Episode 40: Meltdown of the Resistors

[Noland Hardy]

Markus was sulking as he walked through the public streets of Washington D.C. The memories of what happened at Beta City continued to play in his mind over and over again. He couldn't get it out of his head. Imagining Roxy sending him off while she gets blown up for the twentieth time had to have taken it's toll on Markus' mental capacity. That should be the least of his worries; the present day was almost as cancerous as the Hurranian themselves.

Numerous news outlets were STILL discussing the capital murder charges Noland should be held liable for. At least there were some countering their argument by outright damning the police department for their actions, citing racial discrimination as a motive for their shoot first, kill first mentality. Markus just shook his head that they were still debating over something so obvious.

He then bumped into Tracy at a street corner. She wondered how he was doing, but she didn't receive much of an answer from Markus. It wasn't until she offered her condolences that he apologized for his cold attitude, but he doesn't know what to think right now. Tracy understood this, but she had some news for him. She wanted him to sit down somewhere so she could properly explain what was going on. 

Markus was all ears at a nearby bench. Tracy started by saying that she likes what Eden does and is thinking about joining them someday. Markus took that as a stalling mechanism, like she was trying to ease her way into saying something she doesn't want to say. Why else would she say something that he really shouldn't care about?

Indeed, Tracy was getting a bit nervous. She slowly admitted to finding Markus' parents and his sister. This quickly got him interested. She noted that her and Lydia found them posing as variants of suicide bombers. She admits that they were too late to notice what they were being used for, but Lydia's Angelight reversed time so Tracy could contain them. They were quickly transported to Eden for examination. Upon inspection, they figured out that the Hurranian infection had progressed to the point where an emergency procedure had to be implemented to prevent them from dying.

This certain procedure was revealed to Markus discreetly. When he heard it, he paused for ten seconds. This uncomfortable atmosphere could only breed trouble around the corner. 

[Markus Hederick]

The stillness of Markus' body said all that needed to be said about what he was thinking. Gargulion could tell this was about to turn into something ugly. He was as flabbergasted at what he heard just as Markus was. He may not be heading into the direction Markus was with his feelings though. Markus had an entirely different perspective on what just happened.

"Markus...let's just talk about this slowly..." Gargulion requested of him. Just like the urging at the Silver Knight Headquarters, this request fell on deaf ears. Markus simply did not listen.

"I see...so you told me this to make Eden look like saints..." Markus got up from the bench and looked down at Tracy, all without turning his entire body to look at her straight up. "You knew...didn't you?"

[Tracy White]

Markus sounded like he had it all figured out. Now she was about to be branded something that she was not. She had nothing to do with the decision that was made; yet, Markus was willing to associate her with it anyway, just because she was with Eden at the time it happened.

Skystar propped up on the bench and opened herself up, just in case the worst happened. Something about this conversation seemed to suggest that it was going to get really confrontational, especially when Markus had already gone through what he went through. She guessed that Tank was right about some things. Perhaps they should listen to him more often.

"Markus...all I did was take them off the streets. I had no say to what they were going to-" Tracy tried to explain, before Markus would inevitably cut her off.

[Markus Hederick]

"NEITHER DID THEY, NOW ANSWER MY QUESTION!" Markus yelled. This was seemingly rare. Someone raising their voice to someone as nice as Tracy was unheard of. Their past partnership when facing Akane didn't further their relationship at all, at least that's what it looked like. Markus was unwilling to believe that Tracy could not have stopped that from happening, regardless of how pressing the matters. No one could be this stupid, but Eden must be.

If Markus was doing a bad job at keeping things peaceful, then he was doing a good job at attracting the attention of those passing by. No one bats an eye when a woman is yelling at a man, but when it's the other way around, the white knights come to show their chivalry. Too bad all of them were punks when it was a Resistor doing it.

"We're about to fight, aren't we?" Gargulion sulked.

[Tracy White]

The yelling obviously hurt Tracy. She didn't have to do what she did for Markus, but she did it anyway. This was the thanks that she got. No one even bothered to ask her how dangerous his family was in that state and what kind of risks they posed to Tracy's health. She bets that the sad look on her face didn't even matter to Markus.

"I bet you feel really good about yourself for yelling at her like this. What difference would it make if she did or didn't know when the procedure was carried out without us knowing about it? We don't run the organization. Leave us alone. We did what we could." Skystar thought Markus was a real jerk for coming at Tracy like this. She was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt since his mind is in shambles, but if he continues, she might not be too nice.

"Noland refused Eden's plea of giving them his blood for an antibody against the Hurranians," Tracy explained. "So...certain people led them to believe that Tank's blood would be a suitable alternative..."

[Markus Hederick]

Markus' eyes were opened clearly. This is what the world has become now. There seems to be more sickness abroad than the Hurranian's hold on the universe. "Ah, okay. I get it. Nero administering Dharak's genetic code on innocent Hynoid weren't enough. Now we need to take it a step further by experimenting on a little girl and two loving parents with blood that is obviously too potent to be compatible with anyone else. Yep. Eden is such a great organization. I'm glad you like what they do, Tracy. Congratulations. What a wonderful dream you have for wanting to become as 'great' as they are."

"Um...that's pretty messed up, man," Gargulion chimed in.

"So tell me...who were the people stupid enough to come up with that? I'd like to give them my regards."

[Tracy White]

Tracy turned her sad look into a frown. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see where Markus was going with what he said. He could insult her all he wants, but what he was implying wasn't right. She got up from the bench and looked at him with a straight face.

"I thought being nice to me, then asking me for directions was the perfect order. You don't get a reward for putting me down like that, so good luck figuring that out yourself," Tracy defiantly responded. "And don't think I'll let you get away with the obvious threat. Get yourself together before you do something you'll instantly regret."

Skystar rolled down towards the sidewalk and stood in her monster form. She looked down at Markus who sounded like he wanted to pick a fight with an organization that could make him become more of a threat than Noland is, as far as the public says anyway. "I'd listen to her. Attacking Eden is not a smart thing to do, especially with the Silver Knights on high alert."

[Markus Hederick]

"Aren't you lovely?" Gargulion voluntarily stood on his own to face Skystar. "Don't you know standing like that is an act of war? You just increased the risk of someone getting hurt. Go back into ball form and we'll all walk away. There's no need for this."

"Perhaps there is..." Markus added.

"Wait..." Gargulion turned his head towards Markus. "What?"

"I'd like to know who these irresponsible people are, and you supposedly have to stop me from acting on my desires. That definitely leads to a battle. I'll just force the information out of you if you have such a wish to keep their identities in the dark. So what's it going to be, Tracy?"

Gargulion turned back to Skystar. Even though he didn't want to fight her, he would make some arrangements just in case she took this challenge on.

"Skystar...I'm sorry. Please don't hold this against me..."

[Tracy White]

Tracy had a peculiar look on her face. Markus was buying in with his darkness. His light - consisting of his family and Roxy - were taken away from him, so he doesn't know what else he could turn to. Tracy sympathized with him in this regard, but what does he have to gain by putting Tracy on his hit list? Absolutely nothing.

"Apology...not accepted..." Skystar tapped her staff on the ground. A shockwave was expelled from this act that repelled Markus and Gargulion. "You can make your own decisions, Gargulion. Your decision is to stand by him, even if he makes the wrong move. You're rowing the boat along with him, so you'll sink with him too."

Even though Tracy had a straight face when engaging Markus in battle, she was hurting deep inside. She didn't want to do this. She was supposed to break the news to him and comfort him. Fighting him was nowhere near the list of things to do here.

"Listen, Markus. I agree that what was done to them was foolish...I really do. I would have stopped them if I knew what they were going to do. You know that...you have to. We fought as allies...even as a tag team. You know I wouldn't betray you..." Tracy expressed to him in a pleading manner. "I'd do wrong by you and everyone else if I let you do this. You're not crazy, so please...just act rational!"

[Markus Hederick]

Gargulion took that repulsion as a very subtle push. He didn't go very far. Markus didn't move that much either. Doing that answered Markus' question without any more words having to be said. Tracy wanted a battle, so Markus was going to give her one.

"That sounds like a better move to make than what Eden has displayed," Gargulion countered, showing his motivation to not have any of his actions be compared to that damned organization. "Fault me for that all you'd like. I don't care. I'm more loyal to him than I am to my own bodies. It looks like I get to show you how fierce that loyalty really is."

Markus casually brushed himself off, like Skystar had insulted him by touching him with her dirty spells. He primed his BrawlX for combat, much to the chagrin of the bystanders watching this go down.

"What's crazy is shielding the identities of those responsible," Markus fired back. "Yeah. I jumped the gun, yelled at you, and insulted you when you tried your hardest. I was wrong, and I'm sorry for hurting you. I'll try my hardest to overlook someone I thought I could trust dropping my family off into their graves; however...I'm not about to trust an organization to deal with those involved when something this stupid was allowed under their noses. Like me, you can make your own decisions too, and if it's to defend Eden, then I'll crush you along with them."

(Boss Theme: Division 1)

[Tracy White]

That comment really struck a nerve. Tracy didn't mean to drop his parents off at a place where that would get done to them. She really meant well. She was not the type of person to wish for some heinous act to be done against someone else. She was so nice...but, Markus couldn't see that for some reason.

"That's it. We're not helping you two anymore. The next time I catch someone related to you out here and they're infected, I'm just going to let them roam," Skystar grudgingly reprimanded.

Tracy switched her BrawlX into battle mode, even though she didn't want to. This would be the perfect time for the Hurranians to jump on them. Maybe that was more preferable than getting swarmed by the higher powers of Eden and the Silver Knights.

"Remember, you could have chosen not to be a jerk," Tracy reminded Markus before all acts of kindness faded. "Ability activate! Grand Haos!"

Tracy was smart to do this first since she knew how Markus liked to phase through attacks. Light can counter shadow abilities with ease, which is exactly what this would do. Skystar's scepter emanated a blinding light to obscure Gargulion's vision. A plethora of light waves poured out from the hilt and razed across the field, cutting through anything they touched. Burn marks were left across the surfaces that it made contact with.

[Markus Hederick]

Markus hung his head down and nearly closed his eyes. He pulled out a pair of sunglasses from his pocket and put them on. This made him able to see what was going on very clearly. Gargulion might have a problem though. The light waves were coming from varying directions, so a one dimensional defensive option like Solid Wall was useless, especially when they might just raze through it anyway.

"Ability activate! Building Stone!" The name of the ability implied what this ability's function was. If Gargulion was going to get broken down anyway, he might as well just build on top of what he has. An extra layer of stone was added to his base frame that served as the one getting removed by Tracy's attack, so he wasn't harmed nearly as much.

"Gargoyle's Revenge." Gargulion stepped forward before firing a shotgun-style blast from his mouth. It struck Skystar's staff so it would turn into stone. This deprived her of using her spells. A piece of his frame fell off due to her ability, so he took it in his right hand and threw it at the staff to make it crumble.

[Tracy White]

Having the scepter broken would be a minor setback. It would regenerate shortly, so until then, Skystar would have to cast things manually. It was less economical for her to do that since the staff already acts as a medium for her spells; in other words, using the staff was the lazy way to cast spells.

"Ability activate! Disable!" Because her light had already touched Gargulion very recently, Skystar did not need to cast anything special. The time window is very minimal, so it was good that Tracy chose to use it now. With this, she could completely lock off abilities that could petrify Skystar. Now Gargulion would not be able to do anything remotely close to that for an unspecified period of time. Using it in this manner gave the ability a long cooldown as opposed to just striking Gargulion himself, but with his evasiveness, you never know.

"Poor man thinks my spells are off limits by my staff being gone. Awww," Skystar mocked. She conjured a brown orb in her left hand and a red orb on her right. She dropped them on the ground for Tracy's next ability to take form.

"Now, ability activate! Trio Synchro!" The Pyrus and Subterra symbols on Skystar's belt disappeared. This was because she brought them into the physical world, by making copies of herself with those specific attribute powers. She figured she could give herself offensive and defensive options at the same time, all the while providing healing support when needed.

[Markus Hederick]

Markus looked down at his BrawlX to find out about this restriction. He didn't care about it at all, but it was something handy to keep in mind. He looked at the three different Skystars and was barely impressed. He just shook his head like he wanted this to be over with.

"Ability activate! Power Theft!" Gargulion released a ghostly apparition of his own body on the field. It quickly phased straight through each individual Skystar. The consequences of being struck by this ability was similar to his famous Soul Eater ability, but this behaved much differently. On top of stealing sizable portions of the power levels of his victims, he can take attribute modifications and apply them to his base frame.

"If taking away your staff means you'll cast stupid spells like that, then I'll do it every time," Gargulion spat. He assimilated the Subterra and Pyrus attributes within his frame so he could gain a temporary boost to his offensive and defensive capabilities. Using this, he sped through a variety of different angles before attempting to knock Skystar out with one decisive blow to her pressure point.

[Tracy White]

Tracy didn't want to say anything, mostly because Markus deserved a bit of animosity. Skystar was aggravating the situation. Now Gargulion was saying hurtful things about what Tracy chose to use in battle.

"Ability activate! Sentinel Blockade!" The shoulder discs waited until Gargulion got within range before they produced a tractor beam-like force towards Gargulion. It stopped him before he could reach the pressure point. Skystar then looked over her shoulder at the immobilized gargoyle.

"Wrong answer," Skystar's discs detached from her body so they could move him right where she could see him. They placed him out in front, right above her head. Activating abilities while under this spell was unheard of.

"How's this for a stupid spell?" Tracy was nowhere near finished with Gargulion. She pulled out another ability. "Ability activate! Attribute Extraction!" Not wanting Gargulion to have the benefit of those powers any longer, Skystar was going to take all of it away. Luckily, her staff regenerated around this time, so she could use this ability with ease.

A white energy ball was shot from the hilt at Gargulion. When it struck him, red and brown particles left his body and entered Skystar's, giving her those attributes back. The energies mixed with her base form, making those boosts permanent rather than temporary. The discs then lifted Gargulion into the sky and shot him towards the ground.