Remembering what day it was today, Anya woke up bright and early to pack her work clothing and change. In her bag, she threw in a change of clothing, her costume, and a pair of leather fingerless gloves. The attire she was to walk outside in was hidden under a shin-length black coat with a high collar, but it did nothing to cover the rest of her legs, betraying a skintight black suit with electric blue lightning bolt patterns on them. Just for good measure, she threw her blade and pendant into her backpack before heading out the door of her room.
Downstairs, Tala was still half-asleep and grumbling while waiting for the others to get up. Kai wasn't saying anything and stared out the window. Someone came downstairs, turning out to be Anya. For some reason, she was dressed up in a black coat.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Out. I have work."
Tala eyed her suspiciously. She had a backpack on filled with who-knows-what.
"Where would that be?"
"No place of interest."
Kai looked up from his stare outside as the others came downstairs. Bryan raised an eyebrow upon seeing the bit of suit the coat didn't cover.
"What the hell is with the getup?"
Anya cringed, and Tala laughed mockingly at her when he saw it too. She sighed and unzipped the jacket, showing the full suit. It was all black except for the lightning bolt patterns on it. Around her waist, there was a jagged belt the color of sapphire.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen! Where do you work, the circus?"
To everyone's utter shock, she said with an incredibly straight face, "Yes."
Everyone sweatdropped, then Anya dug into her pocket and withdrew several slips of paper, slapping them on the counter.
"What are you, a clown?" Tala asked in mocking amusement.
"If you're so curious to know, why don't you use those tickets that got shoved into my hands?" She asked calmly as she gestured to the papers with her eyes before walking out the door without another word.
The Blitzkrieg Boys all exchanged looks as the door shut behind their new teammate. Tala smirked.
"This could make for some very amusing torment."
"Hey Anya, you made it!" Anya's partner Peter greeted her. He was about 20 years old and was her partner for their act, which came right after the tightrope walkers. He and Anya did their 'secret handshake' before Anya kept walking over to her locker and opened it, putting in her backpack and withdrawing a box of face paints. On the left side of her face, she painted a design like a dragon's wing with several shades of blue with some glitter added on beside her eye. Pulling her hair back into a short braid, she walked out into the spotlight as their act was called.
Up in the stands, the Blitzkrieg Boys watched as Anya and her partner walked out into the ring. The man was dressed exactly like Anya, but his suit was backwards to hers, mostly blue with black lightning bolt patterns.
"This, ladies and gents, is our balancing strongman/woman act. Weighing in at 200 pounds, age 20, is Peter Nickolai! And his lovely partner, weighing in at 135 pounds, age 16, is Anya Slovanik!"
(A/N: Yep, she's pretty heavy, muscle weighs a lot, and she has to be strong for this kind of job!)
It started off with the two dancing around the ring, and then it got interesting.
Pulling off the first few moves was easy, Anya usually being the one lifted up. Then it got to the reverse. Peter let her down to the ground. She lay down and put her arms at a 90 degree angle with the ground. Peter took them and pulled into a handstand on her hands as Anya slowly got to her feet, holding Peter up over her head. The crowd applauded, and then Peter grabbed one of Anya's hands as she took one away. The applause grew louder as they saw that Anya was holding her 200 pound partner in one hand. She was sweating a bit and her arm was ever so slightly shaking, but nonetheless she was pulling off the move.
From the stands, most of the Blitzkrieg Boys had widened eyes. They knew that Anya was strong, but not that strong. Anya let her partner down as they went for the last move. They pulled off the same move with Anya up over Peter's head, but as soon their hands were adjoined, Peter lowered Anya down so that their lips met.
The audience "awwww"-ed, then applauded like crazy when they let go of one another's hands, balancing by only their mouths. Tala looked back at the others when the two balancing strong partners left the ring. All of them were clearly awed, even Kai looked very impressed.
It's probably best that you don't tease her after the show. Wolborg chuckled and winked.
Shut up wolf.
The next act was the pole climbers, then the final act was announced to be the Escape Artist. Supposedly, this would be the first show that they had the act. To the team's surprise, it was Anya! She came out dressed in an all-black skintight bodysuit with a brown vest over it. In the center of the ring, she was handcuffed, shackled and chained, all topped off with a blindfold. She was then put into a locked steel box with no air holes.
"Anya has only 60 seconds to escape before the box bursts into flames! Start the countdown!"
The audience started to count down aloud. As soon as they reached 15, the door opened, and Anya emerged with a triumphant smile on her pretty face. 15 seconds later, the box was engulfed in flames. The crowd cheered as the rest of the circus joined Anya in the ring and the end of the show was announced. The team stood there a moment or two, still dumbfounded.
Back in the locker rooms, Anya was getting pats on the back and wows from everyone. Her good friend Tanya ran up to her. She was the knife thrower.
"Anya! That was so amazing!"
Anya smiled.
"Glad you liked it. By the way, I'm starting to get the hang of those tricks you taught me about knife throwing."
The two talked for a bit until Tanya had to go.
"See you next time!"
Anya went back to her locker and changed into the clothes she'd brought –Navy blue cargoes, shin-high black boots with 3 silver buckles, and her black long sleeved shirt- The shirt was her favorite one. It had a high collar and flared sleeves, but the part she really liked was that in the back it was designed like her long coat, which came up in a point to the front so that it was a midriff as well. Over the collar, she put on her pendant and on her hands were her black fingerless bladers' gloves. Her pocket was heavy with her blade and launcher as she slung her backpack over her shoulder.
Outside, a thin layer of snow made her footsteps make a slight crunching sound as she drifted into the crowd out to the street where she knew she could get a bus that would get her only 1 block from home. As she kept walking, she saw two kids blading nearby. One of the boys, a blonde, the elder of probably 8 years old, knocked the other boy's out of the area and into the street. The little brunette boy, probably 6 or 7, ran out into the street to retrieve his gray blade as a truck came hurtling down the road right at him! In one fearless impulse, Anya dropped her backpack and bolted into the road, tackling the kid out of the way just before he got hit by the car.
"Are you ok?" She asked. While in the tackling sequence, she had gotten into a position where she was holding him in her arms.
"Y-y-yeah..." He stammered, staring wide-eyed up at the blue-eyed girl that had just saved him.
From behind her, Anya heard the other boy run up.
"Brandon!" He yelled as Anya turned around.
She let the boy down and he ran to his brother.
"Thanks, miss! Um, what's your name?"
"Anya."
"I'm Travis. Hey, you were in the show!"
"Yep."
"Hey, what about my blade?" Brandon solicited.
His brother picked up the smashed remains of his blade, and Brandon looked about ready to cry. His blade had been damaged beyond any hopes of repair.
Searching for Anya, Tala wandered around and eventually found her. She was kneeling in front of two small boys, one of them looking ready to cry. She reached into her pocket and withdrew her blade. To his surprise, she detached the bit chip and gave her blade to the boy, whose face lit up with a grin.
"There you go." Anya said with a warm smile. Brandon's face lit up with a 1000-watt grin and he hugged her.
"Thank you!"
The two raced off to try out Brandon's new blade, but ran into someone. Anya stood up to find herself staring Kai and the others in the face. Tala was off somewhere else.
Brandon cowered behind Anya's leg, while Travis studied the others, then kept his gaze on Spencer before smiling.
"Hey big brother!"
Spencer rolled his eyes, but Anya knew he was forcing back a smile.
"We have to be getting back now, Anya." Kai stated flatly.
Anya managed a nonchalant shrug.
Back at the team's place, Anya retreated to her room for a few hours while Spencer somehow got talked into hanging out with his little brothers.
That was very generous of you to give Brandon your blade.
Well, I had to get on using my prototype anyway, Ry.
Hey, what about me?
Kae, I was talking to your brother.
You're such a pest, Kae.
Are not!
Are too!
Anya groaned as her bit beasts started squabbling like children.
"Got it!" She shouted victoriously as she put the finishing touches on her prototype blade.
Rycarraea, Kaexalea, meet your new home the Phoenix Strata.
Sweet! Now it's not named after Ry! IN YOUR FACE!
Anya sighed and shook her head as the two brothers started bickering again.
Nearly 3 hours after Anya had withdrawn to her room, she finally emerged again.
"Nice going, Slovanik. You took so long in there we already have to get going to the Bladebreakers' place." Tala snapped at the phoenixes' wielder.
"Oops." She retorted as innocently as she could, and she sounded pretty convincing.
At Tyson's dojo, Anya was introduced to the others. Their new teammate was an American named Jolt, who had a Husky bit beast called Juneau. The instant she was introduced to Tyson, he scoffed.
"A girl? The Blitzkrieg BOYS have a GIRL on their team?" He choked through laughter before drawling on about how he, the World Champ, could beat a girl any day.
Anya, growing very impatient and pissed off with Tyson's gloating and impudence, shot Tyson a glare so cold his immediately stopped laughing and cowered behind Spencer, who pushed him out in front of Anya, who was smirking in this seriously sinister way that scared the crap out of Tyson. Tala was biting his lip to keep from laughing at Tyson's reaction to Anya's diabolical smirk. Tyson snapped out of it and whipped out Dragoon.
"I bet I can beat you in a beybattle!"
Anya raised an eyebrow and smirked at his challenge.
"You're going to regret that little statement."
Outside, the two were in their bladers' stances, ready to launch.
"Before we start, I'm telling you in advance. No holding back, hit me with everything you've got!" Tyson shouted with an annoyingly cocky tone.
"Just don't cry when I beat you." Anya replied with a smirk.
"Like you could."
"I don't know about you, but let's make this serious."
"How serious?"
"Like we were competing for the title of World Champion."
"You're on."
"3, 2, 1, LET IT RIIIIIIIIIIIIPP!"
The two bladers launched their blades in unison.
"Kaexalea, attack!"
Tyson gasped in surprise as Anya's black-sapphire-and-red blade attacked Dragoon from every angle with amazing speed and dead-on accuracy.
"Dragoon, evade!"
Dragoon somehow managed to start dodging the attacks, Kaexalea's attempts starting to become more out of impatience.
"Dragoon, Hyper Victory Tornado!"
"Kaexalea, Everest Blizzard!"
The center of both blades glowed as the Wind dragon and the Ice phoenix emerged from their bit chips. The blue phoenix and the eye glowed on Anya's pendant as Kaexalea emerged. "Dragoon, now!"
"Kae!"
The phoenix emanated a war cry as it unleashed a massive blizzard with gale force winds and raging snow and ice. Dragoon's tornado did nothing to stop the attack as the blizzard hit Dragoon and the tornado struck Kaexalea.
"ATTACK!" Both yelled in unison.
Watching from the sidelines, it was no surprise to Kai to see that Tyson hadn't gotten his ass kicked yet. When a blader was being as focused and dead serious like Tyson was now, that was when their true power and potential was really revealed. The two bladers were sporting numerous injuries from the intensity of the match, but neither looked ready to give in anytime soon.
"Dragoon, Galaxy Storm!"
A raging storm of wind was unleashed from Dragoon. Anya shielded her face from the debris flying through the air by using her arm as a shield.
"Kaexalea! Stand down and switch!"
The Ice phoenix shrieked as it retreated to its bit chip again.
Why did she call him back? Tyson wondered.
His question was answered when the center of Anya's blade and the red on her pendant glowed as another bit beast emerged from her beyblade.
"Rycarraea, Torrid Volcanic Emission!"
The Fire phoenix screamed a blood-chilling war cry as it set free a massive inferno of fire and magma. The once-frigid atmosphere from Kaexalea's Everest Blizzard was replaced by sweltering hot air as Dragoon was hit hard by the Fire attack.
"Dragoon, Galaxy Turbo Twister!"
"Rycarraea, Ring of Fire!"
As Dragoon threw a cyclone at Rycarraea, the phoenix responded by curling into a ball with its wings encircling itself as a ring of flames formed around it. The whirlwind hit the flames, canceling out just as the defense intended.
"Enough playing around! Kaexalea, get ready for a team attack!"
The second phoenix emerged from the bit chip, joining its brother and preparing to launch one of their famous team attacks.
"Rycarraea, Kaexalea, Gemini Element Cannon!"
The two phoenixes took off into the skies as they started to glow the color of their dominant element, flying and spinning so that they formed a double helix of energy as they merged together. A flash of blinding light died to reveal a huge, majestic phoenix bearing the likeness of both phoenixes.
"ATTACK!"
The enormous phoenix cried a war cry, sounding like two phoenixes at once as it threw its head back, then forward again as it streaked towards Dragoon surrounded by the energies of Fire, Ice, and Wind.
"Dragoon!"
Anya's phoenix rammed into Dragoon with such power, it collapsed into its bit chip before it could roar in pain. While everyone's attention had been on the bit beasts, Anya had hit Tyson's blade so hard that it had ceased to spin, and it was sustaining damages so severe it looked hopelessly beyond repair. All eyes fell on Anya, whose eyes and pendant were glowing. Her two twin bit beasts came apart and retreated back to the solitary confinements of their bit chip. Anya's eyes reverted back to normal, and she picked up her blade.
"Thought you could beat me 'cause I'm a girl. Think again."
Tyson bent down to pick up his blade, but as soon as he touched it, it shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces. The bit chip, thankfully, remained integral. The teams stared at Anya, who walked by with only a blasé expression.
Nice job, guys. I'm proud of you.