Episode 17: Always Got Your Back

[Tank Stryker]

After hearing that, Tank got up and walked away. As he did, all he could think about was the fragility of a career he sacrificed so much for.

”What would be the point anyway?” he thought about Yuji’s proposal. ”What are we trying to convince them of? That we’re good? That we’d never use Bakugan as weapons? What excuse do we have now? Enough of us have shown how evil we can be. Enough have shown me how much better it would’ve been if I never brawled… If I was never there that day I got hit by that bastard… Maybe things would’ve been different with John, Katherine, and Steve...”

Although he didn’t say this out loud, his facial expression spoke for him. He wasn’t angry, just massively disappointed in his life trajectory, the current state of the brawling scene, and – sadly – in himself...

[Markus Hederick]

Markus watched Tank walk away without saying a word to him. He could feel some tension in the air, but didn’t know the context behind it. As he looked, the news went to a commercial break, so he felt like releasing his frustrations over the situation.

“We can’t do anything… There’s always some asshole that keeps getting us in trouble… I can’t get a season in without someone fucking up. I just want ONE season…” Markus vented. “I’m really glad we went to college… Not that we need it, but we have some fallback options… Noland and Allen, if you guys are thinking about stepping up to the pros, get some plan Bs, Cs, and so on. Who knows how long we have now with the way things are going… Make sure Alana knows that too...wherever she is.”

“More importantly, you both good? ‘Interesting’ day yesterday...”

[Noland Hardy]

“I’m okay,” Noland kept short. Before he could say anything else – if he was considering elaborating at all – he felt his BrawlX vibrate. He looked down at it to see that it was a message.

“Here we go…” he scoffed. “If anyone asks for me, tell them I was summoned by the feds. See ya.” Noland disappeared via Hyper Motion, which suggests that the Secret Service didn’t want anything from him.

[Allen Silva]

“And there he goes…” Allen observed. “Wait, that’s good, because now that he’s gone…I have a favor to ask.” Allen was now going to put his master plan into action. The first step: quickly look around to make sure Alana isn’t within earshot. Second step:

“Please don’t tell Alana or Noland that I’m doing this… Noland might find out anyway, but don’t tell Alana so I can stay alive,” Allen started off. “So, I can pretty much say for certain Noland and Alana like each other, but...it’s not looking so good right now. Basically, Alana almost said the l word, and Noland is unsure of how to handle it. She might be rejected since she reminds him of how he can turn evil every time it looks like he’s about to lose it, and he doesn’t want that… I don’t know what I could do to stop both of their hearts from being broken…”

“I’m not asking you to tell me how you handled your situation, but...if you randomly bring it up when Noland’s around...that could really help me out…”

[Markus Hederick]

“…I knew it…Finally...” Markus realized after hearing confirmation on what he suspected this entire time. “Unfortunately, preventing a heartbreak in this case is almost impossible.”

“Only way I can see both being happy is if Alana’s concern about who Noland could become goes away completely. Tracy might be better for that since she’s putting up with me, but unless you want to be ratted out for snitching, there’s nothing she can do. Similar thing with Noland. Even I am self-conscious about what I did. Luckily, Tracy understands what led up to it and doesn’t hold it against me. Alana must understand since her and Noland are friends again...more than friends probably, but you get the point. Still, as long as she reminds him of his past, this is as far as they go, and there’s nothing we can really do to stop what might happen.”

“UNLESS...you tell Alana that I know about it. You’re dead if Tracy brings me up out of nowhere to her. Alana will know someone snitched. She’ll feel better if only one other person knows before we start spreading this information. I’m sure Noland will understand what you’re trying to do better than she will. Tracy and I have been shipping them for a while now, so...if we can help them possibly get together, we’ll try our best IF that is what’s best.”

[Allen Silva]

“...I was dead the moment I thought about telling someone else in the first place,” Allen figured. He loudly sighed at the prospect of telling Alana. Technically, he was betraying her trust right now, but to him, it was an exigent circumstance.

“I’ll try to come up with a good excuse. She’s going to be really upset… I just don’t want to see what I know is coming,” Allen rationalized.

“...What about Tank though? He didn’t seem happy just now… Not that he would be happy about what we just saw on TV.”

[Markus Hederick]

“I know what you’re getting at. He’s not himself. Hasn’t been for a while,” Markus sighed. “Things were looking up prior to the Dasia situation. Most days are fine, but deep down, he’s angry and frustrated with at all that is happening. Tracy and I are working on something to help lift his spirits. Might be just as difficult as your situation now. We’ll figure it out though...I hope.”

“While I do that, make sure you’re looking out for Noland. I’m not concerned that he’ll go dark again. My concern is the level of violence he’s willing to use with a normal mindset. Look who’s talking, I know. I’m still troubled by what he was about to do to Vergilius despite what that bastard was doing. I’m not saying that to judge him in hindsight. I say it to bring attention to what his ‘normal’ is with all that has happened to him.”

“So...just make sure he doesn’t go overboard...as best as you can.”

[Allen Silva]

“Hm…” Allen knew he couldn’t make any promises about that. He couldn’t will himself to give a straight answer. It was as impossible as it was to figure out what was really going on in Noland’s head. He did figure out that Noland may like Alana, so there’s hope…

“I’ll...do my best…” Allen nervously responded.

[Noland Hardy]

Noland was being escorted by a woman in a suit in a super-secret federal building. Only Noland and the people in the building knew where they were at. He was silent and didn’t look at anyone. He could sense people stepping aside as he was walking past them, as if he was among the top brass in the agency.

“You’re really quiet,” the woman noticed.

“I am,” Noland plainly confirmed.

“…” An awkward silence emanated from them as they continued walking to a conference room. In it, he saw several people in suits all rise from their seats. It was like he was a high-ranking official in a government agency.

“Master Blaze, welcome, welcome,” one of the females greeted. “We really appreciate you coming here on short notice. FBI, HSI, ATF, Marshal’s, and CIA are represented in here. We don’t want to waste your time, so we’ll try to make this quick. Then, there’s someone who wants to catch up with you.”

“That woman and her damn cat?” Noland guessed.

“...Wow...you guys were right… He can sense everything…” the female agent realized.

“Alright. I’ll do it.” Noland was led to a seat at the conference table. Once he sat down, they sat down and got right to it.

“We want to talk about Trinity first. From what Clarence tells us, she seems to have a little crush on you.”

“Of course...” Noland sighed as he started recounting how he met this thirsty woman.

[Trinity]

The ‘thirsty’ woman had more than a ‘little crush’. She was in a mansion-sized bedroom scrolling through various pictures of Noland on her laptop. She had an entire directory dedicated to him. Her mask was off, but her face was buried too far into the screen for anyone to see what she looks like.

”He’s even more handsome in person...” she muttered to herself. ”...He’s perfect for me… I hope he gives me a chance...”

A knock on her door interrupted her and caused her to close her laptop out of fear that someone would ask what she was doing. Before she turned around, hard light materialized around her face to cover it with her usual mask.

“Yes?” Trinity answered.

“Are we still training?” someone asked her. That someone sounded a lot like Maurice. “If not, can you just give me some Ibuprofen or whatever drugs you guys got? Second thought, nevermind… I suffered so much pain that I can’t feel anything anymore. How about an ambulance...or whatever you terror – uh, guys use for a hospital.”

Trinity goes to the door, opens it, and invites Maurice inside. She looked Maurice up and down as he walked past her.

”You’ve gotten a little taller...” Trinity noticed. ”Muscle mass seems to be getting bigger as well… I’m impressed. I never thought you could ever look like this.” Before Maurice could respond to that, both of them were swallowed by darkness and ended up in a blackish void. Maurice could only see Trinity and nothing else. He couldn’t tell if they were standing on solid ground or floating in the air. He checked to make sure he was standing on something. Despite getting some feedback from his feet, he couldn’t see anything solid...

“...I want to freak out since I’ve been eaten and swallowed before, but it’s happened so many times that I’m used to it… That didn’t sound right… Forget I said anything...” Maurice remarked.

”Nothing exists here. Noland shouldn’t be able to detect you powering up while we’re here. Also, you’ll be fighting me,” Trinity informed him.

“Fight you? YOU? I haven’t been folded enough? Why would I fight you?”

”I’ll play with you for a minute or so, and then let you rest and recover.”

“Just one minute? Alright! I got this!”

”I’d hope so. It’s just me. No Bakugan-sized targets or anything. Just...ME.”

“Oh...um...so...for safety reasons...I’m not going to die or anything if I hit you? Not that I would ever hit such a beautiful...and dangerous woman… I mean, if I’m lucky...more than lucky...to hit you… You’re not going to kill me, right?”

”If you don’t hurry up and attack me, then I might. I want to get back to my alone time. You’re interrupting it!”

“Sorry!” Maurice quickly tossed out Sprayzer from his pocket. Sprayzer’s ball form kept floating upwards until he opened. When the poor reptile stood, he was ‘standing’ a couple of feet above Maurice. “...Huh…?”

”Hm...” Trinity looked over Sprayzer to see what changed with him. Like Maurice, Sprayzer looked like he was putting on muscle. His biceps and hamstrings were ‘veiny’, but in an unhealthy way since they were purple. They stuck out in a disgusting way on a blue-colored Bakugan. Other than those things, Sprayzer looked like a normal reptile.

Maurice didn’t seem to notice this. He was too focused on preparing to attack Trinity so that he gets to live a few more hours.

[Trinity]

“Ability activate! Hydronic Cluster!” Maurice played. Sprayzer generated several miniature orbs full of pressurized water. In reality, these were several Hydronic Bombs that are designed to explode and crush bones. Trinity had that coming her way once Sprayzer threw them. A light shone over her body and teleported her several feet behind Sprayzer. She saw and felt the crushing pressure that this ability exhibited.

”Already stronger than you were at the Showcase…” Trinity noted. Sprayzer turned around and threw more Hydronic Clusters at her. Trinity continued to teleport out of harms way. She allowed this to happen three times before saying something. ”You’re stronger, so you should get smarter as well. You’re not going to get lucky to hit me with one of those. Rethink your approach. I’m giving you time to think of something.”

Sprayzer snarled at Trinity making a mockery out of him. He glowed purple and grew about an inch.

“Fine then… Ability activate! Pressurizer!” Sprayzer’s arms lit up in a bright blue coloration. He wildly swung his arms around. Each time he swung, a pressurized water stream would flow out in front of him like a blade cutting into something. He did this to cover a wider area.

”Judgment Release,” Trinity activated. She swung her arms at the same frequency. Each time she did, the pressurized blades of water that was supposed to cut her up ended up cutting up Sprayzer instead. Somehow, she was warping the attacks intended for her to Sprayzer’s location instead. Sprayzer realized this after being hit twice. He deactivated his ability and wobbled a little bit after taking that uncontested.

“Dammit…” Maurice seethed. Veins started popping up from his head. Trinity could see this only since his veins started to glow. Out of nowhere, she stumbled and fell over.

”What the- My body! It just locked up! What’s going on!?” Trinity thought to herself. ”It feels heavy…!”

“You wanted me to hit you and you said I wouldn’t die...right?” Maurice asked her. His voice started sounding more demonic. “Dodge this then… Royal Burst!” Sprayzer’s eyes were fixated on Trinity. Just by being in Sprayzer’s gaze, Trinity’s body was being subjected to having the water inside of her body increase in pressure. Soon, the water inside her body will violently explode…

”Wicked Sun...” Trinity muttered. Her body became enveloped in a burning aura. With it active, she appeared unbothered by what Maurice and Sprayzer were doing and stood straight up. She suddenly appeared underneath Sprayzer and tapped his right leg. The leg appeared to be burning as it progressively disappeared starting from the foot. Sprayzer toppled over after losing his balance. He looked in horror as he was being amputated.

“Okay! You win! I’m sorry! I got carried away!” Maurice said to try and stop Trinity from taking the entire leg. It seemed to work since Trinity canceled her ability and Sprayzer’s leg regenerated. Sprayzer quickly returned to ball form as he didn’t want to piss her off anymore.

”For a moment, you made me take you seriously. Even ol’ redhead couldn’t get me to do that. You should be proud of yourself,” Trinity commended as she also caused the void around them to disappear and bring them back to the ‘real world’. ”Don’t let that get to your head though.”

“Yeah…” Maurice said with some hesitation. He was tempted to say he didn’t have a choice since he couldn’t stop what Trinity was about to do. Either way, at least he can say he’s still alive. That’s all that mattered to him.

”You can leave now.”

“So...about that Ibuprofen or ambulance… I’m starting to hurt a lot more.”

”I can only make you as comfortable as possible. You made a deal with the devil. You should’ve known the consequences before you took a shortcut to being powerful.”

“I know, but-”

”Get. Out.”

“…” Maurice hung his head down and walked away. Trinity quickly closed the door and locked it.

[Trinity]

“Hm…” Trinity hummed as she got lost in thought over something. She suddenly pointed upward like she got an idea.

She suddenly ended up in an entirely different place than her expensive-looking room. She was standing on a cloud...and watching teal steps form to lead her into a sacred place… The Haos Archives…

She entered and floated around on a solid cloud until she could find a particular tome in the Dark Magic section. “Forcing evolution...forcing evolution…” she said over and over again until, “There it is…” She took a book and quickly went back into her lovely room to look through it.

“Based on the description from the client… A card was used on him…like it was for Nero,” Trinity said to herself to help her focus on that specific detail. She quickly found what she was looking for by looking for ‘Chaos Ability X’.

“Huh… So that explains why Maurice is getting so strong…” Trinity took out a phone and started texting someone.

[Noland Hardy]

Noland was still in the meeting room with federal agents. They were all writing or typing what he was telling them. It was a bit distracting, but he paid it no mind. In fact, he was just waiting on what the next question was.

“So, based on everything you know about Maurice, what do you think he’s going to do after allying himself with Trinity of all people?” one of the agents asked.

“Gain power...immediately,” Noland kept it simple. “Being the champion...having that aura of a champion… It gave him and his siblings protection and a way to make money in the big leagues in the future. He dreamed of being a provider and being the greatest brawler of all time. After we ‘fought’, those dreams crumbled. Now, he’s seen as a weakling who can’t fend for himself or his siblings, and he can’t provide for them after he was cursed with the parents he got, or the lack thereof. That is what makes him dangerous: his past, his current situation, his lack of power now… Other than going with a terrorist, what else is he willing to do to get back what he had? How far will he go to get more than that?”

“Hopefully, all that matters to him now is to get back to where he was before he and I met. He’s on track to doing that right now since Trinity fixes most of his problems. She’s the best defense from the gang he can get right now, and she’s going to train him too. What he intends to do once he’s powerful on his own...well, if it were me, I’d like to visit the ones who tried to kill him last week. Trinity told me they were going to deal with his attackers, so that might be a start.”

Coincidentally, Noland received a text message. He looked down at his BrawlX to read it. He loudly scoffed.

“What? What happened?” the agent wondered.

“Trinity told me that whoever her client is used Chaos Ability X on Maurice and Sprayzer and that they’re in a lot of pain,” A chilling silence blanketed the room after that was said. Everyone looked at each other with confusion instead of sadness. It looked like they had no idea what Chaos Ability X is.

“...What’s that?”

“It’s a forbidden ability that forces evolution,” Noland proceeded to explain. He was going to leave out Nero being a victim of this ability since it was classified. “Even if the user’s body isn’t ready to evolve, it’ll still activate. That’s what makes it forbidden. Maurice and Sprayzer are about to gain power that their bodies may not be able to handle, which explains the pain they’re feeling. What this means in terms of his overall health and even lifespan… Well…”

“How do you know about this?”

“It’s a secret.”

“Do any of you CIA guys in here know about this?” No one said anything about it. Like Noland said, it was a secret. “Okay, we’re going to have a talk about that later. For now, thank you, Noland, for giving us what you could on both Maurice and Trinity. For the future – and this might be a big ask – can you maintain contact with Trinity? You’re the only one who seems to have a chance with talking to her. And then report to us what she says or does so we can keep track of her.”

“...Fine...” Noland accepted.

[Noland Hardy]

“This next question… What did you see and hear during your fight with Calvin?” another agent requested.

“I saw two Calvins and Dragonus’s: the evil ones I fought, and the ones incapacitated in the Doom Dimension. I don’t know what happened with the ones in the Doom Dimension. Betadron probably had something to do with their condition. All I can say is that I was summoned to New York out of nowhere…”

He then recounted the entire battle from start to finish and included his interaction with Jimmy prior to fighting Calvin. He was so detailed that no one had any questions for him.

“Thank you very much for giving all of that to us. Really, we couldn’t thank you enough. But, I’m sure you know this by now, but you could end up testifying in court over these situations. If Calvin ends up going to trial – if it even gets to that point – just be ready for any overzealous defense attorney who will go after you hard for...the past.”

“I’ll be ready,” Noland assured them all.

“Very good. We’re all good to go. Thanks for everything.”

“By the way… FBI, tell whoever it was that hacked Alana’s BrawlX that I appreciate that life-saving decision.”

“…”

“With that said...are we going to find spyware on our devices?”

“Absolutely not.”

“And if anyone else decides to install stuff, it will only be for life-saving reasons, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. It’d be a shame if that turns out to be false.” Every agent in that room became extremely nervous after hearing Noland say that. Just from looking at their faces, Noland could tell they got the message. He got up and went on his merry way. When he left the room, he started walking towards an elevator.

”Taking the civilized way out?” Drago asked him from his pocket.

“Akane wants to talk,” Noland rationalized.

”I thought you were going to blow her off considering what she is...was...”

“I’m tempted. We’ll just see what she wants.”

[Noland Hardy]

Noland stepped out of the elevator when it got to the ground floor. He heard someone meowing and running towards him.

”Can we please go?” Drago begged. Noland stayed put and watched a blue cat around the size of a domestic run up to him and rub itself on his legs.

“You’ve got some nerve doing that after what you’ve done,” Noland reminded that annoying cat. “You do that again and I’m leaving.”

”Okay, I’m sorry!” Torahu apologized. ”But, look! We changed! We’re on the good side now!”

“Sure you are.”

”Really! Sure, we might be helping these pigs with their bomb research so that we don’t go back to that institution, but it’s not so bad! We get to make bombs without getting in trouble! We don’t get paid much though… And they won’t let me fight any battles since they’re afraid I might evolve...”

”Good,” Drago celebrated.

”Hmph! Meanie! You be nice to Akane. She’s on her way over here.”