Disclaimer: See chapter one

Chap. 21

"Now...the games are over."

The angelic warrior stood in the midst of the others, energy still brimming around him in a massive column. Xardion remained silent for some time before his wings suddenly shot wide open. At the motion, the light column expanded rapidly and engulfed the ten fighters, hurling them back.

"Whoa, what power." Goku exclaimed as he recovered from the shockwave. "I never thought...he could be so powerful."

The entire area was now covered in blue-white light, with the energy warping around them. Goku looked as Xardion stood in the center still, waiting for one of them to attack.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Goku was the first to attack, disappearing from view briefly before reappearing right in front of Xardion. Goku attacked with a fierce punch, but it was swiftly evaded. Goku lashed out with another punch and followed up with a kick, but his movements failed to hit the target as Xardion dodged the attacks effortlessly.

"Your speed is not enough this time, Sayian."

Goku blinked. Xardion was speaking with his thoughts as well, making his voice sound shadowy. In response, Goku picked up the pace of his attacks, moving at unimaginable speeds. But his blows didn't even touch Xardion. Having had enough, Xardion managed to catch Goku's arm.

"What?"

The hand that held him began to glow in white light and it suddenly exploded, tossing the SSJ4 aside into the ground, creating a deep crater. Xardion flapped his wings to elevate himself higher into the air when...

"Cosmic Shockbeam!"

Xardion suddenly turned as his own attack flared at him. The source of the attack was none other than X. Xardion blinked into surprise before remembering what had X done earlier. 'The Ultimate armor must be allowing him to stabilize the energy he copied from me.'

"Not with my technique, you don't."

The beam finally hit Xardion and exploded with great force. But when the light cleared away, Xardion was still active. His wings were covering his body and had shielded him from the blast. Xardion looked up at X, eyes flashing rapidly. His wings then shot open again and streams of light shot out. X looked in shock as the beams swarmed him and knocked him down.

'Feathers...He used his feathers....as an attack.'

X nearly hit the ground, but was saved by the emergency hovering system within the armor. Xardion flapped his wings slightly and seemed to charge in to attack. But in fact he was merely turning his attention to the two attacking figures. The Guyver Gigantic reached him first, extending his hyper vibro-blades in a speedy slash attack. Xardion shot back to avoid it, but Guyver was far from done. With his opposite arm, massive gravity power surged into his fist and Guyver Gigantic attacked with an energized punch. But...

"Got you."

Xardion had somehow dodged the blow and caught Guyver's arm. Xardion held on tight as the super bio-booster warrior pulled back to get out of the hold. But Xardion remembered the other attacker and released Guyver just before the stabbing lancer of Tekkaman Blade hit him.

"That was close, Blade. But not enough."

Xardion shot back up and Blade spun his lancer in preparation of attack. Xardion's twin blades materialized into view and they clashed. The shock of energy from the collision shattered the ground beneath. Blade zoomed back instantly to get some room, but Xardion teleported and attacked again, putting Blade on the immediate defense. Still using force, Xardion held the blades locked, soared downward to the ground and released Blade into it. A cloud of smoke shot up as Xardion hovered just overhead.

"Braver!"

Xardion quickly turned to the soaring Cloud. Despite having only one wing, Cloud flew through the air like a falcon; bring his massive Buster sword down. The sword was charged with dark energy as Cloud came down. But he was in for a big surprise.

"What? That can't be?"

Xardion had caught the massive weapon in his hands and stopped it. Cloud was shocked by the display, but Xardion didn't retaliate immediately. His head turned slightly to glimpse another form coming up from the side.

"The Dragon King. Two birds with one stone."

The Dragon King/ Liu Kang had lunged from the side, flaming claws outstretched. Xardion ducked slightly while still holding Cloud's sword. When the Dragon King was close enough, Xardion suddenly hopped in the air and spun around, leg outstretched. He spin-kicked the Dragon King and circled around to hit Cloud in the same spin. Both warriors flew back as Xardion landed crouched on the ground. But the attacks on him didn't stop for a moment.

"Hadoken! Ha!"

Xardion looked up to see not one, but two projectiles flying right at him. Quickly, Xardion closed his wings around himself, appearing to defend himself. But right before the energy hit him, Xardion flashed one of his wings open and sent them off in another direction. They were flying right at Ryo/Hariel, who was diving at Xardion with his swords. Ryo was smacked away by the blasts of ki. Xardion then looked over to the source of the attack and his eyes flashed white. Ryu was instantly blasted away by an unseen attack and rolled on the ground.

'Can't....head.....mental....ki?'

While Ryu was disoriented, Xardion stood up straight once again. But again, he made no move to attack, due to the fact that Jin appeared and flew over Ryu's head and toward Xardion. Xardion decided to go on the offense and flew up toward the young warrior. The two grappled in the air and spun around. Black feathers mingled with white as the two of them kicked at each other while they grappled and flew. Jin stretched backward and launched a high kick toward Xardion's face, but Xardion tossed his head to the side, causing the kick to miss and Jin's leg to get caught. Xardion then bent backward and flung Jin overhead, releasing his grip. Jin spiraled through the air and barely recovered. His dark wing flapped vigorously as he regained control in the air. But his recovery was too slow and Xardion was once again upon him.

"Ha!"

Xardion had flown overhead and shot his wing down in a punishing blow, hitting Jin in the face. Jin's head snapped backward and he began to plummet to the ground. Jin managed to roll and land on his hands and knees as Xardion charged at the downed fighter. But another figure stepped in front of Jin and raised his hand. Tenchi had ignited his Lighthawk sword and lashed it right at Xardion. But despite the speed, Xardion was still able to teleport out of the way of the slashing attack and reappear on the ground before Tenchi. Tenchi reacted by bringing up his wings as a shield and retracted them into a sword again. But Xardion was already coming and his hand was raised with his blade extended once again. Tenchi blocked, but the force of the blow was too great and Tenchi was tossed back. Xardion hovered still as he waited for the warriors to recover.

"Is this all that you are capable of? Is this your limit?"

The group arose from the ground and moved together in a group.

"Speed, strength, skill and power. He's matched on all fronts." Ryu commented.

Ryo agreed, "Yeah. And his defensive powers are just as painful as his offensive ones."

"How can we beat something like that?" asked Tenchi.

Jin massaged his wrists, "He has to have a limit of his own. We just have to reach it."

"A combined attack." X suggested. "We have to hit him all at once."

Blade looked at them, "But can it be done? Some of our powers are too different. It may not be effective."

"Unless..." Goku thought. "Unless we try... a sequence attack."

"Sequence attack?"

Goku went on to explain, "We attack at different times and points, giving it everything we've got and throwing him off."

Liu Kang thought about it, "That requires more than just timing. We have to have to know when each of us is to attack. That takes an understanding of each of our powers."

"There's no other way." Goku explained. "Look, we've watched each other fight, right? We'll have to go by that and hope it works."

Seeing the focal point in the plan, Guyver added, "We have to trust each other."

"That's the plan?" Cloud exclaimed. He then grinned and continued, "Okay, let's do it."

The ten roused themselves and prepared to go through their only shot at beating Xardion. A full-on sequence attack. But are they knowledgeable enough to do it exactly and will it be enough to defeat Xardion once and for all?

"NOW!!!!!!"