FALLEN ANGEL
Chapter Two

Heero rushed out onto the balcony and glared up at the swarm of mobile suits rapidly approaching the school.  He swore heavily, feeling helpless as they got closer and he could hear the roar of their engines as they began to descend.  If only he still had his Gundam...but it had been lost when he had been shot out of the air on his decent to earth, and he still hadn't had the time to go searching for it.

So he could only watch as the score of mobile suits landed in the courtyard below, drawing the attention of everyone in the vicinity.  He knew why they were here, or had a strong suspiscion, and knew the best thing to do would be to make himself scare, as quickly and as quietly as possible.

But the image of a lanky, green eyed angel lingered in the back of his mind.  Trowa was here for someone, and if Heero could prevent it by sticking around....

The young man sighed and raked his hands through his hair again.  He was probably going to regret this.

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Relena stared as the big blue mobile suits landed in the courtyard with a roar that sounded like an earthquake.  'What on earth are they doing so close to civilization?" she wondered.  The war with the colonies was in space!   Her tiny private school had nothing to do with the battles between the colonies and OZ.  

Or so she thought.

A horribally nasel voice, amplified tenfold by the mobile suit's speaker system, suddenly blared out over the courtyard.

"Attention, all students and staff!  We, of the United Earthsphere Alliance, have reason to believe your facility is being used to hide a dangerous criminal known as a Gundam Pilot.  Hand him over and you will not be harmed.  Resist and you will be punished."

'Gundam Pilot?" Relena thought as the voice droned on.  'What are they talking about?  And what in the world is a gundam?'

"You, there!"  Relena jumped as the mobile suit cannon suddenly swung directly at her.  "You're that Dorlian girl, aren't you?  What do you know about this?"

"Nani?  I don't know what you're talking about!" Relena shouted back defiantly.

"You're father does not approve of OZ's involvement with the colonies!" the voice shouted back, blaring over the loudspeaker.  "If the Gundams are his way of protesting, he has committed a serious crime, miss Dorlian!"

"You're crazy!" Relena cried out, furious at their accusation.  "My father is a representative of peace!"

"Nevertheless, it's rather odd that you should be here, miss Dorlian, in the same area that's hiding a Gundam Pilot!"

"You don't--"

"Bring her!" snapped the voice, sweeping an arm at the nearest cluster of suits.  "And search every inch of this school!  Blast it apart if you have to; I want that pilot found!"

"Enough," a new voice interrupted, and all eyes swung to the figure standing at the edge of the courtyard.  After a moment's pause, he clasped his hands behind his head and began walking towards the circle of suits.   Relena gasped and covered her mouth as he stepped into the light.

'Heero?'

"So, you're the Gundam Pilot."  The nasel voice sounded horribaly smug, as if he had found the boy himself and forced him to surrender.  Heero stared straight ahead at nothing, his statement as blank as a stone wall.  "Where is your Gundam, boy?" the voice demanded.

"...."

"Don't play games with me, boy!  I asked you a question, and you'd better answer me if you know what's good for you!"

Still, Heero remained silent and impassive, his statement revealing nothing as he gazed straight ahead.  Watching him, Relena was aware of her heart thudding hard against her chest.

The mobile suit leader made a noise like an outraged boar, and gestured furiously with his cannon.  "Very well, brat!  We'll see how resiliant you are in the hands of our specialists!  Take him!"

Immediately, two pilots leaped out of their suits and approached the boy, their guns sighted at his head.  Heero didn't move, but his eyes were suddenly drawn to the girl, standing rigidly to the side, her hands over her mouth.  For a brief moment, their eyes locked, and Heero was barely aware of the soldiers yanking his arms behind his back.

As the soldier began to lead him away with threats and little jabs to his ribs and back, Heero became aware of a new sound, one that sounded vaguely like another mobile suit, approaching rapidly from the East.  He paused momentarily to listen, and was struck a vicious blow to the head with the muzzle of the gun.  Falling to his knees, he heard the alarmed shouts of the soldiers begin to rise into the air, and looked up just in time to see a huge black gundam drop out of the sky and slice a Leo in half.  

Chaos erupted instantly.  The explosion of the destroyed mobile suit blasted peices of wire and metal shards everywhere.  The students screamed and bolted for cover as the Leo's opened fire in the crowded courtyard, aiming wildly for this new terrible enemy that had apeared in their midst.  The black gundam, wielding an enormous blazing scythe, cut a path of destruction through the Leo ranks, laughing all the while.

Heero dodged a peice of flying pavement, and easily snapped the cuffs around his wrists, glaring up at the huge black gundam.  "Duo!" he yelled, as the scythe reduced another Leo to scrap metal.  Another enemy mobile suit came at the gundam from the side, but a vicious backswing Duo's suit knocked the Leo backwards into the school, where it exploded on contact.

A tremendous shudder wracked the school walls, and, as if in slow motion, the towering structure began to fold in on itself.  Heero spun around with a gasp as one entire wall of stone and mortar concrete crumbled and started to fall, casting an eerie shadow over the slim figure just beneath.

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When the chaos erupted, Relena did what any sensible person would've done and quickly got out of the way.  Huddled against the wall, she could only watch in horror as the black gundam suit--for that's the only thing it could've been--destroyed the opposing Leo's with an ease that was frightening.  She caught a glimpse of Heero, standing in the middle of the warzone and yelling something to the other gundam pilot, but the battle was too fierce for anyone to hear him.

"Heero, get out of there!  You'll be killed!" Relena screamed, as debris from another explosion missed him by centimeters.  She ducked back herself as a Leo suit, struck a nasty blow by the black gundam, careened into the school wall and exploded.  She felt the white hot blast from the explosion rip viciously at her hair and clothes, and heard a deafening roar from overhead.

Just before something struck her to the ground, she was aware of a presence watching her only a few yards away.  A lanky young man with long chestnut bangs stood in the shadow of the falling building, watching her with intense green eyes.  Seeing him struck an odd chord of recognition in her, but she was only allowed a split second glance.  Then, she was falling backwards, striking her head on something hard and unyeilding, and darkness closed in about her.