Episode 3: Aspiring Admiration

[Noland Hardy]

Noland didn't know how to respond to Tracy's request of partnership; he was almost stunned at her eagerness. He knew the right thing to do was to help her against the obvious antagonistic brawler that has been the center of their attention, but the idea of brawlers like Tracy asking this of someone of Noland's skill-set will most likely mean that they would want him to compete for them. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but they must not have understood that Noland has literally started brawling again a couple of days ago for obvious reasons; it wouldn't be beneficial to him if he started doing something he would not enjoy doing when Tracy could very well use his power to win every battle and not improve in any area herself. Noland did not want to battle for anyone, but he certainly did not want someone like Tank ruining the experience for everyone else. He came to the conclusion of what to say to her in the nicest way possible without hurting her feelings; he explained that he wasn't in any condition to battle in this way at the moment, but wouldn't mind helping her become a better brawler to provide a stronger resistance to the Varsity team. She seemed a little down that he refused to be apart of the brawling team, but she took what she could get.

That marked the end of the first day of school. Upon returning home, Noland was informed by his grandmother of a certain event that was due to take place next week. The constant emails of the parents she met at back-to-school night were hinting at their excitement to see him battle for the first time up close. Noland's immediate guess was a tournament, and he was correct on the first try. This would explain why Tracy was desperate to find the best help she could. He went to bed with the knowledge that every participant will be due to compete on next Tuesday. If Tracy was going to improve, now would be the time to start.

He spent the next couple of afternoons at her team's practice. Their coach was surprised to see someone like him in there, but continued to teach them in his presence. As expected, Noland found a lot of problems with the way they were brawling, so he worked with all of them individually to help improve their game. Tank's teammates proved to be troublesome with their constant attempts to intimidate them, but Noland instructed them to simply ignore them, giving them a skill called mental discipline. It was notably obvious that he was doing more coaching than the original coach could have done at that point. Tracy received special attention compared to everyone else since she had to have her skills reinforced if she was going to take a leadership role on this team. He did this for three days, which was Tuesday through Thursday; on Friday, Tracy was more than satisfied with the help she was given, and wished to test her new-found abilities in battle. She presented a challenge to Noland, and he accepted. They both got set up in an arena with their "outdated" gauntlets activated, prepared for battle. He allowed her to have the first gate card by simply stating, "Ladies first."

[Tracy White]

Tracy didn't get the reply she wanted from Noland but she got something that was helpful to her and her teammates. It was training. Noland offered to be her trainer and from there, they both were engaged tense training session. The training really helped her because the tournament announced was to commence soon and if she is to win, proper training is needed. The training got intense each day they trained and a day came when Tracy felt that she has acquired knowledge, skills and techniques on and for better brawling. Then, she challenged Noland to a battle to see if this was true. When they were ready they both activated their gauntlets yelling, "Gauntlet Power Strike!". It was here she discovered that Noland had a gauntlet just like hers, only that his own was outlined in reference to the pyrus attribute. Now that the field was ready, they were to throw in their bakugans. "Ladies first." Noland said. Raising her brows, Tracy replied, "As you wish." She then stepped backward, got hold of a gate card and yelled, "Gate Card Set!" Getting hold of her bakugan, Tracy spoke to Skystar in a little tone, so no one would here. "Bakugan Brawl! Haos Skystar Stand!" The haos bakugan rolled onto the gate and opened, transforming into her monster form.
"Don't worry, partner. I'll try my best, and together we will prove to this young man that we are capable."
"I'm counting on you Sky!" Tracy yelled in response. "Your turn, Nolly!"

[Noland Hardy]

Noland had an annoyed look on his face when someone he barely knew started giving him a nickname. "Actually, calling me Noland will be just fine," Noland responded with a distasteful tone as if he has been called that name before. As he looked around, he noticed the rest of her team members standing on the side watching to see the battle for themselves, and they were more excited to be there as opposed to the battle that took place on the first day; he wasn't sure if they were there to confirm her improvement or just to watch him battle for the very first time at the school. Nevertheless, he grabbed Drago off of his shoulder and prepared to throw him into battle with a non-merciful attitude.

"Make me proud, Drago. Bring home the victory!" Noland declared with confidence. "Bakugan brawl! Drago stand!" Noland launched the Bakugan towards the gate card; however, it did not wait to land on the gate card to stand, but emerged from his ball form while soaring through the air. As he flew towards his opponent, Drago immediately started off by initiating an attack. He was approaching Skystar at a considerable speed and was intending to tackle her. "Count on this!" Drago roared as he made contact with her.

[Tracy White]

"Sorry Nolly... Oops, I mean Noland." Tracy replied as she felt embarassed in front of her teammates. Immediately Drago, Noland's partner was brawled in, he charged at Skystar with speed and hit her. Skystar fell to the ground but immediately stood up.
"That won't do anything! Wait until you see this!" Tracy then placed an ability her gauntlet that glowed yellow, accompanied with a bright light. "Ability Card Activate! Tecno Power!" As Drago made contact with Skystar, a concentrated beam of light flashed down to the arena and made some sort of a nearly invisible energy channel, linked from Drago to Skystar that continuosly and steadily drained Drago's power. "What do you have against that, Noland?! Keep in mind that if Drago isn't able to counter, he'll lose."

[Noland Hardy]

Noland was unsure of what the ability did to Drago for a moment since there wasn't any evidence of any damage done by her attack; he then looked on his gauntlet to see that Drago's power was steadily going down. "So the ability is siphoning my power..." Noland concluded. Drago began to feel the effects and was showing signs of fatigue at his power being sapped. "I'll give you credit; you already seem to be doing much better, but this'll only be a minor disturbance," Noland explained. He immediately pulled out another ability to respond to the attack.

The ability was revealed on the gauntlet and began to activate. "Ability activate! Ability Breaker!" As the ability was activated, a bright light flashed over Drago, nullifying the power transfer entirely. As this happened, Drago was rejuvenated with his original power and unleashed a loud roar. He immediately flew high in the air in order to coordinate their next attack. "I'll take it easy...for now..." Noland said in his mind.

[Tracy White]

"Ready for reinforcements, Skystar? Two on the way!" Tracy placed a card on her gauntlet and yelled, "Ability Activate! Takedown!" Skystar crossed her arms and as she did, clones of herself emerged from both left and right with their arms crossed. After the cloning process had completed, energy balls formed in front our arms and as they released their arms with force, the balls were charged at Drago and they all exploded in the face of Drago.
"You're going down, Drago!" Tracy yelled.

[Noland Hardy]

The energy balls were quickly closing in on Drago's location. The multitude looked powerful enough to cause a considerable amount of damage. Drago responded to the aggressiveness displayed by Tracy's comment by saying, "Although I'm going easy on you, I won't be defeated that easily." With that said, Drago crossed his arms as he activated an ability of his own before the energy balls reached their destination. An explosion occurred from the aftermath of Skystar's attack; as soon as it cleared, it revealed Drago with four clones of himself flying beside with him with two on each side. "That's my own version of Takedown: RAPID FIRE TAKEDOWN!" Drago roared.

Noland realized that Drago was perfectly set up to execute a dangerous combo, so he responded quickly by uploading another ability card. "Ability activate! Meteor Strata!" Noland declared. All five Drago's charged themselves up and began flying around the arena while launching a bombardment of giant fire balls in the shape and form of meteors downwards. The impact of the attacks would not only cause massive damage, but will also emit fire waves from the impact sites, which could further damage the opponent.

[Tracy White]

After the smoke from the explosion cleared, Drago had clones all over the place. Then, Noland activated another ability that made all the clones of Drago and Drago himself charge up an attack.
"We're not going down so easily, Noland! You are!" She pulled out an ability an placed it on her gauntlet. "Ability Card Activate! Indigo Slash! As the clones were flying an making blasts, the rate at with they flew and made blasts suddenly decreased.
"I don't care if you have more clones. All I care for is VICTORY!"
Then, all Skystars crossed their arms again and released clones of themselves. After this, all Skystars charged full sized energy balls and unleashed them all. Both charges collided and created an explosion, greater and bigger than the former one.
"Nicely done! Don't hold back!"

[Noland Hardy]

The attack that Skystar unleashed clashed with the blasts Drago was creating. The result of the collision was a giant explosion that was heard throughout the arena. Drago was rather pleased at Skystar's progress; he could notice she was fighting on a much higher level than previously seen. Noland agreed with this notion and smiled; the thought that his time wasn't wasted so far was a pleasant feeling, but this was only the beginning. They made a great start, but how would they finish?

"You're doing well so far. Now we're going to pick up the pace," Noland warned. He was intending to remove the clones off of the field in order to not make her reliant on them. He pulled out another ability and held it up strong on his gauntlet. He then proudly said, "Ability activate! Novia Blade!" In the midst of the smoke that was created by the earlier explosion, Drago quickly took advantage of the blurred vision by making a quick attack; he projected energy from the diamond on his forehead that took the shape of a blade. Since he was far away from his opponent, he could use the long range capabilities of it by firing it like a beam; it was also possible to alter its shape to make it more difficult to dodge.

Drago struck first. He fired the beam towards Skystar and her clones, but suddenly altered its shape by splitting the tips into a multitude that covered the majority of Skystar's space. This impaled every clone of hers in the chest, causing them to disperse and having their energy transferred through the energy to Drago. "Being overconfident is usually a bad habit," Drago said.

The clones then used the same ability and projected energy through the diamonds on their foreheads as well. They each flew apart from each other with their heads pointed at Skystar. In a simultaneous motion, they each swung their heads in order to make a slash. Due to where each of them were, Skystar would receive a sword that is being swung from four different directions at the same time.

[Tracy White]

Tracy! Do something! Before Tracy could activate an ability, Skystar was hit by the blade and almost impaled to the ground. "There's still a chance! Gate Card Open! Redemption!" Skystar got hold of the blade and removed it while excrutiating in pain. "C'mon Skystar! We can do this!" These words encouraged Skystar and so she summoned courage and stood up. Skystar's mace vanished, making room for Skystar to concentrate a large energy ball. When it was ready, Skystar continuosly threw them at the clones, destroying them one by one. As it got to the real Drago's turn, Tracy activated another ability. "Ability Card Activate! Illumina!" Then the energy ball increased in size and with a loud 'arrgh', she unleashed the ball at Drago. As the ball was released, a yellow aura surrounded Skystar. It was capable of protecting her. Although she was secure, Skystar expressed a sign of fatigue but still didn't give up.
I...might...not...be...able...to...continue... Skystar said weakly. "Don't talk like this Skystar. We are in this." They then waited patiently to see if the target hit or not.

[Tank Stryker]

Tank was on the bench press of the school team's private gym working out. Normally he would be focusing on his reps and trying to max out, but for the past fifteen minutes he had been pressing the same weight just thinking. Thinking about Noland, his Dragonoid, and how he was going to get back at him. About halfway through his tenth set, Tank realized his arms were sore and racked his weights. He sat up on the bench and patted the sweat off his forehead before putting the towel around the back of his neck. John and Steve were having a match in the practice stadium of the weight room (the school had gone all out with the facility), getting ready for the upcoming tournament. Tank grabbed his phone and looked at it. A news article had been released that day about the terrorist activity going on, but Tank hadn't read it yet. The first paragraph was nothing but the normal news crap he was used to, but a name popped out in the second one. Daniel Anderson. The guy was notorious, a prison escapee, murderer, and an enemy of one Noland Hardy. This gave Tank an idea. He got up from the bench and walked to the arena just as John defeated Steve.

"Hey losers!" Tank called with a smirk on his face, "Lets talk about Noland. I just had a great idea."

[Daniel Andersen]

In the same time Tank called his teammates to discuss about Noland a sound of breaking glass ripped through the atmosphere and through their ears. People from all directions started screaming and running in panic as Tank and his teammates observed not knowing what was going on. Suddenly, a dark figure appeared from behind of one of the facilities. Tank realized it was a man from the newspaper; Daniel Anderson. He was accompanied by a dark Bakugan Noland fought recently. Just when Tank's teammates wanted to confront Daniel he pulled out a card and swiped it through his Z-gauntlet. "Sakura, this is your turn! Ability activate! Golden Wall!" said Daniel with a cold, dark tone in his voice. As he said it a sorceress-like Bakugan appeared from nowhere and hit the ground with her wand creating a barrier that expanded itself quickly and seized the area.
He looked at distance predicting to find Noland over there and walked towards thst direction. Suddenly, he hears something from behind and turns back to look.

[Tank Stryker]

The other teammates, parents, and coaches in the facility were running around like headless chickens, panicking from the attack. Tank and his friends were caught under a barrier set by the bakugan that had attacked, Sakura? Tank wasn't sure on the name, but he knew that he couldn't let the guy hurt the people in the gym. Tank grabbed Gladion and stood up, primed to throw. Before he could, however, John threw in his bakugan first.

"No, John!" Tank said too late as the Cerberoid stood. Taking a fighting stance, John swiped an ability through his BrawlX, silent as ever. John's Cerberoid was engulfed in fire as it charged Sakura. Steve threw out his Ziperator to help John, and swiped an ability through his BrawlX. Ziperator was cloaked in darkness as it flew towards Sakura, it's darkness armor turning into razors. Steve was oddly quiet, his bakugan just knowing what to do. Tank threw out Gladion and swiped his own ability. A Gladius dropped from a portal to Gladion, who caught it and slashed through the shield.

"Get him, boys!" Tank finally yelled after what seemed like an eternity, "Nobody attacks the Colts!"

[Daniel Andersen]

Daniel looked at incoming Bakugans without caring too much about their attacks.
He simply swiped a card through his gauntlet and said in a cold tone: "Sakura, you know what to do...Burning Blue!"
Sakura rose her wand and "frozen fire" emerged from it and engulfed all incoming Bakugans including Gladion. When blast period ended Gladion and the rest of Bakugans were partially turned to ice statues. Tank tended to keep calm while his teammates were surprised by the move.
Daniel saw no challenge there and simply turned back calling Sakura and Belphenoid to follow him towards the position they were supposed to reach. Suddenly, Belphenoid turned back towards Gladion and hissed: "Curse Fire."
Dark flames were launched from his mouth and directed towards Tank and the rest.
Daniel turned back and yawled: "Belphenoid, what are you doing?! This was not in the plan!"
It was obvious that Belphenoid disobeyed Daniel and acted on its own which was a surprise to Tank. Still, he had to worry about a dark blast that was coming right at them. Belphenoid targeted Bakugans and their brawlers hoping to clear them all out. 

[Tank Stryker]

"Ability activate!" Tank yelled, quickly swiping his card, "Weapons Cache - Aegis!" The legendary shield dropped from the sky and in front of Gladion. Gladion broke free from the ice, grabbing the shield and rolling in front of Tank just in time to deflect the flames. Gladion, in his weakened state, could barely hold the shield up.

Tank and Gladion were safe after the attack, but when Tank looked around to where his friends were, he saw the unthinkable. His two best friends were on the ground, motionless, their bakugan by their side. Tank and Gladion scrambled over, Gladion's shield still up to deflect any other attacks. Tank scrambled to Steve, who awoke for a brief second, saying only one word, "sorry", before passing out. Third degree burns covered most of his face and arms; his jacket was completely singed off in some places and in tatters in others. Tank ran from Steve's comatose body over to John. John looked a lot worse, and wasn't moving at all. The burns completely covered his face and torso, the clothes of his upper body completely burned off. John's eyes were still open, locked in a terrified expression, but the life in his eyes was gone. Tank could barely stomach Steve's condition, but when he got to John, he lost it. Tank puked to the side, and went back, listening for a heartbeat, looking to see if John was breathing, but there was nothing. John was dead. Emotions washed over Tank as he closed John's eyes and stood up. He let out a battle cry and swiped an ability through his BrawlX.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Tank yelled, "ABILITY ACTIVATE! BATTLE CHARGE!"

Gladion stood up, invigorated, and charged the dark bakugan, shield up, Gladius pointed. He hit the bakugan with the shield, sending it flying to the side, and then began to slash faster than he has ever slashed before.

"KILL THAT BASTARD, GLADION!" Tank yelled, tears streaming down his face, "MAKE HIM PAY!"