Gundam 00S: Crossover Episode Ten

==Chapter 14: The Maelstrom ==


 * All hell broke out as everyone rushed forward eagerly to match their rivals. Patrick dove with an almost feral howl of glee as he clashed against Charlie and Renki. Patrick fought fiercely, his moves reflecting his very insanity. He unleashed a series of powerful strikes with his unique arm mounted beam saber. With each swing he attempted to swipe at one of the mobile suits with his tail, each attempted barely evaded. Despite the incredible force he brought to bear, the two were matching it equally with their own. Charlie even managing to briefly put Patrick on the defensive with a combination of beam fire and saber swings.


 * Ash, Elizabeth, Banagher, and Amuro immediately engaged Ribbons and Char. Despite the advantage in numbers, the two were equally matching all four of them. Banagher attempted to dispatch Ribbons using his gatling gun but wound up losing it to a devastating kick from Char while Ribbons followed up by slashing the weapon in half with his beam saber. Ash dove in and forced Ribbons into a lock with his beam trident. A few moments of struggle and Ash proved the victor and forced the saber out of the Reborns Kai’s grip, only for Ribbons to launch his fangs in response. Before Ash could be overwhelmed, Elizabeth came to the rescue and blocked their assault with her shield, forcing the fangs to direct their attention to her. While this was happening, Amuro and Char were battling a fierce duel in which both were evenly matched.


 * All this occurred within the timeframe of merely three seconds. So intense was their battle. Around them the forces of the ESF and The Ascent resumed their own battle. Supporting them were their own ships. The Traveller and Eternal battled valiantly. With a bright flash one of the ascent carriers lost their weapons capability to a combined bombardment from Kira and Athrun, which received further damage from the both Daryl and Lacus, who had their ships target the engines, effectively making the ship dead in the water. While this raged on, Ransac and Heero struggled to keep the Guardian X at bay.


 * “I must admit, I have been looking forward to this reunion! What happened over Earth was not nearly enough to satisfy me. I pray you and your friends will give me quite a show!” Taunted the pilot as he laid down a series of physical blows with his fists on the True Guardian. He reluctantly leapt away as Heero fired another burst from his buster rifles. The aim was accurate enough to leave Ransac untouched.


 * “I swear I will see you dead by the end of this! I will not lose!” Snarled Ransac. With ferocity that shocked even Heero, he launched himself at the Guardian X. Not bothering with his beam sabers, he began to lay down his own blows. Punches that would’ve shattered any other mobile suit were continuously hammered into the mobile suit. Realizing his attacks did nothing, Ransac activated the knee and core cannons and fired a point blank blast into the chest of the mobile suit. The force of the explosion was enough to send the Gundam soaring backwards before recovering.


 * “Impressive. I’ll admit, that was something I did not expect. But as you can see, futile.” Sneered the pilot as the Guardian X emerged from the smoke, not a scratch on it. “Now let’s have some fun shall we?” The mobile suit suddenly glowed with a dark aura. Extended from it’s back seemed to be two black wings formed out of smoke. The wings suddenly transformed into something familiar. Triangular objects began to form, beginning to glow with a bright red-orange, the same color as the GN-Particles emitted from the Guardian X’s GN-Drive Tau. The transformation became complete with the smoke becoming absorbed by the new objects. From the shadows emerged eight new Wing Bits. Ransac swore as he realized what had happened.


 * “You copied my weapons! That won’t help you like it did last time. This time I’m prepared!” The True Guardian’s own Wing Bits deployed to match the copies head on. The Guardian X’s own rushed almost eagerly in return. The two sets of wing bits proved equal. Any beam fired by one would be countered by another. Any attempt to physically ram into one was easily dodged.


 * “Ransac! Get down!” Roared Heero as he slammed both his buster rifles together and fired. Ransac dove under the blast, watching it as it headed straight for the Guardian X.


 * “That move again? Please.” Once again the beam suddenly halted in front of the outstretched hand of the mobile suit. As before it was absorbed directly by the machine, but instead of fading the hand began to glow even brighter than the beam had. The right arm of the mobile suit shifted from a hand into a manipulator arm. The center of the arm began to glow with the same light as the hand that had absorbed the beam. “I’m going to teach you something.” With that a beam that was twice the size of Heero’s erupted from the manipulator arm, it’s aim directly at Wing Zero.


 * “No!” Cried Ransac as he leapt in front of the blast. At the very last second he managed to generate a GN-Field before the blast completely enveloped him. Alarms sounded as the True Guardian struggled to resist the impossibly powerful beam. Just when he thought he had succeeded, the field failed. With a powerful jolt the beam crashed into the Gundam, obliterating the left half before the attack finally ended. Panic coursing through him, Ransac checked himself for any injures. Miraculously, his body was left largely untouched. The beam had just barely missed tearing his arm off. With himself safe for the moment, Ransac turned to Wing Zero.


 * Unlike the True Guardian, which had been largely protected by the GN-Field, Heero had been forced to deal with what Ransac had been unable to deflect directly. Rather than attempt a futile dive from the blast, Heero had instead fired one last burst before the beam had struck. The result was most of Wing Zero being torn to shreds and the cockpit left exposed, presumably melted open by the intense heat.


 * “Heero! Hang on!” Just as Ransac was about to test the Gundam for operation, a movement caught the corner of his eye. The Guardian X was floating with a large hole in it’s chest. The hole extended from the center through the left arm. The damage was enough that Ransac could actually see through the mobile suit itself, so complete was the blast. It was obvious that Heero’s gambit had been a lucky one, the pilot of the Guardian X had been caught by surprise by the blast and had been unable to defend himself. Ransac sighed with relief and for a brief moment victory erupted in his heart. Without warning the Guardian X came to life and drove it’s manipulator arm onto the cockpit of the True Guardian.


 * “This is not over! We will finish this later.” Hissed the pilot as he kicked Ransac away. With effort from the machine, the Guardian X soared away. As he flew the mobile suit flashed a bright red. The mobile suits piloted by Char, Patrick, and Ribbons suddenly vanished, along side the wounded mobile suit. Realizing the battle had been won, Ransac immediately shifted his attention back to Heero. After trying to get the True Guardian to move, he realized it was in no shape to operate. With a growl he leapt out of the cockpit and soared towards Wing Zero. After three seconds of hovering through space, he landed on the edge of the Gundam’s cockpit.


 * Ransac gasped as he saw the extent of the damage. The cockpit was lit up by sparking monitors. Several sections were scorched beyond recognition. Without warning several systems suddenly exploded into small fires as the sparks ignited what air was being leached by space. In the center, with a trickle of blood from his forehead, sat Heero. Ransac thanked God and whatever else had managed to create this miracle. Despite the damage done, outside of the slight head injury, Heero laid almost completely unharmed. Ransac sighed as he saw that for the first time Heero had actually been wearing a pilot’s suit. The armor and helmet had absorbed the worst of the blow but it was still functional enough to sustain his life. A new suit would be needed but for now it would be enough until they could bring him back aboard The Traveller.


 * Behind him Ransac saw the others gather around. Amuro and Elizabeth ejected themselves from their cockpits and rushed over to help him. As they approached, Ransac leaned in to pull Heero out. At the last second he noticed the monitors shine a bright yellow.


 * Almost instantly Ransac’s mind was overloaded by massive amounts of information no human could possibly hope to contain. Statistics and memories he longer knew were either his or Heero’s tore through him like a scalpel. The agony was unbearable and he was able to voice it with only one scream before his body seized up. After what seemed like years of suffering this torment, he felt his eyes roll back into his head and blackness took him.