Disclaimer: I unfortunately do not own Bakugan if I did I'd go back to the original series and style.
Masquerade pov
A master strategist with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Bakugan who was content to not battle, Ryo would be the perfect candidate to take down Dan especially after today when Dan had almost destroyed his computer that I'd been using to spy on Dan during their classes by hacking the camera and microphone. The only problem I could think of is that Ryo didn't own any Bakugan.
" What to give him?" I thought out loud as I began opening the case containing a vast collection of Bakugan provided by Hal-G for this purpose .
The first Bakugan in the case was a Pyrus Mantris.
" This could work, Ryo definitely has the intelligence to make use of the Marionette ability card." I said picking it up. For some reason though the idea felt just a bit off like it was almost right but at the same time not.
Placing the Pyrus Mantris back into the case I grabbed the next Bakugan, a Subterra Siege. Ryo could probably use it but he probably wouldn't like the typical brutish tactics of the Subterra attribute so I put it back deciding to search for something better suited for him.
Nearing the last few Bakugan in the case I was beginning to get frustrated because none of the Bakugan seemed like the right fit. Each option had something inside me telling me that this wasn't right, the closest to feeling right had been the Pyrus Mantris. Closing the case I took a deep breath and thought about it. What did I know about Ryo the person? After all a brawlers style often correlated to their personality in some way and the best brawlers leaned into that. Reviewing what I knew about him was easy the first thing that came to mind was that Ryo was smart, he possessed an almost encyclopedic knowledge of various cards and abilities, he loved Bakugan his handheld computer was proof of that given the dozens of various strategies it contained, he didn't brawl but freely offered strategic advice to his classmates and friends.
" Oh that's it." I softly muttered as the description began to sound very familiar. He was just like her. That probably explained why I was bothering with this whole thing the part of me that came from her must empathize with him to a degree. So I just needed Ryo to be a bit more like me and actually battle Dan. Ryo would win hopefully forcing Dan to reconsider his views and retrieve Drago. I needed him to keep getting stronger so he could push my Bakugan to eventually evolve.
Opening a separate much nicer case full of my personal Bakugan each placed into individual sections. I grabbed a Darkus Mantris. Perfect. Now he'd need something else with a little more power maybe a Fear Ripper. Placing the Fear Ripper next to the Mantris. I continued looking through my collection, he'd need something to stand up to Dan's Drago after all. Perhaps I'd lend him Reaper, I'm sure they'd get along well enough and it would give me the opportunity to test out the Hydranoid I'd recently found.
Author's note:
So I was recently rewatching the first season of Bakugan and I just thought it was really weird that Masquerade lent Ryo his Reaper during the episode Dan and Drago. After thinking a lot about this I came to the conclusion that Masquerade had to be spying on Dan in class somehow since he knew about Ryo in the first place even though we never see Dan tell his friends about the events at his school. Ryo even being sent after Dan was weird because Alice knows he is no longer in possession of Drago which means so does Masquerade so why bother interfering? There's a couple of possible angles for the decision one that I find hilarious is that maybe the line between Masquerade and Alice is a little more blurred than what was shown and the bit of Masquerade that was Alice hated what Dan did and said to someone who is fairly similar to her and thus Masquerade acted on that feeling in an attempt to punish Dan because why not? Another is Masquerade being Alice understands that Dan needed to get his butt kicked in a tactical way for him to understand that he needs Drago who Masquerade believes is important for his own future growth. Anyway it's an interesting episode to look at especially with the full context of Season 1 and the knowledge that Ryo is one of only three Brawlers to defeat Dan in Season 1, the other two being Shun and Masquerade.
I'm not sure if this will end up being more than a one shot but I could see the potential of expanding upon this. Maybe by having Ryo win during his 2nd match with Dan but recalling the doom card mid fight after having a change of heart or having him still lose but end up hanging out with Dan more and eventually joining the brawlers, or maybe Alice ends up meeting him when she starts living with Runo and they bond over their similarities. Anyway feel free to comment and let me know what you think would work best or be the most interesting.