~ Chapter 9 - The Dance around Death ~
"Team Pixie! Somebody needs to stop them!" Palla cried out.
"Remember, they're still our allies!" Traximus shouted, "But first, we need Kruler to snap out of it!"
Rico dashed from where he was standing, past Therian and towards Team Pixie. "I'll hold these guys off! Kroto! Take out that Pokemon, quick!"
"I'm trying," The Passimian responded, hitting the Hypno with another acrobatics attack, "But he just! Won't! Go! Down!"
"Got it!" Rico rushed towards the controlled Ivy, who held her arms up defensively. The Froakie jumped into the air and over a bite attack coming towards his right flank. He spewed out a water gun attack at the Kirlia, scoring a direct hit. In retaliation, the Hattrem launched a psybeam at Rico, sending him flying towards a tree.
On the ground, Traximus found himself facing a horde of pokemon. At a quick glance, he saw an injured Scyther, a Clefairy, and a Golduck. There were more pokemon that he could hear moaning and groaning inside the crater, but he couldn't make them out from where he was.
"Looks like it's many versus one," Traximus noted to himself, "I've got to whittle down their numbers!" The Bagon readied an ember attack; the Scyther was the first to respond to it. The bladed pokemon rushed Traximus, his scythes raised to attack when orange flames raced over his body. With a hiss and a scream, the Scyther fell to the ground, squirming and rolling about to put the burning flames out.
"One down, but more to go…" Traximus shot a brief look at the Scyther he just hit. When the Scyther's eyes shot open, Traximus noted that his eyes were a cerulean blue, the usual color for a civilian Scyther. After his screams died down and he stopped panting, he glared daggers at Traximus.
"Aye! What that be for?!" The Scyther screeched at him, making Traximus squint at him.
"Hold up." The Bagon snapped, "You don't look mind controlled…!"
"Oh wow… Do I?" The Scyther rolled his eyes, "Now where I be?"
'I hit him with fire and that seemed to work…' Traximus looked onto the incoming group of pokemon, 'Nevermind, no time to think!' He rolled out of the way of a moonblast attack from the Clefairy, but found himself on the blunt side of an aqua jet attack from the Golduck. Fortunately, he braced himself beforehand, only skidding to a halt just before hitting a tree.
"Let's try this again!" Traximus shouted, releasing another ember attack on the Golduck, hoping for the mind control to wear off. Unfortunately, the fire attack grazed the pokemon, but nothing seemed to change about her demeanor. 'Ooh. So much for that.' When he found himself between the tree, the Clefairy and the Golduck, Traximus braced himself for another attack. Suddenly, he saw something green charging in his direction.
"Boy! Outta da way!"
Doing as instructed, Traximus rolled again, this time to the left. The Scyther charged at the Golduck, kicking up leaves in the process. He then collided with the water pokemon at full speed, resulting in grass-coated scythes slashing up the skin of the Golduck. After an ear piercing shriek, Traximus glanced at the Golduck, whose eyes returned to the usual red color.
"What be going on here?!" The Scyther shouted at the Golduck, "You not be looking feral!"
"Well no duh!" The Golduck cried, "Do I sound feral to you?!"
"That's it!" Traximus called out, garnering the attention of both of them, "Both of you, I need your help with something!"
Meanwhile, Kroto was keeping the Hypno occupied. He felt the yellow pokemon taunting him with every attack he missed. However, he kept up the pressure so as to not let him get an attack off on him.
"Gaha!" The Hypno taunted, "You can't possibly hope to stop me with those feeble attacks!"
"Shut it and fight back!" Kroto growled, throwing a punch that just barely missed the hypno's head.
"Hehe! Once master Therian snaps out of his trance, we'll just hypnotize all of you, and you'll be our puppets!"
Kroto took a deep breath. He then dashed at the Hypno for another attack, which the Hypno was gearing up to dodge. The Passimian felt time itself slow down as he calculated his next move. Thoughts racing thousands of miles per second, he filtered his thinking. Scanning his opponent, he found that the Hypno was holding a suspicious item, a black trinket with strange tendrils hanging off it. His gaze suddenly shifted, and all his focus was put on that item.
"There!" Kroto shouted, turning his fist into a palm, slapping the item out of the Hypno's hand, sending it flying into the thicket.
"What the-" The Hypno immediately flicked his head towards the thicket where his item was lost, "NOOOOO!"
"You're open!" Kroto used his acrobatics attack one last time. One punch hits the gut, causing the Hypno to spit up some saliva. A kick hits the ribs, making him wheeze. The final punch to the face causes a nosebleed which makes the Hypno fall on his back, lurching about in pain.
"What was that about feeble attacks?" Kroto leered down. He witnessed as the Hypno pinched his nose to stop the blood from leaking.
"How?! How are you that powerful?!" The Hypno winced.
"Irrelevant." Kroto looked down at his hands, "Weird… It felt like I just learned a new move out of necessity…"
Kroto shook his head, "Alright," He then lifted the Hypno by his neck, "Call them off now!"
"I-I can't!" The Hypno shouted through the pinch in his nose, "Controlling them took concentration!"
"What do you mean concentration?!"
"I needed to concentrate on my trinket to make them follow orders! W-Why did you think I didn't fight back?!"
The Passimian grimaced, "So these guys are going to go berserk then?" A nervous nod was all the Hypno gave to make Kroto squeeze the nape of his neck harder, resulting in a squeal. Looking forward, he heard the roars of some of the pokemon that were previously under Hypno's control. He glanced in the direction of Kruler, whose eyes turned blood red.
"Crap, crap, crap!" Kroto dragged the Hypno towards the thicket and knocked him out with a knock off attack. Looking backward, he immediately hit the deck when a moonblast flew over his head and hit a tree.
On Kruler's front, Palla had just managed to dodge another ice punch, but there was a problem. She was getting tired. Fast. With the amount of missed ice punches hitting the ground, combined with the moisture in the air was beginning to make the ambient temperature noticeably cooler. She began to feel sluggish as the air got colder.
When she landed on a patch of ice, Palla sputtered, "Kruler! You need to snap out of it!" As she tried to move her feet, she forgot what she was standing on and slipped on her backside, leaving her exposed to an attack. The possessed Kruler saw an opportunity to capitalize, using an ice punch with one hand and waterfall with the other. The Croconaw rushed her, readying her attacks.
"Oh no! Somebody, HELP!" The Axew pleaded to anybody that could hear.
Just then, a set of leaves kicked up and a Scyther plowed Kruler over from the side. Jumping off the Scyther was Traximus, who landed beside Palla.
"Just in time, huh?" Traximus chuckled, gaining a smile from Palla.
"My hero, as always…" Palla, with some help from Traximus, was pulled off the ice and onto stable ground where she stood up.
"I figured out how to break the mind control!" Traximus beamed, "It's all according to our types, we need to hit the pokemon with what they're weak to!"
"Wait, do you mean that attack that Scyther did…!"
Traximus pointed in the direction of the Scyther, who was lifting an injured Croconaw whose eyes were beginning to return to normal, "Yes! It was a grass type move! We can save them all, we just have to knock some sense into them, literally!"
"That's great! But can I have some help over here!"
Traximus and Palla glanced over to where the shout was. Rico was fending off Team Pixie, who appeared to be overrunning him. Pico was unleashing a flurry of fury swipes on the Froakie, who was beginning to show signs of wear. After the attack ended, the pair of dragons witnessed Rico fall to his knees, shaking as he tried to hold himself up.
"We have to help him, Traximus!" Palla barked.
"Right!" Traximus and Palla started to run for Rico when they noticed Therian teleport and levitate in front of them.
"Forgot about me, didya?" The Gengar sneered, blinking several times, "I'll admit, Bagon. Your team is a bit more crafty than I thought. But enough games, I've had it with you lot!"
Therian shined a ghastly looplet on his arm. Inside one of the looplet's notches was a strange looking emera with an insignia of some sort of flame with a helix pattern.
"What the heck is that?!" Palla screamed.
"Everybody! On guard!" Traximus ordered.
Therian began chanting. "I, Therian, the curse of the night, invoke the ancient power of MEGA EVOLUTION!"
The immediate area began glowing in a bright white and pink light. Therian himself was consumed by the light, creating what looked like a hard, pink shell around him. Everybody in the surrounding area shielded their eyes. Traximus, peering through his eyelids, found that the hard shell around Therian was cracking.
"Everybody look out!" He called out, "Something's coming!"
"Something's coming indeed kid!" A sinister voice snickered from the light.
When the lights faded and the shell shattered, a strange looking creature came into view. It had the same face as a Gengar, but had two extending appendages leaving the main body and a longer tail. It also had a golden ring etched into its forehead. What made the creature even more ominous, is that it was missing its legs and… sank into the ground.
"What the heck is that thing?!" Kroto shouted.
"It looks like a Gengar… but weird!" Palla responded.
"I didn't expect to have to bust out my Mega Evolution for this…" Therian growled, "But you kids are makin' me mad, and now I want my effort's worth!"
"Everyone! Regroup on me!" Traximus commanded, "We need to focus our efforts on taking this guy down!"
As Traximus was moving to a rendezvous point, he suddenly found something tugging on his leg, preventing him from getting very far. "Hey! What is this!" He shouted.
"You like my shadow tag?" Therian grinned, "It's my trademark ability, preventing my prey from getting very far! And don't even think about getting your little friends involved or they'll suffer the same fate as you!"
"Dang!" Traximus forced his eyes shut, "Looks like it's just you and me, Palla!" He reopened his eyes and gave Palla a reassuring look, "Let's get this done!"
"O-Okay!" Palla nervously replied.
Traximus ran towards Therian first. He spewed a dragonbreath attack at the Gengar, which didn't seem to do much. This was soon followed up by Palla's aqua tail attack, which also did very little to faze Therian.
"Traximus! It's not working!" The Axew cried.
"Keep going! His defenses have to give out sometime!" Her counterpart responded.
Several rounds of attacks later, and the Gengar was still standing there, giggling and snickering the entire time. Traximus and Palla came to a stop sometime later, gasping and panting for air. Therian merely raised his front appendage.
"Is that all you've got? After all that work to knock me down, ya still can't manage to scratch me with your attacks? Pathetic." Therian then turned to Palla, "Now let me show you an actual attack!"
Therian charged a black and purple blob in his mouth and then launched it at Palla. Nearly instantaneously, the blob closed the distance between the two opposing pokemon and exploded in Palla's face. She was sent flying towards the treeline and hit a branch, falling to the ground sometime after the collision.
"Palla!" Traximus screamed, and then turned to the Gengar, "You're gonna regret that!"
"Oh really?" Therian loomed over the Bagon, "And who's gonna make me?"
"We are! You walking trashbag!" Kroto shouted as he raced towards the Gengar.
"Truly?! Then come! Be my guests!" Therian suddenly slid across the ground as if it was made of ice. Facing Kroto, he dodged out of the way of Kroto's readied knock off attack and almost immediately hit him with a shadow ball, sending him flying past Traximus and towards the crater.
"Guys… No…" Rico rasped as he felt the sting in his lungs from all his strain, "It… Can't end like this…!" As much as he wanted to help his friends, he had his own problems. He had volunteered to take on all of Team Pixie by himself. If only he had accounted for this, his plan would have been flawless! But how could he have known that Therian came with an ace up his sleeve?
"AUGHHH!"
Rico, from behind him, could hear the pained screeches of Traximus, who was likely being hit with some sort of attack. Helpless to do anything, Rico fell to his stomach. Beginning to lose consciousness once again, he groaned, "I… Can't believe I failed them again…"