2-5
Explosion
He had drilled them hard. Over and over he had ordered them.
'Load! Aim! Fire!'
And more and more he had pushed them.
'Faster, faster! You think the enemy will wait for you to finish!? Powder, then Shot, then ramrod! Again!'
After a while, he had deemed them... capable. They'd have to do. But he'd drawn up a plan. Barricades would be constructed and manned by the Militia, while Rita, Swampert, Wigglytuff, and the other 'Heroes' would take the fight to them.
Meanwhile, the civilians, those too young, too old, and too scared to fight would be sequestered safely in the nearby cave, with some of the Militia left to guard them.
He thought about the oshawott. He couldn't leave. Not now. But he knew what to do.
"Luke." He said to the pikachu as he tore his gaze from the horizon, "Finish up here. I have one last task to complete myself."
Then, without waiting, he went to meet that oshawott.
"I- Um…" Luke watched Kon run off, feeling a little curious on where the charmander was going off to in such a hurry. Then, he made a snap decision.
…
"We need to release it now!" Darkrai hissed. "Before he gets to them!"
"At this point, with the yellow rat staying behind, it will not last against all these wretched 'Heroes' here. No, when they are complacent, when they think that normality is restored, that is when it shall strike." The Ancestor rumbled.
Darkrai took control back as he looked out from the shadows, getting furious. And then blinked in confusion before moving away from the shadows near town.
The pikachu leaving didn't confuse him. It was the fact that the pikachu's mother had been looking directly at the shadows he had been hiding in. How? How did she know he was there?
"... Now? Now can we release it since the pikachu is being an absolute moron?!"
"Ah." The Ancestor mumbled. "So be it. Release the horrific abomination that we have seen to unleash upon the world!" He boomed, dramatic as always.
Darkrai lifted his arm, taking out the golden ring he should have have forcibly given to VVulf. He moved through the shadows, moving ahead of the pikachu.
But he paused, remembering how close they were to the town. And he decided to wait until the pikachu was farther away…
...
Rita looked up to the sky. The bandits would be here in a few hours at the earliest. She could see the smoke in the distance.
At least the barricades were sturdy and well built. The militia members who were staying around to help defend were looking for strategic places to attack from.
The raichu looked around, last minute preparations still being done. She blinked before looking to Dusknoir, who was ordering some sableye around.
"Hey, Dusknoir." The ghost type glanced over with his singular eye. "Have you seen Luke or Kon?"
Dusknoir put a hand to his 'face', thinking. "Not recently." A shift in his 'face' was all Rita needed to know.
"Okay. I guess they went down to the cave already." Rita grinned. "Thanks, Dusknoir."
He nodded and looked away, missing how Rita's face went darker. 'He's lying. He must have seen them leave.'
…
Luke panted, wondering how Kon could keep moving so quickly after everything they had done today. Given how the direction they were heading, the pikachu knew they were heading for Mt. Bristle.
'But why?' The pikachu thought, deciding to take a small break. 'What's over there that he needs to do?'
He gulped in air before starting to follow the former human in secret, unaware of the danger in the very shadows. Until it was almost too late.
It moved out of the darkness, Luke hearing the chattering of teeth just in time to avoid it's first attack.
Then he got a good look at it. "A-A corrupted!" And the Corrupted flung something at Luke, the pikachu dodging.
And then the pikachu screamed in pain as he got zapped from behind.
…
Konstantin could see the bright red cap from here.
Now, all he had to do was meet her, and force her to bring her 'friends' back to help defend Treasure Town. And apparently, she had already noticed him, waving wildly.
He took a single step forwards before the most bone chilling sound pierced the night.
A pain filled scream. Luke's scream.
Luke.
Everything became secondary in that moment. The town. His past. His hopes.
He spun, drew his knife and blunderbuss, and charged back, howling.
He had told Luke to stay back, and this was exactly why.
If whatever was attacking Luke didn't kill him, the armored charmander would.
Needless to say, he missed the oshawott's worried look.
...
Konstantin ran into the clearing, howling at the top of his lungs. And that all died when he saw what was surrounding Luke.
Heads.
Pikachu heads, pichu heads, and raichu heads.
Spines hung from their still bleeding neck stumps and their eyes filled with soulless blue light.
And approaching the circle was something different, but so god damn familiar to Kon. And looming tall overhead, was a filthy, yellow robe, topped by a cage filled with burning blue flames. And rattling about inside it, knocking against the bars, was the charred, barely recognizable head of a Mimikyu's disguise.
Then the robe opened, and horror began anew, for even more heads of Pikachus, Raichus, even Pichus were inside, as if SEWN into the robe. Their eyes were ablaze with blue light, and they seemed frozen in agony.
Then, the horrific abomination pointed a twisted, bony finger at Luke.
And it SCREECHED.
Luke tried to get up on all four, cheeks sparking, but he was zapped back down by one of the raichu heads. And Kon's rage sparked back to life.
The charmander gave another howl, and sliced apart the head of a Raichu as he charged, firing a load of buckshot off and blowing apart three more Collected.
"K-Kon?" Luke whispered, weakly looking up. He felt completely overloaded with electricity and it was really hurting him. He need to discharge all this extra electricity. But if he did, Kon would get hurt, maybe even killed.
The armored pokemon was barely listening, consumed with striking down the Heads, chopping, slicing, blasting.
One after another he thinned the swarming, tortured souls.
Luke shakily stood up before firing an overcharged thundershock at the Corrupted Mimikyu. Even that little bit actually made the pikachu feel better.
Then he dodged when one of the raichu took on a ethereal blue body and tried to slam into him. It was followed shortly by Kon stabbing it in the head.
"Kon… this thing...this Corrupted...what the hell even is it?" Luke groaned out, zapping one of the heads.
"The sparkling eyes of youth, twisted and made merciless!" He hisses cryptically in response, cleaving a Pichu's ghostly head in twain.
"Well…that's true of all Corrupted." Luke gasped, doubling over when he got hit by a bolt from a pikachu head.
Then, Luke realized something. "Kon… just run and go warn my mom!"
"Shut up!" The charmander howled in response. "If you think I'd abandon you, then you're more of a naive CHILD than I realized!" He spat, continuing to blast and stomp and cleave.
"Kon!" Luke snapped. "They pushed too much electricity in me! If I don't let it discharge, I might die!"
"Then discharge!" Konstantin ordered in response. "Do it! I can take it! If you trust me, then DO IT!"
Luke glanced between Kon and the Corrupted Mimikyu, which seemed to be doing something.
Then Luke closed his eyes and used Discharge.
The clearing was lit up with electricity.
…
Luke groaned, waking from unconsciousness. He felt like crap and the smell of scorched grass and flesh floated in the air. "Kon?" He coughed out.
There he was. Still standing, if barely. Sparking, scorched and heaving. He twitched as he looked at Luke.
"Told you...I could...take it..." He coughed.
Luke just let out a small hysterical laugh at that. "Cheri berry." The pikachu moved his bag a little so the charmander would notice it. "Heal paralysis."
A deafening, enraged screech echoed through the trees, and two hands of naught but bone clasped around Luke's throat, and raised him high.
As the abomination held the pikachu, it forced him to gaze into it's empty, soulless eyes.
Konstantin twitched, trying to raise his gun.
Then he twitched again, raising it a little higher.
Slowly, despite the pain, the charmander slowly managed to aim his blunderbuss bit by bit at the Mimikyu in Yellow.
As his finger twitched toward the trigger, the horrid ghostly thing opened it's coat, and Luke could only feel raw terror as the many agonized faces of the other chus gazed at him with haunting, ethereal eyes.
Luke couldn't even scream, even as deafening sound of a crack ran through the clearing.
A/N
AHahah, it is the dreaded Cliff Hanger!
Also, The Mimikollector has arrived to ruin everyone's day! And he actually came to our minds real early on due to me making a joke about him, 'Showing His Wares'. I don't remember what mentally made me connect Collector and Mimikyu, but it happened.
Zara?
zaravan : The Collector's appearance is based on the Cosmic Horror figure known as the 'King In Yellow'. Certainly a terrifying figure.