Chapter 24: 24 – No Good Deed

Everyone is going to be in so much trouble after this.

Brandy wanted to do it herself if the police didn't shake some sense into them. Remi had gotten her over to the wall leading to the Rest Area, and now she was trying to play a game of ‘Where’s Walrein?’ with Calcine. The slime girl gave her an excellent perch to look down over the crowd, her partner Tanya sitting over the edge of the palm and looking down at her to pick them out.

“Can you swap her up, Remi?” Tanya called back.

“Sorry, Ma’am, but I’d need to spot her first,” Remi said. Her voice was very chirpy and high-pitched for such a giant lady. “And I don’t think I’d want to send one of you down there, anyway.”

Sparky turned to wave up at Remi. “Can send me if you do! I can web my way back up pretty easy,”

“You do rescue work?” Brandy said as she watched the desk nurse getting frustrated with the crowd. She certainly didn’t blame her. This was all ridiculous. “Ally Swap, I’ve heard, is really handy for saving people.”

“You know your Moves!” Remi says face lighting up with excitement, “Tanya trains lifeguards. I help to make sure no one gets hurt doing it.”

There is a punch thrown in the crowd and an angry hiss. Brandy snapped her round to see if it was Calcine, but it’s just a tall Pokémon with a thick mane of fur and striped skin that’d slugged a Krabby. The claw of the crab girl had grabbed a woman and lifted her up in the air, the Trainer’s legs kicking as the two argued with quick barking words before the lioness put her hands out in defeat and dropped her head. A misunderstanding, but still not a good sign.

“Do you have a Move to find people?” Brandy asked, fingers drumming on her arms with worry.

“No, sorry! I can do a lot to help once we know where someone is, but we’re more rescue than search.”

Darn! Brandy was getting an entire education today about the power of soft moves. However, Sparky’s Agility had always come through for them, so she should have realized sooner how useful they could be.

“You’re thinking the wrong way, hun,” Tanya said to Brandy and then pointed at Sparky. “Can you spin us something to show Calcine where we are? She’ll see us up here much easier than we can see her.”

Brandy nods in approval. It was an excellent idea! That could be where Remi’s size came in handy in Tanya’s job. She was tough to miss.

“Showing off I can do!” Sparky said, taking a few steps forward and then lancing out a hand to shoot a web across the center’s roof, arcing electricity and sending shadows flickering as it arced above. People turned up to look at her, and she gave a big wave and an even bigger grin.

“Watch this one!” She joined more web shots to the one above, spelling out her name in a spidery, disjointed pattern as the strands all tugged at each other.

“Sporby?” Remi said, eyes scrunched up in confusion as she looked at the webbing.

“Sparky! Some of those fiddly letters are hard to do, okay?”

They hadn't entertained the crowd, but they had confused it, and that was almost as good.

“Calcine!” Brandy yelled into the momentary hush. She blushed as many eyes looked at her. “Uh, sorry all. I just want to find my partner. I’m sure this is all very important!”

A thin needle-like projectile comes scything out of the crowd, slicing across Brandy’s jaw. Immediately she’s hit by a wave of nausea, stumbling on the hand and only caught from going over the edge by a quick web shot from Sparky. The Joltik raced over to drag her back as Brandy’s vision began to swim and the world rocked around her.

“Poison,” Brandy slurred. Poison types weren’t deadly, but they could make a person drunk or worse, and they had a nasty streak. She felt like she was drifting underwater, sinking into Sparky’s arms. Remi moved her hand higher to absorb a few more shots from below as Sparky pulled her back, looking at Remi with panic in her compound blue eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Remi said. “Poison doesn’t work on me. If you can get them to stop, I can help her.”

“Right!” Sparky stood up and spread her arm. “RIGHT. BUGS IT IS THEN”

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Sparky spread her arms and let a rain of yellow-biting insects drift down into the room below, people rolling about to try to pick them off and return fire, but with Remi tanking the shots, there was very little anyone could do to stop her.

“Listen up!” Tanya yelled. Brandy clapped her hands over her ears, already swimming with strange sounds. Tanya could make her voice boom bigger than a Exploud. “The biting continues until you all behave.”

Loud groans and squeals come up, but Tanya puts a hand on Sparky’s shoulder to calm her. It seems people would rather behave than be mercilessly bitten by a Joltik infestation. “Could you stop a minute?”

“Yeah, cut it out Sporby!” a yell comes from below. “We surrender.”

“Shut it, you!” Tanya said, leaning over Remi’s palm to yell to the crowd. “You all should be ashamed of yourselves! Do you want to wait for the Police to come and knock your heads together until you calm yourselves? Or do you want to get in line properly?”

“No, really, what’s Sporby?” someone called again.

Sparky raced over the hand’s palm to point at them. “Oh, you are so de- Calcine!” she grinned. “You’re still dead!”

Calcine hadn’t got through the crowd to the Rest Area but ended up hidden behind the throng of people trying to rush the desks instead. She was acting as a body shield for a few women, looking nervous about all the Pokémon getting worked up around them, her shirt ruffled, and a few wisps of smoke curling out of her mouth. Curious, nothing about this should have turned Calcine on. Why was she all heated up?

The curved spots in Remi’s green jelly face that passed for eyes glowed a bright white, and Sparky shimmered, leaving a blurring afterimage before it snapped back together to form the shape of the taller Calcine. She let out a held breath as the crowd below got back to jostling each other, though the energy seemed to have gone out of them under Tanya’s glares from on high.

Calcine looked at Brandy and then wrapped her up in a crushing hug. Brandy found herself pressed to a warm skin and a heart beating so fast she could feel it pounding in Calcine’s chest.

“I’m okay,” Brandy said, voice small. The feeling of nervousness through their bond shook her, strong enough to bite through the hazy delirium of the poison coursing through her. “Hey, it’s all good. We found you.”

“I know,” Calcine said, voice steady even if nothing else about her was. “Just got a little worried, is all. Everyone started raving about needing checking, and I couldn’t find you. Then I saw you take a shot.”

“I had Sparky. I was safe,” Brandy said, nuzzling cheeks with Calcine. “She’s a terror, but always had our backs.”

“Yeah, I know. I just wanted to be there too. “ Calcine’s heat was sweltering. Brandy could feel beads of sweat forming on her head. Or was that from the poison?

“I love you, and I hate to ruin the moment.” Brandy slurred, “But I feel like shit. Remi, can you fix me?”

“If people are calm, I can! It’ll leave me a little open.”

The screams of people still itching from Sparky’s infestation rolled up in the air. The rest were getting lectured by Tanya like she had caught them with their head fully stuck in the cookie jar.

“I mean, they sound busy? I don’t think we’re going to get calm.” Brandy leaned on Calcine, closing her eyes.

“Oh!” Tanya turned mid-rant. “Remi, take her outside. I’ll help the staff get some order here. I’ll send Sparky to you once I can get her to stop throwing bugs at people.”

“Hah,” Brandy said, drifting off to sleep in the warmth of Calcine’s arms. “Good luck with that.”

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