EPISODE.4-A
Cherry Bomb ~A Cute Little Bomb~
Many different Gunpla fans log onto GBN. Not all of them come for Gunpla battles.
“Come on! Catch me!”
“Hey, wait up!”
Such was the case for the Gunpla Builder couple who were in their pink Z'Gok and Gogg, which seemed to be a frequent visitor of tanning salons. They scattered sand on the beach like heavy machinery and made waves that glistened in the sun while playfully chasing each other. The two were trying to express their teeming love for each other by putting it into the Gunpla assembly process.
“I’ve got you now!”
The Gogg caught up with the Z'Gok. It hugged the Z'Gok with its long arms from behind and moved its head toward the neck (if it had one) and took a deep breath.
“Your styrene adhesive smells wonderful...”
“No...that’s where I glued my seam lines. This is so embarrassing. Don’t smell them...”
The Gogg felt a burning urge build up in his heart.
It grabbed the shoulder of the Z'Gok and turned it around.
“Your seawater rust finish is astounding...”
The Z'Gok’s mono-eye shined and turned to a dim glow as its heart thumped and said, “The water stain effects on you are also wonderful...”
The two gazed at each other for a while. Their lips (it is a mystery if they even have any) reached for each other and melded. The Gogg was about to push the Z’Gok to the ground…
when the excited Gogg’s missile launching ports were punctured by a beam rifle fired from across the ocean. The Gogg nursed its wound and curled up as a pair of large claws attacked it. A beautiful but menacing customized Qubeley appeared.
“I’m sorry to disturb your dumb, lovey-dovey, romantic moment.”
NOZH said in the cockpit of her Qubeley Damned and stuck the tip of her tongue out. She had her hair in a short bob and sported her iconic makeup on one eye. The buttons on her worn-out white shirt were opened, widely revealing her chest.
“It’s not that I have anything against you two. You were just unlucky.”
It took a moment for the Z’Gok to understand the nightmarish situation it was in. The lower half of the Gogg that it loved was destroyed with extremely precise shots, its back armor was pried off, inner parts severed, barely alive. The Z’Gok tried to abandon its partner and run.
The Qubeley Damned rushed in front of it with unbelievable speed and slapped the MS. The head (it is a mystery where the head ends and chest starts) was gouged out and flung away. Only the torso of the Z’Gok remained, which flailed a few steps, fell over, and sunk into the ground.
The Hyaku-Shiki Crash, the sniper that took down the Gogg, flew over from an island far away after seeing that the two dying Gunplas were fully incapacitated. It set its thrusters to their minimum settings, still blowing the sand around it like a sandstorm, and landed on the beach.
“You didn’t have to take your time and shoot them from that far away. You could’ve just killed them directly, Markie.”
“...I suck at people skills.” Markie said in the cockpit of the Hyaku-Shiki Crash with a lollipop in her mouth. Her straight black hair went well with her sleek body, and her curvy chest peeked out of her black leather jacket which she wore without a shirt on her skinny body.
“But that does mean...” NOZH said with enthusiastic eyes, staring down at the Gogg slumped over on the sand.
“...That I get more toys to play with?”
The Qubeley Damned smashed its claws into the right armpit of the Gogg and snapped its arm off. NOZH checked the severed section of the arm, clucked her tongue in dismay, and threw it away. She went on to check the left arm, both legs, and the other articulated joints. She then moved onto dismantle the Z’Gok.
“Damn it! These aren’t the ones!”
NOZH angrily said with a completely different harsh tone. The Quebeley Damned kicked the torso of the limbless Gogg with all its might. Markie rolled her eyes and asked.
“Do you really think that it exists? A poly-cap that shines gold...?”
“Well, don’t ask me!”
The Qubeley Damned dug its claws into the Gogg’s torso and threw it high into the air. The Hyaku-Shiki Crash shot it with rapid firing, as though they were clay pigeon shooting.
*
Le Petit Chaperon rouge, usually known as Petit Loup, was a six-member underground idol band which was gathering attention from a fanatical subculture enthusiast audience. Its members were keyboardist Dreamin, lead guitarist Nozomin, second guitarist Mayuyun, bassist Minorin, drummer Hikarun, and third guitarist Tomomin.
Nozomin and Mayuyun were especially popular and were the two main members. 99.7 percent of the fans lined up to shake their hands at handshake events resulting in a boost in merchandise sales, which lead to more work that involved exposure but were paid the same salary as the other members, meaning that the more their popularity increased, the heavier their burden grew. To cope with this stress, the two found time in their busy lives to log on to GBN. The two were NOZH (Nozomin’s Diver Name) and Markie (Mayuyun’s). They would pick fights with anyone that came across them and steal Force Points to relieve their ever-growing strain.
One day, a live event they were supposed to perform at was canceled due to a staff member of their agency running away with the money to pay production costs, and the two used their time to log on to GBN. They stopped by and rummaged through a Dimension that resembled a blighted entertainment district to hunt for their prey as they usually did in their Qubeley Damned and Hyaku-Shiki Crash.
“Oooh! We have a perfect target here!”
“Excellent...”
They saw a trio of arrogant ReZELs in a narrow, desolate back alley.
No words were needed to begin their plan. Without any arrangements, Markie looked around and instantly found a sniping point and moved to it in her Hyaku-Shiki Crash, while NOZH’s Qubeley Damned found the leader of the trio with her intuition and walked toward them.
“...Huh?”
“What’s your problem?”
“You wanna die?”
NOZH felt an exciting tingle creep up her spine. She had a genuine smile, unlike the one she showed on stage as a member of Petit Loup.
“Why, hello, handsome!”
The pilots of the ReZELs were both surprised and thrilled to hear a cute voice from the menacing Qubeley, but their excitement only lasted for a brief moment.
“Give me all your Force Points, will you?”
It happened instantly.
“What did you saー”
The leader of the ReZELs attempted to take a step toward the Qubeley in a threatening manner when the back of its knee was penetrated by a shot from the Hyaku-Shiki Crash. It toppled over with momentum and collapsed on the ground.
The remaining two ReZELs were alarmed and looked around, but they couldn’t find any buildings around them large enough to conceal a Mobile Suit.
“...I’ll kill you all~♪ You’re all going down~♪”
The Hyaku-Shiki Crash had positioned itself on the roof of buildings far behind its targets. Markie used her miraculous technique to penetrate the building that blocked her view and hit the ReZEL using the power of her original sniper rifle.
The other two ReZELs also crumbled to the ground with the back of their knees destroyed. Their chests and heads were then pulverized. The leader of the trio was the only one still capable of functioning, despite having its knees devastated and incapacitated.
The Qubeley Damned booted the Gunpla and rolled it upright before kicking its groin again and again and again. Sometimes with excessive force, other times lightly, occasionally softly. Again and again and again.
“Please stop...I beg you!”
Even though it was the Gunpla that was being debilitated, it was too much for its miserable male pilot.
“I’ll give you all my Force Points! So please, please stop doing that!”
“I’m in a good mood today, and I don’t even care about Force Points anymore.”
NOZH had a satisfied expression.
Markie flew over to the site in her Hyaku-Shiki. The Gunpla landed facing the Qubeley Damned and pointed the barrel of the sniper rifle, which was capable of penetrating buildings, at the leader ReZEL’s groin.
“Eeeek!”
The leader gasped.
“I’ll squash you.”
Right when Markie was about to pull on the trigger, a dark, malefic glimmer surrounded NOZH and Markie. The world around them disappeared, including the remains of the arrogant ReZELs, and the two were floating in a light that appeared as pitch black darkness.
Markie noticed something.
“A voice…?”
NOZH could hear it too.
“... A Golden Poly-cap?”
“And we have to find it...”
They couldn’t see the source of the voice.
“If you do so, we will free you from your awful conditions in Petit Loup and let you two debut as an actual band...”
The whole incident seemed like a moment, as well as a very long timeー
And when the two came to, they found themselves in Login Booths right next to each other at the GUNDAM BASE.
The words they heard may have been lies by someone who was trying to play around with them or deceive them.
But for some reason, they didn’t mind.
The two were dazed and quietly looked at each other, smiled widely and exchanged deep nods.
How many Gunpla joints had they ripped out until today?
However, they still had doubts.
“We can’t even get a silver or even bronze poly-cap, let alone a gold one.”
On that day, NOZH and Markie logged on to GBN, finding time between their live performances, and were looking for Golden Poly-caps. They walked around in a city Dimension filled with shoppers to find any kind of information that would lead them to one.
“Were we really screwed over? I don’t know who that guy was, but if that’s the case, they’d better be ready to be squashed...”
They felt like giving up and slouched on the railing that separated the road and the sidewalk.
It was then that a conversation caught their ears.
“You know what? We haven’t been able to have a happy party with any cute Gunpla enthusiasts at all.”
“Why don’t we turn the Golden Poly-caps into accessories andー”
“Golden… Poly-caps!” NOZH and Markie turned their heads and looked in the direction of the voice.
“Why don’t we make accessories to get girls?”
“You really think that’ll work?”
Two young shabby men were sitting on the same railing close by.
They were GIMM and BALL.
