Episode 35: National Icon

[Noland Hardy]

At the end of conflict for the war, the community came out of hiding. Everyone rejoiced that the Pack have finally been defeated, especially the ones who were close to the Resistors. All of them were heavily scolded for placing themselves in danger, but the negative sanctions didn't amount to how glad they were to see them still alive. Tank was definitely geared for a heavy talk from Katherine since she was furious, but it was nothing compared to how pissed Noland's grandmother or Allen's parents were. While Karen didn't really have the amount of support everyone else got, Noland's grandmother gave her a lighter version of what she said to him since she still liked her. Montai then appeared in front of her for comfort after leaving the facility. Karen returned Horridian to her shortly afterward, but let her know that Hydranoid was still present and in her possession. Montai wasn't worried about it since she was aware of the bindings placed on Hydranoid; she also understood that Karen needed another Bakugan to fill in for Elico at nationals. 

Kendrick and Maya looked worn out from a fight, so Noland and Markus were very curious to know what they've been up to. The children looked at each other briefly before concluding not to talk about it altogether, which greatly annoyed the two Resistors. Everyone soon got the urge to get away from the area once the media arrived at the scene to ask a bunch of questions. Fortunately for them, the army were the first ones to get picked on, so the Resistors and their loved ones slipped away before they were next. Since Montai had to stay behind to make sure herself and all of the remaining personnel were not going into custody for working under Nero, Noland's grandmother decided to take Karen with her temporarily. As everyone went their separate ways, Tank suggested that they throw a party sometime soon to commemorate this moment. Markus said that he thinks about partying too much, which caused them to go back and forth with each other over it. Tracy noted that some things still remain the same after all of that time working together. 

[Noland Hardy]

Karen stayed in Noland's house for one week while Montai and her colleagues got cleared of the scandal. Despite somewhat amending their relationship during the battling, they didn't talk to each other much outside of the house. In fact, every brawler in the Resistors except for Seiki did not say much to each other and only interacted when they saw one another at the Sports and Learning Complex working out by themselves. This was because the national championship was approaching, so everyone had to be in top gear without having anyone else as a distraction. Surprisingly, this event didn't get pushed back after what the country had to go through, and that was only because the site of the tournament took minimal effort to repair in comparison to Washington D.C. that was predicted to take two months to rebuild with the Bakugan's help.

While they essentially alienated themselves from their competition, the two individual teams still met with each other since it was a team effort in some way even though it took a backseat to coveting the actual title of champion. These only consisted of routine check-ins with the coach to make sure everything was going smoothly. The check-in that was noteworthy to point out was Karen's since their coach was made aware of Elico's passing not too long after the incident took place. The coach wasn't too comfortable around her since he was afraid of Hydranoid after what he had done during the war. When he met with Allen and Markus, he specifically instructed them to check on their teammate to see if she was fine since her attitude had changed from the last time he saw her.

After one month had passed, it was time for the ultimate test of strength for all brawlers: the national championship. The best brawlers the country had to over would compete to see which male or female has the right to call themselves the strongest. An unorthodox decision was made to pair all six of the competing brawlers into one bus, which Tank and Markus didn't really understand; however, the trade-off was that they got a super expensive ride for free for their service, which shut everyone up completely so they could enjoy the luxury. It even accommodated the people they chose to take with them, so they planned to load as many friends and family members as they could into one vehicle. The first weekend of May at 6 a.m. was when everyone congregated to the parking lot of their respective schools with their luggage. Markus, Allen, and Karen happened to be picked up first. When Markus playfully chimed that greatness got picked up first, Tank gave him a glaring look as he, Noland, and Tracy entered along with their family and friends. Noland also had a rather plain look on his face since Grandma actually forced him to take Alana's parents with him, and he never understood the reason why they were always with them.

The Arrival

They were taken to the site of the national championship: The Daniel Kuso Memorial Coliseum in Providence, Rhode Island. The hotel they were checked in at was the Renaissance Providence Hotel. Everyone unpacked their bags and started to unwind. Tank and Allen flocked over to the fitness center within thirty minutes of getting there. Noland was dragged in there by Tank because he insisted that he gets in the weight room, which Allen found a little bit comical. To their surprise, Noland was actually able to handle more weight than they thought he could without any prior training. While they were pumping iron, Markus ventured out to survey the battlefield and collect his thoughts. Tracy and her cheerleaders went shopping as they usually do when no one's watching. Karen chose to stay in her room to meditate; strangely, as her eyes were closed, a dark presence was causing her body to glow in a purple color.

They had that entire weekend to mess around, but once Sunday night came, it was time to get serious. There was a special dinner held in one of the event rooms to officially kick off the competition and wishing everyone luck. Another strange occurrence was that everyone had to come to the event in dress up attire. The men wore black suits with their ties representing their attributes while Tracy wore a fancy yellow dress; Karen settled for a blue silk top and dress pants instead though. Noland commented that they both looked nice, making both of them blush. They saw each other do this and quickly changed their attitude though. During this event, they were met with a nice surprise: Seiki. None of them expected her to be there since she never competed, but she revealed that she was the one singing the national anthem tomorrow. Ahio whispered in her ear to ask Noland how he thought she looked, which was met with the plucking of her feathers. Seiki mentioned that all six of them better represent them well throughout the competition since they are the ones to beat after all that they did.

[Noland Hardy]

When the event concluded, the Resistors paid their final respects before they become enemies on the battlefield the next day. Unfortunately, that time period was not as peaceful as they wanted it to be. At 11:30 that night, there was a loud scream heard directly outside of Seiki's room on the first floor. She panicked at the imminent danger and looked outside to find a competitor in the national championships curled up on the ground while screaming and crying. Before she could call for help, someone approached her from behind to restrain her. Seiki attempted to break free before the unidentified saboteur transferred energy through her body, which brought her resistance to a quick halt. The person began to speak, but in a very deep, otherworldly voice. It was said that the plan was to instill fear into one competitor by giving them a taste of their domain, and then one of the country's precious heroes would be lured out to respond. Once the transfer was complete, the person left the scene very quickly before the others showed up after having their sleep disturbed by all the noise.

Seiki's eyes flashed in a bright red color as they arrived. Tank demanded to have an answer for what was causing all of the ruckus, but Seiki plainly answered that he got what he deserved. Noland was appalled by her answer and was going to give her a second chance to give them a proper answer. She defiantly told him that what she said the first time was exactly what happened, and whether or not they accepted it didn't matter to her. Markus started to get uncomfortable with how the situation was escalating and opted for them to just interrogate the boy themselves since there was no evidence of a crime happening there just yet. Allen knelt down to talk with him only to find out he was subjected to obscene horrors he couldn't possibly describe after trying to talk with a very attractive girl he saw at the party. He admitted his mistake of not backing off after he was rejected very quickly, thereby fulfilling what Seiki originally said to them even though it was in a disrespectful way.

They brought him inside to shut him up since he most likely interrupted people's sleep. Tracy dealt with Seiki personally while the guys talked about their next course of action. Markus theorized that the girl the crybaby was referring to might have been Karen. A confused Noland asked for an explanation, which made Allen reveal that their coach informed them that Karen had a behavior change that seemed consistent with the one they just witnessed from Seiki a moment ago. Tank reminded them that there were plenty of girls present at the party, so going by what their coach said was meaningless until they had concrete proof that Karen was involved in any foul play. Tracy and Seiki seemed to be on talking terms in under two minutes, so she seemed perfectly fine from then on without mentioning her loss of memory of that particular encounter. Noland still didn't understand what the boy meant by obscene things and questioned the validity of pointing fingers at any specific person since Hydranoid wasn't even capable of doing that much to someone despite being a sight to see himself. Tank suggested to everyone that they maintain situational awareness at all times until they figure out who did it and why. With everyone in agreement, they proceeded to return to bed. The boy inquired about contacting the police after what happened to him. Without turning around, Noland told him that they weren't his maids and that he could report it himself.

[Noland Hardy]

In the morning, Noland chose not to go to breakfast with the others in order to have a talk with Karen. As he approached the table she was sitting at, he bumped into a gentleman by the name of Klaus von Hertzon, the second-best Aquos brawler in the nation. He shook Noland's hand as he introduced himself and was very honored to finally meet him face to face. Noland was taken by surprise at his manners, but accepted his greetings without hesitation. Not wanting to talk about anything pertaining to battle, Klaus briefly mentioned his awareness of what happened last night to one of his friends, Komba O'Charlie. He asked if everything was okay within his inner circle. Noland assured him they were fine despite having some concerns about Seiki's reaction. Klaus then casually revealed his interest in Tracy and Seiki as he called them very beautiful, especially Karen as he looked in her direction. He also stated that Komba described the person he hit on last night before he was attacked, but there was no recollection if the said person attacked him or not. Based on the girls he has seen so far and Komba pointing her out, Karen matched his description perfectly, which awakened a fear in Noland's heart that Markus was right. Klaus ended the conversation by telling him that he should be careful around her since Karen is the strongest girl he has seen in a long time based on her demeanor and battle stats.

When Noland went to sit down next to Karen, she was very happy to see him. She was delighted to finally get to talk to him as opposed to the numerous guys that kept trying to ask her out, which was something she noted to be digging up certain situations in the past, specifically mentioning the poisoning incident at the Complex. Noland got straight to the point by asking her if she was okay and how Hydranoid was holding up. Karen cheerfully said her and Hydranoid were in sync faster than she expected. She sent the same question back to Noland since it took a while for Drago to get back to 100% after defeating Baalenoid. Noland went along with the conversation by telling her Drago was back in top form after a week, but cited his concern about what has happened to a certain person last night. Karen acknowledged that she knew about the incident since someone named Billy Gilbert attempted to fight her over it thinking she did it. This made Noland ask her if she did it, which did hurt Karen a little. She stressed that she wouldn't have said what she said to him when they were almost sent to the Doom Dimension if she was just going to return to how she was at the beginning. She questioned if Noland even trusted what she was telling him at that point and if he truly meant what he said to her. Before Noland could say anything else, Karen dismissed him since he was now starting to ruin her focus for the battles ahead of them.

Kickoff

After breakfast was over, everyone starting heading over to the coliseum to prepare for the first day of nationals. The Resistors shared one final moment with their family and friends before checking in. The announcer interrupted the process to direct everyone's attention to the center of the battlefield for the singing of the national anthem, which was sung by Seiki. Every Resistor was more cautious about what she was going to do rather than listening to her voice due to what happened before, but their suspicions were eased when nothing sinister was seen or heard from her. When the song was concluded, she received the loudest ovation anyone has ever gotten from singing it, which could have been because of her status as a hero or how beautiful her voice was. Once check ins were completed, brackets were released. It was now time for everyone to prepare for battle.

[Noland Hardy]

The Trials

The first competitor to be examined was Tracy, the best Haos brawler from Maryland who made a debut appearance in this tournament. For the first time since the beginning of the year, Tracy was responsible for her own training regiment without Noland and Tank's interference in order to show how far she had come as a brawler, and her performance depicted that perfectly. What was also a first was how people were now beginning to take her seriously after seeing her grow, forcing brawlers like Reiji Amerson and Soon to act with extreme caution in a fight with her. As predicted, Tracy annihilated Awkwanoid and Krowll using Skystar's precise magic attacks and using her longevity to control the brawls. Her toughest opponent was none other than Julio Santana and his Tentaclear. The more experienced Julio took the crowd by surprise by dominating Tracy throughout the entire fight due to Tentaclear's blinding abilities. In order to finish her off, he activated Haos Freeze attack to blind Skystar while adding his Centipoid and Fear Ripper to the battle to knock her out. In a last-ditch effort, Tracy used Orbital Shield to reflect the gleam back at her opponents, which immobilized all three of Julio's Bakugan with the effect being stronger on Tentaclear. She then used her Starlight Breaker ability to have Skystar knock both Centipoid and Fear Ripper out of the brawl in one swing. When Skystar went for Tentaclear, Julio ordered his Bakugan to repel her using his tentacles since his eye was closed, but Tracy countered using Sentinal Automation to pave a clear path for Skystar to slam her mace into the creature, knocking it out and earning Tracy a come-from-behind victory.

The second one to be looked at was Markus who has had some bad luck recently in terms of his battle record outside of competitions. Despite this obstacle, he was expected to go a long way in the tournament due to his long-standing rivalry with Tank. His change in attitude after losing to Noland in the state championship gave him the motivation he needed to improve himself accordingly, and he did just that. With his new abilities, Markus got his revenge against Lico Dettachi even though the latter had an evolved Bakugan. His notoriety skyrocketed in the competition since he was personally responsible for taking down numerous brawlers who stood a very threatening chance at forcing any of the Resistors into submission. Two of those brawlers were Christina and Taylor. Christina owned a Darkus Clawsaurus, a Bakugan that is very difficult to attack from the ground. Taylor owned a Darkus Venoclaw, and, due to her unique battle style, was said to be the Darkus version of Allen. Markus persevered against them both using combos started from Gargulion's Petrify ability that allowed him to form stone bodies for Gargulion to inhabit that gave him the strength to dominate his enemies.

The third brawler was none other than the champ himself, Tank. The only notable trait from him that wasn't already known from before was his rare loss to Noland before the season began; nevertheless, that didn't take away from his intimidating strength in battle at all. His heightened battle senses from everything he has experienced over the months allowed him to completely wreck opponents that gave him trouble in the past. His battles did not last long enough to wonder if Tank was actually trying in his brawls at all until he faced off against a brawler who was very interested in getting revenge, Klaus von Hertzon. His Aquos Sirenoid was the Bakugan that nearly spelled the end for Tank during his run for the championship last year, so Tank was very focused on making sure Klaus didn't have the satisfaction of getting any closer to beating him. Sirenoid had succeeded in making Gladion's weapon variety useless through her Final Neptune ability. This made Tank and Gladion fight in a very uncomfortable manner since they were constantly being stripped of their weapons whenever they were summoned. He chose not to fight the situation and waited to see what Klaus was going to do since Gladion was able to avoid substantial damage from Sirenoid's attacks. Klaus then flooded the arena to place Sirenoid in her natural environment to gain a slight advantage over Gladion. He used Devora Anthemusa to summon a strong current that continuously pounded Gladion. Tank responded by using Claymore of Zeus to zap Sirenoid, which gave Gladion enough time to steal her harp using Weapon's Thief and send her reeling using Warhammer of Ares. Sirenoid responded by using Anthemusa to pull Gladion inwards for a one-hit take-down, but Tank countered with Trident of Poseidon to shift the effects of the current towards her, which made her get hit with her own ability and knocked her out of the battle.

[Noland Hardy]

Allen was the fourth and was arguably one of the two brawlers people were mostly interested to see other than Noland. He had a lot of pressure on him after being reputed as the best defensive brawler. The fans he garnered from his calm and collected personality on the battlefield expected him to deliver, and he did. He didn't just stop there though; his performance literally shook the coliseum. He fought battle after battle without showing any signs of being stressed, and Gorem didn't have a single scratch on him. Lian Fennika came back for a rematch against the Iron Juggernaut, but after going to toe to toe with him here, she openly wondered if it was luck that she lasted as long as she did during the season. The brawl that could be considered his trial was against Billy Gilbert, the country's most powerful Subterra brawler according to past performances. He had a Subterra Cycloid that boasted incredible physical strength in addition the stone hammer he wielded. When Cycloid saw Gorem for the first time face to face, he started talking a lot of trash as he usually does, but he backed it up really well. His strength and his weapon made it difficult for Allen to deal with him effectively, but he still held his own. It became problematic for Allen when Billy used Copycat to copy Gorem's Bound Barrier. Believing he backed the Gorem into a corner, Cycloid proceeded to end the duel with Gigantic Hammer. As he swung, Allen used Vicious Counter to give Gorem the energy he needed to completely shatter Cycloid's hammer with his shoulder. Megalith Boxer was all Allen needed to use to break through the mockery of his abilities and defeat Cycloid with one precise hit to the head.

Coming in fifth in the analysis was the Master Blaze himself. He didn't need an introduction; anyone who knew him was already aware of his power. Noland was ignorant to his competition, so whenever someone talked a lot of trash towards him as if they were stronger than him, he assumed that they must have been strong just so he knows not to mess up. When his opponents stepped up to him in battle, they left questioning the extent of their own power. Most of his opponents were finished in under a minute, which further showed that all of the credibility he had as the best offensive brawler was well deserved. Just like his teammates, Noland instilled a lot of fear into other brawlers by ensuring two top ranked brawlers didn't make it to the higher rounds. One of them was Ben, who was also called "Big Ben" by some people despite that name belonging to someone else. Despite his Bakugan, Bolcanon, being known for fast victories against his opponents due to his speed, he could not defend himself from Drago's firepower and was defeated in a similar manner to his previous incarnation where the resulting explosion from Drago's Hyperstrike engulfed him and sent him out of the battle. The other was Chan Lee, the nation's best Pyrus brawler in the competitive scene. Her Fourtress gave Noland and Drago a challenge, and his fusion ability, Thunder Sky - Thousand Swords Rain, nearly incapacitated Drago. Noland swiftly dealt with the ability by using Faultless Guard to chain his Nova Dragon ability together with Rage Fire to deliver a long ranged punch that slammed Fourtress into the barriers of the arena, returning him to ball form and ending the fight. Noland walked away from that battle with not only more fans, but yet another girl with a developed crush on him.

The last brawler to be discussed is Karen. She was a surprising factor for most people since they expected to see Elico being used. They weren't aware of what happened to him nor were they aware of the Bakugan she was using. The Resistors were the only people who knew she was armed with Hydranoid, but no one else did. The fact that they were unaware of his presence gave Karen too much power in battle since they did not know how to combat her. This led to many brawls that were ended very quickly because Hydranoid one-shotted them off of their careless mistakes. To make their loss even worse, Karen kept her usual playful personality while fighting since she thought it was funny that they were being embarrassed in this manner, which left a lot of her opponents highly pissed off about their performance. Many thought this was just a limited time occurrence until Karen sniped all five of New York's best brawlers that were led by Jimmy Kyudai off of the brackets and publicly routed a top prospect, Gunz Lazar. His Reptak was said to be strong enough to go blow for blow with Gladion. He even underestimated her by telling her that she wasn't worth his time. Unfortunately, it ended up being the other way around. He was able to last for quite some time, but once he activated Thunder Valley and got within a few meters of Hydranoid, that was all the hydra needed to grind him up using Guillotine. This guaranteed that no other man or woman would look at her the wrong way.

[Noland Hardy]

By the end of the day, everyone met back in the lobby to see how they were doing. Seiki was excited to see that they were all still in the tournament since there was a certain green bird that was getting tense in the audience. While Tank has never done this before towards Karen, he gave her a lot of respect as an opponent for what she did against New York's Team Blaster since he heard they were a frightening force to fight against, especially after what they did to defend New York when the Pack went up there. Seeing one brawler eliminate them all by herself impressed Tank a lot. Markus was a bit jealous she got matched against Gunz since he wanted to pay him back for the amount of trash talking he was doing during check ins. He was satisfied with Gunz getting destroyed in battle like he did though. Karen was caught off guard by Tank and Markus complimenting her battle ability, so she hesitated to thank them for it.

Allen thought about the amount of people talking that way towards them and noted that there has been a lot of that kind of talk going on. Noland added onto it by saying there were a lot of them that haven't been able to back it up either. Tracy informed them all that their success shouldn't let them deviate from their focus on winning in favor of a cocky attitude since there were still tough brawlers out there that they haven't faced yet, including themselves. They proceeded to go to dinner together shortly after their talk. Noland attempted to get back on speaking terms with Karen after she got mad at him that morning, so he apologized for giving the impression he didn't trust her. She let him know how she got the feeling the only reason Noland wanted to talk to her in the first place considering they barely talked after surviving Nero was because he wanted to investigate her after the allegations. She also felt as if Tank believed in her more than Noland did despite never being on his good side. Noland did believe this was true since Tank showed more optimism over this scandal than anyone else at the time, so he couldn't say anything to that. Noland gave a really smug response since he wasn't in the mood for any guilt trips by asking if what she just told him meant she wasn't accepting his sincere apology. Karen walked away from him by telling him she would talk to him later, and as expected from most people, she would not tell him the specific time frame she meant by that statement.

[Noland Hardy]