Mephiles swung his sword and Jason blocked. Mephiles then aimed a blast of dark energy at Jason's feet but Jason jumped up and stuck out his feet. He was now balancing on the railings on the sides of the catwalk. Mephiles floated upwards and hovered in front of Jason, making them level again. Mephiles unleashed a flury of attacks. Jason had a hard time blocking. Jason fell backwards onto the platform. He used one of the railings to help himself up.
"Come on, Jason." Mephiles said. "I expected more of a challenge."
"You want a challenge?" Jason asked. "You got it."
He swung his sword. Mephiles blocked. Jason threw his sword up in the air and caught it upside-down. Mephiles attacked and Jason blocked it. Another sword-lock.
"Give up." Mephiles said. "You've already lost."
"We'll see about that."
Jason shot Mephiles with a sphere of light energy which sent him flying to the catwalk that was a few feet away. Jason looked down and saw the acid pool. He concentrated some of his energy and leaped across to the other catwalk. He missed and hung on to the railing with one hand. He saw Mephiles getting up. Jason hoisted himself up over the railing just in time to block a dark energy attack from Mephiles. He stood up and threw about ten fireballs. Mephiles blocked eight of them. The other two didn't seem to do a lot of damage.
"That the best you can do?" Mephiles asked. "A little heat?"
"Oh, there's more where that came from.."
Jason ran at Mephiles and attempted a jab attack. Mephiles jumped passed Jason and swung his sword, cutting the side of Jason's chest. Jason fell to his knees and Mephiles landed behind him. He turned around to look at Jason.
"Whoops." Mephiles said. "Looks like I've cut you." Jason looked over at him. "Shame." Jason started to get up. He got to one knee. "Give up, Jason. It's no use fighting."
"I'll never give up."
"Remember what Mekkaku showed you at the military base? The file?"
"Yeah." Jason said. "It was fake. He was just saying those things to get me to join the Metaru."
"No, Jason." Mephiles said. "It's true. All of it."
"What are you saying?" Jason asked, curiously. He had stopped trying to get up.
"When you were just a child, I injected you with a special serum that I made from your friends' DNA. Oh, it required quite a lot of time traveling to get it just right. When I gave it to you while you were asleep, I wasn't sure if it would work or not. That is the reason why I had Mekkaku fight you. To see how powerful you had become. I was proud of how powerful you'd become but disappointed that you betrayed us. If you had stayed with Mekkaku and killed your pathetic friends like you were supposed to then the world would've been ours already. But you had to go and ruin it, didn't you?"
"You're lying." Jason said.
"Am I? Search, deep down inside. You know it's true. How else would you have these powers? A freak accident as a child? Born with it? This isn't a movie, Jason. This is reality. You must accept the reality that you're given because you're only given one. And that's the one where I win and the world loses."
"I'm not gonna let you get away with this." Jason said standing up.
He ran at Mephiles who punched him across the face, knocking him over the railing. Jason grabbed on to one of the bars but his sword fell into the acid pool below him and melted.
"Looks like you lost your toy." Mephiles said. "Now all you have are your powers."
Jason grabbed Mephiles' arm and yanked him over the edge and the two fell. Mephiles hovered above the acid pool and Jason, using psychokinesis, used a piece of debris on the floor as a platform. He hopped off onto dry land and turned to face Mephiles.
"Come on, Meph." Jason said. "Bring it!"
"If you say so." Mephiles said.
He crossed his arms over his chest and lowered his head. A dark energy cloud poured out of him and covered his entire body. Jason held up his fists, ready for an attack. The dark cloud started to disappear and Mephiles looked different. Like the same before only various parts of his body was crystallized and shining. Mephiles The Dark Hedgehog had now become Mephiles The Dark Crystal Hedgehog. The fight was far from over and Jason still did not know the condition of Wave and what would happen to her if he won this fight.