New story! Big wiggle to everybody. More sci-fi this time. Lots more theory and then I'll maybe get a plotline going.
Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade, or Rei, or Kai. I do not own the city they reside in, or the bunker. I am not the owner of any technology I describe, but I might have created it. Like the armour, my pet.
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Been There, Seen It, Lived Through It
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Chapter 1 – Beans, Beans.
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Rei's breath misted in front of his face, and he repressed the urge to shiver. The chill October winds were biting, and his days efforts had been devoted to finding warm clothes for the winter months.
He turned the final corner and headed towards home. Having long since deserted the dojo after Tyson's grandfather died, they had relocated to the disused military bunker in favour of its defensive properties. True, there were hardly any windows, but it had its own hydroelectric power generator from an underground spring that also provided drinking water, metre thick concrete walls and a bullet-proof cast iron door. Very handy for keeping out unwanted intruders. Intruders like the gangs that roamed the streets.
After the Collapse, when fuel ran out and rioters destroyed power plants, the world economy caved. With no electricity, there was no transport and no communications. Humanity ground to a halt. Factions fought over money and technology, not realising that they didn't matter any more. Eventually, the terrorists brought an end to the violence by releasing a super-virus that killed billions. Those that were genetically immune were either young or very old. Of those that survived the virus, most died, like Tyson's grandfather, in the bitter winter that followed.
Thankfully, all four of the former Bladebreakers were immune to the virus. Rei didn't know if the same were true for the rest of their friends around the world – no telephone or email meant that communication outside a few mile radius was impossible.
He banged on the door, hearing the steel knocker send metallic clangs echoing through the bunker, and reflected on their success. Three years post-Collapse, their dysfunctional 'family' was still going strong, the scare a year ago when Max got dangerously ill notwithstanding, and they had long outlived some of the less well organised gangs.
Food was less of a problem now that they had a steady source, the clear fibreglass roof of the garage making an improvised greenhouse. A raid on the remains of a garden centre had provided them with seeds, and last year's crop of potatoes and spinach had lasted them months. Meat was scarce, due to storage problems, and most of their protein took the form of eggs, and fish traded from the Eco-people that camped out in the wildlife park in tepees. That was where Kai was, bartering the last of the dried beans. Rei was glad to see the back of them – they'd been eating nothing but bean curd for the past seven weeks.
Footsteps approached and the shutter came back across the grill, blue eyes just distinguishable in the darkness beyond.
"It's about time you got back, Rei," Max said as he drew the bolts back and opened the door. "Did you manage to find anything?"
Years of practise meant that Rei didn't flinch when the door shut with a deafening clang behind him.
"Yeah," he replied, following the corridor to the once conference hall, now living area. "I had to pay the Museum lot two bars of soap, but they told me where this abandoned Army surplus warehouse was and I took everything I could carry. Where's Tyson?"
He dumped his backpack and started to peel off his armour plating, grateful when Max's pale fingers undid the gauntlet's straps for him.
"Out in the greenhouse, pulling up parsnips. You're not the only one who's thrilled that there are no more beans."
When even a small cut could get infected and kill, armour was essential when travelling in the outside world. In the early days, when guns and bullets were still plentiful, they had worn ballistic jackets and riot helmets. Now that melee weapons were more prevalent, the bunker's storerooms provided them with a silicone/metal hybrid that was lightweight, partially flexible and deflected most blows from blunt weapons. A helmet was vital, as head wounds bled the most, and they had augmented it with a mask to protect the face. It was modelled on Tyson's brother Hiro's disguise as Jin of the Gale, and was protective, if slightly claustrophobic.
When all protective coverings were off, Rei retired to his room to change, and was just struggling with a coarse wool sweater when he heard the front door toll. He dashed out of the room, running blind for the most part before he could get his head through the neck, and ignored Max's amused expression as he rushed to open the door.
Kai came through the doorway as soon as it was opened and pushed it shut again, breathing heavily as he tore off his face mask.
"Bad day?" asked Rei, and Kai's eyes smiled at him, even if his mouth didn't.
"Got chased for the last mile by the Rooftop people." He opened his bag. "Might have something to do with this."
Rei's eyes widened. "You got meat? How?!?"
"I told them my girlfriend was pregnant."
He frowned at Kai's evil grin. "That's mean, tricking them. They'll probably turn up here and ask to see her or the child, what'll you tell them then?"
"That they both died in childbirth. Or would you rather have had me keep the beans instead?"
"Nooooo…" admitted Rei, trying to see inside the bag. "What have you got in there?"
"Mostly rabbit, some duck," replied Kai, heading towards the kitchen, previously the bunker canteen. Rei rubbed his hands together in delight before bounding off to tell Max and Tyson the good news.
Having lacked a refrigerator, they had insulated what must have been a janitorial closet and turned it into a larder of sorts. Kai stored the meat in the coldest corner and closed the door, thinking about Rei's expression when he'd opened the door for him. thinking about how the footsteps that answered his knock were too fast to be walking.
With a sigh, he trudged to the cell-like room he shared with Rei, peeling off the skin-tight armour plating as he went. He didn't know how much more of this he could take. After years of rooming with him wherever the Bladebreakers went and the last three in the same bed, Kai's feelings stretched a bit further than friendship.
It was Rei who suggested sharing the bed. Kai, although he wanted it, would never have dared ask. He kept telling himself that it was for warmth, that heat was at a premium, and they had to do the best they could in the cold nights, but that didn't stop his brain exploding every time his bed mate turned over.
He pulled on a sweater and went downstairs to the greenhouse, trying not to think about anything related to Rei. Until he reached the greenhouse and thereby failed miserably. In an attempt to regain some control, he busied himself with the task of watering the strawberry plants and checking them for blackfly. Needless to say, he wasn't very successful.
Rei smiled in amusement as he watched Kai out of the corner of his eye. There was something, not so much wrong as different, in the way he moved. He immediately resolved to interrogate him on the subject when in bed that night. Kai always seemed more susceptible to interaction then. Maybe it was the dark, or simply being away from the other two boys. He thought it was probably the former – in daylight, Kai communicated with expressions. Only in the darkness did he vocalise his opinions.
Rei liked Kai's voice. Not his growling snarl or the monosyllabic grunts that he used when in the presence of everyone else, but the mellow, smooth tones that spoke to him in the cold darkness. The voice that told him what the next day's plans were, the voice that soothed him from his nightmares.
Nightmares like the one that had happened a few weeks ago, too close to reality to ever be a dream. A nightmare that started just like any other day, with a trip to see Mary and Gwendolyn.
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"Mary! Gwendolyn! Here girls, breakfast!"
Rei shook the bucket of kitchen scraps, trying to convince Gwendolyn to come out of the goat house. Mary had run up as soon as she heard his footsteps on the concrete and was noisily tucking in to all the vegetable bits that Tyson refused to eat, but her brown and white counterpart had decided to be sulky. He sighed and put the bucket on the floor, creeping towards the goathouse with a peace offering of a carrot top in his hand.
"Come out, Gwen. I've got a nice juicy carrot for you… Ow! There's no need to be so snappy. Fine then, come out when you feel like it, but I won't feed you again if Mary eats everything."
Rubbing his hand where the grumpy goat had bitten him, Rei stalked back across the courtyard and entered the base, closing the heavy iron door behind him. There wasn't any problem leaving the goats outside on their own – the courtyard encircled one side of the bunker and had high concrete walls topped with razor wire. Not to mention, the goats were hardly defenceless themselves.
"You fed the gruesome twosome?" said Max's head as it popped around the wall.
Rei nodded the affirmative and trudged back to his and Kai's room to change. Most unusually, Kai was still in their single bed, wrapped up in several blankets and sleeping soundly. But he was forgiven this misdemeanour, as he'd been on a night run until the early hours of the morning and had gleaned little sleep.
Rei tried his best be quiet as he collected his armour together but as he attached the shin guards to his boots, he saw a crimson eye staring at him over the top of the covers.
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," he greeted, buckling his belt and grinning as Kai glared at him. "Have you decided on the spot that you're coming with me?"
An eyelid closed over the eye. "Maybe."
"Come on," Rei cajoled, temporarily forgetting that Kai could not be cajoled and sitting on the narrow bed. "You know you want to."
"Do I?"
"All right then, maybe you don't," Rei smiled the smile that he knew Kai liked, because he smiled back. "But I want you to come."
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A/N: What do you think? Too explainy? Not enough? Tell me, people!