AN: References used [previously]: Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited, Final Fantasy (VII: Crisis Core, X, & XII), Marvel/X-Men, Pokémon, Kids Next Door, Dragonball Z, Capcom, Naruto, WWE, TNA Impact, Family Guy, Bleach, Code Geass, Sonic Adventure 2, Xiaolin Showdown, and Bakugan Battle Brawlers.
In this chapter: Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Chapter 7 — Young Power
Sweet awaited the arrival of the two Bean Titans who were to begin the semi-final rounds.
UNLIMITED Tournament, Semi-finals!
MATCH 1: Gigi vs. Roam.
"All right folks! We're getting down to the wire in this here UNLIMITED Tournament—oh yes, we are at the semi-finals!" Sweet announced proudly, as the audience roared with praise throughout the Aeroseum. "Gigi... Roam... prepare yourselves, because I've asked Dotty to set the stage a bit more "specially" in these two matches."
"What did you tell her?" Gigi wondered.
"Let's just say we're revisiting a place that we, the Legendary 12, did not experience for ourselves. Titans, you'll be throwing down on Dotty's "Terra Nova" simulation—modeled from what was witnessed in Subspace."
"WHAT?" Gigi exclaimed, after hearing the title "Subspace".
Within a few moments, the environment of the Aeroseum rapidly changed realities once again. The Ruins, consisting of a tall rock spire and an expanse of dry land, took place as the battle stage of this match. Roam has been here before, but how will Gigi fare in this environment?
"Titans, throw-down!" Sweet shouted.
(Background music (BGM): "Challenge" — Final Fantasy X.)
Roam immediately started things off, assuming that Gigi was off of her guard. He lunged at her, but she avoided his power-packed fists, which made small craters in the ground. Roam chased her all around the outside of the Ruins.
"Do you mind NOT destroying the ground?" Gigi asked of Roam, while distancing herself.
"I told you before, Gigi: watch yourself!" Roam reminded her, before unleashing a powerful Magnitude pulse on the ground.
The poodle used Flash Step to avoid it, after rising her power to the Ultra caliber, two whole degrees below Legendary. She was then found scaling the mountain spire at a high speed, beginning at the halfway point of its total height. When she turned around, she saw many large rocks coming at her—via Roam's geokinesis (earth manipulation).
"Not a good sign..." Gigi murmured, conjuring a Dark Javelin (emulated directly from Luke in his match, but charged faster and more controlled). She threw it at the most central boulder and the blast radius not only shattered the targeted rock, but also pushed away many of the other ones. The remaining rocks did not even come close to hitting her, as she continued her ascension. She soon reached the peak, but as soon as her feet made contact with the ground, she felt them sink into it. Her feet were immobile because of one of Roam's traps that he secretly set.
In the next short moment, Roam's energy was sensed from the sky, and it was huge. He was in his Gamma Mode again, falling down towards Gigi like a meteor.
"I have you now!" Roam shouted, increasing his speed via Rush Power to attack with his Titanic Charge.
Gigi, luckily, anticipated that he would use a tactic like this. The plan that she had in mind to counter his, would very well end the match.
"Aphotic Illusion!" uttered Gigi loudly. Upon her words, a pillar made up of a dark purple (almost black) gaseous substance immediately rose from beneath her body and towered to the skies above, blocking all light. Five other pillars were present also, surrounding the Ruins. Gigi was on Sacred Power now.
And then came Roam's impact. Half of the entire mountain spire of the Ruins was broken away and the base of the mountain sunk several meters into the ground. The power on Roam's physical attribute was staggering.
[I^I]
"Good lord..." Fleece murmured at the sight of the destruction of the mountain spire.
"Did Ewey ever teach Roam how to chill while they were dating a few years ago? I mean, sheesh... that power of his is going overboard!" Canyon wondered.
"Whatever the case is, Gigi still saved herself with that technique." Mac began. "And I believe that Team Z knows that very well, am I right?"
"Yep..." uttered the Oracle Twins (Mina and Tina).
[O^O]
"I knew it..." Gigi thought, hiding in the cover of one of the pillars of darkness. She was carefully watching Roam's course of action. She remembered from his match against Fortune—in order to assume his Gamma Mode, a gigantic boulder must be created along with his boost of power. Then it disperses into several big boulders. Since she did not see them fall down from the sky after Roam, Gigi presumed that they were still falling, which meant that the time to act was now.
She secretly sent a bright purple pellet of energy high into the air, up through the dark pillar. Once it was high enough in the atmosphere, Gigi called off all of the pillars of darkness.
"There you are!" Roam yelled, thrusting his hands towards her. He was working his geokinesis on the big boulders that were still high in the air, calling them to rain down on her.
"You're finished." Gigi presumed confidently. She then called out "Shadow Sky", closing her eyes as she rose to her Legendary strength.
(BGM change: "Super Saiyan Vegeta" — Dragonball Z.)
The sky suddenly turned darker, startling Roam, who looked up while still focusing his attack. At that moment, an unlimited amount of bright purple "drops" of light began to rain down from the sky. Roam was in no position to dodge the rain, which inflicted miniscule damage on him, but also penetrated his defense increasingly. But that was not all of Gigi's plan. The dark rain also filled in the craters that Roam made at the start of the match, all around the Ruins.
"What's all this?" Roam questioned openly.
"Your loss." Gigi answered, opening her eyes while floating a few feet into the air now. She had her hands in a similar fashion as Cheeks, while he was preparing his Tri-Beam—only her palms were completely seen and not closed in. "Darkness Style: Midnight Wolf Pack Jutsu."
Using a great amount of focused energy, Gigi extracted the darkness from the "puddles" filling in the craters by Shadow Sky and manipulating it all, creating dark purple silhouettes of wolves that all had auras of darkness oozing out of them. They were loyal to their master, Gigi, acting through her thoughts. For example: as Roam's rocks came falling down, some of the wolves protected Gigi from them, ramming into the rocks and inducing a kamikaze effect—self-destructing with great force upon impact and destroying the rocks completely. The rest of the wolves proceeded to attack Roam, running through the air and up the mountain.
Roam saw what was happening to the rocks and needed to get rid of all the wolves. "Rock Avalanche!" he shouted, pounding the flat top of the mountain and causing a large amount of giant rocks to swarm down on the wolves.
A moment later, it seemed that none of the wolves reached him.
"Glad that's over..." Roam murmured with relief.
"You spoke too soon." Gigi said, using Flash Step to appear near the flat peak that Roam was standing on, still in the air. She was charging dark energy into her hand, as if she was about to fire a Shadow Ball. She had it aimed towards him.
"Oh no, you don't! Armor of the Mantle!" the buffalo uttered, calling his protective armor to defend against Gigi. It also made him unable to move from that spot.
"Honestly Roam... it's not me you should be worried about." the poodle started to say, before turning around. Roam gave a suspicious look. "Every pack has an alpha."
Upon mentioning that, a larger shadow wolf zoomed down from the sky, intent on dominating Roam, who noticed its foreboding presence.
"No worries—I'm immovable!" Roam boasted, confident that he would not be hurt in the least.
"But not invincible." Gigi replied. "You should know something else. Shadow Sky completely ignores defense, which makes up for its tiny power. All of that rain was slowly eating away at any defenses you had, meaning your tough skin isn't so tough and your Armor of the Mantle is completely useless now. And the alpha wolf? Well... let's just say I shouldn't be this close to you."
Gigi warped away, and that spelled bad news for Roam.
"Ah, this won't end well.." he said.
(The music halts.)
The alpha wolf collided with Roam and created a huge explosion on contact, big enough to wipe out almost the remainder of the Ruins' mountain spire. And surely enough, Roam took on the full heat of the attack.
Moments later, Sweet went to check on the outcome. Roam was out of his Gamma Mode and could not move a muscle. The original environment of the Aeroseum was restored.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Roam is unable to continue... oh my, Gigi has advanced to the finals! This is quite a day!" Sweet announced.
The crowd roared with cheers and applause, directed towards Gigi, who was at the bottom of the pack and swiftly made her way to the top faster than anyone ever had.
Gigi let out a sigh of relief, a little exhausted from the focus she had to sustain through her battle plan.
"How are you feeling, Gigi?" Sweet asked.
"I feel like I'm ready for anything! I've already proven that I can make it out of the first match as the winner, and things have only gone up from there. This breakthrough won't stop here, I promise you!" she answered.
"There you have it, folks! Great going, Gigi—best of luck to you. All right then, we'll be back for the second match soon, so hold on to your seats—there's still more to come!"
/\/\/\/\/\/\
MATCH 2: Jake vs. Scorch.
"Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen! This second match, needless to say, will be quite interesting, considering the two Bean Titans in it. However, this match will be different from all of the others because it's going to take place in unsafe conditions. Don't worry, these conditions are meant for the fighters, not anyone else. You will still feel and experience the action as if you were on a roller coaster, while at the same time watching a 3D movie. In other words, everyone but Scorch and Jake will be completely safe. As far as the stage is concerned, many of you may want to consider watching the action from your personal HD monitors. Brace yourselves everyone, because I hope you're ready for a meteor shower—up close and personal. Titans, throw-down!" Sweet announced, ever so confidently.
Just when Sweet mentioned the word "meteor", Dotty quickly changed the stage and set the virtual environment of the match. After Sweet said "throw-down", he pointed up before disappearing with the help of Mac's teleportation. It was not just his signal for the start of the match; he was really pointing to a gigantic meteor falling down from the sky, and it looked like it was going to crash upon the active combatants.
Without a word, Jake warped away from the meteor's path, utilizing his father's teleportation powers.
"This oughta be fun." Scorch said, flapping his wings and flying backwards, just avoiding the falling meteor, before it crashed on the ground.
At that moment, the rest of the stage revealed itself to everyone. It was the image of the Meteor Herd stage (Sonic Adventure 2). It is almost as it appears in the actual game. The base of the stage seemed to be on the face of a fractured asteroid. Upon the dirt ground stood beacons, steel structures and large meteorites and boxes. In the center of this base was a steel tower with no roof, but has a shutter on the bottom of its interior, concealing the pit of lava below. There were also numerous platforms and containment structures that appeared to be floating by the smallest amount of gravity whatsoever. Lastly, high above the stage is actually the moon taken over by the Space Colony ARK, but the base of the stage is so close it, that one can only see some of the inverted buildings extending out from the Colony. One of those buildings is very close to the base of the stage and can be stood upon.
[I^I]
"Something feels different about this match..." Mystic sensed, looking upon both Jake and Scorch.
"What do you mean?" Sweet asked, watching from on top of the press box, while the audience was cheering for the action that was about to begin.
"It's not what I'm taking in by looking at Scorch... it's Jake. By what I'm sensing, if it's right, there is no fear or intimidation in Jake's mind as he looks at Scorch. It's... uncanny."
Many of the Titans in the press box noticed as well.
"You're right. Nearly anyone who has even caught a glimpse of Scorch's eyes feels small and weak compared to him, as far as today goes. But Jake seems to be about on the same level, displaying only confidence in front of Scorch... it's almost as if he's fearless." Dotty spoke.
"That's because he is." Mac stated.
"What? There's just no way...!" Thunderbolt exclaimed.
"Seriously, I'd be scared half to death if I had to fight someone as big and tough as Scorch." Tina stated.
(Background music: "Nube Negra (Black Cloud)" — Bleach.)
"I suppose I should explain." Mac began. "First, I'll say this... I'm not very much of a fatherly figure, as I keep my words soft and sweet, and sometimes quick and painless. But, as a Legendary 12 member, one of my duties was to promote the youth in any way possible. Like a father would do, he would "promote" his children—and that's what I did. As you know, Lucy is the only Bean Titan that is able to use both the light and dark elements at her disposal—the darkness element came from Kuku, and the light element was passed down from me. However, Kuku and I made a deal to ourselves, not too long after we got married. We said that if we had a daughter, she would be primarily Kuku's responsibility; and if we had a son, I would take him under my wing. As I watched Jake grow up, I began to look back at the way I grew up. I know that I felt unfortunate, unwanted, and unloved, covering it all up with coldness... but on the side of everything, I also feared of what I was capable of doing to people. I could only imagine: I killed three men with something an infant should never be allowed to play with, and with my teleportation, it's frightening to think about all the other ways I could easily harm or dispose of someone. Because of that, I've had a reluctance to people because I wanted to avoid using fatal force without my own intention. I told Jake this same story, so he could learn one thing: the only thing you have to fear is your own power. I told him, "He who doesn't fear his own power, has no right to have that power at all. When you are able to respect and fear your power at will and without question... then the fear of battle, even against a mighty opponent, will not exist." That is what Jake has internalized in his mind at this very moment. As intimidating as Scorch can be, Jake isn't phased... not even in the least. He only fears himself, and what he is capable of doing."
Some of the Titans were left speechless.
"To be able to tolerate that much discipline at such a young age... it's unbelievable." Dotty stated, awestruck.
"I don't think any other Bean Titan would be able to even consider, let alone sustain, that mindset." Hippity generalized.
"Now you know why I say his abilities and personal qualities are even greater than my own... because it's true. Jake knows what I expect of him. And through it all, he inspires me because he's grown to be the very epitome of what I've wanted to be my whole life."
Mystic heard Mac's thought, and experienced a slight violation of the Psychic's Code, feeling as if someone thumped her head about ten times. She cried out in pain.
"Mystic! Are you okay?" Aurora asked, concerned about his wife.
"Yeah, I've just been using my head too much lately." the unicorn replied. Despite the pain, Mystic knew right then and there that Mac had compassion in his heart—which all came mostly from his family.
[O^O]
Jake wasted no time in giving Scorch space to plan out his victory drive, so he teleported to the dragon and began a burst-speed combat session with him, emulating Dragonball Z's type of high-speed fighting. Jake managed to get many hits in, and finished by sending Scorch crashing into one of the "stations" on Meteor Herd's base. A cloud of debris covered Scorch's position.
"I know that wasn't enough to wear Scorch down a lot... and I might have to get serious soon." Jake thought.
As everyone looked on, a meteor came down to where Scorch crashed... but somehow, it remained intact. When the cloud vanished, Scorch was seen holding the meteor in place with one hand, while looking directly at his opponent with a menacing glare. Scorch was also heating the meteor with his hand, setting it ablaze.
"Catch!" Scorch shouted, tossing the meteor at Jake, who was still in the air.
Jake made his third warp in the match, appearing just behind the zooming rocky ball of flame. To his surprise, the next thing the duck saw was a small flame, moving half as fast as the meteor Scorch threw at him. It was Scorch's Ember of Vengeance, and Jake immediately acted upon the sight of it.
"Water Gun!" Jake announced, firing a thin stream of water at the small flame in an effort to extinguish it.
(The music halts.)
Scorch gave out a small chuckle, as he then took flight using his wings. "How many times do I have to say this? You CAN'T get rid of my Ember of Vengeance—not even if you use water, or ice, for that matter." he explained.
It was true. Not even a good spurt of water could douse the floating flame, as it continued its way towards Jake. It would not stop until it made contact with Scorch's intended target.
"Darn it...!" Jake muttered softly. Seeing as there was nothing he could do, Jake braced for impact... which did not occur, strangely. As the duck held his eyes shut, he only felt the slight heat from the Ember of Vengeance come and pass behind him, without making an abrupt explosion like it usually would. Jake was left confused, because he thought that Scorch always used the Ember to attack his opponents. He let down his guard to search it, but got a big surprise as he turned around.
"Big mistake." Scorch said, being heard from behind Jake. As he said those two words, Scorch whipped his heavy-hitting tail around and made it collide with Jake's body, forcing the duck to plummet down towards Meteor Herd's base.
Jake saw that his head was about to be the first thing to hit the ground. To soften his fall, he was able to get his right arm to extend and use a strong Eight Trigrams (ET): Empty Palm to offset the downward descent and fall at an angle. When he hit the ground, he rolled several feet, landing first on his side. While he was on the ground after rolling, he sensed Scorch's Legendary power rising—which meant that the easier part of the fight was over; it was time to get serious because Scorch was not going to hold back. Jake managed to get back on his feet and set his eyes back on Scorch, in the air.
Even while all of this action was going on, the Watcher cameras were still on high alert, focusing on both combatants in the large stage.
(BGM change: "Sirius (1)" — Bomberman 64.)
"Here we go... Byakugan!" Jake uttered, shifting his total combat ability by the change in his eyes.
"There's something you should know, Jake..." Scorch began.
"What is it?" he replied.
"If there is fire encompassing a solid source, I have the power to control that source as I please. So I say this as a warning to you: what goes up, must come down."
Scorch then moved his wings so that they were pointing to the cosmos above him. The wings then began to burn in a blaze, and in response, the same flaming meteor that Scorch threw into the air came down towards his position.
"What the hell?" Jake wondered, watching intently as the meteor fell closer and closer to Scorch.
"As for the Ember of Vengeance, I can target that to whoever and whatever I want. I'll give you one guess at where I sent it." Scorch said, a few seconds before the Ember made contact with the flaming meteor.
The meteor exploded and shattered into hundreds of pieces. Since all of these pieces were on fire, Scorch still had control of them. While exerting this control, he added his own Meteor Shower ability to the mix, before sending it all down on Jake. It was Scorch's Grand Meteor Shower, and there was almost no escape; the space it took up from the sky was big enough to cover the entire base of the Meteor Herd stage. Not to mention, but the meteors already falling down towards the base was in the mix as well.
"My Rotation won't be enough to protect me from this move of his. Well then... I guess I gotta bust out those new techniques about now—and I think ALL of them will help me against Scorch." Jake thought, preparing to use the first of his new, unseen abilities.
First, he quickly motioned his hand over his head, while using a small amount of his chakra in his palm to place what he called his Protective Arc over his body—it was a thin line of energy acting as a sort of small barrier. After that, he slammed his hands together and put them very close to the "vertex" of the Arc. He then delivered accelerated and focused energy into his hands only—the same use of energy as if he were using the Rotation.
"What's this...?" Scorch wondered, as he looked at his opponent through the meteor shower.
"Eight Trigrams: Drill Drive!" Jake shouted, suddenly leaping from the ground into the air towards Scorch, literally piercing his way through every flaming meteor in his path.
"What in blazes?" Scorch exclaimed, seeing Jake almost ignoring the Grand Meteor Shower and coming closer to him. He could not believe that Jake was still using countermeasures with what seems like the greatest of ease.
There was a drawback, however, to Jake's technique. Since his hands are not very well protected, even with both the focused chakra and the Protective Arc, his Gentle Fist techniques will be suspended for 3 minutes because his hands will have been exhausted from the Drill Drive. This will mean that he will only have the Byakugan, his teleportation, and water powers to aid him against Scorch—as well as the few other common Bean Titan abilities (like Flash Step).
Nevertheless, the duck manages to come within 30 feet of Scorch.
"Oh no you don't... take this!" Scorch uttered, launching a large fireball from his mouth.
By using another fire-based move, Scorch has called off his Meteor Shower. Fortunately for him though, his fireball was powerful enough to break through Jake's guard and inflict a decent amount of damage to him as well. Jake began to fall down from the air.
"Almost had him..." Jake thought.
Scorch's opportunity to end the match came. "All righty then. Here, have another..." he said, charging an even larger fireball and firing it at his opponent, hoping to end the match.
Jake felt the heat from the fireball drawing closer to him, and that was all he needed to know. His next new trick immediately took place when it seemed like he was hit by the fireball.
Scorch saw the impact, but Jake's energy was somehow detected right above his location. "Impossible..." Scorch thought, turning around to be hit by Jake's signature water blast, High Tide.
The after-image left behind by Jake was a trick called Suicide Feint, where Jake used a clone, an after-image technique, and a warp all at the same time as a decoy. The decoy was given its title role when it appeared to everyone that it was giving up the match to Scorch.
The dragon continued his downward descent, being pressured from Jake's High Tide to fall into the lava pit that was at the bottom of the steel tower on the base of Meteor Herd. Scorch did not emerge from the pit for a good minute. Still, Jake kept his eyes peeled.
Sweet, after waiting patiently, slowly made his way onto the battleground to call the match. However, he was not patient enough, as he felt the base tremble in response to a rise in Scorch's power.
(BGM change: "Last Battle Versus Rival" — Pokémon (anime).)
A Watcher camera positioned itself so that it was looking down the steel tower from overhead, at the lava pit, which slowly turned a heavy, bright blue color. Upon sight of that, all Bean Titans watching (including Jake) knew what that meant... Scorch was just about through playing around. Sweet quickly returned to his place near the press box, just before the lava beneath the steel structure ragingly ejected into the air.
Jake took refuge upon one of the floating platforms above the base, to avoid the eruption. As he looked on, Scorch finally revealed himself from within the rising lava, stopping its rage simply by flapping his now burning blue wings. The lava rested on the entire dirt surface of Meteor Herd's base. Scorch ascended to his Unleashed Mode once again, for the second time in this tournament... and from the look on the dragon's face, he was ready to unleash hell.
"Give up now Jake, you won't last." said Scorch, shifting his eyes left to right, trying to sense where Jake was above him.
The young duck was suppressing as much of his power as he could, so that his fierce opponent could not detect him. "Scorch, you know I can't do that—I want this opportunity just as much as you do. So just like Gigi, and everyone else who fought tonight, I'm bringing my best."
"Hmm, indeed you are. You take after your father quite well, considering how focused he is when he fights. I just hope that you hope it's enough to beat me. So now that we're just about done talking..." Scorch paused, to blow out a huge flammable smokescreen from his mouth, rushing out and covering almost all of the suspended platforms between the steel tower at the base and the inverted tower high above. This would eventually lead to the Pyroscreen that Scorch used to vanquish Korgon, of the Acolytes—except that there was now at least fifty times more smoke. All he needed now was a simple source of fire.
Jake looked around and saw the black smoke gradually clouding his sight more and more. He knew what was coming next... so he looked for the red light at the "bottom" of the inverted tower and teleported there, and not a second too soon either. The next moment was defined by the entire smokescreen being set ablaze by a large blue flame, courtesy of Scorch. The sudden fire incinerated almost every platform between the base of Meteor Herd and the red light of the inverted tower.
"Wow... I'm not even 30 feet from the edge of the fire and it's scorching. Ironic to think that, but this isn't the time for a laugh." thought Jake.
As the duck kept looking down, he winced in response to the new location of Scorch's power. The dragon quickly appeared to Jake's right, charging a massive blue fireball from his mouth. Scorch was locked-on to his target, who had almost no time to react.
Another large and fiery explosion followed—flaming comets spurted out after colliding with the inverted ceiling of the tower.
[I^I]
"My goodness... it won't be long before Jake becomes roasted duck. I'm feeling the heat just by looking at this all go down!" exclaimed Aurora.
"I wonder how Sweet is reacting to this battle specifically... he seems awfully quiet up there." Floppity stated.
"He's simply analyzing the course of the match, and paying close attention to how the fighters are adapting to every action out there." Mac began to say. "Remember what he said before in the transition earlier: he was impressed with everyone in this tournament. We should be modeling him."
Mystic sighed, almost half-tired of hearing Mac drone on. "And as usual, Mac is right..."
"Heck, I don't blame Sweet for keeping his thoughts to himself up there." Hippity started. "Yeah Mac, he really has a sharp eye on this matchup... and adding onto that, you have two of the best fighters going at it. Except for Team Z here, we've all known Scorch since high school and he was always a tough guy when he's serious—and that's putting it softly, hehe. Then you have Jake, who we already know as one of the best young Bean Titans when it comes to combat, and he's pretty sharp too. And the way you said that he's fearless towards everyone else's power but his own... it shows, and that makes him all the more a force to be reckoned with."
"At this point, the only Titans that really have a chance to contend against Scorch are Jake and Gigi." Dotty summarized for everyone inside the press box.
Sitting on top of the press box still, Sweet was watching intently at the falling flaming comets. "Amazing..." was the only word he could think of, looking into one of the comets in particular.
[O^O]
The comet that Sweet was looking at was where he knew that Jake was, caught in the fire of it. What was "amazing" was that Jake endured the sudden onslaught of Scorch's fireball by managing to prompt his Eight Trigrams Rotation enough to protect him from the bulk of the direct attack. He still took on major damage, however.
"This is just brutal... I really thought I was finished back there." Jake thought, as the comet's fire was disappearing during the descent from the inverted tower. He was writhing in pain quite a bit, from the intensity of the dragon's attack. "It was by pure luck and chance that my Rotation started up. *sigh* So now... I need to finish this."
"I warned you before I unleashed my fury Jake. Your time is about up now." Scorch murmured, still flying under the inverted tower's red roof. "I told everyone that this tournament is something I cannot take lightly. It's because I wanted to push everyone's limits. No matter who I'm up against, I'm giving it 300%... and if that's too much, then you won't be able to stand up to me. At this point, if you take on one more good blast from me, it's over for you. As a matter of fact, since I saw that Rotation come up again, I'll just finish you now with a certain move that's so strong that even that barrier of yours can't protect you from."
The dragon was preparing his signature fire blast: Blue Star Inferno. At the sight of blue fire gathering into a sphere, Jake and everyone else watching saw that the end was near.
"I think it's time... for my last resort. I wanted to save it for the finals, but Scorch is just too tough. It might not help me completely, but at this point, I have to at least try. Here it goes." Jake mentally planned, while gaining enough strength to stop his downward drop and then teleport to a space several yards above the steel tower at Meteor Herd's base. He then exhibited a strange aqua green aura with his chakra, which was a symbol of his power getting stronger. As he was focusing his energy, a symbol—showing two green diamond-shaped markings crossing like an "X"—appeared on the center of his forehead. The Titans in the press box were surprised at this, even Mac, as they have never seen this from Jake before. This new form was his Ascended Legendary state—Divine Mode.
Scorch noticed his power rise, as he was charging more and more into his fiery sphere. "So you DID have more power in you... still, it doesn't matter if you use Rotation again. My Blue Star Inferno burns anyone within 10 feet of its reach—in other words, unless you have a very strong move or a very great Flash Step, there's no way you're avoiding this!" Scorch exclaimed, finally firing his fearsome flash of fire, in an intense beam of energy that was the size of a juiced-up Kamehameha Wave. Within seconds, it was halfway between the two combatants.
(BGM change: "Pleasures of Combat" — Bleach.)
Without a word, Jake assumed one of his Eight Trigrams positions and then used the technique that he used during his time in Subspace—the Eight Trigrams Time Warp. In this enhanced teleportation technique, a normal second of time turns into nearly 10 seconds and Jake can use the field of the Eight Trigrams to instantly place himself wherever he pleases. In Divine Mode, the flat field of the Trigrams turns into an exceedingly large "dome", extending to heights even further than where Scorch was currently positioned. Using this Time Warp, Jake put himself behind Scorch which was the only place the Blue Star Inferno could not burn him. With ample time left in the Warp, the duck focused some of the aqua green chakra into his hands and then assumed a familiar combat position before saying his next words. The slowing effect of Time Warp wore off at this point, and Scorch had no time to react to Jake's ambush.
"Blindside Eight Trigrams 2 Palms... 4 Palms... 8 Palms... 16 Palms... 32 Palms... 64 Palms... 128 Palms!" Jake shouted, beginning his assault on the dragon with a new version of this attack. Before every stage (on 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.), Jake strikes with an Empty Palm to push Scorch away by sudden force, then resume the combo by teleporting to a predetermined point where Scorch was sent to and using the classic Gentle Fist strike(s) to continue until the next Empty Palm, in an alternating fashion. Not only did this limit Scorch's energy generation, but also scrambled and stunned his physical activity, making him practically immobile in the air.
"Ugh...! Can't move! How is Jake doing this?" Scorch thought, shocked that the tables have turned so quickly. The dragon was very much helpless, as even his wings were struck from the attacks.
"You're finished! Eight Trigrams... Force Sphere Rotation!" Jake shouted, as he zoomed down towards Scorch, spinning to charge his Rotation. This final charge of Jake's was the last of his new techniques, and he believed that it would finish Scorch. This Rotation was an all-out offense over defense, as the barrier of chakra heavily forced against Scorch's body, eventually taking him inside of it during the descent towards Meteor Herd's base. The chakra field exerted much more pressure on the inside, greatly having an impact on Scorch. Jake warped out of the sphere before it crashed on the ground, where the pressure would be the most intense. As he feared his own power, Jake bore not to look at the crash, nor the chakra bursting out in a rage as a result of the crash.
The audience was utterly in awe at the latter stretch of the match. As Sweet made his way down to call the match, everyone knew that anything could have happened.
"Dotty, can you give me a read on what the status boards say?" Sweet asked openly.
The dalmatian turned the mic on so everyone could hear her and everyone else in the press box. "Jake stamina levels are at 10%... but after his attack, Scorch's levels went from 80% to 3%... FAST. This new form of Jake's also tripled the effectiveness and overall power of not only his Gentle Fist and Eight Trigrams skills, but his Byakugan as well." Dotty reported.
As she was talking, the dust cleared from where Scorch was, revealing the motionless dragon on his back. He had great difficulty breathing after Jake's onslaught.
"That's scary..." Sweet said to himself, thinking of the statistics and how they played out in the last moments of the battle. He then approached Scorch. "How are you feeling? Can you go on and continue fighting?"
Scorch spoke with large spacing between some of his words. "How did he... do it?" he began. "Everything Dotty said... it's true. My strength... it's fading... even as I talk. He's beaten me. I... can't continue."
"It's all okay friend, you did a fantastic job." Sweet replied, taking his hand for a second, before going over to raise Jake's wing in victory. "Well, you heard the dragon folks... Jake has won! He advances to face Gigi, in the final match! We will need 10 minutes to get both Jake and Gigi fully ready for their match, so stay put, everyone. Dotty, take us away!"
After that announcement, Dotty restored the original battle grounds.
Jake quickly teleported out of the battle zone, before succumbing to his own exhaustion. It was the first time he had risen to Divine Mode outside of his discovery of it in his own private training. He does not have it under control, as he cannot do anything about its costs. After powering down from his Ascended Legendary state, Jake cannot reach that caliber of power again for the rest of the day, and is in a state of "debilitation": where his Byakugan, Gentle Fist, and Eight Trigrams skills are all reduced by half in overall strength and effectiveness. Despite this, he is still confident he can still defeat the newly reformed black poodle.
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Longest chapter I have had to edit before posting it... with regards to the time put into it. I will work on updating regularly in the future.
Nevertheless, the final match will play out, next chapter!
