Chapter 10: If I Lose Myself (Alesso Remix) by Alesso vs OneRepublic
Alright took a break from writing, just to give me a breather… and I'm lazy. But I'll try and double down on this. So this chapter features our second to last pokemon member. Note, this chapter is going to be… weird. Weird on purpose mind you. But weird nonetheless. So yeah, have fun with this.
I stretched as I was let out of my pokeball. It had been a little while. Which probably meant I was going to be battling. I yawned. I blinked a few times before noticing what was standing across from me. A Gogoat, stamping on the ground as it waited for the battle to start. It looked strong certainly, but compared to Rodrigo I wasn't too worried. That was when the other trainer, an older man, shouted a command to the Gogoat. I didn't really pick up on what it was but it's not like it mattered.
Using Curse, I felt my body grow heavy. This caused my power and defense to increase while decreasing my speed. It wasn't a bad trade-off though. I registered that I hadn't actually been hit and saw that the Gogoat hadn't moved either. In fact, its body seemed to be beefing up. Bulk Up. A move I recognized thanks to seeing Rodrigo do it so many times. Not that it mattered.
As if on cue, the Gogoat suddenly collapsed onto the floor. The old man let out some kind of shout but it didn't stir. I got off another Curse as the Gogoat continued to sleep. I kept up the move, feeling my body grow heavier and heavier with more and more power.
"ISABEL!" I registered. I turned to look at my trainer. "He's getting up, you can start attacking now."
I turned back around and did notice that my opponent was, in fact, getting up. So I began my trek over to their side of the battlefield. Despite my sluggish pace, it was a speed that I was used to. My opponent got up and recovered, oh wait, now they were charging at me. At least it cut down the distance.
I blinked as the Gogoat crashed into me. I felt myself slide back only a few inches before our momentum died. I looked down at it as it looked at me in surprise. I smiled as I reared my fist back and upper-cutted the Gogoat. Then channeling my water energy, a geyser of water burst from the ground. It carried the Gogoat almost to the ceiling before they crashed to the ground, and didn't get back up. Waterfall, a move that was necessary for Romaeus to navigate some areas of Kalos while being extraordinarily fun to use. The old man seemed in shock as he recalled his Gogoat. He began shouting something at my trainer, who replied in kind.
I didn't really pick up much of what was said outside of something about my use of Yawn and how anything goes. The old man seemed to seethe and sent out his next pokemon. Oh, what was this one called? It was some big, yellow plant with a large mouth. Victory something right? Awh this is going to bug me for the res-
My thoughts were interrupted as my head whipped to the side. I blinked I rubbed my face. Did it just hit me? While I was thinking? The pokemon looked on in worry as I turned my sights on it. This time I caught how it hit me as it shot out a vine and whipped me across the side of the face. I staggered just a little bit. Fine, if that's how we were going to play it then I was game. I raised my hands above me and began building up the necessary energy for the move I was going to use. I heard my trainer curse something and the old man looking confused. But it was too late and I slammed my hands onto the ground.
The resulting Earthquake, well, rocked the entirety of whatever building we were in. The shockwaves and aftershocks lasted a whole ten seconds. When I looked up, I saw absolute chaos around me. But the important thing was, was that the victory plant thing wasn't getting back up. The old man himself was struggling to get back on his feet after having been completely thrown off them. He looked around him and a look of horror overtook his face. He yelled at my trainer again and they had another back and forth. All I really caught from the exchange was the old man yelling something about damages and insanity. My trainer replied once again about how anything goes. The old man shouted something about insanity and monsters. And, well, my trainer agreed with whatever was said. But I got the gist of what I was to do.
I raised my hands once again and waited for the old man to send out his next pokemon. He said something about stopping, but he wasn't my trainer so I obviously wouldn't. He recalled the plant and looked at his remaining pokemon. Judging by how many he had, I must've been the first to have been sent out. He seemed to be weighing his options and kept glancing at me. And then, he collapsed to his knees.
"I… forfeit," I heard. And with that, I lowered my arms and cut off the energy I had been building up. Indeed, the old man made no moves to send out another pokemon. He began quietly weeping… but that wasn't my problem. I turned back to my trainer and waited to be praised, but froze once I saw the look on his face.
He was mad- no. He was absolutely livid. I could see the rage leaking out as he pushed it down and he tried to form words. Eventually, he just gave up and ordered me to follow him. We went down the building's stairs, considering any elevator in this building likely wasn't functioning after my Earthquake. We picked up pace gradually as the effect of Curse began wearing off. I chose to follow in silence as I could see the anger bubbling and threatening to burst.
And halfway down, burst it did. He lashed out and threw a punch into the wall. Against the solid metal surface, it did little outside of a tiny dent.
"FUCK!" He exclaimed, throwing another punch into the wall. "What the actual FUCK was that?! Who just FUCKING gives up like that?! The only reason I FUCKING accepted the challenge in the first place was so you could FUCKING challenge me with all you had! I wanted a good FUCKING fight for FUCK'S sake!"
Each 'fuck' was accented with another punch in the wall, which was now getting splotches of red splattered onto it.
"Why is it so FUCKING hard to get a good FUCKING fight from FUCKING anyone who can FUCKING challenge me?! That's FUCKING all I FUCKING want! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUUUUUCK!" And with that, he collapsed on to the ground. His whole body shook with emotion as he clutched his hand which was now certainly dripping blood. I sat next to him and simply offered him my presence to console him.
He leaned onto me eventually, his breathing returning to normal. He took a few more ragged deep breaths and wiped his eyes before sitting up straight again.
"Thanks," he muttered. I glanced at him and my concern hardly settled. While he had calmed down and his anger had died down, what was left was some odd and distant look in his eyes. "Let's… let's get you to a pokecenter."
I blinked in confusion. I hadn't been to one of those in forever, simply because of a lack of need to. And while I was conscious of my ability, I knew I hadn't sustained that much damage in the fight. But I wasn't going to argue with him and we got up and continued down the stairs. On our way out of the building, I noticed that no one had even tried to approach or talk to my trainer.
We navigated through the greeny town, wait this place looked vaguely familiar… oh well. We eventually made it through and found the pokecenter. I almost didn't recognize it from how foreign it seemed.
"Welcome!" The nurse said as soon as we walked in. My trainer gave some kind of response as we approached her. I looked around the place as he talked to her. Something about making sure I was alright. Which I was. I noted only two other people in the lobby with us.
"Isabel," he called, drawing my attention. "I'm going to leave you here for only a bit hopefully. I need to go talk to the girls and then I'll try and come back as soon as I can."
I nodded my head in understanding as he began walking off. The nurse led me to a back room where she performed a checkup. I stared at the wall and let her do her job more easily. I only caught her saying something about how I was in good shape and something about overdramatic trainers. While I wasn't really paying much attention, the checkup barely lasted any time at all and the nurse led me out to the waiting lobby where I found a chair to sit in. And I waited. Patiently. Without a doubt. Maybe in my earlier days after being captured I would've worried about being abandoned. But I knew that wasn't a possibility now. Wait, had my trainer said something about talking to girls? What girls?
"It's almost time for my shift to end," I heard the nurse say. I blinked and looked outside to see it was the dead of night. I tilted my head, had hours already gone by? Where… was my trainer? Oh well, he probably got held up with something. He was easily distractible like that.
The nurse went over to the doors and propped one open. She paused as she looked around. With a look of confusion, she walked out of the building and turned the corner. I blinked as she reappeared and immediately locked eyes with me. She walked over to me with a look of concern.
"Uh, hi," she greeted. I tilted my head again in confusion, "look, I'm technically supposed to wait until I get some kind of ID to verify before returning you to someone. But your trainer is outside and he seems… very troubled. I think you should go and see what's wrong."
She led me outside and around the building where I saw what she was talking about. It was indeed the form of my trainer, racked with muffled sobs. I turned and nodded to the nurse before walking over to my trainer and once again sitting next to him as a consoling presence. He looked up and saw me.
"I guess… someone heard me," he said between mixtures of sobs and laughter. I placed a hand on his leg. "I… I messed up Isabel. I messed up so badly."
I gestured for him to continue.
"It was Joslyn," I blinked at the name. Wait, Joslyn was back? I swear, if she hurt him again I wou- "I... did something unforgivable to her. Again. I-I-I think I'm starting to understand that I'm a monster."
"You're not… a monster… if you are… then so… am I," I refuted. He paused, but shook his head and laughed some more.
"That's the thing Isabel. We are monsters. I am. You are. Rosa is. Everyone. The battle earlier today helped me realize that. Ramos was supposed to fight me with all he had. All his emotions were supposed to be poured into that fight. And he quit. We forced him to do that. I mean, I knew we were going to win. But I was expecting to be pushed hard for it. I was hoping he'd take me on with his everything. And… and he barely lasted against you.
"I found out a while back why he hates me so much. The gym that I accidentally burned down way back, that was something he had built together with his now late wife. He had decades of memories in that building. And I burned it down to the ground. No matter how many times I apologize or pay compensation, it won't give him those memories back. I understand that I really do. Yet, I threatened to do the exact same thing today again. It just made me realize that we'll do anything to win, won't we?
"It really doesn't matter who or what we're hurting, as long as we come out on top. And because of that, we've turned into monsters. I… I don't know how much longer I can keep being around Joslyn, or even Molly. I-I-I just, I can't. I hurt her in a way I didn't think I was capable of."
He looked down at his hands as fresh tears fell from his face. I wasn't entirely sure what to do. Rosa was definitely better in situations like these, so I simply leaned against him and he leaned onto me. Even with my ability, I was constantly aware of the sobs of my trainer as he simply cried himself out.
So yeah that's probably where I'll end it. Another short, pokemon-perspective chapter. But, still plenty of focus on Romaeus. Now, if you didn't pick up on why this chapter is so weird, Isabel is a Quagsire as I stated at the end of the last chapter. And she possesses her species' hidden ability, Unaware. So… I tried to write a character that's primarily, well, unaware of what's going on. Let me know how that went. And I want to know all of your opinions. Is Romaeus a monster by our social standards? Sure he's not killing, but he's definitely hurting people. And you can certainly argue that he feels guilt but… he never said he'd change his ways. Also, what do you think Romaeus did to Joslyn? What do you think his capacity for 'evil' is? I can't imagine I'll answer that question anytime soon, so I'm curious as to what your thoughts are on that as well. And surprise, the loveable idiot isn't actually just a loveable idiot. The games always have these champions that are great people who lead by example. And, not gonna lie, most stories of a character who is on this epic adventure to become a champion forms great bonds with everyone and is molded into the ideal champion. Romaeus is far from that ideal. What if there was someone who had strong bonds with their pokemon but was a 'terrible' person? Leave a review please and tell me what you think. I really wanna talk about this with people lol
~Djsoresupon3 signing out