CHAPTER FOUR

~ Extension ~

White puffs cross the endless azure gently, hovering over a cityscape decorated by emerald patches of nature. The air carries the sound of a white blade and a green blade as they clash several times in a blue dish. A pair of curious eyes, iridescent and heterochromatic follows their movements like a cat would the movement of a ball of yarn. Eventually the sounds of clashing stops and compliments and praises are heard. The girl of golden hair who sat watching the friendly beybattle on the wooden porch-like structure of the dojo turns to the white scarf dangling next to her and tugs gently on it. The two toned haired boy who had been watching her answers her through his eyes.

"Could... you guys...teach me?"

"Teach what?"

"Those…" she says, pointing at the blades in Max and Ray's hand.

"Beyblading?"

"Is that...what those...are called?"

"Uh...yeah." Kai looks at her strangely, now doubting Tala's words regarding her connection to a beyblade related research facility.

Still, he had to admit the eyes she had are clearly not the eyes of a normal human being. He stares for a while at her hopeful expression then notices that the glow in her eyes held a strange aliveness.

"Kai?" she asks, tilting her head a little, unsure why Kai had stared at her the way he did.

"Aren't you suppose to already know how to beyblade?" he asked her.

"Know...how...to beyblade?" she repeats.

Kai looks at her again. The barely noticeable glow in her eyes indicates she definitely did not have a normal background but her behavior also indicates she's about as harmful as a lost kitten. After pondering on the choices for a few minutes, he tells her "Nevermind, we'll teach you."

Lux's eyes glow with delight as she thanks Kai and to his surprise, jumps up to hug him, sending them both crashing onto the wood. The others turn to see the two of them on the floor and Tyson walking towards them half asleep, apparently having just woken up. Before they had time to react to what they saw, Tyson mumbles randomly about a breakfast of chocolate coated meatballs and trips over both of them, falling face first onto a hard wooden surface as a result. Hilary and the Chief proceeds to scold Tyson and Kai gives Tyson a look of annoyance while Lux watches it all curiously.

...

It did not take long for Lux to grasp the basics of beyblading or the information the Chief, or Kenny, had to offer her. She seems to have a limited vocabulary base and that prompted some extra explaining or a demonstration from time to time, but she was a fast learner despite her apparent lack of common knowledge and soon built her own blade with parts that Max had helped her acquire from his father's shop. When asked to choose a launcher, to everyone's surprise, rather than picking, she pulls out one that was strapped around her waist and asks, "Will this do?"

The launcher she pulled out was a white one that held the shape of a gun. Furthermore, it seems to lack the need for a ripcord. On it, read the word, "Extend".

"That's a rather unusual launcher." Max comments.

"It is?" she asks, looking at it a little more closely. The launcher in her hands gleams momentarily as if calling to its wielder. Though unnoticed by anyone but Kai, the iridescent glow in her eyes brightens just a little as if answering to something before returning to its normal intensity. Lux then becomes a little adamant about using the launcher that she already had and since there wasn't much reason to disagree, the seven of them allows her and takes her to the park where she could have her first match. Tyson steps up to be the first to battle her as well as train her and this did not face much objection either. He pulls out a white blade that contains a bitchip featuring a blue dragon and loads it onto his launcher. Lux looks at her own launcher and then to her new silvery blade with a little bit of insecurity before doing the same.

As they ready their blades, Kai notices something change in Lux's eyes right when Tyson starts counting. The slight glow in her eyes grows stronger and the expression on Lux's face shifts from that of a clueless, innocent girl with amnesia, to that of a disciplined and fierce individual.

Tyson finishes the count with the traditional "Let it rip!" only to become blinded by a flash of light from Lux's launcher along with everyone else who had been watching. When the light subsides, they slowly recover their sight only to gape at an enormous crater in the ground where the blades were suppose to have clashed. Tyson gets up from the ground and though his blade is still spinning, it can barely maintain its balance and wobbles as if about to stop. Lux, on the other hand stands tall and straight on the edge of the crater. Her eyes appear calm but cold. Its glow is now no longer hard to miss. Her blade spins strong, the area where its bitchip would be glows brightly as well.

"What happened…?" Kenny asks as he stares into the crater.

"I don't know, but this girl's RPM is off the charts!" a computerized voice from the laptop Kenny carries around replies. It then continues, "I'm getting a strange reading from her blade too and its not exactly like that of a bitbeast!"

"So then what is it, Dizzi?" Hilary asks.

"How should I know!" the computerized voice replies.

"Tala wasn't kidding last night, huh?" Daichi comments.

"Hey guys, there's something very different about Lux's eyes, look!" Ray points out.

"You're right…" Max agrees.

Tyson too turned to Lux's eyes and noticed the difference in them from before. "Lux…"

Kai's eyes widen suddenly as he notices the unstableness in the glow of Lux's eyes and her blade's bitchip. "Lux!"

She turns to him and for a moment, appears harmless and innocent again. Then, as if something snaps inside her, her expression changes back. She turns her attention back to Tyson and attacks his blade with her silvery one, causing it to stop spinning completely. It was then clear she had won so she then walks into the crater to retrieve her blade and as soon as she makes contact with it, another flash of light blinds them.

After a minute or so, each of them blink their eyes open to discover the golden haired girl laying in the crater with her silver blade in hand. Her eyes are closed and she appears to be in a peaceful sleep. Kai is the first to step up closer to her. He scans her quickly and notices the gun-like launcher in her left hand. He takes it out of her grip without much effort and tosses it to Kenny who catches it with a "huh?" and picks the girl up.

"So now what?" asks Tyson.

"Kenny, analyze that. I'm taking her back to my place."

"Why?" asks Kenny.

"Just do it."

Kenny nodded to Kai's words as he walked off. All of them watched him as he left.