A/N: Before we begin I'd like to dedicate this short story to my brother and Imagine_Book_04 helped inspire this plot too. Hope you guys enjoy and have a good day!

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Free De La Hoya didn't get that far into his journey. In fact he had barely made it down the mountain before realizing he had a bogey on his trail.

"Come on out, you know I can hear you from there."

From behind Free a small red headed boy popped out from behind a rock. His small blue eyes had a hint of timidness but his face told a different story. Free could tell the boy was trying to put on a brave face.

"Thank you for saving me earlier and I was thinking in order to repay you I could come along with you on your journey! We could roast marshmallows, make s'mores, maybe even...."

"No."

"What. Why?"

"I'm more of the lone wolf types and you'll only get in the way."

"Aww man come on, there has to be someway I can come. Plllleeeaaassseee."

Put on his best puppy dog eyes he clutched his hands together in a praying position.

"Fine, I guess you can be my temporary wingman for this little trip."

"Yay!"

"But once we leave the Dread Tower we're done."

"Fine by me!"

Free kept walking and the kid ran up to Free walking by his side.

"So what's your name?"

"Liam, and here's my bey: Lord Lancelot ."

He held up a brown bey with silver and golden highlights. On the sides of the bey were little bits of stone. Almost as if the stone were it's armor or something.

"Cool, meet Geist Fafnir."

Free held up his bey in response, and  unlike Frees response to Liams bey Liam was absolutely ecstatic.

"Wow! It's even cooler up close! I can't wait to battle it."

Free smiled in response.

"So is this a campout because I have sleeping bags, blankets, pillows and other camping supplies to get us through the night. And I also have a big book of spooky stories and I was wondering if you.."

At this point Free had stopped listening to Liams rambling. But Liam didn't even notice.

"This isn't a campout." Free said in response, cutting off Liams rambling.

"Oh it isn't?" Liam said disappointed.

"Yeah." Free said back.

"Well I also brought some stuff we can use to cook food." He said immediately, perking up.

"This isn't a cookout either."

"Well then what is it?"

"A stakeout."

"OHHH A STAKEOUT I LOVE STAKEOUTS!"

Free covered his ears and thought to himself boy this kid has a set of pipes.

"Man this is going to be so cool! I get to go on a cool stakeout with the legendary Free De La Hoya! We're going to have so much fun we're going to bond!"

Free let out a sigh and shook his head.

"We're here." Both of them stood a few yards away from the Dread Tower peering over a rock. In distance Free could hear Aiger and Ranjiro bickering.

"And now we wait."

"Mind if I ask a few questions?"

"Sure."

Liam pulled out a small notebook of questions written on them.

"Okay so to start off: What's Fafnirs weak spot? Is Phi unbeatable? What's your favorite animal? Why are you late to everything? Why is Fafnir so strong?
Do you sleep outside or in the dorms?  How did you get that red streak? Why do you have a red streak?
Why do you like the outdoors? Why do you look so cool? How did you get Fafnir? Why do you like training journeys? Do you like training at night or day? Why'd you transfer to the raging bulls? Will you beat Valt in this upcoming tournament?

"LIAM!"

Liam immediately quieted.

"The whole point of a stakeout is to be quiet.

"Sorry it's just... my

"Alright you can ask me one question."

"Yeesss."

Liam jumped and punched his fist high in the air.

"Umm Ooooo I have a good one who are your parents?"

If Free wasn't quiet before this had definitely made him even more silent. Liam could tell by Frees tensed shoulders this was a touchy subject.

"You said something about beating Valt."

"Yeah."

"I'll try. That's why I'm out here, there's a tournament coming up with a mix of different bladers. Some new and old but I've got a feeling this year will definitely be different."

"Oo here's an idea! Maybe I'll see you there.

"Perhaps."

The both silenced watching this dread tower. For where Free and Liam were standing the Dread Towers horns were barely visible from the fog. To Liam it reminded him of a Vikings helmet in a way.

But to Free the whole place just gave him bad vibes. It looked like a wasteland, almost as if no one had been there for a long time. It looked like a Great War or battle happened. Ravens squawked in response snapping Free out of his thoughts.

The weather wasn't helping either, fog was starting to come in and storm clouds shrouded the sky.

Free watched Aiger and Ranjiro walk up to the entrance.

"I'm here like you want Hyde! Now let me in!" Aiger yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Aiger Akabane and Ranjiro Kiyama have arrived on the scene. Now open up this door, already!" Ranjiro also yelled in response.

In frustration Aiger started pounding on the door. The ground started shaking from the door opening. Aiger fell over onto the ground. Ranjiro mumbled to himself saying something like "Good grief." Or "Oh boy."

"Come on."

"Yeah!"

They both raced in disappearing into the darkness from the Dread Tower.