I'm alive!

My deepest apologies especially to Luxraylover, to whom I said that this chapter would be up about a week ago. On the plus side, I have now finished my first year of university and so have far too much time on my hands...but also far too many ideas. So this is a nice long chapter to make up for the fact that I've left you all hanging!

Additional disclaimer for this chapter – I don't own the originals of any of the songs parodied in this chapter (a list of the originals is at the bottom for those who don't recognise them due to the rather enthusiastic changing of the words).

Chapter 14 – Without Accompaniment

In which songs are butchered by Max (and others), and there are a few new faces.

It was mid-morning, and it was a Wednesday, and it was quiet in the shop. That meant only one thing in Max's house – time for him and Ray to put on their shop-assistants aprons and start sorting out the storeroom. Today was extra special, as it was the first time that Kenta and Benkei had been allowed to join. The shop really didn't need four people running it, but Kenta and Benkei had asked if there was something they could do to help, and frankly Mr Tate hadn't had the heart to tell them that Max and Ray were all the help he needed, thank you.

"Big purple turtles and cinnamon strudel

Beyblades and launchers and mustard with noodles

Things that make Dad smile, and birdies that sing

These are a few of my favourite things!"

"Max, what on earth are you doing to that poor song!" Ray exclaimed, coming out of the store room with a box of attack rings in his arms. "Big purple turtles indeed."

"Oh, come on, Ray, it's just a bit of fun," Max protested. "You have a go."

"You really think I'm going to do something as silly as that?" Ray arched an eyebrow and managed to both look and sound exactly like Kai for about three seconds before cracking up laughing and dumping the box down on the counter. "What song should I do?"

"I dunno, anything you can make up new words to."

"The Beyblades on the bus go spin, spin, spin..." Ray began, but Max had already started shaking his head, laughing.

"Not when Hilary's on there!" he crowed. "Then they just go bounce, bounce, bounce and everyone else on the bus hides under their seats!"

"True," Ray grinned, before noticing the expressions on the faces of the other two helpers. "Don't worry, it's a very long story."

"Right," Kenta said carefully, scrambling up onto the counter to dig around in the box. "Hey, cool! I found a black one!"

"Really?" Ray leaned over to see. "Ooh, I've never seen one of those before, Max. Are they specials or something?"

"They might be old stock," Max said. "Where was the box?"

"Just on the end of one of the piles."

The blonde-haired boy shrugged. "Must just be an old batch. When everyone was mad about the Zeus blade we sold a lot of black attack rings, but they stopped selling a little while ago. Shame, really, as they're really strong. Dad used to say it was because of the colour, but I figured they were just made of a higher grade plastic. Then the metal ones appeared, and after that no-one wanted the plastic ones any more."

"Why are you selling them then?" Benkei asked.

"Mostly as collectibles," Max admitted. "There's some of the newer pieces out back that we just got delivered the other day which we'll start selling as soon as we work out what everything is."

Kenta and Benkei grinned at each other. "You've got just the people for the job, then!" Kenta exclaimed. "We're experts! We once won a whole competition because we knew what all the parts were and how to change them over."

Max's expression was more than slightly relieved. "Thank goodness," he sighed. "Dad hates the new stuff because he can't give anyone advice when they come into the shop as he doesn't know anything about them. Maybe you could tell him the stuff you know and then he might be a bit happier."

Kenta and Benkei nodded happily, just as the bell at the front of the shop rang.

"Hey!" called Kenny, poking his head around the door. "Goodness, there's a lot of helpers here today."

"Hi, Kenny!" Kenta called cheerily. "What you looking for... oh, hey Kyouya!"

The green-haired teen stomped in behind his host, looking as if he would rather be anywhere but there, until he took in the sight of box upon box of parts spilled haphazardly across the table. His eyes went very wide.

"You're joking," he breathed. "Exactly how much stuff is there here?" Kenny shrugged.

"Told you we'd be able to find something here," he answered, grinned. "Hey Max, Kyouya and I had this amazing idea – what if we combined the old system we used before the HM blades with Kyouya's blade? From my data, it would make it a hundred and fifty three percent stronger than it is right now. You've still got the parts for them, haven't you?"

"Sure," Max nodded, coming out from behind the counter and going over to the table. "Can you really do that, though? I thought that their system was incompatible with ours."

"So did I," Kenny began. "But then I started running some programs on Leone and there's certainly parts where it can be improved. It shouldn't even take too much remodelling."

Max was rummaging through the pieces scattered across the table. "Ugh, I wish I hadn't just thrown everything into one box when I was tidying up last time," he grumbled as he searched. "What exactly are you looking for, Kenny?"

"Um..." Kenny looked at Kyouya, who shrugged. "Attack rings, I think. Maybe a stronger core would be good too. Oh, and if you've got any, can they be from balance types?"

Ray exchanged a slightly confused look with Kenta, but wandered over to join the little huddle. "Balance types? But isn't Kyouya's Leone a defensive type?"

"Yeah, but trust me, I know what I'm doing." Kenny was grinning, and the other two G-Revolutions members looked a little unsure of what this could mean. However, it didn't stop them from digging into the pile of attack rings, clips, bit-chips and weight discs to find suitable material for this great plan of Kenny's.

It took a lot longer than they expected, mostly because Max had declared that whilst there were so many people and so few customers in the shop, they had to sort out all of the mixed boxes into where they should go. About an hour after they had started, Mr Tate stuck his head around the store-room door to find his son and his son's friends still hunting through the parts. Smiling to himself, he set a tray of drinks and snacks at the other end of the table, which the bladers helped themselves to without ever looking up (except the ever-polite Ray, who absently thanked him as he sorted a pile of engine gears into size-order). The boys could get so involved when it came to blading, Mr Tate thought to himself. It was their love, their life. The walls in the house were thin enough that he could often hear Max talking at night, not to Ray but to Draciel. Their bond was so strong, perhaps even closer than that between Max and his father. But that was the life Max had chosen, and as it was Max's choice he was more than happy to watch his son now helping the next generation to find and keep that same passion.

Kyouya leaned forwards and pulled out a weight ring from the pile. "What would happen if you tried to battle without a weight ring?"

"Easy," Ray told him. "With no weight, you'd go totally off-balance. Any hit from the other blade would send you flying. Why?"

Kyouya frowned. "I was just thinking that if you had a lighter blade, you could go faster."

"True," Kenny said. "But lighter blades can't attack so strongly. That's why good balance types are so hard to find, because there'll always be a slightly tending towards attack or defence, depending on the weight."

This appeared to satisfy Kyouya, who put the weight ring down in the proper pile before picking up another handful to sort through.

"My blade's quite light," Ray said suddenly. "And it's designed to go really, really fast as well as be able to take direct hits from much stronger blades."

Kenny's face lit up. "Oh yeah, I forgot! You fought Crusher with Metal Slash! That was so long ago..."

"Have you heard anything from Crusher recently, Ray?" Max asked, tossing a broken attack ring over his shoulder into the bin without even looking. Obviously Eddie's lessons had paid off.

"Apparently he's taken Monica back to their home city now that she's well enough to not have to go into hospital every week," Ray smiled. "I'm glad she's okay."

"Twinkle, twinkle, little blade

Orange juice and lemonade

Balance types are hard to find

When this song is on my mind..."

"What?" Max spluttered, staring at Kenta, who suddenly flushed brilliant red.

"Oh, sorry," he muttered. "I didn't mean to distract you. Didn't realise I was singing it out loud."

Max shook his head, laughing. "Nah, it's fine. I'll never be able to think of that song in the same way, though."

"Sorry."

However, it seemed that someone else had overheard Kenta's impromptu musical complaint. From the office at the side of the shop, a deeper voice called out in the age-old rhythm:

"We will, we will blade you!

We will, we will blade you!"

"DAD!" Max yelled, spinning round. "Stop it! You're embarrassing me!"

Mr Tate poked his head out of the office, grinning at his furiously blushing son who was attempting to sink into the table as the other five fell about laughing. He was about to say something when the bell at the front of the shop rang again. Immediately Max was business-like and composed – at least, until he saw the visitor.

"Tala!"

The captain of the former Blitzkrieg Boys was even taller than Max remembered, but was still just as vivid. It was as if the room wasn't quite big enough for the sheer presence of the Russian red-head, who strode in as if he owned the place. "Where is Kai?"

Max blinked, momentarily flustered, but it was Ray who answered, having come at Max's shout.

"Isn't he at his house?" he asked as the others clustered around to see the new arrival.

"If he was, would I be here?" Tala snapped. "I went by his house but no-one answered."

"He'll be out with Tsubasa, then," Kenta suggested, drawing Tala's attention to him for the first time. The Russian flicked his eyes up and down Kenta's small frame and raised one eyebrow.

"You're Kenta, right? Which would make you Kyouya - " he pointed "- and Benkei."

Everyone stared at Tala, wide-eyed. "That's... impressive," Ray managed at last. "Who taught you to mind-read?"

Tala gave him the most condescending look possible, though he didn't roll his eyes, unusually. "I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on everyone for the WBBA," he said. "So I need to find Kai."

"Not the BBA?" Max queried.

"WBBA. I'm one of their agents." He pulled a wallet out of his pocket, flicking it open to show them a card. "At the moment my job is making sure all the WBBA bladers are happy here."

"Cool," Kenta grinned. "Yeah, we're happy here! It's great fun getting to live with these guys, they all know so much about blading!"

"If you think that they know a lot, you are in a very sorry state," Tala informed him acidly, but the words missed the typical smirk for some reason, so maybe he didn't quite mean it this time. "But that is beside the point. I'm only here for three days, and I need to find Kai."

Ray shrugged helplessly. "You know Kai; do you really think he'd start telling us where he went just because he's a year older? We didn't even know he'd joined the WBBA until these guys arrived."

Tala rolled his eyes. "If you see him, tell him that I need to talk to him about the Russian team. They really needs a pick up, if he feels like going back to training recruits instead of playing secret agent all over the world."

"The Russian team isn't the Blitzkrieg Boys?" Kenny asked. "But if you're part of the WBBA..."

"I'm too old," Tala said, rather quieter than he had been speaking previously, and suddenly they saw it. He was as fierce and abrasive as ever – this was Tala after all – but some of the fire had been missing.

Or rather, the ice.

"Tala..." said Ray slowly. "Tala, why isn't Wolborg with you?"

Tala actually flinched.

"Wolborg's gone."

"Gone?" echoed six voices around the room.

"When?" Max asked, face pale.

"Two months ago. Worst nineteenth birthday present ever."

Nineteen.

It was as if the temperature in the room had suddenly dropped. "N-nineteen?" Ray stammered.

"Ever wondered why there's so few adult bladers?" Tala said quietly. "The bit-beasts won't communicate with anyone over the age of eighteen." He snorted suddenly, though his eyes were strange and sad. "Except Hiro. He found one of those synthetic beasts locked away in a rock, and the poor thing was so confused it thought he was younger than he was. But their connection is nothing like mine and Wolborg's was."

Ray, at seventeen, felt his heart pounding. Was that why he had been chosen as Driger's bearer so young? Because if they had waited any longer, he wouldn't have been able to connect so deeply with him? "You can't talk together at all?"

"Wolborg's still there." Tala almost grimaced as he spoke. "But... we can't blade together as we used to. It's like we're just... friends, not soul-mates." There was a long pause before he spoke again. "It hurts."

By now, the room had lost almost all of the cheerful vibrancy it had held when Tala walked in. Kyouya, Ray and Benkei all had their hand clasped around their blades, and the red-head noticed.

"You're okay," he spat at the visitors, suddenly vicious. "The constellations are bound forever, until they're passed on, though you have to be young for them to accept you. But the Sacred Beasts? They're a bit more selective about who they'll talk to."

"Why didn't my research show this?" Kenny asked, horror etched across his face. Tala shrugged.

"It's not been long since the bit-beast wielders started getting old enough for it to be noticeable. And computers aren't very good at measuring the bond between blader and beast."

"I bet Dizzi could have done it," Kenny said miserably, and Kenta hugged him, unable to bear the looks on the faces of the G-Revolutions.

"So..." Max swallowed. "So you have to find Kai to tell him?"

Tala let out a bark of laughter. "He already knows. Nah, I just have to tell him that he and Tsubasa are needed back at headquarters for the next mission."

"You really are like secret agents, then?" Kenta asked, jumping on the opportunity to change the subject. Again, Tala shrugged.

"We get the training and the missions, but there's a decided lack of gadgets and girls," he explained. "I really do have to find him."

"Try the parks, or along the river," Max suggested. "Or just look up and hope. Kai likes high places."

Tala nodded shortly and turned on his heel, but Ray started forward with a half-formed protest and he halted.

"You were being serious about the... the bit-beast thing, weren't you?" he asked, as if desperately hoping this was all some horrible joke. But Tala's closed eyes and set jaw told him before the nod did that his hope was – for want of a better word – hopeless.

Tala closed the door behind him, and for a long moment everyone in the shop just watched him walk away down the street. Kyouya, Kenta and Benkei were very carefully avoiding the eyes of their hosts, who in turn were staring into space, all lost in thoughts that they would never have even conceived in their worst nightmares.

That one day – and not just "some" day, but a specific day, and soon – they would lose a half of their hearts.

It was mid-afternoon, and it was a Wednesday, and it was silent in the shop.

A/N – and a special appearance by the Blitzkrieg Boys (or one of them at least)! You wouldn't believe how many requests I got to put him in... And much as I like the Russian team in Metal Masters, they would get thrashed by the Blitz Boys if they met. I doubt that proud, fierce, loyal Tala would be too impressed that his country was being represented by people who prized intellect over blader-spirit, and cheated to get to where they were. I also doubt that he'd have appreciated that another evil mastermind sort of person was controlling them, because he knows where that leads.

Hope to be back to the normal update schedule now, but like I said, I've got loads of new ideas and a new fandom to write for as well, so expect lots of new stories to be appearing too.

Originals of the songs in this chapter

My Favourite Things (The Sound of Music)

The Wheels on the Bus (traditional children's song)

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (traditional children's song)

We Will Rock You (Queen)