Forgot this last chapter: Disclaimer: own nothing, well, except Granger and the Shadow bladers, thier bitbeasts, the plot of the story, the harpies and thier bitbeasts! Plus, sorry to fans, this isn't going to be slash, just a little romance between boys and the opposite sex.

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Chatper 2: The Virus

"What?" Ray said, amazed, "Who's Granger? Who do you know her?" Kai stood still as the rest of his team and Mariah joined Ray at the battle dish.

"Granger is part of an Orginazation that steals blades with bitbeasts and does expertiments on them. She's my cousin twice removed or something!" Ray looked shocked.

"Their gonna do experiments on Driger? What will they do to him?" Kai didn't answer as Matt ran in front of him.

"Why didn't you stop her? She's your cousin!" Matt pushed Kai, which is extremly hard to do because he looked in shock. Kai stumbled and fell into the dish, Matt followed him down.

"Why didn't you stop her?" he repeated, "Now she and her freakish friends are gonna do experiments on my bitbeast!"

"Maybe they should steal you and do experiments on your brain 'cause it certainly not connected properly! Can't you see Kai couldn't do anything? No one could!" Mariah sneered. Kai pushed Matt away and climbed out of the dish.

"Where do I find her then?" Matt asked, climbing out after Kai.

"You don't," Kai said coldly, "she finds you!" Matt started to say something when The White Tigers arrived, evidently they were out of breath.

"The girl, dissapeared!" Kevin panted, "We chased her as far as an alleyway about two streets away but she was gone!"

Mariah turned to Ray.

"I'm sorry Ray, Driger's gone!" Ray tried to smile, but the edges of his mouth disallowed it. Matt started letting out a mixture of swear words at Kai and The BladeBreakers.

"Clean out your mouth!" Hilary said, angrily.

"Why? What you gonna do about it?" Matt said advancing on Hilary, Nathan behind him.

"OI!" Tyson snapped, "Get off!"

"Leave them, Matt, Nathan! We have places to be, I'm sorry about Harkiomon, Matt, but we can't go on with the battle now!" Matt sneered at them and turned on his heel and followed his team out. The audience had already left in disgust, muttering. The BladeBreakers and White Tigers started walking out.

"What will they do to Driger?" Ray asked again. Kai looked as white as a sheet, and shrugged. Mariah frowned, she could sense a lie from miles away.

***

"Kai," Mariah said, walking into the BladeBreakers bedroom, "What will they do to Driger?"

"I told you earlier, I don't know, what you doing here anyway?" Kai asked, "Aren't your team battling now?"

"No, all battles are on hold, incase more bitbeasts go missing!" Mariah informed Kai as Kenny's laptop made a noise. Mariah, being nosey, looked over at the email.

"Curiousity killed the cat, you know." Kai said, coldy.

"Don't say that!" Mariah said without looking around, Kai could tell she was hurt.

"An E-mail from someone Kenny knows says that his beyblade has gone missing in the same curcumstances." Kai raised an eyebrow.

"Kai, what happens to the bitbeasts?" Mariah asked, her pleading.

"Okay, don't tell Ray or anyone about this. The Orginazation are collecting beyblades and doing expiriments on them to see how they can make a good bitbeast turn bad. And they are nearing the formula, which they nickname The Virus. And once they do and turn Driger Dark, Ray, who has such a close connection with Driger will slowly turn Dark too, and turn on his team and maybe you too!" Kai said, as if a whole weight had been lifted from him. Mariah sat down quickly, before her legs gave way.

"Ray-Ray would never turn on me." She said hopefully. Kai shook his head.

"When a blader turns Dark, Mariah, and I should know, nothing matters to them!" Mariah looked slightly red.

"I'm sorry, I forgot." She stood up as Ray came into the room, he was rubbing his back where it hurt.

"What?" he asked as they turned to look at him.

"Are you okay, Ray?" Mariah asked, as he winced again.

"Yeah, as fine as I could get in this condition. Where's Lee, Kevin and Gary then?"

"Well I know Gary's in the same place as Tyson, downstairs at the all-you-can-eat buffet. But Lee and Kevin are at our hotel room."

"Tyson and Gary seem to take the all-you-can-eat bit as a challange!" Ray said, wincing again. Kai stood up quickly and left.

"Whats up with him?" Ray asked.

Kai caught Max in the corridor and said:

"Don't go into the bedroom. Ray and Mariah are in there." He saw Max's expression, "Talking, I think." (he added under his breath.) Max nodded, and replied:

"Well, I'm off to see who can eat the most, Gary or Tyson. Kenny seems to think Tyson can beat Gary."

"Yeah well, knowing Tyson and his big mouth he can store food like a hamster." Max chuckled, "Oh yeah! Tell Kenny he got an email from someone called Leanne, and she sends her love!" Kai finished, Max chuckled more.

"Will do, Kai!"

***

"I'm really sorry about Driger, Ray!" Mariah said, stepping carefully. Ray shrugged as if it wasn't a big thing to him. He put Tyson's C.D player on. Mariah smiled, she liked this song. It was Evanesence's My Immortal. Ray skipped it.

"Hold it, Ray! I liked that song!"

"Oh, okay. I just thought it was a bit slow and-"

"Romantic?" Mariah finished for him.

"Er, yeah!" Ray replied, skipping back to My Immortal. Mariah got up, she thought about breaking her promise to Kai, about telling Ray. She shook the urge off, as a new urge appeared. She walked to the door, putting space between them.

"Are you okay?" Ray asked.

"Me? Yeah. My, er, cut, the one on my shoulder's playing up. I should go, they'll be no food left if I leave Gary any longer!"

"Wait!" Ray stopped the C.D player and passed her the C.D, it was Evanesence's album.

"Here, er, take it!" he put it in it's case.

"Thanks." she said shocked. She turned to go, she got as far as the door to the corridor of rooms when Ray stopped her.

"I, er. Well thanks!"

"For what?" Mariah asked.

"For yesterday." Mariah smiled, she leaned over and kissed Ray on the cheek.

"No problem, Ray. Maybe one day, you'll tell me why you really were out there at 3 in the morning, and maybe someday I'll tell you why I was. Take care!" Ray smiled as Tyson made his way up to the room.

"Owww," he groaned. Flopping down on the sofa, "I couldn't eat no more!"

"No really, Tyson. Why did you stop eating?" Ray asked.

"They ran out of food!" he said angrily.

"Tyson!" Max said, hammering on the door, "They've refilled and Gary is ahead of you now!" Tyson jumped and rushed to the door, almost knocking Max down in his quest for yet more food. Ray joined Max as they walked back downstairs. They stopped at the sight of Gary and Tyson competing.

"Stop it, Gary!" Mariah shouted when Gary took no notice, "This isn't a Beyblade battle. You'll make yourself sick!" Tyson turned to his team and mumbled something. Hilary looked digusted, but amused at the same time.

"Welcome to the night's entertainment!" Kenny smiled, "Tyson Vs. Gary." Ray laughed and took a seat. He couldn't understand why there was such a big crowd. Tyson usually ate this much. Then again, they had known each other for years now. Tyson stopped and swallowed.

"I can still hear that tummy rumbling!" and started eating again. Kai, who was just as amused as the crowd, starting putting his foot down.

"No more Pretzles, Tyson."

"Why?" Tyson asked. "We have training on Thursday. Not tommorow!"

"I know," Kai said harshly, "I just what some Pretzles, thats all." he grabbed the Pretzles and started eating, a lot slower than either Tyson or Gary. The chef was looking angry now.

"They eat so much!" he said in an English accent, "It's impossible to make food for them!" Hilary turned to him from her postion on the edge of the table.

"Just add a couple of hundred horse tranquilizers. That should slow them down for a minute!" she joked. The chef didn't seem to find it funny.

"Mmm, the chickens lovely. Wanna bite Max? Kenny? Ray?"

"No thanks, Tyson." Kenny said, "I wouldn't like to get on the wrong side of that Chef!"

Mariah had given up trying to stop Gary eating too much. She just stood a few inches opposite him and picked up a cheese and pineapple stick. He pink hair coming out of her ponytail. Ray stole a Pretzle from the bowl. Mariah watched Gary and Tyson with growing enthusiasm. The clock had just struck 11, Kenny and Max were making thier way up to bed. Hilary followed, upset she could not see Tyson's pain as he rolled in his sleep with a tummy ache. She slept in the same room as Mariah since they were both girls. Soon only Ray and Mariah were left, in a akward moment Mariah muttered something and turned to the stairs glancing back at Ray.

"Are you not coming to bed Ray?" Ray looked up at her and started to follow her. He looked incredibly tired and he felt it too.

Upstairs he flung himself on his bed, listening to Tyson rolling around in pain.