I'ma back! More mystery, some suspense, some humor, a bit of typical Gingka idiocy, and... Well, that's all I'll say for now. XP Enjoy!
"Gingka?"
"I'm alright." Gingka said, standing and stretching. Tsubasa sighed as he noticed the calm expression on the redhead's face.
"I've called two or three of the others. Dynamis and Tithi took a while to reach. Wanna call Kyoya?" Tsubasa asked.
Gingka nodded, pulling out his phone. "Been a while since I talked to him." he smiled slightly as he dialed and put the phone to his ear.
"This is Kakeru Tategami. How can I help you?"
"Hey Kakeru. It's Gingka. Is Kyoya there?"
"Oh! Of course! Hang on a sec and I'll get him." Kakeru said.
Gingka chuckled at the younger Tategami's enthusiasm.
"Hello?" Kyoya's gruff voice came through the phone less than a minute later.
"Hey Kyoya."
"Gingka? What in the world made you suddenly decide to call me after all these years?"
Gingka snorted. "What, I can't call an old friend and rival just outta the blue?"
"Your voice betrays that something's up over there, wherever you are."
"I'm at the Metal Bey City WBBA, as a matter of fact, and you're right. Something has come up." Gingka sighed.
Kyoya raised an eyebrow. "Something big?"
"To put it shortly, think you can battle Nemesis a second time?" Gingka asked. "Rago has returned. He was following me this morning."
Kyoya was silent for a few moments.
"You're kidding me."
"Nope. Satellite evidence of him waking up again on Nemesis Island, and I saw him this morning." Gingka said.
Kyoya groaned. "Great. Right when it seemed like there weren't going to be any more problems."
Gingka chuckled slightly. "There will probably always be something to deal with. Just the way the world works, I suppose."
"Well then can the world stop making messes for once? I'm not a maid." Kyoya huffed.
Gingka blinked, then dropped to the ground laughing.
"What?!" Kyoya exclaimed angrily.
"That… Is probably the weirdest thing I've ever heard you say." Gingka laughed, getting back up and shaking his head with an amused smile on his face.
"S-shut up!" Kyoya snarled.
Gingka only laughed harder, bringing a smile to Tsubasa's face at the sudden change in the redhead's mood.
Kyoya growled. "Hagane, I swear…"
"Okay, okay, I'm calm." Gingka chuckled. "How soon will you be over here?"
"I can be there tonight probably." Kyoya sighed.
"Alright." Gingka replied. "Seeya in a few hours then, I suppose."
"And you owe me a bey battle. I still intend to beat you." Kyoya huffed.
Gingka chuckled. "We'll see."
Kyoya merely snorted. "Later, Hagane."
"Bye Kyoya." Gingka chuckled, then hung up, his expression immediately becoming serious as he stared at his phone. The redhead frowned, almost considering calling Kyoya back just to tell the Leone blader that he'd likely be off fighting Nemesis before Kyoya ever arrived.
"Why don't you call Kenta and your dad?" Tsubasa suggested as he set down his phone. "I'll go grab us some coffee." With that, the silver-haired blader left the room.
Gingka nodded silently, smiling slightly at the thought of talking to his dad again. It had been far too long since the two Haganes had spoken. Gingka doubted that he had called his dad within the past two years, if not longer.
"Time to fix that then,.." the Pegasus blader muttered, quickly finding Ryo's name in his contacts and pressing the call button before raising the phone to his ear once more and turning to look out the window.
"Mr. Hagane, your phone's ringing." Hikaru said, handing Ryo the black device.
"It's Gingka!" Ryo exclaimed, answering immediately. "He-" He was interrupted by a startled shriek followed by some scuffling noises, as well as the sound of a door slamming.
"Gingka, are you alright?!" Tsubasa's voice came, sounding startled and concerned.
"Guys? What's going on?" Ryo stood, concern flashing across his features. Kenta and Hikaru paused what they were doing and looked over.
The other end of the line went dead silent, only causing greater worry in Ryo's mind. "Anyone?" The Phoenix said, but only muffled noises and voices came.
"Sorry Mr. Hagane. We'll call you back in a second." Tsubasa's voice came.
"What happened?" Ryo asked quickly, concerned for his son.
Tsubasa sighed. "It's complicated, but I've gotta go calm Gingka down before this turns into a full-blown panic attack. Hang on. We'll explain later." the Metal Bey City director hung up.
Ryo frowned. "Panic attack…?" he muttered, then sighed and sat back down, pressing his fingertips together and resting his chin atop his thumbs.
"Should I get a helicopter ready to go over there?" Hikaru asked.
Ryo looked at the bluenette in surprise and nodded. "Kenta, alert their air traffic control that we're coming."
"Got it." Kenta said, picking up a phone off the desk and dialing. Hikaru glanced down at her tablet and tapped a few areas on the screen, issuing the orders. Ryo got up and left the room, undoubtedly to gather a few things for what would likely be at least an overnight stay, if not longer, in Metal Bey City.
"Director Ootori?"
"Yes?" Tsubasa sighed, glancing up at his computer.
"Director Hagane and two of his aides called. They said they are coming by helicopter and will be here in an hour."
"Alright. Thank you." Tsubasa sighed, running a hand through his hair in exasperation as he watched Gingka, who was laying on the floor breathing frantically. Perhaps he should call Madoka… The brunette might be able to get Gingka to calm down, but she would be busy working at the B-Pit by this time. Therefore, the best solution was probably to not worry her, merely to wait until Ryo arrived. After all, the older Hagane knew his son better than anyone else did, and would likely be able to deal with the frightened young adult more efficiently than anyone else. So, Tsubasa sat and waited, worry clouding his mind and halting any progress on work as he watched Gingka try to calm down.
With his focus entirely on Gingka, Tsubasa never noticed the dark shadow with its glowing red eyes hovering in midair just outside the window. Rago watched with a twisted grin on his face as Gingka, the blader who had defeated him seven years ago, laid on the floor, not daring to take his face out of his scarf, where he had buried it.
"Look at you. Pathetic." Rago growled. "How in the world were you ever able to defeat me?! Oh, but seeing you like this, so afraid… Is better than anything. Well, most things. The only thing that will be better is to watch you crumble under my hand tonight." Rago's eyes shone even brighter red at the thought. "I cannot wait until then."
Tsubasa let out a sharp gasp, finally looking out the window as the room went nearly completely dark. He could barely see the winged silhouette against the dark purple energy that Rago was emitting, but he could easily see the haunting, glowing red eyes. Only one thought was in Tsubasa's mind as he stared at the monstrosity that was staring back at him.
"This is what Gingka is afraid of."
Tsubasa glanced back at the redhead, barely able to see Gingka in the growing darkness. Everything had gone dead silent, a fact which alarmed Tsubasa to no small extent.
"How can you ever dare face me, either of you?" Rago's voice echoed in the ears and minds of both Tsubasa and Gingka.
"Like this." Gingka's voice came after a few moments. Tsubasa glanced back as a slight blue glow entered the corner of his eye. The silver-haired adult sighed in relief as he saw Gingka standing, wrapped in blue flames.
Rago chuckled evilly. "Finally found your nerve, huh? Very well then. The time will come for us to fight."
"Believe me… I'm ready." Gingka growled.
Rago cackled evilly. "I will let you think that… Until our battle."
Tsubasa sighed in relief as the darkness faded away, Rago flying away with it. He turned to look at Gingka, only to find that the Pegasus blader had dropped to his knees and was staring blankly at the ground, breathing heavily.
"Gingka? Are you alright?" Tsubasa asked.
Gingka hesitated, then sighed and ran a hand through his hair, standing slowly.
"I'll be fine." He muttered, moving over to the couch and sitting down, resting his elbows on his knees and folding his hands together, staring down at the ground once more.
"I'm going to keep calling people." Tsubasa sighed. Gingka merely nodded, staring down at the ground.
"Calm down."
Gingka found his vision clouding over slightly as the scenery around him again changed to the starry field.
"Pegasus?"
"I know he's pretty scary looking, but calm down. If you're going to take that challenge tonight, you'll need to be calm and level headed, not rushing in mindlessly."
Gingka sighed deeply, closing his eyes.
"I'll be fine."
"Liar."
"What?! I know what I'm doing!"
"Trust me, I know for a fact from my own past experiences that you have absolutely no clue what you're doing because you're just going to rush in mindlessly as you usually do, without telling anyone where you're going, after making some lame excuse that you're just going for a walk, and they'll figure it out within about fifteen minutes, spend an hour searching for you, and by the time they get there, it will almost have been too late and you'll have taken the deal."
"I told you, I'm not taking that deal."
"I know for a fact that you will. Tonight."
"We'll see. Now buzz off." Gingka snapped.
Pegasus sighed. "Alright…"
"Gingka?"
The starry field faded as Gingka jerked back to reality, raising his head slightly as his vision cleared. A pair of strong arms wrapped around his shoulders and head, pulling him close to an older figure. Gingka's eyes shifted tiredly upwards before the redhead turned his head, burying his face in Ryo's shirt.
In that split second, Ryo spotted the frightened child in the eyes of the young man his son had become. Instinctively, he wrapped both arms tightly around Gingka's shoulders and head, resting his cheek atop Gingka's spiked hair.
"So, in short, Rago has returned and has some sort of weird power and Gingka's basically terrified of him?" Kenta said in a low voice to Tsubasa, who nodded.
"Clearly it's pretty bad if Gingka's this scared." Hikaru muttered.
"You have no clue…" Tsubasa sighed.
"You saw him too?" Kenta raised an eyebrow.
Tsubasa nodded. "But it's Gingka he's after, that's for sure. He basically ignored me."
"Are you alright?" Ryo muttered quietly, stroking Gingka's hair. The younger redhead nodded slightly, sighing heavily and turning his head to look up at his father.
Ryo smiled. "Look at you… All grown up."
Gingka cracked a slight smile at this. "It's… Been five years…"
Ryo nodded. "Too long. I'll admit that, after not seeing you for so long, I had forgotten that you'd grow more."
This elicited a chuckle from Gingka as he sat up, stretching.
"Well, welcome back." Tsubasa said sarcastically.
"Wasn't I only gone for an hour?" Gingka glanced over at Tsubasa.
"Two, actually. What happened? You were completely zoned out." Kenta said.
"I, uh... " Gingka frowned. "Two hours?"
"Two hours. You were sitting there with a completely glazed over look on your face." Tsubasa said.
"It took us an hour to wake you up. Freaked everyone out. We were about to call the hospital." Hikaru said.
Gingka's eyes constricted before he dove behind the couch, pulling the blanket with him. Ryo blinked repeatedly, his arms still in a hugging position before he turned his head, twisting to get a look at the redhead behind the couch before animefalling off the couch.
"I'm fine! Don't need a doctor!" Gingka said in a muffled tone.
"... Is he hiding underneath the blanket…?" Hikaru asked.
"... Yes…?" Ryo said, getting up and walking around behind the couch. In one swift motion, he yanked the blanket off of Gingka. A startled yelp came from the Pegasus blader before a blue and red blur darted behind the nearest potted plant. The other three blinked, then laughed. Gingka gained a tick mark as he heard a sort of whinnying snort in his head. The next instant, the room went dead silent.
"Did… You guys hear that?" Hikaru asked in a near-whisper.
"Hey Mr. Hagane!" Madoka greeted nearly an hour later as Ryo, Tsubasa, Hikaru, Kenta, and Gingka entered her house.
"Hello, Madoka. Man, all of you guys have grown." Ryo said, giving the brunette a warm hug.
Madoka chuckled. "Yeah. Suppose we're only waiting on Kyo-" she was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. "Or not."
"Mr. Hagane?" Kyoya seemed surprised as he stepped into the house.
"Hello Kyoya! Long time no see!" Ryo exclaimed, attempting to ruffle the Leone blader's hair, only for Kyoya to duck away with a snarl.
"I'm not a child!" Kyoya snapped.
"Uh-huh, sure. You keep thinking that." Gingka snorted, earning himself an angered glare.
"Well, someone's feeling a bit better." Madoka laughed. "Gotten over your scare from this morning?"
Gingka shrugged. "Meh. Suppose so."
"Zero saw him too, by the way." Madoka called over her shoulder as she led the group to the living room.
"He did?" Gingka blinked.
Madoka nodded. "Yeah. You might wanna go talk to him."
"Where is he?" Gingka asked.
"I think he's in his room, but he might be in the backyard." Madoka said.
"Yard's closer. I'll check there first." Gingka said.
"You sure you want to go outside? We did get chased for a bit on our way over." Ryo said.
"I'll be fine." Gingka waved it off as he stepped out into the near-darkness. As he closed the door, he heard laughter.
"Gingka?" Zero's voice came from the tree.
"Yeah. I'm right here." Gingka sighed heavily, his expression becoming solemn as he walked over, barely able to make out the silhouette of the younger blader. "Madoka said you saw him as well?"
Zero jumped down from the tree, nodding silently. "It's been haunting me all day. What was that thing?!"
Gingka sighed. "Rago and Nemesis mixed, apparently."
Zero's eyes widened. "W-what?!"
"Don't worry about it. Right now, he only wants me. For revenge." Gingka sighed.
"Revenge?" Zero whispered.
Gingka nodded. "Look, don't tell anyone… But I have to leave. Right now. I'm going to fight him."
"Alone?!" Zero yelped.
"Shh! Yes." Gingka sighed. "I have to. I'll be fine, don't worry. If I'm not back by morning… Well, then you can tell the others."
Before Zero could reply or protest, Gingka had leapt over the fence and was out of sight.
"Gingka…"
I'm sorry… Everyone...
Does that count as a cliffhanger? I think it does. Enjoy! Obviously we'll be having a bit of a battle in the next chapter. I dunno if it'll be the whole thing though. We shall see. XD Until next time, peeps! Ja mata ne! Galaxy out!