Chapter Eleven

By the time Kai, Max and Ray had walked halfway through the woods it had begun to rain. Not the sort of rain that you could walk through and easily forget. This was the heavy stuff that soaked their clothing within seconds and caused their hair to lose all its rigidity, whole matted strands of hair flopping into their faces and obscuring their vision. Already the soil ground was a muddy bog that threatened to consume the three teenagers as they moved clumsily through the brown sticky substance. Kai let out a grunt of annoyance that echoed off the nearby trees. He wished they were out of the woods but knew that there was still a long way to walk.

The group froze as they heard the snapping of a twig.

Max looked around but there was no one to be seen. He dismissed the sound as his overactive imagination making a falling branch seem more dangerous than it actually was, but still he couldn't help feeling tense and edgy like something was about to happen. He stopped in his tracks and looked around. Ray spotted him and stopped, noting that his friend looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car.

'There's that sound again!' Max exclaimed, his whole body shaking and his face quickly losing all its colour.

'What sound?'

The twig snapping sound echoed around just after Ray had uttered the words. He too looked nervous. Kai just scoffed and ordered the pair to continue walking.

'How can you two be scared of twigs? Come on. We have work to do.'

Ray shrugged off their fears and continued to follow Kai. Max needed a little more encouragement from Kai – a series of barked commands – but he also soon followed but could not walk more than a few feet without looking nervously over his shoulder. Max knew that something was wrong but couldn't put into words just what; all he could feel were the results of chemical triggers in his brain upsetting his mental equilibrium. They continued to walk through the woods until the twig cracking became too much. Max stopped.

'There's somebody in these woods with us. Can't you hear it? Sense it?'

Kai didn't even bother stopping until he heard a loud crack to his left. He spun around and armed himself with his spade as a shadowy figure emerged from behind a tree. Kai was preparing himself to attack whoever it was that was stalking them. He was already in his attack pose, his legs spaced apart and his eyes locked on the figure. The shadow moved closer and stepped into the light from the moon, the rain battering against their body.

'Saki!' Ray announced, wiping water from his face. Kai grunted and relaxed, placing the spade down by his side with the base resting in the soft mud. Max smiled and all the tension drifted from his muscles. Saki joined the trio, her brown hair glued to her head with the rain and her t-shirt soaked through. She smiled warmly which seemed to melt away all the awkwardness the group felt and even seemed to light up the dull and dark woods. Saki started by apologising:

'Sorry. I didn't mean to spook you all. I just needed to find you.'

'Why?' Kai asked, staring at her with narrowed eyes. This was only the second time he'd met Saki and he was still wary of her. Saki coughed.

'It's the Mystical Warriors and the leader. They're on their way to meet you. I was skirting the edge of the forest looking for fruit when it began to rain. As I was leaving I overhead them talking. We will get revenge tonight they said. We shall get them for what they did to us…

'We will find them, steal the Opal 'blades back from them and continue what we started. I will not have four teenagers beating us, not after looking at who we have beaten in the past. Tonight we shall be back in power.'

The leader finished his speech as he and the three remaining Mystical Warriors sat perched on some large rocks on the edge of the forest, a makeshift campfire of twigs flickering between them all. The leader could not make out the distorted faces of his accomplices as they planned to escape his tyrannical regime. His tyranny was preventing him from seeing what was as plain as the nose in front of his face.

'When we get them back we shall succeed so I can be with her.'

'Who?' one of the Warriors asked as they spoke loudly over the crackling flames. The leader laughed.

'The one I was meant to be with. The one he tried to take away from me. But I proved him wrong. Now he's dead. Now there's nothing stopping me. Nothing!'

The maniacal laughter of the leader echoed around the woods and was heard by Saki only a few metres away. She turned away and looked around and realised what she had to do…

'I had to come and find you and warn you,' she said, finishing off her tale to Max, Ray and Kai. 'We have to get out of these woods now.'

Kai snorted.

'I'm not afraid of them.'

Max spoke up.

'I know but we need to get out of here in one piece. We've done what we came to do, burying the 'blades. Now let's get out of here.'

Max, Ray and Saki gestured to move to get out of the wood as quickly as possible, if only to get out of the rain which was getting heavier by the minute. Kai, however, was resolute.

'I'm not going anywhere until I've faced that leader and taught him a lesson. A lesson for killing Tyson. You're his friends too. You must understand their actions cannot go unpunished.'

Ray sighed.

'We all know that but now is not the time. We have to leave. We are dealing with four people who could have all manner of weapons. This is no longer just about Beyblading. We could be in real danger.'

'I laugh in the face of danger.'

Saki laughed.

'Can you hear yourself? Sprouting off cheesy lines like some sort of naff movie actor.'

Saki had begun to move toward Kai, a look of anger and annoyance bubbling under the surface of her delicate features. He had touched a raw nerve. Any other time such closeness with Saki would have got Kai's heart racing and his fingers itching to touch her slender figure but he quickly realised she was not upon him for anything other than to put him in his place.

'I'm as upset over Tyson's death as you are. I really cared for him and would like nothing more than to watch him walk here now and laugh and joke about how we thought he'd died. But it's not going to happen. Would Tyson want us to risk our lives fighting a pointless battle? They are just wanting to save face by attacking us. What do we have to gain by fighting them? Some sort of sick pleasure that we might be doing what's right?

'Don't kid yourself, Kai. They're older than us and better with their fists. They corner us and we're done for. Now lets go and get inside. It's cold. It's wet. And if I get anymore soaked I'll be looking like I'm not wearing a top.'

Max turned to Kai and spoke softly:

'She's right. We should go.'

Kai sighed and finally realised he was in the wrong.

'OK. Let's just get out of here, if it's only for a coffee to warm ourselves up.'

Kai turned, saying nothing else, and stomped off in the direction they had previously been walking. Ray sighed and followed, Max walking on behind, tapping Saki on the shoulder and nodding thanks. She followed closely behind Max, shivering in the cold and finding her footwear and clothing inappropriate for a nocturnal walk through a wet, cold, damp and eerie wood with a rapidly melting floor.

Within a few steps the group passed through a thick line of trees and into a sort of substantial clearing. It was where some deforestation had gone on recently, cutting out a long corridor of trees leaving a street lined with twigs and the occasional tree stump. The group felt exposed.

'Quick!' Saki said loudly enough to be heard but not to attract the attention of anyone else who might be in the woods. 'Into the trees. They could see us here.'

Saki, Max and Ray dashed forward into the cover of the trees but Kai failed to follow. He was frozen to the spot looking at something down the empty corridor. There was a figure in a hood slowly walking towards him. It was the leader.

From the trees Saki called:

'Kai. Come on!' she said, gesturing 'come here' with her hand. Kai didn't respond; instead he began to walk away from her and down the exposed pathway. Saki peered round and gasped as she saw the leader in the distance now flanked by the three remaining Mystical Warriors.

'Kai!' she said stepping from the safety of the trees. Kai didn't turn but shouted back to her with no change in facial expression.

'You all stay there. I'll deal with them. They've seen us now.'

'But the wood is thick… we can escape.'

'No we can't.'

Saki felt it pointless to argue with Kai when he was in such a determined mood. She returned to the trees but she still had a view of the unfolding action. The wood was now quiet but for the downpour of rain, the heavy breathing of the teenagers and the occasional crunch of twig under foot.

Kai continued to slowly walk towards the leader, his footsteps firm and determined. His brow was furrowed. He looked left and then right, studying the large trees that lined the bare section of the wood. In the moonlight and in the glow of the lightning that had begun to bolt across the sky they looked like evil figures scowling and grimacing in his direction, their bony arms lifted up in a clawing motion as if they were preparing to rip the flesh from his bones. Kai wasn't scared of them though, instead returning his gaze to the approaching leader. Soon they were within a distance conducive to swapping words but not fists. The leader stood there, his face concealed by his hood but his confidence was all too obvious. The three Mystical Warriors were stood behind him, their features in shadow except for when Mother Nature chose to send lightning to reveal their faces. The leader cast his arm up into the air.

'Leave me. I shall face him alone.'

The three Warriors nodded. One passed to the leader's right and stood by a tree; the other two did the same but at the other side. Kai, who'd watched them move, looked back to the leader who took two more steps forward before stopping. He laughed before speaking.

'Mr Hiwatari. Welcome back. I missed you.'

Kai looked around at the trees, then at the Warriors, then back at the leader. He laughed.

'I wish the same could be said for me.'

'Well I suppose that's true. But you must like what I've done with this place? Quite the battleground, no?'

'I suppose so, if it's a battle you're after.'

The leader laughed again.

'It is. The last one as well.'

Kai nodded.

'It will end tonight.'

'I know it does. I've seen it,' he said making a gesture at the pocket of his cowl. 'That's why my Warrior friends are just going to stand back and enjoy the show because I already know that I'm the one that will finally beat you and get back our 'blades.'

'You'll have a job. We've got rid of them.'

There was a twinge of panic in the face of the leader but obviously Kai couldn't spot that. Confidence quickly returned.

'No problem. I shall refrain from killing you then and just capture you. Then I can torture you to find out where you've hidden them. They cannot be destroyed so don't pretend they have been. We shall find them. But first things first. Your capture.'

The leader took a deep breath, his cowl puffing out at the front before shrinking as the air dissipated from his lungs. He stopped before suddenly exclaiming:

'Let it rip!'

The leader began to run forward through the forest, his feet thumping down on the ground floor and splashing in the large puddles made by the still fierce downpour of rain. As he made his first few running steps he pulled a launcher from his pocket and fired a fresh non-Opal Beyblade in the direction of Kai, who was quick to react. Kai launched into a run in the direction of the leader, pulling out his launcher and sending his own Beyblade flying. Saki ducked out of the way as Kai's spade came flying back in her direction as he released his grip from it.

Both Kai and the leader continued running at each other, their feet thumping and splashing on the ground, their faces contorted in anger. Below them their Beyblades propelled along the ground ahead of them, sparking on the wet floor before coming to blows, the power of their meeting forcing them upwards into the air, spinning around each other and trading blows, getting soaked as they soared up through the rain. Far below the accelerating and flying 'blades, Kai and the leader met, ramming into each other and attempting to punch each other with their fists, both failing in their plan and flying backward instead, landing with a crunch on the ground and getting covered in mud and twigs, their clothes becoming instantly heavier with the water.

Their Beyblades crashed far above them, causing a loud explosion that, in turn, caused a ripple of rainwater which poured down on the fighters below. The energy expelled by the explosion made the two Beyblades fall back to the ground and into the hands of their respective owners. Kai lifted himself onto his feet as the leader did the same thing. He laughed.

'Very good. Now lets get the battle really started.'

Kai and the leader began to run at each other again, once more releasing their Beyblades to a chorus of 'let it rip!' The Beyblades quickly collided and began spinning in a circle and colliding off each other, hemming Kai and the leader into a circular stadium in which they began to duel. Kai aimed a swift punch at the face of the leader but he reacted too quickly and ducked out of the way, succeeding in breaking Kai's defences and punching him in the stomach. This sent Kai flailing backwards to the ground but, in a move of sheer acrobatic grace, his somersaulted back onto his feet and charged once more, blasting an unexpecting leader with a punch to the belly which winded him and allowed Kai to deliver a swift kick to his knees which sent the leader falling to the ground. Meanwhile the Beyblades began to spin around Kai, neither making much headway but causing sparks to burst out all around and set alight to several bundles of twigs on the ground. The leader began to lift himself from his feet, gathering his breath as he did so. Kai looked at him with a sense of satisfaction. The leader seemed quieter now but even more determined.

'Very good Kai. You are as good a fighter as you are Beyblader. But I think you should realise you cannot win. I have powers you cannot contemplate. Once you are through I shall use them to reunite myself with her. You cannot win. Face it.'

Kai laughed.

'Oh but I can win. You're only flesh and blood like me.'

Kai watched as his Beyblade span once around the crouching figure of the leader before it spun off to battle the leaders 'blade. The leader got up to his feet, exhaled and stretched his arms, clicking his fingers.

'Well I think it's time we saw some of this flesh and blood, don't you?'

Kai laughed.

'Try me.'

The leader paused. And grinned.

'I will.'

With the rain still beating heavily down and the six people watching, the leader launched an attack on Kai, punching him once in the side whilst Kai darted left and delivered a punch to the leader's back, pushing him forward. The leader nearly lost his footing but gathered himself up and spun back on his heel, throwing himself towards Kai and delivering a kick to the groin, bringing tears to Kai's eyes which were lost in the raindrops dribbling down Kai's face. Kai returned the favour by slamming his fist down on the leader's back and sending him once more falling to the ground. Kai's Beyblade did another lap of honour around his body before colliding once more with his rival's 'blade.

Kai watched as the leader got back to his feet and raised his arms.

'No more!' he bellowed, lightning blasting across the sky and lighting up everyone's face for several seconds. The two Beyblades propelled themselves in the sky, shifting about in the formation of an atom before colliding several times, each collision exponentially more ferocious than the last, sparks flying in all directions and setting alight to several trees, the flames quickly gathering hold and making flaming branches fall to the ground and thus making the ground equally flammable. Still the Beyblades continued to spin, lighting up the dark cloud filled sky with their collisions, neither giving up to the other. Kai averted his gaze from this display though Max, Ray and Saki were very much transfixed by the fireworks going on high up in the sky. The Mystical Warriors were nonplussed by any of the occurrences as they had other things on their minds.

The leader lowered his arms and walked over to Kai.

'It's been fun but now it really ends.'

The leader thrust down his arm and, as if jerked by an invisible hand, the Beyblades fell from the sky unceremoniously and crashed down right in front of Kai, the force being enough to lift Kai up from his feet and throw him backwards. The explosion shattered the ground and created a considerable crater which Kai fell into, his arm landing first with a sickening crack and his body dropping into a pool of water which the driving rain had already made in the pit. The leader walked up to the edge of the large hole and laughed.

'Is it nice down there? Don't think me rude if I don't join you but I feel it's frightfully rude to join somebody in their grave.'

The leader clicked his fingers and, reluctantly, one of the Mystical Warriors joined him by his side, bringing with him the two Beyblades he'd retrieved from the boggy ground. He passed them to the leader who proudly displayed them in his hands.

'Thanks for your 'blade Kai. I'm sure it will come in useful when we take over the world.'

'You'll never have the chance!' Kai bellowed, the pain of his broken arm filling up every ounce of his consciousness. He decided to call for backup. 'Dranzer!'

The Beyblade in the leader's hand sprang to life, glowing brightly, and the leader watched as the red phoenix launched into the air. Kai could only issue commands in a stutter fashion as his energy bled through his wounds.

'Dranzer. Stop him.'

The leader just laughed.

'I'm not afraid of your overgrown budgie. I know the power of your Beyblade and I know how to stop it. After all I helped cultivate it.'

'What?' Kai questioned, unable to really make sense of anything the leader was saying as pain continued to shoot through his nervous system. The leader just laughed.

'You heard! Dranzer. Return.'

The phoenix did nothing but stay stationary in the air.

'Dranzer attack!'

It did not move.

'Dranzer…'

Kai's attack call was interrupted by the leader. His voice was even more booming than usual.

'I've had enough of this. Kai, watch as your Bit-Beast finally bit-bites the dust.'

The leader laughed at his own terrible joke as he watched a bolt of lightning pierce the dark clouds in the sky, striking Dranzer with volts of energy, exposing its skeleton like an overcharged X-Ray and making the phoenix fall lifelessly to the ground in a flurry of singed feathers. The mud, aided by the rain, soon consumed the body.

'Dranzer!' Kai cried out in pain, trying to lift himself up from the ground but finding himself unable to move. The leader just laughed.

'Now you know my power. The Opal Beyblades have taught me a lot like how to control the elements. Even without the power of your four Beyblades you are powerless against me. I am now a magician but unlike any you've seen at a children's party. I am now the Opal Beyblades…'

'Then why do you need them?' Kai reasoned, pain still consuming his whole body.

'Because I'm not small and metallic and able to spin around a stadium. Besides such energy can only be channelled through the special Beyblades. I need them to continue my power.'

'Well you're not going to get them.'

'Well then you shall die, Kai. It's inevitable. It even rhymes.'

Kai could find no poetic humour or justice in such a situation. The leader scoffed as another bolt of lightning illuminated the sky.

'It's not much to ask. I just want to know where you've hidden the Opal Beyblades.'

Kai spoke through clenched teeth, projecting his voice up and out of the hole.

'Why should I tell you?'

''Cos if you don't I'll have no choice but to kill each one of your friends until you do.'

Max stepped out of the trees to defend Kai. The leader spotted this and stared at him.

'But if you make a move now Max then I'll have no choice but to kill you now.'

Max realised he was no match against the leader so stepped back into the trees with Ray and Saki. At least it was drier there and away from the fires that were still raging in several spots, though a lot had been sizzled out by the relentless rain.

'In fact… I'll kill each of their Bit Beasts first, then let them watch them die slowly before killing them. It's the best way.'

The leader let out another maniacal laugh.

'So what's it gonna be?' the leader asked, looking down at a wet and defeated Kai once more. 'Are you going to tell me what you did with them?'

Kai turned his head and spat on the ground, the unmistakable taste of blood seeping into his throat.

'Go to hell,' was his only response, Kai still defiant as ever. The leader shook his head.

'That wasn't what I wanted to hear. Looks like I might have to kill your friends after all… or I might have a better idea.'

The leader smiled though no one could see this under his hood. He began to walk around the edge of the pit, being careful not to go too near the crumbling edge and thus fall in, his arms folded in front of him, musing on things.

'Time is a funny medium. All our lives we run by it. I must have this down by so and so. I must be back home for x hour. It's only five weeks to deadline. Time is a very linear thing to us all. But not to me, for I have the power to dart around time like a squirrel darts through holes foraging for nuts. It's all there on the Internet. I've had lots of spare time to look though I have been without my favourite… interface… thanks to your friend.'

The leader began to ramble as he paced around the pit.

'Yes. Your bloody friend. Thinking he can just take what isn't his. Separate me and my one true friend. But I have had the last laugh. I can rebuild her. It's only a matter of time.'

The leader shook his head.

'Now where was I? Oh yes… I can do a lot with my power… namely going back… or forward… and altering the fate of the people you hold dear. Your friends could suddenly find themselves suffering bad luck… you could find your mansion has been burnt down in mysterious circumstances… I could cause you pain you could not believe.'

'That's it though, isn't it? I don't believe you.'

'That's big coming from you as you lie hurt on the floor on the verge of passing out and not waking again. But if you want proof then I shall give it to you.'

The leader slipped his hand into his cowl pocket. Kai watched as the indentation of the leader's hand moved about under the cloak. The leader was happy his face was concealed as he did not want them to see the panic on his face. His Opal Beyblade was not there. It was gone. But it had been there a week ago… had he not checked since then… he'd had no need to. Then he realised.

'Tyson!' he said angrily, his chest moving in and out quickly as he began to pant. One of the Mystical Warriors approached the leader.

'What's the matter?'

'My Beyblade. It's been stolen. Stolen by that bastard Tyson. First he tries to steal my one true friend; then he destroys her; now even from beyond the grave he taunts me. I'll kill him.'

'He's already dead, sir.'

'Damn him. He's stolen the only hope I had of getting her back. Someone will pay for this.'

The leader could see it happening now. As Tyson had come to the realisation he was about to fall he had grabbed onto the leader's cloak to try and get a better grip but had failed. Now the leader realised he'd taken the Opal Beyblade from his pocket as he'd released his grip. Now the leader was angry and annoyed and realised that the game was almost up. The Mystical Warriors began to gather around the leader, smirking.

'So it's been stolen.'

'Yes.'

'And that means you've lost your power of time.'

'Erm…'

'And your control… you're powerless to fight back. I can see it now. Your strength is already fading as you realise you can no longer keep it up.'

'No… I know what you're thinking,' screamed the leader, pleading to the goodness in the Mystical Warriors. He wasn't thinking about how he'd picked them because they had no goodness; no soul; no good nature to appeal to. But still the leader tried. 'Don't you realise I'm what you need. Together we could take over the world. Work with me and we can get the four Opal 'blades back from them and succeed.'

The Warriors just laughed.

'You've had your chance. You expressed your true colours before, now you will pay.'

'No! Get your hands off me,' the leader shouted as the three Warriors grabbed him in a firm arm lock and began to drag him away from the hole, though as he struggled his face was still in sight of Kai still lying in pain in the pit. 'Stop it now.'

One of the Warriors caught his hood and it was yanked back revealing the leader's face for the first time, exposing his pale skin to the rain. His glasses clouded up with the moisture that pummelled his face and his hair. Kai let out a gasp of shock, an emotion that was repeated by Max and Ray as they left the seclusion of the trees for a better view of the leader even if it meant getting soaked. Saki followed them out but was confused.

'Do you know him?'

Max nodded still unable to put his thoughts into words. Ray finally got his breath together enough to speak.

'Kenny…'

Kai shook his head and denied the fact to himself. He could not believe what he was seeing and figured it must be the pain he was feeling making his eyes lie.

'But how…'

Ray couldn't believe it either. But his thoughts were about to be confirmed.

'You're right Ray,' said a voice from behind the three teenagers. They turned around to see a figure in the shadow of the trees. 'It is Kenny.'

Max and Ray looked to try and see the figure. They squinted harder through the driving rain as the character moved into the moonlight, his features become more and more defined. They first saw the spiky hair, then the smiling features and then the distinctive clothes. Max was shocked.

'Tyson?'

Tyson emerged fully from the trees to the delight of Saki and the shock of Max and Ray.

'Everyone alright?' he asked, knowing true well everyone was anything but. 'It's good to be back. But I think it's about time I explained everything that's been going on…'

To be continued…