Part 2: The Stand

EASEL

Note: Last chapter of Part 2. I don't really have much in the way of wit to say about this chapter, other than maybe like... it's sort of what the original concept of Wave was to me. The "infection", anyway.

It's been suggested that I put a character list in my profile. Since that's a good idea, I went ahead and did it! :D Thanks for suggesting it, kind reader~! The input's appreciated. The character list has a brief explanation of who the person is and what they've done so far in Wave. It also has the Pokémon they changed into, if any. But yeah, that'll be updating as chapters come out. For now, enjoy the madness~!

DISCLAMMER: I don't own clams. Or Pokémon. (Seriously. Somebody give me a more creative, witty disclaimer. Please. xD I'm running dry.)

The nightly day was so lonely. I was well acquainted with it, shadows embracing me with all the affection I could never return. No. I could never return. They were done with me. I'd nothing left but the sting of last hours and the bites of bugs. It was all a stone too heavy to carry. I had no fire, even if I was made of fire. I couldn't hold that fire. I couldn't father that fire and raise it to the ferocious blaze that the infection wanted me to. I was as weak as the weak could get.

I found the strength to roll over and lay on my back once again. I wasn't sure where I dug the strength from, but here I was, peering into the nothing, dotted with shadow leaves and shy shapes, the occasional croak in the distance. It was so dark, a painting of oil, but I knew that the sun still shined. If I could only burn again, I could see the world, change the world, and be like Laza.

One of my paws twitched. Then my left ear flicked. The quick motion felt like a hammer bashing into my skull. I wanted to whine, but that alone made things so much more painful. I lay in black paralysis, awaiting day or sleep, whichever came first. I was praying that I could sleep before the sun hurt my eyes. Or perhaps the sun could dry the mud that was my bed. I was damp and cold, waiting, almost begging, for the little flame left in me to go out. Fwoof, just like that. All I was, over in a heartbeat. Danithan was gone, just like that. Just like that. She did me in, just like that.

Who was I to say I was still Danithan? I looked nothing like him, felt nothing like him... Where was Danithan Baker? Danny B? Nah, that one was gone, and with him all of his nothing. He didn't bring much into the world, and he had nothing to take with him from the world. I wasn't too sure if that was something to be proud of, scared of, or pissed at.

I left my eyes open, thinking that the clouds would reach down and take me away, planting me into the canvas above and leaving me there. Throw me into the sky, or just bury me into the woodland. There was nothing left for me here.

I let my head droop to one side, the pressure excruciating. It felt like I was transforming again. That transformation, so painful. I saw another light, but it wasn't in the sky. It was on level with the ground, that cold mud. The light was blue, barely bobbing up and down as it moved. It was moving. I wanted to yell, but I couldn't find my voice. My throat felt like it was missing. I was out of my own head anyway. What would I have said? I closed my eyes, wishing the light would go away.

And when I opened them again, it was so much brighter, dazzling, but it didn't hurt to look at, because it belonged to the one thing that I knew could fix a shattered spirit. He stepped so close to me, his bright blue paws inches from my face. I couldn't catch his scent, not because it hurt to sniff, but because he didn't have one like I've come to recognize. The ground he tread left shimmers of his own color, liquid and clean, rippling in the mud and making it into light. With both of his legs before me, I sighed slowly, lifting my heavy head up like I had no other choice.

Those ruby orbs shone down on me like spotlights, gazing so much further than into my face. I didn't question him, how he came through the trees, through the authorities, through the night. I was cold, and he was my blanket. I needed him. I tried to reach for one of his paws. I came close. He didn't budge. I didn't take my eyes from him. His lips curled into the most delicate smile. It made my spine melt.

"Danithan," he sang to me, voice like a harp, stringed with silk. "Your devotion to me is not only wise, but beautiful."

"Laza," I wheezed. "Are you really here?"

"I am," he confirmed. "But you will not be here for much longer. This body I have given you is broken."

"I'm... sorry."

"You make poor use of the flames I've given you, but you can't be blamed. You're only human."

"I'm not human." I whispered, letting my eyes fall to his chest. He sat on his haunches.

"You are human. I know who has overcome you, and I fear she is beyond human. You see, there is another like myself on this world, spreading a Gamma. That girl, Valentine, has been damaged by this Gamma, and with her, my champion. This champion will be your sister. A glaceon; Nasce, because her name is Nasceon. Though the waters in which you swim are shallow, the conviction within you goes deeper than any ocean."

I wanted to speak again. I kept losing my throat. It was like reaching an arm into the air whilst sinking into sand, hoping another hand or branch was there to hold. The pain didn't go away, even though Laza was here. I wanted to ask him for help. I was slipping.

"What do you want to see in a year's time, Danithan? Two years? Would your face beam if you saw my world? Would your eyes sparkle if you could be my brother?"

I wanted to nod. So I did. I nodded, my skull threatening to fall apart like a jigsaw puzzle.

"I'm so flattered. Danithan, you're so good to my Gamma, but you still know nothing of the power you possess," he started, gemstone eyes hot on the back of my head. "All is predetermined, and you and I are more alike than you think. You fight death and persist. I quite like that," he paused again. I felt something soft against one of my cheeks. His right paw was touching my face. His paw pads were like cotton, fur strands tickling close. "Please, Brother. I need spirits like you. I long for a spectacular new world. If I gave you a second chance, would you help give me this world? Would you let me pull the old Danithan away from your soul?"

Danithan was dead. I was ready to accept the end of the world enough as it was, but Laza granted me a wish that nothing else could fulfill. I was ready to feel the unfathomable. My lips said 'yes', but no nothing but the sound of the 'S' came from them.

"Oh, bless your heart. You're enlightened, I see! Now, let me tend to your greatest wound," he rang, the aqueous light from his body pouring out through the paw on my face, matting over my fur. It was lukewarm, wetting my body down in lines. From the point Laza had touched me, the liquid light branched into multiple directions, curling at certain spots around my sides and chest. It circled me, the feeling like tens of paintbrushes stroking their color onto me. "Fire is not for you."

My body became numb, my head stiff, but free of the sharpness which hung heavy like a crown of thorns, my back purged of its cross. I managed to open my eyes, Laza's paw still there, bleeding his watercolor into me. Before me grew two arms—these arms were my own, rather, and no longer than Laza's. They were a similar color to my peachy fur, if not a little darker. The paws they ended in were a woody brown. They felt softer, like how Laza's was against my cheek. Something green sprouted from my chest, right beneath my collarbone. It looked leafy. I wanted to touch it to make sure. I felt my ears stretch into long, thin shapes, small groves and kinks present in both. My head and neck became more defined, separate, rather than fixed into what felt like one entity. The fur at the top of my head grew longer, until folding upward into subtle strands, still connected to my head, but leaving me with a kind of hair. One of those strands formed a centimeter or two above my eyes, in the center of my forehead, rising tall and then folding over my face. It was as leafy as the one at my chest.

My eyes became dim for a moment, and then I was blind. After a few blinks, I could see once more, the woodland brought to light not only by Laza, but by a new means to behold it. My muzzle shrunk, and with it a small dark dot came closer to my eyes, to which all of the scents of the forest migrated. Another strand lifted from the back of my neck. My hind legs stretched like rubber, sloppily extended behind me. My spine extended, or seemed to, about an extra two feet. I gave a slow glance over my backside, discovering that my head was free to move and that I had sprouted a large, crumpling tail, ridges and lines within it like a giant leaf. My backside was more rounded. My body felt more proportionate. I felt little leaves flick at my new paws.

And finally, the pain arrived. Something was peeled from my back. I lifted my head to howl, but no voice blew before me. The tear was slow, like a line of duct tape was being torn from my body. No, it was deeper, like a layer of skin was being pulled away. It carried through, all the way to my tail, and when it was done, I lowered my chin into the mud, panting. The sting of in my follicles stood by, as I felt drenched inside, not drowning, but soaked to the skeleton. I gave a closer look to my arms. They weren't the same color. Instead, they were white, with subtle blue helices all the way to the brown paws. Likewise, the leaf at my chest turned sky blue. Like that leaf, the sky was as it always was once again. Blue came the day.

I felt... powerful. I felt like I was the owner of a lucid dream. The problem was that I had no idea who exactly the owner of my own head was.

I had a body and a mind and a soul. And there was another like me present. He was Laza. I knew Laza, but I didn't understand why he was here. I had a head that pulsed with pain. He looked at me and I back at him, and the pain went away. I watched his every movement, my tail swooshing back and forth, hovering inches above the ground.

"May I call you Nirva? If I may," he asked me in a tone of voice that I felt only I could hear because of how direct his gaze was unto me. My own eyes requested a reason why this be my name. He answered me. "Because your name is Nirvaneon."

"My name is Nirvaneon?" I chirped through a new tongue.

"That is right."

"Why don't I remember that name?"

"Because you are reborn. In being reborn, you are my brother."

"And that makes me Nirva?"

"You are Nirva. You always will be Nirva." Laza said, before putting his paw on one of mine. I left my mouth open to say something, but the words never crawled out. I watched his paw on my own. It felt good, even marvelous. I was comfortable. I knew Laza before this day. He told me many times that the world needed to be saved and brought back to life. Now, lying before him, I could comprehend what he meant. I was proud to know now what he desired.

There was nothing in this world which Laza wanted to fix. There was nothing broken that he could fix. That made him unhappy. Laza was a programmer. He made the rules, and there were too many rules already present for his to fit. He was to pull back the layers, then step into the core. But it looked quite the opposite. It seemed he was laying down a layer of change and letting the core overheat itself.

I knew only Laza, this world, and that I chose this rebirth. Who I was before today, I may have never known. So long as I could walk in the shadow of Laza, I was in the company that suited me best. What better to guide me than the force which trusted me with rebirth?

My head was light as leaves, body nimble. I lifted myself, all four clean paws holding me up. I was on Laza's level now. The wind darted through the canopy and then through my fur. Everything felt different. It was like I could answer to anything, big or small, with the energy stirring inside of me like boiling water.

"You're Gamma now, Nirva. The power within you is attuned to your spirit. I ask that you test yourself, perhaps against the authorities and Pokémon, before you join me in my ultimate endeavor," he explained, a bright opalescent light trekking up his legs, tearing them into strips of an identical light. "Brother, you are among the first of many to be reborn through holy starlight. I will return to you in time. For now, farewell, and best of luck. I will guide you if you become lost." he echoed, as his body dissipated into streams of illuminant pearl aura. The forest was shining long after he left, the sun above making pulses, circular, patterns in the blue, like fireworks frozen in time.

I looked back. The runic designs decorating my sides were emitting a dim glow. The wind continued to whisper through the leaves beyond my own. I wanted to leap atop the canopy and glide through the green and the black and the blue that was me. The pain was behind me, Laza's sandbox ahead. I lurched forward, luminous air trailing behind me as I sprinted through solid matter itself, sturdy tree trunks, thick bushes, and tall grass on the river bank. My body burst into lights with each object I passed through, azure liquid fire returning to me, reconstructing me faster than eyes could blink. The woodland became radiant the faster I went, and thus I ran until the woods became rocky, paved with concrete and asphalt.

Upon reaching the urban world, I stopped. There was a tall white building surrounded by vehicles that were damaged through and through, not unlike the building itself, boarded up and shut down. The lights on my body dimmed down as my gaze ascended the building—I had wanted to call it a medical establishment for reasons unknown. In one way or another, I remembered coming from here, but not through myself. I came here through someone else. He was young and had an affinity for Pokémon. I didn't know his name—wait, was it Edge? I knew the name from somewhere. It rang a bell of sorts, a bell that hurt my ears and made the runes on my body pulse wildly. I needed to find Edge—no—hunt Edge.

I recalled disliking Edge from somewhere, but I wasn't sure where that was from. I was ready to follow the signs, or maybe I should've asked where he was. I looked away from the medical building and to a point where the big black asphalt field met another strip of road leading away from here. I began to trot in that direction, speed not touching anywhere close on the dash through the woodland. As I left the building's area, my lines began to glow brightly again. I grinned, because it felt like my muscles could take me to the moon. They were tingly, but the tingle wasn't a bother. It convinced me to keep going. And when I stopped, the tingle became a massage. My heart no longer felt like a heart, but a still node deep inside of something closer to me than my body, pumping warmth in place of blood. The breaths I took weren't through my mouth or my nose, but those strips of wet light on me. I could still sigh and sniff if I wanted.

It felt so good to be Nirva.

The pace I walked was crisp and steady, unchanging. The sky began to show me new color. It was blue, like the leaves on my body. The day was approaching. I licked my lips and carried on to wherever the roads decided to take me. That was where everyone else was, right? It felt a lot less safe than the woodland, after all. My nose twitched at the possibility of meeting Edge! It didn't make much sense to me that there was someone who I disliked right away. I had to determine who he was for myself, and then make my move when I was ready.

I heard shouting off in the west. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. That just made it so much more alluring.

…

"Zack," I kissed, my little hands clinging to the green stem before me. I placed my face into it, both of my eyes closed, my heart drooping, dripping like tears like slow rain inside of me. Those small floppy quills or ears at the sides of my head, encircled by a canary ring, were touching against my miniature torso. "If you're really gone, then you've got Danithan to keep you company. If not, then I hope you two come back to me soon." I prayed, but not to the one I was taught to pray to.

My eyes shot open. I looked to my left. Ericka was there, cutely watching with her kiddish temperament all over her cheekbones and her lips. Behind her, I saw the empty room 102, with its desks all pushed against the walls, save a few for activities to keep us Pokémon busy. I nodded to the plusle, and she nodded back. There were deep male voices outside, but they didn't sound hostile anymore. They were amplified instead by remorse in a megaphone.

"Let's go." I exhaled, moving my flower spirit to one hand. My spaded tail twitched, as I hovered into the outdoors, little red companion behind me like the loyal girl she was. The sun burned through the clouds, leaving morning blue behind. The Stand was outdoors, lining the sidewalk before Metedia's street. Those of us who could had our arms crossed to what we faced. The cunning authorities had their backs against the abandoned farmland and houses, black vans and trucks and police cars lining the street like a convoy of bad intentions. They had buzzards above, cutting away at the clouds, chopping, passing by twice, then thrice. These were the ones who were still humans hiding behind dark uniforms and clutching pistols and rifles and shotguns.

There was a tall man in front of everything, including all of our sets of eyes. The megaphone device was at his side, near that black belt with all of the dangerous tools on it waiting for one of us to make a quick move. Every Pokémon on campus was here, from the Stand to Edge's clique, who were especially taken aback by the parade.

"If I got your attention, everyone, I'd like to formally apologize on behalf of the men and women you see here," the man in front, decorated with badges and trinkets, started, speaking in his voice rather than behind something which to enlarge it. "The majority of the officers behind me are not local to Autumnridge. Our forces are exhausted, infected, and ashamed to know that the actions we have taken have only sullied the relationship we have with each other as separate species."

"Dad," someone shouted. He was young, with a voice of lightning. "You know who we are. Why's our look have to do with how you treat us?!"

The man made a noise as to speak, but he hadn't built a reply. Behind the shades, I couldn't find his reaction. Once two fingers lifted them, I saw distance, as he squinted away from us and into another portion of the colorful crowd. A bright blue head poked into the street. All eyes were on him. I had seen him before somewhere. Someone said that he was a shinx.

"Dad," The shinx cooed, much softer this time, with a broken tenderness in his tongue. He had nothing more to say, and once he felt the cold steel of the authorities line their sights on him, he splayed his ears, lowered his head, and backed away.

"Alphonse? Over there, Alphonse, is that you?" the man's voice crumpled like paper.

"Yes," he answered, lifting his ears again. "It is. I've been here for a month, Dad. A MONTH," the boy snapped, stomping into the sidewalk. "I've eaten garbage because I couldn't come out. I've lost my best friends. And it's because of YOU authorities."

"Alphonse, I had no idea you..." the father froze again, raising a troubled hand to his mouth and covering it. Murmurs began fizzing amongst us.

"You came into our woods and shot us. You shot your sons and your daughters," another voice picked up. It belonged to Edge, serene and suspicious. "And then you followed us here."

"Beg your pardon?" the man stuttered.

"Sanders," the largest of us called to the man. It was Rodriguez, called an arcanine by Ericka, a recent transformation directly from these authorities. "I know how high up the chain of command you are. So, you should know what's issued. Isn't that right?"

"That's correct, but there was no order to open fire or to invade the woods. I can check the records if you don't believe me."

"Don't pull this, Sanders," Rodriguez lifted his head, exhausted. "I was in that mix, taking orders like-"

"Nothing has warranted special weapons and tactics to blatantly assault infected victims. We've long since renounced the containment effort-"

"Then why are you here apologizing to our faces like it happened yesterday?" Rodriguez interrupted. Both were quiet for some seconds.

"Sir," the man called Sanders initiated. "What is your name?"

"Lieutenant David Rodriguez." he replied slowly, pronouncing his name as though the other couldn't understand the way he spoke.

Again, Sanders fell silent, shades lowered once more, while his eyes flicked across the group to his alleged son, whose own golden eyes were watching back.

"Then I feel it's safe to say you've answered your own question, Rodriguez," he said, lifting his shades over his eyes with his pointer finger. "We're also here to issue a mandatory evacuation for you. All of you. This epidemic has reached federal concern. If you stay here, there will be consequences that we have no control over. None of us. Rodriguez, the order to attack the victims was not our jurisdiction."

Then whose was it, I thought Rodriguez would ask. Instead, he was still and speechless, as though he already knew; it was as though he believed them. I found difficulty in that for this scenario, but if I knew anything about cops, it was that they were cynical and, well, just hard to interpret. This Sanders figure was scared. I could see it like a flashing sign. He was scared not only for himself, but for us, because now he and the authorities knew who we were.

But, if not them, then who? Who was responsible for the attack? This Sanders man was speaking from his broken heart. How could he lie to his son? He couldn't. He didn't. Based on the look I saw Rodriguez decide to retire to, he was buying the argument Sanders made. If they were close, that meant something deep. Who was it? Who was against us as Pokémon?

Were there... other sides...?

"Al, kid, I need you and your friends to help us." Sanders spoke again.

"Why? Why should we help you?" Al growled.

"Because we can still turn this whole absurd thing around. I want my boy back."

"Then take me back," the shinx commanded. "I'm right here, and you're right there. Shouldn't be hard, right?"

Edge came to Al's side, placing one of his paws on the other feline's back as to suppress him. Al's glare became a shy aversion of attention from any human.

"I want to, Alphonse. I would want my boy back more than anything. The Wave hurts us as much as it does you. The grand truth is that we have no idea what we're up against, and we don't know what's coming, not from the Wave and not from each other."

"Mrister Sanders and company," Edge lifted his head to the humans, his paws folded behind his back, as if hiding something—a deal, maybe? "My name is Edge," he bowed. "And I—we are looking into a way to stop the spread of the Wave, perhaps even reverse it. But to do that, we need Autumnridge. It has the resources necessary to stop the infection." he explained. The unrest in the Stand made lucid sense now. Edge was clearly opposing Laza. I had heard it once before, but this time felt bona fide, attached to real logic and emotions.

"Yeah, you can trust Edge, Dad. He's from the meteorite." Al pleaded—well, his tone was such that he pleaded.

The man was quiet again. He turned his head, and, like him, I finally noticed the open car doors, a few authorities standing outside their vehicles or sitting in the driver seat with their legs outside, hunched over, sympathetic and clueless as how else to show it. An African American man approached, accompanied by a jittery woman, both concealed by dark, the shades and the uniform. I watched them for seconds, and then I watched Edge, huddled with Al and others. And then there was us. I had the twins with me, Joel and John next to them. Mariposa was with her uncle at the head of the Stand, right beside Davidson blaziken. We didn't speak to each other.

"Alright, Edge," came a voice loud enough to pull me back to the reality here. The voice belonged to Sanders. "We're in agreement here: We don't know how to feel about you, if you really are who you say you are. But, as you can tell, we're reaching the end of the line. I personally want to trust you. I want to trust that you'll protect my boy and his friends and their family if they're here."

"I will," Edge rang. "I'll teach them how to use their power and let nothing hurt them. You have my word."

"We're putting our faith in you."

"Thank you, Sir," Edge bowed once more. "Is there any way we could stay in touch?"

"Not at this time, but we'll find the means necessary to communicate. Power lines are being cut. You're going to be in the dark soon. I'm obligated to bring some of you with us, but we have a duty before us as humans."

"What are you doing?" asked another of Edge's friends. He had raced me to the question, though his query was milder than mine: What could humans possibly holding onto here?

"We've received word of a renegade girl whose body has built up an immunity to the Wave," He said, igniting a lightning chain of noisy reactions. I heard the name from all sides and corners of the Pokémon crowd around me. "Katalyn Valentine."

"Alright," Rodriguez spoke up. "So you came here with a squadron of officers for a reason, and she's the reason? This Katalyn girl? Heard some things about her."

"She's confirmed to be responsible for the deaths of several officers. We've also had reports of a tall-eared 'fiery' boy with her, as well as a flying magenta snake. These reports are almost a month old, and we're mainly concerned with Katalyn herself." Sanders recalled. I cringed, squeezing the stem of my parasol. This was the girl who no longer had a place with the Stand. We had our reasons, but she seemed devoid of any.

"We saw Katalyn last, uh, my friend and I," Joel, our helioptile chess champion, sputtered, sheepish like he hadn't any idea how to talk to a cop. Given the context, I deemed his cute shyness appropriate. "She was at the store on Turqoise."

"Which store?"

"The grocery store right at the end, kind of where the sidewalk meets the canal. Used to be a Vons, right?" Vivijohn, as we called him, answered, only doing so because his brave little friend gave the claim.

I tuned the rest of the transfer of words out. Valentine was heavy on my mind now. This was the scariest girl in the school. No doubt and no question. I shivered at the thought of her place in the Wave-ridden streets of Autumnridge, how stupid Danithan was to have ever raised his voice at someone like that, and how horrifying it must've been to see the bad side of her fist. All the fights she got into with the other girls over the years just because of the look she gave them or because of the badmouth they gave her made her seem like the person no one wanted to be around unless they had something to prove. Whatever that could've been, it wouldn't have come without a swollen lip and a black eye.

Katalyn was the murderer of a number of armed officers, responsible for the fate of our friend, and walked outside of Laza's influence. Someone like that lived in my hometown for the span of my Autumnridge life. Whether she was human or Pokémon made no difference to me. I knew that the Stand, Edge, and the authorities had differences to be considered—that's what this whole arrangement seems to have been all about. But, and only but, we've found a common enemy, and, like magic, we were all friends again. Maybe not. But it was close, or at least felt that way. I still had a qualm for the humans standing in front of me, and for anyone going out of their way to oppose Laza. That was a taste I had picked up on my tongue ever since my transformation.

How, Katalyn? How did you get the way you are now? If not the Wave, what event before this broke you into the pieces lining your pockets? How many shadows do you walk with?

There was an exchange between father and son, comrades, and friends before the good authorities returned to their steering wheels, a few engines starting. I caught whiff of the exhaust, as the truck in front rolled ahead, followed by the rest of the convoy, leaving us to make our own decisions. A part of me wanted them back, because it seemed like they knew so much more than us. But they didn't. They didn't know more, they only knew the other half of the Wave. It was the side that our friends were locked up in. They were safer there, out of the way of the heartbeat weather.

The boys were gone; they found themselves run through by the hands of two kinds of human I'd never thought would happen in this collapse of society. It wasn't just the authorities anymore. They were all infected, weren't they? Sure, the Autumnridge police force could go ahead and drag in any number of extra forces from around, maybe as far as Sacramento and San Francisco. The Wave was going to roll right over them. They'd melt into it, giving to Laza, and receiving his gift in return, whether they liked it or not. This thing was going to flood the whole continent. There was no stopping someone like Lazareon.

Funny. The meteorite could've dumped right into the ocean if it were a couple degrees off. This whole thing could've gone a different direction and no one would've known until months from now that maybe the seawater was acting a little bit funny. Laza still needed someone to start with, yeah?

"Laura," he said—no, wait; someone said this name, but it wasn't Him. I shook my head a few times. No one else was around. Eyes north, eyes south, east, west. I didn't see anyone. "You areLaura, aren't you? I know you from somewhere, maybe because of Laza."

"Hi, yeah, I'm Laura...?" I mumbled, incredulous, my tail tip high above the ground. There was that smell again; it was the ozone and the flowers, morning dew and pond water. I heard the birds chirping above, and the trickling of a stream. The sunlight turned golden and I squinted, shielding my eyes with the red petals of my flowery umbrella. The walls of the buildings were gone, replaced with trees wider and taller than I've seen, their canopy sparkling above me like stardust. The landscape was flat, the roots of the oaks thrust through soft soil. I was in the center, a ring of trees and woodland around me. I wasn't scared anymore. Whoever this one was, he had employed this display for a reason. I was open. "Who are you?"

"I'm Nirva, because my name is Nirvaneon." he answered, only after his silhouette was revealed to me from the dusty golden light between two trees. His color painted itself onto the his shape.

"You're like Laza," I blew, my voice leaving my mouth as a gasp. "There's another... Laza?"

"Why did you let those humans get away?" he asked, staying put, rooted away from me.

"Because they... those were good humans."

"But they're going to be just like you and me by tomorrow."

"They needed to find a human girl."

"What girl?"

"Katalyn."

"Who?"

"Katalyn."

"One more time?"

"Katalyn Valentine." I stressed. The creature, nearly Lazareon in shape and color, growled. I heard it come clearly through both his nose and his lips.

"Why does her name sound so much more bitter than yours?" he asked, after letting his snarl subside.

"I don't kill people."

"But you would give someone a new life?"

"Yes."

"How far would you go?"

"How far would you want me to go?"

"No further than the Stand."

"You know us?"

"I guess I do."

"That's all I needed to know then."

"Good, because this is where it starts," he claimed, approaching, one paw in front of the other. I found myself on his level. I blinked. The forest was gone, and Nirva was perched in front of me, leafy tail swaying across the grass. We were still alone, in a field of emerald grass. No. The field was near Metedia. It was the other side of Wave. It was that photograph that Laza had taken through Edge, free from human touch. "This world's what you make of it. Want to make it more like this?" he queried like youth, the corners of his mouth pointed up.

"Of course I do," I responded, floating not a foot from the other Pokémon's face. He was glowing faintly, a beautifully handsome creature. "You know Laza?"

"Laza's my brother."

"Then I'm your friend."

"And I'm yours?"

"Absolutely, Nirva."

"Thank you, Laura. Your name is so nice. May I give you a ride back to the Stand?" asked Nirva. He stood up, tail high.

"You may." I obliged, moving to the bright Pokémon's back and lowering myself onto him. His fur was sleek, but coarse, smooth as the surface of a leaf. My tail draped over his side, sitting sidesaddle, with my parasol shielding us from the sun. He watched me out of the corner of his eye, and I watched him. We spared a moment for each other, our bodies syncing together in greater cosmic initiative, served with all of the great things like the fluttering of my heart and the fuzziness of my chest.

We left in return to the human world.

-Gamma Leafeon