Chapter 3: The deal
Rain trickled down the tops of roofs and onto the early morning streets of Russia. The sky was misty and grey and the air was heavy with the scent of Blintsi cooking from the small cottages in the area. Merchants scattered the cobbled streets of Moscow, setting up their market stalls. The odd delivery boy and a few beggars were also lurking about the cold city. But apart from that Kai could not notice any suspicious character. He, Kai, was still on the trail of the cerulean-eyed Russian boy that had escaped from his view. The blader had completely disappeared, leaving Kai to search through the small population that was currently out on the streets. Quickly he cast his gaze once more across the market area, but again was unlucky in finding a trace of the boy. Afraid he had been fooled; Kai ran his icy fingers through his silver hair that was now specked with small raindrops.
Walking briskly through the market square, he noted how odd he looked amongst the citizens of Moscow. Being a dubious character was not something that he felt comfortable about in a place like Russia. He knew it would attract attention, which was something that he definitely did not want. His main reason for being out on the street was to intermingle with the locals so that he could tail the ex-leader. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out some Rubles and handed them to a nearby merchant. In return taking the dirty brown cloak and pulling the hood up covering most of his ashen face. With his head down, and now just an anonymous cloaked figure amongst others, Kai's eyes darted at the two back streets in view. One had a high barbed wired fence, the other only had a dumpster, and a clear path visible behind it. Kai smirked, and made his way towards the alley, his cloak sweeping behind him, perhaps he hadn't run out of luck after all, he thought.
Using his senses, Kai's gut feeling told him that Tala wasn't all that far ahead of him. After leaping over the dumpster with great ease, and walking down the small path the only way was a turning to the left. The road was no longer cobbled but was even more uneven; beneath him he felt the cold slush of muddy ice. Ahead of him was a building, although it seemed different to the rest. It wasn't a derelict premise as the other buildings that surrounded it. The windows were clean and a familiar logo identified the building that stood before him. It was the clear emblem of the local newspaper, The Russian Express: 'Русский газета'
Scanning the area Kai had arrived in, he located a hidden side-door entrance that had been left ever so slightly open. Creeping through the opening, the low sound of voices could be heard. The room inside was dark and filled with old wooden crates. Moving closer to the voices that were unquestionably in the next room, Kai decided to not venture too close. There was no need; the echo of the meeting was clearly heard in the room Kai was in. Listening intently, the blue-haired boy pressed his back against the cold stonewall. He noted that there were two distinct voices. One had a bored sound with a malicious edge to it and was undoubtedly that of his ex-team mate, the leader of the demolition boys. The other, interested Kai, it was deep and rough yet still had the slight sense of adolescence lingering to it. But Kai was sure he had not heard it before. The conversation filtered through the gap in the door, and all Kai could do was stand still and eavesdrop.
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Tala looked around. It was strange to him, the room before had been a dingy storage space, but now he stood on a thickly carpeted floor, and the walls were panelled carefully in expensive mahogany. The room was like a millionaires office. The outline of a young man seated in the large leather chair was facing him from the shadows. The figure had knitted his hands together and was resting his chin upon them, as though proposing a deal to Tala. Interested, Tala cocked his head up in a questioning manner. This seemed to trigger off the shadowy character to present his case.
"Well well well Tala, you actually came. I was having my doubts there for a minute or two"
"Cut the bull, who are you? And what do you want?" The red head growled back in response. There was something about deception that annoyed Tala, and this man seemed content at playing mind games with him.
"Temper, temper. Relax Tala, you already know who I am and you already know why I asked you here" The man taunted, continuing his mind-game.
"I think you're mistaken, I don't know you, stupid man"
Angrily, the shadowed man's voice rose and all 5'10 feet of him escalated to meet Tala's stone like stare, "Oh you know me alright Tala, don't you recognise your master? Have you forgotten that I paid for everything that you own for the last 16 years?"
Tala was taken aback; his mind was a swimming pool of emotions, just swirling around. It couldn't be? Could it? The young man standing right in front of him looked nothing like who he claimed to be. But yes, come to think of it, it was possible. The man was clearly only at the most seventeen, tall with great posture and a toned body. His hair was cut short, and was a normal dark brown, yet his fringe that sprouted from the front of his head was a shade of blue, which Tala had seen elsewhere before. Tala thought of the similarities of the two and the doubt began to clear from his confused mind. As his mouth opened to utter his name, the young man cut in and spoke urgently.
"Do not utter my name, it is not safe"
"Then what shall I call you?" Tala asked in reply.
"Call me…Vince"
It was in fact ironically hilarious to Tala that he should call the person he looked up to most Vince. All in all, it felt wrong to him. He would have usually called him 'sir' but things had changed and Tala did not care two shits for the brown haired teen that stood in front of him.
"So, what is your plan…Vince" He sneered sarcastically. In the position 'Vince' was in, there was no longer any need for Tala to show respect, he was only a boy and he was in the same boat as Tala was himself. According to Tala, 'Vince' was worse off than himself.
"I have given this careful thought Tala. You see I knew you were the smartest and most intelligent of the lot of your team, otherwise you would not have been made captain, that is why I have chosen you to help me, instead of the rest of those losers from your team-"
Tala cut in before he could finish, "Vince, I don't need to help you, I no longer need you, you don't own me anymore and I can do whatever I want to do. So get this straight, you need me, so I call the shots"
'Vince' exhaled in a desperate sigh. "Tala if only you would allow me to finish my proposition. I believe this will not only benefit myself, but it will benefit you too. Remember I always have your best interests at heart Tala" Tala snickered, but 'Vince' continued, "yes, so as I was saying, you and I both want revenge. How can you stand there, when that brat and his team are going around saying they are the best in the world, you know they cheated, there is no other explanation. Hehehe, and for that they will pay dearly…I will tell you more in Japan, for now, I'll leave you to think about what I've said, and of course I will pay you in return for your services"
Tala nodded in return and began to walk out; he definitely wanted revenge, yet something told him that 'Vince' was not at all sincere about his little deal. Just as he was about to leave, he stopped in his tracks.
"How will I find you?" he asked, breaking the cold silence.
The other laughed, a cold malicious laugh that sent a chill up Tala and the phoenix listening from the other room's spine. "Not to worry Tala, I'll find you"
With that Tala continued to walk to the exit still in deep thought, yet this was broken as he stepped outside into the cold Russian morning. His senses went on edge as he heard a soft sound come from above. Glancing upwards, he could have sworn that he had seen a swish of a brown cloak. Yet he decided against investigating as his watch bleeped. Looking down to check the time, he realised that he had spent much of the early morning out, and it was already 8:30am.
The cloaked boy looked down from the roof top, so that was their plan, he would have to tell his team mates when he got back to Japan. His emerald green eyes watched the Demolition Boy walk away. Yes and he would have to keep watch on Tala, not to forget Kai as well. He had seen Kai eavesdropping, he was a threat too, that had to be carefully monitored.
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Tyson paced up and down outside their hotel. All their bags were ready and out on the pavement and everyone was ready to go including him for a change. But there was no sign of Kai or Tala, which was unusual.
He kicked the holdall in front of him, which had the name 'KAI' printed in capital letters.
"Stupid Kai! How can he do this to us! How! How can he be late! It's his entire fault! Where is he???" Tyson ranted, gesticulating wildly and nervously racing between the crowd that was gathered.
"TYSON! Calm down!" his blonde haired friend warned, laughing at the wreck before him. It was pretty funny in his opinion, because there was no secret that Tyson and Kai didn't get along, yet whenever Kai disappeared Tyson had a habit of becoming overly protective about his rival teammate. And at the current moment, Tyson was becoming hysterically nervous. Max had a fair idea that Kai was probably out training Dranzer and would be back soon, but Tyson could not reason to that idea. Tyson believed that if he didn't train, no one else would bother to train either.
Mr Granger cut into Max's thoughts, "I'm afraid we will be missing our plane if we do not start moving to the Airport. God knows where the two of them are! It is very unlike Kai to be late, I hope he isn't in any trouble"
The excited Tyson, turned his cap around once more, and began to laugh.
"Tyson, what is ever so funny?"
In response, Tyson laughed harder, "Wouldn't it be funny if they were having a secret affair that we didn't know about!"
"Wouldn't it be funny if who was having an affair?" Came the deadly cold response. Kai stood glaring in the direction of Tyson, which caused the boy to laugh nervously, and immediately stop talking. After a minute, Tala walked up to the waiting group, defiantly he stood without apologising.
"An apology might be nice" Tyson angrily glowered.
In reply, the red-haired leader just laughed cruelly.
Kai turned and watched from the corner of his eye. 'What have you got planned Tala' he thought, he would definitely have to keep a close watch on Tala when they got to Japan.
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As they reached the airport, Rei looked around they were clearly missing two of the older people of their team.
"Uh, excuse me, Mr Granger, Where is Mr Dickinson and Tyson's Grandpa? Aren't they coming with us?"
The whole group stopped and waited for an answer from Tyson's Dad. Tyson's eyes widened. "GRANDPA! I can't believe I forgot about him!"
Mr Granger let out a relaxed laugh, "Boys, no need to worry, Mr Dickinson and Grandpa are both on a trip to sort out some business. So I'll be in charge here, they left last night"
Everyone went back to their normal chitchat, except Kai and Tala. Both knew there was something very different going on. Tala had seen most of what had happened, and Kai had seen the two youths lying in Mr Dickinson and Grandpa's beds. Yet neither of them opened their mouths and uttered a word about their suspicions.
"FLIGHT 212 TO JAPAN, CALLING ALL PASSENGERS FOR FLIGHT 212 TO JAPAN, THE PLANE IS READY TO BOARD"
"Well that's our call" Mr Granger stated, then muttered to himself, "I wonder where they are"
"What was that Mr Granger?" Rei asked inquisitively.
"Ah, nothing Rei, we just have two guests travelling with us back to Japan, they're big beyblading fans but they aren't here yet"
Just as the tall adult had finished his sentence, two boys who were around the age of the bladebreakers approached the group.
"Ah, Da- I mean Rob and Stanley there you are!"
Kai studied the two boys; they were the same as the ones he had seen in the beds at the hotel. One was quite tubby and undersized in height. Beady black eyes sat almost hidden by his round plump face. And his hair was so messy it resembled a light brown explosion. The other boy was slightly taller than Tyson, but not quite as tall as Kai himself. He was skinny, with a long navy ponytail that reached just under his shoulders. His eyes were large, chocolaty and full of life that was ready to burst into action.
"Yes, this is Rob" Mr Granger introduced pointing at the skinny boy, "and this is Stanley" he continued pointing at the tubby boy this time.
Everyone began welcoming the two new faces and Tyson seemed to take well to Rob. Mr Granger watched his son socialising with Rob. It seemed weird to see Tyson act as though his grandfather was a stranger. But then little did he know that Rob was in fact his funky Grandpa.
From behind a newspaper, Boris watched the group. Yes he was definitely going to get his revenge, somehow on Voltaire. But for now he needed to stay unnoticed by the group. He laughed inwardly; it was so easy to forget that they would only see him as another face in the crowd and not for the evil man that he was. In actual fact, Voltaire had done him a favour, but that would not spare him from Boris' plans…
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That is the end of Chapter 3! Man I've been trying to write more to this story for so long! Damn schoolwork! So I hope you have all enjoyed. Keep telling me the couples you want to see, because then I can sort that out in later chapters, drop me a review, because I love all you guys and girls that review! You rock!
Big appreciation for: * drum roll *
Admiral2, squirrel of shadows, scarlet diamonds, Tenma Koneko, Becky, Soza, Twilight Knight, Whisper 2 imaginary, Moon of silver and light, T.G.K.N (black cat), and Vampyre Neko… Not to forget ELFY! And everyone from Tnk!
You guys are the best! And I wouldn't get anywhere without my great readers! So * gives everyone cookies and vanilla coke *
Two more people to thank, to Nicky and Elfy from Fierce, You are both a great support and without you guys I probably wouldn't be writing, so cheers!
Hopefully I'll update soon, just keep watching out for an update!
Till next time, =dudems=
