Chapter 4

Belle woke up early the next morning, earlier than Rose in fact, which was unusual. Belle looked over at her captain and best friend as she slept soundlessly. A rare emotional filled smile graced Belle's lips. Usually when she was smiled it was to be polite and kind, rarely did she smile because something made her happy. But Belle and Rose had been friends for a very long time. They met each other first, before meeting the other girls and to this day they shared a special bond that even Noel, Chanel, Clair and Aure had yet to completely understand.

Belle got up and got ready for the day, making herself cereal, sitting at the table quietly as she listened to her iPhone. Her favorite song 'Hello World' by Lady Antebellum came on and she lost herself in the lyrics and harmonies.

Hello world

How've you been?

Good to see you, my old friend

Sometimes I feel cold as steel

Broken like I'm never gonna heal

I see a light, a little hope

In a little girl

Hello world

Belle sighed and putting away her dishes, wrote down a note for her team. She grabbed a key card and shoved it, along with her iPhone, in the pockets of her sweatpants. She closed the door behind her and headed for the gym to clear her mind. Ever since seeing the Blitzkrieg Boys in person, she had been having even more flashbacks of her childhood than normal. And she did not need those memories resurfacing again.

No way.

She stepped into the gym, not too surprised to find it empty, it was five in the morning. But then she heard a blade spinning and walking into the gym further, around the corner, Belle saw that someone was there and it wasn't just anyone. It was Tala.

She pointedly ignored him as his very presence brought up her horrible past. She walked past him, as she heard Wolborg spinning, and towards the farthest dish from him.

Tala knew the moment a person entered the gym, but he hadn't expected it to be her. He expected someone like Kai, Ray, Lee, Rick, Spencer, Garland, hell he even thought Tyson would show up instead of her and he slept like no tomorrow! He watched as she walked past him and to the dish the farthest away from him. He couldn't help the smirk that came to his lips. He watched as she pulled out an ice blue/white blade and launched it with a ferocity that surprised him. This team was something else.

Belle launched her metal blade and as it spun, all her worries started to melt away. She pushed her memories back into that locked box in the depths of her mind, she forgot Tala was watching her every move; she just relaxed. She watched her blade spin contently in the middle for a moment before her grassy green eyes flashed a light icy blue and her blade responded. The blade picked up speed very quickly and started spinning the outside edge of the dish, faster and faster.

Tala glanced over as he felt the temperature in the room drop to the point where he could see his breath and feel the cold penetrate his jacket. As her blade moved around in the dish, Tala started to see ice forming in the dish. He realized that it was her blade creating it. Each time her blade moved over a spot on the dish, ice formed and it continued to thicken as her blade went around and around.

Belle gave her blade a silent, mental command and her blade glowed in response. "Frozen Prison." She whispered softly.

Tala saw her lips move, but didn't catch what she said as he was too far away even for his sensitive ears.

The ice suddenly glowed and in a split second it shattered. Breaking apart, it slammed into itself in the middle of the ring. Snow was formed as the ice smashed to bits and the temperature started to rise again.

Tala was too shocked for words. That was an incredible show of control, speed and power. The entire attack took less than 5 seconds; her blade was moving so fast.

Belle let out a sigh, relaxing as she asked her blade to return. It was frigid, colder than ice, but the temperature didn't bother Belle as she put her blade back in its case and started to walk out of the gym, passing Tala again.

Tala had gathered his wits about him once again and was the picture of indifference as Belle passed him. Wolborg continued to dodge the spikes in the ring with expert precision and Tala just watched as Belle walked through the door, heading back to her room.

"Wow, she's something else, huh Wolborg?" Tala said.

Indeed Master Tala. Indeed. Wolborg mused as she returned to Tala's outstretched hand. Something about her feels familiar, right? Wolborg asked, not sure herself if she was feeling what she was feeling.

Tala nodded as he started walking out. "Right, just can't pinpoint what it is. We haven't met her before, but maybe she resembles someone from our past?"

Yes, good luck remembering who that might be Master Tala. Wolborg said sarcastically.

Tala rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up Wolborg, I know my memories are fuzzy."

Fuzzy? Try almost non-existant.

Tala, along with the rest of the Blitzkrieg boys, including Kai, had sort of lost their memories in the past 2 years. After the BEGA disaster and Boris disappearing, something was triggered inside the boy's minds. Their memories were still there, somewhere in their minds, but it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. A really big haystack with knives that would pierce them in the head if they tried to get too close. Safe to say that every time anyone of them tried to remember certain important memories, they ended up on the ground in so much pain that they could barely breathe. They remembered the general picture of their childhood in the Abbey; when they met each other, when they met Boris and Voltaire, the general abuse and pain they endured and their escape. That was it, no real details, they barely remember the other kids there that had been their friends. The others that had been used and killed.

Tala sighed. "Fine, you're right. But that doesn't change the fact that that entire new team has something to hide and I'm going to find out what it is."

Aure woke up to someone shaking her and she rolled over, her blond ringlets falling over her face.

"Five more minutes..." She moaned. But whoever had been shaking her wasn't listening to her. They ripped the sheets off of her body and shook her again. "Noooooooo..." She took the pillow from under her face and smashed it on her head blocking out the light that was coming from the now open blinds.

"Come on A." Chanel sighed as she looked over at Noel who was also trying to wake up Clair. Their eyes locked and they sighed. How did Belle do it?

"Clair." Noel said, trying to be patient. Chanel looked over and realized that having Noel help her wake them up was probably a bad idea. Noel was a very impatient person by nature and would probably resort to dramatic measures if Clair and Aure didn't wake up soon.

Suddenly a bright idea popped into her head. "Hey El?" Noel looked at her in question. "Wanna grab me some icy water?" She asked with a sneaky smile. Noel immediately caught on and nodded, way too happy.

Noel came back seconds later with two HUGE pitchers of water, she handed one to Chanel and they both smirked to each other than counted down.

"3"

"2"

"1"

"Go!" They shouted together and they dumped the contents of each pitcher on both of the girls, ice falling on their faces.

In unison, and in surprising harmony with Aure being higher pitched, the two best friends screamed and literally flew out of bed. They were on their feet in a matter of two seconds, standing on their beds, hair, dripping wet, in their faces, their stance, almost battle ready.

Chanel broke into giggles immediately, and even Noel had a rare huge smile on her face. The sight was quite priceless to see.

Clair flipped her wet red hair out of her face and her ocean blue eyes were wide with surprise. "Did you guys seriously just do that?"

Aure groaned, not even bothering with her blond hair that was in her face. She just hopped down off the bed and went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. A few seconds later they heard the shower go on.

Noel took a deep breath and her smile disappeared, but a smirk remained on her lips. "Get ready Clair, we have to be at the stadium in 30 minutes."

Clair groaned. "Why me?"

Rose sat quietly at the kitchen table with her blade in pieces in front of her. She heard Clair and Aure scream as they were woken up, but knew that Noel and Chanel would have them ready in time.

She turned her attention back to the attack ring she was cleaning. The smaller, more metallic design that Kenny created had made the blades much more powerful, but they seemed to get dirtier. It was probably due to the fact that more tournaments had implemented terrain dishes to compensate for the power of the HMS blades. Still, most bladers didn't use the HMS as it was so hard to control. Like Robert had told Rose, only the top bladers in the world used them.

Rose still remembered learning how to use her HMS blade a year and a half ago, when Kenny had finally decided to patent his design and they started selling the HSM blades. She remembered waiting in line to show how good she was. Due to the power of the Heavy Metal System, Kenny had required that stores selling his blade, had to test each blader on their ability using a program he created. If the blader didn't meet a certain standard, then they were not allowed to get a HMS blade.

"They're almost ready Rose." Chanel said as she and Noel walked into the common room.

Rose nodded. "Belle almost ready too?"

"Here Rose." Belle said walking out of their room. "A and Clair-Bear ready yet?"

"Ready!" Aure shouted as she and Clair ran into the common room. Rose nodded as she finished putting her blade back together. She clipped her bit-chip in last, the beast on the chip gleaming as the blade was complete.

"Then lets head over to see who our first opponent is." Rose said.

The Angels made it to the stadium 20 minutes later and went back under the stadium floor to the platforms set up.

"I'm so ready to kick some butt." Aure grinned.

"Yea, I hope we play today." Clair agreed.

Chanel stayed silent, nerves building up within her. She knew she was good, but with all these excellent teams, it was hard to believe that she could pull off wins.

Noel immediately sensed the change in her best friend. She bumped her shoulder against Chanel's, snapping Chanel out of her head-space.

"Wh-What?"

"It's ok Nelly." Noel said softly as hazel met icy blue. "You'll be great, like you always are."

Chanel smiled, nodding. "Thanks El."

The roar of the crowd reached the best friends' ears as the ceiling once again opened up above their heads and the platform started to rise.

Clair looked around as the platform stopped rising. She looked at each team, while soaking up the crowd's energy. Team Psykick as well as F-Dynasty and The PBB All Starz looked slightly nervous, but determined. White Tiger X, along with Justice 5 and the Saint Shields looked confident. The BBA Revolution as usual were loud and over-confident. But as Clair looked closer, she saw something in Tyson's eyes. It was a look of maturity. It was barely there as Tyson grinned confidently, but it was there. Tyson had grown up in the past 2 years. Not just physically, but mentally as well. Clair could relate to that. She had to grow up fast, her whole team had to. Then her eyes drifted to The Blitzkrieg Boys and their calm, cool, collected, yet arrogant faces. And lastly, Clair looked at the Dark Oblivions. With their capes and hoods, it was still a mystery as to who they were.

"Alright Beyblading fans! Are you ready to see the lineup for the first round of the first World Championships in two years!?" DJ shouted and the crowd roared in response.

The bladers looked up as the jumbotron alit with 10 boxes outlined in black. Each box had a picture of one of the team captains with the name of the team at the bottom of the picture. Currently they were all lit up but then some started going off as others stayed on and then they went back on as the others went dim.

"Alright." DJ said as the screen started showing only one lit box at once. "So the first team to go is..."

The sequence started getting faster and faster until it started slowing down again. The sequence stopped as it rested on a picture.

"And it's Justice 5!" DJ shouted, the spotlight resting on the old BEGA group. "The team that will be going up against them is..." The sequence started up again, but with Garland's picture staying lit. "The Saint Shields!"

The spotlight rested on the Sacred Guardian Protectors as they and Justice 5 looked at each other, the competitive air getting thicker with each passing second.

"After that battle, the next two teams to compete are...F-Dynasty and...The Spinning Angels!"

Rose smirked as emerald green met jade green. This was going to be good.

Raul glanced over at the all girls team, seeing his twin do the same. He moved his red bangs out of his jade green eyes and took in the 6 figures. From what he heard from other European bladers, this team was powerful. To be here at all, to qualify for the World Championships, told him that they were powerful, but he had gotten emails from teams during his family's circus tour. And those emails were a little disturbing. The Majestics and his team, F-Dynasty, were really the only powerful teams in Europe. They were the only bladers skilled enough to wield the HMS blades in Europe. Or so he thought. The Spinning Angels had seemed to pop out of no where. They had took the French Team National Championships by storm last year and then again this year, qualifying for the European Championships in which they breezed through considering both The Majestics and F-Dynasty could not attend. No one really knew much about them, other then that Rose told them she was Oliver's cousin, that they all grew up around beyblading and all lived in Paris. From the emails, Raul knew that they had taken their opponents by storm. There was no trash talking, no toying with their opponent. The battles were quick and efficient. There was no mercy; either you lost quickly, or you could survive a half a minute. Now Raul was interested in how they would fair against real teams. Teams that had been around for at least 7 years, teams that had a lot of titles to their names, teams that could wield the HMS blades.

We will see Raul, we will see...