Prologue: The Fallen

[Noland Hardy]

Introduction
 
Out in the far reaches of space, a planet - mostly identical to the planet Earth in composition - lies in the central point of division for light and darkness as it gave birth to the most spectacular achievements in science and technology, bringing an age of prosperity across the world. As with any people, there are various imperfections that lead to blunders potent enough to bring severe blight to all parties involved. This special world has accomplished both, bringing an era of growth and disease all at the same time. The planet was known as Vestal, and their mistake, known as the second "Universal War," was the worst they've ever made, even going to the point where it was forbidden by law to directly or indirectly mention the names of the Bakugan involved or the device used to end the war.

That particular statute was followed without question until three centuries have passed where the ruling Turano family were faced with an unimaginable crisis. September 11, 2008 - the exact date of Barodius and Dharak's failed attempt of plunging Earth into the bowels of the Doom Dimension - marks the first time in centuries that this event has been referenced. An emaciated man lied in what became the Warrior's Grave, a section of Vestal that was reserved for the bravest of that world's heroes that have already had enough time to give their home until they returned back to its soil for eternal rest. The man in question had the company of other men and women that held worthy achievements of their own; yet, their work landed them in the same deathly fate that would come upon him in a couple of minutes. Everyone else had already perished moments before he started coming to terms with his defeat. Watching the only remaining company he had call out to him as their king and reiterate that it wasn't possible for this result to occur before closing their eyes for the last time made dying that much more difficult to process. These final moments of his life gave him the opportunity to recount what got him to that place, and what anyone could do to prevent anyone else after him from succumbing to the incurable disease that he has fallen under.

The man's thoughts takes him back four years where he was who the dead man described him as: the king; it revealed him as the leader of the Vestal Empire, King Richard Turano. Unlike a certain predecessor, he was a kind gentlemen that strove to bring stability to his government rather than discord through an unhealthy desire for power. The majority of the middle to upper class citizens shared this view of him except for the naysayers mostly in the lower class. Due to overpopulation, there was a severe line drawn between poverty and the rest of the world, perfectly represented by the underdeveloped villages scattered throughout the borderlands of the capital city. This was enough of a problem to warrant one of the poorer citizens to storm into his main headquarters, what they call the Mother Palace, and attempt to force the solution out of King Richard using brute force. His guards quickly laid that to rest and threw him in jail. For some strange reason, everyone in the prison from prisoner to warden fell ill for some odd reason and began exhibiting strange symptoms to what earthlings would understand as...cancer.

This disease was understood to be caused by the only enemy the Vestals fear, which they've mistakenly created three centuries ago that started the aforementioned universal war. Once King Richard was informed of the situation, he knew what was upon them since there was only one cause. Without delay, he ordered his staff to destroy that prison with the infected individuals in it, and so they did, making multiple people unhappy in the process. He displayed himself on the monitors across the city and vaguely decreed that "they" had returned. 

[Noland Hardy]

King Richard was forced to expel the guards that handled his attacker out of the city and quarantine them on the outskirts. He made sure they were watched carefully as they departed to make sure they didn't come into contact with any Vestal or piece of technology. Once they crossed the border, he sealed the city in a dome to prevent the outbreak from coming back inside the city by their hands. He hastily brought researchers over from the nearby Gamma City to investigate the root cause of this outbreak before it spreads to other parts of Vestal. This effectively placed the entire planet in a state of emergency. Everything else took a backseat to this issue as this foe required the attention of all citizens due to how ridiculously easy it is for all of them to be eradicated by just a single organism.

His wife, Lauren Turano, was very confused about Richard's panicky state and questioned his actions upon entering the throne room. He didn't waste any time in revealing the story behind the altercation in that room that brought the first case of their old bane of existence from three hundred years ago. The queen was a known worrywart for her husband, so it came as a surprise to his guards that he was so straightforward with her regarding the state of their health considering that this was something everyone should be worried about. He stressed that he didn't want their children to know about it since he doesn't want them getting involved in this battle. Fortunately, this amount of stress didn't rise any higher since it took six weeks for another incident to occur. By that time, the guards that had been infected had died, but their bodies were still at work. Multiple robotic-like clones of their walking corpses and their Bakugan began a campaign against Richard by swimming around the underwater Beta City first, thereby contaminating the city's water supply that would eventually erase all traces of life in that area and giving them more resources to work with.

The obviously unhappy Richard publicly declared war on this walking disease. He amassed a fighting force capable of going toe to toe with this enemy for two consecutive years; yet, he could not match the potency in the enemy's viral infection in what came to be known as "assimilation," the process where the infected becomes integrated with the enemy like downloadable software, and then reproduced as copies in their likeness. One more year would pass until the Vestals would lose their last city, Alpha City, before the capital. Queen Lauren and her Thunder Wilda were killed in that battle, and a vengeance-fueled Richard used his Mega Nemus to wipe out a majority of the enemy forces by sacrificing themselves, which helped the last of the soldiers to finish what they had started before he was struck down.

Knowing that he had been infected, Richard knew he could not return to the palace. He carried his wife's body to the entrance of the capital city and called for his children to come meet them there. A son and a daughter followed his instructions, but were horrified to see their dead mother in his arms. Richard informed them both - Xavier and Dasia - that this meeting would be the final time either of them will see each other. He regretted that he couldn't embrace them as he usually does, remembering the multiple times he personally tucked them into bed when they were kids and handing them money that he knew they didn't need.

Xavier was the more outspoken of the siblings and demanded to know why he had always refused to tell them about the crisis when he knows they could have offered him help. Dasia was more reserved than her brother and didn't publicly display how angry she was at their father for keeping secrets from them, but knew that it was ultimately for the better that they weren't tempted to get involved. This provoked Xavier into yelling at her as he was unsure of how Dasia could either defend or understand their parents galloping into death without them knowing anything about it. Richard then asked him why he would need to know if neither of them knew how to brawl, especially since they lacked any Bakugan. Dasia reprimanded him on her brother's behalf by calling the state of their brawling ability irrelevant when it comes to knowing if they're loved ones were safe or not. Richard responded that protecting them was his duty as a father and a king, and that he did what was necessary to fulfill his role before inevitably passing the torch over to them. He revealed that their training would begin moments after he leaves, but he wanted to tell them how to best this enemy before it's too late since he knew they haven't won yet. That's when he began chronicling the story that should never be told, the tale of the legendary Dragonoid that was the only one to ever win against the incurable.

[Noland Hardy]

This particular battle took place during the reign of King Victor Zenoheld who, according to a very popular rumor, murdered his own wife in secret when she objected to his policies. He was very open about his personal distaste for Bakugan since he was never able to control one as a child when his childhood bullies continuously placed him in near-death situations with them. He didn't appreciate that beings that powerful could have the same poisonous thoughts as they could and sought to bring that to a halt. Due to the extremely potent technological capabilities of the Vestals of the 1700s, Zenoheld eventually developed a plan to create his own Bakugan that does not bend to the desires of evil masterminds like his enemies from his early years. The led to multiple controversial killings of Bakugan to gain the genetic samples he needed to develop the first series of artificial Bakugan.

Zenoheld's entry point into the project worked for as little as twenty four hours since their bodies were hilariously underdeveloped in comparison to the actual Bakugan they battled as a test. This was easily a technological limitation as they couldn't produce anything close to a living Bakugan, so they sacrificed this method and placed more emphasis on a machine-based frame. After a few revisions, his scientists created what came to be known as Mechanical Bakugan. This experiment also failed because they could not come to a consensus on how to fix the unintentional bugs discovered in their operating systems due to the large amount of code written for them to work. A frustrated Zenoheld smashed the console used to control the mechanical.

The third series was an unauthorized project as one of the scientists, Professor Clay, thought it would be funny to create a mechanized clone of Zenoheld's son, Darryl, based on Zenoheld's wish for a better son. This belief was mostly because Darryl liked Bakugan and would occasionally visit them outside of the city, thinking his father wouldn't know. This cyber body was created with the same materials and limitations of the mechanical Bakugan, except it had the capability to speak since the extra funds from not having to create something large allowed it. When he showed it to Zenoheld on his birthday, he was furious at Clay since he was wasting money. The robotic Darryl sensed his anger and proceeded to show the same emotion. It turned over to Professor Clay and punched him in the face. Ashamed that his creation turned against him, Clay took it back to his lab to study it some more to see if their Mechanical Bakugan can be perfected.

After a few months, Clay became ill and would eventually pass away. Zenoheld was stunned by this sudden death and called for an analysis on his body to determine the cause of death. They found inconceivable damage done to his body via a microorganism resembling a spider. The robot he brought to life was thought to be the origin of this mysterious attack, so they quarantined it to have it studied extensively. The conclusion of this research suggested that the robot's battery was so poorly developed that its power was leaking in the form of an electrical current surging through its body, allowing it to tamper with whatever it touches and merge with its victims like a computer virus. Zenoheld began praising the late Professor Clay by crediting him with creating the ultimate mechanical for them to use: robotic versions of the Vestals that he called...Hurranians.

[Noland Hardy]

Zenoheld gave this invention the codename "Project Hydron." He spent two weeks fixing Clay's model since he didn't want the excess radiation to infect him too. Once he made the Hurranian safer to be around, he wanted to apply it in Bakugan battles. He wanted to begin assimilating Bakugan as soon as possible to build up his forces, so he abused the image the robot had of his son in order to get close to the Bakugan he goes to see when he think's no one is looking. The friendly interaction allowed Hydron to infect them without any altercation. They then went in the company of their other Bakugan friends to get them infected as well, starting a chain reaction that would eventually led to the assimilation of a large portion of the Bakugan population on Vestal. Mass producing these Bakugan became easier than producing mechanical Bakugan by hand, saving Vestal a lot of money.

The Bakugan were understandably upset about their brothers and sisters being assimilated by this maniac, so the ones who were able to evade this disease went back to Vestroia and reported the activity. They called upon the strongest Bakugan of each individual attribute to help with the fight. Among them was Ventus Oberus, the most compassionate, Haos Lars Lion, the wisest, Aquos Frosch, the most tactical, Darkus Excedra, the most powerful, Subterra Clayf, the strongest warrior physically, and Pyrus Appolonir, the infamous Dragonoid who was a natural leader with a combination of his partners' qualities and the master of none. Initially, they were reluctant to listen to each other, but seeing their strengths and weaknesses on the battlefield bonded them together much like the Resistors have. Appolonir's harmonious attitude to each of them quickly established him as the leader of the group. Together, they started a strong campaign against Zenoheld and his Hurranians.

There was a certain enemy of Appolonir called Viper Helios who was very jealous of his power and standing with the others that made him crave overwhelming power to get out of second place. When he heard of the Hurranian's assimilating other Bakugan, he figured that their power would help him realize his full potential and surpass Appolonir. He figured out where the Mother Palace was after spying on the Hurranians, so he followed them back and confronted Zenoheld with the proposal of wanting to become more powerful. Zenoheld complied and had the Helios killed so that he could be assimilated into a more powerful beast with mechanical parts resembling those of the genetic material taken from the Hurranian's victims.

After hearing of Zenoheld's exploits, the Vestals were not thrilled about this hostile takeover at all. Many of them attempted to overthrow the government with Darryl Zenoheld being one of them. They were caught by Zenoheld, who demanded that everyone return to their homes immediately or they would be assimilated. They refused, so Zenoheld assimilated them all, including his own son, and made the survivors too scared to walk out of their own homes. Appolonir and his allies got wind of this and attempted to combat him, but they were intercepted by an upgraded Helios who was more than capable of fending all six of them off. They were forced to retreat after being defeated so they wouldn't risk becoming infected, but that win wasn't enough for Zenoheld. He knew his six opponents were powerful, but didn't feel confident that Helios alone would hold up against the entire armada. That's when he started pouring a lot of resources into developing a weapon resembling the method used to kill Professor Clay. He codenamed it...the Bakugan Termination System.

[Noland Hardy]

The purpose behind this device was to abuse the dangerous levels of radiation contained in the unstable battery in the original model of Hydron to emit a wave capable of immediately assimilating every organism in its radius. Since Professor Clay already did that work for them with his pitiful first attempt, Zenoheld would have minimal difficulty ensuring that this weapon was created and deployed in a timely manner. After much bickering between the six Bakugan whether it was safer to confront or evade with a supercharged Helios in their way, Appolonir firmly declared that they were going to stop Zenoheld before he turns the BT System on his first target as Vestroia would surely be the first of many destinations if they ignore it. Only a few of them were brave enough to stand with the six Bakugan in this desperate conquest, but that was still enough to hold the Hurranians on their own planet before they made the jump. The Vestals were also in a similar predicament as the survivors were too afraid of the final confrontation and simply left the planet.

What awaited them there was an army of Gargonoid that were specially assimilated for this battle with Zenoheld and Hydron presiding, walking alongside the cylinder-shaped BT System. Appolonir had Clayf move them forward with his massive body acting as a shield for all of them. Oberus and Excedra rapidly brought multiple armadas to their knees. The armies continued to grow stronger and larger with each bombardment as Hydron continuously installed multiple units across the field. Lars Lion was able to slow down the downloading through one of her abilities, clouding the entire area in a damaging light that sapped power away from her enemies. Frosch used a surprise attack while the army was dazed by dispersing them all with a violent water tornado. Appolonir then rushed towards Zenoheld and Hydron to silence the Hurranians for good.

Helios stepped forward for a grand battle with his chief rival once again, firmly believing that he was going to win again just like before. Appolonir's determination to prevent the virus from extending its hold on them gave him the strength to match the superior opponent, but that difference in power placed him on edge after a stray bullet from the foe's arm chipped past his hip. Before Helios could inflict brutal damage on him, Excedra hastily stole Oberus's power to use for his powerful beam attack that sent Helios skidding across the horizon. Lars Lion then used her special ability to revive both Appolonir and Oberus, and strictly warned the Dragonoid not to be caught off guard again. Appolonir recovered just in time to match the aggravated Helios in mortal combat where he would use the combined skills of his teammates to fend his rival off and learn a new attack called Infinity Waiver, which turned him rainbow-colored very briefly before he unleashed a beam directly from his chest.

Helios could not properly contest this new ability and was quickly brought down. Zenoheld panicked since his best option for self-defense was beaten, so he rushed the robot into activating the BT System. Hydron complied with this notion, but warned him that the premature firing of the device will leave it inactive for quite some time, if not for centuries. He also mentioned that he, his citizens, and all technological devices must be moved out of the 6,000 km range that its pulse fires if he doesn't want them under Hurranian control. Zenoheld accepted the terms and attempted to escape via the company of the Gargonoid army.

Multiple attempts were made to destroy the BT System before it fired, but it proved to be impervious to their attacks. It then lifted off of the ground and went into orbit on a course to Vestroia via a dimensional tunnel. All of the Bakugan were ordered to evacuate before the weapon showed up in their space. Appolonir especially made sure he saw one of his young fighters off - a young Dragonoid - to make sure that wherever he chose to be was where he would be the safest. The six Bakugan then chose to stay in Vestroia despite various pleas for them to go with the others. In their last gamble, Frosch theorized that they should be able to reverse the power on the machine if they combine their power once more. They gave Appolonir their energy for him to do this, but it only slowed the activation time down rather than completely destroy it. This was because the microorganisms flowing through the system was greatly disturbed by the power Appolonir was unleashing and were very close to destruction. This gave him an idea.

The six Bakugan pushed the BT System back into Vestal. Zenoheld saw this and commanded the Gargonoid army to end their lives for tampering with his creation. Clayf lodged the BT System into the ground and personally guarded everyone else while Appolonir does what he plans to do. Lars Lion and Oberus had an idea of what Appolonir was about to do and voiced their disagreements with killing any other living thing on that planet in favor of wiping the Hurranians out. Clayf was tempted to not allow this to happen since he didn't like it either, but stuck with the plan since he was already defending them all against impossible odds. Frosch was out of ideas, so he told him to get it over with since they weren't making it out of their alive any other way. Appolonir turned himself into a trident and commanded Excedra to stab the center point of the machine with it.

This greatly irritated the device and caused it to go off; however, because it was activated from Appolonir's energy and not the Hurranian's, the target was shifted to all beings who could not withstand the amount of energy in his body, including the Vestals. The six Bakugan left the planet through a dimensional portal afterwards while the BT System wiped the planet clean. The planet would not seem to be inhabited by any Vestal until fifty years later where the survivors start to make a return in scarce numbers, hence the reason why overpopulating continued to be a problem to present day. his act officially dubbed them the "Legendary Soldiers of Vestroia" that saved the Bakugan, but many of them did not approve of the way Appolonir did this, and this same contempt was extended to the other five soldiers as well since they aided him in that plan's development. After that battle, the six Bakugan faded into legend, never to show their faces across the galaxy ever again. 

[Noland Hardy]

Once King Richard finished telling that story, Xavier frustratingly asked if he waited until he was about to die without anyone's notice just to tell them that long and boring story that he could have easily told them when the Hurranian's started popping up again. Dasia figured that an event that had an impact on their history in that manner should at least be known by everyone, but that's where Richard told them they were wrong. He insisted that the story is not known by everyone since the survivors that recorded that event did not want anyone pissing off the Bakugan again since the BT System was no longer in the same place Appolonir left it when they got back, implying that one of them may have picked it up and placed it an unknown location. Dasia wondered if he was implying that no one was to be trusted with that information since they were afraid of what anyone could do if they held the same mentality as Victor Zenoheld did. Richard accepted that viewpoint and added that they have the technology needed to replicate his experiments to a much higher level, which made it very important that only a limited number of people knew of such an occurrence since he was afraid of what they were capable of creating.

Now that both Dasia and Xavier knew of their origins, Richard gave them two jobs. One assignment included replicating a portion of Zenoheld's experiments via the password he passed onto one of the brawlers that fought for him that would be up to the palace in a couple of days. He also wanted them to find either Appolonir or the Dragonoid he sent someplace so they can figure out where the BT System is and ask them to re-activate the dormant device to destroy this pestilence once and for all like it should have been done centuries ago. Before exiling himself permanently until the time of his eventual death, Richard informed his children that he would have to name a successor as he was no longer fit to be king. Xavier was the natural one to be selected as his successor per the guidelines, but the Vestal government also allowed for the discretion of the parent to have weight on this decision as well. For this reason, Richard regretfully passed over Xavier due to his insufficient age and maturity for wielding that kind of power and reserved that honor for the more mature Dasia, effective immediately without any objection. Before departing for good, he gave them one more piece of advice: look for the hero that bested Gundalia's emperor.

Dasia would make use of her new power as the queen to formulate a counter-stance against all hostiles. The brawlers that fought against the Hurranians alongside the fallen King Richard soon arrived at the Mother Palace and presented themselves in front of Dasia. She would call them her Spartans and treated them with luxurious hospitality for helping her father on the battlefield in such a meaningful way. Dasia and Xavier would soon learn how to battle from watching the Spartans and being taught by them just as Richard had ordered. She was also given the key by their self-proclaimed leader who troubled the siblings just because his guardian was of the same species as the evil Bakugan in Richard's story. With the password in hand, they were able to conduct research. Dasia paid close attention to Xavier and his influence over the uncovering of centuries-old research conducted by Professor Clay and Zenoheld, but let him have free reign of how he directed the businesses when it came to producing results. They would continue this for four years until Dasia deemed them ready to begin searching what their father wants them to look for.

As Richard closes his remembrance of these events, he accepted his fate. He hated the thought of being turned into a machine that could later be used against his own children and people. Closing his eyes for the final time, he wondered if he had made the right choice in entrusting that much work to Dasia and Xavier. He also wondered if the hero he knew of that defeated Barodius could help them quell this disaster as he was too weak to do it himself.