DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON. EXCUSE ME WHILE I CRY A RIVER BECAUSE OF THIS.
"Claire?! Claire?!"
"Ma'am , we're going to have to tell you to calm down and back away from the premises."
"Calm down?! My daughter is in there! CLAIRE?!"
"Miss, just breathe and stay calm. Our men are doing all they can to help your daughter, and the paramedics are on thei- Ma'am! If you keep acting erratically, I will use force."
"No! I have to know that my baby's alright!"
"Calm dow- look, I'm going to ask you some simple questions, alright? What's your name?"
"Jessica. Jessica Torch."
"Good, now, you got any hobbies Jessica?"
"I just wanna see Claire!"
"Just cooperate! How am I supposed to calm you down if you don't calm the fu- look, the firefighters are coming down with her. Don't worry, she's going to be safe."
"Claire, baby! Claire, are you OK? Claire? She's... She's not breathing... WHY ISN'T SHE BREATHING?! YOU SAID SHE'D BE ALRIGHT!"
"Well." Kyle struggled to focus on the dead purple snake-like creature that lay on the floor in the dim light. His hand gripped a bloodied red stick, and in spite of his calm tone his wide eyes made it clear that he was still freaked out. "Shit, at least this thing resembles an animal, right?" Claire nodded, still mute from fear. "Not those weird egg thingies, right?" Another nod. "Should we get going?" Again Claire simply nodded and started walking in a random direction.
The exhilaration of being such a fast and agile creature had long since passed, ever since the duo found themselves face to face with a strange purple floating ball roughly fifteen minutes before, one that kept saying "Koffing" over and over. And indeed, it had left them coughing from the putrid smell, even after Kyle had grabbed a stick and rammed it through its 'skull'. That incident was still fresh in both of their minds, and it didn't help that a few other enemies had also attacked them unexpectedly; a group of strange bouncing eggs and the aforementioned purple snake. These strange monsters, coupled with the dim light of the forest and the occasional calls of 'Pokemon', made for a fairly - that is to say, extremely - terrifying experience.
Kyle followed Claire, not bothering to suggest that they clean themselves again; it would be impossible to get the blood off without a bath of water nearby. "Y'know, I seem to remember something about Pokemon having elements. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could just use those? I mean, imagine just burning these motherfuckers before they get close. We wouldn't have any reason to be scared if we could, right?" Claire faltered at the idea of burning something, but quickly regained her composure as she walked on. "Just think about it. Another one of those snakes comes near us? BAM, burnt to death! Another purple ball of putrid? Maybe it'll smell better burnt!" Claire slowed down considerably now. "What's wrong?"
"Let's not talk about fire. Please?" Kyle opened his mouth to ask why, but stopped when he saw Claire looking at him. She was staring at him almost pleadingly, and she seemed to be trying and failing to suppress the tears in her eyes from rolling to the floor. Kyle nodded wordlessly, and the two went back to wandering aimlessly.
"Still," Kyle continued, careful not to move the subject back to fire, "Last I checked, Pokemon had all of these powers, right? Like, water-based powers or psychic powers. Shouldn't we have them too?" He looked down at his flap-like arms which looked almost too thin to be holding a stick, frowning slightly. "I don't think I'd be able to last long if the stick broke. Do you think you could help fight? Like, tackle people?"
"Sure." Kyle opened his mouth to say something more, but found himself unable to find anything to talk about. The two continued onwards in silence.
Not far away, a small, gray bird whose head seemed too big for its body flew above her orange squirrel-like companion, shrieking in joy. "Flying is awesome!" She yelled at the top of her voice, startling the many spherical primates up above. "Seriously, Sam, you should try this!" She dove down quickly, landing just in front of 'Sam'.
"Alexandria, I've told you five times already, my name's Samuel, not Sam. get it right." He rubbed his forehead in annoyance - and perhaps with a twinge of envy. "Besides, I'm not a bird like you. I'm a..."
"A Buizel, Sam. Almost the best water Pokemon in my opinion, second only to Totodile." She turned her back to him, spreading her wings again, though she didn't take flight just yet. "Jeez, it's like you don't know anything about Pokemon at all!"
"That's because I don't. I'm sixteen years old; I'm too old for Pokemon, and I've had too many things to do at school to do play video games at all." The 'Buizel' frowned. "How old are you, by the way?"
"I'm eleven! Just turned last month!" The girl jumped into the air and hovered playfully. "Man, are all teenagers as boring as you? Am I gonna be as boring as you when I grow older?"
"You wouldn't be boring; you'd just be able to... Appreciate things that you find boring now," Samuel replied as he walked past the little featherball. "If you don't stop just hovering there, you'll get left behind."
"Fine." Alex mumbled as she dropped to the floor and followed the squirrel thing on foot. "Sam... When will we be able to go home?"
The Buizel stopped cold, his eyes closed as memories of his death flashed through his mind. The question bounced through his mind again and again, and Samuel couldn't answer the question. Not that he could let Alex know that. "I'm sure we'll go back as soon as we're done with whatever 'Arceus' wants us to do." The duo went onwards in silence, the elephant in the room more apparent than ever.
Alright, guys, time to review my rarely-updated story! What did you guys think? Don't give me that "Niec, gimme moar" bull, give me some honest-to-God constructive criticism. Negative criticism especially; I want to know where I'm bad so that I may mutilate it so that it may someday become vaguely good, or at least nonexistent.
