Ace/Shun - after mechtanium surge's ending.
hi so i don’t remember if this was a drabble prompt buuuut i got carried away and you’re going to get multiple parts– woohoo!! consider this the first “chapter” with more to come soon. Hope you like it! @pbbmks (i’ll also be sure to tag you on future posts too!)
Settling down was an odd thing to think about, what with the years– years– of near constant struggle he’s now endured. He…hadn’t been the same since that day. The image had burned itself into his brain, tattoo its afterimage in his memory, leaving scars he suspected would string for a long, long time. Dan and Drago, sailing off to who-knew-where. Search after search had been conducted, but in the four years since, no one had found a trace of those two.
Things were still in a mild frenzy. With his departure, the claim for the top spot had been shifting between partners after partners, no one ever really sticking for long. He was among that group, of course, but… He’d never really been one for the competition, even way back at the beginning. Or at least that’s what he told himself. Regardless of the truth behind the sentiment, Shun was burned out. And as he looked out over the cityscape before him, he knew it better than he’d ever known it before.
“So, where are we off to now, Shun?” Jaakor’s voice was a quiet comfort in the chilly night.
Shun didn’t answer right away. He couldn’t quite explain the feeling in his chest, that thing tugging like an insistent breeze. He’d always felt it, in truth, but running around saving worlds had always either fulfilled that need or pushed it to the side enough to ignore. Now though… Maybe it was just wanderlust. Or, some other need to simply roam, move about. But he was tired. So, so tired.
“I don’t know if I want to go anywhere, Jaakor.” His voice was as measured as it ever was, quiet, serene.
Yet something must have leaked out as his partner turned, “you’re not content here, Shun. You can’t continue holding yourself back.”
Shun blinked, “holding myself ba–?”
“The Ventus attribute really does suit you, you know.” The Bakugan continued, “like the winds themselves, you need to be free to roam and wander as you please.” He paused for a moment, but the human didn’t interrupt him. “You’ve been here for too long. I don’t know if you’ll find what you’re looking for somewhere else, but you surely won’t find it staying here, either.” Even as he listened, staring moodily into the night, Shun knew he was right. “It’s time to move on from this place for now, Shun.” Jaakor turned more fully toward the human, “the only question now is where to.”
Shun shook his head, thinking. “We could… We could go somewhere else on Earth?” Stars know there’s a lot of work to be done with this interplanetary alliance.” Bakugan and Brawling and inter-dimensional warfare had done a lot to smooth over the politics between not just countries, but whole worlds and species, but now that things were settling down, things were getting politically tense. Marukura Corp was a major player in the alliance, and these days poor Marucho spent more time politicking than Brawling. He’d hinted several times that Shun’s help would be greatly appreciated but…
“Because that’d be so much better,” Jaakor replied wryly.
Shun couldn’t help but laugh– or, well chuckle. Skyress might have been a good diplomat, as were a few of his other partners. Jaakor could muddle through it and would for him, but… No…
“Nethia then,” he suggested, “or Gundalia. I’m sure Fabia and Ren are going crazy with…” But that went back to interplanetary politics. He’d like to see them, sure. But how long before he got dragged back into it? Then again, he’d probably be dragged into it no matter which group he floated back to.
Jaakor could see the thoughts racing through Shun’s mind. It saddened him. This boy, or rather this young man, had been through so much. He deserved some time to be that boy again, even for just a little while. His heart sank as Shun sighed again, his voice exasperated.
“Man, who don’t we know that’s involved with this whole mess?!”
And then Jaakor saw it, a thought flicker– quite visibly, which was strange– over Shun’s face. It was followed by the briefest, faintest coloring in his cheeks, but it passed quickly. “What is it, Shun?”
It took a few moments for Shun to answer. He seemed to be lost in thought about something. The distant lights of the sprawling city were just shy of what Jaakor needed to see his partner’s face clearly, but respond he did. He sounded a hesitant, but resolved, “Jaakor, I think we should go visit our friends on New Vestroia.”
Jaakor was incapable of blinking, but the emotional response was evident enough in his pause. “To… The Resistance?”
Shun nodded. “Not for long,” he assured him, “just for some direction.” He hesitated a moment before explaining, “Once things got…more political, Ace dropped out and moved on to other things, but was still constantly dragged back into stuff, so he went into hiding.”
Then Jaakor got it, “and Mira will know where he’s gone to?”
“And he’ll know how to really get off the grid,” Shun confirmed.
Though there was something in his voice, something Jaakor thought he could place, but didn’t want to mistake. “Are you just trying to get off the grid?” He chided himself, weren’t these sorts of veiled questions exactly the kind of thing they were trying to get away from?
Shun smiled wryly, as if understanding the added sentiment, but dropped it to answer, voice rather noncommittal. “We’ll see.”