Chapter Fifty Two – Hurricane Adelina pt III
"In the meantime...Carter, sweetie, get Silvia and Huey back here! Hyacinth, Francesca, attack them right now!" Adelina commanded snappily. Without a speck of hesitation, Carter's eyes shone in a brief white flash as the eyes of his Beautifly and Delcatty allies grew cloudy and soulless. As they stood up and moved sluggishly over to Adelina, Francesca and Hyacinth rushed passed them as fast as they could as they prepared to attack Kayla and Layla, who divided and struck the rivalling Gothitelle and Vileplume from their flanks; Kayla sank her frozen fangs into Hyacinth's shoulder while Layla crushed her glimmering claws down on Francesca's back. Ava looked around at the battle field, completely lost as to what, if anything, she should do. Carter snapped Huey and Silvia out of their trances the very instant Adelina cured their paralysis.
"This is going to take forever if she's going to keep healing her Pokémon," Keith complained.
"That's what I'm counting on," Alexa replied quietly as Adelina stood up properly. She sniggered as she looked at Ava with a nasty smile.
"You barely left a dent in my babies, Silvia in particular," she said mockingly. Ava simply blinked in response.
"She hasn't been trained yet!" Keith yelled defensively. "That's why we're here, dammit!"
"And what, pray tell, makes you think that you can train a Pokémon to battle?" Adelina asked; her voice sounded like she was simultaneously mocking Keith and genuinely asking him out of curiosity.
"I don't; that's why I asked Alexa to help me!" Keith yelled in frustration.
"I don't think she's up to the task, honey," Adelina said meanly. Alexa simply glared viciously at Adelina. "I, however, am more than capable of training darling little Pichu..."
"How, by forcing her through Super Training regimens for the next six years?! That's not training, that's torture; any Trainer knows how strenuous those regimens are! And to think that you've forced all six of your Pokémon through all six regimens for six years...that's barbaric beyond all comprehension!" Keith looked at Alexa in confusion.
"Are they really that rough?"
"Let me put it this way; Phoenix was overweight before he went through half of one and half of another – HALF." Keith took a moment to firstly imagine an overweight Charizard before visualising his interpretation of how it transitioned into the Phoenix he knew based on Alexa's response to his query. Then he imagined Adelina's Pokémon undergoing the same and complete process more times than he could count; what he was left with astounded and almost disgusted him.
"Holy Muk, it's like Boot Camp!"
"If you like," Adelina shrugged. "But it's how my babies are as powerful as they are...and once little Pichu is MY little Pichu, she will do the exact same thing." Keith glared savagely at Adelina and was extremely tempted to dash towards her with a fist aimed straight at her nose.
"YOU BITCH!"
"Now, now, there's no need to make a fuss...yet." Adelina's smile waned as she started to get serious; her new look was so cold it sent chills down Layla and Jollie's spines. "Now...I'm going to make this offer just one last time; I am willing to offer you the boy...for the Pichu." Keith shook his head in disbelief.
"Obviously, anything I say to you completely bypasses you; you can't use Keenan against me like this, he is not my brother!" he roared angrily.
"I'll take that as a no. Fine...I'll keep him and I'll get that Pichu my way." Alexa gritted her teeth; she knew things were about to become even harder – she began to wonder how much more time she could buy with the impending difficulty spike.
"What are you going to do?! Have your stupid Malamar take control over EVERY Pokémon in the area and turn them against us?!" Keith yelled threateningly. Alexa glared violently at him; she really wanted to punch him for putting that idea into Adelina's head.
"No...that wouldn't be fun...an easy win is never satisfying..." Adelina's demonic smirk returned. "I'm going to make you squirm...especially YOU, Alexa..." Alexa redirected her nasty glare from Keith to Adelina. "Carter, honey...show them what you can do..."
"Ma-la-mar...!" Carter seemed to match Adelina's smirk as his eyes flashed white for a blinking moment. All of a sudden, Kayla, Layla and Jollie's stances relaxed as their eyes became pale and devoid of soul. When all three Pokémon suddenly turned on Ava, Keith and Alexa began to panic while Ava began to fear for her life as she desperately tried to avoid all three manipulated allies. Ryder, however, was both immensely horrified and consumed with hatred.
"That's it, Alex, I'm going in there-"
"NO, YOU'RE NOT!" Alexa snapped violently as she spun her head to face the equally enraged Lucario; seeing her anger alarmed Ryder. "Stay there and keep that shield up as long as you can hold it!"
"But-"
"Just stay put and keep Robbie and the others safe!" Alexa instructed firmly. From the safety of Ryder's protective barrier, Reese and Iara looked on at the battle with grave anxiety, wanting to offer their assistance desperately. "The fewer Pokémon Carter can control, the better!"
"But-"
"Just do it!" Alexa screamed, almost pleadingly. As much as he wanted to defy her this one time, Ryder sighed as he nodded with submissive compliance.
"Okay..." Alexa focused on the problem in front of her as she took out Pteros's Poké Ball. Keith looked at the Poké Ball and became concerned.
"Hold on...I thought you were going to save him until-"
"I know...but Millie's down for the count and I refuse to risk Robbie's remaining health to send Ryder in to attack the girls..." Alexa clenched the Poké Ball before she pointed it away from her. "Pteros, I need your help!" The Poké Ball opened in her hand, allowing her Aerodactyl to fly from the explosion of blue flames. Pteros spun around and landed in front of Alexa with a bemused look on his face.
"Aero?"
"Afraid not; I need you to battle for now." Pteros smirked.
"Aer-OH!" he nodded eagerly.
"Send out ALL of your Pokémon; they won't help!" Adelina said tauntingly.
"This IS pretty much all of my Pokémon!" Alexa snapped.
"Technically, two thirds of them!" Ryder added loudly.
"Not HELPING, Ryder!" Alexa yelled in frustration.
"Easy, easy," Keith said gently as he subtly tightened his hold on Alexa, though it failed to leave any sort of effect on her conflicting anger and panic.
"Pteros, take Ava and use Iron Tail!"
"AERO!" Pteros zoomed towards the frightened Pichu, desperately trying to avoid each and every attack thrown at her.
"Make things harder for him, dumplings!" Adelina commanded with a psychotic smile.
"Vile!" Hyacinth fired a barrage of explosive seeds from the centre of her head-flower, each and every seed aiming for Pteros.
"Gothitelle!" Francesca released her Dark Pulse attack from her palms, headed straight for Pteros's flightpath.
"REOW!" Huey exhaled an icy cold breath riddled with tiny snowballs at Pteros; the howling blizzard reached the speeding Aerodactyl, but he seemed to be unaffected by it, much to Adelina's horror.
"BEAUU!" Silvia zoomed to meet Pteros face to face, but he was more than content to fly straight into her as he made his way to Ava; Silvia fell to the ground while Pteros scooped the petrified Pichu into one of his talons – just in time to avoid Layla's attack from underground. Seeing Pteros soaring into the air with Ava safely in his talon prompted Keith and Alexa to sigh with relief.
"AEROOOOOO!" Pteros then darted towards Carter, his tail starting to turn into solid iron. Carter looked up at the oncoming Aerodactyl just in time for the flying Fossil Pokémon to swing his tail across and slap the distracted Malamar across the face; the arrow-tipped tail sliced across Carter's face, leaving a relatively deep laceration that bled rather profusely after the attack ended, causing his sky blue blood to pour down his face. However, with Carter's concentration broken, Layla, Jollie and Kayla snapped out of their control. Keith was relieved, but Alexa suddenly panicked more than before.
"Pteros, let Ava go now!" she cried.
"Aero." Though confused, Pteros complied as he gently set Ava down on the grass; as soon as the talons left her airspace, Ava dashed back towards Keith and flung herself at his ankle, clinging to his jeans for dear life as she began to sob. Keith released his hold on Alexa as he crouched to meet Ava's level.
"P-P-Pichu...!"
"It's okay, it's okay," Keith said comfortingly as he scooped the sobbing Tiny Mouse Pokémon into his arms. He sighed as he stood up and faced Alexa solemnly. "I think she's too scared to carry on..." Begrudgingly, Alexa slowly nodded in agreement.
"In her defence, she was thrown into the deep end right off the bat...I'm...I'm sorry, Ava..."
"...P-P-Pichu...!" Ava sniffled.
"Looks like you're on your own now, Alexa," Adelina said with sickening pleasure. Alexa glared coldly at her adversary.
"Your commentary is neither called for nor appreciated!" she shouted angrily.
"Personally, I couldn't care less, darling," Adelina sniggered.
"Alexa, are you able to carry on the battle on your own? I'm going to see if I can get Ava to calm down."
"Whether or not I can or can't doesn't matter; I'm going to have to until she does calm down," Alexa replied. She looked over at her confused girls. "You girls ready to continue!?"
"Nyah, nyah-yah," Layla shrugged in bafflement. Jollie and Kayla, though sharing Layla's look of confusion, all nodded at Alexa.
"Then let's do it! Layla, use X-Scissor! Jollie, Sky Uppercut! Kayla, Fire Fang!"
"NYAAAAAH!" Layla charged towards Carter with her claws shining in a pale lime green glow. She crossed her arms together as she attempted to slash the Malamar in an X formation, but Carter grabbed both of Layla's arms, swung her around his head and slammed her into the ground.
"RAAAAY!" Kayla set her eyes and burning fangs on the recuperating Vileplume; however, Francesca intercepted her and attempted to slug her in the face with a Shadow Ball, but instead took the Luxray's Fire Fang attack in Hyacinth's stead without intending to do so – even Kayla was baffled at what took place!
"BUUUUUUUUUUN...!" Jollie zoomed straight towards Huey with the tip of her right paw enveloped in a pale blue light, who appeared to be distracted by Adelina watching him expectantly. "NEARY!" Jollie punched Huey underneath his chin with her glowing paw in an uppercut fashion; Huey flew upwards before crashing into the ground with a loud thud. Adelina looked over at Jollie in complete disarray.
"I-I don't understand! How is Cute Charm not working on the Buneary?!" Alexa raised an eyebrow.
"Cute Charm doesn't always work," she said plainly. "Or maybe your Delcatty doesn't have-"
"FUCK YOU!" Adelina suddenly shrieked nastily. "My Delcatty DOES have Cute Charm and your Buneary should be affected by it!"
"...even so...Cute Charm doesn't always take effect with each hit... In either case...Jollie, keep your distance from Huey, okay?!" Jollie smiled at Alexa.
"Bun-eary!" she saluted in response. Alexa glanced behind her and noticed Keith attempting to settle Ava's skyrocketing emotions. She then looked around at the mess of a battle in front of her; with Ava out of the battle, she was outnumbered, though, in the back of her mind, she knew the numbers were insignificant if her opponent outclassed her in strength. As she surveyed the battle, she couldn't help but keep her eyes on her struggling brother and the smug Jellicent holding him captive; the more she watched Keenan fighting to breathe and enduring the presumably excruciating pain he was in, the more she panicked.
"Ava, please try?"
"Pichu, Pichu!" Alexa could hear Keith attempting to reason with Ava, though, at the present, it seemed Ava was refusing to get back into the battle out of fear.
"I know you're scared; it's my first time in a battle, too."
"Pi?!" Ava looked up at Keith in shock.
"But it's okay; we've got the best support I know," Keith said kindly. Alexa felt fuzzy after hearing his words. "Please, will you give it another try? You were doing really, really well!" Ava appeared unsure at first, but maintained this uncertainty as she nodded.
"Pi-Pichu," she replied as she hopped out of Keith's arms, scurrying into the battle field. Keith sighed with relief.
"Okay, we're back in."
"Thanks, Keith..."
"Sure; I mean, this makes the numbers even now, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but I meant...thanks for believing in me..." Keith smiled kindly at her.
"Of course."
"If you two want a room, I can send you straight to the hospital if you want to get down and dirty!" Adelina said impatiently. Keith and Alexa stared quizzically at her.
"That doesn't even make any sense," Keith said bluntly.
"Nor does you still keeping your nerve, Alexa!" Adelina snapped furiously.
"Hey, I wasn't even talking to you!" Alexa retorted defensively.
"I don't care! Carter, do your thing and get that Pichu right now!" Adelina screeched demandingly. Carter's eyes shone white for a fleeting moment as Pteros suddenly relaxed, his eyes losing their sign of life. With a loud screech, Pteros zoomed towards Ava with his talons ready to snatch her; Ava shivered in place, but she stood her ground regardless. Kayla saw Pteros's forced approach and hurried to intercept him; Jollie and Layla protected Kayla as she rushed to try and protect Ava, covering the Luxray with an X-Scissor to neutralise Francesca's Dark Pulse and a Fire Punch flurry to block Hyacinth's Seed Bomb barrage. In the end, Kayla successfully intercepted the manipulated Pteros and tackled into him as she became completely cloaked in golden yellow electricity; however, the electricity went straight towards Ava and into her body, rendering Kayla's Wild Charge attack to nothing more than a mere Tackle.
"Kayla! Lightningrod!" Alexa called. Kayla, after recovering from the weakened attack, growled to herself as she slapped her forehead with her paw. She snarled again as her fangs froze over, intent on attacking Pteros again. "Kayla, no-"
"LUUUUUUUH!" Before she could attack, however, Pteros sank his fiery jaws into Kayla, grabbing her by her torso. Pteros effortlessly tossed Kayla to the side, leaving her to lie in her own blood. "Lux...ray..." Alexa was almost petrified to see such a wound on one of her Pokémon – and from ANOTHER one of her Pokémon, no less! Hesitantly, Alexa took Kayla's Poké Ball and pointed it to her.
"K-Kayla, return...!" Kayla seemed to exhale a sigh of relief as she was recalled back to her sanctuary. Ava watched Kayla returning to her Poké Ball with devastation.
"Now what?!" Keith wondered. Alexa looked around at the battle again; Layla and Jollie hurried to Ava's side and readied themselves to attack as Pteros, Francesca, Huey and Hyacinth steadily approached them. Adelina retuned Silvia to her Poké Ball, only to send her back out in an instant and spray the Beautifly's entire body with a medicinal spray. Silvia soon flew passed Carter, who remained where he stood with his main tentacles slightly pointed towards his Aerodactyl pawn, as she joined her comrades. However, Alexa soon realised that, as she looked over at Keenan, nobody was making sure Dolores was protected! Suddenly, an idea began to grow inside her mind as she looked down at the three Pokémon in front of her; for some reason, her focus was mainly on Jollie. She looked over at Keenan one more time and realised...there was a chance she could save Keenan! A minuscule one, but a chance nonetheless! She suddenly looked down at Jollie.
"Jollie!" Jollie looked up at Alexa in confusion, especially after seeing the anxiety riddling her face. "Please, I need you to use Bounce!" she pleaded as she looked up at Dolores. Jollie looked at what Alexa was looking at and stared blankly for a few seconds before realising what Alexa was asking of her. She nodded with determination as she sprang up as high into the sky as she could; she jumped so high that she could hardly be seen!
"What is THAT going to accomplish?!" Adelina laughed mockingly.
"Layla, no holding back! X-Scissor Carter!"
"Alex, no!" Ryder cried in protest. His cries fell on deaf ears, however, as Layla literally plowed her way through the mini army in front of her as she sped towards the puppeteer Pokémon.
"Ava, try Thundershock again!"
"Pichu!" Ava nodded, apparently with a bit more confidence than when she started battling. "Piii-CHU!" Ava released a small concentrated bolt of electricity at the possessed Aerodactyl in front of her; surprisingly to Keith and Alexa, there was enough strength in the attack to slightly push Pteros away from her. However, that didn't stop Adelina's Pokémon looming closer to her.
"Ava, get away from them and used ranged attacks!" Keith instructed quickly.
"Pi-CHU!" Ava darted away from the army approaching her and carried on with her Thundershock onslaught.
"NYAAAAH!" Layla managed to evade Carter's lunging tentacles and cross her glowing claws across his torso; Layla attacked with such brute force and at such a close range that not only was the resulting laceration deeper than the one Pteros left on Carter's face, but the Malamar's blood ended up splattering onto Layla's face. As Carter writhed in agony, Pteros snapped out of his trance and, having noticed where he found himself, immediately attacked Francesca, Hyacinth, Huey and Silvia with streams of light engulfing him.
"Pteros, are you all right?!" Alexa called. Pteros waited until all four of Adelina's Pokémon were dazed before he dignified Alexa with a look of puzzlement.
"Aerooooo," he replied, scratching his head with the clawed hand on the bend of his right wing.
"D-Don't worry about it," Alexa said shakily as she looked up into the sky; Jollie seemed to be taking an oddly long time to fall back down to earth. "...j-just keep doing what you're doing."
"Aeroooo!" Pteros roared excitedly as he flew straight towards Francesca with his tail swiftly turning into solid iron once more. Francesca tried desperately to block the attack, but the Aerodactyl's tail proved to be too strong for her to push away and was knocked to the floor as it slapped her in the shoulder – the force of the attack was so strong that a loud crack could be heard from Francesca's shoulder! The Gothitelle lay on the grass holding her cracked shoulder, sobbing and moaning in agony. Adelina, hearing her Pokémon's cries of pain and despair, became sincerely infuriated.
"Stand UP, Francesca, and turn that Aerodactyl BACK into a fossil!" she screamed insistently. Alexa, Keith and Keenan were horrified as they saw Francesca straining onto her feet, but it wasn't because Francesca was actually standing up.
"What is WRONG with you?!" Alexa asked furiously. "Her shoulder's more than likely to be broken – I HEARD that crack! How can you make her continue to fight in her condition?!"
"Because I SAID SO!" Adelina roared in anger. "Francesca, Dark Pulse that dinosaur!" Francesca looked at her now limp arm in conflict; there was no question that the pain she was in was almost unbearable, but she didn't want to disobey her master – what was she to do? "Francesca!"
"She needs both arms to use Dark Pulse and one of them is out of commission – she CAN'T use Dark Pulse!" Alexa argued.
"She CAN use Dark Pulse and she WILL if she doesn't want to be PUNISHED afterwards!" Adelina shouted demandingly. "Now stop being silly, Francesca, and use Dark Pulse right this minute!" Alexa looked up at the sky, only to smile with complete euphoria; the tiny figure of her bouncing Buneary steadily grew as she plummeted to the earth and slammed straight on top of Dolores's incredibly large head! As Jollie landed on top of her, Dolores accidentally released her grip on Keenan and his newfound freedom certainly hadn't escaped anyone's notice.
"BUN!" Jollie bounced away from Dolores and ran alongside Keenan as he immediately fled towards Alexa.
"Oh, no you don't! STOP HIM!" Adelina shrieked. Huey was the first to race into action, lunging straight towards Keenan, his claws enveloped in a shadow that, oddly enough, appeared to be faded somewhat. Hyacinth's entire body shone in a lime green aura as she released a wave of light specks shaped like winged insects at the boy; Ava kept her eyes on Hyacinth's use of the technique as she carried it out.
"LAYLA!"
"NYAH!" Layla unknowingly evaded Carter's Night Slash attack as she lunged at Keenan. She reached him just in time to deter the attacking Delcatty with her Fire Punch attack, slamming the burning fist down on the back of Huey's neck, while Jollie used her own Fire Punch as a means of deflecting the swarm of fake flies in front of her. Keith spotted Silvia flying away from the battle field in preparation for a stronger attack.
"Alexa, what did the Vileplume use? Ava was watching it."
"Hidden Power," Alexa replied.
"Ava, try Hidden Power!" Keith shouted. Silvia attempted to strike Keenan with another Aerial Ace attack, but Ava ran towards the Beautifly and replicated Hyacinth's attack; her body became enveloped in red aura as she pushed a wave of artificial fire at Silvia, halting her in her tracks. To Adelina's immense fury, Francesca was the only one to not do anything to prevent Keenan and Jollie from finally reaching Alexa, but it was watching the siblings embracing one another that truly made her blood boil. Alexa crouched as Keenan clung to her, quivering in fear and sobbing a little. Alexa, too, was ever so slightly sobbing, but out of joy as she held her brother as close to her as she possibly could. Ava and Layla made their way over to the reunion, a wave of relief washing over them, Keith, Ryder, Reese and especially Iara as everyone knew they had one less thing to worry about.
"A-Alex...! Alex...!"
"It's okay, I've got you," Alexa said endearingly. She allowed him to nestle his head between her neck and shoulder.
"I-I was so scared...!" Keith crouched down and helped Alexa comfort her terrified brother.
"It's okay, it's over now..."
"Carter, honey...Night Slash..." Adelina said quietly through tightly gritted teeth and while glaring violently at her idle Gothitelle. Carter mercilessly charged towards Francesca and slashed his glowing violet tentacle across her other shoulder, almost slicing her arm off entirely. Francesca's screams of agony almost echoed throughout the whole forest and alarmed even the rest of Adelina's Pokémon, Huey included! Alexa made certain Keenan didn't look at Francesca's injuries, keeping his head nestled between her neck and shoulder.
"What's WRONG with you?! You just attacked-"
"I KNOW WHAT JUST HAPPENED!" Adelina screamed violently. "You will NOT get the better of me AGAIN, you little whore! I WON'T BE DEFEATED AGAIN! Carter, Silvia, Huey, Hyacinth, Dolores, KILL HER AT ONCE!" The lack of remorse behind such an immoral command left Keith, Keenan, Alexa and their Pokémon horrified beyond all understanding, but Keith held onto both Alexa and Keenan protectively as all five Pokémon lunged towards them, each of them enveloped in streams of orange energy over a thin layer of purple energy.
"YOU WISH!" Ryder roared violently as he abruptly ended his protective dome to rush over to the battle field, despite Alexa's earlier instruction to not intervene, his entire body burning fiercely in his cyan aura. Reese and Iara stayed with the heavily wounded Sawsbuck and watched as Ryder prepared an Aura Sphere in one paw, a Dark Pulse in the other and started to exhale green embers from his mouth; he aimed all three techniques at three different targets and fired each one simultaneously – Dark Pulse struck Dolores on her face, Aura Sphere crashed into Huey's face and Dragon Pulse knocked Silvia out of the sky. Layla lunged towards Hyacinth, being the one closest to her, with her fists burning in bright orange flames. Jollie and Ava raced towards Carter, Jollie surrounded in a warming white light and Ava surrounded with an intense amount of electricity. Despite the two incredibly powerful attacks colliding with Carter's X-Scissor injury, they proved futile as Carter managed to break through them with ease. Ryder spun around and attempted to intercept the murderous Malamar.
"FAAAAAAAAAAAAR-FETCH'D!" Without warning, a Farfetch'd with scars on his beak flew down from the heavens and in front of Carter, swinging his leek across him as it released a blade of concentrated air at the Topsy-Turvey Pokémon, making him flinch. Keith, Alexa and Keenan looked at their Farfetch'd saviour as he touched down and relaxed his stance, staring menacingly at the squid-like enemy. "Far-fetch'd!"
"Isn't that-" Before Keith could finish his question, three powerful Dragon Pokémon landed on the grass just in front of him, Alexa and Keenan; a Dragonite, a Salamence and an Altaria. Keenan and the teens watched as Hailey and Naomi climbed off of Annabelle's back, Colin and Lily dismounted David and Harvey and Hayden slid off of Rena's back. Alexa in particular was over the moon to see all six adults; she came through after all! Keith was surprised to see Hayden and his relatives all at once, but, at the same time, was glad they showed up.
"Alexa, are you all right?" Hayden asked as he kept his eye on the tremendously horrified Adelina.
"Y-Yeah...we're okay...thank Arceus you're here...!"
"Sorry we're late..." Hayden glared at Adelina with an overwhelming amount of hatred in his eyes that was potentially stronger than the brief hatred he had for Keith. "We'll take it from here." Adelina stared at the new arrivals as her eye twitched wildly...and a psychotic grin reached her lips once more.
To be continued...