Tortured Soul

Ok, so here's the next chapter finally. I actually finished it this morning at about 2am but decided sleep was better than posting, sorry. I'm starting the next chapter sometime today so it should be up at some point this week. I have the week off work so there is no excuses for me not to post it. I've only read it through a few times so forgive any spelling or grammatical errors. I tried drawing a pic of tortured Tyson - it's not brill - if you're brave enough to have a look you can find it here http://baroqueangel.deviantart.com/art/Tortured-in-colour-86588906

Drake294 - Little happy dance??!! lol honestly when you asked the question I hadn't decided how she'd found him :) I'm sorry to make you wait so long.
xXKitsuneXx - Sorry it took so long for them to find them, about Boris dying...
ASOTA - Optimism is good, the balance of the world hasn't changed yet so I think you're ok. If you're that pessimistic this chapter may just kill you lol. It is a tad optimistic.
Demonashes - Yes a teaser I'm afraid. Tyson couldn't help but grow up after what he's been through, I'm glad you enjoy reading.

Anyway, on with the fic.


Chapter 17

Kenny was sat at his laptop typing furiously when Hillary had returned with the food. He was so engrossed in his work that he didn’t even acknowledge her return past a basic head nod to let her know he was aware of her presence.

“Kenny, what’s up?” Hillary finally asked when should could no longer take the sound of his typing. There was no response from the young computer genius. “Kenny” she repeated, a little louder than before.

“Hm?” was all she received in return.

“Kenny will you stop typing for one second and tell me what’s going on.” The tone of Hillary’s voice must have finally gotten through as the teen suddenly stopped his work to look at her.

“Hillary, I need you to contact everyone on the radios I gave them. Tell them to get back here as soon as they can.” As soon as this was said Kenny turned back to the laptop and began a whispered conversation with it. Hillary caught snippets here and there, words like ‘are you sure?’, ‘is there any way you could be wrong?’ and ‘how bad does it look?’ Realising that this could be a big breakthrough and that Kenny was obviously not going to fill in the blanks for her she sighed and picked up the radio lying on the table next to the unfinished Drigger.

Not wanting to disturb the chief while she contacted everyone, she headed out of the door and down to the lobby. ‘He must have found something big’ she thought to herself, ‘he’d never ignore me otherwise.’ She knew that everyone would hear the message at the same time which made this job that much easier. Turning the knob at the top, the radio beeped into life. What should she say? Pressing down the talk button she took a deep breath.

“Um guys, this is Hillary. Can you all hear me?” She began a little hesitantly.

“What’s up Hill?” asked Rei.

“We can hear you Hillary” Garland put in.

“What?” Was Kai’s gruff response. Kai was the only one who had gone out alone, his mood making even Rei not want to be around him.

“Kenny asked that you all come back to the office.” She told them.

“Why?” Rei asked with a hint of worry.

“I don’t know. He’s talking to Dizzy and all I managed to catch were snippets of the conversation.”

“What snippets?” Garland asked.

“Things like are you sure and how bad is it. I don’t know what it means.”

“Did you catch anything else? What’s his mood like?” Kai’s questions were demanding, something had obviously piqued his interest.

“He did ask if Dizzy could be wrong and he seems intent. He’s been typing away so furiously that he barely stopped long enough to tell me to call you all.”

“Do you think he’s found something?” Rei asked carefully.

“I told you I don’t know. Get your arses back here and maybe he’ll tell all of us.” Hillary was getting very annoyed at the boys. She’d given them the message and instead of just saying right we’re on our way they were interrogating her, like she knew something that she wasn’t telling them. The airwaves were dead for a few moments, the boys obviously stunned by her sudden vocabulary use.

“On our way” came the reply from Max and Rei.

“Be there soon” said Garland and Brooklyn.

“Fine” was all she heard from Kai. Satisfied that they were finally listening to her she turned to the phone in the reception area. ‘One more call’ she thought. Walking over to the phone, she picked it up and began to dial a number she had become very accustomed to over the last few days. It rang a few times before somebody answered. She listened to their hello and then began to talk.

“Yes, can I speak to Mr Dickinson please? It is quite important.”

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It took a while for everyone to gather at the office, Kai arrived first despite his obvious displeasure at having to be there. Max and Rei walked in asking for answers that Kenny didn’t seem ready to give and then Brooklyn and Garland stumbled through the door panting heavily. ‘They must have run all the way from the other side of the city’ thought Hillary, impressed even more by their actions and their willingness to help the teen who had shown them the way forward without Boris.

“So Kenny, what’s going on?” Rei asked casually.

“We need to wait for Mr Dickinson and I need to finish checking some things.” Kenny hadn’t even turned from the laptop to speak. ‘This must be big’ thought Rei, ‘he never acts like this’. They didn’t need to wait long for Mr Dickinson’s arrival and as soon as he was seated Kenny turned to face everyone.

“So why did you bring us here Kenny?” Kai asked, not wanting to delay this any longer.

“Dizzy found Boris” Kenny made the statement without any run up, he just launched right in earning shocked gasps from everyone in the room.

“What? How? Where? Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” The questions flew from Kai’s mouth before anyone else had composed themselves enough to speak.

“Which question would you like me to answer first?” Kenny asked so calmly that it was starting to irritate Kai.

“All of them” he almost growled in response.

“I said that Dizzy found Boris. This morning I had some new ideas on how to speed up Dizzy’s processing time and how to make her searches more accurate. I inputted the data and Dizzy finally got a hit.” Kenny stopped to let the group catch up with what he was saying.

“Kenny, how exactly did Dizzy find him?” The question had come from Mr Dickinson and was so unexpected that Kenny froze for a second.

“Well, she erm…”

“I illegally hacked into the police computers” Dizzy supplied, helping the chief out so he didn’t have to say it himself.

“I see” said Mr Dickinson. “How did that help to locate Boris?”

“Well apparently they’ve been keeping an eye on him since Voltaire was taken into custody 3 years ago.” Kenny supplied.

“But we asked the police, they told us they didn’t know anything” Hillary said confused.

“It’s a secret branch or something” Kenny told her. “Obviously they don’t share their information with the local street police.”

“So where is he?” Kai asked, irritated that the conversation seemed to have gone off topic.

“The information Dizzy was able to gather said that he was running a corporation called Sirob Labs. It’s something to do with the powers of beyblades, they don’t really have a lot of information about it. They can’t find anything illegal about it so they haven’t bothered to check the validity of the stuff they have.”

“So where is he?” asked Rei, getting just as anxious as Kai.

“Well the place in the police files is just a front, Dizzy had to do a lot of searching through back doors to find the actual location.” Kenny was dancing around the question and Kai was wondering why. The young teen stood suddenly and went to stand in front of the door causing Kai to raise an eyebrow at him in question.

“Kenny” he said warningly.

“He’s at the old manor house, the one with all the gargoyles.” Kai sprung from his chair faster than the eye could see and lunged for the door, slowing momentarily when he remembered that the chief was barring his way.

“Move Kenny” he said in a low growl.

“It won’t do any good Kai” Kenny told him standing his ground but shaking slightly while he did. Kai moved to push Kenny aside when he felt a hand holding his arm, he looked up into the watery brown eyes of Hillary.

“Kai, stop. Please.” Hillary said, a note of pleading in her voice.

“I’m going to find him, get out of my way or I’ll move you both” Kai said, his voice so low it was almost a whisper.

“Kai” Hillary began softly “I know what you’re feeling” Kai’s cheek twitched slightly and his eyes shot to Rei and then back to Hillary. She noticed the movement and hastily tried to save Rei from what could be a fate worse than death. “No, he didn’t tell me. I’ve known for a very long time Kai, you’re not that good at hiding things you know. Rushing off like this is not going to help Tyson or Daichi, you know that. This isn’t like you, this is your heart acting here and we need your head. The only way we’re going to save our friends is by working together, not by you rushing off and getting yourself hurt or worse. So stop scaring Kenny and sit down so we can come up with a plan.”

Kai stared at Hillary like he had only just met her, he knew she could be insightful at times but was he that obvious? The fact that both she and Rei had known about his feelings before even he had acknowledged them was a little bit unnerving. He wasn’t used to people being able to read him so well. He smiled at Hillary, a genuine smile and nodded a small apology to Kenny before sitting back down, ignoring the looks he was getting from everyone else in the room.

“Right, now that that’s done, I’ll get onto the bad part shall I?” Kenny said as he crossed the room and gratefully sat back down in his chair, his legs no longer wanting to support him instead opting to shake slightly at his confrontation with Kai.

“What do you mean the bad part chief?” Rei asked Kenny while at the same time offering a supportive smile to Kai.

“The security is insane. Boris has the works, infra red, motion detectors, trip wires not to mention live guards probably carrying live tasers or worse guns.”

“That could be a problem” Garland said unnecessarily.

“Maybe not” said Mr Dickinson, “Kenny I’m sure you’ve been working on this problem ever since you found it correct?”

“Well, sort of. I may have found a way in but that still leaves getting past the guards.”

“That will be up to us chief, you and Hill aren’t going in” Rei said, earning a quizzical look from Kenny and an annoyed pout from Hillary.

“What do you mean I’m not going in? Of course I am, Daichi might need something, or Tyson.”

“Hillary he’s right” Max said, looking straight into her eyes.

“Max?”

“This is gonna be dangerous and I’m not risking you.” She turned to face him, this blond haired blader who she had so recently begun to love. She was confused by his words, unwilling to admit that he might be right and that she should stay outside.

“But, I want to help.” She said softly, clasping his hands in hers.

“I know” he said, squeezing her hands gently “and you will, Tyson and Daichi are probably going to need looking after when we get them out. That’s where you come in.”

“Oh please, that’s just a way to placate me” Hillary said sounding indignant.

“If you go in, I’ll be distracted constantly worrying about you. Please just stay outside, for me.” His gaze never wavering, he continued to look lovingly into her eyes and she softened.

“Fine, but you better come back in one piece Max Tate, you hear me?” In answer to her question, Max leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips, his promise to come back safe and sound. When he pulled away, Hillary slowly opened her eyes and smiled at him then turned to take in the other occupants of the room her gaze suddenly becoming a challenge. “That goes for you all you know.”

“Yes ma’am” said Brooklyn smiling at her. When she turned her head to see everyone else they all nodded at her. Satisfied with their responses she nodded back and fell silent.

“I understand Hillary staying outside” Kenny spoke up “but why me? I can be useful.”

“Yes my boy you can but inside you wouldn’t be able to stop and use that usefulness. I assume you can hack into the system?” Mr Dickinson asked the young teen earning a flinch from the normally straight laced Kenny.

“Yes” he replied almost reluctantly, not too happy with telling a man he admired that he was very capable of performing a very illegal act.

“Good, then you will remain outside with Hillary and myself in the surveillance truck.” Kenny seemed to stop and think for a moment, and then he suddenly smiled realising that he would be able to do more good there than inside the building itself and Mr D chuckled. “Ah, you see you are not the only one who can plan quickly.”

“Ok, so for those of us who aren’t computer geniuses or crafty old men, no offence sir, what have we just planned?” Garland asked just slightly confused.

“You will all go into the building, if we can manage to do it without hurting the guards good. If not, they work for Boris so they probably deserve it. Kenny, Hillary and I will remain outside to guide your movements from the surveillance truck.” Mr Dickinson told him.

“And how exactly will you be doing that?” asked Brooklyn.

“I can hack into the system, turning off cameras and guiding you down the right corridors pointing you in the right direction. I can turn off the heat detectors and the motion detectors but I can only do it briefly without them noticing so you’ll have to listen well and do exactly what I say.” Kenny told them all.

“Fine, plan made let’s go” Kai stood again, anxious to put the plan in motion.

“No, we can’t yet” Kenny told him.

“Why not?”

“It has to be at dawn.”

“Again, why?” Kai asked starting to get irritated with the teen again.

“Because I can’t hack the system till then. There are security precautions that I need to bypass and I can only do it at dawn. Some stupid rule Boris seems to have worked in.” Kenny replied frustrated that they would have to wait.

“What do we do until then?” asked Rei. “There’s no way any of us are gonna get much sleep.”

“Well I have a few preparations to make and I need to finish Drigger’s upgrade.” Kenny said.

“We train” Kai told them all. “We don’t know what we’re going up against so we need to be prepared.”

“Good idea Kai,” said Brooklyn. “Up for a match?”

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Tyson and Daichi had spent most of the day talking, mostly about mundane things that would take their minds off of their situation. They had been in the middle of a conversation about who had the better beyblade when Daichi had started to drift off to sleep, still feeling the effects of his spirit being drained by Boris.

This had left Tyson with a lot of alone time, alone time with his thoughts especially that one thought that just kept on surfacing. He had to find a way out of here for both himself and Daichi. He knew that when dawn came and he was dragged away to battle Boris’s new and so called improved bit beasts, Daichi would be hauled back to that machine. Despite this he still could not bring himself to think about it too much.

Instead he wandered around the room aimlessly, occasionally stopping to stare out of the window at the gardens beyond and looking longingly at the perimeter wall and freedom. When this got tiresome he sat on the bed and stared into space, thinking of his friends and how worried they must be about the two of them.

Finally he could take it no more and allowed the thought to enter his mind fully. It would be risky, he might not be able to pull it off but the distraction should be enough to allow Daichi to escape. Granted he would have to do it without Strata-Dragoon but all he’d need to do is get out and get help. That shouldn’t be too hard for the little twerp, he’s quick and small, they should miss him in the confusion.

All Tyson had to do was seem innocent and clueless which according to Hillary was his usual state anyway. He just needed to get Dragoon back and then he would have a fighting chance. He was running the plan through in his head, hoping to work out the more dangerous aspects of it when the door opened and dumb and dumber stepped in each carrying a tray.

“You should eat this” dumb said.

“Yeah, you’re gonna need your energy for tomorrow” dumber added then they both began to laugh like one of them had said something funny. ‘Idiots’ Tyson thought scornfully.

“So what is it this time? Cheese burgers? Steak?” Tyson asked with as much sarcasm as he could muster under the circumstances. The dumb brothers looked as him oddly, ‘they obviously don’t grasp the concept of sarcasm’ Tyson thought wearily.

“Just eat it” dumb said, his confusion making him angry.

“You might wanna get some sleep too” dumber pointed out unnecessarily. “You’re gonna need it for what the boss has in store.”

“I bet” Tyson replied, unable to hold back the sarcasm no matter how much he tried. The two brick walls just glared at him and after putting the trays down left the room and slammed the doors. Tyson lifted the lid on the first plate and grimaced.

“Cabbage and cold stew, oh joy” he said aloud to the quiet room. Walking towards Daichi to wake him for supper he smiled grimly. He had to try the plan now, if only to escape the horrible meals Boris was feeding them. ‘Just you wait Boris’ he thought ‘you think tomorrows gonna be fun for you, well we’ll just see what I can do to wipe that smug look off your face. You think I was insolent before, you ain’t seen nothing yet.’ Tyson shook Daichi gently and told him that supper, as it is, was served.

Walking back towards the table with Daichi, making sure the young boy didn’t fall on the way Tyson continued to iron out his plan. He was starting to almost look forward to tomorrow, after all, that’s when the fireworks would begin.