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Mahogany Town |Evening [39]
Before the tension rose, Mars got the same idea Max did and quipped,
"Sweater buddy solidarity." No one could really see it, but the comment made Max smirk a little.
When Ariana accepted the ball from Archer, the gun didn't waver. Her eyes went to the ball in her hand as if considering something, and then she
smiled. Max didn't know what it could mean, but after that show of "disrespect," it couldn't be anything good. Ariana then creepily purred,
"You don't seem to understand your situation, dearie, since you keep talking to me like that. You keep shrugging off my threats, even after I literally whipped one of your fellow hostages. I guess you don't care about a bunch of strangers and that's fair, but getting line after line of nothing but lip from you... Well, I'm fucking sick of it." Then she finally looked away from the ball with that horrible smile still on her face.
"You just don't give a rat's ass about when I point this gun at you, yeah? Well. Maybe this'll push you in the right direction. Queenie, Cleo darlings, I need your help. Archer, make sure she stays there."As the pawns obeyed the queen, Fenix was forced to kneel as Ariana rereleased the Arcanine, and the Arbok bound the poor creature so she couldn't move. Max and Misty both thought that maybe
Ariana was going to torture the Pokemon and the chill had begun to set in.
"So long as you have pokemon for me, Princess, I can do with them as I please." Then Ariana shattered the thin glass of safety that Max still thought they had.
"Kill it."We literally mean nothing to her other than toys. The thought made her blood run completely cold as the full realization set in. She had thought this would suck, but that Ariana would leave them alone if they played along well enough. That they meant more to her alive rather than dead. But no. She had every intention of being their god in this hell hole, and nothing less than bended knees and begging would appeal to her. And even then, her whims mattered more.
The Nidoqueen turned around to hang her tail over the Arcanine's neck, and that's when she realized just how brutal this was going to be. There was no order for a move to make this a proper attack; it was just a hulking beast's heavy tail hovering like a guillotine. To make it worse, it wasn't like this was Grigori, whose tail could shatter rocks in one blow. It was a smaller being who weighed significantly less. This wasn't going to be fast.
All these thoughts hit her at once, but they all flew away once the the tail dropped. There was a dog's yelp of pain, and then the Nidoqueen lifted her tail again just to repeat the same maneuver. And she did. Over and over again.
Each pained yelp made Max tense up more and more as if she could feel the pain itself. Despite her own back aching, she bunched her hands in the fabric of her sweatshirt and clutched it closer to her face as if trying to restrain herself. Tears started to freely fall down her face and soaked into her clothing for the second time in nearly 24 hours, even though this time it wasn't as obvious.
The snap of the Arcanine's spine didn't bring any sort of relief. Pompeii was still alive and screaming in pain. The sound was strained due to the probable damage to her throat, and the sound only horrified Max more.
Then the Nidoqueen took her sweet ass time as she sharpened her claws. Max wanted to scream.
JUST FUCKING KILL HER YOU BITCH. END IT ALREADY. The added agony was unnecessary. The sweet Arcanine didn't deserve this. She only kept it in by nearly clawing into her own face and literally biting her tongue, and she hated herself for being so damn helpless. Again.
Everyone died around her, and she was always too late to stop it. At least most of them had died quickly. Most.
Then came the final blow. The Nidoqueen used a Poison Jab to enhance her power as she punched Pompeii in the face and caved in the skull. The Arcanine was dead, at last.
Max had to literally hold herself together to keep herself from screaming from grief, rage, and horror. She had JUST checked to make sure no one had died and this bitch decided to kill a Pokemon on a whim. She was shaking enough that it knocked Misty out of her horrified paralysis. Even though she knew she couldn't do it, she wanted to tackle Ariana to the ground and claw her face off. See how she liked being powerless for once.
The Ponyta had never seen something this brutal when living Pokemon had been involved. The Undead would literally eat the living before they died, and she had heard the screams of the damned enough times for it to still haunt her nightmares. But there was something to be understood about how they simply sought to eat, and nothing more. This was unbridled evil, and the show of power emphasized just how out of her depth she was. She wouldn't even have lasted as long as Pompeii, and she wasn't sure if that relieved or scared her more.
She looked up at her shaking human, and the look on her face made Misty suddenly wish again that she had learned to fight before the Epidemic. How
dare these pokemon use their power to lord over the others. How fucking DARE that woman for using them like this. It wasn't fair that so many Pokemon had died but this awful person had kept a team of 6 fully capable fighters.
She wanted to make them pay.