A/N: hope you guys have been enjoying the story so far! Check out my other stories, and hope you have enjoyed reading them as well! I am working on a few more, they should be up soon.
"who is Lightning L-Drago?" Zero asked.
"yeah, what are we going up against here?" Ren said.
"Lightning L-Drago was the defeat that earned Gingka the title of Japan's Ace, but it didn't come easy" Anashi replied. "it was a dark bey, similar to Nemesis, but much less powerful. It was Ryuga's bey, but he insists that Lightning L-Drago evolved into Meteo L-Drago, which then evolved into his current bey after being hit by the Star Fragment. I don't see how it could be possible that that bey could still exist with its former dark power. It was a left-rotation bey, the first the world had ever seen. Defeating it also meant that Gingka had saved the world for the first time of three total, now four since he has defeated Nemesis twice."
"wait, he has saved the world four times?!" Ren and Shinobu exclaimed.
Anashi nodded and counted them off on her fingers "yes, there was Lightning L-Drago at Battle Bladers, Spiral Force and HD Academy just after the World Championships, and then the two times against Nemesis. Gingka is a hero four times over! The only defeat that was without any help was against Lightning L-Drago, since he had the rest of his World Championship team and a couple of the other teams helping him against HD Academy, and the Legend Bladers helping both times against Nemesis."
"wow, that's impressive. Now I feel a lot less strong" Zero said.
Anashi laughed. "no need to" she said. "im sure our generation of bladers will get its chance to follow in the footsteps of the Legend Bladers."
After a couple more hours of flying, the group arrived at Koma Village. Anashi immediately bolted for her house, leaving Zero and the others to catch up to her. She pounced on the unsuspecting Ryo, surprising him.
"what are you doing here?" he asked.
"im on an assignment here, leading the new LBA Squad 11 and showing them how it's done" she replied as the others came running up behind her, out of breath. She introduced them, then called Gingka to find out their instructions. "Gingka says we are just supposed to hang out and search the forest, find out from Hyoma where he saw the dragon and stuff, then look around nearby."
"lets go then!" Zero and Ren exclaimed.
Anashi smiled and led the way to Hyoma's house.
After getting directions from Hyoma and a warning from Hokuto, the group set off for the forest. Anashi showed the group all the places where she and Gingka had trained together before the LBA HQ was moved to Metal Bey City and things got complex and busy. Anashi and the others tried launching their beys across the stream, but all had to try again. After about her fifth try, Anashi finally got the stance right and sent her bey to the other side without a problem, then jumped across herself, shouting out directions to the others from the opposite side of the stream. After a couple more tries, they were all across and on to the next challenge.
-meanwhile, in America-
Masamune, Toby, and Zeo were standing and watching the young bladers train in the Dungeon Gym. Now owned and run by them, this gym was a bustle of activity. They still had plenty of competition with the Gold Bank Gym, just as they had in the old times, and currently the scores were tied between the two. Toby was running Shadow Launch practice, Zeo was helping with actual launches, and Masamune was "commentating" on a battle. All three looked up as King walked in. all training froze, some bladers halfway through a shadow launch.
"don't stop guys! Keep working at it!" Toby commanded. Masamune left off in the middle of a sentence to join King in the back room. Zeo and Toby gave a couple more directions, then joined the two.
"so, Gingka tells me you guys had a problem here?" King said, grinning. He loved his job of a Legend Blader, mostly because the title marked him as stronger than everyone else, and he got to lord it over his friends, even though they had all lost to each other many times.
"yeah, we do" Masamune said, pulling up the LBA site on his computer and logging in. he pulled up the report he had sent to Gingka, then pulled up all the information that he had used to create the report. "we had a few sightings reported on the coast, you know where HD Academy went down? Recently, some of the people at that beach thought they saw the Gates of Hades nearby, several young bladers disappeared that same day as well. It is possible that Damian is somehow still alive. that is what we needed you to investigate. We got you a train ticket to the beach so you can, and we assumed that you could use your LBA suit for diving, since they have oxygen tanks anyway. Zeo will go with you, since he knows his way around HD Academy, which is primarily what we want you to search. If Damian is still around, we need to stop him immediately before he can pose a threat."
"agreed, when do we leave?"
"right now if you can" Toby said.
"ill go get on my suit then" Zeo said, disappearing into his room.
"me too, I didn't think I would need it right away" King said, grabbing his suitcase and going into his room.
-one hour later-
The beach was deserted. The reported sightings of Damian and Kerbecs were keeping everyone away, everyone but King and Zeo. Both were carrying extra oxygen tanks, just in case they were needed. Their beys were at their belts, ready for action. Ares strode along beside King, Foxe beside Zeo. Both beys were enjoying the chance to be out of their respective beys and in public, especially at a place like this. The beach was beautiful, but King and Zeo were not here for sightseeing. Zeo sent Foxe sniffing along the ground, its blue tail whipping every which way as it enthusiastically searched the ground for clues, its paws leaving deep prints in the white sand. Suddenly, Foxe froze and barked. Ares ran forward in excitement, King and Zeo close behind. along the beach were footprints, deep in the sand, some filled with seawater.
"these are recent" King said, bending down to look at them.
"these are Damian's boots alright" Zeo said, pointing to the HD Academy logo in the prints.
"and these must be Kerbecs's, judging by the fact that they are right next to Damian's, obviously made at the same time, and there are three marks behind them where its tails brushed against the ground." King noted, tracing the paw prints in the dirt.
"looks like we are going underwater then?"
"guess so. Ares? You ready?"
The warrior nodded, his red helmet glistening in the sun.
"Foxe?"
The blue fox barked and crouched down as if ready to pounce. King and Zeo put their helmets up and sealed their suits, then waded out to sea. After heading down the beach for about a mile, following the prints, King activated his tracking signal. Suddenly, the prints disappeared, washed away by the waves. Zeo turned on his radar, the inside of his helmet lit up and showed him the location of the sunken HD Academy. He activated his communications link and connected to King's helmet.
"it should be about five miles out at sea to the east, directly away from the beach"
"alright" came the reply. "so, I get to see where you trained for about a year before figuring out that you were on the wrong side and helping defeat it?"
"don't mention that please" Zeo replied through clenched teeth. "lets just go down there look around and get back out of here."
"ok, got it. You said five miles east?"
"yeah."
"then lets go! Ares, get back inside your bey, I wont have you frolicking about where I cant see you and where you might cause trouble."
Zeo connected to Toby's helmet, for security purposes, Toby and Masamune were also wearing their suits, and had their communication links open. "Toby, Masamune? We're heading in, our tracking signals should be active."
"confirmed, I see you onscreen, go ahead and have fun!" Toby replied.
"I still wanted to go" Masamune pouted in the background.
Zeo dove in after King, who was swimming out to sea. At a predetermined point, both dove and activated their suits. Flippers clicked into place in front of their boots, and their helmets switched to night vision as they dove deeper. Automatic pressurizers inside their suits worked to keep the pressure equal as they approached Hades City.
"hey guys?" Gingka's voice broke into their helmets. "I see you are headed out. Good luck!"
"thanks Gingka." King muttered.
Zeo jumped as a shark swam past him. "look out, there are sharks around here, one just swam right past me"
"I see them, come towards me, there is a huge group of them straight in front of you."
Zeo calmly swam over to King, his heart pounding. As they approached, Zeo saw the huge, gaping hole that had been left by Ryuga seven and a half years before.
"it's not completely quiet here, like it probably should be" King said, increasing his sensors.
"yeah, there's too much heat here for it to be quiet. And its all inside, where it shouldn't be, unless there are sharks, but none of these holes are big enough for a shark to get through."
Suddenly, King froze. Three pairs of glowing red eyes were shining out, searching. "Zeo, don't move" he whispered.
"I see it, hold on" Zeo replied, switching his suit to voice command. "scan opening" a full scan indicated the triple-headed form of Hades Kerbecs, guarding the main opening.
"just as we feared" King said, his suit showing him the results as well.
"we have to get past him, that definitely means that Damian is here."
"I know. But how? We could launch our beys, but I would rather sneak in."
"back up and follow me"
"what?"
"just trust me! That hole goes all the way through the center of the entire city, from bottom to top. If we can get down to the bottom of the city, maybe we can get inside."
"ok, lead the way, you do know more about this place than I do anyway" King replied, carefully swimming over behind Zeo. The two slowly swam sideways until they were out of the sight of those glowing red eyes, then swam straight down along the sides of the city. Both froze as three howls sounded through the dark waters. Chains lashed out and struck a shark that had gotten too close. Within seconds, the angered shark was gone, defeated by Kerbecs. Zeo and King swam faster, anxious now to get completely out of Kerbecs's range.
"Foxe! Go inside and look around, make sure no one sees you and that there is no one around" Zeo commanded. The blue fox immediately leapt out, straight into the hole at the base of the city. Another bone-chilling howl rippled through the darkness.
"Ares, defend! Make sure nothing gets close" King whispered, calling out the red-armored warrior. Ares settled itself on the seafloor and raised its shield, ready for an attack. After a few more moments, Foxe returned, indicating that it was safe inside. "Ares, come, but stay behind us and guard our backs" King commanded.
"Foxe, you continue to go ahead, tell me immediately if you see anything" Zeo said, swimming inside the crack behind King. Ares went in feet first and raised his arms over his head, swinging his sword around to create a propeller that shot him through the water just behind King and Zeo. As they disappeared inside, a mass of seaweed floated quickly by, as if investigating.
-back in Koma Village-
"and this is why we had to train back at the LBA before leaving" Anashi said, inching her way along the edge of a precarious cliff.
"no kidding" Zero said nervously, looking down at the bubbling magma below them.
Anashi stopped and looked around. "great, it breaks off here!" she exclaimed, standing at the edge of a precipice.
"so, we c-c-c-an gg-o b-b-b-ack n-n-now?" Maru stuttered, eyeing the drop-off.
"no, we can't, we have a job to finish" Anashi said determinedly, putting up her helmet.
"what's the point of that?" Shinobu asked.
"there! There is an outcropping of rock big enough for the grappling hook in our suits!" Anashi exclaimed, pointing up into the darkness.
"how can you…" Zero trailed off.
"night vision, your helmet has it too" Anashi replied.
"so that's why…"
"how are we supposed to get up there?" Ren asked.
"I said grappling hook, duh, see this is why I went in front of you guys" Anashi said, unclipping one of the pockets at her belt and pulling out a small metal rod attached to a thin cable. She pressed a button on her wrist controls set, and four small hooks popped out on the side. She next pulled out a small, cannon-like object, which she attached to her wrist. Placing the grappling hook inside, she carefully aimed it at the small outcropping in the darkness above, using her helmet's night vision to see further than everyone else. After her third try, she managed to get the grappling hook on the small rock above. Taking a deep breath, she jumped off the edge of the cliff, swinging safely over to the other side. "quickly! We have to stick together! Throw your hook across to me, if it misses, it will automatically retract. Ill get it up to the rock" her voice sounded through all their helmet speakers.
Zero, being the next in line, was first. He attached his hook and launcher onto his wrist, following Anashi's instructions, then launched it across to her. Catching it, Anashi attached it to her own launcher, then fired it up, effectively catching it on the rocks the first time. Zero tugged it, gulped, and swung across. Anashi somehow managed to get between him and the others using her skills, and Ren was the next to try. Anashi again got between Ren and the others, and Shinobu swung across. Maru missed Anashi on her first try, but was successful on her second. As soon as Anashi had gotten Maru's hook up, she attached her own to Maru's line. Zero raised an eyebrow at this until Anashi yanked on her line, pulling the frightened Maru off the side of the cliff and quickly over to them.
"w-w-w-ha-a-t-t- was that for?" Maru said, shaking from fear.
"look, there is the exit!" Anashi said, pointing deeper into the cave. She flipped over their heads and lead the way further into the cave.