Ok, Erika, Skylar, Dan, Kai and Ray are 18.
Tyson, Hil, and Max are 17
Kenny is 16.
Present
It's been a year since our last big heist, and it's been pretty dull.
Dan and Skylar go to a prep school for boys while I go to an ordinary public school.
In school, I sat down at my desk and took out a mirror and adjusted my pink wig. Everyone knows I wear one, they just don't know why.
"Hey, Erika," someone said above me.
"Hm? Oh, hey, Hil," I replied.
Hilary's this busy-body at the school; heck, she pretty much runs the class, cause the teacher's too shy. Hil is constantly buggin' this one kid, Tyson. I s'pose it's only to cheese him off, cause she likes him.
Tyson 's always actin' like a big shot. I'd like to put him in his place with an old-fashioned street fight. No guns, knives or any sort of weapons at all, just bare fists and anything goes.
But then, I remembered that that wouldn't be the "Erika" I show these people. I guess good ole "Eris"'ll have to take him out. I smiled to myself.
Then a cry of, "Tyson! You're late!" Hil said to the boy with the hat that slid through the door a second after the bell started ringing.
"No way!" he retorted, "I—."
"You two fight like a married couple," I interrupted. "Can we please skip this? Ty, the bell started ringing before you came in. You are late."
"Says you," he snapped.
"Says everyone," I shot back.
"Says wh--."
But I never gave him a chance to finish that, cause I fed him a knuckle sandwich up the nose.
"Now, will you take your seat?" I asked sweetly.
He glared, but went to his seat anyways.
After I sat back down, I realized that I had blown it. Oh well, maybe they didn't notice. I mean, I've heard people tell me that one day he'd make me snap.
After class, I went back to Tyson's desk.
"Hey," I said, "Sorry 'bout the knuckler. It was just a bad day.
I didn't break your nose, did I?
He glared me, but then he grinned and said, "Naw. Hey, you can come to watch us blade if you want to."
"Mmm..sure; mind if I bring a few friends? Only two, I promise."
"Yeah, sure; go to this address."
"Great; they go to this prissy private boys' school, so I'm going to have to be careful. They don't really like girls at that place. Later."
As I walked out, I stopped and thought about how I was going to get there, pulled out my keys and headed towards my scooter, started it and went.
As I got there, I decided to leave my helmet and shades on.
"Hello?" I said, disguising my voice to more of a males' over the com. "Are Dan Hikari and Skylar Manwey free?"
"Yes, just a second," and I waited.
While I waited, I saw a dual bluenette that I recognized to be that same guy I had encountered in Russia at that abbey.
I was glad to have my helmet and shades on.
The guy looked at me; then did a double take, like saying, "Do I know you?"
"Hey, Erika," I spun around and saw Dan, the afro dude with the fake face hair and the stocking cap, and Skylar, a tanned dude with his blue eyes and glasses, which suit him better than his brown wig and gray contacts, behind me.
"Hey, what's up?" I asked.
"Not a whole lot. You?"
"Well, I've been invited to a beyblade practice. Wanna come?"
"Um, sure, got nothing better to do," Skylar said.
"Great, c'mon," and Skylar took his skateboard, which Dan tricked out with a hidden motor, and Dan hitched a ride with me and we left.
As we neared a really nice home, we began to slow down.
"So, my homie brought new peeps to the pad," an old dude said.
"Word up," I replied taking off my helmet and shades.
"Come for a lesson in...." and he held up a sword.
"That?" I asked, "We've mastered that, dude. Later." And I put the shades in my pocket.
"Grandpa," Tyson said, "Don't." Then he turned to me and asked, "Hey, who are they?"
"This is Dan," I said, motioning towards Dan, "and that's Skylar, the prep schoolers."
"Ok, well, we're all in the back so c'mon."
Dan, Skylar, and I followed Tyson to the back, making sure to take off our shoes if we went in.
"Hey, guys!" he said, "I've got some new guys."
"Really...." said a Chinese blader. I studied him carefully. Extremely long hair, white Chinese shirt, almost ceremonial type with the long front and back and the short sides, black fingerless hand gloves and a red bandana, both with the ying-yangs and dark blue pants and.... my eyes went a bit lower, oh, yeah, he was cute, but what got me were his eyes. There was a sort of innocent glow to his honey-brown eyes. An innocence I've long forgotten and an innocence I vaguely remember.
He introduced himself, "I'm Ray Kon and that over there," he pointed to an enthusiastic blonde boy, "is Max."
"Really nice to meet you all, um, the afro is Dan, Skylar's the other boy, and I'm Erika. It's nice to meet ...." I got side tracked by the dual bluenette that just walked over, "you."
Ray looked concerned at me; then looked to whom I was staring at.
"Do you know him?" he asked.
"No," I said, "He looks familiar."
"Oh, well, that's Kai Hawatari; he's........."
"Russian," I interrupted.
Ray looked at me oddly. "Well, yeah," he said, "but I was going to say that he's the captain of the team."
"Hm? Oh, really?" Then I walked over to Kai.
"Hey," I said.
He looked at me.
"I've heard you got slashed by a knife during a break in and you still have the scar; is it true?"
He gave me an odd look. "I don't know who you heard it from, but," he said, pulling his right glove down, "yes, I do have a scar from an attack."
I looked at the knife mark in his arm, the mark I had caused.
"Did you see the person?"
"Twice," he replied.
I nodded.
"Why did you ask?"
"Like I said, I simply wanted to prove a rumor true. You have a lot of fans out there. You never know what they'll say."
He nodded but still looked confused.
"Oh, and by the way, my name's Erika," and I walked back to Skylar and Dan.
"Is it him?" Skylar asked.
"Yeah," I replied.
"Do you think he recognized you?"
"I don't know," I confessed. "Probably not."
Then Kai came over to our little group and said to me, "Do I know you from somewhere?"
"I really don't think so."
He nodded and he walked away.
"He does seem to recognize you," Skylar whispered.
"Let's hope he doesn't remember, though."
Then my pager went off.
"What's that?" Max asked.
"Sorry, that's mine," I said and I looked at you.
"IMPORTANT MISSION" it read.
"Guys," I said to Skylar and Dan, "We've got a job." Then I went to Tyson and his friends and said, "Look, we've gotta motor; see ya at school," and I put on my helmet and shades and Dan, Skylar and I left.
"So, what's this about?" Skylar said through our com system.
"Don't know," I said, "but we gotta get back to the hang out."
And we drove to the hang out, which was more like an abandoned hotel.
"Hello?" Skylar called, "Excuse me? Is our employer here?"
"Yeah," a guy's voice said, and four cloaked figures stepped forward.
"Guys, relax," I said, "It's Ozuma and the Saint Shields."
"What?" Ozuma said amazed, "How'd you know?"
"Who do you think got the info on you for the BBA?" I said pulling off my pink wig and shaking my real hair loose.
"You!"
"Yes, me. You needed something?"
"Yeah," Joseph said, "We need some experts to steal our bit beasts back from the Bladebreakers."
"Burgal back the Bladebreakers bit-beasts? Sounds like a tongue-twister," Skylar said. "Betcha can't say that 10 times fast."
"Well, you would know," Miriam said, "As you cause some girls' tongues to twist."
"You calling me a male whore?" he asked defensively.
"Well if the shoe fits......" she said.
That snapped him; Skylar looked as though he would pound her into the ground.
"Yo, Sin, go get ready," then I turned back to the S.S. "Where'd you want us to go?"
"This address," and Ozuma handed me a card, and I looked at it. This address looked familiar, but I paid no attention to it.
"Okay."
"You don't get all four; you don't get paid," Dunga said.
"Whoa," Dan said sarcastically. "Easy, Big Guy, we're the best in the business."
"We know," Ozuma said. "That's why we came to you."
"So, when do you want then?" Skylar asked.
"Next week's the latest."
"Okay, let's get ready. We'll see you later, Saints."
Ozuma nodded and the S.S. left.
"So, where's this place?" Dan asked, walking over.
I ripped some of the fake hair off his face. "We'll know when we get there."
"Ow!"
I laughed mischievously. "Oops, sorry, well, it's gotta come off for the job."
After a minute or two, we got our gear together.
"Okay, let's move," I said and we headed towards the targeted place.
"Man, this house," Skylar said.
"Yeah, I know, Sin," I said; then, "God! This is Tyson's house!"
"What?" Sinbad and Phoebus said.
"Tyson and his friends are the Bladebreakers."
"No way!" Skylar said.
"Can't be," Dan commented.
"Guys, this is the house. Well, we'd better'd get this over with."
"C'mon, Sin, let's go." And Sinbad and I headed in.
Once we were in, I whispered, "Get those two's and I'll get the other two's"
I slowly walked towards the two boys I assigned myself to, slowly taking Dranzer. As I moved towards the other, Ray, I watched him as I gently looked for Driger, which was under his pillow. As I slowly drew it out, I felt a hand enclose my wrist. I looked at the no longer sleeping boy who looked shocked to see me. I kicked him as best I could, and he let go. Skylar wasn't there any longer, so I ran as hard as I could, sticking the blades into my pocket, but I knew I Ray was catching up.
After a while, I felt something, probably him, tackle me.
He turned me over, and I looked up at him seeing the furry in his honeyed colored eyes.
I threw him off me and went into a fighter's stance.
He got up and looked at me panting.
"It's either that or more running."
As he got ready to attack, I took off in the other direction, trying to lose him.
I looked back and ran into a wire fence.
"I guess I don't know my way around here as well as I thought," I said, turning around.
"Guess not," he agreed, then demanded, "Now give me my Driger!"
"I can't; I'm doing my job, Ray!" Then I shut my mouth and mentally cursed myself. His name slipped out of my mouth.
"How did..." he began.
"You're famous, Kon," I snapped. "Everyone knows your name," and I ran towards him and flipped over his head and ran the other way.
Every few yards, I looked behind me to see if he was still following me, and, sure enough, he was. Then I found a brick wall that was just low enough for me to jump over, but high enough to hide my next move.
I jumped over the wall; then hid in some shadows and waited for Ray.
About a second later, he jumped over the wall and kept running down the alley while I rejumped the wall and got away.......
Or so I thought.......