Episode 43: Hurranian Trigger

[Andrew Bullock]

With Apollonir's assistance, Hades was invigorated with the power to use its dimensional equipment once again. It sensed the continued approach of Dasia, so it needed to act fast. It turned away from the entrance to shoot a thin beam to Vince's back. This resulted in a dimensional portal being created.

The destination was unknown, but that wasn't very important. As long as Vince was anywhere else, it would do.

"You're lucky she breached the barrier. I'll have my vengeance later," Andrew promised.

Hades wrapped one of its tails around Vince and threw him towards the portal.

[Dasia Turano]

"Erase..." Dasia completely ripped one of Maria's abilities out of her after forcefully infecting her again. She conjured a white card in her fingertips and tossed it into the floor. This move closed the portal instantly. Vince was sent on a crash course into a wall, forming a crater in his likeness.

(Dasia's Theme)

"You're welcome, handsome," Dasia said, addressing Vince with that comment. "You two appear to be on bad terms. If I hadn't done that, you would be in the depths of the Doom Dimension where your 'friend' received his augmentation. You wouldn't want to be near a Bakugan like that with Apollonir in that state, would you?"

Diablo accompanied her, along with Montai and Horridian. She seemed to be infected, because she moved when Dasia clapped.

"Ability activate! Variant Commando!" Horridian fired six electrically-charged bolts of Darkus energy. They split into two equal groups, three for Hades and three for Andrew.

"Should you move, you'll be injected with Hurranians," Montai warned her old friend/adversary. "So just stay right where you are and watch your destruction commence."

Diablo pulled its sword out from its back and turned it on. Geothermal energy ran through the blade and extended all the way out to impale Vince in the center of his chest. Vince was now being drawn closer to Dasia so she can take what she wants.

[Vince Hardy]

Vince was shockingly still active despite the impalement. Holding onto Apollo's Hand was more useful than its godly power boost. His durability was drastically enhanced, making him capable of withstanding a blow like this without flinching.

"This is bad..." Vince feared. He swung at the blade line with the trident to cut through it. Just by making contact with the foreign energy, it was dispelled. Vince dropped to the floor and landed on his feet. The wound was instantly closed as if nothing happened to him.

"Regrettably, you're just a human, so you can't really fight against this contraption the way that I want you to..." Apollonir regretted. "You can't run now. If you let go of me for any reason, and you're shot, then goodbye and good luck."

"So what do I do?"

"We could do what we did to defeat Hades, but...it would require more power than I used to defeat it since I only used enough to defeat a severely weakened Hades. We could end up killing Andrew and that woman over there if I go any further."

"But if it's to save the world..."

"You can destroy the red one if you hit it once."

"She could use Montai and Horridian as fodder."

"Well, I'm just a useless trident right now! Do what you wish!"

Vince took the God's Tear out of his pocket. He pushed it against Apollonir's jewel to drastically boost the already godly power he wielded. Vince twirled the trident before smacking Apollonir's tail on the floor. This created a violent quake that would surely knock Dasia and her posse off of their feet.

[Andrew Bullock]

The quake was fearsome enough on its own to completely disrupt anyone's hold over the battle. It was definitely strong enough to disintegrate the bolts of energy swirling around Andrew and Hades. With that being done, Andrew was more than free to wreak havoc.

"You have a habit of failing miserably, your 'Highness'," Andrew joked. "Ability activate! Photon Tail!"

Hades pointed its tails at Horridian first. It fired potent beams at him to smother him in a destructive field of Darkus energy, one-shotting him and returning him to ball form. Montai was struck by this force as well. She was knocked out so she wouldn't have to bother him or Vince anymore.

"Ability activate! S.H.R.E.D.D.E.R. XR 2!" Hades opened the canister to deploy these miniature Hydranoid heads once again. They were converted into Excedra heads. These units breathed black smoke over Dasia and Diablo. This prevented them from seeing what was happening to them.

The units came with thermal sights so they could see through visual obstructions. The firs thing they did was siphon power away from Dasia and Diablo so that they would progressively turn to stone; however, this process did not happen quite as fast as it would if Excedra were using Demon Wizard. Twirling sparkles could be seen coming from the units. Gigantic beams of dark energy were then deluged onto Dasia and Diablo from every where they could possibly look.

[Dasia Turano]

Dasia was slightly petrified before she activated her ability. Andrew was quite the brawler. If she waited any longer, he could've succeeded in destroying her as she wouldn't have the time to transfer her consciousness elsewhere.

"Ability activate! FARBAS EX!"

"FARBAS system activated. Repairing 50% frame damage," Diablo stated on cue. Crimson lights illuminated all over its body. It made sure to shine its light on Dasia as well so she can be rejuvenated. The Excedra-grade power was wiped from their bodies. They appeared to be impervious to the deadly beams that were upon them, likely as a result of its increased use of Drago's powers.

This FARBAS system can also incorporate what Diablo sees into its arsenal. This is what it did for Hades' S.H.R.E.D.D.E.R. system. A plethora of miniature Dragonoid heads were digitized around Diablo. They were converted into Apollonir heads.

"You should know a lot about failure, 'Nero,'" Dasia reminded Andrew, jokingly referencing his previous alias. "Did you know that this Montai character has a crush on you? I was surprised when I went through her memory banks while I was watching you through her eyes. She had been infected for quite some time. Her employees did not practice safe sanitation methods to keep me away. How unfortunate."

The Apollonir heads emanated a blinding flash. Buzzing sounds could be heard coming from Andrew and Hades. Both of them were now struggling to remain standing, let alone move. The power of the Switch Code had overtaken them, and they could not resist. Vince was a more challenging one. His use of both Apollonir and the God's Tear made this less effective, but he was stunned just like Andrew was.

"Hm...so you have one minute before Apollonir reverts back to normal, eh? Let's have some fun real quick..." Dasia pointed directly at Vince. The Apollonir heads each pointed his way and shot a devastating flaming breath at him.

[Andrew Bullock]

Andrew's muscles seemed to spasm whenever he attempted to move. Staying still was almost just as uncomfortable. It was like there was some constant flow of energy moving through his body that put him in a constant state of pain.

"Damn...you...!" Andrew cursed. He knew that Vince was about to get blown away by Diablo's power, because the trident's flow of energy was halted for a few more seconds, making it impossible for Apollonir to protect him from injury. Vince was going to die if Diablo's attack hit. That was the major weakness in Dragon Proudia; if the energy was stopped, what was he going to to do if a human was wielding him? He can't come out of the form to stop it. The cooldown wasn't over yet.

Andrew had to force his body to move via his dark power. The struggle could be seen on his face. He had the look of someone in excruciating pain, but that didn't stop him from running. He ran over to Vince and shoved him out of the way. The penalty for doing this was him being bombarded by Diablo's attacks instead. A smoke cloud erupted from where he was.

[Dasia Turano]

"Awwww. How sweet." Dasia cracked a smile when Andrew chose to act as Vince's scapegoat. Too bad for him, she knew he was going to do it.

"Take the key from Vince," Dasia ordered Diablo. The Apollonir heads tethered Vince. They wrapped him in countless layers of energy bands. A couple of units went over to him, picked him up, and shook him until the God's Tear flew out. A unit recovered the item and delivered it to Dasia. It was dropped into her hands. As she gripped the key, she shed a tear, one of happiness.

"You don't know how happy this makes me feel. We've wanted to get our weapon back for so long," she wept. "Enough talk...I'm going to go see it now."

Dasia went over to the door. She touched it to have the Dragonoid and Dhraknoid light up, and six attribute symbols appeared on the mural. Dasia pressed the God's Tear in between the Dragonoid and Dharaknoid. A large depiction of an orb-like being materialized in the center of them. It eventually bursted into energy that covered the entire door. When it went away, the path was clear.

Diablo tea-bagged Vince before it joined Dasia on her walk to the BT System. Dasia was all giddy about what she was about to find in there just as a girl would when she goes shopping.

[Vince Hardy]

Vince was absolutely furious when Dasia gained access to that chamber. He wanted to bang his head on the ground until he died. This was the worst case scenario for them all. Now Dasia was going to destroy them all!

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Vince yelled in frustration. It was unlike him to yell out profane words, but this situation got the best of him. Who wouldn't lose it when their death certificates are signing themselves?

"Is that towards the tea-bagging or Vestal's queen opening the door?" Apollonir asked for clarification.

"Both!" Vince exclaimed. He turned over to where Andrew was blown up. "You better still be alive over there!"

[Andrew Bullock]

When the smoke cleared, Andrew was lying flat on his stomach. Smoke was rising from his body. He turned on his back when Vince apparently called on him. He coughed a few times before getting out another comment.

"You sound very upset over there," Andrew noticed, hiding the fact that he was even more upset that his method of wiping the Hurranians out was now under Dasia's control. "That makes both of us now."

"You didn't know this, but...I saw you get tea-bagged," Andrew revealed, laughing out loud about it before being interrupted by a surge of coughing. "Oww...it hurts to laugh... Yeah...I'm on my way out right now."

[Vince Hardy]

Vince was growling when Andrew made light of the fact that this was actually happening. It sounded to him like Apollonir and Andrew thought this was funny. This made Vince's anger even higher.

"Good for us," Vince praised in response to Andrew dying. "This is all your fault! If you hadn't been down here, we wouldn't even be in this mess! You never listened! You always wanted to do what you wanted to do! Now look at where we are! Thanks, hero!"

"Vince, as much as I agree with you, he did kinda save your life back there. Just saying," Apollonir noted. "We might need his firepower to respond to Dasia's attack now that she has risen to become the most powerful enemy we can encounter right now, even worse than Fury."

[Andrew Bullock]

"My fault!? If you hadn't stopped me, I would've already HAD the BT System. She wouldn't have been able to come close to it!" Andrew countered. "You better be damn sure I'm not following your directions! You would have gotten us killed! I would've destroyed these Hurranians already if it weren't for you pussies being scared all the damn time!"

"Both of you, shut up!!!!" Montai screamed at the men. She slowly got up after Andrew had defeated her. "If you two would stop fighting all the time, you'd realize that you need each other! You both cancel each other's egos out, or at least you're supposed to! We need you two to work together to counter Dasia before she unleashes the BT System!"

Horridian stuck its head up to offer an opinion. "Yeah...you guys do that. I'm done being blown up in your place."

"And you! What the hell are you doing getting infected!?" Andrew inquired.

"Me!? How was I supposed to know!? We told those idiots to be careful! They clearly didn't listen!"

"What did you think being the director was going to be? You have to watch them all the time! They never do anything right!"

[Vince Hardy]

A red light was shone through Vince's entrapment. His bindings were torn apart, and the trident returned to Apollonir's Dragonoid form once more. He got back up to survey the area via his Switch Code.

"If we're still living after this, then you can argue like a married couple as much as you'd like," Apollonir informed Andrew and Montai, remembering the certain crush that the woman has. "If you continue to cause division among yourselves, then it will continue to spread throughout our fractured civilizations. Our enemy has united while we continued to separate, and that's why we're in the position we are in now. We all have a hand in this. It's not too late to take that weapon away from her, but we need to get it together now. There's no more time."

Vince returned to his feet. He walked over to Nero who Apollonir has decided to lay hands on, restoring him to full power. He extended his hand to help him up. "If we're going to die anyway, then...why not..."

[Andrew Bullock]

"Yeah, yeah...I get it," Andrew interrupted. He grabbed Vince's hand and was pulled up.

"It's about time..." Montai sighed. It was been YEARS since Vince and Andrew decided to work together. "So...what's the plan?"

"You need to evacuate this facility, as well as anyone else who isn't infected by now," Andrew insisted. "She may try to cave us in if she gets to the surface before we do. Vince and I have a higher chance of getting out if that happens. Your chance of getting out is very small."

"Okay then..." Montai accepted, knowing that she was a liability to both of them when it came to fighting Dasia. Before she left, she rushed to the men and gave them a big hug. "It's good to have you both back."

Her and Horridian ran to safety. That left Andrew and Vince there to chase after Dasia. "You know you can't use that trident ability anymore, right?"

[Vince Hardy]

Vince gave an annoyed look at Andrew for reminding him of the risks associated with Dragon Proudia, as if he wasn't already aware of it.

"You know you can't become broken with your dimensiokinetic abilities anymore since the key is gone?" Vince countered.

"Ah...what a team we'll make," Apollonir sighed.

The entire party ran after Dasia into the path. It was a cavernous terrain that had a wide, expansive space. The architecture was grand in scope, almost as if it was built by a master craftsman in Vestroia.

"Did you make all of this?" Vince asked.

"Clayf did most of this," Apollonir revealed. "But this..."

Apollonir did not pause in his approach towards the BT System to look at this, but he could see charred pieces of bodies at places where certain "checkpoints" were held. These spots could be seen by the statues of the Legendary Soldiers themselves that occupied a location. They came in pairs, each one on one side of the wall looking at one another.

"There is one Bakugan that made some form of security system here...and it wasn't any of us," he continued. "In fear of someone getting in here...we had familiars of ourselves stationed here to lay dormant until someone approached. Considering she could not remain here HERSELF...this was the best we could do. Unfortunately, this Bakugan of the queen's is more formidable than anticipated. She has decimated all of our guards."

"Andrew...where did you hear about this key...?"

[Andrew Bullock]

"Oh...what? A key?" Andrew was not really paying attention to anything that Vince and Apollonir were talking about. At the very least, he could answer the question pertaining to the acquisition of the God's Tear.

"Markus informed me of it's existence," Andrew started to explain. "He came into the facility to ask for him and I to join forces. I rejected him at first, but...when he told me that there was an alternative way to activate the BT System without having to cross paths with you or Noland...I became curious..."

"He started finding suspicious-looking guys around the area as he was ducking from the Silver Knights and Eden looking for him. When he realized that this was the cult Kyuki was targeting for the key, I was convinced to start targeting them as well, because I didn't want either side to revive whoever it was they were trying to bring back. We did some digging...and from the Admiral's comments about how the Six Keys were made...we were able to deduce what the God's Tear actually was, so I took it..."

"As for where Markus is now that we sacked that cult...I couldn't tell you."