Rain Mikamura and Allenby Beardsley (Mobile Fighter G Gundam)

The year was Future Century 61. In this future century, the Earth is the ring!

The United Colonies Federation eliminated traditional warfare with solders and armies through the establishment of the Gundam Fight. From their space colonies, the various members of the federation prepared for four years for an annual Gundam Fight, in which a humanoid-shaped Mobile Fighter, piloted by a skilled combatant known as a Gundam fighter, would compete in dueling competitions on the crumbling remains of Earth for the honor and glory of their nation... and, more importantly, for the right of their nation to lead the Federation for four years. The 13th Gundam Fight ended with the victory of Neo Japan's Domon Kasshu, pilot of the God Gundam. Perhaps even more significantly, it had seen the rise and fall of the Devil Gundam, twisted technology that had threatened life both on Earth and across space. The God Gundam's pilot, along with with talented fighters as part of the Shuffle Alliance, managed to thwart the ambitions of an evil mastermind.

In spite of the schemes that surrounded them, the fighters of the 13th Gundam Fight learned to express themselves through their fists and formed powerful connections. With that in mind, although peace had returned to the universe, none of those fighters were resting on their laurels, and none among them was so motivated to train as Neo Sweden's Allenby Beardsley.

Now eighteen years of age, Allenby had been the youngest competitor in the 13th Fight a year earlier, piloting the Nobel Gundam. While the shady actions of her government had initially **** her into the cockpit as a sort of child soldier, subjecting her to the behavior-altering Berserker System to illicitly win matches, Allenby had since been freed from that system and, with the help of her friend Domon, learned to fight on her own terms. After serving as part of the World Gundam Federation that repelled the Devil Gundam earlier, Allenby continued her training to serve Neo Sweden in the 14th Fight, determined to meet Domon in competition once again. Through the combination of her own efforts and the ongoing development and fine-tuning of Neo Sweden's machine, she was confident that the 14th would be hers to take. Of course, that was still a few years away...

As such, the higher-ups of Neo Sweden and Neo Japan had arranged for what they thought of as a technical demonstration by their newly developed Super Nobel Gundam and a representative of the governing Neo Japan. The two countries had been on publicly friendly relations, although the more cynical might call this more of an audit of Neo Sweden's technological progress... Regardless, because the purpose was to provide a benchmark of the Super Nobel Gundam's performance, Neo Japan had sent an old model... and an old friend, for that matter.

In a testing hangar on the colony of Neo Sweden, a Mobile Fighter nearly four stories tall was throwing hands with another of the same size. The Super Nobel Gundam had an eccentric appearance: nearly all Gundams were characterized by a vaguely humanoid shape, white armor over their mechanical components, and an immediately recognizable vented face-plate, hiding all of the mechanisms of the head except for cameras in the angular shape and position of eyes. While sharing those features, this was the only Gundam with a feminine, slender frame and the appearance of wearing a Japanese sailor uniform, specifically a colorful one as one might see in a magical girl cartoon. That might have been a publicity stunt back when the original Nobel was developed, but the Super Nobel retained this appearance by Allenby's request. The mobile fighter's headpiece was modified to include a long curtain of blonde, decorative "hair," with two orb-shaped "buns" containing twin fire-linked vulcan guns in red ornaments; a red bow-shaped emblem piece at the chest block; enormous blue rear skirt armor in the shape of a bow with thrusters at the end of the long, ribbon shaped tips; and a yellow-to-blue gradient pattern on its front skirt armor. Its signature energy ribbon whip was currently sheathed, and the Fighter used its fists alone.

The Mobile Fighter's punches were as swift and powerful as those of the martial artist inside, on an incredible scale. For anyone who'd never seen a Gundam fight, they'd likely be amazed at its human-like motions: this was made possible by the Mobile Trace system inside the machine. The cockpit of the machine was orb-shaped, with no seat at all. Surrounded by a 360-degree wall of cameras, the pilot stood clad in the latex-like pilot suit which the Mobile Trace system would cover them in. Using this system, the pilot could control the mobile suit as freely as their own body, while often utilizing electronic interfaces or panels to control weaponry.

This particular Gundam fighter cut a striking figure, a young, fit woman with light blue hair and sharp green eyes. Her latex pilot suit was blue at the arms, with a white stripe across each breast, red from the chest to the waist, and blue down the legs, except where one leg became red at the upper thigh. It was decorated with white, pronged cuffs at each wrist and ankle as well as the shoulders, which had the obvious benefit of engaging the Mobile Trace system, as well as a yellow bow and a white trim from the shoulders to that bow, with the obvious benefit of showing off her fair skin. Just as her arms worked like pistons, nearly too fast for the eyes to track, so too did the Super Nobel's.

Those punches were initially caught by Neo Japan's Rising Gundam. This was a far more traditional model of Gundam with a largely white and relatively masculine frame, with red torso armor and blue detailing. It was having a hard time keeping up for a number of reasons:

First, the Rising Gundam was nearly obsolete in terms of technology. It had originally been deployed to support the efforts against the Devil Gundam in the 13th fight, but had been badly damaged and was never fully repaired. Still, it was sound enough for this technical demonstration and, unsure of what to expect, its pilot had brought its full set of armaments: a naginata with a heated blade, a beam bow mounted in the left arm, and vulcans in the head armor and shoulders of the torso. Since its fighter had been told to defend, none of its weaponry was active, but it had recently switched from simply blocking punches with its hands to actually shielding itself. Its shoulder armor detached to form a shield on its left arm, which was now tanking blow after blow from the Super Nobel.

The second was the pilot. Although she had been the one to make the offer for a demonstration, that pilot felt it was now clearly becoming "sparring" instead of "demonstrating." Rain Mikamura wasn't a trained Gundam Fighter: she knew enough to operate a Mobile Fighter, but she was no martial artist, and typically relied on the Rising Gundam's weapon systems if **** to defend herself. The Neo Japanese team member was nearly twenty-one, with a bodacious body wrapped in an eye-catching pink pilot suit. It was decorated with black coloration in the style of very long gloves and boots and a one-piece swimsuit with a cut from the belly up to shoulder line. It was completed with gold cuffs and shoulder pieces matching Allenby's own, as well as questionable high heels. With her more stylishly-tamed fanned brown hair, her yellow headband, orb-shaped gold earrings, silver double-ringed necklace, and pink lipstick, Rain clearly hadn't shown up for a fight. "Enough, enough!" she finally complained, begging the Neo Sweden rep for a break. "For goodness' sake, Allenby, cut it out!"

Allenby stopped throwing punches. As a camera feed displayed inside Rain's cockpit, the hot-headed Gundam Fighter grinned and winked one of her green eyes. "Okay, fine. What'd you think? Packs a punch, huh? Even without showing off the weapons, I'm sure I've given you plenty of notes to take back to Domon! Say, where is the guy, anyway? If he'd shown up with God Gundam, we could have had a real sparring session!"

"Neo Japan isn't under any obligation to reciprocate in showing you our technology, you know..." Rain sighed, then cut her camera feed. Separate from the other woman, Rain began dressing back into her own outfit after disengaging the Mobile Trace, trying to make it as clear as possible that the Rising Gundam was wrapping up for the day. "In any case, Domon is both the winner of the 13th Gundam Fight and the one who defeated the Devil Gundam... Of course, the government is hounding him for every appearance they can get, and he's still taking every chance he can to sneak out of it and train. Unfortunately, I told him he needs to finally start doing his job, and he scheduled it the same day I'd already scheduled this trip... Like Domon knows what a schedule is," she complained, pulling her hot pink skirt up her curvy legs with a frown.

"Oh?" Allenby answered Rain with a mischievous grin as she started dressing herself again. "I heard there were two pepole who defeated the Devil Gundam... They used that, uh, what was it called? 'Love Love' something...?" Of course, Allenby remembered the Bakunetsu God Sekiha Love Love Tenkyoken Rain and Domon had performed together, but she couldn't resist teasing about it.

Rain flushed, but she was luckily still alone in her cockpit. Still, while the memory was a little embarrassing to remember, having shouted her love with Domon at full volume for all of the universe to hear, it had gotten the job done. She told herself she shouldn't be bothered about it... but then, this was one of the most awkward people to discuss it with. She knew good and well Allenby had once held a torch for Domon. Even though Allenby had told Domon she'd move on when he declared his love for Rain, the more mature woman knew emotions weren't that easily discarded... "He would have wanted to be here, you know. He's not avoiding you."

"Yeah... space sucks. Governments suck, too." Hidden in her cockpit, Allenby frowned as she pulled on her outfit.

Smiling with empathy for the young woman's complaints, Rain emerged in her usual outfit, trading out the latex suit for a pink miniskirt and long-sleeved low-cut shirt to match. Over it, she wore her short blue jacket and a black belt with a utility pouch at the hip. Her white, high-heeled boots touched down on the floor of the hanger as she carefully descended from her cockpit. Her face quickly shifted to a scolding pout as Allenby emerged. "Still! I come all the way out here as a favor, and you immediately start roughing up the Rising Gundam! I'm the one who has to fix this machine, you know!"

Allenby stuck her tongue out in half-hearted apology, crossing her arms behind her head. She was dressed once more in her sleeveless unitard, beneath an open pink jacket and matching boots and a black belt. The yellow fingers of her short gloves tapped her elbows idly. "Eh, I'm sure you haven't been that busy without a Gundam fight going on, right?" Smirking, she glanced at the other woman's completely bare legs. "You've gotta stay in shape, Rain. Who knows when you're gonna have to take ol' Rising Gundam into combat? I dunno if a flabby woman can keep up with Domon, either..."

This did get a rise out of Rain, who was familiar and friendly enough with Allenby to smack the other woman in the head without causing an incident between nations. "That's not any of your business, is it?"

"Ow ow!" Allenby rubbed at her blue hair with a sour glare, then fixed her face into a smile again. "If you say so... Well, I'm gonna make you spill the beans on how it's going before you leave, but for now, give it to me in a single word! One word! Go!"

Rain blushed again, unable to hide it with anything but one of her dainty hands this time. "Mm... W-well."

"'Well' what?"

"It's going well, I said," Rain repeated herself while trying to hold herself straight and not get swept up in the younger woman's tempo. "We'll talk more about it over lunch, okay?"

Allenby gave a smug smile, but shrugged, walking with her Neo Japanese guest to show her the dining hall. She continued making small talk, the two getting along so famously you'd never guess that they had once been romantic rivals, and that in three years they'd be on opposing teams in a fight with nothing less than rule over Earth at stake...

Even with so much to talk about, Allenby began to run out of topics. Something strange was going on... Sure, she tended to walk at a faster pace, but would having Rain tagging along slow her down so much? She felt like the hall was unusually winding, and couldn't understand why she hadn't yet reached her destination. Something wasn't right, and Rain wasn't familiar enough to know it... Still, since she couldn't explain it, Allenby didn't want to spook her friend for no reason. She held a small smile and tight-lipped silence as she continued along the increasingly wrong-feeling corridor.

Soon, however, that smile fell. She realized she'd been careless, and as their conversation had tapered off, Rain had actually disappeared in the darkness. Unable to find each other, and now with very real reasons to be afraid, the two began running for the first light they could see, unsure if they'd find their Gundams, each other, or someone else waiting for them...

Allenby and Rain couldn't guess it, but earlier, they had stepped out of their cockpits, out of their hangar, and out of their dimension, passing through an unseen barrier into another. And in this upcoming battle... the Tower of Total Defeat would be the ring!

((Allenby picture credit Rinnagi https://twitter.com/rinnagi ))))

((Rain fighter outfit picture credit Ishiyumi https://twitter.com/isiyumi ))

((Rain normal outfit picture credit F91Michael https://twitter.com/F91michael ))))