In ancient times, the Mediterranean Sea was a superhighway of transport, allowing for trade and cultural exchange between Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Middle-East civilizations. Today, it became the battlefield for the latest confrontation in the Second Bloody Valentine War.
The Orb naval fleet, under the command of Yuna Roma Seiran and Captain Todaka, intercepted the ZAFT battleship Minerva as a gesture to honour the new alliance between the Orb Union and the Earth Forces. The Girty Lue also sent out a mobile suit squadron consisting of several Dagger L suits, Windams, the Abyss Gundam and the Chaos Gundam to attack the Minerva. Thanks to the intervention of the Archangel and their mobile suit force which consisted of the Gundam Astray Gold Frame, the Aile Strike Rouge and the Freedom Gundam, the Minerva got some much needed breathing room from the Earth Forces and from the Orb fleet.
Currently, Rey Za Burrel's ZAKU Phantom and Lunamaria Hawke's ZAKU Warrior were engaging what was left of the Orb mobile suit squadron since the Freedom had disabled a large number of Murasame suits upon its arrival. Cagalli continued to make a general broadcast to the Orb fleet, asking them to retreat and reconsider the path that they are taking. Sting Oakley had to retreat since the Freedom had easily sliced off the Chaos Gundam's arms and gunpods. Shinn Asuka would have liked to shove one of the Blast Impulse Gundam's missiles up the Strike Rouge's mechanical ass however he had his hands full with Auel's Abyss Gundam. His earlier attempt to throw a beam javelin into the cockpit of the Abyss Gundam after ejecting the Blast Silhouette pack had nearly worked but Auel's quick reflexes kicked in to save him at the last minute. "Shit!! Impulse to Minerva! I need the Sword Silhouette pack!!"
"Acknowledged!" replied the chirpy voice of Meyrin Hawke, the younger sister of Lunamaria Hawke.
As for Athrun and Kira, they were having a serious 'talk' regarding current events. While the Freedom blocked the Saviour's beam saber with its own, Athrun opened a channel to his friend. "Kira, you should go back to Orb!! Your presence on the battlefield is only bringing confusion!!"
"The whole situation is confusing, Athrun! And you're not making it any easier by siding with ZAFT on this! Cagalli's been crying because of this whole mess!!" responded Kira in a frustrated tone. Then he gave a heavy sigh. "You have no idea how much she's hurting over this."
The two suits exchanged a few blows with Kira getting the lucky shot and damaging Athrun's battery. Then he had the Freedom back off a bit to put some distance between itself and the Saviour.
"Dammit! I just wish we could go back to simpler times," murmured the pilot of the Saviour.
"Like that time on the Junius Nine resort during the Obsidian Abyss conflict? Yeah. And speaking of the resort, remember the promise that you made to me? Where I get to tap dance over you?" asked Kira in an eerily cheerful tone. Athrun's face went pale as did the Saviour Gundam itself (due to the Phase Shift armour deactivating). While Athrun hesitated, Kira quickly sliced off the Saviour's arms and had his mobile suit punch the back of the Saviour to damage the propulsion system. Then he had the Freedom drag the Saviour's remains on to a half-sunken Orb ship.
Athrun desperately tried to get back in contact with his friend. "KIRA, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!! DON'T DO THIS!!!" Kira hummed to himself as he selected a proper tap-dancing song. Then he had the Freedom hop on to the Saviour and do its dance routine to the song Hello My Baby!.
Hello, my baby
Hello, my honey
Hello, my ragtime gal
Send me a kiss by wire
Baby, my hearts on fire
If you refuse me
Honey, you'll lose me
Then you'll be left alone
Oh baby, telephone
And tell me I'm your own
It was over in less than a minute but the commotion caused every participant in the battle to stop and just stare (with the standard O_O anime expression) except for Kou who simply knew that this would eventually happen when Athrun made his choice. As the Freedom got itself out of its final pose, Kira frowned and made a general radio transmission. "What? No applause?"
"YOU BAKA!!! I can't believe you actually did that!!!" The Strike Rouge flew over to the Freedom and the crushed Saviour torso. "Get off Athrun, now!" Kira directed his mobile suit off of the crushed Saviour. "Athrun!! Are you alright?" Athrun simply whimpered in response over the radio.
"That was awesome, Kira! Bravo!!" Gold Frame began to clap both mechanical hands together.
"KOU, YOU'RE NOT HELPING!!!" Cagalli then had the Strike Rouge pick up the crushed Saviour torso and directed one of her mobile suit's hands to grab the Freedom's V-fin. "When we get back to the Archangel, we are going to have a talk!" And so the Strike Rouge dragged the Freedom by its V-fin like a person dragging their younger sibling by the ear back to the Archangel with a paralyzed Athrun Zala in her possession.
As the group retreated back to the legged ship, Shinn Asuka realized that the enemies that he had sworn revenge upon were making their escape. He tried to move after them but his propulsion wouldn't be able to catch up to them. He then spotted the remains of his opponent, the Abyss Gundam. Because of the damage it had taken from their battle, the self-destruct device was down, it had hardly any weapons left and it was stuck in mobile armour mode. Shinn directed his Sword Impulse Gundam to sit down on the Abyss and made a transmission to the enemy pilot. "You!! Follow those suits heading back to the Archangel!"
"Kiss my ass, you snot-eating bastard!!" barked back Auel.
"You want me to shove these swords up your ass?!? I know where to target your rear end in the cockpit!!" threatened the ZAFT ace pilot.
Auel had no choice but to obey since he was at a serious disadvantage. "You'll pay for this!!"
"Shut up and accelerate!!" The Sword Impulse Gundam combined its two swords and used it as an oar to gain more speed to hopefully catch up to the retreating enemy. "Get back here and fight me!!"
**********
Captain Talia Gladys simply blinked a few times over what she had just witnessed. "Well...that was certainly odd. Arthur, fire a signal flare! We need to regroup! I also want damage reports!" The moment of peace on the bridge on the Minerva took its leave as bridge officers got back to work.
"Captain!! Request permission to go rescue Athrun-sempai!!" exclaimed Luna. The bridge monitor was currently focused on Luna's ZAKU Warrior.
"I still need to get the Freedom and the Strike Rouge before they cause even more trouble!!" shouted Shinn.
"Get back here now! Your ZAKU's in no condition to mount a rescue operation! And the Impulse needs repairs as well," replied Talia.
"It's in okay shape!" Luna attempted to have her ZAKU flex its right arm but it fell off, thanks to the stress from the earlier battle. "...it's but a scratch."
"I told you all to retreat!! That's an order! Do you want to spend time in the brig?!?" Talia massaged her forehead.
"No, madam! I'll come back!" said Luna.
Shinn responded next. "I'll be back in a moment, Captain. I just need to do one more thing since it seems appropriate in this situation."
**********
Shinn then retuned his radio to transmit to the Archangel and the retreating Freedom, Gold Frame, Strike Rouge and Saviour. He had his Sword Impulse Gundam form a fist in its left hand before raising the left arm. As he said the next sentence, he shook the arm back and forth. "Hear me now, Freedom!! You have escaped our duel of fate but mark my words, we shall meet again!!" He frowned as he noticed his mobile suit's left arm not shaking as fast as he wanted it to. "Shake harder, you bucket of bolts!!" The mobile suit complied, shaking its left arm faster and harder before the arm snapped off. "GOD DAMMIT!!!"
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(Posted Sun, 24 Jul 2005 04:09)
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