Pokemon: Warpath
I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.
#10: Trust
I awoke with the extremely satisfying feeling of a warm body curled up against my own. Judging by the size and velvety feel of said body, and the fact that I was not being crushed, that said body belonged to Casey, as I had no recollection of meeting anyone else I would invite back to my room under the light haze the Alcohol had provided. If it had been Europa, the crushing I mentioned would be taking place. She likes to cuddle from the top, in pile form. I disentangled myself with exceptional care, not wanting to make her, and then found myself just watching her sleep. We were both in our short clothes, her with the addition of one of my own T-shirts, (and something about that made it all the hotter,) and I had no doubt as to the fact that their had been no intercourse the previous night. I was not bothered by this. She was curled up in a near fetal position, and uncurled softly as if in search of the extra heat my body had offered, but she did not wake. She was sleeping the sleep of someone who had not had a safe place to do so in a long time. She was drooling slightly, and I even liked that.
Casey expanded a bit further, still asleep, her right arm drooping over the mattress, her head facing away from the door and leaving her laying on her stomach, her back uncovered and toward me.. I looked it over, and beneath the straps of her bra were several slightly faded red scars crisscrossing over the white flesh. A knot of sickness and anger solidified in my gut. I recognized the marks, hell, I had two matching marks on my own. Ol' Crosspatch was a stickler for disciple, and being family didn't get you any quarter. I gently ran a finger over one of the raised welts. She did not stir and I lay my palm open on her back, feeling her deep, calm breathing. I don't know what she had done, but she got one hell of a flogging. The marks it leaves on your skin are nothing to the marks they leave in your mind, and I have to wonder what lesson it was that she had to be taught so forcefully.
Europa, laying on the floor next to the bed, looked up with a snap a second before there was a sharp rapping at the hotel door. I waved her quiet, and I covered Casey more securely with the sheet and quickly moved over and opened the door enough that whoever was there would see that he needed to be quiet, as Casey was sleeping. What met my eye was a tall, officious looking man in a uniform. I put my finger to my lips, motioning for quiet and pointing at Casey, then I moved into the hallway to accommodate him, leaving to door open.
"Sorry, but the Missus had a bit much to drink last night, and I don't want to wake her. What can I do you for?" The Pips on his shoulders denoted him as a Lieutenant, and Casey had filled me in on some recent history of the region, so I was confident that I could handle it. She had Told me that we were in New Bark Town, closest town to the border, and thus heavily fortified against invasion by the Kantonese. Once Franklin Perish took power, he pushed a wave of nationalism that swept through the land, holding mass executions of citizens of Kanto, as well as an embargo of all goods and even the blocking of import of Non native species of Pokemon. By making his platform on of patriotism, he managed to not only hold power, but a large degree of popular support as well.
"Good Morning. Early last evening, there was an attack by a Kanto Assault Scout on our Eastern Barricade, and it is believed that this man entered the city in the company of fugitive female. The Boarder guard who was wounded in the attempt to stop the interloper relates that his assailent was a man with dark hair, carried a cane, and was accompanied by a dragon with black scales. Have you noticed anything amiss?"
I made a note to kill any witnesses next time, and seemed to think about it.
"Not other than that odd rain fall yesterday. Is the soldier going to be ok?" The lieutenant nodded.
"Yes, he took a good hit, but heshould recover nicely. If you do notice anything, please let a member of the Guard know. The people are to be presumed armed and dangerous, so I ask that you try nothing if you do encounter them. Thank you for you're time."
"Oh, think nothing of it. Thank you for the heads up, I'll keep my eyes peeled." He nodded again and turned away, moving to the next door. I re-entered the room and locked the door. Something about the exchange was bothering me, but I couldn't Identify what, so I started fixing up breakfast.
(…)
Casey awoke as I finished cooking, and I tolde her of the exchange while we ate. I happen to be looking out the window after the meal was done when I noticed something. A pair with luggage hurrying away. As they moved away, A pair of soldiers with their crossbows draw moved aside to let them pass. I stood up and got a better look. Six other soldiers, arrayed in a way that would, if continued, would encircle the building. 4 other people were leaving the Hotel with their kit, hurrying through the falling rain.
"Casey…" I said, watching more people fleeing.
"What?" She asked, yawning.
"Get dressed and ready, I think we've been made." I have to say, I really do like her. She didn't ask anything, or say anything, but was up and moving efficiently. 3 minutes later she was dressed, packed, and ready to move. She was faster than I was. I strapped my cane to my pack and recalled Europa, opened the door slowly, and peeked out. The hall was empty, several doors open. I checked the two closest, and both were evacuated.
"Shit, that bastard new it was us the whole time. Ah ha, that's what was bugging me. He didn't ask for I.D., or papers, or anything. He was trying to get us to not notice anything was up before the evac was complete and they had us hemmed in. Let's try the back door is a viable option."
We took the stairs, me on point, Casey covering, and made it to the lobby unimpeded. As I moved toward the glass door to check the situation through the rain fogged glass, the window in the door exploded. A heavy bolt whooshed through the air in front of my face, making me drop to the floor. Casey spun behind the manager's desk, and I crawled on my stomach to join her as a volley of bolts shattered more glass and thunked into the lobby's rear wall. Wind blew water into the building though the busted windows. Outside it was raining hard, and a light fog had flowed in, better cover than I could have hoped for. I sat up next to Casey, who was looking worriedly over the counter. I peeked to, and formed my plan. I droped out one of my Pokeballs, and Jolteon stretched and nuzzled my leg.
"Alright," I said, looking over at Casey, "it's time to shit or get of the pot." She looked down at me with a quizzical look. I turned to face her. "I am going to level with you." I placed a hand on her shoulder. "I like you, Casey, a lot. I am going to get out there and raise some serious hell, for as long as I can. I would like it if you wanted to join me. Even if you don't, I will still get you out of this mess, not strings attached." I looked up into her eyes to hammer home the point I was trying to make. "But, I don't really know you. So I am going to ask you, now, if I can trust you. I need to know that you are not going to slit my through in the night at some point. I need to know that I am not just going to wake up one day and find you gone without a trace, never to return. If you were to want to leave, I want you to let me know. If you want to travel with me, I need you to promise me this." She looked at me, clearly thinking this through
"if you don't know if you can trust me, how can you accept my promise?"
"Because I chose to. I am giving you this chance, and I will believe you, what ever you answer. If you chose not to, I will still excort you out of here, no hard feelings, and part once we are clear, friendly aquaintences." She thought for a moment again.
"I promise I will not do any of the things you asked me not to do, and I will not simply disappear of my own free will without telling you my intent to do so." I smiled at her, happy at her choice.
"Alright, then, lets blow this joint." I told Jolteon what to do.
She walked into the growing pool of water from the broken doors, and I opened my pack and withdrew a sheet of thin rubber, unrolled it, then stepped onto it, pulling Casey along. I told Jolteon to hit it. She barked once and her fur began to ripple as if caught in a high wind. There was a bright flash, and she began to pump hundreds of volts directly into the puddle at her feet. The electricity, conducted through the water, flowed out and around the hotel, roasting the people outside. As she finished, I recalled her, then rolled back up the rubber mat, and secured it in my pack. I motioned for Casey to follow, and we dashed out, heads low in the pounding rain, past the smoking corpses of the guards.
(…)
I woke up after camping out in the wet field the next day, to find Casey crouching a few feet away. I looked up at her and wondered why she looked so grim.
"'s amatter." I grumbled, sitting up yawning. She stared at me in a way that set me on alert. "Casey… What is wrong." She looked pained.
"I've… I'm made a decision." I arched an Eyebrow and allowed her to continue in her own time. "I Don't want to live like this anymore. Last night was the first time I have been back in a city in over a year. I can't do this living in the wood shit anymore."
"Okay," I said, "so lets work our way back over the border. I'll set you up out in the safari zne for as long as you like."
"It's not just that. I can't just leave my country while it's like this. I've been thinking about it for a while now, how I can get back in with my countrymen. I know how, now."
"Oh, balls, you have to be shiting me. Serious?" I quickly ascertained that my weapons and Poke balls were missing.
"I did not realize it until this morning. You are a real live Ranger, from Kanto, invading our country. Now that I know that they are actively looking for me, as well, I don't know that I can stay hidden anymore." Now she looked up and met my eyes for the first time. They held no malice, only shame, fear, sadness, and weariness. If I was not so pissed I would have sympathized with her. "I am going to hand you over, and see if I can get re-instated into the Perish Guard. I thought a lot about this last night, and it doesn't really violate any of the conditions you laid out for me. I am telling you, and giving you a choice on whether to come with me or not." She stood up, and all of her emotion wiped from her face and her voice became neutral, as she was now simply relating facts. "I know you can tell that I have taken all of your weapons and pokeballs. You do not have to come voluntarily, but if you chose to resist, I will put forward my best effort to subdue you." I tried to think, but I was seething with so much rage that clear thought was unable to make itself heard.
5 Minutes later, she was leading me bruised and bound through the forest to a place she called Cherrygrove. At the entry blockade, she shared some words with the guards, a little black bag was thrown over my head, and then they threw, literally fucking threw me in a cell.
Inside was plain concrete with bars, a bed with a metal frame and just the mattress, bolted to the floor, and a toilet. At least it had a seat. I sat in there for a week, interrogations every day, and fed false information based on real information. You'd be surprised how easily they would believe someone they killed was not who they actually killed. During that week, I though of 204 parting phrases I wished I had said to Casey and damn it all if I was not more hurt by what she did than angry. Luckily, depression doesn't suit me well, although I did get a rather lot of sleep.
It was on the 8th day after I had been imprisoned, they brought in another man. He was trim, straight backed and sandy blond. After the guard locked the door and left, he turned to me.
"So, what are you in for?" I had my back against out adjacent wall, staring into space, wishing I had a book. I grunted.
"Bitches." He chucled approvingly.
"I hear you there. S'why I swore off of 'em."
"Hm, so you're a poofter? That enough to get you thrown in here?"
"Pfft, no. But if you are the secretary and mistress of a prominent officer and get caught selling classified information, you can get thrown in here. Name's Vinn, by the way. Alexander Vinn."
"Pleasure to know ya, Vinn. You can call me Richard…er screw it, Richard Voy, Kanto PokeRanger."
"Oh, really? Then are you the one that caused all that commotion in New Bark a while back."
"I don't know, I've been in here. Not a lot of news."
Over the next couple of days, me and Vinn became fairly well acquainted. He just so happened have a belt, the exact implement I could use to escape. It took three days of both of us sharpening it on the concrete between interrogations to get the buckle lock sharp enough for my purposes. We had shared what we knew, and were giving matching reports to the guards, and it was really making them amp up their efforts in pressing info out of us. Then, the night it was ready, I asked he he was ready.
"Hey, Vinn, you ready to blow this joint?"
"Oh, my, yes."
"Not like that! God. I mean, read to up and get the hell out of here?"
"Indeed. You need to get your head out of the gutter."
"Whatever. Anyway, I don't think that I can be content with merely taking off. I had something a little more incendiary in mind."
"Oh really. Like what?"
"Burn the fucker down. Now, in three minutes, however you count them, call for help.."
He agreed, and I took the now fairly sharp point from the belts buckle, and slashed quickly across my forehead. Ugh, I have zero tolerance for pain. Ok, the thing about wounds to the forehead are that they bleed, a lot. But the wound only has to be superficial. Apparently this is an old wrestling trick used in making the fights more exciting. I then painted the area around the bed with my blood, trying for the affect that would have followed had I slashed my wrist and then flailed about. I then plastered a piece of torn mattress over it to keep the blood out of my eyes, and curled into a fetal position facing away from the cell door, the point of the belt held tight along my index finger. A few seconds later Vinn began making a racket in a high panicked voice. I heard the outer door open, and the guard yell for quiet.
"Shut up! Hey, you, fairy, I said quiet… what the hell happened in here!" A key in the lock, then the creak of the door. A hand grabbed my upright shoulder and flipped me, and using the momentum, I drove the point of the belt into his eye. His scream echoed around the cell as he clawed the device out and backed away. I pulled him down and proceded to stomp his head in with my heel until the noise stopped.
A quick examination yielded a heavy baton and the keys. Acting quickly I unclipped the keys and threw them through the bars of Vinn's cell, before running outside of the door the dead guard had left open. The only thing in the adjacent room was a wooden desk, an old pornographic magazine laying open on the top, with an attractive naked woman laying up against a glaring Persian. I rummaged quickly through the two drawers and came up with a metal fork and butter knife. Not ideal, but serviceable. I threw my back up against the wall next to the door out of the block just before I heard someone shout.
"Hey, freeze!" There was a snap, followed by a single bolt sailing through the door and clacking off the rear wall of the cell room. I had the fork ready in my right hand, and timed it by the boot steps coming closer until I judged the man to be right on the other side of the door. I swung the arm out, tines first, and clothes-lined the running man, burying the fork through his throat and into his cervical vertebrae. I grabbed his crossbow and handed tossed it to Vinn, who deftly rearmed it, and I left him direct me, as he had a better knowledge of how instillations were built in this region.
By some miracle, we managed to make it an armory undetected. For another stroke of luck, there was a lockup right next door, where I was able to reunite with my cane, pokemon, and my knives. Now, I am not knocking the other knives I lifted, but only an experienced person can really know the difference from using stock knifes and the ones they personally craft for themselves, but it's like the difference between using your hand bare, and your hand in a thick glove. This equipped, we began working our way toward the exit, needing to nutrilized a few threats along the way. Suddenly we found a door marked as a quarantine area, further reading "Authorized people only, do not enter, mind reader."
"Why can't the mind reader enter?" I asked to myself.
"Hell if I know. Maybe it's a giant cell phone and will give him super cancer?" Vinn answered.
"I don't know. Think this merits closer inspection?" Vinn nodded his approval, and we pushed into the room.
It was a giant white cube, bisected by a clear plastic wall. On the other side was a single bed, and what appeared to be a woman with reddish brown hair. She recoiled as we moved closer, whimpering. She looked slightly sick, and had obvious signs of mistreatment, but was still quite pretty. A small flame of anger swelled inside me, and she fliched.
"Please… no more…" He voice was weak and fearful and my anger burned stronger. She curled into a ball and cowered. "Please, I don't know what I did, don't hurt me…" Vinn looked over at me, then whispered.
"Hey, she must be the mind reader. She can see that you want to hurt her." I had to imagine I looked pretty mad for him to guess this, and it snapped my rage clean out. Puzzlement took its place. At this she looked up, a few tear tracks running down her face.
"Don't worry, we aren't going to hurt you. You can read minds?" She shook her head slowly, cautiously, like she expected my to get angry.
"No. I can feel stuff. Your friends anxiety, your anger, your slight…lust." She shied away from that last word, and I don't think it was because she did not wish to embarrass me. This caused the anger to well again, as I knew what she was, and the thought of abusing someone with this …I wouldn't say skill, or talent, maybe power?... was so horrible a thought it was almost physical. It struck her almost as if it was, and she cowered again, with her hands over her head. I tried hard and pulsed calm, peaceful thoughts out.
"Sorry, dear. That wasn't anger at you, but at these animals. I can't imagine how bad it's been for you." She looked up, her eyes leaking fresh tears. "You're an Empath, aren't you, sweetheart?"
"What is an Empath?" Vinn asked, and I could tell she was clueless as well.
"I read about it in some medical rag or another. It's a special type of person who has such natural Empathy; they can literally feel the emotions of those around them. It was believed that these types of people are the source of the tales of psychics that have always been around." I turned back to the girl. "That's it, isn't it? You can tell how we feel, right?" She nodded. An Idea entered me then, and I could tell she could feel it.
"Listen, sweetie, I know you don't know me, and have no reason to trust me. But I have big plans for this region after the way I have been treated. I am not going to lie, I would have limitless use for someone of your abilities in it. To the point where I can almost guarantee I would eventually abuse it. I would like it if you wanted on board. I don't have time to cover it now, but it is basically throwing these bastards out and getting some more, less fanatical ones in. But if you want to come with us, you're with us, because I can't afford to take someone who's not. To much to lose right now. But if you decline… you can fight? Good. If you decline, I will release you from here, and allow you to go your own way. But, I need to know now." She looked at me as if she was trying to actually read my mind. Her eyes were a glittering, icy light blue that seemed to Peirce me.
"If you tried to abuse me, would I have any recourse?" She must have got confused with the rush of amusement that flooded me.
"I like you already. Hon, if I step to far out of line, I hereby give you express permission to put me in my place. Vinn, you are my witness here, and are to enact, by whatever force necessary to get me to comply. At such a time as it become safe to the structure I am going to attempt to create to release miss… um, what's your name, sweetheart, I have a feeling I am seeming a bit condicending here…"
"Aurora, Aurora Frost. But I prefer Snow." She could feel as well as see the giggle I tried to suppress, and gave me the universally female glare that tells a man to grow up.
"That it is same to release Miss Snow here form conscripted service, that she is allowed to sever all ties to us and take her leave with all allotments she has earned/won during the time in our company, with no malice or hard feelings on behalf of anyone. Or, if she elects, she my voluntarily join with us as a full member in standing, rather than ward. Suit you, Snow?" She nodded.
"I shall accompany you, then. May we go and find my stuff, then…"
"Vinn."
"Richard."
We released her. She was even prettier up close, and short, about 5 foot 4. We retraced out path to the storage, and she retrieved a pack and a single pokeball, which she cast out, revealing a giant slab of rock. The Gigilith rose on it's pillar legs, and I'll be damned it it didn't bend down and nuzzle against her face. It wasn't an average Gigilith, either, but one of dark purple stone body, and embedded gems that matched the color of Snow's eyes. Tossing out Europa, and joined by Vinn's Nidorino and Nidorina, we fell in behind the towering boulder and proceeded to destroy anything that our combined power could smash.
Once clear of the building, Snow had the Gigilith hit the whole thing with an earthquake that snapped support beams like roothpicks, and we ran, three new friends, into the dense trees, and a new plan for the future.