As the Blade Breakers headed through the stadium the next day to their locker room they could see several teams talking last minute about battle techniques.
When they reached the other side where their locker room was Hillary spotted another team. She glanced at the tall black-haired boy and he returned the look.
As they walked past them she looked straight ahead of her again.
Luckily, because she was at the back none of them saw her look at him.
It all makes sense now she thought as she entered the locker room.
She had nothing to put in a locker so she lay down on one of the benches and took her white blade out to look at.
So many battles I've played. So many competitions I've won. Not only with the Blade Breakers, but this will be the hardest one yet she thought. Not only am I fighting my friends, but I'm also fighting my emotions.
/ I'm skipping a few battles here
It was the semi-finals, the Blade Breakers were drawing one all and the last match would decide everything.
'Looks like you're up,' Ray told Hillary.
'Don't remind me,' she told him. 'I hate these situations.' She got up and approached the dish.
As she did, a girl about her age did the same. She was known as Raven. She was wearing completely black and looked really Gothic.
'Who died?' Hillary joked.
'No one,' Raven countered monotonously. 'Yet. You will.'
'You wanna back that up?' she asked taking her final step towards the dish.
'I thought you'd never ask,' she replied.
They both launched and instantly got into the heat of battle. For some reason the two girls hated each other.
'Nightwing!' the girl commanded.
Figures Hillary thought.
'Phendrano!' Hillary called.
What looked like a large, white dog with huge ice crystals on its back emerged from the white blade. / Can't describe it very well but it's a Sheegoth off Metroid Prime
Nothing appeared from the jet-black blade.
Hillary was confused. Suddenly a large, black bird appeared.
'Gathering darkness!' the Gothic girl commanded.
The bird opened its beak and seemed to produce darkness.
It surrounded the two bladers plus the bitbeasts.
Hillary almost screamed as the darkness surrounded her completely, bringing back old nightmares. She could see nothing and began to panic.
Who the hell is this girl? she asked herself.
She suddenly remembered her past mistakes at blading and calmed down.
No emotion ran through her system. No fear made her want to scream and shout and slowly the darkness began to fade.
'No way,' the girl muttered. 'How did you?'
'I just can,' Hillary told her and smiled menacingly. 'Watch out this is about to get heavy. Final attack!'
'What?' the girl asked surprised. 'Barrier!'
Phendrano shot loads of white energy out of its back and, for the first time, Nightwing went on the defensive.
'Come on, keep at it,' Hillary muttered as she saw the black barrier slowly melt away.
Finally the shield was gone completely and the energy hit the black bird, forcing it to fall back.
The Goth's blade flew out of the dish. She stared at her blade helplessly.
'If only your bitbeast could fly like that,' Hillary taunted her retrieving her own blade and walking away from the shell-shocked other girl.
Four people sat in the audience watching the battle.
'I'm getting kinda worried,' a strawberry-blonde girl told the others.
'Don't worry,' a black-haired boy told her confidently who was sitting next to her. 'The only one who poses a threat to us is Hillary. And I know she'll go easy on us.'