Black Crystal Battlers - Character Profiles

Aaron Rountree

General Facts

Age: 15
Grade: 10
Gender: M
School: Mount Vernon High School

Occupation

High School Student
Battler

Coffee/Soda House Worker
Former Part-time UNITY Agent

Appearances

Regular Titles: Books 1–21, 24, 26–29, and 32–51
Super Battlers: All

Books Narrated

Regular Titles: Books 6, 13, 20, 27 (occasionally), 28, 36, and 44
Super Battlers: All (Alternated with the other Battlers)

Immediate Family

Gregory “Greg” Rountree (father)
Regina Jamison Rountree (mother)
Jamison “J.J.” Rountree (older brother)

Unborn Brother or Sister

Character Summary

Aaron Rountree isn’t your everyday black teenager. He’s the Green Battler, the youngest member of the team. He and his older brother, J.J., were the only two members who repelled girls because they wore glasses. Aaron is kind and gentle when he isn’t fighting crime, but when he is, he shows no mercy to any enemy. Seeing an innocent person die in front of him will easily bring him to tears. Because Aaron sometimes sees himself as the second-rate, second son in his family, he often strives to find his own identity in the world.

Aaron’s first major mission on his own was in Book 6, when he had to try and stop Evilla and her Mutant Guerrillas from killing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As previously stated, he had to do it all on his own because Oriana didn’t have enough strength to send all of the Battlers through time (Evilla had cast a spell on her that weakened her magic). The mission nearly failed when Dr. King was kidnapped and Evilla tried to pass herself off as Dr. King using her magic. Her plan was to read an altered version of King’s speech that opposed Civil Rights, not supported them. Her plan failed, though, when Aaron rescued the real Martin and busted Evilla.

Aaron’s next major mission was in Book 13, when Evilla, the Mutant Guerrillas, Chief Manhunter, and the Killer Beavers kidnapped Oriana and several other sorcerers and sorceresses and tried to use them to merge Earth with the deadly realm of Beaveron. It was all up to Aaron to stop her plan — Manchomper caught and swallowed all the other Battlers on their way to stop her. Aaron broke the spell that was cast on Oriana and the other sorcerers and sorceresses, stopping them from merging the two realms. As punishment for what she tried to do, Evilla was banished to Beaveron by a powerful spell cast by all the sorcerers and sorceresses. After her banishment was complete, an explosion of magic power erupted, sending Aaron and all the other Battlers flying back to their time again.

Aaron’s most recent major mission was in Book 20. It involved a boy he knew from living overseas — Jon Crawley. Jon came to Alexandria, Virginia, with a big secret — he’d found a Battler Crystal that’d been blown through time with the Battlers because it’d been caught in their wake. Eager to get their paws on the crystal first, the Mutant Guerrillas, who’d also been caught in the Battlers’ wake, tried to take it from Jon at a dinner party the Rountree and Crawley families were having. When that failed, the Mutant Guerrillas kidnapped Jon’s parents and his older brother, Eric-Omar. J.J., who was badly poisoned by Doomondback in the battle that occurred before this, had to resume his normal form before the poison killed him. When that happened, Jon was exposed to the truth — Deyon, Maurice, J.J., Keese, and Aaron were the Battlers!

Knowing there were only two alternatives — turn Jon over to the Mutant Guerrillas in exchange for his family’s safety, or make him a Battler using the crystal he’d found — Aaron and the others decided to make Jon one of them — the eighth Battler — after telling him their entire story. Aaron felt that they shouldn’t do it because he didn’t want his old friend to be involved in the danger. But Jon was thrilled to be joining them. With Jon on their team, they rescued his family and ended up with Jon staying with them.

Soon after, Aaron and the other Battlers began dealing with a new enemy by the name of Liam DiCapa, who wanted to subjugate the world’s entire white population. They started working with UNITY, a secret agency opposing DiCapa’s efforts to do so.

Aaron celebrated his fourteenth birthday, but he almost didn’t live to see it when, in Book 24, he, J.J., Maurice, and Keese were all kidnapped by Pestilence Vermin, a villain who’d come to town to get revenge on Deyon for killing Evilla. Deyon rescued him in time and he was able to attend his surprise birthday party.

In Book 26, he was forced to fight in a battle between Crocoa and Gatora. Crocoa’s king, Stalker, wanted them to fight while they were being led by an unlikely person: his older brother, J.J.! Aaron was reluctant to follow his brother, at first, but when he found out that Predator, Gatora’s king, was seeking help from Liam DiCapa, he was on board with the whole thing. But he got the shock of his life during the big battle — Predator’s late father, Jawssius, had stalked his father, Greg, years before they were born! Though he and J.J. forgave their father, they got a surprise after the war was over and they’d won it — their mother, Regina, was pregnant with a third child!

In Book 27, he and the others celebrated his mother’s pregnancy, as well as Thanksgiving. But they had to postpone the celebration temporarily when Predator returned and kidnapped Keese to take to Chief Manhunter, who’d targeted him once again. While trying to save him, he and the others ended up in a battle with Albert Labinnac, who almost devoured J.J. when he sneezed, courtesy of DiCapa.

In Book 28, soon after a battle to seal his newest Battler Animal, a great horned owl, he was attacked by a giant gorilla, who turned out to be DiCapa’s newest killing machine, Goril Primus. He tried to forget about the attack, and eventually did when teenagers started turning up dead all around town. He believed it to be the work of DiCapa — especially when his son, Philip, deliberately placed Jon on the suspect list for the teens’ murders. When he confronted Phil, he ended up being kissed by him, which was a warning that he’d be out to get him from then on.

Later, he became suspicious of Juliet Kwarteng, a girl he’d known in middle school and had harbored a slight crush on, when she saw her loitering around the scene of one of the murders. When he voiced his suspicion to Chief Anderson, the chief of UNITY, after being attacked by Goril a second time, Lucy Ng, one of UNITY’s agents, said she couldn’t have anything to do with it. Before she could say why, fellow agent Jeri Wilkes stopped her.

Eager to see what Juliet was up to, he invited her over to his house for dinner. There, they found out they had a lot in common and almost shared a kiss. But Juliet had to stop it because she needed to confess that she was working with Goril. She then promised to protect him from him and blurted out that she was a part-time UNITY agent, which shocked Aaron beyond no reason. He heard her out and she explained that she’d been told his identity by Goril, who’d discovered it the first time he attacked Aaron. Then, Goril showed up at his house and kidnapped J.J. when they left to go see Maurice and Keese’s mother in the hospital after she’d miscarried her sixth child.

Aaron soon had to save all of the others and Vivian DiCapa when he found out that Goril had snatched them and trapped them all in a shut-down elevator in a building marked for demolition. But before he could rescue them, he had to face Goril in an intense battle in which he had most of the disadvantages — Goril could absorb any physical attack he threw at him with his bulk and he could swallow any magic he used on him. Eventually, Aaron ran out of energy and Goril was about to feast on him. But that’s when Juliet turned on Goril and shot him in the arm. Aaron suddenly got his energy back and he and Juliet tried to escape from Goril. But he caught them and swallowed Aaron whole.

Aaron was nearly digested by Goril’s stomach acids — they were sulfuric, not hydrochloric. Using his wind magic, he blew away the protective layer of mucus on Goril’s stomach wall, allowing the stomach acids to burn their way through, opening a hole big enough for him to jump out of safely. Then, after escaping, he realized that Goril’s weakness was bullets. So he had Juliet shoot him as many times as necessary until Goril collapsed to the ground. Then, he shared a sudden kiss with Juliet, who had nearly admitted earlier that she loved him. But before Aaron got to find out if she really did love him, a tragedy came to them. Goril snuck up on them and ate Juliet in one bite. Then, seeing Aaron broken, he got away and left Aaron in tears.

Aaron saved the other Battlers and Vivian, who’d learned his true identity during his battle with Goril, and all of them returned home safely. And days later, all six Battlers attended Juliet’s funeral. A funeral with no body. Aaron has been a zombie ever since and has refused to leave his room to go to school. Not until he sees Goril again and gets the chance to finish him for good.

Aaron was completely out of it over Juliet’s death in Book 29. Most of the times he spoke, his voice was empty — even after he and the other Battlers were kidnapped by new enemy Polar Tundros, also called “the Gamester,” and his penguin cohort, Funguin Waddlesworth. They were challenged to play games in his Palace of Fun to rescue a kidnapped Santa Claus and the toys he’d prepared for the children of the world. He barely scraped by each of the games because thinking of Juliet messed up his concentration at times. Jon finally got him back to his senses again and told him that Juliet wouldn’t want him sulking over her, which he understood. But just as he did, he lost one of Gamester’s games — Hide ’n’ Go Sizzle — and instantly got eliminated from the competition. He was turned into a game piece, along with Deyon, Maurice, J.J., and Keese. But Jon rescued them all by defeating Gamester. Currently, Aaron’s moving on with his life and finding comfort with Maurice and Keese’s younger sister, Monique.

In Super Battlers 3, he, the other Battlers, Vivian, and Monique were transported to Dare Island, home of sorcerer Bin Dare, while celebrating New Year’s Eve. They reunited with Shauna and Diahandra, who’d been traveling on the road since Book 15, as well as their friends from the road. Dare challenged all of them to fight in a tournament all over his island with the most deadly enemies of all — their ultimate enemies. If they won in a fight, they were free to go, but if they lost, they would be eaten by them — and Dare’s magic would keep them from escaping.

After being magically separated from the others, Aaron got split up with Monique. The two of them were attacked by gorillas in the island’s jungle and brought to Goril Primus, who tied up Monique somewhere in the jungle. Aaron faced off against Goril Primus and, although he was initially at the disadvantage, he turned things around just in time to win the fight. Goril ended up sinking into a pit of quicksand and was presumed dead. He later found Vivian, who’d been with Jon until he’d lost to his ultimate enemy, Gamester. And after reuniting with the other Battlers, they fought Dare for their freedom. They won and were transported home to finish their celebration.

In Book 32, Aaron and the other Battlers met new friends Richard Montgomery and James “Jay” Dixon, two agents visiting from UNITY’s West Coast Branch in Los Angeles. They were assigned to rescue another agent named Miranda Hawkins, who was being held prisoner by DiCapa. After an attempt to rescue her failed, Richard and Jay ended up being kidnapped by Albert Labinnac. This was because DiCapa saw how well they fought against his henchmen. They used a sleepover being held by DiCapa’s son, Phil, to infiltrate the mansion and save their friends. But DiCapa, who’d been about to use a very potent truth serum on Richard and Jay to drive the Battlers’ identities out of them, Keese drank it instead, thinking it was a cool drink. Under the influence of the fast-working truth serum, he spilled the identities of every Battler except Deyon, and with that, the days of secrecy were officially over.

In Book 33, Aaron and the others had to deal with Les B. Ian, who’d resurfaced after spending a whole semester in a mental institution in Boston. When Les kidnapped Deyon, Maurice, and J.J., Aaron helped the others get rid of him by setting him up to get eaten by the Deadly Duo — Predator and Chief Manhunter. After that was over, he and the others had to deal with Maurice getting put into a coma by DiCapa, who’d used a coma-inducing drug on him.

Aaron was on the outs with J.J. in Book 34, when J.J. accepted a role on the NBC soap opera Passions. Aaron refused to talk to his brother, convinced that he would be a coward a leave the team after they’ve been through so much. Although he finally came to accept it, he and J.J. were forced to babysit Predator’s son, Fangorus, when he was accidentally left behind after a battle. When J.J. refused to give the baby back, Predator kidnapped Deyon, Keese, Aaron, and Jon. The only ransom was bringing Fangorus back to Predator and turning himself over to him. Aaron was turned against J.J. when he showed up to rescue them at an old homeless shelter with Richard and Jay to help him. Predator used his magic to make him and the other Battlers fight him. They won and prepared J.J. to be eaten by Predator. But Aaron broke free of Predator’s trance when he saw him take bite after bite out of his brother. After they were free from the spell, Predator battled the five remaining Battlers (Maurice was still in his coma) and ate Keese, Jon, Aaron, and Deyon. But they were rescued because of a Crocoan poison J.J. tricked Predator into ingesting. They were coughed up and Predator was killed from ingesting the poison.

In Book 35, Aaron and the other Battlers found out that J.J. had been kidnapped by DiCapa. To make matters worse, DiCapa sent Deyon a warning via E-mail that he was targeting Aaron next. Things became worse than that when Caucasian people all over Alexandria began falling mysteriously ill. It was found out that DiCapa had finally used a poison he’d stolen in Book 24. It was meant to only affect people fifty- to one-hundred-percent Caucasian. The problem turned extremely serious after Maurice and Keese’s half-siblings, Precious and Brandon, and their stepfather, Ski, fell ill, as well. But thanks to a reconnaissance mission Keese and Jon were sent on, they found out DiCapa was set on slipping his poison into a reservoir in Washington, D.C., to poison everybody in the tri-county area.

Aaron was forced to stay home since he was DiCapa’s next target, but he defied orders. This proved to be a wise decision when he saved them all from being eaten by Labinnac. He and the others destroyed DiCapa’s poison and saved the world again. But to end things on a good note for himself, DiCapa revealed that his true target was Keese, took out a gun, shot him continuously, and when he tried to heal himself by leaving his Battler form, hit him with a dart containing a paralysis-inducing drug. So three Battlers were now out of the fight.

Aaron, Deyon, and Jon, along with Richard and Jay, quickly set off to find the cure to Keese’s paralysis in DiCapa’s office building in Book 36. They were caught while sneaking through the building and chased by security guards. Just as they were about to be captured, they were saved by Shauna and Diahandra, who’d returned to town hours before. After escaping and heading back to Deyon’s house, they caught up with their friends for a few hours and filled them in on what’d happened to Maurice, J.J., and Keese.

The next morning, Aaron was presented with an even bigger problem than before — Goril Primus had survived the quicksand on Dare Island, returned to town, and was back to make a meal of him again. Goril revealed that Dare had saved him after the lack of oxygen beneath the surface of the quicksand knocked him out. He was revived with Dare’s magic and sent back to the United States. And before returning to town, he’d sprung four convicted murderers — Malik, Nate, Guillermo, and Tao — from prison and made them part of his new gang to assist him in capturing Aaron. After revealing all this to Aaron, Goril almost ate him alive. Luckily, Shauna and Diahandra rescued him just in time.

Shortly after Goril’s attack, Aaron learned from Deyon and Jon that DiCapa had named him as his next target. It wasn’t too long that DiCapa tried to make good on it by running him down in his SUV. Aaron was rushed to the hospital to recover. He was visited by friends and family abound before the other Battlers headed out to take another shot at finding the antidote to Keese’s paralysis. (This time, the mission was a success.) Not too long after they left, Vivian was brought into his room after being poisoned by her father. Vivian recalled finding a secret room in DiCapa’s office that Aaron knew right away was his panic room. Vivian also revealed that she’d found J.J. inside, and just as she was about to free him, DiCapa caught her and used his infamous kiss of death on her. Fortunately, she just got kissed long enough to hopefully get her memory of that erased, which proved to be ineffective. Vivian was sedated by an orderly with a familiar-sounding voice after telling her story and Aaron was left alone to think about what he’d just learned.

As it turned out, Aaron didn’t have that much time to think about it. Goril attacked him in his hospital room after sneaking in, disguised as a nurse, with the intention of eating him. When he realized too many humans were around, Goril decided to kidnap Aaron from the hospital. He took him to an abandoned animal shelter clear on the other side of town and tried to eat him there. But he was given an idea by Malik — to go after all the other Battlers, as well. Goril gave it some thought and decided to do that. He locked Aaron up in animal cage to be eaten later and left Malik, Nate, and Tao to guard his soon-to-be meal. Guillermo was absent because he was still on his way back from the hospital, where he had sedated Vivian to keep her from witnessing Goril’s attack on Aaron.

Everything looked hopeless for Aaron until he was rescued by a mysterious girl, whom he found out was none other than Juliet Kwarteng! Juliet revealed that she’d almost been digested by Goril’s sulfuric stomach acids. But Chief Anderson had put a device on her wrist communicator that would cover her in metal strong enough to shield her. After riding through Goril’s system and being excreted in a forest three days later, she was rescued by some UNITY agents and taken to a safe house carefully picked out by Chief Anderson, who’d ordered her to let everyone think she was dead so that Goril wouldn’t try to come after her again. But she’d been forced to defy the order when she found out Goril was back in town and after Aaron.

Aaron took Juliet back to the hospital with him and shocked the other Battlers with her presence. He then revealed that Vivian had found J.J. in DiCapa’s panic room. The Battlers and Juliet hurried to save him, but they were too late. J.J. had been removed from the panic room and transferred to DiCapa’s yacht, where Labinnac would be guarding him.

On the way to the yacht, Aaron and the others were ambushed by Goril, Malik, Nate, Guillermo, and Tao. It was enough for the Battlers to defeat Goril’s flunkies. Goril easily turned things around, though, by eating Jon, Deyon, Shauna, and Diahandra. When he snatched Aaron up to eat him, too, Juliet (who’d gone out of sight to call Chief Anderson down to the Woodbridge Harbor, where they were at this point) showed herself, surprised Goril, and unintentionally put herself on his menu. Aaron followed Goril on Falco, who flew in fast to save Juliet. But diverting Goril away from Juliet put him back in Goril’s line of sight. He tried taking cover in a factory, but Goril found him. He escaped his grasp for a few moments, but Goril finally managed to capture him. Just as he was feasting away at him, though, the other Battlers escaped from his stomach. Just as he had regenerated his skin and was about to reclaim them, Chief Anderson and several UNITY agents arrived just in time to stop him. He was forced to surrender and was taken into UNITY custody. He was locked in the prison ward to keep the world safe from him. But his last warning to Aaron was that he would find a way to break out and that he and Juliet would be his next meal soon enough. Aaron was just starting to recover from his Goril experience when tragedy struck. DiCapa surprised him and injected him with a poison that would kill him in twelve hours!

Aaron was quickly cured of his poison, however, in Book 37, when Deyon, Jon, and Shauna managed to win it from Gamester, who was holding it as a prize for them if they beat him in one of his games. He also got to witness the returns of Maurice and J.J., thanks to Jon winning two more of Gamester’s games on his own. It was after all eight Battlers had reunited that they learned what their next challenge would be — stopping DiCapa from going after the President of the United States.

In Book 38, Aaron added to his wind arsenal by learning the spell Zephyr. He, along with Jon, also heard the story of Shauna and Diahandra’s adventures since leaving San Francisco. In Book 39, Aaron and Jon heard the story of Shauna and Diahandra’s final adventures on the road before returning to Virginia.

In Book 40, Aaron and the other Battlers put a risky scheme in motion when they snuck into the White House to protect the President. The mission was successful as the Battlers nipped DiCapa’s attack in the bud by finding out that he’d planned to have himself smuggled into the President’s Oval Office in a box addressed to him. Unfortunately, although the Battlers’ plan to stop DiCapa succeeded, an unfortunate thing happened — using a very clever ploy, DiCapa managed to unmask Shauna and Diahandra, finally learning their secret identities. He had Albert Labinnac, his right-hand man, take a picture of each of them before they escaped.

From there, it was utter chaos for the Battlers. Aaron and J.J. were attacked in their home by DiCapa Enterprises guards sent to kidnap the Battlers in order for DiCapa to unmask them to the public, as he’d promised to do in a statement to the press. While Aaron was successfully kidnapped, his brother managed to save himself from sharing the same fate. In the end, however, three Battlers ended up staying out of DiCapa’s grasp — Deyon, J.J., and Keese.

While Aaron and the others waited for their fate to be decided on the roof, Deyon, J.J., and Keese arrived to rescue them. But J.J. and Keese were captured by some of DiCapa’s guards and were forced to join their already-kidnapped friends. DiCapa had already been waiting for them there and was waiting out the last thirty minutes before the press arrived so that he could reveal the Battlers’ identities on live TV.

Aaron and the other Battlers then watched as Deyon, who needed time to distract DiCapa so that the UNITY agents posing as the press could get there, engaged in the final battle against DiCapa that resulted in Deyon getting shot eight times after his Battler Crystal powered down on him, returning him to his normal form. But he and the others also watched as Deyon made a miraculous recovery when he used a Crystal Advance, a phenomenon only possible when a Battler Crystal has obtained and used so much power in previous battles that it is ready to advance to the next level — the Battler Emerald. So after Deyon’s crystal shifted its shape into that of an emerald, Aaron and the others watched as he used his new Battler Emerald to assume his new Battler form.

It was all downhill from there. Deyon defeated DiCapa with his brand-new physical abilities and powerful new spells to defeat DiCapa. But just as Deyon was about to slice DiCapa open after all the hell he’d put the Battlers through, Susan jumped in the way and Deyon ended up slicing her, instead. The attack was fatal and Susan died almost instantly. DiCapa became so enraged, he went off on Deyon, shouting out every crime he’d committed and how much he wished he’d done them to him and the other Battlers. Unfortunately, the UNITY agents masquerading as the press showed up, captured his confession on camera, and broadcast it live to every single television in the country.

DiCapa, knowing he’d be going down, anyway, decided to try and make light of the situation by revealing the Battlers’ identities as planned. He tried to tear Deyon’s helmet (which was part of his new Battler costume) off his head, but Deyon tore himself away. Unfortunately, he pulled away a bit too hard because DiCapa’s momentum sent him barreling over the edge of his thirty-story building and plummeting to his death. With DiCapa now dead, the war against him and the Battlers was now over, and Aaron and the other Battlers were released from working with UNITY. With their work finally done (at least for now), Aaron and the others headed for home, ready to go on with their lives.

In Super Battlers 4, Deyon led Aaron and the other Battlers on a journey to a new world — the realm of Magicia. The mission was to locate the Exchanger — mace with the power to exchange the magic powers of two different individuals or simply transfer the power of one mage to one with no magic. They would then use the mace to transfer a soon-to-be-departing J.J.’s powers to anyone he chose. And after a long journey that included being captured by Killer Beavers, a reunion with the Mutant Guerrillas, who’d been in hiding in Magicia to get stronger, an encounter with some Magician rams known as Ramblings, and a harrowing battle with a fire-breathing dragon, Aaron and the other Battlers found the Exchanger on top of a mountain known as Mount Cagim and brought it back to Earth with them. The next day, they used it to transfer J.J.’s powers to Richard. At the same time, they also used it to transfer the powers of Keese, who’d surprised everyone that he was leaving town, too, to Jay. After that was done, graduation followed a few days later, followed by J.J. and Keese’s departure from town the very next morning after an emotional goodbye from Aaron and the other Battlers.

In Book 41, after school started, Aaron and the other Battlers went to support Shauna and Diahandra as they entered the Tournament of Wonder. But they were all shocked to learn that the director of the tournament had allowed the six Battler boys to enter the tournament, too, to give the competitors and spectators something cheery to talk about. Although there was initial suspicion from Aaron and Deyon, at first, they eventually went along with it and entered. They got through the preliminary rounds, thus qualifying for the main tournament. When the main tournament began, Aaron and the other Battlers fought hard and fairly easily won all their battles in the first round. All eight made it through to the second round. To celebrate, they all went up to the park, along with Vivian, who was recovering from her parents’ deaths, and ate pizza and ice cream.

But their night of celebration was interrupted when Chief Manhunter and his new cohort, Castoro Dammon (known to all as “Cast”), showed up, along with nineteen other Killer Beavers, and the chief presented his latest scheme to them. He’d stolen and swallowed a powerful stone called the Stone of Absor and was going to use it to grow more powerful than ever — powerful enough to defeat the Battlers. He dropped a very cryptic hint that the best way to defeat them would be to use their very selves to do it, but the only way to do that . . . was by doing what he had tried to do for over a year — eating them. So after a battle started between the Battlers and the Killer Beavers, Aaron and the others were knocked out and nearly captured by Cast. It was thanks to Maurice undergoing the Crystal Advance — the second one in their group — that they were saved. But now that Chief Manhunter has become their deadliest enemy, things will never be the same.

In Book 42, Aaron and the others found out from Oriana what Chief Manhunter was truly up to. They learned that the Stone of Absor he’d eaten was created centuries ago by its previous owner, a wolf by the name of Cyrus Absor. He was a powerful nonhuman mage with a natural ability to gain more power by swallowing other mages alive and whole. He’d learned that eight Battler Crystals were needed to achieve the ultimate power to rule the world and had gone after the original, thirty-person Battlers team for that reason. But when he was defeated, he transferred his own natural absorption ability into a jewel on his head so the power wouldn’t die with him. Now that Chief Manhunter had stolen the jewel, eaten it, and waited for two weeks for the effects of it to set in, he would have the ability to absorb the power of any mage he ate. So the team came up with a plan to stop Chief Manhunter’s plan from working: Aaron, Richard, Jay, Jon, Shauna, and Diahandra would have to fight hard enough to undergo the Crystal Advance and ascend to the Battler Emerald level to stop his plan of getting eight crystals — or any crystals at all, for that matter — to increase his power.

The Battlers separated, but were called back together when Richard answered a cry for help but was kidnapped by an alligator resembling Predator, the late ultimate enemy of J.J. From Richard, who was rescued by their old allies, the Crocoans, they learned that Predator’s younger brother, Scalorus Gatorus, who preferred to go by the name “Carnivore,” had come back from a terrible banishment from Gatora to seek revenge for his brother’s death by devouring his killer — the White Battler. But he’d found out Richard was not the White Battler he was looking for. J.J. was, but he was in L.A.

The next day, round two of the Tournament of Wonder began, and Aaron fought in the first battle of the day. But the other Battlers could barely focus on him. They were busy having a brief confrontation with Chief Manhunter over his plans for them and missed his battle. But they did watch Richard’s battle, and saw it get interrupted by Carnivore, who kidnapped Richard again! When Jay tried to save him, Carnivore kidnapped him, too!

Aaron and the other Battlers used the magic coins given to them by Stalker and transported themselves to Crocoa (except for Shauna and Diahandra, who had no coins and stayed behind), where they enlisted Chompus’s help in rescuing Richard and Jay. Chompus took them to Carnivore’s throne room, where they found Jay, who’d escaped from him. He led them to Richard, who’d just defeated Carnivore in a battle. They beheld Richard’s success at rising to the Battler Emerald level, and all six boys learned that Steeltooth could talk. All Battler Animals could, actually, after their masters had risen to the emerald level. Just then, Carnivore caught sight of the other Battler boys and decided to eat all of them, as well. But Deyon knocked him out by reflecting one of his spells off his sword.

With Carnivore defeated (for now), Aaron and the others then returned to the stadium and watched Richard continue his battle in the tournament and, with Steeltooth’s help, pull off a win. Things were, for the time being, looking up for all of them.

That is, until Book 43, when Jay became the first of the Battlers to be eliminated from the Tournament of Wonder when Avio Swan, a nonhuman mage, defeated him in the first battle of the third round. To make matters worse, he encountered Bully Frog for the first time and lost a battle to him. Jay’s confidence suffered, in large part because not once had he lost a one-on-one battle before either of those battles. Richard was there to comfort him, saying it was just a sign that there was still room for improvement. The feelings of comfort were short-lived, though, as a giant, carnivorous mole named Maximole Diglon showed up and kidnapped Richard and dragged him underground. Things got even worse for Aaron, Maurice, Jay, Jon, and Aaron’s girlfriend, Juliet Kwarteng when a bunch of moles popped up out of the ground and kidnapped all of them.

Before they knew it, they were in a village hidden underground. The village, called Moleville, was led by a mole named Tunlen Molen and his clumsy sister, Burra. Tunlen explained that they’d been regular moles until drinking from a pond that’d been hit by a blast of magical energy. Then, they all began developing magic abilities and the ability to speak and walk on two legs. Tunlen then expressly asked for Aaron and the other Battlers’ help in defeating Maximole, who’d transformed into the monster he was by taking repeated trips to the pond and eventually gaining carnivorous tendecies. The Battlers agreed, just as Maximole attacked the village. Aaron, Maurice, and Jon were taken out fairly fast during the resulting battle, but Jay held on as he tried to defeat Maximole. He had the advantage until Maximole suddenly took it from him and easily beat him. Before he could eat him, Juliet saved him just in time and drove him right out of the village. But Jay’s confidence was further depleted from losing his third battle in a row, as well as feeling like he’d let Richard down since he’d been unable to rescue him thus far.

When Jay went off with Burra to save Richard from Maximole, Aaron, Maurice, Jon, Juliet, and Tunlen followed in Maurice’s Underground Fighter, showing up just after Jay had defeated Maximole. Maurice threatened to kill Maximole if he didn’t release Richard, leave, and stay away from Moleville. Reluctantly, Maximole ran off into the tunnels, and that was that. With Maximole defeated and driven off, Moleville saved, and Jay’s confidence restored, Aaron and the other Battlers returned to the surface to catch Deyon’s battle in round three of the tournament, happy that their underground adventure was over.

In Book 44, Aaron was in the park, enjoying a dinner with Juliet that he’d prepared for her, when she suddenly asked him to meet her family. He was about to tell her yes when they both discovered something horrible — Goril had escaped from UNITY and was after Aaron again. Make matters worse, Fenrir Lupus, Maurice’s ultimate enemy, had also returned and was looking to make a meal of Maurice, who was in the park with Vivian at the time. Aaron barely had time to absorb all this, though — Goril swallowed him alive right off the bat! But he escaped the same way he had before (by blowing away the layer of mucus on Goril’s stomach wall) and defeated him without even touching him. He let Goril charge into Fenrir, who was in the process of kidnapping Maurice, and both of them ended up going into a portal Fenrir had opened up with a swipe of his claws — and Fenrir ended up leaving Maurice behind.

After Aaron and Maurice met with the other Battlers to tell them the news of Fenrir and Goril’s returns, Aaron lost in the fourth round of the Tournament of Wonder the next day. But he didn’t let that bog him down. He just bought a gift for Juliet’s mother and prepared to go to the Kwartengs’ house for dinner. But on the way there, he was attacked by Goril and his new “collaborator” — Fenrir. After accidentally meeting, the two had apparently bonded over their mutual hatred of the Battlers and had become friends. They came together to form a powerful, unstoppable duo — the Power Pair (which was based on their own physical power). They’d struck a very intriguing deal. If Fenrir helped Goril capture Aaron, Goril would help Fenrir capture Maurice. So a battle erupted between Aaron and the Power Pair that resulted in Goril swallowing Aaron for the second time since his return. Aaron escaped again and continued fighting. Eventually, Fenrir and Goril overpowered him and made things pretty hopeless for him, so he called on his falcon, Falco, to fly him out of there.

Aaron made it to Juliet’s house and quickly won over her mother and father. They realized Aaron was the perfect boy for their daughter and gave them their blessing. But her brother, William, didn’t take to him as easily. In fact, after dinner was over and Aaron was on the way home, he threatened to take action against him if he didn’t stay away from Juliet, which slightly unnerved Aaron.

After Maurice lost his battle in the tournament the next day, Aaron relayed William’s threat to Juliet, who called her parents to talk to her brother. A short while after that, William called Aaron up to the park — and he asked him to bring Maurice with him. So Aaron went up to the park near his house with Maurice, Vivian, and Juliet. Unbeknownst to any of them, William was actually working for Fenrir and Goril, who quietly kidnapped Aaron as soon as he and the others got to the park and transported him to Fenrir’s cave, where the entire Clan of the Cave Wolves lived. The werewolves there acted fast upon Aaron’s arrival, immediately seizing him and trapping him in a guest chamber somewhere in the cave, where he was joined by Goril sometime later. Aaron wanted to fight him, but the werewolves had taken his crystal, so he was defenseless. Goril knew this, and he wasted no time in carrying out his long-awaited goal. He snatched Aaron up and swallowed him alive for the third time since his return.

Aaron was stuck in Goril’s stomach for over an hour, clinging to his stomach wall and trying hard to avoid falling into his sulfuric stomach acids. But luckily for him, Juliet had tracked him and Maurice down using the chip in his neck and coaxed Goril, who was sleeping off his meal, to swallow his crystal (which she’d swiped from Fenrir’s room). Aaron got his crystal back and used it to transform just in time to escape Goril again — and just saved his girlfriend from being eaten by Goril, who’d awaken and caught her in his room. Of course, both of them were saved by Jon, who’d been caught outside of the cave with Vivian (who was waiting for Juliet). Aaron, Jon, and Juliet escaped from Goril’s room and found Fenrir’s room, where Juliet hoped to free Maurice by tricking Fenrir into swallowing his emerald. Unfortunately, Fenrir was awake, and a chase ensued, with Aaron, Jon, and Juliet now in both Fenrir and Goril’s sights.

Juliet got away and separated from the boys to find Vivian, but not before slipping Aaron Maurice’s Battler Emerald. Aaron and Jon let Fenrir and Goril chase them to a factory — the same one Aaron and Goril had faced off in during their previous encounter. During the resulting battle, Goril managed to swallow Aaron for the fourth time since his return, this time by inhaling him using one of Aaron’s wind spells, which he’d swallowed. But Aaron yet again escaped from Goril and the battle continued. Aaron realized he had a chance to save Maurice, so after getting Jon to distract Goril, he quickly force-fed himself to Fenrir, who was more than happy to eat him. He joined Maurice in Fenrir’s belly and gave him his emerald back. Maurice then transformed and used Hole Digger to get them both out. And then, after the battle resumed again, this time with three Battlers against the evil Power Pair, Aaron’s Battler Crystal powered down on him.

Goril took advantage of this and tried to eat Aaron again while he was powerless, but Aaron stalled by holding Goril’s jaws open for as long as possible. He held on until his Battler Crystal finally started glowing, and just as Goril had forced Aaron into his mouth, Aaron used the Crystal Advance, which turned out to produce so much heat, Goril ended up spitting Aaron out because the inside of his mouth was burned. Aaron transformed into his new Battler form using his Battler Emerald — and was immediately swallowed by Goril for the fifth time since his return. Again, though, he escaped, and he let the Power Pair have it with a new spell — a Typhoon spell. Fenrir was blown away, right out of the battle, but Goril inhaled it and turned it back on Aaron at twice the power. Aaron was swept up in it at first, but then, he learned that he could ride and control his wind spells. He moved it toward Goril, picked him up, and propelled him through the skylight of the factory.

With Goril out, Aaron, Maurice, and Jon thought it was over and that they’d gotten one step closer to stopping Chief Manhunter’s plan to swallow their crystals. But they were immediately surprised by the sudden appearance of Cast, who left right when they saw him. When they tried to follow him, the trio ran into Goril, who was not defeated. Goril set his sights solely on Aaron, threatening to tear him to pieces. But Aaron quickly hatched a plan and led Goril on a chase toward the Woodbridge Harbor. There, he used the same trick he’d used on him during their battle on Dare Island — and Goril ended up falling into the harbor. Since apes can’t swim, Goril sank instantly and was finally defeated. To top off that bit of good news, Aaron and the other Battlers found out Vivian had given birth to her and Maurice’s son, Maurice IV, thus bringing about a happy ending to their adventure.

Aaron started off Book 45 by watching Jon easily lose his battle in the fifth round of the Tournament of Wonder to Deyon. It was no contest — he was a stronger Battler and had an element that was strong against his own. Worse yet, he and the other Battlers had to deal with the problem of Oriana using a Chronos transfero spell that ended badly — she ended up accidentally transferring herself to their time, trapping herself there for a week! Also, Cast started a series of attacks on Jon, and Jon couldn’t even figure out why. So at the insistence of Aaron and the other Battlers, he went on a reconnaissance mission to the Killer Beavers’ village to find out what was up. They ended up finding out about Chief Manhunter’s pictures of the eight Battlers — the five marked-off ones of Deyon, Maurice, Richard, Jay, and Aaron, and three unmarked ones of Jon, Shauna, and Diahandra.

Aaron and the other Battlers figured out from the pictures that Chief Manhunter was probably marking off how many Battlers still had Battler Crystals so he could target them for eating, but later found out from Jon and Oriana that maybe they were wrong. Maybe Chief Manhunter was trying to get them all to get their Battler Emeralds so he could eat them then. The attacks that Cast kept launching on Jon in hopes of fighting him only strengthened the possibility — Jon figured out Cast was trying to get him to fight so as to use up as much energy as possible to undergo his Crystal Advance. So after being chased by Cast and escaping him (thanks in part to an often-appearing mysterious woman), Jon, Shauna, and Diahandra decided to avoid having any battles (except for in the tournament, which Shauna and then Richard eventually lost soon after Jon did). The Battlers’ plan was put to the test, though, when, after Cast won his quarterfinal battle, he indirectly revealed that he’d kidnapped Monique and would only let her go if Jon came to the New Killer Beaver Village and fought him.

Unfortunately, the plan didn’t work, as Jon underwent the Crystal Advance after all, as a result of his fight with Cast. Of course, they also found out (from Jon) that Chief Manhunter was indeed trying to get the Battlers to go through the Crystal Advance. And he’d even hired Carnivore and Maximole to help him without the Battlers — or even Carnivore and Maximole themselves — even knowing it! This was to take the focus off himself and keep the Battlers focused on their enemies. It was very brilliant, and even Jon admitted it. Now that he had his new Battler Emerald, this only left Shauna and Diahandra with Battler Crystals. They’d have to lay off the fighting now while the boys handled everything.

To make sure the girls did lay off the fighting, Deyon suggested they go out of town in Book 46 and find someplace to escape from Chief Manhunter while the boys thought of a plan of dealing with him and the Stone of Absor. So Shauna and Diahandra skipped town with Diahandra’s brother, Derrick, and their two old friends, Jamal O’Connor and Felicia Hooper, and headed off to Topeka, Kansas. But Aaron and the boys were displeased to learn that Shauna ended up going through her Crystal Advance, anyway, thanks to a young man named Jeremy Frost and his romantic obsession with her.

In Book 47, Aaron and the other Battlers were forced to try and save Deyon, who was kidnapped by Dominic Carter, who turned him into bronze as part of his plan to wipe out all the mages in the Washington, D.C., area. While Aaron and the other Battlers managed to track him down, he, Maurice, Richard, Jay, Jon, and Shauna were all turned into bronze, as well. He and the others were later rescued by Diahandra after she became the final Battler to undergo the Crystal Advance, along with the team’s newly-obtained ally, Stephanie Sadler, previously known as Horstephanie.

In Book 48, with all eight Battlers possessing Battler Emeralds, Aaron and the others knew they needed to watch out for Chief Manhunter, as it was clear that an attack from him was possible at any minute. Indeed, that was the case, as a few allies of the chief’s attacked the Battlers in their homes on Christmas Eve — Carnivore, Maximole, Fenrir, and Goril. With each attack, at least two Battlers were kidnapped (Aaron by Fenrir and Goril, along with Maurice) and taken to the Killer Beavers’ village, where Chief Manhunter planned to do nothing short of eating the kids and absorbing their powers. But Deyon thought fast and, when Chief Manhunter tried to make them all suffer some last-minute humiliation by publicizing their scared thoughts to his guests, made sure Goril heard that Chief Manhunter was using him, all the while planning to eat Aaron himself rather than let Goril have him. Goril went on a frenzy that resulted in the Battlers escaping, and to ensure their escape, Deyon finally mastered his Magic Advance. During the escape, Aaron was grabbed by Goril and bitten in the throat. The hole in his throat, combined with the loss of blood, killed him. But thanks to a gift J.J. had sent him from their Crocoan allies, a Phoenix Poinsettia, Aaron came back to life and managed to survive their Christmas Eve ordeal.

In Book 49, Aaron and the other Battlers had to deal with the horrors of Pastry Pat, a magical pig chef who turned them into pies to give to Chief Manhunter. It was only thanks to Maurice they escaped.

In Book 50, Aaron rescued Richard from an evil, giant vulture. After saving him, he led the other Battlers, Juliet, and Stephanie on a trip up to Cloud Nine, a magical sky-kingdom whose citizens were all birds. There, he and the others went head-to-head against a high-flying villain known as Vultura Scavenge, a villain from his and J.J.’s past during the time of their absence in Book 25. It wasn’t an easy struggle, as Vultura was easily more powerful than all eight Battlers. But they did manage to beat him in one battle before he kidnapped Juliet in an attempt to lure them all up to the highest point of Cloud Nine, which was close enough to the sun to let it empower their Battler Emeralds. By the time they’d figured it out, it was too late. Vultura was revealed to have been working with Chief Manhunter all along, and he’d set all the events in motion just to get the Battlers up there. But just as the chief was about to eat the Battlers, who’d been trapped by Cast, his most loyal beaver turned on him . . . and ate him up in one quick gulp! He also managed to absorb his own chief’s powers since the chief wasn’t the only one who’d eaten a Stone of Absor. So had he. So now, although Chief Manhunter was out of the Battlers’ hair, Cast was firmly in it.

Aaron and the other Battlers found out just how deep in their hair Cast was in Book 51, when they found out he’d recruited the Mutant Guerrillas to work for him. After being defeated by the Battlers (who, at the time, were meeting Jay’s parents for the first time), they were approached by Cast, who helped them by giving each of them a fraction of his power. Their increased power enabled them to defeat the Battlers the next time they fought them, and Aaron was among six of the Battlers who were kidnapped as a result of that battle. Deyon, Maurice, Jon, Shauna, and Diahandra joined him, as they were all taken to the Killer Beavers’ village. Things looked bleak for them, but Richard and Jay, the only two Battlers who’d managed to escape capture, rescued them, thanks to a well-thought-out plan of Jay’s. Their rescue was more than ensured to be successful when Jay mastered his Magic Advance to stop the mutants from following them.

Aaron’s archenemy is Owlina, Evilla’s mutant snowy owl. He hates the nickname she’s bestowed upon him — “Greeny.” (The nickname was later used on him by other villains, as well.) Their adversarial relationship has made them overly sadistic at each other’s pain.

Aaron’s ultimate enemy, however, is Goril Primus, whom he met in Book 28, when he got the order to kill him from DiCapa, and almost killed his girlfriend, Juliet. He’s been after Aaron ever since.

Aaron, being the Wind Battler, fights with the Battler Tornado Baton. It uses wind magic to inflict major damage on his enemies. Like J.J., he has three Battler Animals — Falco, a peregrine falcon that came with his weapon (and was first seen in Book 15), Bill, a duck he captured (off-page) in Book 18, and a great horned owl, which he captured in Book 28, that he hasn’t named yet. He flies the Air Fighter beautifully through the skies to ambush his enemies from the air.

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