Anika: eaglenation is too lazy to do the disclaimer, so she doesn't own Beyblade, only the plot and her own characters as well as their beys.

The stadium is filled with smoke. I cough and try to lift myself from the ground, only to glance down as pain strikes my arms. Both of my forearms are peppered with tiny nicks from where they were hit by the shattered parts of glass. It doesn't hurt that much, so I stand up, my legs throbbing too.

My first thought is Robbie. Though I don't even know the kid that well, he feels like my little brother and I immediately feel protective towards him. I run forward, though I can barely see anything through the smoke.

The other bladers have stopped their battles. The champion was either the bey that survived the explosion, or both of the competitors beys have been knocked out of the stadium by the blast.

I run forward, towards where I remember Robbie's stadium to be. I can't see anything but bladers and spectators lying unconscious on the ground.
"Robbie!" I scream. "Robbie! Answer me!"
Silence. My heart begins to beat faster. "Robbie! Robertus Storm!"
Still no answer. I stumble forward until I find the side of the stadium, which has been cracked into multiple pieces. The explosion came from the stadium, I'm sure of it. I step forward into the stadium, carefully sliding to the bottom. I then stand up and glance around frantically. "Robbie?" I call again. I step forward, and feel something crunch under my foot. I lift my shoe to find the smoldering remains of a beyblade. I panic and lean down, shifting through the pieces with trembling fingers until I find the facebolt.

It's a Saggitario facebolt.
I sigh in relief. It isn't Delphinus. There's a chance Robbie's bey is still intact.

I back up carefully, surveying the shattered stadium. I take another step backwards and suddenly bump into something hard. Startled, I tumble backwards, only to be caught by a pair of strong arms. I fling out a foot and kick whoever it is that's holding me. Someone hisses, and I lash out again, but this time the arms pick me up and spin me around. I thrash until I see who it is.

Tsubasa stands behind me, his arms around mine. He looks worse than me, cuts from glass and shrapnel not only on his arms but on his face and neck. Even with that, he is beautiful to me.

"Anika." He says.

I smile sheepishly, my heart slowing to a normal rate. "Oh." I sigh. "Sorry."

Tsubasa rubs his thigh. "Ugh, that hurt."

"Try to let me know it was you, next time." I say. "I'm sorry, anyway. I'm looking for Robbie. I found his opponents beyblade, but it's in smithereens…."

Tsubasa has already turned away from me and is surveying the carnage with careful calculation. I forgot that he is a WBBA agent. Not only that, but he's also used to working on his own, so he has shut me out for now.

To my surprise, he turns back to me. "Where's his opponents bey?" He asks quietly. He's retreated deep into his loner shell again, I can tell. Until this is solved, I have a feeling I won't be seeing much of the boy I love, so I may as well humour him.

I turn my back on him and retrace my steps down the stadium until I find the broken beyblade shards again. "Here."

He squats down beside me, tucking his long legs under his body. Then he gently picks up a piece of broken metal. "Still warm." He muses.

"What?"

"Look. Does this seem familiar to you in any way?" He picks up the facebolt.

"It's a Saggitario facebolt." I say.

Tsubasa picks up a piece of the broken fusion wheel. "An Evil Saggitario, to be precise. Where have we seen this before?"

I search my mind, but I can't remember. "I don't know." I shake my head.

"Think." He stands up and looks at me. Or rather into me, into my eyes. He puts his hands around my head, closing my ears, and blocks out the sounds of the world. I can only see his mouth form the words 'think hard'.

I close my eyes. It does seem familiar, but I can't possibly remember. I've never battled anyone with an Evil Saggitario before, but I'm sure I've seen someone battle a blader with one. But who? It must have been a few days ago, but it seems like a lifetime ago.

My eyes snap open. "Maddie!" I exclaim.

Tsubasa nods, removing his hands from around my ears and putting them on my shoulders. "Your friend Maddie battled a man with an Evil Saggitario in the qualifiers. There's already a connection. Was there anything else similar between them?"

I dig deep in my memory. "They both have red arm bands. But…..Ty wears a red arm band, but we've never seen it because he only wears it at huge tournaments. When he battles seriously! Bu that….that must be purely a coincidence!"

Tsubasa shakes his head. "Not only that, all three of them lost their temper much too swiftly and all three of them harmed or attempted to harm someone in the process. There's only one thing…..the two men with the Saggitarios had red beyspirits and Ty's Crane is…"

"Orange. NO. Oh no!" I shake my head quickly. "Do you think Ty attacked Maddie? I mean, I saw an orange shape slip into the trees after she was attacked, but…."

"It's too soon to jump to any conclusions, but at least we have found a few connections. Now the question is, why? Why do they share these similarities?"

"Robbie might know."

"Exactly." Tsubasa smiles, an excited light dancing in his eyes. "Come on. We must find Robbie now."

Around us, people are starting to stir and sirens howl in the distance. Soon, we'll have help, but for some reason, I prefer it this way. Just me and Tsubasa against the rest of the world.
Of course I am still worried about where Maddie and André are. I haven't seen them yet, which means that they are either buried under the rubble or…..I don't want to think of any other possibilities.

Suddenly, something glints in my peripheral vision. "Look!" I yell, running towards the shining piece of metal buried under the dust. I brush the dust and shrapnel away with my hand and unearth Grand Delphinus, Robbie's bey. It's badly cracked up, but still intact. That means Robbie should be somewhere close. I tuck Delphinus into my pocket and keep looking.

We finally find him, lying half-unconscious on the ground. He looks unhurt, but his skin is also peppered with scratches from the glass. I can't imagine how much it must hurt for a nine-year-old.

Tsubasa picks him up gently, as if he weighs nothing. Robbie groans and opens his eyes, which immediately fill with tears.

"Robbie….." I whisper.

"I want to sleep…." He cries quietly.

"You'll be okay. You got hit by the brunt of the blast. You're just a little scratched up." Tsubasa assures him.

"Can you tell us what happened?" I ask gently.

"Yeah…"Robbie grimaces and turns his head towards me. "He….he lost control of his temper and…. and exploded. His beyblade…..it just….detonated. Where's Delphinus?"

I smile. "I have it, don't worry." I then turn to Tsubasa. "So, it looks like we have another case of short temper."

He nods. "There's something more…..those red bands signify their belonging to some kind of…..group? Organization? Someone has to be responsible for their uncontrolled rage."

I laugh bitterly. "Yeah, but the question is: who?"

"Anika!" Maddie exclaims, leaping into my arms. I hiss as she pushes the glass in my arms deeper into my flesh. "Oh gosh, I thought you were buried under the rubble!"

I smile. "Maddie, I'm fine. Now could you please stop crushing me?"

"Nope!" She hugs me tighter until she sees my arms. "Oh, oops." She smiles apologetically. "There's three ambulances, and one of them is helping those with minor injuries."

"That doesn't look very minor….." André says from behind Maddie. He sounds concerned.

I wave him away. "I'm fine, believe me. Tsubasa has got it worse, and Robbie's in half-shock."

"Well, duh. Anyway, André, how did your battle go?" Maddie asks André.

"I lost. It wasn't very fair, but the blast knocked both Crane and Hydra out of the stadium. Hydra hit the ground first, so that means I lose."

"Shit." I mutter. "Where is Ty?"

"He's been taken to the hospital. He got buried under the rubble."

I'm suddenly afraid for Ty. He may be an overconfident and short-tempered idiot, but he's still my team-mate. "Will he be okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. Just knocked out."

"Phew." I sigh. "I'm going to see how Robbie's doing. Tsubasa took him to the ambulance…"

"You should go get the glass taken out of your arms." André suggests.

"I can do it mysel-ow! Never mind, I can't."

And that is how I end up in an ambulance for the first time in my life. The nurse tutts and purses her lips every time I hiss or pull away while she takes glass piece after glass piece out of my arms. It hurts a bit, but my adrenaline is just beginning to fade, so I only begin to truly feel it by the end.

"Thanks." I say, once my arms are bandaged and the nurse tells me I'm dismissed. I head out of the ambulance, only to bump into the shadowed form of Secret. He's had to remove his half-mask, and his face is surprisingly handsome. His hair is now slightly unruly and it's turning white along with gold and blue.

He follows my gaze to his hair and runs a hand through it, grinning. "Yeah, my hair turns white when I'm not excited or battling."

"Oh-kay?" It's more a question than an agreement.

"Yeah, it's usually white. It either turns gold when I'm excited or blue when I'm stressed. So when I battle, it turns both. White is default" He grins, as if that makes more sense.

"Why are you here, anyway?" I ask.

He shows me the side of his face, which is all stitched up. "Yeah, I got caught before I got away. I sensed something was about to happen."

"How?"

"I'm a WBBA agent. I'm trained. By the way, I'm Gryfin Aquilon."He says suddenly. "But I like to go by Secret. It makes me feel more…" He strikes a pose, "Fabulous."

"Mhm." I suddenly see Tsubasa leaving an ambulance, which is driving away. His arms are bandaged and he has stitches on his neck.
I wave him over.

"Who's this?" Tsubasa asks skeptically. "Isn't this the guy who beat you?"

"No…..yeah." I sigh. "He won, I lost. Secret, Tsubasa. Tsubasa, Secret." I present them to each other.

Tsubasa holds out his hand, and they shake. I turn to Tsubasa. "How's Robbie doing?"

Tsubasa shaked his head. "Banged up but okay. They're going to keep him at the hospital overnight, just to be sure.

I sigh in relief. "Great."

Secret grins. "Well, there ain't going to be a tournament for a while. They have a LOT of fixing to do."

I nod. "Yeah. So, the question is: what now?"

"I think we should try to unravel this mystery." Tsubasa says. "Secret, we could use your help, since you're an agent too."

Secret nods. "I'm in. So, where do we start?"

"Okay. All we know thus far is that these people with short tempers are connected. They all wear red armbands, all tend to explode," He coughs, "Literally, and they like to attack people. There must be something behind all this, an organization of sorts. I think the best place to start is a place we know: Anika, do you think that friend of yours will be willing to answer some questions?"

I laugh, "Ty? No way!"

"Well, you'll have to try. He trusts you, from what I see. So, you have to question him; Where he got his bey, how often he loses his temper, any abrupt feelings, where he got that red armband. If he really doesn't answer, we'll have to do it by force. I'll talk to Maddie and find out if she saw anything before she got attacked. Secret, I want you to go to any local tournaments and look for more people with red armbands. Is it a plan?"

We both nod. "It's a plan."