Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ Operation Strikeback ❯ Desperate Measures- Part 3 ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 13- Desperate Measures( Part 3)

 

 

Battle 2: ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam .VS. RVR-42 Cypher + MBV-707-G Temjin

 

 

After seeing Cagalli being struck by Cypher, Athrun went to her rescue and fought him off. However, Cypher seemed uninterested in ranged combat and emitted its beam blade instead. Athrun took the challenge, replaced his rifle and drew his twin sabers, charging them to full power.

 

“All right, Cypher! Its you and me now!” Cypher engaged with the Justice and slammed blade to blade, discharging huge flashes of lights and sparks. Athrun swinging the blades vertically up in a swords dance style, Cypher boosted backwards and evaded cleanly, launching some vulcan at the Justice. Simply using the shield to deflect the shots was a pre-determined pattern by Cypher, and it disappeared suddenly from Athrun's sight as he peeked over the shield. To his surprise, Cypher had quickly circled the Justice towards the back and brought the blade down on the waist of the Justice Gundam. But the Phase-Shift was resilient against the blades' impact and threw Athrun off balance instead.

 

“When did they learn such techniques from?... ... !!!” Athrun thought to himself.

 

Just then, Cypher again appeared by the side of the Justice with that menacing look, wringing the blade down again, but Athrun jump jet and averted the strike. Grabbing his rifle, he quickly brought a clean shot down on the arm of Cypher. But still, Athrun missed the Revenant gun by some distance. Clutching his arm, Cypher transformed into his Waverider-jet form to fast-assault Athrun. Blasting off in a blur of blue and purple, Athrun tried his best to trail Cypher and waited for his chance to attack. But before Athrun could attack with his blade, Cypher deployed a large volley of vulcan and some beam missiles to distract the Justice. The vulcan was a piece of cake but the missiles streamed in a web formation that seemed to trap Athrun. Then suddenly the beams broke formation and one struck the shield, while the rest back-trailed towards Athrun's rear. Unable to react quickly, Athrun took a few hits and was shaken badly.

 

“GAhhh!” Athrun yelled.

“God... this is going to be tougher than I thought!”

 

On the return trip, Cypher launched yet another full volley of 12 beam missiles. Athrun blasted off to escape the ferocious missiles and they were closing in on him fast. Sighting Temjin alongside the Freedom about to finish off the hapless machine, Athrun scored an idea to save the Freedom. Zooming past Temjin deliberately, it looked surprisingly at the red blur. Looking back at where the Freedom was... but it wasn't there! Before it even turned around to see what was coming, 12 beam missiles pummeled him down and his sword launcher was thrashed off his hand.

 

“Good thing those missiles don't trace the same energy signatures.” said Athrun.

 

The resulting impact on Temjin was so great some of its virtual armor shattered at the torso and waist, Temjin was rather dazed for a moment.

 

Athrun holding what's left of the Freedom and Kira looked triumphantly at the duo Cypher and Temjin. To its rude shock, Temjin saw his beloved sword launcher in the Justice's hands. Burning with anger, Cypher tried to stop Temjin from attacking recklessly but it didn't listen, and boosted towards the Justice. Lobbing a bomb head-on, Temjin smoke screened itself and reached for his sword. But Athrun saw through the trick and caught Temjin's arm as it emerged from the energy screen. In a fancy finale, the Justice kicked Temjin and threw him upwards. With plain luck, Athrun managed to activate the beam sword of Temjin's and threw it right into its mid-section. The blue beam blade pierced through; Temjin's eyes splintered from the energy shockwave while its body was still electrified. Staring at his own blade... pierced through his own body, he struggled to remove it, but finally, spread his body open in seemingly wrenching “pain” and blew up with shattered bits of virtual armor and other debris flying. The exposed energy crystal of Temjin's core, broke down and disintegrated into nothingness.

 

“One... down for the count!” Athrun inverted his thumb as a victory sign for himself.

 

Cagalli, who just happened to see the explosion, saw what happened. Muttering to herself...

“Athrun...”

 

Cypher watched in disbelief at his lost comrade. Unconsciously it deactivated its Revenant's blade and Cagalli saw an opportunity to attack. Picking up her beam rifle, she over-charged the rifle and launched a huge bolt towards Cypher's rear. As Cypher was still fazed, the shot threw it far away for a while before it picked its momentum back. Watching with shock and anger, A blue glow began to engulf Cypher's frame, and he crunched his body together, Athrun and Cagalli feared what might come next.

 

“What... what's he doing?” said Cagalli.

“Something tells me this is bad...” replied Athrun.

 

Spreading its body open again, Cypher deployed an overwhelming array of beam missiles towards Athrun. Knowing he neither could defend against nor escape from all those missiles, Athrun prepared for the worst. Cagalli whom was at a distance could do nothing to assist Athrun. And they just watched his impending doom.

 

Out of the blue, another Mobile Suit appeared and it was the Aile Strike! Quickly raising the shield, the Strike's pilot attempted to blast off the incoming missiles, followed by a powerful twin blast from the Archangel's Lowengrin cannons. Snatching the shield from the Justice, the Strike placed it side by side with its own and blocked the remaining missiles. Athrun and Cagalli stared at the Strike for a moment, then through their comm links, came a voice.

 

“Am I too late? Or has the party just begun?” asked the unknown pilot.

“Commander La Fllaga!” said Cagalli in delight. “... but aren't you supposed to be...”

“Well, can't very well shake a leg while you guys fight right?” replied La Fllaga.

“Heh! Same goes for me...*cough* “ up came another Mobile Suit pilot.

“Yzak! You shouldn't have.” said Athrun.

“Well, I'll never abandon my Duel even in a battle. We'll rise and fall together.” Yzak smirked.

“Woah... is that Kira in there?” La Fllaga said, looking at the remains of what he makes out as the Freedom Gundam.

“La Fllaga! Please take him back to the Archangel first. Kira's seriously injured in there. He won't last long without aid immediately.” pleaded Cagalli.

“Come on kid... you've done well. For now let's just go.” he said as he brought the Freedom back.

“Ok... let's not forget our enemy there.” Cagalli said, while constantly watching Cypher.

“Cagalli, can your M-1 go on?” Athrun asked

 

Cagalli tried to reactivate the M-1 Astray's Phase-Shift armor. But something odd happened. Instead of the supposedly red armor, purple armor emerged instead. Cagalli looked in disbelief and surprise, then a voice popped over the comm link.

 

“I knew it'll work! Haha! Ms Cagalli, what you are experiencing is a combination of the Astray Blue Frame and Red Frame Phase-Shift armor signatures. With this combination, you get stronger anti-weapon shielding. It was pure luck that it actually worked perfectly. Haha!” Mr Murdoch laughed happily.

 

“Hmmph... I guess that's why they made you Chief Engineer.” Cagalli replied.