chapter 1
The sun was starting to set and the blonde haired boy was getting tired from a long day of effortlessly winning battles and sending Bakugan to the Doom Dimension. He let out a sigh and watched the sun go down from a branch he was laying on in a big tree in the park he used today to linger in for a few hours preying on naive, young Bakugan brawlers. He started to doze off when a message sounded off from his glass, blue mask that rudely brought him back to reality. "Agh!" he loudly complained from both shock and irritation and gathered himself before opening the video message. It was a message from Hal-G, his.. 'boss'. He watched the video from the old man, commanding him to report to him in person, in the next hour. The boy thought to himself how bored he is, and how longing for a challenge he felt; He needed something new. He craved something exciting. "Some day you will become the ultimate Bakugan, my little pet." he said in a low tone in regards to his hydranoid in his hand before putting it away into a pocket of his long white trench coat. After that, with a flip of his dimensional transportational card in his fingers, he was gone.
"What do you think, Alice?" The Bakugan Brawlers were all on Alice's computer screen in a group video chat discussing where to find the infinity core, and what to do next in their mission to defend it from the notorious, mysterious, and curently leading Bakugan player, Masquerade. "Ah-haha, oh sorry, what was that? I was sort of dozing off.. Ha.. Ha." Alice gulped in embarrassment and laughed nervously. "Alice! Are you getting enough sleep? Have my parents been working you too hard at the restaurant?" Runo asked loudly and too quickly for Alice to keep up. "Maybe you should take a break, like, a little vacation, ya know?" "Yeah, I am a bit tired. I don't feel very well either, if you don't mind I'm going to get some sleep now and I'll get back to you all very soon? Promise!" Alice said. "Agh, alright you get some rest we'll give you the run down on what's going on soon then, okay Alice?" Dan said. "Later!" The brown haired boy winked, before Alice agreed and said her goodbyes along with the rest of the group. 'Dan is always so charming and caring, a bit cute too.' Alice stopped herself from daydreaming and shook her head. 'Nonsense, I need to get ready for bed.' Alice got up from her desk and changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top to go to sleep in. She took a look in the mirror and sighed, examining the dark circles that were starting to become apparent under her brown, tired, eyes. 'Maybe I do need a vacation' she thought to herself. She sighed, and after a few more seconds of judging her reflection and quickly running her hands through her long auburn-red hair, she gasped as she remembered something. 'I need to check on my grandfather, he's been out of sight for quite a bit and I should ask if he needs any help with anything before I go to sleep!'. Her grandfather was always busy working on his projects and spent prolonged amounts of time alone in his study. It made her worried and she made it a point in her daily life to help him and do the things around the house that he apparently doesn't have time to do. She made her way to the study room door. "Grandfa-.. Oh!" she quietly gasped and stopped herself abruptly and threw her hand over her mouth as she overheard two voices beyond the study room door. She put her ear up to the door out of impulsive curiosity even though she felt a small tinge of guilt, but her grandfather never has visitors. "Yesss, very good. Continue with what you're doing tomorrow until I give further instruction and report to me your progress towards evolution for your.. hydranoid.. and start the mission we talked about, concerning 'you know who' before it becomes a problem." said a creepy voice that sounded a bit like her Grandfather, Micheal's voice. "Huh, will do." scoffed another familiar low voice. 'They're discussing Bakugan? Who is in there..?' she thought to herself moments before she slipped in attempt to adjust herself against the door and hit her arm off of it stopping the ongoing conversation inside the study. "Alice?" Her grandfather's voice called out. "Yes, grandfather?" she replied. "Ah, thought that was you out there, what do you need?" he yelled loudly enough for her to hear. "Nothing! nothing, I was just checking on you since I'm going to bed soon! Is everything alright in there?" she said as she mentally facepalmed herself. She was bad at hiding the suspicious guilt in her voice. She worriedly wondered if he knew she was listening in on him. "No I'm alright, thank you and goodnight." he still sounded a bit strange but she wasn't going to press the topic or bother him anymore since her guilt was already increasing each awkward second she was standing there next to the door, "Okay, goodnight!" she yelled and ran back up the stairs tripping once before making it upstairs and back into her room. She shut the door behind her and slid her back down it and sat onto her floor. 'That was definitely very strange. Who was the other person, and is grandfather sick? Why did he sound so weird?" She shuttered at the thought of a stranger being in the downstairs part of the place she lived. 'It sure would be nice if he would at least let me know these things.' She got up and hit her head on the doorknob and fell back down to her knees and up again. "Ugh!" she rubbed her head and scowled at the door. She really did need sleep. Just as she was feeling normal again she heard a low, evil sounding laugh that seemed to echo in her room. Her heart raced once again as she quickly looked around. "Hello? Is anyone there?" she held her arms close to her and felt very uncomfortable. After a few minutes of scouting the room with her eyes, standing in the same spot she finally gained the courage to slip into bed and try to chalk it off as her imagination and rested underneath the covers before drifting asleep.
The next morning Alice awoke to the sunlight from her window shining across her face and she sat up with a smile and stretched. Finally, some good sleep. She felt a rush of optimism from her newly acquired energy from a much needed good night's sleep. Alice jumped out of bed and showered and got dressed for the day in her favorite yellow and green dress. After grabbing her notebook, she took off towards the park to shake off the underlying feeling of stress and anxiety from what had happened the night before.
Once she arrived at the park she found a spot to sit and began drawing birds and trees to keep herself busy. She needed alone time and a creative outlet to let off the stress. "You- you creep! Give me back my Bakugan! Waaaah!" she heard a small voice exclaim, which drew her attention away from her notebook. "I'm afraid that's impossible now. Your precious Bakugan are never coming back." She noticed a young boy run away from an older boy who was wearing a glass mask and had long, wild blonde hair that stood up like fire in different directions. 'Masquerade!' she had thought. She was just about to say something but was stopped in her tracks and she gasped as she heard that laugh once again, but she wasn't imagining it. It was the same laugh she heard last night. He watched her eyes get big like a baby deer's and it made him smirk. He loved inducing fear, and to see her looking at him afraid like that made him excited. He felt the excitement and it made him feel alive, the same way he felt when he sends Bakugan to the Doom Dimension for his beloved Naga. "Hello there, Alice." he growled in his deep threatening-sounding voice. "M-Masquerade!" She yelled to him as he came closer. She stood up and before she could say anything else, he grabbed her face around her jaw and made her look at him. She could see herself in the reflection of his glass mask and she knew she looked so helpless, it made her mad. "Hahaha," he laughed again "it's so cute when little girls are mad, but look at you. You're hopeless, what can you do?" He smiled as he taunted her. She could feel the gloved hands gripping her face and it made her heart feel like it was on fire and her stomach weak. She started struggling and grabbed his arm and tried to release herself, but to no avail because she was not strong enough to move the boy's hand from her face. With his other hand he moved the red hair away from her eyes that had landed there from her struggling. "Calm down." He flipped the transportation card and they both were suddenly in his lair. He let go of her face and she backed away from the boy and shot daggers at him with her eyes. "Now, now. No need to get all worked up. I brought you here because I didn't need you causing a scene out in public like that." he said in a calm voice, even though his voice always sounds so intimidating. She scoffed, "where is this place?" her voice was loud and demanding to know. "My place. Now quiet down." he said, more irritated this time. "What were you doing at my grandfather's house last night?" she didn't lower her voice. "Oh so you've noticed? Hahaha." he didn't really care if she knew. He was growing sick of Hal-G anyway. "I was having a little chat with your grandfather, Hal-G." she gasped at his statement and knew he probably wasn't lying since there was suspicion towards him anyways within the Battle Brawler's discussions but she wanted so badly to doubt it. "So it's true.." she whispered. Masquerade loved toying with people but for some reason he was having more fun than usual tormenting Alice. He let out an evil laugh and grabbed her hand. "Alice.. it's not the end of the world.. yet. And let's face it, you've got a natural born talent for Bakugan, especially the Darkus attribute. I know everything about you, Alice." hearing his claims made her shutter and he giggled. He was such a sadist. "Poor Alice." he said quietly and teasingly as he brushed his thumb on her cheek, she was holding his hands that were both on her face now. She wanted to move them off of her but she knows he is much, much too strong. She wondered what his eyes were doing, since all she could see was her reflection even while being so close to his face. What did his eyes look like, and why was he telling her these things? He felt excited and he wasn't sure why. He felt electricity flowing from his hands on Alice's face throughout his whole body. Even the anger in her eyes made his body feel hot. Her red hair was so exciting to look at. He moved his fingers farther back across her face and now through her hair. She stared at him confused and speechless as to what is going on. He involuntarily licked his lips and stayed where he was for a few seconds and disbanded from the confused girl when he noticed his breathing was getting heavier. This was the most fun he's had in awhile for some reason he didn't understand. "Hello??" she said angrily. The mysterious boy just laughed and turned away as he told her to make herself comfortable. She scoffed and after some protest she remembered she has no clue as to where she actually is, and decided to take a seat. The room was big, and circular and she now noticed it was like a giant green computer screen surrounding the entire room with a few chairs, tables, and at the back of the room there was a giant desk and a bunch of controls in front of a computer chair. She noted that there was a glass case over the controls secured with a lock so she couldn't do any detective work while she was alone now in this unfamiliar room. 'What time is it anyway?' she wondered after awhile, 'and what does Masquerade want from me?'
'There's something too interesting about this girl for Hal-G to just want to get rid of her like that. Not when I'm finally having some fun.' Masquerade thought to himself alone in his bedroom. He removed his coat, shoes and chest plate. The mask stays on. He lied down and tried to close his eyes to sleep. As soon as he was falling asleep, he jumped up from a banging on his door awaking him. "HEY ARE YOU JUST GOING TO KEEP ME HERE? I DEMAND ANSWERS. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST-" the yelling went on and on and he sat in bed and shook his head and rested his forehead on his hand. "Arrrghhh. I told you to make yourself comfortable!" He yelled back even though she was still ranting off and banging on the door. "I'm doing this for you, dumbass." He said in regards to the livid girl outside of his room out loud to himself since she couldnt hear him. "I don't even know exactly why. Hmph. How ungrateful." He layed back down covering his ears with his blankets this time and eventually she gave up and sobbed for a bit and went quiet. She found a couch, and decided to surrender to her exhaustion, and fell asleep with tears on her face. He felt a little bad for the girl who was crying outside of his room for a moment, and shook it off. He fought off the incoming thoughts about her soft auburn-red hair and innocent looking face until he eventually went to sleep.
chapter 1 end
