Kai wasn't entirely sure what had happened earlier. Every time he tried to recall the vision, the dark figure threatened once again to close in on him from his subconscious. He wished he could figure out what it was, although a part of him had a sneaking suspicion that he already knew. Those red eyes seemed awfully familiar, but he didn't quite want to admit it to himself just yet.
Finally, Kai had left his room and joined the party an hour after Tyson and Tala had shut the door on him. After another hour, the party was in full swing and he found himself sat on the arm of a patio sofa out on his own balcony. Bryan, Tala, Julia and Johnny were all squashed onto it and the rest of The Majestics were sat across from them on various garden chairs and other furniture that had been brought outside from within.
Kai remembered explicitly telling Tala that no one was allowed into his room, let alone onto his balcony, yet, here they were. It seemed that Kai's wishes had gone out of the window as soon as Robert had turned up with cigars and Bryan, being Bryan, had insisted that they all had to try them immediately. They had, therefore all sat there in various states of inebriation as Robert and Johnny had tried to explain the fine art of smoking cigars, and then laughed at Tala and Bryan who failed to do it properly. Kai on the other hand had point blank refused to try as just the smell of them reminded him of Voltaire.
Oliver and Enrique, to no ones surprise, had brought wine and their own cheese board. It was spread out on the garden table and Oliver kept picking at the grapes and popping them into his mouth. It made quite the contrast with the bowl of bright acid green punch that was sat next to it that Bryan had concocted. Kai had made a mental note not to touch a drop, as he was sure that Bryan would have mixed the most ungodly lethal drink that any of them would ever had the displeasure to drink.
Still, Bryan was quite intent on getting everyone as drunk as possible. So much so that he was now wearing Kai's scarf. You would think that these two things would be unrelated, however, half an hour before, Kai and Bryan had made a deal.
Bryan had been insisting that Kai take a shot every time Kai rolled his eyes, crossed his arms 'grumpily' (whatever that meant) or said 'Hn'. Much to Kai's dismay, it turned out that he did all of those things rather a lot, and so, he had made the deal to sacrifice his scarf for the night in exchange for no more shots. Unfortunately for Kai, it may have already been too late, he thought as he felt himself sway on the spot. Maybe he should have made the deal a little earlier. There was only one small upside to Kai's current lack of sobriety, and that was that he was no longer feeling the dread of impending doom and he had almost forgotten about those large gleaming red eyes. Almost.
Kai took another sip of whatever the hell Julia had brought him from the kitchen, the label said it was cider, but it definitely tasted like it was trying and failing to taste of bubblegum. He had also not failed to notice that Julia had very quickly migrated onto Tala's lap and that Tala now had his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. Kai had always suspected that they liked each other.
They were all happily discussing the days matches, but afterall, it was too much for Kai to hope that the conversation would not turn back to Boris and Balkov Abbey.
"Well! Maybe he decided to finally do us all a favour and set himself on fire!" Bryan laughed.
Tala shook his head, "no way, Boris was way too stubborn for that! He was probably trying out some new plan to take over the world and it backfired!"
"Well, I hope he's dead!" Bryan said, sloshing a considerable amount of drink down his front, "I mean, Dickinson said it might be arson, so there is a chance he wasn't there- I mean, I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to set the place on fire just out of pure spite, but my god, I hope Boris was there, I really hope he's dead!"
Tala laughed again but Kai stayed silent. He always struggled to comprehend how Bryan and Tala could talk so candidly about the abbey. Maybe it was because they still had all of their memories of the place, but Kai found it difficult to articulate how he felt about it. Everything he knew about the abbey was fragmented into little shards of memories that didn't quite fit together. It was much easier to push it to the back of his mind and pretend that it didn't exist.
"Wow, you really do hate him!" Enrique said as Oliver nodded, clutching his wine.
"You bet! He ruined our lives," said Tala, then Bryan looked as if he was about to drunkenly elaborate but his attention shifted elsewhere.
"Wait, where's Spence?" he asked, looking around.
"He said he was going to get food," Kai answered, he had a sneaking suspicion that Spencer had left just so that he could avoid discussing Boris.
"Oh.. He always leaves when we talk about Boris," Tala said with a disappointed tone.
"I'll go find him," Kai said, putting his bubblegum cider down on the table and reaching towards the now empty punch bowl, "and I'll refill this." He said, jumping at the excuse to leave the conversation.
He staggered through the apartment and into the kitchen and placed the bowl on the side and began to rummage through the bottles that weren't yet empty.
Kai didn't know much about regular alcohol, sure, he knew plenty about wine and expensive whiskey, but that was because Voltaire had made sure to teach him- apparently it would be important in later life. Undoubtedly, Voltaire had been refering to when Kai was to take over Hiwatari Enterprises.
He stared at the collection of budget brands, this was quite outside his realm of capabilities, and so, he poured a bit from every bottle into the bowl. It looked and smelled disgusting. Just as he was adding the last bottle, a jolt of uneasiness made him feel as if he were being watched and he whirled around in surprise.
"Hi!" said Isobel, who waved awkwardly, framed in the doorway. She was wearing the same outfit as earlier but was now sporting three additional bandages where her she must have finally got her stitches.
"Oh," he said in a disgruntled voice, "its you." He turned back to his strange concoction.
"You sound so disappointed!" she grinned nervously, stepping into the kitchen.
Kai made a noise of derision but did not turn back to face her. It was a shame, he would have found the idea of being able to speak to her one on one quite an exciting oppotunity had the memory of her making him out to be a complete pervert in front of his entire team not floated to the forefront of his mind.
"Umm.." Isobel said, leaning on the counter next to him as he emptied a carton of orange juice into the bowl, which unfortunately made it look worse. "Sorry about earlier…"
"Hn."
Isobel frowned and they stood there in silence, both staring into the murky brown bowl. "Max said you're a bit quiet."
Kai felt a stab of annoyance, 'a bit quiet?' what was that supposed to mean? And what had Max told her about him?
"Oh yeah, what did Max say about me?" he shot at her.
"Not much," she said uncertainly, "we were just talking about your team and he said.." Kai raised his eyebrows as she spoke, "he just said that you don't say much!" she insisted.
Kai never really cared what people thought of him, but for some reason, Max telling this girl that Kai was 'quiet' kind of irritated him. Then he remembered how downtrodden Max had looked when Isobel had revealed that Kai had supposedly been eying her up. Max had looked so sad. Maybe it was the alcohol, but that thought filled Kai with some sort of vengeful glee. Then he shook his head, what the hell was he thinking? Max was his friend!
"Y'know, that looks pretty awful…" Isobel said, snapping him away from his thoughts. She was pointing at the brown liquid.
"Do you have a better idea?" he snapped.
"Um.. Let me see," Isobel walked over to one of the cupboards, and pulled the doors open. She had to climb up onto one of the counters to reach the top shelf which made Kai snicker, but then she pulled two small bottles from the cupboard and waved them at him.
Kai stared at them, it was food colouring. Why on earth was there food colouring in the cupboards?
"Yep!" she said, reading his face, "I don't know why there's food colouring in there, we have it in our apartment too! Y'know, cause we're staying across the hall. And there's baking ingredients, weird huh? Maybe they think we're gonna make cakes?" she wondered.
He didn't answer as she climbed down from the worktop and rushed back to his side. "Well, if we add a little of this, and a little of that," Isobel cracked open the lids and poured a small amount of the red and blue bottles into the bowl. They swirled together and she said, "there we go!" happily.
The liquid was now a dark, slightly gloomy purple colour, but all together, much better than it had been. Kai folded his arms, unwilling to admit that she had solved his problem.
Isobel looked him up and down, "it even matches what you're wearing!" she said with a grin.
Kai sighed, "I guess, bet it still tastes like shit though."
"Yeah well, we just wont tell anyone that!" she laughed but then frowned, still eying him, "where's your scarf?" she asked, "you do normally wear a scarf, right? I'm not just imagining it?"
Kai grinned, then realised what he was doing and stopped immediately. "Bryan's wearing it. Hopefully it'll keep him rooted to the floor long enough to stop him causing too much trouble."
Isobel laughed, "why, is it… heavy?" she asked, a little confused.
"A bit." he smirked.
Isobel didn't seem to understand, after all, how would she know that Kai wore a weighted scarf?
"Right…" she said, uncertainly. "Well, I guess I better go say hi to everyone, I only just got here. I just wanted to say sorry for calling you a perv," she said as she turned to leave.
"Wait!" A sudden idea had flitted into Kai's mind and in his inebriated state, he had decided to act on it. He grabbed her by the wrist, although he made sure to avoid her stitches, and spun her back around to face him.
Isobel stared up at him in surprise, "y-yes?"
Kai narrowed his eyes and said in what he hoped was a threatening voice, "I never said I accepted your apology."
"O-oh.. Right," she said uncertainly, looking nervously down at his hand which had a tight grip on her, "wh-what did you have in mind?"
"I want a match. Against you."
"Oh!" She laughed in surprise, "really?"
"Yeah, I've been thinking about it since you beat Brooklyn," he admitted. It was true, ever since he had watched her defeat Brooklyn he had kept imagining scenarios in which they would end up facing each other. He had a feeling that Duality might make it to the final.
She laughed again, and this time he noticed her face flushed a little pink, "well, maybe you'll meet me in the final?"
That wasn't the answer that Kai wanted. He tightening his grip, "earlier than that. Tonight. We'll go now!" he insisted, an exciting buzzing that had nothing to do with the alcohol rising inside him.
"It's kinda late!" she complained.
"So?"
"Soooo, where would we go? It's getting dark out, and the stadium's closed…"
"I don't know, anywhere, there's a park down the road," he said greedily and when she looked a little alarmed he continued, "this isn't really my kind of thing," he gestured towards the door where they could hear the party still in full swing.
Isobel looked as if she was considering his offer and his heart leapt hopefully. The fact that he didn't like her was nothing compared to the prospect of facing her in a battle. It would be the perfect distraction from the abbey and those red eyes.
"Well… maybe.." she said in a considering tone.
"That BitBeast of yours is fascinating," he said, hoping this would egg her on.
Isobel froze. "No." Her whole demeanor changed and the nervous smile fell from her face and was replaced with a glare. She prised his hand from her wrist.
"What? Why not?" he asked, offended.
"I just.. I don't think I want to," she said coldly. "Sorry" she added as she stepped away from him before he could grab her again.
He frowned angrily, but before Kai could say anything else, Isobel had sped off out of the kitchen door, leaving him stood there with his purple death drink.
Back on the balcony, Kai slammed the refilled punch bowl down on the table angrily. Some of it spilled out over the edges and Bryan let out a little noise of glee, "wow its purple!" he said and he began drinking from the ladle.
Kai shook his head with annoyance and threw himself down into an empty spot next to Tala and Julia where Johnny had been sitting earlier. Johnny was now sat on the floor with Bryan. Of course those two would get along like two peas in a pod, Kai thought. Ray and Salima had come to join them, they were sat on chairs brought from the dining room. The sun had almost set now and a deep orange glow was quickly fading from the rooftop.
"Tyson's being insane," said Ray, leaning over to talk to him, "Rick sat on Daichi by accident so Tyson challenged him to arm wrestling match!"
"Figures."
"I think Rick may have broke his hand!" Salima laughed, "Hey, Kai! It's been a while!" she added cheerfully.
Kai didn't greet her in return but instead replied bitterly, "maybe I'll actually get a chance to blade in the next match."
"That's what I said!" Ray grinned, "oh and Max has invited two fangirls up from the lobby!"
Kai stared at him, "Max has brought two random girls into my apartment?" he said angrily.
"Well I guess so, I've never seen them before.." Ray said uncertainly.
"Random fan girls, you say?" said Enrique, who lurched violently out of a conversation he was having with Oliver.
Kai shook his head in disbelief. Why was Max inviting strangers into his apartment? But he had no time to dwell on the matter as at that moment Isobel and Issac appeared at the door followed by none other than Spencer. Could Kai get no reprieve from this girl?
"Sorry we're a bit late, I got the stitches finally… thought we'd come say hi!" Isobel said to the group.
Everyone exchanged excited greetings as Kai reclined as far as he could into his seat, hiding himself from view behing Tala's hair. Bryan, who was now the most intoxicated of the bunch let out a delighted, "SPENCE! come sit down here next to me, big boy!" and he patted the flagstone floor happily.
Everyone laughed but Spencer, looked at the floor where Bryan was pointing and then turned dead-pan to Tala and said, "I guess I'll go fetch some chairs, shall I?"
"Yeah, that'd be very helpful," Tala slurred, not having noticed the sarcasm in Spencer's voice, "I'm a bit occupied," he grinned lazily at Julia, who blushed.
"Aw, no Spence, we don't need more chairs!" Bryan complained, "Tala's already a chair!" he insisted, gesturing at how Julia was sat on Tala's lap. "I could be a chair, Johnny, you wanna be a chair?" he asked. Issac and Spencer looked at each other and left the room without saying a word.
"Is he always like this?" Johnny asked, trying to push Bryan away because Bryan had wrapped an arm around him.
Ray looked as if he wasn't sure whether or not he should laugh.
"Isobel! Come sit next to me!" Julia called.
Kai turned and glared at her.
"Ohhh you can budge up, can't you Kai?" Julia asked happily, seeming not to notice the expression on his face. He glanced from her to Isobel, wondering whether or not he should just leave. Julia placed both hands on his upper arm and tried to push him towards the edge of the sofa to make room. There wasn't much spare for Kai to budge up to, so he gave Julia a look as if to say she would regret this later and moved so there was a small space.
"Oh, um.." Isobel said as her eyes fell on Kai, "well…" she said uncertainly. Kai made an annoyed noise and turned away angrily.
"Oh come on!" said Julia, mistaking Isobel's apprehension as nervousness and pulling her towards the seat. Kai recoiled as she flopped down into the spot next to him and Ray gave Kai an inquisitive look. Kai shook his head as if to say, don't ask.
"Kai's not that scary!" Julia insisted.
"If you say so!" Isobel said dryly. Kai scowled but did not look at her. "Where's Tim?" Julia asked, looking from Isobel to where Issak had just been stood.
"He got cornered by Kenny as soon as we walked in!" Isobel laughed, "they're all playing weird games in the living room!"
Tala leaned over Julia with a greedy look on his face, "we've all been discussing your match! Brooklyn's face when you beat him, magnificent!" Tala let out a mirthless laugh.
Isobel smiled nervously, "he's… he's not here right?"
"Oh fuck no, we didn't invite any of the Justice 5" said Tala bitterly.
"Ming-Ming's here," Ray said in a defeated tone, Kai wondered if Ming-Ming had come to the party with Mariah, "and Crusher."
"I'm here too!" a voice called from above, and they all looked up in shock to see Mystel staring back at them, perched precariously up on the roof.
"WHAT THE? How'd you get up there?" Bryan laughed. Mystel gave cheeky thumbs up.
"OK well, Garland and Brooklyn aren't here." Tala corrected himself as everyone continued to marvel at Mystel being sat on the roof.
"Good riddance!" Bryan said.
"I'm guessing you don't like them much?" Isobel asked.
"Thats the understatement of the century!" Said Tala.
"Yeah, we hate them alright." Agreed Bryan, and they both turned to Kai as if expecting him to weigh in on the conversation.
"Is everyone just going to pretend that I'm not listening?" asked Mystel.
"Yep!" said Tala, still looking at Kai.
"Your teammates tried to put us in the ground!" Bryan shouted up at Mystel.
"That's a fair point!" Mystel agreed.
"I guess Brooklyn did try to kill me that one time," said Kai with an air of something that wasn't very important.
"Tried!" Bryan scoffed.
"Yeah Kai, we thought you were dead when we found you in that hallway!" said Spencer who had just walked back onto the balcony, carrying a stack of dining room chairs.
Kai's head snapped up, "you found me?" No one had ever told Kai how he had got from that hallway to the hospital, he had always just assumed that some stadium staff had stumbled across him and carted him off. Had it actually been Bryan and Spencer?
"Wow… maybe I should have gone a bit harder on him," Isobel laughed.
Kai looked at her for the first time since she had sat down, "really?" he asked, "I think almost snapping his head off was punishment enough."
"Wow, a compliment from Kai!" said Julia, "a high honor, Isobel!"
Isobel turned to Kai with smirk, "I'm flattered!"
"Don't be." He said flatly, and turned away again.
"I was so worried that day!" Spencer admitted, thoughts clearly still on Kai after his match against Brooklyn, "I mean, Tala was in a coma, and you were like… all dead and stuff! I thought I was going to be stuck alone with Bryan forever!"
"I wasn't dead, Spencer!" Kai said, annoyed, but everyone else was laughing.
"Could'a fooled me!" said Bryan, miming what must have been Kai, passed out on the floor after the match.
Kai sighed, "yeah, whatever, I'm actually dead. The only thing that sustains me is my raging hate for you all." Everyone, including Isobel laughed at this.
"That explains a lot!" Tala jibed. Kai glared at him and reached over Isobel to give Tala a sharp shove to the side of the head.
"Ahhh!" Tala exclaimed and shoved him back, still laughing.
Kai shook his head for what felt like the umpteenth time that evening. He really should have realised that allowing the Blitzkrieg Boys stay with him would result in this kind of chaos. If he had to think about it, he had no one to blame for this but himself.
"Anyway, yeah," Tala said, directing the conversation back to Isobel, "Garland and Brooklyn took things way too far, and I'm not the forgiving type, so I really enjoyed your little performance earlier!" he patted Isobel proudly on the shoulder.
"Now we're gonna have to learn as much about you as we possibly can! Then it'll be our turn!" Tala said with a mischievous leer.
"That… sounds like a threat…" said Isobel warily.
"Oh it is!" Bryan hissed.
"So tell us about that BitBeast of yours!" Tala insisted.
"Oh, um, y'know its really not that interesting," Isobel laughed nervously, catching Kai's eye. He had froze upon mention of her BitBeast and was listening intently. Maybe with this many people around she would reveal a little more than earlier.
"Actually, my BitBeast didn't come to me until quite recently, so I guess I don't have much to tell you. We're still kinda still getting to know eachother" She smiled. Kai frowned.
"You've got an awful lot of control over it considering you only got it recently!" Salima chimed in.
"Have I? Maybe it was just meant to be!" Isobel said, Kai could tell that she was holding back on elaborating, and it was annoying him.
"Hmmm… secrets, secrets!" Julia mused, "I'm sure we'll figure you out eventually!"
"Uhhhh, I look forward to it," Isobel replied weakly, she didn't sound as if she was looking forward to it at all.
"You'd think there would be rules set in place to stop the Brooklyn thing from happening," Ray piped up, changing the conversation again and pointing at Isobel's bandages. Everyone knew Ray had felt particularly strongly about this topic ever since his battle against Bryan in the first world championship.
"Yeah, bladers who attack the blader rather than the blade ought to be disqualified," Robert chimed in.
"Yeah!" Bryan agreed enthusiastically, waving his drink around, and then realisation dawned on his face and he turned slowly to Ray, "I mean, I really should have been disqualified in the first world championship.."
Kai noticed Ray shift warily in his seat.
"Sorry I tried to kill you," Bryan whispered in an undertone that everyone could hear.
"Err… thats OK Bryan." Ray laughed a little nervously.
Everyone looked at each other as if this were a strange conversation to suddenly be having in front of everyone.
"No.. No I should have apologised sooner," Bryan slurred drukenly, "it was not nice of me to do that!" he said as he swayed on the spot.
"Really Bryan, its fine." Ray said, looking around at everyone as if begging them to change the topic of conversation.
"Have a drink!" Bryan insisted, thrusting his own personal bottle of vodka at him.
"Uhh.. OK.." Ray took the bottle and took a swig.
"What happened at the first world championships?" Kai heard Isobel whisper to Tala.
"Ah, I'll tell you another time.." Tala whispered back.
"Ok! Now we're good!" Bryan said happily, taking the bottle back as if some kind of ritual had been performed.
"We.. We were already good Bryan!" Ray insisted, although he was laughing.
"Well now we're even gooder!" Bryan said slapping Ray hard on the back in a friendly way.
Ray coughed, winded but he grinned and gasped, "yeah sure!"
There was a moment of silence where everyone stared around at each other awkwardly, it didn't last long though as just then Hilary walked out onto the balcony. Her face looked sullen, but she was dressed so differently that no one seemed to notice.
"Wow look at you!" Ray exclaimed as she got closer. Kai could see what he meant. Hilary was much transformed from her usual look. She was wearing a simple but tight black dress and her hair looked a lot silkier than normal, falling delicately around her face. She had even put makeup on, the overall effect was that she looked very pretty and Kai wondered if Tyson had seen her yet.
Hilary's face lit up at Ray's words, "oh, thanks!" she said, giving a little twirl, "its not too much is it?" she asked in an undertone.
"No way, its a party!" Salima grinned.
"DAMN, HILARY! YOU LOOK HOT!" yelled Julia.
Hilary blushed, "ahhhh, thank you!" she squealed.
"Well, well, well!" said Enrique with a grin, "wanna come sit next to me, Hil?"
"Absolutely not!" Julia snapped at him.
Enrique pulled a face, "I think we can let the lady decide!"
Hilary rolled her eyes but she was grinning widely, obviously flattered.
"Has Tyson seen you yet?" Ray asked eagerly.
"Yep." She said, her sullen face returning instantly, "didn't even bat an eyelid! He was too busy stuffing his face with cake and playing some stupid card game with the All Starz!"
"He's such an idiot!" Ray laughed. "I'm sure once he notices, he wont be able to keep his eyes in."
"I'm not so sure," she said disappointedly, "I can't exactly make it anymore obvious, I even plucked up the courage to ask him to dance… and he said no!" she said angrily.
"He said what?" Kai asked in disbelief, he couldn't believe that Tyson could be so completely oblivious. He sighed, alcohol once again spurring him on to do something stupid. He stood up and walked over to Hilary, "c'mon! I'll get that idiot to dance with you!" and with that, he pulled Hilary back through his room and across the hall.
"Oh shit, here we go!" said Tala, who lifted Julia off his lap immediately and they, Salima and Ray began to follow them.
"Oh no… no Kai, it's fine.." Hilary complained, but Kai grabbed her by the wrist and marched on.
"It'll be fine, Hil!" Ray said with a laugh, "Tyson just needs a push in the right direction!"
"You're not going to make him jealous again, are you?" Hilary whispered anxiously as they made their way through all of the people lining the corridor.
"I'm not stupid!" Kai retorted, but just before he was about to place his hand on the living room door to thrust it open, he froze.
The music that had been blaring from the living room all night had ceased playing, and there were now raised voices coming from inside. He glanced down at Hilary and let go of her immediately, then he exchanged an uneasy look with Ray. It was Tyson's voice that was shouting on the other side.
"What the hell is wrong with you? I thought you'd changed!"
Kai and Hilary looked at each other. She nodded, and Kai pushed the door open quietly.
Everyone was stood around the edge of the room. The PPB All Starz, The Batallion, Ming-Ming and Mariah and the rest of the White Tigers. Romero was perched awkwardly on a window sill with Raul and Kane. Jim and Goki were standing behind one of the sofas. Kenny, Max and Daichi and Tim were all lurking a few feet away Tyson. All of them were silently watching the scene in the center unfold.
Tyson was facing the door, Kai could see his face was screwed up with emotion. And there, with his back to Kai, stood Brooklyn.
"I did change!" Brooklyn said with his annoyingly pleasant voice, "I'm much nicer now!"
"No you're not!" Tyson growled with anger.
"What's the problem? That girl was fine, patched up in no time!" he laughed.
"Its not funny, Brooklyn!"
"She could handle it! It's not my fault that she made me angry," he said, grinning around at everyone, his arms wide and welcoming. "See, this only ever happens with bladers that make me angry, I'm ususally very nice to people who suck," Brooklyn shrugged, "its a compliment really!"
Kai could see that Tyson was getting really riled up, "A COMPLIMENT?" He yelled.
"Yeah!" Brooklyn said, "it means they're good enough to go up against me," he said with relish.
"I really thought you'd changed!" Tyson repeated, this time sounding disappointed, and he made to push past Brooklyn, but then his eyes found Kai's and Tyson froze.
"I personally think I've made a lot of progress!" Brooklyn insisted, oblivious to who was standing behind him. "If this was last year, I'd be rocking back and forth and pledging to kill you all by now," Brooklyn said whimsically with a grin, as if remembering the time fondly. "I only wanted to come and join the party!"
Kai cast his mind back to Brooklyn staring blankly into the dish after Isobel had defeated him and wondered if he had spent the last few hours agonising over what to do about it and had come to the conclusion that gatecrashing the party was his best bet.
"Leave it Tyson, he's just trying to get a rise out of you because he's upset he lost the match." Kai said bitterly.
Tyson frew a glare at Kai as if to say, I can't believe you just alerted the crazy red-head to the fact that you're standing right behind him!
Brooklyn whirled around and his eyes lit up.
"Kai…" he said in an exhilarated voice, almost as if all enmity from their earlier meeting was completely forgotten.
"Brooklyn…" Kai said warily
Brooklyn gave him an appraising look, "So, going to mock me?"
"Why would you think that?" Kai asked.
"Well, it seems since you defeated me, everyone else does too." He said darkly
Kai sighed, of course this was his fault. "And how exactly is that my problem?"
"Well you see, it all makes sense, you must be to blame!" Brooklyn said this in a calm voice, but Kai could hear the dangerous undertone ringing through.
Tyson stepped around Brooklyn, closer to Kai, almost as if to shield him if he needed to.
"It sounds like you lost your confidence." Kai smirked. He knew he shouldn't antagonise Brooklyn, but it was just too tempting not to. Brooklyn had lashed out at him earlier, afterall, and Kai was feeling reckless.
"You think so?" Brooklyn asked delicately.
"Yeah, I do." It didn't help that the alcohol was still spurring him on. "Its a shame, if you could just get a hold of that shitty personality of yours-"
"Says you!" Brooklyn laughed, but his face was angry.
"Hey!" Tyson said angrily. At this, Kai couldn't help but snicker, because Tyson was always the one to complain about Kai's shitty personality.
"Y'know, not everyone is as nice as Tyson," Kai continued, matching Brooklyns light but dangerous tone, "most people don't have the patience to talk you down from a rage like Tyson did during your match with him, especially when they're the ones that are winning." Brooklyn narrowed his eyes at this. "I'm not surprised you haven't changed. You're incapable of change."
"She was antagonising me!" Brooklyn complained angrily.
"Yeah.. And it worked!" Kai laughed, "your face when that crazy ass BitBeast of hers had you in a choke-hold!"
"That was dangerous!" Brooklyn spat.
Kai laughed again, because of all things that Brooklyn could complain about, Isobel's tactics being 'dangerous' was the most ridiculous double standard that Brooklyn could have come up with.
"Oh yeah?" Kai said with a chuckle, "I think you finally got what you deserve!"
This must have hit a nerve, as a second later, Brooklyn had lunged forwards.
"NO!" Shouted Tyson and Ray as they both moved to block Brooklyn's path, but they were too late.
Brooklyn pushed Kai backwards and he slammed into the people behind him who all toppled to the ground. Everyone shrieked as tables and people alike were knocked over and some of them landed painfully against the wall.
"Hilary!" Tyson gasped, and Kai realised she too must have been knocked down in the skirmish.
Kai got back on his feet, anger coursing through him, but he had no time to think because out of the corner of his eye Brooklyn was moving in for another attack. He had a few milliseconds at most to consider his options. Usually, Kai had one rule, well actually Kai had many rules, but one of them was that he never threw the first punch, but the second? Well, that was fair game. Kai's reflexes kicked in, and as Brooklyn swung for him, he reached out and grabbed the redhead by the neck.
Brooklyn squealed as Kai one-handedly lifted him off the floor and slammed him into the wooden coffee table. Kai could hear the room's occupants gasping loudly. Brooklyn stared up at him and his face turned from fear to a malicious grin, "heh heh heh, you wouldn't be able to beat that Isobel girl either, you're just like me." He snarled.
Brooklyn must have known that comment would hit a nerve, and that was probably why he had said it, but Kai, full of adrenaline and alcohol, was suddenly full of anger. The entire day had been a mess, and this was the icing on the cake. "I'm nothing like you!" he spat at him.
"Kai- NO- he's not worth-" Tyson began, but it was too late; in a split second Kai had lifted Brooklyn bodily from the table and thrown him across the room, he landed awkwardly across the arm of a sofa. It looked incredibly painful and for a few seconds, Brooklyn hung there limply in a position that simply wasn't natural.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Someone screamed. Everyone that had been in other rooms of the apartment was now piling into the living room.
"Brooklyn?" Mystel called from the door, but Brooklyn was up and was already desperately trying to push past those who had crowed around him. Kai stared at him, couldn't Brooklyn just give it a rest? Wasn't that enough?
Kai mustered every bit of mental strength he had and began to turn away. He didn't care if Brooklyn came after him, maybe he would just let him. He was drunk, tired, and fed up. But then from the door, Tala yelled, "KAI, HE'S BEHIND YOU!" and Kai turned just in time. Brooklyn swung and Kai ducked. So much for giving up. He swerved back around to punch Brooklyn square in the jaw. Brooklyn staggered and leaned against the nearest table.
Everyone drew a collective breath and to everyones surprise, Brooklyn began to chuckle.
"That wasn't very good, Kai, I still have all my teeth." He giggled in a patronising way and tapped the side of his jaw lightly, "you would think that your time at the Abbey would have taught you how to fight a loser like me!" he laughed through a mouthful of blood.
Kai froze. "What?" he asked abruptly.
"Oh yeah, Boris told me all about it! Your time at the Abbey!" he grinned, and then spoke the next words with a velvet voice, "Black Dranzer."
"Shut up." Kai whispered. The room had gone icy cold. He could feel the eyes of everyone watching him.
"Yeah, its a shame I wasn't there, I'm sure BioVolt would have succeeded if I had been at the helm. I didn't quite agree with Boris's values in the end, but it would have been such an interesting premise, would it not?" Brooklyn mused.
Tala must have squeezed himself through the crowd as he suddenly appeared at Kai's side.
"Boris said I would have been the perfect candidate for Black Dranzer, much better than you. If only I hadn't already had such a powerful BitBeast like Zeus. It's a shame really that I met Boris in later in life. Maybe I could have had both Zeus and Black Dranzer. Oh well, there's always another chance, I mean, phoenix's are always born again, aren't they?" he grinned.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tala spat, stepping forwards slightly to shield Kai from Brooklyn, then Tyson mirrored him, standing on Kai's other side, but Kai couldn't move a muscle, he was too busy remembering again that huge monster with the red eyes.
Brooklyn smiled eerily, "I was under the impression that Dranzer sacrified herself to save you after our match," Brooklyn continued, "but then she was born again, considering you have her there, in your pocket. Did you never consider the same could be said for Black Dranzer? Especially, given todays news," he said with relish, grabbing a newspaper from the floor which was emlazoned with a picture of a burning Balkov Abbey. "Perhaps he too will rise from the ashes!"
"Get out!" Tala shouted through gritted teeth, pointing towards the door.
"Alright, I'll go," Brooklyn said plesantly, walking past them so close his jacket brushes Tala's. "But be warned," he said as he made his way towards the door, "if you go down to the police station today, you're sure of a big surprise!" he said in a sing-song voice, waving the paper high in the air.
Everyone watched with horror as Brooklyn slipped through the door and out of sight.
An ominous feeling hung in the air, and all eyes were on Kai. A few more seconds elapsed and then Kai bolted towards the door, pushing everyone aside as he went. "Get out of my way," he spat, they didn't need telling twice. Julia, Ray, and Johnny swerved out of the way. Isobel, who was staring at him horror struck pulled her brother out of Kai's path and he rushed past them all, across the hall and into his room. He slammed the door shut behind him and locked it.
Did Brooklyn know something about Boris? About Balkov Abbey? About his vision? About Black Dranzer?
"Parties over!" he heard Tala yell in the distance, "everyone OUT!"
What the hell was going on?
Okay that was an absolute whirlwind of a chapter to write! SO MUCH DIALOGUE. I hope it wasn't too much!
Also ahhhhh I really hope theres no typos as I've had 3 hours sleep so I'm so sorry if there is, I'll read it through again tomorrow and amend any I can find! Hope you're all having a fab day/ evening/ 1:54am like I am hahah