Hello…again…
Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade…if I did, there would be a lot more plot, a lot less blading, Dranzer wouldn't have been destroyed and Hilary would blade too…I also do not own Linkin Park…or their song, "Somewhere I Belong"…
Thanks to everyone who reviewed!
Now, onto Chapter 9!
(oO;; I still cannot believe how long this story is already!)
WARNING: I will be jumping ALL OVER THE PLACE in this chapter…so don't try to skim over it, because you WILL get lost…
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"Fun?" Hilary couldn't believe what the girl had just said.
"Yeah!" The girl verified.
"Well…I guess I could use someone to talk to…"
"Well, I do know my way around here, so I can get you out of the area faster…"
"True," the brunette commented thoughtfully as she considered her options. "Alright…but could you take me to the training area first?"
The girl nodded and glanced about warily before crossing the road. Once she was sure there were no cars coming, she motioned Hilary to follow her. After she had done so, and they had walked another yard or two, they heard the unmistakable sound of a car approaching.
"You said you were on the run, right," Kira verified; Hilary nodded. "Then come on!" She grabbed Hilary's wrist and tugged them both into the bushes before the person in the car could have possibly seen them.
It was a few minutes after the car had passed that they dared move again.
"Phew…" Hilary sighed softly.
"See?" Kira whispered excitedly. "It's just like being a secret agent!" When Hilary just kind of stared at her blankly, she grinned. "You sneak around and hide from people!"
'Hm…she has a point, when you think about it that way…' Hilary silently agreed.
"To the training area?" At Hilary's nod, they set off, deciding the stick to the cover of the trees and other shrubbery…
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"HIYAH!" Tyson yelled as he leapt down the steps at the paparazzi, kendo stick in hand. Needless to say, the paparazzi cleared off pretty quickly after that. "That was too much fun!" He turned and high-fived the "master mind" behind the idea.
"I think I'd like to be the one to do that next time…" Rei commented dryly.
"We can both do it…both of us know the paparazzi will be back before long…" A smirk that had wormed its way onto Rei's face was making him nervous. "What?"
"I sure as heck hope none of them got a picture of you, Tyson…" With that, the neko-jin headed inside, chuckling to himself.
"WHAT!" Tyson shouted after him.
"Look down," the neko-jin called over his shoulder.
Scowling and mumbling about how he could have just said so, Tyson looked down.
There was a huge hole in the front part of the traditional kendo training garb he had worn. Mumbling curses upon himself for being so clumsy last time he had worn them, he stormed back inside before the whole world got to see his pink and purple polka dotted boxers.
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"She's gone…" Brooklyn commented as his teammates filed back into the room after an exhausting practice. Garland sank into the cushions of the couch before he decided to answer.
"Hilary told me she couldn't stay…she's "on the run" from the Bladebreakers…she didn't quite give me a reason why, but I heard that Kai's back…" Garland commented blandly.
"Urgh…who wouldn't leave now that that jerk is back!" Ming Ming agreed angrily. Crusher remained silent; he didn't feel this discussion was any of his business. Mystel shrugged, but silently agreed.
"Apparently, Kai left not too long after she did…Max left first, though…"
"Tyson must be upset…" Brooklyn commented, his bangs covering his eyes.
"Yeah…" Ming Ming agreed; this caused Garland to ponder for a moment.
"I'll be right back…" He told them as he stood, ignoring his protesting, sore muscles and headed into the kitchen. Glancing around to make sure none of his teammates were about, he picked up the phone and silently dialed a number.
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Max sullenly glared out the window and at the water below.
'There's no way I'm going to stick around and deal with that insufferable jerk…it's his fault Hilary's gone!' The fuming blonde was too absorbed in his angry thoughts to notice that his lunch had arrived; the stewardess just sat the tray next to him and moved on to the next person.
Eventually, the smell of food caught his attention and he grudgingly pushed his angry thoughts aside while he ate.
'I didn't know I was this hungry…' He polished off his lunch in record time and returned to staring out the window. That was when he started to notice the whispers.
"Hey! Look! Over there! It's Max Tate, from the Bladebreakers!"
"Wow, no kidding! Do you think he'd give us his autograph?"
"Forget his autograph, what if he could get us Kai's!"
The slight smile that had begun to form on his face as he stared at the window slid off, and his stare returned to a glare.
'This is going to be a fun trip…' Max grumbled. 'Why didn't I just accept Mr. Dickenson's offer to ride on a private plane?...oh yeah…because that jerk was going to be on it too…' His scowl deepened as the whispers increased in volume and more people joined the conversation. 'This is better than dealing with him…'
With that resolution, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep…just to spite the whisperers.
-x-x-x-x-
Kai's gaze never left the window, even when the lunch tray was placed beside him. He had no desire to eat and so he wouldn't.
'What did she mean…?' The dual haired blader kept asking himself, completely lost.
/Sorry to be blunt, master…but she meant what she said…/
'What?'
/Mariah and Rei are…well, if Galax and Driger have anything to say about it, they'll be together by the end of the month…/
'Tachibana and Kon are going out,' he sneered. 'So now Kon's cheating on her?'
/MASTER/ Dranzer shrilled at the top of his lungs. /Rei and Hilary were never going out! It's your fault they became that close anyway, so stop it/ Kai froze.
'…my fault…I fail to see how this is all my fault!' He snapped back.
/It is! You just assumed they were! All they are is really good friends! If you hadn't run off in the first place, they never would have even become that! So…shut up…/ Dranzer growled and retreated to his bitchip angrily, leaving an extremely worked up Kai to his thoughts.
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Everyone looked up when a smirking Garland entered the room. His smirk never wavered as he walked in and sat down. They exchanged glances; whatever was going on, he was taking his time telling them about it.
"So…what's the big news…" Ming Ming was the first to break the silence. After he didn't answer, the others decided they wanted to know.
"Well?" Mystel voiced their thoughts.
"C'mon! Tell," Crusher scowled.
"Please," Brooklyn begged.
Garland smirked; he was loving every minute of this.
"Well…"
"Tell!" Ming Ming pounced on him, causing both to roll off the couch and on to the floor; they ended up in a tangle of arms and legs.
Crusher and Brooklyn gaped, and Mystel just stared as Ming Ming scurried away from the team captain hurriedly, after untangling herself.
"You see…"
-x-x-x-x-
"Are we…:huff: there…:huff: yet…?" The tired brunette gasped.
"Almost…it's only another mile…" With a groan Hilary sat down on a rock and massaged her throbbing ankle. "Did something happen to your ankle?" A slight nod was all Hilary allowed herself. A sigh made her look up to find that Kira had pulled a roll of bandages out of a carefully camouflaged bag.
"Where did that come from," she asked softly.
"I live in these woods," the girl shrugged and motioned for her to pull her pant leg up so she could bandage her ankle. Curious, Hilary watched as she quickly and efficiently bound her ankle.
'It's loose enough not to cause me any pain, but tight enough to help support my ankle…she's even better at this than Rei!' "How'd you get so good at this…?" A shadow of grief slid across her face, and hid in her eyes before vanishing.
"When you live on your own, you learn to be self sufficient…"
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'Why do I smell cinnamon apples…' Mariah wondered as she slowly opened her eyes. When she saw nothing familiar, she sat up hurriedly and crawled out from under the covers. 'Where am I?' Looking around, she noted several things that made her sure of one thing at least. 'I'm in a boy's room…but…the last thing I remember is Rei…' Cautiously, she tip toed across the floor, careful not to step on anything, and opened the door quietly.
Her surroundings still didn't look familiar.
"Mariah?" A voice asked. Terrified, she turned around as the world went black.
-x-x-x-x-
Hilary sighed as her guide vanished among the trees. Making sure she wasn't around, Hilary slipped some extra bandages she had packed out of her bag and unwound the bloody and slightly pussy bandages that had covered her hand.
Wincing mentally, she began to wrap her hand up again.
'I hope this doesn't get anymore infected!' She wished reverently, biting her lip to keep from screaming as she tied the final knot.
"Something happen to your hand," Kira asked; Hilary almost jumped out of her skin.
"T-two days ago," Hilary stuttered. 'When did she get back? How does she do that?'
"Indeed…" Kira's gaze drifted to her hand and she sighed. "Would you like me to re-wrap that for you?" Abashedly, Hilary nodded. "Don't worry…by the time we get wherever you want to go, I'll have taught you how to bandage yourself properly…" She watched as the other girl's fingers moved deftly over her sloppy bandages, tightening them, and neatening them. "Tomorrow…or whenever you change your bandages, put this on your wound and the bandages too…"
Seemingly out of nowhere, Kira pulled out a small jar of ointment. Hilary shrugged it off, figuring that she had another "stealth" bag around here somewhere and carefully stowed the jar in her own bag.
Approaching the seemingly younger girl, she noted her expression was wary.
"Is…is something wrong?" To Hilary's surprise, her wary expression deepened into a scowl.
"I'm not sure…but something's definitely amiss…"
"What kind of something?" Hilary glanced around, her hands on her blade and launcher.
"I honestly don't know…but whatever it is…it's bad…"
"How do you know?"
"I have a…sixth sense…about this sort of thing…"
"I'll take your word for it…" Hilary's eyes darted around in search of a big stick.
"No, our blades, even if we can't completely control them, are the best weapons we have…" Kira was more alert and wary than Hilary had seen her so far.
"Let's continue to the training area…" The brunette watched as the blonde's eyes flicked back towards her for a moment, but nodded.
Both started forward, wary, and ready to tackle whatever came their way…or so they thought…
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Max's eyelids felt heavy, but he lifted them anyway. It was then he noticed that the whispers had gotten a lot closer.
The group that had been whispering about him and observing him from across the aisle and up the rows now sat directly behind him.
'Maybe going to sleep wasn't the best thing I could have done…' He realized as he picked up his headphones and slid them on over his ears. Then he proceeded to drown everyone out with Linkin Park's "Somewhere I Belong". Satisfied with his new idea, he smiled contentedly as he gazed out the window.
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Kai was extremely annoyed. Not only did he feel stupid, but Dranzer refused to even talk to him.
'It's two day after my birth day…so now everyone's ganging up on me…yes, today is just awesome…'
/Sarcasm isn't appreciated/
'Dranzer-'
/Save it…you'll hear no more from me until you apologize/
'I don't apologize…'
/…/
'Damn it!' Kai began mentally cursing the day he had met "that pathetic cheerleader".
/Serves him right…he needs some humility, anyway…/
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OWARI!
:chuckles: Kidding! It's only the end of this chapter!
The next chapter title:
Battle for Being
I wonder what they (as in Kira and Hilary) will encounter…don't you:evil smirk: Until next time, adios amigos…and amigas…
Emma
Ps: thanks again to those who reviewed!