Nine
Sit down
Lose yourself in thought
Then you might find out
It's all we've got
Take a chance
The future's in your hands
Make it what you can
Before your time has reached the end
A familiar scent flooded Kai's senses. His head felt heavy and he was cold. His eyes opened and he examined his surroundings quickly. He was back in that cell. Back in The Abbey. How had it happened? He couldn't remember it very clearly. All he recalled was seeing his father in the doorway of his hospital room, then his father approached him. Kai remembered struggling against him, the remembered feeling something sharp jam into his neck. No doubt a needle. Then everything went blank. He looked down at his legs which were once again shackled up to the wall. He pulled himself off of the floor and was able to move over to the stone bed and sit on it. He leaned back against the wall and sighed. Things just weren't going his way anymore. He was in the last place he wanted to be, and there was no way he could escape.
'A part of me really wishes I'd told those Bladebreaker jokers about all of this,' Kai thought to himself. 'At least then I'd have some chance of getting out…if they're my friends, like they so often claim to be, they'd get me out.' Kai dwelt on this for a little longer, and decided ultimately not to place false hope in his friends. They had no idea where he was, or what trouble he was in. Metal footsteps were heard out on the corridor, and they were approaching Kai's cell. They stopped at the door and opened it.
"Well! You're awake! Your father will be most pleased," the man said, moving into the room. The light from outside struck him, and Kai saw that it was Boris. Kai started to laugh. "I don't understand what could be so funny."
"You," Kai sneered as he stopped laughing. "Do all evil people in this organisation have to have those agitating metal shoes? Is it a part of the whole evil agenda? Or are you just kissing my dad's ass again Boris!" his remark was met with a punch to the face, and blood starting to pour profusely from Kai's nose.
"I'd shut up if you don't have anything useful to say Kai," Boris said, rubbing his knuckles.
"So I guess I won't be talking much now then?" came Kai's snide reply. He was hit again, and the impact sent a tearing pain through his head. One hand was trying to control the torrent of blood emerging from his nose, the other was rubbing his head, trying to soothe the pain in a childish fashion.
"Your father wishes to see you," Boris said, ushering in two guards who unlocked the chains binding Kai's legs. They pulled Kai to his feet, but after they did so, Boris ushered them away. He was planning to escort Kai himself. He gripped Kai's shoulder tightly and lead him out of the cell and to Hideaki's office on the upper floors of The Abbey. Kai kept his eyes to the floor the whole time. He wasn't looking forward to this meeting with his father. His back was still in agony from the last time. Boris opened the door to Hideaki's office and pushed Kai inside roughly.
"Leave us," Hideaki ordered. Boris nodded and closed the door. Was his father out of his mind? Even in this state Kai could do enough damage to The Abbey to make it barely recognisable. "How are you feeling?"
"I've felt better," Kai grumbled in response. In truth, he was feeling a lot better. He felt light-headed, a little relaxed, yet maybe just a little nauseous.
"Well, that's what I was expecting," Hideaki replied, walking away from the window which he had been stood in front of and moving over to where Kai was. Kai noticed both of his arm guards were on Hideaki's desk. He'd been wondering what had happened to them, after Hideaki had stolen one and the other had disappeared from Kai's pocket.
"Why do you say that?" Kai asked, dreading in the back of his mind to hear the answer. Hideaki brandished out a small empty vial. He dropped it into Kai's hands. He knew already why he was feeling good.
"I see it has started to take effect. You look a lot better," Hideaki smiled, walking away and sitting back at his desk.
"You bastard," Kai growled, throwing the vial across the room.
"Temper, temper now Kai," Hideaki said disapprovingly. "There's no need to get angry with me. I was just liberating you. You would have come back to me for more anyway, so I did you a favour. You should be thanking me."
"Thanking you?!! Thanking you for what?! Wrecking my life and forcing this shit back into my system?!! You're just as bad as my grandfather!!"
"My father was a great man, despite his idiocy and senile ideas. I respected my father, and I demand that you show me the same respect."
"Get a life. I'll never respect you as long as you live!"
"Oh I beg to differ Kai."
"Why is that?!"
"Because I have a little trick up my sleeve that will _force_ you to bend to my will. It involves your little Bladebreaker friends."
"What about them?" Kai froze over. What plan did his father have in store for the rest of the Bladebreakers?
"Well, they've been a thorn in my side since the day I met them. Your lack of enthusiasm about being confined to a hospital bed has helped to fuel their suspicions about your disappearance Kai. And thanks to the genetic data I stole from you, you will indeed be helping me to execute my will."
"W-What do you mean by that?" Kai started to panic. His friends agitated him, that was true, but he didn't want them hurt in this.
"I've already begun the process of cloning you from the DNA I obtained from your vital organs and such. He will be an exact replica of you. He'll go out and masquerade as you, so to say, and that'll be the Bladebreakers out of my way. Then the real fun will begin."
"Real fun? What do you mean by that?"
"Boris has no idea that I've been leading him on about the duplicated data. This wild goose chase I've placed Boris on has kept him out of my hair long enough for me to implement my real plan into action."
"So…these duplicated plans you're talking about…"
"Are another part of my elaborate plot to not only throw off the enemy, but to throw off that idiot Boris as well! Not too far back the Demolition Boys broke into The Abbey and duplicated what they thought was data on my scheme. It was all a decoy to get them off my scent."
"You're a mad scientist aren't you?"
"I'm a genius, Kai, I'm not mad. Well, the decoy plan is going to lead the Demolition Boys into believing that I'm going to use you as a weapon, but in reality that isn't true!"
"Then what _do_ you want from me?"
"You see…there's this little gadget I've been tinkering with…but in order to work it needs the life force of one human. Preferably a teenager of your age, as they tend to have more energy to give."
"Oh get real!! You're going to use a machine to take over the world?!"
"It's a very special machine. It creates artificial Bit Beasts."
"It won't work."
"Seeing as through many experiments we have noticed that the strength of the human soul denotes the strength of his Bit Beast, I'm planning to use you to conduct my will accordingly."
"Like I'll help _you_."
"You have no choice. Either you help, or one of them will. Hmmm…maybe Ray will be more cooperative…"
"Leave them out of this!! It's between you and me not them!!"
"If you say so Kai…" Hideaki sneered, looking over to the door. An unknown agent entered the room. He was obviously in on Hideaki's plan.
"Sir, the clone is ready for a field test," the agent said, stood bolt upright his arms held stiffly at his sides. Kai swallowed down hard.
"Wonderful! Send him in!" Hideaki replied with glee. The agent was gone for a few minutes then returned with a young teen who looked exactly like Kai in most respects, except he seemed more evil, and his garnet eyes seemed to burn with a dark flame. He even scared Kai a little. "Kai, meet your clone! He'll be standing in for you for a while so that your 'friends' will leave us alone."
"What about me?" Kai asked slowly, backing away from the clone. Hideaki came up behind him and gripped his shoulders tightly.
"You'll be staying with daddy for a little while," Hideaki jeered. Kai's eyes widened. His friends would never tell the difference.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure your friends don't die. By accident that is," the cloned Kai sneered. He was like a miniature version of Hideaki. This was obviously what Hideaki had wanted Kai to be. Kai gritted his teeth furiously.
"You know as well as I do that your Bladebreaker friends may be clever in some aspects, but trying to tell a clone and an original apart isn't up there with the things they can do. They can beat us at Beyblading, but they can't beat us at war. This is all over now Kai," Hideaki said, a sinister tone to his voice. Kai knew he was right. This was the end of it.
~~***~~
"I can't _believe_ Kai!" Ray growled furiously. "He did _exactly_ what we told him not to! Now he's wandering around out there, no doubt headed back to The Abbey to get his father and Boris! What a bastard!!"
"You guys…what if Kai didn't break out on purpose? What if Biovolt got to him?" Max implied, searching for hope, or a light at the end of this dark tunnel.
"Maxie, this is Kai we're talking about," Tyson said, agreeing with Ray. "He's not exactly the most obedient guy in the world. It's more likely that he broke out. The hospital security is too tight, there's no way he could have been kidnapped."
"The hospital's security is a lot more lax than you expected Tyson," a familiar Russian voice entered the conversation. They turned to face Tala, Bryan, Spencer and Ian: The Demolition Boys.
"Tala!!" Tyson cried out, almost gleefully. "What do you mean?"
"We were headed into the hospital at the time Kai was kidnapped. We saw his kidnapper: it was Hideaki. We were planning to give Kai a message of escape. The whole message wasn't received first time."
"Message? Run that by me again?" Tyson asked, confused.
"Kai didn't tell you about the message?" Tala asked, slightly surprised, but yet again this was Kai they were talking about.
"Get out of Russia you are being watched," Ray said, looking straight at Tala. "That was you?"
"It was all of us. Why is it that you, Ray, have read this, and yet the others are a blank to it?" Tala asked, turning to face Ray.
"I saw it in our room. I read it, and Kai got a bit mad and screwed it up. Why would he want to hide it?"
"I'm not even sure. Kai was supposed to receive a special medication with our letter, but it seems it did not reach him," Tala held out the rest of the letter, and the small bag taped to it. Ray took it and read the letter. It told Kai why he had to leave, and also that he should consume the contents of the bag.
"What's in the bag?" Ray asked, flipping the paper over and over again.
"A Biovolt-developed medication that prevents drug addiction or dependence. I'm guessing from his hospital state that he's been heavily intoxicated by now."
"Yeah…"
"Well, seeing as Hideaki is planning to use Kai as the spearhead for _his_ world domination plan, we should try and access The Abbey to retrieve Kai before any more damage is inflicted upon him."
"Spearhead? You mean they're gonna _force_ Kai to be their weapon?"
"That's the general idea. We stole information form Biovolt, and that's the conclusion we reached after we conducted an analysis."
"You guys are talking _way_ over my head," Tyson groaned, totally at a loss to understand what was going on in the conversation between Ray and Tala. He'd never been one for long words.
"But at least we know Kai _didn't_ break out on purpose," Max said, smiling happily, knowing that he was right. "But what we don't know is whether he's alright or not."
"It's a pity I didn't manage to get Kai tagged," Kenny sighed, opening up Dizzi and typing away at the keyboard. "I was planning to tag Kai with a tracking chip at one stage, just so we could keep an eye on him if he was to wander away. I got the chip finished, thanks to a few pieces of technology I borrowed from Biovolt, but I suppose it was all too late. Kai could be dead now, for all we know."
"Don't speak like that!" Ray snapped. "I _refuse_ to let myself believe Kai is dead! He's alive Chief! He's alive! And he'll be OK! I'll make sure he comes back to us alive, and to that I promise!"
"Your devotion is admirable Ray," Bryan said, almost smiling. "I hope it is this devotion that will save Kai."
"You and me both Bryan," Ray sighed, looking out to the direction of The Abbey. Just the thought of Kai being harmed boiled Ray's blood. He didn't like the idea that a psychopath was getting away with hurting one of _his_ friends.
'Not for long,' Ray thought. 'I promised Kai that I'd make sure he wasn't hurt anymore. He may not know it, but I will hold to that. Kai, I can't bear the thought of losing you. I'll get you back.' Just as they turned to go, however, they were approached by a two-tone haired teenager with impassive garnet eyes and a dark blue Beyblade in his hand. Ray gasped out.
"Kai!!" He cried in relief. Kai was OK.
I'm trapped behind a wall of ice
I'm screaming at you
Run, run away
You can't hear me
I can't reach you
Everything is falling apart
And we are all doomed to die
SN: Nine! Woo! Opening passage is taken from Thank You by The Calling. I may own a copy of the CD, but I do not own the track, or The Calling themselves. I am no record company exec. As I am no animé artist, so therefore I do not own Beyblade. And yes TigerTerror, if us fans owned Beyblade, we'd get Kai's scarf back. How cool was that scarf?! More sugar for Maxie!! Hoo hah!! Yeah, and we'd ditch V Force. That series really does suck. In my opinion anyway. =) This part is late cos of my illness and the fact that I'm literally losing my sanity. Too much stress makes me a very unhappy person, so yeah, I've been depressed.
Ideas are still being taken for the ending, so if you have an idea put it in your review. It's happy or sad! I leave it entirely with you. You choose! Oh, and to anyone curious as to where the hell I get the poems I have that aren't from songs…I make them up myself off the top of my head as I write. I try to link it to the situation. ^^
Now then…you know the drill by now…review!!! ^_^