New chapter! It's been exactly a year since I graduated which is so weird to think about, but I figured I'd post this in celebration. I've been so busy lately and I know that's no excuse, but I finally have time to put this up. Thank you Rukoshimo and Purpleprincess1147 for reviewing!

I don't own Metal Fight Beyblade.


"We have to find them," Sophie was adamant.

Wales shook his head. "It's too dangerous. There's no telling what could happen."

"The weather is practically perfect," Sophie said, exasperated.

"You two fight like an old married couple," Kyoya rolled his eyes from his seat on the couch.

Sophie froze, and Wales opened his mouth to speak, but apparently thought better of it.

Madoka sighed. "The storm is over for the most part," she agreed.

"That's the problem," Masamune folded his arms. "The weather was fine yesterday when Mei Mei went outside, but look at what it turned into. We can't risk it."

"No!" Sophie shouted across the table. "Mei Mei, Chao Xin, Hikaru, and Ryuga are all out there somewhere! They might need our help! We can't just sit around here doing nothing!"

Amid the arguing, Madoka slipped out the back door onto the balcony. She did agree with Sophie, but at the same time she understood where the guys were coming from. The weather may have calmed down, but the sea was still raging. She watched it from where she stood.

Her friends had to be okay. They just had to be.

Madoka became aware of someone standing behind her.

"Did you want something?" She asked, not bothering to turn around and figure out who it was.

"We need to find our friends."

Madoka whirled around, face to face with Gingka. He fidgeted slightly.

"What?"

"It's been over twelve hours. They need us." Gingka started walking to the female side of the duplex.

"What are you doing?"

Gingka gestured to his half. "They'll still be arguing when we get back. Let's go."

More than happy to leave the chaos behind her, Madoka obeyed, shutting the door tightly behind her.

The sand on the beach was in total disarray. It was amazing they'd managed to make it back relatively unscathed, Madoka reflected. Masamune had been hit by a flying branch, but other than that there hadn't been any casualties.

At least not that they knew of so far…

Madoka told the voice in her head to shut up.

Gingka looked over at her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Madoka raised her voice slightly. "I'm just worried."

Gingka nodded. "Don't worry. We'll find them."

They walked along the empty beach, searching for any sign of their missing friends. Madoka tried to keep her spirits up, but it wasn't easy. Gingka seemed to be aware of this, and his endless energy and happiness did help a bit. He didn't seem to doubt in the slightest they wouldn't be able to find the others.

"If you were in a storm, where would you have hidden?" The question stopped her suddenly. She stared into Gingka's eyes.

"Huh?"

He repeated it. "If we hadn't made it back to the condo, where would you have spent the night?"

Madoka blinked. "Somewhere safe…," she said slowly. "Like where the water couldn't get to me, somewhere higher up."

"Up on that cliff, maybe?" Gingka pointed a slight ways in the distance. "It's not that far from where we are, and if the storm came in before you had a chance to get to the beach house, it'd be a good place, right?"

"You're thinking Mei Mei, aren't you?" Her eyes widened. "Well, c'mon! We don't have any time to waste!" She ran through the sand as best she could, her feet sinking down.

Nearly out of breath by the time they made it to the cliff, they began their ascent after taking a moment to rest. Madoka starting calling her friend's name, and Gingka chimed in as well.

Watching him next to her, she couldn't help but feel some of her stress melt away. It had been a really good idea, she had to admit. They'd gotten away from the toxic arguments in the beach house, and at least had an idea of where their friends may have been. That, and Gingka was great company, she thought warmly. There was something about him.

Gingka stopped, noticing her looking at him. "What?"

Madoka blushed. "It's nothing! Let's go!"

"Go where?"

She ran up the rest of the small cliff, gazing off in every direction. If nothing else, she had a pretty good view of the entire beach. The cliff was at least 10 feet higher than their balcony, and wasn't obstructed on the sides by any houses. There was a good chance she'd notice something on the beach below if her friends were anywhere nearby.

"Mei Me? Hikaru? Chao Xin? Ryuga?" She called over and over again, hoping to elicit some sort of response.

Glancing around the area, she noticed a strange object on the ground. She tried to pick it up, only to find out that it was partially buried in the dirt. Kneeling down to get a better look, she pushed the dirt aside.

The object was some sort of shell, larger than most that Madoka had seen on the beach. She flipped in over, noting that it was chipped in some areas. Brushing off the dirt, she realized something had been written on the shell, carving marks visible. She tried to read them, but the shell was either too old or too eroded to read the letters clearly. As it was, she didn't even recognize the strange symbols. At first she'd thought they were letters, but now she wasn't so sure.

Gingka reappeared a moment later. "Did you find them?"

"Not yet," Madoka studied the shell. She kept in her hand, deciding if nothing else it would make an interesting souvenir.

"Hello?"

The voice was faint, and hard to hear, but it was definitely there.

"Hello?" Madoka called back.

The voice replied, but it sounded as though there was something obstructing it. Whatever it was, it was located away from the cliff and the beach, close to the dense jungle area.

Madoka took a step in that direction, Gingka close by her side. She made an conscious effort to keep track of where they were going as they walked through the undergrowth. The last thing they needed was to get themselves lost, too.

Finally, the voice became louder.

"Help!"

"That's Mei Mei!" Madoka realized, looking for her friend.

"I'm over here!"

Not wasting anytime, Madoka and Gingka swept the area, following the sound of her voice.

They came upon a large tree, surrounded by fallen leaves, branches, and other debris. The trunk of a fallen tree lay right in front of it.

"Where are you?" Madoka called out.

"Right here!" Mei Mei sounded closer than ever. "This tree is hollow; I thought it would be a good place to wait out the storm. But with all the wind, branches kept falling and it made a mess. Then that tree fell, and it completely trapped me. I've been trying to move the pile, but there's way to much for me to deal with myself and nowhere to put it so I've been stuck here."

Gingka and Madoka got set to work immediately, pushing the leaves aside and picking up pile after pile of sticks. Eventually, they began to make some progress. Mei Mei's face was visible through a small opening.

"If we can move a little more, I should be able to crawl out," she informed them.

After another ten minutes, they removed one final obstruction, and Mei Mei pushed aside the remaining branches. She stepped over the fallen tree trunk, it having been too heavy for Madoka and Gingka to move no matter what they tried, nearly stumbling in the process, but managed to get out from her tree's hollow center. She looked a little worn out and scratched up from the tree branches, but none worse for the wear.

"Thank you so much," she gasped. "I thought I was going to be stuck there forever."

"We're just glad you're okay," Madoka hugged her friend. "What exactly happened to you?"

Mei Mei shook her head. "That's just the thing; I'm not entirely sure. One moment I was in the water, then I had no idea where I was- I guess the current must have drifted me down the beach without me realizing it, then a storm came in. I headed up here to try and get a better view, but the rain was really coming down and then the thunder started so I ran over here hoping to find some kind of shelter.

"Looking back it was probably stupid to hide in the tree," Mei Mei gestured to the fallen tree trunk. "That one got zapped by lightning right in front of me; the whole time I was thinking, that could have been me. At the time it seemed like the only option, though, so I guess I got really lucky."

"You had a close call," Gingka appeared relieved as he looked around the area. "Did you see anyone else?"

Mei Mei tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"We all went out looking for you when we realized you were still gone," Madoka explained. "Chao Xin, Hikaru, and Ryuga never made it back to the condo last night."

Mei Mei had gone slightly green. "You mean you all got yourselves into trouble looking for me?" She whispered.

"Don't worry about it," Gingka gave her a smile. "You would have done the same for us. Now let's go find the others; they have to be around here somewhere."

"Right," Madoka nodded. "You picked a good place; we should be able to see most of the beach from here. If the others are around, we'll find them."

"Okay," Mei Mei said softly.

Making their way back to the cliff, Mei Mei stared openly at the vast ocean in front of her. She couldn't believe she had caused her friends so much trouble… She should have gone back inside sooner. Instead, she'd decided to keep going out, to get away from Chao Xin and all those girls. Going inside would have had the exact same effect, although it wouldn't have been as fun. Which reminded her.

Chao Xin had gone out after her as well? She wasn't too surprised, considering it sounded like everyone had gone outside from the way Madoka was talking, but she couldn't believe he had spent the night out in the storm. He could have gone back inside before he got too far from the condo, but he'd continued to look.

Mei Mei really, really hoped he was okay.

She looked down on the edge of the cliff, hoping to see someone below. There were craggy rocks- it'd be dangerous if she fell- but no sign of any people. She felt herself deflate slightly. The water crashed forcefully against the rocks, the only remainder of the previous night's storm.

"I think I see something!" Gingka's excited voice caught her attention.

"What is it?" Madoka asked, looking in the same direction as him. "Where?"

"It looks like two people!" He took off down the cliff, the girls scrambling to keep up with his boundless energy.

Gingka led them far down the beach, towards a large pile of rocks. It was a ways in the distance, but he insisted he had seen something. Mei Mei couldn't imagine how that was possible, and Madoka seemed skeptical, but they refused to give into their doubts. If he had seen something, and that something was their friends, they couldn't risk losing the opportunity.

Mei Mei held her breath, hoping their desire wasn't leading them astray.

Gingka suddenly picked up speed. Already aways behind him, the girls struggled to match his pace. He stopped suddenly, Madoka almost crashing into him, in front of the rocks.

"Gingka!" Madoka scolded. He stared up at the rocks worldlessly, pointing.

Mei Mei gasped. Looking ragged and exhausted, Hikaru was laying on the rocks. She seemed to be unconscious, a mark across her forehead, and her hair stuck out wildly in every direction.

Mei Mei and Madoka raced up the jagged rocks, desperate to reach their friend. Madoka leaned her ear down to Hikaru's face. The other girl was breathing, but it was faint.

"She's fine." They whirled around at the sound, seeing Ryuga coming towards them. "She was up a little while ago."

"Ryuga!" Gingka looked surprised.

"What happened to you guys?" Madoka asked anxiously, looking over her friend.

Ryuga glanced out at the sea. "It's a long story. I'll tell you when we get back."

"Should we wake her?" Mei Mei wondered. "She doesn't look like she's in any condition to be walking around right now. And these rocks are dangerous, how did you two manage to get up here?"

Ignoring her, Ryuga picked up Hikaru, and started down the pile of rocks. Mei Mei and Madoka shot each other confused expressions, then followed him.

"Should we try and find Chao Xin?" Mei Mei whispered.

Madoka shook her head. "I don't know where he could be. We'll look again later; we need to get back to the condo now. The others are probably worried about us. Gingka and I left without saying anything."

"Oh." Mei Mei's eyes widened. "It's probably best Hikaru and Ryuga get back as soon as possible, too."

Madoka nodded. "He's doing a good job hiding it, but he's tired. That's probably why they didn't try to head back before now."

Ahead of them, Gingka was pelting Ryuga with questions, trying to get some answers out of him, but the older teen was silent.