Chapter Three
Danni was freezing. Freezing. But the thought of her Pyrus Dragonoid warmed her up-fired her up to find Dragini. The walk to Maru's house was long. Danni couldn't get out her bike from the garage for obvious reasons. And there was really no other way. The car was the same problem… besides the fact that Danni didn't have a license yet. Not for a year, she wouldn't.
Danni was at Maru's house. Danni didn't have a step two. Tiny little marble sized balls could be anywhere at this time of night. They could be crushed by cars, or eaten by birds, or taken away in the trash, or kicked into a sewer… Or gone by now… Danni wrinkled her nose, and shook her head to get rid of the thought. Please don't be gone yet.
Suddenly, a bright light flashed from the river on the other side of Maru's field of a back lawn. Danni ran towards it, trying to shield her eyes, but wanting to see what in the hey was going on. She brought down her goggles over her eyes. Hm, there's actually a use for these, she thought, as she ran full speed ahead towards the possible fray.
Frankly, there was only one thing that that thing could be. And it was bakugan stuff.
"Dragini!" Danni cried.
"Uh?"
The sound of Dragini's voice was like music to her ears. "Oh, you aren't gone yet! I am so happy!"
"Stay back! STAY AWAY!"
"What?" Danni's head swarmed with confusion. All of it just made her run faster into the white light.
Danni heard her name being called, but it was a distant noise. All she could think about was the feeling of her body being ripped apart at the molecular level. She screamed in pain. Her bangs flapped frantically in the wind.
"Danni, why don't you ever listen to me?" Dragini roars echoed in the portal as they descended to who knows where.
Danni fell to the ground without a noise. "Ow…."
"I can't believe she followed us."
"I didn't know humans could enter this world."
"They do, every time they play that silly game. Our lives are not games, which they can't seem to understand."
"I'm right here," Danni glared accusing down at the ground, only to see four colossal feet, two red, two white. She looked up several feet and saw Dragini's and Wavern's regal heads inclined toward her.
Dragini's green eyes were closed and she shook her head. "Danni, you can't be here!"
"I want to help you," Danni pleaded. "I don't want to lose you."
"That sounds very noble at first," sighed Wavern, "but you will just get in the way."
"So, where are we?"
Danni jumped up in fright and turned around. "What are you doing here?" Danni squeaked shaking a finger at the blue haired boy.
"Jeez, I just went through torturous pain-" Ruon was about to say for you but cut himself off. "Shut up," he ordered instead. "I can do what I want!"
"Niga!" Wavern suddenly exlaimed.
"Uh?" Danni wondered, looking around. She shrieked again.
"Ow, jeez," Ruon complained rather lightly, but he froze in terror at the sight.
"There are TWO Waverns?" Danni gasped.
"No, that is Niga, Wavern's twin sister," Nagini growled. "And a very evil bakugan!"
"Ah, hahahahaha," Niga chortled. Her high pitched voice was annoying, and much different than Wavern's. "You say evil, I say potato!"
"What?" Danni blinked.
"I envision a new universe, filled with…" Niga tilted her white head. "Cool stuff."
"I will never let you get away with this!" Dragini said.
. "We won't," Wavern said, stepping up beside Dragini.
"As if you can stop me," Niga sniffed. "Nothing will stop me from swallowing the Infinity AND Silent Cores!"
"Let's battle!" Dragini snarlred.
"Yeah-" Wavern began, but Dragini knocked him over. He skidded and landed several feet away.
"Hey-what-" Wavern spluttered, sounding completely offended.
"This is between me and Niga!" Dragini snarled.
"And me!" Danni yelled. "I'm on your side, always, Dragini!"
"No-wait-" Dragini stammered.
"BAKUGAN BRAWL!"'
"No fair!" Niga cried. "You get back up?" She turned her black and red gaze to Ruon. "You, human! Come hither!"
"Whoa, wait a minute, I'm not battling for you," Ruon said, taking a step back.
"Oh, yes, you are!" Niga cackled. Ruon's bakugan balls began floating from out of his pocket and into the battle field.
"Hey!" he protested, but it was in vain.
Another flash occurred, and another human stepped out of the vortex! It was a boy-possible their age-with a white lab over coat, blonde spiky hair and shiny blue oversized sunglasses.
"Hey, who are you exactly?" Ruon inquired pointedly.
"I'm here to battle for Niga," he said smoothly.
"Then you don't need me," Ruon deduced.
The blonde appeared by Ruon, standing threateningly in front of him. "Niga and I are a team, much like that girl and the Pyrus Dragonoid, and you and your Haos Tigrerra. You are still needed."
"Whoa, how do you know about Tigrerra?"
"And, like we said before, who are you, anyway?" Danni ignored Ruon's (obviously invalid) querry.
"Does it matter?" the blonde questioned.
"Yeah, you are just coming into our battle, barging in and such," Ruon said.
"You can call me Masquerade if it's all the same to you," he replied.
"If it's all the same to you, you are a -," Ruon said something that sounded like "grass mole," but was much more insulting.
Danni looked from Ruon to Masquerade. "Without further ado, let the battle begin!" Danni cried.
"Pyrus Griffon! Fire tornado!"
100 G's were leeched from Niga.
"How completely elementary," Masquerade smirked. "But good job, anyway. Not really, but I'm trying to be nice, you see."
"I don't see," Danni muttered.
"Well, whatever. Gate card, open: Dimension Four."
"Well, darn," Danni scowled. Griffon looked back at her with distrust as the G's were taken back. Watch it, she mentally told him.
"And we take the battle to the air," Ruon said, as Masquerade unleashed Haos Ravenoid. The bird screeched frighteningly.
"Dragini! Fire Wall!" Danni watched Ruon; he sent her a dirty look. Danni mentally responded by being happy to see G's being sucked from the metal raven.
"Spark out!" Ruon replied, smirking and rendering Fire Wall useless.
"What the heck?" Danni protested.
"Can you stop randomly throwing out cards and remember how your opponents battle?" Dragini snarled. "You are so useless."
"I've never battled that blonde guy before!" Danni protested. "H-Hey-!"
"What about Ruon?" Dragini hissed.
Danni sniffed, and set her stance. She took a deep breath. "Ability card, activate! Rapid Fire! Go, Warius!"
"Did you really just choose him?" Dragini sighed, as the big ogre-like bakugan roared out onto the field.
"What? He's cool. And you need help."
"I don't need help," Dragini snarled. She extended her wings and attacked the Darkus bakugan on the field.
"Can bakugan do that?" Ruon blinked in wariness.
"Apparently they can now," Masquerade responded to Ruon.
Meanwhile, Niga seemed to be having a suspiciously good time. "Ahahahaha, you silly idiot, yes, you do," Niga hooted. "You are losing! LOSING BIG TIME!"
"Shut up," Ruon snapped.
"Who's side are you on?" Niga asked.
"Not your ugly face's," Ruon said.
"Hey, that's insulting Wavern, too, you know." Niga said. "We're twins."
"Shut up." Dragini said.
"Shut up, and fight!" the blonde snapped at him, watching his Reaper take swings at Danni's dragonoid.
"Can we stop telling each other to shut up and just get along?" Danni asked. "I'm getting a headache.
"We are battling each other," Dragini said.
"This is what happens when too many bakugan battle at the same time!" Niga yelled.
Ruon sighed and looked up at his yellow winged bird. "Ravenoid, I suppose you should do something, too," Ruon said.
The Ravenoid looked at Ruon, almost in surprise. His expression was like, girl, please. Danni would have laughed if it didn't look like Dragini was getting creamed.
"Warius! GO!" Danni screeched.
"Now, you send pathetic excuse of a bakugan to help me," Dragini grunted, her feet set on the round, holding off Reaper with considerable effort. She trembled with the effort.
"Stop being so ungrateful, Dragini," Niga sneered from across the field. "She is being so helpful! Too us, anyway!" She cackled shrilly.
Warius bumbled over to Reaper. The Darkus bakugan looked at Warius with disinterest. rolled his eyes. "You are a stupid bakugan," Reaper seemed to be saying. "You dimwitted fool. I am a god. I don't play with little children."
Warius smashed his thorn-studded mace into the Reaper. The reaper screeched in pain, skidding across the field. Puny god, Warius seemed to be saying.
"Whoo hooo!" Danni exclaimed. "Go Warius! Look what I'm doing, Ruon? And what are you doing? Um, let me see, nothing?"
"This is just the beginning," Ruon snapped.
"What are you trying to do, twit?" Dragini asked. "Why are you fighting your friend when your real enemy is right here?"
"It's not me fighting," Ruon said. "That guy is controlling my bakugan!"
"No, you really want this, don't you?" the blonde said. "Don't deny it, and don't lie. Lying is bad."
While Warius pounded his mace against Reaper mercilessly, Masquerade floated another Haos bakugan into the field.
"Hey, can you even do that?" Ruon exclaimed in surprise.
"Who cares? There are no rules to this game," Masquerade said. "Gate card, set!" he yelled, throwing out a shiny card that illuminated the field. "Bakugan, brawl! Haos Tuskor, stand!"
"Yeah, there are, what are you talking about?" Danni asked.
"How would you know?" Masquerade snorted. "You don't even know how to play."
"What have we been doing this whole time?" Danni's head was shrouded in anger.
"Throwing balls and cards around and yelling random things."
"That's what the game is about!"
"This is not the time to be entering a philosophical debate over bakugan brawling!" Dragini snarled, taking a direct his to the head from Warius's mace. "Who's side are you on, anyway?" Dragini snarled at it.
"If it weren't for that stupid girl's conjectures-"
"You are as stupid as her," Dragini barked.
"Rapid Haos!" Masquerade yelled, ignoring Dragini's jab. Juggernoid exploded onto the field, crying in rage
"Are you kidding me?" Ruon exclaimed. "Give me back my bakugan, you petty thief! Or and let me battle on my own!"
"You won't battle against your friends," Masquerade said, "You are too lame and noble."
"I am not lame and noble!" Ruon countered promptly.
"No, you are definitely not noble, and that is why you will never get a girlfriend." Danni put in.
Ruon gaped at the brown haired girl. This is supposed to be a bakugan battle?
Meanwhile, the bakugan on the battlefield were not faring well. Haos Juggernoid stumbled over Darkus Reaper and Pyrus Griffon. Griffon tossed its proud head and pounced on Juggernoid. The huge metal turtle barely felt anything. Reaper leapt into the air, executing ninja like speed, and flying-kicked Griffon off of Juggernoid.
"This is madness," Ruon said, watching his poor bakugan stumble over one another, and randomly hit things.
Danni blinked in agreement at the crowded field. Seven bakugan at once-she had never seen anything like this before! And so few gate cards. Limited space. Overpopulation. What was Niga saying about too many bakugan at the beginning of this fiasco? This is getting interesting, she thought. Not that it wasn't always weird to begin with!
"This isn't madness," Niga declared, rising up above the battle field, taking on a glowing sheen. "This is VESTROIA!"
"All of this is giving me a head ache," Masquerade sighed.
"You are? You're the one that caused this mess," Ruon glared.
"Actually it was Niga's idea."
"Let's blame it all on the princess, shall we?" the element-less dragonoid drawled.
"Gate card, open," Masquerade almost whispered in a melodramatic way. An impressive and ominous wind blew through Masquerade's blonde spikes. It reached Danni's layered brown mane, sifting through its steps; then it went to Ruon, it's airy fingers pushing his sky blue hair back. (In the real world, it didn't make sense, since Ruon was next to Masquerade, therefore he should have his hair rustled before Danni. Furthermore, if they are in a spacious type place, there shouldn't be a breeze. But this isn't the real world. THIS IS VESTROIA!)
"Doom Dimension, open."
"Dragini!" Danni shrieked, running on the gate cards, climbing over Haos Juggernoid and Haos Tuskor.
"What is this maddness?" Dragini yelled.
"The Doom Dimension!" Wavern exclained from the sidelines.
"No, not the Doom Dimension!"
"Tuskor! Juggernoid!" Ruon called out to his bakugan.
Masquerade chuckled darkly. His evil laughter turned into cries of victory. "And the battle is won!"