With exams starting up and people getting ready to move into college young Takahashi was not exactly ready to do much more than he needed to do. With that being said work was hard, and life was harder. What you had to do in life was just how things worked. And while people liked to explore a lot of of interesting things online Taka much preferred to just be himself. Many people were knights, cats, or some other otaku trash he just preferred to stay as a normal Londo Bell Officer while in the internet. He had dressed his avatar to look like him while keeping his favorite gundam aesthetic. His old friend Hisao had told him that the Red Comet had been scoring up kills more, and more...that likely meant Miyuki was trying to up her game. Hisao, Miyuki, and others had been a part of a Force a long time back. But those days were over now he was just on his own doing random matches, and helping those around him.

Taka sighed as he went over the schematics to his downloaded gunpla. It was basic but highly functional, and maneuverable. Many people gave G-Saviour shit for being an awful gundam adaption...but they overlooked how quality the G-2 model was. However despite this it became a highly reliable model, and more often than not he had scored many victories with his simple utilities. A few modifications and his Advent had become dangerous at mid-range combat. It wasn't the best by a long shot, and he could have used his ace gundam but that would not be playing by his own rules. He didn't want to be bothered by the meta, and he hated show offs. G-Advent put them in their place well enough.

As he breathed in deeply he entered the target for the next set of rounds and prepared himself focusing, and breathing in calmly. He wasn't a good pilot but his technical skill helped him fix that problem. With the 'net-gunpla' these days though a lot people just stole a design from a creator online. It annoyed him so much he never put his designs up for download. Still as he was set into a match he focused, and made sure Advent was well. He moved the suit around a bit and deemed it good before he turned to face the enemies all piloting Dinns like a bunch of fools. No sense of individualism? That meant they were all doing the same thing. He turned on his radio. "Hey you guys there? We got work to do watch out for the enemy missiles, and spread out. Use rifles if you got 'em." said Takahashi calmly as he activated a beam shield, and used his boosters to maneuver around the sky as he set his rifle to rapid fire mode, and shot quick successive shots at the enemy while positioning his shield to cover his main body.

"Name's Takahashi. Hey its your funeral kid. You do what you want I guess if you wanna lose." Taka said as he sighed he thought little kids on here were a pain but with them being outnumbered, probably due to the stupid system screwing up, he had to make sure something happened, and happened soon. Targeting one of the Dinns they charged at him firing their rifle but the bullets ricocheted off the beam shield like wet paper on a hard wall. Wondering if he should switch to close range he decided it wasn't worth the risk, and kept his stance returning fire at the enemy. The pilot seemed good at maneuvering at least despite being as dumb as a rock for breaking his own formation to go at him. "Don't underestimate this G-2, I'll wipe you out." grumbled Taka said as he used his boosters to glide through the air. It was hard to maneuver like this but it was better than not having any boosters. People liked cool looking robots over functional ones. It was half the reason why Zeon was so popular among the fandom. But even now as his enemy kept trying to press him Taka wondered if the enemy pilot just knew who he was taking on.

Ever since the battle's start, the third of the trio of solo players kept himself well hidden. A team of Dinn's trying to keep their opponent at a distance to utilize ranged combat was not the optimal scenario for this player in-particular. His jet black MG-Astray was optimized for almost constant close range combat, it's main weapons meant for slicing his opponent up into plastic chunks. That Gunpla currently lay in wait, camping out on the largest island and simply waited for an opportunity to launch an ambush. It wasn't the most glamorous strategy in the world, but it was an effective one. Pick out the most likely looking area and then camp there early on in order to set things up to be in your own favor.

This would be a lot easier if I had teammates who could tank hits and keep the enemy focused on them. Oh well.

Takatora's randomly assigned teammates were at least performing the way he needed. The setup could probably stand to be more optimized, but for the longest time he had almost complete free reign to move as he pleased throughout the largest island. This gave him a vast amount of options for preparing his attack. While his Gunpla wasn't equipped with explosive traps or mines, that didn't stop its pilot from being able to use the island's own environment to set up makeshift traps and distractions for anyone who came there. Vines used in place of rope or tripwires. Traps involving swinging logs, rocks flung via a primitive catapult system, and at least one pit trap complete with sharpened logs protruding from the bottom to act as spikes. These things may not be entirely deadly to Gunpla, but they would probably at least slow them down and - most importantly - keep the pilots distracted.

Soon enough two of the Dinns began heading toward the island. One of them looked more customized than the others, and to Takatora this may as well have been a neon sign that informed him of who the leader was. This made him the priority target. A Force's leader was the one who called the shots, altered plans and strategies on the fly during battles in progress. If they were suddenly eliminated, the remaining pilots would be put into confusion, if only temporarily. Still, such a moment of vulnerability would give this randomly selected team the chance it needed to end things in one last fell swoop. Takatora waited for the two Dinns to actually land before he made any kind of move.

Without any kind of warning, a handful of small stars made of particle energy flew out from the forest of the island. They were by no means deadly weapons. Throwing stars on their own were not effective enough to eliminate an enemy. They were, however, the perfect tools for making an opponent look one way so that the thrower could position himself elsewhere to launch a surprise attack. The stars did their job. They did minimal damage to the enemy Gunpla, who had mostly blocked them with their shields. But it got them looking in the direction Takatora wanted. From there he swung around and flew out to strike at their backs. His red Dragon Sword drawn and seemingly pulsing with electricity as the pitch black Hayabusa flew right in between the two Dinns and slicing them with the blade. The attack was not particularly strong, it wasn't supposed to be. Like the stars, it was just a means to an end. This time the end was to send a message, to make sure his opponents knew that he could strike them from any direction at will. Takatora didn't stick around and instead boosted back toward the interior of the island. If the Dinns wanted any kind of payback, then they would have no choice but to pursue into Takatora's zone full of traps and trickery.

Akira grinned at the enemies as they flew towards him only to be struck down by beam rifle fire. One managed to get through and was cut down by his beam saber before he could do much else.
"These guys are chumps!" he said aloud as he flew toward one of the G-Savior units nearby. "Guess we got lucky eh?" he said still grinning at the scene unfolding before them all. "Perhaps we should all meet up somewhere though and come up with a unified strategy?" he added with a shrug.

Trading beam shots Takahashi didn't bother to keep track of his team the enemy pilot seemed to be more skilled than the usual rabble though as despite his trash tier taste in mobile suits he seemed to pilot the thing quite well enough. As the two traded shots in the sky the missiles being picked off by Taka's passable marksmanship the enemy pilot decided that he would engage up close. He charged forward with his blade attempting to saw the G-Advent in half but was pushed hard back by the repeated blaster shots. Taka watched his movements but was having issues keeping up with him. He wasn't some expert pilot he depended a lot on the quality of the mobile suits he built. G-Advent was a well made machine but it had its faults. Especially in the digital world where others could better assemble their suits so his own skill was displaced. Eventually Taka decided it would be best to let the enemy pilot in close. The pilot kept up his charge...and right into Takahashi's trap. He smashed the enemy pilot's sword out of his hand using his second beam shield. Most people weren't use to double beam shields they saw the one, and expected nothing else to come out of a non-cosmic suit. Pressing his shield up between them he pounded the enemy brutally before using his other arm to pull out his beam saber and swipe at the enemy who dodged it at the last second and went to slash at Takahashi but he killed his thrusts and fell from the sky to avoid the enemy shot pulling up his rifle he fired upward taking off the enemy's leg, and part of its head. "I'm focusing on my own targets at the moment don't got time to meet up."

"This guy isn't done just yet I just nicked the visor, and the leg." commented Taka replied as he aimed once more down his sight as he desperately reactivated his thrusters steadying himself, and shooting upright once more as the enemy attempted to blindly fire downward. The shots were scattered though, and he ended up missing once but the second shot pierced through the enemy cockpit downing the enemy. "There I got him. The G-Advent isn't just for show I made it so this things controls were optimized to react as smoothly as possible. I'm not a good pilot this is a good gunpla." Takahashi admitted as he steadied himself putting his saber back in its holster. When the voice of the kid called out that there was an incoming beam blast he barely just managed to move out of the way of the massive shot. Using his beam shielding to cover his cockpit, and head from being damaged. "Thanks for the heads up that would've got me. Careful did you see where that shot came from? Team up, and crush them remainders together. I'll provide support from the sky. I seem to be the most comfortable up here. I don't got anything fancy but I can at least spot the enemies, and mark'em." Taka said keeping a wary eye open for further attacks making sure to check his immediate vicinity.

"Gah! When did he set all this up?" The silver Dinn got slammed by another tree log being hurled at it via some catapult set up from nearby. This was the second or third trap he had managed to trigger and now he was honestly beginning to wonder how many more would be peppered throughout this forest. All the while, energy shurikens pelted him from what seemed like random directions. The black Gunpla was constantly on the move, somehow able to mask its movements despite being a large machine. As before, the Shurikens did little actual damage. They were more for the annoyance factor than anything. Whatever it took to frustrate the target and get them to start slipping up and making mistakes.

"Whoa!!!" the silver Dinn's pilot had suddenly yelled in surprised when he found himself falling. His opponent had actually manage to set up a Gunpla-sized pitfall trap and he had fallen right in. The sharpened logs acting as spikes actually did do real damage to the Dinn, but not enough to be lethal. If he didn't know better, the pilot would swear that the Black Gunpla was just toying with him, "Why you... nobody toys with me!" at this point the pilot was switched to open comms in the hopes of intimidating his opponent.

Takatora, in his Hayabusa, waited quietly and listened as his opponent shouted in frustration. Good, his traps were doing their work. But then he heard something else.

"Guuyyys, powerful beam blast coming!"

That voice belonged to one of the players Takatora had been teamed up with. It sounded like they had hit a snag, or maybe the enemy team leader had another trick up his sleeve. Either way, Takatora made a quick decision and altered his heading. He was heading for the coast. By now, the Silver Dinn had escaped the pit and spotted Takatora and was now in hot pursuit, "Oh no you don't!" Takatora could hear the pilot say on open comms. He sounded mad as a hornet. Good, that would make it that much easier to manipulate his movements.

The White Dinn had already fired his weapon by the time the black Gunpla came bursting out of the forest. Now was when Takatora finally got a look at the massive beam weapon it had mounted on the shoulder. He paused momentarily to sheathe the red Katana. The White Dinn seemed to notice and trained the weapon on Takatora. Need to time this right. Takatora thought to himself as he heard the Silver Dinn approaching fast from behind. No way they noticed their comrade's weapon yet, not while their visuals were still obstructed by the forest trees. It took what felt like a long moment for the beam to charge, and that was when Takatora hit his boosters and shot straight up at full throttle.

The beam fired straight and forward, far too late and too slow for the pilot to adjust the aim. Unfortunately, that meant his shot ended up hitting his teammate dead on, and that was certainly more enough to vaporize the poor guy. Assuming the White Dinn was the only one left, the black Gunpla reached a metal hand to its back and grasped the hilt of its weapon. It drew, not the katana, but the large sword with it's wide blade. With its weight, the Dragon Buster was normally a slower weapon to attack with. But the Hayabusa was already airborne and could use gravity to give the blade all the speed and momentum it needed to come crashing down and hopefully cleave right through the White Dinn and its massive beam weapon. The force of the swing even sent out a small shockwave that sent waves and ripples out into the sea. Clearly the Hayabusa was a powerful Gunpla. But anyone with even a slight eye for detail could instantly tell that its pilot was not bringing out the machine's full potential. In fact it could be argued that he was actually holding it back from being as powerful as it could be.

"I can go for another round if you want. G-Advent didn't get much action in that last match. I hope I fight that other guy again. He was a good pilot but he was weighed down by a trash mobile suit." Taka replied as he adjusted his virtual beret. "Well it is random I'm not sure if you understand that we'll be getting more people dropped in. Just hope we don't get a space match. People don't tend to think about their gunpla's specs so things like bearguys just end up getting trashed in areas. I only do bad in underwater." Takahashi said as he turned on some music it as some old western marching band music but he set it so that only he could hear it. He didn't want to bother anyone else while they were waiting for a match making. "Good work by the way those guys may have been garbage but you got rid of them quickly enough."

Miyuki took the the triangular hexagon from the clerk barely saying a word. She was a regular in the Gundam shop so they all recognized her, but she would never recognized them. The student said a small thank you before walking over to the side room in awkward silence, she would have loved to avoid all of it in the first place, but she didn’t have the money to buy her own personal diver gear and it would be a while before she saved enough money to do so. Miyuki opened the door and entered with a noticeable spring in her step. Six in a half hours stuck in school made her feel rather weary, especially since her disability was far worse over there.

The student would step into a neat white room with blue neon lines with several machinery resembling pilot cockpit pointed to the walls. It would appear that she was lucky and she made it here quick enough that she avoided the large crowd that this place usually attracted. She sat down on the machine that said 01, before reaching into her school bag and taking out a small wooden box that was closed shut with a small number lock. 7-1-4 she put in the code and opened the box, then took out it’s contents, a small plastic model of a mecha resembling that of a knight. She then did as she always did, put the headset on, set the Diver Gear, and scan her Gunpla.

Login Data Confirmed. Are you ready?

A robotic voice said in heavily accented English and Miyuki broke into a childish grin, of course she was ready, she was waiting this!

Dive start now.

And so, the diver known as Miyuki entered the virtual world of Gundam Battle Nexus.

Miyuki stepped out of the cylindrical elevator, as usual the futuristic looking lobby was filled with people, but it didn’t bother her as much in real life. Miyuki walked over to the mission counter, she if she wanted to beat the Red Comet, she was going to have to raise her ranking to as high as it could go. Though as she looked through the mission list, she saw that one of her old pals, Takahashi could be found on a team fight and it would appear they still had room for one more. She might as well say hi as she hadn’t seen him since their old force and so she chose to enter the force fight. After she confirmed, she was transported into the waiting room.

”Yo guys, we got a new girl... or guy.”

Well... it was still an MMORPG... there was people like that, except she was not one of them, so she was a bit offended at that statement.

”I’m a freaking girl...

She said gritted through her teeth, why do so many people assume that she’s a guy playing a gender bent avatar? Is that so rare for girls to join in on the fun too? The white haired diver sighed, before introducing herself.

Well nice to meet you all. Name’s Miyuki and good to see you again, Taka. How have you been, ya little bastard?”

Miyuki did a little wave at the rest of her team.

"Miyuki how did...you know what I don't want to know. I didn't think you'd show up again for awhile." grumbled Takahashi as he sighed at the current state of the situation. "But for your information I'm doing well enough. We just crushed a bunch of low tier players. Nothing out of the ordinary really. I guess they were ranked lower than us they got to get a numbers advantage." he told Miyuki as he waited for the others to do something. "Just don't say anything embarrassing alright? There's kids in here you know." he informed her as he hoped that she wouldn't bring up anything funny.

”Well, nice to see that you’re doing well, but come on why did you think I wouldn’t appear? I practically live in GBN! Well either way, missed me?

Miyuki asked as she sat down on one of The couches before putting her legs up on the table in a causal manner. She was just nodding at Takahashi’s explaination at what happened at the last round. A couple of lower ranking newbies wasn’t really that interesting even with superior numbers, but she might as well stick around since she decided to join in on this team fight. Though she put on childish smirk and held back a snicker as she answered back at his request.

”Oh, like the time I tricked you into putting on a hot pink Valentine Serenade Suit?

Miyuki decided to troll her old friend by bringing up ‘something funny.’

"Himeji told me that it was for a cosplay for a gundam character they were doing for Valentine's day." Takahashi explained to the group when Miyuki told them about that specific incident. "And no I'm not putting that back on." he continued leaning against a wall he looked at a stream of data coming in from other groups. "We literally just met. Making a force like this out of the blue is unreasonable Isamu. Also i'm not much of a ladies man I just happened to be a part of a small force made up of a lot of girls back in the day." he told his new companion who was just a bit jumpy to pull the trigger. Taka didn't have much of a wish to make a new force that meant he was committing to a group of people he just barely knew outside of Miyuki even if she did accept them. "If you wanna party up a couple more times and see where that'll take us I'll consider it though."

About Half Way into the Battle

The GBN lobby had several monitors hanging about in places, showing live-streamed footage from battles in progress. One of which was the battle featuring a certain quartet of solo players vs a certain Force made up of Dinns. No one really paid the battle much mind, it was just another battle after all. Well, all except for one person. He stood and watched the screen showing that battle, at first with a look of surprise but that look quickly melted into a grin. The guy - his avatar was a guy anyway - looked a slight bit different from your average player avatar. Most players used pilot suits or various uniforms from the series. This particular avatar utilized neither of those. His face and hair appeared to be modeled after the character Chibodee Crocket, although the hair looked to be pure blond rather than the blue and pink dye that the character was known for. He also didn't wear Chibodee's clothes, instead opting for a brown duster, brown cowboy boots and a wide-brimmed, brown cowboy hat.

"Jesse?" the avatar looked away from the battle he was watching at the sound of a familiar voice. He smiled and tipped his hat when he saw an even more familiar looking female avatar. Someone he was good friends with. And someone he wasn't expecting to bump into today. The young woman offered a curious look, "What's so interesting about that battle you're watching?"

"Have and look-see and see for yourself, Miss Yoko." replied the avatar, apparently named Jesse. He sounded distinctly non-Japanese. Rather, he was American - a proud, homegrown Texan to be more specific. As such, his accent was not only American, but also had a certain southern drawl to it that could only be heard in the land of Texas, "I reckon that black Gunpla looks mighty familiar, don't it?"

The other avatar, Yoko, raised an eyebrow and watched the screen for herself. Then she made a nearly audible gasp of surprise, "The Hayabusa? Is that really it?" she squinted her eyes, the black Gunpla was tough to spot in its constant movement and preference for stealth combat. But after a moment there was no doubt. That was the Hayabusa that both she and Jesse knew quite well, "So he's finally decided to log back in again?"

"I reckon so." answered Jesse. Of course, they both knew The Hayabusa wasn't being piloted by its original builder, but rather by the builder's kid brother. They also knew that Takatora hadn't so much as touched any Gunpla since what happened to Kiyotaka six months ago, "Way I figure, that's a pretty good sign I think."

"Don't count on it." Yoko said quickly, and coldly, "The fact that he's using the Hayabusa means he still stuck in the past. When is he going to move on? Build his own Gunpla?"

"Aw, now don't be like that, Yoko." said Jesse, his tone always remaining warm and friendly, "Jus' give him some more time. Takatora'll come around on his own. I know it, and you know it." by then, the battle had ended. With nothing else keeping them there anymore, they exchanged goodbyes and both of them logged off.

After the Battle

When the battle finally ended and the victorious team found itself back in the lobby area, Takatora didn't say much. He certainly seemed to be acting the part of his Avatar... a racoon cloaked like a ninja. The adrenaline high from his finishing move was still wearing off, and that was putting him on edge. The others chatted, but Takatora stood still, looking like he was ready to go into an idle animation at any moment. The girl showing up didn't change things, he still stood in stoic silence.

It wasn't until the name "Taka" was uttered that the racoon avatar finally showed some sign of life. It almost seemed to flinch a bit. Not much, but just barely noticeable. At least, that's what it was the first time around. When it was spoken the second time by Isamu - who then suggested they start a Force - Takatora made for the exit, "I can't. I'm... I have homework or... whatever." he quickly left after giving that flimsy excuse.

"This was a mistake..." he muttered to himself once he thought he was alone, "...what am I doing here? What am I even trying to accomplish with this?"

"Wow I could almost cut myself on that edge..." mocked Takahashi as he scratched his head. It was clear the kid had no interest in anything other than his cool factor. That excuse was as half assed, and as flimsy as he would expect from a ninja avatar. Those were always part of those loner shinobi in bad shonen anime. As he looked up the specs for his G-Advent he wondered if he could modify it further. "Don't forget to change your setting on your gunpla if you need too to do so guys. If we end up in space you could have issues. My g-advent is a mix between the space, and the land version of G-Saviour it can function in most environments." Takahashi said as he plugged away at numbers but found it not wanting for anything satisfied he put away his gunpla menus, and resumed surfing local boards.