[Cy]
Vince and I had seen a massive swarm head up to the palace as we had split off to get to our district. It seemed that that swarm had come from our area, because we hadn't come across any changelings. We could see them buzzing from district to district, but none seemed to be flying into ours.
"Do you think we got lucky?" Vince asked me.
"Could've." I agreed. "We shouldn't get careless, though. They could all be further in." We kept running. The streets were eerily empty. "Where is everypony? The markets are this way, there should be more ponies."
"Look around, Cy." Vince huffed. "There's blast marks on the walls and scuff marks on the ground. The ponies either fled or were captured. There's 'lings around here somewhere."
"Yeah, wherever ponies have holed up." I snorted. "Think we should just bull our way to the train station?"
"Sure." Vince was panting now. "Can we slow down a little?"
I scoffed. "Hell no. Odds are, the ponies are trying to evacuate by train, which means that there's going to be a lot of guards and civvies. Which in turn means a lot of resistance, and a lot of 'lings for us to zap!"
"You mean 'for you to zap'."
"Just be ready to buff me when our throats get sore." I ordered.
"Right, yeah. Sure..." I thought I saw Vince scowl. Figuring that the run was harder on him due to his shorter legs, I slowed down a little for him.
When we were almost at the train stations, we stopped to catch our breath. We saw some sort of glow flash on the other side of the palace, but quickly ignored it to continue making our way forward. Very soon, we were passing what we hoped were dead changelings laying in the streets. We heard the snap-crack of mana bolts long before we saw the first bolt itself.
Our biggest shock came when we turned to see the station itself.
The street outside was alive with changelings. Mana and crossbow bolts were machine gunning into the changelings, and they were doing nothing to the overall swarm. But all of the 'lings were on the ground, and the ponies were also firing into the air.
At the massive flock of Murkrows and Mandibuzzes.
"They have summons?!" I hissed at Vince. "Where's the fucking circles?!"
"There." Vince pointed at a building across from use. "You can just see the wax circles through that window."
I glanced back and forth between the swarm and the building. "We're not going to be able to break the circles without being overrun before we can help the ponies."
"We can't get rid of the summons while the circles are intact, though." Vince eyed the building.
"We're going to have to split up." I groaned. "Okay, we buff each other, then you go handle the circles and I'll deal with the flyers."
Vince grimaced. "I don't like this plan. One or both of us might get swarmed.."
"You got a better one?" I challenged
"I didn't say that..." Vince's paws began to glow. We spent a little time buffing, and Vince darted off.
He slunk across the road and jumped through an unattended window. I immediately started worrying about my smaller friend as soon as I lost sight of him. That worry spiked when flashes of light and mana flared up in the room Vince had pointed out to me. I waited for some sign that the circles were broken.
A small group of changelings broke off from the main push and leapt into the building. I saw Vince briefly in the circle room, but he was quickly chased out of it. There were more mana flashes elsewhere that suddenly cut off. I almost bolted to the building in my fear.
Then he burst up from the floor and broke most of the rings.
I looked around the corner and pulled my power to wrap around myself. I locked onto one of the Mandibuzzes closest to the train station and bolted from my cover. It wasn't my Extreme Speed, since I could still see the world around me, and I could feel my mana grounding itself into anything nearby as I ran. When I got to the edge of the swarm, I jumped to run across their backs. When I got to the end of changeling bodies, I jumped and rode my own lightning.
The world refocused in time for me to hear the vulture-like Pokemon squawk in pain before it dissolved into white light and vanished back into the building Vince was in. I grit my teeth to focus past the backlash of energy and sent it arcing out of me as I fell.
It struck the closest Pokemon to me and knocked it out of our reality as well.
I landed badly but still rolled upright at the end of it. My right shoulder stung, but I ignored it to focus on the aerial threat. I felt my mana gather on the tips of my fur on my tail, sparking off in an infrequent, bright shower. I glared at a Murkrow and channeled my power towards it. I felt the ions in the air line up for me an instant before lightning was discharged at it, lancing through it and grounding behind it.
I ignored it's banishment as I looked to my next target. I channeled and fired at another Murkrow, but I felt the ions misalign at the wrong moment, and the bolt speared off into a random changeling letting the Murkrow flit off to the side.
<<Dammit!>> I groaned as a surge of wind buffeted against me. I turned to deal with the damn flying type as a large volley of mana bolts flashed past me. I pulled my mana through my fur and then flung the now electrically charged energy out.
Just, away from me.
And then I did it again.
I kept firing off Discharges and Shockwaves into the flying types as the guards kept the bugs off of me. The amount of bolts slowly died off, but I didn't notice that until I was pounced on by a changeling. I cooked it in its chitin and pushed it off before Discharging at the swarm.
And then the city shuddered. There was a bright light on the far side of the palace and a growing wave of dust, but we felt the explosions more through the ground than anything else. I got lucky with my gawking because everything else was gawking at it as well. That wasn't me!
A train's whistle caused us all to turn and look at the station. The train was slowly leaving, and picking up speed. The guards started volleying mana bolts at the swarm. I quickly launched another Shockwave to prevent anything chasing after them. I was about to Thunderbolt another Mandibuzz when a different shock wave hit.
It didn't do much to anything on the ground other than staggering them. Anything airborne was thrown to the earth, and the Pokemon were banished.
I groaned as I steadied myself. I started gathering my energy to throw into the swarm when several changelings burst out of a window. They had a brown dog dangling in their magical grasp. I fired out a ball of electricity at a changeling as I tried to remember why that was important.
"That's Vince, you dolt!"
I fired another ball of electricity at the 'lings carrying the dog when that thought clicked. <<VINCENT!!>> I locked onto the 'ling holding onto Vince and dropped into an Extreme Speed. I burst through my own Electro Ball, the energy seeping back into my fur and reinvigorating me, even as the world stayed still. I slammed into the bug, everything snapping back into motion. The reabsorbed energy cracked into the changeling, smashing it's chitin and dropping it immediately.
I landed on my right shoulder again. I gingerly set my front right paw down and bit back a hiss. I carefully walked up to stand over Vince and glared at the swarm. They flitted about a few steps away, almost trying to get someone else in the swarm to strike out first. Slowly and without taking my eyes off of the 'lings, I leaned down and carefully picked Vince up but the scruff of his neck. I charged up my mana...
And turned tail and ran. I powered up my Double Team and my Agility to give myself the best chance I could. I could see 'lings lunging past me as they charged through one of my doubles, causing me to spawn more copies. And then my leg gave out, and I fell into a heap on the ground, Vince being flung forward along the cobblestones. I tried to stand again but was swarmed over before I could do so. I heard a sound like someone was trying to hock up a loogie and felt something slimy land on the back of my knee.
<<You gross fuckers are going to pay for that!>> I weakly growled and flailed at the bugs surrounding me.
Another changeling landed on me and bit my leg. I watched and felt its venom trickle into the wound. My struggles slowed as the changeling's poisons took hold and I blacked out to the sound of more goop being hocked onto me.