My first attempt in a long time at something serious! Yay!

In all seriousness, this was supposed to be a part of Blink and You'll Miss It's second chapter detailing year two, but it didn't end up working out that way. The plot bunny basically got away from me on this one and began taking up far too much of the chapter. I suddenly realized that this was becoming its own little monster and decided to run with it. Full force. Like, just sprinting the 100m here.

Okay, enough with the running analogies and craziness and on with the story.

He paused when Ifrit began burning a hole in his holster.

It was not exactly a sharp burn per say; it felt much more like he had placed his hand on a piece of warm glass and it was slowly becoming too hot for his skin. Gingka Hagane knew this feeling well - Pegasus used it often when it wanted to tell him something. Or tell him off. Either or, really.

With a quick scan of the area, he reached to move his cloak - purely a disguise to keep the fangirls away and totally not because he thought it was cool - off of his holster. Just as he had expected, the new bey was glowing a soft orange. He pulled it out and eyed it carefully.

"Just what is it that you're trying to tell me, Ifrit?" he wondered. The only things in the canyon were rocks and rubble. No one was supposed to come out this far because the Nemesis Crisis had made the land unstable. Massive sinkholes and frequent chances of rock slides kept the local population to zero. Based on that fact alone, Ifrit had nothing human to which it could react - other than him, but he already had a partner in Pegasus.

Somewhere far off to his left, towards one of the canyon walls, there was a shout. Without thinking, Gingka dropped Ifrit back into his holster and sprinted toward the sound, his mind worrying over the possibilities: an injured traveler, someone dying of heatstroke, maybe even someone tripping over a rock. But no one should have been here. He had come for that reason alone.

He felt very foolish when he came across a group of kids beyblading of all things. Someone in the battle had obviously gotten a little too excited and probably shouted in support of his beyblade. While under normal circumstances he would have smiled and let it be, this was still a dangerous area.

"Hey," he called out in his most stern tones; a few heads swiveled to acknowledge his voice, "you kids need to leave! It's too dangerous!"

One of the boys, a short kid with bright pink hair, scowled in his direction. "Why should I listen to you? You're not my dad."

Gingka approached the boys with what he hoped was an air of sternness, even channeling Madoka, he was not really sure he was intimidating enough. "I may not be your dad," he answered pointedly, "but I'm sure he told you not to come out here." The boy recoiled; his beyblade hit his foot and came to a stop.

"He's got a point, Lee. Maybe we should head back to the city," one of the other boys said. A mop of dark hair shadowed his eyes as he gingerly reached down to pick up his own bey. The little blonde boy at his side began nodding at the suggestion.

The final boy crossed his arms over his chest. "So what?" he questioned. Gingka turned his attention to the new voice and paused in his retort. Ifrit practically burst into flames at his hip; it took everything in his power not to yelp in alarm. The boy, noticing his hesitation, took advantage of the moment. "You're not supposed to be here either, mister. Who're you to tell us what to do?"

After a bit of gaping, the Pegasus blader finally found his voice. "Well, I'm an adult," he proclaimed. "So there." He crossed his arms and nodded his head to emphasize the fact. He felt very grown up.

"No," the boy said angrily, his blue eyes fiery with passion, "you're being a hypo… hippo… hypocrat!"

Gingka nearly burst into laughter. "I believe you mean hypocrite, kid."

"Well, I don't care what you think. I'm here to beyblade," the one called Lee declared. He set his beyblade into his launcher and aimed it at the eldest blader. "Battle me! I win, you leave us alone. You win, we go home!"

Gingka grinned. "I don't think you want to do that, kid. You don't know who you're dealing with," he warned as he pulled his own launcher from his belt.

"Three," the boy called.

With a sigh, Gingka called, "Two!"

"One! Let it Rip!"

Pegasus burst from its launcher and rushed for its opponent. Gingka frowned. Even launching at thirty percent power, Samurai Pegasus was still much more powerful than he would have liked for this situation. He needed to end this quickly.

"Pegasus! End this quickly!"

"Zurafa! Dodge it!"

The green colored bey ducked to the side, but Pegasus was much too fast. The blue beyblade rammed into its opponent. The thrill of victory quickly subsided as Gingka watched the final moments of the battle in slow motion.

The way Zurafa was moving before it made an attempt at escaping would have caused the bey to fly parallel to the wall once Pegasus hit it. However, because of the beyblade's change in direction, Pegasus hit Zurafa at an angle. Gingka could only watch in horror as the less powerful beyblade slammed into the canyon wall at full force.

He and the boys froze as first one crack, then multiple, raced up the rocks. Gingka could hear large pieces of boulder separating themselves from the main rock face and dashed forward.

"Watch out!" he screamed, pulling the closest boy behind him. His body moved instinctively, pushing his opponent and the third boy out of the way.

He could see the fourth boy, the one who had called him a hypocrite, staring up at the approaching rocks in frozen terror.

Not going to make it.

His hand stretched towards the boy.

Not going to make it.

Rocks began to fill his field of vision.

Not going to make it.

Sudden, solid warmth filled his arms. He pulled the warmth beneath his chest and crouched.

Made it, was his last thought as unrelenting stone crashed into his back.

Dun dun duuuuuuun!

Evil of me, I know, but I'm actually updating this again soon anyway. It's really not that long of a wait. I think.

As per usual, leave me a note in the comments with any questions and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!

Ciao! - stormnml