S4E05: Cloudy Weather

'''As the identity of the Sayan continues to be examined, a chilling announcement hijacks the airwaves. Hellgate is ready, and finally initiates his scheme to "create" a God Aura. The battle for Cloudsdale begins...'''

Plot Summary
Roughly a week after Saiyo's apprehension, the Special A Unit and G Squadron were enjoying some downtime at ERAC HQ. Aurion was still having memory issues, which led to a conversation among the two groups about The General. Yeshaida brought up how he and the other three Erinn-born members of G Squadron had their world destroyed by The General as he tested out a new anti-immortality weapon. He finished by saying that if the Rebellion hadn't shown, they would probably have suffered the same fate.

Just then, the alarms went off over the base as a "large foreign inbound object" was detected. At the war room, Wolfgang informed the A Unit and G Squadron that it was Hellgate once again, but they couldn't determine where he was going. Wolfgang said that Hellgate kept teleporting around while making his way inward, meaning it was impossible to tell what his heading was. Wolfgang ordered the ERAC fleet to prepare to battle, and then contact with Cloudsdale was suddenly lost. Immediately after, ERAC HQ lost power.

As the tech revealed, their systems had been hijacked by an outside force that was using ERAC HQ itself as the world's biggest transmitter. This was none other than Hellgate, and he boradcasted a message to the world. He announced himself to be the new King of Cloudsdale (echoing the claim that Vocus made during his own Cloudsdale conquest), and that it was the first step to destroying the world. He told the denizens that a god walked among them, and, in his own words, "he [was] not [their] friend." He then issued a challenge directly at ERAC, prodding them to try and stop him. He promised that the Aura will be his, and then the transmission ended.

Power was restored to the base, and Wolfgang threw all ERAC forces stationed within Equestria to move on Cloudsdale. Upon arrival, ERAC was immediately met with heavy fire from their own guns, now under Hellgate's control. They also had a black aura around them, increasing their defensive and offensive capabilities. Wolfgang told the A Unit and G ?Squadron that they pinpointed Hellgate's location to be the Weather Factory, and that once they cleared the defensive line the two groups would have to move in and confront him. The rebel transport that carried G Squadron to Equestria flew over head and made a brief opening, which the two teams took, heading for Hellgate.

As it turns out, Hellgate had been waiting for them. During their banter, Hellgate told everyone that he had been practicing since their encounter a week prior. He now had total control of his Nihility powers, and during the ensuing battle he used them to great effect. For possibly dramatic flair, he darkned the skies and surrounded the battlefield with Nihility clouds. He also silenced their communication link to Wolfgang just as the latter began to reveal a second source of Nihility in the area.

Hellgate proved to be a very difficult opponent, only taking minimal damage. At one point, he turned inside out to allow O-Hellgate to take over as his other consciousness unleashed a black stream into the very sky around them. Hellgate's clock appeared in the distance, and ghost mansions appeared. These mansions caught Oneiros and a member of G Squadron, trapping them in a dark mimicry of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's foyer. Outside the windows, the victims could not see the battle, only a chaotic airscape. The mansions then began to shrink around them, and though they were not killed, they did experience the pain of being crushed to death. All the while, their friends could only watch them from the outside as they screamed in terror from something they could not see.

O-Hellgate compressed the Nihility clouds around them and absorbed them into their body, only for Hellgate to inform him that time was run out. Hellgate took back control, and unveiled the existence of a Nihility bomb. They only had a few minutes to escape before it went off, and Wolfgang ordered all personnel to evacuate the city immediately. Unfortunately, the majority of the ERAC fleet found themselves trapped by a second, hidden line of defenses that emerged as the fleet pulled inward. Only a few ships managed to escape, while the rest were lost to the expanding Nihility. As they fled, Hellgate could be heard thanking A Unit and G Squadron for "bringing [him] [his] building materials."

Cloudsdale was no more, and in its place was a floating black bubble comrpised of Nihility. All military personnel and civilians still inside the city were lost, including Rainbow Dash, the Element Bearer. As Wolfgang explained, it had al been a trap. He intentionally mirrored Vocus' own assault on the city several months prior to lure them all into a false sense of security. He baited them to attack with all they had, and they did. Then when the bomb went off, they were unable to escape. Oneiros desperately tried to break into the bubble, only to bounce off for every attempt. All he could do was curse Hellgate, who could still be heard laughing from the core of the bubble. Completely defeated, Wolfgang ordered a reluctant retreat back to ERAC HQ, still in shock over Hellgate's victory...

Sountrack

 * 1) Opening Theme - Dream a Dream (Pop it Don't Drop it version)
 * 2) Inbound Threat - Warning Siren (Super Smash Bros. Melee)
 * 3) The Takeover - Suspense 2013 (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies)
 * 4) Hellgate's Broadcast - Uroboros (Megaman ZX Advent)
 * 5) Hellgate's Cloudsdale - Boss 1 (Sonic: Time Attacked)
 * 6) Confrontation Over the Weather Factory - Mithos Yggdrasil (Tales of Symphonia)
 * 7) Battle For Cloudsdale - Metal Madness (Sonic Heroes)
 * 8) The Nihility Bomb - Boss 3 (Sonic: Time Attacked)
 * 9) The Cloudsdale Bubble - The King of Light and Shadow (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)
 * 10) Ending Theme - Main Theme (Sonic: Time Attacked)

Trivia

 * Hellgate wasn't the only one intentionally drawing parallels to the Remnant arc's own Cloudsdale campaign...
 * This episode had the shortest runtime for a full complete episode, only clocking in at three hours.