A/N: Well after watching a couple of episodes of the original Bakugan series again, I decided to try and start updating The Mighty Fall. What I really want to do is be able to get a similar feeling to the first few episodes of Bakugan that hooked me so long ago.

Chapter 2

Several blocks away from the hospital and in a secluded area by the river a weary spiky blond haired teen finally had to give into the pounding headache in his headache and just the overall weakness of his body.

Masquerade slumped against a tree his head falling forwards as he looked blankly at the ground. He wondered how Jet and Jenny were reacting to his disappearance. Would they be distraught? Would they come looking for him, or would they give up on him as many had before them? A bitter smile graced his lips, he already knew the answer to that.

Masquerade sighed leaning against the tree, resting his head against the bark wincing at the initial contact before settling into his spot. His head was aching something awful now, it briefly made him wonder how badly off he was.

'Well if you'd stayed in the hospital, maybe you could've figured that out!' His thoughts snapped at him making Masquerade wince. He sighed and closed his eyes before slowly reopening them once more and looking blankly at the clear sky.

"Tsk, if I was a better person I'd say how nice a day it is." He said with a soft scoff blue eyes sliding closed. 'What do I do? I can't go back to Naga like this, he'd kill me for messing up so badly, and Hal-G who knows what the old freak would do if he realized that I had fallen out of Naga's good graces.' He scowled at the thought of the green skinned mad scientist. He'd be damned if he gave the man the satisfaction of having to see Masquerade completely weak and beaten. 'Then there's Jet…'

He frowned as he pictured the strange girl from another dimension. The girl who despite his cruelty to her when they first met, and when she was his prisoner, seemed to see something, some tiny spark of good in him. One could consider that once she started believing that there was good in him, Masquerade himself had begun to believe it as well. Yeah he'd sent his former minions' bakugan and a few other kids' bakugan to the doom dimension these past few days, but he'd spared Billy's bakugan, and he had been brawling steadily less and less as he became more and more conflicted. It had gotten to the point where he only completed missions when the threat of Naga bringing his wrath down on his head became too great for Masquerade to handle.

'But if I go back to Jet, I'll be handing myself over to the brawlers. There's no way they can keep the fact that I'm in Wardington, severely injured and completely unable to put up a fight from my enemies.' He could see it already, the instant that all the kids in Wardington and those who held grudges who could get to Wardington found out that Masquerade was trapped there he was dead. Masquerade didn't want to say he was afraid, but he was also realistic. Those kids would completely annihilate him once they found out where he was at, and that he was helpless to put up a halfway decent fight.

'Worse, Jet would try to step and stop them after they found out, which would result in her getting caught in the crossfire.' An image of Jet bleeding from her back, crying from pain and fear on the floor of his dungeon while Billy cackled crazed off to the side. He winced, he'd already seen what happened when he dragged Jet into his affairs, and it had resulted with her suffering from a stab wound that she'd probably bear the scars from for the rest of her life. It made him wince, and it was all his fault. If he hadn't kept her as a prisoner, if he had looked into what Billy was up to when he noticed the subterra brawl acting strange, or even if he hadn't brought Jet and her friends to this world at all.

He sighed and he looked towards the river, with those two options exhausted he could always just ditch his Masquerade identity, go back to who he was before Naga approached him with what he thought was the deal of a lifetime. He winced at the thought, honestly he'd take the kids coming and beating him senseless, at least they'd likely only beat him up once and then when their anger was assuaged take their leave.

Masquerade was about to delve further into his dark musing when a soft rustling sound made him stiffen, a dull jolt of pain rushing through his head. Wincing he focused on the source of the rustling.

A nearby bush was rustling as a small boy dressed in blue and white with white pants stepped out of it holding a blue bakugan ball in his hand.

Masquerade raised an eyebrow as he watched the kid go over to the river still holding that bakugan in front of him and sniffling as he did so.

"I can't win. No-no matter what I do I always lose." The kid sniffled and then tightened his grip on his bakugan his hand shaking.

"Is that kid-" Masquerade frowned rising to his feet stumbling as vertigo hit him. Placing a hand on the tree he regained his balance and then began to move towards the kid.

"I hate losing!" The kid cried as he raised his bakugan. "I quit!" He drew back his hand and began to throw it.

"Stop!" Masquerade said grabbing the kid's arm stopping him from throwing his bakugan.

The kid stiffened and his head turned to Masquerade eyes wide. "Wh-who are you?!" He cried.

Masquerade frowned as he let the kid's arm go the kid taking a wary step back. "You don't know me?" He asked tilting his head to the side.

"N-no," The boy said frowning. "Should I?"

Masquerade blinked and then chuckled weakly. "Er, no," He said then quickly moved to change the subject. "Why were you going to throw away your bakugan?" He asked frowning.

The boy looked down at his feet. "I can't win," He said biting his lip. "And there's this guy that keeps forcing me to battle him because he knows I'll lose." He closed his eyes tears pricking his eyes. "I just, I hate losing all the time! I don't want to play if I'm just going to lose!"

Masquerade glanced to the side finding far too many parallels between the poor kid in front of him and his own victims. Sighing to himself he crouched down so he was at the kids level.

"Listen to me kid," Masquerade said. "You can't win them all, so there are going to be times you lose. But you want to know the best way to improve your chances of winning?"

The boy sniffled wiping at his eyes. "What?"

Masquerade grinned. "Confidence kid, you stay confident in a battle and you'll be all set to handle whatever your opponent throws at you."

The kid blinked. "Bu-but what if I don't know what to throw down? How do I know what bakugan to use?"

Masquerade frowned. "Well, I guess I could offer you some advice on how to brawl." He said smiling slightly as the kid lit up. 'What am I doing? I have enough problems without trying to take on this kids burden as well.'

"For real?! You'd help me battle?" Christopher said eyes wide and a big smile on his face.

Masquerade sighed. 'Too late to back out now.' Still smiling he nodded. "Sure kid, we can get started right away if you'd like."

"Okay!" The kid said. "And by the way, I'm Christopher so you can stop calling me 'kid'. What's your name?" Christopher said extending his hand to Masquerade.

Masquerade winced. 'Oh great, do I make up a fake name or do I… Ah what the heck, its not likely he'll ever show up here.' "My name's Riven, nice to meet you Christopher." He said taking Christopher's hand and shaking it.

/-/

Naga snarled as Hal-G appeared before him.

"Where is Masquerade?!" He roared as the silent core sparked ominously and the white one winced. "Gah, without him banishing the damned bakugan to the Doom Dimension the Silent Core is becoming unstable!"

Hal-G winced as he looked around helplessly. "I-I don't know sir, he went out on the mission and he has not returned." He gritted his teeth. "He's probably-"

Naga roared Hal-G cowering as the white one glared at him. "Silence! I want you to find him! I don't care what you have to do but I want you to find him and remind him what happens when you fail to carry out my tasks successfully!"

Hal-G nodded babbling quick excuses. "Yes, yes understood sir, I'll get on it right away."

Naga snarled. "Good! Now get out of my sight!"

Hal-G didn't need to be told twice, he teleported out of the space just as Naga finished his sentence.

/-/

Spectra frowned as he, Gus and Viki stood in Masquerade's mansion waiting for Hal-G to arrive to fill them in.

"What's taking him so long?" Viki muttered tapping her toe. "He does know we have to get back to the brawlers before they get suspicious about what we're up to."

Gus nodded though Spectra remained silent turning his head to the wall just as Hal-G morphed out of the wall.

The mad scientist jabbed his staff at Viki. "Quiet you insolent girl! You have no idea what dire circumstances that idiotic blonde fool has landed us in!"

"Do enlighten us," Spectra said crossing his arms. "As far as I was concerned the plan was that after Masquerade returned from the mission I was to kidnap Alice this evening and then convince the brawlers to blame Masquerade and get them to send me after him."

"Yeah why the sudden change in plans?" Gus said Viki nodding her head as well.

Hal-G scowled. "Masquerade has disappeared; he was expected back hours ago and he has not returned. Worse since he's been slacking on sending bakugan to the doom dimension Naga is suffering pain due to the Silent Core becoming unstable with his disappearance." He jabbed a finger at the three. "I want you to find a way to get your brawler friends to start looking for the fool and find him immediately."

"And once we find him?" Spectra said smiling darkly.

Hal-G sneered, "You get rid of him."

A/N:

Okay Chapter's a little shorter than 2,000 words but I just really wanted to get SOMETHING updated this week. So here's the update for The Mighty Fall. The last part was super rushed but I hope the rest was okay.

Please Review.