Beyond the Mask - A Bakugan fanfic

Chapter 1

"You know, we're not too far from him. What are the chances that we could run into Dan Kuso himself?" Her friend, Kumiko, cooed. Amari laughed.

"He may be one of the original brawlers who came up with the game, but he's not so good himself. Have you seen his ranking?"

"Why, what is it?" Her friend asked, looking over Amari's shoulder as she pulled up the rankings on her phone.

"He's ranked, like," she started at the top of the list and scrolled for a bit, before ultimately deciding to just search his name. "125."

"Are you serious? Who's number 1?"

Amari flicked back to the original ranking screen.

"Shun Kazami."

"Didn't they create the game together? How are their rankings so different from one another?"

Amari shrugged and casually scrolled through the top rankings, quickly skimming the other names. Klaus von Hertzon, Chan Van Lee, Julio Santana - she recognized those names. They'd been climbing the rankings since the developing stages of the game Bakugan. And she's watched them every step of the way, even watched every online video of them that featured a battle of theirs. Sometimes when she was at home, scrolling through the latest Bakugan news feed, browsing through the battle footage, she'd wonder what she ever did before Bakugan became a thing? It all happened practically overnight. Or at least that's what it felt like to her. And she'd never call what she had an obsession, and Bakugan wasn't just another fad that would fade throughout the weeks, of that she was sure - it just happened to change her life in more ways than one, and for that she was grateful.

She searched for her name in the thousands registered for the rankings. She sat comfortably at 307. Sure, her number wasn't anything glorious, nothing compared to the top 10, let alone the top 100, but it wasn't something to sneeze at either. She'd spent days grinding, fighting in street battles to level up her Bakugan, slowly climbing the ranks as a novice would. But she only had a handful of the most common Bakugan - Serpenoid, Fear Ripper, Gargonoid, Falconeer - everyone had at least two of each. She would never reach even close to rank 100 with those alone, no matter how much street battling she did. Not unless she got to fight one of the elite battlers. There were rumors that the top players had Bakugan who could talk and fight on their own. No one had ever really seen, or heard, one up close in battle, the elite only fought amongst themselves since they gained more experience that way. But no one ever talked about that, no one called them out for it. There were a few conspiracy videos online on the topic, but it was a mere whisper in the crowding Bakugan chats.

Amari just wanted the competition to be on a more level playing field, where anyone could achieve a good ranking on their fighting techniques, not just because their Bakugan could talk back to them or not. If she were being honest with herself, the theory of talking Bakugan helping certain players reach a high ranking kept her up at night sometimes. She couldn't stand the thought of it. If that were the case, Amari thought to herself, then she'd spend more of her time looking out for one of those rare Bakugan than playing measly battles in the park with other low-ranking players.

Towards the late afternoon, Amari found herself at the end of a heated battle.

"Ability card activate!" She yelled across the battlefield, turning the card out towards the field. "Your Ripper's power is cut in half!"

"What!" her opponent cried. "How is that even possible?"

The Pyrus Bakugan dropped down to one knee as his power rapidly decreased, in perfect position for Amari's Darkus Gargonoid to swoop down from above and deliver the final blow.

"You're finished!" Amari said, as her purple, gargoyle-looking creature outstretched one of its fatal talons and swiped across the Ripper's back. Both Bakugan burst into the light of their attribute colors and returned to their respected sides. The field itself surged into a near blinding light, and before Amari could even blink, she had returned to the park. The fountain splashing, birds flying overhead, traffic moving just a short walk away; the life continued around them, blissfully unaware of the battle that had just occurred.