Beyblade Underground
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Mariah swatted away a pestering fly as she carried the groceries she was assigned to buy back up to her family in the mountain village of the White Tigers. The fly came back again and landed on her cheek and she reflexively slapped a hand up to squash it, only to smack her face instead.
"Ow! Stupid fly..."
She cursed. A chill breeze froze her insides for but an instant and she stopped for a moment, realizing some form of danger. Normally she wouldn't feel afraid of much, as she had become quite the martial arts master in the three years since the Bladebreakers had defeated the Demolition Boys. But this danger had an undertone in it, which yelled at her to run away as fast as she could. Her legs, however, did not move at all, completely rooted to where she was.
"Who's there?"
She asked and remembered a legend Kevin had told her to scare her once. Something about meeting your death if you called out to the cold darkness that followed you. Mariah shivered and looked around nervously.
An ominous screech filled her ears and she screamed as a bird of prey swooped down and knocked the groceries out of her hand. She spun around as she heard a dull thud behind her. A gloved hand of a vaguely familiar bird tamer knocked her to the ground and covered her mouth, while the free, uncovered hand pinned her arms behind her.
"Me."
The fell cry of the falcon filled the bleak sky in the White Tiger village and Lee instantly realized something was wrong.
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"One more time!"
Tyson yelled emphatically and shot Dragoon back into the beyblading dish. Max responded by blasting his own blade into the dish, clashing Draciel's hard shell with Dragoon's steel claws. The two immediately summoned their bitbeasts and a veritable storm rose up inside the Bladebreakers' practice quarters. "Bring it on, Tyson!" The blonde American boy shouted, adrenalin pumped in his voice. The duo traded blows in the dish for another few minutes until Tyson, apparently gaining some ground, decided to pull out his newly developed secret weapon. "Go, Dragoon! It's time we revealed our new ace in the hole, eh? Phantom Hurricane Slash Attack!"
His reptilian bitbeast roared approvingly before dodging a slash from Draciel's heavy claws and charging straight at the shelled creature. Dragoon stretched out both his razor-sharp talons before throwing his body weight into a spin, cutting straight for Draciel. Draciel's attempt to block it by raising both his arms might have worked if not for the hurricane appearing and adding even more deadly spin to Dragoon's attack. Max's bitbeast roared and disappeared as twin claws scythed into it. His beyblade screeched to an abrupt halt on the wooden floor after being blown away by the simultaneously summoned tornado.
"Whoa! Great move, Tyson!" Max ran up to Tyson and extended his hand. Tyson smiled and shook it energetically. The Japanese boy laughed and scratched under his nose with his free hand. "I still have to come up with something better than 'Phantom Hurricane Slash Attack' though."
Kai, who had been watching the entire match from the sidelines, smiled as it ended and turned around to look out at the muggy weather that pervaded his window view. There was so much fog he swore he wouldn't be able to see more than a feet outside.
"Nice weather, huh, Kai?" Tyson asked with a grin. Kai turned his head and smiled thinly at his teammate.
"If not for this fog I would have made you run laps around the dojo. You should be thankful."
With that Parthian shot, Kai winked at Tyson and headed out of the room, pleased with himself.
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Kai reclined in his rotating chair, closing his eyes in meditation. Inside his head, new modifications for Dranzer connected themselves with applicable tactics. He unconsciously smiled as he came across a particularly interesting combination.
In the three years after they won their first World Tournament each of them had matured considerably. Tyson and Max had learned how to utilize strategies better and Ray had more or less learned how to be more open with his emotions. As for himself, Kai had lost his introvert shell and had become more approachable, if not wittily sarcastic and somewhat condescending.
A telephone's ring interrupted his meditation and Kai grumbled angrily before reaching for the phone.
"Bladebreaker residence. If this is another one of those stupid sponsors, I swear I'm going to-"
"Kai, is that anyway to treat an old friend? It's Lee. I have some important news. Can you get Ray?"
"This has something to do with Mariah." Kai said immediately, rolling his eyes. He heard the somewhat surprised reaction of Lee through the phone and smiled a hidden, self-content smile.
"How did you guess? Anyway, get Ray now and the rest of you. This is very important."
Kai raised an eyebrow suspiciously and lingered for a while, trying to decipher what could be so important to all of them. He sure as hell didn't care anymore what happened between Ray and Mariah.
On cue, Ray strolled into the room, sweaty and tired after a lengthy practice session with Driger. He saw Kai sitting down with a glazed expression on his face and what was going on.
"Hey, Kai. What's up?" He inquired and Kai, shaken out of his reverie, merely grunted and handed the phone to his Chinese teammate. The blue-haired stood promptly and walked out of his room while shouting for Tyson and Max. Ray stared quizzically after his team leader. He shook his head before sitting down on the chair Kai was relaxing in a few moments ago.
"Ray, I've got some bad news." Lee said through the phone. Ray's heart stopped beating for an instant. He immediately realized this had something to do with the girl he loved so much. What could have possibly happened if her brother saw it fit to notify him?
"Lee? What's going on here?" He asked nervously.
"Well, Mariah's been kidnapped and we sort of received a-"
"WHAAAAATTTT?!?"
"Calm down! We received a note saying where we should find her. It said to bring company if we were distrustful but not to call any law enforcement agents."
Ray's furious golden eyes were now as narrow as could be and would have probably bored holes through Kai if the Russian superstar was still in the room. He mentally calmed himself and took a few deep breaths before continuing the conversation.
"All right. We'll go there right away." Ray said quietly before placing the phone down into the receiver.
He stood up and turned on his heel. Ray walked briskly down the wooden corridors of the dojo and met his three teammates, who were staring at him inquiringly.
"Mariah's been kidnapped. I'm going now and it's up to you to follow me." He said, his voice filled with utmost determination. Tyson shook his head and grinned as his raven-haired teammate strode past them.
"Anything for the one you love."
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Mariah spat at the face of the man who had abducted her as her gag was removed. The brown-haired bird tamer made a face as he wiped the spit off his face and glared at her. The pink-haired girl stuck her tongue out at him and he raised an angry fist up at her.
"No! Not yet." A voice shouted, halting the descent of the tamer's fist.
The kidnapper swore loudly in Chinese before shaking his head in frustration. He whistled and his trained falcon landed deftly on his shoulder. The silver-feathered bird of prey affixed a single golden eye on Mariah as the teenage boy turned around and walked out of the room. She breathed a sigh of relief when he and his falcon were finally out of the dimly lit, stone-walled room she was held captive in.
The owner of the voice that had saved her stepped out from the shadows of a corner and walked up to Mariah, right under the lone light bulb that hung morosely from the center of the ceiling. His stature and build betrayed the fact that he was far older than the falcon-tamer he had employed to capture Mariah.
"Ironic isn't it? My beautiful little bird of prey is able to capture the famed mountain cat of China. What do you think of it?" He said in a sonorous, cultured voice. He took one more step into the light and Mariah saw that he hid the upper portion of his face with an intricately carved golden mask.
"I think you're a sick bastard, kidnapping me with another boy you probably kidnapped too."
She struggled to free herself from the binding ropes that held her and looked up at the face of her enigmatic masked captor. The man stared down at her and frowned. She stuck her tongue out impudently at the tall man and renewed her attempts to remove her restrictions.
"Wang? I did not kidnap him. He came here on his own accord. And I called him 'little' because indeed, he is not as important to me as the others I have under me." He said in his arrogant voice, before once more walking around the room.
"Do not feel so unfortunate, mountain cat. I will release you once your brother, your boyfriend and their teammates arrive. You girls make very good bait."
Mariah was puzzled. Girls? She stared inquiringly at her captor and moved so that she was sitting upright. Then the cold realization hit her. The man was using her as bait to draw out both the White Tigers and the Bladebreakers so it made sense he would want to lure the All Starz as well. Emily must be the other girl who he had taken.
"What do you want from us? Luring all of us to wherever this is?" The Chinese girl shouted at the departing man and squirmed in her ropes. The masked man stopped and smiled back at his unmanageable captive.
"Entertainment. I hear you people are quite good with the beyblade..." He laughed coldly before stepping out of the room, leaving Mariah all by herself.
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-End of Chapter
Read and review, please!
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Mariah swatted away a pestering fly as she carried the groceries she was assigned to buy back up to her family in the mountain village of the White Tigers. The fly came back again and landed on her cheek and she reflexively slapped a hand up to squash it, only to smack her face instead.
"Ow! Stupid fly..."
She cursed. A chill breeze froze her insides for but an instant and she stopped for a moment, realizing some form of danger. Normally she wouldn't feel afraid of much, as she had become quite the martial arts master in the three years since the Bladebreakers had defeated the Demolition Boys. But this danger had an undertone in it, which yelled at her to run away as fast as she could. Her legs, however, did not move at all, completely rooted to where she was.
"Who's there?"
She asked and remembered a legend Kevin had told her to scare her once. Something about meeting your death if you called out to the cold darkness that followed you. Mariah shivered and looked around nervously.
An ominous screech filled her ears and she screamed as a bird of prey swooped down and knocked the groceries out of her hand. She spun around as she heard a dull thud behind her. A gloved hand of a vaguely familiar bird tamer knocked her to the ground and covered her mouth, while the free, uncovered hand pinned her arms behind her.
"Me."
The fell cry of the falcon filled the bleak sky in the White Tiger village and Lee instantly realized something was wrong.
______________________________________________________________________________________
"One more time!"
Tyson yelled emphatically and shot Dragoon back into the beyblading dish. Max responded by blasting his own blade into the dish, clashing Draciel's hard shell with Dragoon's steel claws. The two immediately summoned their bitbeasts and a veritable storm rose up inside the Bladebreakers' practice quarters. "Bring it on, Tyson!" The blonde American boy shouted, adrenalin pumped in his voice. The duo traded blows in the dish for another few minutes until Tyson, apparently gaining some ground, decided to pull out his newly developed secret weapon. "Go, Dragoon! It's time we revealed our new ace in the hole, eh? Phantom Hurricane Slash Attack!"
His reptilian bitbeast roared approvingly before dodging a slash from Draciel's heavy claws and charging straight at the shelled creature. Dragoon stretched out both his razor-sharp talons before throwing his body weight into a spin, cutting straight for Draciel. Draciel's attempt to block it by raising both his arms might have worked if not for the hurricane appearing and adding even more deadly spin to Dragoon's attack. Max's bitbeast roared and disappeared as twin claws scythed into it. His beyblade screeched to an abrupt halt on the wooden floor after being blown away by the simultaneously summoned tornado.
"Whoa! Great move, Tyson!" Max ran up to Tyson and extended his hand. Tyson smiled and shook it energetically. The Japanese boy laughed and scratched under his nose with his free hand. "I still have to come up with something better than 'Phantom Hurricane Slash Attack' though."
Kai, who had been watching the entire match from the sidelines, smiled as it ended and turned around to look out at the muggy weather that pervaded his window view. There was so much fog he swore he wouldn't be able to see more than a feet outside.
"Nice weather, huh, Kai?" Tyson asked with a grin. Kai turned his head and smiled thinly at his teammate.
"If not for this fog I would have made you run laps around the dojo. You should be thankful."
With that Parthian shot, Kai winked at Tyson and headed out of the room, pleased with himself.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Kai reclined in his rotating chair, closing his eyes in meditation. Inside his head, new modifications for Dranzer connected themselves with applicable tactics. He unconsciously smiled as he came across a particularly interesting combination.
In the three years after they won their first World Tournament each of them had matured considerably. Tyson and Max had learned how to utilize strategies better and Ray had more or less learned how to be more open with his emotions. As for himself, Kai had lost his introvert shell and had become more approachable, if not wittily sarcastic and somewhat condescending.
A telephone's ring interrupted his meditation and Kai grumbled angrily before reaching for the phone.
"Bladebreaker residence. If this is another one of those stupid sponsors, I swear I'm going to-"
"Kai, is that anyway to treat an old friend? It's Lee. I have some important news. Can you get Ray?"
"This has something to do with Mariah." Kai said immediately, rolling his eyes. He heard the somewhat surprised reaction of Lee through the phone and smiled a hidden, self-content smile.
"How did you guess? Anyway, get Ray now and the rest of you. This is very important."
Kai raised an eyebrow suspiciously and lingered for a while, trying to decipher what could be so important to all of them. He sure as hell didn't care anymore what happened between Ray and Mariah.
On cue, Ray strolled into the room, sweaty and tired after a lengthy practice session with Driger. He saw Kai sitting down with a glazed expression on his face and what was going on.
"Hey, Kai. What's up?" He inquired and Kai, shaken out of his reverie, merely grunted and handed the phone to his Chinese teammate. The blue-haired stood promptly and walked out of his room while shouting for Tyson and Max. Ray stared quizzically after his team leader. He shook his head before sitting down on the chair Kai was relaxing in a few moments ago.
"Ray, I've got some bad news." Lee said through the phone. Ray's heart stopped beating for an instant. He immediately realized this had something to do with the girl he loved so much. What could have possibly happened if her brother saw it fit to notify him?
"Lee? What's going on here?" He asked nervously.
"Well, Mariah's been kidnapped and we sort of received a-"
"WHAAAAATTTT?!?"
"Calm down! We received a note saying where we should find her. It said to bring company if we were distrustful but not to call any law enforcement agents."
Ray's furious golden eyes were now as narrow as could be and would have probably bored holes through Kai if the Russian superstar was still in the room. He mentally calmed himself and took a few deep breaths before continuing the conversation.
"All right. We'll go there right away." Ray said quietly before placing the phone down into the receiver.
He stood up and turned on his heel. Ray walked briskly down the wooden corridors of the dojo and met his three teammates, who were staring at him inquiringly.
"Mariah's been kidnapped. I'm going now and it's up to you to follow me." He said, his voice filled with utmost determination. Tyson shook his head and grinned as his raven-haired teammate strode past them.
"Anything for the one you love."
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Mariah spat at the face of the man who had abducted her as her gag was removed. The brown-haired bird tamer made a face as he wiped the spit off his face and glared at her. The pink-haired girl stuck her tongue out at him and he raised an angry fist up at her.
"No! Not yet." A voice shouted, halting the descent of the tamer's fist.
The kidnapper swore loudly in Chinese before shaking his head in frustration. He whistled and his trained falcon landed deftly on his shoulder. The silver-feathered bird of prey affixed a single golden eye on Mariah as the teenage boy turned around and walked out of the room. She breathed a sigh of relief when he and his falcon were finally out of the dimly lit, stone-walled room she was held captive in.
The owner of the voice that had saved her stepped out from the shadows of a corner and walked up to Mariah, right under the lone light bulb that hung morosely from the center of the ceiling. His stature and build betrayed the fact that he was far older than the falcon-tamer he had employed to capture Mariah.
"Ironic isn't it? My beautiful little bird of prey is able to capture the famed mountain cat of China. What do you think of it?" He said in a sonorous, cultured voice. He took one more step into the light and Mariah saw that he hid the upper portion of his face with an intricately carved golden mask.
"I think you're a sick bastard, kidnapping me with another boy you probably kidnapped too."
She struggled to free herself from the binding ropes that held her and looked up at the face of her enigmatic masked captor. The man stared down at her and frowned. She stuck her tongue out impudently at the tall man and renewed her attempts to remove her restrictions.
"Wang? I did not kidnap him. He came here on his own accord. And I called him 'little' because indeed, he is not as important to me as the others I have under me." He said in his arrogant voice, before once more walking around the room.
"Do not feel so unfortunate, mountain cat. I will release you once your brother, your boyfriend and their teammates arrive. You girls make very good bait."
Mariah was puzzled. Girls? She stared inquiringly at her captor and moved so that she was sitting upright. Then the cold realization hit her. The man was using her as bait to draw out both the White Tigers and the Bladebreakers so it made sense he would want to lure the All Starz as well. Emily must be the other girl who he had taken.
"What do you want from us? Luring all of us to wherever this is?" The Chinese girl shouted at the departing man and squirmed in her ropes. The masked man stopped and smiled back at his unmanageable captive.
"Entertainment. I hear you people are quite good with the beyblade..." He laughed coldly before stepping out of the room, leaving Mariah all by herself.
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-End of Chapter
Read and review, please!