Chapter 21... Dang that was fast :D :D :D
Chapters 1 through 10 have been edited, as well. No gigantic, you-must-read-this-to-ever-understand-this-story-ever-again changes, but you could always check it out to see the improvements. Especially chapter one.
~Happy birthday to youuu~
Mike's and Aj's birthdays are here again. Happy (insert number here)th, guys.
And without further ado, the chapter.
They arrived in Eterna City two days later, at night. By this time, Cynthia and the others had been dead for a week. Also, Mike's wing was so close to healed, he could argue for going to Eterna without sounding like a nutcase.
"But you're still a nutcase."
"Shut up, Ashley."
When they got there, though, they waited another night to "visit" Syzygy. It was more time for Mike's wing to heal, plus Ashley wanted to visit a friend in the morning.
She walked up the steps to a house on the far end of town and knocked on the door.
Inside, she heard a few quick, light thuds. The door swung mysteriously open to an empty room.
"Well, that's creepy," Ashley remarked.
A small yellow pokemon sprung off the door – he must have been clinging to the doorknob to open it. "Hi!" the pikachu said brightly.
"Hey, haven't seen you in a while," she greeted him. "Is Axel home?"
"He is." A teenaged boy with dark blue hair and bright blue eyes came into view, rubbing his head. "Niko, you didn't have to headbutt me to get the door."
"What are you talking about?" Niko asked, wide-eyed.
"Thought I wouldn't see you til the next time I visited the Frontier," Axel said to Ashley, ignoring the pikachu's puppy eyes.
"Well, that Tower Tycoon spot you like so much is open. Maybe you'd visit more if you took it," Ashley suggested.
Axel frowned. "Open? Palmer retired?"
"Where have you been? Syzygy's killed Leaders and Frontier Brains. The position is open because Palmer is dead. You haven't been watching the news? Candice put in an ad about trainers joining forces almost a week ago," Ashley told him, shocked.
Axel rubbed his head sheepishly. "I've been watching Yu-gi-oh…"
"Big surprise there," Ashley sighed, shaking her head. "So what's up around here?"
He shrugged. "Not much at all. The most interesting thing is me buying blueberries yesterday."
Ashley blinked. "Blueberries?"
"Yeah." Indicating for Ashley to follow him, Axel walked down a hall into the kitchen. "They're fresh, too," he mentioned, popping a blueberry from a bowl on the counter into his mouth.
"Blueberries have kryptonite in them."
Axel laughed until he realized Ashley was serious. "Wait, really?"
"Yup. Very bad for Superman."
Axel scrutinized a blueberry before eating it, too. "I'd figure I'm safe. Want one?"
"Nah."
Axel jumped backwards to sit on the counter. "So. Learned Lynch Bankai yet?"
"Nope," Ashley replied, "It's really annoying. Aj and Kyle and Mike all have Bankai. I'm the only one without it."
Axel gave her a long stare. "Sounds like it's more than annoying," he pointed out.
She sighed. "Yeah. Annoying is a mild, you-get-the-gist-of-it description."
"Do you know…" Axel shook his head. "No, if you knew what activates yours, you'd already have reached Bankai."
"I used up all my mental analysis abilities in regaining my eyes," Ashley claimed.
"You did not. And anyways, it'll come to you in time," he reassured her.
Ashley made a pfft noise. "And if that time is after Syzygy's got me dead –"
"I think it'll come before then." Axel grinned. "You Lynches have cool Bankais. Aethereans like me just have flat-out Bankai. There's a final Bankai, sometimes, but normally there's nothing more. You guys get vindica and nemesial in addition to a regular power-up –"
"Nemesial?" Ashley interrupted.
"Hm? Yeah…"
"What's that?"
"I dunno. Read the words somewhere. It didn't describe vindica or nemesial."
"Oh," Ashley said, a little disappointed. "Aethereans have vindica, actually; there's just no name for it," Ashley mentioned.
"Cool. So you have no idea what a nemesial is?" Axel wondered.
"I'd never heard the word before you said it just now," Ashley confirmed.
"Huh. You'll find it sometime," Axel waved it off.
"Mm." Ashley looked at the clock. "D*mn… I need to go back now. We're heading for Eterna at 11."
"You're in Eterna," Axel informed her, puzzled.
"Oh – sorry, we've been referring to the headquarters as 'Eterna' for so long it's become second nature to call it that," Ashley explained cheerfully.
Axel shrugged. "Fair enough. Oh, and don't forget to check out my Fan –"
"Okay, bye," Ashley said, getting up.
"What? Why does everyone do this when I mention my Fanservi –"
"Hiii-yah!" Niko yelled, leaping off a shelf. A bolt of electricity zoomed from him to Axel.
"YEEEOOOOOOOOOOWW!" Axel shouted, leaping up. Bits of blue hair stuck out in all directions. "NIKO!"
Ashley left before things got big.
At exactly 10:50 am, twenty-four pokemon were deposited in the PC. The four Lynches had decided not to risk their pokeballs being taken from them under any circumstance.
"Are we flying or walking?" Aj wanted to know.
"The faster the better, since it's twenty miles away," Kyle pointed out. "Mike and Ashley, if you guys could fly we'd get there pretty fast."
"Uh… I'm not sure I can carry one of you," Ashley said slowly.
"I'll be teleporting with Aj," Kyle explained. "Just a mile or two a minute."
Ashley shook off the little tendrils of jealousy. Hey, Mike was her friend too.
They set out at 11 am. Ashley and Mike left the other two Lynches behind.
It had been a long while since the last time Ashley had flown with her own wings – maybe around a month ago. And even that had been for training, so there hadn't been time to fly for fun. The sky view of Eterna Forest was lovely – pines, oaks, and a million trees Ashley couldn't identify spread out in every direction. The day was damp and moist, and fog hung between the treetops like a gauzy veil of spiderwebs. Clouds blanketed the sky overhead, blocking the sun. It was the sort of weather that would be gloomy all day, but never rain.
The two winged Lynches flew in silence for a while, enjoying the cool air and the bird's-eye-view of the forest. But a nagging thought kept returning to Ashley, and eventually she addressed it.
"Mike?"
"Hm?" He turned his head.
"What's a nemesial?"
"What's a what?" Mike tilted his ear towards her like he'd heard wrong.
"What's a nemeisal?" she repeated.
Mike frowned – apparently he hadn't heard wrong. "Um… I dunno, what is it?"
"I'm asking you." Ashley shrugged. "Axel mentioned it, but he didn't know what it was. Just that it's got something to do with Lynch Bankai."
Mike thought it over. "I've never heard of it. We could ask Aj and Kyle once we're at the HQ."
They flew without talking for a few minutes longer.
"It's been a while since the last time I flew on these wings," Ashley mentioned.
"Me too," agreed Mike. "Between Syzygy and being a Champion, there's not enough time."
"I can't wait for this thing with Syzygy to be over," Ashley said.
"No, don't say that."
"Why?" Ashley wondered, surprised.
"Because then you're not taking them seriously. The end of this conflict is just as likely going to be our own deaths as it is their eradication," Mike reminded her.
Ashley let this sink in. "Sure, but I still wish we didn't have to deal with this anymore."
"We also don't have to deal with this if we're dead."
"You wouldn't be dead," Ashley pointed out.
"Three of my best friends would be brain dead, heart dead, and just plain dead, and I wouldn't even have wings to try and boost my spirits by flying afterwards."
"Iro said Aj would get an artificial heart."
Mike snorted. "Iro also said 'sorry, Syzygy told me to murder six of the most powerful trainers in Sinnoh, so I had to.' He's way under their influence for some reason, and I really don't think Syzygy is going to waste time sticking a fake heart in Aj, regardless of what Iro thinks."
Ashley had run out of counterarguments. "All right, you win. So what should I say now, that I hope Syzygy will be gone someday?"
Mike didn't catch the sarcasm. "That's about right," he nodded.
In just a few minutes, Mike's internal birdie radar decided they were finally at the spot. Swerving down around the branches of trees, the duo landed by a large, vine-covered rock.
"Where're Kyle and Aj?"
Mike looked around. "Probably be here soon."
Perhaps twenty seconds later, the air five feet to their left shimmered. A soft glow materialized into Aj and Kyle. As the psychic glow faded, Kyle took his hand off of Aj's shoulder. Ashley averted her eyes – she knew physical contact was necessary for teleportation, but it still felt a little weird.
"Ashley mentioned something on the way over. It's a word that's related to Lynch Bankai, but none of us know what it means," Mike informed them. "Something like new measles –"
"Nemesial," Ashley cut in. "Axel mentioned it. He doesn't know what it is either."
"It's a bad thing," Aj commented.
All eyes turned to her. "You know what it is?" Mike said in amazement.
"No, but it sounds like the word nemesis, and those are bad," Aj reasoned.
"You've got a point," Kyle agreed.
"Great, so there's a mysterious aspect of Bankat that's most likely something to do with a nemesis – an enemy – and we're about to risk our lives while still having no clue what it is," Mike said somewhat bitterly.
"Don't be a pessimist. It'll be no trouble," Aj reassured him.
"So this is it?" Kyle asked, gesturing at the rock.
"The rock?" Ashley said in surprise.
"Yeah. People have been through here," Kyle confirmed.
It took them a few minutes, but soon Aj came upon the door hidden in the boulder's surface. They found themselves facing a steep, dark staircase leading down. The Lynches stood in silence for a bit.
The small corridor almost gave off an air of fear. Ash, Dawn, and Kevin hadn't stayed behind for nothing; this was danger. Real, life-threatening danger that they were willingly throwing themselves into. Danger that even six powerful trainers couldn't handle…
"But we're Lynches," Aj murmured, answering the silent question. "We stand a chance."
Mike finally found the courage to go in. Aj headed down next, followed by Ashley and Kyle.
At the bottom of the staircase lay a room like an amateur boxing ring. Roped-off squares lay every few feet, raised four feet above the ground, with punching bags hanging in between.
The entire left wall was a glass window.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Mike, running over.
"Energy receptors," Aj recognized them, "They have this many?"
"That we do." It was Toxica. She looked different – paler, perhaps – than the last time they'd seen her. "The glass isn't glass, by the way. It's a composite that's bulletproof, shatterproof, breakproof. Fortunately Mystor can just walk right in if we need anything done in there," she said, nodding towards the window as she strode forward from the door across the room.
"We're here for our friends," Ashley informed her coolly.
"Ah." Immediately, a loud BANG! sounded from behind them. They jumped, and soon realized that the entrance to the headquarters was sealed off by a heavy steel door.
"That's similarly unbreakable – although I suppose it's called an alloy instead of a composite, since it's metal," Toxica mentioned. "And pokeballs have been sealed, just to let you know."
"We know," Kyle responded. "We brought none."
"Smart little kids," Toxica said with a smirk. "I appreciate how much you care about your friends, but their bodies were burned a week ago. This was a trap, as you've probably figured out."
"Oh darn," Ashley said solemnly. "Well, aren't we screwed. Oh wait –" She morphed efficiently into her dark form. "We're not."
"I like your way of thinking, but it's Voltwing I'd like to battle," Toxica said, her tone suggesting regret.
"Why me?" Mike frowned.
"I never got the chance before. And unlike Delta, who I have yet to fight as well, you and I would battle on equal terms," Toxica explained.
"Meaning you're afraid of his type advantage?" Mike translated.
Toxica's look grew… well, toxic. "Watch out, kid."
Mike had only enough time to turn electric before she rushed at him and grabbed him by the elbow. With a strength that couldn't have been human, Toxica hurled him into a boxing ring. A crack echoed from Mike's arm when he landed, and he shut his gold eyes tight in pained shock as Toxica leaped into the ring after him.
"Mike, are you – Whoa," Aj blurted out, finding an clear but solid wall blocking her from entering the ring. "Mike!"
"You can't get in, it's an energy shield. Just wait this out. I'll deal with you next, if it makes you feel better," Toxica told her. "Get up, Voltwing."
Mike clutched his left arm as he got to his feet. "Isn't that cheating, breaking my arm before we even start?" Mike asked her.
"That was the start. You just weren't fast enough. Life doesn't wait for you to get into a ring; why should I?" Toxica retorted.
Mike looked over to find his friends watching. "Wait for me, okay?" he said in a low voice.
"You just do your thing. We're not going anywhere," Kyle assured him.
Funny, Ashley thought. Mike usually goes for the heroic warrior mindset. That would have been to tell us to keep going without him, wouldn't it? Why didn't he say that?
Mike began with a thunderpunch. Toxica countered, quick as light, with a poison jab. He struck her head; she jabbed his stomach.
"D*mn, you're one of those untaserable ones," Toxica muttered. "Stomach of steel."
"I prefer wings of lightning," Mike commented, charging a zap cannon. "It's what everyone in Syzygy likes me for."
Toxica deflected the zap cannon into the energy shield around them, dissolving the attack into nothing. "It's what we target you for. There's a difference." She swiped her hand at his shoulder, tearing his sleeve. Ashley noticed her claws for the first time.
"How'd you get claws?"
Toxica held them up. "Vindica. I get claws. And I can also do this." She lashed out her hand again, tearing into Mike's shoulder with claws that inundated with violet energy. Despite being purple, it didn't quite match the color of poison.
"Aargh –" Mike sent a thunderbolt careening her way, but she ducked underneath. "How'd you use dragon claw?"
"Vindica. Seriously, you have almost as bad memory as Smokelius did," Toxica snorted. She slashed at him again, leaving a streak of claw marks across his cheek.
"If you know so much about vindica, then what's mine?" Mike spat back.
Toxica laughed and slashed at his arms. He attempted to counter with thunderpunches, but those didn't do much against Toxica's razor sharp claws. "You've used it before. When you beat J's forces singlehandedly, you used it. You can absorb a whole bunch of energy and then use it all at once."
Mike blinked and smiled grimly. "May as well."
Gray, cloudly flying energy swirled around him for a split second, and suddenly he was in Bankai. Toxica's purple eyes lit up in glee. "Why, thank you!"
Before Mike could do any more than look alarmed, Toxica attacked with a flurry of moves. The flashes of different kinds of energy showed that grass, darkness, bug, and poison were among the elements assaulting Mike. A shot of fear entered Ashley's stomach; Aj was covering her eyes.
When Toxica finally let up, Mike was leaning against the side of the ring, breathing hard. Cuts laced his arms, face, wings, and torso, and his t-shirt was barely holding together. Wiping blood from a deep cut on his forehead out of his eyes, he said, "What the h*ll does my transformation into Bankai have to do with you attacking me like that?"
Toxica was grinning. "It will become clear someday. And anyways, you can't actually absorb any of my attacks. The energy source itself needs to be quite large, like that thunderhead above Hearthome's plateau."
Aj risked a glance through her fingers and hastily covered her eyes again. Mike noticed. Swallowing, he said, "What, you thought I was aiming to absorb your attack energy? Dumb*ss."
The wall of energy momentarily flashed brighter than the sun. Kyle, Ashley, and Toxica were blinded by it. Aj uncovered her eyes to see what had just happened.
Glowing white energy flowed into Mike like water going down a storm drain. It was collecting in his wings, which glowed the same color. Toxica was lashing out blindly, screaming something about what she was going to do to him. Mike turned his head to the side and for a moment, his gold-flecked lavendar eyes met Aj's brown. A grim smile was all he could manage, but Aj got the message.
I'm all right.
The last of the energy was absorbed, and Mike shot his fist forward. Aj had no idea what kind of energy it was, nor how it transferred through Mike's fist to reach Toxica, but she did know the move's name.
Epic win.
Toxica fell over the side of the ring, falling on the ground with a loud THUD.
Mike turned back into his normal form and hopped over the side of the ring – by the looks of things, his broken arm was nearly healed already. "For the record," he said softly, "I didn't singlehandedly beat J's forces. Several friends of mine were the ones to weaken J herself, in the first place." He was grinning tiredly.
Aj's vocal chords were having trouble pushing words though her mouth. "That… was really good," she finally squeezed out.
Mike's grin seemed to liven up a little. "Thanks."
"Can you like, not blind us next time? A few weeks without sight was bad enough," Ashley grumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"D*mn," a voice sighed. Mike and Aj, who were the only ones who could see, glanced over the fight ring. It was a man with short gray hair and a young face – Mystor. "She just had to tell you about your vindica," he sighed. "At least she didn't tell too much about nemesial, although she was coming close there."
"You guys know what nemesial is?" Aj prompted.
Mystor closed his eyes. "Sure. You can't make me say what it is just by asking, but we do. I'm surprised you don't know, quite frankly." He looked down, presumably at his unconscious colleague. "I suppose you can teleport away if you like. We did cremate the bodies; Toxica wasn't lying. The trainers' pokeballs are still here, though. Might want to fetch those." He picked Toxica up and carried her away, traveling ghostlike through the obstacles blocking his path.
"And at last I seeee the liiiiight," Ashley sang off-key, blinking and focusing her eyes on Aj and Mike.
"Tangled was a good movie, but you sing like a latias," Kyle commented.
Ashley grinned. "Specifically, Sagitta the latias, who broke your windows."
"We should go find the pokeballs," Mike mentioned. "Trap or not, those pokemon shouldn't be kept cooped up anywhere."
"You're about to get blood in your eye," Aj informed him. Mike wiped his forehead again, frowning.
"My arm's already healed. Why isn't everything else?" he wondered.
"It'll heal in a bit. Look, the cuts you got before Toxica went on rampage are gone," Kyle pointed out. Mike checked his shoulder; nothing there. "Also, do you want this?" Kyle pulled off his jacket. "Your shirt is hardly a shirt anymore."
"Your jacket's going to get blood on it," Mike warned him, pulling the remnants of his shirt away. Aj blushed and looked away (^w^). Ashley could still barely see anyways.
"It's all right. I'll wash it once we're out of here," Kyle said seriously.
The message received was, "We're going to make it out of here."
The four Lynches, Mike wearing Kyle's fleece jacket, picked their way through the punching bags and fighting rings to reach the doorway on the other end.
The new room was like the Oreburgh Gym: rocky. Very rocky. Boulders rose from the floor like giant teeth from a shark's jaw, with gravel and pebbles in between. The walls were sheets of rock. Across the room, another door awaited them.
"This is another obstacle, isn't it," Ashley said.
A giggle. "Of course."
A tall, slim girl with long, straight, rust-red hair sauntered through the doorway. A black jacket covered her arms, and tan pants traveled down to expose bare feet. Over her crimson shirt dangled a pendant the color of a fire stone, reddish orange and shimmering with an almost unnatural light. Around her waist sat a wide brown belt with crystals in the same color as her pendant embedded in the leather. The girl's eyes shone reddish brown.
"Long time no see," Fyr greeted them. "Doing well?"
The air behind Ashley shimmered, cutting her off from her friends. Kyle put up his hand to test the barrier – solid. More so than the energy wall Toxica had used. This blockade was energy that had turned to matter; Mike couldn't absorb that.
"You might say that," Ashley responded. "You?"
"Not bad. I see you've got your eyes back."
Ashley smirked. "That I do."
"Bet your aim hasn't gotten any better," Fyr taunted.
"Ha. I'd be more afraid of your aim if you were aiming for the person next to me," Ashley countered.
Fyr narrowed her eyes. "You got that from Harry Potter."
"It's a worthwhile comeback," Ashley shrugged. "One on one, I'm assuming?"
Fyr sighed. "One on four. I'm going to go through all your friends right after I'm done with you. Shame."
Ashley just grinned. "You got that from Toxica."
Fyr smirked. The two girls both wove a swirl of energy around themselves and transformed. Ashley had picked dragon; Fyr was both rock and fire. Her eyebrows rose dramatically. "Well, now. No Bankai yet? Pity I have to slaughter you even worse."
Ashley's brown eyes hardened. "Bring it, rockhead."
The rock-type spread her arms. Circles of pale brown energy swirled around her, compressing themselves into rings. The energy solidified into sharp stones that Fyr then launched straight at Ashley. Ashley blasted a dragon pulse straight back, burning the stones and making them turn back into rock energy, harmless.
"Not bad. Try blocking this one." Fyr did the same as before, but with more energy that collected into three more rings than before. The number of stones doubled, and Ashley's roar-of-time barely annihilated all of the stones before they reached her.
"How about this?"
Fyr increased the energy around her to the point that she nearly disappeared behind it. Rather than condense and then release it, she condensed the energy into several circles and kept them in energy form. With a sideways grin on her face, Fyr remarked, "You know, I'm surprised. Roar of time causes momentary paralysis after it's used. You just made this way too easy for me. I thought you'd be a worthwhile fight." Shaking her head, Fyr lifted the rings of energy over her head and thrust them at Ashley.
Still recovering from the hyperbeam variation, Ashley could only watch anxiously as the rings fell over her as though she was part of a ring-toss carnival game. The rock energy hovered momentarily around her. Suddenly it solidified and closed in on her, binding her arms, wings, and legs in solid rock. Ashley tried to push her arms away from her body, but the rock held firm.
Fyr shot a jet of flame at her opponent. It didn't have a particularly strong effect on the dragon type, but it was enough to send her crashing to the floor. Fyr collected energy into a mass the size of a boulder and hurled it her way. The stone shattered as it flew towards Ashley. When it impacted her, she found the rocks had halfway buried her inside a pile – rock tomb.
Something shone above Ashley's head. Looking up, she found a clump of rock energy hovering over her. The start of a rock slide.
Oh, crap.
Ashley summoned a dragonbreath to her mouth and launched it quickly at Fyr, but the latter sidestepped it. The rock slide hanging above Ashley's head was growing in size; any moment now it would reach its maximum capacity. As the energy started to turn solid, dull brown, Ashley shut her eyes tight.
I'm screwed.
Something yanked her shoulder so hard, she felt it pop briefly out of its joint. She found herself flying to the side. Ashley landed on the ground, hard, but could see that the rock slide was now falling where she'd just been. Cascading. Overflowing. Maybe not just falling. It was pretty big. And soon she realized why exactly she wasn't right under that cascading, overflowing, maybe-not-just-falling rock slide.
Ah, you idiot. You just dragged yourself into this.
Kyle didn't hear her, but she hadn't really been trying to speak to him telepathically, regardless of the fact that he was in psychic form and she could if she wanted to. He unsheathed his sword – oh, never mind, he was in Bankai, not just psychic primary or secondary – and hacked at the stones restraining her. "You okay?" he asked.
She bit her lip and tried not to cry. "Fine. Thanks."
"When I said this was a one-on-four battle, I meant one at a time. Two is unfair," Fyr was almost whining.
Kyle glanced at her. "Did you say that? I couldn't hear you. The wall back there acts as a sound barrier."
It was true; Aj and Mike were yelling things that were inaudible to Ashley's ears. Judging by the looks on their faces, though, maybe that was a good thing…
"Whatever. I'll beat you both anyways." Fyr rolled her eyes.
Kyle snapped the last of the rocks off Ashley and helped her up. "You're funny," he said in a voice that was a little* less than amused.
*a lot
Ashley and Kyle simultaneously slashed forward – Ashley using her hand, Kyle using his sword. Fyr rock blasted the spatial rend and delta-focus blast (with Kyle's ∆) in an attempt to cancel them out, but the power overall was strong enough to overcome her counterattacks. "Aargh," Fyr grunted, barely keeping her footing. "Jeez, maybe I'd better use my vindica, if you're going to do that."
A rumble. A hiss. The room glowed red with heat, and from the walls spouted a viscous stream of molten rock. Ashley dove to avoid it, shoving Kyle away in the process.
"This is what you get when you cross a fire type with a rock type," Fyr remarked, grinning. "Magma control. Aboveground, it would be lava." She shrugged. "Not that it matters much when it's going to hurt a lot anyways."
Ashley collected dragon energy in her hands, readying them for dragon pulse. Kyle's sword glowed bronze or pink, depending on your angle of view.
The magma surged forward, splashing itself right at the two Lynches' faces. They both countered the burning rock, Ashley blasting it away with pieces of dragon pulses, Kyle swinging his sword at it like it was a game of tennis. Thankfully, his sword didn't melt; it was probably the psychic and fighting energy surrounding it that helped it.
Ashley spotted something out of the corner of her eye. A trail of red-hot magma had sneaked around them and was flowing towards Kyle, whose back was to it. As though it suddenly realized that it had been spotted, it leaped for the unaware Lynch.
Impulsively, Ashley shot a wave of pink spatial rend at the magma, knocking it back. Kyle realized what had just happened. "Thanks… Look out!"
Ashley's elbow lit up with searing hot pain. She slapped the lava off her arm with her other hand, which burnt as well, though not nearly as badly.
D*mn, she swore mentally. This is exactly why I got worried when I found out I like him. I risked that for him – I probably would just have yelled a warning otherwise.
Kyle was fine. He blasted away another wave of magma using his ∆ to attack.
Maybe if I had more power, I wouldn't give in to something like that, Ashley's mind suggested.
It was a trivial hope, and not one with much logic to it, but you tell me the last time you heard the words "logic" and "love" in the same sentence.
As though she had grown bored with playing with the stream of magma, Fyr willed the jagged boulders scattered around the room to melt. Every rush of dragon energy that coursed through Ashley's hands held new meaning. Every violet-blue fireball contained the urge for greater power, for a strength that could overcome any weakness.
At first Ashley thought it was just her dragon instinct pulling through. As it grew stronger, though, she realized it was something more, something greater than just a little elemental effect.
So that I won't do something dumb for Kyle, she told herself.
A flash. Not a visible one; one inside her. It was cold and dark and wild, but she recognized these three things and welcomed them. The presence grew and surrounded her in the form of energy. Ice, dark, dragon. Any two are rare in combination, but the three together…
Bankai.
The energy swirled around her, and she felt pieces of her change – lighter wings, heavier hands. Then the energy flooded into her – Ashley closed her eyes and let it in.
As the rush of transformation died away, a sudden calm took its place. Fyr had stopped launching balls of molten rock and was watching her enemy gain power with a horrified, fascinated look on her face. Kyle watched, too, but his dark brown eyes glistened in pride.
Wings that were black, but covered in an thin, icy crystal coating joined to the back of Ashley's shoulder blades. She opened her eyes: her irises had become frosty blue, with darker flecks scattered throughout them. Smiling, she spoke a single sentence.
"I can't see a d*mn thing."
Fyr unfroze. "Well, good. Cause here comes more."
Fyr created a stone edge that formed rocks, then melted into magma, Thrusting her arms forward, she launched them at Ashley. Kyle stepped forward to defend his newly (re-newly?) sightless friend, but a blast of dragon energy met the move head-on first. Surprised, Kyle turned around.
"I can sort of see," Ashley explained. "But only enough to know that you're over there, and you're facing me, and Fyr just sent a bunch of fireballs our way. It's blurry is all."
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Fyr asked.
Ashley swiveled to face Fyr. In the five seconds it had taken Kyle to hear what Ashley meant, the rock-fire Lynch had rushed forward. Now, she rammed her flame-covered fist into Ashley's chest. The latter quickly froze the spot with ice so that her shirt wouldn't end up like Mike's, and then night slashed Fyr in retaliation. Kyle noticed at this point that harsh white weavile claws had taken the place of her hands, making the nightslash yet stronger.
The gems on Fyr's belt and necklace shone bright and shot energy at Ashley – Kyle guessed this was power gem. In return, Ashley conjured a mixture of dragon, dark, and ice energy and thrust it forward as a single attack. It swept straight through Fyr's power gem and shot at Fyr herself. The Syzygy Lynch was thrown back, smashing into a stone that still jut out from the floor. Fyr summoned a whirlwind of rock energy around her…
Suddenly she gasped. The energy flowing around her shot in every direction, blowing away the boy who'd just impaled her shoulder from behind.
Kyle winced as Fyr collapsed. "I hope she's okay."
Ashley stared blankly at him. A few seconds later, she decided it would be easier to stare blankly at him if she could actually see a d*mn thing, so she reverted back to normal form. Her eyes were brown again.
"You just ran someone through, and now you're asking if they're all right?" Ashley pointed out incredulously.
Kyle shrugged sheepishly. "Yeah."
Shaking her head, Ashley strode over and gingerly lifted the new slit in Fyr's jacket. "She's fine," Ashley let him know, examining the wound. "She's healing like a Lynch."
"What's that about healing like a Lynch?"
Mike and Aj were coming their way; it seemed the wall had dispersed when Fyr fainted. To the surprise of both Ashley and Kyle, Mike was still covered in blood and bleeding from the cuts all over him. Ashley checked her elbow; the burn was gone.
"Why aren't you healed?" Kyle wondered, frowning.
"You're asking me?" Mike muttered. "Let's find the pokeballs and go home."
The four traversed through the next doorway.
The room was fairly tall and very, very wide. Its floor was tiled in alternating squares of black and white, and the walls were beige. A vault sat across the room from them, locked with a keypad.
"Tall enough to fly in, mysteriously empty, and the last room to get through before finding the pokeballs, like a boss level," Aj listed. "I'm guessing Iro."
"You're guessing right." A cheerful boy with glasses, green and silver hair, bug wings, and a sort of steel rifle flew into view. "Long time no see, Aj Ferra," Iro greeted her. "Bankai coming along well?"
"Oh, yes. Want to see?" Aj asked lightly.
Iro grinned. "By all means, come forward."
Aj morphed into a form with silvery blue hair, copper skin, and eyes like sunlight on water. She took a step. Her foot hit a white tile, and suddenly it fell out from underneath her. Shouting in surprise, Aj managed to grab hold of the surrounding floor just before she fell through. "Aargh – that was dirty," she scoffed.
Iro was laughing. "You know, the word 'gullible' is written on the floor." He pointed up at the ceiling.
"If you say 'green beans' really slowly, it sounds like the word gullible'," Aj countered.
" 'Gullible' isn't in the dictionary."
"Oh come on. Everyone's heard that one." Aj's eyes flickered to the area Iro was hovering over. "Oh, uh, you dropped your glasses."
Iro looked down and then realized that his glasses were still on his face. "Aw, frack."
"Who's laughing now?" Aj snickered, pulling herself out of the hole in the floor.
"Me," Iro said simply. He hefted the gun and aimed it at her.
"Oh crap." She dove to the side. A spear of brilliant orange fighting energy rocketed at the spot where Aj'd just been standing, cracking a floor tile with a loud snap!
Iro leveled the gun at Mike, Ashley, and Kyle, who were still standing in the doorway. They scattered from the grass green arrow. Kyle found himself on a tile that sank down an inch and gave a click. He realized what had happened and jumped aside as toxic purple fumes rose up from the old tile.
"Don't tell me this is a room full of traps," Kyle groaned. "That's such a kiddie thing to do."
"Just be glad that wasn't knockout gas," Iro warned, blasting a white projectile of normal-type energy at Kyle, who ducked. "I killed six humans with this rifle; I can easily main four Lynches. Especially since I can load energy into this faster than before."
"That's how you killed them?" Mike said in wonder.
"Although the only one of you I'm not supposed to kill is Aj," Iro went on, ignoring Mike, "since we need her heart intact. Actually, if I went for her head…"
"Mike, wings," Ashley said brusquely.
Mike understood, and the two Lynches morphed: Mike into flying, Ashley into Bankai. Each spread their wings and thrust them downward, propelling their bodies away from the booby-trapped floor.
"Cheaters." Iro launched a bolt of electricity at Mike. The latter shot upward, letting the spear hurtle past his foot. Too late, Mike realized Iro had fired a second shot – this one pale grey – just after the first.
"AARGH!" Mike was sent spinning towards the floor, a rip in his wing in addition to all his previous injuries.
Thrusting a quick magnet bomb at Iro, Aj dashed toward Mike. She paid no heed to the trapped tiles – as she ran across them, a blade fell from the ceiling onto one and another burst into flames.
"You got Mike?" Kyle shouted, launching his Bankai's ∆ at Iro in a psybeam.
"Yeah! Ashley, get the pokeballs!" Aj yelled back.
"Nuh-uh," Iro defied them, training his rifle on Ashley. Kyle's sword appeared to grow – fighting energy became his extension in the move called secret sword – and he slashed at Iro, cutting the Lynch's wrist and throwing his aim completely off. Ashley flapped her icy wings and reached the safe on the far side of the room.
The keypad contained dozens of tiny buttons that Ashley could barely make out in her blind Bankai. Above the keys lay a screen that was immensely long. The safe itself was bolted to the floor.
"Mike, Kyle, I can't figure this out," Ashley shouted hurriedly.
Wincing, Mike got to his feet with Aj's help. Withdrawing his wings, Mike brought out his electric form. He started to run across the trapped floor. Spikes shot up through a tile just after he ran over it.
"Mike, surf!" Aj raised her arms to her sides, accumulating a mass of water energy behind her. She let it materialize into a wave of water and swept it toward Mike.
Mike, who was most definitely not a water type, did his best to stay on his feet as the surf pushed him fluidly over the tiled floor. He stumbled throughout the trip and eventually topped forward just before reaching Ashley.
"You all right?" Ashley checked.
There was a crash – Kyle was locked in combat with Iro, secret sword versus elemental rifle. Iro's hot pink psychic spear grazed the side of Kyle's face. Oddly, Aj shimmered briefly out of view, then refocused.
Mike looked over the lock for a moment, then held out his hand. He electrocuted the keypad, overloading it and allowing the door to swing open. Six cases of pokeballs were stacked inside.
"Jackpot," Mike declared, taking three.
Aj was surfing their way to see if they needed any help. The water transport was for some reason smaller than it had been for Mike. Iro's arrow found its mark: Kyle's knee. Shouting in pain, Kyle barely remained standing. Aj shimmered again and stumbled, her surf's power destroyed. She seemed surprised.
"What was that?" she voiced.
Iro looked confused, then his face cleared up. Not once did his eyes divert from Kyle, whose knee was turning the leg of his jeans dark red. "Don't know your nemesial yet? Guess now you've found it."
Aj's eyes flashed as she glanced up at him. "So that's my nemesial?" she said carefully, being sure not to reveal her actual knowledge of nemesials (also known as 0.0001).
"Yeah. You lost power when an ally was hurt," Iro agreed.
Aj glanced at Ashley and Mike; Iro didn't see this. "Ashley's nemesial is that she's nearly blind in Bankai. Mike's is that any injuries he gets while in Bankai will heal at a human rate, and not the rate that Lynches usually heal at."
"Aj," Ashley warned.
Iro shrugged. "Sounds about right."
"I can't figure out a way to describe nemesial itself, though," Aj sighed. "The words just won't come to me."
Iro's mouth twitched into a grin. "No? It's just a weakness. It lowers the convenience of Bankai; it's Bankai's nemesis. vindica justifies it in return; to vindicate is to avenge, in Latin. It avenges your weakness."
Aj grinned. "Thanks. I never did have the words to describe it."
"Anytime." Iro blasted flying energy at Kyle, who barely avoided it.
"Aj," Ashley said abruptly, "take these. I'm going to help Kyle," she said, handing her three cases of pokeballs to Aj. Without another word, Ashley took off into the air.
Iro was preoccupied with deflecting Kyle's secret sword and didn't notice the ice punch heading his way. Grunting in surprise, Iro swiveled in midair and slashed with one hand, half an x-scissor. Ashley and Aj both yelled exclamations of shock (Ashley's was "Ow!" and Aj's was M rated), though a gash appeared only on Ashley's arm. Iro struck again, this time with a steel wing that sent Ashley careening away from him.
Kyle was making an attempt to charge a focus blast, though it was massively failing due to the distraction of the pain in his knee. Iro sank two feet to avoid the missile when it finally flew his way. The Syzygy Lynch then collected metal energy right in front of his head and blasted Kyle with a flash cannon that sent the latter skidding ten feet away.
The square beneath Kyle clicked.
Sparks coursed through Kyle's body, completely paralyzing him. He dropped to his knees, his muscles unable to keep him standing.
Ashley retaliated at Iro, slashing with a combination of nightslash and dragon claw. He growled like a feral cat and swung the butt of his rifle into Ashley's head. Aj was feeling the effects of her friends' pain to the extent that Mike now had her supported on his shoulder. Iro lashed out with a meteor mash that pitched Ashley into the floor, right near Kyle. Ashley felt a ghost-type missile tear through her side, spiking her abdomen with hot pain.
Holding her side carefully with her sharp claws, Ashley's blurry vision noticed that Iro was pointing something long and narrow at Kyle. Lavender energy spiraled into it and then shot out as something sharp and strong, zooming right at the immobilized boy beside her.
Quick as a flash, Ashley sprung to her feet and planted herself in the way of Iro's javelin of energy. She just… couldn't let it happen.
Well… even the strongest hearts can only take so much.
The spike of flying energy struck her in the center of her chest. Ashley was thrown to the ground.
Across the room, Mike froze. Aj had been breathing hard, but now she had gasped and held her breath, as though doing so would reverse the events of the last three seconds. Head spinning, Mike stared at the limp figure on the floor, and then at the horrified Lynch kneeling nearby.
"Not… no…" he muttered.
"Score two for Syzygy. Eyes of a dragon and dark's brightest light," Iro said curtly.
"You… wish."
Gasping for air like she'd just had the wind knocked out of her, Ashley sat up. Her blue and black eyes looked a bit confused, but also indignant and rough. Iro (and everyone else, for that matter) stared in shock.
"But… I just shot you… You should be dead!" he spluttered.
"Don't get hung up on that. I need to get back at you for trying to kill my friend," Ashley warned him.
She streaked upward and smashed into him with dragon rush. He flinched and Ashley swiped at him with a dual chop from her claws. Iro fired a bullet of fighting energy at her – the bright orange energy smashed into her chest and knocked her back several yards, but didn't cut through her like another arrow had done to her midriff.
"Why won't you die?" Iro whined like a kid whose video game was malfunctioning.
"What? It's just my vindica," Ashley faked. It didn't take her long to realize that it was actually true.
"Argh... I'll just have to fight you the regular way, then," Iro decided, sticking his rifle into a holster behind his back.
Flashes of elemental energy aside, it was a regular fistfight. They ducked and jabbed and dodged like boxers would do in a ring, although they were in the air and not nearly as restricted as boxers. A meteor mash nicked Ashley's shoulder; a dragon claw etched three lines into Iro's cheek. Ashley feinted right and suddenly used an ice beam to freeze his wings. Unable to keep flying because of the weight, Iro dropped from the sky, crashing hard into the ground ten feet below.
Ashley swooped down for the verdict. "Unconscious. He's fine," she added for Kyle's benefit.
"So how come you didn't die?" Aj asked. She and Mike limped toward them, looking like they'd just been in a car crash. Aj's face was gray and she was leaning on Mike to stay standing, while Mike was still covered in the cuts from Toxica. Lines of blood leaked through the jacket Kyle'd lent him.
"It's my vindica. My chest can't be pierced," Ashley informed her, morphing back to normal form. She clutched her side with her softer hands, now that her claws were gone.
Turning to Kyle, she looked him over. The many gashes and bruises from his fight with Iro were barely beginning to heal, but his knee was going to take a bit more time than those. "Nice one. You okay?" she asked him.
"Sure… and… also... you're… crazy," Kyle struggled to say. The paralysis still had him.
She saluted. "That sounds about right."
Kyle made a small, tired smile. Bankai or not, some people just wouldn't change.
So here's my end of chapter rant:
Fanservice - It's what Axel Nightblazer calls his stories. Go check them out sometime; they're pretty cool.
The part with Mike leaning in to hear what Ashley said better... ohh... I had to put it in because it meant a lot to me when someone else did it, and they don't anymore.
I tried tasering this friend of mine once. lol. It makes me laugh whenever I remember it. Untaserable.
You can blame the brutality of the fight on Novas are Shattered Stars; I'm more technical with details in that one, and the fights are more realistic. Go read it? *shot*
Blueberries do have kryptonite.
Aj's word skills were a huge asset to our science team when it still existed. I remember this one question that was something to do with math and none of us had ever heard the words before, and then Aj buzzed in and got the answer ("Z: subtrahends") right because it sounded like subtraction and the question mentioned something about minuses... sheesh. That was extreme.
And finally, the bit about gullibility came from my friend who constantly is like "Hey, you dropped your glasses" (points upward).
Whew! Got through that! See you next chapter!