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Diana smirked “Sweet. So I could use it on people who piss me off. BBA has nothing against me now. I was afraid they will not allow me to use it but now you said it...you saved my a** from being fried, then, Hiwatari.”

Diana looking over at him again and said “So Hiwatari, what do you plan to do now? You are technically the one who asked…indirectly asked me out here. What do you want to do?” Then Diana remembered something and then asked “Hiwatari, have you ever played paintball before?”

When his brunette companion asked that, Kai looked at her for the briefest moment, then trained his gaze ahead once more. "No, I haven't," he replied truthfully. He'd heard of the 'sport', but never had a chance to try it out. One of the reasons was his constant training; another was that he had no idea where he could go in order to try it out, not in the greater Tokyo area, at least.

"Oh, and Murphy, it's Kai, okay? You can quit calling me by my last name..."

Diana held back a snicker “We’ll travel my way…”. Her hand reached for the sleeve of his shirt, pulled him closer to her and snapped her fingers. Another of her dark aura travels once again. This time, they were standing in a huge auditorium. Diana smirked as she realized she came to the right place again. Going inside, she stepped to a guy in the receptionist who was reading a magazine.

Smiling, she rested her elbow on the table and said “Hey Spike, long time no see”. The man looked up, having brown hair tied in a ponytail and green eyes which widen at realization “Di? Is that you?”. He practically rose from his seat and laughed “Wow! How is my favorite gunner girl? How many corpses did you bury this time?”. Diana chuckled “Believe it or not, none. No one seems to piss me off too much. So whaddya got for me? Anything new?”. Spike beamed and spoke “Oh yeah, I think you will like the new ones. Sweet and heavy fire power. Just the way you like it.” He glanced at the back of her shoulder and saw Kai and said “This your boyfriend?”.

You could have sworn several veins popped in Diana’s head. Biting back a snarl, she clenched her fists “If you don’t want to be the 1st corpse I buried in around 3 weeks then I dare you to say that again and you won’t be in just deep s**t right now”.
Spike held his hands in surrender “Ok, Ok! No need to pull the gun on me! And I value my life thank you”. He hurried to open the door and Diana followed him inside.

It revealed to have around a gallery of guns. All of them had some kind of tank attached. Spike hurried with a black gun with silver thunder streaks designed on it. “Here is one of the new ones. Angel AV4. This baby is made use of a linked hammer and bolt assembly, which permitted the use of a single solenoid to actuate the entire firing sequence by controlling a piston that powered the hammer/bolt assembly forward, simultaneously chambering a paintball and releasing the propulsion gases at the end of the hammer's stroke.”

Kai blinked, put off by this 'Spike' person's remark. He rolled his eyes at the idiocy of jumping to conclusions, just relying on visual information. How easily and quickly people misinterpreted what their eyes told them. Any adverse reactions to having been pulled into another of Diana's 'dark aura portals' - was there any better way to describe them? - were out the window with those three words. But seeing as the brunette had taken care of the ponytailed receptionist, he pushed all thoughts of hitting the guy to the back of his head, and followed the two through the door, getting inside to hear the tail end of Spike's explanation of what he guessed was a new paintball gun model.

Diana practically beamed. “So you’re saying this one is fast and has a lot of fire power?”. Spike grinned

“Couldn’t have said better myself.”

Diana took the gun from his arms and tested it’s aim. “Sweet. Give me a training room. Need to try out this awesome piece of metal.” Spike practically skipped and took out a key to a private shooting booth. Stepping inside, Diana put on her mask and earmuffs, loaded the tank and took aim.

Several cutouts started to move and constantly back away from shooting range, but Diana was an experience assassin, so this were not a problem for her and fired. Several already were covered with splatters yellow, blue and red paint. Firing and switching to automatic, in a few minutes every target were hit with splatters of paint in various areas but mostly in the head.

Meanwhile, Kai took to examining the different guns mounted on the wall of the gallery. He'd never seen so many in one place - except for gun and ammunition stores - ...and these are all used in paintball...? Barring the tanks attached to each model, they looked like fairly ordinary guns with various designs on each one. This sport wasn't looking like it would be too hard, really...

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"Gah! Not good enough!" Kei exclaimed, catching her blade as it flew out of the stadium. Her three companions glanced up from their card game.

"What's not good enough, Kei?" Hiromi asked, leaving her current hand face down and walking over to the deep purple-eyed blader. Kei attached the dark blue blade to her launcher, and then inserted the ripcord before answering her friend. "The maneuver, that's what," she said testily, yanking the cord out and away during the last part of her reply. The blade zoomed into the dish, circling counterclockwise at the same level thrice before starting to climb the slope, still in a counterclockwise motion.

"I have to find a way to get from this defensive maneuver into an offensive one, without knocking myself out or giving any hint of the offensive technique," the brunette explained after a while, catching her blade and putting it to the launcher once more. "So far, I can switch easily enough; its the follow-through that's throwing me off; Gogyou keeps getting knocked out by its own speed... but then I can't lower the speed anymore because that would compromise its attack ability, but then without doing that, I risk knocking myself out..."

The brunette frowned when her brown-haired companion started giggling. "What?"

"Kei, you're worrying too much," Hiromi answered, laying an assuring hand on the other girl's shoulder. "At least you've got one part down; maybe you're just approaching the other parts from the wrong angle...like...perhaps you're trying too hard to up the offensive capabilities of your blade. How many defense moves do you have, anyway?"

"...just one, but its both attack and defense..." the brunette replied, fingering her blade's attack ring. Both were silent for a while, conscious of Nia's and Ruri's eyes on the two of them. "I think I know what you're getting at, Hiromi," Kei said at last, inserting the ripcord, ready for another shot. Hiromi just smiled, turning to go back down the platform and back to the card game, only to be stopped by Kei's voice, asking another question. "What were you laughing at, anyway? You didn't answer that yet, y'know..."

"You're starting to sound a bit like Kai, as a blader, at least..." the auburn-haired girl said, still smiling. "He doesn't voice his thoughts about his training, but he must have done this, too; he certainly trained a lot and he had high expectations of himself... just like you, just now - berating yourself for not managing to get a technique down pat and all." Kei frowned slightly.

"So I spend a lot of time searching for the perfect balance between blade and technique; any serious blader would. And if I sounded like Kai just then, what of it?" She turned to the stadium, pulled the ripcord again. "You know its not just a game to me..."

"Yeah... just don't overexert yourself, okay?" Ruri called, absently picking a card from Nia's hand. "We don't want to have to carry you home and stuff, if you collapse..."

"Gee, thanks for the concern, Ruri...you're not exactly a lightweight, yourself..."

"Wh-what was that?!"

"Nothing..."

Maria Sayka’s soul immediately came back to her body making her breath fast as her body’s way of making up from all her stress and energy spent. She didn't even knew the time. She fell down in exhaustion from all the training she had with her special machine. She tried to beet her earlier record when she sang but she was milliseconds away.
A hand came to her belonging to Keiji her long time best friend or friend as he did even when she came to Boris’s care.

Flash back
Just as she came to the secret base, she was immediately put for experimentation. She was afraid at first. She was trained easily just because of her ability though at that time her body had very low stamina so she would collapse some times. The others would pass her by and she had a hard time standing up.
He gave her a hand with a bright smile that she hasn’t seen on any one of the people around and even brighter than anyone else she has met. She gave a smile and took his hand.
“Hey you there run” one of the guards shouted to them and they continued to run. Then another boy collapsed just like her and very soon he was taken away never to be seen again. Maria looked back and Keiji soon took her wrist so she would continue to run. She soon found out why she and he were not punished because of their special ability and that there were somewhat similar other than the fact that he was Boris's adopted child. She guessed from his odd voice that he was gay.


She took his hand with a tight grip and stood up.

“Ouch not so hard” he said releasing her hand to find a red hand.

“what are you talking about? I’m fast I am not that strong.” She said putting her hand on her waist.

“Still too tight come on you’re a girl.” he said blowing his hand.

“what ever” she said laughing thinking that Keiji was even more feminine in truth. She then took again her shuriken launcher and attached her beyblade and on position.

“Hey aren’t you going to get some rest?” Keiji said noticing her at it for a very long time.

“Not yet I can still go on.” She said having a strong feeling that her chances with Kai was slim but she was determined to get stronger and still persistently continue.

Diana then gave a sly grin “Now for a field test, wanna go up against me and some other players? We are gonna play an elimination match. Last one standing without any paint on their vitals wins.” Spike came back with face masks, thick gloves, boots, some knee and elbow pads and 2 dark blue jumpsuits.

“Here ya go, Di. One for you and your friend.” Diana took the equipment and gave a nod of thanks and place one of each pair to Kai. “Here, you need all the protection. Good thing the eye mask is glass so we can see. Last time I went to one of these places their masks are like sunglasses. Barely saw a damn thing.”

She turned and cocked her head, indication to follow her. Going to another door, there were several gadgets and other stuff, most likely to be more gear. Taking 4 fat tubes filled with red balls, she attached them to a belt and gave them to Kai “Here are your ammo, you might want to get a Squeegee before you put those on.”

She took out a long rubber coil with red and green swabs “Attach this to the tank and connect it to the barrel. It cleans out broken balls so there is more room for new ammunition.” She took out 5 tubes, this time slightly smaller and not a canister for balls. “Paint grenades. Self-explanatory. Pull the pin and throw it. Unless you wanna go looking like a tomato or an imported banana. Or a blueberry.”

Then she took another coiled cable, this time with a connector. “Remote Line. This allows you to move more freely while your marker is attached to you. Handy and practical.” She placed it on Kai’s arms and shoved him inside a dressing room. “Just wait for me outside when you’re done.” With that, she went to nearby dressing room just next door to the one she shoved Kai into.

Balancing all the gear on one arm, Kai used the other to make sure the door was secured; the crimson-eyed teen didn't want anyone getting a look in. He started with the most obvious component of the outfit - the jumpsuit. He slipped it on, followed by the elbow and knee pads, then took off his shoes and replaced them with the boots. He decided to put the gloves on last. Looking around at what was left, the slate-haired blader picked out the belt with the four ammo tubes attached to it, and fastened it around his waist; he was pretty sure they went there. The paint grenades were another matter; where the hell did you attach them? Ah, what the heck... Kai thought, moving on to the marker - he took the word to mean the paintball gun - doing as briefly instructed by Diana.

It took some doing, but the pale-skinned player emerged from the dressing room fully 'equipped' - sans mask and gloves (he'd put those on later, when they were soon to start this 'elimination' game - marker in hand. Diana was no where to be found as yet, so he leaned against the nearby wall, waiting for her. He'd presumed, of course, that the brunette had meant in this room when she said 'outside', since he could see no exit to a play area or any similar thing.

shinja tried to explain that every thing he does will not matter, because when he is the best every one will have to respect him. shinja quoted a ancient saying while sho put his cloak on. kill one man, you are a murderer. kill a hundred, you are a king. kill a million, you are a god.
sho left his the apartment going to the elevator using shinja's telepathic connection to see the buttons. he sent the elevator to the top floor sprinting out as the doors started to shut.
a girl came to the elevator as sho was waiting a moment. she barked "that's just my luck" only to leave in a tantrum down the stairs.
not hearing anyone else, sho bashed in the door with a batto-jutsu air cutter. jumping down i-beam to i-beam sho was rationing a brick of c-4 into 4 parts. landing in the basement panting "ok lets get this over with shinja!" turning to the I beams holding the build of about 200 of boris's troopers. a blade buzzed by his head making him drop the primed blocks of explosives.
a voice echoed in the empty basement "report Sho! Have you found out any thing, if they are going to betray us, or any news on kai?
i Quit in a soft unechoing voice.
hat is your news, haa. if you make it out of here alive you will be hunted like a dog. but you know that.
when i assassinate boris i will be honored, respected, revered, and if you think you can take it from me you are mistaken.
right, haa. you can barely stand you bag of bones and you are weeeaaak! even weaker then before you worm.
i am a wyrm, the meanest dragon you ever seen! drawing his sword at the normal blinking speed, he had to kneel.
launching his blade laughing as loudly as possible. the merc flipped then tackled sho while he was defenseless with all his force.

"Maria that we need to talk now!" Keiji suddenly said before Maria had launched her blade in a voice she has never heard before a voice of a boy unlike his usual gay voice and serious.

"Keiji?" Maria said but before she could speak any further Keiji Lauched his blade and transfered his soul to it then left out of the room. Maria followed him as he did with her blade.
'Souls could speak to each other but only at a small distance so it would be a perfect for a private conversation.' Maria though following him, 'but that voice is it really him or some voice he uses in his missions?'

Diana managed to count 12 people that she managed to shoot. “This is way too easy. I dodge real bullets. Why should I have trouble trying to dodge paintballs?” Diana smirked mentally. She admits she was acting way too cocky. One should never underestimate their opponents but these guys just don’t have what it takes. She was slightly smaller, she was female and her feet practically gave her an advantage because of her training since childhood.

One did almost manage to shoot her. But she ducked and ran to his side and tapped him on the shoulder. As the rules say, he has to admit defeat. Diana decided to look at how many players were left to eliminate. 7 maximum since Kai had his share of shooting. But then again, she could let him try to get them on his own. This is his first time. But that doesn’t mean she won’t defend herself from getting eliminated. As her sensei will say: “Everything is a Battlefield.”

Another one eliminated from play. More and more, Kai was finding this game to be easier than he'd expected. He'd had to dodge worse things - flaming Beyblades, for one - and avoid potentially more dangerous people than guys in jumpsuits with paintball guns. However, it was proving to be a good training exercise, by way of testing his agility, awareness, speed, and a host of other abilities gained through training.

3 down... five more to go... the slate-haired teen thought, including Diana in his count. The brunette hadn't said they were to look out for each other, after all. So she was fair game as well. Then again, she'd been 'nice' enough to not target him - of course, that could have been just because he was a beginner at this compared to the other players - but...

Ah, what the heck... The crimson-eyed teen decided to leave Diana for later - if ever - and concentrate on the others. He peered around the edge of the bunker, ready to fire, but pulled his head back just as quickly as he'd poked it out, narrowly avoiding getting hit. He peered around the edge again, and got off two shoots before having to duck again. A mad dash from one bunker to the next, dodging and returning fire took care of two more players.

How many were left now, besides Diana and himself?

-----------------------------

Houka turned a corner, took a few more steps down that particular street - whatever street it was - and suddenly found herself facing a department store. She stood there, looking at the sign, then the entrance, wondering whether to go inside or not. You see one department store, you've most likely seen them all.

Oh, hell... the sea green-eyed teen thought, pushing open the door and stepping through. She had cash; she definitely had the time to go window shopping, at least. Besides, she needed a few new shirts, and maybe another pair of boots. After this shopping trip, Kurozuki, you're heading to the BBA HQ for training...

-----------------------------

She was close to getting it. She could feel it. Too hyped up to stop just then, Kei attached her blade to her launcher for yet another go. She'd noticed a definite pattern during what was most likely her fourth trial run; the last three launches had confirmed what she noticed. And now she was close to perfecting what would be her first purely defensive technique. By then, Ruri, Nia, and Hiromi had tired of their card games and had joined her on the platform for a closer look.

The brunette yanked the ripcord, and true enough, the blade began its weaving figure-eight motions as soon as it hit the stadium, varying its speed every now and then.

"If you ask me, I'd say that technique's just about completed," Ruri spoke up, playing with several strands of blonde hair.

"Well, good thing I didn't, because you'd have said the same thing around two trial runs earlier..." Kei replied, lightly teasing. "Anyway, I know it looks done and ready to use in competitions, but believe me, against world-class bladers, this technique wou - Heads up!"

A blur shot out of the stadium, stratight for Ruri, who let out an "Eeep!" before ducking and covering her head, while Kei leapt off the platform and went to retrieve the blade - for that's what that blur was. She was back shortly, Gogyou resting in her palm. "Sorry 'bout that, Ruri," she said sheepishly. "Still need to work out a few glitches, it seems."

The grayish blue-eyed girl shook her head. "Don't worry; no harm done... but I take back what I said about that technique being complete. Kei chuckled.

"That's what I was trying to tell you earlier, anyway..."


(...and now what's with the white text, Sayka? Suddenly ashamed of your post? That's just sad...)