Heya, once more I come with an update to this story. I'm gonna try and see if I can't get in the next few chapters by the time school starts for me again. But it's hard trying to keep them in character when I haven't watched the show in such a long time...so this is really going to be short.

Warning from here on out: Characters may or may not say things they normally don't say, do things they don't normally do, and behave in ways they don't normally behave.

!-Chapter Seven-! New Year's Investigation

Lily looked up at the sky through her frosty window as it clouded over in dark storm clouds. It had been probably eight months now since the last major incident when she had been knocked out and dropped into that obstacle course with Kai. It still bothered her that she didn't know a thing about that place or why she had been brought there.

She looked over the papers piled on her desk, there were many school papers lying disorganized on the polished wooden surface. She tapped her fingers and brought down the hand that she had been resting her chin on to stack the papers neatly, shove them into a folder and then into her bag. Her eyes caught on a letter that had been delivered to her that morning from Mr. Dickinson. She slit open the envelope and read over the lines of text as fast as she could.

Kai was outside the dojo training, as he always did, when the first snow flakes fell. He narrowed his eyes, taking the oculars off the spinning top to watch the sparse white pieces of frozen water fell to the ground and melt. He lifted his right hand, stretched the hand out and immediately closed it as the blade jumped into his hand. He put his closed fist into his pocket and looked up as the shuffling sound of feet caught his interest.

Standing there was Rei nearby the rest of the team. They were all looking at him curiously. His patience thinned after a few seconds, "What?"

"Well, Kai, we were wondering if you'd like to go somewhere with all of us and everyone else to celebrate the New Year."

"Everyone?"

"Yeah, sure. Mr. Dickinson said he'd cover the costs. He wants us to enjoy ourselves."

"No."

"Oh, come on, Kai." Tyson spoke up trying to convince him otherwise, "Seriously, all you do is train and school. I don't think you even sleep."

Kai tried using something he had been finding in short supply lately, patience. He managed to tune out Tyson's incessant talking for a minute as he considered, "Only if you leave me alone."

"Well then, it's decided. We're going to meet them on the bridge soon, so we should get going."

"Yeah!" Max said, excited.

When the arrived there, they noticed everyone else they were supposed to meet was there, minus three. Kenny looked around, He saw Daisy and Leo but not the other three BeyGirls and Mark. "Where are they?"

Daisy shrugged, tilting the red laptop she held under one of her arms as it threatened to fall out. "They had to do something important. They won't be coming."

Kai wished almost immediately that he had the same excuse and as the group walked along he remained probably three feet behind them, taking his time as he walked along. Rei had grouped up with the White Tigers and Salima, enjoying spending time with them as opposed to the rest of his team all the time.

Lily, Lea, Molly and Mark watched as the group walked away from the bridge and then stepped onto it themselves, looking down at the ice coated river. They wore light jackets to keep them warm from the cold and the snow. The other three looked over at Lily.

"Hey, Lil, what was that letter about?" Mark asked her.

"Mr. D just wanted us to look around. He's been getting reports from 'blading gyms everywhere of mysterious newcomers showing up and asking for our team. Then they challenge a lot of people and demolish their beyblades."

Mark looked offended at that, "Majorly not cool."

"What's more is that they parade about using old Fang aliases and ask about ol' Saber-tooth, Tiger-Claw, and Lion-Fang."

Lea looked up sharply at the second name, she brought her voice down to a bare whisper, "Lily, that team hasn't been around for ages, what would they want with them?"

"What is Fang?" Mark asked, totally ignorant to all the names Lily had listed.

Lily waved the boy closer, clearly as uncomfortable talking about that particular team as Lea was, "Well, it was a team that was founded probably five or six years ago and then disbanded after two years, after their leader at the time was caught by the cops."

Lea took up the story, "The members used names of animals that ended with claw or fang so no one would know who they were. They wore masks and robes and had things that manipulated their voices."

Molly continued after that, "Some members were people that had found out the real identities of other members and then were press-ganged into service for three years. None of them were real happy about what they were forced to do, but most members came freely and enjoyed what they did."

"Which was?"

"Robbing parts stores, destroying the blades of beginners and just in general being cruel. Before the group disbanded, they killed a person. They killed a lot more people, but no one ever found out about them. Fang is the most dangerous team that ever existed."

"Alright, so what would happen if someone refused to become a member after finding out about someone's identity?"

"An electrical shock that normally paralyzed someone for life, could kill, or wipe out their memories. The other option was taking a beating from several razor sharp beyblades that the team used, that was always fatal."

Mark took in all of the information and nodded his head, "Yeah, how come you all know so much about this Fang team?"

"We were members. It was only for a year. That was the time you were in Africa."

"Right." He grimaced, "So why were you three members?"

Molly looked over at her older brother, "Our other team mate at the time, Salima, had found out about one of the members, and their identity. She refused to become a member and was given the shock option. We were afraid of what would happen to her."

Lily sighed, "We made a bet. The three of us would battle their top three members and if we won two of the matches they'd let Salima go without a problem. If not, we would become members and they'd carry out their threat on Salima. We were the best in the World at the time, won the championship three times in a row. We all though we could win."

Lea shook her head, "We won once and lost twice." Lea looked up at Mark who was looking at them like they were new people, "We aren't really proud of what we did then, so we didn't ever tell Daisy about it and we made sure Salima was taken care of before taking care of our side of the bargain. You've got to understand, Mark, we never liked Fang, and still don't."

Lily stamped her foot to get feeling back in it, "Yeah, as soon as we could we told Mr. D about everything and set up the new leader to get caught."

"'New' leader?"

"Yeah, just before we carried out the one year service bet the leader changed. Mr. D is concerned that Fang might have reformed itself and wants us to look into it since we know so much about it." The group was huddled tightly and what they said could barely be heard, let alone understood. "We need to go, now."

The four walked off to do a small investigation of the town. Mark spoke up after several minutes of walking around town, "Uh, what you said, if they did reform, would I be in...?"

"No, bro, since we left it doesn't apply to us anymore."

Lea looked up and saw that he wasn't reassured, "Scared?" She taunted him and smirked at his nod, though she could barely blame him, "Look if even it did, you didn't find out what our names were."

They walked into various gyms that were noted in the letter Lily had been given. They asked descretly about the incidents.

By the time they reached a clearing by the middle of the afternoon the girls were looking around nervously, in case they were being watched. They decided to sit down in a clearing they came upon and take a break. Lily recognized the place as she looked around, "Higara Park." With memories of Fang freshly turned up in her mind something came back to her and the other two.

Lea's first statement as it came back fit quite perfectly, "Damn. I hate this place, let's get out of here." The other two nodded, and Lily spoke up as they left the clearing towards the exit gate.

"You know how me and Kai went missing earlier in the year? I was told to come to Higara Park. There was this kid that showed up with a Fang-styled beyblade. At that warehouse obstacle course..."

"The hundreds of blades." Molly said finishing the statement, Lily had told her about that the day after it happened. "Of course. That course is one of the..."

Lea said it once more, "Damn, I really hate this place."

"He also knew who I had been."

Lea stopped, "You didn't mention that earlier. Let's just tell Mr. D, yes they're back or something like that, and get out of here, now."

Molly nodded nervously as they left the park and ran towards the BBA building. As soon as they were safely inside the heated building and were pulling off their jackets Mark posed another question, "So what was that course you and Kai went through?"

Lily shook her head, "Sorry, can't tell you that." She ran forwards towards the desk and asked the secretary to tell Mr. D that she wanted to see him and sat down in one of the chairs.

Lea tried to explain it to Mark, "The thing is, the more you know, the more danger you'll be in. So you'll need to live with the information that you have and don't ask questions or let on that you know anything at all. In case they did reform."

Mark nodded, he understood perfectly. He toyed with the dark red earring in the lobe of his left ear. He sighed, glad that they trusted him with this information, it was clear to him that they weren't comfortable talking about it, especially Lea. In a few minutes the secretary walked over to Lily, "He's read to see you now, Miss."

"Thanks." Lily nearly jumped out of her chair and ran over to stairs and took them two at a time and was panting a little by the time she reached Mr. Dickinson's office. She opened the door walked in and shut it behind her. The pleasant old man seated in a chair behind a large oak desk waved his hand to another chair.

"Please, take a seat, Lily."

Lily didn't take a seat but instead opted to pace the room nervously, "Mr. D, I looked around town like you asked me to."

"Oh, and what did you find?"

Lily plopped down into the chair and looked at her knees as she spoke, "Fang's back. Everything incident fits with Fang's past behavior. I think an old member that wasn't happy about Fang being disbanded decided to reform it."

"Oh dear. Are you sure?"

Lily nodded and looked up at the man, "Yes, absolutely."

"Alright, thank you, Lily. I know that was hard. Be careful."

"We will." Lily left the room, the clicking of the door as it shut seemed rather ominous, although Lily couldn't say why it did.