Well, we've got a battle, and then some plot advancement... sorta. Read on!
"When I said knock 'em dead, I didn't mean knock us out!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that would happen!"
"Ohh, my ears are still ringing, what the hell kind of shockwave did Artemis even release…?"
"As soon as I stop seeing three of everything, I can run that scan…"
Groaning quietly, Tyler squinted over at his laptop as he slouched over the table. The position in he was in was probably straining his body and definitely could cause future neck and shoulder problems, but the raven-haired young man could care less. He clicked a few keys, slowly, before shifting the newly evolved Artemis into his laptop's camera sights, and letting the scans begin.
"Give it a few minutes," He groaned, and let his head fall to the metal table with a thunk! "God, where is Tithi with that ice?"
The door banged open on cue, prompting a round of groans from the three men in the room. Christina chuckled nervously, and turned to the door, blinking in surprise at who was there, "Uh, Masamune? How did you—"
"I'm family," Masamune pointed at Tyler.
"… Fair enough," Christina shrugged.
"And hey, is that the new Artemis? Wicked—"
"Don't. Touch. Her," Tyler grabbed Masamune's wrist before Masamune could grab it. "I'm running scans." He lifted his head, glaring, "And keep it down, will you? My head is killing me…"
"Sorry," Masamune dropped his voice. He glanced around the room, "Have you had a chance to tell anyone else?"
"As soon as I can see straight, I'm texting Amy," Toby sighed, and sat up from his seat across from Tyler.
"I'm back!" Tithi chirped as he walked in, with three ice packs, two sodas, a water, and various snack foods, "Sorry for the wait!"
Tyler snatched a bag of ice and held it to his right eye. He let out a sigh of relief, and then cracked open one of the sodas Tithi offered him, "Alright, scan's almost done…" And, as if Tyler was a magnet, everyone in the room crowded around him, "… Y'all are the most impatient people I've met, and I deal with some pretty demanding clients."
Tyler's laptop beeped, and Tyler sighed, "Alright. Scan's done. Now let's see what these new stats on Artemis are…" Tyler set the ice pack to the side and went to typing, fingers flying over the keyboard as various windows popped up on the screen, "So. Artemis is looking like a stamina type… Oh, wow, that's wicked, the performance tip is an extra sharp, free spinning one. Cool!"
"So, she's still a stamina type?" Christina asked.
"Hm, not completely," Tyler brought one window to the top. "All the scans read as the fusion wheel being an attack type—and it's weird, there are seven little nodes circling the outside of the wheel…" Tyler reached out and picked Artemis up, eyes bright as he pointed out the sharp points, "See? There seems to be some sort of hidden function to them, but I don't know what…"
"It looks like if an opponent was to go for a head on collision, it'd tear the other Blader's fusion wheel to shreds," Masamune commented.
"That's the obvious conclusion, and given the rest of these sharp lines in the design of the wheel, an opponent would definitely be torn to shreds," Tyler nodded, and handed the green Bey off to Christina.
Christina squinted at her partner, running her thumb over the design of Artemis' facebolt, "What else?"
"The spin track," Tyler answered, typing away. "There are diagonal striations running around the spin track, rounded in design. I'm not sure the function of them."
Christina ran her finger over said spin track, frowning in thought, "It almost feels like rubber…"
Tyler paused, "Of course! That would fit in with the stamina theme! Rubber would absorb the attacks, so it wouldn't create a lot of friction between the two surfaces of Artemis and her opponent!"
"Wicked," Christina grinned. "That all?"
"Like I said, this is a design on a Bey I've never seen before, so there's some hidden functions that we need to be on the look out for," Tyler sat back in his chair, and took another swallow of soda. "Maybe after we get done here today, you and Chris could go through with a practice battle, see what shakes out."
Chris and Christina locked eyes, and Christina felt her lips curl into a wicked smile, "If the pattern checks out, I'll be able to beat you for once!"
"In. Your. Dreams," Chris smirked in response.
There was a knock on the door, and a WBBA worker poked his head into the room, "Team Shadowhunters? Stadium's been replaced, and you're needed on stage in five minutes."
"Thanks," Tyler nodded, and closed his laptop. "Masamune, you'd better get back out to the stands. Tithi, Toby, you two ready for your battles?"
"We're ahead of the game," Chris snorted. "One more win, and we move on to battle Africa next week. And considering it's Tithi going up against Platina…"
Tithi beamed, and with that as their cue, Shadowhunters walked out of the room with full confidence that they would be moving on.
Amy was in the middle of observing a practice battle between the boys of Rinascinta, and entirety of team Excalibur, when her phone rang. Surprised, she stepped away from the side of the dish, so she could answer it. She spent the next ten minutes listening to Tyler tell her the events of the second battle of the Wild Card match.
"So Christina's one of the Seven, too?"
"Yeah, she is. Not sure if you caught the Wild Card matches today, but Christina's Bey evolved in her battle with Kakeru?"
"… Did she win?" Amy asked.
"Hah, did she win?" Tyler muttered, "She won and knocked us out for a few minutes."
"What do you mean 'knocked you out'?!"
"Artemis released some serious shockwaves when she evolved… strong enough to knock us back and out, yeah," Tyler sighed. "I sent all the stats to Jasmine, both from the battle and the practice match she had with Chris this afternoon. Has she had a chance to pull them up?"
Amy nodded, as she made her way to one of the benches, "Yeah, sure. Hey, Jazz, Tyler said he sent you some—"
"Already pulling them up and…" Jasmine was typing away at her laptop, eyes narrowed, "… Is this Artemis? Wicked stamina and attack type…"
"Tell me about it," Tyler commented, apparently having heard the Russian teen. "Anyways, I'll let you guys look at the stats and stuff, but Amy?"
Amy automatically stiffened at the tone of Tyler's voice, "Yeah?"
"This tournament is bringing all the best and worst Bladers out, Amy. You need to be on guard," Tyler said, voice low. "We've been lucky so far, that we haven't run into big trouble—other than the Japanese team going against the Australian team, and the stunt with the Festival of Warriors, but I have a feeling as more of the Seven are revealed, the more trouble we'll have on our hands."
"I agree," Amy replied, serious. "Listen, I need to go now, but keep me updated, yeah?"
"You know it. Later," With that as his parting, Tyler hung up, and Amy turned her attention to Jasmine.
"So we've got Lucas as the Water element, Ryuto as the Air element, Kakeru as the Earth element, and now Christina as the Nature element…" Jasmine typed away at her laptop, "It's strange… nearly every match, we've found a member of the Seven."
"The next round begins the week after next… who do you think is going to be found next?"
"… What makes you think that someone won't be revealed next week? The African versus the American team?"
"Yeah, but, what are the odds that there will be two of the Seven on the same team? Ryuto's the Air element, and he's on the African team," Amy pointed out.
"Yeah, well, he was in India at the time of the meteor shower, and he even saw Dragonis glow at the time! He pointed that out to all of us, once Dragonis evolved!"
"What are we talking about?" Klaus asked, as he approached the duo. He picked up a towel that was laying on the bench and rubbed his face, "Lucas sure is giving us a run for our money… pretty sure it's about to end up in three on three match, now."
"Christina's the Nature element of the Seven, and we're discussing how probable it is that there's two members of the Seven on a team—We still haven't connected the comet that flew over Cairo, and there's only one other member on the African team that was in Cairo at the time of the shower, that could be a possible candidate," Jasmine stressed. "Nefertiti!"
"Well, she hadn't been in a tournament, other than training with Wild Fang for the last World Championships, in years, before this one," Amy replied. "… But I see your point."
"If we're going with that logic…" Klaus mused, thoughtfully, and turned to the practice dish. In turn, Amy and Jasmine's eyes were drawn to the battle. As Klaus had mentioned just a few minutes earlier, the remaining six Bladers had split up into a three on three battle—Sophie, Wales, and Lucas on one side of the dish, while King, Nero, and Julian were on the other.
"Grand Deucalion and one Black Ice, and they win," Amy said.
"Not unless King comes in with a King of Thundersword, or Julian with Black Excalibur to split the wave and ice," Jasmine argued.
"Nero can get rid of the water or ice with any of his fire-based attacks," Klaus pointed out.
"Cetus, Grand Deucalion!"
"Destroyer, Black Excalibur!"
"Khione, Arctic Blast!"
Khione and Destroyer flashed into existence, and as Destroyer swung his sword down to break apart the wave, Khione's staff glowed and released a single powerful blast straight into the hero's chest.
"Your defenses are down when you open yourself up to attack!" Lucas shouted with a grin, as Destroyer landed at Julian's feet. On silent command, Khione slammed into Furie and VariAres, sending them flying out of the dish as well.
"Told you," Amy smirked, as Jasmine pouted.
"Returning back to my earlier thought," Klaus crossed his arms. "We know the trajectory of each comet, right? One went directly over Venice… and who do we know that has a red Bey, possibly the color for the element of Fire?"
All three sets of eyes were drawn to Nero Konzern, who was currently sulking and snarking off in Luke's direction, much to said redhead's bemusement.
"… If that was the case, Furie would have evolved by now," Jasmine typed away at her keyboard.
"Furie would have what now?" King asked, as he and Sophie ventured over, "What are you three talking about?"
Jasmine ignored him, continuing her explanation, "The stats on Khione reached their max after being depleted in battle with Artemis. Furie has done this on multiple occasions in practice battles with everyone here, but… nothing's happened. Klaus, even if your hunch is right… we should have had results by now."
"… What were the conditions for each Blader when their Bey evolved?" Amy questioned.
"What do you mean?" Jasmine tilted her head, "I can give you the conditions the Beys were in, and the condition of what the weather was in, but that's about it."
"May I see your laptop, Jasmine?" Sophie questioned, and Jasmine handed her laptop over, "What if it's not the state of the Bey… but the state of the Blader?"
"What do you mean by that?" Klaus leaned over Sophie's shoulder, as she pulled up each battle that Bey had evolved in.
She played the moments before each evolution, focused more on the Bladers than the Beys, "Just as I thought. Every time, just a bit before the Bey evolved, they were put in a tight spot, prompting a highly emotional reaction from the Blader—Christina reacted with anger, Kakeru had to think his way out, Ryuto and Lucas shut down for a brief moment, before pushing themselves to the max."
"So what are you saying?" Jasmine asked.
"I think… If your suspicions are correct about Nero, he's reacting like a Legendary Blader did. He's letting himself get fired up in battle, when in reality, it's his actual emotional state that matters. I think that'll be the common factor with every Blader who turns out to be a member of the Elemental Seven," Sophie handed Jasmine's laptop back to her.
"That… makes a lot of sense, actually," Amy nodded. "Do you think we should tell the other teams about this?"
"No," King said, instantly. When he received several startled and confused looks, he went on, "I remember what happened with Masamune—we knew exactly what it was we needed to find one of the Legendary Bladers, and Masamune worked hard to do that, to get so fired up in battle that Striker could possibly evolve. We even thought he was, because Striker is based off of a winter constellation… but we had other choices, like Benkei, and then Chris, who came out of left field with Orion. It'd be better if we keep this to ourselves, and let people figure if they're a member of the Seven on their own, instead of getting their hopes up, or putting them some emotional trauma."
"… Who the hell are you and what have you done with King?" Jasmine stared at him, "Because that was actually smart."
King eyes flickered away as he muttered, "Better to play the fool than open one's mouth and remove any doubt."
"Was… Was that Mark Twain?" Klaus asked, "Did you just vaguely quote Mark Twain?! King?!"
Me: I realize Gingka, Masamune, and King are the 'comics' of the series, and I love that they're so goofy.
Also me: I'm gonna make them some pretty smart people and no one can keep me from doing otherwise.
Anyways, hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter and will drop a review! Until next time, ciao!