"Welcome everyone to yet another brand new story. My name is Drago3511 and I'll be your author for this expedition."

"Now I know things have been tough on everyone due to the current state of affairs, myself included since I'm part of the "essential worker" crowd. And I know it has hit the entertainment industry especially hard worldwide, with a lot of shows either being canceled or on hiatus for the foreseeable future. One such hiatus, which didn't necessarily spark the idea for the story but gave me a good excuse to finally write it, is Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise... which only saw a few episodes after the previous hiatus between seasons 1 and 2."

"But I've had this idea rolling around in my head for a while, so no time like the present, yeah? Without further ado, let's get to the disclaimer! I do not own Gundam or any of the Gunpla used in this story except for any of the customs seen in the story that I take credit for."

"Now, are you ready?"

"DIVE START"

"talking"

message

GBN VOICE

The sun was shining high in the sky, noon had just broken on a Saturday, and one young man was sitting on the front step of his porch, looking at his watch rather impatiently. It looked like any other that you would see in a suburban area, small lawn with a cement path connecting the driveway and the steps. The porch made of simple wood, possibly oak, with the support beams and railings painted white to match the house itself, which was two stories in height with a slanted roof covered in black shingles.

As for the person sitting on the step, he was a 16-year-old with pale white skin, messy brown hair, and piercing blue eyes. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt under an army-green vest that had a raised collar, a silver dog tag necklace, blue jeans, and black trainers. A black watch covered his wrist, which would have holes burned into it from how much he was staring at it.

"Come on... It said at noon..." Reaching into his pocket, the boy produced his smartphone and unlocked the screen to look at a tracking app. The estimated time of delivery it showed was indeed 12, but it didn't give the current location of the driver. "For crying out loud, I've been waiting all summer for today. Where could it b-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the sound of a truck pulling up broke him out of his thoughts. Looking up from his phone in shock, he saw a delivery truck pulled up to the curb, and the driver stepping out to go to the back. Watching patiently with bated breath, there was nothing but silence as the driver pulled a rather large package out of the back of the truck and walked over to the house.

"Package for Sean Sky?" The driver asked, making the now named Sean stand up.

"Yeah, that's me."

"I'm just going to need you to sign here for me." He motioned his head down to the top of the box, where a digital pad with a stylus was sitting atop the cardboard box.

"Sure, no problem," Sean responded politely. He picked up the pad and quickly signed his name, placing it back on top and grabbing the sides of the box, swapping places with the driver, who then picked up the pad.

"Thank you kindly, and have a good day." The driver nodded and headed back to the truck. Sean responded with a quick "you too" before turning around and heading inside the house. The door being left open since he was sitting out front. Using his foot as a hook and pulling the door closed behind him, it shut rather loudly. But he didn't pay it any mind. Because he was way too excited to finally have what he'd been working every week for the last three months to get his hands on.

A man with a short, well-trimmed beard walked out from the kitchen and looked at Sean, who had a huge smile on his face. He had a bit of a gray-to-brown fade going on in his short curly hair, with dull green eyes, which were covered in rectangular frameless glasses. He was dressed in ragged work clothes which were stained with splotches of water, and a tool belt and rag hung from his waist.

"That it?" He asked, to which Sean nodded.

"Sure is, Dad."

"Now I know we said you could spend your summer earnings on whatever you wanted..." He started.

"I know, I know. If my grades slip during the first semester I'm grounded. But I promise I'll do good in school so that doesn't happen so can I please just go set this up?"

The older Sky chuckled and motioned his head in a jerking motion to the side, where a hallway with a staircase leading up was. "Go on. You earned it."

"Literally!" Sean rushed past his father and up the stairs faster than you could blink, the sound of thumping making him sigh.

"All that money he earned and he could have started to save towards a car. But instead, he spent almost all of it on some crazy game setup... but then again, from what I've seen, this Gunpla thing is pretty big."

After getting to his room, Sean wasted no time placing the box on his bed and opening it up, slicing into the tape with a box cutter he had on a nearby desk and tossing out any of the bubblewrap into a trashcan at the foot of the bed. What he saw just made him even more excited. It was a Diver Gear Home System, the home version that allowed people to play GBN, Gunpla Battle Nexus Online. Considering that most places that offer access to the game are in public buildings, a home system costs a pretty penny. But to Sean, it was worth every cent. He carefully took the console out and placed it on his computer desk, moving his monitor, mouse, and keyboard around so that it would fit properly before plugging everything in.

Then, he opened a drawer and looked in to see a triangle-shaped tile that was gray with a monitor built into it. The Diver Gear he got with his very first paycheck. While not nearly as expensive, it made him equally excited at the time. And laying next to it was a High Grade model of the Gundam Barbatos with its 4th Form gear, though the plastic model itself had a bit of sparkle and sheen to it. Not from any painting he did, but because it was a limited-edition model.

"Well, Barbatos... I think it's time we finally made our entrance." Sean picked up both the items and placed them in front of the console. Turning on the system and grabbing the VR headpiece, he sat down in front of the setup and placed in the tile to the console, the screen on the tile lit up with the logo for GBN followed by the words: Diver Name - Sora

ID DATA CONFIRMED

PLEASE SCAN YOUR GUNPLA

Following the instructions, Sean picked up his Barbatos model and placed it onto the console in the middle of the tile, armed with its mace in hand and the smoothbore cannon and sword mounted on the backpack. A ring of light raised from the base and covered the model in glowing particles before its eyes glowed and the 'shell' of particles broke off.

LOGIN DATA CONFIRMED, ARE YOU READY?

DIVE START NOW

The display in the headset glowed and Sean could feel himself 'diving' into the game... into the world of GBN.

(GBN America Server - Central Hub)

Appearing in a stream of data that formed together was Sean with his eyes closed, though his outfit was vastly different than what he was wearing. Now his body was adorned with a black loose sleeveless gi top held up by a slightly darker black belt, black pants with white ornate crosses on the thighs, and brown boots. His left arm was covered in a metal fingerless gauntlet with a white cloth extending up to his bicep. When he opened his eyes, he smiled looking at the familiar gleaming white area filled with players, even if he had only been there the one time to set up his Diver Gear.

"Hard to believe it's been months since I was last here... granted it was only the one time but still." He said to himself quietly. Stepping off the pad, he walked over to the main desk in the middle of the hub, where a receptionist was standing. But while he did, he still couldn't believe the number of players in the American server. Many of them were dressed up in outfits reminiscent of different Gundam anime series. Some in the military uniforms of Zeon and the EFSF, or ZAFT and the Earth Alliance. Some were even dressed in pilot suits or were in original outfits much like his. There were even some elves, animalistic players, or just humans with ears and tails, and some Haros around.

"That's right, GBN has a race system... and the Haros are for... guest players if I'm remembering correctly." Bringing his attention back to focus, he quickly noticed someone running towards him... but it was too late.

"Oof!"

"Aah!" came the cry of a young girl.

Sean landed on his butt, but there wasn't much pain. There was no pain reception in GBN so the cries were mostly out of surprise.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked the girl who bumped into him. But his response was... not what he was expecting.

"AAAAAAAAHHH! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry! Wait, that's right I'm late!" She panicked and got to her feet, running over to the counter and tapping on the prompt that showed up repeatedly in a frenzy. Sean couldn't even get a look at her face before she broke off. The only thing he could make out before she disappeared in a stream of data was a purple jacket with a large butterfly mark on the back.

"That was... weird..." He got to his feet and brushed himself off before proceeding to the counter like the panicking girl before did. A pop-up window appeared in front of him with a selection of mission categories, but since he's playing solo and just wants to get his bearings, he chose a beginner mission titled "Iron and Blood and Gunpla", fitting considering the Gunpla he's using is an Iron-Blooded Orphans build.

A final window asking whether he'd like to start the mission or not appeared, which he tapped "OK" and caused it to disappear, followed by himself breaking down and transferring to another location, which happened to be a hangar area. It was there that he saw his Barbatos standing tall in all its glory. It really did feel like he was a Mobile Suit pilot now, he was smiling so wide he could barely contain himself. After going through a brief tutorial on how to enter his Gunpla, he transferred yet again, this time into a glowing wireframe space with some floating controllers and a monitor display that was looking down a catapult launcher.

Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the controls and did what any pilot worth their salt would do...

"Sora, Gundam Barbatos... launching!"

Pushing forward on the controls, Barbatos sped down the catapult and took off into the air, giving Sean a full view of the cityscape of the America server. Each country's server of GBN had its own unique layout and characteristics, with the city of the America server looking much like the New York of G Gundam, complete with a statue of the Gundam Maxter in the middle of the downtown area. Sean couldn't help but wonder in the detail, but he turned his attention back to his destination, a glowing gate in the middle of the sky which acted as the mission transport gate. With no hesitation, he passed through it and found himself standing outside of the base of the CGS, soon to be Tekkadan on Mars. It really felt like he was there in the world of one of his favorite Gundam series. What made it especially realistic were the sounds of the gunfire coming from the distance.

"Did the mission already start? Or is someone else already here?" He didn't see any prompt on his screen or in the sky, nor was there an announcement so he could only assume the latter and activated his thrusters to take off towards the action. Since his suit wasn't built for atmospheric flight, it was more like a really powerful jump rather than flying. And what he saw surprised him.

He saw a single mobile suit taking heavy fire from a bunch of Graze suits... and by a bunch, it meant there were more than there should have been.

"Maybe it's not accurate to the show because it's meant as a wait out the clock mission? But that guy definitely needs help." Grabbing the smoothbore cannon on its back, the Barbatos fired on the Graze units, taking out one and breaking off some of the others to ease up on the other player. Angling down and revving the propulsion again, Sean dived toward the group with mace in hand and reared it back, swinging it down on another Graze and knocking off its arm.

"Did I clear the mission? Wait, no the clock is still going! And that's a way more loaded up Barbatos!" Sean heard a voice come from the Gunpla behind him. It sounded like a teenage boy.

"Sorry to disappoint you." He chided back, placing the cannon back where it was earlier on the backpack. "But it looked like you could use a hand."

"Considering the other guys I came with bailed on me, I appreciate it. But this is weird, the mission either clears if you wait out the time or take out a certain number of Grazes, and I'm pretty sure I took out enough..."

"Maybe there's a glitch?" Sean suggested.

"With my luck, that's probably it... Incoming!" The other player warned of two Grazes coming towards the Barbatos with their axes, but before he could react, the other Gunpla swerved in front in raised both its arms, blocking the attacks. Upon closer inspection, Sean could make out that this guy was using a Gundam Astaroth, albeit a much more symmetrical and more armored Astaroth.

"Thanks. Now let's take these guys out until the real Barbatos shows up!" Sean jumped above the tanky Astaroth and swiped with his mace, taking the heads of the attacking Grazes off.

"Let's!" The other pilot pushed back once the enemies lost their sight and reached back, pulling off a large sword that unfolded into an even LONGER sword, spun around in a 180-degree motion, and swung through the middle of them, slicing both of the Grazes in half and causing them to explode. Barbatos landed behind the Astaroth, back to back surrounded by Grazes.

There was no more conversation between the players and they just went on savagely tackling the enemy mobile suits. Barbatos swung left and right with the mace, knocking guns out of hands, or in some cases knocking hands off of arms, as best as he could to avoid ranged damage. Unfortunately a few bullets nailed him from time to time, weakening the armor on one of his shoulders and his legs. One of them even tagged the cannon on his back causing it to blow up and deal massive damage to the Gundam. Wanting to try something out due to his now lighter weight, Sean threw the mace at another Graze. It dodged out of the way, but he grabbed the sword on his back and charged forward to parry an incoming ax attack before slicing diagonally across the chest.

On the other side, the Astaroth was blocking attacks for the most part, but the artillery fire didn't do much to his armor plating, showing that it was quite sturdy. Even after being battered from continuous defense earlier. The large sword from earlier, the Demolition Knife, was placed back in place and in each hand was a different weapon. One was a Bastard Chopper blade, and the other looked like the Heat Sword of a Gouf Custom, but with an extended guard that went over the fingers. He was slashing and chopping away without much of a care. The only real threat was the numbers, not the amount of damage they could do to his armor.

As time went on, the two were taking out more and more Grazes, to the point where it was starting to get ridiculous. The Astaroth player had already taken out eight by the time Sean got there on his own, and at this point that had already rounded out to twenty. And Sean himself had wracked up a count of ten.

"Come on! Is there no end to these things!" Astaroth's pilot yelled in frustration. Sean was well in agreement at the point. His mace and sword were both battered, and he was missing a piece of shoulder armor now. Not exactly how he was hoping his first mission would turn out...

"We just have to keep going until the time runs out!."

"I know, I know!. Geh, just wish it would stop!"

TIME UP

"Wait... what?!" They both looked at their displays, and the clock had indeed run out to zero... they were both so engrossed in the fighting that they had completely lost track of how much time had passed.

And not much later, another Gundam Barbatos had burst from the ground, looking a little less complete than Sean's, and it attacked a Graze with its mace.

MISSION CLEAR

"It... it's over?"

Those were the last words of the Astaroth's pilot before the battlefield had cleared out. But not before the sight of the less beaten Barbatos stood there looking out in the distance.

Sean sighed a bit in relief, having his own Barbatos crouch with the sword planted in the ground and the mace hung over its shoulder before he transferred out and onto the ground. The armored Astaroth walked over with its swords in hand and stopped short of the Barbatos, with its own player appearing in front of Sean. What he saw was a blonde headed teen that wears a short sleeve black shirt and a brown mechanics suit with the top portion tied around the waist. On his head is a pair of goggles and around his neck is a silver cross on a chain. His hands are in fingerless gloves and his feet are covered by black combat boots.

"Geez, we really lost ourselves in that, huh?" he said, chuckling a bit, which Sean replied in kind with his own laughter.

"Yeah, I guess we did. Oh, I'm Sora by the way." Sean held out his hand to the other player, who took it his own, shaking on it.

"Name's KX-78, good to meet ya!." He said with a grin, but Sean's face faltered a bit.

"Wait... What? That sounds like a model number..."

"Yeah, like the original series Gundam! RX-78, I just swapped a letter " he said, rather proudly at that. So much so that he put his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest a little.

"... I'm not calling you by a model number... You're not a mobile suit." Sean pondered for a bit before coming to a conclusion. "How about... Kix?"

"LIKE THE CEREAL?!" KX shouted.

"It's a lot easier to say, plus it doesn't make you sound like a robot... though speaking of mechs..." His attention turned towards the Astaroth that KX was using, which caught the blonde's attention.

"Oh, my Gunpla? You like it? That's my baby, the Gundam Astaroth Fortezza!" Now that Sean really got a look at it, he could tell that it was more than just some extra armor and a balancing adjustment. The Boost Armor on the hips was gone entirely since they really served no purpose outside maneuverability for the asymmetry of the 'kitbash'. Instead, it was replaced with a sheath for the Heat Sword on one side. The Sub-Knuckles on both arms also looked like they were the ones for the Astaroth Rinascimento, but the torso was from the older version and the head was from the Astaroth Origin, which was repainted from red to mostly white with steel gray for the antennae. All the blue parts of the Astaroth were also repainted steel gray, and it looked like there was a beam rifle of all things mounted on the lower back.

"It's impressive alright. A little jealous, all things considered."

"Yeah, you don't see too many players with straight builds unless... you're new aren't you?"

"To the game and customizing in general." Sean rubbed his head sheepishly.

"No wonder your Barbatos got beat up a bit. But hey... it looks like you painted it a bit. It seems, I dunno, shiny."

"Nope, I just put it together out of the box." The denial shocked KX a bit.

"Wait, what? Then... is that the gloss injection version from the season 1 box set?! You're playing with a collectible like that?!"

"At least I didn't hack it up to make a custom..." KX sighed and scratched his head, but nodded in agreement nonetheless.

"Yeah, that's true... that would be a hell of a lot worse. At least these aren't the GPD days otherwise that thing would stay a wreck forever."

The two of them heard a pinging sound and turned their heads up to see a display window with a countdown starting at 30 and ticking away second by second.

"Guess we don't have much time left." Sean said. But then he heard another ping and looked at his personal display, which was a friend request from 'KX-78'.

"Doesn't mean it has to be the LAST time though. This was kinda fun, plus I could give you some tips on customizing if you want. Just... get a regular Barbatos if that's what you plan on using." He deadpanned. Sean nodded and accepted the friend invitation. "I'm gonna log out after we get back, but let's play again!"

When the timer reached zero, Sean's vision went white before he ended up back at the central hub once more. Looking around, he didn't see his new friend Kix anywhere, so he must have logged out IMMEDIATELY. Sean just shrugged it off and was about to log out himself when he got a pop-up window yet again. This time about a bonus reward for clearing a certain requirement.

Mission: Iron and Blood and Gunpla

Requirement: Defeat 10 Graze units

Reward: Logo - Tekkadan. [applicable to clothing]

"Huh... I wonder if I can..."

Going through his menus real quick, he applied the logo over the crosses on his pants, covering them completely as if they were never there to begin with.

"Okay, that's kinda cool. Kix must have gotten the same thing then."

He took another second to admire his pants and decided to log out, saying goodbye to the virtual world... for now anyway.

(Real World)

Opening his eyes to see his setup and his glossy Barbatos in front of him, back to its High Grade size, Sean took the headset off and set it on his desk, picking up the model and gently placing his thumb over the shoulder that had been lost in-game.

"He's probably right, if I'm gonna play GBN I'm gonna have to step up my game..." Getting up, he placed the model on a bookshelf that had a few other models on it, all straight builds of the RX-78-2, Hyakuren, Jegan, Destiny Gundam, and Gundam G-Self. As well as an SD Unicorn in Destroy Mode. He placed the Barbatos in the center, where it was before he set it aside for today.

"Guess my first stop is the local hobby shop..." a loud growling came from Sean's stomach, breaking him out of his thoughts. "...but maybe another time... I skipped breakfast waiting for the mail guy to get here..."

"And I think that's where we're gonna call it quits for today. I really just wanted to do some world building... no pun intended... as well as introduce some of our main characters. Now, if you're a nerd and noticed that the GBN system didn't speak like it did in Re:Rise, that's because it's the original version we got with the first Build Divers! That's right, this isn't taking place during Re:Rise. Reason being is because that story is still ongoing and... frankly you can't do much with fanfic writing unless you want to change the members of who went to Eldora."

"Also, a little thing I wanted to mention about Sean getting his own system and why he would have to save a lot of money for one. Almost everyone we've seen log in to GBN has done it from a public area like the Diver Base. We hardly have ever seen a home setup except I think Koichi that one time in the original BD. And since this is anime-world VR that scarce few have access to at home, I think it's safe to say that the tile Diver Gear isn't that expensive, but my justification would be that a home system would be like buying a PS4 and a PSVR set together. Which is like $700-$800 brand new."

"I'm really invested in this one right now because of the now LACK of Build Divers, so I'll try to get some more chapters out, but "essential worker" life is a bitch, and I'm sure a lot of you understand that so bear with me... and also if you've read some of my other stories, I know koolken and I said we'd try to get more chapters out of Our Hero Academia out but... yeah, that falls under the same 'life is rough for everyone' category. We'll try to get the next chapter up before the end of the month."

"With all that said, please read and review. Until next time, ja ne!"