Dedicated to Moi who reminded me this fic existed.

Ice Queen

By: Zadien

Disclaimer:

I don't own Beyblade and I only own Amber Benson and Ruin Mulryan. Miyami belongs to ChibiTari/Unlucky Star and you can see more of her exploits in 'Kinomiya: File one'. Arista Belyaev was invented by AzN*PyRo*ArCaDa who writes 'On the swords edge'! And Animerle owns Aspin who's the star of 'For the love of Kane' While Sonia belongs to Spitfire_Sae and Kirby is the creation of Kindred Insanity.

Summary: The Tempest Tigers, an incredibly close team who don't appreciate traitors, especially Tala Valkov. But that is nothing compared to the animosity they feel towards their new teammate turned captain. So how is Kai Hiwatari to deal with a team who won't accept him or respect him? Well if they won't respect him, he won't respect them.

A.N. Well I brought this fic out ages ago; actually, it was my very first Beyblade fic. And I decided that since Sae has now discontinued her Ice Hockey fic, I was going to have to write one myself since I couldn't read it. Plus people seemed to enjoy the excerpt of it, and after reading someone's review I decided that I should continue it, but I needed to make adjustments to it, hope people don't mind.

So this is the very first chapter; revised and hopefully better.

Chapter one: Quislings aren't welcome here!

He sat on his bed in the dark; the only illumination came from the TV. On it played the second rated team in his league, the Tempest Tigers, versus the third-rated team, the Warriors. On the screen, the players moved eerily along the ice, while on his bedside table, by the light sat the Preston Academy yearbook lying open on the most worrying players.

His name was Kai Hiwatari, and he was captain of the Clonmel Sharks. As captain of the Sharks, he felt it was his duty to read up and observe his main rivals, not that he felt that they were anything to worry about. After all his team was the best, but still, after watching the Tigers, he began to notice that they had quite a number of talented players, each with their own style and skill which was more than what his team had, they just relied on their brute strength and intimidation. But one thing his team had was discipline and one leader.

On screen, a player draped in the sky blue and navy off the Tigers skated down the side of the arena. He cradled the puck easily with his stick as he ducked, twirled and dodged around his opponents, while other members of his team checked them into the boards. Suddenly he skidded to a sharp stop just in front of the other team's goalie. Whipping the stick back behind him, he blasted the puck towards the net. It flew through the air in a blurry streak of black. The goalie lunged for it. For a while, it seemed as though time stopped. There was a tense moment as the arena waited with bated breath to see if they'd scored.

Then the buzzer sounded. The fans erupted with cheers, and the noise roared through the arena. The band burst to life playing a fast tempo from up on the stands. Blue, green and red strobes danced on the ice to the beat. As the commentator called out the score, the player skated off striking a winning pose at the opposing team, then turning to their team, they bowed with a flourish, doffing their helmet like a tophat.

Holding the helmet under her arm, the girl wiped away strands of dark hair from her damp flushed face and grinned as her line came up to congratulate her. The smile lit up her face, instantly transforming her features into one that would demand a second or third glance. But while she was pretty, it was her skill that made her worthy of his attention. Her sharp shot would be tricky to defend against and her ability to spot the clear lanes in front of the goal meant she could never be left alone on the ice.

He turned his attention from the screen to the open yearbook. Flipping the page, his dark burnished brown eyes scanned the page until he found her. Her image, immortalised within the page, didn't do her justice, he mused, skimming down to the bio. Amber Benson, known more informally as Ams or Bambi. She was a B student and listed ice hockey and tourist season as her hobbies.

He glanced back at the screen as she chirped her opponent and ended up flat on her ass on the ice. Good shot, he decided watching as she surged to her feet and roughly shoved the nearest opponent earning a minor infringement, but she was too easily riled. That would be a weakness he could exploit.

His attention flicked to the Captain, Rei Kon - another problem. The boy with messy black hair, and brown eyes so light they looked gold. He had an aura of calmness as though nothing phased him. Kai knew for a fact that the guy was good at motivating his team but there were things in which he lacked, like control over the younger members of his team, as yet another player ended up in the box - this time for jarring the ref.

His interest was pulled to a picture of the captain holding a cup with a young woman beside him; arms wrapped around his waist, pretty head rested on his shoulder. Her thick mass of hair, full and bright pink, suited her pretty features. She resembled a girl who wouldn't back down from a fight, but the way she was draped over the captain showed that there was something going on between them. Under the caption, it showed their names, Rei Kon and Mariah Wong - the goalkeeper for the JV Tigers also known as 'the Swallow'.

There was a note at the bottom of the page and from it he gleaned that 'the Swallow' was actually the number two goalie. The number one goalie, Arista Belyaev, had been injured in a previous match and was now riding the pine pony. He wondered briefly how long she'd be out of commission, and then he shook his head. There was no way in hell she'd be ready for their match unless Kon planned to bring her out as a secret weapon. His gaze flicked to the screen in time to catch Mariah dive to cover the puck with her gloved hands. After icing it, the ref glided up and the Captain paused to consult with the goalie. If she was number two, then Belyaev would be another major concern.

He searched the page for a picture of Belyaev to see what she looked like. Finally he found her. She was sitting on the back of a blue-haired, blue-eyed male who was smirking at the camera as he held the cup they'd won. Her eyes were deep blue and her hair was a long cloak of silver tipped with gold. She was sticking her tongue out with another male who was holding the other side of the cup. He had black hair with a stripe of red and emerald green eyes. Their names were listed at the bottom: Kane Suzoru gives star goalie Arista Belyaev a lift while Ozuma Benson gives a helping hand. "That cup is heavy 'Ris, honest!"

Kai rolled his eyes. Obviously, the writer for the yearbook was on good terms with the team.

On another picture, it showed another Asian girl with long silver hair with two guys. One with unruly navy hair shoved under a baseball cap and a grin on his face. Beside him- arm slung around his blue-haired friend and the grinning silver eyed female- was a spiky blond-haired kid with blue eyes and a wide blinding cheerful grin on his face. He looked like the cat that got the cream while the dents in his cheeks showed he was usually smiling. Under their photo again were their names. Tyson Kinomiya, Max Tate and Miyami Kinomiya.

Once again Kai frowned at the caption, then his auburn eyes flicked to the photo on his bedside table. He and his best friend, Tala Valkov, in their Varsity uniforms posing for the camera. There was nothing to suggest that they were friends in the image. And they were friends, despite their different personalities. Red-haired Tala was charismatic and popular but with a cutting sense of humour and a flair for the dramatics, including a cold artic temper. Kai had no patience for idiots and preferred to show that with a scalding blast of furious words. But both of them had a thirst for winning and a desire to crush opponents. Tala had only arrived at Clonmel a couple of years ago but the two boys had formed a tight friendship - until Kai's father found a new job and Tala transferred away. Neither wanted to stay in Clonmel on their own and Kai figured they'd keep in touch. They might not have the tight bond that the Tigers overtly flaunted but it was there.

He sighed again, watching as the one named Tate ducked under a bodycheck before spinning round and passing the puck to the captain. Kon took the puck down the ice and cast it to A Benson. She took a shot sending it around the back of the goalie net. It was picked up by Kinomiya and blasted into the net, past the goalie. The team had one advantage, they worked well together but they lacked discipline. They knew they were good and they made sloppy mistakes because of that. Still, he wouldn't let his guard down when facing them.

Of course, had Kai seen the Tigers at that exact moment, he wouldn't have worried.

On the other side of town in Preston Academy's changing rooms the Tigers assembled before practice. Usually, there would be a hub-bub of noise, with shouts, laughs, jeers and cheers from the team, but today it was as eerily silent and dead as a grave at midnight. Inside the team stood erect staring at the figure who had just strode in the door as bold as brass, making no expression to show that he felt the hostility in the air. In fact, the tension was so palpable and thick that it could have been cut with a knife, but more than likely they would rather stick that knife through his heart and twist it violently.

The redhead, on the other hand, had no such thoughts. He smiled warmly at them wondering when they'd break the tension and welcome their old captain back. Then as he locked eyes with the gold ones of the new captain, he realised that things were not going to be mended so easily.

"Well, aren't you guys going to say hello?"

Rei watched him calmly before complying in a clipped but polite tone. "Hello Tala, long time no see. How have you been?"

Tala smirked at the obvious detest in those few words but before he could comment, he was interrupted by the feisty pink goalkeeper.

"What are you doing here, traitor?" she growled, lunging at him, but was held back by the captain.

"Awww now Mariah that is not how you speak to an old friend, such as myself, now is it?"

"You're not a friend of ours, Valkov," Johnny spoke up; his face tight with controlled violence.

Beside him, Spencer nodded. "Go away, Valkov, we don't need or want your kind around here."

Tala placed his hand on his chest in a mock gesture of hurt. "You wound me guys. I thought I was a member of this gang."

"You're a Shark now, Valkov," Rei stated firmly.

Well not technically, but he supposed that info hadn't filtered down just yet. "I suppose the rest feel the same then?"

"Yeah. You're just lucky she isn't here," Mariah threatened.

"Where is she?"

Enrique shrugged his shoulders gracefully. "I don't know. Probably in detention somewhere."

The others sniggered at the thought of Amber in another round of detention. It was now becoming Ambers' room; since hardly anyone else used it as much as she did. The other week she had brought her extra posters from her dorm in to decorate the place, until Mrs Applecromby threw a fit and made her clean the walls and scrape off the bluetack, without flaking the already flaky paint.

"Just be glad she isn't here, because once she sees you, you're gonna be six feet under," Mariah sneered. "Then again maybe you should be thankful Ruin isn't here, she doesn't seem to have any qualms with killing people these days."

Tala unconsciously shuddered at the unspoken thought. The door burst open and Tala jumped fearing it was his fiery Mini-brat or worse Ruin, only to find Kenny squinting up at him. The small boy with messy hair, just shades lighter than chestnut, as usual, his glasses were perched on top of his head. He still sported the old uniform of short sleeved shirt, tie and shorts, and under his arm, he carried his faithful laptop. Unusually Max and Tyson weren't behind him, but Tala figured they'd show up soon.

Tala grinned, getting ready to welcome the three musketeers; then he frowned when they still didn't appear.

"Uh, hey Kenny where's Tyson and Max?"

"Sorry to disappoint you Tala but I don't know where they are. Max is probably with Emily, while Tyson is probably in the canteen taste testing their latest batch of cookies," Tala grinned at the vision that produced.

"Hey Kenny you don't look too surprised to see the quisling here," Mariah commented.

"I'm not. I already knew he was transferring. I just didn't know when he'd get here. Actually, this does seem a little fast. But his parents insisted that he come back and finish his education here."

Tala growled. "Kenny those files are supposed to be confidential."

"So Taly, you got in trouble so you're parents wanted to get you away from the bad boys?" Johnny taunted.

Tala shot him a dark look, but before he had any chance to say anything, the door burst open for a second time. Tala looked round lazily expecting to see Tyson and Max, but froze when he caught sight of a very familiar figure draped in black. Her brown eyes burned with rage, and her black lips were curled in distaste, and still to Tala she was one of the hottest girls he'd ever seen, and still as bloody unattainable as ever. She was Ruin Mulryan.

Bad things come in threes, and that always happens on Friday 13th. Amber knew things were going to be bad today when she woke up to find out that her alarm had been switched off in order for her room-mate, Ruin, to charge her cell phone. Amber growled at the thought. But even though she was late and had detention, she had seen the evil Maths teacher trip over his own brief case, which had been funny. She chuckled again. The man had been completely flustered and had ended up spilling his coffee over his crisp white shirt.

Of course, it had been her laughing at the misfortune of the evil Maths teacher, that had brought her to her next bad thing. She had been heading down the stairs to the basement to one of her classes with Lee and Johnny, when for no reason she fell forward onto her knees and slid down the steps. It was incredibly embarrassing since Johnny and Lee were bent double laughing at her, Kane had been at the bottom of the steps laughing and she was pretty sure he had a good view up her skirt. The brazen smirk gave that away. It was more embarrassing when the good reverend came down the steps and congratulated her on her dedication to her faith. Obviously, the small pudgy clergyman had believed her to be praying, this then resulted in the guys laughing harder, so bad that Johnny nearly collapsed down the steps with her. Luckily he had righted himself quickly enough to head down to the classroom and announce to everyone what had just happened.

She growled under her breath. Stupid guys. They may be her team mates, and they may be like older brothers to her, but sometimes the guys on her team could be right assholes. She knew if it had been Miyami with her, or even Bryan, because he never made fun of her, then she would have been alright, and she wouldn't have been embarrassed.

She trudged along the quad; music blasting from the earphones nestled in her ears. She was waiting for her third bad problem to come. She knew it would come soon. After all, the day was almost over and she didn't want it to happen in the middle of her big match tonight.

Amber flinched as she walked into something solid.

Stumbling back, she glared at the figure in her path, ochre eyes flashing with dark rage. She hated when people didn't look where they were going. The boy turned and fixed her with dark eyes, shadowed by thick brows. She shuddered at the coldness emanating from those cold empty eyes, but she covered it with more hostility. As she took in the menacing tanned face, with dark hair covered by a burgundy bandanna, the fog in her mind drifted away and she immediately remembered who he was. Carlos. The enforcer for the Sharks. She resisted the urge to step back. The guy was twice the size of her slender figure.

'Oh fuck, I'm in trouble,' she thought softly.

"Well, well, look what we have here. A li'l tiger cub," he taunted, voice gruff.

"Huh, look it's a shark! A li'l fishy out of the water," Amber returned with equal venom.

"Oh wait I remember you, you're the plague," he spoke thoughtfully.

"Plague huh, is that a new nickname? I gotta write that one down." She grinned brightly. She was gaining a reputation finally. No more nicknames about her height, the hockey league was finally taking her seriously. "So, what are you doing here? I doubt it was to inform me about my new badass nickname."

Carlos blinked. "Nothing, just passing."

This time it was Ambers' turn to blink. "See, had you been walking past the school, I would believe you. But it's the fact that you're inside the school walls, standing on the quad in the centre of the school grounds, that's making your words so hard to believe." She smirked at his flustered expression. "In fact it makes it seem like you're spying on us. Aww, is Hiwatari so worried that he's sent you to spy on us?" Her smirk widened into a grin of sheer delight.

So that was it. Carlos had been sent to spy on the tigers. Oh, how lame! It wasn't good enough that he had Valkov feeding him information, but now he was spying on them. Then again Valkov had been attending their school for two years, by this stage, his knowledge on their tactics would be rather limited. Her expression became void of emotion. Typical, the Clonmel Sharks never played fair.

Carlos glared at her but it melted into a cruel smirk.

Amber cringed. The guy was looking at her like a lion looked at his prey. She was sure things would not turn out good. Her heart began to thunder in her head, her breath caught in her throat, and she could feel her eyes widen. She tried to convince herself she wasn't scared or worried. Heck, she'd been in worse situations, and she had fought with guys before. Still, she had always had the safety of knowing that they would never seriously hurt her.

It was then, that she heard the second footsteps behind her and a nasal voice called out. "Hey, the team's in the changing rooms- Who's the chick?"

"Chick? Excuse me? Oh please! And what happened to your voice? Did your mom mate with a bat?" Amber asked angrily, staring at the skinny teen with lavender hair that was split neatly in the middle and fell to his jaw. His face was narrow and pale with small beady eyes with a small mole under the left.

The guy growled low in his throat. "And who exactly are you?"

"None of your business, pipsqueak!" she shot back.

Carlos reached back to fix his bandanna. "She's the Plague."

The purple headed boy smirked at her. "So you're the plague. Well, it's about time you were eradicated."

Amber gulped.

Tyson Kinomiya sighed depressed. He rubbed his stomach dejectedly. He had been kicked out of the cafeteria, and just there now Oliver had kicked him out of the kitchen.

"Awww, I'm sooo hungry. I'm gonna faint from lack of energy," he whined to nobody in particular.

The rest of his friends were already in the changing rooms getting ready for practice, but how could they expect him to practice on an empty stomach?! The blue haired teen took off his baseball cap before placing it back on his head backwards. He had been caught by Mr Donaghue earlier who had made him put it on the right way round. If there was one thing he despised about this school it was that maths teacher, he was just pure evil - well VP Maye was pretty evil too. Maybe it was just teachers.

He bunched up his fists and blew out a long breath. His stomach churned as though to remind him that it wasn't satisfactorily filled. He headed past the library towards the gym block. The school was almost empty. Most of the seniors and juniors would be in the town, the sophomores and freshmen in their dorms studying, while the jocks and cheerleaders would be at their perspective areas training.

Tyson glanced up at the sky which was overcast so that only the watery light of the sun filtered through. It was a good thing he was practising indoors today.

"Hey, Tyson!" A familiar voice called out from behind him.

He glanced round to see his best friend Max Tate racing towards him dragging a reluctant Emily Davenport behind him. The bubbly blond with the usual permanent grin on his face slapped his arm round Tyson's shoulders.

"So-oh, what are you doing?"

Emily peered at Tyson from behind her glasses. "I thought you would be loitering around the cafeteria begging scraps?"

Tyson glowered at her. "I don't beg," he told her stiffly; then his face fell. "Oliver threw me out of the kitchen."

"That was so un-cool," Max sympathised, his blue eyes sombre.

"I'm so hungry."

With a sigh, Emily flicked her orange hair over her shoulders and rummaged in her bag. Suddenly she produced a plain wrapped bar out of it, before offering it to him.

"Hey thanks, Em." Tyson took it and began to immediately peel off the wrapper.

He stared at the cereal and fruit bar and sniffed it, then wrinkled his nose in distaste. "What is this?"

"It's a cereal bar. I got it from breakfast this morning."

"Uh, is it real food?" He stared at it as though it was something foreign to him.

Max laughed. "This is the first time I've seen Tyson reject food."

"Hey, who says I'm rejecting it?" Tyson shot back indignantly then began to chew slowly on the bar. "Hmm, tastes like cardboard."

Emily raised a brow. "How would you know?"

Max laughed, then a slight frown marred his face. "Um is that Ams?"

Tyson stopped glowering at a non-affected Emily and frowned as well. "Uh yeah, but who's that with her? Seems familiar."

"Oh dear." Emily sighed.

"Do you know them, Emily?" Max asked watching the three figures off the side of the Quad.

"Um, not personally, no. But both of them are Sharks. The big guy is Carlos, and trust me, I wouldn't like to be in Amber's shoes right now." Her grey-blue eyes widened as she watched the burly teen shove Amber. "Hey!"

Tyson clenched his fists. Exchanging glances with Max, he headed towards them.

Max caught up with him easily. "What are we going to do?"

"Distract them so that Amber will only have one to deal with."

"How will we distract them?"

"Who cares as long as we do?"

Max nodded. "You're right."

Miyami Kinomiya hitched her sports bag over her shoulder and made a face. She could have been in town with Sonia and Aspin, but nooo she had practice to go to. Practice for god sake. Who on earth put practice on a Friday evening before a big game?! She smirked. Oh yeah, that's right! Rei did! Evil captain, she thought with a sigh, then she glanced at her watch which she usually hid under a heap of bracelets and winced as she caught sight of the time; with a yelp, she hurled herself down the stairs.

A few students grumbled as she almost barrelled into them but she ignored them and shoved open the large double PVC doors. She raced along the quad barely avoiding clumps of students who were arriving from the town. A few students called out a hello but she didn't have time to talk to them, so she waved back and kept racing towards the sports centre at the end of the campus.

It wasn't a bad day she decided. In fact, it was a pretty nice evening. It wasn't too cold and it wasn't too warm, and she could taste autumn on the tip of her tongue. It was her favourite time of the year just because of the varied colours. As a designer and an artist, she was trained to notice things like colour and texture, and Autumn was full of them. A small smile curved her lips and she breathed deeply, enjoying the freshness of the air, the purity of it. She liked listening to the sounds of the golden and rust coloured leaves crunching under her All-starz. Her eyes whipped up when she heard voices from up ahead.

She grinned as she caught sight of the familiar purple hair and big nose of Ian Petrovich and the tall broad shouldered form of Michael Parker, both rushing towards the changing rooms.

"Yoders! Parker! Midget!"

Both boys looked around and stopped to wait for her.

"Hey Parker, if you squint your eyes, she almost looks like a silver blur."

"Ian, if you squint your eyes, everything looks like a blur," Michael dead panned, irked by his short companion, and then he turned his gaze to the girl jogging to them.

"Hey Yami, what's up?"

"Late," she told them breathless.

"Yeah, so are we. Forgot all about this last minute practice. I was in town with Beth when Ian reminded me," Michael said.

Miyami grinned at him brightly, her silver eyes glinting with mischief. "I guess you forget about everything when you're with the one you luuuv, eh?"

Ian's brows shot up at that and his crimson eyes widened, then narrowed as he caught the look of the discomfort in Michael's stone blue eyes.

Michael turned away so they wouldn't see the blush tinting his cheeks, but his companions noticed everything. They were about to say something when he held up a hand.

"Hey, is that Amber?"

The others froze and Miyami's gaze whipped to her where her best friend was standing between two guys. "Who are they?"

"Well, they aren't from our team and as much as I'd like to see someone put the Irish wench in her- ow!" Ian broke off as he glared at Miyami, holding his arm where she'd punched him.

"We should go help her."

Miyami didn't need to be told twice, she set off at a brisk pace to reach her friend, looking up briefly to nod at Tyson and Max who joined her. She was itching to give someone a good ass whooping since she was still pissed about having a Friday practice session! And Rei was out since injuring the captain of the team before a big match was pretty stupid!

"Who are those guys?" she asked, as Amber stumbled back from the skinny one who was trying to hold her still.

"They're Sharks. One's the enforcer the other's a shooter!" Emily told her breathlessly as she tried to keep up with them.

"Well they're ass deep in alligators now," the female Kinomiya muttered.

"You mean Tigers, idiot!"

Miyami scalded him with a look before rounding on the intruders. "Oi, you two!"

The two sharks looked up irritated at being interrupted, then their eyes widened when they caught sight of the group of Tigers walking towards them each complete with stony expressions.

"Can't she ever stay out of trouble?" Ian complained as he struggled to keep up with the others, and why were they walking so fast? A good beating up might knock some sense into the brat and then maybe she wouldn't cause so much trouble.

Amber turned to see her team mates, including the midget surprisingly, coming to her aid. She grinned at her two tormentors. Carlos had blanched while squeaky yelped before cursing. Both of them looked at her then turned back to the advancing group. It didn't take them very long to make up their minds. Not sparing a second glance, they raced towards the main gate leaving Amber in their wake.

"What did they want?" Tyson demanded.

"Trying to spy on us obviously," Ian growled.

"Well I knew we were good but this just proves it."

Everyone looked dubiously at the American, and Max grinned. "That's the spirit Mikey. Let's get going, we're already pretty late now."

At this Amber snagged Miyami's wrist, and pushed back the bracelets to reveal the watch. She winced when she caught sight of the time. "Shit and I was going to be early for once."

"Why break the habit of a lifetime?"

"Che, I suppose it's not going to come as much of a surprise to anyone if I'm late," she agreed.

"What would surprise everyone if you didn't get into trouble at all some day."

The Irish girl shot a derisive look at the Russian twerp. "When you can stand over a metre stick, then you can talk to me." She smiled sweetly.

"That made no sense," Ian protested. "She's not that tall herself, in fact, she's minute. That didn't make sense."

"Stop your whining Petrovich. You waste more time than enough arguing with her. When she's in this mood just leave her alone."

Amber cast a glance over her shoulder, but only out of habit. Not because she particularly wanted to see who it was. She already knew by the attitude that it was Kane Suzoru and yep, there he was with Ozuma Benson beside him. "Kane the pain! Hi Ozzy!"

Ozuma growled. "Quit calling me that. I feel I should be walking around in a comatose state and mumbling incoherently."

"Nothing knew then," came the cheeky reply of Arista Belyaev.

Miyami looked over her shoulder and then slowed her pace to link her arms with her cousin. The silver-haired girls were well known for their antics. Both craved attention and they did it in the most imaginative of ways, but recently with her injury, Arista hadn't been attending practices, so it was nice to see her.

Kane gave Amber his version of the evil eye. "As I keep saying, if anyone's the pain it's-"

"Oh look it's Aspirin coming to take away the pain!" Amber called out, then giggled with delight when she caught the way Kane's gaze whipped round to search out his girlfriend. Amber loved the way his nickname for Aspin came back to haunt him. It was actually an amazingly great nickname, because Aspin did seem to dull his annoying traits so he was never as irritating when she was around. Unfortunately, she was in town with Sonia.

Kane looked back and met her gaze with a glower. "Stupid wench," he muttered.

"So what are you doing out here Ris?"

"What, don't you want me out here Michael? Or is it that you think Mariah is a better goalie so you don't want me down to check out your replacement for me?" At Michael's expression, she quickly added, "Joke, Parker. I know Mariah isn't as good as me. No one can replace my brilliance in the net!"

"Yeah, because no one has as big a head as you!"

"Look Midget-boy, shut the hell up or we tie you to the flag pole," Miyami snapped as Amber chuckled maliciously. "We'd do it, don't try us!"

"We just need the right motivation," Arista said. "All you have to do is open your mouth."

"I'm quite partial to sticking a diaper over his face, to catch all the shit that's coming out of his mouth!" Amber declared nonchalantly.

Kane and Michael exchanged grins, accepting it as routine. Ian annoyed the girls, they ganged up on him, insults were thrown, the sun rose, the sun set, all was right with the world.

"Yup, it's a well-proven fact that Petrovich is the single-handedly the biggest cause of air pollution." This quip came from Arista, who then took a deep breath as she hobbled into the sports centre through the double doors Max and Tyson held open for her.

"Leave Ian alone. He always starts sulking and then he plays shit and you have a big game coming up tonight," Emily pointed out.

The three girls sighed heavily before agreeing to stop bullying the midget Russian. "Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I have got to admit I actually miss hanging out with you guys. I even miss practice."

"Oh don't say that!" Amber groaned. "Practice is cruel."

"Yeah but going to practice means you get to play," Arista argued with a wistful tone.

Ozuma sighed heavily. "Trust me, we miss you too. The team just isn't the same without you. Mari's great and all, but I think she misses cheerleading too much. At least when she was riding the pine pony she had more time to practice her cheers."

Amber suddenly realised that the changing rooms were eerily quiet. "Is practice on or not?"

Miyami froze, while Tyson cocked his head.

"Emily, you said practice was on!" Max whined, turning betrayed blue eyes on his friend. At her arched look, he sheepishly grinned. "Well, then maybe everyone's really quiet."

Ozuma and Amber exchanged glances. "That'll be a first."

"Move." They all scattered as Bryan Malkovich strode past them and into the changing rooms. With a mutual glance, they all filtered in after the tall lavender haired male and stopped when they caught sight of their half changed team standing there.

"Um… who died?" Amber asked bemused by her team's actions.

She followed their gaze and her expression darkened when she caught sight of her room-mate pinning another Shark to the wall by his throat. Ruin gave Amber a cruel smile.

"No one, but Valkov's about to."

TBC

A.N. Well what does everyone think?

Please review.