Maurice Eazel III
General Facts
Age: 19
Grade: College Freshman
Gender: M
School: American University
Occupation
College Student
Battler
Former Part-time UNITY Agent
Appearances
Regular Titles: Books 1–21,
24–29, 32–33, 35–37, and 40–51
Super Battlers: All
Books Narrated
Regular Titles:
Books 2 (occasionally), 3, 10, 17, 25, 33, 41, and 49
Super Battlers: All
(Alternated with the other Battlers)
Immediate Family
Maurice Eazel, Jr. (father)
Terre Jones Eazel Kukawski (mother)
Paul “Ski” Kukawski (stepfather,
married to Terre)
Anita Baldwin
Eazel (stepmother, married to Maurice, Jr.)
Marcquise
“Keese” Eazel (younger brother)
Monique
“Mo” Eazel (younger sister)
Morgan Eazel (younger
half-brother by Maurice,
Jr.)
Madison Eazel (younger
half-sister by Maurice,
Jr.)
Precious Kukawski (younger half-sister by Terre)
Brandon Kukawski (younger half-brother by Terre)
Unborn Half-Brother or Half-Sister (by Terre, miscarried)
Maurice “Maury”
Eazel IV (son with Vivian)
Character Summary
Maurice
Eazel seems like an average black teenager who does everything a normal
black teenager does — he goes to school, hangs out with friends, and spends
time with his family — but he isn’t. He’s the Silver Battler, one of two
assistant leaders of the Black Crystal Battlers. Unlike leader Deyon, he’s
loved by almost all girls his age and has been rejected by few of them. Jeri
Wilkes is one of these girls. He’s friends with fellow Battlers Deyon
Davis, Aaron Rountree,
Shauna Davidson,
Diahandra Christian,
Jon Crawley,
and recent newcomers Richard Montgomery and Jay Dixon.
He’s also friends with former Battler J.J. Rountree. His little brother,
Marcquise (nicknamed “Keese”), a former Battler, secretly looks up to him.
Maurice once had to take
the reins and temporarily lead the group in Book 2, when they were captured by
the Mutant Guerrillas. He was also the one who had to teach Shauna and Diahandra how to use their Battler powers
when they joined the team in Book 3 (Deyon and the others were being held
prisoner by Evilla). After returning from the past after spending two months
trapped there, he had a small accident that resulted in him losing his memory.
The Mutant Guerrillas convinced him his name was Morris
and accepted him on their side as part of their plan to destroy his friends.
However, their plan blew up in their faces when Maurice
regained his memory after seeing Keese’s face.
Maurice, along with J.J., Keese, and Aaron,
was kidnapped by Pestilence Vermin in Book 24 and hidden somewhere in the city.
Deyon and Jon found him, but Jon fell into a trap that nearly cost him his life.
After rescuing him, Deyon fought and defeated Vermin all by himself and saved
the day.
Maurice was just getting back to a
normal life until Book 25, when he met Dan
Simmons, a homeless man who carried a big secret — he was a werewolf! When
he found that out a few nights after he met him, he and Vivian DiCapa, his date
for his school’s Halloween dance (he’d asked her in desperation for a date
because his original date turned out to be his little sister, Monique), were
kidnapped and taken to a cave that housed a secret werewolf society: the Clan
of the Cave Wolves. They were to be eaten by their leader, Fenrir
Lupus, as part of the Supper of the Werewolves.
Maurice and Vivian
were locked up, but Jon came and tried
to save them both. However, he only managed to save Maurice
when some of the werewolves caught them and retook Vivian
into their captivity. Maurice escaped
with Jon but returned to rescue Vivian with Deyon, Keese, and Jon.
(J.J. and Aaron
were out of town at the time.) They managed to immobilize the werewolves
guarding Vivian and save her, but just
when they were about to escape themselves, Fenrir caught them and decided to
eat them, instead. Maurice’s
identity got exposed to Fenrir while he was trying to eat him, which pleased
Fenrir greatly. But when Dan tried to
save the boys from Fenrir, he was angry once again. So angry, in fact, he
killed Dan by shooting him in the
brain with a silver bullet.
Maurice battled Fenrir in a vengeful
rage and got the upper hand, at first, but Fenrir took over the advantage with
his size and a surprise attack and ate him in one bite. Maurice
escaped from Fenrir’s stomach using a Hole Digger attack on the stomach wall,
but he made the mistake of closing it up again. Just when Fenrir was about to
eat Maurice a second time, Vivian knocked him out and saved the boys — and
revealed that she knew Maurice’s
identity! And after they took her home, she revealed that she wanted to have a
relationship with Maurice, which he
happily accepted. It was later that he briefly encountered Fenrir again and was
told that they’d meet another day, which may very well happen. . . .
In Book 26, he
helped J.J. defeat Predator in the
final battle between Gatora and Crocoa. He provoked Predator with a taunt and
forced him to cast a spell on him that would kill him. But J.J. reflected the spell and it went wild and hit
Predator’s wife, Queen Scala,
instead, killing her instantly. Predator escaped with his baby son, Prince Fangorus, after
that. And Maurice and the others
witnessed the birth of baby Gnawbin Crocous, the son of King Reptilius
“Stalker” Crocous, and his wife, Queen Bitena Crocous, their new allies.
In Book 27, Maurice helped the other Battlers save Keese, who’d
been kidnapped by Predator to be given to Chief Manhunter as part of a deal
they’d made. He ended up saving Vivian,
who’d been pulled into the whole thing, as well. He and Keese got a happy
surprise after it was all over — their mother was pregnant with her sixth
child! But it wasn’t until the next day that he ended up breaking up with Vivian when he saw her kissing Keese to thank him for
saving her from Predator and Chief Manhunter. He also put himself and Keese on
the outs.
Maurice was still on the outs with Keese in Book 28.
He refused to hear anything Keese had to say to him. He didn’t even forgive him
when he (off-page) tried to use their mother’s pregnancy to bond with him.
Eventually, Keese confronted him to hear him out, but they ended up fighting.
When their mother tried to stop it, she took a tumble down the stairs in their
house and lost her baby while recovering in the hospital. Deyon and Jon locked them in a bathroom stall to force them to
talk out their differences, which they did, and the two brothers reconciled. Maurice also got back with Vivian,
whom Deyon had called down to the hospital. Shortly after that, Goril
Primus, DiCapa’s newest killing machine, kidnapped them all and locked them
in an old elevator. The cables started to snap, but Aaron,
Goril’s target, saved them just seconds before they did.
Maurice and Keese had to deal with Ski treating them
like dirt in Book 29 because of their part in their mother’s miscarriage. To
make matters worse, they and the other Battlers were kidnapped by Polar
Tundros, also known as “the Gamester,” and his penguin cohort, Funguin Waddlesworth.
They were forced to play games in their Palace of Fun
if they expected to save Santa Claus and his toys. Maurice
was the second one to lose a game — he lost in Musical Despairs, just on the
heels of Deyon’s loss. J.J., Keese,
and Aaron soon followed him. All of
them were turned into game pieces, but they were rescued by Jon after he defeated Gamester. Funguin, who’d turned
on his master, helped him do it.
While celebrating
New Year’s Eve in Super Battlers 3, Maurice,
the other Battlers, Vivian, and Monique were magically transported to Dare Island,
an island ruled by a sorcerer named Bin Dare. After reuniting with Shauna and Diahandra, Dare challenged them all to a
tournament in which they would be facing their ultimate enemies again. The
winner of each fought got to live, while the losers would be eaten by their
ultimate enemies — and none of them would be able to escape since Dare
magically shielded their stomach walls from any attempt to get out.
Dare separated
everyone to make it harder to win. Maurice
was separated with Felicia
Hooper, one of Shauna and Diahandra’s friends from the road. They
had to find their way through a dungeon and ended up in battle with Fenrir. Maurice managed to win with a surprise Burial attack
after all his other attacks failed. But before that, Felicia
was knocked out and thus lost her fight. So Fenrir ate her alive, satisfying
his hunger. But after reuniting with the others, Maurice
was horrified to learn that Keese had lost to Chief Manhunter and Jon had lost to Gamester and that both of them had
been eaten. They reunited later, though, and fought Dare
for their freedom. As soon as they won the fight, Dare revealed that they’d
been brought there just for his personal entertainment. They advised him to
find better ways of entertaining himself before being sent home. Once they were
home, they finished celebrating New Year’s Eve together.
In Book 32, Maurice 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, Maurice found out that Vivian
was pregnant. It’d happened the night of the sleepover, while Deyon had been
searching for Richard and Jay. But as if that
was bad enough, he, Deyon, and J.J.
had to deal with Les
B. Ian,
a bully who’d learned their secret identities in Book 16, resurfacing on
DiCapa’s payroll. Les used all the resources he’d received to try and kill them
for making him keep their secret. He even went as far as to attack Maurice in his home using an automatic while he was
having dinner with his and Vivian’s
families to inform them of the pregnancy. When the attack didn’t work, Les
kidnapped Maurice, Deyon, J.J., and the other Battlers. They had a showdown in
a factory that ended with Les himself dying. Keese set him up during the
showdown to get eaten by the Deadly Duo — Predator and Chief Manhunter. But
even though that problem was over, they had to deal with something else —
DiCapa struck Maurice that very night
and put him in a coma with a coma-inducing drug because he’d gotten Vivian pregnant. So Maurice
is currently out of action.
Maurice made non-speaking appearances (because he
was still in his coma) in Books 35 and 36. He was an inspiration to the
resolution of a problem Keese was having with Chief Manhunter in Book 35. He
appeared to “reunite” with Shauna and
Diahandra when they returned to town in Book 36.
Maurice finally came out of his coma in Book 37,
thanks to Jon winning the spell needed
to wake him up from Gamester, who was holding it as a prize for him if he beat
him in one of his games. After being caught up on everything that’d happened
while in his coma, he got to witness the return of J.J., thanks to Jon winning Gamester’s final game 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 40, Maurice 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. Maurice and Keese 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.
Despite his best efforts to resist, Maurice
was kidnapped by the guards while Keese managed to stay free. Ski, on the other
hand, was left badly beaten by DiCapa’s men. Deyon, J.J., and Keese were the
only three Battlers who stayed out of DiCapa’s clutches.
While Maurice 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.
Maurice 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, Maurice 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 Maurice and the other
Battlers were released from working with UNITY. With their work finally done
(at least for now), Maurice and the
others headed for home, ready to go on with their lives.
In Super Battlers 4,
Deyon led Maurice 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, Maurice 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 Maurice
and the other Battlers.
In Book 41, after
school started, Maurice 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 Deyon and Aaron, at first, they eventually went along with it
and entered. They got through the preliminary rounds, thus qualifying for the
main tournament.
However, Maurice ran
into a bit of trouble when he found out all contestants would need two Magic
Animals to enter the tournament or else they’d be automatically disqualified.
He was the last of the Battlers who had yet to seal a new Battler Animal, as he
only had Rapidig, his mole. So he made a quick jaunt to Vivian’s
house to visit her and their unborn child. Then, using his lance and his mole, Maurice sealed a new Battler Animal — a gopher. With
two Battler Animals in his possession, Maurice
now qualified for the tournament. But before he left, he and Vivian got a happy surprise — their baby kicked for
the very first time.
When the main
tournament began, Maurice 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, Deyon, Richard, Jay, Aaron, Jon, Shauna,
and Diahandra were knocked out and nearly captured by Cast. But Maurice was still in shape to battle. But before he
did, he saw Chief Manhunter kidnap Vivian,
planning to imprison her long enough to let her give birth and then eat her and
her baby. This, coupled with a beating Maurice
took while battling Cast, gave him enough rage to undergo the Crystal Advance
and ascend to the Battler Emerald level. With stronger powers at hand, Maurice defeated Cast and saved Vivian
from Chief Manhunter, surprising him with the fact that he was an all-new
Battler. But although they were safe for now, things will never be the same
since Chief Manhunter is now their deadliest enemy.
The surprises kept
coming when Maurice, after taking Vivian home following the Killer Beaver attack, found
out that Deyon’s new college roommate, Desmond,
knew Vivian. It was revealed by Vivian, who was there when he showed up at the DiCapa
mansion, that Desmond is, in fact, her
brother — Desmond
DiCapa, Liam
and Susan’s oldest child!
In Book 42, Maurice 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: Richard, Jay,
Aaron, 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 Maurice
and 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!
Maurice 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), Maurice 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 Maurice,
Aaron, 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 Maurice 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. Maurice, Aaron,
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, Maurice, Aaron, 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, Maurice 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, Maurice was walking in the park with Vivian (Aaron
and Juliet were enjoying a nice dinner
there at the time) when he saw that Goril Primus, Aaron’s
ultimate enemy, had returned. Worse yet, Fenrir Lupus, his own ultimate enemy,
had also returned and was looking to make a meal of him. Maurice
immediately went into battle with Fenrir, but he lost when he was knocked
unconscious. But just as Fenrir was about to kidnap and eat him, he was saved
by Aaron’s own quick thinking. He let
Goril, who was running at him, charge into Fenrir, 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 Maurice and Aaron
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. The day after that, Maurice lost his battle in the tournament. A short
while after that, William Kwarteng, Juliet’s brother, who took an immediate dislike
to Aaron upon meeting him, 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.
But just as they got there, they found out something very awful — William called them up to the park to lure them into
a trap set by the Power Pair (the newly-aligned Fenrir and Goril). Aaron had already been kidnapped by them before Maurice, Vivian,
and Juliet had gotten the news, and Maurice quickly joined him when Fenrir abruptly
pulled him through a portal. He took him to his room in his cave, stripped him
of his Battler Emerald, and, with his prey completely defenseless, promptly
gulped him down.
Maurice was stuck in Fenrir’s stomach for a long
time, clinging to his stomach wall and trying hard to avoid falling into his
stomach acids. But luckily for him, Juliet
had tracked him and Aaron down using
the chip in his neck. Aaron (who’d
been eaten by Goril but had escaped), Jon
(who’d come to assist Vivian and Juliet on their rescue mission), and Juliet found Fenrir in his room, where Juliet hoped to free Maurice
by tricking Fenrir into swallowing his emerald (which she’d swiped from
Fenrir’s custody). Unfortunately, Fenrir was awake, and a chase ensued, with Aaron, Jon,
and Juliet now in both Fenrir and
Goril’s sights.
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, 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. (Juliet
had slipped it to him after swiping it from Fenrir.) 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, Maurice and Jon were knocked out by attacks from Fenrir and
Goril. When they finally came to, they saw that Aaron’s
Battler Crystal had powered down, but had since undergone the Crystal Advance.
Unfortunately, as soon as he transformed into his new Battler form, Maurice and Jon
watched in horror as Goril swallowed Aaron
(for the fifth time since his return). Aaron,
of course, escaped from Goril, and he impressed Maurice
and Jon with his new ability to ride
and control his wind spells. He finally picked him up and propelled him through
the skylight of the factory using one of them.
With Goril out, Maurice, Aaron,
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.
By the time Maurice and Jon had caught up to Aaron,
they found out that he’d tricked Goril into falling into the harbor, hopefully
drowning since apes can’t swim. To top off that
bit of good news, Aaron and the other
Battlers found out from Deyon and Diahandra that Vivian
had given birth to her and Maurice’s
son, Maurice
IV, and Maurice shared a tender moment with his newborn son.
Maurice 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 Diahandra 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.
Maurice 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),
Diahandra, Jon, and Shauna 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 Maurice 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, Maurice
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 Maurice and the other
Battlers managed to track him down, he, Richard, Jay, Aaron, 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, Maurice 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. For Maurice, it’d be at the worst possible
time, as he and Vivian were looking forward to christening little Maury. But
alas, 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 (Maurice by Fenrir and Goril, along with Aaron)
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. Maurice and Vivian then went on to have Maury’s christening,
happy to have survived their Christmas Eve ordeal.
In Book 49, Maurice
and the other Battlers had to deal with the horrors of Pastry
Pat, a magical pig chef who turned Maury into a tart just to get at
Maurice. He was freed thanks to Jon, though, and the Battlers decided to get
back at Pat for what he’d done to a helpless by fighting him. But during the
battle, Deyon, Richard, Aaron, and Shauna were turned into a pie to give to
Chief Manhunter. Maurice, Jay, Jon, and Diahandra tracked them down the next
day, only to get turned into a pie themselves. It was only thanks to Maurice
they escaped, but only after Chief Manhunter swallowed him (while he was still
trapped in the pie) and nearly absorbed his powers thanks to the Stone of
Absor. Following their escape, Maurice went on to be a comfort to Deyon after
he lost the Tournament of Wonder to Cast.
In Book 50, Maurice
joined the other Battlers 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 Aaron 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.
Maurice 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 Maurice was among six
of the Battlers who were kidnapped as a result of that battle. Deyon, Aaron,
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.
Maurice’s archenemy is Doomondback, a mutant
diamondback rattlesnake part of Evilla’s Mutant Guerrillas. Of their many battles,
the greatest battle would be a battle they had as amnesiacs “Morris” and “Viper” in Book 17.
Maurice’s ultimate enemy,
however is Fenrir Lupus, whom he met in Book 25. Fenrir is the king of the Clan
of the Cave Wolves and is out to devour Maurice
for good.
As the Silver Battler, the Underground Battler, Maurice
is armed with the Battler Subterranean Lance, a weapon that inflicts
underground damage on enemies. He also commands his Battler Animals, Rapidig, a
magical mole, and Dugdug, a newly-sealed gopher, both of whom live within his
lance’s confines. But his greatest, most powerful weapon is his Elemental
Fighter, his Underground Fighter.
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