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The hotel receptionist stood in the doorway. She bobbed her head politely to Tyson, who she knew by reputation. Kai snorted in disgust.

"Get on with it. There's no point making his head even bigger than it is already. There's a limit to how wide you can make a doorway." The girl nodded her head again, hiding a smile.

"Okay, this-" Her lip curled involuntarily "person is demanding to speak to you. He says it's- urgent." Her voice was suddenly loaded with sarcasm. Tyson and Kai exchanged glances. They got quite a lot of people asking to speak to them; it came from being World Champions. Usually, they just had to sign a few autographs and they'd go away. This guy sounded more serious, though. Kai nodded reluctantly.

"Bring him in." The receptionist moved aside, showing the newcomer.

"You okay?" asked the girl. Hilary nodded; the other three were too busy sizing the newcomer up. The receptionist showed her the button in her hand. The message was obvious. If you get in trouble, I can summon security. Hilary smiled and shook her head slightly. No need, thanks. The other girl nodded and retreated. Hilary took another look at the boy and moved closer to Ray. This guy was bad news. None of them had brilliant tempers, and Kai and Tyson were already angry. She hoped there wasn't going to be any fighting…

The newcomer started wandering round the room, insolently looking everybody up and down. Tyson studied him carefully, gritting his teeth in irritation. There was nothing particularly unusual about him, normal blue jeans, ripped navy T-shirt etc, bit short maybe, just something about him that was really annoying. As if he sensed he was under scrutiny, the boy suddenly jerked his head up and began speaking.

Outside, Max pulled away from the door. For no reason that he could think of, he was feeling worse than ever. Shivering, he dragged Sarah from his lap and pushed her at Kenny, who was watching the action inside as if hypnotised. He stumbled unsteadily up the stairs. He fell twice, but didn't stop, desperate to reach the relative safety of the bedroom. He staggered through the doorway, head spinning, and collapsed a few feet away from his bed, unaware that Sarah had followed him up.

"So, this is the famous Bladebreakers, is it? Don't think much of you, myself. My name's Thomas, by the way. Where's that computer geek and the blond one, what's his name again, Max?"

"None of your business!" Tyson growled, taking a few threatening steps forwards. No one insulted his friends and got away with it! Especially slimy little idiots like that! Everyone in the room tensed, knowing how headstrong Tyson was. Thomas looked unconcernedly at the furious Tyson.

"Yeah, well, I make things my business, y'know?" he said, shrugging. Tyson's fists clenched tightly.

"Get out of here, you ba-" He stopped midsentence, with a guilty look at Hilary. Thomas grinned. "What's the matter, Tyson? Can't swear in front of the bitch?" he leered. Goaded beyond his limits, Tyson charged at him, face contorted with rage.

Max slowly came round, realised someone was poking him painfully and rolled over to see who was. He slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurred, but he was too tired to care. He tried to focus, and saw a worried Sarah standing over him. She saw he was awake and with a glad cry got down on her hands and knees and hugged him affectionately.

"Bad Mac, sleeping in day very bad for you!" she said sternly. "Not do again!" Max raised himself slowly up onto his elbows, trying to dislodge Sarah. When it became obvious that Sarah was perfectly comfortable and not going to move for a while, Max gave up. He flopped back down again and did something he knew he would regret later.

"Sarah?" he croaked. "Go away…for a little while…okay?" Sarah's eyes filled with tears and she got up and made for the door. She looked behind her. Max seemed to have fallen asleep again. She walked back, intending to wake him up again. As she looked at him, she suddenly remembered something that her mum did if she ever went to sleep in the daytime. Wondering what would happen, she reached down and placed the flat of her palm against Max's forehead. She took it off again hurriedly.

"Ow! Mac hot." she said thoughtfully. Not knowing what to do next, she toddled downstairs to ask Kenny.

When her footsteps had gone, Max carefully opened one eye. Safe. He sat up very slowly, planning what to do next. He spotted the fire escape in the corner of the room. Ignoring the rational part of his brain, which was trying to show him how stupid he was being, he clambered unsteadily to his feet, shrugged on a coat and walked over to the fire escape. Opening the door, a blast of fresh air hit him in the face. Clear-headed for a moment, he looked down and wondering what in the world he was doing. The moment passed, and, not even aware of what he was doing anymore, Max took his first step down the stairs, eyes glazed and fever-bright.

Hilary frantically clutched at Ray's arm.

"Ray! Do something!" Ray held back, a thin smile on his face as he watched Tyson deal Thomas painful punishment for his words. Walking quickly towards the scrapping pair, he pushed them apart. He held Tyson back with his good hand, his broken hand hanging uselessly by his side, and Thomas back with his foot. He drew back, pulling Tyson with him, and addressed Thomas hostilely, giving him a vicious punch for the "bitch" comment.

"What do you want?" Thomas straightened up, spat out a loose tooth and replied, somewhat sullenly,

"My coach wants to know whether your team will battle ours." Ray's jaw dropped. Tyson pulled his beyblade from his pocket and shoved it in Thomas's face.

"Yeah? Give me one second, just one second, and I'll show you how badly you'd lose!" he yelled furiously. Thomas yawned and inspected his fingernails nonchalantly.

"Oh come on, everyone knows that you guys are only World Champions because you've never had any decent competition!" His look turned to fear as the sofa creaked ominously. He was hoisted bodily off the ground by his shirt and shoved half his own height up the wall as Kai finally lost his temper.

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