Chapter 9: Pink Floaty Things...Pink Floaty Things Everywhere
Finally. Striaton City.
Thorn had made the journey here hell, and I was still exhausted from last night's episode, adding up for a miserable time. I shook a few leaves from my hair. Thorn munched on a berry he gotten from a bush that was miraculously still alive, tapping his foot impatiently on the hot concrete of the city.
I exhaled a great breath and took in the city. It was made up mostly of brownstone buildings, two stories or more. I could see a Pokémon center a bit always towards what seemed to be the center of the city, its bright blue pokeball logo shining in the distance above a small outcropping of dying decorative trees in a planter. A few people were milling around the city plaza, talking with one another and what not, but the rest of the city seemed pretty quiet, save for a cafe across the plaza.
The wrap-around porch outside was filled to the brim with people and Pokémon, noise emanating from it able to be heard from where I was standing several yards away. Fancily dressed waiters dodged in and out of each other's' way, swirling around the room with precision as they checked on their tables.
Ahhhh, foooooood…. My mind whispered to me like a sweet seductress… dressed in edible things. I could catch the tantalizing smells of fresh herbs and fancy cheeses coming from the café, and I was momentarily blindsided by hunger nipping at my stomach, my agitated brain egging it on until it seemed impossible to ignore.
I shook myself of my thoughts of food; what I wanted more than anything right now was a nap, and that required a place to sleep, and like hell was I squatting in a bush for the night. I grumbled to myself, exhaustion an excellent fuel for getting things done. I figure I could grab a bite to eat over there in a bit... but first I better...
...get dragged away by a distressed blond?
Bianca had appeared from literally nowhere, I mean seriously, I think she jumped from like a bush or something, and wrapped her hand around my wrist, and was now yanking me to some unknown destination. Thorn dropped his berry in surprise, launching himself off the ground and onto my shoulder, digging his little claws in and making me wince despite trying to form words to ask what the hell was going on.
"Bianca! What's going on?" I struggled to release myself from her grasp, but she held on tighter as she turned around, fear in her eyes.
"Cheren's in trouble! We have to hurry!"
I push ahead of her, changing my fast staggering to a quick jog. I pulled her behind me, hearing her shoes hit the ground harder as she picked up speed.
"What are we waiting for then?! Let's go! Wait, where are we going?"
OOOOOOO
Bianca led us up to a thick two story building with little red flags flying in the wind on the stones next to the door. The building seemed to be carved out if stone, with intricate sweeps and curves cut along the top of the main door and windows. Within the carving, swirls of light blue had been painted in, giving it an old-mausoleum look, only not as creepy.
Bianca pulled me up to a large-paned glass window, and pointed to something inside. I peered in cautiously; almost afraid of what might be inside. Thorn wriggled his way up onto the top of my hat, peering inside with me.
Cheren was standing in front of a chalk board, and was in the middle of writing what seemed to be an extremely complex problem of some sort. He had changed chalk colors three times already, and had taken up two-thirds of the board with this one problem. I could hear his prim voice tinkling from behind the glass, but it was garbled, and completely incomprehensible. Tepig was lounging on top of the small wooden desk next to the board, grinding a bit of chalk into its surface. Students in the audience were staring straight forward, no one making a sound.
I exhaled a sigh of relief. He wasn't in any danger at all.
Turning to Bianca, I grumbled "Why did you drag me all the way here? He's fine! So what if he hijacked a class or something? He'll probably get a medal or something like that for being a good citizen..."
Bianca's green eyes welled up to a huge, anime-worthy size "But-but... if he continues to learn more, his head will explode and then no more Cheren. Or what if he doesn't explode but instead enslaves the human race and make us build really big things for him all the time? Or what if he trips on a piece of chalk and breaks his face and has to have a face transplant with Tepig? Or what if..."
I put a hand on Bianca's shoulder. Her eyes now dwarfed most of her face, and I could see Oshawott had taught her well in the ways of puppy-facing. I gave her a pat for comfort like good friend; Thorn knocked her upside the head with his tail like a jackass.
"I think he'll be cool as long as he doesn't get hulled off to jail for breaking and entering. And it doesn't look like any child molestation's goin'on, so we're clear there too." I sniffed "Why don't we go do some training to pass the time until he's done?" I felt Thorn tail start to flick against my head, and I could picture the devious smile on his face. A similarly devious appeared on my own mug.
Bianca sniffled, but drew out her pokeballs, and nodded.
OOOOOOO
An hour later, we stormed into Cheren's class. He barely gave us a glance or acknowledgment before returning to his new problem on the board, which had several pictures of the basic elements drawn out with complicated formulas containing many variables underneath. Wordlessly, all three of us plopped down in chairs, Thorn and I on stools at the back, Bianca at a worn old-school desk at the front of the room wedged in a corner.
I took off my hat, messing with my sweat-drenched hair. Thorn in the chair next to me played with the Band-Aid I had slapped on his steel-wool-rubbed-raw mark on his tail. Today Hello Delcatty was cosplaying as a cutesy leprechaun, wearing a clover green dress with sweet-heart neckline and a hairpiece made up of four leaf clovers and a golden horseshoe; its exaggerated rainbow colors stood out against his leaf-green skin. Using my sweat bands, I wiped the perspiration off my damp forehead that had collected around the edges of my hat.
It had been sweltering out there, with almost no trees with leaves left for cover from the sun's brutality. We had battled for almost for the full hour, Thorn facing off against all four of Bianca's Pokémon. She apparently had caught a Purrloin, Lillipup, and Patrat at some time before she made her way into the city, in addition to her crybaby Oshawott, who was still a total pushover. Literally, all Thorn had to do was look at it, and it paled and flopped over stiff as a bored. As awful of me it was, I still laughed my ass off at it, which earned me a pout from Bianca.
Thorn was the one who had called it quits, being too tired to continue after having fun beating up Bianca's Pokémon round after round. He may be a brat, but he is pretty strong. Maybe I could stand a chance against these gym leaders I said I would be challenging.
I tried to smile at the thought of dominating the region with Thorn as my partner, but the energy needed for it just wasn't there. My exhaustion had begun to tug at my eyelids again, causing them to instinctively want to close. I glanced at the clock on the egg-shell white wall behind the desk; it read 2:15. I sighed; thinking if the class wasn't over already, it would likely be over by three. Leaving plenty of time for a nap. I turned to Thorn, poking him in the side.
"Wake me up when class is over, kay?"
I then realized he had started to curl up on the chair, tail being tucked under his head to act as a pillow.
He gave me a spiteful look "You kidding? I need some shut-eye too after last night's episode, too. Get your own dang alarm clock." and with that he shut his eyes and turned away, effectively ending the conversation.
I growled, but let him be, shutting my eyes, letting exhaustion take me.
OOOOOOOO
I was standing in front of the rose bud again, its red petals glowing bright pink against the white background of my dream. I didn't know why I was already here, at the base of the rose, but for some reason I didn't worry; the air was calm, the atmosphere tranquil. Not even a speck of a shadow.
Taking a closer look at the flower bud, I noticed it seemed the bud wasn't closed as tightly as it was last time; it had been snapped shut like a rich lady's purse, but this time it seemed put more natural, its petals slightly parted the way nature intended.
I lean forward to rub its slick surface, exhaling my tension as its beauty began to calm me. In the background a flute began to softly whistle, replacing the voice that had been the background last time I was here. When was the last time I was here? I couldn't remember though everything seemed familiar to me. Still, I didn't worry. Hell, it was so calm here, I half expected hula skirt-wearing beauties to come waltzing by with fruity drinks and a rope hammock to spring up between a few palm trees so I could finally sleep; wait, wasn't I already asleep? Weird…
Something moved within the bud, making my head snap up. I planted my face right up to the bud, inhaling its gorgeous scent into my nose, trying to make shape of what was inside. Up close, I began to sort of make out shapes within the rose: perhaps a pair of long pointed legs pulled up like the figure was in the fetal position, or maybe the outline of a pair of thin shoulders that had vines dripping off them gracefully. The… thing inside wasn't like anything like I'd ever seen before, much less even imagine. Creativity didn't run in my family, and naturally, I didn't have a speck of it to imagine such a strange thing.
The inner glow that had once been a gentle glimmer began to heighten into a full on spot light, and it began to blind me. I shrunk back, but as I did I noticed the shadows swirling around my legs. I fell back onto the ground, and the shadows began to engulf the dream-scape again. The world crumbled, the blank white background darkened, and then began to flake away like peeling paint, leaving an even darker darkness behind it.
I was hit the sharp pang of head trauma again and I curled into a sideways ball, trying to craw for my throbbing head, but the grabby shadows got to my hands first, and rendered them completely immobile. Another shot of agony ripped through me, everything from my toes to my shoulder blades crying out from under my skin. There was a lifting sensation in my back, and I thought for a moment the pain was being lifted from my shoulders, only to realize I was ACTUALLY floating up.
I felt myself being pulled away, being lifted as the world beneath me crumbled away to dust bunnies. I grappled for the ground, but kept coming up empty every time I thought I finally got a hold of a handful or grass. I was ripped away, my body freezing up and killing the natural instinct to move when one is being pulled away by an unknown force. I couldn't turn my head to look to see who or what was lifting me away, and my eyes were stuck on the rose bud; I wanted to see what was inside...
A black form from within the bud seamed up against the see-through rose petals, causing the entire world to shake like a plucked Joltik web. It was a five-fingered, clawed hand, it's thorn-sharp claws scraping down the inside of the rose bud, making the dream world emanate the muffled drum-like sounds a horror movie does when the heroine sees the slasher for the first time.
I screamed, but I heard no sound.
In the real world, I lashed out, trying to hide the clawed hand from my vision. My hand made contact with the world around me, one being hard and plastic, then one strangely plant-like, feeling like the fern I had at home; I felt them go flying away from me. My hand continued its follow-through of the swing until it hit the rough concrete wall, when my eyes popped open. My fingers seized in pain, and I grabbed for them, felling them throbbing angrily against my other hand, well pissed off for being slammed into the wall.
Thorn had been knocked from his perch on the chair, sending him and the chair both colliding with a crash on the floor. Thorn was wiggling around to grasp at his own throbbing fingers, letting out a string of curses which would have certainly been beeped out if this was a TV show. I then realized Cheren was looking us, causing the entire class to follow his gaze like little lost Duckletts follow their mother. I ducked my head sheepishly. Dammit.
I readied myself to apologize with some lame ass explanation for spazing out, but then Thorn was at my throat, hanging onto me by the collar of my vest, feet firmly planted on my chest.
His claws scrapped at my bare chest as he spat at me. "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU? It hasn't even been five minutes and you're already disrupting my sleep. Four words, you pathetic ragamuffin. Take. Some. Damn. ZZZquil. AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" he hissed, his nose inches from my own.
I wrapped my hands around his tiny body, a razor-sharp retort dancing on the edge of my tongue. I was melting in my own boiling fury but more than Thorn's face swam into view with him being this close. I noticed the deep lines punctuating his under eyes. The retort froze in my mouth, a flicker of sympathy rising up in my chest. He must not have slept at all last night after the incident. He looked really tired. If he looked this bad, I couldn't imagine how awful I looked.
The anger deflated like a popped party balloon. "Thorn, I..."
"You know what? I don't care anymore. Where's a flippin' vending machine? I need some Red Bull." Thorn began as he wiggled in my grasp, trying to pull himself out of my hands.
"WHAT IN TARNATION IS GOING ON IN MY CLASSROOM?!" A loud booming voice echoed from the back of the class, shaking us all with its angry might. All the bodies in the room pivoted to stare at the voice in the doorway, mine and Thorn's included.
A large, buff man in an immaculate white suit stormed in through the door way, making a beeline for Cheren, who was holding up a rather girly looking Poketoy he had been using in his lecture. Tepig, sensing danger, leapt up from the desk, letting lose a small shower of embers from his nose in warning; they flickered brightly as they singed the desk, leaving the room with a bit of a campfire smell.
The man grabbed Cheren by the collar of his jacket, glaring down at him; a long red vein pulsed on his tree-trunk sized neck. "Now tell me what in the world you are doing in my classroom young man, before I skin 'yiz and wear you as my new hat!" The buff man yelled in Cheren's face, a bit of an angry redneck accent peeking through.
Cheren huffed in a deep breath, obviously surprised by the situation. He tried to lessen the man's hold on his jacket, but the man's tensed fingers wouldn't budge, so he went to trying to fix his flustered hair. "Well... sir... all these kids were just sitting in the room doing nothing, and I saw no note on the desk or anything, so I thought you had, you know... left..." He squeaked out.
"I was taking my darn lunch break, snot!" the buff man yelled, mushing 'my' and 'darn' together to form a rather country sounding angry spit.
Even though I was still in mid-killing-Thorn, and still a little taken back by this dude's sudden appearance, I piped up from my corner in the back of the class. "Who takes an hour and a half lunch break?!"
The man turned to country-spit at me. "I do! Beauty needs time to fully blossom, and lunch is no 'ception!" His face was totally red now, rouge veins popping up all over his neck and face, giving him the appearance of an angry puzzle.
Before I could ask confused for a better explanation, a kid raised his hand in the middle of the class and stood up, addressing us all. "Uh, I have no idea what's going on here, we're just the hearing-disabled cosmetology club, and this guy just came in and started writing stuff about Pokémon types up on the board. Um, Teacher, why is he here?"
The entire room went silent.
I think I heard the Pidove next to the window fart.
Bianca broke the silence, laughing her butt off. She fell out of her chair, crashing to the ground, stamping her hand on the floor. He floundered around like a Frilish out of water, her flailing legs knocking over the recycle bin and a standee next to the sink yammering about the importance of hand washing. I followed suit, leaning back against the wall behind me, letting one hand drop from Thorn's midsection to cover my eyes. I kicked over a trashcan, laughing harder as its contents splayed out over the floor. Still laughing, I tried to reach down and pick it up, but the hand I had placed on a flimsy rack of eye-shadow collapsed, and it also went spilling on the floor. I cackled even louder.
"So... wait... they didn't hear a word I said... and this is a cosmetology class?!" Cheren yelped from within the teacher's masculine grip. He was staring in disbelief at the kid who had just stood up and talked eyes big as an Amolamola's. His eyes flew to the various hygiene posters and wracks of beauty supplies set up around the room and looked positively suicidal.
The teacher sucked in a mighty breath, about to yell again, when an even louder voice from outside screamed out and shook us all again.
"STAMPEDE!"
All the heads and their attached bodies in the room swiveled in unison again to look this time out the window. The teacher threw open the curtains and we all gazed into the spectacle outside. Civilians were running around like mad people out there, slamming doors and running around in circles fearfully. All the people that had been reclining lazily on the cafe porch had now all risen distraughtly from their seats, all eyes turned at the approaching dust cloud coming in the direction from the forest north-east of Town.
Thorn still in hand, I ran through the classroom and through the door, sprinting through the rest of the Trainer's school and outside. The sound of pounding feet behind me intensified until the entire contents of all the classrooms had poured out into the street to witness... an onslaught of pink floating Pokémon.
They filled the air, sweeping over the town in one mighty sea of floating flower-printed floaty things. They latched onto anything they could grab onto with their tiny feet, using physic powers to move objects to send them flying towards the direction they had come from.
It was almost magical, the chaos around us. The rest of the students and the buff teacher had fled as another wave of Pokémon came down on us, brushing past my hair and clothes. I watched transfixed as they floated around me.
"Pink floaty things... pink floaty things everywhere..." Cheren gasped in a low voice.
"Eeeek! What are they?" Bianca squealed, ducking behind Cheren.
"Are they made of candy? Can I eat them?" Thorn inquired, licking his lips as one of the pink Pokémon floated by.
Wordlessly, I pulled out my Pokedex, and held it up to the air, letting it react to the Pokémon suspended above us. The Pokedex chimed:
"Munna: the Dream Eater Pokémon. It eats the dreams of people and Pokémon. When it eats a pleasant dream, it expels pink-colored mist."
"So their Munna, huh..." Cheren looked up to the sky as the Munna frolicked about.
"I wonder what their so scared about..." Bianca chimed in over Cheren's shoulder.
Unlike them, I could actually hear the words the distressed Munna were shrieking, their fearful words scraping across my ear drums like a peeler on a raw carrot.
"Help us!"
"Our home was invaded!"
"They made us flee!"
"I'm scared..."
And then another one reached my ears, causing my eyes to grow wide. Thorn in my grasp stiffed, glancing up at the frightened Munna with hooded eyes of anger.
"They called themselves Team Plasma!" the Munna wailed.
"Team Plasma! What are they doing here?!" I yelled taking off in the direction of the Munna's entrance, putting Thorn on my head so he could travel more easily. He obliged by digging his claws into my scalp.
Behind me I heard Cheren growl "Team Plasma? Here? Did they cause the stampede?"
"Ahh, why would Team Plasma do that?!" Bianca wailed.
I continued my charge to the forest where the Munna burst through, when a gloved hand clapped down on my shoulder. I turned sharply and saw an Officer Jenny standing above me in a tan skirt-suit, eyes firm beneath her short teal hair and tan police cap.
"You're a trainer, right? We need all the help to control the Munna we can get, so please help!"
I whipped my head around to glare at the police woman irritated. "Hey, I'm kinda busy here. Go find somebody else."
"Please! We need the cooperation of everyone-"
We flew apart as the remains of a dumpster flew dangerously close to our bodies. I ducked under a bench as Jenny holed up behind a mailbox, her short teal hair a sweaty mess, sticking up all over the place. I huffed, trying to force air through my shell-shocked lungs. The air felt heavy and dense, refusing to slide down my throat and give me my thinking ability back.
I came to the conclusion that catching TP would have to wait.
With a grunt and push, I was up on my feet again, Thorn at my side giving me sideways glances. I helped the officer up, giving her an irritated glare but complying with her wishes. "Where do we begin, ma'am?"
Cheren and Bianca's footsteps echoed behind me, and they appeared ready with their Pokémon to help out too. Officer Jenny pointed off to a section where the Munna were thickest, barley being able to see the sky between their plumb pink bodies.
"Start over in the center, and work your way out to the edges. I'm going to go round up some more trainers from the Trainer's school..." She said charging off as a Munna slammed a car into a light pole, trying to get it to clog the entrance to the forest. The pole was horribly bent, making a wernt noise and bending to form a strange hunchback shape.
"Thorn this way!"
"Oshawott, use Tackle over there!"
"Tepig, use Gyro Ball and knock them from the sky!"
Thorn and I ran off into the thickest part of the hoard, me issuing commands and Thorn whipping Munna out of the sky like it was going out of style, flinging them to the ground where people waited with nets to capture them. We dodged the flying objects that filled the air, jumping and diving to avoid being pummeled by them. A pot and its half-dead went flying towards our heads, and Thorn dodged it gracefully as a gymnast; I just flattened myself to the ground like a Stunfisk, staring up into the agitated Munna clumps that filled the sky like solid pink clouds.
The Munna were becoming increasingly hostile, our efforts to calm them being taken as a threat.
The Munna hoards were lifting heavier and heavier things; another car slammed into the ground at Thorn's feet, he hopping backwards at the last second to avoid it; a tile maker's decorative tiles in his shop's front window were launched into the air, being shattered by Zen Headbutt then shot off like little missiles by Psychic.
I stepped aside to allow a rain storm of tiles shards shoot by, one clipping the side of my exposed arm in the process, sending a sharp needle of pain through my arm. Thorn leapt back to me, dodging a Munna's Hypnosis, and I noticed he was getting cut up as well. A welt on his chest was oozing, and he was covered in scratches from glass scrapes. He knelt to the ground to catch his breath, leaning against my shin for support.
"Come on Thorn, don't quit now! Keep using Vine Whip. Catch the objects the Munna are hurling around the City!"
I pulled him up to his feet, brushing the dirt and sand off of him. He glance back before leaping forward again into the air, smacking down an oncoming trash bin. It mashed into the ground, wrenching in half upon impact. Thorn swatted a Munna down from the air, sending it flying into a net below.
The Munna had grown exceptionally thinner, the sky actually visible through the mess of pink bodies floating in the air. Thorn landed on the ground again, several Munna falling from the sky and landing on the ground behind him. He then fell forward onto his hands, breathing deeply. I rushed to his side, helping him up.
"Can I take a nap now? I never did get my Red Bull..." he huffed into my arms. Realizing their foe was weak, the Munna began to close in around us.
I shook Thorn's sleepy form hard; No, no, no you can't fall out now!
"Stoutland, use Reversal!"
I looked up to see an overgrown Lillipup flying over us and crashing into the wall of Munna that had formed. It landed a few feet away from us, fluffy cheek fur blowing in the wind like a silk scarf. Munna went flying everywhere, including into readied nets that had miraculously sprung up behind me, snapping closed around their prisoners like a fly-trap plant.
The Stoutland's trainer rushed forward, long, straight, midnight purple hair streaming out behind her like a flag. Her lab coat whipped up in the wind created by Stoutland's attack blowing it and her pink dress underneath around.
"Roar, Stoutland!" she commanded.
Stoutland tipped its head back, letting lose a mighty roar, causing all the Munna to shake with fear again. They floated close to the ground, crying out as they realized how much Stoutland's size dwarfed their own.
Thorn opened his red eyes. With a mighty effort, he sprang out of my arms and flew at the lower-hovering Munna like a jet plane. Using Vine Whip, he roped them all together, and then wrapped his entire body around them, constricting them in his grasp.
I gasped. Wrap! Thorn learned Wrap! At least I was pretty sure it was Wrap…
Thorn flung them into the ground as a whole, twisting his body to avoid the brunt of the Munna's weight upon impact. They smashed into the ground, several Munna crying out, and all was silent again as the dust settled. I stared into the ball o' Munna, looking for my green partner to emerge. Hopefully unharmed.
There was a cough, and Thorn pushed aside a Munna's huge round butt to stand in front of us all. He sat down on his butt, inhaling deep, staggered breaths. I rushed forward and picked him up, cradling him in my arms.
"OK, folks. Let's get a move on, we need to start cleaning up the area..." Jenny called from behind, probably shepherding away the civilians to safer places than the dismantled street.
I heard the clicking of her heels as she walked away, but then heard the clicking of another pair of heels as they approached me. I looked up, and saw the lilac eyes of the purple haired trainer of the Stoutland.
"Are you two OK? " she pulled me to my feet, being careful with Thorn's hurt form.
"Your Snivy was fantastic out there. He has some fantastic strategies when using his moves in succession." She gasped, as breathless as all of us. Suddenly remembering she hadn't introduced herself, she stuck out a hand.
"My name is Fennel."
I mumbled a 'thank you' for the sake of politeness, but then blabbed out stupidly "Is he going to alright?" The purple-haired lady did seem like a doctor.
Fennel smiled, her gentle smile one like a mother's, instantly soothing me. "Oh, I think he'll be fine with a few bandages. You see, he's not fainted, he's napping." She giggled.
Indeed, within my arms, Thorn had dozed off, chest rising and falling lightly, tail twitching on occasion. I smiled, relieved he was alright. The fear of losing him had been nibbling at my gut, and the thought of solitude almost made me shiver. I shook it off, shifting him to my shoulder to free up my right hand, laying his head carefully in the crook of my neck for support. Looking back at Fennel, I asked "Do you know what caused the Munna to stampede like they did?"
Fennel looked off into the woods, a distant look in her eyes, and then glanced back at me. She rung her hands together I front of her, her face a bit sad.
"Though I'm not quite sure, I do have an idea. If you wouldn't mind joining me in my lab, we could patch your little Snivy up and continue this conversation, hmm?" she perked up a bit.
I nodded and she smiled. She led us through the ruined plaza, and off to a brownstone apartment, humming a song softly to fill the empty space the battle had left.
Wee! That was a fun Chapter to write! Pokegirl, saying howdy, with Thorn
Thorn-"When Munnas attack"
Hehe, eyup. The munna paraded all over Striaton city
Thorn-" and totally destroyed the plaza, and possibly the only vending machine I saw that had Red Bull in it..."
Your better off without the caffeine anyway
Thorn-"..."
So, Mina dreams of the field again; what could it mean? Why does the scene always fall apart when Mina tries to see whats inside the rose? What is team plasma up to, and when will we see N again?!
Come back soon for the next chappie, and please keep reading and reviewin'!