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Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Bakugan mentioned ('cept Zora) or the characters which belong to Nelvana.

Chapter 10

Hairadee came at me in a blur, the wind slicing past his sleek, angled form. Never much of an optimist, I didn't see any other way out of my predicament beside, you know, dying. And that probably went hand in hand with losing the Core. Running was out of the question—he'd catch me in seconds with my back turned. Was I willing to give it up even though I'd promised myself to help them out? No, but no better ideas came to mind at this point.

Time slowed for a moment as my thoughts flickered back to Zora. Even as my impending doom closed in on me, anger boiled inside of me urging to be let loose on the idiotic Bakugan I had the misfortune to own. She hadn't made any moves to leave again, but the damage was done. I knew. They knew. Hell, the whole world knew! She didn't want to be partnered with me.

How could I surrender after all the times they'd sacrificed for me? I'd helped but it wasn't enough. Not if I was going to quit now. Not if I allowed him to have his way when I was so close to pulling through. My hands formed fists at my sides and—

I didn't let this one finish. I was going to make a stand—whether final or not—and Zora was going to help me. I wasn't giving her a choice. Like I'd seen the others do, I grasped her in the palm of my hand, holding her for only a second before letting her go into the space before me. Acting on impulse, my heart thumped faster as I called out the words I'd heard plenty of times before.

"Zora, stand!"

She'd barely managed some sort of degrading insult aimed at me when a dark purple light consumed the small figure. I grinned, exhilarated at the thought of summoning my first Bakugan. I watched in awe as Zora grew to her full height, petite when compared to the Bakugan the other Brawlers owned. A loose plum-colored vest rested over a mauve shirt, a belt cinching them in place, and leggings the same deep color as the vest covered her lower half. Her obsidian skin glowed in the daylight, diverting attention from the cropped silver hair on her head—which barely managed to cover her pointed ears—and stormy grey eyes. She stood on the tips of her toes, barefoot, clawed hands instinctively reaching for the sheath located on her hip.

Hairadee braked suddenly, a confused expression crawled onto his face, further twisting his horrific set of features.

"What? Where did you come from?" he choked out. I thought I'd heard a quiver in his voice, but his face gave away nothing.

Zora glowered at me, the angled qualities of her small face becoming more pronounced. Our enemy simply shrugged and launched himself at her. I couldn't react, thoughts crossing my mind more slowly than before. She managed to dance out of the way, moving nimbly across the icy terrain. Her advantage didn't last long, though, as Hairadee again used his Shadow Aggressor.

The Darkus Bakugan glanced about herself, frustrated, until ice shards struck her from behind. Hairadee cackled as she recovered, repeatedly assaulting her with one attack after the next.

"Hey, Nicole!" she yelled at me in between blows. "You put me in this battle, so how about helping out?"

I shook my head, trying to get back to my senses. "Uh," I began ineloquently.

"Hurry!" she bellowed, using a moment of distraction to draw her sword. The long pale lavender blade easily blocked some incoming ice but not all.

My hands shook as I shuffled through the cards. Which one to use? They all looked the same to me, no distinction evidently apparent between any two. I was aware that I was standing out in the open, nothing protecting me and that I'd been gnawing on my lip so much it began to bleed. An explosion sounded from the building the guys had flown into, and I jumped with a shriek, all the cards scattering across the ground.

I cursed under my breath as I bent to pick them up before loud screech of pain—Skyress and Harpis, I recognized immediately—sent me into a panic. I reached out blindly, vaguely hearing Zora's impatient demands to pick a card.

This could not be happening. He couldn't possibly be standing right in front of me now. Even as the water sprinkled me, I couldn't believe I was awake. All this time we thought he was gone. Zora and I—we—oh God he just had to be fake! An illusion! The ground beneath me didn't move, though, and I pinched myself, all to no avail. He didn't disappear and the sobs didn't die.

For a moment, I froze, wanting to decipher the meaning of the vision, but then Zora leaped over me, landing behind me as if using me as a shield. I shot her a questioning glance, and she panted and pointed toward the ice jail. Hairadee had been sidetracked by the two Ventus Bakugan, after Harpis insulted him, I assumed, and now he was exacting revenge.

"Why aren't you helping them?" I hissed at Zora, who was still trying to catch her breath. She didn't look harmed in the least, though.

She scowled in return. "I'm a little busy here. Besides, I can't do much without ability!"

I turned in time to see Hairadee preparing another assault on the battered Bakugan. "You want an ability? Fine!" I decided, infuriated. Selecting a card at random, I held it up like everyone else had done.

"Finally," she muttered, bouncing after him. Name? I asked myself. And suddenly, without even putting much thought into it, its name popped into my mind. "Copycat," I whispered.

"Crystal Missiles!"

"Copycat," I repeated, louder. A light shined from the card in my hand and then the blade of Zora's sword also glowed as sharp ice shards flew from it. They intercepted the ones headed toward Skyress and Harpus, some flying farther and penetrating him. He cried out in pain, and I let out an uncharacteristic whoop of joy.

"So the little human wants to play?" he asked. A flash of movement caught my eye, directing my line of sight toward the wrecked building at my right. Shun. I quickly averted my gaze back toward Hairadee so as to not give away their presence. "You got a lucky shot in, but that won't happen again!"

"You don't scare me!" I yelled at him in an effort to seem more threatening than I actually was. Truthfully, the Venus-Aquos Bakugan intimidated me, but Zora was now backing me up (or so I hoped) and that gave me courage.

His wings angled back, and he dived toward Zora, not me, counting on his Shadow Aggressor to give him an advantage. I chose another card. "Double Dimension!"

I didn't worry about the fact that I initially had no idea what it did. It just felt like the right card. Although Copycat's effect was fairly obvious, this one would have left me stumped had it been any other time. Not now, though. The knowledge instantly took front and center in my mind as if it had always been there. Hairadee materialized, his form heading straight toward the pointed tip of Zora's blade.

"What the—" he began before a slash from her sword replaced his words with a howl.

"Double Dimension is an ability that allows me to neutralize an ability used by my opponent," I explained rather smugly. I was getting the hang of this whole brawling thing, and surprisingly, I was enjoying it.

Suddenly, I heard Skyress's name ring out through the area in a hurt, low voice. I turned around to observe Shun crouching on the roof, bowed over his guardian Bakugan with what seemed like tears running down his cheeks. Shun…crying? That couldn't have been right. Why would he cry? He was supposed to be watching over me, being strong because I wasn't. I was the one who felt like breaking down every passing moment because of all the crap that had been going on.

My eyes were still trained on him when a blinding light erupted from behind Harpis, forcing me to turn away. I concentrated instead on the battle at hand, but to my surprise both of the Bakugan had ceased their fight as the glow grew brighter. The light reminded me of that time in the alley, the time the core had buried itself within me. It was a moment of slight uncertainty, but just as quickly as it had appeared, the light dissipated.

Slowly, my gaze returned to Shun only to see Hairadee's Crystal Jail gone. Skyress gradually took flight again, as did Harpis, but an unknown Bakugan floated beside them. A rare smile graced Shun's lips as he watched his Bakugan with an elated expression. My feet pulled me forward to meet him as he jumped down to terra firma where another guy was standing.

"That was my Tentaclear's Gamma Ray ability, which allowed me to nullify his ability!" the bald guy yelled. Not only did he lack hair, but he was built. Seriously, this man had to be some sort of bodybuilder judging by the size of his fairly obvious muscles. This was only emphasized by the tight black shirt he wore paired with a white sleeveless jacket. His Bakugan, a free-floating eyeball with tentacles protruding, was Haos.

"Julio!" greeted Komba. "Nice going. You freed Harpis and Skyress." Shun nodded.

"I'm just here to help," he replied modestly. Tentaclear blinked in response.

Zora promptly bounded over to us, giving the other Bakugan a defiant stare while they looked her over. Even Shun's topaz eyes widened, his gaze flickering between Zora and me, visibly doubting my capacity as a Brawler, not that I blamed him.

"Let's finish him off, guys," he declared, whipping out another card. "Gate card set!"

Hairadee scoffed at that, his countenance a not-so-surprising leer. "Just try humans! The only one being finished here is you, and I'll be taking the girl with me."

"Pathetic," Shun scolded. "Gate card open! Hyper merge!" He crossed his arms with a smirk. "In case, you're wondering Hairadee, this gate card increases our power level by one hundred times the amount of Bakugan on our side and it gets better. Your power will be decreased by the same amount." Our opponent attempted another attack, only resulting in Tentaclear blocking it with ease.

I wanted to help, but as I prompted Zora to enter the fray, Shun shook his head.

"Destruction Meteor Storm!" he shouted.

"Feather Edge!" Komba added.

I guess when he said 'Let's finish him off guys,' he literally meant guys.

Harpis's wings radiated like a blade in a blacksmith's workshop, their sharp edges looking just as deadly. Skyress was completely aglow, her form becoming that of a smoldering phoenix. A green phoenix, that is. Both glided past him, each leaving a deep gash in his body.

The explosion that followed was nothing like one out of a movie. There was no fire or thunderous boom. There was simply light and then sparkles rained down, taking with them every remnant of ice. I cringed, grossed out at the fact that these were tiny pieces of Hairadee drizzling on us. The others, however, didn't seem to mind as Komba and Harpis clung to Shun and Skyress, respectively. Julio looked indignant, fuming because no one seemed to be paying attention to him.

I wandered over to Zora, who appeared distinctly bored. Her quicksilver eyes caught mine.

"I hope you don't expect us to be like them," she warned, sheathing her sword and settling herself onto the ground with her legs crossed.

"No, I don't," I answered honestly, taking a seat beside her. "Thank you, though. I appreciate that you battled with me, even if it was reluctantly."

She raised a fine, silver eyebrow, but I saw the corner of her lip twitch upwards. "Yeah, yeah," she grumbled.

I broke out into a ridiculous grin. Though I wouldn't admit it to her face, I was beginning to feel attached to the Darkus Bakugan. And maybe, since hell happened to be freezing over, she felt the same way about me.

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Cocoacharm15