HI GUYS! Sorry for procrastinating this for so long… I blame teachers. Teachers and school. And homework. And the cucumber. XD
I HAVE A COLD. I FEEL TERRIBLE. ;A;
I AM A PERSON. I AM GREECIAN. I AM AWESOME. SO ARE ALL THE PEOPLE WHO REVIEWED LAST CHAPTER. YOU GET AN ITALIAN SURVIVAL KIT~ I'll also throw in a homework-doing robot thingy. Because I'm nice.
NOW. THE LONG AWAITED CHAPTER: THE FIRST BATTLE BETWEEN TEAM SM AND TEAM RLS. I'VE PROCRASTINATED FOR SO LONG THAT I'VE FORGOTTEN WHO'S SUPPOSED TO BE BATTLING. I'LL GO AND CHECK WHILE YOU READ THE DISCLAIMER.
Charice: Flame-chan does not own Beyblade, or Team SM. She only owns my team and I, and our Beys. Bes9200 owns Team SM. Now read, because I am ZHE AWESOME PRUSSIA. :P
Me: … No Charice, just no.
Zomg, it must've been at least 3 months since I've even looked at this chapter… I'm really sorry about the long update time! What was it, August or something when I last updated? I'M SO SORREH! I'll make it up to you through a really long chapter, ja? Anyway, I think I've procrastinated enough, so ON WITH THE NEXT CHAPPIE! XD
Blading Brings People Together
Chapter 18: Alex's Insanity?!
"So… it's finally here…"
"Yes, yes it is."
"… Why are Charice and Miku trying to be all dramatic?"
"No clue. Anyone for popcorn?"
"Hell yeah!"
/=+=/
BEEP!
"Huh? What was that?"
"Oh, that's my email. Guys, look at this!" RLS rushed over to Alex, who was sitting in front of his ivy-green laptop. "The WBBA has sent us Team Spiritual Magic's battle order! Dawn is advance guard, Raven is the second-in-command and Crystalline is the commander!"
"So Raven's not going last…? Well, I dibs fighting Raven!" Charice grinned.
"H-hey! I was going to say that!" Miku protested.
"I'll fight Dawn, if that's ok with you." Alex stood up, turning to face the others.
"Um… I don't know…" Charice didn't know what to say. It was possible that Alex would go insane again, and that Dawn could be badly injured. She certainly didn't want to be sued by more anxious teammates…
"Why not?"
Does Alex not remember what happened? Charice thought.
"Do you not trust me?" Alex looked hurt.
"I-I guess it wouldn't hurt…" What was she saying?! "Alright, you can fight Dawn." She didn't mean that! Why did she say it?!
"Uh…" Mitsuki and Miku gaped at her. She mouthed 'I don't know' at the two of them.
"… Well, I want to fight Crystalline! Please, please, please, please, PLEEEEASE!" Miku literally begged.
"I don't think I want to fight this time, so it's ok with me."
Charice breathed out heavily, inwardly facepalming at her teammate's over-enthusiasm, "Fine then, you can fight Crystalline."
"YESSSSSS!"
/=+=/
Now stuffing their faces with popcorn, Team RLS were chilling out in the team room, watching the Himalayan DJ introduce the battle on the TV.
"Hey, does anyone else find it strange that they're all called DJs? I mean, has anyone actually seen them play music or something?" Miku randomly asked.
"Miku. It's just a name. And no, I don't think they're even slightly musically talented." Charice deadpanned.
"Yeah, but-"
"And now, would the teams please make their way to the stadium entrances!" The speaker blared, deafening Miku who just so happened to be standing next to it.
"THAT HURT, STUPID AUTOCOM!" Alex and Charice literally had to drag Miku away from the speaker to stop her from ripping it from the ceiling and stamping on it.
/=+=/
"Put your hands together for the Filippino team, Team Rock Lightning Storm! Please welcome Charice Lorrendos, Alex Santos, Miku Layosa and Mitsuki Malicsi!" The crowd cheered as the team walked out.
"Whoo! WE'RE AWESOME! WE'RE THE BEST TEAM EVER!" Miku yelled, waving her hands about like a madman.
"…" The crowd fell silent, gawking at Miku.
"Um… okaaaaay… Calm down, Miku." Charice laughed awkwardly, pulling Miku over to their stand.
"It's times like this that I enjoy being unnoticed." Mentally, Mitsuki thanked the divine deity that had given her this salvation.
"Uh, ok… Anyway, please welcome our own team, TEAM SPIRITUAL MAGIC! Their team consists of Raven Azure, Dawn Azure, Crystalline Xenon and Lily Azure! Marigold Field is their support member!" Raven and her team came out to a loud roar from the crowd that nearly deafened Miku… again.
"OH, SO THEY GET A LOUDER CHEER." Miku half-yelled, causing the Himalayan DJ to ogle her as if she'd grown a second head. But then again, knowing Miku, it was always possible.
"Be quiet, Miku!" Charice snapped, covering Miku's mouth with a hand, "Haha… Don't mind her!" She called to the Himalayan DJ, only moving her hand when she decided Miku would shut up.
"Uh… ok then…" The DJ regained his composure, "Would the advance guards please step forward!"
Dawn stepped forwards, grinning, "So who's going to fight me?"
"Me." Alex calmly walked over to the stadium, attaching Lightning Accipiter to his launcher.
"Oh goody! You're the one who beat that Renee and the spider bey of hers!" Dawn skipped over, holding out a bey, "But you're going to be defeated at the hands of my Abominable Golem!" The bey glinted, and the crowd cheered at her words, chanting 'Abominable Golem' and 'Dawn' like there was no tomorrow. Only Nile and Kyoya (they had already defeated their opponents– a feat that greatly surprised Charice - and had flown over to Tibet straight away), and Tazmin appeared to be supporting Team RLS, which greatly saddened the violet-eyed girl.
"As if I would let that happen!" Alex gripped his launcher tightly, narrowing his eyes as he stared down the green-eyed brunette.
"3! 2! 1!" The crowd yelled.
"LET IT RIP!" Alex and Dawn shouted, launching their beys. Accipiter and Golem flew past each other harmlessly, before hitting the stadium floor and beginning their orbit around the stadium.
"And the two beys have entered the stadium! Alex's bey is a Lightning Accipiter, while Dawn's is the incredible ADOMINABLE GOLEM! With a bey like Golem, there's no way Dawn will lose to Alex!" Miku scoffed at this, glaring heatedly at the Himalayan DJ.
"Well, someone certainly isn't taking any sides, are they?" She said rather loudly to Mitsuki and Charice, looking quite affronted. Charice swiftly covered the black-haired girl's mouth again, and hissed into her ear, "Shut up, Miku, unless you want us to get kicked out of the competition!" When Miku mumbled something against her hand that sounded like "That won't happen", Charice told her it could happen. After hearing that, Miku seemed to shut her mouth, so she focused her attention back on the battle.
"Drilling Peck!" Alex ordered Accipiter, and the hawk appeared. It shot towards Golem, beak outstretched and ready to attack.
"And Alex uses a special move right off the bat! It's clear he wants to finish this quickly!" The Himalayan DJ said.
"Pulling out the big guns already, eh? Then we'll do the same! Golem, Snow Avalanche!" The giant beast of Golem materialized, roaring its challenge to Accipiter. Stamping its great feet as a sumo would, it let out another bellow. The actual bey jumped up and down twice, instead of stomping its non-existent feet. Accipiter continued speeding towards it, but before it could even touch the vast beast, it was smothered with an enormous pile of snow.
"Accipiter!" Alex yelped, looking quite worried.
"Yeah, bulls eye!" Dawn whooped. "You know, unless you can get out of the snow, which is really unlikely, Accipiter will stop spinning before you know it, what with all that immense weight on top of it. This battle's mine already!" She hollered, which only caused the crowd to cheer louder.
"Well done, Dawn!" Raven called out, pleased with her sister's performance
"Accipiter's attack is effortlessly foiled by Golem's special move, Snow Avalanche! As you can tell, it drops a mound of snow right on top of the enemy! No bey stands a chance of getting out of that!" The Himalayan DJ commentated, clearly believing that the battle was over already.
"C'mon Alex, you can beat her!" Miku hooted, yet her cries were lost in the roars of the crowd. Alex himself, however, had become extremely quiet, and was staring down at the ground. Although the rest of his team couldn't see it – he had his back to them, obviously - Nile and the others could see the shadow obscuring his eyes: definitely a bad sign.
"Charice, look out! He's going insane again!" Nile tried to warn the brunette, but his words, like Miku's were also lost in the crowd's cheering. "This is bad, really bad…" He muttered to Kyoya, who was sitting next to him, but he merely gave a curt nod and kept watching the battle.
On Kyoya's other side, Tazmin yelled to no avail, "ALEX, SNAP OUT OF IT! JUST KEEP FIGHTING LIKE YOU USUALLY DO! DON'T-" She was cut off by Kyoya placing a hand on her petite shoulder and saying, "It's pointless, Tazmin. They won't be able to hear us, or at least, not with the crowd yelling this loud."
"But-" Her protests were interrupted by Nile suddenly exclaiming, "This is terrible! I think Alex has finally lost it!" Their attention immediately changed to Alex, who appeared to be chuckling. If it wasn't for the shadow still masking his eyes, it would've looked like he was just laughing innocently. But because of the concealing darkness, it was more like an evil chuckle, something which Nile didn't hesitate to assume it was.
"So you thought you could beat me…" His voice was unexpectedly loud, loud enough to silence the crowd. "Well, you're wrong!" Alex roared, the same dark blue aura as before surrounding him. Yet that wasn't what shocked everyone the most. What alarmed, and also scared them all (even Kyoya, but he wouldn't admit it) were his eyes: they were as crimson as blood and his pupils were gone.
"Alex! Snap out of it!" Charice, Mitsuki and Miku all cried at once.
"SHUT UP!" He bellowed, spinning on his heel to fix those red eyes on his teammates.
"Meep…" Miku whimpered pathetically, and quickly hid behind the shaking Mitsuki.
"YOU WILL NOT STOP ME FROM WINNING!" Alex growled, before turning back to face the stunned Dawn. "Now Accipiter, BREAK FREE!" Nothing happened for a few moments, but suddenly the snow mound was smashed into a million pieces, exposing Accipiter bathed in dark-blue like its Blader.
"What is this?! It got out?!" She exclaimed, "Isn't this using additional powers?! Isn't that against the rules?!" She questioned the Himalayan DJ, but got no reply – he was too busy quaking in his boots to say anything, not even to comment on the battle. "Alright then, I guess I'll just have to take you on anyway!"
"I-is she insane?!" Charice murmured to Mitsuki.
"I-I don't k-know…" The girl managed to stutter out, still in fright from seeing her teammate like that.
"Come on, do your very worst!" Dawn challenged, and Golem howled its approval.
"JUST REMEMBER THAT YOU WERE THE ONE WHO BROUGHT THIS ON TO YOURSELF! ACCIPITER, DARK LIGHTNING SPARK!" The sinister version of the hawk cawed ominously, becoming bathed in even more of that dark blue aura. All of a sudden, it discharged the extra force in a rapid burst of dusky electricity, which sped towards Golem.
"Golem! Block it!" Dawn commanded her bey. Golem tipped backwards, revealing a rubber spin track. The electricity was absorbed into the spin track, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. "Now, send it right back at it!" As soon as she had ordered it, the electricity shot out from the spin track, charging straight back at its creator.
"Accipiter, dodge it!" Accipiter moved to avoid it, but was a millisecond too slow. It was hit by its own move, and Accipiter's beast crashed into the ground. The bey itself was shrouded in a cloud of dust. Once it had cleared, the bey was still spinning, but had a slight wobble to its movements. Growling, Alex issued another attack, "TEARING FIRE SLASH, ACCIPITER!" The hawk squawked, its bloodied talons seemingly blazing with a menacing shade of purple flames, before it launched itself at Golem, flaming talons outstretched. The bey was veiled in the same flames as its beast's claws, and zoomed towards its opponent.
"Snow Avalanche!" Like before, Golem stomped its feet, and a heap of snow plummeted towards Accipiter. The dark hawk paused in its assault, and with two slashes of its sharp, scorching claws, the snow sizzled and melted in mid-air. Threat eliminated, Accipiter rushed towards Golem once more. The two beys clashed, sparks flying as the searing heat of Accipiter met with the cold metal of Golem's fusion wheel. "Hold it off, Golem!" Dawn yelled, and her bey instantly conformed, pushing back the hawk.
"IT'S HOPELESS! YOU CANNOT BLOCK A HEAD-ON ATTACK FROM ACCIPITER WHEN IT'S LIKE THIS!" Alex laughed manically, "SHOW THEM YOUR TRUE STRENGTH, ACCIPITER!" It complied instantaneously, easily pushing Golem backwards, towards the edge of the stadium.
"Golem! Escape!" Dawn cried. Pushing Accipiter back slightly, Golem managed to break away from the hawk's unrelenting attack, and darted to the other side of the stadium.
"Running away, are we? Well, that's just COWARDLY!" Alex snarled, eyes flashing an even more evil red.
By this time, the Himalayan DJ had finally recovered from his shock, and was now commenting on the state of Alex, "Alex seems to have lost it! And those eyes, they're blood red! What on earth has happened to him?!"
"HE'S BEEN POSSESSED BY ALIENS, THAT'S WHAT'S HAPPENED!" Miku screamed.
"SHUT UP ABOUT ALIENS ALREADY, WILL YOU?!" Charice shrieked back, grabbing hold of the front of Miku's black jacket.
"WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO, NINJA-GIRL?!" Miku screeched, and the two started fighting.
"Um… just ignore them…" Mitsuki said, but naturally, no-one heard her. And anyway, everyone was too focused on the intense battle to pay any attention to the two warring girls.
"ACCIPITER, DARK LIGHTNING SPARK AGAIN!" As before, Accipiter was engulfed by more dark-blue aura, sending it towards Golem once it had charged up enough.
"That won't work! Golem, absorb it again!" Golem tipped back like the last time, and absorbed the lightning into its spin track. It sent it speeding back to Accipiter, hitting it dead-on.
"Golem thwarts Accipiter's attack once again, and it hits Accipiter straight on! Surely Accipiter can't withstand two of those attacks?" When the dust cleared, Accipiter was wobbling even more. Still spinning, but wobbling dangerously.
"Alright, Golem! Attack while it's weakened!" Dawn instructed, and Golem raced towards the wavering bey. To Charice, from then on everything seemed like it was in slow motion. She and Miku stopped fighting, turning their heads towards the battle. Mitsuki tensed, and so did Nile and Tazmin. Kyoya remained as impassive as ever. Alex's red eyes widened in disbelief as Golem smashed into Accipiter, propelling it out of the stadium. It flew through the air, shooting past Miku's ear with a hairsbreadth to spare and embedded itself in the arena's wall, finally losing its dark-blue cloak.
"Th-the battle is over! With a final strike from Golem, Accipiter flies out of the stadium and into the arena wall! The winner is Dawn Azure!" The Himalayan DJ announced. Leaping up into the air, Dawn caught her bey and laughed happily, running back to her team. Charice watched with a heavy heart as she was congratulated by her team.
"Miku, we mustwin our battles, ok?" She said to the brown-eyed girl, determination in her eyes.
"You bet! I won't lose to anyone!" Miku nodded, obviously excited for her battle, if it were to come.
That's right… it depends entirely on me now. I have to win my battle, or we're out of the competition. But the thing is… I know nothing about Raven's bey or anything. I just have to hope that she's in a similar position with Wyvern and I. In all of her apprehension for her battle against Raven, she'd completely forgotten about Alex, as did Miku. However, Mitsuki hadn't forgotten him, and soon shook Charice and Miku out of their trances.
"Guys, look at Alex!" She tugged at their sleeves to get their attention, and then pointed at Alex.
"I… lost…" He was muttering. From where Nile, Kyoya and Tazmin were seated, they could see his eyes slowly losing their red hue and were changing back to their usual green colour.
"He's snapping out of it!" Tazmin squealed joyfully, but her face fell when Alex collapsed on to the floor in a heap.
"Alex!" Charice, Miku, Mitsuki, Tazmin and Nile all yelled, and his teammates ran down to him. Tazmin quickly made her way to the end of the row, running to down the stairs and jumping over the arena wall to go to join them. Since he wasn't their teammate, and they didn't know him that well anyway, Nile and Kyoya only exchanged a worried glance. Well, Nile did a worried glance, while Kyoya simply raised an eyebrow.
"Oh my gosh, Alex, are you alright?" Charice inquired anxiously, tentatively prodding said Blader.
"He's unconscious," Tazmin said, before checking his pulse, "but otherwise fine."
"So we don't need to call the hospital?"
"Shouldn't need to. If only I had all of the herbs I had when I was with the tribe, then he'd be fine in no time. But without them…" Tazmin trailed off.
" We might need to call off the battle for a while, just to make sure he's ok. I mean, I'm sure you won't be able to fight properly if you didn't know how he was, could you Charice?"
"Probably not… Hey, Himalayan DJ! We need to postpone the next battle!" Charice called to the DJ.
"How long for?"
"I'm not sure… I think a day or two should be enough." Mitsuki replied, after examining Alex closely.
"Well?"
Of course, he didn't hear Mitsuki. Charice mentally sighed, and repeated what Mitsuki had said.
"Alright… just contact the WBBA when you're ready."
"Thanks," She turned to her teammates, "now we should get him back to Raven's place, yeah?"
/=+=/
With some help from Nile and Kyoya (in other words, making them do everything), they got Alex to Team SM's training dojo and rested him on the sofa. A few minutes later, Team SM walked in.
"How's he doing?" Raven asked.
"He's doing fine. He should be ok after a long rest and some food." Tazmin answered, turning to face them.
"Good. I mean, I certainly don't want to have to wait for our battle much longer, if you get me, Charice?"
"Yeah, I get you." The two girls stared at each other coldly, neither wanting to lose this unofficial staring contest. They only stopped when Miku opened the kitchen door and entered the room again, a jam sandwich in her hand. They quickly switched to staring at Miku, who got extremely creeped out. Slowly, she then backed into the kitchen, not even daring to look away until she shut the door.
"Well, that was weird." Holding back her laughter, Tazmin tore her gaze from the now-closed kitchen door and studied Lily. After all, that was the first time they'd seen her up close. She had thigh-length brown hair in two ponytails, and had a crown of flowers atop her head. Her red-ish pink-ish eyes were hidden behind pink glasses, and she wore a white, sleeveless dress. On her feet was a pair of black Mary-Jane shoes. Like Raven and Kyoya, she had small fangs, but they didn't look as sharp as theirs. "Hi Lily! I'm Tazmin, Team RLS's supporter! You're the sub, right?" Lily didn't respond; she only pulled out a notebook from somewhere and started scribbling something in it. "Uh… did you hear me?" A few seconds later, she held up the notebook. On the page, it read, "Hi Tazmin! It's nice to meet you. Yes, I'm the sub, and yes, I did hear you." Raven noticed the confused look on Tazmin's face, and explained.
"Lily's shy around new people… and boys. She writes in the notebook instead of talking to them until she gets used to them."
"Fair enough." Her attention turned to Alex when he let out a small groan. "Alex! Are you awake?"
"Y-yeah… where a-am I? Wh-what happened? D-did I win m-my fight?" He moaned, attempting to sit up, but Mitsuki pushed him back down.
"You're at Team SM's training dojo. You collapsed from exhaustion after your battle. And no… I'm sorry, Alex. You lost."
"That's not-" Charice started, but held her tongue when Mitsuki glared at her and shook her head. "I mean… It's not a problem that you lost, so don't worry. Miku and I will win our battles!" This earned a snort from Raven.
"You won't win, trust me." She scoffed, before walking out of the room.
"Hate to say it, but she's right." Crystalline said with a blank face, following her teammate out.
That afternoon, the tension in the dojo was higher than ever.
I'M SO HAPPY I JUST WROTE 6 PAGES IN ONE AFTERNOON! AND THIS IS 12 PAGES LONG! WHO'S THE BOSS? FLAME-CHAN IS! WHOOOO! XD
Ahem. Anyway, as I said at the beginning, thank you for being patient for this chapter. To be honest, I had pretty much given up on this. But when AmmyChey3X wrote the first review in a very long time, I remembered how many people read and love this. I guess that kinda just woke me up, and I've decided that even if I'm not into Beyblade as much, I'll continue this fanfic for the readers. So thank you, AmmyChey3X for helping me see this~! I am indebted to you, I guess! X3
No questions today, but because I'm feeling nice, I'm going to give everybody who reviews a basket filled with churros, cookies, cake, chocolate and chips. Omg, I've just realised they all start with 'C'! So click that nice review box and review! XD