Chapter 15
Xenia's Palace
29 Ananeosis, 20 Zenoheld (1 Xenia)
"Good riddance to bad rubbish," Demophilus said brusquely.
"Demophilus!" Xenia scolded. "Zenoheld may not have been the best of men, but he was still your uncle and your king! Show some respect!"
Demophilus bowed to her. "My apologies, mother."
Xenia turned back to Mira. "Though someone's death should never be a cause for celebration"—she glared at Demophilus—"some good has come out of this. With both Zenoheld and Hydron dead, the crown will now fall to me. For the most part, reigning in my own right and not as simply 'Princess Regent' will be very liberating. However—"
At that moment, the porter, an old man wearing a dark red tabard that bore the royal coat of arms, entered the chamber. "Please forgive my intrusion, Your Highness. As you have commanded, I am here to tell you that the two guests you asked for have arrived."
"Thank you, porter. Let them in," Xenia instructed. She turned back to Mira. "Well, that particular train of thought will have to wait until later.
"Brawler Resistance, I would like for you to stay in the audience chamber. One of our new guests has news concerning one of the Vexos, and I would highly appreciate your input."
"Of course, Your Majesty," Mira replied, trying to keep her voice from wavering.
Just as Mira finished speaking, two people entered the audience chamber. One of them, a male Vestal standing at five-foot-six, wore a police officer's uniform. To the officer's left was a child who could be no older than eight. He stood at four-foot-two, and had fair skin, sandy hair, and light brown eyes. The kid was clothed in a white dress shirt, a blue bow tie, black dress pants, and black shoes.
From the moment he entered into the room, the kid was awestruck. His head was constantly turning every which way, taking in the sights of the audience chamber. Halfway into the audience chamber, however, he recognized the people standing in front of him: the Bakugan Brawlers Resistance, and Princess Xenia herself behind them.
The kid's eyes kept alternating between the brawlers and the royalty beyond them. As he kept switching his gaze between the two groups of people, his facial features underwent a gradual metamorphosis from awe to confusion. He held tightly onto the officer's arm as they continued to approach the dais. When they were in front of the throne, the two knelt.
"You may rise," Xenia said.
They stood, the kid still confused.
"Greetings. I am Princess Regent Xenia. To my right is my son, Margrave Demophilus. May I have your names?"
Trembling, the kid said, "A-A-Arthur L-Leocade, Y-Y-Your Highness."
Turning to the officer, Xenia said, "And you are…?"
"Officer Pytho, of the Varemed precinct, Your Highness," the man responded.
"Thank you," Regent Xenia said. "I received your report, Officer Pytho, and I must admit that it is troubling news indeed. You say that this young man witnessed Prince Hydron using a Death Bomb?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Officer Pytho replied.
"Then let me hear what happened."
"I believe that the kid will be able to tell you better than I could, Your Highness."
"Arthur, do you think that you can tell me what you saw?" Xenia asked.
Arthur took a deep breath. "I'll try, Your Highness."
"There's no need to be nervous, Arthur," Xenia said. "You are completely safe here."
He looked towards the Resistance briefly. "Then what's the Resistance doing here?"
"Them? They've recently arrived, and I've asked them to stay here to hear what you had to say. You did witness something happen to the Vexos Volt Luster, yes?"
The Resistance members looked at each other at the mention of Volt.
"Yes, Your Highness," Arthur answered.
"Then please, tell us."
"O-OK," Arthur said. After taking another deep breath, he said, "It was Kapphemera the 26th. I was on my way home from playing ball with my friends when the ball slipped out of my hands, so I chased after it. That's when I saw Volt sitting down on a piece of rubble…."
Arthur made his way through the rubble that peppered the Varemed streets. The high-city Vestals considered these streets too dangerous to navigate, but they were just cowards. Arthur could find his way through, no problem!
When Arthur found his ball, he saw that a man had stopped it under his foot. The man was twice his size and had white boots, a white cape, spiky peach hair,…
Could it possibly be…?
"Is this yours?" the man asked, holding the ball in his hands.
"Yes, sir," Arthur replied.
The man threw the ball back at Arthur, who easily caught it.
"Hey, are you that guy from the Vexos?" the kid asked. "Volt, right?"
"You recognize me?" Volt responded.
"Of course! It's not often that someone from around here makes it as big as you! You're the man!"
"But do you have any idea what we did?" Volt asked.
Arthur had heard from his friends that a group of teenagers called the Bakugan Brawler Resistance had stood up against King Zenoheld. King Zenoheld had started sending Vestals to this new planet that he discovered—"New Vestroia"—which happened to be the homeworld of the "Bakugan" that had fallen from the sky years earlier. Just days ago, the Resistance had gotten on TV and said that the Bakugan were not mindless animals, but were instead intelligent beings. And what was more, the Bakugan even talked!
But that would mean that the Vexos were the bad guys, and that couldn't be right! Right?
"Oh, who cares, dude?" Arthur concluded. "You are still our number-one hero!"
It was no secret that Volt was also a native of the Varemed slums. After he made it big, people slowly started to get the idea that they could do more than hurt each other to try to make themselves stronger. Some people even brought up the idea of trying to clean up the city. No one else seemed to care about Varemed's fate, so why not?
"So, are you back here to stay, Volt?" Arthur asked.
"Um … you bet!" Volt replied.
"Awesome! Can you teach me to brawl like you?"
"You mean with Bakugan?"
"Mm-hmm. When I grow up, I wanna be a wicked battle brawler, just like you!"
"Sure. OK."
"Really? Promise?"
"Yeah, I promise." Volt stood up, ready to move on.
"You're the best, Volt!" Arthur exclaimed.
"Ha!" Volt mussed the kid's hair. "Thanks, kid.
"You'd better run along now. I bet your mom is … probably wondering … where you are."
Excited at the prospect of being taught to brawl by the Volt Luster, Arthur did not pay attention to Volt's hesitation, simply responding, "Mm-hmm."
Running off in the direction he came from, he yelled to his friends, who had been watching from a distance, "Hey, guys! Volt said he was going to train me to brawl!"
"After that, I ran back to my friends, and we continued on our way home," Arthur said to the Vestals assembled in the audience chamber. "But right after, I heard a big 'BOOM!' coming from just where I was talking to Volt. So I went back to see what happened. And it was the most awesome sight! There was this huge Bakugan that looked like a robot—"
"A robot?" Mira asked. "Could you please describe it for the rest of us?"
"Why? Volt didn't thrash you enough times with it?" Arthur deadpanned.
"I'd like to know what the Bakugan looked like," Xenia cut in. "Please describe it for me."
"Of course, Your Highness," Arthur replied with a bow. "The Bakugan was a big white robot, with a head like some kind of animal's. It had huge golden horns growing out of its head, and the BOOM that I heard was the sound of it punching the ground in front of Prince Hydron.
"That part still confuses me, though. How did it get there so fast? And there were a lot of new craters and scorch marks that looked like there was a big Bakugan brawl, but I was just there!"
"Did no one ever tell you, Arthur?" Mira said.
"Tell me what?"
"If a Bakugan brawl is started outside of the official stadiums and training facilities, the same dimensional energies that allow the Bakugan to manifest full-size also create a pocket dimension outside of normal spacetime."
"Uh…could you repeat that in plain Vestal?" Arthur said.
"In other words, when you start a brawl in the streets, you create a space where time doesn't flow as quickly. Once the brawl is over, it is as if no time at all has passed in the outside world. King Zenoheld had put in a ban on brawling outside of authorized brawling facilities for that very reason, as those places have technology in place to counteract the spacetime distortion."
"Oh. Cool." Arthur grinned broadly.
Meanwhile, Baron was deep in thought. After Mira finished her explanation, Baron called his fellow Resistance members. "That Bakugan Arthur described. I know that I've seen it before. It's that long-name Bakugan that Volt uses now. What was its name? Haos Bore-ah…no, that's not it. Bore-ee…that's not it, either. Hold on, I've almost got it… Bore-eye…that's it! 'Boriates!' That's Volt's Mechanical Bakugan, 'Haos Boriates'!"
"Wow, he really didn't thrash you enough times with it if you can't remember its name," Arthur quipped, having overheard Baron struggling to remember Boriates' name.
"That will be enough of that," Demophilus interjected. "I see that you are fond of Volt, Mr. Leocade, but that does not permit you to make snide remarks at invited guests of the regent. Am I understood?"
Arthur bowed his head under Demophilus' stern gaze. "Yes, sir." He turned towards the Resistance. Bowing, he said, "I'm sorry."
"Good. But that's 'yes, milord'," Demophilus gently corrected.
"Yes, milord."
"That's better. Now, continue your story, please."
"Yes, milord. 'Kay, where'd I leave off...? Oh, yeah, so Volt's Bakugan, Boriaites—"
"'Boriates,'" Ace corrected.
"Yeah, thanks—had punched the ground and left a giant crater in front of Prince Hydron. Then it turned into a marble and flew into Volt's hand. Then Volt said, 'Leave now. I never wanna see your face again,' and the Prince totally lost it! He started screaming something about losing, and called Volt 'a mere underling' and 'a servant.' I dunno where he got it, but the next thing I knew, he rolled some black-and-white ball in front of Volt. And then Volt started sinking into the ground!"
Everyone but Xenia and Officer Pytho was shocked at the statement.
"He what?" Demophilus asked.
"That's what I saw: Volt started sinking into the ground," Arthur said. "When he was up to his chest, he grabbed Prince Hydron's leg. But Prince Hydron somehow got free, and Volt disappeared. And then the Prince dematerialized after that happened."
"He was probably teleported back to the Motherpalace," Demophilus commented.
"When the coast was clear, I ran towards the battle site." Tears came to Arthur's eyes as he went on: "But there was no one there anymore. I tried digging with my hands near where I saw Volt sink into the ground, but that plan went nowhere fast. That's when I saw it. Right by the pile of rubble where I first saw him sitting, I saw a big canvas bag. I looked inside, and Volt's clothes were in it."
Turning towards the Resistance, Arthur said, "So now do you get it? That's all that's left of him! A canvas bag!" He dropped to his knees and cried.
After a moment, Xenia rose from her throne and approached the little boy. She knelt down to his eye level and cupped his chin. "It's all right, Arthur," she said in a motherly tone. "You don't have to cry."
The boy sniffled and looked up at her. "I don't?"
"No. You see, Volt isn't dead."
"But...but even if he isn't, I'll still never get to see him again! He'll never get to teach me how to brawl!" And Arthur kept bawling.
"Now that's not true," Xenia said.
Between sniffles, Arthur managed to let out a tiny "Huh?"
"You will get to see him again."
"You…you mean it?"
"Of course. You have my word."
"But…how?"
"You'll see. But for now, calm down and dry your eyes."
"Yes, Your Highness." Arthur stopped crying and wiped his tears onto his sleeve.
Xenia smiled and returned to her throne.
Officer Pytho knelt down to Arthur's eye level. "I'm sorry I asked you to do that, kid," he said gently. "Perhaps I should have told the story."
"It's OK," Arthur replied. He rubbed some grit out of his eyes. "I was there; it made sense for me to talk about it."
As the officer stood up, Xenia asked, "Officer Pytho, your precinct investigated the scene, right?"
"That's correct, Your Highness," he replied. "I was on patrol and saw this little guy crying next to a canvas bag. His friends were there, too. I thought that maybe they had run away from home, but when I asked, he said the bag belonged to Volt Luster. Now of course I didn't believe it at first; why would one of the Vexos be in Varemed, of all places? So I looked inside the bag to see if there was anything in there that could help me identify him. But the kid was telling the clothes inside were way too big for him, and we also found a picture of Volt with his family. So I asked Arthur and his friends for their addresses and promised him that I'd have my men investigate the area."
"And what did you find?" Xenia asked.
"It's all in the report, Your Highness. The residual energy traces in the area were consistent with a Death Bomb detonation. And as per your directive about Death Bomb use, we contacted you immediately."
"You did well, Officer," Xenia said.
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Throughout the conversation, Mira was deep in thought. Turning to the officer, she asked, "Sir, what is today's date?"
"Why do you ask?" Demophilus questioned.
"I think that I might have just stumbled upon something, but with all this interdimensional travel, I want to make sure that I have my dates right." Turning back to the officer, she asked again, "So, please tell me, sir: What is today's date?"
"Today is Gammemera, 29 Ananeosis."
"I thought so. Thank you very much."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Baron asked.
"Everything. Ace, when did we get that data from Lync?"
"Lync Volan? That self-serving little mouse?!" Demophilus blurted out.
Xenia gave him a meaningful look.
"That was the day before Keith ran off to fight King Zenoheld," Ace said.
"So... two days ago," Mira concluded. "Your Majesty, I'm willing to bet that Lync was also the victim of a Death Bomb."
"Wait. You're not saying…?" Baron queried.
"Exactly. Both Volt and Lync risked their lives to stand against King Zenoheld."
A/N: The dialogue from the flashback scene is from Volt's Revolt.