Pokémon: 9 Deaths: 12
"There we go," said the woman as she tied off the wrap around Chaz's injured wing. "It's not bad, he just jolted it a bit."
"Thank you," Saylee said gratefully. "Are you a medic or something?"
"No, I just know a lot about flying-types," the woman laughed, stroking the beak of a large Fearow as she passed him. "Fred here and I have been friends since I was a little girl. I'm Mina, by the way."
"How'd you wake up that damn Snorlax, anyway?" Fred asked, swinging his long beak around to peer at Saylee and Chaz. Saylee stepped back a little. "Nothing we did could get it to shift."
"This flute woke it up," Saylee said, raising the Poke Flute, wincing as she realized that now both arms were damaged and sore. Mina reached out and pressed on the forming bruises on Saylee's right arm.
"Oh my, how did you get these?" she gasped. Chaz looked downcast.
"Chaz hauled me out of the way," Saylee explained. "Dangling for too long gets a bit sore."
"Don't you have a flying harness?" Mina said in surprise. Saylee shook her head, glancing at Chaz in confusion. "Well, lucky for you I have a spare!" She let go of Saylee's arm and hurried over to pull something out from under her bed, an odd tangle of straps and hooks.
"What is that?" Saylee said in bemusement as Mina pressed it into her hands.
"A flying harness, duh," said Fred, rolling his eyes.
"Fred," Mina chastised him, before turning back to Saylee. "It allows you to strap yourself on to ride safely on a flier's back. I can show you how to hook it onto Chaz here. It's comfortable for him and you, it can stay on him when he goes into his pokéball, and it's quite quick to get in and out of. It's especially useful for long-distance trips, where it's too tiring to hold on for long and the wind pressure can be difficult to handle."
"Will it fit Pedro too?" Carrie piped up. Mina looked to Saylee for clarification.
"My Pidgeot," she explained, looking over the harness with renewed interest. "Can I adjust it to fit him too?"
"Sure, I'll show you how to adjust it to fit any flier!" Mina said, taking the harness back from Saylee.
"Is that alright with you, Chaz?" Saylee asked, stroking his head. He nodded enthusiastically.
"Sure, I won't have to be afraid of dropping you anymore," he said, bowing his head to allow Mina to slip the harness over it. "We could fly right down to Fuchsia, like this."
"You're trying to get to Fuchsia?" Fred snorted. "Tough luck, flying won't work. It's in the middle of some pretty dense forest. Can't see it at all from above, even when you know where the stupid place is. They're all about spying and secrecy, that lot. You have to take the path from the bottom of the hill, but it's infested with biker gangs."
"What're biker gangs?" Carrie asked, tugging on Saylee's arm. Saylee looked at Chaz and grinned.
"They're training," she said, reaching down to pull her bag back over her shoulder. She paused to unzip a side pocket that contained only a battered and bent spoon, unwrapped the coin on a string that she'd been holding wrapped around her wrist, and wrapped it around the spoon, replacing it in her bag. Did she imagine that it glowed for a second?
"Yep, that's pretty comfortable," Chaz said, stretching his wings and looking around at the harness. "My wing feels better too. Shall we?"
"Of course," Saylee said, swinging her bag onto her shoulder and letting Carrie sit on it while she clambered onto Chaz's back. "Wow, this is comfortable, isn't it? Are you alright, Chaz?"
"Fine," Chaz said, rearing up, making Saylee shriek at the sudden movement and giggle as the harness held her securely in place. "It's not like you weigh that much. You know how little you look since I evolved?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm in awe, oh fast-growing giant," Saylee said, wrapping an arm around Carrie to hold her comfortably. "Thanks so much, Mina. For everything. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Clearing out that Snorlax was helpful, and if you're going to take out those biker gangs, all the better," Mina said, patting Chaz's flank. "Fred and I'll see you in the sky sometime, maybe?" She strode over to swing open the huge window built into one wall of the house, in through which Fred had flown.
"See you up there," Saylee said, ducking down as Chaz clambered through the window, before clutching on and whooping excitedly as Chaz shot up into the sky.
"Oh, wow!" Saylee laughed, watching the world spiral away below her, clutching Carrie to her with one hand and her hat to her head with the other. She'd been up in the air before, but never this high, never this securely. She could see the cycling road dropping away to the south, Celadon rising out of the hills and trees, Mina's hillside house. It felt like all of her troubles and worries were dropping away from her, making her feel lighter.
"It's so high up!" Carrie shrieked, clutching Saylee tightly. Saylee wrapped her arm around her, waving the other in the air.
"Right, let's make south!" She said, pointing down at the cycling road. It dropped away into the trees quite quickly. "Damn, it might be hard to follow from the air, she was right. A bike might be a good idea."
"There's some bikers down there," Chaz said, circling down over several beefy figures in leather who were riding rings around a Doduo. It was shrieking pitifully as they lassoed it. It was probably destined to be dinner.
Saylee eyed them up critically, and nodded. "I kinda like that blue bike," she commented nonchalantly, drawing Vick and Pedro's pokéballs as they dropped down in the bikers' midst.
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"Why is it always poison-types with these jackasses?" Pedro asked, flying low besides Saylee as she cruised down the hill on the stolen blue motorcycle. Chaz was flying low on the other side, Carrie enjoying the ride strapped into the harness, and Vick was freerolling right behind them. "Daisy would've taken them out in a heartbeat—" he cut off sharply. Saylee reached out a hand to stroke his beak.
"I know," she said, before reaching back to grab onto the cruising bike's handlebars to steady it. "I hope Mom can fix up Diana. Those bastards nearly broke one of her necks! I just hope she feels better soon..."
"The head that was awake looked so sad," Carrie said, hugging Saylee's arm. "Do you think she's lonely? Your Pokédex said that it's like twins being in one body, right?"
"I'm sure she'll be less lonely when her... uh... sister wakes up," Saylee promised. Privately, Saylee thought that Doduo were rather lucky; they were never apart from their siblings, never alone. She felt Chaz's wingtip brush across her back and looked up, pushing her glasses up her nose and grinning reassuringly at him. He must've noticed her downcast expression, maybe even figured out what she was thinking.
"Doll, watch out!" Pedro shrieked, suddenly dropping behind Saylee and gripping the back wheel of the bike with his talons. Saylee screamed and grabbed Carrie, Chaz's claws grabbing her to secure her as she jerked forwards. "Sorry, Doll. Didn't want you to hit them."
"Vick!" Saylee yelled as, unable to stop his momentum, the volatile electric shot past them and, curving to try to get back uphill, bowled across the front wheels of several bikers heading up towards them. They skidded to a halt, not wide enough to block off the whole hill but, unfortunately, wide enough to block off access to the only distinct path through the thickening forest. One of them spat at Vick as he rolled up behind Saylee, leaning against her bike. He sparked back at the man.
"Wot you doin' down here, darlin'?" One of them leered. Saylee tried very hard not to roll her eyes.
"Nice bike, babe," another hooted. "Care to ride with us?"
"I've got better places to be, thanks," Saylee said, looking behind them at the path pointedly. She wondered if they'd actually noticed the three large and increasingly belligerent-looking Pokémon that she was cruising with. "If you'll excuse me."
"Don't think we want to, do we, boys?" the one in the middle said. Probably the leader; rank seemed to be indicated by who had the most bits of metal on his face. "Think we want you to hang with us for a bit. Don't we?" he then released a Primeape and a Machoke.
Okay, maybe he had noticed the Pokémon. Might have a whole three brain cells.
His friends let out a bunch of Koffing, Weezing and Muk. Saylee glanced over Chaz, Pedro and Vick, and then was surprised by a little tug on her arm.
"I've got an idea, Saylee," Carrie whispered. "I wanna try it on those Koffing and Weezing. Can I?"
"Sure," Saylee said, looking at Chaz and Pedro. "Can I count on you boys to deal with Primeape and Machoke?"
"Sure thing, doll," Pedro promised. "Knock 'em dead, Carrie."
"That's the plan!" she said brightly, hopping forward to stand in front of the bike, raising her bone. The bikers took one look at her and burst into wild, uncontrollable laughter.
On its way around, the bone managed to knock a few of their heads as well as knocking every Koffing and Weezing out of the air. Pedro and Chaz charged forwards, smacking their broad wings into the two fighting-types as they raised their arms to protect themselves. The bone returned to Carrie's hand as she stood tall, twirling it proudly.
"Oh my goodness, was that a... a bonemerang?" Saylee squealed, clapping her hands. Carrie nodded.
"It's easy!" she said brightly. "The bone always comes back to me, see." A Muk lunged forwards, urged by his trainer to "smack that bitch."
"Oh, that's rude," Carrie complained, giving the bone another twirl and flinging it. It slammed into Muk's face, and then beaned it on the back of the head on its way back to Carrie's paw. It moaned and collapsed, and Carrie stood even taller over it.
"Easy-peasy," she proclaimed proudly, but her voice no longer echoed, and it was deeper, calmer. She turned to nod at Saylee, slinging the bone over her shoulder as Chaz and Pedro dropped their victims on top of the yelling bikers.
Saylee smiled and knelt down to embrace her proud Marowak. "You look beautiful," she said. "Just like your mother."
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"Ooooh, aren't you pretty!" Miranda cooed, leaning down to rub her head against Carrie's. Carrie's skull helmet seemed to have fused with her head; her head was smooth, grey and solid, and even her bone club seemed to have grown in length and thickness. Before, she had clutched it like a toy or comfort blanket; now she really held it like a weapon. Saylee's Pokédex told her that while Cubone were very childish, very dependent on the community of their mother and siblings, the mother Marowak were expert warriors, vicious fighters when defending their young and the graves of the dead.
"So she's a born-and-bred warrior, then?" Vick said, nudging the Pokédex and letting data zap from the machine to his brain. "Pretty badass."
"Here I thought she was just a little baby clingin' to you like a blanket, doll," Pedro chuckled, watching Carrie playing with Miranda. "And she turns out to be a real fighter!"
"Well, Marowak have always been guardians," Chaz said. "They're a very old race, one of the oldest races of Pokémon. An old legend says that someone made a doll of grave soil and put a skull on it, and enchanted it to guard a graveyard, and that's where they come from."
"Really?" Saylee said with interested, flipping a few digital pages in the Pokédex. "The Pokédex doesn't know about it. I've never heard it before."
"It doesn't?" Chaz said, looking up at her. "I thought it would've, since the Professor programmed it. He told us all of these old stories, Ben and Sam and I..."
"Huh..." Saylee tapped a short message to the Professor into the Pokédex. "I'm surprised that she evolved so soon after we met her. It says that they normally undergo decades of training, and I thought she was quite young when we found her..."
"I am young for a guardian," Carrie said, kneeling down next to Saylee and setting her bone on the ground in front of her, "but my instincts were accelerated, and I've been growing since my mother died. That alone sharpened my instincts, to fight and protect; mother is dead and the graves must be guarded. The fighting that I've witnessed travelling with you, and the hunt for Team Rocket, just helped me grow and refine my instincts ever faster. I needed to be ready, to be a guardian, before we face Team Rocket. I have to defeat them to avenge my mother, to protect my siblings, and most importantly, because they violated the graves."
"That's most important?" Miranda said, confused. "I thought, y'know... protecting your family would be most important."
Carrie gave her a wry little smile. "We don't think like that. I don't know if Chaz's story is true or not, but it is true that the most important thing, the one thing that I've known since the moment I was born, is that the graves must be protected. Protection is hardwired into my genes. I will defend Saylee, and all of you, because I want to. I love you all. But the prime drive, the thing that nags at me night and day, is that they defiled the graves and must be punished."
"I understand, Carrie," Saylee said, wrapping an arm around her and grinning. "Listen to you, suddenly so grown-up! I just know that you're a fantastic warrior. It's what you are." She looked around her Pokémon with a smile. "Like Chaz protects me. Your siblings feel the same, I'm sure. When we're done with Team Rocket, we'll go back there, and you can see how strong they are and show how strong you are."
"I like the sound of that!" Carrie said, saluting with her bone. "I'm sure they'll protect the graves well. And..." she hugged Saylee's arm. "Olivia's spirit will guard them, I'm sure. The spirits never leave us. We guard the graves so that in turn they will guard this world, always."
"...well, listen to you," Vick said admiringly. "Almost makes me feel bad for Team Rocket. Almost, mind you."
"Nah, I've no pity to spare for scum like them," Pedro said, rolling his neck and tucking his head under his wing.
"You don't really do pity, Pedro," Chaz pointed out. The giant bird lifting his wing enough to show the glint of a smirk in his eye, before tucking his head under again.
"Pedro's got the right idea, I think," Miranda said, curling up to rest her head on her back. "About Team Rocket and sleep. G'night, all!"
"Goodnight!" Vick said, rolling over against a tree and closing his eyes. Carrie snuggled against Saylee's side and Saylee leaned back against Chaz. Before sleeping, she reached into her bag and pulled out a coin on a string wrapped around a bent spoon, hanging it by the string from a branch above her, like a guarding talisman.
She slept soundly that night, without nightmares about her brother or her lost friends. She hadn't had any of those nightmares since meeting Daisy, and somehow, now, her dreams remained protected.
Something in the shadows watched her dream with glowing red eyes.
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Sorry about the long absences from this... Uni's starting to actually feel like work, and I've been ill a couple of times. I've also been a bit distracted by another Pokémon-related project that I'm doing with a friend, but that's a story for another day, literally ;) Decided that I really needed to get something up and bashed this out, wherein Carrie evolves and I discover what true and utter badasses Marowak are. When I was playing, she faced a Weezing using Explosion and came out of it with 2HP. Phew! Later, when she was at only a little over half health, a Koffing exploded on her. She still survived. Carrie, you are as badass as it gets.
This time last year I was settling into Sangchen Dorjee Gompa... wow. Time flies.
Name: Diana. Species: Doduo. Nature: Lonely. Ability: Run Away.
I do not own Pokémon. That happy right is Game Freak's.