Burst R9: Part 2

“ABBY! SNAP OUT OF IT!”

Shaking, Abby pulls her hands in front of her. Her surroundings are warm and wet. Her face stings. Where was she? Was there a cave in?

“Auuh,” she tries to speak, but her voice only cracks. She is shocked at how much her body is beyond her control.

She looks up shakily to find Taz and Niko hovering over her, her own reflection dancing in Taz’s visor. She is taken back by how distorted and unfamiliar she appears to herself.

Taz sighs, “You were unresponsive for quite some time there.”

Niko wines in agreement.

“I’m,” Abby chokes, “I’m okay. I don’t know what came over me.”

‘What was that all about? 33 left rounds ago. I still don’t have any answers... but that face. It looked familiar.

“Atoré,” she mutters under her breath, now looking into the linoleum floor. It was dotted with tears.

Abby brings up a hand and touches her face. Had she been crying?

Taz reaches down and slowly pulls her up. The room seems to spin about her.

“Look, I know how hard this can be,” she begins, her red eyes dimming, “But we’re going to have to save the panicking for later. We’ll never get out of here if we don’t keep out wits about ourselves.”

WABaaaaAM!!!

Suddenly, bits of plaster and water explode around the group. Abby nearly topples over as Taz and Niko dart out of the way.

“We’re getting attacked!” she hears Shizuko shriek from the other side of the room.

‘Abby!’ Niko yells, trying to catch her attention.

The Luxio burst spins around only to get blasted in the face with pressurized water, toppling backwards from the force. It stings like thousands of tiny needles. She coughs, trying to clear it from her lungs.

An angry voice rings throughout the room, “How do you like it, huh?!” It’s dissonant, almost like two voices clashing at once. “All we wanted to do was play!”

Abby’s ears flick. Was that..?

Light crackles through the room, making Abby’s hair stand on end. Another attack was coming. She throws her hands up, desperately hoping it’s not too late for Protect, but, just as the light surges around her, she realizes that Niko and Maribelle had promptly made a barrier, protecting her from any harm.

‘Take the new girl and get out of here! We can take care of this.’

‘We’ve got you, darling.’

Hastily rising to her feet, Abby calls for Shizuko before darting for the door. She didn’t want to leave her friends, but it didn’t seem like she had a choice. She was still regathering herself and didn’t want to burden the others.

When she reaches it, however, it doesn’t open. Sweating profusely, she struggles to find any form of leverage, but finds none.

“More locked doors!” Shizuko huffs, her eyes widening beneath her mask.

Abby glances behind herself to the wild exchange of attacks. It was all very busy and bright, but despite it all she couldn’t make out what was happening. There were definitely two other unknown figures in the room, but all the movement made them difficult to make out.

Shizuko waves the shard in front of her. “Any ideas?”

Abby suddenly screams and jumps back as Taz comes out of nowhere and smashes through the door with Ice Fang.

“We’re friggin’ Pokemon, dammit!” she huffs, before yanking the two through the now-empty door frame, nearly throwing them down the hall. “Now let’s stop messing around and get out of here.”

“You’re just going to leave them in there?” Shizuko asks as she darts along.

“Niko’s a big girl,” Taz states, running ahead of the group. “She’ll catch up.”

As they run through the empty halls, Abby can’t help but notice the tiny shards scattered about. She has to purposefully focus on them to avoid stepping on another one. Their surging light seems to provide some comfort, but at the same time is deeply unsettling.

After passing many by, she decides to stop and pick one up for herself. The shape is oddly familiar, but she can’t put a finger on it. She looks into its pulsating glow. It’s almost hypnotizing.

She notices Taz and Shizuko stop as well.

“What the hell?”

Abby looks over to find the entrance to the dome completely covered in distorting metal, twisting in layer upon layer of casting.

“You certainly can’t just punch this one down,” Shizuko remarks.

Abby could’ve sworn that, despite the darkness, she saw Taz’s eye twitch.

Suddenly, she hears footsteps echo down the corridor. She spins around to find a glowing Raven accompanied by a distraught-looking Emma.

“Looks like trouble’s here,” Taz states cheekily, placing her hands on her hips.

Raven huffs, “I’d watch who’s talking.” He then realizes what’s before him. “What happened here?”

Emma searches the contortion up and down with her wand. “What a mess…”

After looking at it for a while while Raven and Taz conversed, Emma suddenly directs her light straight into Abby’s eyes, which makes her jump slightly.

“Oh! Sorry,” Emma states before bringing the blinding light down. “I just thought I-“ She pauses, a concerned look passing over her face. “Are you alright?”

“Huh? Oh… yeah. I’m fine,” Abby responds. “I think the noise and darkness was just getting to me earlier. I’ll be okay.”

“Step over here,” Raven chimes in, his lights glowing brighter. “I can get a recharge going for you.”

Abby looks between the others before hesitantly stepping beside the Manectric burst. Almost immediately, a flood of relief comes over her like a cool wave. She’s surprised at how refreshing it is.

Raven smirks slightly before turning back to Taz. “Any thoughts?”

“If we can get enough energy going, we just might be able to break through. It’s going to take a lot, though.”

Unexpectedly, a large blast surges through the hallways, blinding the entire group in a wave of dust and knocking them backwards. Abby hears Taz shout something, but it’s drowned out in all the noise. In an attempt to see, Abby activates Leer. Her eyes glow a bright orange.

“Is everyone okay?!” she shouts, before feeling a powerful gust of air pass her by. She jumps back, hissing with her teeth aglow with Thunder Fang.

“Ooohh! Don’t you think you’re scary?” the darkness replies.

Abby tries swiping at the voice, but only falls forward when she fails to come in contact. “Show yourself!”

It seems to ignore her. “I brought you here because I thought you’d be fun. Turns out you’re just as shallow as the rest of these petty humans.”

Putting up Protect, Abby spins about the room, trying to focus on her adversary. “What do you mean?”

Another blast of water slams into her body, this time dissipating into her barrier.

She hears the voice growl deeply, “Don’t pretend like you don’t know! I can see it, you know. Space. Every place, every timeline you’ve ever been in. I can see it all!!!”

Abby can see tiny shards, not too different from the one she was holding, begin to form in the air, pulsing with energy. She didn’t know if she could block all of them at once.

“Wait!” she shrieks. Space? “Perle?!” She bites down, closing her eyes hard as she tries to focus on restoring her barrier. Maybe she could talk some sense into him.

The gems suddenly stop spinning and everything seems to go quiet. Even the constant grinding noise and the destruction of the other warrior’s attacks are muted.

“I know it’s you now!” she shouts desperately, “Why are you doing this?!”

She looks deep into the turned up dust, frantically trying to catch a glimpse of the legendary, but it isn’t long before the sounds start to come back to her and she loses him in the chaos of it all.

“Perle!” she shouts.

Abby continues to look about, but all signs of him are gone. Even the light from her fellow warrior’s attacks seem to do her no good. She wanted to get in touch with someone, anyone, but her fear of getting into the crossfire was too great.

That’s when it happened.

The dust suddenly seems to settle out, replaced with the signature purple smog of a shadow Pokemon. Startled, Abby turns around to find Esrever, Tash, and Niko in the center of the room. Energy seems to be surging, no, leaking from his body.

Red eyes glow from darkest corners of the room. “Are you going to try to interfere again, brother? Don’t test yourself. These people aren’t worth your time.”

“Or your life.”

Abby couldn’t believe her ears. Were they actually threatening him?

“Don’t you dare lay a finger on him, you babbling freaks of nature!” Maribelle shrieks, only to be glared at momentarily by Es.

“Don’t mind them,” he murmurs, before shrouding himself in his energy and quickly thrusting it from his body, crashing into the twisted metal with great force. It makes an ungodly grinding sound before smashing through the structure.

The other warriors stand there, mouths agape, as Esrever grabs his side and topples to the ground, his fierce red eyes dulling.

“NOnnnONONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!” the angry brothers scream, their voices clashing as the room begins to shake. “YOU CAN’T TAKE THEM AWAY FROM US!!!”

Abby and the rest of the warriors rush inwards towards Es, but he immediately shrinks back. “No!” he hisses, “Don’t touch me! I’m too unstable… Just get out of here, in one way or another.”

Being up close, Abby realizes just how much damage the Giratina burst has. There are scrapes and bruises up and down his body, even around his face.

She is taken aback when he suddenly makes eye contact with her. “Go. Run.”

Glancing towards the now blasted apart entryway, Abby can see the faint flickering of a portal of some sort on the inside. It’s their only chance…

The two legendary ‘mons now stood in their way, however, seemingly charging up a powerful combination of Hydropump and Thunderbolt.

If they were going to try to make it through at all and protect Esrever, now would be their only time.

In a flight of instinct, Abby screams and dashes forward, her entire body flashing with the electricity of Wild Charge. If she was going to make it through, it’d have to me now. She had to start something, or the whole group would fall. She didn’t think Protect would do it this time.

Time seems to slow down about her as she smashes into the duo, tackling them and herself down into the bowl of the dome. She can feel the air surge past her as their attacks blast into the air, just nicking the side of the structure.

The ground of the dome is cold and hard, knocking the wind straight out of the Luxio burst.

“ABBY!!!” Taz yells from the edge of the hall, which now appeared as a cliff overlooking the base of the dome, “What’re you thinking?!”

Looking around in a panic, Abby can’t spot either of the legendary Bursts anymore. She shakes slightly, fearing the worst.

They do reappear, though, this time at the edge of the hallway, seemingly distracted by what they should pay more attention to.

She watches as Taz and Emma activate their mega forms, standing beside Es with Mariebelle and Niko. “Raven! Grab the new girl and get out of here!” Taz demands.

Raven nabs Shizuko bridal-style and promptly slides down the edge of the dome, nearly dodging a swipe of Dragon Claw.

After getting to the bottom, he carefully sets her down before helping Abby to her feet. “This is going to get out of hand if we don’t start getting people out of here.”

“But,” Abby chokes, “But they’re going to need help.”

“We can’t hesitate now,” Raven states, looking back one last time before pulling Abby and Shizuko together, “Or none of us will make it out alive.”

“No! Waai-“

~~~Swoooooosh~~~

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Abby Ptah
Luxio Burst

Host Esrever

Shizuko Amaya
Hawlucha Burst

Niko Saints
Delphox Burst

Tash Blauwvos
Maribelle

Taz Saints
Gyarados Burst

Raven
Manectric Burst

Emma Schultz
Ampharos Burst