(a Grimm Side Stories) A Test of Power and Fear

[Atom]

"Grimm, I'll make my explanation short. You are the last being who would be a Negative Shifter." I looked at him, directly in the eye. "And, here's the reason why." I reached into my pocket again, and pulled out a small disc. I flipped it up, and it expanded. It landed on the ground, and holographic screens appeared above it. Six images pulled up. "Just as there are Six Attributes, there are Six Gene Types." I pulled the red one forward. "Alpha Gene." I pulled the green one forward. "Beta Gene." Then the blue one. "Normal Gene." The brown one was next. "Origin Gene." The yellow was next. "The fifth is Omega Gene." Then, an image of a pure black gene came up. "And this is the reason why you're not a Negative Shifter. That is a Negative Gene, a creation of the Destruction himself. Every Negative Shifter has one, and all bend to his will. Well, almost all." Another image pulled up, this time of a person. "This is the only known Negative Shifter to ever resist the Destruction's power. His name is" I caught myself, "was, Clate. I accidentally purified him while first defending the Bakugan Reality. When I put on my second bracelet, the blob of darkness represents him. He was once on my team, as the Subterra Brawler. Reginas was his partner." I felt a few tears well up. "After the Destruction destroyed Reality One, he sacrificed himself to save me, and to give me a chance of defeating the Destruction." I pulled out my bracelets. "He's the reason my bracelets activated, and gave me access to the Creation." I clenched my hand, and felt a single tear fall. "He was the best person to have on a team. He never gave up fighting, always pushing further ahead to help, to prove himself. We attempted to revive him, but" I wiped the one tear that fell, and I closed his image. "I guess I failed at making it short, huh?" The images of the Six Gene types reappeared on the screen, arranged in a similar way to the Attribute Wheel. An image of Grimm pulled up. "Now, don't get freaked out, but I have a compilement of data I've been able to get about you. It includes all of your actions since I've known you, every chaotic outbreak caused by you. It even has your daily activities logged. However, the most important part is that I have your Realital Gene catalogued." I tapped the screen a few times, and pulled up his gene scan. "As you can see, you only have a green, a Beta Gene. No black gene, not a Negative Shifter." One more image pulled up. "Oh yeah, and a Chaos Seed. I've only seen one, and I couldn't get a good image of it." I zoomed in on the image, and the scale compensated. "As I'm guessing you already knew, they're tiny." I finished zooming in. "As they're not restricted by typical laws of physics, they're compact enough to slide through the Tachyon Field around a Reality without being impeded, and can easily get inside of a being." The scale showed that a Chaos Seed was only about 10 Femtometers across. "And, that's about it." Grimm's image vanished, followed by the genes, and the chaos seed. The disc shrank down, and I bent down to pick it back up. "This thing has a database on every Reality Shifter. You, Ivan, Blaze, Pheobe, me, Azion, Tom, or as you know him, Flipper, Chaos and Cassie. You've already seen Clate. To top that all off, there's everybody within the Infinity Matrix too." I stood back up. "If and when you gain better control of your gene, and as soon as I can neutralize any potential threat of your Chaos Seed, I can show you beyond this Reality. The Original, Digimon, Magic the Gathering, Pokémon, Gravity Falls, Legend of Zelda, Mythology, anything you can imagine exists." I pocketed my device. "So, any questions? I'm assuming you have lots." I looked at Serperios. "And you too, I bet. Yes, assuming Grimm gets control over his Gene, it's more than likely that you'll be capable of Form Change, just like my Bakugan. Except Reginas, that is." I thought back to Clate, and everything he did for me. "Grimm, depending on how much you share with me, you may be the first to know of my biggest secret, aside from Reginas. That is, unless you've already figured it out." I grabbed another similar disc from my pocket, and tossed it to him. "Here, a list of all the different genes, their abilities, and it also contains everything I've recorded of you. All of our battles were recorded as well, if you want to try and figure out some way to beat me." I smiled. "Now, about that trial."

[Merchant]

"Well great. Why did I have to be fair. Unlike you I can keep things short. First I have a sister. And in my little incident she was left with a sad burden. I may have lived an uneventful life, but that doesn't mean it will be the same as others. Also if we are taking the test we best leave the Grove" Grimm with Atom walks up to the exit. Both say their thanks as Serperios gets recalled and they both leave. The entrance hides itself and now the two are in the wastelands that is the base of Devil's Mountain in Wyoming. "I think this is a fair place. To start lets head to the tops." Grimm snaps his fingers and with a bright flash. He and Atom are at the top. Vertigo is common in this situation. "So now what do we do?"

[Atom]

I quickly reoriented myself, and shook off the vertigo. "Well Grimm, that depends. Which test do you want to do? There are three, one of Strategy, one of Power, and one of Creativity." I grabbed my Gauntlet, and pressed a button on it. "Okay guys, follow my signal."
"You've got it Atom!" Said Leo. The comms shut down.
"Tell me which one you want to take, and we'll get it done."

[Merchant]

"Well I didn't know there would be options. let see how about power. Ah yes power." Grimm teleports to the other side battle ready. "Explain the rules test master."

[Atom]

"The Test of Power is quite simple. Take a regular battle, and give it absolutely everything you have in you. It's just a way to gauge the power that you have. There's just one minor problem with your test. Insignificant, really." I grabbed a small, black device from my pocket. I lifted it up, and it opened revealing a small piece of glass. "You see, Grimm, I've noticed something about you. You use an amplifier to augment your abilities. I've just never been sure what your amplifier was." I looked through my device, and saw a mass collection of power in Grimm's mask. "This test is designed to figure out what power you have yourself, not what kind of power things can give you." I closed the device back up, and put it away. "So, I'm going to have to ask that you disable the amplificating power of your mask, so I can properly give you your test. If you need to know the reasoning behind it, I will be more than happy to explain it to you, especially seeing as we still have a bit of time before my Bakugan get here." I grabbed my Bakumeter, and put it on. "Also, one last thing. Each Test is different for each person. Some require a special kind of trial. I don't know why, but I'm pretty sure you're one of those people, Grimm. Don't ask me how, unless you want me to give you an explanation that'll melt your brain from the inside out."

[Merchant]

"grrrr. Fine" Grimm snaps his fingers and the pressence he gives off goes down dramatically. "Bakugan Brawl. Rise and Ruin. Serperios!"

"I'm not alone though." Goes Serperios. 

"Rise and Fly Amastu. Rise and lay waste to our reality Gaia-Gigas! Burn with Black Flame Gore Magala.!" A storm over head forms. The prescience of Gaia-Gigas the storm only gets worse. "It's time for action!" Grimm creates a silver sword with bandages wrapped around it. The he is also the sudden bringing the sword down in a diagonal ark on top of Atom.

[Atom]

I quickly drew my sword and parried his blow. "Whoa whoa whoa! Slow down!" I backed away. "I still need my Bakugan to get here." I checked their location, and grimaced. "Looks like I need to stall. Perfect."

---

My Bakugan were flying through the air, most in ball form on Leo. "Can't we go any faster?" Asked Pyreon. "I mean, who knows what Grimm's doing right now to Atom?"
"I'm trying!" Said Leo. The high-speed winds battered him. "Unfortunately, I can't! I'm already going my lateral terminal velocity. I physically can't go any faster!"
"Well, why don't you shift into your base form and use Hyperspeed?" Asked Slight. Leo immediately glowed, and changed from Infusion Leonidas to just being Leonidas.
"Best plan I've heard all day." Leo glowed, and sped up drastically.

---

I parried another blow from Grimm, and then shouldered him back. I took a few quick steps back, and grabbed something out of my pocket that I shouldn't have been able to fit into it. I pulled out a shield about a third the size of my body, and held it in front of me to block Grimm's next blow. "It's been a long time since I was forced to use a shield. Not bad, Grimm. Not bad at all. Unfortunately for you, I was trained by the greatest Swordsman across all Realities!" I blocked another blow from Grimm, and rolled behind him. I shouldered him with my shield, and knocked him off balance. I hit him again with my shield to knock him over.

[Merchant]

Before Grimm falls over he teleports and re-appears with a thrust that Atom deflects perfect. Grimm's attacks lack their usual oomph. Grimm warps away to give himself distance. He takes his and drags it across the flat of the blade. The blade gains a glowing glowing energy and grew in size to that of a great sword. Grimm then nicks his thumb against the blade. Turning the beautiful blue glow. Into a blood red. "Atom I hope you are ready. For you see. . . " the blade glows and when swung a blood red energy wave gets blasted at Atom ". . . . I can't afford to hold back." 

"Please don't die" 

Grimm stumbles a bit. "What was that? No matter I focus . . . "

[Atom]

I sighed, and my Attribute Wheel began to glow. "If you can't hold back, then neither can I!" My sword glowed as well. "I call upon a Weapon of Old!" Storm clouds brewed above, showing an ominous presence. "I call upon the Legend of Zelda Reality! I call upon the Four Sword!" I thrust my sword into the sky, and lightning struck it. My sword glowed brighter, then changed. I let my arm drop, and focused again on Grimm. "You've got another thing coming!" I jumped to the right, then another me jumped to the left followed by two going forward. "The Four Sword is a special sword that spits its user into 4 equally powerful beings."
"We'll be fighting you effective immediately." Said one of the clones, sounding eerily like Darkus Atom.
"Oh yeah, in my case, it brings out 3 of my other forms. This time, it's Pyrus, Ventus and Darkus me that were brought out." All four of us surrounded Grimm, and held out our shields. "I just need to stall a little longer!" I thought.

---

"We're almost there!" Said Leo. He stopped glowing, and began slowing down. "Just another minute, and we're there!"
"Good thing." Said Vladitor.
"I'm guessing they're fighting right now." Said Janthide. "I can only hope that Atom is winning!"

[Merchant]

"Great one was bad enough. Who new a video game would be its own reality right." Grimm says with sarcasm so thick a spoon is needed. "Fire, wind  darkness, and light. Think me think." Grimm closes his eyes. With that time feels like it slows to a crawl. Grimm opens them and lunges at the original Atom. Only for the sword to disappear and impale Darkus Atom. Grimm using the distraction Uppercuts Original Atom into a portal where he reappears only to be kicked into pyrus Atom only to go into another portal and land on top of ventus Atom. Grimm walks over to darkus Atom and pulls out the sword. "Miss direction. Teleportation 101."

[Atom]

"It's a good thing we're being based on Video Game logic than Real World Logic." Said Darkus Atom as he got back up. "Zelda 101, you always have hearts. And we happen to have more than just a few." The rest of us got untangled and back up. I raised my hand.
"I call upon Triforce Heroes!" Eight lights appeared around us, and turned into grey statues. "Another tip. You need to figure out which one we're in at any given point in time." Each statue gained color, and began to follow our movements. "We're only in one statue at a time, but all three work together. And with four of us, there are eight statues, which brings us up to a total of 12 adversaries for you." I heard the beating of wings and looked up. "Looks like I've stalled enough. Just need to make sure you don't do too much before they arrive." The one set of statues grabbed each of us created by the Four Sword and lifted us up on top of their shoulders, then the other statues did the same, creating four totems of three Atoms. They surrounded Grimm, one on each side, and blocked him in.
"Don't make us go insane." Said Pyrus Atom. "We've already spread ourselves far enough. Also, keep in mind that we can make each of the statues wield a Four Sword, which would split them up into four each. Four times eight equals thirty two, just to clarify. Add that to the four of us, and you're outnumbered 36 to 1."
"Now, be patient." Said Ventus Atom. "Our Bakugan will be here momentarily. Then, we can begin. You didn't give us a chance to explain that it's just a regular brawl."
"Yeah." I agreed. "Your amplifier just made it difficult for me to gauge your actual power, which makes it difficult to see if your trial is working."

[Merchant]

Grimm blinks for a moment. "One two . . .  One two . . . Okay from now on we must never clone ourselves. Also normal brawl. Atom you forget who I am. On top of that. This is a gene test. Worse case scenario is that it becomes unstable and changes into something. Now if you don't mind. Please bring yourself back together before. Well. To late." Grim flicks one of the totems. Then it starts to stumble. Then like dominoes the rest collapse. on each other. "Hey at least it's funny." As the laughter of Grimm and Serperios can be heard.

[Atom]

I picked myself up. "I guess I deserve that one." The dopples vanish, and my sword returned to normal, making the clones vanish. I sheathed it, and the sheath vanished. "Now then, run of the mill battle. Me against you, one on one, etc." Leonidas landed behind me, and my Bakugan all floated up to me.
"We got here just in time, didn't we?" Asked Janthide.
"Actually, I ended up in a sword fight with Grimm."
"You did what?" Asked Reginas.
"Yes Reginas, you heard right. A Sword Fight. It's a good thing one of my main Realities is LoZ, otherwise I wouldn't have had as easy a time delaying." I looked up at Leo. "You ready?"
"Absolutely!" He stepped forward. I looked at Grimm.
"Okay Grimm, who's going first?"

[Merchant]

"Glad you asked. Before you can make it to Serperios. Defeat a young dragon. Gore you're up." Gore Magala leaps onto the battle field. "The sword fight will be a warm up compare to this."

[Atom]

"Yeah, it probably would be for us. Also, I just did some quick math. Say I use Attributic Split first, then summon the Four Sword. 24 of us. Summon 2 Dopples for each, we're up to 72. Take the 48 Dopples, give them Four Swords, and then we have a grand total 192 Dopples. Plus the original 24, that gives a grand total of 216 Atoms. If somebody needed a one man army, I'd probably be the one asked to help. Anyways, back to the battle. Remember, not a standard regulation battle, go nuts with the abilities, but don't destroy anything, okay? You can go first."