6. A Second Chance For A First Impression

"A complete search of the Abbey and surrounding city has turned up nothing, sir. We talked to locals, transportation agencies, even filed a missing persons report with the police, and nothing turned up whatsoever," reported Nikita.

Boris sighed and shook his head. "Triple checks have been run?"

Nikita nodded. "Quadruple. We're doing our best, sir, but unless he left the country somehow, there's no plausible explanation. He couldn't have vanished into thin air."

"My son...My baby...The only one I had left..."

Boris turned as Lutka sauntered up to him, her hands held out in front of her as if searching for something with a confused and dazed look on her face. He looked back to Nikita. "Keep up the search for them. If they're not found within two hours time, I'm leaving for Japan without them. Though I'm gone, I want the search continued until something is found. No matter what."

"Japan awaits your arrival, Boris. I just finished talking to Haku and everything is ready at the Ikoru Headquarters," explained Irina as she rushed up to Boris. "The chopper is also ready for take off."

"Tell the pilot to postpone the take-off for another hour or two. We're still looking for Tala and Tatiana."

"Yes, sir."

"Like this," Sarah instructed. "Just relax, the tension will go away after a while."

"Just relax..." Hilary repeated to herself, letting out a deep breath. "Hey, this is cool! I can't believe I'm actually getting into this."

Sarah caught her blade as it flew out of the dish to watch Hilary's blade speed around in circles. "I'm surprised you took to it so quickly."

Hilary eyed her red blade, not taking her eyes off it to talk. "You underestimated me."

Sarah folded her arms and smirked. "But you still don't have a Bit Beast."

Hilary finally took her eyes off her blade to thrust her angered face into Sarah's. "Yeah? Well, I'll get one, don't you worry! Then I'll teach the teacher!"

Sarah waved her hand dismissively. "Um-hm. Whatever. Check your blade and tell that to my face again?"

Surprised, Hilary looked back to the dish to see that her Beyblade had spun to a stop. "What? It was going strong a few moments ago!"

Sarah smiled again and placed her arms akimbo. "The number one rule in blading is to always focus. If you lose your concentration, your blade loses power."

Hilary stepped down into the dish and picked up the red blade, regarding it sullenly. Her face twisted into a frown. "You think you're so hot, don't you?"

Sarah looked away and stuck her nose up prissily. "I'm only what others make of me."

"Oh really?"

"That's what I like to believe."

Kenny shook his head. "It seems that Hilary has finally met her match."

"But something tells me that eventually they'll stop fighting and be the best of friends, Chief," replied Dizzi.

Kenny kept his post at the doorway, having passed by the training room and heard the argument. He smiled as he watched them yell at each other. "You really think so? They're really going at each other's throats."

"Positive. Now, didn't you have something else you were supposed to do? Such as see Mr. Dickinson about the report?" asked Dizzi annoyedly.

"Yeah, yeah!" Kenny sighed, hurrying off with Dizzi clutched firmly in his hands.

"Kai...?"

Kai raised his head on hearing the boy utter his name.

"What happened to me?"

Kai reached for Wyatt's hand and clasped it firmly. "You were overpowered during the battle."

"What?"

"Kuiper got you pretty good. He smashed your blade and then took your soul," Kai explained bluntly.

"What's that mean? He took my soul?"

Kai took his hand from Wyatt's and leant back in the chair. "It's a long story..." They both looked up as Mr. Dickenson entered the room.

Mr. Dickenson stepped up to the infirmary bed where Wyatt lay with Kai at his side. "Good to see you awake, Wyatt. How are you feeling?"

Wyatt struggled to sit up, and succeeded. "Fine, thank you."

"I have brought good news and bad news," Mr. Dickenson went on, becoming sober.

"I'll take the good, first, please..."

Kai cast a wary sideglance at the old man.

"Then, the good news is that I must say you fought very well for your first battle with a powerful and dangerous team. You exceeded our expectations. But, the bad news—we are discontinuing your use as a deploy."

Wyatt fingered the bandages on his arm. "May I ask why?"

Mr. Dickenson looked to the window on his right. "Of course. I'm sorry to say, that though you fought well, you didn't fight well enough. We don't believe that you would be able to stand the pressures of another battle like that. Besides, your condition would definitely hamper your performance."

"Oh..." Wyatt muttered, dropping his head.

"We have found a replacement for you, and are keeping Kane as a deploy."

"Who will Wyatt's replacement be?" Kai asked, standing up.

Mr. Dickenson locked eyes with Kai. "Hilary."

Tala took a deep breath as he managed to break open the case. He had cut the belts that tied it, but they could easily salvage someone else's in a pinch. He knocked the top of the case off and got out, stretching his legs as soon as his feet were on the solid ground. He turned and watched as Tatiana mimicked him. He narrowed his eyes as she cast him an innocent glance.

"I'm sorry, Tala," she apologized. She finally seemed to realize that she was a nuisance. She just had to pull at his strings...

Tala paced through the cargo hold, not bothering to reply. "Ok. Now, this hold isn't pressurized. However, fortunately for us, there is a door leading to the main part of the plane. The only thing is, it goes through the stewardess area. With any luck, there'll be a washroom we can pretend to be coming back from, and she won't ask to see our tickets." He stopped and turned to glare at her. "Let ME do all the talking, Tatiana."

She hung her head and turned her head away. He didn't pause to console her. He just didn't have the patience for kids, especially ones like this. He brushed past her and towards the door leading to the stewardess area. Opening the door slightly, he peered around. There was no one nearby, so he slipped through and closed it as Tatiana followed closely behind him. They both scurried through the tiny preparation area and entered the passenger area of the plane.

Tala noticed a steward heading down their pathway towards them. The two had minimal time to find vacant seats. His eyes darted back and forth across the many passengers. The plane was packed, it seemed. Not a single seat seemed free, and the steward was quickly approaching. Tala's heart raced. He checked behind him to see Tatiana sullenly following him.

"Are you okay, young man?"

Tala turned on hearing an older woman's voice. She looked up at him with concern on noticing his frustrated body language. "Yeah, thanks...Just kinda forgot where my seat was, that's all," he blushed slightly on fabricating the lie so well. He was getting good at this...But then it was too late to regain his composure as the steward was now upon him and Tatiana.

"May I help you, sir?" the uniformed man asked. "We are about to take off, and you must get to your seat. May I see your ticket?"

Crud. What now? Tala asked himself. "I--...I...Sure! Erm...Just lemme look for it..." He began to pat the pockets on his bolero and pants, pretending to look for his ticket.

"Here they are."

Tala turned to see Tatiana holding out two plane tickets to the man. She had a solemn face. "My brother's a bit absent-minded at times, so he asked me to take care of them."

The steward took the tickets from her tiny hand as Tala gawked in astonishment. "Ah yes, ok. You're in the first class, so that's at the front of the plane. You passed it when you got on the plane."

He handed back the tickets to Tatiana and gave a courteous smile to Tala as he pushed past them. Tala was still in shock from what had just taken place before his eyes, and so Tatiana moved down the aisle without him. He finally snapped out of his trance and hurried down the aisle after the girl.

"How the heck did you do that?" he demanded, just trying to keep up. She walked quickly for someone so short.

"I knew we needed tickets, so I got them," she replied simply without facing him.

"How? Where'd you get the money?"

"I didn't."

"You stole them? How!" he whispered, trying not to be heard, though it was hard in the silence of the plane.

Tatiana finally found the seats and flopped in the one beside the window. "While you were paying for food for us, I found a wealthy couple who didn't want their tickets anymore. I tell you, I should be an actress when I grow up," she finished, finally breaking into a smile.

Tala sat down beside her, still amazed at this young girl's ability. He broke his contempt towards her by ruffling her hair. "I think we both can, once we get outta this mess."

"We leave in fifteen minutes."

"Okay," Kai and Sarah said in unison. Sarah slipped on her glove and looked to Kai. He was occupied making last checks to his Beyblade.

"Kai?"

He raised his head.

"Are you okay?" she asked tentatively.

He nodded, not bothering to use a vocal reply.

"How's Dranzer?"

"Good," was his single-word reply.

He was so silent, all of a sudden. Why? What had happened to make him this way? Kai had always been very abrupt, but at least more courteous than he was being right now. Sarah drew a sharp breath, thinking maybe there was one thing that was bogging Kai down. "How's Wyatt?"

Bingo. He didn't reply, but simply glared at her with his slated eyes and turned away. He then went back to polishing Dranzer's shelter.

Sarah stepped forward. "Kai...I asked you a question."

Still no reply escaped his lips. However, he dropped his polishing hand to his side as he continued to stare at the red fire bird. Sarah moved to stand behind him. "It's really bugging you, isn't it? He didn't have the strength, but he'll be fine now..." She reached out and grasped his hand in hers.

Kai glanced downward, her hand clasped around his. For some reason, he found that more comforting than any other gesture possibly could. And that, he couldn't stand. He pulled away quickly and sauntered out of the room. No. No facing her. Wyatt was more of a concern.

Sarah's heart sank as she watched Kai rush away from her gloved hand. "Hmph..." She flopped down on the wooden chair behind her.

"Come on, Sarah."

Hilary stood before her, now, clad in her red uniform. "No one can really understand Kai, even after however long you've known him..."

Sarah rose and saw Kane glance at the two girls before he left the change room, following Kai down the hall. She scowled at Hilary. "I know. You don't have to tell me." She pushed past her, purposely knocking her on the shoulder.

Hilary stared after her, dazed for a moment. "Hey! I was only trying to help!"

They stepped off of the helicopter again. Kai glanced around the downtown Tokyo core. It was a familiar place to him, having come here many times as a child. Voltaire had often dragged him here to show the young prodigy off to business partners.

Hilary, Sarah and Kane landed on the pavement, following suite. Hilary and Sarah still seemed somewhat miffed at each other, even though Kane had played negotiator throughout the whole trip.

The helicopter took off from the helipad, leaving the four standing alone on top of the building. Mr. Dickenson had ordered them to incapacitate, not harm or kill. If anything, the BBA needed to analyze Vitality Extortion's movements, not get rid of them entirely. Kai watched the streets for their movement, as they were last reported to be here. Though why in Tokyo and not Nagano, where the Goadbwa Japan Headquarters was? But then Kai realized—though the Goadbwa branch wasn't here, the Biovolt branch was. Vitex must have been looking for Tala or something more of Biovolt.

"We gonna stand here all day, or move out?" Sarah asked in an annoyed tone. She cast Kai a narrowed side glance.

Kai blinked and glared at her. "Can you be patient? We can't just charge in—we haven't even seen Vitex, yet." She had become a lot snippier since they last met.

"There!"

Kai and Sarah followed Hilary's outstretched hand to four figures lurking two blocks away. The four froze and turned to face the building where the Hilanovs were standing.

"We're spotted," Kane said softly, shifting uncomfortably. He reached for his shooter, but Kai shook his head.

"Don't. Watch them, first. Pay close attention to their movements, especially Kazu."

"Why?" asked Hilary, keeping her eyes on the four figures now advancing towards them.

"There's something different about Kazu," Sarah cut in, catching on to what Kai had been implying. "And something different about the rest of them, too. They're more..."

"Zombie-like," Kai finished. "It's really odd to describe, but you can see that they don't move like normal humans would."

"Right," Kane agreed. "Now that you mention it..."

"And as much as possible," Sarah continued, "Lead them to the edge of the city. We don't want any civilian casualties."

"Tally...You know I don't have parents, right?" Tatiana asked enthusiastically, but with some sadness at the same time.

Tala opened his eyes, having nodded off slightly. They had been up in the air for at least two hours, and he figured that maybe he could catch up on a little sleep after all he had lost lately. But Tatiana had to come and ruin his dreams...He hadn't really heard what she said, but nodded anyway.

"Well, you know what? I think that you look a lot like my daddy."

Tala closed his eyes again. "Yeah...whatever..." he didn't care what she was saying. After she made a big fuss over her ears as they took off, he really wasn't up to deal with her high energy anymore. He had never been on a plane before, either, and found it much more relaxing compared to a helicopter. It was quieter, and he wanted to use the silence to sleep, not argue with the girl.

"So will you be my daddy?"

"Meh..." was Tala's reply. But then he jolted back awake. "What did you say? Me be your dad? You know, Tatiana, you're not just someone's person because you say you want to be."

"Really?"

"No, you—" he stopped himself. She didn't need to know yet. "No...It's a long and complicated process..." the explanation didn't make sense, but what did she know about it?

"But I want a dad..."

"Well, it's not me. And if you tell anyone that I am your dad," he began.

"Then what?"

"I'll...I'll..." He tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind.

"Well, then, you're my daddy unless you can think of something. That's my deal."

Tala searched his mind for something he could use as a threat. He had nothing she wanted, except his acceptance. "I'll disown you."

"Not good enough! You're my daddy!" She latched onto his arm. "So if you don't want me to call you Tally, I'm gonna call you daddy instead!"

Tala tried to shrug her off, shifting in his seat to try to get away without standing up. "No! Tatiana! I'm not your dad and you won't tell anyone that I am!"

"Awww! Why not?" she whined, burying her head in his chest.

"Because—" Tala was cut off by an announcement to start landing from the pilot.

"Yay! Japan, here we come!" exclaimed Tatiana.

Tala shrank into his seat. "Why me...?" Then sat bolt upright again. He remembered that it always hurt to ascend in a plane, but it hurt even more to come back down, especially if you weren't used to it. He swallowed as he felt his ears pop.

"Tally..." Tatiana began. "My ears...are starting...to hurt..."

Tala plugged his ears, bracing for her screech. "Great...Here we go again..."

The glass shattered upon impact. Shards were sent flying everywhere as he flew through the window and landed on the marble tile of the office building's lobby. All the white-shirt execs stopped with their business affairs to watch him come to and push himself up.

Telesto shook his head to clear it and got to his feet. His grey Beyblade flew through the window after him, and landed at his feet as Kane leaped through the hole in the windows along with his own Beyblade. Telesto carefully picked glass shards from his uniform and skin, still recovering from being flung through the window.

"Hey, Telesto—Had enough yet?" Kane called, surveying the brown-haired boy.

"Not quite. But I'll bet you have," Telesto replied, ordering his Beyblade to charge forward. He cast his attention to the battle between the BBA deploy of the day and Kazu outside the building. The girl with the short brown hair seemed petrified to have to Beybattle, and judging from her attacks, she wasn't used to battling at all. Biovolt was getting more and more pathetic—first they lost Tala, and now they were sending new Beybladers to fight in a wide-scale war.

"What's your name?"

Hilary was taken aback by the question from the young boy, but answered anyway. "Hilary Tatibana...why?"

"I'm just curious. You seem so scared for one so old," was Kazu's cold reply.

"Well you seem too serious for one so young," Hilary countered, feeling more comfortable with verbal assaults. "Why are you fighting for Goadbwa, anyway? Don't you know that they're bad-guys?" Hilary asked in a sweet voice, as if coaxing a three-year-old. She figured that it would work on the seven-year-old boy as well.

"I don't need to be babied by you, and Goadbwa aren't the bad-guys!" Kazu yelled back. "Biovolt was the one that betrayed Goadbwa!"

Th line definitely sounded fake, like a practised phrase repeated when you didn't want to think for yourself. Hilary couldn't reply to the comment, however. She was unfamiliar with the war in the previous year, and maybe Biovolt and the BBA wanted to withhold information that Goadbwa didn't yet have. She decided to change the topic, instead. "Kazu, where do you come from?"

"From Goadbwa, of course," he responded abruptly, calling his blade back to his side, seeing that the girl didn't really want to battle. It could have been a trap, but Hilary didn't seem bright enough to him for that.

"No, I mean, who are your parents, what's your last name? That sorta thing." Noticing Kazu's withdrawal from battle, Hilary called back her red blade completely, displaying her preference not to battle.

Kazu narrowed his eyes at her and called back his Beyblade, as well, but fit it to his shooter again just in case. "I don't have parents, and my last name is Hiwatari."

Kai looked back on hearing his name. "What?"

Spica saw that Kai was distracted from their battle, and followed his gaze to where Kazu stared back innocently at her. She scowled at him, caught her blade in mid-air and stormed over to him. "What did you say, kid?" she scolded like an angered mother.

Kazu cowered away from her, wincing as she thrust her face in his. "Erm...Hilary asked for my last name...And so I told her..."

Spica raised her hand and slapped his cheek. The red stripes on his cheek had company as the imprint of the girl's hand appeared.

"Hiwatari?" Kai had come up behind Spica. "Is that his name?"

Spica whirled around and glowered back at Kai, the two nose and nose. She raised her head to lock eyes with him. "No."

"That's what I heard him say, and I don't think a child of his age would lie so innocently. And why would you be so defensive if that wasn't his name?"

"It's not his name!" Spica spat in Kai's face and grabbed Kazu's arm. She led him away, calling to Telesto and Kuiper. They looked up from their battle with Kane and Sarah, and caught their Beyblades. Without another word, the four tore away down the road.

"Hey! Come back!" Sarah yelled, beginning to chase after them.

"Sarah!"

She turned back around. Kai looked stunned, Hilary watching him, and Kane motioning for her to go to them. She jogged over. "What is it?"

Kai continued to watch Vitality Extortion's retreat. "Kazu said that his last name was Hiwatari."

"So?"

Kai quickly turned his head to scowl at her. "So that means something. I don't think that Kazu is an original Goadbwa trainee. It's too much of a coincidence."

"Kane told us to meet him at the BBA headquarters, right?" Goki asked, heading straight for the building.

"Yep," Salima answered as she slung her bag on her bag and rushed out the doors after Goki. "And right away, too. It's a good thing it's not far from the airport."

"I wonder what happened to those two Russian kids..." Goki pondered out loud.

"Who?" Salima managed through gasps for air as they both hopped into an awaiting taxi.

The taxi driver took off as soon as Salima told him where to go.

"Those two we saw in Moscow—one that looked like Tala and had a little sister that you thought was his daughter?"

Salima waded through her memory for a moment. "Oh yeah! I forgot about them...But now that you bring that back up...They were supposed to be heading for Tokyo, too, weren't they?"

"Yeah. Oh well...Guess they forgot about us."

They sat in silence for the next five minutes until the taxi cab came to a stop. Goki paid the driver the correct change and followed Salima out the door. They ran up the walkway leading to the front swivel doors and rushed through.

Mr. Dickenson, who had been standing at the front desk turned to see who had walked through the door. He took one look up and down Salima, who was out of breath and giving him a quizzical face back. The old man's face lit up. "You're perfect!"