Author's Note:
First off… You cannot even begin to imagine how grateful I am for that Review, SorcererTech. It was… rather insightful. On the front of characterization, don't you fret; the characters will be expanded upon, especially our human protagonist.
Hardship is said to build character, after all. Heh, heh, heh…
Foreshadowing aside, however, I feel I must present to you a fun fact: she is based ever so slightly upon me. We share the same mental "disability", you see.
That also aside, the reason I'm apparently not being quite as good as I could be as giving life to my characters is that I'm attempting to maintain a fragile balance between realistic and over-the-top reactions from them. I find that, across media, a great many characters tend to be note-worthy only because of their huge, attention-grabbing quirks, be it on a physical or mental level.
What I am doing is trying my hand at creating a (relatively) normal girl and telling a story relating her, a Pokémon from another dimension, and the events therein; not some forgetful child whose ability to memorize even the most basic of information is sorely lacking, or some other broody, whiny teenager who thinks he/she's invincible and always standing on a pedestal due to his/her "rough" past.
Our mysterious entity, on the other hand, is about as far from normal as one can hope to get… Whoops! No spoilers!
Besides, the story's going to be picking up a few chapters from now. You may or may not be able to correctly predict where the plot is going to be going…
Lastly, at the end of this really long Author's Note, I give my shout-outs to Quagsire12 for the Favorite and the Follow, and to the aforementioned SorcererTech for the additional Favorite and Follow. Seriously, this right here is humbling!
Disclaimer:
Pokémon and any other referential materials found in this story do not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners and subsidiaries, and I claim no ownership of them.
Of Children, Men, and Monsters
Chapter Nine: The Enigma
Marza and Oscura were woken up that morning not by their own internal clocks, but, rather, the somewhat urgent shaking of the human girl's dad. "Marza? Would you mind getting up? There's going to be some urgent news playing on television shortly, and I think that you may want to watch it."
The lass grumbled for a few seconds. "… Fine. What time is it, by the way?"
A quick glance at the clock from her father. "Just past six thirty. A bit earlier than usual, I know, but I think that this ought to be worth your time and attention." With another grumble, Marza rose from her position on the bed, gently laying the still-sleeping Oscura down next to her as she did so. The father-daughter pair headed downstairs, wherein Marza saw Erise staring worriedly at the screen of the TV, chin resting upon her knuckles. She gestured them over to the couch, not even bothering to look in their direction.
Marza stared at the television screen in rapt attention. It would seem as if it was just getting to the part that her parents wanted her to watch, if the slightly urgent tone in the news man's tone was anything to go by.
"Just last night, a teenager – a young man of around fifteen who refused to give his name, the authorities have said – had escaped the local juvenile detention center. The camera located in his room apparently glitched out and went offline for approximately an hour, and when it came back online, he was no longer in his room. No one knows how he did it; no holes could be found in the cell he inhabited, none of the people in the neighboring cells reported anything of note, even with threats for further time in the center in the face of dishonesty, and close inspection of the door of the room reveals that it had not been opened during the night.
"For those wondering, he was sentenced to half a year in the detention center for beating a woman to near-death eleven days ago. It should be noted, however, that upon further investigation, said woman had been beating her own son as of late, and that the child – he prefers to remain anonymous – testified that this person had come running into their house, stopping her from abusing him again. After recovering, this is the story that he told:"
A young-looking lad stepped up to the screen, appearing nervous. Marza was surprised that he managed to keep his voice so even throughout his little speech, in fact. "The whole thing was so scary… Mommy was angry and screaming at me, but then the guy when he came in… Mom started yelling at him, too, but the next thing I knew, she was on the floor, screaming as he punched and kicked her… He had this frown when he did it, too, as if he had some sort of hatred or grudge against her. He walked out a little bit later, but not before he gave me this… weird stare.
"I swear, his eyes were glowing red in the dark. It's like he was looking straight at my soul or something… I called 911 after that, and I think you know where that went from there…"
The boy hurried off-screen as the man resumed his news cast. "Thank you for your time, Anonymous. Anyone that sees is this person is urged to call the authorities and not confront him, as it is very likely that he is dangerous. In other news, there has been a blockage on Route Twelve…"
Erise sighed worriedly, with Julius putting a comforting arm around her. "Marza, our town isn't exactly the biggest, so do as the news has told you and avoid him if you happen to come by him."
"I doubt that I actually will encounter him, but, yes, I definitely will if I happen to get unlucky enough for that to happen." The two nodded, pleased. Disproportionally loud sounds were let out as Oscura descended the stairwell. She had evidently heard the news, and glanced up at Marza in uneasiness. The girl picked her up, rubbing her head in a comforting manner. "Don't worry. I don't think he'd come to this place – what reason would that guy have to in the first place?" The green-colored Pokémon stared at her for several minutes, her features giving her the message, "Really?"
"Okay, fine, he would have a very good reason to come here, but how could he possibly know about you?" Her second attempt succeeded in giving the Pokémon solace, and she relaxed, in only a little. "Well, we've still got around fifty minutes before I've got to get my things together for school, so I'm going to go back to bed and rest my eyes for a bit." Oscura gave a small grunt of agreement, and the two went back upstairs, their parents giving the pair a worried glance.
As Marza opened her door, she mumbled, in a curious tone: "Glowing red eyes, huh? Strange... Maybe the boy was hallucinating in his panic?" She shook her head. There wasn't anything she could do about it besides hope to avoid an encounter, so what was the point of continuing that train of thought?
Once Marza's parents head the door to her room click shut, they re-initiated the conversation. "I think that she dismisses this person as a threat a bit too readily, Julius, especially considering how small of a town this is. I just hope that this young man has moved on from this place, and if he hasn't… well, I suppose that we'll just have to hope that luck is on her side, as our child has already said."
Her spouse gave her a few comforting pats on the back. "Mm. Well, I suppose that we'd better get ready for work, honey. We've both got a busier day than average ahead of us, if I remember of schedules correctly."
"Indeed we do, hun'," she said, turning the TV off with a lazy flick of a remote switch. The screen flickered off accordingly, and the couple went to their room, prepping for their day jobs…
Cue music – Xenoblade Chronicles soundtrack – Gigantic Silhouette
Arceus could feel… something approaching his pocket dimension. It was fairly certain what it was, actually; that dark force that Palkia had discussed with him just yesterday. And if it could feel it from across the expanses of the dimensional barrier, it gave him a rather immense cause for concern. 'Just how powerful is this entity for me to feel it from so far away…?' he pondered, slowly becoming more and more worried.
"Milord Arceus! The entity has changed its course, and is now heading to this space! What do you propose we do about this?" inquired the Spatial Pokémon as he entered in a flash of pink.
Arceus entered a pensive silence. "Well, first off, I need to know how much longer it shall take for this being to reach me. Luckily and conveniently…" A blue portal opened, with the time deity flying out of it second later. "Arceus! Some entity is–!"
"Approaching this place fast, yes. Palkia has already told me about it," Arceus cut off, seeming a bit stressed and unwilling to let her finish her sentence. 'Time is of the essence!' The Temporal Pokémon looked displeased at being beat to the punch, though she was forced to brush her rivalry with Palkia aside for the moment.
"As I was just saying before, I need an approximation of when the being will make it to this dimension. If you would both work in tandem for once, it would be appreciated." The siblings glared at each other for a couple seconds before sighing resignedly. They drew a few steps' worth of space closer before shutting their eyes, concentrating fiercely.
Another few seconds passed before they accomplished their task. "I would give the being another day and a half at most," Dialga spoke, also appearing worried. "What should we do? Prepare to combat this being?"
The god-like Pokémon closed its eyes for a moment. "I suppose that we have no choice. Yes, we had best do so, just to be safe…"