It was another quiet day in the city, which was rather unsettling. The city was normally roaring with delinquents covering walls in graffiti or idiotic burglars attempting to ransack apartments or muggers waiting to catch a wallet. Of course, none of those things were good, but to the people it meant a normal day. If the city was quiet, then something was amiss.

What was it that was amiss? Why, of course, it was the fact that a few major intersections had been closed off for the filming of a movie. A dramatic action movie, depicting a secret Beyblading superhero out to save the world from yet another evil overlord. Of course, the hero was none other than the controversial rising star Joshua Burns, actor extraordinaire. Of course, his sister Karina would have a little cameo of her own, along with several famous bladers whom the director had somehow managed to convince to show up. And of course, they had upped the security levels, since so many famous people were in one place.

The sudden changes had quite bewildered the people, but as they understood what was happening, they took it in stride and carried on with their lives. After all, Hollywood did like to make their movies here every now and then. It wasn't too bad. The increase in security was also probably why the criminals stayed in check.

It was all good and fine and cool. Judging by how even the ever-vigilant Shu kicked up his feet next to Free, the city had settled down into a nice kind of peace and quiet that was rather rare.

Rare, because it didn't even exist.

At least, according to Karina, who constantly kept herself holed up in her trailer, worrying. "What do you need to worry about besides hackers?" Joshua had jokingly asked once; to his lackadaisical grin, Karina had simply shut the door in his face. Which was never a good sign, because that meant she was borderline paranoid.

But was she wrong to worry?

Not at all, Ivy thought to herself, walking through the sterile corridors of the eerily empty building. Anything could happen anytime.

The extras had all filtered out for lunch already, leaving time for the cleanup crew to fix the props and lighting and everything. To the ordinary eye, it would seem that Ivy was only a security guard inspecting the area. But of course, this was a movie set. They needed to do much more than inspect the place and make sure everyone was safe.

Ivy kicked one of the prop knives on the floor, left behind after the hero-blader Crescent Stride had chased the villain-blader Havoc Tempo through the hallways in an attempt to take back the coveted Bey Valkyrie. She found it hilarious to see the consequences of having Valt Aoi around for the filming, as the younger boy almost always harangued the crew with constant questions and hyperactive jubilee. Director Sam seemed to regret his decisions.

And of course, since he'd recently mastered a new technique, they were basing the movie off the premise of that technique. Though it wasn't really as "new" as it was "rediscovered"—manifesting the physical form of a Bey's Beast spirit had been an old art which people rarely knew how to do nowadays. And once you managed to get your Bey to transform, it was a breeze. Ivy was glad the training program focused on that.

"IIIIIIIves, I'm bored," whined a tiny voice, floating up in front of her.

Maybe not always glad.

"Icarus, not now," Ivy said.

A face showed up to accompany the voice. "But, you know, there's nothing here to do," Icarus said in reply. "We're just here because they think the plot might be here but no one knows what, right?"

"Icarus, have you ever heard of a thing called an investigation?" Ivy said dryly, lifting some papers off one of the paint-battered desks.

Icarus made a noise equivalent to a vocal shrug. "Well, I don't know, last place I'd wanna make a mafia center is under a set with the cringiest actor on Earth," he said.

"You're an idiot," Ivy said. "They set up shop in the danger zones and you really don't expect there to be a hitman on the loose?"

"I mean, look at the Burns man," Icarus said. "Anyone would run from that hairstyle."

That's a lil' harsh, Ivy thought inwardly. So what if Icarus could still hear her thoughts.

Her earpiece crackled. "Agent Jones, we've just detected a strange wavelength from your satellite location here at HQ, have you encountered any paranormal circumstances?" said a lilting voice.

"Negative, Officer Skadi, everything seems to be just as normal," Ivy said, reaching for her earpiece. "Currently I'm surveying the upper floor; Agent Tarver is on standby in the below parking lot near the actors. No suspicious activity within the past few hours so far."

"Oi, you're speaking more loudly than usual," said the voice of Skadi. "Tone down, we don't need any eaves around to catch a whiff of our lead."

"Alright, fine, fine," Ivy sniffed, although her voice did get softer. Icarus's presence giggled.

"Make sure you tell Agent Tarver to be on the lookout," Skadi said. "We don't know what that jump means, there are no extraneous energy signatures that we've recorded. Our main suspicion is that they're targeting the big fry bladers today."

"Today?" Ivy snorted. "More like every day. Today just has a bigger crowd."

"Exactly, the drama matches the scene exactly," Skadi said. "I'll leave you on hold. Call back as soon as something fishy comes up."

"Fine by me," Ivy said, huffing. "Next thing you know, someone's already caught up to us and sent an ambush. But whatever. Over and out."

Hey, you gotta pick those papers up, you know, Icarus said.

"Maybe I will," Ivy mumbled.

Her ears pricked.

Slowly, she bent down to pick up the papers. Icarus's image vanished abruptly as he settled back down in her pocket.

And then, as she reached for her earpiece again, she felt the sunlight behind her give way to cold. A shadow fell over her.

Her arm relaxed slightly. Well, looks like there really is going to be an ambush today, she thought, softly settling back on her feet. The shadow behind her rumbled.

And then the shadow moved.

Icarus, Ivy called in her thoughts.

A familiar presence popped into the back of her mind. Here, Icarus whispered.

Watch my back, Ivy said. Icarus twinkled in affirmation.

Ivy clicked the earpiece. "Skadi, this is Agent Jones, reporting a goose in the operation. Sign code 3," she said. She bit her lip and turned her head slightly up.

"Please standby."

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I didn't like the ending so I made it even more over-the-top dramatic. Hope you enjoyed this sudden change.