Me: What's up, y'all? Here's the second chapter, hope you likes it!
Bob: She does not own Beyblade of Matrix, but she does own the plot and her original characters.
Chapter Two
The Punishers
"TYSON!!"
This was the first sound of the morning for the six teenagers. Tyson jumped about five feet into thew air, and landed flat on his face. The other five sat up, confused, glaring at him. About ten seconds later, the door leading to the kitchen opened wide, and an old man – Tyson's grandpa – appeared in the doorway.
"Tyson! Come on, dog, get up, yo! You got a phone call," explained Mr. Granger.
Hilary looked befuddled. "Who would be calling Tyson, especially at this hour?"
Ty shrugged, but stood up nonetheless. He walked into the kitchen, yanked up the receiver, and muttered a sleepy, "Hello?"
"Hello Tyson," said a familiar voice. "It's certainly been a while. Do you know who I am?"
"Nope. No idea."
The person on the other end seemed shocked. "What do you mean, you don't know who I am?! I was your friend since you were seven years old! Before you could walk! How can you say you don't remember me?!" The voice sighed. "Are you sure you don't know who I am?"
Ty thought for a moment. "Nope," he said truthfully. "Don't know."
"It's me!" the person yelled, exasperated. "Kenny! Chief!"
"Kenny?! Nah," he said, dismissing what the voice had said, "you can't be Kenny. He disappeared a year ago."
"Tyson, I am Kenny! I'll prove it to you. I have a talking bit-beast named Dizzara that's stuck in my laptop. At the opening of Robert's stadium, the Dark Bladers took me hostage, in case the Blade Breakers lost. Four years ago, Max lost Draciel to Ian, and Kai lost Dranzer to Spencer. Kai used to be the captain of the Blade Sharks, and Ray used to be on the White Tigers and live in White Tiger Valley. Hilary –"
"It is you!"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you! Now, I'm sure you have a bunch of questions, but –"
Before he could finish, Tyson interrupted. "Where have you been, Kenny? Everyone's been so worried!"
"I don't have the time to explain things to you right now! Listen, Tyson, I want you and the others to meet me tonight, at midnight, under the old bridge."
Tyson wrote the time and place in pen on his hand. "Ok... hey, Chief, do you know what happened –"
"– to Emily? Yeah, she's with me," replied Kenny.
Just as Tyson opened his mouth to speak again, Chief hung up. "Damn!" After he slammed the receiver back on the base, music burst through the house. He made his way back to where his friends and grandfather were, and to his surprise, Grandpa was doing the moonwalk to Michael Jackson's song 'Beat It', while the kids were applauding.
"Hey, Gramps! Shut off your music and go," a moody Tyson spoke.
Grandpa shut off the CD player, mounted in on his shoulder, and, as he passed his grandson, he said, "No love for the old man."
"So who called ya?" Hilary inquired as Tyson sat down. He told them everything that was said in his and Chief's conversation. "Oh, why didn't he tell us he was alive before now?!"
"You can ask him that tonight," replied the young Mister Granger. "But for now, we should probably start practicing – the beybattle starts in less that thirty minutes, so we should warm up."
"Wow," Ray spoke jokingly, "he actually makes sense."
Ten minutes later, they went outside and Hilary set up the pop cans they'd emptied the night before. The boys, all except for one, began to train, with Hil watching over them like a hawk. Tyson, however, was sitting with his back to the side of the house, absent-mindedly stroking Dragoon.
Hilary came over. "What's up?"
"The sky," replied Tyson, as she sat down next to him.
"Okay, what's wrong?" she inquired, taking his hand in hers.
He sighed. "Kenny's up to something – I know it. He hates that bridge, and he doesn't like going out at night... something's wrong with him. I'm beginning to think Kai's right about the whole Kenny/Emily conspiracy thing."
"No! Kenny would never –" she stopped, an angry look upon her face, and sighed. "Come on, don't worry 'bout it. The battle starts in ten minutes. Let's get going."
"Okay," agreed Tyson, after a slight pause. "Come on guys! Let's go!"
Half an hour later, after they'd easily and severely beaten King and Queen's team, the Blade Breakers seated themselves directly behind the beydish to see these so-called Punishers. DJ Jazzman began to announce through his microphone. "Hello Beyblade fans! Eh, he... why am I bothering saying that? We just finished an excellent match between the Blade Breakers –" Tyson, Max, Hilary, and Daichi stood up in seats to wave at the crowd "– and the Royal Flush, with the World Champions emerging victorious. Now we have an interesting match between the Junior Bladers and a team that only entered the tournament a few days ago – the Punishers!"
The assemblage cheered, and the two teams walked in. Tyson and his friends had seen the Junior Bladers before – they were a team made up of only preteens. They had three people, all boys, all of whom were waving spiritedly at the people.
The Punishers, however, were quite different. As Kai had said, there were three girls and one boy, and they were about a year older than Tyson. The boy had short mousy hair that was spiked a little in the front. He wore, like each of his teammates, a black T-shirt, with 'The Punishers' stitched in fancy, white lettering on the back. On the front was a skull with two bones in an X position underneath, in the same color as the team name on the back – as well, each of what seemed to be their names were stitched on the front left part of the chest area. They each also wore jeans, although the boy's jeans were fairly baggier that the girls'.
The first girl had black, shoulder-length hair that was left down, and wore a dog collar around her neck. She was about 5'8", the same height as the boy. The second chick had dirty blonde hair with lighter highlights, and her hair was tied back in a ponytail that reached passed her shoulders. This one was two or three inches shorter than her first two teammates, and an inch or so shorter than the last of them. Finally came the redhead, whose hair was kept down and cropped to an inch above her shoulders.
"Gothic," Hilary said, putting emphasis on the last four letters.
"Tell me about it," Maxie agreed. "I wonder if they're any good."
"Well, folks, our first match-up is between Daniel and Nikki," DJ told them. One of the boys of the Junior Bladers, along with the shortest girl on the opposing team. "Bladers ready?" The boy gave Jazzman a thumbs up, and Nikki nodded. Along with the crowd, DJ shouted, "Three – two – one – LET IT RIP!"
Both obeyed. The two beyblades entered the dish, but after one hard slam from Nikki's blade, Daniel's exited it in pieces. The boy was in shock. The girl simply summoned her blade back to her hand, and sat down on the bench.
"Whoa! Did you see that, folks? Amazing! I think the Blade Breakers may have some competition this time around."
Nikki looked over to her friends, and said, "Tch. The Blade Breakers... sounds like they're local heroes..."
"Not local, Nik. Didn't you hear the announcer? They're world champs..." the boy explained.
"I heard him, all right," replied Nikki.
DJ Jazzman began to speak again. "And let's get ready for our next match- up. Let's see... Bill versus Dominique. Come on, bladers!" Another of the youngsters, as well as the redhead, walked to the dish, launchers at the ready. "Bladers ready? All right! Three – two – one – LET IT RIP!"
The duo of beyblades soared into the beystadium, and it seemed like this Dominique girl liked to play more than her teammate. She did not attack straight away – she just kept easily evading the boy's attack.
Dominique yawned. "This is boring," she said. "Hey, you! Bill, your name was? Yeah, would you mind actually trying?"
"Oh, and it looks like Dominique is trash talking Bill!" DJ said.
"Ah, what's the use?" she said, and as the boy's blade darted with full speed towards her own, her beyblade dodged the attack and the opposing blade flew itself right out of the dish.
"And match two is won by the Punishers!" announced DJ. The girl sat down, and the last female member of the Punishers stood up, and met the last of the Junior Bladers at the dish. "The final round is a face off between Jake and the mysterious Raven!"
"Raven!" Tyson exclaimed.
"Jazz, it doesn't say 'The Mysterious Raven'. It just says Raven!" said the other speaker, Brad.
"Yeah, but she sure looks mysterious, doesn't she?" replied DJ, resulting in a sigh from Brad. "Well, are the bladers ready?"
"You're going down!" Jake said. "I'm way better than the other two!"
"Yeah?" Raven asked. "You think so?"
"Can the newcomers make it three for three? Three – two – one – LET IT RIP!"
Nobody saw what happened next – there was a flash of bright light in the dish, and when it disappeared, Raven's blade was spinning in the center of the beystadium, and Jake's beyblade was broken into pieces at his feet.
"WHOA!" Jazzman announced. "AWESOME! And the Punishers emerge as the anonymous winners! Thanks for coming, folks! See you in two days' time, when the Punishers come and face the Blade Breakers."
Tyson leaped over the rail to congradulate the mysterious team, but by the time he reached the bench, they were nowhere in sighed.
As the group walked home, Max broke the awkward pause. "Tyson, I know you're worried about seeing Kenny tonight, but let's just not brood over it. Besides, we should probably start training."
"Yeah. Max's right, Tyson," Hilary told him. "Soooooo......" She tried to think of something to talk about while they walked. "Did you guys have any interesting dreams last night?"
There was a sudden outburst of 'Yeah' and 'Yes' from the boys.
"Mine was really weird," said Daichi. "I dreamt a bunch of FBI dudes came into the house last night. They somehow stuck all our lips together so we couldn't speak, and them tied us up, and put mechanical bug-like things in our belly buttons!"
"That's odd..." Ray said. "That's what happened in my dream."
"Mine too!" exclaimed Max.
"Same here," Tyson spoke.
Kai actually spoke for once. "Mine as well."
"It seems like it happened in all our dreams..." Hilary thought out loud. "That's just another mystery, I suppose... maybe it was something we ate."
"Doubt it," Tyson told her. "Food never does stuff like this."
It was several minutes before midnight when the six of them showed up at the bridge. The place appeared very lonely, save for them, but they knew that things aren't always the way they seem. Tyson began to pace back and forth, while the other boys leaned against the wall. Hilary just stood still until, all of a sudden, a hand touched her shoulder. She screamed, and her five male companions came running. The person behind Hil was wearing a black cloak, and was soon in a headlock from Kai.
"Wait!" the person yelled. "Kai! Let go!"
Another cloaked being walked out of the shadows. "Let him go, Hiwatari," a female voice ordered.
Ray removed the hood from the one who'd snuck up on Hilary. It was Kenny! His hair was the same color, but styled differently, then it used to be. Now, it was really straight – his hair reached his shoulders, and his bangs stopped just above his eyes... his eyes! For once, you could actually see them! His glasses were gone, and his handsome blue eyes peered out at his friends as Kai released him.
The girl, too, removed her hood. Emily smiled at them, her fiery hair tied back in an elbow-length ponytail. She noticed Kai looking at her oddly. "What is it?"
"Nothing," replied he, shaking his head. "You just reminded me of something."
Emily sighed. "Lemme guess, someone shot at you yesterday?"
"Yeah!" Tyson exclaimed. "D'you guys know anything 'bout it?
Kai looked at Tyson as though he had three heads. "You idiot, it was them!"
"Huh?"
Kenny looked guiltily at the ground.
"Kenny did it. Not me! Kenny," Emily told them, pointing at the 16-year-old boy.
"No," Hilary said. "The Chief would never –"
"I did," he said. "I'm sorry. I hope I didn't frighten you too much. But I..."
"There's no excuse, Chief." Kai didn't seem too surprised. "I knew you were somehow connected to it, but the thought that you... I'm ashamed of you, Kenny."
"Look, he just wanted to see you before now!" Emily yelled. "He just wanted to see you – his friends – but the captain forbade it."
"The captain?" inquired Ray.
"It looks like we've got a fair amount of explaining to look forward to," Kenny said to Emily. "Come on, guys, have a seat." He pointed to the grassy hill. All of his friends sat down, and Emily removed her cloak to reveal a white T-shirt and a pair of black jeans. Kenny, as well, threw the cloak on the grass. He was wearing a sleeveless beige shirt and a pair of black pants. By his arms, you could tell that he was fit, and had worked out a fair amount.
Hilary gawked at him.
"What?" he asked.
"K-Kenny..." she stuttered, "you... you're hot!"
Tyson burst out laughing. "Kenny? The wimp, Chief? Hot?"
"Yeah, ignoramus," replied Hilary, as she slapped hi upside the head.
"Damn, what does that mean?!"
Emily shook her head. "I wouldn't call Kenny a wuss, boy. He's pretty tough."
"Tough? Yeah, right. Let's see then. Hit me, Kenny," Tyson said, standing up.
"No," he said.
Tyson looked at Hilary and Emily and said, matter-of-factly, "See? Told you he was a wuss. He won't hit me because he thinks he'll hurt himself, and he doesn't want me to hurt him if I retaliate."
"That's not it!" replied Kenny in anger. "I don't want to hurt you!"
Tyson laughed. "Hurt me? Honestly, me! I've been in karate since I was seven! I could kick your butt from here to Hong Kong any day of the week!"
Emily, Hilary, and Kenny all sighed, and said in unison to Tyson, "Why did I know you were going to say that?"
"Come on, Chief. If you think you can hurt me, let's me and you fight, right now," Tyson challenged.
"Kenny, he's too stubborn to give in," Emily told him. "Just fight, but don't hurt him too much, all right?"
Chief sighed. "Oh, I guess so."
Both boys got into fighting stances. Tyson tried repeatedly punching and kicking his opponent, but each time came up short, because Kenny was so fast.
"Damn, you're quick!" exclaimed Tyson after a little while. "But why don't you try to hit me!"
"If you insist," Kenny said, and gave Tyson one hard blow to the chest. Tyson went down in an instant. Kenny ran over to the boy lying down on the ground, and extended his hand to him. "I'm sorry!"
Just as the 16-year-old helped his friend up, a black stretch limousine drove up to the bridge. Kenny and Emily glanced at each other nervously.
"We'll be back in a minute, guys," the girl said, as one of the windows rolled down and a hand reached out to beckon them forward. She and her ally snatched their cloaks off the ground and ran towards the limo. "What is it?" inquired Em.
"We must warn you. We think they might be bugged," a voice said.
Emily clapped her hand over her mouth, and Kenny stared back in disbelief. "No... it can't be. I don't believe it."
"Why don't you bring them down and we'll see ourselves."
The pair nodded, and returned to their friends. "Come with us," Kenny said.
"What? What do you mean?" Hilary replied nervously.
He looked desperate. "Please... just come..."
"Why should we?" inquired Kai.
"Do you guys trust us?" Emily asked.
The group looked hesitant. Daichi nodded, followed by Tyson and Max. Ray, as well, nodded. Hilary opened her mouth to say something, but she thought against it, and with a nod gave an affirmative answer.
"Kai?" asked Chief.
He thought for a moment. "I was pretty ashamed of you," said Kai, "when I found out you nearly shot me, but..." He paused slightly, and then continued. "But you've never led us wrong, friend. Let's go."
Me: Hey dudes. Just a little note. Kenny's hair, in case you're wondering, is styled like Riku's from Kingdom Hearts. Thanks! R&R