As the last of the sun's rays disappeared, Zukira let out a sullen sigh and turned towards the staircase with a much heavy heart.

She didn't feel like doing anything. She didn't even want to do her usual training. Entering the cafeteria, she just grabbed some cold coffee from the vending machine, letting Dan's remarks fade into the background. Eventually, she flipped out not-so-nice gesture with her finger and Dan fell silent.

Exiting the cafeteria, she found herself in the corridor and took a sip of the cold coffee. Well, isn't this just great? My most trustworthy friend is leaving for good. She took a sip, her footsteps echoing melancholy-like. At least I have Yu and Teresa, but Ryuga is simply out of the—

"Moui, Miss Zukira!" Merci's voice came through the speaker, causing the poor girl to choke on her coffee.

"What- cough the heck, Merci?!" she scowled, clutching the bottle furiously.

"I apologise for scaring you, but ze Master has summoned you to his office."

Oh for GOODNESS SAKE! Why does that man have to be so freaking insensitive?! Zukira let out a groan and changed her route, dropping her shoulders. She put on her mask and straightened her posture, shoulders pulled back and chin held high.

She stood in front of the door, staring at it intently and brought her hand up, knocking ever so slowly.

"Come in," she heard Doji's voice from the other end and entered, immediately spotting him by his desk, chin resting on his palms. By now, even he became used to this 'hidden' pattern of knocking: Two knocks meant it's Zukira, no knock meant it's Ryuga and banging meant Yu.

"Ah, there you are, my friend," Doji began, "Merci informed me that you weren't doing so well. If I may ask, what is there which is bothering you?"

She let out a huff, "Nothing major. Just that Dan & Reiki can't seem to mind their own business."

"I see now," Doji pulled his glasses up his nose, "such a matter shouldn't concern you, Ms.Zukira."

"What do you mean?"

Doji leaned back against his seat, looking at her, "After all, you are one of the Dark Nebula's most valuable member. They're just salty that they weren't able to be as high as you. Such a pity."

For the first time, Zukira actually agreed with him. Why were they so salty? Was it because of this 'favouritism'? Or was it because she was the only girl in the place and they got an absolute kick out of it? Nevertheless, Zukira did make sure to place a dead rat under one of their pillows the other day after they had made an attempt to steal DragonKnight from her room.

"And what about their attempted theft at stealing one of my beys?" Zukira raised a brow (which was obscured by her mask).

"Don't you worry," Doji reassured, "I'll have Master Ryuga deal with them personally."

Okay, there was no need for him to take THAT extra length to involving Ryuga in such a trivial matter, but Zukira knew best not to argue or retaliate.

"Understood," she nodded and approached his desk, standing next to him, "is there anything else you'd like to say or do?" she stole a quick glance behind her shoulder, spotting the dark blue sky painted with dark, unfriendly clouds.

"Not much. You've actually been doing really well, my friend," Doji swivelled his seat just a bit so see her face.

The brunette tucked her hands behind her back and gave a nod, standing ever so stiffly.

~

— This part is based off of the Beyblade Metal Fusion: Episode 35 (last half)

"Merci! How is Ryuga doing so far?" Doji spoke.

"Bonjour, Master! He has won two tournaments today, bringing his total to 38,000," Merci informed.

38,000?! That's insane! But knowing the tactics Ryuga uses, he'll step up in no time at all. She swallowed, a shiver running down her spine.

"Hmmm, he's doing quite well," Doji grabbed his iconic glass of orange juice. "Everything seems to be going as planned."

"On the other hand, there is an update regarding Gingka," Merci added.

"Oh? Do fill us in, please," Zukira replied, sending a feeling of anticipating in her stomach.

"He has perfected a new special move and is competing with all of his ability,"

Doji placed down the glass and skimmed through the information displayed on the screen.

"However, he still has not gained even 20,000, at this rate, he may not even make it into Battle Bladers!" Merci finished in a mock-upset tone.

Zukira rolled her eyes, shaking her head a bit.

"After setting him up to be such a fine meal for L-Drago,  this is annoying. Gingka had close to 50,000 bey points so the real question is, why did his points suddenly drop to 0?"

Because I saw his bey pointer get crushed in front of my eyes. Zukira answered in her mind but chose to remain silent, listening closely.

"We are currently questioning a suspect to find more information," Merci stated.

"Well at this point, it doesn't really matter what happened. Ah!" Doji pulled his back from the cactus and sucked on the pricked skin for a few seconds. "Well, let's just hope that Gingka's efforts pay off."

"I agree with you, sir," Zukira chimed in.

"By the way, Master,"

"What is it?"

"If it is alright, I would like to begin my regular maintenance soon."

"Yes, go ahead. Take as long as you need."

"Merci beaucoup, Master. Thank you,"

Just then, an alarm-like sound began to ring.

"Ooh! What is this?"

Doji sat down and looked at the screen, with Zukira standing behind him while leaning in just a pinch.

"Hmm?"

The screen showed footage of Tsubasa who was seemed to be running on a treadmill of some sort, except it was on the ground. Zukira felt her heart leap to her throat, her blood running cold.

The sheer panic and concern she felt for her friend.

"What is he doing?" Zukira commented in a low tone, almost to herself.

Doji smirked, "So this one has grown curious and is looking for clues."

"What shall I do?" Merci awaited a response.

"Hmm, I will think of something," Doji replied, still smirking.

Uh oh. That look on his face did not look so good.

"System down! System down! The main computer ISBG386292 C4 Mainframe will now begin regular maintenance. Tenants, tenants....tenants, tenants, AH!"

The entire building drowned into darkness, earning a small 'eep!' from the brunette.

"Don't worry, my friend," Doji reassured, "this won't be for too long."

She looked at him skeptically, stuffing a hand in her pocket and closing her hand onto the dimly glowing Blazer.

—— Tsubasa's Mission

Once a month, Merci has to shut down for maintenance. This is the one and only time that I have the chance to move around freely.

He entered a room and stood in front of a door with a keypad on it. Placing his bey pointer's antennae into the slot, it responded with a beep! and the door to the Control Room opened. In the middle was a projector like device, a light beam of light holding a hologram of a spinning Lightning L-Drago.

This is the Control Room where all of the data on Ryuga and L-Drago is kept. It took me forever to find this place.

He attached the USB into one of the slots and typed on the screen, "There isn't much time left before the Battle Bladers. I have to hurry this up."

After clicking through menus, he finally managed to find the data on Lightning L-Drago and a picture of Ryuga at the far right corner.

"L-Drago's special characteristic is found in its fusion wheel which can be used for either barrage type or normal attacks. Kind of like Zukira's but- ugh! I already know that from watching him in battle. That just isn't the problem here! There has to be some additional source for L-Drago's strength!"

Tsubasa frantically continued typing on the screen, his hands hovering over, "Some secret that earned it the title Forbidden Bey and caused it to be sealed in the Beyblade village for so long."

"This amount..."

"Huh?" Is that coming from the hologram?!

"Not enough...stand to me...come on!" Ryuga's voice came through it.

The hologram then took form L-Drago spinning in battle and clashing into a bey.

"What's going on here?" Tsubasa's eyes widened.

"Now Pegasus, go! Special Move, Pegasus: StarBlast Attack!"

As Pegasus soared downwards and clashed into L-Drago, the same light purple flame-y aura was seen around it, pulling Pegasus's own aura towards it.

It was absorbing its power.

"Gingka's and Ryuga's battle. When was it recorded? Ha!" Tsubasa took a step back when Ryuga began to laugh hysterically and the footage then disappeared. "Wh-Wha..? What did just here? It steals its opponents power? A bey that grows more powerful? Ugh, how can that be? How can it do such a thing?!"

The screen then dissolved the words 'no data', and Tsubasa pulled out the USB, bewildered.

— Meanwhile with Tetsuya in confinement...

"I just thought that if I got in Gingka's way, Doji would be happy, not snappy..!" he drew the crab's other pincer (on the wall) with his tears. "And I don't remember what happened after that crab...hmm?"

The door opened and there was Yu standing there, his back facing him. "Time for din din?" Tetsuya inquired softly.

"No, just hurry up and get ready!" Yu replied in a rather...impatient, but rude manner.

"Crabba what?"

"A job. Let's go," Yu smirked, batching a glimpse of the crab guy.

  🌟

The pair of running footsteps echoed through the corridor, bouncing off with an almost eerie touch. Every breath she took, she felt her terror mounting even more. She has to reach there in time. She had to do something. Sweat headed her forehead as she squinted her eyes, making her way through the darkness and up the stairs.

🌟

Tsubasa reached the rooftop, taking the small plight of stairs and onto the helipad. He looked at the sky and spotted Eagle, his best friend. The bird cawed at his presence, circling the sky.

"Sorry for making you wait, take good care of this!" he raised the hand with the USB in it but...

"Hi, Tsubasa! What are you doing up here in the coldy cold?"

"Huh?"

Flame Libra came through, and the bird pulled back into the air, avoiding the bey by an inch.

The white haired boy turned and spotted Doji standing there with crossed arms & Yu next to him.

"I'm so glad I came back to check on things. I've always thought there was something just a little bit stinky about you," Yu pulled out his hand and retrieved his bey.

"I purposely allowed Merci's maintenance to begin so you would feel safe and reveal your plans,"

Tsubasa let out a incoherent noise, gritting his teeth.

"What's your game? Poking around for information about L-Drago? What are you up to anyway?"

As Zukira ran towards the door, she took the plight of stairs, she paused. She placed her hands on her knees and panted, returning that oxygen debt built in her lungs. She propped her head back up and felt her stomach drop at the scene I front of her.

No, no! They got here before me! How am I supposed to help him?! How is this going to play out?!

"But before that, why don't we just have a little bit of fun?"

She heard Yu's almost-menacing tone, slightly shocked to see him that way. Maybe the Ryuga effect got to him as well. She watched as the other Dark Nebula members, including Tetsuya, surrounded Tsubasa like predator and prey.

Oh no.

As everyone released their beys, it was one group after the other. The Kumari brothers, the Gemios Twins, Tetsuya, all of them were out to get him. Within a few minutes, Tsubasa was able to take down almost half of the group.

"Eagle: Metal Wing Smash!" the bey came crashing down into Gemios, resulting a knockout for the twins.

Tsubasa retrieved his bey, unfazed.

"You did pretty well! That was really fun to watch, but it looks like it's beddy bye-time for you, hehe! Huh?"

A light of lightning flashed, and the trio turned their heads towards the sound of— whirring?

Zukira raised a brow and took off her mask (because Doji's back was facing here and made sure her face wasn't as visible). Soon enough, a helicopter came into view as well as— Ryuga.

"Who's disturbing me?!" Ryuga roared.

"Ryuga!" Yu beamed at the sight of him.

"Ryuga," Tsubasa narrowed his eyes.

"Ugh, Ryuga..." Zukira placed a hand over her eyes and shook her head.

Oh boy.

—————————————————————

— Hello, hello! It is I, the great and amazing ZEE!! -cough- anyways, CAN YOU GUYS BELIEVE THAT WE REACHED CHAPTER 30 OF THIS STORY?! Me neither tbh because I know myself really well (I never stretch any of my stories this far-) Anyways, thank you all so much for your love and support! It means the absolutely world to me, and I can't be more thankful to see you guys enjoying the content I put out there. You all are the best🫶🫶🫶