A/N: OK, so this has been a long time coming, and I've been MIA for quite a while now, but I do have a really good reason! A lot of my life has changed since I last updated: I got a job (at last!) that's seen me move country (less excellent, but hey ho), and that was, what, seven months ago now? The adjustment period has been longer than I thought, and finding time to write between everything hasn't been all that easy. And my goal to get this story finished before I hit 30 has lapsed, cos I turned 30 over a month ago (the whole of March turned into party month; even my 21st wasn't that insane), so... yep. Let's just keep going anyway, yeah? Thanks everyone for your patience, and all of your encouragement and kind words (love it!), and here's your reward! Sorry it's so late!
Disclaimer: I should start copying and pasting this spiel, to save me time... No own, no sue, it's just fan fiction!
Twenty-five: A Change Of Play
"So, the Barthez Battalion were victims of Stryker too, huh?" Tyson mulled over the newly-presented information as the team sat together at breakfast, with the notable absence of their captain, of course. Rare was the occasion he actually joined them for a communal meal. Daichi had finally opened up about the events of the day before, though he made sure certain details, like his chasing down Ryall for a fight, were omitted. He'd had about all the rage aimed at him that he could take for this year. He had, however, divulged about his meeting with the Barthez Battalion, and how they had lost their Bit Beasts in a four-on-one battle against Ryall.
"Was that why they didn't make it to the tournament?" Hilary wondered, forking a piece of melon up, putting it into her mouth.
"I guess that's a possibility," Max nodded, taking a sip of his orange juice. "I did expect to see them at least making a try of getting to the World Championships, but to be honest, I hadn't heard from them since the last time we saw them. Kinda figured they fell off the map, after that big mess with Coach Barthez and BEGA..."
"Yeah, but that's ancient history," Ray offered his insight as he polished off the last of his bacon. "The past shouldn't keep casting a shadow over the future. They had every right to fight for a place to be here, and Stryker..." He stopped short of saying that they had robbed them of their chance at the finals, because whatever their motives, Stryker were still skilled Beybladers, powerful in their own right, and they had clearly earned their place at the World Championships. "Well, in the end, Stryker were just the better team. That's the truth. I don't think any of us can really sit here and say they're not a good team. Putting aside their dubious motives, and their agenda, they're formidable." Ray was right: no one could argue that fact. They could even admit, within their darkest selves, that there was a certain level of fear present for the team, but nothing of that would ever be said aloud.
"I would have gone with terrifying, but yeah, I guess formidable works..." Hilary shrugged, this time plucking up a grape to eat. "I wouldn't want to be you guys. You're going to have to face them eventually. And if you lose, you lose everything."
"That's kinda stating the obvious there, Hil," Tyson pointed out, something of irritation lingering in his words. "We all know Stryker will be coming up as the opposition sooner or later, especially when we get to the finals, and all that has to be done now is preparation for that battle. Everything between now and then is training for that moment. They want a piece of us, and we want a piece of them."
"We?" Hilary put very pointed emphasis on this word, as if to remind Tyson of his own limitations in this matter. "Tyson, you are not stepping up to the dish to face any of Stryker! This isn't your fight! This is for them! Not you!"
"Very aware of that, Hilary!" Tyson snapped back, and Kenny recoiled in his seat beside Tyson. They all knew what was coming now: one of Tyson and Hilary's classic spats. And in the middle of the dining hall, no less. Not that location ever gave them cause to consider what they were doing, or at least bring down the volume of their voices. "The wheelchair reminds me on a daily basis, as if I could ever even forget with you reminding me all the time!"
"Are you that upset that you're not the center of attention?!" Hilary barked, causing several other hotel guests in the breakfast hall to look around at the source of this morning's commotion. "Can't you just be happy for your friends?! Do you really have to be Tyson The Great all the time?! Is that the only identity you think you have?!" Max and Ray shared an uncomfortable look, while Daichi let a low groan escape his lips, focusing his attention solely on the now-empty plate in front of him. Maybe if he looked at it long enough, he thought, he would be able to master the art of disappearing, to escape the growing tension at the table.
"Do you have any idea how hard this has been for me?!" Tyson was, of course, rising to the occasion. He'd never been one to step down from a fight, particularly one with the brunette girl in their team. They bounced off of each other in a shockingly spectacular manner. "I've been in near-constant pain, relying on drugs to get through every day, and it's only now that I'm not feeling this reverberating hum of goddamn agony rattling up my spine 24/7! And yeah, it's hard to watch my friends getting to run out and compete in this tournament, especially since it's pretty damn obvious it's gonna be our last shot at retaining the title, and I want to be out there! I love this sport! I love to Beyblade! And it's been the one thing keeping me from totally falling apart since my accident! You haven't the faintest clue how hard this has been for me! And you don't even care, because you're arrogant enough to think this is all just out of jealousy! I'm big enough to admit I'm jealous, of course I am, but this is my sport! I worked so hard, and I don't even get to represent for our last tournament! But I would never let that take away from everything these guys have achieved!" Hilary was stunned. She'd never heard Tyson put together such an articulate argument against her. Usually he'd just resort to verbal diarrhea, and call her names, but now he had actually curated a reasonable statement to counter her accusations.
Not that she was just going to gracefully accept it. Obviously.
"Well, then," Hilary started, her tone clipped as she rose from her seat forcefully, startling Daichi, who was sitting beside her. "Since I'm so ignorant, Tyson, I think it's probably for the best that you find your own way to the hospital for your physiotherapy session! You know, since I have no idea what you're going through, and I don't care, and all that! Don't you guys have some training to do?!" Her ire was now turned on their uncomfortable witnesses, who all squirmed nervously in their seats. "Come on! Don't slack! Australia is next, and we can't afford to lose a single match before the finals back in Bay City! Tyson is perfectly capable of getting to the hospital himself!" And with this, Hilary all but kicked her chair back, turned on her heel, and stormed out of the dining hall, her face like thunder, causing those who were entering to part like the seas on seeing her coming.
"She's right, you know," Kenny spoke up meekly, the silence having stretched on for an almost suffocating amount of time following the girl's dramatic exit. "We do have a lot of work to do today before we move on to Australia. I've got maintenance and repairs to everyone's Beyblades, and I know Kai has a strict training regimen that he wants us to follow..." Tyson let out a low groan, pulling his cap off of his head, carding his fingers through his hair, before slapping the cap back into its normal position. Looking around at his friends, he could see the look of apology in their faces, and he knew he couldn't ask them to take time from their training to help him out, especially with Stryker looming darkly on the horizon. They needed every moment to keep themselves in top form if they were to overcome them.
"Guys, don't sweat it!" Tyson tried to reassure them, to assuage their guilt. "The hospital isn't far from here, so I can make it on my own. And their English is pretty good, so I'll be fine, don't worry!" It was, of course, a bare-faced lie: he'd seen the physiotherapist twice now since arriving in Moscow, and not only was the hospital on the other side of the city, which was two bus rides away, but their English wasn't actually all that good, and communicating with them when he was there with Hilary hadn't been the easiest of things. He was entirely relying on their buying into his deceit.
"If you're sure," Max was still concerned. They'd been to Russia a couple of times before, but he wasn't sure how well Tyson would be able to navigate the city by himself, especially when he was in a wheelchair. "Cos Kai would get on our cases if we slacked off. Maybe one of us could go with you, though!"
"Seriously, it's fine," Tyson took up the mantle of reassurance, once again. "It won't be long, I think I'll even get out of this wheelchair soon, so I can manage. Promise." The bluenette gave them one of his trademark smiles, which worked well to mask his lying, and they all seemed to accept his words at that. It wasn't going to be easy, but Tyson was nothing if not resourceful when needs required him to be. He'd find his way.
"We may all be on opposing teams, but surely this is something we can all agree on!" Lee stated firmly, looking around at the familiar faces before him. It was a captains' meeting, and the captain of every team, bar Stryker, had been asked to attend: Tala, Khalid, Michael, Robert, Santiago, and Kai were all present, though Kai was, of course, an unwilling participant in this little meeting. He'd been dragged by Tala, who had insisted on having 'someone sane' at the meeting with him. It was in that moment that Kai had rued his choice to train in the hotel gym early, alone, as opposed to with his team. Surely, in a group, he wouldn't have been accosted in such a way. "Stryker are a dangerous team, and we need to act together to make sure they don't get what they want!"
"Which is what, exactly?" Michael spoke up, leaning back in the wheel-clad desk chair that was in the room Lee shared with his teammate Gary. Lee had managed to get the team to go out sight-seeing for the day, feigning a headache, to facilitate this unusually secretive meeting of the Beyblade team captains. "So far, they're just scooping everyone up, one by one. They're just after Bit Beasts and power; nothing we haven't dealt with before."
"This is far worse than before!" Lee insisted, his tone betraying his frustration. "These guys are up to something! Something big! And we can't let them get away with it!"
"He's right," Khalid added, and all attention was now on him. "Stryker's main objective is to obtain the sacred ones: the guardians of this world. Dragoon, Dranzer, Draciel, Driger, and Strata Dragoon. That's Stryker's play. A rather unimaginative way to look at it is to assume they want the beasts for the sake of world domination, but I think their plans are much more sophisticated than that. I don't think they want to dominate and oppress, per se: I think they seek control.
"With the sacred ones, you have limitless power at your disposal. Individually, in the hands of skilled Beybladers, they are formidable in their own right. But together, as a combined force, the devastation could be long-lasting." Khalid glanced over to where Kai was sitting on the window sill, though the older one showed absolutely no interest in the conversation whatsoever. It wasn't anything he didn't already know.
"So, if they're after the G Revolutions' Bit Beasts, why is this our problem?" Michael didn't see the point in all of this cloak-and-dagger nonsense. He was here to compete, and to win, and not to get involved in backstage politics, as he saw it.
"Because they will do whatever it takes to get them, and go through whoever they have to to get there," Santiago replied. "The more power they have, the more they will possess to fight the sacred ones with. They obtain that power by absorbing the Bit Beasts of others into their own. The longer the stolen Bit Beasts remain with the Stryker team, the less likely it becomes that they will ever be able to come back." It was a harsh dose of reality, to think that their Bit Beasts could be lost forever, but it was one that was needed in order to fully show the scale of the problem they were all now facing.
"How do you know so much?" Tala asked the question everyone had been thinking, his tone almost critical as he looked at Santiago. "You and Khalid seem to know an awful lot about these guys. Where are you getting your intel from? Are you two in partnership over this?"
"We are a coalition," Khalid replied. "I met Santiago long before the tournament began, when whispers first started of Stryker's rise, and from my own research, I knew what this all meant. It was his idea for us to form an alliance, so as to have an effective strike force planned for this threat. Of course, we would each seek, in our own ways, to bring them down amongst ourselves, but information shared makes the task easier. All of the intelligence Santiago has regarding Stryker, and their Bit Beasts, he obtained from me."
"So, what's their angle?" Lee asked, sitting himself, cross-legged, on his bed. "Why is this even happening?"
"It's more the beasts than their human counterparts," Khalid began, leaning back against the wall he was standing in front of. "Yama was known as the Dark Master: the epitome of everything dark and wrong in the world. Yama craved power, and control, and dominance over all life, and so he formed an alliance with others like him, and chose to take on the ancient powers that protected the earth: the sacred guardians. The battle was immense, with Yama taking his forces to the stronghold of the sacred ones in Japan, and he lost. The guardians then cast them deep into the earth, sealing them there, never to be released. But it's believed the stone tablets into which they were sealed were uncovered by early human civilizations, and so they came to be in the hands of people, and now they are in the hands of Stryker. Most Bit Beasts have been within certain families for centuries, most especially the sacred ones. All five have always been in the same families: those that were deemed most worthy of their power." Khalid was looking at Kai as he spoke, and still the half-Russian ignored him. "But now, Yama is gathering his forces, and seeking to strike at the heart of the world once more. They have to be stopped, and working together may be the best way to accomplish that."
"This is all getting a tad intense, isn't it?" Robert tutted. "This is a sport, a game; I didn't realize we were actually playing for the fate of the world."
"It is what it is," Santiago shrugged. "And you can pretend it's all just a sport, that we can play for the love of the game, but that's not what's happening here. The world is at stake here, Robert. The future of this world is at stake. We can't just take a back seat, call it all a game, and allow the world to pass into ruin, not when we have the power to do something about it. Maybe to you this all seems overwhelming for a game of spinning tops, but many of us, yourself included, have put blood, swear, and tears into this sport, and to have someone come cruising in to take everything we've worked so long to build, and to bring about armageddon, isn't something I can take lying down. I will fight, with every breath in my body, and I won't stop until I'm dead. It will be harder to do this without your support, but I very much understand if you wish to step back from this."
"There's no question of your having my support," Robert stated. "You will have the power of the Majestics. Those Stryker scumbags need to be taken down, and we will be part of your alliance to bring them down."
"So, we are all allied for this common goal?" Khalid looked around, taking in the measure of the room, seeing varying degrees of support and enthusiasm from the other captains, but neither from the G Revolutions' one. Kai had been listening, of course, but for the most part, he had remained removed from all of the chatter. He hadn't even wanted to be here in the first place. Little could be accomplished in rooms, talking about what could be done. Things would only happen if they went out and made them happen. Sitting around sipping tea would be counterproductive, at best.
"Sure," Tala consented, soon followed by the consent of everyone else, bar Kai.
"Are you with us, Kai?" Khalid now addressed the half-Russian directly, yet still, Kai's attention remained on the other side of the window. After a few moments of somewhat awkward silence, a soft buzzing from Kai's pocket lead him to fish out his cell phone, and on glancing at the device, he removed himself from his seat on the window sill, and made his way towards the door.
"Do what you want," Kai stated flatly. "In the end, we stand alone in the dish. In the end, they will come for our Bit Beasts. I'm not going to be gentle with any of you in the arena, and if you're under some misguided impression I won't be taking every single one of you down to get to the finals, you're dreaming. Share your information, have your whispered conversations, but I'll be using my time more productively." With his piece said, Kai left the room, leaving the other captains somewhat bewildered in his wake. Except for Tala, who simply shook his head, expecting this kind of response from his old friend, and Santiago, who let out a hearty laugh before he spoke into the silence left in Kai's wake.
"You have to admire a man of action!"
She had never been so frustrated in all of her life.
For close to four hours now, Hilary had been pacing around Moscow, what she could access within walking distance of the hotel, anyway, trying to get her head around her most recent disagreement with Tyson. It wasn't exactly uncommon for the pair to argue, it was how they passed the time, but why did he always have to be so sharp with her? He argued with Kai just as much, if not more, and maybe more still with Daichi, and yet with those two, he took on an entirely different tone to what he adopted to fight her. With Kai in particular, Tyson seemed to change almost completely when the two argued. Max and Ray were right: those two were like an old married couple.
All of this did little to abate her irritation. She'd found a candy store not too far from the hotel, and had bought herself a small bag of candies to cheer herself up, but even then, she still stormed back into the hotel, the early afternoon sun still creating that unexpected heatwave on the Moscow streets. She'd always been told that Russia was cold, so why was it currently anything but?
"Hilary!" her attention was captured by the sight of Kenny, sitting in the hotel lobby, surrounded by parts and gears. "There you are! Everyone has been worried sick about you! Where did you go?!"
"Just walked around," Hilary shrugged, the heat in her face from her anger starting to recede as she walked over to where Kenny was sitting. "Can I join you?"
"Sure, of course!" Kenny gestured to an empty spot beside him on the couch, getting back to his maintenance as the girl sat herself down. "Just giving Driger here a tune-up. Max is testing out the repairs I made to Draciel now, and I finished Strata Dragoon's maintenance just before, so once I've given my Hopper a once-over, I'm done!" Dranzer had been the first Beyblade he had conducted maintenance on, at Kai's request. Kenny knew that Kai was someone who liked to start early, whereas the rest of the team were more sedate, so he always made sure that any necessary works that had to be done to Dranzer were completed first and foremost. It made his life easier to keep it that way.
"Any sign of our invisible captain?" Hilary asked, her tone perhaps more bitter than she had intended, and she did feel a little bad for it after the fact.
"He went out early," Kenny replied, remaining entirely focused on his delicate work. "He's always been an early riser. He's also a loner, but I'm pretty sure everyone has figured that out by now. He knows when he's necessary, and he'll be around if he is, but otherwise, he keeps to himself. Always has done. Of course, this makes him very difficult to get to know, but if he wants us to know something, he'll tell us! Maybe he's gone to visit his mother's grave; who knows?" It had been very hard for the team to forget their unintentional stumbling into what was quite a private moment for their emotionally-removed captain. He had divulged little of his own upbringing throughout the course of their friendship, aside from his having been raised in The Abbey, and to know he had a deceased mother seemed to humanize him a little in the Chief's eyes. Though it did make Kenny curious as to what had become of Kai's father, and where the relation to Voltaire fitted in. Then he found himself thinking about where Voltaire was these days, but his brain then fell into a muddle, and he brought himself back, sharply, to his work.
"Did Tyson go to his appointment?" Hilary asked, taking the bitterness out of her voice for the next question. She had known, in her heart, that Tyson had made a sound, sensible rebuttal to her sniping, but she hadn't wanted to admit to it outright at the time. Now, with the dust having settled, she was much more open to the prospect of admitting her own failings as a friend.
"As far as I'm aware, yeah, he did," Kenny replied, setting his work aside to speak to Hilary properly. "Left a couple of hours ago. Actually thought he'd be back by now..."
"He honestly went alone?!" Hilary half-wailed at this, having wholly expected someone to forego training and accompany the injured bluenette to his session, considering everything.
"It's not that far," Kenny reasoned, and said so with total confidence because he believed it to be so. He didn't understand Hilary's incredulous look at all. "He can get there and back on his own. And their English is good, so he'll be fine! Really, don't worry!"
"The hospital is on the other side of town!" Hilary exclaimed, and the younger one's glasses nearly fell off his face at this. "I should know; I went with him! It's two bus rides away! And their English really isn't all that great! Someone should have gone with him! I wasn't being serious when I said to let him go alone! I was upset! People say crazy things when they're upset!" Kenny immediately leapt to his feet, alarm all over his young features.
"We have to go find Tyson!" Kenny cried out, quickly scooping up all of his tools and equipment into his bag, and hurrying off to find the others, Hilary at his heels. They knew they'd have to start downstairs, in the hotel gym, and when they made it down there, they found most of the teams there, all prepping for the move to Australia, Max, Ray, and Daichi in amongst them.
"Hey, you're back!" Max smiled as Hilary and Kenny came over, his remark directed to the young woman in their company. "We went out looking for you, but we couldn't find you anywhere! Are you okay?"
"You let Tyson go to the hospital alone!?" Hilary shrieked, causing the nearby White Tigers to jolt, and even the Blitzkrieg Boys to grimace from the other side of the gym. All three young men looked bewildered at her outburst, and she proceeded to smack each one, hard, on the arm, ignoring their cries of pain. "I was just upset! I didn't mean for you to listen to me! God, the first time you guys actually listen to me, and it's now?!"
"Tyson lied about the hospital!" Kenny informed them, able to tell that they were still lost in trying to understand the reason for Hilary's newest frustrations. "It's across the other side of town! That's two bus rides! And their English is about as good as his Russian, by all accounts!" The news drained all of the color from Ray and Max's faces, and Daichi let out a booming laugh, which was swiftly muted by a sound thump to the head from Hilary.
"This isn't funny!" she growled. "Tyson is out there, in Moscow, by himself, trying to get to the hospital! While he's in a wheelchair! We have to go and find him! Right now!"
It was a motion that had unanimous backing, and the whole G Revolutions team immediately departed the gym, and struck out onto the sun-drenched Moscow streets to try and locate their missing friend. They heavily relied on the fact that Hilary knew the route Tyson was expected to take, taking them all on the exact trail she and Tyson had used the two times they had come together, and they soon found themselves at the hospital where Tyson would have had to come for his appointment.
"Kenny, you go and ask if he's been here," Hilary nudged the shorter youth forward, knowing he was the only one in current company who could even string together one sentence of Russian. It would have been ideal to find Kai, with his Russian capability being, of course, the best, but he had failed to respond after fifteen texts, and four attempts at calling him. Naturally.
"M-me?!" Kenny spluttered. "My Russian is rusty! Has Kai really not replied to any of your texts or calls?" Anything to deflect attention from him.
"Of course he hasn't!" Hilary hit back, as if the answer should have been obvious. Really, it should have. "Do you honestly think he would have? At any point? It's Kai! He lacks social skills! So, go on! Find out where Tyson is, if he's even here!" She gave Kenny yet another nudge forward, and the bespectacled youth gulped, hard, before taking a step into the hospital, leaving his friends behind him. The rest of the team could only watch as Kenny made all attempts to communicate with the hospital staff: his phrasebook, gestures, mime, anything he could think of. They just about managed to suppress chuckling as they watched him go about his strange routine. Soon enough, though, Kenny came back out to them, looking flustered, and a little confused.
"Did you find him?" Ray asked, taking in Kenny's appearance with some muted amusement.
"Apparently, he's here, uh, I think..." Kenny mused aloud. "I think that's what she said... He's here, and he's been here for a while... I really don't know, though, cos she was very animated." It still left them with the fact that Tyson was here, somewhere, and had managed to make it here on his own. How in the world had he managed that?
"But where?" Max asked the obvious follow-up question, and in answer, Kenny handed over a half-crumpled piece of paper, on which was written B602. "Where's B602?" With the paper in hand, Max lead the team into the hospital, looking over to the hospital map on the wall, some of which was, thankfully, in English. The map very quickly told them that the basement level was where most of the rehabilitative facilities were located, including a pool, in an area labelled B602. "Tyson is swimming...?"
"How in the world did he get down there?!" Daichi exclaimed, looking around for signs of an elevator. Of course, there had to be one, because this was a hospital, but it still baffled the redhead as to how Tyson had even gotten here unaided.
"Maybe we should go down there and find out," Ray suggested, leading them down the hall to the closest elevator, the team heading down to the basement level, soon finding themselves in front of a set of double-doors, leading out to a large indoor pool. Inset within the doors were two long panes of glass, so that someone from the outside could see what was happening inside, and Ray could see Tyson in the pool, swimming quite well, and he didn't seem to be in any trouble. But it did seem like he wasn't alone, as he kept stopping on occasion to talk to someone behind him, and with the doors closed, it was impossible to make out who it was, or what they were saying.
"Is he with someone in there?" all of them were gathered around the little windows into the pool, peering in, and Hilary was the one to say what they were all thinking. Gingerly, she reached out to push the door open, to try and hear something of the conversation going on within.
"What are you doing?!" Daichi hissed lowly, swatting at her for the move that may well bring unnecessary attention to them. But the move had, indeed, given them the chance to listen to the conversation between Tyson and his as-yet-unseen companion.
"I did ten laps already! Give me a break!" Tyson whined from his spot in the water. It wasn't that he was tired; he just wanted to relax a bit.
"You asked me to help, so I'm helping," the voice was shockingly familiar: Kai. None of them could believe it, but sure enough, the half-Russian came into view, standing at the pool's edge, his arms folded across his chest as he looked down at Tyson. "I can just leave you here, if you'd rather. I'm sure you'll cope just fine on the bus by yourself."
"Ah, come on!" Tyson laughed, swimming over to the side where Kai was standing. "I'm grateful that you brought me here, and even got a car so I wouldn't have to take the bus, so okay, I'll swim some more." With this, Tyson struck off again, swimming off for another length of the pool, as their team watched on, utterly bewildered by this unexpected turn of events.
"Swimming is low-impact on your joints; it'll help you recover and get stronger," Kai pointed out, moving to sit on a bench near the poolside. "Your doctor said it would help with your rehabilitation. So, stop complaining and do it."
"Is that what she said?" Tyson's voice echoed through the pool, though he was out of sight of his friends now. "I dunno; it was all gibberish to me! Thanks for coming along to translate!"
"If I hadn't, you'd have been killed somewhere, and then I'd never hear the end of it," Kai stated firmly. "Those idiots would never let me off the hook for it. I can't handle their whining in my ear for the rest of my life."
"Is that it?" Tyson swam back into few of his friends, a sly grin on his tanned face. "Or is it that you actually like us?"
"We've had this question before, and I've answered it, so I'm not answering it again," Kai replied, attempting to bring an end to the conversation. Of course, he should have figured out by now that things weren't that easy when it came to Tyson.
"Well, your secret is safe with me, tough guy!" Tyson chuckled, letting out a yelp as a pool float was fired at his head, hitting him on the forehead, hard. "Hey! That was an unnecessary show of violence!"
"It was necessary," Kai told him, getting up and moving to the water's edge. "I have a question for you, now."
"That's unusual!" Tyson remarked, tossing the pool float aside, back on dry land. "You're not the curious type! So, what's the question?"
"Why?" Kai asked, the question having played on his mind since the moment he was asked. "Of all people, why ask me to do this? I don't exactly play well with others, and you know this. Why not ask Max, or Ray, or someone you actually trust?"
"Because I trust you," Tyson frowned, Kai's expression giving nothing away. Was he feeling uneasy? Put-upon? Frustrated? There was no way of really knowing. As was always the way with Kai, you had to read between the lines. "You were the first person I thought of! You lead the Bladebreakers! You're the kind of guy that people see and they follow! Sure, you look like you hate it, and that you'd rather have all your teeth pulled out, but Kai, you inspire that kind of feeling in people, and they want to take you on, and surpass you, and so they better themselves. People also look at you and freak out, cos you're seriously intimidating, and that's good for us!"
"Get to the point," Kai wanted to cut through whatever flowery nonsense Tyson had deemed necessary for this story, and actually make it to the answer before they grew senile, but he made sure to adjust his tone slightly, so as not to irk him, or upset him. Kai had come to understand that Tyson was pretty sensitive. They all were, actually.
"Because you're my friend," Tyson told him finally. "And because I knew you were the only person who could do it." This was a development, and one that certainly did send shockwaves through the eavesdroppers beyond the door. "Max, Ray, Kenny, Daichi... They're all amazing Beybladers, with real talent and skill, but they don't have your strength of character, or your ability to lead, to keep everyone focused. We're all people who live by our emotions, and while I know you're as emotionally-driven as the rest of us, you know how to compartmentalize. You know when to put it all aside to get the job done. You're someone they'd follow. So, that's why I asked you." As they listened, from the other side of the double-doors, the remaining members of the G Revolutions, having once felt quite despondent at Tyson's remark, now felt a wave of understanding wash over them, and they all came to the wordless agreement that Tyson was right: Kai was the right choice to lead them. He had all of the right qualities, though whether this was something Kai didn't believe, or if he just found it a burden, was anyone's guess. Money was on the latter.
"Fine," Kai shrugged lightly, his amethyst gaze flicking over to the doors so briefly a layman would miss the action, but Tyson caught it instantly, and knew exactly what he was trying to say.
What happened next happened with such speed that they were sure it couldn't have been stopped, even if they'd seen him coming. As the G Revolutions stationed outside of the pool area all looked amongst themselves in quiet understanding, none of them paid attention to the fact that Kai was advancing on the door. And none of them paid attention to the fact that the doors moved inwards, into the pool area, rather than out into the hall, which they should have known, as they had pushed the door in to begin their eavesdropping escapade. And so, it was Daichi who fell afoul of the swinging door, as Kai pulled it towards himself, and grabbed the first person his hand touched, dragging him into the pool area, and then into the pool itself. The speed at which it happened was so sudden that Daichi had no idea it had even happened until he was in the water.
"Gah! Hey!" Daichi coughed and spluttered as he swam to the edge of the pool, clinging to the side for dear life. "What the hell was that for?!" Of course, Daichi was furious, and Kai was eerily calm, and Tyson was barely suppressing a laugh, while Max, Ray, Kenny, and Hilary watched on in total shock and awe. Why they had been surprised by Kai's snap-action was anyone's guess; this was entirely within character for him.
"How much did you tell them about yesterday?" Kai gave Daichi a pointed look, and the younger one seemed to diffuse rapidly. Daichi hadn't mentioned everything that had happened, naturally, because it would invite even more harsh criticism onto himself than he had already received from Kai. The older youth knew it all, and he wouldn't hesitate to open his mouth if the right buttons were pushed. So Daichi knew better than to invite any opportunity onto himself. "If you all have time to stalk me, and eavesdrop outside doors, that's time you're taking from your training. Time you can't afford to waste, and will have to make up." He half-expected a groan at this, but not a peep arose from his team. "Get out of there, idiot," Kai turned to the two young men in the water, giving no indication as to who he was addressing, but it was Daichi who quickly extricated himself from the water, his clothes soaked through. "And Daichi, get yourself dried off."
The idiot was Tyson, then.
With some help from his friends, Tyson was able to get out of the pool, dried off, and dressed, though Kai had to, once more, play interpreter between the team and Tyson's doctor. All Kai told them was that Tyson was ready to get out of his wheelchair and move onto crutches, but all indications, especially the length of the conversation, told them that there seemed to be some level of familiarity between the doctor and their half-Russian companion. They knew, however, that prying too deeply into their prior relationship would only end in unpleasantness. For them, at least. It was best, in this case, to just let the whole thing go, take what was told to them, and get back to the hotel.
"Hey, did you guys see this?" Hilary quipped as they got out of Kai's rental car, Max and Ray helping Tyson out as he started to gain some physical independence from his wheelchair. They all looked over to her as she made her way around the car to them, showing them a story on her cell phone. She knew she'd suffer with roaming charges when she got home, and her parents would be furious, but it had been like a mental twitch in Hilary's head since they'd first visited Balkov Abbey, and she'd found herself compelled to look it up. "They started hauling all the rubble away from that abbey place, and they found skeletons! Actual human skeletons! Dead bodies, and lots of them! They were killing people in that place! How barbaric is that?!" Tyson tensed as he got a look at the news report on Hilary's cell phone, finding himself slowly turning to look at Kai, whose back was to them. He could tell, though, from how long he'd known him, that he was reacting to the news.
"Hilary..." Ray spoke softly, though there was a hint of firmness in his tone. "Maybe you shouldn't go talking about things like that in certain company..." It was only then that the insensitivity of it all began to hit Hilary in the face like a damp rag, and she grimaced at her own ignorance. If any of them would have had some awareness of the presence of bodies inside the Abbey, it was going to be one of the former residents of said abbey, and while she did find herself asking why Kai hadn't come forward about bodies before, she knew now wasn't the time to make pointed accusations.
"I'm going to tell you all to shut up now," Kai spoke up, his body language giving away just how much he wanted to divert from this topic. "And you're all going to listen to me and shut your mouths, for once. So, shut up." Kai was well-aware of the fact that he repressed memories that were too painful to keep, and even now, with the story fresh in his ears, whispering recollections of finding corpses in the basement of the Abbey came creeping back into his mind. He had to grit his teeth to push them back down into the depths from whence they'd come. He wasn't ready to open that box just yet.
A loud explosion, one that caused the ground to shake, and took Tyson off-balance slightly, brought them all out of a potential malaise, and their attention was caught by the plume of smoke that rose up from a position close-by.
"What the hell was that?!" Max cried out, looking in the direction of the blast, and after a split second, the team rallied, Tyson trying out his newly-acquired crutches for the first time, and made their way to the blast site. It was there that they were encountered by the sight of Ryall, flanked by the other members of Stryker, standing before a beaten and angry Lee.
"You won't get away with this!" Lee hissed, his voice dripping venom and fury. "I won't let you get away with this! You're monsters! All of you!" Ardeth couldn't mask the facial twitch that barb incited from him. Had he become like the monsters he had infiltrated? His complicity in their actions had, perhaps, made him just as bad as them, if not worse.
"The fault lies with you," Ryall stated simply, a strange glee in his words. "You and your silly band of helpless kittens. When will you people ever learn that this can be all settled fairly in the dish, rather than out here, just attacking for no reason!"
"You started this!" Lee couldn't stop the bile that left his lips. "You took Galux! I had to defend my sister's honor! You stole her Bit Beast!" Ray prickled evidently at this news, and everyone around him felt it. They'd stolen Galux? How? Why?
"Your sister made the mistake of challenging us," Ryall shrugged off Lee's grievances as if they were nothing. To him, that was all they were: nothing.
"You insulted her!" Lee was starting to lose control, Ray could see as much, but as he prepared to break away from his team to go to his old friend's aid, he was held back by his captain's hand landing, strongly, on his arm.
"Stay where you are," Kai instructed lowly, his grip on the Chinese youth's arm tight. He knew what Ray would do, to step in a help his friends, and he wasn't about to allow another idiot to do something hilariously stupid. It was hard enough swallowing the fact that Lee, the one who had insisted on that ridiculous meeting about a strike back against Stryker, had taken matters into his own hands. And who was to say whether the Russian police had been alerted to this altercation, as they had the one the other day?
"Is it my fault your family can't control their temper?" Ryall's tone was patronizing, almost sickening in its nature, as he turned back to his teammates and sneered. "People have to learn to take negative commentary as constructive criticism, and use it to make themselves better. Lashing out in such a manner is entirely contrary to anyone's best interests. So, I was forced to teach your sister a lesson. And your Galeon will pair nicely with her Galux in the belly of my Yama. I'm sure they'll both be quite at home there."
"You deplorable-!" Lee leapt to his feet, like a wild lion rattled into a rage, and started for Ryall, the look in his eyes suggesting he was about to try to tear him limb from limb. And he might have made a decent attempt at it if Tala and Kai hadn't moved in to stop him. In a split second, both Russians were on the scene, yanking Lee back in an almost painfully forceful gesture, sending the Chinese youth wheeling backwards onto his behind, and in an instant, Ryall armed his launcher, well-aware of what this action would bring about. In fact, he was almost banking on it.
Their natural instincts took over: both Kai and Tala loaded their launchers, and all three Beyblades fired at each other at once. An unexpected two-on-one battle had now begun, and neither Kai nor Tala could predict what the outcome could be.