A/N: I do not own Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth; CAPCOM does. The ridiculous plot, however, is mine. :)
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Phoenix is learning the fine art of summoning from his Sire. Will he be able to do it successfully this time or will something else go wrong like it did two years earlier?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Happy Halloween, Pearls1990! Hope you enjoy this ridiculously silly, nonsensical gift fic of mine! :) It was your comment on my first fic, Leave Night Stalking To The Professionals! [Alternate title on dA: Night Stalking Lesson #1], that prompted this sequel some time ago so thanks!
The Waltham Park in this story bears no resemblance to the one in Massachusetts and doesn't exist anywhere outside of my own mind.
Projecting, Mind Speech, OtherSenses et al comes from Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series although I use it a bit differently. Summoning comes from any Final Fantasy game in existence. I think that they work nicely together. :)
"Fledgling" is a term that Attalander uses in her AMAZING Vampire!PxE on y!Gallery and I like it better than "Childer" so I've used it and I am crediting her. :)
Hope you enjoy! :)
Thanks to my readers and all those who have favourited, reviewed, story alerted, favourite author or author alerted me. I appreciate it more than I can say!
Special thanks to my beloved husband, DezoPenguin, for all his help, support, advice, nagging (when necessary) and encouragement! I appreciate it more than I can say! Love you!
Comments and suggestions are appreciated and welcomed. I will probably be making changes to this over the next few days; always room for improvement! :)
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
October 31st
Waltham Park
Outside of Los Angeles
9 P.M.
"All right, Phoenix," Miles said, his soft crimson eyes carefully neutral as he looked at his Fledgling, nodding his approval, "since you now have Projecting and Mind Speech at nearly perfectly workable levels, I'm going to teach you how to summon."
Phoenix tilted his head slightly to the right, his eyes curious as he looked at his Sire. "Summoning?" he asked, his eyebrow raising, his expression one of curious attention. "Summoning what, exactly?"
Miles smiled toothily, his fangs glistening in the moonlight. "Just watch," he said and closed his eyes.
Phoenix watched in rapt silence as Miles lifted his right hand and made a quick scrolling motion with his fingers, an emerald green light beginning to slowly form in the air in front of him, twisting and writhing in overlapping figure eight patterns.
He stared, amazed, as a silhouette began to slowly take shape within its pulsing green heart until, with an explosion of colors, a wolf appeared at Miles' feet. The wolf shook its head a few times, as if it couldn't believe what had just happened and appeared to be quite startled if the expression on its face was any indication.
It sniffed the ground suspiciously for a few minutes before, as if on some unspoken command, looked up and over at Miles, its tail beginning to wag happily when it saw him. He smiled and reached down, scratching it behind the ears, low, growly sounds emerging from the shaggy creature's throat.
Phoenix stared in open mouthed amazement at the scene as it unfolded; he knew that this was a wild animal but it was acting, for all intents and purposes, like a friendly dog. The wolf padded over to stand by him, rubbing his shaggy head against his leg, whining noises coming from deep in its throat. Phoenix smiled as he leaned over and patted the wolf who positively beamed with the attention.
Miles grinned as he watched, a look of smug satisfaction on his face.
"That's all you have to do, Wright," he explained as Phoenix scratched the wolf behind the ears, the creature's tongue dangling out of its mouth in a wide, lupine grin. "Just close your eyes, envision what it is you want to summon and Project your thoughts outward."
"Sounds simple enough," Phoenix remarked airily, giving the wolf a final pat before it turned, bounding off into the woods from whence it had come, a gentle smile on his face, watching until it disappeared deep into the thickly wooded area of the Park.
Miles rolled his eyes.
"Give it a try," was all he said in reply and leaned against a tree to watch, his arms crossed over his chest.
"All right." Phoenix stood on the other side of the tree an arm's length away from his Sire. "What shall I summon?"
"Preferably something small to start; we don't want you getting into trouble like you did last time when I was teaching you how to Project." Miles grimaced.
Phoenix's face burned bright red. He well remembered his first attempt at Projecting and nearly caused an incident when he accidentally brought a T-Rex into being. He and Miles had just been to visit the Museum of Natural History and this was the exhibit that was in the forefront of his mind... which was his first mistake.
Miles had had to scurry to make sure it didn't get out into L.A.'s city proper which resulted in a five mile chase down the highway with the dinosaur chasing them. To be fair, they were playing target in an effort to distract the huge beast but it was still mortifying as Miles yelled at him most of the way.
Phoenix still wasn't sure how they had ever pulled off hiding a T-Rex in plain sight-and making sure that no one else saw it- when one considered how difficult it would be to hide a fifteen foot tall, forty-five foot long seven ton eating machine. He suspected that Miles deserved most of the credit for that one.
Eventually, Miles managed to corral it in the deep woods and sent it back to where it had come from. The additional four hours that he'd spent listening to Miles lecturing him how to properly Project and what would happen to him if he ever did that again ended with this admonition to "make damned sure that your mind is clear before you Project!"
His very real anger was bad enough but, to make matters even worse, other Vampires still laughed at him when he passed them on the street two years after the fact.
It was embarrassing, to say the least and Phoenix really wanted to make up for it.
"Don't worry," he said, his hand ghosting to the back of his neck, a blush staining his cheeks, "I'll be careful."
"See that you are," was his Sire's only comment before he fell silent, his eyes glowing a soft crimson as he leaned against the tree trunk.
Phoenix made a face at him before he stood up straighter, slowly opening up his arms until they were fully extended and closing his eyes.
"That's good, Phoenix," he heard Miles say from somewhere close by, "good posture is very important when Summoning so I am pleased."
"I'm glad," he replied, a twinge of sarcasm to his voice that Miles chose to ignore, "now, if you would be so kind, could you refrain from the editorial comments?"
Miles Sent him a mental thwack and Phoenix winced, his eyebrows furrowing. He was trying to concentrate and it wasn't easy with all of these distractions and, truth be told, it, and his Sire, were starting to annoy him.
I'll wait until later and then...
::You won't catch me sleeping,:: a dry voice said in his mind, layered thickly with amusement and Phoenix started, gritting his teeth.
Damn! I'd forgotten that he can Sense my thoughts!
::Of course I can,:: that irritating voice preempted again, Phoenix sighing with resigned aggravation.
I really wish he'd just butt out and stay out of my head...
::When you learn to do it right, I will.::
Phoenix Sent an uncharitable thought back, slamming his consciousness shut so that Miles couldn't respond in a manner that he would Hear, scrunching his eyes closed.
Concentrate, concentrate... he told himself, taking a few deep breaths and forcing himself to calm down. As the debacle with the live T-Rex had so plainly demonstrated two years earlier-and he still wasn't exactly certain how he'd managed to summon the damned thing in the first place and even less how they managed to Send it back to its own time-he would probably end up summoning something that would get him into trouble. Again.
That's the last thing I want, he thought, the corners of his mouth beginning to twitch as he made some slow finger twirls intermittently with staccato slashing, motions in the air, and I'm really getting tired of other Vampires ribbing me about it. You'd think that they would have forgotten about it by now!
There was an air of expectancy that hummed around him, his fingers trembling slightly as he waited for some kind of signal. He held his breath, extending his arms out sideways from his body and lifting them, mouthing a few words as he did so.
He could feel his skin beginning to prickle as he Gathered energy around him, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up on end. He knew it was roiling and twisting around him in a thick, emerald-green cloud since he could See it with his OtherSense behind his closed lids.
Now, I have to bring it under my control like this... He crooked his index finger inward with a quick movement, his mouth curving into a smile when he Felt the energy come under his command and, simultaneously, his Sire's approval.
::Good, very good,:: he heard Miles say in his mind and he couldn't help preening a little under the praise, ::now, use the technique I taught you.::
Phoenix obeyed without a murmur. He pictured a batch of butterflies in his mind-he'd always loved watching them as they flitted about the garden-and then, with a quick motion, slashed the air in front of him with one repeated word. He could See the cloud vanish, to be replaced by a still, deathly silence. He smiled; he had done it!
It took only a few seconds more to realize that all was not well and his brow furrowed, wondering what had happened.
I know the Summoning was successful... I can feel it! I wonder what's going on.
He heard an indignant squawk followed by the sound of running feet that seemed to ebb and flow in sound as it passed.
What the-?
He opened his eyes and they widened as he took in the scene that was unfolding in front of him: Miles, being chased by a cloud of hungry moths.
"WRIGHT!"
Oh, hell...! he thought with chagrin, his face reddening as he watched Miles duck and cover in a futile attempt to escape, the moths closing in and swarming all over him despite his desperate efforts to wave them off or dodge them. Not again!
Phoenix raced over to Miles to help him disperse the ravenous insects and, when at last they had been able to shoo them away, Miles turned rage filled eyes squarely on his Fledgling, his hands clenched into fists at his side. Phoenix swallowed hard as he looked at the damage that the moths had done and knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this lesson was going to be a very costly one.
And so it was. He spent the next three weeks cleaning the house top to bottom-along with any other household chores that his wrathful Sire could devise-and had to buy him a whole new wardrobe to replace the clothing that the hungry moths had demolished.
I never knew those things could eat so much that quickly.
It was many months until Miles was comfortable with him Summoning again and this time he successfully Summoned a garden slug which, on the whole, was a much better outcome... and much, much less expensive.
~Fin~