he's not [that] bad / magdan

episode 31

...

a golden bakugan.

it stared back with its menacing glowing green eyes, a strange cry emitted from it as it looked- not exactly at the five brawlers- but kept its glare fixated on a certain brawler and his bakugan.

at magnus and nillious.

except something was wrong, all around the large creature was a purple and black substance, following it along like some kind of infection and at the sight magnus knew he's seen it before. however, right before he could get to that, dan had already figured it out.

"the new corecell." the pyrus brawler simply said, answering the question at the tip of magnus' tongue. "that thing around him, it almost looks like the purple and black blob around the new corecell.."

magnus nodded, but it wasn't that..

no, he's seen this creature before but.. why couldn't he register where..?

"what are you?!" the ravenette demanded to know. 

when the strange bakugan didn't answer, it left the teen to growl again and yell a command once more: "answer my question! you caused the plane to crash, right?! why did you do it?!"

"eeeeee!" the bakugan shrieked in response, the awesome ones all covered their ears and nillious flinched at such an awful noise. it was only served as a distraction however and once they were all out of focus, it attacked the two headed bakugan and slashed him with its claws.

the teens all gasped when it sent nillious flying backward and groaning as it registered what happened. the golden bakugan attacked nillious again and again not showing any signs of stopping only when nillious grabbed its wrists and tried pushing him back.

magnus grinned at a job well done. he pointed at the enemy and barked out a command "nillious, don't let it attack us! use darkus blast!"

forced to take orders, nillious quickly hit their attacker with the darkus move. he spewed out an energy beam from his mouth and hit straight at the infected 'gan. it shrieked and began to fall down, not exactly defeated but briefly leaving our heroes victorious. 

for now.

magnus watched it sink into the ocean, lost in deep thoughts before a hand on his shoulder brought him out of it. he turned around, met with sight of worried azure eyes.

"..let's get out of here before something bad happens. " dan sighed. "that thing.. it really meant business.. wouldn't want the worst for you or any of us, really."

"no." magnus replied with an impressed look and his sight quickly shifted back to the water below them, not noticing the other's worry contort to that of shock. "i dunno what it is but, i have a feeling that bakugan is trying to tell me something."

"yeah, uh, i know exactly what it's tryin'a tell you man." wynton chimed "THAT IT WANTS US ALL DEAD!"

magnus sighed at the other's comment, ignoring him to reach into his cloak pocket and hand dan and his friend's their bakugan. kouzo looked down at drago in his hand, then at his clearly stubborn boyfriend. studying him to see what he'd say.

magnus closed dan's hand and smiled at him reassuringly. "you and your friends go down to safety, i'm gonna stay here and investigate."

"w-what? are you insane?!" dan chuckled with disbelief. "i'm not gonna go and just leave you here to battle some monster bakugan all alone! it's dangerous! we don't know what power it holds!"

magnus hissed at what the boy said, he furrowed his brows at the familiarity of those words.  it's too dangerous! it's too dangerous! he's heard those three words far too many times, it's like they triggered something in him. 

she didn't believe he was strong enough...

"what? you don't think i'm capable enough to defeat one measly bakugan?" magnus growled.

"no, it's not that! look mag, I think you're a great brawler." a confident smile contracted back on dan's face, he popped drago in between two fingers. "but there's no way we're letting you go against that thing on your own."

shun lia and wynton all nodded behind dan. they all agreed in helping their friend in any way they could! that's what friends are for, right? to help each other in any way they could and stick together no matter what! in the case of the awesome ones, they would never pass up on a terrific brawl together.

except, 

magnus didn't want their help. this wasn't about friends, wasn't about the pity of teamwork. this was about him. and something told him that disfigured bakugan held something. if anything, he didn't want it defeated.

"no, I don't need your help." magnus snarled and neared closer, dan's smile fading away as he watched magnus' glare. "i can do it on my own and i know why you wanna help me, it's because you don't believe i'm good enough! well i'll tell what, i'm perfectly fine without your help. stop worrying so much because i'm more than okay, emily!"

dan widens his eyes and magnus gasps after realizing how he slipped up. oh no. but before the black haired could take back everything he had said, the mysterious bakugan quickly rises back up from the water, hurling up to the sky beneath nillious and before the kids could even react, attacks them all with a powerful energy beam.

a terrible feeling of pain erupts within the brawlers causing them all to cry out. magnus groans and the scream of his name is the last thing he hears, the grip of his wrist is the last thing he feels..

"ma.. magnus!" dan screamed before darkness overwhelms him and his conscious fizzles away.

"...dan.."