Episode 13: Staff of Admiration

[Noland Hardy]

If anyone could be described as being paranoid about the Hurranian's ability to attack at any moment from anywhere they wanted to, Seiki would be the best qualified to fit the description. Having already dodged a bullet from the enemy's attempt to assimilate her and Ahio, Seiki became content that peace of mind was not meant to last forever. That bit of her had been shaken even though she was proud of the fact that she was a match for the Spartan that chased after her. Nightmares occasionally kept her awake at night; her dreams revolved around her deceased "relatives" becoming reborn by the Hurranians - since they've shown the ability to revive the dead to their likeness - and then having to fight against them. The thought of any one of the Resistors being among the risen dead nearly scared her to death herself. Even though all of that fear amounted to great trouble, none of that compared to the drawings of these exact situations that she produced without even knowing she was doing it. Something had to be done.

Ahio knew that Seiki's mind was weak, easily prone to devastation regardless of how strong she has shown herself in the past. Despite her insistence that she was fine, a weakness likely gained from her strengthened resolve gained from her previous adventure, Ahio dragged her back into town to see a sleep specialist immediately. They were near a suburban neighborhood where they saw Tracy walking aimlessly on the sidewalk. She was battered and bruised all over her body. There were a few steps in her walking animation that made it seem like she could collapse at any moment. Still caring for the condition of her allies, Seiki rushed to her aid to see what was going on. 

[Seiki Maki]

“Seriously?” The hold on her feathers tighten, causing the bird to tense up slightly as she waits for her partner to catch up. “Do we have to go Ahio?” Seiki huffs, taking another step which she had struggled to take. Nightmare after nightmare, that’s how it was for the past few days in the last two weeks. And those nightmares that kept her up all night took a heavy toll on her. There were dark gray bags visible underneath her eyes and her eyelids were struggling to stay up with every blink.

Though Seiki was tired, she wasn’t unaware of her surroundings, as in an all too familiar face staggering down the sidewalk. Her amber eyes linger on Tracy before she snaps her attention up, “Ahio! It’s Tracy!”

The said bird looks in the direction Seiki was looking in to spot the haos resistor. “Yeah and?” She turns back to look at Seiki who looked fine now, other than the visible signs of fatigue written all over her face. “Are you suggesting we help her? I thought you wanted to stay as far out as this mess as possible.” Ahio squawks before adding on in a quiet voice, “Besides, she’s a love rival.”

“True, but she’s still a friend Ahio.” Seiki states as she walks over, completely disregarding the last bit of what Ahio said for she wasn’t in any mood to bicker with Ahio. (Besides, she did have a point) “H-hey… Tracy? You okay there?” The ventus resistor asks as she approaches, tilting her head to the side a little, hand behind her back as she look at Tracy who didn’t look too well at all. Blue-purple marks and scratches battered all over her form. “Yeah… You don’t look too good there…” Seiki mumbles as Ahio trots over, losing the bounce in her step as she nears Tracy and Seiki.

[Tracy White]

"All of them...gone...and all I could do was run away...? Why...?"

Tracy was moving as fast as she could on the sidewalk. She placed her hand against the wooden fence next to her to use as support due to her injuries severely limiting her mobility, making it nearly impossible for her to walk without experiencing excruciating pain. She had many cuts on her faces and bruises on her arms and legs. Skystar's ball form was especially pale, making it seem like the damage she could have received from whoever did this to her placed her on the edge of having to seal herself off to prevent herself from being killed.

"Because of Skystar's evolution from before, I was able to hold my own," she thought. "That doesn't seem to matter though. Every time it gets hit, the body becomes a bit disfigured to represent how much damage I'm doing, but it continued to rampage like nothing happened, almost like something in its body is removing the feeling of pain altogether.

It was at that moment where her body was close to giving up on her. "I would heal myself using Skystar's power, but that'll drain the remaining reserves she has and put her to sleep. What am I going to use for defense after that if I didn't kill it?"

At that moment, her body started to give up on her. Hearing Seiki's voice off in the distance didn't seem to matter that much though. Tracy did acknowledge that she heard her by looking in her direction, but she lacked the energy to actually speak to her. She slowly started her descent onto the ground below as she gradually became unconscious in the process.

[Seiki Maki]

"Hey. HEY!" Seiki shouts as she kneels down to Tracy's level when she started to slowly fall to the ground, placing her hand on Tracy's shoulder. Ahio inches over, physically inserting herself in between the Haos resistor and the ground to cushion her fall with her feathers. "I'm so glad I carry around a few first aid items at all times." She murmurs, pulling up her satchel to her so she could look through its contents to search for a few items which she could use to give some medical attention to Tracy. From her bag she pulled out a small bandage roll and a cleansing cloth for cleaning the wounds of anything bad that may have seeped in.

She places the bandages aside, “This may sting a bit.” Seiki murmurs, taking the cloth into her hand and dabbing it lightly on any open scratches and cuts before semi-loosely wrapping them up anywhere she was injured.

“I wonder who or what in the word did this to her.” Ahio chirps as she nudges the pale Skystar, rolling her a bit on the not so comfy floor. “I mean, Skystar is really pale. The deathly kind of pale.”

As she wrapped the last bandage on Tracy, looking over at the Skystar who was in her miniature toy form which had rolled out of Tracy’s hand when it started to relax from her collapse. And she did have to agree, the color hues had changed in value, the usual colors now dull and almost grayscale. “Tracy… It would be nice if you replied…” Seiki huffs as she gently pokes the said girl’s face.

[Tracy White]

Tracy regained full consciousness after the well-timed treatment by Seiki. The time it took for her wounds to be treated gave her the time needed to rest a little before getting back up. This could have worked in her favor since her wounds were not as severe as they could have been, especially when taking Skystar's injuries into account. While she mentioned this before losing consciousness, she was deeply thankful that Skystar evolved during the fight against Yita. If she had still been in the same evolutionary state, it's believed that she'd be dead from Tracy's point of view.

"Well...I was hoping that I'd be able to do things myself for a change, but Biggums doesn't want me to shine just yet." Tracy assessed the situation around her - her body's condition, Skystar's health, the area, and Seiki's coincidental arrival that tempts Tracy to tell her to run due to not having a plan to counteract what she was fighting - and then finally addressed Seiki's questions.

"It's almost like we're fighting a civil war between each other. Sure things have cooled down between us all ever since we were almost killed, but these people are nasty. I've seen some people get brutally beaten for even defending us when people talk about us in a negative way, so I was in town being like my parents again, standing up for what's right, speaking our mind, and not putting up with any of this crap just like in school where they elected me to do just that," she said. "Then...out of nowhere..."

While it was off in the distance, Tracy's eyes were still accustomed to the very familiar presence, the summoning of a worldwide terror, the arrival of an enemy they knew too well. The sparks that let everyone know that a Hurranian was there traveled along the ground. They all met with each other to summon the monster that became feared across every section of the Earth. "...He comes back..."

The "he" that Tracy was speaking of stabilized his formation in the middle of the street. The result was a disfigured monstrosity. It was around normal height for a Bakugan. It was important for the word "normal" to be said as the Bakugan in question was not supposed to be. When a glance is taken at the ugly head and the menacing quadruple arms, anyone would know that the attacker needed no introduction. The eventuality that was going to result from the Hurranians jacking the Pack's DNA should have already made it an expectation for him to be seen again. Baalenoid had returned, and he came back in a big way.

"Ahhhhhh...." he said after breathing in the air in an annoying fashion. "Other than me being drastically weakened thanks to that bitch over there, it feels great to be back! These Hurranians are just great!" He then lays eyes on Seiki, and got very excited. "Oh, you already know."

Using the Hurranians' power, he laid out a couple of them in front of him to resurrect Seiki's family members albeit in robotic form. He stood there while Seiki looked on in shock. He then opened his mouth to produce a gravitational vortex strong enough to pull the dead inside of his mouth. He not only did this to be a nuisance to Seiki once more, but he was able to rejuvenate his body this way. "Come on. You missed me. I missed you too. Now are you both ready to die?"

(Mini-Boss Theme)

"I can only be destroyed as a whole, you fool. There is no point in damaging me part by part."

"Funny how that still applies here..." Tracy gathered the strength to stand once more. She gripped the fallen Skystar for battle despite it being somewhat inadvisable for her to do so. "Seiki, I hate to ask this of you since I know how you feel about this, but...I need your help in fighting him. We can't let him live. We just can't..." She put Skystar back into the fight with haste.

"Bakugan brawl! Stand, Ascendant Skystar!" The grayish ball form appeared on the field, revealing her in her severely weakened state. Her condition completely deprived her of her powers from other attributes, which was evident by the symbols on her belt being faded in color. She still stood strong with all she had left.

"Be forewarned, Ahio. The main reason why're in this situation is because the Hurranians gave him the ability to assimilate other Bakugan's DNA into his body so he can use their powers. Place that on top of his power from before, and it's easy to add everything up," she faintly warned.

[Seiki Maki]

A wave of relief washed over the ventus duo as they saw Tracy regain consciousness and then listened to what she had to say, the words that would most likely answer most of the questions Seiki had on hand. “It’s that bad huh? People getting harmed just because of who they support…” She runs her fingers through the hair anxiously, muttering the last part of what she had to say, “Another reason why I don’t wish to be involved.” After a few more exchanged words, an unknown presence began to form nearby, one that sent an all too familiar shiver down Seiki’s spine with no effort at all.

“N-no he’s… They’re all supposed to be…” She went wide-eyed as she saw the demon summon those she had lost at the incident way back when, and gobbled them all up once again. But this time, she was there to actually witness it all. Seiki clenches her fists together, gritting her teeth and holding back a cry. She already knew that they were dead, but what if their spirits were draw here or something, and she saw the spirits being eaten? That would technically be dying again, but in the spirit realm for something like that. “Why did it have to be him all over again?”

Ahio listens to what Skystar had to say before lowering her head and letting out a heavy sigh, “Phooey, he’s gone OP. Thing’s already strong enough and now he can take other DNAs for their attacks?” The bird stood there silently for a moment before slowly craning her neck to look at the darkus beast. “I don’t know what to say anymore.” She shifts her gaze back to the two brawlers, “Neh, Seiki. Tracy is asking for our help. And I want to do a number on him. A big one preferably.” Ahio chirps as she flaps her wings once and nudges Seiki a few times.

She placed her hand on the beak of the bird and slowly gets back up, a shadow casted over her face. “Ahio… Fly.” The said bakugan shoots a weary glance at her before swooping into battle at full size. “You should have stayed dead… Baalenoid.”

[Tracy White]

"Technically, I'm still dead, so you already have your wish there, unfortunately," Baalenoid smart-mouthed."I'm guessing you don't know too much about Naruto if you think something like this would depict my status as being alive. Such ignorance, much wow."

"You still talk too much," Skystar blurted out.

"And you still suck. See? Nothing has changed between any of us."

"..."

"I'm not sure why you would care anyway. You'd rather me take action, even in your current state? You look like you're dying, and you're only down to one attribute now."

"I've had enough of this." Two seconds was all it took for the realization to be felt that her feelings for victory may not be shared by her body. She felt a sharp pain strike her out of nowhere, preventing her from moving all that well.

"Since when was he the golden standard of who's strong and who's weak? He lost, remember?" Tracy reminded Skystar. "We don't have anything to prove to him in terms of skill. The only thing he should know, which he should have gotten by now through the previous battle, is that he's not welcome here, and never will be."

Baalenoid gathered a horde of bright energy pellets that were shaped like orbs and surrounded himself with them. "I'm going to stomp all over you now regardless of how you feel about my presence. Now what are you going to do about it?" he asked. "Treble Barrage!" With an outward swing from both of his arms, the orbs scattered and detonated simultaneously. What resulted from this was a barrage of laser beams emerging from every explosion that scattered in every direction. From Tracy's point of view, it looked like a wave of an incomprehensible motive to kill at every turn. She wasn't having any of that.

She bravely stood with Skystar and swiped a card to respond. "Ability activate! Space Guardian!" Her shoulder discs detached to become a bright sky blue as they levitated around her person. As the blasts neared them all, they conjoined their power to erect a wall wide enough to cover their area as well as shield against Baalenoid's attack.

"Frozen Brigade!" Baalenoid had assimilated another familiar face into his system to gain access to this ability. An energy surge traveled from his feet to around the section of the ground he was standing on. What rose from there were five icy clones of him ready to charge towards them all. They did so, but as they tried, Skystar's ability continued to be a nuisance to him by giving the discs the innate ability to sense danger whenever it approaches and to fend it off at all costs. They repeatedly bashed the clones, using solar energy as a boost to their physical capabilities. Even they weren't getting past this defense line.

[Seiki Maki]

"Seiki! We've gotta do something!" Ahio whines, hopping up and down in anticipation, looking at the said human. From what Ahio said came no relation from the ventus resistor. She just continues to look down to the ground with a blank stare, a shadow covering her eyes. Even though she had gotten up from her collapse and said something... Heroic-like, she was still shocked and the information that Baalenoid said about him still being dead and all might have triggered that. "Sky needs help Seiki, I need your help!" The bird cries, nudging her partner once again.

Oh how frail Seiki had become. Seeing this messed up world do its horrors to her, right in front of her eyes, one way or the other. "Fine, let's go." The girl huffs, raising her head slightly to glare at the demon of a bakugan.

Ahio looks at her partner for a moment before hopping into the air and closing in on the target. "Seiki... You're thoughts are giving me a headache..." The bird mentally sighs with yet another whimper. If these thoughts continued, Ahio was thinking that she- both of them may loose it and go into a blind fury. Nothing to be proud of that's for sure.

"Ability Activate, Unravel." Ahio lets out a cry, one a little more monstrous than her usual ones as one half of her was engulfed in a purple aura. At times, the little waves of aura would move aside the beak area it was covering, to reveal a mouth lined with many fangs that glinted a pear white in the light. From the bird's back came black colored tendrils which then separated into many arrows with a green arrow tip. Once the massive amount of arrows were done forming, the arrows were shot towards Baalennoid, one wave after the next.

Ahio still had that cloak of dark aura covering half of her. Hopefully the arrows would bash down the defense, somehow, and allow Skystar an opening foe some kind of blow. "That's possible ability that may be used against other 1." The ventus bird croaks, breathing slightly unstable.

[Tracy White]

Taking a quick glance to his left and right to see what the opposition was planning in between attacks, Baalenoid looked straight ahead with intense focus. He inhaled briefly before releasing his next attack.

"Vibrant Blow!" He exhaled all of the gathered energy into a destructive sound wave that disrupted the composition of every technique in the area, including his. The arrows that would have skewered his remains had been dispersed in a timely manner before their quick travel time became his bane. Skystar was stripped of her autonomous defense grid. Worst of all, the ice clones he created that Skystar was only able to crack due to her waning power forcefully broke apart on top of her, sending jagged and heavy pieces of ice raining down on their location.

"You both are still too weak," he realized.

Tracy didn't bother paying him any attention while trying to save everyone from being impaled or crushed by the obstacles. "Oh shut up! Ability activate! Majestic Purge!" Skystar amassed as much energy into her scepter and released it in the form of an energy wave that scattered particles around her in a barrier-like formation. The projectiles released bursts that remained for a couple of seconds, enough to destroy everything coming their way multiple times over.

"After all the times you've been bullied, one would think you'd know how to attack someone instead of being on the receiving end of the bullet every time. You never learn, do you?" he questioned.

"You came here to kill, not to talk. Put up your blasts or go back to hell."

"So you really don't understand why you will always lose to me, regardless of how many times you think you understand my limitations within this combat form?"

"She said shut up!" Skystar unleashed Majestic Purge again, but this time, she used the more direct method of attack. She unleashed a concentrated stream of light towards Baalenoid in quick succession from her previous attack. Seeing the attack barely leave a mark on the monster's chest made both of them growl simultaneously.

"You're the president of your class, and you're trying to be proactive in your approach to quell all of this betrayal among yourselves. How can you do that when you still act and brawl like a pussy? You can't even stand up for yourself, yet you think you can do that for others. There's a reason why this body still holds, even after you've fought me a total of three times now, in case you overlooked that too."

Then...a scorching heat wave swept through the area. "Homura Firestorm!" An implementation from another familiar Bakugan, Homura Firestorm made the area hot enough to casually eat away at the opposition with its searing flames. This technique was only made that much more formidable thanks to Abbadon's power, making this extremely lethal for the Bakugan and the Brawlers. "I suppose your ability to take blows for someone being the only thing you do right isn't so bad. At least your ahead of your underling beside you in that regard. She hasn't even made it to that point yet."

"Hmph...guess you're right..." She swiped a card to get back on her feet. "Ability activate! Illumina: Strength!" Skystar charged a smaller energy ball in her scepter. She released it in around herself, Ahio, Tracy, and Seiki. All four of them became bathed in a bright light that felt cleansing in a way. The properties of this particular spell allowed anyone under the protection of it to withstand the harsh realities of battle and use them as fuel, empowering Skystar enough to allow her to shift her scepter into an electrified blade and blitz Baalenoid straight through his abdomen.

"Gee, you really didn't know that people have always said I couldn't do something only to have me prove them wrong in the end, did you? Shame. For once, I thought you were onto something with that little speech of yours."

[Seiki Maki]

Seiki's gaze hardens at the sight of the flames, the ones that triggered way too many familiar memories of her past brawls which she was trying to suppress. At this rate it was no use attempting to keep the memories at bay seeing how everything she looks at triggered something, this fire bring the biggest, but she refused to accept it. Accept the fact that there was no way put of this mess and live a happy, normal life without chaos intertwined within it.

Ahio was quite relieved at the ability that Skystar had unleashed. It has soothed her of majority of her pains, all except that one that she knew was caused by Seiki's mental state. "Thanks Sky." She chirps, looking at the side bakugan before bracing herself for another mental shockwave caused by the chaotic emotions for her partner.

"When will you stop meddling in my life?" She growls softly, looking at the flames once last time before quickly shifting her gaze to the opponent at hand and drawing a card from her deck. Ahio's light whimpering wasn't heard by Seiki, nor did it phase her from her rage fit, or so that's what it seems like. "Ability Activate, Fighting of the Spirits"

There it was, that incoming wave. Ahio let's out an ear-piercing screech as her body began to glow a green aura, mixed in from the purple with the Unravel effect still lingering on her giving the offensive ability a little more of an edge. Once the bird had let put tye screech, she seemingly teleported to the opponent and did a number of physical shots. Body rams, talon scratches, even some pecks, and everything in-between. "That's two..." Ahio thinks to herself weakly before retreating back to her original spot close to Skystar.

"Even Tracy thinks I'm a let down..." A short lived glare was sent to the said person's way when she had agreed to what Baalenoid commented, her mind quickly putting the pieces into place about that statement. She accepted the fact that she wasn't was strong as the rest, taking blows and still able to stand. But when it was rubbed into her wounds like that by both friend and foe, it added fuel to her rage fit and twisting her mental state even more. Seiki looks at the ground as she mutters her thoughts to herself as she suppresses the urge to inflict any pain on Tracy, "If that's so, what do the rest. And Noland think..."

[Tracy White]

Tracy had planned for this. Baalenoid was getting weaker, and Seiki was getting angrier. Those feelings of contempt sparked something in both Tracy and Skystar. It was power they have never been able to feel before, and it was now something she could take advantage of with Skystar's evolution. In conjunction with the power she was receiving from her earlier spell, those feelings reached all the way to Skystar, and once it did, it took hold of her, completely reigniting the glow on the Darkus symbol on her belt. Now all she needed to do was cast the spell.

"That's it. I'll show you." Baalenoid coated his claws in a blistering fire that extended the reach of them by at least a couple of yards. "Hellfire Slash!" he activated. He attempted to slice and burn the Resistors on contact. Tracy was not going to let that happen.

"Skystar, attribute change to Darkus!"

"Huh? Wait, what?"

Skystar's belt shifted to the Darkus symbol, thereby giving her access to that attribute's power. "Was I not supposed to do this?"

"Ability activate! Illumina: Pain!" Skystar's scepter blanketed the area in a gloomy space reminiscent to a nightmare. Numerous phantom-like apparitions of herself and Ahio arose at random times where a certain painful memory of theirs would be showcased. Looking at those events again was definitely one of the drawbacks of the ability in case anyone in the immediate vicinity was not mentally prepared for it, obviously meaning that Seiki places all of them at a great disadvantage; however, it works thanks to emotions often being the strongest weapon in certain situations, hence why Tracy made the earlier comment.

"Nice atmosphere. I enjoy being surrounding by this. It makes me feel alive again," Baalenoid said, giving the impression that the technique doesn't affect him, which it doesn't. He was greeted by a nice surprise when he was impaled by a very large indigo blade out of nowhere, and it came from one source: Skystar's scepter that is now the blade that counters evil.

"What trick did you come up with this time?" Baalenoid wondered.

"It's not a trick. It's just as legitimate as how much of a monster you are. This is how strong we've become by overcoming you," Tracy explained. "This ability embodies all our pain into a weapon even deadlier than your dark power: our dark power, one that's better and more developed than the one you were born with."

"Hmph. Whatever. Dive Mirage." Baalenoid converted his entire body into water, narrowly escaping Skystar's hold. He descended into the ground so that he'll reappear wherever he chose to rose from. He rose right beside Skystar to catch her by surprise. He bisected her without mercy. Thinking Ahio was defenseless without Skystar, he immediately cut her into pieces as well.

"So much for all of that bullshit."

"Is that why the spell is still active?" The giant indigo blade swiped across the horizon, the force of it completely splitting the destroyed buildings. Baalenoid clashed with it using his claws, but had trouble deciphering how his opponents were still alive.

"Darkness exists everywhere. So do we. That's the point of this ability," Skystar reminded him. She was standing a few feet away from where she was cut down. She was barely struggling to overpower Baalenoid. She was already winning the clash anyway. "Isn't it about time you took your own advice on how you can only be destroyed as a whole?"

"What. Is. This. Sorcery!?"

"I already told you. Darkness bred is more powerful than the darkness born. What did you think you did by killing someone's family more than once, joke about it, and even try to cite them as useless? Darkness exists in more ways than one, don't you think?"

Skystar broke the clash and smashed the sword into Baalenoid to destroy vital parts of his body. He was recoiled backwards a bit, but he would never recover. Skystar could reappear at any time and from any angle to show him just how much her and Seiki have hurt as well.

"This is it, Seiki. Do it now," Tracy urged. 

[Seiki Maki]

Ahio glances over to see the Haos duo, murmuring a question to no one in general. "What are you two planning? Seiki's current state is as twisted and shattered as is..." The bird looks back front to wince slightly at what she saw. The unpleasant thoughts and sights she had experienced so far. Including the very dark ones, such as the thought of purposely striking down her down when she had gotten fed up with the constant babying that she had to go through, constantly looking out for her partner. Hopefully, no one saw that thought as it was out of the field like many others. "Why are these here?" Ahio mutters before wincing once again at the mental pain she received with the connection she shared with Seiki. What she said came out in barely a murmur once realizing that the line was going to be crossed, "S-she's going to snap."

"Nononono- stop it!" Seiki cries as she hold her head. Just when. She thought things were going to be fine in terms of visuals of the past, figments of her most morbid and unwanted memories begin to take shape on the field. Mainly her various family members being devoured once again and other gruesome scenarios that was played in her head for a few days after the incident. The world spoke by everyone present was inaudible, "STOP IT!"

That's when some kind of dark aura engulfed the girl and she stood up from her fallen position. A shadow covered her face, only allowing her mouth to be where she grits her teeth together. "To all that warp my life..." Seiki look up to Baalenoid, her eyes more menacing than they should be, sclera a black color and amber colored eyes clearly glowing. "Oh Divine winds, come to thy wings and swarm the skies." She chants in a voice that you could associate to a possible demon of sorts. "Syl-..." Some kind of force, fatigue, fell upon Seiki causing her to falter in the finishing words to the ability. "phy... sti." Before she could utter the last part of the ability, her body had collapsed.

As her partner collapsed, Ahio began to feel the effects of what her brawler was feeling. A few drowsy blinks and she made her way to the ground before falling beside Seiki in a pile of tattered feathers.

.

.

.

It was... Warm.

Seiki wakes up, finding herself in a sun-bathed meadow with small blooming wildflowers all over the place as she sat underneath a cherry tree in full bloom on the top of the hill. The clear blue sky had a few petals of the flowers being blown around the place, and as far she she could see there was nothing more than a really big meadow with flowers. Well, there was that body of water over there in the distance, a lake or ocean of some sort. "Huh?" She could have sworn that she was in a brawl of some sort just a moment ago. Confused, the girl look to her right, then her left where she saw a smudge of white tinted green being hurled at her.

"Seiki-chaaan!" An all to familiar voice calls out as she made contact with the said person. So... Ahio was here in this mysterious flower meadow as well. Then again that was kinda a no brainer, seeing how the bird was with her at all times.

The ventus brawler, a bit taken back with the bird's sudden entrance snaps out of her absent mindedness and strokes the velvety feathers that covered Ahio. "Hey there Ahio, didn't see you there."

Ahio jumps off of Seiki and to the edge of the hill (if you can call it an edge) before looking down. "I brought someone Seiki, they're finally here!" And the bird makes a few motions with her wings to the figure slowly making their way up the hill.

She shook off any thoughts from just now about that brawl that she had concluded she had been daydreaming about and gets up from her spot from under the tree to join Ahio by her side. "Who is it?" Seiki mumbles, placing a hand above her eyes to shield them from the sun that may have been a tad too bright.

There was a shade of red-orange, one Seiki knew all too well.
It was the person that made her feel all too strange, to him simply being around or simply thinking about him.
The person that made her experience the emotion that Ahio constantly claims to be love, which Seiki constantly denies.


"Noland?"

[Tracy White]

Tracy knelt down huffing and puffing, completely exhausted from her multiple battles with Baalenoid. She looked up and saw the monster return to his feet like nothing even happened. It seemed like all of her efforts were in vain. No matter what she did or how hard she tried, she'd keep getting beaten again and again. Just as she thought about giving up, someone appeared in front of her to decimate Baalenoid. It was Drago zooming in on Baalenoid, thrashing him with destructive combos one after another. Walking onto the scene was none other than Noland.

"N-Noland?" Tracy called out to him with shock in her voice.

"Not to belittle you or anything, but we can't always meet like this. I'm not going to always be there when something goes wrong."

"I know...I'm sorry. I just want to be strong..."

"I see you've been looking up to Tank and I throughout our journey together," he noticed. "Believe it or not, we didn't become strong right out of the gate. We have failed a couple of times before we got it right. As long as you're learning from them, you'll grow."

Noland picked her up and held her by the hand. "You have to be someone's leader someday too. That doesn't mean being stronger than them. What it does mean is being strong enough to point others in the right direction. You became President of the senior class and rallied a lot of supporters against those who hate us. None of that would have been possible if you weren't strong; they needed someone tough to fill those roles, and you are it."

"Noland...I...

"Tracy! Wake up!" Skystar yelled.

"Huh? What?" Tracy opened her eyes, then immediately covered them until the light from Skystar's ability dimmed. When her vision was clear again, what she saw was that entire area in ruins like a windstorm tore through there, and Baalenoid's body was lying flat on the ground with large scratch marks everywhere. It then digitized out of existence. "Seiki...did all of that? Wow..."

Skystar pointed her staff at the Darkus Bakugan she conveniently spotted to the left. "You're a Spartan..." she recognizes. "Why'd you put them to sleep?"

[Niko Adrian Nyx]

The darkus bakugan blinks a few times before looking off towards the side and lets out a bark. From the side bushes, a slowly figure emerges and begins to make their way towards the chimera-like creature. "So... That's what your dreams are..." Niko says rather softly once she had made her way to Donovan's side and placed a hand on his mid-back. The blind spartan looks on the general direction of where she heard the voices of the resistors. "They both involve that one male with the pyrus-colored hair. Noland was it?" Rather than a simple head motion to respond, Donovan makes a noise to respond to the question. "I see... there may be a web of love in our midst." Her thoughts shift back to anotyer certain Spartan which she had to say she was the closest to. "And possible homicide... If she decides to go that far..."

Niko shifts her attention to the haos bakugan which had sent kind of weapon pointed at them. "You... Skystar was it? I would feel a little more secure if you were to sheath your weapon. It's aura is threatening." She makes a small motion towards the staff, or atleast the estimated position of where it is. "Either way, with or without the staff, you would still be able to attack rather hard, seeing what you two girls did there. So, I suppose it wouldn't matter too much." The brawler's mumbling was put to a halt when Donovan cleared his throat and began to speak in the place of his partner.

"To answer your questions, indeed we do hold the title of being a Spartan." The darkus bakugan says before gently nudging Niko with the blunt end of his spined scorpion tail for her to place her input on the actual question that was being asked. After all, it was her idea to but in and help them to begin with.

The blind child blinks lazily before speaking, "As for the reason why I placed them to sleep... was for their dreams." She looks over to the form which she had sensed that was still lying on the ground with the bird-like bakugan. "Your friend over there will be in a deep sleep for a while. I can sense it's been a while since she's had a decent sleep, or dream for she has been constantly been in touch with the door of terrors." A small smile appears on Niko's face. "A dream with the once she adores, and not in a psychotic manner. And you Tracy... Share something of a similar manner."

With a soft sigh, Niko finishes her mini speech, "I wish I could experience the same. I know I carry the title of a Spartan, but I couldn't help but to notice the predicament you two were in. Mainly your friend there. She was on the verge of passing into the fourth kingdom which would most definitely lead to severe mental, emotional, and physical problems. And take it from me... The fourth kingdom will definitely ruin you." She gently places her hand over her right eye, gently brushing against the now closed eyelid. "Without a creature like Donovan, without a doubt she'll surely go mad."

[Tracy White]

Skystar did not address the threat her staff posed to her in the direct manner Niko would have hoped she would. Rather than put it away completely, she didn't point the weapon at her anymore when she began explaining herself, realizing that she wasn't necessarily a threat to them at the time. She did keep the staff energized just in case; she never knew when it came to these mysterious characters.

"Yeah...I remember. Seiki has struggled a lot, more than any of us has really," Tracy accepted. Then there was the detail about putting her to sleep that she didn't quite understand. "It can't be that simple, can it?" She looked at Donovan, a Bakugan that somehow makes Niko able to interpret exactly what they're dreaming. At least she thinks the Bakugan is capable of doing so since there'd be no other way Niki would have known what they were dreaming.

"What exactly is that Bakugan of yours capable of doing? You talk like putting her to sleep is actually going to cure her of her depression when that really can't happen just like that."