Disclaimer: The Arcan Blades don't own beyblade
Jade: Whew…this fic is getting eternal…but that's a good thing, isn't it? Thanks for everyone who's reviewed, they really kept us going! Anyway, after all the seriousness, I think we should have some fun. And a lot of fun we shall have indeedy!
Alexia: (raising an eyebrow) What is your definition of 'fun'?
Jade: (smirking evilly) Watch and see.
Mike and Patrick: (edging away) We don't like the sound of that.
Jade: (smiles at the readers) Read and Review!!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Unwinding
"I really don't think we should be celebrating," Kai remarked as they all left the BIOVOLT stadium. "We just made it to the Finals. We haven't won."
"Come on, Kai, don't be such a wet blanket," Tyson answered. "This may be our last chance to celebrate."
"Kai may have a point," said Mike. "The Demolition Boys aren't the type of people you'd want to go up against playing by ear. We should get ready."
"But didn't you hear the rules that DJ said?" Max asked. "One day for each match-up, best of three each day. Maybe we can relax."
"Come on," said Ray. "You saw what the Demolition Boys did to the Majestics. It was two wins straight and the Majestics could barely recover in the battles."
Jade sighed. "Oh…well, I guess you're right. Darn. I really wanted to at least go out and get ice cream or something."
"Oho, and your answer to that?" Max elbowed Ray, who reddened and said, "What? She's got a point. At least…ice cream or something."
"You are such a pushover for this girl," Alexia rolled her eyes but grinned at Ray who turned away and said indignantly, "Oh, and Kai isn't for you?"
"Hey, what do I have to do with this?!" Kai demanded.
"It's true, isn't it?" Tyson raised an eyebrow at him with a smirk.
Kai opened his mouth to speak, looked at Alexia, and then snapped it shut and glanced away with a huff. And then Tyson yelled at the top of his lungs, "Ice cream!!"
"All right!" Mike exclaimed. "Sheesh… Ice cream it is. Just make it quick…"
"Honestly…" said Kai, shaking his head.
"We'll get some, then," said Jade. "But just a little, okay?"
"Tyson, stop already!" said Max, alarmed as with everyone else in the room, which was the Bladebreakers'. "That's your second gallon!"
"But it's so good…" Tyson said meekly. "Besides, it's not like I ate the first one all by myself…"
"Yeah sure," snorted Ray. "Max had, what, three spoonfuls of the first one? And then you're eating your way down the second…"
"Oh yeah? Well how much have you guys eaten?"
Everyone raised their eyebrows at him, and he saw that although several gallons of ice cream were out, two or three people were eating out of one flavor.
"We should've known that there is no such thing as 'a little' to Tyson's eating habits…" Kai remarked. He hadn't touched the gallon of chocolate ice cream in front of him.
"You sure know the definition of it," said Alexia. "You haven't touched yours."
"I don't want any."
"Robert—mostly—and the Majestics bought us a gallon of every flavor ice cream in the store and you don't want to eat anything?" Patrick stared at him, wiping his mouth clear of blackurrant ice cream. "The word 'picky' is an understatement for you."
"I just don't want anything," Kai bristled at him.
"Candy?" asked Max from his bed, and his slightest movement caused a cascade of candy to slip off his bed. The All-Stars had dumped it all there.
Kai raised his eyebrows at him but rolled his eyes and said, "All right. Pass me a pixie stick."
Tyson snorted back his laugh along with some other of the bladers in the room and instead distracted himself. "Why did they put all the candy there anyway?"
"Because the White Tigers already filled the table," Kenny answered, looking over the mountain of fruit that the White Tigers had sent to their room.
"Boy, when we make them treat us they really do, don't they?" said Mike from where he sat perched on the back of the sofa and eating a entire huge container of ice cream and fruit swimming in chocolate fudge and his shirt was covered in chocolate stains.
"They wanted to, anyway," said Jade. She pushed away the basket of strawberries in front of her and said, "I can't eat any more. Here, Ray, you can have the rest."
"I can't eat anymore either," replied Ray.
Alexia was sitting across the table from Kai and was carefully picking out all the red skittles from a giant bag. "Doing this is kind of fun, actually…almost makes you forget some things…"
"Come on, we're having a little fun before the cyclone touches down," said Patrick, rolling his eyes at her as he took another spoonful of ice cream. "Live a little."
"I am!" said Alexia.
"Live more, then," Patrick.
"How?" asked Max.
"Like this," said Patrick, scooping up a handful of blackcurrant ice cream and flinging it up into the ceiling. It smacked and stuck up there, and everyone watched, wide eyed.
Slowly, it began to fall and…
Splat.
"Oh…man…" Tyson breathed, backing away.
Kai's face was covered in ice cream. Very slowly, he got up, very calmly wiped the ice cream off, then suddenly grabbed a bottle of chocolate fudge and sprayed it into Patrick's face.
Instantly, ice cream and candy went flying across the room with a side order of fruit. Back and forth the food flew, like a hailstorm. Max had the candy arsenal almost all to himself—that is until Tyson got his hands on it and dumped a container of smarties on his head and he was forced to chase after him with a can of cheese that he found.
Kenny sought cover under the table, unwilling to take part in this food fiasco. While he did, however, there was an unheard knock at the door and it opened.
"Hey you guys!" said Lee. "What's all the noise abou—"
Bap!
A bag of giant marshmallows exploded on his face. He opened his eyes, blinking away the floury powder that came with the marshmallows. Mariah covered her mouth to hide her laugh—and got hit at the back of the head with an orange.
And, naturally, the White Tigers leapt into the fray and joined in as the doors slammed shut. Gary wasn't fighting—he was picking up the unspoiled pieces here and there. As the tumult continued, none of them running out of ammunition any time soon, more curious eyes—and ears, were at the door.
"What could the racket in there possibly be all about?" Emily wondered as the All-Stars stopped in front of the Bladebreakers' room.
"Let's go find out, then," said Michael. They knocked on the door, and everything suddenly silenced. The All-Stars looked at each other.
"Come in," said Max's stifled sweet voice, like he was keeping something back, like laughter.
Michael shrugged and opened the door wide. And as soon as they did, a barrage of ice cream, candy and fruit came flying out to direct impact at all the All-Stars. This went on for a full ten seconds.
When it stopped, the All-Stars stood frozen, appalled. There was silence again. And then Michael yelled through the ice cream and syrup dripping off his face, "Charge!!!"
And the All-Stars leapt into the room, slammed the door shut and the chaos began again. It was something that should've been expected—a certain unavoidable hazard in a room full of riotous beybladers and too much snack food.
As some of the chocolate leaked out from under the door, Enrique happened to pass by. He stopped and stared as the puddle slowly seeped out into the hallway carpet. He looked up and heard the noises. He walked up to the door and tried the handle, but it was locked.
He rapped loudly on the door. "Hey, are you guys all right in there?"
Silence again. "Yeah," said Mike, frozen on the spot, ice cream dripping off him. "Just fine."
Enrique was quite frankly mystified. Especially when a glob of something was partially clogging up the bottom of the door. "Wait there," said Enrique. "I'll get the other Majestics."
He ran off. As his footsteps died away, Michael tossed a handful of ice cream in one hand like a snowball, his uniform caked in food. "How should we execute them?" he asked.
"Same with you?" asked Patrick, his hair dripping in strawberry syrup.
"Nah…I've got an idea," said Tyson, wiping some cheese off his face, grinning. He glanced under the table.
When Enrique returned with the other, similarly puzzled Majestics, they knocked on the door, and an unscathed Kenny met them there. "Hi!" said Kenny, looking rather uncomfortable and extremely nervous. "Wh-what are all you doing here?"
"What's going on in there?" asked Robert.
"N-Nothing," Kenny stammered.
The Majestics gave him incredulous looks. The room behind Kenny was dark and barely anything could be seen. "I don't buy that," said Johnny.
"You can…come inside," said Kenny rather hesitantly. "But there's something wrong with the lights, though…"
The Majestics were allowed access into the dark room. "It sure smells funny in here," said Oliver.
"Must be all the food we sent up," said Enrique. He stopped as he stepped on something that made a squishing noise. "Okay…the carpet…is saturated in something…"
Slam!
The door shut out all the light. And then after a moment, the stunned Majestics blinked into the sudden light, surrounded completely by food-streaked beybladers armed with food arsenal.
"Get them," said Tyson sweetly with a smirk.
And there bombardment began. Johnny ducked, jumped and avoided every hit attempt on him while Oliver, Enrique and Robert were all quickly knocked down by the force of the barrage.
They stopped and Johnny, untouched, yelled, "Ha!"
Bloosh!
A water balloon—or a plastic bag full of water, anyway—fell over his head, soaking him from head to toe. He gave a yell—as the best thing to do when you get warred on like this is to war back.
And so the food fight continued for a good twenty restless, chaotic minutes, everyone forgetting that the door was unlocked and the room was flooding over, and finally, authoritative people arrived at the scene.
When the door swung open to receive Judy, Tyson's father and grandfather, Zeus and Mr. Dickinson, it was just that everyone, so caught up in the mess, had rather expected it to be more victims. So that was the reason why all the food went flying at the doorway right at that instant.
Splat! Bap! Bloosh! Spat! Bap! Bap! Pow!
And after several more splats, everyone stopped, frozen, to recognized who they just hit and were frankly horrified to see them covered in goop.
"M-Mr. Dickinson!" Kenny gasped.
"Mom!" Max blanched.
"Dad! Grandpa!" gasped Tyson.
"Zeus!" the Relic Bladers chorused.
There was silence and the bladers had not moved from their throw positions. Then, Judy raised up her hand shaking with contained fury, pointed out the door and said, "Every single one of you—march. Straight out—into the grounds. Now."
They didn't march—they ran. They tore out the door in a massive stampede and hurled themselves over to the staircases, laughing and screaming as soon as they were in a mess out the door. If one could only have seen the looks on the people's faces as a stampede of ice-cream-candy-fruit-covered beybladers go about running to the outside…
"Aaaaaahhhh!!!"
The beybladers were running around like crazy all over the one side of the grounds they were at, screaming, as a fire hose pelted them all with water—courtesy of Tyson's father. The force of water was so strong that everytime one of them got direct hit, he or she slammed to the ground.
"It's cold!!" Tyson yelled as he was blasted.
"We'll catch hypothermia!" Emily cried.
"Hold still!" Judy cried through her megaphone. "This is the only way we can wash the lot of you up." She smirked. "And get revenge."
The force of water was sufficient enough to drench all of them the first five seconds of fire, and very soon, a group of very wet, but very clean beybladers were huddled in a bunch in the middle of a patch of ground in the snow bank.
Mr. Dickinson and the other adults, who, unlike the bladers, had the luxury of cleaning up in a hot shower, stood over them. "Had enough?" asked Tyson's dad, giving the hose a shake.
"Yes!!" they all chorused.
"Well…the good news is that the hotel doesn't seem to be too worked up about you all little dudes and dudettes messing up the room and the hall carpet," said Tyson's grandfather. "They're currently cleaning it up, but that means that all of you are on probation and are camping out here tonight."
"That's…not so bad…" Oliver remarked meekly.
"You've never camped before, have you?" Patrick asked him.
"Not…really…" replied Oliver.
"Good luck," snorted Johnny. "I have."
"We're not done," said Mr. Dickinson. "The Bladebreakers and the Relic Bladers will practice out here in twenty minutes. The rest of you will all help them train for their match against the Demolition Boys. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," they all replied.
"We have a problem," said Jade, raising her hand. "We…can't…find our beyblades."
"They're lost…somewhere…in the mounds of food up there…" said Patrick, motioning dully to the room window. The rest of the other beybladers nodded.
"Well then, go up there and find them," said Judy. "Don't worry—we'll spray you clean again."
They all groaned, surrendered, and trudged back up to the hotel.
After digging for their beyblades—and shooters and ripcords for some of them—they got sprayed again by the fire hose—this time, mercifully filled with hot water to save them from hypothermia, and it was only after they were allowed to dress did practice commence. The practice was brutally long, going well into the night, but Judy cut it short by nine-thirty, saying that they should rest.
"We wouldn't want you to oversleep again now would we?" she smiled and the Bladebreakers all looked embarrassed.
And so they all went to go drag up camping gear from where they were dumped by the side of the lawn. "Man…I never expected this to happen," Tyson muttered as he pulled out one of the tents from its bag.
"All for a food fight, eh?" Michael grinned as he passed by, carrying some poles. "Not bad, really…"
"Sez you…" Patrick answered dully. "You weren't the one repeatedly bombarded by beyblades of the best beybladers in the world to battle for practically eight hours straight."
The lawn was set up like a boot camp. There was a clump of three or four tents at each division, which was divided for each team. In front of each clump was a flag, bearing the symbol of each team.
"Oliver, that's not right—you're gonna end up pitching your tent upside down," Johnny exclaimed from the Majestics' camp.
"I told you, I've never camped before!" Oliver exclaimed, who didn't have to tent poles all right.
"Here, I'll help," said Enrique. "Let's get this done so we can all rest."
The All-Stars finished their camp first, then the White Tigers, and so on. The last to finish were the Majestics. The adults also had a small plot of lawn to themselves, and after making sure that lights out really meant 'lights out', they also retired. Silence enveloped the night, but obviously…some restless ones can't sleep.
Tyson switched on a flashlight from under his sleeping bag. "Psst. Max. Are you awake?"
"Huh?" Max rolled over sleepily from the other side of one of the two-man tents in the Bladebreakers' camp. "What is it?"
"I can't sleep," said Tyson.
"Well I can…"
"Come on, Max. I'm all worked up about tomorrow. Do you think we practiced enough?"
Max laughed. "What kind of a question is that? Of course. Everyone was drilling us non-stop. And we have the Relic Bladers to back us up too. Don't worry."
"Boy, I hope you're right…" there was a pause, and he said, "If we lost the match tomorrow, is it because of the food fight?"
"No," Max replied. "We practiced hard afterwards. The fight was just an…unwinding exercise."
Tyson seemed satisfied and silenced. Unbeknownst to everyone, a shadow crossed over one tent, casting a quick shadow over one camp tents'. The shadows flitted off and vanished.
Tyson's eyes flew open. He sat up. "What was that?"
Gary sat up, nearly tearing through his tent ceiling—he had one to himself—and said, "I smell food." And he slowly scuttled out of his sleeping bag.
"Candy," Patrick muttered, pushing himself up.
"What?" Mike grunted sleepily from his side of the tent. "Pat, the food fight's over."
"No, really…" said Patrick. "Someone has candy. And I just realized how hungry I was."
"Go to sleep," Mike groaned and rolled over. His stomach suddenly gave a growl. Patrick snorted, "Wow, Mike, is that your bit beast or your stomach?"
"Shut up," said Mike, turning red, unseen in the dim light, and got up.
Oliver popped his head out of the tent he shared with Enrique. "Hmm. I'm sure that was chocolate." He kicked Enrique's foot from behind him and said, "Hey! Wake up!"
"Eh?" Enrique stirred. "What?"
"You just said you were hungry," said Oliver. "And I smell food."
"Really…" Enrique rolled over and Oliver nudged him again. "Come on, someone's up and eating without us."
Creeping to the edge of camp, the shadows seemed to be converging on a nearby tree behind the mass of tents. There was movement from there, and a small yellow globe of light was the only torch in the gloom from that direction.
Ray looked out from the edge of the Bladebreakers' camp and saw everyone else stirring, and he was the first one to brave the dark and creep out to see what was going on. Kai, long since been awakened by the moving shadows, followed after him, and Ray muttered, "Watch out for the tent pegs on the ground…" and at the same instant, Tyson tripped and fell face-first into the snowy soil with a thud. He was hushed violently soon after.
At an intersection, Alexia and Jade were already a little to their lead from the Relic Bladers' camp. Lee and Kevin were behind them. From behind Kai came Tyson and Max, with Robert and Johnny who were glancing at the adults' tent to make sure that they won't be caught sneaking off.
And then they came upon the tree, and the yellow light revealed the All-Stars, sitting around a stone bench, using it as a table, and the bench was heaped with cake, soda, fruit and candy.
"They've been holding out on us," Tyson muttered.
They looked up at them as they approached, and Steve chortled, "What took you so long?"
"Come on," said Michael, swallowing a mouthful of chocolate cake. "We snuck out some food into camp."
"Yeah!" came the whispered cries of everyone else, and they all fell to eating as they all rather hungry, their need for food overruling their desire to sleep.
After everyone grabbed hold of some food and drink, everyone sat around the bench with the yellow battery-powered lamp, making the whole thing look like some sort of bonfire.
"It's a good thing you guys managed to sneak this out," said Mariah. "How'd you do it?"
"There were so many of us at practice—one by one we went in and nabbed some stuff from the dining hall," said Eddy. "And remember when Steve asked if he could go to the bathroom and didn't come back for ages but no one noticed until he was back? He got the soda and candy at a store."
"Man, I'm starving," said Tyson. "That practice was a killer."
"It should be," replied Mike. "We're supposed to be ready for whatever the Demolition Boys can bring us tomorrow."
"Are we ready?" asked Alexia.
"Sure we are," said Ray. "Everyone helped us out. And we can all rest easy knowing that we'll be to our full potential tomorrow."
Patrick raised up his Armada into the light, and some light twinkled on it as he said, "Well…I guess there's no holding back now, is there, Fearless Leader?"
"Yeah," Mike replied, and everyone smiled at the Relic Bladers' nickname for their captain. "This is the real deal. And it'll be our one and only shot."
"Or else we'll all blow it and wait for next year," muttered Max.
"There might not be a next year for us," said Jade gently.
They all looked at the Relic Bladers, and just Patrick shrugged. "If we don't get Tala back in this tournament…we'll be in for rather dire consequences when we return home."
"What do you mean?" asked Kai, setting down his bottle of soda.
For a moment, Mike was silent and he then said, "They're all counting on us to bring him back. We're the best beybladers in our land for goodnessakes. We're not entitled to fail."
"Worst-case scenario isn't pretty," replied Jade. "Second to the worst-case is that we be exiled…or never leave Arcanis again. Not that we were supposed to, to begin with."
"Why, what is worst-case?" asked Max nervously.
"We can say goodbye to these things," Patrick laughed, tossing up his beyblade. "They'll be ritualistically destroyed…and we're lucky if we're not destroyed along with them…"
Everyone paled. "You're…joking, right?" stammered Emily.
"Not the slightest bit," replied Mike almost cheerfully. "We took this upon ourselves. Actually, we weren't even supposed to go out to look for Tala. Arcanis is supposed to be in anonymity and going out to the world in a tournament would put is into unwanted scrutiny. Since Tala left by choice, they were going to give up on him. "
"Who's they?" asked Ray.
"The Arcan High Council—and everyone else," replied Jade. "They were going to give up on him. But we wouldn't. Tala was a champion beyblader and was therefore important, but that wasn't the reason for us. He's our friend. They let us go, on the condition that should we fail, we'd face consequences similar to what one would face for treason."
"Which is…well, for us, they'd destroy our blades," said Patrick. "And then execution, probably. Because we've been exposed to the world when we shouldn't have been. Nobody knows Tala's an Arcan anyway, and they won't go after him anymore."
There was a very uncomfortable pause. "So…you're all risking your lives…to save him?" Kai asked.
"Yes," replied Mike.
"Tala must be one very important person," said Robert. "For you all."
"He is…" said Patrick with a slight smile. "You've no idea."
Jade hugged her knees. "Not like it matters to him at all… He doesn't care anymore. But then again…he doesn't know how much we put on the line."
There was another silence. And it was only now did they realize that there was another huge price at stake. If they lose the Finals, they'll lose their bit beasts, BIOVOLT will undoubtedly seize control of the world, Tala would never be returned to normal, and the Relic Bladers would lose their lives. Never has there been such a huge consequence of losing to a tournament.
Steve, to hide the anxiety from his face, turned away to open a bottle cap. He raised the soda and said, "To victory, then."
Everyone raised their drinks. "To victory."
"Good luck, you guys," said Oliver.
"Yeah," said Lee, nodding. "Good luck to the tournament."
They were about to resume eating, when suddenly a powerful spotlight was lit down at them. Frozen, they slowly looked up to see the adults standing there.
"And what are you all doing?" asked Zeus.
"Having…a late night snack…" they all said slowly.
Judy then said, "Well if you're hungry, then you shouldn't be eating that kind of food! Now up—let's get to the hotel and see if they can get you all something to eat and not cake and soda."
"Aw, but we were having fun," said Michael.
"And did you start all this, Michael?" Judy asked.
"N-no," Michael shook his head wildly.
"Okay…but up. Come on. Let's get some food and then back to bed."
The Demolition Boys' practice had just ceased for the night. They were all walking back to their living quarters in the abbey. Ian asked, after a few moments, "I still don't know what your motives were for having both the Bladebreakers and the Relic Bladers for the Finals, Tala. You even caught Boris in a trap and made him agree to it."
"I have my reasons," Tala remarked coldly.
"Which are?" asked Spencer.
"Since when have you all been so talkative?" Tala snapped.
There was instant silence. Tala surely was rather back to normal. Or as normal as he could be with the Demolition Boys. There was a long pause, and Tala said, "I had them both because I know a way how we can step over them all. All we need is to modify our beyblades."
They all looked at him and Tala said, "The Relic Bladers' have power unsurpassable, while the Bladebreakers have spirit undefeated. We've already beaten them in both fields, but if I know the Arcans they'll remodel the Bladebreakers' blades. They'll use the most powerful element on the beyblades which can only be found in Arcanis."
Ian raised his beyblade. "I've been wondering why our beyblades have been so much heavier…this is the same material the midnight diamond bowl is made of, isn't it?"
"And that's what I practiced you all on," replied Tala coolly. "You all can control your mutated bit beasts well, and you can control the beyblades which have practically the same power their beyblades would have. They can't control their power properly yet. Not as properly."
"Hence the non-stop drill?" Spencer asked.
"That's right. We now overpower them all. Two at the time, we can crush them. We'll all take their bit beasts and that's the end of it. I don't want to waste any more time."
There was another silence, and Bryan spoke. "I may be wrong…but is the reason why you want to crush the Arcans so badly is because they made you waver?"
Tala aimed his shooter and beyblade right to Bryan's face, and the latter didn't even blink. Tala snarled, "Don't you mention that again. They're only trying to stop me from achieving my goal."
Bryan no longer said anything, and Tala strode off with a huff. As he strode down the hall, he thought, I won't let them stop me. Not Patrick, not Jade, not Alexia, and not even Mike. I'll crush them all.
Jade: Well, the night's still young…there're still things that we have to talk about…
Mike: The consequences that we had are a little…severe, isn't it?
Alexia: Please, you guys—let's not discuss this, okay? I'm too worried about Tala.
Patrick: What I'm worried about is what Miss Judy and all the other adults are going to make us do on Day Two of beyblade boot camp. (looks to the readers) Well you guys? What do you think? Review, okay?
