A single spotlight lights up the room. In the center is a man perched on a stool, dressed smartly in a red jacket and holding a microphone. It is Stalker, but not quite as remembered-a tiny bit of gray can be seen in his hair and mustache and he has foregone the patch in favor of a monocle.
"Hello, my friends," he says with a warm smile. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Please, allow me to recount was has happened in the years since we last met..."
"It is the year Future Century 72, 12 years after the historic 13th Gundam Fight. After the Devil Gundam incident, research into 'dangerous' technologies such as nanomachines were heavily restricted and brought under constant public scrutiny. At the insistence of the Neo-Sweden representative for the 13th Gundam Fight, research on Berseker Modes and other such systems was locked down as well. The fear over the Devil Gundam turned countries inward, depending only on themselves and trusting few outsiders, especially Japan who had come up with "that Abomination" and was now ruler of the system."
"Not long before the 14th Gundam Fight, the Shuffle Alliance and their respective crews left the colonies, going low profile on Earth and looking into rumors of more experiments into 'the forbidden techonologies'. Their respective colonies have had no contact with them and have officially reported them missing."
"Meanwhile, the Gundam Fight began to get ugly. Each colony wanted a Devil Gundam, only one that would be in their rein. Illegal technologies continued unseen, funded by governments. The fight was brutal that year, with Neo-France just eking out a victory. Not long after, the accusations exploded. The secretly funded projects were blown out in the open. Militaries began building up. Small conflicts broke out here and there, then escalated into larger ones. After some bloody exchanges, an uneasy peace was settled, to be decided on in the next Gundam fight."
"The 15th Gundam Fight was even more brutal than the last. Every country pulled every string it could. Few fair 'battles' were actually fought-most colonies sent their military forces out to destroy other colonies' Gundams before they could become a threat. It was a surprise to all when a unimposing fighter from a practically unknown country, Neo-Luxembourg's Clervaux Gundam, and its fighter Alexander Renault took the top prize. Even more astounding was what he had to say..."
"You are all cowards. You spend the people's blood in this technology, and what has it gotten you? Nothing but dishonor! You send your armies to destroy men before they can fight fairly in the rules our predecessors, but what have you won? Nothing but destroyed machines! You might win a fight, but in the end, those with honor will always rise above you, who dare to call yourselves men! I say this now: we, the Gundam fighters, shall regain our lost honor and make the next fight one our children will not be ashamed to speak of. And then, I shall fight no more forever."
"Surprisingly, so it was. The old rules were brought back, with penalties of disqualification to those who did not follow them. Nanotechnology was once again forbidden. Alexander retired from the Gundam Fight, as he said he would, leaving the way open for a new Neo-Luxembourg represenative. The stained colonies worked to regain their lost honor, once again taking pride in their Fighters and the fight. But even so, the darkness inside the human heart can never be fully eradicated. Behind the closed curtains of a few shady figures, traces of the previous Gundam Fights still lurked..."
Stalker then picks up a glass of water and takes a sip before continuing. "A few days before the Gundam Fight was scheduled to start, Neo-Taiwan was in a bind. Their Gundam fighter, the Taiwanese best pretty boy, Ora Shihuang, was struck with a terrible case of acne. Of course, someone who was less than perfectly pretty couldn't hope to win the 16th Gundam fight, and the Taiwanese were damn tired of losing. Who could blame them-the best score they had had in the last four fights was 42nd. They immediately made provisions to hold a beauty contest-oh, and the winner had to be able to take down a man merely known as 'Ching', as a mere matter of protocol to ensure they could fight."
"Unfortunately, turnout was poor. Pretty as the top were (as judged by a fangirl panel), they weren't very pretty after Ching got done with them. Things looked pretty ugly, no pun intended..."
"This is the beginning of a human story, of love and loss, friendship and betrayal. A story that shows the best and worst of the human nature, a story of regaining what was lost, of pride and honor."
Stalker casually flicks the monocle out of his eye and sheds his jacket in the same fashion as he did twelve years ago. "Well, enough chit-chat. Let's get this thing started! Gundam Fight, ready, GO!"

"I shouldn't have gotten up today."
Hua Maikou, resident of a patch of land on Earth sometimes claimed by the colony Neo-China, currently parked in Taiwan, pulled out a stick of pocky to munch on as one of the Gundam Fight administrators continued to whine to him. "Look, I'm not one to say I told you so, but..."
"Mister Maikou, this is serious. None of our candidates have been able to even take down Ching-Yu."
Maikou stifled a groan. "Great. Do you have any idea how insufferable he's going to be? The ego trip will never cease."
"Mister Maikou!" the admin wailed. "There are bigger problems than THAT!"
"You only think so because you don't live with him," Maikou comment dryly.
The admin paused long enough to sniffle in an attempt for sympathy before pressing his next point. "There's the fangirl judges, too. They've all vanished. Fangirls...whose idea was that, anyway?"
Maikou whistled innocently.
"Mister Maikou! Surely not!"
Maikou debated baiting him some more when his younger brother rounded the corner. Thickly built and sullen faced, Hua Chingyu was normally a boy somewhat lacking in attractiveness. Today, though, with blood smeared on him from a split lip, a black eye, several prominent bruises beginning to appear, and the sneer of one who has had his ego wounded, any and all of his Hua charm was lost.
The admin gaped. "M-Mister Chingyu, you lost? Who was it? Was it a pretty boy?"
Ching's response was a snarl as he brushed past the two. Maikou raised an eyebrow. "Hm, that was interesting. Let's take a look around for our fangirls, shall we? I'll check this way."
"I'm so glad you're finally taking this seriously," the admin said as Maikou walked off.
Maikou walked down the halls of the old building that had once been someplace important in a ruined city called Taipei in the past. Now, it was being used as the base for Neo-Taiwan's 16th Gundam Fight Committee. Taiwan had never really recovered from the ruin marking the beginning of the FC era; it was populated mostly by a few villages here and there scratching out a living.
How Yaochin, aka Mama Yao and Maikou's only parent, had thought there was money to be made out here was beyond the young Chinese adult. But when Mama Yao smelled money, the whole family of her and the two brothers packed up and moved. By hook or crook, she had managed to grab a good job as committee manager; she was actually quite good at it, and everyone under her had learned early on that they'd better drink their milk every day. Now all that was left was for Maikou and Chingyu to find jobs. Maikou had been thus far unsuccessful, which annoyed him; someone with a double major in computer science and electrical engineering who was currently in the middle of a medical degree should be able to find something, but no. And tuition had to be paid somehow. Feh, Taiwan really was a dead place, Maikou thought to himself.
His thoughts were disturbed by the sound of running water. Curious, he traced the sound to the bathroom and casually opened the door.
Leaning against the wall was a young Asian man. He was dressed casually in a maize-colored sweatshirt with a sky-blue shirt underneath and darker blue shorts, with black Chinese-style shoes finished the outfit. In his hands was a thin katana, forged more in the style of a European foil, which he was polishing meticulously. He had raven black, long, flowing, thick, silky hair that could be described with another half a page of adjectives. His dark blue, almond-shaped eyes could charm echidnas out of their eggs when he smiled. His skin was flawless, his manner gentle. He was attractive, he was extraordinarily effeminite, a bishounen among bishounen. His name, Makigawa Shun.
Maikou eyed the other bemusedly. "You're late. Where were you?" he inquired.
Shun eyed his sword. Satisfied that it was disinfected to his liking, he slid it back into his belt. "Fighting something...ugly."
Maikou held back a snort of mirth at Shun's blunt description of his younger brother. "Well, now we know where the fangirls went."
Shun let out a groan. "Why is it that every time I visit you, you're surrounded by crazies?"
"That's not true!" Maikou protested.
"What about last time with the slash authors?" Shun challenged.
"Aw, c'mon, they weren't even interested in you in that way."
"And what about the time before with the trigger-happy bodyguards? I almost lost an arm!"
"You did not, and that was just a misunderstanding."
"And what about the time before that with the noodle-"
"Okay, you win!" Maikou said hurriedly.
Shun made a 'hmph' sound and brushed at the thick bangs framing his face. Maikou produced a box of pocky and offered Shun a stick, taking one for himself. "'S good to see you again," he said, the pocky stick hanging out of his mouth like some cute Asian parody of a hillbilly.
Shun opened his mouth to reply when the sound of running footsteps thudded outside the bathroom door. Shun winced. "Please don't let it be them again."
Maikou tilted his head to the side. "I don't hear any cries of 'WAI WAI WAI!', so I think you're safe. Hold on a tick." He poked his head out the door. "Oh, wait, it's just panicked managers. Hey, guys? You can stop running now. Crisis over."
"What are you involved in now that you're in the middle of Taiwan, anyway?" Shun asked.
"Explain in a bit. Right now, I have to pacify some people." Maikou went out the door. Curious, Shun followed.
"What do you mean, the crisis is over?" one of the administrators was whining to Maikou. "We still haven't found the-oh, my."
Shun closed the door and turned around to discover all the men were staring at him. He sweatdropped. Oh, no, not this again. "Please tell me you guys are straight," he said nervously.
One of the administrators ventured a question. "Are...are you a man?"
Shun sighed. Maikou let out a roar of laughter. "Yes, gentlemen, he is indeed a man. Shun, I told you you needed to cut your hair."
"I am not cutting my hair."
"You know this man, Mister Maikou?" one asked.
"We're distant relatives," Shun explained.
"He's my fourth cousin's brother in law's great aunt's grandson," Maikou added.
"...What he said."
"Did you really beat Master Chingyu?" another asked.
Shun sighed again. "He started it. I was going to let him off easy this time, but he just kept persisting..."
"Well, whatever. This is great! We're saved!" one of the men exclaimed.
There was an impromptu cheer. Shun and Maikou blinked confusedly as another man eagerly pumped Shun's hand. "You will do it, won't you? That's why you came, isn't it?"
Shun tried to free his hand. "Well, I do what I can to help...now what is it we're talking about?"
"Being the Neo-Taiwanese Gundam Fighter, of course!"
Shun stopped mid-blink. "...Eh?"
"...Eh?" Maikou echoed, then laughed. "Guys, you have the wrong idea here. Shun's not a contestant, he just came to visit my family."
The men wilted. "But if we don't find a Gundam Fighter, Mama Yao will yell at us..."
"Well, that would be your problem. Right, Shun?" Maikou turned cheerily to the Spot Formerly Known as Where Shun Was Standing to discover a nice vacant space. The other was already several feet down the hall. "Aw, shit. Shun, wait up!" He ran after the younger boy and caught him by the arm. "You can't leave yet, you just got here."
"Maikou, I am a soldier of love, not a mercenary. I don't go around in two tons of nice metaly death gutting people for someone else."
"Yes, yes, I know that, but-"
One of the men looked down the hall. "Ah! Mama Yao!" He waved cheerily. "Look, we found a Gundam Fighter! Please don't yell at us..."
"Aw, double shit. We're caught now," Maikou groaned.
Maikou's mother grunted and nodded at the administrators, who meekly moved out of her way as she approached Maikou and Shun. Shun was tall, but the behemoth of a Chinese woman towered over him like a child over an insect. "Hi, mom," Maikou said nervously.
She looked Shun up and down with a critical eye. "You fighter?" she said slowly in her broken English.
A massive sweatdrop formed on the back of Shun's head. Maikou inwardly winced. Yep. I shouldn't have gotten up today, after all.

"I don't know how I got talked into this. How did I get talked into this? Explain to me how I let myself be talked into this," Shun ranted. The two were walking outside to the hangar, where the Neo-Taiwanese Gundam was being kept.
Maikou listened bemusedly. "You met my mother, that's how."
"I know, I know," the taller groaned. "How do you say no to your mother, anyway?"
Maikou threw back his head and laughed. "That's what I've been trying to figure out for 26 years!"
"That's completely unreassuring."
"You get used to it." Maikou stopped next to the largest building and tried a door. Seeing it wasn't locked, he nodded. "Ah. Ora must be here already. C'mon in, don't be shy or anything."
Maikou entered and Shun followed him in. The giant robot taking up the majority of the hangar immediately caught his attention; indeed, it was rather hard to miss. It was cast in the shape of a human male, complete with a thick head of green hair (Shun idly wondered what in the world it was made of). The metal was painted a rosy skintone with paneling to mimic a man's chest across the torso, Shun noted with some exasperation. The armor pieces on the limbs, as well as the pelvic armament, were dyed a nicely aestetic magenta. Perched on the shoulder under the curve of the shoulder armor, tinkering with something on the neck, was a wiry, black haired Chinese boy.
"This is the Bishounen Gundam," Maikou stated.
"...Bishounen Gundam?"
"Yeah, I know, it's a Japanese name and we're in Taiwan, but the looney who made it named it, and, well, eh. Anyway, this is your two tons of metaly death." He paused. "Well, actually, it's 5.7 tons of metaly death. But that's only the base weight of the chassis, if you add the weapons and fuel and ammunition, it's more toward 16 tons of metaly death."
"Cute," Shun said dryly. "Now, does the guy on the shoulder come standard, or is this a limited edition thing?"
"Nuh? Oh, that's Ora. Oi, Ora!" Maikou waved to the boy on the shoulder. The boy waved back, and after shutting the neck panel, proceeded to slide a rope to the ground, landing neatly in front of the two.
"Shun, I'd like you to meet Ora Shihuang. Ora, this is Shun Makigawa, the replacement."
"I prefer 'soldier of love'," Shun said dryly.
Ora raised an eyebrow. "Okay, Mr. Soldier. Call me Ora."
"Ora was the fighter, til he took ill," Maikou explained.
"He doesn't seem very ill to me," Shun muttered to Maikou.
The other looked pitying. "It's a bad case of acne."
"...You kid."
"So," Ora said, eyebrow still raised, as if he'd secretly glued it in place while Shun wasn't looking, "I'm guessing you're some kinda hotshot if you took down Mr. Muscles. What's your style?"
"Ryuha Do-Pyeong-On-Su," Shun replied with a small bow.
Ora made an aggravated face. "Keep it to Cantonese or English, if you don't mind. Sorry I can't be as perfectly artistic and literate."
Shun sensed he'd stepped on a nerve. "I beg your pardon. School of the Way of the Placid Water, if you prefer. I'm also self-trained in the foil."
"See, that helps," Maikou said. "Too bad he doesn't have training in a whip."
Shun looked at him. "I do have some training with a whip."
"Why couldn't you mention that when I asked?" Ora said, a bit tensely.
"I didn't think it was important," Shun said, blinking. "It was a one-time thing, had to do with a family I helped out in southern Laos...Why?"
"The Gundam's armed with foil and whip, that's why," Ora said. He turned toward the Gundam, paused, and turned back to Shun. "By the way, you have had some time in a Gundam, right?"
"Actually...no," Shun said.
Ora merely stared at him, as if the King of Hearts had just come in for a poetry recital. Maikou winced. "He kinda got suckered into this, Ora...he wasn't actually in the competition."
Ora turned a positively icy glare to Maikou, who wilted under the look. Shun mentally sweated a bit, fearing he had just found a young, male Yaochin. "Look, he's pretty, he whomped Ching. It's not my decision."
"Neither is it mine," Shun piped up.
"Arrrgh!" Ora turned away, pulling at his hair. "What did I do to deserve such misfortune? Big brother...big-big brother...really big brother watching me from the heavens...eldest brother...why have I been so forsaken?"
Shun gave Maikou a curious look. "What's with him?"
"Ora's the youngest of five brothers," Maikou explained. "His older brothers were all Gundam Fighters in the last four Gundam Fights. His second oldest brother died in the 13th Gundam Fight, and the others all disappeared after their respective Gundam Fights, so no one knows where they are or if they're even alive. Ora was the favorite to win the Gundam Fight...it runs in the family, y'see. But then he took ill."
"Oh, by the four Heavenly Kings..."
"Maikou, you've got to be kidding me. Whose idea was this? Can't we get a second opinion?" Ora demanded, pausing in his ritual prayer.
"I agree, can't we get a replacement replacement?" Shun asked.
"Well, you could take it up with my mom..."
"It's hopeless," Ora and Shun sighed.
Ora looked back at Shun, looking him up and down wearily. "Well, at least you've got strong bones, right?"
"Yes...why?" Shun said with a terrible sense of foreboding.
Ora cocked a thumb at the Gundam. "Just climb in. You can leave your clothes in there."
"Leave my..."
"As in, you take them off your body and put them aside," Ora said sarcastically.
"Why am I removing my clothes?" Shun gave Maikou a look. "This has to do with the slash authors again, doesn't it."
Maikou burst into laughter. Ora wasn't amused. "Because the suit's skintight, moron. Now are you going to do this or not?"
"Aww, Shun doesn't want to show off his smooth, finely muscled bottom," Maikou giggled.
Ora gave him a disgusted look. "I don't know you."
Shun glared down his nose at Maikou as well. "That's rude and totally uncalled for."
"Eh, stop your whining and get in the cockpit."
The inside of the cockpit was...gray. Shun blinked at the round and completely detailless area as he placed his clothing in a neat pile to the side. "Now what?"
Ora's voice came from outside the Gundam, muffled by the layers of metal and wiring. "Look up."
Shun did so. The ceiling seemed to be falling down on him. "What is this?" he said tensely, glaring at the section of the wall he suspected the other boy was behind.
"It's just the suit-up sequence," Ora replied. "Shut up and relax, will you? You might as well get used to it."
"I will not relax," Shun snapped back. "Shut this...thing...down now. I don't care what Mama Yao says, this is NOT part of the deal!"
Maikou's voice came from outside. "Shun, what's your problem? What's up?"
He took a deep breath. Maikou had paused the MT suitup from the outside and was looking at Ora with a puzzled expression. Ora shrugged back, expression still rather disgusted. Shun stood up, grimacing as his head pressed against the fabric stretched across the top. "All right. All right already, just get the stupid thing over with."
His breath hissed out as the fabric tightened over his head. "I told you to relax already, dunce," Ora instructed. "You're gonna snap a bone."
"Like THAT is supposed to make me relax?" Shun snapped back. The fabric popped over his head, snapping into place around the collar which locked around his neck. Shun resisted the urge to pull at it like a trapped animal. Having his head free relaxed him a bit, and he turned his eyes upward, trying to ignore the snapping sensations running down his body that made him wonder if it was his bones snapping and the pain just hadn't hit his brain yet.
"Now lift your feet." Ora had stepped into the cockpit, leaning on the center ring. Shun snapped back into reality and lifted one foot, then the other. After a bit of resistance, the fabric snapped, wrapping snugly around his foot.
"See? That wasn't so bad," Ora said cheerfully.
Shun muttered something about masochists before turning back to Ora. "Now what happens?"
"The system starts up," Ora said as a viewscreen popped up, obscuring his face. Shun looked around as the screens flashed up, displaying information: some warmup shots from the outside camera, others with charts displaying exactly how his system was running at the moment.
A cool female voice came from overhead, speaking in Cantonese. Shun winced as he realized he had no idea what the voice was saying; he only spoke some Mandarin. He made a mental note to ask Ora about it-he would certainly know.
"Well, looks like the system is working fine," Ora sighed as he moved back to step out. Shun twanged the antenna on his shoulder idly.
"Okay, Shun, how can you hear me now?" Maikou's face appeared on a screen in front of Shun. "I'm on the console outside. Normally your support crew, namely Ora, will be addressing you from here, telling you if anything's wrong, etc."
Ora's voice appeared in the background. "The system'll take a minute to get synchronized to you...okay. Try something."
"Like?"
"I don't care...Wave. Pick your nose. Do the Macarena for all I care."
Shun ran a hand through his hair as he looked around. The panoramic screen showed him old wooden wall and more old wooden wall. He looked down, and the camera view tilted down to show the platform Ora and Maikou were perched on. The latter waved merrily. I think he's enjoying this too much.
"All right, you should have the basic idea, that it moves how you do, blah blah. Don't ask how it works. Anyway, the way you activate the..." Ora began talking rapidly in Mandarin.
Shun had a blank look, something rather amusing to see. "Um, Ora, I'm not very fluent in Cantonese. Can't you switch back to English?"
Ora paused in his recitation and blinked at Shun. "Wait. You can't understand Cantonese?"
"I'm afraid not. I do understand some Mandarin..."
Ora merely stared at the screen. "He doesn't speak Cantonese," he repeated aloud.
Maikou tried to sneak away. "I was meaning to tell you about that fact. Really."
A hand shot out and grabbed the elder by the collar. "Guess what? I kind of figured that one out. Do you realize how SCREWED we are now?"
Maikou tried to pry Ora's fingers off his collar. "It's just a little language barrier..."
"A LITTLE language barrier? You idiot, the whole thing's WIRED in Cantonese!"
"Surely not. Wasn't the nut who made it Japanese? Surely it has a Japanese option if nothing else." Silence. "English?" More silence. "Hoo boy."
Ora turned Maikou around to face him. "Guess what, Maikou. Your job hunt is over. Because you are going to be devoting your free time to reprogramming this goddamned hunk of junk into English." Pause. "Or Japanese. It's really your choice."
"But...why me?" Maikou whimpered.
"If you don't like it, you can take it up with your mother," Ora said with a positively evil gleam in his eye. "Though I'm sure she'll be quite happy to know you finally have a job."
Maikou slumped, defeated. Ora turned back to the console, where Shun was watching him with a positively baffled look. "Nevermind him. Now where were we?"
Shun opened his mouth to reply when Ora turned away from the screen. A young technician had just burst through the hangar door yelling. "Ora-san! Taihen!"
"By the gods, moron, how many times have I told you, English or Cantonese! None of your Japanese crap. Now try again, blockhead," ORa spat at the flustered technician.
"Well, sir, there's a Gundam Fighter outside in his Gundam, demanding a fight."
Ora blinked and turned around before letting out a spout of profane Chinese. Maikou looked at him. "What is it? What's going on?" Shun's voice came from the console.
Maikou looked at the console uneasily, then moved into view. "Hey Shun, ready for your first practice run?" he said cheerily. "There's a guy outside raring for a fight."
"Excuse me? What?" Maikou moved away before Shun could question him further.

"'Ey, pritty boi!"
The Gundam outside the hangar pointed a thick finger at the hangar. The Aniki Gundam was also cast in the shape of a person, but taking the exact opposite approach from the Bishounen Gundam; the Aniki Gundam was the very image of a steroid-pumped bodybuilder, with peach-colored muscle bulging everywhere, topped off with nipple rings. It moved into another overly macho pose as the voice of the pilot boomed out.
"Ah, th' manly Ernaldorf Shuwarseneggar, challenge you to a Gundam Fight, girly-boy!" The Gundam Fighter from Neo-Austria was just as pumped as his Gundam, and had achieved some level of fame as an intercolonial actor. "Yo, flabbio, git yer weempy tush out here! Or is yer mommy tyin' your heir or somethin'?"
Ora paused in alternating profanity with another prayer to his brothers to groan. Maikou looked at him. "You know of him?"
"Heard of him. I heard he might be coming out this way. I was hoping to get out of here quick enough to avoid him," Ora moaned.
"Why out here? Aren't there enough weaklings he can go pester?" Maikou wondered.
"I don't know! Maybe he doesn't like bishounen."
Maikou looked back out to the Gundam posing outside. "I believe it."
"What's going on? Who's outside?" Shun's voice came from the display on the control center. Apparently he hadn't worked out how to turn on the external speakers yet. "Can't we tell him to come back tomorrow?"
"He seems to be rather persistent," Maikou said calmly. "Better just go out and meet him."
"Maikou, cousin, you realize I have NO idea how to run this thing, right?"
"It's simple, it moves as you do. Just pretend the guy outside is Ching or something."
"Easier said than done..." Shun muttered as the Bishounen Gundam moved forward and out the door. "I'm a soldier of love, not some brawling brute..."
His voice trailed off as he spotted the monstrosity outside. His first reaction was to find something to gouge out his eyes with. Lacking some sort of tool, he said with a note of disbelief, "Tell me someone did not actually go to any effort to make that."
"So some colonies don't have your aestetic sense. Don't blame me."
"I'm going to throw up, Maikou. I really am."
The Aniki Gundam threw a few final poses before staring down its 'nose' at the Bishounen Gundam. "What kind of Gundam is THAT? Sure there's a man inside, or is it just some girly girl? C'mon, ya weemp! Ah'll send you cryin' back to yer mommy!"
The Bishounen Gundam stood silent for a while, so long that Ernaldorf considered throwing out his challenge (and a few more insults) when it moved, bringing up its hands and cracking the knuckles on each one.
"Maikou?" Shun's voice came over the display speaker.
"Yo?"
"Don't worry, I won't have to pretend anything. This will be much more enjoyable than harassing your snotty brother. Now, tell me if this thing has a sword."
"It has a dagger. Ora has to translate the attack names-"
"Correction, YOU have to translate them, AND reprogram this whole thing," Ora's voice interjected in the background.
"I stand corrected. Anyway, the command to extend the dagger to sword form is voice activated, so you won't be able to use it yet. There's also a whip stored on your right hip, but the activation for its special attack is also voice activated-"
"Screw the special attacks then."
"It's about time yer fin'ly decided ta take what's comin' to yer, girly!"
"Sorry to keep you waiting." Shun's voice was calm and even, tinged with a hint of sarcasm. "I, Ai no senshi Ryuha To-Heion-Mizu no Makigawa Shun, accept your challenge! Gundam Fight!"
"Ready..." Ernaldorf bellowed, sending the Aniki Gundam forward.
"GO!" Shun finished as he charged it in return.

All around the world, displays and monitors went off, signalling the inevitable to each Gundam Fighter team. From space, if one was watching, they could see the pole satellites light up, thick red beams springing out and connecting each pole with the others, to form a giant ring around the whole of the earth. The Gundam Fight had officially begun.

The Aniki Gundam charged forward like an enraged anteater. The Bishounen Gundam moved towards the opponent as well, but then gracefully stepped to the side, leaving just a foot out to send the Aniki Gundam tumbling into an undignified heap. Ernaldorf roared with masculine rage, charging again, prepared for a side strike. This time, the Bishounen Gundam fell flat, grabbing the Aniki Gundam by the arms and using its power and speed to flip it full over the Bishie Gundam's head. Shun whirled gracefully to his feet, the dust settling as he stood near the Aniki Gundam, seemingly casual but still on guard. "Well well, sir Ernaldorf, you seem to be all bark and no bite," Shun smirked.
"Yor auskin' for it, flaubby," Enarldorf growled, "Now yo'll feel th' pein auf my maanliness, girlie-boy!" With that, the Aniki Gundam protruded its chest and, promptly, its pair of 'nipples' shot out like electric missiles towards the Bishounen Gundam. "-Check Aut 'Zis Bod!"
Whoa! This just got a bit more serious! Shun pushed off the ground, soaring gracefully over the Nipple Ring Missiles. He allowed himself a quick sigh as they passed underneath, then sucked in a breath as he realized what was behind him.
The hangar! There are people in there!
"Holy shit! Where does that shithead think he's aiming?" Ora's voice yelped in the background.
Shun grabbed at his right hip, hoping Maikou had been right. A dark pink thin line of energy appeared in his hand. Midair, the Bishounen Gundam grabbed its whip, the monofilament glistening in the light as it unfurled. With a flick of the wrist, the whip snaked out, shooting through the rings of the two missiles and snagging them.
They're safe-
The electric modules in the Nipple Ring Missiles activated, sending volts up the whip into the main body. Shun let out a cry as the electric current was emulated all over his trace suit, numbing his arm and filling him with pain.
If I don't do something quick, this thing'll short circuit-or I'll lose all feeling in my arm! Shun pulled back on the whip, the Nipple Rings sliding off. Being released, they began to jet forward again, looking for another target.
Don't think so! Making a wild guess, Shun grabbed at his left hip with his half-numbed right arm, switching the whip to the left. A green bolt appeared in his hand. Shun wasted no time and leapt, slashing out with the dagger. The two Nipple Ring Missiles fell to the ground...or rather, the four halves that had been two Nipple Ring Missiles dropped to the ground. Shun landed in a crouch, the dagger dropping from his half-numbed hand.
"What does that asshole think he's DOING?" Ora yelled no one in particular. "That could've killed us! If this playboy doesn't take this sideshow freak down, I'm gonna pound him myself!"
Ernaldorf wasn't idling around. Almost as soon as the Bishounen Gundam touched down, the Aniki Gundam body-slammed it from behind, knocking Shun roughly to the ground. The Aniki Gundam placed a hefty foot on the other's head, pressing down.
"Kusoooo! Why have the gods abadoned Neo-Taiwan?" Ora moaned, looking ready to beseech his big brothers again.
Maikou pushed him aside and leaned over the console. "Shun! You've got to get his foot off your head!"
His head felt as if it was caught in a vice, and being face down he had no leverage to grab the Aniki Gundam. "Yeah, I was planning on that," he managed to bite out sarcastically.
"No, you don't get it...if the head goes, Neo-Taiwan is disqualified."
"Is that all you can think about?" Shun grumbled. He threw his arm inward, the whip soaring over his head and wrapping itself around the dropped beam dagger. He yanked back, and the dagger flipped through the air, embedding itself in the Aniki Gundam's thigh. Ernaldorf roared with pain, releasing the pressure on the Bishounen Gundam's head, and Shun pressed up, knocking the Aniki Gundam back a few steps as Shun got back on his feet. His right arm dangled at his side.
Ora, snapped out of his furious mode for a moment, rapidly typed something into the console. On the screen, a diagnostic of the Bishounen Gundam came up. "The arm didn't suffer any short outs, why isn't he moving it?"
"His arm must be numbed from the electricity," Maikou pointed out.
"Great, as if this couldn't get any worse, his sword arm's gone!"
Maikou shrugged. "So?"
Ora fell over.
The two Gundams faced each other, paused for a moment. Shun panted for air, trying to get his right arm to respond to his mental commands. The Aniki Gundam pulled the beam dagger out from its thigh and tossed it aside. The weapon flew through the air, crashing into a building.
"Hey!" Shun yelled. "Watch where you throw that! There are people in there!"
"Har har har!" came the reply. "Ain't yer just the girly pacifist! Yer gunna go cry t' yer mama now that Ah hurt the poor widdle building?"
I can't believe this! Doesn't he care at all about the fact he could've just killed a few hundred people? Even as his righteous anger began to boil, an idea began to form in his head. "If the head's gone, he's out? Couldn't you have told me this sooner, Maikou?" he muttered quietly.
If I can just hold out a little longer...
Nauw I haf girly-boy, Ernaldorf thought with the trademark stoicness he displayed in the "The Devil Gundamator" movie; for some reason unknown, even his thoughts had that Austrian accent and the movie star was proud of it. The Check Aut 'Zis Bod attack, Ernaldorf could see, had done some damage to the feminine Gundam Pilot 'nerd' who was actually, in his opinion, dumb enough to catch those missiles, and now all Ernaldorf had to do was pursue the victory. Ernaldorf then grinned; he decided otherwise, and since he had time, he wanted to have a little fun taking girly-boy to school first - apparently like all egomaniacs, politicians and presidential candidates, of course, Ernaldorf felt the need to laugh at others...and to taunt.
Ernaldorf strode proudly toward the crouched Bishounen Gundam, where Shun was trying to regain his breath, and the feeling in his arm. "See what I can doo?" Ernaldorf's voice blared over the external speakers. "Yor flaubby ars caun't match up to 'zis-" Ernaldorf paused for a dramatic yet overly machoistic pose, "An' yor know why? 'Cause Yor too flaubby, naerdie boy!"
"Move it, Shun!" Ora yelled over the comm, but it was too late. The Aniki Gundam had seized the Bishounen Gundam by one arm, and with his free hand, Ernaldorf began poking the Bishounen Gundam repeatedly in the stomach.
"Cut that out!" The Aniki Gundam had him by the good arm, and the arrogant actor's attitude, not to mention the repeated jabbing in the stomach which was getting very annoying, were starting to rub Shun the wrong way. Crap! Well, if I can't use my arms... Throwing his balance to one side, Shun swiftly brought up a foot before Ernaldorf could react.
The Neo-Asutrian Fighter's eyes bugged out as he let go of the Bishie Gundam's arm, dropping to his knees and wheezing. Ora and Maikou, and indeed every male watching, winced in sympathy. "Er, sorry," Shun said rather apologetically, putting a hand behind his head. "I was actually aiming for your chin..."
Ernaldorf got back to his feet, still wheezing a bit. "Nauw yor'f don' it, naerdie boy. Time to paund yor sorry ars to the graund!"
Shun grinned, dropping into a ready stance. "Can you back that up, meat popsicle?"
"This is impossible," Ora groaned from the console. At least the Bishounen Gundam appeared to be well-built; it'd taken very little damage so far. Rather, it was the pilot's body that was failing on him... "Dammit, Maikou, tell that long-haired stuffed-shirt to pull his act together!"
Maikou looked up from the connected laptop, a stick of strawberry pocky in his mouth. He gave his cousin a look. "Look, you wanna translate?" he said around the pocky.
"No, but-"
Maikou rolled his eyes. "The thing about the Do-Pyeong-On-Su wasn't a bluff, you know. He knows what he's doing."
"The who-what-which?"
Maikou adjusted his glasses, which he had put on to see the computer screen better. "The Way of the Placid Water. It's the Korean martial arts school he was trained at. He was the master's number one student, you know."
"Great. Japanese, now Korean...can things get any MORE language-confused around here?"
Shun's annoyed voice came out of the console speaker. "I heard that part about a long-haired stuffed-shirt, you know."
Ora ran back to the console and leaned over it. "What are you doing already? If you're as good a fighter as Maikou claims you are, then finish him already."
"Slight problem. I can't use my right arm, remember?"
"So what?" Maikou said from the floor. "You're left handed."
"...What?" Ora yelled.
"My ears!" Shun yelped. "Keep your voice down!"
"You mean that's not even your GOOD arm that's down?" the Taiwanese boy roared.
"Keep your shirt on, Ora. I have an idea to take this guy down, but I need both hands. I'm buying myself a little time, okay?"
While this chat was going on over the Bishounen Gundam private audio channel, the Aniki Gundam, sensing weakness in its prey, pressed its opponent with the "Au'll See Yor In Bed!" attack. The gundam turned its rear to the opponent, waggling its rear until a small whirlwind whipped up. "..." was Shun's response. "By the gods, that's degrading..."
The whip curled loosely around his good arm, Shun leapt back and to the side, retreiving his beam dagger and dodging the whirlwind of the Aniki Gundam's assault simultaneously. He's all brawn. I can outsmart him...as long as I last long enough to do so.
"Yo, fluabbio!" Ernaldorf's voice assaulted Shun's ears. "Had enuaff?"
"What's the matter, meat popsicle?" Shun parried verbally. "Carrying around all that baggage tiring you out so you just want me to give up?"
Stung, Enarldorf glared at the Bishounen Gundam. "Ah'm takin' yor ta school, flaubby!"
"Flabby this, flabby that...doesn't that line ever get old?" The fingers on Shun's right hand twitched; he was beginning to recover the feeling in them. He grinned.
Maikou looked up from his preliminary work out the open doors to the battle. From the monitor panel, he could hear the verbal exchange between the two fighters. It seemed like Shun had regained the psychological advantage, maddening his opponent into making a mistake.
"Thaut's it, schoulgirl," Ernaldorf retorted weakly as he retreated into his intimidating macho pose. Shun didn't seem affected. Ernaldorf strained his overtaxed brain for a comeback. "Too baud dar's no Auscar aword for th' best man-teets, femmy, then yor've waun somethin'..."
"Man...?" Shun muttered the immensely unpleasant thought in his mind only to find that he had also happened to speak that thought out as well.
"Yor haurd me right! Man-teets! Femmy! Sheemail!"
Maikou could practically hear Shun fuming over the comm. He sighed. "So much for psychological advantage."
"Get that meat popsicle, Shun! Kick his ass!" Ora yelled into the comm. He looked at Maikou. "You say something?"
"Nah. Forget it."
Shun glared at the opponent. "All right, musclebrain, this boy's about to take YOUR rear to school."
"Thaut's what you think." Enarldorf's voice turned serious. The air around them suddenly cleared into a very serious pair of battle auras. Shun flexed his arm and found it working to his satisfaction. All of a sudden, Ernaldorf's response was to raise both the Aniki Gundam's arms and...give Shun the finger, in all its lengthy, insulting glory. Shun, who was expecting a real attack, almost fell over. "I've wasted 'naugh taume on yor sorry arse, femmy, an' its time yor sorry arse took auf - so Shove Auf, Flaubby!"
Both the 'fingers' Ernaldorf gave him suddenly began cackling and charging with a bright burst of lightning that arced around the tips of the middle fingers and, with what seemingly would be an immense amount of both emotional and a lot of physical hurt, began flailing in mad lightning bolts all around the arms. Before Shun could register, the next attack came; Shun barely had time to back away before the very hurt-a-lot lightning arced out of the fingertips and towards the Bishonen Gundam in a bright burst of very-hurting light.
Shun leapt back, ducking and dodging the repeated jabs the Aniki Gundam was making at him. "What's the mautter, girly?" Ernaldorf taunted between jabs. "Or are you gonna run home to yor mummy, girly?"
"Shut up!" Shun yelled, charging the Aniki Gundam with both hands out and ready. The Aniki Gundam easily met the charge; it way overclassed the lighter Bishounen Gundam in power, and with one arm threw the Bishounen Gundam to the ground, the middle finger hoving in front of the Bishounen Gundam's face. "Naw I haf you, girly!"
Ora banged his head on a buttonless part of the console. "What the hellish kinda thinks is he thinking? A blind charge like that wouldn't work on a kitten! Surely he knew that thing's more powerfuler over the Bishounen Gundam. Maikou, which the hell is this guy?"
The older had popped his head up from the laptop for the last bit of the fight, observing. "Calm down, Ora, your English is getting wonky," Maikou said, putting a hand on his arm without taking his eyes off the fighters. "I think he's got something."
Inside the cockpit, Shun chuckled a little. "Sorry, meat popsicle," he said quietly as the Bishie Gundam yanked its arms apart, so they were straight out like some sort of makeshift crucifix.
Ernaldorf blinked as the middle finger of his hand in front of the Bishounen Gundam's face suddenly separated into pieces, dropping a few finger-bits onto the Bishie Gundam's chest. He blinked some more, then backed away to look at it, and his head flopped off.
The Bishie Gundam stood, as Shun ran a hand through his hair, the Bishounen Gundam mimicing the action through its shorter green hair. "I win," he said calmly.
Ora blinked repeatedly, then narrowed his eyes suspiciously, turning his head slightly. Sure enough, he could make out the slight glisten in the sunlight of the monofilament Pretty Whip as it was withdrawn off the Gundam's shoulders and hand.
Ernaldorf was in a state of numbed shock. "Now wait a meenite, dat's just impaussible!" he spluttered.
"It's not impossible," Ora snapped, butting in through the console's projection speakers. "It's a monofilament wire, it can cut through most anything...but most of the time the wire's too thin to make effective cuts without being energized. Unless, of course, you're stupid enough to let someone make a noose out of it and get the leverage to tighten the wire fast enough to slice through something..." Ora thumbed his eyelid at the now-headless Aniki Gundam and stuck out his tongue. "Baaaaaaaka."
"Whaud you say?" Ernaldorf demanded irately. Shun rolled his eyes, then reached out and casually pushed the Aniki Gundam, tipping it over and further damagaing the Austrian's ego.
Ora snorted. "Someone call the Neo Austria guys and get that guy out of here. I've got some minor damage to repair on the Gundam."
"Couldn't it wait til tomorrow or something?" Maikou said. "C'mon, this calls for a round of drinks!"
"I'm only 19, thankyouverymuch," Ora gritted out. He put his face close to Maikou's. "And YOU are going NOWHERE til you get those damnable attacks translated!"
Maikou sweatdropped, laughing nervously a bit. "Okay, so drinks are out. But c'mon, no one will attack us for a little while, and this work is killing me."
"Deal with it! It's not my fault that your damn relative doesn't speak Cantonese, or that your mother was the one that talked him into this." He spoke into the console. "Shun, park it back in the hangar. I've got some repairs to do, I'm sure."
Maikou shook his head as he watched the younger boy leave. "He has got to learn to stop sweating the small stuff," he murmured casually to himself. "His hair'll go gray before he's thirty." He shrugged and grabbed another stick of pocky as he continued his programming, adding the Japanese language functionality to the special attacks on top of the Cantonese. Phew. Adding a second language functionality was a lot more work than just overwriting the original language functionality, but eh. It might come in handy later on. A sudden thought occured to him.
"I'm gonna need a girl that speaks Japanese to replace the Cantonese system voice...and she's gotta have a cute voice, too. Hmm...attractive would be nice..."

Ora had a panel on the Bishounen Gundam's neck open and was halfway inside, some tool in his hand. Maikou was sitting on the catwalk where the console was, the laptop set aside for the moment and a bottle of sake on the card table next to him. He poured himself a small cup. "I know Ora hates this stuff, but you want some, Shun? It's been a while since we drank together."
"I would think so, considering I don't drink alcohol," the younger replied. He was sitting on the floor, idly polishing his foil. The weapon itself was a standard dueling foil, kept in remarkably good shape considering Shun had had it for about 10 years.
Maikou shrugged and took a sip. "Suit yourself. So, any ideas on what should be our next move?"
Shun looked up at him. "Next move? I barely know what my first move was."
Maikou grinned. "Taking down the first guy that showed up minutes after you stepped in the Gundam for the first time. Not too bad, eh, Ora?"
The boy in question shut the panel and walked over to the console, checking the system. Satisfied, he looked over at Maikou. "His inexperience shows," he said seriously. "You're pretty clever in a fight, but you were taking way too many risks. Like catching those missiles?"
"They would've plowed right into this building. And you still had crew in here," Shun pointed out concernedly. Ora opened his mouth to say something, then stopped, and Shun added, "Don't tell me you didn't think of that?"
He paused, then sighed. "Well, I thought of it when they were staring us in the face, that's for sure. But I'm not used to thinking about fighting in a populated zone. Which brings me to what I was going to say, I have an idea on what we should do next."
"Oh?" Maikou raised an eyebrow.
Ora leaned against the railing. "First off, we need to get the hell out of Taiwan. I'm betting even as we speak, some of the more powerful, or overconfident, countries are sending their Gundams our way. We've been on an upswing through the ranks since my brothers started piloting for our country...but we're still thought of as pretty weak. We finished last year in 42nd place...which means there are 41 countries out there that are confident they can kick us to Shanghai and back. And there's probably a lot of countries like Neo-Austria that fancy their chances against a newbie."
Shun snorted in mild amusement. "Just because I'm new to Gundams doesn't mean I'm new to fighting. They'll just have to learn the hard way, like that meat popsicle, whatshisname, Ernaldorf, did."
Ora let out a "heh" sound. Working on the Bishounen Gundam had calmed his mood somewhat. "Even with the Mobile Trace system, there are differences in piloting a Gundam and just fighting with your bare fists. You'll need some time to get used to it. Either way, hanging around here is a bad idea. It's basically setting us up as a target. And that means we could possibly get ganged up on, and I certainly don't like the odds for that."
Shun frowned. "Isn't that against the rules though?"
"Doesn't mean it won't happen," Ora said, face deadly serious. "The 15th Gundam fight four years ago was brutal. A lot of fighters died, Shun. Regulations and fair play were thrown out the window. You can't expect every country to now just do a 180 and be all nice and honorable in four years." Ora looked to the side. "My big brother was lucky he survived...but then he disappeared..."
Shun stood and put a hand on Ora's shoulder. "Hey, don't look so depressed. If your brother's anything like you, I'm sure he'd still be alive."
"You don't know anything," Ora said quetly.
Shun blinked. "Areh?" he said confusedly. Ora faced away from him, silent. Shun sensed that he had stumbled across some sensitive spot, some painful topic.
"It's just..." Ora pulled his arms tighter around his abdomen. "If he's really alive and okay, why hasn't he come to see me? Doesn't he know I'm worried about him?"
Shun frowned; he sensed somehow he wasn't being told something. Maikou cut in. "I'm sure he has a good reason, as do your other brothers, Ora. It might not be safe."
"Eh?" Both younger boys looked over at Maikou.
He shrugged. "Forget it. I'm a little tight." He took another sip of the sake. "Nicely fermented, this is. So, Ora, where were you intending to go?"
Ora snapped back into his thinking mode. "Right. I figure the best route will be to run through China, and possibly part of Russia, before looping back a bit and hanging around Asia. China and Russia're both large, deserted countries with plenty of places to have a fight without worrying about spectators, and since it's so bleak and deserted, we're less likely to run into other fighters. Which means we can spend more time training you inside the fighter without having to worry about you losing your head."
"Sounds good to me. Shun, any objections?" Maikou said.
He shrugged. "Hardly. Chances are I've been there anyway," he said with a grin. "So, when do we leave?"
"Tomorrow, if we can do it," Ora said seriously. "The equipment is portable, and I can service the Gundam by myself. We don't need the extra crew."
Maikou stood and collected the bottle to leave. "Well, I'm sure you two will have fun," he said merrily as he turned to leave.
Ora's scathing tone stopped him cold, with a visible wince. "And where do you think you're going?"
He sweatdropped and turned. "Well, I'd just be in the way of your training Shun and all, so..."
He trailed off as Ora stormed over to him and met his eyes with a dangerous look. "You, sir, are not leaving the vicinity of the Bishounen Gundam until you have those attacks translated, programmed, tested and retested, and 100% percent completely debugged. Understand?"
"Ora, you're cruel..."
Ora turned back to Shun. "You should probably get some rest. Piloting a Gundam for the first time is going to catch up with you pretty soon. Better be near a bed then."
"Heh. Okay."

The digital dials on the clock read 4:12 AM, providing the only light in the room apart from wan moonlight partially blocked by the curtain stirring slightly over the open window. The blanket had slipped off the side of the futon, a light-colored patch on the darkened floor. The only sound in the room was that of harsh breathing, in and out. A hand wiped the sweat-drenched face as the figure sitting up on the futon trie to bring himself out of the dream world back into reality.
"A dream..."
The dial flipped to 4:13.
"If only it were just a dream..."