❝ this is embarrassing even for you, candle. ❞
❝ that's quite rich you know, considering the position you're currently sitting in. ❞ the starfall leader takes rhythmic steps in a circle around the red-headed gym leader, currently strapped to a chair with metal chains, each link clinking with every movement candle's feisty captive makes. ❝ i wouldn't be talking back to me if i were you. things aren't like they were all those years ago. ❞ the tall woman finishes her circle of the chair, running a single finger along the backside of it before kneeling before strelitzia, putting a finger under her chin and lifting it to force her to look into her eyes. ❝ now, you're going to tell me what i want to know, or this won't end well for you. ❞
she pushes the woman's face away from her as she stands, walking back to be partially shrouded in shadow. the single light illuminating strelitzia swings ever so slightly with a creak as candle cracks her neck, the sound echoing and reverberating off the walls of the prison the leader held her kidnapped party in. ❝ matter of fact, it might not end well for you anyway, just because i don't want it to. ❞ slowly, she removes the bandages from her lower half of her visage, revealing the burned and ruined face and neck that was normally hidden. the head of team starfall lets her lips twist up in a cruel, sinister smile as the ground begins to shake.
from the depths of the darkness behind candle, the start of massive wires begins to slink it's way carefully into the light. an unnatural feeling fills the air, and the light above strelitzia flickers a few times as the cry of something otherworldly echoes through the shadows. light begins to fill the room, creating strange shapes on the walls as the spiked head begins to spark to life and the creature slinks it's way to wrap itself around the captive red-head, constricting her form and latching the split of the copper wiring at the end of it's limbs along strelitiza's body. the wires are cold as they grab at the exposed skin of the gym leader's limbs and torso. candle's hands slip silently into her pockets. ❝ meet xirkitree. we call it xirk for short. ❞ the smile curls further, like the ends of paper as it burns. ❝ it obeys me without question, much like the rest of the team i now command. i no longer have any need for those rejects you took from me all those years ago. ❞
a finger reaches up to twirl her hair, admiring the last of the pink that remained in those strange strands. ❝ that being said, i never forget anything. and i'm far from forgiving. ❞ she struts slightly closer, shifting her weight to lean over the chair just enough to be staring into her face directly once again, the look in candle's eyes dead, but wild. ❝ so, strelitzia alba nikolai, you will tell me what you know of the powers of the so-called rareitan champion alexandra peri shino, or you will not walk out of here to see another day. is that understood ? ❞ she's no longer gentle, and she grabs her captive's face betwixt her burned palms, forcing her to once again look at candle. ❝ allow me to give you a taste of what's to come, should you refuse to comply. ❞
she raises her free hand into the air and snaps her fingers, letting go just as the ultra beast releases another cry and sparks to life, like an overloaded circuit as the electricity stored in it's body runs along the cables that wrap strelitzia so tightly sending a controlled yet powerful shock that rips through the other's body for what must feel like forever. the metal chains that held her only seeking to increase the pain as they conduct the sparking agony far beyond just where the copper wiring of the beast connects to her flesh. the light flickers aggressively until candle snaps her fingers once more, and the electricity dies down and stops, giving the other a chance to breathe as the light returns to simply illuminating the pair. ❝ now, tell me what you know so i don't have to ruin that pretty little face of yours, just as mine was. ❞
