Chapter 5 - Tutorial
"Woa~h...so this is what it looks like..." Gale muttered as he gaped in awe. The two boys were standing on a gray battle field; the sky above them didn't look like much of a sky at all. It was a black and red atmosphere with six different swirling vortexes on it. He wondered what they were until he realized the colors. "Dan, do those things have something to do with the six attributes..?" he asked while pointing at them.
"I think so." he replied. "Though I'm not entirely sure. Not everybody knows yet about who Bakugan really are. Honestly, I didn't know either until just recently..."
"Oh, I see." the crimson-haired male smiled. "So, how are we going to start this exactly..?"
The brunette smirked. "To start things up, both players have to throw down one of their gate cards. Keep in mind that you can only have three gate cards with you in battle. So y'have to choose carefully okay? After your pick, you throw it on the field like this!" he quickly grabbed a black card in his fingers and made a quick swipe; letting the card sail in the air until it fell on the ground. What surprised Gale was that the card expanded afterward and made a red colored ripple. "Once both of the players have placed down their gate cards, any of them can decide who will go first. Whoever goes first has to throw down their chosen Bakugan. Like gate cards, you can only hold three Bakugan in a battle unlike, thankfully, ability cards-I'll explain that later." Dan paused as he turned back to the field. "Ready Drago?"
"Of course."
"Alright, Bakugan Brawl!" he threw his partner on the gate card with surprising accuracy. It bounced a few times, but then settled in the middle, and popped open. "Bakugan Stand!" a bright red light glowed from the capsule and then Drago came out with a ring of fire that faded swiftly. The newbie brawler was taken aback, but then quickly regained his composure and stared at the Pyrus Bakugan in amazement. "Woah...so that's what Drago looks like..."
"Yep! Cool isn't it? Now, logically, to start a real battle, there have to be two Bakugan on the same gate card-"
"I never thought you use the word logically Dan." he interrupted while having a deadpan expression.
"-hey! I'm not that stupid! Anyhow, the rules here are simple. To win the battle, your Bakugan should have a higher G power than your opponent. If you win, you'll capture the gate card they're on even though it's your opponents. You don't get to keep their card though in reality, so don't think of it as stealing. And then, if you get to capture three gate cards, you win the whole thing! Pretty easy right?"
"But if that was all, then Bakugan wouldn't be so interesting now would it?" Gale commented.
"Uh huh! That's what gate cards and ability cards are for! Their main effect is to boost your G power in a battle, but then many cards have other effects too like decreasing your opponent's power or even stealing it, or sometimes you can flip the whole thing in reverse and let the lowest G power win. It depends really. By the way, you can activate gate cards any time in the middle of a battle. Don't ever forget that." he spoke rapidly. Fortunately, his friend was quite used to it already from hanging out with him so much. "I think...I get the gist of it..." he said while trying to process everything.
"That's good! So, you wanna try battling now?"
"Okay." the brunette smirked. "Great! I've always wanted to battle you Gale!-well, even though you're not that powerful yet."
For some reason, it was Leonidas that had the anime annoyed mark instead of said boy, who instead had a sweat-drop. "Oh yeah? You think you're so tough kid? You're going to regret those words!" he growled. The Haos Bakugan then faced his partner. "Hurry up Gale! I want to show this human a lesson!" he shouted as he closed back in to a smooth sphere. The boy sheepishly smiled, but nodded anyway. Taking the ball, he threw him with all the power he could muster. "Bakugan Brawl!" and even if he felt the throw was badly coordinated, he landed perfectly on the same gate card as Drago. "Bakugan Stand!"
A bright light surrounded Leonidas as his true form was now seen. He was also a large dragon with white skin and yellow horns on his face and wings. He also had a dark blue underbelly and stood upright like Dragon. For some reason though when Gale saw him for the first time, he felt a sudden pain in his head.
Give it to me
The crimson-haired boy groaned as the pain grew even more intense. Dan seemed to have noticed it too. "Gale? Gale what's wrong?"
Give it to me now!
"S-stop..." he muttered as he gritted his teeth and pressed his forehead; covering his eye. That didn't help though; the same eerie voice kept on echoing in his head. "Stop it..!"
Foolish human, face the wrath of the Silent Core!
For a split moment, he felt like his heart just stopped beating. He felt himself falling down; he couldn't move at all. He felt paralyzed and weak. He felt his body hitting the field with a loud thump. And then, everything just faded in to black.
-o-
"Gale! Gale! Wake up!" he felt himself being shook vigorously from his shoulders. As if waking up from a deep sleep, he slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times before he saw a pair of concerned red eyes staring right at him. The red-haired boy groaned loudly and rubbed the side of his head. The pain seemed to have vanished for some reason.
"Whew! For a sec I thought I have to call the hospital." the brunette placed his hand on his chest and sighed in relief. "It's a good thing that there weren't any people around too or they may have freaked out more than I did. But seriously, what happened to you? You just started shouting after Leonidas came out and then collapsed!"
"I-I'm not sure really..." he replied weakly. "I heard a voice in my head..."
"A voice?" Drago asked while sitting on Dan's shoulder as usual.
"Yeah. It said that I had to give something to it...and then..." face the wrath of the Silent Core!
"And then? Then what?" he pressed. There was a stiff silence between the two; not one of them speaking. Suddenly Gale tried to push himself up even though his entire body was trembling in doing so. "Where's Leonidas?"
"He's over there, but what-"
"...I'm sorry Dan. But I think I'll go back to my house and sleep early tonight." the boy walked towards the quiet Haos Bakugan and simply told him that he was going. Without another word, he went on top of his shoulder and stayed there; motionless. Gale glanced at his friend before giving an apologetic smile. "I'll see you tomorrow Dan." and with that, he left the area and headed home.
The brunette was still standing there and staring at the empty path. "I'm worried Drago. Is Gale really alright?"
"We could only hope he is Daniel." the Pyrus Bakugan muttered back in reply. He wasn't convinced though, yet there was nothing else he could do. "We might as well head home." his face then brightened up a little. "Mom's making curry tonight."
-o-
The crimson-haired boy didn't even bother eating dinner that night. He just said to his aunt that he'll do his assignments and go straight to bed. Even with her protests, he didn't really care. He was too tired to even do his homework now. Thankfully there wasn't much to begin with.
As soon as he got in to his room, he went straight for the bed and fell right on it with a small grunt. Leonidas flew over and landed softly on the white pillow. He hadn't said a single word ever since what happened to his new partner. Haos Falconeer and Ventus Serpenoid popped out of their resting places and were about to approach the boy until Leonidas growled at them. "If you're going to ask Gale something, do it in the morning. He's already exhausted if you haven't noticed."
Ventus Serpenoid was about to retort back, but then the other Bakugan held him back. "But-"
"He's right. Let's just get some sleep."
"F-fine..."
Leonidas exhaled sharply as he sat beside the crimson-haired boy. "...is this going to happen often?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" he responded softly while stifling a yawn.
"Are you always this exhausted when going in to a battle? Is this why you don't want to brawl? If you told me about this before, then I would have gladly gone out and look for another partner."
"...no. What I've said...is true. I've never battled before."
"...you started shouting after you threw me. Why?" everything was still for a few moments. Gale then shifted his whole body to the other side; turning away from Leonidas. "Somehow, you reminded me of the dream I had last night. I saw a barren wasteland with nothing but petrified creatures in it; they were probably Bakugan. I think Dan mentioned it to me before about a place like that. The Doom Dimension." the Haos Bakugan grew stiff; not interrupting the boy. "And then, I was suddenly surrounded by a sea of fire. I think it was all an illusion, but the flames were so huge that I couldn't help but be afraid to go near them. Then a...a white skeletal dragon appeared. It was huge; maybe as big as Drago...or you. It then spoke to me...something about me being the final piece to its plan. I don't know...but his voice shook me terribly. I..."
"...get some rest Gale. You'll need it." Leonidas cut in. The boy shakily nodded and closed his eyes. A few moments after, the Bakugan could hear his steady breathing. He was fast asleep.
"The Doom Dimension. He saw the Doom Dimension..." he muttered to himself. "And what's worse is, it looks like this boy's in great danger." he floated up and pushed the switch up so that it will close the lights. Once that was done, he could see the moonlight streaming down from his window; a pale white light. "Naga...just what are you up to?"
A/N : Woohoo! Quick update! Sorry if it's a little confusing or something...hehe. Maybe I'm doing this too fast...I'll try to slow things down later on. I still have to do the other competitions after all.
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