Chapter 17
Water dripped down from Seita's hair as he ran to the old football field where his sister was being held captive. The rain showed no signs of dying down. His blood boiled with anger. The second his foot hit the grass of the field he screamed out for his sister.
"Hiyori!" His loud voice rang throughout the stadium. Rage filled his sights as he sought desperately for his sisters sight. He saw the bit beast-possessed BABA officers gathered together at the centre of the field. They snickered.
"The Princess of the virgin island is here." One of the officers declared. Seita wondered who they were talking about but his question was answered when Mari appeared beside him. Her pink cowlick waved with a passing breeze. Rain continued to drizzle across the stadium field.
"I'm here. We'll take them on together." Mari declared glancing at Seita.
One of the bit beasts that stood behind the one who seemed to be the leader snorted. "You're just a hypocrite! You don't get to speak of us in that high and mighty tone. After all, your father used his own people as test subjects to perfect the connection to human consciousness, to turn humans into obedient artificial robots that will listen to the higher evil parasitic bit-beasts that believe they have a right to rule the human realm"
"I am not my father and I'm here for Tizara."
"You're all the same. I have never met a human that isn't selfish. Look at the body you're in, you're weak. You all think you're at the top of the food chain and just assume that every other species is inferior to you. Humans aren't the only ones that can use scuba gear or space suits to go into our world, bit-beasts can enter your realm too with fleshy human suits."
The leader stepped forward. "That's enough. Do not brag the way that humans do. I, Andreous, will possess the key blades that the two of you own. If you know what's best for, you will hand them over."
"You're beyond stupid if you think I'm about to listen to you!" Seita shouted.
"Have it your way then." Andreous said calmly.
The water on the grass began increasing causing the surface to flood. Seita's eyes fell upon the giant whale like creature circling around where the sky once was.
Absolute pandemonium ensues as the people panicked from the rising ocean levels. As the shores got submerged, clumps of ocean water formed a vague structure that resembled a terrifying creature and began attacking the force field. People began freaking out about the awful occurrences that took place. From the beache's, humanoid sharks slowly crept.
Back at the stadium, the rain surprisingly ceased for a moment. Seita could hear crashing and he watched flames burst high up along a skyscraper that was at the other end of the soccer stadium. The ground rumbled, nearly causing him to stumble.
The corrupt bit beast leader spoke again. "I will attain this location with the first wave."
He broke into a sprint, rushing toward Seita and Mari. He transformed into his aquatic wolf bit beast form and simultaneously, Seita let his beyblade rip.
"Squishy! Rip!" He yelled. His blade charged ahead at full speed but it was of no avail. The massive bit beast overpowered Squishy, causing the beyblade to get shot back at its owner. Once the beast reached him, even Seita got blasted back. He cried out as he crashed several times across the grass. The bit-beast chuckled, stepping sideways on all fours as if ready to amuse itself with the boy's demise.
The other corrupt possessed bit-masters followed suit and attacked Mari, who engaged them in slips and combat. Despite taking three down, the other two grabbed her and with punches, soon threw her as a corrupt bit-beast rushed at them without care after transforming. She swiftly launched her beyblade but it was pointless. Her beyblade was instantly knocked off just like Squishy and she found herself flying backwards from the force of impact.
Among the chaos plaguing the town, Hilary made her way home and found it deserted. She couldn't find either of her siblings. Worry seeped through at the thought of her younger brother and sister out in the streets amidst this havoc. Not knowing what else to do, she rang up her mother to inform her of the present situation.
When her mother picked up, all she could hear was muffled static. She tried explaining what was happening but she was interrupted when she heard an explosion from her mother's phone followed by a wail.
"Mom!" The young woman screamed into the phone but nothing went through. In a moment of desperation, she ran across the house calling out to her siblings. She tried turning on the lights but all the bulbs had shattered. She noticed a paper on the desk with her name scrawled across the back. The messy hand writing was unmistakably Seita's.
The note informed her about Hiyori's kidnapping and their whereabouts. She felt her body go cold. Her younger sister had been taken and she wasn't there to protect her. She wasn't even at the location where she was being held like how Seita was. Before she could be hit with a wave of overwhelming guilt, she told herself that this wasn't the time for it. She bolted out of the house and ran in the direction of the old football field.
In her hurry to reach her sister, she didn't notice the man in her path. In a blur, she crashed into another body and both of them fell to the ground. She opened her eyes and saw that the person she had bumped into was a familiar face.
"Saito?" Hilary asked.
"Is everything alright? I've never seen you this distressed." Saito sounded worried.
It took everything she had to not fall apart right there. She took a deep breath and explained what had happened in her house.
"I have my car. We can use that to get there quicker." Saito said after listening to Hilary's story.
"Thank you so much." Hilary held back tears. "You have a bit beast right? Shouldn't you be posted somewhere more important?"
"I can't just abandon you… and all my neighbours." Saito looked away, blushing, upon realizing what he almost said. Before he could say anything else, a group of BABA officers arrived in front of Hilary's house.
"Miss Hilary Tachibana, we're here under the orders of president Sakura. We immediately need to get you and your family to safety. The corrupt bit masters are after your brother. Where is Seita?" One of the officers spoke up.
"You're too late. He's gone off to face them already." She said.
Saito put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry I'll drive you there right away and we'll make sure he's safe."
"What about your family?"
"They've been evacuated to a safe facility. I've been allowed to join the search party for your brother because I'm a bit beast master."
They got into a police car and Saito drove at full speed towards the football field. As soon as they left their neighbourhood, they encountered heavy traffic which significantly slowed them down. The current messed up state of the town caused various obstructions. Hilary's heart dropped.
"Do you think we should run there instead?" Saito suggested.
"Pirah, kill the girl now we've no use for her anymore." Andreous commanded, referring to Hiyori.
"No!" Seita screamed, clutching his arm in pain after stumbling back from the bit beast's attack.
Pirah wrapped his arm around Hiyori's neck. Hiyori glanced to Pirah. His body emulated a blinding glow which turned into a bright flash.
"Hiyori!" Seita called out. Before he could process what was happening, Andreous moved away swiftly from a blast. When the light died down, Seita noticed that Hiyori was unharmed and Pirah was attacking his master.
Just as Andreous maneuvered out of the blast, he found Pirah had gotten up close, striking with incredible precision. The bit beast leader expertly blocked each blow but the young beast just kept getting faster with a golden explosiveness. Andreous blocked a hit from Pirah's left hand but the right struck the side of his face. Before he could recover from the impact, he felt a foot dig into his rib, sending him flying back into the stands of the stadium. Pirah rubbed his nose with the back of his thumb.
The other possessed officer charged toward Pirah. Once they got well within range, the golden bit beast dropped to the floor, slamming his palms on the grassy floor causing a square-shaped electrical yellow energy to spread around him. The energy made the officers come tumbling to the ground and Pirah jumped back next to Hiyori, taking a defensive stance. A glowing barrier formed around Pirah, his new master, he declared was Hiyori.
"I won't be working for you anymore. I have a better master now and she's cuter than you'll ever be." He declared.
Andreous laughed. "I knew you had a pretty good hit but I wasn't aware that you're strong enough to catch me off guard like that shrimp. But make no mistake, falling for an inferior being will be the end of you." He snickered. "NEPTUNE!"
Seita looked up and he saw the spider bit beast that attacked him in the hospital land on the large barrier with a thud. Neptune swung his purple tendrils down, aiming toward Seita but the barrier protecting them gave him a loud zap. The electrical barrier began moving like gelatine underneath the spider beast causing him to slide off.
Pirah jumped up out of the square barrier protecting Hiyori, Seita and the others, engaging Neptune Pirah landed on top of the square barrier fighting desperately.
Andreous looked irritated. He shut his eyes and lifted one finger. "Enough games." A bright white flash enveloped the electrical sphere. The barrier completely shattered and everyone in and around it got blasted backwards. He smirked.
Seita slowly stood, groaning in pain. His eyes rapidly searched for his sister and only relaxed when he saw her safe. Pirah had managed to protect her.
"How did you do that?" Seita asked her sister's new bit beast.
"She was in the box that I had created so at the last second, I managed to teleport and protect her." Pirah tried getting up but fell back down grunting in pain. Hiyori tugged at his side.
"Don't get up. You're hurt." Hiyori told him.
"But-"
"You said I'm your new master. Well, this is my first order then."
Pirah silently obeyed with a star-struck look in his eyes. He had never met anyone quite like her.
A huge puff of dust rose up. When the dust settled, Seita saw that Mari had attacked Ardreous. She flew up with a knee aimed at his face but Ardeous blocked with a smirk, grasping her thigh. She glared just as she realized that she had gotten too close to him.
"Nice." Ardeous grinned as he readied himself to retaliate. He tossed her backwards but not before Mari pulled out her beyblade. She let it rip and Seita did the same.
"POSEIDDDOOON!" he yelled, crying to the cloudy skies with his palms gripped. Waves of water rapidly rushed around Squishy.
Squishy found himself transformed. He created a water surfing platform from the rain dropping around them and channeled it towards Ardeous. Poseidon used the platform to rise up into the air as it continued to rain and blocked the corrupted bit-master officers that were attempting to attack Seita. At the slam of mighty waves, the corrupt-bitmasters were washed away, knocked out as Seita barely managed to stay on his feet when the waves washed by him. Suddenly, Poseidon was grabbed by a large bit-beast and tossed down. He thrashed beside Seita as both of them were blasted back across the grass together.
Seita found his sights hazy. With his blurred vision, he saw the titan bit beast move toward him and Squishy in a mocking march that shook the ground with every step. Seita tried standing but his knees buckled, bringing him back to the floor. He felt the ground shake taking note of the steps getting into the ground as if the bit-beast was preparing to take off at Seita and Squishy.
In a moment of desperation, Mari tried to rush in and kick Ardreous, but the bit beast was fast. He grabbed her foot and swung her across the field as Mari shouted for Tizara.
"How many times are you going to attack with those kicks until you notice it's futile and Tizara is ours pesky fool?"
The titan bit-beast reached Seita, shrouding Seita in it's shadow as Seita glared up at the bit-beasts red eyes and kept Squishy close in a protective hug.
"T-This... is it-"
It's giant forearm swung down like a hammer.
