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"Vivillon, use [Poison Powder]!"
Scarlet's voice cracked as she shouted the command. Panic had crept into her tone.
Violet spores shimred through the air, fanning outward with each frantic flap of Vivillon's wings, forming a glittering, toxic mist that rushed toward Golisopod.
But the monster didn't retreat.
It simply raised one claw, the sa claw that held the limp, bleeding Buneary, and swung it through the incoming cloud.
Scarlet's pupils constricted in horror.
A strange, tallic sheen pulsed across Golisopod's silver-gray armor, burning away every trace of the poison before it could take hold.
But the sa couldn't be said for Buneary.
The spores clung to its fur like frost, seeping silently into its wounds.
Purple blotches spread rapidly across its trembling body.
Buneary gasped, its breathing shallow and uneven.
Scarlet's heart plumted.
Her misjudged command had only made things worse.
"Damn it!" she hissed, clenching her fists. Regret, anger, and fear collided in her golden eyes.
She'd trained for years, excelled in every test at Ignis Academy, but this wasn't a classroom.
And no lecture had ever taught her what to do when her mistake might kill soone.
Golisopod smirked, if such a creature could smirk.
It flicked its wrist, carelessly hurling the poisoned Buneary aside like discarded trash.
Then, step by step, it began walking toward the convoy again, ignoring Vivillon fluttering overhead.
Thud. Thud.
Each footfall pressed heavier than the last.
The air thickened with dread once more.
Aiden leaned weakly against the side of a truck, his eyes empty locked on the small, broken form of Buneary lying motionless in the mud.
"...Brother... Sister... ho..." he whispered deliriously, voice barely audible through the rain. "Now you too..."
Sothing inside him cracked.
He stumbled forward, shoving aside the soldiers who tried to hold him back, staggering toward his fallen partner.
"Stop!" Scarlet shouted, her voice raw with desperation.
But Aiden didn't stop.
Rain fell harder, blurring the world into shades of gray.
His steps were slow, heavy, trembling—but relentless.
All he could see was Buneary's tiny shape in the mud, as if reaching it could sohow undo what had happened.
Golisopod tilted its head, almost curious.
The parasite, twisting its instincts, didn't understand human grief, only movent, noise, and prey.
Its violet antennae twitched.
It lifted one claw.
Shrrk—
Blood sprayed through the air.
Aiden froze mid-step.
The blow had pierced clean through his chest.
For a mont, he just stood there, as if even his body couldn't believe it.
Then his knees gave out.
Blood bubbled up his throat as he fell backward, eyes still locked on his fallen partner.
His trembling hand reached forward, as if trying to touch Buneary one last ti, but his fingers closed on nothing.
He hit the ground with a dull, wet sound.
Scarlet's vision blurred. Her lips parted, but no words ca out.
Her friend, the boy who'd stood beside her just minutes ago, was gone.
She bent forward, retching.
The cold rain washed the blood toward her feet, tinting the puddles a deep crimson.
Her confidence, her composure, her training all shattered in an instant.
The Golisopod didn't care.
It flicked the blood from its claws and resud its march.
Scarlet could barely breathe. Fear pressed down on her chest like a vice.
Her hair, once bright as fla, clung wetly to her cheeks, dim and lifeless.
All that remained on her face was exhaustion and terror.
"V–Vivillon," she gasped. "Use [Gust]!"
The butterfly Pokémon looked down, its eyes full of sorrow.
Still, it obeyed beating its wings furiously, summoning slicing winds that scread through the rain.
Invisible blades of air struck Golisopod and did nothing.
They clattered uselessly against its armor like hail on steel.
The monster didn't even slow down.
Its mocking gaze lifted toward Vivillon, and its antennae twitched again faster, sharper.
Sothing dark was building.
"[Pin Missile]!"
Shhhht—
Dozens of glowing green energy needles burst from its claws, cutting through the sky in streaks of light.
The rain couldn't even touch them they pierced the drops midair, scattering them like shards of glass.
Vivillon tried to evade, wings beating desperately, but there were too many.
Hundreds. Thousands.
Each one slicing closer, faster, until—
Tch-tch-tch-tch!
The needles punched through its wings, tearing holes in the delicate patterns.
Shimring dust rained down like dying starlight as the butterfly Pokémon faltered, then fell—
Its wings folding in defeat, descending like a wilted petal through the rain.
Scarlet scread.
Her voice tore through the storm, raw and broken.
"VIVILLON!!!"
Her cry echoed through the endless gray,
rising and falling with the rhythm of the rain—
A fragile lody of grief and rage.
And then—
Ding-ling...
A soft, crystalline chi drifted through the storm.
Gentle.
Clear.
Like the ringing of a silver bell cutting through the noise of the world.
Every sound the rain, the thunder, the sobs seed to fade before it.
Scarlet froze.
The Golisopod turned its head slightly, antennae twitching.
Even the air itself seed to be still, waiting.
The bell had rung.
And sothing was coming.
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