The moment the Zorin Soul and the Sinanju locked eyes, Char's attention was almost entirely focused on the Sinanju.
"Zeon remnants!"
At that moment, Lane slammed down on the pedals, pushing through the G-force as he flew toward the Sinanju hovering in the sky.
Because the I-field generator of the flight unit failed to activate, the Penelope's speed had significantly dropped.
The buffeting gales in the sky added immense drag to the machine; Lane felt as if he were maneuvering through a thick, viscous liquid.
Char watched the Penelope closing in on the Sinanju, sensing the surging battle intent belonging to both himself and Roz within his mind.
Char exhaled, his expression turning solemn once more.
He could no longer wait to engage in his first duel with "Amuro" in this world.
"I assume you feel the same way, Amuro."
Char cast one last glance at a Jegan raising its beam rifle and a Gustav Karl approaching with its shield held by the sub-arm on its left shoulder, before turning his gaze back to the Sinanju in the sky.
"Yeah... of course I do."
Feeling the faint ripple of dissatisfaction toward the interference from the Kimberley Force emanating from Char's brainwaves, Roz grinned.
Bound by the tangled causality of "Amuro" and "Char," Roz felt his own fighting spirit soar. It was as if he, like Char, had become a man driven by pure impulse.
"Right now, I'm getting a bit impatient myself."
Roz slammed the pedals down, sending the Sinanju into a dive toward the Zorin Soul.
"That direction?! Are you ignoring me?!"
Seeing the Sinanju's movement, Lane roared. The funnel missile pods on his back continuously launched funnel missiles at both the Sinanju and the Zorin Soul.
The current battlefield was no longer just the confrontation between the Zorin Soul and the Penelope; it had now become a three-way melee with the inclusion of the Sinanju.
Facing the incoming funnel missiles, Roz very proficiently raised the Sinanju's right hand and fired a beam scatter rocket shot along the general path of the funnel missiles coming toward him.
Trailing tail smoke, the beam scatter rocket shot burst apart upon reaching the preset distance, and a dense, fine rain of beams occupied a circular area.
The beam rain struck the funnel missiles, easily penetrating the outer shells; within this rainstorm, the funnel missiles were detonated one after another.
Meanwhile, Char cast a glance at the funnel missiles trailing behind him, maneuvering the Zorin Soul to twist away from a Gustav Karl that was swinging its beam saber and slashing toward him.
From the back of his free left hand, two yellow beam saber blades extended, precisely piercing through the Gustav Karl's waist and abdomen.
As the midsection was punctured, the spherical cockpit melted and dissipated under the thrust of the beam sabers; the Gustav Karl's movements ceased, its saber-wielding hand slumping powerlessly.
The Zorin Soul deactivated its beam sabers and reached out to grab the Gustav Karl's wreck, using it to block a sudden pinkish-purple beam.
He then raised the electrochemical gun and pulled the trigger at the Jegan that had just shot at him.
The multi-stage shaped explosives precisely hit the Jegan, and the violent explosion tore the machine to shreds.
Immediately after, the Zorin Soul's left-hand output surged, flinging the Gustav Karl wreck toward the funnel missiles behind it.
Simultaneously, using the inertia to complete a turn, the two vulcan cannons on the head monitor began firing burst shots at Char's command.
The vulcan shells precisely struck the incoming funnel missiles, causing them to erupt into a series of sparks in the sky.
But in the next second, a yellow beam tomahawk split the Gustav Karl wreck in half.
The silhouette of the Sinanju emerged from the explosion, the shield in its hand bearing the beam tomahawk blade as it slashed down toward the Zorin Soul.
"Come then!"
Char laughed loudly, once again deploying the beam wrist blades on his left arm as the Zorin Soul charged to meet the Sinanju.
The beam wrist blades and the beam tomahawk collided. The clash of I-fields and beam jets caused stray beams to scatter between the Zorin Soul and the Sinanju.
While the two machines appeared to be in a state of equilibrium, Char was well aware that the Zorin Soul was being suppressed by the Sinanju; after all, he was currently manipulating the Zorin Soul to imperceptibly retreat.
"This kind of output... Because it was manufactured hurriedly, is the output of the beam wrist blades lower than the maximum limit?!"
Char gritted his teeth and pressed a button with his right hand.
The Zorin Soul's vulcan cannons began to roar, spraying ammunition at the Sinanju. However, despite the shells striking and causing various explosions, the armor beneath the Sinanju's deep red PS Armor showed no traces of damage from the vulcan fire.
Nevertheless, both the Sinanju and the Penelope retreated in unison, completing their separation.
The rapid alarm of an approaching enemy rang in his ears. After maneuvering the Sinanju to pull the trigger on a Jegan that was firing at him, Roz looked toward the incoming foe.
The tattered multi-function shield on the Penelope's left arm extended a blue-white beam that could barely be recognized as a beam saber, slashing down between the Sinanju and the Zorin Soul.
As the Penelope charged between the Sinanju and the Zorin Soul, the Zorin Soul took the opportunity to raise its electrochemical gun, striking the Penelope's shield once again.
Having suffered heavy blows twice in a row, the shield finally reached its limit.
The struggling beam saber also exploded, shattering the shield into fragments, many of which became embedded in the Penelope's left arm.
However, Lane did not panic. Instead, using the impact from the left arm's shield explosion, he maneuvered the Penelope to turn, aiming his beam rifle at the Sinanju.
At that moment, Roz manipulated the Sinanju to raise its beam rifle and fired a beam scatter rocket shot at the Penelope at close range using the underslung rocket launcher.
He then turned and used the beam tomahawk on the shield to cleave a Gustav Karl—which had appeared behind the Sinanju at some unknown point—cleanly in half at the waist.
The fire from the bursting beam scatter rocket shot reflected in Lane's eyes as the fine, dense rain of beams struck the Penelope's armor and the beam rifle in its hand.
The armor became battered under the assault of the beam fragments; the beam rifle in the right hand, being a primary target of the strike, exploded in Lane's grip.
Fortunately, the multi-function shield on the right arm had its I-field active, so the beam rain caused no further damage there.
But in the next second, Roz and Char both instinctively maneuvered their machines to turn, each swinging a leg upward.
Clang—!
The Sinanju's right leg and the Zorin Soul's left leg, both driven by the rotation of the machines, kicked precisely into the left side of the Penelope, sending it flying.
Under the massive impact, the Penelope began to spiral uncontrollably through the air in full view of everyone.
"Ugh... Arghhhhh!"
The massive impact, combined with the centrifugal force of the Penelope's rotation, forced a subconscious cry of pain from Lane, his face contorting in agony.
Fortunately, the transport plane previously serving as a relay had crashed; otherwise, Lane's cry of agony would have echoed throughout the headquarters where Kenneth Sleg was stationed.
After casting only a brief glance, Roz and Char paid no further attention to the Penelope as it tumbled and spiraled through the air.
The Zorin Soul and the Sinanju increased their thruster output almost simultaneously.
The two machines began to weave and clash in the sky at extreme speeds, occasionally leaving trailing beams in mid-air from the collision of their beam sabers.
"I can't lock on... they're too fast!"
At that moment, a Jegan within the containment line raised its beam rifle but hesitated to fire; the pilot inside the cockpit was already drenched in sweat.
Even if the fire control system managed to lock onto these two machines—which were like red meteors flying across the horizon—the lock would be lost the next second because the targets were too fast for the pilot to turn in time.
Furthermore, the Jegan pilot could clearly see that the opponents were consciously and continuously gaining altitude during the battle.
To be honest, simply maintaining the containment line was already exhausting their efforts, let alone using propellant to raise the ceiling of that perimeter.
"Huff... huff..."
In the distance, Lane had just stopped the Penelope's uncontrolled rotation, breathing heavily.
Lane also saw the Zorin Soul and the Sinanju engaged in a fierce battle in the sky.
After catching his breath, he slammed down on the pedals and pushed the control stick. The Penelope also began to climb, following closely behind the Zorin Soul and the Sinanju.
"Don't you dare run!"
-----------------------------------
At an altitude of ten thousand meters, the two crimson machines broke through the cloud layer one after the other, arriving in this expanse.
By now, both above their heads and beneath their feet were covered by clouds; only Earth's gravity remained to guide the general direction of the sea's surface.
Inside the Zorin Soul, Char took a few short breaths.
Even though the Zorin Soul was a machine produced through an accelerated, temporary process—leaving many of its armaments with output adjustment issues—it still managed to remain standing under the suppression of the Sinanju.
After a brief pause, the two machines once again moved in unison, raising their beam wrist blades and beam tomahawk to clash.
"One strike to decide it?"
A communication signal, distorted by Minovsky particles and laced with static, rang out in the Zorin Soul's cockpit.
Though it still used the mature voice of "Full Frontal," Char could sense a feeling of youth in the tone.
"Amuro... as I thought, you are just like me—a stubborn man."
"Then let one strike decide it," Char responded.
In an instant, the two machines separated again, as if the collision just moments ago had never occurred.
The tomahawk on the Sinanju's shield saw its beam blades grow increasingly thick and solid; their shape even began to fray and deform at the edges as the high energy output broke through the constraints of the I-field.
As for the Zorin Soul, Char manually adjusted the output of the wrist blades. The two yellow beam blades also began to produce jagged edges as the output surged.
Both machines raised their melee weapons, the thrusters on their backs erupting with their thickest flames. Like knights mounted on warhorses, they launched into an unstoppable charge toward one another.
The beam blades collided. With both sides having pushed their power to the limit, the beams—teetering on the edge of breaking through the I-fields—could no longer be suppressed.
Following a sudden explosion, a blinding light erupted across both of their retinas.
However, Roz was the first to act. He manipulated the underslung rocket launcher to fire the final beam scatter rocket in the magazine at point-blank range; immediately after, as the beam rifle was swept upward, the launcher detached from the weapon.
With the activation of the signal masquerader installed on the underslung rocket launcher, Char, whose vision was already obscured, failed to notice that his machine's lock-on had transferred to the falling launcher.
Sensing a crisis within arm's reach, Char instinctively raised his shield, blocking most of the beam scatter shot. Once the vibrations ceased, he fired at the lock-on frame in the sky.
To his surprise, what the beam rifle hit was not the Sinanju, but its detached rocket launcher falling through the air. The explosion of the launcher caused Char to momentarily freeze in a daze.
Clang...
Beep-beep-beep... Along with the sound of clashing steel and the urgent alarm of an approaching enemy, Char snapped back to his senses.
The Sinanju had appeared behind the Zorin Soul at some unknown point, its beam rifle pressed against the Zorin Soul's backpack as if it would fire the very next second.
Char understood clearly that he had lost this time, but he was not a man who couldn't admit defeat.
"Static... Heh, I lose this round."
In the short-range communication, Char's voice carried a hint of relaxation. "Do you have time to talk? Full Frontal... no, I should call you Amuro instead."
"...What do you want to talk about?"
In the current atmosphere, Roz also switched off his voice changer, using his original voice to speak with Char over the short-range channel.
"About you, about me, and about the future."
Hearing Roz's voice, which was indistinguishable from Amuro's, Char leaned back into his cockpit seat, the smile on his face widening.
Just as the two were about to say more, another machine burst through the clouds.
"Mono-eye!"
Lane, maneuvering the Penelope, braved the gale-force winds as he continued to climb, charging toward the Sinanju and the Zorin Soul.
The two who were engaged in a fierce battle just moments ago turned their muzzles toward the Penelope without hesitation and pulled their triggers.
The multi-stage shaped explosives from the electrochemical gun precisely struck the Penelope's flight unit—the part resembling a swan's neck—shattering the slender scanning and detection equipment.
The yellow beam that followed immediately after struck the Penelope's head, melting and destroying its standard Gundam face; the beam passed through and hit the flight unit behind it.
"Arghhhhh..."
Following a violent explosion and the failure of the flight unit, the Penelope was blasted straight down through the clouds, tumbling uncontrollably through the sky.
In the eyes of the Jegan and Gustav Karl pilots—who had begun an orderly retreat due to propellant issues—the Penelope had followed those two continuously ascending "Red Comets" upward, only to come tumbling back down from the sky a short while later.
.........................