Author's Notes
Hey, readers! I apologize. It took a little longer to get this one up (even though it's about the same length as Ch 17) because of general business, family needs, a surprise visit to see the Pope at Capitol Hill, and an asthma attack D: But, here it is. This chapter was a bit hard because I had to manage so many characters and unfolding scenes at once. I hope it turned out to be an enjoyable read for you all! Thank you, Titanic X, for beta-reading!
Guys, don't forget about that poll that I put up a while ago. It's your chance to have some input, and if you like the character balance the way it is, now, there's an option for that, too!
A general warning—my asthma was triggered by newly-developed (obtained this year) seasonal allergies. The doctor at urgent care said that this was one of the worst allergy/asthma seasons they've ever seen, so if you're in the big country of the U.S.A. (I don't know how far the heightened environmental allergy triggers were supposed to spread) and have allergies, be careful: take your 24-hour allergy pills every single day, drink ginger tea or ginger ale, and take inhalers regularly if you're having asthmatic symptoms. If you do find that asthmatic symptoms are not responding to your inhaler medication, then do not be like me and wait from 3 am to 6 pm, miserable from a tight chest and nausea, to finally get some help! It will not go away!
And, now that I've made that public service announcement, on to the chapter! (Please review.)
Disclaimer
SD Gundam Force is owned by Bandai and Sunrise. The original characters I developed who are found in this chapter are: Aleda and Titan. Everyone else was made up by the aforementioned owners of the franchise (Bandai and Sunrise).
Chapter 18: "You Can"
Chief Haro, Kao Lyn, Juli, and the other staff in the observation deck gasped as they watched an explosion rip the edge of the park clearing, then another, and another, and another, rippling until nothing but a 500-foot-wide smoking rock pit and ring of uprooted trees remained.
"SDG Base to Guneagle! Do you read? SDG Base to Guneagle!"
Haro cursed under his breath.
"Chief?"
"We completely missed their strategy!" Chief Haro growled. "We'll send a rescue party. Continue to hail them."
"Yes, sir!" Juli said.
…
Thin glows blinked in the darkness. Creaks and groans stirred between shifting rocks.
"Zero...? Guneagle...?"
"You guys okay?"
"What—*cough*—happened?"
"Zero. Can you light up this place?"
Pained grunts and the grate of sliding rocks preceded a bright light crawling from the rubble. Zero, his arm shaking, lifted his glowing sword aloft to see his comrades.
An antler on Baku's helmet had bent, and blackness—either soot or melted Gundamium—coated the whole side of the Musha Gundam. Sparks discharged from Guneagle's twisted shoulder and wing, and the colors on his chest ran together as melted Gundamium and paint dripped. "Guneagle," Zero panted, "your armor is melting."
"You don't look so good, yourself," Guneagle said.
Zero tried to move his shield arm and cried out in pain; it was pinned beneath a few boulders. As he heaved, he felt needles in his chest. Rock and mine shards had lodged themselves below his GunSoul.
"You've got bad burns, Zero," Baku said, "Don't move."
A glint off of Baku's GunSoul chased away the knight's own pain, though. "Baku, your gem! It's cracked!"
Baku shallowly chuckled, wincing with each breath. "Guess that's why it hurts so much."
"This is no laughing matter! Try to reach me! I must heal it, immediately!"
Baku, moaning, used his non-blackened hand to drag himself across a rock, but he winced. A chipping noise shot into Zero's audio. "Wait, stop!" Zero said, "Don't try to move! I'll come to you!"
He elbowed some skittering pebbles aside, braced himself, and jerked against his geologic captor. Screeching metal, dusty flakes of blackened and partly-molten Gundamium, and agonized screams were all that he earned for his effort. After three seconds of this, Baku breathed, "Don't. Just stay there. We have to wait for help."
"Why is the gem so important?" Guneagle asked.
"If our GunSouls break, we die!" Zero wheezed.
The Neotopian shifted slightly. "Okay, hold on. My scanners are still working, so I'm gonna find us a way outta here." He twisted his squeaking neck joints to view the haphazardly-deposited rock layer three inches above his remaining wing.
Then, his v-fin flashed. "Guneagle to SDG Base! We're here!" he called to unheard hails. "Yeah, we're all still online. But, we're in serious trouble. We're pinned under 35 meters of rock, we're half-melted, my right arm and wing are broken, Zero can't move, and Bakusetsu's GunSoul is cracking. Plus, we've got only forty-three minutes of oxygen left, tops, and they need to breathe. We need help, ASAP!"
"Forty-three minutes," Zero echoed in dismay. "Who can help us?"
"Don't give up, Zero," Baku groaned out. "We'll make it, somehow."
"Okay. Keep us posted," Guneagle said into his comm. "Over and out." To his companions, he said, "They're gathering people to help."
Zero nodded. "I'll let my magic passively heal my arm, and then I'll try to heal Baku."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Use it on yourself, Zero," Baku panted. "Lacroa is counting on you, right?"
"And you fight for Ark, do you not?" Zero weakly chuckled.
"Guys, try not to talk, or you'll use up the air faster," Guneagle interrupted.
The Sola Diorama Gundams fell silent and focused their attention to slowing their breaths.
…
A steady rattle and clack announced the arrival of the next train. Aleda turned her gaze to the station entrance.
"From what I have observed, Aleda, you face less prejudice at White Base than anywhere else," Captain hazarded.
"Not many people see me at my parents' house," Aleda said. "We live in the middle of nowhere, so I can go outside without people watching me."
"Doesn't that feel lonely?"
Aleda dropped her gaze.
A ring sounded, and Captain pulled the phone out, again. "Yes?" Aleda looked back to see Captain's face morph into a shocked and pained expression. "What is their status?" he asked. Finally, he nodded. "Alright. Here she is." He held out the phone. "Chief Haro needs you, Aleda."
Aleda, with dancing stomach butterflies jostling her frame, accepted the phone and held it to her audio. "Hello?"
"Aleda," the Chief's steady voice said, "I don't know what your situation is, but we need your help, right now! Zero, Bakunetsumaru, and Guneagle fell into a Dark Axis trap and suffered heavy wounds." The phone rattled against her helmet. "They are still alive, but they need immediate assistance. Gunbike will take you to their location. It's extremely dangerous, and the enemy is still present, but without help, they will all die! Zero and Bakunetsumaru have less than forty minutes!"
"I'll come. Where do I go?"
"Head due northeast, and you should intercept Gunbike near Neotopia Valley School. Your destination is Neotopia District 5 Park."
The Gundamess nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Over and out."
She shut the phone and, trembling, handed it to Captain.
"Are you alright?"
"No." Aleda extended her palm, and a glow from her hand released thin paper slices. "Here, take this money so you both can ride the train home."
Captain, his gaze falling, palmed the dollar bills. "Be careful."
"I'll try."
...
Margaret looked up as Captain walked around the bend holding a small clump of cash. She frowned at the pain that stretched his face. "So, what happened?"
"Our friends are in trouble. She went to help." Captain held a palm to eye level. "In my current state, I'm unable to aid them."
Margaret ventured a smile, saying, "You've done what you needed to."
"I hope so."
"It seems like you're in a bit of a pickle, though. I can stick around with you until everything's okay."
"You will?" Captain's eyes lit.
Her pearly whites snuck out. "Yeah, of course. What are friends for?"
The loneliness faded from his face. "Thank you, Maggie."
"You're welcome." But, the girl frowned, watching something behind him. "Hey, what's that?"
Captain turned to see a weaving shape in the sky, traced by a flaring glow. He tensed. "Is that…?"
"What is it?" Margaret stood.
As the shape came closer, a purple orb glared from its head. "Run!" Captain cried, grabbing Margaret's hand.
Margaret stumbled the first step but quickly caught herself and set her long legs pounding with him, while cackles chased from behind.
...
Shute, in Kao Lyn's lab, rested, offline, at his recharge station where he had been sent earlier during the emergency. It would be best for the boy, Chief Haro had figured, if he had been asleep while they tried to recover Titan rather than wait anxiously while he could do nothing. However, his eyescreens suddenly blinked on, and with a shudder, he popped the station connections from his back. His chest felt tight, as if his Soul Drive were squeezing.
He flipped the Soul Drive compartment open, though, and nothing appeared abnormal. Why the anguish?
Shute!
Shute jolted and searched the dim room, but no one was there. And, yet, he certainly had heard it. "Captain!"
…
Gunbike raced down a northbound highway with Aleda perched in his main seat. His sidecar had been removed in order to eliminate unnecessary drag—after all, Shute was not riding. "The whole doggon field was mined, and that start-up Guneagle's jets triggered 'em—KABOOM! The whole thing!" Gunbike elaborated to Aleda as they drove. "They're gonna need ya' healin' powers. Problem is, they're trapped 35 meters underground. That's gonna be tough ta get through in time."
"I think I can move most of it with magic," Aleda offered.
"I thought ya'd say somethin' like that," Gunbike rumbled. "But, will ya' have enough left over for Zero and Bakunetsumaru?"
"I don't know…"
"Hmm. Well, I think I got somethin' ta help." His v-fin flashed. "SDG Base, come in! We need ta call in a favor!"
…
Guneagle shifted his shoulder slightly to prop a boulder. "Aleda and Gunbike are on their way to help," he reported to his fellow prisoners.
Zero lifted his head. "Aleda?"
"Yeah."
Fear gripped him—and an erratic surge of hope. "But... how? I thought she left."
"Captain was still with her, so they asked through him," Guneagle explained.
"Yeah! Good, Captain!" Baku cheered, a cry that tickled his wounds and sent his body into a coughing fit.
"You left Captain with her?" Zero said.
"Yeah—*cough*—He and his friend—*hack!*—stayed so I could come."
"Baku..." Hearing the trouble that his friend went to, Zero thought back also to the strange sparring session that they had had a few days ago after he'd consoled his lady: the samurai's eyes had blazed brighter than in any fight against the Dark Axis that he had seen, and his swords, with their smooth, quick, crisp, and precise strikes, had carried exceptional ferocity. Zero had put on his usual mask of ostentatious condescension and attempted to hold on to this secure persona in the face of swings aimed at his shoulders, wrists, knees, and chest, each requiring a little more push to deflect than Zero had initially expected. Eventually, though, the slices had cut away his nonchalance. Perhaps now he could get an answer for the fire in his friend's eyes. "Why do all of this?" he asked the wounded samurai.
"Friends make... each other happy," Baku panted.
"You told me you wanted to tease him," Guneagle laughed.
Baku, in spite of his pain, managed a thin smile. "That, too."
Zero's eyescreens watered.
"And food."
"Way to ruin the touching moment," Guneagle scoffed.
Baku's responding laughs faded into coughs.
"Don't strain yourself, Baku," Zero begged. He tugged on his pinned shield arm. "My magic has restored some use of my arm. In a moment, I can dig my way to you."
"I'll be... fine... I won't die before I've defeated... Kibaomaru..."
"Keep fighting," Zero urged.
…
The doors opened, and a panicked wheel-heeled Gundam ran in. "What happened?!" Shute demanded of the SDG staff.
"Zero, Bakunetsumaru, and Guneagle are in a predicament," Chief Haro answered, "and Aleda and Gunbike have gone to rescue them."
"What about Captain?" the metal-sheathed boy blurted.
"What do you mean?"
"Something happened to Captain! I can feel it!"
Chief Haro turned to Juli. "Where is 'Shute'?"
A few taps on her console, and Juli's blue eyes widened. "About ten minutes ago, Shute's cell phone started traveling ninety-four meters in the air, and one minute ago, it fell on the ground. It hasn't moved, since."
"What?!"
"He must have been kidnapped!" Kao Lyn fretfully rubbed his greying hair. "Oh, no, oh, no, what are we to do?!"
"Where is the phone?" Haro demanded.
"Just outside of Neotopia," Juli answered.
"Those Dark Axis... There's no one right now who we can send after him."
"You can send me," Shute said.
"You haven't had combat training."
"I have." Shute clenched his fists. "I've been practicing in secret."
Chief Haro stiffened. "I see..."
Shute gazed at him unflinchingly. "I'm sorry, Chief Haro."
Haro swept his gaze across the staff present in the room, meeting their questioning gazes. "There's no hiding it, anymore: Captain Gundam and Shute have temporarily switched bodies as a result of a magic accident," he explained. "Because of this, Captain and Shute have been withheld from combat. However, if Captain has been taken hostage, then they are both at risk. If either of them are killed or destroyed, then they will both die, according to our magic expert, Zero. We must retrieve Captain Gundam at once!"
"Only the Gundivers are left to help, sir," Juli reminded him, "and they aren't equipped for land combat."
"I know." Chief Haro gazed at Shute. "I know full well."
Shute matched the mask's eyes with his own resolute stare.
...
Aleda and Gunbike waited at a gravelly backroad. The ground rumbled. "Brace yerself," Gunbike said. A clear roof closed over Aleda's head, and the Gundamess gripped the edge of her seat. Then, a clawed blue piston the size of a small car ruptured the surface, scattering earth. A few pebbles pinged off Gunbike's Gundamium frame and his windowed enclosure harmlessly.
The piston retracted. "Hello?" a male voice echoed from the hole in the ground.
"Howdy, there, Grypapa!" Gunbike rolled them close to the opening, until Aleda could see that it sloped with an acceptably gentle incline down into a tunnel. A long, rectangular, blue structure with two of the giant pistons protruded, and headlights illuminated the shaft. "Thanks fer meetin' us halfway!" Gunbike called to the huge mechanical being.
"It's no problem at all! I owe the Gundam Force my life."
"We're headin' due north! I'll steer ya when we get close!"
"Okay! Come on down!" Grypapa backed into the tunnel to give them space.
"Hang on, honey! Things can get bumpy," Gunbike warned Aleda as he tilted into the hole.
Aleda gulped and tightened her hold on the underside of her chair. "Not that tight!" Gunbike barked. "Don't bend my seat!"
"Sorry!"
…
Grappler Gouf, with Captain and Margaret in each arm, coasted into a gated area full of winding rails, colorful stands, and decorated merry-go-rounds. Stillness held the park, and rust shackled the attractions. Roller coaster cars gathered dust beneath their covered loading docks, and their tracks collected rotting leaves. At a gust of wind, a tall coaster arch creaked.
"Where are you taking us?" Captain demanded yet again.
"Nowhere exciting," Grappler answered, "so shut up."
Margaret quivered.
They jet to the center of the park, and Grappler lowered in front of a roller coaster ride exit. "There are likely no robots left here to recruit with a Control Horn," Captain said pointedly.
"For the last time, shut up!" Gouf commanded. "I'm not here to use the horn!" He carried them to the ride's photo booth and souvenir shop and kicked down the moldy door. "Honey, I'm hoooome~!" the blue robot called.
His purple eye cast a thin, dark glow over the bare interior. The shelves on the edges sagged from rot instead of merchandise. Spider webs locked empty wheeled clothing racks in place. Only dust rested on the check-out counter; all cash registers and gift cards had been removed. To this countertop Grappler Gouf walked, as Margaret squirmed uneasily at the pressure under her ribs.
"Stop your squirming," Gouf ordered. He slipped around the counter and nudged open the staff-only door behind it.
Eyescreens flickered on in the dark. Grappler threw the humans inside.
"Oof!"
"Ow!"
Captain pushed himself to his feet and wheeled, but the door slammed shut and clicked. He jiggled the stiff doorknob to no effect. "He locked us in!"
Margaret lifted her head and stared at the glowing eyescreens. "Who are you?"
The robot shifted, clinking, and revealing something of his chains' shape in the faint light. "Titan." His glowing hazel eyes shifted to the human boy. "Shute…?"
Captain turned to him. "Yes, in a manner of speaking."
"You seem hurt," Margaret said.
Titan breathed in heavily. "Yes."
Captain felt his pockets. "My phone is gone," he observed.
Margaret stood. "I have mine."
"Wait," Titan croaked.
The children looked at him, then jumped when the door opened. A Zako scuttled in before Grappler. "Okay, now we got a message to send, and you kids better cooperate! ...What are you up to?" Grappler demanded, eyeing Margaret's hand in her pocket.
She jerked it out. "Nothing."
Grappler stared into her darting blue eyes for one second before he said, "Hand it over."
"I just put my hand in—!"
"Hand it over!"
Margaret grit her teeth and pulled her small sky-blue cell phone from the pocket.
"Thank you!" Grappler snatched it from her and tossed it on the floor, and Margaret jumped in surprise when he stamped it to pieces. "There! No one's phoning home!" the Dark Axis robot taunted with a grin. "Now, smile into the camera."
…
"I noticed Captain Gundam's been hiding, today. Well, I've got your human pet, Captain, so you'd better come to these coordinates, or you know what'll happen!" Grappler Gouf said in the transmitted video playing in the observation deck for the chiefs and the other staff.
Behind the robot, the SDG could see a familiar human boy and a girl glaring at him. "Who's that?" Kao Lyn asked.
As if hearing him, the recording said casually, "Oh, yeah, and I've got this juvenile human female, too. I don't know who she is, but she was with the kid, so I grabbed them both." Grappler shrugged. "She'll probably be the first to get petrified."
Captain in the video started at this offhand comment and stepped protectively in front of the girl.
"That's Margaret," Shute explained. "She's a classmate of mine."
"A civilian," Chief Haro noted.
"Yeah."
"Oh, no, oh no..." Kao Lyn continued to mumble half to himself like a mantra.
"We have no more time to wait. Shute," Haro said, looking at the boy-turned 'bot, "you are the only one left to rescue Captain and Margaret, so you must go."
Shute nodded. "Yes, sir. I can do it, sir."
"Be careful, Shute," Chief Haro pleaded. "This is a dangerous situation."
The child saluted. "Yes, sir!"
…
"We're almost there!" Gunbike shouted to his passenger above the din of Grypapa's drilling arms.
Aleda nodded.
The two followed behind Grypapa's huge blue bulk as he carved a tunnel northward. The tunnel had taken them through a couple of tall cavern pockets on the way. According to Grypapa, the pockets widened and became more frequent in the northern District 5, which had caused the District 5 Park to be closed and demolished many years ago after their accidental discovery. Sixteen minutes had passed since they began burrowing: the trapped Gundams had less than four minutes remaining.
…
"Dig faster, you rusty buckets!" Zapper shouted at the Zakos. The green Dark Axis grunts had formed a line leading into the middle of the crumbled cavern, along which they passed pieces of rock to carry the debris away, and from which fanned several branches of diggers. The poor little Zakos, smudged with filthy organic dirt, groaned at the dull work.
"Hurry! I'm booooored!" Dom loudly complained, waving his bazooka. The Zakos squealed and accelerated their movement. Zakos in the line nearly had rocks shoved into their optics from the frantic scramble.
A digging Zako tore back a large rock and jumped when a bright glow spilled out. "Zako!"
Other surrounding Zakos crowded to peek. "Zako!" "Zako!" "Zako zako!"
"We're almost there, zako!" one called to the squad leaders.
"Good!" Zapper stomped toward the tiny opening with his machine gun in hand. "That light means they're still alive, and I miss shooting something!"
…
Zero's processor fogged, and his vision blurred. He instinctively gulped, but then he paused his breath to return to a steady rhythm.
Baku's gasps had slowed, but his breaths had deepened. "I'm getting dizzy," he wheezed.
"Baku," was all Zero could formulate with his overheating CPU.
"Hang in there, guys!" Guneagle said. "They're almost here!" Underneath the surrounding rocks, however, he tightened his hold on his beam rifle. He heard "zako"s drawing close, but, concerned that panic would worsen his allies' condition, kept that information inside his CPU.
"Guneagle... can you... move?" Baku panted.
"I told you already that I'm stuck."
"I can't... die, yet..." Baku raised a hand to the rock ceiling just above his helmet.
"Don't do that, Baku!" Guneagle said. "You'll use up more air!" A glint of purple light leaked down to them. Zakos. Fresh air began to trickle in. Guneagle called past Baku's shoulder, "Zero, the Dark Axis is coming! Use the last of your magic to save yourself!"
"Baku... needs..."
"Worry about yourself!"
Zero blearily blinked in response. His awareness had shrunk to a sliver of illuminated rock and the labored breathing of himself and his samurai friend. His circuits burned, and his helm throbbed with pain. If he closed his eyes, perhaps his agony would lessen. He deactivated his eyescreens, just for a moment. His magical sword dissipated...
His audios roared. And blasted. Strange... He'd never heard such a sound before in the other times he'd fainted.
"Zero! Baku! Guneagle!"
Aleda's voice bid him open his eyes. Zero turned on his vision, and no cute little Lady Gundamess could be seen, but a blinding light glared in his sensors.
Past his view, Aleda crawled through the hole that Grypapa had carved, emerging adjacent to Baku. "Oh, my gosh! Baku, you're burned!"
"Not really… That's soot…" the Arkian answered.
Gunbike slid in part of the way: his wide tail end couldn't fit. "Are y'all alive?!"
"Yeah, Gunbike, but you're blocking the light!" Guneagle said.
"Zero?" Aleda called anxiously into the partially collapsed pocket. "Zero, say something!"
"Aleda…?" the knight's faint voice murmured. He reached his empty sword hand for his lady, his CPU hazed in the heat.
"Hang on! I'll heal you!"
"Baku… first…"
"Zako!" echoed a voice above. "I see them, zako!"
"Dom blast them!"
"Hey, I was going to shoot them!" Zapper protested.
The rock ceiling rumbled and crumbled further as a heavy form rolled overhead. Aleda screeched and ducked as rocks started to fall.
Grypapa's blue cylindrical claw shot above them, crushing rocks to dust and catching falling debris on his thick arms. "What was that?!" Zapper shouted. Wide shafts of moonlight spilled in.
Several boulders—and, out of sight, several Dark Axis robots—weighed down on Grypapa's arms. "Hurry and help them!" he said.
"Pull them out, Aleda!" Gunbike urged. "Now!"
"There's no time!" Guneagle objected. "Counter them!"
"I have no line of sight!" Gunbike revved.
Zero blinked the haziness out of his processor, his systems cooling from the influx of fresh air.
The moonlight turned to black, except for a single purple eye bearing down on them. "Target locked."
Zero gasped and raised his hand as the bazooka nozzle appeared overhead. "Mana!"
Boom! The missile exploded against a glowing blue barrier, creating a fiery umbrella to flash across.
In a second, the explosion had died. "Good, Zero!" Baku said, though he winced from the use of his voice box.
"Dom reload…" Dom sullenly said.
"Move outta the way!" Zapper growled. "You always try to steal the fun…!" He launched a tirade against his partner while the robotic powerhouse loaded another missile, as signaled by clicking and heavy scraping noises.
Zero, trembling, dropped his arm. "Zero!" Aleda cried.
Baku grabbed her shoulder. "Aleda, your fire..."
"What?"
"Zero told me—*cough* *cough*—you use fire. Use it on the Dark Axis!"
Aleda's emerald eyes widened. "I can't!"
"You can burn them?!" Guneagle cried. "Do it!"
But, the Gundamess shook at this command. Her emerald eyes clouded, and she pressed her hands against the rocky terrain to steady herself.
"Give that here!" Zapper demanded of Dom. "I want to try it!"
"These are DOM's weapons!" Dom retorted.
"Cummon, kid! Use yer magic!" Gunbike yelled at Aleda. "This is no time to get weak-jointed!"
"Aleda," Zero said. She looked up, her eyes in desperate search for his anchoring presence. In the dim light, his blue eyes burned white-hot with determination, and she latched on. "You can," he grated out.
"I can't! I'll burn…!" She gripped the rock so tightly that it crushed in her white fingers.
"We need you."
Aleda's GunSoul fluttered.
"Please. We need you." Zero's fingers twitched, but they were far away from his lady. His magic had depleted so much that his proprioception was failing: though he knew that Aleda could not be ten feet away, it suddenly seemed to his dizzy mind that she and Baku were as far as twenty. Any more magic, and he'd lose consciousness for sure; he couldn't protect his beloved Little Wing. "Use your magic." And save yourself, he silently prayed.
A scuffle broke out aboveground between Zapper Zaku and Dom. Clangs and clanks sounded, then bangs, and the earth overhead shifted. A boulder slipped off Grypapa's arm, straight over Zero's helmet.
The Lady's heart lurched, and flames poured forth. The whole pocket surrounding Zero flooded. The fire flushed upward through the open channels of earth and scorched the Dark Axis army above; pained cries rained down.
Aleda recoiled in the face of the immense heat, though her gaze never left the blaze. "Zero!" she cried. Her staring eyes welled with tears. "Zero!"
The rocks touched by the flames melted, burning a large hole overhead. Molten rock gushed into Zero's cavern.
Baku shielded the Gundamess with one armored arm as the falling liquid rock flushed the flames their way and then snuffed them, like breath blowing a candle. "Zero!" Aleda cried again.
Rocks stirred, and Zero's groan wafted from the simmering embers. Blue eyes resumed their glow. An orb—his GunSoul—shone through the dust, as, unnoticed by the spectators, so did Aleda's.
"Zero?" Baku called.
The Knight Gundam, coughing, shrugged off rock dust and ashes and brushed away flickering flames and lava drops while he shakily crawled to his feet in the new spacious cavity left by the fire magic. "I'm fine," he said. His GunSoul's light faded.
Aleda watched him, shaking, stunned silent by disbelief, oblivious to the dimming glimmer of her core.
Another throaty grunt cleared the soot from Zero's voice box. "*cough*—Actually, I feel better than fine." He, wobbling slightly, turned to his trembling Lady with a comforting smile. "Your fire spell healed my wounds, milady."
"How…?" Aleda whispered.
"Owowow, hot!" Zapper continued to screech as he streaked across the moonlight sky with his rear on fire. Many jet-strapped and steaming Zakos spun and flailed trying to shake off leftover flames. Dom hovered in place, all charcoal black except for his blinking eye.
Gunbike drove further into the whole rocky mess. "Don't move, Grypapa," he said to the robot still stretching his arms across the gap. His rear-mounted missile launchers folded outward and slid up as he continued, "I'm gonna clear us some space! Magic shields, somebody! Ev'ryone brace yerselves!" The launchers locked into place and fired guided missiles that arched to reach the boulders and enemy robots. Explosions shattered rocks and again scorched the Dark Axis.
Debris showered down. Zero tottered to Baku and Aleda and fell across his friends to shield them. A magical blue dome sprang over, encased them, and ballooned to absorb Guneagle. Fist-sized rocks and the edges of hot clouds bounced off the shield's surface. Aleda clung to her knight's arm.
Once the rocks settled and the dust cleared, the Knight Gundam rolled to the side with a moan. "Zero?" Aleda leaned over him in concern.
Zero's eyescreens flickered. "Magic fatigue," he whispered before his eyes darkened.
…
Shute rocketed over a rusty fence that bore a decorative plaque reading "Mecha Land." With some careful steering and help from the distance data in his readouts, he landed on weathered, cracked pavement with vines crawling between the breaks in the cement, in the courtyard at the park entrance.
His visual scanners roved over the steel buildings whose colorful, sharp designs were only marred by reddish rust stripes. The doors, sheltered by overhangs, remained silver, aside from the ones that vandals had broken open. Yellows, reds, and blues had combined with silver in order to give warmth to the architecture, but over the years of neglect, the bright paint had discolored and chipped. Any remaining color, though, the night sky hid well enough that only the top corners graced by moonlight had any visible hue.
Leading from the main entrance area, a wide path passed under a straddling huge steel sculpture of a mecha. Vandals, however, had somehow defaced the statue: the metal twisted off at its neck, and its dented head lay in a spider-crack in the middle of the paved walkway. Shute shuddered, sending a rattle echoing into the still park.
"What's wrong, Shute?" Kao Lyn said over his comm. "You're afraid."
"It's nothing," Shute said.
"Okay, well, be careful! Go slow and scan everything so they won't surprise you!"
The mecha-boy tried a nervous swallow but could only flush dusty air through his voicebox. "Affirmative."
Shute walked around the statue's head and entered the ghostly battlefield.
Author's Notes
So, just to clarify my invented Gundam biology, here: Sola Diorama Gundams are alive but not organic. They're not converting oxygen to CO2, because they don't need to. Air for them only is a coolant. However, in that tight space underground, with a limited amount of air that is not being properly circulated, the air gets hot, which defeats the cooling system and starts familiar overheating machinery problems. Guneagle and the other Neotopia Gundams have liquid cooling systems installed as a backup—or else, Captain and the Gundivers wouldn't have been able to stay underwater in episode 16—and more efficient systems that produce less heat. Guneagle would have held out for a while, though eventually even he would have had some trouble. If reading that part made you a bit confused and think "How could they 'run out of air'?" then please let me know, and I'll tweak it to make that clear.
Some people may have questions about Aleda's wings. They open up like that when she's on edge. As for why, it'll spoil it if I say ;) Stay tuned.
As I said before, handling all the different scenes was difficult, and I had multiple orders before finally settling on this one. Does it flow well? Does it make sense? Please, let me know! Reviews, please!
I'm catching up on my workload, so I think the next chapter will be out sooner than this one was (though now that I've said that, God is probably laughing and planning to mess it all up for kicks).
Another reminder: please vote in that poll! It's still on my profile page.
Thanks again to my beta, Titanic X!
See you next time!
-Penelopi