• In Tokyo, it was just an ordinary day. People were going about their business as usual. Even at an abandoned factory complex where two AT teams were having a friendly tournament against each other, there was nothing out of place. They were both D Class teams and were giving their less experienced riders some training with some F Class events. All seemed well until the riders noticed something. Over on the barrier, were two people watching them battle. When everyone came to notice it, everyone was interested in who was coming to watch such a low class event.

    One of the riders that was headstrong put his hand up when nobody else did, “I’ll go over and check it out.” He rode over to see who was there and what was going on. As he got closer he could tell by the way they were dressed and by the look of them that they were not from the area-in fact they were not even from Japan. “Can I help you both?” he said to the mysterious strangers that were there watching. They looked back and smiled, not a menacing smile-but a calm one. “No we are fine thanks, we are just watching”. They were definitely not Japanese and they were not American either. “Where are you from?”

    “Australia, just here to do a little training in our AT skills.” The Japanese rider smiled and called out to the rest of his team to come over. He liked the idea of these two being alone and he couldn’t help himself from what he was going to do. When the rest of the team showed up and circled the two Australians he asked them, “If you are here for training, then why not battle us?”

    “No we would prefer to watch for the moment.”

    The whole gang laughed, it seemed that a tasty treat had just wandered aimlessly into their den without any kind of knowledge for group boundaries and considering the situation, they were not going to let them go without feeding first. “So you are in a team back home?”

    “Yes-Westside Magpies.”

    “Magpies?”

    “It is a bird we have back home.” By now the other team taking part in the friendly matches came over and one of the people went up to the other. “How about we let these guys go? After all this day is about our young riders.”

    The rider got a little angry at this and snapped back, “It isn’t for you to decide, we don’t attack you out of mere respect from our history but you do not determine who we battle and who we do not.” It seemed nothing was going to help the innocent tourists, even if they had only come to watch.

    When they realised they were in trouble and that things were a little serious they began looking for a way out. The shorter one of the two looked around at all the riders circling him. He put his head down and the AT gang knew he was whispering something. In that moment one of the riders charged in hoping to catch them off guard but was taken down somehow. Nobody saw what just happened and the two tourist riders used this opportunity to take off at a surprising speed. The gang immediately began chasing them as they laughed and cheered at how they ran away from battle also knowing they didn’t know where they were going and would surely be captured soon. One of the fastest riders in the team took it upon himself to zoom ahead passed his team and stop the two tourists. He got within inches of them and once again without anybody seeing what happened-he was taken out from a shot knocking him down. With the momentum he had from the speed he had going forwards, he rolled for a few metres doing enormous damage to his body and leaving him unable to chase anymore. The rest of the team stopped for a moment, they had just seen one of their better riders taken down from a shot they hadn’t even seen and realised these guys had a few tricks up their sleeve after all. It only got them more fired up to finish their chase.

    “Do you think we will lose them?” One of the Australians said to the other as they were riding as fast as they could.

    “I don’t think so, your shot bought us a little time though. We should probably hide rather than navigate our way to someone that could help, there is also the fact that I am not as fast as you and you are not as fit as me so we are only going to hold each other back.”

    “You’re probably right. Thanks for giving me the opening to that shot and thanks for letting me know which one was going to attack first-I still love how you can do that.” They both turned both turned into an alleyway they saw and what looked like to be a food place at the end so they decided they would be safer if they went into a public place. They were seated and they ordered some food and drinks to calm their nerves. Neither of them had an idea how they were going to get out of this one, especially with none of their team here to back them up. Their food and drinks were bought to them and they started chowing it down as they had expended a lot of energy in the escape they had made.

    The shorter one looked to the door, he heard something and then the taller one heard it to. He quickly looked around for an escape but there was only one door. It seemed like luck wasn’t going to be on their side as a number of AT gang came roaring through the door and had them cornered in the food place. The two Australian riders looked around at everybody in the room; they put their heads to the floor and made no effort to help them. The one that made the first contact with them stepped forward, “Firstly you came to a place that is within our territory so nobody is going to come to your aid. If you were from around here you might have known that but it’s a little late now. I am glad we found you little pests-why are you here with no team?

    “We were sent by our superiors to watch and learn from riders in Japan; we haven’t wanted trouble from the beginning.”

    “I am afraid you found it though-identify yourselves.” The two riders didn’t want to say anything, but at this stage they had to buy themselves time. The significantly shorter one of the two was the first to speak, “I am Malin.”

    “Blake,” said the other.

    “Well Malin and Blake, I am Daisuke of the Reds-tonight we are going to battle.” One of the Reds stepped forward with their mobile phone aimed at their AT’s hoping to catch their experience level. He looked up and whispered something into the ear of Daisuke. “So you thought coming without memory cards in your AT’s would save you from the attention of hard teams. You were watching an F Class battles and I can therefore deduce that you are not even above an E Class. Well tonight though, we all go to hell, in a D Class Cube Battle.” The Reds began jumping around and cheering at the thought of a match with these two riders. Malin and Blake looked at each other, very intimidated while Daisuke loved every moment of it. The two Australian riders were shown the way out of the food bar and towards the home ground of the Reds.