There wasn't much time between their last battle and the next, maybe half an hour, but thankfully Nibbles didn't get too winded. He got some water and a quick snack and was pumped up to go fight again. His enthusiasm was helping Jura get excited as well.

At this point, he knew they were fighting the American Branch. He was nervous, why wouldn't he be, but he was in high spirits. One more tournament battle and they were done for a while, they could relax. One more fight and they showed everyone they were worthwhile Wardens.

When the call to enter the stadium came, Jura felt his heartbeat accelerate and a grin spread across his face. He looked down at Nibbles who looked back, then they both nodded.

"You ready, buddy?" he said with a tug to his neckerchief.

"Always!" Nibbles replied. Jura pat him on the head.

It was go time.

The shadows were stretching and the sky was turning orange as they emerged into the stadium. It had been a long day and fighting under a sunset seemed extremely fitting. The warmth of the sun prickled his back and made him shiver reflexively.

"Well, lookie there! We, like, made it all the way to the end!" Sean said from the other side of the field. "Don't think we'll, like, let'cha off easy 'cause ya helped with the masked fighter shit."

"Wouldn't want you to!" Jura said back as confidently as he could. Nibbles let out one of his squeaky roars in support.

Leon smirked. "I dunno, rookie, ya' might regret that in a bit. Becks fights good when she's not freaked out."

"Hell yeah, I do!" Becky chimed in.

"Well we're, uh, way cooler'n you guys!" Lucky said. He probably just wanted to feel included, but all it really did was make Jura feel dumb. And Sasuke was still moping from the last battle, so he was doing the heavy lifting in making them seem like a threat.

Jura decided to just send Nibbles out before he lost steam.

Morgan and Kin appeared next him as per usual, and their opponents were Leon's ptera, Scout, Sean's nychus, Arsen, and Becky's big allo, Bentley. Honestly, Jura was the most worried about Bentley. Arsen was a seasoned fighter, but he didn't have the bulk to throw around and take hits like Bentley.

Their vivosaurs had just made it out when Scout dove forward and slashed his beak along Kin's side. She cringed but managed to snag one of his feet in her jaws and throw him against the ground, stunning him for just a moment.

With Scout incapacitated, sending Nibbles after him seemed like a good idea. Jura pointed at the grounded pterosaur. "Saurus roll, bud!"

Nibbles dove forward, rolling into a spiny ball that slammed down hard on Scout. The ptera cried out as he was crushed against the earth. He was definitely gonna need a while to take off after that hit.

"Rip 'im up, Arsen!" Sean said with a grin. Jura flinched slightly at the command, his eyes wide with anticipation. He was more worried about Bentley, but Arsen was still a threat.

The nychus charged Nibbles, his smaller form allowing him to dodge around his claws and slash down Nibbles' side. When Nibbles rumbled with pain, Arsen slammed his sickle claw into the larger vivosaur and pushed off, slashing the back of Nibbles' neck. The nychus hit the ground finally and leaped again to claw Nibbles in the chest.

Unfortunately for him, this third and final hit opened him up long enough for Nibbles to swing his claws and slam Arsen to the ground. The nychus rolled a couple times and caught himself, sliding to a stop with his crest flashed up. He seemed excited.

"Dome dash!" Lucky said, throwing his arms up into the air. Morgan trotted towards the grounded Scout. She leaped and slammed her head against his, producing a sharp crack!

When she bounced away from the ptera, Bentley's large head slammed into Morgan and threw her. She hit the ground hard and tumbled to a stop. The ajka was definitely resilient, though, and she hopped up to her feet with ease.

Bentley scratched at his face with his small hands. Apparently Morgan had clawed him when he tackled her. She was crafty like that.

Sasuke let out a smug hmph and crossed his arms. "Finish off that ptera, Kin!"

The f-raptor charged Scout and jumped, slamming her feet down on his back. The ptera screeched and flashed back to his gear, and Kin just snorted. That brought them t 3, which got Jura feeling better.

Kin had barely stepped away from Scout's gear when Arsen slashed across her face. She recoiled in pain, not backing away fast enough to avoid his second swipe to her side. A third slash carved up the front of her chest and smacked into her chin, making the f-raptor take a few unsteady steps backwards.

And it was their turn again. Jura scratched his arm as he thought up his next move. "Let's go for another saurus roll on Arsen!"

Nibbles dove at the nychus and rolled into a ball. His size let him catch Arsen, try as he might to hop out of the way. Nibbles' spiked tail slammed down on Arsen and pinned him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

Bentley jumped and slammed his feet against Nibbles' side. He struck with enough force to roll the larger vivosaur on to his side and off of Arsen. Nibbles struggled to get back up.

With Arsen incapacitated, Morgan jumped into one of her spinning dives. Water surged around her and propelled the ajka into Arsen, easily bowling over the off-balance nychus. He burst into his gear moments later.

Kin didn't let things slow down even if they were down to one opponent. She slammed her armored head against Bentley's and spun around. Her tail whipped his face and threw him back a little ways.

A fierce growl left the allo's throat and he thrust his shoulder into Kin's side. His head cracked against the f-raptor and dazed her, making her groan and stumble slightly. She managed to put some distance between her and Bentley, making a nice opening for Nibbles to attack.

"Saurus fire!" Jura said. Fire licked Nibbles' teeth and he spat out a fireball. The flames crashed into Bentley's hide and sprayed embers off of him. He grit his teeth and shook himself off.

Nibbles slammed his giant claws down on the field as a fiery aura flowed around him. Cracks spread through the ground and exploded beneath Morgan and Kin, releasing a flurry of embers on them. The two vivosaurs appeared revitalized, and Kin snapped out of her daze. Jura felt almost a little bad. Healing their whole team this late in the fight was definitely confirmation that they were winning.

Morgan's energized form hurtled at Bentley and slammed into him. The allo snapped at her a few times, but was unable to snag her tiny form. Her nails dug into Bentley's shoulder before she jumped off, and when he lunged after her Kin's feet slammed into his side.

Bentley let out a surprised growl and fell down flat on his face. Kin hit the ground but Bentley scrabbled back up and slammed into her once more. The force of the attack knocked Kin over as well, but I wasn't going to be enough to win this for them.

Jura felt himself smile just a little bit. "Finish him off, Nibbles!"

The vivosaur's massive claws swiped at Bentley's head, carving some slashes into his face and splattering red on the sand. Nibbles brought his other arm around and laid in another swipe on the allo's chest. With a rumble, Bentley took a few stiff steps backwards, and then finally crashed down on the ground.

When he flashed into his gear, Jura felt his heart jolt.

They didn't get to talk to the American team until after they'd gotten their trophies and such, what with all the excitement. Jura felt very excited and very tired at the same time. He was ready to head home and fall asleep.

When he stepped into the back room to get his stuff, Jura was met with Arsen trotting up to him. The nychus had his crest up and was chirping happily, but Nibbles still hid behind Jura's legs and growled.

"Heyyyy, good work out there, kiddo!" Sean said, a bright grin on his face as he followed after his vivosaur. Jura rubbed the back of his neck.

"Th-thanks!" he stammered out. He really didn't know what else to say.

"You guys, like, fuckin' crushed with the masked fighter shit, but goddamn, didn't think you'd beat my ass that bad."

Jura laughed nervously. "Well, Nibbles did get a new form. Uh, maybe if you were used to that one it would've gone more in your favor."

Sean just shrugged. "Ehhh, probs not, I'm pretty fuckin' dumb." He smacked Jura on the back and made him flinch. "Anyways, like, Stryke-man wants to talk to ya'. Better not keep 'im waitin'."

"Oh, um, okay! Thanks."

The branch leader made a clicking noise with his tongue and shot a finger gun at him, then turned and walked off.

Jura glanced down at Nibbles. "Probably just a congrats, then we can get some rest."

Nibbles nodded. "Yeah, probably."

His entire team had ditched him at this point, so he didn't really bother to wait for anyone. Sasuke left the second he got his trophy, Lucky talked for like ten minutes and then ran off to show his parents, and Tria was MIA, so yeah, might as well talk to Stryker. With a yawn, Jura trudged out into the stadium lobby.

He noticed the Captain and Prof. Little right away. Stryker was just tall and next to Little it was glaringly obvious. Jura made a beeline over to them, his chest tightening up as he got closer.

"You two were fantastic!" Prof. Little said, his eyes aglow with excitement. It reminded Jura of Lucky, and for a brief moment Little looked his age.

Stryker smiled as well. "Yes, great job! Everyone I've talked to said this was one of the best tournaments they've been in. Makes me wish I'd entered." He chuckled a little at the end and Jura laughed along nervously. He was very glad Stryker didn't enter the tournament, it was stressful enough without him.

Little succumbed to his childish excitement and let out a little squeal. "Ah, that would've been fun! I haven't seen you battle in a long time, Captain!"

Stryker laughed at him a bit and Little seemed to snap out of it. He cleared his throat and adjusted his lab coat. "I apologize for my outburst, I'm nearly ten, I should have better control of myself."

Jura laughed at that reflexively, then blushed. "It's alright, really."

Their group fell silent for a moment as everyone waited for everyone else to talk. Finally, Stryker took charge. "Well, I should get back to work. Take another couple of days off, I'll send you with an assignment later."

"Sounds good," Jura said. He glanced down at Nibbles, who let out a happy growl, then turned to leave.

They stepped out into Fossil Park Asia, the setting sun feeling especially warm. Jura was ready for some dinner, and after this long tournament and lots of fighting, he was sure Nibbles was ready as well. He flipped through meal options in his head, zoning out as he autopiloted towards the HQ building. They'd nearly made it when he heard Nibbles yelp. It was an obviously pained yelp.

Jura whipped around, eyes wild. He thought he was paranoid, but when he watched Nibbles fall over with some sort of dart in his back, he felt extremely justified. Nibbles flashed down into his little red gear and Jura ran to grab it. He was blocked by a rush of dark colors that morphed into none other than Kowloon.

"'Sup, bitch," he said in typical Kowloon fashion, a cocky grin on his face. Nibbles' gear was wedged between two of his blades.

He really didn't know what to say other than, "Nibbles!"

Kowloon smirked and tossed the gear into the air, presumably catching it in his actual hand when it fell into his giant sleeve. "Consider this payback for all the bullshit you've put me through the last couple'a months."

And he just kinda vanished the same way he entered.

Jura was too flabbergasted to do anything until he heard Stryker yell from behind him, "Was that Kowloon?!"

He snapped out of it and spun around, his heart racing, "Y-yeah! He took Nibbles!"

Stryker was visibly upset by that statement, but kept running up to him anyways. "Come on, we can catch up to him if we hurry!"

For just a moment, Jura hesitated. He was scared for sure, he didn't know what was happening. But, when he thought about being separated from Nibbles again, he just got mad. That was his buddy, he wasn't gonna stand by and let Nibbles get taken away from him again.

He nodded sharply. "Right!"

They jumped into their buggies and headed out to Paradise Beach. Some tips had apparently come in about a suspicious bone buggy driving out there, so it seemed like their best bet. Jura white-knuckled his steering wheel as he drove after Stryker faster than he'd ever drove before. He kept reminding himself this was for Nibbles to stay as calm as possible.

Eventually he could see Kowloon's bone buggy parked on a cliff edge. That seemed super weird, he was just a sitting duck there. Stryker pulled up and screeched to a stop in front of Kowloon and Jura slowed down gradually and came to a safe stop next to him.

"It's over Kowloon!" Stryker yelled over the radio, "We have you cornered, just surrender!"

"I don't go down easy, asshole!" Kowloon snapped back, sounding a little too smug for Jura's liking.

A few moments later, a really loud splashing sound blasted in Jura's ears. He could barely hear Kowloon yell, "Fucking finally!" before the BR Brigade member floored his buggy off the side of the cliff.

The vehicle landed on a massive submarine that had just emerged from the water. A lid of sorts closed over Kowloon's buggy and sealed the vessel airtight. Jura felt his heart sink. There went Nibbles. He couldn't get him back from there.

"We had that disassembled!" Stryker blurted out.

"We built another one!" came back over the radio. Jura recognized that cartoonishly evil voice as belonging to Dr. Blackraven.

"And you're- we captured you!" Stryker yelled back, which just made Blackraven laugh.

Jura heard a weird ringing noise before Little's nervous face popped up on his screen. "Captain, we've just received word that the Dr. Blackraven we arrested is a robot!"

"How does that even happen?" Jura said, too shocked to keep his thoughts to himself.

Blackraven laughed even harder, falling into one of those stereotypical maniacal laughs. "Stryker, I see once again your stupidity knows no bounds! As fun as rubbing this in would be, I have a dreadsaurus to resurrect! Adieu, Captain!"

And with that, the massive Black Whale submarine descended into the depths of the ocean, and Jura felt his heart fall into his stomach. He felt numb, too overwhelmed to feel any emotion at all. Or maybe, he was feeling too much emotion for his body to register it. Jura's head smacked forward against his steering wheel and he just stayed in that position for a while.

"Jura." Stryker's voice made him lift his head back up finally. "Come with me to my office. We have a lot to talk about that's only for our ears."

He didn't know what else to do but comply.

It felt like a haze had settled around Jura's head as he followed Stryker into his office. He just felt defeated now. After all that effort to bring Nibbles back, all the tears he shed and the pain he felt, it'd all been in vain. There wasn't much hope for getting Nibbles back, as far as he knew.

He came to a stop before Stryker's desk as the Captain sat down and Little stood beside him. The two of them exchanged a glance, then Stryker cleared his throat. "Jura, I'm sorry you've been pulled into this struggle with Dr. Blackraven. I should have known he wouldn't be captured so easily."

Stryker paused for him to answer, but Jura was so emotionally exhausted that he just stared back silently.

"As you know, five years ago we fought against Blackraven. When we'd arrested him, we confiscated a weapon he'd been constructing, the Dreadsaurus. This was an artificially created vivosaur made with the sole purpose of absorbing limitless dark energy."

Jura blinked. His brain was too muddled with depression, anxiety, and anger to piece any of this together. Stryker seemed to realize this and continued.

"When we captured this vivosaur, our main goal was to return it to normal. However, extracting the dark energy proved to be more difficult than anticipated. We were only able to crystallize it to seal away its impacts on the vivosaur."

That finally prodded Jura's brain enough to draw out an unenthusiastic response. "Wh-what kind of, um, impacts?"

The Captain seemed relieved he'd said something. "Dark energy produces extreme hatred for every living thing and destroys a vivosaur's consciousness. They become mindless killing machines. Even with the dark energy crystallized in this vivosaur, it seemed this innate hatred still had a hold on it."

Jura nodded slightly.

"That vivosaur was Nibbles."

Oh. Oh. That snapped Jura back into focus. His eyes widened as he started combing through memories. A lot of things started to make sense all of a sudden. Nibbles' lack of social skills, his defensiveness towards anyone not Jura, his inability to communicate telepathically for the longest time; all of those stemmed from dark energy.

"Wh-why did I end up with him?" Jura asked after he'd composed his thoughts. He rubbed his arm.

Stryker smiled slightly. "You helped him. We'd put him into hibernation because he was so violent, but when you woke him and faced that gorgo with him he seemed… calmer."

Little decided to hop in there. "Yes! Nibbles showed a clear change in behavior. He learned from you and adapted a calmer demeanor. We entrusted him to you with the hope he would eventually become a normal vivosaur again."

"And he did," Stryker finished, a tinge of sadness to his voice. Jura took a slow, shaky breath. Nibbles had changed for him. In a way, he'd saved Nibbles, but he knew Nibbles had saved him in so many more ways.

"W-we have to save him," Jura choked out. The words terrified him, he certainly didn't want to face Blackraven head-on again. But, Nibbles let himself get trapped in the past for him, this was the least he could do.

Little played with his lab coat nervously. "Well, um, there's not much we can do, he's at the bottom of the ocean."

A pause.

"That's not entirely true," the Captain said after a moment. He strummed his fingers on his desk. "We could always attempt to magnetically salvage it."

Jura had no idea what they were talking about, but judging by Little's frustrated expression this was a controversial solution.

"The cost of magnenite alone should rule that possibility out," Prof. Little murmured as he tapped a pen on his clipboard, "We'd need far too much to simply dig it up, it would take weeks."

The elevator dinged and Jura flinched. Immediately all three of them looked back at it, surprised to see all the branch leaders standing there. Sean gave them a thumbs-up.

"Saw Nibbles got got so I went'n, like, rounded everyone up. We can totes do some diggin' for ya!"

Little narrowed his eyes. "It would be an awful lot of digging. I don't know that our staff alone is enough to excavate the required amount of magnenite in a reasonable amount of time."

Sean waved one of his hands dismissively. "Psshh, nah dude, no biggie. I got a shit ton'a masked fans, lotsa peeps to help out."

"U-um, uh, I-I don't have fans, but we'll, uh, put in a good effort in Europe," Drake stammered out, staring down at his feet and tapping his fingers together.

Violet smiled and leaned up against him a little bit. "That's right! Drake'll do enough digging for ten people, anyways."

"And we'll do our part in Asia," Liu Ren said cordially. He seemed the most calm out of everyone in the room.

Sean flashed one of his infamously bright grins at Jura. "You guys've been kickin' ass around here. Least we can do is, like, dig some shit up."

For just a brief moment, Jura felt himself return the smallest hint of a smile. It was easy for him to forget he had so many people that wanted him to succeed, especially with Tria always around. He had friends, friends who wanted to help him save Nibbles. For all their efforts, he had to do his best in return.

Stryker chuckled slightly. "Alright, well, in that case, go collect enough magnenite for our salvage!"

There were a variety of acknowledgments and then everyone was heading back off to do just that. That was until Stryker added very suddenly, "Except you, Violet."

"Goddammit," she replied flatly, and Sean laughed at her in the elevator.

"Oh man, you get, like, a special mission, Vi."

"Shut the fuck up."

With an exaggerated sigh, Violet turned around and trudged back over to the desk. To a certain degree, Jura had been sort of picking up that her and Stryker had some weird tension. It was very obvious at this exact moment.

Once the elevator was descending, Stryker folded his hands together. "In order to do this salvage, we have to locate the Neo Black Whale."

"Okay?" Violet said, scrunching her shoulders up.

Little smacked his pen against his clipboard to catch everyone's attention. "If it's anything like the previous vessel, it should have complex stealth systems in place to make it undetectable by sonar or other conventional means."

"Which is where you come in," Stryker stated plainly, gesturing in Violet's direction. "You found that cosmonium, so I'm sure you can find the Neo Black Whale."

Jura looked down at Violet, noting her cat smirk was looking especially pained at this specific moment. "Ah," she forced out after a second. She smacked her wand against the palm of her hand once. "We, uh, don't have any other options?"

"Nope," Stryker said with a completely straight face. "It's all up to you, Violet."

"Cool, cool cool cool, ace, even," Violet said as she stared off to the side. She hit her wand against her hand a few more times, a bit faster this time.

"Jura and Tria, wherever she's at right now, will assist you in any way necessary," Stryker added. Jura flinched at the mention of his name, but he realized he was happy to help. He nodded to Violet, who laughed nervously.

"Wowwww, that's uh, thanks."

Stryker nodded once. "Alright, that's all. Good luck."

Violet retreated to the elevator without saying anything in response and Jura followed after her. The doors closed, and for a moment they were just standing there in silence. Jura cleared his throat. "So, um, what's the plan here?"

"How the bloody hell should I know?" Violet blurted out. She suddenly looked very panicked and that immediately got Jura's panic going again. "I'm bloody awful at magic, I can do like, two things!"

Jura started blinking really fast. "But you found the cosmonium!"

"That's one of the things I can do! I can find, like, keys and shite, not bloody huge submarines in the middle of the fucking ocean!"

Violet yanked on her hair as her face scrunched up with frustration. "Stryker knows that too, that fucking asshole! He fucking loves stressing me out!"

After a few moments of just cussing and panicking with Jura standing there and feeling absolutely terrified and lost, Violet finally ended the whole thing by smacking her head against one of the walls.

"This is what you get for banging your boss' sister, you fucking moron," Violet grumbled into the wall.

Jura took a couple steps back and looked off to the side. They just stood there in awkward silence until the elevator slowed its descent, that weird sense of vertigo kicked in, and the doors slid open. With that, Violet took a deep breath, grinned, and stepped out.

"Alright, let's go fake our way through this one, Jura!" Violet said way more enthusiastically than he expected. Unlike with Mei Lian, she was clearly trying to stay positive and not putting on a show, and honestly he could respect that.

He took a deep breath as well. "For Nibbles, right?" he murmured softly.

Violet blinked, then relaxed her shoulders slightly. "Yeah! Yeah, for Nibbles."

That made Jura feel just a little bit better.

Faster update than usual! I'm very excited to write the next chapter ha ha, hopefully people will enjoy it as much as I know I will

Ahhh thank you once again for the review, brightclaw! It makes me happy to know my writing is effective so far. I hope I'm able to keep that up! :)

Next chapter will probably be fast too but I don't want to make any promises ha ha