Note: Sorry for the delay... Apparently, I got sidetracked by several video games that I recently got... Either way, here is finally the chappie for Medea's battle! Yay? Oh well, please enjoy...
Blade's POV:
The sunlight turned harsh.
"Things are looking bad... I think," Violet muttered.
"You think?" Ruse sneered.
Medea didn't wait for us to take in the situation, she quickly shot up to the sky, leaving us dazed in her astounding speed. She spewed several shots of flames around, forming a barrier that prevented any escape.
"We've got not other choice," I started, dodging her as she began to ram towards us, "If this keeps up, we'll be tired out."
"But we can't just harm her... Can we?" Blaze gulped, dodging her charge.
"Harm her? We need to do more than that or she's gonna burn us to cinders," Ruse snarled, dodging the flames that enveloped the area.
"M-milady," Ace nervously flapped his wings, "Are you implying that we have to f-fight?"
"What of you think?" Ruse snarled as she immediately lobbed a Shadow Ball at Medea.
Medea merely grinned and allowed her body to have a short pulse of flames, neutralizing Ruse's attack. She then narrowed her eyes on Ruse and charged straight for her.
"Stand back!" Violet suddenly intervened, preventing Ruse from taking the blow. She immediately used Protect before the attack could hit her.
"Crud!" she groaned, still being knocked off despite being successfully protected from the attack.
I raised my arm up.
"We have no choice, Blaze... We have to defeat her," I solemnly told him, "She isn't herself... She's been turned into what Rose calls a Shadow..."
"I-I won't allow this!" Blaze suddenly started.
"We have to!" I jumped, dodging her random charges, "Look at what she's doing! If we don't do something, we'll be the ones to be harmed!"
"B-but," Blaze guiltily mumbled, "She can still break out of this state!"
"Skill level, below forty percent... Eradication success rate, 98 percent!" Medea coldly snarled.
She charged forward towards Blaze.
"Blaze! Move!" I called, quickly trying to get back to him to counter her attack.
"Medea! It's me! Blaze!" he yelled, showing that he was not gonna do anything about her attack, "P-please! You can snap out of this! Me-"
Their two forms became enveloped in swirling flames as they crashed, knocking Blaze aside.
"Ack!" he groaned, crashing to the rock hard ground.
I immediately put a determined face on. Right now, Medea wasn't herself... She wasn't Medea! I knew that we had no other choice but to defeat her! It was defeat her or be... eradicated.
"Blade," Ruse began, "I know what you're thinking... Blaze wouldn't want you to harm her... But in a situation like this-"
"I know... We have to battle her, now..." I immediately charged.
Medea easily dodged my charge as she jumped sideways, spiraling in the air as she launched small streams of fire around her.
"Shadow Wisp!" she snarled as she landed. Immediately, her body was covered by four wisps of blue flames that circled around her. Calmly, she slowly began to walk towards the four of us.
"Be careful," Violet warned, "I'm guessing that Shadow Wisp, from the way it looks, is a shadow version of Will-o-wisp... If you get burned, physical attacks will do less damage."
"I got it," I continued.
Carefully, I sidestepped Medea and launched a Stone Edge. Medea managed to dodge the inaccurate attack, but the attack managed to at least get rid of a wisp of the blue flames.
Calmly, she began to walk towards me. Ruse took this as a signal to go offensive, her back being open to them. Ruse and Violet both launched a Shadow Ball, hoping to hit Medea. However, Medea seemed to know it was coming. She simply jumped and flipped herself, facing the opposite direction as she landed.
The two Shadow Balls, however, still continued to soar through the air. They exploded upon contact with me, knocking me backwards.
Medea, unfazed by the explosion, continued her advance towards Ruse and her comrades. Ruse and Violet immediately anticipated her, fear evident in their eyes. Ace quickly took to the skies and tried to charge down at Medea with Brave Bird. Medea didn't move and allowed the move to hit her.
However, one of her Shadow Wisps knocked him away, exploding upon touching him and burning him. He flew off to my fallen body.
"We have to make a move... somehow," Violet nervously stated through gritted teeth.
"How can we?" Ruse nervously muttered, taking several steps backwards as Medea advanced, cornering them like helpless prey.
Ruse suddenly fought back with a Shadow Ball. Which Medea countered with one of the two remaining wisps of flames circling around her.
"R-ruse!" Violet called as she launched a Shadow Ball, "There's a small opening that I realized! Once my attack gets rid of that final wisp of flame, she'll be open to an attack from you!"
The Shadow Ball collided into the last wisp of flame circling around her, getting rid of her last shield. Before she could get her shield back up, Ruse took the opportunity to land a blow with her Shadow Ball. Medea snarled as she realized that she finally took damage.
She immediately let out a sharp snarl as she crouched on all fours, her eyes narrowed onto Ruse.
"Recalculating threat level," she monotonously stated.
Medea began to raise her head skyward, conjuring a huge ball of black flames above her.
"Shadow..." she grunted, beginning to send it crashing down, "FLARE!"
The attack crashed down, intensified by the sun's rays.
"H-hot!" Ruse screamed as she began to skip away.
Violet remained silent, knocked out by the intense attack. I quickly shuffled up, landing a Psycho Cut at Medea while she was recuperating from her last attack.
Her glare shifted towards me as she spun around and jumped high in the air. She landed on all fours, glaring straight at us.
Ruse saw that I was back up. She immediately took the opportunity to strike with Shadow Ball.
Medea ignored the attack and jumped up, swirling flames dancing beautifully around her. The flames enveloped the air, making it difficult to breathe. The flames erupted to prevent the Shadow Ball from reaching her. She glared down, a sinister smile forming in her lips as she launched several Flamethrowers below, causing massive destruction at us.
Ruse and I flew backwards, the intense barrage of attacks too much for us. Medea swiftly began to charge, her nine tails all spewing flames in random directions. She was aiming for us... When she reached us, it would end...
"STOP!" Blaze swiftly intervened, smashing into her with Strength.
Medea was knocked backwards. Dust covered her injured form as Blaze panted heavily.
"Blade," he panted, shuffling back to me, "Are you okay?"
I didn't reply, instead, I swiftly tackled him to the ground in time to avoid a Flamethrower coming our way.
"She's still up!" Ruse warned, preparing her Calm Mind.
The dust clouds parted to reveal Medea, her eyes now glowing red. She lifted her snout skywards as she howled, causing her entire body to be enveloped in flames. Her tails, now enveloped with an odd solid red flamelike energy. The flamelike energy soon grew longer, as if they were acting as extensions for her tails.
"Must... eliminate!" she screamed as she drilled her nine tails through the ground.
Blaze quickly got off to his feet and began to run, feeling the ground beginning to shake ominously. I followed his example, along with Ruse, who could not complete another Calm Mind. The three of us ran like mad as several red tails snaked through the cracked ground, one by one. I could feel the heat of the tail scorching my back as I ran.
"Hurry! Attack now while she's attacking from the ground!" Ruse called.
Medea quickly shot up to the sky, blasting down at us with several barrages of Flamethrower.
"I don't think she's in the ground anymore," Blaze quickly yelped as he quickly ducked from an attack.
"Then how are we going to attack something that attacks that quickly?" I coughed as I got struck by flames.
"I got an idea!" Ruse hastily spat, "But I need you two to cover me!"
Blaze and I quickly exchanged anxious looks before we both jumped to Ruse's sides. She gently closed her eyes as she began charging up a Shadow Ball.
Medea crashed down, her tails not hesitating to immediately drill through the ground. The tails immediately began to emerge through the ground under us. Blaze and I quickly smashed and attacked any before they could scratch Ruse. It was easier said than done of course. Each time the tails emerged, they seemed to be getting quicker. We were quickly being drained of all energy as we relentlessly kept countering all the attacks Medea was launching at us by just flicking her tails at us.
"Here!" Ruse quickly jumped above us, "Shadow Ball plus Psychic! Something that moves so quickly should be ensnared by this minefield-like strategy!"
All her Shadow Balls flew through the air, bouncing of each other in an unpredictable course. Once they had spread of around the battlefield, Ruse quickly flicked her fingers to use Psychic. All the Shadow Balls levitated, waiting for both sides to make a move.
Medea stood still, seeming to comprehend the situation. She withdrew all her tails, quickly shuffling around, swiftly dodging between the Shadow Balls. Her nimble movement made it look like a graceful dance, I would have been amazed should the situation not be against us.
"This technique isn't only for defense, mind you!" Ruse quickly snapped again, teleporting a Shadow Ball under Medea, "Whoopsie! Claymore!"
We immediately got back to our feet when we saw Medea stunned by the blow of the attack. Blaze quickly began to charge up for a Blast Burn as Ruse saw an opening in Medea's movements.
"Eat this all, furball!" Ruse cackled as she snapped her fingers, allowing all the Shadow Balls to immediately collide into Medea.
"Forgive me, Medea," Blaze silently muttered as he prepared to launch his attack.
Using the opening that Ruse had blown wider for us, Blaze quickly shot off his Blast Burn. The flames grew larger as they burned through Medea's flames, the sun empowering his huge Fire-type attack.
"Error... Error... Entering... Safe mode!" she muttered, holding down her head as if she was in a headache.
In her state of confusion, I began to dash towards her, my arms glowing with two different attacks again. My left hand began to glow black as I readied Night Slash, and my right glowing white for Psycho Cut. Medea saw me rushing towards her and immediately dispatched her tails underground.
Her tails began to shoot upwards as I ran, the ground now shaking as they erupted with red. However, I was determined to put her out of all this pain. As fast as my legs allowed, I quickly dodged all the oncoming tails from the ground. When I had reached her, I immediately released the attack that I had prepared for her.
I quickly swiped her in a horizontal slash with Night Slash, then Psycho Cut. I quickly jumped up in the air, rotating forward in preparation to deal the final blow. Both of my arms began to glow green as I readied Leaf Blade. Medea opened her weakened eyes to see me land two downward Leaf Blades.
"Triple Blade," I solemnly muttered, kneeling down as I ended the attack.
I turned around to see Medea collapse to the ground. The flames that surrounded the battlefield immediately began to dissipate.
"M-Medea!" Blaze quickly ran towards her, gently caressing her head.
I slowly sat beside him, feeling Medea's soft breath with my hand.
"She'll be fine," I reassured him, as I turned to ask him a question, "Blaze... Why did you suddenly attack Medea? I thought you didn't want to harm her?"
"You guys were in trouble... I figured that I couldn't let more of my friends get harmed when one of them was already in deep trouble," he explained as he checked for Medea's pulse.
Medea began to move, coughing as she slowly began to open her eyes.
"Blaze... I," she coughed a bit, her expression suddenly becoming a pained one, "I- DUMPING FILES TO CRASH DUMP! PROGRAM BLOCKED OFF BY IMMUNE SYSTEM... SHUTTING O-"
Medea suddenly screamed in agony before she closed her eyes again.
"M-Medea!" Blaze quickly cradled her, "I-is that shadow thing still within you?"
"Stand back! Maybe she'll-" Ruse suddenly snapped before Blaze signaled her to stop talking.
Medea began to stir, looking up at Blaze.
"I-I'm s-sorry!" Medea coughed, looking away from Blaze guiltily, "It felt horrible... I saw everything... I-I was in there, and I c-couldn't move my muscles... I felt... possessed."
"It's nothing to be sorry about, Medea," Blaze warmly smiled as he looked down at her, "Besides, you were in a huge deal of pain too."
"Still, I can't believe I caused this much damage..." Medea shyly stared at the floor.
I slowly placed my hand on Blaze's shoulder "Don't worry about it... We'll be fine about it... Besides, it wasn't your doing that caused all this."
She suddenly fell silent.
"But I know who did," she silently whispered.
"What?" Blaze and I quickly asked in unison.
"I think I know the real identity of this XD002... Because... For a moment, I saw its true form..." Medea whimpered.
"XD002?" my eyes grew wide, it would be good to finally find out who was behind all this.
"I don't think you should know... It was terrifying!" she shut her eyes tightly.
"No, this is important," I continued, "We have to know!"
Medea sighed in defeat as she opened her mouth to speak, "XD002 is-"
Note: Is... for me to know and for you to find out! Mwahaha! All that aside, can any of you guess XD002 already? It's getting pretty obvious... Anyway, how was the chappie? I hope it wasn't bland or short... Anyway, don't forget to review! Opinions, please! Either way, if you must excuse me, I need to get back to the Wii...