Setting In

The beyblading teams had all arrived in America, the PPB All Starz among others had been thrilled to be back in their hometown, the preliminaries were being held in America, they had been scheduled to happen in Japan but as usual last years battles had been tough and a new stadium was being constructed.

Mr Dickenson often joked that it was impossible to get insurance out on any building where Tyson and Kai usually ended up being the final act.

So here they were, ready for the preliminaries each team had to win exactly six games out of nine in order to get through to the next round. After the preliminaries the sport would go back to almost it's old format. three battles would be played, each individual game would be played by one team member.

Team members would only be allowed to play one battle each, failure to show up for the battle would result in disqualification. You could not play more than one battle except under special circumstances, all three battles had to be played even if one team had won the first two.

This of course meant that each team needed three or more bladers

Tyson Daichi and Kenny were back as the Blade Breakers, the three of them had become a strong team recently.

F Dynasty was back but this year they had a new member with them, Christine was an old friend of their's from the circus, she could walk tightrope and so could have her beyblade!

Christine was a pretty young girl with bright orange hair, she looked very like Julia and rightly so considering the fact that she was their half sister.

Barthez Battalion were back only this time they were calling themselves the Allied Adversary's,

The Majestics were going to be around this year and already making their presence felt.

The BEGA team were also back all five of them wanting to prove to the world that they could be a serious team, they had decided to call themselves BEGA knowing that changing they're name would never let anyone forget their past.

There were three new prominent teams as well,

Team Reformation consisted of three boys and one girl.

The three brothers, Anthon, Jerome, Bavin and their cousin Millie.

The boys had black eyes and green hair of various shades, Millie was a nervous looking girl with long blonde hair always tied back into a plait. No one knew much about the team and they had never played competitively before.

Team Thunderbolt were another completely unknown group three boys Lando, Kendall and Lincoln.

They were a curious group who seemed to hold no real affinity for either the game or their team mates.

Then there was team Beast Enslaved, this team had three boys Nathan, Lucas, Jamie, and one girl Ino. They had been seen around before in a few amateur tournaments but this was their first time in the Championships.

"How's everyone settling in?" Mr Dickenson watched as Hiro walked through the door of his suite "I trust the hotel has given them everything they need."

"Everyone's settling in just fine Mr D, it looks to me like we're going to have a quiet year this year." Mr Dickenson motioned for the boy to sit, Hiro sat on the couch and crossed his legs.

"Thats sounds like anice change!" the older man chuckled "How are you doing?"

"I'm having Arelam withdrawal" Hiro admitted, "She and Robin are going to be staying with her mother for a few weeks. They'll be joining us soon though!"

"You must be missing her"

"I am, but I'll be working hard if, I work hard I might not miss her so much." Hiro didn't sound convinced but he wanted to prove to Mr Dickenson that he could do his job even without his wife at his side.

"Well when you next talk to her tell her I'm looking forward to seeing them both"

"Thank you sir I'll tell her."

"Are we all set to start the preliminaries tomorrow?"

"Yes sir, first up it's the PPB All Starz you'll be there to watch that no doubt!"

"Judy Tate will be there with her husband, I've said I'll sit with them, obviously I can't really cheer little Max on but I do wish I could."

"Being objective can be hard" Hiro agreed smiling

"Ah sweet," Tyson threw himself back onto the bed "This hotel isn't half bad"

"It's well situated, a reasonable distance from the stadium" Kenny agreed

"Kenny 'a reasonable distance from the stadium' is not at all what I meant. This place is great, I can't wait to try the food!"

"I was thinking more along the lines of making sure we were never late to a match. Remember that time at the Asian championships when we had the accident and you had to carry Ray all the way there."

"Oh well if it ever happens again Daichi's a lot lighter and easier to carry, aren't you monkey boy?"

"Hey!" Daichi protested "quit calling me monkey boy!"

"I will when you stop looking like a monkey boy!"

"I don't look like a monkey boy"

"Well you also smell like one"

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do!"

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do!"

Kenny sighed as he watched the two boys arguing he tried to shout over them but it made no difference. He didn't have the energy or a loud enough voice to make himself heard. Groaning slightly Kenny sat on his bed and watched the two of them arguing, he knew that this could take some time.

'Hilary' Kenny thought to himself 'I miss you already!'

Ray grinned as he watched Mariah, she was busy giving Galux a tune up and hadn't noticed him even enter the room. Lee was going through some paperwork and Gary and Kevin were having a friendly practice battle, finally Ray was noticed and Lee came forward.

"Hey Ray" Lee walked over to his team mate and the two of them immediately fell into conversation about strategy and training schedules.

Mariah who had finally noticed Ray, grinned as she saw him look over at her again. Lee was looking at a form so Ray smiled back at the girl and raised his eyebrows and nodded at the ceiling, Mariah nodded back and slid from the room making sure that no one saw her. Ray nodded as he pretended to listen to Mariah's elder brother, he was trying to think up an excuse to slip away.

"What do you think?" Lee finally asked

"Sounds…" Ray trailed off, he had absolutely no idea what Lee had just said, if he said 'sounds great' and Lee had just said that he thought they were going to lose he would have some trouble explaining why he wasn't listening, "It sounds….about right"

"Great!" Lee smiled "I'll start booking practice rooms for tomorrow...hey where did Mariah go?"

"She was fixing up Galux maybe she needed some more parts" Ray suggested quickly

"Well go find her, we have a training session in half an hour" Lee sounded annoyed "do you know which room she's in?"

"Yeah!" Ray said a little too hastily, Lee's gaze became a little intense at the quick answer "I mean I noticed her room number when we checked in"

"Go find her for me then…" Lee watched Ray with slight suspicion "...and don't take too long about it"

"OK" Ray ran off happily, he took the elevator and once out, made his way down the corridor. At Mariah's door he knocked grinning widely

Mariah opened the door and smiled back at him "Fancy meeting you here!" She teased

"Fancy!" Ray walked through the door and kicked it shut behind him, once inside he took the pinkette roughly into his arms and kissed her, Mariah sighed inwardly as she felt his tongue flick along her bottom lip, she opened her mouth allowing him to enter.

It was the first time she and Ray had had any alone time since his trip to Japan, she had missed him so much!

"How long have we got?" Mariah hissed as he began to move his lips from hers,

"About half an hour" he placed chaste kisses down her neck and onto her shoulder

"Don't!" Mariah begged as he began to suck on her neck "Lee will see"

"I don't care" as Ray continued to attack her neck Mariah pushed him away smirking a little at the hiss of frustration this earned "I want to tell Lee, and the others, and the whole world!" he declared "Why is that a problem?"

"Because if we tell Lee we won't get any alone time together, you know what a traditionalist he is"

"We can deal with Lee…." Ray pulled away from her and looked into her eyes

"Do you remember what happened to that boy from the village when he kissed me in front of Lee?"

"Yeah" Ray winced at the memory, that poor kid had needed serious dental surgery after Lee was done with him "But this is me, he might be OK with it"

"Ray I'm your best friends little sister, most guys would understand why this is such a problem! Please lets just keep it a secret a little longer" she removed her arm from around his neck and slid it into his shirt gently rubbing the skin underneath "please"

Ray knew that he was going to agree with whatever she asked, he loved her and that look in her eyes was causing him to shiver in anticipation.

Rick Max and Emily looked around at their surroundings, they were in the new stadium looking around, "It's amazing" Max breathed as he stared around the huge building

"It's not all that special!" Rich shrugged as he looked around "I've seen better"

"But have you beybladed in better?" Max asked

"Not yet" Rick ever the confident sneered a little as he said this, beside them Emily giggled

"Don't get too self-assured Rick" she pushed her glasses up her nose and looked around "asides from anything else there are many new teams, three of them I've been unable to gather an real data on"

"Don't sweat it Em" Rick raised his stereo to his shoulder and turned to walk out of the building "whatever they've got we can beat them." He strode away leaving Max and Emily alone, the two of them grinned at each other

"Nice to see Rick hasn't changed while I was in Japan"

"It must be good to be back" Emily went to get a look at the dish she knelt down and studied it carefully "This is tough stuff shouldn't fall apart to easily, good thing when you consider who the bladers are"

"Yeah" Max knelt beside the girl "so what did you get up to while I was gone?"

"Not much, just did some training"

"Tennis or beyblading?"

"Bit of both, what were you doing?"

"Beyblading mostly, we had some fun though"

"I thought beyblading was fun for you"

"It is but Hilary made sure we did some other stuff, we went to a few amusement parks, had a few BBQ's that sort of thing."

"Sounds fun!"

"It was but I missed you guys."

"Really?" Emily blushed a little as he said this, she had missed him too!

"Yeah, um…. Emily what are you doing later?"

"Nothing much why?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to dinner"

"Sure where we all going?"

"Not all of us, just you and me" Max smiled as he saw Emily begin to blush, her movements became flustered and she was trying to look at anything but him.

The Blitzkrieg Boys minus Ian were sitting in the locker room, they all remained silent catching up on each others news wasn't exactly a thing they all felt the need to do. Kai felt comfortable as he stood eyes half closed.

"Sorry I'm late guys" Ian walked in and looked at the others

"No problem" Tala said "what have you found out?"

"Few new teams we might have to keep our eyes on but asides from that as usual our biggest competition comes from Kai's old team-mates" They all nodded "This being said I think it would be best if Kai was captain his year"

Kai was startled even though he didn't show it, he looked over at Tala to see his reaction but was unrewarded Tala had the same facial expression that he had had before. The Blitzkrieg Boys never had been known for their emotional displays, Kai felt more comfortable with this team but sometimes he wished he was back with the others. He could always tell what the Blade Breakers were thinking or feeling, either because they showed it on their faces or they voiced their opinions.

"I agree" Tala said quietly

"Me too"

"So do I"

Kai accepted his captainship with a slight nod and a "lets go train" and with that they left the locker room.

Many miles away in Russia no less, a man in a dirty grey outfit sat looking through that days paper. He read the news about what was going on in the world, he turned to the business section and browsed that, then finally he turned to the sports pages.

He smiled grimly at the picture of Mr Dickenson, in the photo next to the old man stood Tyson, Daichi, Kenny and Hilary. Last years world champions were back the article told him, back to retain their title, for a moment the man read the articles about various blading teams but his eyes were soon drawn back to that picture. Carefully he tore the photo from the page and standing placed it into a book filled with newspaper articles and photos.

"Lights out!" a voice called and slowly one by one the lights were tuned off.

In his cold grey prison cell Voltaire Hiwatari smiled to himself tomorrow he would make an important call, perhaps this year things would be different.

Author's note:-

I know, slightly dull but I needed to set up for future references.

And Voltaire is going to be the bad guy here, I've only ever used Boris before so new territory for me, but he's not the only bad guy. As I said before this story is kinda complicated

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