While Anya was feverishly typing away at her computer, other things were going on. A black-eyed girl watched as her teammate received a severe beating from the boss, his screams of agony echoing off the walls. She didn't flinch at the crack of the crack of the whip, nor did her eyes betray any emotion. She merely stood there, forced to watch as Boris pummeled Brooklyn to the brink of insanity.

"That will teach you to fail me." Boris growled with a sneer.

"Faye, you take it from here. I expect to see blood on the ground." Boris left with no other orders.

Faye turned to the orange-haired teen chained to the wall, blowing a strand of raven hair away from her face back into her waist-length braid, then turned her attention back to Brooklyn. His back was torn and bleeding, but Boris' orders had to be carried out. Taking a knife from her pocket, she advanced.

Brooklyn looked over his shoulder at his new teammate to see her approaching with a knife. He shut his eyes, expecting the worst, but it didn't come. She cut his shredded and bloody shirt off, and then proceeded to bandage him up with it. Brooklyn opened his eyes again to see her hands moving deftly and easily. Her jet black eyes remained emotionless as she finished. Taking the knife in her left hand, she made a long gash on the top of her arm running from her wrist to her elbow, letting the blood drip to the floor.

"Why..." Brooklyn asked, or rather, muttered.

"He never said whose blood it had to be." She responded brusquely.

She took the ring of keys from her belt and unlocked the shackles around his wrists. Weak from the blood loss, Brooklyn feel to his knees, leaning an arm against the wall. He felt Faye's arms carefully wrap around him and haul him to his feet, cautious not to hit any of his wounds. She draped his arm around her shoulders and helped the injured teen back to his room.

"Why are you helping me?" He asked weakly.

"I know what it's like to be in your position." She replied, her tone betraying no sentimentality.

Brooklyn said nothing as she opened the door to his room and laid him down on the bed so his back was facing the ceiling. Without a word, she pulled a first aid kit out from under the bed and removed the makeshift bandages from his back. Judging by how quickly and skillfully she cleaned the wounds and bandaged them in a proper dressing, she had done this many times before.

Faye finished cleaning and dressing Brooklyn's wounds and returned the first aid kit back to its place. Looking back at her teammate, she saw that he was staring listlessly at the wall beside him, his cerulean-sapphire eyes showing nothing but pain. Feeling a sudden pang of atypical pity, she started massaging his abused shoulder muscles. Brooklyn tensed at the feeling of contact, but started to relax at her touch. Faye just kept it up until he fell asleep. Without a word, she left his room.

Going back into her own room, Faye booted up the computer and pulled out the readers, attaching them to her forehead and starting to type furiously away. For years, she had been working on an obsolete upgrade called the DELTA Upgrade. It was the very program that had brought her bit beast, Apocalyptica, to life. It had brought her to life. The DELTA Project that had taken place 17 years ago that had created her stood for Diminutive Enhancement (for) Liable Testing Associates. She was known as 47826 DELTA, or Branzer Genesis. Embedded in her DNA was trace amounts of that of Black Dranzer's DNA. She had taken it upon herself to find another program that would increase not only her blading statistics, but her own physical and mental ones as well. She was a Project, a human-like machine created for the sole purpose of achieving absolute victory. She could feel emotions, physical feelings and such like any other human, but there were so many ways she was different...

Faye Sasha Cadnik wasn't her real name. To make things short and simple, it was Meridia. Faye was her cover name, nothing more. She smirked when the profile of her clone, 74986 DELTA, showed up on the screen. It was her job to find out her copy's whereabouts and take her out as quickly as possible.

I will find you Drayea, if it's the last thing I do...

Meanwhile, Anya was having some difficulty with the present issue: Getting outside without Tala noticing. If she got caught, odds are good the house would come down in one nuclear explosion of fury. Slowly opening the door, she froze when she heard something. She stayed there a moment, not hearing a thing. If she could slip past the Blitzkrieg Boys now that would probably jog her confidence later on.

Damn it.

She moved noiselessly down the hallway, not making the slightest of sounds despite the crazed feeling in her gut that told her to GET OUTSIDE NOW. Stupid primal gifts. Slowly inhaling so as not to make a sound, she kept on moving. She didn't notice the figure in the shadows.

What felt like an eternity was followed by a rush of relief and the caress of a refreshing breeze. Anya sighed and smiled. She started walking into the forest, comfortably warm with her black and silver parka on with a long red scarf around her neck. Feeling too free to keep her pace, Anya broke out running into the forest.

Following close behind Anya, Tala silently cursed his "damned instinctive captain's responsibility". For some reason, Anya slowed down and eventually stopped, cupping her gloved hands around her mouth and letting out a low, sad howl identical to the kind a wolf made. Her howl was joined by one, then another, and soon a whole chorus of wolf howls joined hers. Tala's eyes widened a bit. Anya howled again as a soft wind picked up, making her scarf billow out beside her sort of like Kai's did, her hair waving in the breeze. She raised her hands a third time, but rather than a wolf's howl, she emitted a short shrill cry like a phoenix's. It was almost creepy the way she sounded exactly like what she was imitating. Anya started walking again.

As Anya kept walking, she heard heavy footsteps joining hers crunching in the snow. She looked over her shoulder to see nothing but the newly falling snow. She kept on walking, but her ultrasharp senses were picking up human footsteps. Just for the heck of it, she let out another wolf howl, and this time, the responses were closer. Much closer.

Tala immediately went into alert mode when the responses to Anya's wolf howl were much louder. Behind him, he heard a low growl. Turning around slowly, he met two gleaming yellow eyes belonging to a white and gray wolf. Surprisingly, she walked right by Tala and over to Anya. She turned to the wolf, eyes flashing from blue to golden as she extended the back of her hand to the wolf. Judging by its size, it was an alpha female. Tala was mildly surprised when the wolf sniffed her hand, then nudged it with her head. Anya smiled and scratched the wolf behind her ears. The alpha turned to the woods and barked once. A moment later, a litter of 4 wolf cubs came scampering over to the phoenix, who kneeled down as the four bowled right into her, landing her on her backside in the snow. She just laughed as two crawled into her lap, one gnawed on the end of her boot, and the fourth nuzzled her hand, whimpering for attention. It was that fourth one, the smallest one, which the alpha seemed to ignore. Anya smiled and took it up in her arms, laughing when the pup licked her face. She looked back to the alpha, eyes flickering as the wolf's did, as if they were exchanging words. The wolf started to walk away, allowing Anya to hold onto the 4th cub who showed no means of following his family.

Anya watched as the alpha female walked away, but one cub paused and looked at one particular tree and started barking. She smirked when she heard someone hiss, "Shh! Go on, shoo!"

The alpha female turned back to the tree and snarled, making Anya laugh when a very surprised Tala jumped out from behind the tree.

"Stay absolutely still," she advised, "And don't try to touch them."

The female wolf warily approached Tala and sniffed his hand.

"Can you by any chance tell her I'm not a threat?"

"You have the wolf bit beast, you tell her."

Tala looked back at the alpha again.

"Um..."

Trustworthy. Responsible. Human wolf.

Tala was taken by surprise by that.

"Did I just-"

Anya nodded and smiled.

"You have the Gift. You're a wolf telepath."

"Ok then..."

Pack member. Worried. Alpha wolf.

The female nuzzled his hand with her head.

"Go on." Anya urged with the wolf cub still nestled in her arms.

Timidly, he stroked the female's soft fur, amazed at himself and Anya. The wolf eventually walked away, leaving Anya and a stunned Tala behind.

"What the hell was that all about?" He asked eyeing Anya, who at the moment was keeping the wolf cub in her arms occupied by allowing him to teethe on her thumb.

"I guess I forgot to tell you that my Gift is animal communication and merging." She said with a hangdog grin.

"Uh-huh... Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight." He said rolling his eyes.

Anya just shrugged and started walking back to the house.

"You're taking that little monster with you?" Tala demanded.

"You don't have to come." She replied with a smirk, despite knowing he was referring to the wolf cub in her arms.

"Ha-ha, very funny. I'm serious."

"So am I."

Tala's eye twitched before he walked up to the two and glared at the wolf face-to-face.

"Damn you, now we have a little monster to hang around."

Anya laughed when Tala jumped about 10 feet back in surprise when the wolf cub barked in his face when just a split second ago had looked almost asleep.

"Great, just great. So what are you going to name that little beast?" He asked with a smug grin, no doubt he had a sarcastic and idiotic name ready.

"Tala."

"You're kidding, right?" He gawked disbelievingly.

"Well yeah. You both have the same blue eyes, and the same hair color."

Tala raised an eyebrow. Anya responded by pointing the ends of the wolf cub's ears. Sure enough, on the ends of his ears were fiery red just like the blader's hair. Anya made a mental note that they both looked like devils, Tala (the blader) with the ends of his hair looking like devil's horns and Tala (the cub) with pointy ears.

"This is going to get very confusing around the house."

"Ok, Tala Jr. then. TJ maybe."

The wolf cub's red-tipped ears perked up at the name Tala Jr.

"I don't believe this." Tala groaned.

Anya shrugged again and started walking back.

Waking up the next morning, Anya almost laughed when she felt a paw against her chin. Beside her, TJ was growling in his sleep, lying on his back with his large paws stuck out at odd angles and his tongue hanging out of his mouth in a doggy-looking grin. Gently rolling the cub over, he woke up immediately and jumped off the bed. Anya dressed quickly and went back downstairs with Tala Jr. trotting at her heels. The others gave her very strange looks when she came downstairs, TJ promptly pouncing on Tala's left foot. He merely shook the pup off, who ran over to Anya but wound up skidding across the slippery linoleum floor.

"Would you quit looking at me like that?" She said rather irritably.

TJ managed to get his balance and walked over to Kai, flopping onto his shoe making Kai look down at him inquisitively before turning back to his blade. Anya took an apple from the fridge before walking to the door and whistling a 4-note tune to call TJ. The wolf pup scampered after her out the door.

"What the hell was that all about?" Ian asked Tala in a puzzled tone.

"I have no fucking clue."

As the day progressed as normally as it could, TJ seemed to really like Kai and tag along all over the house much to Anya's and the others' amusement and Kai's annoyance.

He'll get used to him all in good time.

Meanwhile, Faye was training like crazy against her trainer, but just as Boris suspected, her skills now exceeded his. In one hard roundhouse kick, she threw her trainer clear off the mat. Boris dismissed the beaten up man, who seemed glad to leave. Faye took a long drink from her water bottle and resumed her training, this time beating the crap out of a punching bag in the form of a person. While Faye was going kung-fu (Matrix style)on the punching bag, in the next room Ming-Ming was keeping herself preoccupied polishing her microphone while silently fuming that she wasn't the center of attention, Mystel was sitting on the ceiling doing nothing, Garland was studying his blade, Crusher was visiting his sister in the hospital, and the twins were practicing their battle moves outside. Brooklyn was staring out the window at the birds. For some reason, they fascinated him, but his thoughts were elsewhere. They were on that girl that had helped him last night. He hadn't seen her before until then, nor had he known that she was to be his teammate at around the same time. He snapped out of his thoughts when the door slammed open.

"Boys," Boris began when Ming-Ming shot him a glare, "And girl." Ming-Ming grinned smugly. "I want you to meet your new teammate." Boris stepped out of the way to reveal the girl from last night.

"This is Faye Cadnik, your new co-captain."

Faye said nothing. Her piercing black eyes betrayed no feelings and were hollow and dark. Her plaited hair shone a bit in the few rays of sunshine that hit her, and what wasn't held back hung in her face in 3 spiky bangs. She was dressed in a turquoise V-neck shirt with a brown long-sleeved jacket over it, a pair of navy blue cargoes with torn knees and black boots with 5 silver and blue buckles. Rather than bladers' gloves, she had on a pair of gauntlets that appeared to be made out of machinery. By the look of it, it was her launcher as well as an odd fashion statement. (Her right gauntlet is her launcher!)

"Hi, I'm Ming-Ming." She said leaping at the chance to be the center of attention again.

"I'm Mystel." He said after getting off the ceiling.

"Team, this is our co-captain. The team is becoming too large for the standards for one captain, so I found another slightly lower rank to help keep things in check. I expect you to treat her with the same respect you would treat me." He said in a harsh tone. Without another word, he left.

"So, you're the co-captain, eh?" Garland mused as he got up from his position leaning against the wall and shook hands with Faye.

"And don't you forget it." She responded coldly.

It was about that moment the twins walked in from practice.

"Who's that?" Raul asked with a raised eyebrow at the new girl.

"This is our co-captain, Faye." Mystel answered.

"I'm Julia, and this is my little brother Raul." The girl with the brown and burnt orange hair said shaking Faye's hand.

Ming-Ming immediately skipped to the interrogation.

"How old are you?"

"17."

"Where are you from?"

"Russia."

"Have you ever bladed before?"

"Yes."

"Am I asking too many questions?"

"Yes."

It was starting to make the others snicker at Ming-Ming, who was getting annoyed with Faye's short, one-word replies.

"What's your bit beast called and what's it like?"

"It's a Dark/Demon dragon called Apocalyptica. Lyptica if you prefer." She replied flatly and folded her arms.

Garland raised an eyebrow before saying, "Can you show us?"

"Not likely, unless you don't mind the ass-kicking of your life." She retorted icily.

"Oh really?"

Faye shot Garland a dark glare that would make Kai Hiwatari proud, making him shudder. Those black eyes were so cold and devoid that they seemed to draw him into a black vortex.

"Are you going to stand there all day or do I have to move you?"

Garland snapped back into reality and cleared his throat, suggesting that nothing ever happened. Faye rolled her eyes and walked out of the room.

"Anyone who hasn't trained today follows me." She snapped.

Brooklyn got up from his spot at the window, followed by Mystel, Ming-Ming and Garland.

As it turned out, Faye was very good at getting on Garland's nerves with her icy and quiet manner. Actually, it was driving him up the wall in fury to say the least.

"Ok, blading and then we're through for the day." Faye announced after making the whole team run. When Garland had started shooting her death glares for saying they were slow, she had joined in and sprinted her 10 laps, beating everyone else like it were a race, and they had been on their 5th or 6th lap when she finished, not looking the least bit tired. The partners to battle each other were Brooklyn vs. Ming-Ming and Mystel vs. Garland. Brooklyn and Garland both won easily, but just as they were heading inside, Garland couldn't stand it anymore.

"I bet you don't even have a bit beast." He said with a smirk.

Faye tensed.

"Care to repeat that little comment to my face?" She growled calmly. Too calmly.

"I SAID I bet you don't even have a bit beast." He repeated with emphasis on each word.

"I suggest you take that back before I hurt you in ways that no human should be hurt." She growled forebodingly. "But then again, you're not human, are you?"

Garland's eye twitched.

"Break it up you two," Brooklyn interrupted, "You got issues to work out, so lets take this to the dish like civilized people."

Faye narrowed her eyes loathingly at Garland, who shot her his best death glare.

Faye's Stats:

Attack: 5 stars (off the scale)

Defense:2 stars

Endurance: 1 star

Apocalyptica's Attacks:

Phantom Shadow (Offense, Dark/Demon)

Apocalypse Reign (Offense, Demon)

Eclipse Apocalypse (Final Attack, Demon/Dark)

"3, 2, 1, LET IT RRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPP!"

The two bladers let loose their blades into the battlefield, a loose, bare stretch of earth.

"Appollon, attack!"

"Lyptica, counter!"

As Garland's blade charged at Faye's, the crimson and black blade easily dodged it and swerved around, slamming into Appollon from behind.

"Lyptica, Phantom Shadow Attack!"

"Appollon, Radiant Thunder!"

As Garland's griffin emerged from its bit chip, Faye smirked.

"That's it? APOCALYPTICA, SHOW HIM A REAL BIT BEAST!"

The center of her blade started to glow blood red as a beam of red light shot up out of her bit chip, taking the form of a HUGE dragon. Apocalyptica must have been a good 90 feet long with a 75 foot wingspan, nearly twice the size of Gaia Dragoon. The Dark Dragon was all black with red markings on its wings and body, and edged along its back were blood-red razor-sharp spikes. The dragon was clad in golden armor decorated with black and red designs and precious stones. Its eyes were a blazing, fiery mix of onyx and crimson, and the crest on its head had a large horn in the middle of Apocalyptica's forehead, jagged once to look something like a lightning bolt.

"ATTACK!"

Apocalyptica threw its head back and roared before unleashing a massive wave of Dark energy, slamming into Appollon with such force that it sent Garland's blade careening out of the battlefield and plowing it into the ground. Faye's bit beast returned to the confinements of its bit chip, and without so much as a word, Faye picked up her blade and walked away.

"Damn, Garland's been schooled." Mystel snickered.

"SHUT UP."