Of Love and Death.

The Future Chapter 11: The Newest Snake Pt. 4

      "Let it rip!" Den shouted. Bel watched as she jumped up and launched, a flurry of white sparks surrounding her launcher, before disappearing into thin air. The Snake's third blader landed back on the ground, and stared intently into the stadium.

     Looking back down at the paper Gabe had left Bel, he studied all of the strategies. It was more or less a combination of everything they'd used before in the tournament. Sending Den out first had become standard after the fight against the Wishes, she'd absolutely decimated them. Not only that, but her stage fright had gotten a whole lot better since then, and she'd just seemed better overall. Bel wasn't entirely sure what had gotten into her, but Den was doing well and that was all that mattered to him. After Den, Gabe would decide who to send out based upon their opponents. Once it had been Bel, and the other Gabe himself had gone out. Not once in the tournament had they had to send out all three of their bladers.

       More than just who went, however, there were tons of little details entrenched on this paper. Their opponents in the Semis were the Panda's. Supposedly they were a school team, much like the Beigoma Bey Club. Unlike the Bey Club, however, they weren't borderline dysfunctional for the first half of the tournament, up until the present day where there was practically a fight at lunch between half the members every other day. Bel did not envy whoever had been the one to pull the Snake Pit's elite together back in their early days. It would have been hard even without dealing with his parents dealing with crushes on each other and also occasionally relapsing back into other lives and talking in Latin or something.

      "Hey, Bel," Jamie said, tapping Bel on his shoulder. He looked up at his sister, a question in his eyes. "Is that who I think it is?" Jamie asked. She sounded confused, and partly in disbelief. With her left hand, she pointed directly in front of her, to where someone with pink hair was walking a few steps behind Brown Eye. Odd, they looked almost identical to Payne. What a strange coincidence.

     Wait.

     "PAYNE?" Bel shouted at the top of his lungs, astonishment seeping from every one of his cells. What in the actual universe was Payne doing here? He lived in Denver, not Mexico, the last time Bel checked. If Payne had been planning to move here, or even visit, wouldn't he have at least mentioned it when it came up that the visiting bladers had come from the aforementioned country? "WHY ARE YOU HERE?" Bel continued shouting, still visibly confused.

     There was a pause, as everyone let their ears recover from the pure noise that had been unleashed upon them. Bel may not have been his parent's biological son, but he'd definitely picked up his Dad's volume. "I didn't need you to shout it that loud," Jamie muttered, rubbing her ears as Bel turned back to her. The mohawked blader chuckled sheepishly.

     Payne smiled, turning to face Bel. He had been wondering if he'd run into his old opponent today, or if that would wait. But Mr. Kiyama had taken the long way out from his meeting with Ashtem, probably wanting to show Payne the training floor. It may have been a good thing that Bel had shouted so loud, or else the two would likely have missed each other. "So you do know the three of them," Mr. Kiyama chuckled. Payne looked up just in time to see him close his eyes wisely. "Well, are you going to say hi or what?" He asked.

     With those words, Payne decided that he should. He stepped forward and started walking across the floor. He paused for a moment and turned around, nodding his thanks to Mr. Kiyama before turning his sights fully forward.

     The smallish image of Bel got larger as the blader darted forward to meet Payne in the center. Jamie and the blue haired one, Den, followed suit. In the end, it was Jamie who was the fastest, closing the gap between her and him in the shortest amount of time. "Hey!" Payne said, taking everything in.