Xander followed the tracker on his phone to his brother's location, where he found him in a back alley parking lot, circled by buildings, taking practice swings with his new weapon.
"Ryan." Xander called to him, getting his attention.
Ryan paused mid swing at the sound of his name being called and looked back to see his brother. "Oh, what's up X? You like my new toy?" He said, holding it out for him to see. Xander's eyes widened at the sight of it. 'How the hell did he find something so high-tech?' He asked internally. The weapon almost made him feel self conscious about his own weapon but he brushed the feeling aside, proud of what he accomplished with his own ingenuity.
"Damn bro, that's some high tech stuff you got there. Where'd you find it?"
"At a Cole McG's. The guy working there said he made it for a cosplay or whatever but never got to use it. Check this out." Ryan said, before pointing his bat ahead, the conductor inside popped out, and fired a Magnum Bolt from the tip and burned a hole through a dumpster.
"Haha, holy hell that's awesome!" Xander said gawking at the hole in the dumpster. He wondered if maybe he could do something like that with his hammer.
"I know right. The guy called it 'The Lightning Bat,' I was gonna come up with a better name but it's kinda growing on me y'know?" He slipped the bat back into its holster. "So... show me what you got." He said rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
"Well I mean it's nothing special, it's just something I put together outta spare parts." He said humbly, as he pulled the hammer off his back and presented it to his brother.
Ryan just stared at the metal contraption as if it was the strangest thing he had ever seen, which it honestly was, and looked from the weapon and back to his brother. "Uh… that's uh… t-that's cool man. Real… crafty." He said trying to sound supportive and failing miserably at it.
"Hey man, screw you ok! We can't all get lucky and find some tech savvy cosplayer with a bat that just so happens to work perfectly with our powers. I built this with my own two hands and it does it's job just fine, thank you very much." He said defensively, glaring daggers at his brother.
Raising his hands in surrender, Ryan said, "Alright ok, calm down. It's not that bad I guess. So does it always look like that or does it light up when you put in the batteries." He joked and laughed out loud, prompting his brother to demonstrate what his hammer could do by channeling his fire and slamming the flaming hammer into the ground and tossing Ryan off his feet.
"Woah shit!" Ryan exclaimed and flipped his body around in mid air so that he could land on his feet. "Ok that's pretty cool, not gonna lie. But it's not as cool as this." He said and pointed his bat at the dumpster from earlier, a line of lightning shot from the conductor and tethered onto the dumpster. Ryan made a swinging motion and the dumpster flew into the air towards Xander. He retaliated by knocking the dumpster back to the ground and banging his hammer into the ground, sending the dumpster flying back to its sender who just dove forward out of the way.
"So we really doing this? It's been awhile since we spared, this might actually be good practice." Ryan propositioned to his brother.
"I guess we are little brother. Same rules as usual, first one to fold loses." Xander said as he took a battle stance.
"You're barely older than me." Ryan argued, assuming his own stance.
"Still counts." Xander deadpanned.
They sized each other up for a moment before charging at one another. Electricity arched off of Ryan's bat as he charged, while a trail of fire flowed from Xander's hammer. They met in the middle of the lot and Ryan swung for Xander's midsection, but he slid on his knees, leaning back as far as possible and avoided the hit by inches. They spun back to face each other before Ryan swung his bat forward and shot a bolt at Xander, the loud cracking noise echoing off the walls of the building. Xander blocked the attack with his hammer and Smoke Dashed forward, shoulder checking Ryan in the chest and sent him rolling on the ground.
"Nice hit." Ryan praised him as he got back to his feet.
"Thanks." Xander said, twirling his hammer.
"Now it's my turn." Ryan said, throwing a Lightning Hook at Xander's ankle and yanking him toward him. He charged up his fists as Xander flailed through the air, and when he was close enough he hit him with a powerful electrified haymaker in the chest and Xander flew back, losing his grip on his hammer, and bounced across the ground. "Oooh, that's gotta sting." Ryan taunted as his brother stood back to his feet.
Xander held a glowing hand out and his hammer flew back to him and he hooked it onto his back. "Ok, that's how you wanna play it?" Xander said then proceeded to shoot fireballs at his brother in quick succession, nailing him in the chest before he managed to roll out of the way and take cover behind a car. He returned fire with sporadic Alpha Bolts before hopping onto the roof of the car and Car Jumping into the air, shooting a Megawatt Hammer down at Xander who shot a Cinder Missile at the same time. The two attacks collided with each other and exploded in a giant blast of lightning and fire that lit up the parking lot.
Ryan was knocked back but quickly righted himself in the air with his Static Thrusters. He looked down below and Xander was nowhere to be found. He let out a Radar Pulse to see if he could sense his bio-electrical signature and he did, but it seemed that he was right behind him. 'Oh crap' Ryan thought before he was knocked to the ground with a charged Fire Blast from behind. Xander had teleported behind him in mid air during the explosion.
"Oh that is so not fair!" Ryan shouted out, getting back to his feet. He Lightning Tethered onto a roof and fired more Megawatt Hammers at Xander who Smoke Dashed out of the way. Ryan tethered to another roof and continued firing, trying to keep moving so that Xander couldn't land a hit on him. However, the rapid use of the heavy attack was quickly draining his energy. He needed to recharge soon if he wanted to keep fighting.
Xander dashed into a vent on the wall of a building and came out on top and continued to fire at his brother with Cinder Missiles, missing him by only a few inches as he dived and rolled out of the way. He drained the smoke from a rooftop vent and replenished his Smoke and Fire abilities. While he was distracted, a Scythe Bolt slammed into his back, sending a surge of electricity through his body and making his muscles spasm painfully. A steady stream of lightning bolts collided with his body making him spasm and yell in pain as the electricity assaulted his nervous system. The assault ended and he dropped to a knee, smoke circling his body as his fast healing powers tried to repair the damage done. He looked across the roof to see Ryan draining the power from a transformer on the roof and he used that distraction as a chance to slip away into hiding, suppressing the electricity in his body so that Ryan couldn't find him with a Radar Pulse.
Ryan sighed in relief at having fully charged up with the power from the transformer. He looked to the spot that Xander was last at and furrowed his brow at realizing that he was no longer there. He tried to find him with another Radar Pulse but he couldn't sense him. 'He's trying to play hide and seek, huh? Ok, I can do that.' He put his hands to the ground and a ring of electricity expanded across the ground causing any metallic objects not nailed down to float into the air, he laughed in success at seeing Xander floating off the ground, swiping at the air trying to stay hidden. The metal hammer on his back is what allowed Ryan to lift him up. Ryan dropped the magnetic field and rushed over to where Xander had dropped to, behind a maintenance door that led to the roof for people inside.
Xander waited for him to around before he spear tackled him off the roof, planting flaming fists into his face as they plummeted to the ground. Xander used Ryan as a platform and jumped off of his chest and into the air, shooting a Cinder Missile down at him.
Ryan wheezed in pain as the air was driven from his lungs on impact with the ground and once again when Xander dropped his flaming fist into his gut with a Comet Drop. Xander stood to his feet as Ryan gasped for air on the ground, pounding on his own chest as if that would force the air back in.
"Had enough?" Xander asked with deep breaths. That was an intense fight, and he'd be lying if he said that he wasn't a little winded.
Ryan wheezed for a few more seconds before he said, "Yea… yea I'm cool." He said, grasping Xander's outstretched hand and hauling himself to his feet. "Admit it though, I almost had you." He said with a smug grin.
"Only cause I got distracted. I matched you pound for pound the whole way, it was only a matter of time before I won." Xander said matter of factly with a side a cockiness.
Ryan chuckled in response, amused by the competitive side of his brother. "If you say so, but don't forget who normally wins these things. You might have two powers but mine is way more developed than both of yours." He patted his brother on his back and made his way toward the wall of the building they just feel from and began to scale it. He effortlessly heaved his body into the air and latched onto each windowsill, pipe and ledge on the way up, performing an acrobatic twist as he reached the top
"You try figuring out two powers at the same time. I'm just glad I don't have to drain a specific source just to switch between them, that'd just be annoying." Xander climbed the building after Ryan, kicking off the wall repeatedly and grabbing onto the next hand hold at the height of each jump. He could have climbed the wall in the same flashy style as Ryan but that wasn't his way, plus Ryan's way actually took slightly longer. He leapt up over the edge of the roof with his last jump and landed on the top.
"Too true, that's like some shitty handicap given to a character in some video game because they're 'overpowered' lame." He scoffed.
"Right." Xander agreed. He took out his phone and checked the time, seeing that it was 1:00 in the morning. "It's getting late, I'm sure all the bad guys are asleep by now. We should prolly do the same."
Ryan yawned at the thought of resting and nodded in agreement. The two then took off toward home, where they got some rest before they had to wake up for school in a few hours.