Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, just Aura and Hallow.
This is the mission my Rescue team had to complete for the month of June. It's about four chapters in total and is one of my important story Arcs concerning the team. I hope any who reads this enjoys it!
Prologue
The door began to glow the faintest hint of purple as it slowly slinked open. Peering in carefully, Hallow scanned the living room for signs of his partner. There was nobody. Floating inside silently, he moved deeper into the house, casting a glance into Aura's room. Nobody. Odd. Flying to the kitchen, he felt himself relax as he spotted the Abra on the counter… sleeping in the sink… upside-down. About five Oran Berry Mochi was floating around her in happy little circles and every once in a while, one would approach her mouth for a little nibble before resuming its dance with its fellow treats.
Going up to his friend, he wondered how long she's been like this and he looked about automatically for his poking stick. It should still be around here somewhere-ah! He took the stick in his ghostly telekinetic hold and wasted no time in poking his friend gently. Aura gave a small groan and half-heartedly swatted at the source of the disturbance. Pausing, Hallow waited for a few seconds before resuming the poke. This time, the Abra gave it more attention and she again swatted at the stick, her paws continuing to swipe the air when the stick pulled away.
One more poke and she finally opened an eye a little before closing it again.
"Ah, so you're awake." Hallow muttered, putting the stick away. He would be smiling a bit if he could, and Aura rubbed her eyes without even bothering to right herself.
"I am now," She yawned widely, a mochi taking the opportunity to insert itself into that gaping maw, eager to get eaten. She chewed for a moment before speaking again, her voice a bit muffled. "Anything new on the Task Board?"
Hallow was silent for a moment. "No." The answer was blunt and curt and Aura hesitated, tilting her upside-down face.
"For realsies?"
Hallow didn't answer as he turned away and started to leave, but he didn't go far before Aura sent out her Mochi Army to surround him.
"Hallow, I can't read minds, but I know when you're lying. What's up with the Task Board?" she asked with a hint of firmness.
"Nothing," he stated abruptly and Aura opened her eyes wide at the Shedinja's mood. It was clear he didn't want to discuss this subject and his defensiveness was a bit odd. In an effort to cheer him up and perhaps lower his defenses, she got a mochi to playfully press against his muzzle where his mouth used to be, the Abra grinning.
"Hallow, why you be angry?" she chirped in a sing-song voice. The husk did nothing for a while, allowing the small piece of food to play before pulling away.
"I'm not angry, I…" He paused, turning around to face his Psychic companion. "I just don't want to do the Tasks."
"Why?" Aura stated in confusion.
Hallow would sigh if he could, speaking softly. "It's too dangerous. If we go, I'm worried that you'd-"
"Get hurt?" Aura interrupted in an attempt to fill in the blanks and reassure her companion. "It's alright. Getting hurt is part of the job!" She was chuckling, trying to lighten the mood. But it didn't work as the Shed Pokemon shook his body from side-to-side in his equivalent gesture of shaking his head.
"Get killed, Aura," he told her. "The Tasks are in Gambitville, a very dangerous place filled to the brim with criminals. A small Abra like you, I…" He cut himself off, thinking carefully on how to word this without offending his friend. "Take no offense, but you're not exactly… fit for this. If a fight breaks out, you won't stand a chance."
"Then, we'll make sure there is no fight…" Aura muttered as she righted herself, jumping off the counter. She looked to her friend, ears low. "Can you at least tell me what the Tasks are?"
There was silence for a while, the Shedinja eventually coming to the conclusion that there's no harm in informing her. "Well, first, we have to take an interview with someone named Jury."
"That doesn't sound bad," Aura stated gently.
"No," Hallow agreed before continuing. "He wants us to build some…gallows," –At this, Aura visibly stiffened- "Then, he wants us to post some flyers and convince some criminals to turn over a new leaf. Build a lot of bricks for a wall. Rescue a Sandshrew that fell down a well and… recover his dead body if needed. Enforce a new curfew and…" He paused, knowing this was the most dangerous one. "And remind the residents of Jury's position of power. Resistance is expected with this one, and it's the one worrying me the most."
Silence hung in the air and Aura stared at the floor, finding one of the wooden boards very interesting. Sorting through the Tasks, she took a deep breath and looked to Hallow. "How about we just do the harmless ones, if that'll make you feel better… Like the Sandshrew one or the brick stuff…" She fiddled with her paws. "And we could at least try the other ones."
She saw Hallow hesitate and she was quick to add her primary reassurance. "If we find ourselves on the losing end of a fight, we Teleport! That is the way of the Abra!"
"And what if that's not an option?" Hallow asked pointedly. "Remember the Drifloon? We both ended up fainting and we were incredibly lucky the Drifleet decided not to end us. That might not be the case in Gambitville."
Aura felt her mind snag, knowing the Shedinja was right. Slumping, she ran over her thoughts again before giving an inch. "Okay, then we'll stay exclusively on the harmless ones. Would that be good?"
Hallow looked over the Abra, considering her compromise carefully. But he didn't see anything wrong with the harmless Tasks (no matter how hard he tried), and he nodded reluctantly in consent. Aura felt a smile grow on her face, walking up and giving him a hug. "It'll be alright." She pulled away, heading for the door. "Now show me a good, high-quality picture of this Gambitopia place, so we can Teleport there!"
"Gambitville," Hallow corrected.
"That too!"
"Who is this Jury guy anyway?" Aura asked as they sat outside the door, waiting for their client to call them into his office. She could hear a debate happening on the other side of the entrance, though it seemed rather one-sided as she couldn't make out a responding voice… nor did she see anyone enter the room in the first place…
"The mayor, I believe." Hallow answered. "According to the Task Board, he just awoken from hibernation and-" He was about to add more when the muffled debate came to an abrupt end and the voice called out.
"Enter…"
Casting a glance at Hallow, Aura took a deep breath as she pushed herself off her chair, the Shedinja following her as she approached the door. With the slightest hint of hesitation, she took hold of the knob, twisted it, and peeked inside slowly. Almost instantly, her eyes widened and she screamed, slamming the door shut in a panic.
Hallow was plenty startled by this reaction, and he didn't know how to react as he watched Aura shudder in pure fear, whimpering. She looked as if she was on the verge of breaking down and running off. Soothingly pressing against her side in a hug, Hallow tried to calm her shivering before heading for the door himself. Opening it, he peered inside and immediately understood.
A Spiritomb was staring back at him and it came as a shock how different this one looked from normal. Instead of purple, it was a violent red with glowing yellow eyes and a massive, jagged grin of the same color. He's never seen a variation like this on a Spiritomb, even on a Shiny.
"Enter." His voice sounded downright demonic, with multiple pitches sounding at once, as if from several different entities. Given the nature of this species, it wouldn't be surprising if that was the case.
Looking back to Aura, he pulled away from the door to place himself behind her, pushing her forward gently. The Abra shook her head fervently, wanting to verbally protest, but unable to get her voice to work. Her resistance didn't matter anyway as the Shedinja succeeded in getting her into the office, closing the door much to Aura's discontent. She made an attempt to make a run for it, but her companion wisely kept himself in between her and the door, gently ushering her closer to the Spiritomb whilst muttering soothing reassurances.
And still the Spiritomb was grinning.
"Please, have a seat." Came the eerie voice that only served to freak Aura out even more and she closed her eyes and blanked out her mind's eye so as not to look at the creature. Of all types, Jury had to be a Ghost…
Letting Hallow guide her into a chair, she made a point of scooting back a couple feet, still shivering as if expecting something horrible to happen at any moment.
"A bit nervous, are we?" Jury started with amusement. "Perhaps you have something to hide?"
Aura tried to get her voice to work, but still her words snagged in her throat. It was almost worse hearing this thing's voice without seeing it as it lended her imagination plenty of frightening interpretations. Opening her eyes, she immediately averted them to a small dust bunny on the floor as Hallow spoke up for her, the Abra trying and failing to keep herself calm and composed.
"No, she has a phobia for Ghost-types." The husk informed, his sympathy for his friend clear in his tone.
"Ohmigawd, at least the Drifloon were CUTE!" Aura rambled in the background as Hallow continued on.
"She told me that a Haunter's been abusing her for most of her life."
"You're the freakiest thing I've ever seen!"
"I saved her and managed to rid her fear of my kind. But…" He looked towards the panicked Abra as she continued her exclamations.
"What the hell are you supposed to be anyway?!"
"Why, dear child, we are Spiritomb, of course." He said, giving a friendly smile, although that smile was very easily interpreted by the young Abra as 'I'm-gonna-eat-your-soul'… which didn't help in the slightest and she reacted by covering her ears with a cringe.
"Stop talking to me!" She shrieked, beginning to cry as she turned her glistening eyes to her friend. "Can we please go back home?! This was a horrible idea! I don't even-"
"Shhhh," Hallow shushed softly, facing his companion and leaning close to her to get her focus only on his empty eyes. "It's alright, Aura. Everything's going to be okay," he whispered soothingly to her, knowing how to handle this as it had happened several times in the past. "He's our friend, remember? He's our client, he's not going to hurt you. He looks scary, but he's not going to hurt you. I promise."
Aura sniffled with a hiccup, more tears dripping from her eyes as she tried to remain focused on the Shedinja in front of her.
"Just take a few breaths, calm down, and remain focused on the job. Keep telling yourself that he's not going to hurt you and you will make it through this," he continued to encourage. "He's just gonna ask some questions and that's it, alright? Answer him calmly and then we can leave, okay?"
After a moment, she nodded softly, taking a shaky breath as Hallow pulled away.
"S-sorry…" Aura muttered under her breath, fighting her fear with everything she had and following Hallow's advice to the best of her abilities.
"Apologies aren't necessary, child," Jury told her, earning another cringe at the sound of his voice but at least the Abra wasn't breaking down again. "We'll keep this quick, for your sake. Do you have your Team paperwork?"
"Y… Yes, s-sir…" She gave a small cough, sniffling some more as she reached into Hallow's body, rummaging through the husk before grabbing the desired papers and hesitantly holding them out. She yelped as Jury's ghostly energy took hold of the papers with a black telekinetic haze and he looked through them.
After a few minutes of silence, he finally spoke up, Aura jumping automatically and Hallow floating closer to let her hug him like a plush doll.
"We see you're a very new team, indeed. And of the Rescuer's Guild, at that. A very good start." He began rambling a bit under his breath, although neither Hallow nor Aura could make out what he was saying. "And we see you've wasted no time in assisting Sapling Village and Barty's Bluff. We take it you've done no harm?"
"Only in self-defense," Hallow answered. "We were forced into battle a couple of times, both of which were initiated by the Drifloon. Violence is something we choose as a last resort."
This got a nod from Jury as he returned his attention to their papers, rambling some more to himself before continuing on. "And we see your pasts have been rough." He looked to Aura, not at all bothered in asking a personal question. "Was there any reason your parents left you? Did you do something criminal to earn their discontent?"
"No!" Aura stated defensively, almost forgetting her fear as she shook her head. "I just wasn't developing my psychic abilities fast enough and they just up and left me!" Her fear was making her more sensitive about the subject than usual and she snuggled her face into the hollow shell in her grasp.
"We see," Jury stated calmly, looking over the papers once more before looking back to Aura once again. "We also see nothing else on record for you, child. Perhaps you should step outside whilst we discuss a certain matter with your partner."
Whimpering, Aura pulled her face away, looking at the Shedinja before glancing at the Spiritomb. Giving a shaky nod, she released her companion and headed out the office, making no effort to hide her haste. Watching her leave, Hallow would sigh with relief if he could, knowing that Aura's stress was over for the time being.
"Now," Jury started, looking directly at his fellow Ghost-type with a hard look on his serrated face and Hallow knew what this would be about before anything else was even said. "It shows on the paper that you've murdered your own brother."
"Murder, no," Hallow denied calmly, shaking his body. "Assisted Suicide would be a more accurate term. My brother was suffering, and I had no choice." He would've winced as his memories went back to that day, and he fought through it to continue his explanation. "He wanted to die, and it caused me a great amount of pain to grant his wish. If there was any other alternative, trust me sir, I would've gone with it, but what's done is done and I know he's happier this way."
The Spiritomb said nothing in response, just watching the Shedinja carefully. Hallow wasn't faltered and waited patiently for Jury to reach his own conclusions. After a few moments, the Forbidden Pokemon finally spoke up.
"Very well, we'll choose to believe you. But we'll be keeping tabs on you during your stay in our town and if we hear anything, we'll make sure you pay the price dearly. Are we understood?"
"Of course," Hallow stated, nodding. "Are we done here?"
"Indeed," the Spiritomb answered, returning the papers. "We'll be sure to provide you both with a place to stay, as we anticipate these Tasks to span over the course of several days. We're not too picky on which you and your partner choose to start with, but we do expect at least a few to be done."
"Yes, sir. Thank you." Hallow gave a polite bow before floating out to reunite with Aura, who made no hesitation in throwing herself against him in another hug.
"Can we go home yet?"
But at least the hardest part was done.
I'm submitting all my chapters at once, seeing how eager I am to share, plus how tired and sleepy I've been lately. Plus, I have a couple other stories in the making, so I might as well get this one out of the way! :)
