Chapter 3
"Hah! You lose again, dweeb!" A large boy said as he picked up his Bakugan from the table in the park. He was looming over a smaller child who looked like he was on the verge of tears, "And that means I get your lunch money again! You'd better bring it, or else! Don't forget you lost!" He crossed his arms, his two equally large friends chuckling behind him.
The kid sniffed, "Okay..." he said weakly. collecting his things.
"You'd better!" the belligerent one said. He then turned around and began walking away from the kid.
"Hey, I can't believe you came up with such a great idea!" One of his friends said.
"Yeah," The player replied, "That kid sucks so bad I can beat him every time!" The three of them laughed.
The small kid who had just lost hung his head low and continued to sniff as tears welled up in his eyes. Sure, he lost alot; he always lost. But he didn't know why. He'd tried a bunch of different strategies, but the bigger kid had better Bakugan and cards and so would always beat him. All the kid could do was sit there, staring at his meager collection.
Kir was on his way home when Rabeeder burst from his pocket without warning.
"This smell..." She said, "It's the smell of Bakugan!"
"You can smell Bakugan?" Kirk asked, "Or, more importantly, you have a nose when you're like that?"
"Of course, silly!" Rabeeder said, "It's coming from over there!" She turned towards the park where the little kid was still sitting, "Come on! Let's go fight him!"
Kirk looked at the kid, looked around, then began to approach.
"Woo-hoo!" Rabeeder said as she followed, "Let's fight!"
"We're not fighting anyone," Kirk said, grabbing Rabeeder. He squished her into ball form and shoved her into his pocket, "You shut up and stay put. I'll handle this." Keeping his hand in his pocket to restrain his 'partner', Kirk walked up and sat down next to the kid, "What happened?" he asked.
"Well...these kids...they...they beat me at Bakugan every day..." He said, being careful to leave out the stolen lunch money part.
"Uh..." he said, "Well, let me see your cards, maybe I can make it better..." The kid said nothing, merely emptying his pockets and setting out a bunch of blue and green bakugan. Kirk looked at his choices of bakugan and cards and felt himself recoil slightly. This kid had made a Ventus/Aquos combination, "Geez, why do you have these two mixed together?" he said, "They're really incompatible." The kid sank his head. Kirk, feeling a little bad, picked up the kid's cards, "But, I think I can make it work..." he said to try to recover himself, "Let's see, we should use cards that involve controlling your opponent's bakugan, like Shun's Launcher here," he said pulling out a card that had been based off of the original brawlers, "Then is we use your Aquos Skyress on its own card and combine it with Flowing Waters..."
This continued for a few minutes of strategizing until finally they'd slapped a deck together. It wasn't pretty, but it was much better than what the kid had before. All throughout this, the kid who seemed so dejected before was feeling more confident; he hadn't thought of a lot of these strategies before.
"Well, there ya go," Kirk said as he slapped the finished deck down onto the table, "This should help you a bit...uh..."
"Jimmy," the kid said.
"Jimmy, right," Kirk said, "Give it a shot, alright?" he said as he turned and walked away. Jimmy grabbed his stuff and started running home; maybe he'd keep his lunch money tomorrow.
Kirk got home and relaxed for a while watching some TV. However not much time passed until his mother returned and sent him out to go grocery shopping. With a grumble, Kirk grabbed his jacket and headed for the nearby supermarket on foot. Soon, he'd done the family shopping and, loaded down with a large paper-bag in each arm, started making the walk back. On the route there was a small alleyway between some restaraunts that he passed by. It was usually harmless enough, but tonight there seemed to be an extra ruckus happening. Kirk first heard what sounded like some guys talking, but there was also the sound of a frightened woman complaining. Kirk peeked down the alley to see what was happening, but it was too dark. Quietly, Kirk walked down the alley to get a better look. There were four guys surrounding a lone girl who was pressed against the wall. One of the guys had drawn a knife.
It was a disgusting event for sure, but Kirk knew he was no hero. He wasn't about to get himself stabbed in a foolish attempt at rescue. Trying to pretend he hadn't seen anything, Kirk took a deep breath and turned to leave when-
"Kirk? Is that you, Kirk?! Help me!" Kirk nearly tripped when he suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from the alley. He turned his head to see that the one against the mall was Stacy. But worse were the four people accosting her. Wearing disheveled clothing, they all had mean, twisted faces covered in young stubble. They also looked quite angry that they were interrupted.
"Stacy?" Kirk asked, "What the heck are you doing in a seedy place like this?" he asked.
"Well..." Stacy said nervously, "These guys said they'd show me a good time and..."
"And you went with them?" Kirk said, "That was an incredibly stupid thing to do."
"Yeah, I do feel pretty dumb about now," Stacy said, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. The entire time this was going on, the four thugs were panning their gazes between the two, hardly believing that such a nonchalant conversation was happening in a situation like this.
"Well, good luck with that," Kirk said as he turned to leave. As heartless as it seemed, it still wasn't his problem.
"Wha?!" Stacy said, "You're not gonna help me?!"
"Heh," the guy with the knife said, grinning, "Looks like you're still alone," He mused. Stacy cringed.
"No, you idiot!" another said, "He's seen us, he's gonna go get the cops, stop him!" The knife-wielder suddenly lost his grin, then turned and dashed at Kirk.
"KIRK!!" Stacy yelled desperately. Kirk turned around just in time to see the man lunge at him. In fear, Kirk whipped one of the grocery bags in front of him. The knife plunged in and left a huge gash, spilling the groceries save for an impaled plastic bottle of ketchup that dribbled on the ground.
"Hmm," the knife-wielder said, licking the ketchup from his weapon menacingly, "I was hoping to use this knife on something more fun, but I guess I'll cover it in your blood, first!"
Stacy screamed as Kirk dodged the second stab.
As hard as it was to believe, Kirk was scared to death. He needed a weapon. Nothing nearby, maybe something in his pocket? Kirk thrust his hand into his coat pocket, felt something hard, and drew it out. However, it was just a gate card.
The thug looked at the card, then laughed uproariously, "What're you gonna do with that, kid?!" he cackled, "Play it in defense mode?!" He then lunged forward again. To Kirk, it seemed like everything had gone into slow motion. The knife, gleaming red, headed towards him. Again it felt like he was out of ideas.
Out of ideas? Then Deja-vu struck him. With a quick glance, Kirk noticed that the Gate card was again Rabeeder's gate card. It was another desperate act, but just as fast as the knife was heading for him, Kirk shut his eyes and whipped up the card.
"Field Open!!" Kirk yelled as the knife came dangerously close. However, he didn't feel the knife plunge in. No pain, no blood, no screaming. Slowly, Kirk opened his eyes. There he was on the battle field, all alone. Stacy wasn't there, the thugs weren't there, and most importantly, the knife wasn't there. Now that he was safe, Kirk felt his legs weaken and collapse. But he knew he wasn't out of the woods, yet. There was still the problem of the thugs. Because time had been stopped outside his dimensional rip, they'd still be waiting for him when he closed it. If the field wore off how would he handle them? He couldn't stay here forever.
Then he remembered the Mercedes from the first time he'd opened the field. It was in exactly the same spot as when he'd left it. Kirk stood up. It was a gamble, but it was the only thing he had left. He took a step to the left and then a step forward, so he would be slightly behind the thug. Kirk brought up his right arm and brought it in front of his face. Taking a deep breath, Kirk swung his arm back.
"Field close!"
"Augh!" The thug said as Kirk's arm slammed into the back of his neck, its force magnified by the sudden acceleration. His plan had worked; His moving in the Field caused him to appear somewhere else! Kirk quickly followed up his move with a punch to the thug's stomach. The knife went skidding down the alley and the thug collapsed from the surprise attack. Stacy and the three other thugs were stunned. To them, it looked like Kirk had moved with superhuman speed.
Kirk looked at his arm. It throbbed a little, but didn't really hurt. He clenched his fist and grinned. Now THIS was power he could use! Suddenly, he wasn't so frightened.
"Wh...what the heck did ya do ya brat?!" One of the thugs roared as he charged at Kirk. Kirk held up the card again and an instant later appeared underneath the thug, performing an uppercut on his stomach with the force of his whole body, accelerated by the time manipulation. With the wind knocked out of him, thug number two collapsed. Before he knew what hit him, thug number three was down with an overhead blow.
"Kirk!" Kirk heard Stacy's voice over his shoulder. He turned around to see the last thug had put her into a headlock to restrain her.
"I... I dunno what kinda freaky thing youre doing, but you'd better stop!" the thug threatened, "You don't want your little friend here getting hurt, do you?" He cupped his hand around the mouth of Stacy as she hopelessly trembled. However, Kirk simply turned and began approaching, "Stop!" The thug said, "Don't come any closer!" However, his voice was wavering thanks to the sight of his friends being left in a heap. Though Kirk had been scared before, he knew the tables had turned in his favor.
Stacy was petrified. There was no way she could escape the grip of such a powerful man. She wanted help but at the same time she wanted Kirk to stop so the thug wouldn't hurt her. Stacy closed her eyes.
"No! What. what're you..." She heard the thug said, but suddenly he stopped. She felt him go limp and loosen his grip on her. She opened her eyes and saw that Kirk had rapidly moved again and taken this thug out with a poetic and forceful Vulcan Neck Pinch. She watched as the thug collapsed to the ground. She felt so weak from fear that she, too, fell to her knees, panting. She knew that the ordeal could have ended much worse.
"You okay?" She heard a comforting voice say. Stacy opened her eyes to see Kirk squatting down to eye level with her, that usual stoic expression meeting her gaze. Suddenly, Stacy lunged forward and embraced Kirk, knocking him over. "Ow!" Kirk said as his rear his the concrete.
"I was so scared!" She sobbed, "Kirk! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"Yeah, yeah," Kirk said, pushing Stacy off, "It's no big deal. Agh, I need to get home or mom will worry," he rubbed the back of his head, turned, and headed back to where his grocery bags were.
At first, Stacy simply sat there and watched. Then, she heard a moan. She looked around to see all of the thugs were groaning in pain from the assault they'd just endured. Though she still felt weak in the knees, the urge to get away struck and she got up and ran after Kirk, "Don't leave me here!" She said.
"Let's just take these..." Kirk said as he picked up one of the bags. However, the tear from the knife was still there and spilled the groceries on the ground. At first, Stacy and Kirk just stood there looking at them.
"Erm... want some help?" Stacy finally said.
"Please..." Kirk sighed.
Soon, they'd scooped up the groceries and were on their way to Kirk's house. It'd been quiet most of the way, with only the sounds of crickets and the occasional passing car, but finally Stacy spoke up.
"Hey, how'd you do that anyway?" She asked.
"Do what?" Kirk asked.
"You know," Stacy replied, and she shifted her upper body back and forth in a rapid fashion to indicate the apparent super speed he'd shown off earlier.
"Eh, it's complicated," Kirk said, not wanting to tell someone his age that he played Bakugan.
"It's okay, you can trust me," Stacy said reassuringly.
"Okay. The truth is I'm Batman and you have to keep my identity a secret, got it?" Kirk replied with blatant sarcasm.
"Yes sir, Mr. Batman!" Stacy said strictly, making a salute and dropping half the groceries she was carrying in the process.
Kirk was shocked. Had she just taken him seriously? Oh well, what harm could it do?
* * * * *
Jimmy had gotten up bright and early that morning and raced to school. He couldn't wait to finally beat those bullies. He found them hanging around near the back of the school away from everybody else.
"Hey!" He said loudly. The three turned to him and grimaced.
"You're early," the one who'd beaten him yesterday said, "So, you're gonna give me that money, right?" He held out his hand.
Jimmy felt a twinge of fear, as the bully was still far larger than him and had beaten him multiple times. But he had a new strategy at his side. "No Way!" he said, clenching his fists, "I'm gonna beat you this time! And if I win, you gotta give me my money back and promise to never take it again?!"
"What?!" The bully yelled, obviously pissed, "Fine, but if you lose, you're gonna give me all your money for the rest of the year AND your bakugan!"
Jimmy hesitated.
"What's wrong?" One of the bullies said, "Ya chicken?!"
"N...No I'm not!" Jimmy finally cried out. And like that the game was on. Thanks to the strategies he'd been shown, Jimmy was doing fairly well, but quickly things turned around and he wasn't doing so well. Though Jimmy had won two gate cards, he'd used all but one of his ability and gate cards and the bully had won one and was about to take another.
"Heh," the bully said, "You may have gotten me those first couple times, but now I'll prove that you'll always be a loser." He reached down to take up the card when Jimmy suddenly spoke up.
"Hold it!" he said. The bully paused, "I just lost with my Aquos Skyress which means I can play my Flowing Waters card! I can discard my last gate card to add it to my won cards for a total of three! I win!" Jimmy yelled. He let those words sink in, and then the feeling of elation. He'd won. He'd actually won. He looked up with a grin at the bully, but it instantly transformed into a look of fear when he saw the horrible expression he was making.
"Don't think you're so tough!' The angry bully yelled, pushing Jmmy onto the concrete, knocking the wind out of him. Soon, the other bullies were upon him, holding him down and stealing the things from his pockets and backpack. Eventually, one of them mentioned that a teacher might come and the three quickly ran away. Tears in his eyes, Jimmy looked around to find his money gone, his school supplies strewn about, and only two of his bakugan and four of his cards left scattered that the bullies didn't have time to grab. Not even enough for a game. Jimmy never felt so helpless; he'd won the game but the bullies had beaten him up and taken his things anyway. Jimmy curled into a ball and cried. Why? Why did nothing ever work out for him? Why was he so weak.
"Well, well," a tough, growling voice suddenly said, "Look at the weak little boy. You gonna cry for your mommy?" It said. Jimmy felt even worse, but also felt a twinge of anger. Still, he ignored the voice and kept his eyes shut, "Hey," the voice said, "You deaf or something?! I'm talkin' to you..." Finally, Jimmy opened his eyes. However, rather than a person before him, there seemed to be another Bakugan, but not one that he'd ever seen before. It was colored blue and green and looked a bit like a Harpus mold, but it's head seemed a bit...odd as if its hair was made of tentacles. But most surprising was the fact that it talked, "Oh, there you are, wimp!" It said.
"Sh...shut up..." Jimmy said, ducking his head back down again, "Don't make fun of me..."
"Awful lot of spirit for a kid who just got beaten up," The bakugan mocked.
"But what am I supposed to do?" Jimmy asked.
"Doncha wanna get back at them?" The voice said, suddenly much closer. Jimmy opened his eyes only to see the tiny Bakugan now sitting on his knee, face-to-face with him. Jimmy jolted back but it continued talking, "You want revenge, right?" it asked as it subtly began to glow.
"Uh... revenge...?" Jimmy asked nervously as he watched.
"Yes," The bakugan replied, "Don't you want to get back at those that hurt you?!" He said forcefully, exerting a brighter glow than ever. Jimmy was drawn in by the light and he felt himself grow more confident. The bakugan had made fun of him before, but it seemed like it wanted to help him. That, and it was green and blue, the same colors as his favorite Bakugan types.
"Yes," Jimmy said as his eyes glazed over, "Yes, I want to get back at them."
The Bakugan chuckled, pleased with its work enthralling the child, "Good," he said, "Let's go, we'll get back at them later."
"Right," Jimmy said obediently. He then reached down to pick up his other bakugan.
"By the way, I never introduced myself," The bakugan said. "Call me Hairadee..."
Author's Notes: Oooh! has a new challenger entered the ring? I admit this chapter was a bit dark, but I'm not the kind of guy to do anything really bad so don't worry. As for my choice of story, I feel that Naga's gatekeepers have just never gotten the love they deserved, not even a sculpt for any of them! It's why this story puts them into the spotlight. I guarantee a dynamic and interesting story, so please keep reading! Toss me a comment if you want.
Join us next time same Bat-time, same Bat-station!
