Summary: Every one of the BBA Revolution Team's opponents (and some besides) in the current tournament are vanishing mysteriously. Slight AU. Character death. One-sided OCMax. MaxMariam. Hopefully better than it sounds.
Rain of Blood Part I
Max Mizuhara-Tate rolled out of bed. He smacked his alarm clock and stood, yawning and rolling his shoulders. He dressd and followed his normal morning routine, even banging his head on the doorframe as he left the house.
"Oh no, not again..." he groaned.
A swarm of fangirls were crowding his front gate. "Sorry, can't sign, I'm busy. Early training-- Kai's going psycho about the world championships."
A few girls giggled, and they parted slightly to let him through. As he passed the last fangirl, they broke into squeals of laughter and began to chase him. Max began to run, hoping against hope that Kai wouldn't kill him for bringing rabid fangirls to a training session.
Skidding through the Kinomiya dojo door, he panted, "Shut it quick!"
He merely got a quizical look from Kyouju and a general rolling of eyes.
"Fangirls! Outside... chasing me!"
The others moved so fast that they appeared to have teleported. The door almost magically slid shut and a few fangirls hit it. A scream quickly turned into a squeal.
"Look! My finger's been crushed in the Kinomiya dojo's door! Omigosh! Thank you, Kami-sama!"
The voices began to clamour, begging to have their fingers crushed by their favourite BBA Revolution Team Blader.
"Run?" whispered Rei.
"Run!" Takao hissed back. "They want my hat!"
The boys spun around, searching for a second exit.
"...there is a way out, isn't there?" Kyouju asked desperately. "I'm not losing another laptop to... them..."
Kai fidgeted and ran his fingers through his two-toned blue hair, which was now far from being its familiar fangirl-magnetic, pointy, gelled self. "You didn't have your hair cut off."
"Not by fangirls, at any rate," Rei grinned; or at least, his lips parted and his teeth showed. "They took my ribbon-- I mean, wrap!"
"The headscarf suits you."
The boys jumped as a scraping sound came from Takao's general direction. "They'll have to go through my sword first," he said grimly.
"They'll just squeal and say that they've been decapitated by the Kinomiya sword," Kai told him dismissively.
"Was that a joke?"
"Yes. He's really funny and love wearing the colour pink. And," Hiromi raised her voice, "Hiwatari Kai is a transsexual stripper and model who works for that purple-haired keido-masked Russian Orthodoxy-thing monkey." She ducked his punch into an elbow.
The fangirls suddenly went silent and began to slink away. As the sunlight was visible again, Rei laughed and opened the door. A bronze-haired torpedo in a dress shot into the dojo squealing "Hiromi!!"
"Anyone want a drink?" Hiromi and 'Ami' entered the room, carrying a large tray between them.
"We've got tea, soda, water, a chocolate soy drink and a milkshake for you guys."
The boys dived for the drinks.
"Thank you," Rei murmured, giving a slight sense of deja vu as he medatively sipped his jasmine tea.
"Thanks!" Takao surfaced from his milkshake for a split second.
Max meditated on the fizz in his cup before drinking.
Kyouju sniffed his soy drink and took a tentative sip, then put it down and began typing again.
Kai glared at his glass of water and attempted to have a staring contest with the ice, or at least melt it.
"So, Ami," Max started. "Where do you live?"
"At home," she replied brightly.
"Definitely a fangirl," Kai hissed to Rei, who snorted tea out his nose.
The BBA Revolution Team arrived at the Japanese national competition centre for the finals. Hiromi arrived separately.
"Where's King and Queen, and Ami?" Max asked.
"Ami's in the washroom." Hiromi's smile vanished. "You haven't heard?" she whispered.
"Why would we have heard? We only just got here!" Kyouju snapped impatiently.
:"King was found in the locker room," Hiromi told them. "He'd cut his throat with his ripcord, after slashing his own arms to the bone."
The boys looked at each other silently.
"And now, the next match, Queen versus Yukinawa Jiro!"
A voice whispered over the PA system briefly, too softly to be heard clearly.
"Sorry, there's been an accident. The Snapcords and the BBA Revolution Team both win by default!"
Max turned, beginning to feel cold despite the hot summers' day. "I'll go find Ami," Hiromi offered.
A few minutes later, the girls came running back. Ami, sobbing, latched herself around Max's neck. "Hi-hiromi found her!" she gurgled. "In the last cubicle-- she suffocated herself with toilet paper..."
Rain of Blood Part II
The BBA Revolution Team shivered again; their second opponents had just died mysterious deaths.
"It's not right..." muttered Rei after a long silence. "It just isn't right..."
"You think?" snapped Kyouju tersely. "I just don't understand this... why would they all kill themselves?"
"Maybe they were murdered!" Hiromi gasped.
The others looked at her.
"They might have been," she said defensively. Ami sobbed something about everything turning out like a horror movie. They remained standing in silence for a while longer.
"Let's go sit down," Takao said suddenly. The others nodded, and made their way to the seats.
The beybattlers in the centre of the stadium looked familiar... "Hey, look!" Hiromi exclaimed. "It's Mariam and Daichi!"
They sat forward and watched. Sharkrash barrelled forward and caught Daichi off guard. Gaia Dragoon flew into the air and Daichi caught it, muttering something under his breath.
"Well, after a long intergroup match between the Saint Shields and an independent, Mariam is the victor! The playoffs begin after lunch!"
Takao stood eagerly. "I'm going to go see who we're up against next," he told them. "Anyone got an order?"
Arriving at the scoreboards, Takao stared at the stats and muttered to himself, finally coming to a conclusion as the new results came through. "I'm right!" he shouted, leaping into the air. He made his way back through the crowd, trying (and failing) to avoid autograph-hunters. Accidentally stepping on one spectator's foor and squirting a sauce sachet on another, he had to sign more autographs to repay them.
Handing the others their food, he sat down and began to eat.
Rei glanced at his teammate. "Who are we up against?"
"Team Psykick," Takao mumbled through a mouthful of ricecake.
"Lockers," Kai announced, getting up and walking away. The others gradually followed him, until only Ami and Hiromi were left alone in their seats.
Takao fastened his blading gloves and looked up. Rei was still brushing his hair, Max's shirt had several loose stitches and Kai was having considerable trouble with his newly ordered lycra gloves. Taking Dragoon in hand, he began to leave the lockers to await the beginning of his battle.
He stood and waited, stood waiting, waited while standing and remained upright in expectation. Gradually, the others joined him. "First battle of the day," Takao grinned expectantly.
"Bad news," Max replied, pointing at the runner.
"Your battle's been cancelled."
"WHAT?!" shouted Takao.
"Your opponents have... well. Exsanguinated."
"...what?"
"Come and look." The boys followed him, dreading their destination.
A collective swallow and change in face colour met the sight which awaited them, as a sharp metal rake lies in wake for the common drunken barefoot wanderer in the backyard who then wakes the next morning with a foot piercing.
Team Psykick had all been bashed to death with their locker doors except for Salima, who had been hanged with her own hair. Their Beyblades lay in brojen heaps on the floor, bit-chips (so recently filled) shattered yet again. A photographer was prowling round, taking pictures of the expired beyblade warriors.
"It was freaky," Max recalled. "They were just lying there... so dead- looking..."
"Of course they looked dead," Kai snapped. "They were dead."
"Shut up," Ami told him. Kai rolled his eyes and Rei looked thoughtful again.
"Maybe it's an attack on us?"
"Why kill all our opponents to get at us?" snorted Takao. "They might think they're helping."
"We've got a battle against the Saint Shields next round," Kyouju interrupted.
"And then it's the playoffs within the winning teams," murmured Takao.
"I'm going out to train," Kai decided.
"We've got to go," Hiromi and Ami said dejectedly. As they left the dojo, an unnaturally loud crack sounded, followed by a thump. The girls screamed and ran back inside.
"Kai!" Hiromi gasped, clutching her head.
"What about him?" Rei asked.
"He's-- he's--" Ami stammered, and pointed.
The BBA Revolution Team ran out the door, to see Kai lying on the ground with his head on an impossible angle.
"At least it wasn't as violent as the last few," Kyouju said hopefully.
"He's still dead," Rei pointed out.
"This changes our odds," Takao muttered. "There'll be a huge mass funeral after the finals."
The others decided to catch a taxi home, rather than walk. With one of their own dead, it suddenly seemed more dangerous to be out alone.
Rain of Blood Part III
At the stadium, everyone was considerably less settled. With so many dead it didn't seem safe to move any more.
"San, ni, ichi, GO SHOOT BEYBLADE!" yelled Max and Ozuma. Flash Leopard and Draciel spun into the dish.
Each battler cried his Bitbeast's name; Max and Ozuma each called their strongest attacks. A huge explosion threw Max backwards and sideways; when his vision cleared, Draciel V3 was spinning slowly-- his team and the Saint Shields were tatters of clothes, fried chunks of flesh, smears of blood and scattered shattered bones.
Mass screaming broke out, as the dust began to settle. All seats were emptied. Only Hiromi and Ami were left in the stands. They made their way down to him as quickly as possible, gibbering madly. Hiromi threw her arms around Max and sobbed about all the loss. Max tried to soothe her and pry her off, as he had done with Ami before.
Neither of them saw the block of concrete until it crushed Hiromi's skull. "Do you love me?" Ami demanded of Max, dropping the slab.
Max was almost speechless. "It was you..?"
"I wanted you to love me! Me, and only me! I was supposed to be your beautiful girlfriend! But everything went wrong! You don't seem grateful!"
He blinked a few times, trying to process this news. "But killing them doesn't help me. It only made things worse, because now people think I'm a murderer!"
Ami's eyes widened in shock; she put a hand over her mouth and began to cry. "You... you don't love me!"
"Why? Should I love a psycho murderer?!" Max snapped.
Ami's eyes narrowed. "I should have known that you were just like all the others," she snarled. "Just like every other celebrity. They didn't love me either, but I never tried to find them. Everyone said you were the best! You were the nicest, and would help anyone! But they lied! You don't care about me! Nobody cares about me!"
She shoved him backwards into the explosion crater.
"Apologise," she snapped.
"Wha...?" Max asked, confused.
"Apologise, and say you love me!"
"But..." he protested.
"Shut up and do what I say!" Ami snapped, eyes whirling with something which was definitely not sanity.
Max fell silent. She began to cry again and lifted a shattered beam.
"You should have cared."
He only had time for one final scream.
Finis vivat.
THE MORAL: If a friend of a friend offers you a drink; REJECT IT. If a fangirl approaches you; RUN. If several people have died from doing something; REFUSE TO TAKE PART. But most of all; BISHIES DON'T LIKE PSYCHO- MURDEROUS-STALKERS. Not that anyone out there is a psycho-murderous- stalker, because if they were then most internet users would be dead.