Episode 42: Scorched Earth Policy

[Maria Zenovia]

Maria still stands there in all her tiredness.
She hears and unpleasant girly voice coming from behind.
Like cancer taking acoustic form and drilling into an ear.
At first, Maria does not recognize who it is, but then she recalls- it is that annoying girl that she kept hearing about in the news. Maria vaguely remembers her face, but one thing she remembers about it- it is very punchable. It is just kind of a reaction when one sees it- you do not want to smile at it, you just want to give it a nice reorganization with a shovel.
Unfortunately, there are no shovels in there.
But who the hell needs a shovel when you've spent 10 years with an organization who trains you to break bones with your bare hands???

"What am I doing? I was waiting for an entertainment worth my money..." Maria replies coldly and then presses her hand against Clade slowly turning towards Dasia. She looks Dasia square in the eyes. "...oh, man... Am I gonna entertain myself."

Without giving Dasia a second to react Maria grabs her by the shoulders. She then shoves her knee into Dasia's stomach instantly bringing Dasia very close to throwing up.
She then takes the opportunity and spin-kicks Dasia, who falls on the ground face-down upon impact.
Maria then approaches Dasia and sits on her back preventing her from moving with all the weight she has.

"I like law and that 'leave judges to judge' crap, but I'll be so kind to make an exception for Her Majesty! Special treatment, just for you!" Maria says as she is about to heal her own anger in a very unhealthy and uncomfortable way.
She grabs Dasia by her left arm and reaches out for her fingers.
Without hesitation she breaks Dasia's index finger making Dasia scream in agony. Maria does not even consider stopping after hearing that scream.
On the contrary, she proceeds to break the rest... one by one...
Once all fingers were broken Maria grabbed Dasia's right arm and repeated the process.

Maria stands up and grabs Dasia by the neck and then smashes Dasia's face against the wall and just tosses her on the ground like a piece of trash.
Maria then turns away from beaten up Dasia and everyone can see a cold murderous facial expression on her face. Obviously showing how 'annoyed' Maria was by Dasia.
Maria, obviously, does not take it lightly that someone takes over her body and makes her fight innocents. Also, add numerous innocents who died because of Dasia's deeds in the past. Maria had that on her mind and this was an unhealthy, yet effective, way of dealing with it.

"...*sigh*..." Maria lets out a deep sigh.
Almost as if she lifted some heavy burden of the chest.
It is like she had so much anger pumped inside her and was just waiting to explode. Dasia appearing in there was perfect for Maria to relieve her stress and 'deal' with her anger. Dasia served well as a punch bag.
And Maria knows Hurranians will heal Dasia which might come in perfectly since Maria still has more anger inside and punching bag falling apart in the middle of the boxing session would be a bad thing.

She takes a glance at Resistors.
They are obviously freaked out by what just happened; Maria went from tired to a torture machine. She is more terrifying than Misfortune 13.
Noland seems particularly terrified since Maria said she would kill him when he landed on top of her some time ago.
She makes another sigh and removes that nasty look from her face.

"I apologize for the mess." Maria offers an apology. She does not really know what to say. She takes a glance at Noland. "You can stop looking at me that way- I wasn't serious about killing you..." She explains. "Using me as a pillow is excusable... as a weapon against innocents, it is not."

She then turns towards Dasia again.
"Aren't you a Queen? Would you be so kind not to disgrace the dirt on the floor with your presence and get those parasites to heal you so I can try a few moves on the rest of your limbs?" Maria challenges willing to fight Dasia in a physical battle rather than fighting with a Bakugan. And Maria has gone through intense training in physical combat which would definitely be breaking Dasia quite a few times.
It would be much more entertaining if Keto was there to nuke the hell out of Dasia's body with her iron fists.

[Alana Cortese]

Noland had hid behind Alana while Maria showed how terrifying she was. Alana was too shocked at what she witnessed to do anything about that. She was jaw-dropped. What she just did to Dasia was abhorrent.

Hydranoid was fully invested in this beating. He thoroughly enjoyed it and would have loved to spectate more of this had it not been for one possibility. "Hey, um...Alana..." Hydranoid called. "...You're not going to become like that because of me, are you?"

Between the Queen of Vestal showing up via Hurranians and Maria not giving a single care towards stopping the violence, Alana couldn't bother herself to come up with any rational response to all of this. "What. The. Fuck."

"Great. Can we go fight Daniel now? I'm hungry." Hydranoid wondered if Dasia was going to stay down. There was a high chance she wasn't, but there was no harm in throwing the idea in the air.

[Dasia Turano]

Dasia rolls her eyes at Maria's challenge. She wasn't going to fight the Admiral. The Admiral was going to fight for her. That's how it works here.

"This is the thanks I get for making you better? You're an ungrateful little bastard," Dasia spat. "It's okay... I've already absorbed enough data off of you anyway. I'll just give you a spectacular closure. That'll teach you to rebel against me."

(Dasia's Theme)

The Hurranians on Clade energized him enough to make him lunge at Maria. He clamped down on her right shoulder, causing excruciating pain. This caused Hurranians to be injected into Maria's system once again.

"Standby..." Dasia's body digitized away. She reappeared by having her head emerge from Maria's right hand, appearing like a pimple of some sort. Clade also digitized away as he was not particular useful anymore; instead, his energy was absorbed and carried by the Hurranian organisms that were on his body. They crawled to Zero Hydranoid's ball form to transfer that energy.

"You're in luck. Kyuki just sent me some instructions for you. He sends his regards," Dasia informed. While Maria's life gauge previously went to zero, it mysteriously recharged back to full capacity. "What I'd like you to do is to reactivate that Doom Card, go back into battle, and assume your Misfortune 13. Do it now."

[Noland Hardy]

Noland heard Misfortune 13 and sprung into action. That name was all anyone needed to hear. They could not let that happen.

"Drago! Stop that! Stop that right now!" Noland pleaded. It did seem kind of weird that a holder of Free of Regression would panic over this, but that's assuming that Drago doesn't get caught in something that he can't get out of. Worse, what if Dasia has a counter to it? There has to be a reason why she would order the same thing to be done again if Noland could stop them. Something wasn't right...

"No need to tell me," Drago asserted. After seeing what was just done to him by that form, he never wants to get caught by that again. His fastest way of getting to Maria was to confront her up close. His speed would ensure that she wouldn't have the chance to throw Zero Hydranoid back in.

[Dasia Turano]

The pimple-head version of Dasia turned to the incoming Dragonoid. He was bound to be a serious issue. All things considered, he did pretty well without those two abilities - the ones that shall never be named - being used from outside of his usual arsenal. He was too dangerous. In fact, all three of these Resistors were at a high threat level. Maria's power was necessary. Even if they try to stop it, it will only be a delay. Dasia was determined to make this work.

She would have to avoid being stomped on by Drago though. He was smart. He didn't punch Maria just so she could fly away like a ragdoll and give Dasia extra range. He stomped on her, hoping to crush Zero Hydranoid in the process. He did this, killing Zero Hydranoid by crushing her.

[Alana Cortese]

Alana gasped at what Noland just ordered Drago to do. This was what Dasia wanted them to do. They just ended an Admiral's life while Dasia gets to continue hers.

"N-Noland...? You...you just killed..." Alana couldn't finish that sentence. She fell to her knees in sorrow. She never witnessed something like this before. This was a willful act, something that they may have thought about doing in the past, but never actually went through with it. The Hurranians just changed everything...

Hydranoid emerged into monster form after seeing Drago do that. He hung his heads down and knelt to pay his respects. He didn't say how he felt about his counterpart out loud. He preferred to keep it to himself. "I wish there was something else we could do..."

[Dasia Turano]

"Too bad..." Dasia responded to Hydranoid's regret. The voice was within the room, but none of the Resistors had any idea where Dasia was hiding.

"I must admit. I would have preferred having you three over Damian, Jamal, and Yita as my top three. You really surprise me," she admitted. "The most shocking twist was from you, Noland. The Master Blaze is SCARED of an opponent, and actually shows it on the battlefield. That is quite the opposite of what you've been doing all these years."

The sounds of electric ripples could be heard all across the sector. It was comparable to that of water trickling down a random place in the room. It was easily the sound of trouble brewing up an impending storm. The sound of something being thrown permeated throughout the sector. A large barrier of darkness was erected, presumably from the Doom Card being reactivated. It trapped all three of the Resistors with each other.

"I enjoy seeing the look of helplessness on your face whenever you are faced with such an overwhelming force...so I'll force you to show me again, over and over again until you disappear..." Bloody-red mist was dispersed across the sector, which can only mean that Zero Hydranoid did activate the Misfortune 13 form. Where was she, one might ask? Right above Noland and Alana's heads. The large Excedra was stuck on the ceiling along with a sadistic Maria who was REALLY ready to kill someone.

"Your father's masked archenemy has taken something that doesn't belong to him...so I shall pay him a visit next. I sense that your father is going there as well. Perhaps I will be able to meet with this legendary brawler you Earthlings speak so highly about. Until next time, if there is one." Maria and Zero Hydranoid were then dropped right on top of the two brawlers.

(Boss Theme 2)

[Alana Cortese]

"Oh no..." Hydranoid looked up at this surprising ambush. He quickly grabbed Noland and Alana by hand and jumped backwards to avoid having what happened to Maria get done to him, but on a much more painful level.

"I wish she was just killed right about now..." Leave it to Misfortune 13 for Hydranoid to take back everything he just said and did. He'd rather be doing anything else than to put up with this monstrosity.

"Noland, do you still have that ability!?" Alana frantically wondered. "Now would be a good time to use it!"

[Noland Hardy]

Noland didn't waste any time trying to use the ability. He quickly had it in hand and swiped it on the BrawlX. For some odd reason, Drago gulped when he saw Zero Hydranoid assume the form.

"Okay. Here it goes," Noland signaled. "Ability activate! Free of Regression!" This was where things will get dicey. It didn't work...

"Ability denied," the BrawlX answered back. "Ability, 'Free of Regression,' cannot be used by current Bakugan for a consecutive time."

Noland's heart sank. Drago's body must not have been in the proper state to utilize that ability for a consecutive time. It simply wasn't going to work. This was a logical penalty to have since the ability isn't Drago's and is used by a higher power. He did well enough to use it once, but twice - especially this soon - wasn't going to make the cut, unless they all wanted Drago to make killing him now easier than it already was.

"Um...Maria...I don't suppose there's any chance of you still not being serious about killing us...?"

[Maria Zenovia]

Maria lost ability to speak now.
She was only gazing at the Resistors with her mouth half-open and her eyes as empty as the void. Hydra's state from before did not change; she could not speak either, she was only growling as if she was in pain.
And now that they were taken over again it was going to get rough.
It was going to get much worse unless someone aided them.
Who knows if Asuka could aid them again. Or perhaps Ran, since he was around recently before the attack but mysteriously vanished.

"Grrrrrr...." Hydra roared and Maria raised an ability.
This card she uses is called Elemental Scourge.
It is a Dextra-type ability that gives 12 heads a balance in 6 attributes while the 13th head remains neutral. Each head gains distinctive abilities of its own where it creates attacks based on attributes they gain and therefore it is too hard to negate it since there are only 3 Bakugans.
Hydra's Pyrus heads begin to launch balls of lava at all three enemies; including their brawlers. Haos heads begin to launch meteors of massed Haos attribute. Aquos heads create whirlpools with countless spinning blades inside.
Subterra heads create orbs that reform as giant diamonds and steel combined with rocks; they begin to fall down on Resistors. Ventus heads create blades formed of air.
And Darkus heads launch horizontal tornadoes at them.
Bakugans and their brawlers are in danger now.

[Allen Silva]

Maria's devastating ability didn't leave Allen much time to do anything but play whatever ability first came to mind. And thats exactly what he did. "Ability activate, bound barrier."

The bound barrier was activated before the plethora of blades and other hazards collided. Now safe inside of this space, at least for a little while, Allen decided to asses the situation." So let me get this straight. Maria is now under mind control, using a ability that buffs her up tremendously, our only way to stop it isn't working, and we still gotta worry about the doom dimension. Not to mention that Zero Hydranoid was keeping pace with Drago and before, and has already beat Alana." Allen begun to see the site straights they were in. He still had the advanced fusion ability, but that wouldn't help much." Noland please tell me you didnt use the switch code yet.

[Alana Cortese]

With Noland and Alana in tow, Hydranoid ran from Zero Hydranoid's attacks and dove into the protection of Gorem's Bound Barrier. He would have stayed out there and did something about the attack himself if Maria wasn't targeting the brawlers as well. This made this situation more dangerous than it already was.

Alana thought Hydrnaoid could reinforce Gorem's defense, so she went on with it while she was there. "Ability activate! Infernal Bastion!"

Hydranoid's miniature heads exited Hydranoid's body and attached themselves to the shield. Gorem's barrier was now colored black, and a wave-like motion was animated throughout the design. This modification gave the Bound Barrier the ability to absorb power from anything that touches it. With Hydranoid's bottomless pit of power he can receive - mostly stemming from the Excedra genetics - and Gorem's steadfast defense, it was difficult to see the shield being broken that easily, even by someone as strong as Zero Hydranoid.

"Don't worry. I have this situation under control. She's creating a ton of battle energy. I got this." Alana gave Hydranoid a look, one that basically told him that she knew how much bullshit was coming out of his mouth. "...Drago, go into that Switch thingy. Please."

[Noland Hardy]

The begging for Noland to initiate the Switch Code transformation made the current circumstances stressful. He and Drago knew the risks associated with using that kind of power against an Excedra if done incorrectly.

"An Excedra can just eat that power...right?" Noland asked himself this question when he had a flashback of Alex telling him what Maria was capable of. Dante's entire Valiant Strive mode was devoured by this Misfortune 13 form, which can only mean Excedra himself can do this too. What they saw him do against Alana and Hydranoid at a greatly suppressed level was a scary thing to think about.

Drago was considering this as he escaped into Gorem's barrier. Like Noland, he was also thinking about Excedra himself in order to gauge the amount of danger they're in when it comes to the absorption of their Switch Code energies. His eyes glowed in the Switch Code coloration as he gauged the level Zero Hydranoid was on. "What would Apollonir do...?"

"Drago, what do you think?" Noland inquired.

Drago weighed his options carefully. He knew what to look out for when fighting Zero Hydranoid. Excedra had more raw power, but Zero Hydranoid had a lot of utility. It was too bad for Maria that the Switch and Hex Code has both of those attributes.

"Gorem. Hydranoid." Drago called their names to grab their attention. He had a plan. "Get close to me. I'll explain when it's done."

[Maria Zenovia]

Resistors crawled to the safety of Gorem's barrier.
That just gives Hydra plenty of time to prepare her 'Rage' mode with more and more time she exists in Misfortune 13 without being reverted and with more abilities she uses.
Lack of knowledge Resistors have of Misfortune 13 puts them in a huge disadvantage that will be difficult to overcome. They have some insight on M13's power based on what Alex and other Knights told them, but that is not nearly enough.
All those people have not witnessed Hydra's power go beyond 10%, so all beyond that is still unknown to Resistors. Those people were defeated far before Hydra went to 2%.
Only ones who have witnessed Maria go beyond 10% are Generals, Admirals and Marshal. And considering Maria is infected she will not hold back as she would in her normal state, so probability of Resistors seeing her hit high digits is unavoidable.
Still, she is aware of the mission she was given- to extract the secret data from the archives. And for this reason she will not be able to hit digits that would allow her to pulverize everything and she is most-likely not going to use abilities like area-of-effect.


"Grrrr..." Hydra growls and her body flashes. Maria raises another card shrouded in darkness and it flashes triggering the ability.


Hydra's central head, that seems like the leader of the rest, deeply inhales.
Gorem's barrier becomes blurry and colors in it start to mix. For some reason his barrier turns into colorful highly-concentrated liquid.
Hydra vacuums and devours the liquefied shield.
And then, suddenly...

All other 12 heads roar and exhale colorful flames.
All 6 colors from the attribute chart can be seen.
Name of the ability is 'Misfortune Devour'. This ability absorbs any type of ability on the field and turns it into an opposite version of the original. E.g. enemy uses defensive ability and Hydra steals it as an offensive.
Resistors were deprived of their precious protection and are attacked head-on by flames that have a property of melting bones into liquid. If they do not get out of the way they will become one very unattractive pudding that Hydra will gladly devour.

[Noland Hardy]

When Drago saw that Gorem's shield was going to go, he looked back at Noland to give him a nod. They had to step it up or get put down.

To begin, Hydranoid released both Noland and Alana. A circular symbol - depicting all six attributes - appeared on Drago and Noland's hands. After briefly powering up, Drago experienced a sudden rush of energy that transpired into a full color scheme change that depicted all six attributes forming a rainbow, hence the Dextra attribute. The Switch Code has arrived.

"Set it up," Noland signaled. Drago laid hands on Gorem and Hydranoid's shoulders. They started experiencing an identical power surge, almost as if Drago was lending power to them. "Ability activate! Paragon Blazer!"

Drago, Gorem, and Hydranoid formed a union inside the avatar that was about to created. The humanoid Dragonoid that rose - matching the Misfortune 13's height - covered all three of them. The incoming pestilence had to contest with the Switch Code's shielding. It was powerful enough to contest her power, but there were noticeable signs of it not quite matching her strength, such as portions of the shielding being taken off. It was steadily regenerating though, so it wasn't all lost.

The Dragonoid then stood strong with Drago, Gorem, and Hydranoid inside of it. Gorem and Hydranoid would benefit from Drago's healing factor with this ability. Gorem needed it the most, as he was hit with a blight from Clade earlier. This should easily restore him back to full power.

"You wanted the Switch Code. Now you're going to help me use it," Drago clarified. "I'm counting on you two." The avatar took a small breath, somehow producing high-grade pressure that knocked Zero Hydranoid back a couple of steps.

"Don't sell yourselves short. You're all strong enough to hang with me, even if I do have the Switch and Hex Code. If you believe, I'll believe with you," Noland insisted. Despite the present circumstances, he believed they could take Maria individually, but they can't block themselves out of it mentally. It was scary, but they had to remain strong. It was the only way to have a chance of winning.