Episode 48: Truth and Tribulation

[Tank Stryker]

Everyone moved onto solid land. It was a blessing to be in this cargo dump than to be inside that frog's belly. It was something about that atmosphere that made Tank sick to his stomach. In fact, the reason why was apparent, as he was appearing a little green and dizzy upon being put out.

Seasickness wouldn't be out of the question, especially if Frosch continues to travel using Dive Mirage.

"You're not getting anything!" Tank comedically complained. "I keep getting sick when I'm in there, so no thank you! I'm not going back!"

"If our lives depend on it, you will," Gladion added.

"They can shoot at me all they want. I'm not going!"

[Markus Hederick]

Markus had a clever plan for travel that might make things a lot easier for himself and everyone else. With the Aquos frame knowing where the patrols are, it could use the ability Stalker Gargoyle to use a more powerful variant of the Dive Mirage ability. He had to be careful with this ability though, as there's a certain radius where this ability takes effect. Any terrain around this specific radius would be treated as water, so they'd sink into it. Doing this at an inopportune moment could be troubling.

So what Markus decided to do was have the Aquos Frame swim along the ceiling. In that way, he will not sink any patrols, and - with the shared vision the Aquos Frame and Gargulion himself has - can plan ahead as to what will be required to take them out.

Per Lydia's instruction, they were moving towards the basement. The Aquos Frame picked up on four xenomorph-looking creatures, two in the general hallway, and two near the stairs that they needed to access to get to the basement.

"The ones in the front aren't looking at the ones in the back," Gargulion commented to the Aquos Frame. "Move back there. Take them out first."

The Aquos Frame positioned itself above the two alien monsters. Gargulion possessed one of them. He had it get startled, attracting the attention of the one next to him. He had it look around the corner towards the steps, causing the other to do the same. The Aquos Frame then appeared on the wall next to it, leading to it getting shoved in there by Gargulion having the possessed one pounce on it. Both monsters phased into the "pool." The regular Gargulion got out of the "water" and plotted to get the other two.

"Nice. Two more," Markus complemented. The Aquos Frame simply moved to the floor near those two to sink them into the "water." That was all she wrote.

The two Gargulion traveled down the creepy steps into what is known as the basement level of the facility.

"Oh God...what is that smell?" Gargulion wondered, astonished at the foul stench.

The surrounding area was filled with crates. There was a forklift as well, but Gargulion didn't notice those details. What immediately got him were the body parts lying in the middle of the room. That certainly explained the horrible smell. There was even dried up blood around them, making this area extremely unsanitary.

"After seeing that, I'm glad I'm in your shadow right now," Markus said. Gargulion ignored the smell and started looking around the basement for any signs of Kyuki. When he decided to move, he had already heard a footstep. Knowing that, he phased back into the floor. He moved towards the walls where he could get a clear picture of the person and what they were doing, all without being detected. He moved towards the ceiling where he stuck his head out to observe what was going on.

"There's someone here, but it doesn't look like Kyuki, unless he's also a tranny," Markus commented on who he saw. "Similar lab coat though. Any idea on who I'm looking at?"

[Lydia Andersen]

Devilin had no major issues dealing with movement and elimination of her share of targets around these corridors. Using her space-based abilities she is allowing Lydia to move through the corridors safely as she can see through the walls, where alarms and security cameras are. They did not have many opportunities to use these space-based abilities, but they appear to be quite effective in hostile territory like this one. After taking care of several nuisance laser alarms Devilin and Lydia moved to the basement. Devilin entered the room in her stealth and started exploring for a bit in less-populated parts so she could find anything that might be of their interested. Lydia stayed in the corridor using Devilin's enhancement to observe the room through walls since she herself cannot become a shadow. "Dear God..." Lydia silently mumbles after seeing the scenery and taking in the stench of carcass- tears start to force out of her eyes in disgust. Unlike other people in the team she is really sensitive on brutal things like this and does not take it well. Using her laptop Link with Devilin she can hear her talk from afar. 

"Oh shit... not that psycho again..." Devilin says as she spots the woman in lab coat walk around. She appears to have blood stains over her coat and as soon as she reaches one of the open crates she pulls out a bloody cleaver out of it.

"It's... miss Fina Kyuki..." Lydia says in a bit of horror as she recognizes the woman. "She is genius in biology and bio-engineering. Well... was." Lydia explains. "While professor was still a Silver Knight he, miss Fina and... my father were ambushed by Chrono Elite. They nearly killed the professor, but miss Fina protected him and... died. We only recently found out professor revived her, but... as a result she turned into a psychopath." Lydia explains in disappointment. Miss Fina did not deserve such harsh fate- to be killed for a man like that and then to be revived just to do horrible things. "...she is way more dangerous in direct battle than professor himself, so we should better avoid her." Lydia advises knowing what methods this woman uses to achieve victory. Kyuki is not as intelligent as her in her fields of study and she makes battles against Kyuki look like a normal Friday. At that moment woman walks up to one of the tables where Bakugan orbs seem to be- she picks them up along with a device Kyuki used to escape from Maria and Markus. She clicked on it and vanished- she must be going out either to fight Hurranians, cultists or... something else...

"Hmm... Let's roll. This area doesn't seem any useful." Devilin says as she heads through the shadows towards the corridor leading to central area. "Agreed." Lydia says and follows. If they are lucky Kyuki will be in the next room and Fina will not return back to the lab. If she does... well... they might need Clayf's help much sooner.

[Markus Hederick]

Fina Kyuki...what an interesting development. If there was a possibility of her being more of a threat in battle than Kyuki himself, Markus saw little reason why he shouldn't assassinate her right where she stood. Since he wasn't by himself, and that there current plan was working nicely, Gargulion washed his hands of that situation and withdrew from that area.

"Okay. Moving on to the next room," Markus accepted without objection. "Someone needs to let Clayf know that there's someone in here that crazy. He can handle crazy."

"..." Gargulion looked at Fina for a bit before moving on. Anyone could tell that he wasn't feeling the vibe this woman put off. He didn't like what he seeing at all, but if the plan isn't to put hands on her, then he has to do what they say.

"I know, Gargulion," Markus sympathized. "Let's keep moving. If we split your power any further just because of this wench, Kyuki's going to have a field day with us when we find his punk ass."

"...Fine." Gargulion turned away without argument.

Gargulion and his Aquos Frame exited the basement the same way they came in. Before going back into the hallway, both gargoyles resumed their posts in the shadows and in the "water" respectively. Their next stop was the central storage area. If that area is anything like the basement, then any sensible being would have to feel disgusted by whoever has the stomach to resist this disgusting mess. The basement was absolutely putrid.

Finding those people wasn't impossible though, because the next batch of guards can apparently handle anything.

"Hold up..." Gargulion could see these enemies through the Aquos Frame. They were humans - most likely genetically-modified - that were walking through the dimmed hallways without a care in the world. Any regular human would be dead by now, and it's obvious to expect that Kyuki has no time for any regular human if he can't put his scalpel to good use. These were special humans and that's all there was to it.

"I'm not picking up on any signs of life on those...walkers..." Markus commented based on his understanding of Gargulion's life-sensing abilities. "They're a good representation of zombified humans, if that makes any sense. Dropping them in water isn't going to do much good if depriving them of oxygen won't work."

"It feels like the Aquos Frame is having its spiritual form tugged ever so slightly. They're countering me specifically, even if Kyuki didn't primarily intend for it. I can't possess something with that capability, at least not for long."

"We don't have to. Drop them anyway. Oxygen deprivation isn't the only way to deal with them. Too much of something in the body will kill. Force the water into their bodies until it can't take anymore. Even if they are biologically-modified, there has to be a function to process liquids."

"Okay. Doing it now." The Aquos Frame jetted throughout the hallway floors around the same time Gargulion was moving through at the same speed, making sure all technological devices that could pick up on what they were doing was shut down. When all of the modified humans dropped into the drink, the Aquos Frame deluged their mouths with water until their bodies shut down from the overload.

"Lydia, be careful on how you engage these humanoid creations. They will shave off your life energy if you get too close to them. Just a warning in advance. That goes for everyone," Markus reported.

The Gargulion arrived in a large room that was definitely more pleasant than the basement, but way more busy. It was like a factory.

"Neat. He has his own factory too. This is where the magic happens," Markus commented. There were some high-quality equipment in here. Metals, cranes, conveyor belts, and forklifts were spread out throughout the room in a nice, sensible manner. There was a sense of organization here, especially when it came to the next big element in the room: the small army of mechanical dragon-like Bakugan. They didn't appear to be active, but they had cannons attached to their back, hinting at a high-degree of firepower.

The Aquos Frame jumped to the ceiling to get an overhead view of the entire area. While he noticed many remarkable things in there, there wasn't a single being in there that yelled out "Kyuki" being in there. There was something in there though. There was a peculiar open crate off to the side, forgotten in a dark corner where Kyuki's darkest secrets must have been. Gargulion paid this particular crate a visit, and when he went inside, he was quite surprised at what he was seeing.

"I'm starting to get the feeling this is a main office," Gargulion expressed about this location. The reason why he said that was due to the items in there. There were plenty of pictures here. Gargulion could see a very well-done picture of the monster they saw in the basement. There were also decent pictures of the mad scientist himself, along with some of his proudest achievements. There was even one taken with a younger Maria. What stood out the most though - by every sense of the word - was that there was a picture off to the side on its lonesome of a young girl, and a bunch of childrens' toys were scattered around it.

"What a joke," Markus insulted. "Doesn't this girl look like one of the bodyguards we had when we fought the Spartans? She must be so ashamed of this whole situation. I'm beyond disgusted."

[Lydia Andersen]

After a lovely and picturesque adventure in the basement it was a turn to visit the central area. Just as expected, it was turned into a factory for mechanical Bakugans. Judging by the outlay of old T.E.C. building this was originally their factory, so Kyuki must have just changed the design and added a couple of new mechanisms. Lydia uses Devilin's 'wall hacks' to observe the factory and communicate over laptop and first thing that catches her attention are those mechanical Bakugan- they look so much like someone's partner at Silver Knights. "...Chaosdranoid?" Devilin mumbles as she observes the machines being produced here- they look a bit smaller than Chaosdranoid, but design is very similar. Once Markus speaks up about the crate and the bodyguard girl, Devilin goes to the exact same crate, so she could get an angle of that for Lydia's eyes. Devilin stares at the items so Lydia could see.

"...That is Keto..." Lydia says. "...Keto Kyuki. His daughter." She explains in a sad tone while looking at the picture. Just like in real life Keto looks quite lonely and has a stern expression on her face. Her fate of living with this madman was quite unfortunate. "Fina died before Keto could meet her. Professor did not care about Keto- he had enough respect for Fina so he did not hurt the little girl..." Lydia explains and then looks at the pictures of Maria being there. Maria has a long past with Kyuki and none of the experiences were comfortable. "Once he captured two Zenovia sisters it was Keto who secretly freed them." If it was not for Keto, Maria would have probably never been among the living and would share the same fate as Lydia's family. "Chaosdranoid is a mechanical Bakugan who kept an eye on her, but she... somehow converted him. I do not know how- Silver Knights call her Doom Dimension Bloodhound... apparently she has some item that lets her convert those who fell into darkness back to normal... She and Chaosdranoid escaped." Lydia continues to explain. These information are not known to every member of Eden because of uncomfortable outcome that might happen. If Eden or any other organization was to find out Silver Knights have Kyuki's daughter for a member they would probably send someone to kidnap her or assassinate her. "Miss Maria took them in. She looks after Keto like on a little sister now. Because of her origin, Maria had all her files disappear so her last name is kept a secret- it just says 'Keto'." 

Seeing as there is no other business they might have here Lydia decides it is time to move to the northern storage area. That area is also used to load cargo on ships. Previous storage area, where the hatch was, is used to (un)load cargo on/from submarines. It is weird how Kyuki's bases are full of these crates- it cannot be that he and Chrono Elite are the only ones in this. Lydia's suspicion goes first against people in the government- some have crazy ideas and corruption so they might be secretly supplying Kyuki with high-quality gear for his creations. Government sure has its ways of showing its stupidity- one day Kyuki will just betray them like he did to Silver Knights and Hurranians. "Devilin, put that crate in dimensional cage." Lydia orders through the laptop. Devilin touches the crate and it disappears- being transported to an area isolated from time and space. "Last area... he MUST be in there." Lydia says with confidence. Devilin begins to stealth through corridors and look around for more incoming monsters. 

Knowing Kyuki there always might be something dangerous they overlooked. 

[Markus Hederick]

Markus continued to look at these pictures after hearing Lydia explain what had happened in the past. A lot of thoughts were cycling through his head, especially the very important question of: why?

"What happened that could make a man do this? Was it Fina's death...or something else entirely?" Markus wondered. It sounded like he was starting to sympathize with the enemy, but he wasn't. His concern was Keto herself. What he just heard was likely classified information. If anyone else knew that, the ridicule might be horrendous. She may even be compared to Noland himself when it comes to who is a hero or who is a monster.

When the crate vanished, Gargulion was getting ready for the final area. If Kyuki was in there, this was it.

"Hey, Silver Knights, before this is over, I just want to say," Markus shared, "that after what I just witnessed in here, Maria may just be the greatest Admiral you ever had, especially in kindness." Markus was aware this could be used as a dig towards Admiral Asuka, but there was no way around it. Although Maria has shown more emotion than someone of her status would, it has led to some powerful things being done by her that wouldn't have happened otherwise. She overcame hell to be where she was. It was a tragic shame that she had to get deranked, and right in front of him too.

"Alright. Let's put this idiot out of his misery," Gargulion prepared. "Send Gladion to check these hallways in case we missed anything. None of them are going to be alive by the time I get to him."

[Tank Stryker]

Hearing the cue, Tank and Gladion showed up in the hallways so they could be ABSOLUTELY sure that neither Gargulion or Devilin missed anything while they were going in between rooms. Considering Gladion's finely-tuned senses are easily the best out of everyone else's, it was logical that he does it.

"For once - in a very long time - I agree with everything you said," Gladion mentioned. "Never knew that an assassin needed someone else to check his work. Isn't that your job?"

"Lighten up, will ya? This is Kyuki we're talking about. Anything could happen," Tank believed. "Still...I call first hit on Kyuki. That snotty look on his face when he appears is more sickening than Dasia's in EVERY WAY POSSIBLE."

Tank's eyes started lighting up in a bright blue color. Gladion's eyes followed as well. "Remnants of the Titans - Eyes of Prometheus," he activated. With this, he could scan the surrounding area to see what things will look like later on when everyone starts traveling through here. Using this in addition to sensing the presence of other beings, he could determine if there was anything amiss in this base.

"Weapons Cache - Aegis," Tank suddenly activated. Gladion was donned with the legendary shield and hid around a corner. That was because there were mechanical wasps and armored, mobile turrets that were heading in his direction. Using the foresight granted to him by the Eyes of Prometheus, Gladion did not need to look around the corner to see where his enemies were. He simply put the shield out into the hallway so it could petrify all of them. When the wasps were petrified, they fell down and broke into the turrets themselves, taking them offline without Gladion having to lay a finger on them.

"There are tank-like Bakugan and dogs near the shipment area. Other than that, we're clear NOW," Tank noted. "They might sniff you out if you're too careless, so watch for that. With that being said, everyone start migrating to the shipment area. He's in there. I saw him."

[Markus Hederick]

"Perfect," Gargulion celebrated with a sinister tone. "Get Skystar to replenish your reserves before you get the chance to hit him. Thanks a lot...partner."

"We have to be fast on this one if we're going to get past those dogs," Markus knew. "Check on those tanks first. I want those gone before the dogs. Depending on their positioning, that may change, but let's see."

"Will do," Gargulion accepted. The Aquos Frame did a loop around ALL areas they've been to just to make sure that they hit every surveillance technology being used in there. Once he did that, both Gargulion started moving towards the shipment area, which happened to be northeast of the central area. He didn't have to round the corner to know that Tank and Gladion's assessment was accurate. They could hear dogs in there.

"Peak." Gargulion looked around the corner from the confines of the walls to see their sticky situation.

"There are sensor-based tanks stuck to these walls that will shoot on demand if we come out of stealth," Gargulion noted. "Then there are these dogs that will catch our scent if we come out. We have to get them all at once, because Kyuki will be alerted to our presence if we don't."

"Yeah...he really did well on this one. Hm...this will be the only time where we HAVE to use the buff Maria gave us to pass through, but they're too spread out." Markus looked up to see that there were sources of light above them. That gave him an idea.

"Gargulion, swap the Aquos Frame out for Haos. We have to warp them away." Gargulion followed this instruction nicely. Both Gargulion backtracked from that area so they could enact the plan. The Aquos Frame was deconstructed and reformed into a Haos variant. When this happened, the Haos Frame merged with the sources of light as his form of stealth.

They went back to the dogs and tanks. Gargulion himself went under the dogs' shadows. He slowly rose up to merely tap them, stunning them with Hydra's power. At the same time, a halo descended upon the tanks from above to warp them out before they could fire on Gargulion's position. This required extremely precise timing that most people will not be able to replicate, but when the cause is for something like this, the odds can turn into positives. The dogs themselves had to be warped away soon afterwards.

"Hurry up with that. We can't keep them in there, unfortunately," Markus instructed. Gargulion came out of stealth. Markus also jumped out of Gargulion's presence. The halo zipped through Gargulion so he could deal with those weapons in an isolated space.

"Path to the shipment area is clear," Markus notified the team. He started to walk in there with the Haos frame out of sight. As soon as he got in there, he heard a constant electric current. He started looking around, puzzled just as anyone else would be. He wasn't puzzled just by the electric current, but the fact that there was EVEN MORE CRATES.

As annoying as it was, he had to use these crates to his advantage. He hugged them as he followed the noise of the current. By that time, a halo appeared next to Markus and re-summoned Gargulion. He tapped Markus to send him back into the shadows, and Gargulion soon followed, preferring to merge into the crates'. Both Gargulion could now get a clear picture of what was going on in there by the time they reached an expansive area where Kyuki could be seen torturing Kuzuha by having her lie in a bed of electricity.

"Everyone...he's here...and so is a bunch of...disturbing power levels," Markus reported. "Daniel is in here as well, but the doc is doing something to Kuzuha... I don't like how this looks..."

[Prof.Dr.Kyuki]

After that bullshit with BT System has finally ended and Fina took off with her last creation to deal with Triad Kyuki finally found time to deal with an issue he should have dealt with a decade ago, but was not so lucky to find himself in favorable circumstances. After long years both Daniel AND Virus are in his control, so he can research Deathcrown's powers in peace- that demigod definitely has an interesting DNA and it is yet to be found out how Daniel survived Deathcrown's DNA being infused into his body. As for Virus, his existence is of little interest to Kyuki since that mindless monster does not really serve bigger purpose than those other atrocities created for spreading chaos, but since he does not want to waste time on completely removing the chip he put Virus under his control as well. Surprisingly, Daniel fought mind-control really well... he must be becoming immune to it- one more reason to do research before he takes control of his own body once more. "You have dodged the bullet far too many times than I like to admit- but you have run out of luck, young man..." Kyuki says to Daniel who just stands still in there as mind control has finally become successful once Kyuki had taken manipulation to Level 3. Having that cursed Achron power and Deathcrown's DNA he could endure up to Level 5, no doubt.

"However... you..." Kyuki says as he turns to Kuzuha who is clearly in unbearable pain, but chooses not to let out a single noise that would show it. "Your knowledge of this world and Vestroia and secret arts among dimensions is beyond what I could have imagined. Having that knowledge for myself proves to be imperative... Even now you manage to resist Level 2 mind-control... for a Bakugan- that is quite impressive..." Kyuki says seeing how Kuzuha has yet no succumbed to mind-control. Level 1 mind control is one used on beings that do not have much or any intelligent thoughts- such as atrocities Kyuki creates on daily basis. Level 2 mind control is for normal-to-advanced Bakugans such as Kuzuha, but she seems to be able to resist it. She must have put some sort of spell on herself. Level 3 is for beings with paranormal abilities such as Deathcrown. However, with every Level comes punishment- electrocution. Some of them might not be able to withstand certain levels and their brains get destroyed. Kuzuha is in the border of Level 2 and 3, but seeing how she is being in such pain from Level 2 there is no doubt that Level 3 would cause her brain to die. And with the brain, all the knowledge. Kyuki could do it and then use measures that would recover the knowledge, but it would take quite a bit of time... weeks maybe... because Kuzuha seems to be very resistant to these tricks.

"But in the end... Your kind still populates Vestroia. If you happen to be a lost cause after Level 3 then so be it. I am willing to take the risk. Such a shame your brain will most-certainly turn off permanently... But you might make an excellent Sleeper." Kyuki says to Kuzuha. Term 'Sleeper' is used to refer to one type of his creations- beings that use supernatural powers and claim souls of their enemies. They are higher class than simple atrocities, but share some similarity with Stalkers. "Time to say goodbye." Kyuki says. His hand then reaches for a switch on one of the control panels- whatever he is planning to do to Kuzuha is going to happen right about now and it is not going to be pretty. 

[Tank Stryker]

Another shadow was seen aside from the one Gargulion had. It was a warrior silently making his way towards the scene to get a good angle. A crossbow could be seen in hand, so an explosive entrance was likely, given who was using it. Plenty of other shadows were seen flowing into the room as well.

Kyuki was getting very close to doing something horrendous, as is expected of him. His hand reaching for that switch was enough to tell everyone that if he flips it, something complicated was going to happen. There was no time for complications. All that was needed was for someone to keep it simple, and explosions are as simple as it gets. Something was going to go boom, and that something was going to be whatever contraption Kyuki has going on here.

"Shame you're not going to live to do that," Tank silently thought as he issued the command to shoot. An explosive-tipped bolt was shot from a crossbow. It planted itself on the console Kyuki was using to direct his scientific operation. The bolt struck the console and exploded with Kyuki in the blast radius. The console was heavily damaged - if not rendered inoperable - and Kyuki was smothered in this explosive showing of force.

[Prof.Dr.Kyuki]

The moment explosion went off control chip directly linked to the control panel malfunctioned as a result releasing Kuzuha from her painful shackles. She immediately used her staff to initiate teleportation and moved away from Kyuki and Daniel so she would not get caught again. Kyuki walks out of the smoke- his face impaled from multiple sides by the metal shrapnels of the control panel. Shrapnels are squeezed out on their own and Kyuki's face immediately regenerates as if nothing had happened in the first place. "Hmm... another nuisance..." He says silently. At those words multiple signatures begin to move around the room. Controlled Daniel, being one of those signatures steps in front and his eyes glow in red. Bloody-red fog begins to surround his body and ascend. Red magic circles begin to form around the room sealing away any means of escape for their intruders. Some morbid energy signature consisting of vast numbers of other signatures begin to move around the room creepily only to show its face once it walks out of the darkness- Traqdrach; that creepy creation is one of the worst Kyuki could have ever made. Made out of life essences of thousands of Bakugans- including ones of two demigods, Deathcrown and Legendary Elysian Dragonoid. 

"Have you been entertained... sneaking around, digging through files of my life and research, killing the distractions along the corridors?" Kyuki asks out loud. The way he said it, it sounds like he knew they were in the base from the very beginning. Sounds too specific to be a speculation on his side. He claps once and it echoes through the large room. With that signal two more signatures appear and their steps can be heard coming from darkness on the left and right. "It would be impolite to keep you waiting- after all, you have made such effort to come here. Might as well give you a proper send-off." Kyuki says. Two 'monsters' appear from the darkness and reveal their faces- these two now look quite a lot like humans. They do not seem like Stalkers- their walking patterns and facial expression are too human to be just a mere monster. Two of the intruders should definitely be able to recognize these monsters. On the left walks a well-built man with a wicked smile and on the right walks a woman wearing magician clothes and a giant hat. Andrew Andersen and Jennifer Andersen.

(Boss Theme)

[Tank Stryker]

Tank had a slight uncomfortable grin about Kyuki regenerating his face so easily. He had a glimmer of hope that what he did was a simple solution to his disgusting mug, but it turned out to be the opposite, as any rational person would expect of this monster. Perhaps that'll turn out to be a good thing for Tank in the long run. In this way, victory would be sweeter over a hard-fought triumph than a one-shot kill, something Markus may not want to understand.

"Oh yeah. Very entertained, especially on our way here. You get a 7.8 out of 10. Nice location, but too much water," Tank clowned, even though he was being dead serious. Gladion shot another explosive-tipped bolt towards the feet of the enemies. The explosion caused them all to disperse into groups, which consisted of: Traqdrach on its lonesome, Andrew and Jennifer together, Daniel on his own, and then the ugly duckling that is referred to as a Dr. Kyuki.

Gladion jumped off of the crate he was on and confronted these enemies head on. His main target right now was Daniel and Kyuki. Everything else - at least to him - was a distraction, just like the ones that were in those hallways. He pointed his crossbow at Daniel to prepare for a quick takedown.

"I told you before, didn't I? You and I have some unfinished business. The Hurranians won't even have a body to assimilate once I'm through with you!" Tank boldly declared.

[Markus Hederick]

Seeing as how stealth wasn't going to work that well anymore, the Gargulion broke stealth. The Haos Frame and Gargulion bravely walked up in front to size up their enemies up close like real men, unlike Kyuki for obvious reasons. The more preferable end for Kyuki would've been to assassinate him, just like he enjoys making lives miserable behind closed doors like his Eden counterpart, Dr. Reyes. This outcome will do just fine though, because now Kyuki gets to experience the consequences that come with his experiments. Sometimes, they backfire a lot more than the hypothesis predicts.

"Add one more person who will have a crack at you," Markus announces as he jumps out of Gargulion's shadow and reveals himself in front of this villain. Markus points directly at Kyuki, ignoring the other enemies completely. "This situation is a lot different from D.C. You're not running like a scared little bitch anymore. This ends here."

The Haos Frame broke down to merge itself back into Gargulion for a more complete Darkus Frame. With Gargulion's full power restored in its vampire-like body, Gargulion stared down Kyuki, awaiting his imminent destruction by his hand.

"You've dodged plenty of bullets yourself, old man," Gargulion commended, "But you won't be dodging me."

[Vince Hardy]

Frosch stepped out into the bright lights of mortal combat in his robed form, considering he didn't want anyone to hear a giant frog slumping around in the facility. He casually walked with his Aquos staff hitting the floor as he took each subsequent step.

"We meet again, professor. What a shame that is," Frosch stated. "You could've been such a great force for good, despite how unethical bioweapon research is. I guess that's too bad. It's sad to see a great mind go to waste, but you've brought it upon yourself."

Frosch glowed as his body transformed into his monster form. He stuck his tongue out at Traqdrach, taunting it before their second showdown began. This time, Stigma won't be involved, so Excedra will not be necessary to pacify this monster, or so they hope.

"You may not know, but it's usually bad luck on anyone who attracts me to their location. Good luck, because you'll need lots of it!"

[Daniel Andersen]

“Hmph… who are you, again?” ‘Daniel’ asks Tank who specifically challenged him to a fight. “Oh, now I recall- I might have killed someone you cared for. My bad; aim was to kill all three of you. At least one got into a wheelchair, so that’s a humorous plus.” ‘Daniel’ mocks without any sense of moral towards what has happened and what he did to Tank and his friends back when Belphenoid was an everyday topic. Tank was lucky to avoid death back there, but this time he hopefully has more than luck on his side because this monster is not as weak as it used to be. Red magic circles begin to spawn around ‘Daniel’ and bloody-red mist surrounds him- these are marks of Dragon-Demon Arts; power stolen from Deathcrown in a scale that Kyuki could do considering Deathcrown’s power is too complex to just be stolen without years of work involved.  

“Dragon-Demon Arts: Blood Blades!” ‘Daniel’ says and mist around him begins to thicken. Out of the mist four bloody-red blades spawn and begin to spin around the battlefield giving impression of them having minds of their own. 

Blades circle around Tank and Gladion at high speed and then they violently begin to cut everything their path as their speed accelerates and crush crates, pillars and forklifts in their path. It appears ‘Daniel’ does not care if even Tank gets hit in the process- after all, why would a merciless monster without sense of honor in battles care if he kills brawler in the process as well. “Here you have the opportunity to be reunited with your loved ones- just stay still and enjoy the ride.” ‘Daniel’ says and then begins to hover over the ground while being surrounded by the thick red mist. 


"Daniel..." Kuzuha silently says from the back. All she can do is stand back. But there might be a way to disable Virus... one that Kuzuha knows of.