Depth Charge Arc 2.08: The Real Plan Z
Sanguine lifted his shield once again, energy building around him as he dove for one of the illusions, blade first and carving a nice hole in the beach. When nothing came from the attack Sanguine simply roared again and attacked one more before Drake whistled, bringing the pokemon’s attention back. “SANGUINE, HEEL!” Drake snarled.
The voice that seemed to scrape against Drake’s consciousness caused him to pale and he started to truly realize how deeply screwed up this situation was getting. Sanguine stilled, but the malice from the pokemon meant that Drake’s control over him was fading by inches.
“You better let me know when the fuck we get to Plan Z,” Drake hissed. “Because so far it looks like Plans C through Y just bit the dust.”
“It is pretty much impossible to miss your cue,” Benji said quietly. “If it was Plan Z…you think Gladius and Titania would be sitting here doing nothing?”
The two Ralts evolutions silently stood in front of Benji, eyes glancing at Senan with a mixture of fear and pity.
Drake cast a glance to the other two ‘mons and swallowed. “I… Yeah, okay. True enough.”
He brought his hand out and gestured toward Sanguine. The ghost pokemon floated back toward his trainer, stopping feet away from him and lifting his shield. The eye slid around to glare at Drake and he swallowed dryly. If this went on for any longer….
“Please be okay,” Drake whispered under his breath as he looked to Sabine. “For Arceus’s sake…”
“Medusa!” Noël called out, feeling the wind on his nape before his Flygon rushed past, twisting him on her back. The two rocketed the last tens of feet to Sabine and the Banette, Noël sliding off and putting an elbow under his niece’s arm to prop her up.
“Sabine listen to me,” he said seriously, still clutching the metal ring in his hand. On the ring was a flat rectangular case attached to the side, similar looking to his Power Strap but a more compact and far more recent version. His fingers fumbled with a number pad lock fused around the clasp. “This is extremely important. We can save Senan and us all. I need to ask your permission to–”
“Get off me!” Sabine screeched, “This is your fault. Senan destroyed the MasterBall.” The shock of the statement caused a sudden limpness in her uncle, giving her a window to slide out of his grip, her eyes darting around at the countless forms of Senan flickering around the beach. One of them had to be the real one. One of them… THAT ONE.
Sabine jumped and hugged her arms around one of the flickering Kirlias, feeling the physical form of Senan and tumbling to the ground with him, halting his strobing effect.
<L͡et g̛o òf̀ mé,̨ ͢tra͘ito͡r. ͠I'm̵ be͟tter̶ off̨ ͘w̛i͡th̷oút ͏y͘o̡u. Ẃith̨o̕ut a̷nyone. I'l͠l ͝deşt̢rơy ͠thi͡s̕ ̀whole̷ ̷ǵòd҉damn p͢lan̛et͞ i͏f̨ I ̸h́a͝ve͏ to.>
Sabine gritted her teeth and stifled a groan at the painful words jabbing into her mind. “No, please, you can’t live like this. I can help. If I knew what had happened, I would have gone straight back, I swear! They.. They told me you were dead.”
Senan paused and stared at her. <Tḩey̶?>
With a small hiss the lock fell off the metal ring, Noël finally punching in the correct code and slid to his knees beside Sabine, throwing one side of her shawl up around her shoulder, grasping her upper arm and locking the ring into place around it. Sabine felt cold metal on her arm and turned to look at her uncle with wide eyes and furrowed brows before staring at the contraption around her arm. It looked just like…
The small rectangular plate on the metal arm brace flipped open and Senan pushed Sabine off him, collecting and throwing a psychic blast of energy at the metal ring around her arm. Her arm was pulled taut in his direction, as if there were some gravitational pull between the Kirlia and the device. The darkened void inside it swallowed up the energy before slowly dragging Senan inside with it.
Sabine grabbed her arm with the other, trying to pull herself back from the toughest tug-o-war imaginable. It was no use. After a moment, her Kirlia was sucked inside the contraption. The plate clasped shut with a small hiss, a small LED light under it glowing red and Sabine fell to the ground in a heap as the tension was suddenly released.
Silence fell onto the beach.