Ok, since I am now back from my unplanned two-month hiatus, I am updating! Well, I guess that much was kinda obvious though…
Gingka: Talk about it…
Me: Well, anyway, here's the next chapter! This one has been waiting since I posted chapter 1, so I didn't have to write it! Hopefully I can stay ahead with the chapters I have written and posted…
After sleeping for around five hours, Gingka woke up. Glancing outside, he saw that it was quite dark, and he could hear Madoka snoring softly down the hall. Slowly, using his own newly-acquired skills, he climbed out of bed and opened the curtains, then the window, taking a deep breath of the night air. His eyes, now back to normal, scanned the city outside, as he found that he did not need the nocturnal abilities gained by touching a cat and several other types of animals. Gingka sat in the windowsill and swung his legs up into it, sitting with his knees almost to his chest, watching the twinkling city lights below.
A couple of hours later, after the sun had risen, Madoka got up and knocked on Gingka's door.
"Come in" he called.
Madoka walked in and found him still sitting in the window. "Gingka? What are you doing?"
"I was just watching the sunrise and the traffic below" he replied, swinging his legs back into the room and getting down.
"Guess you slept well then, you sound a bit happier this morning"
"Yeah, I must have been just tired" Gingka grinned back at her.
"Want to come help me fix breakfast?"
"Sure! Just give me a second to clean up the mess I made in here" Gingka turned to make his bed and pick up his jacket, which he had thrown on the floor. Five minutes later, both were in the kitchen, Madoka was pulling the milk out of the fridge as Gingka mixed some eggs up for her to cook. Madoka tried to light the stove as Gingka went to set the table, but found that it wouldn't light. She tried several times before going to get the matches.
"Where are you going?" Gingka asked as she passed him.
"The stove won't light, I was just going to get the matches" Madoka replied.
"Ok" Gingka turned back to the kitchen to get the bacon.
"Aww man! We are out of matches!" Madoka exclaimed.
"That's okay, I got it to light" Gingka called back, rushing over to the stove, making sure Madoka wasn't looking, then turning the knob and carefully blowing a small fireball onto it. Satisfied with the results, he stood up and placed a pan on the stove, just as Madoka walked in.
"How did you do that?" she asked.
Gingka shrugged. "Guess I just have a skill for it" he joked.
Madoka laughed. "Yup, all you needed was some rest and you are back to yourself again!" she exclaimed.
Gingka chuckled as he turned back to chopping onions for an omelet. "Or so you think" he thought, grabbing another onion.
After eating breakfast, Madoka went downstairs and grabbed Gingka's launcher and bey gear out of the drawer she had been keeping them in for him, then opened the B-Pit while he sneaked out the back door to go train.
"Alright Pegasus, let's see if we still have it in us!" Gingka exclaimed, running to the edge of town through back alleyways and smaller roads to avoid detection. Once he reached the edge of town however, his sensitive ears picked up the distinctive sound of bey clashing with rock nearby. Curious as to who else was out here training, Gingka carefully crept behind an abandoned bulldozer and peeked out.
"Go, Ifraid!" Zero called, completely unaware of the presence of the Legend Blader, sending his bey flying into a third pile of debris, which exploded. "Yeah, that's it! Faster, Ifraid!"
As Ifraid charged towards a fourth pile, it was met with resistance from a bey that seemingly came out of nowhere. Zero, after watching Ifraid land at his feet, looked around to find the blader, but saw no one. The opposing bey however, was spinning between him and the pile he had been trying to knock over previously. Zero looked at it carefully, it was obviously not a Synchrom, judging by the dark blue top with a red ring around the outside, it was an original-style bey. Zero quietly ordered Ifraid to attack it, somehow getting the feeling that he had seen this particular bey before, but not remembering where. It easily repelled his attack however, and did not budge from where it was spinning, steadily, tauntingly.
"Is it a defense type then?" Zero wondered, ordering Ifraid to circle it. Suddenly, the other bey made a clanking noise, and attacked Ifraid, tossing it into the air with one move, then returned to its original position.
"Ifraid! Shooting Star Attack!" Zero ordered, sending Ifraid crashing down towards the other bey, which jumped off of a nearby rock and met his attack in midair, then landed, again resuming its defensive position. "Wha- it acts like a defense type, but it has unstoppable attack power!" Zero said, surprised at its quick reaction time.
Meanwhile, behind the bulldozer, Gingka was trying to climb up to the top of it, so that he could see the battle from above. He chuckled when he heard Zero's surprised comment. "Well, it is an attack type" he muttered to himself, finally getting a foothold on the back of the tall machine he was scaling. As Ifraid attacked again, Gingka forgot he was a half-breed shifter, and once again became a Legend Blader, ordering Pegasus to attack with such swiftness and accuracy that he knocked Ifraid back into a pile of debris, which exploded from the force, again surprising Zero. This time however, Pegasus began circling like the attack type it was, as Gingka switched to barrage mode with another clanking noise, which didn't go unnoticed by Zero.
"Is it… changing modes?" he wondered aloud.
"Yes it is, pretty good guess there" a voice said from above him.
Zero whirled as a shadow fell over him from behind, and his eyes widened in surprise at the blader who was standing on top of the bulldozer.
"Well, aren't you going to counterattack?" Gingka asked, sending Pegasus towards Ifraid again.
-Meanwhile-
"Hey Maru, have you seen Zero?"
"Hm? Oh, hey Shinobu, Kaito, Eito, Ren! I think Zero was going to train at the abandoned construction site at the edge of the city!"
"Thanks Maru!" the four yelled, running off towards the edge of town. As they got closer to the abandoned construction site, they heard the sound of beys clashing.
"Ifraid! Get him! Shooting Star Attack!" Zero yelled as his friends ran up behind him, standing in the shade of a bulldozer.
"Zero!" Ren called. "who are you battling?"
Zero did not hear her however, as he was too focused on the battle.
"Counter it!" another voice, undoubtedly Zero's opponent, called. As the two beys collided, an explosion rocked the entire area, and the old, rusted bulldozer crumbled. "Whoa!" Gingka shouted, falling off into the rubble, which buried both their beys and stopped the battle.
Ren, Shinobu, Kaito and Eito just stared as Gingka got up and began hunting around for his bey.
"Ok, so I found yours, now where's mine?" Gingka muttered, handing Ifraid to Zero, who helped him look for his Pegasus, which Gingka's sharp eyes soon found. "great, now we have to start over, but we might as well make it a Battle Royal while we are at it" Gingka said, turning to the stunned group standing behind him. "Think you guys are up to it?"
Shinobu hesitated for a moment.
"Come on, Shinobu! Lets do it!" Zero said, readying his launcher.
"3!" Ren was ready to go.
"2!" Gingka reacted, whipping out his launcher at the same time as Shinobu
"1!" Eito and Kaito were ready.
"Let it Rip!" all five beys flew from their launchers at blinding speeds, Kaito and Eito instantly teaming up against Gingka, who knocked them away easily. Meanwhile, Zero was locked in a fierce clash with Shinobu at the center of the stadium, which Pegasus soon took over, sending Ifraid and Saramanda flying into Levizer and Oroja.
"Looks like I haven't lost my touch after all!" Gingka called. "Pegasus!" the five young bladers heard another distinctive clank as Pegasus switched to upper mode. They held their breaths, waiting for the Legend Blader to make his move. Five minutes later, the battle was still at a stalemate when Madoka, Benkei, and Maru arrived to see how the training was going.
"Hey Gingka!" Benkei called, surprised. "when did you get back?"
"Yesterday evening" Gingka replied, not taking his eyes off of Pegasus.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he was back" Madoka said. "what are you guys doing?"
"Waiting for each other to make a move" Gingka said, leaning against the remains of the bulldozer he had been standing on earlier.
Across the clear area they were battling in, Zero was whispering to Shinobu and Ren, who passed on the plan to Eito and Kaito. On cue, the five beys spread out around Pegasus evenly, then attacked from all directions.
"Or not" Gingka said calmly, watching the five beys attacking his own.
"Keep going guys!" Zero called, ordering Ifraid to keep pushing. "alright, one more time!" all five pulled back and once again charged the now-wobbling Pegasus, which was barely spinning.
"Isn't he even going to fight back?" Maru asked.
As the other five beys charged Pegasus Gingka, who had been leaning against the bulldozer with his arms crossed and eyes closed, smiled.
"He has to have something up his sleeve!" Madoka said.
At that moment, the other five beys collided with Pegasus, knocking it to its blader's feet, barely spinning. Gingka ordered Pegasus to regain its former defensive position at the center of the arena, and Ifraid charged it one more time with a follow-up attack, the other four following right behind it.
"Ifraid!"
"Saramanda!"
"Phoenic!"
"Oroja!"
"Levizer!"
"Pegasus!" Gingka reacted at last, stepping forward. He only had a couple of moments before impact, and impact would mean defeat. "Final Drive Mode! Special Move, Big Bang Tornado!"
The stunned group, including Maru, watched as Gingka's Pegasus quickly regained its spin power, then went rocketing around the stadium with its special move, which soon had all their beys landing at their feet, motionless. "nope, now I am absolutely sure that I have not lost my touch!" Gingka said, catching the victorious Pegasus out of the air.
"H-how did you?" Zero was especially stunned.
"Final Drive Mode," Madoka said, "is an ability unique to Gingka's Big Bang Pegasus alone. The performance tip, which in normal battle is a semi-flat tip, switches at Gingka's command to rubber flat, providing regained stamina, as you may have noticed, and nearly four times the attack power as before!"
"I couldn't have explained it better myself Madoka!" Gingka said, somehow ending up beside Madoka.
"Wait, how did you…?" Madoka trailed off, pointing at Gingka, then the ground where he had been standing.
Gingka shrugged. "Haven't you noticed that I-whoa!" he was interrupted as the pile of debris he was standing on gave way. "Tend to have the ability to just show up randomly and disappear as well" he finished, standing up and dusting himself off. "seriously, the stuff I am standing on keeps falling out from under me!"
Zero chuckled, finally snapping out of his surprise and picking up Ifraid from the ground. "Yeah, first the bulldozer, and now this!"
"Pretty much" Gingka replied as a loud roar shook the air.
"W-what was that?" Madoka asked, her eyes widening in fear as she noticed a column of dark-looking energy rising from the ground between them and the horizon.
"Excuse me for a moment while I go check that out, if I'm not back in a week come looking for me!" Gingka called, running off.
"What? Gingka, wait!" Madoka started running after him, along with Zero and the others, including Benkei, who was just curious what they were up to. They entered the forest, and soon completely lost track of the redhead.
"Where did he go?" Madoka panted, listening carefully for sounds of anything running through bushes.
"I don't know, let's go back, its really dark in here!" Benkei said, turning to go back.
"But he has to be around here somewhere!" Madoka started examining the bushes for a footprint or snapped twigs that might indicate which way Gingka had gone.
"Umm, guys?" Benkei called nervously.
"What? Did you find something?" Madoka turned, and instantly froze.
"W-what is that thing?" Ren asked.
Kaito found his knees knocking worse than they had at the midsummer beach when Gen Kikura had shown up.
The monster hanging from the tree in front of them opened its mouth and roared, exposing rows of sharp white fangs. It dropped to the ground on all fours, and began making its way towards them, red eyes gleaming, bat wings extended behind it, sharp claws digging into the ground as it prepared to pounce. However, it never did pounce. Instead, it froze, its eyes focused on the trees behind them, then shrieked in fear and ran away.
"Ok, now I agree with Benkei, let's get out of here!" Madoka said, a tremor in her voice.
"Wait!" Kaito said, his knees still knocking. "I think it saw something that even it was afraid of, why would it have run? Also, just before it ran, its eyes were focused behind us"
"So, that means…" Ren trailed off.
Suddenly it dawned on Zero. "That means there is something even fiercer behind us!" he turned, slowly, then quickly around as he caught sight of the monster behind him.
"Zero! There are more of them!" Maru exclaimed, pointing to the bushes around them as the dark creature from before returned with five others, all of whom were carrying small daggers, and were obviously ready to attack.
"We cant escape!" Zero wailed, falling down in his fright and trying to scuttle backwards until he ran into Benkei's legs.
"Wha- Zero! Ohh man, that's a big dragon!" Benkei looked back and forth between the six dark creatures and the looming creature behind them
"Get out of our way you pathetic human ssscum!" one of the dark creatures hissed.
"Madoka, whatever you do, don't turn around!" Benkei said. "don't any of you dare turn around!"
"Why not?" Madoka asked, too scared to take her eyes off the dark creature that was waving its small dagger at her.
"What are these things?" Eito screamed.
"We are the darklingsssss of sssquad thhhhreee" one of the dark creatures replied.
Ren turned and screamed as a loud roar rippled through the air, shaking the ground. This was enough to sent the 'darklings' as they had called themselves skittering away in fear.
"I-is that what I think it is?" Madoka stammered, looking at the huge creature that was now in front of them as they had turned around.
"If you are thinking dragon, then I think so" Eito replied, hiding behind his brother.
Seeming satisfied with its work of scaring the darklings away, the dragon closed its mouth with its rows of sharp teeth and quietly looked at them, its golden-brown reptilian eyes seeming to shoot fire at them as it turned its head back and forth. The group of bladers and mechanics in front of it didn't dare to move a muscle as it lifted its head higher through the trees, checking to see if the darklings were gone. Madoka took a step back as the blue-scaled section of the dragon nearest her whipped around, soon encircling the clearing- and them- in a ring of blue scales. The dragon recoiled as a darkling leapt out of the bushes and struck its face with one of his daggers.
The darkling laughed evilly, pointing its dagger right at the dragon's nose as it shook its head, trying to clear its vision from the impact.
"Sssss you will not lasssst long againssst sssssquad three!" it hissed as the dragon raised its head and pointed its long snout directly at the ground, hanging its face right over the small by comparison darkling and its comrades, who had joined it. The six darklings, using their wings, somehow managed to get into a rather shaky pyramid, and went for the dragon's throat. However, it dodged, swinging its head around behind them, and between the stunned group and the pile of darklings.
Zero and his friends saw the dragon open its mouth, hiding the darklings from view, and heard a crackling roar, as well as the darklings' yelling, which stopped suddenly as the dragon closed its mouth, revealing the six darklings still in their pyramid formation, fully encased in ice. The dragon turned to them and let out an echoing roar, then leapt into the air.
"Run! Get back to Metal Bey City before it returns!" Benkei yelled, pushing Madoka out of the clearing and picking up Ren, who had fainted the moment she saw the dragon. The four ran out of the forest, half-turning as they heard a roar behind them. Madoka was relieved to see that the dragon was flying away from them, out over the denser forest.
-one hour later-
The dragon landed near a small spring in the center of the forest. It coiled itself up into a neat ring, then began glowing. Its face grew shorter and smaller as the icy ridge on its back disappeared completely. The muscular dragons arms shrank in size as well, gradually becoming more and more human. Scales peeled back on the claws to reveal brown fabric, the tail also shrank, but did not completely disappear as the entire creature shrank in size. Once his transformation was complete, Gingka got up off the ground and brushed himself off, then went over to the water and splashed it on the stinging cut on his face, just under his left eye.
"Well, that went quite well" he muttered to himself, turning and pulling a couple of twigs out of the red fur on his tail, which, as usual, had not completely disappeared. He looked at his reflection in the still water, then sighed. "Five days around here, guess I should find something to do, get dinner ready." he soon had a pile of sticks in the center of the clearing he had landed in, then went off to find something to eat before dark.
While Gingka was out hunting, a small brown bird alighted on the pile of wood he had placed next to the water. It pecked around for a few minutes, picking bugs off the wood, then hopped to the ground to find more. It followed a trail of ants to their hill, then went crazy, pecking around like nothing else mattered.
A couple of minutes later, Gingka returned to his makeshift camp with a few random pieces of fruit and some fish he had caught by freezing and melting the nearby river. He blew a fireball on the woodpile, then sat down and started spiking his fruit on a few sticks that had been sharpened by his own claws.
As soon as it noticed him, the bird flew over, landed on his shoulder, and pecked at his ear.
"Ow! Mom!" Gingka said, swatting at it.
The bird quickly flew off his shoulder and landed on the ground across the fire from him. In seconds, the small brown sparrow had changed into a woman with feathered wings and a brown tail. Her black eyes glittered across at her son as she smiled.
"Why do you always have to do that?" Gingka asked.
"Because, its funny to see your reaction, plus, you obviously need to work on your surroundings awareness" she replied, sitting down.
"My surroundings awareness is fine, you just need to stop being so sneaky about it. What are you doing here?" Gingka asked, sticking one of the sticks with a fruit on the end in the ground.
"I was just looking for you, your father told me you had gone to Metal Bey City" she replied.
"Yeah, I was just visiting some friends, I'm going back once the traces of dragon disappear"
"Alright, let me guess, there is a really cute girl there that you really like, so that's why you are going back"
Gingka instantly flushed beet red. "That's not the only reason!" he protested.
"Even if it isn't, how are you planning on telling her about your abilities, assuming she doesn't know already?"
"I wasn't going to tell her at all" Gingka muttered.
"You have to tell her something, do you have an excuse for disappearing every time a darkling escapes into this world?"
"No, I don't."
"Seriously Gingka, the easiest thing is just to tell her. Your father knew about my abilities months before we started dating."
"I know, I'm just worried that if I tell her, she will hate me because of it, or she will be so afraid of me that she wont want to stay around."
"Ahh, so that's why you are not telling her yet"
Gingka nodded.
"Well then, I will leave it to you, but I can guarantee that things will likely go better if you tell her. Maybe not all at once, but warm her up to the idea, kind of drop a couple of hints to her, then tell her the whole thing out straight."
"I'll at least think about that" Gingka muttered, turning over the fish that were in front of him.
"I'll leave you to that then" his mother replied, getting up and shifting forms back to the small sparrow she had flown in as.
Gingka watched her as she flew off, then sighed. "Five more days" he muttered, getting bored with waiting for the fire he had made to roast the fish and lighting them on fire with one puff of fiery breath. "Good thing Madoka isn't here to see this" he chuckled, tossing the fish up in the air, lighting them, then swallowing them whole. By the time he had finished, it was quite dark. Gingka inhaled the fire, then froze the pond and walked across it to hide behind the waterfall, melting the ice with fire once he was across to keep anyone from getting to him. Finding a small ledge of rock behind the waterfall, he laid down carefully on the slippery rock, then fell asleep.
Gingka: So, now I have actually used my powers? Maybe this idea of yours wasn't so bad after all…
Me: XD See? I told you it was awesome!