A.N. Hey there everyone, I just got informed that Kai lost Dranzer at the end of G Revolution – eep! But in this story Dranzer comes back okay? It just makes my plot a hell of a lot easier. . .

Chapter Nine

The gang had deeply discussed the matter about why the sinister men had tried to kidnap Hillary, and had eventually come to a conclusion. Whatever the reason, it certainly couldn't be good. Now they were all outside heading over to the park on foot. "I hope there's a beydish spare," Max was saying, excited to have a match with Tyson, "I just know that we're going to have an awesome match,"

"There's always a dish spare," Kai said, who was walking at the back of the group with Hillary. The group walked onward, talking about general things such as, "So, how serious are you and Mariah now Ray?" and, "We're pretty serious, Tyson, but don't think I'm going to give you any details." and, a high five.

"I sure hope we don't see that fan girl I saw yesterday," Kai muttered to Hillary,

"Why is that? She wasn't that obsessed was she?"

"Well, if you had seen that picture, you would have your suspicions about her." They continued to walk on; Kai was silent for some time. Hillary didn't particularly want to join in on the conversation the other boys were having about 'where the best place to buy condoms is', and so was silent also. The whole time she was busting to ask Kai a question, and when she couldn't take it any longer, she gave in: "Kai, what was on that picture?"

Kai looked at her, blushed, then turned away. "Come on, it can't be that bad can it?" she cooed, so he decided to tell her.

Kai checked to see if the others were paying attention; they weren't.

"It was a photo of me, of course, but it was all me,"

"What do you mean by all you? You weren't" –

"Naked? . . . yes."

Hillary laughed, "Oh my god! How did she get a hold of it? Where were you, the changing rooms or something?" She said this a little too loudly, making the others stop and turn around.

"Hillary!" Kai groaned,

"What was that? Changing rooms?" Tyson asked,

"It was nothing, Tyson, mind your own business," Kai said dangerously.

"Changing rooms?" asked Max, and Ray cocked an eyebrow. Great, Kai thought, now they're going to want to know! "That sounds kinky!" Max exclaimed, and everyone look at him, suddenly remembering that oh so faithful night when the blonde revealed his sexuality. "Well, it does. . ."

However, before anyone could comment on this remark, something else distracted the group's attention. A dark and very sinister looking van, with dark tinted windows and license plates that spelt out S I N I S T E R, was coming down the street. It came down slowly, almost creeping, like it was stalking a prey. "Hillary, get in the middle of the group," Kai instructed, moving in front of her as protection. Ray, Tyson and Max also closed in around her, preparing themselves for anything . . . sinister. The van moved closer and closer to them, and Kai's heart was pounding a mile a second along with the others. I'm not going to let her get hurt, Kai thought, not this time . . . not his time . . . Coming from within the van, a song was playing: My Humps, by The Black Eyed Peas. "Turn it off!" came a voice from inside, which sounded more annoyed than sinister, "You're ruining the effect!"

The music stopped, somehow in a reluctant way.

The van came closer and closer. Kai could feel Hillary reach for his hand, and he grasped it tightly in comfort. They didn't run, but were ready to face their fears head on. The van slowed to a halt in front of the group; Kai took out Dranzer and his launcher, loaded it along with the rip cord, and was ready to use it as a weapon. The others began to load as well, following Kai's lead, but as quick and practiced as they were, they were not fast enough and prepared for what happened next. The sliding door of the van suddenly slammed open, startling them. It revealed five very sinister looking men, all dressed in black, and they were holding very sinister looking straw-like-tubes to their mouths. The men inhaled; and then blew into the tubes: five red darts quickly shot out, embedding themselves into the necks of Kai, Ray, Max, Tyson and Hillary. They all gasped in shock. Kai ran his hand up his neck to where the dart was, pulled it out, and hastily threw it to the ground. But it was too late, the job was done, and now Kai and the others were already feeling dizzy and light-headed with the effects of the poison which was already running through their veins.

Max was the first one to collapse onto the ground; "Max . . ." Tyson uttered, before joining his blonde friend on the pavement as well. Ray soon followed, reluctantly falling into a heap on top of Tyson. "Hillary, you have to . . . have to run," Kai told her, falling upon his knees, trying to fight off the poison as long as he could. But soon he too collapsed onto the concrete, leaving Hillary to be the last one standing.

As Hillary pulled out her dart, she fell to the ground as her legs gave out. She began to crawl, army style along the ground, trying to get away.
Yet all the while the very sinister looking men were approaching, getting closer and closer with each passing second. "Ohhh. . ." she moaned, before completely falling unconscious, the last thing she saw being the face of Kai. . .

"Good work troops, you've done exceptionally well," Number 1 told the sinister looking men, as they dragged Hillary in by the arms into his office, who was still knocked out from the dart. "Thank you sir," they all said in unison, like well trained school children.

"Did you follow my instructions to the letter?" Number one said, inspecting Hillary's face by moving it via the chin and his hand.

"Yes sir!" the goons cried out,

"You're positive of this?" Number 1 looked the head goon in the eye,

"Yes sir! Ah, wait, we did miss one thing," said the lead goon, scratching his neck nervously, his face blushing to a deep shade of red.

"And what might that have been?"

"Well. . . we kind of forgot to return the DVD to the video store,"

"What? But it was an overnighter!"

"Yes, we know, and we do apologize for it. I'll send one of my men out to return it later,"

"Okay, but just remember to do it next time, alright?"

"Yes sir. . ."

"Now, moving on, I think you should leave the girl here with me; when she wakes up, it will be pleasant to see the look on her face," Number 1 said, and began to laugh in quite a very sinister way. The goons soon joined in nervously, "Quite funny sir," said the lead goon, nudging the man next to him to join in.

"Muhahahaha! MUHAHAHAHA!" they all cried out, some louder than others. When Number 1 was quite done, and the goons settled down when they realized that their leader was no longer laughing with them, Number 1 told the two men holding Hillary to lay her down onto the couch. "Yes that's it, I want to make sure she's facing me when she wakes. . ."

Kai Hiwatari groaned, opening his eyes, then closing them again when he saw how bright the light was; it hurt. An aching pain throbbed in his neck, and his hand reached up and felt where the dart had been, which was sore to the touch. He groaned again, now frowning even more, feeling the painful headache which had been brought on with the poison running through his veins. Suddenly, it all came flooding back to him:

"Hillary!"

Kai sat bolt up right, looking around him widely for the girl he loved. But instead of finding her, there was something else. For one thing, he wasn't lying on the concrete pathway any more, with his friends knocked out around him; he was sitting upon a white, crisp clean bed. Max was resting on a similar bed near his own, his eyes shut, clearly still unconscious. Yet the others were nowhere to be found.

Kai was in a hospital.

After a few moments of fully taking in what had happened and where on earth he was, Kai slid his legs off the bed, and stood up. Almost immediately his legs gave out, and he fell back down onto the bed, crying out as a sharp pain from his headache struck him.

"Ah, Mr. Hiwatari, it's good to see you're awake. I would best advise you to lie back down," Came a voice full of authority. It was the nurse, an elderly, hardened woman who had just come in to check on how things were going. Kai did what he was told, and carefully laid himself back onto the hospital bed. "When did I get here?" he asked, as the bed began to rise electronically so that he was sitting up right. "About an hour or so ago love, along with your friends. Here, take this, it should take away most of the pain," she said, handing him a glass of water and two small white tablets. After he had taken them, he asked: "What exactly made me unconscious, that substance in the darts?"

The nurse took the glass off him, placing it on his bedside table. "Something called Nissoten," – (A.N. I made that up) – "Knocked you boys out pretty fast too." Kai turned and looked at Max, and then asked: "Do you know where Tyson Granger and a boy called Raymond are? They were with me when we were attacked. I need to talk to them, urgently,"

"I'll just go and fetch them for you, they should be finishing their report with the police. The pills should start to work in a few minutes, so take it easy until then." And with that she walked out of the room, leaving Kai alone except for the soft steady breathing of Max.

How did I get here? Kai thought, closing his eyes and resting his head on the soft pillow, that doesn't matter though, they've taken Hillary away from me, and I have no idea where she might be. . . A few minutes passed, and Kai waited patiently for the pills to take effect; but soon enough the familiar voice of Tyson broke the calm quietness: "Kai, are you awake? The nurse said that you called for us."

Kai opened his eyes, seeing that Tyson and Ray were looking somewhat weary, but were obviously strong enough for them to walk and move about. "Yes, I did. How did we get here exactly?"

"A woman in her house saw the whole thing – she called the police and ambulances" Tyson said, sitting down on the edge of the opposite bed.

"We had a talk with Officer Malton who came in earlier, and told him all we knew about the situation," Ray added, who remained standing. After a life of hard training and roughing it, Kai wasn't surprised that his cat like friend did so. "What about Hillary, are they going to find her?" Kai asked, his face full of hope and ambition.

"There going to do everything they can, Kai, don't worry," Ray said, though he sounded unsure of his own words. "Don't worry? Don't worry! Hillary is out there all alone, probably in the clutches of some serial killer and you tell me: DON'T WORRY!" Kai just about screamed this at Ray, who looked a bit shocked at this outburst. Kai looked away, his violet eyes showing the signs of tearing. The watering went away, however.

Tyson and Ray were silent for awhile. Kai had made a decision, so once again he began to move his legs off the bed, preparing to get up. Tyson had to protest: "Kai, we're just as concerned for Hillary as you are, but right now you need to" –

"No, Tyson. Right now I need to be out there trying to find Hillary, not cooped up in here where I can do nothing."

"But Kai, I" –

"If you were in my position, would you stay,"

Tyson said nothing.

And so, Kai stood up. His knees wobbled and shook with weakness, but quickly steadied himself. He began to walk towards the doorway, steadily going along with an air of determination.

"Kai, stop! There's something you need to know," Ray called out, making Kai turn around and stop in his tracks, "It's important."

"What?" Kai asked,

"When we were picked up by the ambulance, they found a video tape near your head," Tyson said. "What kind of video tape?" Kai asked, now fully interested.

"Well, we don't know," Tyson added, "The police are checking it for anything out of the ordinary, to see if there's nothing dangerous in it." Kai began to make his way back to his hospital bed, his eyes now full of a different emotion: fear. Kai sat down on the bed, not looking at either of his friends.

"A ransom tape. It'll be what they want off us in exchange for Hillary," he said,

"That's what they said it was most likely to be . . ."

"Well they better hurry up, because I'm not going to wait forever."

"And you won't have to," came a voice by the doorway. It was a policeman, and he was holding the video tape in his silicon gloved hand. "It's ready to view," he said, "Come along."

Well,I do hope you like that chapter, there's just one more to go - or soI plan. It'll be the longest one yet, and depending on how much work I get from school, I might not update till next thursday.

Until then!