Pokemon - From the Brink

Chapter 21 - Sky Chase

"Do you hear that?" Nelly asked as she put on her shoes. We had just finished getting ready to head downstairs, but there was a commotion going on down below.

"Yeah. What's going on?" I stood up and looked at the door, then back to her. It was still early in the morning – I doubted most of the team were even out of bed yet.

"Let's check it out." Nelly straightened up and we made our way into the hallway.

*

"What do you intend to do?!" Kudou called out to Caleb, his body possessed by the phantom.

"I told you – warm up." The boy's mouth twisted into a smirk as he looked at his hand, which was enveloped in a snaking purple mist.

"Let him go." Kiria said, cautiously edging closer.

"Get in my way and our deal is off the table." The monster warned, pointing at Kudou.

"Kiria, don't!" Kudou begged her.

"Tch..." She stopped in her tracks, remembering the reason Kudou had played puppet to this demon in the first place.

"What the-?!" I gasped. Nelly and I reached the bottom of the stairs and saw Caleb standing in front of the main door, his body wrapped in dark wisps of foul energy. Immediately, I was reminded of the being that overtaken Team Rocket's Archer – the same one that had tried to control me and had plucked Ultra Beasts out of the ether.

"Is that-?!" Nelly took a sharp breath.

"Hmph." Caleb turned to face us, a sinister smile plastered across his face. His body wasn't his own. He lifted his arm and the palm of his left hand began to pulsate.

In that moment, I reached out and pulled Nelly towards me as quickly as I could.

A vicious black tendril shot from his palm and sliced through the air, a messenger of death travelling faster than a bullet.

Before the beast had even fired, Kiria was running at top speed towards us. Before I even had a chance to pull Nelly to the ground, Kiria launched herself at us, grabbing us at full extension and tackling us to the ground.

The three of us hit the ground hard and the vile black lance shot straight through the back wall as if it wasn't there at all.

"Come after me and she gets it." Caleb stared Kiria in the eyes as she looked up from her place on the floor.

"Gh..." She glanced back at Kudou, who was still frozen to the spot.

With that, Caleb's possessor marched him outside into the cold morning air, the door left hanging open behind him.

"What the Hell's going on?" I winced, a little winded.

"Are you ok?" Kiria rose to her knees, allowing us to move.

"Y-yeah..." Nelly felt her head.

"Was that the same thing that attacked us at the Rocket base?" I got to my feet.

"Maybe." Kiria wiped her brow, clearly in some distress.

"What did it mean 'she gets it' if you go after it?" Nelly asked.

"That's not important." Kiria dismissed the question completely.

"Is everyone all right?!" Midorima appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Skyra was behind him, also shaken to action.

"It's Caleb, he.." Nelly pointed to the door and the two boys saw Caleb's body wrapped in a dark aura. He had a PokeBall in his hand.

"Is it that thing again?!" Skyra was alert immediately, having witnessed the destruction of a possessed person before alongside us.