Episode 3: Reunion...?

[Tonya Hardy]

Tonya nodded to acknowledge what the Emperor was saying. Her body shifted to show that she was intending to walk away, but she didn't do it without verbally accepting what was happening.

"Sure," Tonya replied. "I...understand if I don't talk with you all again. This whole situation is really bad, so... Yeah. I get it. If you need to see me, I'll be here doing what I usually do..."

She quietly exited the throne room without looking back. She slowly walked back to her office within the castle. When she got there, she opened a drawer at her desk. She wiggled her hand through it for a few seconds, and then she suddenly stopped. From there, her hand trembled as she pulled out a picture of herself and Vince on their wedding day.

"...Damn it..." she mumbled. "...I'm so sorry..."

[Noland Hardy]

Noland watched his mother walk out of the room with a saddened look on his face. He seemed to understand the situation and the feelings involved. Kendrick's reaction had some merit to it, but from what they've all been through, it was really unwarranted in his eyes.

That's when his sadness turned into anger. His eyes slowly turned to Kendrick's direction. With a stern expression and an agitated hand resting on the kid's shoulder, Noland expressed his thoughts on what happened.

"You're going to apologize to Siege for what you said and how you said it. That's not good. At all," Noland seriously instructed. "We're going to talk about this whole deal with Mom in a moment. She's alive, and it doesn't seem like she's a bad person. Let's try not to push her away. She's been through enough too."

[Rashad]

The Emperor lightly nodded in agreement with Noland, but didn't make it too obvious to where Kendrick would notice it. Still, Kendrick's viewpoint was valuable though. It showed their mother that people were hurt by her actions rather than being left in suspense.

Now that Tonya was out of the room, a Darkus Bakugan came in there in his ball form. He looked around the room for a bit to see if he was supposed to be in there or not. Considering that he didn't see the woman, he was good.

"So...we good?" the Bakugan asked.

"Eh," the Emperor grunted. He really had no idea anymore. "You?"

"Went about as well as the last one. He's pretty upset," he answered.

"Alright. We'll call it a day for now. This mess took enough out of us already. Did you do all of the routine checks on our energy fields?"

"Just did it."

"Good." The Emperor then focused his attention back to Noland and friends. He didn't want to talk too much about their business when they are here waiting for the opportunity to head out again. "I apologize if all of this information is bothering you all. I didn't know if we'd meet again, so I wanted you to know the truth."

[Noland Hardy]

"It's fine," Noland quickly answered. "We've survived long enough without our biological parents, so - at least to me - it's just a sigh of relief that one of them is still around. No harm done."

"..." Drago lightly sighed when he heard that come out of Noland. It sounded sad to hear that he's become tolerant of these unfortunate circumstances.

"Hey, this seems off-topic, but I'm curious. Do the Neathians have powers? And...how did the Gundalians get theirs?"

Noland thought back to what Queen Serena told him about the supposed "myth" of Neathians turning into Gundalians through use of black magic. He wanted to know if the Emperor had anything to say about that considering Tracy could end up turning into something hideous if she keeps on using the said magic.

[Rashad]

"Hm..." The Emperor mumbled. This was an odd question to ask since most people aren't all that interested in knowing about those things, but Noland must have a reason for asking it.

"Neathians and Gundalians are basically the same being. Some of the old books my grandfather had says that Neathia and Gundalia were one until a certain point," the Emperor began to clarify. "As for our appearance, that comes with how we've adapted to our respective environments. We can fire electric blasts because our skin are good conductors, and our nervous systems produce more electricity than your average being. The Neathians aren't so fortunate, but their bodies are in excellent shape and they have high vitality. Their physical capabilities are unmatched."

"There's a strand in Gundalian and Neathian DNA that allows us to commune with Bakugan on a spiritual level. That's how we get our power. Gundalians usually carry specific abilities related to their most trusted partner. Neathians only receive a minuscule benefit from this. Gundalian emperors and Neathian queens do have more potent abilities such as being able to take people's powers away, but I'm reportedly not allowed to tell you all about that for right now."

[Noland Hardy]

"..." Clearly, nothing was mentioned about what Queen Serena said, so...

"I'm guessing that whole 'legend' was more of a message rather than it alluding to something," Noland thought. "Dark power will simply turn you into something you're not if you're not careful. That must be what she's trying to say... Still...if they used to be one race, then something about that must be true... Why am I even thinking about that...?"

Noland then suddenly spoke up to break the silence from his thinking. "That explains how I'm able to do what I can do then..." he realized. He was about to ask another question, but Drago had one of his own.

"What's with the radioactivity near here?" Drago asked in a direct manner.

[Rashad]

"...Not surprised you were able to pick that up..." the Darkus Bakugan said. "Oh, I'm Dharak by the way. I was so caught up in business before that I forgot to introduce myself. Pleasure to meet you."

The Emperor sighed when the radioactivity was brought up. It wasn't something he liked talking about, but, for the sake of being transparent with dangerous substances...

"I'm sure the Neathians have told you about who is causing that to happen. They complain about it a lot," he started off. "His name is Killian. He constantly emits nuclear energy due to his Rubanoid. As sickened as I am about this, I have to keep him contained in an energy field Dharak created so that he doesn't kill my people on accident. I've been trying to train him to get that under control, but it doesn't appear to be working."

"He's gotten powerful to the point where he could go nuclear himself," Dharak added. "The two of us are on edge about this, so.. There are times where we'll get antsy. We're trying to help a friend and save the whole planet."

[Andrew Bullock]

"...You tell us that NOW?" Andrew asked in a flabbergasted tone. "Jesus Christ... Is there anywhere in the universe where we can't get blown up?"

"So you finally say something..." Krakix silently spoke.

"Anyway, this has been a nice talk and all, but I'm more than ready to go back to Earth, get wasted, and forget that I was ever kidnapped," he claimed. "How much time until the cooldown on whatever ability that was wears off?"

"Ten minutes," Drago answered.

"Did any of you call your goddess so we don't have to run around like this?" Andrew sternly questioned.

"So...about that..."

[Tank Stryker]

Wavern, Naga, Genesis Dragonoid, and the Dharaknoid were in a huge argument on Equilibria ever since Tank and Gladion went to silence the usurpers. Naga and Dharak were extremely pissed.

"So...what you're saying is...you sent one of your Legendary Soldiers to do your dirty work so we don't destroy anything?" Naga summarized.

"I did no such thing," Wavern claimed.

"You bullshitting little fucker!"

"Language!" Genesis yelled out.

"Shut up!" Naga responded.

"Say that again?" Genesis said in a threatening manner.

"You're all so immature," Dharak claimed.

"Shut up!" Wavern told him.

"What!?"

"Um...gods...? Help...?" an Equilibrian tried to interrupt.

"I don't see how this is a bad thing anyway. You still get to destroy something, but the whole planet? You two take things way too far!" Wavern claimed.

"But we CAN destroy the whole planet though. We're within our right to do so! Do I need to pull out the handbook?"

"...There's a handbook?"

"Yes, mortals. There is." Dharak held out his hand and materialized a giant, golden book. The cover had the Bakugan logo and the words, "Official Handbook of the Gods." "Let's see here..." Dharak materialized some glasses for him to wear as he scrolled through the pages.

"You...don't need those..." Naga commented in reference to the glasses.

"Page 2019, paragraph 3. If a universe, planet, race, society, or anything that falls under those terms poses a significant threat to a universe, planet, race, society, etc., AND intends to wage unnecessary war, they may be destroyed under your discretion; however, IF they are repeat offenders, discretion may not be used."

"So there you have it," Naga happily concluded.

"Um...I have to admit... They sound pretty reasonable here..." one of the Equilibrians commented.

"Shut up!" Genesis roared.

"That's not very nice, Mr. Dragon," Naga clowned. "Anyway, take your Legendary Soldier off of the planet so we can wipe these fools out once and for all!"

"No," Genesis refused.

"Why not!?" Dharak roared.

"Page 2019, subparagraph to paragraph 3. You may not destroy other gods or mortals in an attempt to destroy the troublemakers listed in paragraph 3."

"So leave!"

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"I didn't think we'd have gods this incompetent..." one of the Equilibrians sighed. This comment made Genesis lose his temper. He pointed towards the group and had them disappear in a bright, rainbow light.

"Genesis Dragonoid destroyed someone? Ohhhhhhhhhhh," Naga gasped.

"Wait until Mom hears about this," Dharak planned.

[Tank Stryker]

While the gods were misbehaving, Tank and Gladion were nearing Equilibria's castle. He had already scouted the area and figured out the way with the least amount of people in the way. There was a sparkling white owl high in the sky that was keeping watch of the area. It circled the castle to get a feel for its surroundings.

What it saw was disturbing for most eyes.

The Chaos Rulers were being subjected to powerful chaos energy that was literally ripping them apart from the inside. Lucio and an unknown female were standing over their subjects.

"It's as I expected. They're too weak," Lucio concluded. "We'll kill them if we expose them to too much energy for long."

"Their bodies may adapt to this energy if we lower the intensity," the woman theorized. "Let's try that."

"No, we will have to stop the procedure for now. Their bodies already suffered from the exposure. A smaller dose will do them no good. Make sure Worton is aware of this."

The owl was peering closely from above the glass ceiling that covered them. It was about to go somewhere else to figure out a better entrance, but before it could...

[Bruce Shoumetsu]

Several large starships entered Equlibria's atmosphere and loomed over the planet's most important resources, one of which was the castle itself.

(Invasion)

The main ship wasn't distinguishable, so it wasn't clear who was coordinating the attack. What was clear was that someone was definitely leading it according to their comms.

"We're in range, sir!" one of them said.

"I can see," a man said with a stern-sounding voice. "Drop Zerushion on top of the castle."

The same ship that this man was in had a shining star drop from it. Within like a second, the entire castle was blown apart by the appearance of a giant, multi-feathered phoenix. It then screeched loudly, which emitted a blinding light that completely negated all of the chaos energy.

"Keep Vampyrion and Legendryion on standby. My squad, let's get in there," he ordered. Him and several soldiers were beamed down to the site of the destruction.

[Tank Stryker]

Someone emerged from the rubble by throwing the broken pieces of bricks and shit that were on top of them. Gladion was that someone, and he was extremely upset. He had his arms crossed at this being's interruption and just shook his head.

"What the hell, dude..." Gladion sighed.

"Those weren't even the real ones, asshole! You could've killed someone, the main ones being us!" Tank yelled.

Tank's outburst must've provoked the phoenix, because it looked in their direction and shot a white sun in their direction from its mouth. Luckily for Tank, his sleight of hand skills were warm.

"Ability activate! Helm of Darkness!" Gladion's helmet changed color schemes. Now, it was gray. Without delay, Gladion turned invisible and could not be seen through ordinary means. Tank also disappeared. The sun blast ended up hitting something and blew up immediately, which came as a surprise to Zerushion. The blast was not meant to explode...

[Bruce Shoumetsu]

"That was...unusual..." one of the soldiers said.

"Bruce, whoever that was had tremendous power," a Darkus/Ventus Bakugan commented on Gladion's power.

"I only felt that uneasy feeling from two other people," Bruce recounted. "One of which was the Allen fellow we brought along. This man looked human, so we shouldn't jump to any conclusions."

Considering what he just said, Zerushion calmed down and ceased its aggression. Bruce then tried to reason with Tank to show that it was a misunderstanding. "If you aren't already gone, I apologize for what just happened," Bruce claimed. "We're only here to silence the Equilibrians and to return a human where he belongs. We could work together."

[Tank Stryker]

"Oh, why didn't you say so before?" Tank replied as he revealed himself...except that he and Gladion were behind the entire Olympian squad and were in position to launch an attack. Gladion was inches away from making contact with Zerushion while Tank had a pocket knife pointed towards someone's neck. Considering they gave themselves up, Tank and Gladion backed away quickly to avoid doing anything on accident.

"I was gonna just lone wolf this one, but I don't mind the help as long as I get off of this damned planet. I have better things to do with my time than to solve another planet's problems," Gladion stated.

"Speaking of which...I have questions. Who are all of you, and are you and these Equal motherfuckers enemies or something?" Tank wondered.

[Bruce Shoumetsu]

"We're Olympians, and yes," Bruce simply answered. "The phoenix next to me is an Olympian god. We have another called Vampyrion. Long ago, the Equilibrians attempted to use that one to wage war against us and another world called Advent. We used the gods' power to pull us and them to another universe to deal with them away from other worlds. That was a long time ago. Now we're back where we started, and these idiots are up to no good...again."

"It doesn't seem like Xecarlos is here, so things should be a little easier..." the Darkus/Ventus Bakugan noticed. "All we'll be doing is killing the bastards and we'll be on our way."

"Genesis Dragonoid and the Dharaknoid are on the planet, so I'm trying to be quick. If I knew they were here beforehand, I wouldn't have called this attack, but now that we are, we'll just do what we need to do," Bruce said. "Here. I assume you want to see them."

Both Allen and Gorem were beamed down to the surface so they could reunite with their comrades. "Kenta, I'm going to check underground. If you can meet me there, that'll be great. Zach, try to appease the gods until we're done. We can't let them take this from us." With that being said, Bruce and his partner started moving south.