Re: Lisa the Legend: Chapter 66 - Parity now up!
Chapter 66 – Parity.
“You’re going to help me escape?” cried Lisa incredulously, as the Union agent turned the key and freed himself from the handcuffs.
“Keep your voice down,” snapped Larry, plunging the key into the lock on Lisa’s cuff; the metal clasp released, and the cuff fell to the ground with a shimmering, metallic sound. Lisa’s wrist throbbed – there were deep red marks all around it – and she hastened to give it a soothing rub.
“I don’t understand,” Lisa said, her voice coming as an excited stage whisper; her mind was spinning. “You’re a double agent ...?”
“There’s no time to get into all that.”
Apparently convinced that this was a satisfactory response, Larry immediately sought to profit from his liberation from her side. He crossed the room, threw open the top drawer of the olive-green filing cabinet and began fishing around for something within it.
Lisa watched him for a moment, before the light glinting off the royal blue pin sticking out of the desktop chart caught her eye. She glanced at it, but the map was too far away for her to make out. Her curiosity piqued, she gingerly leaned forward out of her chair, a cautious eye trained on Larry’s turned back, before she cast a surreptitious glance at the chart. The blue pin was stuck into a small section of blue – water, obviously – in the middle of a small mountain range.
Two black words immediately beneath the pin read ‘Lotus Lake’.
Abruptly, Larry gave a subdued, but triumphant “aha!”; Lisa jolted and fell back into her seat, face flushed, as Larry spun around to face her. He moved over to the desk Lisa sat behind and dumped a rucksack on it.
Lisa’s spirits rose.
“My backpack!” she exclaimed.
“Still intact,” said Larry, unzipping the largest pocket. “I made sure everything was kept as it was when we took you from the hospital. The only downside is that your pokéballs were all removed and taken to one of our labs, to be studied.”
Ice flooded Lisa’s arteries.
“What do you mean by ‘studied’?” she demanded.
“I don’t know, exactly,” admitted Larry, riffling through the bag frantically. “I’ve only been to that lab once. The work they do there doesn’t seem to be anything like what Lenina Johnson was doing to pokémon, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he added. “But I don’t think it’s what you’d call ethical, either.”
Lisa’s skin crawled; her worst fears had been realised. Her pokémon had been stolen – maybe even now, as they spoke, Aipom, Fiskmire, Vulpix, Dratini and Electabuzz were having cruel experiments conducted on them.
“Where’s the lab?” she demanded, a knot forming in her throat.
Larry’s mouth curved into a wry smile.
“Lisa, do you have any idea how risky it’s going to be to try to get you away from the Union even just once? There’s no way I’m going to tell you that.”
Perhaps the fact that Larry wore the black clothes common to Union members made it easier for Lisa to rage at him; in any case, something in her snapped and she rose to her feet, pushing Larry in frustration.
“TELL ME WHERE MY POKÉMON ARE!”
To her surprise, the tall, solidly-built man actually pushed her back, sending her reeling backwards. Her legs smacked against the chair, forcing her to fall back into the seat.
The smile that had fleeted across Larry’s face was long gone now: his mouth was set in a rigid line, his stubbled jaw jagged and fierce, his eyes glowing with indignation.
“Listen to me, girl, I am risking my fucking life to get you out of here,” he snarled in a dangerous undertone. “I’ve seen Joseph Sterling murder people for a lot less than being a double agent. The chances of me keeping my cover and you actually making it out of here alive hinge upon nobody walking in on us in the next two minutes, so shut your mouth, do everything I tell you to and don’t ask me again about your bloody pokémon.”
He swore under his breath and opened another pocket of the rucksack.
“W-what are you looking for?” Lisa asked meekly.
“Your Buzzball. It was stored in here after you were captured. Aha!” In triumph, he pulled the rubbery red ball, not much bigger than a golf ball, from the backpack and handed it to Lisa. “Pocket that.”
Lisa squeezed the ball into the right pocket of her faded jeans.
“Stand up,” instructed Larry.
Lisa obliged.
“No. No, that’s not going to work,” he muttered, his voice growing anxious. Lisa looked down at her pocket: the bulge of the Buzzball was abundantly clear to anyone who might look at her. “No, they’ll see it, and then they’ll take it from you, and then I’ll be dead …” fretted Larry. He looked Lisa in the eye. “How old are you? Do you wear a proper bra yet?”
Lisa felt her face blush deeply. “That’s a bit personal!” she cried.
Larry seemed uninterested in her embarrassment. “Well, if you are wearing one, stuff the Buzzball into one of the cups.”
Lisa stared at him blankly. “But it’s still going to be too big …”
“You’re wearing a jumper,” pointed out Larry, gesturing to the black-and-orange Ecruteak Fruitbats sweater Lisa had on. “It’s bulky – no-one will notice –”
Lisa removed the Buzzball from her pocket and felt her face glow even more hotly.
“Could you look away, please?” she implored. Larry nodded in relief and looked away; Lisa pulled the neck of her jumper and T-shirt down and, not without some awkwardness, stuffed the Buzzball into the left cup of her white bra. At once, the ball pressed sharply against her left breast, but she steeled herself and tried to ignore the discomfort.
“So that’s how I’ll be getting out of here?” she asked, once she was done. “Using the Buzzball?”
Larry took her words as a sign that he could look back; he regarded her jumper and smiled with relief.
“Better … much better … you can’t even notice it,” he said. “No, the Buzzball is to give you a chance at fighting the Union if and when they come after you.”
“I don’t follow,” said Lisa.
Larry had moved his hands to the back of his neck and was fiddling with something. Presently, he produced a thick, silver necklace with a tribal-looking pendant attached to it – the kind of chain a young surfer might wear – and held it out to her. Without asking questions, Lisa lifted her long black hair off her shoulders, allowing Larry to fasten the chain around her neck.
Larry glanced at his watch. “Let’s get back to our position and I’ll explain as much as I can.” He deftly zipped up Lisa’s backpack and lugged it back to the filing cabinet drawer.
“Wait!” cried Lisa. “What about my pokégear – and everything else –”
Larry laughed without humour.
“Because that wouldn’t tip the Union off at all, would it?” he murmured. “Sorry, Lisa. I have one shot at getting you out of here, but your things will have to stay here. It would be far too suspicious otherwise, and my cover would be blown fucking sky-high.”
He slid the drawer shut and walked back to behind the desk, picking the handcuffs up as he approached. He wiggled the tiny silver key out from the lock and handed it to Lisa.
“That, at least, is small enough to fit in your pocket,” he said.
Lisa pushed the key as deep into her right pocket as she could.
Larry then looped the cuff around her wrist again and clamped it over the red marks which had only just begun to fade; Lisa winced. Larry cuffed the other ring over his left hand once more.
“Now, we can speak,” he said, and at once his voice became markedly less tense.
“Firstly, you should know that Joseph Sterling plans to use you to enter the Sepulchre of Suicune today.”
Lisa jumped. “Today?!”
“In about an hour, actually,” Larry clarified. “Don’t underestimate his drive, Lisa. It took him five months to finally get his hands on you, and your escape at Mount Fairfax – which was pure luck on your part; Sterling had thought you were Entei’s Guardian – made him more transfixed on you than ever. He’s not taking any chances or wasting any time. A helicopter leaves in an hour for the Sepulchre of Suicune. You, Den, Veronica and Joseph Sterling will be on it –” (Lisa’s blood boiled at the mention of Veronica.) “– and Sterling intends to complete the mission today.” He looked Lisa squarely in the eyes. “If you don’t escape in time, Sterling will succeed in forcing you into the Sepulchre. He will obtain the fragment of the Sixth Key within that Sepulchre and be a step closer to obtaining all Seven Keys referred to in the Legend of Ecruteak.
“Moreover, Lisa, after he has used you to get that fragment, Sterling may no longer see a use in you,” said Larry levelly. “He may not hesitate to dispose of you after that, although it’s very possible he would keep you as leverage to manipulate your parents and the rest of the Guard.”
Lisa shivered. She was still attempting to digest the idea that Sterling was very close to obtaining another fragment of the Sixth Key when she suddenly understood what Larry’s hypothesis meant.
“My parents are alright, then?”
He shrugged, almost too casually. “They’re not in Union custody, so I assume they are still on active duty with the Guard.
“That’s irrelevant right now, anyway. The point is, Lisa, your only window will be during that helicopter flight. Once you land, it will be too easy for Sterling and the others to pursue and subdue you. I think jumping from the chopper will give you the best chance at true escape.”
Lisa felt her face slacken in disbelief. “You have to be joking.”
There was nothing but sobriety in Larry’s expression.
“You’ll need to act pretty quickly once you’re in the air – it will only be a short flight to the Sepulchre, which won’t give you a lot of time. Depending on how many of them are guarding you, you’ll need to free yourself from your handcuffs and jump from the chopper.
“That chain I put around your neck,” he added, “is a poképort – it’s like a kind of –”
“Hands-free pokéball,” Lisa said. “I know; I used to have one. What is it you say to make the pokémon come out again?”
“Revelum Altaria ,” said Larry. “It’s my own Altaria. I can’t promise that she will be loyal to you, but she will at least fly you to safety.”
“And it’s retrahere to make the pokémon go back in?”
“Right, but you won’t want to do that until you’ve landed safely, obviously. I’d try to make the jump fairly early. You’ll be heading north-east, so if you jump early on, you might get close to the coast of Red Rock Island. Jump too late, and you could find yourself out in the open sea.
“From Red Rock, you should be able to make contact with the Guard. Be careful, though – there is a much greater Union presence on that island now than there used to be. You’ll need to be discreet.”
“Right,” Lisa responded, without any thought attached. It was too much to comprehend that she was actually expected to make this leap of faith; it seemed utterly surreal.
“One last thing – try not to release Altaria until you’re a decent distance away from the chopper,” Larry added. “The less the Union knows about how you escaped, the better. Who knows, you might even convince them that you’ve jumped to your death just to escape them. This all needs to look as if only you had a part to play in it.”
“So what’s the Buzzball for, then?”
Larry’s mouth became a rigid line once more.
“If you run into trouble – if they catch you taking off the handcuffs – which is entirely possible … probable, even ... then use it, but only as a last resort. If you attack them, they’ll know there’s a mole in the group, and it will mean the end of me.
“Lastly – Lisa, nobody can know that I’m a double agent, even in the Guard,” his voice had become a gravelly whisper. “Lance and his PA are my only contacts. If anyone else finds out about me, the info could leak, and again, that’s the end of me. Promise me that you will never mention my existence to anyone. Ever.”
“Of course. I promise …” Lisa responded vaguely, her mind scarcely connected to what she was saying. She was overwhelmed by Larry’s calmness when talking about his own potential demise; her mind and heart were both in a tailspin at the thought of her own. Things had gone so horribly wrong – she was meant to be at a safe house, not in the Union’s clutches – and now the only way to escape was to put her very life at risk and jump from a helicopter mid-flight – without a parachute.
“And this is definitely the best plan?” she ventured tentatively.
“The other one involves the two of us fighting a few hundred Union agents at once from within their own headquarters,” said Larry dully. “It’s a bit of a no-brainer.
“The alternative would be try to escape once you’re literally standing outside the Sepulchre, but I don’t give you much of a shot that way. Sterling won’t be expecting a mid-air escape. It’s your best hope.”
Lisa felt a wave of numbness spread over her limbs, followed by a tingling in her feet. She tried not to think about what would happen if the poképort fell off her neck before she could release Altaria.
A short silence fell between them; Larry seemed to be anticipating the return of the blond Union agent, but there was no sign of him.
Eventually, he muttered, “Well, I thought it would be ten minutes at the most. S’pose I’m better at hiding keys than I thought.”
His speech emboldened Lisa to ask him a question that had risen to the surface of her mind during the pause in conversation.
“Did you know Derek?”
Larry coughed. “Yes. He did brilliant espionage work within the Union.”
“I know. He saved me and Gavin from the Union on Mount Fairfax a month ago. I couldn’t believe there was a mole in the Union. And now, there’s two of you.”
An odd expression came over Larry’s face: for the first time in their exchange, his voice faltered, and his forehead furrowed in a way that indicated some kind of latent distress. “After Derek defected, I became the sole double agent still reporting to Lance Hudson. It’s been more difficult than ever without the co-operation of another agent …” An unsteady glint came into his eyes; he suddenly seemed unable to stop himself from talking. “You have no idea how hard it is to do what I do alone. When I had Derek at my command, I could place him in key locations and know that I was actively making a difference. I’m Head of Operations with the Union, you see – it’s a high-up position – I take orders directly from Sterling.”
He paused briefly for breath.
“Do you remember what happened in the courtroom in Port Valeo? I assigned Derek there that day. I was the one who put forward the strategy of using smoke bombs. My reasoning to Sterling was that it would make it difficult for the police to see, but we used it as cover for Derek to sneak around and attack Union agents without being caught. It was brilliant. He even managed to finish Lenina off without being seen.”
Lisa gasped, recalling the incident, in which Gavin had been pushed from behind by a mysterious figure, forcing him to fire the bullet that killed Lenina.
“That was Derek?”
“It was a bold move,” Larry nodded. “But, fortunately, nobody saw his –”
He broke off; footsteps could be heard in the corridor outside. He placed his right hand by his side and cast a supervisory glance at Lisa, who placed her left arm against the thick armrests of the wooden chair and looked down at her knees. At least she would look convincingly frightened to the blond agent: the tremor of her limbs was no act.
“Bloody hell,” scowled the blond agent, switching his torch off as he entered the office. “Had to really hunt for the blasted thing.”
He held up a miniscule silver key in his hand.
“Good work, Jovan,” said Larry gruffly; Lisa noted that his voice had become perceptibly harder with the renewed presence of the other man. “Help hold her down while I make the switch.”
Lisa did her best to flail and curse convincingly as the blond man came over to restrain her arms. Larry unlocked his cuff and, looping the chain around the chair’s sturdy armrest, closed it over Lisa’s left wrist, so that she was now handcuffed to the chair.
“I’ll get Sterling,” said Larry authoritatively. “Give her something to eat, Jovan, but guard her closely. If she moves to do anything other than eat, Stun her.”
“Yes, sir.”
The blond agent produced a sleek Stunner from the filing cabinet and flicked a setting on the side, aiming it at the emblem of the Ecruteak Fruitbats on the front of Lisa’s jumper.
Without a glance at Lisa, Larry swept from the office, the wooden door clattering behind him.
*
Holding half a muesli bar awkwardly in her bound hands, Lisa tried to force herself to swallow, but her mouth had become a mealy desert.
She closed her eyes as she chewed the mush in her mouth. She had to find the courage. Not just to stop Sterling. Not just to help the Guard. Not even for her own goals, which seemed too convoluted to even deal with given the present circumstances. She conjured up the strongest motivation she could: she simply had to escape and find her pokémon.
Fighting the lump in her throat, Lisa forced down the ball of dry muesli in her mouth, feeling it burn slightly all the way down her oesophagus.
Jovan, her guard, cleared his throat impatiently, his weapon still keenly fixed on her.
Footsteps came from outside the door once again. The door swung open and three people entered the room in quick succession: Den, the stocky agent who had once held Marina captive; Veronica, the platinum blonde woman who had forced Lisa into the Sepulchre of Entei at gunpoint; and lastly, the unmistakable swarthiness of the Union’s leader, Joseph Sterling, his chin jutting out in smug triumph.
Lisa felt an individual surge of hatred erupt within her for each of them; she harboured the strongest vitriol for Sterling alone.
“Lower your weapon, Jovan,” Sterling commanded in a ringing voice. “Lisa won’t try anything with the three of us here.”
Bile bubbled in Lisa’s stomach; she wanted to scream out, “Wanna bet?!”.
Jovan obeyed. Sterling moved to the other side of the desk, standing right beside Lisa but not looking her directly in the eye.
“Lisa Walters, you are a ridiculously lucky pain in my arse, and I will not play cat-and-mouse games with you any longer,” he said smoothly.
He reached into the hip pocket of his black pants and produced the silver key belonging to the handcuffs. Gripping Lisa’s right wrist viciously, he uncuffed her right hand and disentangled the cuffs from the armrest. Lisa was seized by a sudden urge to strike him in the face, but she reminded herself how vital it was to follow Larry’s plan; and in the time it took her to rationalise her fury, Joseph Sterling had placed his right wrist within the cuff and secured it tightly, placing the key in his pocket.
Lisa gaped, dropping her muesli bar.
“Get up and walk,” snarled Sterling, yanking her out of the chair roughly.
Lisa obeyed dumbly. Larry had anticipated that there would be senior Union agents to guard her, but he had said nothing about being handcuffed to any of them, let alone their murderous leader.
How on earth was she meant to escape from right under the nose of Joseph Sterling himself?
*
With a mechanical roar, the helicopter lifted off the ground, rising swiftly in the silver-encrusted inner cone of the extinct volcano that comprised the entry port into the Union’s base. Lisa gazed through the helicopter window with muted amazement at the sheer level of activity going on at the edges of the cone: Union agents were unloading large wooden crates from the cargo hold of two large trucks on the ground level; other agents had donned overalls and fluorescent vests and were occupied building metallic catwalks, linking one level of tunnel to the next.
All of them waved excitedly at the helicopter as it rose past them.
The inside of the volcano disappeared, replaced by periwinkle-blue morning sky. As the helicopter turned on its side, the luxurious shrubbery and resplendent boulders that made up the surface of Silver Rock Island were spread out before her in all their glory.
She tore her eyes from the exotic scenery and focused on the interior of the helicopter’s cabin, which she had already spent some time analysing while the pilots had prepared for takeoff. She and Joseph were seated on a black leather chair along one side of the sparsely-decorated cabin, chained together by the metal handcuffs. Veronica and Den were seated on a similar leather bench opposite them, Stunners slung over their shoulders and pointed directly at Lisa. There were two oval-shaped ports, to the left and right sides of the craft, but how Lisa was supposed to reach either of them without being caught was beyond her.
The only good thing was that none of the agents had bothered to use the seat belts, not even on her. An old television advertisement – “Safety first!” – bubbled to the forefront of Lisa’s mind, almost cutting through her fear long enough for her to smile.
The chopper banked again, the window now looking out over a vast stretch of cerulean-blue sea, interspersed with a few turquoise whirlpools and a couple of patches of pinkish-grey coral reef, upon which small waves were cresting, sending up geysers of seafoam.
The Union agents had scarcely spoken amongst themselves since boarding the helicopter; Lisa could feel the electric tension between them, the knowledge that a great deal was riding on this expedition. She looked up at Joseph Sterling’s tanned, prematurely lined face: his lips were pressed tightly against each other, his black eyes motionless. He would be thinking of the fragment of the Sixth Key that awaited him. That mammoth step closer to completing his quest, to obtaining the great power that awaited he who could unlock the mystery of the Legend of Ecruteak.
Lisa began to despair. Sterling had really thought his options through. He had disarmed her completely, removed her from her pokémon, had her permanently guarded and, furthermore, chained to him personally. Had Larry not intervened, Lisa would have been totally at Sterling’s mercy.
She looked from the left port to the right, wracking her brains. Perhaps she was at Sterling’s mercy anyway: her options were strangled …
She glanced surreptitiously around the cabin, begging for one of the guards to spontaneously light a cigarette, or even just turn away for a moment, but Den’s grotesque leer and Veronica’s superior scowl were firmly trained on her, their Stun Guns still aimed at her chest.
Her heart beginning to hammer, Lisa swung her gaze back to the window in the right port as the helicopter banked still higher. A beach of dirty scarlet sand had come into view, rapidly succeeded by a row of fishing huts and some shops, then a Pokémon Centre, the imposing Water Colosseum … more houses … a patch of luxurious, verdant rainforest … and then, sending a thunderous chill through Lisa, there was another vermilion-coloured beach, followed by an ever-growing expanse of water …
The Buzzball was digging in against her breast, her heart thumping beneath it. She knew – had known since boarding the helicopter – that there was no other way: it was now or never – but how could she possibly take down three of them at once?
Lisa casually tucked her right hand into the pocket of her jeans, closing it securely around the key … Veronica’s hawklike gaze tracked her, but saw no reason to be alarmed … Lisa closed her eyes, visualizing the scenario she wanted to see unfold before her eyes …
Sorry, Larry …
“ELECTRIFY!” Lisa screamed.
She whipped the tiny silver key from her pocket as three ultra-thin streamers of blue electricity exploded from her chest, burning through her clothes; both Den and Veronica cried out in shock, the jet of green light that issued from Veronica’s Stunner missing Lisa’s head by inches as the blonde woman slumped in her seat, shaking with electric energy from the Buzzball, her Stunner falling to the floor –
“NO!” roared Sterling, apparently unaffected by the attack, in Lisa’s left ear; she had already jammed the key into its lock but his strong hand batted hers away fiercely.
Lisa reached for the key again, but Sterling was incensed now; his fist slammed into the side of her head; her head split with agony as silver stars exploded before her eyes; she crumpled to her knees, half-fallen off the bench, but the handcuffs prevented her from falling too far ...
“SLUT!” he shouted, swinging his left fist into her gut; Lisa dry retched and cried out in pain.
“Get OFF!” she squealed, pulling her cuffed hand closer to her and trying to scratch at Sterling’s hand with her nails, but he seemed impervious to the pain; he grunted and reached for his belt; Lisa glimpsed what looked like the stiff black barrel of his revolver ...
Her mind darting to self-preservation, she screamed, “INFLATE!”
She hadn’t thought it through: the Buzzball popped through the hole in her bra and rolled into her lap as it rapidly filled with air; just as it grew greater than a basketball, she saw Sterling flick a catch on the back of the pistol and flinched; glancing at her wrist, she saw that the key was still wedged in the lock – waiting to be turned …
“NO!” Sterling shouted as Lisa twisted the key; the handcuff opened gloriously and she withdrew her hand just as the handgun swiped through the air and crushed her knuckles …
“AAAARGH!”
Panicking, she dove for the metallic floor of the helicopter, holding the now enormous Buzzball between her and Sterling – at the same moment, there was an incensed roar from Den, who had recovered quickly from the electric shock and was now on his feet, pointing his Stunner at Lisa’s face –
Wincing against the wave of pain in her knuckles, Lisa pulled the Buzzball up to cover her face, just as there was an explosion of cobalt light from Den’s weapon. The Buzzball gave a dull, reverberating throb as the beam of light was reflected – there was another anguished scream from Den; Lisa heard his Stunner, too, drop to the floor with a clatter –
“NO!” Sterling roared again.
Lisa saw a shiny black boot sink into the base of the Buzzball she held above her; Sterling’s kick sent the ball flying out of her grasp and rolling toward the right-hand port of the helicopter, exposing her completely. Sterling stood over her, feet spread apart, his pistol pointed directly at her head.
“DO – NOT – MOVE!” he boomed; his swarthy face was paler than Lisa had ever seen it; his forehead was a deranged knot of furrows.
Shaking, Lisa forced herself to meet his mad black eyes with her golden-brown ones. In her peripheral vision, she glimpsed the handle of a Stunner, the trigger almost touching her right hand.
Slowly … slowly …
“You won’t shoot me,” she said slowly, steeling her resolve despite being almost overcome by the hunger in Sterling’s eyes; he appeared quite determined to defeat her gaze. “I’m too important to your plans – you can’t risk it … without me, you have nothing –”
“You are wrong,” snarled Sterling, “I won’t think twice about –”
Lisa felt her fingers tighten around the Stunner at last; gripping the handle tightly, she wheeled it around in Joseph Sterling’s direction and pulled the trigger firmly.
A pulse of green light sliced through the second half of Sterling’s sentence; his open-mouthed gape froze on his face as his entire body spasmed and then crumpled to the floor.
For a millisecond, Lisa idled, unable to believe her luck; however, almost instantly, Sterling began to stir; and Veronica was beginning to mutter something under her breath. Trying to ignore the acute throb of her knuckles, Lisa scrambled to her feet and spun around – the right port of the helicopter was now unguarded, and scarcely a metre away …
Pocketing the Buzzball, which had now shrunk down almost to its original size, she scanned the red text printed beside a small box on the surface of the port, below the glass window:
FOR EMERGENCY EXIT, BREAK GLASS COVER AND PULL LEVER HARD TO RIGHT.
Covering her hand with what remained of her favourite jumper, Lisa punched through the small cover of the box, shards of glass raining to the ground. She took hold of the bright red lever within the box and, checking swiftly that the chain was still safely around her neck, she yanked it the lever as hard as she could to the right.
For a second, it seemed that nothing had happened; but, abruptly, there was a loud hiss of air escaping from a lock. Lisa braced herself. A moment later, the port tumbled from its hinges; instantly, the cabin was filled with an enormous rush of freezing wind and the deafening chatter of rotor blades … there was an anguished yell from behind Lisa, but it was too late – she didn’t even have time to jump – the wind sucked her from the cabin of the helicopter and pulled her roughly into thin air …
Deaf from the cacophony of the blades and blinded by the razor wind, Lisa tumbled into freefall. Almost impossibly quickly, the chaos of the helicopter seemed to diminish into a distant, nearly inaudible buzz.
Considering Larry’s plan to have been all but shredded anyway, Lisa pressed her thumb and forefinger on the tribal-looking pendant and shouted, “Revelum, Altaria!”
There was a burst of yellow-gold radiance around her; the light clustered together to form the sleek, cobalt-blue shape of Larry’s Altaria, which plummeted alongside Lisa for a second before apparently realising something was wrong. The draconic pokémon cooed in an oddly pleasant voice before flapping its fluffy white wings and swooping beneath Lisa without question, catching her atop its back. Lisa opened her hands and grabbed tight rein of the woolly wings, wrapping her legs around Altaria’s torso.
At once, the rush of wind became no more than a gentle breeze. Altaria was cruising at a steady altitude, singing softly. Blinking to clear her windswept vision, Lisa looked below her and felt a pang of fear at the full realisation of how high up she was: unbroken blue sea stretched in all direction beneath her; in the distance, almost on the horizon, she could see the dark outline of a landform which, hopefully, was Red Rock Island.
“Set –” Lisa coughed abruptly as the cool wind attacked her vocal chords. “Set course – for that island over there, Altaria!” she called into the pokémon’s ear, as clearly as possible, pointing to the shadowy land mass.
As Altaria began to pick up speed, Lisa raised her eyes skyward, scanning for the distant shadow of the Union helicopter.
Her heart stopped.
A dark shape was streaking downward through the firmament, plummeting almost as fast as she and Altaria had a moment ago, except this fall looked ludicrously controlled. Lisa gasped, incredulous, as the dark shape grew nearer and more visible … indeed, it was coming so fast that, as she watched, it slowed and became level with her and Altaria.
“No…”
Twenty metres away on their left – and rapidly approaching – was what looked like a giant, razor-taloned Murkrow. Perched upon its back was Joseph Sterling, the madness on his face visible even from such a distance.
“I – DO – NOT – LOSE!” he roared across the sky.
“MURKRON – HYPNOTIC STARE, NOW!”
Originally Posted by mr_pikachu
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