I was walking down the street, back home from school like any other day, when my whole life came back into swing, the day I witnessed the brawl between Masquerade and Dan, I felt kind-of sorry for Dan, he always seemed so confident and energetic, but in this battle he looked so... so... rundown? Yeah! He looked rundown and annoyed, the battle had just started to catch you full attention, when it suddenly... ended? Huh? What's going on? I thought to myself for a few seconds, when I remembered what my brother, Wayne, had said to me when this had happened to him, it was something like, when one Bakugan gets too powerful and 'overloads' the game 'self-destructs'... I think... something like that anyway, I'm not a very good listener, so once Dan had tried to get a rematch and then ran out, masquerade had left the room, I hid behind one of the walls until no one was around I let out a slight sigh then came out of hiding, I could hear footsteps behind me, I turned around to see who it was, it was Masquerade,

"Enjoy the show did you?" He said with a snug little smile on his face, I pretended not to know what he was talking about, but he called my bluff... several times actually, so I just gave up,

"Masquerade?" I was going to ask him to take me on as his apprentice, so that he could teach my how to brawl, because, and let's face it, all the kids from school are pretty weak, except for Dan, we hadn't brawled before, we were too good of friends, we first met at a holiday park when we were 7... Or 8... Maybe 9? I can't remember, it was too long ago,

"Yes?" He said that as if he was about to accept and award, he seemed arrogant and stuck-up, but in a cool, mysterious way, the kind of person that you would only see on some T.V. drama, like East Enders or Coronation Street, I could feel the nerves boiling up inside of me so I just said what I had to say in one go, I put my head down in embarrassment and clenched my fists,

"Will-You-Please-Make-Me-Your-Apprentice?" I said it rather fast, I hoped that he would just ignore me and walk away, however that was the complete opposite he did a sly laugh and prepared for battle,

"If you want to be my apprentice..." He grabbed a card and held it between his first two fingers,

"...SHOW ME THAT YOUR WORTHY!" He shouted, he seemed almost angry, as he reached the middle part of the sentence (when he says 'YOUR') he threw the card down onto the space in front and shouted 'Game card SET' I did the same and waited for him to pick his Bakugan before I picked mine, He chose Fear Ripper, a Very tough Bakugan, it's power is only 320 G's and it's attribute is Darkus, before he summoned it he put down something called a doom card, Maybe that's what he used against Dan? I contemplated when he shouted,

"Bakugan Brawl, Bakugan Stand!" He shouted with almost immense anger in his voice, as if he wanted to make Bakugan disappear off of the face of the earth, or as if to scare away his enemy's... either way it was pretty scary, but it wasn't terrifying enough to scare me off, I was wondering what Bakugan to put down when he told me to hurry up because he didn't 'Have all day' and it would probably just be a 'Waste of time and effort' having an apprentice, I quickly picked my weakest Bakugan, just to see how he battled to try and predict his every move, I chose El Condor, His attribute was Haos and his total G-power was 380 G's,

"Bakugan Brawl, Bakugan Stand!" I shouted it back at him, like I was challenging him, telling him not to hold back and 'lucky me' he didn't, the first thing he did was activate the doom card, then he used a power-up card, it was called 'Slash Zero' and it raised Fear Ripper's G-power by 80 which made his total G-power 400 G's, 20 more G's than mine, The Ripper's claws wrapped around my Bakugans throat which, initially, suffocated him and once El condor had lost all oxygen from his wind pipe, Ripper sent him flying into a dark purple hole that appeared almost in-the-middle of the sky,

"Hey!" I shouted,

"Where did your stupid Bakugan take him?" I've seen anything like this before!

"Your precious Bakugan has gone into the doom dimension, and trust me he's not going to come back 'EVER!'" He said ever as if he was going to rip a bunny's heart out and feed it to a load of pit bulls Yeah! It WAS that bad, would I lie to you?,

"But why? Why did you do that?" I shouted at him,

"You want to be my Apprentice, right?"

"Well, yeah but..."

"No buts! If you become my apprentice you have to be willing to give up a few Bakugan" I couldn't believe what he was saying, but I knew it was true, to get something you have to give something up... right? So if I give up a few Bakugan, what did he give up to get this powerful?

"Ok, so does that mean imp your apprentice?" I had a huge smile spread across my face,

"Ugh, this is so not worth my time..." my face dimmed as he turned around,

"...Come on then! If you want to be my apprentice you can't be slow!" He shouted as he motioned his hand to follow" My face lit right back up again, I ran up to him and thanked him over and over,

"Shut up!" He shouted, I ran straight ahead of him and with a giggle I said,

"If you're going to be my master you're going to have to be quick!" I shouted sarcastically,

"Hey! Wait!" He yelled after me,

"Catch me if you can...!" I ran as fast as I could until I made it to a deserted field, I looked around to check if he was there, when I could see that he wasn't anywhere to be seen I let out a HUGE sigh of relief and fell to the floor, it only took me a few seconds to catch my breath when I stood back up and turned around, I could see a distant figure running towards me, it was Masquerade, he suddenly disappeared, I quickly turned around to see if he was there, but I wasn't quick enough and got tackled to the floor, I opened my eyes to see Masquerade crouched over me, I blushed slightly when he spoke, he said:

"I thought that if I had to be quick then so did you?" He said insultingly as he got up and offered me a helping hand to get up, I took his hand and thanked him again for making me his apprentice, and I was surprised then... BUT IN A GOOD WAY! Because he started to smile and then laugh, it looked like he hadn't laughed for a while,

"Let's get you home then" He said, he had stopped laughing by then and now had a serious look on his face,

"Well actually..." Tears had started to swell up in my eyes, some had even began to trickle down my now pale cheeks,

"...I don't have a home, not anymore it got destroyed a while back and I've been roughing it ever since"

"I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" I asked him as I put on a fake smile and gave him a 'peace' sign,

"Why don't you stay at my place?" He had grabbed my shoulder,

"You'll be safe there and not living with any random hobo's" He tried to put humour into the conversation, however it didn't work,

"I can't-"

"And why NOT?" He exclaimed with his clenched fist next to his head,

"I don't know you name, silly" I rubbed the back of my head with an anime sweat drop there,

"Oh... It's masque-"

"No, silly!" I interrupted,

"Your real name! No a name that you hide behind" I say with another fake smile, that was a silent moment, not one of those awkward moments it was more of a reassuring silence, like whatever he was about to say it had to be the truth and nothing less,

"It's Justin" Then there WAS an awkward moment but it only lasted for a few seconds,

"My name is Trinity" I said proudly, and then I hugged him tight,

"Thank you!" I said into his shoulder and, to my surprise, I found him hugging me back,

"I know about the fire Trinity, it's Ok to be sad" If I didn't know any better I would say that he was crying to, I hugged him tighter than before and started crying into his shoulder,

"Was it my fault?" I cried,

"Was what your fault?" He sounded confused, but I know that he knows what imp talking about,

"The fire..." I started letting go of him,

"Don't be so stupid" He had let go of me and was holding me back by my shoulders,

"Of course it's not your fault!" He hugged my tight, after that we spent the rest of the day talking, and then laughing and then training, it was like a vicious cycle, but a good one...

...next time on Darkus vs. Haos, Trinity joins Dan's group of friends online to spy on where Dan's next brawls be, will they figure it out? Or will they be totally clueless? Find out on tomorrow's DARKUS VS. HAOS!