Phase 7: Prelude to Invasion - Freedom and Justice Reloaded...

"Let the duel begin!"

Akira could only stare.

Freedom partially crouched, raised its beam rifle and squeezed off 3 shots.

Justice received the shots on its reflective shield, deflecting them. It whipped out its beamstaff and dashed towards Freedom, aiming a powerful downward slash.

Freedom leaped sideways just as the beamstaff edge came slashing down, impacting the ground, leaving a huge gouge and throwing up dust. It drew a beam sabre and made a backhand swing at Justice.

Justice ducked under the blow, twisted towards Freedom, and swung the beamstaff in an upwards movement, aiming for the legs of the partially airborne Freedom.

Freedom took the blow on its shield and turned in a 360-degree leftwards spin, cleared some distance between Justice, and fired its hip railguns.

Justice took to the air, the shots harmlessly impacting the spot it once stood. Aiming its backpack guns, it fired.

Freedom dodged or deflected the six shots, went into HiMat mode, and unleashed its multicannon attack.

Justice activated RAS, the beams either sliding off or reflected back at Freedom.

Once again, Freedom evaded the returned fire, and engaged Heavy Mirage Colloid (HMC), its form vanishing.

Justice fired its CIWS guns in area-saturation effect, trying to force Freedom to reveal itself.

Seizing its advantage, Freedom snuck up behind Justice, revealed itself, and landed a kick on its backpack.

Justice, however, had separated from the backpack as Freedom revealed itself, using the large backpack as a dummy. As the backpack tumbled away, Justice slashed forwards with its beamstaff.

Caught off guard, Freedom drew both beamsabres and blocked the attack by trapping the beamstaff edge between the crossed beamsabre blades, stopping it mere inches from its head.

Sparks flew as the disintigrative energies fought each other.

By uncrossing its arms, Freedom pushed away the beamstaff and made a midair backflip. Justice landed and stood upon its backpack. The two Gundams clashed in midair, closing and striking, pulling back, then closing again. The thunderous clashes rumbled across the plain.

Justice deployed both boomerangs, throwing one.

Freedom easily dodged, and fired its wing weapons.

Justice leaped off the backpack, and the plasma beams shot between the both of them. As the first boomerang came spinning back, Justice threw the second one.

Realising the danger, Freedom flipped upside-down and fired its railguns, destroying the first boomerang, then righted itself and took the second one on the shield, deflecting it.

Justice's backpack came tearing up, firing. Justice also opened fire from another angle.

Freedom evaded and threw its shield at Justice, blocking Lily Zala's field of vision long enough to disappear again.

Recovering the boomerang, Justice reformed up with its backpack.

Freedom emerged, fired all ranged weapons, and vanished once more, repeating this process.

Justice was hard-pressed by this form of attack, dodging and jinking between beams.

Freedom finally ceased firing, its weapons beginning to overheat. Stowing them away, it reemerged in front of Justice and aimed a sabre slash at the head.

Lily fired the primary backpack guns at point-blank range.

Simultanously:
Justice was decapitated.
Freedom's head took a direct hit and exploded.

Both Gundams descended to the ground...

Akira caught up to Lily at the aerail station. They had been dismissed a short while ago.

"Wow! Great fight!" exclaimed Akira.

"Thanks! I'm still a little winded... That guy was tough!"

"Yeah, he certainly was. Do you know him?"

"Nah, I never met him before. I don't even know his name!"

They were about to step into the waiting aerail transport when someone hailed them.

"Hey, wait up!"

They spun around. A boy their age was running towards them.

"Wait... You're the pilot of Freedom, right?" asked Akira.

"Yup. Uh, look, do you mind if we get on first? The driver doesn't look too happy."

As they took their seats, Akira introduced himself.

"Ah, the pilot of Providence. You, I believe I know," he said, nodding at Lily Zala.

"So, what's your name?" Lily asked.

"Me? Oh, I'm Ryushin Yamato."

---To Be Continued---