A/N Chapter 49... A lot later than i had hoped. For tomorrow i will be returning to school... NO!
But hopefully i can get 50 up before the end of the week. *crosses fingers*
Anyways, this chapter is again more set up... *sigh* but next chapter will really get into the interesting events.
JetravenEx: *sigh*
Takara Matsudaira: What's wrong with you?
JetravenEx: Just depressed that School is coming up and its going to be incredibly hectic what with the whole becoming an adult, visiting colleges, and being a cross country captain. There's just going to be a whole lot of work that's going to have to go into this year.
Takara Matsudaira: Would it make you feel better if i do the disclaimer for ya? :)
JetravenEx: Sure.
Takara Matsudaira: Alright! JetravenEx, doesn't own Bakugan! She owns the story and the extra characters, excluding Alica who belongs to Terradoll and Viki who belongs to Viki Boom.
JetravenEx: Enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 49
Masquerade sank into a soft cushioned chair in one of the rooms in his mansion. He groaned resting his head back and closing his eyes as he tried to sort through the mess in his mind.
Taking Jet as his prisoner had thrown everything he knew or thought he'd known into a tail spin. He'd managed to save face in front of Julie but for the life of him he couldn't fully understand why he'd spared them. Well, Jet was badly injured and he didn't want her to die…
But why?! He sat up in the chair and rested an elbow on the armrest, placing his chin on his hand eyebrows furrowing as he glared at the far wall. Jet was a girl from another world; sure it made her special, unique. She was also a lot of fun to mess with; her anxiety in dark places had been a fun weakness to exploit as were her odd affections towards him.
'Is that it?' He wondered eyebrows furrowing. 'Did I spare her because she's the first one in a long time to regard me with feelings other than hate?'
He sighed heavily, he was going to get nowhere trying to explain away how a random girl from another dimension had somehow wormed her way inexplicably into his mind and managed to screw him over so badly. He could've probably even ignored his sparing her all together and relating it to being the extent of her injuries and rewarding her for being fun to toy with as his reasons for letting her go. But, it was the fact he'd let Julie, a member of the bakugan battle brawlers-potential bait for a trap later-go with her. He ground his teeth wishing he could go back in time and stop Billy from kidnapping Julie in the first place, then he wouldn't be dealing with this whole second guessing crap right now. He'd be plotting out what to do to destroy the brawlers next, and-
His internal monologue was cut off when the windows of the room shattered, Masquerade bolting up from his chair as something hit him in the head.
The blow wasn't enough to knock him out but it did succeed in making him dizzy, he dropped back into the chair. Gripping the edges he gritted his teeth struggling to recover, only to receive a harder blow to his head his vision blurring before his head dropped forwards, catching a glimpse of a black dressed figure out of the corner of his eye before he fell unconscious.
Vanessa growled looking down at the unconscious boy in front of her. That should've gone smoother; he shouldn't have needed two blows to go down. But then again, a predatory grin emerged; it would definitely make the hunt all the more exciting.
She pushed the unconscious Masquerade back so that his back was against the back of the chair, then moving behind the chair, she scowled realizing she was too short to get in the optimal position. Sighing she went over to the tall bookshelves and grasped a stool and brought it over. Setting it down she perched herself on it and she placed her hands on either side of his face her fingers under his chin tilting his head back.
"Now then," Vanessa said leaning over the back of the chair, her face hovering inches above the masked blonde's. She chuckled as she could see her reflection in the glass mask. "Let's see what other secrets you hide in that brilliant mind of yours." Closing her eyes she lowered her head and brought her forehead to Masquerade's letting reality slip away as she began to immerse herself into Masquerade's mindscape.
In another part of the mansion a flash of light heralded the arrival of the pop stars and Julie. The light faded away revealing the three to be a good few feet above the bedroom floor. A chorus of shrieks ripped through the once silent mansion followed by a loud thud as the girls were painfully reacquainted with solid ground.
Julie who had landed on top of the two girls quickly got up and inspected their surroundings tapping her chin. She nodded at the bed, the dresser, and then she jumped up and punched the air. "Yes! We made it; this is definitely Billy's room!" She turned around and frowned as she took in the sight of Jenny lying on top of Jewls looking a bit green in the face. Jewls didn't look much better her face screwed up a bit in pain from having Jenny use her as a pillow.
"Ugh, can we like not do that again." Jenny groaned as she rolled off Jewls clutching her stomach. "I think I'm going to be sick."
Jewls cast her sharp look rubbing her back. "Well like don't barf on me!" She screeched pushing Jenny's head away as she shifted away from the other girl.
"I'm not trying to!" Jenny moaned before curling up into the fetal position clutching her queasy stomach.
Once Jewls was certain she was a safe distance from the nauseous Jenny did she begin to straighten up wincing at the pain that shot up her back as she did so. "Oh, ow. The landing could've been a bit better."
"Maybe we should ask Jet later if we can practice some more with it later, after all Masquerade doesn't seem to get sick or anything and he uses these things like all the time." Julie said going over to Jewls crouching down beside her. Jewls gratefully rested an arm across Julie's shoulders allowing her to help her get up. "With a little practice we should be just fine next time."
"I'll pass." Jenny moaned clenching her eyes shut continuing to clutch her stomach.
Julie and Jewls considered Jenny truly seeing how unwell she looked, her face was pale and she was still lying in the fetal position.
"Are you alright?" Julie asked moving towards Jenny kneeling down beside the stricken girl, Jenny shot her a glare.
"No, I'm lying on the floor like this because I'm just fine!" Jenny snapped before groaning as she shut her eyes.
Julie bit her lip looking to Jewls for what they should do tapping her fingers on the floor nervously.
"Well, we could like take her back to the hospital." Jewls suggested rubbing her hands together as she moved closer to her partner taking to rubbing her back gently to try and soothe her a little.
Julie pursed her lips. "I don't think that's a good idea, if Jenny's like 'teleportation sick' shouldn't she like not be sick when we try again?"
Jewls frowned. "True… But what can we do?" She reached out with her free hand and brushed a few magenta strands out of Jenny's face. "I mean if we wait for Jenny to feel better Masquerade might find us." Jenny's started to sniff a little.
"I'm-I'm so sorry guys." She sniffed tears starting to form in her eyes. "I should've like known I would get sick."
Jewls scoffed turning to face her friend smiling at her. "Oh now stop, there's nothing to be sorry for! It wasn't like you knew you'd get teleportation sick." She wiped off some of the tears from Jenny's face with her fingers gently.
Julie put a finger to her lip as she considered the room her eyes resting on the bed. She turned to look back at the pop stars and then back at the bed then she turned around and moving back towards the other two settling down beside Jewls by Jenny's head.
"Hey Jenny, how bout me and Jewls move you to the bed and you rest for a bit?" She asked. "Then you can recover while me and Jewls look around and try to find my Gorem and Jet's Skylord. Would that be okay with you?"
Jenny's eyes widened and she turned to Julie shaking her head. "No, no don't leave me here alone." She reached up a shaky hand and wrapped it around Jewls's wrist. The turquoise haired girl looking at Julie with a forlorn expression; torn between helping Julie recover her friends bakugan or staying with her ill partner.
Julie sighed. "Well, if it makes you feel better, this is Billy's room and if what Masquerade said is true Billy's locked in a dungeon in the basement… So it's really unlikely he'll come in here when he doesn't have any reason too."
Jenny looked at her and shook her head slightly groaning still clutching her stomach. Julie let out an exasperated sigh putting her hands on her hips.
"Well let's move you to the bed anyways; at least you'll be more comfortable." Julie said, resting a hand on Jenny's shoulder. "Can you stand up."
Jenny took a deep breath. "Y-yeah I think so." Slowly the girl began to move into a sitting position Jewls and Julie supporting her. Julie moved onto Jenny's other side and holding onto her left shoulder, grasped Jenny's left hand, while Jewls held onto Jenny's right hand and shoulder. Carefully they eased Jenny onto her feet. Jenny gasped and clutched her stomach her face twisting in discomfort for a moment.
"Come on we need to get you into the bed..." Julie said as she and Jewls let Jenny wrap an arm over their shoulders and walked with her to the bed. Once there Jewls and Julie eased the other girl onto the bed Jenny's body relaxing when she made contact with the soft mattress.
Julie smiled as the girl moved herself on the bed until she was comfortable. "That's better isn't it?"
Jenny turned her head slightly and nodded a little. "Yes it does help." She admitted, the girl looked up at the ceiling. "You guys go ahead."
Julie and Jewls blinked. "What?" Jewls asked.
Jenny turned to look at the two and smiled weakly. "We need to get Gorem and Skylord, you guys go take care of that. I'll rest here, when I'm feeling a little better ill follow after you guys."
Julie brightened up. "Great! Thanks so much Jenny!" She said as she headed to the door while Jewls hesitated.
Jewls rested her elbows on the bed and studied Jenny's facial expressions intently. "Are you sure this is what you want to do Jenny?" She asked. "I could stay with you if you'd like…" She offered.
Jenny shook her head and smiled at her. "I'll be fine, I can't let this stupid fear of Masquerade hold me back." She said to her friend. She reached out and grasped one of her friend's hands and gave it a squeeze. "Sides the sooner you and Julie find Gorem and Skylord we can leave this place. So go and find them."
Jewls nodded. "You bet, we'll have them found before you can say 'Bakugan Brawl'." She flashed Jenny a thumbs up before she went over to Julie, the Australian beaming as she came over to join her. Julie opened the door and stepped out into the hallway Jewls waving at Jenny before disappearing into the hallway.
Jenny sighed and laid back on the bed eyes gazing at the ceiling. It had been the right thing to do, it was best that Jewls backed up Julie, after all if Masquerade got his hands on Julie again it would be a lot worse if he caught Jenny.
"Oh please don't let us get caught." She whispered to no one before she closed her eyes and eased into a restless sleep.
Aidan jolted awake breath coming out in ragged pants as his eyes gazed rapidly at their surroundings. He was in a simple bedroom with pale yellow walls, an oak desk, a tan dresser, bedside table and the full-sized bed he was presently lying on. He let out a ragged breath and sank into the covers that were a dull blue color.
"So it was a dream after all." He mumbled looking up at the ceiling. "Thank goodness…" Then he frowned. But the dream had felt so real, he had felt the water within the viewing pool when he had dipped his hand in the water, he could vaguely remember reading something that had been engraved on the walls of the temple but what it had said he couldn't quite recall. The door to his room opened and he lifted his head.
"Well look who finally woke up." Alica said poking her head into the room before easing her way in. "You've been dead to the world for a whole day! Your mom was worried sick about you."
Aidan stared at her blurry figure, his vision was rubbish without his glasses. "I've been asleep for a whole day?!" He shouted reaching up to pull at his hair for a moment. "Oh man, is my Mom okay?"
Alica raised an eyebrow. "You mean aside from being worried sick? Yeah she's fine. Why?"
Aidan heaved a sigh of relief as he sat up in his bed. "I just wanted to make sure she hadn't like panicked and called like the whole medical department over from the local hospital."
"Oh you just missed them, they were here earlier." Alica said cracking a smile at Aidan's mortified expression. Then she frowned again brushing a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her face. "It was weird though, your mom said normally you were a light sleeper."
Aidan nodded reaching a hand to rub the back of his neck as he glanced towards the window that had its blinds open exposing the backyard and the afternoon sunlight. "Yeah normally I am…" A thought hit him. "Has Meredith come back yet?"
"Hmm? Oh, no she got held up by a blizzard, so she's still holed up in Ohio and not happy about it at all." Alica said moving back towards the door. "Anyways I'll go tell your mom that you're up." She said leaving his room and closing the door behind her.
Once the door clicked shut the blond immediately cast off the covers and got to his feet nearly falling over as a wave of dizziness hit him.
"What the?" Aidan dropped to his knees on the floor, wincing as his knees bashed against the hardwood flooring and grasped onto the edge of his bedside table for support. Pain blossomed from his head making him feel like his brain was trying to jump out of his skull.
When the pain had subsided Aidan slowly pushed himself to his feet keeping a constant grip on the edge of the bedside table. He reached out with his other hand and picked up his glasses and put them on his face.
Once he could see better he glanced around looking for his phone. Upon locating it on his desk Aidan managed to walk to his desk and pick it up falling back into his chair. He turned on the phone and immediately went into his contacts. He found Mike's number and clicked on it lifting the phone to his ear.
Mike had been up for about 30 minutes now and was pacing the living room. He had awoken in the car confused and freaking out that he was dead (Damn Tyler for making him worry) but after pinching himself in the process of freeing himself from the seat belt he had been relieved that he was very much alive.
Apparently his uncle hadn't been very concerned with arriving in Chicago while the two boys had still been asleep, the trip was about 2 days long anyway (adding in the stops they had made for Mike's uncle to sleep and such).
Since Mike knew he had fallen asleep around 6ish yesterday after seeing that weird alligator thing in the lake during the drive, it meant he had been asleep for almost a whole day, and Mike normally couldn't sleep more than 2 hours in a car.
Mike sighed running a hand through his hair. Tyler looked up from where he sat on the couch eating a bowl of popcorn.
"Hey relax man, why don't you just sit back and watch a little TV?"
Mike looked at the blond sharply glaring at him for a moment before heaving a sigh and walking over and dropping into the spot next to him on the couch.
"What are we watching?" Mike asked as he focused on the TV.
"Oh cartoon network, they're rerunning some old Pokémon and Bakugan episodes." Tyler said grinning as he watched the creatures do battle across the screen.
Mike groaned sinking into the couch running a hand down his face. "Pokémon? Seriously? That is so much filler crap, how can you watch it without you growing incredibly bored?"
"Oh that's the new stuff, the original series where it all was the first time they used those ideas has a few good episodes." Tyler said as the credits began to roll with the original theme song playing.
"I guess," Mike muttered as he snagged the remote. "What's the Bakugan episode?" He mused going to guide and reading the episode name and description.
"Oh, its New Vestroia, Surprise Visitor… Aww boo I wanted to watch the maxus bakugan episode." Tyler said sticking out his tongue at the screen blaming it for not showing him what he wanted to see.
Mike on the other hand frowned as he read the description. "Runo and Dan miss each other and so Runo decides to go to New Vestroia. In the middle of the night she goes into the Gehabich lab and uses the DT, but an error occurs resulting in Runo… Getting caught between dimensions?!" Mike read eyes widening as he stood up.
"Yeah that is the episode in a nutshell… Nothing all that epic really. Maybe there's something on Nicktoons or Disney XD." Tyler said reaching to grab the remote which Mike quickly jerked out of his grasp.
"No! Let's watch this episode." Mike snapped Tyler raising an eyebrow before holding his hands up in surrender.
"Sure whatever man, its your TV anyways, don't let me intrude in your watching of a filler 'sode." Mike shot him a vicious glare before focusing on the screen.
The two sat back and watched the episode, and Mike would admit the episode wasn't terribly exciting but as he watched the incident where Runo and Julie messed with the DT in efforts to send Runo to New Vestroia his eyes kept widening and his jaw dropped.
"That's similar to what happened to me!" Mike said when he paused the screen on the image of ghostly Runo.
Tyler tilted his head to the side. "Maybe… But didn't you say no one could see, hear or feel you?" Tyler's eyebrows furrowed. "I mean I guess it's similar."
Mike was up and pacing again in front of the TV. "I need to talk to Aidan…" He muttered. "There has to be an explanation…"
Just as he said that his phone began to ring from his pocket which he quickly fetched it out of and brought it to his ear. "Hello? Aidan!" He said dropping back into his spot on the couch. "You two huh?" Tyler began to subtly reach for the remote, when Mike snatched it away and put it on the armrest farthest form Tyler. The blond pouted at him but Mike merely responded with a glare and a finger to his lips.
"Huh, that's weird, but I think I've got a thought I'd like to bounce off ya." Mike said looking at the TV. "You might wanna be sitting down for it, don't want your mind to blow you off your feet." He chuckled as Aidan began to spout questions from the other end. "Hear me out first, just sit down and listen."
He paused a moment to kick Tyler who had been trying to crawl on top of him to get the remote.
"Alright I'm sitting down, now what's this 'thought' of yours?" Aidan said sounding a bit annoyed.
"Well it sort of goes like this…" Mike began before shooting into his explanation as Tyler sulked.
Preview for 50
Greetings Brawlers! It is I, Masquerade the greatest brawler ever! Unfortunately, some fool seems to think she can outwit me in my own head. I'll show her! She can try whatever she likes, it'll take more than a few pitfall traps to keep me from protecting my secrets! And for the two fools roaming around my mansion, let's just say they'll find that I went past easy on the brawlers the last time they visited. Don't miss as I conquer this witch and show these fools that Masquerade is not one to lose! Bakugan Brawl! Be there if you dare!
A/N The chapter was unfortunately too short after the triple J's bit so i had to throw in the guys once more.
I've noticed from the last two chapters i jump between different characters POV often, does that bother anyone?
Please Review. With how rough this next year of school is looking to be. I'm going to need all the encouragement you can give me to keep this story going.
Thanks for Reading!