One day, all these cards started falling from the sky, like rain, or frogs. Together with my friends on an awesome Twilight forum, we created a FAR-OUT game, and for a while it seemed like harmless nonsensical fun. But on National Bakugan Day when the beasts within started slapfighting, we knew they weren't harmless.
My name's Dan. Together with my friends Runo, Marucho, Julie, not to mention Mr. Coolshot himself Shun, and Alice, we are...the Bakugan Battle Brawlers!
Bakugan! One goal, two worlds!
A, a-a, a-a, TWO worlds COL-LIDE! On the inside! Gone, gone, gone, this is Bakugan!
Episode Eighteen
Lousy Lying Previews or Mask Town Saga
Where we last left off…
"MARUCHOOOOOOOOOO!"
"It was a faiuh fight."
"No!"
"No!"
"No!"
This episode, on Bakugan Battle Brawlers…
"They're gone!" Dan cried. "NNNNU—"
"Hey!" Julie squealed. "That's impossible! Like, I know they disappeared into thin air, but we've still gotta look for them!"
"Hey, you're right!" Dan felt calmed by this suggestion.
"Where would they be, in that case?" Shun said.
"If you don't look around," Alice said, eyes shimmering, "…you don't truly care for them…"
"Oh, alright." And everyone followed Dan throughout the halls of this stranger's home.
They lingered around, but all they found was a creepy picture of Marucho's butler. How'd THAT get there? "Well, looks like the last resort is to actually call them on my Bakupod!" Dan said, and he dialed Runo's number. On the screen, static danced. "Hey, Runo! Runo, you look weird!"
"Stop calling her, Dan," Drago said. "A battle against static is a BATTLE YOU CAN'T WIN."
"You're right! I'll just call Marucho!"
"THAT'LL HAVE STATIC TOO."
"Oh, then…what do we do?"
"…I have no idea."
Wherever Runo and Marucho were…
They woke up on a mattress together, sleeping. Runo screamed as she sat up.
"EEEEEEEE! What just happened and why are we in the same bed together!" she babbled.
Marucho slowly awakened. "Huh? Oh…according to my calculations," he said, "us two followed Klaus into some sort of strange, space-bending portal! I have no idea where we are now, and am clueless as to why we are in bed together."
"Well, let's get the heck outta here! We gotta find Dan and Klaus and whoever else there is!" Runo grabbed Marucho by the collar and headed straight out the door.
They were in a dark alley. The sky was clouded. The whole atmosphere seemed somehow otherworldly.
Runo stopped. "…He really bent space, didn't he…"
"This should not be remotely possible!" Marucho sobbed.
"But it happened…l-let's just do what I said, get the heck out of here!"
Runo dragged him down a gloomy grey city, rushing blocks upon blocks upon blocks. They passed many shady people, but saw no end to the city.
"AsK fOr DiReCtIoNsSsSs!" Marucho shouted, trying not to get choked.
"No! …Fine!" Runo stopped, spun around, and tapped a doctor-looking figure on the shoulder. His bright white coat made him look slightly less shady than the rest. "Excuse me, kind sir, but where might I be able to get out of this depressing little town~?"
The lab coat guy turned to her, revealing spectacles and a brown beard. "Well," he began, "there's an odd way of doing so. This is Mask Town, and the only way to get out is to collect 1,000 Mask Points."
"Mask P- what kind of system IS this?" Runo complained.
"I didn't make it! You kids calm down!" Runo, steaming with confusion, did. "Alright. Now, you can earn these by completing missions on the official Mission Board at The Square. Should I take you kids there?"
"Yes!" Marucho said.
"No!"
"Let us minors be escorted by a stranger to the square in question!"
Runo sighed. "Okay. Have it you way, Marucho. Okay, mister! We'll follow you!" She looked all sweet and stuff as the man in the lab coat led the way.
They weaved through similar-looking dull buildings, making almost a zigzag pattern throughout, until they reached The Square. Even more denizens of Mask Town were gathered in this literal square of an area, and a big board flashing with yellow lights on the outline was their prime location. People of all sorts gathered there: hoboes, fancy people, two kids, a guy in a lab coat…
"I can't see!" Marucho complained, lost in a citizen sea.
"You NEVER see!" Runo retorted. "…But neither can I! We NEED to get CLOSER!" Runo used her awesome shoving powers to push through the crowd! She dragged Marucho and that other guy with her, bringing the highest point totals of the board into view:
~~~MISSION BOARD~~~
1,000: Give me ten thousand dollars – posted by Dirty Joe
890: Solve the murder case of some butler – posted by Susan
550: Catch the notorious bandit Allen Criminal. – posted by ?
300: Kill my neighbor – posted by Squish
189: Make a statue from my likeness – posted by Pigeon
And the board of dumb tasks went on and on…and nobody bothered to read the rest.
"I don't have any Mask Points as of yet," the guy pointed out. "Since all people doing a task get the same number of points, I won't drag you kids down too much."
"Okay!"
"MARUCHOOOO!" Runo punched him. "…Fine! Have it your way!"
"…Thanks?" He rubbed his forehead.
"Hey! Let's take the easy way out and do that one at the top!" Runo pointed eagerly at it.
"But that's DIRTY Joe!" the guy said. "I have no idea who he is, but he sure sounds…dirty! Don't associate with him!"
"Relax," Runo sighed. "We'll get out of here just as soon as we hand that money over to him!"
"Well, kids, I suppose I'll just go and follow you around with this one."
"Hey! I spot a bum!" Marucho pointed excitedly at a bum on the street corner. "He appears to be playing…uh…that three cup thing-finding game!"
"That's such a weird game Marucho doesn't even know what it is!" Runo marveled, and they all went after the bum.
This bum in particular had a big, fluffy beard and top hat combination. His husky voice beckoned a few guys to come and play the three cup thing-finding game. "Here I have my bean," he said, revealing a dirty lima bean beneath a red plastic cup. "And now I hide it…and, there it goes!" He rearranged the red cups so that the bean was likely in a whole 'nother area of the cheap cardboard box he sat behind. "Now take yer pick," he offered the player, some young boy with a huge straight mustache.
"I choose…that one!" the young'n guessed, pointing to a cup on the right.
He lifted the cup up, revealing…a lima bean! "You got it, sonny!" The bum handed a wad of cash over. "But next time ya might not be so lucky!"
"I might not be!" At this, the kid ran away in fear of not having luck.
"This looks pretty simple, and could be accomplished with skill if I can just concentrate while playing," Marucho said, wide-eyed. 'Allow me to try this, mister!" he said to the bum.
"Confident kid, that you are. You got drive," he replied. "Make yer bet." Marucho handed over one cent.
"Is that all you have!" Runo screeched.
"Yes, but have faith! This penny may well multiply!"
His hands and cups switched around at lightning speed. "Choose."
"I think it's that one," the guy wearing a labcoat assumed, pointing to the middle.
"Uh, no, it's, uh…"
"Just choose already!" Runo roared.
"Uhh…"
"JUST CHOOSE ALREADY!"
"This one!" He chose the one on the left.
"Guesses are final…" The bum lifted up each and every cup…revealing a bean in the middle! "Ohhh, too bad, buddy boy! That man was right, and that penny is mine. Play again?"
"I…do not believe we have any more money on us, s-sir…" Marucho was losing hope.
"Aw, that's too bad. Hey…what's this?" The bum suddenly had Marucho and Runo's Bakugan in the palm of his hand!
"EEEEE!" Runo squealed. "How'd you do that!"
"He's a pickpocket – by any other name a thief!" Other Guy decided.
"What say we make a deal here?" the bum said in a suave voice. "You bet yer fancy marbles, and if ya win I give ya cash to go along with it. Do we have a deal?"
"Let us think about—"
"YES! YES OF COURSE WE'LL TAKE IT!"
"But Runo—"
"The lady said you'll take it. Now, the lima bean starts in the middle…" Bargain-brand cups moved in but a blur. "And now you gotta find it again. Choose."
Marucho and the other guy adjusted their glasses, while Runo stepped back to let them work it out. If the cup moved here, logically the bean wouldn't be under there…but had they missed a move, causing the bean to be in either of the two other spots? Maybe they should take a lucky guess, in which case the chances of victory are 1/3…or maybe was a flaw in the plastic they could find…was the bean in any of them? No, they could just ask him to lift the other two cups…but if he's a pickpocket, could he have just as easily moved the bean from under the cup while they weren't looking? Hell, if they were taking this long to think, wouldn't he have done that already? Either they were going to waste their time, or they were going to come up with a consensus.
"We'll take the one on the right."
"Waaaaait!" Other Guy begged. "The one in the middle agaaaaain!"
"Too late. The bean was…on the left."
"NNNOOOOOOOOO….." Runo and Marucho hugged each other, sobbing.
"If you kids are so sad about this," Other Guy said, "why not just try and take your fancy marbles back from him?"
"Yer not gettin' them back THAT easily!" The bum flipped his cardboard box over on them, blinding them in dust for the split second in which he ran away!
"After hiiiiiim!" Runo yelled, and everyone charged forth.
Pushing through hordes of people, the trio tried to follow the bum's path. Several old chairs and people were pushed over in a dumb attempt to stall, but they leaped over every one of them. The chase led them to the alleys, where he mysteriously disappeared. No, there weren't any dumpsters or trash cans or anything around that general area.
Marucho looked up, then down, then felt the wall beside them. "The wall is a solid…nothing seems to be over us…"
All of a sudden, a trash can drifted down from above.
The whole alley exploded into a fiery cloud! They barely escaped, without a visible scratch on them. "HE REALLY WANTS THESE BAKUGAAAAAAAN…" Marucho howled, flying away with the others.
They tumbled onto the empty street in a heap. By the time they got up to look around, the bum was still invisible. "Explosives?" Other Guy repeated, standing upright and dusting his coat off. "I've heard that the only guy around here that uses explosives…is Dirty Joe!"
"Oh, really?" Runo gave him some sort of look. "So nobody else in this whole weird town has ANY explosives WHATSOEVER."
"Dirty Joe is the only one notorious for it, according to the papers."
"You just said he SOUNDS evil before. Now he suddenly IS evil?"
"I only read the headlines!"
"Maybe…while we spend time attempting to obtain our Bakugan once more, there might be a Mask Point prize involved with turning Dirty Joe in! For unleashing a massive explosion, we should at least turn him in as decent citizens," Marucho stated expertly.
"That would be a good idea if we knew where the heck he was," Runo pointed out.
"Maybe whatever this is will help us!" Other Guy found a shining sword on the ground!
"HOLY CRAP!" Marucho ripped the sword from his clutches. "Along the blade the reads ex…exca…Excalibur! And by the way this shines, it might just BE Excalibur!"
"Can we get any points for giving this thing away?" Runo wondered.
"…Probably not, but it looks nifty," Other Guy said. "Plus, maybe we could use it to disarm Dirty Joe, if we can find him!"
"Yeah!" Marucho was holding a sword about his height, flipping it around slowly but surely. As he attempted to stab the pavement, Excalibur bounced off with a metallic twaaang. "It could be fake, of course…"
"Or you could just be weak!"
"Calm down, kiddies!" Other Guy commanded. "Think: what would he want with your fancy marbles?"
"To sell them!" Runo and Marucho agreed.
"Good! That means he's probably running over to…somewhere to sell them." He rubbed his beard. "Now that I mention it, that doesn't seem very helpful at all."
Runo huffed. "Face it, we're never getting out of here."
"You have a point there," Marucho decided.
"Whaaaaat! Y-you kids are giving up hope so soon!"
"If we try and rack up points some other way, it'll take too long!" Runo explained. "Might as well make a living here. At least Dan's not here to join in with us." She shed a single tear.
"You're in love, missy!"
"Am not! You can go take a hike!"
"Be that way, kiddies! You can go find your marble friends on your OWN time!" After raising his voice some, the guy in the labcoat walked away.
"Come on, Marucho!" Runo grabbed Marucho by the wrist. "Let's go find ourselves some jobs."
+~~*.*.*.*.*~~+
The most available job around was at the local Mink Banana which, unlike a mink banana (but what was that, really?), looked as bland as the rest of Mask Town. Sure, there was a pretty poppin' furry banana made of cardboard above the entrance, but it was mostly of the same film noir-like atmosphere.
"Let us go, without hesitation!"
"Hold up, Marucho," Runo said, putting her hand to Marucho's forehead as he continued to run in place. "We've gotta make a good impression, or the mister 'n' missus won't hire us!"
"Honestly, I do not believe it matters," he flatly stated. "We just need to get out of this city as fast as possible!"
Runo laughed aloud. "Really? I thought you, of all people, would be kind of intrigued by the whole thing!"
"I don't get so engrossed in bland and potentially-fatal objects and/or areas!"
"Engrossed? Wow, haven't heard you use THAT one. Well, let's get down to business. They won't hire ya if you don't get tidied up, you know!" She straightened Marucho's collar, brushed off his collar and shined his shoes. "You better be thankful I'm doing this for you, because if we're going in as a group chances are we need to be hired together or fired together."
"You...cannot get fired if you have no-"
"I said be thankful!" Runo got herself fairly ready. "Now, into the freaky restaurant we go!" She dragged him into it, with Marucho wiggling behind her like a lifeless corpse.
She slowly opened the door to a dusty, cold, abandoned-looking shop. "Hello-o? Anybody home? We were looking for work, and-"
A tall man stepped out from behind a randomly-placed bookcase. He had zany dark-blue hair, which stood spikily all over his head, and a spiffy tux. "You've come to the right place! I'm Bob Frank, proud owner of this establishment, the Mink Banana. We're looking for waiters to serve our ever-growing amount of customers."
"Do I need to take some sort of test?" Runo asked.
"Or fill out an application?" Marucho inquired.
"No, no! That won't be necessary," he vowed. "We're very much in need of workers here, at the Mink Banana."
A very large trilobite scurried in. "Can I work here?"
"Of course not, you're a freaking trilobite! Get the heck out of here!"
She sniffled and ran away.
"Now, where was I? Oh, yes...here, at the Mink Banana, you will each be paid fi-"
"That was unethical!" Marucho cried. "Even if the trilobite cannot be a suitable waiter due to not possessing arms, can it not do something different, like operate customer service?"
"...No. Here, at the Mink Bana-"
"Runo, we're not working here! This place is corrupt and dishonorable!"
"No way! We've gotta get paid the only way we can...by earning it the old-fashioned way! If some animal can't join, well, too bad for them."
"She's got the idea!" Bob Frank congratulated. "Now, like I was saying, here, at the Mink Banana, you will each be paid five buckaroonies an hour."
"That's not minimum wage where I come from!" Marucho complained.
"Well, you're not where you came from." Bob Frank sighed. "Great, now I got to start all over again! Here, at the Mink Banana, you will each be paid five buckaroonies an hour. And if you want six, you're not getting a raise unless you prove your worth, understood!"
"Y-y-y-yes, sir!" Marucho was frightened into obedience.
"Good. Now, LIKE I WAS SAYING BACK THERE, all you have to do...is be a waiter. You've gotta be at least that smart. You can do that, right?"
"No duh," Runo stated matter-of-factly.
"Good. No uniforms are required. Now, get to work if you want those paychecks on Friday! The tables are right out there." He pointed to a door, complete with doorknob. "Uh...good luck, I guess."
"Thanks for the work!" Runo showed off her cutest cat grin and peace sign combo. "Marucho, let's get out there and wait!"
Marucho sighed, following her out. "If you really think a waiter only does that..."
They opened the door to find...a dusty old living room. Not only that, but a couple of fancy new tables with white tablecloths over them. "...This is no restaurant!" Marucho finally figured out. "It's just a house!"
"Don't talk like that, Marucho!" Runo covered his mouth swiftly. "It's the Mink Banana! It's gotta be a real-life restaurant!"
"Not necessarily," he said, muffled.
"Smarty-cakes," she taunted. "Well, let's just wait for customers." She picked up a couple of menus from a desk with a computer on top, and Marucho sat on a swivel chair.
Pretty soon, an old lady hobbled in with a cane. "E-e-excuse me," she said in an old, raspy voice, "can I get a decent meal in this place?"
"Why, sure!" Runo threw the menu at her. "What'll you be having?"
"Ouch." The menu fell off of her face.
"Runo!" Marucho sounded appalled, helping the old woman to her seat. "You should be ashamed of yourself! Hmph! Hitting an old lady in the face like that..."
"What? That's how my father taught me." She picked the menu up off of the carpet. It was now nasty. Runo placed it on the table in front of Old Lady. "Just look through this a while, okay?"
"Alright," she moaned. Just then, a lobster fell from the sky and landed in front of her! "What's going on?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing!" Runo pushed the lobster away, forgetting about it soon afterwards.
"Okay. I trust you." She flipped through the menu a bit. "I'll have, uh...uh...uh..."
"Let me get her some water," Marucho suggested.
"No! No..." Old Lady held his arm. "Don't go alone. Let this little girl go along with you. I'll just be deciding on something to eat. Don't worry, I'll be fine."
"Eh." Runo and Marucho shrugged. They found a door labeled "WAITERS ONLY" and figured that was where they needed to go. Hastily he turned the knob and led the way.
As it turned out, this was the kitchen. Runo found some cobweb-covered cups and filled them with webbing-filled tap water. "That was easy enough," she decided.
Marucho opened the door to some refrigerated food. "This food is really really old! Go-lly! We could NEVER feed anyone this!"
Runo peeked inside. "Oh, settle down, Marucho. You can't see the mold behind the mold, sure, but with a little dusting off it should do. You wanna get paid, don't you?"
"This seems awfully immoral."
"I know, right? Less immoral than not getting paid, though. Come on, we've got water to serve!"
He sighed and shut the door, following her away.
She slammed the cup on the table. "Here! Have some water! Is that all?"
"Um..." She was deep in thought, almost as if stalling for time. "Uh...erm...you, little boy. Would you be a dear and stand all the way over there, by the bookcase?"
"...Sure, anything to aid the elderly!" He ran haphazardly to said bookcase.
"Little girl, you stand right next to him."
She did as she was told. "Why?"
"Adds to the aesthetics. Go...if you want 'cher paycheck!"
"Th-th-th-that's no lady! That's Bob Frank!" Marucho discovered, pointing a shaky finger at him and his dreadful disguise. "How could we have been deceived so easily!"
Bob Frank stood up, shaking off his crappy disguise, and pressed a button on the back of his chair. "Bye-bye, idiot kids! Hehehe, hahaha!"
This button caused a sweet-smelling paste to drop out from the ceiling, covering them in pink, Peptobismol-like fluid. "Ew!" they declared in unison, trying to shake it off.
Bob Frank ran away, waving. "You'll never catch me! Just like the coppers!"
"So it wasn't a restaurant this whole time!" Runo gasped. "Somehow I can believe it."
"We need to get away from heeeere!" Marucho fumbled with the door, thanks to his sticky hands, eventually opening it and running off.
"Wait for me!" she screeched, starting to panic.
As hard as they tried, the wooden door was locked and nigh-impenetrable! "We can't get through, Runo!"
"Hey, Marucho? Don't look now, but there's a horde of lobsters coming through the roof!"
As he turned to watch, a bunch of crustaceans blurred his vision, landing in his face and on the floor and everywhere you could imagine! "Waaaaaugh!"
Runo tried throwing the thousands of lobsters at the door. "It's no use! They just keep coming, but the door won't open!" And they did keep coming...until the waves of lobster madness seemed to stop.
"They...are not falling anymore?"
They were standing amidst a writhing pile of crunchy lobsters.
And then the door began to shudder, as if something was on the other side! "Back away, into the pile!" Runo commanded as she tumbled backward. "Ow! They keep snipping at me!"
"Well, that is to be expected when-"
The door burst open to make way for a brigade of bonobos, who immediately latched onto our heroes thanks to their aforementioned sweet-smelling paste.
"Augh! Get away from me, you monkeys!" Runo howled, trying to shake them off. "Now I'm in pain AND annoyed!"
"They are not monkeys," Marucho warned, "but bonobos, a different species of primate entirely. Different from chimpanzees in that they-"
Now it felt like the whole building was being lifted up! The ceiling began to crumble, and it was eventually revealed that they were within...a giant net!
"What the...what the...he-he-he...he-he..." Runo fell asleep, constantly getting pinched and prodded.
"Runo, don't..." Marucho, too, collapsed. So did all of the lobsters and the bonobos.
+~~*.*.*.*.*~~+
"Yes! This is the perfect plan!" Dirty Joe said to himself, sporting a massive smile on his gritty face. He stood next to a huge gumball machine with a ladder leaning against it and a hole at the top. There were no candies inside of it; however, a few hairs lined the glass orb at the top. "And all I had to do was put a quarter in the slot and a cat in the top! Perfect, just perfect..."
Far below him stood a huge, complicated (read: stupid) machine. It appeared to be a laser-shooting device, aimed at something in the sky. Could it be the cats constantly flying past, occasionally launched by the hovering catapults and holding lobsters, which were then attracted to the old site of the Mink Banana via an underground lobster magnet? ...Naw.
Marucho and Runo were seated at the top of this stupid machine, at some controls. They were labeled with fun-filled shapes, like a skull and crossbones, or a smiley face, or two apples connected by their stems. "Strange," Marucho said. "I feel as if I instinctively know what each button will do."
"Yeah, strange," Runo said sarcastically. "Don't touch the apples, right? Not-"
"-until the time comes," Marucho said with her. "How did we know that?"
They looked down, into the murky darkness. Vague bonobo-like shapes could be seen below, just as confused as they were, if not moreso. "I don't know what the heck is going on, Marucho, but I know it could or could not be good."
"That, for one, is quite obvious. It...cannot possibly be good!" he decided.
"Whaaaaat! Then how are we getting out of here!"
"We have to...press the double apple button," Marucho eerily warned. "But only when the time comes. Too early, and we miss our chance. Too late, and we still miss our chance."
"Good, so when my instinct says so, press it?" Runo assumed.
"Precisely."
And so they waited, searching for their chance...until it was time. They, the bonobos, and anyone else on the machines jammed on the double apple button with their fist, commanding a giant red orb of power to activate on the tip of the laser-firer thing. It pulsed and emanated with intense power, emitting ear-splitting white noise, and fired instantaneously.
The laser flew through time and space, hitting the Moon at the speed of light, and breaking it apart into a million pieces! Moon chunks flew everywhere, hitting not only the building in which they sat but aiming right at Marucho and Runo! How would they get out of this one!
"Marucho, grab my hand!" Runo cried, reaching out to him and getting up. "The moon rocks are coming for us!" He did so, almost unable to by the sweat in his palm. Now was the time for a plan that would knock everyone's socks off.
The huge moon rocks weren't directly hitting them; actually they were forming a path, or a stairway, leading up to that platform up there. If she could time her jumps right, she could make it to somewhat-safe ground! Of course they couldn't stay there long, so she would have to make it up as she went along.
She leapt from strangely-green moon rock to moon rock, finding the lone path that would lead her to this platform. And on this platform, she came face-to-face with Dirty Joe and his haunting gumball machine! "You!" She pointed, using Marucho as a finger.
"G-give us our Bakugan!" the finger demanded.
"Never!" Dirty Joe's path was blocked by a bunch of moon rocks, which formed three walls around him! "Dang convenience!" Runo throwing Marucho at him hard enough to knock one of them out was the finishing blow. Dirty Joe was down for the count, and the marbles tumbled out from his pocket.
Marucho, rubbing his head for a second, picked up the spoils! "Success! Even so, why did you have to-"
"I couldn't throw myself, could I? Now, let's get out of here!" She picked up Marucho like he was a football and looked straight up into the air. Now, surprise of surprises, there was a black hole where the Moon used to be! "Wow, what the heck is that doing there? That hole is sucking up everything around it! And soon, it'll get US!"
Marucho put a fist into his sweaty palm! "Then we have no choice! Preyus would take risks, and Preyus was always right! Now, come on! We're getting into that black hole! Runo, what you accomplished back there was astounding! Would you be able to do something similar to it, only towards that black hole?"
Runo grinned slyly. "Sure thing, just hold on tight!" And she leaped higher and higher, into the black hole.
"Oh, I get it, amigo!" Carlos exclaimed. "You KNEW they were coming, didn't you, Klaus?"
"Hmph."
"Both of you, quiet." Mask the Money demanded silence. "I'm busy trying to look up koala magazines."
"Oh," Carlos excused.
"Reading of those that are magazines owning koala?" Jackie Chan Bruce Lee said. "But with holding a mission, what does it might assist along to?"
"You just don't understand the power of koalas, man!" Combo Charlie insisted. "Koalas help with EVERYTHING! They've even got hip dance moves!"
"Hey, I'm hungry again, chicos. Did you bring any noodles, JCBL?"
She sighed. "That NOT MY NAME."
A gray glass orb sat in the corner of Mask the Money's basement. Its insides were foggy, as if to hold a depressing, bleak world. But suddenly its seal was broken, leaving a hole between two universes. The hole was ripped open a bit wider, forced open by a girl's hand, and two humans were able to exit.
Runo looked around with a hand on her hip and a puff of exhaustion. "Where are we now?"
"I have no clue," Marucho admitted. "I, too, wish we were at our respective homes. But right now..." He rushed over to the laptop. "There seems to be technology in the room!"
"Wait, no! Why do you care more about that than actually escaping!"
"Calm down! Do we necessarily NEED to leave IMMEDIATELY?"
"Um...I guess not."
"In any case, a portable computer may contain valuable information - valuable for our eventual escape! Also valuable to explaining Mask Town's existence, perhaps." He started jamming seemingly-random buttons into the computer excitedly.
"Whoa, watch what you're doing!" Runo cautioned.
"Do not worry..." He came across a handy bomb graphic, which had its fuse lit with a sparkling flare.
"What was that?"
"Quick!" Marucho jumped in front of it, waving his arms around. "You've got to back away!"
Instead of blowing up the computer (as everyone surely thought it would), it caused the "brick walls" to retract and reveal a world map. In fact, this was the very same world map that Mask the Money had stood in front of on occasion! They were now standing precariously atop a giant cyllinder.
"...Wow, once you get over the acrophobia, this is really amazing," Runo said, awestruck by the large digital map. "Ooh, and there's numbers! Are these Bakugan power levels?"
"WOoOoOoOoOoOoW!" Marucho cooed. "I must be in heaven! For nowhere else would I be able to see such marvels as this! Look over there! How could anyone's power level be 410 G's!"
"If you think THAT'S high, check THIS out! 420 G's!"
"Wowie wow wow! And how did somebody get to the lowly score of -50 G's!"
Elsewhere, Dan was still standing around in the hallway, annoyed with his BakuGantlet (or Bakupod? Could it be BOTH AT THE SAME TIME!). "Come on, static fuzz, come ON! Ugh! It's still there, after all my five minutes of trying!"
"Should we just give up?" Shun wondered, closing his own BakuGantlet. "If it doesn't work now, it won't work in a few seconds."
"You shouldn't sound so hopeless, Shun!" Julie said, for a moment reminding him of his dead mum. "Anything is possible, even Bakugans! Now, if we all believe in Dan's BakuGantlet..."
All of a sudden, Runo's own gauntlet lit up! "Hey, Runo and Marucho! Runooooo? Maruchoooooo? RUNO-"
"I SEE YOUR FACE!" Runo barked, baring her fangs.
"Aw, sweet! We've been calling you all these minutes! Where were you guys?" Everyone else crowded around him.
"We went to a mystical world full of treachery and deception," Marucho explained.
"Yeah, yeah, true, but nothing as amazing as...THIS!" She showed her wrist to the amazing 420 G's on the wall. "We came out into some crazy basement, and then we found this! 420 G's, Dan! Unbelievable, right!"
"I know! Totally!"
"Awesome!"
"Hey, who asked you!" Runo roared at Julie.
"You don't have to be so RUDE," Julie snorted, turning her back on them.
"Why is everyone so riled up over a really high power level!" Drago was baffled. "It happens because Bakugan power up with every battle they win," he explained.
"Oh, yeah, right! I remember Hydranoid saying that once...don't I?"
"You should be surprised," Hydranoid said in a surprisingly young, mannish, kind of bland voice. "I'm the strongest Bakugan ever created. And I feed off of the Bakugan I send to the Doom Dimension. But that's all you need to know about me. Cower as I become your bane, Drago, and give me power."
"Um, I don't have a Doom card," Shun pointed out, "so that might be disappointing to know..."
"What?"
"Aw, man, that's crazy talk! Can't talk crazy if you don't crazy talk! Does that mean YOU evolve?"
"S*** yeah," Drago said.
"Ew! Why is he cursing so much?" Julie fretted.
"I don't know, I just...feel bothered," he admitted. "A-anyways, with each encounter our life force multiplies."
"You too, Tiger-y?" Runo inquired.
"Exactly," she said, coughing and covered in a thin coating of dirt. "I, too, evolve. It was the same back in our home of Vestroia. Do you not get the fact that every Bakugan evolves?"
"In addition," Drago continued, "not only would our power increase; the experience would make us wiser in battle, both in defense and on offense."
"But there is one drawback," Halo Tiger interrupted.
"Hey! I was speaking back there!"
"Sometimes a Bakugan can absorb too much power to handle, and there's no way of knowing when too much...is TOO MUCH."
"THEN what happens?" Runo asked, with childlike wonder in her voice.
"Sadly, it leads to one's own DESTRUCTION."
Marucho gasped, complete with a hand over his mouth. "All in an effort to conserve the word 'death'!"
"No, we don't DIE, silly," Halo Tiger insisted, "we just explode."
"You die when you explode! It is a double whammy!" He slammed his fists on the table, cringing.
"But the strong survive by drawing on the power of of other Bakugan," Drago said.
"Hee hee! You said 'of' twice!"
"Shut up, Dan, I'm having a bad day!" Drago snapped.
"Okay, okay!" Dan settled down. "Hey, do I have memories of Mask the Money saying stuff about that, too?"
"Hey," a voice said from a nearby passageway. "I'm looking for Dan. Yeah, that's right. I'm looking for Dan Crap. 'Cause kuso in Japanese means CRAP. He's lucky 'cause I didn't say ****. Oops. i just did." Mask the Money stepped out!"
"...Wait. Actually, no I don't!"
"HA HA. YOU said 'I' but LOWERCASED, and added an EXTRA QUOTATION MARK!"
"Th-that was my secret! How did you know that!"
"I don't know, just bear with me. ANYWAYS, if nobody stops this...uh..."
"Say 'Evolution Revolution', Shun!" Hammy the Hamster beckoned.
"Wha-no way!" Shun argued. "You're not gonna make me say that!"
"Come on, say it! 'Evolution Revolution'!"
"No! That's stupid!"
"Evolution Revolution! Evolution Revolution!"
"Fine! Hey," he said, turning back to our other heroes, "why don't we call it the 'Evolution Revolution'!"
"Yay!" Julie clapped and hopped onto one foot.
"Well, if it makes Julie applaud, it must be good!" Dan guessed. "Go on, say it!"
Drago sighed audibly. "If nobody stops this...ugh...Evolution Revolution...soon the ultimate Bakugan will exist."
"Woah! That sounds awesome!" Dan proclaimed. "Can't wait to see THAT power level!"
"No. I'm assuming that's NOT good."
"The ultimate Bakugan?" Marucho said.
"Yes the ultimate Bakugan," Drago warned.
The short kid marched over to the computer, typing in a bunch of stuff. "This laptop indicates that there is no ultimate Bakugan...YET."
"Well, that's a simple thing to solve," Runo sighed. "Who's ranked the highest."
"It says...Hydranoid is."
"That solves it. He's the ultimate Bakugan." Runo looked more closely at the screen. "Wait, who?"
"Yes. My precious Hydranoid..."
"Ah! That's Mask the Money's voice!" Runo and Marucho both turned around, astonished! Floating in the air behind them was...a rather large, salmon-colored squid!
"What the heck?" Dan put his eye onto the screen. "Did Halloween come early or something!"
"You! You are the-" Marucho held in his blame. "Wait...you are no money mask! I demand to know where Preyus is, in any case! Now, we fight!"
"Nobody is battling anybody, uh...BUTTERFLY," the squid said. "And can't you see anything? I'm a freaking giant squid! Squids don't play card games!"
"They could if they tried," Runo said, filing her nails. "I mean, sheesh!"
Marucho stuck his card back into his pocket. "Runo, could you care any less for my situation?"
"You don't remember what I've been through the past few hours, do you?"
"Waaaah!" The screen was shaking around thanks to her nail filing, and Dan was in on it! "What's happening out there? An earthquake!"
"No; somebody is battling somebody, and that somebody is ME, and that OTHER somebody is YOU!" Carlos Santana fell down from some sort of hole in the ceiling, hitting the ground with a hearty thump! "Allow me to introduce myself. I am-"
"Lemme guess, a gifted brawler? More like a gifted JERK! Let me handle this, Marucho." She swapped her file out for a trading card!
"Y-you're really going to brawl him?"
"No, hold on hold on. Watch this."
"Oh, so you're a cocky chica, eh?" Carlos taunted, wiggling his own card about. "Well, if you're so great, show me your skills...chica!"
"You're not very creative with your Spanish vocabulary, are you."
"Sure I am! Prove I'm not, chica!"
"I will, once you brawl me!"
"Okay, then! Field, open!" He held up his card and disappeared in a ray of light.
Marucho looked around. "I still remain-" He looked to his left and saw Runo! "Runo! But-"
"See what I did there? Now, hurry up, we've only got a couple seconds bought for us, if anything. Grab my hand and we'll jump!"
Carlos Santana reappeared, looking confused and totally bleeped off! "You dare pull a fake-out maneuver on me, you, uh...chica idiota! Well, no mas! I'm coming after ya!" Too bad for him Runo had sharpened her jumping skills, and was leaping away at incredibly high speeds! When faced with such high, high heights, Carlos knelt to the ground and sobbed. "Why...why did I not get a decent brawl like everyone else!"
"Meh, maybe you'll get an even more awesome chance to do something in the future," Mask the Squid said.
"H-hey! You could be right, there!"
Runo ran up a giant spiral staircase, holding Marucho like a football again. She had to take the opportunity to sit on a random floating stool one kilometer up. "Phew...this whole thing is taking a toll on me," she said, so thoroughly exhausted.
"Hey, Runo and Marucho!" Dan called out to them. "Get home soon or we'll have to start sending you cards!"
"You can't do that when you don't have the address," Drago alerted.
"...Yeah, what he said."
"Runo, stop being that way!" Dan commanded. "You and I know that with your snappin' attitude, you would have gotten that remark in first! Now I'm genuinely worried about you...kind of!"
"Oh, silly dan!" Julie murmured.
Just then, at that moment, liked greased lightning, somebody else emerged from below the shadows, standing aboard the Mini-Whale Cruiser Model 008! (It looked just like a blue whale, only small and nearly compact, but big and flat enough for a baby to stand on easily.) Carlos Santana was on board, armed with a fully-functional arm cannon! "Aja! So you thought I would never reappear again this episode, huh? Well, you're WRONG!" He shot a cannon at the stool, blowing it up but only launching Runo and Marucho away and back onto the stairs! "You two, run for your lives, if you value them!"
[ Here, listen to this adequate song! Just go to YouTube and put this onto the end of the URL! It's that simple! /watch?v=Fd0kotl2-K8 ] "Oh, shoot." Now Runo was running up swiftly disappearing staircase. "But if I get too tired, what'll we do?"
"Have no fear!" Marucho cried! "With any luck at all, you will last 'til the end!"
"Yeah, but only if I've got any..."
"You're...pretty lucky right now," Shun said, watching everything unfold via the handy-dandy BakuGantlet. "I mean, look at all the crap that's going down around you. Some bald guy on a giant whale is coming after you with an arm cannon, blowing up the stairs as you run on them! That says...something about your character."
"Really?" Runo was touched. What a cool guy! "What does it say?"
"I don't know, just SOMEthing." He shrugged.
"...THAT DIDN'T HELP!"
"Quick! Get up here!" Marucho shouted, pointing at and latching onto a doorway directly above them. They were precariously close to the ceiling.
"Swing me up!"
And he did, JUST fast enough for her to shut the doors before an explosion blasted against them. "...Thanks, Marucho."
"You are quite welcome."
"Now, LET'S GET THE HELL OUTTA HEEEEEERE!" Still wielding a short nerd, Runo ran towards the light. Just through the double-doors, and...
On the other side was a bank. Nothing special, just...a bank. An employee, dressed in bright eye-searing red, stared at them like they were freakazoids.
Looking back, they found that they had emerged from doors labeled 'EXPERIMENTAL SECONDARY MEN'S BATHROOM'. "What the...? Who in their right mind would build their secret base below THIS!"
"You're gettin' your fire back!" Dan cried, shaking his fists up and down with anticipation. "I shouldn't be happy for you but somehow, I am!"
"Thanks, I guess!" Runo said with a perky smile. Following them was a lone bonobo, latching onto them thanks to the slight remains of some sweet-smelling paste. "Oh, uh...guess he's here, too?"
"I don't know, Runo," Marucho cautioned, "that seems to be a female..."
"Don't correct me over such trivial things!" she roared.
"But...it's my thing!"
Runo dropped him, letting a few more bonobos swarm over his little body. Another employee walked by, saying, "Oh, you're one to talk."
"What do you mean by that!" she retorted.
"Oh, nothing, just...AAH!" He suddenly panicked and ran away, arms flailing about.
"Wha?" They both turned around, coming face-to-face with the guy in the labcoat! "Hey, who's that?" Runo asked.
"You crazy kids don't remember me! I'm famed doctor-"
A sudden oncoming flood of miscellaneous people rushed out! "Hey! Surely these must be the other citizens of Mask Town or, at the very least, about thirty-five of them!" Marucho screamed with delight. "Although...how exactly did they get here?"
"There was a black hole, and most of us got sucked into it," Labcoat Guy answered...partially. "But no time for that! A bomb came with us, too!"
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Like, seriously!" Runo scratched her head.
Everyone else just heard about this, and ran out of the bank. They just realized there was a gentle beeping sound coming from the inside of a certain cat's mouth...
EXPLOSION SOUND!
They all tumbled out in a heap, exiting the slightly-exploded bank. Only the insides had been obliterated, and every living thing had been saved before time (even that one cat, who crawled out eventually), so it was a win-lose situation! The bonobos eventually lost their interest in the sweet-smelling paste, and roamed off to frolic around elsewhere. The lobsters and cats followed suit, and so did the humans, who were also discussing how glad they were to finally be in the outside world yet again.
For some reason, Runo, Marucho, and the guy in the labcoat were left alone after all was said and done. They seemed to be in a garden of sorts, sitting around. Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"Hey! Runo! Who's THAT guy?" Dan asked, seeing the labcoat kid. "Hey, Julie, do YOU know? What about you, Shun?"
"I know who that is," Alice said.
"Looks like nobody knows! It's a mystery!"
"What's that doodad on your wrist, little gal?" The alleged doctor lifted her wrist up, peering straight into the BakuGantlet. "Why, this is a bulky communication watch! Might you have an extra that I may study?"
"Relax, mister," Marucho assured, "for it is merely a strap-on cell phone optimized for Bakugan brawling."
"Oh! You two really are hardcore Bakugan fans, huh? Did you ever get your marble games back?"
Runo sighed. He was SO not with the times. "Yes, sir, we did, no thanks to you."
"But didn't I lead you on the right track towards eventually dethroning Dirty Joe! You did dethrone him, right?"
"Yeah, sorta."
"You could say that you were a crucial part of our puzzle, by all means!" Marucho admitted. "But in the end, what really caused all of the pieces to fall into place was the eventual destruction of the Moon, which was in the end thanks to Runo's "guidance". Really, it was all mostly her!"
"Thank you, thank you," she said, still panting.
"Oh, well...I-I GUESS so..." Feeling rejected, Labcoat Guy walked away with his hands placed deep into his labcoat pockets. "I'll just be...going now. If we meet again, well..." He sniffled and wiped away a single tear. "I hope I can be more useful..."
"Goodbye, mysterious man!" Marucho got up and waved before helping Runo up. "Well, it looks as if it's time to leave. There...is a castle in the distance. It looks like this is the expansive garden behind Klaus' mansion! Hurry up, let's go!"
A slowed-down rendition of eight-bit Turbo Man's theme song played as Runo dragged her feet all the way over to the mansion.
"Hey, Runo! I hear you're making you way over to the mansion! Are ya there yet? Are ya there yet? Are ya there yet? Are ya there-"
"NO SHUT UP"
Dan persuaded everyone to follow him down the long, long, long, long, still long hallway in order to meet up with Runo and Marucho faster, in theory. They met up with the two just as they opened the sliding steel door.
"You're back," Alice said.
"Ohhhh! You're both back!" Julie cried, squishing Marucho's cheeks a bit. "That's gewwwwd!"
"Let's discuss plot things," Shun said.
"D'awwww! But we were re-introducing ourselves!" Dan said. "Or, at least, about to!"
"Well," Alice said, "it seems Mask the Money is still on his quest."
"His quest to create the ultimate Bakugan?" Shun clarified.
"Yes, that quest."
"There IS no other quest," Drago popped in to say. "Plus, isn't there something about Naga and the Infinity Core mixed in with this? Couldn't it fuse with Hydranoid, or...something like that?"
"Since when have we talked about Bakugan fusing?" Shun asked.
"Aw, and that Bakugan could be Hydranoid!" Julie frowned. "And that's bad!"
"I concur whole-heartedly, Julie," Marucho agreed, "In order to prevent that, we need to get Mask the Money out of the picture!"
"You mean murder him!"
"No, Dan."
"Aw, but that idea sounded pretty gnarly, if filled with death! Anyways, don't we just have to get the ultimate Bakugan before he does, thus preventing any possible chance of said fusion whatsoever?"
"Oh, right. What unshakeable logic," Shun said sarcastically, his arms crossed.
Dan met his eyes with a glare. "Was that sarcasm, Shun?"
"No! Don't cause tremors in a tight bond!" Hammy the Hamster shouted. "It couldn't end well!"
Shun gave in to temptation of Hammy. "No, it wasn't!"
"Oh, good! SOMEbodywho'sacoolshot's starting to appreciate Dan Da Man's good ideas more! If you got the feeling we can do this, guys, I do, too! All in favor?"
It was a unanimous "YES".
"Ahahahahahahaaaaa!"
"Why are you laughing, Dan?" Runo asked, confused.
"Uh...I don't know. Let's just get back to base, y'all!"
"YEAH!"
COming up on Bakugan Battle Brawlers! Dan and me are in the woods! Yay1 thats awsome alrady! anyways Then we battle Billy, and I'm up for it! he might just be Mask the Monet's pawn, but it can't be that bad, can it? After all, he's got memories, so he's at least PARTLY himsefl. Anyways, I knew SOMEbody had to murder him in battle! *mindless giggling* Bakugan Brawl! Let's brawl, along with our undying memories of Preyus! Rest in peace, you freak!
We leave our audience today with...the Bakugan dance.
Dooby da doo DEE dooby da doo DEE, dooby dooby doob DEE dooby dooby doob DEE, dooby da dooby doo dee!