Chapter 10

BAM.

'Growl.' Alexis opened her right eye just a crack. She growled again, snapping it shut.

"Too Much Sunlight!" she screamed. A groan came from her right. She felt confused. Where was she? What was going on? Why wasn't she able to wake up properly? What was the time? Why did her leg hurt? And what the heck was that throbbing in her temples?

Alexis slowly opened her eyes in the shade of her hand, and took in her surroundings. She knew where she was; in Dally's front room. She took her hand away and squinted in the light from the window. She had half fallen off of the couch, where half her body was stuck under Dally.

"Stupid boy pushed me off the couch!" she hissed. She was fuming. How did they end up on the couch? And why was she still wearing her boots? No wonder her leg was killing her, she was wearing knee high leather boots, her leg was also raised high up as it was still on the couch and under Dalmotov's weight. She tugged to no avail.

'Wake up fully first then try and move around properly,' hissed Pantera harshly.

'Huh?'

'Huh? Is that all you can say? Where did Miss Pure Logic go? Actually I take that back, you were never logical…always rash.'

'Why are you so bitchy today Pantera?' asked Alexis, her head resting on her arms her eyes shut against the light.

'Gah!' was her reply.

Alexis groaned, rubbing her temples.

'If you had been like every other teenager…human in fact, you wouldn't be awake right now. You're supposed to be hung over, knocked out, half dead, not wide-awake. Not that you're wide awake,' he muttered the last part from the back of her mind.

Alexis's eyes shot open. She would wake up and she would wake up now! She pulled her leg out from under Dally. Jumping up, she leapt between the discarded bottles and cans that littered the floor. 'How much did I drink,' she asked herself not expecting Pantera to answer her.

'5 of those bottles of Vodka and a whole six pack…not adding what you sneaked from Dalmotov's bottles and glasses.' Just at the thought of how much she had drunk Alexis swooned. She had drunk 5 whole bottles of Vodka? What was wrong with her? She quickly washed and brushed her hair, popping some spaghetti left over from the night before into her mouth. She soon regretted it, as she had to rush into the bathroom, where her stomach decided to empty itself into the basin. She grimaced at her reflection in the mirror. Her day was definitely not going so well. She trudged back into the living room, a black cloud hanging over her.

"DALLY!"

"Huh? Wha- what's going on?" he yelped groggily. His eyes were still glued shut.

"It's me Alexis…I'm going now okay?"

"Hm? Yeah whatever."

Alexis glowered at his already sleeping form. She scoured the room for a pen, finally finding one down the back of the couch. She pulled off a label from one of the bottles and wrote on it:

'Hey Dally. I had to go. Hope your hangover isn't so bad. Will see you soon. XXX ALEXIS'

She left it on the coffee table, where she knew he would find it. Walking around the flat, she picked up her belongings and put them all into her coat pockets. Finally, she made her way back to the living room where she pinched the sleeping Russian and left the building.

Standing at the front door to the block of flats, Alexis took in her surroundings. It seemed to be around 7 o'clock. The sun was up, but clouds hid it. The snow was now above her angles. She walked through it in the most dignified way as possible. She calculated in her mind how long it would take her to get to Skreknell. She smirked at the thought of Tala screaming at her the way he did to Bryan. Thinking of the boys made her smile. She didn't focus much on her surroundings. One part of her mind directed her through the familiar neighbourhood; the other dwelled on random things that passed through her mind. She heard Pantera growl warningly. Pulling herself out of her reverie, she noticed that she had walked into a blocked alleyway. A stonewall had been placed roughly halfway down. To Alexis, it looked about roughly nine foot high. One thing she was sure of was that there was A LOT of barbed wire over the top. This was not good. She turned around and realised what Pantera had warned her against. A dozen Russian men, ranging from Alexis's age to 25 stood at the opening. She frowned. Why hadn't she realised this so soon?

'You're drunk Alexis…don't fight them. You could misjudge it all.'

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" asked one of Alexis's stalkers. By the looks of it he was the leader. Alexis smiled, hiding the fury at the way he spoke at her.

"What are you doing out so early?" he asked.

"Was going to ask you the same question," she whispered seductively.

He grinned, "it's only 7:30, a girl like you should be at home, safe with her parents. Not only that…this area is dangerous for pretty girls like you." He had sauntered all the way up to her while he was talking, now he was barely millimetres away. The Alexis inside herself hissed at his audacity, she gave him a sweet look.

"Oh…I haven't been around here for quite a while. It's changed a lot." She looked around and focused her gaze onto the wall.

"That's to keep the bad men out," he whispered. "And some other bad men in." He stepped closer to her, his hand on her shoulder. Alexis looked at it, her stomach twisting inside.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Gregori," whispered a boy from the back of the group. Alexis pricked up her ears, she recognised that voice, but who was it?

"Why shouldn't I?"

Alexis placed her hand on his chest and pushed slightly. He resisted and pushed Alexis back till they reached the wall. He looked down his nose at her with his dark eyes. Alexis glowered back.

"Don't touch me," she hissed. Finally, she allowed her inner self to take over. She took hold of his wrists and squeezed, her hands clamping down like vices. She wrenched his hands off of her and thrust him forward. He stumbled and fell onto his back.

"Next time you try and corner a girl in an alleyway, make sure she's weak." She gripped his collar and lifted him off of the ground. Gregori's eyes widened with surprise under his black bangs. She set him on his feet.

"I thought I recognised your voice Pasha. Long time no see," she said as she sauntered over to a boy to the left. He smiled weakly and stroked his arm. She smirked at him and gestured to his arm. "Still hurts?"

"Yes." His eyes widened warningly, but Alexis was well prepared, spinning around, she knocked her fist into Gregori's jaw. He staggered back, but lunged at her again. She ducked and swung an uppercut at him. Her eyes gleamed. He growled and spat at her. Alexis wiped the spittle off of her face. She gave him the finger as she jumped up onto a huge dustbin.

"Get her!" yelled Gregori.

The men all ran at her, all but Pasha who stood back.

Alexis pulled out her switchblade, slashing and cutting at anyone who came close to her. She was grabbed from behind. Twisting around, she kneed the guy holding her. He crumpled. Alexis shoved one of them into three others, they all toppled over like dominos. Her head was throbbing, but she ignored it. Her heart pumped faster as she ducked and swerved, punched and kicked. Finally, she stood back to survey her work. All the men, excluding Pasha lay slumped on the ground. Some cradling bleeding arms and wrists, while others sported bruised lips and broken noses. Alexis smiled. Boy was she content. She walked away, leaving the groaning men behind her, at the turning, she spun back on her heal and smiled sweetly down at Gregori. She knew who they were and to get them thinking next time they wanted to corner a girl, she said: "Tell Mikhail that his men are loosing their touch. Don't look at me like that…we used to be neighbours. He'll remember me. Tell him that Alexis says hi and that we should meet up sometime." She frowned down at the men, "on one condition, that you sissies don't join us." She spun around leaving the men fuming and yelling obscenities after her.

'Had a nice good morning?' asked a disgruntled Pantera.

'Yep.'

'Well I hope you know what you're going to do when you see the boys.'

'I know exactly what I'm going to do.'

'Pray tell what would that be?'

'…'

'You don't know do you.'

'It'll come on the spur of the moment,' she muttered. She wasn't sure how to explain this, but she'll get out of it. Looking down at herself, she realised that she had some blood spattered on her trench coat. She took out a packet of tissues from her pocket and wiped it off of the leather, to her dismay, the coat had taken on a brownish colour from where the blood had spattered her. She knew the boys' quick eyes would easily find it, she prayed they wouldn't examine her too closely.

An ear splitting, screech seemed to come out of one of Alexis's pockets. She froze, what was that insistent sound. The high pitch ringing was killing her ears, and her head seemed to throb faster. She pocked her finger into her pocket, withdrawing it quickly. She opened it, just enough to look inside it. Nestled between a comb and a bundle of notes, was a mobile. She frowned, since when had she had a mobile? She gingerly picked it up and looked at the coloured screen. It was black with white and orange strips across its sides. Recognising whose it was, she let out a string of obscene words.

'Tala!'

'My name is Pantera, not Tala.'

'I meant that this is his phone. I guess he's trying to keep an eye on me.'

'Seems like an ear, not an eye to me…Well pick it up.'

Alexis looked again at the screen; on it there was a picture of a frowning Bryan.

'The green button Alexis.'

She pressed it, "WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU? DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED WE'VE BEEN?" came Tala's voice. "I'VE CALLED THIS NUMBER LIKE 20 TIMES LAST NIGHT AND TWICE THIS MORNING!"

Alexis drew back from the phone. "I didn't think you'd be that worried about my welfare," she said a hint of exasperation in her voice.

"I'M NOT WORRIED ABOUT YOU, I'M WORRIED ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF TRAINING MY TEAM IS HAVING TO MISS. IF YOU WANT TO BE ON THE TEAM THEN YOU MIGHT AS WELL TURN UP WHEN I, THE CAPTAIN, CALL YOU!"

Alexis glared at the phone in her hand. Then a second voice came from the speaker, "Will You Get Your Ass Round Here! Ivan Tried To Poison Us This Morning! Not Give Us Breakfast!"

"OI!" came Ivan's reply to Bryan.

"Ivan attempted to make breakfast," explained Tala in a calm voice, as if he hadn't just been screaming his lungs out at her. "Spencer cut his hand on some glass last night, and no one else can cook a proper breakfast." Alexis walked on towards the park where she had left her clothes.

"Give me the phone," came Spencer's voice. She heard a static sound as the phone was passed from hand to hand. "Where have you been?" asked Spencer simply.

"Out."

"I know that much, but where?"

"With a friend," Alexis felt bad. Spencer was the one who always seemed to worry about the team.

"Who?"

"Someone I used to know."

"YOUR EX GIRLFRIEND?" came Bryan's voice from the background.

"No. It was a guy."

"YOU'RE GAY?"

"No," she said again. Her head was killing her; her eyes seemed hot and sore. And to top it all up Bryan had to shout down the phone. She heard a smacking sound, and was sure that either Spencer or Tala had hit Bryan on the head.

"Be back soon," came Spencer's voice again.

"Yeah, I'm already half way home."

"Good. Bye," was all he said before he shut the phone.

"Bye."

-: -: -: -: -

Alexis walked into the park, her eyes scanning the spaces between the trees. She had enough experience to know that bad things lurked behind trees and large rocks. Following her own tracks and smell, she made her way to the marked tree.

'Is there anyone around Pantera?'

'…'

'Pantera?'

'…'

'PANTERA?' thought Alexis as she pulled out her beyblade. She glowered down at the empty bitchip. 'How the fuck does he do that? Everyone else's bitbeast stays in his or her bitchip. But no, mine has to wander around all over the place.' She rubbed her thumb across the design for the background of the bitchip, yin and yang, and looked at the roots of the tree she stood in front of. Stuffing Pantera in her pocket, she began stripping down until she reached her underwear.

"Crack!"

:-)

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Sorry about that…ANYWAY!

If anyone sends me messages, I'm sorry I can't read them as my email account is dead so I have no way to being alerted about anything. If you have any suggestions for the story, you could write it in a review. I'm dying for some funny parts. I don't want it all to be serious. I'd appreciate any comments you have. I'm also deciding on whether or not I should start an Avatar: The last airbender fanfic. If you would like me to write one, I'd really appreciate some encouragement. Oh and something else I might have to change a few characters and make them slightly OOC so that it fits. I will be writing about Kai and the bladebreakers, it's just that I'm never able to write about a whole load of characters. I mean I just made my life worse by adding in a whole group of new people. BUT, it'll be one of the best stories ever! –I hope-

Yours truly,

XxxMidNighT