"Damnit!" Lithon roared, slamming his fists against his desk over and over again. "Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! How did this happen?! Everything failed! Every single plan I had went flawlessly, yet I still lost!"
With anger in his eyes, he glanced out of his office's window towards his lab, where his remaining three captured Numbers were still sitting there, suspended in glass cases while his machines ran tests on them. It angered him that with the loss of five of his Numbers, he couldn't gather data nearly as fast. To make matters worse, Kodoku was hospitalised from the intense duel, so those experiments would have to be put on hold too.
And as a cherry on top, now the members of the accursed Team Delta had each acquired a Chaos Number. That boy, the user of Number 68... he even had two of them, counting the one he'd taken from Kodoku. Everything was falling apart.
"Heh, look at the state of this place," a voice said from over his shoulder. "It's ridiculous."
With a curse, Lithon spun around to face the intruder. Standing in the doorway to his office was a tall and impossibly bulky man, with arms as big as tree trunks, and hands that could probably crush his entire head with ease. He wore a brown traveling cloak that covered most of his body, including a hood which, when coupled with the strange silver mask he seemed to be wearing, eclipsed most of his face too.
Still, Lithon was not one to be intimidated, and he stood defiantly before the intruder. "Who might you be?" he growled. "And what business do you have here?"
"My name is Gilag," the man replied. "And I've come with a proposition for you. An offer of partnership, if you will."
Lithon snorted. "Thank you for the kind offer, um... Gilag," he said sarcastically. "But I work alone. I have nothing to gain from a partnership that I don't already have, and I am not interested in sharing my success with anyone."
Gilag's response was to laugh. "Hahaha, if your recent endeavours are what you call success, I'd say you're in desperate need of our help."
"I told you, I'm not interested!" Lithon snapped. He went to turn away, but stopped as Gilag reached inside his robe and pulled out a single card. The hulking man held the card up so that Lithon could see it.
"Interested now?" he asked.
Curiosity finally overcoming trepidation, Lithon stepped forward to examine the card. It was a Spell Card, but beyond that, he was unfamiliar with it. As he began to read its text, though, his eyes widened.
"Hmm... Rank-Up-Magic..." he muttered, before reaching out to take the card. Gilag made no move to stop him, and soon the Doctor was clutching the card as if it were the most precious thing in the world, still reading and re-reading its text. "Interesting," he said finally, looking up at the man standing patiently opposite him. "Well then, Gilag, I'd say that this little development somewhat changes things."
Gilag chuckled softly. "Yes, I imagined it might."
He held out a massive hand to the scientist, who shook it fervently, grinning like a child on Christmas morning.
"All for the sake of the Barian World."
Fun Fact #123: Psych! We weren't finished yet.
Fun Fact #124: Ok, now we're finished. Really. Honest.