365 – Tails of Two Tricksters
When Brandy gave the order to move, Calcine and Morgan sprang into action. Morgan used Astonish and exploded into a swirl of black feathers, vanishing between the dressed-up mannequins. Calcine darted to the side, weaving into an interception path with the kimono-clad Pokémon. That left only Dani in the firing line, frozen in place by the piercing grip of Leer. Brandy yanked at her hand, trying to pull her clear, but Dani's feet might as well have been rooted to the floor. For such a cute little shortie, she had enough weight she couldn't just be dragged out of the way.
"Got one," the Pokémon purred, reaching a hand toward Dani. The blue glow of her eyes, peering from behind her skull mask, flared into a vivid, burning purple.
Like hell, Brandy was going to stick around and let her do that. Brandy scooped Dani up, even as the Magikarp's eyes began to glow a matching purple, and the princess carried her out of there, crashing right through a rack of clothes and out of the line of sight.
"Oh, don't run!" the attacker cooed. "I love delivery girls, especially when they're dressed up so pretty. Let me play with you!"
"If you want!" Brandy shot back, relieved to see the dark grey of Dani's pupils pushing back the invading purple glow. "Sucker Punch and Smack Down!"
Morgan swooped from the ceiling in a sudden burst of movement, wings slapping against the racks of clothes as she struck. Her black energy claws slashed through the kimono, sending shards of ice scattering as they sank in and made their attacker gasp out in pleasure.
That distraction cost her.
She barely had time to react before Calcine barreled into her like a freight train, a double-handed smash sending her bouncing across the shop floor. Mannequins toppled like dominos, clothes racks crashed down in her wake.
Calcine's fists smoked, wisps of purple energy curling around them. She gave them a sharp shake, but the energy clung stubbornly.
"Sapping me," Calcine growled. "I don't think I can do that again."
Curse Body. A nasty ability that could lock down moves, and precisely what Brandy had been afraid of. She'd already suspected this was either a Glalie or a Froslass, and this confirmed. Froslass.
That made things trickier. The mix of disabling Ghost tricks and Ice moves was a nightmare, especially with Morgan vulnerable to Ice. Calcine could resist it if they weren’t holding back on her Fire; without it, she'd have to rely on just being tough as rocks. Dani had Ice resistance built in, but she wasn’t exactly battle-ready.
At least it wasn’t all bad. Froslass wasn’t just weak to Fire. Dark and Rock would do the job just as well. This was going to be a brutal fight for everyone.
Dresses flew up from the pile where Froslass had landed, swirling like startled birds. Calcine and Morgan aggressively swiped at them, only for the fabric to tangle around their arms, clinging stubbornly. They were empty. The Froslass wasn't beneath any of them. She was puppeteering the dresses, lifting them into the air as a smokescreen.
You didn't use a smokescreen if you didn't want to hide, and Brandy wasn't going to let her decide the fight.
"Dani, can you do a Tackle for me? Right down the center of all that."
Still woozy, Dani tumbled out of Brandy's arms onto her feet. "On it, boss!"
She shot forward in an orange blur, barreling through the dresses in a wild, uncontrolled rush. A loud slam rang out as she collided with something solid and bounced back, staggering on unsteady feet, now covered head to toe in flailing fabric. It sounded like a great hit, and Brandy was just about to cheer when the Froslass burst out from a rack of clothes and slugged Dani with a fist encased in ice.
Brandy shivered, and not from the cold. Something about that wasn't right. Where had she come from? Did she have Astonish like Morgan? Brandy's Compound Eyes hadn't caught anything that might have been a flicker of movement, but for the Froslass to pull off an ambush like that, she'd have had to move fast. Darn fast.
"Morgan, Hurricane away the dresses. Calcine, let's get closer," Brandy ordered, taking a few quick steps to rejoin the group, the hem of her maid dress swishing in the cold air.
The ice underfoot was unpleasant, a creeping chill that bit through her boots. But it wasn't thick enough to turn the floor into a skating rink yet. Instead, it cracked with each step beneath Brandy's weight. There was no chance of hiding when every step made a sound like that, and if they let the freeze build up, they'd lose. Speed was key here, and if the Froslass was fast, pinning her to something as soon as possible was vital.
"If you wanted to play with me, I'm right here," Brandy called as Morgan's winds began to part the sea of floating dresses. Dani was revealed, rubbing her side as flakes of snow dripped off her fingers. Despite the hit she took, she looked okay, just a bit embarrassed with herself. Brandy gave the Magikarp a hair ruffle just to let her know she'd done good. "But you took Sparky, the least you can do is give her back."
The response was immediate. A barrage of icicles sliced straight through the fabric of a dress, hurtling toward them.
Calcine stepped in, her body absorbing the strike, the ice cracking apart on impact. Brandy ducked into Calcine's shadow as a few shards went wide, thunking into the floorboards. Brandy wasn't the only one with a plan to pin someone down.
That was a ranged Ice move, something like Icicle Spear. She'd opened with Leer, used a Move to reposition quickly, another to puppeteer the dresses, thrown out an Ice Punch, and was spreading an icy aura across the room.
That was a lot of Moves for a Pokémon haunting a dressmaker.
Morgan had drilled into her the importance of spotting a trick before it bit you. The Froslass darted out from a clothing row behind them, lunging at Morgan, only to be blasted back by a heavy slap of wind. Calcine and Dani snapped around at the movement, but Brandy didn't. It was too obvious a distraction, she kept her eyes locked on the pile of clothes Dani had scattered at the end of her wild Tackle.
It moved. A single blue eye glared out from beneath the heap, fixed on Brandy as delicate fingers emerged, tugging a dress off herself.
"Isolde! She's made us!" they said as they quickly tried to dig themselves out of the pile.
"That was quick," the Froslass, which Morgan's Hurricane had just slapped, called back. "The last delivery girl didn't work it out until we were touching dicks inside her."
"Froslass Sisters," Morgan chirped. "That's a fun twist."
"Dani, Tackle the one in the pile."
She didn't even get time to let out a cry of panic before the Magikarp barreled right back into her throwing dresses everywhere. It must have broken the concentration of the move she was using because the floating dresses dropped like their strings had been cut, sloughing off Calcine and Morgan instead of gripping at them.
Brandy looked at the one keeping just out of reach of Morgan, trying to spread ice along the floor towards her. "You might always pull this trick on visitors, but we're a proper team. Take us to Noelle, and we'll see about joining in with whatever she's doing to Sparky."
Isolde laughed behind her kimono sleeve, amused. "Noelle? She only comes out of her room to ensure we care for ourselves. Once we're exhausted, she'll come down, make us something to eat, and pet our heads."
"So you just have Sparky tied up somewhere?" Calcine growled. "Give her back, or we're going to leave you so sore Noelle is going to need to take you to the Center."
Isolde sighed dramatically, shaking her head. "Eira! They're being no fun. Why don't you cheer them up with a trick?"
Eira, the other Froslass, flopped out of the pile of clothes with Dani latched onto her like a limpet. She wriggled, trying to shake her loose, but Dani wasn't letting go, her face buried in Eira's chest.
Eira leaned back with a long, frustrated snort, glancing at the others upside down. Then she broke into a creepy thin-lipped smile. "Hey? Have you ever seen a Magikarp disappear?"
Her eyes flared with that vivid purple glow for a moment, and two webs shot down from the ceiling, yanking Dani clean off her and hurling her upward. She barely had time to yelp before she slammed into the waiting arms of a yellow-furred bug, its glowing purple eyes locked in an eerie, vacant stare.
"Sparky?" Brandy called, her voice sharp with alarm.
The bug didn't even flinch.
Instead, Sparky twitched, her body crackling with unstable electricity as the glow in her eyes pulsed. Then, without hesitation, she lunged. A blinding arc of lightning ripped through the air, a jagged bolt aimed straight at them. Brandy barely had time to shout before Calcine tackled her out of the way, the heat of the Flame Charge washing over them as it scorched the floor where they'd been standing.
"She's been Hex'd!" Morgan hissed, wings flaring as Sparky nimby wormed out Calcine's and lobbed a ball of electricity Morgan's way. The Murkrow swooped up to jump over it and almost got pinned to the ceiling by a webbing spray if Calcine hadn't tossed Sparky and thrown off her shot.
Sparky landed nimbly beside Eira, electricity crackling through her fur as the Froslass pulled herself up by one of her arms.
"Now it's three on three! And since we're all here..." Isolde cooed, her blue eyes flashing with eerie delight. "We can really wear each other out."