Matt threw out his fists and drew power. Quickly - a high whine pierced the air and he was ready to go. "Megaton Cannon!" He threw out his hands and fired a massive beam at the retreating Re-Tuul.

Re-Tuul sensed the massive influx of energy and spun about, seeing only the gigantic wave of energy coming in. With a snarl, he crossed his arms over his chest and manifested a barrier in front of him. With a mighty crash, the Megaton Cannon slammed against it, nearly throwing the demon back. Re-Tuul snarled as he poured what energy he could into his defense. Even still, the blast was slowly overcoming it, sparks of it tearing through and laying open his white and black skin.

After a short while, the beam subsided, allowing Re-Tuul to drop the barrier. The demon snarled silently, heaving for breath as his energy recovered and he prepared to regenerate.

"REEEEE-TUUUUUUUUUUULLLLL!!!"

The demon snapped around as he heard R.D.'s primal scream. Still blazing with red light, R.D. hefted the Phase Lance up into one hand, grabbing it by the lower blade, and flung it as hard as he could. The double-bladed went spinning through the air like an blue buzzsaw.

Halfway to its target, Ileyna watched in amazement as for a brief second, the Phase Lance didn't spin--and there were two of them, flying side by side. The second passed, and both Phase Lances shredded through the air, spinning once more.

Re-Tuul watched in shock as both weapons struck, the tips of their blades stabbing right into the flesh of his forearms. The demon's strength meant the arms snapped forward instinctively, resulting in the lower blades stabbing through the calves of his legs.

If he had eyes, they'd be as wide as dinner plates. I can't move!

R.D.'s 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, soared through the air straight at Re-Tuul.

"BREEEEEEAAAAAAAAAKKAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

Re-Tuul screamed in pain and shocked denial as the Giga Drill smashed into body, instantly shredding it apart. Black ichor was thrown about in the air as R.D. passed through, shooting off away from Re-Tuul. He skid to a halt many meters away from Re-Tuul, the drill no longer spinning. R.D. swung it to his side, and it retracted within moments, just as Re-Tuul's body exploded in a violent fashion, flames billowing through the air and eradicating all traces of the demon. There was a whistling as the Phase Lances spun through the air towards R.D., converging back into one in front of him, and he grabbed it tightly as he stood.

Edited by RisingDragon on October 26, 2009 at 20:27:19.

Matt took a breath. Then another. He didn't want to whoop and cheer this time. As the demise of Re-Tuul billowed into the sky, he swung his gaze over the rubble of the Kujo home, the burning trees, and all the injuries his teammates suffered.

Dragon Drive faded into a weak flame, then sputtered. FINAL's gauntlets broke away into countless glistening particles, trailing upwards. With all of his muscles crying for relief and all the pain rushing back in, Matt fell on his bottom, laid his back against the grass.

This could have gone better.

The glow around R.D.'s armor faded, and the armor itself disappeared into thousands of tiny blue lights that faded in the dying sunlight. Steam rose up off his bleeding body, and as the botched Overdrive caught up with him, he groaned and sank to one knee as the pain overcame him.

Ileyna lowered herself towards the ground, being extra careful with the wide shield around her--as the battle had grown worse, she found it necessary to retrieve Joseph and Holly and pull them out of the way with her telekinesis. Gently, she laid them down on the ground before she let go of her power.

"Helena! Alasea!" she shouted, running over to them. "Are you two all right!?"

"She's not moving!" Helena said. "MAAAAATT!" she hollered in his direction. "Come here, she's not moving!" Now she shoved Alasea harder, trying to get a reaction. "Come ON, Alasea, wake UP!"

Alasea's eyes began to flutter, and she groaned, twisting about as she regained consciousness. Shifting about, her wounded leg brushed against something. Her eyes widened as pain lanced through her leg, and she barely managed to hold back her scream.

After a moment, it subsided and she collapsed back on the ground, breathing heavily--she hadn't even realized her back had arched at the sudden fire in her wound. She pushed herself up, looking around. "Helena? Wha--where's Re-Tuul!?"

"Relax," R.D. said, dragging himself over by using his Phase Lance as a walking stick. "I got rid of that bastard."

Edited by RisingDragon on October 26, 2009 at 20:51:37.

"That was terrible," Hugo spat, walking back up to the group from the short distance he was at. "We got our asses kicked."

Helena grasped the impromptu wrappings around her leg, rubbing her hands up and down them. "...well, at least he's dead." A hiss passed her lips and she drew her leg in, clenching tighter. "Aaaah!"

"WE were almost dead," the Mettaur said. "We're lucky we're still alive." He glanced at the wrappings. "Leave that alone. Give me some time and I can-"

Helena cried out again, drawing her knee closer as a flash of something exploded from the brace in a spill of cloth. She fell on her side, cradling her leg. Underneath the cloth lay the new calf and foot that had grown in to replace the old one.

R.D., Alasea, and Ileyna all recoiled in shock at the sudden regeneration of Helena's leg. After the vicious battle, and all of the violent occurrences in it, the sight of it exploding out of the wrappings Alasea had covered the wound with was just too much for poor Ileyna, who turned, stumbled off a ways, and heaved up what food she had consumed that day.

Alasea relaxed, looking down at the new leg. She noticed a couple things right away: first, it was bloody. Probably from how it regenerated, coming out of a wrapped, bloody wound. She didn't worry about that. The other thing was that it was awfully pale compared to the rest of her body. After a moment, she realized that it was because the new skin had never been exposed to the sun, so the pigments in it wouldn't have had time to darken.

"Are you okay?" she asked, wincing as she pulled herself over to examine her friend, stripping the tourniquet off of her regenerated leg and letting blood flow into it.

Edited by RisingDragon on October 27, 2009 at 13:59:44.

Panting out of effort, Helena pushed herself up on her hands, glancing behind her. She twitched her thigh, and after a few moments, her new toes wiggled in response. "What...how did...?"

"Can you walk?" Jotaro asked, coolly walking up to the group.

Helena looked up at him. "...I don't know."

"We're getting out of here." Jotaro bent down next to his mother and slid his hands underneath her body. "Get Gramps and the others."

Alasea nodded and staggered up, slipping her arms under Helena's and helping her up onto her feet.

"Hugo, get Joseph," R.D. said before hobbling over to Matt, holding out his hand to help him up. "Come on. We can at least put this fire out. Can you stand?"

Matt just "mmmmmm"'d and pulled himself up with R.D.'s help. They walked back over to the others, where Jotaro and lifted Holly and Hugo was using his hoverbed to prepare Joseph for transport. Matt saw Ileyna and broke ways with R.D. to meet her. "Hey," he said, crouching beside her. "You okay?"

Then he noticed the mess she made on the grass. Eeeeew. "Come on, let's get you some ginger ale. That always calms my stomach down."

Ileyna wiped her mouth and nodded. "Mmn."

As Alasea and the others hobbled off, R.D. stood to his full height, still holding onto the Phase Lance for support, and closed his eyes. He knew he really shouldn't do something like this, not so soon after that... well, he really wasn't sure what went on with that Overdrive. Not that it mattered.

When he opened his eyes, the irises in them had dilated, while the pupils had contracted to almost non-existence. He lashed out with flows of water energy through the air, waiting for Matt to do the same with his elemental power.

Matt wrapped his arm around Ileyna's shoulder and looked towards the burning ruins. He raised his free hand, and a steady drizzle streamed down over the wreckage, soaking the wood and dousing the flames.

As the rain came down and the last of the flames were extinguished, R.D. let go of his hold on Lumiya's power, causing his eyes to return to normal. He looked about a bit, taking in the scene as the rain began to scour away the blood from his body.

He couldn't help but feel that this entire mess was his fault. Re-Tuul was perfectly willing to let his grudge with him cause innocent people to suffer.

The whole thing left a bitter taste in his mouth. Shaking his head, R.D. turned around and walked away, joining up with the others.

They eventually got situated in the truck and drove off. Hugo took the front seat (said he'd feel more comfortable up there) so Matt hung in the back with the others. He sat there for a good while, dripping wet, quiet like the rest of them. Not like he didn't want to clear the air, but after that debacle...well, everyone had a reason to feel bummed, he figured, so he'd might as well respect that and leave it alone.

He glanced over at Helena, noticed something that shouldn't be there. "...hold on." He pointed at it. "Did...did Hugo sew that back on?"

Helena drew back her soaked hair. (The rain had poured harder than Matt had planned.) "No. I grew it back."

"You missed that?" Alasea asked, looking over at Matt. "Just a few moments after I woke up, that leg just burst out of the wrappings I had put on it."

"I was all the way over there when that happened," Matt said, pointing in an arbitrary direction. "I didn't notice."

"Well, at least Heresy gave me a power I can live with," Helena said. She stuck her new foot out and wiggled the toes, swished the ankle back and forth.

"That's kinda freaky, I gotta admit," Matt said.

Helena's mouth curled, in some annoyed smirk. "Half of me is freaky now."

"You've got a point."

"I'm a little concerned about that," R.D. spoke up, lifting his head up from where he had been brooding. "I spoke to the dragons about their capabilities while I was in Antarctica, making a plan to defeat Sheena."

He glanced at Helena's pale leg, eying it warily. "Regeneration wasn't one of them."

Edited by RisingDragon on October 27, 2009 at 19:49:52.

"It's not?" Helena asked.

"You didn't do it last time you were with us," Matt added. Then again, it's not like she could regenerate from the wound that did her in.

Helena looked back at R.D.. "Do you think something bad caused this, then?"

"... I don't know," R.D. said, shaking his head. "Maybe its because of how he Bound to you in the first place. They did say that everything Heresy did was a perverse mockery of anything natural. But... like you said, at least its useful."

Maybe Heresy had discovered something new, something that the Omega Essence didn't teach the Dragon Tribes. R.D. didn't want to think about it, though. Hearing the absolute disgust in the dragons' voices concerning Heresy had been cause enough for alarm. He didn't really want to find out just what things Heresy had done.

"Maybe it's something completely different," Matt said. "Like it's just screwing around with your DNA or something."

"It needs to cut it out," Helena said. She pulled her knees up to her nose. "I don't want to change more than I already am."

"Am?" Matt asked.

"I'm sorry. Have. Already have."

"Oh."

A soft, pink light slowly appeared in the back of the truck, coming from Alasea's hand. She had hiked the side of her skirt up to get at her wound, and was slowly healing it. It had been starting to hurt way too much.

She frowned a bit. She didn't really have the energy to heal this kind of wound right away; there was just way too much damage done by Re-Tuul's attack. She didn't think Matt's healing would do much better.

R.D. averted his stare away from the teen girl, instead looking out of the back window, and at the smoke off in the distance, the last landmark of that horrible fight against the Khaglessi patriarch.

Matt had also noticed, and he also turned away, arms folded. "Listen, uh, Alasea, I'd help cure that, but, uh, you know. That is a region I am not comfortable with."

Alasea rolled her eyes. Men. "I think I can get along without your expertise," she commented wryly.

"You'd better not be rolling your eyes back there," Matt said, wrapping his arm around him and pointing over his shoulder. "I'm being considerate, all right? God knows I'd complain if you ran over to me and started rubbing your hands all over my leg. We'd all know you couldn't resist patting down the rest. I'm just saving you from yourself."

"I'm sure I'll survive," she returned with a hint of a laugh. The light faded from her hand, her wound still not fully healed. It'd have to wait; she'd expended all of her energy.

eX stared at Aram for a moment, trying desperately to form words that didn't come. With great effort he lifted his finger towards Aram, and said:

"Hey... dickweed, Go fu-"

Then he collapsed.

Aram looked at eX for a moment, then shook his head and sighed.

"Always a pleasure speaking to you, eX."

eX stared up at Aram from his new position.

"Gee, thanks for the compliment Lancelot. Now c'mon and help me up. I need to find X."

"... right."

Marching over, the warrior grabbed eX by the hand and yanked him up. "If you're here... and X is here somewhere... does that mean Sylvontis and the Queen are lost around here too?"

Edited by RisingDragon on October 28, 2009 at 0:55:03.