Episode 9: Hostile States Period

[Noland Hardy]

Three months have passed since Earth and Vestal formally met with each other. The Hurranians and the threat they posed was known by everyone, and the person responsible for spreading them has yet to be found. Xavier had spent this time creating a weapon to fortify Earth's armed forces considering he found them to be extremely lacking in firepower without the help of their stronger brawlers such as the Resistors. He started selling his creations to the planet. The device in question became known as a "Battle Suit," power suits designed to fortify the user and up their firepower to enormous levels. Xavier seemed to find something funny about doing this as if he had this entire scenario planned, and for good reason.

Due to the growing animosity from Brawlergate where the growing consensus of Bakugan being out and about - an act that has been arguably inspired by the Resistors actions during the battle against Nero - was a detrimental influence on the community at large, every armed force in the world now had the sufficient means of enforcing the law to its maximum effect, engulfing them in their own ego as the battle suit's power made them effectively more powerful than a single Resistor or national icon. This was dubbed as the "Hostile States Period" to characterize the growing need for police reform that the Resistors' actions didn't quite bring about in the way that they wanted. They were able to get better protection, but at the cost of their freedom. The oligarchy that they've created as a force oppressed the people, and everyone felt it, including the Resistors that may end up being held responsible for this unfortunate outcome.

[Allen Silva]

Allen had thought that the situation with Nero and Daniel's group was the worst that the relationship between brawlers and other people could get. But looking at it now, how naive could he be. First and foremost, people are more untrusting than ever before. Noland and them had just tried to fix this. Now, after the whole issue with Farbaros, not even the Resistors were free from suspicion. Then Jamal, Damien, and that whole group seems to just cause more dissension among evrybody.

To make things worse, battle suits. These new inventions, at least to the people of earth, couldnt have come at a worse time. With these new powers, police have the means to get even more strict than ever seen before. They are starting to use force, even when at it wasnt necessary. If you stole a purse, you could very well be attackec by at least one of these mechanical monsters. Allen had no plans to break the law of course, but that didnt stop him from worrying about the state of the world. If this is the begining, then brawling is in serious trouble. Something had to be done, but what?

[Alana Cortese]

It was one thing for words to be spread around about who was at fault when it came to the growing disparity between the country over Bakugan. It was another for violence to result from it. The price that people had to pay to see change was often death over the course of history. The Crusades have seen it. World Wars 1 and 2 have seen it. The Civil Rights Movement has also seen it. But will Brawlergate have to see it as well? And if that is to be the result, could it be handled?

Alana had to find out the answer to that for herself. One weekend was all it took for her to take the scandal more seriously than serious. It was that weekend that tempted her to do something closely similar to that of how she behaved under the guise of Karen.

One Saturday afternoon, Alana was at the community center. She hadn't gone there for a while, so she thought she'd pay a visit. It turned out really well. She had a lot of fun answering many of the questions the kids had for her and brawling those that challenged her. Before she left, they pressured her into getting the original trio there at the same time, which is something they haven't been able to accomplish due to the obvious problems they've had. She didn't outright say it was or wasn't going to happen, but she did say that she'll do whatever she can to make them happy.

Later that day, she was at Staples gathering items for an upcoming project when she felt vibrations in the store. It was rather brief, so she didn't pay too much attention to it the first time. When it happened for the second time, she started becoming worried as well as the other customers and workers. By the third time, she was outside looking at a man being chased by battle suits. When they got to him, they blew him up with extreme malice. The Bakugan he had - Pyrus Griffon - got out of there prior to the shooting, stood, and then yelled at them for killing someone just because he was holding it in his hands to show someone when the police approached. The suits thought of that as an act of aggression, so they blew Griffon up too.

Alana was too shocked to move after watching that happen. She became very disgusted when the cops cuffed their corpses as if they were still arresting them, nearly pushing her over the edge enough to fight them herself. Hydranoid told her that he wasn't going to comply with that since there was nothing to gain from fighting them when everyone saw and/or recorded the scene, so they'd only have things to lose in either scenario. The victim's friend mercilessly cried over the event. Once she made eye contact with Alana, she accused the Resistor for being a supporter of this violence along with the rest of her friends and attempted to beat her down in front of everyone. That started a huge argument with swarms of people coming in to defend Alana, and it eventually erupted into an all-out brawl that had a lot of police in the area. Alana was nowhere to be found though. She disappeared in the midst of the confusion and didn't bother looking back to find out what happened.

[Seiki Maki]

seiki maki

The Maki household was void of any lights being on this evening, just about all off the windows closed off from the outer world with the use of curtains that wouldn't allow any light to get through. It seemed to be void of any life, all except for the pale figure waiting in front of the window of the second floor, completely surrounded by darkness. The only light source for the room was the sun from outside which was quickly making its way away from sight and making way for the moon.

"What good... can they do... with those?" Seiki murmurs as her amber eyes looked out the window, her chin placed on her hand which was propped on the windowsill. There on the second floor window she watched the policemen happily frolic by with their new battlesuits latched onto their bakugans. Her gaze darkens, "an intimidating look perhaps? I doubt it'll be able to knock down anything that poses as a legit threat." The empty water bottle grasped in her right hand was then warped by her anger and strength directed to gripping the poor bottle harder, the crunching sound it made echoing throughout the house. "They couldn't even protect those I hold dear to me, or anyone else for that matter." A weak chuckle came out from the girl as she drops the crushed water bottle on the floor along with the rest of the barely items she had placed her anger on.

From the doorway stood Ahio with a worried look written all over her feathered face. "Seiki-chan..." She whimpers softly to herself, lowering her head to gaze at the floor. Lately, the ventus resistor hasn't been getting any sleep at all. With the constant nightmares and unwanted memories coming back to haunt her, sleep was something Seiki was majorly lacking on. The raptor began to doubt herself, was she really a good guardian for this girl? She couldn't even protect her from the horrid sights the world just had to offer in front of her face. Or. Maybe it wasn't her fault, it was Seiki's. It was the human's fault for being so fragile and weak, shattered and torn the way she is. Maybe she should just end her life now with a quick stab to the heart-

Wait. Why as Ahio thinking about such morbid things? The bird shakes her head rapidly for a moment to rid her mind of the wretched thoughts. She couldn't believe for a moment there she wanted to kill Seiki right there on the spot. "Guardians are suppose to protect, not kill." Ahio mutters to remind herself as she straightness herself up. Unbeknownst to the bird, there was someone that heard what she had just muttered.

"If that's so, why are the guardians of this town slaughtering those they are said to be protecting?" Ahio's attention perks up to see Seiki standing a few strides away from the bird, her head turned slightly to view her bakugan from the corner of her eye. "I took a walk today... And those police people out there." Seiki motions to the window which Ahio slowly walks over to, peering out the window and spotting the people that her partner was talking about. "They took down those they saw as a threat to this country, even though there were just civilians who I've seen around for quite a while." The girl kicks the crushed water bottle to send it flying to the other side of the room with a soft 'thud'. "They took the 'threats' out with ease and such... excitement. Even little children who were simply playing in the park. I can't help but to be disappointed at such actions." Another weak chuckle escaped her lips, this one a little more crazed than the last one. "The world is such a messed up place, isn't it?"

Ahio was a little skeptical on what Seiki said about her experience on that walk she went on. After days with such little sleep and a negative aura constantly lingering around her form, she may have seen what had happened in a different way. "It can be a messed up place indeed," Ahio says as she moves away from the window and looking at Seiki. "But there is still a light side. Perhaps there is something good that comes out from this problem."

"A light side? Something good? Hah! Ahio, this world is messed up, nothing is good without the bad." Seiki makes her way to the door of her room, not sparing a glance at her partner. "This world is chaos, and nothing will make me change my view on that." Then she heads out into the hallway and down the stairs to get something form the kitchen most likely. Maybe another water bottle to drink up and crush.

Ahio looks longingly at the door before stumbling to the wall of the room and collapsing. "Seiki..." And the bird was thrown back into her abyss of thoughts.

ulla

[Markus Hederick]

Markus took a much-needed stroll to the Office of Residence Life with a serious look on his face. He didn't bother going through the casual etiquette of passing smiles when encountering people. His anguish was clouding his mental stability, almost as if he could lunge at someone if they looked at him the wrong way. He approached the desk and got straight to the point.

"Pull whatever strings you need to pull," Markus abruptly started. "I need a new room, and I need it NOW."

"Whoah...let's calm down and explain what's going on," the lady requested of him.

This frustration was sparked from a recent movement started on Princeton's campus where the primary objective was protesting the culprits of the Brawlergate scandal, which most people point at the Resistors for causing. Markus was conveniently attending the university, so they harassed him with constant volleys of protests. Was it annoying? Of course it was, but it wasn't a deal breaker for Markus to be this mad. They'd have to do much better than protest him, and that they did.

Strike one: privacy invasion. The people apart of that club were worse than Yita following Noland. They'd follow him everywhere: dining halls, classrooms, practice, etc. Their eyes were constantly on him. He began to think they'd never blink. They were eagerly awaiting the chance to see Markus screw up so they could pounce on him and strangle him with their ridiculous nonsense.

Strike two: attempted murder. The movement sparked some interest in the surrounding communities, giving more rise to the hater gang. Markus was minding his own business walking from the store when someone had the brightest idea of trying to kill Markus by trampling him with a Tuskor. It obviously didn't work because he saw it coming and had Gargulion to phase him through it. Seeing the man arrested in broad daylight hardly softened the blow.

Strike three: roommate. One of the members of the said movement was his roommate...

"If that's not enough of a reason to make some changes, there's truly wrong something with you..." Gargulion said after the flashback was over, probably because Markus explained that entire proceeding in less detail.

[Tracy White]

A senior class president that didn't know the culture of his/her class was not fit to be the president. That wasn't who Tracy was. She knew what was happening. As good as that was, that didn't mean she had to be pleased about it. To say she was less than satisfied with the current events would be a very serious understatement. What was going on now was unprecedented; she couldn't imagine she'd ever see this: civil war.

As the established trend, Brawlergate, would have anyone guessing by now, people were extremely unhappy with how Bakugan were being handled. Those people took the issue to heart so much that they were willing to go blow for blow with other people just to get their point across, completely contradicting their entire movement from Tracy's standpoint. They viciously slammed multiple people - the Resistors in particular - for being the front-runners in this erratic behavior, but they had no problem with the police running around with battle suits to shoot people just because they were beneath them.

Having three Resistors, including the leader of the group, go to the same school previously did wonders for Tracy in terms of people's support for her, Noland, and Tank. She didn't experience any ridicule like some may have, but that didn't stop her from feeling obligated to do something about this before someone gets seriously hurt - change that from stopping more people from getting hurt since people were already going to battle over it.

"What's the deal?" Skystar curiously asked. She was on the desk Tracy was sitting at, just a couple of minutes after the final bell. "I know we'd like to believe that those type of fights happen outside, but it can happen anywhere. All it takes is for someone to say the wrong word and then it'll happen in here too."

"I know. That's what scares me," Tracy affirmed. "I guess this is fitting for us. Noland, Allen, and Alana started the Resistors in an environment just like this one..."

Tracy thought about asking either of the three for advice on how to handle the situation, but then she realized something: she wasn't very independent. There was heavy reliance on others throughout her buildup. The most notable one was her skill development, headed by Noland and Tank. She'd be happy if she did something herself for once. The others had their own problems to sort out in this mess; it wouldn't be fair for them to have to take care of her too.

"Sky...you any good with posters?" Tracy hatched a new idea. "I'm not as good with design as some might think..."

[Noland Hardy]

Out of every Resistor, Noland was arguably doing something that was asking for a negative reaction to be bestowed upon him. He wasn't doing anything wrong, at least not in everyone else's eyes except for the police department.

Noland was catching some wind on Drago's back as he was flying in the evening sky. He had some grocery bags on board. Drago also carried some of the load personally. For this reason, he was flying slower than he usually would in an attempt to keep everything in good shape. The reason they were doing this was because it was taking Grandma a longer time to recover from the Hurranian infection than usual since her immune system is naturally weaker than everyone else in the infected group, so Noland was the one to take care of her errands while she rested.

That flight proved to be short-lived as the police thought shooting him down before giving out a warning was appropriate...

"Misfire or not, I'm pissed." Drago was quick to react to the gunshots. He used his wings as a shield to protect himself and Noland from any residual damage. He descended at a reasonable pace - reasonable to him at least.

"Master Blaze, recall your Bakugan immediately." The police were heard, but they were not listened to.

"That's strange. I thought the order of operations was to warn me before shooting me. My mistake. I must have been thinking wrong all my life," Noland sarcastically responded.

Nearby citizens who were watching the aerial bombardment take place summoned their Bakugan as well and obstructed the officers who were chasing Noland and Drago. Whether or not the police shot them as well remained to be certain. They just kept on moving.

"Is this what we've become now? We're not even people anymore; we're just targets."

"And non-compliant teenagers."

"Yeah, well...why not?" Noland knew they were theoretically doing wrong by defying the law enforcement the way they did, but someone had to have a backbone. If he was going to take their crap, then everyone else probably will too because they're going to think that this is a future that they have to accept. That would be the message he'd want to send if his actions were analyzed - they always were, but would people see that part of it or assume that he just wants kids to grow up to be unruly people who takes whatever's shoved at them? Time will only tell...

[Lydia Andersen]

I am lurking from the shadows

Lydia Andersen

Lydia and her brother, Alex, returned to Washington after failing to find any sort of artifact in No Man's Land. What they found were mainly terrorists and Pack leftovers that were quickly disposed of by Silver Knights that were passing by. Process was not that big of a disappointment for either Lydia or Alex because of their joyful reunion they have been waiting for to happen for eleven years. Some questions were still unanswered regarding Pack's reappearance in No Man's Land after it was believed  that Pack was completely obliterated alongside with Baalenoid. That might create some issues in the future if it was not taken care of.

Immediately upon her arrival to Eden Headquarters, Lydia was showered with countless papers and requests regarding the Dark Hole Phenomenon that has been occurring over the world at certain times (especially on Cuba where genocide nearly happened). After reporting the reappearance of the Pack she hoped to be able to do research on that, but her superiors prioritized Dark Hole Phenomenon instead, so she had to deal with it. There was no much progress in that sort of work, so she decided to take a break after pointlessly staring at her laptop for 3 hours straight.

"Keep stressing over it and you'll get wrinkles." A cheerful female voice came from the near. It was Irene Almstedt. She was the top brawler of Eden and also this organization's leader. Her power was rumored to be rivaling that of Silver Knights' Marshal, but it was never proven. All people knew about her strength was her rank; ranked 4th in the strength in the world. Pretty amazing result, but irrelevant at that point.  Her comment was directed at Lydia who was obviously stressing about her work with Dark Hole Phenomenon and was not getting any results. "Miss Irene, I apologize for the mess." Lydia humbly apologized lowering her head in respectful manner. "You are doing your job." She mildly replied not paying much attention to all those papers and things lying all over the table and even on the ground.

"I keep hearing that government is abusing their newfound power. What are your thoughts about it?" Miss Irene suddenly began with this new topic asking if Lydia has witnessed government's irresponsible actions. "Battle Suits?" Lydia inquired. Miss Irene nodded affirmatively to that question. "People are afraid, miss Irene. Bakugans are afraid. With this newfound power police itself is acting like a criminal organization. I've seen Bakugans getting murdered, miss Irene." Lydia replied to miss Irene's first question regarding the power-abusing of the government. She lowered her tone and dived back to her thoughts. "...I'm sorry you had to see that." Miss Irene replied compassionately and then proceeded to walk out of the room.
"Thank you for your time, Lydia. " Miss Irene said and calmly walked out of the room. Judging by her behavior she probably just came to check if rumors about what she overheard were correct and judging from her expression she was not very happy knowing rumors were true.

"I'm a devil of light."

♡

[Alex Andersen]

Listen to howl of our souls

---

Just like his sister, Alex had to return to his HQ. He was not too happy about it considering there was Pack in front of him. He was sent back knowing that there could be more of those critters crawling through No Man's Land and probably waiting for some easier victim. At least good news were that he found his younger sister. After 11 years of living and believing both his siblings were dead he was relieved. Despite being forced to separate again it was not permanent and he could spend more time with her and re-introduce her with Daniel who was still in Silver Knights' Power Cell.

Two days later...

Sounds of explosions filled the atmosphere of a small area filled with warehouses. Some sort of angel-like creature was soaring above those warehouses and then it violently crashed into one of them. Sounds of explosions progressively intensified until the roof of that warehouse was demolished and warehouse itself was on fire. After all that mess in the middle of the night a young man was coming out of the warehouse dragging two people over the ground. Angelic creature emerged from flames and landed near the young man obediently. "And that's how you catch a terrorist." Man bragged out loud as all those explosions were not enough.
Another young man emerged from the shadows. It was Alex. His facial expression showed obvious irritation to that man's behavior. He crossed his arms looking at those two people who were supposedly terrorists. "Good job on demolishing the warehouse." Alex sarcastically complained.
"So what?! No one's gonna miss it!" Other guy replied. Alex just shook his head to that reply.

"Shouldn't you be having a day off or something?" The one whose Bakugan flattened the building asked, but he didn't seem like he cared much. "Why?" Alex asked.
"Seriously?! Your sister is alive and well and you're here huntin' for battle suits?" This guy poked the topic again.
Alex was getting a bit annoyed by his constant pokes in the topic. However, he had no glue to seal the guy's lips forever. He just changed the topic. "This is stupid. Those Hurranians are no less of a threat than that stupid Virus." Alex complained stubbornly like a little child, but he was nothing less than serious about showing his sudden anger. "Eh?" Other guy gasped wondering about the meaning of what Alex said.  "What, you didn't hear the news? This crap..." Alex said and then kicked a piece of destroyed Battle Suit in front of him. "...killed a man and a Bakugan...based on a misunderstanding. What have we become? Dried meat? They put these things to shoot civilians now?" Alex complained angrily and continued to kick the metal part.

Guy he was talking to sighed a couple of times. "What do you make out of it, then?" He asked silently. Alex was still in his kicking mode. "Me? What does it look like to you? Government is acting like a terrorist organization. This form of action is unacceptable. At this rate people might resort to anarchy eventually." He shouted angrily. He complained about the problem that happened just recently. A guy and a Griffon got killed by Battle suits and they were not harmful. This was exactly why Silver Knights hated Hurranians' influence and their lovely innocent-people-grinders that now roam the streets and kill people. Admiral of Silver Knights ordered a silent elimination of Battle Suits in the area considering them more dangerous than any terrorist. Alex and few other Knights who had power to eliminate them in one shot were sent to destroy Battle Suits without government realizing. "...*sigh*...I hope you're proud of yourself, United States of Asshole." Alex said and then kicked the Battle Suits once again finally breaking it into pieces.

"Life is an ugly nightmare."

♡

[Tank Stryker]

Tank walked back from class silently towards the fraternity house, his mind racing over growing concerns of his actions. He knew what he had done months ago was the right thing to do, but at what cost? It seemed like everything was becoming much stricter, especially in his professional life. Brawling was still fun, but the increased regulations worried Tank, as it made Gladion almost a second class citizen.

His heroics did not go without notice, however, as most of the students at GWU knew what he did was to preserve their society and lives. This came as a double-edged sword, though, as a club had formed around defaming not only Tank, but the Resistors themselves. This "Anti-Resistors" club had protested outside of Tank's fraternity house every weekend for the past few weeks, interfering with his pledging activities and almost physically assaulting him when he left from or returned to the house. As expected, the boner brigade, as the fraternity began to call them, was waiting for Tank as he approached the house.

A scent of alcohol reeked from one half of the club members'; the more rowdy half. The sober half was trying to calm them down, as they had stated in many of their megaphone speeches that they preferred nonviolent resistance. A couple campus police officers started to show up as thunderclouds gathered above Washington D.C., surrounding the protesters as Tank approached.

Then it happened.

A crack of thunder became known as the Shot Heard Around Campus as an empty beer bottle thrown from the rowdy protesters flew into Tank's head and smashed. Glass was embedded into Tank's scalp, and the world began to seem fuzzy. Adrenaline flowed through Tank's veins and his eyes turned an electric blue. Roaring, Tank flew at the protester who threw the bottle, his fists swinging. Tank's fraternity brothers flooded out of the house and onto the lawn where the sober protesters hid behind the police, who were trying to separate the brawl, but it was too late; Tank had already knocked out the protestor who threw the bottle at him and had thrown off two protesters who decided to jump on him. The other brothers were swinging and falling all over the place, trying to protect each other the best they could against the sheer numbers of the drunk protesters.

The police managed to handcuff Tank, his brothers who fought with him, and the drunk protesters after backup had arrived. All of the protesters were arrested and sent to the campus jail, while Tank and his brothers were let go under the pretense of self-defense. Tank's brothers took him inside and tended to his wounds before calling the one of the brother's fathers, a doctor, to come take a look at him. Luckily, Tank did not suffer any concussion, but the psychological effects were still there, even after the brothers told him it was not his fault.

The next day, the fraternity was called before the Greek disciplinary council and given punishment for instigating a riot: social probation for the next six months. Tank felt so ashamed of himself because of the incident, but his brothers assured him it was not his fault. The walk back to the house with his brothers was met with more looks and whispers than usual thanks to the campus paper picking up the story of the brawl and spinning it to make him and the fraternity look bad. Luckily, the national office of Tank's fraternity decided not to pursue punishment for the chapter, as they understood the situation, but Tank was more worried about his coaches.

At practice the next day, Tank's coaches reprimanded him for his actions, even though they were self-defense and they had managed to keep it from the major news stations, and suspended him from two matches without pay. This is what got to Tank the most, making him so angry that he punched his locker, creating a dent. Coach Kent, the jokester of the coaches, peeked his head out of his office and told Tank that he'd be paying for that with a smile, but Tank was in no mood for jokes and left the locker room in a huff.

[Noland Hardy]