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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
~ Exchange ~
The sky was brightly lit despite the time of day. Colorful combinations of oranges, reds and pinks were beginning to decorate the early evening skies. It has already been three days since Kai, Lux and the Blitzkrieg Boys have begun to train under the direction and supervision of Ventus. During these three days Kai could not help but notice he had somehow mysteriously acquired a great deal of power. His Dranzer had been moving faster and generally had a noticeably stronger momentum than it did the last time he had used it. His ability to control his blade was also much better than before when he had battled Ventus. He found all this very strange but however, as the change was not for the worse, he simply took note of it and did not care for the cause.
Five beyblades spun across the field in whatever direction they pleased. The group's training have resulted in a good deal of damage to the trees at the edge of the clearing. Luckily for them, they were able to keep the trees from falling in ways that would get in their way. Right now, Ventus and all four of the Blitzkrieg Boys are focusing on improving Lux's evasion both in person as well as in beyblading. Kai stood watching them on the sidelines, his blade ready in case it was needed. Lux had made noticeable improvements with each passing day. Although it has been a while since she had learned to blade and she clearly had talent for it, it was the first time she had trained so intensely to get better at it. One of the improvements she had made is to take a step to get out of the way if a blade was flying in her direction. Previously, should someone attack her, she could only stand there and wait for someone to block the attack for her but now, she had learned to get over her fear of fast incoming objects and move. Her evasion in beybattles seem to have greatly improved as well. Her control over her blade however still seem to be a little lacking.
"Stop," Ventus calls. "That's enough. We're going to work on her attack next and hopefully if we're lucky it might improve her control as well. Before that, let's have a 30 minute break."
With that, Ventus walks off to parts unknown. Kai leans back against a nearby tree behind him while Bryan, Spencer and Ian decide to take a stroll around. Lux smiles cheerfully, glad to be allowed to have some rest. She turns to Kai and takes a seat quietly next to him on the ground. Tala sees this and decides to walk off with the rest of his team.
Kai, now left alone with Lux turns to her to find that the tired girl has dozed off. He was not surprised by this one bit. The group had been waking up every day at the crack of dawn to travel to this spot to train and the training did not end until dusk. While it was nice that Ventus arranged for all of them to stay at a fancy hotel in a nearby city, the fact remains that they have been training for long periods each day so far.
...
Tala walks quietly with the rest of his team. Although his home country was renowned for its harsh winters, the weather at this time of year so close to summer is generally much more enjoyable. Still he could not completely relax. The thought of telling Lux about their past still looms in his mind and there has been one other thing he could not help but notice lately about Kai. While it was no surprise to him that Lux's eyes held an unusual glow, lately, whenever he saw Kai blade, he could not help but notice a similar glow appear in his left eye. At first he thought maybe it had just been a trick of the light, but it has been three days of this.
"Hey any of you guys notice something about Kai lately?" Tala asks, breaking the silence between them.
"What do you mean?" Spencer asks.
"The last three days of training," Tala begins, "I don't know if it's just me, but, I've been seeing a strange glow in Kai's left eye. I don't know if he's aware of it himself."
"Now that you mention it, I do remember seeing something like this. I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me though." Bryan then remarks, "Only those who were experimented on in that laboratory were supposed to have glowing eyes, right?"
"I've seen it too," Ian adds. "I wasn't sure what it was so I kept my mouth shut."
"Hmm…" Tala now considers bringing this up to Kai but ultimately decided not to dig his nose in. If there was a need for him to know, he was sure that Kai would tell him about it anyway.
...
Training soon resumed and it seems that only one person would be needed to train Lux for improving her attack. The choice of blader was not a hard one either, several people in the group volunteered to be Lux's opponent and in the end they decided that it would be fine to just take turns blading with her. The hard part was getting Lux to stop evading and start attacking. The girl simply did not have a strong desire to hit any one of her friends, hence the strength of her attacks have been mediocre in comparison to what she has shown possible in the past.
Two more rounds went by with almost no improvement. Kai was getting tired of watching, for it was becoming more and more of a game of cat and mouse. The same could be said of Spencer, Bryan and Ian. Tala and Ventus seem to have more patience however.
"Come on, Lux, stop running from me and attack back already." Spencer was getting tired of chasing after her all over the field.
Lux hit back with her silver blade but not very hard.
"I think she needs a little push." Ian comments. "Anyone got ideas?"
Silence followed. Kai had been with her for over a month now and if she showed any hint of anger ever, it was not towards her friends. In fact, the innocent girl had been very docile in temperament almost all the time.
Tala on the other hand sat deep in thought. He had known the girl for a small amount of time as well a long time ago. It then hit him. There was a way to get her to focus, but there is a chance it might not work now. Nonetheless, he gets up from his seat on the log and walks up to Spencer and signaled Spencer to lend him an ear.
Kai watched Tala's actions puzzled, as did Bryan and Ian. They could not begin to imagine what Tala is telling Spencer but when he finished, Spencer's expression gave the guys on the sidelines hope that the day's training might end soon.
"Hey, Lux." Spencer turns to Lux.
Lux turns from her blade to him. Just as she does, Spencer sends his blade in Kai's direction, narrowly missing his head by about a few centimeters, causing both the girl and Kai to become alarmed. A confused Kai turn to Spencer wondering what in the world Tala must've told him.
"Either you start learning to attack seriously or it'll be in Kai's face next move I make." Spencer tells her. His teammates look at each other and Tala signals to them through his expression that there is nothing to worry about. The golden haired girl looks at Spencer confused.
"But…I thought…" she begins.
"But nothing! I don't like this game of cat and mouse." Spencer pretends to try to hit Kai again. Kai easily dodges, having caught on to the idea by now as well.
Now confused, Lux resolves to stop Spencer's blade. She begins to attack more furiously but while her attack frequency is quite high, much higher than the average blader, her attack power is still not as strong as it can be. Spencer attempts to evade her now instead; the roles of cat and mouse seem to have reversed.
"I'm gonna hit Kai again!" Spencer taunts her. His teammates sitting on the side now try to suppress their amusement. For them it, was a cheap act after all.
Spencer sends his blade speeding towards Kai, who is ready to dodge when it is close enough.
"Elfe!" Lux calls to her blade.
Despite it being a mock battle for the sake of training, the intensity on Lux's side is increasing. Kai once again dodges Spencer's Seaborg blade. Spencer turns his blade around and attempts to make another attack however.
Although still confused, Lux desires only one thing at this moment and that is for the attacks on Kai to stop. "Elfe!"
Everything was white. It was not the first time either. Lux felt an influx of words and knowledge enter her mind and for the current situation, it was useful. Once Lux returned to the present world, she knew how to stop Spencer.
"Elfe, Arrow Rain!" she commanded.
Elfe emerged from the silver blade, clad in majestic armor. A bow appeared in her hand and she shot a single arrow from it before both the silver beyblade and herself disappear from sight. As Spencer's blade heads for Kai, a single arrow of light fell from the sky followed by many more. Watching carefully, it was clear that the "arrows" were really Lux's beyblade moving at unimaginable speeds. The overwhelming assault stopped Seaborg cold in its tracks, leaving it completely still, even sustaining some noticeable damage.
Lux watch confused as those sitting on the log at the side of the clearing cheered for her. She turns back to Spencer who no longer show any hint of hostility.
"Great job, there." Spencer compliments her on her newly learned move.
Lux looks at him confused some more.
"It was just a way to motivate you to attack harder. Sorry we had to resort to that…" Spencer tells her.
Although normally hard to anger, Lux was sure angry now. She had thought Spencer was really going to attack Kai afterall. A little upset by what they did, she turned from them and began to walk away. Kai now, free from having to dodge Spencer's blade turned to Tala and gave him a look of annoyance. However, since things all turned out for the better, he simply went off after Lux.
"There's something important I must announce." Ventus gets off the log.
Lux and Kai stop in their tracks and turn back.
"Kai, as you know, Lok has been keeping an eye on Lux." He begins. "I'm sure by now he'd have noticed you are gone."
"And?"
"It's practically public knowledge that you have friends in Russia." Ventus looks over to Tala and his team. He continues. "I've already made travel arrangements for all you, but the choice is yours if you want to come. Lux, Kai and I will definitely have to go to Sweden."
The Blitzkrieg Boys look at one another. Originally they had thought this training was only going to be in Russia. Tala looks to Lux, and thinks back to his past.
"We'll I'm in." Tala volunteers to follow them. His example leads his teammates to do the same however.
"If Tala's going then we will too." Bryan joins in.
"Then it's decided. We'll pack up as soon as we get back to the hotel."
...
Tyson stretches as he steps out of the plane. Behind him, he is joined by Kenny, Max, Ray, Daichi and Hilary. The group looks around for directions. They had been on a long plane ride to Moscow and it was good that they will finally have a break to stretch their legs.
"Hm…the directions say we are to transfer to a different plane…" Kenny looks around for the gate information. "…and that plane leaves in three hours from now."
"That's great," Ray comments. "We have three whole hours to rest up before our connecting flight."
"Alright! Who's up for some food?" A cheerful Tyson runs off.
"Tyson you just ate before you got off the plane!" Hilary screams after him.
"Wait for me!" Daichi joins him, the two running off together to the food court.
"They sure are energetic." Max remarks.
As the rest of the team watches the two dash off, two dark clad youths who appear older by perhaps just a year or so head off to the baggage claim behind them.
"The Bladebreakers are here." Wyvynn whispers in a low voice to his pink haired companion.
"Then that just means there's a high probability either they are searching for Kai and Lux also or Kai informed them of his location." Zane whispers back to the youth with ice-blue hair. "And chances are, Ventus is here as well."
Wyvynn looks back to the bladebreakers, his iridescent cobalt eyes meeting that of Ray's momentarily.
"Come, we have to pick Lok up and go through customs." Zane reminds him, his own iridescent orange eyes following Wyvynn's movements.
...
Much time has elapsed and the clocks now read five to ten. A flight attendant stands at the entrance to the jetway, and the other passengers have appeared to begin lining up for boarding. Deciding it was about time, the Bladebreakers get up as well to begin boarding. The process was smooth and soon each of them found themselves seated in the front of the economy class section. It would seem that nothing out of the ordinary would occur.
Tyson and Daichi found themselves in a fight again; Daichi wanting to claim the window seat from Tyson and Tyson defending it from him. The situation provoked a scolding from Hilary.
"Hey Daichi, if you want I can switch seats with you." Max offers his window seat to the dissatisfied little red head.
"Really?" Daichi looks at him delighted.
"Yeah," Max nods.
Ray sighs at the thought of having Daichi sit next to him but he might as well just stay quiet. His mood changes however when a familiar voice behind him becomes audible.
"Excuse me, sorry…" Lux says to all the people in the aisle as she, Kai, Tala, Bryan, Spencer, Ian, and Ventus are passing through.
"Lux! Kai!" Ray calls to them with a smile. "And…Tala?"
Tyson, Max, Daichi, Hilary and Kenny turn to see them.
"Ray!" Lux greets him, surprised to see him. "And everyone else too!"
"I didn't expect to see you guys here." Ray says.
"Yeah, what are you guys doing here" Tyson greets them.
"We're going to Stockholm, if the destination of the flight is not obvious enough." Kai answers him.
"We've got to get to our seats before we end up delaying the flight." Tala reminds them. "We can all chat later."
"Ok, we'll see you after we get off the plane." Max says as they continue moving to the front of the plane.
"By the way, where are you guys sitting?" Daichi asks them, a curious look on his face with his hands glued to the plane's window, clearly appreciating the seat change.
"We're sitting in the first class section." Lux replies with a smile, before leaving the section with the rest, completely unaware of the impact this information would have.
Daichi's jaw dropped and silence followed momentarily as Tyson, Max, Ray, Hilary and Kenny braced for what was to come.
"NO FAIR! I WANT TO RIDE IN FIRST CLASS TOO!"
...
The flight finally takes off and the night more or less ends. Wyvynn and Zane stands outside a giant wreck in wait. They have traveled a long way to get here and it took another long few hours to finally get to this place. The entire place around the laboratory appear dead and for the two outside, there was nothing to do. Lok had spread his particle probes around the place and gone inside the lab to search the place. The two of them were left outside. Wyvynn yawns, exhausted. If he was traveling alone, he would've taken at most two hours to get here from Japan.
"He'll be done soon." Zane tells him. "Just wait another ten minutes. I can tell he's making his way out."
"That's what you said ten minutes ago and the ten minutes before that." Wyvynn was not buying that line anymore. "I don't know how much more of this I can take. I need a nap."
"You will not be napping." A cold voice snaps from a door to the place. Lok holds out his hand and catches a small iridescent particle. "Ventus, Kai and Lux were here but they are not here anymore."
Lok walks slowly closer to them. "Wyvynn. Ventus and Lux both has roots in Sweden. I want you to find them and try to keep track of their location."