Oh my god I uploaded a thing.
So last week, I finally acquired the free time and the motivation to write out the last seven thousand words of this chapter. It took quite a while, this section was probably the most ambiguously planned in my head, and I wanted it to go just right.
Some of these reviews may be a bit outdated in terms of the information within that pertains to the reviewer because it's been so long. Case in point, West, I imagine six months is enough time to get better. I appreciate you taking the time to explain why you couldn't give an in-depth review of the chapter.
To Aewynessa, EVERYONE seems to hardcore ship Riley and Yellow. Everybody. I'm glad I managed to succeed in making all of their shenanigans funny, and yes, that is supposed to be this world's version of smash bros, with plenty of pokemon. As a side note, I've always wanted absol to be in smash bros, but I figure adding a quadruped to the mechanics of the game may be difficult.
As for Xerneas attacking Dialga, It'll be a while yet before she has to decide whether to do it or not.
If Aewynessa thought she shipped Riley and Yellow hardcore, ARSLOTHES ships her twice in two reviews in one day. Man, the shipping amongst my readers is super real, and amusing.
Referring AveragePichu to my minirant above in my reply to Aewynessa.
Now for some even newer people. Verdauga reviewed the chapters as he read through them over a couple days, giving quick opinions on things they noticed, which I found amusing and also helpful because it's further information about how it makes people feel. They also managed to magically do two reviews on chapter eight, according to my review page...
Finally, UncleInTheAttic. This review is more recent, and to give the summary of my response, here's the new chapter for you, more story written. You cement your place as hardest RileyXYellow shipper by calling it a 'fact'. Pariah was NOT the guy from the celebi movie. He uses dark balls, but they aren't the same person. That being said, he definitely is an easy character to hate. And Riley can't turn his muscles into steel cables.
I don't remember fixing up his metal shirt any time recently... Over the course of the story, both metal lace garments have been damaged to the point of being unusable, from Mute to Dizzy to Ember.
I appreciate the praise you give me as well as pointing out potential mistakes I've made. The latter helps a lot and the former, well, it's praise. It's hard to say 'no'.
Thank you all for joining me today for chapter twenty-five of New Age.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Threat
Riley woke up to Amber sleeping on his face again.
He had to sneeze now that he was waking up, so he took the liberty to lift her off of him gently and hold her away while sneezing away from her. The sneeze woke Amber up, of course.
"The heck? Why are you holding me by my shoulders like a doll!?" the small fox started to squirm.
"You really only have yourself to blame." Riley deadpanned, setting her on the bed beside him. "How exactly is my face a comfortable place to sleep?"
She didn't answer, she just huffed and hopped off the bed. Riley sat up slowly, realizing that sunlight was coming through the window. Had he actually gotten to sleep? He felt absolutely full of energy. It had been kind of a half-sleep as usual, but nothing interrupted it.
The air was just so quiet, even with Amber making noise as she grumbled to herself. Riley started to look in various directions, gauging his surroundings. Gauge and Kazekai had the couch, and Kurenai was near his feet on top of the covers at the bottom of the bed, curled up. Scarlet, he found next to where his head had just been, but she hadn't been sleeping on it like Amber had. The pichu still slept despite the racket Amber made.
Riley looked to his right. Mesa, on the other hand, had woken up. She was clearly not a morning person. Her hair was messy and out of style, and her eyes held that 'talk to me and I'll kill you' look.
Riley heeded the unspoken threat and gently picked Scarlet off of the bed and held her gently while he escaped from the bed. This woke up Kurenai, who gave a kind of 'mrr?' noise as she woke up, only to seemingly sense the vibes Mesa was putting off, and, quickly adding her usual tough love habits with her current bad mood, Kurenai decided to follow Riley.
Yellow proved to be considerably less fearless compared to Riley. "Trouble waking up, earth girl?"
Yellow ducked the TV remote thrown at her and smiled.
"Shut up. It's just been a while since I've slept in a proper bed." Mesa grunted at her. "Why the hell are you waking up so early?"
"Amber was sleeping on my face and she's not stealthy enough to do anything without making noise after I had her get off," Riley responded simply, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.
"Hey!" Amber yipped at Riley, irritated at being called out, but then she shivered and looked up away from the redhead. Mesa loomed over her, eyes glinting. "Uh…"
Mesa picked her up by the scruff, scowling at her. "Do not be so inconsiderate of others who are sleeping, fox, you got that?"
"Yes, ma'am…" Amber replied, realizing making Mesa angry was a poor choice. Mesa lifted her over to the bed and dropped her on it.
Riley was conflicted. He hadn't wanted to wake up so early either, and could see where Mesa was coming from, and he knew he'd invited Mesa along, but Amber hadn't exactly been out of line. It was how she normally acted, and it hadn't ever caused too much of a problem before. He had the sense Mesa was a very complicated person, but she had handled the situation by intimidating Amber.
Mesa brought her arms up, distracting Riley as she brushed her hair behind her shoulders and smoothed it down, and rubbing her eyes to get rid of the sleep. She discovered his gaze by happening to look at him at the right time. "Something you need?" She asked with a raised brow.
"What should I say?" He asked himself "I could mention that scaring Amber isn't the way to go about it, and I should. But I also have lots of other things I could say right now that are also important, like… Stuff about what we'll do today. But…"
He sighed. "Please don't go scaring Amber like that." he finally offered. "She's the sassiest eevee around, but her attitude and the humor she brings pretty much keeps me on my feet nowadays."
Mesa didn't respond right away to this, though Amber was staring at Riley in pure shock, partially at Riley's tone of voice, which gave the impression that he was carrying a ton of weight on his shoulders and that he was tired, and partially at the words itself. Admitting that he wasn't carrying all the weight by himself, that he needed other people.
Amber didn't think it would last. Soon, Riley would be back to feeling like he needed to be the one to protect everyone else. He probably still did think that. He was just managing to admit that he needed everyone else to take some of the stress off, maybe not the weight.
Yellow and Mesa reached this same conclusion, but all three girls thought it was best to surreptitiously take some of the weight itself off of him too.
The other males, Gauge and Kazekai, were now the only ones still asleep. Well, Kazekai was. Kurenai peeked at Gauge and saw his breathing wasn't as steady as it would have been if he was actually asleep, so it seemed he was trying to stay out of the conversation.
Mesa didn't have a real response to that, but she seemed to have woken up somewhat and looked less irritable. "...That's fair," she said, glancing at Amber. "But I do not like people assaulting my ears right when I wake up, alright?"
Riley and Yellow didn't have a clear way to make a compromise between the two. Amber was impulsive. Mesa strongarmed things and had a strict set of rules regarding her own personal space. The two weren't likely to get along all the time, and that wasn't something they could just resolve on the fly.
Then Amber piped up. "Sure, whatever. I don't think Riley has a clue what I'm actually saying until he's actually woken up properly, so whatever."
There was an awkward silence, so Riley tried desperately to come up with something else to say, anything else that didn't have to do with the imminent threats and other things that the girls didn't want him to talk about because it was keeping his stress level high, or something about trauma, or whatever. Something, anything, and his mind was running a mile a minute, but only about pretty depressing or scary things. After last night's talk, it wasn't just Yellow and Mesa and everyone else that caught the redhead glancing occasionally towards the window and the door as if on guard, Riley caught himself doing it too, but he didn't know how to relax enough to not do that, so something, anything was what he tried to come up with.
"By the way, how do you know where all the dirt you're covered in is when you shower if your skin's dirt colored too?" he asked, immediately realizing he sounded like an absolute idiot.
"Seriously?" Amber asked. "That's what you call a segue?"
"Don't judge me, fox." he grumbled.
"Okay, I'll do it for her." Mesa had a brow raised. "And to answer that… Question, I just wash everything, like you're supposed to in a shower. Are you saying you only washed what you saw was dirty?"
"Wha- No!" Riley shook his head rapidly. "I did the same thing, I just…"
"You're just silly," Yellow smirked, but then her expression fell. "I'm going to be very busy today, so you all are going to have to find something to do without me while I'm meeting with the other gym leaders."
Riley opened his mouth, but found Mesa's hand covering it just as quickly. Mesa instead looked Yellow in the eye. "You will have one of us keeping you safe. But that person's gonna be me. Riley will be relaxing in the city." she asserted, and her grip tightened on Riley. "And if you argue, Riley, well, don't."
Mesa let go of his face, leaving him rubbing at it and grimacing due to her strength. He didn't say a word, knowing full well when he was put in his place, and Mesa was probably stronger than he was anyways…
Yellow grimaced at the depressed look that came over Riley's face a few seconds after Mes let him go, wishing he wouldn't keep doing that to himself. Not being the strongest seemed to be a common thing for Riley to focus on, so Yellow was able to guess that was what had brought him to agree. This left Yellow and most of the others in quite a quandary; They needed Riley to comply with what they needed to do for his sake, but they didn't want to make him feel utterly worthless in the process.
Yellow at this point thought her only option was to reconcile the boy once both he and herself were out of danger. She still wanted to say something, anything, to lighten his mood before they went. But she couldn't give him a chance to re-insert himself into the situation.
So it was with silence that she got ready for her day. She had to wear her gym leader attire-slash-disguise, meaning she had to act totally differently until she got to the actual meeting. If she was lucky, she might meet some old friends too. As the other guys groggily woke up. Pokemon had it really easy in some ways, like not having an inherent obligation to wear clothing or do makeup.
Scarlet and Kurenai hung out with Riley while he had lied back on the bed. Everyone else tried not to feel bad about leaving him to sulk.
Yellow appeared in her gym leader disguise, feeling like she was actually trying to be someone she was not rather than just wearing a costume for her own protection. She thought she would have preferred the latter.
"You look really nice." Kurenai complemented Yellow, trying to make her feel better because she sensed how uneasy Yellow was.
Yellow heard the thoughts and turned to Kurenai, smiling and nodding her thanks.
Yellow's things were ready, and she turned to Mesa, seeing that the other girl had gotten into her day clothes and had acquired her magic staff thing that fired those boulders. Discretion was not the Child of Earth's strong suit, which got Yellow thinking as she analyzed Mesa's clothing.
"Something you've got to say?" Mesa asked with a raised brow. Yellow looked her in the eyes, undeterred by the earth girl's strong tone.
"Yeah. If anybody watched me enter town, they saw you too. If you're coming along, you should probably either follow from a distance, or change clothing."
"Good plan." Mesa agreed quickly, her expression as serious as ever. "I can cause more devastation from long range anyways. Besides, if I decide to blow up the ground where I'm standing to blast everything you'd be better off a hundred meters away."
"Very true." Yellow nodded. She looked around once more, satisfied that she was ready. "Let's go see the other gym leaders."
Mesa turned, seeing the others still looking awkward. "I'm sure you all can find something to do with your time," she told them. "You pokemon are in charge of Riley today."
Amber acquired a smirk at that phrasing.
Receiving no arguments, Mesa then turned to Yellow, taking charge. "I'll keep you within sight," she stated. "I will go first for a moment and stop when convenient, allowing you to pass me."
"Sounds like a decent plan." Yellow agreed without a moment's hesitation. Really, she just wanted to get this over with. She was on great terms with the other gym leaders, but today… There was too much stress, and she was forced to leave her rather troubled friend to fend for himself, and his track record stated that him getting into trouble while she was gone was a legitimately real possibility, but the meeting would help them all understand the state of the rest of the region, learn any information they could about the regions beyond, and… Anything else to do with the protection of the people.
There was a distinct pause Yellow gave at the door as she remembered the last time she left Riley to fend for himself. He'd almost gotten himself killed many, many times, and had what might be PTSD and was generally in trouble now as a result. She would be back by the end of the day, she knew it. But in that single pause, she realized that this was exactly the same as before. Riley was worried about her protection, and she was leaving him alone where he couldn't do anything if she was in danger.
Then, as she was about to turn around and say something, Mesa entered her field of view, gripping her arm and sort of hauling her out the door.
"What are you doing?" Yellow hissed.
"You're freaking out. I can see it on your face. Calm down." Mesa ordered.
Yellow didn't have time for this. "Sometimes I don't get you." she shot back. "What's with all the flip-flopping?"
"You're talking out of anger, Yellow, we've established why." Mesa pointed out, clasping my shoulder with her strong hand as she closed the door. Riley had clearly heard all of that exchange too, which served to frustrate her more.
"Yeah, I know," she said, her voice still betraying her stress and anger. "I'm not sure I care. To Riley, this is exactly what happened when I ditched him in Cerulean City."
"And to you, it's your job. So be a woman and get that job done. Riley knows I'll be here to protect you, and he's getting a smidge of an inferiority complex after I've invaded you lot's little lifestyle, so even if he's got problems with you leaving, he'll beat himself up more than he gets mad at you." Mesa reasoned harshly, starting to walk down the hotel hall with her hand still attached to my shoulder. Now Riley was probably out of earshot.
"..." Yellow let my head hang a bit as she followed Mesa half-willingly. Just because she didn't have much of a choice didn't make it right. Regardless… "You're right of course," she responded, picking up her pace. "You go on ahead, like you planned to do."
Mesa let go of Yellow's shoulder and strode ahead now, disappearing around the corner while she stalled.
"Man, I don't feel good," Yellow muttered in her head. Then, she slowly started walking forward again.
She was fourteen feet out the door when she realized that she hadn't eaten any breakfast, and neither had Mesa. She wondered if the earth girl had noticed at all. Did she have a weird metabolism or something that kept her going? Well, Yellow knew she herself forgot about food because of all the stress. Too late now, she figured.
She barely glanced at Mesa, a rather imposing figure in her cloak with her staff in hand facing a fountain in an almost dainty outdoor mall area as she walked by, making sure not to blow the whole idea of Mesa's presence not having an obvious purpose.
It made it easier when mumbles around her caught her attention. In her old clothes, she was known as Yellow. In this getup, she was clearly someone important, as these people seemed to figure. She was wearing something rather extravagant, after all.
She passed Mesa and didn't look back, continuing to walk quietly through towards the forest north of Celadon.
Mesa finished what she was surreptitiously doing and followed after her.
Riley was lying on the bed now, on his back. Kurenai, Amber, and Scarlet were around him on the bed, resting. Kazekai had chosen to claim Yellow's bed all for himself while Gauge seemed content to keep his position in the corner where his vision could reach out the window and at the front door.
"...I literally have nothing to do." Riley commented, ending the long, arduous silence that had plagued the room. It had been peaceful, for the most part, but what would Yellow say or feel if she found out Riley'd just sulked in the hotel room all day.
"Breakfast sounds nice." Amber supplied cheerfully as her stomach growled. "Y'know, before your angst causes me to starve."
"Rude…" Kurenai muttered, but Riley sat up.
"Food it is." he agreed without hesitating in the least, hopping off the bed as the pokemon all took notice of his actions with the notable exception of Kazekai, who was napping. Kurenai went to her brother as the other three got themselves ready to go.
Riley dressed quickly, snatching his staff off its spot and securing it before he started to head out.
"Card key," Kurenai called.
"Uh? Oh." Riley responded sheepishly, turning around and looking for his card that would open his hotel door in case he had to get back. Whether he knew how to use it, in Amber's opinion, was the big question. And oh, she wanted to witness another hilarious failure.
Riley shut the door once all of the pokemon had filed out, seeing the light go red right away, signaling that it was locked. Then, he led the group with Amber and Scarlet bounding to his shoulders and the rest padding along behind him.
The receptionist flinched at the sight of two absols and a winged luxray leisurely (mostly) walking into the main lobby, but calmed himself and greeted them warmly. No sense in worry. After all, this was the kid that was with Yellow. Surely he could control his pokemon.
Amber's ears twitched, somehow sensing an inside joke, and was compelled to smirk at the receptionist.
Said receptionist leaned back a bit, unnerved. Could eevees have psychic powers?
Breakfast was quick, as Riley wasn't in the mood to savor anything, and aside from Kurenai, everyone else ate their meals with gusto. Kurenai herself ate at a moderate pace, but struggled not to feel compelled to eat faster with everyone else waiting for her to finish.
"It's rude to stare, guys," Kurenai commented quietly, glancing up from her food. She appreciated that Gauge had the decency to be patient. Riley wasn't impatient with her, he was just still jittery, keeping an eye on the entrances to the room.
"Sorry." her brother apologized, blinking and disconnecting eye contact. It was hard not to, for him. After all, anybody who looked too hard at his eyes and knew their stuff could get the wrong idea. Kurenai wished he'd stop that. Maybe he'd forgotten that he didn't have to do that with her. Maybe it was in some kind of shame for the things he undoubtedly did while under the effects of the dark ball. Whatever this was, Kurenai had been under the impression that they had already fixed it.
She elected to confront him about it in the afternoon, in case this was a habitual action and didn't continue between now and then.
Breakfast finished, the group collectively wandered out of the building. It was a beautiful day. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming…
"On days like these, kids like us need ice cream!" Amber exclaimed,
"We had ice cream yesterday," Kurenai commented. "But…"
"This day still calls for it." Kazekai put in.
"I was going to say that exactly." Kurenai supplied, smiling and meeting eye contact with her brother. He didn't look away this time. Perhaps it simply had been a problem with habit.
Riley took initiative and set off, the crowd of pokemon trailing after him eagerly.
Gauge joined Riley in keeping an eye on every alley they passed, and every potentially suspicious thing they saw.
Kurenai wanted to say something, anything to get them to stop, but she didn't know if the two boys would ever really respond to her. Both of them were scarred, physically, and with Gauge, emotionally. She didn't know if Riley's issues counted as emotional damage. Severe paranoia and probably post-traumatic stress disorder. Her brother had his own emotional damage, and she hadn't inspected underneath his thick fur for scars yet. The nick in his horn had grown back by now, leaving his horn complete. He would probably say the marks on his eyes counted as scars.
Kurenai didn't know what to think when she realized it was Kazekai who worried her the most at the moment. After all, she couldn't tell whether or not he had forgiven himself, and so the jokes he used could really mean anything. She knew her brother less than she knew Riley or Gauge now.
As they approached the place they had been in just yesterday, Kurenai decided something had to be done. She nudged Kazekai, bringing his attention to her. "I'd like to talk to you," she told him.
His expression was legitimately unreadable, but Kurenai still turned to Riley. "Hey, Riley. We'll be just around the corner for a minute," she told him with conviction. The boy reacted almost instantly with a muttered 'stay near me' as he approached the building.
"Riley." Kurenai wasn't having it. She didn't like acting assertive, but right now she had to ease her own worries. The boy stiffened at her tone, and turned to face her with a confused expression. She hadn't even realized that Riley'd held a stony, serious face for the entire trip, but noticed now that it was broken. "You can't ever get over your paranoia if you don't trust people. You can trust me to be safe."
There was a long pause as Amber muttered in the background about the ice cream delay. Riley absorbed Kurenai's words. She had made a pretty quick switch to her serious voice. She hadn't used that before unless she really needed to. What did she think she was being forced to do?
She'd asked him to trust her. If he was being honest with himself, she was probably the most responsible one in the group. So, realizing that she meant what she said. So he nodded, quieting down. He didn't trust himself to say anything in particular.
Kazekai felt confused as he followed his younger sister around the corner into the alley. She was acting strange, and he wanted to know why. "What's up?" he asked, trying to sound casual.
"You were acting strange this morning, Kazekai." her voice had turned to the soft tones she always used. "I'm worried."
"Oh." Kazekai thought, trying to laugh it off. "I'm fine, sis! Don't worry about me." he tried to assure her, but he trailed off. The look in Kurenai's eyes said it all; She still thought something was wrong. She watched him for a minute until he got uncomfortable and had to keep talking. "...Yeah. I'm never going to feel comfortable making eye contact. That's just not gonna change." he slowly confided in her. "I'd known I wasn't at fault for the things I did, and I know I can't magically make them not happen. I'm not going to fall into some depression, Kurenai, I promise you."
He saw her relax, and gave himself a mental pat on the back. He hadn't needed to lie to do so either. "So I guess…" Kurenai murmured "It's just about the eyes."
Kazekai nodded calmly, glad she understood. "Yeah. No matter whether I forgive myself or not, anybody can get the wrong idea with one look at me. They might not if I don't look them in the eyes."
Kurenai remembered his words that that wasn't going to change. She let her eyes droop a bit as she set a paw on her brother's shoulder. "You have a lot of people you can trust around you, Kazekai. We're always going to protect you, no matter what. You shouldn't have to be afraid of what people think of you."
He winced. "But they won't be able to look past it," he argued. "I want people to see me for me."
She gave him a soft expression, massaging his shoulder with her paw to try and comfort him. "Brother… If someone can't see you for who you are just because your eyes look different… They're not worth the time to try and impress, Kazekai."
Kazekai didn't expect that from Kurenai. Maybe she had been affected by the things happening around her as well. Or maybe this was her inner monologue, that she would sometimes open up about. He realized with a sort of sinking feeling that there was a whole side to Kurenai that nobody really understood, and maybe they couldn't. She just wanted to be peaceful, kind, and the best she could be without ever resorting to violence. But every once in a while, Kazekai caught a glimpse of a girl with something else on her mind. Not different, necessarily, but still seeming to carry a weight heavier than expected. Who did she feel responsible for? Who did she feel was responsible for her?
"Maybe now would be a good time to ask her…" Kazekai asked, ready to change the topic on her. But as he began the first word, Kurenai put the paw she was rubbing his shoulder with to comfort him to his mouth.
"Please don't change the subject on me. That's rude." Kurenai told him softly.
Kazekai wondered how she'd known that, too, but she had effectively brought his focus back to the question at hand, thinking back to her words even as she put her paw back on the ground. But he distracted himself with her words previous.
"I know… You're right that I shouldn't be trying to impress them, but… It can still put me in danger… Or Riley, because he's technically our trainer." Kazekai commented.
At this, Kurenai smiled. "Anyone tries to take you away has to get through Riley, Gauge, and me first, and then Amber and Scarlet if it gets down to that. And that's if they tried to take you away right now. If we're not separated, you've got Yellow, Ratty, Kitty, Dody, Omny, Gravvy, Chuchu, and Mesa herself."
Kazekai's arguments started dying in his throat as Kurenai listed his allies, and she looked him in the eyes the whole time, especially right at the end of her speech: "...As long as you stay with us… You can't be touched."
And not a word he could come up with he would say to argue with her. Because he knew she was right. He found himself relaxing a bit, and Kurenai seemed to sense this shift, as she took a step back and sat down.
"...I don't understand you." Kazekai said after a moment of silence.
She just nodded quietly.
He tightened his lips. "Kurenai… I don't understand why you act the way you do. It's like you're… Weighed down, but I can't tell what."
Kurenai looked down at her paws in silence for a bit.
"Why do you act different ways at different times?" Kazekai pressed.
"Kazekai…: she muttered hesitantly. "Do you realize that I'm the strongest pokemon in our group?"
There was quiet for a minute as Kazekai absorbed this for real. It was probably true, he realized. Kurenai had wrecked him badly when he was attacking her, much to his later joy. He briefly considered Gauge, but he couldn't be sure. And Kurenai was telling him up and front that she was, in fact, more powerful than Gauge. She'd clearly specified 'pokemon', meaning she had intentionally neglected to rank herself against Riley and Mesa.
"Granted…" Kurenai traced a claw across a stone brick absently, still looking down. "Yellow returned to the group, and she could match up to the likes of Red or Blue when doing her best. I don't know if I'm more powerful than her pokemon for sure, but…"
"I'm not sure I get what you mean when you say that," Kazekai admitted.
Kurenai looked him in the eyes. "Who am I responsible for? Who is responsible for me? What should I be protecting?"
She waited for her brother to say something, but he didn't. So she continued: "I hate fighting," she began again, the word 'hate' startling Kazekai, coming from his sister of all people. "I want to avoid it as much as possible. I want to be who I act like, and mostly feel like. I want to be the girl that's kind to everyone, respects them, and…" she trailed off a bit miserably "And when I do fight… It's like all the emotions I feel just go away. Whenever I attack, whether I'm holding back or not… I feel... Empty. Like… Like a soldier…"
Kurenai wanted to continue, but found she couldn't. Saying it out loud was simultaneously relieving and excruciating. She actively avoided talking about emotions now to continue. "I don't want to fight, but I can't help protect people without fighting. I… I have to be two people at once-"
Kazekai hugged her. She'd heard him approaching, but she stopped speaking, letting him hold his head to hers on one side and wrap his opposite foreleg around her neck.
"You're not a soldier." his voice was surprisingly stern. "I was a soldier once. A rage filled one. Riley is starting to act like a soldier. You are not a soldier. You won't ever be a soldier."
"Kazekai…" she whispered.
"You aren't two people at once." Kazekai continued in that same tone. "You're just a little conflicted. And it happens to everyone. Life's tough now. That's not gonna change. I can't tell you what to do. There's good things and bad things about everything you do. There's a lot we're gonna have to live with no matter what we do. I'm sorry you have to ask that question at all."
"What happened to the Kazekai of the past few days? Bad jokes, including puns…" Kurenai wondered. "Suddenly he's incredibly serious. Is it me? Am I doing this to him, because I'm his sister? Probably…"
"But you want me to believe that nobody is going to judge me for my eyes," Kazekai told her, pulling back. "I guess I don't have to tell you that nobody is going to judge you for what you choose."
"Nobody but myself." Kurenai pointed out wearily.
Both Kurenai and Kazekai were able to reach the conclusion at the same time, and saw it in each other's eyes. If Kurenai judged herself based on a decision with consequences for how she runs her life, there was no way right now that her decision would not make her upset.
So, Kurenai realized, she would have to make some decision. And she had to make it eventually.
"Hey, there's an absol!"
The two turned, looking into the plaza they were on the edge of. Some kids were staring at them.
"What're they?"
"Mom says they can cause disasters!"
"Kids…" Kazekai muttered in his head.
"Cool!" another kid replied enthusiastically, predictably bringing out a pokeball.
"Kids…" Kurenai muttered in her head.
Kazekai prepared to defend himself, but Kurenai stopped him with a paw as they sent out a farfetched. "Don't, brother. Wait until they throw a pokeball. It won't work, and they'll leave us alone after that.
Kazekai took her advice, letting the wind he had been causing to pick up die down. The kids had no idea how to deal with battles, and someone hurled a pokeball at Kurenai. The kid missed, but the second one sank into her chest fur and fell to the ground. It covered the absol with its red energy, followed by that energy failing to pull her in.
"What the!?" one of the kids asked.
"Dummy, They're someone else's!" another one called back, and Kurenai kicked the pokeballs, sending them rolling back to the humans, who took the time to pick them up and split.
"That really worked." Kazekai marveled. "You're good at this. Really good."
"Thank you, brother." Kurenai sounded much more relaxed.
"Ready for some ice cream?" Kazekai asked her, using his paw to turn her around as he led her around the corner to where the others were patiently waiting.
"Yes please." Kurenai smiled, feeling lighter already.
Yellow slipped into a clearing, all of her pokemon following her through the brush. She'd walked for about twenty minutes into the forest north of Celadon, her pokemon by her side. She wasn't taking any chances. After everything that has happened, it's no surprise that she was getting a little paranoid herself.
But that was only why she was looking into every shadow as she walked. The silent stalker lookalike of Riley would be downright creepy in a setting like a forest somewhat cut off from the sun at the base of the trees.
It was her pokemon's paranoia that convinced her to let them stand guard as well.
But the clearing drove all those worries away. After all, she was old friends with most of the people there.
"Yellow, it's been a while."
"Gardenia." Yellow nodded with a smile at her friend. "It has been a while, indeed. How is your gym doing?"
She rolled her eyes. "The old man that peeks in our window always manages to escape before we can identify him," she responded, sounding a little annoyed.
Yellow winced. "Hasn't that guy been around since Red started his little campaign to literally be the best ever?"
She smiled at the memory of the quiet friend that every one of them shared. "Oh yes. And long before that, too. I'm starting to wonder if it's a ghost type disguising itself by shapeshifting, or if it's a zoroark pulling pranks."
Yellow looked about at the rest of the gym leaders. They all shared that sad smile at the mention of Red, but it would fade soon. They had a lot to discuss.
"I guess we should start with Gold." this from Sabrina, who lounged on a rock at the edge of the clearing. "Apparently he's causing a lot of trouble over in Johto."
"Because of course he is," commented Misty irritably. "What if he crosses over into Kanto again?"
"That typhlosion of his is gonna kill us all if we let it." Lieutenant Surge said matter of factly. "Somebody put a psycho typhlosion with a kid that may be troubled himself."
An old man stepped forward, reminding Yellow that Blaine was still kicking, thankfully. "I've spoken with Jasmine of Olivine." he started. She was probably the most mobile of the Johto gym leaders, taking trips to Sinnoh and Kanto and occasionally Hoenn, as far as Yellow knew. Probably more. "It's proving extremely difficult for their police force to handle one typhlosion."
"That's a powerful typhlosion…" Yellow thought to herself. "What is changing with that typhlosion, by the way?"
"Apparently it's spending slightly less time pulling goddamn MAC-10s out of thin air and is now occasionally using thunder punch." Sabrina deadpanned.
"Is there any chance he shows up in Kanto?" Yellow asked.
"Not if the authorities have anything to say about it, but something tells me there's going to be some violence. They can't even get close enough to get rid of the firearms." Koga said behind Yellow. But, his pokemon had been with him, so she'd felt him coming. A ninja couldn't sneak up on her with pokemon in tow.
"Great... " Yellow muttered sarcastically, rubbing her eyes with her thumb and forefinger.
"What's the situation in Lavender Town?" she heard, her attention drawn to Brock. "We had a ghost sighting in Pewter."
Sabrina opened her mouth to answer, but Yellow piped up. "A friend of mine wound up destroying some weird thing called the House of Horror," she said. "It was a little while back, but not too long ago."
Sabrina frowned at Yellow. "I never heard that," she commented. "Why did nobody tell me?"
"You knew it existed?" L.T. Surge asked, raising a brow at her. Not much fazed that man, but he got curious quick.
"Yes, I did," Sabrina admitted. "But I don't think that would have had anything to do with it. Brock, what form did the ghost take?"
"It was a boy." the rock type gym leader responded, looking thoughtful. "He was a little pale, and all his features like hair and eyes and clothes, they were silver."
Sabrina raised an eyebrow. "A little pale?" she asked.
"As in, he could have actually been alive?" Yellow asked.
"My reports say he was floating on his own," Brock added.
Yellow thought back. Apparently, there were these 'guardian' characters that would pop up on occasion. Recently, they seemed to have at least some impact on everyone's lives… Everyone but her own.
"Is it possible that it wasn't a ghost, but something else?" she asked.
She attracted the attention of the other six people in the clearing, while in the corner of her eye, she watched Brock setting up stuff to provide food for everyone, paying attention but not particularly shocked that something was not as it seemed. She distantly remembered that the man had traveled the world some years back, for several years, before resuming his position as the Pewter Gym leader. And he was a damn good cook, too.
Hearing no words to acknowledge her statement but not to ignore it either, she continued: "My friend, Riley Oras, met a girl named, uh… Alex." she recalled. "Said she was a 'guardian', and Xerneas was afraid of her, even though Alex was acting nice, and definitely had no malicious intent. She was human, though. And it's pretty clear that there's multiple of them. Could it have been one of these guys?"
Everyone considered the notion. "It's possible," Sabrina spoke up yet again. "Though I would ask, what are they guarding? Why appear now? What do the rest of them look like? It's a possibility, Yellow, but I wouldn't bank on it without more evidence."
Yellow nodded in understanding, turning to the rest for input, but they seemed to be thinking about the same thing.
"It doesn't resemble a ghost, though." This from Blaine again, "It being completely unidentified gives some weight to Yellow's inference."
"Very true." Erika closed her eyes, letting her clothes billow in the wind.
"I had our very own Officer Jenny look people up with any description like that. She got some kid in Johto that's way too young to be this guy." Brock looked up from the food he was preparing on site.
Yellow frowned. That was weird.
Misty spoke up. "I've seen folks with white hair," she commented. "I don't know if I've met anybody with silver hair though."
"Sorry to interrupt," Sabrina called out. "Brock, what exactly did this thing do?"
"Uh…" he rubbed the back of his head. "Basically nothing. He floated around, greeted some people, and smiled a lot. Then he left."
There was a pause after that, the group of gym leaders feeling rather underwhelmed by this lack of action. If it was one of these guardian people, Yellow thought, why are they seemingly doing nothing when the region is getting in a greater state of chaos? Unless they were in danger of being caught in pokeballs, like legendary pokemon are, they'd have no real reason not to interfere, right? Unless they either didn't have the ability, or they had the ability but it was somehow too dangerous… But which was it?
"...I don't think we're gonna get anywhere with random theories and no evidence." Koga spoke up.
"He's right." L.T. Surge responded, nodding. "Team X… We're calling them team X, right?"
Misty nodded. "Yeah, since they don't spout their name everywhere and they've all got an 'X' on their uniforms." she reasoned.
"Nobody would take them seriously. Maybe less seriously than is safe." Sabrina commented, drawing some nods from the group. With a name as cliche as 'team X', they weren't exactly striking fear.
"That's the point." Yellow declared.
"Definitely." Misty agreed. "They don't want to make us afraid, they want us to ignore them. What exactly are they planning?"
A cloaked sylveon stood looking down at a city, her platform a large floating card. She had a tense expression as she tried to find people who could help, namely the godchildren or Yellow or… Anyone. Celadon was a big place, and she was having trouble finding them.
Deciding not to waste any more time, Tricky pulled out an intricate white and gold card, much like the one she had given to Riley's group. "Don't you have left this in your hotel room…"
Pistachio ice cream is a thing? Really?" Amber asked in wonder as she saw Riley trying to contain his love of the food so that he could try and savor it.
"Yeah!" Riley seemed much happier, all things considered. Ice cream could do that to a person. Kurenai would have commented, but she was too busy burying her face in her own ice cream bowl, devouring the wonderful cold treat with gusto.
Gauge reluctantly licked at his own ice cream. It tasted good, he couldn't deny that, but habit compelled him to do anything else, to not be seen doing anything other than being by himself and not to be interrupted. Soon, though, he was distracted by Kurenai coming up for air, the girl having some ice cream on her cheek. She, of course, noticed the winged luxray looking at her. "What's up, Gauge?" she asked.
Gauge grew somewhat self-conscious of the attention this brought him from the others, but he didn't break eye contact with the absol, and he gestured to his cheek with his paw.
"What?" she asked.
Gauge sighed. "You've got…" he gestured to his cheek again.
Kurenai brought her paw to her corresponding cheek and rubbed it a bit, looking at her paw afterward. "Oh, thanks," she replied, licking the ice cream off her paw, before freezing. She promptly sat straight and proper. "Sorry, I'm being rude."
Everyone smiled at her, except for Gauge, who didn't make a habit of smiling. Kurenai looked back at Gauge, who now avoided her gaze in favor of continuing to eat the ice cream slowly. "Oh, how I wish I could hear your thoughts." she thought to herself. "It would be so much easier to understand you, but… That wouldn't be kind of me, to just listen in. It would be rude, too."
One second later, Kurenai wished her danger senses alerted her to the shenanigans of matchmaking-crazy people, so she could have stopped Amber from saying "Man, I thought big guy was gonna ask for a kiss or something."
Gauge gave Amber an incredulous look, and the two received a laugh from the rest of the group, while Kurenai reflexively shrank a bit, lowering her head and focusing back on her ice cream out of embarrassment.
Riley's smile persisted for a bit, but something kicked in. He couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. His instincts screamed that there was something coming, but he knew it couldn't be real. It had to be paranoia and an awful lot of nearly dying talking. But still it nagged at him. "Stop paying attention for one second, and somebody dies…" the scarred part of him whispered in his thoughts.
Thankfully, he had Gauge, who had X-ray vision, keen ears, and normal eyesight, and… Did cats have a good sense of smell?
So perhaps he could relax just a little bit… If he could.
Riley found himself taking another spoonful of ice cream despite his worries. He was glad there was a pistachio flavour.
That, of course, is when the music started. It was relatively pleasant. Problem was, it was loud. And it came from Riley's backpack right next to him. He panicked instantly, toppling his chair and rattling his bowl as his staff flew out in his hand and he stood in a battle stance, startling everyone nearby, looking about for the threat and not immediately registering where the sound was coming from.
"The backpack, Riley." Amber deadpanned. She didn't expect him to whirl as if the pack itself was the enemy, though, which he did for a moment as he was on guard, stiff, but cursing himself as he felt a sort of exhaustion at the same time.
Then Scarlet spoke up.
"Riley, calm down, you're scaring me."
Riley shut down immediately, lowering the weapon. "...Thanks, Scarlet…" He murmured quietly, sinking back into his chair and setting his staff against the ground and supporting his weight with his hand on the other end. "I'm sorry…"
"What's causing that noise?" Amber asked.
Riley opened the bag with his open hand, unzipping it and starting to dig into it. Finally, he yanked the offending object out, revealing a card that was mostly white with gold marks around the perimeter in an odd pattern, but one of the open spaces on it, the one in the middle, was emitting a glow, and the music. "Uh…" He muttered.
"That's the card Tricky gave me." Gauge muttered, starting to eat faster, figuring he might not get to finish the food otherwise.
"...How do I use it?" Riley's expression turned serious.
"By wanting to." Riley jumped as the sylveon's voice emitted from the card. "Good thing you kept this thing around and didn't leave it in your hotel."
"You scared the shit out of me," Riley told her. "What's going on?"
"I've got something to tell you," Tricky said, sounding rushed.
Riley paused, glancing at Kurenai. The absol had noticed what he had. "Tricky… Right?"
"Yeah."
He frowned. "Why are you talking so differently?" he demanded in a flat voice.
"...Right. I'll explain that in a bit." Tricky muttered but was swiftly interrupted.
"Explain now," Riley ordered, wondering if this was actually Tricky. She'd been super formal when they last talked to her, after all.
"The bloody planet's going to get ripped apart, and you're worried about my speech patterns?" came the exasperated reply.
There was a long pause. "I'm listening." Riley nodded.
"We need to fight this group as soon as possible." Sabrina said with a tone that demanded no argument.
"If we have to drag the other regions into promising to keep an eye out of them, we should." L.T. Surge agreed.
Erika stepped forward, looking between the two. "Whether they know it or not, Team Rocket is taking a lot of our time and resources to keep down. Do we have that kind of strength?"
The two other gym leaders fell silent, thinking.
"God, I wish it was Blue instead of me here right now, he's way better at this…" Yellow thought to herself, grimacing. "Could we maybe ask for resources from other regions?"
"Cynthia would help in a heartbeat if she has any to spare," Brock spoke up as he started setting plates out. "She's that kind of person, and since they kicked Team Galactic to the curb for good, they probably have a lot to spare."
Misty nodded. "Good call, Brock." She complemented him. "I'm actually surprised Cynthia hasn't noticed all this before us and sent help already."
"Now that she's bogged down with trainers failing to take her spot, she hasn't gotten to travel much." Koga's words rang true.
"I've seen a few of her fights." L.T. Surge spoke up, his train of thought derailing to something else as he smirks. "She's as ruthless a battler as she is a great person. I'm not the only guy that saw her stomp the kid that beat Team Galactic, right?"
"No holds barred in a champion's battle." Brock nodded. "Food's up, everybody!"
The conversation hit a dead stop as everyone went for Brock's cooking. The end of the world could be put on hold for that cooking.
"Oh, this is gorgeous." Yellow proclaimed after she'd swallowed the first bite.
General consensus came around, but still they ate quickly. Yellow thought for a moment that perhaps the tension she was feeling was being felt by the others too; They did know she was in danger. They wondered if they were in danger themselves, and were concerned about each other as well as her.
"We need to talk about what these guys are targeting." Yellow announced.
"Well, that doesn't make any sense." Riley said.
"What do you mean?" was the response he got, and he frowned.
"The first time I dealt with them, they were experimenting on pokemon." he elaborated.
"Unless evil turquoise-eyed you works for them," Amber commented idly.
"The power plant, right?" he heard, and nodded, before remembering that this seemed to be audio only.
"Yeah."
Up in the sky still, Tricky absently glanced in the general direction of the power plant, miles away. "Remember what I said about them taking control of pokemon?" she inquired.
"Yeah."
"They had a time that they wanted to do everything. So, what would happen if they couldn't get ahold of the tools they needed? Abandon it? Not if they had alternatives." Tricky reasoned.
"You said they would use my pokedex to turn pokemon against the world. What does that mean?" Riley asked.
Tricky almost asked if he knew what it does to lead up to her point, but she stopped herself and decided to just make it. "The pokedex can take data on things like each pokemon species' brainwave patterns among everything else. They get that data, they could use it. Control pokemon of any species the pokedex has."
"That sounds scary…" Scarlet murmured.
"It is scary," Riley replied quietly. "What exactly am I supposed to do?"
"Help me tell everyone." Tricky requested. Well, it didn't sound like a request, but she meant it as a request. She supposed she was getting stressed out. "Even if I figured out a way to send some sort of viral message, I'd either make everyone panic or be ignored. You've got police contacts, and with something this big, they'll tell gym leaders, they'll tell the champion and the elite four, and the news of the danger will spread."
"Put the world on red alert. Sounds like a start." Riley muttered. "What are you going to do?"
"Find Angelica, hope she doesn't prank me, and see if I can get her to do something useful." Riley heard a sigh from the other end. "She's difficult. And random, so that'll be my full-time job for a while…"
"Random," Riley muttered. "Speaking of, why with the total change in how you talk?"
"It's complicated. Really, really complicated." Tricky told him promptly.
"...Right…" Riley deadpanned. "Maybe in a second, it'll dawn on you that I'm really freaking paranoid right now."
Tricky paused. She'd been around long enough to recognize when someone was stressed out. "...Alright. Sitting comfortably?"
"No, I'm not." Riley realized he was still out of his seat, with people walking by. They didn't give him a passing glance. Maybe they thought the card was some fancy phone or something.
"...Alright. There are a lot of reasons why I'm probably not gonna be super consistent." Tricky started explaining. "The first is Angelica. I'm connected to her, so magic in general heals me, but that also means I have a lot of close contact with her. And she's difficult. She'll pull pranks using transformation spells in a heartbeat if it occurs to her. And how people behave around her tends to affect that. It's extremely complicated, but changing how I act is pretty normal for me, especially if I see a chance to talk her down. What happened the last time we met was… Well, I'd been under the demon's control for some time, and I know I've done some things because of that. I don't know if that's enough to explain it, but that's the summary."
Riley took this in, nodding every once in a while. "This Angelica person. She's, what, one of those guardian people?"
"Yes." came the reply. "She is."
"Question. Why the fuck hasn't she dealt with all of this herself?" Riley suddenly asked, annoyance evident in his voice.
"A few reasons." Tricky responded calmly. "For one, the Guardian of Darkness and some of the other guardians seriously advise against any involvement, because mistakes basically mean the end of whatever universe they're in." Riley grimaced, but kept listening. "Second, she's probably going to get involved anyways. Problem is that I have literally no idea what exactly she's going to do; She's too unpredictable."
"What about you?" Riley asked suddenly. "If you've got this all powerful person that hangs out with you, why were you with Dizzy?"
Now tricky sounded annoyed. "I'm an adult, Riley, I'm supposed to take care of myself. But to answer your question, the guardians aren't immune to that control effect."
Riley blanched.
"Well, they are…"
Riley calmed.
"Sort of."
Riley couldn't take it anymore. "Get to the point!"
"Their energy would provide feedback to Dizzy. But their feedback would be infinite. Dizzy would be destroyed in a heartbeat, but… That's more than enough time for Dizzy to make them blow up the universe. One moment. And it worries them, because according to Makenna, this is the first time they've seen something quite like it that could actually affect them."
Riley let out a long, long breath. "So…" He started, unsure where to go from here.
"Police." Tricky finished. Then Riley heard her sigh. "Sorry… I shouldn't be so harsh. It was a little hard to hear you imply my friends would abandon me."
Riley nodded slowly, calming down even more. "I'm sorry, too." he apologized. "Um… Where are you?"
"Floating above the city on a giant card colored like a flying carpet."
Amber, Kazekai, and Scarlet snorted. "Of course she is," Amber grunted, trying not to laugh.
"Have fun on your flying Cardpet," Kazekai called, eliciting groans from everyone, Tricky included.
Riley had an awkward expression after the confusing and somewhat frightening conversation. But, Tricky was being helpful, and she sounded stressed too. "Hey, Tricky. Do you want some ice cream before we deal with the possible destruction of the world?"
"...Ice cream?"
Riley couldn't help but grin.
"Then why are they after you?" Misty asked Yellow after they finished discussing the power plant and some other sightings of the group. So far, the power plant was the only identified base location. Other events seemed to be field efforts.
"No idea," Yellow admitted. "But they care enough to send somebody who looks just like my best friend… Almost… to kill me."
"What do you have that nobody else has?" Sabrina suddenly asked, looking right at me.
"Um… Healing, pretty much. You can read minds too." Yellow said.
"I can, but you can feel their emotions, and have a much greater connection to them. They aren't going to go to an extreme like that on the off chance that one girl can heal pokemon. Whatever they're doing, they're scared of you being able to read both thoughts and emotions."
Yellow looked between everyone. "Alright… But why? The only thing that pops into my head is mind control, but can it be that… Easy…" she trailed off, stiffening.
The psychic gym leader stood up, making eye contact with Yellow. "Judging by how you're actively being targeted, their proper goal is going to encompass Kanto at the least."
"Got it. It's bad." Yellow muttered in her head, before remembering Sabrina would receive every word. "So how are we going to handle the investigation?"
"If we send larger police patrols into the 'road less traveled', as it were, where humans usually don't go…" Surge began.
"We would be trespassing on, and perhaps destroying pokemon habitat." Erika cut him off seriously.
"They're probably hiding out there, waiting." Surge shot back.
"No ground troops. They probably have defenses anyways." Blaine commented idly from where he had begun helping Brock clean up after the meal.
"Anything from the air would set them on red alert instantly though, right?" Misty asked quickly, not wanting things to escalate out of control.
L.T. Surge instead got a thoughtful expression. "Yo, Sabrina," he called to the psychic. "What was that report we all got a couple months ago?"
"We get dozens of reports, Surge," Sabrina replied, cross.
He waved his hand dismissively. "Whatever. The one from the Reborn region."
"Someone over there was ridiculous enough to make a spy plane when we aren't anywhere close to war." Sabrina nodded. "But that place has always been… Different."
"No kidding." Yellow thought at the woman, who spared her a glance before turning to address the others.
It was Koga who stepped forward to speak next: "The politics surrounding that place are insane. I'm comfortable saying that there's no way we can borrow that thing without doing something we'll regret in the process."
"He's right." Brock and Erika said in unison.
"Why would they go and build something like that when tensions between the regions are literally at an all time low?" Misty asked.
"It's hard to tell," Sabrina admitted, sighing and rubbing her temples. "They don't like talking about their problems. But considering what we do have, they have their own criminal team making their lives hell."
"I don't think we can afford to send them aid until we know what our own problem group is doing, and it that happens to be something minor. Otherwise, our resources are stuck here."
Then Sabrina's eyes widened, and everyone was immediately on guard. Sabrina reached for a pokeball.
"Don't do it! A single hand on one pokeball and we will shoot!"
Yellow flinched as a crowd of members of Team Rocket flooded out of the shadows in the forest, toting machine guns and goddamn rocket launchers and a lot of other weapons.
"Put your hands in the air. Do anything, and we'll kill every last one of you." one of the grunts shouted.
"No funny business with psychic powers, we've got psychic pokemon that will notice!" shouted another.
Yellow slowly raised her hands, not willing to put her pokemon or her friends in danger. "Mesa, where are you?" she asked desperately.
Sabrina overheard this and twitched, glancing at Yellow, uncertain as to what she meant.
Then a man stepped through the crowd and faced them directly, a smug look on his face and one of the ugliest haircuts they had ever seen. Team Rocket Admin Petrel. He drew his hand through his hair as if he was proud of it, and then put his hands on his hips. "Well, well, well…" he started.
"This guy makes himself easy to hate." Sabrina's voice came to everyone psychically. It took all of Yellow's willpower not to snicker. The minds of the pokemon around her were whispering in her ears, and several of the psychics chose not to tell their owners about the psychic communication purely for the humor.
Then she detected a conversation. Well, half of it. Sabrina had singled out an uncomfortable looking kadabra, and had entered negotiations with it mentally. Yellow didn't catch any other psychics noticing, so she must have managed to isolate the conversation, as a psychic as immensely skilled as her could.
"Our demands are simple, you know. You give us all of your pokemon, and you come with us as hostages. One of you screws up, you all die, and nobody wants that. It would be such a waste." Petrel began to tell the group.
For their own protection, each of the gym leaders had brought all of their pokemon. That including Misty's togekiss and Brock's marshtomp, and their other powerful pokemon that didn't match up to their professed types.
If Team Rocket got ahold of forty-eight exceptionally powerful pokemon, they could become even more of a serious threat. But what scared Yellow and the rest of them the most was for Team Rocket to have a hope of controlling any of them, they would have to break their spirits.
"Well? I'm waiting." Petrel had some grunts come up to him with a box, meant simply to hold all of the pokeballs they had.
Nobody moved, nobody breathed. Not one of them was willing to abandon their pokemon to a horde of criminals. They would rather die right here than give six lives each.
"Prepare to fire," Petrel ordered suddenly, then addressing the gym leaders. "I hope you realize that if we kill you, we can just pick your pokeballs off your dead body."
"...Hold up." Misty's voice rang out. Petrel turned to her, waiting in case she did anything suspicious at all. "What's going on? Team Rocket hasn't been in the business of killing."
"Times change." Petrel's sneer grew. "Now, is this going to get messy?"
"Mesa, we need-" Yellow started to think, but then thoughts reached her out of the blue. She smiled.
Mesa had gone into groudon mode.
The earth suddenly began to rumble, startling everyone. The rockets were a second too late with their bullets, because promptly, a hollow cylinder of compact earth rose around the gym leaders, making an immediate shield and hiding the group of Kanto elite from the view of the criminals.
"Everyone prepare for battle!" Surge commanded in a yell, and immediately, forty-eight extremely powerful pokemon rose to the challenge from their pokeballs. An instant army.
On the other side of the skywards tube, the rockets were panicking. Petrel was panicking. And a girl stepped up next to him, hiding her eyes in her rocket cap. She unveiled herself quickly, revealing her blue colored eyes. She ripped the cap from her head, equally blue colored hair pouring down to her shoulder blades. Her hair was messy, but she clearly didn't care.
"Who are you? Get back in line." Petrel snapped at her. "Who do you think you are!?"
"I told you not too long ago. You can't remember the name 'Mica'?" she asked snarkily. "Look, they'll have all of their pokemon out now. Keep guns trained to the skies where the fliers might leave, keep the rocket launchers pointed at the wall, make everyone keep their distance."
Petrel was taken aback. "You don't order me around, girl." he snapped.
She gave him an even look, and distinctly remembered that he hadn't even tried to be a leader once the plan had failed. She turned to the group. "Back up, all of you! Guns pointed to the sky where fliers can get out of the cylinder. Rocket launchers pointed at the wall, annihilate anything that breaks through. Move!"
Petrel watched in disbelief as the woman's authoritative voice rang out, and Team Rocket responded, taking the positions she'd ordered.
Sabrina held her hand out to stop the group from attacking. "Stalemate," she said. "Someone other than that despicable man is running the show now. Flying over won't work, neither will going straight out. I hope your friend can handle herself."
"Who?" Surge asked.
"The groudon girl. The Child of Earth. Mesa." Sabrina elaborated. "I can sense her. I am relaying information about Team Rocket's position to her.
"I don't follow," Blaine admitted.
"Mesa was raised by Groudon. She has some of his powers." Yellow explained, nervously scratching behind Chuchu's ear. "She'll get us out."
The girl, 'Mica', had taken complete charge of the group of Rocket Grunts, much to Petrel's dismay. She had made it look so easy.
"You lot, on the outside of the crowd. Spread the word around the cylinder and all of you on the outside of the crowd keep your guns pointed outwards, away. If anything comes, I want bullets in it. Preferably nonlethal."
The word spread. 'Mica's orders were followed.
"I won't have this kind of mutiny!" she heard behind her, and the sound of a koffing popping out of its pokeball was heard. It unleashed a sludge bomb, but it didn't hit her. It made it halfway, and dripped uselessly off of a shedinja.
"Shedinja." the ghost pokemon struck the koffing with one shadow ball and defeated it. The girl had only two pokeballs, which meant only two to train.
"You won't get away with this." Petrel snarled as he unleashed a weezing, a muk, and an arbok. "Arbok, use poison tail on that shell!"
"You really are clueless, aren't you." the girl thought. "Shedinja, if you would."
Shedinja tanked the attack, literally without a scratch. It then used shadow ball on the arbok without orders again, seriously weakening the pokemon before Petrel could think to have it use bite. One more shadow ball and it was unconscious.
She left Shedinja to deal with the man on its own and went back to keeping an eye out for things. She couldn't see what had caused the earth to erupt into the air like it had done, so she was very wary. Then again, she didn't need to win the day, though that would be nice. She just had to be better than Petrel.
She looked out, the silence starting to permeate the air. Then, something popped into her head.
"If you fight us, we will wipe you off the face of the earth," it said, and it definitely wasn't her voice. Someone was speaking to her via psychic link.
She turned and thought back: "Says who?"
"Says the godchild to the west. You can surrender, or she can attack you in one minute." Sabrina shot at her.
"One Godchild to the south of us, thank you~" she practically sang in her head. "You lot!" she shouted at a portion of the group "Go south and shoot down whatever you find."
She could hear the psychic, probably Sabrina, cursing with the mental link intact. "Gotcha," she whispered in her thoughts, teasingly, and then watched her forces run off.
Then the ground exploded. A tidal wave of earth rose out of the ground starting where the recently reassigned grunts were and traveling around the cylinder, sending every single rocket flying except for her, as she had leapt atop her Shedinja, who had floated out of reach.
Petrel ran away without the grunts. 'Mica' would not do that. "Fall back, everyone! I'm not losing anybody to a freaking legendary, whatever it is. Go, retreat to base, cover your tracks!"
The rockets ran away, and as the earth cylinder exploded and the gym leaders rushed to move the opposite direction, unwilling to put any guns to chance. Mesa landed from the air nearby them, satisfied with their work. Meanwhile, 'Mica' smiled at a job well done as she escaped to wrap up her own personal plan.
"Where the heck were you," Yellow grumbled as she returned her pokemon and dusted herself.
"I was making sure I had a feel for the landscape. Otherwise, that wall might have had a few more faults." Mesa explained cooly, even knowing Yellow was joking. "They ran away."
"The girl who is not who she says she is," Sabrina muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. "She had her own plot, and used that failure to her advantage. I feel like we will be seeing her again."
Surge stood up. "Who was she, then? I heard her shouting orders like a natural."
"She wisely did not take her proper identity into consideration, only her plot." Sabrina replied, and seeing everyone's expectant looks, she elaborated: "To gain a position of power in Team Rocket."
"I heard a shedinja," Misty added quietly, remembering her last experience with the horrifying (as she sees them) ghost bugs.
"Back to town, now. They won't come back for us in the middle of the city." Surge commanded, causing the group to spring into action. They prepared to evacuate the area as soon as possible.
Riley was trying hard not to laugh. "It's like you haven't had ice cream in a long time," he commented.
She mumbled something into her ice cream as she ate, unheard by the rest of the group entirely, perhaps an explanation of some sort. As she finished, she looked up promptly.
"How much about different universes do you know?" she asked, using a ribbon to pick up a napkin and, in a much more polite manner, clean up the mess.
Riley gave a helpless shrug. "Basically nothing."
"I'm from one." Tricky started, drawing any attention that wasn't on her right to her. "And to be clear, I am not talking about parallel universes. That is usually a term given to universes created in a different dimensional plane to a certain universe, and tends to have something to do with it. But I am talking about spatially differentiated universes, a proper multiverse. And the rules can drastically change from one to another. For example, where I come from, most fairy types have a natural craving for sugar… And in fact, our body structure demands more sugar than most living beings, so it's a legitimate part of my diet. I guess I just realized that I haven't had any since before I was… Enslaved."
"Right… Bad subject." Amber muttered. "So… I think everyone here's been traumatized by something. Literally."
"Um… I don't think I really count… People were just mean to me." Scarlet piped up.
"Aww, you're welcome here anyways." Riley gave a genuine smile as he scratched behind her ears. "You're a part of the family now. Even if the rest of us are… Kinda broken."
It was a little weird to them that many of them could pull a smile at that.
Riley set his bowl down harder than he intended.
Clank!
He picked it back up again and checked for damage, but thankfully found none. He quickly gathered everyone's bowls and stood up, picking his chair up with his free hand and setting it down in its proper place closer to the table.
Clank!
He turned to enter the building to give the bowls back, knowing they would clean them and use them again.
Clank!
He took one step…
Clank!
And stopped. Time seemed to slow down for Riley, the others seeing his pupils widen, and some, like Gauge and Kurenai, had registered the noise that had stalled the child of time.
Clank!
Riley didn't turn around. He couldn't. Why now? Why here? Why, when he finally got to smile?
Clank!
"All of you…" Riley said hoarsely. "Run… Get out of here. Now."
Clank!
"We're not abandoning you again," Kurenai said.
"Never, ever again-" Amber started.
"We don't discuss this!" Riley shouted, startling everyone.
Clank!
"Get away now. Run." He ordered desperately, turning to face the enigma.
Clank!
Clank!
Clank!
Clank!
Clank!
Clank!
Me: Jango, stop it with the pan, you're going to confuse the readers.
Jango: (Grins) exactly.
Me: (Sighs) Well, I should clear some things up. I won't clear up the end, that should be fairly clear. Though 'Mica' being worded in a way that implies it's not real, but a previous chapter should give plenty of information about who she actually is, her shedinja being the primary hint.
I wasn't all too sure about this chapter, I was actually kind of worried. This part is the part of the story where the sequence gets a bit dicey, so I had to switch between focusing on different characters plenty of times. I hope I managed to make it a bit more enjoyable to experience by leading one scene to the next even if they weren't technically connected.
And Tricky. She is a very complex character that's hard to explain using words, but I hope I did it justice.
Anyways... Please review and tell me how you felt about the chapter, I would really appreciate knowing, given that this is one of the more challenging parts to write. Thank you all.