Phase 1: "Test Run"
"Gunpla Battle Combat mode! Start-up! Model damage set to C," the Gunpla Battle projector lighted up and started releasing plavsky particles upwards.
"Please set your GP Base," the two silhouettes from opposite sides placed their bases at the console before them. Light then came from below the two figures and encased them in a hexagonal light.
"Please set your gunpla,"the voice from the projector continued.
"Field 8, Sky" The plavsky particles then started to grow brighter and brighter until it revealed the clumps of landmasses hovering above the clouds.
"Battle, Start!"
"Ardent Gundam, commencing practice run!" Joesph exclaimed while his Gunpla, the Ardent launched off to the field.
The Ardent Gundam, a custom built Gunpla made by Joseph is composed of AGE parts and 00 parts. The head unit was taken from the Exia, the torso and backpack was taken from the 00 Qan[T], giving it the ability of Trans-AM, Quantize and the use of GN Sword Bits, interrupting the upper body of 00 parts was the waist part of AGE-FX which held C-Funnels. The Arms was taken from the AGE-FX which also held C-Funnels and lastly, the Leg unit was taken from the 00 Gundam Seven Swords, which possesses Katars on each knee. It was a straight built kitbash with slight modifications, but was coated with gloss coating which gives it an Anti-Beam Coating capable of taking 5 direct hits from beam weaponry.
"Get the feel of your Gunpla first before we commence the real practice." The other person opposite to Joseph said.
"Right, articulation, check, mobility, check, everything's good, system all green."
"We'll see about that later in the real practice match, here I come!"
A beam almost grazed the Ardent, startled Joseph maneuvered his gunpla in a zigzag motion while scouting around. Another shot was heading towards the Ardent but missed, "So that's where you are!" The Ardent boosted towards the direction where the beam was fired, seconds after another beam was fired in the same direction.
"That won't work thrice!" The beam was closing in and at the last second the Ardent dodged it, but Joseph didn't notice the beam sprays that accompanied the larger beam that he dodged resulting for the Ardent to be damaged slightly. "Curses!" Joseph shrieked,
"Always look at the bigger picture cousin."
The Ardent drifted away a few meters then resumed to pursue in the same direction heading straight back at the beam sprays, Joseph doubled the Ardent's speed whilst dodging the beams.
"I'll close the gap with this, scatter! Sword Bits!" The sword bits detached from the GN Shield behind the Ardent and flew in front defending the Ardent from the beam sprays that might hit the mobile suit. As the Ardent gets closer to where the beams are being fired from, Joseph was beginning to see a silhouette of three floating shields that glows dim green resembling the RX-0 Unicorn's Psychoframes.
"A shield Funnel?!" Joseph exclaimed "Hey that's cheating! That's the Unicorn right? This is an unbalanced fight!" Joseph's guess was right, the Unicorn flew upwards behind a huge rock and showed itself.
"No it ain't couz' this is just a straight built Gunpla, it doesn't hold any special gimmick unlike your custom Built Ardent, well except for the Shield Funnels plus c'mon you got GN Sword Bits, and I didn't forget about that C-Funnels you added , I guess 3 shield funnels wouldn't be enough for the Ardent in a real match."
"That has NT-D you hack!"
"Well it's in Perma-NT-D 'cause I built it in Destroy mode already."
"Get on the fight already brother! We're collecting data remember? Plus I need to finish my homework so hurry the fuck up." Charlie shouted to his brother Joseph while threatening him of cutting the connection from the Control Panel of the projector to her laptop.
"Oh, yes, right! Totes forgot."
"Stop with that lingo you're a grown ass man already." Charlie scolded Joseph.
"Right, right. Well here we go, fly! C-Funnels, Defensive formation!"
The C-Funnels flew from the Ardent and formed a protective circle enveloping the mobile suit.
"GN Sword Bits, switch, attack mode!"
Sure enough the Sword bits flew straight to the Unicorn. The shield funnels reacted and flew back to the Unicorn protecting it from the sword bits.
"This'll take forever if I don't shake things up, the reaction time of those shield funnels are above average," Joseph thought to himself but snapped out of it when he saw the shield funnels form the "high output gate" for the beam magnum shot.
"Oh no you won't! Let's add the C-Funnels in the mix!" The C-Funnels broke formation and flew towards the Shield Funnels targeting the magazine storage of the beam Gatling behind Shield Funnels.
"Tss, Funnels are hassle to fight against."
"Shit! I forgot!"
A wave of energy came out of the Unicorn hitting the funnels and sword bits rendering them immobile for a few seconds before the Unicorn took control of the Funnels and bits.
"Looks like I got careless."
The funnels and bits, now controlled by the Unicorn, rushed back to the Ardent. Joseph maneuvered the Ardent with ease dodging the onslaught of funnels and bits.
"I can't continue like this," lost in thought, Joseph didn't notice a beam shot he's heading towards to, thankfully it only grazed the Ardent on its left shoulder causing Joseph to snap back into the action.
"This is bad; I shouldn't have told you what I was supposed to gather data on."
"Even if you didn't I still would've known, that's the only custom build you've finished recently."
"I guess you're kinda right."
"This is bad, at this rate your Ardent won't survive the onslaught of whatever those homing things are called." Charlie cut in.
"You're right. I didn't imagine this'll happen, dang, looks like I have to do that, tsk." Joseph clicked a button in the controls that opens a holographic keyboard in front of him he then quickly punched the emergency command that he installed in the unit.
"I never thought I'd use the override in a practice match," Joseph whispered in pain, "Shut down!"
The funnels and bits paused from the onslaught and started falling.
"Huh, an emergency shutdown, I'd never think of that. Well, I'm impressed, you really are a versatile tactician, planning ahead."
"It's a failsafe program, no need to be impressed, now let's get on it again."
"I still outnumber you, 4 is to 1 in this battle."
"Mind if I close in the gap?" Joseph clicked another button in the controls and proceeded to switch to the last setting of the Ardent's System Feature.
"Try!" The person on the other side bellowed.
The Ardent started giving off a dim glow of pink and red.
"So you coded that in huh."
"No, it's an inert ability of the Ardent, plus the fun's not yet started." Joseph gained a slight boost of confidence from his tone.
The Ardent then shifted from the pink and red glow to lightning blue, the alternating colors enveloped the Ardent.
"Now for my flashy ability," Joseph paused, "Trans-FX Burst!"
The Ardent glowed pink and red with bursts of lightning blue on the slots where the Funnels and bits were supposed to be placed. Sensing the threat of the Ardent, the Shield Funnels circled around the Unicorn.
"You better be getting the data from this fight Charlie." Joseph smirked.
The Ardent moved in blinding speed towards the Unicorn closing the gap really fast, the Unicorn gestured the Shield Funnels to attack the Ardent while moving away from it.
The Shield Funnels moved indiscriminately while firing at the Ardent, but the Ardent used its other quirk, Quantize, phasing through the assault of the Shield Funnels. The Ardent then detached the Katars at the side of its knees so it can be equipped on the hands. The Ardent then quantized and sliced through the onslaught of the 3 Shield Funnels, getting closer to the Unicorn.
The Unicorn then changed its direction of movement towards the Ardent, closing in, the psychoframes started to glow stronger. The Unicorn then threw the beam magnum away and equipped its beam saber.
The two suits' closing in at each other, Joseph's hands are getting sweaty and shaky but his grip is unyieldingly firm on the controls.
Clash!
The two suits clashed, crossing swords against each other spinning around then pushing each other away only to give themselves a boost back in to clashing swords. The dogfight continued for four times before the Unicorn broke away and started zoom out of the clash as if running away.
"I won't let you escape!" Joseph pressed on the chase with the Unicorn, using the floating landmasses as boosts to catch up to the Unicorn quickly.
The two suits moved in unbelievable speed, leaving trails of green and the combination of red and blue streams of light clashing from time to time.
"This is awesome, it's like watching dragon ball but with mechas." Charlie whispered.
The Ardent is closing in the Unicorn, but the Unicorn stopped suddenly and twisted behind in a counter-clockwise motion with its right hand extended outward while holding the beam saber as if anticipating hitting the Ardent. The Ardent surely went straight to it then quantized through the beam saber, but after the Ardent phased through the saber, another beam saber pierced through the Ardent in body rendering it to revert back to its original state and causing the suit to be immobile.
"What?"
"Game over, cousin."
The Unicorn equipped its beam tonfa and maxed out its beam output for maximum damage, picking up speed towards the Ardent. After a few moments, the Unicorn dashed towards the Ardent and sliced through it ending the battle.
"Battle Ended" The voice from the projector exclaimed.
The projector powered down, the light from the projector slowly dimmed, the plavsky particles that encased the projector and the users were dispersing, rendering the Gunplas immobile making it just a normal plastic model and the controls to disappear. Joseph was still stunned of what transpired on the match.
"Wh-what? What happened?"
"You brother dear have been blindsided," Charlie told Joseph, unplugging the connector from the Control Panel of the projector to her laptop and clapped her hands to turn on the lights in the room.
"Is there a playback on the collected data?" Joseph asked, "I wanna see what happened, it was all too sudden."
"Yeah there's a file, I'll put it up on the screen."
Charlie opened the video file and fast forwarded it to the scene when it happened. The three huddled together at the laptop.
The Unicorn stopped suddenly and twisted behind in a counter-clockwise motion with its right hand extended outward while holding the beam saber as if anticipating hitting the Ardent. The Ardent surely went straight to it then quantized through the beam saber, but after the Ardent phased through the saber, the Unicorn then followed up the attack by throwing its beam saber on its left hand to where it anticipated the Ardent to show up, and sure enough, the Ardent got pierced.
"That's what happened brother."
"That was pure luck though, I acted out of instinct."
"You're a real newtype Caster," Joseph exclaimed to Caster, the pilot behind the Unicorn, "Our Red Comet," Joseph patted him at the back.
"Oh I wish," Caster sighed, "but that title's already taken."
"Then make your own," Charlie suggested,"I've saved the collected data on your hard drive brother."
"nice, thanks," Joseph gave Charlie a thumbs up.
"Now back to my homework. I'll be heading upstairs now." Charlie collected her things and proceeded outside the room and went upstairs before Joseph can even nod.
"Charlie's right, why not make your own title?"
"Well, suggest one, I'm not good with the title department after all."
"Well, why not," Joseph closed his eyes and thought up of a title for Caster.
"We'll worry about that someday," Caster laughed the idea off, "after all, I still need to build up reputation."
"True," Joseph agreed. Caster then turned back to the projector.
"Well, for now, let's fix your Ardent and tweak it," Caster suggested while holding up the Ardent.
"Good idea, I'll go collect the suits, you prep up everything else upstairs."
"Roger that." Caster placed the Ardent back on top of the projector beside the Unicorn.
"Grab the hard drive while you're at it and boot up the computer upstairs." Joseph added.
"Already on it." Caster replied and grabbed the hard drive beside him. Caster headed outside but was interrupted by a small figure that busted through the door.
"Am I in time?!" the short figure shouted.
"No, you aren't, we're just cleaning up now, but you can watch the match later upstairs on the tv," Joseph replied.
"Dang, I'm late, if mum just didn't order me-."
"Chill out Ray, you startled me there," Caster cut in, "anyway I'll be heading upstairs first."
"Sure, I'll be heading up shortly , wanna join in Ray?"
"Oh hell yes, I wanna watch what happened earlier, plus I ain't done with my custom yet." Ray answered with excitement.
"Cool, the let's head upstairs after I finish up here. Speaking of custom," Joseph turned to where Caster was, "Cas- oh, he's upstairs already."
"What is it couz?" Ray asked.
"Nothing, I just wanted to ask if Caster's thinking of making his own custom, I've seen him build straight builds and overall he's in this business longer than me, his older cousin." Joseph paused.
"True, I've never heard him speak about a full custom yet." Ray agreed.
"We can all agree that he's the best in our family when it comes to gunpla, but I've never seen him making his own custom, yeah he did say he has ideas and wanted to work on them, but he hasn't made those into realities yet."
"Peculiar ain't it?"
"I'll ask him later, let's head upstairs at the workstation now, I'm finished here." Joseph ended the topic and proceeded to place the Ardent and the Unicorn in a toolbox.
"Alright!" Ray exclaimed.
-Prologue end-