Chapter 36: Persona
"DANIEL!" Drago cried following after, but couldn't keep up and lost them after flying through some steam pits and having some blow up in his face.
He roared in pain as he was temporary blinded by the steam.
"Drago, you okay?" Tristar asked running up to the pyrus bakugan with deep concern.
Drago kept his eyes closed to stop the stinging and swayed his head to where he thought Tristar might have been standing.
"No. Of course not! My partner has been stolen from me! How dare you ask me such a question!" Drago raged as his eyes flicked open, not caring if they still stung or not, "I've failed in the worst ways."
Marucho was standing on Tristar's shoulder and sadly looked to Drago, "No Drago it isn't your fault, we are the ones to blame. We didn't understand the power you had gained so tried to force you to restrain yourselves only when we should have embraced your power and aided you in gaining control. I'm so sorry Drago, I didn't realize it until now that it was that we were forcing you and Dan to do. Now it's cost us Dan."
Drago looked fiercely at Marucho and then to the ground as he stood up and sighed. Shun riding on Taylean's shoulder came up to them and looked up at the sky.
"Do you think he's still on New Vestroia?" Shun asked wanting to get an immediate search onward.
Drago looked at Shun angrily and spread his wings taking to the sky silently. If he hadn't left any sooner he would have let loose on Shun taking out his anguish on the human that had provoked the events of late. He was going to search all of New Vestroia if need be and he wasn't going to stop until he found Dan.
Meanwhile Dan was fighting off the presence thanks to Code Eve's aid, but it wasn't proving to be enough. He had only managed to break free of the limbo prison and was using the glowing sword Code Eve had given him to slice away the hands of darkness that reached for him.
"What are you?" Dan cried as he cut away four different hands.
"Honestly if you want to beat your enemy you must first learn all you can about them." The presence whispered in an echoing tone, "The first thing about Fantoms is that we can latch onto our enemies' soul after they kill us and destroy them. Thus gaining a new body if we win and oh do I want yours. The power is immense and unmatched. I want it! Give it to me now!"
"Dude you're insane!" Dan cried as a new swarm of hands tried to clasp onto him.
"Although I am willing to make an offer if you dare to partake in it." The presence continued on.
"No way dude. No deal." Dan said sternly backing away.
The presence laughed, "You haven't even heard my offer, boy!"
He almost didn't sense the clawed hands creeping up behind him and he carelessly slashed away at them. As he was busy with that he didn't notice the presence taking form and he nearly backed up into it had he not caught some movement in his peripheral. He took a swing, but his golden sword was stopped with one black gloved finger.
"Daniel Kuso, shall you never learn!" the solidified presence said seductively as Dan gasped at the form it had taken.
"You're supposed to be dead!" Dan cried, "Apokkolys."
"Oh please, this was only my fifth host and if you want you can be my sixth. Together we'll hold a power no one can stand up to, but only if you'll agree to my terms." Appokkolys said as two clawed hands clamped onto Dan's ankles forcing him to stay put as Apokkolys moved closer, "Here's the deal, I will allow your soul to live and dwell here as long as I can too, but I get control. I might share though if you prove your usefulness."
"No way, dude!" Dan yelled as he slashed wildly with the sword and only found it to move through Apokkolys's form, "What the heck?"
Apokkolys cackled loudly, "Resistance is futile Kuso! Come on let me in! Let me poison that soul of yours and turn your light into a spell of disaster."
"No!" Dan shouted as he tried to budge away, but found that he was grasped by more claws and hands, most of them accumulated on his arm that had the sword in hand, "Let go!"
"Give me the key!" Apokkolys cackled as he reached forward towards Dan's heart only this time the symbol for his key appeared.
"No! You….can't…have…..it!" Dan strained as he tried to resist the clawed hands holding onto him.
The key symbol soon disappeared and Apokkolys let out a hiss of anger, "Well if you won't let me have it then I will just have to swallow you in my darkness."
Suddenly the room disappeared and became a wasteland then Dan found himself being thrown against a wooden post as the clawed hands turned into black ropes and bounded him to it. The golden sword clanged onto the rocks below as he lost his grip and found his hands to be roped behind him. He felt like he was in some Salem witch burning ceremony as he looked down below at the laughing Apokkolys.
"Hey, let me go!" Dan grunted as he lurched away from the post to see if the black ropes would loosen, but found that they only tightened.
"Be a good boy and be quiet while I do all the dirty work." Apokkolys cackled commandingly as a clawed hand appeared on the left side of Dan's head and then clamped itself over his mouth.
He grimaced as the bonds tightened once more. Apokkolys only laughed at his struggles and waited a moment for him to cease the resistance, but that was unlikely since Dan rarely gave up. That was how he had broken Kazarina's spell before, but this time would be a lot harder since Apokkolys hadn't place him in some kind of looped vision.
"Now for a few changes, I hope you don't you mind." Apokkolys jeered as a black hole appeared right beneath his feet and out of it rose some dark grey goop that infected the landscape turning it into even darker lands.
Apokkolys's eyes began to glow yellow and the rest of his body began to glow red. While outside of the mind space a weird looking helmet appeared next to Dan's motionless body. Warfang growled lowly as the boy sat up and then he flashed open his eyes and an unfitting grin spread across his face.
"Foolish creature it is I your master. I just need to change a few more things besides the fact of who is in control of this shell." Apokkolys's voice erupted from Dan's throat much like how Drago's had.
He looked at the funky looking helmet and plucked it up delicately placing it on his head. The outstretched claw like attachments curled closer as the helmet sank into position. The clothes Dan was wearing began to glow luminescent as they morphed into a more form fitting armoring spandex. The suit was then a dark grey color and the trim and markings were silver or light gray. Only the chin and mouth could be viewed from beneath the helmet. The rest of him became a sort of body suit.
"Master Apokkolys I-" Warfang managed to say before Apokkolys waved a hand to silence him.
"Warfang from now on refer to me as…..Wiseman…" Apokkolys told the darkus lupenoid.
"As you wish, Master Wiseman." Warfang corrected with a bow of his head making Wiseman cackle heartily.
"Come Warfang, we are off to the Doom Dimension to wreak havoc and maybe collect a new force to be reckoned with." Wiseman said as a portal appeared not to far from where he stood and the casually strode up to it.
Warfang followed without question and into the Doom Dimension they went.