Wow, I never had this many favorites and follows on my first chapter before, so thanks guys!
Crystal Memory: I have no idea why you are confused. It wasn't like I explained anything.
The Stranger
Runo Misaki was not having a good day. Alice's plane from Russia was late, which just continued her bad luck train. Earlier, a customer had spilled hot coffee on her, burning her arm. The customer apologized profusely, but Runo was still pain. Then she dropped her cell into the dishwashing sink, so now she had no phone on her.
And when Runo looked up and saw that Alice flight from Moscow had been delayed, she nearly lost it. Why couldn't Alice just her dimensional transporter card from she was Masquerade. But Runo knew Alice wanted nothing to do with her past as Masquerade, who hurt thousands of Bakugan in his quest for power. To be honest, the whole Alice Masquerade spilt personality thing confused Runo, so she tried not think about it.
Runo sat at in the terminal, just staring at the floor and twirling her blue hair. She thought about old times her friends, Tiagerra and Dan. Runo frowned. Her relationship with Daniel Kuso was complicated. They had been going out since after their defeat of Naga. But Daniel disappeared every time the world was in trouble, which was a lot. And he never told her every time! It drove her crazy to find out the reason she couldn't find Dan was that he went to another planet!
But for some reason, they had stuck together. And it seemed now that the Mechtogan were defeated, the Bakugan and other dimensions were at peace, so there would be no more mysterious disappearance. Runo was happy she got to see Dan more often, mostly in Bakugan Interspace though. She did visit him and Julie in Bayview once a month.
Runo still brawled, was even ranked Number Four, right behind Marucho. After defeating Naga's forces and all that happened on New Vestroria, Bakugan Interspace seemed like game of cards. A game of cards that usually got out of hand quickly and all the cards could explode, but still, it was a relaxing way to let off some steam. She didn't have Tiagerra to brawl with anymore, so she got by with the generic clones. Brawling without Tiagerra had always felt empty. Tiagerra was on New Vestroria, enjoying her peace. Runo understood. Even Bakugan got old and Tiagerra was no exception. Runo hoped to find another partner like her, but no such luck yet.
"Runo?" a small voice intruded on Runo's thought. Alice Gehobich was standing over her, holding the handle of her brown flowery suitcase. Alice had changed since Runo last saw her. Her light red hair was cut shoulder length. Alice wore tan jeans, converse shoes, a green tank top and a light yellow jacket. Her bright emerald eyes seemed to bore into Runo, bringing out her thoughts at the tip of her tongue. "What's wrong?"
Runo sighed and rose to her feet. "Oh it's nothing. Come on, let's go."
Alice kept staring, like she didn't believe Runo but she didn't press and followed Runo out of the airport. The pair made their way down to Runo's family restaurant and home and after that headed to the Bakugan Interspace transporter site. The two talked about life in Wardington, life in Moscow, and more importantly, Bakugan Interspace. A day rarely went by were Bakugan wasn't on Runo's mind. As a serious brawler, Bakugan may have been Runo's whole life.
The transporter site for Bakugan Interspace was a dome shaped orange building connected to Marucho's… tower. Marucho's family was so rich, Runo nearly fainted with envy every time she saw the mansion. Even the freaking toilet had a master bedroom sized room to call its own. The transporter building itself was attached to the west wing. Kids and young adults streamed in and out, talking about their recent battles and other brawlers. Runo felt about hundred eyes on her and Alice as they entered the building. She was one of the top ten brawlers and Alice was a pretty famous trainer. Runo tried to rush past them and into the terminals.
As Runo and Alice waited in line for the digital transporter, a kid bumped into her, nearly knocking her into Alice. Runo whipped around to face him.
"Hey! What's your problem, bozo?!" Runo yelled menacingly. Alice grabbed her shoulder, just to remind her to calm down.
The boy was about her age, sixteen, with a curly brown mop for hair, hazel eyes and a mischievous grin. He wore red Rise Against t-shirt and blue jeans. Nothing about the kid said threating, only klutz. The boy scratched the back of his head and grinned. "Sorry about that. Sometimes I trip over my own feet. I'm Sam"
Runo rolled her eyes. "Of course you did."
Alice shook her head lightly and the trio moved along in the line. "I'm Alice and this is Runo." She introduced.
Sam's eyes bulged "As in Runo Misaki, the Haos Brawler?" the guy looked like he was going to faint. Just great, a fan boy. "I guess it's my lucky day. This is only my second time to Bakugan Interspace."
Just then a girl surged forward. She was slightly older than them, same curly brown hair and hazel eyes, except she wore glasses. She wore light green tank top under a blue denim jacket. She grabbed Sam's arm. "And he is a total newb." She extended her hand. "I'm Stella. My brother here is a bit of a klutz in the arena too. I have been trying to teach him, but it's like trying to teach dog how to sit."
Runo and Alice laughed. Sam developed a sudden fascination in his shoes. Stella punched her brother lightly in the arm.
"It's ok, Sam. You'll get better with time." Alice confronted. "If you want, I can show you few things."
"Do you brawl?" Sam asked, his voice nearly cracking under the embarrassment.
Alice shook her head. "No, not since a while ago but I do train brawlers from time to time."
Stella raised her eyebrows. "How come you don't brawl?"
"Because she's a scaredy cat." Runo joked. Alice glared angrily at Runo and Runo shut down immediately. It wasn't that Alice was scared to brawl, but scared of herself. Runo knew Alice still had issues with the Masquerade split personality, and she was afraid of becoming him again. Hydraniod had helped her with that a little, but ever since he left for New Vestroria, Alice had stopped brawling all together. She still helped around some and Runo was grateful for that.
Thankfully before it could get any more awkward, they were next for digital transport. The four of them and two more behind them split off into the chamber. Each one stepped into a white tube lined with wires, LED lights and scanners. As soon as Runo stepped on the soft glowing Plexiglas floor, a clear blue plastic curved wall hissed slowly down, locking them in the tube. The wires and lights started to flash around her and transmitted high frequency codes around her. A laser scanner pulsed to life and a blue light net scanned Runo's entire body.
"Scanning for digital copy." A mechanical monotone voice said over the speaker above her. "Preparing digital transit."
A red light pulsed below and the Digital transit had begun. The tube began to turn Runo's body into lines of code. It felt like ants were crawling all over her body combined with nausea. Runo did her best not to throw up. Last time that happened, well it wasn't pretty and Runo would rather soon forget it.
It was over in three seconds, but the dizziness it gave Runo afterward took some ten minutes to go away. The room didn't change except for the line outside disappeared and was replaced with an open door that led to an inter-dimensional city. The glass door hissed open. "Welcome to Bakugan Interspace. Have a nice day and a good brawl."
Runo stumble out the tube and held in her lunch. "I hate that."
Alice didn't have the same trouble with the digital transit. She stepped out just fine. "You ok, Runo?"
Runo shook her head. "Yeah, yeah, just fine. Come on, Julie should be…"
Runo never got the chance to finish her sentence. "RUNO! ALICE! YOU'RE LATE!"
If there was one thing the Julie Makimoto hated more than losing was tardiness. If you were late by a second, she threw a fit. Runo pitied her boyfriend, Billie, who was the king of lateness.
Julie coming running up from the city center and meet up with the two other girls. This time she seemed more in a rush, like there was something important to show them. Julie grabbed the girls and led them to Bakugan City. Bakugan City was a circular small town lined with cafés, restaurants and gazebos that served as the main hang out area for all the brawlers. Above them hung multiple digital screens that showed current rankings, brawls and messages. The twelve brawling arenas lined the outside of Bakugan City like the numbers on a clock.
Julie immediately pulled Alice and Runo one of the many billboard screens that served as a posting site for other brawlers to leave messages on. Of course it was digitized and sorted through the many posts, showing only the messages brawlers closest to it. As soon as Runo got close to it, she saw a few dozen messages for her pop up on the screen. Many were from other brawlers, looking for a challenge, another was from Dan, saying he couldn't reach her cell phone so he wanted to meet at the Venti Café after his last brawl today, another showed her ranking and next schedule tournament brawl but one caught her eye immediately. It was bolder than the rest, and marked as important.
Then Runo noticed Julie had a similar message, as well did Alice, which was odd since Alice doesn't brawl. Runo read the message out loud.
"Dear Ms. Runo,
I have heard of your many endeavors with the Bakugan Haos Blade Tiagerra, including becoming a Soldier of Haos. I would like to challenge you to brawl, just to test your abilities. Hopefully you can overcome my challenges, but we shall see. Meet me at Arena 4 when you are ready.
Signed,
The Issermian Crafter."
"What you got one too? Both of you?" Julie replied, shocked. "I wanted show you this creepy challenge left by this guy, but apparently he challenged you guys too."
Runo looked over at Julie's and Alice's messages. They said the same thing, naming their Bakugans, Gorem and Hydraniod, as well as calling them Soldiers of Sub Terra and Darkus. A chill went down Runo's spine, like a killer creepy snowman was breathing down her neck.
"The Issermian Crafter." Alice tried to connect something with the name. "I never heard of him before. I wonder who he is."
Runo typed in the name to her Bakupod. A holographic image popped up on the screen as well as his stats. It was only a facial profile, and wasn't much of one. The face was covered and darkened by a gray hood. The Stats showed that he only joined Bakugan Interspace two days ago, and hadn't chosen a specific attribute yet. What really surprised Runo was that out of thousands of brawlers, he was rank sixty three and climbing fast. His battle reports showed thirteen wins and no losses. Just looking at the stats, Runo felt unnerved, like this guy was mentally influencing her to crawl in a hole and hide.
"He looks pretty good, but he doesn't show his face. And every time we meet someone in a mask, it's been only trouble for us." Runo concluded. Alice looked slightly shocked and Runo mentally kicked herself for bring that up.
"Says he was about brawl in Arena Nine." Alice said, looking at the schedule. "He's facing Chan."
Runo frowned. She knew Chan Lee from back in the days she was the number third top brawler in the world and also servant of Naga. These days she was less evil, but no tougher an opponent. "Come on." She said. "Let's see how good this Crafter is."
Arena Nine was packed as brawlers moved back in forth from the concession stands to their friends. But Runo spotted Dan, Shun and Jake in the front pretty easily. Dan immediately noticed when Runo and the others were heading towards him.
"Runo!" he called out. He got up hugged his girlfriend. The other exchanged greetings, while Alice and Shun awkwardly avoided each other.
Runo sat down next to her boyfriend. "Hey, sorry about not answering your texts. I dropped my phone in the sink."
Dan laughed. "That's OK, my Brawl is only a few more after this one, so we could head to the Venti early."
Runo smiled. "Sure, but I want to see this guy brawl first."
Shun nodded. "He's good and undefeated. Apparently everyone wants to brawl him these days but he brawls with people he personally challenges."
"Yeah, I'm losing my street cred to this guy." Dan joked.
Drago jumped up on Dan's shoulder from his pocket and opened up. "Don't worry. Dan. I'm pretty sure our street cred is fine."
Dan laughed "Thanks, buddy."
"Hey, did this guy challenge Shun and you too, Dan?" Julie asked.
Dan glanced back at her, confused. "No, why? Did he challenge yall?"
Runo nodded. "Me, Julie and Alice. Even talked about how the Six Soldiers had chosen us to defeat Naga."
Shun shook his head. "That's weird. I wonder…" Shun trailed off, in deep thought.
Just then Marucho appeared out of nowhere, burdened with food. "Hey girls, what's up?" he said, trying not to topple the mountain of snacks in his arm. Jake rose up and relieved him of half his pile.
"Thanks Jake." Marucho said before taking a seat on the other side of Runo. "Hey, the brawl is about to start."
Just as Marucho said it, two circular platforms exited from the stands and floated towards opposite sides of the Arena. On one stood a young Asian girl with jet black with a single red highlight covering her left eye, wearing a simple red long-sleeved shirt and pants. On the other, someone wearing a plain grey hood with dark grey jeans waited patiently for the brawl to begin. So that was the Issermian Crafter. He didn't look like much but for some reason, Runo still felt Goosebumps just looking at him.
"ARE YOU READY BRAWLLLEEERRRRRSSS?!" A loud male announcer voice echoed across the stands, sending off a wave of cheers. "BECAUSE GET READY FOR THE MATCH UP OF THE CENTURY! IN ONE CORNER, WE HAVE THE FAMOUS PYRUS BRAWLER, CHAAANN LLEEEEE!" Chan waved for the cheering crowd. "AND IN THE OTHER, WE HAVE THE MYSTERIOUS NEWCOMER, YET UNDEFEATED, THE ISSSERMIAN CRAFTTEERRR!" A respectful cheer rose into the air. "GET READY, BRAWLERS AND GOOD LUCK! BAKUGAN! BRAWL!"
Chan went first and threw down her gate card. "Gate Card Set!" she yelled. Jumping back into the air with martial artist ease, Chan threw down her Bakugan. "Bakugan Brawl! Pyrus Quillus, Stand!"
A circle of fire erupted in the middle of the Arena, and a Pyrus Bakugan growled menacingly as it rose from the flames. Quillus was nothing but a moving four legged ball of sharp pointed bronze spikes the size of telephone poles. You could barely see his growling hedgehog like face under all the deadly spines. Quillus's tail was long and just as spiky as his body.
The Crafter was apparently not impressed. With quick, over hand throw, his Bakugan sailed into the arena. "Bakugan Brawl! Rise Pyrus Arsonneer!"
As Quillus had entered the Arena in a ball of flames, Arsonneer exploded in to the arena. As soon as he had opened, a ginormous fireball rocked the Arena, sending off a heat wave. Arsonneer flew out of the explosion like he was Superman, one fist in front, the other curled at his chest. He quickly flipped in the air and landed on his feet. Arsonneer resembled the evil version of a firefighter. He wore a heavy bright red trench coat over gleaming red armor. His face was covered by a black firefighter's helmet and a rat face like gas mask. Dark smoke bellowed out the breathing end of the gas mask. The Pyrus insignia blazed on his jacket chest pocket, sleeves and helmet. On his back, he wore two tanks that connected to metal hose in his right hand that suspiciously looked like a flame thrower. Arsonneer must of have been made of fire because behind the visor you could only a raging inferno.
On the overhead battle screen, Arsonneer's and Quillus's Gs flashed under their ball form avatars. Arsonneer had 500 Gs and Quillus was under by a hundred Gs.
"Hey!" Marucho shouted, checking an alert on a hovering holographic screen. "That Bakugan doesn't exist in our network!"
Runo's gut fell through the floor. This was getting more and more mysterious by the moment, and Runo hated it. Last time anyone showed up with new and mysterious Bakugan, it was the beginning of the whole Mag Mel thing.
If Chan was fazed by it, she didn't show it. An ability card flipped into her hand. "Impressive, but not good enough. Ability Card! Vesuvius Destroyer!"
On the screen, Quillus's Gs went up by 200. In the arena, Quillus's eyes glowed bright violent red and arched his back. A volley of fiery long spikes rocketed out of Quillus's back. The fiery spines erupted around Arsonneer, blanketing him in a raging inferno.
The Crafter calmly showed an ability card. "Ability Card Activate! Gamera Booster."
The sea of flames around Arsonneer swirled into his flamethrower like a vacuum. Quillus's Gs reset to four hundred Gs while Arsonneer's went up by two hundred. A soft glowing orange light pulsed at the end of the flamethrower. Arsonneer aimed his flamethrower at Quillus and fired a stream of hot flames. Quillus braced himself as the flames scorched him.
Chan smiled "That won't work. Ability Activate! Spiral Runner!" Quillus's Gs matched Arsonneer's and Quillus rolled into a ball. Quillus rolled so fast, that his spines blended into a bronze blur and Quillus flew after Arsonneer. Arsonneer jumped into the air, like he was scared, and ran around the arena, trying to avoid the spinning ball of death. Runo couldn't help but laugh at the scene. Others in the arena laughed as well.
The Crafter laughed, a sound more grandfatherly than evil, which was what Runo was expecting. "Amusing."
Chan flipped out a second ability card. "If you think that was funny, then you well get a kick out of this. Ability Card Activate! Orbital Meteor!"
Quillus's Gs went up by another two hundred, putting him at nine hundred. Quillus himself launched fifty feet into the air and stalled mid-air before coming down at Meteor speeds. Flames streaked around Quillus like he was coming out of orbit.
The Crafter laughed again. "Very good. You could have beaten me with that move if I was any younger." The Crafter held up two cards. "Double Ability Activate! Fahrenheit Gear and Volcanic Avatar!"
Arsonneer suddenly glowed bright red and spread his arms, like he was waiting for Quillus's impact. When Quillus struck down, it was like watching a nuclear explosion. Both Quillus and Arsonneer disappeared in a sea of flames. Runo had to shield her eyes from the blast light.
The audience and the two brawlers waited in anticipation as the flames stared to die down. On Chan's end, the copper quills poked out over the flames. Chan sighed in relief. In the middle of the inferno, a glowing ruby colored energy from pulsed; inside you can see the black outline of Arsonneer. Arsonneer was still in the game.
Runo checked to screen. Arsonneer was up to eleven hundred G's and Quillus had lost three hundred Gs. How was that even possible?
Then the energy form in the middle rose into a red giant of fire, Arsonneer in the center of its chest, like he was the heart of this monster.
This time Chan looked shocked. "What the? How?" Runo was surprised too. She had never seen an ability cards like that in all of her years of brawling. The others looked stunned as well, too stunned to talk. Marucho furiously searched his database for any of the abilities the Issermian Crafter had used. Runo guessed he was coming up empty.
The Crafter himself shrugged. "Fahrenheit Gear nullifies any current activate ability and Volcanic Avatar, well, boosts Arsonneer by five hundred Gs." He explained. He then whipped out put a new ability card. "And this is the end. Ability Activate! Solace Storm Head!"
Arsonneer's giant avatar form's chest started to glow bright yellow. Soon it was brighter than the sun itself. Arsonneer covered his chest with his arms as the energy built up. Three hundred G's added to Arsonneer's already high power, combining it at fourteen hundred.
Chan shot her hand out, a desperate look in her eyes. "Gate Card, open! Pyrus Reactor!"
Flames shot out the ground like geysers, boosting up Quillus's power to eleven hundred, but some reason it boosted Arsonneer's power too. The Crafter laughed again, which was starting to get creepy. "Foolish move. Solace Storm Head feeds off of any Pyrus boost you can give your Bakugan. There is nothing you can do. FIRE, ARSONNEER!"
Arsonneer spread his arms and a beam brighter than any flood blasted Quillus. Runo shielded her eyes from the blast. Everyone else was blinded as well except for the Crafter. The beam lasted only a few seconds but the effect was devastating. Quillus was frozen for a second, the ends of spines scorched black. Then both Bakugan glowed red and flew back to their owners. The Crafter caught Arsonneer in his hand while Quillus clanked against the floor next to Chan.
Above screen, Chan's life went to zero immediately.
Everyone was too shocked to move, or even speak. Every just gazed at the Arena, mouths hung wide open. The Crafter shrugged. Then he looked straight at Runo.
As soon as he turned Runo's way, a strange feeling washed over her. Her body temperature dropped several degrees, Goosebumps popping on her arm. Her stomach sank to the floor. Who are you, Runo asked mentally. Then a voice popped into her head, like a whisper. The question is; who are you really? Fear twisted in Runo's gut. He… he just… he spoke to her mentally! Runo was too stunned to move.
Then the Crafter disappeared, like he was never there to begin with.
Dan was the first to speak up. "He… He wiped all of Chan's life force in one turn! There wasn't even a chance for a second battle!"
"Oh man, that was totally brutal." Jake replied, his eyes wide with disbelief.
Marucho was busy scanning his archives. "His Bakugan, Abilities, they're not part of our system. They haven't even been seen before today!"
Shun shook his head, a fierce glare in his eyes. "And he used a teleportation inside of Bakugan Interspace. Only we have access to that. Whoever this Crafter is, we have to find him fast, before this gets out of hand."
Why did Runo get the feeling that she wouldn't like it when they did?
Next Chapter: Welcome to the Masquerade Brawl