CD: Clearing the air

"I believe we have some unfinished business. Sir Crock Iron certainly did not deserve that. Brother, what is that saying we carry in the Family?"

"AN EYE FOR AN EYE! LIMB FOR LIMB! LIFE FOR LIFE! LET'S RIP HIS STUPID FUCKIN' FACE IN HALF, FRANCIS!"

Oh, great. Those two again.

It was difficult to say if the sound Hax made was humored or unimpressed. He tossed aside the Gyarados tail he had just slashed off, ignoring the curses its previous owner hissed in the air. There were promises of most horrible fates sewed into those curses, but they'd deserve Hax's attention once the Gyarados would do something to achieve them. Words were just words, and at the moment it was easy to tell that the Mesmanos twins demanded the Haxorus' attention more. One look at them was enough to tell that the last meeting had left some bad blood between them and Hax.

Some. More like gallons - and judging by the speed the twins were charging at the Haxorus that fuel was burning with scorching heat. You could see the fires gleaming in the twins' eyes - a look Hax had seen more times than he cared to count. Call it perks of his profession.

While Hax was all up for clearing the air between them, there was a problem. Had the twins been separated, picking them off one by one would've been easy - but that was not how the Math went. They were both there, and what worse they were together. Brothers fighting side by side, ready to give and do everything for the safety of the other - that was a dangerous combo. A very, very dangerous combo.

Hax needed to act.

He charged up a blast of Dragon Pulse. There wasn't enough time to make it notably damaging, but it didn't matter - its target wasn't the twins, after all. Instead, just before he ended up in the reach of Francis' bat, Hax released the Dragon Pulse on the ground right in front of the Plusle and the Minun. The beam tore the ground open, throwing dust and gravel in the air, effectively stopping the twins dead on their tracks as both instinctively raised their hands to protect their eyes from the flying debris.

Once the dust settled, for a moment Hax was nowhere to be seen - but then a sharp  whistle sliced the air, grabbing the attention of both of the twins. Francis was the first one to spot the Haxorus, and wasted no time in bolting at his direction again. "At nine o'clock, brother!" the Minun shouted at his brother, bat raised and more than ready to test the durability of the Haxorus' armor. It suited Hax just fine, so he let the Minun get close, let the bat start its lethal drop - but once the bat swung down, the Haxorus side-stepped swiftly and ducked under the swing.

While Francis was still caught in the momentum built behind the strike, Hax pivoted on the balls of his feet and slammed his elbow into the back of the Minun's skull with an audible crack. It was enough to make the security guard make lose his footing, and he went down with a pained grunt - but before he hit the ground, Hax's attention had already shifted to Flavio. None too early, it seemed, as the air around the Plusle was already charging up with electricity, anger blazing in his eyes. "I'LL FUCKING K̜̖̬͡I͏̜̥̣̝̤L̨͎L͇̯͈̖ ͏̞͈͔̣Y͙̙Ọ͓̫͚̥͔͢U̹," Flavio yelled, releasing the charged Thundershock - but unfortunately his enraged screech was enough of a warning for Hax to bolt aside and dodge the current. He had gotten one serving of the twins' Electric capabilities earlier, and was not fancying for a second round, thank you very much.

Without breaking his stride, Hax rushed at Flavio with Slash, forcing the Plusle to jump backwards to avoid the Haxorus' claws. Another furious snarl formed on Flavio's face, his eyes flashing as he activated his Agility. Putting the speed boost into a good use, the Plusle launched set of punches at the Haxorus, the first one catching him square in the armored jaw. Hax let out a hiss, bringing his armored arms up to block the rest of the set. Surprisingly enough, the Plusle's assault was almost rivaling what Roger could offer the Haxorus when he pissed the gator off - but only almost and that was one very important word.

A grin broke across Hax's face as he suddenly dropped his guard, giving Flavio a grand opening for a few good punches - and boy did the Plusle take the offering. Hax was quite sure he heard a fang or two breaking, but what was louder was Flavio's victorious holler "HOW'S THAT FEEL? I̺̤͟'L̜̬̭͍͞L̞ ̡̥̯͉̤ F̪̞͍̹Ṳ̖̬͜C̲̠̦K̛̖̹̠̪̺̱ͅI͖̜͘N̸̞̠͓ͅG̘̙͈̳͖ ̲̼͔͚̗̫͞ C̭̝̰̞ͅR͖̯̪͓̘̻̬U͍͖S̭̘̯̗̀H͎͈̦͠ ̡͚͔̜̦̤̣Y͙͚͇̹̘̳̳O̤̙U ̸̟̭̞̩̘F͓O̬̱̼R̪̱̙͔̦̙͠ ͇̺͚ͅW̷H̢̦̯̝̫̳̻A͏Ț̶͇ ̥̘YO͍̳̫͈̝U̝̻͠ ͘Ḍ̷̭͖͔͔̤͚I̹̦̖̗D̸̫̝ ͓̙̮̦T̰͉O̵̜̯ ̨͇̣͓̥̮̺M̠̼Y̰̹͎̬͍̞ͅ-̳̲͇̲̞͙̩-"

The rest of it got cut out as Hax guided the Plusle's next punch aside with a forceful palm shove and used the opening to deliver one of his own straight into Flavios' abdomen- only boosted with Assurance. The doubled power of the move knocked the air out of the Plusle's lungs, making him double over the Haxorus' arm. ”Brother,” Flavio gasped, mind not completely caught up with what had just happened, and still set to finish the earlier threat. Hax could only chuckle, dark humor lacing the sound as his grin stretched a tad wider. He shoved the Plusle off his arm none too gently, readying another doze of Slash to make sure the mobster would stay down-

“I’m right here, Flavio.”

Shit.

It was difficult to say which one registered to Hax first - the horribly loud CRACK or the sudden loss of balance. The second thing, however, was the ground harshly welcoming him as he slammed face-first against it, air escaping his lungs with a pained groan. Lastly came the pain - dull, throbbing, like a forceful echo trapped inside Hax's skull, bouncing from one bone wall to another. Despite his thoughts turned momentarily into nothing but white noise, it wasn't difficult to guess what had just happened. The fucking bat of the other fucking twin.

With a snarl ferocious enough to put some ferals into shame, Hax pushed himself around on the ground just in time to see Francis helping Flavio back up on his feet. The Plusle seemed to still be in the middle of the process of remembering how to breathe again, but the Minun's stance was unwavering as he stepped in front of his brother, gray eyes on the Haxorus and the stare in them simply lethal.

"You will not touch my brother again," even though Francis' voice was as calm as ever, each syllable was coated with animosity thick like oil - and probably just as flammable too, just one spark away from igniting and unleashing hell.

And still, Hax croaked out a dry laugh.

"Oh?" he commented, a grin climbing back on his lips as he stared right back into Francis' eyes, not phased by the hostile anger smoldering in them. You know how the good old saying goes: 'Fire is a good servant-'

"And how are you going to stop that, hm? Not like you succeeded in that before."

'But a bad master'.

Surely enough, the subtle fury in Francis' eyes straight out combusted. In a matter of a split second, the calm expression was replaced with one of sheer fury. "S̶H̸̥̝͙̤Ư̮T̞̮̠͙̗ͅ ̺̻͓U̴̫̬̣̼̺̠̯P̡!̕!" Francis screamed, raising his bat in the air again with obvious intention to this time ram it through the Haxorus armor once and for-

Only just as the bat raised its apex, a blur of something black and snarling rammed into the Minun with enough force to make him fall backwards. The earlier scream of rage turned into a shriek of pain as  a set of sharp fangs tore into Francis' bat arm, quickly dying the sleeve in a rich shade of red.

"FRANCIS!" his brother's pained cry had been a rude awakening for Flavio, whose pain-ridded expression got replaced with a look of horror as he rushed to his brother's aid. The terror only grew as the Plusle realized it was a feral Houndoom tearing into Francis' flesh. "LET GO!" Flavio yelled, hitting the feral once without much effect - counting out even more vicious snarling. Thus, the Plusle hit it again, both panic and anger controlling his movements and voice: "LET GO! LET GO LETGOLETG͔̝̱͔O̘͇͈͇͓L͇͍͓̹̬͇͔E̛̙͇͚̝̝T̻G̛͇͔̰͉-"

"OFF!"

The shouted command was loud enough to halt even Flavio - but fortunately for him, and Francis, the Houndoom finally let go of the Minun's arm and hopped off. Still startled, Flavio didn't waste time in cradling his brother in his arms, an incoherent mess of 'ohmygod's and 'areyouokay's spilling from his mouth. There was so much blood!

"What a mess."

Flavio's eyes turned from worried to flat out murderous in the split-second it took him to turn his gaze onto the Haxorus - and if possible, the glare turned only more homicidal when the Plusle noticed the Houndoom was now standing next to Hax like an obedient pet. It was his fucking feral.

"Y͖͔̠͟O͙͙͝U̬͝ ̸͚̳͍̯̘F̨̰U̷̳̬̰̥͓C̳̝͈̣͙͍͔͠K͖̙̦̞̤͡I̱͎̥̙͉̳̗͝ǸG̶̥̰̖̦̯-," Flavio cursed, starting to get up with full intention of tearing this motherfucker apart limb by limb, but Hax cut into his words. "Ah-ah, you sure you want to leave your brother bleeding out there?"

It efficiently froze the Plusle on his place, his eyes instinctively jumping back on his brother. The Minun looked unhealthily pale, visibly shaking as silent groan of pain escaped his lungs.

"Think very carefully now," Hax continued as he pushed himself back on his feet, albeit a bit unsteadily as the strike from Francis' bat still haunted his head and motor senses. Goddamn that had hurt. Nonetheless, he had an opening now, and if he played his cards right he could easily turn the situation around. The twin's biggest advantage was their strong bond, but simultaneously it was also their greatest weakness - and at the moment, it played right into Hax's hand. "You can either beat me up and let your brother suffer the consequences, or turn tail and save him."

Flavio grit his teeth, visibly shaking from the anger - but he knew what was the right choice, and so did Hax. Francis.

"Fuck you," the Plusle hissed with enough venom to make an Arbok turn pale with shame. Without letting his glare off the Haxorus, Flavio helped Francis up just like the Minun had helped him earlier, also picking up the bat that had fallen on the ground. After making sure he had a good hold on his brother and vice versa, Flavio slowly started to walk them away, though not without shooting a glare to Hax's way over his shoulder every now and then.

"That's what I thought," Hax chuckled, though the humor died away a moment later as a snarl found its way on the Haxorus' beak. "Fucking hell," he growled under his breath, touching the area of his head Francis' bat had struck. Was that a small crack he felt? Boy, no wonder his head felt like a mess. With a little move of hand, he commanded his Houndoom - Luger - to follow, and set off to find some quieter corner for clearing his head.

"If I ever see those two again it'll be too soon."