Saylee Pokémon: 16 Deaths: 5
Key Pokémon: 23 Deaths: 2
Archie couldn't help a victorious grin as he wrapped his hands around the Red Orb. Marc might have beaten him to the top of Mt Pyre, but the old bastard hadn't thought to take the Orb that Archie needed, the Orb that would summon Kyogre. At last, he could finish his father's work and have his revenge…
"We'd better move, boss," Matt said, sticking his head through the door of the old couple's bedroom. The couple themselves were making a racket, banging on the door to the bathroom that they had been barricaded into. The Orbs had been in a chest in a trapdoor under their bed—sturdy, secure and mildly secret, but the locks were ancient key locks without any sort of protective ID technology whatsoever. It had taken Coral perhaps five seconds to crack.
"Right," Archie agreed, clutching the Orb to his chest. "Call everyone in. We're moving out."
"Got it." Matt stepped back into the living room and turned his radio on. "Calling all points…"
Archie followed him out and turned on his own radio in time to hear his grunts responding. "Boss!" yelled Don, who was posted barely fifty metres down the slope. "Boss, it's THEM! It's—" there was a crackle as he was cut off.
"Fighting below, fighting below," Tia, who was posted closer to the hut, reported. "We're being attacked by—look out! Two Mightyena behind you!"
"Mightyena?" Matt said, running out of the door. "Is Marc back?"
"He'll get his if he is," Archie growled, taking a moment to put a shoulder to the wardrobe they'd put in front of the bathroom door and shove it aside a little. The old couple would be able shift it away enough to open the door in fifteen minutes or so. Long enough for Team Aqua to take out the interlopers and get away.
He ran out of the small house and into the fog-free patch surrounding it, ready to face Marc. He'd been denied a battle with his nemesis at Mt Chimney, but now…
Mildly singed or scratched-up Aqua members were fleeing up the slope towards them. "Everyone, drag cloaks out and over the cliff!" Archie ordered, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the precipice that gravekeepers past had precariously built their house on. "It's a straight drop to the water! Get to your designated speedboat! Matt, call Shelley to bring them around!"
"Sir!" Matt said, switching channels on his radio. Fleeing Aqua members saluted Archie as they ran past, hurriedly unzipping and unfolding drag cloaks before leaping over the cliff edge.
Archie grabbed the arm of one, a young woman called Nessa, as she ran past. "Who is it?" he demanded. "Is Marc back?"
"It's those girls, boss!" she said angrily. "The ones who interfered at the Museum and the Weather Institute…"
"Key and Saylee?" he muttered. He remembered them clearly. The blonde teenager who'd spent so much time arguing with him at Mt Chimney that he'd missed Marc, all full of fire and anger, and her friend, the scarred woman who'd looked at him and Marc both with such cold disdain and condescension, like they weren't even worth her contempt…
They emerged from the mist ahead of him like angry ghosts, surrounded by their Pokémon. All twelve… thirteen, that Vulpix is a grave guardian, though… he frowned as more indistinct shapes fluttered in the mist behind them. Fourteen… fifteen…?
"Archie!" Key yelled furiously. "What the hell are you doing now?"
"Dealer's offering good odds that it's both dumb and dangerous," Saylee said, crossing her arms and glaring at Archie in what, infuriatingly, seemed like exasperated irritation. "You're here for the Orbs, right? Put it back, you—" her eyes widened sharply as she stared at the Orb.
"You two aren't fools," Archie snapped. "You'll understand soon enough. This world will be a better place once Team Aqua accomplishes its goals!"
"Sir, that's the last of 'em!" Matt called from behind him. "Let's GO!"
"No you don't!" Key's Swellow shrieked, swooping down towards him. Archie ducked and rolled, then back on his feet in a second, running towards the cliff with the Red Orb clutched securely to his chest. He released Shanks, his trusty old Sharpedo, over the cliff. He narrowly avoided a Flygon as he leapt, releasing his drag cloak as he fell through the fog layer. The cloth billowed out, slowing his descent enough that when he hit the water, it didn't feel like hitting a slab of concrete.
It still struck him hard enough to stun him, as he'd expected, but he knew that Shanks was in the water and trusted him implicitly. The Sharpedo dutifully began tugging Archie and Matt towards the waiting boats by their drag cloaks.
For a few minutes before he got feeling back, all that rang in Archie's brain were words that he couldn't quite understand, words that Saylee had screamed at him as he went over the cliff.
What did she mean, "You've got the wrong one"…?
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"We lost them!" Python whined, peering over the cliff.
"They could have missed the water and be dead on a rock at the bottom," Polly said, licking his cheek consolingly.
"What did you yell after him?" Teddy asked Saylee. "The 'wrong one'…?"
"He's got the wrong Orb," Saylee said, rubbing her forehead. "The idiot has the wrong Orb…"
"Orb? You mean the Ruby and Sapphire Orbs you were talking about?" Key asked. "Which one did he have? I didn't see…"
"Neither did I," Shikoba said, landing next to them. "It was wrapped up in cloth, I couldn't see it, so how could you—"
The door of the house on the precipice burst open, and an elderly couple stumbled out. They were dressed fairly normally—corduroy trousers and flower-printed button-down shirts—aside from the ragged black cloaks draped over their shoulders. "Verity! You caught the thieves!" the old lady yelled, pointing at Key and Saylee.
"Now hold on just one minute there," Teddy said defensively. "We ain't no thieves!"
"He's right, ma'am," said the Vulpix, Verity. "These people drove off the thieves. They fled in droves before them."
"For all the good it does us now that both Orbs are gone," the old man hrumphed, crossing his arms. He was bald on top but had a long, trailing white beard. His much darker-skinned wife, by contrast, had a huge mop of curly white hair that bobbed when she shook her head.
"For all the good it does them," she cackled. "Oh, maybe those Orbs do have power, even broken as they are, but we fooled 'em! The man talkin' about Groudon took the Sapphire, and the man talkin' about Kyogre took the Ruby!"
"But… according to the legend I heard, Kyogre's power was sealed into a red sphere," Key said, "and Groudon's into a blue one. Isn't that how the story goes?"
"Yes, but the legend lies," Saylee said, looking at the old couple.
"Clever one, that," the old man said to his wife.
"'Course it lies!" the old woman said. "You seal away powers that can destroy the whole damn planet, are you gonna tell folks how to unlock it? Only reason there's any lore at all is to keep people from accidentally destroying the damn things!"
"It's meant to be a family secret," her husband pointed out.
"Well, that's Phoebe's fault, ain't it?" his wife snapped. "Maya and Mia too… them girls oughta be here defending their grandparents! Instead we've gotta settle for random clever girls. Anyway, she knows already," she added, pointing at Saylee.
"The Orb he was holding… it was rejecting him…" Saylee said, before pushing up her glasses and pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes. "Mother of Mew… is this a sick joke?"
"Are you alright, darlin'?" Skye asked with concern.
"Oh, perfect," Saylee said bitterly. "I got exactly what I wanted. No children this time! Just bloody crime ring bosses… oh, I hope they suffer, I really do…"
"Okay, which one've your ghosts hexed her?" Polly demanded, growling at the mist. "She's talking crazy."
"I wish," Saylee said, digging into her bag. "Sir, ma'am… can you take a look at these for me?" She held out the red and blue fragments.
"By my stars and spirits," the old man gasped.
"Never thought I'd see 'em with my own eyes," his wife agreed.
"So these are the missing fragments of the Orbs," Saylee said, walking towards them.
"Weren't they just saying that those Orbs could bring about wold-destroying power if complete?" Thomas pointed out. "'Cause that sounds like it would, y'know, suck."
"Which is why I want to leave them here now," Saylee said, pressing the shards into the pale palms of the old lady's callused hands. "Marc and Archie aren't that bright. They won't be back here now that they think they have what they want. We're going after them, and I don't want to risk dropping these into their hands. Oh… I should warn you that some very excited archaeologists might turn up here in the next couple days."
"Pffft! Ain't nobody gettin' these," the old lady promised. "We'll keep e'm much safer than them Orbs, oh yes!" She stuck the shards down the neck of her shirt. "I dare 'em to find 'em there, hah! Wouldn't mind 'em trying, though. He was a big, strapping lad, wasn't he, the one that took the Red Orb?"
"I'm not dead yet, hon," her husband pointed out.
"Wouldn't know it around here, would you?" she replied, before glaring at Saylee and Key. "Well, go on, girls, GIT!"
"Yes ma'am!" Key squeaked as Saylee turned and charged down the mountain, scowling to herself.
"What's goin' on with her?" Sanborn asked Leslie as they scurried after their trainers. Leslie shook her head.
"Whatever it is, it's sure lit a fire under her, huh?" Zac said, nipping between his sister and his teammate as he ran after Saylee. "HEY! SAYLEE! WAIT UP!"
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"William… are you okay?" Saylee asked, peering through the Scope at her late Dustox, who was fading in and out of the Scope's vision as they continued down the mountain.
"Of course not, I'm dead," he muttered. Saylee flinched.
"The spirits are still agitated," Verity explained. "With the Orbs gone, a sense of impending doom permeates everything. Your lost Pokémon maintain their forms because their deaths are relatively recent, but soon they too will fade out."
Key reached up to touch her hair again, though she could neither see nor touch Wanda.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Zac called, darting out of the mist towards them. "Check out what Leslie found!" Leslie ran up to them and sat up in front of Key, setting something small, round and metallic into her hand. It looked like a large coin.
"What's this?" Key said, tapping the emblem set in the middle of the coin. It was a black shape with three peaks on top and a semi-circular gap on the bottom. It looked vaguely familiar.
"Hey, weren't those people at the volcano wearing this shape?" Molly asked. "The ones that weren't Team Aqua?"
"Team Magma," Key said. "Archie said they'd been here too…"
"Yooooouuuu… blooooood…"
Saylee yelped as she was bowled over by a wave of nothing. Looking up, she saw that everyone else had been knocked down except for Polly and Python. She glanced through the scope and saw that the ghosts had vanished.
"The hell is that?" Sanborn demanded, spines rising as he stumbled to his feet. Teddy gave Saylee a hand up as she peered through the mists at their attacker.
It was a young man with dark blue hair and a purple outfit. He was staggering unsteadily towards them, face blank and eyes glowing pink. Wobbling along beside him was a Wobbuffet. Saylee had never seen a Wobbuffet with its eyes open before. They were perfectly spherical, and, like the human's, glowing bright pink.
"Give meeeee…. Blooood…" the man hissed, reaching for them. The Wobbuffet cried out and wobbled, and they were all knocked down again.
"What in th' hell is goin' on here?!" Teddy yelled.
"That human's a psychic!" Saylee called. "He's being affected—maybe even possessed—by the upset ghosts! We'll have to knock them out and get them off the mountain!"
"You say that like you're familiar with this," Thomas asked dryly. Saylee shrugged.
"If he's psychic, that's why Polly and Python aren't affected!" Key realized. "Get that Wobbuffet!"
The two Mightyena howled and charged. Python leapt on the Wobbuffet, sinking in fangs and claws. It shrieked and swung its firmly-rooted blue body back and forth, sending Python flying.
"Go for the tail!" Saylee cried. Polly caught the tiny black tail in her mouth and bit down hard. The Wobbuffet screamed horribly.
"Give meee… your soul…" the psychic hissed. Both the Wobbuffet and Polly collapsed.
"NO!" Saylee screamed, watching both Pokémon shudder as a purple glow wrapped around them. "That's Destiny Bond! NO!"
The psychic held out his hand, and the glows flowed into it. He grinned, licking his lips as Polly and the Wobbuffet's shaking stopped.
"Polly! POLLY!" Python howled, charging the psychic and clamping his jaws around the man's throat. The psychic collapsed in a spray of blood.
"Python!" Teddy yelled, grabbing the Mightyena and trying to pull him off. "Dammit, help me!" Sanborn and Thomas ran over to help him haul Python away from the gasping human.
"Python, stop!" Key shrieked, fumbling for his pokéball. Her shaking fingers dropped it.
Saylee reached into her bag and pulled out a tiny databag. She keyed in the access code and started retrieving bandages as she knelt next to the man.
"Artery's damaged," she muttered, pressing one hand over the spot that was spurting blood several inches. The man was coughing up purple smoke. "We need to stop the bleeding…"
Python howled again and broke away from the Pokémon restraining him while Key scrambled in the grass for his pokéball. Saylee was pushed back and pinned to the ground with the Mightyena's hot breath in her face and his powerful fangs terrifying close to her throat. Saylee was sharply reminded that Mightyena were dark-type Pokémon.
"You," he snarled. "He killed her, and you—if you hadn't told her to attack the tail, if you—YOU," he howled ferally. Saylee winced as he claws dug into her shoulder and drew blood, making Teddy, who was inching up behind the angry Mightyena, freeze. Everyone else was staring, paralyzed by shock and horror as their friend and teammate was transformed by rage and grief. Saylee didn't dare even breathe.
"Python," Key sobbed. "Python, no…"
"Peaches…"
Python looked up sharply, going slack-jawed in surprise. Saylee couldn't tilt her head back far enough see what he was looking at, and didn't dare move her body, but she knew. She knew from the way his ears flattened and his tail perked, and she knew that voice.
"Peaches, stop," Polly said. Like the other ghosts, her voice was faint and wispy, but everyone was silently fixated on it. "It's not her fault."
"Polly… you…" Python's voice broke. "Don't go…"
"I have to," Polly said. Saylee shivered as the cold mist brushed over her. Python closed his eyes, leaning into some touch she couldn't see. "And you have to stop them. Magma and Aqua. You have to, Peaches. They can't be allowed to do what they're planning. You can stop them, Peaches. I believe in you. Take your anger out on them, not Saylee."
Python slowly stepped off of Saylee. She scrambled back until she had a Blaziken, a Sandslash and an Azumarill between her and the unstable Pokémon staring at the ghost of his mate.
"I love you, Peaches," Polly whispered. "Promise me you won't be mad at Saylee. She didn't know…"
"I… okay, I promise…" Python whimpered, licking the empty air. "I love you… don't go…" Tears rolled off of his snout as he bowed his head. "I… I can't…"
"Go on," Polly said softly. "You can't stay here. Go!"
"I… Return me!" Python barked sharply at Key. "I can't… I can't leave… return me and take me out of here!"
"O-Okay," Key said shakily, scrambling for his pokéball again and finally finding it and making him vanish. There was no further sign of Polly, or of the dead Wobbuffet. Saylee finally started breathing again, though her breath came only in short gasps as her head swam and her body shook.
"Calm down now, Saylee," Teddy said, patting her shoulder. "It's all gon' be okay now…"
"Like hell it's okay!" Sanborn snapped. "Man, Polly just got iced! No wonder Python lost his shit!" He gave Leslie an awkward comforting pat as she cried silently. Zac glared at his teammate as he licked his sister on the ear.
"I'm… okay…" Saylee gasped, trying to calm her breathing. "It's just… ow…" She patted the bleeding wounds on her shoulders gingerly. "Been a long time since I've had anything sharp at my throat…" she rubbed her neck, trying to ease her breathing but also feeling the thin scar left by Proton's knife. "Never from… from an ally… a friend…"
"I'm so, so sorry, Saylee," Key sniffed, clutching Python's pokéball. "I-I should've returned him sooner…"
"It's okay, it's good that he got to talk to Polly," Saylee said. "He just flipped on grief and rage. Could happen to anyone." She crawled back to the bleeding psychic to finish tying the bandages to his neck. "Better get him out of here, he's bleeding out. Skye, Shikoba, Topaz, we'll have to fly."
"I'll return everyone else…" Key said hoarsely. "What about… Polly…?"
"Verity?" Saylee asked the Vulpix, who was sitting between her dead Mightyena and the Wobbuffet. "Will you… look after her?"
"We will see to her burial, but her spirit will no doubt be caught up in the unrest," Verity warned her. "Please bring back the Orbs soon."
"We will," Saylee promised, giving Polly a last stroke on the ears. Her fur was already cold and damp from the mist. "You're always in our hearts," she said softly, looking up at the dark mountain. "All of you, if you can hear me. You're always in my heart."
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Fucking Wobbuffet. Fucking Destiny Bond.
Also, fuck everyone involved with the last two minutes of the new Legend of Korra episode. KOOOOORRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA BBY ;_;
But on the upside, who else got the new Super Smash Brothers? I'm killing it as Robin until I unlock Lucina. I love Fire Emblem Awakening, so I'm really happy that they got into the new lineup :D But why the hell is Duck Hunt Dog there?!
Saylee
Name: Shelly. Species: Shuppet. Nature: Modest. Ability: Insomnia. Location: Route 121
RIP Polly the Mightyena, level 4-38
Key
Name: Sheba. Species: Shuppet. Nature: Lax. Ability: Insomnia. Location: Mt Pyre.