"So when the announcer of today's match said it was capture the flag…" Tucker started the conversation as his Gunner DOM dodged a beam shot directed at him.
"He meant the Union Flag," Sam finished as her Fang Garazzo chased after the black transformable Gunpla.
Indeed the match the trio found themselves in was a completely unexpected case of Capture the Flag. Instead of there being two teams with their own bases and a small that needed to be capture or defended, it was case where the three person team had to hunt down a Union Flag from the Gundam 00 series without damaging it. If the Flag were to be damaged, then the team would automatically lose the match and not gain any points, which meant that they couldn't shoot down the Flag. Too bad for the team, the Flag can shoot at them and to make it worse, the Flag was a highly customized, A.I. controlled Gunpla.
The Flag that Danny, Sam, and Tucker had to capture was equipped with a GN beam rifle used by its successor unit, the Brave from the Gundam 00 movie. It also had a defense rod mounted on its left arm. The Flag fired another round of beam shots at Sam's Garazzo causing her to block the attack with her GN Field.
"Is there even a point in us trying to capture this thing without damaging it!?" Sam yelled in frustration.
"We catch it, we win points that help us advance to the finals," Danny told Sam as his Phantom Epyon rushed towards the Flag's back.
However, the Flag's A.I. picked up on the Phantom Epyon's signature and stopped shooting at the Fang Garazzo to transform into its Flight mode and flew away from its attacker and headed towards the Gunner DOM much to Tucker's shock.
"Get away from me!" yelled Tucker as he got his DOM's long range rifle pointed at the Flag and fired.
"TUCKER!" yelled Danny as he got his Gunpla between the Flag and the Gunner DOM's beam cannon.
The Phantom Epyon activated its I-field causing the beam attack to bend around the Gundam and the Flag behind it. The Flag transformed back into its mobile suit form after the Gunner DOM's attack stopped and fired its beam rifle at the Phantom Epyon's back causing it to explode upon impact.
Up on the monitors, a picture of Danny faded into gray to signify that he was out of the match leaving Sam and Tucker left to capture the Flag.
Inside the VIP box, someone didn't like seeing what happened.
"Oh come on!" yelled Dani as she got up to her feet. "That Flag shot Danny in the back after he saved it from Tucker being an idiot!" she continued.
"Dani, it's a computer operated Gundam," said Jazz. "It's supposed to attack them," she told her little sister.
"IT'S NOT A GUNDAM!" Dani screamed as she stomped towards her big sister. "It's a Flag, A FLAG!" she told Jazz.
"What's the difference?" Maddie asked out loud.
After hearing her mother's question, Dani went into a rant pointing out the difference between a mass produced mobile suit and a Gundam. Well, a rant that a twelve year old would explain to their parent that involves the looks, power, and overall cool factor that Gundams have over the "weaker" mass produced machines.
Back in the match, Sam got angry at how Danny was shot in the back by the Flag after he saved it from Tucker. She got her Fang Garazzo to charge at the Flag as it danced around Tucker's DOM while shooting at it. When the Flag moved towards the Gunner DOM's back and prepared to fire, Sam's Garazzo tackled the Flag causing the left antennae to break off of the Flag as the two collided onto the ground.
Battle Ended
After the announcement, the images of Sam and Tucker grayed out much like Danny's image before the screen changed to show that the trio scored no points for the match.
"NO!" Sam screamed in frustration as she clutched her head when she realized that she just cost her team the match by tackling the Flag. "How could I have been so stupid!?" she continued to yell as she and her friends left the stage with their Gunplas in their hands.
"Yeah, that's usually Tucker's thing," Danny joked as he headed towards the nearest vending machine to get a drink.
"Yeah Sam, that's my thing," Tucker agreed before he let what Danny said sink in. "Hey!" he yelled at Danny.
Normally Sam would join in on teasing her friends, but she was too busy banging her head on the wall next to the vending machine over her poor choice of actions during the match they just had. She would have continued on banging her head if not for Danny and Tucker pulling her away from the wall before either she started bleeding or the wall started to crack, whichever came first.
The next team for the Capture the Flag match was the team composed of Valerie, Char, and Revy. The three girls walked by the trio which caused Tucker to do his thing. Flirt with a girl, hope for a yes but get turned down in the most embarrassing way possible.
"Hello…ladies," Tucker greeted the girls walking by. "Would either of you lovely…" he continued until he was interrupted.
"Who's this loser?" Revy asked Valerie.
"Oh don't worry about him," Valerie told Revy. "He's just a wannabe Casanova," she explained as she kept on walking towards the battle system.
"That's sad," Char commented, following Valerie and Revy.
"You have no idea," Valerie said as she and her team continued on.
Tucker's jaw dropped after Valerie basically destroyed his chances at possibly scoring a date with either of those girls, not that it would have happened regardless. The poor boy slumped forward and walked to a corner and assumed the fetal position while muttering to himself. Danny and Sam watched this display before rolling their eyes.
"There are times I can't tell if I should feel sorry for him or tell him to get over it," Danny said to Sam.
"You're not the only one," Sam told Danny as the two of them dragged their friend away from his corner.
While Danny and Sam deal with Tucker, Valerie's team had just finished setting their Gunplas on the battle system. The battlefield was a city that resembled a ruined New York City. The three girls launched their Gunplas out of their gates with Valerie's Flight Type Gouf hovering on the ground much like a Dom while Char's CGUE and Revy's Slaughter Dagger stayed in the air. The opposing Flag was in its flight mode and flew right past Char and Revy's Gunplas before either of them could react.
"What just happened!?" yelled Revy as she got her Dagger to turn around so she could see where the Flag went.
"It blew right past us," Char told Revy as the two girls tried to find the Flag. "Valerie, do you see it anywhere?" she asked their teammate on the ground.
On the ground, the red Gouf didn't see the Flag, but then again Valerie wasn't focused on finding the Flag. Instead, she was more interested in finding a place that her team could use to trap the flying Gunpla.
"I don't see it down here Char," Valerie told her teammate. "But keep a look out for it, I'm going to look for a good place to trap it in," she added.
"Try the stadium up in the north," Revy told Valerie as she had her Dagger point at a large stadium to the north. "It was used in the original Gundam series to hide the White Base from Garma's forces," she added.
"How do you know that?" Valerie asked as she headed for the north.
"I used to play Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon DX on the PS2 when I was ten," Revy explained.
"Then why do you use a Cosmic Era Gunpla instead of a Universal Century Gunpla?" Char asked.
"I like the Slaughter Dagger and the Strike Noir," Revy told Char. "What about you Miss Pink Comet?" she retorted. "Why aren't you using a Gunpla based on a mobile suit Char Aznable used?" she asked.
"Cut the chatter you two and focus!" Valerie yelled to get her teammates to focus.
After being told to stop talking, the Flag finally reappeared and changed into is mobile suit mode so that it could draw its plasma blade out. The Flag charged at Char's CGUE and the blonde girl drew her CGUE's sword out on instinct to block the plasma blade. Surprisingly, the Flag was able to push Char's CGUE back despite being a much lighter Gunpla.
"Revy, help me out!" yelled Char as her CGUE was being pushed towards the ground. "This thing is freakishly strong!" she told her teammate.
"Hang on Char!" Revy told Char as she moved her Slaughter Dagger towards the Flag in order to grab it and pull it away from Char's Gunpla.
As Valerie's team tried to capture the Flag, the trio were on their way to the waiting room where the rest of the competitors were located. The other teams were either sitting around watching the match on a large screen TV, or sitting around a table talking amongst themselves. As soon as the trio entered the waiting room, Axel, the builder of the Chimaera Epyon spotted Danny and walked towards him.
"You're Danny Fenton right?" Axel asked Danny as he got in front of the Fenton boy.
"Yeah," replied Danny. "Do you need something?" he asked.
"I was wondering if you would like to have a friendly match with me," Axel told Danny.
"Sure, but why?" Danny asked.
"I'm curious if your Epyon is as good as my Epyon," Axel explained to Danny.
"Sounds like someone is upset that there's another Epyon in the game," Tucker joked, which earned him a fist to the back of his head. "OW!" he yelled in pain.
"Don't be rude Tucker," Sam scolded her friend. "But is there even a battle system available?" she asked.
"There's one in another room two doors down the hall," one of the other competitors answered.
"Thanks," Danny said to that competitor before turning his attention to Axel. "Then I guess we'll be squaring off soon," he told Axel.
"Yeah, but let's watch the rest of this match first," Axel told the trio. "I think those girls are just about done," he added.
"The three of them will lose the match before they could get the Flag into the stadium," Victor said as he watched the match.
Everyone turned to look at Victor and wonder why he make that assumption.
"Dude, you're ominous Newtype speech needs work," Evan told Victor as he shook his head.
Back to the match, the Flag deployed the plasma saber from its left arm and dived at Revy, who took out one of her beam blade swords to block the attack. However, the Flag swung its right leg to kick the sword out of her Slaughter Dagger's hand. Everyone was surprised to see the Flag discard its own saber to make a grab for the sword.
"What the…!" yelled a surprised Revy as the Flag charged at her with her sword and cleaved her Dagger in half.
"Revy!" Char and Valerie yelled as they lost their teammate.
"Darn that Flag!" Valerie yelled as she had her Gouf take to the air.
"Valerie!" Char yelled to her remaining teammate. "What about the plan?" she asked.
"We'll just tie it up with my heat rod," Valerie told Char. "Now draw its attention!" she ordered her teammate.
Deciding to not argue with Valerie, Char aimed her beam rifle towards the Flag's right to guide it towards the Flight type Gouf. The Flag dodged the shot by moving to its left and returned fire with its own beam rifle. The shot headed towards the metallic pink CGUE and hit it.
However, instead of destroying the CGUE, the beam bounced off it and headed back towards the Flag. The A.I. in the Flag reacted to the shot quickly by dodging the attack before charging at the pink CGUE. While that was going on, Valerie's Gouf sped up to get behind the Flag as it dealt with Char's CGUE.
For Char, the up and coming Pink Comet was doing a great job keeping her distance while still being close enough for the Flag to focus attention on her CGUE. Even though she wanted to use her CGUE's heavy sword, Char didn't because any damage done to the Flag would result in an automatic loss.
'Why did they have to make this match so darn hard?' Char mentally wondered as she resulted in using shield beam Vulcan to keep the Flag from moving to the sides and to stay in front of the CGUE as it flew backwards towards the stadium.
The Flag aimed its beam rifle at the pink CGUE and fired at it. Like before, the beam bounced off the CGUE and headed right back at the Flag. However, the Flag dodged the attack at the last second which left Valerie's Gouf in the line of fire. Valerie was shocked by this as the beam tore right through her Gouf before it exploded.
"Oh no, Val!" Char yelled in shock as she had indirectly shot down her teammate.
Before she could do anything, the Flag appeared behind Char's CGUE with a plasma saber in hand and stabbed it in the back.
Battle Ended
The crowd gave out an applause despite the fact that Valerie's team lost the match. Regardless, that was the end of today's matches as the Capture the Flag event was set up as a two day competition with the first five teams being the first while the next five would do the match tomorrow. Out of the five teams that succeeded in Capture the Flag, only two teams won. The first team that won was team composed of Victor Soulman, the Black Knight, and Evan Cole while the second team to win was the Axel, Genki, and Johan team.
With today's matches done, the audience exited the stadium as well as most of the competitors. However, in one of the free battle rooms there were two teams that were having their own little battle.
Inside the free battle room, Danny's team and Axel's team were inside with Danny and Axel standing in front of the small battle system in the room. The battle system had only four platforms making the battlefields much smaller, yet still large enough for the Gunplas to have more room to battle. Sam, Tucker, Genki, and Johan were sitting on nearby chairs watching their teammates place their respective Epyon models onto their GP bases.
The battlefield that was chosen was the space field with debris of damaged battleships and asteroids set up as cover for the two Epyons to use during their match. Danny and Axel launched their Gunplas out of their gates and flew towards each other.
The Chimaera Epyon was in its mobile suit mode as it sped towards the Phantom Epyon. The two Epyons flew right past each other while glaring at each other, it was almost as if the two Epyons were sizing each other up before actually attacking each other.
Suddenly, the two Epyons swung their swords at each other. The Chimaera Epyon's beam sword came in contact with the Phantom Epyon's solid bladed sword but was not able to cut through the blade.
"An anti-beam coating!?" Axel said out loud as he made his Epyon kick the black and white Epyon.
Danny saw the kick coming and blocked the attack with his Epyon's shield before activating the shoulder machine cannons, but the Chimaera Epyon blocked the attack with his shield. Once the Phantom Epyon's machine cannons stopped firing, the Chimaera Epyon thrust its beam sword at its black and white counterpart. However the Phantom Epyon knocked the attack away with its sword before tackling the black and crimson Epyon.
The Phantom Epyon charged towards an asteroid with Chimaera Epyon being the only thing between the black and white one and the asteroid. However, the Chimaera Epyon kneed the Phantom Epyon in the torso area with its spike knee puncturing the torso causing the Phantom Epyon to stop its attack and push the crimson Epyon away from it.
The Chimaera Epyon aimed its shield at the wounded Phantom Epyon and fired its integrated twin buster rifle at the white one.
"Got ya!" Axel yelled out as he watched the beam head towards the Phantom Epyon.
Danny saw the beam coming and discarded the sword to activate the I-fields into both of his Epyon's hands.
Danny and Axel's teammates watched as the beams from the twin buster rifle engulfed the Phantom Epyon which worried Sam and Tucker while Genki and Johan figured the match was over. However when the beams vanished, the Phantom Epyon was still in the battle with no damage done to it. Axel looked at the Phantom Epyon in shock as there wasn't a scratch on it.
"No way," muttered Axel as he stared in disbelief. "The I-field withstood the twin buster rifle attack," he said a little louder.
"Well, the twin buster rifle still fires particle beams similar to mega particle beams from the Universal Century," Danny told Axel. "I just made sure to increase the I-field's output under the idea of the buster rifle was more powerful than the ZZ Gundam's mega particle cannon," he added.
"Impressive," Axel said to Danny. "But after surviving that blast, I doubt your Epyon could do that again if I fired the twin buster rifle again," he assumed.
Danny smiled at Axel's deduction.
"You win that bet," Danny said to Axel. "But I don't think you want to use that again because you're more interested in seeing what else my Epyon can do huh?" he added.
"You got that right," Axel said as his Chimaera Epyon charged at Danny's Phantom Epyon.
As the Chimaera Epyon charged at the Phantom Epyon, the white Epyon aimed its arm mounted beam cannons at the crimson Epyon and opened fire. However the Chimaera Epyon dodged the attacks before changing into its twin headed dragon flight mode. The feet of the Chimaera Epyon, which became the twin heads, opened to fire rapid beam shots at the Phantom Epyon. The white Epyon dodged the shots and allowed the crimson Epyon to fly past him.
The Chimaera Epyon pulled up so that it could attack the Phantom Epyon from above. The Phantom Epyon noticed the attack and raised its shield to block the beam shots as the crimson Epyon flew right by him again. The attacks from the Chimaera Epyon continued with the Phantom Epyon blocking the attacks with the shield instead of the I-field due to the cool down the white Epyon needed before using them again.
"That's enough!" Danny yelled as he activated one of the slots in his right control orb.
The Phantom Epyon's eyes flashed a brighter green for a moment before the wings opened up. The Phantom Epyon spun around to face the Chimaera Epyon as green flames erupted from the wings, the pauldrons, the outer sides of the ankles, the sides of the head and on the sides of the center headpiece giving the Phantom Epyon a green flame like V crest. The Phantom Epyon discarded its shield after the green flames erupted from the Epyon's body.
"What the!?" yelled just about everyone in the room as they looked at the Phantom Epyon, which looked more like a demon than it did before.
The Phantom Epyon flew towards the Chimaera Epyon at a speed that was much faster than it did before. Axel was shocked at how fast the green flamed Epyon was moving as it was just a few inches in front of his Epyon. Axel made his Epyon turn on its left to avoid the Phantom Epyon, but the green flame wings of it sliced off the right wing of the Chimaera Epyon.
"No way!" yelled Axel as he frantically got his Chimaera Epyon to transform back into its mobile suit mode.
The Chimaera Epyon was about to charge towards the Phantom Epyon but the white Epyon was already in front of it. Axel was shocked by this, which caused his Epyon to involuntarily move backwards. Axel was about to fire the Vagan Beam Buster in its chest but the Phantom Epyon grabbed the Chimaera Epyon's head which surprised Axel.
"That's enough!" shouted an older male voice.
The two boys stopped their battle to turn to see who told them to stop. Everyone in the room gasped at the sight of the man standing by the door.
The man standing before all of them was very tall with a very imposing built and a crew cut. He wore a white T-shirt and dull green pants that were a bit loose. He looked at both Danny and Axel and the two Epyons that were battling against each other.
"That's Greco Logan," Johan said in amazement.
"The Mad Bull himself is here," Danny whispered while in awe.
"A Gunpla battle such as this must shouldn't be kept in private," Greco said to all of them. "A battle like this needs to be seen by everyone in this stadium," he continued. "The two of you should put this match on hold until you both face each other in the tournament," he told Danny and Axel.
"Y-yes sir!" both Danny and Axel replied.
"Good," Greco said as he turned around. "Hopefully I'll be able to have a match with the two of you some day," he told them as he left the room.
Once Greco left the room, everyone looked at each other in shock.
"Dude!" yelled out Tucker. "I can't believe we just met THE Greco Logan!" he added.
"I know, that was amazing," agreed Johan.
As everyone started to talk about their encounter, Danny and Axel retrieved their respective Epyons and faced each other.
"So I guess our match will be on hold huh?" said Danny.
"Yeah, but next time I'll show you which of us has the better Epyon," Axel told Danny.
"I'll make sure that when we face off again, I'll have Phantom Epyon ready for round two," Danny replied.
The two boys nodded their heads before shaking hands to signify that they will face off again, but in the actual tournament.
Epyon vs. Epyon.
Author's note: Well that's the end of this chapter, and to my surprise the chapter shifted from the tournament, which is going through a very interesting case of Capture the Flag with the Flag being a mobile suit called the Union Flag, to a friendly battle between Danny with his Phantom Epyon and RoyalTwinFangs's OC, Axel and his Chimaera Epyon. The setup for a battle between two Epyon Gundams was there and I couldn't just let it slip by. It may have looked like Danny had the upper hand but now that Axel knows what else the Phantom Epyon had, he will be prepared and would most likely figure out a way to beat Danny's Epyon. So basically, Danny only had the advantage because Axel didn't know about the Phantom Epyon's special feature.
To clarify what the Phantom Epyon did, it has a system that is based on the Victory 2 Gundam from the Victory Gundam series. The system is called the Wings of Light, which are basically beam wings of various sizes that can be used both offensively and defensively. As far as I can tell, only a few mobile suits in the Gundam meta-series has the Wings of Light or a system that is similar. The Victory 2 Gundam, which as far I know is the first one, the second is the Phantom Gundam (yes there is a Phantom Gundam, but because I couldn't find a translated online manga of the manga this Gundam appeared in, I decided not to give it to Danny because I don't know what it is completely capable of), the Destiny Gundam and Strike Freedom (though the Strike Freedom's version is call Wings of the Skies, God that is such as stupid name) from Gundam Seed Destiny but those of the Destiny and Strike Freedom are only used for high speed movement while the Victory 2 and the Phantom Gundam's Wings of Light are used for combat.
The Phantom Epyon's Wings of Light have a flame appearance which it shares from the Phantom Gundam's Wings of Light looking like a ghostly flame. However, the flame look on the Phantom Gundam's Wings of Light was due to being imperfect and is only at 50% combat effectiveness while the Phantom Epyon's flaming Wings of Light is intentional as Danny decided to go for the Wings of Light to look intimidating as well as combat effective.