Episode 14: Iron Brigade

[Jamal Armstrong]

Jamal and Tec didn't allow their attention to waver in Allen's direction regardless of what he had to say about it. It was only natural for others to react that way since they didn't know what he knew. The countless experiences he has had with the Hurranians made it impossible for him to overlook even the smallest signs of their appearance. The resulting demise that Tec's ability contributed to made it all the more obvious; the Manion's body crumbled into ash, leaving nothing remaining.

The push from the roar sent Tec airborne for a brief second before quickly regaining foothold of the floor. His fists returned back to their places on his arm. He pounded his chest one more time, relishing in his victory over the Hurranians once again. The Manion's owner screamed in agony over its death and screamed curses and threats at Jamal and Tec over it.

"If I deserve death for killing a Bakugan, then anyone who allows the Hurranians to jack its DNA must deserve worse than death, just like yourself," Jamal countered. "And we may have to do it all again in due time too thanks to you and all others like you who never want to strive higher than their imperfections. You blame everyone else like Damian and I for your defeats instead of holding yourself accountable, so you thought having Hurranians in Manion's system was going to get you better. Now it's gone and in their control. I hope that when it gets replicated and stripped of its free will that it comes after you first for putting it in that position."

Tec shook his head while looking at the final place where Manion stood. "Thanks for nothing, that is," he added. He turned towards Gorem and saw him on the floor. He patted him on the shoulder and said, "Looks like I was the hero today, Gorem. Don't you agree?"

Jamal also turned to face Allen. "So Allen, have you figured it out yet? Do you know the reasoning behind your loss to me?"

[Allen Silva]

Allen couldnt believe what he was hearing."oh yeah. Im well aware." Allen said, gritting his teeth with each word.He was beyond angry now." You know what else im aware of. You caused this whole mess!" Allen was shouting now. He couldnt believe this guy had the balls to say what he just did, let alone while that as sight is fresh in everyones mind.

Gorem, who had remained relatively quiet, now decided to peep up." You are completely unredeemable." He told the two vestals. His voice, showing no emotion, made obvious how serious the situation was.

" What you dont seem to be aware of is that this whole Hurrian buisiness is your fault. Up until one of your people brought a mechanized dragon thing here, earth only had Earth problems. Now you ass clowns come here, bring your freakin zombies here, and you presume to say any of this was our faults!" Allen continued to yell at Jamal. He had a lot on his mind, and was going to take as much time to vent as he needed." You, the only one who knows what these Hurrians look like, seemingably out of the blue attack a bakugan. What the hell did you think i would do?! Then, to someone mourning a loss, you go and say its our weakness that brought this on. If your so mighty, why are these things still around at all?!"

[Jamal Armstrong]

"That's pretty racist, juggernaut," Tec disappointingly sighed in relation to the ass clown generalization made.

Jamal calmly turned his head towards Allen. "Up until you Resistors chose to fight out in the open, no one really had any worries of people deploying their Bakugan freely except for criminals. Now they do, and the police are now gunning people down in cold blood. Guess that should be your fault, right?"

He shook his head after he said that, obviously showing that he disagreed with the logic Allen was trying to convey. "Of course not. That'd be ridiculous, wouldn't it? How'd you come up with that idea?" He briefly paused to transition to the answers to his question. "You want to know why they are they still around? I'll tell you. There's a real answer for it, and there's my answer. The real answer," he began, "is that a doomsday weapon was discharged that was supposed to wipe them out. Clearly, it didn't do a perfect job." He nonchalantly spoke of his answer; although, it's not something he'd normally say. "As for my answer..." He held his hand out towards the aftermath. "In Earth's case, it's weakness. I don't care how many times you grieve and moan about me talking how I just did. It's the truth."

"You know, it's wise that you first understand how this menace actually behaves before you start pointing the finger. You might be surprised," Tec added.

"There are brawlers in your circuits that are treating this like a performance-enhancing drug, just like that girl over there. You may think you'll get all big and strong like us when you use that tactic, but you're just destroying yourselves. More DNA samples are being sent to them for however many brawlers choose to do that on this planet, which means more Hurranians being produced, more Bakugan for them to use, and more towns and cities for you and I to look after. That statistic alone isn't even taking into account the number of opponents they defeat who could also become infected. The sad part of all of this is that the majority of your people had a choice to determine whether they should be infected or not while ours never got the chance to tell them no."

Jamal's easygoing tone then turned darker. "You know what's even sadder than that? You may as well get used to this atmosphere. It won't go away any time soon. None of our strength matters because they're going to continue getting stronger. Why? Because..." He paused slightly to make this last statement hit Allen hard. "You all are too weak."

Tec returned to ball form and landed in Jamal's hand, seemingly ready to depart from this confrontation. "That's why you lost, after all," Jamal pointed out. "It takes more than a hard body to protect anything. You're not mentally prepared to be anything close to a shield. You were too focused on me the entire battle, and when it really mattered, you were busy worrying about what I was doing rather than protecting yourself. That's what I was hinting at earlier; there's not a single barrier in existence that can protect everything, especially when it came to your earlier three-way conflict. That leads to the next point: the key to being able to protect something is acknowledging that you are just as important as the sword, so you don't need to bend over backwards whenever something comes up. You have a voice too; use it."

After what sounded like a long-winded conversation. "Alana's probably in the same mindset as you are, so what I had planned to do will have to wait. I don't want to get smacked before our first date." Jamal took his leave out of the complex, ignoring the security coming in the field house to assess the situation. "Until next time."

[Allen Silva]

Jamal's revelation hit Allen like a freight train. Whoever created the Hurranian was taking advantage of those who desire strength. " The person who made these things is one twisted son of a bitch." Was the only thing Allen managed to get out of his mouth. He then became lost in thought again.

Gorem, in a attempt to pull him out of it, floated over." Allen, there's no way they knew what they were getting into. But now we have somewhere to start." He begun to analyze the situation." If we find out who is supplying the Hurranian drug to brawlers, we have a chance to stop this."

" Yeah. We.just gotta go all the way down the rabit hole." Allen said, pulled to reality buy his bakugans words. " if we sit here and mull over the facts, nothings gonna happen. But before we do anything, Noland and everyone else has to know this. Maybe this information gives us a fighting chance."

[Noland Hardy]