Well here is chapter 3, and I think those of you that are reading this will be pleased, I have tried to take into advice small comments on minor grammatical and format errors by reading over this a few times, however I apologize in advance for any mistakes that may still be present.
The first zigzagoon lunged at me, I dodged and drove the stick into his ribs as if it were a spear hearing a crunch and pained whimper in response. Stepping back, I ran around the tree and placed Mayleen on a branch. I yelled my instructions to her.
"Stay right the fuck here! Help with psychic if you can!" she was scared and crying.
"I'll try, but they are yelling about you killing they're leader. They will kill you!" I decided to try and communicate without talking to her.
'talking will waste my breathe' as I raised my stick up, holding it as if it were a staff, readying myself for combat.
"The one with a scar on his eye seems to be the alpha, watch for him." I nodded as two from my left leapt at me I dodged and swung the stick at the closest one, followed by a kick to the face for the second one. I felt the jawbone of what I assumed was a female noticing it seem to be more feminine, crush with the impact of my steel toed combat boot connecting. It instantly collapsed and the one that attacked with it quickly got to her side.
'the must be mates' I snapped myself away from the distracting thought, and saw 3 of the pokemon glowing blue, then be thrown into tree's around the clearing. The alpha with a scar on his eye gave a sharp and enraged growl stepping forward from the group. It nodded to the others, in response they all moved into a circle, surrounding me and the alpha.
"He is challenging you, he knows you can best his herd and want nobody else to get hurt. Apparently you just shattered his sister's jaw. He says if you win they will leave us alone, if he wins you die and I go free." She sounded concerned.
"I accept, if you wish I can take you sister to a pokecenter after this. Trust me I didn't want to do that, but I wasn't going to let anyone hurt Mayleen here." He responded in a series of barked syllables from his name.
"He says that the only reason he followed you is for clan tradition. He knows you are a worthy opponent and does not want to bring about your death, but his rituals demand it. Be careful, he is much stronger and smarter than the others." I nodded to her.
"So you are aware, if I beat you, I will not attempt to kill you, if you are beaten I will take your sister to the pokecenter if she is willing, and return her here. I don't know the reasons for you killing Mayleen's family, and I don't care. But promise me she will not be harmed." I said with finality in my voice.
"He swears upon his honor, and he will ask you to take his sister, but says for combat your weapon will not be allowed." She looked horrified at the last statement; I looked her in the eye and nodded, tossing my stick to the side.
"I'm ready." Their leader nodded and tensed up. I remembered many times when a deal had gone bad and I had to use my size and strength to keep myself alive, or even to feed my addictions. Shaking the distracting memories from my mind, I watched as my opponent began to move to my left, so followed suit and we began to circle the inside of his pack. I made the first move, noticing he favored his right front paw when he walked I moved in kicking his left out from under the zigzagoon. He jumped and bit my thigh; his teeth sank deep into the muscle. I screamed in pain, hammer fisting the small pokemon's body and head only causing his teeth to rip further into the flesh. Blood was flowing from the wound when I finally managed to get him off of my leg. 'Shit this isn't good, little fucker is a lot tougher than he looks, how the hell could something so cute have such a nasty bite?'
"HOLLY SHIT JACK ARE YOU OK? You shouldn't be doing this, it isnt fair for a human to fight a pokemon unarmed." She began crying, I could feel guilt in the back of my mind, but I knew it wasn't mine.
'she must be projecting emotions involuntarily' I thought being brought out of my thoughts when he attacked once more, this time instinct took over, I dodged to the side of his lunge. If I hadn't he would have had a perfect shot at my throat. While he was in the air, his teeth inches from where my neck was just a split second before, I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, slamming him into the ground dropping my elbow to pin him. He squirmed and growled violently but was unable to move under my weight.
"If I wanted I could choke the life out of you. But as I said I won't. Now, if I let you up will you continue attacking?" He got quite and shook his head. I stood up offering to take his paw, he grabbed my hand and I pulled him to his feet.
"Thank goodness you are alive!" Mayleen practically screamed into my mind. She jumped down from the tree into my arms and buried her head in my chest, new streams of tears running down her face. I was panting pretty heavy and noticed the tear in my clothes from where he bit me I shrugged, the bite did mostly surface damage, the bleeding should stop in a few minutes.
"He says you can leave, but, he says he wants you to take his sister and her mate to the pokemon center, he will wait her until you return." She sounded like she was calming down some, until she looked down and noticed the bloody tear in my short leg; I could feel her emotions again though just barely in the back of my mind. She was feeling guilty, saddened, pained, and an assortment of other things I couldn't quite make sense of.
"So will they be walking or do they want to travel by pokeball?" I asked wandering how far they could go with their injuries. At this the entire pack looked at me fear and anger in their eyes, ready to strike again.
"Whoa there, I would release them when I got back here, but I don't know how much longer she can stay awake with the pain from that jaw, and he will have a hard time walking if his ribs are cracked or broken." The leader nodded and gave a short bark, the others relaxed.
"He states that he apologizes for the reaction, and thanks you for the offer, they want to go by pokeball. He wants to explain why he was hunting my family though." She was frowning, and tearing up once more.
"Do you know why they were hunting you?" she shook her head now bawling into my chest once more. "Then I think it would help to know why."
The zigzagoon gave multiple barks of various syllables from its name, taking on a grim tone and a serious face as he did so. Mayleen had stopped crying and pried herself away from my chest, eyes wide, and her mouth open slightly. After several minutes, he stopped and walked towards his sister.
"So what did he say?" I sat down and rested Mayleen on my lap, pulling her hair away from her eyes so I could see them easier.
"He said the linoone elders of his colony are ordering the death of all of the ralts evolution line because of a legend. The legend tells of a greatly powerful gardevoir who will either go completely evil and end the world, or good and prevent its destruction." Her projected voice sounded eerie, almost hollow. "My parents used to tell me the same legend."
"So we should be on our way, here are the pokeballs, press the button when you ready." The leader nodded and his sister and her mate touched the buttons, quickly returned the shrunken balls to my cargo pocket wincing as my hand bumped the wound on my leg. I said goodbye to the leader and started back towards the town we had come from the day before, I had to argue to get Mayleen to ride on my shoulders, she was afraid the extra weight would hurt my leg more. After just picking her up and placing her on my shoulders anyway she gave up and grabbed my forehead to keep herself steady.
It took roughly four hours to get back to the center, inside I saw John and Luke signing out of what seemed to be a residential part of the center. Waving at us, John saw my leg and got wide eyed. I waved back and motioned for him not to worry, he shrugged as I approached the desk. I handed the pokeballs to nurse joy and she looked at me puzzled, I explained that they got hurt when I was protecting Mayleen but nothing more than needed, who blushed at this, and I felt her emotions again, a mix of guilt, and what I think was affection of some sort. Nurse joy offered me a room for the night. I accepted. Upon entering the room I noticed Mayleen had hardly moved, and hadn't sent anything mentally for a while.
'Mayleen normally moves around more. I need something shorter to call her.' After rambling in my own mind I decided I would start calling her May, and wanted to try something. 'Hey are you listening in on me.' I thought trying to make my mental voice loud by concentrating
"Actually I wasn't but you seemed to think that pretty loudly, how did you learn that? I was told not very many humans could project thoughts at all. Much less an entire sentence." She sounded surprised and amused.
'No idea May, just concentrated a little, and hope you don't mind me calling you that, decided I should find something shorter to call you'
"I have no problem with it, but that can't be all you wanted to talk about." She sounded like she was wanting to tell me something herself but I decided to ignore it for now.
"Um I think you are projecting your emotions towards me some, when you get too emotional I can feel it at the back of my mind." I said out loud this time.
"I'm sorry if it's a problem, but that's never happened before, it might actually have to do with you being able to project you thoughts to me. Since I'm psychic it might be easier for my emotions to jump to you if you have some telepathic tendencies. Did you have anything like this before?" she seemed confused and intrigued.
"I've always been able to read body language, and read moods by that, but nothing like this." I stated blandly wondering if she was right.
"Well whatever it is, it could be useful" I nodded in response and set her on the bed, took off a t-shirt Nurse Joy had giving me to wear while my bloodied clothes were being washed, leaving me in just a pair of gym shorts. I bent down and took my boots and socks off. I noticed Mayleen was blushing as I lay down next to where she was sitting on the bed.
"Why are you blushing?" She blushed even harder and buried her face in my chest like she was trying to hide her face from me. I felt extreme embarrassment in the back of my head along with the same affectionate feeling from earlier.
"Do you not want to tell me or something? I can handle almost anything you can through at me." I was genuinely curious at what has her so embarrassed. She took her head out of my chest and kissed me on the cheek, quickly looking away. I could feel fear from her now, and I was pretty confused.
'WHAT THE FUCK? Did she really just kiss me? Is that what she's embarrassed about? Is she attracted to me?' my mind continued to race in this manner for what seemed like forever, when I finally snapped out of my stupor.
"Um May, what was that?" trying to process what had just happened
"Please don't be mad at me I didn't think about what I was doing, I don't know why I feel this way, but I know humans and pokemon are looked down upon when they feel like this for somebody of the other race." She sounded scared, and panicked. I could feel a lot of confusion coming from her, along with fear, and what I believed to be not just affection but strong attraction with it.
"Calm down, just calm down. I'm not mad at you, I'm just a little confused." I grabbed her chin and tilted her head towards me, I moved the hair out of the way so I could see her eyes, they were wide and bright, I could tell she was on the verge of tears.
"It's ok, I'll help you figure this out." I leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. Suddenly the room was filled with bright white light. When it stopped, there was a gardevoir, roughly 5'4" standing in front of me, blue hair and eyes, with a violet spike coming out of her dress.
"May-Mayleen?" I was completely dumbfounded. She nodded.
So there is the chapter 3, hope you enjoyed it. chapter 4 should be up in a day or so, possibly sooner if get the time.
