Episode 33: Resolution's Revenge

[Noland Hardy]

Seiki and Deon were excused from the field after the surprising battle ended. It certainly laid the foundation for what was to come, and the audience ate it up like puppets who were completely ignorant to what was really going on.

The second match was something that Markus feared. He was undoubtedly one of the contestants for the next battle since he's already scared. His opponent was the object of his fear. It wasn't because of what the result of the battle may be; it was the opponent herself: Roxy.

Dasia and the Spartans smiled because they already knew they didn't have to worry about Roxy holding back like they had to for Deon prior to his fight. They were already aware of how much she would value Markus' death, and Markus seemed to know that as well. He was too stunned to pick himself up to take his place on the battlefield. Roxy beat him to the spot, and she called him out, inviting some antagonizing banter from the crowd as well. Kyuki was more than pleased with this.

Tank encouraged Markus to get up there. He reminded Markus of what was told to him when they faced Roxy the first time. Markus had a family he needed to protect, and to have the CHANCE to do that, he couldn't let her get in his way. Markus understood this. He prepared to make his way to the stage. He was stopped by Alana along the way. She could tell what he was thinking just by looking at him. All she suggested was for him was to make the right decision, even if it hurts.

(Boss Theme)

[Markus Hederick]

If Roxy wins, Markus' family are goners. If Roxy wins, Tank will never let him live this one down. If Roxy wins, his family are goners. If Roxy wins, his family...

It seemed monotonous at first, but for Markus, it was necessary. Alana knew exactly what he was thinking before he took his spot on the field. This was going to hurt. It was going to hurt really bad. There were no alternatives in this one though. Despite wanting to be in her good graces again, Markus had to take her down. It was the most logical step take now. Was she going to take more importance than his family? Absolutely not. This was much bigger than both of them.

"Oh my..." Markus gazed at Roxy and saw the killing instinct in her eyes. It was that glare that made you want to turn the other way in fear. "So you really meant what you said before? How you wanted to make me pay for 'that'? You hate me that much now, don't you?"

Markus activated his BrawlX to commence the battle. He took hold of Gargulion and prepared to toss him in. "Even though what's about to happen here may say otherwise, I don't hate you and that I'm sorry. I just hope you can see that through this battle."

"Bakugan brawl! Stand, Darkus Shade Gargulion!" Gargulion was thrown onto the field. He stood in the same manner he did when he first battled as a professional. His entrance was granted by a lightning strike, bringing his orb form into the fray while assembling his vampiric body around himself. He crossed his arms while he awaited Aquarius to enter.

[Roxy Grimm]

Roxy grinned from the questions Markus answered instead of giving him a direct answer. Markus knew what the answer would be if Roxy chose to say something. That's why he asked them in that manner. There was no mistake in their thought processes that this was personal.

"No...you're not sorry. Not yet," Roxy coldly responded. "I want to hurt you so bad...but that's not as important as what I want to do in this battle. I want to make you feel useless, just like you were when I needed you. Then you'll see how it feels when you're powerless to do anything for the ones you 'care' for."

She gripped Aquarius in her hand and launched her with full force. "Bakugan brawl! Stand, Aquos Aquarius!" When she hit the field, she unveiled her large stature as a scorpion. She pointed her tail at Gargulion in a threatening manner, revealing that she was not intimidated by him even after the previous engagement.

"You're going to realize something different about me now. I've been practicing since we've last saw each other, just so I can crush you."

[Markus Hederick]

The way Roxy worded that had an implication that should have made Markus look at her as a mortal enemy. It sounded like she wanted to use what Kyuki planned to do to him as a weapon against him from the incident. All he could do was sigh and keep his head in the battle.

"Heard enough?" Gargulion impatiently asked. He was wondering if that was the tipping point.

"Yeah." Markus got into fighting mode. "Let's fight. Ability activate! Photon Spear!" Gargulion lifted his left hand and had it glow purple. A myriad of spear-shaped energy constructs appeared above the palm. He pushed his hand outward to launch the spears towards Aquarius. The speed itself made this a deadly attack, but stabbing Aquarius in several key areas was what this ability was used to accomplish.

[Roxy Grimm]

That attack brought back memories. That was the first attack he ever declared against her back then, and now he was using it again here. Roxy chose to follow along for a little bit. She wanted to show him that the same abilities can still be used, but the outcome would be very different.

"Ability activate! Water Shine!" Aquarius' skin become as colorful as a sunset across the water. She moved her claws in front of her face to guard it. The spears bounced off of those claws - at least for the ones that were headed in that direction. Every part of her body was fortified from the enhancement, so even the ones that struck elsewhere were flung away with hardly any effort.

"Told you so," Aquarius sang in reference to Roxy's improvement.

"Not done yet! Go, Thundering Slam!" Aquarius jumped into the air and intended for Gargulion to be caught in the process of her landing on the ground. She was going to use her weight to crush Gargulion underneath.

[Markus Hederick]

"So they weren't bluffing..." Gargulion looked up as Aquarius was intending to flatten him. Markus had thought of a counter to this maneuver, so there wasn't much of a worry for him that Roxy had gotten way stronger.

"Ability activate! Shade Winger!" Gargulion transferred his existence to the shadows. This made him completely phase through Aquarius' body without having to suffer the same fate as the large portion of the arena that was caved in. Gargulion moved right on over to Aquarius' blind spot. He was definitely going to punish her for making a move like that.

"Yeah. She has gotten heavier. I can see that clearly now," Markus insulted. He was not really in the mood for being nice right now. "It won't mean anything if you can't hit me. Gargulion, another one. Ability activate! Gargoyle's Grudge!

Gargulion bathed himself in dense darkness that greatly enhanced the power of his attacks. When he punched Aquarius in the side, the force was so great that it flipped the monster, making her skid along the ground on her hip. Gargulion then focused his attention on pummeling her until she couldn't continue fighting.

[Roxy Grimm]

Roxy chuckled a little when Markus insulted Aquarius and the way she attacked. She definitely would not have reacted that way if it was a disappointment. It looked like she could care less about having it hit Gargulion, even though that would have been a nice bonus. She was plotting something...

"I don't agree with that, but...we'll just have to see about that later on," Roxy hinted. "Ability activate! God's Water Rule!"

The tip of Aquarius' tail detached and traveled towards her pincers. They merged with the two body parts. Not only did this enlarge them, but it blessed them with the poisonous attributes the tail carried. This allowed her to fend Gargulion's enhanced movement off until she could regain her stable footing on the arena, and then she went against Gargulion directly. She swiped them in an X formation to send an X-shaped slash down range when Gargulion approached her.

[Markus Hederick]

Having Aquarius in close quarters like this had to give Markus a clear idea on what to do next. There was no way Aquarius was agile enough to dodge what was about to hit them clear in the face.

"Ability activate! Mirror Shot!" Gargulion changed his body composition to that of metallic glass. He abused this new property by placing his right hand out and catching the attack. It then went through a process of stabilizing itself into a more controlled blast. He then sent it right back at Aquarius.

"Something's not right...either she's holding back or she's still too weak to take me on," Markus started to think in his mind. He looked down at the destroyed area of the arena, remembered what Roxy just said to him, and tried to piece it together. "What exactly do you mean by disagreeing with what I just said, if you were referring to the fact that you couldn't hit me?" He briefly looked at her face to get an idea of where this brawl was headed. "She has a terrible poker face. She's on to something..."

[Roxy Grimm]

"Hmph. Ability activate! Level Stratum!" Roxy allowed the poisonous substance to crash into Aquarius and send her reeling. It corroded her shell, which was perfectly fine. The ability Roxy just put into play was going to shed it off anyway and replace it.

"I got you, Markus," Roxy promised. "You don't even realize it yet, but I'm going to destroy you, and it all starts with this turn." Aquarius' new shell formed instantaneously in a bright, blue light. The shell's appearance was very different from before. It looked harder, bulkier, and outright impenetrable. The worst part about this - in Markus' case - was that it didn't hamper Aquarius' mobility, so she was still able to move around as usual.

"Ability activate! Water's Tide!" Aquarius flicked her tail forward as a surge of water flowed from underneath the arena. It formed a large wave that was ready to crash onto Gargulion.

[Markus Hederick]

Gargulion took a good look at Aquarius' new ability. Seeing it reaffirmed what he said about Roxy and Aquarius earlier. They were not joking at all when they said they have been practicing. The level of power they were on now basically equaled the power boosts that the Resistors have, and that wasn't a good thing to see.

"Markus...we're in trouble..." Gargulion felt uneasy about this sudden technique that came out of nowhere. Now he had to contend with a wave crushing his non-existent bones.

"Alright. Ability activate! Solid Wall!" Gargulion leaped backwards from the fortified scorpion. He placed his palms on the ground to cause a large, stone wall to rise. This warded off the water to avoid any damage, but it started to erode quickly, much to Markus' surprise. It still held up though. By the time it came crumbling down, there was something else to be concerned about: Aquarius' location. She was no longer in a visible location on the battlefield.

"What the-" Markus eyed the battlefield closely and couldn't get a reading on where Aquarius was. In fact, he caught on to that quickly, because there was only one other location she could have resided in: the water that flooded the parts of the arena that...Roxy had Aquarius destroy earlier...oh no.

[Roxy Grimm]

"Perfect," Roxy complimented on her setup. She had a neat one too. Throwing Aquarius' weight around was actually meant to devise a suitable pool area. Now there was a large body of area encompassing a great deal of the arena. As for where Aquarius migrated to, Markus was about to find that out for himself.

"And you better take your beating like a man. We can't have you running away again." Roxy grudgingly revealed a new fusion ability that was to be used in unison with Water's Tide. The water levels now made it her battlefield now. "Fusion ability activate! Double-Edged Stinger!"

A glow could be seen in the water as a change was occurring. Without warning, a tail started sprouting up to the surface. It went through some drastic changes. It became long enough to hover over the entirety of the flooded arena. The tip became sharper, more refined, and more toxic.

"Now all I have to do for it to mean anything is hit you, right? That is what you said," she eagerly stated. She placed her arm forward to signal Aquarius to strike Gargulion with her stinger.

[Markus Hederick]

Markus was totally confused. What exactly did Roxy just do that makes her seem so confident? For all he knew, it was just a wider-range of attack for Aquarius' stinger.

"Gargulion!" Markus called out. Gargulion used his boosted movement to dodge the stinger. In doing so, he saved himself a lot of grief. The last piece of solid ground he had to stand on in the flooded arena was now destroyed. The force from the tail was so great that it summoned a wave on its own and crashed into Markus, knocking him flat-out on the ground. He was drenched.

The crowd then gasped. They truly became concerned for Markus now.

"It's gone this far, huh?" Not wanting to be distracted by Aquarius carelessly making Markus apart of their Bakugan brawl, he acted on his own to stop her. "Venom Shot!" Gargulion hurled up a yellowy-glob of poison from his mouth and spat it into the water. The toxins would then mix with the liquid and smother Aquarius until she succumbed.

[Roxy Grimm]

Roxy shook her head when Gargulion attempted to get at Aquarius while she was in the water. A blue veil became visible across the water's surface when the poison made contact. It acted as a barrier that kept that foreign substance out.

"Smart, but useless. Get good, Gargulion," Roxy insulted as she started to relish in the fact that she was cornering Markus. "Ability activate! Water Flow!"

Underwater, Aquarius charged a pressurized beam of water and shot it at Gargulion. Interestingly, her attack was not stopped when it emerged from the water, meaning that the barrier only seemed to keep things out rather than in. The surge of water penetrated Gargulion's protective layer - the one he got from Gargoyle's Grudge earlier - and stunned him.

As the jab at Markus made clear, the gargantuan stature of Aquarius' stinger made it pack more of a punch. When she pulled that back and jabbed Gargulion, it sent him rocketing towards the ground. He violently crashed onto the ground several times as he was being sent back until the wall broke his advance. When he became laid out from the impact, his body was completely tore up from the impact.

"Get up!" Roxy commanded Markus. "Get your ass off the ground so I can beat you down again!"

[Markus Hederick]

"She's really strong right now... Did she really improve that much...just to take her several years of anger out on me like this?" Markus was trying to come to terms with what was going on in his head. He wasn't sure what to make of this situation. He never thought this would actually be a thing, but...he was actually losing to Roxy...TO ROXY.

"I really fucked this one up. She was so beautiful and really nice. All it took was one mistake...and I lost her to the point where she really wants me to die... I should be mad at her, but I'm not, and I'd probably sound stupid if I tried to explain why...after all of this..." Given the situation, it was a surprise that Markus would even think about being nice to an enemy with killing intent. This is how broken hearts form more cracks, when someone tries to resuscitate a dead situation.

For some reason, Markus felt like he needed to try, at least one more time. If she truly felt this way afterwards, then he knows what needs to be done for his sake.

He picked himself up off of the ground, coughing up some water in the process. It took him a while to regain his bearings after that hit. "You used to be a very nice person, Roxy..." Markus managed to get that out while still looking down to the ground. The amount of water he still had to cough up was just astounding. It was a miracle he even got up on his own.

"So how does this revenge feel to you then? Does seeing me down like this make you feel better? You think you're doing yourself justice by striking down someone who just wanted to be close to you, like when we were kids? Well guess what? Don't even bother trying to finish me off. I'm already dying inside."

[Roxy Grimm]

"Does it make me feel better?" Roxy started laughing at Markus after listening to his attempts to make her feel bad about what she was doing. She'll give him a passing grade for the effort though, not that it would matter to her. "You really don't get it, do you? As smart as you are, it's a shame you haven't figured it out by now. You said I used to be nice. It doesn't take a college degree to figure out why I was like that before a terrorist like you showed up and led me straight into the hands of your thirsty leaders."

That laugh quickly turned into a scowl. It was truly something to see. For her to shift between emotions that quickly must have hinted to something deeper that is rooted in her mind. Something was probably wrong with her.

"Before I realized it was you, I told you something about myself, how it's VERY difficult for me to trust anyone anymore. I at least know you're intelligent enough to not need an explanation on how you get robbed of a lot more than your virginity when you become a victim of rape. I felt helpless, afraid, alone, and betrayed..."

As she said that, a younger silhouette of Markus appeared to the side of him. Talking about it was a trigger that reminded her of the events. That is why she usually refrained from speaking of it, but it didn't matter since Markus was in front of her anyway.

"And you know what happened when I got here? Several thousands of people shouted very demeaning words to me when I went against you and your friend over there. Little did you know...I said those same things about myself after 'you' happened. Can you guess whose face I always remember whenever they hit those triggers of that traumatic experience?"

She menacingly pointed to Markus to tell him that it was his face that always pops up in her memory every single time.

"It replayed itself - that same night where you brought me to him and left me there - over and over again in my head. That's without mentioning the compounding of ANOTHER traumatic experience of having my family SLAUGHTERED by the Hurranians right in front of me when they took over Beta City!"

Aquarius' tail glowed in a translucent light as it prepared to fire several projectiles in Gargulion's direction to finish this duel. "Now Kyuki wants to revive those same people who violated me, and he'll have them do it until I die from it. That's all I seem to be good for nowadays."

"How dare you think of me as a person and actually protect me. I was never important to you. You only thought of me as a toy, and now I'm going to show you what I think about that! So yes! It makes me feel a lot better knowing that a cancer like you is about to be blown away!"