Chapter Five

"Danni! Danni! WAKE THE BUCK UP!"

Danni screamed and sat up with a start.

"Finally, you useless human."

"Hey, watch it!" Danni heard Dragini's familiar voice. "You seem to forget that she's my human!"

"Oh… so sorry…"

"What's going on?" Danni asked, looking from Dragini to the small blue bakugan ball (open, as Dragini was) next to her.

"It's horrible news," Dragini said urgently. "Wavern was captured by Niga and Masquerade yesterday!"

"Oh no! We have to save her!" Danni agreed.

"We have to leave now!" the blue bakugan yelled, scrambling around Danni's entire room. Danni's eyes were wide in amazement at the bakugan's energy.

"Call a brawler meeting now," Dragini said.

"Oi?" Danni asked. "It's too early."

"It's noon."

"Wavern's been in trouble for so long!" the blue bakugan screeched.

"Preyas, calm down," Dragini said. "Go tell Marucho of this, and get him to call a meeting. I'll get Danni to do the same."

"Okay, bye, Dragini! Love you!"

Dragini exclaimed in surprise. The bakugan cackled; he practically fell out of Danni's window and his laughter turned into shrieks of terror.

"Who is this guy?" Danni asked.

"Weirdo, don't worry," Dragini muttered.

"So we should trust him?" Danni asked.

"Yes, wholeheartedly."

Danni did not feel comfortable putting her life in the hands of a weirdo. But she did that every day, anyway. Weren't all her friends weirdos?

Danni got ready quicker than she usually did when she felt this sluggish. She barely glanced at herself in the mirror: yellow undershirt, red tailored cropped jacket, cargo shorts, and black sneakers. "OKAI!" she yelled at herself.

"Just go," Dragini scowled.

"Isn't this horrible news-such horrible news-can you believe this-I can't believe this-it's almost as if the sky fell down-oooh, wouldn't that be bad-we should just-"

"Preyas, shut up," Shuna's bakugan, the Ventus Skyrim, nicknamed Skyrim, snapped.

"Who is Niga again?" Julian asked Danni.

"Dragini's boyfriend's twin."

"What boyfriend?" Tigrerra asked, jumping out of Ruon's pocket.

"What twin?" Skyrim fluttered down to where Dragini was settled.

"He means Wavern," Dragini exclaimed.

"Oh, Wavern has a twin?" Shuna asked in interest.

"Oooh, Dragini has a boyfriend?" Preyas cackled.

Tigrerra laughed.

"So why is Wavern important?" Maru asked, "no offense, Dragini," she said quickly.

"None…taken…." Dragini grumbled.

"Wavern defends the Infinity core!" Skyrim said.

"Well, she has to now," Dragini said, "because Niga is trying to absorb the Infinity Core AND the Silent Core."

"What are those core thingies?" Julian asked.

"They keep the peace and balance in the worlds," Dragini said.

"What is Niga trying to do?" Shuna asked.

"He's …" Dragini stammered. "He's trying to create a new world-destroy the human world and bakugan worlds."

"Evil dude," Shuna commented.

"You don't say?" Dragini asked.

"THIS IS SO HORRIBLE!" Preyas screamed.

"Wait a minute, how did you become the first one to know about it?" Skyrim asked suspiciously.

Everyone looked at Preyas.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"Okay, let's blow some stuff up!" Tigrerra roared. "YEAH!"

Dragini stepped back and hopped on Danni's shoulder. "Quick, we have to secure the place before Tigrerra gets there."

Tigrerra looked up. "Hey-hey-I was just-"

"Save it, kitty," Dragini said. "Onward, Brawlers! Let's save Vestroia!"

"YEAH!"

"THE INFINITY CORE AND THE SILENT CORE! ARE MINE! MUAHAHAHA-"

"Hey, you said that you'd share!"

Niga looked at Masquerade in horror. "Well, we both-along with Hal-G of course, are ruling the worlds together."

"And creating new epic worlds," Masquerade added.

"Yeah, bro," Niga said.

"Whoa, what's that?" Masquerade whirled around at the bright portal of light.

"We have come to stop you!" Dragini yelled through the portal.

"Oh, no, not the freakshow again!" Masquerade whined.

"It's never completely without you," Julian said flashing a bright grin.

"I supposed we have to battle now," Shuna groaned, facepalming.

"Let me at 'em," Tigrerra growled.

"Oooh, someone's a bit excited," Niga said in an oddly high pitched voice.

"Okay, Niga, go ahead with the plan," Masquerade said. "I'll finish this off."

"Ahahaha, there's no way you can defeat us all," Danni cackled, the five friends stepping forward together dramatically.

"Together!" Maru cried.

Masquerade laughs echoed around the battlefield. Shrieks sounded as rushes of black magic shot up to separate the friends. "Danni!" Julian screamed. "Gee, thanks for ignoring the rest of us," Ruon shot back. "Where are you?" Maru cried. "We can do this," Danni replied to them all. "Just calm down, and-"

"Hey, there!"

Danni gasped and turned around. She saw a big, muscled blonde boy. He was smiling at her creepily.

"You won't answer me? Well. Maybe you like to battle more than you like to talk."

"I don't like this guy one bit," Dragini said. She was practically glowing with fury.

"Me either," Danni agreed. "Well, let's get this over with…?"

"Danni?" Julian cried again. This time, the brown haired girl didn't answer. Julian looked around, not seeing anyone. Of course they split us up, he thought. As if bad guys have no better plan then that. He couldn't help but think, maybe because it always works…

"My, my, don't we have other things on our mind?"

Julian whipped around. He blinked in surprise. He couldn't believe it. "Chan Lee?"

The red suited Asian girl narrowed her dark brown eyes. "None other. It's you, Julian. We haven't met in a long time. You were much shorter last time I saw you."

"You, too."

Chan Lee let out a cold laugh. "No, I haven't grown much. I was taller than you, remember?"

Julian remembered. "So…" he asked. "How is this going to work? We just have to find each other…"

Chan Lee raised an eyebrow. "Hm. Ever anxious to get to your friends. Perhaps one in particular?"

Of course, Julian thought. On the outside, he just put on a smile. "You're my friend, too, right? We're together."

"We haven't spoken in years," Chan Lee stated.

"That… is correct," Julian said, "but we couldn't have-we-"

"Right," Chan Lee said dryly. "I moved. You and I both have computers. There was nothing stopping you. Except… your memory."

Julian's mouth was in a grim line. "So, what do I have to do to find my friends?"

"You have to get past me."

"Simple, enough. You'd let me," Julian said, really just testing to see what Chan's reaction was.

"Hm." Chan Lee stared at Julian levelly. "And why would I do that?"

"We're… friends…" Julian said lamely.

"I'm bored," Chan Lee snapped. "Let's battle."

"Why, we don't have to-"

"Oh, yes we do," Chan Lee said.

"Why are you on their side?" Julian asked. "They are trying to destroy two worlds!"

"Stop talking and start battling!" Chan snarled. She has a card in between her fingers. She launched it like a ninja star. "Gate card, set!"

Holy figs, here we go.

"Hello, there. Welcome."

Maru automatically turned to the owner of the voice and curtsied. "Thank you for your hospitality. Everything reflects your exquisite taste."

"Becoming a bit robotic, are we?"

Maru finally got a good look at the person she was speaking to. He was tall (a bit handsome, she had to admit) had silver hair and was in a gray suit.

"I-what?" Maru asked, in a quite unladylike manner.

The boy chuckled. "You don't remember me, do you?"

"Pardon?"

"It was such a long time ago. We only met once."

"And you remember me?' Maru couldn't believe her ears. She had... made that much of an impression on someone? And all the "friends" her parents forced her to make with all their friends' children…they were all so accomplished, when all Maru could do was be average at all the things they excelled at. So, she never stood out. It was always the tall ones, the pretty ones… Maru sighed, staring up at this… gentlemanly boy, who was, at the moment, staring back at her.

"Excuse me, how terribly rude of me; I am Klaus von Hertzon. And you must be Marukira Choji, if I'm not mistake."

"You are correct," Maru stammered.

"It pains me to inform you that I have orders to battle you."

"Order from who?" Maru asked.

"That is, I regret, not information for me disclose," Klaus said, looking genuinely apologetic.

"So, we have to battle?" Maru asked.

"Yes."

"Then… ladies first?" Maru asked.

"!"

Ruon looked around him, seeing flashes of green everywhere, but not able to make out the shape.

"Can you calm down?" Ruon asked. "You are almost worse than Maru's Preyas!"

The shape stopped. "Preyas? Interesting!"

Ruon whipped around, hearing the voice come from behind him. "Who the buck are you?" Ruon asked in disgust.

The green flashes were a short boy with huge dark brown eyes, a green hat, and dark brown hair sticking out from under it. "I'm Komba," the thing said. "And I'm here to battle you."

"This is just great," Ruon groaned. "How do I get to my friends? We don't have to do this the hard way."

"OH, YES WE DO!" Tigrerra growled from his shoulder.

"Shut up!" Ruon whispered to the Haos bakugan.

"I like that one," the dark skinned boy across from him commented.

"Well, no one asked you, and you can't even have him, anyway," Ruon snapped.

"We'll see about that…"

Ruon's eyes flashed. I hate that kid, Ruon realized. And the battle began.

Shuna's dark hair was whipped around by the wind. She watched Masquerade smirk at her.

"It's you and I, then," he said.

"Well , obviously," Shuna retorted. "Do you see anyone else around?"

"The question is, will you ever see anyone else around?" Masquerade said softly.

"If you're not totally delusional, then I would say, heck yeah, I'm going to see my friends. You're never going to see your stupid minions again because my friends are going to defeat them. But you are insane because defeating someone in a bakugan battle doesn't kill the other person!"

"How do you know I was talking about your friends?" Masquerade asked.

Then Shuna realized what he was hinting at. "Why did you even make that?"

"That's for you to never know," Masquerade smiled.

"Come on, let's get this over with," Shuna yelled. She flipped a card between her fingers, throwing it like it was a ninja star. "Gate card, set!"