Anko: okay, I'm itching to figure out an ending for this, so I'm going to end it.... HEAR AND NAO!
*dont own rights to Bakugan*
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"Stupid random voice... 'left' I say... sheesh, what was I think-AHH!" Dan fell with a splash into the cold murky waters. To his distaste, the left path had led him to a dark area in the tunnels, and the left path apparently hadn't been repaired in a while, seince it was littered with weak concrete and potholes with water. He still had his glowstick, which was growing duller and duller by the minute.
Dan pulled himself from the new hole in the concrete, and shook himself off. "I have got to turn back. If my gun gets any wetter, my gun won't fire...." Dan groaned, pulling his gun off his shoulder and shaking water out of the barel.
Just as he went to turn around, a red glint cought his eye. He looked over to it, and it looked like something was blinking. "Wha?" Dan sighed as he held his dull glowstick up. "Fine, I'll go, but I am not gonna get my gun wet." Dan said to nothing. He lifted the gun above his head, and put the glowstick in his mouth as he proceeded to the red light at the end of the dark tunnel.
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Masquerade was uncomfortably silent as they walked silently along the concrete path. Their footsteps seemed to echo in the large corridor, while the flames flickered a bright yellow light on the path.
'I wonder what happened back there?' Alice wondered, giving a sideways glance to her boss. 'He got really silent, then he said go right...' Alice reviewed, looking foreward.
"Are you alright? You've been quiet for a while now." Masquerade said, appearing to look ahead.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm alright." Alice said with a reassuring smile. He smiled back, but stopped abruptly.
"Masquerade?" She asked, stopping to look back at him.
"Do you hear that?" He asked, motioning for her to shush.
Alice closed her eyes, and listened. A low, heysterical laughter filled the air.
"Please tell me I'm not the only one hearing that..." He said, walking foreward to stand next to Alice.
"No. I heard it to. What could it be?" She asked, looking over to him.
He shrugged. "Not sure. Let's find out, common!" He started to run.
"Heey! Wait up!" She said, running after him.
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Dan had given up on the side walk, and was wading through the cold, waist deep water with his utility belt around his neck, and his gun over his head.
"I've been heading there for a while now, why don't I feel like I'm getting closer?" Dan mused aloud. He continued wading for a while, untill something happened. He began to go faster.
"What the? Why am I? Who cares. I'm commin' you red dot!" He said, and was moving gradually faster towards the red glint.
Dan was moving fast, so fast, that an ominous red glow was covering his body. The glow seemed to allow him to run on top of the water.
'Pyrus shall outshine all...Pyrus are strong, independent and fearless....May the Pyrus conquer the darkness, and overcome the last challenge....'
Dan looked around as he continued to run on the water. "Where the hell is that comming from?" Dan wondered, looking around. He shrugged, and sped up, hydroplaning through the cold water.
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Masquerade ran as fast as he could, with Alice trailing behind him. Alice had her eyes closed, because running the hard and this long for her was begining to take it's toll. For seemingly no reason, he stopped, not even panting. Alice, who hand't heard or seen him stop, ran right into his back, before falling bakwards.
"Oww...Masqerade?" She asked, looking up at him. He was standing perfectly still. She raised an eyebrow before pushing herself up from the ground.
"Masqu-...Whoa..." She gwaked.
What was before them was a large room, with ceilings so high, you couldn't see the top. Bright blue flames were lit on the torches, and they were flickering madly. The water here was only an inch deep, and covered the whole ground of the room. One spot which was in the centre of the opposite wall was a risen platform, about two inches above the water. On the same wall, there was a large barred door, that probably went to the ceiling, and was framed with two winding dragons, whos heads came out of the wall, to hold two unique red flames in their monstorus open jaws.
"That area upstairs wasn't Naga's home..." Masquerade murmured. Alice looked at him.
"This....is Naga's home." He said, even quieter than before.
"Was...was the laughing comming from here?" Alice asked softly.
"I'm...not sure." Masquerade said softly.
'Darkus are cunning, quick, devilish and evasive. Darkus are unloved, and are the underling of the others. When the darkness fights the fire, the true Darkus will come alive.'
Masquerade looked around frantically, readying his gun by his side. "Whose there?! Show yourself!" He demanded, stepping into the water.
Alice stood at the sidewalk, concern heavy in her eyes. 'Whose he trying to bring out? Naga?' She wondered.
Masquerade held his stern scowl. "Get out here you Pyrus scum!!" He shouted to the shadows in the left corner.
A shot came, a shot he never saw comming. A ringing rang through the room, one that she never heard. Afterall, light moves faster than sound.
Alice fell, blood streaming from her chest. Masquerade turned around, and saw her, on he back, lifeless.
He ran over to her. "Alice!! No! Alice, stay with me honey, common!" He said, holding her head. Blood was running from her mouth, down her chin. He eyes were wide, cought in a lifeless fearful stare. He stared at her, as Dan emerged from the shadows, his gun in one hand, the other on his hip.
"Oh, such a pitty. Seems so ironic, considering my lover was murdured by your gun." Dan said, a cocky smirk on his face. He was still glowing red, and his utility belt was around his waist again.
Masquerade didn't hear him. He slowly raised his hands, and closed her eyes. "May you rest in piece, my love." He whispered. Masquerade gently set her head down, and stood up. Dan began to laugh.
"Ha!! How do you feel now?! All alone! Not even your people to rely on!!" Dan laughed, putting his gun over his shoulder like it was a blade.
Masquerade was silent, before all the fire in the room began to flicker wildly. "You...." his feet began to glow purple. "Lousy...." Dan watched wide eyed as he saw the purple light come up his body. "Piece...." He pulled his machine gun from his shoulders. "Of.....Shit...." He said, as the purple came over his entire body. Just then, the lights on the right side of the room turned purple, as Masquerade's glow. The torches on the left side of the room glowed a sinister red, like Dan's gleam.
"Oh, look at him, glowing purple... I'm soooo scared! Hah! You honestly think you have a chance!?" He shouted.
Masquerade held his scowl, as something strange happened. A black light came from Alice's bullet wound, and entwined itself with Masquerade's purple glow. A green light came from the left side, and headed for Dan. It stopped, and coiled itself around him.
'You were supposed to be there for me....Glad to see I could be replaced...' came a soft voice, which sounded like Shun's.
"Shun!" Dan shouted, reaching for the light as it flew to Masquerade, with strikes of green mixing with purple and black, and changing on of the flames on the right side bright green.
Then, an orange light, a blue light, and a white light came in from the left, but flew to Masquerade, making a flame change to their colour, and mixing their stripes in with his, making his power enormus.
Masquerade was silent before speaking. "You...you promised you wouldn't go to these lengths to kill me. You promised them.... They trusted...no, believed that you could restrain yourself...." He smirked. "They were wrong...." He raised his machine gun slowly, while the flames behind him began to gain strength.
"No! I won't die this way, you... YEAAAAAA!" Dan raised his machine gun quickly, and fired madly. Used shells splashed into the water below him, as Masquerade's weired glow deflected them.
"Dan... This is your final hour on this earth. I have only one thing to say to you..." He said, pulling back the release to push out the last used shell.
Dan dropped his gun and went back against the wall, as the red flames began to lose strength. Masquerade approached him, and stood next to him, placing the gun to the centre of his chest, aka: his heart.
"You may have once had power, you may have once had friends. You may have once hand a lover... but now..." He moved to his mouth was right by his ear.
"You have nothing, but a bullet in your heart..." Masquerade pulled the rigger. Dan's eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell to his knees, before falling face first in the water. The water around him became dyed in crimson. The red flames died, and were replaced with the exact pattern of coloured fire that was on the right side.
"Well done..." Came a voice from behind him. Masquerade turned, but saw nothing there.
"Who's there?" He asked, holding his gun at the ready.
"Hm? Oh right, I should come out..." Before his eyes, a familliar white, bone dragon slowly began to move out of the larged barred door, like a ghost.
Masquerade couldn't speak. "Naga...." He murmured, dropping his gun. It would've fallen, but it was strapped to his back. Naga had to have been 25 feet tall, with a wingspan twice that. His claws where at his sides, with his feet just below, held up slightly because he was in flight
"You have purged the world of evil, with freinds you never knew you had." Naga said, landing on the pedestal.
"Naga. I thought Darkus was evil. Why did-?" Masquerade stopped, unsure of how to ask it.
"Why did I say you removed the evil? Though Dan was the leader of a traditionally good team, he was the first exception in many millenia, seince the city above was merely a small village." He said. "He's as much of an exception as you are. Though Hal-G was working on an alliance, he had caused many more problems for team Darkus. You are the first one to have the other teams back Darkus." Naga paused, and turned his head, to look at Alice, Masquerade followed his eyes to the dead woman.
"You were the first Darkus leader, to have a true romantic relationship with a woman." He finished, still looking at Alice.
"Had...." Masquerade said softly. Naga turned, and watch Masquerade cross the water, to Alice's corpse. "She's dead...." He he kneeled next to her, and held her head. He sniffed. "Nothing can bring her back..." Masquerades voice began to falter, as a lone tear leaked under his goggles, followed by several more.
Naga watched in silence. The colored flames fickered slowly, as if they were sad.
"Wrong." Masquerade turned his head to look at Naga.
"You can bring her back. You're freinds want to help you. Use their powers to help you." Naga said, looking at the flames.
Masquerade turned to look at the flames, and noticed something. Other than Pyrus, one colour was missing: black. "Alice...." He murmured, and looked at her peacefull face. "You guys better work..." He said, and held his hand over Alice's bullet wound. The power from the rest of his body becam concentrated on his hand, and into the bullet wound. The white light pulled out the bullet, falling with a small tinking noise on the concrete. Masquerade watched in amazement as the other colours healed the wound, dissapearing untill only the black was left with a pin sized hole. The light flew in.
Alice sucked in a large breath of air, and sat upright, with Masquerade's hand behind her head. She breathed several large, quick breaths, before she spoke. "Wha? Masquerade? Where's Dan? Did....!" She stopped when she saw Naga, in all his massive, bone-dragon glory.
"Alice!!" Masquerade wrapped his arms around her. "You came back to me..." Alice returned the hug, and burried her face in his neck.
THey embraced for a long time, before Alice pulled away. "Where's Dan?" Masquerade nudged his head to Dan's face down forme in the water.
"Masquerade defeated him. With the help of the others." Naga said, looking at the coloured flames, that were still there. Alice looked at Masquerade, who smiled. "We've ended it, babe. It's all over now." He said with a smile.
"We? You killed him, I just...got in the way..." Alice said, looking down.
Masquerade put a finger under her chin, and lifted her head up. "You weren't in the way. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have had the strength to kill him. I probably wouldn't have gotten this far." He said, gazing into her eyes through his goggles.
She smiled, and united their lips in a soft passionate kiss. Naga smiled at the scene. He directed his gaze to Dan's corpse, and to the coloured flames.
"There is one problem..." Naga said, making Alice and Masquerade stop their lip-lock.
"What's that?" Alice asked.
"Who will be the leader of Pyrus, and Ventus?" Naga said, looking around. The green flame grew, and burned wildly, sending it's light into Dan's corpse. The soaked brown hair turned into soaking black hair. A groan cam from the corpse, and he pushed himself up.
"I'll take my place as Ventus..." Shun. He'd returned from the grave by pushing his soul into Dan's body, and healing his wounds.
Naga nodded. "Alice?" Naga turned his head. Shun took off the Pyrus coat, and held it up to Naga as he stood. Alice was silent as he watched Naga take the coat in his mouth, holding it out to Alice. He dropped it into her hands.
"I, Naga, leader of the past, present, and future that is Speed City, Request that you, Alice of team Darkus, take permenent place on the board as the leader of Team Pyrus." He said, as Shun walked over to stand next to Naga.
Alice looked at the wet, blood-stained coat, then from Naga to Masquerade, and back to Naga.
"I...." She paused, and looked at Masquerade, who nodded with a reassuring smile.
"I accept." She said, slipping the coat over her tunic.
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Next is the Epilogue, providing futher closure to the story. Please read it.