SD Gundam Fan Fiction ❯ SD Gundam Force ❯ Chapter One: His Name is Captain ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The land of the Dark Axis, unlike its sunny counterpart of Neotopia, was a barren and dreadful place. The land itself had died and twisted under the evil influence of hatred and destruction.
The blue of the sky had faded, leaving a twisted, dark abyss. Chunks of hard, dusty stone drifted in the emptiness. Two crescent, scythe-like moons hung in the shadowy sky, their pale, weak light barely piercing the thick black smog.
Under the eerie light of these two moons, sailing through the black mist like some sort of cursed ship, came a massive steel vessel- the Magna Musai.
Those who served the Dark Axis served only one purpose: to destroy and steal the technology of other worlds. They were unable to create anything on their own. So many other dimensions, joyous, wonderful places, had fallen beneath their brutality, their technology gone, and everything else turned to stone.
A group of nervous soldiers, the Zakos, stood clustered together on the deck of the Musai, their faint wave of voices rising to the skies. Each Zako looked the same: they wore domed helmets, olive-green armor, and held minute guns. Each one had his single red were fixed on a doorway above their heads.
The doorway opened suddenly, and a shadow fell across the soldiers.
He was twice their size, with bright, blood-red armor. Sharp, cruel-looking spikes twisted upwards from one shoulder. In each hand he held a machine gun, and a larger weapon was slung across his back.
Zapper Zaku silenced the Zakos with a single look.
“The hour of the invasion has come,” he said, “when we of the Dark Axis at last take control of all robots in all dimensions! Behold!”
A yellow, monstrous figure drifted before the warship and opened its mouth. As it widened, taking shape and form, an image appeared: a golden tower glowing against a clear sky, cities surrounded by forests and rivers, peaceful people and content robots everywhere.
“A world just crawling with peaceful, industrious robots for us to destroy and enslave!” Zapper Zaku cried. “Neotopia! That is our target.”
The Zakos cheered. Weapons were raised in the air.
“Launch the Komusai!” Zapper Zaku ordered over the ruckus, and a stout, heavy ship detached itself from beneath the Musai. The ship did a complete circle of the abyss before barreling towards the gate.
Laughing darkly, Zapper Zaku leapt on one of the Musai’s shining cannons, then landed on the ship. His laughter echoed behind him as they hit the gate and vanished.

Shute turned and grinned at the bright blue train beside him.
“Oh, and they’re neck-and-neck as they head toward the big finish,” he narrated excitedly. “The crowd’s on its feet…”
Pulling a white controller from the pocket of his jeans, the boy tapped a button.
“Engage roller rocket power!”
Two powerful blasts of air burst from his rollerblades, propelling him forward. The train disappeared behind him, and Shute gave a victorious cry as he sprang into the air.
“Yeah! Kid beats train! And the crowd goes crazy- WHOA, WATCH OUT!”
Two mobile police units jumped to the side as Shute crashed between them and rocketed down the street.
“These kids today, they’re just too wild,” one muttered, frazzled. Reaching for his microphone, he shouted, “Slow down there, you little hooligan! You’re going to take someone’s head off, you are!”
Shute looked over his shoulder and smiled sheepishly, his emerald-green eyes dancing playfully in the light. The wind teased his spikes of chestnut-brown hair around his face- a smiling face, touched by the sun and summer breezes- and he grinned sheepishly.
“Sorry, officer!” he called. “I’ll take it slow from now on, honest! I-”
That’s when a sudden rumble echoed across the field, distracting him from his apology.
Looking up, Shute saw a patch of violet-black light erupt in the sky, swirling and sucking away the beautiful sapphire blue. The air around him was charged with an ominous whirring…What was happening?The patch of darkness swelled and expanded, revealing a golden circle.
“…Wow, I’ve heard about this,” Shute breathed, fixated on the otherworldly phenomenon. “It’s the…aurora borealis or something…”
And that’s when a massive, evil-looking hunk of red steel emerged from the portal, barreling right at him!
“On second thought- WHOA!”
Shute turned and tried to rollerblade out of the ship’s path, but even with his rocket blades, it was gaining on him. With a strangled cry, the boy threw himself on the ground, covering his head with his hands. As the vessel rocketed over his head, a loud roaring nearly deafened him, and a searing wind scorched his skin.
Then, quite suddenly, it was gone.
Shaking slightly, he lifted his head, just in time to see the red warship disappear behind a hill- with the police officers, on the alert, in pursuit.
What the heck…he thought, utterly lost. Well…you don’t see that every day…
He sat there for a moment, staring after the ominous red ship.
If I was smart, Shute considered, I’d stay out of this…
With a deep breath, he got to his feet, and then sped towards the scene.
But I’m not!

The Komusai rocketed across the plains, its fiery jets torching wildflowers, its mighty hull plowing down trees…
Until it crashed into a hill, sending Zapper Zaku- who had been perched imperiously on the bow- flying clear across the field.
Righting itself in the air, the ship made a shaky landing on the hilltop. The Zakos fanned out, weapons ready.
Zapper Zaku, recovered from his sudden jolt, sprang into the air and landed before them, laughing maliciously.
“Now we’ll grab all these robots and turn them into scrap!” he shouted, raising his fist.
The Zakos did the same.
But then Zapper Zaku realized something: there were no robots.
He lifted a foot. Stuck to the steel plates were a dozen pink flower petals.
The Zakos did the same, and began chattering wildly. The warm spring air was filled with bewildered cries of, “Zako? Zako?”
Shute’s rollerblades had become useless once he’d reached the grassy fields, so he’d had to settle for chasing after the shi on foot. Panting slightly from a mix of exhaustion (he’d run a long way- that ship had been moving fast) and shock, he made his way up a smaller hill and, realizing someone had exited the craft, ducked behind a large oak tree.
Who are these guys? Shute thought, confused.
Zapper Zaku turned to his troops, enraged.
“These are the wrong coordinates!” he snapped. “Which of you bucket-heads put us down here?”
The Zakos took a few steps back to avoid his temper. Zapper Zaku had plotted the coordinates of the ship, but they couldn’t say that…
“You miserable bunch of mechanized, metallic morons!” He charged at them, still fuming. “Robots are in the city; that’s where we should be invading!”
As he spoke, Zapper Zaku flung one heavy hand towards Neotopia, glittering like some magic masterpiece in the distance.
Shute grasped the bark of the tree to steady himself. Invading?!
“But no!” Zapper Zaku carried on, stamping his foot in a frustrated temper tantrum. “You put us down in a field of filthy, smelly organics! What are you waiting for, you idiots? Scatter the Bagu-Bagu and turn this mess into stone!”
The Zakos sprang back in fright, then revealed a group of round, gray guns and turned to the flowers. The whirring and buzzing started again as they sprayed a faint, dark mist across the grass.
Peering closer, Shute saw that the mist was comprised of dozens of tiny, robotic bugs- demonic-looking creatures with short, sharp pincers, beaked mouths parting to reveal long red stingers. They clung to the leaves and flowers, digging the tapered points in the plants. Slowly, the color of the flora faded, darkened…and then died away completely as they turned to rock.
“Nasty stuff will take over the whole planet if you let it…” Zaku grumbled as he overlooked the petrifaction. “That’s right, pave it over!”
Shute watched in horror as the field of flowers became a field of stone- cold, lifeless, and empty- before his very eyes.
“Yeah, that’s more like it…I love the smell of fresh concrete in the morning.” Zaku’s vent-like mouth stretched into a cruel smile.
Shute clenched his fists. “These guys are bad news,” he snarled under his breath.
That’s when he heard voices.
It was the police units who had evaded Shute in the road! They were equipped with a pair of microphones, barking orders at the invading robots.
“Okay, now, sir, we’re going to have to ask you and your men to cease and desist!”
The soldiers spun around.
“Who’s that?” Zapper Zaku asked.
His eye fixated itself upon the police and glowed a vicious shade of red. “Ah-ha!”
“Let’s start with you dropping your weapons,” the police continued, unaware of the danger. “Robot citizens in Neotopia are not around to be going about with firearms!”
“So there are robots here after all,” Zapper Zaku whispered.
He pointed a finger at them and roared, “Take ‘em out, boys! Turn them into scrap!”
The Zakos grabbed their guns, turned to the police, and fired.
One of the officers fell backwards in shock. “Jiminy!” he cried.
His partner gave a shout of alarm as his cap was blasted off.
The Zakos just kept firing.
Shute’s eyes widened; before he could stop himself, a scream tore from his lips. “NO!”
The police tried to shield themselves, but in the end, they fell over and lay in a pile on the grass.
“Cease fire!” Zapper Zaku ordered.
One of the officers coughed out a faint order as his eyes darkened. “Put…down…”
Then he collapsed, and the soldiers were upon him.
The color drained from Shute’s face, but for a different reason.
Zapper Zaku had seen him.

A loud buzzing filled the air, and he recoiled with a scream of alarm.
The Bagu-Bagu!
Humming with anger, the swarm formed the shape of a single, giant bug- the swordlike stinger aimed right at Shute’s heart.
He screamed.
Something released a burst of light in the sky, and a strong wind swept through the forest.
When the stinger of the Bagu-Bagu came down, Shute wasn’t there.

For a moment, the world was a blur as he was carried away- and then it stopped abruptly, and Shute found himself sitting on the ground, a fair distance away from a fight.
And a robot was standing over him.
The robot had two deep, blue eyes and gleaming, blue-and-white armor. In one hand he held a rifle. In the other he held a shield stamped with a golden star. A three-slatted visor covered his mouth, flashing gold with every word he spoke.
“Do not be frightened,” the stranger said. “I am here to protect you. And do not be alarmed if you see me firing a weapon. I have been issued a special permit to use one. If you’ll excuse me…”
In a flash, he was gone, heading back towards the fight. Shute watched him go with wide eyes, amazed.
The Zakos had begun dragging the two police officers back to their ship. A pane of green glass slid over the stranger’s eyes as he watched them, aiming the rifle carefully.
“Calculating range to target…Trajectory…We have a lock.”
He fired. The bullet grazed through the swarm of insects, burning them away, and then coursed towards the Zakos.
BANG. Before the officers could hit the ground, the mysterious robot had grabbed them and carried them to safety.
Zapper Zaku whirled around in fury. “What?!”
Shute gasped. “Wow…”

After making sure that no more harm could come to the police, the hero tightened his grip on the rifle and turned to the soldiers.
Four of them had taken a direct hit from the rifle and landed in a pile on the ground. “Zako!” they grunted as they hit the ground.
The remaining turned to face the hero as he landed, alarmed.
“Drop your weapons and withdraw,” he said. “I would prefer to avoid further violence, but I am warning you: I will use this weapon for which I have been issued a special permit by the authorities.”
“Oh, I don’t really care about your stupid permit.” Zapper Zaku grabbed his machine guns and started firing. “Here’s my permit!”
The robot simply leaned forward and wove between the oncoming bullets.
“Quick, but not quick enough,” Zapper Zaku growled.
The robot kept dodging. He moved closer.
“Stand still!” Zapper Zaku demanded. Frustrated, he stopped firing, and the stranger took the opportunity to confront him.
“Drop your weapon!”
Zapper Zaku dropped the guns. Then he came at his opponent, the spikes on his shoulder glistening lethally.
Shute gasped as the hero tossed his rifle into the air, braced himself behind the shield, and charged, too.
Zapper Zaku was momentarily distracted. He watched the rifle go with his eye, but when his shoulder met the stranger’s shield, he grinned.
“What good’s your permit now?” he sneered.
A spike emerged from the bottom of the stranger’s shield, and he drove it into the ground. He grabbed the shield for support and kicked out at Zapper Zaku, hitting him in the back of the head.
“Hey, no kicking!” Zapper Zaku whined, but he came back around the other way and struck him in the chest. He stumbled backwards, and the hero grabbed his rifle.
He fired. Two jets of fire burst from Zapper Zaku’s back, and he levitated out of the way, landing on the ship.
Shute jumped to his feet. “Wow. Nobody’s ever going to believe this.”
The sad part was, he was probably right.
“Komusai, hover mode!” Zapper commanded, and the ship flew up.
Out of range on his warship, Zapper Zaku glared daggers at the hero. “Very well. If that’s the way you want to play it…”
With a menacing growl, he drew a small, yellow device from out of nowhere. “Magna Musai, into position. Bring your main cannons to bear! Open the Zakarello Gate and prepare to fire!”
The golden circle appeared in the sky once more. A foggy image of a ship appeared.
The hero took stepped back warily.
“Ready?”
Zapper pointed down at the hero. “VAPORIZE HIM!”
Two bolts of green light exploded from the ship. They passed through the sphere, erupted into the bright blue skies of Neotopia, and kept coming…
“Oh, no…” The robot turned and saw Shute standing, paralyzed, behind him. “The boy!”
“Uh-oh,” Shute murmured.
He and the stranger were both in the cannon’s line of fire!
The hero raised his shield and fired three blasts from his rifle. They didn’t even phase the larger beam.
It hit him full on.
A terrible pain ripped through him. His rifle spit angry sparks of electricity and flew from his grasp. The surface of his shield twisted in the heat…
BOOM!
Zapper Zaku, the Komusai, and the Zako soldiers all flew into the air and disappeared. The mysterious robot vanished over the horizon. The police were blown over the hill.
Shute dug his hands into the earth to hold on, screaming, “No one’s ever going to believe this!”
When it was all over, the Zakos were gone, the police were gone, and the stranger was gone. A large, hot red crater sat in the middle of the forest, sending streams of black smoke into the sky.
“Well, at least they can’t say I imagined all of this…” Shute breathed.

The sun set, dyeing the sky with pink and purple, and Shute walked home, his rollerblades thrown over one shoulder. His thoughts were still with the strange robot.
“I hope he’s okay, wherever he is,” Shute whispered. “He saved my life twice, and I never even got to thank him.”
He could see his house on the horizon. He broke into a run.

“Hey, I’m home!
“Hiya, Shute!”
Shute’s dad, Mark, with his dark-blonde hair and warm brown eyes, sat in the living room, strumming his guitar.
“Dad, Dad,” Shute said, excited, “you’ll never believe what happened today! The most amazing thing ever!”
But Shute’s father wasn’t paying attention. “Hey, I’m glad you’re here- could you maybe help me out with your little sister?”

A few minutes later, Shute stood outside, playing with his baby sister, Nahna. “Up, up, Nahna!” Shute cried, lifting her into the air. Nana cooed and giggled with delight, kicking her little feet.
“Hover mode!” Shute laughed. “Fire stabilizers and liftoff!”
Then he held Nahna close to him and sighed, speaking to her as though her expected her to understand the unbelievable events that had occurred.
“…But seriously, Nahna, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen! And then, just like that, it was all over, like it never even happened…”
That’s when he smelled something burning.
Alarmed, Shute whirled around. A small shed sat at the edge of the yard, and a large, smoldering hole was blown in the roof.
“What happened to my workshop?!” Shute cried.
He started down the stairs from the porch, then looked at Nahna. He was just about to put her in her stroller when a voice called out to him.
“Well, what are you two up to?”
“Oh, look who’s home, Nahna! It’s Mom!” Relieved, Shute put his baby sister in the arms of his mother, home from work. “She really missed you!”
“Done your homework?” Shute’s mother, Keiko, was a university teacher, and that was one of the first things she said when she got home from work every day.
“I’ll do it in my workshop!” Shute promised. He grabbed the railing and thundered down the steps.
“Where’s your father?”
“Working on a song in his studio! See ya!” Halfway down the stairs, Shute had a growing dread that he already knew what might be inside…
He stopped before the door, his hands inches from the knob.
“What if it’s, like, radioactive or something?” he asked himself. He sighed and shook his head. “Nah...”
With that, he opened the door.
At the initial glance, everything seemed normal. RepairBot, a helper Shute had built to aid in big projects, leaned against the wall, his eyes dark. There was the desk, the chair, the lamp, the ladder…
Something jutted through the wood of the second floor.
An arm.
Shute gave a slight gasp, then clambered up the ladder. His eyes widened.
“It’s…him…”
Laying on a bed of splintered wood was the robot from before.

Later that night…

RepairBot shook his head. “I’ve done all I can. I’m a RepairBot, not a magician.”
The stranger leaned against a wall, his face terrifyingly blank.
“Well, that was a pretty big blast,” Shute sighed, kneeling beside him. “It’s not surprising it messed him up…”
With a grunt, Shute lifted the robot’s heavy arm and glimpsed something printed on his shoulder.
“GF? Wonder what that stands for...” Shrugging the mystery away, Shute lifted his head and smiled. “I’ll get you working again if it takes all night,” he promised.
And so the work began.
Shute shone a flashlight in the robot’s eyes. He took out a stethoscope and listened for the robot’s whirring pulse. He took out some tools, realized that the robot was missing no important parts (except for the rifle, which had been lost in the blast) and put them back. He tried to move the robot to see if there was an injury in his back. Nothing.
“Okay. Let’s see if that did something,” Shute said after some time. He pulled out a circuitry-viewer and focused it on the robot.
TRANSPARENT MODE: ERROR
“What?!”
Shute flung himself on the ground with a moan of exhaustion. “I give up. When I said I’d get you working if it took all night, I didn’t really mean all night! Oh…”
He sat up with a frustrated shout.
“Okay, that does it! Rise and shine! Come on, wake up!”
The robot didn’t stir.
Shute groaned. Then, in a softer voice, he whispered, “Come on. At least let me return the favor… You saved my life, didn’t you?”
He looked around for something that could help.
In the corner of the room was an old pile of toys and books. One of them caught his eye: Sleeping Beauty. Shute opened it and read.
With a kiss from her prince, the princess awoke.
“…It’s not your standard procedure,” he considered slowly, “but who knows? Nothing else is working…”
Keiko came outside, stood on the porch, and called, “Shute, time for bed!”
“Uh, I’m gonna sleep down here tonight, Mom!” Shute replied.
“Well, lights out. It’s bedtime.”
“Right!” Shute turned off the lights. “Good night!”
Luckily, there was a full moon. White light shone into the shed, and he could see every feature on the stranger’s face perfectly.
In the still darkness of the night, Shute gazed deeply at the robot. He just had to help him…
He took a deep breath, put a hand on his chest, and moved closer. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead. How was he going to do this? The robot had no mouth, just the slatted visor covering most of his helmeted face.
Shute blushed, unable to believe he was actually doing what he was trying to do. He grabbed a handful of his vest with his hand. His heart began to beat faster.
The first rapid heartbeats echoed strangely in the small room.
A beam of light shot from the robot’s chest.
Shute hesitated. A hatch swung open from the stranger’s chest and he leapt backwards with a cry.
“I-I wasn’t really gonna do it…” he stammered.
The compartment that had opened held an orb about the size of Shute’s fist, partially hidden by spinning yellow rings.
“What is that?”
Fascinated, he looked closer, and the rings stopped spinning and sank away. The orb was filled with a flickering aqua light, and in the center was a small flame.
“That’s a good sign. Maybe.” Shute put one hand near the orb. “Kind of warm…”
He grinned. “At least we know your pilot light is still on,” Shute laughed. “We’ll have you coking with gas in no time.”

It was very early in the morning, so early that the sun hadn’t begun to rise, when the stranger awoke.
He lifted his head, unable to realize where he was. He saw the hole in the ceiling. He saw the hole in the floor.
He saw the boy and remembered.
“Hey, you’re awake!”
Yawning and stretching from his nap, Shute jumped to his feet. “How are you feeling? Okay?”The hero lifted his hands and gazed at them. “…You repaired me,” he murmured.
He nodded proudly. “That’s right.”
“For what reason?”
“Hey, it was the least I could do. You saved my life back there. Thanks, by the way.”
The robot shrugged. “No need for thanks. I was merely fulfilling my directive,” he replied.
“Well, don’t get all mushy on me.” The boy put a hand on one hip and leaned back. “Anyway, I’m Shute. What do they call you?”
“I cannot tell you that. My very existence is meant to be classified.”
Shute groaned. “Oh, wow, you’re a lot of fun,” he said sarcastically.
Suddenly, the robot’s headpiece pricked up, flashing.
“Enemies detected. In the factory district,” he breathed.
Shute jumped. “What? Is it those guys again?”
The robot positioned himself beneath the beam of moonlight and looked sadly at Shute.
“…Erase my existence from your memory,” he said. “None of this happened.”
Then, in a burst of sky-blue light, he had leapt into the sky and was gone.
Shute backed away slowly, trying to see the tiny figure of the robot as he vanished. “That’s gratitude for- YAH!”
Not looking where he was going, he slipped and fell through the hole left by the stranger’s crash-landing, plummeting and hitting the floor- hard.
“Ohh…” Shute groaned and sat up. His hand brushed something twisted and warm.
It was the shield.

Down in the factory district, a group of workers were repairing some damaged pipes that led to the city. They stopped when a voice rang through the site.
“Greetings, robot workers. We have come to liberate you…in a manner of speaking.”
Menacing laughter echoed through the air, and a massive red ship suddenly appeared. It drifted over their heads, casting them in a dark shadow, before it turned a corner-
BANG!“OW!”
A worker on the upper levels slowly backed away from the crash site, terrified by the sight, and fell from the walkway into the pit below.
The gleam of red eyes lit up the pit.
As the Zakos jumped to attack, Zapper Zaku positioned himself on a spire and pointed.
“Right, let’s try this again. Ready? Turn them to scrap!”
The Zakos started firing. The workers fell back.
“That’s right!” Watching triumphantly, Zapper Zaku laughed, “I want them in itsy-bitsy pieces! Today this factory, tomorrow the world!”
“Hold it!”
“Hmm? Hmm?” He searched frantically for the source of the voice, and when he saw the hero, Zapper Zaku gave a strangled cry of rage. “You again!”
“For the last time,” the stranger ordered, “you and your followers will lay down your weapons!”
“What weapons? You mean…these weapons?” Zapper Zaku drew his machine guns and began firing. The robot jumped down from he walkway and threw out his arms, shielding the workers from the bullets.
Two rows of smaller bullets fired from his helmet. Some of the Zakos dropped their guns, shouting, and hid behind the others. He fired two missiles from barrels on his wrist. All of the Zakos rose into the air from the blast, and a cloud of fire rose into the sky…

Shute went as fast as he could, the thick shield strapped to his back with a length of rope. The problem was- he was lost.
That’s when a cloud of fire rose into the sky.
“I bet I’ll find him over there,” Shute murmured, heading towards the blast.
The shield dragged him down, and Shute fell over. “Man, this thing is heavy!”
Two more explosions sounded own the street…

The hero tried firing again. But he was out of machine bullets and out of missiles. He was forced to cover his face with his arms, poor defense against the rain of lead. He slid back a few inches.
“Oh, out of ammo?” Zapper Zaku whined sarcastically. “Such a pity.”
He sprang on the Komusai, and the combat carrier began firing its cannons, too. The hero was hidden behind a barrage of bullets and bright flashes.
“It’s almost too sad, really,” the other robot continued. “You put up a good fight. But all good things must come to an end.”
With a laugh, he produced the communicator again.
“Only the Dark Axis survives forever! Open the Zakarello Gate!”

Shute banged on the doors. He pulled on the handles. But it was no use- they were locked tight.
“Come on, come on!” he cried, desperate.
There was a pillar off to the side. He looked down at his rollerblades.
“That might work…”
Shute rollerbladed towards the pillar and whipped out the remote control.
“Roller rocket power!“
He flew into the air, slid along the bottom of the rail, and then landed on the ground. Thankfully, the shield broke the impact of the fall.

The stream of bullets kept coming as the stranger’s eyes frantically searched the field.
“My shield,” he panted. “Where is my shield?”
“Hey! Hey, you!”
He turned around.
It was Shute again.
“Mr. Classified Guy! Here, catch!”
Shute flung the shield at the hero.
“You left that at my place! I thought you might need it!”The hero held up the shield, safe from the barrage, and turned to Shute, his eyes sparkling
“…Thank you,” he said softly.
A bright light suddenly burst from him.
He spun the shield in a circle, gradually going faster and faster. The bullets began to bounce off of the shield.
“That won’t save you,” Zapper Zaku scoffed. “Fry the Gundam!”
Once again, the face of the Magna Musai appeared in the gate, and two powerful cannon blasts came at the hero, who just kept spinning the shield, faster and faster…
Shute grinned.
“That’s the way!” he cheered. “Yeah!”
And then it activated.
Deep within himself, the hero felt something stir as the light grew stronger and stronger. The gold melted into his white armor and made it shine. One fist began to vibrate, and his eyes filled with fire…

Back at Gundam Force base, alarms started blaring.
“Output levels are climbing,” a voice cried. “The Soul Drive has activated!”
Chief Haro leapt to his feet. “What?”

The hero glared triumphantly at the Dark Axis, cocking back his arm for a finishing blow.
“Right back at you, space scum!”
He slammed his fists into the line of fire, sending the cannon blasts, the missiles, and all of the bullets back at the soldiers.
Zapper Zaku’s courage failed him and he stared, disbelieving, into the lights.
“…Uh-oh…”
His scream was lost to the loud roar of the explosions. He was pulled from the Komusai and into the gate.
There was a chain of explosions, and the Zakos vanished, too.
The gate melted away, and then the sun rose, bathing the battlefield in golden light.
Shute and the hero locked eyes.
They smiled.

“Enemy forces have retreated,” the voice explained as the alarms died away.
Chief Haro sat down again, relieved.
“Good. Bring him back. And don’t lose track of him this time, all right?”“Yes, sir.”

When it was all over, the stranger stood in he midst of the smoke, his eyes still burning and his fists still shining.
Shute uncovered his head, gasped, and then jumped up, grinning.
“That was wild! All right!” He swung one arm in a circle and assumed a fighting position, just like the robot had. “Ha, ha! Wait to go, robot dude!”
The stranger didn’t reply. He gazed at his hands in shock until the flames in his eyes died and the golden lights ebbed away.
Suddenly, a dozen shadows flickered across the floor of the factory as a group of square ships descended around them. The doors swung open, and out marched a steady line of soldiers, all wearing pale blue armor, with the golden star emblazoned on their shoulders. They saluted the stranger.
“At ease, men,” he said, and they lowered their hands. “Secure those victims still functioning and download their memory dives for anything that may be of use.”
The blue soldiers began helping the unconscious workers onto the ships. It reminded Shute uneasily of the policemen.
“Shute.” Now the stranger was before him. “Your assistance was appreciated.”
Shute smiled. “It was no big deal-”
“Good-bye.” The mysterious robot had turned stiffly and was heading back towards the soldiers.
“Hey, wait!”
At his cry, the stranger froze.
“That’s…it? That’s all?”
Shute hung his head in desperation. “I’m never gonna see you again? Come on….I mean, I know you can’t tell me your name, but it’s not fair that-”
The robot turned around, and Shute jumped when he saw the face had changed. Where there had once been a slatted visor, there was now a mouth like Shute’s, but steel.
“Never mind,” Shute apologized in a hurry. He feared he had angered the stranger somehow. “You don’t need to tell me anything. You-”
He was smiling. “All right, Shute. My name is Captain Gundam. But…keep it to yourself, hmm?”
And with a warm, friendly nod, Captain was off, and had disappeared behind the troops.
Shute smiled, too.
“Good bye, Captain Gundam,” he whispered.