Episode 38: Markus, The Phantom Blade

[Insidious]

"Sure it wasn't," the masked person replied. "It was the will of the Hurranians who employed YOU to gather the resources for them. That's all you did, after all. The Hurranians are the ones responsible for this disaster, and they used YOUR mechanical Bakugan to carry out this attack. It is unbelievable that someone this irresponsible could have potentially ruled over this entire planet."

"And that same failure is coming from someone who was experimenting on Hurranian-infected Bakugan and failed miserably. But no, I'm the villain here," the masked person shamed even further. "Let me ask you this. Did you ever think to question why your father even told you to build an army? What state was he in when he gave you that command? Was he healthy, or was he already infected? You don't have to answer; I don't want your dumbass to shout the wrong answer in denial of your own shortcomings. You and I both know what the correct answer is, and you walked right into their hands like the idiot you are."

"So let me do everyone on Earth and Vestal a quick favor and drop you off in this mass graveyard." The masked person quickly approached Xavier using his/her heightened abilities and kicked him off the building.

[Xavier Turano]

Xavier did not anticipate this masked person would show up at a time like this. Now Xavier was the one plummeting to his death. It's not like there was anything he could have done to stop it. His options were already used to cause so much devastation, and they were all destroyed.

"Is...this all my fault?" Xavier wondered to himself. The masked person did have a point. King Richard Turano was infected around the time Dasia and Xavier were brought into power. Did the Hurranians tell him to say that? It's a possibility, but who really knows?

All Xavier knows was that he could have potentially made everyone's death certificates by doing what he did.

"Do I really deserve this...?

[Insidious]

The masked person looked over the rooftop as Prince Turano was headed into the afterlife. Before that would happen, he/she made it a point for Xavier not to have the satisfaction of living just a couple of more seconds. Hades flew overhead and was prepared to waste this entire city.

"Give the rest of your people my regards," the masked person requested. The masked person jumped on top of Hades and played an ability. "Ability activate! Full Burst!"

Another one of the nukes Hades has, Full Burst should be the sole reason why anyone deserves to die from Hades' creation. It revealed a total of four hidden cannons: two on its knees and two on its shoulders. Its chest spikes converted into cannons as well. It let out a loud roar as it prepared to wipe this city clean.

[Vince Hardy]

Vince saw everything the masked person was doing. He didn't care about Prince Turano being pushed off of the building at all. The only thing he was worried about was what Hades was about to unleash.

"An attack on that scale would destroy this entire city," Apollonir noted. He immediately opened a dimensional portal so they could all get out of there.

"Are you sure you want to leave?" Vince asked him.

"He's only dangerous in one way, and I'm sure we all know what that is. He is no threat to us when acting in this manner. Until the use of the BT System is within his grasp, then nothing he does is of any concern to me."

"That, and...what he's about to do is necessary," Oberus added on.

"Alright then." Vince looked at Daniel and Markus. He waved at them so they could get out of there before they get included in this vaporization. "If there's any reason for you to stick around, let us know before we go so we can arrange a way for you to get back alive. If not, I think we should all leave."

Vince, Markus, and Daniel got out of there before Hades used its attack. Lasers rapidly poured out of a central location and extended outward. The exact damage this caused was unknown, but one thing was certain: Echo City was definitely taken off the map.

[Maria Zenovia]

Vince, Markus and Daniel have come back from their ‘adventure’ into the unknown and they did not seem overly pleased with how things happened up there.
It was to be expected; when you have no knowledge of your enemy’s abilities, strengths and weaknesses and when you have to find them on the spot it is foolish to expect good results. Especially, when you head to enemy’s home ground filled with traps and advantage in numbers.
It was foolish to go there without contacting any strong Silver Knight to join as well because result could have been different.

They have come to Maria’s office to discuss the events. Maria has recently woken up from coma; her little sister, Sylvia, has been controlled into stabbing Maria in her wounded leg causing extreme pain that led to coma.
Maria’s leg is healing again and she still needs crutch to move around, but she does not seem particularly upset by her own situation. Sylvia has been ‘fixed’ and every person in the room can hear the little girl snoring in her sleep in the next room; she must be very tired.
Elysian Dragonoid is lying on Maria’s table in the orb form, sleeping.
Zero Hydranoid is watching the outside through the window. Maria’s most loyal Knight, Keto, brings Maria a cup of hot tea and stands aside listening what everyone is talking.

Maria seems very upset about Daniel. He left without her permission into enemy’s territory, did not call for support and got Wolveride infected, what led to Kuzuha destroying Wolveride’s physical body. “Let me check if I understood correctly…” Maria begins in a dark and menacing tone. “You came to hostile territory without superiors’ permission, without even notifying any other Knight…” She begins listing all the rules Daniel broke with his actions.


“Maria…” Hydra attempts to interrupt.


“Then you lead Wolveride straight into infection… and, on the top of that, Kuzuha breaks his physical body into dust…” Maria continues impatiently as she criticizes. “You and your brother seem to have a tendency of getting yourself hurt. What business did you have up there, anyway??” She inquires.

Hydra keeps impatiently keeping her mouth shut even though she wants to say something about this

[Daniel Andersen]

Daniel silently listens to his 'superior's' criticism without bating an eye.
He is well aware of what he did and what happened, so there was no necessity in wasting time in repeating all that- he does not really have a functioning sense of guilt, so it does not really bother him much what Maria thinks about his actions.
One fact annoys him a tiny bit- she does not really care about what Vince and Markus did; it was reckless for both of them to go there without notifying Silver Knights as well. They are not Silver Knights and Daniel is, so he has to be yelled at despite the fact that everyone did the same thing.
It crosses his mind- perhaps it should be better to leave this organization.

Then again, he and Marcus Lyonel have formed a contract with Maria that gives her power to put both of them behind the bars if they decide to leave the organization before the formal expiration of the contract. This was made to make sure both brawlers follow the protocol and to fully convince other Knights that they are not 'actual' terrorists.

Annoyed by Maria's talk Daniel finally seizes a moment to speak up. "I hoped that at some point you would realize the irony..." Daniel replies to Maria's long speech on his 'mistakes'.

"Hostile territory without superiors' permission... no notification to other Knights... receiving unexpected losses on the battlefield because of reckless actions..." Daniel repeats what Maria said about him and his little 'adventure'. "I heard, Admiral, that you attacked Kyuki's laboratory by yourself. Without notifying other Silver Knights. You let your guard down and got wounded again." Daniel starts to list the news he overheard from Silver Knights' Generals.
They were all discussing on how great and mighty Admiral, Maria Zenovia, stupidly acted on her own and got hurt in battle. However, what they do not know is what measures Maria used to ensure her victory despite how Pyrrhic it was.

He then sighs deeply showing that he already lost interest in the topic of the conversation. "I am sure you just need to blow off some steam, Admiral. We all do; it has been an overly stressful week." Daniel admits. He assumes that Maria is upset because of what happened to Sylvia and she just blindly attacked Daniel to get the stress of her shoulders.
Daniel sighs again in a bit of a concerned manner. "I was here when it happened, wasn't I? You could have called... There was no need in wandering off and poisoning yourself with Chaos Serum... It will slow down your recovery." Daniel says and notices how Maria's eyes widen in unpleasant surprise. She probably had not expected Daniel to know that she used poisonous substance on herself to enhance dark emotions and boost Hydra's force with this.
However, Daniel's sense of smell allows him to sense the poisonous substance running Maria's blood vessels.

"I wanted to kill Kyuki up there for doing what he did to Alex. You wanted to kill Kyuki down here because of Sylvia. Those were rash decisions and hopefully we will both learn from it." Daniel then backs off a little bit admitting his mistake, but also pointing out Maria's. He does not have intention in dying or seeing Maria getting killed because of her recklessness. Perhaps both can learn how quick actions without thinking will end up.
Same thing happened to Alex and same thing happened to them. There is no need in more of that happening.

The issue now is that he wants to ask Maria if they could rebuild Wolveride. Considering his mental data is safe and untouched on Daniel's gauntlet all they need is a new body, but it is not a simple process and Maria does not seem very happy.

[Vince Hardy]

Both Maria and Daniel had good points, regardless if one sounded hypocritical or not. The idea of making these decisions is probably what Kyuki is after. It gets him an easy target and, should the person survive, it gets others to ram a lesson down their throat. No one is going to learn from it until it's too late anyway, or so Vince thought.

"Hey, let's not make this conversation about who shouldn't have done what. The decisions have already been made. There's nothing we can do about them now," Vince interrupted, agreeing with Daniel somewhat. "You're both right about what you're saying. The issue with us is that we know what we shouldn't be doing, but we make exceptions because we don't want this lunatic to get away with what he's pulling. I know this sounds bad, but...this won't be the last time this happens."

Vince began to clarify on what he meant by that to avoid suggesting that they were all going to openly disrespect an Admiral of the Silver Knights. "It's clear that what Kyuki has threatened to do aren't jokes. And the lengths he's willing to go for to make those happen exceed that of any enemy I've ever faced. Very important people have lost their lives so far out of one punishment..."

[Maria Zenovia]

The way Vince described Kyuki seems like describing another 'DBZ villain'; just like any other villain, but with more strength, different voice and a different motive.
It is impossible to correctly describe that man's nature; he is very intelligent and power, which is not really what a psychopath would be, and yet he is ready to commit mass murder to accomplish his own goals.
If it only was as simple to explain as it seems; the way this man acts makes him entirely unpredictable- now he is here, now he is there, now he does one thing and now he does something completely opposite. It is almost as he does things randomly on purpose to make enemies speculate in fear on what next atrocity he will pose.

"Daniel, compare your action to mine again. Yours was not urgent; what urgency is in your revenge anyway? Blind rage will get you nowhere; that is why you have lost Wolveride's body, apart from him being weaker than blindfolded Yamcha. If I had not acted Sylvia could have died; there was no time to find help. Same reason why Hederick did not call for any ally." Maria replies in an annoyed tone, but she does see a bit of mistake she had made in the process of her decision making. However, despite what Vince said, she will not let Daniel think he can just go away with the 'mistakes were made' story.
She does not fear to tell him exactly in his face that he is much inferior to her in terms of power, intelligence, tactics and that his father's Guardian Bakugan is weak as hell to be used against Hurranians. Some truths have to be spoken and he has to deal with his mistakes.

"But I understand...we all want our revenge. I promise I will make sure you get yours. But I require one thing of you- focus on opponents that are not out of your league... Stay alive." Maria finally loosens up her attitude a little bit promising Daniel that he would achieve what he had planned for Kyuki. Maria is still worried that this might not turn well considering the fact that Virus was created by Kyuki and that thing is still inside Daniel.

She then turns towards Vince. "I am well aware. But he is not as simple as you describe him." Maria replies to what Vince said. "It might sound ridiculous to you, but this is just the 'spice'. Deaths and torture by these threats he made on Resistors and Spartans? Just a side-game to distract us from something else. I know for a fact that he does not care whether a girl gets raped or not; as long as it is a good distraction for 2 Legendary Soldiers and a Resistor so he could do something entirely else... he will use it; whether it is rape, torture, murder..."

"And all by the rule that: one on the top of the food chain decides destinies of those under..." Maria says sarcastically seeing how ironic that sounds; man who hides in the shadows and sends his armies to fight for him calls himself 'a being on top of the food chain'. That is one of his rules; the strong decide destinies of weak. In other words: rules do not apply to those in power.

[Vince Hardy]

"Speaking of a side-game..." It was interesting how Maria brought that up. Vince already knew that was going on. He was directly involved in one of Kyuki's side projects. "Apollonir and I were attacked by six mimicries of the Legendary Soldiers. We destroyed all six of them on our own, but doing so allowed them to acquire something called the 'Six Keys.'"

"There was also a mentioning of something called the 'God's Tear' before Kyuki came in and killed our attacker himself. Perhaps you know about what he's talking about better than I do." Vince shrugged when he gave that piece of information. He didn't get it when it first happened. If the Silver Knights didn't know, then who really knows?

"Here's something that I do know though," Vince started off before giving Maria the full ramifications of this situation. "As it stands right now, all six mechanical Bakugan have been destroyed. The masked person you had a falling out with took three of them down while Markus took the other half, including the one using Drago and Helios' powers. Unfortunately, Vestal's prince may have also died along with Roxy in that attack, so I'd imagine there will be a political imbalance there very soon. The masked person using the Hurranians has most likely been wiped out when the Hades user glassed the entire city."

[Maria Zenovia]

"These masked individuals are tricky. I find it hard to believe that the one using Hurranians was killed despite how good it sounds." Maria remains pessimistic on this topic knowing that when those people 'die' they don't really die or they don't stay dead. The better it sounds the less Maria believes in it and refuses to lower her guard.
Also, if Xavier really died it might pose a problem; masked person who did it was with Markus and Vince which probably means that they will be equally blamed by Dasia for this once she is enraged by Xavier's death. It still remains uncertain if he is dead or not, but regardless of that it poses a security problem not only for Resistors, but also for the entire planet. "It gives you and Resistors another reason to stay on guard. It is a relief that lots of mechanical Bakugans have been wiped out, but knowing how troublesome our enemy is I have no doubt they will come up with new ones. We all should prepare ourselves for the worst." Maria suggests.


Words 'Six Keys' and 'God's Tear' immediately annoy Hydra. "Bullshit..." She says upon hearing those words. It makes it unbearable and annoying that those things are still being talked about- more annoying that someone would claim that they have acquired 'Six Keys' or 'God's Tear'.

"Six keys represent six attributes. In order to obtain one you need a strong source to... like a Legendary Soldier. I believe these people used Kyuki to make copies since original Soldiers are too powerful for them to kill... Annoyingly enough, source can be even a copy of something and power of the final product will be unaffected- which makes it troublesome..." Maria explains. She personally has no practical knowledge with any key and have not seen any of those being used. It is only described in the old books coming from Vestroia; books archived for a long time making it uncertain whether it is truth or not.

"God's Tear is a ritual item for summoning. It is believed to summon what books call 'The Triad' once all six keys are placed on it... Evil counterpart of Biblical Holy Trinity... three beings unified as one evil god." She explains and then sarcastically comments on that whole story. "I do not really believe in that story, but just for security reasons- do you know who owns the keys and God's Tear?" She asks suspiciously knowing that even a fairy tale like that cannot be left unchecked. Because someone said fairy tales were lies and then we have Bakugans based on fairy tales like Valiant Strive.

[Vince Hardy]

Vince's eyes widened when he heard about what those keys actually were. He may be coming to terms with what Kyuki is attempting to do with them.

"Kyuki doesn't seem like he believes in that story either, but he has the keys... The God's Tear may still be in the possession of that cult, at least...that's what the person made it sound like before Kyuki stuck a hand through his chest..." Vince answered.

"I don't want to give anyone any ideas, but...I think Kyuki is trying to find an alternative way to activate the BT System if he can't get to Noland or the Legendary Soldiers," Vince kept to himself. "Those keys sound a lot like the Attribute Energies the Soldiers have in their bodies. If those keys are supposed to fill in for those energies, then Kyuki could theoretically activate the BT System, but it would take longer to charge...way longer..."

Vince looked past that at more important issues, namely the upcoming war that WILL get started from what happened on Vestal. "Just curious. What do you intend to do about Kyuki having those keys?"

[Maria Zenovia]

"I am not sure. For now, probably nothing." Maria calmly replies knowing how things end every time when Kyuki has something that some other bad organization has. Cult of The Triad has the relic and wants the keys while Kyuki has the keys, but does not seek the relic. "Without both keys and the relics neither side cannot do anything. In the best case they will kill each other trying to get the items leaving us to clean it up." She calmly explains.
Cult of The Triad are quite a 'triggered' bunch; they do not take lightly that Kyuki has six keys because they believe they can awaken their 'god'. So they are definitely going to be the ones to strike first and knowing how it ends when Kyuki gets attacked they will probably all die in agony.

"But I believe Kyuki is well-aware that he cannot control an evil god. If he was to awaken this one he would die along the rest of us. I believe he stole the keys so cult could not awaken it. If they got hold of both then Hurranians and the war would not be our problem anymore. That's if... this god exists in the first place..." Maria explains. It is very unlikely, according to her, because there is only little knowledge written about 'The Triad'; if they were important in the past a lot more would have been written about them.
As a matter of fact, Deathcrown lived in the time when those books were written as well so he could confirm if 'The Triad' existed and how come it does not exist anymore.

Hydra then speaks up. "Perhaps playing defensive right now would be better. There is a lot of commotion among terrorists and Hurranians. We cannot afford any rash moves."

[Markus Hederick]

Markus had his head hung down in shame the entire time the others were talking. He couldn't get his mind off of what happened. Sure, he should be proud of taking down three of those mechanical Bakugan, but all that really did was either save who was left or delay the Hurranians' plans. They got to their target, so in the end, didn't the Hurranians actually win?

And what about being on the defensive end? What took place was the Hurranian's strength on defense. What is going to happen when they're on offense? What if they are allowed to build their strength to heights even greater than what got Roxy killed? What is everyone going to do then?

"Defense...? That's all we've been doing... What other defensive option do we possibly have...?" Markus growled. "That guy with the Hades...had a point... We can't win like this..."

[Maria Zenovia]

Commotion is already crazy as it is; at this point Silver Knights are not in position to risk possible unnecessary losses from Kyuki, Hurranians and the cultists.
There is a set of rules even Knights have to abide to; one of those being not throwing their brawlers into the unknown to risk their lives.
Kyuki cannot be fought with brute strength and offensive tactics; once one enters his domain they will face unimaginable horrors. He has to be fought little by little while balancing between offense and defense; against a random opponent like him one type of tactic is a suicide.


“I do not stand in your way.” Maria replies to what Markus said. If he wants to unleash his rage at enemies she will not prevent him.


“I could play the offensive game all the time and throw my brawlers into the unknown and hope they are as lucky as you three were up there. But what if they do not get so lucky? I will be the one informing future widows that their husbands are not coming back. And why? Because I got mad for losing loved ones and attacked blindly depraving others of their loved ones, too. I would rather go alone.” Maria impatiently explains why she plays defense instead of offense. Plus, commotion happening now is putting Kyuki and cultists into an uncomfortable position; they are forced to fight one another letting Silver Knights to form a plan.


Despite Markus’s loss this attitude of his annoys Maria. “Oh, I suppose you have been the only one fighting? We have spent a mass of resources to neutralize 15 Kyuki’s complexes so far; at this state using offense is a suicide for Knights. If you have energy to fight offensively I will not stop you; I can give you what is left of my support, but that is as far as I am allowed.” Maria explains. She has some support she could offer to Markus since he seems very upset and could make a critical mistake in his judgement in fights. And she has a feeling he might go on and fight despite what she says, so giving him some support is all she has.

[Markus Hederick]

Markus could sense Maria sassing him with her response. What he was about to do next was usually unheard of from Markus. He rarely reaches the point where he blatantly disregards others, the last time being when Maya was poisoned by Nero a year ago.

"So you know how to spend your resources and take what I say out of context? That's nice," Markus sarcastically responded. He turned his head towards Maria and gave her a cold stare. "I'm going to repeat what I just said one more time, but in a different sentence. Defense DOES. NOT. WORK, and it never will."

"Markus...calm down..." Gargulion warned. He wasn't a big fan of him taking that tone with an Admiral. He'd be better off saying nothing to her. On the opposite end of that argument, saying nothing would mean that they don't get anywhere.

"I can care less about the position you're in. The result is going to remain the same as long as this continues, regardless of whether or not you can attack them. You WILL die, every single one of you. It's just a matter of when at this point, because they are continuously building up THEIR resources while we're not getting a return in investment. That's not being blind because Roxy died; that's just being rational. If you don't know that already, that's fine. I never told you to change. I'm just telling you that the Hurranians are playing us like a fiddle. Even Kyuki has strings attached to this entire organization and no one here knows about it. We've been defeated on a strategic level."

Markus got up to leave, but before he did, he made sure Maria and the Silver Knights knew where his allegiance was. "I appreciate your organization's help in housing my infected family members. You didn't have to help me or them, but you did it anyway. For that reason, you can keep your support to yourself; use it for more important matters. I don't really trust myself in making sure they don't get infected or die, so I'm better off as a lone wolf."

Markus then turned to Daniel and Vince. "Even though that situation ended the way it did, you were a huge help in making sure we all got to where we were going safely, Daniel. So were you, Mr. Hardy. I can see why Noland is such a great brawler and leader now."

Markus began phasing through the walls using Gargulion's power, hoping to get to where he was going as soon as possible. "Take care of yourselves..." he parted.