Now that I'm on holidays, I'm working on my original character once more. He hasn't progressed much from where I last froze the project. I can't find my old help thread, so I'm going to start a new one.

First problem: I'm working on Maxime's first major super attack. It's a direct kamehameha style move that's a beam of concentrated ghost fire. I want this move to drain the special bar until it runs out. So for example, using this move with 1 full special would cause it to fire for 1 second, but with 3 it would fire for 3 seconds. He has to have at least 1000 sp to use it.

The attack state is 6000 and the explod is 6001. Can anyone help me with the code?
This isn't a hold-button attack either, you can't cancel it once it starts.

Secondly, can anyone give me an example for how to code a good air dash. I have a vague idea, but I don't want to end up with a sloppy dash that's buggy.
I would also like to incorporate a damage-scaling system of some kind.

Any help would be really appreciated.