It might seem like Zephyr dislikes Hilary from this, but keep in mind that this is joke fiction! I only dislike a few Beyblade characters, and most of them are named Boris or Barthez.

"What should I call you?" Tyson asked. He smirked, poised to Beybattle. "Hm... how's 'Cloak Boy' sound?"

His wit wasn't always as sharp as his Beyblading skills, but it wasn't like Ozuma had any right to talk. "The name is-"

"Hoodlum!" the brown-haired girl standing next to him shouted suddenly.

Tyson actually laughed, taking that as a joke at first. His laughter was boisterous, even clipped, as it was now. "Wow, Hilary!" he commended. "That was actually pretty good, way better than 'Cloak Boy'. I didn't know you had a sense of humor!"

Unfortunately for him – not that it was any of Ozuma's business, beyond whether or not Tyson was going to Beybattle – the girl only glared in return.

"I wasn't joking, Tyson," she retorted snappily, placing emphasis on the word "joking" like it was some kind of disease. It took all of about two seconds for Ozuma to realize she didn't have much of a sense of humor, had probably never made a joke in her life. "If these are the types of people you hang out with, no wonder you're always late to school!"

"We're not 'hanging out', this guy's a total–"

Ozuma was expecting something along the lines of "creep", but Hilary redirected her scorn at him first, dragging him back into the conversation. "Eager to join Tyson in detention after school, huh?"

Her eyes narrowed. There wasn't much to go off, what with the majority of his body and about half of his facial features being hidden underneath that heavy cloak, but she seemed to be analyzing him anyway, searching for something to recognize.

"Let's go Beybladers!

Let's rip, let's fly!"

"And you!" Hilary whirled around, snapping at a random kid with a portable boombox in the background. "Stop playing that music this instant! Don't you know that rock rots your brain?"

Quick as it had appeared, the music went away.

So did their slowly gathering, anticipating crowd. Nobody seemed too surprised or disappointed, so Ozuma assumed that Tyson getting yelled at wasn't an unusual thing.

"You don't go to our school, do you?" Hilary continued finally, turning back to him. This time she dragged the words out, allowing Ozuma to feel the full weight of her judging him (not that it mattered to him).

Ah... well, Ozuma didn't go to school at all, really.

There wasn't much time for that what with his team traveling around the world and training to seal away the legendary Bit Beasts.

Ozuma figured he would just ignore her and that would be that, but the instant he raised his launcher the banshee began shrieking at Tyson again.

"If you really wanna hang out with your weird friends, why don't you invite them to help you clean first?! You could get done twice as fast instead of wasting time making me run all over town looking for you" –except, to Ozuma's eyes, it looked like she already had that part taken care of– "and then, afterward, you could go straight to Bey-whatever it is you do!"

"It's called–" Ozuma tried to cut in helpfully.

"Do I look like I was talking to you?!" Hilary screeched.

Despite himself, Ozuma was actually taken aback. Not even Mariam could yell like that when she was angry – and almost as unafraid.

"Ah, ow! Hey, Hilary–"

She kept her broom clutched in one hand and snagged the back of Tyson's shirt in the other, marching right up to Ozuma and shoving her pointy little nose in his face. Hilary was actually a little taller than him though – so he ended up looking more at her chin.

"Tyson's already put off his work long enough. You can help."

"Uh, no, actually I think I–"

"YOU'RE HELPING!"

...If Mariam made fun of him for this later, he was going to insist that Hilary could wield that broom like a weapon.

Imagine how different the plot of V-Force would be... if Hilary defeated all of the Bladebreaker's opponents by dragging them into detention with her broom. (Humor is not really my strong point, but I think I'm getting better?)

V-Force is the series I'm least familiar with. I'm rewatching the entire thing, and this little fic would take place at the beginning of episode 3. Or the second time Ozuma and Tyson battled, if you prefer.

(May this rewatch inspire loads more fanfiction to come...)