Chapter 6

Shadow tapped his foot impatiently, he was next to go brawl the two smug amateurs who were currently running the show and just finished off the two brawlers they were pitted against with ease.

Just as he was about to walk out someone tapped his shoulder. Figuring it was just some fans he was about to snap at them, then he saw who it really was.

"Sorry I'm late." Luna sent him an apologetic look.

"Took you long enough! Anyways, our round's starting. We're up against some twerps who think their the best." Shadow Prove sent a look of disgust their way, then cackled. "They'll be crying to mommy by the end of this."

"well then we'd better not keep them waiting, we're the last ones they brawl before the championships after all." The Darkus duo walked in as the loosing two walked out. The two stood on a pillar across from the other brawlers they were to face. Their names were Brine and Shelila.

"Gauntlet power strike!" called the four as they raised their gauntlets for battle.

"Gate card set!" Luna's card dissipated with a wave of purple light. She glared at Brine; he was the cause of Zyros's suffering, and he was gonna pay for it.

Luna threw her Wavern into the battle and Shadow threw his Flybeetle. The other two threw an Aquos Freezer and a Ventus Atmos. The Darkus brawlers had 930G while The other two had 700G.

Before anyone could do anything Brine made his move. "Ability activate! Freeze Jail!" Nightmare and Flybeetle froze on the spot.

Luna snickered. "This kid's an amateur! Gate card open; Cheering battle!" The Darkus girl threw Nocturne onto the field, her team's power level rising to 1430G. "Ability activate, Whirlwind Lightning Sword!" Nocturne transferred 200G to herself. Her two largest tail feathers lined up as it aimed at Freezer and fired magenta electricity, striking the octopus-like bakugan dead on, sending it to Luna and unfreezing their first-rolled bakugan.

"Ooh! That must sting a little!" Shadow gave a guffaw. "Ability activate Horn Slash!" Flybeetle slammed head-first into Atmos, sending the Ventus bakugan spiraling to the ground, returning it to ball form and then to Shadow Prove.

Shelila threw down a gate card that faded in a green flash, then the duo tossed down a Ventus Anchorsaur and an Aquos Hammersaur. Both totaled 800G. Shadow and Luna threw out Nocturne and a Darkus Verias. Both had 850G.

"Ability activate! scattershot!" Violet projectiles shot out from the Storm Skyress' wings as her G-Power rose another 500G and knocked Hammersaur out of the game and into Luna's waiting hand.

"Ability activate Variety Psych!" Verias rose 200G and practically flashed up to Anchorsaur and whacked him a bunch of times upside the head with his bamboo stick before retreating back.

As Anchorsaur ran to attack Verias, Nocturne snuck behind him and dove at him.

Shelila acted quickly. "Double ability activate! Power Eraser plus Spark Protection!" Luna and Shadow lost 600G and remained at 1730G while the others were at 600G.

"That'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic!" Luna smirked at the Ventus girl. "Ability activate! Storm Stinger!" Anchorsaur lost his shield and Nocturne wasted no time in whipping him in the face with her razor sharp tail feathers, knocking it into ball form and the two returned to Luna's hand while Verias came back to Shadow.

Shadow set the gate card and threw Sylfee out into the brawl, Luna tossed in Nightmare and they both stood at 980G. Shelila and Brine threw Wontu and Maxila, which was basically a spider with a skull as opposed to a normal spider backside, both were at 700G.

Luna looked at Shadow as seriously as possible. "Small bunnies and creepy spiders for breakfast."

He sent her a look of disgust. "Ew."

"Yep."

"Ability activate, Rapid Balloon!" Wontu's head grew in size until it fell over and went back to Shelila in ball form. Shadow cackled and Luna laughed at the scene, Shadow wiped tears from his eyes as he laughed. Shelila's life gauge dropped to zero, she was now out of the tournament.

"Ability activate! Venofang!" Maxila rose 300G, leapt and bit Sylfee who was put back in ball form and returned to Shadow.

"Ability card activate! Whirl Switch!" Nightmare returned to her and she sent out Zyros. A promise is a promise after all. The Fangoid reverted to its true form, revealing an armored dinosaur of a bakugan. It alone had a whopping 790G while Maxila was at a crippling 350G.

"ability activate! Surf boost!" Maxilia rose 650G.

The two bakugan on the field circled each other, spite crackling in the air like bolts electricity.

Time to bring this to a close. "Double ability activate, Special Darkness plus Nocturnal Thief." Maxila went down to 600G. Brine tried to use an ability card, but nothing happened.

"What the-? Hey! How did you-"

Luna smirked. "There's always a special place for people like you." The smirk was replaced with a venomously hateful glare. "Especially when you throw another under the bus, so to speak for your own incompetency." She snarled the last word in a venemous enphasis.

"Wha-"

"I suppose that means you were never paying attention." Her whole attitude, tone and personality had just changed so fast it scared Shadow a bit. Who was this venomous and hostile Luna and where was the happy carefree Luna?

The brawlers turned back to Zyros, who stomped up to the Skull-backed spider and whipped it in the face with her tail. Maxila returned to ball form and back to Brine as Fangoid returned to Luna.

As soon as the two left for the door Brine and Shelila caught up with them, demanding their bakugan back.

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Why would we ever do that? So you could have trash tossing practise? I think not. Plus, you know the rules to bakugan."

Nocturne hopped on Luna's shoulder and glared Brine right in the eye. "People like you should not be allowed to even have bakugan."

Zyros decided to get her two cents in while she could. "I can't believe I ended up with such a rotten brat for a partner. You know what? Keep the spider! It speaks volumes of who you are!" The two dove into a pocket without another sound as Luna left, Shadow on her heels.

As soon as they were far enough away from the building Fangoid popped out of Luna's pocket and onto her hand. "We did it! You were right, I'm not weak like he thought I was."

Shadow looked at them with a confused stare. "This was all just an act?"

"Kinda sorta." Came the reply.

Shadow blinked. "Wow. Okay, who are you and what did you do with Luna?"

"Hey! That's my line!" The girl whined.

"No, I said it first!" He snapped.

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

Nightmare sighed, this was going to be a long day.

~-_.:\|/:._-~

Later

Luna stepped inside the resistance's mobile base with a sigh. It was a long walk to get here, but at least it wasn't the caves.

"The prodigal brawler returns." Mira said dryly.

"I take that as a thanks for me scoping out the city and getting lost most of the day in caves." She shot back.

Ace sent her a bemusing look. "You do realise we used to live there, right?"

"Uh..." The girl seemed to stare off into space for a moment, thinking of something progressive that had happened. "Well I did find this Fangoid some moron literally threw in the trash. We showed him why that was a bad idea." She held up Zyros pridefully.

Without warning Elfin hopped up onto Luna's hand and practically in Zyros' face. "Hiya! What's your name?"

The Aquos bakugan shrank back slightly. "Zyros."

"Zyros eh? Good to know I'm not the only Aquos bakugan here!" She chirped.

"Yeah..."

Luna decided to fill in the team about her recent adventures. "So I had a big old misadventure of my own..." She got into detail of the whole sneak out, getting lost, getting un-lost, finding Zyros and the tournament as well as explaining the new outfit she'd scrounged together on short notice. She was careful to leave out the part with Shadow and Lync once they got in Alpha city.

The girl felt a headache coming on. "And so after a painfully long trek, I'm gonna say goodnight." without waiting for a reply she went to her room, set her bakugan aside, collapsed on her bed and fell asleep almost immediately.