Valt:

"And Robin versus Lui!"

My first reaction:THIS IS NOT FAIR!! WHY CAN'T IT BE ME?!!!

Second: OH RIIIGGHTT...XANDER!!!

I was suddenly alright with not going against Lui yet. The Big Friendly Giant, Supreme Four member, and best martial artist around. I was against Xander Shakadera!

"YES!!" I bounced up and down. "Isn't this amazing?"

I was the only one speaking, much less moving. Everyone else seemed frozen in time. My energetic movements seemed to break the spell, and everyone slowly turned and stared at me. Every single person facepalmed at the exact same time.

Then Shu and Wakiya blinked, turned and faced each other. "Wait..." Shu said slowly.

"He said..." Wakiya continued

"That we'll be..."

"Against..."

"Each o--"

"WILL YOU TWO STOP IT WITH THE DUET?" Honcho yelled. "Just spit it out! We know you'll be fighting against each other!"

"Then I'm going to beat you once and for all!" Wakiya said with a lot more energy than usual. I wondered just how long he'd been practicing for this moment.

Shu's eyes were suddenly devoid of warmth, narrowing into slits. Uncomfortably like Lui. "Not a chance," he replied coldly.

He would only say that if he thought Wakiya had a shot. That meant Robin's assumption of the blonde's skill was off by a mile. Since none of us had paid him the attention he should have gotten, that meant none of us understood any of his moves, much less power level.

But I figured Shu had an ace up his sleeve again. He promised to meet me in the finals, so I sincerely hoped he did.

That meant I had to win my match. Xander's beyblade was Xeno Excalibur, best move was Double Strike. He unveiled it when Wakiya put him on the ropes. Something to thank him for later, once I win.

If I win.

If we're talking about power, Xander has a major advantage, made greater by the fact he knows me. However, I know what makes him tick, too. Hint: not a lot, but telling him about my becoming a Descendant would do the trick. Then again, major disadvantage if Lui knows. He could do the Ultimate Test against me, and believe me, that's the last thing I need.

What else? His skills are legendary, and I heard he's getting scouted by Brazil. At age eleven he's more ripped than most adults ever are. His balance is impeccable, and his only other weakness seems to be he can't find Ukyo fifty percent of the time.

So maybe just try Revive Function.

That would be scary. Robin's taught me it, and I seem to do alright with it, but I'm not registered as a Descendant. It could be mistaken for cheating, and I would get disqualified. No to that idea.

Well, I'd won all my matches without Robin or anyone's powers. Valtryek and I won it with our own skill. Xander's best move required his bey to be at 10% hp, according to Valkyrie. That meant I needed to start with an angled launch, otherwise he could kill Valkyrie instantly. A burst finish is not a good thing, so first the angled launch, then flash launch. Xander would not stay in the center, which meant I didn't have to deal with the usual cat-and-mouse game I had to play.

Everything else, I would rely on my instincts. It always worked before, and since I had a basic guideline on what needed to happen, I'd be alright.

Then I remembered who Robin was against.

She was speaking quickly to Daigo, running ideas through him. "Switch launch?"

"Relies on too much."

"Sky launch?"

"Not perfect yet."

She sighed. "And my flip move?"

"Too much of a chance he'll avoid you. Besides, he's got Nightmare Boost. That's serious power, more than a lever can avoid."

She started communicating with Phoenix for a second, then said, "Ramos says she has enough stamina to last awhile by herself. I've gotten faster."

He clearly understood what that meant. Even I knew. "You are not going to--"

She gave him a rough smile. "If I'm to lose, he's going through hell and back to beat me." Robin turned to her brother. "I'll need to borrow your glove."

He looked pissed. "Absolutely not. You are not going to try that."

"I am and you know you can't stop me."

Shu gave her the glove.

"We've decided to mix things up a bit!" Hanami yelled. "Valt Aoi and Xander Shakadera are the first match!"

My time was up.

--

I stood at the center with Xander. "I'll be the one moving to the semifinals," he spoke first.

I smiled, even though that was the last thing I felt like doing. "No way! It'll be me and Valtryek!" He didn't need to know about my partial descendant-ness, so I used her Beyblade name.

"Besides," I added. "I made Shu a promise, and I'm going to keep it. We're meeting in the finals!"

The crowd cheered.

Xander laughed. "That's so Valt of you. But I guess you're gonna have to break that promise, then. 'Cause I don't intend on going down!"

We settled into our launch stance. I had to be careful. Revive function was becoming instinct, and this time I couldn't use it. My hand was flat, like I was going to for a Rush Launch. Xander smiled, adjusting his stance to combat mine.

If only he knew how awesome I am.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

We both adjusted at the same time, which made my brain go into overdrive. That was my being alert, which was impressive, especially since I didn't get any beybread before this.

"Let it... rip!"

So clearly both of us had alternate plans. We both underestimated each other, and as a result, neither knows what the other is planning.

This could work out in my favor.

From my launch, Valkyrie hit the ground smoothly and spun around the outer ring of the stadium. I nodded to myself, not bothering to shout my usual cheer. It worked.

Exaclibur crashed onto the outer ring, a quarter around the stadium from mine. It took off after Valkyrie with that signature extreme speed. Like a reflection of Xander himself, that thing had no limit to its energy.

Step one complete. Next: Hit Xander's bey in a way that I won't get a supreme counter.

You know, like in Super Smash Ultimate.

The solution to not getting the counter? Spam the buttons just before the character lands on the ground or finishes an attack. So if we're continuing with that video game metaphor...

"Flash Launch!"

We'll spam it with direct hits and not let up until it's in three pieces.

One hit, a brush to the left side of the energy layer. "Again!" I yelled. We had to hit the forge disk, or else it would recover too fast.

One, two, three... On the fifth hit in three seconds, Valkyrie hit the forge disk. A click told me that did a lot. My beyblade broke off the offensive, spinning quickly along the inner ring. She must have used up a lot of energy and was regaining speed. That meant Xander now had the advantage. He could prepare for Double Saber and had more energy than us.

"Hit it three more times, Valtyrek!"

This way, I could wait until he used his "special attack." After that, just like in Smash Ultimate, there was a long recharge. And just after the attack, everyone is very, very, very vulnerable.

Valkyrie was most definitely slowing down after those attacks. Nevertheless, the blue streak across the stadium continued steadily.

After three, Xander grinned, and I swear that anyone who angered Xander would die faster than if they had punched Lui. I wished Xander would never smile like that again. His beyblade's forge disk had aligned with the sword on the energy layer. "Finally!" he roared. "This is over!"

In response, his red beyblade glowed. The metal sword tip protruding from the energy layer began to glow. Now, I could see the outline of the beyblade's spirit. If you've ever seen Aegislash from Pokemon, that's what it looked like. Except red. Obviously. "Dual... Saber!!!"

The eyes on my beyblade flashed with mine, and I felt Valkyrie's presence with me. The outline of her and her horse reared from the bey. "Go! Valtryek!!!"

At opposite sides of the stadium, they charged at one another, building up speed and strength. At the same time, I could see from Valkyrie's perspective, the steady thud of her mount, the beat of her heart, and what she knew was her impending doom.

Together, we yelled a battle cry.

The two beys collided, and I was suddenly seeing from my eyes again.

Valkyrie and Excalibur burst.

"Simultaneous burst finish!" the ref yelled, to cheers from the audience. "No points awarded!"

My body trembled from adrenaline. It took a few seconds to still it while Valkyrie was pieced back together.

Oh man, she was going to be really annoyed when I spoke with her again.

Xander was as surprised as I was with the outcome. Then he threw back his head and gave what the announcer called his "iconic laugh." I don't even know what iconic means, so Hanami should really stop saying things no one can understand. "Well Valt! That was clever! There's a reason you're my friend!"

I didn't take much offense, given Xander is always that blunt. Usually I am too.

So what now? There haven't been any points awarded, and morale's still high. This means our battle might go down to the desire for victory. Then again, Valkryie is literally my Victory, so there's that. I can't try the same thing twice, but if I can get to Xander's side faster than he can get to mine, I have a chance for a ring out finish. Maybe Valkyrie can hit him out of the stadium that way.

Satisfied I had something resembling a plan, I settled into an angled launch. Valtryek was plenty fast enough to get to Xander. The bey tended to go clockwise around the stadium and landed closer to my side, so I had to launch to the left.

Woah, Valt, I heard Valkyrie sarcastic tone. Angry didn't exactly cover it. Are you alright? With my superpowers, I sense you.. Thinking! She burst into laughter.

Nice to see your spirits are still high, I replied calmly. I had to be calmer than her to have us balance well. You know what to do?

Surprisingly, you have as much brains as I do, Valkyrie replied, tossing her head and putting on the helmet. Good enough plan.

I took that as a yes.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Let it..." I tensed my arm, feeling my energy course through me. "Rip!"

After practicing my aim with the Kurenais, I was decent at hitting my mark, but not always perfect. I missed the imaginary target in my head, landing a bit too close to the wall. Valkyrie spun unsteadily for a few crucial milliseconds before regaining her balance. Fortunately, Excalius was a bit late as well, so we still had a chance.

The red bey spiraled around the outer ring, Valkyrie hot on his glowing tail. She gained speed quickly, cutting corners to go faster, and crashed into Excalibur from behind.

The bey achieved liftoff, flying through the air. It crashed into the side of the wall and bounced back into the stadium.

Valkyrie cursed. Why can't you just take the stamina finish! DIE ALREADY!

I wondered how she had survived so many years without going insane.

New plan, I figured as Xander sent his bey bouncing off the walls. He'll use the walls for damage and speed. I can hit him from the side once he's at almost full damage, and if Valkyrie doesn't hit that ultra-powered sword, we've got the burst finish.

The process didn't take long. Within ten seconds, the pieces were aligned and the red bey was streaking towards us.

Again I saw the situation through Valkyrie's eyes: The red bey burning with power, spirit sword blade-first at us. We extended our sword in return, strafing to the side and striking.

He intercepted up, and I yelled. A shiver snapped through me and I felt, rather than heard, a chime in the stadium. Back in Valtness perspective, I look down and yelped.

Valkyrie shattered to three pieces.

Her voice disappeared from my mind, and I started panicking. Xander threw his hand in the air, showing his victory.

Even as obnoxious as Valkyrie was, I didn't want my beyblade to suffer. I shoved my instinctive surprised reaction to the back of my mind and pieced her together quickly. Mercifully, she appeared as soon as the energy layer connected. In my head, she took off her helmet, releasing beautiful hair from it's clasp. God, that was awful, she complained. Please never try to think again. Just use your instincts, which your best at. I'll use my brain, since apparently I have a better one.

Hey! I protested. My ideas weren't that bad!

Trust me, she said, they were far too complicated to work correctly every time. Too many variables. Next time, go on instinct, because we're out of chances.

I agreed. Fortunately, it went up to three points,or I would already be out. I had to win these, or my butt was cooked.

Um... I mean.... My beybread was cooked.

Wait... that's not right either. Oh! My goose was cooked! Got it!

I shut off my brain. Xander was scowling at me, and his mouth was moving but I couldn't hear it. Inhale, exhale, inhale... I felt the spirit of Valkyrie with me. My launcher was my sword, my bey my partner. We were fighting for revenge of a Valkyrie clone... or something. At least something kinda cool?

Yeah, I thought I shut off my brain. Apparently I didn't, because that there was a very stupid thought.

I turned off my head for real this time. This thing always seemed to happen when I faced an impossible challenge: I saw everything in third person.

Valt stepped back once, twice, three times. His blue eyes shone with a different brightness, something that shone in Valkyrie's as well. I figured out the jump boost before brain-dead-auto-Valt did.

"Three!" He braced his foot against the ground.

"Two!" Valt pushed off, sprinted forwards.

"One!" He jumped into the air, sort of mimicking Robin's Sky Launch without the spin.

"Let it..." Valt tensed his arm. I really didn't know I had any muscles, but apparently I did.

"Rip!"

He launched at an angle, and just like that, I was back as Valt.

Valkyrie, to my satisfaction, landed almost on top of Xeno Excalibur. Xander shouted with surprise. "Move!"

His bey barely got out of the way in time. Valkyrie crash-landed, nearly shattering the stadium's concrete as it sped around. Both beys completed a circle before colliding in the center again.

"The sparks are flying already! Will the Supreme Four conquer, or will the underdog come out on top?"

"The underdog" seems to be one of his favorite lines, Valkyrie noted, blocking the sword with her shield. The edge grazed her helmet. Along with stuff about sparks and flying. Sent flying, is flying, etc.

Focus! I yelled back mentally.

Right you are. They collided again, and waves of energy expanded from the fierce blades battling for our sake. Their spirits rose again: the giant overpowered Aegislash versus my beautiful partner the Valkyrie.

The Valkyire won.

Excalibur's chiming pieces hitting the ground was the best sound I'd heard all day.

"YEAAHHH!!!!" I yelled, throwing my fists in the air. Victory was mine!

"Victory Valtryek with a burst finish! The score is two to two!"

Xander scowled, putting the bey together with startling gentleness for a giant eleven year old. And his second favorite pastime was breaking stuff, so that was a new one.

"Well, you might actually be keeping your promise," he told me, sounding impressed. "But I'm not going to make it easy for you." Xander smiled. Sweat dripped off his forehead, and I realized I was soaked as well. We'd been launching with all of our strength, and it was dead tiring. If you've never done this before, even in your world, it makes you tired fast.

No breaking the fourth wall, Valt Aoi! Valkyrie scolded.

My arms trembled as I backed up for the same launch. Valkyrie steadied them, but she look drained as well. Finish this fast, will you? She said coldly. I can last for at least another hour with this, but you're a dead man-- well, man's stretching it-- dead Sonic if we do four more battles.

Knowing you have a limit is one thing, but someone directly telling you the limit and instinctively understanding it's true is another. I shook my head sharply. That was not going to help me right now.

"Three!" I braced my foot against the ground.

"Two!"

"One!" I sprinted, jumped, tensed my arm.

"Let it... rip!"

--

"Simultaneous burst finish!" The ref called for the third time. We were at battle number six, and I was having trouble breathing. My vision was mildly fuzzy, and I was very hungry. Xander was literally a sweat source and he was blinking a lot. So he was having trouble with seeing too. That might work in my favor, but I really didn't care about chances anymore. They made me lose a couple of times, and I was way too tired.

"Seventh battle!" According to Valkyrie, who wasn't talking anymore, this was my last chance for a win. I positioned my launcher and closed my eyes.

"Valt is attempting a blindfold launch!" Hanami yelled into the mic. I winced. Really, I was so tired that noises bothered me. So sad.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Let it... rip!"

It was very anticlimactic.

Valkyrie crashed almost straight through Excalibur coming down, and burst it in seconds.

"YEAH BOIII!!" I threw my hands in the air.

Xander was gasping for breath. "Wait.. how did you... and how do you know that expression?"

I couldn't help it. I did that cliche collapse Robin always yells at me about by accident. Xander dropped too, breathing heavily.

"VALT AOI IS MOVING ONTO THE SEMIFINALS!" Hanami yelled.

But all I could do was smile and inhale and exhale. After a few seconds, I gathered enough breath to yell; "Xander!"

"Yeah?" His voice was weaker than usual, but he could probably still kick anyone's butt.

"That was just my warmup."

Everyone was dead silent. Two seconds passed before they comprehend this: the kid who just collapsed said that was his warmup.

And then the whole building started laughing.

--

There was a five minute break between matches, so I went back to my seat. Shu gave me a hug, mercifully ignoring my sweatiness. "Incredible," he said. That one word was so rarely used by him, I had to smile.

Daigo, Wakiya and Rantaro also congratulated me, as did the twins. I frowned slightly as I made my way over to my bag of beybread. "Isn't there someone missing?"

Daigo started panicking, ears flattening against his head. Nika awed and started scratching him behind the ears. He scowled and pushed her hands away. "Why does she always do this to me!"

"Why don't we find her, then?" I prompted. "Everyone else has a match, so why not?"

He shrugged. "If you think you can keep up. You just died."

Just because I was tired and a little unsteady and super lod didn't mean anything! "OF COURSE I'M ALRIGHT!"

He yowled, jumping backwards and covering his ears. "Fine, let's go then, but no screaming!"

Good thing Daigo had a good sense of smell. All he had to do was find Robin's distinct scent, which he told me was "Pine and hot chiles." Weird. While I followed him, I checked up on Valkyrie.

Are you okay? I asked.

I'm perfectly fine! She yelled crossly. Clearly she wasn't fine; more like totally dead.

Do beys have magical beybread? I wondered. Because maybe you get angry when you're hungry? Either that or a Snickers bar!

I DO NOT NEED A SNICKERS BAR! Valkyrie sounded really annoyed, but kinda amused too. I'm alright, just not used to doing that a lot. I've had a lot of owners, fought a lot of battles, but I've never had an owner as crazy as you.

A compliment! Yaay!

Don't get used to it, Aoi.

Daigo tapped me on the shoulder, and I noticed we'd stopped. He pointed, and I recognized Gabe Brunei talking with Robin in the hallway. She was leaning calmly on the wall, but her fingers were tapping her red backpack. A glimpse of silver in one of the pockets. Daigo rolled his eyes and pulled me behind the wall. "A pocket knife," he whispered to me. "She doesn't really trust him."

I did, but then again, I trust most people.

Gabe was talking. "... a favor."

"Oh,really?" Robin said, tapping her right hand against her knee. "Let's hear it, then."

"This'll sound weird and a bit harsh. Hear me out first." He took a breath, hesistated.

"Well?" she prompted impatiently "You approached me with all this talk about space and time. Don't wimp out."

He slowly exhaled. "Roin Azura Kurenai. I need you to lose to Lui."

She gaped at him.

"The other thing: You are like Robin, even though you don't know it. If I'm correct, you're from a different timeline. Robin, you're not supposed to exist."

--

Call that one a cliffhanger!!!

okay, I'm sorry for that. BUt also, I need to know about Phi's personality. I heard he was destructive, but I really need to know. Someone please comment and tell me.

Thank you for reading!!!

Don't kill me for the cliffhanger!

Robin out!