Firing Blind
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Ear cocked, the Houndour lay on the floor in front of me. Only a flimsy curtain fashioned from cured Slowpoke hide kept his master from finding me, and the doglike creature already knew I was there. My hand strayed to my belt, and I heard the satisfying thump of a body collapsing onto the floor. Another twitch from my able fingers, and another man fell, this one from an elevated walkway in the airport. The Houndour was nervous now, having lost both his master and their patrol partner, but he didn't bolt yet. I guessed that it was new to the world, or a human hatching. When his eyes bulged suddenly and he dropped to the floor, as dead as his trainer, I returned my handgun to it's secure pocket and muttered a quick prayer for the three fresh cadavers, before sliding from my hiding place and weaving past suitcases and cardboard boxes to the exit. The dead patrol had doubtless given an alert to the rest of the guards before going after me, and dawn was drawing nearer. At a wave of my hand, the automatic door slid open, and I ambled down the deserted street. The sun hadn't risen yet, and the cool night air was a welcome change from the stifling heat of the airport. An Espeon, stretched luxuriously on an arbor next to a pleasant bungalow, greeted me with a lazy purr, while Duskull and Murkrow retreated from sight to escape the coming sun. I waved amiably to the psychic-type, and then continued to a fork in the road, where I turned left.
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Already I knew that something was wrong. Where a proud and regal oak tree once stood, a rather haphazard house lay on the untamed ground in a stark contrast to the rest of the neighbourhood. Several strange rocks adorned the front porch, each one shaped much like the stereotype of a meteorite. Behind the house, a vast forest sprawled across seven or eight streets. Most of the trees had grown right underneath houses, and they dangled from the thick branches, suspended like bizarre fruits in the air. A car was balanced precariously on one of the huge wooden limbs, half inside it's uprooted garage. The forest floor, too, was a scene of utter chaos. More than one fountain of water indicated a wrecked fire hydrant, and the roads were literally ripped into pieces. A tricycle sat sadly next to a large hole in the ground, filled with rubble and debris from some kind of earthquake.
I rubbed my eyes and walked backwards a few paces. Nothing changed. Frowning, I jogged back to the airport and my mouth dropped open. A plane was embedded in the concrete roof of the building, and both were showing considerable signs of decay. Some greenery had taken over the radio tower, and moss was spreading like a rash on the runway. It was like I'd been frozen in time for a hundred years while everything had gone on. But now things were changing more obviously. A house, still in a tree, slowly faded from my sight, while roads splintered into nothingness. A blue shark-like Pokemon with a red belly and a yellow star on it's head shot into the air from the crashed aeroplane and soared into the direction of the rising sun. Growlithe and Arcanine sped in between fading houses and rapidly growing trees, and a strange stone pillar- about a metre tall- rose into the air, then hovered for a few seconds. A gust of chilly wind shocked me out of my disbelieving stupor, but still I stood in middle of the ex-hill, gawping at the sudden changes. A second, stronger, wind threw me onto my back, and I noticed that the stone was vibrating. Of course, that piece of knowledge was pale in comparison to the shifting earth, at least until I noticed that the wind was getting a lot stronger. A few seconds later, the wind was visible. Dust had been blown up from the ground beneath the stone, and now a dustdevil raged between me and the hovering pillar. Not that I minded much.
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About five minutes later, the stone pillar fell to the floor, and the wind died down. Sunlight now streamed from the sun at it's zenith, and the surrounding area was totally unrecognisable. The airport had deteriorated into nothingness, and not even a brick remained to show that a house had once stood next to it. The only synthetic-looking material was the strange house that had heralded the destruction of Violet City, so I decided to camp outside of it for a while. As I parked myself a few metres from the building(underneath a bush, naturally), a Feraligatr hauled herself from a window, then reached into another weird opening and plucked a small girl from the building. She made to put the girl on her shoulders, but the girl shook her head and pushed the reptile's claw away. The Feraligatr shrugged her shoulders in acceptance and instead pointed to some strange orbs on the girl's belt. The girl took one and pressed a button on it, and sprang backwards when it expanded. A Pokeball, I thought. The girl must be a trainer. The ball fell to the floor, and a flash of red light released the creature somehow kept inside it. Scarlet metal shone in the sun's rays, and twin pincers snapped in unison. I wasn't familiar with this thing, but I sensed a level of power not present in Houndour and the other Pokemon I was used to. The somewhat insect-like creature shook glistening wings, making a dull rattling sound, and then stretched it's neck. That was as far as it got, though, when the girl leaped onto it's back and wrapped her arms around the thing's slender shoulders.
"Artemis!" she yelled, clearly delighted, and the creature's face crinkled in what I assumed was a smile. She reached out to stroke one of his pincers, and it playfully batted her hand away with it's other pincer, before shaking her off. The girl landed on her feet, unhurt, but something seemed to occur to her. She turned to her reptilian companion and asked, "So which one has Hyperion in it?"
The Feraligatr gave a non-committal shrug, and then grunted something. The girl cocked her head, but the other battler immediately tensed up, pincers wide open. I glanced around edgily. A paranoia was in the atmosphere now, and I was getting ready to fire a warning shot when Artemis struck. All I could see of him was a red blur, but I felt it before it got to me. Two solid blows to my gut floored me, and as my vision dimmed, a snapping pincer found it's way to my neck and started squeezing. I lashed out wildly with a hand, and broke my wrist on the thing's crimson armour. Blood from my mangled fist stained my windbreaker and the bush I was thrashing underneath. The girl shrieked something, and then something scaly connected with my head, knocking me out. The last thing I saw was a cloud of stars.
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A sudden wetness on my feet woke me from a listless sleep. One of my eyes flew open, while the other one's lids failed to lift. I struggled with my gummed-together eye for a few minutes, before conceding defeat and propping myself up on my shoulders. With one eye, I surveyed the immediate vicinity. I was out in the open, in a clearing. Trees fringed the grassy area, and three figures, one slight and small, the other two solid and hulking, stood twenty or so metres away from me, on my left. To my right, the trees were sparser, but there were more creatures, too. I counted at least five before I decided that I'd rather not know the numbers. Among them was the red insect that had attacked me, that was for sure. I'd noticed it giving me the evil eye. The three figures on my left turned around and headed towards me, and when I strained to make out their faces I noticed that it was sunset, and that the sun was behind them. It was pretty obvious that the small one was the girl, and one of the huge figures was the Feraligatr. When they got close enough, the girl smiled, either taking delight in my pain or not knowing about the ringing sound in my ears.
"You okay?"
I groaned and nodded. She either didn't believe me, or maybe my shut eye was too obvious. "Athena patched you up as best as she could, so you should thank her... and I'm sorry about Artemis."
"Yeah, I'll go do that. So... what are you doing here?" I asked her. I hated feeling like I owed her something, no matter how many crazy bugs she sicced on me. The reasoning was that she told me what she was doing, and then I could help her.
She looked taken aback. "I'm going to go find something."
"Find what?" I said. "Actually, scratch that. I don't think I want to know. But I can help."
The Feraligatr snorted loudly, but then quickly regained her composure.
"What? My entire job is to find stuff." The blue behemoth grunted something to the girl, and she giggled quietly.
"Elly wants to know what kind of finder has a gun," she reeled off, voice steady and only her face betraying her true emotions. I almost didn't answer- she was the only person I'd ever met who found a real gun funny, much less the only kid. Then again, she hung out with bipedal crocodiles.
"I'm a bounty hunter. I find people, capture or kill them, and take 'em back to my client." She abruptly shut up, and I found myself grinning in spite of myself. "So yeah, I think that's the kind of finder with a gun. How about it?"
"No killing while you're around me, okay?" was all she had to say. It was pretty much in the bag. Just tag along with her, save her life a couple of times, and then ride off into the sunset, alone and not in debt to anyone, much less a little girl. Then the other creature muttered something to her. Very quickly, she was swayed back to shunning me. "No, I don't want to anymore."
"Why not?" I asked her, all the while a mental image of me on my knees in front of her distracting me.
"How can you help me?" she challenged.
"I already said- I'd help you find this thing of yours."
She clicked her tongue. "No, I mean can you cook? Collect food? Build tents?"
"Of course I can-" I broke off, suddenly recalling recent events. Maybe cooking ranges aren't around any more, or there aren't any ramen shops, or money, or even freaking humans, an unwelcome inner voice whispers to me. "Shut up," I mutter to it mentally, before turning back to the girl. "Maybe I can't, but I know things. I'm no good in one of your little battles, but I'm savvy. I can help you guys out in a fight, and I'm dead good with my-" I broke off again, finally noticing that my pocket was lighter than usual. "Where's my gun?" I croaked.
"I gave it to Athena for a toy."
"What's an Athena!" I all but screamed.
Her forehead creased again as she tried to find words for her dear friend. "She's purply pink, and she has a red marble in her head. She has two tails, too."
"You mean an Espeon?" I breathed, relaxing instantly. It could have been the one that I'd seen before my world fell apart. I didn't know- was Espeon a common breed? I hoped not. And then I stiffened again as I remembered that some Pokemon could read minds, at least partially. And my murder of those two security guards- plus the Houndour- was definitely on the top of my mind, at least before that house messed up everything. I was fairly sure that none of the Pokemon or the girl would mind the two humans, but how would they take the death of one of their own?
As the purple feline approached, I tried- unsuccessfully- to shove those thoughts to the deepest, darkest pits of my mind.