Breaking at the Seams Chapter 7: Fancy meeting you here!, a beyblade fanfic

AN: K-chan here… I worked long and hard today on a keyboard that sticks to bring this out! Not that anyone reads it.. bleh I have fun writing it anyway. Please if you ARE reading this, please review… it would mean lots to us… we are seriously getting discouraged.. But this chappy goes out to TFRiD Queen and Cherry Rain… who reviewed the most and the last! Please keep it up!

After riding in the bus for a good forty-five minutes, they finally came to a stop outside a rather large white building that had at least seven stories to it. Each floor was marked with a neat row of tinted glass windows that shone brightly in the hot Nevada sun, and reflected back in the teenager's eyes. Stepping off the bus they headed down the wide concrete path, following the lead of the orange haired girl, as well as the tall dark boy. The entrance itself was impressive. Towering pillars made of some type of blue synthetic stone framed wide metal doors that opened onto a small platform than an expansive staircase ran down from, connecting it to the concrete path.

The Bladebreakers paused at the bottom of the stairs, mingling a bit with whispers amongst each other; none of them really knew what was going on. The doors suddenly opened and out walked a blond woman carrying a clipboard. Before the woman could open her mouth to say anything Max shrieked and tore up the stairs. "MOM!"

The blond woman blinked in surprise then grinned as she caught sight of who it was that was now glomping her around the middle. "Maxy!" She exclaimed happily, laughing and hugging him back. "How are you son? It's been so long!"

"Good mom! It sure is great to see you again!" Max said, pulling back from his mother a bit to grin up at her.

"Ahem."

The cough brought the blond woman back to reality and she released Max to look down at the rest of the group. "Welcome Bladebreakers, I am Judy, the head of research and development here at the BBA headquarters of America." She greeted the rest of the team.

"Nice to meetcha!" Tyson exclaimed, grinning.

"So you're Max's mom, he told us his mother was a beyblade researcher here." Rei said, bowing respectfully.

Jade and Kai nodded at her, while Kenny murmured a shy hello. Liika raised a blue eyebrow. She was leery of this whole situation, and there was something about the blond woman that bothered her. Of course at that moment she was still pretty steamed about being replaced, but as she flexed her right arm in its sling, she winced as the stitches pulled and stung, reminding her that she was indeed in no condition to beyblade. Damn. "Yo." Was all she said.

"Well then, shall we get started? Mr. Dickenson has asked me to show you around the facilities here and the BBA, so please follow me. She turned and headed back up the stairs and through the doors with Max following closely like a little puppy dog, talking animatedly to his mother. The others shrugged and followed as well, the end of the line being brought up by the two teens that had picked them up at the airport.

"And this is where the researcher's work. We have a very dedicated staff that works around the clock to come up with new and improved beyblades and beyblade techniques." Judy explained as the group walked down a long hallway that had a viewing window on one side.

Kenny was practically drooling as he toted an open Dizzi along. "Oh wow! Would you look at all those computers! And the size of them! I want to work here! Judy can I work here? Please? Even if it's just as a janitor!" Kenny cried, starting to cling to the bottom of Judy's lab coat.

Judy laughed nervously and tried to pry the groveling boy's grip from the edge of her lab coat. "Um… well we'll see what we can do!"

Jade sighed and took a grip of the back collar of Kenny's shirt and proceeded to drag him away. "Come on, they're not going to give you a position here if you make yourself look stupid!" She said.

Rei, Tyson, Max and Liika laughed at Kenny who blushed and picked up Dizzi, whom he had dropped to glomp onto Judy. "It's about time! Drop me for some hussy with a faster processor and more memory!" Dizzi snapped.

"Sorry Dizzi, I got carried away." Kenny replied apologetically.

"I'll say!"

"Hey guys! When do we get to eat huh? I'm starving!" Tyson yelled grabbing his stomach as it made a gurgling sound.

The others who knew him sweatdropped and shook their heads. "When aren't you hungry Tyson!" Rei said, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh I dunno… prolly never!" Tyson replied with a grin.

Kai let out a disgusted snort, letting everyone know what he thought of Tyson's eating habits, while Jade –who had witnessed the said habits at breakfast, grimaced.

"Alright then, we'll break for lunch. Emily," Judy turned and spoke to the orange haired girl that had been following her during the tour, adding on comments where-ever she felt necessary. "Please show the Bladebreakers to the mess hall, I have something to check on."

Emily nodded and spoke primly, "Come on then, follow me."

Eddie had disappeared as soon as they walked through the entrance doors, so Emily was left to lead them alone.

"Wait." A voice called from the back of the group.

Emily turned and looked at the girl whose arm was in a sling, raising an eyebrow as she did so. "Yes?"

"Where's the washroom?" Liika asked politely.

The orange haired girl shrugged. "Down the hall to the left, down another hall and then a right then go straight about ten meters then another right and you can't miss it."

Liika frowned and eyed the hallway Emily had indicated. "Er… right." She said, and headed in down the hall. "I'll meet you guys at the mess!"

Rei opened his mouth to say something but she was already turning the first corner and had disappeared from sight. "She doesn't know where the mess is." He said with a sigh.

"Oh there are directions all over the place, she'll find her way easy enough, come one." Emily consoled lightly, nodding in another direction.

The rest shrugged and followed the short girl in the tennis uniform.

Liika cursed Emily to hell and back, some directions! She had been walking in what seemed like circles for five minutes and still hadn't found the bathroom! Growling she turned yet another corner –right this time and almost ran smack dab into a sign that was sticking out of the wall that said in big bright blue letters "WASHROOMS à"

"What a stupid place for a sign…" She muttered narrowly avoiding whacking her head on the obstructing sign.

She found the girls bathroom door not too far down the little hallway the sign indicated, going in she finished her business quickly then headed out back to the main hallway.

Liika looked in either direction, trying to remember which direction she had come from, but was failing miserably. Damn, she thought, which way was it? She should have asked Emily for the directions back to the mess, not that it would have done any good… look where the first directions had gotten her. Tapping her left cheek with her good hand she mused for a moment and then decided on going left, it looked sort of familiar… well not really but it looked good enough!

The hall way around her was slightly different from the one she had left her group in. The window that had clearly displayed the scientists at work was not there, and the lighting on the ceiling seemed a bit dimmer, which bathed her surroundings in shadow. Sometimes, as she traveled further down the hall she would pass various doors or small windows that signified offices or conference rooms, however, the further she walked, the darker it got.

She was about to give up and turn around when a whirling sound caught her ears and caused her to pause a moment. The sound was coming from a doorway some fifty feet from where she had paused. Tilting her head to the side curiously, she made her way toward the door and peered inside. What she saw caused her to blink in shock then an annoyed scowl cross her face.

Two people stood on either side of a large beyblade dish, one a girl about twelve years of age, with long brown hair and teary blue eyes, and the other a tall boy with a shock of maroon hair tucked under a blue and white baseball cap. His light blue eyes glinted arrogance and he wore a smirk to match. He was wearing the costume of a baseball player, a white, and blue shirt, with a yellow and green under shirt. His shorts matched the green of his shirt, and on his right hand a deep russet baseball glove was perched.

At the moment he seemed to be taunting the visibly younger girl, his blade dancing around her relentless attacks as if she were nothing more than an insect to him. Then, as if growing tired of toying with her he moved in for the kill, but before he could destroy her blade –as he has obviously intended to do, Liika's voice rang out.

"Still picking on little girls Michael?"

The boy faltered in his attack giving the younger girl just enough time to counter attack while he was distracted, sending his orange blade out of the dish and onto the floor beside him. "What the….?" The tall teenager whirled around to see whom it was that had cost him to lose to a beginner.

Liika stood in the door way confidently, eyeing the boy with distaste and a bit of amusement. The look on his face was priceless, it was a mask of pure surprise; his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open. "You do realize you resemble a fish at the moment?" She quipped opening and closing her mouth just as he was doing.

Michael soon got over the initial shock and his face twisted into an angry scowl. "Liika? What excellent timing you have –as always."

Liika grinned back at him, waggling her eyebrows up and down and winking as she stepped in the room. She sent a smile toward the girl that was now looking with confusion between Liika and Michael. The girl smiled nervously back and then scurried away, afraid of the older boy's wrath. Liika continued over to where Michael was still scowling at her, leaning over she picked up the losing beyblade.

She turned it over in her hand, examining every detail of it, aware of his intense gaze on the top of her head. "I see you got a new one… a different design too, and a new bit beast! I'm impressed." She said a bit smugly, still examining the blade.

"Where did you come from?" was his surly reply, reaching out and snatching the blade from her hand, she could have sworn he was pouting.

"It's nice to see you too Parker." Liika shot back blandly.

Michael rolled his blue eyes and placed on hand at his waist, while the other tossed his blade up and down. "What are you doing here?"

"Still sore about that loss I see. It's been two years, get over it."

Although her voice held aggravation, inside she felt none. Seeing him brought back painful memories as well as good memories. Last time she had see him was the tournament where her parent's had been killed. They were good friends, and Liika had had the biggest crush on him, and had suspicions he might have felt the same, but when her parents were killed things changed. She became touchy, and any little thing could set her off. Two days after her parent's death the finals of the American tournament were held, and since she had made it to the finals, she felt that her parents would have wanted her to continue so she did. Michael had also made it to the finals, and everyone believed Michael had the obvious advantage with his bit beast. What everyone didn't know was that Liika had inherited the guardian from her mother, and had taken the small bit from the necklace her mother had kept it and put it in her white blade.

Michael had been doing what he normally did, teasing her about being a girl in a boys sport, it was always like that since they met –she had defeated one his friends, but that day she had lost it. One normal comment changed everything.

"…Haha thought you would have learned that beyblading is a boy's sport! Girls don't belong in it!" Michael said laughing as his blade attacked her blade.

Liika tensed in anger, the comment seemed to push her grief stricken mind over the edge. Screaming, she grasped her head and shrieked, "AKALA!"

In the seconds that followed no one really knew what happened. The arena filled with a light so bright that people ducked their heads and covered their eyes. Michael was knocked back on to his butt, the light blinding him momentarily.

When everything cleared only one blade was spinning in the middle of the dish, the other lay in splinters scattered around the bowl –it looked like it had imploded on itself. Michael jumped down into the dish and gathered the fragments of his blade.

There was nothing left, nothing. Even the bit, that had held his precious bit beast had been shattered to pieces, his bit beast gone. Tears gathered in his eyes and his fist clenched around the blade fragments. How could she have done this? Snapping his head up to glare at her, he found her not to be standing, but to be on the ground, unconscious.

He hadn't known that she had a bitbeast, and in her pain had called a power too strong for his bit beast or blade to handle, and shattered his blade. She really hadn't meant too, although the incident made one thing perfectly clear.

Akala was very powerful, more so than she had ever thought. Of course she had never been able to call on that power since then, sure she could call her bit beast – a feat that her foremothers never could accomplish, but the sheer magnitude of the power displayed in that one match had never been reached again.

Liika still felt guilty. She had woken up in a hospital bed, diagnosed with exhaustion and dehydration. She was in the hospital overnight, while the arrangements for her parents were made, but Michael never came to see her. In fact she hadn't seen him until the day after her parents funeral at the awards ceremony for the tournament, where he had blatantly ignored her. It hurt beyond words that the guy she liked suddenly ignored her, she hadn't even remembered what had happened. It wasn't till later that someone had filled her in.

She saw him one last time, at the airport just before she boarded the plane that took her home.

Someone tapped on her shoulder, startling her. Turning around, Liika came face to face with the objects of her thoughts. Faintly in the background she could hear the announcer announcing her flight boarding, but she stayed firmly planted, staring up at the down cast blue eyes of Michael Parker.

"Sorry about your parents." He spoke softly, his voice devoid of emotion.

Liika's eyes flittered down to the floor, as tears welled up once more. Sniffling she took a big breath and nodded. "Thank you."

"Yeah, well, see ya." With that he turned and started to disappear into the crowd.

"Michael wait!" She called frantically, stepping forward once.

Michael paused in his step and looked sadly over his shoulder, eyes questioning silently.

"I'm sorry about your blade and bit beast…I-" She tried to explain, tears now pouring freely down her face.

He shrugged and said before disappearing into the crowd, "Whatever, it's all good."

Liika started sobbing, the pain and guilt overwhelming her to the point where she had to be guided on the plane.

Tears welled in her eyes at the memory. It was certainly not the happiest time in her life, but she moved on, however, she had never expected to come face to face with Michael ever again. Collecting herself with a large breath she prepared to face what she had feared to face for two years.

Attraction. After riding in the bus for a good forty-five minutes, they finally came to a stop outside a rather large white building that had at least seven stories to it. Each floor was marked with a neat row of tinted glass windows that shone brightly in the hot Nevada sun, and reflected back in the teenager's eyes. Stepping off the bus they headed down the wide concrete path, following the lead of the orange haired girl, as well as the tall dark boy. The entrance itself was impressive. Towering pillars made of some type of blue synthetic stone framed wide metal doors that opened onto a small platform than an expansive staircase ran down from, connecting it to the concrete path.