Chapter 15: Overload in Alpha

Having gotten their acts together, Nellis and Ace managed to win their semi-final match, which, like much that Nellis, otherwise known as Zero, did, was an upset. However, just like with her match with Shalta, she didn't care much for the crowds and their gasps, awe, and cheers. She focused on the mission.

Glancing at her gauntlet, she saw the time, her lip twitching ever so slightly. "How far along do you think the others have gotten?" she asked. Ace, in turn, took a moment to think.

“If everything went to plan, they should be about a third of the way there," Ace replied, the two still standing on their pillar, waiting for the finals to start.

Nellis frowned, as it wasn’t as if they would stop the tournament if their comrades were caught. "Then we'll place our faith in them to do their job, just as they put their faith in us to do ours, " she stated as their final opponents, Lync and Volt, rose onto the opposing pillar. Lync soaked in the crowd's cheers and admiration while Volt remained like a statue, his face hard as he eyed them.

"I won't lie, I think we got the fun part," Ace smirked, as it wasn’t every day that he got to embarrass the Vexos for an audience, never mind one this big.

Nellis scoffed. “I won’t bother arguing with you, Ace.” Her words were one thing, but the growing smile on her face was another.

“Looks like you're just as hyped for this as we are, Bakugan Brawlers, or should I say,” Lync paused, a cheeky look on his face. “The Bakugan Brawler resistance.”

Nellis rolled her eyes at Lync's little attempt to be clever. The two had already discarded their disguises. Well, she hadn't completely revealed herself, but Lync had already seen this persona with the resistance. "Well, at least he doesn't have any eye problems. I'm not a fan of picking on blind children."

As Lync yelled at her for the comeback, Volt stayed focused. “I don’t know why you’re here, but I’m going to love taking your Bakugan.” Sirenoid glared at Volt for that comment, hidden in the folds of her human’s clothing. She hated that she wasn’t the one to take to the field as she wouldn’t mind a chance to give Brontes some payback.

"Remember, we need to make this fight last as long as possible." Ace quietly reminded them.

"I appreciate the confidence vote, considering how my last battle against Volt went," Nellis replied.

“If you want, I can take the lead.” Ace offered, to which she laughed.

“I’ll keep up just fine.” She stepped up with him, gauntlet at the ready.

Line Break

In the belly of the arena, Mira and Baron were running down what seemed to be a never-ending hallway. It had been too long since they saw the Vexos, as the finals could be starting any minute now, and they still hadn't found the dimensional controller's operating room.

Coming to a split, she turned to Baron. "Which way from here?" She asked, already breathing heavily from how much running they'd done.

Baron reached into his pocket and pulled out his handheld, activating it and checking the holo-map. "It should be…this way." He took a moment to fix their current location before pointing right.

"Then let's keep going; we don't have time to waste, " Mira said as she took off, Baron following close behind.

"Hey, you don't need to tell me twice. The sooner we finish, the more energy will build up from the final brawl." Baron called out as they ran as fast as they could, and after a couple minutes of running down the curved hallway, they came across a door directly in front of them.

Baron looked at his map but didn't see them close enough to the control room for this to be the only option. But with no other options, they had to take this route.

When the door opened, he and Mira were dismayed by what they saw. The room's lights were off, but they could see hundreds of protruding glass containments along the walls and in one big central pillar. The part that turned Mira's stomach was that many contained Bakugan in their ball forms, just floating in the liquid, seemingly asleep.

“What are they doing in there?” Baron asked, walking up to one, a Haos Bakugan, though he couldn't tell which one.

"They've been put into a state of suspension." Mira was shaken by the sight, biting her lip. She could only fear that her father had a role in this. She didn't know for what, and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

She breathed, as she already saw what her father was doing. While it hurt, she had to accept that, at least for now, she wouldn't be able to get through to him, and thus, she should focus on the mission.

“Let’s go. We can’t do anything for them but take down the dimension controller.” She started as she turned to walk away, unable to continue taking in the sight happening around her.

"Right…" Baron hesitated, but once Mira opened the other door and started running, he followed her, muttering that they'd return and free them. A thought he hoped that even just a few of the Bakugan heard.

Line Break

“Hang on tight; the final battle's about to begin!” The four brawlers ignored the commentator, hyping the crowd as Ace stepped up.

“I’ll set the pace, gate card, set!” Ace threw a card into the field, allowing a wave of dark purple to spread out, covering the arena before he grabbed his Bakugan. “Bakugan, brawl!” Throwing it onto the field.

“Darkus Percival, stand!” With a flash of dark purple, Percival opened up and took on his real form with a cape flourish. Nellis sees his power level standing at 450.

Lync smiled. “You’re using darkus? Then I’ll-!” Volt held out a hand to his partner, though his attention remained on their opponents.

“I can handle this.” He started, which Lync was annoyed by, but let it go with a shrug.

“Sure, by my guest.”

“Bakugan, brawl!” Volt pulled out his Bakugan and threw it into the field. “Bakugan, stand! Haos Brontes!” With a flash of bright golden light, the jester Bakugan took shape, laughing as he came to stand taller than his opponent.

Laughing as he looked down on Percival, Brontes quipped, "Oh, I get another chance to clobber some Resistance Bakugan. You should be honored, Percival."

"Fool," Percival grunted, as he didn't care that his foe was slightly stronger than him with a power level of 500; he had gone up against strong opponents before and defeated them all the same.

Ace was with him on that, gesturing to the field. "You know it, let's tell him what Darkus can do: gate card, open! Darkus Reactor!" At his command, the gate card came online, shrouding the field in a purple mist, swirling around like a maelstrom, the ground turning into an endless black void on which their Bakugan could somehow still find footing.

For Percival, his power sharply rose by 200 Gs, but Ace wasn’t done. “Ability activate! Darkus Driver!” With that, not only did Percival gain another 200Gs to his power level, but he took to the skies, grabbing onto his cape and spinning mid-air, quickly gaining speed before he tipped down towards Brontes, a horned drill ready to put the clown in the dirt.

"You're going to need to do better than that if you want to have a chance of beating me. Brontes, Ability activate! Maniactus Magical!”  Brontes laughed, doing a twirl, his arms flailing like the boneless things they were as the glitter of light broke through the dark shroud covering the field around him before it spread to encompass the entire field.

Percival felt his speed falling as his spin just came to a halt, and his power dropped back to what it had been at the start. “What the…” He had to quickly shift to land on his feet, but Brontes was waiting for him; Ace frowned as he saw that his foe had not only canceled out his gate card and ability but also gained 200Gs to his power.

“Oh, Brontes has taken back the lead!” Volt wasn't done. He didn't just want to win; he intended to crush these Resistance brawlers and take their Bakugan.

“Ability Activate! Ghost Cell! I guarantee these guys will give you nightmares.” With his second ability, ghosts formed around Brontes; before, with a groan and shriek, they leaped at Percival, who tried to flee, but when one grabbed him, the rest moved in, forcing him to his knees as his power dropped 100Gs.

“Percival!” Ace called.

Seeing his partner in a bind, Nellis stepped as the goal might not have been a clean victory, but that didn't mean they'd go down easy. "You said we'll need more to defeat you? Well, here it comes, Bakugan, brawl!" She threw her Bakugan onto the field, the ball bouncing a couple of times like a rock thrown over a calm pool of water before it stopped. “Bakugan, stand, Rise Aquos Elfin!”

“Sun, wind, and rain combine! Let Aquos Elfin appear!” As she took her true form, Elfin spun about, making a magical girl entrance before she ended it with a finger-gun pose toward the two Vexos. “I’m going to clean your clocks.” With her inclusion, the brawler's combined power level was 750Gs, 50Gs higher than Brontes.

Lync smiled when he saw the new Bakugan, as it wasn’t one he had seen before, but that only made him want to battle her all the more. “Well, would you look at that. This might just turn out to be more fun than I thought, Bakugan, brawl!” He called out, throwing his new Bakugan partner into play. “Ventus Altair, stand!”

Just like when he had fought Mira when Altair took to the field, it was with a screeching, menacing mechanical roar, its polished body shining under the daylight and the thousands of flashes from the cameras in the audience who awed at this new Bakugan. Lync smiled as he heard his fans wondering where he had got something like it.

“That again? Wasn’t it malfunctioning last time?” Nellis asked, as the last thing they needed was the stupid prototype damaging the dimensional controller or forcing the match to end before they could overload it.

"Oh, it did, but thanks to our battle, we worked out the bugs and fully loaded Altair up with power to burn and abilities that'll blow your mind!" At Lync's boast, the machine Bakugan let out another roar, with Lync having plenty of reason to be happy when, thanks to him, they now had a combined power level of 1200Gs.

'This will be difficult in more ways than one.' Nellis noted there was a dangerous power gap. If they fumbled things, they could take a messy defeat or, worse, lose either Elfin, Percival, or both to the Vexos. But she shouldn’t let that happen as she pulled out an ability card and slotted it into her gauntlet. “Ability Activate: Shooting Stardust!”

Line Break

“Anything?” an angry-looking guard asked the four others with him, but to his frustration, they all shook their heads.

"We haven't seen any sign of them, " one answered, only making the first grind his teeth.

"Keep searching! The tournament still going on; the last thing we need is intruders messing with things!" He yelled as the guards saluted and ran off to continue the search, joining the dozens of others looking for the intruders.

Said intruders watched the interaction from a corner, having just barely stopped from rushing out and being spotted.

“How’d they figure out we were here?” Baron asked; for the last few minutes, the entire stadium's interior had been crawling with much more security than they thought would be around.

"I'm not sure, but it doesn't sound like we're having an easy time finding the controller's operating room at this rate," Mira explained, watching as the first guard grumbled to himself before walking away. Both move back behind the bend and hide behind crates to avoid being seen.

Once the guard was gone, Baron whispered to her. “We can’t give up now, we’re so close.”

"I never said I would. Let's keep going. They don't know where we are or why we came, so we can slip deeper in." She could take some solace in that, as it seemed like they were spreading out to catch them. It would have been fortified if they had known about their target, and the two of them wouldn't have had a chance of getting through.

So they stuck to the shadows, moving only when the coast was clear and listening carefully for anyone who could be approaching. It was slow, a lot slower than they liked, but it was their best plan. The seconds passing felt like hours, as their friends had to have started the finals by now. What was their condition? How hard were they fighting? Had they fought as long as they could and were now about to be defeated or take the win?

Mira didn't know, and she hated it.

Getting to another bend, they stuck to the wall and poked their heads out to see two guards complaining.

“Damn it all, of all the times for lousy fans to get in the way!” One of them grumbled as they jogged down the path.

“Just our luck; they slipped through to meet with Mylene and Gus but didn't notice they had already left." The second, who Mira recognized as the one who had given the report to Gus and Spectre, agreed with his fellow security.

Coming to the bend, they stopped just short of it, missing how the two retreated out of view. “You head that way, I’ll search this area.”

“Got it.” They watched as one guard ran down the path. Moments later, the first guard turned the corner and saw them.

“What the-!” They jumped, wrestling him to the ground, where Baron knocked him out.

“Sorry about that, but we don’t have time to ask nicely.” He apologized as they tried the man's hands behind his back using his own restraints, gagged him, and dragged him behind some crates. Baron even moved some of them to make it harder to notice him.

"Well, at least we know why they're out in force. They probably noticed that the 'fans' that got in never left." Wilda quipped as Mira groaned at the reminder of her little 'trick', which was now coming back to bite their butts.

“Can we please focus on the mission?” She asked as they turned to leave but heard something up ahead.

“Looks like this battle’s over before it even begins.” The two resistance members looked at each other, recognizing that as one of the commentators.

Moving towards the source, they found a small, vacant break room, but it seemed like they had left in a hurry and hadn't shut off the TV. “That seems like the safe bet. The Vexos have been hammering them right out the gate, and the mysterious Bakugan brawlers haven't been able to keep up!”

Things didn't look good for their friends, who were up against Volt and Lync, who later used that mechanical Bakugan he had tried and failed to use against Mira. But to her chagrin, it seemed like her father worked fast to correct its issues. Enough so that Elfin and Percival were down in the dirt, Elfin wincing in pain while on one knee while Percival had been knocked onto his back. A glance at their life points showed that the Vexos hadn’t taken a single hit, while Nellis had just a 5th of hers, with Ace down to a 3rd.

"They're not going so hot," Baron worried. Sure, they had to prolong the match, but they didn't have to take such a thrashing unless…they were just being overwhelmed.

"I know they're stalling, but…" Mira thought the same thing, but that only made her want to get to the objective faster. "They're doing their part; we need to do ours." She took off running.

“Right!” Baron was right at her side, matching her pace. They’ll ensure that their friends out there didn’t fight for nothing.

Line Break

Volt wasn't all that impressed with their opponents' performance out on the field. He expected to win, but this was easy….too easy. He knew someone like Ace wouldn't be this weak and should have gotten a few hits. While he had no clue who the woman was, his gauntlet picked up a familiar reading from her as they battled. It was the same for Lync, but the boy didn't pay much attention.

Volt did, as he had only seen this in one other encounter, which only fed into his suspicions about what was happening. “Tell me, what’s with the costume?” He asked Nellis.

The woman looked at him and herself, mildly confused about this question. “What are you talking about?”

Volt only crossed his arms, a grunt passing through his lips. “What, is that what you really look like, Zero?”

This was when Lync finally understood what was happening but still looked bewildered. “Wait, Zero? That can’t be him.” He pointed towards their opponent, Ace glancing at his teammate, wondering what she'd do.

Nellis continued to look confused and slightly insulted. Still, the look faded as she smirked at Volt, impressed that the man could see through her disguise and curious about how. Was it her affiliation with the resistance? Her choice in Bakugan or something else? He seemed to have been focused on his gauntlet, more than she would have expected from the flow of the battle.

"…Well, I suppose it wouldn't last forever, but I don't feel like answering your question, Volt. Is this the real me, or another mask? Who can say?" Nellis, or as she just admitted, Zero, waved off his questions.

“But you can’t, Zero’s…he’s a dude!” Lync still seemed unwilling or maybe unable to accept that.

Elfin couldn’t help but tease him about it, giggling into her hand as she spoke. “Oh, what’s the matter, pipsqueak? Did you have a crush on her or something?”

Lync's face went still, confused, and then a very visible red blossomed on his cheeks, which was all Elfin needed to laugh at him, along with Ace, as Nellis merely raised an eyebrow.

Embarrassed, Lync stomped as he denied it. "What? No, I have better things to do than look at old fossils!"

Nellis wondered if that was the best retort he had, as even in disguise, she hardly looked older than 20, nor was she the one who implied any possible attraction. “Quite the charming young man, isn’t he? He’s a credit to proper parenting,” She dryly quipped as she reached for something.

“But let’s add to the battle, shall we? Bakugan, brawl!” She pulled out the main Bakugan and her partner since Beta City. Much like Elfin, the Bakugan ball bounced across the field before stopping. “Bakugan, stand. Rise Aquos Sirenoid!”

With the mask foiled, there was no need to keep his songstress benched. Also, they needed some additional firepower to remain in this battle, as they still had no sign or message from the rest about the dimensional controller.

“Are you all right, child?” Sirenoid, fully formed, floated at Elfin’s side as the frog girl slowly got up.

"Yeah, it's just a scratch, really. It'll be all better when I smash up their little toy.” The two looked back towards Altair, who continued to loom over both.

Having had his little laugh, Ace followed Nellis' lead; after all, the more Bakugan on the field, the greater the energy the brawl would generate for their plans. "Hey, we can't just let them have all the fun, Bakugan Trap, Falcon Fly!" Pulling a trap Bakugan out, he threw it into the air, where it seemed to glide up higher before taking its true form, which seemed to be a giant flying dragonfly.

“Looks like the Brawlers respond with a second Bakugan and a Bakugan trap; looks like they're going for a strength-in-numbers approach!” As the commentator gave his thoughts, he and the crowd missed up Elfin, Sirenoid, and Nellis all looked toward the trap Bakugan with suspicion and aversion, Sirenoid being the worse out of them as she gripped her lyre's staff so hard it creaked.

Nellis turned her attention toward Ace, her mind returning to what Mylene had said about her trap, Bakugan. “I had no idea that the resistance made use of such…Bakugan.”

Ace was perceptive enough to read his teammate's mood. While he had no clue why she reacted like this, he knew it was a sign of staying on task. "We can discuss this later; let's focus on the fight."

Nellis’ face didn’t give anything away to her thoughts, but she returned her attention to the brawl all the same. “Very well.”

Itching to get some payback after being shamed in public, Lync pounced on the chance to remind them why he was in the Vexos to be with. “Nah-ah, never underestimate the Vexos, Mechanical Ventus Wired, Bakugan Brawl!” Lync pulled out a trap of his own and threw it up into the air.

“What?” Ace called out.

“Another one?” Didn't Lync claim that Altair was the first? How did they get from fixing the first kinks to creating a new one in less than 24 hours? Just how fast was Vestal science? When the newly revealed Wired burst into form, they witnessed a large mechanical bird with a long beak and gleaming metal wings, though far smaller than Altair.

With two mechanical Bakugan at his back, Lync laid it on thick. “Check out, Altair. What do you think, Resistance? Aren’t they the nastiest Bakugan you’ve ever seen?” That wasn’t all, as Wired flipped itself, its back opening up in a sort of docking port, where it slowly slid into place onto the tail of Altair, the two Bakugan, to the shock of the crowd and the resistance, linking up. And what was worse was their new power level.

Nellis looked at her gauntlet in disbelief when she saw the newly merged Bakugan duo had a power level of 1850Gs. How did that even happen? If those two powers had merged like they normally did, they should only have a power level of 900.

Lync seemed to enjoy that building confusion and frustration in the two brawlers' faces. He might not be able to tell since Nellis was a good actress, but he would bet his favorite cape she was just as awestruck as the rest. "Guy, you don't have a chance against Meta Altair; you might as well give up."

His gloating was getting on Nellis' nerves, and she wished to see if they couldn't humble the brat. "We'll strike from below; you hit them from high."

“Right.” Ace nodded as Nellis pulled out 2 Ability cards.

“Double Ability activate: Ripple Shield plus Shooting Stardust!” Nellis called out as Sirenoid went first, her ability creating a dome of Aquos energy that spread out across the field. Meta Altair wasn't untouched while they were in the air as its power level dropped 400Gs. Elfin came in swinging, as with Shooting Stardust, her power rose 200Gs, putting their combined power at 1000Gs.

“Double Ability activate: Fly Enemy plus Tri-gunner!” Ace followed their example, using the first ability for Falcon Fly, and the trap also gained 200Gs. At the same time, Percival prepared and fired off a triple blast using Tri-Gunner, his power rising by 300Gs, putting their combined force at 1200Gs.

But to their frustration, that wasn't enough. Even as they attacked from above and below, Meta Altair's power was still much higher with every attack landing, sitting at an insane 1450Gs.

“It’s not even making a dent.” Nellis frowned at the lack of progress as Lync laughed at them.

"Trying a quad attack? Nice try, but now it’s my turn. Double ability activate: Aura Cannon plus Hybrid Cannon!” The Ventus brawler pulled out and put the two Ability cards in his gauntlet, creating those disks they had seen during his brawl with Mira. Still, on top of that, he also shifted its' newly gained tail attachment, its feathers aiming upwards, targeting Percival and Fly Falcon and taking them out with a single shot. At the same time, the disks found their marks with Elfin and Sirenoid, both thrown to the ground.

The blows were too strong, as once Percival and Fly Falcon hit the ground, they all returned to ball form and flew back to their brawlers, landing at their feet. “You gotta give them points for trying, but the Bakugan Brawlers are totally outclassed here! Who knows how much longer they’ll last.” The commentator called out as the Bakugan Brawlers' life points dropped even further.

Ace grimaced when he saw their life points drop into the double digits. His was the highest at 80, but Nellis was only at 30.

"You should go home and play with the other kids," Volt told them, only to narrow his gaze when Nellis bent over and retrieved her defeated Bakugan.

She moved a lock of hair out of the way of her face, one which didn't match that of someone on the verge of defeat. "Oh, I don't think we will just yet. Why would we when things are moving along quite nicely?" Volt hummed, frowning as he wondered just what they were up to.

Line Break

“There they are, stop them!” A group of guards spotted them as they rushed through, but Mira had come prepared as they heard them running over.

“Coming through!” she called out as she rammed a service cart through them, knocking over most. Those who had fallen tripped others, allowing the two resistance members to rush on through.

Getting to a door, Mira commanded it to close before smashing into the panel. “That’ll slow them down.” She called out, huffing as they had been running for who knew how long now. "Change of plans; start smashing every door panel we find; we'll keep throwing roadblocks in their way."

Baron nodded as they turned to run towards their objective. The younger brawler checked his maps of the arena and smiled at what he saw. "We shouldn't be too far from the controller room; we're in the final stretch." Getting close to the belly of the beast, they smashed up 3 more door panels on the way there, which would buy them more time, but not much when there could be more guards around.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't believe it, but despite all expectations, the Bakugan Brawlers are still in this match." This time, they heard the calls coming from a rest area with guards inside. Though Mira didn't know why they hadn't been waiting for them, she didn't question it, only running past when the backs were turned. “And what an upset! They managed to land a blow on Altair that sent the Bakugan crashing into the field!”

Baron muttered, “Hang in there, guys. We're almost there…" Rounding the final bend, they saw a door before them that, according to the schematics, was their target. Rushing through, they came to a stop, sweaty and winded but still standing, with Baron having a big smile as he looked at the plans and the room.

“Finally, we made it,” Baron cheered as Mira turned and shut the door, turning to the panel and, this time, taking a moment to properly lock it from their end. “And totally unguarded.”

She looked around the space and saw that it was barren. There was no furniture, and there were no windows. A giant central computer was built into a pillar that took up most of the center of the room, along with smaller light sources fitted into the floor and ceiling. "No way, it's that easy…" It just didn't feel right, even if nobody else was there.

"There's the switch. We just then to-!" Before Baron could march towards the controller, her hand shot out and grabbed his collar, pulling him back. The boy yelped, losing his grip on his handheld, which continued forward and got sliced in two by a laser grid.

Pushing further back from what had nearly been a gruesome demise, Mira only inspected it. "I knew it; they have a laser grid around it. If we want to remain in one piece, we won't make it through."

"Let's look for a way to shut it off; there has to be something in the room…right?" Baron asked her, looking hesitant about that.

“Right…” Mira didn't fight him on it and just went to look for a means to shut off that pesky laser grid.

Line Break

"What a comeback, folks! What seemed to have been a perfect win for our champions has turned into a slow and hard-fought battle against two opponents that won't stay down, but who has more in the tank? Who wants to win this more?” The commentator drew attention to the fact that despite having so few life points left, the brawlers had managed to chip away at Lync and Volt, the former having lost 240 points while Volt had lost 180.

Nellis was starting to wonder that herself, as they were all winded, but she was the worst of the four, which Ace noticed. “You good, Nellis? You look like you’ll croak.”

"I've just never been in a battle this…intense before," she breathed. She was grateful that she had worked out when she arrived; if she had been in comparable shape before she was sent here, she would have fallen over by now out of exhaustion and possibly lost due to technicality.

Forcing some hair into her lungs, she pulled her loose hair back over her head and out of her face. "Don't worry about me; I can keep this up a little longer. After all, you’ve noticed it as well, right?”

"Kinda hard not to," Ace replied, which only fuelled Volt’s suspicions about that and what they were after. Why would they be in the ring, and what could they have noticed? A flaw in their fighting style, movement in the crowd? He didn’t know, but he just knew in his gut that it was something he was missing.

“Double Ability Activate: Night Explorer plus Tri-Gunner!” Ace called out, but Volt wasn’t about to let that happen anytime soon.

He quickly acts. “Ability Activate: Maniactus Magical!” As the darkness gathered around Percival, it was quickly stripped off his body, his power level remaining the same.

“You took out his ability before it even formed!” Ace yelled, and in contrast, Brontes gained 200Gs.

“Pretty funny, right? But I got something else, Ability Activate: Darkus Scythe!” Volt added another ability.

“And Volt pulls out the heavy Artillery. With that Darkus Ability, Brontes will be no laughing matter!” the commentator called out as Brontes formed the weapon and slashed at Percival with a cheery, too-cheery laugh. The Bakugan groaned in pain as he stepped back, his power dropping from the hit.

"What's wrong, Percival? You're not wimping out on me, are you?" Brontes asked Percival, getting ready to go for another swing to finally put his opponent down and win the match.

Line Break

In the control room, time was running out for them. Despite their efforts, the guards had gotten past their attempts to slow them down and were now trying to force their way into the room, with Baron holding the doors shut with all he had.

"I can't hold them back much longer; it's now or never!" He ground out. While he was in exceptional shape and stronger than people gave him credit for, he was still just one person against what felt like five, maybe more, on the other end who were already slowly pulling the door open.

Mira felt her nerves getting worse, as they had searched high and low and found no switch, burning through precious time for nothing, and now Wilda had an insane idea to get through, one that if she failed-

Wilda picked up on this, as he always did, soothing her worries with a simple statement: “I believe in you, Mira.”

She looked at him and pictured what he felt, what he would do if he wasn't stuck in his form. And yet he trusted her. He was a rock that she, in turn, could depend on, so if he thought they could do this, she could then…then she'd rely on that rock again. "I won't let you down; this is for all the Bakugan, to your freedom!"

Taking aim, she found a spot through the lasers. It was small and narrow as hell, but it was a straight shoot towards the level that controlled the system. So, taking a deep breath and letting her nerves calm even as the door behind her was forced open, she threw Wilda through the lasers.

The Bakugan opened up mid-flight to shift his body the best he could to account for anything his brawler couldn't, like a laser being too close or his body starting to dip as momentum started to lose against gravity. But he got through, by the skin of his teeth; he got through and hit the lever with all the force he had left, forcing the level upwards.

Immediately, the valve system shifted, trapping the energy in the feed system, which was already working harder than normal and filling up fast. “It worked!”

“What did you do?” One of the guards asked, seeing the system shake and groan as the power build-up continued, adding further pressure on the controller.

Baron only laughed at their flabbergasted faces. “Our end of the plan.”

Line Break

In the field, Ace noticed the energy racing up off the arena and how its behavior differed. It was erratic, sparky, and seemingly slow to enter the system, which he bet was because the system was filling up. With nowhere to go, it just kept filling up.

He heard a curse to his side, seeing that his partner was bent over, holding onto her face, her hand covering her left eye, the boy’s concern shooting up when he saw blood leaking through the woman’s pressed white fingers. “Nellis?”

She snarled as she stood straight, her grimace becoming a painful look of joy. As this feeling, it was familiar, painfully so. It was just like that day on Kamine island, and if she was feeling her geass acting like this, then it could only mean-

Laughing, she didn't care that Lync looked freaked by her apparent medical emergency, nor did she notice how Volt's gaze shot to his gauntlet, which registered something he didn't think was possible. She just focused on the mission, which was slowly ending. "Forget about me. It looks like Mira and Baron came through, after all."

Ace wasn't sure about this, but if she could smile like that…well, he'd follow her lead. “So let’s finish this with a bang.”

“How else?” Nellis pulled out some cards and got ready.

“What you two bozos talking about?” Lync asked as Nellis finally released her death grip on her face, her eye looking the same as before but with a faint trail of blood as if she had just shed crimson tears.

Nellis only laughed at the question. “Oh, it’s not much. But tell me, haven’t you noticed how much energy our prolonged battle has built up?” She gestured towards the arena before it dawned on Volt, who, in horror, realized the sighs for what they had been. The missing brawlers, their oddly poor performance, the odd readings he was getting off Zero.

“You little pests.” His pupils seemed to shrink, either from disbelief or rage, Nellis didn’t know.

“I think he’s figured it out.” Ace nudged her side.

“Control room, report!” Volt didn’t care for the optics as he reached for his ear to get in contact with the guards.

“Too late! Double Ability Activate: Black Maiden plus Darkus Thunder!” Ace activated his two abilities; the first worked by canceling out Brontes, allowing Percival to shatter the scythe that he had been holding back from landing another blow.

“And the action keeps heating up; the brawlers have just knocked out Bronte's ability, so goodbye to the dark scythe.” Brontes bemoaned the loss of his weapon because the arena darkened as dark clouds gathered. From them, purple lightning danced through them.

Percival, standing tall and lifting a finger to the heavens, right, an arc of lightning came down onto his finger. Not hurting him but gathering into the mass of power. “Now, you’ll learn what true darkus power can do!” With that, he fired the strike, hitting Brontes dead center.

Brontes cried out in pain as he spasmed, his arms flapping all over the place before the attack ended, and he wobbled, weak-kneed for a moment. "Hey, to be fair, I'm supposed to be the one…who gets the last laugh." With that, he fell over, defeated.

“Brontes!” Volt called out as his Bakugan returned to him, rolling at his feet.

“And that attack, Volt's life points fall by half!” the commentator called out, and Volt could only watch in horror as the energy seemed to build, showing clear signs that something was wrong. But they couldn't stop the brawl; even if they did, it wouldn't matter.

"Nice try, but you're going down. Ability Activate! Spinal Saucer!” Lync activated an ability, targeting the 2 Aquos Bakugan on the field.

“Gate card, open! Aquos Reactor!” Nellis wasn’t about to let him off easy, as with that one move, both her Bakugan’s power went up by 200Gs. "I'm not done; Double Ability Activate: Vital Neptune and Subtetta reaction!” With that, Elfin and Sirenoid moved as Elfin pointed towards Altair, whose body started to change color, taking on browns. At the same time, Sirenoid played a melody on her lyre.

“What’s happening?” Lync yelled.

"Isn't it obvious? With Subterra reaction, I can forcibly change my opponent’s attribute to Subterra, which also has the added bonus of locking you out from any of your non-subterra abilities," Nellis told him as his Spinal Saucer faded away.

"Time to send you," Elfin said. Elfin came in hot and, along with Sirenoid’s music, started landing punch after punch on Altair before she finished with an uppercut that sent the flying Bakugan tipping over before he came tumbling down onto the field. "To the scrap pile!"

"Altair!" Lync called out as his Bakugan was forced back to ball form. His life points are now less than 200.

Lync was about to get up to continue the fight, but the energy build-up became too much, and like any system under pressure, the weakest part failed. In this case, the crystal was the lynchpin for the entire dimensional controller system.

Nellis could feel her connection to her geass grow stronger with its destruction. "It's been done." She breathed out, relief flooding her system, even as the entire place seemed to shake and tremble. Even as the battle was forced to cease by the total collapse of the control system and Bakugan, which were once mere balls, took to their true forms, Nellis reveled in all of it.

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And we’re back with a new chapter, which I have to admit, I sped ran through writing this, as the chapter was something of a rewrite of what you expect this chapter to be. So I tried to focus on the stuff that I could change while writing it, which I had a little extra time for as while I have the 3rd DLC chapter for Golden Ending to focus on tomorrow, Gwrthryfel y Ci Du’s chapter is already done and just needs to be edited.

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I wanted to have it so that when Elfin teased Lync about his possible crush on Nellis, she would think she was not her brother, Odysseus. Thus, her taste doesn't fly towards younger partners, but for one, it would add some implications that I would rather not add to this story. And 2, we don't know if Odysseus is the CG version of Drake. As gross as it was, the context was that it was a political marriage, one designed to stop a potential war between two superpowers. The cast treated it as such, not even loudmouth Tamaki, implying the crown prince likes them young.

Also, yes, I had to make another change as in the show, Meta Altair should have won; the difference in power between the two was so great that Shun and Ace should have lost when Lync revealed Meta Altair, whose power level was over twice what Wired and Altair's power level should have been. If they had a higher power, say all four Bakugan’s levels were fused, they would have been doing damage earlier, but they didn't. So my best guess was that the writers just forgot or didn't care how math works, so when I tried to fix things… I ended up wasting 2 hours for functionally nothing. So, I just took the easier route and gave the Vexos the technical win.