Jericho awoke on cold stone, sharp pebbles pressing into his face where he'd rolled off his backpack. His dream, dark and terrible, rapidly faded from his memory as the aches and pains of the waking world, never quite absent even in sleep, reasserted themselves with a vengeance.
Still not dead then.
However much he felt like it.
Jericho forced his eyes open to the stone cavern that had been his temporary home for three days now. Runes carved into the stone walls glowed with an eerie light, and large stone statues of people and pokémon alike scattered about the halls in various poses, few of them pleasant.
He wasn't quite sure where he was, having taken off down the heavily forested Route 36 with more attention paid to evading his followers than his map. He may somehow have managed to wander off-route, which would explain why he hadn't been followed, though not how he was still alive.
Whether it was some weird crypt or built by some pokémon enthusiast with more money than sense, the cavern was completely devoid of any wild pokémon, which was unusual. Usually a cavern like this would be infested with Zubats, if not lithovorous pokémon like Onix munching on the statues. A perfect place for a fugitive from justice to have a secret base.
An upside down golden face popped into his vision with a curious yowl. Jericho smiled half-heartedly.
"Morning, Noble." He raised a hand to press on the pokémon's cheek. "Yes, I'm awake."
Noble trotted around him, green tail flicking with anticipation.
He'd vaguely remembered that Eevees had unusual evolutions, but apparently the green ore the elder had given him had been triggered this one as Noble had apparently absorbed it into his alternity pocket to facilitate a change to a new Grass type while inside his pokéball. The first time he'd seen Noble's new form he'd almost jumped out of his own skin in surprise - something his aching ribs hadn't much appreciated.
Noble pranced back to him again, nudging his hand insistently.
"Alright, alright, I'm moving. Keep your leaves on."
It was still disconcerting. While Puck's evolution had left her larger, stronger, and more deadly, she'd not changed nearly so far from her original appearance. Three times the size of the Eevee he'd once been, gone was the grey fur and furry collar, replaced by a vibrant golden coat flecked with soft green tufts that looked more like blades of grass than fur. Even his long pointed ears and once-fluffy tail were now leaflike in appearance, and in the tail's case, surprisingly thin and sharp.
Jericho groaned as he sat up, clinging to the tail of a vast stone beast that loomed perpetually ready to pounce on a terrified stone human.
"See? I'm up. I'm up. We can do this."
Jericho stood, leaning heavily on his old rod as he limped after the Leafeon down the long winding corridor. He left his backpack where it was, he wouldn't need it, and the weight made his chest hurt. Noble led the way at a sedate pace before finally stopping before the steps to the surface, staring at him with unblinking focus.
"I don't know if your little schedule is helping or killing me." Jericho grumbled. The lumpy, uneven steps looked more like they had been poured out of molten lava than carved.
Noble just stared at him. The Leafeon, or the software simulating its personality, was mercilessly inconsiderate to the fact that Jericho couldn't fix himself with a few seconds and a potion. He didn't even have bandages.
Step by step, Noble on one side, rod on the other, Jericho finally reached the top, sitting on the top step to rest his aching ribs.
"Alright, go on." Jericho gestured towards the gaping opening. "I'll be out in a minute."
Noble flicked a leafy ear and sauntered out into the sunshine, turned in a circle three times and settled down onto the dusty ground, ears and tail angled towards the sun.
Finally, when the pain in Jericho's chest had receded to a dull ache, he hobbled out himself, leaning back against Noble as he cast his line into the pond that lay across from the cave entrance.
This was their routine now. Sit in this wasteland of full of misshapen caves and fallen rubble, all, like the stairs, molten and misshapen in appearance, and fish up a Magikarp or a Remoraid to eat - the only wilds he'd seen in this desolate place. He wasn't actually sure if tame pokémon needed to eat, or if hunger was just another byte to fix at the pokécentre, but they seemed happy enough to devour anything he put in front of them. Training them against Magikarp was a nice safe way to bring the rest of his team up to speed with Numlock and Puck as well.
The only downside was that it left him with a lot of time to think.
Jericho settled back further, head resting against Noble's cool shank. The Leafeon laid his leafy tail across Jericho's head, shielding his eyes from the sun.
"Things just don't seem to go our way, do they?"
Noble mewed inquisitively.
"Well, I guess you don't care, but if they catch us they're going to give you to Troy."
Jericho frowned. He assumed they weren't going to be keeping him in the Professor's prototype ball. Would that be like dying or a lobotomy? Or would the software not care either way and just go back to emulating whatever new pokémon inhabited the ball?
Jericho gritted his teeth. How many times had Troy Silver made his life a living hell at this point? Twice a week since he was born? At least Lyra wasn't there to feel sorry for him this time.
Oh, Arceus. Lyra.
A fugitive on the run busting out of Sprout Tower and beating a Gym Leader was probably going to be in the news, even if the news mostly concerned wild pokémon concentrations nowadays. There was no way Lyra hadn't picked up on it. Who knew what she thought now. She was probably leaving messages for him even now. Not that he could check them. His pokégear hadn't worked since he'd bounced off a hundred foot tall tower a few times.
A tugging on the rod between his knees interrupted his misery.
"Alright, show time."
Jericho sighed again, lifting the Magikarp - crudely wedged on the end of his fishing rod - away from Puck's back with both hands. He blew on it before taking a bite, spitting out a stray orange scale he hadn't managed to scrape off against a statue. It was rubbery and tasteless, but he hadn't gutted a twenty pound fish by hand not to eat it.
He didn't know what he expected it to taste like. He could call up vague images of a scene, himself and his father, sat by New Bark Lake, with fish, real fish, caught and cooked without having to subdue it in mortal combat, but like the details of his father's face, the flavour of the fish was impressionistic at best. A memory of a memory.
Just like fish themselves, he supposed. They'd been wiped out along with the rest of the animals. Tiny insects were the only "normal" animals around now, and Jericho wasn't sure if they weren't just pokémon too small to build up a decent alternity pocket and start breathing fire or something.
"You want some?" He broke off a piece and held it up to Puck. She peered at it a moment before snatching it and scurrying away behind a statue, casting the occasional suspicious glance at him as she nibbled at it.
"I gave it to you. I'm not going to steal it." Jericho rolled his eyes.
He wasn't even sure if tame pokémon had to eat. They clearly weren't just data in the pokéball, since things like poison still worked, so presumably the same applied to hunger, but tame pokémon generally only came out of their balls to fight or use their abilities, so "hunger" could be just another byte to refresh at the pokécentre, or just ignored by the software operating their thought processes.
Like it mattered anyway. At this point his only friends were computers programmed to, if not like him, then be incapable of leaving him. He may as well treat them nicely.
It was pathetic, but this was actually a step up for him.
Finally, his stomach full of bad meat and the remains devoured by his voracious pokémon, Jericho fell back, closed his eyes against the ever present glow of the heiroglyphs on the walls, and once again waited for sleep to take him.
Jericho's eyes snapped awake, crushing pressure behind his eyes as he once more fled from a horrifying dream. Something about… white?
Jericho touched a finger to his upper lip, a splash of red on his fingertip… Noble's face filled his vision.
"Okay, okay. I'm up."
He was having trouble remembering how long he'd been there at this point. Four? Five days?
He climbed the shapeless stair without much more than a twinge in his ankle, a light drizzle pattered against the dirt floor beyond the cave. Noble slunk back to him, leafy tail between his legs.
"Sorry, buddy. Not much sun today, huh? I'll see if Nauti wants to play instead."
Jericho thumbed the pokéball, and the sullen canine was replaced by a perpetually smiling blue skinned tortoise-like creature half his size. Nautical the Squirtle peered out into the rain, tilting her head listening for sounds.
"It's fine, go on."
Jericho walked slowly after the splashing reptile, taking time not to slip and fall into the mud as he settled beside the pond.
Sooner or later, once his leg was better, he needed to leave. To try and find some landmark, try and get back to the routes. To find…
Jericho rubbed his fingertips against his eyes, hoping to somehow massage the brain within.
Cynthia?
He needed to find Cynthia. She could tell everyone that he hadn't stolen Noble. She could tell everyone that he was innocent. That was it. All just a misunderstanding. Everything just a big mistake.
As soon as this headache cleared up.
Jericho became dimly aware of the rod in his hands tugging against him.
"Nautical, you're up."
The Squirtle scampered to the side of the pond, ready to tackle the fish as it emerged.
A sinuous tail slammed into her from the water, sending Nautical spinning across the wet earth. Sliding from the water a slender blue serpent, as long as Jericho was tall, reared up, its winglike white ears spreading wide in a hissing threat display.
A Dratini, a dragon type, resistant to… Well, actually pretty much everything he had available to throw at it, except raw brute force.
Nautical's spinning brown shell the Dratini, knocking it back into the water, but the dragon pokémon's tail yanked the Squirtle in after it. Jericho stumbled forward, seeing Nautical thrashing to keep afloat as the Dratini tightened its coils.
Jericho thumbed his pokégear. Numlock would be able to handle the crushing pressure better than Nautical, and resistant or not, shocking the water might make the Dratini release its grip.
Nothing happened. Nautical momentarily flickered red, but the Dratini's scales shimmered and the Squirtle solidified once more. Apparently it was disrupting the ball function with its own alternity pocket.
"Nautical! Struggle and break free!"
The Dratini's coils grew ever tighter, hairline cracks formed along Nautical's shell. Bubbles came up from beneath the surface as she cried out. Jericho flailed for a potion and found nothing, he'd left his bag downstairs again. He could do nothing while the Dratini crushed the life out of her.
Wait. He couldn't recall Nautical, but maybe…
Jericho plucked a pokéball from his wrist and threw. The ball hummed through the air, smacking into the Dratini's long flank. A red beam zapped forth, there was a brief cry of dismay as the ball's capture beam forcibly turned the Dratini's alternity pocket inside out, and it disappeared inside, power light on the pokéball blinking red a few times before flashing green to indicate successful capture. The pokéball bobbed atop the surface of the water.
"Nautical!" Jericho lunged forth, dragging the limp pokémon from the water and laying it on the earth. Pink tinted water poured from her mouth. Jericho gritted his teeth, peering at her status on his screen. She had to be fine, right?
She opened a bloodshot eye, her health status stabilised at low red.
Jericho breathed a sigh of relief. Pokémon physiology was extremely robust. If an injury wasn't immediately fatal it generally meant that it wasn't going to be. Things had gone his way for once.
"Alright, we'll get you a potion when we get back." Jericho stretched out over the water with the end of his fishing rod, pulling it back to him. He'd thrown Nautical's ball to catch the Dratini.
Give a nickname to the captured Dratini?
Jericho sighed and tapped in his choice, shuffling the dragon to a spare ball before bringing Noble out in Nautical's place.
"Alright, let's try this again." He hefted his fishing rod.
That was the routine, after all.
His head hurt.