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                               Gundam Warblade

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and Ranma Saotome are not mine but I'm using them
anyway so there!

< >: Thoughts

(* *): Computer readouts

                                  Chapter 8

                               Gundam Warhawk

"I said, get away from my Gundam!" Celia repeated as she aimed her Spirit
Force arrow at Ranma, who happened to be sitting in the open cockpit of the
newly repaired Gundam Thunderhawk.

Ranma simply shrugged as he placed a hand on one of the control levers.
"Nice Gundam you've got here."

"It would be even nicer if you were to get out of it!" Celia said angrily as
she drew back the energy bowstring even further, preparing to let fly with
an energy bolt. "Besides, that Gundam will only work for me!"
"Oh... really?" The martial artist smirked as he focused his chi into the
controls. The Thunderhawk suddenly came to life and its main weapon, the Bow
Blaster, immediately cocked itself and glowed with light.

Celia gasped as she saw her Gundam power up and let fly with an energy
arrow. However, Ranma had anticipated the move and swung the Gundam's arm
around to deflect the shot. The Bow Blaster easily absorbed the Spirit Force
projectile. Just as Celia had notched another arrow, the Bow Blaster aimed
down toward her and a larger version of her own energy attack was primed to
fire.

Celia found herself standing off against her own Gundam and considering that
the Thunderhawk's arrow was ten times larger than her own, she was in a very
difficult situation. Luckily for her, Ranma tended not to kill off potential
allies.

"H-H-How did you...? I mean, my Gundam is only supposed to...?"
Ranma shrugged again as he powered down the Bow Blaster and lowered the
Thunderhawk's arm. "Your Gundam has a system that is similar to the one that
powers the Warblade." He gestured with a finger to his mecha. "And I can see
that you're able to use chi as well." He then stood up from the pilot's seat
and focused a ball of chi in an upraised palm.

Celia's eyes widened as she lowered her energy weapon a bit. "Y-Y-You can
use Spirit Force as well?"
"Is that what you call it? Well, in any case, I'd say that you could
probably pilot my Gundam as well as I could use yours."

It was at that moment that the main console of the repair bay activated
itself and an image appeared on the main monitor. Ranma glanced over to it
and was surprised to see the face of his mentor on the screen.

"Sensei?"

Sensei X nodded as a second screen turned on and Celia gasped as she saw who
it was.

"Grandmother?"

Chieftess V shook her head and wagged a finger at her protge. "Now, now
Celia. I told you that I am to be referred as Chieftess V." She then turned
her attention to the other monitor and addressed Sensei X. "The young are so
impulsive, eh Sensei X?"

"Indeed." He then addressed the two Gundam pilots. "Ranma... Celia... we
would prefer that you both power down and listen to us. Now!"

Ranma considered his mentor for a moment, nodded, and dispersed his chi
before hopping down to the ground.

Celia still had her Sprit Force Bow up and was tensed up, but after
receiving a glare from her grandmother, followed suit and powered down,
making the energy bow and arrow disappear. The two of them approached the
console and waited for the engineers to explain.

Once they saw that hostilities were not going to continue, they nodded to
each other and Sens4ei X began the explanations.

"Well, we were expecting the two of you to meet up eventually, but we didn't
think you'd encounter each other so soon. In any case, you two have probably
discovered out by now that you both share similar abilities and are able to
pilot each other's Mobile Suits."

Chieftess X nodded. "That's right. You see, Sensei X and I had been with the
other Mobile Suit engineers during the creation of Operation Meteor."

"I remember you telling me about that plan, grand... I mean, Chieftess V."

"I remember that plan too." Ranma said. "Sensei, didn't you say that
Operation Meteor was planned by the Barton Foundation at Colony L3?"
"That's right, Ranma." Sensei X replied. "And that plan was nothing more
than total Armageddon for the Earth. Even though V and I were not directly
involved with that plan, we agreed with the other engineers and abandoned
Operation Meteor. During that time, we had all been working on a special
Mobile Suit that was constructed out of Gundanium and operated on a very
special piloting system."
"That's supposed to be the Wing Zero, right?"

"Correct." Chieftess V answered. "But as you both know, the Zero System was
unstable and we never completed the Gundam. After the other five engineers
had decided to quit Operation Meteor and build their own Gundams, X and I
decided to follow suit. The new Operation Meteor was to send the Gundams to
Earth and use guerilla tactics."

Sensei X nodded as he took over the explanations. "Yes, and since we were
not part of the original team of engineers, adding two extra Gundams into
the mix just added to the element of surprise. However, after I had sent you
and Warblade I to Earth, I went to work on building a spare, just in case
you were forced to use the Seppuku Pledge. That was when Chieftess V
contacted me and informed that she was working on a Gundam that utilized the
same Chi Power System as found in your Gundam. When I asked her who she had
for a pilot, we decided on a joint project and I made all the necessary
adjustments to the Warblade II, so that both it and the Thunderhawk would be
able to operate together."

"Operate together?" Ranma asked.

"That's right, Ranma. May I introduce you to Celia Whitestar, pilot of the
Gundam Thunderhawk of Colony 7... and your new partner."

Both pilots looked at each other in shock as the two engineers smiled
knowingly.

----------

A couple of days later...

< I can't believe that I'm doing this! > Ranma thought in silence as he
piloted his Gundam toward the objective. A mile ahead of him, the Gundam
Thunderhawk sped at twice the speed of sound in its bird form. Inside the
cockpit, Celia was wondering the same thing. She preferred to work alone,
and thought that taking on a partner would only hamper her. However,
Chieftess V was insistent that she join forces with this Ranma person, and
emphasized the fact that their Gundams were specially designed to work
together, due to their Chi Power Systems and that fact that their pilots
were similar in bioenergy ability.

The day before, the two of them had scouted their intended target, which was
a heavily armed base, landing port for space shuttles, and airfields, some
four hundred miles west of Ranma's repair bay. The base was very important
as it was heavily involved with Mobile Suit production and weapons
development. By using Celia's robotic hawk for reconnaissance, they were
able to ascertain that the facility had more than two hundred Mobile Suits
at their disposal as well as a sizeable force of tanks, fighters and troops.
There was also ground artillery and anti-air defenses as well. Both of them
had believed that either one of them could destroy that base by themselves,
but their mentors had ordered them to work on this target together.

The two of them decided on a fast strike effort. Since Celia's Gundam was
superior to Ranma's in aerial combat and speed, she would go in first and
strafe the airfields, as well as take out any interceptor squadrons and
missile launchers. The Warblade II would follow the Thunderhawk and destroy
whatever ground forces and defenses that was left. After the defenses were
down, the power plants, command centers and arsenal would be taken out,
thereby completing the destruction of the base.

----------

"Just stay out of my way!" Celia said to Ranma via her communicator.

"Well excuse me, Miss Thunderhawk!" Ranma replied with sarcasm.

----------

"Are you sure that those two will be able to work together?" Chieftess V
asked as she and Sensei X watched the monitor which linked them to their
creations and pilots. "My little Celia has always been so headstrong and she
prefers to work alone."

"Same thing goes for Ranma." Sensei X admitted as the monitor displayed a
map which showed that the Gundams were about to reach their objective. "But,
if we are to defeat OZ and the Romafellor Foundation, then we must resort to
a few... shall we say, unorthodox methods? Besides, they do make a very cute
couple, eh?" He gave the elderly woman a nudge with his elbow, in which she
chuckled and gave him a nudge in return.

"Yes, my little Celia was always so serious during her training, and Ranma
may be just what she needs to open up more."

----------

At the soon-to-be attacked base...

"Commander! Radar has just picked up an unidentified bogey closing in fast
from the east! It's being tracked at Mach 2 and its ETA is estimated at two
minutes!"
"What is it?"
"I don't know sir! It's not responding to communications and... wait a
minute! There's a second blip about a mile or so behind the first one. It's
also heading directly for us and it isn't responding to our hails either!"

The officer frowned as he realized that this was an attack. "Red alert! Red
Alert! We are under attack! Scramble fighters and Mobile Suits now!"

----------

In under a minute, pilots began rushing toward their fighters and Mobile
Suits. They were soon airborne and streaking across the sky to meet the
intruder. Though the group consisted of ten high-performance fighters and a
dozen AIRES Suits, they would be nothing more than cannon fodder against the
Sioux warrior that was heading toward them at twice the speed of sound.

Just as the lead craft established visual contact with the invader, the
Gundam Thunderhawk opened fire.

----------

"Sir! We've established visual contact and... "
"It looks like some kind of fighter and..."

"Look out, it's firing... arrgh!"

"Bank left! Nooooo!"

"It's transforming! It's a Gundam!"



The consoles of the command tower were lit as battle data every monitor and
communication system was active. The commander was overwhelmed by the flood
of reports as he received word that the initial groups of the interception
squads had all been wiped out. Then more reports came in of the second
invader, who was now devastating the ground units, including the platoons of
LEO Suits and heavy tanks.

----------

On the ground, the Warblade II was slashing with its Chi Cannon Blades,
reducing tanks and Mobile Suits into smoldering wreckages. Ranma was wasting
neither time nor energy as he systematically mowed down Oz troops. Above
him, Celia was finishing off her aerial opponents, and was now turning her
attention toward the airfields and missile launchers. These too were
obliterated one by one as the Thunderhawk evaded barrage after barrage of
anti-aircraft ordinance, and flak. It seemed that nothing would be able to
stop the Gundams as they neared the inner perimeter of the base.

----------

After losing most of the defensive forces that guarded the facility, the
commander decided to bring out his ace in the hole. Recently, the base had
been retrofitted with several dozen heavy beam cannons and autocannons that
were in retractable gun ports around the inner perimeter. However, he had
been reluctant to use them as they drained large amounts of power from the
main generator and would obliterate anything and everything. That meant that
friendly forces would be wiped out as well as the foe. However, with the
remaining Mobile Suit pilots, tank crews and fighter crews being decimated,
there was really nothing left to lose. Even Gundams would not be able to
withstand the murderous barrage of energy blasts and autocannon shots.

He then hit the red button that activated the system.

----------

Ranma and Celia were caught off guard as huge gun turrets appeared from
hidden chambers and let loose with a murderous storm of fire at them and
their opponents. LEO and AIRES Suits were torn apart as beams and cannon
fire ripped into them. The Gundams took several hits, but fortunately they
were glancing shots and they were able to take cover behind the wreckages of
Mobile Suits as the barrage continued to annihilate everything in its path.

It was at that moment that Ranma's main screen flickered and showed the face
of Sensei X.

"Can't talk now Sensei. I'm real busy at the moment!"

"So I see. However, V and I expected something like this would happen, so we
had added a little something extra to both your Gundams."

In the Thunderhawk, Celia was also getting a message from her own mentor.

"What are you talking about?" Celia yelled as energy beams passed overhead
and seemed to get even closer.

Chieftess V nodded as she explained. "Sensei X and I had worked on a system
in which the power of both Gundams will be doubled . However, in order for
it to work, you must trust in each other."

'But I work alone!"

"Do you want to live through this?"

Celia became silent at her grandmother's harsh tone, then nodded.

The two engineers then related their instructions to the pilots. The two
warriors reached over their control consoles and opened up a hidden panel
that exposed a button. They both pressed the button simultaneously, which
caused their Gundams to undergo an amazing transformation.

The Gundam Thunderhawk leapt up and transformed into its bird mode. A second
later, the Warblade II followed suit and was grasped by the shoulders by the
Thunderhawk's talons. The claws merged into the Warblade's shoulders as
parts and sections began shifting. The wings and upper torso of Celia's
Gundam merged into the back of the Ranma's. The bird head fitted over the
Warblade like some technological cowl. Sections of the Thunderhawk's lower
half became armor units on top of the Warblade's legs, abdomen, and arms.
The Chi Cannon Blades separated from their housings and merged with the Bow
Blaster, forming a separate weapon that looked like a high-tech crossbow.
Chi energy and Spirit Force energies flashed all over the merging machines
as the two Gundams became one.

Ranma and Celia found themselves moving in their pilot seats as their
cockpits opened up and fused together. They found themselves back-to-back as
the controls reorganized themselves and monitors swung down into new
positions. They found themselves gaping in awe as they felt more power
flowing through them than they had ever experienced before. Not only that,
but they found themselves a bit uncomfortable at being so close to each
other.

When he transformation process had finished, the new machine was
one-and-a-half times larger than either the Warblade II and Thunderhawk. It
had combined aspects of both mecha and looked like a fearsome winged, war
god. In one hand, it sported a huge weapon that had a blade on each side.

Inside the dual cockpit, both Celia and Ranma gazed in awe as the readout
flashed on all the screens.



(*DUAL TRANSFORMATION PROCESS COMPLETE. GUNDAM WARHAWK IS ON LINE.*)

"Gundam Warhawk?!" Both pilots exclaimed.

----------

Both Sensei X and Chieftess V nodded with smug smiles.

"The merging process of both Chi Power Systems was a complete success!"
Sensei X remarked.

"Indeed!" V agreed. "And now, let us see if our pilots are as able to work
together as well as their Gundams."

Her question was answered as they saw the Gundam Warhawk suddenly darted
forward at unprecedented speeds and executed maneuvers that would have torn
the wings off any fighter. Before their very eyes, the new Gundam evaded the
deadly barrage of particle beams and cannon shots as if they were nothing.
Then it let loose with a devastating barrage of blasts, missiles and
projectiles that reduced the particle weapons and whatever remained of the
defenders of the base.

Sensei X nodded as he commented on the performance of the new Gundam. "The
new Gundam is specifically designed to emphasize the best qualities of both
pilots. Since Ranma is a martial artist, it makes sense to have him in
control of the Gundam's main motor systems and hand-to-hand combat. His
evasion tactics are also a valuable asset."
Chieftess V nodded. "Yes, and Celia is in charge of most of the weapon
systems and the sensors. Her shamanistic abilities make her far more
sensitive to the environment and she has more experience with long-range
weaponry than Ranma does."
"Yes, but their main asset is their inner energies, and that new weapon of
theirs..." He then noticed that the Gundam Warhawk had finished off the
remaining gun turrets and had shot up to into the air. It was now aiming
that huge weapon at the devastated base to finish it off.

"Well... it looks like we'll be able to see if the new Blade Blaster is as
powerful as we had planned it to be."

----------

A huge shaft of white light appeared across the top of the weapon as the
side blades began glowing with power. The bow arms cocked back as the
energies continued to build up. Then a moment later, the shaft was released
as the blades flared and added their own energies to the shot. What resulted
was a huge beam of light that slammed into the base with the force of a 40
megaton thermonuclear fission/fusion bomb. The entire base was blown
sky-high as the surrounding area trembled under the force of the resulting
shockwave.

The Gundam Warhawk hovered above the now vacant crater that had once been a
military base.

Inside of the cockpit, Ranma and Celia could only stare in awe at the result
of combining chi and Spirit Force together. Both were breathing a bit hard,
but piloting the Gundam Warhawk had been so exhilarating that they were at a
loss of words after it was all over.

"You know what, Celia?"
"What?"

"Maybe having a partner isn't such a bad idea."

The Sioux was about to disagree, but then considered what had just happened.
She had just developed some new respect for her fellow Gundam pilot at this
point and decided that working with another did have its advantages. It also
didn't hurt that her partner was kind of cute.

< Now where did that come from? > Celia thought.

----------

Days later...

Meanwhile, in the Antarctic, a dual between two other Mobile Suit pilots had
been interrupted. Both Heero Yuy and Trowa Barton had to flee as Oz forces
closed in on the place where Heero and Zechs were battling it out. Heero had
decided to use the Heavy Arms instead of the repaired Wing Gundam. However,
their dual was stopped when Relena appeared. More surprises were revealed as
Noin informed the girl that Zechs was actually her brother of the Peacecraft
line. The two Gundams pilots were forced to leave as the forces of OZ
attacked.

In another part of the world, Duo and Quatre were deciding on their next
move as they escaped from persecution by Oz and the Romafellor Foundation.
As for Wufei, he too was also trying to decide what to do. In his spare
time, however he continued to practice on his own to build up his own chi
potential. However, he was still using his emotions to channel his inner
energies, specifically his anger.

In another city, a young girl was signing some forms as she and another man
stood near a covered flatbed truck.

"Well that's it." The dealer said as he took his copy of the receipt. "All
the equipment is on the truck, though I can't figure out why someone like
you would need such heavy equipment and materials."

"Hey, as long as I pay, what do you care?" The girl replied.

"You got me there." The man said as he signaled for his men to unload the
cargo into a rented warehouse. Once it was all unloaded, the men took their
leave, leaving Ludemella Platinov alone as she entered the building. She
then walked around a stack of crates to where the damaged Gladiator stood.

<Soon my friend... we shall both be at full strength! >

To be continued...

Author's notes

I'll admit that this chapter is a bit short, but I've been so busy lately,
that I haven't had much time to write. In any case, we shall be seeing more
interaction between Celia and Ranma as they will soon be returning to space
with the other Gundam pilots. See ya there!
