Episode 15: I Declare War

[Father Tinsley]

"You told me not to tell, but I'll tell you anyway. I'm going to assume Markus has probed my subordinate Orloth, so I'll skip most of the story. While the Tribunal, Betadron, and Fury were banished, the terms of the Tribunal's banishment differed from Betadron and Fury's. In our case, we were to be banished until the world was about to end. Specifically, we were released about six months before the Collision started.

"As for your friend, it's clear I wasn't here to do that. I'll wait until you hear about the conditions of Betadron and Fury's punishment before I tell you that story. In the meantime, I'll give you a hint. Dr. Reyes was...very hateful..."

"And you'll be the same too. Once you fully realize the scale of the dysfunction in Eden that led to your friend's death, only then will you understand the level of hate you'll need to make them pay for it. After all...behind every great Bakugan...is an equally great...brawler..."

After saying that mouthful, Tinsley waved Kendrick off and took his leave. Someone as smart as Kendrick should get where this is going. Only thing is...he won't be able to stop it despite knowing what Tinsley's going to do to him.

[Kendrick Hardy]

Kendrick was definitely smart enough to understand what Tinsley was saying. Tinsley was associating hate with either Betadron or Fury. Kendrick didn't know enough about either of those two to determine which one he'd be a candidate for. Neither sounded pleasant.

After such an eventful night, everything calmed down and everyone went to sleep. This 'special day' that Tinsley was speaking of was going to be very eventful. Part of it is thanks to Noland and Edin for snitching on Jimmy. The FBI and ATF were conspiring in New York City to take Jimmy Kyudai into custody and shutting down his arms development. They were getting close to heading out around 9 am in the morning. That's when Jimmy's business opened up on the weekends, so it was the perfect time to get him so nothing was messed with.

Unbeknownst to them, Jimmy was already in the building. He stayed up all night. He didn't know that the feds were about to get him. He was tormented by what Noland had said to him about what he did. The thought that one of his weapons could've hurt or killed Alana messed him up. How many others could've been hurt? Was someone killed already and went unreported? Did anyone have the resources to look into it like the FBI or ATF did? How could he have been so naive...?

Then it hit him... Maybe, just to clear his conscience, he should say something to Noland. Maybe...he can redeem himself...if that's even possible now.

[Noland Hardy]

Everyone in the safe house was getting treated to breakfast by the agents. They had bacon, eggs, pancakes, you name it. Everyone had an appetite...except for Noland and Kendrick. Kendrick was the main one suffering here. The conversation with Tinsley from last night left him sick to his core. Noland noticed this and was constantly looking him over in one of the bedrooms.

"No...something's wrong... I know you're saying you're fine, but clearly, you're not," Noland observed. "Nothing's off about your body, so I know you're not sick. But every time I try to look through you to see if there's a spell or something, something inside of you is throwing me off... That's not normal, so there's definitely something wrong with you..."

[Kendrick Hardy]

Noland's constant surveillance pushed Kendrick over the top. He couldn't hold it in anymore. If he dies, he dies, but there's no way he can hide this information anymore.

"I know who the Father is!" Kendrick rushed out as if he held that in for a lifetime. He saw the mix of confusion and anger coming at him from Noland's stare. He had better clarify some things quickly.

"You're looking at a curse... If I tell you any specifics, I'll die instantly," Kendrick kept simple. "Please help me... I can't take it anymore... If he does anything else while I know about it, I don't think I could stay silent despite what might happen..."

[Noland Hardy]

"Anything else... Hm..." Noland backed off after hearing that. From that, he could guess that Kendrick knew about the Calvin hit at the very least. "We'll keep this between ourselves for now until you're ready to say it yourself... We don't want to make a scene out of this," Noland decided. "Better come up with a story quickly though. There are a couple of people on their way to check on us."

Allen, Alana, Jadyn, and Grandma waltzed in and saw both Noland and Kendrick minding their own business.

"Is everything alright in here?" Sandra wondered.

"Yeah. Ken's stressed from what's going on. We're fine now," Noland lied.

[Allen Silva]

Allen's first question would be 'Why?' since it's not that easy for Kendrick to be stressed out like this. All he could do was not ask any further questions, but it did make Allen curious... In other news:

"I'd hate to make you more stressed out, but...if you don't hurry up, Tank and Seiki will eat all the food," Allen announced.

"Didn't you eat more than they did and said you'd eat Noland and Kendrick's plates?" Jadyn mentioned with Alana giving a 'Mhm' in the background.

"Alana told me to do that, but I was looking after you guys. I got you covered. I saved you both plates," Allen claimed.

[Alana Cortese]

"Sure I did," Alana scoffed. "Anyway, come on. Even if it's just a little bit, you have to eat something. That includes you, Mr. Ultimate Warrior. You need your strength more than any of us actually."

"Mhm. That's right," Sandra agreed.

"Hey, so...random question, but I've been curious. Who's the guy with you that looks like Noland?" Jadyn asked.

"One of Noland's brothers from Gundalia," Alana lied. "He's very shy, but he wanted to see what things were like here without being a...you know."

"Oh... What a surprise." It seems Jadyn believed that very easily. "Oh hey, Kendrick, if eating's hard for you right now, I could make you a smoothie if you'd like. It's nothing like pancakes, but it'll give you all you need, and it's delicious too!"

[Kendrick Hardy]

"Huh...okay. I'll try that," Kendrick accepted.

"Great! You'll love it!" Jadyn excitedly hoped. After she said that, her BrawlX started to vibrate. She looked down at it to see there was a text message. "Huh...that's...very weird... I thought the agents said the firewall was setup so that we couldn't get anything..."

"...I don't know what that stuff is, so..." Sandra shrugged.

"So, forgive me if I'm in your business too much, but last night, Alana was telling me about Petra, and...well... I think you might want to see this before anyone..." Jadyn went close to Noland and showed him what she was seeing.

[Noland Hardy]

Noland didn't care about Alana talking about Petra. He did care about what he saw on Jadyn's BrawlX. His eyes bulged out of their sockets.

"What is he doing!?" Noland immediately asked about the video of Drake in the streets of New York City with a bunch of Giga Bakugan, the type of Bakugan Drazardon is. Only this time, he has a bunch of supersized freaks running all over the place, and Petra is the one staring him down. "And why is there a heart next to Drake's name? And why did he send this?"

"Oh...um...so...we're...talking...?" Jadyn could feel all of them looking at her like she was lying. "...Well, if he's doing what I think he's doing, we were..."

"He's arguably worse than Baalenoid... We already know what they'll do to New York...but if those things go outside of it..."

"Okay. So, I need someone to fill me in. I thought he was supposed to be good," Lian was led to believe.

[Tracy White]

"...Huh... I'm surprised you're still here, Noland... You'd be gone by now if it was one of us..." Tracy kept to herself.

Tracy was very observant of the lack of care Noland was showing towards the situation. Noland was the type of guy to immediately jump into the fight if he saw someone he cared about in danger. Alana being infected with a Maverick is a perfect example of this. So when Noland stays put seeing Petra faced Drazardon and a bunch of Giga Bakugan, it gave Tracy a bad feeling on Noland's thought process... Maybe he is actually listening to the agents and not intervening, or perhaps he's aware of Petra's strength and that she's going to be okay. Those are fair conclusions, but...as Tracy thought, Noland usually couldn't care less about that. He'd be there. What was he thinking....?

Even the agents were surprised to see them all still in the house when they frantically rushed in the room they were in to check.

"Oh...good... You're all still here..." one of them said in between huffs and puffs. "This seemed like one of those times where the main characters don't listen and go into battle anyway... Don't do that by the way. Please."

"What's going on over there?" Tracy asked.

"For some odd reason, Angels are dealing with Drake doing...whatever he's doing... We really don't know. This just popped off, and he already spawned an army of giant Bakugan. We have no idea why any Angels are in the area or who made Drake this mad." A nearby agent came by and whispered in his ear to add in some more details. "And there's two Silver Knights... Another Angel, so TWO Angels... And both Knights are the Andersens..."

[Markus Hederick]

"...Just my luck..." Markus sighed. He knew that if Alex dies, Noland's screwed. More importantly, Markus' main source of intel on what the Knights are up to will die with Alex. Granted, there's nothing saying that they're in danger of dying, but they've lived in safer, more stable times.

"Well, it's not like any of us are in a rush to go fight some evil, so...you're good," Markus concluded very early.

"You say that now, but there's always that one thing that'll force the main characters to leave... There always is... We know how this works," the agent claimed.

"You have two Silver Knights and Angels on scene. All four are capable - well, three since we don't know who the other Angel is, but I'm sure all four are fine. Probably Syd with the way this is going, so everything's fine..."

[Allen Silva]

"You know, that got me thinking. If it is Petra and Sydney there, and if - and I'm just saying IF - they get into trouble, would they get backup? After what happened with the you know what?" Allen asked. The agents gave him very mean looks. "...I'm getting the feeling I shouldn't have said that..."

"Wait a minute... What happened?" the agent asked.

"...Nothing..." Allen claimed to try to get himself out of trouble.

"Someone needs to start explaining. Allen didn't just make that up. We usually stay out of their way on most things considering their vast resources and power, but if something happened that would jeopardize that, we need to know. If someone other than us doesn't know already, that is."

[Alana Cortese]

"...It's a complicated mess, so long story short, they're in trouble with Eden, and there's a chance aid may be withheld if something were to happen," Alana summed up without going into too much detail.

"...Thank you for bringing that up... The New York divisions may not know this..." the agent grimly revealed. "Agent Butt, you know what to do."

"Wait...so is that why when Silver Knights or Angels engage someone, they're mostly alone? Why not help from the start?" Alana wondered.

"Different agency missions and regulations is the simple answer. As for the complicated answer, think of the Silver Knights as the FBI, HSI, DEA, and ATF combined, with military authority. Every world power has a Silver Knight branch. They're supposed to be Earth's 'FBI' if you'd think of it that way, except their focus is on country and worldwide threats. Because of that, they're able to take certain liberties that we can't. An example of this, suppose you said that you are Chrono Elite. In the case of the Silver Knights, if they kill you on the spot, they're good to go. If a federal agent or police officer does it, orange jumpsuits, congressional hearings, and riots. Same thing with the Knights applies to Eden's Angels. They have the freedom to make that choice too, but only if your actions are a substantial threat to a country's ecosystem and/or medical system."

"So if you were to help them fight Drake, and he dies?"

"It depends. If they killed him, fine. But if an agent or cop was a significant reason why he died, off to prison. You'd be surprised at what you can get away with as a military organization compared to law enforcement agencies. The fucking Army can use their own soldiers as test dummies for their new superhuman formula or whatever that shit is, and only get in trouble for it when a General almost nukes the continent. It's a circus, but it is what it is."

[Tank Stryker]

The ground violently shook from the battle that was going on over there. A vase in another room fell on hard wooden floor and shattered. Tank wasn't bothered by this in the traditional sense since he's used to this. What did bother him was the possibility that this could go very, very wrong.

"Something's not right..." Tank sensed. "And it's bothering me. A lot. Yes, Tracy made a fool out of Drake yesterday, but he's not weak. If we're talking one-on-one, he's still #1 in offense. Now look at what he's got out there now. Drazardon's ready to level the place, and there's an entire army of giant Bakugan ready to waste everyone and everything. It's not like having to watch us trying to stomp around in the middle of nowhere. There's a lot of shit in New York City, not to mention the PEOPLE. Yes, the four of them will probably put him down, but not before he runs through half of the state's population. I wish they put the same energy in going after one of us into stopping Drake. Unlike us, he's actually going to kill a lot of people."

"I agree, which is why we're gonna make this situation an exception and handle it ourselves," the agent revealed. "Because, if none of you know, the FBI and ATF are supposed to get Jimmy right about now. They're in the middle of a warzone...and the lack of protection they have right now won't stand. We got this covered."

[Andrew Bullock]

By 'got this covered', he meant that New York City was now swarming with federal agents. The Secret Service deployed several Freezers, Spidaros, and Akselas. Each are Secret Service specialties and are the best at subduing attackers that would go after any of the people they protect. They also had Iriscas stationed throughout the city. This species is related to Tentaclear. Unlike Tentaclear, Irisca can turn invisible. Their visual prowess is not as powerful as Tentaclear though, but that's okay. All they needed was a way to maintain visual without letting anyone else know that they are watching.

Andrew, Clarence, and Desiree observed the city from Secaucus, New Jersey. They were right across the bridge that went into New York. For now, they were on site as a last resort in case they were needed.

"You know, Drew... You don't have to be here right now..." Clarence suggested.

"I'm fine," Andrew claimed. "Can we just not focus on me and worry about what's going on over there?"

"Sure thing. But, I have to say this, and you're probably not gonna like it. I think we should go in there and make sure Jimmy doesn't do anything to his stuff. If you know what I mean... We're not supposed to be in there legally, but I dunno... I just have a feeling that Jimmy's going to do the wrong thing. He knows we're coming. Noland already told him he called..."

"Not a problem since I'm here. Of course, you'd know that if you stopped avoiding me all the time," Desiree complained.

"Why is she here?"

"She's the most valuable agent in federal law enforcement. Why not?" Andrew shrugged. That's a very strong endorsement.

"Awww. That's way too kind, really."

"I guess... Please tell me my job is to NOT be with her."

"She'll be with both of us at the same time. ...Not like that... You know what I'm saying. Anyway, if for any reason Jimmy has to be taken into custody, I can't be in there for obvious reasons. You'll have to go in there, Clarence."

"Yeah. I get it. So you'll take care of all of this?"

"As much as they'll allow me too. I'm not very popular with these people. So, we'll see how this goes. But, be careful. I'm not too sure what Jimmy's gonna do especially with what he has developed."

"I'll be fine. Just don't blow us up."