Bakugan Battle Brawlers belongs to Sega Toys and Spin Masters.

The scene Alex was met with was to be expected, to be honest. Every Bakugan player and their mothers knew about the infamous Shuji, the bully who managed to strike fear into the heart of newbies by sheer presence, yet managed to lose spectacularly to any semi decent brawler. Everyone knew about his amazingly short temper, his loyal parrot of a brother, his wondrous talent for trash talking.

Yes, knowing all of this, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the duo backing Zoe to the edge of the fountain, challenging her to a game she didn't even know how to play, simply because they could. Zoe's face was as pale as she could get, the bully's smug expression meant that he had once again spouted some nonsense about being a Bakugan master, and how the poor girl was now going to receive the beating of a lifetime. And poor little sister, new to the brawling world as she was, probably believed every word, and was now thinking of the thousand things that had led her to this moment, regretting every single one of them.

Yes, the scene Alex was met with was the most predictable outcome of a chance encounter with Shuji.

That didn't make him any less angry, though:

- Didn't you hear me, Shuji? – he hissed – Buzz off, find someone else to bother.

- And what can do to make me? – Shuji challenged- This is between me and the rookie, Abner, get lost!

- Typical Abner, always standing up to the rookies. – Akira commented – Go play the hero somewhere else, and stop butting into another folks' business.

- It's not about playing hero. – Alex started – It's about you having the nerve to pick on my sister.

The comment seemed to catch the duo by surprise, as both were now looking at him as if he grew a second head. Akira was the first one to recover, alternating between glaring at Alex and at his sister:

- Shuji wasn't picking on anyone! – he defended.

- Doesn't seem like it from here. – Alex muttered under his breath.

- And what would you know about that! – Shuji shouted, indignant – She is the one who started it!

- And I'm finishing it. – Alex retorted – Zoe, let's go.

Taking the cue, Zoe rushed to her brother's side, clutching his arm like a lifeline, as the duo of bullies glared, as if personally offended. Alex began to feel guilt wash over him; he really should have expected this fiasco. They turned away from the duo, making their way towards one of the staircases, ignoring the bullies' furious expressions, the previously fresh air of the park now seemed to have become thick from the interaction.

They were almost at the base of the stairs when Shuji's voice cut through the tension:

-Fine, then! – he yelled, clearly anything but fine- Be a coward, see if I care! I should've known you were too scared to face me.

Immediately, Alex stopped. His sister, who had now relaxed her grip on his arm, looked at her brother with a look of exasperation. 'Don't you dare' she mouthed. Her day was already going badly enough, she didn't need her brother flinging himself to a fight just because of the insults of a bully.

Alex, however, didn't seem to share that mentality, turning around and stomping towards Shuji, unaware that Zoe had let go and followed him a few steps behind, looking ready to bolt:

-Excuse me? - he laughed, sarcastic – Us? Scared of you? Did you hit your head or something?

-Am I wrong? - Shuji asked – If you aren't afraid of brawling against me, then what's with the hurry?

-Maybe they want to run away - Akira oh so helpfully added – because they know you would beat them in an instant, bro.

The comment appeared to have been hilarious to some extent, as Alex threw his head back and laughed as if someone told him the funniest joke of the century. At that point, both his sister and the offending duo in front of him shared the same worry that the boy had lost his mind:

-You? Beating someone? At Bakugan? - he wiped a tear from his eye – Please, any player with half a brain could wipe the floor with you.

-What did you say? Wanna test that, punk?! - Shuji yelled

-Sure, why not? - Alex straightened up, laughter still lingering in his voice – I mean, if you're clearly not gonna let us leave if we don't.

-Let the rookie battle. - Akira interjected – Our fight is with her. After all, she is the one who started this mess.

-Again with that? - Alex sighed – All right, then have it your way. Yo, sis, come over here!

Zoe immediately froze like a deer in the headlights, the three boys now looking at her expectantly. All her instincts yelled at her to chuck her pouch at her stupid brother's face, book it and never ever return to that park, or go outside while she was at it. Instead, she hesitantly walked over to the trio, like an animal walking towards slaughter, and placed herself next to her brother, refusing to look at him. She was going to strangle him by the end of this.

Shuji took a step back, placing himself in front of the fuming girl, Akira standing by his side. Alex placed a hand on his sister's shoulder, ignoring the glare she sent him:

-So, is everyone ready? - He asked, oblivious to the tangible animosity hanging over their heads.

The bullies smirk, each taking out a strange card from their respective pockets:

-Prepare lose, rookie. - Shuji taunted

-Funny. - Alex smiled – I was going to tell you the same thing.

Zoe took a deep breath, trying to put her thoughts in order, when she noticed her brother had taken out a card from her pouch, and was now waving it in front of her face. The card was miraculously dry, painted with as much detail as those marbles that came with it. She noted, with a hint of curiosity, that the symbols painted on the card were the same ones that had appeared on the video Alex was watching earlier that morning:

-Don't worry, sis. - Her brother whispered, as if sharing a secret – Shuji's all bark and zero bite, and besides...

He winked at her, taking out his own, intricately colored card:

-I did tell you I would teach you how to play, didn't I?

Zoe gulped dryly, debating whether she should be relieved or not. She decided in merely following whatever her brother instructed. There was nothing she could do anymore, there was no reason to panic.

As if rehearsed, the boys held out their cards at face level, the black face of the card pointed outwards. Hesitantly, Zoe followed, nearly jumping out of her skin when the trio quickly flipped the painted face of the card outwards, shouting at the top of their lungs:

-Field open!

As if by command, the cards started to shine brightly as the air began to whip around the group, surrounding them in a strong and unnatural wind current. Startled, Zoe looked around, surprised to see that the world around them seemed to slowly stop, frozen in time, and stared at the bullies' confident expressions, and her brother's picture of confidence.

Okay, maybe there were some reasons to panic.

Pain shot through her head as the world began to warp onto itself, shifting, changing, morphing in a way that wasn't normal as the light emanating from the cards began to envelop them. Once again, she went through all of her actions that led her to that moment and, once again, regretted every single one of them.

She was definitely going to strangle her brother by the end of this.

The place he found himself in was dark. Not the oppressive dark that emanated from the Doom Dimension, or the powerful darkness, born of rage and despair and sorrow, that kept him living. It was merely an empty kind of dark, the one that comes with the absence of light.

Yes, perhaps that was it. It did make sense, if this were to be the pathway between the land of his birth and Vestroia. Of course, the Bakugan fated to their final moments wouldn't get the luxury of light shining over them on their final passage.

He kept wandering along the emptiness. To where, he wasn't sure. Even his objective of reaching Vestroia was lax at best, only fueled by thoughts of destroy, fight, avenge, survive. If it were not for those lingering thoughts, amalgamations of the Bakugan that gave life to him, he definitely would've stayed at the Doom Dimension, for the darkness there held no effect on him.

He continued to mull over those same musings until something compelled him to stop. Something, somewhere, was changing. It held the same familiarity of Vestroia, ergo, a familiarity only acquired from distant fragments of memories, yet it still compelled him to look further, to look further.

Indeed, it was as if a piece of Vestroia was carefully plucked away from its source, molded in a way so that it wouldn't collapse onto itself. A pocket dimension would have best defined that anomaly. Curious, he approached, surprised with what he found.

Within the dimension, emotions and thoughts swirled and melded together. They were not like the sensations that willed him to life, no. These were vibrant. Expressive and unbound and oh so young. They were like multiple voices shouting over each other, all wanting to make themselves known, and almost immediately his head began to hurt from all of that chaotic chatter.

When he turned to leave, however, something stopped him. Amidst the loud chaos, a shier, timid sensation resonated. It was being drowned by the other emotions, but it was so desperate to be able to reach out to someone, anyone, clearly smothered by its surroundings. Perhaps out of pity, he reached out to the tiny emotion, looking further and muffling the white noise around him.

He was baffled with the sheer intensity that reached him, almost making his physical body recoil. The emotion, tiny as it was, held much more intensity than anything else on that tiny piece of nothing. It was a mix of anger, exasperation, panic, regret and determination. The sensation of wanting to yell and scream at the world for letting these emotions exist, and yet, for some reason, it could not. That small sentiment was so close to what had made him in the first place, it lured him in like the long-awaited beacon that would guide him to his destiny, to his purpose.

Without really thinking, he followed his beacon, closed in and focused on nothing else. The closer he got, the more he noticed that that foreign little thought wasn't fleeting like the others. The emotion wasn't old, per se, but it was definitely cultivated over time and repressed through a lifetime, fighting against rational thought and birthing loneliness as a result. He briefly wondered what sort of creature could cultivate something so destructive, but dismissed the thought as soon as it came, now focused on the light and a world slowly taking shape.

He was Leonidas, and he finally had a path to follow.