Author's Note: As to avoid deterring from the prologue with one of my infamous rants, I'll only say that you read the second note at the end of the chapter as it is very important.
Disclaimer: I (Aero'Phoenix) do not own Bakugan, this story was made for fun, not profit.
As The Crow Is Spared, So Dies A Dove
By: Aero'Phoenix
For the Crow to be spared...
A Dove must die...
Chapter 1- Contemplation... With A Little Bit of Love from the French
It was hard sometimes...
Adjusting to the way life had turned out for her, Alice would sometimes just stare into the distance. It was her way of remembering what she stood for, what the Brawlers stood for.
It really didn't help much that she was away from Russia, the snow there always seeming to be able to make her forget about the sorrow and loneliness of her home. It still amazed her from time to time on how no one seemed to realise just how much...
She really missed her Grandfather...
"Oh Alice, I just wish that Dan and Shun would stop arguing already!" murmured a blue-haired girl irritably, she sighed and then rested her head into the palms of her hands. After a short while, she looked up whilst turning her head to Alice. "I mean we're all friends here right? So why should we b- Alice?"
Said girl had been staring into the distance in front of her, a very uncharacteristically empty expression adorning her face. The red headed Russian didn't seem to notice the girl next to her lingering gaze as her brown eyes remained unfocused.
"Hey Alice? Anyone in there?" asked Runo as she waved her hand in front of the other girl's face, her brows furrowing in slight worry.
Alice flinched back, slightly surprised, her eyes snapping back into focus as she turned to Runo. A sheepish expression making its way onto her face as she closed her eyes apprehensively, "I'm sorry Runo, what were you saying?"
Runo sighed in relief, chuckling a little to ease the tension as she spoke, "Oh its nothing, it's just you're usually so focused. I suppose I've come to thinking that's the way you always are."
Alice smiled, if only she could actually be as strong as they seem to think she is.
"It's alright Runo, I've just been feeling a little tired lately."She suddenly found herself dropping her head as she then slightly coughed into her elbow. Runo's eyes widened as her expression quickly morphed into one of worry for her teammate's condition.
The blunette reached out to rest her hand on Alice's shoulder in show of her concern, "Maybe you should go into our room and take a nap..."
She then gestured towards Dan and Shun, animated sparks flying between their glaring irises as it looked like the long time best friends/rivals were preparing for another all out brawl that would most likely end in both tearing each other apart, "I doubt you'll be missing much..." said the Haos Brawler wearily.
Alice coughed into her hand as she lifted her head, her eyes full of untold gratitude. "Thank you Runo, I'll go do that."
She paused for a moment to look around her, taking in the her surroundings for the very first time since her space out, she took note of the luxurious plush couch she was sittied on alongside Runo inside of Marucho's quite expensive aircraft.
She then took to noticing the heated argument between the team's two most talented brawlers as well as Marucho, who was sittied on a couch not too far from hers, worried expression. Julie, who was beside him, was too busy chatting to her long time friend Billy on her Baku Pod to even care.
Alice sighed, a weak smile on her face at the strange team dynamic the Brawlers had whilst asking herself as to how it is that they were able to get this far. Seeing as there would probably be no answer to such a question, she decided to then get up to her feet and hurriedly walk past the two shouting boys as she spotted the door that led to the bedroom the three girls' had been generously given to share.
She walked in and closed the door before locking it as to make sure no one disturbed her long overdue rest. She leaned against the door tiredly, exhaustion from the flu getting to her as she closed her eyes.
A large pulse from her heartbeat reached her ears, causing her eyes to snap open as that empty expression once again took form into her irises as her arms fell limply to her sides. She found herself reaching down into the inside of her coat, and pulled out a mysterious glass mask that seemed to appear out of nowhere as she slid it onto her face.
In a bright, nearly blinding flash of light, her orange hair rose and changed into a spiky upward spiralled pattern whilst its hair colour had changed to that of a rich blond. Her normal attire was replaced with that of a white, short sleeved trench coat that reached below the ankles of fitted purple trousers and black boots.
The genetic altering transformation had only taken a few seconds, and now where Alice Gehabich had been standing, stood the Number One ranked Bakugan player,
Masquerade...
His ears perked to the sound of rustling as he turned his head towards the double queen sized beds. At the foot of the one farthest to the right, an indistinct figure burst out of the tan purse it had been hidden in. Rolling closer towards the Darkus Brawler, it revealed to be a black ball with purple strips and markings across its form before popping open.
"Ugh, you have no idea how stuffy it is in there Master." Grumbled the Bakugan bitterly, Masquerade reached down and picked him up before swiftly placing him on his shoulder.
"I hope to get a change in scenery too Hydranoid, but for now Lord Naga wants us to send more Bakugan to the Doom Dimension as soon as possible, this way I won't have to make a trip back to the mansion." Hydranoid grunted and turned his little form away from his side.
"Fine I see your point," He turned back around, seeming curious about something, "Though I am surprised that you managed to slip away so soon Master, won't the brawlers miss their friend?"
Masquerade smirked at the question, pulling out a black card from his pocket and held it up to his face. "Not likely, see the one good thing that came from this confounded flu Alice caught, was that it gave us reason to.. disappear for a while." Hydronoid nodded in understanding.
"But aren't you worried that this 'flu' might affect you during battles?" Masquerade looked as if he had just been insulted, opening his mouth to retort before suddenly sneezing. Hydranoid gave his master an accusing glare, "See! Perhaps it would be better to rest and recover from this cold!"
"And have Hal-G get on my back about it? If it weren't for me having Alice as my host, he'd have me and you brawling around the world 24/7." Masquerade finished begrudgingly as he was caught off guard with another sneeze, he gritted his teeth in frustration. "Besides other than that, I'm fine."
"Fine, if you say so Master, but where shall we be heading to crush some pathetic battlers?" asked the powerful Darkus Bakugan, growing excited at the prospect of battle. Masquerade straightened up and smirked darkly.
"I was hoping you'd ask, how do you feel about taking a detour to Paris?"
. . .
"So... this is Paris?" asked Hydranoid curiously as he gazed down at the scenery that was below them.
He hopped down from Masquerade's shoulder onto the silver-plated railing in front of him. He gradually turned around, taking time to take in his vast change of surroundings. "Hmph, nice enough place... Do you think that when Lord Naga conquers Vestroia and Earth that he'll let take Paris?"
Masquerade chuckled whilst not looking at his fellow partner, preferring to gaze into the city of love as they called it.
Resting his hands on the railing, Masquerade muttered in a dazed tone, "I don't know... I've sorta set my hea- soul... on taking Wardington." Hydranoid snickered, but only for a moment, on his Master's slip of tongue as he too, continued to sweep his gaze over the city.
A silence passed over them yet instead of feeling an awkward sort of tension between them, it turned out to be comfortable. Both finding no words needed to be spoken or so Masquerade thought at least...
"Masquerade?"
"Hmm?" He mumbled in slight attention.
Hydranoid gazed at him, his tone questioning, "This thing, we're standing on, what's it called again?"
Masquerade sighed in mock superiority and released his grip on the railing. He scooped up Hydranoid and placed him on his shoulder. "Come on, we have so many battlers to conquer and so little time to do it."
"You didn't answer my question." Hydranoid deadpanned.
"..." The Darkus Brawler kept silent, inwardly cursing himself for not being able to remember such an insignificant detail.
"You don't know what it's called do you?" asked Hydranoid, almost sounding amused.
"I do so! I think it was..." He made a last attempt at piecing the words together, annoyance showing on his facial features as he barely recalled the first letter of the word, noting that it started with an e, wait, eureka! "The Eiffel Tower?" He finished off the last bit curiously before shrugging it off.
"It doesn't matter, let's go." commanded Masquerade with finality, shortly after, the two disappeared in a mystical rain of sparkling light.
. . .
The day went by pretty quickly for the two, although the two had a rather difficult time throughout as sometimes trying to comprehend what the French kids were trying to say was getting to his nerve and that never ended well for anyone.
They crushed them all as, as expected, yet to Masquerade's disappointment however none of them had seem to be able to provide a Bakugan that could offer his Hydranoid any form of challenge.
They were just some more useless small fry...
Masquerade sighed dejectedly as the battlefield closed on yet another crushingly swift defeat for his rather unfortunate opponent.
"Non!" The little black-haired boy wailed, dropping to his knees, his fingers digging into the grass as the turmoil at losing his Bakugan was only now starting to set in. "Mes Bakugan!"
He lifted his head to glare daggers fiercely at Masquerade, "Toi! Tu est tres mechant!"
As the boy continued to babble in that annoying French language of his, Masquerade glanced at Hydranoid whilst folding his arms across his chest and sneered at the little boy. "I don't understand a word you're saying kid nor do I actual care."
The boy's head snapped up in shock, being nearly on the verge of tears, as he couldn't comprehend on how the Darkus Brawler was able to seem so calm and guilt free at what he'd just done. Masquerade noticed the boy's gaze and did something the French kid hadn't expected...
He smirked.
"Later ,loser" spoke Masquerade tauntingly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a Warping Gate card.
Something had clicked inside the young boy's head as he watched a portal open behind the mask Brawler, his Rubanoid had meant a lot to him, and having had to watch helplessly as his beloved Bakugan drift into what was considered eternal oblivion, had finally caused him to snap.
The boy narrowed his eyes menacingly as his hands ballied into fists before shaking dangerously. In the next moment, whether it was impulse that reacted or not, he found himself breaking the short distance between them in a remarkable span of time as he tackled the Darkus Brawler roughly whilst letting out an enraged war cry.
Masquerade gasped momentarily as the force from the tackle had knocked the air out of his lungs before stumbling backwards and unexpectedly into the portal as the Warping Gate card had already been activated and in a flash of darkened indigo...
They both were gone.
. . .
Back on Marucho's private aircraft...
Things had finally settled down, well if you counted making both Shun and Dan sit in two chairs on opposite sides of the room settling down...
While both were at far ends of the living room, that didn't stop the rivals from shooting icy stone cold glares at each other from across the room. The intensity was so great that if it weren't for the stubborn resolve both individuals had, then we would've been able to flinch by now.
The other three Brawlers at present, tried desperately to ease the ongoing tension between the two.
"Ugh! This is like totally pointless!" groaned a or less weary Julie, as she threw her arms up and leaned back against the couch cushions, "How are we going to find the Infinity Core if our two best Brawlers won't even stop fighting?"
Besides her, the small blond-haired boy with glasses nodded his head in agreement, "I concur; we should be focusing on how we plan to deal with Masquerade, while at the same time work on finding the ever evasive Infinity Core."
The blunette on the side turned to them, "That's easy for you to say Marucho," her eyes narrowed in distaste as the sarcasm dripped from her voice, "Trying to get those two to get along is like trying to stop the sun from shining, it's impossible! Argh!"
She reached up and yanked at her pigtails, finding the action to be the only thing left to do to calm down the massive amounts of rage boiling inside of her. On the wooden coffee table in front of them, a small white Bakugan rolled over to Runo before popping open.
"Milady, perhaps we should ask Alice to help." Runo released her pigtails and looked down at Tigerra with a blank look, the Bakugan caught on quickly to her partner's confusion and deliberated, and "I mean coming to a peaceful agreement does seem to be well within her uh, forte Milady."
"Yeah, I agree with Tigerra. Alice always knows how to make things better!" beamed Julie as she quickly got to her feet as she prepared to dash over to the girls' room when Runo stood up in front of her with a resolved look on her features.
"Hey, what's the big idea Runo?" asked Julie irritably, not being able to understand why the Haos Brawler was in front of her, as she placed her hands on her hips. "Don't you want to solve this problem as quickly as possible?"
Runo shook her head fiercely, her eyes visibly softened in concern, "No, we should try to solve this feud without disturbing Alice, she looked like she was coming down with something really nasty, besides it's not like she ever lets herself rest anyways..."
Julie opened her mouth to speak but closed it abruptly at the concern showing in Runo's eyes. Her eyes softened as well as she nodded in agreement, "Okay..."
. . .
Masquerade grunted at the slight sting that came from landing on his back so hard whilst still having the annoyance for a little boy grip at his waist tightly. He scowled as lashed out with a vicious kick, successfully throwing the boy off of him, "Get off me!"
He snarled as he stood up, glaring daggers at the little boy, He stalked over menacingly, his lips set in a grim frown that caused the young French lad to cower in fear for his life.
"Je suis desole! Pl-please don't hurt me..."
Masquerade halted in front of him and roughly picked him up by his collar, causing the boy to cringe as he looked into his reflection from the glass mask, noticing how fear stricken he actually looked.
"Name one good reason why I shouldn't?" questioned the Darkus Brawler darkly as he kept his voice dangerously calm whilst refraining from snarling yet again at the problematic child. "You screwed up my teleportation and caused me enough trouble."
Masquerade glanced to the side and took note of the small pond besides them, he turned back to look at the boy, a cold smirk making its way onto his features, "I sure hope you can swim."
The boy's eyes widened at the last second before Maasquerade simply released his grip from the collar and turned to leave, not caring in the slightest as the water continuously splashed signifying the little boy's struggle to remain float.
He sneered as he strode forward but not before stopping to taunt the boy, "Maybe next time you'll be smart and not try to take on opponents that obviously way out of your league."
At that, he walked away, pulling out a black card from his pocket as he did before it flashed in that familiar bright glow and in the next second, Masquerade had vanished in a swirling drift of sparkles.
. . .
A bright light had temporarily illuminated the dark bedroom Alice shared with her two female comrades on Marucho's aircraft before disappearing to reveal a very worn out blond Battler. With a weary sigh, the blond stumbled to towards the bed before collapsing onto it with a thud as he turned to bury his face into a pillow.
"Ugh" He groaned tiredly into the pillowcase before turning around to face the ceiling. As he lifted a hand, he moved to place it on his aching cranium. After all that... he felt completely drained compared to earlier when he'd been fully re-vitalized, save for the flu. "Maybe Hydranoid was right about right taking up some rest."
Masquerade paused all of a sudden, he'd noticed that his Darkus Bakugan had been awfully quiet through the whole ordeal with the French kid, even now, Hydranoid didn't even seem to want to rip his head off at being caught off guard so easily...
"Hydranoid?" He muttered questioningly as he sat up, perched on the bed. He glanced around the darkened room ever so slowly as he made sure to check for any movement.
"Hydranoid?" He repeated, slowly rising from the bed as his alarms were going off at the prospect of losing his battle partner, "Hydranoid you'd better come out or God so help me I will-"
His voice trailed off in alarm as his eyes widened at the sound of footsteps approaching the bedroom door.
"Damn it!" Masquerade hissed as he quickly formulated a plan.
A light knock on the door echoed across the room, "Hey, Alice you awake in there?"
The doorknob slowly twisted, creaking as it did, to signify that the door could be opened.
It cracked opened a few moments later to reveal Julie picking out of it whilst raising a curious brow at the darkness before looking towards a bed, spotting a snoozing red head a few centimetres away from the door, fast asleep.
Giggling slightly to herself, she closed the door as silently as she could and then she went back to the to join the others on the recent board game they had to decided to play while the self proclaimed 'Greatest Brawler' and Number One 'Hot Shot', were able to cool things off.
Author's Note: For those of you who haven't already noticed, this is the adopted version of the Fic, 'For the crow to be spared, the dove must die' By JetravenEx. Now as you all know, Jetraven has, due to lack of inspiration, discontinued his story and held it up for adoption.
Now after coming to an agreement that I would be able to adopt such a great story, I have thus posted this on the conditions that I give him credit for the first three chapters of the story and that I have Masquerade join the Bakugan Battle Brawlers.
Now to avoid any controversy towards this Fic, I'd like to inform you guys on how Chapters 1-3 will be very similar to the story, changes and differences on appearing from chapters Four and onwards so I ask that you please be patient with me and this story as I know a lot of us (including me) will enjoy once again being able to read something so amazing.
Thoughts? Send in a review to tell me if it's up to standards or not, would really like to hear from you all.
Thanks for Reading