Chapter I – A Shadow Over Russia
[Yet again, my imagination manages to think of something else very vaguely... If there are any spelling mistakes, I apologize. Even though there's a spell checker, I miss the words anyhow. Disclaimer: I don't own beyblade.]
Tala walked down one of the empty corridors of the abbey, his footsteps echoing onto the walls. It had been a few years since the incident between B.I.O.V.O.L.T and the BBA at the World Championships, thus giving time for Balkov Abbey to recover from Kai Hiwatari's brutal attack with the all-powerful Black Dranzer. His unchanged icy blue gaze swept across the hallway as he heard the clash of metal at the end of the corridor, passing barred cells on his way. He started to scowl slightly as he felt the air grow slightly heavy, knowing that whoever was using the training area at that late at night had been working for quite a while.
When the red-haired boy reached the end of the hallway, he placed a hand on the double doors in front of him, pausing for a moment. He could have sworn that he heard the whirring sound of rapidly spinning beyblades but the sound had disappeared, the clash of metal remaining. Not waiting a moment longer, Tala pushed open the doors to a mostly dark room, seeing sparks flashing from different points of the area. The only explanation was metal on metal.
He stayed silent as two teenagers, their faces mostly shadowed, jumped back to different sides of the room, raising their hands slowly in front of their faces as they breathed heavily in the humid air. Normally, Tala would find that odd and moved his gaze around the room, finding two beyblades that lay motionless on the floor.
"Hmph..." His expression remained indifferent as he looked at the weapons that the two teenagers wielded.
Heavy metallic gauntlets were worn on the hands of the two people and the edge of the gauntlets ended at the elbow, both sets identical in make. The fingertips were ended with sharp and deadly looking claws as beads of sweat barely hung onto them. Their heavy breathing was harsher slightly by the metal masks worn on their faces, just below their eyes; revealing the intense jade glares. There were slits in the masks so the two could breathe more easily but judging how they were looking, Tala found it utterly pointless. Knee-high metal boots, with dangerous spikes on the knee and toes, were similar to ones that knights in medieval times wore but were more flexible for movement.
One of the teenagers, less muscularly built than the other, had a long, dark blonde braid that ran down her back and ended at about her upper leg. She swiftly shifted a leg back into an offensive position, her partially sweat-drenched braid swinging slightly when the other took a warning step forward. The teenaged boy also had dark blonde hair but it was kept shorter and not long enough to tie back; but both of them were almost identical.
Tala, giving the other boy a harsh glare, said a few simple words. "Sinya. Dima. Lights out."
He felt a slight pang of anger boil inside of him as the shorter-haired Dima turned his glare towards meet the icy gaze of the Demolition Boys team leader. Since Tala could remember, Dima and him were not the best of acquaintances, if at all. In fact, not many were welcome to the dorms of Dima and Sinya, perhaps in fear or just being cautious.
"You heard me." Tala stated more firmly. "Boris said lights out about fifteen minutes ago before you took out another one of his cameras."
"And you think that you are in any position to give me orders..." Dima hissed in a low tone, flexing his gauntlet-covered hands slightly, making the joints creak softly.
"Considering that I am your superior, I expect you to do what I say when I tell you..." Tala's gaze hardened slightly as he saw the other smirk coolly and defiantly. "I am not liking the fact that my orders are being ignored... Now get back to your room. Both of you."
Sinya coughed harshly as a little blood started leaking through the grill of the mask, her offensive stance visibly weakening as her legs threatened to give out.
"Besides..." Tala put his hands on his hips. "Your counterpart is past her limit and you have no pathetic excuse to defy me..."
"I'm fine..." Sinya snapped bitterly, her actions speaking differently as she reluctantly slid down to one knee. "Fifteen minutes... Tell Boris-"
"He's already given you enough extra time and he has specifically told me to remove you two from this room." Tala stepped out of the doorway to prove his point. "Back to your rooms."
Dima's face turned into a scowl, the metal mask hiding his frown, as he snatched his beyblade up from the ground, making sure to push Tala on his way by. Tala simply watched the other with his icy glare, not phased by the shove that he had gotten. Tala looked back at Sinya, listening to the transmission that he got through his earpiece.
"You are to go to the infirmary and stay there until you're given permission to leave." Tala said as he watched the other leave the room in the similar fashion as her twin brother, excluding the shoving.
"Forget the infirmary..." Sinya growled, coughing again. "I'm fine on my own..."
"If you don't go there voluntarily, you'll be escorted there and stay there until Boris decides what he wants to do with your defiance." Tala explained, causing the other to stop angrily.
"... Fine..." The other said reluctantly as she started walking down a different hallway, leading towards the surface floors.
She kept a hand trailing across the wall, a slight screeching sound as a result when the metal dragged across the cold stone. She could feel Tala's icy fierce look on her back, just daring her to defy his orders. Scowling quietly, Sinya made her way up the stairs to the main floor and shoved the door open, nearly falling over. She kept her head up, in worry of falling over and not being able to have the will to stand herself up from the weight of her gauntlets and boots.
"Get moving." She hunched her shoulders slightly from the person behind her. "Hurry yourself up, you're making quite a bit of noise to wake up the whole abbey."
"Why don't you back off..." Sinya hissed, undoing the metal clasps that held her mask into place.
"You woke me up with your wretched whining..." Bryan sneered.
"I did no such thing!" Sinya snapped, wiping her mouth off on her shoulder since her forearms were still covered by the gauntlets.
"You may as well have... The way you were dragging yourself up the stairs was very irritating..." The pale purple-haired teenager said.
Sinya growled a few curses and continued on her way to the infirmary. Elsewhere in the abbey, Boris awaited the grouping of the Demolitions Boys. Tala, Ian and Spencer were standing quietly in front of their superior, not saying a word as the door creaked open noisily and Bryan stood there.
"Ah, Bryan... I'm pleased that you could make it..." Boris said in an approving tone, watching the said beyblader walk to his spot in line. "I suppose you are all curious of why I summoned you all this late at night... After that rather unfortunate failure during the World Championships those years ago... It has given B.I.O.V.O.L.T much time to think over their options..."
Tala's icy gaze followed Boris as the other took out a beyblade from his coat pocket. The other three members of the Demolition Boys followed in suite as the bit of the beyblade was shown to them.
"This... is Black Dranzer. I'm sure you all are quite familiar with its sheer power and dominance over the known beyblading world..." Boris smirked slightly. "As well as Kai's betraying decision against us... Striding for the World Championships was a hasty choice... Why start at the top when you can break the ground beneath them?"
"Excuse me for interrupting..." Tala started. "But did we not destroy that blade?"
"Of course not... What did you think the other three were testing their power for..."
Ian, Spencer and Bryan watched Boris walk up to the leader of the Demolition Boys, holding out the powerful beyblade towards him. The other three had attempted to master the power of the great bit beast but they only got so far before they failed. Tala was the only one that had not tested Black Dranzer's power and Boris had a knowing look on his face.
"Would you do the honor in commanding this escapade, Tala?" The beyblade lay motionless in Boris' hand for all of them to see.
Tala's eyes widened slightly as he looked at the beyblade, seeing the picture of the bit beast in the centerpiece. He raised a hand almost hesitantly and reached for the item, pausing for a moment before he took the beyblade in his hands and put his arm back to his side in silence.
"You may test out Black Dranzer in one of the training facilities... I am quite confident that you will be successful as well, or even better, than that disloyal Kai..." Boris stepped back a few paces. "If you are successful in handling Black Dranzer's power, and there is a good chance you will succeed, you boys will be joined by Dima... and Sinya..."
The four Demolition Boys visibly tensed slightly, their faces etched with partially masked anger. They particularly didn't favor the twins that had basically forced themselves into the abbey a while before the World Championships when B.I.O.V.O.L.T's major plan was going into play.
--
"Why not, Boris?!" Dima yelled impatiently.
"The team has already been selected and you are not even close to being prepared for such a mission..." Boris explained calmly, starting to get irritated by the boy's attitude. "This is strictly beyblading... not your combat skills... Until you can prove your worth by defeating one of the Demolition Boys, you are to stay here with your sibling and continue your training..."
"Tch..." The blond-haired boy looked away angrily at the Russian team that stood silently.
He caught the leader's gaze and Tala narrowed his eyes slightly, envious jade meeting ice blue as the two glared invisible daggers at one another. Kai wasn't the only one that Tala had a strong rivalry with and it was not going to be extinguished anytime soon.
--
"After the test run with Black Dranzer, your mission will be explained with more detail tomorrow morning..." Boris concluded. "Now, Tala... Let us see how you control the Black Dranzer's power..."
Tala nodded and walked into one of the nearby training rooms, setting the Black Dranzer beyblade into his gun launcher. He waited for a moment as Ian was selected to run a practice match against him, watching the smaller member of his team go to his side of the beydish. Both of them held their launchers up, shooting the beyblades into the dish and kept rather silent. The Black Dranzer beyblade spun solo in the center of the dish while Ian's beyblade run its own course near the edge of the dish before speeding towards the opposing blade.
Tala narrowed his eyes slightly before he called upon the bit beast. "Black Dranzer!"
"Wyborg!" Ian shouted, summoning his own bit beast.
A black flaming phoenix soared out of its beyblade towards its opponent, bringing up quite a bit of wind to ruffle the hair of both Demolition Boys. Tala had witnessed the power of Black Dranzer in the World Championships years ago but he had never actually wielded the control himself. Seeing the dominant bit beast overpowering its opponents and having a chance to be in control were completely different things, as Tala soon found out. He unintentionally took half a step back, somewhat shielding his face with an arm as the bit beast let its fury loose. He watched the beyblades and the bit beasts as they collided with each other, sending quite a bit of force back towards the beybladers.
"Finish the job, Black Dranzer!"
A bright light flashed harshly as Black Dranzer let out a screeching war cry and attacked the snake bit beast in one final strike. As the light faded off and cleared, so was the beydish with exception of the forbidden beyblade whirling almost effortlessly. Ian looked at his feet, finding his beyblade was not there until he looked behind him. The beyblade was lying motionless on the stone floor, a few cracks imbedded in the stonewall as it showed where the blade had struck. Ian made a slight 'tch' sound as he walked over and picked up his beyblade from the floor, looking at the cracks in the attack ring.
"Very good, Tala... I expected no less from you..." Boris' approving tone had returned with much praise. "You and Kai are very unique indeed... Being able to handle Black Dranzer with the proper training..."
Tala held his hand out towards the beydish and the beyblade swerved into his hand. He kept his exterior mostly emotionless as he looked at the beyblade, the centerpiece glowing with a blood red hue. Tala clenched his hand around the beyblade, seeing the glow through the spaces through his fingers as he thought back on how much control he actually had.
"The test results show a complete success... For this mission, you are to use Black Dranzer to persuade Kai to return to here... If he refuses, let me just say that the BBA won't have the control on the playing field. More details will be revealed in the morning and this is very different than the World Championships..." Boris concluded.
Tala stood still for a moment, the hue in the beyblade gone long ago, then left the training room since Boris had nothing left to say. He had to make a decision that Boris had most likely made for him. He was either going to use his bit beast Wolborg or the forbidden Black Dranzer to complete this mission. The hallways seemed a bit darker to Tala, less noticeable as he continued to look at the beyblade in his hand. The others on his team had failed to master the power of the bit beast and he was the only one with exception of Kai who could handle it. He put his arm back at his side, continuing to walk down the shadows of the hallway. Was he going to abandon his winter wolf Wolborg? Or was Black Dranzer's power more fulfilling?
[Whoo hoo... I already have plans for the next chapters and the rating is PG-13 for a reason... Mostly the language and, of course, there's going to be violence. But that makes it more interesting, ne?]