"I hope we're all ready." Gingka yawned as he walked out of the cavern, finding everyone else awake and talking softly amongst themselves.
"We were just talking about that." Benkei said. "We still need to find the rest of the Legendary Beys, somehow."
"And without Mao finding us first." Ryuga said.
"So, another one of these race against time things." Gingka said, reaching up and patting the neck of Kaminari as the winged horse came up next to him.
"Now that we have mostly recovered and have more help, it will not be as hard as before." Kaminari said. "We simply must gather the others, correct? I know where a few of them are either hiding or locked up. Mao wanted to keep us mostly separate."
"So that we could not mount an assault against him that he knows he would lose." Tatsuhime said. "Because he knows he is weaker than we are. I must admit that he is smart."
Gingka nodded in agreement. "I think we can all agree that. But he's missing something we've all got." Gingka spoke up, leaning against the wall.
"And that is?" Ryuga raised an eyebrow.
"Quite simply, each other." Raiden yawned as he slipped past his sister, both Pegasi transforming to human form.
"Okay, now I can really see the twin thing." Zero said, laughing at the two humanoids with their wild light blue hair and glowing blue eyes.
"You couldn't before when, oh, I don't know, we couldn't tell the two apart?!" Ren exclaimed.
"Well, yeah, I could, but horses are similar in the first place, so…" Zero scratched the back of his head awkwardly and chuckled.
"So are people." Kite pointed out.
Gingka chuckled and glanced between the two." Nah. They're much more different than they look. And I should know, I've been connected to both of them… And would you two QUIT having a mental argument?! I can hear you too you know!" He exclaimed as he turned to look at the two behind him.
Kaminari and Raiden grinned sheepishly, Raiden scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
"I… Forgot about that…" The male admitted.
Kaminari rolled her eyes and smacked Raiden's head with one wing. "Idiots."
"But there's only one of me." Raiden said confusedly, while Gingka just glared at his bey.
"As Gingka has already figured out, I was referring to both of you." Kaminari chuckled.
"What did I even do?!" Gingka exclaimed.
"At this precise moment, nothing. You've always been an idiot." Kaminari stated bluntly.
Gingka animefell. "Not nice!" He whined.
Zero and the others laughed at the redhead, while Tatsuhime and Ryuga merely allowed faint smirks of amusement to cross their faces.
"So what is the plan?" Bull piped up from his position atop one of Benkei's shoulders.
Gingka paused and stared at the tiny child. "... No way." He looked amused.
Benkei glared at him. "Shut up. I know what you're thinking and hey, Bull's cuter than any of your beys!"
Tatsuhime promptly facepalmed. "Can we PLEASE stay on topic and get to the matter at hand?" She snarled, catching everyone's attention once more.
"Right. Sorry." Gingka said, although a smirk from him and sweatdropping from Kaminari and Raiden proved that the redhead had indeed failed to drop the topic of Bull's small size.
"We should avoid completely splitting up like we did before." Tatsuhime said. "For Raiden and Gingka, that proved to be near-disastrous."
"I can agree with that idea." Gingka grumbled. "Getting choked and squeezed half to death is NOT something that was on my bucket list."
"Blader-and-bey pairs are more powerful than bladers or beys alone." Kaminari said. "And, ideally, battling can work here much the same way as it does on Earth, the way the bladers are used to it working. The difference is, they can directly see our actual movements."
"Cool." Zero spoke up.
"That could potentially be a problem, but at the same time, it could turn out to be enormously to our advantage." Raiden said.
"The advantage Mao had over us when he first broke out is that he absorbed his blader seven years ago just before he was defeated." Katsutoshi said. "It is surprising how differently the statistics work out when a blader is involved in the process of a battle."
Gingka and the other bladers raised an eyebrow at the lion at this, wondering if they were really that essential for a victory.
"That is why I sent Raiden to get them." Kaminari said. "Because of that very fact."
"Wow. So even in your world, having the blader commanding makes a big difference." Zero said.
"Well, that makes me feel actually important in this whole deal other than just rescuing and gathering you guys." Benkei laughed.
"I know, right?" Gingka chuckled. "Especially after I technically failed to do so."
"That depends on your point of view." Thorgisl said, "Technically, you and Raiden did set off the chain reaction that allowed Kaminari, and then you, to be freed. You unchained me, and Dougal did not notice that I was free. Once you guys were taken away, I was able to escape my cell by breaking the door down, and I then freed Katsutoshi and Orion, With the three of us out of our places, the amount of the lock that was on Zeus's Barrier was released, and we were able to easily get Kaminari out of it before her bonds with you and her brother allowed her to track down precisely where you two were being held. The rest of it was just intimidating Karayan and Nereza away from you and then releasing you and getting you back here."
"Huh." Gingka muttered, looking thoughtful.
Kaminari put a hand on her blader's shoulder. "He is not wrong. Although part of the reason that getting me out of Zeus's Barrier was so easy for Thorgisl and Katsutoshi to get me out of was because I did hear your shout for help even though I was unconscious."
"So he woke you up then." Raiden said.
"Precisely." Kaminari said. "And now it is time for the true fight to begin. We have to find the others."
"Where do we get started then?" Ren asked, one hand petting the fiery head and feathers of the phoenix that was perched atop a rock next to her.
"We currently have five of the Legendary Beys here. We must locate and bring back the five Solar System beys." Tatsuhime said.
"The five who now?" Shinobu raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Anubis, bey of Mercury, Quetzalcoatl, bey of Venus, Variares, bey of Mars, Jupiter, bey of, well, Jupiter, and Kronos, bey of Saturn." Gingka explained quickly.
"I think Gingka is the only one in the room, aside from Tatsuhime, who knew all of that information." Benkei laughed awkwardly. "I don't have that memorized nearly that well."
Gingka chuckled. "You remember it when you're part of the group. Although, that was obviously their Earth names, not the ones they go by here."
"Anubis, Quetzalcoatl, and Jupiter go by the same names." Katsutoshi spoke up. "But Variares's name is simply Ares, and Kronos is Shinigami."
"Fitting." Gingka commented. "Now we know what names to ask about."
"The difficult part will be tracking them down." Raiden said. "Especially since we don't exactly know where they were beforehand, do we?"
"We can start at their homelands. There will be one difficulty though." Tatsuhime said. "With all five of them."
"And what is that?" Benkei asked.
"All five of them are considered as gods in various mythologies on Earth." Kaminari said. "You have likely already noticed that beys of the same beast species tend to stick together in our clans. This island belongs to the dragons. Ifrit and Salamander were on the island where all of the beys who are what humans would call amphibians live. Raiden and I are from the island where all part-or-fully horse creatures are."
"So you're saying that, since all five of them are gods to some of our civilisations, they all have the same homeland. How is that a difficulty?" Kite asked, raising an eyebrow.
Katsutoshi sighed. "Because of the one other bey who we are dealing with who is also considered as a god that some have worshipped. Who has the same homeland. And will be keeping an eye out on it."
Gingka and Benkei's eyes widened in realization as they glanced at each other in alarm, gulping nervously.
"For that exact fact that you two have just realized," Tatsuhime began, "finding the remaining half of our group will be exceedingly difficult and dangerous."
"Anyone mind letting us into the loop here?" Ren asked.
"The other bey they are talking about is known as the 'God of Destruction.'" Gingka said. "Nemesis. They're saying that Nemesis has the same homeland as the beys we need to find. And he will know that and might expect us to come there looking."
"So by going there, we could be walking into another trap." Raiden said. "But this one would be one that would be near impossible to escape should we get caught."
"Mao may be powerful, but he is still limited." Kaminari said. "If we can out-strategize him, we can accomplish our goal."
"Do you guys have any sort of communication system that can be used for us to talk among our group? Because that'd be super helpful right now." Benkei said.
"If we did we would have been organized much more quickly and you would likely have not even known that this threat had happened." Tatsuhime said.
"Maybe you should get one set up." Gingka chuckled. "Since there's an obvious need for it."
"Perhaps so. But right now we do not have the time to develop and implement such a system." Tatsuhime growled.
"Well obviously. Mao is more important at the moment." Gingka said. "But food for thought once we've defeated him."
Kaminari nodded. "Perhaps you can stay and help us with that afterwards."
"We'll see." Gingka agreed. "But for now, what is the plan?"
Tatsuhime went into another room and came back with a large, rolled-up map. She, with a bit of help from Ryuga, unrolled it and laid it out on a large slab of rock in the center of the room.
"We are here." She stated, pointing to an island marked by a dragon. "The central city, where Kaminari and the others just escaped from, is here." She pointed to the center of the map and a large island. "The island of the gods and goddesses of Earth is all the way over here. It is on the opposite side of our planet."
"Too far for a single straight shot without Nemesis seeing us, since the most direct route seems to be right through that city." Gingka frowned.
"Therefore we cannot use the fastest way." Tatsuhime nodded.
"So we go around the city or around the other side of the planet then." Raiden said. "Not too much of a problem."
"Easy for you to say." Ifrit sweatdropped. "You can fly. Fast. Some of us don't have that ability."
"You'd crash into even more things if you could fly." Salamander snorted.
Ifrit glared. "Would not!" She protested.
"Would too." Salamander insisted, a smug smirk on her face as she spoke.
"Girls. Not the time." Zero and Shinobu said simulteneously, sweatdropping at their beys, who huffed and crossed their arms, looking away from each other pointedly.
"So those of us who can fly should carry as many of those who cannot as we can."
"Some of us who can't fly have enough speed to be able to get across the water under our own power." Thorgisl spoke up. "I can gallop fast enough to cross the water if I don't stop. But only in beast form. I can carry a few people that way."
\"As can I." Katsutoshi grumbled, clearly not pleased with the prospect of having to carry people, although he knew that he would have to do what needed to be done.
"I can carry at least one person." Raiden said. "Give me more time and I'll be able to carry more. My strength is returning at a pretty good pace."
"We should avoid staying together in one large group until we have gathered everyone." Kaminari said. "We are not at full strength without the others and if Mao is going to capture someone, it is best that he is unable to catch all of us at once. That would mean victory for him easily."
"So what groups do we go in then?" Benkei asked, shifting his grip on Bull's legs as the young boy sat on the shoulders of his blader.
"We have five beys to find." Ryuga said. "Each group should look for one."
"You're joining in?" Gingka raised an eyebrow at the dragon blader.
Ryuga huffed and crossed his arms, looking away. "Well I'm not going to sit out of the fight. I owe Mao a beating for last time. Plus, if Tatsuhime is going to help then I will too."
Gingka chuckled at this. "Well then, welcome aboard. We're gonna need your help anyway."
"We had best decide what groups to split into." Kaminari said. "Obviously beys and bladers should stick together. I think it would be a good idea for the Legendary Beys who are here to lead the groups."
"I agree." Tatsuhime said. "We know our fellow Legends best and where to find them. The only question remaining is which of the others should go with whom."
"I will find Quetzalcoatl." Katsutoshi said. "Her blader considers mine a good friend, even though he is rather annoyed by the little idiot at times."
"Sounds like Kyoya." Gingka laughed. "Benkei, you wanna go with him?"
"Bu-bu-bull! Of course I do!" Benkei exclaimed, stamping his foot. Bull just sweatdropped at his blader's excitement, an amused smile on his face.
"That settles one group then." Gingka nodded, looking thoughtful. "Thorgisl, who do you want to go after?"
"I will find Jupiter." Thorgisl said. "I know him best of the group."
"Alright, well who wants to go with him then?" Gingka turned to the group of younger bladers.
"Salamander and I will go." Shinobu said, stepping over to Thorgisl along with his bey.
"Tatsuhime and I will look for Ares. One left-rotation bey to another." Ryuga said. "And I suppose we'll be required to take one of you brats along. Which of you can fly, so that we do not have to carry anyone?"
Ren shyly raised her hand. "I think only Phoenix can fly out of our group…" She said, a sigh of relief coming from the other three who still had yet to be grouped with anyone.
"Once Orion returns from looking outside to make sure the coast it clear, he can take the Unbaras and their beys and find Shinigami." Kaminari said. "Which would leave myself, Gingka, Raiden, Zero, and Ifrit to go find Anubis."
"Sounds good to me." Gingka said. "It's decided then."
"We had best get going. It's quiet outside at the moment but I do not know for how long." Another voice said, as Orion stepped inside. "I heard what my assignment is. We had better go now."
"Agreed. The sooner we take care of this threat the better." Gingka said, rubbing his forehead. "Because once it's over, we can all rest easy."
"Off we go then. Mount up." Kaminari said, as all of the beys transformed into their beast forms.
"Zero, hop on." Gingka said, stepping around to the side of the winged mare.
"How?!" Zero exclaimed, looking up at Kaminari's back and wondering how he was going to manage to get up without any sort of stirrup.
Gingka paused, shrugged, then placed his hands on the horse's back and simply leapt up, swinging one leg over effortlessly.
"... You made that look way too easy." Zero said, sweatdropping.
Gingka chuckled and held out a hand to help the younger up. "Believe it or not, I sorta do this all the time. Well, in dreams. Apparently it does work the same way here."
"Apparently." Zero grumbled, watching Ifrit as the armored warrior mounted Raiden.
"Shall we take off then?" Gingka asked, noting that everyone else was mounted and waiting.
"What are you waiting for, a signal?" Ryuga asked as he patted the scaly head of the dragon whose back he was seated on.
Gingka chuckled and intertwined his fingers with Kaminari's wild mane. "Better hold on tightly, Zero. We can't have you falling off because of the speed at which we're about to travel."
Kaminari tossed her head and snorted, stamping a foot as she unfolded her wings. "Ready at your command, Gingka." She said softly.
"Well then… To start us off our way…" Gingka gained an amused grin on his face. "Three. Two. One… Let it rip!"