I'm here for you.

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AAAnimus was at it again. This time under the pretence of protecting the city they'd installed barriers all around Los Velmos and inside it. Dividing the city into small parts where the workers could easily confiscate Bakugan from the people of the city. The whole place was in shambles as parents tried to protect their children and children tried to protect their Bakugan, the Bakugan were trying to protect both the children and the adults while attempting to not get captured.

Somewhere inside the AAAnimus building Philomena and Kravitz were watching over the whole escapade, they felt certian that the no one would be able to stop them and they were reveling in the thought that they were going to succeed. In the outside part of the AAAnimus building, things weren't going to well. Dan Kouzo had, despite the protests of his friends, broken in and was with the help of Drago, Cyndeous and Gillator fighting against the security force in a rash attempt to stop the problem at the root. "Drago! Raging inferno!" the Purus brawler commanded, throwing his partner a Bakucore. "You got it Dan!" the dragon Bakugan replied before releasing a fiery blast from his mouth. Defeating the last of the guards' Bakugan.

"Ha! Cyndeous, Gillator, return!" the boy yelled, after the baku-balls fell into his outstretched hand he ran into the facility through the hole made by Drago during the battle against the guards, closely followed by the previously mentioned Bakugan. Now inside AAAnimus Dan had no idea where to go, he vaguely recognised the hallway from his week of working at AAAnimus but he couldn't remember where it led and he wasn't sure that even if he did remember the hallway would lead to the same place as it did a year ago. "Dan. We must hurry before the guards call in reinforcements." Drago urged his partner, fearful that their mission would fail if they wasted any more time just standing in the corridor. "One sec..." Dan replied holding up his hand "I think I hear something..." The Purus Bakugan tilted his head and listened. Sure enough there was a thudding noise coming from somewhere upstairs that sounded eerily like a Bakugan Battle "Alright Drago, let's go. Follow that noise!". He held out his hand and Drago returned to it's small form. Following just behind his partner as the two attempted to track down the source of the noise.

After a while of searching the two came across an open door where sure enough, a Bakugan battle was taking place. Although the battle seemed to be nearing a close as Dan noticed two Darkus Bakugan he recognised well, getting restrained by Bakugan from multiple factions while the also familiar partner to the Bakugan was surrounded by AAAnimus workers, forced into a corner unable to command or help his Bakugan. One of the workers was laughing, "You'd have been better staying far away. Or better yet giving up and surrendering your Bakugan to us!" the trapped boy shook his head with a fierce glare "Not a chance!" he scoffed. He seemed brave but Dan could tell something was amiss, however close this was to the boy's usual demeanor it wasn't the same. Something was missing... No time to worry about that now! I've gotta help him! Dan decided "Bakugan brawl! Drago, Pyrus tornado!" the firey Pyrus tornado quickly wiped out the Bakugan restraining Nillious and Eenoch. "HEY WHAT?!" The AAAnimus staff surrounding Magnus hurried away from him to grab their Baku-balls while Dan ran towards the older boy. "You okay?" Dan asked, his tone filled with concern. Magnus only shrugged his shoulders in reply before muttering "We need to get out of here." Dan nodded his agreement, as much as he'd wanted to shut this whole thing down from the inside, seeing a brawler as good as Magnus nearly defeated had made him realise that he shouldn't have attempted a solo mission. Even with both him and Magnus it wouldn't work, especially since both of the boys' Bakugan were getting tired from all the battling.

As Magnus and Dan quickly discovered, getting out of AAAnimus was surprisingly easy compared to getting in. The workers and guards had already been defeated and were relieved to see the two boys were leaving without another fight. The two flew on Drago, since both of Magnus's flyable Bakugan were out of energy and in ball form in one of his pockets, they dismounted the Pyrus Bakugan at an alleyway, Magnus sat down against the wall while Dan called Drago into his ball form. "So Magnus what-" Dan cut himself off mid sentence when he looked down at the Darkus brawler and saw a tear running down his cheek "Magnus?" he asked softly, sitting down next to the boy "What's wrong?"

"I just- I... I can't believe I trusted them... I thought they were telling the truth when they said it was to protect the city, I thought they'd changed but I was wrong." The dark haired boy explained, his voice no more than a whisper. "Hey... It's okay you-" "IT'S NOT OKAY DAN! I'm trying to stop crime, not get fooled by criminals." he cried before adding in a voice that was so quiet it was barely a whisper "I'm useless..." Dan's eyes were wide with shock. He'd known that things couldn't have been easy for Magnus but he never would've guessed things were this stressful for him. "God Dan, I wish I could be like you. You're the strongest brawler and you have all your friends and- and two loving parents and-" Magnus let out a strangled sound, and buried his head in Dan's shoulder as tears streamed down his face like a torrent of rain.

It was at this moment when Dan finally saw the real Magnus. He'd gotten glimpses before, like the time after the battle where Magnus had evolved Nillious for the first time and like the time directly after Dan broke Tiko's control after the older brawler. But this was the hidden side of Magnus, the side that he never shows anyone in fear of being seen as weak. The true Magnus Black is really just a boy who has overly ambitious goals in life and who criticises himself harshly at the smallest mistake, the one who wants nothing more than a group of real friends and both parents to look after himself and his sister. Dan felt bad for him but he wasn't sure there was anything he could do other than wrap his arms around Magnus and try to comfort him. "You're not useless Magnus. You're one of the best brawlers out there! Battling with or against you is always tons of fun, and I'm not sure if you count me as a friend but I definitely count you as one." Magnus looked up at Dan, his face red and splotchy from crying. "Y-you do?" he croaked Dan nodded "Yeah. I'm here for you Magnus, whenever wherever I've got your back." Magnus smiled, a real genuine smile before pulling away a little so he could lift his arm and wipe his eyes with his sleeve. "Thanks Dan..." he whispered giving the read wearing boy a proper hug. "You don't have to thank me Magnus." Magnus smiled another one of his rare smiles and nodded "I know." The two friends let the silence do the talking as they released eachother from the hug, leaned back against the wall arms still around eachother and stared up at the sky. They knew soon enough they'd have to go and stop AAAnimus's plan but for now the two were content just to sit there, arms around eachother, watching the clouds drift by peacefully in the sky as far away as possible from the burdens of the human world.

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