Matarra: When I was writing this chapter, I was listening to the song, "Come to Australia" so that might explain all the Australian stuff in it.
Vector: I am so putting this song on my iPod. Hee hee hee
Alit and Gilag: 0_o
"What's the matter?" Nasch asked cautiously.
Dumon's expression was that of the utmost horror, "I think we need to call Alit to confirm my suspicion. And I hope he disproves it," Dumon took out his cellphone and speed-dialed Alit, "Alit?"
"Dumon! Nice to hear you! I have a question," Alit's voice greeted.
"So do I, but I'll answer yours first," Dumon said.
"Okay! What place on this planet has a lot of big hoppy things with pouches and wolfy sorta thing dogs?" Alit asked.
Dumon took a little while to translate Alit descriptions to something actually making sense then his eyes widened, "Alit, please please please tell me you did not run all they way to Australia."
"Oh Australia! That's where I am! And no, I flew some of the way," Alit said.
And the store clerk wondered why Dumon always needed so much aspirin.
Dumon had one of his multi-daily pick-your-battles thoughts before resigning to a low groan, "Alit, I have a question for you now."
"Sure! Ask away!"
"When you were Andre, was your last name Juliosu?" Dumon asked.
Alit was silent for some time, then, finally, he said quietly, "...yeah."
Dumon sighed, "I figured as much. So that's why you ran, huh?"
"Yeah... hey, Dumon?"
"Yes, Alit?"
"Australia is a really nice place with all the hoppy thingies so if I could, you know, stay here..."
Dumon banged his head on a brick wall. "Alit, first off, the 'hoppy thingies', as you so densely and sadly accurately called them, are kangaroos. Second of all, Australia has over half of earth's most poisonous species so its not a good idea to hang around in the outback where there are plenty of incredibly dangerous snakes and other creatures. Third of all, no you cannot stay in Australia just because you want to avoid your adoptive father."
"I really really don't want to get poisoned so I guess if I hide for a few days in the BARian I can avoid him. After all, it's not like he's going to stay here forever, right? Probably a week at most, you know, with his job..." Alit said.
Dumon bit his lip and fidgeted, "Actually, Alit... he's kinda leading the team of scientists studying Maldorians so he's probably and almost certainly is living in Heartland," When Dumon said it out loud, he realized what a problem this development was.
Alit was silent, then, "You know, Australia is a really really really great place. And poison actually sounds really appealing right now. I think I'll take my chances with a deadly snakes or whatever the heck else is out here."
Dumon sighed, "Alit. There are a species of snake in Australia called the Taipan that has the most toxic venom of any snake in the world. And the second, third, and fourth most venomous snakes in the world live in Australia as well. Also, if you choose to go swimming, there are bluebottles, reef stonefish, box jellyfish, and blue ringed octopi. The bluebottle's venom from its stinger is just extremely and excruciatingly painful but the other species I listed are very deadly. Even though you're a barian, I am not kidding when I say that if a couple of those species gives you a good bite or sting, it could potentially kill you. Probably very slowly because your body would try to resist the poison."
"...still sounding better than being in the same city as my dad," Alit said.
Merag took the phone from Dumon, "Alit! I'll give you five minutes tops for you to get back here before I overlay over there, drag you here, and hang you up on a flagpole! And if I get there in a bad mood, I might find one of those Taipans and put it down your shirt!"
"Yes ma'am!" Alit whimpered then he hung up. Merag handed the phone to a flabbergasted Dumon.
"So Dr. Juliosu is Alit's dad," Merag mused.
"Apparently," Dumon sighed, quickly getting over Merag's previous ferocity.
"Great. So now we get to deal with family issues along with slime aliens. Great." Nasch groaned.
"Only if we let him see Alit," Misael pointed out.
"But he's going to have to since we have meetings with him," Gilag pointed out.
"But Alit would be in his barian form for any formal meetings," Dumon said, catching on, "And Dr. Juliosu probably won't recognize him in his true form, as long as Alit doesn't slip up and say something he shouldn't at least. If we all keep a watchful eye out when Alit is walking around in his human form, he should be fine."
Misael nodded, "Exactly."
At that moment, Alit appeared through an overlay network and promptly hid behind Gilag. "Don't let him see me, don't let him see me, don't let him see me," Alit repeated over and over again, almost begging.
"Don't worry, Alit. Just don't panic," Dumon assured him.
"I'll go distract him. You guys get Alit back to the BARian," Nasch said.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, Shark-fin Soup, but I think we have other things to deal with," Vector said this while giggling, but their was a trace of panic in his voice.
The other six barians slowly and carefully turned around and stared at the humungous, snarling dog with gunky yellow eyes. "...shit," Nasch growled.
"Well, it's just one-" Gilag started then looked up. On top of the large apartment buildings there were several animals with yellow eyes. "-or maybe ten?" he squeaked.
"Everyone get in a fighting stance and take them out!" Nasch snapped and nobody dared argue. Muscles tense, they all jumped up on the buildings' exterior walls then pushed off to the adjacent wall in order to get up to the Maldorians' level. Alit reached them first and dealt with a Maldorian coyote by giving it an uppercut to the side of the head and pushing it off the building with a spinning back kick. Misael threw an energy ball at two Maldorians, a grizzly bear and a mountain lion, who had charged at him. It hit the grizzly bear in the forehead and it fell on its back, dazed, but the mountain lion kept coming. It stopped and raised its haunches, then pounced. Misael fell down on his back to avoid the great cat and took the opportunity to kick the Maldorian in the ribs. With a great yowl of pain, the cat tumbled off to the side. Misael leapt back up and throat-kicked the Maldorian. When he heard a sickening crack and it stopped moving, he turned his attention back to the grizzly only to find Vector had already gutted it with a small shard of a broken beer bottle.
Merag, meanwhile, was throwing punch after punch at a Maldorian tiger who thought she would be easy pickings. Boy did it think wrong. With an ankle sweep and a hand-sword to the neck, the tiger was down in two seconds flat. Gilag was wrestling a large Maldorian gorilla. After a desperate struggle, Gilag managed to flip the Maldorian on its back and hurl it off the edge of the building. Dumon was balancing on a windowsill as he tried to fight off a bunch of Maldorian seagulls. Looking frantically around, he noticed through open window a pitcher of lemonade left on a table. Reaching inside, he grabbed the pitcher and hurled its contents at the seagulls diving at him. With screeches of pain, the seagulls blindly flapped around running into each other. In the confusion Dumon quickly disposed of them. With a look at the empty pitcher he quickly grabbed a piece of scratch paper and scrawled out,
Sorry I used your lemonade. But their were a bunch of Maldorian seagulls attacking and I would've been dead otherwise. Here's some money to compensate for your loss.
Dumon set a crisp twenty dollar bill on the table before leaping out the window to get back into the fight. However, except for Alit boxing a Maldorian kangaroo, the skirmish was pretty much over.
"Everyone alright?" Nasch asked. After getting a confirmation from everyone, he sighed, "Okay, keep on lookout for any more Maldorians while I call Yuma. And for Barian World's sake, Alit! Stop sparring with the enemy and finish it off!"
Alit pouted but delivered an uppercut to the kangaroo and flung it off the roof with a back fist.
Nasch quickly dialed Yuma's number and waited maybe two seconds for Yuma to pick up.
"Shark! Quinton saw on the security cameras that there are hundreds of Maldorians swarming around the city! They're staging a major attack! General Angus got a bunch of military people with tanks and machine guns and stuff to help fight them and get people to safety! The police force is helping too!" Yuma shouted frantically.
"We just took out about ten Maldorians. I'll put my phone on speakerphone so we can keep in touch," Nasch said.
"Oh! I almost forgot! The army guys have extra walkie-talkie-thingies on them and I'm sure they'll give you one! They each have their own signal and it's printed on them. You turn a little dial to get the signal you're trying to reach. I have one and my signal is 392.3. Call me up on that when you get one," Yuma explained.
Nasch nodded before remembering Yuma couldn't see him. "I got it. We'll try to find some military men and get one of those walkie-talkies. In the meanwhile, I'll keep my cellphone on speakerphone so we can keep in touch."
"Gotcha! I'll be with Astral in Zexal form and as soon as the energy level gets high enough, you guys should go into your true forms. I hope we'll meet up soon but until then, take as many of these guys out as possible. Some of them, will duel you instead of physically fighting but most are just going to try to kill you," Yuma said.
"Joy..." Nasch muttered, "Well, see you soon. Try not to die," He set his phone to speakerphone and turned to the other barians.
"Okay, we'll break into teams so we can cover more ground but still have someone to watch our backs. Alit and Gilag, you two will take downtown. Dumon and Misael, you two will patrol around any buildings that you deem that would be extremely bad if the Maldorians took control of them or any of the people or supplies inside. I'll leave the decision of which buildings you should focus on protecting to you. Vector," Nasch sighed, "You need to find where the Maldorians are coming from, aka their base, and," Nasch winced at the future repercussions of the order he was about to give, "Obliterate any Maldorians you find. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT kill any humans or anything that is not a Maldorian, but use any means necessary to wipe the Maldorians out."
Vector stared at him for a second, trying to figure out if he had just heard what he thought he heard Nasch order, then grinned insanely from ear to ear, "YES! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" he then cocked his head to the side and asked, "Can I pretty please bring a knife or some other sharp object?"
Nasch looked very creeped out by Vector's expression, which was far more insane than usual, then said, "If you find a sharp object, you can use it, on Maldorians only. If you hurt or kill one human being, you are going to wish you were never reborn and that you were never born in the first place."
Vector seemed to get that Nasch's threat was sincere, maybe even a little bit of an understatement for what he would do if Vector broke the "no killing humans" rule. "Yes sir!"
Nasch glared at Vector for another few seconds before saying, "Merag and I will be running around Heartland taking out Maldorians and causing distractions. After all, the more Maldorians not paying attention to their opponent, the more dead Maldorians there will be. Everyone clear?" the barians all nodded with the exceptions of Vector sarcastically saluting and Dumon bowing to show they understood.
"Then let's go," Nasch said with a cold glint in his eyes.