A/N Hey guys. So since I have some free time in the next few days, I may put out a few more chapters of this. Also, soon I might start work on a Bumblebee story(FYI Bumblebee is my favorite thing ever), so look forward to that. I'm out.
Chapter 11
Hours had passed, but Lina was still in shock from the attack. Time seemed to drag on slower and slower just to tease her with Spectra's slow, painful death. He had passed out, but Lina could still see the poison's effects working through the Mimikyu, killing them both from the inside. She knew that there was nothing she could do. She couldn't pull the poison out of his body, and she couldn't free him, or herself, without alerting the guards. The only option Lina was left with was to sleep and hope that this was all a dream.
When she opened her eyes, Lina was sitting next to Spectra again. They were in the spot where Spectra had told Lina about his past, eating the pile of berries and chatting. The whole world seemed peaceful and serene. "Maybe I was dreaming before," Lina thought. "That stuff did feel like a nightmare come true. But still, this feels...odd. It's almost like it's all too good. Wait...," she trailed off, her gaze falling on a small purple dot on Spectra's disguise. "Um, Spectra? What's that dot?", she asked.
Spectra looked down, confused by the question. "What dot?", he asked.
"Right there," Lina said, pointing at the dot. When she did, it became larger and more disfigured, now resembling a splash of paint.
"Oh that!", Spectra exclaimed. "That's just poison. No need to worry about it."
"WHAT!", Lina yelled, astounded and annoyed by his calmness. "Um, YES SOMETHING TO WORRY ABOUT! We need to get rid of it!" Lina reached for the berries, hoping to find a lum or pecha berry. Right before she could grab one, a large yellow foot slammed down on the pile of food.
"I DON'T THINK SO, PRINCESS!", boomed a familiar voice. Lina looked up to see Shocks towering above her. "HE DESERVES THIS!"
Lina felt her body straightening as if she were chained to something. She struggled to move but it was no use. Then, the giant Pikachu reached down and turned Lina's head towards Spectra. The Mimikyu had gone back to looking horrible, the tears returning and the stain now covering most of his body.
"Spectra! Spectra, answer me!", Lina called, but Spectra didn't move. A sizzling sound began to emanate from Spectra's body, and he melted into a pool of darkness, leaving nothing behind, except for the remains of his costume.
"NOW TO FINISH THIS!", Shocks said as he removed his hand from Lina's head and walked in front of her. Slowly, he bent down and reached into Lina's chest. She tried to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth. Suddenly, her entire body froze and her mind went blank. Shocks pulled his hand back and pulled out a small red object that ticked in rhythmic movements. Lina then realized it was a heart, her heart. Shocks crushed the organ between his fingers, reducing it to dust. Then, the world around Lina began to stink like the most repulsive Skuntank spray, and everything began to swirl into a gray column of smoke. The smoke began to encircle her like a whirlpool, dragging her down into a darkness without end.
Her eyes snapped open as Lina found herself back in reality. "But wait, if that was a dream, then why is the smoke still here?", Lina thought. She coughed as the gas surrounded her and Spectra. She then felt something move around her and realized what the smoke was.
"Repel," she said aloud. "But that means...", just as Lina had predicted, the pokemon holding her captive ran and she began to plummet to the ground. "AAAAAAAHHH!", she screamed. But before Lina could hit the ground, she felt something catch her. She looked up to see Alexa looking down at her.
"Got him," said a voice from behind Lina.
"Good, let's go!", Alexa exclaimed. Lina tried to speak, but the smoke prevented it. It seemed to be choking her very thoughts.
Alexa took off, with the other person close behind. Soon, they reached the entrance back to Route 1, where a few Rockruffs and Rattata were waiting. "Mom!", Alexa said. A small, silver can flew ahead of the two women and landed in front of the cave entrance, releasing more of the smoke and scaring the guards off.
"Hold on guys. We'll get you to the pokemon center!", Alexa assured Lina as they ran through the smoke and into the cave. That was the last thing Lina heard before she blacked out.
=
When Lina woke up, she was blinded by a harsh, white light. "We'll get you to the pokemon center!", Lina remembered Alexa saying. "So this is a pokemon center," she said aloud. She sat up and realized she was on a flat, metal table.
"Yes it is. Glad to see that you're awake," said a woman to Lina's left. She jumped and looked over to see a woman who looked nearly identical to Alexa, only older and taller. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. You okay?", the woman asked.
"It's okay, and... I'm... not sure," Lina responded. It felt like she was forgetting something important.
"My name is Cassandra. You're Lina, right? Nice to meet you," Cassandra said.
"I am, and nice to meet you as well," Lina replied. "So, I assume that you are Alexa's mother?"
Cassandra nodded. "Alexa insisted on keeping watch over your little friend so I thought it best that I stay in here with you."
Lina instantly felt like the dumbest pokemon in the entire universe. "Spectra!? He's here!?", she yelled.
"Yeah, he's in intensive care," Cassandra replied. "He really took a beating, didn't he?"
"You have no idea," Lina thought. "Take me there! Please, you have to take me there!" Lina was shocked that she'd become this attached to Spectra. She had a hard time getting attached to anyone, and now she was worried sick about a Mimikyu.
"Woah, calm down. Of course, I'll take you to him," Cassandra answered. "I have to go check on Alexa too." She walked over and picked up Lina. "Just relax though, alright? You weren't in such great shape either."
Cassandra brought Lina to a room at the end of the hallway. A large, red ER was painted on the door As Cassandra opened the door, Lina saw a large glass tube in the middle of the room connected to what looked like a super computer. She then saw Alexa, the young girl leaning on the machine as she slept in a chair. And inside the machine was Spectra, wires attached all over his body.
"SPECTRA!", Lina yelled, scaring Alexa awake.
"Wha-Woah!", Alexa exclaimed as she fell backwards and landed on the floor.
"Alexa! Are you alright honey?" Cassandra asked as she put Lina down.
"Argh," the girl groaned. "Yeah, I'm fine." She looked over and saw Lina staring through the glass at Spectra. "You're awake. Are you okay?", she asked.
"She's fine. She is really worried about him though," Cassandra pointed out. "You'd think they were dating."
Alexa laughed. "No, she made it clear that they weren't. Besides, they haven't really had much to love in their lives."
"You mentioned that," Cassandra said as she helped her daughter up. "I am truly sorry Lina."
Lina didn't respond. She was too amazed. Yesterday, Spectra had seemed beyond saving, and yet, as she looked at him now, the effects of the poison seemed to be completely gone. Not only that, but it seemed as though the capsule was healing any and all injuries it could find. Spectra's costume even looked fixed, most of the tears now replaced by completely new fabric. "What is this thing?", she asked Alexa.
"It's a machine that can repair nearly any damage to a pokemon," Cassandra explained. "That really doesn't cover how it's fixing that cloth. I mean, it's not part of him, right?"
"No, I believe it's a sort of costume," Lina said.
Cassandra looked confused. "Why would he need a costume?", she asked.
"I don't know," Lina responded. "But I do know this. You and Alexa have saved his life, and honored mine with your bravery. Thank you, both of you. I am in your debt."
"You're welcome. Now, I have to go back to the house for a while. Alexa, do you want to come with me?", Cassandra asked.
Alexa shook her head. "I wanna stay and make sure Spectra gets better."
"Alright, I'll be back later. Take care baby," Cassandra said. She ten kissed Alexa's forehead and left.
=
It was noon by the time Cassandra had returned. She had brought Alexa and Lina some water from the pokemon center's vending machine. Lina, however, was beginning to worry that Alexa and her mother had come too late, but she also wanted to know more about how she was rescued.
"Alexa, those were repels that you and your mother were throwing when you rescued us, right?", she asked.
"I was wondering if you'd ask about that," the girl replied. "Yes, but I modified them so that they would release the gas without manual action. I'd figured you would probably be under guard, and I would need a way to get rid of them from a distance, so I set those repels on a trigger so that they'd be able to release the gas from the canister automatically."
Cassandra smiled. "Yes, Alexa is quite handy, and extremely bright.
"Indeed," Lina said. "I believe I understand what you said about it all being over soon now," she told Alexa.
The room went quiet until Alexa finally spoke up. "Yes, I meant that the days of you and Spectra living like that were over," she stated. "After seeing how those other pokemon treated you, I knew it had to end."
"Yes, about that," Cassandra interrupted. "Lina, before we came to rescue you, Alexa told me all about how you and your little friend have lived, and frankly, I don't think it will end any time soon. So, I thought it would be a better idea if you didn't go back to the wild, and came to live with us instead."
Lina was struck speechless. These two humans were offering her and Spectra a home after only being around them for a few hours.
"Oh, it's okay if you don't want to Lina!", Alexa quickly spoke up. "We don't want you to feel pressured, but mom's right. I would feel horrible if you went back out there alone. And you don't have to be in poke balls either! You can sleep in my room, and-"
"Wait, wait, slow down please!", Lina interrupted. Alexa sat back, not wanting her to feel pressured. "Thank you. Now about this " new home" idea. I truly am touched by your generosity but," Lina paused, looking back at Spectra, "I don't think that I should decide without Spectra. I mean, I know you wouldn't hurt us, but he doesn't exactly have good history with humans. I know the wild isn't at all safe, but if it's where Spectra wants to go, then it's where I'll go too."
"I understand. It's sweet how much you care about him," Alexa said.
Cassandra knew exactly how Lina was feeling. "She's in love. That's what it is. It has to be," Cassandra thought. The three girls sat in the ER for the rest of the day. Nurse Joy came in several times to check Spectra's condition and insisted that he was getting better.
That night, after Alexa and Cassandra had gone home, Lina was still thinking about what they had said. "They want us to live with them," she kept thinking, the words seeming more impossible each time. Before, Lina had never thought about, or wanted, to live with anyone else. But now, as she sat here watching her fallen friend sleeping in peace, she couldn't imagine living without him.
"Why am I feeling this?!", Lina wondered, questioning everything she had felt and thought in her life. Then it hit her. "I think they're right. I think...I love him."
