Beyblade Masters (Ninjago x Beyblade Burst)

Did I Make You Proud?

No One's POV
When no one stepped forward, Valt huffed in annoyance. "Come on, who's next?" He asked, gesturing with his new claws towards the crowd. "I don't have all day!"

Still no one moved. It was Ren Wu who finally stepped forward. "Valt, you need to calm down!" He called up to him, trying to get the normally happy, upbeat blader to come to his senses.

But his pleas had no effect. Valt only sneered down at him, which had a blood-curdling effect in his new form. "So the almighty Ren Wu Sun steps up!" He drawled mockingly. "Well, in that case..." His hand shot out and a bolt of sky blue lightning came out of his palm. Ren Wu fell victim to the blast, writhing and crying in pain as he collapsed to the ground. His dark blue eyes remained open and his light brown hair stood on end comically, twitching as sparks of blue electricity arched across his body.

The attack snapped the gathered bladers of SB Rios out of their paralysis. "HE SHOT DOWN REN WU!!" Someone yelled. Anger rolled through the crowd and bladers started to charge forward. "HE'S A MONSTER!!" Someone else yelled. "GET HIM!!!" More bladers said that last one in unison.

Xander snapped out of his own paralysis and turned to the angry crowd. He had been through the same training that these bladers had been through; he knew that they were perfectly capable of taking down Valt if enough of them overwhelmed him. "No, wait..." He croaked out, trying to get the crowd's attention. No one paid attention to him. "PLEASE!" He tried again. Same as before; his words fell on deaf ears. He could only watch as the furious bladers surrounded his friend.

Valt only watched as the crowd gathered around him, some climbing onto other's backs in order to reach him. He wasn't scared. In fact, he was amused. These puny bladers actually had the nerve to attack him? In his new, powerful body, and even after his display of strength with Ren Wu? If they thought they could best him, then let them get their hopes up. He'd show them what he was truly capable of soon.

The bladers continued to climb on each other to get to Valt, trusting one another to hold their weight. The whole time, Valt just watched, a indescribable smile on his cerulean face. When a group was finally high enough to reach for his tail, he put enough strength into it to send the unlucky bladers flying into the wall. The rest of the crowd hesitated, watching as their fellow teammates slid down the brick wall, then continued to climb each other, a new anger fueling their cause.

This irritated Valt. Another show of his new strength, and these bladers still had the guts to challenge his superiority? They were persistent- he granted them that. But it was time to pull the plug... literally. Glaring down at his unwelcome charges, he declared, "If this is how you want it, then FINE!!" He held up his hand. A small ball made of compressed blue light formed on his palm. SB Rios didn't get the chance to even comprehend what he wanted to do before the ball was thrown down.

For the second time that day, a burst of lightning could be seen coming from the SB Rios training grounds.

Xander's POV
The next attack came before I could prepare myself. I was still faced towards the back of the crowd, trying to convince them to turn away. When the blast came, I was thrown into the wall on my right side; my face suffered the worst of it. My left arm went flailing as I connected with the wall, and it hit solid brick, too. Pain shot through the right side of my face and my arm, scattering my thoughts for a bit.

When my head was clear enough to think, I took in the damage done to the training grounds. The bey stadium was completely destroyed, the pieces were covered in burn marks. My teammates lay scattered around the grounds, all twitching relentlessly as electric blue shocks traveled up and down their bodies. Valt's BC Sol friend still hadn't come to from where he'd fainted. Whether that was intentional or not, the guy was lucky he'd stayed down.

My face and arm hurt like crazy. When I touched the right side of my face, I could tell that I had more than a few scratches, and my eye was no doubt going to turn black. I moved to my left arm. Didn't feel like I had any broken bones, or that my arm was dislocated. It was probably just going to leave a big bruise. Good.

However, the matter at hand was NOT good. Far from it, actually. Valt went berserk. Somehow, he turned into this... this beast ...and wielded lightning like he had been doing it his whole life. How did this happen? How?

"Xander!" Valt exclaimed, appearing in front of me as if out of thin air. The action caught me off guard, and I let out an involuntary gasp. It was disconcerting to see Valt's new form this close up. His eyes really seemed to glow as he stared at me, a hopeful expression on his face. "Did I do it? Did I make it up to you?" I watched behind him as his tail curved into a question mark. "Well, did I?"

I only stared at him in shock. What did he want me to say? That I was proud that he used lightning of all things to take out my entire team? That I was happy that he turned into a dragon? A whole slew of replies built up on my tongue; none of them were clean or kind.

Apparently I took too long to reply, because Valt's expression darkened. "You're quiet," He said in an accusing tone. "Why are you quiet? Does that mean I didn't make it up to you?" He quickly spiraled downwards. Turning away from me and grabbing his head as if it hurt, he cried, "What did I do wrong?! Who do I have to battle to make you proud of me?!"

At that, I softened. He went through this whole thing, just to make it up to me? Maybe I've been a little too hard on him since the parade...

"Valt..." I tried to amend.

Suddenly he wheeled on me and jabbed a blue claw in my face. "Wait, I got it," He exclaimed, a new fire burning in his eyes. "I'll bring all the bladers in the world together, then take them all on!" He nodded like he just solved the most important question in the world. "That's how I'll do it!"

Turning fully away from me and spreading his new wings, he yelled as if to make it final, "I won't stop until I've made it up to you, Xander!" With that, he jumped into the air and threw his wings down. Soon, he was nothing more than a speck in the sky.

I painstakingly brought myself up from the me-size hole I'd made in the wall, holding my arm. I stared in the direction Valt had gone. "What... have I done?" I asked myself. Who knows what kind of trouble Valt will get himself into?

"Xan... der..." I heard someone gasp. Gazing in the direction I heard the voice come from, I saw Ren Wu looking at me, his fingers twitching.

I ran over to my buddy and helped him sit up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah... I think so," He told me. "This thing with Valt... did you know?"

"No," I admitted. "I don't think even he knew."

Ren Wu was quiet for a moment before seeming to come to a conclusion. "Xander, I know you won't like what I'm about to say, but if this escalates any higher, and Valt can't learn to control himself, we may have to resort to extreme measures."

I was confused by that, but then I realized what he meant and my heart nearly stopped. "No... ARE YOU CRAZY?!" I yelled. "I can't do that to him! He's a brother to me!"

Ren Wu remained persistent. "By that point, we'll have no choice! What's more important to you, Xander? The safety of the people... or the brother who may just kill them?"

He had a good point, but I kept running Valt's face through my head - the non-dragon Valt. Sweet, kindhearted Valt who always wanted to battle any and every blader he came across. Who took everything a little too hard, yet always bounced back... and I knew he was going to bounce back from this.

Xander! Wanna battle?

"No," I said firmly. "I won't kill him." Knowing what I had to do, I carefully lay Ren Wu back down. "You're still pretty weak," I told him. "Stay here and rest." I got to my feet and started to walk away.

"But, Xander..." Ren Wu called after me. Looking behind me, I saw him lift himself up on shaky arms. "Where are you going?" He asked.

"Say what you want about Valt, but I'm the reason he's like this," I told Ren Wu. "I made him feel like he had to turn into a monster in order to make me proud of him." My fists tightened. "I'm gonna make this right. I'm bringing Valt home."

With that, I walked out of SB Rios and headed in the direction I saw Valt go. I was going to get my brother back.
—————————
1601 words... I have a problem.
And I don't care!!