Chapter Twenty Nine:
Drew stared in wonder as he realised what was going on, most of his Pokémon had been caught fully evolved, he wasn't used to them evolving. Especially when he hadn't expected that his Absol would ever evolve. The Eclipse Islands had pulled it out again. Corsola and Absol, both powerful Pokémon in their own right, and now, they were evolving into something which could make them greater than ever.
He could see Absol's body changing, adjusting, its entire form morphing and as the light cleared, he could hardly believe that this was what his Absol had became. A majority of its body had been cleared of the shaggy white hair, leaving it covering its neck, head and a long strip down its spine that lengthened slightly at its tail. The tail itself was a long, coming to a sharp tip and almost seemed like a fin in a way. It still stood on four legs, each with three sharp, white toes, and a large barb sticking out on the back of its legs. A set of shined and polished ebony horns protruded from its head, curling backwards ever so slightly. It was all black and white except for the three ovals of yellow that sat on each side of its torso, and the smaller oval in the middle of its forehead. This was Absol's ultimate form.
As both he and May stared, it gave out a high whistling call, that echoed through the wind, both beautiful and chilling as it turned to look at its master. Its dark face was hidden beneath a fringe of fur, its mouth in a hard line, with one small, white fang protruding on the left side. He saw May vaguely withdraw her Pokémon, she knew that he needed time to adjust, as he slowly approached the newly evolved Pokémon. He bent down in front of it, half kneeling so that they were at the same hight, a small smile settling onto his face.
'Now what am I supposed to call you?'
The dark type let out another whistling sound, nudging its trainers hand, before looking at May who was approaching with obvious care, 'Absol's never say there names, they make a noise that can't be pronounced by humans. And clearly, that trait has been passed on to their evolution. Maybe the Carinthia's have seen this before, if we go to the Pokémon Centre where the other are maybe they can-'
'No.'
Drew's sudden speech took May by surprise, he was staring at his Pokémon, a strange look on his face that May wasn't used to. And the only word she had for it was awe. He smiled gently and lightly stroked the Pokémon's shaggy hair, before turning to look at May.
'We'll go back to the centre, but the Carinthia family doesn't have an answer for this. I already have the perfect name for my new friend. Its my Pokémon May, I have the right to call it what I want.'
May wasn't sure where this change in Drew's attitude came from, but she hadn't seen him in this mood before. She couldn't help but like it in a way. He continued to brush his hands over the beautiful fur that seemed to reflect the moonlight in a strange sort of way, and she couldn't help but ask as she crouched down beside it, and asking quietly.
'What's the name?'
And with a soft smile he turned to her and said a single word that she knew was the only word that truly fit the magnificent creature.
'Absydian.'
...
It was strange in the Pokémon Centre, the group which before had seemed pretty set in its interactions was now seeming to have completely changed dynamics. Misty and Ash didn't seem to be talking to each other, with Ash moodily picking at a plate of food and Misty snapping an elastic band against her wrist for what was clearly an anger management technique. Brock and Nixie seemed incapable of stopping talking to one another now that they'd started, with both chatting away about what didn't seem to be overly important, but it was interesting to them. May and Drew had been gone for hours. And this left Dawn uncomfortably sitting by herself because Max was battling one of the local kids.
Dawn wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing, she couldn't help but notice that the group was falling into very obvious pairs. And she wasn't part of one. She couldn't help but wonder what was the difference between her and the other girls she was travelling with, because each of them seemed to have no trouble getting a guy's attention. So she couldn't help but think silently about what they had that she didn't.
Nixie was the easiest to see what the difference was, she had this strange allure and exoticness to her that a small town girl like Dawn just couldn't pull off. May had an almost perfect balance of both girly and not that made her easy for anyone to talk to and get along with. And then there was Misty, and she was who Dawn felt herself in the starkest contrast to.
Misty was head-strong and stubborn, without a particularly girly trait to her personality, but not so outrageously against it that it was off-putting or she seemed a little butch. Misty never seemed to be unsure of what was going on, or what she should do, everything was on an impulse and it seemed to work out for her, but Dawn was all to conscious of how things usually went personally if she didn't plan things out to the letter. Misty had this strange mothering thing to her, that she managed to seem sweet and kind until the moment you got on her bad side, where she could tear you apart in two seconds flat. Misty had no trouble standing up for herself, and Dawn couldn't even protest against the negative things she thought about herself.
'You okay Dawn?' piped up a voice.
Dawn smiled as Max came over to her, 'Yeah, I'm fine, just lost in thought a bit, how'd your match go?'
When Dawn had met Max, she'd felt close to him immediately. She'd never had siblings of her own and she already felt like Max could be her own little brother she liked him that much. And seeing as everyone else had been pairing off, she and Max had a lot of excuses to talk to each other.
Max grinned brightly at her and said cheerfully, 'I won.'
'Oh Max that is so great,' she said happily, ruffling the younger boys hair.
Max grinned brightly, 'Well it was close, but Ralts really came through for me. Where's May? I want to tell her about my match, I tried some of the things she told me about and I wanted to tell her about-'
'Sorry Max, May's been gone for about two hours, she said something about looking for Drew but she hasn't come back,' Dawn apologised, and she felt even worse when she saw Max deflate slightly, 'You know what, I'll give her a quick call on my Pokégear.'
'Thanks Dawn,' Max exclaimed brightly, and Dawn smiled, knowing that Max really did want to blab to his sister for as long as he could before she found a way to change the subject.
Dawn pulled out her Pokégear and dialled the number, and waited for a good thirty seconds till May picked up, 'Hello?' came May's voice as her face came up on the video screen.
'Hey May, where abouts are you? You've been gone for a while,' Dawn asked.
'Oh, I went looking for Drew, but we kind of got caught up, we're walking over now, but we've got a bit of a surprise for you guys.'
'What kind of surprise?' Dawn couldn't help but ask, unable to help notice May's cryptic tone.
'Oh you wouldn't believe it till you see it, we'll be there in five Dawn, cya.'
May ended the call, and Dawn stared at her Pokégear for a moment, looking slightly weirded out. Max smiled happily and settled into his spot beside Dawn, he hadn't thought it sounded anything other than normal to Dawn. But the Sinnoh native had heard a different message in May's phrasing.
'Dawn, you're doing a Stunfisk face, what's up?' Nixie called, having finally turned her attention away from her conversation with Brock.
'Just May's phrasing... she and Drew got "caught up" and "we've got a surprise" and "you wouldn't believe it till you see it"... if it was anyone else but those to I'd say-' Dawn explained but Nixie looked thrilled.
'I so hope they've cut the crap and just gotten together already.'
Brock looked up in surprise, 'Wait you saw that to?'
'How could I not? They're perfect!' Nixie babbled.
'Oh thank god, I just thought it was me who thought that,' he laughed.
'Oh I'm pretty sure everyone can see it except for them,' Nixie giggled.
'See what?' Max asked, still looking confused.
'You'll figure it out soon enough, you're a smart kid,' Dawn smiled, knowing she probably shouldn't tell Max until they were sure that was what Drew and May's "surprise" was.
'Oh in my experience, the dumber the kid the earlier they start to think about those sort of things,' Nixie said innocently, before shooting a look at Brock who looked seriously offended.
'Shut up Nixie-'
'Hey everyone,' came a voice, and everyone turned to see May walk in, followed by Drew, and they all noticed how close she and Drew were standing together.
Nixie looked like Christmas may have come early, until both May and Drew exchanged a smirk, and suddenly both moved apart to reveal the Pokémon that had been standing behind them. The loud whistling pierced the air, as what used to be Absol struck a dramatic pose, all to clear it had been raised by a coordinator from just that. Nixie fell backwards off the couch she'd been sitting on, but Brock lit up and ran over to examine the new Pokémon, closely followed by Max and Dawn.
'Meet Absydian,' Drew said proudly and smugly.
'Its gorgeous,' Dawn complimented, practically melting over the dark type.
Brock was examining it with a look he only got in what they referred to as his breeder mode. Max looked excited by the whole thing in general. Misty and Ash, quickly got up and came over to get a better look, although neither was talking or even looking at the other. But Nixie stayed back with a positively bizarre look on her face.
'What?' Drew asked noticing the look and seeming to be looking for any reason she could protest agains this Pokémon.
'Um...'
'Do you have a problem?' he asked defensively.
'No, not at all...' Nixie replied, seeming like she was suppressing a whole influx of emotions.
'Clearly you do-'
'No, no, its just... I've seen an evolved Absol and it looked nothing like this,' she said eventually.
'What?'
'It must be a branched evolution, I mean we've had alternate evolutions, but not two that were discovered just in the islands before, well except for the eeveelutions but I'm not sure if that counts,' Nixie replied, '...Ah, Duska, the ah, Carinthia who uses dark types, she has an Abyssl, that's what she called hers, but it looked nothing like that.'
'What did it look like?' Brock asked curiously.
'Well kind of like a regular Absol, but... tougher, the hair was longer, especially around its neck, it had a bit of a mane, and also it had a lot more black horn things attached to it, had one for a tail, one attached to its head, and it also had some horn things on the back of its legs, like that one has just longer and blacker... its kind of hard to describe, you'll need to look it up.'
Nixie's explanation was hesitant and carefully worded, but no one seemed to notice how careful she was being with her phrasing. Like she didn't want to appear too familiar. But Drew smiled, still admiring his new Pokémon.
'Well you're one of a kind Absydian,' he laughed.
'You should be proud, not too many people have what it takes to bring forth an entirely new species from hibernation,' Nixie smiled, before changing the subject slightly, 'Okay everyone, just remember not to stay up too late tonight, tomorrow we set sail for Ourea Island.'
Hello Readers;
Well with a weekend away, work placement and school camp, I haven't had as much time as I'd have liked in the last few weeks to write, but here is my new chapter and I'd love to know what you think of it. Although it wasn't all too eventful, I hope you enjoyed meeting Absydian, a brand new member to the Pokémon family. Absol's evolution was guaranteed as a prize after Kyndig placed in the 10000 views contest, but I've had requests for an Absol evolution from as early as Chapter 17 I think, and it seems like a popular choice for what people want to evolve.
As it is currently one thirty in the morning, I need to hit the hay, but I'd just like to quickly thank my amazing reviewers, Kyndig, Amalgam24, Pikachu0311, IHateMarySue'sSoooomuch, S, Aussieking and Chunnin33, thank you all so much for reviewing, all of your ideas and suggestions and comments are all been taken into account and definitely keep sending me more ideas, I love hearing from anybody with an input.
So see you all soon, ta ta for now.
~Selina
