Chapter 6: Two Peas in a Pod

"When fate throws a dagger at you, there are two ways to catch it;

By the blade, or by the hilt."

~ Chinese Proverb

AN: Muwahaha! Darius and Archangel finally meet! Uh, I'll have more to say at the bottom. Let's see, Mac'N'Cheese with Garlic spices for whoever recognizes my not-so-subtle reference! Mmm, garlic mac'n'cheese...

Darius smiled as he arched his back, taking care to keep his balance. It wouldn't due to fall off his admittedly precarious perch because he'd leaned forward too much. It was a long drop to the beach below, after all. He was a bit disappointed to find that the tower was currently empty, but the view was definitely making up for it. And he was perfectly content to wait until the gym leader returned. The concept of Mega Evolution was fascinating, even if it didn't have anything to do with Team Flare. He supposed this was something else someone on vacation would do.

The vacationing agent momentarily thanked his ability to sense energy, otherwise he probably really would have fallen off the tower when Korrina flung the heavy wooden doors open with enough force to slam them against the walls.

"Most people start at the bottom of the tower and work their way up." The blonde on wheels snarked as she skated over to the railing where Darius had perched, two lucario following after her. Darius shrugged and waved a hand absently through the open air.

"View's better up here." Darius informed her.

"If you fall, I'm not going to even try to catch you." Korrina informed him, grey eyes warily darting between Darius's admittedly precarious perch and the six-story drop below. He shrugged and reached into his coat pocket, withdrawing his wallet and flipping it open so Korrina could see the badge inside.

"As a civilian I'd like to know how Mega Evolution works, but as a cop, I want to know if any odd men in red suits have been asking about it either." He informed the gym leader while she examined his proof of identity. Why did everyone always seem so surprised when they found out he was a cop? It was almost insulting. Almost.

"What's this about men in red suits?" Korrina asked warily as she handed Darius back his wallet.

"If they haven't already started digging into Mega Evolution, there's a solid chance they're not going to try anything with it." Darius said, partially for the gym leader's benefit and partially for his own. "They're called Team Flare; the local cops can only positively trace petty crimes back to them, but I can recognize a dangerous situation when I see one. There's way too many of them running around, and they're quite spread out from what I've been able to see of the area, which also bodes ill." The agent shrugged. "Organized crime syndicates are bad enough; organized crime syndicates having access to something like Mega Evolution would be a nightmare."

"Except that anyone who wants the secret of Mega Evolution has to pass tests from both myself and Gurkinn." Korrina growled, affront spiking in her energy. "Unless you think we'd be blind enough to hand the secret over to a mindless group of criminals." Darius shook his head however, raising a hand to ward off her trails of annoyance.

"I'm just saying, if I were in the position of one of their commanders, I'd either come in myself and conceal my connection to the team, or I'd send in one of my better agents as a spy to gain your approval, and get access to the secret, and then have that agent bring it back to me. Then, depending on the difficulty of the method, I'd either teach all the grunts how to harness it, or just the upper ranks, and leave the grunts in the blind so we have the element of surprise." And speaking of the element of surprise…

"Like I said, that's what I would do, if I were part of Team Flare." Darius said, suppressing the urge to snicker at the way Korrina's mouth hung slightly open. One of the lucario growled and poked at Darius's swirl of energy, and the agent smirked at the aura pokemon as he poked it right back.

Korrina was snapped out of her daze when the lucario to her left yipped in surprise and the one to her right shot darting glances between the cop on the railing and its brother. The gym leader looked between officer and pokemon, watching as they engaged in a rather intense staring contest. At least until Lucario dropped into an offensive crouch, beckoning the cop with one paw.

"What are you two doing?" Korrina demanded, half of partner and half of the young man.

"That's a good question." Darius muttered distractedly as he finally shifted around, sliding off the railing so he was simply leaning on it.

Cautiously, he reached his energy out, wincing as Lucario bent his own aura into a sharp whip and flicked the hesitant cop. That actually kinda stung.

/Of course it did hatchling, Lucario is known for fighting with aura afterall./ Rayquaza chided from Darius's hindbrain. /Consider this a good learning experience./

Off to the side, Korrina and the second lucario were watching the pair warily, but neither Darius nor Lucario paid them any heed. Darius could tell Lucario was just toying with him, flicking sharp points of energy, of aura, at Darius. Testing the strange human who bent energy in the same way as the aura pokemon. The cop, for his own part, was just trying to figure out how to go from sensing to shifting outside the plane of energy he'd been trapped in when dealing with Kyogre and Groudon. He watched Lucario's energy pulse and twist and flare as the pokemon struck out again and again, both impromptu combatants trying to figure out how to handle their strange new sparring partner.

Archangel sighed as he trudged up the spiraling slope that ran around the inside of the Tower of Mastery. He was almost to the top, sure, but he was also almost out of breath. Of course, after meeting Serena that morning, being told by her that his blue-haired target was heading to Shalour City, and then promptly running almost the entire way from Genosage to Shalour, Archangel was tired. So when he finally reached the top, he wasn't too surprised by the two giant wooden doors hanging open at the end of the spiraling path. He was, however, somewhat surprised by the scene he spotted beyond the doors.

The local gym leader, Korrina, stood off to the side next to a lucario, both with crossed arms as they watched the other two occupants of the deck. Archangel's target, Titan, was leaning against the railing directly in front of him, and his arms were similarly crossed, through it looked more like a defensive position than the bored stance of the others. He seemed to be frowning, but his eyes did not waver from the other Lucario. The second pokemon in question rested easily in what was obviously an offensive stance, feet spread and tail out for balance, one paw aimed out towards the blue-haired cop and one drawn back like a coiled spring. The pokemon's red eyes were narrowed and focused entirely on Titan. Archangel could practically feel the tension in the air, as though he could cut through it if only he had a knife. The Lucario beside Korrina was the first to notice Archangel's arrival, and the gym leader glanced over when the pokemon nudged her side.

"I don't suppose you're here to have a staring and twitching contest too?" She asked sarcastically, beckoning Ark to step out of the doorway.

"What are they doing?" He asked, watching as Titan winced slightly, his eyes remaining unblinking. It was somewhat creepy.

"Hell if I know." Korrina said with a deft shrug. "One minute the guy's warning me about keeping an eye out for Team Flare, and the next he and Lucario are trying to stare each other into oblivion." Archangel frowned, but nodded at the apt description of the two's stares.

Abruptly however, Titan's eyes darted over, finally registering the fact that their audience had gained a member. Not even a second later, his whole body flinched and he glared dully at Lucario, who had risen from his offensive stance and seemed to all the world to be smirking.

"That last one did not count." The blue-haired officer growled out, leaning away from the railing and pressing the heel of his palm to his temple.

"What were you doing?" Korrina demanded before Ark could even open his mouth. Titan shrugged tiredly.

"Obviously something unintelligent that will probably have Looker down my throat if he finds out." His eyes then shifted to take in the dark-skinned teen standing beside her. Frowning, he cocked his head to the side in a distinctly bird-like fashion. "You're not afraid of me anymore. Any particular reason?"

Archangel blinked in surprise, not having expected the older cop to pick up on that so quickly. "I thought you might have been with Team Flare before." He admitted with a shrug.

"So you were wary of me because you thought I was a member of Team Flare?" Titan asked curiously, tilting his head to the other side and smirking dangerously. "What does that make Lysandre?"

Oh crap. "What about Lysandre?"

"I made you nervous; he made you panicked." Titan informed him with a shrug. "To a regular bystander, your conversation would have been perfectly normal. But I'm not a regular bystander; I know you were doing everything you could to either avoid him, or keep yourself from throwing that coffee pot at him and bolting."

"You sound pretty sure of yourself on that." Archangel replied as casually as he could. Inside though, he was gritting his teeth. Titan might have been a cop, but that still didn't mean Archangel could trust him with the truth of the situation. As he debated with himself, Titan's smirk somehow managed to get even wider as he hopped lightly so he was perched on the railing, leaning forward and propping his feet on the balusters so he could rest his elbows on his raised knees.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot Ark." He said with that same unnerving smile. "This isn't technically my case, but it is Looker's, and he's my superior officer, giving me at least a little wiggle room here. You aren't on the case, but you obviously know something I don't. So let's try this whole introduction thing again, shall we?

"Hello there, I am Special Agent Darius Stellon, codename Titan. And you are?"

Archangel bit his lip. Titan, Darius, had already seen his face, and with 'Ark' as a hint, it wouldn't take long for him to connect it to 'Archangel', and then to his own name. But technically, he wasn't even in the Kalos region. But on that note, if he gave the other agent reason to research him, things could get very bad, very fast. But if he at least pretended to be up front with him, then there would be no reason for him to dig.

"Michael." The younger agent finally replied. "Michael Briggs, codename Archangel."

AN: Okay, just a little thing (for those who do recognize the reference). As I might have mentioned, I write this story in tandem with my playthrough of Pokemon Y (I have X, but I already beat it :P). So when I started the game, I picked a male character with darker skin ('cause it was something different and I wanted to wear flannels instead of skirts~). I had no thoughts of story at the time, and since I'd been marathoning a certain show at the time, I named my protagonist Archangel. It only occured to me when I was writing the last chapter that Archangel didn't have a proper name in this story. But because of the inspiration behind his naming, I could only come up with Michael Briggs :) So, for the record; my Michael 'Archangel' Briggs looks nothing like Michael 'Archangel' Coldsmith-Briggs from the show :) Actually, come to think of it, Darius's character model for this story is more along the lines of Coldsmith-Briggs. Mmm, now I want to listen to electronic soundtracks from the 80's ;)

And if anyone reviews with the name of the show Archangel comes from... I'LL UPDATE IMMEDIATELY! Or at least ASAP~ Heh, blame the ADD, it means little things like "hey, you watch [insert show name here] too?" make me unbelieveably happy! ...Now pardon me while I go trawling through Hulu for my daily dose of white and black helicopters and white-clad spies ;)