Kind of a mini-chapter here, its half the size of the normal one, but it's still no less entertaining. Read on to find out!
Oh, before we start! I got the address of my workplace. Its on the end of a road called "VICTORY ROAD". I'm going to turn up to work (also having done a 45 minute train commute) wearing an ash ketchum hat and fingerless gloves and announce to my fellow workers that I'm ready to battle the elite four...
Anyway, on with the story!
I'm feeling tired too. Supersonic flight, then intense psychic, then more super sonic flight is starting to take it's toll. Latias doesn't look too good either. Jay has just picked himself off the floor, muttering under his breath. Me and Latias both nod in agreement to Bianca, while Jay uses her as a support to stand back up.
"Okay, well in that case are you two fine to sleep here?" I almost nod, but remember Lorenzo's advice not to leave Jay alone with Bianca. Latias has already left and found a tree to sleep under. I shake my head. "Why not Latios? Aren't you tired?". I AM tired. but Lorenzo's wishes come first. I nod and glance at Jay, who has now recovered and is standing next to Bianca. She realizes what I'm on about. "Oh, what Lorenzo said? I'm sure he was just joking, me and Jay will be fine!" she says in a childish voice. It's not Jay I'm worried about. But on the other hand, I am tired and Bianca HAS just dismissed me of my duty to Lorenzo.
By way of agreement, I fly off to find my own place to sleep, and Bianca thanks me before taking Jay by the hand and leading him back to the house. It's getting pretty dark now, which isn't really a problem for me, though my resolution on the world drops to human level.
Now, sleep in a tree or on the ground? Bonus of sleeping in a tree, it's high up. Minus, it makes my underside cold. But it's still just summer, so its relatively warm. I'll sleep in a tree tonight. Now to choose one. I go to my favorite one, but Latias is there. I consider toppling her out of it but she'd not let me rest until she'd got it back. There IS that other tree, with the nice fork in it that's just the right size, though. Knowing every tree in the garden, I find it quickly and settle down. I fold my arms in and lower myself into the groove caused by two of the trees branches jutting out from the trunk in a horizontal V shape. I'm facing away from the tree, out into the garden. The branches easily support my weight, but they rest right where my arms fold in, so its only slightly uncomfortable in that respect. Other than that, I'm just fine. The leaves are making a 'shhhh' noise as the wind blows them slightly, and they dance in my field of view, blurring slightly in the darkness. Its like white noise. Everything is pretty good right now. Perfect conditions for sleeping...
But I can't. Something is bugging me, though it takes a few seconds to place my unease. Bianca and Jay, alone with each other. In an empty house. At night. All kinds of things could go wrong, and Lorenzo trusted ME to stop that being the case. Jay could attack Bianca. A thief could break in. What if there's a wild rampant Pokemon on the loose!? In my dreamy state, my brain starts to visualize each one of the worsening scenarios. They last seconds in real life, but play out for minutes in my head. Suddenly, I snap back to reality by some unknown sound. This settles it. I'm not going to be able to sleep until I know Bianca is safe.
I dart out of the tree, unable to stay still any longer. I do a loop so I'm facing the exit of the garden that goes to the house, then set off. No blasting through tunnels, no fancy loop-de-loops. I've got a task to do it and I'm going to do it to the best of my weary bodies ability. I arrive at the house to find the back door locked. I tried the handle with my psychic but it wont budge. I start to panic. Bianca would never lock the door, you can only get there from the garden. So it must be Jay. But why would Jay lock both of... them in the house... together.
Something tells me that something else isn't right. Concerned only for Bianca's welfare, I fly up to the bedroom window which I know is hers, its quicker then psychicing the lock and flying through the house. The curtains are drawn but the light is on, though its somewhat dull. It must be her bedside lamp. But I can see shadows projected onto the curtain. Only one shadow is moving though. It's about Jay's height but very thin. Jay standing sideways. But it's as if he's holding something big and heavy above his head, because those must be his arms and they extend above the round thing which is his head. But what's Jay doing with something heavy in his arms. It looks almost like he could swing it and bash it down onto...
Screw solving riddles when you can look at the answer (which may be Bianca being bludgeoned by Jay). I briefly check Bianca's window is big enough for me to fit through before throwing it open with my psychic, milliseconds before I fly through it myself, flying directly into the standing up figure which must be Jay. I blast through the curtain and it whips past my eyes, letting me see the scene before me for a few microseconds before I collide with it.
The shadow is indeed Jay and the light source is indeed the bedside lamp. Bianca is laid in bed to the right of me, Jay is in front. It's a rather large room, with a desk and wardrobe to my left. Neither humans looked surprised by my entry, though I suspect their comparatively slow brains will catch up soon enough. My target - Jay - does have his hands above his head and is carrying something, though it doesn't look heavy. He's not wearing a t-shirt either. It appears the cloth object in his hands would be his t-shirt, which both solves that mystery and creates a new one...
Why is he taking his shirt off in Bianca's room?
Even my brain doesn't have time to provide an answer to this. Because by that time I'm on him. I fly full pelt into the side of his chest, slowing me down in the process. I decide now would be the time to stop before I hit that rather solid wall at the other end of the room, which I successfully avoid.
Jay opts to maintain his momentum and slams side on into the wall, which cracks as he hits it and slumps onto the floor, knocked out.
I look at Jay, waiting for him to move. Bar his chest moving up and down, he remains still. With that threat temporarily disabled, I turn my neck to Bianca. Whatever he was doing, he's not doing it now, and Bianca should be thanking me for it. If she's praising me though her facial features are all wrong. Its almost like she's angry.
Then she speaks to me, in a voice which sounds like the icy winds of a frozen wasteland. "Latios. Would you please tell me why you've just pelted my boyfriend into a brick wall after appearing out of nowhere when I gave you the instruction to go and sleep elsewhere?" She's not shouting, or even speaking loudly. If anything, it's a whisper. But is by no doubt a very, VERY angry whisper. Her covers are pulled up to her face, so I can't take any cues from the rest of her body language. But I recon she's angry.
This is far to complicated to explain via vague gestures and nodding, So I go ahead and set up a telepathic link with her, and start my explanation. "Lorenzo put me in charge of looking after you, and you just telling me to disregard it doesn't make it good to ignore him. I'm looking after you because you've said yourself. 'The older one looks after the younger' and since I'm older I'm looking after you" Bianca's facial expression doesn't change. She speaks out loud, presumably to maintain her icy voice. "Ok. But that still doesn't explain the fact that Jay wasn't doing anything wrong or threatening and you've thrown him into a wall."
"Ah, that. Well the door downstairs was locked so I thought he might have locked you in or something. I flew up to your window and saw his shadow on the curtains and it looked like he was about to hit you so I had to stop it.". Bianca doesn't look convinced, like she's waiting for more information. I decide to go on the offensive instead. "Anyway, what was he doing here taking his shirt off in the first place? Why not get changed in the bathroom? Except he hasn't got a change of clothes because we didn't know he was staying over. So why is he taking off his shirt at all?"
Bianca shifts the subject, still talking aloud. I'm hovering horizontally alongside her bed, like I'm on an invisible bed of my own. She's still laid down though, and something tells be by the way she's moving that she doesn't want to get up. "Perhaps we should check that Jay's not in a coma before settling whatever imaginary ulterior motives you think he has." She says, still not moving like you'd expect a concerned girlfriend to. The change of subject is also suspicious. I'm growing increasingly uneasy about this situation, are they trying to hide something from me? She glares at me awkwardly. "Erm... Latios? Little privacy?" The telepathic link is still up, so I ask her via that. "Why?". She replies via her thoughts, not wanting to voice this one out loud. "Its a bit warm in here, especially on a mattress with a blanket. I'm only wearing my under clothes.". I fail to see her problem with this. Not only am I completely the wrong species to be attracted to her, I've known her since her mother changed her nappies. Underwear is nothing new. I send her those thoughts, but add-on the end "But okay, I'll look elsewhere. Do you want me to pass you some clothes?". Bianca replies almost immediately via the link. "No... Its fine... Why don't you go over to Jay and try reading his mind and see what state he's in?". I comply, severing the connection and hovering over to Jay.
He looks quite roughed up. It's not like in the movies, where they knock out a few bricks or leave a dent, but the hero is otherwise undamaged. The wall has a crack in it, with bricks showing behind, but is otherwise fine. Jay, on the other hand, looks like he got run over by a cruise liner. His cheeks got a lot of small cuts on them. While they're nothing major, there are a lot of them. The main impact with the wall seems to have been shared between his pelvis and his shoulder, which both look very bruised but not broken. Perhaps his over inflated ego acted as an air bag. His legs remain almost injury free, with only a few major bruises and cuts. Only a few of the cuts around him are actually bleeding, so there isn't too Mich blood and he won't die of blood loss. His mind, however, could be as cracked as the eggs I put in the pancakes this morning.
I hear shuffling behind me. Despite promising not to turn around, it sounds like Bianca has wrapped herself with the blanket as she goes and picks up her clothes off the floor.
Something in her actions gives me a pang of concern or a feeling that something isn't as I'm being told it is, the uneasiness creeping back into the situation. Something to do with clothes being on he floor. The feeling goes almost immediately though, and I focus back on Jay.
I lie down in front of him then look for his aura, easy as it's the one that's in a dreamy state. I channel some psychic into it and just like that I can feel his emotions and think his thoughts.
He's dreaming. It's a nonsense dream about fish and a pillow case, he won't remember it when he wakes up. I probe deeper into his subconscious, locating the reason for his sleep. Is his brain-damaged, or took a shock and just resting? His mind is unusually clear and I quickly discover that it's the latter.
In the physical world, Bianca still isn't ready. Well, while I'm in Jay's mind with some spare time, lets see Jay's memories of what just happened. Perhaps I can solve the mystery of why he was taking his shirt off. I think this thought a tad too intensely and Jay's subconscious picks up the thought and provides a sarcastic response, "Perhaps, you idiot, he was just warm?" Jay himself (his conscious) isn't aware of my presence in his head, but his subconscious is. Not that the two ever 'talk' to each other in any human I've ever met. I find the memory from a few minutes ago and watch it.
The first thing I note is that humans are lazy when it comes to remembering stuff. He's only remembered himself, Bianca and the bed, the lighting (but not the light source) and a few random objects like a clock and a wardrobe. And they're all the wrong color and the shapes are a bit off. Secondly, in his mind Bianca looks a lot prettier. His memory of her is of someone with perfect skin, more even tones and much more vibrant eyes. Thirdly, he's not remembered his thoughts. So we'll never know what reason he had for taking off the shirt unless the context provides it.
Which we're about to find out.
The memory starts in Bianca's room. She sat on the bed saying something but its not audible, he's not remembered what she's said and its been replaced with a muffled mumbling sound. Jay (Me, my viewpoint) is stood in front of her, looking down at her. She yawns before posing a question that again is not understandable. Its got Jay's heartbeat raised though. She stands up and gives him a hug. Briefly afterwards a full on mouth to mouth kiss follows.
This is awfully disturbing as I'm seeing this as if I'm Jay, and I'd never consider interacting with Bianca like that. Ever. She's like a sister to me.
To distract myself from the awkward situation, I decide to be angry at Jay. How dare he be so intimate with Bianca! She's still young and he's COMPLETELY the wrong person for her to have as a mate! This thought is also too loud. "She's, like, 18. And what do you mean the 'wrong person'?" the frontal lobe of his brain argues. Even that part of him is arrogant, and it can't even remember her age.
As it's not actually Jay and he won't know what I've 'said', I be completely honest with it. "You are the most arrogant human being I've ever met". We're not talking, just projecting words into each others neural paths. It's very complicated, which is why it's incredibly annoying that Jay's rear prefrontal cortex is using it to have a go at me. "You're the worst legendary I've ever met!"
This time I am close enough to him to throw enough energy into his brain to reduce it to mush, but I dont think that 'natural selection failed to remove him' is a valid reason for murder.
The memory continues to play, but just as the kiss breaks up, Bianca (in real life) touches my pelt. I'd been so busy arguing with Jay's brain that the contact startles me and the connection breaks. The memory landscape in front of me breaks apart, to be replaced with a view of Jay from the ground. I notice Bianca's hand on my neck and turn around. She looks worried, so I give her a reassuring coo and levitate of the ground, before sending a single sentence to her head. "He's fine, just concussed. He'll wake up for breakfast tomorrow morning, though don't expect him to remember how this happened"
Bianca's face lifts, she looks a lot happier. "Oh good! I should probably dress his cuts though..." And she gets up to fetch the first aid box that we keep in the kitchen cupboard, leaving me alone with Jay's unconscious body.
I look around the room. It's like the films where officer Jenny arrives at a crime scene. The window is open, the bed's blanket is on the floor on the opposite side of the room, there are bits of paper strewn here and there (must have happened when I flew past at high-speed) and most disturbingly, the victim, who is laid out on the floor above a crack in the wall. Officer Jenny would set about finding the person who did it. But I want to know what happened. Why was Jay in Bianca's room, Why was he taking his shirt off, especially when Bianca wasn't... wearing any... clothes.
The answer comes to me, like a lightning bolt. It races out and physically punches me in the stomach. Or at least, that's what it feels like. It's so obvious too, I can't believe I've missed it. If they were too warm why was the window closed when I arrived? Why hadn't they opened it? Why were the clothes scattered on the floor instead of neatly put away? Why was the back door locked to prevent anyone's access to the house? The answer to all of these and more is now clear as day in my head.
Bianca and Jay wanted to be mates.
At this point my brain explodes with objections and questions, a few of them valid only for Pokemon relationships, but most of them apply to Bianca and all of them are negative. How can she be attracted to him? He's the lest nice person on earth! She hasn't cleared this with me or Lorenzo! SHE TRIED TO TRICK ME! Jay should be sleeping in another room! She's to young to make decisions like that! Why hasn't Jay cleared it with us first? They've only been going out for a month!
The objections are so intense and so numerous I begin to question my original answer. If my brain disagrees with it that much surely it mustn't be true? I'm hovering intently up and down through room, searching for an alternative reason, but my mind is blank for once.
By now I'm so tired its unbelievable. Its amazing I can hover at all. It's like the combo of an intense day and figuring out Bianca's relationships is actually physically wearing. I There's no way I can interrogate Bianca while I'm this tired. I'll have to do it first thing tomorrow. Until then, I won't mention it. Latias will also have to be there so I can talk whatever it is I'm going to do through with her and then make a valid decision. Now I just need to wait for Bianca to get back, which she does, plus a little green box with a white cross on it. The same one that she dressed my wound with this. morning.
I hover over to the two as Bianca sets herself down in front of him. She moves him so he's no longer curled up at the bottom of the wall but laid out like a pencil away from the wall. Then she breaks out the gauze and plasters. She trained with the water ambulance for some time, so she knows what she's doing. I float fixated on the scene of her working. It's rapid but accurate even though she must be tired. White cream, gauze, tape it up, move on, white cream, pressure bandage, tape up, plaster, plaster... How she knows what's suitable for which wound I can't tell and my brains given up on finding patterns at this late hour. Bianca has reached his stomach on the treatment and gasps as she looks at where my snout impacted on it. I'd not seen this earlier because he was lying on this side, but now I see it looks immense. A giant purple bruise that's about 15cm across spans across his side, fading as it reaches his ribs. It's kind of green at the epicentre and Bianca takes a second before carrying on, smearing some different cream on the bruise while mumbling. "Lucky not to have cracked ribs. How he didn't throw up I'll never know."
Eventually Bianca finishes and stands up, looking down at Jay. I'm next to her, floating horizontally at about three-quarters head height, my neck angled so I can see Bianca. She yawns before looking at me and speaking. "I can't move him and if you move him you could damage some of his wounds. Lets just leave him here and go to sleep." And with that she walks over to her bed, picking up the cover off the floor as she goes. She gets in her bed, pulling the cover over her and looking at what I do.
I don't do anything for a second, I'm so tired my brain stalls. Floor here or fly back to tree? I'm just flying back to the window when Bianca speaks. "Latios. You can sleep in here tonight".
Thank Arceus. I switch off my psychic and my body drops to the floor like a bag of bricks. Bianca smirked before closing her own eyes. Even Bianca's situation eludes my brain as I fall asleep almost before my wings hit the ground.
Yes, the brain does have more than one set of consciousness or 'personas' in it, on more than one level of thought/conscious, but I've simplified it a bit for the sake of not everyone being or wanting to learn neuroscience.
So, smaller chapter this time, but still so much in it. I didn't dream this one either, I've added it for those who like romance or seeing Latios give Jay his just desserts.
As always, Read and Review and I'd like to extend a special thank you to all the people (Yeah, more than 1!) who sent me a PM telling me how much you loved it! They all made my day! Everyone on this site totally ROCKS!