Mason burst into Ren's room, gasping for breath. Ren, who was in conference with the Neathian Castle Knighst Rafe and Linus, was annoyed. "What is it, Mason? We're busy discussing the security arrangements for the upcoming security conference."
"Exactly.", Rafe continued. "You may have been chosen by Nurzak to know the security arrangements ahead of time, but we have to finalise them first. Given that the conference is in 5 days, we can't waste any time."
"I don't care about the stupid conference!", Mason yelled. "This is something else entirely." Seeing the intrigued faces of the other 3 men in the room, he pulled up his holo-com and played the message. The sender was one Vectro Galloway, a professor of genetic coding who was believed to have perished on another version of Earth.
"Greetings, loyal Gundalians. I assume you feel no satisfaction under the current regime of Prime Minister Nurzak. I can help you attain satisfaction if you meet me at these co-ordinates on this day." A set of symbols appeared on screen before the message shut off.
"Ren, for all we know, what he's planning won't be beneficial to either of our planets.", Linus urged.
"Indeed." Ren's Bakugan partner Linehalt popped out. "When we last saw him, the Professor was part of General Vladimir's conspiracy with Dr. Tomoe to overthrow Barodius and seize power."
Mason's partner Avior popped out. "That's the least of our problems, surely.", he argued. "Countless Gundalians likely received this message. And many of them are likely to agree with his idea of a return to the good old days."
Ren was intrigued. "What is Avior getting at, Mason?", he asked his friend.
"We're volunteering to go undercover in his organisation.", was the reply. "Then we can hopefully pass on any information to you guys in order to stop whatever's he's planning."
Linus was unsure. "I'm not sure if we should go through with his plan. Normally, we'd call in the Battle Brawlers to deal with this kind of emergency…"
"The Brawlers have their own problems right now.", Rafe cut in. "We can't just ask them to give up on their fight against Wiseman to help with this."
"Then it's settled.", Ren said. "We send Mason in to report back to us on Galloway's actions." Hearing this, Mason smiled, thinking that this would all be over before Galloway could do any serious damage.
If only Mason had known how naive he was being at the start of all this.
The mission that should have been straightforward had become incredibly complicated. Not long after Mason and Avior had departed for their mission, the conference had literally crashed and burned. Even worse, Mason's calls to Ren had received no reply at all, which didn't reassure Mason as to the state of his home planet. Then the plan had turned out to involve using a pair of human superheroes' power jewels, or whatever they were called, to take them back in time to Neathia, a few days before the conference. Then it turned out that not only was the Professor responsible for wrecking the conference, but the reason that Ren wasn't returning his calls was that he had been brainwashed by a machine the Professor had created to drain the blood from (what Mason assumed) was a green skinned alien whose blood functioned as an aphrodisiac that made the victims open to suggestion. And the only reason Dan Kuso hadn't already stopped him was that Galloway had tricked a gullible idiot into brainwashing the other Brawlers into being his enemies.
However, as Mason had(correctly) predicted, Dan had managed to free them from the brainwashing and make his own way to Gundalia. Mason knew he'd have to pass through an Earth City they had displaced to Neathia(Mason had considered asking why they didn't merely transport the single building they were located in, but seeing how effectively it had allowed Galloway to take control of the Castle Knights, and subsequently Neathia itself, had decided against it) to reach the capital, so Mason made his way there to meet with him. On the way, he spotted his former comrade turned collaborator Lena Isis also making her way to the city. He knew she had probably also come to the same conclusion he had, and must be making her way to stop Dan and his party from reaching the citadel. Or probably to stop him from helping them. So as soon as he got back to the city, Mason made sure to hide in one of the wrecked buildings so that she wouldn't find him, and to make sure that the Brawlers met up with him as soon as possible.
And so Mason sat in the building for hours, witnessing as the two superheroes, brainwashed by the Professor, intercepted the Brawlers' party and engaged in combat. The resulting battle was unfairly one-sided - for the superheroes. This prompted Mason to come out of hiding, just as a giant hologram of Galloway appeared to give an ultimatum. Mason took advantage of this distraction to get close to one of the groups that the Brawlers had divided into. This one included Kuso's friends Shun and Marucho, the latter of whom was the first to react to his presence.
"Hey, weren't you one of Ren's associates during the battle for Neathia and the Sacred Orb?", he asked.
"I still am, pipsqueak.", Mason smugly replied. "We knew that Professor Galloway was attempting something, so he sent me to infiltrate his organisation and find out what."
A guy in a mask, who looked like he belonged in a boy band than in a battle for the fate of the universe, was the first to respond to this news. "It seems like great minds think alike. I also had an agent on Gundalia in case of crises such as this. I believe her name was Lena." Mason was surprised to hear this. In retrospect, he should've judged the book that was Lena Isis by the contents.
A guy with a blue mullet was the next to say something. "If we're done sweating the short stuff, you promised to take us all to the citadel."
"Not all of us.", was a response from a guy with a 17th Century pirate thing going on, who was tending to a kid with blonde hair. "This boy lost his powers, and we don't have any spare Bakugan to give to him. I'll stay here and look after him."
"It's not recommendable" said Shun, ",but we don't have a lot of choice on the matter. We still have enough people to take down the Professor and his goons."
Mason was tired of arguing and decided to hurry everyone along. "Okay, fine. The pirate guy is staying behind with Project Runway. Now let's go."
A few minutes later, things had managed to go drastically wrong. Instead of helping Dan Kuso get to the citadel, Mason was now teaming up with Lena in order to battle Jesse and Zenet. While the 2 had been their allies at one point, now they were firmly dedicated to the Professor's cause of conquest. Mason had tried to change their minds subtly earlier, but that hadn't worked. Now he was just going to have to work with Lena to beat some sense into them. "Bakugan Brawl! Bakugan, stand!"
"Aquos Phosphos!"
"Ventus Plitheon!"
"Rise, Sub Terra Avior!"
"Let's go, Haos Contestir!"
All 4 Bakugan standing at a power level of 900 Gs.
Zenet was the first to move. "Ability, activate! Shiny Monk!"
Contestir glowed with energy as he absorbed power from Phosphos and Avior. "Nothing personal, guys. It's just business."
Avior And Phosphos decrease for combined power level of 1000 Gs. Contestir Power level increase to 1700 Gs.
Lena countered. "Ability, activate! Gorgon Viper!" Phosphos deployed 4 additional heads, 2 on his back, 2 on his hips, in addition to the 3 he already had. He then sapped energy from the opponents' Bakugan
"We may be on opposite sides right now, but that doesn't mean I'm enjoying this anymore than I am."
Aquos Phosphos Power level increase to 1500 Gs. Haos Contestir And Ventus Plitheon decrease to combined power level of 1600 Gs.
Mason was the next to make a move. "Ability, activate! Bolting Chain!" Avior hit both of his adversaries with energy waves, which transferred their energy to himself.
Avior power level increase to 1300 Gs. Plitheon power level decrease to 0, while Contestir decreases to 800 Gs.
"That's what you get for selling out to a low life like Galloway.", Avior said, smugly.
Plitheon, rather than the humbled or humiliated reaction they were expecting, was instead mad. "I was willing to go easy on you, but after that last stunt you pulled, I'm not holding anything back. Jesse?"
His brawler nodded, summoning up a Battle Gear in his hand and throwing it at his partner. "Battle Gear, boost!"
Plitheon power level: 100 Gs.
"That's still not going to make a dent in my armour, Plitheon."
"That's merely the prologue to our play.", Jesse replied. "And it's time for the opening act. Double Ability, activate! Drake Twister, plus Battle Gear Ability Vilantor Gear Nirvana!"
Avior and Phosphos decrease for combined power level of 2000 Gs. Plitheon power level increase to 1100 Gs.
Zenet was the next to summon and use her Battle Gear. "Battle Gear, boost!"
Haos Contestir with Battle Gear Spartablaster power level increase to 900 Gs.
Lena's decided to counter with her Battle Gear, Terrorcrest, But Zenet anticipated it. "Battle Gear Ability, activate! Spartablaster Sol!"
Phosphos Power level decrease to 700 Gs. Contestir power level increase to 1300 Gs.
Before Mason could do anything to help Lena, another voice called out an attack. "Ability, activate! Dynamo Cannon!" Shot flew in and hit all 4 Bakugan, knocking them into ball form. Mason turned towards the source of the voice, as did the others. It was Mylene, one of the Vestals that Galloway had brought onboard for their specialist skills. The other was a leftover from Project: Nero, but she was a straggler trapped in another dimension. "The Professor told me to eliminate the 4 of you, so that none of you become a liability."
Mason turned towards his opponents. "Do you still believe the Professor has our best interests at heart?"
"You're right.", Zenet reluctantly groaned. "For now, let's work together to take him down."
"After that, we'll submit ourselves for whatever punishment you and Ren come up with."
Mason smiled. Now that he'd convinced them to leave the Professor, it was just a matter of Dan defeating him.
Following Mylene's final defeat, Mason made his way to the citadel, which was now a wreck, with the only inhabitants being a few groggy Castle Knights and Queen Fabia. The civilians had clearly made their way safely underground before the Professor's attack.
"Mason, what happened?", Fabia urged. "Where are Hydron and Mylene?"
"They're dead.", Mason wheezed. "He gave his life to ensure she didn't get away. Told me to make sure the Brawlers knew what happened."
As if on cue, a white light emerged next to them, from out of which stepped the 6 original Battle Brawlers and their partner Bakugan. Drago and Tigrerra had changed during their time in the portal, presumably a new evolution. The 6 of them seemed to be celebrating.
"I take it stopping Adaptrix went well then.", Fabia said with a smile.
"You bet, Fabia.", was Runo's response.
"We totally owned that guy.", Julie added.
"We've certainly seen the last of that creep.", Alice continued.
"And the Chaos Bakugan are all gone, with everything returned to where it should be.", Dan concluded.
"In short, everything turned out alright.", Drago summarised.
"Not everything.", Mason sighed. Explaining this would be a long story.
This is a one-shot spin-off to my other fanfiction, The Miraculous Adventures of Dan Kuso. As such, I would recommend you read both that and its predecessor, Sailor Moon: Gundalian Invaders.