"Where is he?" the man calls out to a large crowd. "Where is Ignatius Argento? Does he fear the great Stefan Stone? Will he not accept my challenge?" He stands on a statue in front of the Gundam Coliseum in Rome, as he addresses the large Neo-Italian crowd. He had come to Rome to challenge Ignatius Argento to a Gundam Fight Match but he was proving very hard to find. Stefan assumed it was because the fool is afraid of him. He must be hiding, but where?
"You will not be challenging Ignatius Argento today, Stefan Stone!" A tall muscular man stepped out of the crowd. He was tall with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a full beard. "Because I, Leif Vargus, will be fighting him today."
"Like hell you will!" Stone jumped down and stood face to face with new challenger. "I was here first!"
"Whoa, ladies, let's not get all huffy." A new voice cut into the argument. "You'll both get a match. Hell, since you're both here we'll make it two on one."
The fighters both turned to see a man wearing a black hooded cloak. In the shadows of the hood they could only see the man's mouth, but they both assumed the man's identity.
"Argento!" the two shouted in unison. "I challenge you to a Gundam Fight Match!"
The man smirked, "Of course you do."
"Are you sure about this?" Geraldo's face appeared on a screen inside of Ignatius's Gundam Cockpit.
"I'm always sure," Ignatius tried to dispel his brother's fears.
"But what if you lose?"
"First of all: I won't lose, and second: it doesn't matter. I'm in the finals no matter what."
"Whatever," Geraldo gave him an unconfident look, and then the screen disappeared.
"Argento!" Leif Vargus and Stefan Stone were standing across the field from him in their gundams and they were becoming impatient. "Are we gonna do this?"
"Of course, I was waiting for you."
"Gundam Fight all set!" Stone yelled.
"Ready!" Vargus followed.
"GO!" They shouted together and immediately shot towards Centurion Gundam.
Ignatius took a defensive stance as they approached. He focused on Stefan Stone's Blitzkrieg Gundam. The grey and red gundam was adorned with quite a bit of extra armor and a multitude of firearms including one very large rifle that was strapped to the gundam's back. The gundam soon opened fire using an automatic rifle. Ignatius knelt down and lifted his shield as Vargus approached with Berserker Gundam's battle axe ready.
As bullets bounced off of Ignatius's shield, Leif circled around behind him. Vargus lifted his battle axe and drove it down towards the gundam's back, "This is the end!"
"Not quite," just before the axe made contact with his gundam Ignatius rolled to his left and drew his energy sword. He spun around and swiftly cut the Berserker Gundam down at the knees. As the Gundam fell to the ground Ignatius removed its head with one more strike of his blade. He turned to face the Stefan Stone who now stood dumbfounded.
"Holy shit," Stone stared at the heap that was Berserker Gundam. "He was ranked third in the world. How?"
"Like this." Ignatius immediately started towards Blitzkrieg Gundam with his sword ready.
"No," Stone raised his automatic rifle, "I won't go down that easily." He began to fire at the approaching gundam.
Ignatius raised his shield in front of him and continued towards Blitzkrieg Gundam. He sheathed his sword and instead reached for a javelin. He hurled it at Stone who was forced to dodge to the left. He then immediately drew his sword and sped towards him.
"Bad move," Stone knelt down and the large cannon on his gundam's back fell and aimed at Centurion Gundam. "Blitzkrieg Blast!" An immense energy blast exploded from the barrel of the large gun towards Ignatius.
Ignatius rolled to his left barely avoiding the cannon's blast. That was close. He looked down at his left arm and saw the armorscortched from the heat of the blast. "You coulddo some serious damagewith that thing." Ignatius marveled at the power of Stone's ultimate weapon.
"Exactly," Stone turned and aimed at Centurion once again. "Blitzkrieg Blast!"
Energy balled up inside the gun barrel, as the cannon prepared for another attack. Quickly Ignatius grabbed and threw two javelins towards his opponent. One found its mark striking the cannon head on. The subsequent explosion was so powerful; Ignatius fell to one knee to keep his balance. After the dust settled he stood up to see Blitzkrieg Gundam lying headless on the ground.
Keith sat in at the bar, enjoying a glass of whiskey after a long day. He had seen no sign of another gundam fighter since his first match against Neo-Malaysia's Holkon Gara.
"Can you believe that Ignatius Argento?" Keith overheard the conversation of two other men.
"Two on one against the 9th and 3rd ranked fighters," the man's companion replied, "and he took both of their heads! He really is something."
Wow, Keith thought. He took down Leif Vargus and Stefan Stone two on one. It was obviously no fluke him beating Garibaldi.
"Maybe, but he's got nothing on Keith Grayeb." They continued their conversation clueless to the fact that Keith was there, "Our boy'll take anybody."
"Here here," his buddy chimed in.
Keith finished his drink and stood up to leave. As he turned towards the door he caught the stare of a man sitting in the shadows. Stood and met his stare for a long second, then continued out the door.
Keith hadn't heard the man get up and follow him out of the bar, but now he stood face to face with Tai Wei, the gundam fighter from Neo-Hong Kong.
Wei was able to follow Keith down the street, as he walked back to the Hotel where he was staying. Just before he had gotten to the door, Wei jumped out from the shadows. Keith reflexively drew his sidearm, but Wei quickly disposed of it, kicking the colt revolver away.
"Well, well, well," Tai Wei stood face to face with the unarmed Grayeb, "if it isn't the great Keith Grayeb." He began to circle Keith, sizing him up. "I've heard so much about you. You Americans love to blabber on and on. And with such confidence" Keith stood still as he passed behind him.
"They have no reason not to be confident." Keith turned his head sideways to see Wei out of the corner of his eye.
"Really?" the response irritated Tai. "I'll give you one right now." He circled around to get in Grayeb's face. "Me."
"You?" he gave Wei a mocking grin.
"Yes," Wei continued as he glared at Grayeb. "You cannot defeat me. No representative of Neo-America has ever defeated one from Neo-Hong Kong."
It was true. Even in the second Gundam Fight when Fia Filadel won it all, there was no representative of Neo-Hong Kong for her to face. In the following Fight she was defeated by the fighter from Neo-Hong Kong. Since then, Neo-America's fighter had always finished worse than Neo-Hong Kong's Fighter.
"That's about to change." Keith tossed off the brown poncho he had been wearing. "I challenge you to a Gundam Fight Match."
"And it will be your doom."
As Wei backed up and disappeared into the shadows, Keith turned and ran to the large building next to the hotel. He quickly ran inside and hit the button activating the large retractable front door. He jumped into his gundam, passed through the mobile trace system, and stepped outside into the dark streets.