"92... 93... 94..." Anya grunted as she continued benching.
This was all part of her training to keep her strength for her strongwoman act. At the moment, she was benching 130 pounds. Anya didn't know how she got her strength, hell, she didn't even know her real last name. The thing was, she was abnormally strong and didn't know it. The Blitzkrieg Boys hadn't dared provoke her anger after
1) Seeing her immense physical strength in action
2) Seeing her kick Tyson's ass past Pluto in 2 minutes flat
The day was still young, 6 am to be exact, and Anya was very much awake and completing her exercises. After showering off and getting dressed –black skintight mock-turtleneck, navy blue cargoes, and black boots with 3 silver buckles. Over her black shirt she wore a brown vest with several pockets that came down to the middle of her upper arm and, as always, wore her pendant- she came downstairs to see only Kai up and awake.
"G'morning."
Kai didn't respond. Anya just shrugged it off and made breakfast. Checking her watch, she saw that it was only 7 am. Kai headed outside with Dranzer for practice, Anya pulled out her blade and looked at it. The phoenix on the bit chip shimmered before its eyes glowed.
Hey Anya.
Oh, hey Kae.
Did I miss anything?
Nope. You're just in time, Ry.
Do you follow me everywhere!
Yep.
Both of you, stop acting like children.
The two brothers shut up.
So, who wants to fly today?
Both phoenixes immediately leapt into the bit chip, wanting to be released.
Just waking up, Tala came downstairs to see nobody there.
Kai must already be awake.
The front door slammed, sparking his curiosity. Tala walked down to the door and cracked the door ever so slightly. Anya was standing there, holding her pendant in one hand. A blinding flash of red light temporarily stunned the wolf, and when it disappeared, so had Anya! Puzzled, he opened the door all the way to find nothing. Not footprints, blade or otherwise.
Ok, THAT was weird.
Feeling the icy cold Russian air lifting her up, Anya spread her arms as she rode on the wings of the Ice Phoenix. Beside her, Rycarraea flew parallel, the size of a gyrfalcon. Closing her eyes, Anya let the feeling of a jet stream of wind picking her up. The advantage of all those hours of meditating- the ability to physically merge with either one of her phoenixes at one time. Touching down on solid ground, her body arched forward as Kaexalea withdrew from her back.
"Man, I'm never going to get used to that."
Back at the house, Tala was looking seriously pissed off as he was reading a letter from home.
"What's his problem?" Anya whispered to Bryan.
"Tala just got a letter from his aunt that she needs him to baby-sit his little bitch cousins."
"And he's acting in accordance with this dumbass job... why?"
"I don't know. Ask him, but it's your funeral."
Anya shrugged.
"STUPID BITCH OF AN AUNT! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THAT MOTHER-FUCKING SHITBAG!"
"Dude, calm down before I call the guys in the white coats." Said Anya derisively.
"Do you have any idea what my cousins are like? THEY'RE FUCKING DEMONS!"
(smirk) "Kinda like you?"
Tala's eye twitched.
"Why are you even complying to begin with?"
"Classified information."
"Whatever." Anya started to walk away when Tala grabbed her arm.
"And you guys have to help me out."
Anya shot him a look as if to say "Are you fucking crazy!"
"Last time I checked, YOU had to baby-sit, not us." She snapped.
"Uh, Anya," Spencer cut in, "The last time this happened, he took out his unending wrath in a training session. NOT pretty."
Tala let go of Anya's arm.
"Fine. But if these cousins of yours are really like you say they are, don't get mad at me if I make them cry. I have a VERY short fuse, and I'm not afraid to unleash MY unending wrath on your FACE if it backfires to the point that it puts the Challenger space shuttle to shame."
THE NEXT DAY
"I should have taken the training session." Anya groaned.
"Shut up."
At the moment, 3 of Tala's 7 cousins were screwing around with Anya's hair, putting it up, taking it down, then putting it back up again, and it was rather painful. They were doing the same thing to a very ticked-off Bryan.
"I'm going to have a migraine for weeks." She moaned rubbing her sore head when the girls got bored and ran off to torment someone else. While Bryan managed to get away from the others, Anya put her hair up in a French braid so no one else would be tempted to pull it. It was total chaos inside the house, and at the moment, Anya was about ready to explode. She walked over to Tala, who had just pulled a pair of scissors from his youngest cousin's grip.
"I don't suppose you have any more brilliant ideas to get them to shut up?" She yelled over the noise.
"Shut up!"
Anya pondered a second.
"Are they interested in blading?"
"You are NOT going to battle one of them."
"Who said anything about battling them? Just round the brats up and get them outside."
5 MINUTES LATER
"What the hell are you doing?" Tala demanded while the kids were sitting outside, wondering what was so significant about the dish in front of them.
"Just shut up and find someone to battle me. I'm going to entertain these brats in the only way I know how." She said with a smirk as she loaded the Phoenix Strata blade into her launcher. Her opponent wound up being Spencer.
"3, 2, 1, LET IT RIIIIIIIIIIIPP!"
The two bladers let their blades loose in the dish, making the Valkov kids immediately start paying attention.
"Seaborg, attack!"
"Rycarraea, counter!"
The two blades continued duking it out in the dish, clashing like crazy as the kids started rooting for either Spencer or Anya, it was more girls vs. boys type thing.
"Seaborg, Stramolyu Attack!"
"Rycarraea, Wildfire Inferno!"
The two blades started to glow the colors of their attacks' elements. Spencer's blade unleashed a wave of water while Anya's blade was engulfed in a raging blaze.
"ATTACK!"
The two attacks clashed, creating a stunning display of lights, but no winner.
"Hey kids, you wanna see a couple of real, live bit beasts?" Anya asked turning to the kids with a smirk.
"YEAH!"
"Seaborg!"
"Rycarraea!"
The centers of their blades glowed as the whale and phoenix emerged.
"WHOA..." The kids gawked in awe of the two enormous bit beasts.
"Rycarraea, attack!"
"Seaborg, counterattack!"
The phoenix threw its head back and shrieked as it slammed Seaborg clear out of the dish. By now, the kids were all cheering, well, the girls were.
"Nice try, Spencer."
He just shrugged and put his blade back into his pocket.
"Hey Tala, you battle 'er!" One kid shouted.
That got the whole group started.
"Nah."
Anya smirked and folded her arms.
"What? The great Tala Valkov is afraid of losing to a GIRL?" She asked with sarcastic emphasis on girl.
"Bring it on!" He growled as he loaded Wolborg into his launcher.
"3, 2, 1, LET IT RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPP!"
As the two started to battle and the kids cheered, Rycarraea made an interesting comment.
Are you really going to go through with this?
What's that supposed to mean?
I think he means that it would be pretty low to beat him in front of all his cousins even though we could easily win.
Anya pondered this for a moment.
Someone has to teach him a lesson, and I'm going to be the one to do it.
"Rycarraea, Wildfire Inferno!"
"Wolborg, evade!"
The dish was suddenly engulfed in the inferno, making it extremely hard to see the two blades in the middle. Wolborg was dodging like crazy while Anya made it look like she was having some difficulty finding the wolf.
"ATTACK!" She rammed into Tala's blade hard, but not hard enough to win the match.
"Wolborg, attack!"
"Rycarraea, switch!"
The center of Anya's glowing blade switched from crimson to sapphire blue as Kaexalea took over.
"ATTACK!" The two bladers shouted simultaneously.
The blades charged, Kaexalea making a much harder impact. The force of the hit stunned Wolborg, giving Anya the window of opportunity to start striking from every angle with incredible speed and dead-on accuracy.
"Wolborg-"
Before he could call out the final attack, a third blade came into the dish and hit both of the others back. Tala and Anya looked to the tree on their left to see someone leap down, followed by another. Both were clad in black cloaks, hiding their faces.
"You again!" Tala yelled as Anya picked up their blades and handed Tala his.
The leader smirked.
"Happy to see us, Valkov?"
"Which one?" One of the kids asked innocently.
A pressure point appeared on the leader's head.
"Anyway, we want the girl as well."
"You want me, you'll have to catch me first!" Anya yelled.
Rycarraea leapt from her bit chip, glowing red as he jumped into her back, giving Anya wings!
"What the fuck?" The leader yelled as she took off.
"You've forgotten, I can merge with my bit beasts!" She yelled smirking as she flew off at a very high speed into the forest behind the house.
"Get the others back inside, I have to follow Anya!" Tala ordered the others.
They obeyed without hesitation, and the kids were unusually cooperative, as if they knew something was wrong. Tala took off after his teammate as the cloaked figures did the same.
Weaving in and out of the trees, Anya was very surprised to see how well her pursuers were keeping up. She came to a clearing and whirled around to face the ones stalking her.
"Got ya." The leader said with a smirk.
Anya's eyes started to glow red and a wind formed around her.
"Flying isn't all the merge does for me."
As Tala caught up to the cloaked bladers, he heard what sounded like the roar of a tornado. Coming into a clearing, what he saw was shocking beyond words. Anya, who still had Rycarraea's wings, was throwing fireballs at the attackers!
Master, she has merged with Rycarraea and obtained his powers!
I know... How do we stop her?
Before Wolborg could answer, one of the cloaked figures whipped out a pistol.
That's no pistol.
It was a tranquilizer gun!
"Anya!"
A gunshot rang throughout the forest as the dart hit Anya in the side of the neck, injecting a black liquid into her bloodstream.
"Wolborg!"
Tala launched his blade as the wolf leapt out to attack the cloaked figures. While the wolf was slashing and biting at the assailants, Tala saw Rycarraea separate from Anya, who collapsed to her knees in the snow, yanking out the empty dart. The puncture wound was starting to bleed, and by the look of it, she wouldn't stay conscious much longer.
"Anya!" Tala ran over to the wounded phoenix, draping an arm around his shoulders and pulling her to her feet. She winced before holding out her blade and yelling, "Kaexalea, finish this!"
The Ice phoenix came shooting out of the bit chip, slamming into the attackers.
"You haven't seen the last of us!" With that, they disappeared.
Anya groaned in pain, putting a hand on her head.
"Where does it hurt?"
"Everywhere..." She muttered. Her tone suggested very intense pain.
"Let's get you out of here."
What the fuck is wrong with me? Why the hell am I helping her?
Because she saved you earlier from death.
Come again?
Don't tell me you forgot that first battle against that guy. You blacked out, I almost got taken, then, "Get away from him! Rycarraea, attack!" Remember? She saved your life.
Tala said nothing as he helped Anya walk back. Whatever had been in that tranquilizer dart, it was draining Anya of her energy at a rapid rate. Halfway there, she blacked out.
"Anya?"
Sighing in defeat, he picked her up on his back and carried her all the way back. Her wound was starting to stain her shirt as well.
Anya woke up again some time later with a major neck ache and no recollection of how she got back to her room.
How did I get here?
Tala carried you all the way back.
Yeah right.
Actually, yes. I guess it was payback for you saving his life.
Anya shook off her dizziness and got ready, but she felt strangely different. It wasn't the fact that she had woken up later than usual, but something dark was lurking in the corners of her mind.
(Downstairs)
While the others were just getting ready to go outside for practice, footsteps on the staircase were followed by Anya, who jumped down the last few steps.
"Hey guys."
"Feeling any better?" Bryan asked.
"Some, but my neck is killing me. Nothing big, though."
The others eyed her suspiciously.
"What?"
Outside, the others were practicing while Anya was taking apart her blade to get the damaged core out of it. When she had merged with Rycarraea, something caused the inner core to get deep-fried. All of the sudden, something dark flickered across her mind. Anya just shook it off, but still, something didn't feel quite right...