Chapter Text
Luna looked up from her laptop as she rubbed her eyes, gazing at the sunset. She hadn’t realised just how much time she had spent researching Bakugan College, not that there was much to find out online that she hadn’t already scoured. She didn’t want to admit it, but she couldn’t easily shake the nerves welling up in her stomach. These kinds of feelings had made her run away from things she wanted to do before and researching always helped her prepare herself.
It was only natural for her to be nervous, after all her parents were legendary Bakugan battlers. Luna knew she would only spiral if she kept herself shut up in her room. She threw on her oversized ‘The Shroud’ hoodie, looking over at the clothes set out for tomorrow. She shook her head one more time to shake herself out of her mood before leaving her room to make a cup of tea, surely that would help her to calm down. Going through the methodical process definitely helped to calm herself down, the scent and warmth of the drink soothing her as she went to go sit in the living room with her parents.
Shun and Alice were cuddled up together on the sofa, watching a documentary when their daughter entered with her tea. They could both easily tell that she was stressed about her first day tomorrow but didn’t want to make a big deal out of it and worry her further.
Alice spoke up when her Luna sat down and made herself comfortable. “Luna, we have some last-minute presents for you before tomorrow.”
Shun grabbed a small box that Luna had yet to notice from a side table and placed it on the coffee table in front of Luna.
“Go ahead and open it, it’ll give you a little head start tomorrow.” He said as he relaxed back on the sofa.
Luna flipped open the latch on the box and carefully opened it, a smile spreading across her face. Inside the box sat three small orbs, ones that she could identify almost instantly as Ventus Monarus, Ventus Falconeer and Darkus Ravenoid.
She smiled up at her parents, she didn’t expect them to give her their own Bakugan, she could feel her emotions welling up, trying her best to stop tears from coming out. Underneath the three Bakugan sat a small black wristwatch looking object. As she took it out of the box, she recognised it as an old generation Bakupod. The metallic green and purple spiderweb pattern across the lid really fit in with her goth aesthetic.
Luna threw her arms around her parents as she climbed between them, “Thank you so much Mom and Dad.” She said, holding back tears.
Alice smiled as she looked at her daughter. “We know you were into the more retro tech and thought you might like having something that we used to brawl with back in the day.”
“I love it, seriously” Luna replied. She loved more retro style tech and having an original generation Bakupod, while outdated was incredibly cool in her book. “I’m gonna get so homesick.”
Luna woke up abruptly, slamming her alarm off quickly, her heart racing. She had set her alarm much earlier than she would need to be awake, so she had enough time to get ready. Her heart raced as she got herself dressed, finally slipping into her well-worn leather jacket. It was a gift from her mom when she first started expressing an interest in a more gothic style and she had worn it almost every day since.
On her belt she clipped her silver Bakuclip with the Bakugan gifted to her resting inside. Last night while in bed she had set up the Bakupod and customised its interface which she was wearing on her left wrist.
When she made her way into the kitchen Alice was already awake, putting a plate of fluffy pancakes on the table as a smile broke out across Luna’s face. Her mom made the best pancakes. Shun joined them and the family had a quiet but comfortable breakfast.
Luna slipped her backpack on as Shun grabbed her suitcase from the hallway to load into the car as Alice wrapped her arms around her daughter, the both of them holding back tears.
“You’ll do so well, I know you will.” Alice said. Luna had grown up so much, and she could see so much of her dad in how she took to Bakugan.
“Thanks Mom.” Luna said as the two pulled apart.
Luna was allowed full control of the music on the way to Bakugan college and played her favourite gothic music, it actually helped to dissipate a lot of her anxieties and soothe herself before the big change.
The journey to the train station was short and Luna was confident as she stepped onto the platform, pulling her luggage behind her. As she settled onto the train, she plugged in her headphones to settle in for the journey. Luna watched the scenery out of the window as she zoned out, before long the train was slowing down again as it reached its destination.
Bakugan College was breathtaking. Luna had seen many pictures of it, and footage from the campus but the sheer scale of it left her speechless. Though it was constructed rather recently the building was made in the style of a castle, with 6 towers, one representing each attribute. Each tower had banners flying from them with the colours and insignia of each different element. In the centre gate all 6 were shown in the traditional hexagonal circle.
Luna gazed up at the building in awe as she walked towards the front entrance. The large wooden doors open as a steady stream of students made their way into the college. She left her luggage with one of the staff members as directed who put a tag on it with her name and followed the signs and crowd into a large assembly hall.
A man with neat light brown hair stood at a podium at the front of the assembly hall. He wore a sharp black suit and had a kind smile as he scanned over the people filling the room.
“I’m Joe Brown, the administrator of this College. I am excited to see what you will all achieve at this experimental school focussing on Bakugan.”
He spoke passionately, Luna could remember her parents mentioning being friends with him back in the old days, apparently, he was one of the original battle brawlers.
A small stream of students was still trickling into the assembly hall and seats were slowly filling up. A girl with long dark brown hair, wearing a Darkus graphic t-shirt took the seat next to Luna. She gave the girl a shy smile and tried to focus back on the presentation that Joe was giving.
“…Your room numbers have been sent to your Bakupods, if you would all check them now you may start making your way to your new rooms. All of your belongings have already been taken up.”
Luna flipped open her Bakupod the screen showing a new message, Darkus Wing: Room 27
“Hey what wing did you get?” The girl next to her asked, she seemed pretty upbeat.
“Darkus, room 27, you?” Luna replied
“No way! Same here, I guess we’re roomies,” The girl said, “I should introduce myself, I’m Lauren!”
“I’m Luna, wanna check out our room?” Luna suggested, trying to be social with her new roommate even though she could feel herself getting slightly overwhelmed with all the noise in the room as people were bustling all around them.
The walk to their new shared dorm room was peaceful, the corridors being much less busy than the assembly room. Lauren gave out such a chill and calming aura that made Luna feel comfortable around her. It was clear by her outfit that she was also darkly inclined similar to herself, she wondered if they might also share some of the same music taste.
The room was nice even though it was pretty basic. Each of them had a single bed on opposite sides of the room with a spacious workspace with twin desks side by side.
Lauren had asked a teacher on the way there if they were allowed to decorate their own rooms and began excitedly chatting with Luna about how they will decorate their room. Luna easily slipped into a comfortable conversation with her, they shared a very similar room décor style, though Lauren seemed to like plants a lot more than she did, mostly because she could never seem to keep them alive.
Luna felt that it took no time at all to unpack all of her belongings as she chatted to Lauren about where decorations will be put and different things they can get for their room.
“Now that we’re all settled in how about a little battle to get to know each other better?” Lauren said, smirking at Luna.
“Sure,” Luna said, she was itching to battle again, she hadn’t got the chance to battle in the real world for a long time. “Just be prepared to lose.”
The two made their way to the elevator in the middle of the Darkus wing, Lauren pressed on the button on the bottom of the console with the attribute symbol. Starting their descent into the stadium below the spire.
Below each wing of the academy was a battle arena themed to their attribute. Luna gasped in awe as she took in the Darkus arena. Massive stone statues depicting the legendary Bakugan warrior Hydranoid surrounded the arena. Brawlers practicing were using them to ricochet their Bakugan off and even some ambitious battlers were threading the Bakugan through the statues.
“Let’s get started then shall we!” Lauren shouted, from across the battlefield, already holding her cards.
“Bakugan field open!” The two of them called out together, as the attribute circle spun beneath them.
Luna knew she should see what Lauren will do before making any big moves, after all when facing a new opponent, she knew she should figure out their brawling style to select an appropriate counter. She selected the simple attribute booster gate card to begin with, a good neural card to feel the battle out.
“Gate card set!” Luna cried out, throwing her card as Lauren threw hers in return, the two cards expanding to create the battlefield.
“You go first!” Luna said.
“Sure!” Lauren replied, a confident smile spreading across her face. “Bakugan brawl! Stand Darkus Serpenoid!”
The black and purple snake rose up onto the gate card in front of Luna, coiling up and spreading out its hood in a waiting position.
Luna reached down to her Bakugan holster, clicking out her Falconeer and throwing it to the card Serpenoid was occupying.
“Bakugan brawl! Ventus Falconeer stand!” Luna shouted as a blur of green shot upwards, Serpenoid whipping its head up to zero in on the Bakugan flying above the card.
“Gate card open! Dark shackles!” Lauren called, as the card below the battling Bakugan glowed and black chains emanating a purple glow shot upwards, enveloping Falconeer and dragging it to the ground.
Before Luna could counter, Lauren followed up with a pre-planned ability card.
“Ability activate! Venom drain!”
Serpenoid let out a lion like roar and sank its fangs into the side of Falconeer, who shrieked in response, desperately thrashing around, but it was too late. Falconeer transformed back into its ball form before falling to Luna’s feet. Serpenoid looked back towards Lauren before also returning to ball form and flying to Laurens hand.
“So, you are pretty serious huh-” Luna commented.
“Yeah, don’t take me lightly.” Lauren retorted. “Bakugan brawl! Stand Darkus Fear Ripper!”
A plan started to form in Luna’s head. She clipped Ravenoid out of her Bakuclip and shot it straight towards fear ripper. “Bakugan brawl! Darkus Ravenoid stand!”
“I thought you were a Ventus battler?!” Lauren said, shocked.
Luna smirked. While most brawlers stuck to one attribute, with lots of dedication and training mastering multiple attributes was possible. Luckily Luna had two of the most skilled battlers as parents, so she had been raised with the ability to control both Darkus and Ventus Bakugan in combination.
“Ability activate! Betrayal!” Luna called out her ability card as she threw it to her Ravenoid. Once it hit the gate card the ability card morphed into a visage of the Serpenoid that had defeated her Falconeer, with a power level to match.
“Gate card open! Darkus booster!” Luna smiled as she opened her card. Even though she was giving Laurens Bakugan a boost too, she was getting double the bonus and the combined power level of her Ravenoid and the mirage Serpenoid easily overpowered Fear Ripper.
“Wow- you’re good, wanna put it all on this next round?” Lauren asked
“Ok! Bring your best, Gate card set!” Luna replied.
“Bakugan brawl!” The two cried passionately as they both threw their Bakugan onto the lone gate card.
“Ventus Monarus stand!”
“Darkus Monarus stand!”
The two let out a small laugh as the two butterfly Bakugan rose to meet each other.
“Gate card open, Monarus character!” Luna called out, smiling through her worlds. The rush of brawling in the real world again.
The two of them played cards back and forth, until eventually the both of them were too tired to carry on. Laughing the two of them sat next to each other, leaning against the side of the stadium as both Monarus returned to ball form and the battlefield closed.
“That was so fun, it’s been a long time since I battled.” Luna said.
Lauren put her arm around her new friend as Luna smiled back at her.
“I’m so glad my roommate is so cool, I don’t know what I would have done if I had to room with someone lame.” Lauren replied.
Even though the battle wasn’t too intense Lauren and Luna were pretty tired, collapsing onto their beds when they got back to their dorm room.
Luna heard the sound of paper rustling under her as she fell onto her bed. She pulled it out from under her, smoothing the crumpled page out Luna squinted to read the messy handwriting.
I know who you are. I’m coming for you.
