And... the spot for the disclaimer is HERE. It's currently sulking in chapter six. Why? Don't ask me.
Chapter Eleven
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Months ago, had someone told her, a mere fifteen-year-old bloke living in London, England, that she would be running through the city's streets fighting evil with the best beybladers on the planet, she would have told them to smoke another joint. However, looking at the current situation, she was keeping pace with a rather in-shape Tyson Granger, who was matching Kai Hiwatari's pace step for step.
"Carson Enterprises is up just a bit," Hilary Tachibana called, glancing back. The woman took a sharp left, almost taking out a pedestrian, who gawked awkwardly at the champions.
Abby Banner cocked her head at an angle, as to catch Kai's glance. "Hey, Kai, you never did explain what the bloody hell was going on with the whole Dad-thing."
The Russian lingered for a moment before switching sides with Tyson. Surprisingly, the once enslaved teen kept up and then some, despite the deprivation of physical activity during the course of his captivity. "They're my family."
"So you really love her that much?" Almost immediately, she regretted saying what she had, for fear it would shut up the champion. At the moment her mind was screaming at her. What are you doing? It shouted throughout her cranium, The guy's a fuckin' champion and you're practically a fan-girl!
A smirk crossed the captain's face. "Hn."
Hilary lagged for a moment, opting to run on the other side of the teen. "That's his way of being too prideful to admit it."
"I'm not afraid to say it, Hilary."
A soft smile adorned the brunette's face. "We know. She's new to the group, that's all." Her words were just slightly more sympathetic than before, and Kai refused to speak again. His attitude and behavior all shouted of the same thing. He missed AJ, and there was nothing he wanted more than to get her back.
"Did you notice anything strange about her bit beast?" The neko-jin asked, his senses working themselves into overdrive to detect any subtle changes in their environment.
Abby tapped her index finger to her cheek. "If you mean that she's way more strong than she was when she won the championships in Barcelona, then no. If you mean the fact that she called out Viatsu's name and suddenly we had two unconscious beybladers and two disintigrated cyber bit beasts on our hands, then yes."
"How much stronger?"
"Between that and the energy drink she was drinking, I could tell she was shaking."
"She doesn't shake from energy drinks," Kai murmurred. "She might have been attempting to pass it off as nothing, but trust me, I've seen her drink those things before."
"It might not be Viatsu," Ray began. "She barely eats, and the sleep factor is pretty much a negative, so..." He trailed off, realizing that these things were not making it any easier for the captain. "She's gonna be fine, Kai."
"Morrison said that Viatsu's new powers would be too much for her."
"Bit beasts work in strange ways. Besides, I doubt she'd be alone," Tyson hummed. "I suppose that Suzaku, whatever that is, would be with her. She said something about a Suzaku when we found her at your mansion."
Kai's eyes widened in realization. He pulled out his beyblade.
She knows, The phoenix said simply. She knows it is I who is Suzaku.
'Dranzer...'
It's alright, master. Her thought process was never definite on it, but I suppose she knew it was I when I took off after you. My link with her is weak, but for now she is alright. Your love for her must have drawn her to your father's letter. She is intent on making the wrongs right. If she has her way, there will be no more evil to toy with us again.
'It would have been much easier if you had this connection with both of us a few months ago.'
The situation hardly needed it. We had no preparations... But AJ will be fine. Viatsu is in control of her evolution. For now. We'll find her before anything happens.
'That means it will happen.'
A small sigh escaped the phoenix through their link. For now let's hope she can hold off the worst of it. I have a feeling that this new threat will try to draw it out of Viatsu. She is on the brink of an evolution the likes of which even I do not know of. I know she will defend AJ at all costs, even her own life. Things will work out.
'I trust you,' The beyblader murmurred mentally.
And I you. The she-phoenix whistled, before pulsing gently from her beyblade, cutting off their link.
"What is it with you guys and phasing out in the midst of conversation?" Abby tapped her foot impatiently, standing before Kai. "Talking to Dranzer?" She asked, dully.
"Hn." He took off, grabbing her wrist to drag her back to speed with the rest of the group.
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The front entrance was locked to the building she saught entrance into. Shrugging, she locked Viatsu into her launcher and launched, successfully obliterating the doors and setting off the security alarms in her wake. Oh well, the teenaged girl thought to herself. The would would not end because she set of some alarms. Besides, she mentally countered herself, Viatsu could take whatever they had planned and then some.
Almost as quickly as it had begun, the alarms had stopped ringing. From the plasma screen behind the lobby's reception desk, a plasma screen immediately lit up, exposing the man she currently loathed.
"Miss Carson, what a pleasant surprise," He spoke in a calm, cool tone. Something was not right with this, she began to realize. "I'm sure you realize that if your family and boyfriend were actually here, there would be more of an opposition waiting for you right now.
"Where are they?"
He smirked, glad to know he had the upper hand in this department. "Why, they escaped with the help of Agent Banner. Mister Hiwatari and his friends are on their way here at this moment. Too bad that they won't be able to reach you. There is a rather large opposition waiting for them."
"I'm the one you wanted to trap here, eh?"
Laughter reached her through the speakers transmitting the man's sinister voice. He smiled onscreen. "You have what I want."
It was AJ's turn to laugh, and she did so, rather malificently. "And you'll never have it."
"Now, now, don't go underestimating your enemies, Miss Carson."
"Don't go underestimating me, Morrison. I was crowned champion for a reason."
His laughter subsided, leaving a sense of cruelty for a reason. "Petty girl, your title means nothing here." Turning back to the business at hand, he smiled again. "There are a hundred and twenty floors. Every ten floors for the first seven floors, you will have a challenge. If you win, you take the elevator to the next floor. If it is a draw, you take the stairs. Losing will see you stripped of your bit beast, and if you're lucky, I'll kill you before you're tortured too badly. After the seventieth floor, you will travel to the eighty-fifth, hundreth, and one-hundred-fifteenth. If you make it through these trials, which I doubt, we shall have our final confrontation here, on the roof."
Stepping aside, the emerald-haired baddie motioned to a man in a black suit, obviously a henchman of some sort. "Miss Carson," Morrison said simply, "This is One. Kai and One spent a great deal of time together." AJ's lips curled in anger as the man drew out a whip. "One here is rather skilled in the art of torture. Kai learned that rather quickly, though he is no stranger to a whip." Morrison snapped and One lifted up a corner of his shirt to reveal a rather severe hole. Obviously, it was a bullet mark. "Agent Banner thought he could kill my right-hand man, but apparently he was wrong. When you lose," Morrison's smile grew wider, as did One's, "One will have the pleasure of giving you the torture Banner should have received for his betrayal."
The crack of the whip in One's hand did not seem to phase her. "And when I win, you will have the pleasure of whatever punishment my boyfriend sees fit."
A smile crinkled his face, though his eyes shone just as ominously as ever, giving her the impression of compacted insanity. "I assure you," he crooned, "Things will not come down to that."
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It was no surprise to her that the first few levels were rather easy. Her attackers were mostly automatic launching machines that she took out(not to mention the countless beyblades they spat out) with little effort. The elevators took her up as Morrison promised, though she felt this intense smothering feeling. Viatsu was strangely quiet, which gave an ominous feeling to the situation on top of the previous.
"Let's see what you've got," she whispered, as the doors to the seventieth door opened. She was no idiot. At some point, she was to be contfronted by a beyblader.
So when the doors opened and a woman with piercing aqua eyes and jet black hair opposed her, AJ pulled her hair back into a ponytail and prepared herself. Nervousness was not present. She was confident this time. With Viatsu, she could accomplish anything.
"It's about time," The woman who faced the former-champion said, yawning. "I thought you were good. Who takes an hour to go through those drills?"
AJ shrugged and drew out her launcher. Her beyblade was still completely in-tact, the only factor that allowed it to seem as though it had been recently used was the large amount of heat that radiated from it.
'You ready, partner?'
Viatsu mentally reached out to her human companion. Let's do this.
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Kai felt Dranzer's presence waver for just a second. Listening to the phoenix through their mental link, he immediately filled in the others. "She's battling someone at Carson Enterprises. It doesn't seem to be too much of a problem for her, according to Dranzer..."
Tyson looked over at Hilary, whose eyes did not stray from the building before them. It was about ten blocks away at this point, and they could tell that it was easily the tallest building in this part of town, though not by much. The ominous aura in the air disturbed them.
"Hil, what's going on?" The blunette grabbed her shoulders, but her eyes remained in their wide position, glancing directly ahead.
"Is it just me," Ray said suddenly, "Or is there a ton of really angry looking beybladers coming this way?"
Hilary locked her beyblade into position, looking at her comrades, then at Abby. "Showtime."
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She nearly tumbled into the elevator, leaning against the cool metal wall in the back of it. Her first two human opponents were really nothing special. This one, though, the third, was especially tricky. Glancing down at her left forearm, she was not surprised that more blood had oozed from the thick and deep wound placed there by the boy from the previous level. She had barely pulled out a win there, and her strength was beginning to waver, as she had learned.
An ominous feeling spread over her as she waited patiently for the elevator to reach its next level. She did not try to stop it, knowing that it was futile without the control key. Immediately, she pulled out her cell phone and checked it, only to see that it lacked a signal. Morrison truly wanted her to be alone.
You're not alone though, are you?
"Apparently not," She mused aloud, since she was alone. "Whoever's beyond that door, Viatsu, we're gonna destroy them, right?"
Don't doubt us for a second.
"How's the evolution going?"
The bit beast cringed a bit uncomfortably through their link. A bit painful at times, but this is nothing. I'm afraid that the climax will be a bit much for us, but otherwise, we should be okay.
"So we've just got some exrusciating pain to deal with. Shouldn't be too bad."
Not as bad as it was battling Shane.
"Sounds like fun."
The bit beast chortled at her mistress's behavior. You never disappoint me when it comes to sarcasm, She replied, before ending their link as the elevator came to a screeching and deathly slow hault.
This level was much darker than the previous one. It was pitch black in the room she found herself in, the only light came from the elevator's pale ceiling light behind her.
"Welcome, Miss Carson."
That voice.
That voice.
Kai had warned her about that voice, and more importantly, that person. He was not to be trusted whatsoever. Tyson had nearly lost to this being at the cost of everything they held dear as beybladers. He was not on their level. There was something about him, something that made him tick. It was not beyblading spirit, as Kai had told her. A shiver trailed the length of her spine.
"Please, feel free to draw your beyblade at any time. I think Morrison would like it if you were beybattling when I take you down."
There before her stood the one person Kai had beaten at the cost of everything but his life.
So help her God, there before her stood Brooklyn.
He smiled.
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Notes: I know, I know, you take forever to update, and the segments are really, really really short in this one. It's kind of a filler, leading up to the big stuff, as I tried to imply through the sort-of cliffhanger. We all know that something big is coming up, and it is going to be REALLY REALLY BIG. Can we say, Hello Climax?! I'll be busy writing, and hopefully you won't kill me for taking forever!