Battle Music
Xiroey's hand twitched in anticipation. He and Luco held each other in a death gaze. They had their arms held out at their sides like western cowboys. Luco took a step forward, he scrunched his face up and hacked a lougy over to the side. Xiroey made minute movements to his hips for a gun that wasn't even there. The two looked like complete idiots, but they didn't care. "Would be a lot more dramatic with tumbleweed..." Luco muttered out of the side of his mouth. Xiroey repressed the urge to laugh, Luco was trying to distract him and it was working.
"Draw!" Luco screamed. He shot a rock at Xiroeys head which whizzed at him like a bullet. "Mother of Arceus!" Xiroey yelped, breaking the atmosphere. He shot a stream of water out from his hands, allowing the bullet to enter it, then froze it to the ground. "Too clo--" Xiroey began, making like he was going to wipe sweat from his brow. Then he suddenly materialized an electric gun into his hand, and shot a bolt directly at Luco. "Outa here!" Luco exclaimed, he made a mad dive over to the side. Xiroey smiled inwardly to himself. The bolt swerved at the last minute and stuck Luco in the side, he was sent wreeling across the ground. Xiroey held his hands up like a priest. Luco half expected him to leap up and shout "Halaluja!", but instead he was muttering something. Strangely, in a language that he couldn't understand. Luco had decided to save himself by levitating himself off the ground, it stopped his momentum, and allowed him to bring himself back upright. Xiroey seemed to complete whatever "prayers" he was making, then materialized a black orb into his hand.
Luco thought it looked familiar. "Isn't that..." He began...
Xiroey shot it at him. Luco spun around and summoned up a water barrier around himself. The orb collided with the wall, sending splashes of water everywhere. The droplets that came near Xiroey were easily repelled by his Psychic. But there was a problem... "Hmm... A vanishing act huh?" Xiroey mused. He closed his eyes and expanded his senses. "Not there... Not there..." He muttered to himself. Luco jumped out from behind a pair of bushes. "Over here!" He shouted. Xiroey opened his eyes, then one his eyebrows went up. "You know, you really shouldn't give away your Location." Xiroey tapped his foot on the ground like a mother scolding a child. Luco ignored him. "...Or you could pull a Leeroy Jenkins and charge me anyway..." Xiroey sighed.
Xiroey expected Luco to stop at a safe distance and toss another one of his projectiles, but he kept coming. He balled his left hand up into a fist. Xiroey stood there watching him, he hadn't the slightest clue what Luco could possibly be planning. He found out. "Gotcha!" Luco said, nailing Xiroey in the face. Xiroey stumbled back, his vision blinking. "Oww..." Xiroey complained. "You shouldn't try to overpredict." Luco laughed. He had another water sphere in his hands, bad news for his injured friend.
"Cheap shot." Xiroey growled. Man that hurt. He had to admit, a direct punch to the face was the
last thing he expected. "Nice, you surprised me there." Xiroey admitted. "So... I still have much to learn after all..." Xiroey tought sourly to himself. He blinked away tears and prepared himself for the condenced ball of water that was now heading it's way toward him. "Okay my turn." He said, a bit more serious than before. He took out a bright crackling sword and slashed at the ball of water. Blue sparks few everywhere as the water ball exploded. Both Xiroey and Luco were showered with water dropplets.
Xiroey siezed his chance, and slashed his sword at Luco. Luco's eyes widened a bit when he saw the lethal-looking weapon flying at him. He ducked. Xiroey launched a quick horizonal swing at him that almost cleaved off his face.
"That's hardly fair" Luco complained. Xiroey shrugged. "You punched my nose." He said simply, then sliced Luco down the middle.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"That was mean!" Luco laughed. He fell back into the grass, next to where Xiroey was laying. It felt soft and a little wet from the duel the two of them just had. "Come on, surely you didn't think I'd use something like a beam sword against you if it wasn't fully charged?" Xiroey questioned. In all honestly, that sword he had used to win the duel wasn't a beam sword at all. It was the Luster Purge sword he had taught himself to use. But he couldn't let Luco know that.
"Hey," Luco began. His tone had changed, it was a lot more serious than before. "How come you didn't move hardly during the battle"? Xiroey blinked like he had sunlight in his eyes. "W-what do you mean?" He stammered. He tried his best to keep his facial expression looking relaxed, but he had a hard lump that was starting to form in his throat. He prayed Luco wouldn't notice his nervousness.
"Just that... Your feet were moving. Like you desperately wanted to move around. But you didn't. Were you practicing a different style"? Great, more questions. Xiroey wracked his brain hard, trying to come up with a suitable answer. "Uhh..." He stalled. Suddenly, his brain exploded.
"XIROEY!!! XIROEY ARE YOU THERE!"
Xiroey had to clamp a hand over his mouth to prevent himself from crying out. Luco was looking over at him curiously. "T-the answer to your question is..." Xiroey started to say again, but his brain inturrupted.
"XIROEY!!! ARE YOU THERE? RESPOND!!!"
"Good evening Clair... Yes I'm here. What is it?" Xiroey reponded in telepathy. A great feeling of relieve transferred across the link.
"Thank the gods..." Clair sighed.
"Is something wrong?" Xiroey pressed. Luco's eyes were boring into the side of his neck like hot coals. "listen.... I'm kinda in the middle of something here so... unless this is important--"
"It's Typhlosion, and Floatzel!"
Xiroey momentarily forgot about the boy sitting next to him.
"
What happened"?
"Well... this is nice." Xiroey commented drily. He and Luco stood back to back, surrounded on all sides by Muhti's troops. Some of them shot nasty jeers at the duo, others making gross gesters that I cannot describe. Xiroey and Luco ignored the taunts, but the warrior's lances were getting tantilizingly close. To top it off, there was the problem of Xiroey's lie.
"These soldiers are inexperienced" Luco observed "With out combined skill we should be able to handle each of them." Proving his point, he dashed at a pair of soldiers holding dual swords. They startled back, looking to their fellow spearmen for support. Luco took the moment of weakness and capitalized on it, he shot an orb of water at their feet. The freezing ground froze the water on contact, turning it into slick ice. "We can handle this" He said, as both soldiers fell. He doged back to Xiroey's side as a reserve rank of spearmen forced him back. Xiroey, meanwhile, had his eyes closed, focusing his Psychic on blocking the bullets from several gunmen hidden inside the many buildings.
"...Get in front of me" Xiroey relented. His senses picked up feelings of malice coming from a tall red building slightly down the block. He threw up a Psychic shield around them both, blocking a splay of bullets that would otherwise have turned them both into swiss cheese. "Quickly!" Xiroey barked. Luco did as he was told, he shot an orb of water at a spearman behind him for good measure. It missed, but the man got the message, he retrated back a few paces, giving the two of them some much needed room. "Allright" Xiroey said. He broke his focus. He darted behind Luco so that the two of them were now facing opposite to their original direction. He slammed the ground with his lance as he went, creating a sturdy Ice wall in front of Luco.
Luco looked at Xiroey questioningly. How was he supposed to be expected to fight when he had an Ice Wall blocking his view? "Lob your water balls over the wall." Xiroey instructed. He spoke inside Luco's mind, giving him instructions. Luco was a little shocked at first, but he figured he'd let it go for the time being. "An Illusion?" Luco blinked, Xiroey's plan had made sense up to a point, but now it got wierd. The Ice wall in front of Luco shimmered, then went completely invisible. Luco almost jumped as the entirety of the town suddenly came back into view. "Don't worry, you can see them, but they can't see you." Xiroey explained. He was firing thunderbolts from his fingertips. Mages hidden among enemy lines made his work somewhat difficult. He kept having his bolts deflected, and he had to waste his time picking them out so that he could do some damage here and there. Luco got to work as well. He conjured up a relatively large water ball and lobbed it over the wall of ice. In conjunction with the plan, Xiroey threw up an Icewall around himself as well, then spun around and shot a thunderbolt at it.
The entire plaza filled up with mist. Luco gazed around into it, wiping moisture from his eyes. "Uh... you do realize we won't be to see them either as long as this smokescreen is u--" Luco felt a pair of claws grasp him around the middle. He heard a high-pitched yelp as his foot connected with something solid above him. He flailed around like a trapped fish, landing several blind blows at his abductor in random spots. He felt himself starting to rise. He couldn't tell how fast, since the Mist obscured his vision. They shot out of it like a bullet. Motion blurs filled Luco's vision as he sped across the town at dizzying speeds. He tried to take a look up at the one that was carrying him, but whoever was holding him had him trapped with his head towards the ground. Eventually, Luco gave up. He figured he'd be able to deal with whoever it was once the two of them finally hit land. He relaxed and spread his arms out at his sides like an airplane. Buildings whizzed by below, and so did each of the soldiers Muhti had posted strategically to keep intruders away. To his surprise, the two of them weren't getting shot at. That was peculiar.
Eventually, he felt himself come to a stop on the top of a building. Whoever it was that grabbed him let go, and let him stand on his own two feet on top of the roof. Luco spun around. "Listen, I don't know who you think you are, but you bettr have a darn good explanation for taking me away from my frie--" Luco paused with his index finger still in the air. His mouth was wide open in shock. "A... A... A Latios!?!" The latios had a sad look in it's eye, almost like it was guilty. Luco immediately felt his anger subside. But now he was curious. Why had a Latios decided to abduct him? For that matter, since when were Latios' that color. Instead of blue, most of it's body was black. And, in place of red eyes, this one's eyes were...
Luco almost fell off the roof. "Xiroey"? He asked.
"...Hi." Came a response in his head.
"S-so you're not a..."
Latios shook his head. Luco was incredulous.
"So you had me believing you were a Water sage all this time? No wonder you've been acting strange ever since we left!
That's why you didn't want me to come with you. You knew I'd find out and--!"
Latios snatched Luco up again.
"Hey! I wasn't done! Do you mind!?"
The building behind them exploded. Luco's next retord died in his throat.
"Oooon second thought..." Luco said meepingly.
The pair of them heard a voice call down from below. Latios caught a glimpse of Floatzel and Typhlosion both chained up below. In front of them were Muhti and Dementio. The former had a giant megaphone in his hand, and was looking up direcly at them.
"Greetings!" Muhti said cheerily. He spread his arms out at his sides in a guesture of welcome. "Nice of you pay me a visit!" He waved a hand, and suddenly every artillery weapon in the City suddenly trained themselves on where the pair of them floated in the air.
"Who is that...? Does he know you?" Luco whispered softly to Latios. Latios looked down and saw that, behind Typhlosion's back, he was carrying a white flag. So the pair of them had come to negotiate terms of peace! He felt his rage starting to build. First Xatu, now two more of his friends were in danger!
"Listen Luco." Latios whispered in his head. "When I put you down, I want you to hide. You're strong, but these people are ruthless. If you go down there, you might not walk out ali--." Luco already knew what Xiroey was going to say. He blasted a powerful force in Latios' mind, causing him to shriek aloud. Muhti raised an eyebrow at the two. "Is that supposed to be some sort of 'hello' in your native tounge?" Muhti Joked. Latios ignored him. He sent a questioning feeling over to Luco, then he was surprised when he heard Luco speak inside his mind as well.
"You think you were the only one holding back earlier"? He asked. Latios blinked away tears. Okay, he'd made his point...
"Watch my back." Latios said.
"And you watch mine." Luco agreed.
They dived down at Muhti's group.
^_^
