SCHOOL'S OVER! SCHOOL'S OVER! SCHOOL'S OVER! -dances around throwing confetti- NO MORE SCHOOL! I'M FREE! FREE, I TELLS YA!
That's right, you heard me: school's out! No more school for me! And it marks the end of my first year of high school! BEST DAY EVER! So to celebrate, I decided to post a story for everyone! I got this idea from an episode of Batman: The Animated Series called "Almost Got 'I'm", in which the Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, Killer Croc, and Poison Ivy play poker and tell stories about how they almost got Batman. The show itself is awesome, so I recommend looking into it.
Anyway, read on and enjoy, my lovelies!
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own it!
It was a quiet night in a club that was in the more sketchy part of Metal Bey City. At a table in one corner of the room sat five men, one of which shuffling cards. The man shuffling the cards had grey hair sticking straight up with a lock of yellow hair in a zig-zag shape falling between his eyes, and was wearing a grey suit and rectangle glasses. The light from an overhead light bounced off one of the lenses, hiding the eye from view. On his right was a younger man with purple hair wearing a white suit. The one on the first man's left was younger, in his late teens, and had blue hair. On the second man's right was another teenager who looked about the same age as the third and had red hair with yellow ends falling in front of his eyes. The final man had black hair with white ends sticking out with glasses, and wore a black suit with a grey shirt and dark green tie.
The first man, called Doji, finished shuffling the cards and looked up at the other four. "Well, gentlemen," he said silkily. "Shall we begin?"
"What's the point of this game, anyway?" the blue-haired teen, who was called Damian, huffed. "I could just crush you all in a beybattle."
The purple-haired man, Pluto, snorted. "You wish. Diablo Nemesis would smash your pathetic bey to pieces!"
Damian tilted his head in mock-thought. "Hm. You know, it probably would." He sneered at Pluto. "If you had it, anyway."
Pluto growled. The fifth man, Dr. Ziggurat, interrupted. "Gentlemen, please. Doji, would you deal the cards, already?"
Doji smiled mischievously and dealt the cards. "Pardon the delay, but I was so enjoying the live entertainment,"
"Shut up, old man," Damian grumbled.
Doji waved a finger at him. "Tsk, tsk, my boy. You really should learn to respect your elders." He noticed the fourth, Reji, looking especially mad and asked innocently, "Something bothering you, Reji?"
"Yessss, as a matter of fact," Reji growled. He banged his fist on the table. "It's that pessssky worm, Gingka Hagane!"
The three other men and Damian nodded in understanding. Dr. Ziggurat clapped a hand on Reji's shoulder. "I understand your anger fully. That Hagane boy is always interfering with my plans!"
"Mine too!" Damian agreed.
"Mine as well," Doji added. "That Hagane boy is such a nuisance."
Pluto snorted. "Ha! That's got to be the most pathetic understatement of the century. I was going to take over the world, but that stubborn little worm completely ruined my plans! I was so close to defeating him, too!"
"Yeah? Well sssso was I," Reji hissed. "I had him in my grasssp. My grassssp, I tell you! I could've driven him inssssane with fear! But nooo, he alwayssss hasss to win!"
"Pssh, now that's pathetic," Damian scoffed. "I could've destroyed his beyblade with my Kerbecs, and I could've trapped him in my Hades Gate forever!"
"I myself still can't figure out how he defeated my Spiral Core," Dr. Ziggurat added. "It should have killed him!"
"And what about you, Doji?" Pluto asked, turning to the man. "How can you be so calm if the Hagane brat has ruined your plans?"
"Oh, I am in the same state of anger as you all are," Doji said, then smirked. "Except that I have better anger management. Anyway, it seems we all have one thing in common, and it is that we have all come close to defeating the Hagane boy. How about to liven up our cheerful little poker game we all go around and tell how we came close?"
The four others looked around at each other and shrugged. "All right,"
"Sssssure,"
"Seems like it would be interesting,"
"Whatever,"
Doji smiled. "Excellent." He batted away a fly that was buzzing around his head, then continued. "Dr. Ziggurat, why don't you stat us off? How is it you came close to defeating the great Gingka Hagane?"
Dr. Ziggurat began, "Well, as most of you may know, my Spiral Core was going to cause the city to fall and devastate the civilization around it…"
-about two minutes later-
"And so it turns out the boy used his precious beyblade to defeat my Spiral Core," Dr. Ziggurat finished. "If it had been any other beyblade, I most certainly would have gotten him!"
"Wait a second," Damian interrupted. "How is it that you know that when you weren't even there?"
"I heard it on a news broadcast while I was on the run," Dr. Ziggurat replied. At their quizzical stares, he said, "What? How else could my body have not been found?"
Reji scoffed. "Ha! That wassss pathetic! I'll go nexxxt, and I'll show you how it'ssss really done!" He swatted away a fly that was buzzing around his head.
"Well, get on with it, then," Pluto said in a bored tone.
"It wassss during Battle Bladersssss. I had defeated two of hissss little friendssss already." Reji smiled rather disturbingly. "I think I made one of them have a mental breakdown. Ssssso anyway, it was now down to me and my beloved Ssssserpent againssst him and hisss pathetic Pegasus…"
Reji laughed as his Serpent continued to hit Pegasus in a nonstop barrage of attacks. "Has your spirit begun to grow cold with fear? Did you hear me, Gingka?"
Gingka turned and gasped.
"More and more, you'll get colder and colder, you hear me? And then you and Pegasus are going to turn to stone, understand?"
Gingka looked down as his legs began to slowly turn to stone. He struggled, but it was no use against the stone, which was slowly continuing up his body. Reji laughed.
"Yes, turn to stone! Turn to stone and then break apart!"
A part of Serpent's body wrapped itself tightly around Gingka's body.
"Along with your precious Pegasus!"
Pegasus let out a whinny as Serpent coiled around its body.
"Come on!" Reji yelled, and a green beast that looked like Medusa appeared behind him. "Let me see you shake with fear. More and more!"
Gingka struggled not to, but then he let out a strangled yell of fear. Reji continued to laugh.
"Scaring your opponent into defeat," Pluto said, nodding. "A commendable tactic."
"Yes, indeed, it was," Doji agreed. He raised his wine glass of orange juice and gave Reji a little nod before taking a sip. "But why don't you tell them what happened next, Reji?"
Dr. Ziggurat asked curiously, "What happened?"
Reji fumed. "He ssssomehow shhhook off hisss fear of me. Can you believe that? And then he ssstarted pummeling my Sssserpent! It wasss completely embarrassing; the one who was sssscared wasss me!"
"How humiliating," Doji said sarcastically.
"I would've had him, I tell you! And I almossst did!" Reji declared with finality. He fumed for a few more seconds, then seemed to snap back to normal. "But that'sss my ssstory. Anyone elssse?"
Damian banged his fist on the table. "I'll go!" He declared.
"Do be careful, Damian," Doji said calmly, organizing the poker chips and money that had been scattered. "You're causing a mess."
"I don't care! Reji, your story's good, but it's nowhere near as good as mine!" Damian waved at a fly as it buzzed around him. "I was about to pull out my special move, and Hagane was spewing some crud about how a bey chooses a blader…"
"Do it now!" Gingka yelled. "Special move, Pegasus Storm Bringer!"
Pegasus glowed blue as it spun around the stadium.
"Here we go!"
Pegasus appeared out of its bey, and it whinnied as it barreled towards Kerbecs.
But Damian smirked. "That's so cute!"
Pegasus and Kerbecs met, and there was an explosion, and Pegasus was sent flying into the air. Gingka gasped. "Ah!"
"You should've just let yourself fall quietly to sleep at the entrance to Hades!" Damian shouted. Orange flames burst out around him, and Kerbecs began to flame orange.
"Rise, gate to Hades!" Damian yelled.
A massive gate appeared out of Kerbecs as Damian yelled,
"Special move! Hades Gate!"
The doors of the gate burst open, and chains flew out. They wound around Pegasus, binding it tightly, and began to pull it towards the gate.
"Pegasus!" Gingka yelled, but he was too late. Although it fought to be released, Pegasus was soon sucked completely through the gates as Kerbecs pulled it through, with Gingka being sucked in along with it.
"You actually sucked both the bey and the blader into Hades?" Pluto asked. Damian nodded smugly.
"Sure did. And it was totally easy, too."
"Of course it was," Dr. Ziggurat said matter-of-factly. "Kerbecs was especially designed to fit Damian, and Damian only.
"Sssso how did you lose?" Reiji asked. "You did losse, did you not?"
Damian's smug smile turned into an angry scowl. "I was getting to that. I was about to send him and his stupid Pegasus off to Hades, when both he and his bey suddenly broke free of the chains! And then it was all downhill from there, basically."
Reji smirked at him. "For him, or for you?"
Damian glared. "Shut up, scaredy-cat."
Reji growled.
Pluto suddenly gave a yell of frustration. "You are all pathetic!" he declared. "Your stories are nothing compared to mine! I was going to take over the world, but that pathetic little worm got in my way!"
"Well, Pluto, why don't you fill us in on how it happened?" Doji suggested smoothly.
"With pleasure! Maybe then you'll all see how it's done!"
"Could you just tell us already?" Damian interrupted in annoyance.
"The bond between bladers that spreads without limits through beyblade! That is the power that I have, and it is something that you will never have!" Gingka yelled up at the beast.
The beast growled and looked down at the two beys, which were pushing against each other.
"But no matter how many gathered there are, worms are still worms!" it declared. The dragon form of Nemesis appeared out of its beyblade, unfurling its wings and standing before them in all its might.
"You and your ridiculous hope will be burned away by the fire of the Black Sun!"
Gingka growled, and looked down at his bey. "Here we go, Pegasus! Here we go, everyone! Pegasus, Shining Wind!"
Pegasus broke away and flew up into the air, surrounded by golden light. The beast growled.
"Fly now, Pegasus!"
Pegasus began to fly, higher and higher, to the amazement of everyone watching.
"Higher! Go even higher!"
The bey flew still higher, until it disappeared in the clouds. Out in space, it broke through the Black Sun, flying way out into space with Gingka on its back.
"Pegasus, you and I are of one heart and mind! Let's fight together till the very end!"
They flew together all the way out into space, farther and farther, until they were only a speck of light. Then, it seemed as if the face bolt appeared in space, and the speck of light turned into a speeding bullet of golden power. Gingka's battle cry echoed through space as the bullet of gold appeared in the sky once again, flying towards Nemesis.
"Meet the attack, Nemesis!" the beast yelled. The flaming purple dragon appeared again, and it flew up towards the golden bullet of light. Gingka yelled once more as the two powers met in midair. The two beys ground together… until a piece of Pegasus's fusion wheel suddenly flew off.
The beast laughed. "It's over! Now it's decided once and for all! You will disappear, even before the rest of the world is destroyed!"
"You are the one that will be destroyed!" Gingka yelled back at it. "Pegasus, Cosmic Tornado!"
A tornado of golden light twisted into being against the flaming dragon. It pushed and pushed, until the dragon began to falter.
"Go now Pegasus! Special move, Super Cosmic Nova!"
Shafts of light appeared out of the tornado. As the bey pushed against the dragon, the dragon was soon overwhelmed by the two combined moves as a large part of Nemesis's fusion wheel was completely torn off. The dragon disappeared as the bullet of extreme power broke through the dark clouds and surged towards the red-eyed beast.
"W-what is this?!" the beast yelled.
"Here we go, Pegasus!" Gingka shouted. "Open the way to everyone's future!"
The golden light smashed into the beast's chest, digging all the way through its body, and exploding out the other end, leaving a large gaping hole.
"No! No, it can't be!" the beast yelled. It let out wail after wail of pain, before stumbling backwards and falling into the dark, bottomless abyss.
"So that's what happened that day?" Damian asked. "Huh. I was wondering what was going on."
"It painsss me to sssay it," Reji said to a seething Pluto, "but you and your friend got sssserved."
Pluto banged his fists on the table. "It shouldn't have happened that way!" he shouted. "King Hades' prophecy is the law, do you hear? The law! I shouldn't have lost, and that Hagane brat shouldn't have won!"
He sat back in his chair, looking like he wanted to kill someone then and there. His outburst, however, suspiciously seemed to have disturbed no one else in the club at all. None of them gave a thought to this, but simply stared at Pluto.
Doji placed a hand on Pluto's shoulder. "I would advise you to calm down, my friend," he said calmly. "You'll create a public disturbance."
Pluto wrenched Doji's hand off his shoulder. "I don't care! King Hades' prophecy is the law!"
"We know," Damian muttered, rolling his eyes and looking down at his cards. "You said that already. Twice."
Dr. Ziggurat nodded and looked down at his cards. "I fold," he announced, throwing his cards down on the table. Damian and Reji did the same. "Doji? Pluto? What about you?"
Doji looked down at his cards and smiled victoriously. "Well, well, well, look at that, gentlemen," he said, and showed them his cards, all of which were aces. "A full house."
Pluto growled, then flung his cards down on the table. Doji gave a small chuckle and gathered up his winning.
"Now, really, Pluto, you could do with acting less childish in the face of defeat,"
"Well, what about you?" Reji asked, pointing at Doji. "Didn't you sssay Gingka ruined your plansss as well?"
"Oh, yes, about that," Doji replied, smirking. "He did ruin my plan to unleash L-Drago on the world, and he took down Dark Nebula as well, but that was only a minor setback. As you can see, I have returned from both that and the Nemesis Crisis completely intact." A fly buzzed around his head again and he swatted it away. "But unlike all of you, I have something in mind for the young Hagane."
"Well?" Dr. Ziggurat asked. "What is it?" Pluto looked up from his sulking in interest.
"Well, you see, I've noticed that whenever Gingka Hagane is battling, there's nearly always a young girl with him, standing and watching. So I believe I am right in saying that this girl means very much to the young Hagane. And so, this very time yesterday, before I met you all here, myself and some, shall we say, old friends of mine paid a little visit to this young girl."
"So what're you going to do with her?" Damian asked interestedly.
"I'm so very glad you asked. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to leave a note for Gingka at the girl's shop, telling him of her capture! And I'm also going to make things a little exciting as well. If Gingka is unable to find her in two weeks…"
He trailed off, but the other four knew exactly what he was going to do if that happened.
"And where are you holding this little friend of Gingka's?" Pluto asked Doji. The fly buzzed around all their heads, but they were all too engrossed to bat it away.
"Oh, yes, that. Those old friends I spoke of? They have her locked up at Dark Nebula's old tower in the city as we speak."
The four antagonists sat back, and silence fell over them. Then Reji suddenly let out a laugh and looked over at Damian.
"Ssso I'm a sssscaredy-cat, huh?" he said. "At leasssst I don't ssssound like a whiny little brat!"
Damian sprang up. "That's it!" He whipped out his launcher, and launched his bey at Reji.
A flash of blue light suddenly came out of nowhere and intercepted Kerbecs, knocking it harmlessly to the ground.
"What?" Damian looked around and demanded, "Who did that?!"
The blue flash suddenly flew up, and landed in the hand of one flaming-haired blader. Gingka grinned. "Hey, everyone! Hope you don't mind I crashed the party!"
The other four sprang up.
"Gingka Hagane," Reji hissed. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh I was just in the neighborhood and decided to come and see what all you guys were doing," Gingka said nonchalantly as he put Pegasus away. "And boy, was I not disappointed!"
Doji smirked at him. "So, you've come alone, hm?" he said to Gingka. "How foolish of you. I expected more from the Number One blader."
"Alone?" Gingka grinned again. "Who said I was alone?"
Then from out of the shadows, eight figures appeared, aiming their launchers at the five males.
Damian growled. "The other Legendary Bladers!"
"That's right," Gingka confirmed, still grinning. "I admit I freaked out a little when Madoka wasn't at her shop all day today, and then I figured one of you had to have kidnapped her. The only trouble was, I didn't know who did or where I could find her. But now I know both, thanks to Doji."
"How could you know that?" Doji asked. "I haven't told you anything."
"Actually, you did." Gingka deftly caught the fly in his hand. "What you thought was a fly was actually nano-sized listening technology developed by Yuki. You were confessing to the whole thing, and you didn't even know!"
Dr. Ziggurat's eyes popped. "Nano-technology? Where did you get nano-technology?"
"Yuki built it himself, if you really want to know," Gingka replied. "Don't ask how, cause I have no idea. Anyway," he turned to the other eight bladers. "I'm going to go find Madoka. You guys mind taking care of them?"
Kyoya smiled sinisterly. "I thought you'd never ask."
Damian, Reji, Dr. Ziggurat, and Pluto all whipped out their own launchers and launched at the Legendary Bladers. The Legendary Bladers all launched back, shouting as one,
"Let it rip!"
-two hours later-
Gingka was walking Madoka back to the B-Pit.
"Gingka, I just have to ask," Madoka said curiously. "How did you know where to find me?"
"Oh yeah, that. The other guys and I set up a trap to find out where you were, and also who kidnapped you," Gingka replied. "I'm glad we did, too. If we hadn't, I would've had to try and find you in less than two weeks, or they might've…" He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.
They approached the B-Pit. Gingka opened the door, allowing Madoka to go in first. "You sure you don't want me to spend the night here?" he asked.
"It's really sweet of you to do that, Gingka, but I'm sure." She winked at Gingka teasingly. "Don't worry. I'll sleep with my dad's gun under my pillow in case they come back."
"Your dad has a gun?" Gingka asked in surprise.
Madoka laughed. "No, I'm just joking, Gingka."
(Actually, her dad did own a gun, but she wasn't about to tell Gingka that.)
"Okay, if you're sure, I should probably check up on the others," Gingka said, heading for the door. "You know, to make sure Kyoya doesn't completely trash the place."
Madoka rushed over and took his hand. "Gingka,"
He turned. "Yeah, Madoka?"
"Thank you. Really, thank you for saving me."
Slowly, she leaned forward. After a second, Gingka began to lean forward as well. Their lips were just about to touch when he suddenly pulled back.
"I should… Yeah, I should… probably go. Now. Bye!"
Then he pulled open the door, ran out of the shop, and dashed down the street.
Madoka shook her head regretfully. "Almost got 'im."
Ta daaaaaaaaa! Hope you enjoyed! The only reason I didn't put in a flashback for Dr. Ziggurat's "almost got 'em" story is cause I couldn't figure out how to work it (cause you know, he wasn't there), and I really don't like Ziggurat all that much anyway, so... yeah.
Anyway, once again, hope you enjoyed! Read and review, cause it would be really really nice!
Okay, I'm gonna go party some more since it's THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!, so this is me signing off. Bye for now!
Gryffyn out. Peace, and have a great summer!