"Come as you please, leave as you please? Did you get my permission? Funnels!"
"Don't you dare hurt them!"
Accompanied by Luther's sneer over the public channel, the Time Observer once again released half of its Funnels, attempting to bypass Athrun's Aegis Gundam to finish off the heavily damaged Duel Gundam and Yzak.
At that moment, under the increasingly critical situation, Athrun's roar was followed by the Aegis Gundam's movements becoming abruptly more agile.
Athrun then maneuvered the Aegis Gundam, using its high-speed transformation and mobility to evade the intercepting fire from the Funnels of Luther's Time Observer. He even sliced two Funnels in half before charging straight for Luther's Time Observer.
Although Athrun seemed to have entered his 'SEED mode,' Luther was not afraid, merely raising his guard mentally.
In terms of piloting the Time Observer, he gave up on pursuing the heavily damaged Yzak and his Duel Gundam. Instead, he began using the Zaku Machine Gun and the remaining Funnels to do everything he could to prevent the Aegis Gundam from getting close, his verbal taunts remaining as merciless as ever.
"Hmph, relying on the Phase Shift Armor of a stolen machine, it's certainly a lot more trouble to take out you red-uniformed sons of officials. But I'd like to see how much battery power you have left!"
Under the threat of Luther's Zaku Machine Gun and Funnels, Athrun, who was trying to force the Time Observer into melee combat which would be more advantageous for the Aegis, had to rely on his far superior reaction speed to evade the vast majority of the high-threat Funnel beam attacks. However, against Luther's precise shooting, which surpassed Athrun's evasive capabilities, he often had no choice but to tank the Zaku Machine Gun's firepower.
Therefore, watching the Aegis Gundam's remaining power rapidly deplete just as Luther had said, Athrun was at a loss for words.
Yet, Luther's words and piloting performance left Athrun quite puzzled.
The opponent before him was undoubtedly from the Earth Alliance; otherwise, how could he be so familiar with the performance of these G-series mobile suits?
However, the enemy mobile suit's design was more in the style of ZAFT. Furthermore, the opponent seemed quite familiar with his comrades and even Commander Creuset, which suggested he should be someone familiar with Plant, or even ZAFT.
And those overly agile movements, along with that unheard-of new weapon... could the pilot be a Coordinator, just like his good friend Kira Yamato?
Since it had taken Athrun some time to re-sortie in the Aegis Gundam after maintenance, he hadn't heard Luther's earlier taunts to Yzak and the others about Newtypes.
His mind still troubled by why Kira hadn't left with him, Athrun, faced with a somewhat similar situation, couldn't help but ask.
"To be able to pilot a mobile suit so skillfully, you must be a Coordinator too, right? Why are you siding with the Naturals!"
"As expected of Patrick Zala's son. Such a masterful grasp of black-and-white thinking. Unfortunately, you've guessed wrong. The so-called Coordinators are, in the end, just slightly specialized Naturals, still confined to Earth as Oldtypes. We Newtypes, on the other hand, are the true direction of human evolution. Coordinators and the like aren't even worth comparing!"
Faced with Luther's rhetoric, which was even more 'extreme' than that of an extremist 'Coordinator supremacist,' Athrun was completely baffled and found it hard to believe. Yet, the results of the battle before him left him unable to refute it.
Just as he was about to ask a few more questions, Commander Creuset's voice came through the team channel.
"Athrun, Nicol, it's time to retreat!"
Along with his voice came a cautious supporting barrage from the Vesalius and the Gamow—cautious because they lacked the IFF data for the stolen Gundams. Also arriving was the covering fire from Commander Creuset's 76mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun, as he sortied in a makeshift GINN assembled from spare parts aboard the Gamow.
It seemed Creuset's decisive retreat earlier was to sortie again using the GINN spare parts on the Gamow, squeezing out the very last bit of the Creuset Team's combat potential.
"Yes, sir!" & "Understood!"
Under Commander Creuset's clear command and active support, the 'good boys' Athrun and Nicol naturally obeyed the order without any desire to prolong the fight, and began to withdraw while fighting.
But their opponent, Luther, was unwilling to let them go so easily, especially since his number one target, Creuset, had dared to show himself in a GINN without Phase Shift Armor.
"Just in time, Creuset. You won't have to worry about your lifespan as a clone anymore, because you will die here today!"
Although Athrun and Nicol were perplexed by the information Luther mentioned over the public channel, since Commander Creuset said nothing, their priority was to repel the enemy together.
As for Luther, he had shouted his harsh words, but facing the entire Creuset Team, who were focused on retreating, it was indeed difficult for the Time Observer alone to break through their wall of fire, especially since it had also expended a great deal of energy.
After all, besides the negligible supporting fire from the two ZAFT warships, there was the combined firepower of the entire Creuset Team.
There was the considerable threat from the high-energy beam rifles of Athrun's Aegis Gundam and Nicol's Blitz Gundam as they fought and retreated.
There was the all-out supporting fire from Creuset, who, after advancing slightly, remained under the cover of the warships' defensive fire, unstintingly using his GINN's 76mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun.
There was also the covering fire from Yzak's Duel Gundam, its arm hastily reinforced after emergency repairs, and Dearka's Buster Gundam, which was using a GINN's standard weapon jury-rigged with an adapter. Both were positioned on either side of the Vesalius's open catapult deck.
The entire Creuset Team's firepower wove a dense and layered web of denial, making it difficult for Luther's attempts to use his Funnels to break through and kill Creuset to succeed.
Meanwhile, the Gwamel, which had stopped on the other side of the debris from the disintegrated Heliopolis, had limited firepower on its own. The friendly mobile weapons rushing to support them by circumventing the Heliopolis wreckage were too far away to be of immediate help.
After the Funnel assault failed, Luther, watching the Vesalius and Gamow rapidly turn to present their broadsides while their thrusters fired at full power after recovering Athrun's Aegis Gundam and Nicol's Blitz Gundam, finally calmed down from the heat of battle. He had no choice but to rationally accept the situation.
"Perhaps this is the power of the so-called Worldline Convergence?"
"I did confirm energy generated by the worldline's fluctuation. However, due to your previous accumulation in the Universal Century world, you are still a long way from becoming the Fourth Candidate. You'll probably need to at least quell this war first."
Luther shrugged helplessly as his self-deprecating remark received a serious reply from Aqiu.
"Wrong answer. You're getting a proper punishment tonight!"
"I'd be more than happy to, but according to our previous agreement, we have to draw lots for the overnight priority rights first. I hope you still have this much energy when it's my turn."
This time, Luther was truly speechless in the face of Aqiu's particularly human-like response when it came to matters between men and women.
"We're heading back. You just wait for tonight!"
"I'm looking forward to it, Master Luther."
In any case, after this back-and-forth with Aqiu, Luther's mood had improved considerably.
As Luther, who had been watching the Creuset Team's full retreat, began to return to his ship, the other friendly mobile weapons, under the Gwamel's command, also turned back and abandoned the pursuit.