Danny continued to watch as Skyler flew further and further away. Skyler had just been scared off by a mysterious masked man who jumped out in front of him and pulled out a sword. The guy looked like he could pose a threat to Skyler.
"Who the heck are you, anyway?" Danny asked the masked stranger as he started getting up from the ground. In no time, he was staring face to face with the masked man.
"What just happened?" the man asked.
"Huh?" Danny asked. "Well, that guy you just attacked-Skyler-, was a scientist until just a few days ago. He injected himself with material from the black cloud up in the sky and he turned into that thing as a result."
"That dark cloud?" the man asked. "You mean that one?". He pointed to the giant, black cloud that had been hovering in the air for the past few days.
"Yeah, that's the one," Danny answered.
The man looked up at the cloud with curiosity. Danny thought he heard the masked guy mutter something as he stared up at the cloud.
"Did you say something?"
"Bhyrun," the masked man said. "You know that cloud up there? That's Bhyrun."
"Let me ask you something," Danny started, "Do you know what that cloud is or what it's doing?"
"The cloud is Bhyrun," the masked man replied. "At least, that's the name of the one inside it."
"I had met him face to face a little while ago," Danny said. "He had power greater than anything I've ever seen."
"Bhyrun is a very powerful figure," the masked person said. "Do you have any idea why you're still alive after you just got attacked by him?"
"No, I don't," Danny said. "I don't know who that Bhyrun guy is, what he wants to do, how I survived his attack, or any of that. I don't even know who you are."
"As well you shouldn't," the stranger said. "All you need to know right now is that I'm the only one who can defeat Bhyrun, but I'm going to need your help to do it."
"Why me?" Danny asked. "You're telling me to help you defeat that Bhyrun dude, but you won't even tell me who you are! How does that make sense?"
The masked stranger didn't respond to what Danny said. He slowly took a step closer to Danny and started talking. "Do you have any idea on Bhyrun's history?"
Danny paused and looked away for a moment. A second later, he looked back towards the masked person. "No."
The masked person pinched his two lips together and looked like he was about to do something he really didn't want to do. "How can you honestly hope to defeat Bhyrun if you don't even know his history?"
"I don't know," Danny yelled.
The man behind the mask seemed a little concerned about this. He looked nervous that Danny had no idea of anything about Bhyrun's past, but then realized that maybe Danny had no reason to know anything about Bhyrun.
"I'll do it," Danny finally said after a long, awkward silence.
"What are you talking about?"
"If I'm the only one who can help you defeat Bhyrun," Danny said, "then I'll do it."
Danny saw the guy smile at this decision. "That is a good decision you have made. Let's go to a secluded place so we can talk about how we're going to attack Bhyrun and finish him for good."
"Wait!" Danny yelled when the man was turning around to lead Danny to an isolated area where they could talk privately without attracting any attention. "Since I don't know anything about Bhyrun's past, would you mind filling me in? Or were you asking me because you didn't know either?"
The person stopped and turned around. He looked at Danny and walked over to him. "I know a bit of Bhyrun's history," the figure said. "I've done research, and I'm convinced that you are the only one who has the abilities to stop Bhyrun if my research is correct."
"All right," Danny said. "Can you tell me about him, then?"
"Absolutely," the figure whispered. "It's kind of a long story, though."
"After putting up with Great Expectations in Lancer's class for three months, I'm used to long stories."
"Very well. The story begins in the year 1368, to a time when priests were the most powerful and most respected of all the people."
"1368. That was when Skyler said Bhyrun came into power."
"Then he was probably accurate in his research," the person said. "But anyway, Bhyrun is actually an evil sorcerer from that time period. His path to being an evil sorcerer was a long and painful one."
"Let me guess: it was the same way Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader?"
"I have no clue what that means," the figure said. "Now please, don't interrupt me again. Bhyrun was a mage back then, just like a few other people were. However, there was a time when war came and all the mages of the city were not able to keep peace in the city. Bhyrun was captured, and was forced to turn the side of the enemy city. He was forced to use his powers to bring the enemy city to victory, or else they would torture him and take his life."
"So, Bhyrun was forced by the enemies to use his powers to destroy his home city?" Danny asked, trying to make sure he understood everything.
"Correct," the masked figure replied. "After seeing what great power he had, Bhyrun realized how much he loved using his power for his own purposes. In no time, he was using his powers for revenge, wealth, or simply to make people suffer. He grew more and more evil by the day until he got to where he is now."
"Wait a minute! That leaves a lot of loose ends!" Danny yelled. "That barely explains anything about the cloud or anything like that. And how come you and I are the only ones who can stop him!"
"If I had time to answer those questions, I would," the person replied. "But right now, we need to find Bhyrun and finish him once and for all, so he can make no more people suffer the way he has!"
"Uh…all right, whatever you say," Danny nervously said.
Saying this, the mysterious masked man ascended into the air and started flying. That left Danny speechless as he stared at the person as he continued to rise in the air.
"I didn't know you could fly!" Danny yelled. "You can fly, you can tell me stuff about Bhyrun, and by swinging a sword you can scare off Skyler. What else can you do?"
The figure didn't respond with anything except, "Hurry, we're losing time! Bhyrun could be doing anything now!"
Danny just grunted, and then started flying up into the air with the strange man. The two of them started flying around, looking for Bhyrun. They didn't find him, but they found the next best thing.
The two of them stopped in mid air. They saw a floating demonic-looking creature. The creature had a human appearance, but looked dark red and had sharp wings. It looked like a male, dark red harpy.
"No, not him again," Danny moaned. It was Skyler, obviously. "Am I going to have to fight this guy on an hourly basis or something? I'm really getting sick of him."
Skyler was flying around and sending blasts of energy down at people, mainly for his own amusement.
"Was that the one who just attacked you?" the masked man asked.
"Yeah," Danny said. "The guy you just saved me from a few minutes ago."
"We can't expect to defeat Bhyrun with a pest like him in the way. Come on, we must go and do unto him the pain that he has caused others!"
"Dude, are you from the middle ages or something?" Danny asked. "You don't have to talk all fancy to sound heroic. Try saying something like 'Let's go beat the tar out of him'. It sounds more natural."
The masked man didn't say anything to that smart remark Danny just made. The two of them flew over to Skyler as he continued attacking whatever was in his way.
When the two were right in front of him, they saw Skyler was hovering over a small dog that was obviously scared of him. The dog looked like it was younger than a year old, and it was a black Labrador Retriever. The poor dog was whining and trying to brace itself with giant, sad, scared brown eyes. Skyler had a huge ball of energy in his hand and he was pointing it at the dog, ready to blow the defenseless creature to pieces.
Just as Skyler was ready to destroy the dog, Danny fired a blast of energy at Skyler's head, causing him to release his formed ball of energy harmlessly into the air. "Hey, you stupid mutt, why don't you go bury something and stay away from him!" Danny yelled.
Skyler turned around and saw Danny and the masked person floating in the air, both ready to attack. He began scowling and started to get ready to attack both of them.
"That last comment was directed to you and not the dog, just to let you know," Danny said to him as Skyler began charging up his attack.
Before Skyler could finish preparing his attack and blasting it, the masked man went up to Skyler quicker than Danny could see it. The man was flying right in front of Skyler, so Danny couldn't really see what was happening. All he saw was what looked like a giant burst of golden light between the two, and Skyler was sent backwards, screaming in pain.
Danny gasped when he saw the light and Skyler getting hurt by it. Danny tried to figure out what that light was, but he wanted to take full advantage of Skyler being knocked off guard.
Danny flew over and fired a blast of ectoplasma at Skyler's head, which of course put him in more pain. But, it didn't take long for Skyler to regain himself and get back in the fight.
Skyler immediately started forming a dark red blast in his hand, ready to launch at any given moment. Unfortunately for Danny, it didn't take nearly as long for Skyler to release the blast as he thought it would.
The blast of energy came at Danny so fast he didn't have time to move out of the way. It was going to hit him right in the face, but the masked man jumped in front of the blast just in time and took the attack instead of Danny.
The masked man moaned as he got hit, leaving Danny staring in awe. Danny had never had someone take a hit for him, and he now felt he owed the masked man something.
It wasn't a long time before the masked person recovered, and soon enough, both he and Danny started attacking Skyler relentlessly.
"Hmmm…I saw this in a video game once," Danny said as he and the masked man continued fighting Skyler. "Hey!" Danny yelled, trying to get his new ally's attention. "I'm gonna hit Skyler to you, you hit him back to me, I'll hit him back to you, and then I'll give him an uppercut so hard he'll think he had a wrecking ball dropped on him."
The masked person didn't know what Danny was getting at, but he agreed. Danny flew over to Skyler and punched him with so much force that Skyler got sent flying backwards, right towards the masked man. The masked man hit Skyler back towards Danny as the plan went, and then Danny countered by doing the same thing. It was like playing ping pong with a person.
When Skyler was hit back to the masked man for the second time, Danny flew towards the ground and landed on it. The masked man hit Skyler and sent him soaring to the ground towards Danny, where Danny concentrated all his energy on his fist, and as soon as Skyler was within arm's reach, Danny punched Skyler in the back as hard as he could. Skyler got sent flying several yards into the air, and then landed on the ground with a hard thud.
"Heh. And my mom said I wouldn't learn anything from video games," Danny remarked as he looked at Skyler on the ground.
But, Skyler got up much quicker than Danny anticipated. Skyler was obviously in a lot of pain, but he insisted on moving on.
"You're relentless," Danny said in fear to himself as he saw Skyler prepare a strong blast of energy in his hand, ready to fire at Danny.
Just as Skyler was about to fire it, a loud chomp sound was heard and Skyler yelped in pain. He turned around, and the dog he was about to destroy was biting him in the butt.
"You stupid dog, let go of me!" Skyler yelled, trying to move around quickly so the dog would accidentally detach itself from Skyler. But it didn't work. The dog continued to keep a strong grip on Skyler's butt, not letting go no matter what.
Danny started bursting out in laughter as he saw Skyler struggling to get the biting dog off him and having no success. He was going to keep laughing about it until he heard the masked figure yell something to him.
"Hey, we're not here to laugh, we're here to finish him!"
Danny stopped laughing, but still kept the smile on his face. He fired one blast at Skyler's head, and it was a direct hit. Skyler was sent flying to the ground after taking Danny's energy stream to the head.
Skyler was no on the ground and the dog let go of him. The masked person dropped from the air and gently tapped himself onto the ground. No sooner did he do that did he walk over to Skyler and pull out his sword, ready to impale Skyler into the ground with it.
"Time to end your evil-doing," the masked man said bravely.
Skyler gasped in fear, and then shot into the air quicker than anyone could notice. He began flying away as fast and as far as he could. Danny wanted to follow him, but the masked man said that they should let him go for now.
"Well, I'll bet I'm going to have to fight him again in ten minutes," Danny said, breathing heavy after the fight. He and the masked man were now standing on the ground, exhausted but still determined to fight.
Danny looked down at the ground and saw the little dog that helped them in the battle by chomping down on Skyler's rear. The dog had its mouth open in a smile-shape and was panting with its tongue sticking out/ Danny smiled at the dog and bent down to start rubbing him.
"Good boy!" Danny said in baby talk. "You helped us beat that mean, mean scientist! Did you bite his butt? Did you bite his butt?"
Danny was going to continue rubbing and talking baby talk to the dog all day until the masked man cleared his throat. Danny turned towards him as the masked stranger said, "Are you done?"
"Yeah," Danny said. He turned his attention back to the dog and gave it one last pat on the head. "It's time for you to go home, okay?"
The dog, almost like it understood him, ran off after Danny told him to get back home. Danny smiled at the dog as he saw it running home, but his look turned serious a short while later. He stared at Skyler as Skyler continued to fly further and further away.
The masked stranger flew on the ground and stood right next to Danny. "We'll get him next time," he promised.