Renny: I'm enjoying this fic, despite the fact that I don't exactly know whether or not anyone besides Arrow likes it. Not to say I don't appreciate Arrow, but I'd like some other feedback so I know what other people think- if you think something's a piece of shit in this fic, at least tell me, damn you!
Green: Dude, it's only the eighth chapter. Chill.
Renny: I won't chill until I get some other reviews! I'm being whiney and stupid I know, but reviews is what I need to get better! If I'm doing something wrong and I don't notice, like a plot hole or something that I can't see because I'm an idiot, then someone else could point it out!
Green: Let's not forget that you wanted to get this up to Redemption's review-level.
Renny: That one has over two hundred, what do you expect?
Green: Most of those were repeat reviews.
Renny: I don't see what the issue is, at least people bothered! Yeah, moving on. There are feels and a breakdown in this chapter, so if anyone finds that stuff like . . . trigger-y or whatever it is, then maybe skim the details. Also depending on whether or not the scenes go on for the whole chapter, we might be ending up with Mood Whiplash.
Green: Perfect.
Renny: Just do the disclaimer.
Green: Renny doesn't own pokemon.
Renny: On with the show!
OOOOOO
"Are you two completely insane!?" Ice shouted.
"How many more people're gonna ask that?" Toni muttered.
"You faced down a criminal organisation, who also happen to be fucking terrorists mind you, and almost died several times- and you DIDN'T CALL US OUT!?"
"We've already told you-" Green began.
"I don't give a damn what you told me!" Ice snapped. "You could have been killed!"
"But we weren't."
"That's not the damn point, you could have been!"
"But we weren't."
"Or at the very least crippled or, oh and this is a good one, maybe in a damn coma!"
"But we weren't."
"I'm not denying that you make an excellent point," Ice sighed, finally calming down a little. "But the fact is that you almost were."
"It's a pokemon's job to make sure their Trainer is safe." Nameless told them. "We already know you can handle yourselves, but we still worry. It's what we do, that's loyalty."
"How touching." Rena said flatly from the bed.
"And you!" Ice whirled on Rena, who sat up, looking startled. "You nearly killed them as well- what if your damn Aggron had landed on them or something? Or if you hadn't realised your mistake in time, you could have killed Blue!"
"And Red." Nameless added.
"No one cares about that little shit."
"I'm not gonna bother dignifying that with a response, seeing as every one that I would make would just result in the same argument you and Green just had." Rena shrugged. "Besides, I know how to show restraint. Sometimes."
"MAYBE NOT ALL THE TIME." Castiel the Aggron said. "BUT WHEN SHE DOES, IT'S A SIGHT TO SEE."
"What he said." Rena agreed. Then she paused. "Wait, what?"
Ice pinched the bridge of his nose with his claws. "You people . . . what are you all like? Are you all as careless as this?" he asked.
"Well no, we just have no self-preservation instincts." Green shrugged. "Everyone else is probably different."
"That just fills me with confidence. Your entire species is going to be extinct, you know."
"Welp, good news is if scientists find fossils of us they can just revive us!" Toni grinned.
Everyone stared at her.
"I don't think ressurection works like that, kid." Rena eventually said.
"Ah, piss."
Ice blinked slowly for a second, and then shook his head and opened his jaws- no doubt to continue scolding them- but then Rena spoke up before he could.
"Hey, I just remembered something!" she exclaimed. "I got you two Christmas prezzies!"
"That was . . . hold on, when was that?" Toni asked.
"Weren't you the one who made a massive deal about pretty much missing it?" Green sighed.
"Yes. No. I don't know. Shut up."
"Christmas was a couple of days ago." Rena said. "And you two don't need to give me anything back, so stop feeling guilty, please."
"Stop reading my mind." Green and Toni told her.
"Read my shirt, dumbass." Rena snarked, gesturing to her black t-shirt.
The letters were white and there were only two words, but they pretty much summed up what Rena was saying.
LOL NO was what was on the shirt.
"Nice." Green said dryly. "Where'd you get that one?"
"Some dude. He ripped me off so I ripped his house up." Rena replied. "But then I changed the words, so it's whatever."
"What does it really say?" Amethyst asked her.
"You don't wanna know, Birthstone." Rena shuddered slightly. Then she brightened up. "Anyway, moving on- I got you stuff because Japan apparently decided to have a sale on shit that would normally cost hundreds of quid, for some reason, and Russia was being a piece of shit as usual so I got something from there too."
"What?" Lifeless asked, confused.
"Here, I give you things."
Rena pulled out a black t-shirt out of her own hammer space, and chucked it to Toni. It was black, like her own, but the white writing instead said KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON MY WAYWARD SON instead of LOL NO. It also had a white pentagram inside of a sun-like symbol above the writing.
"It's bad enough that she's a walking reference sheet, but now you're giving her a shirt that makes her a living reference?" Green demanded.
Rena just shrugged. "Worse things have happened, get over it."
Toni started singing Carry On My Wayward Son, and Green sighed.
"Look at it like this- Supernatural is epic. Therefore anything with ties to Supernatural is also instantly epic. So it stands to reason that Toni now has the most epic shirt on the planet. Be happy, kid." Rena told him.
"I'll be happy when she stops singing."
"In which case you'll be forever grumpy, now here's your shit."
Rena chucked a pendant to him. It was a strange golden colour, in the shape of a teardrop or maybe a raindrop, and there was an amber indent in the middle of it.
Green looked at Rena. "Is it made of, like, gold or something?" he asked. "Because the only time you gave me a bit of jewellery ended with me running from the American police because you stole some gold Egyptian necklace from the Natural History museum."
"No!" Rena exclaimed, gripping the side of the bed and glaring at him. "I promised I'd never do that again!"
Green pulled out a book labelled 'things Rena has nearly gotten me arrested for' out of his hammer space. He cleared his throat and opened it.
"Item number one, concerning two years ago-"
"Yes okay I got it." Rena huffed. "Put that thing away before your Croconaw gets any ideas."
"Too late." Ice said, already writing something down in a notebook. "I'm making a list of all the things you crazy people have done so I can emotionally blackmail you later. Or something."
"Yeah moving on. It's not actually made of gold or anything, it just looks like that." Rena explained. "Press the amber button in the middle."
"This thing?" Green pressed the indent.
It lit up and suddenly there was a glowing blue hologram of the entire building, with all five floors on top of each other, floating in front of him. Green was struck speechless.
"Holy shit, that's just like the map thing from Iron Man 3!" Toni squealed, finally giving up on trying to remember the second half of the song.
"What is this thing?" Green breathlessly asked Rena, who grinned at him.
She flipped over onto her back and looked at them all upside-down. "I said I got something from Russia, you know." Rena told them. "Essentially, it gives you a map of any room, building or city or town you happen to be in. The default setting, when you press the button, shows the building you're in. Go outside and you get the whole town, and if you touch one of the buildings on the hologram, you can, basically, look into that building without actually being there. If you're inside a building but you wanna look outside, just give that little blinking dot a tap.
"You wanna make it bigger, just 'grip' the edge of the map, any side, it doesn't matter, and pull. You do the opposite to make it smaller." Rena finished. "So, you impressed yet?"
"Who the hell did you have to kill to get this?" Green asked, in total awe, as he pressed the button again- the hologram disappeared back into the pendant. "Russia was being a prick about it! They wouldn't even let Japan have a look at the tech- wait. You didn't actually kill anyone, right?"
"No, of course not!" Rena laughed. "Though I did have to break into the Russian's Secret Service base, or their equivalent of it anyway."
"You did what now?" Nameless exclaimed.
"Oh hush, they have hundreds of these things. I just happened to take the best one." Rena looked at him through half-lidded eyes. "I'm not about to give sourpuss here the worst Ghost Plan Pendant out there."
"Ghost Plan Pendant?" Green asked.
"Ghost- in other words, apparition, or hologram. Plan- basically another word for map. Pendant . . . well, if I have to explain that, I need to ask if your head's on right." Rena said. "Hologram Map Pendant would be more accurate, but Ghost Plan Pendant sounds cooler. GPP for short. Or maybe GP2. I like that better. I refer you back to my previous question- impressed yet?"
"Yes." Green said firmly. "I'm not gonna give this one up, but if we can get another one of these things-"
"Your tech people could reverse-engineer it so they can have the tech too, smart thinking." Rena agreed. "I'll see what I can do about getting another one. Or maybe ten. Those guards weren't exactly smart; I don't think they even knew I had a face."
"Only you, Rena." Green rolled his eyes.
"Only me." she agreed happily.
"You got him a pendant that can give him a map to anything he wants, and you just got Toni a plain old t-shirt?" Hopeless asked, tilting her head. "Forgive me for saying this, but that doesn't exactly seem fair."
"ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR." Castiel said.
"I wasn't aware we were at war." Lifeless replied quietly.
"Well, we are trying to stop nuclear war- that counts. Kind of." Toni shrugged. "But I don't really care, Green's gonna get more use out of something like that than I ever will. I can barely read a map to get myself out of a paper bag."
"True, but that doesn't mean I didn't give you something awesome too." Rena pointed out.
"The shirt is fucking amazing, I ain't complaining."
"No I mean, other than the shirt. I worked my magic on it- specifically, my symbol magic- and you see that pentagram?" Rena pointed to it. "It's coded to only respond to your fingerprint, body-heat, etc. Transform-proof and any other thing that I could think of, which is basically everything, so it will only react to you and only you."
"What does it do?" Nameless wondered. "Teleport her?"
"I have Green for that!" Toni giggled.
"I'm not a bus." Green muttered.
"Nah, it doesn't teleport anyone." Rena said, grinning widely. More than usual. "What it does do, however, is let off a Sunburst."
There was a moment of silence.
"It lets off a WHAT?" Ice shouted.
"Sunburst!" Rena repeated. "Get your ears cleaned."
"SUNBURST HELL YES!" Toni screamed, throwing her arms into the air.
"Sun . . . burst?" Tick asked.
"Yeah, uh, for those of us who didn't grow up in a lab and who were quite literally born less than a week ago, what's a Sunburst?" Hopeless asked.
"The most powerful attack on the planet." Green explained. "Besides Judgement of course, but then again we don't actually know if one's more powerful than the other- we can't exactly compare them."
"Some genius- and I'm not being sarcastic- created a combo attack that pretty much every country's government decided was too damn powerful to be legal. Or sane, for that matter." Rena took up the explanation. "Think of Hyper Beam and Solar Beam, but together and with the added in effects of a very, very tiny sun for a little boost."
"But . . . why is it called Sunburst?" Hopeless frowned. She crossed her short arms. "Combo attacks normally take parts of their name from the attacks they're made from, or at least the ones you lot have come up with do."
"Thunder Beam isn't a good example to go off, and neither is Steel Cutter." Green replied. "If the attack was called Sunbeam, then it'd just be like saying it's another version of Solar Beam, which makes it confusing- if a pokemon or Deviant knew both, it would be hard to figure out the difference. Couldn't call it Hyperbeam either, for obvious reasons. Besides, Sunburst basically describes it best anyway. It's literally a giant burst of sun in a beam that can pretty much level an entire city."
"You gave a Weapon of Mass Destruction to a twelve year old psychopath!?" Ice snapped.
"I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath, do your research." Toni responded.
"You are not a sociopath!"
"Oh wah, you're just jelly that I've got awesome power in an awesome shirt." Toni stuck out her tongue.
"She already has the power to technically level half a city, so I thought, why not give her something extra and let her be able to level a city and a half?" Rena shrugged, her hands in the air. "I don't see the issue."
"Don't see the issue!?" Ice yelled. "You're all insane!"
"We never said we were sane." Green told him.
That made the Croconaw pause and look at him.
"Just don't use it regularly." Rena advised. "It takes about three hours to charge up after one use, so use it as a finishing move or in an emergency or whatever. And please don't actually level an entire city, we do have to show restraint now and then, no matter how much we wanna blow shit up."
"I'll try not to." Toni said, grinning at the shirt.
"This is all very touching, I am certain." someone said.
Everyone looked over at the open window, where two Pidgeottos were sitting. One of them had a black face.
"Don't be such a buzzkill, Twin." Faceless smiled.
"Where the hell have you two been?" Ice demaned.
"Training. Although Twin refuses to use my Steel Cutter move." Faceless rolled her eyes and sighed. She opened her now-larger wings and glided gracefully down to the floor, and Twin followed her.
"I do not need to combine my attacks to become stronger. I am already strong." the Pidgeotto said haughtily.
"You say that now, but what about when you're up against some ass of a Rock type and you need a combo attack, and Steel Wing don't cut it? No offence, Ame." Faceless glanced at Amethyst.
"None taken, I'm not like the rest of my species." Amethyst dismissed it with a wave of her hand.
"I will not stoop to the level of-"
"When and how did you two evolve and why did we not hear about this and also how the hell did we not notice you go out?" Toni rapidly asked.
"Hey talking like that's my thing are you stealing my thing Toni and you said you'd never steal any of my things other than my moves you liar!" Sparkless cried.
"We were training and it just happened, uh, we only just got back so we've only just told you, and you were being shouted at by Ice so we left quietly." Faceless answered, sounding slightly confused.
Toni and Green glanced at each other.
"Works for me." he said.
"Yep." she answered.
oooo
"You're leaving?" Toni whined pitifully, half an hour later.
"Yep." Rena said.
"But why?" Toni cried. "Why can't you stay and make the other half of our job here easier?"
Rena just laughed, walking out of the door of the pokemon centre. Green and Toni followed her, and stood back as she let out her Altaria.
"I'm not doing your job for you, I'm just the hired help." Rena said, and then paused. "Wait. That bastard didn't actually hire me. I'm not getting paid for thi- aw shit."
"Serves you right." the Altaria said gracefully. He ruffled his fluffy wings and gave Rena a look that could only be described as smug. "The instant you hear these childrens' names, you more or less lose your mind."
"With good reason, we're basically family." Rena muttered. "Whatever. Michael, Olivine city, and don't give me any shit on the way."
"Would you like a leisurely cruise or a monsoon, ma'am?"
"What did I just say, you overgrown Torchic?"
"I have selective hearing. I selected not to hear your words." Michael replied.
"Don't you get along with any of your pokemon?" Green asked, as Rena climbed onto Michael.
"The pot calls the kettle black once again, kid." Rena smirked.
"Quiet you." Green snapped.
"We're lucky Blue and Red left yesterday." Toni muttered to Sparkless, who giggled.
"I can hear you, you know."
"We know."
Michael spread his wings and was gone into the sky with barely a sound. Altaria weren't exactly known for their speed, not like some Flying types were, but Rena's team weren't exactly a normal bunch. Neither were his or Toni's, but the point still stood.
Since apparently Rena had made arrangements for the two of them to stick around in her room until they had to leave, Green and Toni went back there. Their pokemon were waiting for them.
They quickly formed a plan (or, well, Green, Ice, Nameless and Lifeless formed a plan, everyone else just did whatever) to find the second Deviant.
The job was gonna be made easier since Cloe was living at the local orphanage, which, unlike just about every other orphanage Green had ever seen, was actually a nice place. She'd stay there until the extraction team appeared for her, and then she'd go with them.
No need to make sure a reasonable Deviant was on the team, since she'd already agreed. Her reason for going was best summed up as 'there's nothing for me in this town'. Morbid, for a little girl, but it worked for Green.
Despite what Rena had said, she did make the second part of their job a little easier. Their next target (Toni didn't want to say potential Deviant recruit, it was a mouthful, so target it was) was a boy about fourteen years old, and apparently he was blonde.
As far as Green knew, there weren't many blonde fourteen year old boys wandering around in Azalea. And since they had the adress of the boy, they could find this kid easy.
Well. Kid was a loose term, he was two years older than Green and Toni.
His name was, according to their list, Jack Tucker. In Green's experience, anyone called Jack was a complete asshole, so he warned Toni to be careful- and she agreed wholeheartedly.
He wasn't too sure about the last name.
Jack lived with his parents somewhere on the West side of the city, so at least that meant Green and Toni could leave quicker this time. Not that Green minded their reasons for delaying in Violet city, of course.
"You think he'll answer the door, or his parents?" Toni asked, as they walked up the front path.
"At a guess, after yesterday? The parents. He might be fourteen but the list doesn't exactly show much record of him being an actual Trainer- he's got a Quilava and a Houndour, but that's about it." Green replied. "Let me do the talking, and Sparkless?"
"Yeah what is it Green do you want me to impress him with my-"
"No, I just want you to be quiet. Toni?"
"I was gonna make you do the talking anyway."
He rolled his eyes and knocked on the door.
They waited for several seconds, and when the door finally opened, they were surprised to see that it was a fourteen year old blonde boy who answered.
" . . . Hi there." Green tried. "Um . . . can we talk to you, for a minute?"
"If you want Mom and Dad, they're helping the other police members try and track down who scared off that stupid team from yesterday." Jack told them. He sounded stuck-up and bossy, like he was used to getting his way.
Great.
Wait a second, did he just say 'other police members'?
"Your parents are police?" Green asked, panicking slighty. He didn't show it though.
"Yeah, Dad's the Chief and Mom's his second-in-command or whatever it's called." Jack shrugged.
This was like with Sammy all over again. Except this time it seemed that Jack was an actual ass, not just unmotivated.
"So they're not here, then?" Green checked, instead of moaning unhappily.
"Nope. You want them, go and screw yourself, it's not my business." Jack said disinterestedly. "Wait by the station, they'll turn up."
"It's you that we want to talk to, not your parents." Green said, already getting annoyed with him. Hadn't he already said they wanted to talk to him?
"You after money or something? You look like beggars." Jack sniffed, glaring at their clothes. "And wow, where did you even get that crap? Rubbish bin maybe?"
Toni started growling quietly, and Green put a hand on her arm to stop her from launching herself at the ass in front of them.
"No, we're not after money, and we're not beggars." Green replied evenly.
"You trying to sell me something then?"
"No."
"Preach to me about the bible or some shit?"
"No."
"Sell me the bible?"
"No."
"Tell me about your lord and saviour, Bird Jesus?"
"No- wait, what?"
"Make me do some stupid survey about the government?"
"No."
"Then why are you wasting my time?"
"Because we need to talk to you, dammit. Do you mind stepping out of the house, or something?" Green asked.
"Or something, now get off my property."
"A fourteen year old can't own property." Toni spoke up, full-on glaring at him. "One, it's against the law, and two, you're an idiot and I don't like you or your stupid hair."
Jack, looking offended, patted his hair- which, admittedly, did look kind of stupid. It was stuck up in all the wrong ways. Green's own hair was kind of messy, but Toni kept saying he made it work (despite the fact that she also kept saying he needed to cut it at some point).
"Get lost, or I'm calling my parents." Jack snapped.
Green and Toni exchanged a glance and stayed where they were.
Jack glowered at them and muttered an incredibly offensive word under his breath, which Green clearly heard, and went to slam the door on their faces.
"Okay, you know what?" Green said, just before Jack could do anything. "I was gonna be nice about this, but you just forced my hand. We're doing this our way now."
"Doing what your-" Jack began.
He never got past the third word before Green grabbed his arm, already having taken a hold of Toni (who was holding onto Sparkless).
Green used Teleport, and suddenly they were in the forest outside of Azalea, the East side.
Jack staggered away and threw up. They waited for a few seconds while he wiped his mouth, using his sleeve, and then straightened up. He looked around and his mouth fell open.
"But- but how the hell- we were- I was just at my house!" Jack stammered. He spun to Green and Toni. "What the hell! Is this some sort of trick!?"
"No tricks." Green told him, then rapidly tried to explain while he had the asshole's attention. "We're a species called Deviants, and what I just did was Teleport. In case that didn't spell it out, I'm half Psychic."
"The hell you are!" Jack snapped. "I demand proof!"
"I just Teleported us three miles outside of town, what more do you want?"
"Maybe he wants to see other stuff." Toni suggested. Her body lit up with sparks, and she generated some of them into a small Electro Ball.
Then she threw that at some random tree and split the tree in half.
" . . . That could have just been the Rotom. And . . . you could have an Abra." Jack said.
"Sparkless, go over to Jack." Toni ordered. Sparkless, giggling something about belief systems, zipped over to Jack's general area. He didn't get too close though.
Toni made another Electro Ball and raised an eyebrow at Jack.
"Well?" she asked.
" . . . Okay fine. What'd you call yourselves? Deviants? Okay, so, I'm dreaming and I've somehow come up with this totally new sub-species of-"
"We are not a sub-species!" Green barked.
"Dude, we're trying to be nice here, but you're just making it difficult." Toni sighed.
Green quickly calmed himself down before Jack realised he could leave and they couldn't really do much about it.
"Look . . . you're a Deviant too." Green explained, and Jack's eyes widened. "Far as I can tell, you're a Fighting type."
"And how, exactly, can you tell?" Jack asked, in a tone that suggested that he was only humouring them.
"I get impressions. Yours is kind of . . . I guess you could say a sort of Brick Break kind of thing." Green tried to explain. It was hard to explain a Fighting type's impression, since it was similar to a Normal type's, but at least it still wasn't as difficult as a Psychic type.
"Am I even awake?" Jack wondered.
"You want me to zap you and find out?" Toni offered, as Sparkless came back over to them.
"Okay fine, I'm awake." he snapped, scowling. "Let's say this Tauros-shit is real and all that, let's say I'm a Deviant and I'm a Fighting type. What would that mean, huh? As far as I can tell with you two, there isn't anything to remotely tell me that you're what you say you are. So how do I know you're even telling me the truth, or you're not completely insane?"
"How many more times do I need to throw a ball of electricity into a tree for you?" Toni demanded. "And Green just Teleported us, how does that not tell you we're telling the truth?"
"Tell you what." Jack said, ignoring her completely. "One of you battles me, and if you win, I'll believe you. If you lose, I can go home and pretend I never met the two crazy kids who drugged me and pretended they were so-called Deviants."
"That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever." Green bluntly stated. "You can't just decide whether or not to believe someone just because they beat you in a battle!"
"Besides, we've showed you." Toni stressed again. "We don't need to-"
"You." Jack interrupted, pointing at Toni. "You look like you've got weak and girly pokemon. I'll battle you."
"Can I just point out that the insanely rare Rotom floating around belongs to her?" Green said, before Toni could even try to do anything she wouldn't regret.
"I don't believe you. Women can't have cool pokemon. It's a fact of life. My mom, however, is the only exception because she's my mom. Any other woman can't have cool pokemon."
"Even if he didn't wanna battle you in the first place, I would have let you do so anyway." Green muttered to Toni. He stepped back and folded his arms. "Have at him."
"I'm gonna enjoy this. So much." Toni hissed.
"Two-on-two, since I only need two." Jack boasted.
"You've only got two." Green called.
"How the hell do you know that?"
"He's half Psychic, remember?" Toni said sarcastically.
As Jack rose to the bait, Green found himself wondering just how things had gone downhill so damn quickly.
Sure, it was probably mostly Jack's fault for being such an ass, but did that mean that he and Toni were also to blame, for reacting like they did?
A very small part of Green hoped that Toni lost, because if she won it meant that they'd probably have to deal with Jack in the city, if he went there. Actually, no, that was a definite thing- Green didn't like him enough to try and get a sensible person on the extraction team.
But of course he knew damn well that Toni was better than that, and he should know better than to think she would lose at all. Green quickly banished the thought as the battle started, Jack practically seething with anger and Toni just grinning smugly.
"Houndour, burn this brat's pokemon to ashes!" Jack snapped.
"No I won't." Houndour said.
Jack didn't appear to understand, unlike every other Deviant. Green wasn't entirely sure, but maybe it had something to do with his asshole personality. He'd read in some handbook (a Deviant one written by a non-Deviant, for some reason) that a Deviant needed to have some sort of connection to pokemon at be able to understand them, and Green felt that maybe that theory had been proven.
Like, just right now.
Or maybe they were lucky and Jack was an idiot.
Whatever it was, it was gonna make this battle a lot more interesting.
"Hey Faceless, mind sorting this moron out for me?" Toni asked, holding out the ball casually.
Faceless burst out of the pokeball and faced Houndour, her wings set into a classic bird-attack position.
"He's an ass, of course I'm gonna sort him out." the Pidgeotto growled. Or, well, did whatever the bird equivalent was.
"What the hell is wrong with that mutant bird's face?" Jack yelled.
" . . . I'll cut him to ribbons." Faceless corrected herself.
"I'm cool with that. Just leave his head intact." Toni agreed.
"And here I thought you couldn't get any more immature." Green muttered to himself.
"Don't squash the creativity."
Yeah, he had to give her that one. They could probably make a hurricane of puns with a head.
"Just don't get ahead of yourself." he said. Starting, of course, with that one.
Toni grinned at him.
"Fire Spin!" Jack interrupted.
As Green resisted the urge to make a You Spin Me Right Round pun, Faceless shot up into the air to avoid the flames.
"Little help!" she called.
"Wing Attack!" Toni ordered.
"No Steel Cutter?" Green asked.
"That wouldn't work." Tick said, blinking innocently. "Uncle Ice said revealing your best attack at the start is never a good idea."
"Ice scares me sometimes." Green said.
"Tick scares me sometimes." Toni told him.
"Uh, how?"
"Well-"
Something exploded in the battle and they quickly turned their attention back to it.
Faceless swung around in mid-air, creating a sort of tailwind that wasn't quite an actual Tailwind, which blew Houndour's flames back.
The fire hit Houndour in the face. Then the fire disappeared.
"What." Green said.
"Flash Fire?" Toni guessed.
"That's not like any Flash Fire I've ever seen!" he cried. "He just ate the fire!"
"No I didn't." Houndour called to them.
"Snarl!" Jack ordered, irritated. Probably because Toni and Green refused to actually focus on the battle.
Houndour snarled very loudly, and the force of the sound drove Faceless back a few inches.
"Hah!" the asshole shouted. "You think you can win? Houndour's never lost a battle, and he isn't gonna lose this one!"
"Yes I will."
"Does he disagree with everything?" Toni whispered to Green, who shrugged.
Faceless swooped down a shot a Gust at Houndour. The Dark/Fire type took a step back to try and take it, but he wasn't exactly heavy- so even though he dug his claws in, Houndour ended up getting blown off his feet.
Yes, literally.
Stop sniggering.
"Get another Wing Attack in!" Toni called.
"Eat my feathers, dog-breath!" Faceless taunted, flying too quickly to be seen by anyone who wasn't adjusted to her speed.
Houndour tried to dodge, completely ignoring Jack's dumb order to attack, and got clipped on the leg.
He tripped over and landed on his face, and didn't get back up.
" . . . What?" Jack said, after a few seconds of silence. "Why aren't you getting up?"
"Because he's beaten?" Green suggested. "Return the poor thing and send out your next pokemon."
"He's not beaten!" Jack fumed loudly. "He's just- resting."
"Right, sure, and the fact that he's not reacting to your annoying voice does nothing to say otherwise." Toni snarked.
Jack growled and returned his Houndour, muttering to himself. No doubt insults about Toni and Green, but so long as he actually sent out his next pokemon, whatever.
Green wasn't entirely sure how powerful his Quilava was, and Toni didn't have any Water or Ground types. Or Rock types, for that matter. But seeing how well Faceless was doing, he could guess that she'd keep her in.
At this point in time, in terms of pure power (and also not counting Sparkless), Faceless was her best pokemon. Also speed, but that was a given considering how fast the Pidgey line was. Nameless, no offence to him or his species, was kind of crappy in the situation, mostly because he was a Grass type. Lifeless currently didn't have any good attacks, but Toni was in the process of teaching him Shadow Ball.
Hopeless was more or less the kind of pokemon you sent in if you wanted the opponent shredded.
Without basically cheating and using Sparkless to obliterate Jack, Faceless was Toni's best bet.
And so when he sent out his Quilava, and Toni kept her Pidgeotto in, Green wasn't surprised at all.
He was surprised, however, at the heated glare they recieved from Quilava.
"You dare mock Master?" he snarled.
"Oh Mew." Toni groaned. "It's one of those pokemon that take the loyalty thing way too seriously."
"I'll make you pay! You, and any who you associate with, will pay for your insol-"
"Wing Attack to your face!" Faceless interrupted.
It took Quilava a few seconds to stop bouncing across the battlefield.
"Flamethrower!" Jack snapped out. "Burn that mutant bird, dammit!"
"As you command!"
That porcupine needs to get a life, Green thought.
Fortuntely it didn't seem like Quilava had very good aim, so the attack mostly went wide and it was fairly easy for Faceless to avoid it- which she did so, looking incredibly bored.
Of course, a pokemon like her would want a better challenge than a maybe-deranged Quilava.
"Hit the damn thing already!" Jack shouted. "We can't lose this!"
And he got increasingly more asshole-ish as time went by. Perfect.
In both senses of the word.
The flames on Quilava's back disappeared for a split second, and then erupted into a frenzy. From what Green knew, if a Quilava did that, it meant they were getting ready to boost their power.
Funny thing about the Cyndaquil line, they could use a small portion of their Blaze ability even if they were at full health. Toothless had never shown any signs of being able to do the same thing, so Green (along with everyone else) assumed it was only an ability native to the Cyndaquil line.
No, he wasn't worried. Not that worried, anyway. But if the flames turned blue or even white, that meant the real Blaze had activated and they would be in serious trouble.
But Toni already knew that, because even if she was crap at Science (though for some reason amazing at Chemistry, but she did like blowing things up), she knew pokemon like the back of her own hand. So she knew what the danger of the fake-Blaze was.
"Facey, be careful!" Toni called, proving him right. "He'll be more powerful now, fake-Blaze is a fucking annoying ability but it's useful!"
"How do you know about that?" Jack demanded. "It's only something owners of the Cyndaquil line know about!"
"Oh my Arceus," Green said, looking at him. "You actually are thicker than you look."
Jack shouted in rage and ordered a full-blast Flamethrower.
Crap.
"Thanks for getting him pissed enough to burn everything." Toni scoffed.
"Just pay attention to the battle."
"Like you ever do." Toni turned back to the battle nonetheless. "Alright, Faceless, Steel Cutter! Blow the flames away!"
"It doesn't work like that!" Faceless cried, as she narrowly avoided getting her tail feathers scorched.
"Make it work then!"
Faceless paused mid-air, considering that. She shrugged and started to build up the attack, and then the fire reached her.
Toni screamed almost as loudly as Faceless did. The boosted Flamethrower continued for a few seconds, and then it abrupty cut off.
And Faceless's charred and shriveled corpse fell to the ground.
Moments passed in complete silence, as everyone tried to process that. Even Quilava had stopped, looking confused.
" . . . Did I . . . do that?" he whispered.
Then it was like he'd broken the spell.
"Why did you do that!?" Toni shrieked. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?"
"I-I . . . I didn't-" Jack began.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP, YOU FUCKING- YOU- YOU-"
"Toni, calm down-" Green tried.
Toni whirled on him. "YOU TOO!" she screamed. "SHUT UP!"
Even Sparkless was shocked to silence.
Green gently placed Tick on the ground, giving him a soft pat. Sparkless floated down to the baby and for that Green was grateful, but right now his priority was Toni.
Who was starting to spark violently.
"Just calm down, alright?" he said. "Toni?"
"STOP SAYING MY NAME! JUST FUCKING SHUT UP- AND YOU, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT GOING ANYWHERE!"
Jack froze from where he'd been trying to sneak away. Quilava was already in his ball presumably, so that just left him to face Toni's wrath alone.
"You." Toni hissed, terrifyingly quiet now. "I'd ask if you know what you just did, but you wouldn't even give a fuck. WOULD YOU!?"
"I'm sorry, okay?" Jack cried. His voice was annoyingly high-pitched in fear. "But it's just a stupid mutant bird, get over it!"
That was the wrong thing to say.
"Just a stupid mutant bird." Toni repeated dully. "Just . . . a stupid mutant bird."
"Yeah, so if you would just chill-"
"THE FUCK I WILL, YOU OVERCONFIDENT, ARROGANT, FUCKFACED, RETARDED ASSWHIPE OF A HUMAN BEING!" Toni screeched. By now the sparks lighting up her body were almost consuming her, and Green took a couple of steps away in case he got burned. "YOU DON'T DESERVE TO BE A DEVIANT! YOU CAN'T EVEN LOOK AFTER YOUR MOTHERFUCKING POKEMON PROPERLY, YOU CUNT!"
She screamed again, wordlessly, and Green could hear as well as feel her rage and her despair.
And then the electricity coursing all over her body suddenly shot up into the sky, striking a few small clouds.
Several seconds passed in tense silence, and just when Green had begun to think that it was over, it all came back from the clouds.
But the beam of lightning that struck Toni was massive, more like a Thunder Beam only less refined and more jagged, uncontrolled. She practically vanished inside of it, and only her screams of rage told Green that she was even still there.
"Oh shit." Sparkless said.
Yeah, that just about summed it up.
Green suddenly got a flash of intent, and it made him wince- before the intent vanished from his mind, he latched onto the images and saw a burnt and mangled corpse.
It wasn't Faceless. It wasn't even Quilava.
It was Jack.
Despite how much this went against his instincts to let her do what she wanted (because getting between a pissed-off Toni and her objective was never, ever a good idea), Green Teleported.
Right between her and Jack.
He only had seconds, so Green flung up his hands, heard Jack cry out in terror as the not-Thunder Beam shifted like it was about to fire, and threw up two dozen Light Screen and Reflect shields.
Also four or five Barriers for added protection.
Toni flung the entire boosted Thunder Beam at him, which Green could forgive because she didn't even know he was there, protecting the asshole who ordered the murder of Faceless.
The Thunder Beam hit the shields, and broke just about every single one of them. When the Beam finally faded away into a few sparks, and then broke off completely, Green only had a flickering Barrier shield left.
It hurt. Keeping all those shields up through that Thunder Beam, that is. He could hardly stand, nevermind keep the flickering shield up. Speaking of, he quickly shut that down and lowered his arms, swaying on his feet.
Toni didn't seem to notice, and she gave him a look that could melt lead- her eyes still crackling with the lighting. "Why did you do that?" she demanded. "Why'd you protect a bastard like him!?"
"No one . . . deserves . . . to die." Green managed. "Not for . . . a-a mistake."
"HE DID IT ON PURPOSE!"
"I didn't-"
"SHUT UP!"
Jack shut up.
"Toni." Green begged. "Calm- calm down."
It didn't seem to be working, and the sparking started up again. If he didn't calm her down in the next few seconds, she'd fire off another boosted Thunder Beam.
Green didn't think he could manage that many shields again.
"Please." he said.
Toni froze.
She blinked slowly.
And the lighting in her eyes vanished with a faint crackle.
"W-what . . ." she began. Then Toni stopped, saw Green almost about to faint, and made a strange high-pitched sound.
She collapsed onto her knees, hands over her mouth, and started crying.
Green forced himself forward a few steps and then used whatever was left of his power to Teleport himself over to her. He crouched down and wrapped his arms around his best friend, his Arceus-dammed sister.
"I . . . I'm a horrible person." Toni whispered. "I tried to- oh my Mew, I tried to kill you . . ."
"You tried to kill Jack." Green murmured back. "I just got in the way."
Toni didn't reply and just whimpered, curling up into herself. Tick and Sparkless came over and prodded her gently, and she grabbed both of them, hugging them to her chest. Neither minded, and Green certainly didn't.
Then he felt another intent, or something along those lines, and narrowed his eyes.
DON'T.
Jack froze. He was half-way to the treeline already, but Green had stopped him in his tracks.
Don't you dare, Green told him without even looking up from Toni. If you even think of walking away from this . . . allow me to refer you to what just happened not one minute ago.
Jack didn't reply, but he was scared out of mind.
But if I were you, I would never forget this. The murder you just caused . . . the pain you just caused. Let this be the first thing you think of in the morning, and the last thing you think of when you go to bed.
You'll never get a good night's sleep again.
I'll make sure of it.
But if you must leave . . . remember this.
Faceless. That was her name. She was abandoned for having a birth mark that covered her entire face, and she was never angry at her parents. Instead she channeled her energy into becoming the strongest pokemon she could be, even inventing her own combination attack. Faceless was a good friend.
And you, you selfish Swinub, murdered her.
Remember that.
Jack swallowed and wisely kept silent. He left quietly as well, while Green kept Toni's attention away from that general direction.
oooo
Hours later, after Green had found a shovel, they buried Faceless under the oldest tree they could find.
She'd told them once that she loved old trees more than beautiful trees, because the old age showed wisdom and tranquility. Faceless may have been a fighter at heart, but she did like that kind of stuff.
Green wasn't sure how wise or tranquil this tree was, but from what he could feel, it was one of the oldest trees in the entire forest.
They marked the grave with a blue-grey stone that Amethyst had gotten from the Union Cave Geodudes, who came to pay their respects and offer their condolences for Toni. Their teams huddled together, murmuring a prayer that Nameless had found on a religious site when he'd been in the lab- they may not have believed in it, but it was helping the younger pokemon cope, and in some way it was helping the older ones as well.
Twin was the only one who kept away from them. She was settled next to Toni, staring blankly at the stone that marked Faceless's grave.
Toni herself was slumped a couple of feet away from the tree, eyes red-rimmed and her arms wrapped around her legs. She was resting her chin on them.
Green sat down next to her. She hardly reacted.
Several moments passed, the only sounds being the soft murmurs of the prayer and the quiet and solemn movements in the bushes from the wild pokemon. No doubt the Union Cave Geodudes had told the locals, so they were being quiet out of respect.
" . . . Green?" Toni suddenly whispered.
She sounded broken. Scared. So unlike the Toni he knew.
Green looked at her. "What is it?" he asked gently.
"I . . ." Toni trailed off like she didn't know how to word it, and then started up again. "I wanna cut my hair."
Green jerked back slightly. He calmed himself down quickly. "Why?" he asked her.
"I don't know. I just . . . feel like a change." Toni said, not taking her eyes off the stone.
Anyone else might have lied and said it was gonna be okay, that she'd get over it eventually . . .
But Green wasn't anyone else, and he had never lied to Toni before.
He wasn't going to start now.
Instead, he just sat by her and said nothing. He knew she was grateful.
OOOOOO
Renny: Okay, even I wasn't expecting that. Where did that even come from?
Green: Holy shit.
Renny: No, really, where?
Green: Holy shit.
Renny: Okay, I think he's broken. When I was on about the Mood Whiplash thing, I was actually on about Faceless's death and then something totally random afterwards. The first half of this chapter just came out of nowhere . . . And that's actually exactly how Faceless died in the HG game, the rival's Quilava killed her. Then I sent in Nameless to finish the damn thing off, which might have been a bad idea had he not taken it down with a Crit. I like to think of that as revenge. Read and review, please.
