Chapter 23: Scattered Pieces

When mortals interfere with forces beyond them, it never ends well as the Brawlers find themselves isolated and confused as they and their Bakugan needs to figure out what's happening before the other shoe drops.

The universe was a vast place, far beyond the comprehension of any being. Filled with wonders, worlds, and stars in numbers too great to fit on even dozens of maps, teaming with mysteries, wonders, horrors, and life. None knew where it came from, none knew where it would end, but despite its origins being shrouded in mystery and lost to time, it was balanced.

A chaotic, near-uncomprehensible balance, but a balance all the same.

Part of this was that the universe wasn't just a single universe, but more a collection of dimensions, coexisting, sometimes closer, sometimes farther apart. Most were teeming with all manner of life, from the smallest of insects to colossal beasts.

Humanity, the dominant race of Planet Earth, came to be in one dimension. The Bakugan, the dominant race of Vestroia, came to be in another. The Vestals, the dominant race of Vestal, also hail from a separate dimension.

These were but 3 of many, but like all, they were separate. Each dimension was independent from the others for billions of years, or at least…till they weren't, as through slow, natural, and almost random occurrences and factors happening on scales both too small and too big to be understood, dimensions came close enough that they would 'bleed' into each other, allowing species and life to cross the boundaries.

This happened between Vestroia and Earth many thousands of years prior, though no living creature, man or Bakugan, outside the Ancients, can explain what happened.

But in time, this slight fusion would fade as the dimensions would drift apart again, like 2 boats left adrift in the wide ocean.

It would happen again between the recently terraformed New Vestroia and Vestal. An event that, for better or worse, was natural. But the key is just that, it was natural, it was slow, and all the pieces, however small, came together to ensure the union, however temporary it might be, would have no impact on either dimension.

But life is arrogant, life is impatient, life can be selfish. Humans, Bakugan, Vestal, none were exempt from this horrible truth. None could claim to stand above such failures baked into the fabric of sapient existence.

It would be these 3 flaws, and actors from all 3 dimensions, creating a perfect storm. Naga’s arrogance in believing he could become a God, that he could ever hope to control such power; V.V’s selfish desire to destroy all that was left of Marianne to spite a woman long ‘dead’; Zenoheld’s desire to exert absolute control not just over his people, but on the Bakugan and New Vestroia as well.

None could have predicted what their vices could lead to; perhaps they wouldn't have cared, but 2 dimensions would suffer for it all the same.

Line Break

He recalled pain…a familiar, but also…foreign pain.

No…no, there was more. He recalled the weather; it was miserable, a violent storm that came out of nowhere, a typhoon which, if they had anything less important to do, would have forced them to remain indoors, or never land their base and remain submerged.

Then…there was the ticking, like a needle pricking his brain through his eye, but it helped lead them to it…to something he never would have imagined being there…why was it-

No, that wasn’t the only thing. He barely had time to think about it before Spectra and Gus, before the battle meeting 2 of the Legendary Bakugan. All the while, as they battled, the pain didn't stop; it just kept growing, spreading, throbbing as if every nerve was dipped in acid and smashed with a hammer.

Then…then came the scream, a sound that sounded like nothing he had ever heard, imagined, or ever wished to hear again. It was like the heavens and earth themselves had been struck by a beloved friend. The shock, agony, and heartbreak had overwhelmed them, and they needed to release a bellow that shook him to his very core.

With a jolt and a hiss of agony still flooding his system, Zero came to, lying on his side in the dirt.

"What…was that?" He slowly asked as he tried to make sense of the situation. Slowly, he felt around his body, making sure his costume was in place and that his mask, which had some dents and cracks, was still in place.

Breathing a slight sigh of relief to know he wasn’t disrobed or wounded, he turned to try and appraise the situation-

“Zero, wake up!” A familiar voice called out to him as a shadow fell over him, covering up the overhead sun

“Elfin?” Zero uttered as he slowly worked himself into a seated position, a hand helping him up with shocking ease.

"Oh, thank goodness, I've been calling you for 5 minutes, and you just lay there like a duck dinner," Elfin called out as Lelouch's mind finally finished its proverbial reboot, along with his senses. Looking to the side, he didn't see the others, but it seemed like the storm had passed, if only for the moment.

"Well, not all of us are are…" Now that he was wide awake, he could see a couple of things. The first was that they weren't in the cave anymore, but on a beach with a multi-coloured sky above, it carried shades of reds, greens, blues, purples, browns, and oranges, and in spots, pure white. The second was his gauntlet laid out in the sand, not too far from him.

And the third? Was Elfin and Preyas, who were kneeling to his side…both in their true forms towering over him.

"Yeah, I noticed too, thought you'd know what's going on." Preyas started with an awkward chuckle.

Zero groaned as he worked to stand, Elfin helping the entire time, treating him like a mouse considering her size. “I must have hit my head on something.” Zero muttered.

“Not sure on what, as you didn’t trip or something.” Elfin frowned as she looked as confused as he sounded.

"Or if he did, it was one heck of a fall, as do any of you know how we got here? This doesn't look like Drago's little island retreat." Preyas looked around the place, but didn't spot anything he had seen when he had arrived, and walked the entire perimeter of the island. In fact, now that he looked at the trees, they didn't look like the type that grew in the area.

“I…I remember the battle, and then things just went out of control.” Zero stated as he got his feet under him and secured balance.

“No kidding, I heard a scream which just…oh, that was intense, and then that gate thing just shattered.” Elfin shuddered as she never thought such a sound was possible, but it was.

"Shattered?" Zero asked, but then more of the battle and the interruption came to him. Baron and Ace had called attention to it right as the…that sound pierced into existence like an unholy birth of a devil. He had seen the thought elevator not open, but crack and shatter as it sucked up everyone, as the whole island seemed to fall apart. "No….yeah, I remember that, just…it should have opened up, but this isn't the first time one of those things sent me to another location."

"Nice to know we have a real expert then!" Preyas, perhaps trying to lighten the mood, joked.

“Less expect, more this is my 3rd trip, the second being something Wavern set up, which ended with me in New Vestroia to begin with.” Zero corrected, but that had him thinking, was this 3rd time similar to the 1st? Wavern mentioned she was stopping someone from doing them harm, and considering how violent and destructive this latest ‘trip’ was, he wouldn’t be shocked it was a similar actor.

The only question was how and why? He had been sent to another dimension and had been left alone for over a month. Did they trace him New Vestroia? Did they even have that sort of capability? To what end? Why scatter them? Were they the ones who had something to do with the Beta City dimensional controller being down?

“Speaking of, are we still in New Vestroia? You're not in your ball forms, and I can't imagine the battle still being on." Zero questioned, as this could just be the dimensional controller, but it could also be something else.

Both Bakugan glanced at each other, Preyas shrugging at Elfin’s silent question. “I…don't know, it feels like home before the Vestals showed up, but Elfin didn’t really know how to describe it.

"Also, not, it's really strange." Preyas was the same, as he had been around, like he loved to travel, and they did plenty of that fighting Naga, but this didn't feel like those times. If Drago were here, maybe he would have a better clue, but they'll just have to work with what they have.

‘My geass…’ Lelouch thought as he tried to activate it, but found that…it was already active. No, that couldn’t be, geass didn’t just remain active when he wasn’t willing…Mao!

Without warning, he dashed past Preyas and Elfin towards the waterline, ripping his helmet off his head. He stared into the clear waters for want of a mirror and saw his reflection. “White?”

He sounded confused to the two Bakugan who couldn't see it. Still, Lelouch's reflection stared back at him, one eye the same violent colour it had been since the day he was born. Still, the other carried the mark of geass, only it wasn't pink or light red as he had seen many times before, but white, or close to a mosaic of bright, lively colours.

“What’s white?” Preyas asked as Elfin, who knew better, approached her brawler and knelt to try and be closer to his height.

"Is there a problem?" She asked as Lelouch needed a moment just to catch his breath, as none of this was making sense. In fact, now that he thought about it, wasn't his body being torn apart from the inside by whatever event left him on some random beach? Why wasn't he in pain still? Hell, he felt better than ever, enough that he wouldn’t mind a swim with-

“Where’s Sirenoid?” Lelouch gasped before he growled, How could I have asked sooner?

“We…don’t know.” Elfin frowned, as she was just as worried and nervous about the senior Aquos Bakugan as he was. “She wasn’t here when we woke up.”

“Did you look?” Lelouch asked, to which Preyas who responded.

"We didn't have much time; we only came like 10 minutes ago and were worried about you." They tried calling out earlier, but nothing, none of the other vestals, or Bakugan responded.

"But it's all good, right? She's gonna return like all Bakugan do…right?" Elfin asked more than stated, but Lelouch just didn’t know. Too much was happening, not enough answers.

So he just fixed his helmet back into place, frowning as he could hear sections creak from the damage. “…Let’s look around, the sooner we have a stable picture, the better-!”

“Zero!” Someone very familiar and furious called out.

Line Break

As Mira slowly came to, soaked for some reason, she made a decision: next time she saw Zero, she was forcing him to talk about what the hell all of that was.

As Mira contemplated how far she'll need to stick her boot up the masked man's ass, she recalled those last few moments before it all fell apart, literally it seemed. She and Zero had been battling Spectra and Gus, even gaining the help of Drago and Preyas to try and secure a major win against the top brawlers in the Vexos, but then…

“Then those ruins up and imploded,” She sighed as she recalled that horrible scream, like every living thing and object had just been electrocuted, and as the island continued to shake as the storm somehow managed to grow in intensity, it was like the land around them was being torn to shreds as the giant carving of a door just exploded, releasing more howls as it started to suck things in, the space around it cracking up, as if reality was glass and some kid had kicked a ball too hard and sent it straight through.

“Mira, are you okay?” Wilda asked, gently plucking Mira from the water when he came to, he held her in his arms.

Mira blinked in confusion before she realised the situation and sat up, still in Wilda's hands. “Wilda?”

"Yeah, a little weird to be back to normal, believe it or not," Wilda explained, as he had half expected to be back to ball form when their battle was forcibly terminated, but it seems that didn't apply.

“But that…is Beta’s dimensional controller down?” Mira questioned it; she was happy about this, but it didn't make sense.

As Wilda let her down, he stood to his full height. “I mean, maybe, a storm like that was probably not what it was designed to handle. But it just feels…weird, can’t really put my finger on it.” If he had to describe it, it was the air; it just…felt off.

The biggest thing that was off was the multi-coloured sky, as it reminded him of how Vestroia once had been, back when the 6 attributes were separate realms within Vestroia, but why was that aspect reverting? Was it related to that shattering stone gate? Was it Wavern? Drago mentioned that Zero chose her.

Mira sighed as she was thinking of similar things, but she had to focus on one issue at a time. “How long was I out?” Looking around, she couldn't even tell that a superstorm had passed through here, so she couldn't have been down for a short while.

"I can't say, woke up not too long ago, but the weather seems calm, you wouldn't even tell a storm passed through here, if this is the same island," Wilda noted as she glanced towards the treeline and saw…nothing out of the ordinary. They looked like regular tropical trees, tall, plentiful, and healthy, with no leaves on the ground or uprooted anything.

“You’re right, the place should be wrecked after a storm that strong, but it looks fine.” Mira frowned, as that wasn't a good sign. She was sure the place would look like a Bakugan battle had just raged through it, and yet, the beach looked as pristine as those ads for summer resorts.

“You think the others are close by?” Wilda asked, as he hadn’t seen any sign of Drago either.

“I hope so, but if this isn’t the same island, it’s going to take a while to get back to our base” Mira replied, as if this wasn’t the same island, then trying to get back to their base would be a challenge as it was parked on a island that didn’t even exist, if she was suck on an island which also didn’t exist…

Reaching for a side, Mira looked away, conflicted as she thought more about how they ended up here. “Wilda…you saw her being sucked in, too, right?”

She didn’t need to specify it for Wilda to realise who she was talking about. “Yeah, not sure if the rest were also taken or what, but we can’t worry about that right now.”

"Give me a second, I'll contact the rest," She sighed, but raised her arm, happy that her gauntlet was still secured to her person, even if the screen was cracked and the thing looked banged up. Activating it proved easy, but when she tried to contact the others, she was in for a disappointment.

“Anything?”

Mira shook her head. “Static, whatever happened messed with the communication, or my gauntlet’s just busted.”

"Let's hope it's the first and it clears up easily enough." Wilda proposed, and Mira wordlessly agreed. But with communication out, they would need to search for the others, which they would find easier to do on foot, thanks to Wilda.

So, when he knelt and offered a hand to her, she hopped onto it, and he took a walk. A single one of his strides covered more ground than she could manage even if she ran, though she missed her bike as it was even faster.

To get a better view as they moved, Wilda bent his knees and fired off his volcano boasters, achieving a rocket jump, and what they saw was not what they expected.

"This definitely isn't the same island; it's massive," Wilda uttered. For as far as the eye could see, it was nothing but forest and trees. He could make out a few hills, even a large watering hole and lagoon, but he couldn't see anything that said they weren't alone.

"I can't even see the other end of it; this can't be close to where we were battling, not by a long shot." Mira agreed with him, as the island was big, incredible, but that also meant it could take a while before they found anyone.

Landing, they moved along the coastline, trying to spot anything in the distance, such as the mainland, a settlement, or a ship. Still, for the first hour, nothing came up. Mira was fiddling with her gauntlet by this point, trying to get it to work as Wilda handled recon when he spoke up. “Mira, I see something.”

Shifting her focus, she didn't see anything out in the distance, but when she turned her attention down the beach, she spotted…a wreck? It looked like nothing she had ever seen before; the closest thing it could be was a Bakugan. “Is that…some sort of mechanical Bakugan?”

As they grew closer, they could make out more of the wreck. It definitely was humanoid, but on the small side for a Bakugan, hardly 7 meters tall. It was clearly artificial, with a metallic body and what seemed to be a 2-person cockpit, left wide open. The unit was covered in scratches and scorch marks and was missing its right arm from the shoulder. 

Wilda picked the unit to support it more, and Mira could see that it had strange rollerblade-like things on its feet. Was it to help move around? And what about the spike-like protrusions coming out of the back?“

Weirdest one I've ever seen, but what is it doing here? Doesn't even look like it would belong to Gus or Spectra." She noted that, as if it were some sort of new mechanical Bakugan or something that harnessed the power of Bakugan, its colour didn't match Subterra or Pyrus. She hadn't seen any sign of Shadow. “We should still investigate.”

"We should be careful," Wilda advised as he returned the downed unit to where it picked it.

Perhaps for the first time since she came to, Mira offered a ghost of a smile as she playfully flexed her bicep. "I'm not worried, I have you with me, and I'm not so easily taken down."

"Careful, your playful side is showing," Wilda advised, but with a chuckle to his words. Still, it faded as his attention returned to the mysterious creation. “Is this even a mechanical Bakugan?”

“Did my father make this one as well?” Mira wondered aloud, placing a hand on it, before they heard a twig being stepped on. Immediately, she and Wilda turned their attention to the treeline, Mira equipping a blade card into her gauntlet, activating its energy blade as Wilda loomed large over the shade-covered trees.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Mira called out, as she wouldn’t just let anyone get the jump on her, certainly not a weasel like Gus.

“Listen to the little lady, you don’t want me going in there and looking for you!” Wilda called out, as he wasn’t sure if he could use his abilities, but he wouldn’t need them when he could swing his hand through the trees and handle just about any none-Bakugan which could be waiting.

"All right!" After a few tense moments, a response came. Out from the treeline came a strange-looking fella, definitely not a Vestal with eyes like that. He was tall, wearing a uniform of some sort, or maybe a pilot suit? He looked a little beat up, but nothing serious. At his back was another, a green-haired woman in a skintight white suit, one which looked…familiar to Mira, at least in style.

“All right, you don’t need to get all aggressive.” Urabe finished, his eyes not on the chick who could be Kallen's age, with the honest to Kami energy blade, to the giant Oni she had backing her up. Seriously, the beast was massive, well over three times the size of a monster like Gawain and built like it, benched 20 tons as easily as Urabe could bench 20kgs.

“All right, just who the heck are you, and what are you doing here?” Mira demanded.

"Lady, we could ask you the same question. We were busy with something when…well, the world kinda broke." Urabe didn't know how else to put it. One minute, he and Kallen were fighting against an Lancelot that seemed more determined than ever to crush them. They had managed to damage it, and the next, C.C. was screaming, and the skies seemed to warp and shift as the island trembled.

He didn't recall much of what happened between then and waking up in the Gawain, unable to contact anyone, unable to even figure out where they were. They had been looking around when they spotted the giant approaching, so they did the smart thing and hid.

Wilda hummed, but then pointed towards the damaged Gawain. “Is this yours then? What is it?”

Urabe blinked, while C.C. remained silent and observed. “You’re…joking, right? You don’t know?” Urabe questioned, as sure it was a new model, but it was clearly a knightmare type.

“Do we look like I’m kidding around?” Mira countered, as she wasn’t in the mood for games. She needed to find the others, get back to the base, and grill Zero for answers on just what they had been pulled into, and who was ‘Wavern.’

Urabe, well aware of her blade and the Oni who could crush him like a grape, just answered the question despite his confusion. "It's a knightmare, sure it's a bit on the big side, but it's still a knightmare."

Mira frowned, tasting the word on her tongue as she supposed it was scary enough; maybe it looked more intimidating when it wasn't near totalled. “A…nightmare…is that sort of new mechanical Bakugan?” She now needed to wonder how they got their hands on it, as there was no way her father would have just given these 2…whatever they were, something like that.

“What’s a Bakugan?” Urabe's question now threw them for a loop; Mira almost stumbled in shock at such a stupid… no, she had to be calm about this.

C.C. finally spoke up, happy she was able to clean up the blood from before, though some stains still dotted her collar and sleeve. She was just as lost as Urabe, but she had a feeling this was a good thing…in a sense. "Perhaps it would be best if you lower your weapons so we can speak. It seems that we're both not even reading the same book." She gestured to their 2 unknowns.

Mira and Wilda gave each other a look, a quick, wordless conversation between them. “If you try anything…” Mira relaxed, deactivating her gauntlet and pulling the blade card out. Wilda didn’t have much he could do to not appear threatening, so he took a step back and gave their…Mira would call them civilians, space.

Urabe took a quirk of relief as immediate danger had passed. "Okay, so…to be clear, it's not a nightmare, well, it's not officially called that, but a knightmare. But, do you know about the Black Knights?"

Again, Mira and Wilda shared a glance, but one that lacked any recognition of the name. “Should we?”

While C.C. suspected as much, Urabe groaned into his hand. "Okay, this can't be real. You seriously haven't heard of us? You'll need to have lived under him for the last few months to not hear about us, we're huge!" Even with them lying low, the news kept talking about them, if only to talk up how Cornelia was finally closing in on them and how their days were numbered.

Urabe was pretty sure they were known even in China and the E.U., and yet this girl and her Oni just didn’t know them? How? They even spoke perfect Japanese, even if they didn’t look it.

“You some kind of musical act or something?” Mira proposed, as she had heard of a few music groups who used Bakugan in their acts, though she didn’t have much time for pop culture these days. Maybe her father was tasked to make one for that, as unlikely as that sounded.

As Urabe looked like he was about to have a stroke at the insanity of the question, C.C. spoke up. “I doubt they would have, Urabe. Just look at her eyes, she’s definitely not human.” C.C. called out as Mira's gaze looked almost emotionless. C.C. would compare it to being under the effects of geass, but there was far too much life and will in those eyes, as well as the lack of rings around the pupils.

"I'm not, I'm a Vestal, and I can tell you two must be these…human things," Mira confirmed, as she had heard plenty of words to describe Vestals, most insults from more angry Bakugan, but nothing that sounded like human.

Urabe wished he could just sit down and pretend this was a fever dream. Maybe he had stayed up too long, or acted something weird in the mess, but no, this was real…far too real.

“Great, we go out to finally bring back Zero and end up meeting an island on what could be a damn alien world, dammit, I wish we had Kallen with us, she had the stupid tracker!” Urabe complained, as they could be in another dimension, which was not the one Zero was in, for all they knew!

Urabe missed it, but C.C. spotted how both the rock creature and the alien humanoid flinched in recognition at Urabe's words. Mira frowned, but also relaxed a little.

Wilda was the one who posed the question. "Hold on, did you say Zero? You wouldn't happen to be speaking about a guy with a helmet mask thingy, who wears capes, never reveals his true face or name?"

Urabe looked on in amazement and also some hope. “You’ve seen him?”

Mira scoffed. “Seen him, he’s been a member of the Bakugan Battle Brawler Resistance for a while now. And he seemed to know a lot more about those stupid ruins before all of this went down.” Mira grumbled the last bit, but Urabe and C.C. heard it all the same. C.C., upon hearing that last part, could put the pieces together. Considering what she felt before things just shattered, she would bet 6 months of pizza that she had an idea of what happened… and who she'd shoot if she had the chance.

"Let's compare notes. It seems we're closer to locating our wayward leader than I first thought." C.C. proposed, as they seemed one step closer to finding her arrogant partner and getting back home.

Line Break

“I swear, if this becomes a regular thing, I’m going to murder someone…” Kallen grumbled as she moved the Guren through the thick brush of the forest.

She was grateful that, unlike on Shikine and Kamine, she wasn't sent to…wherever this island was without her knightmare, even if it was damaged. The last thing she wanted was to be caught with her hands done by Suzaku or someone else.

Still, that didn't mean she didn't want to throttle Suzaku, as she knew this had something to do with him. If he hadn't been so pig-headed, so quick to assume they kidnapped Lelouch, she could have probably gotten past him, and she and C.C. could have reached the Thought Elevator in time.

But no, he was his stubborn self, and slowed them down enough that the world itself had the time to conduct a test run for what felt like the end. The only way she could explain waking up and seeing the sky being very much not the sky it should be. The island she was sent to this time was far larger and more diverse than Kamine, as it seemed…pleasant for the lack of a better word.

Past the palm trees that lined the forest's edges, she found trees better suited to the Amazon, moss and shrubs everywhere; much of it seemed alien and confusing to look at, such as the giant mushrooms the size of a car. Along with that was the water,  loads of water. She'd crossed several streams and a couple of rivers and was making her way towards what looked like a lake. The only thing missing was animals; despite regularly scanning for them, she hadn't even picked up a rat or a bird.

It made the place feel…unnerving.

"Of course, my compass is shot, and I have no means to contact anyone…God, I hope they're okay," Kallen frowned, as her Guren’s cutting-edge navigation was out of order, constantly shifting directions and locations. Her radio was just static.

She was worried for the others, as who's to say they didn't get ambushed by whatever Britannians also got sent with them. Or they were sent by themselves, or maybe it was just her; she couldn't know.

But she held hope, as she had one thing going for her, that being the Naagvatra. Despite all the crazy she's seen and experienced, it was still functional and tracking… poorly, but that was good.

'This place has more of the stuff which makes up wherever Zero went to, but it's not too much, so it has to be leading me in the general direction.' Kallen guessed, as she had thought, she would use this to navigate the C's world, ' C.C. mentioned, but this worked too. If nothing else, she had a knightmare to ensure that if someone tried to get in her way.

'It couldn't have just been a chance that the same place had another weird happening, but why is it so different from the last 2 times?' Kallen pondered, as that seemed… she didn't know what to think. The first time around, it was that dragon; this time, it was just a screech from Hell itself.

She was knocked out of her muses when the IFF blared, an unknown was coming towards her, and fast-and from the sky?!

"Crap-!" Kallen shifted her focus to the skies, and her eyes bulged when she saw it wasn't the Lancelot, or some other flying knightmare, but a giant, red-scaled dragon.

“Stop right there!” She called out, ready for a fight but hoping it wouldn't come to that. She had already burned through more than half her energy filler handling that moron; she wasn't betting she could take on a dragon with what she had left.

Lucky for her, the dragon didn't seem interested in a fight, or at least, they wouldn't start it, as with amazing strength, its wings opened up, slowing its descent enough that when it touched down, it was with as gentle a thud as a 15-meter-tall dragon could accomplish. “So, you can speak, machine.”

“M-machine? I’m not a machine!” Kallen stuttered out, offended at how dismissive the dragon seemed to be.

“Could have fooled me.”  The dragon retorted as Drago was…not impressed with whatever product of Vestal science this little thing was. Was this meant to confront Bakugan? How? It looked like it had already been put through a fight, and he hadn't found a single trace of others yet.

“I’m not, you overgrown salamander!” Kallen shot back, against reason but very in line with anger; she opened her cockpit and allowed herself to be seen by the dragon. “See, it’s a knightmare, I’m just piloting it!”

Drago blinked, but his surprise was mild, as it being manned by…well, not Vestal if those eyes were any indication, explained why the machine was so tiny. "You don't look like a Vestal. What are you, and where is this place?"

“I’m human, not whatever a Vestal is,” Kallen retorted as she closed up her cockpit once more. “As for where we are…I was going to ask if I’m honest.”

“I’m afraid I’m as lost as you. As for who I am, I am Pyrus Ultimate Dragonoid, Drago.” Dragon introduced himself, though now it was Kallen’s turn to be…unimpressed with the name.

“A little arrogant to call yourself the Ultimate, isn’t it?” She heard dragons were greedy and loved hoarding gold and treasure, and it seemed she met one that was arrogant as well.

Drago's tail flicked to the side, smashing into and through a tree. His gaze was unamused. “It’s a fact, one which I will gladly demonstrate.”

“Forget, I’m not here for a fight.” Kallen groaned as she could get into a fight with a dragon. The idea of defeating him and claiming the title of dragon slayer was appealing, but this wasn't the time. Besides, that one Dragon aided Zero, so maybe she could convince this one to do the same. “Kozuki Kallen, a member of the Black Knights and Zero’s ace.”

That seemed to work a hell of a lot better than she thought as the dragon, who seemed irritated and almost as fiery as her, paused and grew…well, not friendly, but more open to talk. “Zero, you’re aligned with that masked man?”

“You’ve seen him?” Kallen asked, " As this was good, this was really good! She didn't care if it implied Lelouch was spending his time with irritable dragons while they searched for a means to get him home; it was a lead.

“Yes, we were battling against the Vexos, but then…that gate ruins thing opened-no, self-destructed. I feared that Naga had done something and unleashed the Doom Dimension on us."  Drago muttered the last part, a sense of fury and dread in his words as he spoke about this.

“Doom Dimension? Naga?”

Drago sighed. “You wouldn’t know of them, just know both are not to be taken lightly and should be avoided at all costs. Still,” He looked about the forest, at plants and shrubs he didn’t recognise, at a sky which seemed alien and unknown. “The air of this place…it’s nothing like New Vestroia’s, but it’s also similar to how Vestoria used to be. Perhaps that is why I am free to move in my true form, but if Naga did in fact have a role in this, then it can’t be anything good.”

“Could we go back to the part where you know Zero? We’ve been looking for him for over a month now.” Kallen asked, as this other stuff was important. Still, she wished to focus on something she could understand and, depending on the answers, punch.

“Then allow me to accompany you.” Drago required.

Kallen thought about it for a moment before she agreed. “I don't have any issue with that; it might be a good thing to have a dragon with me.”

"Good, I still have questions for him, and I intend to get answers," Drago stated, as Wavern…she would know more about this, and if that Zero was her chosen champion, he might have a means to figure this out.

“You and me both," Kallen grumbled, as hopefully their masked leader would be more willing to share things than C.C., who treated secrets like a cat did its fish. “Hey, I think I know where-!”

She couldn’t even finish the statement when they both heard an explosion in the distance. “A battle?” Dragon asked, as on an island as deserted as this, had 2 Bakugan decided to fight?

“Oh shit, that’s in Zero’s direction!” Kallen called out as she looked at her scanner, and while not super accurate, it was pointing in the very same direction. Another explosion followed, along with what seemed to be a burst of air and…was that literal darkness?

“Of course, the Vexos must have found him first," Drago growled as he took to the skies once more, but not before scooping up the non-Vestal and her toy.

“H-hey!” Kallen complained, but Drago focused on not dropping her and getting there fast.

“It’ll be faster if I carry you, just be prepared for what comes next.”

Line Break

“Where…am I?” Sirenoid thought not for the first time as she swam through the waters. She could recall the battle, how the ruins seemed to collapse.

She also recalled being sucked in first, as not being in battle meant she couldn't hold on like Elfin and Preyas could. She was pretty sure she saw Baron, Ace, and their Bakugan being pulled through as well, but it got too noisy and bright to be sure.

Next thing she knew, she was back to normal…and utterly surrounded by water. When she surfaced earlier, she didn't see a hint of land, nor could she figure out where she was, with the sky as alien to her as Vestals were to her home.

"Oh…of course…of course this comes with downsides," Sirenoid grumbled, her grip on her lyre staff tightening as she thought about the silence, about just being…on her own like this. It wasn’t pleasant, and she would correct it.

So, she picked a direction and had been swimming far beneath the waves for maybe 30 minutes now. She had moved quickly, and it seemed to be making progress as she could make out the sea floor, which only happened in the last few minutes, so she had to be getting close to land.

“First things first, I need to find them, but that means I need to find land. The island couldn't be too far off, but how did I…?" As she broke the surface, she had been expecting to see the island once more, but she didn’t.

Instead, she saw a massive landmass, a giant, icy-capped mountain in the distance, with a city of steel and glass built along the coastline. It must have looked like a marvel on most days, but not now, as it looked like a gang of violent Bakugan had passed through. Buildings half destroyed, sirens wailing as they tried to fight the many fires she could see; part of the structure the city was built on had slipped and slipped into the harbour.

“A city, but it looks nothing like Beta or any other Vestal colonial.” Sirenoid wondered, as she looked around, but didn't see any other Bakugan, so what caused this? Was it just a natural disaster? Approaching, she worked not to be seen as, while she didn't know, she didn't want to find out the hard way that whoever lived here wasn't friendly.

As she did so, she spotted a sign leading into one of the piers.

‘Pier 7, port of Tokyo Settlement.’

“Tokyo Settlement? Wait…am I…on Earth?” Sirenoid asked aloud, as…this would be Lelouch's home, where he lived and built himself up. It would mean that the wrecked city was populated by Britannians…

It would also mean his friends were somewhere in the madness, and with how things were going, she wouldn't be surprised if they didn't end up hurt or killed in this calamity.

“Lelouch…this better be worth it.” Against her better judgment, she swam closer, aiming to locate this…Ashford Academy, and at least check up on it, ensure it wasn't gone, maybe pass a message to Nunnally before heading back out to find her human and Elfin.

Line Break

It has been a long time, but we…are…back! New year, new chapter for Code Bakugan Brawlers, with part 2 now in production(i.e. I’m working on it once again) but much like my commissioned work, this one would also have a sort of hard limit as right now, I got material for around 10 chapters, I would have had more but juggling several stories and writing out ideas for WIPS splits one’s attention.

Anywho, I mean to say that unlike my other works, which have gone well past 50 chapters and are going strong, this one will only go on to at max, 44 chapters as I’m mainly working with New Vestroia and won’t go into the 3rd instalment and above.

Still, with the new thing I'm working on, where I write stuff a whole week early, it gives me more time to cook each chapter and go over it for errors and mistakes, as God, my previous chapters had so many. I'm still finding new ones to remove.

As for the chapter, well, with how much set-up I did in the last chapter, just be prepared to see some insane stuff moving in.