Chapter 1: Found and Lost

Allen weaved through the bustling crowd, the town lights flickering somewhat dimly on the cobble street. The old and worn-down alley made it easy for akuma to conceal themselves in this situation- but down, down, down he went nontheless, his eyes determined and fixed on his path. Be there akuma or not, he was not going to fail this mission.

He couldn't, for the sake of his pride.

As for the destination, well...

Let's just say he wasn't too keen on being caught by the order. Again.

A flash of his crimson-red hair darted through a corner, into a small, empty pathway. Now this man knew he had been sighted, meaning that Allen wasn't too far behind. That he knew all too well. But if that little ungrateful brat thought that today was the day he'd finally, finally be caught-

He was dead wrong.

Oh, how he couldn't wait to see the humiliation and irritation on that idiot's disgusting apprentice face as he wallowed in the shame of being a loser. And he would be watching from the shadows, his cool and awesome presence unnoticeable by the dumb twit.

He laughed.

Now, to check behind him for the damn brat and make his next move...

Except the brat wasn't there.

"What the hell...?" Cross stood dazed for a moment, slightly drunk and wondering if his idiot apprentice had finally given up.

But upon hearing a dark, sinister, and annoyingly familiar evil chuckle, he gripped harder the empty wine bottle he held in his hand.

"Oh, shi-"

Allen interrupted with a war cry, launching himself from above at the drunk general. Cross prepared to throw his bottle at the boy, but Timcanpy suddenly latched his teeth onto the man's gloved hand. He dropped it, flung Tim away- then quickly replaced the damn thing with his gun, pointed, and shot.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

The young exorcist called forth Crown Clown, and a shield was put up between him and imminent death. It was a gamble, they both knew, with Allen at the disadvantage. But he had one more trick up his sleeve unbeknownst to Cross Martial, and she was now right behind him.

"Hello, General Cross," she chirped cheerily, then quickly changed her charming smile into a vicious glare and charged. Cross smirked, seemingly unaffected by her sudden attack. He expected it, to be honest, and honestly he didn't care. Unless Lenalee suddenly decided to do him, of course, but that could be settled later. At the moment, all he cared about was escape. And also the opportunity to utterly humiliate his idiot apprentice, obviously. And to do that, he needed a window.

Simple enough.

But what to do, Cross thought, avoiding a deathly kick from his lovely lady here, allowing her to nearly further disfigure his ugly apprentice's face, instead unfortunately stomping on his fired bullets. (Such a waste of a good kick.)

He could use Maria.

Nah. Too much wasted effort.

He shot another bullet at the girl as she whipped around to face him- she leaped up to avoid it, but the thing followed.

If only there was a way to escape and embarrass his idiot apprentice...

A spark erupted in his head. Seeing as Lenalee was preoccupied as well, it was perfect! Cross smirked at his ingenious, and began his beautiful scheme.

"Hey, you damn brat!"

Allen turned to him just as he destroyed the bullet chasing Lenalee.

"What?!"

Lenalee pushed herself against the wall to the right, aiming for the general. He swiftly dodged it, and answered. "Have you done it yet?!"

Allen registered a look of complete confusion, but replaced it with that of indifference and determination as he attempted to claw (and hopefully seriously injure and maim) his master, but failed as the general jumped back. "Done what?!" He shouted, out of breath.

Lenalee charged from behind again, but Cross easily did a three-sixty-degree turn, successfully kicking her in the stomach and sending her crashing into the wall. A small puff of smoke came out as she had the wind knocked out of her, causing Allen to make the mistake of taking his eyes off his opponent, who promptly used the chance to send him flying backwards.

When Allen was kicked away, he still had to wait as he skidded, tumbled, then skidded again to a full stop, his black uniform now torn at the right sleeve and ripped here and there. After finally landing, he used his elbow to support himself as Cross towered over him, amd stepped on his stomach for good measure.

Allen, deciding to rest a bit first, plonked his head back to the ground in a temporary draw (seeing as how he'd never admit defeat).

"Done," he panted,

"What?"

Cross frowned, and rolled his eyes. "Obviously, that."

Allen rolled his eyes as well. "I'm so sorry, master," he answered back sarcastically. "But I don't understand." He gave his fake polite smile, eyes closed and head tilted innocently. If Cross didn't know any better, he probably would have been so set off by the damn brat's sass. But he did know better, and so sadly, Cross's eye did not twitch as it normally would have. Instead, he smirked.

"Have you done it," he paused, then continued. "You stupid excuse for an exorcist, with Lenalee?"

Allen's eyes went wide, showing his immediate understanding of his master's implication. It took him a moment to come out of his shock, but when he did he suddenly he found the strength to pound the life out of the old man, as his annoyance and irritation boiled far past his limit.

Oh, how he hated that bloody excuse for a teacher. And now he was going to wipe that stupid smirk off his ugly. Face.

The angered exorcist used his newfound strength to swiftly kick his leg up in the air, bending it as far back as it could go. But he wasn't fast enough, and Cross dodged. Though he was free now, and that was all that mattered as he stood on the stone floor and dashed forward, making swipe after swipe with his innocence at the perverted man before him. But swipe after swipe did Cross dodge and avoid and toy all the way down the alley with the apprentice known as Allen Walker.

As he dodged another futile attack, Cross found this to be a wonderful opportunity to humiliate the damn brat further.

"Hey, brat!" He called out.

Allen refused to answer.

"Are you sure you don't have a crush on that girl over there?" He nodded towards Lenalee, who was now shaking off the shock and getting back on her feet.

Allen ignored him, as well as the growing red tint on his ears, which Cross did not fail to notice. He scoffed, shooting at Allen once more. "So you do, huh?" The boy deflected the bullet this time, slamming it hard into the wall so that it couldn't get out.

The general frowned at the boy who had just trapped his bullet, watching it squirm and wriggle as it desperately tried to break free. He soon replaced it with a devilish smirk, though, as he was just about to have sweet, sweet, revenge.

"Lenalee, guess what!"

The girl quickly got back her bearings, charging for the wanted man once more. Taking her silence for a suitable answer, Cross continued. "Someone has a thing for you!"

Lenalee raised an eyebrow at that, but continued kicking and charging as Allen swiped and slashed.

"You're being childish, you stupid drunkard!" He yelled, annoyed, although the blush on his ears and cheeks was now painfully obvious. Lenalee, however, still didn't get the gist of it.

"What are you talking about?"

She kicked Cross in the stomach- not. He ducked and took a swipe at her feet- she leaped- only to have bullets fired at her again as the other attempted to pin the man down, but failed to do so.

"Isn't it obvious?" He yelled, laughing while firing multiple bullets at his apprentice. "It's-"

Cross hit the wall with an oof! as Allen successfully pinned him to the wall with his sword. He knew for a fact that he wasn't actually hurt; the force of hitting wall was what did it. But Cross, with his arms still free, grabbed hold of his trusty gun once more and fired. Several times at that, because he was pissed.

No way in hell was he gonna get caught by the stupid brat, who, by the way, should be even grateful that he got to be where he is now. Without him, the damn kid would have been dead already.

Lenalee, who was occupied, knew she had to help Allen. As she turned and rolled mid-air to avoid the bullets chasing her, she kept her eyes on the general as often as possible. But Allen wasn't getting it easy, because she knew that General Cross wouldn't hold back on his apprentice, despite what she wanted to believe.

A few seconds after a sharp turn skywards, nearly hitting a wall, she spun round and dived back below. A glimpse of the two men showed that Allen was beginning to tire, as his swipes and jabs were barely getting in anymore. Time was running out, and she needed to get back in the good fight.

Luckily, the girl saw the bullet Allen had struck into the wall, and decided to follow his example - flipping back in the air to kick their shiny behinds.

She nodded in pride, then moved on to help her friend.

But by the time she got there, Allen's snow white hair had become a mess, his face was no longer red, and instead he was shakily trying to catch his breath. He was simply standing there, staring at an empty alley where she presumed General Cross had somehow made his escape.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Allen. We'll get him next time."

But their troubles weren't over just yet, as a large, black hole opened up on the ground before them.

Author notes:

Hii! I'm author-san, NiLa! It's my first time to ever upload a fanfic on this website, and honestly I'm so excitteeeddd! I know that this isn't all too great, since you know, it's SUPER OOC and also has a weird pace and ugh... But still, I hope you enjoyed reading chapter 1! I am currently working on chapter 2, which hopefully, will be better, although i do have a problem with quality consistency. If you enjoyed it, or maybe not, please R&R! It would be a great help. Seriously. Any constructive criticism is welcome as well, and I promise I will try to improve. Until then, I hope you'll bear with me!

- nila-san