Episode 51: No Sacrifice Is Too Great

[Maria Zenovia]

Diablo and his creations began to overwhelm Noland and Drago even though they were giving it everything they could. Maria could see that and quickly reacted before those two could get hurt by the laser. "You ready?" Maria signaled to her partner. "Go for it!" Hydra responded as she turned towards the ongoing chaos. "Ability activate! Shield Zero!" Maria declared as she activated her ability card. With that ability active in play all thirteen heads of Misfortune 13 released a cold breath in sync towards Drago; what seemed to be thick mist coming out of the mouths massed up in front of Drago and formed a snowflake-shaped objects in between Drago and the powerful laser. Shield was capable of instantly stopping the laser in its tracks which, as a result, could not hurt Drago anymore freeing him from that problem for the time being. Shield Zero is a defensive/support ability which is rare to see in Hydra's usage; it creates a shield that has similar purpose, but different concept than Dante's Absolute Shield. This shield, regardless of attack incoming, becomes an area where all power comes in absolute balance, where difference between powers is exact zero. And Shield Zero has zero G-power by itself so all incoming attack, once they touch the shield are counted as having zero G-power and do not damage the shield as a result. 

"Hey, how about a hand?" Maria said to Alex who was conveniently standing in the near with Dante, ready to bring some more mayhem into the mix. "You two alright?" She asked as she turned towards Noland and Drago checking if there were any injuries to worry about.

[Alex Andersen]

"I'm on it." Alex responded. "Let's do something we did not for a while, partner." Alex suggested to Dante as he showed the pitch-black card with a ruby in the center.

"Looks good to me." Dante agreed.

Alex rose the black card and the ruby began to glow giving off a mixture of red and purple light. "Chaos Takeover, deploy!" He declared as dark mass formed on Dante's chest and then spread around all his body until there was a dark-purple orb trapping Dante inside it. The orb exploded seconds later releasing purple glitter-like substance all across the battlefield. Dante's Chaos Takeover form was revealed for the first time upon his evolution. The mesmerizing crimson armor turned dark-blue and the shining white wings turned into dark-blue ones giving off an odd aura. His shining white sword and spear were turned dark-blue as well. "Now this looks good." Dante said while checking out the new form and feeling the surge of dark power running through his body. "I see you're in control." Alex noticed referring to Dante's previous inability to speak or think properly while in Chaos Takeover- it did not seem like he needed Alex's guidance for this anymore. 

"Let's not waste time with small-talk. Time grows short by the second." Dante interrupted Alex and turned towards one of the Diablo's clones, the one using the laser.

"Ability activate! Dark Wing!" Alex declared. The Dark Wing ability is a support ability for user Bakugans. It increases one dark-oriented, winged creature's speed by 75% and adds 2% for every 5 passing seconds. It also allows one to gain stealth against eyes and other senses while performing any dark-oriented action and Dante was going for his Shadow Movement. While in this form he can enter one shadow and pop out from any other in the area. He went for Drago's shadow and dived into it. Thanks to the effect of Dark Wing none of people/Bakugans/machines present, not even Alex who started the ability, would know where Dante would pop out. Before anyone even could think about what was going to happen it already had happened. Dante emerged from the back part of the shadow of that four-legged clone at full speed grabbing it by its back feet in the process and lifting it up so it had to balance on the remaining two feet. Once Dante moved way too far for it to be able to maintain the balance it simply collapsed under its own weight and ended up on its back as the laser it was shooting Drago with changed direction, pointing towards the sky where none of the alliance currently were. If they were lucky that could be used to shoot down some of those other hellish machines. 

"Someone do me a favor and put a bullet in the talking toaster." Alex requested.

[Dasia Turano]

"Why? Because you can't do the job yourself?" Diablo responded to Alex's request. Rather than wait for the Excedra unit to get back on its feet, Diablo did something entirely...unorthodox. "Autonomous Unit!"

Truly a nightmare to see for a being as shockingly powerful as Diablo. The God: Image ability to make clones would make one assume that if they are capable of taking the original down, then the others will go down with it. Unfortunately for those thinkers, that isn't the case anymore. These Diablo are now acting independently, retaining all of the power the original had in addition to the abilities they were mimicking.

This would become important shortly. The clones themselves now had access to this ability due to the shared mental space with the Hurranian network. If they wanted to deploy "images" themselves and make them act on their own, they can do so.

"Kinetic Flame!" One of the original abilities Diablo had when it was first created, this flame was spawned by the original. It traveled in a circle, catching all three Diablo units in it and setting them on fire. The revolution became faster until it became impossible to track its precise location. The flames then had an infinity symbol light up on the ground.

"And now, goodbye! Ground Breaker!" Diablo drew its Dextra-attributed sword, and bathed it in the flames. It now intended to perform an overhead swing to send a fiery wave in the alliance's direction that those fancy abilities cannot hope to defend him.

[Andrew Bullock]

"What...? Infinite Strength....? The longer this continues...the more ridiculous this becomes..." Andrew was VERY shocked by this. If that attack goes through, everyone's history. That CANNOT be blocked...but it can be dodged or redirected. That's where Hades comes into play.

"Ability activate! Corporeal Bomber!" Hades aimed one of its superweapons towards the Diablo Bakugan. All three heads generated a singular orb projectile that, when shot in the enemy's direction, paused before reaching them and violently expanded. When it did, it started sucking everything around it in, like a black hole would. Anything sent inside of it would be torn apart at the subatomic level. That is how he would get rid of the infinite power that Diablo had reached through its Kinetic Flame. When the flames are gone, so is the power. That's exactly what happened.

"Noland, enough with worrying about everyone else. Do us all a favor and destroy it with the plan you have? Rapido, before something worse comes out?" Andrew pleaded.

[Noland Hardy]

Noland looked around and saw Maria, Alex, and even Nero of all people step in to do what they could. Diablo was truly fearsome, no doubt the strongest of all enemies; however, with Andrew's move, a resurgence of self-confidence filled Noland's head with the idea of his plan being able to work. This would be a walk in the dark though, because he doesn't know how powerful the forbidden ability is at 100%.

They're going to find out right here and now.

"Once this goes through, I'll be good then," Noland answered Maria with a slight smirk on his face. "Give me 10 seconds..." He swiped the card on his BrawlX that will spell the end, assuming he gets to use it. "Nexus Ability activate! Absolute Damage X!"

The charging sequence is now under way. With the combination of Slip Damage and Absolute Desolation X, the consequences for being hit would be catastrophic. The space-time ability's characteristics will render any enhancements done by Diablo useless, even if it were to try its previous trick again. Even the Custom Battle Ability didn't matter. The only configuration of Diablo that mattered was how it was when going up against Helios' Fourth Layer.

"Once I'm ready to fire, get out of my way!" Drago shouted to the ones who were immediately set to hold Diablo off until he's ready to shoot.

[Alex Andersen]

"Oh, man, this is like online gaming all over again." Alex said once he looked at Diablo and seen all of the crap that tin can was going to pull to save its own skin. "It is like that one annoying Russian kid with no skill in voice chat who thinks he is the best, but in reality it is his older brother's account..." Alex continued after recalling stupid events from video-gaming online and he realized it was a perfect comparison to how this Diablo-Genesis Dragonoid relation in power works. An worthless artificial life form no one will ever truly respect and love, with no great power or skill at all stole power of another powerful creature and uses it as its own. Then, suddenly, it underestimates everyone else. Well, well, well, if that is not the most stereotypical and generic villain figure to be seen in movies and games. And we know how that ends for them every time.

"Dante, why would we even make any effort? We know how this will end whether we interfere or not, right? So, here you go, toaster-boy. G-Power Burst." Alex declared and then played the most-useless card he had in his deck. Why did he have it? He does not know himself. He obviously does not give a single damn about what he will use against this thing- even in front of such powerful force he does not give Diablo a single bit of respect for the power that is not his and neither he shows any fear for that power. What seemed like bright-red light began to descend upon Diablo- not that it would make any difference whether it hit or not.

[Maria Zenovia]

Maria sighed at the sight of this still going on. The fact that his machine changed its name from Diablo to Diablo 2 and 3 just shows how idiotic the whole concept of its creation is. It is just shoving more and more power into some robot who does not even how to use it properly aside making it overwhelmingly annoying and when he dies, oh guess, what let's make another version of Diablo with more power! And if he dies again let's make Diablo 4, 5, 6 and so on until this space-thot, Dasia, learns that is not how strategies work. The amount of crap she had pulled so far and she just keeps losing and losing and losing to the point where she just has to produce tons of machines to protect her. The amount of plans that succeeded for her compared to failures is astronomical. "Hey, Diego, or... whatever... can you just sit down and call that thot who made you to come down and fight instead? I mean this is her war and she is just hiding all the time. Plus, not like you're getting anything out if it- she'd just turn you into even if you won." Maria said. Hydra turned towards her with a confusion on each one of her faces. "'Thot'? Really?" Hydra questioned Maria's language.

"There have been millions of Hurranians inside her, Hydra. So, yes, a big thot." Maria confirmed her statement. "She is the reason why men keep telling us to stay in the kitchen." With everything she had been saying Hydra could not say if Maria was just being sarcastic all this time or if she actually meant everything she said. She decided to pretend she did not hear anything and turned towards Diablo before firing multiple asterisk-like projectiles from all her mouths at him.

[Dasia Turano]

"Form Analysis!" Each of the Diablo activated this ability so they could see through EVERYTHING these weaklings were doing. The Advanced Fusion Ability unit moved first.

It avoided all of Hydra's projectiles with extreme ease. "Atom Burst!" The one-shot ability Diablo had attempted to destroy Hades in D.C., all it took was for it to connect a punch with Hydra, and all of the energy inside of her will detonate, killing her instantly. Misfortune fell upon her for the attack to connect, pun intended.

Hydra instantly exploded, which should've resulted in an immediate death. Unbeknownst to the Hurranians, the Misfortune 13 form's unique properties allowed for the form itself to be destroyed rather than Hydra herself. They should've known this from before, since when they had Hydra infected from before, she was able to separate herself from the transformation entirely. The saving grace for them was that the Hydranoid was lying on the ground and bleeding from the resulting blow. "That's Diablo 3 to you, weakling," Diablo dismissed. That unit was preparing to put her out of her misery.

As for Dante, the Excedra unit had a nice surprise for him. "Garland Crusher!" As it was mimicking an Excedra, no external claw contraptions were needed. It lunged for Dante at blinding speed, pinning him on the ground. All of the heads clamped down on various parts of his body. His armor was getting bent from the sheer power of its jaws.

As for Drago... "Hellion Breath!" Knowing Drago was charging his ultimate ability, Diablo had to prevent Drago from shooting as soon as possible, since 10 seconds was not very long for a combat situation such as this. Energy leaked out of its frame to send scorching hot air towards Drago and friends. Diablo then jumped over Drago's head, since - in the event Drago does manage to fire - it won't be included in the kill zone. Drago's interest would not be to kill everyone in the area, so his range was limited.

"It's over!" Diablo had its blade pointed towards Drago's neck. One clean slash will slice his head right off.

[Noland Hardy]

"I agree!" Drago countered. An invisible wave of force was emitted from the ground that completely deprived both Drago and Diablo of their senses thanks to Drago absorbing that power a while ago...well, not Drago, since he was now under the protection of his avatar. Diablo now had no idea what Drago was going to do next, and that's what will get it destroyed.

"Miscalculation?" Noland asked the "smart" mechanical. This is thanks to Markus and Gargulion who had taken away the Sensory Breaker power from earlier. Drago already absorbed it, so he was saving it this entire time. Now it couldn't detect a Nova Sentry bursting out of the ground. It wrapped around Diablo's left leg and threw it right back down to the ground to join its other two compatriots.

"Watch out!" Drago clowned the mechanical, because, at this point, Diablo was getting hit by this. The other Nova Sentry wrapped around the Advanced Fusion Ability and Excedra units, and brought them together with the original Diablo. They released a wave of energy to blow both Hydra and Dante towards Drago. They seeped into the avatar's protection so they can be rejuvenated.

"Here!" Noland thrust his hands forward, signalling for the ability to be fired. Drago took a deep breath before he did.

"Coming at you hot!" Drago quipped one last time before unleashing the most powerful attack he ever conceived. He let out a monstrous roar that distorted the fabric of the dimension. An invisible force was pushed towards all three of the Diablo.

[Dasia Turano]

"No..." That was Diablo's first no after having its kill attempt thwarted by an untimely dragon that by all interpretations should be blind. "No...?" This was the second no once all of the Diablo were lumped together in the same place. "No!!!!!!!!" This was the final no as the attack was firing, and the blast radius was too wide for any of them to escape from.

When the attack struck, all three Diablo disappeared as if they were erased. The force from the roar traveled through them when it happened. Drago's energy control in the Duality form allowed it to disperse this force once it traveled for a couple of miles. It would've circumnavigated the planet a couple of times if it were allowed to continue.

Dust and echoes was all that was left of the scene...until a large object starting looming over everyone's heads. "Ah, yes. Peace and quiet. That's what I like to hear," Frosch remarked over the absence of an enemy here. "You have no idea how much yapping was going on while we were coming here."

"You, shut up!" Oberus screeched. She was in a bad situation. The BT System refused to fly on its own, possibly an intentional act done by the Hurranians. That meant that Frosch had to carry the whole thing on his back. He couldn't fly, so Oberus had to make sure both of them were carried via a tornado that, because of her condition, could not make the trip as fast as she could've traveled. Altogether, she's mad that she lost twenty seconds. "Apollonir, hurry up and shut this thing off please!"

[Vince Hardy]

Apollonir jumped straight up when he saw the BT System. Knowing that Diablo was obliterated in the blink of an eye by his son, he wanted to personally congratulate Drago, but this has to be taken care of first.

"..." Vince was looking up at the BT System with a concerned look. He COULD congratulate Noland and Drago on what appears to be a victory, but something was bothering him...and it was messing with his head.

He gasped when he saw energy rupture from both Noland and Drago's bodies, and saw them collapse. Their Duality state was forcefully cancelled, as it should be. Having gone to such great lengths that they haven't encountered before, they were undoubtedly pushing their bodies to the brink.

With an impressive showing of superhuman strength, he jumped all the way to Noland's position. He picked Noland up off of the ground, since there was something he needed to be up for in a second...

"You alright, champ?" Vince asked him. "You and Drago looked good out there... You showed us up a little too..."

[Noland Hardy]

Drago's veins were visible along his body after the forced cancellation. Even though the Duality state doesn't inherently have this bad of a repercussion, the first usage of it did more damage to him than what Dasia did to the entire alliance.

"I said it last time...and I'm going to say it again. I'm taking a break, and no one's telling me otherwise," Drago coughed. He pushed himself up, knowing he doesn't belong on the ground for what he just did.

"You're kidding..." Noland struggled to get out. "That thing was killing us... Apollonir would've made this one closer for sure..."

[Vince Hardy]

"Heh...just take the compliment," Vince urged. "Perhaps it's time you did the same thing as Drago will do after all of this...maybe even take a permanent break from this 'saving the world' thing. You know your grandma died from a heart attack a while ago before Lars Lion revived her? She'd be devastated if you went out so early, you know? I know things like what we have going here may be out of your control though, so I'll be content with you fighting if it means we're all about to die."

Vince looked up at the BT System one last time, his mind still uneasy from something... "Alright...look at me. You too, Drago," Vince continued, turning Noland around so they can look each other in the eye.

"Lars...let's do it," Clayf sounded off.

"Alright," Lars Lion agreed. She sent herself into ball form. She flew all the way to Vince so she could land on his head.

"..." Excedra stepped forward to greet his underling, the one who had now managed to assume an Excedra form himself. "You did good, kid," he congratulated. "You're going to be sore as hell when you change back. And...uh...you and the 'other one'...be careful. I'm watching you..."

"The Legendary Soldiers and I are keeping our mouths shut about what's going on, and I can only imagine how weird I'm acting on the battlefield. I'll make this short and easy to understand," Vince started. As he did that, something was happening with the BT System.

"Uh...guys...it's happening..." Frosch depressingly announced. What was happening was that the BT System was using the Haos energy. This was the same thing used back in D.C. A flash was emitted across the entire planet, returning ALL Bakugan back into their ball forms.

Without looking around to acknowledge the issue, Vince took out a card and placed it on Noland's chest. It was his Doom Card. "Don't you ever use this, you got that? Don't go in there," Vince said with a very serious tone. "I'm officially passing the baton to you, alright?"

With that said, Vince took Lars Lion off of his head. He tossed her out so she could stand. As she did, the BT System began the process of emitting its pulsars. Vince placed one hand out toward the BT System and glowed with the Duality aura. The BT System continued to make buzzing noises, but not the good kind. It sounded like it was trying to push through a force and was destabilizing because of it. Clearly, that force was...Vince himself.

[Andrew Bullock]

"What!?" Andrew was directing this towards two things: the BT System returning all Bakugan back to ball form, and the absurdity of the act that Vince just committed. "THAT was your plan!? Apollonir! You lied! That wasn't two fucking minutes! You're twenty seconds off!"

Clearly, that twenty seconds meant a lot, because if they had more time, Vince would not have had to do this.

"That's going to kill this time, Vince! You won't get as lucky as Noland was!" Andrew announced for all to hear. "The Legendary Soldiers are not strong enough in their state to prevent the total collapse from wiping you out of existence! We can't bring you back from that!"

[Noland Hardy]

"You're right...but we CAN stop it from destroying all of you," Lars Lion interjected. She tapped the ground with her foot to bathe the entire area in her light. This forced every allied Bakugan to stand. The Legendary Soldiers immediately followed Vince's lead to counteract the damaging pulses from the BT System.

"...No you're not..." Now realizing what was happening, Noland immediately got up on his feet, the surge of feelings causing his body to ignore his injuries completely. He punched Vince right in the chest. "Why would you and the Soldiers do that!?" Noland's voice was starting to turn evil again, since he has lost control over his darkness after hearing and seeing what was happening in front of him.

"Do you realize how long you've been gone!? You told me you were going to be back in our lives when all of this was said and done! You were always out on your reconnaissance missions! You barely did anything when you were here, and now you're just going to die!? Just like that!?"