I Want To Lay the Very Best!

Brandy's pulse thrummed in her ears, the lingering electric charge in the air making every nerve feel raw. Across from her, Sparky stood unnaturally still, eerie purple light gleaming in her eyes. Her movements were too sharp, too deliberate. Just wrong. The bug Brandy knew was all fluid motion, always buzzing with restless energy. She should be cackling, throwing out some awful joke to keep them off balance. Instead, she stood rigid, fur bristling with unstable electricity, her body locked in an unnatural stillness.

Brandy swallowed hard at this wrinkle in the fight, but a thrill also sparked in her chest. The idea of fighting a teammate should have been unsettling, but instead, it had her blood running hot. Pokémon battles could take wild turns, and honestly? This was bound to happen eventually. A chance to prove how well she knew Sparky. Her quirks, her patterns, her every instinct.

The only letdown? This wasn't really Sparky. Hex wasn't a true possession, not like the Psychic moves that could twist allies into enemies. This was puppetry. Only a taste of the real fight she knew her bug could give if motivated.

Brandy snapped back to the fight. She couldn't lose this, so it was time to lean on what worked. Focus. Adjust. Move.

"Morgan, fend off the sisters. Use your claws, they're weak to Dark. Focus on Isolde. Eira's more of a brawler.

"Sure on that?"

"Safe bet, go menace her."

Morgan flitted between the racks of dresses, and Eira immediately gave chase, the frost on the ground racing to keep up with her. Her wanting to get in close just supported Brandy's guess of how the pair worked. Eira had ice-punched Dani and had that spreading frost aura that would only be effective up close. Isolde had mainly shot at them with icicles, leered at them from afar, puppetered dresses and hidden in piles of clothes. Hex was a Froslass signature move, so they could probably both do it; Brandy had to keep up the pressure, so they didn't have time to nab another teammate.

"Calcine, let's get Dani back off Sparky," Brandy ordered, her voice sharp and commanding. Calcine would appreciate a clear goal to take her mind off how weird this was going to be. "Flame Charge her."

Calcine's footsteps sizzled against the floor as she picked up speed, a thin curl of smoke spilling from her lips. Heat rippled off her as she blazed toward Sparky, the air shimmering in her wake. Fire was still a concern with all this fabric, but Brandy wasn't worried anymore now she knew two Froslass sisters were lurking about. They wouldn't have started trouble in a dress shop unless they had a way to clean up the mess afterward. No way they'd risk letting their partner's shop burn down.

The charge seemed like it'd connect without even a twitch to stop it, but at the last moment, Sparky snapped into motion. With a flick of her arms, two web shots fired out, latching onto the clothing frames on either side of Calcine's charge line. Brandy barely had time to curse before the Galvantula yanked hard on the taut silk, and metal wheels rattled as the racks lurched inward. Calcine snarled, her body blazing with heat as the racks crashed into her. Metal shrieked, and fabric sizzled where it brushed against the glowing red veins burning beneath her coal-black skin. For a split second, it looked like Sparky's trap had worked and the steel frames might pin her down.

But Calcine wasn't going to stop.

With a roaring burst of strength, she barreled forward, shoving through the collapsing racks like they were paper. Fabric tore, metal bent, and the force of her charge sent splinters of wood and twisted coathangers scattering across the shop floor. The wreckage barely slowed her. Sparky snapped back, a blur of yellow, Dani's pigtails whipping behind her like a tail. Another web shot was already primed in one hand. Calcine pressed on despite it, heat rippled around her as she drove forward, a molten wrecking ball with a singular target.

Sparky fired, the silk hissing as it touched Calcine's superheated skin, only to melt away before it could take hold. Fire had always been a weakness of Sparky's webs, and the Froslass puppeteering her didn't know it. Sparky tried again, firing another desperate web shot, but the strands wilted before they even reached Calcine's shoulders. Calcine was burning bright, and the air around her shimmered with heat, distorting the shop floor like a mirage.

Brandy caught it instantly with her Compound Eye boosted vision. A twitch in Sparky's stance. A flicker of hesitation in those glowing purple eyes. The Froslass riding Sparky had no idea what was going on. They were controlling Sparky, but they didn't know her. Didn't know the tricks she'd learned, the way she fought, the limits of what her silk could take.

That was a mistake, and Calcine took full advantage. She lunged, and this time, there was no escape.

With a thunderous impact, Calcine slammed into Sparky, heat rolling off in waves. The Galvantula's body hit the ground hard, skidding across the floor as tangled racks and half-melted clothes scattered around them. Dani was thrown out of the tackle and whirling through the air with a panicked yelp. Brandy wasn't as fast as a Flame Charged Calcine, but she was a fit lady and could easily jump over the burning clothes to catch Dani. The hefty weight of the Magikarp almost buckled Brandy's knees, but she fought through it to keep her newest team member safe.

"Good?" Brandy asked Dani as Calcine pinned Sparky down, ignoring the slapping of her hands and failed attempts to Bug Bite her. Total focus.

"That was so cool!" Dani gushed, eyes wide with excitement. "Sorry for getting captured."

"It's fine. Learn and do better," Brandy said, giving Dani an encouraging slap on the rear. "That's all we'll ever ask."

Satisfaction thrummed through Brandy as she turned toward Sparky. She could snap her out of this. She just needed to-

Dani yelped, and Brandy barely had time to react before she was shoved aside by the Magikarp. Dresses slammed into Dani, knocking her back into a cocoon of silk and leather. Fabric twisted unnaturally, wrapping around her, sleeves lashing out to grab at Brandy's legs. Brandy swore under her breath. She'd been too focused on Sparky. Too focused on what was right in front of her. And now Isolde had taken another shot.

"Calcine, you got her?" Brandy called, stepping back from the grasping cloth.

"She's wiggling," Calcine grunted, keeping Sparky pinned, "but she's not strong enough to get me off."

That was begging for a joke. If Sparky had been in control, she'd have loved the setup. They had to get her back.

"I'm backing up, Morgan. Kiss some sense into her for me?"

"She's got Bug Bite." Calcine said, "Too dangerous."

Damn. Calcine was right. They needed a way to snap Sparky out of it without getting bitten. Brandy snatched a flailing dress and slid in beside Calcine. A messy, frantic slap fight followed with Sparky, wrists wrenching, claws swiping, silk ripping. But with Calcine's help and a few well-placed knee pins, Brandy tied Sparky's arms up tight. Overhead, Morgan took flight, dodging between the scattered rows of dresses, but Isolde had been waiting for her. A few well-placed icicle shots slammed into her wings. Morgan burst into black feathers, phasing through the follow-up hits, but she wasn't built for a straight-up brawl. She needed backup fast.

"I got her," Brandy said, shoving Sparky's squirming form down and sliding under Calcine's burning-hot body to straddle the Galvantula's chest. Sparky writhed, trying to worm free, but Brandy had the weight advantage. She pinned Sparky's arms with her calves, leaning forward, sweat already prickling against the heat rolling off Calcine.

"Burn Dani out of the dresses, then go help Morgan," Brandy ordered. "I'll have Sparky back soon."

Calcine hesitated, tense, before Brandy leaned in, lips brushing against scorching-hot skin. The heat seared away the moisture, the taste of smoke lingering as she pulled back. Calcine exhaled sharply, tension melting from her stance.

"I think you should give her what she always wanted," Calcine murmured. "She's owed it. Never a better time than now." Updates are released by novel-fire.ɴet

Brandy grinned, feeling Sparky's thrashing grow wilder beneath her. "Yeah. Exactly what I was thinking."

Sparky's glowing purple eyes flickered, just for a second, a hint of recognition maybe, but Brandy didn't risk it. She was going all the way now it was the only way to be sure. She grabbed a torn strip of dress from the wreckage and stuffed it into Sparky's mouth, keeping her safe from those bug-biting teeth.

Then, slowly, she shifted forward, dragging herself up Sparky's chest. The soft friction of Sparky's fur and the crackling static within sent little shivers up Brandy's spine but she didn't let the simple pleasure of it stop her from her mission. The second Sparky's head slipped between her thighs, Brandy clamped down, squeezing her snug between them.

Sparky jerked, body tensing, and Brandy couldn't help but laugh.

"Fighting to keep a hold?" Brandy taunted, voice silky and smug. "Whoever's behind those eyes? You have no idea how long she's been waiting for this."

Sparky twitched, a half-hearted struggle from the Hex rider, but her body betrayed them. Sparky wasn't really fighting, she was giving in. She wanted this too badly on an instinctual level to let a bodyjacking Ghost Type ruin the moment.

Brandy was going to make up for the wait.