- Partners
-
"It means we've got what we need!" you shout. "Now let's move away from the entrance - I have a feeling those plant enemies are about to chill out!"
"Are about to what?!"
Thankfully, the safe is far from the entrance. The vines concentrate around Millie, perhaps recognizing the danger she now poses, but you're just as quick. Conjuring Swords Dance first, you sharpen your senses and tune your muscles. Little echoes of sharp blades dance around your form, radiating a faint darkness as you grasp at one and use its ethereal, brief presence to parry a whipping vine.
One still nicks you on the face, but you shrug it off easily. That sort of damage is trivial to you now.
Millie scrambles out of the way of a few more attacks, but Lily suffers a grazing blow from a bramble, hissing a distorted little growl.
"Ah, Lily!" Millie cries. "Wh-what do I do with this thing? I've never captured a Pokemon before!"
You grunt and think to Weavile, "Do you know how we might be able to draw Xerneas' main body here? Or, could we enter the roots, or follow their tunnels, to reach her?"
Weavile does not answer mentally. Instead, your attention is suddenly drawn to the many vines--particularly, the very thickest ones, especially the one near the back. And it dawns on you... that all of this is her body.
Which means...!
"M-Millie!" you shout. "You need to throw it at that vine! That one, the big one!"
You point to the northern wall, where a spiraling green plant the width of a house turns more and more of the wall into nothing but rubble.
"Wh-what?! O-okay! I'll try! Just need a good--"
A vine crashes down on her. You leap in the way and counter with a Poison Jab, smashing your claws straight through the first few vines. Another 'death' pulse ripples into the vine, shriveling it and going far, far away, likely to Xerneas herself.
A direct hit! Though, further blows batter you away, and at first, you think something will strike Millie next...
"Millie!" you shout.
Hello.
CRASH!
The entrance finally bursts apart. Frost creeps through the edges for a split-second, and then those patches of frost erupt into entire glaciers of ice that send several planted creatures flying, still attached to the ground by seemingly infinite vines below. Kyurem's body topples over several, burying them, and then stomps toward you.
You knowingly keep your distance, but the corrupting effect returns anyway... though, only slightly.
"K-keep away, not too close," you say. "You know why."
The Kyurem's unmoving face begets little expression. Instead, Dark Matter turns to Millie. "What are you--"
Just as the Master Ball strikes the main vine with Dark Matter's distraction.
"Oh."
The capsule pops open, the beam shooting at the vine. At impossible speeds, that red energy crawls into the vine and over to the ones that were just about to strike you. And outside, you see a whole sea of red that stops just shy of the rooted individuals, who are suddenly writhing and falling inert on the ground.
The actual earth shakes from a great disturbance in the ground. You hear buildings in nearby areas collapse as their organic, load-bearing structures vanish into energy. The Master Ball, with all of its might, is pulling in more and more of Xerneas into it.
But it only has so much capacity. It's struggling. But... something is changing. You feel a familiar tug in your chest. Xerneas is near. She had always been near, watching you. Perhaps that is why the vines were so much more responsive and had been getting faster and faster. Because Xerneas had been traveling to you.
And then...
The Master Ball shut and rolled from the rubble and onto the ground.
The Pokeball Factory is suddenly riddled with holes where the vines used to be. The possessed creatures, still plants, lay still. You sense faint embers of life within each one, but they are unconscious.
You take a breath. You feel relief in Weavile's soul.
Millie pats her clothes. "Not bad for a first shot, huh? Sure, literally had to miss the side of a barn, but..." She marches to the Master Ball.
"Don't."
Millie stops. "Huh?"
The Master Ball cracks.
