The Beast Within

Prologue

Tyson sighed to himself as he walked slowly down the busy street. He had spent the whole morning at the BBA Headquarters, defeating one amateur challenger after another. It had been fun for a while, but after 4 hours of easy victories he felt ready to pass out from boredom.

"Some of them weren't bad," he mumbled to himself, "A few actually had a lot of potential, but I want a real challenge, a match that takes more than just a few attacks to win. At the very least," he thought out loud, "I want something interesting to happen. This boring routine stuff is killing me!"

He toyed with the idea of tracking Kai down, but discarded it quickly. Kai was nearly impossible to find at the best of times and always impossible to find if he was in one of his I-don't-need-friends-so-stay-the-hell-away-from-me moods. Tyson grumbled softly under his breath. Why did Kai always have to be so goddamn stubborn?!

After buying an ice cream and trudging into the park, Tyson flopped on a bench and stared aimlessly into space, licking his ice cream since he couldn't think of anything better to do. My nose itches, he thought absentmindedly. He didn't notice someone approaching behind him. I wonder how long I can go without scratching it...

A sudden tap on his shoulder made him jump, startled out of his stupor. He turned to face the person behind him, wondering what on earth they could possibly want.

A girl stood behind him. She had long brown hair that sparkled in the sun, and was dressed plainly in a thin brown hoodie and a pair of blue jeans. Her long bangs were pinned back to keep them out of her eyes, but a few shorter tendrils had managed to escape and fell across part of her forehead. Tyson was pretty sure she was around 17 or 18...about a year or two younger than himself and his friends. The girl gave him a shy smile, her blue-gray eyes gleaming playfully.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully, moving in front of the bench to speak to him properly, "Are you Tyson from the G-Revolutions?" She was bouncing slightly, as though she was full of limitless energy.

"Uh...yeah..." he replied, staring at her with curiosity. "Um...why are you bouncing like that?"

"Hmm? Oh..." she waved her hand, indicating two girls standing behind a tree on the other side of the street. "My friends thought it would be smart to give me three cans of pop...in a row. They said I would have more confidence if I was wired." She leaned forward until their noses were almost touching. "Are they right?" she asked him, bouncing less.

"Um..." Tyson rubbed the back of his head and laughed, "I don't know. I guess so...unless you're usually this energetic." He stopped laughing and looked at the girl with concern. She had almost completely stopped bouncing and seemed unable to look him in the eyes anymore. "Is something wrong?"

"No," she sighed, shaking her head and standing up properly, "The sugar is just wearing off too quickly. Useless stuff." Her cheeks started to blush a faint pink colour. "Look, I better get going. Sorry I bothered you..." she backed away slowly and began turning towards her friends.

"Wait a minute," Tyson said quickly, "What's your name? And what did you want to talk to me about?" He knew she must have wanted to talk about something. Why else would she need extra confidence?

The girl paused and looked back at Tyson, silently holding his gaze for a brief moment. "My name is Faye." She gave him another shy smile. "Maybe I'll talk to you later?" He watched as she ran across the street to her friends. They greeted her excitedly, talking and giggling non-stop. Faye flushed bright red and leaned against one of the girls, a girl with purple hair, as though she were exhausted.

Tyson shook his head, grinning and feeling amazed at how confusing girls could be. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a blue glow coming from his pocket. He reached into the pocket and pulled out Dragoon. "What...?" he gasped. The bit-beast chip on his blade was shining with bright blue light. Is it reacting to something? he wondered. What's wrong, Dragoon?