Narrator pow:
"So, did you check the battle income already?" Soldier asked as he rolled over the dining table to Mako.
"Mhm, we are good for two months. Quite a lot for a mere quarter-final if you ask me." She responded, moving her head up from loosely cooked spaghetti. "But I'll sent half of it to Grandma."
"I assume you are confident about your chances in semi-final?" Soldier asked her, taking her decision with acceptance.
"Mhm, I would still like to use an ocassion and play a game here and there to see what spare change can I add up." Mako added before taking another bite into her meal.
"Well then, I hope you use me in a different way than by Market Garden." Soldier responded. "I mean, I know this card is strong and all, but I have much more to show up out there."
"I know, that's another reason I want to play more matches." Mako said. "Testing more tactics and lowering my reliance on one move will help me in case my first plan won't work."
"Right, the two boys back there had us in a pinch at least two times..." Soldier nodded with forced admittation.
"Hey now, no need to stress out." Mako cheered him up. "Say, after I eat and make the money transfer to Grandma, we go and battle someone to test other approaches. You're in?"
"Oh yes I am!"
"Well, Miss Rukuriri." Darjeeling said, putting down her tea cup as the two had a conversation in one of the many plenary roons Saint Gloriana had to offer for their students. All of it, of course, designed with Victorian-era dining room in mind. "May I ask you about the time you and Nilgiri had during the... Short time spent in Oarai Academy?" She asked, sitting at the end of the round, wooden table.
"Well..." Rukuriri began akwardly, sitted on the opposite end. "Our time there, from my perspective, was..." She paused, taking a while to take the right words. "... Mixed."
"Can't blame you for the negativity." Darjeeling closed her eyes, taking a modest glare to ease the nervous atmosphere. "After all, Nilgiri did in fact told me about the majority of the facts earlier."
"... Right."
"Now, do you want to tell me about your experience, again?" St. Gloriana commander asked again, opening eyes to give her a warm look.
"... Nilgiri's temporar role change from tank commander to driver went suprisingly well." Rukuriri began, pausing for a while to deduct Darjeeling's reaction. "Her driving skills were shown to be suprisingly good, in words of Yukari, around those of Mako."
"Hmm..." Darjeeling hummed for a while before taking another sip from the tea cup. "And you?"
"... Below accepted." Rukuriri pouted, lowering her head down to blandly stare at her reflexion in the tea.
"Oh." Her commander let out a small gasp. "How come?"
"My performance as the commander of Oarai's Mallard Team was below expectations." Rukuriri responded, rising her head up to look at Darjeeling with embarrassed face. "All three of us couldn't make a team chemistry as I was unable to accept their passionate hate of Mako related to their actual commander..."
"Hmm... Darjeeling rubbed her chin, thinking of the right answer. "I admit my mistake then."
"Huh?" Rukuriri gasped, almost falling off her chair. "What?"
"My thought with sending you and and Nilgiri to Oarai was mostly to give you an ocassion to gain experience in less stressful enviroment, without Gloriana's expectations and tactical thought." Darjeeling explained, making Ruku even more suprised. "Now, usually I would give you a good old English proverb. But given the seriousness of the situation, I will grant you something easier to understand... Admiting failure is never wrong. And even if someone tells you otherwise, then not by me."
"E-Eee... Tank you, Commander?" Rukuriri responded with suprised face, unsure how to react.
"Now, I suppose you are not willing to practise Sensha-do for at least some time?"
"O-Of course not, I can still continue! Saint Gloriana isn't like Oarai after all." Rukuriri responded hastly.
"I didn't meant to have you obey orders now." Darjeeling responded in cultural manner. "I meant, are you willing. Not, if you are willing under my order."
"Then I have to say... No." Ruku sighed, leaning backwards to rest her back at the chair.
"Easier said than done, I presume." Darjeeling nodded patiently. "Don't worry about leaving our Sensha-do team. There are always many first year students full of enthusiasm, just like you on the first day. Your well being is more important right now. You may even find a new passion or other thing to do in your free time, who knows?" She continued, then taking a long sip from the cup. "And judging by the level of my cup, the meeting time is over. You can go now."
"Thank you, Commander-"
"It's Darjeeling now, my dear. If you have to be respectful, say Lady Darjeeling from now on."
"O-Of course, Lady Darjeeling..." Rukuriri nodded before standing up from her chair and walking out of the room.
"..." Darjeeling didn't say anything, instead mitigating her own thoughts as beautiful girl with blonde hair and black ribbon tied in it walked into her room, taking out a small black folder from undeneath her St. Gloriana school uniform.
"I see she barely touched the tea." The girl commented, barely even looking towards it. "Pekoe won't be exacly satisfied."
"Try to satisfy everyone, and you will satisfy no one, Assam." Darjeeling responded with gentle tone, looking up to face her colleauge. "I assume you bring something important?"
"Depends on your view." Assam responded as she placed the folder in front of her before turning around and heading back to close the doors.
"Hmm... Out of this world?" Darjeeling asked, already reading the first pages of what seemed to be a report.
"Literally." Assam added, her light purple eyes nearly pulsing with anticipation. "GI6 could investigate it further, but only after your approval. Human personel and resources are too limited to sustain both this project and daily operations."
"... Permisssion granted, then." Darjeeling responded, closing the thing without even reading second half of it. "And I believe I have just a perfect candidate for our agent."
"Oh." Assam let out a suprised gasp. "May I hear of her?"
"Indeed." Darjeeling nodded, her light blue eyes suddenly gaining a cool shine. "I do even believe I can ask someone for help with supplies..." She added, suddenly taking out her phone and going down her contact list. "I never understood why he collected them for display, but now I realise it was cultural matter all along..." She said with sentimental tone as her fingers stopped at the title card nicknamed 'Klaus von Hertzon'. "Now, I'm sure he didn't change since our last meeting. So he should accept my request."
"Hmm, this looks like the place." Mako said to herself, walking up to Arena 29, another one of many, many place where bakugan brawls were meant to take place.
"Let's see if there's a maggot to kick." Soldier commented, looking around the place from her shoulder. "O! There he is!" He added, jumping up and down as their attention was caught by a small boy with spiky, reddish brown hair that was dressed in green shirt, ale white baseball cap put backwards on his head, short grey pants and a pair of sneakers.
"Huh, you want something?" The boy asked, noticing their intrest.
"Yeah, a quick battle." Soldier said with up-forward tone as Mako walked up to him.
"Maaan, Shuji is soo not gonna believe this!" Boy snickered before taking a Subterra bakugan from his pocket and showing it fight in their faces. "I, Akira, accept your challenge!"
"Then let's get inside and do it quickly." Mako said with lifeless voice, casually walking past him. "People here are really, really weird now. Even the actual kids."
"So Oarai has already reserved a camp for themselves. Intresting." Young male voice said, echoing across the vibrantly decorated halls as the no longer young post messenger walked over the red carpet into the wide, mostly not-arranged office.
"Mister Klaus, a private messeage." The man said, taking out a latter from his hand and extending the card forward while lovering his head down.
"Well thank you, Treu." Young, athleticly built man with long blue hair and blue-ish green eyes responded, walking from the opposite end of the room dressed in a deep blue business suit. "Now, leave me alone. Please." He added, gently taking the letter from the gloved hand.
"Of course, Mister." Messenger nodded, quickly leaving the scene and closing the doors behind himself.
"What is it today, Master Klaus?" A polite, possibly even noble tone asked him from further part of the room.
"It remains to be seen, Sirenoid." Young man responded, turning around and walking back with the letter on hand back to the office desk with a fisch bowl on it's side. "But I am mostly positive about it. No small thing could disrupt me from you." He added with a smile, keeping his eyes on a small, blue bakugan that freely swmmed between two parts of sinked wooden vessel. A common, yet elegant addition to aquariums.
"I know so." The bakugan, swimming in it's open ball form that resembled a siren, nodded before Klaus sat down and slowly opened the letter.
"Hmm... Darjeeling?"
"Something's wrong, Master Klaus?"
"No. It's an opposite, Sirenoid." Klaus responded, showing his bakugan the full letter. "An old friend of mine needs help. And it's one that we can safely give her." He added before standing up from the chair. "Now, may I ask you to come with me and select the right gifts from the collection?"
"But of course, Master Klaus." Sirenoid nodded, coming out of the water and hovering to his side before the two walked to the left side of the room and walked throu a double door into another section. One filled with various pillars that had red cushions, bakugans of all sorts on them and square glass covers on top of them.
A collection.
"Gate card, set!" Mako and Akira shouted as they threw their gate cards against eachother in a straight line. First expanding with yellow light and second with orange one.
"Want to go first?" Small boy asked.
"... Sure." Mako nodded, taking a pick from her small, tall grey canister attached to the pants. "Bakugan brawl, Haos Serpenoid stand." She added, tossing the choice over to her own gate card, where it turned into it's real form.
"Ooo, a snake! How threatning" Akira commented, looking at the hissing opponent while taking his own pick. "Now, let's see what you do about this! Bakugan brawl!" He shouted, throwing his own option pass Serpenoid. "Subterra Manion stand!" He shouted as the ball stalled on his gate card and shifted into a four-legged beast with wings and pharaoh mask-shaped as the face, giving a close resemblance to some sort of uparmored Sphinx.
"Hmm..." Mako hummed, looking onto her phone for a data check. "He has Three-hundred g's. You want to come in?" She asked, turning left to face Soldier.
"Get me in! I want to kick some ass!" Bakugan responded as Mako grabbed him into her hand.
"Alright then, bakugan brawl!" She nodded, before throwing him forward with traditional out there signal. "Haos Soldier stand!"
"We live in a World of Beauty! Hahahahaha!" Soldier laughed, standing up with a solid posture against Manion.
Soldier - 300g. Manion - 300g
"Nice try! Gate card open!" Akira cried out, moving his hand away as the battlefield turned into illusionary savanna.
Manion - 300g = 340g
"Ha, now you're gonna waste an ability-!"
"Ability card activate, Rocket Launcher." Mako cut him mid-sentence as Soldier pulled out a cartoon-looking weapon and aimed it at Manion.
"You're screwed up now!" He added with laugh before firing a rocket directly into Manion's face.
Manion - 340g = 290g
"Whoa..." Akira gasped, starring as from the blast cloud emerged small brown ball, which bounced and tumbled back under his legs.
Akira - 2/3
"That about settles this one." Mako commented, catching the returning Soldier as gate card naturalny disappeared and battlefield returned to clear, white normal skin. "Ready for more?"
"You ask for it!" Akira shouted, taking his second bakugan. "Let's go Saurus! Bakugan brawl!" He added, throwing the marble to Serpenoid where it stopped and turned into familar already for Mako posture of humanoidal rhino.
Serpenoid - 290g. Saurus - 310g
"Fine for me." Mako commented, throwing a second gate card to where Akira's original one stood earlier.
"Won't we try to help Serpenoid?" Soldier asked, looking forward at their white snake akwardly evading punches from Saurus.
"We will, gate card open!" Mako responded, moving her left arm down as the command gate card texture revealed itself. "Level up." She added as Serpenoid suddenly headbutted Saurus's punch away.
Serpenoid - 290g = 390g
"Ooohhh, one hundered points for every own bakugan below three hundered." Soldier nodded, before a sudden flash of light made him look back onto the battlefield. "Why did you throw Falconeer on the second gate card?"
"Tactics." Mako responded calmly while Akira turned his ability card around.
"Ability card activate, Attractor!" Small boy shouted as Subterra Centipoid escaped from his container and joined on Manion's side.
(Saurus - 310g, Centipoid - 320g) - 630g
"Yup, Serpenoid's lost. You didn't bring Lightning Tornado." Soldier nodded as he observed combination of pincers and claws dumping Serpenoid into the ball form that rolled under Mako's legs.
Mako - 2/3
"Hah, how's it feel?" Akira taunted, catching his both returning bakugan in hand.
"Fine, actually." Mako answered, throwing a gate card to the right of her last remaining one. "Soldier, it's your turn." She added, turning to the right towards her floating companion.
"Okay." Soldier said shortly, closing himself into a ball as Mako grabbed him into her hand.
"Bakugan brawl, Soldier stand!"
"We lost the battle, but we will win the war!" Soldier shouted as he rised on his gate card with sinister grin.
"Says one with lower power!" Akira responded, taking one of his bakugan and throwing it forward. "Bakugan brawl! Saurus stand!" He added as the horned creature rised up and faced off against Soldier.
Soldier - 300g. Saurus - 310g
"And ability card activate, Saurus Shine!" Akira added, flipping an ability in his hands as the bakugan began glowing brown. "Now the battle is all mine!"
Saurus - 310g = 360g
"Wouldn't say so." Mako shaked her head before taking out a card on her own. "Ability card activate! Liberty Launcher." She continued as Soldier suddenly took a green, light rocket launcher out of nowhere and aimed it at Saurus. "This ability card makes Soldier take fiveteen g's from his opponents for every bakugan I have in the field."
Saurus - 360g = 260g
"So that's why you threw Falconeer first!" Soldier chuckled before turning back to Saurus. "Now die." He added hastly, firing two quick rockets that send Saurus flying low above the ground.
"What?!" Akira shouted, seeing his bakugan turn into the ball and fly behind his back. "I-Impossible!"
Akira - 1/3
"Possible, possible." Soldier teased him before himself returning to Mako.
"Now then." Mako said. "Ready to end this?" She asked with freezing glare as Falconeer looked down onto the baffled child.
"E-Erm, sure!" Akira responded, slightly stuttering as he pulled out his last option. "Bakugan brawl! Subterra Centipoid stand!" He shouted as his brown bug bakugan rised up with ferocious shriek against Falconeer.
Falconeer - 320g. Centipoid - 320g
"Fine by me." Mako nodded. "Gate card open, Fair Hands." She added as two standard atribute gate cards appeared to the left and right of activated one. "Ready for a jump, Soldier?"
"Yes!" Her guardian responded joyously as he was grabbed and tossed to the right in no time. "The tears are back on the menu boys!" He laughed upon standing up from the ground while Centipoid aimlessly swinged his pincers left and right while Falconeer kept himself higher than his reach.
"Hee? What's that?" Akira asked, baffled by the non-direct approach. "What a waste of a gate card."
"Not in a long term." Mako responded as she pulled out two ability cards. "Now I'll use my trump cards, double ability activate!" She shouted as Soldier pulled out two rocket launchers. Rounder one with green paint and white checkered pattern on the end and second with long tube at the back and belly-like main construction. "Direct Hit plus Air Strike!"
"O! There he is!" Soldier grinned as he looked throu the second rocket launcher's ironsight and fired a rocket right into Centipoid's botton, causing him to fall down with a scream.
Centipoid - 320g = 220g
"And now for Eagle Chaaarge!" Soldier yelled, rocket jumping into the air before unleashing a barrage of rockets from his first equiped weapon.
Centipoid - 220g = 170g
"Oh maaan!" Akira groaned, not even moved by the collective blast carnage that blew his Centipoid into the air and then the ball form. "I lost..." He lowered his head before crouching down to pick up Manion and rolling Centipoid from the ground.
"We won!" Soldier commented, scoring a high-five with Falconeer before they both turned back into balls and flew into Mako's hand.
"Of course we won." Mako smiled, crouching down to pick up Serpenoid. "Now let's go back home. Today's test was all I needed in terms of learning."
"Well, damn sweet!" Soldier cheered. "Now let's go get some rest. We have a semi-final tomorrow."
"Yeah. I'm gonna need it." Mako nodded as they walked towards the exit in a good mood.
"Same day shipping? How kind of him." Assam commented out loud, opening a small cardboard package inside a bunker-like room filled with screens, keyboards and servers. Basically a giant research point with very own digital database.
"Hmm... What's that?" She asked, looking inside the package to find three small white balls packed in purple cushions. "The toys used in the Bakugan City?" Assam kept asking herself, seeing the yellow decals in various shapes as she picked one located on the center up. "No wonder some view it as ubiquitous alternative to Sensha-do, not all can reliably operate tanks." She nodded, turning the picked marble in her hands to inspect it from every angle. "How curious of me..."
"As necessary." Darjeeling responded, walking from around the corner with a relatively messy french braids at the back of her head. "Apologies for my presence, I didn't had time to correct it."
"Apology accepted." Assam nodded, noticing the red-pink shade of dirt-ied part of the hair. "I have this shade in core memory. Plus, it is very late in terms of timetables."
"Who wouldn't." Darjeeling nodded patiently, walking up to her and looking at the delievered marbles. "I see the inspection is in place."
"Indeed, but to data can be accessed from our knowledge." Assam responded, putting the marble down into it's place in the box. "It's up to the agent we sent to gather it, on top of the secondary agenda."
"Indeed, but let's not reveal the secret information further. This one is to stay in between us three." Darjeeling added as another person, this time a pale girl with long brown hair tied into a braid over her left and brown eyes, to walk in from the same way as she did. "Now, Rukuriri. About my idea of new passion..."
