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Digimon Tri: Of Honesty and Loyalty Fire and Thunder - Beyblade X Generation Harry Potter and the Power of the Sacred Spirits

Published Fanfictions

Beyblade: No Sacrifice, No Victory Saving Grace

Oneshots: Straight Lines A Very Bladebreaker Christmas Majestic Victory

Digimon: Tri: Of Honesty and Loyalty

Oneshots: The House Under The Water

It was well after dark by the time Steph reached her dorm. Flopping onto her bed, she pulled out her phone and selected the most recent missed call. The line rang twice before her cousin answered. 

“Matt Ishida is my lab partner.”

“Wait -“ the phone shook violently as Becky flipped the camera around so that Steph could see her face. It was close to midnight in Paris and it was obvious the call had woken her up. 

“Dickenson’s grandson? The one that hates beyblading?” 

Steph nodded, figuring that seemed like an accurate enough description. She heard the rustle of food packets as her cousin dug into her snacks. 

“What’s he doing at Oxford?”

“He’s doing the summer science program, same as me,” Steph said with a shrug. “Said something about wanting to become an engineer.” 

Somehow, the fact that Matt had already figured out what he wanted to do when he graduated high school and she hadn’t made Steph like him even less. 

“Nerd,” Becky teased, helping herself to a handful of popcorn. “So - is he hot?”

“Becky!” 

Her cousins laughter reverberated through her AirPods, prompting Steph to mash the volume down button to preserve her hearing. 

“It’s a valid question,” her cousin insisted, following by the crunch of a cookie. Great, now she was making Steph hungry. “How long has it been since you last saw him? A year?”

“At least,” Steph guessed, trying to do the math in her head. As the grandson of the Chairman of the BBA, it was inevitable that they would cross paths on occasion. In fact, the first time they’d met, she’d actually found him rather charming. 

She’d been visiting the BBA office in Paris during the Bladebreakers first tour of Europe. Mr Dickenson had requested an update following Tyson’s match with Oliver, so she’d snuck off from her teammates while Tyson finished another bottomless brunch at the hotel. Of course, Dickenson had forgotten their meeting and his assistant instructed her to wait in the lobby. 

Steph couldn’t remember who struck up the conversation first - had he commented on the book she’d been reading while she waited, or had she caught a glimpse what was playing on his iPod? Whichever the case, the discussion that followed suggested that in another place and time they would be friends, possibly more. 

When she’d introduced herself as a beyblader however, his attitude toward her suddenly turned cold. 

She had never found out why Matt disliked beyblading so much, especially when his younger brother, T.K, was one of Tyson’s biggest fans. 

“You didn’t answer my other question,” Becky’s pout could be heard between the sound of crumbling cookies, drawing Steph’s attention back to the conversation at hand. “Is he good looking at least?” 

“He’s not … unattractive,” Steph conceded. “His personality on the other hand …”

Becky laughed again, this time so hard that the phone tumbled out of her hand and hit the floor with a thud and Steph glared at the now empty screen. “I’m not kidding,” she said. “His attitude makes Kai seem like a ray of sunshine.” 

“I give it a week,” Becky said. “Two tops - before you’re making out with him in the library surrounded by the works of Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde.”

“Fat chance of that,” Steph grumbled, ignoring Becky’s cackle as they said their goodbyes before hanging up. 

The only time she, Steph Summers, would be caught making out with the likes of Matt Ishida in the library was when hell froze over. Or so she thought … 

Thomas beckoned the three of them aside. It was only then that Steph noticed he wore a very grave and almost agitated look on his face. Steph got the impression that already this expedition was putting him on edge.

“What is it?” Van asked.

“Shh,” Thomas housed. He was looking over Van’s shoulder directly at Fiona. “Might I remind you what tends to happen when we explore ruins? Particularly with an Ancient Zoidian?”

“Well,” Steph said quietly. “Every single time Fiona seems to remember something about her past.”

“Usually something bad,” Van added.

“Exactly,” Thomas agreed, nodding his head vigorously. “And what happened the last time Fiona remembered something from her past?”

He looked pointedly at Van, and Van’s face suddenly went very pale and they both understood what Thomas was getting at. Their last encounter with the Death Stinger had ended with Hiltz escaping and Fiona literally disappearing into thin air. Even ten years late, no one could explain how Fiona was in Van’s arms one moment, and then merely seconds later over one hundred kilometres away in the Valley of the Rare Hertz. It defied all logic - as did most things related to the ancient Zoidian.

“We get the point,” Steph said quietly, because Van seemed very much unable to speak. “Lost memories equal bad.”

Matt, to his credit, was trying his best to look like he had some idea what Thomas was on about. “So what exactly is your plan, Thomas?”

“I propose not letting Fiona touch a single thing inside these ruins. Maybe if we can avoid triggering any unwanted memories we might be able to find the General and return him home safe and sound without setting about the next apocalypse.”

“Do you reckon he took his meds this morning?” Van wondered, not bothering to lower his voice. Steph jabbed him in the ribs.

“Is he right, do you think?” 

“About what?”

“About all of you being able to work together?” he elaborated. “Tala looks as though he wants to strangle Garland.”

“No, his face always looks like that. After a while you stop noticing it.”

“She’s going through a thing right now,” she explained, and when he raised his eyebrow at her questionably she added; “and I’m trying not to be the overbearing older cousin - because apparently I do that a lot.”

“Matt, don’t antagonise the computer,” Steph chastised. “BEEK, ignore him, you’re doing fine.”

The AI whizzed something in response and the computer screen displayed the translated response.

“Yes, I know,” Steph agreed.

Matt glared at the display. “All of a sudden this things got an attitude.”

“You were kidnapped!” Van exclaimed, growing increasingly frustrated. He was running out of excuses.

“Yes, and I escaped,” Steph reminded him, to which Matt cleared his throat more loudly than was necessary. “With his help,” she conceded.

“And what about you, Summers?” he asked, narrowing his stare on her. “Along for the ride once again?”

“They have my father.”

A look of realisation dawned on Raven’s face as he put two and two together. “You’re the General’s daughter. That’s an interesting development.”

“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Thomas told her, but Steph was already on her feet and following Raven. She caught up with him halfway down the hallway.

“Yes, Summers?”

“The fact that I’m  General Moretti’s daughter,” she said. “Why is it an interesting development?” she demanded.

Raven stopped walking and turned to look at her, his expression serious. “It’s an interesting development because Prozen didn’t know about you,” he told her.

“Prozen kept a very close eye on all the Republican Army’s research developments, and the researchers who headed them. He couldn’t risk the Republic learning about the Deathsaurer before he’d completed it’s resurrection.

“I would imagine that the reason why your father never told you about his research was to keep you safe,” Raven reasoned. “The question is, if Prozen didn’t know about you, how does Wolff know?”

“You think there’s a spy in the Empire,” Steph guessed.

Raven’s eyes flashed, and his expression darkened. “Or the Republic,” he said. “If I were you, Summers, I’d keep your little troupe of bodyguards close by. Wolff is not going to stop until he gets what he wants.”

And in the far left corner of the corner of the hanger bay, there was a pair of zoids Steph hoped that planet Zi would never have the misfortune of experiencing again.

Beside her, Fiona sucked in a breath. "A Death Stinger."

“But not the Deathstinger,” Thomas realised. “The one we faced ten years ago was almost three times the size of these zoids.”

“We call these the Death Stinger KFD’s. These were created based on research into the original Death Stinger piloted by Hiltz,” Melissa told them.

“KFD?” Van queried.

“Killer from the Dark,” Melissa said. “Fitting. Considering it’s origins.”

For a moment, they were plunged into complete darkness.

“This,” Steph muttered, an uneasy feeling forming in the pit of her stomach. “Is getting really old.”

The emergency lighting flickered on, illuminating the hallway and was immediately followed by the whir of sirens that Steph knew could only mean one thing. They were under attack!

“That explosion sounded like it came from the south hanger,” Becky guessed. “Isn’t one of the Deathstingers in the lab there?”

Steph swore under her breath. Of course he’d come after it, she thought. “The other one is in the west side lab,” she said. “We should split up. We can’t risk the Deathstingers falling into Wolff’s hands.”

Becky hesitated, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of splitting up - but the base was large, and they’d cover more ground on their own. “Be careful,” she muttered reluctantly, tucking her datapad under her arm.

“Always,” Steph promised, and she turned on her heel and hurried towards the west wing.

The lab was dark when she arrived, with a single row of overhead lighting illuminating the centre of the lab, where the Deathstinger replica stood on a loading platform. Replica or not, the sight of it brought a chill to her spine. And standing before it, her stare cold and calculating, was Anna Thales.

Coffee with a hint of salt

“You look like you could use some coffee,”Fiona said, and busied her self fetching the coffee pot and some cups. “How about you, Corporal,” she asked Matt with a friendly smile.

“Umm, yes please.”

She picked up the sugar bowl and added three heaped teaspoons to her cup before offering it around the table. One by one, her friends politely pulled their cups away from her eager hands, except for Matt.

She watched him take a sip of the coffee and immediately his expression shifted to one of alarm. He coughed violently, placing the cup back down on the table with a shakey hand.

Becky buried her nose in her own cup to muffle her snort of amusement.

“Something wrong with your coffee, Parker,” Van asked, a knowning glint in his eye.

“No, nothing - it’s just a bit stronger than I’m used to,” he said, watching Fiona carefully. The Ancient Zoidian merely smiled and added three heaped teaspoons to her own coffee.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said at once, reaching for his cup. “That would be the salt.”

“Who puts salt in coffee?” he asked, keeping his voice hushed.

“Fiona does,” Steph said with a grin. She watched Fiona add three heaped teaspoons of salt to her coffee, and each of her friends in turn pull their coffee cups slightly further away from her eager hands.