Bakugan: Still Standing

Pandemonium

Fabia Sheen had come to Interspace on the day of the Subterra Tournament to watch, and to register for the Haos Tournament afterwards as well as catch up with Dan and the others. She had come not a day sooner, and was thus surprised when Ren and some others had filled her in on the mysteries of what was happening.

She wished she had come sooner, so she could have observed all of the tournaments. Maybe then she could have figured out who the mysterious six Masked Brawlers were.

Now, it was too late. It had been the semi-final battle between Ren and the Darkus Masked Brawler, Strength, when they made their move. Strength had his partner feign an attack at Linehalt, Ren's partner, only to have it target Ren directly, something that was not allowed. It had knocked Ren out cold, and strange black markings stained his skin.

With a flick of his wrist, Strength's partner had caused all of the Brawlers of the Darkus attribute in the stands to fall unconscious with matching black markings, only a few were left standing, in the back.

That was when the pandemonium truly began.

The first thing they heard either Strength or Speed say, ever, was when Strength let out a chilling maniacal laugh after Ren fell unconscious. That laugh was a cue of sorts: glowing violet markings appeared on Strength's body; people in the stands began to panic; and all five of the other Masked Brawlers appeared with glowing markings in their attribute color. Upon their appearance, everyone in the stands that had suffered from the illness had fallen unconscious just as Ren had.

While this was already the majority, excluding the Haos brawlers, Speed, the Pyrus Masked Brawler, and the Aquos Masked Brawler still tore through the stands, tracking down anyone of their attribute that was untouched and marring them with horrible black markings just like everyone else that was already unconscious. They did this with a single touch, Fabia assumed this was because of their glowing markings.

They did this quickly, done withing seconds. But, Fabia, having been trained, watched them closely. She took note of their technique, and knew that Speed and the Pyrus Masked Brawler must have been trained in martial arts. They were extremely skilled.

The Aquos Masked Brawler was not as stealthy or fast as Speed or the Pyrus Masked Brawler, but carried about with an elegance that seemed to be unmatched. Fabia knew that he must have been some sort of aristocrat, or at least of an upper class of some sort.

The Subterra and Haos Masked Brawlers just wordlessly joined the Darkus Masked Brawler in the center of the arena, and, to the survivors' surprise, began arguing. While they spoke too soft for most people to hear, they were standing closest to the Haos-Darkus stands. Thus, Fabia, sitting rather close to the front, could hear what they were saying.

This was the only clue that they got of their identities of these three, and it was all the clues that they needed.

The purple-haired Haos Brawler sitting next to her, who Dan had introduced to her as Baron, was shaking the arm of another Haos Brawler with light blue pigtails, who Dan had introduced to her as Runo, and saying frantically in a hushed tone upon hearing Strength speak, "Master Runo, Master Runo, that sounded like Ace! Why would he be down there? Is this why he disappeared?" Baron nearly exploded with panic as he exclaimed in a louder voice, "What is going on?!"

Runo looked around, just as panicked as Baron was, but expressed it with an anger as she exclaimed while slapping Baron's hands away from her arm, "I don't know!" Fabia saw her eyes flicker to the Pyrus-Subterra stands, where Dan was unconscious, before the pigtailed girl added in a cautious hushed tone, "But, I think that Subterra Masked Brawler sounds kind of like Jewls, from JJ Dolls."

A boy with caramel-colored messy brown hair sitting behind Runo, who Dan introduced to her as Joe, replied, "Jewls? No way! She's a pop idol, why would she want to hurt people like this?"

"Neither would Ace," Baron added with a firm, serious resolve.

There were footsteps, and Runo exclaimed, "Hey, Alice is okay!" As the spotted the other Darkus brawlers who had actually made it to the tournament run up.

Baron looked over and added, "Keith is okay, too." Fabia looked over as well, and noticed that both Spectra and Alice were carrying the other participants, who were also unconscious with black markings. Baron clenched his fists as he added, "But the others are not."

Their attention was brought back to the Masked Brawlers as they heard Speed, the Pyrus Masked Brawler, and the Aquos Masked Brawler join the others in the center. All it took was a mere raise of Speed's hand, and they all silenced.

But it was too late, the four of them had already heard the voices of some of them and drawn up subsequent conclusions. Or at least Fabia had, having observed the Masked Brawlers and listened to as much as she could while the others were talking.

Fabia then spoke in a hushed tone to the other three, drawing their attention, "You know, the Haos Masked Brawler sounded kind of like Zenet, and I know she's turned over a new leaf." There was a brief pause before Fabia added, "And did you hear what they were arguing about? I didn't catch everything, but it definitely sounded like they were interrogating her on why all of us Haos brawlers are still conscious, and she was actually saying that she would try and infect us."

Rafe, who Fabia knew to be a Neathian Haos brawler, spoke up then from behind Fabia, "Is she brainwashed?"

Fabia replied solemnly in a completely serious tone of voice, "No, I think they're infected, all six of them."

Baron was completely confused as he replied, "But how? I mean-"

A female Haos brawler who Fabia recognized as Soon from the tournament replied, "Well, you see the tattoos don't you? The only difference between theirs and the ones of the infected are that theirs are glowing. No doubt they've got a stronger variation and are spreading a lesser strain around to the rest of us."

That silenced all of them, as a new understanding of the situation dawned on them. Fabia's eyes drifted over to Speed, and she couldn't help but associate him with Shun. Runo and Baron exchanged a glance and looked over at the Aquos Masked Brawler, finding his mannerisms vaguely similar to that of a young entrepreneur that they knew. Joe noticed the martial arts skill of the Pyrus Masked Brawler just as Fabia had, and his heart clenched as he realized just who he hadn't seen all day.

There was still so much that they didn't know, though.

If the six were infecting everyone else, then who infected the six?

What was their plan? What was this disease even for?

They needed to find out more. Fabia watched as Mira discretely left the stands; as Jenny approached the Subterra Masked Brawler in the center of the arena; as Spectra and Volt separately challenged the Masked Brawlers as well; as Nene jumped down from the Ventus stands only to have Alice intervene and prevent her from harm.

They were all looking to know more about the situation, too.

It was Runo, however, that anxiously asked the question on all of their minds in particular, "But then, why are all of us Haos brawlers still conscious? The other attributes barely have anyone surviving."

Fabia then gravely replied without hesitation, "Someone must be protecting us."