Warnings/Notes: This is going to be shounen ai (guys having romantic relations with other guys), so if you don't like it, please beware of this fic.
Oh! And this is AU (alternate universe) where there is no bladeing and stuff.
(Sweatdrops) Someone noticed! I really hoped you wouldn't. (Smiles at Cat in the web) Curse you for being so observant!
(pauses) Nah, I don't really mean that!
You see, the reason why I changed Hilary's brother from Zeo to Daichi is simple…..
I saw some of G-Rev! (some because they took it off the air -glares evilly at the television network who did it)
I decided that Daichi would fit the role I wanted that character to play better than Zeo would (I'm not bagging Zeo, it's just my opinion!).
So there you have it! My explanation! And thank you very much to everyone who's reviewed so far! All you're comments are greatly appreciated and they really do encourage me to write more!
Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade! Or any of its characters! (Authoress pouts)
Chapter 6
Without looking at Tyson, Kai asked, "Do you think you could lift me?"
Tyson facefaulted, "What!"
Kai stood, still looking at the ceiling. "There seems to be some sort of vent in the ceiling above us. If you give me a boost, I'll be able to get up there and then pull you up."
Tyson looked up as well, "How will you undo the screws on the grate covering the vent?"
Kai reached into his pocket, extracted a small leather case, and then pulled a screwdriver out from it. He gave Tyson a small smile, "Rule number one when thieving. Never leave home without your tool-kit. Now give me a boost."
Tyson still didn't appear to be particularly enamoured with the idea, "But you're taller."
"I'm skinnier."
"Are you calling me fat?" asked Tyson fiercely.
Kai sweatdropped as the angry detective suddenly towered above him, "Err………………no…………….I saying you're…………….more……………huggable?"
Tyson crossed his arms, "Hmf."
Seeing that there was only one thing that would get Tyson to comply, Kai decided to go for it, "But Tyson…………" he purred, "You're so strong…………..and I need your help."
Tyson visibly wavered, and Kai couldn't help but smirk, nobody ever said no to him.
And so, three minutes and one successful ego boost later, with a relatively small amount of complaining and swearing over having to be the one doing the hard work, Kai was being lifted (slightly shakily) by a rather drained detective.
Kai coughed delicately, "Could you perhaps see your way to remove you're hand from my ass?"
"No."
Kai flushed, "Please?"
Unbeknownst to Kai, Tyson was rather embarrassed about the situation as well, "If I do I'm going to drop you!"
With all the motivation he needed, Kai quickly started undoing the screws, putting them in his pocket as he took them out.
"Hurry up," said Tyson through gritted teeth as he wobbled slightly.
"I'm going as fast as I can," growled Kai as he undid another screw.
When he had undone them all, he carefully pushed the grate up into the vent above him, held into the side of the gap, and pulled himself up.
Tyson looked up impatiently as there were rustling noises above him, before Kai peered down at him out of the vent, "Take off your belt."
Tyson looked slightly alarmed, "What?"
Kai looked frustrated, Take off your belt," he repeated, "Then throw it up to me and I'll use it to pull you up."
"You could have said that in the first place," grumbled Tyson as he removed his belt and threw it up to Kai.
It took a few minutes, and Tyson fell a few times, but he and Kai managed to hoist him up into the vent.
"Now what?" asked Tyson regaining his breath, and feeling thankful that the vent was large enough for him to kneel without having to duck.
Kai gently replaced the grate back over the hole they had climbed through, "Be careful not to put you're weight on that. It's just resting there and you'll fall through."
"Okay, but what do we do now? Crawl through to another room?"
The only light there was, was coming through the grate, and Kai peered into the darkness ahead of him, "That's the idea," he replied, and with that, he started moving forward.
Rei pointed to a car on the side of the road, "That's the car Tyson was driving."
Max nodded as he looked at it out of the window.
Rei parked Kai's car behind it and they both got out.
Max looked around, "Shouldn't there be another car here? Can you see that guy Tyson told you about?"
"No……….."
"Something isn't right here."
"Yeah, we'd better hurry."
Tyson swallowed thickly as he crawled forward, 'Damn it. Why did he have to go in front?...Control yourself Tyson! Don't stare at his butt…………..'
Kai suddenly stopped crawling and Tyson squawked as he crashed into him, "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" asked Tyson, blushing.
Kai said nothing, and Tyson cocked his head to the side curiously, listening.
A few seconds later there was a rather ominous creaking sound.
Tyson made a face, "Is it me? Or did that sound like metal bending?"
Kai opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off by a bang, closely followed by Tyson yelping as the panel underneath him gave way, ending with him crashing down into the room below them.
Kai turned around and peered down at Tyson who was sprawled on he ground below, "That looked painful."
Tyson groaned and rolled over, staring up into the large crimson eyes looking down at him, "Trust me, it was."
Kai lightly dropped down onto the ground beside him.
Not stopping to check to see if Tyson was okay, or to help him up, Kai walked over to the other side of the room, trying to assess his surroundings. "This room is pretty big," he commented, and started hunting for a light switch.
Tyson pushed himself up off of the ground, and into a sitting position as he tried to regain his senses after his fall, "Do you smell something?"
Kai didn't answer and kept feeling the wall for a switch.
"It smells familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it………….." he paused and sniffed, "It smells kind of………coppery."
Kai's fingers ran over a button, and he smiled slightly.
"It's almost like blood………………..And there's a burnt kind of smell……"
Light flooded the room.
"Kai….." said Tyson weakly.
"What?" asked Kai walking back over to him, "You haven't broken your arm or something have you?"
"No, but I think we found where Hilary was abducted."
Kai looked at the place that Tyson was staring at.
There was blood.
There wasn't a lot, and it was splattered around, but there were definite traces of the dark reddish brown liquid.
It had dried, and it appeared that someone had removed the source of the blood, but hadn't had time, or the care to clean up.
Kai sighed, and removed his attention from the blood, and focused on its surroundings.
There was some sort of rectangular container that had been knocked over, and it looked like its contents had been burnt.
While Tyson continued to stare, almost transfixed, at the floor, Kai moved over to the container, and had a closer look.
Was that paper?
Gingerly, he bent down and picked up it up. On closer inspection he realised that it was a slightly singed American hundred dollar bill.
For the first time, Kai took note of what exactly was in the room.
Many more of those large containers, benches and printing presses.
Kai smiled.
He'd finally found the reason why he's come to this damned country in the first place.
He was in the room where the counterfeit money was made.
Dropping the note, he walked over to another container, and lifted the lid, finding Japanese yen.
Another revealed more American dollars, another Australian dollars, and in others there were German Deutschmarks, British pounds, Russian Roubles, and Euro Dollars.
Kai didn't check, but he was pretty sure that many of the world's currencies were printed in that room.
Aware that Tyson was eyeing him suspiciously, Kai continued to look around the room.
After awhile, Tyson asked, "What are you doing?"
"Checking the room out."
"What's in the containers?"
"Counterfeit money," replied Kai as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
"WHAT?" Tyson moved over to the nearest open container and looked inside, "You mean the Count is rich because he makes his own money?"
"Yes. And he's very good at it. This stuff is circulating through government run Casinos, you know."
Tyson paused and thought for a moment, "Like the one you broke into before…………………….That's why you came here in the first place, you found out about it and you came here to steal it."
Kai rolled his eyes, "Oh please, have a little more faith in me. I didn't come here simply to steal the money………….I came here to take over the whole operation," he paused and added, "Or at least steal the plates he uses to make it with."
Tyson stared at him in disbelief, "And you knew he was a criminal all along…………….."
"It doesn't make any difference now, does it? And besides, as you may have already guessed, all the plans I made before Max and I came here have gone to hell."
Tyson glanced back to where the blood was, "It's strange that Hilary was taken in here. Do you think that her abduction had something to do with the money?"
"I'd say so. Maybe she found out about it when she wasn't supposed to, or maybe she threatened to turn her father into the police, there could be a number of reasons. That money in that container was burned, maybe she had something to do with that."
"That's probably why her brother disappeared as well."
"But why was there a fire?…………….." wondered Kai out loud.
Tyson glanced at the blood again, "I'm sure this had something to do with her father now. I don't think she was abducted because one of the guards had a grudge, or had something to gain."
"Maybe……………but one of the guards still could have been involved."
"I suppose," Tyson walked over to Kai was standing next to one of the containers. He pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket, reached into the container, and pulled it out using the bag, not having it come into contact with his bare hands. He then put the money into his pocket.
He looked up and saw that Kai was watching him.
He smiled, "Evidence. If we ever get out of here, I need to be able to prove that the money actually exists." He then shut the containers lid with a loud bang.
Kai stared at him in horror, "You idiot! What if someone heard that and comes to check?"
"Nobody heard the vent collapse," reasoned Tyson.
"We still don't want to advertise ourselves," growled Kai.
Just as Kai said that, there was a rattling at a door on the far side of the room. It sounded like someone was unlocking it.
Kai swore.
Tyson grabbed his hand and started trying to drag him behind a container, "Quick let's hide!"
Kai flushed and tried to pull out of Tyson's grasp. The jerk caused by Kai's resistance to Tyson's pulling, caused Tyson to stumble backwards, onto Kai, sending them both tumbling to the ground hands still intertwined.
Before they could untangle themselves from each other, let alone hide, the door opened revealing Kenny.
Tyson and Kai stopped struggling and stared at him, Tyson on top of Kai, and both still holding the others hands "Isn't that the guy you were with before?"
Kai nodded mutely.
Kenny looked at them in surprise. "How did you get in here? I thought you were caught."
Kai frowned at him, "How did you in here? I thought you were outside."
Kenny bit his lip, "This is so not good," he blinked as he noticed their current position, "Err………….am I interrupting something?"
"Huh?"
Kai and Tyson looked down at their linked hands, then at each other.
They both blushed and quickly let go, and stood up, before glaring at Kenny, who shrank under their gaze.
Kai ignored the pink tinging his cheeks and focussed his attention on Kenny, "So how did you get in here?"
Kenny started to back away nervously, "Well, I, err…………"
Tyson frowned at him looking confused, "What's going on? I thought you wanted Kai to find out who murdered Hilary."
Kenny blinked, ""Who are you?" he paused and studied him, "You're that detective aren't you?"
Still looking confused, Tyson nodded, "Yes."
"And you have handcuffs?"
"Yes."
Kenny sighed, "I'm really sorry about this, I really don't want to do it, but I'm afraid that the punishment I'll get if I let you go really won't be pretty………"
"Wha-" started Tyson as Kenny searched his pocket, but stopped when he saw him pull out a gun and point it at them awkwardly.
"You're not holding it properly," said Kai conversationally.
Kenny blushed, "I've never used one before. The count made me take it this afternoon in case you gave me any trouble."
Kai couldn't help but feel slightly proud of the fact that someone felt he was so dangerous.
Tyson seemed to know what he was thinking and glared at him before turning back to Kenny, "So if you've never used a gun before how do we know you'd even hit us if you shot at us?"
Kai gave him a look, "I think if someone was going to kill me, I'd prefer it if they hit the right place the first time rather than having them hit all the other painful places first."
Tyson blanched, "Oh…….."
Kenny appeared to be more scared of the gun he was holding than the people he was pointing it at. He was shaking. "Give them to me."
Tyson blinked, "Huh?"
"You said you had handcuffs. Give them to me."
Tyson shook his head stubbornly, "No! My grandpa gave them to me as a gift when I first started working for him! They're special!"
Glaring, Kai jabbed him with his elbow, and Tyson looked at the gun. He sweatdropped, "Err, I mean………….here."
The handcuffs were handed over.
"The key?"
It was given to Kenny as well, "Thankyou for your co-operation." It appeared that he was a bit more confident now. He'd stopped shaking. "Now both of you hold out your hands……………"
"No! You can't!" said Tyson as he caught on to Kenny's plan, not looking at all pleased at the prospect of being attached to Kai.
Kenny fiddled with the gun and took the safety catch off it.
Tyson swallowed, "Alright, so maybe you can."
Soon they were handcuffed together.
"Right. Out you go, start walking now," said Kenny as he pushed Tyson forward towards the door to emphasise his point, nobody noticing Tyson's mobile phone fall out of his back pocket.
TBC………………………..