Episode 31: How Could You?

[Karen Valentine]

Karen's heart stopped the moment Nero showed up in the room without warning along with the Pack and Hydranoid. It was a big surprise to see the Pack around Nero without showing a hint of wanting to kill him despite what happened earlier, and they looked very different, which could hint at them possibly evolving. This obvious power increase made Nero's threat level spike to new heights, which also made it questionable if any of them, including Noland, could match his might at this point. This didn't deter her from standing her ground though. "So a 'loving' father calls his daughter a bitch, huh? That says a lot about you. Maybe you not having a wife is a sign that you didn't need any kids." After responding to Nero's comments with a very heartless gesture, Karen stepped in front of Montai with her BrawlX active and ready to brawl. "For someone so fixated about what the Bakugan have done to humans, you did target a lot of humans with the Pack. Some of them even came from your own staff. What do you have to say for yourself then? What if I refused to do what you were asking from us. Would you have put me on a platter too?"

Elico, who had been with Nero from the very start, had decided that he had enough of what was going on in that building. His eagerness to denounce him had caused him to force himself out of Karen's pocket and stood in front of them all, ready to combat all four of his opponents. "I've had enough of your ridiculous rampage. I have been fighting alongside you for almost a decade, Andrew, but this is where I draw the line." Elico pointed directly at Nero as he placed emphasis on his next few sentences. "YOU told me directly after you graduated from the academy that the human's safety was your ONE and ONLY priority. YOU were the one who fought against one hundred members of a criminal organization by yourself just to save an entire middle school! YOU wanted to run inside the Twin Towers to save Kristen and the others trapped in that building even though you knew you had a high chance of dying in that incident because you placed their well-being above your own! If that is the case, why are YOU killing them!?"

Elico stomped on the lab floor, causing it to shake a little due to his power. His disgust with someone who was supposed to be his partner had reached an all-time high. "Your most recent battle with the Pack should have served as a warning. We are tired of you enslaving your own paid staff to do something that most of them did not know you were going to do, and then feeding them to these fucking animals! Fuck the Bakugan! They didn't care about what I had to bring to the table. Apparently, I'm worth less than all of the other Aquos Bakugan just because I happen to be the son of a doom being, so you can kill them and me for all I care, but the humans are off limits! You asked me to protect Karen at all costs the moment you gave me to her, and that's exactly what's going to happen here! You want a crack at her and Montai? Try me!" Karen did not expect Elico to act out on his own like that, but she didn't object considering everything he said could not be contested. Montai weighed in on the situation too; although, she didn't have much to say considering Elico had already took the entire thing. "I can't believe that someone like you would ever inherit the knowledge that Vince left us. You've misinterpreted his desire and turned it into a nightmare. I don't care what you choose to do from this point on. Not serving you any longer is the only gratification I need going forward. If you choose to kill me, so be it. I don't want to be bound by threats of death anymore. You brought this on yourself the moment you chose to kill my friends."

[Noland Hardy]

Noland was too focused on the Pack's evolved forms to care about the quarrel between the three of them. "He really did it... He really just took control of them..." Noland thought. Assuming Karen was telling the truth, there was no way Nero would have made it all the way in there with the Pack by his side if he didn't take control. Apparently, the process allowed them to evolve into more menacing beasts, looking more disgusting than ever. It seems like Nero's attention was primarily on Karen and Montai, so they were in the clear for now. What they were discussing was really none of his business aside from what Montai said about Vince, so he was tempted to not involve himself in that fight and let them do what they do; however, he was concerned about Karen and Montai's well-being in a fight against four evolved Bakugan. The odds were not really in his favor. Noland would have offered him some help, but his apparent lack of care towards the Bakugan made him decide against it. "If that's how he really feels about the Bakugan, then maybe I'd be doing him and everyone else a favor if I just let him walk his road to ruin by himself..."

Drago noticed his lack of preparation for battle, and was very confused by this due to their circumstances. He then jumped on Noland's shoulder, turned towards him, and asked, "You don't seem too sure about fighting, so what's the plan? We're basically trapped in here now that the Pack and Hydranoid are blocking our path." Noland understood that this was a situation where confronting Nero in a battle was a requirement. He was ready to throw Drago into battle, but was not going to do so yet based on the reasons Elico himself allowed him to think of. Before Nero had a chance to attack, Noland presented a question to him after reading the reports. "If you're not too angry about your daughter and your 'girlfriend' changing sides, there's something I want to know from you first. We all read your files and know exactly what's going on here. With that said, there's two things that disturb me about you that I'm not really understanding."

Noland held one finger up as he asked his first question. "First, as much as we disagree with what has been going on here, Karen, Montai, and Elico bring up some interesting points. Why are you targeting humans? You've told me plenty of times in our altercations that you were destroying the Bakugan for the humans in order to save us, so there would be no reason to kill another human if that's what you were after." He then held up another finger as he asked his second question. "Second, according to what was put into these files, the Pack can access the Doom Dimension. You were already aware that my father and former girlfriend were sent there by whoever that alien king was, and you now have control over the Bakugan that not only performed the act, but can conjure portals to go in there. If you care about humans so much, wouldn't it make sense to use the Pack's abilities to go inside the Doom Dimension and get them out if they're still there?"

[Nero Bullock]

"Well...dang. I didn't put your business out there, so why'd you have to say that?" Nero asked in response to Karen's comment about Kristen. "You know what? Everyone in this room deserves to know your dirty secrets just because you put that out there, but I won't stoop to that just yet. However..." Nero looked at Elico with a cold stare, chuckling to himself that Elico was even still around to speak to him in that manner. "I couldn't be more disappointed with anyone else than you, Elico. Of course, you kept that mentality from our days in the police department, so I wouldn't expect your feeble mind to grasp the simple concept of the difference between a police officer and someone like me. I do what I do to stop something before it happens while officers do something after it happens. In order for that to happen, everything must go according to plan. If someone decides they no longer want to do what I want them to do as their boss, they're going to leave and go elsewhere as they planned. In the process, they will carry the knowledge that they've received in here somewhere else, thereby compromising our entire operation. You really think they should have the chance to do that? No! I don't think so! I already revealed that I had no problem killing any human that would be a detriment to my own goals. That's your problem if you didn't think I was serious."

"But you wouldn't have the balls to do that, Elico. All you see is black and white. You carry that much hatred for the Bakugan and don't even know how to use it properly. Your stupidity was apparently high enough for you to attempt to have the Pack assassinate me, which would have made the problem with the humans much worse for all of you considering they wanted to eradicate the humans this entire time. Noland just told me they were shown the lab reports. Everyone knows that the true identity of Belphenoid is the same Bakugan that what's his face came to Earth with." Belphenoid chimed in to clear up the confusion surprisingly, apparently growing tired of everyone not using their proper names. "You can stop referring to me as a Bakugan or this dark dragon whenever someone brings it up. The name of my species before I was imprisoned in this body was called a Dharaknoid, or Dharak for short," Belphenoid revealed. "Emperor Justin Barodius of Gundalia is the mastermind behind your failures. It's a shame he isn't here to celebrate with us, but what we have now should make him proud in his absence."

Nero then decided to address Noland's final question after already responding to Elico's banter, which answers Noland's first question. "You're absolutely right about all of us having the ability to rescue your father and your girl, but there's one slight problem." Nero cracked a really evil smile before he gave this revelation to Noland as he figured it to be the perfect payback for what Vince did to him years ago. "You see, your father had the option of letting me go to rescue my fiancee who I've been with for so many years since high school when Dharak here attacked us the first time. I really loved that woman more than anything else in the world. But...Vince was like, 'Nope! Who cares how you feel about her? Worry about yourself. Leave her to die in a burning tower.' So when his own son asks me to use Dharak's power to see if it was possible to rescue a woman he loves very much and Vince, I find it really hard to give you the same opportunity he never gave me. I mean, just saying I don't care hardly defines what I really want to say to you, which is, Vince can stay in the Doom Dimension for all I care, and now his own son will be left to suffer what I've already had to deal with." Nero then looked at all of his enemies with a gleeful look on his face. "Any more questions? No? Good. Time to die."

[Karen Valentine]

Karen rolled her eyes at Nero's attempt to expose her privacy. She obviously kept it her business for a reason, and it wasn't exposed despite what he said; therefore, it wasn't a problem for her. She didn't pay too much attention to Belphenoid's reveal of the type of Bakugan he was along with the name of the man that attacked them. It wasn't that type of shocker that would startle her; however, Nero's lack of empathy for Noland's situation grasped her full attention. All she could do was look at him after Nero harshly dismissed his question about getting into the Doom Dimension to rescue who was very important to him. "So...you do care..." she silently muttered to herself. She looked back at Nero after he made that remark about Vince and Alana. Her disdain for someone being treated like that was unlike any other. It made her proud that even she could never go that far down. "Nero, Noland didn't do anything to deserve what you're doing... How could you even say that? That just shows all of us that everything that has happened to you up to this point was well-deserved." Elico put his hand up to signal for everyone behind him to stop speaking as he had something dire to say. "There's no longer a need to say anything to this man. What he just said to us is a clear indication that he has gone so far down where there is no way back. Action is the only thing remaining that can change the future."

Elico sighed for a moment as he was collecting his thoughts about what was going to take place in the next few minutes. It was something he didn't think would happen, but realized that the fated battle was unavoidable. Someone had to do this, and he was the one who fit the bill perfectly. "Krakix would be ashamed of me that I ever allowed this Dharaknoid to come back, but most of all, I have failed Andrew as a guardian Bakugan. I wish my lack of empathy towards my own kind didn't blind me from his own problems. He was sick, and I never helped him get better. All I did was make the problem worse from my own attitude, and I inadvertently placed all of the humans in grave danger when my only vendetta was against the Bakugan. The only redeeming action I can do now is to help Vince by aiding his son in stopping his former comrade." Elico infused one of his tentacles with his energy and stabbed at a certain section in the wall near the lab computers, revealing a hidden path; unfortunately, this set off an alarm that began locking down the entire facility, which was why he opted not to do it earlier since the room was heavily fortified.

"I haven't had much to say to any of you Resistors, or you, Daniel, but how well you listen to me now will determine what happens to you in the end. What I just unlocked for you is an emergency exit route. Do not waste any time going through that tunnel regardless of what you see. Run past the murals to find a teleportation pad that'll place you at the lowest level of the building. If your allies have made it out okay, regroup with them. One of those paths houses the secret door that has an elevator. What you decide to do from there is your own business." Elico then used a tentacle to push Karen towards Noland. He looked over his shoulder back at Noland as he made a plea separate from stopping Nero. "I know you're bitter towards one another, but take her with you. Her safety is up to the duo that can do it all, you and Allen. Watch each other's backs, and don't let each other descend into darkness. None of you deserve to become what became of Vince and Andrew."

Karen looked up at Elico as he implied he was dismissing her, leaving her out of the battle completely. She was fairly upset at what he was trying to do. "Don't you dare stay here by yourself, Elico! I'm not leaving you here to die to this monster! We're fighting as a team and that's final!" As stubborn as she always was, Elico shook his head, implying that it wasn't going to be that way this time. He forced her back some more to where she was in close proximity to Noland. "Be a good girl, Karen. Take care of yourself," Elico imparted as he gave her a thumbs up. "Noland, grab her and go. I'll take it from here." Karen gave Noland the harshest look she had ever given him the moment Elico told him to grab her. "You better not drag me out of here, Noland! I will fight you myself if a single ounce of your skin touches mine!"

[Noland Hardy]

Noland shrugged off Nero's pettiness in refusing to get two of the people he cared about the most out of the Doom Dimension. He didn't expect for Nero to care about his own wishes nor did he anticipate that what he said to him would matter. All he asked the question for was to determine the type of person Nero really is, and his response was all that was needed to classify him as the scum of the scum. He wondered if this was what he heard Vince talk about in his dream when he said he didn't want him and Kendrick suffering from his sins. Was he talking about this particular incident? He didn't know, but what he did know was that Nero was about to unleash hell on all of them using the evolved Pack and Hydranoid. The only good thing to come out of this was knowing the names of the two beings responsible for why he earned the Master Blaze moniker, which he still considers a curse. He was motivated to making Dharak pay for what he did then, what he is doing now, and what he is going to do later. Gundalia was going to have to wait.

Noland placed Drago in his hand and held it up in a throwing position, but was stopped by Elico's speech. Hearing him have remorse for his own actions was a first. It wasn't what Noland wanted to hear, but it was a start in the right direction at the very least. He had to jump out of the way when Elico opened the path since he didn't anticipate the Bakugan doing that near them. He was speechless in this self-sacrificial act that truly showed Elico's true character and not the tough guy persona he always had. He took what the Bakugan had to say about where they should go from there with a grain of salt since he didn't know where the elevator would lead to. He was also reluctant to comment on looking after Karen since she had a target on her back now along with Montai, but if Elico was sincere about what he was talking about, he saw no reason to deny him his request. He had already gotten a taste of what could happen if Allen turned evil, so he was in full agreement with none of that happening again. As Noland nodded in acknowledgment of his words, not knowing what to say to him after watching him do this, Karen made her frustration about the idea known to him.

She insisted on staying here to fight by his side, but Elico understood that the battle was too dangerous for her to remain there. For that reason, Noland had no choice but to listen to Elico's request in order to prevent Nero from having any other human victims. He attempted to pull her away, but Karen was not having any of it. She threatened to fight him if he touches her. He knew her too well to think she was joking by what she said, so he summoned Drago in his monster form to do something very quick for him. "Karen...I'm sorry...I'm not doing this to hurt you..." As he said that, Drago plucked Karen lightly into the nearby wall, knocking her into a state where she was barely conscious. "I have a feeling this has been done before..." Drago thought as he returned to ball form and into Noland's pocket. Now that she was in a state where she wouldn't be able to be much of a problem, Noland rushed over to her to put her in his arms and carried her out of the room into the path. "Everybody out!" Noland shouted as the Pack and Hydranoid started shooting.

[Karen Valentine]

After threatening Noland to keep his hands off of her, she planted her feet down to show that she was not leaving the area. She did not listen to Noland suggesting that he was not trying to hurt her until she saw his Dragonoid standing near her. She knew what was coming after that. "Really!? Why am I always the one being attacked by a Bakugan!? Do I ever get a break!?" She was plucked by Drago's giant finger and crashed into the nearby wall. She was very dazed from the impact, which did not allow her to have the mobility and response time that she would love to have in this situation. Knowing what Noland was about to do, she shed a tear about Elico's impending trial, and soon turned into crying knowing that there was nothing more she could do for him. Noland picked her up and started carrying her away to safety. To her, it was more like being taken away from someone so abruptly that she didn't have a chance to fully say goodbye. "No! Let go of me, Noland! I'm not leaving him!! Can't you see what will happen to him!?" Montai solemnly shook her head at Karen, revealing that they had no other options left but to comply with Elico's requests. She was on track to evacuating the area as much as everyone else was just as Noland was ready to dash out of there.

Then shots started getting fired. Elico transformed into Subterra and rapidly blocked all of the blasts as best as he could while they escaped. He then started going on the offensive by mercilessly damaging what he could in the room and using the broken cords as a lethal weapon towards his enemies. As Karen looked over Noland's shoulder, all she could do was cry. She didn't cry out to Elico as she knew he wasn't changing his mind, but the able bodied brawlers that accompanied Noland as well as himself were capable of helping him, yet they chose not to. "Noland, please! I beg of you! Go back and help him! Elico can't handle the four of them by himself! You can't just let him die!" What made it worse was that the security system that was activated due to Elico's opening of the path in that manner was that a door was raised near the path's entrance, which meant that from that moment on, there was no turning back. As it started to shut, she could hear the loud sound of Hydranoid's saw blades being activated. She didn't know how to hold any of her emotions in after that especially when the door shut completely. Tears just started rolling down her cheeks nonstop as she looked back, not being able to hear or see anything from Elico's battle anymore. "I don't understand why bad things always happen around me ever since I got into Bakugan... I just..." She did her best not to cry on Noland, but the flow of emotions just couldn't stop. She didn't make eye contact with anyone as this was happening. All she was focused on was what was wrong with her. "Terrible things...have always been apart of me. I just can't deal with it anymore..."

[Noland Hardy]

Noland knew how she must have felt when she begged and pleaded with him to turn around since Karen was never the one to act this way about anything. He knew that he would be tempted to help her based on the way he is, so he never turned around when running away with her in his arms nor did he look at her. When the door closed behind them all, he breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he wouldn't have to worry about that temptation anymore; however, he now had to look forward to Karen's emotions since there was nothing more they could do for Elico at the moment. What she sounded like to him was that she was depressed. "How do you think the people who lost their Bakugan to the Pack feel? You didn't care about them, so why should anyone care about you?" Noland thought in his mind. This is what he really wanted to say to her, but decided against it. Right now, she wasn't a threat to anyone, and he wouldn't have been happy if anyone talked down on him about his losses, so it was only fair that he gave her the same courtesy despite what she was apart of.

This was also a reason why he couldn't give her any encouraging words. He figured lying wouldn't be much of a help in the long run even though it will ease her mind for a short while. "When will this girl ever accept responsibility for what she has done that put her in this position instead of acting like a victim? It's always something else making her life miserable, but it's never the fault of anything she's doing. She's really on her way to making me drop her. ...Yet, I'm somehow motivated to keeping her safe for some reason. Why is that?" All he could do while carrying her was rub her arm for reassurance. They eventually made their way to ruins Elico spoke of where there were a lot of writings on the wall that he couldn't possibly understand. Drago knew that Noland was too much of a curious person to not look at them despite Elico's warnings. "I guess you're not going to ignore all of this like Elico said, are you?" Noland looked closely at this one particular mural while Montai, who was just as curious as he was, was standing next to him attempting to make sense of it all. It was a depiction of two dragon Bakugan backed by armies with a large orb in the center of it all. "My best guess at what this would be is that it's a battle taking place between two armies over whatever that object is. Whoever made it did a really good job with the presentation, but what does all of the writing mean?"

[Daniel Andersen]

Situation was developing quite differently than Daniel had expected. First Makoto and Akane rebelled against an almost perfect plan of taking Nero down and with that probably ruined the most of it. Elico put his life as a sacrifice so others could take their leave.
Upon hearing Karen whining about her loss of Elico and everything bad that is happening to her Daniel turned to her with a judging expression his face. In a moment he had an urge to slap her, but did not want to make a bigger problem than the one they were already facing.
"You make it look like you are the only victim in this war. Many others had to put their lives at risk to give us a chance to get up to this point where we are. Those humans and Bakugans of the government, civilians and many more...I give you my word that after this point is not going to be any better. We are only delaying the inevitable battle against Nero and that is all luxury we could afford at this situation..." Daniel said to Karen as he crossed his arms and leaned against a nearby wall. "With you acting like that it will look like Elico's sacrifice was entirely in vain. He never saved your life, so you could drown in your self-pity and tears. He saved your life for much higher cause than that. At least once in your life...ONCE...stop being such a coward. Some people now don't even have luxury of crying for their Bakugans since even their lives were taken away alongside with lives of their Bakugan. You were given a chance to live for a reason and not so you could cry over it." Daniel said to Karen again and then left that conversation and headed towards the wall where Noland was trying to figure out the purpose of all those drawings and texts.
Once he took the first glance of the wall he realized there were things he could figure out easily. "What you see on this mural are pictures of both Dragonoid and Dharaknoid. It would be a logical conclusion that they are heading against each other. Purpose of their battle might be something related to this orb in the middle, but I am not quite sure what the orb represents." Daniel said to Noland and then pointed his finger towards the text on the wall.
"These texts...they seem to be describing all evil and chaos that is supposed to result from any of those Bakugan attempts of destroying what the other one values...hmph...this seems to be some kind of a prophecy...that gives some clues..."

[Karen Valentine]

Karen's sorrow was immediately replaced with anger the moment Daniel chose to open his mouth. She never liked him, and she could guarantee that he didn't like her either. She was about to rip the Terrorist apart before Montai intervened with what she had to say about his comments. "Delaying the battle was a necessity as you all had a low chance of winning in that encounter had Elico chose differently. You three would have been slaughtered," Montai noted while sighing that Elico chose to use this method to give them a chance as she would now realize, hinting that she cared for him very much and didn't like what he had done. "Regardless of how anyone feels about what he just did, Elico's a very useful Bakugan on the battlefield and very keen when it comes to developing a strategy. The directions he gave us would lead us directly to the Dark Zone, the restricted part of this facility that only Andrew, Karen, and I had access to. It houses his command center, the central base of operations. If we can beat him down there with a full lineup while Elico is keeping him busy, we'll be able to view the surveillance tapes to get an idea of the Pack's upgraded power so you can plan your attack pattern accordingly. You also might be able to have that extra advantage against Dual Hydranoid as well. He knows everything about all of your battle prowess, but you know nothing about his. It's about time we've evened the score, regrouped with your allies, and have the best firepower possible against those four Bakugan."

Believing Montai was done talking, Karen was about to address what Daniel said to her while slowly recovering from Drago's blow until Noland got distracted by the murals that Elico told him not to look at and started asking questions, which made Daniel open his mouth once again. Montai noticed this and got upset that those two were not taking this situation seriously. "If you want to die, then go ahead and waste time looking at this nonsense. If we live long enough to get a chance to come back here, I can tell you all about them, but we're in a deathmatch right now! Get the stepping before we get killed!" This made everyone return their attention to the current path past the ruins that led to the transporter Elico told them about. They all stepped on the device to be sent straight back to the point where the Resistors split off. When they arrived, battles could be heard taking place in the two hallways the other two groups were in. It wasn't possible to determine if it was the battle with the Terrorists or the battle with the guards still happening, but one way or another, they were still occupied. Unfortunately, the path to the elevator was down one of those paths.

Wiping away the remainder of her tears now that she has begun to accept things for what they were, Karen was now prepared to give Daniel the verbal beating that he truly deserved; although, she wouldn't be able to have her voice as loud as she would like it to be at this moment since she was still recovering in Noland's arms, which, when she thought about it, was a very confusing act despite all they've been through. "I suppose you have a moment for me to say a few 'kind' words to you as you've done to me already, don't you, Daniel?" Karen sarcastically said with a smile on her face. "You were always such a 'smart' man ever since we've met. I would have never guessed that how I felt about my shortcomings automatically excluded every other person from the victim count if you haven't said anything. You sure did teach me a valuable lesson by telling me what Elico obviously did for us by his sacrifice and made up an entirely different reason for why I was crying that no one ever said anything about. BUT...the cutest and most admirable comment you made was when you had the nerve to speak about anyone's life being at risk, people dying, brawlers not being able to feel sorrow for their Bakugan when you were one of the front-runners for this entire apocalypse as you personally gave the order to have Seiki's family massacred when you got creative with Nero's request to battle her."

Karen faintly laughed after she picked Daniel's comments apart piece by piece with sarcasm. "Akane is a demolitions expert and an arsonist. Makoto is an extremely dangerous assassin. But you..." A thought had appeared in her mind that began to bother her. Everyone in the room should have already known that Daniel was not a human. He apparently spoke the truth due to his earlier stunt when he was brutally beaten by Noland and Allen, but recently, he has done something that no human on Earth could have done. He translated the unknown language on the murals without any difficulty. Even Nero and Montai couldn't do it by themselves; they could only assume what was on the mural was important. Daniel was the first one to interpret it, which spells a huge problem. "You claim to not be human, so what are you? You translated what was in the ruins, so you must be something special if you can decipher that type of language."

[Daniel Andersen]

It was obvious what Karen's reaction would be. She was obviously angry at Daniel's behavior towards her since he was apparently the worst of all three Terrorists there were. She still wanted to know how Daniel was capable of reading texts that were obviously not of human origin; texts that no one else was capable of reading so far. That probably gave everyone different clues about Daniel's origins. Upon hearing Karen's comments about his orders of killing Seiki's family he just sighed and simply replied: "My soul is not troubled by the weight of someone else's sins. Your eyes and all you see can deceive you no matter how intelligent and logical you are. In other words...it is not actually my problem..."
He couldn't care less about deaths that happened and what he has been accused for as it was actually his problem at all.
He simply turned to Karen and commented sarcastically as his eyes started to glow in crimson color as they used before: "Who knows who I might be. It's a tricky one, indeed."
Instead of giving Karen a straight answer and letting her know what she wanted to know he simply decided to put it away as it was not important at all. 

[Noland Hardy]

"You did what!?" Noland stopped where he was when Karen informed them that Daniel gave the order for that to happen. It was a bit unfair to say he killed them on purpose considering they only assumed it was intentional based on who he was, and the reports they read on Belphenoid confirmed Dharak's desire to kill humans. What Karen said changed all of that. They knew Belphenoid was messed up in the head, but overseeing the entire thing without remorse makes Daniel just as guilty of that heinous act as the Bakugan was. "We have solid evidence that Belphenoid was killing humans on his own when the report referenced the John incident, but that...that just crosses so many lines, Daniel. That better not be true..." Noland was starting to become concerned about their own safety in his presence after hearing about that considering both Akane and Makoto became serious problems based on who they actually were, and if Daniel had actually gave that attack order, they may have problems of their own too. It would be nice if things didn't result in an altercation since he valued their cooperation with each other to defeat a common enemy, but as with the other two groups, you need to make sure your back is watched in the process by someone you can rely on not to do anything dangerous to your well-being.

"Doing that is one thing, Daniel, but not accepting responsibility for it is even worse," Noland sighed with his hand on his head, shaking it in disbelief that this was the fullest extent of his darkness. "If you gave the order, you gave the order. Don't involve anyone else in your wrong. If you did it, then be a man and say you did it. You're only going to make it worse for you in the long run if you play dumb and act like it wasn't your fault. You were there and you had control of Belphenoid when it happened, so it IS your problem regardless of who told you to do what." Drago had his eyes set on Daniel as he awaited his response to the accusation, but he was more curious about who Daniel actually was since he could already tell that it was more than likely going to be Daniel's fault in that situation anyway. "You probably should have saved that one for the courtroom while you're being judged just to make an attempt to make you appear crazy," he jokingly referenced about his eventual arrest if they make it. "In all seriousness though, I recognize the characters in that writing even though I'm not at all fluent in that dialect, so if you want to play games with someone who knows where it came from, you can try, but you're not going to win."

[Daniel Andersen]

Situation started to heat up when Karen stated that Daniel ordered Belphenoid to slay Seiki's family and that was not a good situation for him. He personally never cared about their accusations against him as long as they wouldn't try to do something against him. 
He didn't need another drama at the time like that and he was getting a little bit impatient since they should already have been focusing on their work against Nero and that sure was not happening. "Nero never made that order..." Daniel said quietly before reaching for his higher tone. "I don't have any reason to stab you in the back. Not only your lives are in danger while Nero is alive. However, I will personally make sure he and his four pets don't make it out of this place." 
He sure didn't want to let them know that he was losing patience and getting more and more upset under their persistent blabbering. In all that heat of accusations and talk he turned to Karen and spoke: "For a person who jumps from side to side in this war, Karen, you sure know how to point fingers. I remember that you changed sides three times already, didn't you? Nero, then Resistors, back to Nero and here again back to Resistors. Before you change your side to Nero again give me a heads-up, so I know what to expect."
Drago made a few comments about Daniel's probable identity and origins of those texts in ruins. Daniel didn't care much about what Drago said since neither of those comments mattered to him. "Too bad, ain't it?" Daniel just replied to Drago without giving any other hint or sentence to him about anything that Drago wanted to know.

[Seiki Maki]

"So it WAS you all this time..." Seiki's anger was steadily rising from the moment the truth about that entire fiasco was revealed to her. Daniel was already on her list for his involvement with the incident as she naturally went after him for what Belphenoid did. This time was entirely different though. He decided to shift the blame to someone else rather than himself, and that blew her fuse more than anything else he did wrong. It was exactly how someone would feel if one of their loved ones were killed and had the chance to attend their sentencing, and while their attention was fixated on the killer, he/she would blatantly deny the charges even though they know they did it. "Noland-san...don't be mad at me, okay?" Seiki hesitantly asked before she drew Ahio and threw her at Daniel in an attempt to attack him. As she did this, the security system automatically sealed the doors of all possible exits from that central hub area, leaving no room for escape until the Bakugan was returned back to its ball form.

"Ahio made me realize something over the holidays when I opened the gift Noland-san sent me. Of course I want revenge over what you did to me without any remorse or acknowledgement, but it isn't just about me. You took people away from me that were very dear to my heart as you've done with plenty of others during your tenure as a Terrorist, including when Noland-san whooped your butt the first time. As long as people like you live, our lives will be in danger forever. Making sure people are eternally free from your reign of terror is exactly why I fight. I refuse for someone like you to ever be acknowledged as a hero for what you've done to me, to Tank, to everyone!" Ahio was extremely pleased to see Seiki recognize the overall area of effect that these type of actions have on the general populace. What she said to her when the gift was open was definitely taken into account, and now it was showing here. Regardless of what happens, a killer being considered a hero is never a good thing especially when they haven't truly reformed. Daniel had just proven his unwillingness to change, and it wasn't going to end well for him. The bird lunged at him quickly with her claws out, leaving him little time for an escape maneuver. 

[Daniel Andersen]

Seiki sent her Bakugan against Daniel probably in order to 'return the favor'. He was already getting too impatient to deal with a vengeful girl and there was not enough time for time since Nero has probably already finished with Elico and could be heading after them at the very moment. There surely was not time for that and Daniel was not going to waste any more of it. 
Ahio was getting very close and Daniel made a very grim expression on his face. His eyes then started to emit powerful crimson glow.
"Just remember, YOU started this." Daniel said with a serious dark tone as a crimson glow surrounded him as some sort of a cloud. He was all wrapped up in a crimson cloud of mystical energy that could be felt by every Bakugan in the room. Daniel was not going to reveal any of his secrets, but there was no time for throwing in Kuzuha. "Lifeshaver..." said Daniel in an entirely different tone as he was not the same person anymore and crimson energy that formed around him hurled at Ahio capturing the bird Bakugan in its tracks. Energy was being sapped away from Ahio rapidly and was left almost without energy. 
"Disable..." Daniel said again in his new and weird tone.
Suddenly, Ahio was launched to the left side from Daniel and struck the wall making a dent in it. Then blue light formed around Ahio. Purpose of that light was unknown to anyone, but was still there. It was shocking even to Kuzuha who was left speechless that Daniel could actually do such a thing, but she remained silent and shut.

"Just...how...many...times...do I have...to tell...you?" Daniel asked while still being surrounded in his crimson energy. "I have...the same goal...of eliminating Nero...but it seems...you have something...else on your mind..."
He then turned to Karen and made an emotionless expression as he was not even present in the room with his mind. His expression looked like he was not even alive anymore.
Crimson energy started to form behind and in front of Karen.
"You...You are just...buying Nero time...to find us...You do have a death wish..."
As he said that even more crimson energy started to form around Karen and that probably was not a good sign considering what happened to Ahio a few seconds ago.

[Noland Hardy]

When Seiki asked him not to be mad at her, Noland was not expecting her to attack Daniel. He was 50/50 on the decision to do so since he didn't like what Daniel was doing. He was really concerned for what he was going to do later since they were teaming up with him, forcing them to keep him alive; however, they now made an enemy out of him once again, which placed them in a really tough situation where they are wasting even more time and are now in the position to be severely hurt by whatever Daniel was doing to Ahio. In fact, the sudden shift in personality really surprised him. His first sentence was all Noland needed to hear to know that they all really messed up. "If it wasn't Daniel, I would be mad at you," Noland asserted to Seiki with a very serious expression on his face. "There are times where our tempers need to be controlled in order to get the best results. That goes for all of us, including you, Daniel. Lets all just calm down and get this whole thing over with before he gets down there." Noland's words went in one year and out the other with Daniel. Somehow, he easily immobilized Ahio, stole her energy, and threw her into the nearby wall with considerable power. "Seems hothead blew his stack," Drago griefed in exasperation at Daniel's power coming out of nowhere to harm their teammate.

Noland began taking steps back when Daniel began speaking again since he was getting a little bit scared after getting caught off guard with this; although, he didn't show that he was just for the sake of staying focused on Daniel's movement. Carrying Karen around definitely limited his options, so he wasn't trying to give Daniel the opening that he needed if he were to get him too. "Daniel, take it easy, man. You don't want this to get physical. We've already had two altercations involving your teammates. We can't do this here. Not now." Noland looked at Daniel's eyes and saw that he was staring at Karen with a death look. When he did this, energy began forming around her rapidly. This is when he went into full attack mode. Karen's energy was just starting to come back to her after Noland used Drago to knock her down in the earlier confrontation with Nero, so doing this is more than likely to be deadly. As far as he was concerned, he was not going to let anything like that happen. "You must have a death wish also, Daniel. Any ounce of compromise just got thrown out the moment you chose to do that," Noland stated.

Noland's arm began to glow as he activated his special power, drawing completely off of Drago's own energy to power himself up. Once he did this, he gathered energy in his left hand that formed an orb. He then shot it directly at Daniel when he was ready to kill Karen. Doing so caused Daniel's special ability to be nullified, sparing Karen from the effects of the aura just in time. "It's rather unfortunate you just provoked me into wanting to finish what I should have already done. You were actually starting to slightly get on my good side too," Noland declared as he deactivated the energy link he made with Drago to do that attack. "Karen is off limits. The same thing goes for Montai, Seiki, the Resistors, and every human you've yet to touch with your destructive hands. I didn't want it to come to this, but if attacking humans is apart of your agenda, I don't want any association with you." Drago was tempted to spring up into monster form to combat Daniel, but the power he used was so shocking that it made him wonder what he was actually about to fight rather than attacking in a blind rage. He didn't want to end up like Ahio. "Just what kind of freak are you? The energy transfer to the Pack was very unusual. The tubes were really unsettling, but this? You've got to be kidding me!"