Gundam Build Fighters A

Chapter 11

The Phantom and The Albion II


After getting Jason out of his depressed state of mind, and after fighting several hard battles Alex and Emika have made it to the final round of a local regional qualifier tournament. Their opponent will be the white haired Alice Guide who's managed to trounce all of her opponents with relative ease. Alex claimed after observing Alice's semifinal match that her abilities were at least at the Elite 4 level, but boy were they surprised when she defeated Alex's cousin and French representative in the last 3 World Tournaments Ansel Labossière. Still before I reveal the exact course the battle between them took, I must first tell you a tale about what happened just before the battle and after Alice and Ansel took out their Gunplas in addition to an event that occurred way before this. That event was the end of a school day at Clancy Academy sometime after the regional tournament Emika and Alex entered began and sometime just before the semi-final match.

"Ha ha… why does the bell sound like one out of a Japanese anime?" Athrun asks himself.

If you haven't figured it out already, imagine yourself as a camera sitting unnoticed inside Athrun's last class of the day. Athrun himself is putting away his belongings in his backpack like a typical high school student would from any country really.

"Things certainly seem pretty peaceful today. If mobile suits were real….. now would be a perfect time for a gundam to crash in the school's courtyard. Ha ha oh the chaos that would follow." Athrun mumbled laughing in the back of his mind as he stared out of the classroom window focusing on the aforementioned courtyard.

"Excuse me um Athrun could we have a moment of your time?" a female student asked.

"Let's see you're….. um Amani Handal your father is a major player in middle eastern oil shipments, and your friend is Kateřina Kalinová who despite the Czech sounding name is an heiress to a major German military family and is here on a exchange student program." Athrun said as he turns around and recognizes the two girls vying for his attention after a few moments of thought.

"See I told you he's really knowledgeable about all of the students here." Kateřina said save for her German accent like a typical school girl.

"I can't believe you were serious…. Still your right about him being kind of cute." Amani said saying the former part of that sentence aloud and whispering the latter in Kateřina's ear.

"Is there anything I can do to help the two of you?" Athrun inquired.

"Oh no we don't have any problems that we need you to help us with or anything, though we did want to ask you something." Amani explained like a somewhat love struck schoolgirl.

"If it's within my power to answer than feel free to ask." Athrun said.

"We found a little karaoke bar on our way home after school yesterday. Kateřina and I don't want to go by ourselves, so we were wondering if you'd wanna come with us?" Amani said effectively asking Athrun on a three-way date.

"I…" Athrun was saying.

"….won't allow it." Alice said as she finished yet interrupted Athrun's sentence whilst suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

"Eep." said a pair of scared school girls who ran away shortly thereafter.

"I told you to stop doing that!" Athrun said as he grabbed his chest like he was having a heart attack due to the shock of Alice's sudden appearance.

"Stop doing what? That aside what were those girls asking you?" Alice retorts apparently completely unaware of her ninja like abilities.

"Wait… so you said that without even knowing what they asked? No that's a stupid question. This is you we're talking about, so of course that's possible." Athrun said as he faced palmed himself.

"Yes well….. I had a hunch on what it was about and from your reaction I can see that I was right, but I'm fully capable of being wrong so I asked in case I had to apologize to those two later." Alice said as she explains the reasons for her behavior.

"Ha ha yes well I recall that you didn't like me very much…. Or at all for that matter. Sigh…. I just don't get why you follow me around so much." Athrun said as he scratched the back of his head.

"I told you…. it's so I can understand the way you go about predicting the course of a battle." Alice said as she gave Athrun a quick lecture.

"I'm really no one special. Besides I was going to say no to those two since we have a club meeting today. "Athrun pointed out.

One short walk to a club building later… our two club members are walking down one of the hallways of the model building club's building. As they walk by one of the classrooms they can see club members working on not only Gunpla, but models from other well known series as well models of real world objects.

"Ha ha you know I wish PPSE would release the formula for the special plastic gunplas are made out of to the public.

"Why?" Alice curiously asks.

"So people can fight with the customized version of machines they've made themselves even if they aren't mobile suits." Athrun answered.

"But wouldn't something like that take away from the spirit of Gunpla Battles?" Alice asks.

"I don't think it would be as part of the fun of battles is to see your imagination come alive without having to imagine at all. Besides I would love to see say the Lancelot from Code Geass fight the Destiny gundam." Athrun pointed out.

"Oh…. we really should get going if we're going to make it to the meeting on time." Alice said after quickly taking a look at her cell phone.

"Right sorry…." Athrun said as he snapped out of this momentary distraction.

"That aside what was the subject of this meeting again?" Alice asks.

"To discuss which of our members are still in the regional tournaments going on across the country, the ability of their potential opponents, and to form counter strategies according to the opponent each member may have to face." Athrun answered.

"Oh that's right….. I've been so focused on this regional tournament that it slipped my mind." Alice said as she and Athrun started walking again.

"Why did you decide to try for nationals this year? I mean you haven't entered the past two ones." Athrun points out.

"I found out that a person I have to defeat will be entering the world tournament this year." Alice answered.

"What regional tournament did this person enter?" Athrun inquired.

"National not regional, but that tournament hasn't even started yet." Alice interjects.

"Then how can you be sure that this person will even be there?" Athrun asks again.

"Because I've seen this person fight, so that means Carlos Kaiser doesn't stand a chance." Alice explained.

"Oh I see… then this year's world tournament will be far more difficult than I originally thought." Athrun said as he contemplated the meaning of Alice's words.

"You believe me?" Alice calmly said though she was actually surprised by Athrun's reaction.

"You're normally very meticulous when it comes to assessing someone's strength as a fighter and as a builder, so this person must be very strong for you to make such a bold statement." Athrun said.

"Out of all of the very few people I've told this to….. you're actually the first person to believe me." Alice quietly said as a small smile appeared on her face.


From this point on time continues to flow normally and "normally" is also the best choice of words to describe the events of Clancy Academy's model building club's meeting, but that's not important right now. What is important however, is the declaration of war that occurred between Alice Guide and Ansel Labossière.

"I get Jason being here because of being Brandon's brother, but Athrun and Alice why are you two here?" Alex asks the odd man and odd woman out.

"I'm just here for the free food." Jason revealed before continuing to munch on his salt and pepper fried chicken.

"Truthfully ha ha…. I'm here for the same reason, but that still doesn't mean we all can't enjoy ourselves." Athrun said as he makes an attempt at light humor.

"And you Alice?" Alex asks.

It should be noted that for some strange reason Alice has the exact same food items on her plate as Athrun, and they're even in the same position on the plate.

"I'm here to get a better understanding on his ability to predict in battle." Alice explained as she ate her food with one hand and pointed to Athrun in the other.

"It's a long story, but suffice to say unless I tell her otherwise she likes to follow me around when we both have free time." Athrun interjects.

"Yes well acting like a lost puppy aside I can't believe you didn't tell me yesterday that it was your birthday today. Why didn't you tell me? I would have come if you told me." Emika asks with an annoyed look on her face.

"Truthfully….. I thought that you'd think a simple party such as this would be beneath you, so I didn't want to waste your time by asking or make you feel obligated to come." Alex explained.

"It wouldn't be a waste of time, and you should have already known that. We're supposed to be friends and partners, so you should be able to trust me with things like this." Emika said as she lectured Alex on the errors of his ways.

"Sorry….. I guess you're right." A guilty Alex responds.

"Psst…. Speaking of inviting…. I thought I told you not to invite Emika." Brandon whispers to her brother.

"Oh I thought you said to make sure that I invite her. Anyways…. why does it matter that I did?" Jason whispers back.

"Because for at least today…. I didn't want to deal with any competition." Brandon whispers back herself with a jealous tone of voice.

"Sigh… you and your romantic troubles." Jason thought.

"Oh your home dad." Alex said as he noticed his father walking into the backyard.

"Alex come on and greet your cousin." Alex's father said as a certain Frenchman walked into the back yard.

The moment this mysterious Frenchman walked into the back yard Brandon and Athrun stood up in shock due to clearly recognizing the person, but Jason was indifferent though he did recognize him.

"I don't believe it." Athrun says to reiterate the earlier shock.

"It really is him." Brandon says again to reiterate that concept of shock.

"Ansel mon cousin, il est bon de vous revoir." Alex said to his cousin in French as he gave him a bro hug.

"Je suis heureux de vous revoir ainsi." Ansel said in French as well as he returned his cousin's bro hug.

"Comment était le vol?" Alex asks.

"Sans intérêt sauf pour le film en vol." Ansel answered.

"Um… what is he talking about?" Emika asks apparently due to not knowing a word of French.

"They were exchanging greeting, then Alex asked how the flight was, and Ansel responded that it was uninteresting save for the in-flight movie." Alice translates proving herself to be fluent in or at least have some understanding of the French language.

"Everyone this is my cousin from my mom's side of the family Ansel, and Ansel save for Athrun's friend Alice and my new friend Emika here you already know everyone." Alex said.

"It is nice to see such fierce competition again, and it's also nice to see two beautiful flowers such as yourselves." Ansel says with a heavy French accent as he tries to flirt with Emika and Alice.

This mysterious Frenchman is of the same height of Alex, with pale white skin, grey eyes, shoulder length blond hair, bushy eye brows, a pointed nose, and very thin lips. Ansel is wearing a jungle style camouflage short-sleeved shirt, matching pants, and a pair of dark brown loafers.

"You speak French?" Emika asks Alex out of amazement.

"My mother taught me how to speak French fluently. You see even though she hides the accent well my mom was born in France." Alex answered.

"I can't believe he's your cousin, and you've never told me." Brandon still says out of shock.

"Yes well it's certainly a surprise, but there's no reason to make a show of it." Athrun follows.

"Wait…. you all know him?" Emika asked as she was rendered in a state of confusion by the current situation.

"Mon cousin, pensez-vous qu'il serait préférable que je me présente officiellement à votre ami afin de remédier à sa confusion?" Ansel asks his cousin.

"Je suis d'accord, alors n'hésitez pas." Alex answered.

"My name is Ansel Labossière, the winner of this year's French Gunpla Battle national tournament, and the man who has kept Jason Marsh out of the top 16 for the last 3 world tournaments." Ansel said as he formally introduced himself.

"You've beaten Jason?" a shocked Emika asked Ansel.

"They were close fights." Jason interjects.

"But I still won in the end did I not." Ansel followed.

"Why are you here?" Jason asks.

"For one thing I wanted to visit my cousin on his birthday this year, and the other is rather convenient since you're here monsieur Athrun." Ansel explained.

"Me?" Athrun said.

"Yes… I'm familiar with the reputation you have monsieur Athrun." Ansel said.

"Are you the one of the ones who believe I'm a cheater? Or are you one the rare few that don't?" Athrun asks in response.

"I believe in neither fact because I know not your side of the story. You see I've always wanted to how you Americans say test my mettle against you, but sadly fate did not pair us together for a dance at the last three world tournaments." Ansel explained.

"It's nice to see someone who's willing to withhold judgment for once." Athrun said as a slight grin appeared on his face.

"Yes…. with the convenience of these portable battle systems and you being at my cousin's birthday party, it has saved me the trouble of scouring the city for you. So what do you say monsieur Athrun? Do you accept my challenge?" Ansel said as he issues Athrun a letter of challenge.

"I won't allow it." Alice said as she gained the attention of everyone at the table by slamming her hand on it.

"Pardon me mademoiselle, but this challenge does not concern you." Ansel said as he turned his attention to Alice.

"If you're challenging Athrun… then it does concern me. I won't allow anyone that I haven't acknowledged to challenge Athrun in my presence." Alice declared.

"Then is a duel with you monsieur Athrun's chevalier a way to gain your approval?" Ansel inquires of Alice.

"Provided you win." Alice retorts.

"Maintenant il suffit de tenir une minute Ansel, vous ne pensez pas que vous allez trop loin?" Alex asks his cousin.

"Cousin, si c'est ce que je dois faire pour que j'ai l'intention qu'il en soit ainsi." Ansel responds.

"Fine, but just try not to act so arrogant this time." Alex said as he decided to stop objecting to the battle.

"Now that I have the birthday boy's approval, know mademoiselle Alice that you face the gunpla that has defeated your national champion… my Phantom Noir Gundam," Ansel said as he took it out of his gunpla case for all to see.

Ansel's Phantom Noir Gundam is based off of the GAT-X105E+AQM/E-X09S Strike Noir Gundam with larger thrusters built into the shoulders for increased lateral movement speed, the weapons on its Noir Striker pack have been lengthened slightly for increased range, its twin linear guns have been moved to just behind the hard point on the Noir pack, its arms have for some reason a white jewel like object embedded in it, and it's coloring scheme remains the same as the Strike Noir save for grey portions of the Gunpla being of a darker shade.

"Then you'll be a good test for my overhauled gunpla, the Kshatriya Albion." Alice said as she did the same.

Alice's gunpla as the name obviously implies is based off of the NZ-666 Kshatriya used by Neo Zeon in Gundam Unicorn. Save for the 4 in the chest all of the Kshatriya's mega particle guns have been replaced with vernier thrusters, all of the funnels in the rear 2 wing binders have also been replaced with additional thrusters, 4 red versions of the jewel like object in the Phantom Noir's arms are embedded into each of the Kshatriya's wing binders, and this particular gunpla is painted in the same colors as the titular mobile suit of the series in which it comes from.

"What's with this atmosphere? It just got tense all of a sudden." Emika thought as she noticed the serious look on all of the other's faces.

"Now now don't ruin the mood with all of these serious declarations of war as it's still a party after all. Besides…. you two will have to wait your turn. A lot of the other little ones are ahead of you." Alex's mother says with perfect timing to break the current mood.

"Mais tante….." Ansel says in French.

"Just wait your turn to have fun alright?" Alex's mother said with a kind smile, but is still somehow able to induce fear in Ansel a little.

"Yes mam!" Ansel said as he gave Alex's mother a Zaft style salute due to the aforementioned fear after putting away his gunpla.

"Could you please go upstairs to your room and change your shirt? I can't believe you haven't noticed it yet, but there's a bit of a large ice cream stain on it." Alex's mother pointed out.

"What the….. where did this come from?" Alex mumbled as he looks down his back and noticed a large chocolate ice cream stain.

"Oh I have no idea he he I mean it couldn't have been from the ice cream parlor we went to earlier, and there's no way the chocolate ice cream came from the cone I happen to order." Brandon said as she starts to laugh a little out of guilt.

"Could you please go now? It's embarrassing if you let all of our friends and family like that." Alex's mother said as she gave her son the same fear inducing smile as she did Ansel.

"Yes mam!" Alex said as he responded the same way Ansel did.


And so the next 30 minutes of this party proceeds peacefully with no unexpected interruptions with everyone enjoying themselves. Alice for her own reasons continues to imitate everything Athrun does at this party, Brandon continues to lecture her brother about inviting Emika though he retains a uninterested expression, and Alex's mother seems to be the kind of woman who… very much enjoys drilling Emika with questions about her "opinion"… of Alex or at least she's starting to ask those kinds of questions.

"So are you and my son getting along?" Alex's mother asks.

"Um so far yes." Emika said as she was understandably nervous due to talking to her teammate's mother.

"That's good….. look I owe you a lot for bringing the light back to my son's eyes. I mean Brandon helped to, but it to me seemed like that he was just putting on a show for her sake. For you though….. like I said you put the light back in his eyes." Alex's mother explained.

"Ummm but I'm no one special." Emika said as she tries to downplay the compliment.

"There's no reason to be so modest. Now tell me what about my boy intrigued you so much?" Alex's mother asks.

"I guess it would have to be the first time I saw him fight. He controlled my gunpla at a level that surpassed my imagination." Emika honestly answered.

"So is there any trait of his you like?" Alex's mother asks.

"He can be a bit rude at times, but I guess… his sense of honor and pride." Emika answered as she ever so slightly started to become uncomfortable.

"But do you just only like him?" Alex's mother asks as she finally asks or at least more directly hints at the question she wanted to ask all along.

"Ehh…. Well um… of course I do, but I only just like him that's all." Emika said as she once more turns red with embarrassment for a few seconds.

"Alright I'll drop it…. wouldn't want you to have a heart attack. Speaking of Alex, I wonder what's taking him so long. It shouldn't take 30 minutes to change a shirt. Say do you mind checking on him for me? His room is up the stairs, down the hall to your right, and is the second door on your left." Alex's mother requested.

"Oh um sure no problem." Emika said as she strongly wished to get the hell out of there.

Emika quickly but calmly made her way back inside Alex's suburban home and started walking towards the stairs when she almost suddenly bumps into Ansel who was flirting with the female party goers close to his age that weren't related to him. Anyways, thanks to his reflexes as a Gunpla Fighter he is quickly able to move out of the way.

"My apologies demoiselle I should have paid better attention to where I was going." Ansel said as he offered Emika an honest apology.

"Oh don't worry about it." Emika said.

"Ah I can see from the expression on your face that you had a 'little chat' with aunty." Ansel said as he took note of the expression on Emika's face.

"Eh how did you know?" a surprised Emika asked.

"She can have that effect on people. You see she used to…." Ansel explained as he suddenly whispered something in Emika's ear partway through the sentence.

"What…. really?" a shocked Emika said after learning whatever Alex's mother used to do for a living.

"Well if you'll excuse me I need to use the salle de bain." Ansel said as he started to make his way towards the bathroom.

Thankfully Emika isn't such a high-class ojou-sama where that she would get lost in a home of this size especially since Alex's mother gave her direction. Getting back on topic, Emika arrived just outside of Alex's bedroom door a few seconds later.

"Um hello? Are you appropriately dressed Alex?" Emika asks as she tries to speak through the bedroom door.

All Emika received in return was pure silence, so she decided to knock on the door if by some chance Alex didn't hear her calling for him. When she received no response again Emika decided to venture into unknown territory and walk into Alex's room.

"Wow it looks nothing like what she described to me that a typical boy's room would look like." Emika mumbled as she decided to stick her head part way through the partially open door before actually walking inside.

By saying "she" Emika was referring to her maid who described a typical boy's room to look like well… the most stereotypical thing you could imagine really. As for what it actually looked like there was a normal dresser, nightstand, closet filled with clothes, and shelves which happened to be right next to the door. Those shelves themselves happen to have magazines… gaming or gunpla related not play boy, a few school textbooks, some mystery novels, and the top shelf has 4 Gunpla of a surprisingly decent built quality. Alex would later say that "Because these gunpla happened to turn out well I didn't want to use them in battle, so that's why they're on that shelf".

"It's also a lot cleaner than I thought it would be, but….. uh oh." Emika was saying when she accidently opened the door to far causing it to hit the shelves I mentioned earlier.

Thankfully nothing fell of that shelf when Emika hit it, so damage was avoided…. Or at least nothing fragile fell off of the shelf as a medium sized sketchbook did instead. Curious about what's in the sketchbook, Emika picks it up and takes a seat on Alex's bed.

"Oh there's a label on it. Let's see 'Successor Gunpla to Strike Zeta' and its written in crayon too. He must have gotten this just after the first national tournament." Emika thought.

As Emika started to flip through this sketchbook, she noticed that it was impossible to tell what mobile suit some of these sketches were based off of due to due Alex's lack of artistic skill at the time and the sketches themselves being done with crayon. Emika however didn't have this problem with later sketches as due to improved sketching skills they became easier to tell what they were. Asides from the obvious visual clues, Emika learned through little side notes that these gunpla were based off of what appeared to be his favorite gundam from different series.

"What the…. combinable SR Funnels? There are a few obvious design flaws, but it's still rather well thought out." Emika mumbled as one of the sketches caught her attention.

The newest and last sketch drawn into this book appeared to have quite a bit more effort put into it. There were front sketchers, rear sketches, sketches of limbs, weapon sketches, and etc all with detailed measurements.

"This is definitely the most fleshed out design of them all. Now where did he write the….. ah here it is. So he calls this one the Gundam Age-2 Sword Shroud huh?" Emika thought as she failed to notice a certain someone walk into the room.

"Um…. what are you doing in my room?" Alex asks.

"Oh I was just… just… just… just…" Emika was saying so on and so forth like a broken record that keeps laying the same few seconds of a song.

The reason Emika was stuttering like a broken record was that Alex was wearing a brand new pair of white sneakers, grey socks, black pants, but how should I say this ummm….

"Wh…. Wh….. wh….. why aren't you wearing a shirt? And for that matter why are you half naked?!" Emika asks as she turns as red as a tomato.

"I was just going to change my shirt, but since it's a party I figured I should just take a shower. Once I was done I realized that ironically I forgot to bring a shirt with me in the bathroom, so that's why I came back here." Alex explained.

Emika's eyes were practically glued to Alex as she stared at his still lightly soaked combed back hair and surprisingly somewhat muscular body given his age.

"Wait hang on that's my sketch book." Alex said as he moves towards Emika.

"I'm sorry I just noticed it and couldn't help look through it." Emika apologetically said.

"You don't see me looking through your stuff in your room." Alex argued.

"But you've never been in my room!" Emika retorts.

"Exactly." Alex said.

"I mean rea….." Emika was saying as something else suddenly catches her attention.

That thing that gets her attention the most is a single scar that runs down the back of both of Alex's hands. Speaking of Alex, once he realized Emika was grabbing one of his hands to examine the scar on it up close he stopped resisting though both parties still had one hand on Alex's sketch book.

"Those look like surgical scars. They must be from….. so that's why I've never seen him without a jacket or in a short-sleeved t-shirt." Emika thought.

"I got these in an accident I had just after the first national tournament, but I don't really want to talk about it. Anyways could you please let go of my hand?" Alex explained.

"Huh oh sorry." Emika said as she let go of Alex's hand after snapping back to reality.

"Now could you please let go of my sketch book?" Alex asks.

"No… I still want to look through it." Emika said in defiance.

"Let go." Alex said.

"No!" Emika yelled.

Now there was a game of tug o war between Alex and Emika with Alex's sketch book. The sketch book went back and forth between these two, but ultimately Alex is at a disadvantage due to his hands still being a little wet from his earlier shower.

"Oh dam." Alex said as that aforementioned disadvantage has finally screwed him over.

The way Alex is screwed over was due to him losing his grip on his sketch book after Emika pulled it towards herself one last time, but oh boy it doesn't end there. After Alex loses his grip he loses his balance, accidently falls on Emika, pushes her on the bed at a weird angle, but Alex is able to catch himself before the accidental kiss gag occurs though their faces are rather close to each other.

"Um you're a little close." Emika barely managed to mumble out as her face turns red again.

"Sorry." Alex said his face turned a little red with embarrassment as well.

"Hey Alex your mom just wanted me to let you know that….." Jason was saying when he suddenly stopped speaking midsentence.

As I'm sure you can almost immediately guess from the previous sentence, Jason walks into Alex's room, is surprised to the point where even he shows emotion on his face, and most likely interprets the way Alex is on top of Emika to be the result of something that wasn't an accident. Once Alex and Emika notice Jason they adjust their position so they can both see him, and yet one doesn't move out from under or over the other.

"Your mother wanted me to tell you that Athrun's friend Alice and your cousin Ansel can finally have their match now. Anyways I'm sorry for interrupting, so please go ahead and continue." Jason explained before he left the bedroom, closed the door behind him, and got the hell out of there.

"Wait no, it's not what you think!" Alex and Emika yell both yell after turning red with embarrassment and finally standing upright on their own two feet… though Jason left the room long before they actually say it.


After getting a red t-shirt and a matching jacket, Alex and Emika return to the backyard of the former's home with an obvious awkward silence between the two of them. Perhaps they desired to spend a few moments away from each other so as to calm down, but unfortunately there are only two good seats and they happen to be right next to each other so they have no choice but to swallow their pride at this moment.

"So ha ha it looks like the battle is already starting." Alex said as he give off an awkward laugh.

"Yup ha ha." Emika said as she does the same.

Alice and Ansel weren't already shooting at each other if you interpreted from Alex's statement. The portable battle system had only just began standard start up procedures.

"Field 1, Space. Please set your gunpla." The battle system ordered.

This particular space battlefield takes place in the ruins of a colony that was torn to shreds and I mean that almost literally. No seriously these ruins look like someone took one of those large cylindrical colonies and rubbed it rather vigorously against a giant cheese shredder.

"These ruins…. they look like the remnants of Heliopolis." Emika pointed out as her mind was now focused on the battle.

"Then that'll reduce the effectiveness of radar and the built in advanced warning system, so that means reaction time will be key in this battle. Still it's strange." Alex said.

"What do you mean?" Emika inquired.

"It's not unheard of for customized versions of funnel focused mobile suits to sacrifice a few funnels to increase performance in other areas, but to sacrifice half just increased speed. Alice has to have something more than that planned." Alex explained.

"There's one way to find out if that's true." Emika points out again.

"Battle start." The battle system declared.

"Kshatriya Albion, launching!" Alice yelled.

"Phantom Noir, heading out!" Ansel yelled.

Imagine yourself watching this battle from a distance. The white light in space represents Alice while the black light represents as each search this ruined colony for the other. Then suddenly the two lights head towards the same area having finally found each other. Now imagine you're viewing this battle up close as both competitors are only a few feet away from each other. Ansel draws one of his beam blades while Alice brings out a beam saber.

"Passablement, you're reflexes are pretty good." Ansel said as he complimented Alice when their respective blades finally clashed.

"Thank you, but so far I'm not impressed." Alice retorts.

"Then perhaps I should show you why I'm a champion." Ansel replied.

"If you can survive this then maybe." Alice said.

Energy quickly gathers in the Kshatriya's chest before Alice releases it through her mega particle cannons in a shotgun like manner, but Ansel is still able to dodge and with a 180 degree spin is able to move behind Alice to kick her and send her Gunpla flying.

"To dodge multiple mega particle cannons at almost point blank range…. I've never seen such a thing before." Emika said out of amazement.

"If you study his fights in detail you'll realize his other abilities as a fighter is actually lacking, but his .12 second reaction time more than makes up for it." Alex explained.

"What do you mean .12 second reaction time?" Emika inquired.

"There's the time it takes your body to realize something is wrong and the time it takes for your signals in your brain to make your body do something. Ansel's reaction time is near the absolute limit of .11 seconds." Alex explained.

"Then does that mean Alice doesn't stand a chance?" Emika asked again.

"Not necessarily... he may be able to react ridiculously fast to a situation, but that doesn't mean he'll be able to react the right way to it." Alex answered.

Rolling back time a few seconds to where Ansel sent Alice's gunpla flying with a kick, Ansel chases after her with his Phantom Noir.

"Hmph that's cute." Alice mumbled.

Alice deploys all of her funnels so as to give herself time to get the Kshatriya stabilized, and perhaps if she gets lucky enough take Ansel out as well.

"I smell a bit of desperation." Ansel said not disturbed in the slightest by Alice's blatant funnel assault.

Ansel whips out his Phantom Noir's two Shorty beam pistols or rifles if you really want to get technical. Anyways, he whips out the two Shorty beam rifles and fires a flurry of shots and is able to destroy a couple of Alice's funnels but the remainder are able to out maneuver his shots. Speaking of funnels, as they get closer to Ansel he has no choice but to focus on avoiding them and he's successfully able to do so for the next couple of minutes. In order to completely break their lock on him, Ansel flies straight down into one of the bigger collections of colony debris.

"It's strange…." Jason mumbled.

"What is?" a random little kid attending this party asks Jason.

"The firing range of those funnels is unusually high." Jason explained

"Playing the role of a coward? But is it something honest or is it something to lure me in? No matter…. I have to pursue either way." Alice thought.

Nothing happens for the next 30 seconds of straight downwards flight through space, but all that changes when Alice is going to pass one of the larger pieces of what's left of Heliopolis. Right when Alice is about to do just that, Ansel flies out from under said piece of debris and launches the two rocket anchors in the Phantom Noir's arms which grab onto two the Kshatriya's wing binders and then he flies under another piece of debris on the opposite side.

"I see the lady is still resisting." Ansel thought as he stopped moving at the center of the piece of he was hiding behind.

Ansel could tell given how hard Alice was pulling that she was trying to break the rocket anchors through force alone instead of following him, but that's fine since it fit into his plan. The second part of his plan was to blow a small hole in this piece of debris with his twin linear guns where Alice should be vulnerable on the other side, but not everything always goes according to plan. The moment Ansel actually blasted that hole in the debris Alice's funnels were already there waiting for him, but thankfully he's able to react quickly enough to defend.

"Like I said you're… oh I suppose I got a little arrogant for a moment." Alice was saying when she suddenly realized that Ansel's Phantom Noir was undamaged.

The reason that Ansel was able to escape unharmed was that once the smoke cleared after Alice's surprise assault... even though smoke shouldn't be able to exist in space. Anyways, once it cleared its revealed that the Phantom Noirs arms are covered in a high grade beam shield similar to that of the Strike Freedom's. This revelation explains the purpose white jewel-like object…. they must be a repainted version of the Strike Freedom's beam shield generator.

"I admit I have underestimated you mademoiselle, but now longer shall I make that mistake." Ansel tells Alice.

"I must apologize as well because so far you've only proven that I've somewhat overestimated your ability." Alice retorts as bluntly as ever.

"Then let's see how you like playing as the félin in a game of cat and mouse." Ansel retorts as well as a smile appears on his face.

"This match is really unusual." Alex mumbled.

"What do you mean? From my perspective the fight seems to be pretty even for now, and it only proves your point about how Alice is at least at the Elite 4 level." Emika pointed out.

"That may be true, but look at Alice's face." Alex said as he pointed to the aforementioned female competitor.

"So she has a calm yet serious expression on her face. I don't see how that's a problem." Emika tells Alex.

"That's exactly what the problem is. There are types of fighters who are able to maintain a calm expression throughout an entire battle, but they always show a sign of stress however small on their face from fighting who should be a strong opponent." Alex explained.

"What does that have to do with Alice?" Emika inquired.

"Save for the necessity of blinking and breathing, Alice's expression hasn't changed at all. This means she's either that good at controlling her emotions or…." Alex was saying.

"Or Ansel just isn't strong enough to cause that stress reaction." Emika interrupts as she realized the point Alex was trying to make.

In the time it took for Emika and Alex to have their short conversation, Ansel retracted his Phantom Noir's rocket anchors. Since the hole Ansel created was a bit too small for her own Gunpla, Alice decides to follow the path of the rocket anchors to the other side of this piece of debris, but she discovers that Ansel has somehow disappeared by the time she gets there.

"Where did he go?" Alice thought as she flew through the ruins of Heliopolis searching for her opponent.

Little did Alice know that Ansel's Phantom Noir was slowly approaching her Kshatriya Albion from behind, and somehow he's able to do it without her notice. It's as if he's completely invisible, but the truth of the matter is that he actually was. Ansel disengages this strange stealth system the moment he has the Phantom Noir place its hands on its two beam blades.

"Mirage Colloid." Alex said as he stood up out of his seat from shock.

"He didn't have that feature at the last World Tournament. So he's managed to recreate one of the Blitz's greatest strengths for his gunpla….. but does it mean it also has the same weaknesses?" Jason thought.

"What the.." Alice mumbled as the warning alarm finally alerted her to Ansel's presence to which is the first and only time during this battle she had the slightest bit of surprise on her face.

If Alice was just a half a second later or if Ansel was half a second earlier this battle might have ended right then and there, but Alice is just barely able to react in time to block the Phantom Noir's beam blades with the beam sabers built into the Kshatriya Albion's rear two wing binders.

"It's payback time." Alice thought as she was able to kick the Phantom Noir and send it flying this time around.

Alice instantly turns around and fires her mega particle cannons in a shotgun format again, but thanks to Ansel's beam shield generators his Phantom Noir is able to escape unharmed.

"Now that I know what you're doing….. that's going to be the only time you're going to be able to catch me off guard." Alice declared.

Alice fires the Kshatriya Albion's mega particle cannons again though this time as a single concentrated beam instead off the previous two shotgun attacks, and she adds onto the assault by adding her 10 remaining funnels to the mix as well. Ansel, however is still able to dodge all of that and hide behind another piece of colony debris for cover. Alice doesn't bother pursuing as she already knows that by the time she gets there, Ansel would have already engaged his mirage colloid if he hasn't already. Now…. it just becomes a waiting game.

"Ansel will take advantage of the Mirage Colloid system and use the Phantom Noir to strike where Alice's defense is the weakest. Against any other opponent it would be a sound strategy, but it won't matter against her." Athrun thought after looking back to all of his previous battles with her.

To those watching this fight... it seemed as if Alice was playing the role of the fool by suddenly and randomly placing all of her funnels to fire in one direction, but this placement wasn't random at all. The moment she had them fire in the aforementioned, Ansel had no choice but to disengage his Mirage Colloid as he revealed his position to be right in their line of fire. Ansel is able to defend against the brunt of the attack, but the funnels manage to badly graze his legs.

"Impossible… there's no you could have detected where I was." A shocked Ansel pointed out.

"You're right about there being no way for me to detect your position while the Mirage Colloid system is active, but that doesn't mean I'm incapable of predicting where you'll be. With that system you'll be striking at the weakest point in my defense and I'll always know where that is, so positioning myself accordingly is child's play." Alice explained.

Alice fires off another concentrated shot of her mega particle cannons, and the struggling Ansel now on the defensive is barely able to dodge in time despite the advantage of his near superhuman reaction time. He immediately ducks behind another piece of debris and flies along it for cover, but just as he reaches one end of the debris five funnels come out from the other side and open fire.

"Dang." Ansel blurts out as he tries to escape in the opposite direction.

Unfortunately for Ansel, his second path of retreat was cut off by the Kshatriya Albion's remaining five funnels and as was his third for when he tried to escape by flying straight up there was Alice herself waiting for him. This leaves Ansel the option to retreat either by flying straight down or in the opposite direction of the piece of colony debris that was supposed to offer him protection.

"Now to bring this battle to a close." Alice thought as she brought up her weapon selection screen and cycled through all of the options only to stop at a label that says 'Split Funnels'.

First or technically fourth, Ansel tries to escape his current predicament by flying straight down yet that path is cut off by funnels. Then he tries to have the Phantom Noir go up and out in order to escape, but that path is cut off by funnels as well. Suffice to say somehow 10 additional funnels has just appeared out of nowhere.

"What the…., but you should have only 10 funnels left." Ansel said as he starts to lose his cool.

"You should know better than to judge a custom gunpla simply by the abilities of its base model, but still to rectify your confusion… I can combine two funnels for increased rage or separate them for a higher firing rate, and the separation ability makes up for putting additional thrusters in the rear wing binders." Alice explained.

"That's genius, but then what about the four objects embedded in each wing binder? What's their purpose?" Alex thought.

"Now goodbye." Alice said.

With an all-range attack coming from 3 directions and continuous shot gun like bursts from the mega particle cannons or at least as continuous as she can make it, Alice tears the Phantom Noir to pieces bringing this battle to a unexpected close.

"Battle ended." The battle system declared.

"I…. lost?" a shocked Ansel asks himself as he collects the destroyed remnants of his Phantom Noir whilst staring at said remnants.

Just how will Alex and Emika fight against someone who's proven their abilities to be at the world level? Just how strong is Alice really? The answer for now is…


To Be Continued

Alex: Just what motivates you to fight so hard?

Alice: There's someone I have to defeat even if it means selling my soul to the devil.

Athrun: I finally understand what you mean when you say that you should be able to beat me with ease.

Emika: Next time on Gundam Build Fighters: A "World Class Regional"

Alex: Now let's keep going…. All of this to see the Arios Zeta's final battle!