AN: Hey guys! What's up? I really appreciate all the love and stuff I got on my last story, Crash Course! Anyways, this story is somewhat of a sequel to my first one, Light in the Dark. It takes place in the same reality as that one. It's set roughly a year after the events of the movie. And with that, I hope you enjoy the story! This is, obviously, copyright Disney, Nintendo, and anything else that doesn't belong to me. AKA, I don't own any of this.
The four friends sat at their usual bar table at Tappers, having fun on their little night out, as they typically just hung out separately or met up in Felix and Ralph's game. All around them the other people talked and made a subtle background noise, the light music behind it playing its loop. At the table, Felix wobbled and swayed unsteadily.
"Fix it, what's the matter with you?" the Sarge asked laughingly, questioning her husband's odd behavior.
"I do apologize, ma'am, I've had a bit of the hard stuff tonight and I feel just a little bit woozy." Felix apologized formally, before almost falling off his chair.
"Hammerboy, you had an apple cider. I've drank things closer to alcohol." Vanellope laughed, poking fun at Felix for being a lightweight. In reality he actually did have a drink, but it was a joke.
"Yeah, you two can both be our designated drivers, it's not like either of you could take a drink anyways." Calhoun said smugly, knocking Felix's hat off and grinning when he looked flustered trying to find it.
"Well of course I'd be a designated driver, I could drive circles around all of you even if I did get drunk." Vanellope said proudly, reaching for Ralph's abnormally large mug of beer as if to prove her point then and there.
"Which you are not going to do." Ralph scolded, and removed the large glass from her reach, placing it on the other side of him and far from her reach.
"Aww, why not? I could technically drink, I'm over 21 if you count my age plus my game's age. Pleeeaaase?" she whined, looking up pleadingly and trying to convince him to let her. It worked with just about everyone, it was kinda well-known that if she or any other racer made that face, all hope was lost and whoever they were trying to convince would surrender. A few people who had overheard the conversation looked concerned for how this would turn out, as it would be bad news if she got what she wanted.
Thankfully for everyone at Tappers, Ralph was immune. "No means no, kid, better luck next time."
"You're no fun, Stinkbrain…" She scowled up at him with crossed arms, upset that she didn't get to test her theory. She had a trick up her sleeve though.
When Ralph turned his back to talk, she quickly got up onto the table and took his drink quietly.
Snickering to herself, she put it under the table and drank some. There's no way this could backfire.
About ten minutes later, the whole glass having been finished off, she's not so sure about that. The oblivious Ralph has finally noticed his gigantic glass missing, and questions her about it.
"I have no *hic* idea what you're talking about." Vanellope slurred, grabbing the table to steady herself when she was in danger of falling over.
"Are you kidding me?! You drank it, really? After I told you not to?!" he demanded furiously, looking her in the eye.
"How do you *hic* know? I coulda been *hic* Ss…sarge…(THUD)"at this point, she falls off of the chair she'd been standing on, and gets up slowly.
"I don't feel so great….." she whines, clutching her stomach and putting a hand to her mouth. Ralph's eyes widen as he realizes what's about to happen and he quickly carries her to the bathroom.
"Not so fast….I'm gonna puke…" she groans, and then the two are out of hearing range for Felix and Calhoun.
"Fix-it, you might want to get your hammer ready, cause if you don't the kid's gonna be doing that all night." Felix sighs uncharacteristically, knowing that it'll be a mess, and heads over to the bathroom to help clear things up, leaving Calhoun to watch the table.
Soon they are back at the table, only after apologizing to Tapper for all the sugary puke he was going to find later.
"To be fair, I told you not to drink it." Ralph points out, casually taking a sip of his refilled cup, this time with non-alcoholic root beer.
"I never want to bring that up again." Vanellope grumbles angrily, before turning to look up at Ralph.
"Can we go back to my game now?" she asks, trying not to sound as hopeful as she was. Felix had fixed her head-and-stomach ache, but she still felt like calling it a night.
"Why? You love hanging out a Tappers, and we've got like two hours until you have to be asleep." Ralph asks back, trying to convince her to stay. He knew it was useless, if she decided something, it was happening and he was probably going to have to follow along with it.
"No reason, really." She shrugged it off. "Just, you know, to relax somewhere else."
"Fine…" Ralph mumbles standing up from his seat and leaving a tip and payment for the drinks he and Vanellope had at the table in front of it.
"Me an' the cavity are going back to her game. See you tomorrow, Felix." Ralph waves and starts toward the door.
"Have a good evening!" Felix calls happily.
"Night, wreck-it." Calhoun grunts a short goodbye and continues conversing with Felix.
Ralph and Vanellope exit Tappers, and head into the station. When they get there, they find a Pokémon trainer by the entrance, and he's yelling at a little Pokémon in front of him.
"Should we do something?" Vanellope whispers urgently to Ralph, quickly conveying the message that she was not pleased with the trainer and wanted to step in right away.
"Yes." Ralph prepares to charge, only to be stopped by the surge protector at the exit to the game, right as the late night rush for Tappers started to come in. the stream of people moving past them made it difficult to move without shoving them, which would get him in trouble if he did. He groaned, knowing that it could take longer than he'd hoped to go give that trainer a piece of his mind.
(POV. shift)
Struggling to stand on his own, a young growlithe attempts to meet his overbearing trainer's demands. The poor thing looks like he's been beaten half to death from battling, yet his trainer continues to put him through rigorous tests.
"Come on, you useless little mutt, I know water-types that could perform a better flamethrower! Don't you want to win? Don't you want the firestone?" the trainer demands, producing a small red-orange stone from his pocket and holding it out of the growlithe's reach, forcing him to try and get it.
"I want five laps around the station, and if you aren't back in less than 4 minutes, I'll make you do it again." The trainer sends the Pokémon off running, and looks at the fire stone as he does so.
"This Pokémon's a loser. Maybe I should ditch it." He wonders out loud, as the mentioned Pokémon nears the third lap mark after only a minute thirty seconds.
Although the growlithe hears this, he doesn't react much. Instead he pushes harder to beat his record time for the laps, despite feeling like he was going to fall over any second.
He pushes harder because he knew it wasn't always this way. There had been a time, long ago, when he and his trainer got along very well. A time when his trainer's voice was not cold and commanding, but kind and friendly. The growlithe did not know why this time had ended, but he assumed it was his fault for losing a battle. So he pushed himself even harder to try and bring that time back, to make the companionship he craved from his trainer a reality. He would give anything, anything at all, just to be able to have that companionship, so if that meant enduring this torturous training, he would do it gladly.
After another agonizing minute of running, the growlithe finishes his fifth lap and comes up the trainer, panting and in danger of collapsing if he was not careful. Everything hurt.
"Two minutes and forty seconds. I guess you have some use after all, Blaze. Now, I want you to torch that guy's bulbasaur in the rounds tomorrow, so get working on your lousy flamethrower before I have Blast come out and give you a demonstration on how to hit a Pokémon with it." Obeying the orders given, Blaze the growlithe tries to carry out the command.
Despite his current low health state, a strong stream of fire is released, and Blaze looks eagerly to his trainer for some sort of praise.
"That was pathetic. You're just a waste of my time, aren't you? If you can't even do that right, why should I put up with you? I'm out of here. Hey, Blaze. Fetch." The trainer cruelly tosses the firestone over Blaze's head and into a fountain, where Blaze cannot retrieve it for fear of putting his fire out, and walks away laughing after throwing Blaze's empty pokeball in the trash, crushing it in the process.
Laughing, that is, until he bumps into an infuriated man who stands nine feet tall. His little pal on his shoulder also looks pretty steamed.
"Hey! What's your problem, jerk?!" the kid asked, glaring vehemently and pointing an accusatory finger at the trainer.
"None of your business, pipsqueak. Just getting rid of that failure." The trainer shrugs it off and continues walking, hands in his pockets.
And with that, the giant man gets angry. He spins the trainer around to face him. "What did you just call it?!"
"Blaze is a failure. He isn't strong enough, so I'm done trying to train him. The firestone in the fountain was just to keep him busy." The trainer replies. "Mind letting me go now?"
"If what you were doing is your idea of 'training', then that's just messed up." The kid frowns distastefully, looking down at the trainer from the big guy's shoulder.
"I could report you for abuse, you know. If I didn't want to crush you myself." The man seems to agree with the kid, causing the trainer to panic.
"Wait! Don't, I'll train them differently, just don't!" he frantically tries to convince them not to.
"Fine, leave. If I catch you doing it again," the man's voice goes dangerously quiet," you'll have bigger problems than being reported, got it punk!?" he finishes with a shout, pushing the trainer back a little with a huge pointer finger. The trainer dips his head gratefully at the man's words and runs off.
Once the trainer leaves, the big man comes up to Blaze, who had been looking on at the conversation timidly, and gently pets his head. At the touch, Blaze's ears flatten and he shivers with some sort of anxiety before relaxing. He then relished in the simple pat, forcing his head further into the man's huge palm and trying to get as much out of the pat as he could, rubbing up against the hand in a way that was almost catlike. He had not received positive attention in so long, it was heaven for Blaze.
"Poor Blaze. That trainer really did a number on him. I can't believe he hasn't been taken to the center." And what the man said was true, Blaze looked pretty beat up. Nothing lethal, but all the nicks and scratches on him added up, as well as the bruises beneath his fur. In truth, Blaze hardly noticed them. Apparently the rigorous, extreme training had its' benefits, for Blaze had increased many of his stats and his level immensely, no longer at a low enough level to be in any true pain from such minor injuries.
The kid hopped off the man's shoulder and took a look at Blaze, patting his head while she did. Blaze sat still and looked at the large man and the small girl and briefly reflected that they were a strange team. But he was also wondering at the moment just what he would do. His trainer was gone, and he could not get the firestone and make someone else want him as their Pokémon. This big man was surely just being nice, nobody wanted a Pokémon as weak as Blaze felt he was.
Blaze turned his gaze off the two people in front of him and to the fountain, where he looked longingly at the firestone beneath the surface of the water. He knew that if he had that, he could be a strong Pokémon, strong enough to make everybody happy with him, strong enough to never lose another battle again.
"Are you still trying to get that? Here, I'll help out." The big man seemed to notice Blaze's change of attention, and ambled over to the pond, reaching a thick arm in and pulling the firestone out with ease. Shaking it off to dry it and his arm, the man sets the stone in front of Blaze.
"There you go." the man said happily. Blaze couldn't believe his luck. This big man had just helped him a lot, and he and his friend are very nice…perhaps the big man was his new trainer?
Blaze wagged his fluffy tail as he looked up at the two with adoration. Then he turned to the firestone and happily put his nose to it.
The bright white light came up around him, and the evolution jingle played. When the light was dimmed, Blaze had evolved into a huge, six-foot-three arcanine, a far cry from his former form of a two-foot-four growlithe that weighed in at only forty one pounds compared to his present weight of three hundred pounds plus that. To put it bluntly, this was one of the crazier evolutions in Pokémon.
Still wagging his tail, Blaze reinvestigated the two with restored vigor, having been healed from the evolution.
"Sweet mother of monkey milk! Ralph, did you see that?! He was all tiny, and now, now he's freaking huge! That's so cool!" the small kid enthused, happily bouncing around Blaze and now looking up at him rather than the other way around.
Blaze woofed and gave her a lick before turning to the large man, apparently named Ralph, tilting his head as if to ask a question. Was this guy going to say he'd be his trainer?
The girl asked the question for him. "Blaze can come live with us, right Ralph?"
"Hmm…you'd have to take care of him." Ralph answered, posing another question.
"Don't worry, I already take care of you! If anything, He'll be easier to take care of, right Blaze? It'll be just like when Night lived with me!" Blaze nodded and continued wagging his tail in response to the kid. Night… he'd heard that name before, he'd have to think some more about it.
"Ok, come on then, you said you wanted to go home." Ralph turned around and Blaze followed his new trainer, with the girl (Blaze made a mental note to learn her name as soon as possible) tugging on one of his forelegs.
Blaze turned around to look at her as if to ask what she wanted.
"Am I allowed to ride on you? I mean, you're really big enough for it…" Blaze rolled his eyes at the ridiculous question, and dipped his head yes in reply. After all, being ridden was one of the things arcanine was bred to do, they could outrun a rapidash, and that was one of the horse Pokémon. Wasn't it obvious?
"Yes!" the girl climbed onto his back and played with his scraggly mane fur while he resumed following Ralph.
"So, looks like you're her new chair, Blaze. Shame, I liked the whole pirate look, having an obnoxious little parrot on my shoulder really completed it." Ralph teased, patting Blaze's head lightly and laughing.
"Having an obnoxious little parrot on my shoulder really completed it." The girl mimicked, apparently deciding to prove it.
"Oh no, why did I bring this up?" Ralph groaned, holding a massive hand to his face.
"Oh no, why did I bring this up?" the girl continued to copy him.
"Vanellope, quit it." Ralph told her, looking smug as he crossed his arms confidently.
"Vanel- aww, fudge, I can't copy my name, that would just be weird." The kid (who Blaze now knew was named Vanellope) crossed her arms as well and slumped over in defeat.
"I win!" Ralph holds his arms up like a guy would after someone made a goal in football.
"Only 'cause I think talking in the third person is dumb. Otherwise I coulda done that for hours." Vanellope argued, trying to come up with a good reason for losing.
"Look, we're at your game now, are you gonna show Blaze around or what?" Ralph said, changing the subject and pointing to the game entrance.
"Oh! Blaze, c'mon, I have to show you around!" Vanellope hopped off Blaze and eagerly led him around pointing to every other thing that stood out from the frosting and the sky and telling him all about it.
Even though it was probably just babbling for the heck of it, Blaze tried as hard as he could to listen and pay attention. This was important to his trainer's little buddy, apparently, so it should be important to him too. After about a half hour of it though, he gave the girl a little nudge to show he was getting tired of her tour.
"Huh, you're good. Most people get annoyed after about five minutes. Okay, so let's show you where we can live. Really it's your pick, me an' Ralphy could do either one." She gives him a nice pat on the head before climbing up Ralph's arm to get to his shoulder.
"So, we're taking turns now?" Ralph asked teasingly, though it was really more of a statement than a question.
"Yep. Let's show Blaze the castle first, Stinky!" Vanellope exclaimed happily, pointing to a large building in the distance. They were still pretty close to the entrance.
Blaze followed compliantly, taking in his extremely colorful surroundings. It was a little bit of overkill, but Blaze figured he would get used to it eventually.
Soon, they got to the building in question, the castle. Blaze had to admit, it certainly lived up to its name. The thing was huge, even compared to Blaze and Ralph, and that was an understatement.
Blaze allowed the bottom half of his jaw to hang open as he took in the sheer size and ridiculous amounts of pink.
"Yeah, I know right? That was kinda my reaction when I saw the inside. It's a bit less of an eyesore in there; I repainted so it wasn't all pink. Apparently I'm not allowed to do that to the outside though. Sour bill said 'The gamers would notice.' cause he's all negative and stuff." Her statement proved to be true when they went inside, it was much nicer on the eyes and there was way less pink.
It was still, however, gigantic.
"Well, I'd give you a tour of in here, but that may or may not take all week, sooo….let's go show you the mountain instead!" Vanellope does something Blaze concluded was teleporting and appeared on his back as she makes this decision. Although it was a bit strange for a trainer to be able to use a move, Blaze decided it was nothing and simply followed directions to the mountain.
"Hey Stinkbrain, how about we race there?" Vanellope looked back at Ralph and asked as they were walking towards the large thing in the distance that was the mountain.
"Both of us know you'd win." Ralph points out, casually attempting to dismiss the idea. No such luck.
"Well, I'm going to race you, so see you there. C'mon, Blaze! Let's get there quick!" she decided to race anyways, and Blaze couldn't see any problems with that, he always liked a quick run anyways, as long as he could pace himself. He was sure his trainer would be able to catch up later, and he was listening to the trainer's friend.
He took off running, and found that arcanine were much, much faster than growlithe. It was an amazingly short run, and he'd barely had to try. The whole time, it seemed like Vanellope was enjoying the speed as well.
"Man, you're fast! That's awesome, I love fast! Now we hafta wait for ol' Stinkbrain to show up though, so this could take a while. Hey, you want to hear about this one time when we were at his game and he accidentally broke almost the whole fifth floor?" she launched into a story that lasted a good ten minutes, or at least until Ralph showed up several minutes later, out of breath.
"We've been waiting for you, slowpoke! Hurry up, let's go inside!" Vanellope led Blaze straight through a wall (which was…interesting, to say the least) and into a very warm cave type place.
Blaze busied himself with finding the source of the warmth, which was pleasant to him, being a fire type and all. He found a little lake of incredibly hot cola.
"Watch out for that stuff, Blaze! It's seriously hot!" Vanellope warned. She was no longer on his back, as Blaze had gone right up to the edge of the cola and she didn't want to fall in.
"Don't worry about it, kid. Blaze here is a fire type, he could go swimming in there and come out without a burn. He'll be fine." Ralph reassured, and Blaze wagged his tail and looked at the cola as if wondering if he should try that or not.
"Fire type? Night was a fire type too! Cool!" Vanellope exclaimed, looking over at Blaze, apparently very happy that he had stuff in common with this 'Night' Pokémon.
'There's that name again,' Blaze thought curiously, 'Night. I just know I've heard it before! That's it, Night was that houndour! She was pretty quiet, but I remember, she was my friend when she was at the pound, which was a short time. I got adopted the day after she…left. She was always mumbling something about "needing to help..." and then something incomprehensible that started with V. Night must have been going on about Vanellope!' Blaze's eyes widen as he realizes what he had just figured out. So this was Night's person! He quickly tried to think of other things Night had said. He had not thought about her in a long time, but he heard Night's howls even from the game of Pokémon, they had only stopped about a year ago.
The howls were really something else. They were eerie and mournful even to the pathetic human ear, but to a fine-tuned Pokémon's ear, who could understand the words as well, it truly was heart-wrenching, and creepy at the same time, for some.
Blaze actually found the person Night was talking about in them. This was Night's trainer, and since Night was not here…that left her in the care of Blaze.
Blaze looked over the two people in the mountain with him. He was responsible for not one, but two people now. Blaze didn't mind, it seemed like Ralph and Vanellope were a package deal anyways, you couldn't have one without the other.
He moved away from the hot cola and found a nice cozy spot right by what appeared to be a bed. Sitting tall with his shoulders squared and his back a straight slope, head held high, he looked every bit as proud and strong as an arcanine ought to be. He had to admit, it was a good thing he evolved. Now he had a lot more responsibility, so anything to help him handle it was useful.
"Nice pose, hotshot. You mind if take a seat next to ya?" Vanellope joked lightly, giving Blaze a little cuff to one of his legs as she sat down between them and attempted to use his long, admittedly soft, belly fur as a blanket.
Ralph was not very far behind, yawning and plopping down on top of the bed, not paying any mind to its protest under his weight.
"Hey, kid. How's about we hit the sack for today, I'm beat." He said between a yawn, rolling to the far side of the bed and running a giant hand over Blaze's head slowly.
"Guess I can't find any problems with that." She replied, and hopped onto the freed up space on the bed, before turning to Blaze. "Hey Blaze, you tired too?"
Blaze gives a sharp nod and heads over to the close side of the bed, where he circles three times and curls up, preparing to go to a very light sleep so he could still guard the area.
"Do you want to get up here?" Blaze half-opens an eye to see Vanellope looking down curiously at him from on top of the bed, the image upside down to him because he was looking up to see it.
"Kid, don't be ridiculous, there's barely room here as it is, he looks pretty happy to me down there." Ralph grunted sleepily, eyeing Blaze while he propped his head up with a huge fist and shifted around to get cozy on the bed without breaching the half-bed boundary.
"He could fit up here, watch. I get off my half, he gets up there, and I'll just be in the middle. Besides, he should be able to sleep on the bed if he wants." She protests, getting off the bed and making space for Blaze to get up.
"You know, speaking of bed halves, I don't know why you made the 'stay on your half of the bed' rule if you always end up just coming onto my half and trying to snuggle into me, why make the rule if you're the one who always breaks it?" Ralph pointed out dryly, obviously pointing out the uselessness of a rule that was clearly not being followed.
"For your information, Mr. wise guy," Vanellope said crisply as she tugged at Blaze's front legs in a pathetic effort to get him onto the bed by herself, "I'm allowed to break the rule because I'm the only one enforcing it and I like to do it."
Blaze complied and curled up on that space on the bed, taking up all of the remaining room with his size. He sheepishly laid his head on his paws, embarrassed that he had taken up all of Vanellope's sleeping space.
"Perfect! So I'll just get in the middle there, and then everyone's included!" She said happily, getting up onto Blaze and making her way to the center of the bed.
Blaze thought that all of the space was taken, but it turned out that it was just his poofy belly fur that had made it look that way. She managed to squirm her way in right between Blaze's chest and one of Ralph's beefy arms, successfully taking up any remaining space.
"See? I told you this would work!" she wiggled around until she could poke Ralph, grinning victoriously.
"Why exactly does it matter so much that he gets to sleep on the bed?" Ralph asks irridiculously. "I mean, I don't mind and all, but why?"
"Isn't it obvious? If he slept on the ground he'd be the odd one out, so he has to be included." Vanellope explained, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
"Well, can't argue with that logic." Ralph snorts sarcastically, then goes to a mock-serious note. "You better not have to get up and use the bathroom, President pees-a-lot, cause then we'd all have to move around."
"Well that depends, can you not have morning breath when we wake up, Barf-breath?" she retorts confidently, and very quickly after he made his comment.
"I don't think you should be talking about barf breath, kid, you're the one who threw up like a few hours ago-"he begins a comeback, before getting cut off.
"I really don't want to get into that. Sooo…goodnight!" she gives them an abrupt goodnight, before shifting around a little more to get cozy and beginning to fall asleep.
Blaze and Ralph followed suit, and before they went to sleep Blaze couldn't help but think, 'If this is all just in an hour or two, I wonder what the heck we'll be doing on a full night?'
Shortly after this thought, Blaze brings his thought train to Night. 'I wonder…if Night would want …to be…here…" gradually, Blaze's brain slows down as he begins to drift into sleep, tightly packed onto the bed with both of his friends tucked safely away from the open side of the bed with him covering that and against a wall or between himself and the larger trainer of the two with him, Ralph. The area was completely secure, and Blaze fell into a restful sleep, content with the day.
AN: And that has been chapter one! Now, Arcanine and Growlithe are pretty much two of my all-time favorite Pokémon, so somebody had to have seen this coming. Just so you know, this is more of an introduction chapter, the plot won't come in until the next chapter or later. I'm hoping the story doesn't have too many errors, let me know if you find some and I'll try to fix it. By the way, thanks go to The-Not-So-Ultimate-Writer for the title! Please, tell me what you think of the story so far, and thanks for reading!