This is the longest chapter I've ever wrote and almost the entire thing is just a bit of fun haha, it does further the plot though, I swear!
"Training!" said Hilary, prizing Mr Dickinson from the car as soon as they got to the hotel. "Don't mind if I commandeer your taxi do you?"
Mr Dickinson looked as if he didn't have a choice. "I'm not sure Kai wants to-"
"Everyones already gone to the training grounds!" Hilary explained, cutting Mr Dickinson off as she climbed into the back seat and wound down the window.
"I've organized for someone to let us in at a different entrance, that way we can avoid the paps!" she said cheerfully, "thats ok, right?" oblivious to the unpleasant morning Kai had just experienced.
"Well I- Perhaps not today Hilary. Kai may not want to-"
"Its fine," Kai muttered, bending his head so Mr Dickinson could see him.
"But Kai, you haven't even eaten yet-"
"Oh don't you worry, I'll get him some food! See you!" she said cheerfully as the car began to pull away, leaving Mr Dickinson waving lamely.
Hilary turned to him with a grin, he turned away, trying desperately to push what he had just seen at the police station to the back of his mind. He didn't want her to know anything was amiss. It hadn't even been that bad, really, Kai told himself. It was just a hallway, just a cell, just his younger self. The one he couldn't remember.
Kai was over-reacting. It must be the hangover. Yes, that was it, the hangover was making it worse. It would pass. He took a long deep breath turned to Hilary; a distraction.
"I don't suppose you ever got that dance with Tyson, did you?"
Hilary looked surprised that he was interested and gave a small laugh, "nope, certainly not. But I don't blame you, its not your fault Brooklyn came to throw hands."
"Yeah. I guess." Kai had not thought much about Brooklyn, the memory had been drowned out by a glorious mix of alcohol and the abbey.
Brooklyn had mentioned Black Dranzer, why? How much had Boris told him about the dark bitbeast? Had Brooklyn and Boris stayed in contact after BEGA? Surely Black Dranzer was gone, destroyed. But then, what had Brooklyn meant when he had said 'phoenixes are always born again?' Kai knew that his own Dranzer had come back time and time again. Was Black Dranzer the same? And if he was, did Brooklyn really want to wield both Zeus and Black Dranzer? It was a horrifying thought.
"Are you ok?" Hilary asked, peering at him, "you've gone white as a sheet!"
"M'fine," he muttered, "nothing a day of training can't cure."
"That's what I like to hear!" she said in a peppy voice.
Kai pulled his thoughts away from Boris, Brooklyn and Black Dranzer.
"I thought the stadium was closed for a week?"
"They've already tested and reopened the west wing, it wasn't really damaged at all, so we can carry on training!" said Hilary gleefully.
"Oh, right." It was a relief, a good day of blading was exactly what he needed.
Kai slouched into the training room, the taxi had dropped them around the back and Hilary had managed to convince a cleaner to allow them to use the staff entrance.
"A little hungover are we?" said Tyson as he slammed Daichi's blade out of the dish.
"Aw man!" wailed Daichi.
"Hn. Aren't you?"
"Nope," said Tyson with a grin, calling his blade back to him. "I got up at 9am, had breakfast and came straight here!"
Kai pulled a face, "eugh."
Tyson gave him a confused look. "Wha'dya mean eugh? You're usually the one up banging on our door at 6am trying to get us to start training!"
Kai ignored him and sat down on the bench.
Tyson took a seat next to him. "Dude, have you been moping around in bed this whole time? You look like you've been defrosted in the microwave."
Kai said nothing, resting his head in his hands.
"Dude!" Tyson said again, this time with more vigor. "Did Brooklyn bother you that much? Or are you just really hungover? Tala said you drank an entire bowl of punch after we left-"
"Mhm." Kai got up and made a beeline for the water fountain. Why was Tyson on one, today of all days?
"No, no, no!" Tyson followed him. "The amount of times you've lectured me about sleeping in late! Its 3pm!"
"Tyson!" hissed Hilary, who had just entered the room and was carrying a bag full of sandwiches from the coffee shop in the arena, "he's been off somewhere with Mr Dickinson!"
"Oh!" realisation spread across Tyson's face. He had the sense to look ashamed, "right. Sorry…"
"You always jump to the wrong conclusion," said Kai, failing to acknowledge that he had indeed drank the entire bowl of punch after everyone had left and he was indeed very hungover.
"So where did you go with Mr D?"
"None of your business," Kai said grumpily, gulping down some water and then resting against the wall.
Hilary handed the bag of sandwiches to him.
"Are these all for me?" thinking that he could never in his life eat this many sandwiches.
"Of course not, the ones you don't eat we'll feed to Tyson and Daichi!" said Hilary as she wandered over to Daichi with a huge pink frappe as Tyson and Kai resumed their seat upon the bench.
Daichi took the frappe greedily, "did you just say sandwiches?"
Hilary ignored him.
The door opened and Kenny's laptop proceeded him, followed by Max, Ray and to Kai's shock, Tim and Isobel.
Isobel smiled at Tyson and then saw Kai, who she avoided eye contact with. Had he been weird with her at the party? Oh yes, he had. Or had he? Oh god, he couldn't remember.
"Why are they here?" Kai asked Tyson as he began to eat. His stomach screamed in disapproval.
"Oh they've been in and out all day, Kenny is really interested in Tim's research and Max and Isobel are training together."
"They're training together? They're not on the same team!"
"Yeah well, after BEGA I don't think its the worst idea to get a clue of what we're up against at least once before we face them in the actual competition. I mean, did you see the way she defeated Brooklyn?"
Kai hated to admit it, but Tyson had a point. There would be no re-dos in this championship, once a team had lost two matches they were out.
"They might not even make it to the championship match anyway! Then it wont matter," said Tyson, as if he knew everything and had put great thought into this. "Plus they brought cake!" Tyson's eyes glazed over with happiness. "Oh my god, Kai, you missed it, you missed the cake! It was so good!"
"Let me get this straight," said Kai after he had finished chewing. "An opposing team bribed you with cake so that they could size you up?"
"Uhh-" said Tyson, confused realisation settling over him.
"God, you're an idiot."
Tyson stamped on his foot.
Kai kicked him.
"I'm going to confront them."
"Wha- no! Kai!"
Kai put his sandwich down, got up, shoved his hands into his pockets and strode over to the table where Kenny was sat with Isobel and Tim on either side, all staring at Kenny's laptop.
"Why are you in our training room?"
Isobel shrugged, "we brought cake," as if this was an acceptable exchange.
Kai raised an eyebrow.
"And Tim is really interested in… er, whatever it is that Kenny is doing," she waved her hand vaguely at the screen.
"Oh, I bet he is."
"What," she asked with a grin, "do you think we're going to steal all your little secrets?"
Kai didn't like her tone. "You might."
She gave him an appraising look.
"Whats the problem?" asked Hilary, butting in.
"Why are they in our training room?" Kai demanded.
Isobel folded her arms. "Because our training room's in the east wing, its still off limits."
Kai frowned. "So you thought you'd just commandeer ours instead?"
"Ohh!, no, Kai!" said Hilary waving her arms as if to soften the moment, "Mr Dickinson said that if we don't mind sharing that any of the Block A teams are allowed to train with us until the east wing is asessed!"
Kai gave an exasperated noise. "Right. You could have told me earlier!"
"Sorry! I should have mentioned it!"
Kenny and Tim looked terrified.
"Yeah, hence the cake," Isobel held up an empty box, "as a thank you for letting us share today. Err, Its all gone now though, they ate it all," she nodded her head in Tyson and Daichi's direction. "I should have saved you some really, but I wasn't sure if you'd be able to make it out of bed today after drinking the entire punch bowl-"
"You were still there?" Kai asked in horror.
"Well, yes," she said awkwardly, "I went to find my brother so we could leave and when I came back to say goodbye you demanded that I hold your scarf so that you wouldn't get purple magic juice on it." Isobel said this with a smugness that made Kai's hair stand up on end. He gaped at her. Purple magic juice?
"It was quite impressive, really." She continued, grinning at the look on his face. "You downed it all in one."
Kenny looked as if he wanted to laugh. Kai shot him a death glare.
"Right." Said Kai, obviously flustered. How many other people had still been there after Tala had expressly asked them all to leave? This was why Kai didn't like parties.
"If I find grubby little hand prints on my scarf I'll know exactly who's fault it is!" he said angrily, stomping back to the bench.
"Go well did it?" Tyson asked casually.
"Don't speak to me." He was combing through his scarf looking for any signs that it had been touched by anyone other than himself.
Tyson smirked. "Wouldn't dream of it. Fancy a little match, or ten?"
"Fine."
Tyson and Kai had been practicing for hours. They were battling without the use of their bitbeasts so that they could work on their basic skills. It was not going well. Tyson was winning 5 to 1 and it appeared that he could not resist bobbing up and down on the heels of his feet with glee.
"Remind me to get you absolutely hammered the night before if I ever have to face you in a world championship match again!" he tittered.
"Hnn!" Kai could not concentrate, but it was certainly not the hangover that was affecting his play. In actual fact, videos of a dark abbey hallway kept whirring into action in his minds eye at the worst possible moment, along with everything that Brooklyn had said about Black Dranzer and Boris. Now he thought about it, what about that dark figure that had managed to make him to collapse before the party?
"Come on Kai, you can do it!" chanted Max.
Kai lapsed back into the moment. His beyblade was on the edge of the dish.
It did not help that his entire team along with Tim and Isobel had all stopped what they were doing to watch Kai fail. He could feel all of their eyes on him.
Dranzer went whizzing past his head and slammed into the wall behind.
Kai let out a long agitated sigh, flexing his hands.
"Dude, you're not even putting up a fight. Maybe you should take a break!" said Tyson way too happily.
Kai pulled his blade from the wall and threw himself down on the bench next to Ray who gave him a concerned look but said nothing.
"Hey Isobel, do you wanna blade with me?" asked Tyson.
"Alright," she said happily, stepping up to the dish.
Kai shot her an outraged look, recalling that just the previous night he had drunkenly asked her for a match and she had told him to get stuffed.
"Fi-nUH-ly! Some good competition!" roared Tyson.
Kai rolled his eyes, Isobel was already beating Tyson's blade back further and further towards the edge. She was going to beat him and they'd been at it for what, two minutes? It was time for him to leave, bed was what Kai needed. He would try again tomorrow.
"Ohhhhh!" everyone let out a gasp as Tyson's blade went flying out of the dish.
"Wait up Kai, we'll come with you." Said Hilary and Ray. "Its almost time for dinner! Come on Tyson, you've been at it all day!" she called.
"Ugh Hil! Its just getting good!" Tyson had already reattached his blade to his launcher.
"Maybe next time?" said Isobel, "I'm getting hungry too."
Kai groaned, he wanted to be alone.
They all boarded the bus back to the hotel without much fuss, Hilary had somehow tricked the paparazzi into believing Kai was leaving from a different entrance.
"Maybe we could all dress up as you and confuse them next time," Hilary mused as she took the free seat next to him, Max and Isobel slid down the aisle together and took the seats behind.
"Absolutely not." Said Kai, he could not even fathom the damage his teammates might inflict upon his reputation if he allowed them to pretend to be him for even one second.
"It could work though," Isobel butted in, why the hell was she listening in on their conversation? "You could all leave from different entrances."
Kai thought this was a ridiculous idea, "and then what? Wouldn't it look weird if five-" but Hilary interrupted him.
"We could start a trend!" she said, excited, "I bet theres loads of fans who would love to dress up as you! It could be a whole thing!"
Kai pulled a face but Hilary ignored it. "Yes! We could get them on board! Maybe I should make flyer's! I could pass them out at the next match-"
"Absolutely not!"
Max grinned, "Yeah! Then they could all start a Kai Hiwatari flash mob!"
The three of them laughed and Kai let out an anguished sort of noise and rested his head on the chair in front. "I think death would be preferable," he muttered.
"Now that would stop the paparazzi!" said Isobel, deadpan.
Kai snorted as Hilary and Max's mouths fell open.
"What?" Isobel asked innocently as Max tried to stifle his laugh, "it was a joke!"
Kai looked at her sideways, head still against the chair. He had to appreciate she had a sense of humor, even if it was often used to belittle him.
"Any particular dying wish you'd like us to remember?" she asked him politely.
"Uhhh," he grumbled. "Don't let Tyson write my eulogy. And I want a blue coffin, obviously."
"Done!" said Hilary, looking as if she was going to send all of this off to a solicitor as soon as she got back to the hotel.
"Is that because you want your coffin to match Dranzer?" asked Max, smirking.
Kai glared at him, "like you wouldn't want a coffin shaped like a bottle of mustard you fucking freak."
"Hey! Mustard is best!" said Max in outrage, giving him a light shove.
Isobel gave Max an appraising look, "hmmm, the five mustard packets you had on the side of your cake earlier is starting to make more sense."
"I'm not sure makes sense is quite how I would phrase it, but sure," mused Hilary.
"Oi!" called a voice as they entered the hotel dining hall. Kai had intended on going straight back to his room but he had been distracted when Max had began talking stats with Isobel and Kai had wanted to eavesdrop.
"Are you gonna sit with us or what?" called Bryan.
The Blitzkrieg Boys were all sat in the corner at the end of a long table. They looked murderous.
"Whats up?" asked Ray, taking a seat next to Bryan. Perhaps Bryan's drunken apology had paid off after all.
"Guess where we've just come back from," said Tala darkly, taking a swig from a glass of wine as Kai sat down next to him.
Kai glanced at his team. So far, he had managed not to reveal where he had been that morning, but unfortunately the Blitzkrieg Boys were not as secretive him. Kai sighed and asked, "the police station?"
"Thats the one!" said Bryan. "I can't believe it!" he smacked his hands down on the table so that Tala's wine glass jumped and threatened to paint the tablecloth red. "All this bloody time and now they've got a-hold of all the CCTV footage! Where the hell did they get it?"
"You were at the police station?" said Hilary, realisation dawning on her face.
Tyson, who had not been paying attention and had instead been wrestling with Daichi over a breadstick they had picked up from the buffet on the way in turned to Tala and said, "wait! You've been to the police station today? Why dude?"
Tala exchanged a look with Kai that plainly said, of course you didn't tell them.
Everyone stared at the Blitzkreig Boys eagerly.
"Um, well, we're not supposed to talk about it really! Tala?" said Spencer.
"You called us over here because you clearly want to talk about it!" said Max with a grin.
Tala kicked back in his chair, balancing on two legs, "I am nothing if not a huge gossip!" It was true, Tala loved to make his business everyone else's business.
Everyone waited with baited breath.
"Yeah, we all spent the day at the police station, after Kai left of course."
The Bladebreakers turned to Kai in alarm who folded his arms and said, "what, I have to keep you apprised of every single thing I do now, do I?"
Tyson looked as if he was about to argue but Tala interjected.
"Turns out someones gone and turned in a ton of CCTV footage from the abbey from when we were kids, we had to go in and identify everything! Its going to take weeks! We might even end up missing matches!"
"Missing matches?" asked Kai, "they didn't tell me about that!"
"Well you'll be fine, you've got five members on your team. You can afford to miss a few matches. We don't have any backups!" said Tala bitterly.
Kai let out an exasperated noise, he didn't want to miss any matches.
"So is this why the Russian BBA dropped you?" asked Ray. "They think you wont be able to finish the tournament?"
"We assume so, they still haven't even been in contact. What'd they make you watch anyway?" Bryan asked Kai eagerly.
Kai shook his head, very aware that everyone was watching.
"Videos…"
"Yeah we know that!" said Bryan, taking a sip of his drink, which looked like water but could easily have been vodka.
"Ugh." Kai did not want to elaborate. "It was just a hallway full of cells," he shrugged, "had to tell them if I recognised it." He failed to mention that he had also had to verify whether the boy locked up in one of those cells was him or not.
"Oh," said Bryan, disappointed, as if this was nothing. "Thats small potatoes! I had to watch myself get my hand broken, twice!"
"You had your hand broken?" whispered Hilary.
Bryan grinned and held up his right hand, removing his gloves so that everyone could see. Kai stared, he had never noticed it before but Bryan's hand was quite mangled.
"Never healed properly. That trainer Anton did it, remember him, Kai?" he said, still holding his hand out, almost as if it were a trophy that he wanted to show off.
"No." Said Kai stiffly, but then a question popped into his head. "Is that why you shoot with your left?" Kai had aways thought that Bryan was merely left handed.
"Yep, filling in forms is really fun too!" he smirked. "Wait, you don't remember?"
Kai exhaled slowly. "No. I don't remember."
"But you were there! We were training together, remember? You knocked me out of the dish and then Anton smashed my hand to bits as punishmen-"
"I don't remember!" Kai cut him off, why on earth was Bryan talking about this so candidly? Everyone was listening!
Tala, Bryan and Spencer all exchanged confused looks. Tyson, for once, was silent.
"Maybe we should um, talk about something else," suggested Ray, who was shooting Kai covert looks. The three Blitzkrieg Boys did not look impressed.
"Food?" asked Tyson, "I'm starving!"
The hotel restaurant was buffet-style, and it wasn't half bad. The entire team moved warily around Kai as they all piled food onto their plates, as if they thought any sudden movements might upset him, he wished they wouldn't. Tyson and Daichi however appeared oblivious, piling their plates the highest and finishing before anyone else got back to the table , then going back for seconds, and then thirds.
"Leave room for dessert!" snapped Hilary.
"That's what my second stomach is for!" said Tyson thickly through a mouthful of roast potato.
"Ah yes, I forgot you're a cow!" said Max knowingly.
Daichi tried to speak but his mouth was too full. He swallowed with difficulty and said, "If having two stomachs makes me a cow, then MOOO!" and bits of rice sprayed across the table onto Hilary's plate. She looked murderous.
"Daichi, thats disgusting!"
"Don't cows have four stomachs?" said Ray, puzzled.
"I think they do." Said Kenny.
"So what you're saying" said Isobel from the other end of the table, Kai had forgotten she was even there. "Is that together, Tyson and Daichi make one functioning cow?"
Everyone choked on their food and Kai thumped Tyson on the back.
"Hey! That was mean!" he complained.
"You still laughed!" Isobel shrugged, leaning over so that she could grin down the table at Tyson.
They all made their way back up to their rooms. Kai had eaten very little, but his stomach still felt a little queasy. Perhaps he would order room service if he got hungry before bed.
Everyone else was making plans to go on an excursion into the city the next day, apparently Mr Dickinson had given out vouchers to go play something called LaserTag.
Kai would not be going, he had already made his plans for the next day and they were simply to rot in bed. Peace at last.
The next morning Kai awoke early despite terrible sleep. He made himself coffee, showered, opened the curtains and then promptly got back into bed.
There was a bang on his door.
"Are you ready yet? We're all waiting!" it was Tala, again.
"I'm not going!" he called back. Kai had just loaded up a horror movie that he had wanted to watch for ages, it was very conveniently included in his room tariff.
"But we agreed!" Tala complained.
"I didn't agree to anything!" Kai called back.
Tala waltzed in and Bryan and Spencer trailed after him.
"Do you mind?" said Kai, gesturing to the fact that he was in bed, "I could have been doing anything in here!"
"Yes, well, unsurprisingly you're not," said Tala. What was that supposed to mean? "Get up, we're going to laser tag!"
Kai gestured to the bed around him and the horror movie on the TV. "I don't want to go to laser tag!"
"Spoil sport!" moaned Bryan. "At least get up and come say bye, everyones in the kitchen!"
Kai frowned, instantly registering noise out in the hallway. "Why couldn't you all just meet downstairs?"
"We're the only one with a fully stocked kitchen!" said Spencer.
"This is a hotel, theres a bloody buffet downstairs!"
Kai threw back the sheets angrily and pulled on a pair of black jeans and a t-shirt.
"Wow, you're coming to say bye? Thats nice of you!" said Spencer in surprise.
"No, I'm going to tell everyone to get the fuck out of my kitchen!"
He stomped down the hallway. It looked as if everyone except the Justice 5 had managed to squeeze themselves in there.
"Why are you all up here?" Kai demanded.
Tyson looked up happily, of course he was right next to the fridge, swigging orange juice from the carton. Kai would have to throw it away. "Finally!"
"Get out!" Kai said, holding the door open.
"We were about to!" Tyson complained. "And you! Get your shoes on!"
Kai ignored him.
They all began to file out of the kitchen and into the hall. Kai followed until he was sure that none of them would notice him sneak back inside. He turned on his heel and made to close the door behind him.
"Aren't you coming with us?" asked Isobel, hanging back from the others.
God, why did she of all people give a shit?
"No. Why would I be?"
"You don't want to explore London? And LaserTag?"
"No." Kai lied. He very much wanted to explore London, but on his own. Perhaps after his film he would indeed take his first solitary foray out into the city.
Isobel frowned. "You're going to stay here all day? Don't you want to shoot Tyson in the face?"
"I'm tired." It wasn't exactly a lie, he was tired. Kai had been up half of the night plagued by nightmares full of terrifying, never ending hallways filled with cells full of screaming children. They had all begged for his help, only for them to turn into the huge black monster as soon as he tried to rescue them.
He shook his head agitatedly. "I don't want spend yet another day with those lot." He nodded in the direction of Tyson and the rest of his team.
Isobel cast a glance at the crowd who were all trying to squeeze themselves into the lift.
"Oh, the horrors!" she mocked.
Kai gave her an annoyed look and closed the door another inch.
"You wouldn't be in any way tempted? Not even if I happened to have put a buzzer in Daichi and Tyson's pockets that zaps them every time they get too annoying?"
This was not what Kai had expected her to say.
"You did.. What?"
She shrugged and pulled a little remote out of her bag and mimed pressing the button on it.
"You evil girl."
"It'd be a shame to miss it," she smiled politely.
Kai gave her a long appraising look, why was she trying to lure him from his place of solitude? Had she forgiven him for the ass staring incident and now wanted to bribe him into another unwanted friendship? Ugh. And what on earth had Tyson and Daichi done to get under her skin? Kai could not deny that he was intrigued.
He let out a long sigh. "Fine! Let me just- I need shoes."
Kai went back into his room, shoved his boots on, turned the TV off and grabbed his wallet and key card. All the time he was forming some sort of strange far-off plan where if this went well perhaps he would be able to get Isobel to agree to a battle.
He pulled on a flannel shirt as he came back out of the room.
Isobel frowned.
"What?" he asked. Everyone else had gone done in the lift already and it was just them stood alone in the hallway.
"Just, didn't think you were the flannel shirt type."
Kai said nothing but felt annoyed. He wore normal clothes sometimes! Although now he noticed that she too was wearing a flannel shirt and it rather looked as if they matched.
In fact, her entire outfit was like a girl version of what he was wearing.
She was in a black crop top, black jean shorts and black boots. He was in a black t-shirt, black jeans and again, black boots. Kai was in half a mind to go back and change but he didn't want her to think he found it weird. Maybe they just had a similar taste in clothes, nothing wrong with that.
"Why exactly are you planning on electrocuting my teammates?" he asked as they got in the lift.
"Ugghh," she groaned, "well, you see, we all went back to Tyson's room last night."
"That was your first mistake."
"Quite. He and Daichi brought jars of jam up from the buffet. Said it was going to be their midnight snack?"
"I forgot they did that." Kai had never been happier to be in his own hotel room.
"Yes well, Daichi ate the first one, he said he couldn't resist and then of course they started arguing over who the second jar belonged to resulting in a bey-battle involving balancing the jar on top of each beyblade in turn and whoever managed to keep it spinning with the jam on the longest got to keep it for a midnight snack."
"Of course they did."
"It was quite bad, I think they had to change rooms. It was all over the ceiling."
"Unsurprising. So you've chosen violence?"
"Yes. I was washing sticky raspberry pips out of my hair until 3am!"
"Oh, the horrors!" he said with a grin. Then, realising what he was doing, stopped immediately.
"Exactly, I've had three hours sleep! I have more important things to do today, so I was hoping you'd help me beat them."
"And you need help doing that?" he said, eyebrow quirked, surely she was capable of this all on her own.
She grinned, "I'm flattered but yes, I think I do. I'm out for revenge."
Kai took one look at the evil smirk on her face and knew he was in for a show.
"What are you two talking about?" asked Max, bounding over as soon as the lift doors opened up on the ground floor. He didn't wait for either of them to answer as he looped his arm through Isobel's and asked, "Izzy, will you be on my team for laser tag?"
"Uhh- maybe!" she smiled as Max whisked her away. She gave Kai a small wave and a smile as she left. Kai didn't know what to think of this sudden change, or had she always been like this? Sweet as pie but ready to enact revenge upon anyone who wronged her.
It was a boiling hot day and within half an hour they had reached their destination, LaserTag. Kai was amazed at himself for not breaking off from the crowd along the way, there had been so many far more interesting looking places that he would far prefer exploring but alas, here he was, resigned to shooting Tyson in the face with a laser beam. He was actually quite looking forward to it.
"I want Kai on my team!" demanded Tyson at the check in desk. The ticket man tried to explain that, that was not the way it worked.
"How does it work?" asked Ray.
The man explained that they had 30 minutes to shoot as many people as possible, acquiring teammates along the way. The team with the most hits won, but there was a second prize for their team-hit-average. So this was a loners game. If Kai could just beat everyone, he would be fine. It shouldn't be difficult, he might even tell Isobel to get stuffed like she had him the other day. Who cared if she wanted revenge against Tyson and Daichi? Oh no, he was really getting into this, which was annoying because he had said he didn't want to come in the first place.
"Oh its fine," said Tyson, "I'll convince Kai to join me after we're already in there!"
"Not happening. I came here to shoot you in the face, repeatedly." said Kai bluntly.
Tyson wailed. "Oh come on!"
"You can add people to your team by tapping your guns together and pressing this button." Explained the LaserTag employee.
They all got geared up. Tim, Kenny and Hilary looked extremely nervous.
"Damn." Said Tala, marveling at Julia who had just emerged from the changing room with a leg holster on over her shorts. He spun her around like a ballerina so he could admire. "Can we take this back to the hotel?"
"Really?" Julia said with a grin. "I'm not above stealing."
"Please stop," drawled Bryan, "this is why I ended up in Kai's room the other night, you two wouldn't stop fuc-"
"You have your own room, Bryan!" said Tala.
"I was drunk! I couldn't find it!"
As it turned out, all the girls were wearing gun holsters. It shouldn't have been surprising because all of the boys were wearing them too, only the boys were all wearing long shorts or jeans, the girls however had taken the lovely sunny weather as an opportunity to wear shorts, skirts and short frilly dresses. They came out of the changing rooms one by one, each looking as if they were half-heartedly cosplaying Lara Croft, apart from Isobel, who had embraced the Tomb Raider look and had even put her hair back in a long plait.
Kai thought she looked as if she could murder him in cold blood and he would thank her for it. He mentally slapped himself.
"Oh, bless the English summer!" Max whispered to Tyson, who was blushing and staring at Hilary who blushed back.
"I can't believe shes dating MingMing, I can't believe shes dating MingMing!" Ray repeated under his breath, looking at his shoes and trying his best not to stare at Mariah.
"Oh I wish Ming-Ming was here!" gasped Kenny.
Kai rolled his eyes, of course his team could not help but get flustered any time they saw a girl show even an inch of skin, but Kai refused to sink so low, internal thoughts aside.
And they were off! The room was dark and huge. There were stairs and platforms everywhere. Every so often a beam of light would find Kai and he'd have to run for it. He got used to the game quickly. It was easy, really, a simple point and shoot. There was always a helpful 0.2 second warning beep before you got shot which was plenty of time for Kai, with his excellent reaction skills, to get out of the way.
He wandered around shooting anyone and everyone, climbing up to the top two platforms that faced each other over the room. No one else was up here and it was easily the best vantage point despite the fact that he couldn't make out who all the dark figures below were, although many of them gave themselves away by shrieking loudly as soon as he trained his laser on them. Whenever the voices sounded like Tyson or Daichi, he made sure to shoot twice.
All the other players were organizing themselves into teams. They moved around in groups, trying to shield each other.
"Idiots," Kai whispered, as he shot at a group, hitting all five of them in turn.
Then, Kai's harness began beeping, alerting him to the fact that someone had their laser trained on him. He fled, he could jump down and then up onto another platform and then hide behind the railing if he was quick enough. Another beep, this one in a different tone. He had been hit. Damn.
He threw himself behind the railing and peered around it. Another beep.
"Hi," said a voice.
Kai whipped around, Isobel had come to find him. She was pointing her gun directly at him. Kai hadn't even heard her coming.
He pointed his gun at her in turn, the laser danced around on her chest.
"So are we going to team up?" she asked.
"Hmm, I don't know," shrugged Kai.
She shot. The laser beeped twice to register the hit.
Kai shot back.
"How many hits do you have?" he asked with narrowed eyes.
"Eighty-seven," she said, reading the little screen on her gun. "How many do you have?"
"Ninety-two. You'd bring my average down."
"Ah, but I have the buzzer, and I haven't used it yet."
Oh right, the thing that had intrigued Kai enough for him to come here in the first place.
"Hmm, cheating," said Kai disapprovingly.
"Interesting, you have morals." Isobel said, as if this was not what she had expected.
"Do I look like someone without morals?"
"Yes."
Kai shot her again.
Isobel pointed to the platform on the other side of the room. "I could go over there and cover that side and you could cover this side."
Kai considered this, it was a tempting offer. "Fine, but you have to get better."
"I'm only five hits behind you!"
"Six now, actually, and thats six hits too many!"
"Wow, you're taking this very seriously," she said as they tapped their guns together and Kai pressed OK on the little alert that appeared on the screen.
Kai said nothing and indicated that she better get over to the other side of the room and start shooting.
They spent the next ten minutes in the same spot, shooting down into the crowd. Anyone who dared try to come up on either one of them got picked off immediately by the other.
Annoyingly, Kai could not help but notice that they worked very well together, he didn't even have to speak to her.
Then, he saw the outline of Isobel trip and fall in the darkness. Had someone snuck up on her that he hadn't noticed? Kai raced across the platforms, up and down lots of tiny stairs, only to find Isobel climbing back onto her feet with Hilary sprawled on the floor.
"Can I hide up here with you?" asked Hilary, flustered. "Tyson kicked me off his team!" she was holding the gun like it was a shield.
Kai let out an exasperated noise.
"You can join our team!" Isobel said happily.
"Oh no she can't!" Kai protested, "she'll bring our hit average down!" but it was too late, Isobel was already tapping her gun to Hilary's and accepting the team invite.
So much for beating Tyson.
"You're mean," said Isobel, prodding Kai in the chest with the end of her gun. "Why can't we offer our talents to those who need it most?"
Kai pushed the barrel of the gun away with his hand and leaned towards her, "I don't know if you've noticed but I'm way too competitive to be adding straggler-ons," but then he looked sideways at Hilary and felt an instant pang of regret at the look on her face.
He turned to her, "look, if I don't beat Tyson at this I'll never live it down!"
Hilary huffed and folded her arms, she looked anxious and out of her depths.
"Ugh, Fine!" Kai relented. What was the point, anyway? Isobel had already added her to their team. "Get shooting, you can do it! Just- I don't know- think of all the times Tyson's been a complete and utter arse and just imagine you're murdering him for it!"
Hilary let out a nervous laugh and began shooting. Kai thought she wasn't half bad, she just needed a little confidence.
Isobel was giving him a knowing smile.
"What?" Kai snapped, shooting three figures in quick succession.
"Nothing, you're just taking this very seriously for someone who didn't want to come here today," she grinned, pointing her gun into the crowd and shooting at random.
"I didn't! But now I'm here, I intend to win!" he said stubbornly. "Come on, lets move- both of you."
But then there was a beeping noise and someone hit Isobel in the back, and then another, then someone hit Hilary, then Kai. Then Isobel again.
"Where the hell is that coming from?" Isobel whispered, crouching down and pointing her gun in the direction of the laser.
Bryan came cantering up the stairs, completely trigger happy and roaring with laugher.
Kai shot him directly in the chest, grabbed Hilary by the upper arm and ran.
"Heheh!" he heard Byran laugh as he zoomed off in another direction.
Bryan was going to win this, Kai just knew it. They better leave now, lest they bump into Tala and Spencer.
Kai ran down the stairs, shooting as he went, heading for the ground floor. He could not help but notice that Hilary was not shooting, she was too busy trying not to fall down the steps, her gun hung limply at her side.
Kai paused. "Give me your gun," he said, thrusting his hand out while shooting in the opposite direction at his targets.
"But-"
"Its fine, just keep behind me."
Hilary handed him the gun and Kai began to shoot two-handedly.
Isobel fell into step behind Hilary, covering her. She didn't even say anything. Kai had the sneaking suspicion that she would be an incredible tag-team partner.
"Are we raising hell for the last five minutes?" she asked as they reached the ground floor, ducking out the way of a laser and shooting back at Rick with a satisfying beep.
"Obviously," he said, handing the gun back to Hilary who began firing at Lee and Mariah.
Kai was looking for Tyson. He was going to shoot him in the face. It was going to be marvelous.
"Looking for me?" said a voice. There was a beep, Kai spun on the spot and shot back.
Too late, he was hit.
He shot back again, hitting Tyson squarely in the chest. But then Max was there, and Ray, and Daichi, and they were all shooting at him.
"You should have joined us while you had the chance, Kai." Kai thought it would be a waste of time to mention that he had never even given Tyson the chance to join up with him.
Lasers reigned. Tyson looked as if he had waited years for this, he was jigging from one foot to the other as he fired repeatedly. Kai fired back, the air was full of beeping sounds. Kai wished he had another gun, he could be hitting twice as many targets. Maybe he shouldn't have given Hilary her gun back, he mused, but then-
"TYSON!" she roared. "YOU'RE! AN! IDIOT!" Beep. Beep. Beep.
"Argh! HILARY!"
"You're so mean to me! I'm going to murder you!"
Tyson turned his gun towards Hilary, but then there was a light buzzing sound and Tyson jumped about three feet into the air and then looked around, grabbing his butt with extremely confused look.
Max and Ray looked bewildered.
Kai almost laughed. Hilary shot again. There was another buzzing sound.
Daichi came hurtling out of nowhere, "MY ASS!" he screamed.
"What the hell?"
Then Kai shot again. Tyson eyed them both suspiciously.
"Wait- YOU TEAMED UP WITH KAI?" yelled Tyson, betrayal in his voice.
"It really comes to something when I'm not the biggest asshole on the team, doesn't it?" Kai laughed darkly.
Everyone began shooting, it was absolute carnage. The beeping was relentless. Isobel had ran off, Kai could not see her anymore. So much for being on the same team. He was getting hit left right and center, but he was firing back twice as much. Then out of nowhere, Isobel threw a gun at Kai. He caught it on the tips of his fingers.
"Wha-" he said, stupidly.
"Its Kenny's! I got him to join our team, and Tim! They're hiding under the stairs!"
Kai was outraged, "but our HIT-AVERAGE!" he roared at her.
"Oh we were never going to win that!" Isobel shouted back, "sorry Hil," but Hilary did not seem to mind, landing hit after hit on Tyson, Max, Ray and Daichi. She was really getting the hang of it.
Kai and Isobel stood back to back and began firing both guns, hitting twice as many people. Although sometimes Kai merely hit Tyson twice, as a treat.
Kai hated to admit it, but he was having a very nice time.
A long drawn out bell sounded. It was the end of the game. Everyone kept shooting but nothing happened, there was no loud beeping to cover the silly sounds of furiously pressed plastic buttons.
The lights flared back into life and everyone stared around at each other.
Bryan was laughing and bleeding from the nose. Mariah was on Ray's back and Ray was trying and failing to throw her off. Michael and Emily were arguing over the same gun, another lay smashed upon the floor. Rick was holding Max's gun out of reach and Raul was chasing Mathilda round and around in circles. There was also a pair of legs sticking out from behind a set of stairs which turned out to be Johnny- whoever had done that was going to regret it later.
Kenny and Tim came out from their hiding place to join them as they made their way to the results room. All over the screens there were photos of the battle, Kai averted his eyes, he did not want to see photos of him absolutely gunning it in a silly LaserTag battle.
Tala and Julia snuck in a few minutes after everyone else, they looked disheveled and pink in the face.
They all stared at the leader board, waiting for it to announce the winners. Finally, the screen changed.
Kai, Isobel, Hilary, Kenny and Tim flashed up as the top group.
They had won. They had fucking won.
Kai's eyes cast a sideways glance at Isobel, she was grinning wildly. He thrust his hands into his pockets with a smirk and turned away only to hear Hilary scream with delight and throw herself on him.
"Hil- no! Get off!" Kai snapped, catching sight of Tyson's face.
She let go with a huge smile. "Sorry!" she beamed, as if she couldn't help herself, "but oh my god, we won! We won!" she turned to Isobel instead and they both threw their arms around each other, jumping up and down and screaming happily.
"I know we didn't really help," said Kenny.
"But its nice to be included," said Tim.
"Your contribution is noted," said Kai, handing Kenny his gun and indicating that Isobel still had Tim's because he did not want to get inbetween Hilary and Isobel's celebrations.
Kai looked back up at the screens, searching for the best hit average. Of course, Tyson, Ray, Max and Daichi were up there. Kai's team were way, way down the list.
"Awh man!" complained Bryan. "The only reason we didn't get best average hits is because Tala and Julia can't keep it in their pants." He rubbed his bleeding nose on the back of his hand.
One of the LaserTag workers beckoned Kai over to the desk and handed him five plastic medals. Oh boy, Tyson wasn't going to like this. Kai shoved his into his pocket but handed the others to the rest of his team. They all put them on enthusiastically.
"I can't believe you teamed up with him!" said Tyson bitterly. Kai turned, Tyson was speaking to Hilary.
Hilary flinched, "well you kicked me off your team!"
"Yeah, that's cause you're usele-"
"I am not useless!" she shouted, stomping her foot. Kai was glad she was sticking up for herself. "Who makes sure you wake up every morning, who makes sure you're on time for training, who makes sure you have absolutely everything you need, who organizes your entire life? Oh yeah, its me!"
"Wha- I didn't mean useless in that way!"
"Then how did you mean it exactly, Tyson?"
"I-" He didn't seem to know what to say "-going to Kai of all people! If you like him so much why don't you just-"
"Tyson! Can't you give Hilary a break?" said Max, "I'm sorry Hil, I got too into the game, I should have told him he was being unreasonable!"
"Yeah, me too!" said Ray in dismay. He had managed to detach himself from Mariah who was eyeing him angrily from the other side of the room.
"You've been so horrible to me lately," Hilary continued, ignoring Max and Ray, "and I- I- I don't want to even look at your face again for the rest of the week!" she turned on her heel, medal glinting in the light and stomping right out of the doors.
Tyson looked dumbfounded.
"You!" said Tyson, rounding on Kai. "This is your fault!"
"Yeah, we would have won, no fair!" wailed Daichi as they both ran forwards to confront the rest of Kai's team. There was another buzzing noise and they both jumped backwards, "ARGH! Something keeps electrocuting my ass!" complained Daichi.
Everyone barked out a laugh.
"Why the hell does it keep happening?" said Tyson as he jumped into the air again. "Someones put something in my pocket!"
They both patted their butts down, confused.
Kai raised an eyebrow.
"You!" Tyson pointed a finger at him.
"You think I'd do this?" he smirked.
BUZZ. It happened again. Tyson's hair was standing up on end and everyone was roaring with laughter. Tyson and Daichi shared a look. They turned on their heels and ran, jumping into the air every few seconds as they went.
"Alright, who put buzzers in their pockets?" asked Ray, wiping a tear from one of his eyes.
Isobel gave a demure smile.
That was so silly but so fun to write! Sorry if it was a bit rambly at the start, I kinda realised the story as a whole wasn't going in the direction I wanted it to so I'm pushing it more in the romance direction. Sorry, I am the slowest of slow burn writers haha! And thank you so much for the favs and follows and to SierrA0220 for the review, made my day! Always brings me so much joy when I get the lil email saying I have a review!
To everyone who has read so far, I see you! 3 Thank you for taking the time to read my lil story! I'm already working on the next chapter eeeee