes on it. Trowa stands there talking for a bit about how he can't allow any enemy to see his Gundam and live, while said enemy yells "Eek! A Gundam!" into his radio. Trowa finally finishes the guy off, and sprains his hand in the process. Those force-feedback joysticks are a killer, I guess.

Everyone makes it to Antarctica Base, where Zechs is there to greet Heero and Trowa. Everyone surls at each other a bit, then Zechs shows Heero the repaired Gundam 01. Heero considers this for a bit, then decides that he'd rather use Trowa's instead. Heero and Trowa get to work on Trowa's Gundam, while Zechs muses that Heero must be getting put off by his generosity.

Elsewhere, Relena badgers a random OZ minion to try and find out where Zechs is, or Noin, since they probably know where Heero is. The minion, understandably, isn't talking, but her butler manages to find out that Zechs is in Antarctica. Way to go, Alfred.

Noin gets a call from said minion telling her that Relena's on the way. Noin d'ohs, realizing that if even random types like Relena can find out where Zechs is, then the OZ military surely knows, and will be along shortly. Zechs wanders in, about that point, and remarks that he'd like her to make sure nothing goes wrong with his entirely pointless fight. Yay, entirely pointless fight!

Relena chats with her butler, since they know by this point that Zechs and Heero are going to fight. The butler muses that Zechs was a hero of the Sank Kingdom, and it's like him to insist on an even fight to the very end to prove who's superior. The butler has a flashback sequence to fencing with Zechs and getting whupped on, then when his foil was broken, having Zechs insist he take another so that they can finish.

Elsewhere, Heero and Trowa refit Trowa's Gundam to fit Heero better, fiddling with the over-weighted left arm.

The next day, Zechs and Heero square off. And fight. And fight, and fight, and fight and fight and fight. This fighting is hampered by the fact that both of their machines are essentially indestructible, but they go at it for several hours of show time.

Meanwhile, everyone else at the base is in the control tower, watching. Trowa comments to Noin that this is really a pointless fight, proving nothing. Noin replies with some tripe about how Zechs needs to find himself, having lost his focus. Trowa whatevers and wanders out.

Outside, more fighting.

Relena and her butler are en route by this point, and getting closer, when they're suddenly pestered by a pair of random OZ Ares suits. Relena is saved from this pestering when Trowa (in Heero's Gundam) shows up in time to shoot them down, then tells her over the radio to go stop the fight so that everyone can get back to angsting. Relena does indeed show up just in time to stop Heero getting his head handed to him by Zechs, and puts her jet (which can hover, conveniently) in between the two. She yells at them to stop. When Zechs refuses to stop the fight, though, she switches to yelling "Heero, kick his pansy ass!" Not used to getting refused, I see...

Noin interrupts her, though, with a convenient phone call. She finally clues Relena in that Zechs is her brother, and essentially tells her to shut up and stop trying to screw things up. Sure, Zechs worked for OZ, but he had to to get revenge on the people in the Alliance who destroyed the Sank Kingdom. It's clear that at this point, Zechs is starting to have second thoughts, though...

Zechs continued attempts to whup on Heero are interrupted by a truly ludicrous number of OZ mobile suits showing up. Zechs orders everyone else to leave, and he'll hold off the OZ forces until they do. There's the usual protesting but eventually everyone buggers off. Zechs launches himself at the OZ forces with a yell of "Glory to the colonies!" So, er, yeah, guess he's decided to switch sides. Go, Zechs!


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