Chapter 14:

Well…the last chapter was certainly…

…yeah…

It did not reflect my mood, and I have no idea where it came from…Oh well…

At least all of you now know why he is so dangerous.

Poor Brooklyn…

Then again, not.

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…

Hope you like this one! (and it's less bloody/gory)

Note: 0x0x0x0 means that I'm not changing scenes, but changing the "focus"…-x-x-x-x- means I changed scenes (I made it shorter and centered it, for those who were wondering...)

I am now apologizing in advance, seeing as I apparently am stuck with only semi-to completely morbid ideas. You've been warned people.

-x-x-x-x-

Kira shuddered as she trudged back towards the clearing. Something had just happened…something bad.

Frowning, she re-entered the clearing to come face-to-face with Brooklyn.

Everyone else started when he suddenly sat up.

She raised an eyebrow, and noted his gaze was completely focused on her gauze-wrapped shoulder.

0x0x0x0

Brooklyn gaped when his eyes found her shoulder and he found he had lost his voice. When he mastered himself, he found it quivered.

"W-what happened to your shoulder," he inquired shakily, her apparent wound seeming to have driven her last comment from his mind. In fact, it was the exact opposite.

She shrugged, making him wince.

"I got in a fight with a zombie about personal space…I won, with a lot of help, but didn't get away completely unscathed," she shrugged again, then realized she was making them all wince. Kira sighed. "Look, I put a paste with numbing herbs on in it on my wound and worked them onto the bandages…if I can still feel any pain from it, I have a problem."

Hilary started.

"Oh yeah…" She murmured with a sweatdrop. "I have some on my wound," Hilary held out her bandaged hand for their inspection.

Brooklyn's eyes seemed more than mournful as he glanced from injury to injury.

His discomfort was obvious, so Kira strolled over and sat down next to Hilary so he would have less of a distance to look.

"Relax," she commanded after having her nerves grated on for about five minutes; said carrot top blinked at her.

Ming Ming stared.

Garland stared.

Crusher stared.

Mystel stared.

Hilary stared.

Brooklyn had reluctantly relaxed when commanded by Kira.

"What," she snapped, annoyed by all the scrutiny between herself and Brooklyn.

"Nothing," a dazed Hilary mumbled.

"Whatever…" Kira muttered in reply before hopping to her feet and scaling the tree near Brooklyn. "I dunno about you guys, but I'm catching some shut eye," she explained as she curled up quite comfortably on the branch.

Everyone but Brooklyn decided to take that cue as a command and lay down. He merely pulled his knees to his chest and stared at the dancing shadows created by the flickering of light from the fire.

Sighing, Kira hooked her knees around the tree branch before sliding her upper body off the branch. The tips of her long hair were inches from Brooklyn's shoulder.

"Boo," she informed him as he looked up in surprise. The blonde grinned when he looked down and away to hide a slight smile. "Just chill. I get along with people better when they just are themselves." That brought Brooklyn sharply back down to earth and he tightened his grip on his knees. He heard a soft sigh above him and suddenly, was gently pushed back onto his hands.

Oddly enough, he felt a lot more comfortable in this sprawling position.

"See?" An amused voice commented from above. He looked up into the smiling face of Kira.

Instead of replying, he looked away.

'Why does she keep making me want to smile?' The red-haired blader frowned slightly. 'And why is she being so nice? I destroyed her career in blading…'

The others merely lay there and watched the chemistry between the two.

-x-x-x-x-

Mariah's throat contracted tightly as she backed up against the wall, feeling the hateful black eyes drilling into her. Her shaking hand groped around for the door knob, but she was suddenly picked up by the neck and slammed against the door.

Shaking and terrified, Mariah's hand continued to grope around for the door knob as the edges of her vision began to blacken and blur. Her world entirely dark, she found her hand grasping something cold.

'Yes,' her seemingly water-logged mind cheered and she managed to keep herself awake just long enough to lash out at her attacker and twist the door handle.

She did not even feel the pain when her head collided painfully with the hard wood floor that was in the room she had entered in so precariously of a fashion. Nor did she see a pair of vengeful black eyes return to a soft golden color and survey the scene with horror in their depths.

-x-x-x-x-

Both boys stared at one another; then they heard a commotion.

Kai's eyes narrowed as he mentally calculated a few possible scenarios. Most involved that mob of people looking for Max.

'No time to hesitate,' the normally stoic teen commanded himself as he grabbed Max's arm. "We can continue our fight later..." Was all he told the blonde teen as he ran towards the woods at the edge of the runway.

Max either agreed with his logic, or did not care to be caught by the mob. Either way, Kai was grateful as he and the blonde teen slipped into the foliage and vanished.

Deciding they were a good enough distance away, the slate and navy blue haired teen came to a sudden halt; the blonde barely managed to stop himself from crashing into the boy, let alone bowling him over.

"Spill," the fiery grey eyed Russian commanded.

A pair of defiant blue eyes locked with his.

What could only be labeled as a glaring contest began.

Kai mentally sighed. Whatever truce he had formed with his former teammate had apparently expired now that they were no longer in the airport.

-x-x-x-x-

'Shit!' Kira froze and her eyed widened. During the brief moment her body went rigid, her knees had slipped off of the branch; said blonde was currently in a succinct moment of zero gravity and was dreading her contact with the ever-so-solid ground.

A pair of strong arms caught her and she winced as the momentum of her fall jarred them both. Opening one eye cautiously, then the other, she looked up into concerned green eyes.

"You okay," Hillary inquired from out of her range of vision.

"Yeah..." When the grey eyed blonde noted that a pair of ruby colored orbs widened with realization, she made a face at her. "Before I explain, two things: one, thanks for catching me, and two, can you please put me down now?"

His face a shade of red that would have made a tomato proud, the carrot topped boy hurriedly but gently set her on the ground.

"Arigato," she chirped at him before turning to face Hilary.

""Sixth sense"," Hilary used the little air quote things.

"Yep..."

"And there's trouble," the brunette added.

"Yep."

"And we'd do good to-"

"You'd do good to shut up and not make any sudden moves, girl," a harsh voice snarled from the shadows.

'Chikuso,' Kira growled mentally as she noticed, for the first time, firelight bouncing off the glinting barrel of a hand gun.

"That's it, kiddies...don't move..." The voice instructed them as its owner stepped out of the foliage.

When the man's face was revealed, Kira's eyes widened in shock and fear.

"Ah, hello my dear...back from Hell so soon?" A wicked gleam was in the villain's eyes as he gazed upon the girl he had killed six years ago.

-x-x-x-x-

'Huh...? What time is it,' a familiar redhead wondered as he sat up and stretched his arms over his head. The covers slid off him as he yawned and hopped energetically out of bed. 'Whathafuck?!' His mind screamed as he saw Mariah on the floor, out cold, and Rei's long hair disappearing around a corner.

He did the first thing he could think of.

"TYSOOOOOOON!!!!!" Daichi yelled at the top of his lungs.

Two pairs of running feet answered his call.

"W-what," Kenny gaped at the cataleptic pink-haired neko-jin. Tyson stood frozen, his shock even more severe than Kenny's. Panic beginning to set in, Kenny hurriedly dialed 911 and the wailing of ambulance sirens snapped the other two out of their shock-imposed stupor.

Daichi was snapped back in as he watched the paramedics load Mariah's lifeless form quickly and efficiently onto a stretcher before rushing her to the ambulance. Long after the wailing of the sirens faded, he stood there, refrozen with shock...but a new emotion began to surface under that one.

Disbelief.

-x-x-x-x-

Mariam sighed as she began her daily training hike. True, she had started it a bit later than usual, and yes, it was dark out, but that was no reason for her to slack off. Let Ozuma be after Dunga and Josef for doing that. She preferred it when their leader was not after her hide, thanks.

Sighing lightly, she kicked a small stone in the path she normally took. It was just the right length, and it wandered past a vast expanse of woodland, something that relaxed her when she gazed upon its tranquility. These walks helped calm her down as well as serve as her training. She was now able to taunt Dunga for longer, and ignore his own returning barbs, which, of course, aggravated him more than her taunts themselves.

A slightly cynical smirk adorning her face, she kept walking.

Then she saw a column of smoke rising from the woods. About to slide down the steep incline and investigate, she hesitated. A second after she questioned her course of action, she berated herself soundly. Still mentally rebuking herself, she slid down, careful not to kick up any stray rocks or dirt.

Caution not yet thrown to the winds, she silently and stealthily approached the clearing. Her bright green eyes widened immeasurably as she saw a few of the new world-class bladers, that girl who was the "coach" for the Bladebreakers, and an unfamiliar girl held up at gunpoint by an unfamiliar adult.

Panic had not set in, and, using the time left that she had her wits about her, the girl crept back and retraced her steps to avoid drawing attention to herself or her actions.

'I've got to help them...it's the least I can do, especially after what Max did for me...although that one girl does look like someone I've met before...but who?' As her distracted mind debated this, she snuck along her usual route, searching for someone or something that would be able to help her.

She quickly noted a flash of orange near the other edge of the trail.

'Here goes nothing,' she muttered to herself, and abandoning all caution, sprinted towards the other incline.

-x-x-x-x-

Max and Kai both froze and threw themselves to the ground when they heard several gunshots piercing the otherwise silent and calm night air.

Wide fiery grey and bright blue exchanged frightened or startled glances with their neighbors. What was only just a few minutes seemed to pass like hours. When no more shots were fired both exchanged still shocked glances. Shaking, both boys began to push themselves off the ground, when some bushes nearby began to rustle with movement.

It sounded like a human was moving in there.

-x-x-x-x-

Everyone closed their eyes as the man cocked the gun and tightened his hand on the trigger.

Then he unloaded several rounds.

Tears began to leak out from under Ming Ming's eyelids. She was terrified and she did not know who was hurt, or even if that person was still among the living.

The rest of the group was frozen, all waiting for a sudden wave of pain to overcome them, or to fall to darkness's silent, and in this case deadly, embrace.

A deranged laugh shattered the terrified silence that had descended upon the teens and the man with the gun.

"Who's next," he hissed as he lovingly rubbed the barrel of the gun. All of them shuddered and prayed they would all escape this alive...or the rest of them would. No one knew if those earlier rounds had felled a companion.

But judging by the man's words, they had.

-x-x-x-x-

Mariam used all her willpower to keep from screaming as she felt a bullet enter her body and blood ooze from the wound. Shaking, and terrified, the bluette crawled forward. Fear and adrenalin her fuel, she fought her way towards the incline, and what she hoped would be help.

The edges of her vision blurring, the girl paused to turn and glance at the path behind her and her eyes widened as she swore vehemently under her breath. A huge trail of blood followed her. Dismayed, for she realized how little ground she had covered; she turned her head forward and swayed as stripes of black fire crossed her vision.

'...sorry...Max...' She thought as she swayed a bit more. 'I never...got to say...good bye...' The girl, for the first time in her life, closed her eyes and gave up.

For the first time in her life, she allowed herself to be tightly enveloped in darkness's deep and deathly embrace.

'Bye Josef...' Her last weak thoughts were as she completely succumbed to the tightening grasp of the darkness swirling inside her mind's eye.

Something tore her skin as she rolled into the dark forest below.

A drop of blood remained on the thorn.

-x-x-x-x-

Kai and Max both froze as the movement stopped abruptly. They exchanged glances, their truce apparently resumed...for the time being.

"What do you think it is," Max whispered.

"...I don't know..." The former captain replied. He figured that if he was honest with Max, the blonde might be a bit more willing to resolve their present conflict. Or so he hoped, anyway...

-x-x-x-x-

Uh…yeah.

This one was kinda off track, but…I liked it :crosses that out: NOT!!!…although I can't help but feel sorry for Mariah…I keep torturing her and all the other girls…I think it's about time I pick on the guys! What do you guys think? …okay, all the guys but Brooklyn…poor guy's been picked on enough by me for one story!

Sorry again for the blood and crap...I'm freakin' out of ideas!! (I shall make more soon, I hope!!!)

Kae's note: I'm very pleased with the new bad guy, Mr. Taka…I-

Yeah, Arin gets a longer note. Kae's shutting up now. :ties Kae up and throws her in a closet:

Arin's note: No space for fluff…:sigh: nothing would quite fit currently…oh well…there's always next chapter.

Anyone wanna take a stab at who our lovely friend in the woods is? Lemme know!

Yeah, that's it for now folks!
Emma