Above them, Franklin feels it. Ralts sends a pulse of psychic distress — sister, danger, protect — and Franklin's head snaps toward Valeria. His hands flare with cosmic energy, brighter than before, and he unleashes a wide blast that catches a squad of HYDRA agents advancing from the east corridor. They scatter like bowling pins.
Ralts, meanwhile, turns its attention to Zola. The little psychic Pokémon's eyes glow, and it pushes a wave of disruption directly at the robotic scientist's control panel. Sparks fly from the unit. Zola's digital face flickers.
"Interference," Zola announces. "Source: Psychic-type Pokémon. Adjusting frequency."
"Not if I can help it," Franklin growls. He pours more energy into the blast.
Ivy feels the shift. Her Green-sense — the connection to every root and vine and living thing in this mountain — cuts through Viper's pheromones like a blade through silk. She sees Viper near the ascent point. She sees May struggling. She sees the pheromone cloud.
And Ivy gets angry.
"You don't poison my friends," Ivy says.
She slams both palms against the floor.
The stone cracks. Thick, thorny vines erupt from the fissures — not the elegant, controlled growths from the greenhouse, but wild, furious, angry plants. They surge upward like striking snakes, wrapping around Viper's legs, her waist, her arms. Viper gasps, her concentration breaking, the pheromone cloud dissipating.
Roselia steps forward. Its roses glow. A volley of Magical Leaf — sharp, precise, relentless — hammers into the vines, reinforcing them, driving thorns deeper into the stone around Viper's feet, pinning her in place.
ROSELIA: "ROSELIA!"
"Let GO!" Viper snarls, thrashing against the vines.
"I don't think so, Red," Ivy says. "You threatened a kid. That's a line."
May's head clears. The Spider-Sense comes back in a rush — not the overwhelming wall from before, but a sharp, focused ping pointing at the containment unit. At the cables. At the power conduit running along the unit's exterior, pulsing with stolen electricity.
"Joltik," May says. Her voice is hoarse but steady. "See that conduit?"
Joltik perks up. Its sparks return, flickering across its fur.
JOLTIK: "JOL?"
"Give it everything. Right at the power line. Can you do that?"
Joltik looks at the conduit. At the cables. At the massive, humming machine that's caging a god. The tiny Pokémon's eyes narrow.
JOLTIK: "JOLTIK!"
It launches.
The Thunder Shock that follows is nothing like the playful zaps from the bank. It's focused. Sustained. A beam of raw electrical fury that hits the conduit dead-center and stays there, Joltik's tiny body vibrating so fast it's almost a blur. The conduit sparks. Sizzles. Melts.
The containment unit flickers.
Batgirl sees the opening. She fires her grappling line — not upward this time, but across, swinging in a wide arc directly toward Zola's position on the unit. She pulls her escrima sticks mid-swing, and when she reaches him, she strikes with both sticks at once, shattering a critical power line on the unit's surface.
Sparks explode. Zola's digital face distorts.
"Critical damage," Zola says. His voice glitches. "Containment... failing..."
Harley sees Crossbones trying to rise. She's on him before he gets his feet under him. The mallet comes down — not on Crossbones, but on the rifle he's reaching for, smashing it into scrap.
"Read the room, bone-boy," Harley says. "You're done."
Franklin and Ralts move in unison. Brother and sister, separated by the chamber but connected by blood and purpose, unleash everything they have. Cosmic energy and psychic force converge on Zola's control panel in a single, devastating burst.
The panel explodes.
The containment unit dies.
The purple light vanishes. The cables go slack. The electromagnetic field that held Zapdos — that caged a legendary bird and tried to leash it like a battery — collapses.
For one heartbeat, there is silence.
Then Zapdos screams.
It's not a cry. It's not a call. It's a declaration. The sound hits May's chest like a physical force, and she watches as the legendary bird erupts from the wreckage of its prison in a storm of lightning and fury.
Discharge. Pure, unfiltered, magnificent Discharge.
The containment unit is obliterated. The cables vaporize. The catwalks buckle. Zola's robotic form is flung backward, tumbling through the air, his digital face frozen in an expression that might be surprise.
Crossbones grabs a rappel line and fires it toward an escape shaft. Viper, still tangled in Ivy's vines, severs them with a blade hidden in her sleeve and follows. Zola's form clatters against a far wall, sparking, his voice a broken loop of "retreat... retreat... retreat..."
The bunker groans. The ceiling cracks. Dust and debris rain down in sheets.
May shields her face with one arm. Through the settling dust, she sees Zapdos.
The legendary bird hovers in the center of the ruined chamber. Its yellow plumage crackles with untamed energy. Its wings spread wide, casting jagged shadows across the broken walls. And its eyes — those piercing, white-hot eyes — are locked on the retreating HYDRA leaders with a fury that makes May's Spider-Sense sing.
Zapdos doesn't chase them. It doesn't need to.
It watches them flee. And in that gaze is a promise.
May lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Joltik chirps weakly on her shoulder, exhausted but alive. Valeria stands beside her, gauntlet dark, face smudged with soot, staring up at the freed legendary with something like awe.
ZAPDOS: "ZAP..."
The sound rumbles through the chamber. Not a threat. Not a warning.
An acknowledgment.
Batgirl lands beside them, Frogadier on her shoulder. "Everyone alive?"
"Define alive," May says.
"Breathing. Conscious. Not on fire."
"Then yeah." May looks at the retreating HYDRA agents. At the ruined bunker. At Zapdos, hovering in the wreckage like a storm given form. "We won, right?"
"We survived," Batgirl says. "Winning comes later."
Franklin runs over, Ralts floating beside him. "Val! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Valeria says. She's still staring at Zapdos. "Franklin... did you see that? The energy output when the containment failed? The readings would have been—"
"Valeria," Franklin says. "You can geek out later. The bunker's coming down."
He's right. The groaning is getting louder. Cracks spread across the ceiling like spiderwebs.
Harley jogs over, Houndour at her heels. "So, uh, anyone else notice the giant bird is still here? And also the building is dying?"
Ivy approaches, Roselia at her side. "She's right. We need to leave. Now."
May looks up at Zapdos. The legendary bird's eyes meet hers — just for a moment. Something passes between them. Not words. Not thoughts. Just... understanding.
ZAPDOS: "DOS."
Then Zapdos rises. It passes through the cracked ceiling like it isn't there, tearing metal and stone aside with effortless power, and disappears into the sky above.
The storm it leaves behind rumbles in the distance.
"Move!" Batgirl shouts.
They run.
***
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