After a short recess, the announcers came back on screen. Mirai stood in front of the massive screen that had so far displayed the teams. With White Rose, Kit Bashers, and Arkos moving on, everyone was eager to find out which of the remaining teams would participate in the final battle of the day.
Mirai waved at the audience both in attendance and watching at home. "Alright! So far we have had three spectacular battles, and the final one will be starting in fifteen minutes! But who will be fighting? Let's find out!"
The display simulated the two brackets spinning rapidly. Everyone watched with intent as they rotated, slowing down gradually. In the stadium booth, Salem, Cinder, and Watts sat, with Watts selecting two teams on his tablet. The rotating names slowed to a stop, revealing the next two competitors: Team Shingyo and Team Try Fighters.
"Inspired choices," Salem noted.
"With their Gunpla build quality, both teams could potentially pose a threat without ever meaning to," Watts explained nonchalantly. "It's only natural to eliminate at least one of them by putting them against the other."
Cinder smirked. "And, it'll serve as a good test."
"Indeed," he admitted. "Win or lose, his performance could give us valuable insight."
"It makes me wonder, however…" Salem muttered.
Cinder glanced over at her curiously. "Oh?"
"Hmm. Forgive me. I was just thinking how powerful their Gunpla must be, with their building skills."
Cinder could see the wheels turning in Salem's head. Something had sparked her interest regarding this fight. She followed her gaze down to the main platform, which for now remained empty, though that wouldn't be the case for long.
She glanced behind her at Watts, who was busy working on something on his laptop and cross-referencing data on his tablet. "And what are you scheming now?" She asked, approaching him.
"Your next Gunpla," he replied, never tearing his eyes away from anything besides his two screens. "Your Qubeley Damned Empress is a powerful machine, but I think we can improve upon its principles while simultaneously subverting your opponent's expectations."
He spun the laptop around for her to see his work. On the screen, a white Gunpla she'd never seen before spun in a 3D rendering program. "Allow me to introduce the RMSN-008 Bertigo, After War Gundam X's version of the Qubeley. Presently, there is no kit for it, meaning everything has to be 3D printed from scratch. But, that'll work to our favor, as it means I can customize it to your needs with little issues."
Cinder grinned, ideas running through her head as she stared at the machine. "When this next battle's over with...I'll happily give you some input."
She turned back to the stadium below. "For now, though, let's enjoy this."
The crowd could be heard murmuring through the stadium, and even over the television speakers. The back resting areas seemed lively, considering how things between Minato and Team Try Fighters had played out two Tri Battle Tournaments ago. Expectations for superb quality Gunpla and powerful clashes were high.
Sansoro sighed and shrugged. "As I thought. Fate's proven me correct yet again."
Minato pointed at himself with his thumb and gave Yuuma a self-assured grin. "Sorry to break it to ya, Yuuma, but it looks like we'll be knocking you out in the first round."
Sansoro flicked his eyes over to Fumina. "It's nothing personal. But after today, you might need to rename your Gunpla to something besides 'Star Winning Gundam.'"
Yuuma and Fumina looked at each other, before nodding. "It's going to take more than talk to beat us," Fumina declared, standing next to her partner. She held her fist up and locked eyes with Sansoro. "Do your worst!"
"I won't hold back, Minato," Yuuma added. "Whatever you bring out, we'll be sure to push past it!"
Minato shrugged, unimpressed. "Yeesh, that was almost too cringy to listen to. Almost as bad as looking at your inferior building skills."
Sekai looked back and forth at the two teams, his own excitement brewing. "This is gonna be awesome!"
The two teams stood across from each other, each filled with intense confidence. Sekai had run into Shia and the two of them had joined two other competitors in the tournament who had come to be both good friends and intense rivals with them, Shimon Izuna and his Doubles partner, Kaoruko Sazaki. The two had decided to form Team Shielded Fist when Kaoruko failed to ask Sekai to be her partner before Shia, which had initially caused some measure of friction.
Shimon sat between Shia and Kaoruko, who went by her nickname Gyanko, in an effort to avoid what he thought might have been a fight. Gyanko was much larger than the white-haired girl, both in height and overall size, and she did display some...hostile tendencies when it came to Shia's constant attention to Sekai.
Shimon could feel the death glares being shot over from Gyanko to Shia. Her arms were crossed and she wore a sour look, clearly aggravated. The displeasure radiating off of her was nearly palpable in the air.
Shia, on the other hand, seemed blissfully ignorant of the danger she was in. Shimon knew she was, perhaps, the most observant person he knew, though, so he figured that she was purposefully rubbing it in Gyanko's face that she had asked Sekai to be her partner first. Shimon figured that Shia had done the same to Fumina, and he was very glad she wasn't anywhere near the other two right now.
He looked at Sekai, who was, of course, oblivious. The red-headed martial artist seemed more than just oblivious. He seemed downright uneducated when it came to the desires and interests of women. His eyes were glued to the television. He was so focused on the set up for the battle, he hadn't registered that Shia had scooted right next to him and was almost hanging off of him.
"Oh man, I think this is gonna be one of the best fights yet!" he cried out, holding his fists up to try and contain his excitement.
Shia giggled, her quiet and wistful voice gently filling the air. To his left, Shimon felt Gyanko tense up when she heard it.
"Four amazing builders…" Shia commented to herself. "I wonder what they'll use?"
"I'm sure Fumina will use the Star Winning Gundam," Sekai replied. "But Yuuma was working on a couple of different Gunpla. I'm not sure what he'll pick."
Shimon glanced at Team Shingyo. Sansoro stood, hunched over slightly with his hands in the pockets of his sky blue hoodie and a white bandana pulled over his mouth. The bandana had a black skull's grin on it, and with his pale and thin complexion and bald head, made him look more skeleton than human.
Minato, however, was standing upright, hands-on-hips, and even though the screen was exuding so much confidence that the entire crowd seemed to feed off of it. Shimon remembered the Gundam Tryon III, a Super Robo version of the Double Zeta Gundam that looked and acted more like a Power Ranger Megazord than a Gunpla. Minato had created that for the Tri Battle Tournament, and it was powerful enough to nearly wipe out all three of the Try Fighters. Yuuma ultimately was the one who defeated it, but at great cost to all three of their machines.
His skills as a pilot were amazing, but the performance his buildability granted him made him one of the strongest younger competitors here. Yuuma was in the same boat, but if it came down to a one on one fight between them…
"Hey, Shimon." Gyanko's voice broke through his thoughts. He turned to his partner, who was looking at him with a slightly worried expression. "You look concerned."
He laughed nervously. "Oh, I'm not. Not really. I'm more just sizing up the competition."
He turned back to the television. "Team Shingyo, overall, has the upper hand here, I think. Between the fact, both members are from the Shingyo School and the fact that at least one of them nearly defeated all of the Try Fighters by himself-extremely powerful Gunpla or no-I think it's safe to assume that Yuuma and Fumina have their hands full."
Sekai gave him a surprised look. "You think? I know Minato's strong, but…"
"After watching my brother build Gunpla for the last couple of years while in the hospital, I've gained an eye for how someone looks when they are confident in their building skills." Shimon focused on Sansoro. "Yuuma and Minato will be powerful opponents regardless of what Gunpla they use. Their skills as pilots and builders practically guarantee that. And Fumina isn't one to just go down without a fight. She's definitely a better fighter than a builder, but her build quality is far better than most and in many ways completely unique.
"But Sansoro...he doesn't seem worried at all. In fact, he seems almost calm, unburdened. Like he knows something we don't or sees something in Yuuma and Fumina that we can't. Out of the four of them, he could very well be the most dangerous."
"GUNPLA BATTLE COMBAT MODE, STARTUP! MODEL DAMAGE LEVEL SET TO B!"
The crowd erupted as the battle table's AI made its announcement, prompting the competitors to draw their GP bases and Gunpla. Fumina, as expected, set down her Star Winning Gundam. The powerful SD Gundam was scanned and came to life, its anime-like eyes blinking as it looked up, brimming with power.
Yuuma set his own Gunpla down. A variant of the Zeta Rapier I, the machine was painted in his Lightning Gundam's familiar dark grey and navy blue colors but was far bulkier and more heavily armored. Its armor was also covered with connection points in strategic locations, which Gyanko pointed out were likely spots for additional components. Due to it being a variant of the Zeta Gundam, it clearly was capable of transforming, as well. In addition to that, Yuuma had modified the backpack unit to act similar to his Lightning Zeta, with larger wings for better control.
Minato grinned upon seeing the variant. "Well, I didn't expect to see such an obscure machine pop up out of nowhere."
"So I was partially correct," Sansoro added. "Predictable, if only just."
Minato pulled out his own Gunpla. A heavily modified Silver Bullet Suppressor, the machine was painted in the same color scheme as Minato's previous unit, the ZZII, with blue dominating its armor and red and white, with some yellow for certain bits, dotting various portions of the machine. Yuuma recognized that its joins had been restructured, and the backpack modified, making it look like a larger ReZEL at first glance, but with the Gundam head.
Yuuma furrowed his brow as he looked at the machine. It looked as though it might be capable of transforming. Considering it was Minato, he wouldn't have put it past him to have added extra stylistic and substantial performance enhancements to it as well, as he had with the Gundam Tryon III.
Sansoro's machine, however, took even his partner by surprise. The Gunpla sitting on the launch pad was a variation of the Crossbone Gundam, but one that many Gunpla enthusiasts were familiar with. Aside from the shoulder pads, which had been increased in length to extend outward from the machine, its giant chest-mounted skull motif, solar panels, and backpack redesign matched that of the Crossbone Gundam Maoh, Mao Yasaka's Gunpla that he built after his Gundam X Maoh had been totaled by the Second Meijin. The only substantial difference was a return of the Crossbone Gundam X-1's color scheme of white and blue, wider shoulders resembling the Crossbone's but with a more substantial extension, and the default zanbuster rifle over the bone-shaped weapons the original Crossbone Maoh used.
"You've got to be kidding me?!" Minato yelled. "You go around telling people you're studying under Mao Yasaka and the only thing you have to show for it is a copy of his own Gunpla?"
Sansoro, clearly predicting Minato's surprise, simply glanced over to him. With the bandana on, it was impossible to see his mouth, but it was easy to imagine he was grinning at the reaction. "Just because it looks the same doesn't mean it is. Of all people, you should know better than anyone that Mao's style isn't always about the obvious. Remember how the Gundam X Maoh had solar panels to make up for the lack of a moon for his Satellite Cannon?"
Minato grunted, which was the closest Sansoro would get to him conceding to his point. His blue eyes focused on the screen ahead as he placed his hands on the control orbs. "Now…" The look he gave Yuuma and Fumina had that sudden, intense shift that they had felt earlier. "Let's have a little fun."
"FIELD TWO-DESERT!"
A massive, sprawling orange area of blowing sand, meters-tall table-like slabs of rock, and dust everywhere. Fumina looks over the scene as they prepare to launch. "Texas Colony…"
"The winds will be strong here," Yuuma said. "This won't favor any of our Gunpla."
"BATTLE START!"
"Fumina Hoshino, Star Winning Gundam, let's go!"
"Yuuma Kousaka, Lightning Zeta Rapier, launching."
Minato grinned wildly. "Minato Sakai, Magic Bullet, let's get going!"
Sansoro looked at Minato's screen, clearly disappointed. "You have the creativity of a savant and the naming skills of a preschooler." Shaking his head, he pushed forward with his orbs. "Crossbone Gundam Gaster, heading out."
As Sansoro landed next to Minato, he looked over at his partner's feed. "What's with the sour look?"
"You called your Gundam 'Gaster?' Like...why?"
Sansoro shrugged. "I liked it. Plus, someone said I kinda remind them of Sans from Undertale, and he uses a Gaster Blaster, so…."
"You have got to be joking?!" Minato couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Your entire motif is based on a one-hundred-year-old game?!"
"Gunpla Battles use model kits whose designs haven't changed in ages," Sansoro shrugged, disinterested. "I see little difference."
"I cannot believe you! This is-"
Minato stopped dead mid-sentence as an alert went off. In the dust storm, he spotted an incoming pink beam, and both he and Sansoro backed up as it narrowly missed them.
"Perhaps you should focus less on my choice of gimmicks and more on the enemy trying to blow your head off," Sansoro chastised.
"Grrrr, you don't have to tell me that!" Minato snapped back as he ducked behind a tall rock. Knowing Yuuma, even in this dust storm, he was likely trying to snipe.
Yuuma huffed, disappointed the wind had messed his aim up that badly. He was trying to avoid hitting the colony; if a beam penetrated the ground, it would breach the colony walls and cause hurricane-like winds even greater than the dust storm they were in now, which would eventually suck all four of them into space.
While he had considered that, the fact that Sansoro used a Crossbone Gundam meant that his speed and mobility would be best served in space. If he was trapped in this dust storm, he'd have a harder time moving. They all would, but limiting The Crossbone Gaster was the top priority.
Plus, if his Crossbone was indeed based on the Crossbone Maoh, as long as the dust storm was present, he wouldn't be able to draw in solar power for the massive cannon no doubt hidden in the jaws of the massive skull on his chest.
He looked over at Fumina, who landed next to him. The Star Winning Gundam wore a strained expression, the emoting eyes showing how difficult it found the present wind and dust conditions.
"This is ridiculous," Fumina complained. "I can barely move in this storm."
Yuuma scanned the area. Most of the wind was blowing from the south side of the colony, beating directly against them.
"We should try and circle around them," he suggested. "If we get the wind on our backs, we'll have an easier time."
He transformed the Lightning Rapier into its waverider mode, and Fumina hopped on top. While her Gunpla could also transform, in these conditions, doing so would send her sailing hopelessly into the wind like a kite.
Yuuma took off, flying against the wind and trying to stay low among the tall plateaus that formed the maze of Texas Colony's terrain. He weaved back and forth among the pillars and did his best to avoid where Minato and Sansoro both were last spotted. The last thing he wanted to do was to be caught off guard with no way to react.
Fumina kept glancing around. Star Winning's SD form was both compact and nimble when conditions were favorable, but the high winds crippled her usefulness. "I don't like this."
"Same. I think we should proceed on foot," Yuuma agreed, landing so Fumina could hop off and then transforming. The Lightning Rapier took point, helping block some of the wind so Fumina could follow.
The two traveled for a short distance before Yuuma came to an abrupt stop and waved Fumina back. Dropping to one knee, the Lightning Rapier brought its beam rifle upward, ready to flip forward and open fire. Yuuma made sure to keep it on a lower power setting, to hopefully minimize damage to the colony.
He glanced around the pillar of one of the large plateaus cautiously. In the distance, he spotted movement through the dust storm.
The customized Silver Bullet Minato was using was tromping around aimlessly. Knowing Minato, he was getting impatient, and while he was cocky while winning battles, he tended to be rash when things weren't going favorably.
Yuuma scoped in on Minato, a special, clear visor sliding down over his Gundam's eyes, hidden within the upper area of the forehead. The transparent visor was tinted, helping him filter out visual noise and focus on his target.
Once a target lock was acquired, he began to pull back on the trigger. However, right before the beamlet lets loose, the entire colony shook violently and staggered both him and Fumina. He watched as Minato also stumbled, just as the winds abruptly changed direction.
"Did you miss?" Fumina asked as she stood and pressed her small Gunpla against the rock face next to her.
"No! I didn't even fire!" Yuuma responded. He looked over in Minato's direction and saw the wind and dust rushing past him and down towards the floor. In the distance, he could barely make out the Crossbone Gundam Gaster jumping down a hole in the floor, which was still glowing an angry orange.
"FIELD CHANGE!" The automated announcer declared as the participants struggled.
Minato stood upright and gritted his teeth. "Sansoro! What the heck are you doing?!"
"We're not going to make any progress like this," Sansoro replied. "I can't maneuver, you can't see anything, and I'm willing to bet the dust cover favored Yuuma more than it did us. So, I'm eliminating the advantage."
Minato growled but said nothing. He looked over to his right, intending to simply scan for the Try Fighters and ensure his rear was covered, but he spotted Yuuma's Lightning Rapier on the ground as the dust began to clear up.
"Heh, alright, I guess you're right," he said to Sansoro, before raising his arm and opening fire with the beam rifle he held.
Yuuma quickly transformed and boosted out of the way. "Fumina! We need to leave!"
The missed shot burned another hole into the colony, which Fumina immediately transformed and spun to fly down. Yuuma shot past Minato, ignoring him completely as he flew towards the hole Sansoro had created.
Fumina emerged first but immediately got an incoming warning. Gasping, she turned and saw a bright star about fifty meters away. And it grew brighter each second.
Zooming in, she immediately recognized the familiar form of the Crossbone Gundam. She desperately called over to Yuuma. "Look out! Sansoro's about to fire!"
Yuuma emerged a half-second later and transformed in an attempt to blast Sansoro. It took him too long to locate him, however, and the sight when he did was terrifying.
The skull on the Crossbone Gaster's chest was wide open, and the Satellite Cannon inside its mouth was fully charged. "See ya," Sansoro said over an open comm, saluting Yuuma as he fired.
The bright blue beam lanced forward, a titanic blast that engulfed the entire area in front of him. The lower portion of the colony was caught in the shot, melting like butter as the intense beam cut through space.
The attack took Yuuma completely by surprise, and he watched helplessly as it careened toward him. The beam was at least a quarter the size of the colony, and too large and too close for him to dodge. Closing his eyes and preparing to accept his fate, he waited for the control orbs to fade under his palms and his screen to go dark.
However, he heard a strangled cry from Fumina and opened his eyes to see the Star Winning Gundam and its bits before him, blocking the blast and forcing the massive amount of energy to bend around the two Gunpla.
The beam continued for several seconds and left both Try Fighters pilots partially blinded, even with the screen brightness filters turned down to the maximum. When it finally dissipated, the Star Winning Gundam was wincing, as if in pain, and Fumina sighed in relief. "Yuuma, are you okay?"
"Fumina…" he replied, appreciation flooding from his voice. "Yeah, I'm fine!"
Minato had joined Sansoro in space, transforming from a wave rider mode back into robot mode and floating alongside him. "Oi! Yuuma is mine!"
Sansoro shrugged dismissively. "I don't see your name on him," he replied, grinning under his bandana.
Minato growled in frustration, then spun and pointed his beam rifle at the Lightning Rapier. "Yuuma! You and me, right now!"
Sansoro's gaze flicked to the Star Winning Gundam. "That suits me fine." He flicked the Crossbone Gaster's Zanbuster rifle and removed the beam cutlass from the beam pistol, separating the rifle into its two main components. "Come on, Fumina. Show me what your creativity and ambition can do!"
A look of determination swept over Yuuma's face as he nodded and accepted Minato's challenge. "Fine. I accept your challenge."
Fumina checked on her status. Fortunately, the energy shield her bits had used to block Sansoro's blast had mitigated almost all the damage that could have happened, but it had strained the energy levels to near maximum consumption. It was unlikely she'd be able to do that again without some time to let the bits recharge.
She looked at the Crossbone Gaster, who hung in the air expectantly. "Alright. Come get me!"
Sansoro smirked. "That's the spirit."
The standoff grew tense, until Minato, impatient to continue, made the first move. He raised his beam rifle and fired, forcing the Lightning Rapier to dodge to the right.
The shot acted like a signal, and Sansoro and Fumina rushed each other. Fumina's smaller SD Gundam had more condensed mass than the Crossbone Gaster, who itself was also smaller than an average Gunpla. The two had similar thruster outputs and collided with intense force. Sansoro's beam zanber landed hard against the beam blade attachment of Fumina's beam machine gun, and the two pushed against each other to try to gain an upper hand.
Yuuma watched at a distance, fighting the instinct to take the shot and try and down Sansoro. His alerts blared, however, bringing his attention back up front and forcing him to dodge as the Magic Bullet shot past him, trying to tackle him in waverider mode. Minato grinned and flipped upside down, transforming and firing his beam rifle at the Lightning Rapier, which was now forced on the defensive as Yuuma dodged incoming fire.
"Hey! Your fight's with me!" Minato shouted, narrowly missing Yuuma several times as he pressed the attack.
He straightened his posture and revealed two belly-mounted beam cannons, hidden behind protective hatches on his torso. Yuuma was stunned to a second, before transforming and barrel rolling to the side as massive twin beams fired in his direction.
Sansoro caught the bright flash out of the corner of his eye, nodding approvingly. "Ah. Interesting." His mind began formulating a plan, but he was shocked out of his thought as the Star Winning Gundam increased its thrust and rocked the Crossbone Gaster, pushing it away before kicking him.
The four back binders on Sansoro's backpack adjusted and slowed his free fall, causing him to backflip before righting himself. He opened fire with his beam pistol, forcing Fumina to dodge and return her weapon back to machine-gun mode before returning fire. Sansoro raised his left arm and a blue beam shield sprang to life from an emitter, blocking several of the incoming green pellets.
"He's got a G-Saviour shield," Fumina muttered. She frowned and checked her bits. While they weren't fully charged, she opted to deploy them anyway, releasing the two gun bits from her Gunpla and immediately having them open fire on the Crossbone.
The back binders of the machine twisted and twitched as Sansoro dodged the incoming fire. He flipped two sub arms over his shoulders and added their firepower to his beam pistol, trying to counter the barrage with shots of his own.
A stray shot from Sansoro narrowly missed Minato, the pink streak cutting through space and almost colliding with his backpack. Minato growled but wasn't able to yell at him, as the Magic Bullet was rocked with an explosion. He looked at Yuuma, who had fired a pair of small grenades from the Lightning Rapier's forearms, which had hit Minato from behind and shook him violently.
Sansoro noticed his partner losing ground, and spun as Fumina rushed him. He immediately delivered a roundhouse kick to the SD Gundam as it sailed by, sending her careening directly into the outer wall of the colony. He then came around and opened fire with his three-beam guns, riddling the area Yuuma was in with hostile fire and forcing him to transform and withdraw.
"This is almost too easy," Sansoro exclaimed, ceasing fire as Minato came up to his left.
Minato frowned. "You just can't help sticking your nose into this."
"You looked like you needed help," Sansoro replied. "Next time, I'll let him melt you."
An alert popped up on both of their screens, and the Magic Bullet and Crossbone Gaster scattered as a massive green beam shot from the side of the colony. They spun around to see the Star Winning Gundam emerge, its four bits circling the tip of its gun and acting as a beam magnification unit, drastically increasing the power of its machine gun.
Fumina clicked on her right orb and twisted over to the special slot, activating it. The bits began to form up around her, with each of the four attaching to a different limb to extend her arms and legs into a fully formed Gunpla. The SD head detached and connected to the backpack, its massive W horn linking to a hidden normal Gundam head, finishing the drastic transformation.
A glint shined in Sansoro's eyes as he turned to face the revived Star Winning Gundam. "Now...the real party begins."
He shot off towards Fumina, leaving a speechless Minato behind. He watched as the two clashed hard, blow after blow being parried and dodged by the two agile machines. The Star Winning seemed to gain ground, only to retreat as Sansoro used the Crossbone Gaster's more numerous beam sabers to force her back, but was immediately put on the defensive as Fumina detached and utilized her extended limbs before recombining them to return to her full form and close the gap once again.
Minato turned and gave Yuuma a confident grin. "Well, looks like it's my turn."
He charged his chest-mounted cannons again, unleashing a powerful beam attack on the Lightning Rapier. Yuuma twisted his wrist on his left arm and selected his special slot, causing his wing extensions to detach and recombine with his shield, which he aimed at Minato.
As the yellow energy of destruction pierced the heavens, he charged the mega particle cannon in his shield, the edges of the wing extensions resonating with the power being channeled through the barrel of the weapon. When it fired, a brilliant, pink Phoenix-shaped special attack collided and pushed back against the incoming attack.
Minato watched as his energy levels rapidly depleted, and chose to cut the power to the beam. As he did, the Phoenix Burst attack pushed through, forcing him to dodge to the right and let it sail past him with only a sliver of time to react.
Almost immediately out of danger from the special attack, however, his alert sounded, signaling an attack from the right. He turned as the Lightning Rapier dashed forward, the wing binders that had attached to the shield now mounted to the Zeta Gundam variant's forearms and aimed as blades right at the Magic Bullet.
Yuuma slashed down at Minato, who dodged the first attack while drawing a beam saber to block the second. The weight of the physical weapon backed its beam edge up, colliding with the Magic Bullet's beam saber and knocking it backward with extreme force. Minato cried out in surprise as his platform and orbs shook violently while his Gunpla tumbled through space.
Realizing that he was outmatched, he returned the standard beam saber to its slot and selected a different one, mounted on his right arm. He drew the weapon, a massive pink blade emanating from the hilt.
Yuuma's brow furrowed. "A Queen Mansa beam saber…"
He recognized the design. It was clearly inspired by Worklach Banham's Döven Wolf's version, though because no official model of that machine or the Queen Mansa was ever released as a high grade, it meant Minato created it from scratch. The high output beam saber also was using what appeared to be particle transformation, the same technique Minato had used when building Shunsuke Sudou's Mega-Shiki last year. Which meant it could cut through other beam sabers that weren't using the same technique.
"It's over, Yuuma!" Minato declared, before opening up two micro missile pods on the back binders of his Gunpla and unleashing a volley of micro missiles. The warheads arched upwards, before proceeding to dive straight at the Lightning Rapier in a rapid descent.
Yuuma angled his shield, pointing it at the incoming projectiles and firing the mega particle cannon inside it at them, taking out most with the first blast. He prepared a second on but aborted the weapon charging sequence when the Magic Bullet attempted to cleave the Lightning Rapier in half.
As the battle progressed, Sekai nearly leaped from his seat on more than one occasion. He fist-pumped as he watched Fumina launch her Star Funnels at Sansoro, who knocked them away with the beam sabers on his sub arms, before unleashing a hellish blast from his skull cannon. He cried out as Yuuma and Minato clashed, beam blades slamming against one another in a desperate attempt to gain the upper hand. He cheered as Fumina managed to kick Sansoro into Minato, allowing Yuuma and her to regroup.
Shia giggled lightly while watching her partner. The light sound of her voice, however, only irritated Gyanko, who gripped her crossed arms tightly.
Shimon watched the battle with much the same
intent Sekai did, though he was studying the Try Fighters just as much as he was caught up in the excitement. "It seems Yuuma and Fumina have a few new strategies," he noted. "I've seen Star Winning Gundam's Real Mode before, but I haven't seen Fumina detach her funnels to use a few times before recalling them."
"Me neither," Sekai agreed, "but it's awesome! Go Fumina! Go Yuuma!"
Gyanko barely paid much attention to the fight, until a glimmer caught her eye. She turned to the screen fully as she noticed something odd about the Crossbone Gaster. "Wait….inside its shoulders…"
She glanced at a side shot of the machine before it turned. There was something inside the longer shoulder lays, but it took her a moment to recall what it was.
And then, they deployed.
Sansoro grinned as a trio of radiator fins deployed from each shoulder pad. The fins began glowing, causing the entire Crossbone Gaster to begin to seemingly vibrate in place. As Fumina opened fire, she seemed to score a direct hit on the machine. However, her green beam machine gun bolts flew right through it.
"Multiple Construction Armor?" Gyanko gasped, as the Crossbone Gaster rapidly circled around the Star Winning Gundam and nearly impaled it on its zanber saber. Fumina twisted to the side, narrowly missing the thrust, but was kicked sideways as the Crossbone Gaster circled around for another pass.
"It's using the Gundam F91's afterimage," Shia noted. "I didn't even see the radiator fins until they deployed. He must have hidden them with a small sliding panel within the shoulders."
Sekai looked at her, confused. "Is that bad?"
"It's not good," Shimon replied.
"Sansoro just upped the already-incredible speed of the Crossbone Gundam by two, maybe three times," Gyanko added, leaning forward as she watched Fumina struggle to keep up with him. "He made a machine with that much power also almost completely untouchable."
Fumina spun around and slashed down at the Crossbone Gaster, but the only thing she hit was a quickly-disappearing afterimage. She instinctively boosted upwards, flipping around completely and upside down as a trio of pink beams finished off the afterimage, narrowly missing her.
Fumina reached behind her back and pulled out a third gun funnel, which she wielded like a second rifle. She had wanted to keep it as a last resort, but the enhanced speed of the Crossbone Gaster was putting her on the defensive. Even with the second weapon, however, she couldn't pin Sansoro down, watching his machine dance across the stars with agility and grace.
She watched as the skull opened up and began charging. She moved the left hand of the Star Winning Gundam to its W fin. "Winning….BEAM!" she cried out, activating a massive W shaped super laser that fired from her forehead.
Sansoro responded with his own blast, watching with satisfaction as his massive white-blue shot overtook Fumina's and consumed her position in the fire.
His alarms sounded immediately from the left and right side a second later, and he noted that Fumina's gun funnels had circled to both sides of him. His sub arms moved and tried to shoot them down, but missed each shot as they darted around. He scoffed. Clearly, Fumina was still alive.
He shut his satellite cannon off, letting the field clear of the light. The Star Winning Gundam was gone, not a trace remaining.
But then…
Sansoro immediately dashed forward to avoid incoming fire from the mobile weapons. Fumina was still around here...somewhere.
The Crossbone Gaster shot past the floating debris left behind by the group's initial exit from Texas Colony. Fumina let out a sigh of relief as her SD Gundam hid behind one chunk of a destroyed rock plateau that had been pulled into space and now floated lifelessly. The Star Winning Gundam's animated eyes looked around, making sure the coast was clear.
She looked over at the clash happening in the distance. Yuuma and Minato seemed to be at a stalemate, the large beam saber of the Magic Bullet slamming against the Lightning Rapier's arm-mounted wing blades. Close combat wasn't Yuuma's strong suit. This would be an uphill battle for the known sniper.
Taking the brief reprieve from the Gaster's pursuit, Fumina shot forward, going around the floating rock and heading for the dueling machines. Honorable or not, something had to give if one side or the other was going to win.
She encircled herself in both her star funnels and gun funnels, preparing to strike at the Magic Bullet as he swung at Yuuma. She aimed her beam machine gun and prepared to fire, but an alarm sounded and she stopped dead as the Crossbone Gaster suddenly appeared in front of her, its back X shaped binder, covered in solar panels, aimed at the sun as it hung between Fumina and her teammate. The Star Winning Gundam's eyes grew wide in fear and surprise as it hung in space.
"And where do you think you're going?" Sansoro asked wickedly, as the skull opened up and prepared to fire. Fumina immediately transformed into its core fighter mode and attempted to outrun the blast, moving to the side in hopes to dodge.
Sansoro opened fire with a short half-second burst from his cannon, before turning with Fumina and firing again, and again, and again, massive blasts of energy coating the area in blue fire.
One-shot cut between Yuuma and Minato. Minato's beam saber cut the shot in half, and the aggravated youth turned towards the Crossbone Gaster. "You idiot! Watch where you're firing!"
He spun and blocked a powerful blow from Yuuma, before stabilizing and dodging as Yuuma fired the shield mounted mega cannon again.
Again, the beam was cleaved in two by the massive beam saber, just like Sansoro's had been, and Minato shot forward and swung the weapon at the Lightning Rapier. Yuuma boosted up, but Minato followed through with an upwards swing that caught his left arm and completely severed it just above the elbow.
Fumina circled around and released a small volley of missiles, forcing Minato to turn his attention to the incoming attacker long enough for Yuuma to pull back. "Yuuma, are you okay?"
Yuuma looked at his display. "Yeah. I lost my shield and one wing binder, but otherwise, I'm fine."
"This is getting us nowhere," she said, disheartened.
Yuuma looked over at her. "What should we do?"
She paused for a moment before her face lit up in inspiration. "I have an idea."
Sansoro floated next to Minato, watching as the Try Fighters began to regroup. Minato transformed into waverider mode. "We shouldn't let them strategize," he said, preparing to take off.
"Nah." Sansoro retracted the heat radiator fins, deactivating his super-speed and grabbing onto Minato's back. "They already planned something. It's our job to keep them from doing it."
"You have an idea?" Minato asked.
"We actually work together and combine both your mega particle cannons with my satellite cannon. Combined, the power would be far more than enough to obliterate the colony and anything in that vicinity."
"You could do that already." Minato gave him a skeptical look. "Why don't you just cut loose and destroy it?"
Sansoro chuckled. "Where's the fun in that? I COULD, but it'll take most of my power to do it."
Minato rolled his eyes as he took off in pursuit, following the Try Fighters back into the now-atmosphere less colony. With the air completely removed, the interior reacted much like the space surrounding it, with the biggest key difference being that the internal section of the sphere had far too many places to hide.
Minato transformed and hung in the middle of the area, scanning around for any traces. "Now, Yuuma...where'd you go?"
Sansoro looked around, the monoeye in the skull switching from socket to socket as the Crossbone's head turned and scanned. "Huh….I didn't take them for cowards."
"Oh, they're no cowards. But they are smart." Minato gritted his teeth. "I bet they're trying to get Yuuma a better position."
"Yeah, I figured that." The question was...where.
He turned around completely. The colony was nearly thirty kilometers long. Searching that would be-
An incoming glint caught his eye as he turned back to face Minato, and instinctively he raised his left arm and activated his beam shield. However, what slammed into him was a powerful, piercing pink blast that breached the beam barrier and completely destroyed his left arm and zanber saber, cutting through it like butter and superheating the part to the point of exploding. The force rocked Sansoro, knocking him away and causing him to crash into one of the plateaus.
He grunted as he sat up. "Dammit. Careless," he chided himself as he stood. He looked to the far end of the colony. A shot from about twenty-five kilometers away? He nodded, impressed. "Alright, color me impressed."
Minato, as expected, boosted forward the moment he registered where the shot came from. Sansoro watched him move forward but chose not to go after him. "Fool," he muttered to himself. His partner was so obsessed with defeating Yuuma that he wasn't thinking straight.
After a moment, the Crossbone Gaster took to the air again, heading forward, but keeping its head on a pivot. There was absolutely no way Fumina had left the area.
Minato moved erratically in waverider mode, doing his best to avoid any potential sniper fire. Since that first shot, he hadn't seen anything to indicate that Yuuma was still there. And, sure enough, as he closed in on the opposite side of the colony, he saw no trace of the Lightning Zeta Rapier or Star Winning Gundam.
"Yuuma! Come out and fight me!" he cried out, looking up as he screamed.
And then he saw it.
A single shot rang out, and the sound of an explosion could be heard in the distance. Sansoro narrowed his eyes and activated his long-range scope, zooming in on the entrance to the colony. There, he saw the Magic Bullet, destroyed, turned to scrap, and hanging in the zero-gravity of the colony's cargo and docking area.
Standing at the doors of the colony was the Lightning Rapier, its left arm replaced by the Star Winning Gundam's Real Mode left arm. It had the Star Winning's gun funnels mounted to either side of its head, like shoulder cannons, and Yuuma had them and its powerful beam rifle aimed right at Sansoro.
"Heh. One final shot, huh?" he said to himself, opening the skull cannon's cover one last time and aiming it right at the new combined machine. "Show me the power of your team's will!" he cried out as he unleashed the full power of the satellite cannon at the Lightning Rapier.
Yuuma smiled and nodded to Fumina, who activated the star funnels and shot them in front of the Lightning Rapier, once again forming the magnification effect she had used before. Standing next to the Lightning Rapier, the Star Winning Gundam aimed its beam machine gun at the magnifier and opened fire, and a moment later Yuuma unleashed both beam cannons and a charged, heavy blast from the Lightning Rapier's rifle.
All of the incoming shots hit the magnifier and burst forth in a brilliant beam made of green and pink swirling energy. The blast met the powerful satellite cannon head-on, and beam locked with it.
Sansoro chuckled. "Not bad," he admitted. "But I have the advantage of infinite energy with-"
He stopped dead as he looked at his display. His power level was dropping, and he saw immediately that the computer was warning him that his solar panels were covered in dust. Confused at first, he struggled to think about how such a thing could have happened, but then he realized. When they had blown his arm up and he hit the ground….he had hit back first.
Yuuma glowered at his own display, watching the beam start to deteriorate as the lock held. The combining energy was starting to grow and the superheated plasma began to melt the sandy tops of the rocks between the Gunpla, glassing the surface of the interior. "Fumina, at this rate…"
"On it!" Fumina cried out, detaching her Gunpla's base core fighter from the rest of the SD Gundam and mounting it on Yuuma's back. The additional piece added even more power to the Lightning Rapier, allowing him to persist with the beam attack.
Sansoro began diverting power to the satellite cannon from his Gunpla's reactor, doing all he could to keep his beam going as long as possible. But as the lock wound down, the ball in the center of the beams growing larger by the second and beginning to physically destroy the colony, he realized the inevitable was going to happen.
Though brief, it was plain as day that the combination of the Star Winning Gundam and Lightning Rapier was too much for even his Crossbone Gaster to overcome. Smiling to himself, he closed his eyes as the blinding light became too much to look at. "So...this is the extent of your ingenuity. Well played, Try Fighters," he admitted, accepting defeat as the beam overtook him.
As the smoke cleared the colony ripped in two from the titanic clash, the Star Winning Gundam-equipped Lightning Rapier remained. Badly damaged from overexerting itself, partially melted from the heat of the intensity of the beams, and barely functional, it was nonetheless the only mostly intact machine out of the four. Fumina detached from the back of Yuuma's machine, showing that the core fighter was still operational as the crowd erupted into applause and cheers from witnessing such an intense battle.
"BATTLE ENDED!"
The field and cockpits dropped, and Fumina leaped at Yuuma, nearly tackling him with a hug. "We did it!" She cheered happily.
Yuuma staggered, almost being taken off his feet by her enthusiasm. After steadying himself, he smiled and nodded.
The two looked over at Sansoro and Minato. The powerful builders were looking at their Gunpla, which all now were in pieces on the table. Sansoro was grinning as if the battle had done something for him. He appeared happy with the outcome.
Approaching the duo, he offered his hand in congratulations. "Thank you for a wonderful battle." He gave Fumina a true, genuine smile. "And thank you for showing me firsthand the passion and creativity behind your machine."
Fumina blushed a bit as she shook his hand. "It was nothing," she replied. "Thank you for an amazing battle. You had me sweating for a bit."
"Admittedly, I wasn't terribly concerned until the end," he answered honestly. "That was truly inspiring to see your machines combine like that. I'll need to make note of that in the future in one of my next builds."
Yuuma walked over to Minato and offered his hand out. Minato looked at it, disappointment and discontentment were written all over his face.
"Good fight, Minato," Yuuma admitted. "Your build and skills, as always, are impressive."
Minato shrugged and looked away from Yuuma. "Yeah yeah. Congrats and all that," he replied dismissively, shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets. "Don't think this proves anything, though." He glanced back at Yuuma. "I won't stop until you admit I'm better than you."
A grin crossed his face as he turned and locked eyes with his rival. "But you know that, already."
Yuuma nodded, and Minato shook his hand before turning and heading off the stage, Sansoro close behind him.
In the back, Sekai hollered in excitement, with the others joining in with less severe reactions. All of them were happy to see their friends and rivals move on. A sudden rush of relief washed over Sekai. Part of him wanted to fight Yuuma and Fumina, just as a friendly bout on the world stage. If he and Shia could win their first-round, that might become an actual reality.
As the two returned to the back, Sekai ran over to them. "That was incredible!" he cried out, annoying Yuuma.
"Calm down!" Yuuma snapped.
Fumina giggled and gave him a happy smile. "I can't wait to see who you'll be going against," she admitted.
"Yeah, I can't wait!" He let out another cry, but then a look of realization crossed his face. "Wait, but that means the first rounds for today are over with, huh?"
"Yeah," Shimon said from the couch behind him. "All of us for sure will be fighting tomorrow at some point. But the battles are done for today."
"Awwww…but I'm so pumped right now!"
Shia smirked at watching Sekai's energy, getting up and approaching him. "Well, if you have some excess energy, we could try and go burn it off somehow…"
Gyanko and Fumina immediately stormed between Shia and Sekai, death glares firing at the smaller girl. "AND WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" both asked simultaneously, simply making Shia shrug and turn shyly away from them with a wink. Shimon facepalmed in the back, sighing heavily at the display.
Sekai looked at Yuuma. "I don't get it," he asked quietly, causing Yuuma to push his glasses up in both astonishment and frustration.
"And at that rate, you never will," he replied simply.
The last battle of the day had been explosive and had revved up Hathaway. He and Jack were practicing in one of the private battle rooms, using C level damage to spar. Hathaway's machine, a kitbash of the Man Rodi from Iron-Blooded Orphans and Grimoire from Reconguista in G, squared off against Jack's Gundam Preliator. And the battle had proved to be a tough one.
Hathaway had chosen this hybrid specifically for its heavy armor and endurance, which he knew he'd need if he was fighting against Jack's Muay Thai kickboxing. Her Gundam Maxter-inspired modified Gundam Tristan had both power and speed, and even with the thicker armor, he found her blows difficult to deal with.
He raised his fists, blocking her blow with his forearm, feeling the left orb in his hand rumble from the force before throwing his right orb forward in a straight punch. Jack ducked the punch and delivered a staggering blow to the flat, frog-like Rodi head of the hybrid, before punching the ball-like midsection from the Grimoire that linked the torso to the hips.
Hathaway took a step back as Jack landed a kick, managing to get his right arm up in time to absorb the impact. Despite this, the kitbash was knocked off its feet, landing hard on the ground and skidding a few meters.
"It can take a good beating and dish out some powerful punches," Jack noted as she recentered herself. "This is the perfect training opponent."
"Maybe," Hathaway replied, standing up. He looked over the damage. Despite the thick armor and reinforced joints, his kitbash had taken severe dents from the powerful and unrelenting blows. Some of them even had begun to limit his shoulder movements, as the plastic had deformed and began caving into his left shoulder. Even on C grade damage, Jack's strength and skill were undeniable.
He nodded, smiling and ducking out of the battle. Jack gave him a disappointed look, before noticing the launch gate reappear and a new Gunpla being deployed. "But let's see how you fare against him."
The machine landed next to the downed kitbash, and she noticed that the Gunpla in question was an expertly created Gundam Maxter.
"Hey hey," the pilot said, raising his hands up and entering a boxing pose with the blue knuckles flipped over his fists. "Nice Gundam you have there. It'd be a shame if someone took it out."
Jack blinked. "Is that a Chibodee Crocket AI?"
"Yup," Hathaway replied. "Happy birthday, Jack. I made that Gunpla especially for him so you can train against it."
She gave him a happy, affectionate smile. "Awww, you remembered!"
"I know what you'll like." He laughed a little. "Besides, you don't have to hold back against him in a fistfight."
"Oh," Jack said with gusto, shaking her forearms downward. The black-colored knuckles that frame the Gundam Preliator's internal forearm guns moved forward and covered her fists, just like the Maxter. "Trust me, I won't."
Hathaway dropped out of the cockpit and watched from the side as Jack and the Chibodee AI went all out on each other, the two slamming fists into each other with ferocious power that seemed to send shockwaves along with the air and ground around them. The desert floor shook and cracked from the force of their blows, and more than once each of them caught the other off guard with a flurry of blows and counters.
Crossing his arms, he took notes on how to improve the custom-built parts of the Maxter. He could already see that Jack was gaining the upper hand.
Just as Jack managed to pound the Maxter into the ground with a powerful right hook to the cheek, the door to the private room unlocked. As the battle ended, Jack grabbed the small towel she had out of her back pocket and dabbed it on her forehead, panting a bit from the effort she needed to put out, before turning to address the newcomers.
"Sorry, this room is occupied," she said, before halting from talking any further when she saw who was in the doorway.
Hathaway raised an eyebrow. "Captain Ironwood."
The tall military officer nodded to both of them. "Pardon the intrusion," he said apologetically, "but before I lost track of you, I was hoping to get a chance to speak with you, Mister Novah."
"Oh?"
Ironwood approached the table, looking over the three Gunpla there. "I do research on everyone I can who I'll be possibly fighting. As you can imagine, the military makes this kind of search relatively easy. While looking you up, I saw something...interesting."
He picked up the kitbash machine. "I learned you take commissions to create Gunpla for people, either for display purposes or for combat."
"Yeah, I run a small business doing it," Hathaway admitted. "What of it?"
"As you know, I lost my fight today." He set the kitbash down on the table again gently. "I want to commission you to build me a new Gunpla. One I can use to beat Pyrrha Nikos, and anyone else in the tournament."
Jack gave him a worried look. "I'm not sure that's a good idea," she admitted. "You'd be helping a potential competitor."
"Yeah," Hath responded, a grin slowly spreading across his face. "But the chance to fight one of my own creations is pretty enticing."
He turned back to Ironwood. "Commissioning fee for a combat-ready Gunpla is two hundred US dollars," he said, suddenly all business. "If you supply any equipment, parts, or tools, the price goes down accordingly, to as low as one hundred. Paints don't count. Payment is half upfront and half on completion. No refunds-I promise absolute quality. If you can't pull out its true potential, that's not on me."
"I have a counter offer." He looked Hathaway directly in the eye. "Zero upfront, and two thousand upon completion."
Jack's jaw nearly dropped. "Are you bloody serious?"
Hathaway looked equally shocked but then cocked his head. "Why?"
"I have a vested interest in winning this tournament," Ironwood stated. "And, one way or another, I have a score to settle with Miss Nikos. I'd like a Gunpla that could stand a chance."
Hathaway thought for a moment, before nodding. "Consider me intrigued. I accept."
"Hathaway…" Jack warned.
"It'll be fine." He smiled at Ironwood. "Let's exchange numbers. Send me over reference material and a list of Gunpla you'd like to possibly use as a base. Since my next fight won't be until the day after tomorrow, I'll start on it tomorrow and keep going until I'm finished."
"Consider it done."
Hathaway gave him a business card from one of the many pouches on his belt. As Ironwood left, Jack turned and shrugged at Hathaway, asking why he took the commission.
"Hey, two thousand is two thousand," he replied, "and at worst, he stiffs me and I waste about seven to ten hours of my life. A small price to pay for potentially fighting my own machine."
Jack sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing…"
SANSORO'S GUNPLA
Crossbone Gundam Gaster
Playing into Sansoro's motif of Sans from Undertale, the Crossbone Gundam Gaster is an impressively modified recreation of Mao Yasaka's Crossbone Gundam Maoh, with several key modifications. The most notable is that beam shield emitters and shoulders inspired from the Gundam F91 have been added to the machine, and their functionality has not changed. Sansoro made sure to include the F91's heat radiator fins and afterimage-creating Metal Peel-off Effect.
Weapon wise, Sansoro opted for the traditional zanber beam saber and beam pistol combo, over the Crossbone Maoh's bone-shaped multipurpose weapons. Though these weapons can transform into the zanbuster rifle, Sansoro usually prefers the functionality of the saber and pistol independently. The machine also features a pair of sub arms, equipped via the Arms Pack that is mounted on the back, that carry a beam saber/beam gun combo weapon to help lay suppressive fire or counter otherwise impossible to block melee attacks.
Easily the most telling difference between the default Crossbone Gundams and the Gaster is the massive skull-shaped accessory on its chest. Far from being mere decoration, the skull can open up to reveal a miniaturized variation of the Gundam X's astronomically powerful satellite cannon, one of the most powerful weapons ever used by a Gundam in any series. Just like the Crossbone Maoh, the Crossbone Gaster can use solar radiation thanks to a variety of panels mounted across its body, including its shoulders, forearms, knees, ankle armor, and for back thruster binders, to charge the cannon, rather than relying on the moon like the Gundam X. Unlike the Crossbone Maoh, however, Sansoro has managed to adjust the power consumption and can manually fire the cannon in short, controlled bursts, launching multiple smaller half-second blasts rather than a titanic beam of destructive power. These blasts are advantageous, as the Gaster cannot turn when unleashing its full beam, thus the bursts allow it to adjust its angle and position between shots without incident while maintaining a wide radius that no other handheld weapon could hope to replicate.
MINATO'S GUNPLA
Magic Bullet Riser
A heavily customized Silver Bullet Suppressor, refitted with Döven Wolf parts and customizations never seen before that resemble the ReZEL, the Magic Bullet Riser is a powerful and adaptable machine containing a variety of features for constantly changing scenarios. The biggest change was the complete removal of the Silver Bullet's back unit, with a backpack inspired by the ReZEL replacing it. This removed the INCOM units used by the Silver Bullet, but the Gunpla gained an incredible speed and mobility boost in the process. Minato further customized the machine to transform like the ReZEL into a wave rider mode, in order to keep up with Yuuma's Lightning Gundam variants.
It uses a standard Silver Bullet beam rifle as its main ranged weapon, with a pair of powerful mega particle guns taken from the Silver Bullet's original configuration, the Döven Wolf, as a deadly surprise mounted under a moveable hatch on its stomach. These two cannons can fire independently, though Minato prefers the massive destructive power of the two firings simultaneously.
In addition to this, the backpack houses a pair of large micro missile pods. These weapons individually don't do much damage, but repeated bombardments with them can leave most Gunpla crippled, and their wide firing arc allows Minato to launch them regardless of where his target is, except below him, so long as he has a target lock on them.
While the machine is equipped with a pair of normal beam sabers, Minato took inspiration from Worklach Baham's giant beam saber used on his custom Döven Wolf, which itself was taken from the Queen Mansa. Due to the fact that this weapon could not come from a 1/144 Queen Mansa, as such a kit was never formally produced, this means Minato had to scratch build the weapon himself, using his incredible skills to amplify it with particle transformation, which grants him the ability to cleave throw even other beam sabers with ease.
Due to the extensive modifications needed to allow the Gunpla to transform, Minato chose to remove the chest-mounted grenades, wire guidance system in the arms that would let them launch and act independently, and beam gun hands from the Magic Bullet to reduce weight and power consumption.
FUMINA'S GUNPLA:
Star Winning Gundam
The powerful and expressive SD Gundam gained fame during the 19-and-Under Tri Battle Tournament a year ago, where Fumina used it as a powerful support mech to back her teammates Yuuma and Sekai to victory against Team Celestial Sphere, Shia and Wilfrid Kijima's team at the time. Since then, and since the incident that happened on Nils Yajima's private research island after that, Fumina has optimized the Star Winning even further.
Originally, the mobile suit only had four funnels, each with a gun bit and a guard bit, which Fumina could use as powerful ninja shurikens or set on defense to block incoming fire while returning fire. She's since added a third, unique gun funnel, which she normally keeps stored in the center of her back between the other two. This third funnel can, in a pinch, be used as a beam rifle or a mobile weapon, granting her more options in a fight. She's also enhanced her star funnels to serve additional functionality, as they now can create a beam magnification field that, when fired into from the side she's standing on, all incoming energy weapons will be absorbed for a few seconds before launching forward in a massive super laser.
Her machine's primary weapon is a beam machine gun that can emit a beam saber for melee combat, though when it transforms into its mega core booster mode she gains access to a hidden hyper beam cannon that can put out impressive amounts of energy inside its beam attacks. But the suit's most famous feature is its Real Mode-a state where the guard and gun bits connect to the Gunpla's arms and legs and transform the machine into a regular-sized 1/144 custom Gundam. The SD Gundam's head transforms into its core fighter mode and mounts as the Real Mode's backpack, though it can be detached to serve as a support craft and aerial decoy if needed. While in Real Mode, the Star Winning Gundam gains one final, ultimate attack: the Winning Beam, formed by channeling energy to the W-fin on its forehead and launching a giant beam of energy out. This weapon is powerful enough to counter many other mobile suit super lasers, though it can leave the Star Winning Gundam drained of power rather quickly if used inappropriately.
YUUMA'S GUNPLA:
Lightning Zeta Rapier
A heavily armed and tactically armored mobile suit created from the Zeta, the normal Zeta Rapier I was a powerful prototype machine detailed in Gundam Wars I: Project Z, and was meant to merge design concepts of the Rick Dias into the Zeta Gundam's transforming frame to enhance its performance.
Using his own Lightning Zeta Gundam as the basis, Yuuma created the Lightning Zeta Rapier as its next technical evolution. The Lightning Rapier uses the same modified wing binders the Lightning Zeta utilize, giving it nimble and graceful movements that allowed Yuuma to keep whatever distance was suitable for his needs. It was equipped with a heavily customized beam rifle that acted as a long-range sniper with a powerful, DODS-style spiral beam, which could puncture thick armor and even rip through mobile suit-strength energy shields.
Yuuma opted to keep the beam cannons on its hip binders, though due to the Rapier I never receiving an official kit, he had to build them from scratch. Small grenade launchers could be found on the forearms of the machine, replacing the grenade launcher found on the underside of the actual Rapier I's rifle. The rifle, much like the Zeta Gundam, could project a beam saber bayonet if needed, as well as it carried two standard beam sabers in the tops of the side hip armor.
Perhaps the most important weapons on the Lightning Rapier were the second generation modifications carried over from the Lightning Zeta, however. This included a mega particle cannon in the Gunpla's shield, and the usage of the wing binders as offensive blades that connected to the forearms of the machine and were used like punching blades or tonfas, emitting a beam blade edge to cut through foes. These binders had the added function of combining with the shield and, when charged, emitted the Lightning Rapier's most powerful attack, Yuuma's rendition of Sekai Kamiki's ultimate move, which Yuuma calls the Phoenix Burst System. While not as strong as Sekai's Houou Haoh-Ken, it is still easily the most powerful attack the Lightning Rapier can produce.
JACK'S GUNPLA
Gundam Preliator
Named after the Latin word for "champion," the Gundam Preliator is the Gunpla that Jack has used for the last three years to completely dominate England's pro circuit. At its core, its appearance is based on the Gundam Tristan, but the unit is actually built on the Nu Gundam, giving it beyond-superb reach with all of its limbs. The unit has undergone extensive modifications, ranging from additional pivot points in the arms for better, more realistic rotation, to reinforced policaps in the joints to act as shock absorbers. She has modified the arms with parts from Tristan for a wider range of combat options.
Although Jack has kept many of its bases, built-in armaments intact, she's made additions to them for better situational accommodations. The Gunpla maintains the 90mm Gatling guns in its forearms, but Jack has augmented the left one to flip around and fire micro grenades if needed, while the right takes the beam gun in the arms of the Pale Rider and can fire them, simply by rotating to the back end. She maintains the 60mm Vulcans in its forehead, and both Tristan beam sabers on its backpack, and can easily be equipped with a Gundam Alex shield that can open like the Master Grade 2.0's shield for its arm weapons, as well as Tristan's beam rifle if she chooses.
However, the Preliator is designed for close combat, and in that field, it excels. The reinforced joints are surrounded by thin armor plates at the bend, to maximize structural integrity while minimizing incoming damage. This, combined with fold-over knuckle covers that are positioned in front of the forearm weapon covers and flip over the fists when needed, give the Preliator superb punching force. Jack's use of the mobile trace system maximizes impact, and her use of Muay Thai kickboxing and other MMA skills only further amplifies her power.
These modifications came out of inspiration from her using the Gundam Maxter as her original Gunpla, though she found that machine's limitations too great to fully overcome without an overhaul. The reach, height, strength, and versatility granted by the Gundam, combined with the Master's forearm knuckle dusters and her fighting style, are better suited to her needs.
