He struck like an angry viper. The moment the fake Helena began to speak, R.D.'s body was in front of her's, within the blink of an eye. A crimson-swathed fist rocketed up towards the replica's chin, while the length of ground he traveled upon was ripped apart by his speed.

===In Repli-Earth===

"Taiga sent me out here as backup," Renais explained, scanning the skies for the distinctive silhouette of GunGlue, "Your girlfriend was able to find something out about the portal. Some big claw is supposed to come out of it."

The sound of a sonic boom shook the arena as R.D. disappeared, moving much too fast to be seen. Appearing suddenly behind Helena, his leg cutting upwards as he kicked at her back, intending to send her flying forwards into her own attack.

Alongside R.D., a massive claw of darkness launched at Helena, lunged foward from Malvettix's arm. "And where do you think you're going?"

***

"A big claw?" Guy looked out of the front window of GunGlue. "Well, I'm almost at the scene...but from here, I don't really see anything."

Malvettix briefly paused. Hmmm...and who might you be to tell me such?

Damian watched in mild silence as the attack formed and proceeded to be fired. He wouldn't take any chances of losing Tsul by basing his knowledge on the VIP's strength and matching it against an attack of that size. Ziatoch had ways to punish even after death. With a quick nod to his knights, Damian steadied his feet and opened his mouth. The attakc he was about to fire would be enough to stop that, and all he would have to do was think the word and focus all of his energy into it: FiendFyre.

The ground shuddered and the fire formed. As Devil's Fury struck the shield, FiendFyre errupted from Damian's mouth. The space in front of him was immediately consumed by the cursed fire as it shot forward to meet his opponent's attack.

The collision was magnificent. Two powers of that magnitude colliding could burn an image into one's retinas for hours. The remnants of the shield shattered as the explosion of mass proportions took place, and Damian could feel the bounderies of Blood Beach cracking. Now was the time. Grabbing Lust once more, their bodies enveloped in flame, sending them straight to Lost Paradise. There they would be safe until an audience with Ziatoch could be met.

The attack swept through the blazing R.D., but did nothing--it had struck an afterimage. Just before the attack could hit the wall, an energy blast struck it and deflected it upwards, causing it to explode harmlessly in the sky. R.D. lowered his hand and turned his emotionless gaze back on Helena, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

===In Repli-Earth===

"I'll meet up with you in a moment," Renais said as she followed the GunGlue, "Just try to stay in sight."

Malvettix smirked. "Never heard of you."

He was fully prepared to leap right back into the fray, but it seemed R.D. and Helena were attempting a conversation...and that would be rude to interrupt.

***

"All right." Guy decided to land GunGlue near the coordinates until Renais arrived.

R.D. uttered not a word, and instead, held his hand out, palm flat and facing the replica of Helena. Within the trees, the Child watched impassively until this moment. Now, his striating nebulae eyes widened in shock. R.D. was channeling certain amounts of SaintFlame, DivineLightning, and Pure Energy into a complex weave that NightShade would recognize being identical to The End.

He was using Balefire.

Impossible! He should not know the weave for that attack! he thought frantically. Did Lumiya teach it to him?

The Child watched on with something akin to pity. Repli-Helena did not know what would happen if R.D. fired the attack--and if he did, she would simply cease to be. Not even Kuro could avoid Balefire, just like he could not avoid The End.

===In Repli-Earth===

Renais quickly caught up with Guy, just as the Evoulder was disembarking from the flying GunMachine. "Any sign of the portal?" she asked as she came to a halt a few feet away from him.

"Not yet," Guy said. "Let's look around."

They did-to no real avail. Whatever Matt saw, it clearly wasn't here-no portal, no claw.

A bar of brilliant white energy lanced out of R.D.'s hand, like light liquefied. It slammed into Helena's attack with thunderous force. Light and power exploded around the impact zone of the two beams, sending out waves of power as the two powers clashed.

===In Repli-Earth===

Renais sighed as she made one final check. "Nothing," she said, "There's not a thing out here. Maybe Matt was right when he said it could be here in the future."

Guy folded his arms. That was probably the case...but was Matt even able to predict the future at all?

"Let's head back."

"Alright," Renais said, following her cousin back to the GunGlue. As they walked, Renais began to think, using the Library function to sort through a number of files--the records from the Zonder battles that occured nearly two years earlier. She soon found what she was looking for--information on the creation of the Z-Sensor.

"Guy," she asked suddenly, "Do we still have that Z-Sensor Entouji made?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Renais cocked her head to the side as she looked at Guy from the corner of her eyes, putting her hands in the pockets of her cooling coat. "D'you think they can adapt it to detect this portal instead?"

The Child lifted a hand and thrust it forward, aiming it at the focal point between the Balefire and the Revelation Beam--time rips could not be allowed. With a bearing of his will, the Principality of Observation dispelled the attacks, causing both beams to shatter into what looked like shards of shining glass, before they too disappeared. R.D. staggered from the force of the attack, but did not wonder what caused it.

Instead, he rocketed upwards into the air, and back down at the speed of a lightning bolt, aiming an armored, blazing foot down at Helena's head.

The dark lightning struck R.D. hard, and he was sent spiraling down towards the stone floor. Just before impact, he righted himself, skidding down on the ground to a stop. Steam rose off of his armor for a brief moment. He looked up briefly, then thrust his hand forward.

The ball of lightning he left in the air flashed and exploded as R.D. detonated the Plasma Rain, causing dozens of bluish-green bolts of lightning to rain down on Helena, weaving through the Kuro-Raikou in an attempt to strike her from the air.

"I don't see why not." Guy rubbed his chin. "But we don't even know what kind of energy the portal gives off."

From underneath, a swarm of inky-black snakes rose, fangs bared. Hissing, they swerved up and wrapped themselves about the limbs of the false Helena, securing her in tight place.

"If you have a plan," Malvettix spoke, perched on top of a branch, "now's the time to use it."

Quite suddenly, as the two lightnings raged in the skies around the Helena replicant, the red energy around R.D. suddenly dispersed. He staggered again, but quickly recovered. "Damn!" he said, quickly looking up in the sky. He saw the snakes converge on the clone, and heard Malvettix speak to him.

Time to end this.

His body shook as he channeled Earth energy through him, raising his arms up. He suddenly flung his right arm up behind him, then snapped it upwards into the air. Green energy erupted out from his elbows, up from his wrists, and out from his back, each one spiraling into glowing points--drills.

"Giga...!"

Angling his right arm again, R.D. thrust the arm up into the air. Each energy drill shrank back into his body at a rapid pace, and an immensely long drill, silvery and metal, sprang forward from his wrist, covering his fist and aiming towards the heavens. It quickly widened into a drill of massive proportions--almost twice as long as he was tall, and easily wide enough to obscure his body in its shadow.

"Drill...!"

R.D. swung the massive drill across the side until it was in front of him, aiming it at the replica of his deceased friend. The drill bit began to spin at insane speeds, blasting wind across the arena. Pushing off from the ground, R.D. shot into the air as emerald flames issued from the back end of the drill bit, covering him in flame. R.D., equipped with his giant drill, flew to pierce Helena, the heavens, and into tomorrow.

"BREAKER!!!"

===In Repli-Earth===

"I know," Renais said, "That's why we should see if Matt would relent to letting us study that armor of his a bit more. If he came here through a portal, then perhaps his armor has traces of its energy signature leftover on it. Or maybe a unique particle, like Element Z0."

Malvettix's grin spread wider as the giant drill tore through the air.

Perhaps the demise of his other half wouldn't be so bad at all...

***

Guy nodded. "Well, we could try. Let's head back and see what we can do."

R.D. landed hard, his feet skidding across the stone. He swung his drill-encased hand out to the side, lettings it retract until it disappeared entirely. Standing up to his full height, R.D. turned and looked at the replica of Helena, and slowly walked over to her.

He kneeled down next to her, giving her a pitying look. "I'm sorry it had to be this way," he said, "You're not Helena. You never were, the things you said proved it. But you were still a person, and I'm sorry I had to defeat you."

===In Repli-Earth===

"Right," Renais said, walking over to the GunGlue to board it with Guy. "Hopefully the old fart will be able to cook something up."

Edited by RisingDragon on February 24, 2008 at 20:23:04.