To Butterfly: Yes indeed.
To armadas: Now that would be taking "no one beats up my brother but me" to the extreme!
To yellow 14: Xuppu is quite a treat. As is Kim, of course.
To PG.182227: I did see your other review, but I don't really have a mechanism to respond to reviews on the wiki. The Jaguar and Narwhal as a dyad makes sense. However, your suggestion for the Giraffe is actually what I already did with the Whale in the Australian set (down to forming a dyad with the Ant). The transformation phrase suggestion is good, though!
After a quiet dinner at the Mansion, Pedro and Victor left together for their patrol. It had just been the two of them at dinner tonight – Lise and Marco were watching a movie, Pablo had come into town to take Julia out to dinner and a movie, Adrien and Marinette were at her house, Emilie and Fu had both gone to Tibet for a meeting with some of the Guardians from the other temples… The list went on. For being filled to bursting with people most of the time, the place could be awfully quiet when no one else was around. But, Pedro mused with a glance at his companion, that seems to be the standard for us.
Victor, who was projecting the image of a young man with brilliant red hair at the moment as they walked down the Mansion's driveway and out through the front gates, tilted his head to one side, looking at Pedro curiously. "Care to share?" he asked.
"I suppose you and I are in much the same boat," Pedro explained, surreptitiously checking the road behind them. Aside from a couple cars and a man out jogging, the two heroes were alone. Three blocks back, the Mansion disappeared from view as they turned the corner to walk down the main street that led toward the city center.
Victor dropped the illusion and gave him a curious look. "What do you mean?"
"I was on the outside, too, when I first got here," Pedro told him. "Those Dark Acolytes we've been fighting? That was me when I first met Ladybug, Cat Noir, and the others. I attacked Ladybug and tried to 'reclaim' her miraculous from a 'miraculous abuser.' Not exactly the best foundation for a friendship… It took them a while to actually trust me; even when they really started to trust me I still felt this distance: 'a part but apart.' That seems to be you, too. At least at the moment."
Victor nodded slowly. "That is a good way of describing it," he admitted, frowning. "I understand their reluctance to trust me, particularly under the circumstances. But I do wish I didn't feel like such an…"
"'Alien'?" Pedro finished, raising an eyebrow wryly.
"Well… yes."
Pedro nodded in understanding. "They warmed up to me eventually," he consoled him as City Hall came into view several blocks down the street. "They will warm up to you."
Victor pursed his lips dubiously. "I will take your word for it." Suddenly he cocked his head suspiciously, staring down the street in the direction they were walking. His eyes narrowed to thin slits.
Pedro frowned and followed his gaze to see three people standing under a malfunctioning streetlight. The two closest to them stood stock-still; one of them seemed to be fumbling in the pocket of his coat. Then the other person turned to look at them and pointed a device of some sort in their direction. A burst of lightning shot out toward them, and the two heroes dove in opposite directions. The lightning arced past them and struck the façade of a closed store behind them, shattering the bricks and unleashing a plume of acrid smoke. Pedro struck the sidewalk on his side and glanced across at Victor, who had landed on the grass in front of an apartment building. Pedro planted his quarterstaff on the ground and pushed himself up as the two people ran straight toward him.
"Help!" the woman screamed, panic in her eyes. "He's got a gun!"
"Yeah, I figured that out for myself," Pedro grumbled, shaking his head to refocus.
The woman pulled up short meters in front of them, causing the man with her to trip, and gasped, pointing at Victor. "What is that!?" she shrieked.
Victor's gaze dropped to the ground.
"He is, um… 'Volpinax'," Pedro replied irritably. "He's an alien, but one of the good ones. He's with me, and we're with the Heroes of Paris. Now what's the problem?"
The man put his hand on the woman's back and quickly explained, "We were just walking home when he accosted us."
Pedro nodded and glanced over at Victor, who had a calculating look in his eyes, frowning and staring at the man less than a block away from them. The mugger held something small, smooth, and silvery. Another burst of electricity arced toward them, and Pedro tackled the two civilians to the ground, covering them with his own body as the lightning arced past them and dissipated. The moment the crackle of electricity stopped, Pedro scrambled back to his feet. He adjusted his grip on his quarterstaff and tensed to charge.
"Wait," Victor told him, holding a hand out and shaking his head. He closed his eyes and furrowed his brows in concentration. The air in front of Pedro shimmered, and a dozen exact images of them flickered into existence all around the street between them and the mugger. The illusions blinked in and out several times before one to their left on the sidewalk firmed up and gained sharpness.
"What now?" Pedro asked, glancing over at Victor. To his surprise the illusion of him did the same.
"Now we attack." Victor burst into action. Raising his paws and extending his short claws, his mouth opening in a snarl, he charged across the distance separating them from the mugger.. With a shrug, Pedro followed him. The image of them on the sidewalk copied their action, and the mugger turned to aim his weapon at the illusions. Pedro lifted his quarterstaff with both hands. A bolt of lightning shot across the street, through the image of the two heroes, and struck a fire hydrant behind them. The image disappeared but the lightning bolt brightened, the white light searing Pedro's retinas in the instant before he turned his focus entirely to the mugger without slowing his charge. The mugger trembled, trying to pull his weapon up and away to disengage, but the energy continued coursing out of it and into the fire hydrant. The white lightning continued to brighten, the smell of ozone filling the air around them.
Only two meters separated the heroes from the mugger. Pedro dropped his staff to the ground and swept the man's legs out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground. The pistol fell out of his hands and clattered to the pavement, where Victor recovered it and disengaged the beam. Pedro planted the tip of his quarterstaff on the mugger's chest. Finally he let out the breath he had been holding.
"The Superhero Liaison Department's overnight patrol is already en route," chirped Turing over their communicators.
"Thanks." Pedro slowly lowered himself to the ground and sat on the curb in front of the mugger. "So did you know it would do that?" he asked Victor as the alien sat next to him, examining the weapon carefully.
Victor smirked in amusement. "Obviously."
"Obviously to you," Pedro observed, arching an eyebrow. He waved his hand for the alien to elaborate.
Victor shrugged. "I recognized the design," he explained, holding the pistol up and turning it over in his hands. "The barrel is very distinctive on this newer model. The Shunjar removed one of the two grounding wires to save on materials. As an energy weapon it doesn't make much of a difference – it can cycle a little too fast and overheat if it is fired too rapidly. But since this one was modified to generate a constant current of lightning, I assumed that the energy would drain if it hit something grounded."
"And that's why we need our resident alien!" Pedro noted, patting him on the back.
"So… 'Volpinax'?" Victor asked, cocking his head curiously.
Pedro nodded, stepping out of the street as a police car pulled up next to them. "All the Heroes have codenames of some sort. That includes you now, so why should you be any different?"