A/N: So I was rewatching bakugan because I got bored and decided, 'hey I've got all of the summer ahead of me, why not rent the DVDs from the library and watch the first season again' and well let's just say I remembered both why I like this series and how bad it is at the same time .
Oh well, it got me psyched up to write this, which is a story I've been dying to write for a long time. I'm surprised no one else considered writing a story where the script is flipped and the brawlers are the bad guys and Masquerade and his doom brawlers are the good guys.
But since I intend to parody some events that happened in bakugan I wanted to have Masquerade remember his time being evil from the canon season 1 so he could comment slightly on them. XP
But I'm getting ahead of myself. All shall be revealed shortly as we embark on the first chapter (or the prologue maybe) of Shattered Masks.
And unfortunately I don't own bakugan… IT'S SO UNFAIR T.T
Chapter 1
'This is it' Masquerade thought to himself as he stepped back from Alice who was now holding 'Hydranoid'. 'It's finally over.'
Across from him Alice reached out towards him. Struggling to find the words to convince him that he should stay, that he should remain with her to help them clean up the mess he had a hand in making. But he knew if he stayed he'd never leave. His existence would revolve around stealing time from Alice's life, and Alice's life would be burdened by his presence forevermore. No, it was time for them to separate, let Alice be Alice and take her place among her friends; while he faded away and became a distant memory.
Part of Masquerade didn't want to go, all his existence he'd feared this moment, and still did. What would lay for him beyond this existence alongside Alice?
He could feel himself beginning to let go, beginning to fade away from Alice's consciousness, leaving her for good. A part of him tensed slightly a twinge of nervousness, but he maintained his small smile. This was what he wanted. To free Alice of his burden, and to make atonement for his actions by disappearing forever, like he'd never existed in the first place.
Alice took a step towards him as Masquerade's vision began to shrink her lips moving to mouth his name, and then his vision faded away completely.
Now Masquerade was alone in the darkness, he couldn't hear anything, he couldn't see anything, there wasn't anything. He had done it. Now maybe he could find peace and-
All of the sudden Masquerade felt a tug, like something had grabbed onto him and was trying to pull him to somewhere. Confused Masquerade resisted.
'What's going on?!' He thought trying to pull back, but no matter how hard he tried there was nothing he could do. Whatever had him had a damn good grip and in the nothingness Masquerade was trapped within there was nothing for him to get a purchase on to resist the movement.
Up ahead in the direction he was being dragged a small pinprick of light appeared. It grew larger and larger looking more and more like a circular portal as Masquerade drew near.
'A portal? But to where?'
Masquerade wasn't allowed to ponder it for long, he was dragged right up to the portal and then wrenched right through it blinding light enveloping him as he went.
The next thing Masquerade knew his senses were overloading making him feel like he'd been hit by a freight train. Bright light seemed to emulate from everywhere forcing him to screw up his eyes shut. Small sounds that would've been quiet to anyone else seemed like someone shouting in his ears to him. He was upright, standing for all of a few moments before he fell to the ground, his limbs stunned by the sudden need to support him resulting in him landing on his stomach on the ground with a pained grunt.
For a moment he lay there trying to recollect himself. What was going on? One moment he'd been in oblivion the next thing he knew he was suddenly in some strange bright place, everything was too loud, too sensitive. Oh it hurt.
His chest was beginning to hurt, a horrible pressure gathering around his lungs. Then he forced himself to take a deep breath which resulted in a fit of coughing his lungs struggling to adapt to suddenly being used again. He fought to get his breathing under control before he eventually began to settle into a more relaxed rhythm and his body began to recover from the sensory overload.
The lights pushing against his closed eyelids lost their brutality, the sounds quieted, and he grew used to feeling the solid floor beneath him as well as the simple feeling of his limbs and body. With a weary groan Masquerade let his head drop to the floor, the exposed part of his cheek pressing against the cool metal floor beneath him, the band of his mask indenting itself in his skin. So he still had that thing, wonderful.
"Is he all right?" A quiet raspy voice off to Masquerade's left spoke, Masquerade not bothering to open his eyes yet he was too weary.
Being dragged out of oblivion was brutal. When he'd been created the first time, he'd been initially a bit confused but it had happened so quickly and almost immediately Alice's memories washed over him and her familiarity with her own body mechanics in turn passed over to him so he had no trouble with the whole existing physically despite being nothing more than a spirit really. But this was different, there was no familiarity with this body, and Masquerade needed a bit more time to get reacquainted with existing again. So he just lay there on the floor, probably freaking out whoever the heck was around him.
"I'm not sure." Another voice sounded from closer to Masquerade. Masquerade could feel vibrations through the floor as the owner of this voice drew closer to Masquerade. "Son? Are you all right?" The voice asked, Masquerade feeling movement at his side and hands gently grasped his side and slowly rolled him over onto his back.
When the man grasped his side, Masquerade felt some cloth barrier between the man's hands and his skin, which told him he at least had clothes, though whether it was his normal attire was still unknown, he'd have to open his eyes for that.
He tried to open his eye's a crack but he immediately closed them again, the light was still too bright. Then it occurred to him that there were other beings around who could potentially fix that. Maybe he should try to convey that.
He opened his mouth and struggled to form words, but only air and a few weak coughs came out. Damn he felt pathetic. What was wrong with him?
"Easy kid, take it easy." The other voice from afar spoke up, then apparently to the man at Masquerade's side. "Doctor, any idea what's wrong with him?"
'Doctor? Where-what?'
Masquerade felt a hand place itself on his neck where his pulse would be and it rested there for several moments, the 'Doctor' counting the beats quietly to himself before he pulled his hand back.
"Well his pulse is a bit fast, but he's breathing more steadily now. The Dimensional Transport must've shocked his system when it pulled him through." The Doctor said, Masquerade feeling the man shift beside him. "We should just give him a moment to adjust."
"I just hope this worked." The other voice said. "We're out of options and time is short, if this boy can't help us we're doomed."
The other voice's words made Masquerade frown. They wanted him to help them with something? What did they need help with, and why would they drag him back from oblivion just to help them?
Masquerade gritted his teeth he had to pull himself together. He was the number 1…Okay he was the second best brawler on Earth. He'd managed to keep his identity as Alice hidden and he saved Dan from the hybrid bakugan; he'd be damned if he let some trip through the Dimensional Transporter do him in this bad.
"Ngh."Masquerade managed as he forced his eyes open, hissing at the brightness squinting his eyes to ease the agony. "L-lights." He rasped slowly moving his arm to shield his eyes. "Too-"
"Too bright?" The Doctor finished for him rising to standing. "Oh! I'll fix that for you." His footsteps set vibrations through the floor as he moved away from Masquerade, the blond sighing and closing his eyes to ease some of the pain while he waited for the Doctor to turn off the lights.
A few moments later the bright light stopped pressing insistently on Masquerade's eyelids and the blond heaved a sigh of relief, letting his eyes open without pain, the world swimming into color around him.
The ground vibrated with the Doctor's footsteps and then a figure with gray hair stepped into Masquerade's vision. For a moment Masquerade didn't react than his vision cleared and he sat up with a jolt.
"Are you all right son?" The Doctor asked kneeling down beside the boy supporting Masquerade's shoulder to keep him upright. Now that Masquerade's vision was clear he recognized the man immediately.
"Dr. Michael?" Masquerade rasped his voice getting clearer as he spoke; he hadn't recognized the former mad scientist by the sound of the voice. Then again he was Dr. Michael, who not only lacked green skin and horrible features, but also lacked the distinct echoing sinister voice. "You're-you're back to normal."
The Doctor's expression morphed into one of confusion and he shot a look at something on Masquerade's left side before looking back down at the masked brawler. "What?"
Masquerade frowned. "You-you don't remember?" He asked. Funny he figured that being turned into an awful green creature would be something up there with sharing a body with an entity of another gender, neither were particularly forgettable.
The Doctor opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the voice on Masquerade's left.
"We don't have much time left Doctor! My sister will have felt the dimension gate open; the brawlers will be here soon." Masquerade turned his head and looked at the source of the other voice, a small white bakugan ball was perched on the edge of the lab tables. For a moment Masquerade was confused, he'd never seen this particular bakugan ball before… but the voice seemed familiar. Then Masquerade's eyes went wide beneath his mask.
"Naga?!" Masquerade shouted gaping at the white one. "You're still alive? But," Masquerade looked at Dr. Michael for a moment before looking back at Naga. "He's not Hal-G and you're not trapped in the silent core…" What crazy ride had he been dumped on?
"We'll explain everything later boy," Naga said firmly before focusing on the Doctor. "Michael, you must disable the Dimensional Transporter and we must make haste to escape."
Dr. Michael nodded and let Masquerade go the blond nearly dropping back to lying on his back before he managed to get a grip on himself and remain upright. Michael moved away from the blond and went over to a console hitting several buttons the Dimensional Transporter which was several feet to Masquerade's right powered down completely. It looked just as damaged as it had the last time Masquerade had seen it; which had been right after Naga's negative energy had overloaded it, resulting in Masquerade's creation and Hal-G's.
"No wonder I feel like crap, I'm lucky I'm completely intact." Masquerade muttered as he eyed the battered machine.
"I sense 6 powerful bakugan approaching." Naga said raising his head. "We must leave now Michael, the whole point of this was to maintain an element of surprise."
Dr. Michael nodded all the lights on the systems going dead as he drew back from the console. "It's done, let's go." He said going over to Naga who hopped off the lab table and landed in the old man's hand. Then he went over to Masquerade and held out his hand to the blond. "I know you're disoriented but can you stand? It'll be easier than trying to carry you."
Masquerade hesitated eyeing the outstretched hand before glancing back up at the owner and the bakugan perched on his shoulder. What should he do? Was this some trick of Naga's to get him back on his side, or a trap of some kind? They'd mentioned the brawlers and 6 powerful bakugan, and Naga's sister… He gritted his teeth.
"What are you two playing at?" He asked quietly.
Before Naga or Michael could answer an explosion ripped through the wall of the laboratory behind Dr. Michael that sent the three of them tumbling forwards into a heap on the ground. Masquerade was unfortunately stuck underneath the old doctor groaning in pain slightly. He was disoriented enough by being dragged from the grave, he didn't need a concussion on top of it! On top of him Dr. Michael recovered weakly reaching over Masquerade shakily grasping the white one lying at Masquerade's shoulder picking up Naga and holding him tightly while his other hand went towards the pocket of his lab coat.
A few pieces of the ceiling dropped to the floor by the new hole in the wall drawing Masquerade's attention away from the feeble doctor and his partner to the blast site. The smoke and falling debris impaired visibility but Masquerade could make out 6 human figures standing on the opposite side of the smoke.
"Trying to escape Doctor? You should know better than that." A female voice similar to Julie's came from one of the figures.
"I concur, you'd be best off surrendering the silent core now, you can't continue much longer like this… It's bad for an ailing old man like yourself." The voice this time was Marucho's and the dust was beginning to fade to where Masquerade could recognize the silhouettes of the 6 brawlers. Dan Kuso, Shun Kazami, Julie Makimoto, Marucho Marukura, Runo Misaki and… Alice?!
'Alice? But shouldn't I be Alice?' Masquerade thought opening his mouth to demand what the heck was going on but he didn't get a chance to say anything because Michael yanked out a familiar black card from his pocket.
"I may be old, but I can still get by." Dr. Michael retorted shoving Naga into his pocket as he grabbed Masquerade's arm and the card glowed brightly.
"He's getting away!" Runo shouted breaking through the smoke and rushing towards Dr. Michael.
Dr. Michael shifted slightly so his body hid Masquerade from the brawlers sight. He didn't need to worry really because once the brawlers passed through the smoke all they saw was the 'Doom Beings' disappearing in a flash of light.
Left alone the six brawlers glared at where Dr. Michael had been standing.
"He got away." Runo said clenching her fist. "This is getting ridiculous." She said stamping her foot.
"Easy Runo," Dan said turning to the blue haired girl. "He's gonna mess up sometime,"
"He's clearly losing his touch." Alice added folding her arms across her chest as she looked around. "We actually came close to getting him and Naga this time, normally they're gone long before we show up."
"True, but close doesn't count." Shun said with a scowl. "Let's head back to the plane, all we can do while we wait to find Michael and Naga is to keep increasing our power through battles, let's go." He said turning and walking away, Julie and Runo following the blue haired girl kicking a rock at a machine as she went. The machine cracked and spat a few sparks afterwards.
Dan, Alice and Marucho were the only 3 left standing in the lab eyeing the Dimensional Transporter.
"What do you think they transported?" Marucho asked looking around. "Do you think he sent Naga off world?"
Drago popped open on Dan's shoulder. "That seems unlikely. If that was the case, Wayvern would have Joe drop everything and work on tracking down Michael since the silent core would've gone out of range."
Alice nodded in agreement. "I wish I'd grabbed the blueprints for the Dimensional Transporter before I joined you guys." She said frowning slightly.
Dan placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's all right Alice, no one blames you, besides without it we'd have snapped up Naga and your grandfather a long time ago, it makes it a lot more fun to hunt them down."
Alice blinked at him. "I don't know if I agree with the 'fun' part, but thank you for being understanding." She said smiling slightly closing her eyes in an expression of happiness.
On her shoulder Hydranoid popped open, "You've done nothing wrong Miss Alice, the fault lies with your grandfather being too paranoid, if he hadn't hid the blue prints we'd have them. Its no fault of your own."
Alice smiled. "Thanks Hydra." She said taking him in her hands and rubbing her cheek against him smiling softly.
"But the question remains." Dan said grabbing his chin, eyeing the transporter. "What did they use it for?"
/-/
Masquerade, Dr. Michael and Naga appeared in the darkened computer room in it's 'concealed' mode. Masquerade noted that although it was as dark as his usually was, it lacked the masks lining the walls.
Michael sighed as he got up and dusted himself off before he held out a hand to Masquerade, helping the boy to his feet.
"I apologize for all that. To drag you from your home and then barely 10 minutes in our world and you encounter the brawlers," Michael said shaking his head releasing Masquerade's hand and going over to the computer.
"What's up with them anyways?" Masquerade asked Naga floating off Dr. Michael's shoulder as the start up began and the walls shifted to reveal the computer room.
Although the computer room looked similar to Masquerade's room. The circular platform they stood on acted as a sort of elevator. Once the false walls were pulled away and stashed within compartments on either side of the expansive circular room the circular platform they stood on acted as a sort of elevator lowering them down to the bottom of the computer room. At the bottom there was a bed, a table with papers strewn about, a crate, and several other mechanical objects strewn around.
"I apologize for the mess." Dr. Michael said. "But this is where Naga and I hide out when not out in the world trying to stop Wayvern."
"Okay," Masquerade said crossing his arms. "Before we get even more off topic, can you explain to me why you brought me from my… world?" He questioned eyes narrowing behind his mask.
Michael grimaced. "I'd best start at the beginning for that then," He stepped off the circular platform and went over to the table, and began shuffling through some papers. Masquerade tilted his head watching as the man moved the papers around before he picked up a paper and gave an "aha!" picking up the disk he'd found hidden beneath the paper. Disk in hand he went over to a spot on the wall and inserted the disk into the wall.
"This has recordings of some of the things that happened so that way you have a reference to understand, since we can't be sure how different,"
"Or similar." Naga added bobbing his head. Michael nodded.
"Or similar, your world is to ours. By the way… I do believe we neglected to ask your name, I apologize could you-?"
"It's Masquerade." Masquerade said remaining unmoved from where he was standing.
Michael frowned thoughtfully at then he nodded. "The French word for 'masked' I can understand why you'd choose that."
"I didn't choose it." Masquerade said flatly. He gestured to the screen, "You were explaining?"
Michael blinked but nodded as he went over to the computer the circular platform carrying them upwards to where they were at half of the height the platform was at normally.
"Well to start from the beginning it all began when I finished my Dimensional Transporter." Dr. Michael said, a recording of Dr. Michael appearing on the screen. The Doctor was moving about his laboratory setting up the then solid and undamaged Dimensional Transporter. "I tested it, leaving my granddaughter Alice alone for several months while I visited a world parallel to ours."
"Vestroia." Masquerade finished for him arms crossed lips a grim slash. Ugh, he'd wanted to know the story but he knew this stuff already. What he wanted was to get to the part where this world's events diverged from his own and how that related to what was up with the brawlers and why Naga and Dr. Michael had sought him out. "And let me guess you met Naga, and then several months later you returned from Vestroia to find the cards had rained down from the sky since the day you'd left."
Dr. Michael blinked and then he nodded. "Yes, yes that's correct."
"Then with those same cards and bakugan a group of 6 dubbed 'the Bakugan Battle Brawlers' created a game together using the cards and bakugan that hooked all the kids around the world. Is that correct?"
Dr. Michael nodded again. "Indeed, since they were the creators and had a good understanding of the game they had made they remained very high in the rankings."
'Well that's definitely a change from my world, in my world Dan was nowhere near the high rankings when I arrived and Naga's quest for power began.' Masquerade thought. "Okay, then what?"
Naga bowed his head. "The next events are my fault, I told Wayvern about meeting Michael and the dimensional transporter and it's ability to transport us to anywhere." He sighed. "Wayvern and I being white ones were capable of traversing through the different attribute worlds and through every trip to another world we'd caught glimpses of the cores and over time gained an understanding of them. Anyways, once I unveiled that news to her, Wayvern went off later to go meet someone." Naga gave a low growl. "I'm not too sure what went down, but apparently Wayvern took the news to her beloved Dragonoid Drago, and somehow they decided to steal the cores together."
"I had left Naga with a DT card should he ever decide to come to Earth." Michael said grimacing.
"I should've known something was up when Wayvern brought Drago to 'visit' me. Wayvern engaged me in small talk before I foolishly turned my back long enough for Drago to deliver a blow that left me dazed." Naga growled. "Then while I was out they stole my DT and made for the cores."
"Fortunately, Naga was able to recover and go after them before the portal closed." Michael said, Masquerade nodding.
"Then I suppose when you arrived Wayvern had absorbed the Infinity core?" Masquerade asked.
Naga nodded. "She and Drago had found a way that Drago would siphon off the worst of the energy feedback while Wayvern absorbed the core. Apparently Drago didn't want to taint her with the 'negative energy of the silent core'" Naga said with a snort. "By that point she was already 'tainted' if you ask me. But since they were busy with that I made a break to get the Silent Core,"
"Why not try to stop them from taking the infinity core?" Masquerade asked his eyes narrowing behind the mask "Or did you just want the power as well?"
Naga shook himself. "I had no choice, Wayvern had almost completely absorbed the infinity core by the time I arrived, my only option to keep her from getting both was to take the Silent Core."
Masquerade gave a disbelieving snort but he crossed his arms and was silent while he waited for Naga to continue.
"Just as I made for the Silent Core, Drago spotted me, and since Wayvern was too busy absorbing the Infinity Core he shot an attack at me to try to keep me back." Naga said with a snort. "The fool couldn't aim worth a damn, rather than hit me, he hit the silent Core knocking it out of alignment with Vestroia. The core plowed into me as it drove a hole through dimensions being absorbed as we traveled through dimensions before we finally arrived on Earth."
"Once Naga was strong enough and had enough of a handle on the Negative energy of the Silent Core he teleported to me." Dr. Michael said. "He told me all that had happened and thankfully I'd had the foresight to lock away the blueprints to the dimensional transport. When Naga had arrived Alice had gone off to join her friends the Brawlers in Wardington and I'd begun to notice some of my inventions were missing prior to her leave."
"So you locked away your most important one to keep it out of her hands?" Masquerade asked.
The old man's shoulders slumped. "At the time I didn't think it was Alice who was taking the inventions, I thought it was someone else. I just, Alice has always been such a nice girl, I couldn't see her wanting to take my inventions, or work with Wayvern in her mad schemes."
"What does Wayvern want?" Masquerade asked looking at the two.
Naga growled. "She's a puppet for Drago, he wants the power and he knows that once I'm out of the way Wayvern will give him the infinity core."
"Are you sure of that?" Masquerade asked raising an eyebrow. "Is Drago a power hungry bakugan?"
Naga seemed to hesitate at that. "I'm not sure… I don't know Drago all that well."
"It doesn't matter at this point." Dr. Michael said. "Whatever her reasons are, Wayvern has recruited the brawlers and they've been using strange cards to hurt the bakugan and increase their power along with Wayvern's. Worse with the way things are in Vestroia thanks to all the chaos caused by the cores balance being upset, Earth and Vestroia are on the path to destruction."
Masquerade frowned. "Okay, so you've got Wayvern out to get the cores, and the brawlers out to become the strongest brawlers in the world and increase their bakugan's levels till they're so high they can't be stopped. Why am I here?" He looked at them. "What do you expect me to do?"
Dr. Michael frowned as he brought up images of other brawlers, some of them Masquerade recognized, like Klaus, Julio and Chan, others he didn't. "I'm an old man Masquerade, I'm a scientist not a brawler, and if Naga goes out there to fight he runs the risk of losing the Silent Core. We need a fighter, we need someone to fight against the brawlers and try to defeat them and Wayvern and end the madness in Vestroia."
A sinking feeling grew in Masquerade's stomach. "Wait a minute, you're telling me, you dragged me the guy who used to send bakugan to their ultimate doom, to do the opposite and fight against the guys who are doing it in this world? You're asking me to be the hero?!" He said taking a step back his eyes widening beneath his mask.
Naga and Dr. Michael looked at each other for a moment before they turned to Masquerade and nodded.
Masquerade burst out laughing. "Oh god, you're kidding me, this is just some joke right?" He said, the irony of it all. Here he had gone into oblivion to escape the battle against a white one hell bent on ruling Earth and Vestroia; to another world, where he had to start from scratch and battle against another white one hell bent on ruling Earth and Vestroia.
"Unfortunately Masquerade, you're our only hope of standing a chance against the brawlers," Dr. Michael took a step towards the blond who's laughter began to die away as the reality of it set in. The old scientist rested a hand on Masquerade's shoulder. "I'm sorry that I must ask this of you, but if you don't help us against Wayvern we're all doomed. And since you're stuck on this world now… That includes you." Masquerade grimaced at that and Dr. Michael squeezed his shoulder a little tighter. "So will you please help us?"
There was a long pause, the only sound the slight buzzing of the end of the recording on the screen and the hum of the machinery. For a moment Masquerade stood there wrapping his head around it.
He was back from the dead, he was in another world and in this world he was going to have to be the hero, the one who saved the day.
There really was only one thing he could say to that.
"Fuck me." Masquerade muttered.
/-/
A/N:
Okay so initially I was thinking I'd go all opposite personalities and crap but well I realized, I didn't really want that. Oh there'll be alterations to their personalities, but that'll be because of different circumstances in this version of bakugan.
So I was very tempted to end it after Dan, Marucho and Alice's bit, but I decided I really wanted to get the whole explanation to Masquerade that the brawlers are evil and Wayvern's this world's version of Naga out of the way. This way we can go right into Masquerade trying to figure out how the heck he's going to go about taking on some of the strongest brawlers on this world while he doesn't have Hydranoid, or Reaper at the moment.
I have a few interesting ideas for what's going to go on in the next chapter where we have Masquerade interacting with other characters in bakugan and we get a glimpse into the world where the brawlers are the ones hurting the bakugan and how they're getting away with it.
Also here's a question for you guys:
Who should be Masquerade's partner in this story?
Should it be:
Darkus Skylord- One of two of the remaining Dark Sky Dragons, clocks in with a g power at 400. Is a bit tempermental but she's loyal to her partner to the end.
Darkus Superior – The first mechanical bakugan created early due to circumstances, clocks in with a g-power at 400 gs at the moment while Naga and Michael work to raise it over time through upgrades.
Darkus Wrensa- Skyress's loving cousin who wants to try and stop her cousin from making a terrible mistake. She's sweet and motherly, but doesn't appear very threatening at first glance. She clocks in at 400 gs.
Darkus Leonidas- Will clock in at 400 gs for this story as well
Oserian- Hey let's invite a strange mysterious unknown bakugan to the party and see what she does! Any takers? Clocks in at 400 gs
Or some other darkus bakugan that you would like to see used (ie. Darkus Percival, Darkus Hades, Linehalt, Dharak, etc. (with the exceptions of Razenoid and Infinity Helios, because I said so) ((Also if you haven't noticed his partners would be nerfed to 400 gs and if you suggest bakugan from later season their abilities will be nerfed as well)
Anyways, I'm so glad you stopped by and read this story! Also along with leaving your suggestion for which bakugan Masquerade should have in this story tell me what you'd like to see happen XP
Thanks for reading and reviewing!