Chap Recap: It was a big explanatory chapter, so if you didn't read it, don't blame me if you don't understand the following chapters.

11. Second Helpings

"Dragoon Phantom Hurricane attack!" Tyson yelled.

Huge winds picked up and a cyclone formed within the dish. They all protected themselves from the zephyr.

"Poltost! Invisivandal!" Telesto yelled back.

Bricks began to fall from the sides of the buildings in the alley.

"Look away, guys. Pegusar! Quasar!" Eva commanded.

The intense light blinded Vitality Extortion and their Bit Beasts. Poltost couldn't see where to throw the heavy rocks, so they went flying into the air, all while the hurricane was going on. The rocks were whipped around and thrown in every direction with no regard for who the blader was.

Kai, Tala, and Sarah were back at battling Vitality Extortion in the back alleys, only this time Tyson, Eva, and Bryan had tagged along. They were all wearing their uniforms. Eva's was purple and green, Tyson's was blue and orange, and Bryan's was red and dark blue. They were the only ones to finish making their uniforms.

"Now, Wolborg, Blizzalog!" Tala ordered, expanding on Eva's initial attack.

While Vitality Extortion was preoccupied with regaining their vision, cold winds blew to engulf them in a parallel universe of ice and snow. Spica was the first to notice this, and was about to use Revenost's Return attack, when Bryan intercepted and distracted her.

"Use Stroblitz, Falborg!"

Falborg began to use the air to attack Spica as the hurricane dissipated. Spica was still in pain, though. Kuiper and Telesto watched her suffer, not knowing what to do. They were busy paying attention her instead of the battle. "What are you doing, you fools? Defeat them!" she shrieked through the air that cut at her uniform and body.

Sarah turned to Bryan. "I think she's learned her lesson." Bryan nodded and commanded Falborg to cease its onslaught.

Spica didn't get up, though. Her Revenost had taken enough battering by the sub-zero temperatures and spun to a stop beside her.

"That's one down and two to go!" exclaimed Tyson. "We're in the lead, guys!"

Kuiper ordered for Doppelgost to use Double-Go. It did so, making up for Spica's lost blade. Kuiper glanced sideways at Telesto and mumbled, "Eva."

Telesto nodded and told Poltost to follow the Doppelgosts across the dish towards Eva's Pegusar. The three blades came in from all sides, hitting consistently. The Biovolt blades tried to knock them off balance or distract them, but it was no use. Meanwhile, Eva was in excruciating pain. Sarah tried to support her while watching what was going on. Then, she had an idea. "Fovular! Black Hole!"

The Doppelgosts and Poltost were drawn closer to Fovular by the black force, but managed to pull away with much struggle. One of the Doppelgosts flew out of the field and straight at Pegusar, knocking it out.

Eva was now in the worst possible condition. "We need to do something. If she stays here she'll freeze. Who knows how weak she is by now," Kai voiced.

Tala tried to analyze the situation. "But she can't just run away. My Wolborg's Blizzalog won't allow her to. One side'll have to win."

"Unless we can melt this frozen world somehow?" Sarah suggested.

"I'm fine..." Eva mumbled.

Sarah glanced down at her friend and then back at Tala, taking no notice of her.

Tala nodded and looked at Kai. "Tell Dranzer to use one of its fire attacks."

"I'm fine!" Eva repeated, louder and more irritated.

Sarah jerked Eva's arm a little. "No you're not! Look at yourself! You can barely speak, let alone keep your eyes open! Kai!"

"Right. Dranzer! Use Fire Arrow on the walls of this enclosure!"

Dranzer flew out of the dish and flew spin gear-first against the wall behind the Biovolt deploys. A fire emanated from the bottom and on contact burned through the ice. The ice cage flickered and disappeared, revealing the alley once more.

The Biovolt deploys observed the street outside of the alley. "Eva can't make it back to the Abbey by herself," mentioned Sarah.

Bryan called his blade back just as Poltost and Doppelgost were about to collide with it. "I'll take her."

Bryan stuffed his blade into his pocket and rushed over to Eva and Sarah. He carried Eva in a fireman's lift and with a wave, departed. Eva let out a desperate, angered groan. Tyson, Kai, Tala, and Sarah turned back to the battle to see that Dragoon was being ganged up on by Poltost and Doppelgost. Tyson was now feeling the pain, too. "Ugh! Now I know what extreme pain feels like!"

"Hang on, Tyson!" Sarah exclaimed. "White Hole!"

"Wolborg! Attack by feeding off that power!"

Fovular once again created the exerted gravitational field, while Wolborg drew close and was shot away, knocking the decoy Doppelgost into oblivion. The decoy Doppelgost in turn knocked the actual Doppelgost off balance. As if in a chain reaction, the actual Doppelgost also knocked Dragoon out. Though Tyson had lost, his pain had ceased.

In a risky suicidal attempt, Telesto could see he was the only one left of the Goadbwa deploys and told Poltost to use Invisivandal to break the buildings. The bricks came down, burying all four survivor blades and destroying their spin- a tie on both sides.

"Oh my!" Mr. Dickenson exclaimed once Boris had finished explaining Goadbwa's plans. "That is frightening."

"When you put it that way, I think we should reconsider helping Biovolt, especially since this is mundane-threatening. Don't you think that way, Stanley?" Judy suggested.

Mr. Dickenson looked up at the BBA's Head Scientist. "Yes. I'm willing to fully aide you, now, Boris. Forgive me for my naivety before."

Boris bowed before Mr. Dickenson. "No offence taken, sir."

He looked up as he heard the front gate creak open and footsteps enter. "You're back? How'd the battle go?"

Bryan was still holding a near unconscious Eva. "It was a tie."

Boris raised his head modestly. "Well it's better than last time's turnout, I guess."

Tyson gestured to Eva on Bryan's back. "What do we do with her?"

"Oh dear! Is she okay? What happened to her?" Lutka exclaimed as she rushed out through main doors and into the courtyard where everyone else was. Kieran sauntered out slowly from behind her, hands in his pant pockets.

Bryan eased Eva off his back and into Lutka's arms. "Vitality Extortion ganged up on her."

Lutka examined Eva's pained features before turning to rush back inside. She rushed past a rather confused yet nonchalant Kieran.

Bryan turned as he heard Sarah say something. "Why don't you go check up on her, Bryan?"

Bryan hesitated. 'Does she know about my feelings for Eva? If she doesn't and is just making assumptions, it would be best to keep it that way. Might as well go check up on her, anyway.' "Uh...yeah." He walked inside after Lutka and Eva.

Kieran watched Bryan and simpered. 'Watch out, sis. You've got an admirer...'

Gilepse stood in the Goadbwa control room test facilities waiting for Kuiper, Telesto, and Kuiper to return. "They lost. How embarrassing."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but they didn't actually lose, did they?"

Gilepse whirled around and unclasped his hands. He saw a plump, elderly man stride up to him. The man had long grey hair and dark brown eyes. He wore a long grey trenchcoat and black boots. "Deneb! How nice it is to see you."

Gilepse harried to the man's side. He placed his hand on his shoulder as Deneb scowled suspiciously up at him. "Is there anything I can do for you, Deneb, sir?"

Deneb slipped from Gilepse's friendly grasp and stepped over to the glass of the test facilities. "No. I simply came to check in on how your team, Vitality Extortion is doing."

Gilepse lost the amiable personality and reclasped his hands as he walked over to Deneb's side. "They're doing fine. They won their first battle against Biovolt. Though on-"

"I know that," Deneb interrupted.

Gilepse backed off slightly but didn't respond.

"Gilepse!"

The two men turned to see Vitality Extortion walk through the doors of the testing facilities' control room.

Telesto was the first to walk in, leading Kuiper with Spica in. "Oh. Hello Deneb."

Deneb didn't acknowledge the salutation.

Gilepse glanced from Deneb to Spica. "Goodness! Spica! What did you do to yourself?!"

Spica's eyes flickered open as she glared at him. "Those little hoydens attacked me. First Eva blinded me, then Tala froze me half to death and then Bryan attacked me with some invisible force."

Telesto folded his arms and glowered at her. "Quit complaining. They harmed us, too."

"Yeah? Well not as badly!" Spica snapped.

"Stop fighting! Kuiper, take Spica to the infirmary. Telesto, get to the training rooms. Failure is not acceptable and I will not allow you to be defeated again," adjured Gilepse.

The two continued to leer as they parted ways. Gilepse threw a hand to his forehead and shook his head.

"You should learn to control them, Gilepse. Boris does." Deneb criticized.

Gilepse turned around and growled slightly. "Let's leave my asinine colleague out of this, please."

Deneb didn't reply.

"Surely you have something else to say?" Gilepse pressed after an impatient pause.

Deneb shook his head slowly. He strained to see behind Gilepse who turned as the doors behind him swung open. A woman with blonde hair tied up in a bun and green eyes walked in. She had a lab coat on and clipboard in hand.

Gilepse outstretched his arms in a friendly gesture. "Ophelia! What new status reports do you have?"

Just as everyone else, she didn't accept his humour. "Boris just phoned. He suggests a battle at Lake Baikal next."

"Oh. Ostentatious, isn't he? Did he ask my opinion?"

'Why would he?' thought Ophelia. "No."

"Is it a definite battle or do you mean that literally?"

Ophelia placed her right hand on her hip as she held the clipboard in her left. "I have no idea. He just seemed angry."

"Angry? Now why would Boris be angry?"

"Gee...I wonder...If he harmed some of your top-rate deploys wouldn't you be kind of vexed?" Ophelia asked flatly and with sarcasm.

Gilepse was now infuriated. 'What's wrong with everyone? They're treating me like I'm an irritating simpleton!'

"You're mission is to stop Goadbwa from stealing the souls of others. As you can see in the examples of Eddy, Kevin, and Enrique, this is quite a serious matter," Mr. Dickenson explained to all of the Beyblading teams.

The six the teams stood erect and in a line, though none of the teams were complete. From the Bladebreakers, Kai and Tyson were missing. From the White Tigers, Kevin was absent. From the All Starz, Eddy was no where in sight. From the Majestics, Enrique was the missing link. The Demolition Boys were without Tala and Bryan while the Celestial Myriad only had Philemon and Elvin there. Ray had now fully healed from his battle with Bryan, though Mariah still stuck like glue to his side.

Judy, George Tate, Derek Granger, and another man stood beside Mr. Dickenson. Both of them were taller. The other man no other team knew except the All Starz. He had light brown hair that was beginning to bald, a moustache and beard. He had bluish grey eyes. He wore a dark green golf shirt and dark blue jeans held up by a brown belt with gold buckle. He had black running shoes and a lab coat.

Mr. Dickenson turned up to them. "I trust you'll know what to do with the Biovolt equipment, my Head Scientist and Head Programmer?"

Judy and the man nodded in unison. "Do we have assistants?" Judy mused.

Mr. Dickenson returned the smile. "Who do you think is of the proper material?"

The man observed up and down the line. "I'd say Emily, definitely. Also the kid that's the technical manager of the Bladebreakers?"

Kenny stepped out of line, extremely excited. His laptop was tucked under his arm. "That would be me, Kenny, sir."

"Father!"

Everyone turned to see Sarah burst out through the doorway and into the main door's hall. Kai, Tala, Boris, Irina, Samson, Anya, and Rhea followed shortly after. Sarah stepped up to the man.

"Sarah. How is your training coming?" the man asked.

Sarah simpered. "Excellent!"

The man looked up to see his wife and son. "Samson. Irina. How nice to see you again!"

Samson strode briskly up to him. "Dad. Hey."

Irina didn't move her hands clasped in front of her nor did she move closer, but remained nestled xenophobically beside Boris. "Yes. A true pleasure, Nigel."

"Why don't we go to the cafeteria, everyone. We can sit down, introduce ourselves and discuss this whole quandary. There's also more room," Boris suggested.

They all obliged.

A silence lay over Biovolt Abbey. It was nighttime. Sarah awoke groggily. She sat up in her bed of the dormitory. She looked around to see that she was the only one in there. Tala and Kai, who were supposed to be sharing the room with, were no where in sight. Their beddings were messed up as if they'd left in a hurry.

She got up and out of bed. She smoothed out her messed hair slightly and left the room in search of them. 'I'm awake. Might as well, seeing as I won't get back to sleep.'

"We'll win this. There's no doubt about it, Kai," Tala said.

"How can you say that with such confidence?" Kai asked gravely as he glanced up at Tala who stood in front of him.

Tala hesitated. A cool night breeze blew past and chilled the both of them to the bone. "I can say it with confidence because I know that it's not just confidence." He paused and turned around to face Kai. "It's fate."

Kai continued to glare at him. "Fate...?"

Tala looked away as if ashamed towards the water. "Yeah. We're the prophesied ones, in case you've forgotten."

There was a hiatus as neither one of them spoke, Kai sitting on the stone ledge glaring at Tala and Tala looking out across the pond waters. Lights from the Abbey flickered against their backs.

"So...How is it to see Sarah again for you?" Tala asked, breaking the silence.

Kai had had his head down but now looked up at him. "I dunno..."

"She doesn't mean all that much to you, then?"

Kai scowled even more and turned his head away in disgust. "I gave you my answer. Besides, why are you so interested, anyway?"

Tala folded his arms. "Calm down! I was just asking. Sorry! But how was I supposed to know you were so sensitive?"

"You entered her in the conversation. Maybe it's you who's sensitive. About her!" Kai snapped.

Tala unfolded his arms and made a defensive stance. "What are you talking about?! Boris wouldn't allow such a waste of time. Huh! Imagine that! Me having feelings for Sarah!"

"You lie through your teeth. Just like you said the Demolition Boys would win the tournament without my help, and look who won."

Tala was beginning to advance on Kai, extremely irritated. "That doesn't mean anything!"

Kai grinned with assurance of the upper hand. "You don't mean a word you say. You can't prove your claimed apathy for her, can you?"

Tala stood up straight and glared at Kai with a look of contempt on his face. 'He's right...How do I work my way out of this one?'

"Oh! Isn't that just pulchritudinous?"

Kai and Tala glanced up to see Sarah standing there in her night garments and robe looking out across the water. She had just come from around the side of the Abbey. She turned to face them and noticed that they were both as red as Tala's hair in the illumination of the Abbey. "Hey. You two were out here all the time? Why didn't you tell me? I've been busy looking for you."

Tala laughed dryly while hunched over Kai slightly. "Heh... Well, we... uh..."

Kai stood up, forcing Tala out of the way. "We couldn't get to sleep."

Tala stood erect and clasped his hands behind his back innocently. "Yeah. What he said."

Sarah eyed the two suspiciously. "Okay..."

Kai stepped over to Sarah's side. He folded his arms and gazed across the water with her. "What is it that's so beautiful?"

Sarah simpered as she cast a quick glance at Kai and then pointed at the sky. "The stars and moon."

Kai shifted his gaze from the glistening waters to the black star- strewn sky. There was a slight look of surprise on his face. It truly was beautiful. The wafer-thin moon was surrounded by stars-stars of different colours when you looked closely. Like Sarah's eyes. The stars were also of different sizes.

"I couldn't agree on a lovelier sight," said Tala as he came up on Sarah's other side.

The three stared up at the heavens until Kai and Tala felt the sudden urge to say something to her. They both gazed down and turned their heads towards her just as she walked away and towards the water, leaving the two to glare in bewilderment at each other.

Sarah walked to the edge of the water and crouched down. She took one of her hands away from holding her robe closed and reached in to the water. The two boys watched as she swirled it through the shallows slowly.

Tala turned back to Kai and glowered viciously. "Don't get in my way!" he whispered with anger.

Kai observed him a moment with confusion before narrowing his eyes and lifting his head slightly.

Tala sauntered with his hands at his sides over to Sarah. He stood beside her at the water's edge. He looked down at her gyrating hand and the swirls it created in the water. "What are you doing?"

Sarah took her hand out and shook it to relieve it of the water. "The water's cold."

"We're in Russia. It should be."

Sarah got back up and stood straight. "Not with global warming these days."

There was a long pause.

"You know... If we humans just took a little consideration about how our actions will affect others, we probably wouldn't be in the mess we are today. Humans are such inconsiderate creatures. It almost makes me sad to be one, sometimes," Sarah cited. With that, she turned and left. She disappeared around the side of the Abbey.

Kai and Tala ogled with mystification. After a moment, Kai stepped closer to Tala. He placed his hands in his pockets and contemplated the waters. "She's right."

Tala finally turned back from where Sarah had disappeared from eyeshot. "She's never been wrong about the aspects of the human psyche."

"But despite what the human race deserves, I vow to save them just the same."

"Ditto. Everyone gets a second chance. It's the way God functions."

Kai glanced at Tala, who was about the same height as him. The two were at eye level. "Boris keep injecting religion into those heads of yours?"

Tala nodded as he smiled and chuckled a little. He turned his head away from the waters and towards Kai. "It's the way Boris functions."

"So I guess we call it a truss over Sarah?"

"Huh. Guess so. But remember; neither one has won yet, so she's still up for grabs!"

"You talk about her like she's some sort of prize."

"Well, she is. To both of us, I'm sure, and in the upcoming battles I'll do my best to protect her. There's something...about her...that tells me she's more important in the grand scheme of this war than the two of us."

The two boys glared at each other, scowling at first, but then those scowls became smiles and slight chuckles. They were finally able to get along with each other, and little did they know how much learning to tolerate and co-operate with one another would be in the future.

Review, people. Thank you and have a nice day.