Hello from quarantine! I hope you guys are all doing well and staying safe :) Just a heads up, this is one of those chapters where I've had to split up the characters, so if you don't see your character here, they will be in the next one. Otherwise we'd be waiting even longer for me to write a chapter that'd likely top 10,000 words based on the length of this one and what needs to happen. I don't know about you guys, but I like my chapters to be manageable enough to read in one sitting XD But we're coming pretty close to the end of the story as it is! It's crazy to think this is already over a year old, but I'm glad to actually be getting a story done in a timely manner lol.

Shout out to GinMado, rokebuto, and Cosmic Wish for your reviews! I promise we will be seeing the end of the story. I've got most of it well mapped out, so it's just a matter of writing it. As for who ruined the moment, read on...

I do not own Metal Fight Beyblade.


It was total, mindless pandemonium. Screams erupted from inside the planetarium as everyone panicked, trying to find their friends and dates in the complete darkness. All of the doors, for the moment, appeared to be locked.

Stella stood up from her seat, realizing it probably wasn't the greatest idea as she lost sense of her surroundings, being pushed around by the swarm of students rushing around in the darkness.

A few seats away, Gin called out for Kyoya, hoping to hear his voice over the clamor.

Ninel grabbed onto Dashan's arm, preparing not to lose him in the chaos. Both of them still remained in their seats, but it was obvious that wouldn't be an option much longer.

Mei Mei felt herself completely at the mercy of the current, with the crowd of students anxiously seeking the door, unable to fight her way out.

Christina and Bao took each other's hands, blindly making their way to the edge of the room, pressing up against the wall to stay out of it until they could figure out what was going on.

Zina and Chris had been separated by the flow of terrified attendees, but both remained where they were for the moment.

Marcos strode to the other side of the prom court line, in search of Lera. Luckily, she hadn't moved too far.

Madoka, Sophie, and Hikaru all linked arms where they stood, waiting.

Up on the dance floor, Aurora stood frozen in terror, her arms still around Nile. She barely registered him moving closer to her, their embrace a little more serious now as he held her tight.

For a moment, the shrieks died down as people began to adjust to the darkness. Loud sobs filled the air in their place. Teachers called out, trying to calm the storm. Most people were still running around in a desperate attempt to find a way out.

Then, just as quickly as the room had turned to total darkness, it was illuminated once more. Only this time, stars weren't projected above them.

One of their classmates stood above them with crossed arms, a defiant smile on his face.

"Tetsuya?" Madoka said in disbelief. "What is going on here?"

"That's right, crab! I've come to ruin your prom the same way you ruined mine!" He laughed maniacally.

"What. The. Hell," Sophie commented, shocked.

"How did we ruin his prom?" Hikaru asked. "It's not like he was banned or anything… Right?"

Wherever he was projecting from, he probably couldn't hear the girls, but nonetheless he immediately answered the question.

"How dare you… All of you! Why should you be allowed to bring whomever you want for dates, but I'm not allowed to bring a crab? It's discrimination, crabby crab!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Gin said incredulously. With the added lighting from the bright screen, she'd managed to find her way to Kyoya and had no intention of leaving his side anytime soon. Kyoya looked pretty ticked off.

"This is all because he wanted to bring a crab as his date?" Zina wondered. Chris appeared to be holding in laughter.

"And now, because I couldn't bring my date, just one little crab, I'm bringing all the crabs! Be free, my friends!" Tetsuya raised his arms up, cackled, and the planetarium went dark again as the projection vanished. Except this time, it was briefly silent as everyone took in what Tetsuya had said. Then, there was a soft sound that seemed to be growing louder. The strange, faint noise broke through the quiet din. As though the source was coming closer.

Christina leaned her ear up against the wall, gripping Bao's hand in hers and grateful for the welcome touch. It sounded like… scuttling. Her eyes widened in realization. It was still pitch black and everyone was freaking out, but she had to get the message out to her classmates.

"Guys!" she shouted. "Crabs are coming!"

No sooner than she'd finished speaking did a little bit of light pour into the room from one of the doors slowly opening, allowing the students to see barrage of crabs rushing into the room. If it hadn't already been, the room truly exploded in mass hysteria. Only this time, all of the doors appeared to be open. Students flooded out of them in waves, running away from the crabs as fast as possible. There had to be hundreds of them crawling around the room now.

Christina and Bao didn't waste a second. They forced their way through the raging crowd towards the nearest exit, then ran straight down the hall. Unfortunately, the door didn't lead out of the building, so they had to put their trust in blind faith and just go with it. They'd pulled ahead of the other students running with them, but they could still hear the crabs not far behind.

She stopped just for a second to pull off her silver heels, knowing they'd have better luck escaping without them. She picked them up and took off again just as the first crab came into sight. She didn't stop to think how close that could've been, her mind racing.

"In here!" Bao shouted. He opened a door and the two of them scrambled inside. Bao slammed it shut, then pressed his body up against the wall to keep anyone else from getting in. There was a pounding of feet as students ran past, followed by scuttling. By the sound of the manic stampede roaring past, it didn't seem like anyone was interested in finding a room to hide in anyway. Christina didn't want to think about how many crabs they'd fled from. She was more than a little irritated, and Tetsuya was seriously going to get it once this was all over. She worried about Zina and Chris, but was confident they were doing okay wherever they were.

Bao flicked on the light. They were in an office, nothing too exciting. There were several big filing cabinets off to one side and a few plants tucked away in a corner. He checked to make sure the door was locked tight and sat in one of the chairs, thinking.

Christina sat at the large desk in the back of the room and slipped her heels back on. She stuck her feet up on top of the desk, wondering whom it belonged to and if that person was around right now. She immediately put her feet back down. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to get caught lounging around. Instead she propped her elbows up on the desk and rested her head.

"So… What do we do now?" she asked.

Bao shrugged. "I'm not sure there's much we can do. Wait for all this to pass? Maybe once the crabs are gone, we can get back into the planetarium and get out the way we came."

Christina frowned. That wasn't exactly the answer she was hoping for, but for the moment she didn't have any ideas either. Waiting in the office was better than going out now to face what waiting for them there. Being with Bao was a huge consolation at the very least. She hated to think of being alone in this. Hopefully everyone else was doing just as well.

She had no service on her cell. "Can you check your phone? We need to meet up with Chris and Zina again if we do that. I don't want to leave them stranded."

Bao complied, then groaned. "Nothing. But you're right; we can't leave them here. I think our best shot is to try and get out of here first, and hope they have the same idea and meet us at the car. If they aren't there, we'll look at our options then."

Christina nodded. "Yeah. They're smart. I bet they're trying to get to the car, too. We'll probably see them on the way out." She cocked an ear toward the door, but to her dismay she still heard a soft scuttling. She grimaced. "Seems like we might be stuck in here for a while."


Stella stopped short while King and Masamune plowed on ahead of her.

"Wait!" she panted, reaching her hand out. In her other she held up the back of her high-low skirt, keeping it from tripping her. Normally, she could run in heels fairly well, but the addition of the heavy dress was not making it easy. Neither was trying to keep up with two hyperactive teenage boys. Nevertheless, she was glad they'd gotten away from that ridiculous onslaught of crabs. What had Tetsuya been thinking?

Oh, right. He hadn't been. He had some crazed desire for revenge and now that was everyone's problem.

The boys froze, also taking a minute to catch their breath. Only then did Stella realize they'd stopped just inches in front of a small dinosaur skeleton that was surrounded by a maroon velvet rope. That would've been a nightmare had they knocked it over. Stella didn't want to think of the consequences for damaging irreplaceable sixty-five million year old remains.

Although, she thought with relief, they could've nearly run into the giant tyrannosaur skeleton off to her left that stood just barely below the ceiling. And luckily the pterodactyl skeleton was hanging from the ceiling, so there was no way they could bring any harm to that.

Then again, she considered the company she was with.

They'd found themselves in the dinosaur and fossil exhibit. Definitely one of the cooler rooms she remembered from her childhood and it seemed to have expanded even more since then.

On the floor were a variety of prehistoric dinosaur footprints made out of plaster, so kids could walk alongside them and compare them to their own shoe sizes, and on the back wall in a glass frame were several fossils of ancient flora. Another case of fossils- this time those of animals- was just ahead in front of them, past the little skeleton. Had they not been in such a rush under the circumstances, Stella would've taken the time to read some of the descriptions written on the wall plaques.

But considering the situation, there were much, much more pressing matters.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Stella wondered aloud. Tetsuya had more or less accomplished his goal of ruining prom, but getting the dance back on track really wasn't her biggest priority at the moment. At least they'd made it through dessert first. King and Masamune would've been utterly inconsolable otherwise and that was the last thing she needed to deal with.

Neither of them seemed too concerned with their predicament. Both were fixated on the replica prehistoric vine environment, and Stella got the uneasy feeling they were contemplating swinging from it.

"Guys," she called, trying to sound a touch annoyed to get their attention by adding a slight edge to her voice. King perked up and came over, but Masamune's attention remained thoroughly stuck on the vines. Stella sighed. That would have to do. As much as she admired their free spirits, it was time to take things kind of seriously.

Not that she wouldn't have thought about swinging on those vines, too, given the opportunity.

"What's up? Everything okay?" King asked as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

Stella nearly rolled her eyes, but refrained at the last second. "Other than prom being overrun by an army of crabs," she smiled. King kissed her forehead. "But shouldn't we be concerned with getting out of here? We're kind of trapped."

"Heck no!" Masamune shouted, now happily swinging back and forth from the vine he'd been staring so intently at. "We're finally out of that stuffy planetarium and we've got the whole place to ourselves!"

Stella sighed. There was no way they could go back the way they came, not with the crabs still skulking around. She didn't exactly have any other idea to get them out. Wandering in search of an exit would probably only serve to get them more lost. Leading the other two to another exhibit, especially ones that were more "hands-on" didn't seem to be in her best interests either. Her phone wasn't working for some reason, so she had no way of finding out where the others were. Wasn't it best in this kind of situation to just stay where they were? If they stayed, they might have a better chance of running into others, and there was strength in numbers after all.

King looked at the vines longingly. Stella shrugged.

"You know what? You're right. Might as well have some fun while we can." With that, Stella grabbed her own vine. At least prom would be memorable.


Aurora's lungs felt ready to burst, but she kept going, the only thing tethering her to reality Nile's hand wrapped tightly around hers. She was having the worst time trying to figure out what had happened.

Being declared prom queen- the tiara was still on her head, now that she thought about it- had come as a major shock, and she still hadn't come to terms with it when the whole crab mess started. She focused on moving her feet forward, trying to break everything down and process it.

Somehow she'd won the crown, even though she knew Sophie was the expected winner. At least, she was the one Aurora expected to win. Aurora wasn't even sure how she'd ended up on the prom court in the first place. Granted, some part of her had definitely been a bit excited, but she never expected to actually win. Then she remembered that sneaky smile Sophie had given her earlier. Was it too much to think Sophie had a hand in getting Aurora to this point? She wasn't sure.

And then Nile was king! The whole thing was so surreal. She couldn't believe she'd been seconds away from dancing with him- in front of half the school, no less- when everything went to hell.

She still couldn't wrap her head around the crab thing, but honestly, she wasn't going to bother. There were way, way too many other things. Well, she wasn't going to worry about it beyond finding a safe place as soon as possible. But she trusted Nile would figure that out. He seemed like he had some sort of plan.

A door was wide open on the left and they raced inside. Nile slammed the door shut, then grabbed a nearby chair, propping it against the door handle so nothing could open it.

There was a decent-sized rug on the floor, with a whiteboard against one of the walls. Several chairs were set up in the back of the room along the wall.

"This is one of the classrooms," Aurora whispered, mostly to herself. She recognized the room from one of the field trips they'd taken to the science center years ago. She could see her younger self sitting on that rug, surrounded by classmates, as the staff taught them about whatever the subject matter was for that unit. One time they'd come for a lecture on plants, and a bunch of different species were passed around the room. She remembered holding a small, growing palm tree in her hands.

"So." Nile collapsed into one of the chairs at the back of the room, his breath ragged from running. "Looks like we're gonna be here a while."

"Yup." Aurora sat down in the chair across from him, apprehensively crossing her legs. She was only now realizing that she was about to have much more one-on-one time with her crush at prom than anticipated.

Nile took the crown off his head and gestured towards it as he placed it on an empty table. "Pretty crazy, huh?"

Aurora reached up and touched her tiara. "Crazy's an understatement. I'm not even sure how I got on the court."

"Me neither," Nile shrugged. "Guess that doesn't matter too much now."

Aurora had to laugh at that. "No, I guess not."

"Still, I'm sure plenty of girls are gonna be jealous of you now once this is all over." He added offhandedly, "If they aren't already that is."

Aurora tilted her head in confusion. "What?"

"Well, you're prom queen. Even if it did get interrupted, that doesn't change anything. I bet a bunch of girls wanted that title." Nile's complexion suddenly reddened. "And, well, you're… really pretty."

"Oh," Aurora felt her own cheeks heat up. "Um, thank you."

Nile gave her a small smile. "So, uh, yeah, our 'big moment' might've been a bust, but at least we got away from those crabs."

"Yeah," Aurora shuddered. "What a nightmare." She wondered how Nile felt about their "big moment" being interrupted.

Nile got up and peeked out the small window in the door. "I don't see any crabs… but that doesn't mean they aren't around. We should probably stay here, at least for a few minutes."

Aurora got up as well, and walked over to the whiteboard. She grabbed one of the markers. "Works for me," she murmured, and started doodling. "What's the plan once we can leave? Finding an exit?"

"Probably," Nile decided. "Unless you really want to go back to the planetarium."

As much as she did like looking up at the stars, it would be much more satisfying to get outside, and then look up at the real night sky. "Let's get out of here."

Nile came over to here and picked up one of the free markers. "Works for me." He started writing on the board. Aurora looked over and her breath caught for a moment.

He'd written "Nile & Aurora, Prom King and Queen."

Nile shrugged, then ducked his a head a little, but not before she could see it was red again. "What? It's true, and honestly since we got ripped off, people should know." He gave her a cheeky grin.

Aurora smiled back. Impulsively, she reached out and took his hand. Nile looked surprised, but pleased. "Definitely."


Madoka and Sophie were sitting at one of the tables in the small cafeteria, while Wales double-checked all the doors were locked and Gingka fruitlessly searched the kitchen area for anything that might help them. The girls would've joined, but neither thought there was much merit when all they really needed was an exit. They suspected Gingka had other reasons for wanting to search the kitchen anyway.

They had been fortunate to come across one early on, but it seemed to have been locked from the outside. No matter how much they pushed, the door had refused to open. They were taking a quick pause in the cafeteria just to catch their breath and regroup.

Sophie had her head in her hand, no longer particularly worried about messing up the free strands of hair framing her face. "Ugh."

Madoka sighed. "You can say that again. How exactly did we get to this point?"

Sophie looked up. "I don't know, but as soon as we get out of here, I'm taking one of those crabs and beating Tetsuya over the head with it," she joked.

Madoka laughed. "Can't really blame you there." Her face softened. "So, how are you-"

"Is this about me not being crowned prom queen?" Sophie grinned. "Because I promise, I'm not bitter. If there's anyone I'd want to lose to, it's Aurora."

Madoka nodded. "Of course."

"Honestly, I'm really happy for her," Sophie lowered her voice. "I did kind of have a hand in her getting on the ballot, but if she got more votes than me, fair is fair. And who knows, maybe it was totally random and she just happened to get the red rose by chance when they handed them out. But it doesn't matter. If she won, it's because she deserved to."

"Wait, what do you mean you helped her get on the ballot?"

Sophie sighed. "Don't tell her I told you this, but Aurora has a crush on Nile, and from what she told me he totally likes her, too. But I know Aurora, and she won't act on it. She didn't want me to get involved, but I- well, I did. I started convincing people to vote for them and I guess word got around fast. But regardless, she definitely won this on her own. People wouldn't have voted her just because I told them to. It's because she's a nice, genuine person and people like that. All I did was give her a little push. I know I probably shouldn't have, but I really want her to have this happiness. I can tell she and Nile will be so happy together, and I don't want her to miss that opportunity. And what happens next is entirely up to them. I'm not interfering any further."

"I can see why you did it," Madoka said. "At this point, it doesn't matter. Let's just hope it works out for them."

The corners of Sophie's mouth perked up. "Oh, it will. She had the chance to follow us when this whole thing started. She wasn't that far away. But guess who she ran off with?" Sophie's eyes sparkled.

Wales and Gingka rejoined them at that moment. Gingka groaned. "There's nothing that can help us! And worse I couldn't even find any food!"

Sophie's eyes widened. "Aren't you the one who went back to the buffet table three times?"

"It wasn't nearly enough!"

Wales settled into the seats. "Forget about food. We need a game plan. One of the exits was blocked. Does that mean they all are, or were we just really unlucky?"

"It's hard to say," Madoka took Gingka's hand as he sat down, silently consoling him as he mumbled about burgers. "We need to find another door. Do you think the crabs are still around?"

Sophie snorted. "Undoubtedly. If Tetsuya's still here, the crabs are here. And I can't imagine he's left. Not if he's enjoying the… chaos he's created."

"Tetsuya's the real issue," Wales mused, leaning back in his chair. His gelled hair had gotten messed up with all the running around they'd been doing. "Which means, if we can't get out, we need to find him."

"But he could be anywhere!" Gingka mentioned. "This place is huge."

"Well, we know when this began, he must've been in the projector room. Or at the very least wherever they have the equipment to project the night sky into the planetarium. Which quite honestly, could even have been in some corner of the planetarium. Everyone was so fixated on the prom court announcement, I don't think anyone would've noticed him there," Madoka explained.

"Wherever he was, I doubt he's there now," Sophie frowned. "So the question is, where would a guy like him hide?"


Gin and Kyoya sat on the floor of the small observatory. Gin drew shapes on the carpet with her finger, bored out of her mind. She'd taken off her black heels to give her feet a break. Kyoya had an irritated look permanently etched on his face.

It wasn't that Gin didn't want to be stuck alone in a room with him- quite the opposite, really, but definitely not under these circumstances.

As soon as they'd escaped the planetarium, they'd run up the first set of stairs they could find, which turned out to not be terribly far. The hope was that the crabs couldn't climb the stairs, but they weren't entirely sure and neither of them was about to test that theory. Now was not the time to be taking risks. Kyoya had slammed the door shut the moment they confirmed the room was empty, other than the giant telescope taking up most of the space. Kyoya was sitting with his back to the door, just in case, but they'd locked it and no one had any chance of getting in.

Gin looked up at Kyoya, biting her lip, but he was facing away from her. This was the first real alone time they'd spent together since he'd met her at the entrance of the building just a few short hours ago. In that time, so much had changed. They hadn't even had a chance to talk about it.

And now that they had all the time in the world to talk, Gin suddenly felt nervous.

Kyoya definitely liked her. He'd made that obvious. So far, they'd spent most of their time in the observatory in silence, mentally going over what'd happened on their own. Gin wasn't even sure how much time had passed. It was all kind of blurry.

But she knew they couldn't sit there in silence forever.

"Maybe we should go back down," Gin suggested. "The crabs have probably run off to other parts of the building by now."

Kyoya glanced over at her, a look of deep concentration on his face. "I'm not so sure. I don't know where Tetsuya is, and he's the real threat." A look of contempt passed over him. "If you can call him that."

"He may not be a threat, but he's certainly a nuisance," Gin agreed.

"I doubt he has anything planned beyond sending all those crabs out. His plan seems shortsighted. But I still don't trust him."

Gin nodded. "It's probably better we stay up here a little while longer anyways. I'm sure the faculty is already handling it. They might even have it under control by the time we get out of here." She stood up, and walked over to the telescope. She peered into it, trying to get a feel for how it worked so she could see some actual stars, but it was much more complicated than anything she'd ever encountered before. And enormous. She didn't want to mess around with it too much. If for some reason the telescope was loose and fell over then the two of them were in big trouble.

She was just distracting herself. With the night not going anywhere near expected, it was seriously complicating things. But now the two of them were alone in the room and had to face where they were and what it meant sooner rather than later. Ideally, the night would've ended on a high note and Gin was still optimistic it could, but now things were just a touch awkward. They could only dance around the subject for so long.

Either they were going to become a couple, or they weren't. Gin was positive that was what they both wanted, but she wasn't about to push Kyoya. It'd only been a few weeks since his last relationship ended and she didn't want him to jump in completely if he wasn't ready. It wasn't a decision that needed to be made tonight anyway.

But… They at least needed to kind of talk. If he wasn't ready, then both of them likely needed to take a step back for a bit before rushing into anything serious. Deciding now was as good a time as ever, Gin walked back over to Kyoya and sat next to him.

"So are you regretting your change of heart about coming to prom now?" she asked in a teasing tone.

Kyoya rolled his eyes. "That's a loaded question. But, no. I'm still glad I came. Even if I'm spending my evening hiding out from a gauntlet of raging crabs."

"I'm really glad you came, too." She took both of his hands in hers, looking up at him with her dark eyes. "It's been crazy, but I'm still having fun. It's worth it."

Kyoya's blue eyes met hers with a smoldering gaze. "It absolutely is." Then he leaned in close.

The kiss took her completely by surprise, but she welcomed it and realized that maybe she had been wrong. Maybe they didn't need to talk the way she'd worried after all.

Maybe everything was going to be perfectly okay.


Initially, Doji or someone similar was going to be the villain. Then I thought, this would be much more fun XD While I've got your attention, if you would like your character to swap outfits for the afterparty or if they have any drink/food preferences, please let me know!