Pokémon World Online

Part 36: The Reasons I'm Afraid

Disclaimer: I don't own the usual. Will things get better in this part? We'll see...

ooo

Helium had, unbeknownst to anyone due mainly to the fact that everyone was too busy to notice, slipped into the stairwell behind Twilmer; however, he did not know the building anywhere near as well as Twilmer did and thus he had gotten himself lost. He wondered from room to room, but he couldn't find the grand office from before. It didn't help that the boy had a terrible sense of direction; another reason he had chosen to go to a relatively small college. The hallway area was lined with many pictures of different gamers and their partners. There were statues of various Pokémon and other fancy decorations covering the black marble walls. Helium felt slightly intimidated by how high the ceiling was and by the fact that the area was so dimly lit. Anything could be lurking in the corners and shadows of the hallway. Several other hallways branched off from the hallway he was on and even more from those. The place was an impossible maze.

Suddenly an idea hit Helium. "Vileplume, do you think you can sniff out Twilmer's scent?" he asked his partner. Vileplume looked up at him questionably and then shook his head and pointed at his own nose. "That's right, you'd need her scent. I don't really have anything of hers," Helium sighed. "Wait a second, maybe she still smells like a Pichu!" Helium excitedly withdrew a small vile of Pichu hair from his inventory. Pichu hair was perfect for shocking certain potions into a useable form. Vileplume sniffed the hairs and then sniffed the air. Vileplume grinned and took off after the smell. Helium followed behind him.

From the shadows, Dream and Nightmare had been watching Helium. She smirked, "I knew if we waited, the right opportunity would come along." Dream kept to the shadows as she followed silently behind Helium.

ooo

Emily23 looked at her fallen partner. If it weren't for the steady rise and fall of her chest, Emily23 would have assumed Bunneary had passed on. Emily23 was perched awkwardly on the back of the Arcanine. She heard a shout and barely had time to react before a hyper beam from the Dragonite rider nearly hit her. She jumped off of Arcanine's back as the attack hit where she had been sitting. Arcanine growled and let loose a fire blast. Dragonite unleashed a hyper beam and the two attacks hit creating a huge blast and the room filled with smoke form the two blasts. Emily23 tried to run to get out of the way; however, she tripped and dropped her partner. "Bunneary?" she called, looking around her, though the smoke was too thick to see very far.

Dragonite heard her voice and fired a hyper beam in her direction. Arcanine countered with a fire blast and the room shook form the combined force of the attacks. Emily23 got up carefully and ran in a direction--she wasn't sure which-- trying to find Bunneary. She tripped and cut her leg. She hissed at the pain as she tried to stand and fumbled. She took a deep breath and stood up fast, ignoring the searing pain coming from her leg, as she searched for her partner.

ooo

Aura gasped lightly, tired after repelling yet another chain of attacks. Drix was holding on, although she could see that the prolonging battle had been exhausting for him as well. "We've got to attack tactically. Slashing wide open won't do a thing." She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, her eyes never leaving a clearly amused Dil for a second.

"You've got any ideas?"

"Yeah, I think I do. If you can lure him to those pillars... I might be able to make them collapse with Point Smash, but I can't guarantee it will work. Or that we won't be buried, for that matter."

"Sounds risky." Drix smirked.

"It is."

"Hell, let's do it then."

Drix rushed forward, dodging the first blow and then leaped backwards, slowly moving in the direction of the mentioned pillars. They looked heavy; gray and black marble would surely do serious damage if they fell over, but if they didn't risk it...

Aura moved silently, hoping that Dil, who was still in a battle rage, wouldn't notice her. Making sure Drix was keeping up with him, she passed behind their backs stealthily and crouched behind the pillars. Drix was in position, so she took couple of long breaths to steady herself and concentrate. She raised her arms, ready to use the special attack, but a pained and slightly surprised grunt caught her attention.

"Drix!"

"Just do it!" The swordsman yelled back at her, trying to stay upright with the broadsword piercing his side; the leg he had barely healed not so long ago caused his stance to slip and he became a target. "For fuck's sake, just do it, woman!"

She gritted her teeth and raised her arms again, focusing the attack power onto her blades and flinging them at one of the pillars. The look of surprise on Dil's face was priceless, and even though the pain Drix couldn't help but to smirk with triumph. Ignoring the pain in his abdomen, he jumped away, blade sliding out easily. The rumble of the collapsing pillars shook the whole building, from the topmost floor to the cellars, where some of them still fought.

Aura coughed as she swayed her hand in front of her face, trying to get the dust away, but her efforts were in vain. She checked the surroundings; it looked more like a mountain area now; everything was covered with pieces of debris, rocks and crushed marble; even half of the wall was missing, the building somehow holding on and not collapsing. She could see the clear sky outside; they really were on a high floor. Gathering herself up, she looked for any other signs of life, finally an annoyed groan caught her attention.

"Drix, are you ok?" She rushed to his side, the swordsman sprawled on the floor, rocks missing him by pure chance.

"I'm fucking fantastic." He huffed, but made no effort to move. "You told me it was going to be risky, but damn it, woman, you have some crazy ideas."

"Heh." Aura kneeled by him and ran briefly trough her inventory, but unfortunately, she really was out of all her healing items. From the look on Drix's face, she could see that he was thinking about the same thing.

"How's your nose?"

"Don't try to change the subject." Aura merely scowled at him. "You've got to get some medical help, we still don't know what will happen if any of us die. Well, except for Twilmer, at least. Aha!" After browsing through most of her quite packed inventory - she was an item collector, after all - Aura took out a microscopically small vial which contained a light blue liquid.

"What's that?" Drix scowled. He wasn't about to be a guinea pig for some weird experiments the crazy woman could do on him.

"It's called Lugia's Tears. It's an item I got in one of the quests which is retired now, so don't even think about getting one for yourself. It can heal every injury, even a fatal wound." She uncorked the bottle, a sweet scent filling the air around them.

"Leave it. It's not that bad, no use in wasting such an item."

"Shut up."

"I said stop!" He grabbed her wrist as she was about to spill some of the blue content onto his injured side. "Damn it woman, you never listen, do you?"

"Not to a stupid idiot like you. Shut the hell up and let me do my work."

"You're not wasting that on me; that could be worth millions now!"

"So what?" Aura shrugged. "It's going to be used one day, so why not now?"

"Because I said so!" Drix was stubborn, he knew that. But on the other hand - although he would never admit it - he was well aware of fact that Aura didn't like to use up the items she had been collecting for so long. "Get your hands off me, now!"

"Well, the roles have switched!" Aura scowled as she slapped his wound, enough to make him let out a surprised yelp and release her wrists. "Now it's you who is a stubborn idiot, so stop being such a child and just accept help!"

"The fuck you do that for?" He winced, but stopped her from using the potion again. "You're really a psycho. I said I'm fine!"

"Argh!" This was so frustrating that Aura actually screamed in anger. Drix could almost see steam rising from her ears. "Why can't you just lay still and shut the fuck up?!"

"Why can't you just let go of me?!"

"Why can't you fucking understand that your health is more important to me then a stupid potion?!" Her eyes widened in surprise as she realized what had just spilled from her lips. Drix had finally shut up and blinked once, twice, before a smirk tugged on the corners of his mouth.

"Shit, I never knew you actually had a crush on me." He laughed, but then the sound died on his lips as she hit his wound again, looking positively furious. "Ouch! You are one crazy bitch though, you know that?"

"Shut the hell up, otherwise I will finish you off myself." Aura hissed, clasping her hand around his smirking mouth and tipping the vial lightly. A few clear blue drops fell on the bleeding flesh, closing it almost instantly. It didn't regenerate his hit points, but the gaping wound was gone. The vial was empty as well.

"I still think you shouldn't have wasted it." Drix murmured more to himself then to her as she finally took her hand back. "I could have done fine without it."

"Sheesh, fine." She rolled her eyes, tired of the silly fight. "It's my item; I could do what I wanted with it."

Drix still lay on the ground, but as Aura lifted the edge of his blood soiled shirt a bit to inspect the injury, she found nothing. The potion really did work.

"Thanks." Drix said quite unexpectedly, as he grabbed her hand that she was about to move away. She blinked in surprise at the sudden move.

"You're welcome." She was about to say something else, until a soft sound of shifting rocks caught their attention. Turning around, Aura looked over at the fallen debris, her eyes widening in shock.

"Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me." Drix raised himself on his elbows.

"Now that this touching scene is over," Dil dusted off his clothes and waved a hand in their direction, quite dismissively, "I think it's good for us to continue. You actually managed to cut down half of my HP with that silly attack of yours." He fished out his broadsword from the rocks and cracked his knuckles, ready to fight.

"Well fuck." Aura groaned, raising to her feet and taking out her katanas.

"You can say that again." Drix sighed, as he got up from the dusty ground as well.

ooo

"Why are we sitting outside waiting?" Guy asked Caesar, who was once again using his head as a perch. "I mean honestly, with things as desperate as they are now, I doubt she would even come through this town when she's finished with business in that building." Guy stood up and watched the building, when suddenly he noticed a huge blast of rubble fall away. "The hell?"

""Fleee," Caesar looked confused.

"My thoughts exactly. Whatever that blast was, that cannot be good. I say we go up there and give whoever a hand, should they need it. Do you agree?" The Butterfree nodded. "Alright then, here's some strength increasing powder. You know what to do from here." Caesar nodded as Guy sprinkled the powder over his partner. Butterfree flew behind him and grabbed a hold of him. With a small grunt of effort, the strength powder took effect and Butterfree was able to fly with Guy in tow. They made their way quickly to the gaping hole near the top floor.

He entered to find Aura and Drix locked in combat with Dil. "Looks like I needed to even up the odds." Guy was dropped unceremoniously to the floor as Caesar's strength potion wore off. "So much for a heroic entrance."

"Who are you?" Dil asked.

"I know you! You're that herbalist who hangs around Trellaine, right?" Aura asked,

"Dr. W. D. Guy at your service," Guy bowed humbly before shifting through his inventory for his ultimate weapon.

"Big deal, you have one more gamer on your side. I still have nearly half of my hit points and I'm level 100." Dil laughed as Steelix circled behind him. Butterfree hit the Steelix with a bug buzz which only served to anger the huge iron snake.

"You know nothing of what is coming for you," Guy furrowed his brows as he pulled the butter knife from his inventory.

ooo

"Fuck, shit, damn it, whore," Twilmer mumbled a stream of curse words and words she assumed were curse words as the Graveler held her, appalled by her lingo. "Let me go!" she scowled, wondering how she let herself get into this position. She should've known that something like this would've happened, but no, she had to get cocky. From the way tremors had struck the building earlier, it didn't look like anyone would come to help her out anytime soon. She felt extremely alone.

"You're not alone," Arceus' voice popped into her head. That's right; she was a Pokémon now and was more in tune with Pokémon related things. "You have your friends."

"Aura and the others are too busy for me. I should've learned when Derek dumped me that the only person I can depend on is myself and Victoria." Twilmer grumbled to the voice in her head.

"It's sad that your dearest friend is--or rather was--bits of data. Can't you think of anyone else?" Arceus asked.

"Well," Twilmer strained her thoughts. Who could Arceus be talking about?

"TWILMER!" Helium burst into the room, Vileplume at his side. Twilmer had never been so glad to see him before in her life. The Graveler was so startled that it loosened its grip and Twilmer escaped. Victoria used an Ice beam to faint the huge rock.

"Oh god, a gay herbalist. What can he do for you?" Satoshi sighed, waving his hand. A portal of darkness opened up behind him and the prince of darkness himself entered the room; Darkrai. Darkrai turned and looked at Twilmer. She felt fear gripping her stomach as she stepped backwards. She wasn't even sure why she was afraid.

"I can do more for her than you know." Helium gave Satoshi a determined look.

ooo

End Part 36

Nothing much, but the plot is moving forward a bit, eh? And no, I haven't forgotten about Dream.