Before the Collision: Maverick Hunter

[Alana Cortese]

(Everyday Life)

Ever since Alana had been going to Lydia for therapeutic sessions, she has been feeling a lot more comfortable, enough to finally branch out and try different things. One of them was yoga, something she found incredibly relaxing. Another was kickboxing, which most would find surprising. Finally, there was drawing; she was able to draw all of the Resistors' Bakugan with great detail, except for Hydranoid's picture, since he was a chronic complainer. 

She was in her house working on something she was making for Noland. It was MegaMan Zero, Noland's favorite video game character. She went with the model Zero had for the X series, even though Noland really preferred the way he looked in the Zero series. She didn't know which one Noland liked, so it was a blind job. Hydranoid - in his robed form - was looking at what she was making with great curiosity. 

"So...why are you doing this...?" Hydranoid wondered, his tone making the implication he thought of this as a bad move. 

"Lydia doesn't think people our age should be concerning ourselves with grudges or whatever, so she wants us to come up with something that could make forgiving ourselves or each other an easier job," Alana explained. "This is the only thing I came up with..."

"Makes sense... So who's this guy?"

"Zero."

"You say that as if I, a Bakugan, knows what media these characters come from."

"You say that as if you would care."

"...You know me too well now..."

"BUT this is a character I know HE cares a lot about, so...I guess I want to get to know about him too."

"You really miss him, don't you?"

"Yeah... It's so weird... I try not to think about it too much, but I feel kinda empty since I knew him for so long... How is it that I'm still feeling like that after a year? Does it usually take that long or longer to move on?"

"Yes..."

"Speaking from experience?" Alana was waiting for Hydranoid to get mad at that comment, since he knew what she was getting at. 

"..." Hydranoid threw up two middle fingers in response to that question. 

"Love you," Alana chimed, laughing at Hydranoid's demeanor. 

"Whatever."

[Noland Hardy]

While Noland was supposed to be coming up with a gift to give to Alana, he decided to do some training. He was at the Sports and Learning Complex in the battle arenas. Him and Drago were sparring with Seiki and Ahio, since the Ventus Soldier was being trained by Noland now.

Everyone was watching the battle. Some sent some confused looks Noland's way, as him and Drago were doing something very...disrespectful, as some might take it. Their eyes were closed. This was for training purposes, as Noland and Drago wanted to hone in on their sensing abilities for right now, and Ahio being a speedster would put him to the test.

"So...uh..." Drago was trying to gather his words properly while he dodged a super fast attack from Ahio, without having to look at it. "You come up with anything?"

"Hm...about that..." Noland sighed.

"We shouldn't have come here..."

"..." Drago knelt on the floor to dodge an attack from behind, and then had to brace himself to catch an incoming pile-driving move from Ahio. "Alright...we're almost done with the warm-up..." Noland announced, making sure Seiki could hear him. Noland and Drago still kept their eyes closed for this next exercise. "Now you'll dodge our attacks. Don't run or fly away from us; just react when we move."

"We're going to stimulate your accelerated thought process," Drago clarified. "If I don't hit you at all, we'll be good to go. Give us two minutes."

"Speaking of which...wasn't Alana a Sonic fangirl?" Noland asked Drago. "Or...was it My Little Pony? Damn...I really forgot."

[Andrew Bullock]

Montai was strolling down the D.C. streets until she arrived at a Starbucks. Off into the corner was a man with a very familiar scowl. She locked onto that very quickly and took a seat right across from him.

"Hey..." Montai hesitantly greeted.

"Hey..." Andrew greeted back.

"Um, so..."

"You sound a lot more nervous than I am when I was the one in trouble," he quickly noticed.

"Don't pretend like you don't know why!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know... You're worried, but thanks to my powers, I was able to get a sample rather than get turned. Hades analyzed its properties. I gotta tell ya. You're going to LOVE what this is."

"Well, what's going on? What is this...?"

Andrew pulled out a copy of the analysis done on whatever was causing problems for him. Montai took it and read it over. Her eyes nearly fell off when she saw what was going on. "But...how...?"

"That's the mystery I want to figure out," Andrew replied. "I think this may be the work of one of my old 'friends'...Crimson."

"Crimson...?"

"One of the most dangerous men on this planet. That's a Silver Knight problem, so neither you or I should be concerned about him; however...these 'things', what he calls the Maverick virus, are serious problems. These are less intelligent Hurranians that can drive a being insane. If this were to infect any of the Resistors, we'd have a global catastrophe on our hands."

"...Can we stop it?"

"If you have a highly-advanced bug spray, then yeah, we'll manage, but other than that, the BT System...if we knew where Genesis Dragonoid put it."

"Good grief..."

[Alana Cortese]

"Finished!" Alana chimed, as she completed the picture of Zero.

"Hm?" Hydranoid hovered over the picture to look it over. "That...is actually pretty good," he claimed. "If this guy is as important to Noland as you're making it sound, you ARE in. Guaranteed."

"Mhm, and just in time too." Alana pulled out three different coupons to an Asian-themed restaurant.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk."

"What?"

"I believe that guy intended to give you TWO of those, since he was clearly trying to ask you out."

"So...?"

"You rejected him, took the coupons anyway, and then took an extra one."

"He OFFERED them, so I TOOK them. If I was supposed to go out with him to get these, he should've said so BEFORE I got my hands on them. That's too bad for him. This happens to be my favorite restaurant in Chinatown. If someone just says, 'Here, take them,' who am I to turn THAT down?"

"And you wonder why guys are literally scared to approach you."

"It's because of YOU."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

Then the doorbell rang. Alana went to the door and looked through the peephole. When she saw who it was, she groaned.

"What? Who is it?" Hydranoid looked next, and he was far from pleased. "Hm... Okay. Here's what I want." Hydranoid walked to an empty space on the wall to their left. He brushed his hand over the selected space. "I want Sprayzer's head hung here. Then..." He moved his hand down a couple of spaces. "The boy's head goes here. Any questions?"

"Um...yes. Why are you so violent?"

"It's in my nature. Now, bring the boy to me. I have...a couple of questions for him."

"Yes, 'master'," Alana complied. She opened the door to see Maurice standing right there with his guard down.

"Uh...hi...Alana..." Maurice nervously greeted.

"...How do you know where I live...?"

"You're famous, and people point it out all the time?"

"Alright. That makes sense. So what do you want? I have a homicidal hydra that wants your heads hung up on walls, so be quick with whatever shenanigan you're going to pull."

"You weren't supposed to tell him!" Hydranoid complained.

"Oh...well...two things. One, I'm sorry for insulting a lovely lady like yourself. I was an idiot that deserves to be hurt very badly."

"True...go on..."

"And...I wanted to ask you about something rather serious..."

[Alana Cortese]

Alana was looking at a picture of an alien-looking creature. She spent some time with it to see if she could piece it together, but she truly didn't know what this was.

But she had a good guess...

"You could be killed for knowing about this..." Alana warned Maurice.

"So can you," Maurice responded.

"Oh, so you DO want me to be in danger? Thanks a lot."

"No, wait...I didn't- I'm sorry!"

"Sure you are. Were you the one who took this picture?"

"Yes. Someone came into the Underground last night looking like that. It was dreadful. I've never seen such ghastly behavior happen right in front of me. She even trafficked some of those people. I don't know how I got away, but I did."

"Did you report this already?"

"I was in the Underground! I can't tell the cops that! They'll throw me in the slammer!"

"You deserve it for going down there in the first place! Also, if human trafficking is going on, these people deserve to know what's happening to their family or friends!"

"Fair point, but it was for good reason. I thought it would help Lydia out if I kept giving her information for what's going on in the community. I didn't know I was going to see THAT THING."

"I didn't know I became a detective or a police officer, but here you are telling me all of this."

"I just wanted to show this to one of you so you could see that there's something out there that's trying to get us. I didn't do it so one of you could find it and defeat it or anything. I'm just giving out a PSA. That's it."

"Then do it the right way." Alana took a picture of the photo to keep to herself, but gave the original back to Maurice. "You need to take some responsibility and do this yourself. The only way this is getting on the news is if one of them goes out in the open to hurt someone else, or you get the information out there to the public. Your choice."

"But-"

"I'm just a civilian, Maurice. I'm not hunting for enemies."

"...Alright. Can't argue with that." Maurice went for the door to leave. "Just...watch yourselves. These things are like body snatchers. They're coming in here to take over the strongest brawlers and have them go crazy. You could be next."

[Seiki Maki]

What odd fandoms Alana was said to be in. The self dubbed comical bird-dragon decides that this was a good time to step in with yet another one of her borderline idiotic statements that she took much joy in dishing out. "Bruh. It's obviously Care Bears." Ahio snorts as she executes yet another flawless attack that Drago managed to dodge with his eyes closed.

This training was seriously benefiting the both of them. Though quick, Ahio didn't have that much endurance (as much as she would like at least) and Drago could work on senses other than his vision plus his reaction time. Plus on the very rare occasion that they would get hit, they could work on still maintaining skill ans focus even while inflicted with injuries.

"Ahio you better control that speed because I swear, if you break another dimensional barrier-"

"Baaah! No worries Seiki... Or guarantees either."

"Ahio."

"I'm just kidding~ Maybe."

"... Just avoid the dragon without flying away. Not without me at least."

"Roger that! Try and hit me with your best shots Drago!"

[Allen Silva]

Allen had been sitting in the stands, watching Seiki and Ahio's training. Granted, Noland and Drago were also getting a little bit of benifit, this was clearly to clean up some holes in Seiki's game. The big problem was that while watching them, Allen only grew to be more impatient, wanting to get his own hands dirty." Hey, if you cant handle Drago's heat, you could always tag me in. I've been dying to stretch my new skills anyway."

Gorem gave him a light smack on the head while in his ball form. While the others prefered a more robed form, Gorem just found it a little wierd to be just walking around. Call him old fashioned or whatever, but he just wasnt comfortable with the idea.

" Allen, now isn't the time for that. She is trying her best to become a stronger brawler." Gorem scolded his partner, seeming to be a voice of reason in the duo.

" Don't tell me that you don't wanna get in there and take a few hits."

" I do, but she needs to get the training so she doesn't get rofl stomped by the next enemy who shows up. Besides..."

" Hmmmmmm? Do go on." Allen became more inquisitive as the subterra soldier left that last bit perposefully unfinished.

" If you say that now, she can sweep it under the rug. You should have waited until Drago started to fire, then tried to distract her."

" oooooohhhhhhhh. Gotcha." Allen suddenly understood that Gorem already had his own master plan underway. Allen kind of ruined it with his outburst, but he was going to try and save it with his next remark." Hey! Don't screw this up Seiki. Drago can hit like a nuke, and he's a tough one to boot."

[Alana Cortese]

Little did Allen know, he was about to get what he asked for.

Right outside of Alana's house, which was in a culdesac, there were kids outside playing with their Bakugan. Maurice was watching them to reminisce on how he was in the past. He remembered being out in the streets seeing people collecting and trading Bakugan...probably in an illegal fashion, but they were memories. He thought of everything in the past year about his rise to "power", as he would say. He was fighting in numerous street battles, massacring his competition. A coach saw the way he performed and made sure he was taking care of to come to a decent school and receive some attention. All of that was an attempt to get him OFF of the streets, but after he won the national title, the excitement went to his head, and then he got owned.

What a shame that the coach he brought him in couldn't express how disappointed he was, as he passed away sometime after nationals due to complications with pneumonia.

"Hey...hey...!" A delirious woman whispered to him.

"Huh? What?" Maurice was shaken out of his trance by this woman.

"You brawler, right?"

"Um...yeah...?"

"You can help husband!"

"I'm not sure what kind of help he needs, but I'm sure you have a perfectly capable female that lives right over-"

"You see that right over there?" The woman pointed to her home. There was a man walking out of the door that looked very...demonic.

"Oh my God! It's them!"

"You see?" The male was clearly possessed. His eyes were bright red. His facial demeanor showed signs of internal struggle. The way he walked was like a gangster in the street thinking he's tough. "That not my husband. He sick!"

"Um...please don't do that..." Maurice pleaded, as the woman was using lines from a particular movie that totally doesn't relate to this at all...

"It's 1 o'clock in the afternoon...he's supposed to be at work," the woman claimed.

"Where is work?"

"McDonalds."

"HA! What a fucking loser!"

"What!?"

"Oh, uh, I mean, that sucks that he probably got sick from there, not like we don't expect it to happen there of all places."

"What!?"

"Oh, uh...I'll just be quiet now." After Maurice stopped talking, the husband started approaching them in a provocative manner.

"I done told you what's going to happen if you complain about my income one more again!" the husband shouted. "What part of, 'I have a masters and still got turned down by agencies,' did your little brain not comprehend?"

"...When you put it like that, he does have a point.

"Not helping!" The woman complained.

"So now you about to get this work!" The man ran towards his wife and Maurice.

"Oh hell naw!" Maurice pushed the wife towards the husband and ran.

"You son of a bitch!" The wife exclaimed before she was smothered in the husband's frantic fist volleys. "You next, boy!"

"What!? I didn't do anything!"

"You have an annoying face!"

"Oh...I'm sorry...?"

"Not good enough, boy. Gimme that ass!"

"Give you my what!?" The man started rushing towards Maurice in an attempt to...do exactly what he just said. Fortunately for Maurice, someone sucker punched the man right around his chin. The man flew into the street and barrel rolled onto the concrete. The person who did it was a certain girl who Maurice has been insulting in the past for no good reason. The kids in the street stopped what they were doing to look.

"..." Alana looked at this man with a very confused look, and then looked down at his wife who was beaten to a pulp. "Maurice...how could you do that?"

"Um...I..."

"Don't ever come back here. You're a disgrace."

[Alana Cortese]

"Hahahaha! I knew saying that was going to get you to appear!" The man celebrated, somehow not being knocked out by Alana's hit. "Thanks for coming!"

"What is wrong with you?" Alana immediately questioned.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm just a carrier."

"A carrier...?"

"...No..." Maurice cried.

"Yes!" the man celebrated. A noxious beam that took the appearance of gas was fired in their direction. Maurice summoned Sprazyer quickly and had it turn its back to the man. This shielded him and Alana from the attack.

"You need to get out of here," Maurice urged Alana. "That's one of those things I was talking about! If that gets you, we're goners!"

Hydranoid then burst out into the scene and got ready to combat this man. The man fired a beam at Hydranoid, but he casually swatted the attack away using his backhand. Hydranoid shot one blast at the man to destroy his body. In doing so, whatever the being was turned into a gaseous cloud, and it surged its way into Alana and Hydranoid's bodies.

"No! Alana!" Maurice screamed out in horror, because he now knew that the world was about to end...

"..." Alana was confused for a moment as if nothing happened to her. Her heartbeat got loud enough for Maurice to hear.

"No, please! Take me instead! Don't take her!" Sprayzer pulled Maurice into his hands and got away from there as soon as possible. He gestured the children to get away from the area, but they weren't listening. "Dammit! You all need to get out of here before-"

"...You know, for a second there, I thought you were strong," Alana suddenly stated.

"..."

"I don't know what's driving you right now, but you seem so determined. Despite showing the entire country how useless you are, you're still trying to act like you can make a difference. That's why I thought you were strong. The reason why you're still a pathetic weakling is lying right beside me." Alana pointed to the woman Maurice conveniently pushed towards the crazed husband. "That poor woman... She had her whole life ahead of her, but now...she'll remember how her husband showed no regard as he beat her...with you watching it happen. I remember what it was like to suffer like that...and I remember men like you who don't care about women..."

"I DO care! It just... It happened so fast, I didn't-"

"You didn't THINK to help her instead of giving the man what he wanted? And for what? You were selfish in trying to get away from him only to have me get possessed in the end. Pathetic!"

"Someone call someone!" Maurice pleaded, not knowing who was going to heed his call. He prepped his BrawlX for battle, knowing he was going to get bodied. The only thing he could do now was stall her...for as little time as he was going to last...

"Oh? You want to fight me? Big mistake."

"No...you'd wipe me out, but you're going to destroy everything with you getting taken over. I know I'm no match for you, but you're right. I fucked up. I'm going to keep you busy for as long as possible until someone comes along to stop you."

"Will you really? Ha! You know what? I actually kinda like you right now. For some reason, I can feel myself getting even stronger the longer you stay here! It's like, all of the things I dislike, I remember them, and then...I get even stronger! Your strategy to stop me would actually make me unstoppable!"

"Great! Anything else I'm messing up on? Might as well tell me now!"

"Oh, most definitely! You're still here!" Alana pointed towards Maurice, which Hydranoid took as a signal to send mayhem his way.

[Noland Hardy]

As Drago was giving Ahio a lesson of a lifetime, Noland was focusing hard on trying to figure out what Alana would want from him. Ahio only had thirty more seconds, and she hadn't got hit once. Well...that was until Drago intentionally performed a feint on Ahio and then lashed her wings with his tail, the resulting hit being devastating enough to prevent her from taking flight.

Before Drago could test how Ahio was performing on foot, a disturbing wave hit him. He stopped what he was doing and froze, as did Noland.

"..." Noland was almost beginning to shudder, because the power he felt was...extremely disturbing, both for its potency and its familiarity...

"..." Drago amassed some Dextra energy in his palms and pressed it on Ahio to make sure everything was in working order. Without warning, him and Noland disappeared from the Complex and ended up near Alana's house via his advance movement technique.

When Noland saw what he saw, he was horrified. Maurice and Sprayzer were lying on the ground in near-death states, but Alana and Hydranoid were nowhere to be found. Noland and Drago ran to their bodies and used the Switch Code's power to progressively heal them.

"What happened?" Noland requested.

"The body snatchers...they got her..." Maurice muttered.

"Body snatchers?"

"They take control of the victim, and bring out the worst in them... It made her a demon..."

Noland quickly dialed Montai's number to see if he could get some information as to what's going on here. If anyone knew, it would be her and Nero.

"Hello? Montai. We have a problem. A 'body snatcher' just possessed Alana."

"...We're all gonna die..." Montai shuddered.

"Relax! We're not gonna die! Just tell me what it is and what we need to do!"

"Alana must have gotten infected by the Maverick Virus," she explained. "Think of the Hurranians, but without its vast library of knowledge. When it possesses someone, the victim becomes somewhat of a...demon."

"So it makes her evil?"

"Yes and no. According to what Andrew is discovering from a sample he gathered, it appears that it takes advantage of dark thoughts the victim has and turns them into a lethal weapon. It can be anything recent or far off; it doesn't discriminate."

"Welp. So much for the therapy. She's going to kill me," Noland realized, knowing that he is a very likely target.

"She...is also a man hater..." Maurice got out before being punched in the stomach by Noland, the pain of which made him unconscious.

"Noland...come on..." Drago criticized.

"Tsk...fine." Noland used his Gundalian power to force him back to being conscious by zapping him. "Did you tell anyone yet?"

"The kids that I was protecting...they ran and called 911...and then one of them said that the dispatcher panicked and got the army involved..."

"The WHAT!?"

"Wait...so you mean...the one who sent that email... Oh God..."

[General Sargon]

The Army was still assessing the damages done to one of their bases by Nero the other day. The Army General, Timothy Sargon, was strolling through the premises as he saw everything that got wasted by this senseless brute.

"So the disgraced CIA Director thinks he can belittle the Army's power whenever he wants to, eh?" Sargon said to himself, lighting a cigar in the process. "The punk is still living in the past. What a shame it'll be when he finally realizes the Pack is no longer here to protect him from us."

"Incoming call, General!" a nearby soldier exclaimed. "It's one of the Resistors! She's gone mad!"

"Yes!!!" Sargon celebrated, drawing some looks for his uncharacteristic behavior. "I mean, oh no, we gotta stop her."

"Sir, we understand that you want to test your ultimate weapon, sir!"

"Haha! That's my boy! Tell command to get my Giganox primed! We're going on a hunt!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

[Noland Hardy]

Noland and Drago "jumped" back to the Complex, each of them carrying the defeated Maurice and Sprayzer.

"Sorry, Seiki, but we're going to have to reschedule," Noland notified her. "I need you to do us a HUGE favor. You and Ahio go out and find an isolated area. Please and thank you."

"Is that for Alana and Hydranoid?"

"Yes. We need to get those two as far away from civilization as possible. Only Seiki and I can do that. If the army was called, then General Sargon is going to be there, and you know he's bringing in the big guns." Noland looked to the stands and saw Allen there.

"We got those too," Drago knew.

"Allen, buddy... What would you say if keeping an Army General busy would help us save Alana and the world!?"

[Allen Silva]

Allen was almost thrilled to hear what Noland had said. Not only did he get a opportunity to fight, but it was against a new opponent. This would be the best way to test out Crater Gorem's new abilities." I think its about damn time i got some action. I was worried about rusting away at this rate." Allen remarked, a almost cheerfull expresion falling on his face. He was a little worried about Alana, sure. That didnt stop him from getting pumped.

" point us in the right direction and ill knock him into next tuesday." Gorem confidently asserted. He seemed to be as ready as Allen for a warm up." So what are we waiting for, lets get our asses in gear."

[Andrew Bullock]

Andrew was deployed by Montai to patrol the streets of D.C. until they found out where Alana was specifically. Knowing the army was going to be there, Andrew was intent on not allowing Sargon to participate. Additionally, he also knew that Crimson had a hand in bringing Mavericks to this area. He was definitely on Andrew's list, but he was a difficult man to track down.

Crimson's name was important to bring up, because the absolute worst that could come from this would be for a terrorist organization to take advantage of Alana's situation. Andrew would have to do anything he could to make sure that they don't get their hands on her...and he would have to do it 'legally'.

"Hades, scan..." Hades started pinging Alana's BrawlX to see if she was in the area. He wasn't getting any matches. He then kept increasing the range until he eventually detected her hanging out around the community center Noland met her at.

"Ah...what's the use..." Andrew shrugged, seemingly surrendering to having to do something illegal after all. "Nero Bullock, undermining governments since 2001." Hades hopped on Andrew's shoulder as he kept walking the streets. While still in ball form, it shot specialized needles north, south, east, and west. The victims pierced by this included a two drivers, one worker from Starbucks, and an old lady.

When they were touched by these needles, they didn't feel any pain. Their minds were slightly altered into doing exactly what Andrew wants them to do. They were going to be the ones to cause some commotion that should distract from what's actually going on here.

The two drivers drove very dangerously around D.C., enough to attract the Metropolitan Police into going on a chase. The worker from Starbucks ran onto the White House lawn; Secret Service was definitely going to be happy about that. As for the old lady, she started smacking the homeless people that were occasionally littered on various blocks, causing mass chaos as bystanders started fights.

Andrew then heard a ring from his BrawlX. He already knew... "Yes, I did it," he admitted as soon as he answered.

"Okay," Montai accepted without complaining. "That should keep the higher-ups off of our back for a little bit. Go see how Alana's doing, but be careful..."

"Mhm." Andrew opened a rift using Hades' power, and then stepped back into it. On the other side, he emerged to see Alana staring down the community center from afar. Hydranoid was standing right beside her. Definitely not a good sign to see, given what they knew was happening.

"Alana," Andrew called. "We don't have much time. There's people looking for you now. Let's get you all patched up before they realize what has happened."

[Alana Cortese]

"..." Alana's skin was still human-like, but her mind was slowly warping into an uncontrollable monster. Knowing Nero was right behind her made it all too much to take in.

"I don't know why I came here," Alana started. "My asshole of a cousin was a director for one of the camps here. He came in one day and saw Noland and Allen battle each other to a stalemate. He knew how bad I was, but still brought me here, convincing me that there were classes here to help me understand Bakugan a little better. What a liar... Little did I know, it made me feel even worse, and he thought it was funny!"

Alana slowly turned around to make slight eye contact with Nero. "And then YOU showed up... When I was finally starting to come around, have fun, and...even fall in love a little, I get sent to the Doom Dimension, get taken out of said dimension by YOU, and was then chipped into doing YOUR evil schemes..."

"...Not to mention, I was minding my own business preying on Bakugan in South America until you showed up with all your boys and girls and PETA'd the shit out of me. Now look at how I turned out," Hydranoid complained. He started turning around to see the villain for himself.

"Mmmmm...this power that I'm feeling by remembering all of these things...I love it!" Alana celebrated. "Forget getting rid of this Maverick. This feels amazing! Instead of going back into that lab of yours, why don't I do something that would make me feel even more awesome!?"

Hydranoid turned into his monster form and looked down at Andrew as if he was prey. It was clear what direction Alana wanted this situation to go.