A streak of pink beams flew past the rock next to Ryusei Aichi's Mobile Suit. A rock in the background exploded in a bright flash. His Geara Zulu's monoeye flashed, as if acknowledging the presence of the enemy Mobile Suit. He returned fire with a stream of yellow beams with his assault rifle. Another boulder exploded. A grenade was launched from the grenade launcher mounted on the assault rifle. The grenade detonated on the enemy MS's shield, sending it flying sky high. A pink beam struck the assault rifle, melting it in half. The rifle exploded.

Ohka Folgore gritted her teeth in frustration as her shot missed the Geara Zulu. The exploding assault rifle blinded he Jegan, dust flying into the air. Suddenly, the warning alarm sounded. A rocket burst out of the cloud of smoke, heading straight for Ohka's Jegan. The 60mm gunpod mounted on the Jegan's head fired a burst into the rocket, causing it to explode. This time the light generated overloaded the Jegan's sensors. It took about a half a second, but that was all Ryusei needed.

The Geara Zulu burst out the smoke, Beam Tomahawk in hand. It slashed at Ohka's Jegan. The Zulu only managed to slice the enemy's rifle in half instead. The Jegan pulled out a Beam Sabre of its own and the two began to slash and hack away at each other. First the arms. Then the legs. Then the head and torso. There was an overwhelming explosion.

/BATTLE ENDED/

"I win! F*** yeah!" Ohka exclaimed. Ryusei sighed in defeat. His Zulu was in ruins. It would take hours to repair. Ohka's Jegan was also not spared. Individual plastic parts were melted in half, no longer an issue of putting dislocated limbs back together. The Jegan's weapons were scattered all over the place, some in melted piles of plastic, indistinguishable from the battle system they were using to fight with.

"What's up with me and losing limbs…" Ryusei said to himself. "If this keeps going I'll probably need a portable storage of extra parts…" Ohka raised her eyebrows.

"Analyzing your defeat already?" Ohka said. "About time you realized the problem is with your MS and not your skills as a fighter." Ryusei shrugged.

"Not much I could do," Ryusei replied. "I'm on a very low budget."

"Good luck with that then," Ohka replied. With that, she left.

"Low budget MS, huh," Ryusei said to himself. He flopped onto his bed, recalling the previous battle. Ryusei had a do-or-die style of close combat, sacrificing limbs and such to destroy the enemy, especially in a one-on-one. Consequently, Ohka countered this style by also using a do-or-die style of close combat. She usually wins.

Probably because she can afford better kits than him. She's also a better builder as well. Ryusei looked up at his shelf. All the kits on the shelf, and there were a rather small number of them, were built rather poorly and had little to no special features. In fact, all of them were straight builds, with some "production shortcuts" such as not using stickers or paint. Ryusei emphasized on quantity over quality. It was how the Federation won the One Year War, so why wouldn't it work here?

Actually, it was blatantly obvious as to why it wouldn't work. Battles were one-on-one, this was not a war that would last for months or years with no rest.

Ryusei looked back at his wrecked Zulu. He looked back at his shelf. Then his calendar. Tomorrow was a Saturday. He had no homework and no plans. Ryusei smiled.

He had an idea.

Ryusei woke up to the sound of the door bell ringing. He walked over to his apartment door and opened it slightly. He found a pair of hazel-colored eyes staring back at him.

"Hi Ryusei," Ohka said. "Did you just wake up? It's already 12:00 PM."

"Yeah," Ryusei replied, ruffling his messed up black hair. "I was up late."

"Doing what..?" Ohka began, but then saw what sat on top of Ryusei's disorganized desk.

There were plastic parts all over the place. Bits of of other mobile suits were on the ground. There was some melted plastic frozen in the air, hanging from Ryusei's 3D printer. A few completed kits were missing from Ryusei's shelf. And on top of the desk was a single MS. It seemed to be a rather normal-looking Geara Zulu. However, the backpack seemed to have a booster unit attached to it. The backpack also seemed to have two projectile cannons attached to the unit's shoulders.

"You repaired you Zulu already?" Ohka asked. Ryusei nodded.

"Yup," he said. "Meet my newest creation, the Volks Zulu." He shifted his gaze to his plastic model.

"I used parts of almost every model kit I had. It should have special features that no other suit has." He turned around to face Ohka. "You repair your Jegan yet?" She nodded.

"Yeah," Ohka said. "Since I saw your gunpla without asking, here." She pulled out a greenish gray gunpla.

"Jegan Type D FAC," she said proudly. "We probably shouldn't go at each other yet. You just finished the gunpla and you look as tired as shit." Ryusei chuckled.

"Heh, thanks." Ohka smiled back at him.

"No problem."

"Did you sign up for the World Tournament?" Ohka asked Ryusei. It was around five o'clock. The two just finished eating a very VERY late lunch and were heading to a local hobby store to test out their new designs.

"Of course I did," Ryusei replied. "That's what the Volks Zulu is for." Ohka shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't see it winning," she said. "You said it yourself. You just threw a bunch of extra parts onto your Geara Zulu." Ryusei sighed.

"That's the thing," he said. "I don't expect to win. I just…" He looked down at his Zulu with solemn eyes.

"I just want to go as far as I can, I guess."

Ohka's gaze began to soften up.

"Is this about your dad?" she asked. Ryusei nodded.

"Yeah," he replied. "He got so far just in a Zaku. At least his loss makes sense." He looked up at the 1/1 scale Gundam Statue that was towering over him.

"He lost to a RX-78-2, so it's not a surprise."

A sharp tap to Ryusei's shoulder brought him out of his monologue.

"We're here."

The monoeye on the Volks Zulu flashed a bright pink. Ryusei took a deep breath.

"Ryusei Aichi, Volks Zulu, launching!"

Author's Notes: Hey y'all! It's Karl the Arty. This is the first chapter of my Build Fighters story. The last time I tried a Gundam fic it kinda flopped so hopefully this one goes well! See you in the next chapter.

Please review and such. It motivates me to keep on writing.