This is going to be from Chapter Two of the sequel... Jim and Daniel, the Mushroom Kingdom's best Twin Bond fighters, have to train their new apprentices the art of connected battling. And while Luca is normally the difficult one, it seems that Phil is unwilling to let go of a major weakness in their way...
(And I admit I was a sucker for the friendly bonding scene at the end. Then again, I'm weird like that.)
***
"We're the best Twin Bond fighters in the entire dimension," Daniel explained with far too much pride on his voice. He sounded downright egotistical.
"That's because we're the only ones besides our crossovers," Jim sighed while rolling his eyes. He then turned to Luca and Phil and smiled calmly. "Okay, the form of connected battling is very difficult to learn. I'm not going to lie. It took Daniel and I several weeks to master it."
"Then again, we've never seen a Twin Bond on a set of people who weren't siblings," Daniel shrugged. "So we don't know what it's going to be like for you guys."
Jim nodded.
Daniel continued, "In connected battling, you often have one person doing the phyiscal fighting while the other controls the energy levels that the fighting one uses. If the person maintaining the energies, or the 'controller,' fails to do his part correctly, the one fighting, obviously the 'fighter,' will overexert himself and lose strength and stamina."
"In other words, being the controller is the harder of the two roles," Jim commented. "Trust me on this... I'm the controller between Daniel and I."
"Explain a little more how the controller works," Daniel instructed his brother.
"I was getting to it," Jim sniped. He turned to Luca and Phil, who were both listening with a remarkable amount of patience. "Okay. Like Daniel said, the controller maintains the levels of energy flowing between himself and the fighter. The controller can send little bursts of his own energy -- or his own powers even -- to the fighter if he thinks the fighter is in peril. All of the fighter's strength depends on the controller's ability to control himself."
"I don't get it," Luca said, her brow furrowed in confusion.
"If the controller can't watch the battle with a complete lack of emotion or feeling towards the fighter, then the fighter's abilities suffer. The controller has to be able to shut off all his emotions and completely disconnect from the fighter. You can't feel sympathetic towards the fighter when he gets attacked, you can't wince when he gets struck. You have to let go of your partner if you want them to make it out alive."
Luca nodded her head. "Oh, I get it now."
Phil said nothing verbally... instead, his expression told the story for him.
Daniel jumped into the large bubble-shaped dome that Jared had constructed. "I think I want to take on my crossover. I want to see just how good she thinks she is."
Luca smirked. "I've been waiting for this for a long time now. You're on!"
Jim rested his hand on his crossover's shoulder. "Okay, Phil, you're going to be the controller for this drill, and I'm going to be my brother's. Are you okay with that?"
"I guess," Phil answered with a great amount of uncertainty. He watched as his girlfriend eagerly leapt into the dome with her crossover-turned-opponent.
Jim smiled reassuringly. "It's not a real battle, Phil. It's only practice."
"But the damage is going to be real," the crossover replied dismally.
"If we don't practice, what's going to happen if you two get out in the field and run into trouble? The enemies aren't going to care about it then. C'mon, you can do this."
But I'm not willing to let her go, Phil thought with a shudder. I can't stop caring about her, even for the sake of winning a fight.
Jared closed the dome on the four players, activating the training mode. The dome turned into a desert-like arena. Luca stood with her sword in her hand, while Daniel stood in front of her, his hands in his pockets with his trademark smirk on his face. Jim stepped into a white-chalk box on the far side of the field, and both he and Daniel began glowing a silvery green.
"We're ready over here," Jim announced.
Phil inhaled deeply and stepped backwards a few paces, until he was also in a white-chalk box. He felt a shiver run through himself, then noticed he and Luca were both flickering a purplish, glimmering red. "I guess we're set over here," he declared as nonchalantly as he could.
Jared's voice came overhead. "Both sides are ready. In three... two... one..."
Daniel leapt forward as the last of the countdown expired. "Let the games begin!"
Luca easily matched his speed. "Bring it on, crossover."
Phil took a moment to look over towards his own crossover. He noticed Jim was standing straight and tall, his eyes bearing no emotion and his face without expression. He simply clenched and unclenched his left and right fists, which was obviously how the energy flows were controlled between the two brothers. Phil took a second to ponder if he could even do this, when a large white flicker of light caught his attention.
Daniel thrust a white ball of light from his hand. "C'mon, crossover, let's see what you've got!"
Luca stood her ground, her eyes narrowed and her grip tightening on her sword. Phil felt a slight pulse on his left side, determining that to be the connection telling him she was using up too much energy. He tightened his left fist a little, and saw her glow brighter. Had he done it right?
Luca spun on her heel and swung her sword like a bat, making contact with the white blast and knocking it back towards its original master. She offered no response, but instead wore a nasty smirk on her face. As the white ball launched Daniel across the arena, she rushed forward with her sword in striking position. It began to glow black.
Halfway across the arena, Luca suddenly froze where she stood. Phil felt his left side sharply cramp, and he reminded himself not to wince. He stared out towards the field, wondering had caused her to stop.
Daniel stood up, his left hand pointed at his opponent. "You thought that was going to keep me down? You may be the best in your world, but we're in mine now. And I'm gonna show you what happens to pretenders in my world..."
Daniel levitated from the ground and hovered a few feet above the arena. He raised his left arm, causing Luca to lift up involuntarily. She writhed but was unable to squirm loose.
Phil was watching, eyes widened and both fists tightly clenched. Unable to let go of his concern for her, he had blocked off all her access to their energy supplies. He glanced to Jim, who easily released his left hand and tightened his right. Daniel was in possession of all his and his brother's strength.
And he wasn't afraid to use it. He swung his left hand and opened his palm, immediately firing a white orb with his right. Luca flew helplessly through the air, taking her sword and trying to slow her rapid descent with it. The white orb connected with her, launching her into the ground below. The dust didn't even get to clear before Daniel launched himself forward with another barrage of little white orbs.
"Phil, what are you doing?" Jim yelled across the platform. "You've locked her out of the energy stream!"
Phil shivered hard, then realized what he'd done. He released his left hand. "Luca, get up!" He demanded, though sounding more panicked. "Get up and show this kid who's in control!"
Luca swung her blade upward with a violent amount of force. Daniel tumbled backwards through the air for a moment, and then regained his control. However, Luca emerged from the crater that she had created in her landing, hovering in the air and swinging her sword wildly. There was no pauses between each swing; and each one used a vast amount of her strength. Within two minutes, she was exhausted and slowly started lowering to the ground.
Daniel shook his head. "Okay, I'm bored with the silly toying." His entire body began flickering green and silver, and a large beam erupted from both his hands. It quickly swallowed Luca's figure up, and the arena felt nearly ready to implode from the amount of energy within it.
"Stop it!" Phil cried abruptly, unwilling to watch any more. "Enough is enough! Leave her alone!"
Jim clenched both his fists, blocking off his brother's access to the energy stream. He shook his head sadly at his crossover, who left his post and rushed out onto the field.
Daniel easily lowered himself to the floor. "That was easier than I thought."
Jim walked over. "Daniel, hush."
"Luca, I'm sorry," Phil said softly to her. "I just couldn't let go. I just couldn't."
Luca said nothing, instead leaning into her boyfriend's arms and lapsing into unconsciousness.
"She'll be fine," Jim reassured his crossover. "Give her time to rest and she'll be back to normal. Jared made this mode so that once one opponent lapses out, all the nasty effects immediately are cancelled. So, it's just like she did a lot of exercising and needs a nap."
Phil blinked his eyes rapidly a few times, feeling like he could cry if he didn't fight it off. He looked down at his resting girlfriend and held her tightly to himself. "Okay," he said quietly, almost to himself.
"Come on," Jim spoke in a gentle voice, "let's put her on the couch and let her sleep."
Phil sat on the top step of the porch, leaned against a column and staring out into the distance. At the farthest point on the horizon, he could see the lights of the city as the night gently crept down on the earth. Normally it was a sight he really enjoyed, but his mind was too far distracted to take in the simple pleasure of the coming of the night.
"Hey," a voice came from behind him. Remarkably, it was Daniel.
"Hi," Phil answered in a near whisper, still lost in his own world.
"Can I sit?" Daniel asked, walking over.
"It's your house."
"I know, but sometimes people just want to be left alone." Daniel sat down next to him. "Me of all people can understand that."
Phil made no noise in response, instead closing his eyes and leaning harder on the column.
"Don't let this get you so down, Phil," Daniel finally said softly, cautiously.
"I failed her, okay?" Phil finally declared aloud, though more to himself. "I was supposed to keep everything balanced for her, and I failed. And what happened? She got hurt."
Daniel smiled sadly. "That's why I could never be the controller."
Phil stopped in the middle of his tirade and looked at the younger boy. He'd never heard Daniel admit any kind of weakness at all. In fact, he was convinced that Daniel was sure he knew everything. It was a change, and it made him feel taken aback. "You? You, who is supposedly the best at everything?"
"We all have our weaknesses, Phil. And mine happens to be my brother."
"If I can ask, why? Jim was so easily able to disconnect from you. I saw it on his face, in his eyes. I felt it, and I was standing so far away."
Daniel looked down at his blue shoes. "Jim abandoned me when he and I were kids. He was young... he didn't mean to hurt me. Or our little sister. But he did. A lot. More than he'll ever know." He shuddered. "More than I ever want him to know."
"I'm sorry," Phil replied softly, feeling awful for having drug up such feelings.
"It's okay," Daniel said, the smirk returning to his face.
"Daniel, is it worth it?"
"What?"
"Always being the strong and brave one. Always being the one that people can count on. Is it worth it?"
Daniel quickly looked away, but not before a stray tear could be seen escaping the corner of one of his eyes. "Heavens yes."
"Don't lie." Phil shook his head. "You forget I can tell when my girlfriend is lying, and she was a rogue with no care for anyone or anything. I can tell that you, a protector with everyone's best interests at heart, aren't telling the truth."
"No, Phil. Sometimes it really isn't worth it. Because I'm not as tough as everyone believes. I chose to be the fighter between Jim and I because I was too weak to disconnect from him. Because I never thought I'd get to see my brother again, and I got this second chance... I could never bring myself to tear my emotions and love away from him."
"I think it sounds pretty tough to me," Phil said with a shrug. "He's the weak one... if he can so easily disconnect from you and not care what happens to you... that sounds weak to me."
"Maybe we shouldn't teach you and Luca the form of connected battling," Daniel finally said. "Maybe you two are best left to fight at each other's side."
"That's how we've always done it, and I couldn't ever see it being any other way."
Daniel got up. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Nobody had seen you for a while."
"I was just thinking," Phil shrugged, looking back out at the twilight.
Daniel began to walk back into the house, but stopped. Without turning or without trying to catch anyone's attention, he softly murmured, "I'm jealous of the way you and Luca are. I'm jealous at your connection."
Phil said nothing in response. He simply leaned against the column and stared out at the nighttime city, feeling the simple joy returning to him.
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