Sorry for the late update! I didn't have the chapter finished on time, and I got too busy with school to finish it. To make up for it, please enjoy a Warriors' blooper scene after the end A/N.
Gingka: GalaxyPegasus14 does not own Metal Fight Beyblade, only the Steel Warriors and her OCs.
Ryuga: -mumbling under breath-
Me: What was that, Ryuga?
Ryuga: Nothing…
Me: I know it wasn't, it was about what happens when I write you weightlifting while I'm hyper, isn't it?
Ryuga: Yes, it was, now go away.
Me: -pats him on the head- It's okay, you just didn't think about what you were doing in this chapter…
"Go, Flame!"
"Lightning!"
"Guardian Ifraid!"
"Storm Leone!"
"Keep it up guys!" Maru encouraged, watching the group of teens battling in the training room of the SW HQ.
"Lion Gale Force Wall!"
"Pegasus, Light Speed Storm Bringer!"
"Burning Tornado Upper!"
"Infinite Fire Stream Assault!"
"Are you four trying to blow the top of the HQ off?" Madoka shouted. Gingka and Zero were tagteaming against Kyoya and Shinobu, or, that's what they claimed to be doing, as the two rivalries were focused only on defeating each other.
"You almost have it Takeshi! Keep those flames burning!" Anashi called suddenly.
"Storm Leone! Lion Hurricane Blast!"
"Whoa!" The Hagane twins and Eiichi shielded their faces as the wind picked up.
"Hey! That's my wind you're using!" Kyoya complained.
"Mind if I borrow it for a second?" Takeshi asked.
Gingka laughed. "Go ahead! Thanks for opening up a wall in Kyoya's defenses for me!"
"Why you-" Kyoya growled as Gingka attacked.
"Pegasus, Stardust Twister Attack!"
"Ahh! Gingka-san! I wasn't finished with Shinobu yet!" Zero wailed as Ifraid landed at his feet.
"Showoff!" Kenta called, glancing over from his position on the climbing wall as Saramanda landed behind Shinobu and Leone in one of the pools.
"Hey Yo-Yo, catch!" Titi threw the silver and green bey to its owner.
"Stop calling me that!" Kyoya yelled, catching his bey.
"Pegasus, jump!" Gingka ordered, running over and taking a position at the other stadium.
"Storm Bringer!"
"Daaaaad!" Anashi and Arashi whined as their beys flew out of the stadium, knocked away by the blazing blue flames of Gingka's special move.
"Oh Gingka, quit showing off!" Madoka laughed, picking up Guardian Ifraid and Storm Leone and handing them to Eiichi and Takeshi.
Gingka grinned and caught his bey out of the air. "Off to the training course! Activate Stormflight system!"
Madoka sighed and shook her head as the Warrior flew off and entered the long, twisted tunnel hanging from the ceiling.
"Well, he sure is full of energy." Hikaru said, watching as Gingka flew out the other end of the tunnel and landed in the water below.
"Yeah, no kidding!" Madoka laughed as the redhead popped up and shouted a few words to Yuki before diving back down.
"It what?" Yuki called as Gingka popped up again.
"There's a clog in the drain! I need the thingy!" Gingka said.
"The algae-eating drain declogger?"
"Yeah, that! Wait, what?"
"This?" Yuki laughed, holding up a mass of hose attached to a long pole.
"Yeah-hey! You made up a fancy-sounding name to confuse me!"
"Not my fault if you forgot that it was called a pool vacuum." Yuki replied, dropping the hose into the pool next to Gingka. The redhead glared and disappeared underwater again.
"What is up with Hagane lately? He's been all over the place since we retook Koma!" Ryuga said, watching the scene casually from the weightlifting area.
"Yeah, must be a ton of stored-up energy. Considering that you and he are both attack-type bladers, I'm half surprised that you aren't running around like a hyper maniac." Aguma grunted, standing up from the pushups he had been doing.
"You did not just say that." Ryuga growled.
"Say what?" Aguma asked, picking up a set of weights from the rack.
"If I weren't holding this right now, you would be so dead." Ryuga snarled. "I don't run around like a hyper maniac."
"Who's running around like a hyper maniac? I didn't know you even got hyper, Ryuga!" Gingka said, shooting a cheesy grin at his rival as he landed next to the two and picked up a set of weights himself.
"I don't!" Ryuga protested, attempting to throw the dumbbells he was holding at the redhead and only succeeding in dropping them on his foot. The white-haired blader bit his lip, hard, then quickly ordered his helmet to slam shut over his face as he yanked his foot out from under the weights and, seemingly calm, limped over to the nearest bench and sat down.
"I thought he was a bit smarter than that." Gingka commented, setting down the weights he was holding and attempting to pick up the ones Ryuga had been holding.
"Just which ones is he using anyway?" the redhead muttered, glancing down at the numbers on the side.
"Uhh, Aguma, you had better get these, I don't think I can."
"You okay, Ryuga?" Kenta asked, having seen the whole incident.
"I'm fine." Ryuga grunted.
"Gingka, translation?" Madoka called.
"He needs a pillow and some ice." Gingka called.
Ryuga turned his head at the redhead, glaring through his mask.
"Boot, off, now." Madoka ordered, walking over to the Dragon Emperor with a bag full of ice.
Ryuga crossed his arms and leaned against the wall stubbornly, letting his body language do the talking rather than trusting his voice.
"Alright then, I'll do it." Madoka said, reaching for Ryuga's foot. She grabbed his boot and started pulling, only to get a yelp in response as the Dragon blader yanked his foot out of her grasp.
"Are you okay, Ryuga? I'm so sorry! Here, let me try again, a different way this time." Everyone in the room turned at Madoka's startled apology.
"No! I'm fine!" Ryuga yelled, getting up and trying to get to the elevator doors. Key word: trying. The moment that Ryuga placed his foot on the ground, he yelped in pain and sat back down.
"You were saying, Ryuga?" Gingka laughed as he walked over.
"Hold still, let's have a look at this." Madoka said, carefully taking Ryuga's boot in her hands again and examining it, with Gingka looking over her shoulder.
"I'll get Yuki." The redhead said a few moments later, turning and heading for the elevator. "We need to get that boot off."
"It can't be that bad." Ryuga grumbled, leaning forwards to look.
"Judging by the fact that your foot has swollen up so that i can't get your boot off, i think it is." Madoka said, glancing up as Ryuga's helmet retracted. The golden eyes of the Legendary Blader met her own turquoise ones, and the brunette was startled. The usually fierce gold had softened, and the signature fangs were clamped down hard on his bottom lip as the white-haired blader tried to avoid crying out at her every touch.
"Try the zipper on the side." Kenta said, coming over and pointing.
"Alright, ready Ryuga?" Madoka carefully took hold of the zipper pull.
Ryuga nodded, leaning back and regaining his usual indifferent composure. He let out a startled yelp a few moments later as Madoka finally managed to get his boot off, then close his eyes and crossed his arms, defying the mere idea of any pain.
Gingka soon returned with Yuki, who was carrying medical supplies and looking worried.
"Can you move it?" The Anubis wielder asked.
Ryuga carefully moved his ankle around.
"Not what i meant, but good. What about the part you actually dropped the fifty-pound weights on while trying to throw them at Gingka?"
The golden eyes of the L-Drago blader narrowed at the redhead as he moved his foot around, carefully and slowly.
"Well, it's not as bad as it looks, but you're still going to need these." Yuki held up a pair of crutches.
"What? No way am i going to use those!" Ryuga snarled.
"Suit yourself, but that means you are going to be confined to walking along the walls or leaning on somebody, because there's no way you are going to walk on this foot until it heals." Yuki said, applying the ice to Ryuga's swollen foot and wrapping it in fabric.
A few hours later, the entire group was gathered in the lounge, with an angrily muttering Ryuga constantly glaring at Gingka, mentally blaming him for the incident earlier.
"Alright, so why are we all up here?" Kyoya asked, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.
"We need to start planning for the bigger strikes." Gingka replied.
"The bigger strikes?" Zero raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, finishing with the one on Tokyo where we win or die trying." Gingka said solemnly.
Everyone in the room suddenly looked solemn, even Masamune and Titi.
"We just need a good plan, if we know where we're going, what we're doing, we have a better chance at winning. There will be no turning back in Tokyo, like there was a chance of doing in Koma. Of course, we do have Metal Bey City to free first, but even there, there will not be an easy retreat, if there is one at all. Aguma, I believe you said you had a few ideas for strategy?" Gingka turned and looked at the purple-clad Warrior as he spoke.
"Yeah, I did. The group strike worked well for Koma Village, but in a larger city like Metal Bey, it will spread out our forces way too much. So, because of that, we cannot do a five-point attack, but we can probably manage a two-point attack, one large one from the edge of the city to draw forces to the outside, and then a small group, maybe somewhere between two and seven, will fly overhead and strike two locations: the former WBBA headquarters, and the government buildings. If we can get information on exactly where the DNA's main Metal Bey City forces are, we can be more efficient in our strike. At Tokyo, we already know where their main headquarters are, and a single-point attack would likely be better there, if we can just swarm their main headquarters and take them out, the first thing we do when we get inside should be to free the large amount of bladers being held captive."
"Our main problem with that is that we don't know where any of them are being held in the building, and we can't waste time and energy running around trying to find them." Gingka commented.
"I think all of the holding cells are in the center of the building." Arashi spoke up.
"Huh?" most of the World Championship teams looked at the teen, confused, but the Warriors grinned.
"Of course! How could I forget, even after a month in the hospital, that Arashi knows the layout of the DNA Tokyo headquarters!" Gingka exclaimed.
"Huh? What are you talking about, Gingka?" Da Xiang asked.
Gingka sighed. "Well, to put it simply, I was flying around Tokyo at night, got shot by a DNA agent, and was in the hospital recovering for about a month. That agent was Arashi, so he has been around at least part of the DNA headquarters."
"He was a DNA agent?" the others were stunned.
For a while, and they have this weird thing they call the Evil Gene, we have an antidote for it. But, that's not the point. Arashi, how much of the DNA building do you remember?" Gingka asked, turning to his son.
"About the same details that I remembered between getting the antidote and the moment I met you at the East Gate to the mountain." Arashi sighed.
"Huh?" Gingka raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing, the Evil Gene seems to make everything fuzzy unless I am there seeing it again."
"Hmm, that's a rather annoying side effect." Gingka muttered.
"We have a bunch of pictures and scans of the outside." Yuki spoke up.
Gingka looked at his comrade in surprise. "Since when?" he asked.
Yuki laughed. "You were still unconscious, but I thought they might come in handy."
"Well then, go get them!"
Yuki nodded and left the room, returning a few seconds later with a small object in his right hand, which he plugged into the device sitting on the table at the center of the room. The brown-haired Warrior's eyes narrowed in concentration as he typed a few words rapidly, then gained a look of satisfaction as he stepped back from the table. A three-dimensional picture of a building popped up, and Yuki spun it so that the entrance was facing Arashi.
"See if you can remember anything more using this." Gingka encouraged.
Arashi looked at the picture, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he thought. The group around him waited expectantly, almost nervously.
"Well, this entrance here and a left turn right away will take you to the office of Selen Garcia." Arashi pointed at the front entrance. "And then I think a right turn would take you to an elevator, and on one of the first few floors were the barracks, floor three had the department I worked in…" Arashi fell silent, his eyes narrowing as he thought harder.
"At least some of the cells were on the top floor." Shinobu spoke up suddenly.
"You didn't think to mention that before?" Gingka looked at the cream-haired blader in surprise. "How did you know that, anyway?"
"The DNA dumped him and Arashi off in that forest that we destroyed those robots in all those years ago. I should know, because I had to carry him all the way back to the village." Ryuga growled.
"Oh, well that explains it." Gingka muttered.
"Yeah, and other than that, I don't think there's much more I know about the DNA… Except that Argo's office is this window right here, if my guess is correct." Arashi pointed to another part of the picture, on the top floor of the building, facing the same way as the front door.
"That's mostly all we need to know." Gingka said.
"So, what's the plan for freeing Metal Bey City?" Madoka asked.
"What Aguma said, we just need a map of the city." Gingka said. "A current map, of what it is right now."
"We can get that tonight, by doing a few flyovers and taking pictures." Yuki said.
"True, but how safe can we make doing that, since it obviously has to be done?" Gingka asked.
"Well, I did install cameras into the eyes of our suits recently, and a memory chip, so we can now even record what the robots are like in combat and come up with better ways to defeat them." Yuki replied.
"You just keep on amazing me with your technological advancements." Gingka grinned. "Good job. Now, who's going to do that assignment?" he looked around at the other Warriors.
"Ryuga's staying here." Yuki said as the Dragon Emperor opened his mouth to volunteer.
Ryuga snapped his mouth shut and glared at the younger Warrior.
"Yeah, sorry Ryuga, but you don't really have a choice." Gingka said.
"Me and Kenta can go." Titi volunteered.
"Count me in." King said.
"Alright, that's three. Can we get two more?" Gingka asked, looking around.
"I'll go." Dunamis said.
"And me, too." Chris sighed.
"Alright, as soon as night falls, you guys will take off then. Remember, the highest priority is to not get seen at all, if you get seen, don't come straight back to base, because then they could follow us and know where we are. Instead, fly around until you lose them." Gingka said. "Everyone got that?"
The group nodded.
"Then go do whatever. Yuki, I need you to meet me in the control room once they leave so we can keep track of them."
"Got it." Yuki said as the group began to disperse.
"Good luck guys." Madoka waved at the assigned team of Warriors as she left the room, headed down to the training room to watch the group of excited teens in front of her.
Kenta smiled and nodded.
"Landing bay clear?" Gingka asked.
"Landing bay is clear, ready for takeoff." Tamashii reported.
"Open bay doors." Gingka ordered.
"Opening. Wind speed, approximately ten kilometers per hour from the southeast. Temperature, thirty-nine degrees. No security threats detected in the area."
"Warriors ready for launch?"
"Ready." came the confirmation from the five helmeted figures standing in a triangle formation with Chris in the lead.
"Activate night vision and jetpacks, silencers full."
"Activated."
"Clear for takeoff. Good luck guys!" Gingka said, watching on the large screen in the control room as the group blasted through the open doors of the landing bay.
"Landing bay doors closing. Warriors approaching Metal Bey City, estimated arrival time: thirty minutes." Tamashii reported.
Me: Ryuga, get back here! I still need you for the blooper! -chases Ryuga-
Gingka: Well, while she's busy doing that, enjoy the blooper, which takes place about halfway between Return of the Warrior and The Next Generation.
"Ahh! Ryuga, slow down!"
"You speed up, Hagane!"
"I'm trying!"
"Look out for the-"
Yuki flinched as the two Warriors smashed into the wall of the training room.
"Are you guys sure you want to keep trying this?" he asked, walking over as the helmets of the two retracted.
"It was your fault we crashed!"
"I don't see you hitting the wall first, Hagane."
"Who cares who hit the wall first! You were going too fast and I lost control! I said fifty percent power, didn't I?"
"I thought you said seventy-five!"
"No, I didn't!"
"Guys! Would you quit arguing and just do it again? I need the data here if I am going to be able to improve our suits!"
Gingka and Ryuga sighed, their helmets slamming shut over their faces as they untangled themselves from the grappling cables that were attaching them.
"Fifty percent power this time." Gingka ordered, looking at the cluttered landing bay around them, which they had turned into an obstacle course for the purpose of training while they completed the bottom floor of their headquarters.
"Fine." Ryuga growled, widening his stance and preparing for takeoff.
"Ready, on your mark Yuki." Gingka said.
"Ready, and three, two, one." Yuki said.
The two blasted off, soon going into the Warriors' signature whirling technique. They were training to do it in smaller areas, like a forest, and Gingka and Ryuga were flying so close in a circle that they could have high-fived if they had wanted to.
"Ahh! More control, to the left!"
"How am I supposed to know which way is left when the direction is always changing? Hello, we're going in a circle here!"
"Ryuga, just go that way!" Yuki saw the circle shift as Gingka tried to point.
"Hagane, look out for the- dang it, we sliced it off again!"
"Ahh! That took us weeks to repair last time! Ryuga, get away from the helicopters!"
"I'm trying, but you're not coming with me!"
"I'm trying!"
Yuki sighed as the two mowed all of the rotors off of both helicopters and crash landed in the center of the landing bay.
"Alright guys, I think that's enough for one day." the brunette said.
"You said it." Gingka muttered, trying to get himself untangled from several feet of rope, a pile of which he had crashed into.
"Hold on, I'll just go get something to cut it." Yuki said, turning and walking off.
"This is your fault, Hagane." Ryuga snarled, trying to get himself untangled.
By the time Yuki returned, the two were a mass of rope, and had stopped trying to move, as they were only getting even more tangled.
Okay, so it wasn't really that good of a blooper, but it was something that was hopefully pretty funny. See you next chapter!
Gingka: Next chapter: Metal Bey City freed!