Chapter 3: Pawns
Kai and Leonidas had gone home after their fight with Masquerade and reported to Tai about what had occured. Tai promised that he would keep an eye out but since he was only a diplomat there wasn't much he could do unless Masquerade began to attack Digidestined or their partners. Kai's friends had been shocked to hear about the doom dimension and were starting to battle more often as a way to prepare themselves for when they inevitably would be called upon to fight back. Meanwhile an old lesson the Digidestined learned made itself apparent to Kai and the others, school waits for no one.
After moving to Wardington, Kai had begun to attend the local school district and was currently in sixth grade. He always had trouble making friends at school since he received his crest, but ever since the Bakugan had first appeared and he realized that other brawlers weren't going to take his thoughts seriously, he just decided to keep the friends he initially made on the Bakugan website and not really try for anymore, and of course, there were the people he would never even consider being friends with even if they were the last people on Earth.
Kai was currently on the second floor of the school getting class materials from his lockers when a collective sigh from everyone around him alerted him to the arrival of the people he had no respect for whatsoever. Wardington's local Digidestined were a joke, specifically because they acted more like a gang than anything else. They thought no one could touch them because of their status and in a way they were right. About a year before Kai was born, a massive horde of Digimon had invaded Earth under the leadership of a newly revived Myotismon, at first the governments of the world had denied the Digidestined's aid and had even gone as far as arresting them if they tried to interfere with 'matters of global security'.
Naturally, things didn't go well for the soldiers that had been sent to fight an enemy that had them outmatched and outpowered. Once the Digimon had set up shop in South America forming their own foothold around the city of Sao Paulo in Brazil, the governments of the world relented and allowed the Digidestined to step in without interference. The invasion was mopped up and Myotismon was destroyed (again) within a week. In the aftermath, Tai and Davis who both stood as leaders among the Digidestined had negotiated a deal with the UN security council. This deal became known as the digital concordance, in no uncertain terms Digidestined and their partners received full diplomatic immunity and a modest paycheck in exchange for standing as sentinels around the world living ordinary lives until the next threat arrived for them to deal with.
Of course, there are always those who abuse power as Wardington's Digidestined were doing. The goons constantly got away with antagonizing other students and skipping classes as well as other juvenile antics. First there was Damien who was basically a larger Shuji who walked around with a Gekomon that shared his partner's habit for going a whole week without bathing. Then there was Dale who was tall, wiry, and buck toothed he had a Lopmon for a partner that loved swiping the wallets of other students, of course the wallets would be returned, but they would almost always have half of the money inside missing in action. And finally the leader of their group was a girl in Kai's class by the name of Diane, she was actually pretty normal looking except for the fact that she always wore expensive dresses and high heels to show off her paycheck for 'standing on guard', her partner was a Floramon that was basically a walking insult machine that had been known to make the more sensitive students cry just for fun. They called themselves the D-3's, an obvious knockoff that Kai would snort at every time he heard it.
As Kai had predicted, the D-3's were making a beeline for him. Kai never did anything to get in their way, but he was also the only student that they couldn't successfully mess with. When Kai had first been warned of those three he had adopted a personal ignorance policy, basically he neither spoke to them or gave them any response to anything whatsoever and thus they stood at an impasse, they couldn't get a reaction from him while he couldn't do anything to stop them without getting in trouble. That didn't stop the disgraceful trio from trying though.
"What kind of a name is Eclipse anyway?" the Floramon asked with an annoyed tone.
"Maybe he's one of those emo kids and consorts with the darkness" Diane jokes
"Don't you mean goth?" Damien chimed in
"I thought he was a vamp-kid" Dale added
"They're all the same" Floramon began "he's probably constantly depressed because his parents hate him or something like that." Kai had to bite on his lip not to respond to that one, they pushed this button all the time with him but he had been able to endure it before so he carried on with his business pretending like the D-3's didn't exist.
"Maybe he's contemplating the meaningless of life or whatever freaks like him do." Lopmon said causing them all to laugh as the bell signaling the end of the school day was rung. The D-3's along with all of the other students were out and about pretty quickly.
"What complete idiots" Leonidas commented not quite expecting them to be like that from what Kai told him.
"They're not worth our time" Kai replied "Let's go find a battle or two and then head home"
"Sounds good to me." Leonidas nodded, they went outside and had begun walking around. Half an hour later, they were on a bridge overlooking the river that cut around the downtown area when they ran into someone with burnt orange hair and wearing a blue jacket with a beige tank top along with khakis and Vans sneakers.
"Are you Kai Eclipse?" the boy asked, as Kai was about to respond he noticed a launcher on the boy's forearm that looked almost exactly like Masquerade's only with blue on it instead of red.
"Did Masquerade send you?" Kai asked, blatantly ignoring the name request
"I'll take that as a yes" the boy said 'my name is Riki Maru and I'm challenging you to a battle"
"And if I refuse?"
"You won't, unless you want me to find another brawler to use the doom card against." Riki replied bluntly with a smirk
"I thought so" Kai sighed pulling up a gate card prompting Riki to do the same
"Gate card, field open!" they yelled simultaneously causing the battlefield to form and time to stop.
"Gate card, set!" they laid down their cards, Riki quickly set his Doom Card before taking his first turn placing down another gate card before throwing his first Bakugan down.
"Bakugan brawl!" he threw his first Bakugan onto his gate card "Bakugan stand!" the Bakugan was an Aquos Robotallion, Kai was cautious not just because of the Doom Card but also because his skills with battling Aquos Bakugan were pretty rusty since it had some of the fewest users. Deciding to play it safe, Kai set down another gate card before utilizing his Darkus Falconeer which landed on the card he just threw down. To his surprise, Riki just threw down another gate card before sending his Aquos Juggernoid to stand on it. Kai had a feeling something bad would happen if he didn't move to attack.
"Bakugan brawl!" Kai yelled "Bakugan stand!" his Darkus Griffon was ready to take down Juggernoid when Riki made a counter play.
"Ability activate! Aquos Bubble" using the ability card, Riki moved Griffon over to an empty gate card. Kai was momentarily confused when he suddenly realised what Riki was going for causing his eyes to widen in horror.
"Oh no" was all Kai could get out
"What?" Leonidas asked, concerned
"You found me out did you?" Riki laughed "Well, I believe the saying goes: 'too little too late'. Bakugan brawl!" Riki threw down his last Bakugan revealing it to be an Aquos Siege. All Kai and Leonidas could do was watch helplessly as Riki did his worst. "Ability activate!" Riki yelled with a grin, whatever name the ability had was drowned out by the noise of a massive tidal wave washing over the battlefield pulling every single Bakugan on the field into the Doom Dimension except for Siege. Kai and Leonidas gasped, it had gone worst than Kai had feared, he had been expecting an Aquos triple chain attack that simply would've taken out his Bakugan not whatever just happened.
"Why would you throw your own Bakugan away like that?!" Kai exclaimed in rage
"Why wouldn't I get rid of those weaklings?" Riki laughed "with Siege, I have all the power I could ever want."
"You animal!" Leonidas yelled
"Leo, wait we need to plan our next move, we don't know what other tricks he has up his sleeve." Kai cautioned
"No, I'm taking him down now!" Leonidas announced as he rolled up and threw himself onto the same gate card as Aquos Siege.
"Leo!" Kai yelled in worry "Be careful"
"Use the ability card Kai!" Leonidas called as Kai looked at the Bakupod for the first time this battle.
"Siege power level at 350 G's, Leonidas power level at 400 G's" the bakupod reported, Kai looked at Riki Maru and was suspicious of the calm demeanor he presented for someone who was outgunned.
"Kai, what are you waiting for?" Leonidas asked
"Something's not right Leo, we need to be patient before we attack" Kai said
"Forget it, I'll do it myself!" Leonidas bellowed as he activated his own Alpha Blaster ability.
"Wait!" Kai yelled in shock
"Too late!" Riki chuckled "Gate card, open!" before the gate card could take affect, Kai intervened
"Ability card, activate! Dimension 4!" Kai yelled causing the command Card to shut down before it took effect. Leonidas gasped in shock realising that the card Riki had been activating was the Pyrus Command Card which automatically defeats the Bakugan with the highest G-power. Not only had Leonidas ignored his partner's warnings, but he had allowed his anger to lead him right into what would've been certain death if his partner was anyone but Kai.
"Oh no!" Riki yelled, realising that he lost his ace
"Finish it now Leonidas!" Kai ordered which Leo was more than happy to oblige. As the battle ended Riki ran off without a word, leaving the launcher and Doom Card behind. "Leo" Kai began "what were you thinking? You nearly got yourself thrown back into the Doom Dimension."
"I wasn't thinking" Leonidas replied with a solemn tone "I let my anger take over and neglected your advice."
"Well, let's just work on that for next time" Kai said, relieved that his partner was at least okay.
"There won't be a next time Kai" Leonidas said
"What do you mean?" Kai asked with worry
"I'm too reckless, at this rate I'll get us both beaten or worse sucked into the Doom Dimension."
"Leo, it was just a mistake" Kai tried desperately to reassure the Bakugan
"I'm sorry" Leonidas said before throwing himself up into a stream of wind that blew him off of the bridge and into the river.
"Leo!" Kai yelled in horror as he assumed that the current had pulled Leonidas away forever.
Leo and Kai are seperated, but will common ground end the doubts of a regretful Bakugan? Nect time: Ch. 4: Recovery.