He was running. The ground beneath him was swallowed by darkness, he could feel the sticky liquid against his bare feet. He didn't have to look, he knew it was blood. Behind him, footsteps echoed. Masked men clad in black chasing him into the abyss of darkness until his foot caught on something, tripping him forward. Shu yelped, bracing himself against the wet floor. He looked over his shoulder and there it was, Liam's gaping mouth and dead eyes staring back-

Shu woke up, gasping for air. His bangs stuck against his sweat forehead as he ran a shaking hand through them. He dropped his head to his hunched knees, breathing hard. It was only then he noticed the pain shooting up his arms. He winced, memories flooding back to his tortured mind.

Safe.

He was safe.

He was inside the UUC facility surrounded by professional detectives. He let out a shaky breath, rubbing his palms together as he swung his legs out the bed, the tangled sheets a pile on the bed as a soft knock on the door dragged him out of his reverie.

"Come in," Shu said, patting his white locks.

Pam and Jean walked in, the former holding a breakfast tray with fresh golden pancakes and a steaming mug. "Good morning," She smiled, placing it on the bedside cabinet. "Did you sleep well?"

Jean noticed his red rimmed eyes, messy hair faster than Pam. "Rough night, kiddo?"

Shu shrugged, "Not really."

"Nothing a pancake with blueberry cream can't fix, right?" Pam chirped, ruffling his hair. She walked over to the adjacent bathroom. "I'm pretty sure we had a first aid kit in here somewhere."

Shu sat on his bed with the tray resting on his lap. He forked through the soft pancakes idly. "Where's Leo?"

"He's arguing with Lucas and Theodore about some plan." Pamella walked out with the first aid kit. She placed it on the corner of bed, her white coat glistening under the fluorescent lights. "I don't get half the things going on here anyway."

Jean patted her shoulder, "We don't get half the things you speak about all the time. The feeling is mutual."

"Rude," Pam sighed. After Shu finished, the woman switched his bandages. Shu winced, gritting his teeth as the white gauze dressing was peeled off his wounds. He averted his gaze to the floor waiting for her to be finished. When she did, she pulled out a stethoscope. "Take a deep breath for me, okay?"

Safe, Shu reminded himself, doing as he was told. He waited patiently as she checked his pulse, checked under his eyes and wrote down something in her yellow notepad. "All good. Do you feel any different?"

Shu shook his head. "No?"

"It's because of the Requiem project," She assured, smiling. "We're still not sure about the strain it will cause in your body."

"I'm fine."

Pam nodded, reaching to tap his cheek when Shu pulled back unconsciously, flinching. "I-" He stuttered, "I'm sorry. I just-" The nightmare was still fresh in his mind. And the reminders of Rin were tormenting his naked wounds.

Pam didn't say anything. She shared a look with Jean before turning back to him. "Brush your teeth and get ready, okay? We'll wait for you in the tech room."

Shu nodded, relieved. He knew he wasn't ready to answer another set of questions. He brushed his teeth, rinsed his face and pulled out fresh clothes from the small closet. The white t-shirt was a little bigger but the jeans fit him perfectly. He ran a comb through his tangled locks and stepped out to the hallway, soon reaching the room they reached upon arriving.

Lucas was sitting on the far corner, munching on toast, the melted butter dripping down his skin. Leo twirled in the chair, his head thrown over the back. Theodore was sipping from a black mug, his eyes scanning the papers in front of him. Nick noticed him first, "Hello kid! Good morning."

Shu dipped his head, "Hello."

Theodore glanced up from the papers. "Shu," He nodded towards the seat next to him on the same long table decorated with a clutter of wires, papers and screens. "We were waiting for you."

Leo groaned, "He's lying, Shu," He drawled. "He calls meetings and never listens to a word anyone says. This is tyranny."

"Don't be dramatic," Harry said, sitting down at his desk. "Let's start, shall we?"

Norman was the one who started, his finger furiously clicking on the mouse as lines and lines of text passed through the screen. "Well, it seems like we've lost all the connections to the Snakepit after yesterday when we were unceremoniously outed. No databases are accessible, no video conferences available. We've also lost the connection of their servers and intranet. I tried accessing through an onion browser but the previous ip addresses were shifted to somewhere else. I can't track them. "

Daniel crossed his arms, walking to stand behind Norman. "Only bad news?"

"No," Norman said, tipping his chin towards Shu. "They still want Shu. He's the first and the most successful project they have focused on since the start of the requiem project. I went through the analytics and the graphs of his responses to the virtual environment and they were..." He paused, raising his brow. "Outstanding. He responded effectively and strongly to the stimuli and there are areas in his right brain that were heightened after the experiment, it's almost like..." He stopped.

"Almost like...?" Jean pressed, leaning forward.

"Like he had flat out met Spryzen and made a connection with it. This is impossible in the perspective of science considering the fact a beyblade is just plastic and some metal, but it seems like the stimuli heightened his brain activity and did...something." He sighed. "I just can't figure out what."

Shu blinked, letting the information sync in. "Wow."

"Wowza indeed," Leo grinned. "It's straight out sci-fi now."

"The point is," Norman said. "They'd want Shu. So, they're not done with us. Not quite yet."

"Also means, Shu is not leaving the base," Lucas pointed out wiping his hands from a white towel. He stared at Theodore. "At any cost."

Theodore nodded, "I know, Lucas. So stop with that tone."

Nick slapped his arms together, "All this said, our only chance in contacting anyone from the other side, is the Black Market. Isn't it?"

Shu blinked, "Black...market? As in selling organs, weapons and drugs?"

Nick snapped his fingers. "Bingo. It's like your neighbourhood Sunday market except the goods are illegal and the sellers are not pretty old ladies in beanies."

"Oh."

Pam came out of the lab, her hands deep in her pockets. "Why are we talking about black market again?"

"'Cause we're going to raid the black market for information!" Leo cheered, stealing a doughnut from Daniel's desk. The latter swatted him away. "To be honest, the only tricky part is the entrance."

Shu frowned, "What do you mean?"

"It's a code," Leo said through mouthfuls. "But answered through a beyblade."

Shu turned to Lucas. "I don't get it."

Lucas grabbed the chair Shu was sitting on and dragged it towards him. The wheels made a clean squeak at the sudden action. Turning to the screens to his right, Lucas pointed at a complicated set of movements drawn on a bey disk. He frowned while studying the moves. "See these? These are specific movements, a code that is needed to enter the black market."

Shu huffed, "But I thought it'd be harder than that. How can you beyblade your way into black market?"

Nick chuckled, "To be honest kid, those movements are pretty tricky. This certain BM we're talking about is solely to the purpose of planning their way ahead after this mishap we caused. So mostly the bladers will attend. The ones in the family tree as Norman showed you once upon a time. Though these might look easy, this structure is complicated. They've designed a beyblade that will only burst if you follow through the movement with 100% accuracy."

Shu leaned back on his chair, his eyes scanning the screen. "Are you all bladers?"

"Fat chance I'm playing with a spinning toy," Jean shrugged. "No offence."

"None taken," Norman murmured. "And no Shu. Only you, Leo and me are bladers here. We only need one who can precisely follow through the sequence to get entrance. And honestly, I'm not having much luck with Noctemis right now."

"Which makes me the only one who can actually break you guys into the BM. Treat me better," Leo chirped, wiping off the doughnut dust off his hands.

Shu leaned forward, "This is actually easy, you know? I mean look at those vertical movements, that's exactly the major points of an attack type. You have to move your wrist to the right when you launch your bey and then take the centre. When the other moves to attack you have to charge vertically like that, and bounce back..." He paused, counting in his head. "In exactly three seconds or less you have to move your bey to the far corner of left in the bey disk and dodge the next attack which I think will be pointed on to the right. And then move like this..." he drew along his finger over the zigzag line across the bey disk. "And that's defence and balance mixed together."

"And lastly it boils down to a battle of stamina before you're supposed to take a roundabout way to the other and attack from behind. That's neat."

There was a palpable silence. "I think I can do it," Shu announced, turning to Lucas. The latter was shaking his head.

"As much as a little genius you sound, the answer is no. You're not making your merry way into a black market Shu."

Leo messed his hair, flicking off his blonde bangs off his eyes. "Jesus christ, this kid. Did you just describe the whole battle looking at..." He gestured at the screen. "That? Are you insane?"

Shu shrugged, "I'm just better than you."

"Say that again, princess."

"I'm just-" Leo lunged at him with a loud laugh, tackling them both to the ground. The blonde was careful enough with his arms.

"Oh, shut up."

Theodore looked meaningfully at Shu. "Do you think you can teach those movements to either Norman or Leo within four hours?"

"Four hours?" Shu asked, "Wait, you guys are leaving today?"

"Yeah," Leo said, resting his chin on top of Shu's head. "We have to be ready by this evening."

"I can go," Shu tried again, looking at Lucas.

"Is it your way of saying these two are hopeless?" Harry asked with a grin. "I mean fair."

Leo complained loudly with a string of curses, resting his palms over Shu's ears for good measure. The albino looked unfazed. "Who are the ones going to it anyway?"

"Me, Leo and Norman." Lucas was clicking through a series of windows. "One of them will have to learn the sequence."

"I can go," Shu repeated. "C'mon Lucas. Isn't it better to use that time to strategize rather than training them into an impossible sequence?"

"You said you can do it," Jean pointed out.

"Yeah, because I'm a beyblade nerd."

"With the IQ level of Einstein," Pam added cheerfully. "You can see it in his face. The kid's brilliant."

Shu flushed at her compliment, "I wouldn't go that far..."

Lucas looked at Theodore. The latter smiled. "Your call, really?"

"You're okay with him walking into the lion's den?" Lucas asked, throwing his hands up in the air. "Really, Theo?"

"I'm just saying we have a better chance if we send Shu. The whole team is going out disguised. We cannot afford to lose this chance. Besides, if you're with them, I wouldn't worry. Shu is in good hands."

"Very good hands," Shu chirped.

"You just want to see the Black Market, shut up," Norman raised his brow. "Your curiosity is going to be the death of you one day."

"I repeat," Shu deadpanned, "Very good hands."

Norman sighed. Lucas mussed his hair, groaning. "Okay fine." He pointed an accusing finger at Shu. "You're not leaving my side the whole time we're in there. You hear me?"

"Yes sir!" Shu and Leo cheered.

Theodore motioned them towards the meeting room. "Let's get this party started, shall we?"

Setting the background for the next arc people! Lesgo and lets pray no one dies :))