Prologue
Pokémon. Some call us genetic mutants, some call us demigods, others witches. Whatever we are, we are something better than human and we are, to say the least, awesome. We are born like regular humans, but born a certain Pokémon that looks human until we start to let our powers slip. Then we start to show characteris. Tails, ears, horns, claws... spoons, you get the point. We do our best to stay hidden from humans, the masses still know nothing about us.
Pokémon fight, it's in our nature. We fight over territory, arguments, family feuds, and control over various enterprises. We also fight for the simple reason that for every victory, we gain new powers and some people can't handle that kind of thing. Power I mean. Especially since when Pokémon fight and get stronger, they change, evolve into a bigger, more powerful form. So we fight to achieve that, even if we only do it once. The biggest of these underground fights is between apple and google. Personally, I like the android better, but I jailbroke it so it could sync my iTunes music. They should just combine anyway, all the bloodshed over which phone is used more is stupid and annoying to clean up.
We fight over stuff like this to control areas and gain power, money and so on. We do our best not to kill each other, but things happen. There are agencies, police forces if you will, that keep some of these battle from escalating too far. They're called Rangers but it's way too much bureaucracy involved. When something really needs to be cleaned up, usually bounty hunters are called on. We get stuff done.
But I'll get back to that in just a second.
There are many different types of Pokémon so far. Some think they're better than others, even though we all are basically the same. Even though we are on a higher level than humans, we still have racism. Speciesism? Whatever, the point is some types are discriminated against. Ghost types are seen as creepy people who can't be trusted. Everyone is scared of them. They're dangerous. The only thing worse than a ghost type, is a dark type. People believe dark type reflects your heart. Ghost and dark types aren't discriminated against like my fellow brothers and sisters during the time of Jim Crow, but it's still pretty bad. People give dark and ghost types odd looks and don't usually let them play in any reindeer games. All in all being a dark type is pretty bad unless you're around people who don't care that much.
Thank you, California.
And if you choose to be a dark type, God help you.
I am Erebus Knight, born an Eevee.
I evolved into an Umbreon, a dog like Pokémon that's connected to the moon.
I am a dark type.
I work alongside other dark types, ghost types, and even a few grass and flying types. We control a small chain of donut shops in the bay area and our specialty is the "famous" double decker chocolate donut with chocolate sauce and chocolate chips. Basically a heart attack waiting to happen. It's good money, and an even better cover.
On the real, we're bounty hunters. We handle groups that go out of control. We tuss them up when the Pokémon Rangers' stupid bureaucracy gets in the way. We destroy their business, wreck their equipment, and just make sure no one could get hurt because of some crazy bitches running around. By any means necessary.
Why? because we're the only ones who has the balls to do it.
Chapter 1
"Oh my god, E," My friend Lilith, a roselia, a grass type, squealed. She sat down opposite of me on the picnic table I was hanging out at during lunch at school. Lilith just got transferred here to help me out in my territory and I was curious to see how her first day went.
"What happened?" I asked, smirking a little.
"I just got out of media and I got partnered with this cute guy, Oliver!" I glanced behind her and found myself locked in eye contact with Oliver. "And we spent SO much time together and he's super funny and sweet!" She sighed. "Too bad he's human."
"Breloom," I said. Breloom were half grass half fighting type Pokémon and in my opinion they were best of both worlds. Not many hybrids can pull it off.
"He's a breloom?" I nodded and she squealed. "How do you know?"
"We go to the gym together." Gyms are areas for younger Pokémon to stretch our tails out. We played games, raced, spared, it was great! There were even a few other dark types so I wasn't... alone.
"Is gym held tonight?" I nodded. She squealed. "Is Oliver a good guy?"
"I would tap that."
Lilith playfully slapped me.
"Seriously though? He's pretty chill. A little obnoxious, but chill. You should tap that, he's single."
Lilith's slightly brown skin started to blush. She started muttering to herself in spanish and shook her head.
"Seriously, just-" I held my hand up to my face like I was holding a pole and I poked my opposite cheek out with my tongue making it too like I was sucking a dick.
Lilith started blushing harder. "Stop it...! Is Oliver look over here?" I looked behind her and again I locked eyes with Oliver and his twin was whispering about something.
I looked back at Lilith. "Yea, he is, invite him to hangout." As she started to protest, I waved over Oliver and his twin, Rosen (get it? ROSEn?), another breloom.
She glanced behind her and blushed even more as she saw the twins coming. the looked back at me. "Before they come over, how's Aaron doing?"
"He's doing fine, you'll meet him at the gym." Aaron was my charge, a riolu. An odd combination of steel and fighting types who can use the mystical force known as aura. I was told to protect him because some... undesirable Pokémon could be after an aura controlling fighter. He was a grade younger than me and drove me everywhere. We were good friends, well more than that. I've been protecting him even before I was posted as his charge. I was sort of his older brother. His parents died a little while after he was born. I didn't know how. For all I knew some snake-like asshole found out how to get in his house from the secret keeper and avada kadavaded his parents. Or maybe he's from another planet that was dying and his parents died in the resulting explosion but managed to send him here.
However his parents died, if they are truly dead, it didn't really matter. Aaron's aunt took care of the legal stuff while I taught him life lessons and helped him learn. The sex talk was awkward as hell, but I was meant to protect him for the last five years. No one would get past me. Not a nidoqueen, a swarm of golbat, and the biggest Muk I've ever seen. Needless to say, I showered for about a week straight after that fight. "Hey Oliver, Rosen," I said as they sat down next to me.
They twined a "hey" back at me.
"I'm guessing you've already met Lilith, she's a roselia."
The twins both shushed me and looked around. "Don't say that outloud," Rosen hissed. "Humans can't know about us."
I rolled my eyes. "No one could hear me anyway."
"You still need to be careful," Oliver hissed.
"Ok, I promise to be careful." I did a mock "scout's honor" hand gesture. "Lilith has something to ask you, Oliver." I started texting Aaron about volleyball. We play in a year around club. I was recently put in charge of practices and stuff because no one else would step up. Aaron was wondering what the practice would be like today. I told him I posted on the team's facebook page that we'd practice at the Y around 4:30 so me and him could have time for MCJROTC armed drill team.
"Is that ok with you, E?" Lilith asked. I raised an eyebrow at her. "We're coming over to your apartment to eat and hangout and stuff."
I shrugged. Was I smiling? Glaring? I wasn't good with facial expressions. Whatever. "Sure, volleyball's over around 5:30, I should be home by 6."
"Ok," Lilith said. The bell rang and I slipped away.
After school
Aaron and I stood face to face holding drill rifles. He was wearing a pair of plaid shorts and a gray GIANTS t-shirt. He was about half a head shorter than me and just as skinny. His muscles were sort of toned but he didn't fight as much as I did.
We swung and spun heavy rifles around and over our heads and then threw them at each other, catching each others at a moments notice. Drill was fun. "So things have been quiet lately," Aaron said, as we began to do 'tick tock' over and over.
"Ever since that blaziken, we've really had a break," I said, grunting as I stopped my rifle. "But you know that they say... calm before the st-"
"No talking!" the drill leader, Michael barked. "Unless it's about drill or ROTC."
I bit back about thirty different snide comments that would sent Michael's soul tumbling into an abyss where suicide would be the only exit. Yeah dark types aren't evil but... we're still pretty,well, dark. Instead I just kept spinning my rifle and doing throws and stuff with Aaron until it was time to pack up. We that was all wrapped up, Michael called up to huddle up.
"Good practice," he said. "We're ready for competition! Now if only if SOME of us could stop talking-" he gave Aaron and I pointed looks and I had a inclination to throw him from somewhere high. "Dismissed."
"I can't STAND Michael!" I growled, slamming the door to Aaron's Honda Element.
"Yea, he can be a dick," Aaron said, starting up the car.
"He has no leadership qualities whatsoever!" I ran my hand through my hair and exhaled.
"What are we doing for volleyball?"
"Just some drills and shit, something easy. We just had a win, so I think we should have some fun and pretend a ball is someone we hate and spike it to the ground."
"That one's mostly for you, huh?"
"YEP!"
"So you're coming to the gym with us later, right?" I asked Aaron as we got closer to my place. "it starts at 8:30"
"Umm... not sure. I got homework and we already put in a hard day's work."
"Boo hoo hoo!" I laughed. "Finish your math and come over. Lilith and a couple of her friends will be there."
"I don't know if I want to go..."
"...why?"
"...Giovanni scares me..."
"Mmmm..." I nodded. Giovanni was a medicham (half fighting, half psychic type) and the Golden Boy. He's seen as perfect by a lot of the upper level Pokémon. He's never lost a fight and they've even sent him with the Rangers a couple times which is seen as a pretty big deal (if only they knew what I did).
It was also no secret there's a lot of tension between us. Not only is GIovanni an extreme homophobe but also HATES dark types and even more than that, anyone who can compete with him. Basically I'm the trifecta of things he hates.
"Don't worry about him," I said. "I can handle him. He's also a fighting type, so I have a slight advantage by using my psychic moves."
"Slightly."
"Shut up!" I rolled my eyes. "Come over when you're done with your homework."
"Ok, no problem, Darkness!" Aaron said as he pulled into my complex.
"Darkness brothas!" I hollered. "They should've never gave y'all niggas any money! Fuck yo' couch nigga, FUCK YO COUCH!" If you didn't think I was black, now you know.
We were laughing and giggling as he pulled into the last corner of my apartment complex. It was nice. Aaron was one of the few people I could let myself go with
But the second I saw Giovanni standing with his girlfriend, Lilith, the twins, and this dude named Tien, my good mood jumped off a fucking cliff and died. I glanced at Aaron. "God I hope you can finish your homework quick!" I said.
"I really don't want to go now," Aaron said.
"Don't you DARE feel like you can't come over MY house," I declared.
He hesitated. "Whatcha cookin'?" he asked.
I laughed. I grabbed my bags and jumped out the car. "Chicken and grits!" I hollered as I slammed the door. Aaron shook his head and laughed as he began to drive all the three blocks to his house. I hefted my bags towards the little group of people about to intrude upon my home... and Lilith... and the twins... and Tien.
I was pretty sure the smile on my face was either gone or looked fake as fuck as I greeted them. They followed me up to my apartment. I unlocked the door and threw my bags near my bedroom door. The apartment was kind of big. I had a living room, a combined kitchen and eating area, a master bedroom (mine) with its own bathroom, and two other bedrooms with a conjoined bathroom. The carpet was a light brown and the walls were shiny white. It was pretty clean, I was usually here just to shit, shower, and shave.
"Have a seat," I said. "Make yourselves at home." I meant that for all of them... except one. Guess which one. As I stated getting things together, I glanced over to the group. There was Lilith, a shorter latina girl with long black hair. She's bubbly and has a tendency to ramble. She was talking to Giovanni's girl, Abby, a kadabra who's so dumb. Stereotypically speaking, kadabras were powerful pure psychic types that were supposed to be smart. Abby, however, was not. Honestly, the bitch claimed America was in a civil war with North Korea. For those of you who are currently stoned off your ass, a civil war is a war between citizens of the same country, not almost about to nuke some other race halfway across the world.
Aaron and I tried to figure out why such a fucking Golden Boy like Giovanni would date a bimbo that let that kind of stupid shit out of her mouth. We came to the conclusion that it wasn't about what came out of her mouth but what goes in it (or rather comes in it). She was very short, had short brunette hair, tittles, and was very curvy.
The twins... we're cool. Not much to tell really. They were fraternal so there isn't much of a problem telling Oliver and Rosen apart, however some dumb shit always walks up to Oliver saying "Hey, Rosen!" They were mid sized and both stalky. Their faces were accustomed to smiling and goofing off. They were both kind of bulky but in a fit way and according to Tien, they were "fat little oompa loompas growing up."
Tien is another story. I knew him well from this project, he, the twin, and I worked on together last year in english class. This shrimpy-yet-bulky guy needed to talk more. When he actually did, he was funny and rolled with my insanity. Which is weird considering he's my opposite. Literally, he's an espeon. The psychic type, more feline version of umbreon. He was quite possibly the only one who could kick my ass other than Golden Boy, mostly because espeon can use bug type moves... ugh bugs... Even better, he doesn't really care I'm a dark type. Or gay. Neither do the twins. Abby on the other hand is terrified of me. One glance from me will make her jump through the fucking roof. I'm surprised Golden Boy didn't have to drag her in here.
Which made me wonder why the fuck he was here. He doesn't like me at all. Why would he come into my home? Why the hell did he seriously want to come in my house? Did he think I would steal his friends? Did he think I was trying to weed my way into his life to corrupt others to be like me?
Whatever.
/Break\
If you're going to entertain a group of people but don't plan on being in the conversations, I suggest high quality earphones and underground rap. Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko, Craig Smith, all that stuff. Get's you so into the music, you kind of forget what's around you.
I finished the chow mein and put that in a giant bowl and stuffed it into the oven to keep warm. When I turned around, Lilith was standing right there. She pulled out one of my earphones.
"You're really sociable this evening," she said. "We've been trying to talk to you for a while."
I forced a smile. "Sorry, got caught up in Tech N9ne and my mind went somewhere else." As far away from Golden Boy as possible.
"What Tech N9ne are you listening to?"
I smiled. I pulled out my iDriod (jailbreaking your droid so it'll sync with iTunes, for the win!) and fiddled with some of the controls for a second. In a moment, hardcore rap music blared on the wireless speakers I set up throughout the apartment. Lilith started nodding her head and Tien seemed to be getting into it. The twins were looking at me like this was the last thing they expected to be playing on my speakers. I smiled as started to groove to the music, then my eyes trailed to Giovanni and Abby.
Listening to the lyrics, I guess I could see why Giovanni had a protective arm around his cowering girlfriend. The song was low and creepy and the chorus went "When I was one, and a two, and a three, and a four I knew I was a special one who had a little more And they wondered why I was plotting, rotten to the core It was nothing but an itty-bitty demon...! There's a demon inside of me! Can I kill it? Hell naw! Can I kill it? Hell naw! Can I kill it? Hell naw!..." I can see why they would fear a dark type playing it. So I stopped the music and set my iDroid down on the counter and went back to cooking.
Tien
Erebus was a cool guy when he wasn't intentionally sneaking up on people. He was just as nice as any other person so why should it matter what kind of music he listened it, who he decides to like, or that he went Umbreon. He's still a nice enough guy, again when he wasn't sneaking up on you.
That's why I said I would go over his place with the twins. Honestly, it seemed like a fun time. I began to wonder why, after most of us decided to go, Giovanni would declare he and Abby were coming along. It made no sense. Especially since no one said anything to Erebus about it.
I realized that wasn't a good idea when Erebus got home and his demeanor changed completely. When he greeted us, his smile seemed real, but his eyes told a different story. We sat around his kitchen table and talked about Pokémon things when we realized that our host wasn't involved in the conversation at all. Lilith tried to get his attention, but he was preoccupied with his music and cooking so Lilith skipped over while he put the chow mein in the oven.
After he and Lilith had a little back and forth, Erebus started playing some dark rap music that I heard my brother, Ian, blasting when the 'rents weren't home. To be honest, it was pretty good. I watched Erebus as he slowly started to loosen up. I saw him start to sway and dance to the music and even start to lip sync. As his eyes slowly started to brighten, he saw something and shut the music off. I looked around to see what could have made him change so suddenly. Of course it was Abby pressed up against Giovanni as if Erebus might suddenly decide to rape and kill us all. As if.
"Cut the music back on!" Lilith protested.
Erebus shook his head. He turned to Lilith like he was about to say something when he stopped himself. He looked past her and just above us and smirked. "When the hell did you get here?"
"About the same time the neena started playing," a voice came from above of us. We all jumped up and Giovanni got into a fighting stance. "Relax," the newcomer said, fading out of existence. "I'm a friend," he said as he appeared mid stride in front of Erebus. They shook hands and pulled one another into a half hug.
"Hey, Morty," Erebus said. He turned to us. "This is Morty, a haunter- a ghost type who really needs to stop trying to scare people."
A wicked grin spread across Morty's face. "But it's so fun! And you do it too!"
"To people I know!" Erebus half smirked.
"Whatever!" Morty said, waving his hand dismissively. "Do me a favor and bring the neena back."
"Don't play that crap any more," a voice rang out.
"Giovanni, don't be a dick," Rosen said.
"Yea, we're guest here," Oliver said.
"An uninvited one," I heard someone mutter. I'm pretty sure Erebus let that one slip but I couldn't be sure.
"I don't want to heard that God-awful music." Giovanni said. He acted like he owned the place. I kind of agreed with him, now that I think about it. I could see the others nodding their heads. Abby, the twins, even Lilith seemed unsure.
Morty snorted. I finally looked him up and down. He was wearing a Marine Corps. muscle shirt that showed off pale, but strong looking arms. He wore a pair of black workouts shorts. He had a build somewhere between a runner and a hockey player. His hazel like eyes shone with mischief as he took in Giovanni. "Nice try, psychic," he finally said. "But this ain't your house. I suggest you step off."
Giovanni's eyes narrowed. "What are you going to do, ghost."
Morty got a crazy grin on his face, showing off his silver braces. His dirty blonde hair turned a tint of purple and suddenly grew longer.
"This is going to be good," Erebus muttered, not looking up. I don't see how it could be. Despite the fact that Psychics are weak against ghost and ghost are immune to fighting, Morty was still susceptible to Giovanni's strong psychic attacks.
Giovanni stood and got ready for a fight. Morty's grin only got crazier, then he did the oddest thing. He opened his now huge and jagged mouth and stuck out his tongue. It grew to a humungous length and with a flick of his neck, Morty had hit Giovanni with a powerful lick attack.
Giovanni clenched his teeth in anger. Morty pulled his tongue back and glowed with a faint tint of purple. Giovanni's hair had turned pink in return and his legs started to turn pink as well. They were powering up, showing their traits.
Giovanni's eyes glowed a faint pink as he flung his hand out. The masses of blueish purple energy formed as Giovanni unleashed a powerful psyshock attack. Morty just grinned. He leaned away from the first mass, sidestepped the second, but the third hit him square in the chest, sending him flying back.
Morty groaned and got back up to his feet. He looked like he was struggling. I almost felt bad for the poor ghost type. He was breathing hard and clutching his chest, head hung low. Morty slowly brought his head up and revealed... a huge grin spread across his face. That grin launched itself at us. Before Morty reached Giovanni however, Giovanni was slammed into the wall with a powerful confusion attack while Morty was sent flying into the couch on the other side of the room..
"Not in the house," Erebus said, a faint yellow ring around the back of his outstretched hand. He brought it down and continued to fry the chicken. From the coach, Morty waved his hand and Erebus' phone flew into the ghost's hand. He unlocked it and started going through it. There was so much tension in the air you could practically cut it with a knife. And the silence was deafening. I jumped in my seat when there was a knock at the door. Without looking up, Erebus waved a hand and the door flew open.
"Hey, Aaron," he said. "Foods just about ready, grab a plate-"
"Hell yeah!" Morty yelled. "You have this song?"
"Lamborghini Mercy yo' chick she so thirsty..."
Erebus smiled. "Yea, the song is so stupid but it's catchy."
"And you don't even drive..." Giovanni sneered over the music.
Erebus raised an eyebrow at him. He flicked his hand and the front door closed. "I have my license. I don't drive because I don't have a car."
"I can afford one," Giovanni said, smiling. "I drive. I don't have to be driven around by someone younger than me." Oh God he's playing this game. Giovanni's playing his game where he emasculated his competition. He's trying to show he is the best of the best. He needed to show his dick was the biggest.
"Didn't your parents buy that for you," Abby said, then she gasped. Giovanni's face had turned into a glare that could rival an absol's.
"That's not the point," Giovanni growled. He turned his attention to Erebus. "At least myfamily can afford to buy me an SUV. For me and my friends to ride in."
Erebus shook his head, rolled his eyes, and exhaled. He ran his hand through his hair and said, "Food's ready. Lilith, if you want your peanut butter crackers, the crackers are in the cabinet next to the peanut butter."
Lilith grabbed Oliver by the hand. "Come help me!" she said.
"Oh this song's even better!" Morty yelled.
"Listen to these tracks, BITCH!"
Erebus smirked and started dancing as he started making plates for everyone, setting some on the counter area. Yes everyone, I counted, even Giovanni had a plate. Erebus took three and walked over to the couch. He set the plates on the side table. I walked over to grab myself and Rosen a plate as Erebus asked, "Morty, wanna see something funny?"
Morty grinned like a maniac. Erebus bounded past me into the fridge, he pulled out a giant bottle of Smirnoff Ice. Morty laughed. "Bring that over here."
Erebus walked over to Morty, undoing the cap. Morty got up, turned around and leaned back, opening his mouth. Lilith started giggling too. She, Erebus, and Aaron started singing along as Erebus poured vodka down Morty's throat.
"She said look ma no hands.."
Erebus set the bottle right back up the same time Morty closed his mouth and stood up. He started dancing to the song back to his seat on the couch next to Aaron. Erebus came over and sat next to Morty, draping his legs over his friend's lap. He reached over and grabbed their three plates and they dug in. They instantly jumped into a conversation about playing sports with humans. I sat next to Rosen, Oliver, and Abby. Before I could even take a bite out of Erebus' cooking, he called me over. "Hey, Tien, Rosen, come here, we got a question for you two."
Rosen and I picked up our plates and walked over to the couch. We stood there awkwardly for a moment before Erebus said, "Well, have a seat!" With a wave of his hand, the other, smaller couch pulled itself up behind Rosen and I and we both sat down hard. "Tien, you do wrestling with the humans, and Rosen you play soccer with them. Isn't it easy as hell to hold yourself back?"
I shrugged. "Kind of. As long as I don't get too angry, I'm fine."
"And you don't use your powers at all?" Morty asked me.
I shook my head. "I hold them back."
"Doesn't that throw off your game though?"
"Yea but it makes it fair."
Morty nodded as he considered this. "What about you... Rosen, was it? Soccer is a lot more competitive than anything, how do you deal with it?"
"It's not really a problem for me."
"Yea, Rosen is pretty mellow," Erebus said, grinning.
Rosen cracked a smile back.
"See, so it is fair that I play volleyball," Erebus said. "And if I run across a fellow Pokémon who tries to cheat, I handle it."
Morty rolled his eyes. "How?"
"Status effect move, get them ejected from the game... I don't do anything rash." I think he said that more for our sake than anything. Erebus turned to us. "So how's school?"
Generic conversation ensued! There really wasn't much else for us to talk about. We sat around eating for the longest time, but Erebus, as always, made off-hand comments or jokes that started to make us all laugh. He picked on Aaron and I the most. I have no clue why he would make fun of Aaron so much, but he and I, being literal opposites, probably made him more inclined to mess with me- and I was an easy target, I suppose.
Oliver and Lilith stayed in the kitchen, flirting it up while Rosen and I talked to Aaron, Morty, and Erebus. It was kind of nice, sitting around talking to new people. Usually I'm just around Giovanni's normal crew of people. We were all really tight but there was something missing. I was glad to be spending time with someone other than Giovanni for once.
Hmm... Giovanni. He was still at the kitchen table, glaring, obviously not in a good mood. Abby sat next to him looking like a punished dog.
"Time for gym!" Erebus undraped his legs from Morty. "Put your dishes in the sink, I'll handle them later."
Erebus
Once all the dishes were in the sink, we had to decide who was driving.
"We should take the least amount of cars possible," Lilith announced. "I'll drive with Abby, Oliver, and Rosen, they can ride with me. Morty you going?"
"No, I don't really go to your guys' gym." And with that, he faded out.
"So then... Giovanni, you wanna drive?"
I rolled my eyes at that one. I knew his response would be somewhere along the lines of 'No I don't want to drive these losers' so I just said, "I'm riding with Aaron."
Lilith nodded and then said the words that nearly made me blow a gasket. "Ok then, Giovanni and Tien, you can ride with him."
Because that seemed like a fucking peachy idea.
When we got into Aaron's car, I immediately blasted the first CD that loaded. Turns out Aaron had been rocking out to the old school rap playlist I made for him. So I sung along to Rapper's Delight, It's Tricky, and Party Up, most of the way. After that I kept fast forwarding through songs.
"Eventually," Aaron said, "You're going to find another song you like, they're your songs!"
"Eventually," I agreed, hitting fast forward again.
The gym was held in IHS on the other side of town so it was a long ride. Giovanni was scowling in the back seat and Tien looked to fall asleep despite the volume of the music. Aaron pulled into IHS and parked next to Lilith's maroon 2012 audi Q4. I find it odd how she has a audi Q4, brand new, top of the line, fully customized to fit her needs and doesn't even go on hardcore missions for our, uh, line of work. I bust my ass pretty much every week busting OTHER people's asses and yet I've been car-less for almost an entire year? Where the fuck is my caddy? Or lambo? Hell, I'd take a fucking ford focus... Ok no I wouldn't, I'd set that shit on fire. Ford stands for Found On Roadside Dead.
Rant over.
Anyway, Aaron parked, and we all hopped out. I wrapped my arm around Aaron's shoulder and linked arms with Lilith. "Let the fun begin."
The gym leader, Whitney, a miltank, had us partner up and naturally I went with Aaron. The twins partnered up, the girls partnered , and that left Tien to be stuck with Golden Boy.
Whitney skipped in front of us when we were all partnered up. Her pink hair shimmered in the air and her smile lit up the room. "Today we're going to work on partnered attacks. With your partner, figure out a combo move you can do. First partners to master learn the skill and the best partners will receive a prize."
Tien
Giovanni and I couldn't figure out how to combine moves. He kept wanting me to boost his special fight moves with some sort of psychic boost, but we were totally out of sync. He would put so much power into one attack, I couldn't keep up and the move would dissolve. Giovanni was way too strong.
"Come on, dude," the way he said dude made it sound like a swear word. "Get on my level!"
"Start off slower," I said back. He leaned forward and cocked an ear at me. Ok so I talk quietly sometimes, especially when I'm nervous. "I said 'start slower.'"
"Just get on my level!" GIovanni said bitterly. "We have to get this right first!"
He was right. I had to get on his level and win whatever prize. Had to win. Had to do it first. No other option. Had to achieve this first, we had to-
ZAP! FLASH! BANG!
There was a bright flash of light and an explosion. Everyone was stunned into silence. We were all looking to the other side of the room.
"Well... that happened," Erebus said, dusting his hands off. He turned toward Whitney. "I believe we win the first part of that challenge."
Whitney smiled and started to wade through the still shocked crowd. Giovanni, of course, was the first to speak. "How do we know you did it first?" he protested.
Erebus looked over at us. Then he jerked a thumb to the wall. "The giant hole, maybe," he said in the best Dr. Zoidberg impression I've ever heard.
Giovanni growled as Whitney handed Aaron and Erebus two full restores each. "Let's do this," Giovanni growled to me.
We finally decided that I would be the base with a signal beam attack, a bug type move, and he would boast it with a simple psyshock attack. It took a couple tries but we managed just in time for us to show off for part two of the challenge.
"To decide who mastered their combined attack the best," Whitney began, "I have set up wooden dummies to pop up, some will display citizens, others will display criminals. You and your partner must blast the bad ones, while leaving the good ones in tact in a certain amount of time. Who's first?"
Not many people who went up were able to do it. No one scored higher than a 51 out of 100. I didn't expect any to get any higher than that.
That is, until my friends went up.
The twins went up and combined a bullet seed and an energy ball attack and ended up with an 83. I was kind of surprised to see Lilith and Abby work so well together. Abby did a psychic boost on Lilith's petal dance. WIth their storm of petals, the scored a 95.
Our turn.
I got up on stage and tried to ignore all the eyes on me.
"Go, Tien, you smexy beast!" Rosen yelled. I felt my face heat up and I smiled. My friends always knew how to embarass me. I calmed down and focused. In an instant I felt the changes happen. I felt my ears elongate and fork out. I always hated that. My ears were so floppy and big, I just felt like a weirdo.
I felt my forked tail start to poke out from my cargo shorts, and finally my small red gem poked out of my forehead. I opened my eyes and Giovanni stood in front of my, hair pink, legs pink, and his usual chocolate-pudding-colored skin was slightly paler. He nodded at me. I nodded back. he called for Whitney to let us begin. There was a buzzer.
To my left, a wooden cutout of a man dressed in all black and holding a knife. I shot off a quick signal beam and Giovanni boosted it with a psywave. Giovanni directed the beam and blasted the cut out to pieces. I poured my power into that single attack and Giovanni continued to direct it, missing all the "good cut outs" and obliterating all the bad ones. When we were done we both looked at the scoreboard. Perfect 100 out of 100! Giovanni held up his hands and shouted out a "Whoo!" He started to air guitar, feeding off the energy of the now fanatic crowd.
"Alright, that's enough," Whitney called. "It's time for the last group to go on."
As Giovanni and I left the stage, Erebus and Aaron walked on stage. Erebus looked bored out of his mind. He straight up looked like a kid sitting in math class or someone looking through tumblr and not being able to find anything good. Aaron however looked nervous next to his friend. His eyes were wide and he kept glancing around. When they had finally got to the center, Erebus turned to face Aaron. Aaron slowly started to show his riolu parts. His face had black making go across them, his ears drooped a little and turned black, the backs of his hands had silverish nubs popped out.
When he was done, Erebus shifted. If I'd blinked, I would've missed it. He ears popped out, all black with yellow rings near the tips. His tail sprang loose and like his ears, had a yellow ring around it near the tip. Yellow rings also appeared on the backs of his hands and knees. As I looked him up and down I couldn't help but feel like there was a ring missing somewhere and his eyes... They were still normal colored. Umbreon had bright red eyes that were almost terrifying. Erebus was holding back.
To my surprise, Erebus started to crackle with electricity.
"Zap cannon," I heard Lilith giggle.
"What?" Oliver asked.
"Erebus, and all umbreon for that matter, can learn zap cannon, an electric type move," Lilith explained. "But E took it a step further thanks to his obsession with Naruto. He learned how to channel the electrical current throughout his body, like Sasuke. And now Aaron's going to amp it up with his aura powers."
Whitney called for this duo to start and sure enough Aaron started to glow blue. As one, Erebus and Aaron moved, with a giant blast of energy. It looked almost like electricity, but it looked blurry. They moved together using what looked like Northern Shaolin style of kung fu. As they blasted the last target, the buzzer rang out. Aaron and Erebus both turned back to human form in an instant. Erebus glanced at the scoreboard and smirked. He nudged Aaron and pointed. I looked too... Perfect 100 out of 100...!
Giovanni growled. He jumped all the way from his seat to the edge of the stage. I quickly followed. As we walked toward the duo, Erebus took a step forward, one foot slightly at an angle, his body slightly following suite. His hands were at his sides, but tense like they would snap up at any moment and his eyes were dark.
"We won that!" Giovanni hollered.
"Our time was was faster," Erebus stated calmly.
"Bullshit! You took forever before you even started!"
Erebus shrugged. "And yet..." was all he said.
Giovannie growled.
"We won!" Aaron suddenly said. "Just... leave us alone."
Giovanni turned to Aaron. His fist suddenly caught fire and he lunged at Aaron. Aaron flinched and put his hands but Giovanni's fist never got the chance to connect. Erebus stepped in between the two and caught Giovanni at the wrist. Erebus did some crazy wax-on-wax-off style and made Giovanni stumble and the flames went out. With his other hand, Erebus palmed Giovanni in the chest causing him to stumble back further. Giovanni righted himself and started to charge again.
"That's enough!" Whitney called putting some bass into her voice. Giovanni's foot got caught by something. I'm guessing on an ice beam attack from Whitney. "Giovanni and Tien got the faster time- HOWEVER!... Erebus and Aaron displayed much more mastery of the skill. Now... I suppose if you want... we could have a double battle to decide this..."
Giovanni twisted his foot expertly, breaking the ice his foot was encased in. He cracked his knuckles and shifted into his medicham-ish form. I, quickly as I could, shifted as well. A shadow passed over Erebus and he was completely ready with Aaron by his side. I also noticed something different about Erebus... and odd hue of yellow on his forehead. Whatever I couldn't take a chance and get distracted. These two were dangerous.
Before anything else could be said or done, Erebus stopped. He reached into his pocket and pulled out... pulled out his phone!
"Yea... yea... ok... one sec," Erebus put his hand on his phone. He looked to Whitney. "What's the prize?"
Whitney pulled out two soothe bells.
Erebus made a face. "We're good, you win or whatever not worth it." Erebus shifted back, as he turned on his heel and went back to talking on his phone. Aaron stood there awkwardly until Lilith called him over.
When I looked at Giovanni, he looked steaming mad. "Did he just deny my challenge!? Did he seriously just walk off like that?"
"Yes he did!" some ghost type chick yelled out. "Said it wasn't worth it too!" She and some other ghost types began to snicker. That did not help Giovanni's mood at all.
"Enough," Whitney called one again. "Giovanni, Tien, please come with me."
"I can't believe she wants us to do this!" Giovanni had been ranting and raving for the longest time.
"She wants you to do it, last time I checked," Rosen said with a grin.
"That's right," Oliver concurred. "We don't have to do anything."
"You probably should go with Giovanni," Lilith purred to Oliver.
"Why?"
"Because I'll to be there more times than not," she said with a flirtatious smile. I've never seen such a blatant scene of flirting since Abby and Giovanni first got together. Speaking of which, Abby was cowering next to me instead of have her fingers happily interlocked with Giovanni's, and per ush.
"Well we better find him, Aaron needs to go home," Lilith said, gesturing to the poor junior standing next to her.
"He's over this way," Aaron said.
"Gotta love aura."
Erebus
I was standing alone in a corner tucked away at IHS. I waited for Martin Harris, a spiritomb, and a powerful one at that. His nickname is Mata but I never knew why. The temperature suddenly dropped a few degrees. I suddenly felt a hundred and eight different reason to run and hide under my covers and stay there until I died. Instead I smiled as Martin's body started to form.
He stood in front of me, dressed normally. He wore checkered vans, a pair of black skinny jeans, a black "Dirty & Nasty & Filthy & Dubstep" t-shirt with tattoo sleeves on that depicted angels versus demons. On one of his wrist, he wore a bracelet that read "H-21". Around his neck was a roman-like lantern medallion held by a chain and the links resembled daggers. He looked like an average teenager fighting against the man, you know, other than the fact that his face was a giant swirling vortex of purple spirits with big yellow eyes, one of which had a giant spiral in it.
"Hey, Martin," I said.
"Erebus, buddy, how you doin'?"
I shrugged. "Can't complain. And yourself?"
"Busy," he sighed, making a face. "Too busy, that's why I'm coming to you. A problem needs to be solved."
I raised an eyebrow. "What kind of problem?"
Martin smiled. "A little competition. Another donut chain has opened up and we need to handle it."
I felt myself smirk. "Really? Seems like a human problem to me."
Martin chuckled and shook his head. "If only it were that easy. They're another group of Pokémon. Intel has it they've developed a serum that gets people hooked."
"So I destroy their building so they can't open up?"
"That doesn't solve the problem of the serum. It's being brewed in San Francisco and if our information is correct it's set to be released and distributed in a few hours. The whole batch needs to be destroyed. One drop can, for lack of a better phrase, fuck a lot of people up. You need to get to San Fran and destroy the serum. Luckily it's all in one giant vat. I believe some C4 can handle that problem."
"Yeah but there's another problem, I don't have a way-" I stopped talking. I heard footsteps around the corner as well as people talking. Martin had already changed his face to normal, and hidden in his hand was a shadow ball.
I turned my head back at the corner expecting the worse. I could almost hear their...
"-to love aura," Lilith said. The group I left suddenly rounded the corner and stopped as they saw me there with Martin. He had long since extinguished his shadow ball and he was actually smiling. "Hello, Lilith," he exclaimed. "And Aaron as well."
"Hey, Martin," Lilith said with a tight smile, getting slightly closer to Aaron. "How've you been?"
"I've been well." Why does he talk like he's a thousand years old? He's barely a couple months older than me. "And I hope the same goes for you."
"Yea, I've been great. E and his friends have gotten me pretty used to this part of the Bay in just a couple days."
I reached over and tapped Martin on the shoulder to get his attention and suppressing the chill to the depths of my soul (what little of it I still have), I said, "So, like I said, I can't get to San Francisco."
Martin looked confused. "Why not?"
"Because I'm not borrowing Aaron or Lilith's car for that. And my last car sort of just... returned to nature, like Michael Kelso's van."
Martin suddenly slapped himself on the forehead. "Sorry about your last car but I knew I was forgetting something." He reached into his back pocket and tossed me a small black box.
I caught it and sucked in air. It was one of those new fangled keyless car keys for push to start vehicles. "Really?" I exclaimed.
Martin smiled. "You deserve it, Erebus. You do a lot and you should have a top of the line lambo."
"A lambo?" I said incredulously. "You couldn't have gotten me something a little more... low key?"
"Fuck low key."
"Well what kind of lambo is it? I hate two door cars because I can't fit." I guess that's what I get for being six-two. "I prefer SUVs, you know that, bro."
Martin raised an eyebrow. "You're seriously complaining after I go out and buy you a lambo AND customize if for you?"
I raised my own eyebrow. "You kind of caused my last car to... let's just say, not be usable." At this point in the conversation, I was surprised the others had stayed quiet. I knew Aaron didn't like Martin and Lilith was terrified of him, but the others couldn't tell he was a Pokémon and even if they could, they couldn't tell he was a spiritomb.
Martin brought his hand to his face in embarrassment. "My bad. But trust me, this lambo you'll like." He waved to me, Lilith, and Aaron. "I'll send you the directions later!" With that his mouth open up with and his body, from the neck down, turned into purple mist while one hundred and eight green blobs shot out of him disembodied head, which disappeared in a cloud of purple mist too. I blinked and turned to Aaron, smiling and dangling the keyless key.
"I think we're going to leave the Element here and have some fun!"
*for this fanfic's purpose, this is true
A/N So here's the first chapter, it's kind of slow start but believe me, it picks up. I have the whole thing story boarded so I'm hoping to update this thing as much as possible, maybe month to month bases considering most of the chapters will be short after this. Chapter 2 should be up by the time you actually get to this point so WHOOP there it is! An action scene is coming up very soon :P