Episode 50: Last Call

[Dasia Turano]

The Alternative finished coating itself with sand, so it immediately went back into the air and pointed down away from everyone else.

"Whew! For a second there, I thought he figured out what I was doing," Dasia celebrated. "Zukanator!"

This was a passive ability. The Alternative's weapons systems were beefed up to make deflecting or taking their power away way more difficult. This was done by converting the other weapon systems into one singular one that can be used in many different ways. One way was to have a flurry of miniature Alternatives warp in on the scene, and then for the big one to unleash an energy pulse that made them ready to explode. Everyone already knows what will happen if the actual Alternative blows up like that, but several miniature ones...a similar result is likely...

"Deity Wizard!" Excedra declared. A large storm cloud loomed over their heads. A giant fist was shaped by it. It gathered all of the small Alternatives into its grasp, and then balled up so the ships will detonate without putting the entire planet at risk. From the looks of it, it would seem like whatever Dasia was going for with those ships is meaningless to the Legendary Soldier.

The Alternative pointed down towards the Earth and shot a concentrated beam that traveled at the speed of light. Oddly enough, smoke started rising from the planet that counteracted Dasia's attempt at destroying the Earth, all by the hand of Excedra.

"Damn you! Why won't you let me blow up the Earth!? You hate humans!" Dasia complained.

"I hate Hurranians the most!!" Excedra roared. As he said that, giant smoky fists pummeled the Alternative from all over.

[Maria Zenovia]

Maria and Hydra were already in position to fulfill their role of the plan. For this purpose Hydra was already in her Misfortune 13 form and Maria readied an ability card. Again, it was one of the abilities closely related to the Doom Dimension and distortion that happen inside. This power can be easily applied outside the Doom Dimension with lots of different effects that could be possibly used. "Special Ability, activate! Evil Breakdown." Maria declared and the ability she held, a pitch-black card with a red ruby in the center, flashed in ominous bloody-red light and released its wicked power. Each one of Hydra's thirteen heads shot a dark orb in the same direction towards the Alternative. All orbs hit the exact same spot while merging into one another and becoming one massive orb. The orb seemed to have melted and somehow absorbed into the ship itself before a screeching sound was released and Alternative became dimensionally distorted. It seemed like multiple images of the ship were appearing and disappearing at very high speed. Suddenly, the ship itself stopped moving and it was releasing a disturbing roaring sound- almost as if the ship itself was in some kind of pain. Evil Breakdown causes any form of existence to have a temporary breakdown on all the levels that can be affected- if it affects a living being it will make its body tremble almost as if it was sick, it will make their mind be plunged into millions of their own thoughts making them unable to concentrate on anything they were doing, their perception falls down and they overall become useless.

This ability, however, cannot last for long because of its huge impact. Of course, it will have after-effects like nausea, headache, weakness in limbs and tremble in the voice. Since ship itself is not a living being its functions will merely come to a halt temporarily while anyone inside the ship, aside those selected by Hydra, will feel all these other consequences making them unable to react properly in time. "Ready? Now it'd be a perfect time to hit it." Maria said immediately as the time was quite short.

[Andrew Bullock]

"Good..." Excedra slightly complimented Hydra...slightly... "Andrew..."

"Yeah, yeah," he answered. "Akane, bomb?" Torahu leaped right next to Hades. Akane was on board and was in her own little world. She was cuddling with the payload as if it were own child. She was crying at the thought that they were about to use it. She said that Andrew owes her A LOT for making her lose another one of her explosives to his schemes. "Yeah, okay. How about we talk business AFTER Dasia dies? Good grief..."

Akane threw the explosive at Andrew. He caught it, and then took one second to look at it before throwing it at Hades. From the little time he had to see it, he could tell that Akane spent a lot of time on this one. The design depicted Akane's mental state. It had white energy pulsing at its core, causing white strips to glow all over the bomb itself. Its casing looked like a decorated rock, which - if one thinks about who decorates their bodies - would indicate that Akane developed this bomb in Tracy and Markus' likeness. She possibly meant to use it against them for revenge, but it's being used here instead. She called it the Battle Fader.

Hades caught the explosive with one of its tails, and then inserted it into its chest. "Brace yourselves...she didn't cut corners with this one..." Andrew warned of Akane's prowess. Hades opened its central mouth and shot the bomb towards the Alternative. When it struck, light burst out, blinding mostly everyone. The whole Earth rumbled from the explosion. The only thing that saved them was a wall of earth that was summoned by Clayf so that no one had to bear the punishment from it. Even then, part of his defense was shattered by the explosive itself.

"Oh yeah! That's what we like to see!" Clayf celebrated on cue with the Alternative drifting towards the ground and making its nest there.

"It worked..." Andrew confirmed, albeit surprised that his plan worked out that well. "We're in good shape now! We just need to lock it down!"

[Lydia Andersen]

It was now time for Lydia to take a role in this mess. With her Bakugan evolved back to Maste her strategies and arsenal were greatly expanded since the gap between Angelight/Devilin and Maste is enormous. If they started their fight off against Kyuki with Maste the battle would have ended a long time ago considering how Maste could one-shot Traqdrach by tearing its body apart into different dimensions. This Bakugan is one of the nearly extinct kind and there are possibly 2 or 3 left in existence. This one was punished by Deathcrown and turned into a state where she was practically powerless, but thanks to Alex's power she is free now and can do as she pleases.  Maste Bakugans are those who control elements of physics. For instance, manipulation over time, space, mass, pressure, speed and many other things. This implies her being able to teleport, enter different universes and dimensions at will. Her ability to delete things and beings out of existence is highly dangerous if one is careless enough to get caught off guard by it and since Hurranians have probably never seen any of her kind it is safe to assume they cannot just predict what Maste is capable of. Since she has only been brought back to this form recently she would not want to attempt any large-scale things because it could go out of control as well as harm her allies. However, she can do a thing or two here and there.

"Maste, do your best!" Lydia encouraged her Bakugan who was already in position for the ability. Maste spread her wings, each wing glowing in different colors. "You will not be disappointed. Let us shatter her illusion of victory and face her with reality of defeat." Maste responded. Light from the wings disappeared and Maste spoke. "Time Inhibitor!" She then mentally focused on the bomb used on Alternative. Originally, bomb is supposed to stun Alternative for a certain period of time- with Time Inhibitor the stun's time will go slower resulting in the stun lasting much longer. Maste used it so it would last five times longer. She could have used Time Stop on the stun instead making it last infinitely, but it would be a waste of energy since people inside will stop the weapon in time anyways with the inhibitor in play. If it comes to it she will use it. "We have no time to waste- finish this as quickly as possible." Maste advised. 

[Noland Hardy]

The outside groups' shenanigans made Noland and Yita lie on the ground with their skin tones green. Apparently, Maria's attack against the Alternative made them sick. Yashu was a little dazed, and Drago was more annoyed than ever.

"Dammit, Maria! We're still in here!" Noland complained, knowing full well that she was responsible for it. His body glowed in a rainbow color for a brief moment, and he was back to full health. Yita was still out of it. Noland noticed this effect on himself and looked himself over again to make sure he wasn't dreaming. "Again...it happened again...?"

"You know, you're an interesting guy," Di End conceded.

"Tsk...!" Noland stood ready for whatever was about to come, whenever that happens... "Let me guess. You're going to talk a lot before finally attacking?"

"I think you already know what I'm going to say to you." A horde of Reapers popped up around the Resistor and Spartan duo, giving them no options for escape. "Let's see what the legendary Dragonoid line is all about, eh?"

"..." Drago could feel a bunch of Hyper Di Ends around him. The presence was very disturbing. This would easily rank in Drago's top 5 for the most concerning battles he has ever had to fight.

"Yeah...you'll see..." Noland picked Yita up and held her close. In doing so, he unintentionally sent some of his Switch Code energy into her body to return her to her normal, not barfy, state.

(Boss Theme: Phase 2)

[Noland Hardy]

"Chaos World!" All of the Hyper Di Ends stabbed the ground with their scythes. This move outright created a checkpoint that duplicated everything in this room aside from the reactor core checkpoint entrance. Everyone was thrown into this one.

"Di Ries!" The scenery of the checkpoint started to turn black. It would progress until nothing can be seen. This was Di End's trap. The ability was essentially a self-destruct mode, except that explosions weren't involved. What would happen is that everything within this checkpoint will get deleted when the time's up.

Yita muttered that they'll all cease to exist if it becomes pitch-black. "What...!?" Noland looked at Yita with wide eyes. "How do you know that?" She replied that Yashu's arsenal was actually inspired by Di End all along. "Oh sure, Yita. Wait until he's about to kill us to reveal critical information." She playfully teased that he didn't ask. Yashu facepalmed hard.

"Interesting...I've noticed that the cat looked more sophisticated in design after you stopped my last attempt to kill you," Di End admitted. "Still...it won't help you. You're through."

"Right..." Drago sarcastically agreed. "Yashu?"

The Hyper Di Ends charged straight for Drago and Yashu. "Ability activate! Rage Flash!" Drago generated some electricity in his right hand, and then punched the floor hard. The current violently burst in all directions, severely injuring the Hyper Di Ends. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be enough, because...

"Vira Slayer!" The Hyper Di Ends simply spread throughout the checkpoint indiscriminately, making Drago's attempt useless. One Hyper Di End swung at Drago. He managed to move out of the way, but got his right arm scraped due to an ability of the scythe that extended its cutting range somehow. Data started covering the arm, preventing Drago from making use of the body part.

"Hmph. So far, so good, for me that is," Di End noted.

"I disagree," Noland said with a smirk. "I've seen all I needed to see to get you out of here. Ability activate! Nova Sentry!" Drago produced two Nova Sentry out of his body. One surged into Drago's right arm. It then burst right out of it, eliminating the data on his arm.

"Annul!" Hyper Di End immediately targeted the Nova Sentry Drago sent out. If he was able to come into contact with any of them, they'd be deleted.

Yita quickly calls out an ability, Doskey. Yashu sunk his nails into the floor to get a feel for how Di End has coded the area. He leaped towards the Hyper Di End who were trying to delete the Nova Sentry. A circle of binary numbers appeared behind him as he twisted his body to scratch the Di Ends. They made contact with the Nova Sentry and were absorbed. Yashu's nails were lit in purple energy from that point forward.

"So you took the deletion code for yourself now..." Di End noticed.

"Keep quiet until we're done..." Noland suggested. Yita then played Absorption Gate and Reconfigure. Drago willingly allowed Yashu to tamper with the Nova Sentry. Since they absorbed Hyper Di Ends, Yashu would then transform them into Hyper Di Ends. The newly spawned Hyper Di Ends entered Drago and Yashu's bodies.

Yita then played Override to allow Drago and Yashu to pull every single Hyper Di End virus into this single checkpoint. With Hyper Di End's power, they were able to freeze Di End into this checkpoint to be done in by his own ability.

"See? Didn't I tell you?" Noland inquired now that the battle was at its end. "Congratulations. You just played yourself."

"...You...Curse you..."

"See ya," Drago dismissed. Noland and Yita clung to their respective Bakugan. They returned back to the original room they were in, leaving Di End and Hyper Di End to be deleted, never to be seen again.

"Nice," Noland commended Yita, planning on giving her a high five. Instead, Yita glomped him. "Of course...why wouldn't that happen...?"

[Dasia Turano]

Deon, Allen, Alana, and Seiki made it into the checkpoint where the reactor core was resting. It was smack-dab in the middle of a circular room. That was nice and easy for them to find. Now all they have to do is blow it up...if there weren't four other problems in the room with them.

Before they were within view of the party, it was important to analyze the reactor core even further. The core itself was resting at the bottom of the cylindrical barrier. It was an orb of energy that was as blue as Dasia's hair. It was sealed by a protective hatch. Within this cylindrical barrier, there was an energy shaft. Energy was continuously being outputted by the core. There were two beings constantly in the shaft: Roxy and Katherine. Why? That was anyone's guess.

"You're probably wondering why we have these two young ladies floating around in there," a Subterra brawler said to break the silence among them. "And the answer to that is, we have no fucking idea."

"Bio energy," a man beside him replied.

"Huh?"

"The Hurranians have continuously supplied this human and Vestal with bio-energy. This is to keep the Alternative operational until it returns to full power thanks to the people outside."

"Well, HE knows what the fuck is going on."

"While we're at it, allow us to introduce ourselves. I am Dr. Ray Fugas. This here is Snake Akuryou, Vestal's most prestigious mechanic."

"And the two scumbags behind me are Captain Atom and Spectra. Don't mind them. They don't really talk. They just cheat. And with that said, prepare to die."

[Dasia Turano]

Out of the beings associated with the Hurranians that are present here, Dr. Ray Fugas was arguably the most dangerous one of them all. The cheaters are definitely problematic, but the doc has some unusual tricks up his sleeve. If he were to be compared to anyone today, it would be Dr. Kyuki. Indeed, he IS the Kyuki of marine biology.

Snake clapped, and all four of their Bakugan were digitized in front of them. The first two up would be the doctor and Snake. The doc's Bakugan is known as the Robotic Knight - Laziroth. It is a heavily-modified mutant of species native to Vestal that are extinct in this day and age. What was known was that Laziroth's body looked built for swimming, which shows that it has impressive athletic ability. Additional functions could not be seen on the surface though.

Snake's Bakugan was known as Diagon, a precursor to the Dryoid unit these people know of today. The only major difference between the two units is that Diagon's figure is bulkier in comparison, which may suggest more power and less speed overall.

"I'll start. Laziroth, use-"

"..." Captain Atom had other plans than to allow Dr. Fugas to go first as planned. He had a slender humanoid-looking Bakugan that looked like a Subterra Bakugan, but was really a Haos Bakugan: Manticon. He targeted Hydranoid and threw a punch directly towards his groin region. Strangely, the arm stretched to get the fist where it needed to go.

[Alana Cortese]

"So...how exactly are we supposed to destroy the core?" Alana wondered, ignoring everything the people across from them were saying. "And how do we get Roxy and Katherine out of there? Will they die if we extract them? So many questions..."

"I'm more interested in how those two behind them cheat. What does that even mean? Are they doping?" As Hydranoid started questioning what they were about, one of the cheaters launched an attack towards him that came surprisingly fast. He ended up getting punched in the groin, which ordinarily wouldn't be a problem. For some reason...

"..." All three of his heads were wide-eyed and had their mouths open in shock. They sounded like they were gasping for air. He then dropped to the floor and rolled around in agony. His hands were down in that area too.

"Um...what...?" Alana didn't know what to say. Hydranoid is too durable for him to roll around like a baby after taking one punch.

"How...why...where....does this pain...come from...?" Hydranoid struggled to get out. His left head was in tears. "Someone....put me to sleep... Please...I can't take it anymore...!"

[Dasia Turano]

"That's really fucked up, dude," Snake said about Captain Atom's apparent declaration for Manticon to figuratively punch Hydranoid in the balls. "See? This is what I was talking about. Look at him. He has nothing to say."

"Well, at least he neutralized the Hydranoid," Dr. Fugas said in a bit of a relief. "Now then, where was I before I was rudely interrupted by this cheater? Ah, yes. Laziroth, use-"

"Drone!" Diagon energized its foot and stomped the floor. When it did, three objects were seen burrowing towards Hydranoid. When they reached him, the objects jumped out of the soil and attached themselves to his heads. These were drones, obviously. With them on Hydranoid's heads, they gave Snake the ability to control him using electric impulses.

"I bet you all are getting a kick out of this, huh? One more time, and I'll kill one of you myself!" Dr. Fugas yelled in frustration.

[Noland Hardy]

Snake forced Hydranoid to turn against his allies via the Drone ability; however, Deon thought of a quick strategy of having Tyr exhibit enough wind power to turn Hydranoid's heads towards the enemies when he fires.

Spectra had a Bakugan called Demon Fox, a Dextra Bakugan that seemed to have each individual attribute tied to its tails just because. Somehow, these tails extended to swat Hydranoid's attacks back towards the alliance members. Allen responded by having Gorem send them right back by using Kinesis Barrier.

Serge had Laziroth use Zeta Short Circuit to overload Gorem. At the same time, Hydranoid was beginning to use the battle energy in the area to cause a never-ending sea of black flames. Fortunately, Seiki intervened and had Ahio be the sacrificial lamb of the group. By Ahio taking in all of the electricity, she was able to harness it and use it to short-circuit the drone that was controlling Hydranoid, freeing him from Snake's control. Hydranoid then released his miniature heads to clamp down on Demon Fox's tails, poured tons of battle energy into its body, and forced it to self-destruct, the explosion being powerful enough to critically injure Atom and Manticon.

The act itself generated enough battle energy for Hydranoid to bombard the enemies with a horde of Hydranoid head-shaped energy constructs. Snake's Diagon continued to slash in an omnidirectional motion to get rid of them, but the more it did, the worse it got. Laziroth targeted Hydranoid with Copy Wave to swap their DNA; therefore, Laziroth was the one who was getting more powerful via battle energy.

Having had enough, Serge called on Laziroth to draw the Omega Soul Sword, which has power proportionate to all of the fallen warriors among them, including the several Di Ends Noland and Yita defeated. Despite this massive power increase, Allen was prepared for when Laziroth inevitably approached with this sword. Using Vicious Counter, Gorem was able to knock some sense into Laziroth and take his sword. Before Gorem could exercise his rights with it, Diagon attacked him with an energy wave attack called Iron Meteora. Gorem stood against this attack, but was steadily being pushed back; however, Tyr appeared behind Gorem to push him forward. This was enough to propel Gorem ahead and allow him to slice through Diagon cleanly, leaving Serge and Laziroth by themselves.

Gorem goaded Laziroth into attacking only him, considering he still had the blade. Laziroth ended up fusing with Diagon's remaining parts to strengthen itself and gain access to the latter's abilities. Seeing as how nothing Laziroth could do would take the blade back from Gorem, Serge initiated the Gamma Core Cannon, an extremely powerful battle ender that was intended to obliterate the alliance. Gorem used Martyr's Plight to purposely draw the attack towards himself, which was then used as fuel for Ahio's usage of Indignation. Gorem then went towards Laziroth and drew the attack towards it so it couldn't dodge. As much as it tried, Laziroth was pinned by Gorem, and was subjected to its amplified attack, defeating it instantly.

[Noland Hardy]

As the alliance members inside of the Alternative were finishing up, Diablo 3 was beginning to reactive from being instantly killed by Apollonir's absurdly-powerful forbidden ability. Seeing this, Apollonir awaited the creature's revival, deeming it an inevitable possibility.

Hydranoid recovered his DNA code from Laziroth's remains, returning back to normal. Deon told the group that if they stop Katherine and Roxy from supplying the Alternative, then the ship will not have the power to keep the hatch open. That's when Noland and Yita entered the reactor core and - with Yita's expertise - were able to alter Drago's Dianos Durance X into something that could go through the cylindrical barrier to...kill them, as they had no other choice. Doing this caused the ship to lose all functioning power, which deactivated the barrier and opened the hatch to the core. Yashu caused the core to go through a meltdown, which meant the obvious: evacuate immediately.

(Escape to the Final Battle)

As they were escaping, Diablo 3 was reactivated before Apollonir's forbidden ability could kill them both. Apollonir had to engage Diablo 3 underwater for as long as he could. While Apollonir put up a valiant effort, he was slightly outmatched and couldn't stop Diablo 3 from escaping the ocean depths and targeting the alliance itself.

For the people in the Alternative, they were all making a run for the exit when they encountered Brawler Zero once again. Having very little room for error, Noland and Drago served as the martyrs and let everyone else escape. Of course, Allen and Alana attempted to stay behind to help him deal with Zero, but Deon and Yita pulled them along and let Noland do his thing.

Zero began taunting Noland for his inability to truly be free from his own dark power, as even though Allen and Alana volunteered to go down with the ship along with him, they only did it to give one of their strongest fighters the chance to get out, and not because of what he meant to them. Noland conceded that this might be correct, but insisted that it didn't matter, because at the end of the day, they were willing to give him support anyway.

Drago's unintentional use of the latent abilities of the Switch Code prevented Brawler Zero from inflicting fatal damage via the 0 G-Power effect; however, it did allow her newly arrived Bakugan, Ventus MonarusZ, to hold a decisive advantage over Drago's base form. Zero noted that Noland couldn't defeat her by himself, but the Resistor disagreed, having figured out that his Switch Code powers were active for one reason or another. Drago constantly switched from Switch to Hex Code to beat MonarusZ like it has never been beaten before. Before finishing Zero off, Noland told her that he'll accept his darkness for what it is, but no one was going to get him to the point of avoiding his abilities ever again, because he can't continue to deny who he is. When asked who he thought he was, Noland declared himself to be the Master Blaze, the one and only.

Claiming victory over Brawler Zero, Noland and Drago were found with no other way out. They sensed Damian and Helios still inside of the Alternative with Lars Lion in tow. She told Noland that she directed everyone else out of the ship using a spell that transported them all to Excedra's location. Before Noland could respond, Lars Lion then used the same spell she used for Allen and Clayf's training, which linked Noland and Damian's minds together.

This link ended up being the site of an all-out brawl between Drago and Helios. Already in the Third Layer, Helios bombarded Drago with attacks. Drago held his own by hastily going into the Hex Code form to avoid being obliterated, and wondered what the hell Helios was doing. Having no other choice, Drago struck Helios with a well-timed Dianos Durance X. Damian told Noland that he wanted to have one more battle to see where they were at with each other before he does this, noting that the Fourth Layer was a double-edged transformation that will likely end him. Damian reiterated that Noland was definitely the strongest brawler he had ever faced, and was very pleased with being able to compete with him when all was said and done.

As the Alternative was exploding, Damian told Noland to pay very close attention to what raw power really looks like, as even Drago was not better than Helios in this department. Helios absorbed the power of the explosion into his body, which spared the Earth from the apocalyptic effects of it and protecting Lars Lion and Drago at the same time.

While Helios was assuming the mantle of the Fourth Layer, Diablo 3 came on the scene and attempted to assimilate them all with the Bakugan Termination System ability. Lars Lion pulled all of the Legendary Soldiers to her so Apollonir could counteract the ability with Infinity Waiver. While this canceled out the attack, the penalty for countering an ability like that with a beam clash left the Legendary Soldiers reeling. They all dropped to the ground at the same time, defeated in an instant for protecting the alliance.

[Noland Hardy]