Chapter Fifty Four – Hurricane Adelina pt V
Alexa slowly made her way inside Xavier's hospital recovery room, where he, along with Troy, Michael and Perri, watched her with a mutual concern that only intensified as they noticed how exhausted she looked; her movements were slightly sluggish and her eyes appeared to be sore from the tears that finally escaped them in Entree Forest. However, it was the fact that Alexa entered the room on her own that concerned Troy the most as he was the first to approach her carefully.
"Alexa, what happened? A-Are you all right?"
"Y-Yeah, I..." Alexa wiped her eyes in a vain attempt to relieve their irritation. "I-I'm just a little tired..."
"A little? Girl, you're almost at the point of needing one of these beds!" Xavier said worriedly, Michael nodding in agreement with his son.
"...m-maybe..."
"Zorr-ooor? Zorror?" Alexa gave Perri a gentle smile.
"Keith and Keenan are fine..." However, Alexa's smile died quickly. "Physically speaking, anyway..."
"Nine?" Alexa looked away from her concerned audience, almost in shame.
"Alexa?"
"We...Keith and I ended up having to battle Adelina after all..." Xavier huffed a nervous chuckle.
"Sorry...I must be hearing things; you didn't just say you and Keith battled Adelina?" A nod from Alexa only served to make the hospitalised Zoroark sick to his stomach. "...I'm...not even sure what part of that statement is more alarming; the fact that you battled Adelina or the fact that Keith had to battle her alongside you."
"...neither compare to the fact that Adelina held Keenan hostage..."
"What?!" Troy was livid, but his expression was mostly that of terror. "How?!" Alexa was incredibly hesitant to answer.
"...the J word...she had him ensnared in her tentacles when Pteros and I got there...just in time to stop her from capturing Ava..." A faint glimmer of dark aura flickered all over Xavier's body as the younger Zoroark snarled viciously.
"Is there no end to her lack of moral decency?!"
"Zorr, zorrr...!" Perri said delicately, attempting to calm Xavier's anger. Alexa heaved a heavy sigh that only served to worry Troy further.
"We ended up saving him just before our parents arrived," she explained further. "...now they, Aunt Hailey and Uncle Colin are at war with Adelina... That sounds harsh, but..." Alexa gave Xavier a concerned look that carried a hint of guilt behind it, worrying the Zoroark. "It wouldn't be an exaggeration either..."
"But are you all right? And Keith and Keenan? Are all of you all right?" Troy asked worriedly. Alexa held onto her arms for a sense of security that wasn't even there for her when she needed it.
"I...I don't know how to answer that," she said shakily. "I mean...I've only been back for a whole two minutes or so; I'm still getting used to the calmer environment here..."
"Things were that bad down there?" Xavier wondered.
"I feel like all of my emotions were put into a bottle that ended up rolling down Jagged Pass," Alexa replied glumly. "But...on top of that, I feel bad for Keith and Keenan..."
"How come?" Troy asked anxiously.
"Well...I asked – begged, practically – Keith to help me battle Adelina, even though Robbie's now being treated for a broken leg among other injuries," Alexa began, her guilt dominating her. "...and Keenan because of the previously mentioned hostage situation he was in..."
"Holy Muk...I-I'm surprised you were able to get through that situation unharmed!" Troy said in shock. Alexa, however, sighed; she wasn't so sure that anybody got through the battle unharmed – so many Pokémon got hurt and she saw how Keenan struggled to breathe.
"...I...I don't think we did...Adelina had all but one of her Pokémon try to attack me before our parents arrived..."
"Oh, that fu-"
"In any case," Alexa said quickly, cutting off Xavier's profanity before it could escape his muzzle. "I should find Keenan..."
"Do you know where he is?" Troy asked gently.
"He's probably in the lavatories washing his face," Alexa guessed. "He's...he's really upset...and probably feels bad about the Pokémon getting hurt 'because' of him..."
"Sounds like something you'd worry about," Xavier said carefully.
"That just means I know how he feels...and what he's going through..." Troy smiled at Alexa kindly as he placed a hand on her cheek, prompting her to face him in confusion.
"When you're done with him, send Keenan my way; I'll look after him while you talk to Keith." Alexa gently took hold of the hand placed on her cheek and slowly pulled it away.
"Thanks, Troy," she said with a warm smile. "I know Keith will need as much attention as Keenan..."
"Too bad there's only one you, huh?" Xavier asked with a weak smile.
"...Keith probably needs space right now, though; I saw him head into the ER where Robbie was taken to..."
"But are you sure you don't need to rest a little bit first?" Xavier asked with concern.
"I'll take a few moments before I speak to Keenan, but...I want to talk to them myself before our parents are done with their war..."
"Good luck," Troy said encouragingly. Alexa nodded at him, and then at Xavier and his parents, before she turned to make her way out of the room. "Alexa!"
"Hm?" Alexa looked back at Troy curiously as he called out to her.
"I'm sorry for not spending as much time with you as I'd hoped." Alexa gave him a sweet smile.
"It's okay; I'm just happy you were there for me – and Keith to boot. Thank you, Troy."
"Don't mention it," Troy said with a joyful smile. Alexa briefly matched his grin as she left the room, closing the door behind her quietly. Xavier leaned back on the bed and breathed a more relaxed sigh.
"At least she's safe..." Perri nodded in agreement.
"Me, too," Troy said in corroboration. "But..."
Dolores flung herself at Roberta just as the Nidoqueen evaded an attack from Silvia, binding her arms behind her and forcing the Drill Pokémon onto her knees. Dolores smirked as Roberta briefly struggled to free her arms, but Roberta, too, smirked as she slyly tilted her head up to point her horn directly upwards. Shortly afterwards, a large lightning bolt struck down on top of Dolores and Roberta; the Jellicent screamed in agony as the electricity coursed through and all over her entire body, while Roberta felt absolutely no pain from her electrifying attack. As soon as the attack ended, Dolores released her grip on Roberta, who swiftly smacked the Jellicent away from her with her thick tail and huffed disapprovingly at her.
Huey lunged at Charlotte with his claws enveloped in a faint purple shadow and slashed the rival Delcatty's face, leaving one single scar down the side of her face and two other ones between the back of her ear and the base of her neck. Huey stared at the wounded Delcatty in shock before he suddenly felt himself blushing. Charlotte felt her cheek with her paw as she looked at her attacker, only to feel disturbed as she saw him staring lovingly at her.
"Oh, great!" Colin smiled. "That's one Pokémon incapacitated for a while!" Charlotte didn't share her Trainer's enthusiasm, especially when she looked at her paw; she saw her blood staining her paw pads.
"But that WAS a Shadow Claw that attacked her, wasn't it?" Hailey wondered as she watched Dexter unleashing a shower of sharp needles to negate Hyacinth's Sludge Bomb barrage.
"Yeah, there's no mistake about that," Colin nodded.
"So that would make Huey's-"
"He has CUTE CHARM!" Adelina insisted adamantly. "He just happens to be able to attack Normal types with his Shadow Claw, that's all!"
"Can he also attack Ghost types with a normal Slash attack?" Naomi asked curiously.
"You shut up right now!" Adelina shrieked demandingly. It was clear to everyone, including her Pokémon, that Adelina's patience was wearing dangerously thin. "Carter, grab Silvia before someone steps on her and smashes her to death!" Despite the morbid imagery of his comrade meeting such a demise and her heartless delivery of the demand, the Malamar complied with his master's instruction and zoomed across the battle field to retrieve the frozen Butterfly Pokémon and return her to Adelina, who promptly sprayed the contents of a yellow spray bottle onto the ice imprisoning Silvia; the ice swiftly melted, freeing the fatigued Beautifly inside. "There, that's better."
"Beauuuutiflyyy..."
"Vilepluuuuuume," Hyacinth relaxed as she began to absorb sunlight through her flower, but, before she could use the sunlight to heal her wounds, Michaela crashed into her with a Rollout attack.
"Wrong target, Michaela!" Hayden called to the Sandslash.
"Does it even matter at this point?" Harvey asked half-seriously. "Anything goes, pretty much..."
"Personally, I don't want to make any mistakes," Hayden grumbled. "Like attacking a Normal type Pokémon with a Shadow Claw attack, for instance," he added, raising an eyebrow at Adelina, who stood up as soon as her Beautifly regained her composure and took flight once more.
"I sincerely hope you're stocked up on healing supplies, Hayden," Adelina said with a mocking smirk. "That was a mistake Alexa made when we fought outside Mistralton City. Speaking of mistakes...Hyacinth, Petal Dance!"
"Vilepluuuuuuume!" Hyacinth relaxed as she spun around, releasing a flurry of pink petals from the flower on her head, all of which spiralled away from her and attacked everything around her; while Carter and Jacob were caught in the Petal Dance, the attack did strike its intended target as the Sandslash yelled in agony as the petals sliced across her body, releasing a small spray of blood with each new laceration.
"Slah!" Eventually, Michaela fell to the ground in defeat. Hayden snarled at Adelina as he recalled his wounded Sandslash back into her Poké Ball.
"If she had no medical supplies, then it means she had no intention to battle anyone, let alone you!"
"Oh, come ON, darling; I seldom intend to battle, yet I'm constantly stocked on supplies!" Adelina said tauntingly.
"Yeah, what makes you think we'll trust you after everything you've done to this family?!" Hailey asked interrogatively. Hayden took another Poké Ball from his pack; as with Michaela's, it was in a Ball Capsule, but it had a single Seal of a white puff of smoke on the top.
"You're not going to get away with any of it! Malik, you're up!" Hayden yelled as he tossed the Poké Ball into the air. The Poké Ball opened and bounced back into Hayden's hand; meanwhile, the Mismagius emerged from the white cloud released from his Poké Ball and tidied the glasses over his red and yellow eyes.
"Mis-ma-gius."
"My, my, my...such a dashing Pokémon you have there, Hayden," Adelina smirked. "It'd be such a shame if he were to taste Huey's Shadow Claw!"
"Um...Cute Charm," Colin said bluntly as he pointed at the infatuated Prim Pokémon.
"Oh...right..."
"Malik, use Shadow Ball on the Jellicent!" Hayden shouted.
"MAGIUS!" Malik complied as he aimed his forming sphere of deep purple energy at the fatigued Jellicent.
"Adelina, there's something I want to know," Lily said calmly as Roberta narrowly evaded Silvia's Aerial Ace attack, which, in actuality, was intended for Jacob; the Dustox was more than prepared for the attack, however, and produced a protective wall of translucent green light from his antennae just in time for Silvia to crash into it.
"Oh? And what might that be?" Adelina asked resentfully.
"Why do you hate Alexa so much?" Lily asked straightforwardly. "She's done nothing to you – none of us have done anything to you, as a matter of fact!"
"Hey, yeah, she's right! What IS your problem with my family anyway?!" Hailey asked demandingly.
"I see little point in divulging you with my response to that; after all, you won't be my problem for much longer," Adelina grinned sinisterly. Naomi returned Steven back into his Poké Ball and immediately sent out her Flareon to take his place.
"That won't solve a thing," Naomi said wisely. "If you don't talk about your problems, they'll never be addressed and consequently remain unfixed."
"I AM addressing the problem and it WILL be fixed!" Adelina yelled angrily, stomping her foot. "Carter, Night Slash on ANYTHING you can find!"
"Mala-MAR!" Carter zoomed towards his nearest target with his tentacles glowing in a vivid violet light. Frankie looked over at the oncoming Malamar and grinned as he prepared to counter-attack.
"Jason, Quick Attack!" Naomi cried. With blinding speed, the Flareon zoomed in between the Gengar and the Malamar, both equally alarmed to see the Flareon in the first place, and tackled into Carter's chest. However, Carter sought the opportunity to carry out his Night Slash attack anyway and slammed his glowing tentacle down on Jason's back; the Flareon cried in overwhelming pain as the tentacle literally dug into his flesh, horrifying Naomi in particular.
"FLAAAAAAAAAAARE!"
"JASON!" Harvey gently held onto Naomi as she attempted to hurry to her Flareon's aid, but glared savagely at Adelina.
"Are you seriously intent on murder now?!" he asked furiously as Naomi shakily returned her mortally wounded Flareon back into his Poké Ball. "Frankie, Dazzling Gleam!"
"Gen..." Frankie lowered his mirrored sunglasses to reveal his ivory white eyes to his target. "Gen-GAR!" The Gengar quickly pulled his sunglasses from his face as his eyes emitted a blinding flash that was so powerful it caused Carter to topple and fall onto his back; Frankie replaced his sunglasses to their original position over his eyes as Carter struggled to stand back up.
"Harvey, I-I'm so sorry, I-I didn't-"
"It's not your fault, angel," Harvey said to Naomi kindly. "How can you be held accountable for what the other Trainer makes their Pokémon do?" Naomi nodded as she timidly took a different Poké Ball from her pocket; it was a pure white and red Poké Ball.
"True enough... Miranda, y-you're up next, I guess..." she said shakily as she opened the Poké Ball. The white light it released soon formed into that of a Klefki without a single key to its name.
"Klef-ki!" Miranda sang merrily.
"I have had it up to HERE with your persistence!" Adelina shouted nastily just as Jacob fired an electrified spider web at Silvia, Dexter tackled into Hyacinth with blinding speed and Charlotte yelled at Huey with such volume that the resulting shockwaves crashed into the rival Delcatty. However, Charlotte's use of Hyper Voice meant nobody actually heard what Adelina said to them. "Carter, take everyone and get them!" she shrieked. Carter finally returned to his feet and looked back at Adelina hesitantly before his eyes briefly flashed white; all of a sudden, Dexter, Charlotte, Frankie, Jacob, Roberta, Malik and Miranda relaxed stance as their eyes became pale and soulless. All seven Pokémon faced their Trainers with the same soulless look, but none of the adults were hindered; in fact, as soon as all seven manipulated Pokémon lunged towards them with the intent to maim, they were simply returned to their Poké Balls without a second thought! Adelina was horrified at how her plan was foiled so quickly and so effortlessly and scowled viciously at them. "You fucking pieces of shit...!"
"Hello, Pot, my name is Kettle; you're black," Harvey said rudely as he, along with the other five adults, took out one more Poké Ball, each with their own Ball Capsule and Seal, and released their Pokémon from within; Tidus emerged from a burst of blue flames, Chelsea leapt from a shower of pink flower petals, Vergil slithered from an explosion of yellow flower petals, Josh leapt from a cluster of small blue bubbles, Colin's Samurott slashed his way out of a larger blue bubble and Steven reappeared from a ring of multi-coloured stars.
"Poooooooooom, Aipom-ai-POM!" Laddy said tauntingly.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have Carter make you hit yourself with a Mega Punch, you stupid monkey!"
"Because your Pokémon are getting tired," Colin said observantly as he took note of how fatigued Adelina's Pokémon were becoming; they were panting rather heavily and some of them were beginning to sweat.
"The battle will end, Adelina, if only because your Pokémon succumb to their exhaustion!" Hailey said clearly.
"My Pokémon are NOT exhausted!" Adelina yelled violently as she released her wounded Gothitelle from her Poké Ball. Francesca continued to hold her broken arm and appear very sorry for herself, which alarmed the Starter Pokémon and their Trainers.
"Wh...you're seriously sending a Pokémon with a broken arm to battle!?" Hailey asked with disgust.
"If your Gothitelle isn't a clear case in point that your Pokémon are exhausted, then I don't know what is!" Harvey yelled with the same level of disgust as his sister. Adelina clenched both of her fists and gritted her teeth as she glared demonically at her opposition.
"I don't CARE." Her tone matched how sinister she looked. "You WILL lose to me and I WILL go after your offspring afterwards and THAT is the end of it. And I will make sure neither Alexa nor her brother will pester ANYONE for the rest of their pathetic little lives...!" Hayden was dangerously close to breaking point; he gave Adelina a look that was so savage it could make even a Tyranitar quiver in fear.
"You WON'T go after the kids because WE'RE still able to fight you and there's NO WAY that we'll let you hurt our babies!" Hailey screeched furiously. Hayden and Harvey nodded in complete agreement; in comparison, Harvey appeared to be the most placid of the siblings, though he still harboured a violent look of anger in his eyes. "This battle WILL be won either by our very first partners – THAT is a promise!"
To be continued...