2023-03-13: Transference
- Cast: Banagher Links, Full Frontal
- Where: Side 6
- Date: U.C. 0097 03 13
- Summary: After enduring hellish training with Lieutenant Angelo, Full Frontal grants Banagher the piloting lesson he promised. Neither man can predict just how far that lesson will take them.
<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.
Full Frontal was ever amiable to the various techs of the hanger, both to those of the Sleeves, and the residents of the Ra Mari II. It was a display like any other, a trained facade of friendliness meant to disarm any anxiety or worries that lingered in their minds. His suit, like the majority of his attire was crimson, for what better way to embody the role than to embrace its color until it seeped into his very mind? Still, if there was ever a time to be shaken, it was now. Full Frontal knew it. The ghost knew it.
Char Aznable has returned.
I have returned.
The Red Comet blazes through the sky once more.
Even so, it did not change things. The first comet had returned...and now under the influence of an entropic power. As he turned his back to the others in the hangar, Full Frontal let down his guard for but a moment with a grim smile. At long last, the rest of Char Aznable had accepted the despair of his shorn off remnant. There is naught to hope for...only an ending to be ushered onto the hopelessly lost sheep that called itself humanity.
Turning back around, the Ghost of Char's painted veneer looked like it'd never changed, so beautifully painted and reformed. Graciously thanking the technician who helped him onto his suit's ascent cable, Full Frontal donned his helmet during the climb. It fit neatly over his mask, as sure as Char's did during the One Year War. As he entered the cockpit of the Sinanju, he gave a passing glance to the Unicorn. The boy was being helped into his suit. He looked exhausted...yet possessed of ever slightly more backbone. The revenant turned and entered his own suit.
Perhaps this will be interesting after all.
As the final checks were made, the hanger's launch bay flashed green for launch. "Full Frontal, Sinanju. Here I come." The declaration is delivered in calm certainty, even as the Sazabi's successor surges forth on sparks and is flung into space. Testing the thrusters, the Ghost of Char is hardly fazed by the Gs. A normal man would've blacked out by now through slight exposure to the Sinanju's wing binders. But Full Frontal was not a normal man.
He was a Red Comet.
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
After piloting the modified Geara Doga and simulated Mazinger Z, settling back in the cockpit of the Unicorn feels like coming home. Banagher sighs in relief, feeling the Gundam reaching out to spiritually meet him.
Bringing the Unicorn to the Ra Mari II is a risk -- as is this battle. But it's the only way. He has to become a better pilot. For everyone. For the pilot of the Banshee. Exhaustion claws at the back of Banagher's eyelids like so many reaching hands, but the young man ignores it.
Full Frontal doesn't say anything to Banagher. So be it. Audrey and Leina's anguish over Char's reappearance rings fresh in his mind. That's all the motivation he needs. Hands tighten on the Unicorn's controls as the Sinanju launches.
"Banagher Links, Unicorn Gundam. Launching!"
The Banshee, Char's reappearance, even Full Frontal himself can't lessen the thrill of joy Banagher feels as the stars surround him once more. Effortlessly, the Unicorn shimmers with verdant light, transforming without fanfare or distress.
As her horn splits, the Unicorn equips her beam magnum. It isn't pointed at Full Frontal -- not yet.
<"I'm ready."> Banagher radios to the Sinanju.
<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.
"Then let us begin, boy. Show me that there's a reason for me to see you as more than just the Box's key."
Full Frontal brings the Sinanju across from the Unicorn, emerald monoeye gazing upon emerald light. Full Frontal radios Banagher. "When I fire my beam rifle into the void above us, that will be our signal." Drifting backwards from the Unicorn, the Ghost of Char slowly raises his beam rifle towards the stars above him...and then swiftly accelerates towards the RX-0, redlining his thrusters as he launches infamous calling card of all Red Comets: a kick aimed directly at the cockpit of the Unicorn Gundam. No words escape his mouth.
Just a single smile, feral in its joy.
KTS: Full Frontal targets Banagher Links with Red Comet Kick! KTS: Full Frontal has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Banagher Links has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Banagher Links has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Banagher Links fails to rush. KTS: Banagher Links partially guards Full Frontal's Red Comet Kick, taking 2700 damage! KTS: Full Frontal has engaged Banagher Links!
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Full Frontal raises his rifle, and Banagher tenses up. Waiting, waiting--
A flash of malicious intent is all the warning the Unicorn and her pilot gets, half a breath before the Sinanju attacks. Instinctively, Banagher raises his shield, but he's only able to deflect the kick away from the cockpit.
The impact is still jarring. Banagher squeezes his eyes shut as he's rocked in his pilot's seat. Sickness and anger rise, and he snaps to the Ghost -- <"You didn't fire!">
Not like it matters. Full Frontal is just going to say something about combat being unfair. With a growl, Banagher guides the Unicorn through igniting the beam sabers mounted on her arms.
<"Is that what you're going to teach me? Lying?"> The Unicorn charges forward, magenta light merging with the green radiance of her psychoframe. <"That's not going to stop the Banshee!">
Pulling her arms back, the Unicorn comes down on the Sinanju with both blades, attempting to slash into the Ghost's machine's shoulder.
KTS: Banagher Links: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Banagher Links targets Full Frontal with Mounted Saber Slash! KTS: Banagher Links has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Full Frontal has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Full Frontal has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Full Frontal parries Banagher Links's Mounted Saber Slash, taking 1590 damage! KTS: Banagher Links has engaged Full Frontal!
<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.
The Sinanju easily parries the Unicorn's beam tonfas, deflecting the suit's charge to his left, though the filigreed shoulder of the Sleeves is gouged slightly by the passing of superheated plasma. A green monoeye follows the Unicorn's stumbling with contempt, as Full Frontal speaks on an open channel.
"Spare me your complaints, boy. I told you back in my cabin."
"I will be entering this battle as if I mean to kill you."
The statement is reinforced by pure, potent intent, the battle taking place on their mental plane just as much as they clashed in reality. "You think lying is what I am attempting to teach you in this lesson you're bled for? Do not disrespectn me so, and do not attempt to make me laugh."
The Sinanju fires a focused lance of energy towards the back of the Unicorn as it begins to close distance again, the bolt a mere distraction for what was to come next. Suddenly darting into Banagher's peripheral vision, the emerald monoeye looks down at the child. "Do you think the Banshee will happily sit down and listen to you and your friends preach to it about its storied past, the happiness it deserves, that you empathize with the pain and suffering of its pilot, ripped back from the underworld?"
Full Frontal raises his shield up threateningly.
"If you cannot even understand something so simple about the laws of combat, then I will simply brutalize you until you are more receptive to what I have to teach you today, //boy//."
The shield comes down fast, a bladed mass that's aimed at the Unicorn's right elbow joint.
KTS: Full Frontal targets Banagher Links with Shield Bash! KTS: Full Frontal has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Banagher Links's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Banagher Links fails to Parry Full Frontal's Shield Bash, taking 2320 damage! KTS: Full Frontal repulses Banagher Links, forcing him to disengage.
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Banagher makes a noise of frustration.
<"If this is /all/ you have to show me..!"> The Unicorn raises her beam saber against Full Frontal's shield -- and though its knocked aside, the Gundam's white armor holds.
Banagher, jolted again, squeezes his eyes shut. <"I would've been better off cleaning Lieutenant Angelo's bedroom for the twentieth time!">
Full Frontal's aggression, his sneering disrespect... Every emotion echoes to the young Gundam pilot, emphasized by their suits' psychoframes at this close distance. <"You have no right to talk about the Banshee's pilot like that! If anyone could empathize with her -- wouldn't it be /you/?">
Feeling the touch of the NT-D, Banagher allows it in, just a touch more. Just enough to enhance his piloting. Two more beam sabers ignite along the Gundam's arms, and Banagher yells out a challenge, urging the Unicorn forward.
If this is about violence, and anger... Banagher can match the Ghost, with the fury of the NT-D guiding him.
KTS: Banagher Links has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Banagher Links has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Banagher Links targets Full Frontal with Life & Death! KTS: Banagher Links has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Full Frontal has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Full Frontal has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Full Frontal rushes into the attack! KTS: Full Frontal partially guards Banagher Links's Life & Death, taking 3240 damage! KTS: Banagher Links has engaged Full Frontal! KTS: Banagher Links roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.
The Ghost of Char rushes into the NT-D powered assault with icy coolness, letting the attack break against the Sinanju like a wave crashing into a rock. A few plates of armor buckle, but in return the Sinanju almost clotheslines the Unicorn. The two suits rocket past each other once more, their sheer specs the awe and envy of any Jegan or Geara Doga pilot. "Still, you cling so stubbornly to your beliefs, despite them having failed you so many times, again and again. What was it a famous man once said? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting different results."
A few more beam rifle shots scatter into the space around the RX-0, limiting its maneuvers. The Sinanju raises its shield and unclips its rocket bazooka, catching it under its rifle barrel in the smooth, practiced motion that any regular pilot would take years to consistently perform. Aiming it directly at the Unicorn, the Sinanju's monoeye flashes as target acquisition finds its mark.
"All I see in the Banshee is another RX-0 pilot enslaved to their fate and choosing to chain their actions to the only possibility they see with their suit. You, the ghost living in the Phenex, Puru-1. What sets any of you apart from one another? Have you ever considered that your psychoframes are a prison, blinding you from the rest of the world?"
The Sinanju pulls the trigger. Barrages of rockets and propelled shells scream out of the barrel, rapid-fire, converging on the Unicorn Gundam.
"Your obsessions with possibilities, the past, the future...they blind you to the realities of the present, you foolish child!"
KTS: Full Frontal targets Banagher Links with Rifle Bazooka! KTS: Full Frontal has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Banagher Links has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Banagher Links has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Banagher Links's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Banagher Links blocks Full Frontal's Rifle Bazooka, taking 2700 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Seeing his attacks pass so harmlessly over the Sinanju makes Banagher swear to himself. The Unicorn is nimble enough to avoid being clotheslined -- but only just. Blue starlight follows in her wake, brilliant against the blackness of space.
Banagher's spirit is in full harmony with the NT-D, taking him to further heights. Fear, anger, determination -- they all crowd against Full Frontal's empty soul. The young Gundam pilot burns so /bright/, an impossible beacon against the despair of the Universal Century.
Conjured from the strength of her pilot's heart, a barrier of blue light forms against the scattered rifle shots, keeping the Gundam safe as Banagher races back to clash with Full Frontal again.
<"Even if they've failed, even so!"> Banagher shakes his head. <"This world will /stay/ a tragic place where people are tortured like the Banshee's pilot, unless someone fights to change things!">
Three sabers extinguish, leaving one high-powered mounted blade active. Banagher pushes the Unicorn faster, harsher -- motes of green light swaying in the Gundam's wake. <"I'm not doing this because of the Unicorn! She's fighting /with/ me! I -- don't know anything about the spirit of the Phenex. I don't know what the Banshee's pilot must think, how much they must hate me.">
<"But I'm /not/ giving up on what could be! Even if I'm blind!"> Memories of grasping hands covering his eyes send a chill down Banagher's spine. <"I don't need to see what you have to know what's /right/!">
KTS: Banagher Links targets Full Frontal with Mounted Saber Slash! KTS: Banagher Links has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Full Frontal has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Full Frontal rushes into the attack! KTS: Full Frontal partially guards Banagher Links's Mounted Saber Slash, taking 6360 damage! KTS: Banagher Links has engaged Full Frontal!
<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.
The Sinanju meets the Unicorn head on, and is battered by the assault. The sheer ferocity of Banagher's rebuttal rocks the suit as Full Frontal is thrown back into his seat, a slight crack forming in the glass of his helmet. Even so, he remains unperturbed. This too was as expected. This too had been planned for.
"At last, you're finally learning to move better...though your attitude remains as stubborn as ever. How disappointing. Tell me, boy. How does it feel knowing that the only times you're able to inflict any sort of harm or damage to your foes is when you're mired in such sheer angst and rage? What will happen when one day, the emotions overwhelm you, and you make a mistake at the most important of moments?
The Sinanju hurls the Unicorn away. Despite the sparks emananting from its frame, it moves as if still pristine, a testament to its engineering and the hardiness hammered into it by the talented engineers of the Sleeves. The golden filigree of Neo Zeon is mostly sloughed away, but what remains is a comet, still burning bright in its eternal rebellion.
"I will impart to you, at last, the first teaching of my lesson today: your emotions, left so unchecked, are dangerous."
"Rampant."
More beam rifle shots.
"Impulsive."
The wing binders flare out, boosting the Sinanju forwards into the fray once more.
Out of control.
The shield thrusts forwards, aimed at the Unicorn's head.
"You will only continue to lose more people dear to you so long as you let your emotions rule you."
"Did you not learn this from your first victim?"
KTS: Full Frontal has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Full Frontal targets Banagher Links with Shield Crush! KTS: Full Frontal has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Banagher Links has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Banagher Links fails to Parry Full Frontal's Shield Crush, taking 3690 damage! KTS: Full Frontal has engaged Banagher Links!
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
With a sound like splintering glass, the NT-D presses against Banagher's consciousness. Full Frontal's words increase his fury, until--
What will happen when one day, the emotions overwhelm you, and you make a mistake at the most important of moments?
Torrington. The Unicorn going berserk. A sharp /crack/ as Leina's back impacts with the cockpit.
It's enough to make Banagher's harmony with the Unicorn stutter, their souls falling out of sync for a heartbeat. Full Frontal takes advantage, throwing the Beast of Possibility off from where it was preying on the Sinanju.
As he tries to restabilize his Gundam, Banagher grits his teeth, feeling the needles of the NT-D's injectors working again in his back. It hurts. It drags against his skin, even as the mystery concoction within saves the young pilot from harsh g-forces.
Full Frontal is right. He's got to calm down, before the NT-D takes him completely. Without Leina or Audrey nearby, or even Haro -- Banagher takes a breath. He can do this. He's done it before.
But this moment of distraction, again, is more than enough for the Sinanju. Its shield connects with the Unicorn's head, sending a /crack/ soundly through the Gundam's armor. Banagher cries out in distress, jerked back and then forward hard enough to dislodge his helmet.
Dazed, Banagher only half-hears Full Frontal continue. Cruel words slip past his ears so easily. The Ghost always had an odd, spellbinding kind of charisma. His eyes blink slower, until--
learn ... first victim?
Golden eyes open wide. Banagher breathes quickly. Anger, rage -- hate. /hatehaTEHATE/--!
<"SHUT /UP/!"> Banagher shouts, as the Unicorn screams in response. <"YOU -- TELL ME NOT TO LET MY EMOTIONS RULE ME! AND THEN --!">
Reacting to her pilot's fury, the Unicorn rights herself, lunging after the Sinanju. It's not an attack, not really -- more an expression of blind emotion. The very thing Full Frontal warns him against. A clenched fist beats against the Sinaju's chest, striking against the cockpit. Banagher's overbright emotions resonate from his soul, starbursts in the psychic plane.
Beautiful, auroric light seems to cascade from outside the Unicorn to within, until Banagher can see Full Frontal so clearly -- free of that stupid mask. He lunges at the older man, freed by the NT-D's power. Spirit consumed with green, miraculous light, the young man doesn't even realize they've left the physical world behind, focused solely on trying to take down the Ghost of Char.
KTS: Banagher Links targets Full Frontal with Pass! KTS: Banagher Links has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.
Full Frontal's gaze narrows as the fist of the Unicorn threatens to impact the Sinanju's cockpit. The boy had failed his lesson, his test. A pity.
Then a tug at the back of his mind, that turns into a lasso around his presence. "What..?!" Surprise. Shock. Even Full Frontal hadn't planned for this outcome, of all things.
Resonance.
Catapaulted into a realm where time and distance have no sway, perhaps even no meaning, Full Frontal looks down with surprise at Banagher, surprise that quickly turns into a small ember of wrath and smoldering disdain. "How dare you, boy, bring me to this place once more..! You're no Amuro Ray, and yet you've the audacity to link us together? You disgust me. Weak. Ruled by your emotions. Unable to stand on your own feet without being coddled by the people around you." Words that he would never say aloud. Yet in this place, even thoughts have voices. The Ghost of Chat is shaken, surprised, but chooses to claw back his own composure.
I will not be cowed by a boy who enslaves himself to his own emotions.
The thought is louder than words, as Full Frontal's essence attempts to peel Banagher off of him. Yet it's too little, too late. The bond is formed, the link is forged. Now like chains, the two spirits are bound by resonance, cursed to know and feel each other. Yet even so...
...Perhaps there's use for you yet, boy.
KTS: Full Frontal targets Banagher Links with Pass! KTS: Full Frontal has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Brilliant misty radiance stretches out as far as the eye can see, or perhaps as far as the soul can bear witness to. Banagher glows such a cosmic, gentle green, despite the fury his face is twisted into. Seemingly still unaware of their transference, the young pilot swings at Full Frontal, making contact with his... incandescent... jaw.
"Oh," Emerald eyes go /wide/. "no."
I have a name. I thought we were past this.
It's a ridiculous, tiny complaint, in the face of this trespass.
As Full Frontal shoves Banagher away, the young pilot floats off as hurriedly as he can manage. "Maybe it's not too late. Maybe--"
No. The bond is forged. Banagher can feel it as surely as Full Frontal can. Covering his face, he groans, all the anger drained away and leaving him hollow.
Leina's going to kill me...
With a grimace, Banagher straightens up, floating just in front of the Ghost. He looks different without the regalia. More like... just a person. A normal guy.
How does his hair do that?
Individual thoughts fall from the young pilot's mind like stardust. In reality, he has so little control over his psychic abilities, but here, it seems, he's even more an open book than usual.
"I don't want anything to do with you." Says Banagher, irritably. "This doesn't change anything--"
Memories swirl into being before the pair's eyes.
Blue starlight races away from the Ra Mari II. The Unicorn charges, practically thrumming with her pilot's delight. Faster, faster -- until he almost feels like he can grasp any star he wishes. In response, the Unicorn raises her hand. Banagher's wonder and joy in the moment flood through the bonded men.
"See? This doesn't change anything." Memory-Banagher says to himself, within the cockpit. "I knew we'd be okay."
Spirit-Banagher looks stunned, again, glancing between himself and Full Frontal.
"..."
<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.
A memory, dredged up from the depths. Trawled from the rust red seas of swirling blood, the abyss the lay at the center of the walking void known as Full Frontal. There are but bits and pieces of it, corroded from intentional destruction and attempts to bury the past.
All for the Spacenoids.
A man wakes up on an operating table. There's nothing around him but blood. So much blood. Yet the space is devoid of surgeons or medical machinery. Just the man, and a table from which flows rivers of ichor. A speaker plays.
"Char Aznable. We brought you back because Neo Zeon needs you. They need their hero. Their savior. Lead us again to a better future for all the Spacenoids." The voice seems almost artifical in its tone, its concatenation unnatural. It utters another phrase, known to all versed in the history of the Universal Century.
Sieg Zeon.
The man on the operating table slowly nods and repeats the phrase, as if speaking is unfamiliar to him.
Sieg Zeon.
"You must be a vessel for our hopes, as the Red Comet's second coming. For the people. For the Spacenoids."
Static, as if drawn from a broken TV, flickers over the scene, before it fades to black, the borders of cognition crumbling like rust exposed to air for the first time in eons.
Full Frontal frowns.
So you witnessed our reawakening. You really do not understand the meaning of boundaries, do you, boy?
It was of no small consequence that the boy had seen this memory. The rebirth of the Red Comet. The beginning of a new legend. A saga whose origin lay sealed beneath an entropic void, crumbling away into darkest memory, that only he had known.
Until now. Full Frontal frowned, a specter of shadow highlighting his distaste for this farce.
Enough.
Through sheer will, Full Frontal returns to his usual existence. The Sinanju's controls are before him once more, and he would not allow the boy to merely skitter off without punishment for invading his mind as his 'gratitude' for the lesson the Ghost of Char had deigned to grant him.
The lesson is over. Now fall.
KTS: Full Frontal targets Banagher Links with Red Comet Kick! KTS: Full Frontal has completed their actions for the round. KTS: [Spirit Defense] Banagher Links's Determination activates, and his spirit endures. KTS: Full Frontal enervates Banagher Links, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Banagher Links fails to Parry Full Frontal's Red Comet Kick, taking 7200 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Full Frontal's The Ghost of Char activates, causing Deject! KTS: Banagher Links has been defeated! KTS: Full Frontal has engaged Banagher Links!
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Banagher floats, witnessing the memory, horror broadcasting from his spirit.
They... did this to you? /Who/ did this to you?
Feeling the unknown's man as though it was his own, Banagher wraps his arms around his chest, shuddering. What a monstrous way to come into existence. What a terrible burden, from the moment he opened his eyes--
Do I... need to save you..?
The thought resonates, hanging in the air like the afterimage of a shooting star.
"I didn't make you show me that! I don't control this any more than you do!"
Banagher defends himself, spiritually and vocally all at once. But Full Frontal pulls away, dragging them both back to the physical realm. Squeezing emerald eyes closed...
...he opens golden ones in reality.
Panting, Banagher leans forward, feeling the weight of his pilot suit pressing in on him, the feeling of the Unicorn's psychic presence, the feeling of his hair floating, free of its helmet.
And the feeling of Full Frontal's soul, pulsing with detached rage just in front of him.
The Bond is real.
<"Full Frontal, I--"> Banagher tries, unsure what to say, but sure he needs to say /something/, only to be faced with the rapidly approaching Sinanju.
All he can do is lean away in distress before the Ghost of Char's kick connects with the center of his Gundam, sending it hurtling away. Banagher coughs, vomiting -- blessedly without his helmet on to catch it-- groaning in pain and distress.
Though the Unicorn isn't destroyed, she's battered, and her pilot is unwell. Green light flickers out, and the Gundam transforms back to her prior size, snapping the V-fin back into a single horn.
"N--nghh..." Banagher wipes his mouth on the back of his sleeve, glaring at the Sinanju. The fight is over. Two weeks of training with Lieutenant Angelo for /this/?
<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.
"The lesson is over, boy."
The glint of Banagher's emotions and distress presses against the corner of his mind, invading the vessel like cracks in the walls. As the Sinanju turns from the single horn, Full Frontal looks out into the infinite void of space. Today had been a most interesting day, and not entirely to his benefit. Yet...
We can use this.
The Box would be his. For the sake of Neo Zeon. For the sake of the Side Co-Prosperity Sphere. For the sake of the Spacenoids. The boy would never be able to escape his reach, for a Newtype resonance was a far better tracker than any homing beacon known to man.
Until the day you perish, I will chase you, boy. Like a hound from hell, your only peace will be when you join us...or crumble into ash.
The thought resonates across the field to a still-vomiting Banagher. Good, let him feel fear. There is much work to be done on this naberus night.