What I Wouldn't Give

The Vortex

"So it's a battle, then." Trad is already in his launching stance, his Bey at the ready, his eyes narrow and void of empathy. "Are you ready?"

"I was born ready." Lui is in a similar stance, his eyes also narrow, full of nothing but cold-heartedness and anger. "Let's do this."

"Alright. No more dawdling." Trad takes a breath and shouts, "READY, SET!"

"THREE! TWO! ONE! GO, SHOOT!"

And with that, they yank their ripcords, their Beys flying from their launchers and landing in the stadium with tremendous force. A second later and they're both flying around in circles, giving each other an intense staredown.

You've got this, Longinus, Lui thinks. He's got nothing on you.

The Beys continue circling each other, neither one daring to attack the other. That is, until Lui notices something glowing in his vision. He looks up to see that the glow is none other than Trad's eyes, shining a bright amber, a strange aura surrounding him.

"Now." His voice is dark, grim, harmonious, almost as if there are several voices speaking at once. "You will see the true power of my soul."

Trad's Bey ignites, a bright flash of amber and red emerging from its depths. So far, the light and energy is formless, nothing, there doesn't appear to be even the slightest hint of a Bit Beast, or any spirit at all. But Lui knows better.

It isn't a spirit. It was never meant to be a spirit. Inside of Trad's Bey is a black hole, an endless pit of gravity and force, which pulls in every bit of light an energy it can get from these battles.

It certainly isn't a Requiem. It's more of a Universe.

No, not a Universe. It's a Singularity.

A Vortex.

It pulls things in, and those things can never get out.

And now it's trying to do the same thing to Longinus.

"No!" Lui growls. "LONGINUS!"

With a huge surge of power, and a rush of adrenaline, Lui summons his Bit Beast. The dragon appears in a bright flash of light, right behind its owner.

Trad looks up at it and grins.

"Just what I was waiting for!" He throws his hand sideways, crying out, "YOU'RE MINE NOW!"

Lui feels his entire body lurch forward, just in time to see that Longinus felt the same force. For behind Trad, with enough power to even tug its owner's hair back, is a giant swirling vortex of doom. Lui stares at it, wide-eyed.

In all his days of battling, training, traveling to exotic locations, he has never seen anything like that.

"What the hell is your Bey!?" He shouts.

"My Bey!?" Trad grins even wider. "It's a vortex! A vortex of power!"

Lui feels himself get lurched forward again. "This is hardly a battle!"

"Oh? But it is. Look at the stadium, my dear Lui."

Lui forces his eyes open enough to see that their Beys are, indeed, battling. They had collided in the center of the stadium in a mishmash of wind, light, and energy, the force so strong that it apparently tore a hole through the fabric of time and space.

"What you're seeing behind me, what I'm seeing behind you, is through the eyes of our Beys." Trad sounds like he's about to start laughing with every word. "The adults are immune; they cannot see the power that we can."