BEYBLADE

CHAPTER TWO: KOLTSOVO DOME

"Ohhhhhh maaaan!!"

Rei and Max tilted back toward the door as they waited outside on the pathway. Tyson was running... well, hopping along while slipping one shoe on his left foot and shoving a large sandwich into his mouth.

Max chuckled and Rei smiled. " Why doesn't he just get dressed first, and then eat?" Max questioned.

Rei turned fully to view Tyson, chuckling. " Or eat first, and then get dressed?"

Kenny pushed passed the two boys and tilted his head at Tyson, his shoulders slouched as he gripped Dizzi (his bit-beast trapped in his laptop) under one arm. " Tyson, if you don't hurry up, we're going to be late for the tour."

Rei and Max blinked at each other before gazing at Kenny. " Tour? What tour?"

Tyson stumbled to a stop in front of the trio, poking a finger at the piece of bread that tried to escape his deadly jaws. " Wha..? A oo-uhrr?" (" What? a tour?")

Kenny nodded and lifted a sheet of paper to the three boys. " Yes. A tour of the new beystadium. We have ten minutes to get there. We'll be lucky if we get there only twenty minutes late." Kenny dipped his head and sighed in desperation.

Tyson, who had by now slipped his shoe on and tied the laces, grinned broadly and tapped his belly. " Oh, don't sweat it, Chief. A growing blader has gotta eat his breakfast, if you get what I'm saying. Sorry I took so long, though. The cheese bagles were just so tempting."

Suddenly and as unexpectedly as a change in the weather, a creamy-colored brass stick slammed down in-between the boys, forcing them to reel back.

" Hey, lil' dudes! Whatcha waitin' for? Come on, chop chop! Let's get this show on the road, muh peeps." An old man dressed in long baggy pants, (the color green) and a large, bulky hawaiian jumper walked passed the boys, tapping his martial arts stick against the top of his shoulder.

"Grandpaaa..." Tyson slouched and walked through the circular glass doors after his Grandpa, soon after followed by a chuckling Rei and Max, and a nervously agitated Kenny. " ...Please, I beg you.. stop talkin' like that. It's embarrasing." The last word was murmured.

Rei stopped and peered passed the doors into the foyer of the hotel, blinking. " Where's Kai?"

"He's already at the stadium, apparently." Said Dizzi as Kenny lifted the lid of his laptop.

Rei tilted his head, dark bangs slipping passed his red bandana as he stepped onto the BBA bus. " Already there?"

"That's right." Laughed a cheery, rosey-cheeked Mr. Dickenson who sat in one of the seats at the back. Tyson, Max and Rei made their way toward the back and sat down, peering over the chairs at the old man.

He laughed again. " I can tell by your faces that you are all shocked by what we've said."

Tyson slouched again, letting his arms hang over the back of the seat as he slurred through the side of his mouth. " No kidding."

Kenny started typing furiously upon the keys of Dizzi's body. " Wow, chief, you've got lightning fast fingers. Might want to tone it down before you short-circuit me."

That's Dizzi, right there. Smart-mouthed, quick-witted bit-beast... with an attitude, plus a hard drive and a couple of circuit boards.

Kenny peered at the screen, which displayed a picture of the Beystadium, standing tall and broad in it's new place, the centre of Russia, trees surrounding its perimeter. "It's called the Koltsovo Dome."

"Ooh..." Max slipped into the seat behind Kenny, soon after followed by a collected Rei and messy Tyson.

" Hey, chief, check that out." Tyson pointed to the screen, his finger denting the liquid crystal display and sending a wave of colored patterns across the picture.

Dizzi made a shivering noise. " Whoah there, cut it out Tyson. That's almost as cold as Russia in winter."

The bus jerked forward as it drove away from the hotel, chugging at a reasonable speed along the frozen streets of Ekaterinburg. The boys sat back in their seats and peered through the windows as Kenny continued on. " Apparently, the BBA president wanted a new stadium for this tournament because of complaints about the old one being too small."

Tyson perked up. " Too small? That stadium is huge! How big can this one possibly be?"

" Very big, Tyson. You see, the first one only spans two blocks in either direction, while the new one spans five blocks."

Rei crossed his bandage-bound arms across his chest and tilted his head slightly upward. " That's a bit excessive, don't you think?"

Mr. Dickenson laughed, side-glancing at Tyson's Grandpa as the older man sat next to him before looking to the boys, again. " You're a negative bunch, aren't you? Let's just wait and see how things are, hmm? I hear this new stadium has a cafeteria."

Dizzi pffted. " Yeah, yeah. Big deal. It probably took them more than two years to get that right, whereas I bring up a picture of the biggest cafeteria in less than ten seconds."

Max chuckled and placed his hands upon the cold window surface, his golden bangs covering his blue eyes as they lay hidden beneath the light blue hood of his BBA coat. " I can't wait to see it. I'm so excited."

*****

A dark empty hallway with blue cement walls lead from the outside world, into the beystadium's main arena. It was cold and eerie, had no feeling of warmth or welcome, at all: it was so cold, that even the undetectable emotions of Kai picked up the icy vibes. He looked around as he walked through, viewing down along the mini-corridors that branched off from the main hallway: a cafeteria, a beyblade training dish, a waiting room, a gym. Jeez, this place had it all.

Pfft. It's not so great. He thought to himself.

After a casual ten-minute stroll, he finally came to the end of the hallway and peered into the main arena, a large... I mean, really large, dome-like shaped ceiling encompassing the entire area of the circular room. His eyes lit up as he looked around, walking into the arena and gazing at the many plastic seats that went on for rows and rows toward the top, almost like a neverending spiral of colors.

Kai shook his head and folded his arms over his chest, sorrel eyes dropping to a small dip in the floor a little way across the arena. Head tilted, and mouth slightly open, he walked towards the dip, catching a faint glimpse of blue... or maybe it was green... could even be teal. Kai really didn't care about the color as he continued on. He just wanted to know who... or what, it belonged to.

Bending down at the rim of the dip, he peered in. Nothing, he couldn't see anything. Kai tilted his head and stood again, turning to gaze around the arena once more, and at that moment, a flash of silvery light whipped passed his face, narrowly missing the soft skin of his cheek.

Kai flinched and turned, his orbs falling to the spinning form of a metallic beyblade as it zoomed around the dark dip. He was surprised to see that it hadn't fallen into some sort of deep ditch, but realisation hit him and he came to his senses.

The darkness created an illusion. It makes the onlooker think that the dish is deep, when in fact it really isn't. That's tricky. He thought as he turned, sorrel gaze searching the arena for the possible culprit. " Hey, who's beyblade is this?" His hand dropped to the spinning blade in the dark dish, yet his head remained tilted upright as he looked around.

"It's mine." A harsh, murmured voice called back.

Kai reeled around at the sound of the stranger's voice, yet as his gaze fell upon the boy's form, he realised that it was no stranger at all. Folding both arms across his chest and leaning his weight to one side, he spoke.

" Bryan... Nice to see you again." The sarcasm in his voice was so evident, that it made Bryan's face twitch, which is usually... unusual.

The light-purple haired boy was walking in-between the rows of chairs, making his way toward the aisle where he began his descent toward Kai. An evil smirk twisted his evil features as he stopped in front of the Blade-breakers' leader.

" Kai..."

Another hissed voice was issued from the shadows of a waiting bay, a bay that stood on the border of the stadium's central floor. Kai tilted his head back and caught a glimpse of chestnut-blonde, spikey hair. " Spencer..."

"That's my name, don't wear it out... traitor."

Kai dipped his head and narrowed his gaze. " Where are the other two lab-rats of the team? .. Tala and Ian, was it?"

Bryan clenched a fist and felt a ball of anger rising within him, yet somehow he just managed to keep it down as the expression on his face grew to one of unreadable proportions.