Orion hurried to Pyxis' side with a knife and a look on his face which perfectly spelled out 'I am one hundred and ten percent done with this shit'.
"Twenty minutes," he said as he knelt beside her, pressing the blade against the rope tying her wrists. "We left you alone for twenty minutes. How on earth did you and Spica manage to fuck up this much in that amount of time?"
Pyxis bit her lip, swallowing a rather crass reply. "Just… untie me."
"I'm serious, it's a talent. I'm thinking we should send you to work for the Association. You'd make it fall apart much faster than the boss ever could."
"I'm…" Pyxis closed her eyes and pressed her forehead on the snow, hiding her smile. "I'm glad you were so concerned, you dork."
Orion smiled back, finally cutting through the rope and helping the girl up to her feet. She winced in pain when he accidentally brushed one of her hands.
"Did she hurt you?" he asked, frowning.
"Huh? Oh, no. It was me." She curled and uncurled her fingers, brow furrowed. "I think I punched her too hard and broke something."
He couldn't help but smile. "Atta girl."
The rest of their team caught up to them, equal looks of confusion on their faces, some of them looking a bit more angry or worried than others. Electabuzz stood next to the unconscious Froslass, keeping an eye on her. The two other Pokemon they'd brought with them, Sandslash and Kadabra, hung back and stared, shivering due to the cold.
"The hell happened here, boss?" asked Nova, one of the new recruits. "Almost looks like a stampede of Tauros passed through 'ere."
Pyxis looked down. "I… got careless. Never should've left that Froslass in the same tent as Inyssa." She shook her head. "But it's fine now. The plan hasn't changed." She looked up at Orion. "You had the same problem, I'm guessing?"
Orion glanced back at the blonde boy being held by Grus, most of his face covered in blood and his eyes only halfway opened. He seemed to be struggling to stay conscious.
"We weren't given very good info on these two," he said. "Blondie here has to be a psychic or something, judging by the crazy stuff he did to try to escape. We were lucky to have Sandslash so close. Though he… might've gone a bit overboard to stop him."
"It's fine as long as they're alive," said Pyxis with a sour tone that surprised Orion. There was a strange air about her all of a sudden. "Anyway, it's too dangerous to stay here anymore. We're going back to the base. If Asta has any problem with it then she should've come here when we fucking told her to."
The rest of the group murmured in agreement, and Orion couldn't blame them. Besides, Pyxis was right, on this at least. Asta really was making them wait too long.
"Right. Back to base, then." He turned around, facing the other grunts. "Nova, go get Spica. Electabuzz, grab the Froslass and paralyze her if she tries anything. Kadabra, prepare to teleport all of us back to base." He took a moment to breathe. "I'll get Inyssa. Not really in the mood to carry an unconscious girl on my shoulder, kind of like I'm already carrying this whole team already, but someone has to–"
A sudden chill ran down his spine, though it had nothing to do with the cold. As his voice trailed off he noticed that the gaze of the rest of his team had suddenly focused on something behind him, their eyes going wide in shock. He would have sworn he heard the crackle of thunder in the distance.
Both him and Pyxis turned at the same time. A gasp got caught in his throat.
Inyssa was back on her feet, head down and arms hanging, lifeless, from her lowered shoulders. Golden threads of energy spiraled around her arms and torso, so fast that his eyes could barely catch the tail-end of them before they dissipated.
At first he thought it might have been residual energy from Electabuzz' punch but… no, that didn't make sense. She wouldn't have been able to move if that were the case. Besides… the way she stood, the way that energy cackled all around her, it was too familiar. Pyxis seemed to agree, judging by the sound that left her mouth, almost like a sob.
Inyssa took a step forward, her arms crackling with electricity, just like the storm clouds gathering above her.
----------------------------------------
It all felt so terribly familiar to Inyssa. The cold, the excruciating pain all throughout her body, the way the pulses of electricity licked at the length of her scars and made her shiver…
That's right, she thought. These scars still hold the memory of lightning.
Her tired, dull eyes looked ahead, setting on her target. The group of grunts stood frozen, staring at something with looks of surprise in their faces. Looking at her? Whatever the case, it didn't matter. One of them still held Barry captive, the boy's blood falling from his face and dying red the snow under him.
The electricity surging through her body began to crackle more powerfully at the sight, steam rising from the melted snow around her feet. Above her, in the heart of the blizzard, she heard a distant roar. Thunder waited to be released.
"Don't move!" a voice cried out. One of the grunts was pointing something at her. A gun? "If you try anything we'll shoot!"
Her brain interpreted those words, but their meaning dissipated from her like the sweat currently evaporating off her body. No, their words didn't matter. She had to save Barry, no matter what. Even if it meant…
Her hand rose, slowly, energy coalescing in spirals around her fingers. She wasn't the one to move them. She was too weak, too tired. It felt as though invisible threads pulled at her muscles, connected to an unseen puppeteer high above. The sensation reminded her of the few times she'd entered a dissociative state, only a dozen times stronger and more painful. It felt as though she were existing a few feet to the left.
"This is your last warning! Stop or we'll–!"
Their voices were irritating. Inyssa swiped at the air as casually as though she were swatting a fly. A wave of electricity exploded in a circle around her, reaching the grunts in a fraction of a second. A few fell to the ground. Others simply yelped and let their guns slip from their fingers. The Electabuzz was the only one who didn't seem affected by it.
"Inyssa! Inyssa, can you hear me!?" She could tell that Uxie was screaming, but its voice sounded smaller than a whisper in her head. "You mustn't call lightning, much less in the middle of a storm like this! It'll kill you!"
So what, another voice seemed to ask. Wasn't she dying right now, anyway? Her own sweat evaporating into mist, electricity running through her body, none of that could be healthy, on top of the fact that she was delirious and in incredibly severe pain. What other option did she have?
She raised her hand toward the sky and the roar of thunder above grew until it was more deafening than the blizzard.
"Stop this! You'll kill them all!"
A single, thin line of electricity extended from her fingertips to the clouds above, connecting her with the incoming thunder. All she needed to do now was bring her hand down. The air vibrated in preparation, the entire world standing still, a moment stretched into what felt like several seconds. A last calm before the storm. Inyssa spread her fingers, looking toward the Galactic grunts one last time before unleashing the thunder.
Terrified eyes stared at her. Pyxis was the only one who averted her gaze; the girl held onto Orion as though her life depended on it, eyes tightly closed and face scrunched up, expectant. Tears fell down her cheeks. A part of Inyssa froze, her hand stopping just before it fell down. Something resurfaced from the depths of her mind, rising like pockets of air from deep water, her vision going white as a memory played out before her.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Inyssa looked down at a group of people from high above, violent waves of electricity surrounding her bare scars. She moved her hand and a flash blinded her. A moment after, one of them was dead, body slouched against a wall, burn marks all throughout her body. Her lifeless eyes stared up at Inyssa, seeing nothing.
Pyxis screamed and grabbed onto Orion, her whole body shaking. Both of them looked exactly the same as they did in the present.
The memory vanished. Inyssa lowered her head, sighing, and closed her hand into a fist, forcing the electricity around her to dissipate.
The gold in her eyes disappeared and she collapsed, her back cushioning the fall and preventing her head from bouncing. The world was still for a few seconds. Inyssa's eyes stared up at the sky, their green dull and washed out.
----------------------------------------
Orion breathed for the first time in almost ten seconds, the look on his face that of a man who almost shit himself.
That finally broke the spell the rest of them were under. As the roar of thunder above dimmed and the Inyssa girl ceased to move, the other grunts shifted uncomfortably where they were, probably wondering what the hell had just happened.
Orion looked down at his right arm, still being strongly held by a shaking Pyxis. Her eyes were as wide as plates, wet with tears, and despite the fact that the danger had passed she couldn't stop shaking like a leaf.
"Is it…" She gulped, blinking a few times. "Is she…?"
"We're fine," he replied almost automatically. "It's fine. She's down."
Pyxis nodded doubtfully, seemingly coming back to herself. Realizing the state she was in, she sniffled and wiped the tears from her face, forcing herself to stop shaking. Orion didn't buy it one bit. But he didn't need to. As long as everyone else bought it, Pyxis would be happy.
He heard coughing behind him. The blonde boy was making an effort to raise his head to look ahead, eyes narrowed in pain.
"N-Niss…"
"Keep it down," Orion told him, though he couldn't muster any irritation in his tone. "The rest of you… fucking, here, come here."
A deep breath. He had this. It didn't matter that he almost had a bolt of lightning chucked at him by an adolescent girl. Sometimes things didn't make sense. He'd accepted that a long time ago. Now all that remained was to force them to make sense again, which began with him and Pyxis –and the rest of the people here, why not– getting the hell out of this god-forsaken forest.
"Someone go grab her," he said, pointing over his shoulder at Inyssa. "Two or three of you, just in case. Someone else go get Spica. We're leaving now."
"Don't gotta tell me twice," said Nova, shaking her head. "On it, boss."
She and another grunt –whose name he couldn't remember at the moment– headed over to where Inyssa's probably unconscious body was. Orion allowed himself a moment to sigh. The two were halfway there by the time he felt a hot gust of wind ruffle his hair.
A gigantic pillar of flame fell from the sky, mere inches from the two grunts.
----------------------------------------
Inyssa was furious at herself.
She couldn't do it. She couldn't just bring that thunder down on those grunts and fix the situation they were in; no, that would've made too much sense. Instead, her stupid pity had gotten the better of her. And thanks to that, she'd doomed Barry and Vi. Doomed herself, and her Pokemon too, probably. Who knew what Team Galactic would do to them?
If she still had enough strength to sigh, she would have. Instead she simply stared up at the white sky, eyes slowly losing their light, her consciousness fading. It was all over.
Then a shape appeared high above. Inyssa blinked. Okay, she was definitely hallucinating now, which wasn't surprising considering her current delirium. The shape flew through the air, completely ignoring the blizzard. It looked almost humanoid, the outline of its body glowing red, two enormous wings growing from its back. It stopped just above her, then looked down. She felt its eyes on her.
Her level certainty on it being a hallucination quickly dropped as soon as the figure breathed in and spat down a pillar of flame in between her and the grunts coming to retrieve her.
The sudden heat haze as the air from the flames expanded and rose hit Inyssa in the face, waking her up somewhat. There were screams and curses. Voices full of panic could be heard in the air, though she couldn't make out anything they were actually saying.
The figure split into two, wings detaching from body. What Inyssa had considered a single winged humanoid creature was instead two Pokemon, one of them a flying type carrying the other by its arms. That one began to fall, the flames surrounding him contrasting immensely against the stark white of the snowflakes burning to steam around him.
Inyssa blinked in confusion. Wait… him? How had she known…?
The Pokemon landed, kneeling and with one hand pressed against the ground, a wicked grin spread across his face. Inyssa's breath left her. So that's why. His shape had looked so familiar, even while obscured by the blizzard.
High above, the flying Pokemon extended its wingspan and let out a shriek that shook the air itself. There was pride and victory in its cry. With a powerful bat of its wings it sent down a cyclone of frozen wind which spiraled into a dozen threads as it hit the ground, blowing away everyone but a wide-eyed Barry.
However, Inyssa couldn't focus on that. To her, time had slowed to a crawl as she used whatever strength remained in her to roll to the side, both of them turning to look at the other. Their eyes met, his going wider in shock and worry. Inyssa's regained part of their color and, as she opened her mouth to speak, she found that her voice didn't shake as much as she expected it to.
"Enma?"
The sound of his name being spoken washed over him like a storm. He began to glow.
A wave of scorching air rippled around his body as it caught ablaze, flares of white and red and yellow swallowing him whole, dancing around his changing form and rising high into the sky like the flame of an enormous candle. Bursts of energy combusted off the initial explosion in waves, spiraling up only to fall down on top of him again, setting like the sun on the horizon, like a crown on the head of a king.
Once the explosion dissipated, the form that emerged from within it came into view, its white fur and golden pieces of armor on its hands, knees and chest glowing with the light from the flames surrounding him. Enma looked up, the flaming crown upon his head shining like the sun, and flashed Inyssa a smile full of pride and joy.
"Frer!" he bellowed, lifting up his chin and setting his fists ablaze. "FREEER!"
"T-the hell? What's…!?" Orion's voice was heard. "E-Electabuzz, get him! Thunder… something!"
"Sandslash, Night Slash!"
"Use Psybeam!"
The three Pokemon attacked in unison, Electabuzz and Sandslash jumping at Enma from the right and left while Kadabra brandished his spoon and shot a multi-colored beam of light straight at him. The Infernape simply smiled, flames licking at his fur and steam rising from every inch of his body.
"Freer!"
As he roared, the flying Pokemon above tucked its wings and flew down with incredible speed toward the grunts, grabbing Barry with its talons before any of them had time to react and carrying him away to safety. Inyssa frowned. Those wings, that strike of red feathers above its forehead… a Staraptor? But how…?
She didn't have much time to consider that. Electabuzz and Sandslash reached Enma at the same time, their right arms wound back, coated in electricity and dark energy respectively.
Enma was a blur. He raised his hand and, a flash of movement after, a powerful thump was heard and Electabuzz inhaled sharply, a bruise in his stomach and the energy in his hand dissipating. Following the punch, the Infernape tilted his head just in time to dodge the Sandslash's slash as he passed over him. In another flash he snatched onto both Pokemon's wrists, lifting them up high in the air before slamming them against the incoming Psybeam.
Their bodies lit up with the same multi-colored light as they twisted and bellowed in pain, the power of the attack keeping them in the air for a moment. Enma grinned. Just what he needed.
He balled his hands into fists, every inch of his body catching ablaze, tendrils of flame coiling and dancing around him. Leaning back, he breathed in as deep as he could. The flames climbed up in a spiral, coalescing in a gigantic ball within his maw, pulsing with power. Enma threw his head forward and the flames exploded into a horizontal pillar, swallowing everything in front of him, swallowing Electabuzz and Sandslash first, their screams of agony impossible to hear over the roar of the flames, and even Kadabra, as fast as it surely was, couldn't step out of the way before the flames fell over him as well.
More screams, all muffled by the combined bellowing of the blizzard and the fire, soon followed by Enma's laugh. There were sounds of people running. More pillars of flame. More waves of heat and enormous gusts of wind.
Unfortunately, Inyssa had reached her limit. A part of her had stood defiant, defending her from unconsciousness like a single, lonely paper tiger in a frenetic storm. But seeing Enma, seeing Barry saved and the Galactic grunts defeated like that, that part of Inyssa felt safe enough to retreat to the back of her mind, safe enough to rest, finally.
Inyssa's eyes fell closed, and everything disappeared around her. The last thing she felt was the sensation of her body being lifted, and the strength of a pair of arms carrying her.
----------------------------------------
Asta's Poketch rang again. She pressed the Ignore call button without taking her eyes from her target, the barest hint of excitement showing in her expression.
Those fools could wait. Yes, she had told them to contact her as soon as they captured the girl, but surely they could hold her for a few minutes while she took care of business. Even they could accomplish such a simple task.
Her prey spoke.
"Sure took you long enough to find me, As. And yes, I did just pronounce that like it has a second S."
Subtle threads of psychic energy danced in the air, condensing and imploding into a burst of light next to her. Sabrina appeared with a hum, her blood-red eyes gleaming. They both stared down their target, not a hint of doubt or nervousness in their faces. The patch of frozen forest felt still and silent despite the roaring of the blizzard all around them.
"I assume you're done running, then?"
Mars smiled from where she was sitting, cheek resting on one hand.
"It seems to me like you're the one running here," she said. "Running perfectly good jokes like the one I just told into the ground, then stomping on them for good measure. I mean come on. I know I'm a murderer but that's just plain rude."
Asta closed her eyes, stifling a sigh.
"I'm going to kill you now."
Mars beamed at that, lazily pushing herself to her feet and dusting the snow off her clothes as casually as though she were expecting Asta to invite her to some tea and biscuits.
"Lucky you, then. You're the last one on my list." She tilted her neck to the side, making it click. "Try to make it worth my while, will you?"