Whoo hoo! I'm still thinking of which team should join the Blade Breakers and the White Tigers for Ray's poor little... kitty... neko-jin problem... I think I've figured it out by bothering one of my friends that knows next to nothing about Beyblade! ... I am so cruel...
Thanks for reviews: Sarcasmcat, Devlinn Reiko-sama, Animegirl8, TigerRain, centari-moon, Platinum Rei, Xaphien, Sakin, Fallen Pheonix, lordess-of-the-fallen-angels.
Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade.
Chapter VI - Time Limit
Ray tossed and turned as he slept on the couch, soaked in a cold sweat. The rest of the Blade Breakers were talking to the BBA chairman in the dining room and couldn't help the Chinese boy from his nightmare. In the nightmare, there were clashes between teeth and claws; land beast versus the ruler of the sky. It seemed violent and deadly as the surrounding terrain was deformed and torn into each time one of the creatures collided with the ground. A wildcat cry ripped through the air as long blood-covered fangs snapped near the slender neck of a blue dragon. A quick swipe from the dragon's claws and the green-striped tiger was thrown back into a Cliffside. Both wild creatures gave each other equally dark glares before they made one final leap at each other. The sky thundered, lightning flashing across it and striking the ground as the Cliffside collapsed on itself. The mighty tiger leapt at the dragon, while the other dove down with an almighty roar. A lightning bolt shot in between them then they collided, blood spilling out in all directions.
Destined to battle... To the death!
"NO!" Ray sat up with a jolt, breathing heavily as he looked with wide eyes.
He reached in his pocket and took out his Driger beyblade, still trying to calm himself down as he stared at it. Nothing was wrong with Driger as he turned the beyblade around in his hand, checking for anything out of place. Heaving a slow and heavy sigh, Ray sat quietly for a moment then got up from the couch. He took a few steps forward then hissed in pain when the beyblade felt like it was burning hot. He let go of the object and looked at his shaking hand, flinching from the burn. A clean burn ran right across his hand yet not in a straight line. It seemed to be curved slightly, making it to seem more of a stripe than anything.
"Wh... What's happening to me..." Ray asked quietly, his amber eyes filling with fear of the unknown.
"Ray?" Tyson called out from the dining room. "Is everything okay in there?"
Without a moment's notice, Ray's body seemed to burn in excruciating pain, getting worse with each passing moment. He struggled not to cry out in agony, hugging himself tightly as he watched more odd-looking burns hiss as they appeared. He yelled out, hot tears threatening to spill out of his eyes as he covered his face and nearly ran into the table.
"IT BURNS!" Ray's cry turned into a wildcat yowl as he thrashed about, trying to escape the blazing torture.
Too much time hath been wasted... Do what must be done...
There were running footsteps heard from the other room as the remainder of the Blade Breakers team ran to see what was going on. Kai grinded his teeth slightly, watching the panicking neko-jin and he knew that they were in trouble. This was one of those horrible situations that people hoped wouldn't happen. With Kai's hands out of commission, he wouldn't be able to help the others to stop Rei, or whoever was causing it all, from attacking the team. He couldn't launch a beyblade, he couldn't hold the other off from trying to kill Tyson; he couldn't do anything!
"He's losing his mind!" Tyson said and immediately regretted it.
Ray turned is attention to his target, growling before taking a leap at him. Tyson backed up pretty quickly and nearly tripped over a chair.
"H-Hey, I was just kidding about that, man!" Tyson put his hands up defensively.
Ray growled and continued prowling towards his prey as Mr. Dickenson just walked in. He looked at Ray, completely caught off guard from the sudden vicious nature that the teenager was showing towards the Dragoon beyblader.
"What's going on here?" He asked, almost completely taken aback by the situation.
"This is what we were trying to explain!" Kenny said nervously as he backed away. "R-Ray is changing into some sort of animal while Dizzi and I have been trying to figure out what! A-and I think we've reached a conclusion!"
"Oh yeah? And what is it?" Tyson asked from one end of the dining room table, watching Ray carefully.
"W-well, according to our data... We think he's turning into some sort of a cat or tiger!" Kenny readjusted his glasses. "That would explain his increased eating habits, possibly his speed and acting like some sort of a cat too!"
"But what's causing it?" Max asked as he took a few steps further to protect his friends as well since Kai couldn't do so. "And where'd he get those... stripes...?"
Ray snapped his attention to Max, his cat-like pupils constricting dangerously as Kai called out a warning. "Don't corner him!"
Tyson's arrogance started to get the better of him as he started advancing towards his friend, going against his team leader's orders. "It's alright, buddy! It's me! Tyson! We'll figure something out before you turn into some insane, warped cat thing!"
Kai nearly slapped his forehead, almost forgetting that his hands were wounded. "You idiot, what the hell did I just say?!"
"Relax, Kai! Ray wouldn't really hurt me-" Tyson jumped back a few feet as a set of claws swung at him. "... Or maybe I shouldn't corner him."
Ray glanced around, finding himself almost cornered at one side of the room with Tyson and Max 'guarding' one side of the table each and his instincts were telling him to flee. With little will power he had, he crouched down slightly causing the others to tense before he scrambled over the table and forcefully pushed Tyson's grandfather, nearly knocking the man over.
"Whoa, what's up with Ray, little man?" He asked, still holding the tray of tea above his head from the collision. "He nearly ran me over! And where'd he get those rockin tattoos?"
The sliding door from the dojo was crashed into and sounded like it was broken down from Ray as his running footsteps faded. Kai looked at the others, wondering why none of them were going after Ray. He scowled, looking back through the kitchen to the hallway that led to the Dojo.
"Max, you're with me. Let's go." He said as he ran past Tyson's grandfather and followed the path that Ray had taken.
The blonde looked a little hesitant before agreeing with the Russian blader and running after him. He was very worried as a thousand questions whirled through his mind. What was happening to Ray? Could it be fixed? What if he got his hands over Tyson's neck? Would he ever be the same again? Max bit his lip slightly, trying not to think of the worse case scenario as he caught up with Kai. He could tell that Kai looked a little on the nervous side since his hands were basically rendered useless.
"Hr, where'd he go?!" Kai scowled, stopping at a corner and looked around. "He couldn't have gotten far!"
"You don't think he will hurt anyone, do you?" Max asked, looking around for any sign of Ray as well.
"Considering what's been happening lately, there's no point in asking..." Heaving a sigh, Kai continued glancing around. "We're running out of options and time very fast... We have to travel to China and find the White Tiger team as fast as we can before things get any worse."
Elsewhere and surprisingly enough, the Saint Shields were planning on visiting the world champion Blade Breakers for a friendly rematch as they walked along beside the river. Mariam was very bored as she folded her arms behind her head, listening to Dunga complaining about her none too nice sarcastic comments.
"Come on, Mariam! You'd be mad too if some amateur said he could beat you at beyblading!" Dunga said as he held a fist up.
"That little brat only challenged you because he knew that you wouldn't have the brains for the strategy..." Mariam smirked, knowing that Dunga was starting to get ticked off more quickly.
"What?! I beat him easily, not even a challenge!" Dunga growled.
"Both of you cut it out already! I'm starting to get a headache!" Joseph complained, scratching his head. "It's not that big of a deal!"
Ozuma continued walking in front of the group and blinked, something catching his eye on the overpass above the river. He narrowed his jade eyes slightly, trying to figure out who it was. He stopped walking, recognizing the hair, which was supposed to be in a ponytail, immediately as the remainder of his team stopped to see what he was staring at.
"Well, well. Look who we have here." He said, uncrossing his arms. "Looks like our entrance won't be so secret anymore..."
Dunga blinked, looking up at the back of the person on the bridge. "Something doesn't seem right, you guys."
"And what little knowledge have you decided to grace us with this time..." Mariam said boredly.
"I'm serious! Look!" Dunga pointed at the guardrails on the bridge, glaring back at the other with his temper rising. "Shouldn't he be with the rest of those Blade Breakers?"
"Maybe he needed a walk..." Joseph stated quite bluntly. "I'm gonna go see what he's up to."
With that said, Joseph ran up the slope to the street level, running along the sidewalk until he got to the edge of the bridge. He stopped, noticing that Ray's shoulders were trembling. Curious to know what was wrong, Joseph started walking over to Ray and wondered why the other didn't notice any of the Saint Shields. As he got closer, he noticed that the other seemed to be deeply troubled by something and didn't seem the least bit happy.
"Funny to see you here, Ray." Joseph said casually, stopping a ways back from the neko-jin.
Ray stayed silent, saying nothing as his eyes were shadowed from his hair.
"So... uh..." The green-haired boy looked over the marks on Ray's arms. "Nice, uh, stripes you got there."
Ray flinched, moving his head up slightly to reveal his angry cat-like gaze. Personally, Joseph found the silence and icy glare a little on the creepy side but he shook it off. Then he noticed the fangs...
"Uh..." He took a few cautious steps back from the dangerous-looking fangs. "That's pretty different..."
Ray uttered a low and threatening growl as he walked along the railing of the bridge towards the jade-eyed boy.
Ozuma flicked his gaze between the two, starting to get cautious. "Joseph, what's going on?"
Each step that Joseph took back, Ray took another one forward at the same time as he seemed perfectly balanced on the railing. Joseph swallowed nervously, noticing that Ray wasn't his usual self since the last time they had met. Something had changed dramatically and it wasn't just the frighteningly cat-like features either...
"Joseph!" Mariam called out to her younger brother. "Just what the hell is going on up there?!"
Joseph took a few more nervous steps back before stumbling around the corner of the bridge and ran down the sloped grass, nearly falling when he reached the bottom. He was about to yell at the rest of the team when he saw a shadow over him. Fearing the worst, he slowly looked back, his eyes widening as he saw Ray leaping right at him. Not wanting to be pounced on, he leapt forward and landed on his stomach right in front of the rest of his team while he heard Ray land behind him. Ozuma narrowed his eyes slightly at Ray, who had landed on the ground on all fours and seemed fine... until he looked up.
"See? I told you so!" Dunga pointed out. "I told you something wasn't right! Look at him!"
"Alright, already!" Mariam snapped back, helping her brother up. "This isn't the time, Dunga!"
Fangs bared, eyes blazing and covered in dark stripes, Ray had found another threat that wouldn't back down and run away. He stood up, claws fully extended as he stared back at the Saint Shields with a calm but slowly edging towards vicious gaze. A wind blew by, running through Ray's long hair before he hunched down slightly and took a leap at his prey... his enemy...
Whoo! It took me a LONG while to get my... uh... I guess you could say writer's groove back... as lame as that sounds. Anyway, I was sort of in a writing slump for the past month or so and I am SO sorry I couldn't update this! Summer school'll probably stop me from updating a few things for two weeks but maybe I'll get back on track this summer... Who knows... Anyway... I'm sure there's a bunch of spelling errors because I've been sitting here at two in the morning, hell-bent on updating this so don't mind my poor grammar... So, the curse of the evil cliffhanger of doom lives on!