A.C.: My cactus lives-!!
Disclaimer: don't own it -.-
Warnings: As always, watch out for the rampant use of grammar
For reference in case you're confused...
Ian as Ivan
Spencer as Sergei
Bryan as Boris
Boris as Balcov
Tala as Yuriy
Hiro as Hiroshi
Tyson as Takao
Hilary as Hiromi
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"Yuriy!" Ivan appeared beside him, cell phone glued to his ear. The teen was wet, the end of his nose runny from the rain. "Where the hell were you?" Yuriy leaned back, his head hitting the bars with a dull clang as he did so. He frowned slightly, trying to clear the milky haze creeping over his vision. He had dropped his cell phone while tangling with a green-haired idiot suspended over the seventeenth floor. He thought about the slim phone breaking into a million pieces and laughed—to Ivan it sounded as though the redhead had finally lost it.
The blunette tilted Yuriy's face up and observed the fine trembling of skin. "What happened?"
The pupils were wide and flickered uncertainly as they focused on the Ivan face. The wind shifted and the rain came splattering down on Yuriy's face. Blinking to get the water out of his eyes, redhead parted his mouth and breathed, swallowing mouthfuls of rainwater in the process. It roused him enough to answer his short companion, or perhaps he just recognized the blunette's nose.
"...Obviously I've been had."
Ivan let his hand fall away from the older Russian's chin before he could inhale anymore of the water and drown.
"Fine country this is," Ivan muttered as he untied the makeshift tourniquet from Yuriy's wrist, "You're either kidnapped or poisoned... Tourniquets don't actually help you know." the strips of cloth unraveled and revealed a knife wound obscured by swollen skin. "You should have just let it bleed out."
Yuriy shrugged,
"Not used to these close-range combats," here Ivan muttered something that the redhead ignored, "would've just shot 'em but there were too many..."
Only half listening the blunette said,
"It's probably not fatal... to you"
"It feels fatal." Yuriy growled.
"Stop being a baby." Ivan took his switchblade and began to pick out the crusted blood with the flat side. When the cut seemed clear enough he dug in deeper creating thick grooves along the wrist. Blood appeared in rice-sized beads at first before connecting and forming a rivulet down the pale skin. Yuriy raised an eyebrow,
"You gonna suck that for me too?"
Ivan leered,
"I'm sure you wish it was Kai doing it but alas, it's not meant to be." Yuriy barked out a laugh but it was forced and faltering. Ivan paused in concern, "Come on fearless leader, we have a place to be and it's not here."
"Shorty?" Ivan almost dropped him, offended. Irritably Yuriy waved his hand. "Not you, the other one."
"Ozuma?"
Yuriy gave a sound of disgust,
"...What happened to him?"
"Got off before Wyborg could get him. His bit beast is pretty useless in the rain but he..." and the rest of Ivan's words faded into white noise as Yuriy closed his eyes, feeling the eyes that bore into his back. With a last burst of energy he looked back, seeing millions of green orbs that just stared at him. The emerald colors shimmered and winked. The redhead smirked and raised his middle finger in a mock salute.
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Kai shivered in either shock or pain long after the echoes from the recoil in his hand had faded. He tilted his head up, fixing an odd look on Miriam. The dead girl's body laid in a fetal position behind him. He pushed her away with his foot as he stood up. The blunette Saint Shield looked as though she torn between the death of her teammate and Kai's incredible—inhumane—threshold for pain. In the shadows, Boris quickly made a beeline for a fire alarm installed into the wall behind him.
"New members? I'm surprised that you risked their lives by bringing them here. I'm flattered, really."
"You didn't think," Miriam answered scornfully, her face still red from the pain of her amputation. Her nose flared delicately as she flexed the stump of her digits. "That we would attempt the sealing all by ourselves did you? Saint Shields reach far and wide, there are many more of us, some even more powerful than Ozuma."
"You don't have your rock," Kai narrowed his eyes. "You never planned on sealing Suzaku... you..." Kai suddenly doubled over, coughing up mouthfuls of half-congealed blood. Seeing the momentary weakness, Dunga closed the distance with quick, limping strides and struck the teen across the temples. The blonde was surprised to find that despite having his face smashed down on the dusty floor, the teen was still awake.
"That's right smart ass, now hand it over"
"I can't." Kai's reply was muffled, almost like a sigh. The blonde eyed him suspiciously before patting him down. After searching every nook and cranny of his outfit and coming up with nothing, the green-eyed blonde flipped him over and made a tight fist around the blunette's collar. Kai sneered as Dunga bore his teeth and milky pale gums.
"Where is it?" he turned his head away politely as the blonde's breath washed over his face. After a few dizzying shakes the teen burst out in laugher, the harsh sound softened and eventually drowned out by the broken pillar of rain. Raising his hand, Kai popped loose the top row of buttons on his jacket strap. The zipper descended slowly and when it reached the top of his stomach, Kai reached inside and pulled on his shirt collar. The gray cotton stretched back to reveal the skin beneath.
"I'm afraid I can't just hand her over..." Faces of Suzaku and Kuro Suzaku stared back at them, their necks entwined and their blue and green eyes glowing like bright gems on Kai's skin. Their beaks were poised just below his sternum, mane-like crests flared and touching. Suzaku stared at them boldly in claret lines, uncaring for the two survivors who had come to capture her. Her twin echoed her image in black strokes, the shape seemingly harder and crueler. "...not unless you're willing to carve her off my dead body."
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"Is that him?"
"He seems similar to the description we were given..."
"He has red eyes..."
Hitoshi squinted into the rain. Three figures, mere children, looked down at him clothed in colors of red and gold. Their opaque green eyes glowed delightedly as they found him alone, unarmed. The man narrowed his eyes, his glare lost somewhere in the curtain of rain as the three Saint Shields surrounded him holding their launchers out. He breathed out in disbelief,
"I don't have time for this."
The three tops shot towards him, spinning across the slick concrete to slash at his ankles. He growled irritably and kicked the nearest one back to its owner. The bey bounded back, wobbling as it fought to regain its balance and rejoined its brethren as they circled the slate-haired man.
With almost a bored air about him, Hitoshi took out a launcher from inside his sweater. He nodded at the bey as it zigzagged in ripple-like motions across the shallow water.
"Metal Drigger, make sure they don't ever get up again."
Somewhere through the rain he heard the alarms go off.
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Boris stared as if half-entranced.
"That can be arranged," Dunga said viciously, jerking Kai's head down on the concrete and sticking his knife against his throbbing throat. "This has gone far enough."
"...Yes," Boris cracked the plastic case above the fire alarm. "Think we've all had enough." The bell rang shrilly within the warehouse and the two Saint Shields started in panic. Kai planted his elbow in Dunga's gut and stood up, shooting a hole in Vortex Ape's center piece as he ran towards his teammate. Boris had already dragged Sergei's arm around his shoulders as Falborg hovered nearby. The man's skin was cool to touch, Kai blew on it experimentally but it retained its grey hue. They pushed him into a passenger seat of a pick up that had been parked conveniently beside the warehouse.
"Can you drive this thing?" Kai coughed, holding a hand to his mouth. Rain plastered his silver bangs down his face. He couldn't tell if he was coughing up blood or was tasting whatever had been in his mouth in the first place.
"What, you think I can't?" retorted Boris as collected Falborg and gingerly brushed away the broken glass littering the seats.
"You don't have a license."
"I don't need one."
"It's a pickup, how are you going to..."
In a fit of dejavu, Boris felt that he had a similar conversation sometime long ago. But that once upon a time, they had a relatively happy ending. This time it didn't seem as though they would get off that lucky.
"Keep his head on your lap."
He opened the door to the passenger side and pushed Sergei's still warm body in. Kai followed soon after, settling the blonde's broken head on his lap. After a brief pause, he untied the short, white scarf around his neck and wrapped it around the blonde's head like a bandana to hide the bloody wound.
"All set?"
Boris asked grimly as he finished hotwiring the car and revved up its engines. Not waiting for an answer he continued, "Here we go."
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"Colleen?"
"Dead, Kai killed her."
And the silent shudders spread like ripples across the huddling bodies around them. He heard a small weeping noise nearby, not a new thing. Another would join the first cry within a few minutes, then another and another before it would settle down. Grief would pass as they all had passed. And so the team leader of the Saint Shields asked once more,
"Where's her body?"
Dunga said nothing and at a loss for words Ozuma expressed his frustration with a repressed sigh.
"They got most of us at the construction site, we retrieved the bodies before the rain stopped but I don't know how they knew we were there in the first place." Joseph quietly picked up, gingerly fingering the left side of his face with cool fingers.
"So we were tipped off, all of them were to be gathered on the docks and yet they somehow managed to slip through our fingers..."
Dunga flinched at the words 'fingers' and stole a quick look at the blunette girl. Miriam's mouth was set in a straight line and the fingers of her left hand had grown white while providing pressure on her right. Their medic had done an incredible job with the flesh wounds and bruises that they had sustained but he doubted they could do anything about missing finger... or missing limbs for that matter. He stretched out his leg and thought better of it as a bolt of pain shot through his knees. The medic had told him that he would lose his leg if he didn't keep it clean. It was also recommended that he seek a real doctor. The mobility of his leg was failing and he couldn't be sure that his adrenaline was finally wearing off to awaken the body of its true injuries.
"Didn't Kai say..." Miriam said slowly, trying to bring up the image of their battle, "that the area was owned by someone else?"
"Another gang? Impossible, we would have seen them." Joseph objected from the side.
"Maybe not, if this was indeed their territory they would have the advantage. If they wanted to, they wouldn't have been seen." Ozuma said quietly.
"There's also the matter of three that were supposed to be on the standby."
"Kinomiya Hitoshi," Miriam interrupted, the new recruits looked at her with the consistency of people lining up to be hanged. Ozuma cocked his head while Dunga looked disinterestedly at the wall.
"Kinomiya? Kinomiya Takao's brother perhaps?"
"I wasn't aware that Takao had a sibling..." Joseph mumbled, pressing an ice pack to the side of his face.
"Kai mentioned that this was his territory."
"Odd, you'd think the guy like that would have shown up once or twice..."
"Maybe he doesn't want us to know that he's there."
Ozuma looked deep in thought,
"Maybe."
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"Ivan here."
"Hey shorty."
"Boris..." Ivan said flatly into the receiver.
" Phoenix here wants to talk to you."
"Che, how's it over there?"
"Bad Ivan, really bad."
"Really bad then," Ivan sighed rubbing his eyes. He stared at Yuriy and wondered if he could pass for a drunk. Perhaps then they could catch a bus or even a taxi back home.
"Ivan."
"Kai."
Yuriy mumbled and shifted in a fitful sleep.
"..."
"Dammit Kai..."
"..."
"Fuck, could you at least answer me!!"
"...Did you feel it?"
"What?"
"Did you feel it?"
"Yes..." Ivan covered his eyes and slumped against the fall. "Dammit, yeah I felt it." Ivan put his head between his knees, the phone pressed tightly against his ear. "I felt it..."
There was a slight rustling sound at the other hand. Kai might have moved his head towards the side a bit; perhaps it was Boris driving again.
"...sorry"
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Rain dripped down from the ceiling. The dust was thick because the warehouse had been unused for a long time but Hitoshi could see in places where a patch of the original surface showed, as if someone had been there recently. Experimentally he touched the wooden crate and rubbed the fine dust between his fingers.
He slowly went around the room, circling it twice before ending up in the middle where the rain fell thickly from the hole above. His foot stepped on something hard and round. He lifted his foot and picked up the object. A cartilage, he pocketed it and set out to look for more. It wasn't too hard; the warehouse was empty of most things as it was an off season for whoever owned it. And where footprints had skidded across the floor Hitoshi could observe a number of things. Identical cartilages, bits of metal perhaps from a beyblade and blood, a broken dagger, twin to the one he now held in his hands.
Frustrated, he kicked it into the corner.
He was too late, again.
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"...Kai?"
"Hmm?" Kai answered but didn't open his eyes. His head rolled slightly and turned his face towards the pale-haired Russian. He felt the heavy weight on his legs lifted away from him and he reached for it, hands catching nothing but air as Boris held the stiff body in his arms.
"Aren't you going to get up?"
His hand fell back to into his lap and he opened his eyes. Boris noted that they were slightly glassy, almost as if he had been... no... Impossible.
Slowly, Kai peeled himself away from the warm seat and got out.
There was blood on the seat. Blood pooling in the leather cushion as thick crusts made home in the creases and stitch marks. The coppery scent was enough to permeate the chilly air.
Boris dully noted all this and said,
"She got you deep."
"Yes she did."
"And you aren't healing... what the fuck did you do?"
Kai looked up at him looking furious.
"What I had to do."
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A.C.: -dances- whoo! The final finals are over!! I am... still a senior at a highschool what a drag... again un-betaed but hey, it's an update riiiigggghht?
Bit short this time, a bit boring too in my opinion hmmm -.-;; thankgodit'sovernowIcangobacktowritingsmutorwhatever
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YuriyTalaIvanov- Well I can't kill them yet ;.; I kinda need them
Gabz- Hah well I like reviews 3 –crosses finger and hopes it can be finished by February-
Miako6- ehh... k yeah I get it, the name switch was confusing... and unnecessary.
Ayatsuji- mrrr -purrs- thank you for your kindly comment as always -PMed- and yesh sometimes I confuse myself writing because even I forget what I've written xq