Before the Collision: World's Apart

[Lydia Andersen]

Lydia kept peacefully and patiently staring at Maurice with a calm smile on her face. She was simply waiting for him to finish talking since his brain was capable of coming up with lies pretty quickly and his mouth did not seem to have an issue keeping up with it either. Judging by how he acts one might believe him, but no punk like that would ever be let inside world championship and why would he not use reward money from the championship to fix up the state he lives in? Surely weed and alcohol do not cost that much- unless he has been buying them from EA or something like that. Considering Lydia has inhuman senses (e.g. sight, smell, hearing, touch...) she did not need to connect any dots to learn this kid was lying. She could discern his smell and voice from 3 kilometers away hearing everything he said prior to her arrival- it definitely did not sound like he does not have a home or that he just wants to 'live peacefully' from now on. Once he was done talking Lydia began playing with her hair.

"I see, I see..." Lydia responded slowly.

"And what if I told you I brought you the opportunity to make it all much better?" Lydia made a vague offer. The moment she asked that Maurice and his buddies could feel a faint but sweet scent forming around them- it did not seem like perfume from Lydia or anything like that but more like... flower scent.

[Noland Hardy]

Maurice could feel a disturbing presence swirling around him, threatening to consume all in as little as three seconds.

"..." Maurice wasted no time in summoning Sprayzer in front of him. When Sprayzer got front and center, he hit the ground to cause water to spout from underneath, which was intended to stun Lydia to give Maurice and company time to get away.

"I don't know what that smell was, but that wasn't there before!" Maurice understood as he was gunning it, showing that, while he was a fool for doing what he did to Noland, he had some common sense about his surroundings. Sprayzer started running in Maurice's direction and was careful not to run over any cars or people.

"Let's get the fuck out of here! That chick's crazy!" Maurice asserted to everyone.

[Lydia Andersen]

Lydia silently giggled at such predictable attempt of escape. Her innocent smile turned into a smug smirk as she looked at the gang running accompanied by the big Bakugan. Noland and Drago are powerful opponents- one needs quite a bit of power to stand against them... not to talk about defeating them. However, Lydia and Maste are not opponents one can defeat with strength and damage- for defeating them one may require a completely different approach which, logically, will not be revealed here. They can manipulate existence, travel dimensions, distort reality to seem or become different, rewrite events etc. One of the notable figures who could use one of these powers was professor Kyuki with his special ability he, luckily, could not use in the Achron form and it is Broken Reality- one can spread their influence in a certain radius and completely manipulate what happens inside the influenced area. They can make it so things that normally cannot happen there actually happen.

"Oh, I see you inhaled it- good." Lydia said with a mild and soothing tone. "I could just wait for effects to kick in and pick him up, but I may want a little exercise. I want to see what my body has become." Lydia thought to herself. Without heading after these people and the Bakugan she began stretching her fingers, arms and body as if she was preparing for an exercise. "Maste, would you kindly?" Lydia said inside her own head. 

"Of course." Maste's voice passed through Lydia's mind in a form of whisper.

The group was running alongside their Bakugan and for a split second every single one of them could feel like something just went really wrong- as if they had taken a wrong turn or as if they were heading in the wrong direction. They felt like a brief flash of light blinded them, but there was no source of light anywhere. They were alone. And then their eyes caught on- they were in a completely different area... it was still the same street, but a completely different part of it- definitely not the part they were going to. And as they confused by this event they could hear the sound of gentle steps mixed with soothing whistling coming from very close. Before one could react a familiar female voice was heard coming from around the corner. It seemed to them like she was... singing...

Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Brother John, Brother John?
Morning Bells are Ringing
Morning Bells are Ringing
Ding Dang Dong, Ding Dang Dong

It was not any encouraging hearing that female voice sing, what seemed like, a song for children's books. It seemed very creepy, at the very least, hearing it in the middle of the night in dark alleyways. And they did not know where they were when, suddenly, only Sprayzer could see a beautiful female Bakugan- left side of her outfit completely colored in black and right side colored in white. Each side had wings; left had devil's wings and right had angel's wings. No one else seemed to notice her presence and she was definitely not the one singing. She was just levitating in the air and looking at Sprayzer without making a single movement or a sound. The more he looked at her the more tense he felt.

[Noland Hardy]

"Oh fuck no..." Maurice was stricken with grief, like he lost everything. Sprayzer continued to look at Maste in horror. Without offering any resistance, he put his hands up, surrendering all he had to this power beyond imagination.

"I'm not going to even try. I got my ass beat by some god-level Dragonoid, and now I'm being hunted by something I can't even see, and Sprayzer's giving up like he saw the devil? I've had enough! You got it, okay!? You win!" Maurice resigned. "You want to know where I live? I'll get you that no problem, okay? No more lying, no more running, and no more brawling, if you want to throw that in there too. Just please stop freaking me out. I can't handle the power! I had enough for one day!"

Whether or not Lydia was going to leave him alone remained to be certain, but one thing was for sure. Maurice was never brawling competitively again, at least not until he gets some more training and all the bullshit he needs to survive these shenanigans.

"If I said something about you on Twitter, I'm sorry!" Maurice added in with grief and horror in the tone of his voice.

[Lydia Andersen]

The song kept on going behind the corner and it seemed to be coming closer and closer without any response to Maurice whatsoever. Everybody was expecting that the violet-haired girl would pop out from behind the corner. Instead of that he heard a single faint *clank* behind him and before he could turn there was a voice. "I am glad you have some to your senses." Lydia's voice came from behind him. Her voice could still be heard from that corner- however, for a few seconds, it got quieter now that Lydia was near Maurice. "I could not bring myself to watch you run around in circles anymore either- sorry!" Lydia apologized with what seemed like a very innocent tone. Sight of Maste disappeared from Sprayzer's eyes, but he was smart enough to know whatever that was it was not permanently gone. 

"Okay, my dear champion- lead the way." Lydia politely said to Maurice to lead her to his home and then she turned to his friends and Sprayzer. "I would love you guys to accompany us as well- pleeease?" She 'begged' with a cute and soothing tone, but it was definite that everyone was scared enough to know her adorable nature was not to be taken so lightly. Seeing how shocked Maurice was she pat him on the head which seemed quite humiliating for a guy like him. "Aww, no worries- I won't hurt you." She said.

[Noland Hardy]

Maurice led Lydia near Anacostia, specifically near Frederick Douglas' house. This was an extremely dangerous area, one where gunshots could be heard in the area every day. Of course, with Bakugan involved, it could be said that Bakugan-related incidents are common here as well.

In fact...this was where Daniel Andersen first attacked back when he was evil...

Maurice's house was an apartment-style home, one where his family's living space was on the left side on the first floor. He leads Lydia inside, and the first thing that became apparent was that there was no one else in the house.

"I didn't lie about my parents..." Maurice confessed. "So...here you are. Is this all you want?"

[Lydia Andersen]

Lydia walked into the apartment. She gave all of those people a sign to move in alongside her. She was observing the messy apartment for some time; dirty clothing over the floor, scattered mail, textbooks, there were even toys for kids. Lydia was saddened by the lifestyle this person has to live in and, considering the circumstances, every one of these friends that tagged along was probably no different. She moved a bit further- into the living room. There was a table full of papers, pencils and Doritos scattered across it- a PC was taking most of the space. "Hm..." Lydia muttered to herself as she stared at the computer- her original goal was lying inside that computer, but her main goal had changed. Lydia turned towards everyone who was following her and looked at them with an intense aura about her- she did not seem like an innocent individual anymore, but seemed more like an adult- someone who might be more of an adult than their youth suggests.

"While I do what I must I want you to answer yourself these questions... all of you..." Lydia said focusing on each one of them and expecting every single one of them to think upon what she was about to ask.

"Are you happy the way you are? If you could change your life from this point an onward would you do it? And what would you change?" Lydia inquired with a straight face.

Upon doing that she snapped her finger and suddenly the same scent from before took over the room. Maurice and everyone had flowers of some kind appear below them and before they knew it there were several gigantic flowers that, literally, swallowed all of them up. The scent of nectar coming from the flowers was captivating- the moment it was released in such intensity their entire resistance was brought down to zero. After a few seconds there were a few gigantic flowers with their petals closed up- each flower having one person captured inside. However, they were not even aware of being captured. Scent put them into a state of daydreaming. Their lives were passing before their eyes in seconds- every little thing they did and that was done to them; everything they had seen, felt and experienced- good and bad. They could see everything that happened in their lives prior to this point... that would help them answer that question to themselves. Are they happy with their life and what would they change? Would they try to be more responsible, not skip school, instead of being disrespectful maybe saying 'I love you' to their mother and father so that they do not regret it when one day they return from school and learn that they will never see their family again. Many of us look in the past with regret- what could change to make you accept it? What would let you push forward with a smile? Despite the temptation- the answer is not in drugs and alcohol. If there is happiness out there it would be one big disappointment living a life of misery when it all could have been changed by one simple decision...

While these young people were being exposed to the re-evaluation of their own lives the nectar from the flowers was covering their bodies and working as a remedy- cleansing their organs of the trash they have been consuming over the years and ruining their own lives with it and healing it once and for all. Even their dirty clothing was 'healed' until it looked like new.

Lydia took her time and approached the computer. Using her enhanced senses she was capable of determining which buttons needed to be pressed in what order to break through the password. And she began exploring, searching. Any information about other people's involvement in shameful attempts to harm Master Blaze or Resistors in general was going to be saved onto Maste's 'data drive'. She has been at it for a couple of hours- she found some interesting data, some... inappropriate data and the rest was junk. Once she saved what was necessary she stood up, turned the PC off and looked at the 'flower capsules'. They were about to be finished and opened.

---

Next morning 9:00 AM

The sun was up for quite some time now. The capsules opened during the night- everyone was still asleep. Lydia placed them all in most comfortable places she could find- if beds were insufficient she used Maste's properties to make floor 'very soft and comfty'. The floor was clean and sparking- there was no sign of a single piece of dirty clothing on it, not a single piece of paper or any trash. Maurice's table was tidy as well. One could hear washing machine working in the background. The dark and damp room was brightened by the sun's light and there was no stench of alcohol, weed or anything... instead there was a mesmerizing scent of what seemed like... food, breakfast. Maurice and everyone else were asleep for nearly twelve hours and they were sure to wake up very soon.

[Noland Hardy]

Maurice was the first one to wake up. He slowly rose from the bed as if we was a working man sick and tired of waking up for life. As he started to regain full consciousness, the full story of what transpired before he was imprisoned against his will started to surge through his mind. He remembers smelling that scent again, and a man-eating flower having some nice dinner at his expense.

Needless to say, he was extremely pissed off.

He followed the scent of food all the way to the kitchen where he found this daughter of a bitch cooking on his stove. To Maurice, it was like Lydia wanted to cook herself some pancakes and eggs right in front of the people she temporarily enslaved, at least to him.

"What. Is. Wrong. With. You!?" Maurice yelled. "I gave you what you wanted, and I get eaten by a flower!? What else needs to kick my ass before you finally leave me alone!? And that's my food! I bet you've eaten some of it too! Do you have any idea on what I have to do to get all of this!? And I feel even worse now, because I dreamed about several things that are none of your damn business! Get out, or put me in whatever you did earlier! I don't care anymore! As long as you're gone!"

[Lydia Andersen]

"Now now- don't be like that." Lydia calmly responded.

She did not bother to immediately answer any of those things he was saying to her- she put the cooked food on the plates and two-by-two she put them all on the small wooden table that was, clearly, used for food. Well, back several hours ago it looked like a coast after hurricane Katrina, but now it looks like a table for eating. After she placed all of the plates on the table she turned to Maurice with a concerned look. "First, I bought this myself and made it for you- you certainly look too skinny for your age. Second, I cannot use your food even if I want to because moldy bread and cans of meat with alarming expiration date are not my preference for a breakfast." Lydia first explained herself regarding the food. Since there were plenty of shops and restaurants in the area Lydia simply helped herself and purchased several goodies.

"Third, those 'things'..." She said as she pointed her finger towards the direction of the door where flowery capsules where. "...were used to heal you- you feel worse because there is not a single bit of weed or alcohol in your body now to mask the reality you live in. Your liver should be thankful." Lydia explained. If he had not been healed and cleansed none of her planned goals would be accomplished. Lydia had purchased blue apron she was using not to get all the food stains on her clothing- even though she could just use Maste to undo it she preferred to do things by her own hand. She removed the apron and put it over the chair she was about to sit into- she calmly sat despite all the rage Maurice had going on. "Now sit down and eat before it gets cold- whether you like it or not I have an important discussion to have with you and your... peers. Once I am finished with that I will leave as you wish." Lydia said waiting for the rest of his group to wake up as well.

[Noland Hardy]

Maurice fumed in anger as he was now in the position where he had to be thankful for whatever she did. He reluctantly made his plate and sat down to eat.

"It wasn't moldy," he whined as he started chewing. "And nothing expired either...I had two days...maybe one..." As he ate, the rest of the group started waking up. They were all aware of how some crazy plants came out of nowhere and scooped them all up. They were less than pleased to remember this; however, they did not react the same way Maurice did. The only thing they focused on was the smell of the food. The obvious scenario followed.

"Alright, now what is this thing you want to talk to me about? And if I choose to listen to this until the end, are you somehow going to convince the carpet to grow a mouth and swallow me? Is Sprayzer going to get sent to hell? Am I in a different dimension altogether?" Maurice started putting out there, hoping she wasn't going to answer those questions with things he was assuming was going on.

[Lydia Andersen]

Once everyone was at the table Lydia smiled a little bit. They certainly seemed to enjoy her cooking- thankfully, she had some lessons from her favorite cooks in Eden- Petra and Shabelle. It did seem to pay off- these people would probably be drooling and begging for more if she made some of her special fried chicken or fruit salad. But it was no time to be thinking about food no matter how much of a glutton Lydia is- the point was to get to business with these people as soon as possible. Maurice was already asking 'expected' questions for someone who got swallowed by a flower. She waited for a little and then concentrated on explaining the situation. "First off- no swallowing, no hell and no dimensions." Lydia shortly replied to him with a smile.

"Second, my name is Lydia. Nice to meet you, all." She greeted with a short introduction.

"Believe it or not I am Eden's operative and therapist for your beloved friend, Noland Hardy!" Lydia briefly explained her position. "And, no, I will not be doing anything bad to you for openly provoking my client." Lydia assured him. She was a scary type, but not violent unless it was absolutely necessary. She loves diplomacy more than combat as it may build much more meaningful results if used properly. Conflicts over things usually yield a lot more conflicts and complication for all involved sides- it is best avoided in her eyes. 

"Before I get to complicated stuff... you recall me putting you in those chambers. Whatever you have witnessed while asleep was not meant for ill- it was an attempt to help you realize a bit more what situation you are in and how you might have ended up here and, potentially, how to get out of it. Of course, it is still your private knowledge and I cannot read minds no matter how cool that would be. Anyways, before I put you in the chambers I asked you some questions- I am certain you remember them. Flashbacks you had would help you answer those questions. So- may I hear your answers to them? I am certain you have, at least, one." Lydia explained the purpose behind the flowers she used. Those work like chambers that cause one to experience flashbacks of their life, as explained in few posts ahead and after experiencing those flashbacks answering those questions would be very simple. Lydia, this time, looked dead serious about what she said- expecting an answer to come out of them.

[Noland Hardy]

Maurice put down his silverware the moment Lydia started talking about those questions. He was very annoyed right now, because this random lady decided to do all of what she did, and expects him to produce.

He paused for a bit, since everything that was happening was starting to add up. He knew exactly why Lydia was here.

"You're here to help me," Maurice figured out. "You came to me after the brawl, because you guessed there was something wrong here? Someone from Eden just chooses me out of any motherfucker in the street that has it worse than I do? Really...?"

Maurice shook his head at this sudden realization that he was on the radar of Noland's therapist of all people. "Why does this even matter to you? I lost!" says Maurice. "Do you realize how unrealistic it is for someone like you to just walk up in here to ask me those kinds of questions? What do you even want from me?"

[Lydia Andersen]

"Eden never told me to come here- it was my decision. My intention was to get information from you on people involved into that little... Twitter game because I would love to pay them a visit as well and bother them. Now- I would say it is my secondary or tertiary goal." Lydia revealed her original mission as for why she came over there and did all she did to them. Though along the way she changed her mind and decided it was not as important as taking care of Maurice's mess and everything that has been happening around it. He is a stubborn and unfriendly individual so Lydia does not expect many results right away, but it did not hurt to try. 

"You are correct- this is very unrealistic. Attempting to lend a hand to a human in need without asking for anything in return but hard work is insane by 21st century's human standards. According to the 'Welcome to 21st century' guidebook I should now be berating you, slapping you and yelling at you and then scream you are 'sexist' if you attempt to fight back." Lydia admitted to her approach. However, people who work in her profession are not going to berate a person and will act the way she acts.  "Instead, despite what you may think of yourself and what other people may think of you after you lost to my client you are still an influential person and a skilled brawler." 

"So... I give you a small nudge so you can get your lives together and in exchange you help me take care of those other 'motherfuckers who have it worse than you'. It is a simple 'celebrity trick'- if someone like you lights the flames for such movement there are plenty of your fans who will add oil to it. It is much quicker, easier and simpler than only involving Eden in it. Of course, your aid to us would not be free- you would be paid properly. A much better deal than living from scraps on the streets and it would be permanent." Lydia offered with finally revealing one of her plans she wanted to set in motion. There were plenty of people who needed help out there and whose lives were in a worse situation that Maurice's. He said it himself and it was an absolute truth. It is Eden's job to take care of them, but it is a much slower process since it does require lots of funds from organization's pockets- with the aid of society and government once they are 'pressured' in the right way, with involvement of a world champion, it would be much more beneficial. Maurice might have done some bad things, but he still has plenty of people who respect him and Lydia is certain she could get his life back together and then allow him to help those who are in bigger need. 

[Noland Hardy]

"..." Maurice sighed, then slowly nodded. "You want information about those guys?" Maurice said. "I don't know those people nor did I tell anyone to say or do anything. I have nothing to say about them."

"All I know is that I'd be a dumbass if I told you that I think this lifestyle is better than the alternative. Yes, I want to do better. No, I don't think that what I did recently was a good idea. I just never had someone to pull me out of it and get me to care that it was wrong, for very obvious reasons," he freely admitted. "I lived like this for years. We got fight clubs, bitches - err, females, guns, crack, all of the 'essentials'. People want to act like saints and want to trash people for maybe saying one comment too many or being on the stuff, but they don't even know. I just didn't have the same home training that they did. That's the truth. Around here, fame is more important than anything else. I just did what was going to get me IT."

"So yes, I'll help you do whatever it is that you're after," he accepted. "but like I said, I can't help you with those other people. They're separate messes altogether."

[Lydia Andersen]

"Perfect!" Lydia responded.

"You do not have to worry about that anymore." Lydia referred to the involvement of other people.

She then slowly stood up, turned around and walked off into the kitchen. Only now everyone noticed a big bag on the floor near the stove- it had Eden's logo on it. Lydia leaned and opened up the bag and started rummaging through its content. With the position she had taken the audience behind her clearly had some time to completely analyze all curves they could see and admire the scenery while they had the chance. They definitely did not want her to catch them looking at her like that so they had to be careful with it- it was probably worth it as well. Lydia pulled out what seemed like a wide piece of paper, several colored markers and, what seemed like, business card. She spread the paper across the table and it clearly looked like a map of the area in a radius of few kilometers. She held the colored markers by her side and put the card in her pocket. "Now, my dear assistants. Your first mission will be to tell me locations of all these wonderful places where I can find these clubs, drugs and females. Every single one you know and, please, no cheating and lying to me, okay? ♥" Lydia said with a rhythmic tone at the end as she smiled at her new little puppets. Though Maste could find these it was not her specialty so it would take some time- asking outright would be much simpler.

"Once you are done we will take care of those together to secure the streets a bit more. That means no drugs or alcohol for you, dearies, either!" She said playfully almost as if she was provoking them that they could not access it anymore under her watch. With usage of those flower capsules their urge to consume those things has been partially lifted- one cannot completely remove it without further work on it, but they will not be desperately craving it or getting agitated if they do not receive it. "I am sure that sort of work would rise your reputation even further. Once we wrap that up- I will give you places where you can work properly- we will find something for each of you and I will be monitoring the progress- I am sure people young and capable as you will adapt pretty quickly to it. And plus, you get paid- so you do not need to live like rats." Lydia explained her plans for these people. She was intending to make this guys into a reliable workforce that would contribute to the society in every way and with this work to 'cure them' of their past and unfortunate life.

"NOW- while you mark those spots for me..." She said as she gave them the markers. "... I will take the liberty of taking a long-deserved shower." She openly stated and, as expected, she headed into the apartment's bathroom as if she owned the place. In a few moments they could actually her the shower running- she was not even joking about that one.