Ch. 37: Spinning Out Part 1 (Song Chapter)
"I don't suppose you can explain why I'm a dragon?" Dan asked Tails.
"Oh, crud. I'm still trying to explain to myself how you're even here. Maybe, when I pulled the Maxus Traps from Bakugan: Defenders of the Core, I accidentally pulled Drago from the game too, and his link with Dan brought him into Skylands as well. And his connection with Drago meant the usual anti-human spell on this world transformed Dan into a dragon with a close physical resemblance to Drago. And right when I'd started a resolution not to use the virtuality portal to create any more living beings," Tails said out loud to no one in particular.
"What?" Dan, Drago and Spyro all said at the same time.
Rolling his eyes, Tails 'dumbed it down' for the non-geniuses. "Dan, Drago, I have a machine called a virtuality portal which allows me passage between Earth and Skylands, where we are now, but it only works if I use one of many avatars I possess. I am currently using one of them. It also lets me bring anything I want out of a video game of my choice. All three of you, I used a video game called Bakugan: Defenders of the Core to get some of the things I used to create the Maxus Gaia Colossus, namely the six Maxus Dragonoid traps. When I did, it must have accidentally brought you two here as well," Tails gestured to Bakugan and Brawler, "and because of a magic spell Sunburn and his dad created thirteen thousand years ago, no humans can exist in Skylands, because they suck the magic from this world like they're sponges or something. Normally, what happens is the human gets transformed into an elf, or a feline Mabu, or something along those lines, but Dan, your connection with Drago must have overridden that and transformed you into a dragon with physical similarities to Drago. Drago isn't human, so he was unaffected. Now, if that's enough explanation for you, we kinda have a universe to save, 'member?"
Dan scratched the base of his new horn. "We do?"
Tails rolled her eyes. "Spyro, get them up to date while I fly this thing into an active volcano, okay?"
Spyro nodded, then realised something. "Wait, I'm the leader of the Skylanders. Shouldn't I be calling the shots?"
"Well, I'm the only one who knows how to pilot this ten-thousand-year-old semi-robotic heap of magical bronze crud, and unless you want your Wisp that doesn't speak English or Arstic, not that there's a difference, to explain what's going down right now to those two, you're the only one who's likely to tell them why I'm suicidally flying the most powerful construction in history into the active volcano at the epicentre of the universe. Capiche?" Tails snapped.
Spyro, honestly scared, nodded and turned to the other dragon and his Bakugan.
Tails took a deep breath, which was really deep because she was still Sonic Boom, and her beak had a massive hinge, and added, "Sorry, I've got a bad habit of getting annoyed when there's a lot of pressure on me,"
Loni, Cynder and her Purple Wisp chose that moment to arrive in the cockpit, panting. "What did we miss?" Cynder panted.
Loni was the first to register Dan's presence. "Whoa, who's the hunk?"
Tails, hearing that, turned his head away so Loni wouldn't see the expression on his face.
"Dan. Dan Kuso. I'd offer you a handshake, but I'm still trying to get used to having four legs," Dan replied, looking sheepish.
"Tell me about it. Three and a half years since I became a dragon, and I'm still not completely used to it," Loni sighed.
She spotted Tails pointedly looking away. "Uh, Tails, can I talk to you?" the dragoness asked, then noticed everyone, including the Wisps, staring. "Privately?" she added, casting an intimidating glare at the others.
"I just remembered I, ah, might not have put that gemstone back properly," Dan told them, looking sheepish, and clumsily moved out of the room. "I should make sure nothing happens to him," Drago added, floating after his partner.
"The ruby looked fine to me," Drago whispered to Dan.
"I know, bud, but they want to be alone together,"
Despite not doing anything physical, Drago gave off the impression of frowning. "Why?"
Face-palming, Dan put it in the simplest terms he could manage. "Me and Runo, you and Wavern. Same connection. Okay?"
"Ah, right," Drago finally understood.
Dan pulled Drago aside to a crack in the cockpit's stone and they both peeked in, making sure that they could see and hear everything. "Why are we spying?" Drago had to ask the Fire dragon. "You really want to miss this?" Dan chuckled.
Spyro, Cynder and both of their Wisps left, and Tails and Loni were left alone. Loni took a deep breath. "Look, Tails, I - can you change to a male avatar? I really don't feel comfortable saying this to another girl. Especially not Sonic Boom,"
Tails nodded, and within half a minute had transformed into S1 Sunburn.
Spyro and Cynder found another couple of cracks, and pressed their eyes against them, also not wanting to miss a word.
Loni took another deep breath. "Look, Tails. I know how you feel about me. The Chaos Emerald showed me,"
Tails sighed. "And you were creeped out by it and don't want anything more to do with me,"
"No," Loni replied, the sincerity in her voice speaking volumes. "It was amazing, and I loved it. But -"
Tails, who had been smiling since the second she said no, frowned and questioned "But?"
"But Cynder's right. We can't be together unless you permanently become a dragon yourself. And if I know you, you're gonna get to work on that the second we're done with saving the universe. But until that happens, you have to understand that I'm not going to tie myself down to someone I can't be with yet. I'm not going to pretend I don't have feelings for you too, Tails, but unless we can work this out, you have to realise that we can't make this work yet," Loni told the other dragonoid, as both were close to tears.
"What?" Spyro gasped, completely ruining the idea of secretly spying. "You destroyed their chances of romance?!" he stormed, turning on Cynder.
"I was telling her the truth. You know how low the chances are that Tails will manage to transform himself into a dragon too. It'll be better for her in the long run," Cynder retaliated, going on the defensive, lashing out as she always had.
"We are talking about the only person in the universe to create a portal between dimensions that isn't a Portal Master. I think becoming a dragon would be as easy as catching a lame sheep compared to that," Spyro shouted, fire in his eyes.
"Wait, wait, wait," Tails interrupted them both. "You were spying on us?" he asked, incredulous.
Both dragons stared at him, at a loss for words. Then Spyro spotted a flash of red at the far end of the cockpit. "So are Dan and Drago!" he pointed out, gesturing with his purple-scaled foreleg.
Dan pulled his forepaws up onto a slab of stone, heaving his upper body onto it after them and pointed an accusing talon at Spyro. "Hey, just because you two ruined your spying doesn't mean you have to ruin ours,"
Loni interrupted them all. "Has everyone forgotten that we're trying to save the universe here?"
Tails conceded the point, twisting the bracelet that allowed him to control the Maxus Gaia Colossus, and mentally ordering it to ascend the volcano. Spyro, Cynder and Dan continued to shout at each other. Drago wisely decided to keep out of it, floating towards Loni instead. "Is it always like this?"
"Well, Spyro and Cynder are usually a rock-solid couple. Don't know about Dan, though," Loni shrugged. "And my life just got weirder," she added.
"Why?" the Bakugan wanted to know.
"Well, I'm holding an intelligent conversation with a ball the size of one of my claws," Loni explained.
The awesome majesty of the inside of the centre of the universe finally put an end to the three dragons' bickering, and as the Maxus Gaia Colossus descended down into the crater, with the Dread-Yacht hanging back at the rim of the volcano, the six dragons (counting Drago) in the cockpit were the first to see the giant, mutated, dragonoid version of Kaos.
Drago was the first to speak. "A giant Darkus Rubanoid?" he asked, incredulous.
Tails, being the only one who knew the Bakugan anime series, frowned. "Wait, if you came out of a game set in New Vestroia, how do you know about Rubanoid, a Gundalian Invaders Bakugan?"
"There were Rubanoids in Vestroia. They were just very rare," Drago explained.
"Besides, that can't be a Bakugan. It's too big," Dan pointed out. And he was right, the giant mutant Kaos was easily the size of the Maxus Gaia Colossus. When it came down to it, Bakugan when not in ball form were pretty big, but still only half the size of the Maxus Gaia Colossus' leg.
"Huh? What is this?" the mutant roared.
Spyro frowned. "I know that voice. Kaos? What in Eon's beard happened to you?"
"I have become more powerful than ever before! And with this new power, I will spread my dark influence all over the universe!"
"The universe?" Cynder questioned, flyIng to the top of the cockpit's roof. "This is a step up for you in 'craziness of plot' level,"
"What can I say? A new minion, a new plot, a new goal. Now, I am going to destroy you!" Kaos roared, clumsily extending his wings.
"A new minion? What happened to Glumshanks? And why was he at the top of the Frostfest Mountains?" Loni shouted.
"Oh, I am completely done with that loser. Duskwort is my butler now,"
Duskwort' eyes widened where he was perched on a rocky outcrop not far from Kaos' head. His butler? That was an insult too far. If it weren't for the fact that Kaos' continued survival until the volcano erupted in half an hour was imperative to his plan, he would kill that incompetent fool just for that insult.
"Dan? Do you still have Scorpion?" Tails asked sharply.
Dan reached back with his foreleg and patted first the pouch that still hung around his waist, where he kept the Bakugan cards, then checked the tatters of his jacket that still hung around his body. The jacket in question was the exact same colour as his new scales, and since the transformation it had become a bit of a tight fit, so nobody but Drago had even realised he was still wearing anything but the card pouch. "Not sure. He could still be in my pants, which I left back in the chamber where I woke up," Dan gestured to his tail, which he flicked uncertainly. "But if he's not there, he didn't come with me and Drago when, uh, what was it again?"
Tails rolled his eyes. "I'll pilot the Maxus Gaia Colossus in battle with Kaos. Dan, throw out Drago and do what you can to help. I can't believe I'm saying something along the lines of this, but Cynder, go find Dan's pants and bring them, and everything in them, back here. Spyro, keep taunting Kaos. Loni, yeah, I'm kinda out of jobs, so just keep looking amazing,"
"Or I could rally the Wisps for battle. Prepare the Final Colour Blaster?" Loni suggested. "That works too. Wait, you've played Sonic Colours?"
"It was released just under a month before I moved to Skylands. I didn't really get much of a chance to play it beyond the first world, and it was kinda hard to play with paws," Loni waggled her scaly claws, "but somehow, Sprocket's a gamer. She played it, and I might have stuck around to watch. A bit," The pink dragoness looked sheepish. "Okay, you do that. Everyone, go, go!"
"On it," pretty much everyone said simultaneously. Dan snatched Drago from mid-air and, beating his wings to get him some height, which was impressive for someone who had been a dragon for half an hour, and shouting "Bakugan Brawl!" threw Drago straight at Kaos' head, catching him in the eye. In the minute it took the little ball to soar across the gap, the Fire dragon snatched a card from his holster and, throwing it towards the lava under the two monstrosities' feet, shouted "Gate Card! Set!" and, pulling the red-and-white gauntlet from his tattered jacket, slid it onto his foreleg like he had before. "Gauntlet! Power Strike!"
Cynder stopped near Dan as Drago returned to his true form. "Where did you leave your pants?" she questioned the other dragon.
"In a chamber about two storeys below this temple-thing sticking out of this thing's chest with a red diamond in it," Dan replied.
"The red Chaos emerald! Tails, where's the red Chaos Emerald?" Cynder asked the phoenix dragon.
"Uh, just below the bottom of Spyderfencer," Tails replied, focusing on controlling the Maxus Gaia Colossus. "Which is?" Cynder urgently questioned.
"The big crimson thing on the chest. Kinda gotta focus here!" Tails told her without even looking at her, raising his foreleg to block as Kaos terraformed a massive club of rock on his fist out of nowhere and swung it towards the chest of Maxus Gaia. He frowned. "Something's missing," he realised.
"Fight music?" Dan suggested.
"You're right!" Tails gasped, pulling his IPad and a set of miniature speakers out of nowhere. The silver Chaos Emerald flew into view, transforming the miniature speakers into a complete sound system, before returning to it's pedestal. "I just realised what we're missing," he smiled. "Please don't say Pokemon. I can't sand that," Dan pleaded. Tails smirked. "Nope. Monsuno!" and he hit play on his IPad.
The Maxus Gaia Colossus' arm glowed cyan as Kaos' club hit it, as it was the ocean-blue Chaos Emerald encased within the arm, and the Bakugan Trap that also made up part of the arm was Aquos Grafias. The stone club buckled under the impact, but so did the crimson and blue metal of Grafias.
"Monsuno!" the speakers boomed, before cutting into a short guitar solo.
Tails swung the left arm of the Colossus at Kaos' head, and he curved his wing into the golem's path, blocking.
Tails frowned. "He does know that the wing membrane is the weakest part of a dragonoid's body, right?"
Evidently, Kaos did not, as the machinery of Haos Brachium adorning the Colossus' left arm punched a hole straight through the crystalline pink wing, ramming into Kaos' jawbone. Pulling his foreleg back, Tails tore a massive rent through Kaos' wing.
The guitar solo ended and the first verse began.
"I feel the power,
Man of the hour,
Got my core ready and the skills to devour,"
"AAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOW! THAT HURTS!" Kaos shouted. Drago saw an opening and, as Dan shouted "Ability activate! Burst Fire!" he launched a massive fireball into Kaos' open jaw.
Duskwort clasped a paw to his head. These imbeciles were ruining everything. He could not just stand and watch this train-wreck.
"I came to battle,
Who wanna battle,
Spin it! - Monsuno -
Now flip it into battle!"
His gaze settled on Dan's Bakugan Gauntlet, even though it was a tiny speck from where he stood. In it, he could see computer code. He could see the code running through Dan and Drago too. And there was something in that code that he wanted, and due to his Tech power, he could take it.
Thousands of zeroes and ones streamed from Dan and Drago towards Duskwort. "Wha! What's happening?" Dan asked, looking down at the digits streaming from his body. Spyro looked over and assessed "I don't know, but it won't be good,"
Meanwhile, Cynder was frantically trying to find Dan's pants. She had located the red Chaos Emerald, and was working her way down. Finally, her Purple Wisp indicated a chamber with that high-pitched whine Wisps used to communicate. Cynder looked inside, finding a torn, tattered white shirt with a red symbol on the front and a pair of black jeans with a bulge in them. Cynder unsheathed her claws and cut it open, revealing a red shape that looked like a small sphere with a thick ring around it. "Are you Scorpion?" she asked. The shape clicked open into a face with two massive claws on either side and a short tail above. It nodded.
"What, aren't you going to say anything?" Cynder asked, irritated. Scorpion seemed to shrug with his claws. "Great. Another rude travelling companion," Cynder rolled her eyes, scooped the Bakugan Trap up and began making her way back up to the colossus as the next part of the verse began.
"Shall we make it launch-launch!
- Monsuno -
M-make it launch-launch-launch!
I came to wreck it!"
Duskwort shaped the code into two things. A small ball, and a Bakugan Gauntlet like Dan's, but purple where Dan's was red, and black where Dan's was white.
Duskwort remembered Dan's technique. Snatching up the ball, he raised himself into the air and, throwing the ball at Drago, shouted "Bakugan Brawl! Bakugan Stand! Gauntlet! Power Strike!"
The ball transformed into something that looked identical to Drago, but black and purple.
"Go! I'm launching now!
T-t-turn it up!
I got my whole world spinning out!
- Monsuno -"
"Darkus Cross Dragonoid! Stand!" Duskwort instinctively shouted. 'What's the difference between Pyrus and Darkus? Eh, doesn't matter. I will destroy them all,"
"Go! I'm launching now!
T-t-turn it up!
I got my whole world spinning out!
- Monsuno -"
Cynder arrived at the cockpit. "Here. Your stupid insect," she stormed, bad-temperedly throwing the Trap at Dan, who caught it in his forepaw. "He didn't say a single word to me. He's so rude,"
"Trap Bakugan don't have vocal chords, dudette. Didn't you know that? None of them ever talk," Dan explained, frowning.
"They don't?" Cynder asked, surprised.
"Dan, I need your help RIGHT NOW!" Drago roared. "There's another Bakugan here, and it's a Darkus version of me!"
"Aww, snap, there's a what?" Dan roared, shocked. "I'll explain Bakugan Traps to you later. Gotta kick the butt of something that apparently came out of nowhere,"
"I came to crash it -
Within the action.
Rock out the world,
Save the day like a smash hit!"
"Ability Activate! Burning Dragon!" Dan yelled, pulling a card out of his pouch and slotting it into his gauntlet. Drago's body turned into a dragon-shaped fire and launched himself at the Darkus Cross Dragonoid.
Tails twisted the Gaia Colossus' robotic tail around and scythed it into Kaos' leg.
"ENOUGH!" Kaos screamed. Everything stopped, frozen in time. Curiously, everything except the song.
"I came to battle -
Who wanna battle?
Spin it - Monsuno -
Now flip it into battle!"
"I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Kaos roared.
YES! I finally managed to write a really long, really cool fight scene! And it's so long it will have to be completed in the next chapter - along with the song. Speaking of that, since I couldn't think of a way to mention this in the story, the name of the song is Monsuno -
'Like they didn't guess that,'
Shut up, Gaiphe. And it was performed by Far East Movement. It's also the theme song to the first season of the animated series of Monsuno. I used to be a fan, until I realised how bad quality the toys were. The new theme song in Combat Chaos, season 2, isn't bad, but I prefer the first one - which is featured in this battle. The second theme song probably would have been better, but I couldn't find it. Stupid Sonos.
'No one cares. Deal with it,'
Shut up, you oversized turkey. Peace!