Strife

Strife is the penultimate episode of Sol 101 season 1. 
Previously: Seven Nation Army (Episode). The next episode is Child in Time.
==Synopsis==
Sol, Gadsio, and Laika break all rules of civility and immediately engage Edgelord in combat at a library, of all places.
==Plot==
Sol actually began the battle using a smart tactic, for once in his life.
As Gadsio and Laika ran at Edgelord at various speeds, Sol activated the Omnitrix and quickly morphed into Longview. He opened one portal in front of him a few feet, and the second portal well above Edgelord's head. He jumped into the portal and was quickly above Edgelord.
While in the air, he activated the Omnitrix again. His already metallic hands became much larger and bulkier, chains sprouted from the back of his head, and before Edgelord could react, Crunch Punch's metallic frame came pounding down to the Earth behind him.
(Sol uses Crunch Punch and melees Edgelord for a time)
"Laika! Pythagoras Formation!"
Had Laika been able to move his head, he would have nodded. He spun up his two guns and began firing them in Gadsio's direction. Gadsio in turn began spinning his staff. When the bullets hit him, he reflected them off of his staff, setting them alight and towards Edgelord at the other end of the room.
Edgelord and Crunch Punch continued to duel. Crunch Punch had the upper hand in terms of strength. All he needed to do was make contact with Edgelord perhaps once, though Edgelord was working careful to make sure that didn't happen. Fist was met with buckler or shield or hammer or whatever Edgelord could counter with.
It wasn't long before the hellfire of bullets began to pelt them. Edgelord tried ducking to let them hit Crunch Punch, though Sol just kind of shrugged the flaming bullets off (though they did kind of sting in a little way).
As he towered over Edgelord, he considered it time to vent his poisonous exhaust gas, hoping that they would do the trick on his lungs. However, Edgelord took a trick out of Gadio's book. He transformed one Mirror Blade into a legionnaire-styled shield to protect him from the bullets and changed the other blade into a mock-up of Gadio's spear, which he began spinning to try and blow the exhaust gas away.
It didn't work too well, and thus Edgelord found himself forced to slide away, using the shield as a sled.
Gadsio now had a new vantage point to launch flaming bullets at him, but Edgelord had stolen his ace to deal with that strategy. He simply spun the bullets away. He didn't spin them back at Gadsio, Laika, or even Sol, but instead diverted the flaming bullets into a nearby section of the library. Books were going to burn if Gadsio didn't stop his assault, and so he did.
Gadsio rushed off into that section of the library to extinguish those flames.
Laika was forced to come running closer to Edgelord and so was Sol.
Crunch Punch dislocated a fist from the rest of his body and launched it at Edgelord. Edgelord knocked it away with the swing of a warhammer. As both hand and hammer went flying, and Sol came ever closer, he quickly transitioned his second blade into a flamethrower and quite literally opened fire on Crunch Punch.
He was rather surprised it work, after Crunch Punch's initial react to the raining hellfire of bullets. It wasn't long, though, until Crunch Punch's legs began to fuse together, and his arms were melting into his torso. He fell to the floor and began to flop like a fish. Edgelord merely continued burning him.
If you would have told him that it was a pleasure to burn, he probably would have laughed and burnt you too.
Laika got there and began discharging flame retardant a bit too late. It didn't really help Sol or Gadsio's situations too much, but it did prevent Edgelord from using the same flamethrower trick on Laika.
"If I can't hardboil the egg..." Edgelord began, turning around to face Laika with a wild grin... "I'll just have to crack it open first!" With that, he let his flying warhammer return to him as a boomerang. He transitioned the flamethrower into a hook sword, brought Laika in close, and then, just as the warhammer reentered his hand, smashed down on Laika's dome.
Sol was horrified.
Gadsio was bewildered.
Laika was excited. For the first time in forever, she hopped out of her armored battlesuit. Overcome by a newfound sense of bloodlust, her little doggy jaw sunk into Edgelord's neck. His hands released both of their weapons, which clattered to the floor not far from Crunch Punch's helpless form.
"Get off of me, you mutt!" was the only thing he could think of yelling, and it wasn't even that original. Laika's sudden revelation had taken him by surprise, to say the least. 
(he throws laika off, laika lands near sol, activates the Omnitrix, Sol uses Airtime or another alien to extinguish the fires so Gadsio can return to the fight)
(Edgelord strikes Sol down with Mjolnir lightning, but luckily Airtime is somewhat insulated)
Sol had evidently learned nothing about airborne objects and Edgelord, because as soon as he recovered, he switched the Omnitrix dial to Centerfold.
He recovered before hitting the ground. His wings flapped to steady himself, creating a slight updraft to keep himself airborne. As soon as Edgelord saw Centerfold swoop back up and fly towards him, he tossed one of his Blades as a large, spinning circular saw in his direction.
Sol unleashed twin blasts of ice and cold (not really contemplating the effects the counterbalancing blasts could have, though it wouldn't matter yet) as he flew forward. Unfortunately, his beams did not travel fast enough, for the spinning saw became an MLB-eligible curveball that spun around and tore into Centerfold's wings. Feathers went flying, the saw made a U-turn to return to its owner, Edgelord dodged the blasts, and Sol's face slid against the floor.
Luckily for Sol, despite the excruciating pain, the friction with the floor was enough to trigger another Omnitrix transformation.
(Laika tries to bite at Edgelord, and Sol uses Longview to teleport her to safety, bring Gadsio back in, and melees Edgelord for a bit)
----
Sol vs Edgelord
Sol does the "achieve duplication through time traveling back to the same point in time" method, but edgelord is able to pick up on the wounds sol has so he knows where to strike
----
(Jules and co. approach, but find Direheart sitting there)
For a moment, Jules thought his old enemy was cradling his heart in his hand. He was not. His hands were both balled into fists.
"My peon has already summoned my heart to him. The fool thinks he can wield it himself." He paused, as if to let Jules laugh at that situation. He did not. "I will take over his body, and I will use it to kill the next version of you. I'll either get his Omnitrix or his time powers. Either way, I will become unstoppable. I will leave the domain of Kashmir."
"You should be there with him, Jules. You should be protecting your boy," taunted Direheart.
"You should be protecting your heart," Jules replied, staring down the beast. Without it, Direheart had become significantly weaker. His cells were still able to make for themselves, thanks to his limited powers, but for how long? They were going to die off eventually, and perhaps their expiration could be accelerated if Jules had anything to do about it. 
"Correct. I will be there, in time. Or, I will not. Perhaps my peon has failed me. There is always the chance that my sacrifice failed and I've just let the bastard of an accomplice wound me. Maybe I've been weakened enough that you could kill me now." Jules was hopeful that this was the truth. "How much faith do you have in that boy? In yourself? Your system?"
Not much in the boy, Jules had to admit to himself. But the Karma Police were on their way. All Sol, Gadsio, and Laika had to do was isolate the heart and wait for Karma Court to apprehend it.
"It's like the flip of a coin for you, isn't it? It is for me, too. Either I win absolutely, or I lose completely," Direheart surmised. He adjusted his posture, sitting up a bit straighter, before continuing. "I cannot wait to see-"
(Nameless attacks from the sky)
The assassin spoke. "You lose." His voice was hollow and echoed through the mask.
His sword, the reforged Excalibur, was buried deep within Direheart's ribcage, precisely where his heart would have been. However, even without the heart, the move was not pointless. It was wedged in such a manner that it prevented Direheart from drawing his bone blade out of his spine.
Both the Nameless assassin and his target were aware of these circumstances. They both knew that Direheart was seriously wounded, but certainly not down for the count. 
Despite his disadvantages, Direheart cracked a wry smile. Deep violet blood, so deep it was nearly black, was spilling from his chapped lips. "Didn't even let me draw first. And here I was, thinking you a man of honor."
The Nameless assassin wedged his sword even deeper into Direheart's chest until it was beginning to pierce through the thin, frail, and taut coal-black skin on the other side of the monster's body. The kingpin was nearly gagging from his own blood now; it crawled up his throat like leeches up an arm.
"You have no honor yourself," Jules countered, still pacing around Direheart. His hands fluttered to his belt, ready to summon his Velvet Revolvers.
The words still rang deep in the Nameless's mainframe. He wrenched his sword out of Direheart, causing the beast to lurch forward and vomit up blood. The Nameless took a few steps back.
It took Direheart a few more moments to regain his posture. Every second he waited felt like an eternity to the Nameless, whose soul was torn between the ruthless duty of ending the bastard already and the honor of providing at least a fighting chance an opponent.
His torture was eventually ended, though Direheart made visible effort to prolong its conclusion. "Let us draw, gentlemen."
"Now, let the game begin."
==Characters==
===Aliens===
*Longview (twice)
*Crunch Punch
*Airtime
*Centerfold
==Trivia==
*The meeting of Direheart and Jules was heavily inspired by the Tower of Joy fight in Game of Thrones, while the meeting of Direheart and Nameless was a pastiche of the anticlimactic Thor-Thanos encounter in Avengers: Infinity War.
Category:Episodes
Category:Episodes in Production