Team Nova - Episode 13: Rebirth

Micah stood silently, no questions coming to mind. Instead, he ran his eyes over the newcomer, studying him, seeing if he could already deduce a few of his traits.

Wing, huh?

Corva gets bored of watching Micah and Austin stare at each other.  She takes Kon and Shade in hand.  "I'm gonna go stretch my legs," she says.  She disappears without another word.

She pops up in the skies above Lilycove and quickly looks around.  Not many patrols out today.  Not surprising, most of their available troops should be out on their little hunt.  Corva grins.  They should be finding her handiwork in the cave any minute now.  There's something going on at the seaside - Nova reinforcements, probably - and their base is definitely on high alert, but that's not what she's here for.  Corva swoops over to the department store.  It's unsurprisingly cordoned off after everything that happened yesterday.  Fortunately, it looks like most the guards are on the ground floor right now, with none patrolling the roof.  None of them look up as she drops onto the building.  She creeps over to the edge and dangles over, peeking through the window.  It's clear.  She opens a portal and reappears inside the top floor.

She waits a moment and decides everything's clear.  She seems to have free run of the place, but she lets Shade out to go scout ahead.  Her target's all the way on the ground floor, after all.  She takes her time working her way down the stairs, pausing to poke around the selection for a bit.  She makes her way down to the ground floor without any difficulty.  Shade's waiting for her.  Looks like the guards keeping this place blocked off aren't paying much attention to what's going on inside.  "Mah-mah?" she asks.

"Maaaagius," she answers.  Corva pulls Shade back into her ball, then silently floats along.  She heads behind the counter and starts rummaging through the prizes they pass out for their raffles.  Unsurprisingly, all the best stuff's locked up tight.  And she's not going to risk setting off an alarm.  Fortunately, the prize she's after isn't anything particularly valuable, it's just sitting out in the open.  She slips it in her pocket and floats back to the stairs.  The guards still don't seem to notice her.  She decides she wants another look at the TM selection while she's got the place to herself, and afterward she can pick off a few grunts with her pistol as she leaves.
Corva decides it's a great plan.

As Corva enters the third floor, she feels something brush her arm.  She immediately reaches for her gun and balls.  She carefully scans the room, but can't see any threats.  Still, if anyone's familiar with potential attacks from ghost-types...

Corva starts to sweep the room, slowly and cautiously.  She rounds a corner and the light glints off something nearby.  She reflexively jerks around, levitating into the air as she levels her pistol.  Exactly as she was supposed to.  Suddenly, she realizes she's stuck.  Dozens of invisible, sticky threads criss-cross her back and legs, but she managed to keep her arms free.  She immediately drops her gun and rips out her knife.  She contorts as best she can and slashes at the bonds.

Corva sees movement out of the corner of her eye and looks up just in time to see an Ariados skittering along the ceiling.  "Toxic Thread," a masculine voice calls from the next aisle.  It aims and sprays a blast of thick, purple threads at her.  They meet with the first web, trapping Corva in a white-and-purple lattice.  She can feel the poison taking effect almost immediately as she's suspended in the trap.

An armor-clad man steps around the corner, his suit's camouflage flickering off.  The suit completely encases him, but Corva can tell he's with Nova immediately.  "How stupid can you be, coming back here...?" he asks.  "Do you really think so lowly of us you don't think we'd have this place under observation?"

Corva's response is to rip out of her overcoat and lunge at him with her knife.  She manages to get her upper body free, but her legs hold her back.  The man calmly stands just outside of her reach as she slashes at his face twice in rapid succession.  Corva squirms, struggling to get the leverage to pull herself out of her boots.  She manages to slip them off, the last few strands holding her in place snapping as she dives forward to stab him.

Her blade bounces off harmlessly. The man steps back.  "Sticky Web!"  The Ariados unleashes another jet, grabbing her as she lunges again.  It yanks her back, then reels her in as her knife clatters to the floor.  Within seconds, Corva finds herself trapped in a thick cocoon dangling from the ceiling.  The giant spider crawls over her, cleaning and tightening the web, ensuring there's no escape this time.  Already weakened by the poison, Corva realizes this is a lost cause and decides it's time to retreat.  She closes her eyes and starts focusing on creating a portal.

"You're not going anywhere.  Infestation."  The Ariados produces a sharpened injector from its abdomen and rears back before quickly stabbing it into Corva's gut.  Immediately she can feel something wrong.  Something inside her.  No, an entire swarm of tiny insects.  Crawling around, just under her skin.  And then it starts.  The biting, ripping, tearing. Corva lets out a scream of agony as dozens of tiny jaws rend her flesh from within.  Her concentration is shattered.  Unable to do anything else, she screams again.  And again.

The Nova agent calmly speaks between shrieks, addressing her with a blase monotone.  "Y'know, you're not as impressive as the rumors made you sound.  It's kind of disappointing, really."  He shrugs.  "Ah, well.  You're still going to suffer for everything you've done to us.  I'd say this is the part where you can make things easier on yourself and give me some useful information, but...  Yeah, no.  My bugs are going to eat you from the inside out.
Feel honored you at least get to nourish my babies with your useless carcass. "

Corva forces herself to stare into his facemask.  "D-Destiny... Bond...!"

"Wha...?"  The man feels an icy dagger stab his heart, then his skin erupts with a fierce burning as the sensation of dozens of insects shredding him apart from within overtakes him.  He swats at himself before realizing what's happening.  "Argh!  Damn... it!  Finish her off, Ariados!  Fell St- no!  Don't... don't attack her!  Return!  Damn it...!  I was careless..."  He falls back to the stairs.  "I'll be back to finish you as soon as this - ngh! - wears off, if the poison doesn't get you first!  You're not going to escape that web...!"  With that, he retreats.

Corva manages to create enough of a gap for her pokeballs to snap open.  Kon is immediately trapped by the threads hidden around the floor, but breaks free with ease.  He looks up at Corva, unsure what to do.  Shade floats through as if they weren't there.  "That's... right...  This webbing shouldn't affect ghosts..." Corva thinks to herself.  "Will-o-wisp..." she orders.  Shade looks at her confused for a moment, then does as she ordered and unleashes a burst of ghostly flame towards her.  The web is unaffected, but Corva herself feels its heat.  The creatures consuming her seem to feel it to, as they immediately go berserk, writhing and wriggling inside her as they burn.  When they finally stop, she hears the Nova agent running back up the stairs.  It seems Destiny Bond wore off, and he might not fall for the same trick twice.  Corva's still trapped, poisoned and immobilized by the sticky web.  "Be a ghost," she commands herself.  "I'm dying...  So...  Be... a ghost..."

Corva feels the threads binding her lose their hold, feels herself slip through her dress, and suddenly she's falling.  She expects to pass right through the floor, but instead she impacts the ground hard. Kon is quickly at her side to help her up.  She forces herself to her feet and takes stock of the situation.  Her head is pounding from the excertion of becoming intangible, even for such a short time. She may have broken free, but her dress and all her gear are still trapped up in the webbing.  And the Nova agent will be back any second.  She grabs her knife from the floor, then grabs her overcoat.  She tears at it, hacking at any thread she can until it breaks free.  As the agent rounds the corner, Kon moves in front of her.  This time he's got a Beedrill and some large butterfly - Corva doesn't bother to check which one - at the ready.  "Pin Missile!" he orders, but it's too late.  Corva and Kon disappear into a portal.  Shade lingers just long enough to give a taunting laugh before following them.

Corva drops into the beach by Mt. Pyre.  The sand makes for such a soft landing compared to the hard department store floor.  All she wants is to fall asleep here, bathed in the moonlight and serenaded by the sea.  But there's still more she has to do.  She reaches into her overcoat, quickly finding an antidote.  She administers it before letting herself collapse again.  A few minutes later, she's awoken by one of her subordinates.  Kon continues to diligently stand guard over her even as Shade leads Fairy down to her side.

"Sarge?  What's going on?  Shade won't leave me alone...  Holy- why are you naked!?  What kind of prank is..."  Most of her injuries are internal, but he sees the stab wound in her stomach soon enough.  "Oh.  Um.  H-hang on!"

---

The next time Corva wakes up, she's in her makeshift room. She finds herself wrapped in bandages that cover several small, fresh incisions where Fairy extracted the remains of the bugs that had been planted inside her; it seems most stayed in her abdomen, but plenty made it to her chest and upper thighs, and a few beyond that.  Kon is sleeping pressed up against her, while Fairy's asleep on the other side of the room.  Shade floats over to her the second she wakes up.  Corva pats the Mismagius and assures her she's fine.  She puts her Pokemon in some new balls, puts on a new outfit, and tracks down Steel and has him request a few new TMs.  Her last stop is Austin and Micah.  She floats over while the two are asleep and digs the spoils from her little raid out of her coat.  She leaves a few pieces of candy between them, then collapses into bed.

Omega slouched upon his comfy swivel chair in his office, dissatisfied that his incompetent minions have not yet completed construction of his black iron throne where he intended to spend the rest of his days looking down upon people. The next few days will have to be spent looking eye-level upon people instead, due to his young age and matching height. This irritated him, but he reasoned that he could find some amusement in the fact that whoever speaks to him would be cowering in fear all the same.

Omega crushed the stress ball in his black cyborg hand as he panned his eyes over the Nova logo adorning the wall, flashing back to his youth (not that he wasn't still young), remembering the secret Nova project, wherein they kidnapped young children without family or purpose, to be experimented on to create the most powerful child super soldier. Tax dollars at work.

Micah, however, went willingly; following the charismatic recruiter with an earnest desire to be a patriot. He doesn't remember if he changed his mind when the brutal experiments resulted in him losing an arm, but at least they were nice enough to make him a badass cyborg replacement.

Regardless, he was the first successful lab Ratatta, which earned him a sick new codename. It also made his psyche more volatile, which made his psychic powers more volatile. Fortunately, Latias happened to be there, and he was able to suppress it. Then she fell into a plot hole, and he was separated from the Eon Pokemon as he enlisted himself into Nova, where he was put under Agent Osric's command. The recruiter was nice; didn't want him to pass his tests since he didn't want someone so young on the battlefield.

Long story short, he entered a confrontation with a biological sister he didn't know he had. After a DNA test and a search through Nova's digital records confirmed it, his psychic powers resurfaced and caused a lot of property damage, until Latias came back, took him into the mountains, cared for, and protected him as he eventually learned to control it with her help... mostly. His powers still lashed out violently whenever he was enraged (which was often because teenager), and his temper was much shorter than before (because puberty). But he learned how to focus them. He also became psychotic, which was kind of bad.

Latias told him what Nova had been doing during their time in the mountains, which disgusted and enraged him (which destroyed their nice wooden house as a consequence). They used him, like they used so many others (sure, he signed up for experimentation and enlisted on his own free will, but still). They caused ALL of this, and now they couldn't even restore order. He recalled how, enraged with a rage that would cause even the angriest Qwilfish to tell him to calm down, walked in alone to Nova HQ, and declared himself the new leader of Team Nova, and that anyone who opposed him would be crushed. He got the position without a fight, not even from the likes of the mysteriously AWOL Maurice, Duncan, Celena, Marisa, Harry, or Garrison. He wondered why the rebel teams never tried his tactic.

Which brought to where he was now, now going by the name of Omega, sitting in his office, plotting to restore order and kill all who would stand in his way.

A grunt knocked on the door to the office.

"You may enter."

The lowly grunt cowered into the room and bowed in all fours before his terrible might. Omega almost chuckled at the display.

"Speak."

"I-I-It's the rebels, sir! They--"

"Hold."

Omega sniffed the air. "...Do I smell... Taffy? Pecha Berry Taffy?!"

Omega got up, stormed over to the grunt, and lifted him by the collar of the throat. "Surrender your taffy to me, or you shall become my Shiny Mega Rayquaza's next meal."

"I-I-I-I-I don't know what you're talking ab--"

"DO NOT LIE TO ME!" Omega yelled, his eyes becoming crimson. "I CAN NEVER MISTAKE THAT SMELL! EMPTY YOUR POCKETS BEFORE--"

In a blind panic, the grunt pulled a gun at Omega and fired.

---

Micah's eyes shot open. Laying on his side, he remembered where he really was... Who he really was... as his train of thought went back into working order.

...Huh... That weird dream again. Maybe I should cut down on the late-night snacking. At least dreams where you die are good luck... At least, that's what pops used to say.

...Although... It does smell like taffy... Pecha berry flavor too...

Micah pushed himself up and rubbed his eyelids. He turned around to see a pile of assorted candies built between him and Austin. He also noticed that a third figure -- Corva -- was sleeping away just a short ways away from them.

"...Commander?"

Micah crawled over to his sleeping commander. He debated between leaving her alone and waking her up, until he saw the bloodied bandages around her. Then the answer became obvious.

"Commander? Commander!" Micah exclaimed, shaking her shoulder. "You're wounded!"

Location: Mirage Island

"I get that a lot" Blue replied.

He sent out his Alakazam. It wasn't often his pokemon got some room to stretch their legs, so the psychic-type was much appreciative. "Call the Wynaut. Take care of him and bring him to where they keep the others like him" Blue thought to his pokemon, mentally indicating the unconscious Eusine. He tried to catch glimpses of Wynaut activity, but sensed more of their auras than anything else. They would know where to bring him.

Eusine was levitated off the ground to rest, and after Molly caught her breath, Alakazam teleported Blue and the rest to group to the meeting site. They found Celebi in mid conversation.

"Ok great! They should be here any time now." Cherking around her shoulder, she added, "Right on cue."

Blue raised a hand in shallow greeting. "Sorry for the intrusion. My name is Blue. I have some business on this island, and afterwards I can help get everyone off."

"Uh...this would be a good time for questions." Molly added hurriedly, noting the confusion on the apparent island residents faces.

Blue crossed his arms impatiently, "Yes sure, I suppose everyone is owed explanations. But we are here to help a suffering pokemon, so time is of the essence."

---

Galactic Memo - Addressee: Kalyke

<This message has been passively decrypted through the genome of Porygon-Z unit D102>

Nova activity sighted in the south Hoenn seas. PokeRadar spotted Landorus and Suicune in the same area. Your hunt begins at first light.

"OK, so... first question.  Do you have a voltage regulator, set of rotors, and a new carburetor for a medium-sized inboard ship engine?  Second question - if you don't, any way you can get us off this island?" Vern asks.

Jude gives him a light shove.  "More important, what's been going on on?  With Nova?"

---

"They booby-trapped the candy.  With bugs.  Lots of them.  Nasty, bitey-bugs.  And not even fluffy like the bird!  They wrapped Corva up in a big cocoon and tried to gobble her up!  From inside.  So she burned them.  A lot," Corva explains.  She places a finger on her chin.  "Huh.  Thanks to that agent, Corva didn't kill any Nova while she visited!  So sad.  Corva hates running away."

"Hey, Chief, new orders from HQ," Steel cuts in.  "They're sending us hunting after landorus and suicune in the south Hoenn Sea.  Orders're to move at dawn."

"Eh...?  Call them back and ask if we're s'posed to carry out our old special orders or our new special orders.  Or split up."

Carleen

Takes a brief moment to regain her composure and decides to introduce herself. Well after trying to suppress her urge to totally fan girl over meeting Blue.

"Your the famous Blue Oak, like the Blue grandson of Professor Oak, it is such an honor and pleasure to meet such a prominent trainer," Carleen said while bowing towards him.

"Ms. Carleen I think we should start with intros first," Yuzu said while landing on Carleen shoulder.

"Right Mr. Oak sir, my name is umm Pikachu...no its Pokemon Trainer.....crud...what was my name again Yuzu?" Carleen asked Meloetta.

"I never seen you so flustered before meeting someone," Yuzu said to Carleen.

"This is one of the most famous trainers ever, plus he's kinda of sorta an idol of mine," Carleen said sheepishly.

"Pika Pika Pikachu," Pika said hoping onto Carleen's other shoulder.

"Oh right my name is Carleen, this is my partner Pika, we been together since the beginning,". "This here is Yuzu the Meloetta, I met her here on the island," Carleen said.

Just then a Dragonite landed next to Carleen and let out a might roar while flexing his wings. Also a Greninja appered next to Carleen almost out of thin air. Next a Delphox just facepalms almost like she is calling him a show off.

"Oh right this guy is Paul the Dragonite, he's also been around since the beginning, raised him from a Dratini,". Paul lets loose a couple of Nite Nites in response while nuzzling Carleen. "This here G-Ninja and Ashley the Greninija and Delphox,". "I met these two while on an island I was training on,". "These two were fleeing from the destruction of Kalos," Carleen said.

"Corphish Cor Corrrrrr Phish Phish Phisssssshhhh Cor," Brock said while poking out his chest and raising his pincers.

"Oh right this guy I met here on the island while he was trying to show off, for Yuzu," Carleen said while picking up and cuddling Brock.

"So yeah I was a trainer like everyone else competed in the varouis leagues,". "Actually won a few of the leagues and competed in the champion leagues but well,". "Only managed to beat the Elite four once in Shino, and did compete against Cynthia,". "Well yeah got completely destroyed by her team,". "Ever since I decided to go into seclusion and become closer with my Pokemon," Carleen told them.

"I learned about Nova from my friends over here,". "My or my mon have no combat experience, but I want to help any way I can," Carleen told them.

"Er...  I think they were just re-iterating and updating the previous orders with a time frame, Chief," Steel explains.

"Oh, OK.  Well, then!  Wing, Ghost, you're comin' with Corva!  We're going hunting.  Annnnd everyone else, you get to keep dicking with Nova.  Try to not get killed by the bug jerk!  Corva's gonna go get dressed."  Corva jumps up and floats off, pausing to whisper in Austin's ear.  "After everything Corva went through, she's going to be very cross if she doesn't come back to find you sharing some candy and chatting with Ghost."

---

"Breathe, Carleen, breathe..." Jude pats her on the back.  "Let's see.  Introductions.  I'm Jude Fox, and these are..."

"Cassandra Vivant, at your service!"

"Vern Buford.  Sailor.  ...Yeah.  Hi."

"We used to run an unsanctioned gym over on route 102.  Y'know, one of those themed gyms that pass out simple little prizes to challengers?  Anyway.  A lot of us got... killed during Nova's big opening attack.  The rest of us started doing some small raids against Nova forces, but...  Yeah.  We lost a few more of our friends, then walked into an ambush.  It was just the three of us for a while, then we found Carleen... and then our engine broke down and we washed up here.  But you said... 10 years?  It hasn't been... that doesn't add up?"  Jude looks around for any explanation.

Carleen

A ping of guilt can be felt deep with in Carleen. Carleen just grows quiet and kinda of starts looking at the ground. She does her best to hide her feelings of guilt, sadness, pain, and regret from the others. She does her best to fight the tears she felt. Yet the feelings she thought so long ago all of a sudden came back like a charging Ryperior.

"10 years and all I did was lock myself away,". "Maybe I could have made a difference,". "Maybe I could have save others, instead of just hiding like a coward,". "Plus I don't even know what happened to my family,". "I left most of my other Pokemon with them to look over them while I was away," Carleen thought.

"But I always had a feeling just from meeting my friends,". "That maybe just maybe they somehow pulled through,". "I left most of my team at home so that they would be fine,". "I only wanted to leave for year at most maybe a year and a half but still ten years," Carleen thought.

"Look at me sounding like a fool in front of everyone,". "Please how can a useless trainer like me, someone not use to combat, someone whos so pathetic even think of helping them out,". "Maybe I should hide here would it be safe I probably get everyone killed," Carleen thought to her self while making a fist.

Unbeknownst to Carleen Ashley has been reading her mind and heard every word that she was thinking. Ashley could tell something was up well when you been with someone for 10+ years you get use to there ways.

Ashley looked over towards Pika and cocked her head towards him as she began talking to him

"(Carleen is feeling really down right now she feels pathetic and useless)," Ashley told Pika.

Meloetta also heard everything Carleen said because she could sense in her aura the regret and guilt she was feeling.

"(Ashley what should we do I haven't seen Ms. Carleen this upset)," Melotta asked Ashley.

"(That's why we need Pika to get Cass's attention, her and Carleen have been really close this entire time)," Ashley said to Yuzu.

Yuzu and Pika nodded in agreement as Pika made his way towards Cass.

Pika began to poke her with his tail and nuzzling her (not the move) to try and get her attention.

Drat.

Micah quickly snapped his head down to look at his hands, and just as quickly looked back up.

"No," he said. He was being honest, though he didn't exactly look very hard either. He didn't even turn to look back at Wing as he kept walking.