Chapter Three: Rescue missions and new faces
When he had gone under, Tyson had been hit by how cold the water was. He could feel it tearing at his skin cruelly, slicing into each tiny pore, all over his body, he could feel it pulling at him wildly, wanting him, and drawing and dragging him down, further and further, darker, colder . . .
"Current . . . how? This is a lake," he thought, gritting his teeth and forcing his eyes open. It was murky and he couldn't see much, but he made out the contour of Rei, clinging tightly to some sort of large water plant lodged at the bottom of the lake. Rei reached out a cold, numb hand and Tyson grabbed it, and then he clumsily grasped at one of the plant's long, sinuous vines. It was well rooted and would support them, but they could not swim back to the surface and they were running out of time.
Tyson could feel his heart pulsating brutally in his chest. He was sure Rei could hear it, and his lungs felt like they were going to explode. The water punctured his skin all over, and he could feel himself trembling viciously. He looked at Rei, whose eyes were wide but his pupils were like narrow yellow slits. They were especially vivid in the sinister depths of the water. He blinked at Tyson, who smiled weakly. He would have said something but he knew he couldn't.
"So this is it?" Tyson thought frenziedly, "What about the tournament? Dragoon? The Blade-Breakers?"
His head began to spin, and he felt woozy and peculiar. The throbbing in his chest was reducing slowly, and everything around seemed to get shadowy. He took a final look at Rei, who had his eyes squinted shut rigidly, and then, just as he blacked out, he felt something seize him from around the waist and keep hold.
********
Rei opened his eyes with a jolt when he felt an urgent tug at his midriff. At first he couldn't tell what was going on but then he saw that Kai had grasped him around the waist, and, with Tyson tucked under the other arm, was about to make for the surface. Rei smiled dazedly - he was light headed. But for some reason, they couldn't get to the surface. Kai was wrenching at something that wouldn't dislodge. Rei looked around and saw that Tyson had actually become intertwined in the vines of the plant, and Kai couldn't get him free with one hand. To Rei's alarm, Kai let go of Tyson and tugged on the scarf that was tied around his middle, which stretched up to the surface.
*******
Kenny and Max waited apprehensively for the expected tug.
"Please be ok, guys . . . " said Kenny, stressing. Max agreed wordlessly, but he didn't want to say anything. He could feel the strain in the air.
After a lingering wait of about thirty seconds, there was a sharp tug on the scarf, so sharp and sudden that it almost slipped out of their hands. Kenny exclaimed out loud.
"Pull, Max!"
Max nodded, gritted his teeth, and began to hoist the scarf up. It was much more difficult than they expected, but Max could tell that his brief workout with the logs had already helped him - his arms had loosened up and he had never felt stronger. Soon the scarf was almost all the way out of the water, and then, all of a sudden, Rei's head popped out. His floppy black hair looked darker than usual, if that was possible, and it hung in his eyes, which were dimmer than they usually were and only just ajar. His skin was ashen, and he coughed wildly, his shoulders racking and shuddering. Ice-cold water ran down off his face in rivers.
"Rei!" cried the Chief, who grabbed Rei by the shoulders and began to pull him out of the lake. Kai's head appeared next to Rei, and, after a few gasps of much needed air and a quick shake of his head to clear the water from his eyes, he spoke to Max.
"Tyson is . . . still . . . down there. I'm going . . . down again - hold . . . tight!"
He departed again as Kenny hoisted the shivering, just about awake Rei out of the water completely. Rei was faint and too drained to support himself. Max looked at him, wanting to help keep him warm, but he knew it wasn't over yet and he gripped the scarf securely.
********
Kai swam down en route for the plant and Tyson as rapidly as he could. The cold was freezing his arms and legs and he knew he had to act fast, and the current made it difficult to travel in the desired direction. He reached Tyson's side and began to wrench at the plants around him. To his surprise, they were quite jagged.
"Come on!" he thought irately as he worked on a certain vine, trying to avoid splicing his arm on the plant's hefty thorns. Tyson was cataleptic, and his head bobbed in the current, his dark bangs of hair poking out flaccidly from under his cap. Kai growled and pulled fiercely at the main vine that was wrapped around poor Tyson. Unexpectedly, it broke free and Tyson was very nearly swept away in the current. Kai grabbed hold of him and turned to swim for the surface.
********
Max waited for the tug he expected as Kenny helped Rei, who was raking in vast, shuddering gasps of air, his vision still indistinct. His teeth were chattering and his fingers were blue. Kenny took off his jacket and put it around Rei's shoulders. Rei smiled at Kenny, but then glanced wildly at the hole in the ice.
"Tyson!" he rasped, alarmed, his voice weak and hoarse.
Kenny looked at Max, who answered: "Kai's gone down for him."
Rei sighed, shaking, knowing that the threat was not yet passed, and he watched the scarf, held rigid in the water and stretched to its constraint. It suddenly twanged, pulsating with the tug Max felt, and Max began to hoist it back up robustly, finding it even easier this time. But when he pulled out the cleaved edge of the saturated scarf, and saw no sign of Tyson or Kai, he stared aghast at the water.
"Um, Chief?"
********
Kai turned and saw his scarf snag on one of the vines. He swam towards it but nearly lost his grip on Tyson, and before he could reach the scarf, it snapped in two.
"No!" yelled Kai silently, and he immediately felt the current tug Tyson and himself back into the depths. He kept tight hold of Tyson and coiled his leg around one of the smaller vines, making sure he didn't get trapped and just avoiding a large thorn. His chest was starting to throb, but at least they weren't getting swept away - yet.
"What now?" he thought wildly, glancing down at the lifeless Tyson. His face was grey and colourless and Kai felt a twinge of fear in his gut. He looked from one place to another, trying to unearth an escape route, but he saw none. He felt his Dranzer blade in his back pocket, wondering if he'd ever use it again.
"Dranzer . . . " he thought, his vision darkening as a curtain, a black and silvery shroud was gradually let down over his eyes. But he suddenly saw - or thought he saw - the other end of his scarf, dangling down a little way in front of him.
"Is that for real?" he thought, blinking hard, trying to remedy his hazy vision. He determined that it was, especially when he saw the log of wood that had been tied on to the end of the scarf.
"Yes!" exclaimed Kai in his head, grinning as his sights restored, and he was about to reach for the scarf when he realised with alarm that it was too far away. He'd have to let go of the plant and venture the current to reach the dangling wood.
"You've gotta be kiddin' me!" he thought, frustrated, as he reached for the remainders of his scarf with his free arm. But it was just out of reach.
"Have to . . . swim . . . "
Rapidly, wondering if Tyson was even alive any more and relentless in his resolve to get him out of the lake, Kai unfurled his leg from the vine he was clinging to. He felt the swift current rush at them straight away, and it drew them further down. Kai kicked strongly with his legs and used his free arm to try and push Tyson and himself forwards, but to his dismay, they seemed to stay in the same place.
"No, not now!" he thought bitterly as his sights swayed again, "Not now!"
He had almost given up, his legs sub-zero and out of energy, when his pocket moved again and a flash of red light materialized behind them. He turned in the water, stunned, and saw that his Dranzer had emerged from his blade and was in the water at the back of them. Its fire still blazed vividly in the liquid, the unquenchable fire of supremacy and splendour forever passionate in its heart.
Kai stared, his eyes wide, but before he saw anything else, he too lost awareness and blacked out. Dranzer watched fixedly and roared. Then, it began to circle its wings swiftly, creating a drive, a force, and a current of its own in the water. Flames wreathed elegantly and trailed behind Dranzer like some sort of firework. The two boys began to move away in the current, but the motion from Dranzer's wings made a potent current. It caught the boys, (who were still clasped together) and swept them towards the surface and the scarf.
********
"Well, Max?"
Rei looked at Max, himself feeling a little recovered, even though he was still very cold. Max shook his head. "Nothing."
It had been Kenny's inspiration to wrap a log around the ripped scarf, and they'd been sure it would work. The Chief had raced to the spot where Max had been carrying logs and brought one back hurriedly, and they had somehow, with their bumbling, freezing fingers, tied the sopping scarf around the wood. They had been confident when they had thrown in the rescue line. Now their spirits began to diminish, as if the icy water of the lake had stifled them unmercifully.
"Come on, guys!" muttered Max, tears welling in his eyes. Kenny murmured to himself too. "Please . . . "
Max waited for another minute. There was no tug. Max stared at the scarf, as if it had let him down, as if trying to constrain it to stir with his entire psyche.
"No . . . please . . . "
Kenny dropped to his knees. Rei stared.
"They . . . they can't be gone! No . . . no way!"
Rei felt his eyes beginning to sting, and, looking at the Chief and Max, he knew they felt the same way. Max loosened his hand, tears trickling down his cheeks, leaving a tiny trail where they channelled. He was about to release the material when he felt the faintest of pulls on the scarf, scarcely a tug, but he felt it for sure.
"Guys! I felt it!"
Kenny leaped up and began to help Max pull on the scarf. Max shook his tears away and towed relentlessly. It was more difficult this time, but they slowly found they had more and more scarf clustering in their cold, numb hands. Rei watched restlessly, feeling a little futile but knowing his legs wouldn't sustain him if he tried to stand and help.
It felt like they had been pulling at the scarf eternally when Tyson's head was thrust up out of the water. He was still out cold and his skin was a wan tint, and Kenny immediately seized hold of him and yanked him out of the water, almost yelping when he felt how cold poor Tyson's body was. When Tyson was clear of the water and he lay out of harm's way on the ice there was still no sign of Kai. Max continued to pull on the scarf.
Suddenly, a hand emerged from the water and it grabbed and fumbled at the edge of the hole in the ice, trying to find a hold. Max yelled out, dropped the scarf, and grabbed the cold hand. He pulled upwards with all his valour, and eventually Kai's head appeared, his hair flopping down and sticking to his face, and his skin turning a light shade of blue. He coughed violently as Max pulled him further out of the water. Ultimately he could get his knee up and he crawled out, exhausted, and lay trembling on the ice with his eyes closed.
"Tyson! Tyson!" yelled Kenny, shaking the flaccid Tyson, who lay as though sound asleep on the ice. Rei watched him worriedly, but was soon comforted to see Tyson open his eyes blearily and hoarsely cough up about a pint of water. He shivered, powerless to talk, and Rei took off the jacket that Kenny had given him and offered it to Tyson. Kenny put it around him and sat him up slowly, and Tyson smiled, shaking violently, his skin an insipid blue shade, and drops of water fell off him as he quivered.
"Just relax, Tyson, you're ok now."
Tyson nodded weakly, fatigued. His lacklustre eyes were only half open and he was still gulping in huge gasps of air, but he was glad to be out of the freezing cold water. It had stung his bones just being in there. Tyson looked at the water, his vision unstable and his head still a little bit light, and shivered even more.
Max had helped Kai to sit up. He seemed exhausted, in virtually as bad a state as Tyson. His skin was dark - the blue slashes on his cheeks seemed to diminish a little because of the lighter blue of his skin. His head dropped weakly onto his chest and he gasped quietly, air a blessing. He shivered uncontrollably and Max took off his coat and draped it around his shoulders. Kai looked at him.
"Good . . . job, Max" he said faintly through chattering teeth. Max nodded, pleased and proud. He looked at Rei and Tyson, who were very slowly recovering.
"Well, I guess that covers today's training," he said, almost grinning. Rei burst into a sort of relieved laughter.
"Yeah."
Kenny smiled. "I hope that'll teach you not to goof off on the ice, Tyson and Rei."
Rei nodded. "Too cold . . . for that!"
Max laughed. "Are you both ok?"
"I'm ok," said Rei, still shaking but not so much anymore, "How about you, Tyson?"
Tyson's colour was not quite returning yet, but he looked more alert. He just nodded - he didn't feel like talking much.
"And you, Kai?" asked Kenny, looking at the shivering Kai. He looked straight back and said faintly:
"You guys owe me a scarf."
They all looked at the torn scarf that was still tied around Kai's middle, its ends tattered and bits of material unravelling from it, and they laughed.
********
The Blade-Breakers, after their narrow shave, so to speak, went straight back to their hotel. It was about a fifteen-minute walk and it was trying because Tyson, Rei and Kai were all worn out. The Chief and Max helped them as much as they could.
As he walked, Tyson watched the area around him. He had never noticed before how pretty Iceland was. The snow, as the sky around them slowly grew darker, glistened and shone prettily. The landscape was rather vacant and austere but it was still very beautiful - it was unhindered by roads, highways, buildings, and the splendour of nature was all around them.
"I'm lucky to even see this place again!" he thought to himself as he limped along, leaning on Max's shoulder. The experience had shaken him up completely and he found he was already more appreciative of the small things. However, he also noticed that his appetite hadn't changed and he was famished.
When they got back to the hotel, they avoided Mrs Riley and the strange Ronald and made for their room. As they opened the door and went in, the Chief was dismayed to find that the window had indeed broken and the room was wintry.
"That's great!" he exclaimed sardonically, opening Dizzi up. "Dizzi, are there any other hotels around here that we could go to? This place really takes the biscuit."
Dizzi bleeped, performing a scan of the country. "Not unless you wanna travel another fifty or so miles. It's pretty deserted around here!"
Kenny shook his head. "I don't believe this!"
Max seated the other three on the best looking of the beds. "Chill out, Chief! We can block the window with something. Don't worry!"
Kenny sighed. "You're right. I'm just worried about these guys. They need a good, warm sleep, and they aren't gonna get it here, are they?"
Max looked crestfallen. "Yeah, but this is all we have. We'll be ok."
"I'm more interested in food, guys!" said Tyson, his voice sounding thin and croaky. He smiled wonkily at the Chief. "I guess my appetite is still fine!"
The Chief smiled, and looked at the others. "Rei, Kai, Max? Do you want to come get some food?"
Kai and Rei had taken an exhausted seat on their beds. "No thanks," said Rei, lifting a hand. "All I want is a good long sleep."
Kai nodded his agreement and Max shook his head. "I'll stay too. I can look after these guys, and I'll do something about that window."
Kenny nodded appreciatively, and gestured for Tyson, who was obviously recovering fast, to follow him. They left the room and went downstairs.
Max took out a jumper from his bags, and, with some old, rusty pins he found in a box under his bed, he pinned it to the wall around the window.
"Hope Dad doesn't find out. He'd kill me for pinning up my jumper!"
"Hey Max?"
Max turned. "Yes, Kai?"
"Do you know how to work Dizzi?"
Max was put out, and Rei looked confused too. "Why?"
"Do you?"
Max nodded. "It's pretty basic. Sure. The Chief left her behind."
Max went over to Kenny's bed and picked up the small black laptop. He switched Dizzi on.
"Basic, huh?" she remarked huffily. Max grinned apologetically.
Kai stood up a little shakily and then sat down next to the computer. "Dizzi?"
"Mmm hmm?"
"Can you analyse this?"
He held out a small, round plastic tab. It looked kind of like a bottle cap. It was black with a trace of gold on it. Rei, who had also made his way over and sat down heavily on the bed, stared.
"Where d'you get that, Kai?"
Kai looked at the object in his hand. "On the ice, just underneath the surface."
Dizzi bleeped, and told Kai to hold it up. When he did so she bleeped some more, and a small picture of the thing appeared on her screen.
"What do you want to know about it?"
"What it is would be nice," said Max, scratching his head. Dizzi bleeped again. But Rei squinted closer to the screen.
"Wait, Dizzi, rotate the picture."
The image spun slowly and they saw what Rei had been looking at. There was a tiny inscription on the black plastic. It was shaped a little like a musical treble clef with a zigzagged line going almost vertically through it, and was carved in gold. Dizzi scanned it.
"Hmm . . . not good news, guys. First of all, this is no ordinary plastic bottle cap. It was an explosive, but it's gone off very recently. Scary!"
Max gasped. "No way!"
"It gets worse," Dizzi continued, digits emerging furiously on her screen followed by a long scroll of information, "I just scanned the inscription, and found some notes on it. Turns out that this little symbol is an Icelandic one, meaning 'Dragon of evil'. And when you translate Dragon of Evil into most languages, including Latin, the language which English is mainly derived from, then it comes out as 'Apophis'".
They stared at the screen, the picture from the store filling their heads. Rei coughed and cleared his throat.
"Well, looks like somebody is after us."
********
"Where's the food in this place?"
Tyson could hear his stomach rumbling. In fact he was pretty sure that everyone else could hear his stomach rumbling. He scratched his head and looked around almost anxiously, searching with his blue (ish) eyes for something to eat. It has to be said that Tyson was always hungry. Even in the most complex, complicated of situations, Tyson would always have some sort of 'food thought' in his head. When questioned on his huge appetite, he usually responded "I'm a growing boy!" but to be honest, he couldn't explain his massive appetite himself. However, he wasn't lazy, and so he burned off all of the food he threw down almost instantly. In fact, he was slim with a good posture and was quite tall.
Kenny did an about face and looked at Tyson. "Just be patient! We'll find something!"
Tyson sighed. His underwater encounter had left him starving. Kenny laughed.
"I think I've found it!"
He pointed at a sign on the wall. There was some weird writing on it, probably Icelandic, and underneath was a faded picture of a turkey. Tyson laughed.
"Alright! Turkey!"
He ran towards the sign, and then into the room that it pointed to. He was rather disappointed when he entered the room. There was a mangy looking table, with four chairs around it. One of the chairs only had half a leg on it, and everywhere was dusty. He couldn't smell any food.
"I guess we were stupid to get our hopes up. In a place like this, what can you expect?" said Kenny, looking with disgust at the dirty cobwebs on the broken chandelier that hung from the blackening ceiling. The place really was horrible.
Tyson groaned, and his stomach rumbled again. Then he heard some giggles from the corridor behind them.
"Who's that, d'ya think Chief?"
The Chief shrugged. "Go ask!"
Tyson marched forward out of the filthy dining room and bumped straight into a group of four young girls. He fell on his butt, and, after a little grunt, he looked up at them. The Chief came up behind him and looked at the girls.
The first thing that struck Tyson was that there were twins in the group. Two identical looking girls stood taller than the others. Their hair was a plumy shade of russet, tied up in tight ponytails, and their eyes were bright, a mischievous shade of green. Their cheeks were lightly speckled and their noses were small and pointed, as were their ears. They reminded Tyson of sprites. They were thin and a little bit gangly, and they both wore different clothes. One wore a pink top with a rather revealing neckline, and the other wore a black polar-necked long sleeved one. Both had denim trousers, but the first wore tighter ones and the second wore huge, baggy ones, and the first wore heeled shoes and the second wore thick, clumpy black boots. They both grinned identical, bright grins at Tyson.
The third girl was of average height. Her hands were on her hips. She had jet-black hair, which was quite long and straight and shimmered nicely as it hung about her shoulders. Her eyes were shadowy and her face was sober looking, but she was striking too. On her body she wore bits of jewellery, jagged and pointed and very cool looking, and on the tops of her arms were tiny bands of light coppery metal, so thin they could easily be mistaken as tattoos with little trails of cream ribbon-like material flowing off them. On her top half she wore a light cream top with three- quarter-length sleeves that flared a little at the edges with brown bits. She also wore a pair of three-quarter-length trousers, which were a creamy beige sort of colour, and these too had a light brown edge to them. She wore small cream sneakers (which looked like Sketchers) and her legs were shaped. Her skin was not bronzed, yet not fair either. She just stared at Tyson through her brown eyes.
The last girl was shorter than the rest by a good way. She was very animated looking - her hazel-brown eyes were absolutely massive and she blinked them in rapid succession. Her face was small but curved, and she had a pleasant looking grin. She had big dangly earrings in and her nose was pierced. She was a little bit 'fatter' than the other girls but was not overweight in the slightest - she just wasn't as lean as the others. Her hair was light brown and wavy and it hung loose about her face, framing her dark skin. She wore a light blue strappy top that showed off her arms, with a denim jacket slung over one shoulder. She wore nicely fitting jeans on her bottom half and a pair of quite classy boots to finish it off. Her skin was dark - very dark, almost black - and the whites of her eyes stood out startlingly against the vast contrast of her skin. She was very nice- looking indeed. She smiled a bit pityingly at Tyson.
"Are you alright?" she said, looking down at Tyson and then glancing at Kenny. Tyson nodded, a little discomfited, and stood up clumsily, brushing the vast amounts of dust off his shorts. The first of the twins, the one in the pink top, looked at his shorts.
"Aren't your legs cold? Those shorts don't look very warm."
Her voice was tingly and melodious. Kenny nodded.
"She's right, Tyson. You should change into something warmer, especially after-"
"Tyson, is it?" said the second of the twins. She peered at him, her voice identical to that of her sisters. "You look cold, Tyson."
Tyson nodded, and the girl with the dark skin giggled.
"Don't you talk, Tyson?"
Tyson stuttered, embarrassed, and then got hold of himself. "Yeah, I talk. Hi."
The girl flicked her hair and grinned amiably. "Hi. I'm Jenna."
The twins stepped forward. "I'm Leanne . . . " said the first " . . . And I'm Tony!" followed the second.
The last girl didn't speak.
"This is Rio. She doesn't talk much," said Tony, nodding towards the girl with the jet-black hair, who stayed silent. They all had American accents so they weren't native to Iceland. Tyson nodded appreciatively.
"It's nice to meet you all. I'm Tyson, and this here is Kenny, but we call him the Chief."
Tony seemed interested. "There are more of you?"
Kenny nodded. "Yes. We're on a team."
Rio looked up at him sharply and stared. "Beybladers?"
Her voice was sharp and hard, but pleasant to hear. However, the abruptness of her question startled Kenny and he stammered. Tyson filled in for him.
"We're part of the Blade-Breakers!"
Leanne's eyes widened. "The Blade-Breakers?"
Jenna stared and squinted at Tyson. "I can see the resemblance, I suppose. Tyson on the TV looked better than you, Tyson number two."
Tyson didn't know what to say. "What? I am Tyson, not Tyson number two!"
"He's cuter than you are!" insisted Tony, agreeing with Jenna. Tyson growled, and Kenny suppressed a giggle.
"Here, check this out! My Dragoon blade!"
"Tyson, no!" said Kenny, remembering what Gramps had said about watching what they were doing, but Tyson already had his blade out and was flashing it around. The girls stared at it as it glinted.
"Ooo!"
"So you really are Tyson?" said Jenna, as if still uncertain. She amused Kenny a lot, and she obviously ticked Tyson off a lot.
"Yeah, I'm Tyson."
"That means your team is staying in this hotel?" asked Leanne. The Chief nodded.
"Yep. We're here to compete in the tournament."
"You're not the only ones!" giggled Leanne. Rio glared at her. "Leanne, we aren't supposed to give out information like that you know."
Tony shrugged. "They would have found out anyway. Don't be a stick in the mud, Rio. Say hi."
Rio scowled, and for a minute she really reminded Tyson of Kai and his bad attitude. "Let's get back to our rooms . . . not like you can call it a room, this place is so pathetic."
Kenny and Tyson looked at each other and burst out laughing. The girls stared at them, puzzled. "What?"
"You guys are pretty funny!" said Kenny, calming down. "Hey, how about you guys come and meet our room mates? You'd like them - the Blade- Breakers!"
Leanne looked thrilled. "Is Rei there?"
Tyson nodded, and Leanne's eyes widened even further. "Is my hair ok?"
Rio rolled her eyes. "Get a grip, Leanne."
"Come on, what can it hurt?" asked Tony, for once agreeing with her sister. Jenna nodded. "It'll be fun. Besides, we can check out our competition!"
Rio sighed. "Fine. Whatever."
She flicked her hair back and put her hands on her hips again. "Just don't take too long. We have work to do."
The other girls agreed reluctantly to Rio's demands and they all followed Tyson and Kenny (chatting as they did so) up the stairs and down the musty hallway to their rooms. Tyson opened the creaky, dangerously wobbly door and he and Kenny entered the room cautiously, followed by the girls.
"Guys, we have guests . . . "
Rei, Max and Kai all looked up - they had been staring attentively at Dizzi's screen. Suddenly Max quickly covered up the 'bottle cap' and Rei snapped Dizzi shut with a childlike grin.
"Hi."
The four girls poked their heads into the room (Leanne going absolutely wild at the sight of Rei). The three boys on the bed grinned ineptly, hoping that the girls hadn't noticed what they had been doing.
"Um . . . "began Tyson, feeling a little bit of tension in the room, and also wondering what they had been looking at on Dizzi's screen, " . . . Guys, this is Leanne, Tony, Jenna, and Rio. They're on a Beyblading team. I think we'll be battling them at the tournament."
Max stood up politely. "Great! So what's your team name?"
Jenna spoke shyly. "We're the Comets. We were the top Beybladers in our home town!"
"Why are you called the 'Comets'?"
"No reason, really. I suppose it sounds good."
"Cool," said Rei, also standing, "So . . . um . . . "
"Tyson, we're busy," said Kai sharply, glaring at Tyson and the Chief, "Maybe now isn't such a good time for you to have brought these girls up here. We have things to discuss, so, if you wouldn't mind . . . "
"You're just as pushy as you look on the TV," said Rio as she turned her back and swept from the room, her black hair trailing behind her. The other girls followed meekly, Jenna saying something about being sorry for disturbing them and Leanne making eyes at Rei, who blushed and cringed a little. He just wasn't in the mood.
The door shut and Tyson immediately began to yell. "That was the rudest thing I ever saw, Kai! Was there really any need? What's so important that we couldn't just talk with them for five min-"
"No, Tyson," interrupted Max, holding out the 'bottle cap' he had concealed in his palm, "Kai's right. Something's going on. Check it out."
Tyson examined the bottle cap explosion in his hands, prodding it and twisting it, until he said, "So? What is it?"
Dizzi took her turn to speak. "Well, genius, it's an explosive."
Tyson yelped and dropped the thing on the floor. Rei grinned and picked it up. "Good thing it's already gone off."
The Chief was confused. "But, where did you get this? Why is it so significant?"
Dizzi spoke again. "Chief, it was on the underside of the ice that cracked beneath Tyson and Rei. I knew they weren't heavy enough to break that ice!"
Tyson and Kenny stared. "W . . . what?"
"It means someone's out to get us," said Max solemnly, a rare moment in his bouncy life, "and it gets worse. There's an inscription on the bomb that actually translates as Apophis. So this thing must be linked to the photograph."
Tyson and Kenny were even more taken aback. "Man, and we thought you guys were gonna have a rest!" laughed the Chief nervously.
"There's no time for rest now," said Kai, looking around at the group, "We all have to be on our guard. Obviously someone has got a problem with us - it could be Old Bill, or whatever he was called - but for all we know he's innocent. So there's no one to point the finger at. Which means we have to be careful. Always stick together, no wandering off alone-"
"Does that apply to you, too, Kai?" interrupted Tyson with a smirk. Kai ignored him (he had a tendency to go off alone and train in secret, leaving the others baffled as to his whereabouts).
"Avoid anyone who looks suspicious to you. We don't have a clue who this is. At night, we'll always have someone on watch."
The others groaned, but Kai cut them short. "I know, I don't like it either, but in this rat trap anyone could just pull the door off its hinges and waltz in. So we'll take turns to watch, two hours each or something."
"Shouldn't we try to contact Mr Granger or Mr Dickinson?" asked Max. Rei answered him.
"Not unless you don't want to compete in this tournament," he said quietly, "They'll fly us straight home. I don't wanna miss this tournament."
"Me neither!" said Tyson, getting a little riled up, "We came here to Beyblade, and we aren't going home for anything! Nothing can stop the Blade- Breakers!"
Dizzi bleeped. "That's the spirit, guys. But be careful. I don't want to be the one to explain to Mr Dickinson why . . . "
She stopped, and Kai resumed speaking. "We don't know how far these people are willing to go. After all, if they did intend to blow up that ice - which I don't doubt - then they were trying to hurt us. They aren't gonna stop at anything."
"This sounds like something out of a movie," commented Tyson, removing his cap and running his hand through his hair. Max giggled.
"Yeah, all we need now is a monster and some cheesy horror music!"
Suddenly, the door boomed open and an atrociously disfigured shape entered. The Blade-Breakers yelled out as the lights dimmed and a cold breeze blew menacingly through the room.
Max squinted his eyes shut, and felt Tyson and Kenny clutching to his arms. Rei and Kai instinctively moved into fighting positions, fearful as they were.
"Get out!" cried Rei, shaking and peering vigilantly through one eye, "D-don't come any closer!"
The shape seemed to move. Rei edged slowly towards it, scared stiff. He took a closer look at the figure, and then gasped.
"Wait a second!"
The lights flicked on - Kai had moved to the wall and turned on the switch. Max, Tyson and Kenny stared at Ronald, who stood in the doorway. His shoulders were all hunched over as he was carrying some pieces of wood and a packet of nails hung from his pocket.
"I've come to board up your window," he said in a snuffly voice, as if someone had shoved a wet tissue up his nose. His eyes were boggy and he had huge black bags underneath them.
Ronald began to make his way across the room to the window. His shoulder had knocked the light switch as he entered and that is why the lights had gone - it was already dark and it was already late afternoon so no light had come in from outside. Tyson let of go of Max and shook the Chief off his arm, and advanced towards Ronald.
"What do you think you're doing, barging into our room? Do you mind explaining yourself?"
Ronald merely continued to board up the windows, placing a piece of the thin looking wood over the cracked windows and nailing in some rusty nails in the corners. The Blade-Breakers watched in silence. Then, Ronald left as quietly as he had come, shutting the creaky wooden door behind him.
Dizzi, still held tightly in the Chief's hand, bleeped.
"Chief, take me over to the window."
Kenny carried Dizzi over to the boards that Ronald had knocked in, and she quickly scanned it.
"You're not gonna like this, Sherlock,"
She spun a picture of an enlarged nail on her screen, and Kenny peered at it.
"Oh, Dizzi!"
He swung her around so the others could see her screen. They gasped as they saw the strange, treble clef like symbol on the top of the nail. It was carved in, in black.
"I don't believe it!" said Max, feeling just about ready to pull out his hair, "Ronald can't be involved in this! We're staying with him!"
Rei looked worried. "I guess it's all the more reason to have somebody watching, then."
"Max and I can take the first watches," said Kenny, "because Rei, Tyson and Kai need a good rest after what happened today."
"We're not sleeping yet," said Tyson. Kenny laughed. "'Course not! We've got stuff to do!"
"Like what?" asked Rei. Kenny shut Dizzi's screen over and looked at them.
"We should find those girls and apologise for being so rude earlier on, for one thing. Then I've got to do some more research on this symbol, and the word 'Apophis'. And we need to find something to eat! So, as you can see, there's quite a bit to get through."
"You make it sound like school Chief," said Tyson drolly. Then his stomach rumbled and he rolled his eyes. "Can we get food first? I'm pretty sure I'm gonna just disappear soon!"
"We should all eat something," said Max, who was hungry himself. They all got up and left the room, disturbed to find that there was no lock on the door.
********
They trekked downstairs, all of them feeling like they could go for a lovely hot meal.
"Mmm, cheeseburger . . . " said Tyson, sniffing the air in delight. Max sniffed too.
"Tyson, I don't smell cheeseburger!"
"Huh? Really? I must be imagining it, then. I'm so hungry!"
Kenny sighed, exasperated. "Try the room we were in earlier, Tyson. Surely there's some sort of food around here."
"I wouldn't even bother looking in that smelly room again," came a voice from behind. The Blade-Breakers all whirled around, wary, but found themselves facing the Comets.
"Hello again!" smiled Jenna, closing her eyes pleasantly and giving them a thumbs up. Leanne and Tony grinned too. Rio sort of just stood there, turning up her nose.
"Hi."
Tyson brightened. "Hey! Nice to see you again!"
Rei and Max held out their hands. "We weren't properly introduced," said Max bubbly, "I'm Max."
He shook hands with Jenna, who smiled. Rei spoke.
"I'm Rei."
He went to shake hands with Tony but Leanne shoved her out of the way comically and grabbed his hand.
"Hi. I'm Leanne."
Rei felt uneasy, but grinned and shook her hand. She batted her eyes at him, but he withdrew and shook Tony and Jenna's hands.
"So," said Tony, "We heard you're looking for food. Well, our coach is driving into town soon. It's an hour drive, but it's worth it. The food there is way better than the stuff here - the rice tastes stale and it looks like they're serving Reindeer meat mixed with mud."
Tyson cringed. "So . . . an hour drive or Reindeer crud. Hmm . . . "
He paused, and the girls looked at him.
"Where's the coach?"
When he had gone under, Tyson had been hit by how cold the water was. He could feel it tearing at his skin cruelly, slicing into each tiny pore, all over his body, he could feel it pulling at him wildly, wanting him, and drawing and dragging him down, further and further, darker, colder . . .
"Current . . . how? This is a lake," he thought, gritting his teeth and forcing his eyes open. It was murky and he couldn't see much, but he made out the contour of Rei, clinging tightly to some sort of large water plant lodged at the bottom of the lake. Rei reached out a cold, numb hand and Tyson grabbed it, and then he clumsily grasped at one of the plant's long, sinuous vines. It was well rooted and would support them, but they could not swim back to the surface and they were running out of time.
Tyson could feel his heart pulsating brutally in his chest. He was sure Rei could hear it, and his lungs felt like they were going to explode. The water punctured his skin all over, and he could feel himself trembling viciously. He looked at Rei, whose eyes were wide but his pupils were like narrow yellow slits. They were especially vivid in the sinister depths of the water. He blinked at Tyson, who smiled weakly. He would have said something but he knew he couldn't.
"So this is it?" Tyson thought frenziedly, "What about the tournament? Dragoon? The Blade-Breakers?"
His head began to spin, and he felt woozy and peculiar. The throbbing in his chest was reducing slowly, and everything around seemed to get shadowy. He took a final look at Rei, who had his eyes squinted shut rigidly, and then, just as he blacked out, he felt something seize him from around the waist and keep hold.
********
Rei opened his eyes with a jolt when he felt an urgent tug at his midriff. At first he couldn't tell what was going on but then he saw that Kai had grasped him around the waist, and, with Tyson tucked under the other arm, was about to make for the surface. Rei smiled dazedly - he was light headed. But for some reason, they couldn't get to the surface. Kai was wrenching at something that wouldn't dislodge. Rei looked around and saw that Tyson had actually become intertwined in the vines of the plant, and Kai couldn't get him free with one hand. To Rei's alarm, Kai let go of Tyson and tugged on the scarf that was tied around his middle, which stretched up to the surface.
*******
Kenny and Max waited apprehensively for the expected tug.
"Please be ok, guys . . . " said Kenny, stressing. Max agreed wordlessly, but he didn't want to say anything. He could feel the strain in the air.
After a lingering wait of about thirty seconds, there was a sharp tug on the scarf, so sharp and sudden that it almost slipped out of their hands. Kenny exclaimed out loud.
"Pull, Max!"
Max nodded, gritted his teeth, and began to hoist the scarf up. It was much more difficult than they expected, but Max could tell that his brief workout with the logs had already helped him - his arms had loosened up and he had never felt stronger. Soon the scarf was almost all the way out of the water, and then, all of a sudden, Rei's head popped out. His floppy black hair looked darker than usual, if that was possible, and it hung in his eyes, which were dimmer than they usually were and only just ajar. His skin was ashen, and he coughed wildly, his shoulders racking and shuddering. Ice-cold water ran down off his face in rivers.
"Rei!" cried the Chief, who grabbed Rei by the shoulders and began to pull him out of the lake. Kai's head appeared next to Rei, and, after a few gasps of much needed air and a quick shake of his head to clear the water from his eyes, he spoke to Max.
"Tyson is . . . still . . . down there. I'm going . . . down again - hold . . . tight!"
He departed again as Kenny hoisted the shivering, just about awake Rei out of the water completely. Rei was faint and too drained to support himself. Max looked at him, wanting to help keep him warm, but he knew it wasn't over yet and he gripped the scarf securely.
********
Kai swam down en route for the plant and Tyson as rapidly as he could. The cold was freezing his arms and legs and he knew he had to act fast, and the current made it difficult to travel in the desired direction. He reached Tyson's side and began to wrench at the plants around him. To his surprise, they were quite jagged.
"Come on!" he thought irately as he worked on a certain vine, trying to avoid splicing his arm on the plant's hefty thorns. Tyson was cataleptic, and his head bobbed in the current, his dark bangs of hair poking out flaccidly from under his cap. Kai growled and pulled fiercely at the main vine that was wrapped around poor Tyson. Unexpectedly, it broke free and Tyson was very nearly swept away in the current. Kai grabbed hold of him and turned to swim for the surface.
********
Max waited for the tug he expected as Kenny helped Rei, who was raking in vast, shuddering gasps of air, his vision still indistinct. His teeth were chattering and his fingers were blue. Kenny took off his jacket and put it around Rei's shoulders. Rei smiled at Kenny, but then glanced wildly at the hole in the ice.
"Tyson!" he rasped, alarmed, his voice weak and hoarse.
Kenny looked at Max, who answered: "Kai's gone down for him."
Rei sighed, shaking, knowing that the threat was not yet passed, and he watched the scarf, held rigid in the water and stretched to its constraint. It suddenly twanged, pulsating with the tug Max felt, and Max began to hoist it back up robustly, finding it even easier this time. But when he pulled out the cleaved edge of the saturated scarf, and saw no sign of Tyson or Kai, he stared aghast at the water.
"Um, Chief?"
********
Kai turned and saw his scarf snag on one of the vines. He swam towards it but nearly lost his grip on Tyson, and before he could reach the scarf, it snapped in two.
"No!" yelled Kai silently, and he immediately felt the current tug Tyson and himself back into the depths. He kept tight hold of Tyson and coiled his leg around one of the smaller vines, making sure he didn't get trapped and just avoiding a large thorn. His chest was starting to throb, but at least they weren't getting swept away - yet.
"What now?" he thought wildly, glancing down at the lifeless Tyson. His face was grey and colourless and Kai felt a twinge of fear in his gut. He looked from one place to another, trying to unearth an escape route, but he saw none. He felt his Dranzer blade in his back pocket, wondering if he'd ever use it again.
"Dranzer . . . " he thought, his vision darkening as a curtain, a black and silvery shroud was gradually let down over his eyes. But he suddenly saw - or thought he saw - the other end of his scarf, dangling down a little way in front of him.
"Is that for real?" he thought, blinking hard, trying to remedy his hazy vision. He determined that it was, especially when he saw the log of wood that had been tied on to the end of the scarf.
"Yes!" exclaimed Kai in his head, grinning as his sights restored, and he was about to reach for the scarf when he realised with alarm that it was too far away. He'd have to let go of the plant and venture the current to reach the dangling wood.
"You've gotta be kiddin' me!" he thought, frustrated, as he reached for the remainders of his scarf with his free arm. But it was just out of reach.
"Have to . . . swim . . . "
Rapidly, wondering if Tyson was even alive any more and relentless in his resolve to get him out of the lake, Kai unfurled his leg from the vine he was clinging to. He felt the swift current rush at them straight away, and it drew them further down. Kai kicked strongly with his legs and used his free arm to try and push Tyson and himself forwards, but to his dismay, they seemed to stay in the same place.
"No, not now!" he thought bitterly as his sights swayed again, "Not now!"
He had almost given up, his legs sub-zero and out of energy, when his pocket moved again and a flash of red light materialized behind them. He turned in the water, stunned, and saw that his Dranzer had emerged from his blade and was in the water at the back of them. Its fire still blazed vividly in the liquid, the unquenchable fire of supremacy and splendour forever passionate in its heart.
Kai stared, his eyes wide, but before he saw anything else, he too lost awareness and blacked out. Dranzer watched fixedly and roared. Then, it began to circle its wings swiftly, creating a drive, a force, and a current of its own in the water. Flames wreathed elegantly and trailed behind Dranzer like some sort of firework. The two boys began to move away in the current, but the motion from Dranzer's wings made a potent current. It caught the boys, (who were still clasped together) and swept them towards the surface and the scarf.
********
"Well, Max?"
Rei looked at Max, himself feeling a little recovered, even though he was still very cold. Max shook his head. "Nothing."
It had been Kenny's inspiration to wrap a log around the ripped scarf, and they'd been sure it would work. The Chief had raced to the spot where Max had been carrying logs and brought one back hurriedly, and they had somehow, with their bumbling, freezing fingers, tied the sopping scarf around the wood. They had been confident when they had thrown in the rescue line. Now their spirits began to diminish, as if the icy water of the lake had stifled them unmercifully.
"Come on, guys!" muttered Max, tears welling in his eyes. Kenny murmured to himself too. "Please . . . "
Max waited for another minute. There was no tug. Max stared at the scarf, as if it had let him down, as if trying to constrain it to stir with his entire psyche.
"No . . . please . . . "
Kenny dropped to his knees. Rei stared.
"They . . . they can't be gone! No . . . no way!"
Rei felt his eyes beginning to sting, and, looking at the Chief and Max, he knew they felt the same way. Max loosened his hand, tears trickling down his cheeks, leaving a tiny trail where they channelled. He was about to release the material when he felt the faintest of pulls on the scarf, scarcely a tug, but he felt it for sure.
"Guys! I felt it!"
Kenny leaped up and began to help Max pull on the scarf. Max shook his tears away and towed relentlessly. It was more difficult this time, but they slowly found they had more and more scarf clustering in their cold, numb hands. Rei watched restlessly, feeling a little futile but knowing his legs wouldn't sustain him if he tried to stand and help.
It felt like they had been pulling at the scarf eternally when Tyson's head was thrust up out of the water. He was still out cold and his skin was a wan tint, and Kenny immediately seized hold of him and yanked him out of the water, almost yelping when he felt how cold poor Tyson's body was. When Tyson was clear of the water and he lay out of harm's way on the ice there was still no sign of Kai. Max continued to pull on the scarf.
Suddenly, a hand emerged from the water and it grabbed and fumbled at the edge of the hole in the ice, trying to find a hold. Max yelled out, dropped the scarf, and grabbed the cold hand. He pulled upwards with all his valour, and eventually Kai's head appeared, his hair flopping down and sticking to his face, and his skin turning a light shade of blue. He coughed violently as Max pulled him further out of the water. Ultimately he could get his knee up and he crawled out, exhausted, and lay trembling on the ice with his eyes closed.
"Tyson! Tyson!" yelled Kenny, shaking the flaccid Tyson, who lay as though sound asleep on the ice. Rei watched him worriedly, but was soon comforted to see Tyson open his eyes blearily and hoarsely cough up about a pint of water. He shivered, powerless to talk, and Rei took off the jacket that Kenny had given him and offered it to Tyson. Kenny put it around him and sat him up slowly, and Tyson smiled, shaking violently, his skin an insipid blue shade, and drops of water fell off him as he quivered.
"Just relax, Tyson, you're ok now."
Tyson nodded weakly, fatigued. His lacklustre eyes were only half open and he was still gulping in huge gasps of air, but he was glad to be out of the freezing cold water. It had stung his bones just being in there. Tyson looked at the water, his vision unstable and his head still a little bit light, and shivered even more.
Max had helped Kai to sit up. He seemed exhausted, in virtually as bad a state as Tyson. His skin was dark - the blue slashes on his cheeks seemed to diminish a little because of the lighter blue of his skin. His head dropped weakly onto his chest and he gasped quietly, air a blessing. He shivered uncontrollably and Max took off his coat and draped it around his shoulders. Kai looked at him.
"Good . . . job, Max" he said faintly through chattering teeth. Max nodded, pleased and proud. He looked at Rei and Tyson, who were very slowly recovering.
"Well, I guess that covers today's training," he said, almost grinning. Rei burst into a sort of relieved laughter.
"Yeah."
Kenny smiled. "I hope that'll teach you not to goof off on the ice, Tyson and Rei."
Rei nodded. "Too cold . . . for that!"
Max laughed. "Are you both ok?"
"I'm ok," said Rei, still shaking but not so much anymore, "How about you, Tyson?"
Tyson's colour was not quite returning yet, but he looked more alert. He just nodded - he didn't feel like talking much.
"And you, Kai?" asked Kenny, looking at the shivering Kai. He looked straight back and said faintly:
"You guys owe me a scarf."
They all looked at the torn scarf that was still tied around Kai's middle, its ends tattered and bits of material unravelling from it, and they laughed.
********
The Blade-Breakers, after their narrow shave, so to speak, went straight back to their hotel. It was about a fifteen-minute walk and it was trying because Tyson, Rei and Kai were all worn out. The Chief and Max helped them as much as they could.
As he walked, Tyson watched the area around him. He had never noticed before how pretty Iceland was. The snow, as the sky around them slowly grew darker, glistened and shone prettily. The landscape was rather vacant and austere but it was still very beautiful - it was unhindered by roads, highways, buildings, and the splendour of nature was all around them.
"I'm lucky to even see this place again!" he thought to himself as he limped along, leaning on Max's shoulder. The experience had shaken him up completely and he found he was already more appreciative of the small things. However, he also noticed that his appetite hadn't changed and he was famished.
When they got back to the hotel, they avoided Mrs Riley and the strange Ronald and made for their room. As they opened the door and went in, the Chief was dismayed to find that the window had indeed broken and the room was wintry.
"That's great!" he exclaimed sardonically, opening Dizzi up. "Dizzi, are there any other hotels around here that we could go to? This place really takes the biscuit."
Dizzi bleeped, performing a scan of the country. "Not unless you wanna travel another fifty or so miles. It's pretty deserted around here!"
Kenny shook his head. "I don't believe this!"
Max seated the other three on the best looking of the beds. "Chill out, Chief! We can block the window with something. Don't worry!"
Kenny sighed. "You're right. I'm just worried about these guys. They need a good, warm sleep, and they aren't gonna get it here, are they?"
Max looked crestfallen. "Yeah, but this is all we have. We'll be ok."
"I'm more interested in food, guys!" said Tyson, his voice sounding thin and croaky. He smiled wonkily at the Chief. "I guess my appetite is still fine!"
The Chief smiled, and looked at the others. "Rei, Kai, Max? Do you want to come get some food?"
Kai and Rei had taken an exhausted seat on their beds. "No thanks," said Rei, lifting a hand. "All I want is a good long sleep."
Kai nodded his agreement and Max shook his head. "I'll stay too. I can look after these guys, and I'll do something about that window."
Kenny nodded appreciatively, and gestured for Tyson, who was obviously recovering fast, to follow him. They left the room and went downstairs.
Max took out a jumper from his bags, and, with some old, rusty pins he found in a box under his bed, he pinned it to the wall around the window.
"Hope Dad doesn't find out. He'd kill me for pinning up my jumper!"
"Hey Max?"
Max turned. "Yes, Kai?"
"Do you know how to work Dizzi?"
Max was put out, and Rei looked confused too. "Why?"
"Do you?"
Max nodded. "It's pretty basic. Sure. The Chief left her behind."
Max went over to Kenny's bed and picked up the small black laptop. He switched Dizzi on.
"Basic, huh?" she remarked huffily. Max grinned apologetically.
Kai stood up a little shakily and then sat down next to the computer. "Dizzi?"
"Mmm hmm?"
"Can you analyse this?"
He held out a small, round plastic tab. It looked kind of like a bottle cap. It was black with a trace of gold on it. Rei, who had also made his way over and sat down heavily on the bed, stared.
"Where d'you get that, Kai?"
Kai looked at the object in his hand. "On the ice, just underneath the surface."
Dizzi bleeped, and told Kai to hold it up. When he did so she bleeped some more, and a small picture of the thing appeared on her screen.
"What do you want to know about it?"
"What it is would be nice," said Max, scratching his head. Dizzi bleeped again. But Rei squinted closer to the screen.
"Wait, Dizzi, rotate the picture."
The image spun slowly and they saw what Rei had been looking at. There was a tiny inscription on the black plastic. It was shaped a little like a musical treble clef with a zigzagged line going almost vertically through it, and was carved in gold. Dizzi scanned it.
"Hmm . . . not good news, guys. First of all, this is no ordinary plastic bottle cap. It was an explosive, but it's gone off very recently. Scary!"
Max gasped. "No way!"
"It gets worse," Dizzi continued, digits emerging furiously on her screen followed by a long scroll of information, "I just scanned the inscription, and found some notes on it. Turns out that this little symbol is an Icelandic one, meaning 'Dragon of evil'. And when you translate Dragon of Evil into most languages, including Latin, the language which English is mainly derived from, then it comes out as 'Apophis'".
They stared at the screen, the picture from the store filling their heads. Rei coughed and cleared his throat.
"Well, looks like somebody is after us."
********
"Where's the food in this place?"
Tyson could hear his stomach rumbling. In fact he was pretty sure that everyone else could hear his stomach rumbling. He scratched his head and looked around almost anxiously, searching with his blue (ish) eyes for something to eat. It has to be said that Tyson was always hungry. Even in the most complex, complicated of situations, Tyson would always have some sort of 'food thought' in his head. When questioned on his huge appetite, he usually responded "I'm a growing boy!" but to be honest, he couldn't explain his massive appetite himself. However, he wasn't lazy, and so he burned off all of the food he threw down almost instantly. In fact, he was slim with a good posture and was quite tall.
Kenny did an about face and looked at Tyson. "Just be patient! We'll find something!"
Tyson sighed. His underwater encounter had left him starving. Kenny laughed.
"I think I've found it!"
He pointed at a sign on the wall. There was some weird writing on it, probably Icelandic, and underneath was a faded picture of a turkey. Tyson laughed.
"Alright! Turkey!"
He ran towards the sign, and then into the room that it pointed to. He was rather disappointed when he entered the room. There was a mangy looking table, with four chairs around it. One of the chairs only had half a leg on it, and everywhere was dusty. He couldn't smell any food.
"I guess we were stupid to get our hopes up. In a place like this, what can you expect?" said Kenny, looking with disgust at the dirty cobwebs on the broken chandelier that hung from the blackening ceiling. The place really was horrible.
Tyson groaned, and his stomach rumbled again. Then he heard some giggles from the corridor behind them.
"Who's that, d'ya think Chief?"
The Chief shrugged. "Go ask!"
Tyson marched forward out of the filthy dining room and bumped straight into a group of four young girls. He fell on his butt, and, after a little grunt, he looked up at them. The Chief came up behind him and looked at the girls.
The first thing that struck Tyson was that there were twins in the group. Two identical looking girls stood taller than the others. Their hair was a plumy shade of russet, tied up in tight ponytails, and their eyes were bright, a mischievous shade of green. Their cheeks were lightly speckled and their noses were small and pointed, as were their ears. They reminded Tyson of sprites. They were thin and a little bit gangly, and they both wore different clothes. One wore a pink top with a rather revealing neckline, and the other wore a black polar-necked long sleeved one. Both had denim trousers, but the first wore tighter ones and the second wore huge, baggy ones, and the first wore heeled shoes and the second wore thick, clumpy black boots. They both grinned identical, bright grins at Tyson.
The third girl was of average height. Her hands were on her hips. She had jet-black hair, which was quite long and straight and shimmered nicely as it hung about her shoulders. Her eyes were shadowy and her face was sober looking, but she was striking too. On her body she wore bits of jewellery, jagged and pointed and very cool looking, and on the tops of her arms were tiny bands of light coppery metal, so thin they could easily be mistaken as tattoos with little trails of cream ribbon-like material flowing off them. On her top half she wore a light cream top with three- quarter-length sleeves that flared a little at the edges with brown bits. She also wore a pair of three-quarter-length trousers, which were a creamy beige sort of colour, and these too had a light brown edge to them. She wore small cream sneakers (which looked like Sketchers) and her legs were shaped. Her skin was not bronzed, yet not fair either. She just stared at Tyson through her brown eyes.
The last girl was shorter than the rest by a good way. She was very animated looking - her hazel-brown eyes were absolutely massive and she blinked them in rapid succession. Her face was small but curved, and she had a pleasant looking grin. She had big dangly earrings in and her nose was pierced. She was a little bit 'fatter' than the other girls but was not overweight in the slightest - she just wasn't as lean as the others. Her hair was light brown and wavy and it hung loose about her face, framing her dark skin. She wore a light blue strappy top that showed off her arms, with a denim jacket slung over one shoulder. She wore nicely fitting jeans on her bottom half and a pair of quite classy boots to finish it off. Her skin was dark - very dark, almost black - and the whites of her eyes stood out startlingly against the vast contrast of her skin. She was very nice- looking indeed. She smiled a bit pityingly at Tyson.
"Are you alright?" she said, looking down at Tyson and then glancing at Kenny. Tyson nodded, a little discomfited, and stood up clumsily, brushing the vast amounts of dust off his shorts. The first of the twins, the one in the pink top, looked at his shorts.
"Aren't your legs cold? Those shorts don't look very warm."
Her voice was tingly and melodious. Kenny nodded.
"She's right, Tyson. You should change into something warmer, especially after-"
"Tyson, is it?" said the second of the twins. She peered at him, her voice identical to that of her sisters. "You look cold, Tyson."
Tyson nodded, and the girl with the dark skin giggled.
"Don't you talk, Tyson?"
Tyson stuttered, embarrassed, and then got hold of himself. "Yeah, I talk. Hi."
The girl flicked her hair and grinned amiably. "Hi. I'm Jenna."
The twins stepped forward. "I'm Leanne . . . " said the first " . . . And I'm Tony!" followed the second.
The last girl didn't speak.
"This is Rio. She doesn't talk much," said Tony, nodding towards the girl with the jet-black hair, who stayed silent. They all had American accents so they weren't native to Iceland. Tyson nodded appreciatively.
"It's nice to meet you all. I'm Tyson, and this here is Kenny, but we call him the Chief."
Tony seemed interested. "There are more of you?"
Kenny nodded. "Yes. We're on a team."
Rio looked up at him sharply and stared. "Beybladers?"
Her voice was sharp and hard, but pleasant to hear. However, the abruptness of her question startled Kenny and he stammered. Tyson filled in for him.
"We're part of the Blade-Breakers!"
Leanne's eyes widened. "The Blade-Breakers?"
Jenna stared and squinted at Tyson. "I can see the resemblance, I suppose. Tyson on the TV looked better than you, Tyson number two."
Tyson didn't know what to say. "What? I am Tyson, not Tyson number two!"
"He's cuter than you are!" insisted Tony, agreeing with Jenna. Tyson growled, and Kenny suppressed a giggle.
"Here, check this out! My Dragoon blade!"
"Tyson, no!" said Kenny, remembering what Gramps had said about watching what they were doing, but Tyson already had his blade out and was flashing it around. The girls stared at it as it glinted.
"Ooo!"
"So you really are Tyson?" said Jenna, as if still uncertain. She amused Kenny a lot, and she obviously ticked Tyson off a lot.
"Yeah, I'm Tyson."
"That means your team is staying in this hotel?" asked Leanne. The Chief nodded.
"Yep. We're here to compete in the tournament."
"You're not the only ones!" giggled Leanne. Rio glared at her. "Leanne, we aren't supposed to give out information like that you know."
Tony shrugged. "They would have found out anyway. Don't be a stick in the mud, Rio. Say hi."
Rio scowled, and for a minute she really reminded Tyson of Kai and his bad attitude. "Let's get back to our rooms . . . not like you can call it a room, this place is so pathetic."
Kenny and Tyson looked at each other and burst out laughing. The girls stared at them, puzzled. "What?"
"You guys are pretty funny!" said Kenny, calming down. "Hey, how about you guys come and meet our room mates? You'd like them - the Blade- Breakers!"
Leanne looked thrilled. "Is Rei there?"
Tyson nodded, and Leanne's eyes widened even further. "Is my hair ok?"
Rio rolled her eyes. "Get a grip, Leanne."
"Come on, what can it hurt?" asked Tony, for once agreeing with her sister. Jenna nodded. "It'll be fun. Besides, we can check out our competition!"
Rio sighed. "Fine. Whatever."
She flicked her hair back and put her hands on her hips again. "Just don't take too long. We have work to do."
The other girls agreed reluctantly to Rio's demands and they all followed Tyson and Kenny (chatting as they did so) up the stairs and down the musty hallway to their rooms. Tyson opened the creaky, dangerously wobbly door and he and Kenny entered the room cautiously, followed by the girls.
"Guys, we have guests . . . "
Rei, Max and Kai all looked up - they had been staring attentively at Dizzi's screen. Suddenly Max quickly covered up the 'bottle cap' and Rei snapped Dizzi shut with a childlike grin.
"Hi."
The four girls poked their heads into the room (Leanne going absolutely wild at the sight of Rei). The three boys on the bed grinned ineptly, hoping that the girls hadn't noticed what they had been doing.
"Um . . . "began Tyson, feeling a little bit of tension in the room, and also wondering what they had been looking at on Dizzi's screen, " . . . Guys, this is Leanne, Tony, Jenna, and Rio. They're on a Beyblading team. I think we'll be battling them at the tournament."
Max stood up politely. "Great! So what's your team name?"
Jenna spoke shyly. "We're the Comets. We were the top Beybladers in our home town!"
"Why are you called the 'Comets'?"
"No reason, really. I suppose it sounds good."
"Cool," said Rei, also standing, "So . . . um . . . "
"Tyson, we're busy," said Kai sharply, glaring at Tyson and the Chief, "Maybe now isn't such a good time for you to have brought these girls up here. We have things to discuss, so, if you wouldn't mind . . . "
"You're just as pushy as you look on the TV," said Rio as she turned her back and swept from the room, her black hair trailing behind her. The other girls followed meekly, Jenna saying something about being sorry for disturbing them and Leanne making eyes at Rei, who blushed and cringed a little. He just wasn't in the mood.
The door shut and Tyson immediately began to yell. "That was the rudest thing I ever saw, Kai! Was there really any need? What's so important that we couldn't just talk with them for five min-"
"No, Tyson," interrupted Max, holding out the 'bottle cap' he had concealed in his palm, "Kai's right. Something's going on. Check it out."
Tyson examined the bottle cap explosion in his hands, prodding it and twisting it, until he said, "So? What is it?"
Dizzi took her turn to speak. "Well, genius, it's an explosive."
Tyson yelped and dropped the thing on the floor. Rei grinned and picked it up. "Good thing it's already gone off."
The Chief was confused. "But, where did you get this? Why is it so significant?"
Dizzi spoke again. "Chief, it was on the underside of the ice that cracked beneath Tyson and Rei. I knew they weren't heavy enough to break that ice!"
Tyson and Kenny stared. "W . . . what?"
"It means someone's out to get us," said Max solemnly, a rare moment in his bouncy life, "and it gets worse. There's an inscription on the bomb that actually translates as Apophis. So this thing must be linked to the photograph."
Tyson and Kenny were even more taken aback. "Man, and we thought you guys were gonna have a rest!" laughed the Chief nervously.
"There's no time for rest now," said Kai, looking around at the group, "We all have to be on our guard. Obviously someone has got a problem with us - it could be Old Bill, or whatever he was called - but for all we know he's innocent. So there's no one to point the finger at. Which means we have to be careful. Always stick together, no wandering off alone-"
"Does that apply to you, too, Kai?" interrupted Tyson with a smirk. Kai ignored him (he had a tendency to go off alone and train in secret, leaving the others baffled as to his whereabouts).
"Avoid anyone who looks suspicious to you. We don't have a clue who this is. At night, we'll always have someone on watch."
The others groaned, but Kai cut them short. "I know, I don't like it either, but in this rat trap anyone could just pull the door off its hinges and waltz in. So we'll take turns to watch, two hours each or something."
"Shouldn't we try to contact Mr Granger or Mr Dickinson?" asked Max. Rei answered him.
"Not unless you don't want to compete in this tournament," he said quietly, "They'll fly us straight home. I don't wanna miss this tournament."
"Me neither!" said Tyson, getting a little riled up, "We came here to Beyblade, and we aren't going home for anything! Nothing can stop the Blade- Breakers!"
Dizzi bleeped. "That's the spirit, guys. But be careful. I don't want to be the one to explain to Mr Dickinson why . . . "
She stopped, and Kai resumed speaking. "We don't know how far these people are willing to go. After all, if they did intend to blow up that ice - which I don't doubt - then they were trying to hurt us. They aren't gonna stop at anything."
"This sounds like something out of a movie," commented Tyson, removing his cap and running his hand through his hair. Max giggled.
"Yeah, all we need now is a monster and some cheesy horror music!"
Suddenly, the door boomed open and an atrociously disfigured shape entered. The Blade-Breakers yelled out as the lights dimmed and a cold breeze blew menacingly through the room.
Max squinted his eyes shut, and felt Tyson and Kenny clutching to his arms. Rei and Kai instinctively moved into fighting positions, fearful as they were.
"Get out!" cried Rei, shaking and peering vigilantly through one eye, "D-don't come any closer!"
The shape seemed to move. Rei edged slowly towards it, scared stiff. He took a closer look at the figure, and then gasped.
"Wait a second!"
The lights flicked on - Kai had moved to the wall and turned on the switch. Max, Tyson and Kenny stared at Ronald, who stood in the doorway. His shoulders were all hunched over as he was carrying some pieces of wood and a packet of nails hung from his pocket.
"I've come to board up your window," he said in a snuffly voice, as if someone had shoved a wet tissue up his nose. His eyes were boggy and he had huge black bags underneath them.
Ronald began to make his way across the room to the window. His shoulder had knocked the light switch as he entered and that is why the lights had gone - it was already dark and it was already late afternoon so no light had come in from outside. Tyson let of go of Max and shook the Chief off his arm, and advanced towards Ronald.
"What do you think you're doing, barging into our room? Do you mind explaining yourself?"
Ronald merely continued to board up the windows, placing a piece of the thin looking wood over the cracked windows and nailing in some rusty nails in the corners. The Blade-Breakers watched in silence. Then, Ronald left as quietly as he had come, shutting the creaky wooden door behind him.
Dizzi, still held tightly in the Chief's hand, bleeped.
"Chief, take me over to the window."
Kenny carried Dizzi over to the boards that Ronald had knocked in, and she quickly scanned it.
"You're not gonna like this, Sherlock,"
She spun a picture of an enlarged nail on her screen, and Kenny peered at it.
"Oh, Dizzi!"
He swung her around so the others could see her screen. They gasped as they saw the strange, treble clef like symbol on the top of the nail. It was carved in, in black.
"I don't believe it!" said Max, feeling just about ready to pull out his hair, "Ronald can't be involved in this! We're staying with him!"
Rei looked worried. "I guess it's all the more reason to have somebody watching, then."
"Max and I can take the first watches," said Kenny, "because Rei, Tyson and Kai need a good rest after what happened today."
"We're not sleeping yet," said Tyson. Kenny laughed. "'Course not! We've got stuff to do!"
"Like what?" asked Rei. Kenny shut Dizzi's screen over and looked at them.
"We should find those girls and apologise for being so rude earlier on, for one thing. Then I've got to do some more research on this symbol, and the word 'Apophis'. And we need to find something to eat! So, as you can see, there's quite a bit to get through."
"You make it sound like school Chief," said Tyson drolly. Then his stomach rumbled and he rolled his eyes. "Can we get food first? I'm pretty sure I'm gonna just disappear soon!"
"We should all eat something," said Max, who was hungry himself. They all got up and left the room, disturbed to find that there was no lock on the door.
********
They trekked downstairs, all of them feeling like they could go for a lovely hot meal.
"Mmm, cheeseburger . . . " said Tyson, sniffing the air in delight. Max sniffed too.
"Tyson, I don't smell cheeseburger!"
"Huh? Really? I must be imagining it, then. I'm so hungry!"
Kenny sighed, exasperated. "Try the room we were in earlier, Tyson. Surely there's some sort of food around here."
"I wouldn't even bother looking in that smelly room again," came a voice from behind. The Blade-Breakers all whirled around, wary, but found themselves facing the Comets.
"Hello again!" smiled Jenna, closing her eyes pleasantly and giving them a thumbs up. Leanne and Tony grinned too. Rio sort of just stood there, turning up her nose.
"Hi."
Tyson brightened. "Hey! Nice to see you again!"
Rei and Max held out their hands. "We weren't properly introduced," said Max bubbly, "I'm Max."
He shook hands with Jenna, who smiled. Rei spoke.
"I'm Rei."
He went to shake hands with Tony but Leanne shoved her out of the way comically and grabbed his hand.
"Hi. I'm Leanne."
Rei felt uneasy, but grinned and shook her hand. She batted her eyes at him, but he withdrew and shook Tony and Jenna's hands.
"So," said Tony, "We heard you're looking for food. Well, our coach is driving into town soon. It's an hour drive, but it's worth it. The food there is way better than the stuff here - the rice tastes stale and it looks like they're serving Reindeer meat mixed with mud."
Tyson cringed. "So . . . an hour drive or Reindeer crud. Hmm . . . "
He paused, and the girls looked at him.
"Where's the coach?"
