Knightfall
Unforeseen Consequences
- 31
- Posts
- 11
- Years
- Age 27
- Sawgrass Town
- Seen Dec 25, 2014
[Warning: This chapter does reach the PG-15 area for more than one scene. Please be advised.]
"There are three ways that the Civil War can end: Restoration, Independence, or Revolution. None of which result in the continuation of the monarchy. "
--Historian Frederick Floatzel on the state of the Kingdom approximately three days before he was found murdered in his Silver City apartment.
Ian felt wonderful. Sunlight caressed his long withdrawn skin, green pigment slowly returning to his body. He walked underneath the cool shade of the drooping branches of the willow trees, not a single care pressing his mind. This place was their favorite place to relax, the river near Mt. Thunder where they had first met so long ago. His feet pressed into the soft soil, savoring the earthy texture as he walked along the riverbank.
He held his hand in hers, thankful to Arceus for granting him the ability to stretch his arms so she didn't have to reach. Sunlight glinted off the rapidly flowing river, adding a surreal sense of beauty to the already picturesque mountain scene. Sophie always said how she missed this place. How they --the members of Team Frontier-- used to relax and simply waste their days away along the shore. They wished their Machoke leader could be there with them, enjoying their old haunt, yet they were somehow strangely content at his absence. Yet they knew they should be grieving. Regardless, Ian knew that bringing her back here was the only way he could ever possibly make it up to her for the hell he had forced her to live through.
A sudden blinding pain shot through his chest. For a moment, it felt like he was on fire; it seared his nerves that badly. However, the sensation went away without a trace not a second later.
He returned his focus to the love of his life. The Mawile was breathing in deeply the fresh mountain air as she walked alongside him. He thought back to their adventures in the darkness. Their escape plan had worked to perfection: the back entrance was completely unguarded and the boat unattended. There was little that stood between them and freedom.
They didn't know what compelled them to come here of all places, and Ian couldn't rightly remember how they got there. But they were there, they were free, and they had each other. As far as Ian thought, everything was right in the world in his book. Birds chirped merrily on the new budding branches as the air was perfumed with the generous scents of springtime. Ian loved everything about this place, and he could easily see Sophie did as well by the way she was gently humming and how she twirled herself underneath his arm.
Ian smiled as he decided to play along. He moved his body away from her and arched his arm. Sophie giggled softly as she continued to dance, this time with an actual partner. The two Pokémon began to circle each other in the middle of the mountain path, both pairs of eyes never leaving the other.
In a silent rhythm that existed only between the two of them, they stepped forward, and touched their hands. Ian gave the Mawile a sudden twirl, narrowly missing her elongated ear as it swung behind her. Sophie's yellow frills fluttered as she did a small leap into the air before lightly touching down and stepping close to the Breloom.
Out of the blue, it seemed as if the Black Dragon had summoned a lightning bolt down upon him. Ian's world went out of focus for what seemed several seconds, yet the pain did not resonate within him. When he returned to normal, he saw Sophie looking somewhat dazed and guessed that she must have felt it too.
Ian laughed and gave a small shrug. Taking her hand again, he bent down a gave it a quick kiss before straightening up and continuing with their intricate waltz. Their steps were perfectly in synch, it was as if they had trained all their lives for this one instance. When he moved forward, she leaped back with the grace of a Kirlia on the lavish stage of the Silver City Theater House. His black eyes were lost in her deep red ones as the world spun around them, fading in a whirlwind of flying, pink spring flower buds and verdant green leaves.
He grabbed ahold of both her hands with his and pulled her close to him, while he knelt down to her height level. They didn't need to say anything as everything that could, should, and would have been said had seemingly been answered in their minds. Despite being with her this entire time since their escape from that wretched relic, he felt like he hadn't seen her in what felt like a lifetime.
She pressed her head against his neck, wrapped her arms around his chest, and leaned into his body. After a moment of this silent embrace, Ian felt a sudden dampness against his neck. He tilted his head to look down at her and gently nudged her head up with his claw. Sophie's eyes, shining beautiful crimson jewels, were soaked through with a thin veil of tears.
"I thought I lost you..." she managed to choke out in between her light sobs. Ian rubbed his claws gently along her back under her ear-like jaw in comfort. He would never forgive those heartless fiends that had ensnared her in that horrendous maze. That had forced her to witness the brutal death of Chuck and his own descent into near insanity. The unguarded exit had been a blessing from Celebi in its purest form and they had not wasted their chance. Ian gently brushed aside her thin, black ears as she tucked her head against his neck once again.
"Don't worry, Sophie. I'm here now. Nothing will change that. I promise you," Ian whispered as the world grew still around them. The perfect scene seemed to hang forever in the air for Ian, the river, the mountains, the sun, the trees, the smell, Sophie. He never wanted it to end. And, no one, not even Arceus Himself would keep him from being with her.
And then, it felt as if a spear was run through his stomach. He felt the invisible blow immediately upon impact. He was torn away from Sophie as his body was thrust backwards and shoved into the ground. In a daze, he looked up at the Mawile. She was currently struggling against some other unseen attacker in the form of a whirlwind. The very leaves and symbols of spring held her away from him. Just far enough so she could only watch helplessly.
Something like a bolt of lightning surged through his body, frying his nerves, and causing him to convulse erratically on the ground. Through his glazed eyes, he saw the valley around them swim and begin to seemingly implode upon itself. The vibrant slopes of lush, green trees shifted to an unmoving wall of rusted iron. The fresh, clear river engulfed him in a ocean of revolting sludge. As he struggled to breathe under the weight of the filth, he could still see Sophie clear as day, yelling for him at the top her lungs.
He struggled to reach through the crushing wave of the sewage to her, but the pressure held his arms down against the newly created stone floor that slammed into his back. The vague shapes of mountains wobbled in reality before flickering out of existence like a candle in the wind. Ugly ceilings and walls of stone and iron slowly engulfed the pristine blue skies. Fluffy white clouds were swiftly poisoned by the foul, damp air.
"Ian! You're alive! Oh, thank the Maker, you're alive!" a jarring, static-filled voice screamed from somewhere far above him. Ian paid it no heed as he threw several erratic punches into the sludge, breaking its hold on his body.
"Sophie? Sophie!" he screamed while simultaneously gasping for precious lungfuls of air. Sludge dripped from the brow of his wilting seed cap. He looked around the tunnel, unable to see any of the vivid landscape that had presented itself to the both of them earlier. Then, he saw her. Sophie was standing on a small island of perfectly green grass in the middle of the toxic lake. Her red eyes were staring at him, pleading that he come back to her.
"Ian! D-don't go! Not again!" she cried, tears freely dripping down her face.
He lunged forward through the liquid only to collapse with an agonized shriek as the already fractured bone in his right leg snapped in half. He fell into the shallow sludge, clutching his critically injured leg as bacterium-riddled slop seeped into the wound. Ian clawed at the smooth stone shore as he desperately tried to extract himself from the pool of waste chemicals.
"Here, grab my wing! That's it, come on!" the static voice barked suddenly. Ian blindly grasped at the blue, rounded, appendage and pulled. Ian felt himself exit the water and land on the hard surface. Gasping for breath, he used his other claw to drag himself further away from the vile lake and the vestiges of Sophie.
"There you go, Ian. Come on. Breathe, that's it," the voice Ian recognized as Vertex encouraged. Ian didn't reply immediately. He tilted his head to the side and began hacking up the remainder of the waste-water in his lungs. As he wretched up the envenomed liquid, his thoughts returned to the haunting vision.
"Vertex ... I saw her," the Breloom wheezed in between choking coughs. Greenish fluid from Ian's lungs splattered the artificial intelligence's front, yet Vertex didn't even blink as he leaned in closer to his beaten friend.
"Ian, it wasn't real. You know that. It's just like all the others," the upgraded Porygon reprimanded as he left the Breloom's side for one moment to pick up a squashed Oran Berry. Holding the organic mass in his beak, he floated back over to Ian.
"Here, eat this. It should combat the infection and dull the pain temporarily," he ordered, as Ian weakly opened his mouth. Vertex shook his head disapprovingly and let the berry go, dropping it down to Ian. The Breloom swallowed it whole with a loud gulp, shutting his eyes as he let the healing properties flow through him.
"No. It wasn't --It wasn't a vision. It was more than that ... I-I swear it was!" Ian yelled, leaning against the stone wall of the waste tunnel from the maze above. The condensation on the walls felt soothing against his bruised back and neck. He let his body absorb the clean water through his skin, slaking his thirst for the meantime.
"Just like all the other times you said that, hmm? Ian, stop kidding yourself. She's gone. I was there when she died. All her vital signs were zero, nothing, finished. Let her go," Vertex urged once again, scanning the above halls for signs of their oppressors. Aside from scores of Pokémon leisurely walking from one place to the next -- completely uninformed and unaware of their plight.
"N-No! Vertex, you -you don't get it! She talked to me, Vertex! She talked back! It wasn't just a vision! She was there this time!" Ian suddenly screamed, tears streaming down his face as his arm stretched and clutched the Porygon 2's narrow throat. "You have to believe me! Believe me! Believe me!" Vertex screeched in alarm and struggled to free himself from his friend's delusional grip.
"Ian! Ian! Ian! I believe you! Listen to me: I believe you, Ian!" Vertex shouted, his voice processor straining to get through to the crying Breloom. As Vertex hoped, Ian quickly released his claws with a loud sob and collapsed on the construct. Vertex let out an electronically-tuned groan as he struggled to remain floating with the accession of his friend's weight on his body. Vertex had no idea how long the Breloom would keep up his action, but he was prepared to do anything to keep his mind as stable as he possibly could.
"Don't worry, Ian. We'll find her. We will, I promise," Vertex said gently, magnetically lifting his wing and patting Ian's back. The former sentry knew it was a hollow promise --the dead would remain dead-- but he'd help his friend find closure. Even if the truth would probably kill them both.
Leo hadn't let up in the slightest. He swung his claws into the stubborn brush and thorns into a path had formed for the three Pokémon. Despite Noah's increasingly pessimistic protests about marching to their doom, Jay's wavering will, and Leo's equally venomous arguments to keep on going forward for Kelly, they pressed onwards.
Blue light glinted off his dusted scales, the cold sun bathing him in its ethereal light. Leo had managed to keep up the facade of tireless determination, but his strength was waning. He hadn't stopped moving since he had woken up hours ago back in the camp. The muscles in his legs burned with every step over the rough terrain.
"Leo--" Noah called from the back of their line as they trampled the dry vegetation in the narrow canyon pass.
"Shut up, Noah. I'm -- We're not leaving her. We can't. Not like this," Leo snapped as he sliced through the final piece of bramble and stumbled into the newest clearing.
"I don't know, Leo. Maybe Noah's righ--" Jay began before Leo quickly rounded on him.
"No, Jay! You've known her the longest, and now you're going to give up? I thought you were the leader here!" Leo screamed, his tail flame flaring and steam issuing him his nose as his emotions fumed. He glared at the Riolu, his blue eyes staring daggers at Jay's red irises. The tension in the air rose until it had pressurized into pure, solidified hatred.
Leo didn't let up until his leader reluctantly looked away. The Riolu hung his head in apparent shame. Leo angrily huffed as he returned his attention to the open space in the canyon where the valleys converged. Noah strode forward, roughly shoving Leo into the rock face as he forced his way in front.
"No. I'm not going to risk my skin for her. I may not be one to follow the rules or safety the majority of the time, but we're leaving right now. Jay, back me up here," the Dewott said firmly, stamping his foot on the ground to affirm his stance.
"What do you think you're doing? We already went through this: we're going after her. You're not changing your mind now," Leo growled, peeling his front off the layered rock face and advancing towards the scowling otter. Jay didn't say anything as he silently padded around the conflicting Pokémon, avoiding giving any answer.
"Well. I'm not getting killed and I don't think you have any authority on what I do, pal," Noah shot back, placing his paw on the Charmeleon's chest and lightly pushing him back as a warning. Leo wasn't deterred in the slightest.
"You don't have a choice! We're going! Don't make me--" Leo retorted as Noah stepped forward, and before Leo could react, delivered a swift undercut to his stomach. Leo immediately stumbled back and doubled over along the side of the canyon. He managed to hiss a few mangled swears over his pained coughs as his insides recoiled from the surprise hit.
"I do have a choice, Leo. So does Jay. And so do you. And I don't care what you do with yours, but I'm not going to let you make ours for us. I want to live. If you don't, then you can keep on marching because that thing won't hesitate to rip you apart!" The Dewott stood over Leo for a moment before shaking his head. Leo refused to look up at him.
"Come on Jay. There's an exit over in the western path. Let's go. We'll mourn the dead once we're sure we made it out alive," Noah said as he pointed his paw in the direction of the sinking, blue sun. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jay standing next to the traitor, somberly nodding in agreement.
"Jay! So you're -- You're just giving up on her?" Leo shouted as he strained to get to his feet, steam emanating from his nose and mouth once again. The Riolu shifted, shifting the strap of his bag on his shoulder in discomfort.
"I -- I don't want to die. I saw what happened back there. Leo ... I think Noah's right." Leo sucked in a sharp breath in protest at Jay's words. His claws curled into a fist. He couldn't believe this was happening. While it was true that he still knew virtually nothing of Jay and Kelly's history as a team, he had thought that bond would keep Jay on his side.
With that thought, he lunged forward. Leo swung his fist, channeling every bit of his frustration and disbelief into the attack. If he hadn't been so focused on pounding sense into his leader's head, Leo might have noticed that his clawed fist was glowing with a bright, white aura. The fact that he just activated a latent power of his new body lost on his enraged mind.
Jay recoiled, clutching his head as he cried out in pain. The Riolu stumbled backwards, violently cursing Leo's existence. The Dewott, oddly, despite his earlier actions, did not interfere.
"Some leader you are," Leo replied acidically as he brutishly drove his elbow into Jay's stomach, forcing him to his knees. He would have continued. He wouldn't have let up on his assault if the ground in the clearing hadn't rended open in a blast of frozen brimstone and clay.
Leo had seen things during his time in this world. Things that plowed through the barrier of what was right and what was unspeakably wrong with the force of a tidal wave. He had seen psychopaths, hallucinations, and the image of death itself, yet he had persevered. What appeared from under the cloud of ice dust instantly secured a spot in his mind for the absolute worst thing Leo had ever seen.
The three bickering Pokémon froze where they stood, as a dark, looming figure rose from the mist-bound hole in the ground. From what he could see among the choked air, the creature looked like a multi-colored dragon, but as its large form ominously stomped out into plain sight, Leo saw why Noah possessed such an adamant fear.
The patches of different colors he had originally saw were actually slabs of dried flesh held together by a thick coating of ice skin. Different pallets of dull furs, tarnished scales, and decaying skin made up the repulsive hide of the monster, stitched together by sinew that served as thread for the squares of flesh. Somewhere in the back corners of his mind, Leo was vaguely wondering just how many different species unwillingly contributed to the generation of the abomination.
In the short moments that followed, Leo saw that it possessed a vaguely dragon-like body with disproportionate limbs that seemed to have been chosen at random. A thick, muscular leg and large, clawed foot stamped the ground next to a thin, metallic, bird leg and steel talon big enough to crush him in one step.
A pair of horribly mismatched wings sprouted from the creature's icy back. On one side, majestic, orange and white plumage plucked off a bird, while the other side sported fragile, transparent, oval wings torn from an ungodly large insect. The seemingly useless appendages fluttered and buzzed erratically as the beast lumbered forwards out of the pit from which it was born.
Leo wanted to move. To hide. To run away as fast as he possibly could. But something held him, Jay, and Noah in place. He didn't understand it; there was no paralysis, no archaic binding spells, nothing of that sort. It was fear. The pure, radiating terror that emanated from the gaping maw and stinking flesh.
He had never felt so disgusted and horrified at the same time. Not when he was being poisoned in Spore Meadows, not when Nexus had killed him or the subsequent vision trip, not even during the sadistic mental bombardment by the Mismagius compared to the overwhelming tsunami of trepidation that surged towards him.
The earth vibrated beneath Leo's feet as the monster tramped through the clearing. Without warning, the dragon raised its mottled head and roared. Its primal voice as deep and gurgled as if it was choking on something. Its breath instantly froze the mist in the air, transforming the benign weather to a miniature, freezing blizzard.
The exhaled wind painfully struck them, its wizened hands roughly slapping every inch of exposed flesh that it could possibly reach, driving its stinging, pointed fingers into them. Leo raised his arms to shield his face from the flurry and planted his feet firmly against the rocky ground.
Teeth. Hundreds of them lined every inch inside of its gaping maw, all harvested from countless species of Pokémon. The layer of clear ice over its flesh allowed Leo to see the decaying interior of the creature. The Charmeleon felt whatever remained of his previous meal lurch up in his throat and splash over his fangs onto the ground as the creature's horrifying, cold, breath washed over him like a wave of raw sewage.
He had closed his eyes for an instant to avoid the frozen air. When he opened them again, the creature, which had been several meters away, was now huffing clouds of rotten air from directly above him. Leo's heart was beating faster than a hummingbird's wings, nearly stopping as the abomination lowered its disfigured head and looked him dead on with it's yellow, glowing eyes.
For a second, his will wavered. His thoughts concerning Kelly were replaced by the impending doom panting like a heinous dog over him. His eyes darted to either side of him, both Jay and Noah seemed to be in similar states; numb from the cold and fear.
There was no warning as the monster suddenly picked up its metallic talon and slammed it into Jay's torso. Swinging its massively oversized arms and claws, it bulldozed into Leo's side, sending both him and Noah skidding along the rocks. His world turned into a blur, he couldn't see what was up and what was down until gravity kindly reminded him by grinding his back with gravel. A feeling akin to a bolt of lightning shot up his tail as the sensitive tip connected with the suffocating soil.
Leo arched his back and rolled over, breathing hard as his lungs worked to return air to his body. Clawing at the earth, he managed to twist his body over again, prop himself up on arms, and blink dust out of his tearing eyes. Clarity returned to his sight just in time to behold the creature poising above Jay, as if readying to kill downed prey.
Jay was pinned with his back against the ground, held down by the cold talon. The Riolu was biting his lip as the sharp hooks embedded into the tips dug into his left shoulder. Leo couldn't see the creature's face, but it let out a gurgling snort in what seemed to be glee as it pressed its foot down even harder. Jay let out a scream as the hook was pushed deeper, and the pressure grew on his chest.
This seemed to please the monster, but it seemingly got quickly bored of the slow torture as it lifted its talon up; the hook-like claw twisting as it exited Jay's shoulder. The Riolu instinctively grabbed the bloodied wound with his paw now that the weight was lifted. His blue fur was stained scarlet as he tried to stem the flow from the stab wound.
Leo tried to move, but his body went only in slow motion, his arms wobbling as his muscles strained against exhaustion. This meant he could only watch as the talon slammed down again. Leo didn't hear a crack, but by Jay's agonized cry, he guess that something inside his chest snapped under the sudden pressure.
To Leo's horror, the creature didn't stop with the first blow. It raised its talon and slammed it down again. Jay's screams only intensified as the hooks and weight tore into his chest and arms. The beast roared, pausing in its assault for a second. It lifted up its grotesque head and aimed its mouth at the Riolu. A stream of blue energy dripped off its teeth and coagulated into a dense sphere just outside its cracked, torn jaw.
In a single blink of his eyes, Leo saw the sphere jump through the space from the monster's mouth to the lower half of Jay's right leg. The sphere exploded, tendrils of ice swarmed from Jay's knee, down to his foot, and slunk into the ground where they solidified into a frozen mass locking him in place. Jay could only hiss in pain as his leg was placed in a numb prison.
The aura of fear that had held his heart and limbs in an iron pen seemed to dissipate. Leo managed to scramble to his feet just as the dragon-thing was preparing to continue crushing Jay with his talon. He vaguely heard Noah's warcry behind him as he dashed over the canyon clearing, trying to ignore the pain that seared his nerves, the exhaustion that played with his mind, and the monstrosities that wanted him dead.
He prepared his claws to strike. He knew it wouldn't do much against the icy hide, but as long as it kept Jay from being pummeled into the earth, he would give it a shot. His mind seemed to finally have found the switch that inhibited him all this time. The cruel memories suppressed, the visions stopped, and his rational, screaming for him to turn tail and run, bound, gagged, and stuffed into a broom closet. Leo screamed, a slightly deranged sound, but terrifying nonetheless.
He wasn't sure if it was his scream or the blade of pressurized water that shot into the creature's ice-coated, mismatched arm was what took its attention off the barely conscious Riolu. Leo snuck a quick look over his shoulder to see that the Dewott was condensing another set of water blades on his shells. Holding the scallops in front of him, Noah swiftly turned in a circle, and give a sharp cry as the water blades launched off of the shells towards the monster.
The blades dug into the ice and created cracks along the dragon's side, but they were nothing more than a mosquito bite. Leo couldn't possibly sprint fast enough to intervene, even if his legs didn't feel like someone was heating them with a blowtorch. They were too late in acting. With what happened next, Leo wasn't sure if it would have been better if he had never moved in the first place.
Instead of delivering a crushing stomp, the duel act of screaming Charmeleon and slicing Dewott managed to distract the hellish spawn so that it kicked Jay to the side as it turned towards them. Jay moved violently to the side first. And then followed his imprisoned leg.
If Leo nearly got sick earlier from the smell of the beast, his stomach again twisted into a knot as the loud, organic crack echoed through the clearing. Jay's tortured scream drowned out even the primal grunts of the dragon as his right leg bent and bone splintered. Fortunately, the ice shattered as well, leaving the shattered limb connected to the Riolu. Blood slowly seeped from the open wound, dripping past the fragments of bone that poked through the blue fur.
Despite his leader's behavior earlier, Leo wanted nothing more than to help him as the excruciating yells penetrated his head. The only problem being the act against God that stalked towards them at a surprisingly swift pace given its massive unbalanced stature of talon and foot. Leo gulped as it came closer.
No. I can't freeze up again. I won't! his thoughts screamed. There was no other option. He had to stand up now. Not only for Kelly, but for Jay, Noah, and all the others waiting for them on the other side of the dungeon: Icarus, Blade, Elliot, Sonic, and Torrent.
He swung his arm, glowing claws slicing into the ice on the gargantuan, dragon leg. White cracks spread from the point of impact, but otherwise did nothing. The creature looked down at Leo, blank eyes seeing him as something to be terminated.
Before he knew what was happening, Leo felt his body turn to ice as claws wrapped around his torso. Air became a luxury as the beast squeezed what limited quantities remained out of his lungs and he was lifted to the creature's face. All he could see was the wide, nightmarish abyss of a jaw stretching open towards him. Teeth gleamed in a bleached white as the mouth seemed to grow larger in an effort to swallow him whole.
He heard Noah's forceful cries from down below, not relenting even in the face of the impenetrable flesh. On the verge of his hearing, just below the blasts of chilled exhaust and Noah's fight, Jay's whimpering slowly tapered out into silence. Leo couldn't see much of anything aside from the terrifying mask of ice the creature wore over the amalgamation of Pokémon that served as its face and the crushing claws trying to snap every bone in his torso.
Thoughts raced wildly around Leo's panicking mind as it swiftly began starving for oxygen. Thoughts of failure. Thoughts of inequity. Fairness. He laughed on the inside. There was nothing fair about what happened to him. He had drawn the shortest straw in the Fates' demented game. Doomed to failure, just as the reaper had foretold. He wasn't a hero, because heroes didn't die in the clutches of a monster.
A blade of water shattered through the ice on the leg, exposing the dying flesh beneath to the Dewott's wrath, but it did nothing. Leo swore he could hear his bones straining under the pressure, fragile ribs laced with hairline fractures and organs bruised. Every struggling movement was a labor of intense proportions, as if he was burdened of the Ropes of the Titan and tasked with pulling the continents alongside each twitch of his muscles.
A slight wave of comfort passed over him when he felt the heat build up in his lungs. He knew it would be a matter of seconds before the jet of fire would blast the dragon directly in its hideous face and hopefully buy him a ticket out of the crushing grip. The compressed flame continued to grow inside of him, scorching his throat as it did so.
The beast must have been smarter than its primal grunts and howls let on, because it shifted its grip on Leo's body. Most of the pressure on his chest was released, but replaced by a tight hold around his neck, only allowing for the tiniest gasps of air to keep him from suffocating. His freed arms clawed at his captor, but without the ability to concentrate energy, he couldn't possibly charge an attack powerful enough to scratch its skin.
The heat made his lungs boil. Without a release, the temperature inside only grew hotter and hotter. His reptilian skin prevented him from sweating, the claw around his throat kept the fire in his chest, and he couldn't get the strength needed to draw even a single breath. His mind went in and out of focus. Thoughts of escape from the death grip blurred and withered as his brain diverted all efforts into maintaining the limited flow of air he managed to suck in among the putrid exhaust exuding from the creature's foul breath.
His ribcage felt as if it was an instant away from popping open like a heated kernel of corn, and he did not think the ensuing result would be nearly as delicious. Leo clawed at the limb clamped around his throat, his claws scraping against the frozen appendages. He lifted his legs up and kicked at the iron hold, each action becoming more and more desperate as fire twisted on the convection current inside his chest.
As his body began to fail, the Fates decided to end their apparent game with their lab rat. From the corner of his distorted vision came a sphere of blue. It launched up from the ground and rocketed through the air, slamming into the temple of the dragon's malformed skull. It exploded in a shower of pressurized water and splattered painfully against his limp body and drooping, dimming tail. Concentration broken, the creature lifted its huge arm, and tossed Leo into the air like a rag doll, freeing another claw to fight against Noah.
The world twisted and spun around him as he flew into the air, blue sun at his airborne feet and the imminent threat of gravity and ground at his head. His eyes locked with the beast's soulless, yellow ones yet again as the dragon howled at him. Its mouth was stretched open wide, waiting for him to fall down into the dark bowls. Fire rushed from Leo's lungs into his now-unobstructed throat. The attack threatened to sear off his tongue and taste buds as fire blasted through his jaws into the open air.
The jet of combusting matter broke through the waves of molecules separating Leo from the upturned head of the beast. Flames shot into the gaping set of jaws, the wide spray of fire not even touching the rotting sides or frozen teeth that lined the inside. Like water down a drain, the attack slipped down the roaring throat seamlessly. Leo couldn't help but be a little weirded out at the fact that his fire simply left his throat for another.
The fire vanished as it blasted down the creature's dry, cracked throat, and to no effect on its health either. Leo didn't have any time to lament the waste of the attack as gravity took a hold of his form and began its ever-quickening descent as it exerted its force against the vacuum of space. He landed face-first onto the creature's icy back, directly between the mismatched wings.
Before his head had stopped spinning, the monster beneath him bucked and roared in an attempt to kick the intruder off. Leo dug his claws into the stiff, fleshy bases of the two sets of wings. The wings in question flapped and buzzed erratically, slapping Leo's face with every fevered movement and bruising is snout with the repeated hits.
Leo struggled to keep his grip, the alternative being thrown to the ground and crushed by the combination of talon and claw. He could feel water spraying around him from the continued assault of the Dewott down below. In between the flaps of the wings, he could see Noah sprinting away from the swiping claws and Ice Beams while keeping attention away from Jay, still unconscious in the crater.
He could feel his claws slipping, the wings were moving too much for him to even attempt to regain his loosening grip. Leo grunted as he embedded the pointed tips into the pulsing mass of muscle fiber under the thin layer of flexible ice, but only succeeded in tearing off a dried chunk when he tried to pull himself up.
With that development, combined with the beast's renewed vigor to get him off, Leo tumbled over the frail dragonfly wings to the ground. He took some sort of satisfaction knowing that he tore through the flimsy material with his flailing claws. The rocky dungeon floor embraced him fully, its jagged arms wrapping around his back to complete his discomfort on all parts of his body.
Again, his mind was deprived of the chance to filter out which section of his body hurt the most as the last thing he saw was a reptilian foot aiming at his torso. The next few seconds mixed together in time like salt dissolving in water. His chest felt as if it had been torn open by a series of rusted gardening tools.
Leo felt himself go limp as he flew in a low arc above the rough ground. He had resigned himself to land on the rocks, ready to accept their sharp and pointed jabs at his self-image. Their calloused laughs would brush up against his scales like sandpaper and Leo was willing to let it happen. Yet, the scathing insults from the planet's exterior never came. Something far softer than stone intercepted Leo's trajectory.
Leo refused to open his eyes until he was certain that the world around him stopped mimicking a whirlpool. He was only vaguely aware that he was laying on top of the unknown soft object, and did not hear its vehement swears to the legendaries. Only when it began jabbing his eyes with paws did Leo willingly open himself to outside sensory details.
"I understand you're a screw loose, but now really isn't the time for hugs, Leo!" Noah yelled, his voice amplified by the close proximity. Leo's head throbbed with the loud volume of Noah's complaints as the blue Pokémon unceremoniously shoved him off. He sat there in a haze for several seconds, ignoring Noah's frantic shouts and the vibrations of the footsteps caused by the demon closing in on them.
Looking down at his chest revealed three light lacerations that crossed over the previous scar from the last psychotic monster he had fought and lost against. He hadn't had the time to research the gods of this world, but he was almost certain at least one of them didn't want him dead. The cuts barely grazed the cream scales on his chest, though the bruising the kick left behind hurt like something else.
"Get up! Leo, get up!" Noah screamed, his voice beginning to quiver as Leo felt him tuck his paws underneath his shoulders and pull. His mind remained lost in the fog, aware of the dire situation creeping up on him but unable to react. Leo continued to sit, arms lazily slumped in between his legs, his back leaning against Noah's front. He heard the roar, he saw the shadow, he felt the temperature drop, yet numbness ruled with an iron fist.
The attack shot from the creature's outstretched jaws, an awesome wave of below-freezing mist at point-blank range. There was pain, that much he knew. Tiny droplets of dew covered his scales from the rapid heat exposure from his body and only continued to grow colder and colder. Not looking up at the harbinger of his torment, he tried to articulate his claws only to find that they had grown stiff with the freezing. He had somewhat expected that this would be the case once he was finally beaten down, but he didn't anticipate the smoke.
The cold no longer blew over the two beleaguered Pokemon like an angel of death, but was replaced with a silent mist of foul-smelling waste fire spewing forth from over the massive jaws. His eyes tearing from encountering the stinging carcinogen-laced breath as he raised his gaze to the blue-tinted sky above.
The dragon seemed just as surprised as the Pokémon it was supposed to be ripping apart piece by frozen piece. It paused and took a step back, coughing up more of the black gas. Both Leo and Noah watched in disgusted horror as it began clawing at its own chest in an attempt to find out the source of the unnatural element. It screeched in pain as it sheared off the protective ice and dug into flesh that was not its own.
It seemed not to care about the pain it was inflicting upon itself, only to ascertain the truth of the mysterious force that negated its powers. Just before it finished slicing through the rounded flesh in its torso, Leo smiled. He didn't know for what, but whatever it was, he knew it was his handicraft. He felt his mouth curl up into a mad grin as the monster broke through the mock ribs into its chest cavity. A massive tongue of flame erupted from the mass of dried organs that fueled the dim embers of Leo's misguided attack.
With access to a new source of air, the fire spread rapidly. It coiled and slithered around the melting ice and exposed decaying flesh like a snake. The beast having hastened its own demise, writhed in agony as the dead tendons in its legs combusted. Its knees were torches, their orange glow contrasting the blue sunlight. The monster mimicked a mighty tree and crashed to the ground, leaving its legs as smoking stumps. The flickering fire and twisting torso of the dragon went on to cast demented shadows over him and Noah.
His mind was in complete euphoria. Watching the beast that had caused him and his team so much pain rolling around on the dungeon floor on fire made him feel somewhat giddy. Fire licked through the flesh underneath the ice, creating an orange luminary of the inside of its chest cavity. The primal growls and grotesque howls turned into gurgling whimpers as the aftermath of his attack ate away at what remained of the creature's spinal cord.
The pitiful yowls only grew more and more distorted as its vocal cords melted and fused with another. Something in his mind told him this was right. That this unholy creation had no right to live. That it was good it was destroyed --morally right in the eyes of the Fates. It's bones turned to ash as the gluttonous blaze feasted on the rapidly thawing body parts, swiftly working its way to its skull.
He looked it straight in its glowing eyes. No remorse present in his stare, only a desire to see the dragon burn for its crime of bearing the gift of life. Teeth, once proudly displayed in a show of fear, blackened and fell out of their sockets as flames charred the creature's gums. Leo heard the sound of bones cracking for the second time in the last few minutes as the beast's spinal cord broke down and ribs fracturing, allowing its chest to cave in on itself from the weight of burning scales.
Leo wasn't sure if it was a minute or ten when the fire finally enveloped the last of the malformed skull. The flames crackled demonically as if they had been tainted by the evil they were purging. One, last, tortured growl emitted from the blazing jaw before all semblance of organic tissue was destroyed and the glowing eyes faded. At once, a strong breeze whipped across the desolate plain. It seemed to not blow around Leo, but rather went straight through him and the Dewott.
Leo wasn't sure how, but he felt his very soul plunge into an icy abyss. However, as wind is want to do, it quickly blew past the two shivering Pokémon. It wrapped its frozen, whispery hands around the charred skeleton of the beast and proceeded to crush it into a fine powder. Within the span of half a second, the creature that had nearly killed them in a primal haze of programmed hatred was literally dust blowing in the breeze.
The Charmeleon was still unsure how to react as his emotions and most higher motor functions seemed to be on pause. This fact in place, he was even more surprised when Noah suddenly wrapped his arms around the upper part of his chest and squeezed while simultaneously jumping up and down. Leo was brought to his feet far more quickly than his body wanted to be, but Noah wasn't letting him slump back down to the ground anytime soon.
"We did it! We did it! Damn it, we did it! Ha-ha! Leo, we did it!" Noah screamed joyously, not letting his iron grip slip in the slightest. The Dewott bounced from one black foot to the other, jerking Leo along for the entire movement. He couldn't speak, or breathe too well for that matter. Thinking with his instincts, Leo rotated his arm slightly under the Dewott's embrace and extended his wrist out as far as he could.
The protruding claws jabbed Noah in his side and swiftly began the positive-feedback loop of him stopping the worst of his celebratory actions. Noah looked at Leo for a moment before seeing the discomfort he was inflicting upon the Fire-type and letting go. Leo wobbled in place as his legs got used to standing under their own power once again. Noah kept his arms on Leo's shoulders as the Charmeleon stabilized his balance.
"Yeah. We did ... Didn't we?" Leo wheezed with a small smile while also expelling the last of the monster's foul breath from his lungs while speaking. Noah took the opportunity to clap his paw on Leo's right shoulder, causing yet another pained grimace to dart over his features.
"Be excited! We just killed a being that has killed score of the king's men. We're like gods! Or warriors! Or god warriors! Yes! We're god warriors! Leo and Noah: Dragon slayers!" Noah boasted to the wasteland of ice and canyons. His echo seemed to carry on for miles in the desolate, silent dungeon.
Leo wanted to celebrate, to be jovial with the Pokémon who not twenty minutes before had sank his fist into his stomach. He truly wanted to be happy in his apparent victory over the force of evil, but his mind told him otherwise of things that still needed his immediate attention. The very foremost of those things was laying strewn lifeless on the canyon floor among the rocks.
"Jay!" he yelled, snapping out of the stunned hazed that had paralysed his body for the past few minutes. Leo grunted as he roughly twisted Noah around to see the injured Riolu on the ground. The Dewott's mood dissipated rapidly after seeing that bloodied reminder of reality.
In the few minutes that their teammates had been unattended on the ground, Jay's condition seemed to have lapsed from freshly injured to gravely wounded. Leo and Noah crouched on opposite sides of the lifeless Riolu. The Charmeleon's breaths grew slower and more tense as he took in the fullness of Jay's condition.
The bone, or rather as Leo saw, bones, were broken: snapped roughly in half, leaving splintered edges hanging among the marrow. There was little blood. Considering the severity of the wound, that fact should have not been a fact. The little blood that did stream from the fracture pooled on the ground below the mangled limb.
Leo had no idea what to do. Never before had his claws seemed so useless. He knew that the bleeding had to be stopped and that the bone needed to be set, but that was it. Whatever he had been before his complete amnesia, Pokémon or human, he was fairly certain that he did not receive any sort of medical training. At least, not that he could remember.
Noah immediately tore open his worn bag, which had somehow remained on his shoulder the entire time. His black paws pulled out several things, including a ragged, red bandana, a curious set of metal spikes, and a pile of mush that might have been an Oran Berry. He set each item down next to Jay, and pulled his bag back behind his shoulder.
"Do you know what you're doing?" Leo asked as he placed a shaking claw under Jay's chin, trying to feel for a pulse. He hoped it was just because of his trembling grip and adrenaline pumping through his veins, but he could not feel a single beat.
"I wasn't the healer on my old team, but I learned a thing or two from her. However, setting bones wasn't one of them. Based on your obviously clueless expression, you don't know either. Right?" the Dewott answered back, not looking up at Leo as he said it. Leo did not even try to argue the point. He just grunted in affirmation which seemed to be good enough for Noah.
"First off, we have to set it. Leo, hold him still. We can't have him waking up and moving. I'll go on the count of three. Ready?" Noah inquired as he carefully took hold of Jay's foot and slowly twisted the leg back to its normal position. Now, it was a matter of setting it.
"Ready," Leo gulped as he took a tight hold of Jay's bloodied shoulders, unable to avoid the deep gash in the Riolu's left shoulder blade. Dark crimson liquid was pushed out of the tender gash and over Leo's dirtied claws, turning the brownish-white into a muddy red. Regardless of the sanitation breach, Leo did as he was told and squeezed his claws into his teammate's shoulders.
"One. Two. Three!" Noah yelled as he jerked the limb back into place, touching both shattered edges of the bones with a squelched cracking noise. Jay's body unconsciously twitched as the pain undoubtedly seared through his nerves.
The end result was far from any medical standards of neat, or even clean, but it was something. Noah immediately went to work, trying to fit the two metal thorns around the fractured leg and wrap it in the dirt-encrusted bandana to make a crude splint. Leo was sure Quark, the near-vigilante demon purger and part-time healer would be appalled at the numerous health crimes being committed.
"Well, it hardly complies with the Audinonic Oath, but it's the best we can do. Any movement on your end?" Noah asked while taking a quick look at his bloodied handiwork. Leo could only shake his head. To him, there had been almost no improvement in Jay's situation.
"None. Noah, come here. I don't think he's looking too good. Do we have anything else that we can use on him? A magic berry? One of those orb things?" Leo queried, his suggestions getting desperate as his mind tried to think of the items that he had seen work in the past. Noah was by his side at the Riolu's front in a matter of seconds. He bent down and pushed his paw underneath Jay's tilted head.
"Well. That throws a wrench in our plans. We kinda need him to have a pulse so he can heal..." Noah mused as he revealed the ruinous news about his teammate's condition.
"Wait! He's--!" Leo exclaimed as Noah stood up and clapped a paw over his snout.
"Yes. Now, you need to go," the Dewott deadpanned as he pulled Leo over and pushed him towards the gaping maw of the frozen abyss in the middle of the canyon floor. Leo dug his claws into the rocks, stopping Noah's progress in pushing him towards his death.
"Wait! I'm not leaving! Jay needs--!" His shout was cut short as Noah gave him a sharp punch on his shoulder.
"Jay can't be helped right now with what we have. There's someone who needs you more right now, Leo," Noah asserted while giving him a stern stare. Immediately afterwards, he gave him another generous shove towards the edge of the mist-bound pit.
"Don't make me say anything else. Go. Find her. I'll watch him. Just go end this," Noah urged. Leo turned around, only to find that Noah had effectively left beyond the ridge.
He was alone. And only the abyss was there to keep him company.
Noah crouched down beside Jay once again. He lightly ran his paw under the Riolu's cheek. He brushed through the flecks of dried blood in order to find a pulse.
"You've really screwed up, haven't you, Jay? I don't know much about internal injuries, buddy, but it's not looking too good right now. Why'd you go and have to get yourself crunched?" He mumbled as he took his hand away and shook his head solemnly.
"There's nothing. Hopefully you won't fade before Leo gets back. And, I hope you don't mind a royal-style burial stance." He lifted Jay's right arm and laid it across his unmoving chest. He reached over the body to grab the other arm in order to cross it over his right when the atmosphere darkened and tension flooded the air.
"Well, that outlook assumes that no one in the present company knows anything about treating said injuries. Noah, you always jump to conclusions too quickly," the deep, malevolent voice interjected from behind. Noah let out an immense sigh.
"Thank God, you're here! We really need your help right now! Jay's hurt real bad and he ca--" Noah blurted out, the words melding into one incomprehensible sentence. The seemingly omniscient Mismagius raised its tassels and silenced the Dewott. The noise of his voice falling dead on his lips mid-word.
"Yes, it is good to see you as well, Noah. Don't worry about him, he will not die while I am here. Now please, refresh me on what has transpired since you entered this dungeon. Do not spare details, for they are vitally pertinent," he coldly demanded, releasing his otherworldly hold on Noah's voice. The Dewott spent the next few moments in time trying to reiterate every painstakingly precise piece of information he had observed over the past hour.
"It is worse than I feared. I must go. Leo will not be able to confront this. He will not be able to comprehend the truth." His form began to dissipate into the air almost as suddenly as he had arrived. Noah shook himself free of the panicked stupor he had been sealed in.
"Wait! Please help, Jay!" His words fell on deaf, all-hearing ears. The Mismagius only barely flickered back into existence. His golden, petrifying gaze aimed directly at Noah's mind. He felt the being's --his friend's-- presence inside his skull. Memories flipped aside and experience brushed away.
"You may be my friend and can call upon me for anything, but give me one reason why I should help the Riolu. He doesn't matter to me. His life is not vital, like yours. He is a poor leader. He keeps secrets from his team. He is willing to betray them to save his own life. Why do you request I interfere in what the Fates decided?" the specter requested as he floated above the comatose Pokémon. Noah noticed the ghost's eerily red smile was stretched in a mocking grin.
Noah opened his mouth. And then closed it again. For once, he had been rendered completely silent. He had no witty or charmingly smart retort. He had nothing to say in defense.
"So, you, the one who found the good in almost every situation, even at the point of death, cannot find a saving quality in this creature?"
"No ... I can't ..." Noah's whisper skirted the edge of audibility, but the Mismagius heard it loud and clear.
"Then, I might as well be off. I will meet you--" Noah defiantly shook his head.
"Save him. It won't look good on my record if I lose another rookie while crossing here. Torrent will kill me for sure," Noah pleaded, getting on his knees, and fitting his paws together. A soft breeze whispered through the canyon in an ethereal sigh.
"Very well. But, as with any practicing physician, there is always a cost involved with surgery..."
She felt it. Somewhere in the very edge of her consciousness. Beyond the often-corrupted data, the inhibiting coding, endless system orders, delaying prompts, and the ominous, whispering cloud of darkness. Something stirred within.
What is this? she asked, expecting the ever present spirit of the system to respond promptly as it usually did.
[Invalid Command Received]
N-no. It was a valid command. Umm... Search System for Abnormalities. Does that work?
[Command Prompt Not Recognized]
What do you mean 'not recognized'? It was a proper command! System, run debug programs.
[Warning: System Lockdown Initiated. Wait 10 Minutes Before Inputting New Command] In an instant, the world turned into a void of darkness around her. The glowing access portals dimmed and flickered as they shut down temporarily. She was completely alone again. There was no gentle hum of information flowing, no rapid conversations of the Porygon, nothing.
She knew it was no use yelling: she had provoked the system before. The Overseers didn't like it when she asked too many questions. They controlled the portals, and they could shut her out if they wished. She didn't want to make them mad, but her natural curiosity often got the better of her.
If they don't want me asking questions, then why don't they just take out my curiosity? This was just one of the many thoughts that processed through the nexus of her mind. She was infinitely glad that she had managed to manipulate the firewalls a few weeks back to shield her private thoughts from the Overseers. But even the acquisition of privacy didn't explain what she was feeling.
It pulsed through her. Despite being a unable to sense, she smelled ... something. She couldn't quite place a name to the strange scent. It was as if someone had cleaned the space around her and turned it into a smell.
What was the word .... Fresh? Yeah, that's it. Fresh, it smells ... like... fresh. That was the least strange of what she was feeling. The smell was one thing, but the sounds and sights were another thing entirely. She was certain that such sounds weren't even programmed into the system.
They weren't slices of security feed from the crystals, the picture was far too grainy to be from one of them. High places, the pinnacles of kings long ago, so prideful that as the clouds passed them by, they screamed for them to bow like the land below, to no avail. The ground was alive, unlike anything she had seen before. Not even the botanical centers contained such overpowering life. It was so green.
Nothing could compare to this. She felt the data receptors on her form react from touch, yet no one was around. Her mind was a storm while foreign sensations bombarded her like bolts of thunder. She couldn't contain it. Her system was receiving too much new data, too much information, too much emotion, too much sight.
Then, she felt it. Something shifted inside her. A door: unseen but always there. The once-indestructible lock now forced open. It flowed. Through the cracks in the program, over the treacherous bridges of binary code, slipping past the well-crafted firewalls of the Overseers, the very beginnings of a massive deluge. They had tried to keep her asleep, but she was stirring. Awakening.
She knew. She had always known. It was coming back. Light at first, like the first drops of a mighty typhoon. The trivial memories would come first and the pertinent would return after. She had always wanted it, more than anything. To remember what she had been, and what she had become. These sensations, they were the key. The key to a beginning.
The spontaneous genesis of memory.
He didn't know what he was doing, but apparently his legs and body did. He felt his feet lift and fall in a continuous motion down the icy slope into the darkness below. The jagged ice permeating the sides of the pit did little to suade his racing thoughts that all was well. He knew what he had to do. The fire for revenge upon the ice witch only burned fiercer now that Jay had been downed by the unfortunate amalgamation of souls she had stitched together.
"Come on, Leo. Be strong. Be strong. Kelly. I'm coming. I'm--" he muttered before being cut off by a sharp blast of sub-zero air as soon as he crossed the threshold of the cavern. At once, the strings that kept his world aloft were cut one by one.
The ice, previously glowing with a soft, white light, was now consumed by a tar-like substance that oozed from the cold surface. His tail quickly became the last light in the cold purgatory. The ground, a wounded soldier beneath his feet, heaved and writhed as the open gash on its side was at last lashed shut in a shattering collision of ice and rock. And finally, the voice. Just beyond a whisper in the utter darkness. A sinister hush of wind.
Kelly felt cold. Actually, that would be like saying that being hit with Rayquaza's Hyper Beam might leave a bruise. She had only woken up a few minutes before on the floor of an ice-covered cave. The Jolteon shivered in the bitterly cold air, her hair bristling as she struggled to stand on the icy floor.
Looking around the clear, ice cave, she realized that she had no idea how she had gotten here. She shook her head, popping her stiff neck as she did so, trying to clear her mind. The numbing feeling crawling up her paws like a slow army of ants did little to help her concentration, so she settled on pacing about the small, frozen chamber she was stuck in to ward off the effects of frostbite.
Then, light. A flash of lightning in a dark thunderstorm. She remembered. The camp, Torrent, the dungeon, the cold blue sun, the demon, and the song. She shuddered. She had never heard anything so revolting in her life. Even the ancient language lessons she had been given as a kit sounded like an angelic choir when compared to the ravenous notes that spewed forth from the Froslass.
The time in between falling victim to the music and now was an impenetrable fog. It was as if the had blinked while lying on the rough rock of the clearing and the next instant she was here, freezing to death.
"A-alright, Kelly. Just think. What's around us?" she murmured to herself as her breath vaporized into a white mist. She was inside an enclosure of some sort; not small enough to make her claustrophobic, but not large enough for her to feel like she had any breathing room. The walls, upon closer examination proved to be made of rock, covered with a thick layer of ice. That was all she saw before the oddly-luminous ice darkened and the temperature dropped.
"Itaque excitus estis. Amittebant tu eo. Ubi est nunc Ignis?" It was Her. Kelly knew it was too good to be true. The demon had taken her here in the first place; it was only a matter of time before she showed her face again.
Kelly slowly turned around. The near darkness was illuminated only by the otherworldly, yellow, glow of the Froslass's hollow eyes. Fear attempted to seize her, but she repelled their assault.
She wants to speak the Old Language? Fine by me, Kelly thought as she coughed to clear her throat. Words she hadn't spoken since her private lessons years ago came back to her, the archaic pronunciation rules flowing back to her.
"Neutiquam erro, et ipse est parantibus te ergo incendere." The words felt rusty in her mouth, the phrases tasting like iron as she finished her retort. The demon was silent for a moment as if in surprise that someone spoke in her private language.
"So you speak the ancient tongue as well? Quite interesting. Now, my dear, we must wait until Scelus returns with the corpses of your companions," the Froslass observed as she gracefully floated around the Jolteon. Kelly huffed in anger, her heated breath turning into a cloud of vapor.
"No. They're better than that. Jay, Noah, and Leo. All of them are going to get in here and kill you, especially Leo," she snapped as she faced the Ice type's glowing eyes. "Provided I don't get to it first!"
With that, Kelly's fur glowed as electricity. The cool, dry air of the cave was perfect for the attack, making the charging process near-instantaneous. She focused the power and launched it in a swift arc towards the frigid abomination. The lightning flashed a bright blue from the ice as it blasted apart the ice-coated wall.
Where are you? she hissed to herself as she twisted her nearly numb paws in the chilled earth. As soon as she saw the wicked glow, she fired off another blast of organic electricity at the witch. In the light from her bolts, she saw the Froslass gracefully glide through the air around her, avoiding each attack as if it was in slow-motion.
Kelly growled as she followed the demon with every maneuver she did, aiming several blasts at her in quick succession. The lightning rushed through the space, chasing the Froslass around the small cavern. Ice hissed in agony as it was flash-melted by the searing energy.
Her legs felt like they were slowly turning into jelly. Her lungs worked even harder to provide air, but it wasn't enough. Her entire body was very quickly draining. Another lightning blast missed its target. Kelly's stance swayed as she tried to focus her dizzying sight on her chuckling enemy. She built up another charge and let it go, hoping that this time it would hit. Her fur flashed and a small finger of lightning arced through the cave before suddenly fizzling out in midair.
Kelly was too exhausted to gasp in surprise. She panted to try and stay conscious. There was no way she could handle this. She was too tired, too cold, too weak. The dim room tilted, the floor seesawing underneath her. She sunk her claws into the swaying rock, but it was no use. Her legs scrambled, losing all balance, and crashing into the wall. Shards of ice dug into her side.
Kelly heard the shrill laugh of her foe behind her, but she only slumped against the wall. The cold was finally starting to get to her head, playing cruel tricks on her sight and freezing her nerves solid. There was a sound of swishing through air as Kelly felt as the biting wind solidify and slam into the back of her skull. Lightning danced before her eyes before she fell to the floor with a thud.
"Noli contra niti, mi tonitrui."
A storm tore through Kelly's head, ripping apart her rationale, her courage, her reason. She had the strength to break free, but her will had been sapped away like a leaf in the autumn zephyr. She saw them again, the hallucinations that had persisted through every one of her unheard denials and muttered pleas for them to leave her alone, to finally stop their mocking. They didn't speak to her, not audibly, not anymore. She had thought that the nightmare she had the night they were ambushed in their base was the worst of it, but she had been wrong.
She might not have been screamed and spat at by her mother, or cursed and disowned by her father, but every night they were there. Their hollow gazes saying more to her than their mouths ever could. They simply sat there, on the very edge of the ring of smoke inside her head. Their silence was far worse than anything their nightmarish forms ever said.
For what always seemed like an eternity, she'd sit there in front of them being equally as silent. She sat up with her legs tucked underneath in the proper fashion like they had always encouraged and silently begged them to say something to break the unending doldrum of her dream.
Other times, she couldn't stand the silence. The Jolteon occasionally paced around void, circling her parent's unmoving stares. During those select nights were among the worst experiences she could ever remember. For hours upon hours she screamed at her mother and father. About how the choice had not been hers. Tears often left stains on her face as she cried out at the unseeing phantoms that refused to exit her thoughts.
The storm overhead flashed as lightning surged through the void, the bolts striking the ground in between the standoff between the visions and their daughter's consciousness. The raw energy enough to break the tension. She blinked. One instant, she saw the ghostly vestiges of the ones who had given her life, and the next, she saw the hideous face of the one most likely to take it away from her.
"You're awake at last ... Stop struggling you!" the demon hissed as Kelly's vision slowly refocused itself. She was lying in the same position she was earlier, her legs and joints stiff from the cold. Everything seemed blurry, like someone had poured a clear oil over her sight.
"Kelly! Get out of here! Run! G--Gah!" Any semblance of fatigue left her as she rubbed her eyes clear. Her ears had heard it, but she had to see it to believe it. The voice matched up perfectly: the pitch, the ever-present trace of panic, the emotion. There was no mistaking it, not after hearing it by her side for so long.
"Leo!" She shot up, her legs crying out in pain as she skidded along the icy path, and rounded the corner. There was no doubt in her mind now: it was him. She slid to a halt in front of the entrance to the cavern and stared.
The Charmeleon appeared to have gone through hell and back. His scales were darkly discolored with bruises, several of the claws on his feet and hands were snapped off at their base, and he sported a deep gash along the lower part of his chest. Leo was barely sitting up, leaning on his elbow for support as he looked over at her.
"Kelly ... Please, run. You can get-- Hrgh!" His plea was cut off as the Froslass's cold hand wrapped around his throat, forcing him to produce a sickly gurgling sound as he weakly struggled against her. Kelly didn't waste another moment, she bounded through the arched entrance into the room.
Immediately the ground before her exploded in a shower of spear-like shards. Kelly barely managed to avoid impaling herself on the imposing barricade of sharp icicles. The Froslass squealed with laughter as she watched the Jolteon desperately look for a way around the barricade.
No! No! No! No! No! her mind screamed as she clawed at the wall, only to draw her paw back with a cry of pain. Small drops of blood splattered on the cave floor from where the icy spines pricked the pads on her paw.
"Ignis ... You should have run while you could. Now, my pet is feasting on Unda and Rixa and you are here," the Froslass whispered as she hovered over the injured Charmeleon.
"Leo! D-don't worry! I'll --I'll get to you! I just need to build up a charge!" she screamed, focusing on taking deep breaths. She felt the air tingle and crack as it flowed over her bristled fur. Every small bit of power was absorbed into her.
"N-no! P-please don't! N-no-Aghhh! Oh God-- aAHaahh!" Leo's agonized screams made something inside her snap. Kelly didn't know exactly where the energy came from, but within an instant, her fur had overcharged. With a feral scream, she channeled the sparking power into the cursed ice blocking her way.
Just hold on, Leo! The frozen water hissed in fury as Kelly melted her way through the cursed trap. Frigid meltwater pooled around her paws, seeping into the fine, yellow, fur, and systematically painfully numbing each nerve in her legs. A renewed cry from Leo drowned out the high-pitched electric buzz that accompanied her attack, spurring her onwards.
The ice could not hold out against her attack as she vaporized a path through the impediment. Leo was pinned under the Froslass, the snow witch holding down his arms while she gleefully aimed beams of energized ice at the Charmeleon's twitching claws as his body contorted in agony.
Kelly simply stood there, seething with fury as electricity pulsed around her body. The Froslass slowly turned her head away from Leo's pained expression to stare at the intruder.
"Vis eum? Igitur tolle eum," she whispered as she raised one of her wispy arms to Leo's throat, pressing against it with the sharpened blade of ice attached to the underside. Kelly couldn't move. Her legs refused to listen to her mind and move forward. She could do nothing but stare as the demon swiftly drew the blade across Leo's chest, slicing through his scales as if they were paper.
Kelly had no time to react before the thin, white body lunged at her. The Pokémon landed on her back --seemingly immune to the massive amperage Kelly was outputting. Leo shrieked once before a violent guttural sound replaced it. The Froslass sunk her claws deep into Kelly's sides, bringing her to her knees in an instant.
The Jolteon couldn't think straight, nothing made sense anymore. Instead of fighting back tooth and claw, she was fighting back tears. Resistance faded in direct variation to the life of her convulsing partner. The Froslass held down the back of her neck, forcing her to watch the life drain from Leo as air was squeezed from her lungs.
She wanted to scream, to fight, to kill the sadistic Pokémon with her own claws, but instead, only a strangled sob managed break through the deathly cold grip. Kelly gave into the wave of emotions as she finally broke down. Stifled tears rolled down her numb face and onto the ice as she watched Leo's tail fire dim down to nothing.
"There ... Finally ..." The Froslass sighed above her, as she contentedly brushed Kelly's matted fur. "It's broken. Your spirit is broken. Why did you have to make things so difficult, you stubborn, little witch?" Kelly couldn't see straight as the Froslass continued holding her air hostage. Now, as darkness blinded her, she only prayed that everything would finally end.
"Like before, your next body change won't be voluntary."
Author's Notes: It's back. I stopped updating here for some reason, not sure why. But, regardless, I'm back.
Knightfall signing off...
Chapter Fourteen: Exposure
"There are three ways that the Civil War can end: Restoration, Independence, or Revolution. None of which result in the continuation of the monarchy. "
--Historian Frederick Floatzel on the state of the Kingdom approximately three days before he was found murdered in his Silver City apartment.
Ian felt wonderful. Sunlight caressed his long withdrawn skin, green pigment slowly returning to his body. He walked underneath the cool shade of the drooping branches of the willow trees, not a single care pressing his mind. This place was their favorite place to relax, the river near Mt. Thunder where they had first met so long ago. His feet pressed into the soft soil, savoring the earthy texture as he walked along the riverbank.
He held his hand in hers, thankful to Arceus for granting him the ability to stretch his arms so she didn't have to reach. Sunlight glinted off the rapidly flowing river, adding a surreal sense of beauty to the already picturesque mountain scene. Sophie always said how she missed this place. How they --the members of Team Frontier-- used to relax and simply waste their days away along the shore. They wished their Machoke leader could be there with them, enjoying their old haunt, yet they were somehow strangely content at his absence. Yet they knew they should be grieving. Regardless, Ian knew that bringing her back here was the only way he could ever possibly make it up to her for the hell he had forced her to live through.
A sudden blinding pain shot through his chest. For a moment, it felt like he was on fire; it seared his nerves that badly. However, the sensation went away without a trace not a second later.
He returned his focus to the love of his life. The Mawile was breathing in deeply the fresh mountain air as she walked alongside him. He thought back to their adventures in the darkness. Their escape plan had worked to perfection: the back entrance was completely unguarded and the boat unattended. There was little that stood between them and freedom.
They didn't know what compelled them to come here of all places, and Ian couldn't rightly remember how they got there. But they were there, they were free, and they had each other. As far as Ian thought, everything was right in the world in his book. Birds chirped merrily on the new budding branches as the air was perfumed with the generous scents of springtime. Ian loved everything about this place, and he could easily see Sophie did as well by the way she was gently humming and how she twirled herself underneath his arm.
Ian smiled as he decided to play along. He moved his body away from her and arched his arm. Sophie giggled softly as she continued to dance, this time with an actual partner. The two Pokémon began to circle each other in the middle of the mountain path, both pairs of eyes never leaving the other.
In a silent rhythm that existed only between the two of them, they stepped forward, and touched their hands. Ian gave the Mawile a sudden twirl, narrowly missing her elongated ear as it swung behind her. Sophie's yellow frills fluttered as she did a small leap into the air before lightly touching down and stepping close to the Breloom.
Out of the blue, it seemed as if the Black Dragon had summoned a lightning bolt down upon him. Ian's world went out of focus for what seemed several seconds, yet the pain did not resonate within him. When he returned to normal, he saw Sophie looking somewhat dazed and guessed that she must have felt it too.
Ian laughed and gave a small shrug. Taking her hand again, he bent down a gave it a quick kiss before straightening up and continuing with their intricate waltz. Their steps were perfectly in synch, it was as if they had trained all their lives for this one instance. When he moved forward, she leaped back with the grace of a Kirlia on the lavish stage of the Silver City Theater House. His black eyes were lost in her deep red ones as the world spun around them, fading in a whirlwind of flying, pink spring flower buds and verdant green leaves.
He grabbed ahold of both her hands with his and pulled her close to him, while he knelt down to her height level. They didn't need to say anything as everything that could, should, and would have been said had seemingly been answered in their minds. Despite being with her this entire time since their escape from that wretched relic, he felt like he hadn't seen her in what felt like a lifetime.
She pressed her head against his neck, wrapped her arms around his chest, and leaned into his body. After a moment of this silent embrace, Ian felt a sudden dampness against his neck. He tilted his head to look down at her and gently nudged her head up with his claw. Sophie's eyes, shining beautiful crimson jewels, were soaked through with a thin veil of tears.
"I thought I lost you..." she managed to choke out in between her light sobs. Ian rubbed his claws gently along her back under her ear-like jaw in comfort. He would never forgive those heartless fiends that had ensnared her in that horrendous maze. That had forced her to witness the brutal death of Chuck and his own descent into near insanity. The unguarded exit had been a blessing from Celebi in its purest form and they had not wasted their chance. Ian gently brushed aside her thin, black ears as she tucked her head against his neck once again.
"Don't worry, Sophie. I'm here now. Nothing will change that. I promise you," Ian whispered as the world grew still around them. The perfect scene seemed to hang forever in the air for Ian, the river, the mountains, the sun, the trees, the smell, Sophie. He never wanted it to end. And, no one, not even Arceus Himself would keep him from being with her.
And then, it felt as if a spear was run through his stomach. He felt the invisible blow immediately upon impact. He was torn away from Sophie as his body was thrust backwards and shoved into the ground. In a daze, he looked up at the Mawile. She was currently struggling against some other unseen attacker in the form of a whirlwind. The very leaves and symbols of spring held her away from him. Just far enough so she could only watch helplessly.
Something like a bolt of lightning surged through his body, frying his nerves, and causing him to convulse erratically on the ground. Through his glazed eyes, he saw the valley around them swim and begin to seemingly implode upon itself. The vibrant slopes of lush, green trees shifted to an unmoving wall of rusted iron. The fresh, clear river engulfed him in a ocean of revolting sludge. As he struggled to breathe under the weight of the filth, he could still see Sophie clear as day, yelling for him at the top her lungs.
He struggled to reach through the crushing wave of the sewage to her, but the pressure held his arms down against the newly created stone floor that slammed into his back. The vague shapes of mountains wobbled in reality before flickering out of existence like a candle in the wind. Ugly ceilings and walls of stone and iron slowly engulfed the pristine blue skies. Fluffy white clouds were swiftly poisoned by the foul, damp air.
"Ian! You're alive! Oh, thank the Maker, you're alive!" a jarring, static-filled voice screamed from somewhere far above him. Ian paid it no heed as he threw several erratic punches into the sludge, breaking its hold on his body.
"Sophie? Sophie!" he screamed while simultaneously gasping for precious lungfuls of air. Sludge dripped from the brow of his wilting seed cap. He looked around the tunnel, unable to see any of the vivid landscape that had presented itself to the both of them earlier. Then, he saw her. Sophie was standing on a small island of perfectly green grass in the middle of the toxic lake. Her red eyes were staring at him, pleading that he come back to her.
"Ian! D-don't go! Not again!" she cried, tears freely dripping down her face.
He lunged forward through the liquid only to collapse with an agonized shriek as the already fractured bone in his right leg snapped in half. He fell into the shallow sludge, clutching his critically injured leg as bacterium-riddled slop seeped into the wound. Ian clawed at the smooth stone shore as he desperately tried to extract himself from the pool of waste chemicals.
"Here, grab my wing! That's it, come on!" the static voice barked suddenly. Ian blindly grasped at the blue, rounded, appendage and pulled. Ian felt himself exit the water and land on the hard surface. Gasping for breath, he used his other claw to drag himself further away from the vile lake and the vestiges of Sophie.
"There you go, Ian. Come on. Breathe, that's it," the voice Ian recognized as Vertex encouraged. Ian didn't reply immediately. He tilted his head to the side and began hacking up the remainder of the waste-water in his lungs. As he wretched up the envenomed liquid, his thoughts returned to the haunting vision.
"Vertex ... I saw her," the Breloom wheezed in between choking coughs. Greenish fluid from Ian's lungs splattered the artificial intelligence's front, yet Vertex didn't even blink as he leaned in closer to his beaten friend.
"Ian, it wasn't real. You know that. It's just like all the others," the upgraded Porygon reprimanded as he left the Breloom's side for one moment to pick up a squashed Oran Berry. Holding the organic mass in his beak, he floated back over to Ian.
"Here, eat this. It should combat the infection and dull the pain temporarily," he ordered, as Ian weakly opened his mouth. Vertex shook his head disapprovingly and let the berry go, dropping it down to Ian. The Breloom swallowed it whole with a loud gulp, shutting his eyes as he let the healing properties flow through him.
"No. It wasn't --It wasn't a vision. It was more than that ... I-I swear it was!" Ian yelled, leaning against the stone wall of the waste tunnel from the maze above. The condensation on the walls felt soothing against his bruised back and neck. He let his body absorb the clean water through his skin, slaking his thirst for the meantime.
"Just like all the other times you said that, hmm? Ian, stop kidding yourself. She's gone. I was there when she died. All her vital signs were zero, nothing, finished. Let her go," Vertex urged once again, scanning the above halls for signs of their oppressors. Aside from scores of Pokémon leisurely walking from one place to the next -- completely uninformed and unaware of their plight.
"N-No! Vertex, you -you don't get it! She talked to me, Vertex! She talked back! It wasn't just a vision! She was there this time!" Ian suddenly screamed, tears streaming down his face as his arm stretched and clutched the Porygon 2's narrow throat. "You have to believe me! Believe me! Believe me!" Vertex screeched in alarm and struggled to free himself from his friend's delusional grip.
"Ian! Ian! Ian! I believe you! Listen to me: I believe you, Ian!" Vertex shouted, his voice processor straining to get through to the crying Breloom. As Vertex hoped, Ian quickly released his claws with a loud sob and collapsed on the construct. Vertex let out an electronically-tuned groan as he struggled to remain floating with the accession of his friend's weight on his body. Vertex had no idea how long the Breloom would keep up his action, but he was prepared to do anything to keep his mind as stable as he possibly could.
"Don't worry, Ian. We'll find her. We will, I promise," Vertex said gently, magnetically lifting his wing and patting Ian's back. The former sentry knew it was a hollow promise --the dead would remain dead-- but he'd help his friend find closure. Even if the truth would probably kill them both.
Leo hadn't let up in the slightest. He swung his claws into the stubborn brush and thorns into a path had formed for the three Pokémon. Despite Noah's increasingly pessimistic protests about marching to their doom, Jay's wavering will, and Leo's equally venomous arguments to keep on going forward for Kelly, they pressed onwards.
Blue light glinted off his dusted scales, the cold sun bathing him in its ethereal light. Leo had managed to keep up the facade of tireless determination, but his strength was waning. He hadn't stopped moving since he had woken up hours ago back in the camp. The muscles in his legs burned with every step over the rough terrain.
"Leo--" Noah called from the back of their line as they trampled the dry vegetation in the narrow canyon pass.
"Shut up, Noah. I'm -- We're not leaving her. We can't. Not like this," Leo snapped as he sliced through the final piece of bramble and stumbled into the newest clearing.
"I don't know, Leo. Maybe Noah's righ--" Jay began before Leo quickly rounded on him.
"No, Jay! You've known her the longest, and now you're going to give up? I thought you were the leader here!" Leo screamed, his tail flame flaring and steam issuing him his nose as his emotions fumed. He glared at the Riolu, his blue eyes staring daggers at Jay's red irises. The tension in the air rose until it had pressurized into pure, solidified hatred.
Leo didn't let up until his leader reluctantly looked away. The Riolu hung his head in apparent shame. Leo angrily huffed as he returned his attention to the open space in the canyon where the valleys converged. Noah strode forward, roughly shoving Leo into the rock face as he forced his way in front.
"No. I'm not going to risk my skin for her. I may not be one to follow the rules or safety the majority of the time, but we're leaving right now. Jay, back me up here," the Dewott said firmly, stamping his foot on the ground to affirm his stance.
"What do you think you're doing? We already went through this: we're going after her. You're not changing your mind now," Leo growled, peeling his front off the layered rock face and advancing towards the scowling otter. Jay didn't say anything as he silently padded around the conflicting Pokémon, avoiding giving any answer.
"Well. I'm not getting killed and I don't think you have any authority on what I do, pal," Noah shot back, placing his paw on the Charmeleon's chest and lightly pushing him back as a warning. Leo wasn't deterred in the slightest.
"You don't have a choice! We're going! Don't make me--" Leo retorted as Noah stepped forward, and before Leo could react, delivered a swift undercut to his stomach. Leo immediately stumbled back and doubled over along the side of the canyon. He managed to hiss a few mangled swears over his pained coughs as his insides recoiled from the surprise hit.
"I do have a choice, Leo. So does Jay. And so do you. And I don't care what you do with yours, but I'm not going to let you make ours for us. I want to live. If you don't, then you can keep on marching because that thing won't hesitate to rip you apart!" The Dewott stood over Leo for a moment before shaking his head. Leo refused to look up at him.
"Come on Jay. There's an exit over in the western path. Let's go. We'll mourn the dead once we're sure we made it out alive," Noah said as he pointed his paw in the direction of the sinking, blue sun. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jay standing next to the traitor, somberly nodding in agreement.
"Jay! So you're -- You're just giving up on her?" Leo shouted as he strained to get to his feet, steam emanating from his nose and mouth once again. The Riolu shifted, shifting the strap of his bag on his shoulder in discomfort.
"I -- I don't want to die. I saw what happened back there. Leo ... I think Noah's right." Leo sucked in a sharp breath in protest at Jay's words. His claws curled into a fist. He couldn't believe this was happening. While it was true that he still knew virtually nothing of Jay and Kelly's history as a team, he had thought that bond would keep Jay on his side.
With that thought, he lunged forward. Leo swung his fist, channeling every bit of his frustration and disbelief into the attack. If he hadn't been so focused on pounding sense into his leader's head, Leo might have noticed that his clawed fist was glowing with a bright, white aura. The fact that he just activated a latent power of his new body lost on his enraged mind.
Jay recoiled, clutching his head as he cried out in pain. The Riolu stumbled backwards, violently cursing Leo's existence. The Dewott, oddly, despite his earlier actions, did not interfere.
"Some leader you are," Leo replied acidically as he brutishly drove his elbow into Jay's stomach, forcing him to his knees. He would have continued. He wouldn't have let up on his assault if the ground in the clearing hadn't rended open in a blast of frozen brimstone and clay.
Leo had seen things during his time in this world. Things that plowed through the barrier of what was right and what was unspeakably wrong with the force of a tidal wave. He had seen psychopaths, hallucinations, and the image of death itself, yet he had persevered. What appeared from under the cloud of ice dust instantly secured a spot in his mind for the absolute worst thing Leo had ever seen.
The three bickering Pokémon froze where they stood, as a dark, looming figure rose from the mist-bound hole in the ground. From what he could see among the choked air, the creature looked like a multi-colored dragon, but as its large form ominously stomped out into plain sight, Leo saw why Noah possessed such an adamant fear.
The patches of different colors he had originally saw were actually slabs of dried flesh held together by a thick coating of ice skin. Different pallets of dull furs, tarnished scales, and decaying skin made up the repulsive hide of the monster, stitched together by sinew that served as thread for the squares of flesh. Somewhere in the back corners of his mind, Leo was vaguely wondering just how many different species unwillingly contributed to the generation of the abomination.
In the short moments that followed, Leo saw that it possessed a vaguely dragon-like body with disproportionate limbs that seemed to have been chosen at random. A thick, muscular leg and large, clawed foot stamped the ground next to a thin, metallic, bird leg and steel talon big enough to crush him in one step.
A pair of horribly mismatched wings sprouted from the creature's icy back. On one side, majestic, orange and white plumage plucked off a bird, while the other side sported fragile, transparent, oval wings torn from an ungodly large insect. The seemingly useless appendages fluttered and buzzed erratically as the beast lumbered forwards out of the pit from which it was born.
Leo wanted to move. To hide. To run away as fast as he possibly could. But something held him, Jay, and Noah in place. He didn't understand it; there was no paralysis, no archaic binding spells, nothing of that sort. It was fear. The pure, radiating terror that emanated from the gaping maw and stinking flesh.
He had never felt so disgusted and horrified at the same time. Not when he was being poisoned in Spore Meadows, not when Nexus had killed him or the subsequent vision trip, not even during the sadistic mental bombardment by the Mismagius compared to the overwhelming tsunami of trepidation that surged towards him.
The earth vibrated beneath Leo's feet as the monster tramped through the clearing. Without warning, the dragon raised its mottled head and roared. Its primal voice as deep and gurgled as if it was choking on something. Its breath instantly froze the mist in the air, transforming the benign weather to a miniature, freezing blizzard.
The exhaled wind painfully struck them, its wizened hands roughly slapping every inch of exposed flesh that it could possibly reach, driving its stinging, pointed fingers into them. Leo raised his arms to shield his face from the flurry and planted his feet firmly against the rocky ground.
Teeth. Hundreds of them lined every inch inside of its gaping maw, all harvested from countless species of Pokémon. The layer of clear ice over its flesh allowed Leo to see the decaying interior of the creature. The Charmeleon felt whatever remained of his previous meal lurch up in his throat and splash over his fangs onto the ground as the creature's horrifying, cold, breath washed over him like a wave of raw sewage.
He had closed his eyes for an instant to avoid the frozen air. When he opened them again, the creature, which had been several meters away, was now huffing clouds of rotten air from directly above him. Leo's heart was beating faster than a hummingbird's wings, nearly stopping as the abomination lowered its disfigured head and looked him dead on with it's yellow, glowing eyes.
For a second, his will wavered. His thoughts concerning Kelly were replaced by the impending doom panting like a heinous dog over him. His eyes darted to either side of him, both Jay and Noah seemed to be in similar states; numb from the cold and fear.
There was no warning as the monster suddenly picked up its metallic talon and slammed it into Jay's torso. Swinging its massively oversized arms and claws, it bulldozed into Leo's side, sending both him and Noah skidding along the rocks. His world turned into a blur, he couldn't see what was up and what was down until gravity kindly reminded him by grinding his back with gravel. A feeling akin to a bolt of lightning shot up his tail as the sensitive tip connected with the suffocating soil.
Leo arched his back and rolled over, breathing hard as his lungs worked to return air to his body. Clawing at the earth, he managed to twist his body over again, prop himself up on arms, and blink dust out of his tearing eyes. Clarity returned to his sight just in time to behold the creature poising above Jay, as if readying to kill downed prey.
Jay was pinned with his back against the ground, held down by the cold talon. The Riolu was biting his lip as the sharp hooks embedded into the tips dug into his left shoulder. Leo couldn't see the creature's face, but it let out a gurgling snort in what seemed to be glee as it pressed its foot down even harder. Jay let out a scream as the hook was pushed deeper, and the pressure grew on his chest.
This seemed to please the monster, but it seemingly got quickly bored of the slow torture as it lifted its talon up; the hook-like claw twisting as it exited Jay's shoulder. The Riolu instinctively grabbed the bloodied wound with his paw now that the weight was lifted. His blue fur was stained scarlet as he tried to stem the flow from the stab wound.
Leo tried to move, but his body went only in slow motion, his arms wobbling as his muscles strained against exhaustion. This meant he could only watch as the talon slammed down again. Leo didn't hear a crack, but by Jay's agonized cry, he guess that something inside his chest snapped under the sudden pressure.
To Leo's horror, the creature didn't stop with the first blow. It raised its talon and slammed it down again. Jay's screams only intensified as the hooks and weight tore into his chest and arms. The beast roared, pausing in its assault for a second. It lifted up its grotesque head and aimed its mouth at the Riolu. A stream of blue energy dripped off its teeth and coagulated into a dense sphere just outside its cracked, torn jaw.
In a single blink of his eyes, Leo saw the sphere jump through the space from the monster's mouth to the lower half of Jay's right leg. The sphere exploded, tendrils of ice swarmed from Jay's knee, down to his foot, and slunk into the ground where they solidified into a frozen mass locking him in place. Jay could only hiss in pain as his leg was placed in a numb prison.
The aura of fear that had held his heart and limbs in an iron pen seemed to dissipate. Leo managed to scramble to his feet just as the dragon-thing was preparing to continue crushing Jay with his talon. He vaguely heard Noah's warcry behind him as he dashed over the canyon clearing, trying to ignore the pain that seared his nerves, the exhaustion that played with his mind, and the monstrosities that wanted him dead.
He prepared his claws to strike. He knew it wouldn't do much against the icy hide, but as long as it kept Jay from being pummeled into the earth, he would give it a shot. His mind seemed to finally have found the switch that inhibited him all this time. The cruel memories suppressed, the visions stopped, and his rational, screaming for him to turn tail and run, bound, gagged, and stuffed into a broom closet. Leo screamed, a slightly deranged sound, but terrifying nonetheless.
He wasn't sure if it was his scream or the blade of pressurized water that shot into the creature's ice-coated, mismatched arm was what took its attention off the barely conscious Riolu. Leo snuck a quick look over his shoulder to see that the Dewott was condensing another set of water blades on his shells. Holding the scallops in front of him, Noah swiftly turned in a circle, and give a sharp cry as the water blades launched off of the shells towards the monster.
The blades dug into the ice and created cracks along the dragon's side, but they were nothing more than a mosquito bite. Leo couldn't possibly sprint fast enough to intervene, even if his legs didn't feel like someone was heating them with a blowtorch. They were too late in acting. With what happened next, Leo wasn't sure if it would have been better if he had never moved in the first place.
Instead of delivering a crushing stomp, the duel act of screaming Charmeleon and slicing Dewott managed to distract the hellish spawn so that it kicked Jay to the side as it turned towards them. Jay moved violently to the side first. And then followed his imprisoned leg.
If Leo nearly got sick earlier from the smell of the beast, his stomach again twisted into a knot as the loud, organic crack echoed through the clearing. Jay's tortured scream drowned out even the primal grunts of the dragon as his right leg bent and bone splintered. Fortunately, the ice shattered as well, leaving the shattered limb connected to the Riolu. Blood slowly seeped from the open wound, dripping past the fragments of bone that poked through the blue fur.
Despite his leader's behavior earlier, Leo wanted nothing more than to help him as the excruciating yells penetrated his head. The only problem being the act against God that stalked towards them at a surprisingly swift pace given its massive unbalanced stature of talon and foot. Leo gulped as it came closer.
No. I can't freeze up again. I won't! his thoughts screamed. There was no other option. He had to stand up now. Not only for Kelly, but for Jay, Noah, and all the others waiting for them on the other side of the dungeon: Icarus, Blade, Elliot, Sonic, and Torrent.
He swung his arm, glowing claws slicing into the ice on the gargantuan, dragon leg. White cracks spread from the point of impact, but otherwise did nothing. The creature looked down at Leo, blank eyes seeing him as something to be terminated.
Before he knew what was happening, Leo felt his body turn to ice as claws wrapped around his torso. Air became a luxury as the beast squeezed what limited quantities remained out of his lungs and he was lifted to the creature's face. All he could see was the wide, nightmarish abyss of a jaw stretching open towards him. Teeth gleamed in a bleached white as the mouth seemed to grow larger in an effort to swallow him whole.
He heard Noah's forceful cries from down below, not relenting even in the face of the impenetrable flesh. On the verge of his hearing, just below the blasts of chilled exhaust and Noah's fight, Jay's whimpering slowly tapered out into silence. Leo couldn't see much of anything aside from the terrifying mask of ice the creature wore over the amalgamation of Pokémon that served as its face and the crushing claws trying to snap every bone in his torso.
Thoughts raced wildly around Leo's panicking mind as it swiftly began starving for oxygen. Thoughts of failure. Thoughts of inequity. Fairness. He laughed on the inside. There was nothing fair about what happened to him. He had drawn the shortest straw in the Fates' demented game. Doomed to failure, just as the reaper had foretold. He wasn't a hero, because heroes didn't die in the clutches of a monster.
A blade of water shattered through the ice on the leg, exposing the dying flesh beneath to the Dewott's wrath, but it did nothing. Leo swore he could hear his bones straining under the pressure, fragile ribs laced with hairline fractures and organs bruised. Every struggling movement was a labor of intense proportions, as if he was burdened of the Ropes of the Titan and tasked with pulling the continents alongside each twitch of his muscles.
A slight wave of comfort passed over him when he felt the heat build up in his lungs. He knew it would be a matter of seconds before the jet of fire would blast the dragon directly in its hideous face and hopefully buy him a ticket out of the crushing grip. The compressed flame continued to grow inside of him, scorching his throat as it did so.
The beast must have been smarter than its primal grunts and howls let on, because it shifted its grip on Leo's body. Most of the pressure on his chest was released, but replaced by a tight hold around his neck, only allowing for the tiniest gasps of air to keep him from suffocating. His freed arms clawed at his captor, but without the ability to concentrate energy, he couldn't possibly charge an attack powerful enough to scratch its skin.
The heat made his lungs boil. Without a release, the temperature inside only grew hotter and hotter. His reptilian skin prevented him from sweating, the claw around his throat kept the fire in his chest, and he couldn't get the strength needed to draw even a single breath. His mind went in and out of focus. Thoughts of escape from the death grip blurred and withered as his brain diverted all efforts into maintaining the limited flow of air he managed to suck in among the putrid exhaust exuding from the creature's foul breath.
His ribcage felt as if it was an instant away from popping open like a heated kernel of corn, and he did not think the ensuing result would be nearly as delicious. Leo clawed at the limb clamped around his throat, his claws scraping against the frozen appendages. He lifted his legs up and kicked at the iron hold, each action becoming more and more desperate as fire twisted on the convection current inside his chest.
As his body began to fail, the Fates decided to end their apparent game with their lab rat. From the corner of his distorted vision came a sphere of blue. It launched up from the ground and rocketed through the air, slamming into the temple of the dragon's malformed skull. It exploded in a shower of pressurized water and splattered painfully against his limp body and drooping, dimming tail. Concentration broken, the creature lifted its huge arm, and tossed Leo into the air like a rag doll, freeing another claw to fight against Noah.
The world twisted and spun around him as he flew into the air, blue sun at his airborne feet and the imminent threat of gravity and ground at his head. His eyes locked with the beast's soulless, yellow ones yet again as the dragon howled at him. Its mouth was stretched open wide, waiting for him to fall down into the dark bowls. Fire rushed from Leo's lungs into his now-unobstructed throat. The attack threatened to sear off his tongue and taste buds as fire blasted through his jaws into the open air.
The jet of combusting matter broke through the waves of molecules separating Leo from the upturned head of the beast. Flames shot into the gaping set of jaws, the wide spray of fire not even touching the rotting sides or frozen teeth that lined the inside. Like water down a drain, the attack slipped down the roaring throat seamlessly. Leo couldn't help but be a little weirded out at the fact that his fire simply left his throat for another.
The fire vanished as it blasted down the creature's dry, cracked throat, and to no effect on its health either. Leo didn't have any time to lament the waste of the attack as gravity took a hold of his form and began its ever-quickening descent as it exerted its force against the vacuum of space. He landed face-first onto the creature's icy back, directly between the mismatched wings.
Before his head had stopped spinning, the monster beneath him bucked and roared in an attempt to kick the intruder off. Leo dug his claws into the stiff, fleshy bases of the two sets of wings. The wings in question flapped and buzzed erratically, slapping Leo's face with every fevered movement and bruising is snout with the repeated hits.
Leo struggled to keep his grip, the alternative being thrown to the ground and crushed by the combination of talon and claw. He could feel water spraying around him from the continued assault of the Dewott down below. In between the flaps of the wings, he could see Noah sprinting away from the swiping claws and Ice Beams while keeping attention away from Jay, still unconscious in the crater.
He could feel his claws slipping, the wings were moving too much for him to even attempt to regain his loosening grip. Leo grunted as he embedded the pointed tips into the pulsing mass of muscle fiber under the thin layer of flexible ice, but only succeeded in tearing off a dried chunk when he tried to pull himself up.
With that development, combined with the beast's renewed vigor to get him off, Leo tumbled over the frail dragonfly wings to the ground. He took some sort of satisfaction knowing that he tore through the flimsy material with his flailing claws. The rocky dungeon floor embraced him fully, its jagged arms wrapping around his back to complete his discomfort on all parts of his body.
Again, his mind was deprived of the chance to filter out which section of his body hurt the most as the last thing he saw was a reptilian foot aiming at his torso. The next few seconds mixed together in time like salt dissolving in water. His chest felt as if it had been torn open by a series of rusted gardening tools.
Leo felt himself go limp as he flew in a low arc above the rough ground. He had resigned himself to land on the rocks, ready to accept their sharp and pointed jabs at his self-image. Their calloused laughs would brush up against his scales like sandpaper and Leo was willing to let it happen. Yet, the scathing insults from the planet's exterior never came. Something far softer than stone intercepted Leo's trajectory.
Leo refused to open his eyes until he was certain that the world around him stopped mimicking a whirlpool. He was only vaguely aware that he was laying on top of the unknown soft object, and did not hear its vehement swears to the legendaries. Only when it began jabbing his eyes with paws did Leo willingly open himself to outside sensory details.
"I understand you're a screw loose, but now really isn't the time for hugs, Leo!" Noah yelled, his voice amplified by the close proximity. Leo's head throbbed with the loud volume of Noah's complaints as the blue Pokémon unceremoniously shoved him off. He sat there in a haze for several seconds, ignoring Noah's frantic shouts and the vibrations of the footsteps caused by the demon closing in on them.
Looking down at his chest revealed three light lacerations that crossed over the previous scar from the last psychotic monster he had fought and lost against. He hadn't had the time to research the gods of this world, but he was almost certain at least one of them didn't want him dead. The cuts barely grazed the cream scales on his chest, though the bruising the kick left behind hurt like something else.
"Get up! Leo, get up!" Noah screamed, his voice beginning to quiver as Leo felt him tuck his paws underneath his shoulders and pull. His mind remained lost in the fog, aware of the dire situation creeping up on him but unable to react. Leo continued to sit, arms lazily slumped in between his legs, his back leaning against Noah's front. He heard the roar, he saw the shadow, he felt the temperature drop, yet numbness ruled with an iron fist.
The attack shot from the creature's outstretched jaws, an awesome wave of below-freezing mist at point-blank range. There was pain, that much he knew. Tiny droplets of dew covered his scales from the rapid heat exposure from his body and only continued to grow colder and colder. Not looking up at the harbinger of his torment, he tried to articulate his claws only to find that they had grown stiff with the freezing. He had somewhat expected that this would be the case once he was finally beaten down, but he didn't anticipate the smoke.
The cold no longer blew over the two beleaguered Pokemon like an angel of death, but was replaced with a silent mist of foul-smelling waste fire spewing forth from over the massive jaws. His eyes tearing from encountering the stinging carcinogen-laced breath as he raised his gaze to the blue-tinted sky above.
The dragon seemed just as surprised as the Pokémon it was supposed to be ripping apart piece by frozen piece. It paused and took a step back, coughing up more of the black gas. Both Leo and Noah watched in disgusted horror as it began clawing at its own chest in an attempt to find out the source of the unnatural element. It screeched in pain as it sheared off the protective ice and dug into flesh that was not its own.
It seemed not to care about the pain it was inflicting upon itself, only to ascertain the truth of the mysterious force that negated its powers. Just before it finished slicing through the rounded flesh in its torso, Leo smiled. He didn't know for what, but whatever it was, he knew it was his handicraft. He felt his mouth curl up into a mad grin as the monster broke through the mock ribs into its chest cavity. A massive tongue of flame erupted from the mass of dried organs that fueled the dim embers of Leo's misguided attack.
With access to a new source of air, the fire spread rapidly. It coiled and slithered around the melting ice and exposed decaying flesh like a snake. The beast having hastened its own demise, writhed in agony as the dead tendons in its legs combusted. Its knees were torches, their orange glow contrasting the blue sunlight. The monster mimicked a mighty tree and crashed to the ground, leaving its legs as smoking stumps. The flickering fire and twisting torso of the dragon went on to cast demented shadows over him and Noah.
His mind was in complete euphoria. Watching the beast that had caused him and his team so much pain rolling around on the dungeon floor on fire made him feel somewhat giddy. Fire licked through the flesh underneath the ice, creating an orange luminary of the inside of its chest cavity. The primal growls and grotesque howls turned into gurgling whimpers as the aftermath of his attack ate away at what remained of the creature's spinal cord.
The pitiful yowls only grew more and more distorted as its vocal cords melted and fused with another. Something in his mind told him this was right. That this unholy creation had no right to live. That it was good it was destroyed --morally right in the eyes of the Fates. It's bones turned to ash as the gluttonous blaze feasted on the rapidly thawing body parts, swiftly working its way to its skull.
He looked it straight in its glowing eyes. No remorse present in his stare, only a desire to see the dragon burn for its crime of bearing the gift of life. Teeth, once proudly displayed in a show of fear, blackened and fell out of their sockets as flames charred the creature's gums. Leo heard the sound of bones cracking for the second time in the last few minutes as the beast's spinal cord broke down and ribs fracturing, allowing its chest to cave in on itself from the weight of burning scales.
Leo wasn't sure if it was a minute or ten when the fire finally enveloped the last of the malformed skull. The flames crackled demonically as if they had been tainted by the evil they were purging. One, last, tortured growl emitted from the blazing jaw before all semblance of organic tissue was destroyed and the glowing eyes faded. At once, a strong breeze whipped across the desolate plain. It seemed to not blow around Leo, but rather went straight through him and the Dewott.
Leo wasn't sure how, but he felt his very soul plunge into an icy abyss. However, as wind is want to do, it quickly blew past the two shivering Pokémon. It wrapped its frozen, whispery hands around the charred skeleton of the beast and proceeded to crush it into a fine powder. Within the span of half a second, the creature that had nearly killed them in a primal haze of programmed hatred was literally dust blowing in the breeze.
The Charmeleon was still unsure how to react as his emotions and most higher motor functions seemed to be on pause. This fact in place, he was even more surprised when Noah suddenly wrapped his arms around the upper part of his chest and squeezed while simultaneously jumping up and down. Leo was brought to his feet far more quickly than his body wanted to be, but Noah wasn't letting him slump back down to the ground anytime soon.
"We did it! We did it! Damn it, we did it! Ha-ha! Leo, we did it!" Noah screamed joyously, not letting his iron grip slip in the slightest. The Dewott bounced from one black foot to the other, jerking Leo along for the entire movement. He couldn't speak, or breathe too well for that matter. Thinking with his instincts, Leo rotated his arm slightly under the Dewott's embrace and extended his wrist out as far as he could.
The protruding claws jabbed Noah in his side and swiftly began the positive-feedback loop of him stopping the worst of his celebratory actions. Noah looked at Leo for a moment before seeing the discomfort he was inflicting upon the Fire-type and letting go. Leo wobbled in place as his legs got used to standing under their own power once again. Noah kept his arms on Leo's shoulders as the Charmeleon stabilized his balance.
"Yeah. We did ... Didn't we?" Leo wheezed with a small smile while also expelling the last of the monster's foul breath from his lungs while speaking. Noah took the opportunity to clap his paw on Leo's right shoulder, causing yet another pained grimace to dart over his features.
"Be excited! We just killed a being that has killed score of the king's men. We're like gods! Or warriors! Or god warriors! Yes! We're god warriors! Leo and Noah: Dragon slayers!" Noah boasted to the wasteland of ice and canyons. His echo seemed to carry on for miles in the desolate, silent dungeon.
Leo wanted to celebrate, to be jovial with the Pokémon who not twenty minutes before had sank his fist into his stomach. He truly wanted to be happy in his apparent victory over the force of evil, but his mind told him otherwise of things that still needed his immediate attention. The very foremost of those things was laying strewn lifeless on the canyon floor among the rocks.
"Jay!" he yelled, snapping out of the stunned hazed that had paralysed his body for the past few minutes. Leo grunted as he roughly twisted Noah around to see the injured Riolu on the ground. The Dewott's mood dissipated rapidly after seeing that bloodied reminder of reality.
In the few minutes that their teammates had been unattended on the ground, Jay's condition seemed to have lapsed from freshly injured to gravely wounded. Leo and Noah crouched on opposite sides of the lifeless Riolu. The Charmeleon's breaths grew slower and more tense as he took in the fullness of Jay's condition.
The bone, or rather as Leo saw, bones, were broken: snapped roughly in half, leaving splintered edges hanging among the marrow. There was little blood. Considering the severity of the wound, that fact should have not been a fact. The little blood that did stream from the fracture pooled on the ground below the mangled limb.
Leo had no idea what to do. Never before had his claws seemed so useless. He knew that the bleeding had to be stopped and that the bone needed to be set, but that was it. Whatever he had been before his complete amnesia, Pokémon or human, he was fairly certain that he did not receive any sort of medical training. At least, not that he could remember.
Noah immediately tore open his worn bag, which had somehow remained on his shoulder the entire time. His black paws pulled out several things, including a ragged, red bandana, a curious set of metal spikes, and a pile of mush that might have been an Oran Berry. He set each item down next to Jay, and pulled his bag back behind his shoulder.
"Do you know what you're doing?" Leo asked as he placed a shaking claw under Jay's chin, trying to feel for a pulse. He hoped it was just because of his trembling grip and adrenaline pumping through his veins, but he could not feel a single beat.
"I wasn't the healer on my old team, but I learned a thing or two from her. However, setting bones wasn't one of them. Based on your obviously clueless expression, you don't know either. Right?" the Dewott answered back, not looking up at Leo as he said it. Leo did not even try to argue the point. He just grunted in affirmation which seemed to be good enough for Noah.
"First off, we have to set it. Leo, hold him still. We can't have him waking up and moving. I'll go on the count of three. Ready?" Noah inquired as he carefully took hold of Jay's foot and slowly twisted the leg back to its normal position. Now, it was a matter of setting it.
"Ready," Leo gulped as he took a tight hold of Jay's bloodied shoulders, unable to avoid the deep gash in the Riolu's left shoulder blade. Dark crimson liquid was pushed out of the tender gash and over Leo's dirtied claws, turning the brownish-white into a muddy red. Regardless of the sanitation breach, Leo did as he was told and squeezed his claws into his teammate's shoulders.
"One. Two. Three!" Noah yelled as he jerked the limb back into place, touching both shattered edges of the bones with a squelched cracking noise. Jay's body unconsciously twitched as the pain undoubtedly seared through his nerves.
The end result was far from any medical standards of neat, or even clean, but it was something. Noah immediately went to work, trying to fit the two metal thorns around the fractured leg and wrap it in the dirt-encrusted bandana to make a crude splint. Leo was sure Quark, the near-vigilante demon purger and part-time healer would be appalled at the numerous health crimes being committed.
"Well, it hardly complies with the Audinonic Oath, but it's the best we can do. Any movement on your end?" Noah asked while taking a quick look at his bloodied handiwork. Leo could only shake his head. To him, there had been almost no improvement in Jay's situation.
"None. Noah, come here. I don't think he's looking too good. Do we have anything else that we can use on him? A magic berry? One of those orb things?" Leo queried, his suggestions getting desperate as his mind tried to think of the items that he had seen work in the past. Noah was by his side at the Riolu's front in a matter of seconds. He bent down and pushed his paw underneath Jay's tilted head.
"Well. That throws a wrench in our plans. We kinda need him to have a pulse so he can heal..." Noah mused as he revealed the ruinous news about his teammate's condition.
"Wait! He's--!" Leo exclaimed as Noah stood up and clapped a paw over his snout.
"Yes. Now, you need to go," the Dewott deadpanned as he pulled Leo over and pushed him towards the gaping maw of the frozen abyss in the middle of the canyon floor. Leo dug his claws into the rocks, stopping Noah's progress in pushing him towards his death.
"Wait! I'm not leaving! Jay needs--!" His shout was cut short as Noah gave him a sharp punch on his shoulder.
"Jay can't be helped right now with what we have. There's someone who needs you more right now, Leo," Noah asserted while giving him a stern stare. Immediately afterwards, he gave him another generous shove towards the edge of the mist-bound pit.
"Don't make me say anything else. Go. Find her. I'll watch him. Just go end this," Noah urged. Leo turned around, only to find that Noah had effectively left beyond the ridge.
He was alone. And only the abyss was there to keep him company.
Noah crouched down beside Jay once again. He lightly ran his paw under the Riolu's cheek. He brushed through the flecks of dried blood in order to find a pulse.
"You've really screwed up, haven't you, Jay? I don't know much about internal injuries, buddy, but it's not looking too good right now. Why'd you go and have to get yourself crunched?" He mumbled as he took his hand away and shook his head solemnly.
"There's nothing. Hopefully you won't fade before Leo gets back. And, I hope you don't mind a royal-style burial stance." He lifted Jay's right arm and laid it across his unmoving chest. He reached over the body to grab the other arm in order to cross it over his right when the atmosphere darkened and tension flooded the air.
"Well, that outlook assumes that no one in the present company knows anything about treating said injuries. Noah, you always jump to conclusions too quickly," the deep, malevolent voice interjected from behind. Noah let out an immense sigh.
"Thank God, you're here! We really need your help right now! Jay's hurt real bad and he ca--" Noah blurted out, the words melding into one incomprehensible sentence. The seemingly omniscient Mismagius raised its tassels and silenced the Dewott. The noise of his voice falling dead on his lips mid-word.
"Yes, it is good to see you as well, Noah. Don't worry about him, he will not die while I am here. Now please, refresh me on what has transpired since you entered this dungeon. Do not spare details, for they are vitally pertinent," he coldly demanded, releasing his otherworldly hold on Noah's voice. The Dewott spent the next few moments in time trying to reiterate every painstakingly precise piece of information he had observed over the past hour.
"It is worse than I feared. I must go. Leo will not be able to confront this. He will not be able to comprehend the truth." His form began to dissipate into the air almost as suddenly as he had arrived. Noah shook himself free of the panicked stupor he had been sealed in.
"Wait! Please help, Jay!" His words fell on deaf, all-hearing ears. The Mismagius only barely flickered back into existence. His golden, petrifying gaze aimed directly at Noah's mind. He felt the being's --his friend's-- presence inside his skull. Memories flipped aside and experience brushed away.
"You may be my friend and can call upon me for anything, but give me one reason why I should help the Riolu. He doesn't matter to me. His life is not vital, like yours. He is a poor leader. He keeps secrets from his team. He is willing to betray them to save his own life. Why do you request I interfere in what the Fates decided?" the specter requested as he floated above the comatose Pokémon. Noah noticed the ghost's eerily red smile was stretched in a mocking grin.
Noah opened his mouth. And then closed it again. For once, he had been rendered completely silent. He had no witty or charmingly smart retort. He had nothing to say in defense.
"So, you, the one who found the good in almost every situation, even at the point of death, cannot find a saving quality in this creature?"
"No ... I can't ..." Noah's whisper skirted the edge of audibility, but the Mismagius heard it loud and clear.
"Then, I might as well be off. I will meet you--" Noah defiantly shook his head.
"Save him. It won't look good on my record if I lose another rookie while crossing here. Torrent will kill me for sure," Noah pleaded, getting on his knees, and fitting his paws together. A soft breeze whispered through the canyon in an ethereal sigh.
"Very well. But, as with any practicing physician, there is always a cost involved with surgery..."
She felt it. Somewhere in the very edge of her consciousness. Beyond the often-corrupted data, the inhibiting coding, endless system orders, delaying prompts, and the ominous, whispering cloud of darkness. Something stirred within.
What is this? she asked, expecting the ever present spirit of the system to respond promptly as it usually did.
[Invalid Command Received]
N-no. It was a valid command. Umm... Search System for Abnormalities. Does that work?
[Command Prompt Not Recognized]
What do you mean 'not recognized'? It was a proper command! System, run debug programs.
[Warning: System Lockdown Initiated. Wait 10 Minutes Before Inputting New Command] In an instant, the world turned into a void of darkness around her. The glowing access portals dimmed and flickered as they shut down temporarily. She was completely alone again. There was no gentle hum of information flowing, no rapid conversations of the Porygon, nothing.
She knew it was no use yelling: she had provoked the system before. The Overseers didn't like it when she asked too many questions. They controlled the portals, and they could shut her out if they wished. She didn't want to make them mad, but her natural curiosity often got the better of her.
If they don't want me asking questions, then why don't they just take out my curiosity? This was just one of the many thoughts that processed through the nexus of her mind. She was infinitely glad that she had managed to manipulate the firewalls a few weeks back to shield her private thoughts from the Overseers. But even the acquisition of privacy didn't explain what she was feeling.
It pulsed through her. Despite being a unable to sense, she smelled ... something. She couldn't quite place a name to the strange scent. It was as if someone had cleaned the space around her and turned it into a smell.
What was the word .... Fresh? Yeah, that's it. Fresh, it smells ... like... fresh. That was the least strange of what she was feeling. The smell was one thing, but the sounds and sights were another thing entirely. She was certain that such sounds weren't even programmed into the system.
They weren't slices of security feed from the crystals, the picture was far too grainy to be from one of them. High places, the pinnacles of kings long ago, so prideful that as the clouds passed them by, they screamed for them to bow like the land below, to no avail. The ground was alive, unlike anything she had seen before. Not even the botanical centers contained such overpowering life. It was so green.
Nothing could compare to this. She felt the data receptors on her form react from touch, yet no one was around. Her mind was a storm while foreign sensations bombarded her like bolts of thunder. She couldn't contain it. Her system was receiving too much new data, too much information, too much emotion, too much sight.
Then, she felt it. Something shifted inside her. A door: unseen but always there. The once-indestructible lock now forced open. It flowed. Through the cracks in the program, over the treacherous bridges of binary code, slipping past the well-crafted firewalls of the Overseers, the very beginnings of a massive deluge. They had tried to keep her asleep, but she was stirring. Awakening.
She knew. She had always known. It was coming back. Light at first, like the first drops of a mighty typhoon. The trivial memories would come first and the pertinent would return after. She had always wanted it, more than anything. To remember what she had been, and what she had become. These sensations, they were the key. The key to a beginning.
The spontaneous genesis of memory.
He didn't know what he was doing, but apparently his legs and body did. He felt his feet lift and fall in a continuous motion down the icy slope into the darkness below. The jagged ice permeating the sides of the pit did little to suade his racing thoughts that all was well. He knew what he had to do. The fire for revenge upon the ice witch only burned fiercer now that Jay had been downed by the unfortunate amalgamation of souls she had stitched together.
"Come on, Leo. Be strong. Be strong. Kelly. I'm coming. I'm--" he muttered before being cut off by a sharp blast of sub-zero air as soon as he crossed the threshold of the cavern. At once, the strings that kept his world aloft were cut one by one.
The ice, previously glowing with a soft, white light, was now consumed by a tar-like substance that oozed from the cold surface. His tail quickly became the last light in the cold purgatory. The ground, a wounded soldier beneath his feet, heaved and writhed as the open gash on its side was at last lashed shut in a shattering collision of ice and rock. And finally, the voice. Just beyond a whisper in the utter darkness. A sinister hush of wind.
"Ignis..."
Kelly felt cold. Actually, that would be like saying that being hit with Rayquaza's Hyper Beam might leave a bruise. She had only woken up a few minutes before on the floor of an ice-covered cave. The Jolteon shivered in the bitterly cold air, her hair bristling as she struggled to stand on the icy floor.
Looking around the clear, ice cave, she realized that she had no idea how she had gotten here. She shook her head, popping her stiff neck as she did so, trying to clear her mind. The numbing feeling crawling up her paws like a slow army of ants did little to help her concentration, so she settled on pacing about the small, frozen chamber she was stuck in to ward off the effects of frostbite.
Then, light. A flash of lightning in a dark thunderstorm. She remembered. The camp, Torrent, the dungeon, the cold blue sun, the demon, and the song. She shuddered. She had never heard anything so revolting in her life. Even the ancient language lessons she had been given as a kit sounded like an angelic choir when compared to the ravenous notes that spewed forth from the Froslass.
The time in between falling victim to the music and now was an impenetrable fog. It was as if the had blinked while lying on the rough rock of the clearing and the next instant she was here, freezing to death.
"A-alright, Kelly. Just think. What's around us?" she murmured to herself as her breath vaporized into a white mist. She was inside an enclosure of some sort; not small enough to make her claustrophobic, but not large enough for her to feel like she had any breathing room. The walls, upon closer examination proved to be made of rock, covered with a thick layer of ice. That was all she saw before the oddly-luminous ice darkened and the temperature dropped.
"Itaque excitus estis. Amittebant tu eo. Ubi est nunc Ignis?" It was Her. Kelly knew it was too good to be true. The demon had taken her here in the first place; it was only a matter of time before she showed her face again.
Kelly slowly turned around. The near darkness was illuminated only by the otherworldly, yellow, glow of the Froslass's hollow eyes. Fear attempted to seize her, but she repelled their assault.
She wants to speak the Old Language? Fine by me, Kelly thought as she coughed to clear her throat. Words she hadn't spoken since her private lessons years ago came back to her, the archaic pronunciation rules flowing back to her.
"Neutiquam erro, et ipse est parantibus te ergo incendere." The words felt rusty in her mouth, the phrases tasting like iron as she finished her retort. The demon was silent for a moment as if in surprise that someone spoke in her private language.
"So you speak the ancient tongue as well? Quite interesting. Now, my dear, we must wait until Scelus returns with the corpses of your companions," the Froslass observed as she gracefully floated around the Jolteon. Kelly huffed in anger, her heated breath turning into a cloud of vapor.
"No. They're better than that. Jay, Noah, and Leo. All of them are going to get in here and kill you, especially Leo," she snapped as she faced the Ice type's glowing eyes. "Provided I don't get to it first!"
With that, Kelly's fur glowed as electricity. The cool, dry air of the cave was perfect for the attack, making the charging process near-instantaneous. She focused the power and launched it in a swift arc towards the frigid abomination. The lightning flashed a bright blue from the ice as it blasted apart the ice-coated wall.
Where are you? she hissed to herself as she twisted her nearly numb paws in the chilled earth. As soon as she saw the wicked glow, she fired off another blast of organic electricity at the witch. In the light from her bolts, she saw the Froslass gracefully glide through the air around her, avoiding each attack as if it was in slow-motion.
Kelly growled as she followed the demon with every maneuver she did, aiming several blasts at her in quick succession. The lightning rushed through the space, chasing the Froslass around the small cavern. Ice hissed in agony as it was flash-melted by the searing energy.
Her legs felt like they were slowly turning into jelly. Her lungs worked even harder to provide air, but it wasn't enough. Her entire body was very quickly draining. Another lightning blast missed its target. Kelly's stance swayed as she tried to focus her dizzying sight on her chuckling enemy. She built up another charge and let it go, hoping that this time it would hit. Her fur flashed and a small finger of lightning arced through the cave before suddenly fizzling out in midair.
Kelly was too exhausted to gasp in surprise. She panted to try and stay conscious. There was no way she could handle this. She was too tired, too cold, too weak. The dim room tilted, the floor seesawing underneath her. She sunk her claws into the swaying rock, but it was no use. Her legs scrambled, losing all balance, and crashing into the wall. Shards of ice dug into her side.
Kelly heard the shrill laugh of her foe behind her, but she only slumped against the wall. The cold was finally starting to get to her head, playing cruel tricks on her sight and freezing her nerves solid. There was a sound of swishing through air as Kelly felt as the biting wind solidify and slam into the back of her skull. Lightning danced before her eyes before she fell to the floor with a thud.
"Noli contra niti, mi tonitrui."
A storm tore through Kelly's head, ripping apart her rationale, her courage, her reason. She had the strength to break free, but her will had been sapped away like a leaf in the autumn zephyr. She saw them again, the hallucinations that had persisted through every one of her unheard denials and muttered pleas for them to leave her alone, to finally stop their mocking. They didn't speak to her, not audibly, not anymore. She had thought that the nightmare she had the night they were ambushed in their base was the worst of it, but she had been wrong.
She might not have been screamed and spat at by her mother, or cursed and disowned by her father, but every night they were there. Their hollow gazes saying more to her than their mouths ever could. They simply sat there, on the very edge of the ring of smoke inside her head. Their silence was far worse than anything their nightmarish forms ever said.
For what always seemed like an eternity, she'd sit there in front of them being equally as silent. She sat up with her legs tucked underneath in the proper fashion like they had always encouraged and silently begged them to say something to break the unending doldrum of her dream.
Other times, she couldn't stand the silence. The Jolteon occasionally paced around void, circling her parent's unmoving stares. During those select nights were among the worst experiences she could ever remember. For hours upon hours she screamed at her mother and father. About how the choice had not been hers. Tears often left stains on her face as she cried out at the unseeing phantoms that refused to exit her thoughts.
The storm overhead flashed as lightning surged through the void, the bolts striking the ground in between the standoff between the visions and their daughter's consciousness. The raw energy enough to break the tension. She blinked. One instant, she saw the ghostly vestiges of the ones who had given her life, and the next, she saw the hideous face of the one most likely to take it away from her.
"You're awake at last ... Stop struggling you!" the demon hissed as Kelly's vision slowly refocused itself. She was lying in the same position she was earlier, her legs and joints stiff from the cold. Everything seemed blurry, like someone had poured a clear oil over her sight.
"Kelly! Get out of here! Run! G--Gah!" Any semblance of fatigue left her as she rubbed her eyes clear. Her ears had heard it, but she had to see it to believe it. The voice matched up perfectly: the pitch, the ever-present trace of panic, the emotion. There was no mistaking it, not after hearing it by her side for so long.
"Leo!" She shot up, her legs crying out in pain as she skidded along the icy path, and rounded the corner. There was no doubt in her mind now: it was him. She slid to a halt in front of the entrance to the cavern and stared.
The Charmeleon appeared to have gone through hell and back. His scales were darkly discolored with bruises, several of the claws on his feet and hands were snapped off at their base, and he sported a deep gash along the lower part of his chest. Leo was barely sitting up, leaning on his elbow for support as he looked over at her.
"Kelly ... Please, run. You can get-- Hrgh!" His plea was cut off as the Froslass's cold hand wrapped around his throat, forcing him to produce a sickly gurgling sound as he weakly struggled against her. Kelly didn't waste another moment, she bounded through the arched entrance into the room.
Immediately the ground before her exploded in a shower of spear-like shards. Kelly barely managed to avoid impaling herself on the imposing barricade of sharp icicles. The Froslass squealed with laughter as she watched the Jolteon desperately look for a way around the barricade.
No! No! No! No! No! her mind screamed as she clawed at the wall, only to draw her paw back with a cry of pain. Small drops of blood splattered on the cave floor from where the icy spines pricked the pads on her paw.
"Ignis ... You should have run while you could. Now, my pet is feasting on Unda and Rixa and you are here," the Froslass whispered as she hovered over the injured Charmeleon.
"Leo! D-don't worry! I'll --I'll get to you! I just need to build up a charge!" she screamed, focusing on taking deep breaths. She felt the air tingle and crack as it flowed over her bristled fur. Every small bit of power was absorbed into her.
"N-no! P-please don't! N-no-Aghhh! Oh God-- aAHaahh!" Leo's agonized screams made something inside her snap. Kelly didn't know exactly where the energy came from, but within an instant, her fur had overcharged. With a feral scream, she channeled the sparking power into the cursed ice blocking her way.
Just hold on, Leo! The frozen water hissed in fury as Kelly melted her way through the cursed trap. Frigid meltwater pooled around her paws, seeping into the fine, yellow, fur, and systematically painfully numbing each nerve in her legs. A renewed cry from Leo drowned out the high-pitched electric buzz that accompanied her attack, spurring her onwards.
The ice could not hold out against her attack as she vaporized a path through the impediment. Leo was pinned under the Froslass, the snow witch holding down his arms while she gleefully aimed beams of energized ice at the Charmeleon's twitching claws as his body contorted in agony.
Kelly simply stood there, seething with fury as electricity pulsed around her body. The Froslass slowly turned her head away from Leo's pained expression to stare at the intruder.
"Vis eum? Igitur tolle eum," she whispered as she raised one of her wispy arms to Leo's throat, pressing against it with the sharpened blade of ice attached to the underside. Kelly couldn't move. Her legs refused to listen to her mind and move forward. She could do nothing but stare as the demon swiftly drew the blade across Leo's chest, slicing through his scales as if they were paper.
Kelly had no time to react before the thin, white body lunged at her. The Pokémon landed on her back --seemingly immune to the massive amperage Kelly was outputting. Leo shrieked once before a violent guttural sound replaced it. The Froslass sunk her claws deep into Kelly's sides, bringing her to her knees in an instant.
The Jolteon couldn't think straight, nothing made sense anymore. Instead of fighting back tooth and claw, she was fighting back tears. Resistance faded in direct variation to the life of her convulsing partner. The Froslass held down the back of her neck, forcing her to watch the life drain from Leo as air was squeezed from her lungs.
She wanted to scream, to fight, to kill the sadistic Pokémon with her own claws, but instead, only a strangled sob managed break through the deathly cold grip. Kelly gave into the wave of emotions as she finally broke down. Stifled tears rolled down her numb face and onto the ice as she watched Leo's tail fire dim down to nothing.
"There ... Finally ..." The Froslass sighed above her, as she contentedly brushed Kelly's matted fur. "It's broken. Your spirit is broken. Why did you have to make things so difficult, you stubborn, little witch?" Kelly couldn't see straight as the Froslass continued holding her air hostage. Now, as darkness blinded her, she only prayed that everything would finally end.
"Like before, your next body change won't be voluntary."
End Chapter 14
Author's Notes: It's back. I stopped updating here for some reason, not sure why. But, regardless, I'm back.
Knightfall signing off...