Gundam Build Fighters A

Chapter 2

A Faulty Frame


People can take a game seriously because their life isn't on the line. Maybe some of you recognize the similarity of these words, but the point is it's not that people don't understand the seriousness and brutality of war but rather they simply don't want to. Thankfully…. this is not a tale or a world where death is a common occurrence. Now it's time to see which of our two protagonists shall take the first step into the world of this tale. I think… ladies first shall be the best possible choice in this case. Anyways, the limo in which Emika was riding in during the last chapter had just arrived outside a very prestigious looking school. To be specific the prestigious nature of this school is such that it's where parents that make up to the high millions or low billions send their children. Why it really looks more like a mansion in the middle of a forest with several facilities a distance away from it.

"Now I don't mind what you choose to do as a hobby, but do try and act like a prim and proper lady while you're here." Emika's mother….. politely orders as her daughter exits the vehicle.

"Whatever you say, mother." Emika retorts as she motions to close the limo door behind her.

"Wait a moment… I still have something to say." Emika's mother interjects as she blocks her daughter from closing the limo door.

"Ah I'm sorry mother. What is it?" Emika inquired.

"Do you consider yourself above the simple act of giving your mother a hug before you go off to school?" Emika's mother said as she stretched out her arms to her daughter.

"Have a nice day mother." Emika said as she gave her mother a quick hug once she was sure no one was looking.

"Now be on your way as I don't want you to be late on my account." Emika's mother said.

If this were a Japanese high school I'd have written the whole transfer student introduction bit with the fellow student curiosity package as a bonus; however I'm going to skip that segment as that's not the case. Emika is now sitting at the seat in which she was assigned to for one of her classes, of which she's also eating her lunch while reading a book about Gunpla Building Theory.

"That's stupid… if you whittle down the waist joints like that you're only going to…. oh wait never mind I see what the author meant." Emika mumbles to herself as she turns to the next page in her book.

"I'm sorry for bothering you, but is that a copy of the 5th edition of Universal Century Gunpla Building Techniques by Eustace Elchart?" a fellow male student at this school asked.

"Yes it is actually, and although he's a lesser known author because of his abstract building techniques…" Emika was saying as she turned away from her book to address the person that was speaking to her.

And as Emika looked up she saw a young man perhaps a year or two older than her with green eyes, navy blue hair, and bangs that reach to the bottom of his eyes. His choice of clothing consists of a dark blue-green t-shirt, a dark brown pair of pants, and a matching pair of functional yet black pair of leather shoes.

"Those techniques themselves are able to build at least national quality Gunpla in the right hands, however the reason he's not more widely known is because his abstract techniques are difficult for even the most ambidextrous builder to use." The older student interrupts like he knew what Emika was going to say.

"That's not actually what I was going to say, but really? They are a bit difficult I'll admit, however I never considered them to be that hard. Wait a second, you look exactly like…." Emika was saying as her mind fully grasped the appearance of the person she was talking to.

"Let me guess… I look exactly like Athrun Zala from Gundam Seed correct? I get that a lot, and just to fuel the irony my name is Athrun Castleton. I'm a junior here at Clancy Academy. Anyways, for you to say that so nonchalantly you must be a skilled builder yourself." Athrun interrupts again.

"Athrun-senpai, my name is…." Emika was saying.

"I'm sorry….. senpai?" Athrun said clearly confused by that use of Japanese terminology.

"Ah a term we use back home to address older student or students of a higher grade." Emika explained.

"I see… anyways I'm sorry for interrupting you so much, but I know who you are. Your name is Emika Kurihara, and you've just transferred here from a school Japan after your mother Suiko Kurihara President and C.E.O of the Kurihara Technical Development Corporation came to America to expand the family business." Athrun said as he interrupted Emika yet again.

"I don't know if I should be impressed or disturbed by the fact you know so much." Emika said in honest amazement.

"Clancy Academy takes a great deal of pride in keeping accurate records about the history of each its students, but they stop at the door when it comes to our personal lives. Like the school, I would like to think of what I'm doing now as a common practice where students help transfer students settle into the flow of things. I also believe this is especially true for international students. I see now given your clear interest in Gunpla why the school's staff asked me to do it." Athrun explained.

"What does our mutual interest have to do with anything?" Emika curiously asked.

"I'm actually the president of our school's Model Building Club, and we even have twenty fighters on our official team." Athrun explained.

"Okay that explains a lot." Emika mumbled.

"Since it actually happens to be a half day… would you like to see our club room? That is unless…. you've already made plans for the day." Athrun politely offers to Emika.

"Yes… I think I would enjoy that very much actually." Emika said as she accepted Athrun's offer.

After a few minutes of walking down the golden crown molding of this school's fancy hallways and well maintained walkways, Athrun shows Emika to a three story building the size of a small office building.

"Wow… for a club with only twenty members that's a pretty big building." Emika said in amazement.

"Oh… you must have misunderstood what I said or maybe I didn't explain myself properly. Either way you see most of the school's teachers and students even if they aren't builders or fighters themselves are major Gunpla Battle fans, so to keep things manageable we have strict entry requirements to join the club, but we actually have more than 20 full time members." Athrun explained stopping just inside the club building's entryway.

"Then what did you mean by 20 fighters?" Emika curiously inquired.

"The entry requirements for joining the club change depending on what type of member you want to be. Not counting the members we have purely to manage the club there are the students who want to join to improve their control skills as a fighter, their skills as a builder, or both. To actually join the club you would have to prove you have some ability as a fighter, a builder, or again both if you think your skills are up to the task." Athrun explained again.

"Say I was interested in joining for a moment… how exactly would I go about do that?" Emika curiously asked again.

"As a fighter prove your ability by defeating one of our members, as a builder get the approval of 3 of our club's top builders, and for both do both as you'll have more and a higher bar of expectations to deal with." Athrun answered.

"What are exactly their responsibilities of each member then?" Emika asked yet again.

"We have the fighters go through a variety of training exercises in addition to sparing matches against one another with the goal of winning while inflicting the minimal amount of damage possible. I say to defeat your opponent without 'killing' them is because I believe that takes real skill to do. When I said 20 earlier I was referring to the club's 20 strongest fighters who represent Clancy Academy in single and team scholastic tournaments." Athrun explained.

"And those that join as builders?" Emika asked yet again.

"Well for starters we have the lesser experienced members build Gunpla we donate to less fortunate children for charity. It makes a little boy or girl smile, and helps our members work on their basic skills. Then to help fund the club's activities, our members of an intermediate skill level will for a small fee repair Gunplas that have taken damage beyond their owners ability to fix on their own. Last we have the more advanced builders act as a pit crew for the club's top twenty fighters getting their Gunpla back in fighting shape as quickly as possible like it were a real life or death battle in one the different Gundam Series. I know it seems like we're strict for doing all that, but all the members have fun and find the extra work to improve their skills really rewarding." Athrun explained.

"Wow you run your club like a small army." Emika said in amazement.

"But we're not trying to be stuffy like an actually army or commit atrocities like the Titans as it's all in good fun really, but enough talk… let me show you inside and introduce you to the few members that are here today." Athrun said as he guided Emika further inside the building.

"Why would only a few members be here today? From the way you described everything you have the club run like a well oiled machine." Emika pointed out.

"That's because the inter-school national qualifier tournament is going on today, and most of the members are either competing or showing their support. The only reason… hold on we're taking a left here. Anyways, the only reason I'm not there myself is because I accidently damaged by Gunpla during some routing maintenance and I'm waiting for the replacement parts I need to fix it to be delivered. Besides… even in the off chance we don't make it in this qualifier tournament there are still two more after that." Athrun explained.

"Okay, but… actually I'm just going to stop talking and let you show me around." Emika said as she remembered her mother's wishes for her to be more lady like.

After a few more minutes of walking around, Athrun leads Emika to a medium sized lecture hall where there is a male student working on repairing two different Gunpla while a female student is performing some system checks on the 3D image projector used for Gunpla battles.

"We use this room primarily for Gunpla lectures. We have another room of Gunpla Fight Tables down the hall primarily for practice or exhibition matches." Athrun said as he explained the purpose of this room.

"Oh hey Athrun, I see you're back from showing that transfer around. That a hopefull new member?" the male student asked as he gave only a slight glance up from the Gunplas he was fixing.

"Hopefully, but she's actually the transfer student I was asked to look after. How are the system checks for the table going?" Athrun said answering the male student before asking the female student a question.

"We can use this table 2 or 3 more times before we have to call someone to replace the 3D image rendering node in the central Hexagon." The female student answered in a blunt monotone tone of voice.

"I see, we better get that taken care of before next week. Anyways, come up to the front guys and let me introduce you to the international transfer student from Japan." Athrun said as he got the attention of the two other members of the model building club that were here.

"Hello I'm Emika Kurihara and it's nice to meet all of you. I hope we can all get along." Emika said as she offered the club members a respectful bow.

It should also be noted that Emika's statement just now is what's expected of the typical transfer student bit, but again that's not important right now.

"The guy over there is Todd Auburn and he's the club's second best builder next to me. Then the bundle of emotion over here is Alice Guide. She's the club's 5th best builder, 3rd best fighter, and she maintains the equipment we use to maintain our Gunpla in her spare time." Athrun explained.

"You there, let me see your Gunpla." Alice asked in a blunt if not a somewhat rude manner as she pointed to the case attached to Emika's hip.

"She means well I swear, but that's just how she is around potential new members…. that is if you're interested in joining of course. Anyways she'll warm up to you as she gets to know you." Todd interjects.

"No it's fine… I don't mind… showing her my Gunpla that is." Emika retorts.

The moment Emika set down her Gunpla on the 3D imaging table, Alice took out a small magnifying glass that she later explained she always keeps on her to examine the Gunpla built by potential applicants.

"This GN-007 Arios Gundam with an impressively done by hand original paint job has no noticeable battle experience, in addition there are no signs of any special customization past the expected differences between builders, however the few noticeable scratch marks indicate this particular Gunpla was built with the techniques expected of Universal Century Gunpla which emphasized minimizing the reduction effect increased armor has on speed, and the barrels of the twin beam rifle have been reinforced with a dense polymer that I don't recognize…. It passes the entry requirements." Alice said a few minutes later.

"Wow….. I've only seen Alice praise someone like that maybe only two times, so you must be a skilled builder. Still if that Gunpla hasn't been broken in yet why don't you test it here? I'm sure Alice wouldn't mind being your opponent." Todd suggests.

"I do mind…. I'm in the middle of installing an upgrade to my Gunpla's thrusters, and it'll be another day or two before the glue dries." Alice interjects as she wiped the sweat off her face with a hand towel.

"As do I because I heard there's an Arcade at a mall about thirty minutes from here with a few Gunpla Fight Tables, so I was planning to go through a trial run there. Actually… I should get going now that I think about it if I want to make the bus." Emika explained.

"Allow me to walk you then. Contrary to how Clancy Academy comes across to the general public, we're all not a bunch of arrogant high-born gits prancing about our parent's private yachts though I don't deny there are those who fit that description either." Athrun says to Emika.


With the first part of this tale written in stone…. or technically typed deep in the back of some internet server as the case may be… it's time to see how the tale of our male protagonist is going to start as he goes about his own school life. Specifically I'm going to start with where they left off as Alex's father drives him to school in his car.

"I see you still haven't given up your dream of reclaiming your title." Alex's father points out as he glances over to his own son holding the Gunpla case in his hand as if it were his own child.

"Not a chance dad. Despite that accident slowing me down a bit, it'll take way more than that to stop me." Alex said with an almost happy go lucky smile.

"Ah geez make it harder on me why don't you?" Alex's father said as if his son's response to his earlier statement was the last thing he wanted to hear.

"What do you mean dad?" Alex asked as he was confused by what his father meant by what he said.

"This is something I should be telling you while we're at home, but you should just give up your dream about winning the Gunpla World Tournament. If you could be where you were before the accident then maybe you would have stood a chance, but now it's just impossible in your condition." Alex's father said as didn't like one bit to have to tell his son to give up on his dreams.

After being put into a state of irritation beyond the fact that Alex's own father doesn't believe in him and his dream, filled with anger Alex gets out of his father's car at the first stop light as he hoisted his backpack over one shoulder.

"Alex, are you crazy? What are you doing?" Alex's father asked surprised by his father's strange behavior.

"I'm not giving up on my dream… no matter what you or anybody else says. Just go ahead and drive to work dad, however I'll be walking if you're going to act that way." Alex said as he vented his frustration at his father.

Compared to the prestigious school Emika attends, Alex's is nothing more than a somewhat underfunded and definitely overcrowded public school. It's just a tightly packed group of buildings save for the school's quad where most students meet for lunch, and the rest walk to different buildings via outdoor hallways. Like with Emika, I'm going to skip the daily routines of the school and head straight to afterschool where Alex is enjoying his lunch while he's putting back together some pieces that fell off his "Questionably" built Gunpla.

"Oh for the love of… why won't you stay on the holders?" Alex asked himself as he tried to get his Zeta Gundam's beam sabers to snap back into place in its storage area for them on the hips.

"Maybe if you didn't grind down the connecting joins here so much… you wouldn't be having this problem." A student suggested.

"If I did that Brandon, they would kept sliding backwards and hit the glider attached to the Zeta's back." Alex said without even looking up from his Gunpla due to apparently knowing the owner of the voice.

Contrary to the male sounding name, Brandon is actually a red headed female with short hair, a yellow half jacket with the yin/yang symbol on the left side, blue eyes, and a black pair of pants.

"This one's more of an improvement over your last Zeta Gundam then I expected." Brandon pointed out with the intention of complimenting her friend.

"But it's still horribly built despite what words of confidence I said when I finished it, and as such I'd be creamed in an a low-level tournament." Alex said letting a sad look on his face slip through for just a moment.

"What's with the long face man?" Brandon asked with clear concern over her friend's mental dispisition.

"My father said I should give up on Gunpla and though he didn't actually say it find some other kind of hobby." Alex explains to his friend not noticing he had somewhat of a sad grin on his face.

"Well you should…" Brandon was saying.

"Just do what your daddy said and give up on it. Someone with your shitty building skills wouldn't even make it past the first round of a shop tournament." An arrogant sounding young man said.

"What do you want?" Alex asked this arrogantly young man clearly displeased by his presence due to apparently knowing him as well.

Once Brandon and Kevin turned to their right, they saw another student of whom they knew to be a bully to other kids and much to their intense mutual dislike a fellow Gunpla Fighter/Builder by the name of Aden. Then standing right next to Aden are two of his goons, henchmen, or cronies… whatever you prefer to call them really.

"Easy meat… I wasn't done talking yet. A member of the country's Elite Four shouldn't be hanging around such a weakling, and instead should be hanging out with me…. a real man and a real fighter." Aden said in such an arrogant tone of voice.

"Elite 4 boss?" one of Aden's goons asked confused by his boss's use of that term.

"Seriously… you don't know who they are?" Aden said as he smacked his underling on the side of his head for his lack of knowledge on the subject.

"Sorry boss, but I'm still learning the who's who of the Gunpla world. I've been so focused on the guys from other countries that I forgot about our own." the underling in question said as he tried to rub the pain away.

"Sigh….. okay I'm only going to explain this to you once, so listen up. You're at least familiar with the whole Elite 4 thing for the Pokémon games right?" Aden inquired of his idiot underling.

"If not…. They're the top four trainers of a region second only to its champion. Brandon here is a member of the American Gunpla scene's current Elite 4 with their only better being her older brother the current America Gunpla champion." Aden's other underling interjects.

"You idiot… you're making me look like an idiot." Aden said as he wacked his other underling on the side of the head as well.

"Sorry boss… didn't mean to." Aden's other underling said as he too tried to rub the pain away.

"Anyways for you my other imbecile…. another member of the Elite 4 lives here in this city like Brandon and her brother while the other two live in Oklahoma City and New York City respectively." Aden's other underling interjects.

"Geez I'm flattered but no thank you….. bad boys are so not my type, and besides I've seen you fight before so I know for a fact Alex's control skills are way better than yours." Brandon says nonchalantly.

"Oh… challenge accepted. Alex you me afterschool, the Blitz arcade at the mall after school, and bring your shitty Gunpla so I can take it apart but if you can't do it today let me know because…" Aden was saying.

"You'll understand if I'm too much of a coward to fight you. Was that what you were going to say?" Alex interrupts.

"Wha… no don't interrupt me. I was going to say that if you can't do it today, I'm willing to go at it whenever it's convenient for you. Yeah I'm a bully and I have no trouble admitting that, but when it comes to a Gunpla Battle I'm willing to be more flexible." Aden said as he cracked his knuckles though not in an intentionally threatening manner.

"I'll admit….. that's not the reaction I expected, but you do know it's only a half day today right? Still that's not a problem as I have nothing to do right now, so we can go there right now if it's convenient for you." Alex said accepting the bully Aden's challenge.

"Wait hold on a second…. you don't stand a chance. You said it yourself that your Gunpla is horribly built." Brandon points out trying to get her friend out of what she thought to be a foolish course of action.

"I know that, but I still have to accept the challenge." Alex answered without even looking at his friend.

"Why?" a surprised Brandon asked.

"For someone that's supposed to be one of the country's Elite 4 Gunpla Fighters…. you sure don't understand how a Gunpla fighter thinks. Or maybe it's a man thing. Well regardless out of my pride I'm challenging Alex to prove my strength." Aden said answering Brandon's question and proving that he has some wisdom when it comes to the pride of battling.

"Sometimes a great soldier is discharged because of what is technically a minor injury or disease, but they still have the ability to do their job despite this. I want to prove this true for me for the sake of my pride." Alex followed.

"Arghh why did you two have to say something so cool? Fine fine I'll withdraw my complaint, but don't say I didn't warn your Alex." Brandon said as she reluctantly shook her head.


Blitz with no intentional reference to the Gundam by the same name is a dark colored arcade filled with black carpeting, along with equally dark gray colored tiles with white specks on them, and this arcade is brightly lit to suit the décor so as to give the customers the experience that they're playing their favorite game in space. The Gunpla fight tables as I'll continue to call them until an official name is given in the anime are located in the back of the arcade with small bleachers set up so people could sit and enjoy the carnage. Then Emika of all people after taking the bus here is talking to an arcade employee apparently assigned to manage the fight tables.

"Yes can I help you miss?" the Blitz Arcade employee asked.

"This is um my first time at this mall let alone this arcade, and this is probably a stupid question but is this where I can have a Gunpla Battle?" Emika asked.

"Yes this is madam, but there are a few people ahead of you. You're actually very lucky… more people are usually here by now from the nearby schools on a half day, so you shouldn't have much of a wait. You can pass the time by watching the fights ahead of you or by playing a few of the other games we have at our fine establishment." The Blitz Arcade employee answered in such a way that shows he's a good one.

"I'll just sit and watch the ….Hmm pardon me, but why aren't these two other tables being used?" Emika curiously inquired of the arcade employee.

"They're down for standard maintenance and won't be ready for use until tomorrow. Could you please write down your name on this waiting list? I'll call you up as soon as it's your turn." The Blitz Arcade employee explained before passing Emika a clipboard.

"Okay…. done." Emika said as she passes the arcade employee his clipboard back.

"Please enjoy the battles." The Blitz Arcade employee said with a smile.

Once Emika found an open seat between a couple of girls in the upper part of the bleachers, she took out her Arios Gunpla holding it tightly like a young child would their favorite stuffed animal. Once her confidence was restored, Emika looks towards the working Gunpla Fight Table only to see Alex and Aden standing in front of it.

"Out of what little respect I've just gained for you from what you said back at school…. I'll offer you this one chance now to back out, so this way your Gunpla doesn't end up cut into pieces." Aden said.

"Can't we just skip the pre-battle smack talk and get down to business?" Alex retorts with a confident grin.

"Please set your GP base." The OS of the fight table said in a familiar robotic tone of voice.

The moment these two set their GP bases, they lit up with bright blue lettering revealing who they are and basic information about the Gunplas they'll be using. As I've described earlier Alex is using his 'Questionably' built Zeta Gundam, and ironically Aden his opponent is using a bright orange RX-110 Gabthley with no obvious signs of specialized customization.

"Beginning Plavsky Particle dispersal." The OS of the fight table announced.

Like on both fighters GP base's they're surrounded by bright blue holograms in all directions, with each screen either being the measure for some kind of gauge, a view screen to show the fighters what their Gunplas are seeing with their own eyes, and floating in front of these two are two bright yellow spheres used as controllers.

"Field 7, Cavern." The OS of the fight table announced again.

Now the Plavsky Particles give shape to the arena in which these two shall due battle in the form of a cavern filled with stalagmites, stalactites, roads and building. Why if I didn't know any better I'd say this place looks exactly like the deep interior of Jaburo.

"Please set your Gunpla." The monotonous OS of the fight table set yet again.

Like it was previously described, Aden places before him his bright orange Gabthley as a flash of blue light passes over it, gives it life, and allows it to raise its head on its own to which Alex does the same with his Zeta Gundam.

"That's one of the mobile suits developed by the Titans during the Universal Century. Now let's see what this other guy will play." Emika thought.

"Alright…. keep calm because it's my turn." Alex thought as he placed his Zeta Gundam before him.

"Looks like we have a real battle of ideals going on… wait ha ha that's the most poorly built Gunpla I've ever seen." Emika laughs not realizing how loudly she said the latter part of her sentence.

"Who said that?!" Alex yelled clearly irritated as he overheard Emika's statement, but was apparently unable to tell exactly where it came from.

"Oh I can't believe I said something so rude out loud." Emika thought clearly embarrassed and feeling guilty by what she so rudely mumbled earlier.

"Battle start." The OS of the fight table said at last signaling the start of the action portion of this chapter.

"Pay attention or this battle will be over as quickly as it started!" Aden yelled as his Gabthley flew into these holographic caverns.

"Wha.. tch Zeta Gundam launching!" Alex yelled as he got his head back on the battle while his Gunpla flew out of its holographic catapult.

These two fighters carefully navigate the maze-like caverns, roads, and military buildings as they look for each other with the intention of bringing this battle quickly to a close. Alex is carefully moving his Gunpla from building to building finally entering the more 'cavern' parts of the cavern as he tries to tread through an underground river on foot.

"Okay… even if I could use the Zeta in its fighter form these caverns.. . I'd have little room to move, so that means Aden will have the same problem." Alex thought as he contstantly glanced between his view screens for signs of his opponent.

"You're thinking that I can't fly through here in my Gabthley very well aren't you? Well you are right I can't, but I'm sure you remember how Zeon got some of their forces inside Jaburo when they tried raiding this place during the One Year War." Aden said with a very confident grin.

"Oh crap." Alex blurts out.

Alex has the Zeta Gundam turn on the afterburners so as to avoid any danger hiding in the river, and he's thinking about just where Aden will come from as he looks down at the river from above.

"I see you, and you felt for it! I may have brought that up, but I never said that's what I was going to do!" Aden yelled deciding to pick up the pace.

"Shit… shit… shit where is he? Above…. below… behind!" Alex thought as his instincts told him where Aden was.

Alex turned around in time to see Aden coming, but not soon enough to get out of the way as the last thing he saw through the eyes of his Gunpla were the claws of the Gabthley's mobile armor form as it ripped of its head. The shock from this damage reverberated throughout Alex's Gunpla causing it to literally come apart at the joints.

"Battle Ended." The fight table's automated voice said as it started to shut down and the plavsky particles began to disperse into nothingness.

"Arghh god dam it…. but it's still an improvement over the last one if nothing else." Alex sighed as he tried to regain his composure and take something good from all this while collecting the remains of his Gunpla.

Seeing that the battle had ended Emika decided to get up from her seat and move closer to the fight tables in hopes she'll be called up very soon. After all in this world the thrill of a Gunpla Battle is something that's very hard to resist.

"Aww the guy tried, but I can't believe he felt for such an obvious trap. Then again I'm a total beginner so I probably would have felt for it as well." Emika thought as she straightened out her hair.

Now Emika was about to sit in a newly open seat on the bleachers right next to the Gunpla Fight Table where Aden and Alex happen to have fought. Then all of a sudden Emika's mother appeared grabbing her daughters arm while wearing a more casual dress to blend in with this crowd of commoners as she would call it.

"There you are… I know you talked to me about it, but I didn't think you'd actually do it. I swear if the Model Building Club president didn't tell me where you were who knows what would have happened. I've told you countless times that you're strictly forbidden from fighting in these Gunpla Battles. Come on…. We're going home right now." Emika's mother said as she started to drag her daughter by the hand.

Like a child that refuses to leave the zoo because they're having so much fun at it, Emika resists her mother's pull because she still wants to see the Gunpla Battles however mundane they'll be rage on.

"Stop fighting… or you're only going to make it worse for yourself." Emika's mother said like a cop trying to get a struggling perp to submit.

"Wait… mom I dropped my Gunpla." Emika plead as she reached her hand out to try and grab her Arios Gunpla that landed on the seat she was sitting on.

"Oh no you're leaving that here… it's best you quit this cold turkey right now." Emika's mother retorts as she continues to pull on Emika's arm.

"Middle school kids… what can you do?" Brandon mumbles to herself as she finally took notice of Emika's valiant yet futile struggle against her mother's wrath.

Once Alex finished collecting the broken pieces of his Gunpla, he turned around and walk up the seat sections of the bleachers like they were stairs so he could sit next to his friend Brandon.

"Well I've certainly just made a complete ass of myself. I do hope the event of my humiliating defeat won't damage your illustrious reputation as a member of the Elite 4." Alex said as he wanted to throw off the pain of his defeat with some light humor as he continued to walk up the bleachers towards Brandon.

"You can stop it with the chivalrous gentlemanly act. You can't pull that one off ei… wait don't move!" Brandon said as she suddenly sat up from her seat.

"What is it?" Alex says with concern as he tries to balance himself on one foot.

"Below you right foot… look." Brandon said as she pointed to the aforementioned space with her left hand.

After Alex carefully placed the leg he had hanging freely in the air back on the ground, he saw that Brandon was pointing to Emika's red and black Arios Gunpla that she dropped earlier.

"Someone's Gunpla must have fallen out of their case." Alex mumbled as he picked up the Arios Gunpla.

"If its owner hasn't freaked out yet… they soon will be once they notice their Gunpla has gone missing." Brandon pointed out as she and Alex examined the Arios in detail.

"It's a bit heavier than I expected, but that's probably due to using heavier connecting joints to take care of the stability in flight issue Arios based Gunpla usually have. Here why don't you take a look?" Alex said as he passed Brandon the Arios.

"Yeah I see what you mean, but you should also take a look at the weapons. Who ever built this must be pretty good to build its basic armaments with this level of quality." Brandon retorts as she examined every nook and cranny of the Arios.

"What are you looking at?" Aden asked having become curious over what Alex and Brandon were huddling over.

"Oh it's…" Alex started saying.

"Wait you've had such a well built Gunpla this whole time and instead you fought be with that piece of crap Zeta? You weren't taking me seriously at all were you?" Aden said interrupting Alex as he came to the wrong conclusion from this situation.

"Wait, no this isn't…." Alex was saying as he tried to explain the situation.

"If you're going to say it's none of my concern then don't . I want a rematch right now with you using that Gunpla. Come on people… that last fight was so humiliatingly bad. I say my opponent deserves a chance to redeem himself. What about the rest of you?" Aden tells Alex before rousing the crowd's attention like he was his own Char Aznable.

"I'll give up my turn, so go right ahead." A young Gunpla Battler said falling for Aden's charismatic speech.

"This Gunpla is really well built…. Even if it's only once it could be the only chance I'm ever going to get to fight the way I want again." Alex thought as he put serious consideration into using Emika's Gunpla.

"Alex, don't do it. You can't just use someone else's Gunpla without asking them. Do you realize how mad its owner will get if you damage it?" Brandon said as she read Alex's thoughts like a book.

"Then if that happens and the owner comes back… I'll get on my hands and knees and beg for forgiveness." Alex said in a serious tone of voice.

"Arghh dam you for saying something so cool again. Fine… I'll say it again… don't say I didn't warn you." Brandon said as she reluctantly decided to let him do what he wants.

Alex still decided to unknowingly use Emika's Gunpla, and is now standing right back at the Gunpla Fight Table he was using before. All the while Aden is standing across from ready to fight for his falsely injured pride. The Plavsky Particles have already dispersed leaving these two fighters in anticipation of what field they'll be doing battle on.

"Field 1 Space. Please set your Gunpla." The automated voice of the fight table said.

"I can do this… I can prove I'm still a fighter." Alex thought as he placed Emika's Gundam on his GP Base.

"Battle Start." The automated voice said signaling the start of the rematch.

"…. Gundam Arios launching!" Alex yelled.


To Be Continued

Brandon: That wasn't the result I was expecting.

Alex: Neither was I, but now I have to return my…

Emika: Our Gunpla.

Alex: Yeah… wait what are you talking about?

Athrun: Let me see…. exactly what your new Gunpla can do.

Emika: Next time on Gundam Build Fighters A "A Completed Existence"

Alex: Arios Zeta, I'm taking off!