As everyone sat in the chopper that was on it's way to Russia, Tyson felt somewhat uneasy. It could have been how he felt about Miguel not wanting to save the rest of the Barthez Battalion, or it could have been the fact that neither he or his friends had visited Russia in quite a while.
Tyson's main worry, though, was how Kai would feel about it. Tyson kept his eyes glued to the outside of the window, trying his best not to think negatively about the whole situation.
"Hey, are you okay Tyson?" asked Kenny who sat next to him.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that we haven't been here in a while," Tyson said, trying to cover up the real reason that he was a bit down.
"Well, we're almost there now, so things should be fine," Kenny replied, hoping that his words would cheer his friend up.
"Um, we have a slight bit of turbulence going on. It should be fine though. It's nothing we can't handle," said the pilot over the intercom.
"Wow, I wonder what's up?" Ray asked aloud as he looked out the window. All he saw was cold, wind, and snow. He was surprised it didn't burst through the window with the way it was pelting the helicopter.
"That is some very strong wind," Kenny stated somewhat glibly.
"Hey, that's not fair. Tyson hasn't eaten all day," Max said with a smirk, earning a smile from Tyson, and earning a laugh from most of the others. Max then looked out the same window Ray did, gasping as he saw the wind.
"I can almost taste it," Max said.
"I know the feeling," Ray said, narrowing his eyes a little bit before he noticed something small spin upwards in front of the window.
"What was that?" Max asked, as he had noticed it too.
"I have no clue. But it didn't feel good," Ray replied.
"Um, we're going to have to have an early landing. The turbulence that this blizzard is causing is too much, said the pilot over the intercom. Not longer after saying that, Ray and Max sat back in their seats and they, along with everyone else, put on their seat belts on the way down. Before the helicopter hit the floor, Mr. Dickenson appeared from the cockpit of the helicopter.
"What's up, Mr. D?" Kenny asked.
"I'm just here to make sure you have your coats with you. It's really cold out there," he replied.
"We'll be fine," Max said as the helicopter finally found solid ground. Daichi opened the doors of the helicopter, attempting to step out before feeling Hilary tug at his arm.
"What are you doing, Daichi?" Hilary asked with an air of authority.
"Stepping outside. It can't be that bad," Daichi answered, shrugging Hilary off his arm.
"Be careful. The way this snow is blowing, we don't know what's out there!" Tyson warned.
"If I was careful, I wouldn't be me," Daichi replied, turning around to smile at Tyson. He then jumped out of the helicopter.
"How does it look out there?" Ray asked.
"What?" Daichi asked, the heavy snow muffling the former White Tiger's voice.
"I said, how does it look out there?" Ray yelled.
"It's fine. It's just really heavy snow!" Daichi yelled back.
"Remember to be careful!" Tyson yelled.
"Tyson, what did I tell you earlier? If I wasn't careful, I wouldn't-" then his words cut off.
"Daichi, you there? Daichi?!" Tyson yelled with worry.
"I guess we better go look for him," Max said, exasperated.
"Knowing his luck, he probably got buried under the snow," Ray added with a chuckle. Both he and Max hopped of the chopper.
"Let us know as soon as you see or hear anything, got it?" Tyson yelled.
"Yeah, will do pal," Max replied. Hilary then turned to her boyfriend.
"What?" Tyson asked as Hilary looked at him.
"What's with you?" Hilary asked back.
"It's just... this whole Miguel thing has really pissed me off, and I want to make sure everyone else is fine," Tyson replied.
"You'll get over it soon," Kai said.
"How do you know?" Tyson asked defiantly.
"Because I've seen how you handle things like this. You aren't one to sit around with your thumb up your ass, and right now, we all need you to be that guy again," Kai answered.
"Fine. I'll try and be that guy again," Tyson replied, finally simmering down.
"Good. Glad that's settled," Kenny said from his seat. As soon as he finished his sentence, Ray and Max returned to the chopper.
"Hey guys. What's up?" Hilary asked as she saw the two breathing exasperated, tired breaths.
"We found out what that thing sailing upwards to the helicopter was," Max said.
"What was it?" Kenny asked, standing up.
"It was a beyblade. Someone tried to sabotage us, and Daichi's in a fight with them now," Max answered.
Everyone jumped out of their seats, Mr. Dickenson included, and followed Max and Ray out to where Daichi was faced up against a hooded figure, both of their beyblades spinning around and grinding against each other.
"Who is that?" Hilary asked, referring to the hooded figure as they and Daichi continued battling.
"Who cares? Come on Daichi. Kick his punk ass!" Tyson cheered.
"So, who are you and what do you want, bub?" the red-haired blader asked the hooded figure.
"Why should I tell you anything?" the figure retorted, revealing that the voice was male. As he finished the sentence, his blade collided hard with Daichi's sending it back into Daichi's hand.
"Okay, fine, you beat me. Now, tell us who you are!" Daichi demanded. The figure simply ignored him, instead commanding his beyblade to spin in circles on the ice around Daichi's feet.
"What are you doing?" Daichi asked as the blade span around him, picking up speed and cutting into the ice.
"Hey! JUMP OUT THE WAY!" Ray yelled to the red-haired blader.
"Wha- AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
It was too late. Daichi had fallen into the water, and as everyone yelled his name, the hooded figure disappeared without a trace. Trying to keep themselves from being distracted was difficult, but Kai shoved past them, ready to dive into the water after Daichi.
"K-Kai! What are you doing?" Hilary asked.
"Just shut up and get to land!" Kai replied before removing his scarf and tossing it to Max, who caught it easily. Kai then dived into the water, searching everywhere for his younger friend.
'Come on Daichi... I know you're here somewhere,' Kai thought to himself. He then spotted his friend's sinking form and swam over to him as fast as he could, but it proved difficult due to the heavy current and sub-zero temperature of the water.
He finally reached his friend, smiling as he picked Daichi up in his arms, swimming back up to shore. But all the energy he was using was quickly slowing his pace, and he felt his oxygen getting lower. He swam further up before his eyes started growing really heavy and he slowly fell back down.
'Daichi... I'm sorry...' Kai thought as he sank. He then felt an arm on his own, and he vaguely remembers seeing the land again before nodding off to sleep.
Several hours later...
Kai had finally awoken, and while he was happy to still be alive, he still felt the odd shiver course through his body. He looked down to see he was in a hospital bed, blankets covering his entire body, and his clothes were folded neatly in a corner. He made a move to get out of the bed, which made a loud noise, causing the person sleeping on the chair nearby to wake up.
"Huh... What the... Kai! You're awake!" said Max from the chair.
"Yeah, surprisingly," Kai replied, turning his head to see Daichi on the bed adjacent to his, before continuing. "What the hell happened?"
"You almost got stuck in the water. Luckily, an old friend stopped by to help you before you went out cold, no pun intended," Max answered.
"Good to see you, Kai," said a voice from the doorway. It was Kai's old Blitzkrieg Boys teammate and longtime friend, Tala.
"Tala, what are you doing here?" Kai asked.
"Well, I wanted to check up on you, considering I'm the guy who saved your ass," Tala replied with a smirk.
"Where are everyone else?" Kai asked.
"Spencer and Bryan are busy training. As for Ian, I haven't seen him all day," Tala answered. He then got a call on his phone, before he held his finger up. "Excuse me, I gotta take this."
"So, how are you feeling, Kai?" Max asked as soon as Tala left the room.
"Better. Hey, where am I?" the blue-haired blader asked.
"We're at the Blitzkrieg Boys' base. They managed to get it safely set up when we took care of Boris back at the BEGA tournament," Max answered. After he finished talking, Tala came back in with Spencer in tow, both of them looking a bit befuddled.
"What's wrong, Tala?" Max asked.
"There was some guy whose voice I didn't recognize on the phone. He was talking about Ian. Something bad has happened to him," Tala replied.
"What? What is it?" Max asked, standing up out of his seat.
"No one's seen him since he went out this morning," Spencer answered.
"What did he go out for?" Kai asked.
"He just went to pick up a new recruit we had coming in today. No one's seen either of them since he left," Tala replied.
"Wait, new recruit? Who is it?" Max asked.
"It's best to just show you while we have our computers working again. Damn snowstorm has been cutting us off all day," Spencer answered.
"You guys go on without me. I'll stay behind and take care of Daichi," Max said. Tala gave Max a thumbs up before he and Spencer led Kai through the building, and they all found a large computer room where they also found Mr. Dickenson, Hilary, and Kenny.
"Kai! It's good to see you on your feet again," exclaimed Me. Dickenson.
"Thank you. Where are Tyson and Ray?" replied Kai.
"Ray is preparing food, and Tyson is busy playing with his toys, as usual," Hilary answered, giving Kai a brief chuckle.
"I hate to interrupt you guys, but you need to look at this," Tala said, breaking everyone away from their conversation. Mr. Dickenson, Hilary, and Kai all looked at the huge array of monitors on the grey stone wall.
They saw the familiar form of Ian walking out of the base, waving to Tala, Bryan, and Spencer as he headed off.
"This is about the time he left to pick up the new recruit," Bryan explained. The footage continued. Ian kept walking off into the distance before he reached a snowmobile, hopping into it to drive off. Then, the footage paused.
"That was the last we saw of him. He took the snowmobile because the recruit was at the airport, which is really far away from our base. Nobody's seen him since," Bryan continued.
"Well, do you have any information on the recruit?" Max asked.
"Nothing at all. But we needed some fresh blood, what with the new tournament coming up and all," Tala answered.
"I almost forgot about the tournament! Where does it start?" Kenny asked worriedly.
"It starts in Japan," replied Mr. Dickenson.
"If it starts in Japan, then why did you take us all around the world, Mr. D?" Hilary asked.
"Because when I noticed the other teams were having trouble, I thought they would need all the help they could get. With so many people already taken away, and now with Ian being added to the list of missing people, we need to go back home and practice. Train. If we want to find Boris, we start looking back home," Dickenson replied seriously. Then Tyson came down the stairs, with Ray in tow.
"What'd we miss?" asked Tyson.
"The tournament starts back in Japan. If we want to find Boris, we start there," Kai answered for him.
"Good. At least we have a start-off point now," Tyson replied with a small smile.
"Did anyone find out what happened to Ian?" Ray asked.
"Yeah. He was most likely kidnapped along with all the others," Tala answered.
"Well then, what do we do?" Hilary asked.
"We go home and we get ready," Tyson answered.
"I hope to see you guys at the tournament," Tala said.
"You too," replied Kai, walking over to Tala, shaking hands with him.
This chapter was originally going to go a different route, but I changed it up to make it more dramatic for you awesome people. Thanks to all of you who have been reading. 1,000 views! Woohoo! And don't worry; they'll get to the tournament in the next chapter. Until then dudes!