Mahogany Town||Late Morning
[64] Chaos.
Zapdos had seen the small hand gesture Roark had given his pokemon, but he hadn't understood it until the Stone Edge mercilessly ripped through the terrain just in front of them. Neither had the crazy bastards that had wanted to eat them, either. One was ripped apart right in front of them while the others fanned out to attack. Roark sent out more pokemon, shouting orders as they were released, again just in time. The Protect he called for went up just as bullets ricocheted off of it, preventing them from seeking out Zapdos' vulnerable form.
For a moment, he was lost in the battle, the attacks flying by too quickly and the noise too cacophonous for him to make any sense of them. Suddenly, Roark rushed to him, shears in hand, desperate to try and cut him loose again when a brigand caught him off guard. Zapdos, dazed, moved to help, but felt something pull on his bindings, causing the metal to bite down harder.
The scream that escaped him, as well as the knives digging into his flesh brought his mind back from the haze of fatigue and blood loss, if only temporarily. He turned to see one of the men attempting to drag him by the very convenient handles the fence provided and his temper flared. His talons were dry. His beak was clean. That was not how things should be.
He hurled himself at the man, his long beak aimed like a needle at the human before him. The man was too nimble and dodged, but the near-death encounter only seemed to spur the man on instead of deter him. He laughed, spat at Zapdos' face and triumphantly declared,
"You're a piece of shit god! Nothin' but a little BITCH! And you know what? I'm gonna wear your skull as a fucking hat and use your beak to pick your meat out of my fuckin' teeth!" Brandishing a machete, he cackled and rushed at Zapdos again, slashing and stabbing.
The fight took all of Zapdos' concentration. His wings were bound, so his balance was off. His main form of attacking was blocked off and he was already wounded. But he couldn't falter. He WOULDN'T falter. He couldn't let a backwater reject like this wrinkled pustule kill him. A lucky hit sent the disgusting vermin flying, and just as Zapdos was about to chase him down and stab his internal organs one by one, he felt something else on his side. He turned, about to destroy who else dared to touch him, when the sight of a hardhat stopped him.
Roark.
A few snaps, a few clips, and suddenly, the metal released. Zapdos twitched as his aching wings found themselves freed of their prisons, the teeth that had trapped him in the metal maw finally slacking and falling away. Zapdos turned to the red-headed man, his rescuer, and saw more red. Red that was in places it shouldn't be. His eyes narrowed and he turned his head back toward the filthy rabid vermin scurrying toward him.
They would pay.
His wings slowly unfurled, the muscles rejoicing at the movement, and it only took a single flap for him to be airborne. He did not shoot into the sky, however, no; he kept his eyes on the now rightfully terrified human that suddenly decided a knife was not the proper weapon for this fight. Zapdos hurled himself forward again, his talons outstretched and thirsty for the bastard's blood. His running and screaming wasn't enough to outspeed an angry lightning god. Too easily, they found their mark, slicing into the man's flesh much like the fence had done to Zapdos for the past few days.
Zapdos angled himself up, his spare electricity finally discharging itself as he soared through the sky up and over the town, the man screaming in terror while bleeding onto his feet. Zapdos banked once he was high enough, diving back toward the battlefield the town had become, and spotted the only surviving brigand remaining. His dive sped and the man in his talons screamed louder.
"I am no 'CANARY'," he snarled as he dove faster and faster,
"I am not a pig for you to stick and eat! People WORSHIPED me, you squealing ass! And you and your 'buddies' will see WHY! With that, he flared out of the dive, releasing the man from his grip and sending him careening at the other man. Zapdos' aim was true and the first man became little more than a sack of projectile meat as he collided with his buddy. The two men were disposed of, lying helplessly on the ground as Zapdos landed nearly on top of them, his glare furious and unforgiving.
The man he'd skewered was dead-- there was no question. He bled out onto his friend, his neck at a wrong angle with the rest of his body and his eyes stared blankly upward. But the other man, he looked to only be paralyzed. His legs remained still as the rest of him frantically tried to pull himself out from the weight of his dead compatriot-- an effort soon stifled by Zapdos' heavy foot.
"Beg." His voice was soft, but the growl that accompanied it rivaled distant thunder.
"I-I--""Beg. Beg me for your miserable life.""Please-- P-Please don't k-k-i-ill me!""Beg me for forgiveness.""P-Pleas-s-se forg-g-give me-e-e-e!"Zapdos' eyes narrowed.
"No."The electricity that poured out of his body was eager to escape, attracted to the body so near the ground. The man screamed for the first few seconds, but then, Zapdos imagined his vocal cords burst or he simply died. He didn't care, though. He didn't want these men even
resembling the forms they'd once had. They didn't deserve to be recognized. The didn't deserve to be remembered other than some sickening horror.
They would not be remembered as humans. They would be remembered as
freaks.It took a few minutes of nothing but electrifying the blackening corpses, the flesh sizzling and melting together to fuse them both into a solid mass of charred meat. Zapdos removed his foot soon after the surge of power ceased, satisfied in his work. He turned, looking for the redhead that had freed him. He walked past a couple of houses, finally spotting him.
"Roark, are you... all right?" He drew nearer, unsure of what he had seen earlier.
"I thought I saw blood..."