Christmas update!
Amber: Hyper, could you keep it down, please?
Me: Sorry Amber. I'll let you keep napping. But here you all go. I'm updating it right now because I can, and screw the consequences for updating it when a lot of people are not actively reading fanfiction. I'll get into reviews, and then we will begin.
I can't answer that question, Spacemarine64. Many of my OC's had mega stones (Basically every one of them that could mega evolve was specified to have one), but I could not just toss mega stones around, and you will notice a distinct lack of mega stones with the exception of two. Whether they will be used or not, I will not spoil.
Oh dear... Shipping fanfics. I am glad you found that chapter entertaining, Zero Lunar. The vulpix character was indeed specified to have seven tails, with the badge tied to the middle tail. Blood won't be common in the story until things get serious, like it does in book one. Contrast to the norm is important. As for ghost type moves and what they affect, I frankly consider fighting types to be basically normal types. They are so similar, and for resistances, I decided to make them the same for that reason. You are correct about the effectiveness of slash and psycho cut, so that was an error on my part.
While there is not much I will respond to from your review, just because my word choice might be too revealing, I will say that Amber showed her iron tail when training with Erza in an earlier chapter (I believe), Rocketiermaster.
Guest... I think that's Raven, actually. Yes. Amber does indeed create a mushroom cloud with a shadow ball. Ninetails and Wigglytuff are still in the race, though Neither has come across Amber yet. That is food for thought, thank you.
Glad I could bring back the dream world. I will do that periodically, but I can't do it every chapter. Well, I could, but then I'd run out of dream material.
The tournament is genrally accepted to be for fun by most. Friendships are not going to die just because someone beats somebody else.
Of course your friend can come along during reviews if you like. It is entertaining to read. And considering I do this kind of thing all the time, it would be incredibly hypocritical of me to stop you from doing the same, ZLAXE. As for Gallade's stone, think of a necklace hung around his arm, betwee the shoulder and the extended elbow. Because his elbow is extended like that, the necklace will not simply fall off.
Yes, I do watch MatPat and I enjoy his work. Particularly because of the analysis he goes into.
I can't tell you whether you won or not, Phillip Harbindinger. You know that.
Long time, no see, Nopemanor. and, ah, thank you. Wait, that's not Nopemanor. Well, I guess if you'll be introduced to me soon, then that will be cleared up eventually.
Alright. Final announcements. "The Kitsune and the Jackal" is a story I started writing, and will be doing alongside TAC and New Age. I may put it on hold to make some things go faster, but on the other hand, I believe I should be able to handle it. So check it out if you want to.
Alright, everybody. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 14: Surge
Sarah's POV
Something was not quite right this morning. We all woke up happy and ready to go, Caleb had every contingency plan available and a half, we could probably take on whatever showed up to greet us, and the tournament would probably go very smoothly. None of us had any real problems with each other and our internal problems each were not affecting the outside world at all. We could all be happy.
Except… I couldn't. Something felt wrong. I kept having this urge to go out of my way to be as close as possible to Caleb, and fighting that for his sake had started to seem like a painful venture rather than a noble one.
This morning, I was not able to stop myself from trying to give Caleb a nuzzle. Legitimately incapable of not doing it. That impulse I had pretty much took over. I was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with me.
But all of those worries would vanish whenever I was in Caleb's presence. I couldn't sit still. I needed to be as close as possible to him. How could I possibly even so much as mention this problem to Caleb? He'd think it was some sort of cop-out, I'm sure.
But the tournament was able to mostly distract me from being absolutely ridiculous today. I still sat as close as I was allowed, but I felt pacified with that as there were other things to focus on. For example, Alger being called out again to face a group of three.
The umbreon frowned at his luck. He would need a lot of skill to bypass this one. As my felow shiny found himself in the arena, I watched as a rhyperior, an onix, and some other rock type I hadn't seen before took the stage opposite him.
And what do you do when you are faced with odds like that?
Why, use toxic and run like hell, of course.
It was surprisingly effective. Alger just pretty much played tag with the enemy, racing away as fast as possible and taking whatever time he had to try and poison the rock types. Leaping and darting, avoiding the particularly swift onix, which would appear out of the ground constantly to try and crash into the umbreon.
Toxic is one of those attacks that is key to defense. Poisoned pokemon with the move toxic constantly take more and more damage, and at an increasing rate as well. Pokemon with bulk like this lot were just asking to be taken down a notch by toxic.
It took about ten minutes, but Alger, panting from constant running, stood victorious without issuing a single proper attack move.
Ninetails was called out next against some other pokemon. She trounced the poor duo of kricketunes and wiped out the masquerain with a giant solarbeam. Game over. That team had been victorious by putting their enemies to sleep. The poor fools hadn't gotten a chance this time.
"Glad I don't have to plan out how to deal with that." Caleb muttered "Though I have my doubts that Shedinja would have been affected anyways. Well done, Ninetails."
"Thank you."
Wigglytuff looked innocently up at a tangrowth and sent him flying.
"That was relatively quick." Daemyn commented.
"He's a guildmaster like Ninetails is." Erza reminded him.
The announcer called team Amber to the floor. There was not much of a contest this time, though Magnezone got roasted. Everyone had to wait for a bit while the giant crater in the center of the arena fixed itself via magic.
Erza played a game of whack-a-dodrio after her teammates had been beaten and came out on top.
Daemyn was knocked out by a parasect because of that awful spore attack, but Bastiodon proceeded to hit it with a giant laser.
"I am beginning to notice that the teams coming out on top are those that either focus purely on strength, speed, or status ailments." Caleb explained "Very few teams have a combination of any of all of the three."
"It is one of those few who are likely to come out on top." Ninetails agreed. I didn't like that the two were so involved in conversation, much as I tried to squash that with rational thought. Instead, I inched closer to Caleb again, which he seemed not to notice.
Jake and his team were called, then Goldeneye and her team, and then us. Placed right in the middle of our victorious friends and allies. The twin fighting types that faced us gave Caleb pause. "one of them threw a flaming punch." he warned. Shedinja backed up a bit, prepared to launch attacks from afar, before he realized that the ghostly attack of his shadow ball would be inneffective.
Caleb cursed mildly. "I shall ask the kecleon brothers if they have a technical machine that Shedinja can use." he decided. "For now, Sarah, please take care of the slow one while I distract the fast one."
I blinked, and stopped staring at his face. "Which one is the slow one?"
"The red one."
"Ah."
"Shedinja."
"BEGIN!"
Caleb charged, angling himself to the left and drawing the attention of his blue opponent. I quickly got in the way of the larger one, who was wasting time trying to follow. I sent a large amount of flames into him, which he managed to endure. Shedinja was slow, so as he floated up behind me, I quickly jumped back, and the ghostly shell acted as a shield for me.
"Shedinja."
"Oh, right!" I had totally forgotten.
I started smacking the enemy around with water pulses. The poor physical attacker didn't stand a chance; he tried to make a rock appear in the air and I only shot it away with my water pulse. Finally, he roared and leapt at me.
I let the familiar azure glow erupt from my body, Shedinja having reminded me of that attack. He couldn't move me, as he tried to throw me. I kept it up, though I wasn't going to last forever.
Not able to move, I wondered how Caleb was doing. "Bad Sarah. You're getting distracted."
My thought did not manage to fully snap me into focus, but Shedinja hovered close to the throh and a flash of green light created an 'X' pattern. The attack made Throh leave me alone for the moment as he fruitlessly tried to grab Shedinja and move him.
I roasted him again, and he succumbed to his injuries. The flames had splashed off of him, however, and I hit Shedinja in my carelessness. "Dammit." I cursed, and quickly apologized to the unconscious shell before I searched out Caleb.
Caleb was not able to strike the sawk that was currently after him. I was just looking around to face him, as the sawk, battered but not defeated, lashed out with a mach punch. Caleb looked like he was going to attack, and met my eyes.
That moment, He slowed just enough that his psycho cut only provided a little damage and the distracted absol was sent flying across the arena. Time seemed to freeze after he crashed to the ground while tumbling, and I could see that he was very much unconscious.
the sawk turned to me, but I didn't care whether he was ready or not. Winds whipped around me at intense speeds as my anger rose. This dolt would regret ever laying a hand on my Caleb!
The ground was torn apart, flames fueled by rage leaking from my bared fangs as the winds whipped everything into a sphere around me, the sheer force of my continuously growing power lifting me into the air slightly as I was hidden in a spherical vortex of wind, fire, grass and dirt from the floor. The sawk began backing away, as my absol sense told me, but that would not save him.
I let out a roar, and all of what I had in my vortex was transmuted into pure type energy, and all of it swirled into my horn as I brought it back. Burning, angry eyes met shivering, fearful eyes, and I dropped to the ground. The moment my paw struck the dirt, I twisted, and put as much force into swinging my horn.
DOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!
The incredibly large vertical blade of fire, ground, grass, and wind elements soared forward, expanding as it flew. It dug through the ground without being affected, and the sawk tried to run away only to find himself caught in a wind tunnel as the condensed energy caused everything to be pulled towards it as it flew, and it struck the fighting type square in the face and chest, exploding in a mighty sphere of fire and wind that enveloped an entire fourth of the arena.
I panted from the effort, but the job was done. After about five minutes, the smoke cleared away to show a blackened and severely cut up sawk, who was unconscious. Served him right. He wasn't getting up any time soon without the assistance of-... Oh darn. We all get healed afterwards.
After that process of being healed (Shedinja was very forgiving), we arrived back on the stands in time to hear some hushed whispers about my abilities. "I'm glad you're safe." I said, trying to get close to Caleb, who, despite moving at a rather slow pace, managed to skirt around me and sit down in his spot while I tripped and landed on my face without his direct action.
He does the same thing with a quiet voice, and everybody seems to hear him. It must be that official aura of his that makes everyone pay attention just a little. Maybe the extreme awesomeness he had made him able to dodge without moving fast enough.
Or maybe I was just slow. No. He was too cool for the answer to be so simple, and I could be pretty darn fast when I wanted to be.
"Stop it." I scolded myself. Caleb didn't need me to start acting like that again.
And that's when things really started to blur. That day, and then the next, and then the next… It was all the same stuff. None of us were called against each other for five days, which was when something we hadn't seen coming happened.
"ALGER VERSUS TEAM ETERNAL FLAME!"
We all exchanged looks, and Alger said quickly "I believe my run has ended." before he was sent away. That guy had been all defence, so getting this far had been impressive enough. Now he faced four very powerful pokemon that were basically a family. They were stronger, they were faster, and they communicated with extreme efficiency.
There were not too many pokemon like Alger and I. Seeing him face off against a team he knew he could not defeat was painful for me, and probably for him. When he was told to begin the match, he summoned a toxic attack under the charizard, who would hopefully be kept out of the air from the painful distraction. Unfortunately, it was with a quick movement that Vulnona brushed Glurak with her tails and with that cursing ability, cured the poison.
Magic accompanied by everything else…
Alger moved, trying to get out of there before he was surrounded. Kemuri, the one with a decent quick attack, had cut him off with fire. Eventually, the umbreon was surrounded. He poisoned Redmund and Vulnona, but by then the entire group launched fire attacks at him.
Alger quickly became an immovable object via protect, enduring the massive attack until Vulnona, ignoring any pain she felt, brushed the umbreon with her tails and once more cast a curse, thereby halting protect and then finished the fight quickly.
Alger was perfectly courteous about admitting his defeat, wishing team Eternal Flame luck in the future. Even so, he looked slightly down, though he clearly tried to hide it. I noticed it very quickly. Now I was conflicted.
Caleb detected that very quickly. "He would appreciate some sort of consolation" he told me "The kind I don't believe I could provide."
He was telling me to go of and talk to him. I nodded, and walked over. As I approached, my thoughts turned to how much easier it was to walk away from Caleb if he told me to. I winced. I wasn't the type to do as people say without hesitation. I would have thought about it first. Admittedly, as I began to think about it, Caleb was right about Alger needing some sort of consolation for the loss.
That in mind, I approached and sat next to him. He gave me an acknowledging nod, and I paused before beginning to speak. "You've made it really far for being on your own." I commented, intentionally avoiding the topic of this fight specifically.
"A defensive strategy will only get one so far." Alger replied in a way that Caleb might. "The various strategies used by others would never lead to my success if I did not change my own when opportune, and as I am alone, that was another obstacle. I am frankly stunned that I made it this far."
I forced a laugh. "Run and persist. That's always a good strategy."
He glanced over at me. His expression told me he had not been expecting that. I decided to continue. "Listen… You can't feel bad about coming so far only to fail. Eventually, you have to fight the best of the best, and the fact is that even if you got so far…" I continued, pointing at Amber, who wasn't looking at me. "...She would probably stomp you, and she has teammates. For being alone with a defensive position, you did extremely well with very little actual luck being involved."
I looked him in the eyes. "So don't feel bad. You did your best, which was pretty amazingly good with only defensive attacks."
He hesitated, watching the battle down there unfold, which was a very interesting battle to be honest, and I was gratified by a small smile. "Thank you." he decided to say.
I walked back to Caleb, attempting to brush up against him as I moved to sit down, only to get absentmindedly smashed into the dirt. "I am analyzing our potential future opponents." he reminded me, and left it at that.
More battles. I found myself practically falling into the past, because I knew that tomorrow during the rest day, Caleb would give me all sorts of lessons about each group that posed a threat. Caleb had taken time during each night to play a movie or show some other sort of entertainment, and two days ago, he had informed me of his strategy… And his misgivings.
I walked up to Caleb, sitting next to him as he watched smaller children play with a calm expression on his face. They were singing the music from the end of that Speed Racer movie, laughing as they raced each other.
"This is what I was afraid of." Caleb said softly "In consideration of my showing movies and media."
I was confused. "You were afraid of… Kids singing and playing?"
He shook his head. "No…" he murmured "I was afraid that the influence of these movies would affect them. Afraid that if I show the wrong thing or detail the wrong thing, these children will get the wrong ideas from them, the wrong messages. People die in these movies, Sarah. I would never forgive myself if I corrupted an entire world of innocent lives, and yet, they implore me to do so because it is oh-so-important human knowledge, as if that was in some way profound or important to the continued existence of any pokemon in this world at all."
"Well, you can just show them ones that aren't like that, right?" I tried to reason.
He gave me a sad look, that had me rather worried. "Right?" I asked.
"There are very few like that, Sarah." Caleb informed me darkly "Very few. And I never saw half of those that are, as they use extremely high pitched voices and that always hurt my head somewhat."
I was conflicted between wondering what Caleb was planning to do in that case, and worrying about my own somewhat high pitched voice. It wasn't like it was grating on the ears, right? It was a normal female voice, it's just that that is unusual for female absols.
"What will you do, then?" I inquired.
"...I will give people the option to view them, I suppose, and give ample warning to neither let the scenes they see affect their actions or to assume something like that could happen… Or… I would basically have to remind them over and over again that it is fiction and that none of the deaths really happened."
Caleb looked again at the kids playing around, claiming to be faster than each other. "I would wish to smile seeing children play like this, but the implications of my influence on the entire world due to my memories is too dark a concept."
I silently watched the kids play. "...They remind you of our child versions in the dream, huh?" I asked after about five minutes. I was victorious; Caleb gave a smile.
"Yes. They do." Caleb murmured in reply.
After a while, he proclaimed that we had some training to do to be prepared for the eventuality that we would start coming across tougher opponents, and the most dangerous opponents he would train me to combat. Strategies and such. By the end of each day, I knew who we had a chance of meeting and what sort of strategies I should use in the process.
I smiled. Caleb was so selfless. He has all the support he deserves, and he's honestly a little flustered at the fact that they want to give him even more. He just hides it. I'm good at seeing these things.
And Caleb certainly seemed to value that. He constantly would tell me that my perception when it comes to people personally is very valuable. The armored absol admitted to not being the best at deducting the feelings of other people, even if he can pretty much calculate everything else. I filled in that gap, and he appreciated it.
I probably would care less if Caleb didn't care.
Caleb's POV
The next tournament day was when my ability to perceive events apparently failed.
It was nice weather, as usual (it never was bad… Ever. Somehow.) and the tournament numbers were really getting shorter. Any day, it was changing. No longer was it possible that our group might have to face each other…. Soon it would be plausible. But now, now we were being called to face team Titanium. Apparently, they were quite good at their job.
Furthermore, the phanpy and the bayleef had not used the full extent of their abilities at least. I knew that. I could not predict this. The outcome was hidden for me.
Which meant plan B: get knocked out before Sarah, or at least pretend to be unconscious, and let her annihilate a large portion of the field in her anger.
I remembered how well that had worked out last time.
A drapion is a strange thing to see. Apparently dark and poison type, which was destined to make life difficult for me. For all of us. "Take out the drapion immediately; he could harm Shedinja. Knock him out, and the battle is ours by default." I ordered "Sarah, flank him on the left, and keep an eye on the phanpy. Shedinja, stay back. I will handle the bayleef to keep her from using those vines."
"Got it."
"Shedinja."
"BEGIN!"
I barreled towards the bayleef, who was surprised by my frontal attack out of the blue rather than any sort of obvious strategy. Over to my left I sensed the phanpy, Steamroller.
Petal pulled some vines out of her body and tried to wrap me up, but I generated my slash attack and skidded to a halt, slashing apart the vines as they came for me. Petal winced, and looked at Drapi the drapion.
And her eyes widened.
Drapi was in some serious trouble. His dark type attacks were not long enough of a range to take down Shedinja, who was protecting Sarah from Steamroller. They were outclassed, and they knew it. With Steamroller kept at a certain side of the field, and myself keeping Petal here, the only one able to move even a bit was Drapi, who was being circled by a fire breathing absol.
Things looked even bleaker when Sarah unleashed enough fire to provide a light show for the moon (not literally, but having not been able to see for myself some of her earlier feats, I knew that was the biggest burst of flame I had seen her use.)
But Sarah had let her guard down. That was very bad. I leapt away from Petal to avoid an attack in my apparent distraction and launched a night slash at Drapi.
My direct hit was destined to finish him off, but not before he got a full powered and devastating cross poison attack off on my teammate, who yelped and tumbled away with wounds that looked very much infested with poison. She would not last much longer.
As Drapi and Sarah dropped, I turned my attention to Petal and took a step forward. My threatening move to have her retreating elicited a far different reaction.
My eyes reflected the pink light I was seeing, and I was far, far too close to do a damn thing about it. I swore as I twisted away, but I felt the impact anyways, as my vision went hazy and my mind clouded.
Shedinja's POV
Well, that sucks.
Sarah was down, Drapi was down, and Caleb was… Now madly in love with Petal. The poor girl would be getting quite the earful after the previous trauma Caleb experienced from that little trick. She didn't look happy about having to use it, however. If I had to take a wild guess, I would imagine that that was pretty much a last resort. Petal knew she couldn't beat Caleb in a fight, so incapacitating him by making the absol want to nuzzle her instead of attack was a much better way to deal with it.
Unfortunately, I knew Caleb very well at this point. The guy was not going to be happy about this. I have my doubts that he would willingly talk to the girl for a while, and when he did, he would make very clear how little he would dare trust her.
From previous experiences with the girl, just seeing her as everyone passed by, she was kind of shy, generally nice. The situation was most certainly unfortunate.
There was silence in the arena for a bit as Steamroller and I just kind of watched the proceedings. I eventually turned towards Steamroller. He was not focused on my, so… "I believe we should continue our battle." I said in my mind.
"Shedinja." Goodness, it was annoying not to be able to speak properly.
Nevertheless, the message seemed to stick as it tended to do when people are paying less attention, and Steamroller turned towards me. Again with the very awkward silence as we tried to ignore Caleb chasing after Petal. There was laughter in the stands.
Now I was not happy. The last time this had happened, Caleb had been traumatized.
I shot a shadow ball at Petal. it would have hit her square in the mouth, had Caleb not decided that he was going to be the 'hero' and take the hit. If I was capable of expression, I would have adopted a very conflicted expression.
It was mind control that affect dark types, with only one real command. On the other hand, Caleb would remember all of it. Every single moment. But after a moment, I knew that Caleb would thank me for ending this as soon as possible.
So I blasted him repeatedly as he continued to shield Petal, to knock him out. The battle was already won, really, with Drapi down. I could afford to help Caleb.
It took ages with the others dodging, or in Petal's case, acting as though Caleb was still chasing her, but I never seemed to run out of energy. Perhaps as a shedinja, I did not need to worry about energy. Unless, of course, I simply hit my limit at some point.
But that never happened. I was proclaimed the winner after about ten minutes of shooting, because after Petal took a hit from trying to move me with vines, and Steamroller bounced off of me a few times, they had realized that it was pretty much pointless.
Caleb tried to march off after he had regained his senses, and Sarah was going to go follow him, but I placed myself in the way and did the equivalent of shaking my head. He was absolutely seething. His hatred of that technique was clear, and understandable, really.
It would be a poor time to tell him that I seemed to be immune to that as well, as I had just found. I didn't know why I was immune, but I was. It had just sparked off of my shell when she used it again in the last few minutes.
I guess my ability saves me from that. Wonderful. But I did not want to aggravate Caleb further. Instead, I blocked his path while everyone else we knew shivered when they saw the furious and embarrassed expression on his face. Anger was not something anyone wanted to see on Caleb's face.
"I cannot accept the use of such a horrid technique." Caleb forcefully stated. I noticed that Sarah had not heard this, as she was pacing near where I had remained. Caleb finally cut his rant off when Erza calmly and patiently noted that the battles were continuing.
Caleb prioritized studying his opponents again over being enraged, and there was a mildly hidden collective sigh of relief. I mentally joined in on that. I really, really hated being an empty shell. It separated me from the others, made it so, so difficult to be a part of any conversation, even if I contributed to it.
Caleb put work in every day to find some way to talk more clearly and accurately, but even he was making minimal progress.
"Caleb, if you must know, she used the attack as a last resort. When she was afraid that I would defeat them, she did the same thing on impulse. It is my belief that if she knew of your fear… And evident hatred of the technique in comparison to others, she would not have used it."
My carefully worded explanation was, as usual, detailed in a single word. "Shedinja." This really was getting annoying.
Caleb's shoulder's lost a majority of their tension. "I have overreacted. It is obviously a normal technique to use in this world, despite how much I would wish not to believe it. I cannot accept being struck by the attack, but I also cannot fault others for not realizing this. Thank you, Shedinja." he said.
"You are welcome." "Shedinja."
Disaster averted properly this time, I let Caleb analyze the opponents. I was a bit busy panicking over why the attract attack hadn't so much as touched me. Attacks like that don't really have a specific type, like the ghostly version of 'curse'. Theoretically, I could have been affected, so why wasn't I?
I was trying to figure that out throughout the night as well. Until I got a new topic. Is it that I don't need sleep or is it that I can't sleep? Which should I use in a sentence when describing my lack of a sleep schedule? Perhaps both?
So many worries that I hadn't bothered thinking about before. I just kind of watched Sarah and Caleb sleep. Again. As I do every night. Maybe if I stared out the window instead, that would be a decent use of my time. Or maybe I could go… Floating around the town.
That was a good idea. If I was back in time, These two would not be worried. I did not want to wake them just yet.
So I did that invisible and intangible trick that I had taught myself to do as a ghost, and floated out of the place. I could basically go anywhere I wanted to, I realized. Forest first. Why not?
I found out why not from a particularly hostile zoroark named Shade. Threatening me with one set of claws generating a shadow claw attack, and the other set generating a night slash. I backed off, but not before getting a good look at that purple crystal.
And would you believe it, I regretted that more than anything. When I looked directly at the item for a moment, my vision became enshrouded in darkness and some sort of beast stood there, outlined by the shadows and I could only see two glowing, purple eyes.
I froze looking at it. It was not what had taken Caleb and Daemyn that horrid day so far back. Those had red eyes. These purple glowing eyes feld different. Even so, I heard a deep growl from it, and it gave me a steady, chilling look…
Shade pulled the crystal out of my vision and threatened again to attack me. I cleared out of there.
Next, I wandered towards town. Alger was looking at the moon, as umbreons do. "Clear night tonight." I mentioned in passing. "Shedinja."
"Yes. It is." he replied, before looking slightly startled and giving me a look. I gave him my equivalent of a nod, floating up and down.
"It has not stormed here for a long time." I noted. "Shedinja."
I had waited until Alger had thought I was leaving to say it, and he nodded in response without looking back. He had remembered that I needed people not to pay me specific attention formy words to be subconsciously understood.
I traded more words with him, and then moved on. It was nice, actually, wandering about. I don't know if it was allowed, but… It was very nice.
It was actually Petal I met next. This was unexpected for me. The bayleef was walking about for a bit. I suppose it was early night, but still.
I decided to turn invisible this time around. "Excuse me, are you lost?" "Shedinja."
Petal jumped, and looked about for the source of the voice, but she could not focus on me. If she was focusing on my voice, however… I did not know for certain. I would in a bit.
"Who's there!?" she asked. I wished I could frown. "Shedinja." "Shedinja."
No, the irony was not lost on me.
She let out a breath. "Please don't frighten me like that. I… I am lost. I don't remember where our house in treasure town is, and I got separated from the others in that immense crowd again."
"When others are focusing directly on me, they don't get the messages behind what I am trying to say, unfortunately. I wished to inform you of something, actually. Caleb has a particular fear of the attract technique. It would be kind not to provoke him with it."
"Shedinja"
"I-I understand. Tell him… Tell him I'm sorry" she requested. Then, she looked about with a lot of uncertainty. "I guess… I'll just… Find my way home then."
"Let me help you." "Shedinja." I offered. I became visible at will and floated in the direction that Petal was going.
She had the general area correct. About ten minutes later, I had found the place, where her teammates were preparing to go get her. I was a bit mad that they had not done this earlier, but Petal had placated me with the information that she often was late coming back for this very reason. The bayleef was just later than usual.
And then I was at sharpedo bluff. Time seemed to be irrelevant to me when I was not doing anything. Not because of some aspect of me, but due to my becoming unfocused for a time.
The sea did look very nice, even under the lesser light of the crescent moon.
In fact, the crescent moon looked nicer to me than the full moon. Perhaps I had a connection to a moon phase as well? I had this broken halo thing floating above me that was shaped like the crescent moon and colored white. Maybe I did have a connection to the moon now. Kind of like how umbreons gain a connection to the moon when they evolve.
Maybe. I didn't really know. Caleb would probably add that to his list of things to study, and yet… I didn't want to bother him with this. He had so much on his plate already. Caleb would accept the study topic the instant it was mentioned, and it would just add to his worries. I wished that he wouldn't drive himself to exhaustion on the days that we aren't fighting in the tournament. He is just going to exhaust himself.
Perhaps later.
'Later' turned into next morning, when we discovered that the aforementioned broken halo thing above my head was used for the new attack that Caleb got me. Caleb commented on its shape, wondering if there was any connection, and added it to his list of things to study anyways. I didn't even say a word about it. I took the moment to remind myself that I had indeed noticed an irregularity in something, and had thought about trying to understand it.
Being a close friend to Caleb does that to you.
Caleb got hit no less than five times by Erza that day, as he kept going on about apologizing (or more accurately: Apologi-bang!) to Petal for his unreasonable about of anger over a scenario of which Petal had no knowledge of his prior experiences. Yes, he did finish his explanation after he stopped bothering to repeat what he tried to say.
At least his mind seemed to be intact…
Caleb had noticed an irregularity in the tournament. All sorts of popular and powerful and generally successful rescue teams were taking part in the tournament. He asked for a list of the most popular. Exactly one was not here, and after a day of investigation (he ran out of things to have us prepare for) he determined from others that that team had intended to compete.
"Team Raider hasn't been seen for about a month before the tournament began." Caleb explained to us. "Were it not for the tournament, I would recommend a full investigation, as there seems to be no official reasons for this disappearance in the reports I borrowed from Wigglytuff, and they have been gone for a very long time. All three of them. Furthermore, they had stated, according to witnesses, that they would in fact be participating. During the week following this first round of the tournament, where it is supposed to be a rest of sorts, I will recommend a deep investigation. Considering how close we are to the end of the first tournament, it seems reasonable to me. Furthermore, while I would assume that there was some sort of danger involved in this disappearance in my old world, I have little reason to worry here."
Most of the others were left dazed at the long winded monologue. "Okay…" Daemyn muttered "Well, I'll think about what I can remember from that whole thing, and get back to you."
"None of us know them personally. Not really, anyways." Erza supplied.
That was pretty much the end of the conversation.
And then Jake was called up against team Destiny Bond.
The type differences were insignificant. The skill level of both teams was impressive, from my recollection. Skyfall was very good at acrobatics along with similar attacks to Shade. Goldfinger was excellent at martial arts, and Goldeneye was a magical powerhouse.
Whereas Jake was powerful overall with mixed strategies, Swampert was a character of sheer strength, Jess was a master of the art of punching all the things, and Shulk could hopefully see the near future if he touched something.
Both teams had balance. Both teams had power. Both teams had speed.
Three versus four, and telling who would win was going to be impossible. Unless, of course, you were Caleb. The guy probably had a great idea of the probabilities of the outcome here.
But I decided to settle down, otherwise known as continuing to float where I was already, and watch the show.
Jake was having a discussion with Shulk and Jess, but Swampert was stepping in front of the lot of them. He prepared an attack, but would not launch it until the little time they were given before beginning ended.
Shulk prepared himself, and Jess joined him. Jake crouched down, and I recognized how he stood when he prepared to dig into the ground at a fast rate.
Goldeneye was flicking the wand she held about drawing little, simple magic circles on the ground nearby her from a distance, not intruding on Jake's side of the field and so obeying the rules. Goldfinger to prepared himself as Jess and Shulk were doing. Finally, Skyfall looked prepared to use his illusions and acrobatic techniques to attack.
It was anybody's game.
"BEGIN!"
Shulk and Jess hesitated as Goldfinger bolted forward. Skyfall kept after his adoptive father. Jake was down in the dirt, and, as team Destiny Bond discovered, they each had different ways of avoiding the gigantic muddy water that was eclipsing Jake's side of the field for team Destiny Bond.
Skyfall was up and over it, Goldeneye managed to do some magical antic that put her to the side of the wave's passing, muttering under her breath about the fact that her pre-prepared magic circles had just been obliterated. Goldfinger had been forced to back up as the wave completed it's impressive course.
With a fourth of the battlefield muddy and watery, it had just become the playground of any water type, or in this case, electric type. Team destiny bond would have to steer clear of any puddle in the dirt, and also keep their feet from sinking in the dirt. They were not equipped for that terrain, while Swampert most certainly was, and Jake and his team had practiced in it.
It was a clever thing to do, Unfortunately, the mud did little to hinder Goldeneye. The delphox's eyes flashed gold and she cast a spell without using any words. Any mud or puddles she walked over instantly became dry, though it seemed to be limited in that it returned to it's earlier state when she left an area.
With the magic user no longer hindered, Swampert was quickly on the receiving end of a couple particularly powerful 'warient' spells on his arms and causing them to become encased in constricting vines full of sharp thorns.
Swampert moved to summon a water pulse in his palm, and grunted in pain when opening his hand due to being pierced by the thorns. Struggle as much as he did, the vines would not come apart.
Jake evidently knew this happened, because Skyfall met with an unfortunate level of pain as the raichu emerged from the earth at an impressive pace and smashed the zoroark in the jaw. He was able to do this because separated as they were, Goldfinger was unable to help him.
Jake quickly defended himself from a shadow claw with his iron tail, and bounced away. I don't know if he thought he was going to get a nice close combat deal or not, because he certainly sounded surprised as he experienced a few thousand volts of electricity.
Interestingly enough, he was still standing. He pulled out his claw attacks again, having apparently taken that concept from Shade when he saw her fight.
Jake electrocuted the close combat fighter again to knock him out.
Jess and Shulk were less lucky. The two were occupying Goldfinger, or rather, he was occupying them. Jess' reckless strikes were just being beaten back, and the lucario had a major advantage over Shulk.
"Yahhhh!" Jess blasted herself forward and tried to hit Goldfinger, only for an uppercut to be delivered directly to her chin and sending her skyward. with his other arm, the lucario blocked Shulk's attack without looking behind him to see where Shulk was coming from.
Shulk got his dizzy feeling, as I could see when he swayed. His left eye closed and his right eye flickered with a glow.
"Jess! Get out of there!" He shouted before his eyes went back to normal. Unfortunately, the pikachu was still in the air and was nailed by the aura sphere that Goldfinger threw. The explosion threw smoke all around, shielding the lucario from Shulk's vision.
Goldfinger had no trouble knocking the rather inexperienced Shulk out, leaving the battle to be a two on two match. One that team Destiny Bond would have a difficult time winning because Jake was constantly underground and Swampert was always keeping himself safe with giant walls of muddy water.
Which, judging by the expressions that Goldeneye wore because she couldn't draw her precious magic circles or use her magic properly without Swampert avoiding it (the guy had managed to tear those nasty looking vines off) because he had so much advance warning and was actually pretty damn good at leaning out of the way, was really beginning to annoy the mage.
She was out of range, but the offence-defence balance was perfect. Goldeneye's attacks to do real damage did not go far enough or took long enough for Swampert to see it and step aside. By this point, most of the arena with the exception of the ground around Goldeneye was mud. Mu was not good, especially if the opponents like Goldfinger sunk into it.
Even so, with Jake's two less experienced partners down, Goldfinger managed to find his way to Goldeneye in time for her to erect a wall of shimmering magic energy around the two of them. Then, Jake's lightning bolt from behind them bounced off without hesitation and nearly struck Jake himself. He could have done some real damage to himself with his scarf boosting the voltage, but he was underground by then.
Goldfinger started firing golden aura spheres at the two opponents that could not attack in return. "Is there any known way to get past magic like that that they know?" "Shedinja."
"Jake is intelligent." Caleb responded, looking down. "I am confident in his abilities."
If Caleb was confident that Jake could figure out what he should do in the face of this, then I shouldn't bet against the raichu either.
⌁ Jake's POV ⌁
"That's a problem." I decided as I clambered from the dirt behind Swampert.
"Yeah." was his short reply. His water pulse had bounced off of it and grown. "That thing acts like a mirror coat."
"Any ideas?"
"Nope. You?"
"I'll get to work on it." I decided, and moved about in the open again. I was light enough to mostly be unhindered by the foot deep mud covering the arena. From a distance, I watched as goldfinger threw more aura spheres at me like it was his hobby, which I didn't like much. I would bat a few back with iron tail, but the shield was only allowing things out of the shield not in. '
My lightning meant nothing. The water attacks and the mud shots that Swampert was using weren't doing jack. I needed a plan. So… What would Caleb do?
Well, I just reflected an attack with my iron tail, and that shield wasn't letting anything in…
My mind flew. I had to figure out how to do what I wanted to do without that shield getting in the way. A grin started to form on my face.
I'm not surprised that Caleb enjoyed being a genius.
I barreled towards the aura sphere throwing lucario, who seemed surprised at my sudden approach. Normally, it would make things easier on him to attack, but I was slapping all of the attacks into the mud around the shield, which did not go though and instead covered most of the shield in mud.
But my plan was only just coming into effect. I was behind the two in their shield, just visible through a gap in the mud, and waved with a cheerful grin. This was to earn the sphere hurtled at me, but now my grin grew.
I could just see Caleb's smile when I got back.
My tail was pressed against the shield itself. The aura sphere attack bounced off of mt tail, but because it had never left the shield at all, it was able to bounce right into Goldeneye's muzzle.
Boom!
The shield disintegrated as soon as the magic use was tossed away, and this met up with Swampert's muddy water, which was easily enough water to knock out a fire type.
That was when Goldfinger and I realized together that we were also in the line of fire.
"Oh, son of a-" we said in unison before promptly being slammed by a high velocity wall of water moving fast enough to knock us both out and fling us across the arena.
I awoke to congratulations from my teammates. That had been a hard fought battle, and I made sure to congratulate my opponents as well.
"Well fought." Goldfinger congratulated me. I shook paws with the guy and we were generally all having a good time chatting about recent events, such as the fact that neither team really made much of a tactical error and once we had forced them on the defensive, I simply had to think quickly.
And then Caleb gave me his own congratulations, which felt absolutely amazing to hear.
Jess woke up while that was happening. She was particularly happy at the way that we had apparently won, lunging and hugging me in her happiness. I stood statue still, trying to fight some reaction I was feeling building in my chest. Considering the way others were chuckling at the look on my face, I failed.
"Oh, C'mon, guys!" I protested.
"Red as a tamato berry." Daemyn chuckled as he walked off.
"Daemyn!" I protested again, distracted now from Jess who still seemed to be hugging me.
Battles started up again, and time seemed to fly. Daemyn won a match. Erza won a match. Ninetails won a match, and Daemyn spent an extra five seconds congratulating her after that impressive display (the guildmaster never moved an inch in battle, even with it becoming more difficult).
I asked Caleb why they were not putting a round a day in now. Caleb responded that he was not certain of their reasoning, but it did allow him to have contingency plans for every opponent they might face. I was confused until Sarah explained to me that while Caleb was not around his friends, including me, he was having his team practice to specifically defeat who Caleb believed was the most dangerous in about ten different ways.
"Practicing to take us down, eh?" Daemyn asked. "Well, no wonder he is prepared for everything."
"Having Shedinja on his team makes some things easier." Erza pointed out "I have zero chance against Shedinja and Jake can't hurt him either."
That wasn't good. If I went against Caleb's team, I was done for automatically. That was not so much strategy as exploiting a fact of Shedinja's biology, but this was not due to Caleb's strategizing. This was because Shedinja was a friend. Advantage or no, nobody would ask the armored absol to remove Shedinja from his team.
So having an extra day to do all of that strategizing… Maybe I should start doing that. Then again, he was driving himself to exhaustion all the time. The word 'hypocrite' flashed into my mind for a fraction of a fraction of a second as I remembered what he had told Goldeneye.
Which was why I paid him a visit the next morning. Not his being a hypocrite, but him needing more rest than he gets. Shedinja had disclosed to me discreetly that Caleb spent time awake at night finishing up some plans and going over them. He took this entire tournament far too seriously. It was a big game, all of it.
"Caleb" I greeted him as I walked in. As I had suspected, he already was speaking with Shedinja about tactics. Something about making Sarah angry… I gulped. That's why he always made sure to be the first one out of the game when he fought. Take an attack and get knocked out and that is always followed with Sarah going nuclear. That was why he always seemed to take powerful attacks in the face rather than the armor.
I didn't think I needed to say anything to the others. Caleb worked way too hard to have these strategies, and I felt that it should at least mean something in the long run. "Hello, Jake." Caleb replied, turning to me. "How are you this morning?"
I decided to be straight and honest with him. "I'm worried." I said, facing him, "About you. You look tired, Caleb."
He looked back at Shedinja, who faded right out of existence like a ghost. I had a feeling he was still listening however. The absol eventually sighed and sat down. "Jake, this is not a question of being exhausted or whatnot." he informed me. "Why do you think I am spending so much time on my strategies?"
"I think you are taking this game too seriously." I challenged. I learned the hard way that Caleb preferred that others did not beat around the bush, so I got right to it. "As little as it happens, this tournament is one hundred percent for fun."
"Then you misunderstand my point." Caleb told me instantly. "The point? I have multiple points. One. My first point is that I am new to this world. This tournament, is the true first impression. Literally the entire world watches this. By being skillful and advancing as far as I possibly can to the best of my ability, I leave an impressive impression upon the entirety of the world. This means that in the future, when I present my findings and other facts through my research, a majority of the world will take me seriously because they will remember my name, just as they remember yours when you saved the world."
I was rooted to the spot. That was some pretty damn solid logic there. I knew for a fact that people took me about ten times as seriously once I was done saving the world. Showing the world that you are strong really does matter, and when Caleb put it that way, losing badly in the tournament would make his eventual findings in the world less impactual. To achieve his goal, he had to strategize. A lot. He had to guarantee his victory.
"Two. My second point is that, to be frank, this is what I do." Caleb continued in a softer tone. "This is who I am, who I have always been, and with Ninetails' help every day, I can be who I was. I analyze. I plan. If things go wrong, it is my fault. Do not get me wrong; when we come up against team Amber, if we come across team Amber in this game, we will lose. My goal is to discover what Amber's hidden abilities are, that she manages to hide from everyone. We cannot win that battle without taking down Amber, and planning out a way to do that… I do not have enough information because of her own cleverness. We have to focus Amber down, and her teammates outnumber us."
I blinked. Here was Caleb telling me exactly when he was going to lose, and what he was planning to do instead. Back to his topic of respect and people listening, Amber was hiding her abilities at the moment from most others. If she did not… People would be even more impressed with her. Others would be even more likely to listen to her than they already were. He was helping her at the same time, because he knew for an absolute fact that the odds were so stacked against him that he could not win that battle.
My argument died in my throat. His work was going to make everything in his future easier for him, and easier for Amber at the same time if he was successful. And he would be. I knew he would be. He was too smart not to think of a way. If Caleb was so certain that he would lose to team Amber, then the chances were that Amber would probably win her team the entire tournament.
But…
"Caleb." I said "Please, after this tournament segment is over, please get some actual rest. You are working yourself way too hard, even if you are doing it for the right reasons."
"I will have a job to do after that." Caleb stated blandly.
I shook my head. "No. You won't." I asserted "I'll pull some strings, talk with Chatot and Wigglytuff and Loudred, and you are going to sleep in for several days, because you don't need to be out there all of the time. I'll bet you don't even know that rescue teams tend to go on missions once every few days normally, and spend other days doing whatever. Every day, you go out and do something and exhaust yourself. We did that too, at first, before we graduated. Life's a bit more complicated than it seems."
Caleb said nothing for a while. his red eyes boring into mine. I was seriously tempted to look away from that look. It was uncomfortable to see. However, he eventually sighed. "I have been somewhat hypocritical, have I not?" he deducted. How he got to that point was… Well, it probably could have been expected of him. "...Very well." he finally stated. "I can do that. Some rest would be… Nice, though the irrational and potentially self destructive portion of my logic would call it counterproductive."
"How do you think Goldeneye feels?" I asked. He faltered at that. Then he looked down in something resembling shame.
"Hey." I said, putting my paw on his shoulder. "You said it yourself; what you're doing is self destructive. We all know you care more about others than yourself. All of us know that. That's why you were chastising Goldeneye for doing what you were doing. But that's what we're here for. Keeping you yourself in line."
He gave a small smile, yet said nothing. I smiled myself. "And one more thing, Daemyn and Erza have something planned for tonight, I think. I know you'll make them look like fools."
And then I walked off. Caleb didn't have to say a word if he didn't want to. I knew he was silently thanking me. That day, most of us except for Caleb and his team hung out and I explained to them why he was doing what he was doing, making them feel a bit better about it. Whether it was one hundred percent correct or not, they said, he certainly had a point.
That night, however, was when the show was going to begin. Caleb decided to show a more violent movie because many were asking that he show the full extent of what humans called entertainment, so with a lot of warnings and making everybody promise to ask him personally for permission before developing anything they might want to, and to heed his warnings against doing so and forget about it if he refused because that thing would be counterproductive to the great societal balance we had as a whole.
But when he started the movie after assuring himself that nobody would take this as anything other than fiction, he walked out. Erza took the initiative to say something about it.
"He looked pretty uncomfortable." She pointed out.
Ninetales took her own initiative. "He is likely going to need me to renew the curse placed on him. I shall make the effort to console him as well."
And then she walked out. Erza and Daemyn moved in a silent manner and followed. I waited for a minute waved for the others to continue watching without me, and I went to make certain that they didn't go overboard. They had spent days planning it, so it just might be a plan worthy of Caleb.
Ninetails met up with Caleb nearby a cliff face, having followed him through the small forest to the ledges around the cliffs. I peeked from behind a tree branch, only my eyes showing through the leaves.
"Something is troubling you." Ninetales stated firmly as she approached him and stood next to him, looking out over the plains far below.
"Yes."
"Do you wish to discuss it?"
"That I have done. It has not changed my worries."
"..."
Caleb looked down the side of the cliff. "...My influence is far too powerful." he stated "What the others are watching is a violent movie, and I cannot know for certain that they will not be impacted in a social manner as a direct result. Even with all of the promises I elicited from the others, I fear that I have changed the world for the worse without that degree of absolute innocence I saw everywhere I go. The other day, I saw children singing the song from the end of the first movie I showed you while racing each other. It only took one two hour session for that to happen, Ninetails. My impact on the world is far too much."
This was probably not what Erza and Daemyn were waiting for. I don't know if they actually knew he was troubled. I knew that he knew what he had to do to be efficient, but this…
Ninetails was silent for a while. "Your impact has been far from negative thus far." she pointed out.
He shook his head. "It could be. It could so easily be negative. One misunderstood instance of inspiration from the wrong aspect of my world or my life, this world could turn for the worse easily. Firearms for example. I explained them to you, and I do not think that an average pokemon would survive a bullet from most firearms if placed in the right location. By showing a movie that shows this is possible to create, as I am in fact doing, I am committing to spending my life keeping a watchful eye on the entire planet and ensuring that no such thing is brought about in this world."
"And you show these things because people want you to." Ninetails reasoned "If they want to see something with all of their heart, they will promise you whatever you need them to."
"But a promise…" Caleb responded flatly "is just a word."
Ninetails really had no argument, it seemed. Caleb went to continue. "That is a worry that cannot be resolved. I feel the need to help the others understand what they wish to, which is my personal flaw."
Ninetales sat down. "To admit your flaws… You cannot imagine how easily you could have denied them."
"I can imagine." Caleb responded "Which is part of my problem. If I was thick, I would not be struggling with this in the first place. If I had lost my memory, I would probably be happy. Instead, I am willingly putting myself into a life of analysis and understanding of a foreign world that I am personally changing while doing so, making that job ever more difficult. This world is impossible. The laws of physics barely seem to matter. Magic is real. I am taking on a challenge I will be spending my entire life working out how it works past the limits of pokemon knowledge. Possibly without proper rest for a large amount of it. And even then, I may not discover what I wish to discover because something may just be completely impossible and happen anyways, with no explanation whatsoever."
"In a way, I can only put myself in a worse position as I move on with life." Caleb said in a pessimistic manner.
Ninetales said nothing for a while again. Just him speaking about it was probably helping him in some way. Part of the problem was that in a way, his logic was impeccable. He wanted to know how the world work, but by all logic and reason, it didn't. He was chasing down a goal with wings. And he was very much grounded.
And what was also sad was that he had made it pretty clear that he could not bring himself to give up on such a thing. It was not in his nature. He could not bring himself to give up. Failure was not an option in his eyes. And to give up is to fail.
This fear of failure was probably driving him to do what he was doing now in regards to the tournament. He needed others to listen to him unconditionally to succeed if he did find anything. There was no point in finding something if the findings were utterly ignored. To change the way the world is understood, he needed people to listen. He needed everyone to listen.
He had his friends listening to him right now, and even with Erza and Daemyn doing… Whatever it was they were doing above them on the next ledge about ten meters up, the two of them were listening as well, and that was what mattered.
Ninetails used her paw to make the boy look at her. "Listen." she said "Pushing yourself so hard is not good. I know why you are working on what you are right now, and I know that it is correct, and I know that the near future will be difficult for you. However, you have more than eighty years of your lifespan left. Seventy of those you will be in prime condition to do as you wish."
Caleb stood up and increased the distance between them slightly, and Ninetails stood as well. The two were facing each other proper now. "Caleb…." Ninetails whispered, "There is not one. Single. Pokemon. In the entire world that expects you to solve the world overnight. It would be fitting to quote the parameters you set for Goldeneye to allow her to sleep. You remember them, so they do not bear repeating. You are not expected to give up, you are not expected to do things a certain way. There are literally no true expectations for you here. You are free, and that is what you fail to grasp. Your own expectations of yourself can be drawn out over your life if you like. Even conforming to parameters that are more than reasonable, you could do what you want to do within fifteen. Perhaps twenty."
"...Ninetales…" Caleb murmured, his eyes shadowed. "...Thank you."
"I am always ready to help." Ninetails replied with a smile.
The two really were so similar, were they not? Both could reason with each other, help each other. Both knew when the other had a valid point. Both could understand a situation by looking at it, and both… Knew perfectly well that they were going to be ambushed.
Caleb whispered something that I barely picked up even with my super raichu ears. "Erza and Daemyn will be dropping something on top of us in an attempt to create… A 'moment', I believe they would call it. They misunderstand how I view others, evidently."
"Yes…" Ninetales replied, before a large quantity of rose petals were dumped on them, which unfortunately did not spread out and float down. No, a mass of red plant material dropped on them like a snow drift because they were all clumped together in that bucket of theirs.
Ninetales' head popped out of the pile in a comical manner, spreading flower petals everywhere. She had this deadpan look on her face that Caleb would probably have when he emerged. My assumption was proven correct, though Caleb's face was directed upwards.
"Did I not teach you two basic physics?" he deadpanned. That question alone gave me a hazy memory of one of the many things he ranted about in the lessons that were hard to listen to. I guess that's how I knew that when they were clumped up so tightly in what I assumed was a really big bucket they would not separate as much as they could have done, and only some of them fluttered downward like they were supposed to.
"That was a large amount of planning gone to waste." Ninetales deducted, emerging from the rose petals and walking off. Caleb joined her without a word on the way back to the cafe and the movie.
Erza and Daemyn interrupted them, as I saw. Caleb had clearly been expecting this. What he hadn't been expecting was the looks on their faces. Nobody spoke for a bit before Erza had him wrapped in a hug.
"Erza…" Caleb murmured. "I'm okay. I'm fine."
"No, you aren't."
Erza, I'm fine."
"No, Caleb. You're in pain, you're always in pain." she refuted. "And from what I can tell, anything we do to cheer you up doesn't work either. Drop some rose petals on you, and you lecture us on the laws of physics."
"Air resistance," Caleb replied monotonously, almost robotically, "Petals flutter when they are in flat shapes due to the air pushing against them, and when everything is clumped together, the surface area is lessened and the weight, or force of gravity on an object, increases."
"Caleb…" Erza murmured, her voice carrying way more emotion than his.
"Resulting in the clump of petals acting more like a single object, which would fall to the ground with the exception of petals peeling from the edges of the clump, which do flutter down, as their surface area to weight ratio is appropriate for experiencing that degree of air resistance." Caleb continued dully.
"You don't have to be this serious."
"...I apologize, Erza." he said, but Erza just kept on hugging him.
"Nice try, but you can't get rid of me. You heard Ninetails; All of us did. You don't have to push yourself so hard. You could do an eight of the work every other day, relaxing the rest of the time, and you would get what you want to done with so much extra time. Please, Caleb. Please just enjoy yourself, and if there are consequences, if anybody is stupid enough to try and build some of the more violent weapons in these movies and stories, we'll deal with it together. As a team."
"Our being the leaders of different teams is only a technicality." Daemyn supplied "We could do whatever we wanted as one big group. We're all a big team, officially or not."
"..." Caleb didn't say a word. He resembled a statue again. His eyes shadowed, his expression… Not as grim. It looked different. Still the expression of someone who has been so injured and so defeated for so long and hiding all of it. But I had a feeling that it wouldn't last forever. it couldn't possibly last forever.
Erza must have been so surprised to feel Caleb's paw on her back, pulling her deeper into the hug. "...Thank you." he murmured, the volume dropping. Some of the tension in his shoulders vanished in the wind that moved his fur about.
Erza was the one to be silent now. The absol only released Erza when he apparently sensed something. Erza released him just in time for Sarah and a bunch of others to burst onto the scene, believing that Caleb had disappeared for long enough to be worried.
I found my focus on Jess specifically again as she greeted the others with a wave of her paw. I was distracted pretty quickly as Sarah tried to put together what had been happening. She was doing that odd attachment thing to Caleb again, trying to nuzzle him. He let her this time, possibly because he needed the comfort and was already showing that. Possibly because he did not have the energy to deny her that.
"Erza? Daemyn?" Caleb asked. The two looked at him, waiting for him to continue. "Please stop trying to get me to be involved with somebody."
They nodded mutely, and that would be it. They wouldn't be playing anymore with that. Considering that Caleb showed zero interest in anybody when he was thinking normally, it was probably for the best that they stop wasting time with that. They could be having fun in other ways, like having actual conversation with Caleb, which he seemed to enjoy immensely.
The movie turned out to be really good, what we saw of it. Caleb was… Pacified in terms of the effects of movies. As long as everyone knew it was fiction, he said, it should be all right. He hoped. He so desperately hoped, because despite his stubbornness, he was taking the time to admit that he did need some rest from constantly worrying and watching.
He fell asleep, actually, during the movie. Head falling against the table. I wondered how much sleep he actually got each night, even though Shedinja claimed that he did go to sleep. Maybe the guy just needed more sleep than he got, which meant he needed a lot more.
Daemyn chuckled as he stuffed some flower petals together in the shape of a rose behind his horn. Erza one-upped it by putting an actual rose there and scattered the petals from before over the rest of him. While everybody laughed, I thought, this is how friends operate.
He did look so much better with a rose on his horn, after all. Each and every one of us (even Sarah) was laughing as we imagined the deadpan look we would receive when we woke him. If he ever noticed.
Good times.
Shenanigans and battles, and everything. This is my Christmas gift to all of you. And you get it several hours early, if you live in the western hemisphere that is. For some of you it's Christmas already. Lucky little...
Anyways, Merry Christmas, everybody. Please check out "The Kitsune and the Jackal", please review this story and please review that story and everyone have a good day. Goodbye.
Jango: Last minute interruption!
Me: Jango, please.
Amber: You have enough stuff that you pull out of nowhere, Jango.
Jango: Anyways, on my list-
Me: Chapter end!