If anyone didn't know better, they'd say Luna was in the military by what she wore these days.
Luna, as she'd been doing for the past three years, couldn't forget the bakugan that were in her life for that brief time. It hurt much less when they didn't say goodbye.
"What's wrong Luna?" Runo sent her a quizzical look.
The Darkus girl returned to her facade. "Nothing."
Dan groaned in frustration. "Still can't reach Shun! I've been trying for ages, what gives? Is it a ninja thing or what?"
Runo sent him an amused look. "You probably lost your cool and annoyed him again."
"I never loose my cool!" He snapped.
"You just did." Luna deadpanned.
Runo sighed. "Why don't you try Shun one more time?"
Dan looked back down at his phone. "I've already called him like a billion times!" Static was heard from the device. "Still can't connect. Something's interfering-" A large jumble of electricity suddenly appeared to his right, knocking the three over and turning into a portal that Luna recognized as a dimensional portal.
"Whoa! Sure can't be." Dan exclaimed, looking around.
"sure it can be, Dan!" A familiar voice replied. "Everything's possible." A red ball hopped in front of Dan, letting out a hearty laugh.
"A bakugan!" Luna exclaimed.
"But which one?" Runo questioned, looking down at said creature.
It unfolded itself. "Hello Daniel."
Dan's face beamed as he recognized who it was. "Drago? Is that you, man?"
The little Dragonoid looked indignant, "Of course!" He hopped onto Dan's hand. "Who else would make an entrance like that?" He laughed.
Dan got up and started chanting "Drago's back! He's back! he's back! he's back!" whilst dancing and hopping around like an excited five year old.
Julie and Marucho ran out of the bushes. "Is it true?"
Marucho grinned. "Can you believe it?"
Dan looked at them. "He is, look at him!" He shoved the dragonoid in their faces.
"It's good to see you, brawlers. All of you." He answered. Julie started jumping up and down in excitement, then started asking if Gorem could come visit, followed by Runo and Marucho asking for Tigrerra and Preyas. "I'm sorry, I'm not here for a visit. I'm here for your help."
"What's happened?" Dan asked.
"New Vestroia has been invaded, most of the bakugan have been captured and enslaved." Everyone gasped.
Luna got angry royally fast. "If they've hurt Nightmare or Nocturne..."
"This is no joke, I can't do this alone." Drago turned to Dan. "Will you help me?"
Dan grinned, giving his partner a thumbs up. "Hello? Of course! We'll make those space invaders wish they'd never heard of Dan and Drago!"
"And Runo."
"And Julie!"
Marucho nodded. "We're all here to help, Drago!"
The bakugan nodded. "The first thing you can do to help is to turn around." they did.
"Since when is he so shy?" Runo giggled.
Drago hopped onto Dan's shoulder. "I can't take the others, It needs to be just you and me."
Marucho and Luna turned slightly, unnoticed by the two currently talking.
"I'm sorry, we have to go now, Dan. Hurry."
"What? But- eh, okay." The boy turned and ran for the dimensional portal. Luna and Marucho snuck away after him.
They heard Drago talking ahead. "-Just too dangerous."
Luna cracked a rare grin. "Sounds like you're hogging all the fun!"
The Pyrus duo turned around. "Luna? Marucho?" they exclaimed simultaneously.
"No sneaking off on us!" Marucho chided. "We're going with you guys! Isn't it awesome?"
After a few minutes they arrived at a barren area, a few spires of rock decorating the area.
"So this is New Vestroia?" Dan looked around.
"I remember it being a bit more green." Marucho mused aloud. "What happened, Drago?"
"It was a paradise before they came." He said grimly. "Luna, behind you."
Luna turned around, expecting a fight, only to see two familiar bakugan. She felt tears to her eyes. "Nightmare? Nocturne! Oh my gosh where have you been!" She grabbed them out of the air and hugged them.
"Choking... Not breathing..." Nightmare wheezed. Luna released the two.
"Sorry Drago, Must've felt pretty helpless having to sit there and watch." Dan got a smack from Luna.
"Not helping!" She snapped.
"One day without warning their ships arrived, they planted their cities in our planet with no regard to life around them, they had some sort of barrier that turned bakugan back to spherical form, they soon overpowered us and captured everyone." Drago explained grimly.
"This bites! When we run into them they'll have to answer to me!" Dan snarled. "How dare they think they can get away with that!" He looked to the landscape. "Do you hear me?!"
"We hear you." A voice replied smugly. "But what are you gonna do about it?" The trio looked up and saw two boys, one with red hair, wearing white and orange and the other, a smaller boy with pink hair, clad in a green cape, a black and green shirt, grey pants and black boots.
"Oh look, it's the welcoming committee." Luna deadpanned.
"Just who I was looking for!" Dan growled.
"Go home to your toys, children." The taller one said.
"You'd better go back to where you came from!" Dan demanded.
The childlike one blinked. "Surrender? To you?" He nearly toppled off the rock laughing. Luna had to admit the shorter one was cute. She then slapped herself in the face and told herself to shut up. He sat up. "This I gotta see!"
"Pretty big talk from a little kid! C'mon, show me what you got!" Before Dan could accept, Luna got in front of her team.
"I'll take you both on! You hear me?!" She snarled.
"The short boy looked to the taller one. "What do you think Volt? Should we teach these little squirts a lesson?" he looked at Luna disdainfully. "It should be easy; they don't have gauntlets."
Luna sent him a puzzled look. "Hot a whats?" She scoffed. "Psh! All I need are these two to beat you!"
The vestal boy looked at her for a moment before bursting into another fit of laughter. Suddenly a large yellow motorcycle was above the humans, who jumped forwards to escape being run over. The vestal boy sat up and groaned. "Not her again!"
The girl got off her vehicle and looked to the humans. "I don't know who you are or where you've come from, but you'll need a gauntlet to brawl in New Vestroia." Luna groaned in frustration.
"I don't take orders from vestals!" Dan spat.
The girl smirked. "I lead the Battle Brawlers resistance. My name is Mira." Mira tossed Luna a white and purple gauntlet. "Let's see if you can keep up against the Vexos."
"The Vexos?" Luna put on said gauntlet, checking it over, it seemed you had to load ability cards into it to activate them.
"Yes, Vestal's top brawlers." She looked up at the two on the rocks. "The tall one with no brain is Volt and the baby who thinks he's cool is Lync."
Lync stood up, while Volt remained stoic. "Hey! Watch your mouth!"
"Like he said." Volt chipped in.
"Their mine!" Luna growled.
Mira stepped towards her. "So human, are you a chicken, or a brawler?"
That hit a nerve. "I'm no coward! Lemme at 'em!"
"Alright then, let's go." Mira said.
"Sorry, I don't play tag-team." Luna shot her a bemused glance as the Vexos hopped down from their rock.
"Finally! the talking stops! We accept your challenge!" Lync put on his gauntlet. The only difference between Vexos and resistance gauntlets were the Vexos ones were black instead of white and had three horn-like protrusions on the end.
"It's almost too easy to be fun." Volt followed suit with his gauntlet.
"Just load that card in and say gauntlet power strike to start." Mira offered. Luna sent her a nod of understanding before loading said card.
"Gauntlet, power strike!" The brawling trio called.
The pink haired vestal grinned deviously "I'm first, okay kiddies? Gate card set!" Lync tossed a card that landed, then dissipated into the ground. "Bakugan brawl! Bakugan stand!" The boy tossed a Ventus Flybeetle onto the field. Volt tossed a Haos Verias, a baboon like bakugan with what looked like a long bamboo staff for a weapon.
"Monkey and a bug, eh? Bakugan brawl!" Luna tossed her Wavern into the fight. "Nightmare stand!" The wyvern rose with a piercing screech.
Lync looked to his gauntlet, incredulous. "Did you really expect to be able to win this with THAT? Oh I think I might just die laughting!"
Luna grinned. "Well you might just die when I mop the floor with you!"
The boy scoffed. "That's big talk for someone with a weak bakugan!"
"Won't be weak for long!" Luna promised. "Double ability activate! Shadow Tornado plus Primal Rush!" Nightmare soared from 580G to 3080G as she was engulfed in a purple and violet tornado of fire, she rushed at her opponents, razing Verias back to his spherical form and to Luna and chasing Flybeetle across the sky.
"Gate card open! Ventus Reactor!" Flybeetle went up a meager 200G, not nearly enough to catch up with the Wavern in pursuit.
Luna watched as Nightmare made short work of the bug, oddly enough it came to Luna with Nightmare.
"We'll kids, my turn! Gate card set!" She tossed down her card, then threw down her Storm Skyress. "Gate card open! Cheering battle!" Luna rolled down Nightmare. Volt rolled down Freezer and Lync tossed Atmos.
Luna watched in amusement as Lync panicked while his bakugan was chased by the two Darkus predators. "Fun and games are over, kid. Ability activate! Destruction Meteor Storm!" Nocturne went into attack formation and was covered in purple flames, she dove in and wiped out Atmos without a problem, both Darkus bakugan turned their attention to Freezer.
"Ability activate! Darkus fury!" Nightmare made an indigo ball of flames the size of herself and shot it at freezer.
Volt smirked. "Ability activate, freeze!" Both darkus bakugan and attack stopped immediately.
"What the heck was that?!" Luna's eyes widened, little bugger must've had that planned. Time for backup. "Ability activate! Darkest Nightmare!" For a brief moment, the two Vexos looked nonchalant with her activating an ability, that's until the flames started near her feet and she stepped onto the field herself, fire rising into an orb as it grew and two wings broke through the fire, disoersing it and revealing the starry Dragonoid within.
Luna pulled the rug from right under them, seeing as everyone gaped at her for her sudden action. "What? Never seen a bakugan before?" She took to the air, rising high then diving back town right on top of freezer, returning him to ball form and having him land at Luna's side, she flew to her side and landed, reverting to human form as Nightmare and Nocturne unfroze, returning to her as well.
"Lync Volan and Volt Luster life force: zero." The gauntlets announced.
"well-" The two simply continued to gape at her, she scowled. "Don't you know staring is rude?!" The Vestal duo bolted, disappearing around the rocks.
"Interesting, to say the least. Dangerous?" Luna sent Drago a dry look. "Nada." She gave the four captured Ventus and Haos bakugan to Mira. "Here's your change, ma'am."
