Disclaimer:I regrettably do not own the rights to Pokemon.
An:Yo, been a while. Do please enjoy. R&R
Aug22-24
~{x}~{x}~{x}~
With an exhausted sigh, I settle my head back into the warm bandaged fur of Arcanine. He's healing up, but still not able to hold a rider. His body is still weak, it hurts him to stand, but he's strong, and he had excellent care, that, with any luck can be continued in Cherrygrove town.
Sleep isn't quick in coming. It hasn't been easy since- that time. Or, any time, not since the peaceful days we all took for granted were shattered in an instant. I stifle a sigh as Lu' glances in my direction, his ears twitch, but he makes no sound. I barely caught the movement in the low light provided by Bic's tail flame, the flame lizard, exhausted had clocked out as soon as he's found a comfortable patch of dirt, heedless of the blood still baked onto his scales. He makes rough noises in his sleep, like a growl crossed with a snore.
It's disconcerting for Lucario to 'look' at me and the only thing be visible is bandages, I can only imagine the track of ruined and scarred flesh below them, ruined because of me. I grit my teeth, hard enough my jaw pops. Trying not to think about it only makes me think of it more.
"Damn." I growl out, slamming my fist into the dirt in ineffectual anger. Causing both the dust and my Pokemon to stir. Another failing, they need their rest and I can't even give them that.
Bic looks from me to Lu' quizzically. Muttering something at the steel type, getting a shake of the head and few words in return. My starter, eyes the forest behind me, an almost hungry look appearing on his face for a moment, his tale flame seems to blaze a little brighter before he shakes his head and he's the same lethargic, lovable lizard again.
"Sorry." I mutter. Only a whisper, Bic grunts in reply, flopping back down onto his stomach, seemingly almost instantly falling back to sleep. Lu', on the other hand, gives me the same eyeless 'stare' again, the way he scratches at the bandages makes my heart ache. He offers me a thumbs up before turning his attention back outwards.
Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Scruffy sleeps through the whole exchange. It sickens me for the usually upbeat Arcanine to be so worn down. Thinking about how easily he could have died makes my guts clench, and gives me the urge to vomit. Yeah, it's become more and more apparent he was lucky to survive.
Unlike the others, the thought comes unbidden and I flinch, trying to ignore it, I roll over and curl into the warm fur of a once supremely energetic Pokemon, while pulling my coat tighter around me.
The tree's I used to find comfort in, now cast shadows of fear into my mind. What beast are lurking out there? Just waiting to tear into my Pokemon and I, waiting to devour our flesh, or kill us for no reason other than they can? I dismiss the thought and instead turn my eyes to the moon, it doesn't seem right that it should remain so untouched throughout all this madness.
My stomach growls for the umpteenth time, and I sigh. Resigned to another uncomfortable night of staring at the moon till morning.
~{x}~{x}~{x}~
It's sometime later that I wake from a fitful bout of sleep Lu' hovering over me. Fist clenched, form set for combat, the corded muscle in his body easily visible as tense as he is. The sun has risen enough for false dawn to set in, and everything is eerily still.
The faux light cast everything into stark contrast. The blue of Lucario's fur appearing almost black in the light. The trees cast bizarre shadows, lending the morning an even more ominous weight.
Bic, gives a whip of his tail, sending a visible shimmer of heat, and sparks towards the trees, his scales steam silently at first, the dew dissipating from their surface. As his core temperature rises, and smoke begins to curl from his nostrils, and around his fangs the silents steaming turns into hissing as the water evaporates in an instant.
Scruffy is wide awake, his fur, almost like flames the colors so stark, I scratch him behind the ears to help settle his anxiety. Something, not quite a noise sets his fur on end, and before he can lurch to his feet and further injure himself I return him to his poke`ball. The rest of the team don't even flinch, there attention is riveted still to the trees.
I hadn't noticed at first. Thinking it just the weather, but there was something not quite right about the chill, or about this situation as an unexplainable terror builds in my gut.
A pop rings in my ears, and I realize my fist are clenched so tight they've popped. I let out a hysterical chuckle for a moment but catch myself as my Pokemon look to me in question, I silently swear, demanding calm of myself, and clarity of action. I nearly had it to, but then the laughing started. Dozens of voices, laughing beyond sight. The direction indiscernible, like it was all around us. I could feel terror creep into my gut, quickly, too quickly, I needed to keep calm. Why can't I keep calm!?
Heat swells in the clearing as Bic begins thrashing and roaring. Flames burst from his mouth and into the trees setting everything around us alight, terror and rage clear in his eyes. Laughter is all that meets his rage.
My own eyes widen as Lu pulls me to the ground Bic whips his head passed where I just was the heat of the flame curling the exposed hair of my body. It was like he didn't even see me.
I look to Lu there's a snarl on his lips, and angry pokespeak spilling from his mouth as aura visibly flare around us, and just like that. I can think clearly again. The unnatural terror flees my body even as a warm sensation runs through my mind, Aura. I realize, but the happy revelation is swept aside by anger, that burns away everything as I realize something else. We're under attack again, and this time, they're playing with us.
The laughter persist, strengthening and becoming mocking as Bic begins to claw at his own scales, digging scars into his own flesh then burning the wounds shut. He was maiming himself.
"Get Bic!' I bark out, voice full of fury. I come to my feet, the cold and terror coming back to me as Lu rushes to obey. Images play in my mind, terrible ones, my greatest fears taking physical form before my eyes. My mother dying, over and over, dozens of different ways. For ages it seems like I'm trapped In my own terror, but I realize it couldn't be more than a few seconds.
I come to with Bic and Lu to either side of me, dragging me along, away from the burning clearing, the laughter follows us, it seems to be getting closer, Lu is sweating and shaking with the effort of maintaining his Aura shroud. Bic is hot to the touch scalding even, my skin is blistering where it touches him directly so I adjust to better accommodate. My face is wet I notice, tears, I'm crying when had I started crying?
My thoughts are interrupted by a shout from Lu, we hit the ground a split second before the shadow blade would have decapitated us. None the less, it continues on toppling trees, one that we are forced to dodge out from under. I can see shadowy shapes in the underbrush now. Shadowing our every move, and I finally realize what this is. Ghost Pokemon.
"Shit.' One word to sum it up. From my count, six or more, of indeterminate strength against my two combat able Pokemon. One who is stuck keeping us from being overwhelmed by what must be night shade. It never worked like that before. My brain whirs into action, we need a plan, something, anything. Then I got it, a plan coming to me in a burst of insight as we're dodging out of another lazily sent shadow blade.
They wouldn't come to us. They would wait until Lu's aura failed us, and then snare us again. Unless.
"We take the fight to them.' I explained my plan to my two friends, Lu nodding automatically, Bic somewhat hesitant at first, but in the end he just grins and says something snarky to Lu, then all hell breaks loose.
Bic and Lu' burst into the trees holding hand Lu's aura shroud over them both, the laughter immediately cuts off as Bic roars and clamps burning fangs over a shadowy figures. I hear the screams and let a vicious grin slip over my lips, before my eyes roll into the back of my head. My last thought before the nightmares start is: 'I really need to stop making this a habit'
~{x}~{x}~{x}~
I snuggle deeper into the blankets, enjoying the warmth of the sun as it plays across my skin. Beds are a luxury I rarely got anywhere but home. I could never afford hotels or the like, not when I sent all but the money I needed to care for my Pokemon home to my mother. Mother! The thought rips me awake, and I sit sharply up. A startled yell is all I hear, it makes me flinch, and am temporarily blinded as my eyes adjust to the light. I hear a door open seconds after the scream, and an elderly mans voice shoos the other one a female I catch from her retreating form, before I turn my eyes to the room, and the only other human in it, besides myself.
It's simple as far as rooms go. Non-descript carpet, walls, dresser, even the bed, and chair next to it were completely unremarkable, even the old man in his old fashioned suit, with his neat trimmed mustache, and his calm, compassionate, but most of all unworried smile, he seemed like he was part of the room, I'd met him before once. I remember, he gave me a map chip for my pokegear when I first came to Johto, small world.
My Pokemon stood out in stark contrast to everything else in sight. Like if a painter took a finished work then decided to splash it with paint they, and I would be the splashes that didn't belong.
"You gave us quite the scare.' He says after a few moments, voice soft but firm. Having given me time to take in the room and my Pokemon. He's unusually relaxed, for being in the presence of my monsters, Bic still having refused to be bathed, gore was baked to his scales. Scruffy is there too, looking near full health. How long was I asleep?
I can think of nothing to say. So I don't, and he carries on despite my silence. "Everyone was terribly surprised when your Charmeleon, and Lucario dragged you into town. You were bleeding from your eyes and nose.(the nightshade did a number on me it would seem) We thought you were dead for sure, we had no idea what was happening until this letter addressed to the leader of Cherrygrove was found while they were changing you." At this time, he motions in a circle with the letter Faulkner had sent.
"Not a word from anywhere in days, communication is down, and even the runner sent to Newbark didn't return, then you show up, near death with a letter telling us that there's some kind of apocalypse happening just beyond our eyes." He seemed to deflate then, near collapsing into an armchair by my bed, well one good thing is I wouldn't have to go looking for him, though, I eye the bed and the fresh bandages across my body. The circumstance are less than ideal.
We both sit in silence, him thinking, and me out of respect for the fact that his entire world view was shattered, minutes pass and the old man takes a steadying breath. "Tell me, is this all true?" I hadn't read the letter but I could guess at its contents. So I nodded, "Every word. Yours is a lucky town indeed, to have remained so unaffected." I couldn't entirely keep the bitterness from my voice as I said it. I tried to feel happy, but my mind kept returning to thoughts of my own home.
When it doesn't seem like he is going to reply I nod and throw the blankets off myself. The old man, who's name I can't remember, and can't care to ask. Starts but doesn't try to stop me, I'm nearly naked again I note, only a pair of boxers on myself(a different pair than before I realize, with a small amount of embarrassment.) My clothes, and the body armor(freshly laundered) are nearby though and I quickly suit back up, I return the sleeping forms of my Pokemon and head out the door. The old man dogs my steps, I hit the door at a fast walk, and step out into the august sun.
~{x}~{x}~{x}~
Wrong, it's all wrong. It's like nothing has happened. I can feel my breathing speed up as my mind tries to grasp how after everything I've seen over the last few days people can be walking through the streets. Smiling, laughing, children darting beneath peoples feet, joyous smiles on their faces. Nothing is wrong, nothing. And that in itself is like a slap to the face of the rest of the worlds suffering.
"Beautiful isn't it?" The old man ask. Probably mistaking my breathing as a gasp, and not a near panic attack. I notice what he means though. The sun is high in the sky, it's near mid day, and it glints of every window, off the water, and shines down on all the people. It's warm, but not overbearingly so. People picnic at the waters edge, the fresh water probably not to the tentacruel/cools liking. Everything was peaceful, it made me think of my youth spent with my mother and father.
"You could stay if you like." I blink away the tears as the other man speaks. "You could help us prepare for what's to come." His voice was, uncertain, but he was hopeful. I couldn't though. I told him so.
He grins wryly. "Faulkner said you'd say that too." Did he now? I laugh humorlessly, nodding. "He wanted me to stay as well, it would seem I've found my calling." He laughs, I don't remember saying anything funny though, whatever.
"Stay 'til tomorrow at least?" He ask, more than says. And with a sigh I nod, and do just that. The rest of my day is spent in something of a daze, as we gather every able bodied person in town and give them the news. They take it about as well as could be expected of them.
The trainers are naturally more inclined to believe. Their Pokemon's new power being proof enough, a demonstration of Bic's flame turning a piece of meat into char is enough proof for everyone else. We go around town, fortifying everything their, moving their supplies around to make them easier to get to and less likely to be destroyed. A kind elderly lady gives me a leather messenger bag she says her husband carried in the war, it seems like everyone I came across gave me something in gratitude for my help. I tried to refuse, but they insisted, and slowly the bag was filled with food and supplies.
People make crude weapons, and I give them pointers on how to use them to the best of my ability in the small amount of time we have, pointing out the types of Pokemon they're likely to get in this area. The Arachnid population will be their major issue I think, and I give them pointers on the best ways to kill them, making people squirm as I talk about it with a fervor, born from hatred.
I tell them about the ghost that may still be around as well, Bic's amused snort, and Lu's pleased growl make me think otherwise though. I eat for what seems like the first time in days right before laying down for sleep that night. The world is a strange place when someone like me is so useful.
The next morning comes too quickly and I'm reluctant to leave the comforts this town has, but I remember again my mothers terrified voice over the phone, and my resolve is steeled again. I'll make it back. Or die trying, which I admit is a very real possibility. Scruffy stretches out as I let him out of his ball, the sun has yet to rise, and darkness is pressing heavily over everything as clouds hide the moon, but I don't need to be able to see for us to ride, and Arcanines see far better than humans.
"Let's go." I say, whipping into the saddle, and we're off once again into the wilds.
~{x}~{x}~{x}~