Part 7.5: The Crossblade
Chapter 56: Exploring Terra Gamma (1)
We see "Flux-speak" here for the first time, and for those of you who know the DA version, it's a bit easier to read than on here. It's dialogue between two characters, usually, but its done without voice - through their eyes. Context clues provide who's talking to who, usually!
Anyway, Rayse is getting Fluxy.
I don't own Pokémon.
Rayse
We met Kat, who wanted us to call her Kat and not Katalyn. Er, maybe she was okay with us calling her Katalyn as well, but the scrunchy face she made on... two of her heads whenever we said the name cast some doubt that she really liked having her name graced with all two of them extra syllables. Kat was a basket case full of baskets full of whatever basket cases full of baskets were full of, because, for one, she was all Fluxy, but she was just as okay in the head as Cruce and Alli seemed to be. There were sciency reasons for that! For two, though, she knew a little too much – that was to say there was so much she wasn't telling me, and for a person who knew loads about the Crossblade to not tell me anything, well... This sylveon didn't like that, but she wasn't opposed to Kat having her reasons. Would it have done more hurt and bad stuff to tell me the truth? Would it have made my Flux worse if she told me something to make me hopeless? No way. I was ready to take it! Er, was I?
Kat and I were on good terms, and she and Patty already looked like they were buddies from a time before this, even though Patty couldn't see or hear Kat. I spent some time in the Paradox with her, while my brain fought with itself. I recalled being Zatch for a little bit while my glaceon Sissums was with me, eeeexcept she was Katalyn until she was Secany again. It got messy, but in the end, it helped me get to know Kat just a little bit better; that I hadn't had Secany with me at the Grove was more heartbreaking because of that. I really did wonder how hard Secany had it right now, if she was jumping through the same hoops as me, or if she needed my help and I just didn't know where to start looking for her, because I had to look for somebody else, and...
Well, there was the mythical Jirachi and a mutant mudkip and an very Fluxed eevee who I didn't want anywhere close to my gringle-dingle. They were just as confused about all of this as I was, maybe. But it wasn't supposed to be that way. I was supposed to be part of a group of magical eevees leading the human world into a wonderful fantasticular new age of NOT death and guts. It was my sole purpose for being here!
Sure was strange though. I wanted so badly to ask Kat if she knew anything about the Paradox. I might have given the question to her through my eyes a couple times, shines invoking the question, 'What more than me do you know?' to her, but, on our way back into the ruin-crowded streets under a red sky, she only glanced back at me to check if I was following her, and nothing else. She led on. She wanted to find Mari more than I did, because she wanted to go home. She belonged with us, but she always stayed away, just like Secany. Just like me. And as the asphalt grew blighted with Flux taint again, sprawled over cars, buildings, and stretches of topiary, so too did my doubt return. Was I a failure for helping turn the world Red, or was I a Champion because of how Red the world was?
If only I remembered. If only our Gamma had spread a little bit further before Aza made me, but... he needed me to spread that Gamma in the first place. He couldn't do it all on his own, so why were WE so inclined to do it all alone? Who's fault was that? Who made us this way? Was there somebody at blame? A scapegoat from which this all started?
That was a little too revengey for me, but revenge sure sounded like something Aza would have had a hard time with. In fact, revenge sounded... natural.
Well, whatever the case...
If I find out that Secany and Brudder Aza are already too deep, I don't know what I'll do... This big unknown is giving me more of a bad time than the Flux that's already here.
If it goes on too long, uhm...
…
I...
…
I think I'm...
I think I'm drooling again.
I'm thinking too much. I'm getting stuck in my own head, like my ribbons are all wrapped up around it and I can't breathe, but... no... everything's fine in here. It's a really safe place to go when the rest of the world is bullying me. It's home. There's walls here – they don't crumble or fold. They keep me safe, but if they break, then I'm not gonna feel much like a sylveon anymore. I don't think I am, anyway.
…
Somebody's eyes are on me. Kat's. I can hear them. I'm giving her my eyes, too, but I'm not there – only my eyes are. I must be drooling a lot. I can't snap myself out of this one this time. Where are we? How long have I been stuck in my head?
…
What's your problem?
You can do better than that.
Wake up.
Jirachi's still your sister too. Don't fuck this up for her, Rayse.
You're scaring her.
Hehe...
I've never heard your eyes so clearly, Kat.
They've got such a... melty voice.
I'm seeing so much red. It's like... fluid, mixing with... black and... other chunky things.
My cheeks hurt a little bit.
You keep saying the same thing over to yourself.
'Revenge'.
Why is your Flux all about revenge? Who are you after?
I don't know...
Rinavay? He... made me this way.
Heartbeat.
Convulsions.
Spasms.
Get your facts straight.
If you want anyone to blame, then blame yourself.
What you don't need to blame yourself for is the Crossblade.
But the Flux is all your fault.
I-it's... hehe... only getting... redder, Kat.
You're making it more... swollen.
Salivation.
Acid.
Bubbling stomach.
I'm getting so hungry, Kat.
Where's Rinavay? He's...
Blame yourself. Blame nobody else.
It's supposed to be a good thing.
B-...blame me... Blame myself...
You're trapped in your own head because you think it's safe.
Only you can change what kind of place your head is.
So make it a terrible place, so that you never want to go there again.
Stop holding up everybody.
Throbbing skull.
Seizure.
A coating of water over a surface. Red loosening. Red becoming clear.
Heartbeat. Heartbreak. Something crunching and aching.
How can I... hate my head? It hurts...
Pain's good.
Flux forces you to grow in... ways.
So chip away at the growth. Exercise it. Wear it down, and keep wearing it down.
It huuuurts...
Heartbeat quickening.
Heartbeat quickening.
Heartbeat quickening.
It hurts!
It's one way or the other. Pain and suffering or...
...this...
If you're really having a hard time,
then take your Crossblade out,
and it'll hurt you.
It'll remind you of who you are, Rayse.
Unless you want me to do that for you...
...which, by the way,
is fucking pitiful.
A pop.
A splash.
"It HURTS!" I screamed out, throwing spit into the ground from somewhere. Something metallic touched my tongue, then my teeth, and all of a sudden, I was biting down. Something bright happened in front of me and I swung my head. There was some weight to it, each movement amplifying the pain that was already hammering nails into my skull ten times, screeching and scraping into my bone, hollowing it and shocking my spine. I was growling or shouting – I couldn't tell. I was tossing my head around, biting until I tasted blood, my jaw popping.
I squeezed. Everywhere I could, I squeezed, and I felt my paws sink into something soft and warm, wet. I felt the thing in my mouth cut through something softer, and it sprayed fluid. I felt nothing where I should have felt my ribbons slapping me with each quick movement my head made. I didn't have my cloak anymore. It couldn't fit me. I was different. I was a lot smaller. My spine felt squished length-wise, with the tail taking up more space. My front legs felt the same as my spine, squeezed along to make them shorter, paws clutched, something fluffy tickling at the shoulders. My back legs were so much stubbier also. The bow nearest my chest was either gone or buried beneath all of this black fur that had welled up out of nowhere, cushioning my chin as I bit down, providing the only source of comfort. Otherwise, I felt surges of pain pulse through me and shake me until I cried. I cried over the tears that were already there, holding my head low, biting on a hilt of some kind... It must have been my Cross. That putrid smell, caustic tingling on my tongue, mixing with the spit and blood there, trailing down my chin and the handle of a Crossblade bulbous with purplish sores, black thorns that would've cut anything – it... I still couldn't believe that this was a part of me – this awful thing.
I was crying, my nose burning. I...
I wasn't... made for this...
I grunted or whimpered out something puny through my teeth and through the handle of the blade, unsure who was around to hear it, because all I could see was a visage of a bright red fluff and a ground so much closer to my face than I remembered. The grunt I made was so... pitiful, like Kat said, but all what I wanted to say was that it hurt. It was all... there was... right now...
How did I get here? When did this happen?
I lifted my head. The whole world had less depth to it. I'd lost that eye on my forehead. As my eyes flicked up and over to anywhere that wasn't me or this strange puffy ground. It was...
The Tangle
The bloom of confusion parted for shimmering waves of heat instead, rising from the ground and creating illusions on top of a terrifying landscape, if I could even call it that. Walls upon walls of dirtied white material connected by giant threads of layered muscle and tissue, clusters of... I couldn't even say what, squished together, pulsing like some organ doing some function for the thousands of entangled veins around it. The entirety of the ground was coated in slime and tissue, some parts thicker than others, hatched with bulbous lines that carried a pulse. High above, translucent, pale yellowish bulbs hung in the air like balloons, their jellyfish-like strands wrapped around spine-shaped monoliths sticking out of holes, some with teeth, others with eyes piled around them. Currents of purple elecricity jumped from bulb to bulb, spiraling around the spines and arcing into the fleshy ground. Some giant, slimy and bumpy arteries swirled around these bulbs, some arching high into the air before diving back into the flesh earth.
I dropped my Crossblade. One of its side blades stuck into the ground with a disgusting squish. Gigantic pimples, useless bowels, bits and pieces of brain crowded certain corners, all carrying at least one or two cadavers of human or Pokémon – sometimes they were merged together and it became hard to tell what the species was. Some of their heads had been replaced with whole organs piping off to some other part of the mass. Some heads were whole eyeballs. Some were just heads, and those were the worst. They still had an identity. They weren't crying out at all. I imagined their voices where gone, instead remade to serve the fleshy mass they'd become a part of. They couldn't be healed, like Alli. All they could ever do was speak to me with their eyes. Their eyes, as many as they were, told me they were all one. Once, they lost their identities to a single feeling. Anger, hatred, sorrow, despair – all of that. Then, those feelings came back together and merged into one again, and then that lost ITS identity. What became one became one again and it looked more like it should have become nothing, just to spare it.
What was I... even thinking about? How did I get here? What was this nightmare? Wh-why... so hot, instead of the cold like before?
Where...?
"Did I mess up?" I asked, but my voice sounded different. Lighter, weaker, uhm... babier? It sounded... like I had just lost about ten years. L-like in the good way. Was that a good way? WAS there a good way?
I still felt like me, though! I still felt Raysey, but I was hurting a lot. My body was a teensy immature stub. I could barely see my front legs past all this floof, and I was pretty sure all the weight from my spine meant my tail was the same way: floof. It felt so familiar. The bow near my ear and chest disappeared, and with them all my feelers. I made me feel like I was just nothing but uselessness – I couldn't grab anything, hug anything... I couldn't even do my special signature moves since I relied on those ribbons to trace magical circle patterns in the air and shoot myself out of them like a Rayse-ball. Well erm, maybe I looked more like a ball of fluff since I was smaller? Or maybe I was just using Rayse logic. As far as I could tell, Rayse logic wasn't very helpful when Flux was around. I could feel the warm, moist air touching against my skin through my fur. I tried to look back to examine myself in full, but before I could see anything, I saw Jira and Patty together, looking scared, ready to turn and flee.
"I..." I started, trying to come to terms with... this voice? This body? This was Rayse, wasn't it? M-my Crossblade sticking out of the skin-ground said so. My head said so. Kat – she said so.
"Ah... hah. You're back," said the other Flux, struggling. I faced her. "Good job. Welcome to Hell."
Only one of her parasites was there. The other was... just an amputated bleeding stub on her cheek, the rest of it curled up on the reeking ground next to her. It was growing pale, losing its solidity. It looked like it was melting in the heat coming from this place. Wait! What?! How did this happen?! That was one of her heads! She was-!
I gasped!
"K-Kat! H-ho-no-no, Kat?! Wh-wh-what-?! Are you-" I stammered, but she stopped me.
"God, stop freaking out! I'm fine," the only parasite said, her main body slumping over to the side of the missing head. "Well, I will be soon."
"No way, you're missing a HEAD!" I shouted to her. She probably knew that already.
"I noticed," she commented, even scoffing and smirking. "It's fine."
Even though she repeated herself, I was on the verge of tears for her. My heart was hurting beyond what the Crossblade could do. I-I did this, didn't I?! I couldn't control myself again. I hurt her. That was... that must have been what I felt when I thrashed. I hurt Kat.
Looking all about for a reason to say something more, it was then that I noticed Kat's own shaded Crossbladed wrapped in one of the tendrils belonging to her main body's fatty blob.
It was like me, huh? She wasn't feeling the pain I caused her, because the pain from her Crossblade was louder. It was so loud that it kept her focused, overwrote anything else she was feeling. Any feeling, I thought. It even overwrote the strongest feeling that she had – the one that would have defined her... as a Flux. It overwrote that. Pain and suffering kept her... well, human, as much as it kept me a sylveon, or rather, an eevee for now. And so, it kept Alli human, too, when she became a Fluxed Pokémon. It didn't change the fact that they were hurt. We needed Mari.
"Where's Mari?!" I tried to ask calmly. It didn't work out so well.
"Don't," Kat instructed me. She squinted. "It won't – she won't..."
She was having a hard time talking. The decapitated head started to fizzle and lose all definition. It grew more pale, then it became wholly white, almost shiny, evaporating into what looked like gluey mist, the rough outline of its tube shape still sticking around for some time until it completely fizzed up like sickly soda bubbles.
"Mmgp!" somebody gagged behind me. When I checked, Jira was covering her mouth with both little hands, cheeks swollen. I turned back to Kat, my shrunken jaw left open wide.
"Hey. Cut it off – the other... this one," Kat commanded. "Hurry. Finish me. Please, just... kill me."
"N-no way! Stop that! Hey, Jira?" I turned again. "Can you fly up and see if Mari is here somewhere?! Kat's dying! We can still help her. C'mon, le-let's go!"
"Kat's dying?" Patty asked, gripping her pencil and notepad hard. She wasn't using either of them.
My paws clenched into the tainted ground, urging to claw, but I had no claws anymore. I had so much more control over my body, like (well obviously) I had less of it to worry about. It was constraining. It was as if I'd lost limbs, but I wasn't one to even bring that notion up right now! My fur was all black, 'cept the red puff around my neck. I was an eevee, which was okay, but gee, I looked just like how Vay did before he turned back into a leafeon. B-but I was okay, right?! I wasn't as scared as he was. I was scared, but... more for Kat than myself. Okay, a little bit for myself. A lot for myself, but that didn't mean I couldn't help. I HAD to help. I did this to her! Weary, I came closer to Kat, assuming Jira had starting doing what I told her to do, even if I didn't hear any confirmation come my way.
"Kat! Hang in there!" I said as I approached, but I didn't know what to do once I was there.
I looked down at her body, crumpling to the ground, then I looked down at my own paws and Flux-touched fur, and both of our bodies seemed so much more useless than before. W-well, no duh with Kat being so hurt and me being so... non-fairy now. I wanted to try to interact with my feelers, but when I tried, I only had a phantom sensation of what feelers used to be like, even going as far as tickling a part of my body that was gone.
A waft of something. My nose was already scorched senseless with the assault on stink this place brought to the table. But there was something approaching.
It arose from behind or beneath a swell in the fleshy ground just in back of Kat's body. It was long, cross-hatched and reinforced with bony segments, curved, and tipped off with one red spike, pointed directly down. It began to tower over the two of us. I was watching it grow alongside two spindly arms armored over with bone, lines of red peering through. Two more arms joined those arms. They reached forward with single red claws similar to the bony, scorpion-esque tail's, scraping into the soft, fleshy ground, ripping it as they began to pull along the Flux that owned all of these appendage things.
Clad in the same soiled bony armor was an insect's body, large rib cage spikes cutting through the ground, a lone red spike sticking out of the middle of its chest. Like the arms and the tail, indications of red skin were hidden within little crevices in the bone, and when I looked a little closer, the Flux's rib cage pieces were moving independently, aiding it across the ground. Its face was mostly concealed by a greenish 'helmet', covered in asymmetrical horns, but somewhere through two little slits, I could see red eyes staring me back, so bright that they cut through the red light of the sun, spoke more clearly than any other eyes stuck to this heap of gross-nasty-gutland.
But it growled like a soulless creature, almost mechanical, the abomination only a killer and nothing more, despite what its eyes said about its feelings, how it wanted justice done for an entirely other killer. Somebody here. Somebody before it. Katalyn.
I couldn't let it hurt her. Just walking over her would have been enough for this death machine to rip her to more pieces than she already was. I opened my jaw, then bit down again, clamping it over a Crossblade that had rebounded to me, materialized in my mouth, ready to serve. The sting of its cost sullied my confidence again, but my will to protect a friend threw my hesitation out the window. I bent my new (or old?) short legs, then jumped over Kat, blade-ready, predator against prey in a land of Flux.
"Goddamn pathetic Ccc-ccrossblade," the bony scorpion Flux rumbled like thunder beneath its helmet. It was difficult to understand, but it spoke this with its mouth instead of its eyes. This was its desire. I listened. "Kill... poison. K-kk-kkill Crossblade. Kk-kkatalyn killer... Murderer... h-husband kk-kkiller. All... Kkkill all... Katt-tttal...!"
It was incoherent, but I got the gist, and I wasn't about to let any of that happen. Kat made enemies of the other Fluxes. Maybe they were jealous of her for being so adaptable where they couldn't be. I didn't know. As a researcher of this stuff, it was always my goal to understand the Fluxes, but I could never do that. We never got far enough, us Champions. But now, things were so different, and I was... well, kind of one of them. Maybe, soon enough, I could understand them where I couldn't before.
"Tch," Kat grunted. "She thinks you're me, Rayse."
"Mm?!" I turned my head a little bit to react.
"Yeah that's right," Kat grumbled. "I didn't forget this bitch. You're Delta Meadow. You and Chevron tried to get to me and Nirva."
"Ma-...! Maya?!" Jira hollered from above. "Isn't that Maya?!"
"Silver Lotos?!" asked Patty from her distance. "This is how fast Flux mutates people? Well, no surprise then. Look at what it's done to the town already."
"Pat, there's no WAY you should be here then!" Jira said to her friend, quickly retreating from the scene and returning to Patty's side. I heard them go on, but I paid mind to this Flux instead. I didn't really care who it used to be. It came closer. I could feel a murderous intent in the form of a breath so rancid that it made me feel just a bit better about my own scent, whatever that smelled like right now.
"Hey..." Kat groaned. "'Maya', or whatever. Did I really hurt somebody you cared about? Do you really hate Katalyn that much? Because, even before your body went to shit, you could see me. So, did all those feelings stew up into one big fuck-shoot? Was it that? And... what about Gauze, huh? The guy who tried to snipe my ass? Yeah, don't think I don't know."
"Th-thhhthhree Kats kk-killkill them... kk-ki..." it grumbled some more, breaking off into less coherent speech the closer it came. Even with my Cross drawn and at the ready, it wasn't backing down. It knew the blade was a threat. It knew I was a threat – it must have, even if I was a spec of dust compared to it. I was still a Champion. There were TWO Champions with the Crossblade, and yet it kept crawling.
"Kill Kats, eh? Maybe if you and Delta Meadow stuck to that plan, you would've made things easier on Secany and Mari," Kat scoffed another time, drawing a gasp from my occupied mouth, then a quick breath from my nose. Name-dropping Secany like that?! Now?! A-and what plan?! What plan was she talking about? Shoot! Kat, BAD time! So, SO bad! "Rayse, don't fight that Flux. Keep your Cross out, but don't fight. You're too weak. We don't want to lose you like before."
Too weak?
Too weak...?
I whimpered. Of COURSE I was gonna fight this Flux! I HAD to! Lose me?! I was a Champion! I wasn't going anywhere...!
But that wasn't what she meant, was it? Maybe. I was an eevee. How could I fight in this form? I devolved. I... ugh. She and I both knew that, if I fought this Flux, I was either gonna get stomped OR, 'like before', I was gonna sink deeper, deeper, and deeper.
I only clamped my jaw harder, breathing in through my nose, keeping the blade aimed at the encroaching threat.
All because I'm weak, I thought – I thought in the voice I owned when I was a sylveon.
A Memory
Aza. My angel, who saved me from that crazy espeon.
A flash of something-or-other in my mind, crashing waves, pearly sand, a setting sun and a cliff side fast approaching. I must have been running. I was running with somebody, and, well, I was winning, but both of us were laughing, all out of breath and stuff so it was more like panting. But I could tell it was laughing. I was the one doing it! Duh.
My angel wasn't like that espeon. He didn't make me love him. I FELL in love with him on a beach with yards of hot sand between us. I loved him because he was weak, like me. He was vulnerable, and every day after he saved me, he showed me how vulnerable he was, until that finally... didn't work out so well.
That was... how Azabell happened, huh?
I spent so much of my time being scared, being manipulated by that espeon. All of my passions – they changed. I cared so much about changing the future of Pokémon that I changed myself, until I could see that, and...
...and now Aza was the one tricking me, because he was tricked into thinking that he was somebody he wasn't. Somebody strong. Very, very, very strong.
Now
I'm so weak.
I'm a Fluxed Champion with the Crossblade who's devolved back into a little baby in a place that looked like everyone's worst nightmare.
But I guess it could be so much worse...?
No drooling, I thought to myself all of a sudden, hoping not to get too caught up in my thoughts. I couldn't really smack my lips or dry them right now – I was kinda biting down on something. Regardless, being weak didn't have a dangle-darn thing to do with sinking back into that world of BLECH. Being weak just meant that I had a long way to go and a long life to live, and I wasn't about to spend any of it locked away in some disgusting craving for vengeance!
"Get OUT of the WAY!" the monstrous Flux coherently commanded, readying its tail for a strike.
My heart raced! I didn't jump, rather scramble over to a mushy swell of ground that WASN'T in front of the Flux. Its tail pierced the fleshy surface, jets and drops of liquid, both red and clear, jumping out of the impact point. It had been going for me, too. Now, nothing was between it and Kat. I had to act again. I had to draw its attention. It pulled its tail-spike out of the fleshy mass with a gruesome slurp.
"Rayse," Kat called me. "If you ever want to see me or... anything like me ever again, you'll off me here. I don't know how to explain right now – I'm... sure you'll... pick up on it though. Come on!"
Oh great, now I couldn't even reply to her! She was really resolute about this! She wanted me to finish her off. What would that have solved?! I still didn't understand! I...!
Ugh! I didn't understand so much and it was making Rayse an ANGRY eevee! But that was okay. That kind of anger kept my head clear.
I had to trust Kat though. There was something more to her than she knew how to tell us. Mari wasn't gonna get here in time, and from what I'd shined my little eyes on, Kat could fizzle herself into sticky gross stuff. I turned back for some – any kind of moral support. Jira wasn't there! It was just Patty. I could see her just her head and its fin poking out from behind a growth of jagged bone. She had taken cover, hopefully with Jira around. But no, the calcium cluster thingy was too small to hide both of them. Where did Jira go?!
I breathed out, looked back at the Flux, then looked at Kat. Stuff was bad. Stuff was really, really bad now. It was inches from Kat, and she wasn't moving. Her body was paralyzed.
Okay! Okay fine!
"RAYSE!" Kat screamed, finally showing ounces or even liters of fear. It was the first time I had seen her afraid. Even when we had all those Fluxes coming after us, she was fine, but this was enough to terrify her. She was scared for her life.
But why, then?! Why put it in my paws?! What better did that – NO! I told myself I would!
I ran a little ways, heart pounding straight out of all the layers of fluff I'd grown. I was burning up. My paw pads stung with that same acidic heat that I'd felt before, once at the hospital chasing down Patty's old self. I was really going to do this. This was gonna be on my name. As I got there, lifting myself to my back legs, there was no turning back. I'd turned my head, pointing the Crossblade high, and with the weight that'd begun to goad me forward, I couldn't stop it. I was going to swing, and where I was going to swing was right where Kat's other parasite connected to her main body. I began to fall forward, back onto my front legs. I did that, and I moved my head forward, a swiping motion as best as my neck would let me do. My paws hit the swollen ground. I was sprayed with rancid liquid, something that stuck to my fur like slime. There was hardly any resistance when I swiped. My Cross cut and all I felt was the pain of holding it. No solid matter, no liquid. In the slow seconds that passed, a soggy, heavy slap hit the ground by my feet. I shut my eyes. I didn't want to see any of it. Tears were making the marks underneath my eyes even thicker. I was frozen in the heat of my actions. Kat didn't say anything. I heard another heavy wet thud. What was that? No. Didn't want to know. My ears fell against my skull and my tail to the disgusting ground. I kept the Cross out though. I kept it out because it saved me once. I kept it because I deserved the pain.
My ears caught a loud whoosh.
In the beat of a heart, I remembered...!
A Memory
A murderous gleam of crimson.
Other than that, emptiness.
Wasn't this that hero? That former human who came to the Pokémon world?
Jovany, the infamous snivy!
Well, I knew him mostly as a servine...
"My bad," Jovany wheezed, just for the sake of mocking his clone. He wasn't speaking with that funsy sort of spirit anymore. He was different. This Jovany wasn't the same. This one had the breathy, raspy tone of a murderer. My ears hurt just hearing it. A bad memory. "I'm getting lazy. You get it, huh? You're supposed to be more like me with each kill, but you're not. You never are. You never learn. And you never will. That's fine. No one ever does."
Now
I opened my eyes. I saw Kat's lifeless parasite staring back at me, before its face bubbled over like it was boiling. The nose and sunken in, cheeks caving, eyes fizzing into white. Sure, it was FREAKING GROSS, but meant that-!
"I SAW that!" a lady yelled, and then I heaved and my back arched. Something thin under my chest pressed up against my skin. It was like thread or floss, and it yanked. I spit the Crossblade out and it fizzled into purplish light. Kat's evaporating body, the giant Flux, and the sickening landscape – all of those things were getting further away as hot air raced by me.
Paws limp, body bound, and with my tail blowing in the wind trying to keep up with me, I tried to find what it was that was pulling me. I couldn't see it! I could kind of smell something oily. Was that a Symbi?! Symbis had that Black, oily smell to them, somehow sweet and a little bit sour. I preferred it over the Crossblade anyway. Whatever it was, it pulled so hard that it hurt, the threads squeezing into my bare skin. Even my Cross was gone and I was still in pain.
The threads flew from me. I saw them flash and streak away! They were clear blue, shining through the red. Though, when I realized I wasn't bound anymore, I was just flying through the air!
Then, somebody caught me. I swung. I was dangling by my fluffy scruff. My belly was still burning from the stringy things. Wait, so – I was up here! I was in the air! Who was holding me?!
A flash of yellow and white. Jirachi was floating in front of me!
"Rayse! Are you okay?!" she asked, hands going over her mouth after.
"Rayse...?" asked the lady holding me. Wait, that voice! I gasped!
"I found Mari..." Jira said through her hands. Still looked like she was sick. Didn't blame her. Gross place.
I tried to turn my head a little just to get some sort of glimpse. I was met with a pink snout and big blue eyes trying to do the same for me. As far as I could tell, she looked totally fine, despite all the Flux surrounding her. And she was here earlier, too!
I gasped again! Wait! All the Flux!
"Wah! He-hey! Where's Patty?! She won't last long here!" I fussed, paddling my legs through the air. I guess I shouldn't have been struggling.
"I'll get her," Jira offered. "And then let's get out of here!"
Jira zipped straight down, her sights set on her friend. My head couldn't follow her down. My sights were instead stuck on that colossal scorpion Flux just waiting down there, watching us, not at all concerned with the white mist before it. I just hoped that it wouldn't have stayed there for very long. Th-that went for both things: the mess and the Flux. I couldn't see Kat's Crossblade anymore.
"Agent Silver Lotos," the skywisp sighed behind me, collected and tranquil. "Sorry it has to be this way."
Wha-?
I could've sworn I saw something out of the corner of my right eye. It looked like a bent, crystalline rod, with those thin blue strings floating around it.
"I got a mudkip!" Jira announced, holding one arm out to, indeed, a floating mutant mudkip with an outline of pinkish light around her. She pretended to be seated in midair with her legs crossed, her pen to her notepad, but completely frozen. Her mouth was flat, like she was far and beyond words right now.
"I... appear to be hovering," said Patty, unnerved. "Is this dangerous?!"
"Huh?" Jira hummed.
A pulse of heat. An arc of bright purple lightning zaps by, bridging a gap between one of those huge nasty jellyfish things. Jira squeaked.
"OH OKAY!" Jira yelped.
"Please don't drop me." Patty pleaded.
"Uhm! Uh—er, where's Kat?!" asked our Jirachi.
"She's-..." I gulped.
"Yeah, we're going to talk about that, hey. But right now, we're going. Stay close, 'Jirachi'." the skywisp ordered.
In her one hand, I felt my fur get squeezed until it pulled the skin underneath. It hurt, but she didn't want to drop me, as she flew through the air, the heat from the organic wasteland beneath us radiating so vibrantly that the shimmering effect followed us even up here, like we were flying through a desert. But really, it was so, SO the opposite of that. I had to wonder how it got here. It was the Tangle, wasn't it? That place Kat talked about? Did Secany know anything about it either?
Secany... Raysey's confuzzled. What was it that Kat said about her? Secany and Mari had plans?
Well, Mari was right here. I could always ask her, but... I was sure she thought I just... killed Kat. And I did. She was right.
Only, that wasn't the real Kat. Out of all three of the Kats that there should have been because of the Crossblade, that... was number four. And the Crossblade didn't DO the number 'four'.
To Be Continued...
