SUPERHERO
February 2015
Why Boris always chose to hole up in dark, dank religious buildings, Kai would never understand.
He lowered his binoculars and glared into the distance, lost in thought.
He couldn't say that being in the UN Army was much different to being in the Russian army. Military was military as far as he was concerned. It didn't matter to him which way the wind blew; he didn't really care who he was fighting or what for. But somehow, this mission had given him more of a sense of purpose than all his previous ones.
Probably because he was fighting Boris, someone who had wronged him directly, someone Tyson would have wanted him to fight instead of some nameless, faceless enemy.
Kai leapt down from his surveillance point, gestured for another soldier to take point, and then walked off, reaching into his pants pockets to retrieve Dranzer and, with a little hesitation, Dragoon. He stared contemplatively at the bit-chips as they caught the waning sunlight. They felt oddly excited all of a sudden.
He shrugged. Maybe they were just happy to get out; neither had seen battle in almost five years.
"What ya got there?" Tala asked, peering curiously over his shoulder. "Oh."
Kai glared at him, shoving Dragoon back into his pocket.
Tala fished out his own blade and held it out before him.
"I think they sense something we don't," Tala commented.
Kai nodded. "Dragoon especially," he replied, though he honestly wouldn't know the difference since he had never bladed with Dragoon before.
There was a long pause.
He was glad Tala didn't ask him why he'd brought Tyson's old blade because frankly, he didn't know why. It just felt right. Tyson would want to be right there with him when he kicked Boris' ass. Maybe bringing Dragoon was the next best thing. The three former Blitzkrieg Boys had agreed to bring their beyblades to this mission, for old times' sakes. Tyson would have had a good laugh at their being so damn sentimental. Kai squeezed his eyes shut, trying to get Tyson out of his mind. Now wasn't the time. Now, he had to focus on bringing Boris down.
"Kai," Tala started slowly. "You don't think-"
Just then, their radios crackled as their leader, Lieutenant General Aramaki, called them to regroup. One of the lookouts had spotted Boris entering the old abandoned church.
Tala grinned at him.
It was time.
Once, one of the soldiers had snuck a radio into the base, and whatever station he'd been listening to had played their song.
He sat and listened, remembering their time together, all the times where he'd whispered those lyrics in his ear.
He imagined that they'd had longer. That he'd passed his language degree and his lover had passed his business thingie, and they'd travelled together around the world again to celebrate. This time, they visited other non-beyblading related places because he could actually understand more of the languages. They didn't have to divide their attention between competitions and team mates. They had each other all to themselves.
And they were happy in that dream.
But then the song had ended and he woke up from his daydream, disoriented because it had all felt so real and why wasn't it real? Why was he still trapped here in this reality?
"Let me go," he whimpered, not for the first time, staring helplessly up into the night sky.
But there was no one to help him.
Boris had stopped feeding him a long time ago, but he didn't really care.
He wasn't hungry, but with every week that passed, he would feel more and more tired, his joints more sluggish and sometimes it got to the point where he couldn't even move and those times weren't that good at all.
But it was better than when Boris did feed him, because then he would force him to do some kind of mission for him as repayment.
He hated working for Boris and he knew that Boris was only doing it to torture him, because of all those times that he had screwed up his plans for world domination in the past. He would've escaped already, except Boris had threatened him with Kai's life.
And he would rather be a slave to Boris forever than do anything to hurt Kai.
Sometimes he wondered what Kai was doing now. Big dope was probably working like a mad person to be the best CEO Russia had ever seen, making all his opponents lose their hair with stress. He always chuckled at that thought. His imaginary now-Kai dug out his old scarf and face-paint and left all the other gajillionaires shaking in their boots with his glare of doom. And then, when they peed their pants in fear, he'd smirk, snort, then turn and walk away, scarf flapping behind him all dramatic-like.
And then now-Kai would come home to him and he'd peel that scarf off him and they'd make mad passionate love all night and the stars would fall for them.
He sighed to himself, staring into the darkness of his cell.
He didn't think Kai would like who he was now. Being trapped with Boris for so long… Boris turned him into someone he wasn't. The darkness he lived with day to day sucked the life out of him.
Hilary had told him some bullshit about auras once. She said that a happy person like him would have an aura that was almost blinding to those who could see it.
He didn't think that assessment was true now -not that he'd thought that aura stuff was true at all- but sometimes, he pretended he could close his eyes and imagined that his aura still shone as brightly, that it burned just like Dranzer, or maybe just glowed like Dragoon did sometimes, because if anybody would have a burning aura, it would be Kai. And then he imagined that Kai came to get him and that he still loved him because he was still Tyson.
But then, the vision would fade away and it would be dark again, and his hope would die just a little more.
He wanted to go home.
Tala swore so loudly and fluently that no one could claim that his time spent in the military was wasted.
Kai agreed with every word.
They'd managed to clear the place out, but no Boris. The son of a bitch had somehow managed to escape. Again.
Now, all that was left was a bank of computers, which Aramaki was now in the process of downloading and wiping, and a handful of torture labs. The grounds were being swept for prisoners by the other members of the unit. There was really nothing much the remaining members of the Blitzkrieg Boys to do.
Finally, Aramaki finished with his hacking and stepped back from the computer. He nodded at them. "Destroy the hard drives."
"With pleasure," Tala said, but instead of his gun, he raised his beyblade and launcher. He smirked at Kai and Bryan. "For old times sake?"
They both took out their blades, but Kai hesitated after locking Dranzer into place. Catching Tala's eye, he nodded, launching Dranzer first, and then locking Dragoon into place while she awaited instruction on the floor.
"3…"
"2…"
"1…"
"Let it rip!"
"Go Wolborg!"
"Falborg!"
"Dranzer and Dragoon!"
Three beyblades shot through the metal plating of the computer banks and wreaked havoc inside. The fourth surprisingly sped up the wall, flipped over and shot up the hallway as soon as it hit the ground.
The three men stared after it, astonished.
"The fuck?"
Kai summoned Dranzer back to his hand and ran after Dragoon.
He curled into himself as an ominous pounding sounded from the other side of the door. He fought a whimper as each thud became louder and more forceful, until the entire door was shaking on its hinges.
Then, suddenly, it stopped.
And there was a muffled yell that sounded a lot like "Go Dragoon!"
A pale white glow shimmered under the door crack as a loud, familiar roar reverberated through the room. Before he knew what was happening, a large blue dragon was barrelling through the door, dragging with it a small, white beyblade.
The dragon looked directly at him and with a triumphant roar, dissipated into pale blue sparks and returned to his bit-chip. The beyblade circled around a few times before jumping up into his hand like it had never left.
There was a silhouette in the now-open doorway. Backlit by the hallway lights, he looked like some kind of superhero.
The figure stepped inside the cell, digging out a flashlight from somewhere and shining it in his face. The figure –a man- gasped.
"Tyson?"
And when he spoke, Tyson knew that he was going home at last.
"Kai!"
"That is fucking creepy," Bryan announced over the hum of the jet's engines, pointing at the lump in Kai's lap.
"Shut it, you big baby," Tala barked. "I'm working on it."
Kai ignored them both, continuing to stare half in disbelief, half in worry at Tyson's face with tear-blurred eyes, tenderly stroking his navy-blue hair away from his wide open doll eyes.
"Can't you close them?" Bryan complained.
"How the fuck did you make it so far in the army if you can't handle a little staring?"
"In covert ops, you don't watch us, we watch you."
"Get off it. Somebody's probably watching us. Aramaki's always fucking watching us."
"Whatever, Tala." Bryan crossed his arms and shifted uncomfortably in his seat, still staring into Tyson's blank eyes. "You gonna close 'em or what?"
"I can't close them, all right?" Tala snapped, angrily. "They don't close. Leave it to Boris to do such a bang-up botch-job. Kid's built like a Barbie doll."
"Is he going to be alright?" Kai asked quietly, the first thing he'd said since they'd left Boris's base. He wasn't sure what he would do if he lost Tyson again at this point. For five years he'd thought his lover was dead, that he'd lost him forever, only to discover that Boris had had him all along. That he was being experimented on by, essentially, the same government Kai had been fighting for.
He'd said his name, just like he had many times before, with that same reverence that made Kai feel like the most important person in the world. His heart soared.
But then moments later, Tyson's whole body jerked and pitched forward. Kai wasn't fast enough to catch him before he landed flat on his face. His soaring heart plummeted again, lodging in his throat and staying there until now.
Tala sighed, and rested a hand on his shoulder. "He's fine. You have my word," he said, as comfortingly as Tala could possibly manage before his patience ran out. "Now shut the fuck up, both of you, so I can turn him on again!"