Episode 21: Return with a Vengeance

[Nero Bullock]

"Destroy the Gorem, Hydranoid, and make it quick," Nero ordered as Hydranoid had finished charging Demolition Impact and was ready to fire on demand. As soon as Nero signaled for him to fire, Noland launched an explosive attack that was aimed towards the center mass of Hydranoid's attack. This did not come as a surprise to Nero since he was already aware of Noland's inactivity during the skirmish, but he was confident that he was going to get away with the attack since Gorem was obstructing their view of Hydranoid, or so he thought. At the last second, Gorem and his rock spawn jumped out of the way as the blast neared its destination, revealing that Allen held Hydranoid in place for Noland to score a critical shot. Unfortunately, it was going to work since Hydranoid was too far in the attack and could not defend himself. "I can't believe I'm going to be done in by these children..." Nero lamented as the attack hit.

It briefly caused a power surge with the ability Hydranoid was intending to fire before it caused a rocking explosion that sent Nero backwards, causing him to roll a few times before regaining his balance and sliding on his feet. The smoke resulting from the collision subsided and revealed that Hydranoid's head was destroyed. The headless body fell flat on the floor, defeated by the combined energy of Drago's attack and the attack he was attempting to launch. Nero's life gauge plummeted to zero after this loss, which resulted in his defeat. He tried to stand up while coughing due to the effects of the smoke, and as he returned to his feet, Hydranoid's head was regenerated back to its normal state. "You've bested me. I'll give you that, but I don't really care that I've lost here since there are much more significant battles that I am due for that are more important than this trivial fight," Nero commended, and later downplayed.

Hydranoid stood back up and shook off the pain he was felt from the battle. He glared at his foes and scowled at them in disgust. Nero, who was prepared to get out of there before the Resistors attempt to subdue him, said these final words. "I will let you believe what you want about me, Noland, but know these two things. One, I never ordered the Terrorists to kill any human. Each life that they took is in their hands, not mine. Two, I do not bask in the suffering of our people. I mourn in it. I've said everything about my plan that I wanted to say to you in our last encounter, so I won't be repeating myself here. I'll leave you with this question to think about if you truly are optimistic about my motives. How did you feel towards the Bakugan when Alana and Vince were taken away? Did you ever feel...betrayed? Threatened? Violated? Who knows. Maybe how you felt then...is how I feel now." With that said, Nero activated an ability named Phantom Transmission that allowed Hydranoid to teleport himself and Nero out of the area, leaving the Resistors by themselves without a captor.

[Noland Hardy]

Seeing Nero get away from him once again just brought Noland's mood down even further and made him angrier than he ever was, but his defeat was a definite sign of relief for himself and the other five Resistors. If he got anything out of this battle, it was that he learned how to adapt to battle situations better than what he could do before and he understood the potential value in using each other's strengths in unison with each other to cover up their weaknesses, which was something that they haven't been able to achieve up until this point when faced with such a dangerous opponent. Nero indirectly proved that one man could make a difference, and he did in the form of bringing them all together with equal desires, allowing them to fight as true allies. As good as that sounds, there was still the issue of handling Kendrick's situation since neither of them were aware about what Nero could have done to force the young boy into combat. It seemed like Nero thought of it as a game, and it irritated Noland even more just thinking about it knowing that Nero considered Kendrick to be as useful as a game piece.

Drago spun around and wondered what was the game plan as far as tracking Nero down. "Where do we go from here, Noland? A man like that living in the shadows is a threat to everyone regardless of what he says he did or didn't do," Drago pointed out. "We know his occupation and his link, so we shouldn't waste any time in letting the higher-ups know about this. This has gone far enough."

Noland acknowledged what his partner told him and then turned to face the Resistors with a serious look on his face, one that was intent on solving this mystery and relaying some news he didn't want to believe were true.

"I didn't expect all of you to come here. I didn't want to involve any of you in this fight as you've already been put through enough, and I know I went against what Tank and Markus advised me not to do for my own sake. Still, I couldn't express how shocked and thankful I am to have this much support against an enemy like this despite what you've gone through for the past few months." Noland was almost ready to speak his mind about what took place prior to his injuries and after. His voice noticeably became lower as his mood dropped.

"There's...something I have to tell all of you about this guy that I'm sure you're not going to like, but first, I want to know something from you. How did you know where to find me, and why did you come?"

[Seiki Maki]

"Big one got away, but we managed to get him away from this place, possibly learn something, and stop this place from being ruins." Seiki says with as small grin, hopping down from the tree she was using as a watchpost for the brawl with Ahio perched by her side now gliding down the to group. "Now to answer your question..."

"Why do we need a helicopter for this?" Seiki moans as she looks out the window, those headphone-ear-muffler things covering her ears as she stares out the window, looking at the scenery below. Her new director was running through some guildlines with her and all that fun stuff and notices that the girl wasn't paying any attention to him, even though he was speaking directly into the microphone that was hooked up with the headphones.

"Listen to me when I'm speaking!" He snaps, causing Seiki to slowly look over at him with a bored look.

"Why should I? I would rather give up my role as some singer rather than work with you," she bluntly states, playing with one of Ahio's feathers which she held onto for comfort.

The director gave a sigh and shook his head. Never had he had to work with someone like this. As the man was in though, thinking of ways to get her to listen and all, Ahio came flying in, in her miniature form through the door which was left open for some apparent reason. The bird landed on Seiki's hand and whispered into her ear. The girl's expression had changed so she was surprised a bit, but then changed into a small smirk. "Hey! Director guy!"

The said person turned over to look at her. "What is it that you want?"

Seiki glances at Ahio, who give a small nod. "I have a deal to strike up with you. If you guys just to happened to, I dunno, be in potential danger, and I save your sorry butts... Would you perhaps... Agree to my terms and I dunno, double my pay?"

The director looked shocked to see her make such a deal. "Save us? Hah! If I ever saw that happen, then I wouldn't double but triple your pay." He laughs as Seiki looks at him with a 'really?' face.

"Hope you keep your end of the deal!~" She hums as the pilot of the helicopter makes some sharp turns, lots of crashing and destructive noises.

"Captain! We have a problem!" He shouts, trying to get to safe land, but there wasn't any with a bakugan destroying the place. 

The director glares at Seiki before he walks over to the front of the plane. "Oh shoot, we are in a pickle, gas is low as well. It won't be long until we-"

Then gravity started to act upon the chopper and Seiki ran out the open door. This may sound like a crazy idea, but not when you know how to save yourself. More like someone there you know to save you. "Ahio!" She shouts as her partner grows to her true size and has the girl land on her back, and carry the helicopter to safety somewhere fairly far away, before flying towards Hydranoid who was sending debris towards Noland and his group.

"Aaand that's pretty much everything, for my side that is." Seiki chuckles, scratching the back of her head, her eyes closed and her mouth in a small smile. "Now that Director dude owns me not double but triple pay..." She laughs evilly, her expression now changed to a playful-dark one.

[Markus Hederick]

Markus looked at Seiki briefly before commenting on what she just said in his mind. "You're making it seem like there is always some sort of coincidence whenever you appear to battle against the Terrorists..."

Markus returned his attention to Noland and began to relay to him every ounce of information that he had to properly answer his question even though he didn't necessarily agree with the decisions made to reach this point.

"Your grandmother called Allen and told him everything. She said you were heading to Northeast, but that kind of information isn't enough to find out exactly where you were. He did what she asked and called all of us. We showed up, went where she was and saw Karen. All she could mutter was that you were going to Daniel's old hideout, and Allen knew exactly where that was for obvious reasons."

Markus then had questions of his own, and he found it reasonable to ask them since they answered his questions. "Noland, I know you probably think of me as someone who has sort of a childish act when it comes to my rivalry with Tank, but underneath that, I'm pretty understanding when it comes to these matters, especially after some jackass decided to poison my little sister with a Christmas gift. I get it. Each of us has something against the enemy that makes us want to do this type of thing, but why did you brutally beat her the way you did? Am I a little peeved because she's my teammate who was injured by a rival of ours? Yes. Do I find it strange that someone as renown as you would act like that? Definitely. Is it concerning that you could be arrested now for illegal handling of a Bakugan, theft, and assault? Absolutely."

Gargulion looked down at Noland and asked, "All we want is the truth. Also, I personally want to know what that guy was referring to when he said how you felt back then is how you feel now. What is he talking about?"

[Noland Hardy]

"Don't think of Noland any differently because of what I did. I'll take responsibility for putting them out of commission since I'm the one who launched the attacks. I did go too far with what I did to Elico, but-" Drago said before he was instantly cut off by Noland.

"No, Drago. It was us. We did it. We are one sole unit and have always been. Just like you said to me earlier, if you lose, I lose. We are responsible for each other." Noland turned to Markus after stating this and sighed, knowing that the information that he knows hurts him inside. "I wasn't completely honest with all of you at the hospital because Kendrick's recovery would not have been possible if some of you knew what I knew with Karen in the room. I understand one or some of you might be angry with me for how this all happened, but all I ask is that you hear me out. And before you tell me this, Tracy, you told me so. I'm really sorry and I hope you can forgive me for how I treated you."

Noland closed his eyes for a moment to calm himself down. "After I was defeated, Nero told me a very disturbing secret. He mentioned Karen by her name and said that she was his daughter, which means she has ties with both Nero and the Terrorists. On Christmas, she told me that the person taking care of her was named Andrew, the director of the CIA. I pieced the two statements together to figure out that the person who has access to the Terrorist's activity and the Pack has a high-ranking position within the United States."

Noland let that sink in for a bit before he continued. "I didn't have any proof of Nero and Karen being allies other than word of mouth. I confronted her about it and confirmed it to be true because she refused to disclose his location. She said Nero was 'her only provider' when I asked for his location. She also knew where Kendrick was the entire time since she admitted seeing him some time after he was taken. Naturally, I wasn't going to go away silently after knowing she defended someone who kidnapped my little brother and almost killed me with his Bakugan, so I beat the information out of her. I've lost too much to allow someone to take one of the only close family members that I have left, so that's why I committed a few crimes and will gladly repeat them if given another opportunity. An ally to Nero is an enemy regardless of our team standings."

After the lengthy response to Markus's first question, he thought about Gargulion's question. Contemplating how he was going to talk about his past, he looked around him and concluded that it was about time that a chunk of it was erased from existence. "Also...if you weren't aware, I retired after the battle with Barodius. I came back after fighting Belphenoid for the first time when Daniel escaped from prison before school started. I'm not going to talk about the specifics of what I've done since the Barodius battle, but it was out of pure hatred for the Bakugan from what was taken from me that I secluded myself away from them. Nero is probably aware of this and is trying to compare himself to me. That would make sense, but using terrorists who are known to kill people when Bakugan are the main enemy doesn't..."

All six of the Resistors had a long conversation on what their game plan was to counter this new threat by the information Noland provided. This was similar to the meetings that the police had tried to make them have continuously at the community center that were never successful compared to the one they were having now. They seemed focus and straight to the point without any petty interruptions this time. Upon the meeting's conclusion, everyone parted ways, but Noland stayed behind a little while longer. He pulled up an ability to use on his BrawlX as he relayed to Drago what his final command was going to be.

"Hopefully the docs can figure out whatever is wrong with Kendrick... In the meantime... this building shouldn't be up any longer. Is that okay?"

Drago nodded in agreement and stated, "I'll do it under one condition. You have to do what I told you to do after we beat Belphenoid the first time. I agree that the police are incompetent, but the country needs to know that this is about to blow up in our faces, and we need to be ready." Noland remembered that Drago told him to notify the police the first time, but he refused to do so due to him being in a bad situation at the time. This time, it was much different. This threat was bigger than just him.

"Deal." With that said, Noland placed Kendrick and himself on Drago's back and flew away. As soon as he was out of range, Drago turned around, created a giant, pulsing energy ball in the center of his chest and launched it at the building, disintegrating every particle within that space. "In a similar manner to my past, this building will share the same fate: buried and overcome."

[Noland Hardy]