Battle Mode [Beyblade Fanfiction]

“Wake up, bro. It’s almost time.”

I lifted my right arm from over my head, opened my eyes and winced as the bright lights of the room hit me. Slowly I lifted myself from my supine position on the bench and sat up. I slouched forward with my elbows on my knees, trying to clear the wisps of sleep from my head.

“How long till the match, Coach?” I looked up.

“Half an hour. You told me to wake you up at this time,” replied Coach Neo from the sofa on the other side of the room, back turned towards me.

“Yeah, but you didn’t wake me up. Miguel did,” I smirked.

Coach half turned to look towards me and returned the smirk. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my brother Miguel come and sit beside me on the bench.

“Damn, the bench was hard,” I sighed, as I rubbed the back of my head, “Anyway, who would expect a pillow in a dressing room.”

Miguel placed his hand on my shoulder, “You better get ready now. Time is running.” “Yeah got to use the restroom,” I yawned as I got up and stretched my full frame of 6 feet.

Slowly I dragged my lanky frame out of the room into the dimly lit corridor towards the contestants’ restroom. On the way I met Aleana, the sister of my opponent Oliver. She looked up as I approached, but turned away with a downcast look and continued on her way. Guess she hadn’t got over her defeat in my hands. Women, I sighed. That’s why men have manliness. I chuckled at my own joke as I entered the washroom. Splashing some water on my face kind of pulled me back to my senses. I looked up in the mirror and a tired dishevelled wet face with reddened eyes looked back.

“I’ve looked better,” I sighed, “Anyway this is the last match. Got to give it my all. Everyone’ counting on me.”

My thoughts started to clear up. Slowly I was getting back to form. I hurried back to the room. Coach was on his laptop.

Miguel tossed me a can of my favourite pineapple juice as I entered, “You okay? You look the worse for wear.”

“I’m fine,” giving him a grinning thumbs up and downing the juice in one go, “just need some exercise.”

“Same old Azonis. You and your exercise,” Miguel sighed.

“Whatever,” I tossed the can in the waste basket and began stretching myself, “Hey Coach, how are the upgrades on Metanzer coming up?”

Metanzer was my beyblade. Metanzer, the silver phoenix.

“Just great. Meldro put up some new upgrades. Come and take a look, Azonis,” Coach’s voice was excited.

I hurried over to him, Miguel followed suit. Meldro was software that Coach developed to auto-upgrade beyblades. It included a box like apparatus (simply called Box) in which the beyblade was placed. A USB cable connected the axis of my beyblade to the laptop, which I knew was transferring data about me, my opponent and all previous battles. Box will automatically upgrade the blade’s material design.

“Upgrade’s complete,” said Coach, “You can take it out, fresh from the oven.”

I took out Metanzer and disconnected the cable. The silver blue circular object nestled in the palm of my right hand felt mildly warm from the micro-machining and adjustments I knew Box did on it. Visually I didn’t notice any major change. I didn’t expect to. It was Coach’s job to explain. I looked at him enquiringly.

“Yeah yeah, I know,” sighed Coach as he took off his rimless glasses and looked at me, “Firstly, Meldro made Metanzer lighter (I raised an eyebrow) but stronger (Whew, that was close). It modified the axis of the blade so that it will turn at the slightest touch. And finally, it put some retractable spikes on the periphery of the attack ring.”

“Spikes? What for?” I was puzzled.

“Don’t ask me. Meldro did it,” replied Coach, as he put on his glasses and turned the laptop towards us. Meldro showed in animation, the upgrades that it had put on Metanzer. I noticed that the design was also slightly altered aerodynamically, so I can get higher spin speeds at start-up.

Wicked, I smirked. Miguel read my thoughts and grinned at me.

“Well then,” I got up, “Now that Metanzer’s ready, I cannot afford to keep goofing around.” I walked towards my locker where all my stuff was. I smiled. At least his defeat in Oliver’s

hands couldn’t subdue my brother’s indomitable cheerful nature. Great, just what I needed.

I went back to the table with my stuff. Picked up Metanzer and looked at it again. After seeing Meldro’s animation, I noticed that the upgraded blade had an ‘edge’ to it. I attached Metanzer’s bitchip and looked at it; Metanzer seemed to pierce me with his steely gaze.

Now for my personal preparation. I put on my customized black half gloves. Tightening the Velcro I couldn’t help glancing at the circular crest of the silver phoenix stamped on the back of the gloves. I picked up my launcher and ripcord, made some final tightening and transferred them to the respective places in my hip pockets. As for Metanzer, I rubbed it with my right glove to give it the unnecessary shine before placing it to the front pouch on my belt. I ran my hands through my hair to adjust my symmetric spikes.

Slowly I sat down on the bench, and closed my eyes. Final moment of peace and concentration. I took deep breaths to calm my mind for the upcoming final battle, the tie-breaker match for the Finals for the World Beyblade Championship 2010. When I felt I was ready, I slowly opened my eyes. Miguel and Coach Neo were standing in front of me. I looked up to see them both smiling proudly at me. My face broke into grin. I extended my right fist and we fist bumped.

“Let’s do it, pal,” said Coach.

“Yeah, give it all you got,” chipped in Miguel. “Don’t sweat it, man,” I smiled and got up.

Time seemed to slow down as I opened the door and stepped out into the corridor, brimming with confidence. Miguel and Coach followed suit.

Three figures strode off along the dark corridor and disappeared into the bright light of the indoor stadium.

©Auro_29092016