Disclaimer: If I owned Beyblade, I'd have enough money to order Rumiko Takahashi to kill Kikyo painfully and slowly. I'd also have enough money to kill my enemies and buy life size plushy of Kai and Sesshoumaru…XD
---
After the battle was over, Kane, Salima, Kenny and Hilary caught up with the training and partying team. They were filled in on the information. When they were congratulating Ray and Kai, they found he was not there.
"Tyson, where is Kai?" Kenny asked as he looked around for their team captain.
"Yeah, I was wondering that too…" Ray frowned, letting go of Mariah's hand, which he was holding. Ozuma's eyes widened.
"Mariam, she is gone as well!!" Joseph said for Ozuma. The green haired boy looked around and called for his sister.
"Two people missing? What do we do?" Max panicked.
Kane looked at him. "Its ok, Max, we'll find them, don't worry."
"Hmm…lets have a search party!" Hilary piped up energetically. Tyson nodded furiously and happily at the thought of a party of any kind.
There were a few minutes when the team decided what to do.
"We'll go searching together. If Kai and Mariam got lost, there will be no doubt that all of us will too. So come on everyone!" Salima smiled and gave everyone thumbs up.
"YEAH!"
---
Kai looked around, panting slightly from the run he just had. He looked ahead; Mariam was about 20 meters away. "Hey Mariam! Wait up!"
Mariam turned around, spotting Kai. She grinned. "So, you FINALLY decided, your not as much of an idiot as I thought then." Kai caught up easily, then looked around again, and frowned.
"Where is everyone? This is where we left them, isn't it?" Kai said slowly. He looked around and found a wrapper of a Popsicle opened by what seemed like a ripper of a Beyblade. "Isn't this what Tyson do? Open stuff with his ripper?" He held up the rapper.
"Yeah…oh no! What if they went looking for us?" Mariam perked up.
"No, they probably just went for pizza or something…" Kai said quietly.
"Kai Hiwatari, you are being obnoxious again. Remember, our teammates will never abandon us like that!"
"Maybe not yours, but mine."
"Kai, don't make me slap you again."
"Alright, alright…" Kai sighed, even though he didn't quite mind the pain as much as Mariam would like. "Lets go, I know this place well, and I think I know a way they might have went…"
---
"Come on you guys, hurry up!" Max nearly jumped up and down with impatience.
"Easy for you to say, Max, you are high on sugar every second of your life…" Dunga panted slightly.
"Guys, be careful, there is a few hard rocks up here that is quite dangerous…try to jump over it…ok?" Hilary called from ahead. Mariah groaned.
"How can there be so many rocks in an ALLEY? I mean, seriously…its an alley!" She muttered, crossing her arm.
"Mariah, you know she is just trying to warn you, better safe then sorry, right?" Ray said as he poked Mariah jokingly.
"Yeah, yeah, your safety lessons are really getting on my nerves Ray…"
"Sorry, but I have to get it drilled in your head." He replied, grinning, and jumped over a few rocks.
"Right…" Mariah grunted as she walked over several rocks. Not paying attention to where she is going, she stepped in between 2 big boulders and her foot sunk, causing her to fall. Her foot fell in between and it twisted.
"OUCH!!!"
---
"What do we do now?"
"Look, what else?"
"But we've looked EVERYWHERE!"
Kai glared at Mariam. "This is your idea, not mine. I'd never look for them if it weren't for you, nagging. I would have left them to die and hopefully they will not find a way out. Anyways, if you want to give up, go ahead…"
"Alright…goodness…I seriously like you better silent." Mariam grumbled.
"Good, then you shut up too, so it won't trigger a reaction of smart comments." Kai smirked. Mariam stuck her tongue out childishly.
---
"So…Kenny…Chief…where are we now? We have 1 person with a hurt ankle and two people that are thirsty. Not to mention how hungry I personally am…" Tyson said impatiently.
"We are…at an abandoned alley…" Kenny suggested hopefully.
"Oh no! Don't tell me we are lost!" Max whined, worried.
"If only Kai was here, he knows the alley like the back of his hands…" Chief mumbled. 7 angry glares shot at him.
"Huh? Guys, look up there! What is that?" Hilary cried. Everyone looked. It was a door like entrance; it looks like it leaded to a forest of some sort. It was pretty new, with 'hidden powers' carved on one of the polls.
(A/N: Think card captors and the entrance of the temple thing…bah, forget it…)
"Hidden powers, eh?" Mariah winced, her ankle sending pain up her leg. "Sounds good enough to me." Ray frowned.
"Mariah, you shouldn't come, your leg, it might get worse…" Ray said softly to her, trying to make it sound serious, and not include any pity in his voice. Mariah's eyes shot towards him.
"I am fine…I TOLD you…"
"No you are not…I'll stay here with you…"
"It's ok, we'll just check that's all." Salima told her in an assuring tone of voice.
"It doesn't hurt to go in…I suppose…" Kenny sighed and stepped in. His eyes widened in surprise as he waved his arm madly.
"CHIEF!!!" Tyson ran to his friend, the rest followed, except Rei and Mariah, making sure that Kenny was ok.
"NOOOO!!!!!!!!" Kenny moaned as the team reached him. "You weren't supposed to come in here!"
"Huh? Why?"
"Because, Tyson, we are standing above a door-like passage! And if there is too much weight, then we f-"
Kenny didn't get to finish. The passage opened under them and they fell into the darkness of the endless pit. Seeing this, Ray raced towards his friends, but was stopped by the big gap of blackness between him and the other side. Mariah, who was wincing because of her leg, also tried to make her way to where Ray was.
"NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The scream got fainter and fainter, until it, along with Rei and Mariah's friends, was swallowed by the darkness…
---
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Kai perked up suddenly. He turned to where he heard the voice coming from.
"Do you hear that?" Mariam asked suspiciously, Kai nodded. "Who could it be…oh no…you don't think…"
"It is coming from over there, come on, it sounds like Kenny, or Salima."
The 2 teens sped towards their left, where they heard the voice coming from. They looked around as they ran as fast as their feet would carry them. After a while, they stopped to catch their breaths.
"JOSEPH! MARIAH! RAY! TYSON! OZUMA! HILARY! CHIEF! ANYONE?" Mariam yelled. No reply. "GUYS? COME ON, WHERE ARE YOU! THIS IS NOT FUNNY!" There was still no reply. Kai put a hand on her shoulders.
"Its ok, we'll find them, don't worry…" Kai tried to sound calm and comforting.
"I'd worry about yourself if I were you…"
A voice rang out from behind them. Kai immediately turned around and raised his arms in defense, one of his reflexes. It was a group of men. They were big and tough looking, but Kai wasn't scared, and apparently, neither was Mariam, that or she was doing a very good job hiding it.
"What do you want?" Kai said coldly.
"We, mister Kai Hiwatari, are following instructions. So make it easier for all of us, and follow without any complaints."
"Mister Kai?" Mariam frowned and turned towards Kai. "You KNOW these people?"
"No, what makes you say that?"
"Well they DO call you MISTER Kai…"
Kai frowned deeply and looked at the men. "I do not know you, you must have the wrong people."
The head of the men just sighed. "I knew this would happen…Voltaire said it would…he was right…" Kai's eyes widened in shock the moment he heard the name 'Voltaire'.
"Did you just say…V…Volt…Voltaire?"
"Well, you DO remember AFTER all, Mister Kai Hiwatari…" The Second man smirked a true evil smirk as he took off his dark sunglasses. "Call me Durian…"
"Durian?" Mariam sneered. "What a crazy name…"
Durian only glared and handed Kai a small bundle. "It will come to be useful, Mister Kai, for what happens next, will be terribly painful. No, not only painful PHYSICALLY, but painful MENTALLY as you will watch-"
"DURIAN! SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" the head roared, and then cleared his throat hastily. "You will find out what happens next, young Kai."
Kai frowned, sensing he wasn't going to like the surprise one little bit…
---
"TYSON? HILARY? CHIEF? OZUMA? JOSEPH? DUNGA? MAX? ANYONE?" Ray yelled from the edge of the endless pit where his friends fell. "Come on guys? Are you there?"
"Ray, its no use…" Mariah said painfully as she finally made her way to where Ray now was. "They are gone…I suppose, all of them…"
Ray put his arm around the pink-haired girl to give comfort and kissed her forehead. Then suddenly, foot steps approached, and they heard a familiar voice…2 familiar voices…Mariah and Ray turned around, their eyes widened in surprise.
"We heard the scream and got here as fast as we could, away from…some obstacles…" Kai muttered and grumbled; it was barely audible.
"Ray? Mariah? Where'd the rest of them go? Are you guy ok?" Mariam demanded.
"Nice to see you guys too…" Mariah smiled weakly, tears running freely down her face. "They…the rest of them…they're gone…I hope they all went to heaven…"
"This is a joke, right? Ha, ha, funny…now seriously, where'd they go?" Mariam waited for the answer, knowing that it was not a joke, and looked down at the darkness where her friends supposedly fell.
"Its not a joke…" Kai muttered, and ran his hands through his 2-toned hair. He groaned in frustration, and paced around. Mariam just stared numbly at the blackness of the pit, as if something would burst out of it. Ray still had his arm around Mariah, whispering comforting words, more to fool himself than Mariah. Kai suddenly looked up from his pacing.
"Mariam, remember what Durian said? Suffering not only physically but also mentally? How he gave the bundle to me? Well, I think we are suffering mentally right now…" He paused, "and I think the physical stuff is about to come."
That didn't comfort them one bit, but it did answer a few things.
Ray and Mariah looked at Kai, puzzled by this whole Durian thing.
"On our way here, we met a group of guys. They seemed to know Kai from somewhere, but I don't think Kai remembers them. Anyways, they mentioned about us suffering, and watching something, but he never finished." Mariam paused, waiting for the gears in the 2's heads turn faster to catch up with what she is saying. "Alright? Also he gave Kai a package, saying it will be useful."
"I think we should open it now…" Kai said firmly. Rei and Mariah nodded. Mariam shrugged and waited. Kai reached for the package, and untied the strings. He them laid it down on the ground and opened the folds. There was a map of a strange maze/forest thing, a few weapons, some glowing stones and a few other things needed for survival. Ray picked up a dagger and tested it out on the ground.
"Why do we need these stuff?" he put it down and picked up a stone. It glowed without any kind of power source. "Strange."
"Huh? It's a map? Why do we need a map of a foreign place? Hey, here's a note: travelers beware; keep this map, for it has the directions to make it out alive. There will be many challenges, so I suggest you to keep the weapons. If you ever want to see your friends again, Kai, strike the sword into the ground and say: take us to the forest of death. And if you do, you might not make it out alive, if you don't, your friends are dead. So I suggest you to choose carefully. And Kai, remember your training, it will come in handy here…"
"My training?" Kai snarled. "That note…it has to be Voltaire who sent it! Him or Boris…" His eyes flashed with fury. "My training…more like my punishments for being alive…"
"So should we go?" Mariah asked.
"Do we have a choice?" Mariam whispered.
"Well I could-" Kai started,
"Lets go…" Rei said firmly, before Kai could suggest an idea about him going alone instead of having all 4 of them go in.
Kai frowned. He took a glow stone and gave it to Mariah. "Keep this near your ankle, it will heal in around 5 minutes."
"Alright, Kai here's the sword."
Kai took the gleaming silver sword and stabbed it into the earth beneath his feet. "Take us to the forest of death…"
A bright light shone from the sword, and all 4 closed their eyes. They felt the earth shift slightly beneath them. When they opened their eyes, it was a whole different place. It seems like they landed right in a giant creature's nest. The creature roared furiously and snapped his big jaws.
"So…got any ideas?"
---
Ryuki: AHAHAHA that was the worst chappie in my life. Man, my writer's block is really bad now. –Sigh- well, at least I got this chappie up. Didn't everyone seem OOC?
Kai, Rei, Mariam, Mariah: -nod furiously-
Ryuki: exactly my point. And wasn't that just terrible?
Kai, Rei, Mariam, Mariah: -nod furiously-
Ryuki: -sigh- well there you go. I had to do SOMETHING…jeez…I seriously need to brainstorm now…
Saki: You had a brain? AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Ryuki: Ha, Ha, funny…now, I SERIOUSLY need my poison claws…The, I will be just like Sesshoumaru – INVINCIBLE!!!
Saki: - -; you better ignore her…
Ryuki: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!