CHAPTER 161 - The Long Price
Thunder roared, and I felt raindrops begin to fall on my face. The water was dark, and it clung to my clothes, staining them with the mark of the abyss. It seemed that even here, Pelipper's Drizzle would take effect. I eyed Harry's new Pokemon with suspicion. Logic dictated that the two dark types would have a lot more power here than they normally did. My body shivered in anticipation as I waited for him to order the first attack. I nervously swallowed. This would be a battle with no rules and no holding back. He'd aim to kill me.
Steam rose off of Turtonator's body, and he stared at Harry in silence.
Finally, after twenty seconds of inaction, he struck.
"Torterra, keep your distance. Watch for Turtonator. Crobat, you're attacking. Constantly. Target her and kill her. Luxray, you focus on the ghost. Hit it with Thunderbolt when you can. Pelipper, use Water Gun on the Larvitar. Don't underestimate it."
Good.
Now it was self-defense.
Crobat blurred forward in a flash, and a Thunderbolt and Water Gun shot out toward us. Electabuzz roared with unmatched fury and an enormous Protect surrounded all of us but Sunshine, who began to run forward. The temperature was rising dangerously quickly, and his steps burned the shadows away. The two attacks crashed against Protect and fizzled out.
"Dazzling Gleam, then Ancient Power."
Crobat circled us, its huge wingspan summoning strong gusts of winds. Princess grunted at Honey, who ended his first Protect and summoned another one, this time smaller and only containing both of us. Togetic erupted with a loud flashbang and Crobat cried out in surprise. Twenty drills immediately shot out from the ground, but the Crobat quickly blurred and ran away.
"Buddy, slip away and kill him," I whispered. The words came out of my mouth so easily that I almost flinched. How much of that was just me, and how much of it was Shiftry's influence?
The words felt just to me, but there was no time to dwell on it.
Jellicent boomed, happy to execute my order. He sunk into the darkened floor and slithered toward our enemies. I felt Tangrowth's vine drag me away, expunging all of the air from my lungs when a Water Gun crashed where I had just been standing. The darkness split apart, revealing a small crater formed by the attack before covering it again. That would have killed me.
Huh.
Sunshine had made it to them now, but he couldn't unleash his full power without burning me. Harry had already run off in the distance and was just letting his Pokemon fight, and only Weavile was by his side. Turtonator screamed out a Flamethrower at Torterra, whose tree caught fire. An Earthquake shook the floor, and Angel lifted me slightly off the ground so I wouldn't be affected. A bolt of electricity from Luxray and two jets of high-pressured water flew out of Crawdaunt's pincers, but the dragon turned in one smooth motion and the attacks crashed against his shell, causing a massive explosion that enveloped all three Pokemon.
"Princess. When Buddy reappears, send spears toward Harry and try to impale him," I whispered. "Honey, Thunderbolt the Pelipper."
Even if he'd been hurt by Earthquake, the flash appeared instantly. The electricity clipped Pelipper's side and the bird crashed to the floor next to Sunshine, who took a break from his rampaging. He clawed its mouth open and filled its stomach with a fiery Dragon Pulse until it cooked from the inside. Pelipper's body glowed with a pale grey, and then blinding white until the screams stopped. There was nothing left but a smoking husk. Its eyes were still open, but lifeless and staring at nothing.
The rain stopped, and Sunshine's flames intensified. The heat was almost painful, even from here, but one scream from Larvitar, and he settled down.
I had killed a trainer's Pokemon, and even though I knew it was wrong, I felt nothing. It was the logical thing to do. One less element to worry about.
Crobat cried out in fury. It had been waiting for an opening before, but all caution was thrown out the window now. The poison type rushed toward me, and I whispered to Princess and Honey. Turtonator spat out a scorching Smog that clung to Luxray's fur like glue and burned it away, and the flashes of electricity did nothing to hurt him. Crawdaunt's attacks were a lot more effective. Its pincers were vicious, and it used them to hit the dragon type with devastating dark and water type attacks that I couldn't place.
But I couldn't focus on his fight. Crobat was coming.
"Protect and Dazzling Gleam again."
Angel pushed me toward the electric type and the protective bubble surrounded me once more. All that practice we'd done was paying off, but using them in such quick succession and making them so large was starting to tire him out, so this would only work a few more times. Another explosion of light blinded Crobat, but the poison type had been ready for it. He rammed into Princess anyway and bit at her throat with a powerful Poison Fang.
I screamed, and so did everyone else. Angel wrapped the flying type in enough vines to cover its entire body and pulled him away from her. Larvitar stomped on the ground and a Rock Slide buried Crobat until it was incapable of movement.
I scrambled to my bag and quickly searched for a potion— no, a potion wouldn't be enough! Another explosion rang out and shook me to my core, but I couldn't even look to see what was happening. Princess let out a horrifying gurgling sound that was just wrong.
She was drowning on her own blood.
I held back tears and grabbed the Hyper Potions that Craig had given me so long ago at Savika's cabin and applied two of them to her throat. I let out a huge sigh of relief when she began to breathe again, although she seemed to still be a little out of it. I forcefully opened an eye and exhaled again. Her eyes looked fine. She wasn't poisoned.
I still applied an Antidote anyway, just to be safe.
I heard Crobat struggle under the rocks as I grabbed Princess into my arms, and Sweetheart buried it under another layer for good measure.
"Kill it. We can't afford to worry about if it breaks out, and we don't know if it'll sneak up on us again."
No one would get to live after almost killing my child. Electabuzz spared me a look, but he didn't hesitate.
He jumped atop the rocks, and after giving Larvitar a signal, the rocks above Crobat split apart. Before it could even react, Honey snarled, grabbing the poison type's upper wings and electrocuted it with everything he had. It wasn't even a move. Just pure electric type energy being unleashed onto Crobat, drowning out its agonized screams. It fell unconscious, but Honey did not stop. He kept going until he was sure he'd done the job.
Sparks of electricity still danced, appearing and disappearing off of his body like static. He took deep breaths and took a step back.
Crobat was barely recognizable now that he was done with it. Just smoke and ash with one of its wings torn off. I knew what I had done was wrong, but I couldn't bring myself to feel anything about it. Only bad things happening to my Pokemon or myself could bring emotions out of me anymore, it seemed, but even then, a Pokemon coming for a life should have been ready to lose theirs too. Honey stood over the corpse and heaved. He'd exerted himself a lot.
I turned toward Sunshine, who was still locked in vicious combat with Crawdaunt. Torterra and Luxray had already fallen, but the water type was stronger than Harry's own Pokemon.
"Recover for a bit, then we find an opening," I told Honey. He nodded.
Turtonator roared, locking both of Crawdaunt's pincers into place with his bulk and broke its tough shell apart with a point-blank Dragon Pulse. The dark type's pincers grew too big to be contained in Turtonator's hand, and it slammed them against Sunshine's plastron, knocking him to the floor and caving in some of his armor.
"Thunderbolt."
A quick Thunderbolt zapped Crawdaunt, leaving Turtonator enough time to turn his entire body and blow up. Another Thunderbolt from Electabuzz finished the job, and it fell unconscious.
Turtonator stood victorious over a completely burned Luxray, Torterra, and Crawdaunt. His shell was slightly damaged, along with the most recent hit he'd taken, but he seemed to be in good shape otherwise. I didn't know if the other two were dead or not, but it didn't look pretty. Luxray's fur had completely burned off, and there was only its cooked flesh left. All of the vegetation on Torterra's body was gone, and its tree had been torn in half.
There was only Weavile left, but something told me that it was special. It did not look to be panicking at all, and most of all, Harry wasn't panicking, although that was probably because of Shiftry's powers. He didn't even seem to care that two of his Pokemon were dead, or maybe more.
Buddy appeared behind him, his eyes flashing with all the intensity, but none of the color. Weavile blurred and slashed across his head before I could even tell what happened. The ghost type tried to fight back with a quick Water Pulse, but another Night Slash across his mouth stopped him from being able to attack.
"Come back!" I yelled.
His Water Sports sputtered, and he quickly ran away from Weavile. Every time he tried to Recover, the move didn't work. In fact, none of his moves were working properly.
"You killed my Pelipper," Harry said. "I'll make you pay."
"Not just your Pelipper," I said, trying to provoke him into making a mistake. He didn't react.
There was a lot less emotion than I thought he'd have, and his tone was almost… transactional. As if he was just going through the motions. Then again, he had been closer to Shiftry than I was for a longer period of time, and I wasn't even reacting to the horrors I had just inflicted even though I knew how wrong it was. We were both completely out of it.
"You told them to kill me first," I continued nonchalantly. "You reap what you sow. Sunshine, wait up."
Having already started to go toward Weavile, the dragon stopped.
"That Weavile is stronger than you," I declared. His eyes narrowed and he flared up in rage.
"Smart girl. You should just give up, I'll make your death painless and I'll spare your team."
"Remember when you said you'd listen to me?" I continued, ignoring Harry. "Now is the time to listen. Buddy, you stay back. You can't do much right now without a mouth. Try to cover me."
The water type nodded and calmed his floating. Dark energy was leaking out of him like a sieve. It was like Weavile would cut off the use of type energy with a single attack somehow. How would I counter that?
"Start us off with a Thunderbolt," I told Honey.
The electric type's arm spun around, and electricity jutted toward Harry. Weavile closed its eyes to focus and slashed across the air at the last second, summoning the same darkness that Shiftry had back in the mansion. The Thunderbolt was simply absorbed into it.
"I see," I muttered. "Sunshine, Flamethrower. Thunderbolt again, and Rock Slide."
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Three attacks this time, but it was a Protect that stopped Harry from being hurt instead of the darkness. It was like I had thought. Flamethrower would have still burned him, and there were too many rocks to absorb into whatever that darkness was. That Protect was also a lot less refined than ours.
"Stop fooling around!" Harry snarled with a surprising amount of emotion. "Kill her!"
Weavile sighed half-heartedly, and thick shards of ice appeared around the dark type. It waved its hand, and the attack shot out of the air like arrows. They were too quick for Protect. I stood behind Tangrowth, but the ice tore through his entire body and one of the shards grazed my side. I hissed and clenched at my wound, dropping Princess onto the ground accidentally. She recovered by herself and struggled to fly, but she was still capable of battle.
"O—Okay, we have to—"
Turtonator roared in fury when Weavile simply ignored and ran past him to get to me. The heat emanating from him burned the ice type, but it was nowhere near enough to take it down.
"Ancient Power," I grunted.
Angel raised a barrier in front of us, hoping to use Weavile's momentum against itself, but the ice type tore through the rock with a single clawed attack and slashed across Tangrowth, tearing through chunks of his vines and revealing his darkened body within. Sweetheart yelled, and debris shot out of the floor, hitting Weavile in the head. Electabuzz used the opportunity to punch it with two consecutive Fire Punches, staggering it further. Three drills stabbed at its hard skin and Weavile was forced to retreat.
It circled around us with a menacing hiss. It seemed that it needed a certain amount of focus to dissolve attacks into nothing, so at least it'd still get hit.
"Angel, can you attack still?"
The grass type shook his body and the rest of his vines writhed in pain. He could still control his vines like limbs, but moves were out of the question. Buddy still hadn't gotten back to normal, although he was slowly managing to recover. Half of his mouth had reformed now.
Sunshine hesitantly looked at Harry and us. He was too far now for any of his attacks to effectively reach him, since he'd been running away from the start of the battle.
"Come. Help us finish this," I shakily said.
His body tensed for a few seconds, and then relaxed. He'd made his choice. Weavile hissed and blurred toward us again, and this time, Electabuzz stood in the way with Protect. The move only lasted a few seconds, and then Weavile tore through his chest with a Night Slash. Darkness seeped into the wound and then began to leak out. Before anymore damage could be done, Buddy hit the ice type with a Hex, having finally recovered from whatever affliction Weavile had inflicted upon him. Weavile convulsed as smoke emanated from its body, and Angel wrapped multiple vines around its neck. It simply got used to the pain and tore through them with its claws.
With unforeseen dexterity, it jumped above us and summoned another set of Ice Shards. They were aimed at me. Princess wasn't well enough to block with a large boulder and Tangrowth couldn't use any moves—
A Rock Slide rose from the ground, and I heard the ice shatter on them. Weavile hissed in anger, somehow speeding up and began to tear Sweetheart apart with Night Slash. I screamed, but it was too quick and avoided Princess' drills. Tangrowth wrapped a vine around the rock type to try to drag her away, but an Icy Wind froze them before they could even reach her, and he had to force me back so I wouldn't freeze too. Electabuzz pushed forward and tried to intervene, but he was too wounded by the Night Slash and couldn't use any moves. Ice surrounded Weavile's fists and it punched both him and Sweetheart at the same time.
Three seconds later, Turtonator arrived with an enraged roar.
He couldn't go all out with his heat, but he could still fight. A light of pure energy appeared in front of his snout and flew at Weavile, who interrupted her assault on Sweetheart to deal with the new threat. I used the opportunity to rush to her, but right as I was about to apply another Hyper Potion, she began to evolve. A protective shell surrounded her entire body, leaving only a few holes for gas, the eyes and a mouth. She was unconscious, but alive in her new cocoon-like form. I applied the potion to her anyway and recalled her for her safety.
Turtonator tried to grab at the ice type, but it was smarter than that. It knew that it had to deal with him now before it could move on to us, but it also knew that it had to play it safe. It was stronger than him, but it still knew that if it ever got grabbed, it was over. The ice type ducked on all fours and pushed itself forward, narrowly avoiding a Flamethrower, but before it could slash across Turtonator to prevent him from attacking, the fire type turned and slammed his shell with an Iron Tail, causing an immense explosion that made my ears ring.
Weavile emerged from the ordeal a smoking mess, but it wasn't even tired. It shook its body and rushed in once more, and the two Pokemon were locked into a struggle. Every time Weavile got anywhere close, Sunshine would blow up to prevent it from hitting him, but there was only so many times he could blow up his shell, and I knew that. He was slowly getting overwhelmed too, and it was our fault. There was no way for him to use his biggest asset here— the temperature, or he would hurt us. If we tried to run away to leave him some space, Weavile would just use the opportunity to attack us again and Turtonator would lag behind due to his lack of speed.
I eyed Harry in the distance. He had stopped running, as if he couldn't stop himself from seeing the moment I would die. There was one way to win this. Weavile would chase us, but… I looked at Princess, who was doing a lot better than she was two minutes ago. She was attentive now, and occasionally destabilizing Weavile with weakened Ancient Powers to help Sunshine.
"Princess. Your power's a bit screwed, but how—"
Another explosion interrupted me, and Turtonator's arm froze over before he tensed and burned it off. Weavile cut across his scales and grinned madly, but a Flash Cannon stopped it from attacking any further. It had been caught off-guard by the speed of the attack.
"How's your aim?"
Princess hesitated for a few seconds and nodded.
"Good, huh? I need you to use a drill— a single drill, and tear through Harry's leg with it. Don't kill him. I know I gave the order before, but we can extract information first."
Princess floated upward and her eyes narrowed. A single, small drill rose from the floor and began to spin.
"Angel, can you carry me there when Harry's incapable of walking?" I asked.
The grass type turned to me and nodded. I could see his vines regrow in real time, slowly covering his black body that was usually hidden within.
"We're going to have to be quick. Honey, I know you can't use moves, but I'm going to have you follow us. Buddy, you do the same—"
Princess interrupted me and told us to let her focus, which was already difficult with all of the fighting in the background.
The singular drill tore across the sky, becoming a speck. Togetic grunted and her eyes narrowed further, and further, and further…
Harry let out a faint yell and fell to the ground.
"Now go!"
Angel wrapped me tightly and placed me on his head. I recalled Princess, while Honey and Buddy followed closely behind. The water type propelled himself with Water Sport for speed, and Electabuzz was faster than Tangrowth was, so he could keep up. Weavile roared in anger, but that split second was enough for Sunshine to engulf her body in flames.
And now that we were getting further and further, there was no need to hold back. I could only see a faint grin as the air around the fire type warped and the darkness they were fighting on itself lit ablaze with darkened flames of obsidian. Weavile hissed. Its body was weak to fire, and it was fighting fire itself. The ice type grunted, opting to give up on the fight and follow us instead.
Angel stepped over Harry's Pokemon— dead or otherwise and used them as a boost.
"Buddy, you think you can stop this?!" I yelled. If the ride hadn't been so bumpy, I could have bit my lip or my tongue to distract myself from the pain on my waist.
Weavile was gaining too much ground too fast. The water type nodded, and his eyes flared.
"Buy us some time! Use Hex so it can't dodge! It'll just go around Whirpool!"
Jellicent summoned a Night Shade and rushed toward the dark type. My eyes widened when the shade spat out an extremely weak Water Pulse. Weavile tore across the ring of water confidently, but another came, and another, slowing it down ever so slightly. When it got in range, it crashed to the floor and writhed in agony from Hex, which was stronger than usual. Buddy was combining two Hexes at once with Night Shade's help. The water type called to Turtonator, who labored to get to where we were. Unfortunately, he'd exerted himself a lot, and he was rusty from not having battled all this time.
If he was rusty after a few months, how rusty would Shiftry be?
Jellicent quickly sunk into the floor when Weavile got used to Hex's pain, but not before detonating his Night Shade to deal some chip damage. A long-distance Flamethrower from Sunshine bought us a few more seconds, and we finally reached Harry, who desperately attempted to squirm away.
"Get away from me! Get away—"
Tangrowth slapped him with a vine— not enough to knock him out, but enough to leave a mark that would stay there a while. I glanced toward his wound. A huge gash on his thigh that was large enough to fit my fist. The drill had penetrated through everything, including bone. I grabbed his Pokeballs and began to try to recall Weavile.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" I hissed.
The ice type snarled as Ice Shards flew toward me. Buddy reappeared from the floor and solidified his body, getting stabbed but protecting me in the process.
The first Pokeball didn't work and homed in toward Luxray instead, although we were too far for it to get recalled.
Electabuzz stepped up and called forth a humongous Discharge. I eyed him in surprise. He had already recovered from Weavile's attack? The electricity was unavoidable, and only targeted in front of us, so Weavile took the hit and I aimed at it with the next ball.
It homed toward Torterra instead.
Honey saw what I was trying to do and let Buddy and another Night Shade take over with the defense. He grabbed two of Harry's Pokeballs and managed to recall Weavile before it could reach us.
I was so stupid. I could have done it two by two.
It was over.
But the price had not yet been paid.
"Princess. Princess," I said. "Don't kill him. He's no longer a threat."
Harry stared up and looked on in horror. The tip of a spear was hovering right above his forehead. Just one little push, and he'd die. He clung to his leg, putting as much pressure on it as possible to stop the bleeding, but it didn't stop his face from distorting in pain and the sweat from running down his face. Electabuzz handed me Weavile's Pokeball, and I placed it in my bag for now.
"So you can still feel emotion, but only for yourself and not your team," I coldly said. "Pathetic."
"You don't know—"
Tangrowth slapped him again. I made the rules here.
"You know, if you had sicced that Weavile on us from the start instead of hiding behind it like a coward, you might have won," I rambled. "In fact, you should have done so right after Pelipper died. Yeah, I think that would have been a lot smarter—"
"What the fuck are you talking about, you crazy bitch— argh!" I grazed his wound with a foot and he shut up really quickly.
"—and you really needed to control that Crobat. It's okay to be emotional, but you've got to keep your head on your shoulders. It's dead now. It was a nice lesson for me though. Now I know that I'll need to train my Pokemon to keep it together if I die so that they can kill whoever did it to me. A nice, equal price, don't you think?" I asked. He said nothing. "Also, you should really order your Pokemon more. Gives them a sense of direction, but you rely on brute strength too much, and that came back to bite you. Power is a fine tool, but you've got to be smart about it."
Why was I even saying this? It wasn't like he was ever going to use this advice. I didn't know, but it felt good. It had a certain finality to it.
"Also, when you do it, you really shouldn't yell it out loud for me to hear. Anyway, if you managed to poison my Turtonator with that Crobat, the battle really might have turned in your favor. Weavile would have been able to just run away and wait us out," I continued, crouching next to him with a painful groan. "Here's what you should have done. Have Luxray protect you instead of Weavile, that way my Jellicent still can't really approach you, but you actually have enough muscle to kill me. Too late now though."
Turtonator walked up behind me, and I basked in his warmth. The adrenaline was rushing out of my body, and pulsating pain ran through my waist. That Ice Shard had only grazed me and had been slowed by Angel's body, but it had done a number on me. I grabbed normal potions and healed Electabuzz, Tangrowth and Turtonator as best I could and stood on my tiptoes, whispering to the fire type.
"I know you want to kill him, but wait a while."
I had plans for him, and he needed to pay for a long time. I couldn't have him die just yet, although that wound on his leg did look bad.
Turtonator answered with a satisfied nod. Had he misunderstood me and expected to kill him right after I was done? I held back a sigh.
I would explain after.
I turned back to Harry and crouched over his body, staring directly into his eyes as I watched him grunt and squirm from the pain until he averted his stare.
For some reason, he seemed a lot more terrified of me than any of my Pokemon.
"Now, now," I exhaled. My side was on fire, and small shards of ice were still stuck inside of my waist. "You might have paid for your transgressions against my friends, but sure as hell haven't paid for your links to Team Galactic. A debt is owed," I said, thinking of Sunshine's trainer. "And you will need to pay it or suffer the consequences."
"Speak like a normal fucking human and tell me what you want—"
The tip of Princess' spear touched his forehead, but I motioned at her to stop. I needed to give him some form of hope. Time was of the essence. I couldn't even afford to tend to my wound. Any minute now, Shiftry might teleport him back or—
"Shiftry! Get me out of here! Shiftry—"
I stepped on the gaping hole on his leg and his words devolved into nonsensical screams. I couldn't let him think that he was in charge in any way shape or form, or he would get cocky and shut down before I could get him to talk. If he started to think and use his head, he might realize that there was no way to get out of this. It was either I left him here and the League eventually caught him, or I killed him. He'd probably opt for the latter due to not wanting to become a vegetable from the memory extraction process.
"Don't you think that if Shiftry cared about you, you would have been out by now?" I said. In truth, I had no idea what I was talking about, but it had an effect. His face twisted in horror. "Right. You understand. Your fate is in my hands now. You're going to answer my questions. If you do so, I'll let you go. I'll even bandage your wound! Then maybe in the chaos, you'll manage to slip away and escape. Abel manages to do it all the time. You know, that criminal from Unova?"
Harry Rodriguez swallowed and considered his options. Of course, everything I was saying was a lie, and Harry couldn't be compared to a man of Abel's skill in any way, shape or form, and even then, there was no way he was walking with this leg, but he probably didn't know how bad the wound truly was yet. I wasn't about to let him get away with this, not after he'd almost killed my two daughters. However, a desperate man couldn't stare reality in the eyes even if it was right in front of him. He'd cling to hope and beg to live until he realized that there was no getting out of this. The key was to jiggle the bait in front of him and pull it out of reach as soon as he gave me everything I wanted.
"The clock is ticking," I coldly said, tilting my head. Princess mimicked me, and her spear broke the skin on his forehead and blood dripped to the floor.
He bit his lip.
"What do you want to know?"