Hello! Are you in shock? I sure am. It's barely been a month I think! Well, in celebration of me going back to college I have decided to post yet again.

Kyoya: Is this because you have no idea when you will have free time again?

Me: ... Okay, I'll admit it. I have trouble focusing on stories when I've got homework to do.

Nile: You spend your free time watching anime, starsnow. And The Walking Dead.

Me: [poking fingers together] You caught me Nile. But I have rededicated myself to Beyblade! I've turned over a new leaf! I've-

Ryuga: Only time will tell. I'll just do the disclaimer so starsnow doesn't keep rambling on. xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade Metal Fight or any of its characters, yada yada yada.

A warm breeze blew as Kyoya and Nile walked into the airport terminal. They checked in their baggage, as their second flight's time would give them a week in America and they would need some spare clothing, and headed to wait at gate A3 for their flight to New York. The two friends picked out some magazines to read. Since they were usually busy beyblading and didn't have time for idle gossip, it was funny to read what sorts of trivial celebrity going-ons the news was talking about.

"Hey, here's an article where they interviewed Gingka about how he's ranked number one in beyblade currently," Nile pointed out.

Kyoya snorted. "Did he talk about how he lost to Ryuga… the day before this interview was done?" he asked, looking at the date.

"Nope." Nile smirked. The Dragon Emperor didn't get much press due to his unapproachable persona. Gingka got tons because of his chattiness. Honestly, so did the rest of Gan Gan Galaxy, he thought, looking at Masmaune Kadoya holding up a finger in the "#1" position on the next page. "We're ranked three and four."

"Ryuga's two?" Kyoya flipped to the next page in his magazine.

"Yep."

"Well, one and two should be flipped, and I think from there two and should slide down to four," Kyoya said, ranking himself and Nile ahead of Gingka.

"I don't think Gingka's been blading much lately," Nile commented as they lined up to board the plane. "He's been playing that Pokémon Go app all day every day. Madoka's been complaining."

"In that case, I should battle him and prove my superiority once and for all."

"When we get back from vacation," Nile told him. "Do you want window or isle?" There were three seats on each side with an isle down the middle, so they would inevitably end up sitting by one random person on the booked flight.

"I'll take isle. Enjoy the view." The two sat down, Nile by the window and Kyoya in the middle seat and watched hordes of people enter the aircraft.

Kyoya frowned when he heard a familiar voice complaining. "But Madokaaaaa. I can't possibly go for hours without Pokémon Go!" His frown deepened as he saw a certain redhead walking down the plane isle, followed by Madoka, Tsubasa, Yu and Kenta.

"It's not my fault you can't afford eight dollars for Wi-Fi access during the flight," the mechanic growled at him. Ryo's weekly allowance to his son had already been spent on overpriced burgers in the airport.

"Let's pretend we're not here," Nile whispered.

Kyoya sank down in his seat, slouching even more than usual. "If they can't see us, they won't annoy us."

A blissful few seconds passed. Then, "Kyoya! Nile! Hey guys!" Gingka sauntered over and sat in the open seat next to Kyoya. "Fancy meeting you on this flight!"

"These were group tickets, weren't they," Kyoya sighed, looking at Nile.

The Egyptian nodded. "We've been had." Gingka's 'bribe' for them to be coaches wasn't as much of a bribe as they had originally thought. It meant they would be forced to take a trip with Gingka yet again. "There's still a way to salvage the situation. Our last trip where we went camping by that lake wasn't that bad."

Kyoya felt slightly better about said situation as Madoka, Kenta and Yu sat across the aisle from them and Tsubasa, the left-out one, took an open seat behind the three of them. Still, as the flight attendants explained the safety features of the aircraft and several passengers gaped at the famous bladers aboard the plane, he found himself wishing their confinement in a small area with the still-talking Gingka was over.

Thankfully, a few hours into the flight (after eating both Kyoya and Nile's complimentary chips along with his own), Gingka fell into a food coma and slept until they touched down in New York. It was impressive, considering the length of the flight. Madoka shook him awake and the group groggily disembarked.

"Let's find a hotel or something. I'm beat," Nile commented at the baggage claim. Then he laughed. Yu was sitting on the luggage belt going around in a circle with people's suitcases as if it were an amusement park ride. He was soon pulled off by Tsubasa, who noticed airport security not far away.

As the group walked out of the airport, a loud voice greeted them. "Gingka! Over here!"

Gingka looked up slowly, still tired from his nap. "Masamune!" Suddenly he was no longer tired. He ran over and greeted his former teammate, who was there along with Zeo and Toby from Dungeon Gym. "What's up? I've been so excited for this trip!" Little did he know Madoka had confiscated his phone while he had been asleep so he could focus on building friendships instead of playing his new app.

Masamune kept up a constant babble with Gingka, Yu and Kenta, while Madoka and Tsubasa talked amiably with Toby and Zeo. Kyoya and Nile trailed along at the back of the pack, wondering why they kept getting dragged into these situations. Oh well. They could ditch everyone tomorrow and walk around the city. And they could get free lodging with the others, since Masamune had a place picked out for them already. So with hope in their hearts, they went to sleep.

The next day, Kyoya and Nile snuck out of the room bright and early so as to avoid the others. "Let's hit up some museums today," Nile said, looking at a map with various attractions on it.

"Okay. How about the Museum of Modern Art and then the Metropolitan Museum of Art?" Kyoya figured those were the last places everyone else would look to find them, and therefore the best possible choices of location.

-Meanwhile, with the others-

"Let's go to Central Park!" Yu yelled, jumping around on his and Kenta's bed they shared at the hotel.

Tsubasa looked over at the empty bed of Kyoya and Nile and found himself missing their sanity. Until Madoka, who was rooming next door, arrived. "Where did those two go?" she asked.

"Somewhere far away from us," Tsubasa replied. "Yu wants to go to Central Park."

"I'm game! They've got some great bey parks there," Masamune said, much louder than necessary as Gingka finished brushing his teeth and came out of the bathroom.

Zeo and Toby nodded, and the three Americans led the way. Upon arriving in Central Park, Gingka immediately ran over and challenged some random kids, as did Masamune and Yu. After several easy victories, they decided to find some better bladers.

"Hey look! There's Damian and Jack from Starbreaker! Let's go say hi!" Gingka ran over to do just that, forgetting the whole Dr. Ziggurat using them to try to take over the world thing. Toby and Zeo followed, deciding to say hello to their former teammates. (Toby had kinda been on the team after all.)

After battling tag team against Gingka and Masamune and losing, Jack and Damian left Central Park, being thoroughly annoyed by their loss. They had been training hard after the loss of arrangement systems, and the fact that Gingka shook their hands afterward and congratulated them on a hard-fought battle didn't help.

Eventually, Masamune spotted King and ran over to have a giant battle royal with him, Gingka and the others. Masamune and King teamed up to defeat the Pegasus blader and as they were cheering, Variares knocked Striker from the stadium. Masamune's joy immediately turned to sorrow.

-Back with Kyoya and Nile-

While staring at a particularly intriguing painting, the two Wild Fang bladers heard a conversation going on behind them.

"Ugh, I can't believe I lost to Gingka again."

"And I can't believe I failed to make a masterpiece on the canvas of the stadium."

Glancing at each other, Kyoya and Nile slowly turned around and saw that yes, the two speakers were indeed Damian and Jack. The two Starbreaker members turned and saw the members of Wild Fang looking at them.

"What?" Damian asked. "Don't tell me you came here with Gingka's group."

Kyoya sighed. He might as well tell the truth. "Technically we did, but we ditched that group this morning to do something else."

"Want to get some ice cream?" Jack offered uncharacteristically.

Kyoya and Nile hid their surprise. "Okay," the latter decided for the both of them.

And that was how Gingka and co. found them: eating ice cream on a street corner with two former enemies while telling them stories about how foolish Gingka would act at times. And how he was definitely not deserving the number one rank in the magazine they had read earlier.

Me: Well... It wasn't as funny as I had hoped for. I think it went downhill after the airplane ride...

King: She's been working on this other story. It's not as humorous and I think it's sapped her humor, no matter how many times she re-reads Beyblade Town and Beyblade Town 2 in order to get her funny back. [sigh] Those are my faves...

Kyoya: Just because you own the town, King. Gee, I swear that story gave you an even more inflated ego about yourself...

Me: Settle down you two. Nile, do you want to introduce my new story?

Nile: Fine. Surprisingly, starsnow has actually finished the story she has been working on for over a year, and wants me to convince you to check it out. You can find the link to Under a Darkened Sky on her profile page or here: s/12131457/1/Under-a-Darkened-Sky