Oh, lord... Been so long since I've written here... Anyways, sorry for not putting up the disclaimer in Chappie. Here it is now

Disclaimer: I do not OWN medabots! (But then who does???)

Chapter 2: Erika's Cousin

"Are they really here, mom?"
"Yes, Erika," Mrs. Amazake replied.
"Cool! Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Mrs. Amazake looked amusedly at her daughter. "You were out with your friends when your cousin arrived, Erika. The carnival's in town and your cousin said she wanted to, er, check it out. She'll be back in a while."
"Alright! It's been such a long time since I've seen her," Erika sat down at the kitchen table. "I wonder how she is."
"How, who is Miss Erika?" Brass asked walking into the room.
"My favorite cousin, Brass. You've never met her; she lives in England and I've seen her only once. She's awesome. Wait'll you see her. She's also got a medabot," Erika told Brass.
"She sounds really nice," Brass replied politely.
"She's more than nice. I can't wait to introduce her to Belmont!"
The doorbell rang and they heard the door open. Mrs. Amazake wiped her hands with a towel.
"I believe that's your cousin now, Erika."
Erika jumped up from the table as a girl and her medabot entered the room.
"Ryssan!"
"Erika!"
The two cousins embraced each other.
"Wow, Ryssan. It's been so long. Welcome to Japan. You too, Sylverren," Erika greeted, turning her attention to her cousin's medabot.
"Thanks, Erika," Sylverren replied.
"This is my medabot, Brass by the way."
"Hi, Brass," Ryssan greeted.
"Hi," Sylverren said smilingly.
"Brass, this is my cousin, Ryssan."
"Hello, Miss Ryssan," Brass said to the pretty, dark-haired girl.
"Well, I can tell you're both eager to start talking," Mrs. Amazake laughed. "I'll be doing the laundry if you need me."
"Yes, mom."
"Sure, Aunt Masune."
Mrs. Amazake walked out of the kitchen. Erika and Ryssan sat on the table beside their medabots.
"I really can't believe you're here, Ryssan!"
"Yeah, me too Erika. Mum and Dad weren't really sure they wanted me to visit but between me and Sylverren, we managed to persuade them," Ryssan confessed.
"This is great. There's so much that I want you to see and do. Oh, and I can't wait for you to meet Belmont!" Erika gushed.
"I read in your last letter that he's your boyfriend," Ryssan laughed. "Congratulations. Not only is he super-handsome, he's also an ace medafighter. But what happened to that old crush of yours? I think his name was Tenryou."
"Oh, that. It sort of faded away when I met Belmont. That's when I knew that what I felt was the real thing. I found out only recently though that Ikki also likes me in a more-than-friend kind of way. But I told him all I felt for him now was friendship." Erika frowned. "I hope he'll be able to get over it."
"I'm sure he will. I'd love to meet him though. You said he's been your best friend ever since you were young."
"Don't worry, you will meet him. I'm introducing you to him and the rest of my friends tomorrow!"
"That sounds terrific, Erika. I can't wait to meet them!"

"... and then suddenly the medabot just disappeared. The eagle-type bot got disoriented and then the medabot reappeared again behind its opponent and used some sort of lightning attack on it. When the light cleared, the other medabot had ceased function," Ikki finished.
He was at the 24-Hop Mart and had just finished telling Dr. Aki and Henry all about the robattle he and Metabee had seen the other day.
"But why did that medabot have no medafighter?" Ikki asked in frustration.
"I don't know..." Dr. Aki replied. "From your description of this medabot, I'd say it's not a model the Medabot Corp. has made."
"Yeah... But who made it. And why...?" Ikki mused, frowning.
"And who's the medafighter?" Henry added.
"Not all medabots have medafighters, dude," Metabee butted in. "Rokusho for one."
"Rokusho had a medafighter, Metabee," Ikki corrected.
"Oh, yeah!"
Ikki, Dr. Aki and Henry turned around to see who had spoken. It was Samantha with Spyke and Sloan behind her. Apparently, they had been eavesdropping on the conversation.
"Well, whoever this medabot is, the Screws gang will be sure to defeat it!" Samantha declared.
"You go, boss!" Spyke put in.
Ikki shook his head. "This medabot is way out of your league."
"WHAT?!"
"You can't even defeat me and Metabee. What makes you think you can defeat this medabot?"
"Are you insulting us?! What makes you think we can't?!"
Ikki opened his mouth -
"Uncle Aki!"
He was cut short when Karin and Koji entered the store. Both he and Samantha shut up and sat back down.
"About time they shut up," muttered Metabee.
"Karin, my dear," Dr. Aki greeted as his niece came to him. "Hello. Hi there, too, Koji."
"Hello, Dr. Aki," Koji replied. He and Karin had been dating steadily for two months. Now that Ikki was over Karin, he didn't particularly envy Koji.
"We've been searching for you all morning. I should've known you'd be here," Karin said, surveying the store with a smile.
"Hi Ikki, Metabee, Samantha, Spyke, Sloan, Henry."
"Hi Karin," Ikki greeted back listlessly. Henry acknowledged her with a nod.
Karin turned to Dr. Aki but before she could start speaking, another diversion raced into the store.
"Hey, dudes!"
"Rintaro," Koji sighed.
A short, black-haired hyper boy rushed into the room, his yellow KBT- type following behind him. Rintaro immediately went to the table where Dr. Aki, Ikki, Karin and Koji were.
"I knew you'd be here dudes! That's what I told Erika!" Rintaro announced.
"Erika? She's coming here?" Karin asked.
"Yeah, dudes. Looked like she had someone with her, too. I didn't get to see them up close, though," Rintaro replied.
"Erika? Erika's coming here?" Everyone stared as Ikki suddenly went from lifeless to interested in a manner of seconds.
"Oh, brother. Here we go again," Metabee declared.
"Yeah, dude," Rintaro told Ikki.
Ikki suddenly became quite interested at glancing to the door...
"Still hasn't gotten over Erika has he?" Samantha inquired in a low voice. Metabee nodded.
"Poor Ikki," Karin said.
"Well if you ask me, 'poor Ikki' has to snap back to reality. Hoping falsely isn't going to help him any," Koji put in a tad too loudly.
"What do you mean about hoping falsely?" Ikki had obviously heard and was now glaring at Koji readying himself for another argument.
"I mean, look at you! Erika's gone. It's over, Ikki. Get over her. Moping and hanging around hoping she'll come back isn't going to help!"
"Why you - "
"Hi guys," everybody stared as Erika and Brass came in the store.
Someone was with Erika alright but the person chose to stay by the shadows of the entrance.
"Hi Erika," Karin greeted. "How's Belmont?"
"He says he's doing great. He'll be here next week," Erika replied happily. Then she noticed the black-haired boy sitting across Dr. Aki.
"Hello, Ikki," she said cautiously.
"Hey, Erika," Ikki replied blandly but his expression belied his voice.
For a moment, Erika looked uneasy. Ikki hung his head and looked away. Then Erika brightened. "By the way, there's someone I want you guys to meet," she gestured to the person she had come in with. "This is my cousin, Ryssan and her medabot Sylverren."
The girl emerged from the shadows and they all gaped. She was their age and very pretty with dark hair and strange green eyes. Her medabot was slender and made of a silvery like metal except for some of her parts which were in light blue and lavender. Strangely, her healing medaparts looked out of place on her body. Her green meda-eyes were the exact shade of her medafighter's eyes as well.
"Hi," Ryssan managed to say a bit shyly. They were all still staring.
Erika grabbed her cousin and dragged her over to where everyone was sitting. "Rys, this is Karin, Koji and Rintaro; the Screws, Samantha, Spyke and Sloan; Karin's uncle Dr. Aki; Henry the clerk and Ikki."
Eager to get to know Ikki Tenryou, her cousin's best friend and third- ranked medafighter in Japan, Ryssan turned to him and opened her mouth to say something. But when he lifted his head to look at her, her mouth dropped open in horror.
Curious to see Erika's cousin, Ikki turned to look at her but when he saw the girl's face, he gaped in disbelief.
Ikki and Ryssan exclaimed with equal horror and loathing,
"You!"