AN: HEY EVERYONE! Alpha here! Just a quick apology. I wanted to say I'm sorry we weren't able to get the chapter out like we normally would this time. Kyrus just had back surgery and was recovering, so I told him to take a break and not worry about releasing the chapter like normal on the first weekend of the month. But, here it is, and it's one of my favorite chapters thus far to write. So, let's just get to it!


"Now Penny, remember what we talked about, okay?"

Penny smiled at her father, who sat in his wheelchair before her. The kindly older man nodded and returned her smile, handing her the Hi-FX Polendina. Pietro had warned her about the limit inhibitors he had installed, but he also felt confident that Penny was more than capable of using her machine without them, now.

"Do not worry, Father. I promise I will do my best today!" Penny declared cheerfully.

Ciel stood next to her, looking over the information Pietro had given her on a tablet. Her eyes skimmed over the non-relevant data, reading exceptionally quickly. "Hmmm.

Pietro glanced at the other girl. "Is something wrong, Ciel?" He asked.

She glanced up at him. "Not really, sir. I was just confirming the data." She looked at the custom Efreet Nacht, which she called the Efreet Null, that she had requested. "The tests confirm this should be more than sufficient."

"I'm pleased to hear that." Pietro gave her a warm smile and a nod, before turning his chair to the television screen. "Are you certain you don't need me to act as your Operator, Penny? You know I am more than happy to do so."

"I appreciate that Father, but I will be fine," she assured him. "Besides, since none of the other teams have Operators, I'm not even sure that is allowed for the Doubles tournament."

The television switched from Mirai Kamiki over to the English announcers, Amanita Peach and Peter Port. They were discussing the various events that had transpired in the first for matches of the Doubles tournament the day before, noting that many of the registered champions of their respective nations, with the exception of Australia's Kyrus Alexander.

"With the German Champion, Hazel Reinart of Team Godslayer, British Champion Jackqueline Ivory and Canadian Champion Evelyn Damerot of JackRabbit, and the Joint Korean Champion Mina Seong and Russian Champ Irina Romanov of Iron Crane all still waiting for their shots, I feel the best is yet to come!" Port announced in his rather boisterous and booming voice. His thick mustache wiggled as he spoke, almost bouncing with his intensity.

"Oh yes, but we can't forget about the rest of the roster," Peach added. "Namely, Team Graceful Fist, with Sekai Kamiki and Shia Kijima, the latter of which is the sister of one of the most highly anticipated members in the World Tournament Battle Royale, Wilfrid Kijima. These two youthful competitors have a lot of experience under their belt and impressive skill.

"Sekai, in particular, has helped his normal team, the Try Fighters, win the19 and Under Tri Battle Tournament twice in a row now! And, of course, the Canadian runner-up Penny Polendina is also taking part, and she only narrowly lost to Evelyn in the Nationals. Underestimating them-or, any of these youthful and spirited fighters, really, would be a big mistake!"

Peach's eyes grew wider with excitement as she spoke, and she nearly jettisoned out of her seat, causing Port to raise an eyebrow as if questioning the level of her enthusiasm. "Yes...well, it certainly seems that my partner is excited for this. So, let's get down to the tournament floor, where Mirai Kamiki is prepared to unveil the next matchup!"

"Penny!" An excited and high pitch voice called out from behind the trio. The group turned to see Ruby, Weiss, Ren, Nora, and Jaune, approaching them from the direction of the cafeteria.

Penny's eyes lit up as she grinned happily. "Hello, Ruby! Nora! It is a pleasure to see you again."

Ciel nodded to them, expressionless. "Hello." She then shot Jaune an intense glance. "Jaune Arc, correct?"

"Uh, yeah?" Jaune shifted somewhat uncomfortably. Her eyes were piercing, and he suddenly wanted to crouch behind Ren.

"Your battle with Commander Fynn of War Gods was admirable, considering the damage your Gunpla had sustained prior to it," she complimented, though her voice and face remained neutral. "Congratulations on your win."

Jaune rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, um...thanks. I appreciate it, but really, it was nothing that spectacular."

"Quite the contrary," Ciel insisted. "I found the display very inspirational of your spirit and determination as a pilot."

Nora eyed the two, watching the exchange with suspicion. As Ciel gave Jaune a small, sincere smile, she stepped between them, hands outstretched to the point where both of them needed to back up to avoid getting hit. "Okay, hold it!" She declared loudly. "I see what's going on." She turned and gave an angry glare to Ciel. "You! Back off! He's got a girlfriend, got it?"

Ciel looked startled. "I-why would you-what?!"

Nora turned to the slightly shorter girl and planted her fists on her hips. "'Oh, it was such an inspirational display of determination,'" she said mockingly. "Don't even try to pretend that you aren't looking to add a little Jaunie Boy to your life. Well, let me tell you, sister, his girlfriend Pyrrha would smack you to next Tuesday if she were here right now."

Ciel's brows furrowed. "I assure you, I am not interested in Mister Arc in that manner."

Ruby and Penny couldn't help but giggle. Weiss rolled her eyes. "Nora, calm down. I think Ciel is telling the truth- I don't think she was hitting on Jaune."

Nora's eyes narrowed. "I dunno...I think we need to look out for this one."

Ciel shook her head. "This is ridiculous. I should not be getting distracted by this."

Pietro chuckled. Ah, youth, he thought, before coughing a bit. "Well, I assume that in a few minutes, the next matchup will be announced. Perhaps we should take our seats, and get ready to watch the first round together?"

He motioned to the couches over in the backstage lobby nearby, and the group moved over to get around the television there. Ruby rather enjoyed these couches, snuggling into the corner seat by the armrest happily. Penny sat in the corner on the couch next to her, smiling happily as she looked at the younger girl.

"Oh, by the way," Ruby said, perking up upon remembering their conversation from a few days ago. "I still haven't checked out what you and Hath were talking about the other day. Me on the internet being famous or something?"

Penny seemed surprised. "I suppose it would be a good opportunity to show you now." She pulled out her phone and pulled up the video in question, of her defeating Yang at the Regionals, before handing it to Ruby.

The silver-eyed girl lit up in shock! "Holy cow! Five hundred thousand views? But why?"

"And that is just from the official upload on GBN's news. There have been several reuploads on other sites. Multiple analysts and fighters in the Gunpla Battle community remarked on your resourcefulness," Penny explained. "Combined with the fact that you managed to create a more mobile and adaptable Gundam Strike Noir variant that could continue to fight despite heavy damage to its limbs and loss of its main weapons, and the hidden gimmick of the modified Noir pack transforming into a Skygrasper mode, and people could not help but draw comparisons to the backpack and fighting spirit of Sei Iori's Build Strike Gundam and its later iterations."

Ruby rubbed the back of her neck nervously as she handed the phone back. "Well...Sei and the Build Strike Full Package and Star Build Strike heavily influenced my design choices," she admitted. "Crim-uh, Crimson Strike Noir, that is-was mostly just an homage I guess. Destiny Scythe is a machine that I can truly call my own."

"Well...I'm glad I put on a good show." Ruby wasn't sure how to handle the attention. She felt rather put on the spot with the praise, slightly overwhelmed, but Weiss's gentle hand on her shoulder pulled her back to reality.

"Don't be so surprised," she noted. "After all, if it wasn't for you, we most likely would have lost our match yesterday."

Ruby gave her a soft expression. "Thanks, Weiss."

"Hello everyone!" Mirai's voice sounded over the television, drawing the audience's attention to her on the stage. "We will now begin the randomized selection of the next match in the tournament!"

"Oh, here we go!" Peach chimed in excitedly. "Which two of the remaining eight teams will be the next on this stage of history?!"

Mirai directed her hand up to the display. The two boxes with the names of the teams rapidly spun around like a roulette wheel.

In the rooms overlooking the arena, Cinder glanced at Watts, who had worked his magic on the computer. She watched as the first team came down, JackRabbit, with Team Controller pulled up immediately afterward.

"Intriguing," she smirked with amusement. "I half expected you to put one of Ozpin's teams against JackRabbit to eliminate them faster."

"Penny Polendina and Evelyn Damerot had such an amazing match for the Canadian championship. I figured, why not give the fans a rematch?" A slight smirk appeared under his mustache. "Besides, Pietro's daughter is just as dangerous to our plans as the other six teams. Better to take them out now, than risk them advancing when I have fewer options."

"Arthur," Salem's voice sounded from the doorway. The two turned and nodded respectfully as she entered the room and closed the door. She wore an unreadable expression as she approached. "This wouldn't be some ill-advised attempt at a personal grudge by trying to embarrass your former colleague through his daughter, would it?"

Watts waved her concern away. "Of course not, my lady. Any and all personal issues surrounding Polendina and myself have no bearing. Penny would have to fight eventually; if I wanted to be truly spiteful, I would have set her against Kyrus Alexander and the Gundam Unicorn Chimera, let Kyrus take control of her psycomm wave systems, and turn her weapons against her."

She nodded solemnly, choosing not to respond, as she watched the electricity of the anticipated rematch flow through the crowd.

Penny glanced over at Ciel and nodded. "It appears we are the first match for today."

Ciel nodded but was cut off by a higher pitch, enthusiastic voice from behind her. "So. We meet again, my fated rival."

The group turned to see Jack, Hathaway, and Evelyn approaching from behind. Ruby waved to Hath, who smiled and nodded at her.

"Ah, it's a pleasure to be your opponent again, Adeline." Penny gave her a happy laugh, but Evelyn seemed to grow annoyed immediately.

"I told you! It's Evelyn!" The girl in the rabbit ears crossed her arms and frowned. "I don't like using my real name on the big stage. Please, just call me Evelyn."

Weiss tilted her head. "So, Evelyn Damerot isn't your real name?"

Ren closed his eyes and thought. "Curious. To want to hide one's identity…"

Evelyn rolled her eyes and sighed. "It's not THAT weird. Tons of celebrities have stage names. Plus, it helps avoid people getting confused over the idea that Jack and I are sisters."

The entire group stopped and stared. Jack was tall-almost six feet, with a masculine build, tanned skin, and pale blonde hair, and blue eyes. Evelyn-or rather, Adeline-wore a white wig with rabbit ears but was naturally brunette, with green eyes, and was around Ruby's height, and had fair skin. The two looked almost nothing alike.

Jack chuckled. "We get that a lot. Long story short, and most people don't know this, but Adeline and I aren't related by blood. My parents adopted her, but then divorced when we were twelve, with my mother and I staying in England and my father and Adeline moving to Canada for a job. We kept in touch, however."

"It's a secret though!" Evelyn hissed, "and frankly, because of Jack's notoriety in Gunpla Battle, I chose a stage name to put a little distance between us. The Ivory Sisters dominating this tournament, or going against each other in the World Championship…"

"We would prefer the headlines avoiding focusing on our family and instead focus on our skill," Jack finished. "So, please, we would appreciate it if you respected the stage name."

Penny gave her an apologetic look. "I am very sorry, Evelyn. I promise it won't happen again."

Evelyn grinned. "Apologize with your fists, Wonder Girl. I'm expecting an even better performance from you than you have at the Canadian Nationals."

Jack looked over at Ciel. "And you. Considering you are Penny's partner and her Operator, I expect nothing short of your absolute best out there, as well. You and she should have even better synergy than Evelyn and I. I want something to remember from this."

Ciel nodded, a serious look on her face. "I will aim to not disappoint."

"We'll see you out there, then," Evelyn replied, before leading the two out to the stage.

"Penny." Pietro's kind voice summoned his daughter's attention. "Be careful out there, okay?"

Penny nodded enthusiastically. "Do not worry, Father. I'm combat ready!" She turned to Ciel. "Let's get going, as well!"

Ciel nodded, and stood without another word, following Penny to the entrance of the main arena. Hathaway slipped into her spot on the couch, an excited smile on his face.

"You look rather happy," Weiss mused. "Confident in Jack and Evelyn's victory?"

He glanced over at her. "Not at all, actually. I'm not sure if they can win, though they definitely have a good chance. I'm more excited to see Penny in action again."

"Still trying to figure out how she fights?" Nora asked. "You were talking about it before, a couple of days ago, right?"

"When she fought Coco in that exhibition match, yes," he replied, nodding. He then looked at Pietro, who was watching Penny step up to the stage. "Care to give us any hints, Professor?"

Pietro chuckled and turned to the young man. "Now, why would I do that? It'd spoil the fun out of trying to understand it for yourself."

Hath smirked. "Exactly the response I'd expect from one of the former leading engineers of PPSE."

Everyone was taken aback in shock, except Ruby, who looked at her friends like that knowledge was obvious. "What? You didn't know?"

Weiss shot her an annoyed glance. "Why would we?"

"Professor Polendina was a notable systems engineer for many years, working in the robotics industry-even with NASA for a time! He was also an exceptional programming and software engineer and was the pioneer of the holographic projectors and hard light system used in the Gunpla Battle table. He worked with Nils Yajima for a little while to develop the new Plavsky Particle before retiring."

Pietro laughed at her enthusiastic praise to hide his embarrassment. "While, yes, all that is true, it was a team effort. I simply led the team until my health began to falter, but Nils has things well in hand. He doesn't need the help of an old man whose best contributions are behind him."

Hath eyed him suspiciously. "Somehow, I get the feeling that statement isn't entirely true. Someone of your pedigree doesn't just stop. And I think Penny's Gunpla is proof of that."

He gave him a coy look. "Oh? And what makes you think that?"

Hath's grin grew. "Because until now, nobody has managed to get three different sets of brainwave manipulation weapons to work in tandem. While in practice they are all the same kind of weapon, they each require different programs to function in the computer. Somehow, though, Penny controls a Psycommu bit set, an X-Rounder bit set, and a Celestial Being Innovator bit set."

"That was before," Pietro replied proudly. "I've replaced two of the FX funnels on the side hip skirts with two of the larger funnels from Strike Freedom, similar to the Freedom's railguns, for additional beam attacks. So now, she has Coordinator mobile weapons, as well."

"Huh. You sly devil." Hath was impressed. The Hi-FX Polendina was even more formidable than he gave it credit for. "How did you do it? Link four mental control systems together?"

"Oh, that's a trade secret," the professor replied knowingly, before turning back to the screen.

Penny stood, smiling broadly on the stage, opposite of her opponents. Evelyn twirled a strand of hair in her wig, eager to get started. Jack had her arms crossed, patiently waiting, while Ciel typed in her watch, which was linked to her tablet in the side pouch on her hip.

"You ready to get your butt kicked again?" Evelyn asked excitedly. "I didn't expect a rematch of the Nationals right off the bat, so let's make this a good one."

"Ab-so-lutely!" Penny saluted and nodded with confidence.

Jack's serious and focused expression cracked a bit into a smile. "Well, someone's enthusiastic."

"GUNPLA BATTLE COMBAT MODE, STARTUP! MODEL DAMAGE LEVEL SET TO B!"

Each of them set their Gunpla down. Ciel's Efreet Null stood, an impressive streamlined machine of midnight blue and gunmetal grey. Gone were the shoulder spikes, replaced with smooth shoulder pads. The machine used the Efreet Custom's larger calf boosters, but lacked the large missile pods on them, instead retaining the Nacht's secondary cold daggers. It's forearms had gauntlet machine guns similar to the GOUF Ignited beam weapons from Gundam SEED Destiny, and it held a small rifle in its right hand.

It also had a Gelgoog High Mobility Type's backpack, on which it held a pair of cold swords identical to the blades found normally on the Nacht, but shorter. They sat vertically rather than diagonally on the machine's back, similar to a traditional Gundam beam saber setup.

"Ciel, you are opting to use the new machine now?" Penny asked, curiosity and concern mixing in her voice.

"The Act Zaku Null wouldn't be optimal here," she replied simply. "I will need something with even greater agility and power if we are to face two National Champions."

She then gave Penny a cold look. "And, I won't be carried. You are strong, but I don't plan on relying on you."

Penny's smile returned. "Of course. Then let us do this!"

Penny's Hi-FX Polendina shined with a fresh coating of pearlescent white and metallic green paint, with black detailing across the machine and on certain parts. The twin 00 Qan[T] shields and back Hi-Nu Gundam wings seemed to be slightly different from when Ruby first saw them a few days ago. The wing pods were angled up and seemed to be equipped with small thrusters. The fin funnels were mounted on racks directly connected to the back of the machine, sticking outward from the back rather than acting as feathers. Ruby recognized the design as similar to the Rage Nucleon third-party high mobility backpack meant for the Nu Gundam Ver Ka Master Grade kit. The shields seemed to be on small sub-arms with joints now, likely able to articulate a bit for better defensive coverage.

Weiss and Nora both perked up a bit when she saw Evelyn's machine, the G-Hopper. A modified G-Self, the Gunpla was painted grey, white, and Fuschia, with jointed mechanical bunny ears on its head that seemed to flop when it was moved. The ears replaced the outward sticking devil horns G-Self normally had. Its twin tonfas also stood out, being held like upside-down pistols in the hands of the Gunpla.

Its main draw, however, was its backpack, side skirt, and lower legs. Evelyn had taken the Assault Pack leg armor and turned the legs into massive variable position thruster packs. Ruby counted at least nine different-sized thrusters pointing up, down, backward, and forwards across the leg armor. This meant each leg would serve not just as effective attitude control units, but also powerful and rapid response trajectory units to alter its position, speed, and orientation in an instant, or serve as extremely fast thruster units for the atmosphere. The G-Hopper's backpack was also large and custom-made similar to the legs, with small thrusters, mounted all over. And its side skirts were actually taken directly from the G-Saviour model kit, meaning its acceleration and mobility were likely second to none.

Ruby's jaw dropped as she looked the machine over. Its precise design was just as stunning as she had imagined. Hathaway crossed his arms and smirked at her starstruck appearance, happy at her excitement.

And then he watched as her eyes grew wide. Jack set her machine down. Gundam Preliator, the three-time British National Champion. The Gunpla that Jack had taken to be the best of her country, but the one who, for the last two years, sat on the sidelines of the World Championship.

But in an instant, Ruby noticed something was off about it. Preliator was a modified Gundam Tristan, painted in the Nu Gundam's color scheme but with silver instead of yellow parts. But this machine, while it perfectly resembles Tristan, was much, much bigger. At least twice the height-it stood almost as tall as a Master Grade.

"Wait…" she said hesitantly. "That's a Nu Gundam version of the Preliator!"

She turned to Hath as he nodded. "Jack retired the Tristan variant of Preliator after the Nationals this year. When she decided to fight on the world stage, she opted for a more robust machine. Enter the Gundam Preliator 2.0-it's overall design is identical to the previous version, but she's used Nu Gundam-and a little Hi-Nu in there as well to build this one."

He pointed to the legs. "She redesigned the Nu Gundam legs to use custom versions of the side thrusters of Tristan alongside the moveable calf booster of Nu Gundam. She also custom-built that backpack using the Gundam Mk II as a basis, of course, but with more space between the thrusters so she can independently move the nozzles. The beam sabers are also custom-built, high output weapons. And, of course, she replaced the arm-mounted Nu beam saber with Tristan's arm Gatlings and put one on each forearm. And, she retained the fold-over knuckle dusters that she was inspired to include from the Gundam Maxter."

His gaze lit up. "All in all, it functionally is identical to the previous Preliator, but its size, power, and added mass means she can deliver harder hitting martial arts attacks at greater ranges. It is, for lack of a better word, the perfected design for her personal fighting style. The pinnacle of her skill as a builder, and a Mobile Trace system fighter."

The four combatants waited as the field changed, with yellow and pink beams flying between starships that hung in Earth's orbit. Ciel's eyes narrowed as she watched the battle unfold.

Musai attack cruisers squared off against Magellan and Salamis class battleships, with a titanic space colony in the distance, slowly approaching the planet. Evelyn stared in shock. "What in blazes?"

"Operation British," Ciel stated, "the beginning of the One Year War."

"Wait, is that colony part of the battlefield or just a backdrop?" Evelyn tried to see if it was coming closer, before noticing the numerous small thruster pods all over the colony's exterior. "Crap! It is coming closer!"

"BATTLE START!"

Jack crouched low, fists clenched. "Jacqueline Ivory, Gundam Preliator, launch!"

Evelyn groaned, stressed by the colony. "Evelyn Damerot, G-Hopper, launching!"

Penny smiled, her fingers wiggling as she crouched. "Penny Polendina, Gundam Hi-FX Polendina Burst, let's begin!"

"Annoying. Let's get this over with," Ciel remarked with a curt voice, deploying her Efreet Null shortly after Penny.

In seconds, all four machines are forced to begin evasive maneuvers as they wind up targeted by anti-fighter machine guns. Against original mobile suits, these weapons were no threat even to Zakus, but in the simulation, they were as destructive as mobile suit weapons, capable of shredding plastic-like paper.

Penny immediately deployed six of her bladed bits and began carving her way through the fleet, with Ciel not far behind. The two managed to clear a small section of Musai cruisers in about ten seconds, either destroying their bridges or disabling their weapons as they flew through the cluster. They conserved their ammo by letting Penny deal with them, which took some of the pressure off them.

Meanwhile, Jack had decided on a different approach. As the nearest Magellan attempted to defend itself, the Gundam Preliator slammed into the side of it. The impact capsized the ship, turning it sideways so its guns posed no threat to her or Evelyn. She then backed off, before landing a spinning heel kick into it near its front, which caused it to swing around and clip its escort cruiser with its bow, detonating both ships.

Using the explosion as cover, the two swept down and low, away from many of the anti-air guns being used. Evelyn smirked as they moved through the Federation forces, looking around. "What's the timeframe to when the colony hits the point of no return?"

"At its current speed and distance, no more than four minutes," Jack replied as he dodged a barrage of interception missiles. "What's more, the clearest point of battle will be right in the path of the colony."

"So we either take them out in three or risk playing chicken with the ships while the colony falls." Evelyn sighed. "Jackie, you take me to the nicest battlefields."

Jack chuckled and shot forward and up, with Evelyn in hot pursuit.

The two began to merge back with the battle, near the edge of the Federation perimeter, but Evelyn was forced to instantly stop and begin a series of erratic movements as multiple blade bits began trying to pin her down. She laughed in glee as the G-Hopper made minute quarter-second bursts, turns, and corkscrews using its many leg thrusters, adjusting her trajectory almost at will, almost as a Newtype would.

"Hehehehe, your old tricks didn't work last time, so they sure as heck won't work now!" Evelyn snickered as she randomly moved her machine, dodging, ducking, and weaving around multiple incoming blades and green energy blasts.

More than once, she was forced to dodge in the middle of a dodge, but regardless of how fast the blades came or how accurate the beams were, none of the attacks landed, and Evelyn was simply sent spinning around until another attack caused her to change course.

Ruby looked over at the professor, who wore a curious expression. He had the same question on his face that she had in her mind; how was Evelyn able to so accurately predict the incoming attacks? Was she also using the Zero System?

Her eyes narrowed as she turned back to the screen, mind racing. Jaune and Nora were both looking dizzy next to her. Jaune shook his head. "I can't keep up with this," he admitted.

"How is she so good at avoiding those bits?!" Nora asked. "It's like she knows exactly where they'll be!"

"If I knew, I'd tell you," Hath replied, shrugging. "Even I don't know exactly how she does it. I have some theories, but nothing concrete."

One blade whizzed by Jack, who narrowly dodged it. Gritting her teeth, she began looking around. Penny preferred ranged battles. She liked letting her bits do the work, though Evelyn did warn her that she was a proficient melee fighter. Jack was confident that she could overpower the Hi-FX, but she had to find it, first.

She deployed her right arm's Gatling and spun it around, to use its beam gun feature. She followed the path of the blade bits, and headed in that direction, but was forced off course by a series of beam attacks.

"I knew it," she said to herself. Pressing on, she continued forward but again was halted by a volley of beam attacks. Penny didn't seem to be focusing on her, instead mostly just trying to keep her at a distance while she attempted to destroy the G-Hopper. This worked to Jack's advantage, but only if she could get in close.

Deciding to go for broke, the Preliator rocketed forward, moving back and forth to avoid incoming attacks, not allowing the green energy blasts to come close to her. As she got closer, the fire intensified, but they still couldn't stop her.

She began noticing the fire was more sporadic with each second. Was Penny panicking? That didn't seem like the girl Evelyn had described.

A thought came to her head, and Jack stopped. As she did, the beam attacks continued, but she noticed that, while they were frantic and coming close, even while she was standing still, they didn't come close to hitting her. Like they weren't actually trying.

Her brow furrowed, trying to think. She still couldn't see the source of the beams, but they weren't coming from either Zeon or Federation ships. So they had to come from either Ciel or Penny's Gunpla.

Her thoughts were interrupted, however, but a slight clink against her right shoulder. Turning to look, she had barely any time to react as a bright series of small explosions blindsided her. She raised her right arm up, her forearm cover facing outwards to act as a shield. "A cracker?"

She lowered her right arm as the blinding light subsided, and turned as an alert sounded. Her left forearm shot up as a physical blade impacted and carved a deep gash into the weapon cover. The Efreet Null's vibrant blue monoeye glared at the Gundam Preliator, the force of their collision pushing them back through space.

"Impressive reaction time," Ciel noted. "You and Evelyn both will be difficult opponents."

Jack felt the pressure on her forearm through the Mobile Trace system, seeing a hardlight bar up right where Ciel's blade was. She took a step back on her pad, activating her thrusters to push back, but finding that she met equal resistance from Ciel.

"Crap," she grunted. "I didn't expect her machine to have this much power."

She swung her left arm away from her, forcing Ciel's blade away. The Efreet attempted to swing its second sword down to cleave her right arm off, but she responded with a knee to the chest of the mech, knocking it backward and giving Jack enough room and time to back off from her position.

She aimed her right arm and fired three pink blasts at Ciel, but the beams sailed harmlessly by as Ciel leaned to the left, then right, then ducked, allowing each one to narrowly miss her.

"Attacks are given a ninety-two percent chance to hit," she muttered. "Your shots are exceptionally accurate. Which means they are extremely easy to predict."

Jack grunted and fired again, but the Efreet's monoeye disappeared and the suit suddenly vanished into the blackness of space.

Jack looked around. Mirage colloid? No, this felt different. It was like she just...melted into the background. Almost like-

On a hunch, she spun around and swung an ax kick downward, aimed behind her. Her heel missed, but she smirked. She had been right.

"That's Schwartz Bruder's technique," she said confidently. She turned to the right and raised her right hand, catching the forearm of the Efreet easily. "You almost caught me that time."

Ciel said nothing, she merely watched as a powerful high-impact round slammed into the left shoulder pad of the Preliator, causing Jack to release her. She then slashed, this time electrifying her cold blades, which forced Jack to open fire with her head Vulcans to keep her at bay.

"Bloody hell! What just happened?"

She turned to prepare for a follow-up strike from the Efreet, but nothing came. Fists raised, she quickly surveyed her surroundings, before contacting Evelyn. "Carrots heads up-the Efreet has some kind of cloaking device and a hidden mobile weapon somewhere!"

"Fantastic," Evelyn responded sarcastically. "Try and keep her busy-Penny's not joking around this time."

Penny's relentless assault hadn't stopped Evelyn's enthusiasm, but the girl was becoming irritated at the lack of any progress. She continued to avoid each attack with the nimbleness and grace of a ballerina, dancing through space as now ten mobile weapons took shots at her and swiped at her. From time to time, she had to deflect a blade that came in at the same time as another attack, which she noted was something she hadn't actually had to do before during the Canadian Nationals.

Penny was evolving her fighting style, and that was proving troublesome.

She spun her left tonfa to parry a swipe from a 00 bit, then twisted as two FX bits came in from her right. She bent between them, letting one pass over and one under her, before taking the opening that was provided to her and boosting forward back towards the fleet.

"Alright, Carrot Top, Best Bun Bun is coming for a snack," she stated through gritted teeth, rocketing past one of the Musais on the outer line and heading deeper into the Zeon fleet near the colony. So far, the Hi-FX hadn't appeared in open space, so that meant she was hiding among the fleets.

But where? It's not like the bits had infinite ranges. While they were all self-powered with their own reactors, they still needed a connection to their host.

She shot past one of the Musais in the middle of the fleet, before being alerted to an energy build up behind her. There was no Solar System weapon in this battle, but the energy output was quickly approaching those levels. What the hell?

Then she saw it. The Hi-FX Polendina, pressed against the rear of a Musai between its two engines, its six fin funnels, and four of its FX bits circling the beam rifle Penny held. And a titanic green energy ball that was about to fire. Evelyn's eyes widened in fear and she immediately shot to the right as the beam was unleashed.

The unbelievable power released was off the charts. It almost rivaled a Double Satellite Cannon or a Wing Zero Twin Buster Rifle! It blazed through the fleet, destroying much of the rear line and hitting the colony, blowing part of the very rear of it off.

Stunned, the G-Hopper hovered above the colony's surface, watching as the massive cylinder began to tilt slowly on its descent to Earth due to the impact and losing part of the rear thrusters attached to it. "Holy crap…"

She didn't have time to stick around, though, as a proximity alert sounded. Thinking it was one of Penny's blades, she instinctively dodged to the left but wound up with a kunai-like blade in her right shoulder as the Efreet Null suddenly appeared before her.

Evelyn raised her right forearm at the elbow and opened fire with the beam cannon in the rear of the tonfa there, which forced Ciel to withdraw. Fortunately, Ciel hadn't used the cold kunai's electrical function, though it hardly mattered; the damage to her right shoulder was severe enough for her to have to jettison the pauldron protecting the shoulder joint.

"Thank you for your assistance, Ciel." Penny gave her a pleasant smile. "I'm sorry my distraction was not more effective, however."

"No matter," Ciel replied. "I led Jack as far away as possible, but we have very little time. Let's end this."

Evelyn, realizing this was now a two-on-one fight, brought her tonfas up to defend herself. This was bad. "Jack, the Efreet's here! I need help!"

There was a slight pause. "WHAT?! Already?"

"Get over here!" she screamed as Penny brought her blade bits to bare and began trying to attack the G-Hopper. Many of them broke through the windows of the colony as Evelyn dodged them, only to come right back out. With fourteen bits now to contend with, the area around the G-Hopper was a blur, preventing her from doing anything besides avoiding the attacks.

A very subtle pause between the onslaught gave Evelyn a slight reprieve, only for her to get slammed by the twin swords of the Efreet Null. The sheer force of the impact caused her to slam into the colony. She bounced off, the platform she was on shaking hard from the simulated impact. She noticed that Ciel was diving at her, and reacted with the top thrusters on her backpack and leg armor. The G-Hopper shot feet first down, under the attack, then flipped upwards and landed on the Efreet Null, pushing Ciel against the side of the moving colony, before pushing off and leaving a large impact crater into the outer wall before boosting at extreme speeds towards Penny.

Ciel was both shaken by her own platform and blinded by the thrusters on the G-Hopper, which scorched the surface of the Efreet Null and peeled paint off of it. As her vision returned, she watched as Penny tried to fend off Evelyn at a distance, but the beam sabers on the end of the tonfas ignited, forcing Penny to draw her green beam saber and grab one of the 00 swords bits in response to block the attacks.

Now on the offensive, Evelyn took the fight to Penny. The latter stood in her cockpit, swinging her swords effortlessly as she parried each of the attacks Evelyn threw at her. She backed up to avoid one attack, releasing her 00 bit, and then waved her left hand, twisting her wrist as she wiggled her fingers and then pulled her fist back to her, summoning several of the blades back to her from behind Evelyn, who tucked her arms in and rolled to avoid them.

As this happened, Hathaway's eyes lit up in realization. "I see now."

Pietro glanced at him. "See what?"

"She uses the Mobile Trace system," he began to explain. "The angle of her hand, the way she moves her wrists, and the way she wiggles her fingers, each denote a different bit for her to control. That's why she looks like she's conducting inside her cockpit-each motion switches to a different set of bits. She can only control five at a time per hand, but by changing her hand's position, she can swap between a group of them. That is how she controls so many different bits and so many styles."

Pietro smiled happily. "You are one of only three people to figure it out," he admitted, "not that doing so helps in a fight. After all, the way she moves, it's impossible to tell which bit is tied to which finger in which position, even if you did watch her screen in the fight."

"That's actually very impressive," Weiss complimented. "I doubt anyone would ever be able to truly predict her attacks in that manner."

They looked at the screen as Evelyn cried out, forcing Penny to retreat. She raised both her hands and flipped them palm up, and the two Strike Freedom DRAGOON bits swung up from her hips and fired, forcing the G-Hopper to back off long enough for her to once again be put on the defensive.

Ciel began to push off of the colony, watching this but was forcefully slammed right back into the side of the structure. The monoeye was completely obscured by the palm of a large hand. As it pulled back, Ciel observed the Gundam Preliator, standing over her.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Jack asked, annoyance and confidence bleeding into her voice. "I think we have unfinished business."

Ciel pushed off the colony again and swiped at Jack, but the larger Gundam simply leaned back as the sword missed her. The thick knuckle dusters flipped over her fists and she slammed a left uppercut right to the chin vent, knocking the Efreet upwards.

Ciel struggled to regain control but was rattled by a second blow as Jack pulled her left leg up close to her body and then extended it, delivering a devastating kick and sending her shooting off through the colony's windows at blazing speeds.

Choosing to avoid correcting her trajectory, Ciel, after a few seconds, twisted and decided to shoot through the other side, out the windows, and then sweep low back around the bottom of the structure to attack Jack from below. She brought her swords up just as Jack came back into view, and was forced to instantly use them for defense, as predicted, deflecting a barrage of incoming fire from her forearm Gatlings.

She angled her left foot towards the colony and fired a tow cable from the tip, which she used to instantly change her course, before landing on the surface and pushing off. The sudden change caught Jack by surprise, and the next slash nearly caught her at the side of the arm. She rotated her wrist, and the forearm cover rotated while the rest of the army stayed in place, intercepting the blade.

Ciel boosted forward, catching Jack in the face with the point of her knee, breaking half of her W-fin off of her head, and knocking her back. Using the momentum, she shot past her as Jack struggled to orient herself again, before twisting around and coming right back at her. Jack stopped the next attack like she did the first, but the second blade cut along the top portion of her chest, damaging one of the chest vents as Jack tried to lean to the side. Ciel recovered from the first slash and attempted another blow, trying to sever Jack's arm above the elbow.

The right sword bounced off Jack's left arm cover, and the Preliator swung its right fist downward. Ciel backed off, causing Jack's shielded fist to slam into the colony. The force of the blow shattered the metal wall, sending a shockwave through the structure that shattered windows near the impact zone and sent glass hurtling into space around them.

Ciel's eyes grew wide. "That blow could have destroyed me…" she whispered to herself, before watching as Jack pushed off the side of the colony with her fist and swung a left hook at her. The Efreet almost lost its head from the blow, trying to circle around her left, but getting another kick for her troubles. She brought her swords up and laid them flat against her forearms as she crossed her arms to absorb the impact, which sent her backward.

Her feet dug into the colony wall as she skidded close to the front of the structure, and an alert sounded. She turned and saw the Federation Fleet, cannons trained on the slowly descending structure, with Earth just beyond it. She and Jack were nearing the Point of No Return. She looked over at Penny and Evelyn, who were still battling, gradually getting smaller and smaller. She swung her left sword and cut a pink capital ship beam in half, sending the energy away from her, realizing this was going to get far too dangerous, far too quickly.

Her HUD was a deep amber. Her damage was stacking, and her Efreet wouldn't be able to absorb too many more blows like that first kick a moment ago. She had to disable Jack.

Activating the electrical charge on her cold swords, she began charging her boosters. She had to get past the Preliator and fast. Jack was playing it smart and staying back to avoid risking getting caught in Earth's gravity, so Ciel had to go to her.

With all the power her thrusters could manage, she blasted forward, towards the Preliator. Jack was surprised by her speed, but remained calm, opening fire with the beam gun on her right wrist. Ciel cut the beams with her sword, before suddenly melting into the background.

Jack scowled and jumped backward, arms brought up. She knew she couldn't take a direct hit from those swords. One good blow would completely short out her Gundam. Her eyes remained on the display.

Then, the glass moved. Some of the shards near her shifted, and, instantly, she flipped her left Gatling out and turned it around, launching a pair of small grenades at the spot. The Efreet appeared just above the explosion that came from them, but before Jack could capitalize on it, Ciel released a barrage of beam attacks from her own forearm guns.

"Try again," Jack shouted, before replying with a volley of punches. Each punch deflected the bullets, and the speed of the punches was rivaled only by her determination. Her voice slowly rose as she continued knocking the energy pellets away with her knuckle dusters.

Ciel stared in bewilderment. How could she deflect the energy blasts with just her fists? That shouldn't be possible. She reached behind her, placing her right blade on its rack and drawing her short rifle, firing single, powerful projectiles at the Preliator, but even these were easily knocked away.

Jack responded with a few beam shots of her own, forcing Ciel to cease her attack and move. With her left sword, she slashed forward, catching the incoming beams in a crescent wave of Plavsky Particle energy. Jack boosted up to avoid it as it expanded towards her, surprised.

She's seen that attack before. From Nils Yakima's Sengoku Astray. A few other fighters had used it since then, but the technique was practically perfected by Nils.

Not good. If she got hit by that...

With the barrage lessening, Jack shot forward, raising her forearms in front of her with her covers outward to absorb the impacts. Ciel was forced to use her left tow cable again and swing away from Jack, who hurtled toward her and tried to land another left hook. Predicting this, however, Jack followed through with a spinning right backhand that caught the edge of the Efreet's eye slot, knocking her slightly more off-course than Ciel had expected.

She caught herself with a tow cable from her right wrist, tossing her rifle away and reaching for her right sword again. She looked up as she swiped with her left blade, but Jack course-corrected and stopped just short of its tip, before shooting forward and landing a crippling blow straight to the Efreet's face. She watched as the crescent wave from her sword missed her by the slimmest of margins.

Jack swung around and attempted to deliver a roundhouse kick to Ciel, but she ducked, pulling herself backward with her tow cable, before tossing her rifle away and drawing her second sword. She fired a cross-shaped Plavsky particle slash at the Preliator. Jack was certain of it now-the Efreet Null was using a particle alteration coating on its blades. Any direct contact would sheer through her Gunpla like butter.

She had to end this quickly. Jack boosted over the x and flipped forward. Ciel attempted to bring her swords up to block the incoming blow, but to no avail-Jack's heel caught the Efreet square in the cover of the monoeye, breaking its antenna off of its head and crushing the top of the mobile suit's cranium.

The monoeye shattered on impact, and, still tethered to the colony, Ciel was unable to avoid the following left fist that connected with the side of her Efreet and drove her straight into the colony. Jack's covered fist embedded itself deep into the Efreet Null's side, crushing it there, and crashed the crippled machine through the wall of the front of the colony and into its storage area and landing bay.

Jack floated on the outside of the hole, before launching several more grenades into the hole as the colony passed her. The backup camera of the Efreet caught the grenades hurtling towards her just as the heat of re-entry began to illuminate the area and the temperature and gravity of Earth's atmosphere slowly engulfed her, along with the grenade's explosion.

Sighing in relief and wiping her forehead with her taped-up wrists, Jack checked her damage level. Ciel had landed several good blows, but she was still in the blue, with most of the damage being focused on the thick forearm covers for her wrist weapons.

Her display still showed Evelyn alive and kicking too, so she decided to turn her attention to assisting her and ending this fight.

Evelyn had, once again, been on the defensive, suddenly realizing that Penny was far from done. She groaned as she continued dodging the flurry of attacks. She felt like she was in a hive of angry hornets, viciously defending their queen, and she couldn't get any headway. At this point, she realized she was just buying herself time; she had no hope to get close and end the fight like she had last time.

Something was different about the Hi-FX. Besides the new backpack and the inclusion of her new DRAGOON bits, the way Penny was acting and moving seemed odd. And after a moment, she realized why.

The bits stopped. Evelyn stopped immediately and stared in horror. She was surrounded, and Penny had her hands raised. Even the DRAGOONs were launched now, hovering with her fin funnels.

"I have learned how you can predict my attacks," Penny said out loud. Evelyn stared at her, tired from moving her control orbs so rapidly. "The ears on your Gunpla. They are not just for show-they somehow detect movement."

Evelyn chuckled. "You're on the right track, but that's not quite right. Sorry, I'm not telling."

Penny smiled pleasantly. "That is okay. Knowing that I am on the right track is enough."

She clenched her fingers and twisted her hands, and some of the bits quivered, all in different directions. Evelyn tensed, The G-Hopper instantly going to a defensive position, its tonfas raised. She thought about trying to take a shot at Penny, but she knew the blade bits could deflect beams, and the fin funnels could deploy a barrier around her. She hadn't been able to take out more than three or four of the bits; their attacks had been so rapid that surviving had been her top priority.

"This was fun, Evelyn. It honored me to get the chance to avenge my loss at the Nationals." Penny pulled her hands back towards her body, and the blades opened fire with the DRAGOONs, a total of twelve green beams bearing down on the G-Hopper.

Evelyn smiled, excited, and let the beams hit her. Penny watched, confused, as the beams hit the G-Hopper, seemingly nullified. Then, the custom G-Self began charging up, its cameras and photon batteries glowing intensely. The beam sabers on the tonfas also increased in intensity.

"Heh...I was hoping you'd do that." Evelyn shot forward at speeds Penny barely registered, and it took all of her Gundam's power to resist the newly recharged G-Hopper. She realized immediately her mistake-since their last battle, Evelyn had included the G-Self Perfect Pack's photon armor shield to the G-Hopper, which would absorb her beams. Why she didn't use this before now was unknown, but she was perhaps waiting for a moment like this to take in as much as possible in one go before Penny could adjust her strategy.

She pushed back against the G-Hopper, the new backpack of the Hi-FX giving enough power to halt their movement and come to a stop. Pushed away from her bits, and not wanting to give Evelyn any more power, she opted instead to open fire with her head mounted Vulcans, which caused Evelyn to back off just as Jack came into range.

"Yo, Jackie! I see you dealt with the ninja," Evelyn said with a grin.

"You seem to be doing well, yourself,' Jack noted, "But I say we end this now."

Penny looked between the two of them. With their attention on her, she couldn't recall the bits to her, and neither machine was lacking in strength. They would not go down easily on their own; together, she had little chance without an equalizer.

Sighing, Penny reached up to her wrists, which caused both Jack and Evelyn to raise their arms defensively. "Very well," Penny declared, as control orbs appeared in front of her and she dropped out of the Mobile Trace system. "It appears I cannot hold back any longer."

The GN drives in the two 00 Qan [T] shields began producing GN particles in excess, and Penny clicked on both orbs and twisted her wrists outwardly, selecting the "SPECIAL" slot from each one.

The Gundam Hi-FX Polendina Burst unleashed a brilliant green-white light, and multiple green blades began being emitted from every connection port for a bit or funnel on the machine. This green was amplified by a sudden explosion of power from the GN Drives, causing the suit to radiate a reddish glow in addition to the green blades.

"Whoa! Hold the phone!" Evelyn declared in shock. "She just lit up like a Christmas tree!"

"FX Burst AND Trans-Am?!" Jack couldn't believe her eyes. "Her machine is capable of that much power?"

"I had hoped to save this for the World Tournament," Penny admitted. "But, seeing as both of you have equal shots at winning the World Championship, if I am to face both of you alone, then I cannot hold back."

"She didn't have this power in the Nationals!" Evelyn gritted her teeth as she drifted closer to Jack. "Looks like I'm not the only one who had the idea to upgrade."

She aimed both tonfas at Penny and opened fire, but the beams just pierced her afterimage. Jack's eyes widened, then immediately turned. "Behind-"

Her warning was cut off as Penny slammed into both of them. The quantum teleport hadn't gone unnoticed, and both of JackRabbit had already turned the moment they realized what had happened. The blow was powerful enough to rock both pedestals simultaneously, sending Jack and Evelyn screaming into space.

The two corrected their trajectory, but Penny teleported again, bearing down on Evelyn and swiping at her with her beam saber coming from her wrist. The G-Hopper boosted just above the swipe but was caught by a swipe from one of the floating blades. The weapon carved a gash into her left calf, trying to breach the thick armor of the lower leg and disable her mobility.

Jack shot towards the Hi-FX, opening fire with her wrist beam gun, but the shots were intercepted by Penny's blade bits. Penny drew her beam rifle and opened fire, forcing Jack to go on the defensive as more of the bits slowly reformed into position around Penny.

"Bollucks! She's got too many weapons!" Jack retracted her knuckle dusters and drew both beam sabers, slashing and cleaving several of the bits down and one of the fin funnels. Rather than dodging her as Evelyn had, she let the blades come at her, trying to take them out and thin their numbers.

Evelyn opened fire with her beams as well, but like Jack, they were deflected by the blade bits. Penny chose to ignore Evelyn for a moment, letting the blades do their thing on autopilot, while she focused on Jack. She dashed at the Preliator, who was mostly distracted and swiped at her, but the attacks were blocked by Jack's quick reflexes and beam sabers. Jack slammed a knee into the Hi-FX, letting her momentum carry her into the attack, which allowed for even more damage to be inflicted.

As Penny backed off a bit, Jack flipped the beam sabers into a reversed grip and deactivated them, folding the dusters back over her fists. She tried to slam an attack into the Hi-FX, but it disappeared again, reappearing on her right. She brought her knee up to block a kick from Penny, the beam saber on her calf charing her armor slightly.

Evelyn shot past the swarming bits and did a front flip, landing an overhead kick onto the Hi-FX. Penny was stunned for a second, but her arm swept up and cut clean through the G-Hopper's right knee, taking out Evelyn's mobility. The Hi-FX then disappeared again and reappeared above Evelyn, slamming one of its beam sabers down onto it.

Evelyn blocked it with her own sabers, but Penny then kicked her away, sending her spiraling off and crying out in surprise.

Jack sighed, calming herself. "Fine. You have my attention," she said defiantly, balling her fists up. Her machine began glowing a bright gold as she entered Hyper Mode. Penny did not give her reprieve, disappearing and reappearing to her left to try and impale her. Jack ducked and aimed her right fist right at her face, but impacted the beam barrier created by her fin funnels that Penny had recalled.

The Preliator bounced off of the barrier and backed off a bit, noting the incoming blade bits that were closing fast. Focusing, she clenched her fists. "Not today!" she shouted. "Gatling Punch!"

The Preliator slammed her right fist into the barrier, which sent a shockwave through the energy field and rippled up to the fin funnels. The feedback wound up overloading the barrier, exploding the funnels, and allowing her fist to connect with Penny, who had not expected such a raw display of power.

Caught completely flat-footed, the Hi-FX took the entire impact of the Gatling Punch. At first, Penny didn't understand her display. According to her readouts, she had not taken just one hit, but twenty, in less than a second. But the damage, which took a moment for the computer to register, suddenly mounted, and her display flipped immediately from blue to red as she was rocked by an incredible blast of raw power.

Jack pressed the attack, swinging another right hook at Penny, who moved her left arm and beam saber up to cut her off. The saber connected but found an impossible amount of resistance. Jack had flipped the forearm protectors inside, and they took the blow rather than her forearm. And with that, she noticed it-Jack's fist was vibrating at a speed which was almost imperceivable.

The Hi-FX's blades flared as she pushed Jack back, and she charged, lashing out with a series of swipes meant to cut the Preliator down. Jack managed to avoid most of these, waiting until Penny went to impale her. Catching the fist and avoiding her forearm blade, she grabbed her opponent by the back of the head and slammed her knee into Penny's Gunpla's face, sending her reeling.

The Preliator attempted to launch several grenades at her, but the Hi-FX quantum jumped behind her, forcing Jack to duck. Jack went in for another blow but found herself swarmed by blade bits, which she managed to fend off and boost away from, coming towards Penny.

She stopped and twisted, causing the bits to fly past her. In the frantic action, Penny had to deviate the bits so she wouldn't cut herself down with her own mobile weapons, which drew her attention for a split second.

Jack used the distraction to deliver a body blow with her left fist, slamming into the gut of the Hi-FX and again causing a rapid amount of damage to stack. The area began to dent from the blows, the plastic caved slightly.

Penny staggered, disappearing as Jack tried to land the finishing blow, materializing a dozen meters away. Jack opened fire with her ranged weapons, but Penny continued to teleport around, forcing Jack to retarget her each time.

The Hi-FX launched its own ranged attacks with the DRAGOONS and remaining fin funnels, forcing Jack to take a defensive stance. She raised her arms up, rotating the forearm guards back to the front to block the beams while tucking her legs up to protect her body.

The shower of energy was relentless, and she watched as her own HUD was turned to a hard gold and then red as the damage built up.

Penny shot forward, intending to end the battle herself, her right beam saber aimed at Jack's core. She couldn't curl up any tighter due to the bulky nature of the Gundam, and she couldn't uncurl to fight because she risked being pelted by a killing blow. Was this how she'd take the loss? Pinned down?

Penny was almost upon Jack when a pink beam shot forward from below and behind her, cutting the now extra-long arm that held the right shoulder shield and the GN Reactor-off. Instantly, the energy imbalance caused her to drop out of Trans Am, and several of the blade bits went dead as their home port was cut off.

Penny stopped and turned as she saw the G-Hopper above her, the right tonfa raised high above her. She turned and swung the beam saber intended to impale Jack to deflect the blow, but was unable to counter the left tonfa's saber due to the missing shield. The left saber cut cleanly through the neck and torso of the Hi-FX as Penny's saber nearly cleaved Evelyn's Gunpla in half from shoulder to hip. Both machines exploded, sending Jack backward into space.

Jack cried out in shock from the explosion and attempted to stop herself. While she was still in motion, she could be rung out, thus costing her team the match. She struggled to slow herself, alerts about her proximity to the holographic barrier at the end of the battle table sounding off as she shot closer to it.

Finally, she slowed herself to a stop, mere simulated meters from the barrier. Her Gunpla hung in space, battered, her arms and legs with severe scorch marks and holes burned through them, but still functional, despite this. She panted hard, sweat pouring from her as exhaustion overtook her. She watched as the off-center colony, which by now had broken into several pieces, fell and impacted Earth in multiple locations, creating a brilliant white ring around the planet from the heat of the impacts reaching the atmosphere.

"BATTLE ENDED!"

The cockpits and battle table dematerialized, with the crowd exploding with intensity and excitement from the brilliant battle they had just witnessed.

In the back, Hathaway breathed a sigh of relief. "Way to give me a heart attack, girls."

Pietro closed his eyes, disappointed, yet happy. "Well, you can't win them all. And Penny seemed to enjoy herself, going truly all out on them. I don't think I could have asked for a finer display."

"Yeah, but…" Jaune watched the monitor. "What about Ciel?"

Ciel looked stoic, but it was fairly clear there was a level of frustration on her face. Penny looked more surprised than anything. Jack and Evelyn came over to congratulate them but stopped short as Ciel turned away.

"Hey, that was a good match," Evelyn complimented, holding her hand out. Penny stared at it for a moment, before smiling and shaking his hand.

"Thank you for such a wonderful match," Penny replied, She genuinely enjoyed their matches; few challenged Evelyn's skills or showcased them so spectacularly for the world to see-than Penny Polendina.

"Ciel." Jack approached the smaller girl and offered her hand. "Thank you for being such a marvelous opponent. Bloody good show."

Ciel nodded and accepted the handshake. "I don't expect there to be a repeat next time."

"I'll hold you to that," Jack smirked before all four headed back to the backstage area, where the others were waiting. "I have a question, however. At one point, a projectile shot was fired at me from a direction opposite from you. How did you manage that?"

"I had one of my tow cables connected to my rifle. With that, I could remotely control the rifle, though it was more a distraction than a true attack. A question for you, now. How did you manage to deliver such a devastating blow to my Efreet?" Ciel asked Jack as they approached the entrance.

"I learned a while ago to maximize my power output while minimizing motion and energy usage," Jack explained. "It's similar to a one-inch punch in concept, but with greater-"

"THAT WAS AWESOME!"

A shrill voice pierced the chatter, as Ruby ran over and greeted the four of them. "I couldn't believe how amazing you all are as fighters!"

Ciel gritted her teeth as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Please keep your voice down…"

Penny and Evelyn giggled as Evelyn removed her wig and top hat, then removed the purple contacts from her eyes to reveal brilliant green irises beneath. She took out a case and put the contacts in it, before withdrawing a pair of black thick-rimmed glasses. "I'm glad you enjoyed it so much!" She was excited to see Ruby so excited.

"Woah, you don't even look like the same person," Jaune noted with wide eyes. "That's crazy."

"Adeline Ivory. Nice to meet ya! Again!" The former rabbit girl gave him a broad grin, feeling rather happy at the reaction. "It's amazing how little you have to do to fly under the radar."

"I imagine the ears probably help distract one from her facial features, as well," Penny noted. "It makes it easier to throw off most people."

"Penny," Pietro said, calling her attention over to him as he turned his wheelchair to her. "I'm so sorry, my dear. My design just wasn't enough for you to win. You, too, Ciel."

Penny looked at her father, then smiled broadly. "It's okay, Father. Evelyn and Jack are national champions. It was unlikely either of them would have lost easily, anyway."

Ciel nodded. "Besides, while losing wasn't preferable, the battle itself wasn't without a variety of benefits."

Weiss looked at the two in confusion. "Am I the only one who thinks they sound like robots?" She whispered to the others.

Nora shot her a wide-eyed look. "You, too? Oh, thank goodness, I thought I was losing it!"

Ricardo sat in the rest area in the stadium, having come back from meeting with Kyrus and Io just before the fight. He couldn't do much but shake his head as he watched the battle. He, like Nils and Sei next to him, was taken aback by the overwhelming display of power and mastery shown by these four fighters. He looked over at Sei with a relaxed but worried expression. "So? How you feelin' about coming out of retirement, Sei?"

Sei laughed nervously. "Things sure have changed since I was last at a tournament. The kind of customizations being made by everyone is crazy. Penny's machine is a monster."

"We got our work cut out for us," Ricardo agreed. "Seems like a different lifetime when the craziest innovation I ever saw was the Star Build Strike's absorb shield and RG System. These days, if you're skilled enough, anyone can pull it off."

"As my mentor once told me, 'Innovation inspires innovation,'" Nils quoted. "Where something used to be state of the art, it is now commonplace. Cars, the internet, even the Plavsky Particle."

Ricardo smiled at Nils. "Your niece did pretty well for her world debut," he noted. "Takes after her favorite uncle, much?"

Nils blinked in surprise, and Sei shot Ricardo a confused glance. Ricardo chuckled. "What? Don't tell me you didn't expect anyone to find out? I did my homework, ya know. And the way she used that ranged wave attack screamed 'Uncle Nils' all over it."

Sei glanced at Nils. "Wait, so it's true?"

Nils rubbed the back of his head. "Ciel didn't want any extra attention. She wanted to make it on her own skill, rather than her connection to me." He smiled proudly. "Still, her masterful use of that shroud technique and her adeptness at Plavsky control is astounding, to be honest. Especially since she's only been into Gunpla Battle for about a year. I think she wanted to save the Plavsky attacks for later on, which is why she didn't use them until the end."

"Well, Jack was no slouch," Ricardo noted. "I doubt she would have lost if she had gone all out."

Nils nodded. "Perhaps… but she was still amazing."

Sei beamed. He could feel his excitement building. This was turning into an amazing tournament. He was so glad to be back.

If only Reiji were here…


PIETRO POLENDINA

Age: 58

Height: 5'7" (when out of wheelchair)

Eyes: brown

Hair: white

Affiliation: Retired Plavsky Particle engineer and researcher for PPSE and Yajima Trading

A maestro at Gunpla design and system engineering, Pietro is considered the top of his field when it comes to the sport of Gunpla Battle's inner workings. He worked on crafting the original battle system, which helped guide the way to Plavsky Particle System Engineering's creation of the sport, and assisted the young Nils Nielsen in creating and refining the new Plavsky Particle system used currently.

Though he has since retired, the man has maintained an active role in helping his daughter Penny and her partner Ciel capitalize on his knowledge without giving them too much of an advantage, of course. He was the sole creator of Penny's machine and has used his skills to propel his daughter's fighting style to the heights of the elite in the sport.

PENNY'S UPGRADED GUNPLA

Gundam Hi-FX Polendina Burst

A refined variant of her Gundam, the Hi-FX Burst's two most notable changes over its original are the new backpack, which is designed to replicate the high mobility and design of the Rage Nucleon Master Grade Nu Gundam Ver Ka accessory, which in turn eliminated the large Hi-Nu Gundam wings for the most part.

In addition, two of the side hip-mounted C Funnels of the AGE-FX have been completely replaced with DRAGOON funnels from the Strike Freedom Gundam, which have higher output beams and can spawn beam sabers, giving them greater versatility.

Finally, Pietro has removed the limiters on the machine, allowing Penny to activate both Trans-Am mode AND the FX Burst simultaneously.

All previous features, including extra cameras and additional beam cannons mounted on the C Funnels and blade bits of the 00 Qan [T] shields, have been maintained. Overall, the Hi-FX Polendina Burst has upgraded her speed and agility without sacrificing firepower or utility.

CIEL SOLEIL'S GUNPLA

Efreet Null

A customized variation of the Efreet Nacht and Efreet Custom, the Efreet Null is a nimble and highly potent close quarters master. Ciel has opted to remove the numerous spikes on its shoulders for a more streamlined appearance, which also allowed for more aerodynamics while in the atmosphere. The standard backpack was replaced with one from the Gelgoog High Mobility Type for increased speed and agility, and the calf boosters of the Nacht were switched with the Custom due to their larger thrusters.

The Efreet Null featured several magnetic tow cables around its body. Taking inspiration from Ciel watching Ruby's fight with Yang and her use of cables there, as well as the Schuzrum-Gallus from Gundam Unicorn, the Null is capable of easily mobilizing itself without giving away its position using thrusters. These cables could also be connected to its rifle, and with a special interface while connected, could remotely fire the weapon, though Ciel admits this is more for distraction than actually for the attack.

The blades of the Efreet are "cold" type weapons. Rather than superheating to an incredible temperature, these weapons are designed to stun and paralyze opponents, and Ciel has sanded them to the point where, even though they are plastic, they are sharp enough to cut through paper like a properly sharpened knife. Ciel typically only activates their paralyzing function in moments where she sees it as advantageous, as it does draw power from her mobile suit, thus reducing its effectiveness somewhat. She has four of these two cold kunai mounted on her outer calves and two ninjato-style short swords based on the Efreet Nacht's main sword mounted on either side of her backpack.

Finally, Ciel has studied her uncle Nils Yajima's particle manipulation techniques he used with his Sengoku Astray and Ninpulse Gundam, allowing her to project shockwaves of resonating particles outward to cleave through targets. She has shown to have expert control of these attacks, though uses them sparingly.

EVELYN DAMEROT'S GUNPLA

G-Hopper

A variant of the G-Self Assault Pack's main mobile suit, minus the attached pack, the G-Hopper is the main mobile suit used by Adeline Ivory's alter ego, Evelyn Damerot. Its outward-facing "Devil horns" have been replaced with swiveling mechanical rabbit ears inspired off of gen: LOCK's Cammie McCloud's machine. These ears seem to aid Evelyn in guiding her choice of sporadic movements, but she has never revealed the exact function of them.

The G-Hopper has mounted a number of small single thruster units all over the large calf armor of the Assault Pack, as well as features a custom backpack seemingly inspired from the Gundam Tristan, though it lacks the beam saber mounts that stick over the shoulder. These, combined with the hip boosters from the G-Saviour model kit, give the G-Hopper overwhelming speed and agility, allowing it to rapidly change direction nearly instantly. Evelyn also has several additional thrusters in the toes of the elongated feet of the Assault Pack to aid in directional control and navigation.

For weapons, the G-Hopper has a pair of large, custom-made tonfas that act as beam pistols and can extend beam sabers. Depending on the direction they face, they will use different weapons, and to avoid using too much power, the weapons are thick enough to be used simply as large nightsticks, if needed, and are coated with anti-beam paint to refract beam savers.