Disclaimer : I own nothing in beyblade… NOT even KAI! *tears* *sniff*
Read, read, read *sniff* read...
Chapter 6
The sun was shining brightly in the afternoon sky, its yellow light falling on the ground giving the grass a fiery green colour. A small bunch of kids played merrily adding to the warmth of summer, in the garden of a house amidst a little Russian village. The jovial laughter, of a slate haired boy, jingled through the meadows of the village, as he ran across the garden. They had made up an imaginary game of 'The King and the Thief', where Kai was the thief running away with all the treasures of the King's kingdom, and now the King's soldiers' were after him.
The children were so lost in their game that the towering figure that entered the garden of the house went unnoticed. The figure moved closer to Kai who was pretending to hide from his capturers. Kai took a step behind and bumped into the massive figure, then slowly looked up. A wide smile adorned his face, when he recognized who it was,
"Grandfather!" in his excitement he sprang off the ground and landed into the man's arms. It was only last summer that he had seen his grandfather, but it felt like a million years ago. But now he was here, he was finally here. "I missed you grandfather." Kai snuggled deeper into Voltaire's arms.
"Yes, my dear Kai. I am finally here," he said to his grandson returning his hug. Kai noticed a tall man walk towards them. He stopped behind Voltaire, like his shadow. And this summer, my dear boy, I will break you.
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He stood in front of a massive rundown building, which in its time would have been grand. But today, the deep night gave it an eerie feel. Grass grew furiously in its gardens, unchecked and the creepers covered the walls like parasites. Some of the broken windows banged close and open as the winds tip-toed through the empty hallways of the building. Somewhere amidst that silent pandemonium, Max was fighting to stay alive.
Max! He bolted in through the main entrance, making his way through the tangle of the garden that had spilled outside its boundaries. When he got close he saw even more clearly, the pitiful state of the majestic structure.
The building floors were a labyrinth many small and large passages that criss-crossed over his head, it could have easily passed off for a Hotel. The lobby was sparsely lit by the moonlight which fell in through the large windows, the glossy floor, still visible through the thick layer of dust that carpeted it. He ran through the first passage on his left. A series of doors covered the walls on either side. Kai's heart skipped a beat. Shit! It would take him several hours to check the hundreds of rooms of the building and he only had an hour, no actually around forty minutes… Max had to be taken to the hospital. His mind working at an unimaginable speed of its own, he kicked open door after door, briefly entering each room to see if he could spot his friend. But each time, no luck.
"MAX!" he was yelling on the top of his voice, hoping to get an answer, "MAX!"
It had been ten minutes; his body was threatening to crumble under the pressure of exhaustion and the wretchedly hurting wounds. This was not going anywhere. He slowed his pace a little, leaning against the wall for support. He had to recollect himself. Think like the man who had planned this pathetic game.
Firstly, he would never put Max in any obvious room. So he ruled out the rooms on the ground floor and the many others. Max was in a place where Kai might never be able to find him. The basement? The roof? Any possible storage place was something that he was looking for.
With his thought train back on track he dashed down the stairs to scan the basement, and the kitchen area.
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Two men saw Kai enter the building. Waited, then entered the garden of the old hotel, chose a spot and dug a hole big enough to accommodate the large suitcase they were carrying. After ten minutes of laborious digging, they very casually dropped the Suitcase in it and refilled hole. Kai would never find his friend.
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Kai was running out of time, he needed to move faster, think quicker. Twenty minutes of his one hour deadline had already passed, and he had just about made no progress. He had checked the basement and three of the massive lower floors there were still five more floors to go.
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The tiny cameras that hung off the ceiling were recording his every movement. Back in the room with the long table, the men watched these recoded pictures.
"I thought you said the boy was smart, Sir!" sneered one of the men.
His boss just smirked. Oh! But he is.
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Kai quickly climbed the stairs, running through the aggressively dark hallways, calling out Max's name in case he heard. Out of breath. The wooden floorboards creaked under the pressure of his feet. Roof. He thought his feet automatically, ignoring the floor that they had reached, turned in the direction of the roof.
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It was utterly silent. Max tried to open his eyes to see where he was. Pitch black. He thought he had gone blind. He felt weak. It was getting more difficult to breath with the passing of each second. His senses were failing.
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Kai kicked opened the door that led to the roof. He looked around frantically. This can't be! He sensed something move over his head. He looked up. Something that was almost as huge as him was falling straight down at him. He instinctively moved aside. Max's body fell directly in front of him. Kai's heart almost stopped working. He made to reach for Max. He almost touched him, when a shrill laugh escaped the body. Caught unawares, Kai staggered backwards. A DUMMY! Ignoring the fake Max, he looked off the roof, to complete his roof-search.
That's when. OF COURSE!
He darted back down the stairs. Jumping, four steps, five steps, at a time. …Fourth floor, third floor, second floor, first floor, lobby. He bolted out of the entrance and jumped into the violently growing garden. A place where Kai would never be able to find Max.
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The light from the screen that showed Kai walking through the garden, reflected on their faces. Mr. Morozov, picked up his cell phone and made a call, "Stop the boy."
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The dimwit had hidden max in the garden, the place he thought Kai would surely not look. The bushes had all grown in uneven proportions, hiding the ground completely. It felt like walking underwater, each step came with much difficulty. His eyes fell on the lone tree that stood on the other end of the garden. A patch of ground under it was clearer in compare with the rest of the mad overgrowth. NO! he ran towards the spot as fast as he could.
He was so determined on getting to the tree that he did not realize that someone had sneaked up behind him. He felt a hard hit on the back of his head and the world went black of a moment. Kai fell face first into the grass. His head pounding. He held it in his hands to steady himself. His consciousness was slipping. NO, not now. Max, he thought and made to get up. Another blow on his back pushed him back down. Blood surfaced yet again from his wounds.
He got up again, his ears caught the sound of the weapon that had hurt him, cut the wind somewhere above him. But this time he caught it just before it made contact and pushed it away. The man holding the weapon also staggered backwards. Kai straightened himself and looked at his attacker. The man had been taken by surprise at the strength of his teenaged opponent.
He ran towards Kai in an attempt to set another blow. Kai ducked and fell forwards. His hand fell on a large stone, it being his only defense he picked it and threw it at the man, hitting him squarely in the face. The man dropped the stick in his hand, clutched his face and fell backwards. Kai quickly picked up the weapon and inflicted a sharp blow on the man's chest, again, again. The man fell unconscious.
Kai ran towards the tree. Using the stick, he started digging. The mud was soft, like it had just been laid back into place. Within almost no time he hit something hard. He threw the stick aside and started digging by hand. A suitcase! Max! Hold on… with much difficulty he pulled that suitcase out from the depths of hell. His hands fumbled to open the zipper. With much doubt in his heart, he threw the flap of the suitcase open.
Max lay inside the suitcase. His body folded in an uncomfortable way. The white cloth still tied over his face and his hands still bound. Kai pulled his friend out and ripped the cloth off his face and felt his neck for a pulse. Faint.
Forty-five minutes of the one hour deadline had already passed. Kai tied the cloth over his own face, picked Max up and made his way out towards the main road. He placed his friend on the edge of the road and jumped in the middle of the road in a dire attempt to stop any of the speeding cars. Finally, one of them stopped.
"Hey! Here. Please my friend needs to go to the hospital. Please." Kai was at the end of his road, he didn't know how much more he would be able to hold on. He almost dragged the man out of the car and led him to Max.
"Oh! My god!" the man exclaimed when he looked at Max and opened his cell phone to call for an ambulance. "What happened to him? Where did you find…" he turn to bombard the questions at the older teen, but he was gone. The man frantically looked around, lost.
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The ambulance arrived in no time. The medics immediately reached for Max who was still on the ground.
"Pulse?" one of them asked the other, as he filled a syringe with some medicine.
"Faint. GET THE OXYGEN READY" he yelled at the other medics. "I think he has been poisoned. Don't think it's lethal but it has been unattended for a long time now." He said examining the patient's lips and body reactions.
They swiftly they lifted the teen's limp form and placed him on the stretcher.
"Is he the only one? You said there were two." The medic turned to address the man who had called for help.
"Yes there were," the man said still slightly lost, "the other one was seriously hurt too but, I was talking on the phone and…" searching for the right words. "Like, one minute he was there and the next he was gone. He was the one who made me stop my car. I looked around bu-but he… uh… I just could not find him, um… and he had tied this cloth over half his face, like he did not want to be recognized."
"Ok, you will have to accompany us to the hospital, as you are the only one at the scene. We will send a search team to look for the boy."
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Kai hid behind one of a particularly large bush, carefully listening to every word that was being said. He caught the words '…Don't think it's lethal' and breathed a sigh of momentary relief. Every muscle in his body was going to explode with pain. But he could not linger and be found. Rules of the game…
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Slowly he found his way back to Tyson's dojo. The lights were still on. He looked at the time, 2:30 a.m. He entered the house, Tyson, Rei and Kenny were asleep, but they had not changed. They must have been waiting, he walked into the room and picked up clothes to change into, a small medical kit, a large plastic bag and walked to the bathroom. Entered and closed the door with a soft thud.
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"Huh! Who? Max?" a soft 'thud', had dragged Rei out of his sleep. Must be Kai, but I'd better check. He sleepily pushed himself onto his feet and started walking out. But, the phone rang. Ah!, phones are so annoying.
"Hello"
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Ignoring his reflection in the mirror, he almost mechanically removed the roll of cotton and antiseptic, and started tending to the few small cuts on his arms. He would hide the one on his left arm with the cloth covering the bruise, and for the rest he would just make up a random story, not that any one would force him to say anything. He washed the mud off his hands and stared at the sink as the dirt swirled out of sight. Then washed his face, miraculously there was not a single bruise on his face, Hn, he really does plan everything.
Then slowly he got out of his tattered and bloodied clothes and wore fresh ones, there were two very evident bruises on his back, one of them running right across the stitches making them swell slightly and ache. Tired, he let his body rest on the bathroom wall then, slowly slid down to the floor. He sat there for a moment, his thoughts wandered off to Max. Sleep overcame his senses…
Bang. Bang. Kai woke up with the sudden noise. He quickly collected all the clothes and bits of cotton off the floor and the sink and stuffed them in the empty bag then opened the door. Rei was standing on front of him, a worried look evident on his face.
"Kai, we have to go to the hospital. It's Max." Kai just stared at his teammate, was I too late?
TBC
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Ok..! poor Max is terribly hurt…. Hmmmm… I wonder if he'll live! *Super evil grinnnnn*
Ne way, thanks a million for the previous reviews… they really make me a happier person…
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