As the days went by, Danny and his friends had been balancing their school work and preparing for the Gunpla Tournament. It was a bit of a challenge as the trio had a hard time deciding if they should work on their homework first or practice with their Gunplas. This wouldn't be much of a problem due to the week of the tournament would be at the beginning of their summer break, but several of the teachers decided on dropping a large amount of homework on their students. Whether or not this was coincidental would be up to debate, but Danny and his friends would consider themselves lucky that their parents were more or less fine with them competing in this tournament.
As it turned out, Sam's parents didn't mind that their daughter played Gunpla Battles as they discovered how many wealthy businessmen would invest a little bit of their money either sponsoring a major Gunpla Fighter, or try to form a partnership with the Yajima Trading company after the PPSE went under after the chairman went missing after the incident that happened in the Seventh World Gunpla Tournament last year and took over the creation of Plavsky Particles for the Gunpla Battle systems. So when Sam told her parents that she was going to enter the tournament, they were all for it as it would give them a chance to attempt at form business ties with other wealthy individuals.
When Tucker told his parents about entering the tournament, they were fine with it too. Tucker's parents believed that participating in the tournament would be a great learning experience for Tucker.
As for Danny, it was a bit more challenging as Jack and Maddie didn't seem to like the idea.
Flashback to Danny explaining about entering the tournament to his parents
Danny found himself sitting in the living room with his parents standing in front of him with their arms crossed.
"Do mind telling us why you signed up for this silly little tournament Danny," Maddie scolded her son before waiting for his reply.
"Well, it looked like a fun thing to do during the summer," Danny told his mother.
"What is fun about competing in a tournament with silly little toy robots?" asked Maddie, not seeing the point in it.
"It just is Mom," replied Danny.
Maddie did not look convinced with Danny's answer. Before she could say anything, the front door opened to reveal Dani and Jazz entering the house.
"We're home!" cheered Dani before running into the living room to tackle her brother.
"Dani, you forgot to take off your shoes," Jazz told her baby sister but her words fell on deaf ears and Dani crashed on top of Danny.
"Hey there squirt," Danny said as he set Dani on his lap.
"Hey Danny, what did you do today?" asked Dani.
"Your brother signed up for some silly tournament," Jack told his youngest.
"What kind of tournament?" asked Dani.
"A Gunpla tournament," answered Danny.
Dani's eyes widened before she let out a big scream of excitement. Danny had to cover his ears for a moment to avoid losing his hearing.
"Really?" started Dani as she started bouncing on her brother's lap. "You're going to compete in a Gunpla tournament?" she asked.
Jack and Maddie were surprised at their youngest daughter's enthusiastic behavior while Jazz giggled at Dani's antics.
"Well, I was but Mom and Dad…" Danny started but Dani's attention was switched to their parents.
"Can we watch Danny compete Mom and Dad, please," pleaded Dani. "Pretty please!" she continued as she gave her parents her secret weapon.
The Big Blue Puppy Dog Eyes.
Jack and Maddie tried to avert their gazes but they were unable to say no to their youngest.
"Well, I don't see the harm in letting Danny compete," said Jack.
Danny smile while Dani cheered about her brother being in a Gunpla tournament.
'I always knew there was an upside to having her as a sister,' thought Danny.
'Mom and Dad can never say no to Dani,' thought Jazz. 'They spoil her so much,' she added.
End of flashback
In a way Danny had his baby sister to thank for his parents allowing him to compete in the tournament. Besides, Danny seriously doubted he would make it all the way to the top ten, so he didn't see why his parents would have been against him competing.
Regardless, when the day of the tournament came, Danny and his friends, along with their families behind them, found themselves standing in front of the stadium that will be filled with Gunpla Battling fans.
"So this is the place?" asked Jack as he looked at the stadium.
"Yep, this is where the first part of the tournament will take place," answered Sam.
"First part?" questioned Maddie, wondering what Sam was talking about.
"The main tournament won't start until the top ten competitors of each state in the Great Lakes region are selected," explained Danny. "After that, they go to Wisconsin to compete in the actual tournament," he told his mother.
"Why didn't you tell us about that?" Maddie asked in a disapproving tone.
"Mom, it's not like I'll make it to the final ten, so it wasn't that important," Danny answered as he and his friends headed towards the front of the stadium.
"I still don't understand why Danny is interested in this stuff," Maddie wondered. "It seems so silly," she added.
"Oh don't be a spoilsport Maddie," commented Tucker's mom. "It's just something kids these days do," she added. "It's not like they are going to be competing against adults," she pointed out.
Ten minutes later inside the stadium
"I stand corrected," Tucker's mom amended as she and the rest of the family members of Danny, Sam, and Tucker watched a Gunpla Battle between an AMX-011 Zaku III used by a Hispanic man and a NRX-044 Asshimar used by a blonde haired man whose hair resembles Elvis's hair style.
The adults watched in surprise while Jazz and Dani simply watched the match, enjoying it as the Zaku III, wielding two guns that emitted beam sabers under the barrel of the guns, charged at the Asshimar but the orange and green Gunpla jumped away from the grey Zaku before transforming into an orange flying saucer with its large beam rifle placed underneath it. The Asshimar flew over the Zaku III's head and fired its beam rifle at it. However the Zaku used the shoulder shield on its right arm to block the shot before shooting at the Asshimar as it flew past it.
Up in the stands, the audience gave out loud cheers as the matched continued on with the Asshimar changing back into its mobile suit mode and punched the Zaku III in the head with its left hand. The Zaku grabbed the Asshimar's hand before firing a beam shot from its mouth, destroying the Asshimar's mono-eye camera thereby blinding its opponent. Despite losing its ability to see, the Asshimar pointed its beam rifle at the Zaku III and fired at the chest. The beam tore a gaping hole through the Zaku's chest and exited through the backpack. The Asshimar let go of the Zaku III, which fell onto the ground.
Battle Ended
The audience let out excited cheers, Dani possibly being one of the loudest, as the owner of the Asshimar waved his arms up in victory while the owner of the Zaku III collected his damaged Gunpla and sighed due to his loss. However, despite losing the Zaku III's builder shook hands with the winner before they left the battle system so that the next round can begin.
As the tournament continued, Danny and his friends were watching the matches from the sidelines while waiting for their respective matches. Sam was holding onto her Fang Garazzo because out of the trio, she would be the first one to compete. Tucker was looking at the Wizard packs that he had with him as he tried to figure out which pack he should use when his match came up. As for Danny, he noticed that the next two competitors were making their way to the battle system.
One of the competitors was a sixteen year old boy of Asian descent, possibly from the Southeastern area. He had short black hair and black eyes, which to Danny felt kind of creepy as it reminded him of the Black Eyed Children when he and Sam watched an episode of Monsters and Mysteries in America. This boy was Amon Tang, a junior from his school and one of the more skilled Gunpla fighters in Amity Park.
Standing in front of the battle system, Amon held onto his Gunpla in his right hand and his GP base in his left. The Gunpla was one of the older 1/144th scale Gundam Wing models, more specifically it was a customized XXXG-01S2 Altron Gundam. The Gunpla was based on TV version instead of the more iconic Endless Waltz version but its dragon head weapons called the Dragon Fangs looked like a mix of the TV version and the Endless Waltz version but the actual fangs were smaller and it had flamethrower nozzles on the sides of the heads. The color scheme was a bluish green on white with the green on the torso, the shoulder pads, a bit on the skirt armor, the forearms, and the Dragon Fangs. There was some red on the chest with gold trimmings around the chest. The wings on the back were a bit more robust. The Gundam held onto a double ended beam trident in its right hand.
Beginning Plavsky Particle Dispersal
Amon and his opponent waited as the battle system emitted the particles and selected the battle field for them.
Field 11: Castle
The battlefield turned out to be a feudal Japanese castle which seems appropriate as Amon and his opponent are using Gunplas that have Oriental themes.
Please set your GP Base
The two Gunpla Fighters did as instructed.
Please set your Gunpla
Amon and his opponent did as instructed as Amon's GP base read the name of his Gunpla, Altron Gundam II while his opponents read Shinobi Blitz.
The Shinobi Blitz was a minor customized Blitz Gundam with the shoulder pads and side skirt armor removed as well as the offensive shield weapon being omitted. Instead, the Shinobi Blitz was equipped with two katana styled swords on its hips.
"Altron Gundam II, launching," said Amon as his Gunpla exited the gate and landed on top of the roof of the castle.
The Altron activated its twin beam trident before launching itself towards its opponent. The Shinobi Blitz pulled out both of its swords before turning invisible. The Altron swung its beam trident at where the Shinobi Blitz was but hit nothing. Instead of lashing out randomly, Amon had his Altron stay still.
The crowd waited with baited breath as they waited for something to happen.
Suddenly, Amon's Gunpla moved its arms outward to unleash massive streams of fire from the flamethrowers on the Dragon Fangs. The Altron started to spin around to encircle itself in a ring of fire. Within the fire was the silhouette of the Shinobi Blitz which Amon noticed and launched the left Dragon Fang at the Blitz, crushing the head.
Battle Ended
The crowd cheered, though they kind of wished the match was a little longer but that's just how some Gunpla Battles end up. You could have a long exciting match or short match that would leave fans stunned. Over at the sidelines, Danny and his friends were thinking about how tough it would be to face off against Amon.
"Man, I would hate to go up against him," commented Tucker.
"Yeah, he could make it to the top ten," agreed Sam as she clutched onto her Garazzo.
"No kidding," added Danny as he watched Amon leave the floor.
The next match happened to be Sam's match, she stood in front of the battle system ready to face off against her opponent.
"It looks like I have an easy win today," commented an annoying voice that all too familiar to Sam.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me," said Sam as she looked to confirm who her opponent was. "Paulina," she said in disbelief.
Indeed, Sam's first opponent was Paulina, the most popular girl in Casper High. She was holding onto G Gundam's very own Sailor Moon looking Gundam, the Nobel Gundam or Noble Gundam as it was called in the English Dub. This Nobel Gundam was given a custom paint job based on the cheerleading outfit that Casper High's cheerleading squad wore and the yellow hair ornament was painted black to match Paulina's hair.
"Why don't you just quit right now Goth Freak?" taunted Paulina. "You know you can't win," she added.
Beginning Plavsky Particle Dispersal
"We'll see about that Paulina," said Sam.
Field 03: Forest
Please set your GP base
The two girls did as instructed.
Please set your Gunpla
Sam and Paulina set their Gunplas on their GP bases and got ready for their match. After the two Gunplas launched out of the gates, Sam had her Garazzo fly in the air while Paulina's Nobel landed on the ground. Sam was getting ready to begin her attack but she stopped herself when she saw the Nobel waving at the audience and even blew a kiss. How can anyone make a plastic model of a giant robot from a Japanese cartoon blow a kiss is anyone's guess, but Sam wasn't about to let this act of stupidity go as she swooped down, activated the Garazzo's beam claws and cleaved the distracted Nobel Gundam in half causing it to explode.
Battle ended
"Hey!" screamed Paulina. "That's cheating!" she accused.
"Not really," replied Sam as she picked up her Garazzo and headed back to her friends.
"Way to go Sam!" cheered Danny as he hugged her.
This caused Sam to blush for a moment before regaining her usual composer.
"Human…contact…crushing….Goth indifference…" Sam said.
"Oops," replied Danny as he let go. "Sorry about that," he apologized.
"Don't worry about it Danny," said Sam. "I get it, your family's big on hugging," she added. "It's no big deal," she finished before blushing again.
"Lovebirds," said Tucker and several other Gunpla fighters, including Valerie who was waiting for her match.
"WE ARE NOT LOVEBIRDS!" yelled Danny and Sam before looking at each other in confusion before glaring at their friend, and the other competitors due to being behind Tucker.
The matches continued on with many competitors squaring off against each other. Some of the competitors were fellow students of Casper High such as Dash, who lost to a ten year old girl using a customized Acguy that looked like a bear called a Beargguy due to the toy company, Bandai, wanted to create a Gunpla that would attract girls.
Another student from Casper High was Kwan, who was using an Adele from Gundam AGE with the normal arms and legs swapped out with the Titus limbs from the Gundam AGE 1 Titus. His match was also short as he was taken down by Valerie who used her Gouf's speed and Gatling gun to keep her distance from the Adele before slicing it in half with the heat sword.
When it was Danny's turn, he stood in front of the battle system with is GM Phantom Striker in hand while his opponent was, surprisingly enough, Mr. Lancer. Lancer was holding onto a High Grade Guncannon, the first of the High Grade Universal Century model kits made back in 1999.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me," said Danny, which is kind of funny since that was what Sam said several matches ago.
As the battle system went through the usual setup of dispersing the Plavsky particles and instructing the players to set their GP bases and Gunplas, Danny found it strange how he and Sam were going up against people from their school. The battle system's CPU had chosen field four, the mountain field set in the winter season.
"GM Phantom Striker, let's go!" yelled Danny as his GM entered the battlefield.
Just as the GM Phantom Striker was about to land on the snow covered ground, Lancer's Guncannon had begun bombarding him with its shoulder mounted cannons. This caused Danny to kick in his thrusters to dodge the attack.
"You need to learn to pay attention Mr. Fenton," said Lancer as he continued his attack.
Danny gave a small annoyed groan as he continued to dodge the attacks. However, one of the cannon rounds was too close for him to dodge which caused Danny to block it with the small shield mounted on his GM's left arm. The GM Phantom Striker blocked the shell but the explosion from it knocked the Phantom Striker back but Danny activated the thrusters to stop him from falling.
"Okay, if that's how Lancer wants it," muttered Danny as he starting firing his beam pistols at the Guncannon.
Lancer was surprised by Danny's sudden attack but returned fire with his cannons and the beam rifle in his Guncannon's right hand. What Lancer didn't expect was Danny's GM rotating its right wing binder on its hip forward while rotating the right Universal Boost Pod to a one hundred thirty-five degree angle towards the right while the left boost pod was rotated at a forty-five degree angle to the left.
'What is that boy up to?' Lancer wondered for a moment.
Danny activated the boost pods and the wing binders causing the GM Phantom Striker to spin to its left while still firing its beam pistols. The momentum of the spinning caused the GM to move to its left as it avoid a beam rifle shot. Lancer's Guncannon tried to hit the GM with its cannons and beam rifle but Danny's Phantom Striker kept on spinning and shooting.
A few of Danny's shots had hit the Guncannon's left arm causing it to explode. Lancer was shocked by this attack but tried to retaliate only to see the GM Phantom Striker vanish right before its eyes.
"Lord of the Flies!" yelled Lancer in shock.
Up in the stands, Danny's parents were just as shocked to see Danny's Gunpla vanish.
"That toy is possessed by a ghost!" yelled Jack as he and Maddie were about to jump down to attack Danny's invisible toy.
"It's not possessed," said Mr. Position, who was sitting right next to Jack.
This caused the Fenton couple to jump away in surprise for they did not know that there was someone else next to them. Dani turned around to see Mr. Position sitting with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.
"It's Mr. Position!" Dani said out loud.
"Who?" asked Jazz.
"He's the guy who explains things whenever someone ask Gundam related questions," answered Dani.
"Danny's GM Striker has been customized from a close combat ground type mobile suit into a high speed, well rounded, stealth type mobile suit. The fact that it can turn invisible means that Danny installed the Mirage Collide originally used by the GAT-X207 Blitz Gundam from Gundam SEED," Mr. Position. "The Gunpla that was defeated by two battles ago was a slightly customized Blitz Gundam which had also turned invisible during that match," he added. "I'm surprise neither of you yelled ghost when that happened," he commented.
"Well…," started Jack. "I sort of needed to go to the bathroom at that time," he admitted.
"And I was talking to Lola during that match," said Maddie.
"I see," replied Mr. Position.
Back to the match, Lancer had lost sight of Danny's GM after it turned invisible. His Guncannon was about to take a step forward but a beam exited the middle of its forehead causing it to explode much to everyone's surprise.
"What in the world!?" Lancer yelled in surprise but his surprise turned into shock as the GM Phantom Striker appeared directly in front of the Guncannon with both pistols aimed at the chest.
"So what now Mr. Lancer?" asked Danny. "I really don't want to ruin your Guncannon anymore that I just did," he told his teacher.
Lancer's Guncannon dropped its beam rifle and raised its cannons towards the air before raising its right arm in surrender.
Battle Ended
After Danny and Lancer picked up their Gunplas, the tournament continued with a match between two other competitors using a MS-14F Gelgoog Marine from Gundam 0083 and a GNW-003 Gundam Throne Drei from Gundam 00 with the Gelgoog as the winner.
The next match was between Tucker and another student from Casper High. Apparently, a lot of students from school wanted to compete in the tournament. Tucker had decided to have the Gunner Wizard pack on his DOM Trooper for this match. His opponent had a dark green ovv-af Danazine from Gundam AGE. Tucker remembered watching Gundam AGE online and found the design of the Danazine to be strange due to it looking sort of like a dinosaur with wings on its back and wing like ears.
'This might actually be easy,' thought Tucker as the battle system selected a city for the battlefield.
A battlefield that would most likely be used to Tucker's advantage as he and his opponent set their GP bases in the slots before placing they Gunplas on the bases.
Once the Gunplas had exited their gates, Tucker had his DOM's long range cannon drawn before landing on the ground. Tucker saw the Danazine in its flight mode and decided that it would be a good idea to start moving. The Gunner DOM started to hover in the air before Tucker had it take off to hide behind some buildings.
However, the Danazine spotted the Gunner DOM and flew over it before landing in front of its foe. The Gunner DOM stopped just in time to see the dinosaur based Gunpla switch to its combat mode so that it could land before firing its beam Vulcans in its hands. Tucker's DOM brought up its left arm and activated its "Solidus Fulgor" beam shield to block the attack.
"Got to love the beam shield!" Tucker cheered as he made his DOM duck behind a building.
On the battlefield, the Danazine charged towards where Tucker hid but due to its size and how close the buildings were to each other, the winged dinosaur Gunpla's tail hit the building behind it. This caused the buildings to collapse and dust kicked up around the Danazine. The Danazine ignored the dust and unleashed a barrage of beam shots from its chin mounted beam shooter. The beam shots had hit another building but the Gunner DOM was not in the Danazine's line of fire. Instead the Gunner DOM had flanked the Danazine's right side with its long range cannon aimed at the Danazine's head.
Tucker's opponent noticed this and turned the Danazine to face the Gunner DOM so that he could use the Danazine cannon mounted on its waist. Granted the glow from the Danazine cannon gave the impression that the cannon was actually located between its legs. The two Gunplas fired their weapons which caused a big explosion.
Everyone watched with baited breaths as dust filled up the battlefield. When the dust cleared, everyone saw that the DOM Trooper survived the attack due to its beam shield being used to block the Danazine's attack. As for the Danazine, it was down on the ground with huge hole in its chest.
Battle Ended
The audience cheered at Tucker's victory much to the techno-geeks surprise.
"I won?" whispered Tucker before he let out a big whoop after the victory finally sunk in.
Up in the stands, Tucker's parents were cheering for their son's victory.
While the Foleys were cheering, Jack was still confused about this whole Gunpla Battle and what it was all about.
After three hours, the first rounds of the tournament had finally finished and the Fenton, Foley, and Manson families were heading home so that Danny, Sam, and Tucker could relax before coming back to compete for the next round.
When the Fenton family got home and had diner, the kids were heading to their bedrooms to sleep. Maddie had also decided to turn in for the night but Jack decided to work on something in the lab/basement.
When Jack entered the basement, he went to a nearby computer and turned it on. After seeing the Gunpla battles, Jack decided it was time to do a little research on his son's hobby. He went on google and typed in Gundam and began his research. Oddly enough, the first website he went on had upload videos of the original Mobile Suit Gundam in English dub. Jack clicked on the first episode and started to watch.
The next day, Danny was heading downstairs into the basement to tell his dad that breakfast was ready. What Danny saw surprised him, his father was still sitting in front of the computer watching what appeared to be episode 34 of Mobile Suit Gundam.
"Uh Dad?" Danny called out. "Are you watching the original Gundam series?" he asked.
"Too….many….hours….trying…to…understand…" replied Jack. "Lost…track…of…time…" he added.
"Wait, you spent the whole night watching the Gundam series!?" yelled Danny in disbelief.
"Such…a…deep…cartoon…." Jack said as he watched the G-Fighter charge towards the Big Zam with the Gundam inside the armor fighter.
Danny exited the basement and headed back to the kitchen to see his mom and sisters sitting at the table.
"Did you tell your father that breakfast is ready Danny?" asked Maddie.
"I don't think he's hungry," answered Danny as he sat down next to his sisters.
"That's not like Jack at all," said Maddie as she went downstairs.
"What was Dad doing?" asked Dani.
"I think he's trying to set a record of sitting through all 42 English dubbed episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam in one day," answered Danny.
"Wow," replied Dani.
"There's 42 episodes?" asked Jazz.
"Well, technically there are 43 but the creator of the series didn't think the original fifteenth episode wasn't as good as the others so he had that episode cut from being seen in America, making it a lost episode," answered Danny. "What I don't get is why Dad didn't just watch the three movie versions," he added.
"That would have been a lot easier," agreed Dani.
Author's note: Well that ends the forth chapter of Gundam Build Fighters" Phantom's Flight. Special mention goes to RoyalTwinFangs for his fan character Amon Tang and the Altron Gundam II. I wasn't able to show its full potential but that's because I didn't want to give away any more than I had written. This also kind of led to the matches being relatively short but then again this chapter was filled with five matches, and the first one was done by two nameless guys.
I was also going to show the other fan characters that were submitted so far but I felt that this chapter was long enough so they'll be appearing in the next chapter.