SS-Well, M-sen wants me to continue, and it looks like some readers want me to too (Thanks Hiroko and Just-some-girl), so here we go.
Tym-*sigh* These are the good days, the days that you're inspired and able to update stories like that.
SS-Uh huh…plus, M-sen would kill me if I didn't update soon ^_~
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The Spirit Within Me
Chapter 2
~Key~
"Hello" = Talking
'Hey' = Thinking/thoughts
[Hi] = Bit beasts talking
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As soon as they had turned the corner and slowed down, Rei let go of her hand. He then proceeded down the block, stopping upon reaching his friend's house. "Here we are. Wait here, all right Ray? I'll introduce you in a second." She nodded, and he knocked against the wooden gate. He didn't wait for an answer though, and opened the door slowly.
A few minutes earlier
"Where can he be? I can't believe he's late." A boy with light blue bangs and dark blue hair said, slightly irritated. He was leaning against the gate, watching a hyper blond and an annoying boy with a hat beyblading a few feet away.
"Actually Kai, Rei still has two minutes."
"Yea, plus I'm sure he'll be here soon Kai." The blond answered, his face never leaving the blades.
"Yea, hopefully with some snacks!" Another boy sitting opposite of Kai with a laptop in front of him looked up from the screen.
"Is that all you ever think about Tyson (1), food?" Finally looked away from the battle, Tyson replied.
"No…I also think about beybattles Kenny." Everyone sighed…the obvious answer. Kai didn't know why he was putting up with this. Two members of his team weren't battling seriously, and the one person on his team that he could really tolerate was late…again. He stopped leaning and walked over to the battle. Then he set Dranzer and launched it near the middle of the two others. The blue blade quickly knocked the two back to their respective owners before returning to her own.
"Hey, why'd you do that Kai?"
"Yea dude, what's the deal?" Kai set Dranzer again and walked closer to them.
"The deal, Tyson, is that you and Max aren't taking this training seriously, Kenny's playing solitaire, and Rei's not even here!" He launched his blade towards the door, not caring if he caused any damage.
Back on track
"Hey guys-Ahh!" Rei quickly closed the door before the spinning blade made contact with his face. It slammed into the door instead, making a nice dent in the wood.
"Rei, are you all right?" He turned to her and nodded sheepishly.
"Yea, yea I'm fine." He opened the door again, just enough for the kids inside to see his face. Seeing that none of them were going to launch their blade at him, he widened the crack, saw the blue blade stuck in the door, took it out gently, and looked over to his captain. "What are you trying to do to me Kai? Knock my fangs out?" He threw the Dranzer back to the bluenette who caught it effortlessly.
"It's about time you showed up."
"Chill out Kai, he still has 30 seconds to spare!"
"And he also brought chips! All right Rei!" Tyson ran up to him, snagged the chips, and tried to drag the Chinese boy over. "Come on, we can eat while we blade!"
"Hold on Tyson, there's someone I want you all to meet."
"Who?" Rei turned to his new friend and motioned her to come in. She reluctantly stepped into the yard as Rei closed the door behind them.
"Hello."
'Hm…I thought she had blond hair, not dark brown…oh well.' "Guys, this is Ray. I ran into her on my way over…actually, I tripped over her. That's why I'm later than normal. She wanted me to help her find her friend's house, but I wanted to get here first so that we can all help her."
"Um hm, but you don't have to do that right away. You can finish…uh…whatever you were planning on doing first."
"Really? Ok, but let me introduce you to the gang. The blond is Max, he's really nice, just keep him away from sugar."
"Hi there Ray!"
"The guy in the hat next to him is Tyson."
"That's cool, you two got the same name."
"And the boy with the laptop is Kenny."
"If you give me the address, Dizzi can find the place in no time." They all walked over to her and shook hands, but Ray noticed that the boy with the scarf standing away from them didn't come over.
"Rei…who's that?" He looked over and smiled.
"Oh, that's Kai, he's our captain. Just stay on his good side and you'll be fine." Ray blinked, captain? It's not like they're on a boat.
"Your…captain?" They all nodded while Max explained.
"He's the captain of our beyblade team." Ray thought hard…she had heard that word a lot.
"Bey…blade?"
"Yup! We're the unstoppable BladeBreakers! I'm sure you heard of us, right Ray?"
"…beyblade…Blade…Breakers?" Ray knew she heard that name before too…and then it hit her…they were one of those beyblading teams that used bitbeasts. The team that won the championships…she remembered them specifically because the men that studied her had argued about that team a lot.
"That's right Ray, hey, do you beyblade?" She stepped away from all of them, starring at Rei intently, which soon turned into a glare, her brows furrowed.
"No…I'd…I'd never beyblade. I could never use a bitbeast like that!"
"What are you talking about?" Rei tried to get closer to her, but she kept retreating.
'What is wrong with that girl?' Kai thought.
"You…you all have bitbeasts!?!" The team exchanged looks with each other and then nodded. "I-I don't believe it…I can't believe I actually assimilated someone who uses a bitbeast to do their dirty work!" Kai's eyes widened.
'A-assimilated?'
"What are you talking about?" She pointed at Rei.
"You! You use a bitbeast when you beyblade, do you not?!"
"Well…yes…I do."
"Uh! I thought you would be different…but you're just like all the others back in that horrible abbey!" Kai was listening very closely now, setting Dranzer in his launcher.
"Abbey? You were in an abbey?"
"Yes…and after all the time I was tortured there, after all the trouble I went through to get out, I end up taking on someone whose no better than the men there!"
"Hey, Ray, calm down would ya? We don't even know what you're talking about."
"You stay away from me, all of you! You all use bitbeasts for your own selfish reasons! When they should be honored and free!"
"But we don't force out bitbeasts to do things bad like other beybladers, we care about them and in return, they battle with us."
"Lies…nothing but lies!" A green light surrounded her, and her eyes began to glow as well.
"Ray, Max isn't lying, none of us are. Now calm down before you-"
"Shut up Rei! It's bad enough I had to assimilate you, just back off!"
"Assimilate? What are you talking about?" Once again he attempted to get close to her, but that only tipped her over the edge.
"Stay away from me!" There was a flash of light, and then, before them was what looked like a green jaguar spirit…or bitbeast.
"Wow…for all the yelling she did she has her own bitbeast?"
"But Tyson, something looks different about that one. Let me check with Dizzi…"
"There's no time to check, we have to stop her before she hurts someone."
"Right." Tyson and Max set their blade, and were about to launch them until Kai stopped them.
"Wait. You guys don't know what you're doing, just stand back."
"But Kai…"
"Stand back Max! Let it rip!" The blade shot out from the launcher and charged toward the jaguar. "Dranzer, restrain her!" With another flash of light, a brilliant red phoenix rose from it's blade and stopped the cat in it's tracks, holding it back with it's talons.
[Let me go! You should be on my side!]
[Listen to me, my master's friends were telling the truth. They do not misuse their bitbeasts like you think.]
[Master?! They've got you under a spell.]
[I only call him master out of respect. Kai treats me like his partner. We work together!]
[Lies…now let me go!]
[I will not. If I do, you will hurt my master and his friends, and I can't let that happen.] While the two were arguing, Kai had run up to Ray, who was motionless. He pulled off the bandana and grabbed the tab she had tried to hide.
"Ray! Return to your human form before I pull your reel! (2)" The jaguar turned its head and growled at him. She then made to attack him, but the phoenix dug its razor-sharp talons into her skin, effectively bringing her to a halt.
[Let me go now!]
[No. Listen to my master. He will explain everything to you if you let him.]
[And why would I when I can just destroy you and then him?]
[You dare threaten Kai?! You will never defeat me. And if you happen to, his friends all have bitbeasts who can stop you. You might as well give in while you are able…before master Kai sends you back.] The jaguar stopped struggling, seeing as she wasn't going to win. For, even if she did take the phoenix down, she surely wouldn't have the strength to defeat three more.
'Maybe they are different from the others…and if they are not, I can always make a run for it.'
[Fine.]
[And you will not hurt master Kai or his friends…correct?]
[I will not harm them.] Dranzer nodded, released the jaguar, and watched the spirit return to the motionless body before returning to her own blade. It circled Ray once before returning to Kai's hand.
"Please let me go."
"Will you listen to us?" She starred at the blade in his hand, which was still glowing a vibrant red, as if reminding her of what the phoenix had said, and nodded.
"So…Kai…Ray…would one of you mind telling us what's going on?" Ray looked to Kai.
"You know about the abbey? About me?"
"All too well." He glanced at Rei, and back to Ray. "How long has it been?"
"How long since what Kai?" Max questioned, completely confused.
"Only a few minutes."
"What does that mean dude?"
"Did they follow you?
"No. At least, I'm pretty sure they didn't."
"Do you want to explain?" She looked to the others.
"I would prefer it if you did."
"Hey!" They both looked over to the rest of the gang. Rei stepped forward. "What's going on here?"
"Well, first off, Ray isn't human…at least…she wasn't." He raised his hand, telling them to not ask anything until he was done. "Tyson, remember when you came to talk to me in the abbey? When I gave you Dranzer?" The boy nodded. "In the room, you noticed all those glass tubes right? The ones with animals in them?" Another nod. "That's where Ray came from. She was one of those animals, one of the ones whose spirits were being harnessed for Biovolt."
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(1) I hope you don't mind if I use the dub name instead of Takao
(2) Let's call it that for lack of a better term
SS-And there's the 'information' chapter. I don't like them that much, but they are needed.
Tym-But so early in the story? It just shows how fast you're going through this. But something about the bitbeast part doesn't sound correct.
SS-I know. M-sen wasn't too clear when she told me about that. But I'm working with what I know and the little history lesson will continue onto the next chapter so please bear with it.