Mission: Reading between the lines
Location: Twilight Town
Partner in Mission: Zexion
Time it took place: One week after Xeli started learning from Zexion
The sun was just nearly setting over the beautiful Twilight town. There was hardly a worry in the world for the people. Not much work except for the chores that children had to do, and the training for the Struggle tournament that everyone truly look forward to. A corridor to darkness opened rather close to the usual spot that a trio of teenagers that go by Hayner, Pence, and Olette liked to hang out at. Luckily for the two hooded figures that were emerging from the portal, the trio were with their families and weren't going to be able to see them there.
When they had fully stepped out of the portal, the shortest of the pair pulled back her hood, and let her long hair flow a little, "Ah, corridors to darkness. The only way to travel."
The other pulled back his own to let his greyish blue hair cover one of his eye with no problem, and he pulled a book from no where to open to a random page, "Try to learn it yourself though. Either that, or learn from the others. Teach transportation with portals is not in my lesson plans for you new recruits."
"I got it, Zexy. Now, what's our mission again?", Xeli asked. Zexion had explained it to her many times before they had left, but she didn't seem to get it, or her mind was else where.
With a heavy sigh of impatience, Zexion closed his book, and turned to face her, "Alright, but this is the last time. Understand?"
Xeli nodded and did a little salute to him before setting her tail up like a spring, and sitting on it like a chair.
"Alright. Vexen informed me that there has been unusual Heartless activity in the area. It's a Stealth Sneak with a bit of an attitude, but it also seems to be smarter than normal." Zexion began.
"What do you mean? Aren't they just invisible, and still make a mess or something?", Xeli asked curiously.
"Yes, and that is what's unusual about it. Xigbar was sent on recon to see what was different about it. He identified it as a Stealth Sneak, and gave Vexen the data. Turns out, this Stealth Sneak is acting unusual. It's taking extra care to cover it's tracks and to move about the city and eating hearts.", Zexion continued, and began walking towards the shopping district of Twilight Town.
Xeli followed closely, and had hear ears on alert, "If it's so bad, why are they sending us?"
"Well, all the other members are busy today with their teachings of their pupils, and I was free today. Besides, would you rather learn more about etiquette instead of going out into the field and getting your hands a little dirty?", Zexion asked, while opening his book again to look through the pages.
Xeli thought about this and decided it was better to actually put her observation skills to the test in the field than to just sit around and learn to eat properly. They continued to wander the streets, and Xeli was actually feeling a little tired, but didn't complain because she wanted to make some attempt to complete the mission for the organization. Zexion didn't seem to even look up from his book once, and seemed to know where he was going.
"Zexy, what exactly are we waiting for? Shouldn't we have run into the Stealth Sneak by now?", Xeli asked when they turned the corner and started heading towards an alley way.
"We are, Xeli. But you must have patience. And you must know that just because you have eyes, doesn't mean you always see.", Zexion said.
Xeli seemed a little confused by that statement. She wondered how you could have eyes, but not see. It was on her mind so much that she didn't notice until now that things were oddly quiet. There wasn't a sound to be heard at all. No crickets, owls, or even a single fly buzzing in the night. It was utter silence.
Zexion grinned a little to himself when he noticed how quickly Xeli realized the silence around them.
"Zexy... this is a little creepy...", Xeli said, feeling chills go up and down her spine. She had seen enough scary movies to know that this was usually the part where a psychopath would pop out of no where at all and use a chainsaw to chop them into little pieces and feed them to the dogs.
Zexion nodded and said, "He's here. Everything is deadly quiet, but I know exactly where he is.", Zexion said, but didn't dare to move.
"Where is it?", Xeli asked as she looked frantically from left to right and all along the walls of the alley way.
Zexion remained silent and calm, while Xeli continued to panic. Xeli was wondering how Zexion could possibly be calm when there was an invisible terror stalking them this very second. That was when she felt it. A large tongue wrap around her leg and quickly began to drag her up the wall on Zexion's left. Zexion saw this and leaped in the direction of the tongue, with his book opening and a blade sticking out of one of the pages, impaling the tongue and make it release Xeli.
Xeli was panting and running to the other side of the alley way, looking all around when the tongue diappeared and the place was completely quiet again.
"A clever Stealth Sneak. He is using the buildings angles to hide himself and where his tongue truly came from.", Zexion said under his breath.
Xeli rose to her feet and looked around, her neko ears now twitching at any sound that was being made, but there was hardly a sound, and at this point, it sounded like her hear had migrated from her chest to her ears themselves.
Zexion looked to Xeli, and threw a piece of cloth at her, "Put it around your eyes. They are decieving you."
"Are you out of your mind!", Xeli yelled, when she caught the cloth and looked at Zexion like he had just said the most ridiculous thing in the entire world.
Zexion glared down at her, and shook his head, "Just put it on already! All you are doing is using your eyes, and that alone won't help you find the Stealth Sneak. Now, put it on, and use you other senses."
Xeli felt that this was a wast of time, but didn't think she had a choice in the matter. She quickly tied it around her eyes and she was now completely blind to the world. Her heart was still beating loud and quickly, and her fear wasn't helping her in this situation either. She heard Zexion talk, so she turned in the direction of where his voice was coming from and listened to him say, "Try to relax. Calm yourself, and use your other senses to find it. Smell, hearing, changes in the air around you. Try it, and you'll find him with out worries."
Xeli nodded and took several deep breaths to calm her pounding heart, and as her heart calmed, she began to listen closely to her surroundings. Her heightened senses with her cat ears help to pick up little things, but she concentrated hard to try and distinguish one noise from another. There was a banner flowing in the wind, and there was a distinct odor of saliva coming from her right. This made her freeze because that saliva was the same as the one that was on her leg.
When she heard some of it hit the ground with a small drip, she jumped back a little and with out meaning to, she summoned her staff into her hands. She peaked from under her blind fold, and saw the saliva trail still making it's way to her, this was a good time to use her eyes this time, and she whacked her staff down on the tongue, and twisted it around it to make it less likely to retreat.
"I got it, Zexion!", Xeli shouted out, but Zexion was no where to be found.
Xeli was completely alone with the Stealth Sneak and was trying to pinpoint it's location. She then began to follow the tongue, gripping her staff as tightly as she could in her hands. Her heart started going fast again, and she was ready to panic. The words of Zexion started to nag at her. She needed to try to use her other senses, not just her eyes. If she could just get a general location of where the Heartless was.
Before she could blink, she was sent flying to the wall from a large, unseen object that collided with her while she was following the tongue. Her staff was lost, and she couldn't find it. This worried her, but she kept calm for the most part. She had to after all. She scanned her surrounding slowly, and saw a shadow move. That was enough for her to get into action. She ran to it, and looked for her staff at the same time. She knew there was something big, and it must have been the Stealth Sneak, so she readied for what ever she was going to land on. Instead of hitting something big, she hit something small.
She landed on something very small, and it was squirming. It fully appeared and she just couldn't help but give out a small scream.
Zexion heard the scream and quickly ran to Xeli's location, hoping to get there before something bad happened. He felt really guilty for letting his guard down around his student, and hoped that this wouldn't be disastrous. When he finally arrived, he was shocked by what he saw.
Xeli was hugging a little itty bitty, Stealth Sneak. It was struggling to get out of Xeli's graps as she gave it a killer hug. The poor thing looked like it was suffering, but Xeli just purred while hugging tighter and tighter.
"Zexy! It's so cute! Look at the little guy.", Xeli said while trying to tickle it with her tail.
Zexion was at a loss for words. The Stealth Sneak was supposed to be huge, but instead it was no bigger than a dog. Was Xigbar just lying to them and trying to pull a joke? Zexion could only brood, and look through his book for the answers. All the while, Xeli grabbed paint from no where, and marked the little Stealth Sneak to not lose it when she put it down. The poor thing was pink and didn't look very happy when it couldn't go invisible.
"Xeli, hold that there, I'm going to go find Xigbar to help verify this. I just don't see how such a little thing was a big threat.", Zexions ordered, and opened a portal to go to the castle.
While Zexion was gone, Xeli started dancing with the Stealth Sneak, and making it cry. Even when it started to cry, it was very cute. The sun was still setting, and Zexion hadn't returned yet, so Xeli decided to mess around a little more by using the Stealth Sneak as a temporary pet. She knew she couldn't keep the little guy for long, but it would be fun while it lasted. So, she let the little thing down and found her staff. Unfortunately, she didn't expect to see a giant hand on top of it. When she followed the hand up, it was a larger, and angry looking Stealth Sneak. The chameleon eyes seemed to glare down at her, and it's mouth seemed ready to crunch down at her.
Before the mouth could get any closer, little darts quickly hit it's eye and stunned the creature while a cloaked figure took Xeli out of the way. It was Zexion who had moved her, but Xigbar was the one who had fired at the larger enemy.
"What's going on?", Xeli asked.
"Turns out, Xigbar was right, but that thing you were playing with was one of it's many baits.", Zexion explained, and put Xeli down somewhere safe while he readied his book for a good slashing.
Xeli didn't want to miss anything, so she pursued whether Zexion approved of it or not. Xigbar was doing a good job of shooting at it's eyes while Zexion slapped and slashed at it's feet with his lexicon. Xeli couldn't help but laugh when she thought that Zexion was going to give the Stealth Sneak a paper cut or something. She found her staff and quickly got back into the fight by attacking it's mouth.
The Heartless only got angrier while completely damaging Zexion and Xigbar. Xeli thought that this first mission of her's would be her last, until Xigbar started to flash suddenly. When he has his energy back a little, he aimed aeroguns forward, and shot a large blast of energy. This caught Xeli completely off guard because she thought that this was only possible in games. Then she saw Zexion flash as well, and he opened his book to summon dark energy from the sky to attack at the Stealth Sneak. With in minutes, the Stealth Sneak was no more.
"Woah...", Xeli only said that and then Xigbar smirked at her.
"Well, hope you enjoyed the show kid. If you ever need a better look at my guns, just say so instead of getting into trouble.", Xigbar said and went into his portal.
Xeli was a little confused by what he meant, but it didn't sound like anything bad at the moment, so she just picked up her staff and went to Zexion.
"That was a Limit move. You learn those when you reach the highest point of your potential. Not my thing to teach you though." Zexion said and cured himself before opening a portal of his own.
Xeli nodded and stepped through. She now knew that is she was going to be on a mission, she needed to be a little more observant and stronger too.
Author's Note: Well, this one shot was interesting. I will be doing many one shots to display the missions that Xeli will be taking part in. I hope you enjoyed this mission in particular because of it being her first. She'll be on her next mission with Big brother Lexi soon. Hope you enjoyed the read.