1x2
"A catch phrase?"Quatre frowned as he checked the fit of his harness.
"Yeah," Duo insisted as he made a turning motion. When Quatre turned, Duo tested the rings and the buckles on the harness with expert tugs. "Everyone needs a catch phrase like... well, like you."
"Like me?" Quatre wondered as he tried to look over his shoulder at Duo. "I wasn't aware that I had one."
"You do," Duo insisted with a grin. "It's ' Zero to Hero'."
Quatre scowled, his usually kind expression becoming very disapproving. "That's painful, Duo. I don't appreciate it."
Duo nodded, his smile falling, but quickly replaced by an expression of determination. "It defines you, though. It says just who you are."
Quatre bowed his head and nodded. "You're right. Catch Phrases can be dark, then."
"Very dark," Duo agreed as he thumped Quatre on the back to signal that he was done.
Quatre stripped off the harness and then he and Duo began to thread the ends through the seat of Quatre's Sandrock, both of them squeezed into the small space and trying not to damage delicate instruments.
"I wonder what Trowa's should be?" Quatre asked as he took a wrench from a toolbox, in the seat between them, and began slipping behind the seat to lock in the harness. Duo adjusted the straps to their correct positions and held them on their marks as he considered the question.
"Bite the Bullet?" Duo tried.
Quatre chuckled and said, his voice muffled by the seat, "Sounds right. He'll like that."
Quatre suddenly cursed and the wrench clattered.
"Take your time," Duo warned. "If you get this wrong, you'll be splattered on your view screen during battle."
"I know!" Quatre retorted. "That red mark on your right happened when the left strap gave way. Why else do you think that I asked you to help fit Sandrock with a new harness?"
Duo squinted at the red smear. "I thought that you hit a bug or something."
"What about Wu Fei?" Quatre wondered.
"He hit his head, too?" Duo wondered in shock.
"No! What's his catch phrase?"
Duo considered it as he put his feet in the seat, on either side of the toolbox, grabbed the straps, and asked, "Ready for a test?"
"Pull away!" Quatre replied.
Duo leaned back and yanked with his full weight. One strap slipped. "Right."
"I see it. It's that lock down bolt," Quatre replied. "I think it needs replacing."
"That's a job for a welding torch," Duo muttered.
Quatre came from behind the seat and chucked his wrench into the tool box. He grabbed a red rag and wiped off his greasy hands as he sat in a relatively safe space beside the seat. "If you'll help me get it up here...?"
"Yeah, it's a bitch, but I'll help."
"So, what about Wu Fei?" Quatre insisted as he moved towards the hatch.
"He's easy," Duo chuckled as he followed. "Doing it my Way."
"Really?" Quatre snorted.
"You've got better?" Duo wondered.
"Burning Down the House," Quatre replied.
"Dark and pretty high brow," Duo replied, scratching his head.
"That's Fei, though," Quatre pointed out. he took the line down to the hanger floor. The other Gundams stood around his own, frozen and silent.
When Duo took the line down and stood beside him, he was nodding. "All right, I'll accept that. What about Heero?"
"What about Heero?" Quatre smirked. "Don't you know him well enough by now?"
"You're insinuating something, Winner?" Duo retorted as he followed Quatre to the larger tool boxes along one wall of the hanger.
Quatre gave him a sideways smile. "Not a bit."
Duo glared and then looked uncomfortable. "Well, I definitely think his catch phrase should be, 'I'll Save the Princess."
Quatre turned and smacked him hard on one arm.
"Owe!" Duo exclaimed with a wince. "What was that for?"
"For being stupid," Quatre growl. "Heero already has a catch phrase."
"And it's?"
"The Heart of Space."
Duo frowned, confused. "Are you sure?"
"Very sure," Quatre chuckled. He dug out the torch and the equipment to go with it."I know yours as well. It's-"
"I can do my own, thanks!" Duo retorted as he began picking up equipment.
"All right. What is it, then?"
Duo grinned. "When it Absolutely, Positively has to be Destroyed Overnight". Like it?"
"It fits," Quatre laughed.
"Then it's mine."
----------------------------------------
"What do you see lieutenant?" Une demanded, her hand gripping the soldier's shoulder hard as he stared out at the battlefield at the battling black Gundam, surrounded by mobile dolls.
"It's difficult to make out," he replied anxiously as he adjusted his power binoculars from their vantage point in the control tower of the mobile suit factory. "It's attached to a forearm of the Gundam, small... a banner of some sort..."
"It may be key to discovering who the pilot is! Read me that banner, lieutenant!" Une exclaimed.
The man rubbed at his eyes, adjusted the binoculars some more, and then tried again. "I can see it!" he said excitedly.
"And?" Une demanded.
"When it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight."
Une's hand ground bone as it tightened angrily. "Defeat that Gundam, now!!!"
The end