Once Mystin had caught his breath, he nodded. But his mouth dropped
open as a thought passed through his brain. "Waait...Wait, Tidal
still has the plate! Xavier's not going to let her get away
scot-free if she has the plate!" His eyes were wide with panic.
"She's in a lot of danger!"
The Lugia watched, completely concealed by churning grey clouds, as
the Zekrom entered the storm she had created. With a smirk, she
caused some lighter, less angry-looking clouds to form a shape as
close to a human as she could, then caused it to flit through the
edges of the storm opposite to where she was hidden, just in the
corner of the Zekrom's vision. She then made herself halt the usage
of Fly, though continuing to control the raging storm hidden within
the clouds, and felt her stomach drop as she plummeted from the
sky. Tidal straightened herself out, skydiving in free fall. She
just had to get to the ground before the Zekrom caught the cloud
dummy she had created and realized that she was nowhere to be
found. The poison was still very much present and, as the wind
whistled around her, she could feel herself repeatedly almost slip
into an unfocused half-consciousness.
The cloud confused Xaiver, who barrled torwads it and for a moment,
was lost in the wisps of cloud. But when he had waved it all away,
and used Thunderbolt to clear the raging mass. When the storm had
gone, he roared in frustration when he saw the freefalling Lugia,
but then thought, "I'll just get the tablet from her when she
lands." He began heading down, more carefully than Tidal.
Riko couldn't help a slight giggle. "No she doesn't." She revealed
the plate in her clawed fingers. "I managed to get it away from
her." Her face turned serious again. "She's in danger because
Xavier thinks she has the plate. He'll be rather pissed when
he finds it gone." She glanced at the tablet. She had to protect
it! There was still a thief among them...she wouldn't let another
one slip away
30 seconds later and she had almost hit the ground. She knew she
couldn't afford to black out, lest she hit the ground at full
force, but the speed at which she had been falling had taken her
breath away, and she hadn't been able to breath. She focused all of
her strength on using Fly one more time. As her descent slowed, she
took in a gasping breath of air, relieved. She quickly darted the
last 100 feet, landing just on the outskirts of the forest and
hoping no humans had seen her or Xavier. On wobbly legs, she
started to run towards the city, not even giving herself a chance
to catch her breath, stumbling multiple times.
Narrowly avoiding running straight into a tree, Tidal stumbled to
the side of it and almost crashed head on into Riko. Gasping for
air, the exhausted Lugia sunk to her knees, choking out, "S-Sorry!"
in between heaving breaths. Despite wanting nothing more in that
moment than to have her head clear once more of the poison-induced
obscurity, she felt immensely happy to be back with at least one of
the members of their little group and to not have to fight Xavier
on her own.
Mystin jogged up behind Riko, stopping when he saw Tidal. "Tidal!
Are you okay?" He was relieved to see that she was alive, and was
worried about the poison. How deep had it gone. "Did Xaiver follow
you?"
Xaiver landed in the forest. He looked up to see a flash of
sunlight against steel and grinned.
Xaiver hadn't been able to tell where the flash had come from, so
he was doing his best to find them. He was sure he could find them
before they left the forest.
She glanced up, surprised but glad to see the Articuno. Still
trying to catch her breath, in between gulps of air she said, "Very
drained- made a storm- 'absolutely did-" She broke off and took a
deep breath, calming herself before continuing. "He absolutely did.
Whatever he says, don't give him the plate." Standing up shakily,
the blue glow in her eyes dissipated as she stopped using Psychic;
she'd felt the storm disrupted but hadn't been able to even focus
on letting up on the move.
"Not going to." Riko assured her, stopping her search mode for a
moment to be concerned for the Lugia. "We really need to deal with
that poison problem before we move forward...."
Mystin nodded. "Seriously, you look like a breeze could push you
over. Why don't you take Tidal back to Celadon, and I go after
Xaiver? I can handle him just as well." Even he looked hesistant
though. He didn't want to leave his friend alone, especially
poisoned.
Xaiver was heading on a hunch-he swore he heard faint voices, but
he could be imagining it. One couldn't be too careful.
"Will you be able to handle Zekrom on your own?" Riko asked
cautiously. "I can take Tidal back, but I don't doubt Xavier's
strength. You may have a type advantage against him, but so does
he."
Mystin nodded. "Trust me, I know electric types. I can handle him,
no problem. Just make sure Tidal gets the poison treated before it
seriously hurts her."