Lot longer of a chapter, also a little fun fact, this was supposed to be just one chapter and not that long of a story until it well, took a life of its own. Sorry I'm a little half dead right now…..zzzzzzzzz….just want to sleep and escape. Enjoy.

Chapter 3: A healing process

A little further along a path formed and just ahead Drago spotted a rock overhang of a cliff face that was large enough to house him and certainly shield them both from the rain. He swiftly ducked into the slightly dried area and found a flat dry spot to lay the unconscious teen on. Drago carefully made certain to lay him on his back so that he could try and work on fixing his wounds.

He paused realizing that he might be too big for the job, but if he were to revert back to ball form how would he protect him if a predator was to happen by. He checked Dan over noticing all the bruises and scratches. Most of his wounds were minor and the only one worth worrying over was a large gash on the side of his left leg. It must have been from when the insectoid caught the teen with his second swipe. Drago shook his head of the images playing in his mind and refocused on analyzing the gash. It ran from the bottom of his hip bone to the end of his thigh. Drago cursed himself for not being quicker and then remember that blaming himself would have to wait.

He then went to the thoughts of how was he supposed to bandage the boy if there wasn't any dry cloths around him much less anything that was dry. He was almost at a loss when another thought came to mind.

"I need to build a fire." Drago murmured as he gathered some broken branches and twigs.

He was very careful as he let a small ball of fire form in his mouth and he aimed straight down at the gathering of wood surrounded by rocks to keep the fire from spreading where it shouldn't. He made sure the fire was close enough to the human since being the creator of the fire he hadn't much need to make use of its warmth.

The only cloth available was the boy's clothing and it was all soaked. Drago began to think over his options until he came to the conclusion that they were lost in some unfamiliar jungle with no idea of where a civilization would be and if they knew how to heal humans, nor what kind of beasts roamed this world. He was left to only one choice and that was to remove Dan's jacket and slice it up into pieces for bandages. He gingerly unzipped the jacket and removed it slowly for he was not sure if there was damage done to the boy's arms that required immobility. Once it was off he rung out the water and blood that had soaked it and wiped off the mud then hung the jacket on his tail tip to hold over the fire so it would dry out. While it was drying out he checked the boy's temperature and panicked a little at how chilly he felt to the touch.

"Okay, Drago this is no time to panic. Just calm down and think this through." He murmured to himself as he tried to think of ways to raise Dan's body temperature then the thought occurred, "Of course, my dragon breath. Just got to make sure I actually don't flame him."

Drago chuckled sheepishly at the thought and then leaned forward until his head hung above off to the side a little. He felt the fire rise in his throat, but held in back only allowing the warm breeze it created to evacuate his throat and simmer out onto the boy. He did this for a good fifteen minutes until he tired from holding back the fire and felt that the jacket was no longer damp feeling. He pulled his tail away from the fire and took hold of the jacket and then laid in neatly on the ground and in his head, mapped out what part he would use for bandaging.

With ease, using one claw, he cut the material into different parts. He cut the sleeves in half and off where it attached to the jacket. He put the sleeves scraps into a small pile to use later. Next Drago cut around the zipper and collar part of the jacket finding no use for this part he threw it off to a corner. Following that action he then portioned the jacket into four. Thus he went on to his next part of his task.

He picked up a piece of sleeve and walked over to the edge of the overhang where water was dripping down like multiple waterfalls. He picked the cleanest looking waterfall and dampened the rag. After it was good and damp he breathed a little hot air on it to make it into a warm rag. He walked back over to where Dan lay and stooped to one knee.

"Brace yourself, Daniel, for this may hurt." Drago warned before he cautiously pressed the warmed rag to the boy's side and began to dab away the mud that had crusted in and around the gash.

Drago noticed Dan's expression went from peaceful to a subtle grimace as he dabbed away, but never did the boy make a sound as the Fusion Dragonoid gingerly cleaned his injuries. After he finished, Drago threw the rags away to a corner and reached for the pieces of four. He took one of the shorter pieces and pulled it taunt as he vigilantly tied it around his thigh. Dan let out a gasp of pain, but did nothing more for the next three pieces Drago tied to his leg and around the gash to apply pressure. Not only would the make shift dressing work as bandages, but also keep Dan's pants up since the insectoid's claws slice through his pants and boxers. The last piece of four was the longest and this one, Drago tied around the brunette's waist to add more support to keeping his pants.

Satisfied with his handiwork, Drago sat down and leaned against the rocky wall. He curled his tail to make an inlet around the fire and Dan to that the warmth of the fire would sway more towards the sleeping boy rather than fade into the night. Thunder flashed once more and created a loud rumbling, which kept Drago even more alert as he scanned the horizon. Nothing was stirring in the jungle so he relaxed a little, but sat straight up instantly remembering what happened last time he relaxed.

The rain began to lighten as an hour passed by and the Dragonoid began to think back to how they had come here. It was just a normal day of Dan's training and exercises except this day they were going to visit the doctor to check up on Dan's health since yesterday Drago had his thanks to Marucho's machines. After the doctor gave Dan a clean bill of health they went off to the park for intensive training or rather Dan's special jogging exercises he picked up from living on Neathia. Since the gravity there was a little stronger than Earth's all the humans were required to use the standard Neathian training program. It was a workout that was at first hard to endure, but eventually they all were able to do it effortlessly.

After they had returned to Earth, Dan made sure to include the Neathian training workout into their own since it seemed to prepare them all better than their old workout program ever did. Dan did the jogging training for the rest of the afternoon pushing himself to the limits and only breaking when Drago thought he needed to. It was late in the afternoon when the sun was beginning to layer the landscape in a crimson overlay.

"Well, I think it's time we head home." Dan said looking at his Baku meter's watch noticing the time was five-forty in the afternoon.

"Yeah, we did a lot of work today. It'll be nice to head home and eat some dinner before taking a nice long snooze." Drago added in making Dan laugh.

"What's so funny Kuso?" a voice asked from behind them making Drago swirl around, since he was in his ball form, and Dan turn to face off some weirdly dressed kid.

"Who's asking?" Dan asked a little defensive of the weird kid he took to be a boy of fifteen.

The boy was about Shun's height with short spiked, plum colored hair and icy blue eyes. His skin was very fair and his body type seemed lean, but it was hard to tell with the weird clothes he was wearing. It was similar to Dan's resistance outfit for when he was in the battle to save New Vestrioa, but it was all different colors. The top jacket part was black with dark grey markings and trim, also it was zipped closed. The shoulder padding had two white short spikes protruding upwards. His hands were covered with dark red gloves. His pants were a dark grey with a strange looking symbolic graphic on the sides. It looked like a red moon with feathered wings unbent and then bat like wings bent inward to the crescent. His belt buckle bore the same symbol and he had two suspender belts hanging off his right while his left side only had one. A long silver chain hooked from the pocket on his left side and connected to his back onto one of the belt loops. His pants hung out of his dark red boots which had elevated heels giving him a height boost. He pushed back a dark plum lock of hair revealing a skull earring pierced to his ear.

It took all of Dan's strength not to laugh at the outfit much less at the black lipstick the boy was wearing.

The boy shot him a glare as he whipped out a funky looking card and mumbled some incomprehensible words and the space around them warped into a meadow of some sort that was in the middle of the unfamiliar jungle.

Dan looked around in amazement and shock, "Dude, where are we?"

The strange boy smirked at Dan and Drago's shock and wonder, "Someplace where we won't be disturbed. Shall we brawl?"

Forgetting his million dollar question Dan gave a smug smile to the younger boy, "I take on anyone who dares to challenge me so prepare to get creamed!"

Dan grabbed Drago and threw him into the space between him and the challenger, "Go, Baku Sky Raider, Jump! Pyrus Fusion Dragonoid!"

The boy smirked and plucked a black and grey ball from pocket and threw it too.

"Go! Baku Sky raider, Jump! Darkus Lupenoid!" the boy called, "Let's brawl!"

Dan nodded in agreement as a giant dog beast that resembled Kazarina's Lumagrowl Haos Bakugan, but instead this was a Darkus. It was lankier too and had three tails along with only three toes per paw. It also had armored plating on his shoulders and along its flanks instead of the metal braces Lumagrowl adorned. The head was more canine looking thanks to the absence of a mane and it had shortened claws. Green eyes glared at Drago as they both awaited for a command or for the other to move first.

"Oh, a stand-off, how boring!" Cried the boy making Dan stifle a laugh once more as the strange boy's voice went all high pitched in tone, "Come on Warfang! Make a move or something!"

Dan had to agree though that the stand-off seemed unnecessary.

He decided to make the first move, "Ability activate! Dragon Thrasher!"

Drago roared as he put forth the strength of the ability and fire the shot at the wolf like Bakugan.

"You know, introductions would be nice to know!" Drago demanded knowing that Dan had totally forgotten.

"Master?" Warfang growled as the shot was coming closer.

"Ability Activate! Lycan Shield!" The boy said quickly activating a shield for his Bakugan before he answered Drago request, "Sorry about that! This is Warfang my lupenoid partner Bakugan! As for me it won't matter when I beat you, but I am known a-"

The last part had been drowned out by Warfang letting out a howl of pain just before leaping into the air and trying to attack Drago within the sky. Drago dodged easily and became focused on the battle more as the canine Bakugan attempted to do some damage. He found it pathetic that the darkus creature had to rely on ability activation in order to even come close to hitting Drago. Dan smirked at the attempt and found it becoming boring so he went to end the fight quickly by activating one on their strongest moves.

"Ability Activate! Dragon Over Cannon!" Dan shouted out as he activated the card.

Under a tough fight, Drago would have been happy to use such a powerful ability, but since the enemy was just like fighting a tree, Drago had to disagree that the ability was too powerful for this Bakugan to take a hit from. He tried to back down the power output so it wouldn't eradicate the poor darkus lupenoid and that did take some energy as well as the energy to release the attack. Warfang tried to dodge the attack, but unfortunately didn't seem to make a smart move as it tried to counter attack by heading for Drago straight on. The Dragon Over Cannon hit Warfang point blank almost as if he wanted it to hit him.

Maybe it all had been a planned trap. The boy and Warfang were maybe a distraction as the real enemy circled around and positioned himself for the right moment. It was all set, lure and take them from Earth then challenge them to a battle, then during the battle feign losing so their accomplice could gain ground and wait for the opportunity to strike Drago in the back and then attack his human partner, Dan. Wipe both of them out and leave Earth open to attack or invade. Maybe those weren't the plans, but someone wanted Dan and Drago out of the way and so far they had managed to only execute pieces of the plan.