Chapter 22:Truth vs. Lies
"Mistress, may I ask you something?"Shadow asked Suicune. The two were sitting at the edge of the city's lake. Suicune was relaxing while Shadow was kneeling beside her.
"Certainly, what is it?"Suicune asked, head turned to face him.
"Do you know about the Lucario that Mew seemed to like?"he asked.
"Well, she doesn't just like him, Shadow,"Suicune said."They're lovers. The Lucario's name is Anubis. He is the first pokemon and oldest friend of the human you saw that I told you about yesterday. Apparently, Ken found him alone in the woods, brought him home, and took care of him. The two have been best friends ever since. He's also possibly the strongest member of Ken's team aside from Ken himself."
"Interesting,"Shadow murmured."How did he and Mew come to fall in love?"
"It was a gradual occurance,"Suicune said."They hit it off very nicely when Anubis was still a Riolu. Like Mew, he was rather mischievious back then, he still is at times."A wistful smile crossed her face."Anyway, they learned more and more about each other and eventually fell in love."
"And...he is the strongest of the team aside from the human?"Shadow questioned. Suicune gave him an interested look.
"Possibly, why?"she asked."Do you want to battle him?"
"I would like to test his fighting skill,"Shadow admitted."Something about him...intrigues me."
"Well, if you're going to do that, you'll want to find him quickly,"Suicune said.
"Hmm?"
"Most times we have these meetings, Mew whisks him off to some place so they can, well, make love,"she said."Where they go, only Arceus knows."
"...But...how do they...?"Shadow trailed off.
"It's something we try not to think about,"Suicune replied dryly, standing up and stretching."Let's see if we can find him, shall we?"Nodding, Shadow followed after his new master as she dashed off. It wasn't long before they managed to find the couple in an empty street, who were just about to teleport away."Mew, Anubis, may we speak with you?"
"We're kind of busy,"Mew said, more than a little annoyed that they were being delayed from their fun.
"What is it?"Anubis asked, feeling the same as his mate. Suicune motioned to her vassal.
"Shadow here would like to have a sparring match with you, Anubis,"she said. Anubis blinked as the Zoroark stepped forward.
"Well, sure, I'd love to,"Anubis said, glancing at Mew."I mean, if you're okay with it."
She sighed."Oh, alright. Just be quick about it, okay? You know I don't like waiting."As she floated past him, she rubbed her tail under his muzzle, gently flicking his nose. Trying not to grin like a dope, he stood in a fighting position, paws burning with aura. Shadow crouched slightly, one arm behind his back and one pointed towards his opponent.
"How do you wanna do this?"Anubis asked."Long range? Paw-to-claw?"
"The former,"Shadow replied calmly as Suicune jumped onto a building to watch from a safe distance next to Mew."No special attacks. Nothing but our natural skill. Got it?"
"Got it,"Anubis grinned. The two lunged forward.
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Meanwhile...
"GET DOWN!"Ken shouted as he stomped Darkria's character off the stage, sending him through the bottom barrier and taking another one of his lives. The teen smirked."Oh, how I love spiking people to oblivion."
The nightmare pokemon grimaced."Damn, I could feel that one..."he muttered.
"Sorry to say this, Darkria, but Ken just owned you,"Latios remarked as he jumped to avoid Victini's Rollout Dash.
"No kidding!"Victini remarked, grabbing Latios, hitting him a few times, and throwing him backwards."It's been a while since I've seen a stomp that clean! But don't get too cocky, you only got two lives left. Whoop!"He quickly rolled to avoid a powerful punch attack from Ken's character.
The four of them were crowded on a couch in the entertainment room, as they usually were, playing a game called Ultra Crash Brethren Brawl, the Legendaries being in their human forms, since most of them didn't have opposable thumbs in their real forms. Ken was Captain Staraptor, Darkria was Utrom Knight, Latios was Ekans, and Victini was Sonic the Sandslash. The four were playing on Last Arrival with only one item, the Crash Sphere. Watching them, or rather, waiting for their turn, were Zekrom, Azelf, and even Celebi. The one's who were actually watching were Cresselia, Reshiram, Deoxys, Latias, and Palkia.
Suddenly, the screen flashed, and the most powerful item in the game appeared.
"Crash Sphere! Chrash Sphere!"Latios said eagerly, the four dropping their fights and running to the floating item.
"Mine mine mine mine mine mine!"Victini shouted repeatedly. Thanks to his character's speed, he was able to easily reach it first, but Ken got in his way.
"Like hell it is!"he said, using a midair attack, a knee thrust, to send the ground type flying in the other direction, body sparking with electricity.
"How can a Sandslash be hurt by an electric attack?"Reshiram wondered as Darkria slashed the ball with his sword.
"Never question video game logic,"Celebi remarked sagely, Azelf nodding in agreement.
"You'll just get a headache,"he conceded.
"Hey, Victini. If you still want a mine, you can have this one,"Latios grinned, detonating the mine he had placed on Victini earlier. Since the other three players were already close together and near the Sphere, two things happened:One, it sent them flying in different directions, killing Ken in the process; two:it destroyed the Sphere and gave Latios access to his Ultimate Crash.
The three blinked as Latios paused the game, roaring with laughter and nearly falling off the couch, much of the audience laughing with him.
"Damn!"Ken said, feeling rather impressed.
"Good play..."Darkria mumbled as Victini himself actually laughed.
"Okay, I know I was the victim there, but that was hilarious,"he chuckled hysterically.
"We have got to save that replay,"Latios remarked, slowly recovering from his laughing fit.
"Well, let's finish this first,"Ken replied, and Latios unpaused the game.
"It's showtime,"he said, activating his Ultimate Crash.
And so, 30 seconds of pure pwnage later, Ken was eliminated from the game, while Darkria and Victini were left at rather high damage on their last lives.
"Dead last,"the teen remarked, standing up."Story of my old life right there. Ah, well, I'm gonna head out to see what the team's doin'. Tell me who wins, okay?"
"Uhhh, like that's not obvious?"Victini asked, eyes still on the screen. He held a hand up."Victory pokemon, right here!"
"Says the guy who got tagged with a mine without even noticing?"Latios smirked. The fire type sulked, shrinking into himself embarrassedly. Chuckling, Ken walked out of the room.
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Anubis, eyes closed, quickly ducked to avoid a kick to the head from behind, then his paws shot up to catch Shadow's leg. He spun around once, then hurled the Monster Fox through the air, but he quickly disappeared again. The Lucario stepped back, looking around with aura sight.
"I could've sworn you said we're only suppose to use our natural skill,"he remarked, then rolled forward to avoid a claw swipe from the side. He threw himself to his feet and looked at the Zoroark with his normal sight."That ninja vanish trick is getting really old really fast."
Shadow shrugged."My vanish technique is as natural to me as your aura powers are to you. We both have our own advantages."He stood in his fighting stance again."Now then, shall we continue?"A battle cry was his response as Anubis charged forward.
Up on the roof, Mew and Suicune watched with interest as the two continued to counter and evade each other's blows.
"Well, isn't that interesting?"a familiar voice asked from behind them. They looked back to see Ken land behind them, walking to the edge of the roof to look down at the two fighters.
"Hey, Ken,"Mew said."How'd your game with the others go?"
"I lost, which is why I'm here,"Ken said calmly, glancing at Suicune."Looks like your newest friend and my oldest friend are starting to become friends!"He said cheerfully.
Suicune chuckled."Yes. It looks like the start of an interesting rivalry."
"Well, yeah, this is cool and all, but I really hope they get down soon,"Mew complained.
"Gee, I wonder why,"Ken said sarcastically, sitting down crossed-legged. Mew stuck her tongue out at him. They looked back at the field to see Anubis landing a punch to Shadow's gut, throwing him back, but only after receiving a slash to the chest. The Zoroark spun backwards and landed lightly on his feet. The two couldn't help but smirk at each other.
"Care to up the ante?"Anubis asked, feeling rather excited by the battle.
"Very well,"Shadow nodded. He prepared a Night Burst as Anubis readied an Aura Sphere.
"I just realized something interesting,"Ken remarked as they fired their attacks, creating an blue and black explosion of energy.
"What is it?"Suicune asked curiously as the explosion died down, only to show that Shadow had disappeared. Anubis slammed his eyes shut and looked for the dark type with aura sight.
"Zoroark and ninjas both use illusions and trickery to defeat their enemies,"Ken said as Anubis fired a Flash Cannon at the ground, throwing himself into the air."Which basically makes Shadow a double threat in that regard. But Lucarios are capable of using Aura to see through deceptions, and damn near everything else to boot. See where I'm going with this?"
"Ah, I understand,"Suicune said, eyes wide in realization while Shadow reappeared and breathed a flamethrower at Anubis, who spun around it and retaliated with his own fire type attack, a powerful Blaze Kick. Shadow managed to knock his leg away in time, ignoring the flames licking at his claws and arm."It's a battle of truth vs. deception."
"Cool!"Mew smiled widely. Shadow disappeared as Anubis fell back to the ground. The Monster Fox reappeared a few yards in front of him. The two looked at each other for only a fraction of a second before they charged forward, arms reared back. As soon as they were in striking range, they swung their arms forward, only to freeze just before landing their attacks, with Anubis' fist just inches away from Shadow's muzzle and the ninja's claws barely pricking at the Lucario's snout. The two stared at each other for a long moment.
"Tie?"Anubis asked, eyebrow raised.
"Draw,"Shadow agreed. Mew cheered and Ken clapped as they pulled away from each and bowed respectfully. The psychic kitten swiftly flew down and practically tackled her lover, who grunted in surprise.
"How many times are you gonna knock the air out of me today?"he asked as Shadow disappeared.
Mew smiled mischieviously."Would you like to find out?"
"Anytime,"Anubis smirked as Shadow reappeared near Suicune.
"That was an excellent battle, Shadow,"she said. He bowed his head.
"Thank you, mistress,"he said."I had...fun."Ken jumped down to greet his old friend, who grinned at him.
"That was pretty intense,"he remarked."It's been awhile since I've seen you fight that hard."
Before Anubis could reply, Mew quickly interrupted."Yeah, it was really cool. See ya later, Ken."Before anything else could be said, she teleported them both away. Ken chuckled shaking his head and looking up at Suicune and Shadow, who both leapt down.
"We're heading out now, Ken,"Suicune said."It was good seeing you again."
"Same to you,"he said."Be careful out there."Nodding, she dashed off, Shadow sinking into her...shadow. Ken looked around for a moment, then shrugged and started flying back to the entertainment building. He blew out some air for a moment, then sighed.
"Damn, I wish I knew how to whistle."
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End of Chapter
For anyone who's curious, Latios won the game, then Celebi kicked his ass. :D