Secret Freedom Fighters' Hideout, Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Tuesday, September 25, UC 0079
0855 Hours

"Well," Sonic said with sarcasm, "ain't this a surprise! Weren't you and Meg supposed to be in Feral Forest, Elias?" He looked around and laid eyes on a certain repurposed doppelganger near the shining Warp Ring. "Heading somewhere, Mr. Bootleg? Might wanna take a rain check."

Everyone in the room looked tense, but Leeta eventually forced some words out of her mouth. "How did you find us?"

"Would you believe me if I said that I really don't know?" the intruding Hedgehog stated. "Since the Genesis Wave, I've had these weird sensations. Like some kind of chill in the back of my mind. The last time I felt it, Zeon blew the shit out of Sand Blast. I don't know if this is a byproduct of all of Eggman's screwing with space-time or the long-term results of exposure to Chaos Energy. Somehow it brought me down here, even though I had no idea a place like this existed… or that you all have some little club down here."

Larry heaved a sigh of relief. "I was beginning to thing I jinxed everything when my tail got caught—!" He covered his mouth as quickly as he could.

"I thought I'd heard something up there," said Sonic, "but with the White Base lifting off for some plan of Bright's, I couldn't be sure because of the engines. After that, these… jitters… took over. I would have never thought that stump was a fake if not for them acting up." He approached the disgraced ex-king and forced his finger onto his chest. "What's the story, Elias? I wanna know." There was no sense of playfulness in the Hedgehog's voice. He wasn't happy at all.

Elias waited a moment before bringing himself to speak. "Following Geoffrey's trial," he explained, "I approached former SID leader Who to discuss an operation to oust Naugus without public drama."

Sonic didn't lighten up. "You don't have to worry much about Old King Claw. He doesn't even know he's in the world right now, last I saw him. Why don't you tell me the real reason?"

"That's enough, son."

Sonic looked over his shoulder to see a smoking jacket-clad owl standing in the doorway. "Harvey Who, huh?" he scoffed. "I had a hunch. That asshole who hid behind babies name-dropped you before he got shot."

"Yes, it has been a while," Who noted.

"Could you do the world a favor and explain what's going on?"

Shard felt awkward about this, but he couldn't process a false story. "I was going to get backup from Station Square—!"

"Back-up?"

"After Zeon attacked," the robot explained, "it was decided we needed some more help—!"

Sonic interrupted with mock laughter. "Ho, ho, ho! I get it now," he said, "after Naugus took power, Sally got roboticized, and your little bro kamikazed Antoine, you guys began to think that I can't do my job! Well guess who saved her? ME! I know everything's gone to shit since Eggman came back, but after everything we've fought and accomplished—!"

"It's not like that at all," Elias tried to cut in. Soon, he and Sonic were rolling on the floor, fighting.

Silver had to intervene and separate the two psychokinetically.

"You still here, Leaf Quills?" said Sonic. "We've already established there never was a traitor, so how about go back to your time period, or do you think I suck that bad, too?"

Who approached the suspended Hedgehog. "Sonic, listen to me," he said firmly, "this group was never formed to replace you. Agent King was telling you the truth."

"We're the Secret Freedom Fighters," said Elias, brushing himself off, "we aren't supposed to be in the limelight, only a handful of people know about us. NICOLE and Sir Charles are among them."

You too, Uncle Chuck? "Well, if your objective is Naugus," said Sonic, "why are you bothering to fight Zeon? Don't think I can do it?"

"Because we need all the help we can get," Who told him. "You can't be in a thousand places at once, and the UF is the best-equipped to deal with this new threat as far as we know."

"Not a single person in this room wants Naugus to be king," said Lyco.

"And nobody wants Zeon to rule, either," her sister added.

Silver released Sonic from his psychic grip, letting him settle easily on his feet. The desire to escalate things to a physical level was gone, but he still stood with his head hanging, still feeling a bit hurt.

"Sonic," Elias said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "I know it feels frustrating, not having known about this, but if we didn't keep this group under lock-and-key Naugus would have been able to control the minds of the Council and revive that cult of his."

The Hedgehog faced the deposed monarch. He was always meant to be the king, and this resolve only solidified it. He was in a rush to jump to conclusions. "I'm sorry, dude."

"I know times are frustrating, but keep your chin up." Uncle Chuck had entered the room, giving his nephew an assuring look. "Even heroes need a hand."

"I'll go now," he said, "I didn't see a thing. Elias, we'll win this thing, and you'll be back in the castle where you belong."

Elias smirked. It was the Sonic he remembered.

The Hedgehog made for the door, joining his uncle for an escort out. Yet, before he left, Sonic had one last item of business with that group. "By the way," he said, "about the number of licks needed to get to the center of—!"

"Still classified," Who said, not missing a beat.

"Worth a shot," said Sonic, with a shrug.

A Komusai raced westward to catch up with the fighter just launched from the "Trojan Horse". Garma, Char, and Dren were aboard the capsule.

"How much longer?" Garma asked.

"We should see it in thirty seconds," Dren replied.

No sooner had Garma received his answer did several objects race across the capsule's nose, missiles; the closest one missed by about seventy yards. The Minovsky sensor detected significant radiation out there, the "Horse" would have easily detected this as they had. All factors accounted for, it was obvious that the enemy wasn't trying to hit them.

"Aimless shots from the 'Trojan Horse'," said Char, at the helm. "They're trying to scare us. Ignore the missiles, we'll keep moving in on that jet!"

"Amuro! You've got to wake up! Can you hear me? Amuro!"

First darkness, then a bright crack, then a blur, and soon, the cockpit of a Core Fighter appeared. Amuro had bounced back, a cobalt sky before him, and the frantic voice of Sayla in his ears.

"Amuro! Can you hear me?"

"I'm here Sayla," he said, still a little bit disoriented.

"There's an enemy interceptor heading your way!" This warning was followed by a hail of Vulcan fire from Amuro's eight, forcing him to make a sharp right He was able to dodge the fire, save for a pretty big nick to the fighter's dorsal fin. "You've got to remain calm!" Sayla urged him.

Despite the damage, the plane still functioned. The Komusai tailing Amuro had caught up to him and let loose another round of fire. Amuro evaded with a barrel roll.

Bright came over the radio. "Amuro," he said, "you can't let yourself be shot down! Keep an eye on the enemy's position."

The boy looked over his shoulder, seeing the Komusai. It had a notably hard time turning than the Core Fighter. That's when it hit him: it's meant to be a reentry capsule, not a combat vehicle. The Vulcans are just emergency weapons. If he could just get behind it…

"The sights on these Vulcans aren't aligned properly!" Char complained.

"I feel embarrassed to say that this development was a bit of a surprise," Garma remarked. "It was intended for a personal return to space. We still have my Zaku—Char, the jet!"

The Feddie plane was making a hard left. The Komusai attempted to turn, but couldn't maneuver as quickly as the smaller craft. Soon, the plane couldn't be seen ahead, and its disappearance was complemented by a violent bump from the port stern.

"A direct hit," said Dren.

"Everyone hang tight," said Char, "we're going for a dive."

The capsule began a descent. As it did, a crackly message came over the radio: "Commissar, this is Calder wing. We are coming in on the Fed bogey on your six."

An unwelcome surprise for everyone on the White Base: Amuro was just holding his own against that Komusai, when Marker announced a flight of Dopps approach from the northeast. The Core Fighter was sandwiched between them.

"Launch more missiles!" Reed roared.

"Those Dopps are between us and the Core Fighter, sir." said Oscar. "If we fire off another salvo, we'll risk hitting Amuro."

"Mr. Bright, I've got six Dopps on my tail! I need help!"

"Sayla," Bright ordered, "tell Amuro to return to the ship immediately."

Sayla acknowledged. "Amuro, return to White Base. Stay calm and fly as low as you can."

"But Sayla—Aagh!" A Dopp gave him a bad hit. It was difficult to tell from their current means if he was descending manually or if the Dopps finally shot him down.

"I just knew it wouldn't work," Kai snickered, only to be met with a strong punch to the cheek. Next thing he knew, he was on the floor looking up at Bright. "Oh, that was nice!" he whined. "What'd I ever do to deserve that!?"

Bright was sick of Kai's smart remarks today. "Kai," he said, clearly sick of the boy's mouth, "you show that attitude once more, and I'll throw you out the airlock!"

"Mr. Bright, the Core Fighter!" Oscar announced. "It's still in operation. It returning to the ship!"

The forest's for the birds! Amuro's Core Fighter skirted across the treetops of the sprawling woodland. He wasn't very graceful in his flying, but he was able to outrun the incoming flight and its presents. He began to climb, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake. The White Base was straight ahead.

"Amuro, the port hangar is open," said Sayla. "We've prepared a crash net just in case. When you're back aboard, go to the Gundam. It may sound risky, but they want you to do fight an aerial battle in it."

"Aerial battle!?" Amuro said, astonished. "But Sayla, the Gundam was made for ground combat, right?"

"Don't worry, you can spend up to one minute in free fall. You can do it. You're approaching the hook now!"

Amuro didn't need to worry about those Dopps right now, but he wasn't relaxed yet. A midair fight, he thought, they're asking too much…

The Core Fighter came down on the hatch, but missed the landing gear. It skated across the runway, rotating and at least once bumping into the walls. Fire sprinklers rained upon the stricken vehicle all the way toward the net.

The mission had failed, but at least there weren't any casualties.

The open hatch of the "Trojan Horse" began to close, much to the dismay of the pursing Dopps, which had to disperse to avoid flying into range of the enemy vessel.

It was a sight that didn't please Garma, and he wasn't ready to throw in the towel.

"Commissar, it's Darota," Garma's subordinate called over the radio. "Soshkin's Gaw is inbound for your position, as you ordered."

"Good. Launch all Dopps. If we can play our cards right, we can sink the 'Horse' right here. All fighters are to fire on the enemy ship!"

"Sir!"

The young officer faced his friend. "We've done what we could do. I don't think they sent their SOS. Radio Soshkin to have his hangar open."

The cumbersome Komusai made a wide turn over the rolling wooded hills. But as it altered course for the incoming Gaw, a message went through: "Commissar! The 'Trojan Horse' opened a hatch! They're sending out White Devil!"

Garma's eyes widened and he began to make for the capsule's garage. "Change of plans, Char. Bring the Komusai above the 'Horse' and prepare to open the hatch."

"Garma?"

"I can drop in on that bastard with my Zaku, catch it off guard," he said. "I want that suit. If we can get it and study it, Jaburo will beg for peace at any price. It's a gamble, but I'll take it."

He was off, leaving his masked friend behind.

Char grinned and turned back forward.

"Are you certain that's wise, Commander?" Dren asked.

"The Commissar's always been proactive about this sort of thing. Let him be."

The Gundam stood on the edge of the hatch, beam rifle ready and shield in hand. A single shot from the gun could splash a mobile suit, and a plane wouldn't fare any better. It was demonstrated on one of the numerous Dopps swarming around the ship.

With a mighty blast from its engine, it was airborne, joining the ship's AA weaponry in fending off the attackers. It was beginning to look like something not to write home about, but then that damaged Komusai flew over the ship's defense zone.

"Amuro," said Sayla, "new heat source detected from above! The Komusai-!" Amuro couldn't hear the rest of the warning as something slammed into the Gundam.

A Zaku! Char? No, wait… It wasn't the Red Comet's suit. Even though the Zaku's head and limbs were red, it had a charcoal body. It brandished a heat hawk, whose blade was meant for the Gundam's face, but the chop was blocked in the nick of time by the shield. Should I point-blank it? Amuro thought. His mind flashed back to him taking out his first Zaku back on Side 7, where his beam saber sliced through its reactor and the resulting explosion breached the walls of the colony. A point-plank shot that close was out of the question.

The shield was beginning to weaken from the heated blade. The Vulcans were the safest option.

Much to his surprise, the enemy suit had head-mounted Vulcans as well, going off a split-second after his. Though the Gundam's Luna Titanium hull was resistant to that sort of fire, its camera was knocked out in the crossfire; meanwhile, the Zaku was pretty much beheaded by the white prototype.

Both suits blinded, they drifted apart, separating as gravity took hold.

The Gundam landed on its back, in the middle of the woods, Amuro inside, out of breath. Snow filled the monitor before him, but the line to the ship wasn't severed. He could hear Bright on the other end. "Amuro, are you alright?"

"That Zaku," he said between breaths, "what happened to it?"

"Crashed somewhere southeast of you," said Bright. "You took out its camera, it can't fight anymore. The Dopps are withdrawing. Switch to auxiliary cameras and return to the city. The battle's over."

Amuro looked at the charge in the beam rifle. He'd already used more than 80% on those Dopps. Even if that wasn't Char, he didn't want to risk a chase with what was in essence an empty gun. Got away this time…

Dren looked curiously at the Red Comet's expression. Only a minute ago, Char seemed to be happy that the commissar was actually going up against that nightmare of a mobile suit despite everything they'd gone through. Even though they had failed to defeat it, Garma was able to get away from the White Devil, only losing his Zaku's head. The ace looked disappointed, but still remained calm. "That white bastard did it again," Dren lamented.

A Minovsky particle-distorted line was patched to the Komusai. "Char, it's Garma. KZT!-you copy?"

"I copy, Garma," said Char. "Are you alright?"

"SSSSZT!—suit wrecked my camera, so I can't go anywhere," he said.

"Zeon Cross stuff," the Comet reminded him. "We'll forward your coordinates and retrieve you on the double."

"Thank yo—KKKKK! I got a little egg on my face—SSSSFF—carried away like that. Heh."

"The Minovsky radiation's kinda bad down there," Char told him. "That gun of the enemy's a miniature Mega Particle Cannon. You're lucky it didn't try it on you."

"Yeah. I won't make—KSSK—mistake again. Char, will you help me bring down this monster of a suit?"

Oddly enough, the masked officer took about two or three seconds before replying to his friend's plea, as if he had to think about it. Waiting for a clear patch in the particles, so Garma could hear it, perhaps? He did answer, though. "Yes, Garma. I'll help you."

The Gundam walked toward the walls of New Mobe with an inexorable pace, before stopping completely amid the still-littered field.

By that point, Sonic and Uncle Chuck were out of the catacombs. "I think we just missed out on another party," the younger Hedgehog remarked.

"I have to admit, sonny, that's one hell of a machine," said Chuck. "What did you say it was called? The 'Gun-Dam'?"

"Gun-DUM," Sonic corrected, "and that was the mother of all understatements." He looked skyward to see the White Base heading back their way.

"You're not worried about leaving the city again?" asked Chuck, recalling that his nephew had decided to join the envoy to Jaburo.

"Naugus is scrambled, Lady Alicia's substituting for him, and with Elias and you guys working behind the curtain, this place should still stand," the Hedgehog said, confidently. "If that weren't enough, you got Team Freedom with you too, and hopefully GUN."

A couple of hours had elapsed since the White Base touched back down in front of the city walls. While her crew were able to heave a sigh of relief after two back-to-back skirmishes with Zeon, Team Freedom worked in the coliseum, setting stuff up. Cream and Cheese were hovering above the stage, with a large banner. When stretched out, one could read the words "Godspeed to the Jaburo Envoy". A send-off party for the ship and the citizens seeking to join her for the voyage to Soumerca would be held tonight: a way to boost morale as well as advertise. Being friendly with Mina Mongoose and the Forget Me Knots was a boon to this push. Sonic once quipped offhand that they love to find excuses to party, but if they were saving any for a rainy day, this was a flash flood.

Sally sat on one of the bleachers, watching Rotor all help set things up, while Mina and some new girl she hadn't seen before were doing a bit of rehearsing for that evening. She was taking a break from recruiting right now. Her attention at the moment had shifted to a notebook in her lap.

"Hello, Sally." NICOLE took shape to the princess' left, in the digital civvies she had on during the infamous concert that turned the public away from her not too long ago.

"It's a real shame you can't come with us," said Sally. "We could sure use you."

"If only my old handheld wasn't destroyed, we'd easily be in contact," said the digital Lynx. "Besides, I'm not sure how much use I would be in light of Minovsky particles." NICOLE eyed the notebook her friend had. "What's that?"

"I'm preparing a detailed account for the Council for after we leave tomorrow," Sally explained. "I need to find Sonic. He was witness to the stuff that happened when I was roboticized. He gave me a stripped-down version shortly after I was restored, but we need more data. At this point, I'm only up to the Sonic and Khan running off to fight the… Iron Dominion." She caught sight of a figure hobbling around at the mouth of a vomitorium, he quickly lost balance and fell, hugging the wall as he went down. NICOLE was the first to the enfeebled person, thanks to teleportation, but Sally didn't waste any time to get to him. What she saw took her breath away. "Geoffrey!?"

The Skunk had been found unconscious after the Zeon attack yesterday and rushed to Tommy Turtle, alongside Naugus. How he got into such a bad condition was never clear, but one day later, he was a bigger mess: his fur was a mess, his heart was beating faster, he was struggling to breathe—to look at him, one would think he had been awake for almost a week.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

We're almost done with New Mobe, we're almost done. Hopefully just one more full chapter and this sub-arc can be put to bed.

+ The episode this portion was derived from, "The Core Fighter's Escape", culminated in a brief fight between Amuro and Char in free fall, but here, I thought it would be more interesting to bring in Garma's custom Zaku. In the PS2 game Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo, you can actually fight said suit if you're able to complete a mission quickly enough.

+ We also have the first appearance of ol' Stinky St. Jerk without Naugus in his body. In the novel Dracula, Jonathan Harker ages from all the torture he was subjected to in Transylvania. I figure that Bat Ears' attempt to stall his death may have had adverse effects on him.

+ Uncle Chuck's mispronunciation of "Gundam" is in reference to the 1999 English dub of the Movie Trilogy, with Steve Blum as Char, Bright with a British accent, and a bored Latina as Sayla. Except for Tem Ray and at least one other character, everyone called the Gundam the "Gun-DAM".

+ Also, the exchange about the lollipop between Sonic and Harvey? There's basis for it. I know where it comes from, do you?