Sword and Shield
"Hey! Leave him alone!"
The back of Moira's mind was telling her that this was a bad idea. Like, if you were presented with four thugs who were all taller, wider, and stronger than you, you might want to step back and not throw yourself into the fray. Like, you might want to call the police or something. Still, that was only the back of her mind, and it wasn't as if the police were good for anything outside the towns and cities of Galar. So, faced with the option of stepping aside or ploughing into said fray, she found herself choosing the latter. Because considering that they were kicking a poor scorbunny, well, what other choice was there?
They actually stopped when she ran over to them. This close, the whole bigger, wider, and stronger thing was hitting her harder than it was before. Not physically hitting her (not yet at least), but-
"The fuck you want bitch?"
Yeah, that stung. It was also a warning that the creeps meant business, said business being picking on the helpless.
"I want you to…" She cleared her throat – her accent was noticeable at the best of times, and being angry only made it worse. "I want you to stop picking on that pokémon."
"Pokémon? What pokémon?"
"I don't see a pokémon."
"Maybe she means the little runt."
"Yeah, that must be it."
"This what you talking about?" said the thug who'd spoken to her first. He appeared to be the de facto leader. He gestured to the scorbunny, lying down in the dirt. "This little rodent?"
"Um, yes," she said. "Though you should know that despite physical similarities, any rabbit-like pokémon doesn't belong to order rodentia and-"
"Dunno, looks like a rodent to me." He put his boot down on the scorbunny's head. "What you say we find out?"
He began to push down. Not too hard, but Moira could see the threat. More importantly, she could see the scorbunny open an eye – the one that was slightly less bruised than the other.
"Please don't do that," she whispered.
"What? This?" The thug pressed down even harder.
"Yes. That."
"Hmm." He smirked at her. "Thing is, we've got a crossroads here. Y'see, I kinda want to. You don't want me to." He looked around his crew. "How 'bout you fellas? You want me to do it?"
They nodded like the sycophants they were. He returned his gaze to Moira.
"Four to one sweet cheeks. Think the vote's carried the day."
"How bout the law?"
He raised an eyebrow. "What law?"
"Well, Animal Cruelty Act for one thing. And considering all the extra protections pokémon have under it due to their status as sapient beings, then you might be finding yourself in the slammer for many a year."
"If anyone finds out."
Moira opened her mouth, but no words came out. She'd had a retort on the top of her tongue, but the thing was, the thug was technically correct. If no-one knew a law was broken, how did one take due action in response to said breaking? Not that she wanted to boil this down to law, but it was clear that morality wasn't going to cut it.
"Fine, whatever," the thug said. He picked up the scorbunny by its neck. "Here." He tossed it over to her. She caught it in her arms, looking down at the poor creature. It, for its part, looked up at her as well. What it was thinking though, she could only guess. She turned around and-
"Wait."
She looked back at the lead thug. There was a glint in his eye. It had been there before, but now it looked worse. More menacing. Cutthroat. Or maybe it was the same, and it only seemed worse because the glint was entirely focused on her.
"Thing is, about the law," he said. "We can't have you just blabbing things out now, can we?"
The thugs confirmed the negative. And despite the overcast sky, despite the rumble of thunder, Moira found herself sweating, beads of water trickling down the back of her neck.
"Come on guys," she whispered. "I mean, you had your fun, I've got a pokémon, and-"
"Ten. Nine. Eight."
She began backing away.
"Seven. Six. Five."
She turned and began to run.
"Four. Three. Two."
Shite shite shite!
"One. Go!"
She ran. She kept running. It wasn't easy, having a backpack and a pokémon in your arms. And while she dropped the backpack…it wasn't enough.
They grabbed her. They tackled her. They forced her into the ground. They were yelling something. They began punching her. Kicking her. Screaming abuse at her. All while she kept the scorbunny in her arms, safe under her body. Wincing, crying out as the punishment came.
Up above, the heavens opened.
Scorbunny was confused.
Granted, being confused was part of being a pokémon. It was a scorbunny. Its name was Scorbunny. Every scorbunny it knew had the name of Scorbunny. So while it was easy enough to communicate in the scorbunny language (combinations of "scor," "bunny," and everything else between those two), it did lead to some confusion as to who Scorbunny was calling to – Scorbunny 1, Scorbunny 2, or Scorbunny 3.
But that wasn't the source of its confusion. The confusion had started when it had seen the humans approach it. At first, it had thought they were pokémon trainers – people who caught pokémon and forced them to fight, and expected to be rewarded for their mastery. Its ears pricked, it had waited for the sign of the dreaded poke ball, or perhaps another pokémon. One slave sent to capture another slave. It had been so focused on those things, that it hadn't noticed until it was too late that they didn't want to capture or battle it. They just wanted to exercise their power. Their cruelty. Their malice.
Then the other human had come and saved it. Or, tried to it supposed – squirming out from the girl's arms, it reflected that she hadn't done too good a job. Granted, being in those arms had protected it, but what about her? What did her limp body have to say about her efforts? Just lying there in the grass, the rain beating down on her body?
Should go. Should run.
The ones with greater power had gone. The one with less power had been beaten. It was the way of the world, the reason why some pokémon were happy to be taken by humans because it guaranteed they'd get greater power in the long run. And certainly it had been on the receiving end of pokémon with greater power before. It was the way of the world. If it was free to bound off, to get out of the rain pelting down on them both, it should do so.
Should go. Now. Go go. Now go.
It turned to bound away…
Don't turn. No turn. Turn no.
But it really couldn't just…
Go. Go. Go. Go.
It turned around.
Foolish. Stupid. Silly silly!
It walked up to the girl and began prodding her check with its paw.
"Scor?" it asked.
She didn't respond.
"Scor," it said, this time a bit more forcefully.
It still didn't do any good.
"Bun-bun, scor? Scor! Scor!" It prodded her even harder. Still no response.
"Scor! Bun-scor bun! Bun-scor!"
The girl began to stir.
"Scor," it said in relief.
Go now. Battle over. Job done.
She rose her head from the muck. It could see that it was covered in mud, the same way that her body was likely covered in bruises.
Go go. No capture. Never capture. Low power – both.
It still stood there. Tilted its head to the side as she met its eyes.
"Scor?" it asked. He didn't know if she knew that meant "are you okay?", but it could hope.
"The hell you still doing here?" she whispered.
"Scor."
She groaned and put her face back down in the mud.
"Bun-scor?" Why was she doing it. "Scor-bun scor!"
"Sod off," she murmured.
Sod off. Advice is good. Go. Run. Bound.
It just stood there. Its gaze focused on her. Ignoring the warnings in its head. Ignoring the rain pelting down on both of them. Even ignoring the pain it was still feeling in its own body as it waited for her to get up.
It ended up waiting quite awhile.
It was a strange experience, both shivering and trembling.
They'd at least left her her bag, even if they'd left her nothing of what had been in it – books mostly. Books to tell her about the world, and empty books that allowed her to draw pictures of the things that inhabited the world. People. Pokémon. Everything else. But it was gone. She hugged her bag to her chest as she walked back to town, burying her face in it. Daring to dream that she'd suddenly open it and find that everything was still in there.
She barely even felt the rain. She barely even noticed that the scorbunny was still following her. When she'd started walking back, she said "sod off" to it and hadn't given it a second glance…for about five minutes. Five minutes and one second later, she had glanced at it and found it was still following her. She hadn't said anything to it, but just kept walking. It was a pokémon. It might have the vocabulary of a one year old, but it was at least intelligent. It could surely get the hint that she wasn't interested in whatever thanks it had. She'd done the right thing, the world had punished her for it. Basically par for the course.
She did give it a second look as she reached her home – the town was pretty small, but the rain was keeping people indoors, so no-one demeaned her by asking silly questions such as "what happened?" or "are you alright?" She opened the door and looked at the scorbunny. Still following her. Still staring at her.
"Told you to sod off," she whispered.
It tilted its head to the side.
"You understand me, right? Sod off."
It just stood there.
"Fine. Whatever."
She headed inside and closed the door without a second glance, though admittedly with a second thought. But as she dumped her bag on the ground, as she walked through the hallway, her boots dirtying up the carpet…few thoughts passed through her head. Not even as her mother came, yelling her at first (the words "dirty," "carpet" and "soaked" were used), but then asking stupid questions like "what the hell happened?" Words that were all ignored as she walked up to her room, entered it, then locked the door.
She stood there for a moment. Looking at the memorabilia she'd collected over the years. At her PC. Her Switch. At the window, the rain pounding against it. Water dripping down the glass, as surely as the tears did down her face.
She took off her boots and got into bed.
The tears could stain the pillow now.
The girl was beginning to wake up.
It had to admit, this bed was pretty comfy. So comfy that it might explain why the girl had been able to sleep through the crashes of thunder, and the thuds on the door. Indeed, it was so comfy that once it had found its way to the bed, it had fallen asleep itself.
Still, morning had come. The sun was shining, the bird-type pokémon were singing, and it was feeling fine. Well, mostly. Still had some ache from what had happened yesterday, but whatever – the girl was beginning to wake up. Was beginning to open her eyes, to behold the creature sitting on her bed and-
"Gah!"
She didn't seem too happy about it.
Go. Should go. Not welcome. Not.
It kept in place as it watched the girl scramble up to the back of her bed. He breathing, once heavy, was now light and rapid. He watched as she rubbed her eyes.
"Sodding hell, it's just you."
It didn't like being referred to as "just." Still, it supposed it was accurate. It was only at its base form after all.
"How'd you even get in here?"
It gestured to the window, its sill drenched.
"Oh. That explains it."
It grinned at her.
"Well what do you want?" she asked. "Carrots? Haggis? The secret to eternal happiness? Because we've got some of the first, none of the second, and damned if I know how to get to the third."
It was a fair question, insinuations about carrots aside. Why was it here? The girl was back at her warren. Its own warren was a mile away. Why'd it even come with her through the rain?
Go. Should go. Go go go!
And yet still, it remained seated on the bed. Even as she groaned and got out of it, going to sit on a chair outside the humming box. She began checking lines of text.
"Sod off Katie," she murmured. She fingered the small device attached to the larger one. "Weather's nice in Aloha this year, brought to you by a travel agency I never even subscribed to."
It could tell it was aggravated. Especially so when she turned round in her spinny chair and looked at it.
"Seriously," she asked it. "Why are you even still here?"
Why was it still here?
She didn't know. Or, like, she did know, if she assumed that the scorbunny was just some dumb animal that would latch onto anyone, but while it was being an idiot, it most certainly wasn't an idiot. It had to know that it had nothing to gain from following her home.
"Come on," she said. She walked over to the window and opened it. "Go on. Shoo!"
It folded its arms, frowning.
"Do you want me to call the pound?" she asked. "Yeah, pound. We don't have a pokécentre in this miserable little dump."
It just stood there.
"Oh come on…" She sighed. "Look, what is it? Why are you here?"
It just stood there.
"You wondering why I helped you? Fine. Because it was the right thing to do. That's it. There's no great reason – I just don't like bullies, and the world's full of them. Does that help?"
It nodded. It was actually a bit disconcerting for her, seeing such a human action from a creature that, intelligence aside, most certainly wasn't human. But that aside…
"Okay." She tapped the window sill. "You. Out. Now."
It gestured to one of the walls.
"Now what?" She followed its paw. "Oh."
It wasn't a wall. It was on the wall, but it wasn't the wall. Rather, it was a poster – a pretty large poster that showed a variety of individuals.
"Yeah," she said. "The Elite Four, and the champions that have bested them." She snorted. "Yes, I had a crush on one of them when I was little, thanks for asking."
"Scor?"
"No, I'm not saying which one."
"Scor! Scor-bun!" It began gesturing at the walls, the shelves, and everything in-between. Posters of Pokémon trainers. Of pokémon themselves. Maps of lands with names like "Kanto" and "Aloha."
"Yeah," Moira sighed. She sat down on her bed. "I had a thing for pokémon awhile ago."
"Scor?"
"Didn't work out. I mean, I tried, y'know, but…" She sighed. "The heck am I even telling you this?"
"Scor-bun!"
She walked over to her desk and picked up a poké ball. "I was given one of you once," she said. "Like, not you-you, just another you-you."
It blinked.
"Another pokémon."
"Scor."
"Yeah." She tossed the ball up and down in her hand. "Course it went south, like things always do. Little bastard wouldn't obey me. So I let it go." She nodded to the window. "Probably out there now, laughing at me. Or with a trainer that could handle it."
"Scor. Scor-scor. Bun-scor bun."
"Yeah, I've got no idea what that means."
"Scor." It gestured to the ball. "Bun." It gestured to her.
What doing? Silly silly!
Perhaps it was. It almost certainly was. But it had this feeling. A feeling in its gut, and no, it most certainly didn't come from eating carrots. Maybe the lettuce it snatched from the garbage last night. Maybe.
"What?" the girl asked. She looked at it, then the ball, then back to it. "Oh hell no."
"Scor!"
"No. No no no. A thousand times no." She put the ball back on the desk. "Seriously, you don't want me as a trainer?"
"Scor?"
"I don't want to be a trainer."
Doesn't want you. Go go go.
"I mean, it isn't you, but…I mean, you have any idea what it's like to dream of something for ten years, then find you can't do it? Like, at all? You know what it's like to see your friends gallop off into the bloody sunset, while you have to stay home and find what else you might be good for in life?"
It didn't know, admittedly. But it had the idea. The other humans were stronger than her. She needed to get stronger. If she didn't get stronger, she'd stay weaker. And staying weak wasn't fun, whether it be among bully-bullies, or levelled-up bullies.
"Now, just go," she said. She collapsed into her chair. "I've got friends to respond to and I have to pretend that I'm oh so happy that they're achieving their dreams, while I…while I can't even hold my own against…"
"Scor!" It bounded up to one of the book shelves. It gestured to one of the few things in the room that had nothing to do with pokémon.
"The heck you doing?"
What doing?
"Scor!" It tapped the crest with its paw. "Scor scor!"
"Yeah, that's the crest of Galar. What about it?"
"Scor," it sighed. It pointed at the pointy stick, then back at itself. "Scor. Bun-scor!"
"A sword?"
It then tapped the corner of the crest than at her.
"A shield."
"Scor. Bun."
"So, what? Like, you're the sword, and I'm the shield?"
It nodded.
"Like, I'm the bedrock who tells you what to do, how to do it, and who shields you from thugs, while you're the pointy end that I get to stick into people, beating them and capturing more pokémon?"
It shrugged. It wasn't sure about the capturing part, but the rest sounded pretty good.
"You…" The girl was clearly struggling for words – probably came from having such a needlessly complicated language. Seriously, why not just phrase everything with "hu" and "man?" It would be so much simpler that way.
"That's stupid," she murmured. "You're stupid. Stop being stupid!"
"Scor!" It thumped its paw on the bookshelf. "Scor-bun! Bunny-scor!"
"No. Absolutely not. Not now, not in a million years, not ever!"
"Scor!"
As it turned out, it was only two weeks.
It took one week to convince her mum. Another week to apply and receive her pokémon trainer's licence. Turned out the Galar League wasn't too keen on re-applications, but once she gave them a video interview with Scorbunny at her side, they'd relented. The amount of time she'd spent assuring her mother that yes, she'd be alright, and yes, she'd call her every day, had felt like an additional week in itself. But finally, she and her first Pokémon were outside town. Ready to head out into the world. To catch little buggers, win badges, and prevail through the true power of friendship or some shite.
Around her belt were poke balls. In her bag, among everything else, were sketchbooks. Scorbunny, for his part, was happy to perch on her shoulder, to take in the sights and sounds of the world. And she?
She wasn't sure. But with a smile, and feeling bright even as clouds filled the sky, she reflected that she didn't feel too bad. She was the shield. He was the sword.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Scor!"
"Hmm. Take that as a yes." She smirked. "Just so you know, about this shield thing – if there's a sociopath that wants to kidnap you, and I have to shield you through his magic balls of death, promise you'll bring me back to life through magic tears if it comes to it."
"Scor?"
"Yeah, silly movie I saw once. Second one was better though."
"Scor."
Had her scorbunny ever seen a movie, she wondered? Doubtful. Next town they met, gym aside, they'd have to do something about that.
"Anyway," she said, getting out an iPod and setting the track to Travel Song. "Shall we go?"
"Scor!"
She smirked, and began to walk. Which was right at the time that the heavens opened and it began to pour.
Sod it!