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A Yearning for the Mud
Chapter One - The Prologue
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation. - T.S. Eliot
He was alone. Even at a late hour the city was alive, music and voices could be heard through the walls and vendors were still working on the boulevard, but none of it could comfort him. The sun had abandoned its post in the sky long ago and vanished below the skyline, off to brighten someone else's day. The moon was nowhere in sight and the stars, as usual, were overshadowed by the lights of Lumiose. The city's landmark shone the brightest and lent its ashen light to a young man as he sprinted through the city's dank alleyways. Stone, licked wet by rainfall, squelched under his shoes as he pumped his legs harder, the sounds of barking, squealing tires, and sirens all urging him to run faster.
A headlight flashed across the wall above him just as he darted out into a plaza. The moment he stopped moving the exhaustion took over. He hunched over, hands on his knees, as his lungs cried out for air. He raised his head in search of a place to hide and found nothing but an obelisk in the center of the plaza's field.
"Water." His head bobbed side to side, trying to focus in on the bubbling sound of running water.
His leg muscles throbbed in protest as he ran across the plaza and around a short curve into an avenue. He stopped in the middle of a stone bridge that connected the halves of the residential avenue, and turned to face the tower. While the waters leading to Lumiose's sewers churned under him he weighed his options, would Clemont be of any help or would hiding there make this into a bigger mess?
Before he had time to give it any further thought a pair of lights emerged from around the corner leading to another plaza. He recoiled from the beams and moved to turn back when another set of lights emerged, blocking his path.
Panic filled him as he raised his arms to block the lights. He took a cautious step back, but froze hearing the unmistakable sound of a Poké Ball being opened. He threw a glance over his shoulder in time to see a vibrant red beam shatter the darkness and form into a fiendish figure he couldn't quite recognize.
"Put your hands behind your head and get down on your knees!"
He flinched at the sound of a man's voice, magnified by a speaker, and nearly complied out of instinct, but his fear kept him frozen in place.
The four figures around him slowly tightened and more Poké Balls were launched and more Pokémon, of varying shapes and sizes, joined his pursuers along the edge of the avenue. A Poké Ball breaking open on the pavement just a few yards from him made him shudder and think to take off running, but he realized they had blocked him from escaping.
"Vileplume, use sleep powder."
Over the sound of his ragged breathing he heard a soft pop in the air and what felt like snow began to dust his arms. Although he had nowhere to go he backed up to the edge of the bridge and brought his arm across his nose.
"Wartortle, water gun!"
He whipped around to his left just in time for the gush of water to hit him, legs first. He moaned as the impact knocked him off balance, the rubber of his shoes slipped on the wet stone and he toppled over. His chest smacked the bridge before the stream of water pushed him over the edge to the icy black water below.
Panic flooded his mind and before he could manage to get his feet under him he hit the water at a slant. A shotgun blast of pain exploded through his right ankle, and his chest, still throbbing from the fall, hit the water like a canon. His sight vanished as he sunk and the water snaked into his nose and gagged him, trying desperately to fill his lungs.
He struggled to breach the surface as his throat tied itself into a knot. Voices ripped through the roar and slush of the water while his veins thundered with pumping blood as his body craved air. He flailed in the water, trying to find the surface, but everything was dark and cold, up was right and down was left; everything a maze of confusion.
He whirled around, the sound of pokémon moving in the water around him suddenly became as frightening as the thought that he might drown. While he struggled to right himself the water pushed and pulled him, to where he didn't know until he was slammed against a row of metal bars.
He coughed out the last of his air as his head broke the surface. He sputtered as a pair of glowing eyes attached to a serpentine body fell on him further down the canal. "Please," he cried. Wallace stopped resisting the water and let it push him back when he noticed his arm and shoulder slipped through a gap. He turned himself over, going with the current that pressed him harder against the bars and realized there was a sizable gap.
Angling his body and using the push of the water he attempted to squeeze through the bars. Thin as he was, he sucked in his stomach and pushed himself as hard as he could to fit. The cold metal bars might as well have been mountains threatening to break his ribs as he pushed harder.
A cry of desperation flew out from between his lips as he recalled a distant memory from his childhood. He'd dropped a ball behind his mother's dresser and was able to reach it, but not by pulling it out from the side. Rather than find another way to retrieve it, he continued to tug and pull the ball out and realized that by twisting and turning it the ball somehow came lose.
Imagining himself as simply stuck between two things, rather than trapped in a life or death situation, he twisted his body the best he could while tilting forward. To his surprise the bar against his chest shifted down against his ribs and he felt the pressure ease as his lower body slipped through.
Despite his best efforts to remain above water, beyond the bars the canal opened wider and deeper, causing the water to move at an alarming speed and it quickly dragged him back under into the darkness.
End of Chapter One
AN: Character submission is currently closed, but may reopen in the future.