I was watching Dan practice his conversation with Joe and I don't think I have ever seen someone prepare themselves so much for a talk that would only last a second.

"Hey Joe it's Dan here, we need to ask a favour will you help us please?" this was his latest try "Oh yea I'm untouchable" he was grinning obviously pleased with himself

"Which is why you were just kidnapped" I couldn't help myself. He turned and glared at me

"What? You don't like my message why don't you try?" he challenged

"Joe we need your help to find Komba. He left his bakugan behind and although he isn't working with us no one deserves to lose their partners" he glared again

"Was ok but I could do better" he admitted reluctantly and I nearly laughed at how annoyed he was. I walked away and let him practice in peace, well not exactly peace since the others were still in the room with him but I decided to walk around the castle a bit. So it was slightly more peaceful for him and a lot for me.

"Do you really think Komba left his bakugan as a sign Shun?" Skyress asked popping open on my shoulder, as much as I didn't want to admit it I wasn't too sure, it was just a guess.

"I don't know" I answered truthfully there was no point lying to her you would always get found out and sooner rather than later

"I see well I wouldn't put it past him. I know that he isn't the most patient person on earth but he does think things through when it's important and now is definitely important" I nodded in agreement but something was nagging at me and I had to ask.

"But Skyress we don't even know if he's on our side. I mean what if this is a trap I wouldn't put masquerade he did kidnap Dan after all" she nodded her tiny head and gave me her opinion.

"Masquerade may be sneaky but I doubt he would do that twice and if he did you have a team with you and you did defeat hydranoid before" I understood where she was coming from but I knew my reason for winning.

"I know that Skyress but the only reason I won was because dragon was fighting on pure anger and determination so he could get Dan back. So there wasn't a chance he would have lost even if masquerade fought us properly" she waddled closer.

"What do you mean properly?"

"Well it was kind of obvious that he wasn't fighting us at full power. He was distracted by something almost like he was torn with what to do" I started explaining I took a breath and continued "I noticed this and chose an attack that I knew he would be able to counter but he didn't, he didn't nullify my attack and that was why we won." She seemed to understand what I was getting at so I added something that was on my mind hoping she would be able to answer it for me "I can't stop wondering why though, what made him fight so poorly it was like I was battling an amateur and it frustrates me to no end that I don't understand it. What made him so torn? It was like he was having a dilemma an inner struggle" I may be going a bit over the top but it was what I had noticed and I knew it would drive me insane if I didn't get it out and let someone else know.

"Calm down you'll get your answers when you catch him and not only that you'll also be able to see who's behind his mask and once I find out then he better run cos I'm not holding back. How dare that man? Who does he think he is sending bakugan to the doom dimension and kidnapping? That's against the law but before the police get their hands on him I'm going to cause some damage"

"Calm down will you? You will have your turn on him just like everyone else will" I was walking down a long corridor with paintings hanging full length down the wall. They looked like they were of relatives but most of them looked like they were for show and some even felt like they were watching you. I found myself constantly turning round and I nearly threw one of my kunai knives at one of the portraits.

"You're awful jumpy" she commented.

"Can you blame me this place looks like it was brought straight out of a history book. I'm kind of surprised that this place has electric" I heard her laugh but I was being serious. I was honestly surprised. Most people who would come here would think it was lit with torches hung on the walls.

"Come on let's get back they must have finished the message by now" I nodded and turned round retracing my steps.

"Just pick one they're all good" I heard someone yell and I was almost certain it was Runo.

"Oh no maybe we should keep walking?" I groaned as we neared the door.

"I second that" Skyress piped up at my question but it was too late they had seen me.

"Hey Shun!" Marucho calls running over to me "Maybe you can help; Dan and Runo are fighting over which message to send. Can you choose cos Alice is 'staying out of it' and me and Julie are on different sides"

I nodded "sure" I told him reluctantly. He smiled and walked back into the room. I followed close behind regretting my decision more and more the closer to them I got

"Pick mine!"

"No yours is stupid mine is miles better. Telling him Chan asked will work saying pretty please will do nothing" Dan pressed his face closer to hers.

"I never said pretty please I said ask nicely" Runo yelled back pressing her face against his. "There's nothing wrong with being polite, try it sometime"

"What do you know about being polite?" This was getting old real quick so I decided to intervene

"Be quiet" I ordered placing my hands on each of their shoulders and pulling them apart. They shut up and looked at me

"Dan we're using Runo's" his face dropped.

"What? Why? You haven't even heard them yet?" he argued.

"I don't need to. We're using Runo's end off" I silenced him and told Runo to tell Dan what to say. While they were doing that I sat down on the desk next to Marucho who had climbed on as well

"You know you missed quite the spectacle when you left the room?" He told me and I nodded absentmindedly.

"Where did you go?" he asked. I snapped my head in his direction snapping out of the daze I was starting to fall into.

"Uh I went for a walk though I wish I hadn't." I answered. I saw he was wondering why so I decided to elaborate "this place is creepy the posters make you feel like you're being watched and followed everywhere you go I couldn't relax" he nodded

"Oh well that makes sense. This place is old and the paintings are really creepy. I don't walk around without someone else there or I find myself constantly checking over my shoulder" I was glad I wasn't the only one who didn't like this place

"Hey we're done" Runo called over. We looked over to see them waiting by the computer for us. Marucho hopped off the desk and I followed closely behind.

"So you guys, have agreed on what you're saying?" he asked and Runo nodded while Dan shook his head

"No more like she decided on what I'm going to say I had no input whatsoever" he complained crossing his arms over his chest like a petulant child I sighed in annoyance "What? What have you got to say? Come on out with it Shun if you've got an opinion then share it" I stared Dan in the eye and decided that I might as well answer.

"Ok if you really want to know what I think. I think you should be used to that by now. You should know that Runo is stubborn and fights for what she wants. I think it's amazing considering on how long you've known her that you still don't know what annoys her. The rest of us have. She's hardly ever annoyed at me and Marucho. Julie and her fight on occasion but that's becoming less frequent. Alice and her never fight but you, you and her are fighting more often than you get along and quite honestly it annoys me to no end that you don't know when to stop" he didn't respond and scowled slightly.

Anyway let's start the recording" Marucho clapped his hands to get everyone's attention "so Dan you're going to be the one recording. Do you want us in here or what?" he asked.

"I'll record on my own. I don't need any smart remarks from some people in this group" his eyes flashed over in my direction as if to say something that was already obvious

"Ok then, come on guys let's leave him to it" Marucho spread his arms corralling us all and leading us like sheep out of the room "bye" he waved to us smugly. I gritted my teeth to stop from yelling at him.

We waited patiently outside the door, some a little more patient than others but all in all we didn't do too bad. We were let in after a few minutes and were again waiting but this time it only took about 30 seconds before the wait was over and Joe popped onto our screen.

"Hey guys why you guys there?"

"Hey Joe we're just here for a bit but do you know where Komba is?" Dan asked.

"Uh yea he's in Kenya" he answered earning a few groans.

"We know Joe. We just need to narrow the search down a bit" Runo explained realisation crossed his face

"Oh right I knew that" he laughed a little to cover his embarrassment and I watched as he typed on his computer while we were still on the screen "so yea I got him in the centre of Kenya in a park" he narrowed it down quite a lot but I knew he could do much better "sorry I can't help more but I've got some tests coming up in a few minutes and I'd like to have something to eat while I still can" the screen turned black and I could tell we all felt the same way. Disappointed that Joe couldn't help us all that much and at the prospect of all the hard work we would have to do to find Komba return beestriker and possibly face the fact that he knew nothing of masquerade's whereabouts and just forgot his beestriker we could even face the possible answer that this was just a trap set by masquerade.

"Well I guess we best set off we have a lot of work to do" even Alice sounded disheartened at the idea and when she sounded like that we all knew things were bad. Still at least she was trying to sound optimistic that couldn't be said for the rest of us. We grunted simultaneously and walked out of the room.

We were all sat in the plane waiting for Marucho and Kato to decide on where to fly to in Kenya. I looked round them all and saw they all looked bored and I couldn't blame them. Over the past few days a lot had happened and this was one of the only times when we had nothing to do or to keep us occupied while we went to our next destination. I looked out the window and saw it was night now, didn't think that much time had passed I thought an hour 2 at the most but it turned out to be 4.

"Guys we have agreed on where to go but I think you're all too tired to remember what I say so I'll tell you all tomorrow but for now I suggest we all go to bed and I'll be sure to tell you when we all wake up" I wasn't happy about this. Me and Dan shared a room and it was horrid. He snored like there was no tomorrow but with limited space we all had to make sacrifices. We all agreed to his proposal and stood walking in the direction of our rooms.

I waited outside while Dan got changed in our room. I already had so I could go to sleep as soon as I got back inside. The door opened a fraction and I pushed it the rest. I saw Dan already settling in on his bed. I climbed in mine after turning off the light

"Night" I yawned out of common courtesy but received no answer. Shrugging my shoulders I closed my eyes.

"Shun?" I opened my eyes again and saw Dan staring at me.

"What?" I asked not caring if it sounded a little harsher than I meant it too.

"Are we friends yet?" his voice was quiet and he seemed unsure of his question. I looked at him stunned. He thought we were friends again? "It's just that with earlier and us being all friendly with each other and the little jokes and all" I didn't know what to say. Yes we were pretty much friends again but could I admit that and with not admitting it did I have a good reason not to or was it just stupid pride?

"Um I'm not sure. I guess we're nearly friends but I don't know how to label it" I answered not confident with my answer.

"Oh uh well that makes sense and I ain't rushing you or anything cos I was horrid but I am sorry and I'm always happy to be your best friend again. Cos you're the best one I've ever had and I had to ruin it" he sounded sad but I stopped myself from saying anything "well night"

"Yea night" I sighed turning over and going to sleep.

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