Chapter Thirty-Eight: Penumbra
Though they were all powerful grass-types, not all of Sage Ryoku's pokémon battled in a similar way to Octa, the most powerful grass-type Boreas knew. Some of his enemies fought like him, using speed, agility and finesse to rapidly dance over the battlefield, but did so in a much more powerful, rapid sort of way. Lilligant and Shiftry were a lot like this; they rapidly and agily danced over the battlefield, unleashing powerful blasts of energy as they drained their enemies. Others, like Ferrothorn, fought without any finesse or style, simply unleashing mighty attack upon mighty attack while seeming entirely impervious to damage. To his luck Boreas was finding the type advantage he had over all Ryoku's pokémon, except Ferrothorn, very useful. Though they were far too powerful to be simply taken down by his attacks, he could hurt and distract them.
Tangrowth was somewhere between the two styles. As a whole, it walked like a powerful, dangerous force of nature; but its vines were nimble and agile. It walked around over the uneven battlefield like a massive storm of vines trying to grab Boreas. He nimbly dodged some of the vines, and when one came too close he would quickly Ice Beam it to make it jerk away in reflex. But with dozens of vines attacking him at the same time, he found himself backing into the cave wall. He focused entirely on his defence, and remembered a trick he had used in the battle against Zinzolin: he could quickly parry an attack by unleashing a very small, but very cold blast of cold from his paw, rapidly freezing and sublimating the air so it created a small, but powerful shock wave that interfered with most attacks. He found that if he timed it right, it was very useful for fending off the vines trying to grab and beat him. He parried vines left and right, but it still wasn't enough. Eventually the inevitable happened as a vine caught his hind paw and lifted him in the air. Boreas used Ice Beam on Tangrowth's hidden face, but it still whipped him with the vines. Boreas screamed in pain as the vines left long whip-marks on his back.
Suddenly flames burnt on Tangrowth backside. It roared in pain and dropped him. "Yeah," Boreas heard Lucius' voice call out, "and how did ya like that, ya nimrod? Why don't you pick on someone strong like me instead?"
Tangrowth turned to deal with Lucius, so Boreas immediately attacked. Burning Tangrowth from one side and freezing it from the other, Boreas and Lucius were giving it quite a hard time. The battle seemed to be going well for them, but Boreas saw something he couldn't ignore: Toxica lay writhing on the floor in front of Exeggcutor, whose eyes were glowing an eerie purple. She was entirely defenceless and apparently in pain.
He broke off combat with Tangrowth and ran through the battlefield, passing Octa duelling Shiftry with moderate success and Capella and Black fighting Lilligant together, Black wielding a big rock and Capella spitting flames and nets of electricity at it. As soon as he came close, Boreas struck the Exeggcutor's egg-heads with Ice Beams. The eyes dimmed as the Exeggcutor broke off its attack, only to turn on Boreas.
Suddenly Boreas felt something touch his mind... A powerful will attempting to enter it. He tried to repel it somehow, to focus on stopping it, but it easily penetrated his mind. He heard a voice in his mind and felt it probing his memories. "Well, well, Boreas, you've been through a lot over your short life, haven't you? Combat... Friendship... Tragedy... Love..."
Get out of my memories! They're private.
"Hahaha, silly Boreas... Do you think me looking at them is the worst that's going to happen to you? Maybe I should alter them a bit, hmm? How would you like to have a memory of Black snapping Thomas' neck? Or Octa raping Aqua? You'd never realise they were fake..."
No, you-you can't!
"Oh, but I can. I could make you hate all your friends forever, but I won't. It would take far too long and wouldn't be productive. I'll just overload your nervous system with blasts of psychic energy to kill you instead. Sigh, it's a shame to have to destroy your mind, it's a very good mind... There is much intelligence in here, and also powerful, fiery, passionate emotions. It's a shame you sided with the wrong side. I think we could've become friends in another life. Hehe, listen to me getting melodramatic; it's not easy to kill someone whose mind you've seen."
Exeggcutor's glowing purple eyes were all Boreas saw as powerful energy coursed through his body, overloading his nerves and making him scream as his entire body was in severe pain.
"Oy, not on my watch!" yelled Toxica and the pain disappeared, as did Exeggcutor's mind, as Toxica had covered it in toxic pollen. Before Exeggcutor could attack her, Boreas got back to his feet and began attacking too. Fighting two pokémon at once, Exeggcutor had no chance to probe their minds and instead tried to overload their nervous systems with psychic pulses. But the poison Toxica had used and Boreas' own ice attacks were quickly getting to it.
Toxica suddenly grabbed Boreas and dragged him to the ground. "Get down!"
An intense beam of pure white light, like the Sun itself, blasted past just above his head. It was thick enough to have completely enveloped Boreas if he hadn't ducked, and Boreas could feel its incredible intensity as it raged past. It hit the cave wall, where it created a massive, smouldering crater as the cave was showered in debris. "That's Hyper Beam!" Toxica yelped.
"Thanks," said Boreas, staring at the smouldering crater, "that'd have vaporised us if it hit..."
But then, the spiky, steel-clad Ferrothorn attacked. It swung its powerful, thorny seed pods around like maces, shattering rocks as it hit them. Toxica and Boreas both tried counter-attacking, but its powerful steel armour seemed to make it impervious to damage. Boreas' Ice Beams just left a slight white snowy residue that quickly disappeared, and Toxica's Energy Balls seemed to do nothing at all.
Boreas ducked behind a rock to hide from Ferrothorn's powerful pods, but the rock shattered as the mighty steel-type hit it, showering Boreas in painful stone splinters that made many small cuts. He realised only the fire attacks Lucius and Capella could use stood any chance against the Ferrothorn and began withdrawing to Capella (as Lucius was still very busy fighting Tangrowth). The mighty pods hit the ground with Earth-shaking impacts behind him as he ran. As he passed Octa, who was still fighting Shiftry, his friend suddenly tackled him to the ground as another Hyper Beam blasted overhead with the intensity of a solar flare.
"That beam's devastating," Octa pointed out, "dodge it at all costs!"
"Thanks, that's the second time someone- LOOK OUT!" he grabbed Octa and rolled them both away, just avoiding Ferrothorn's seed pod crashing down to crush them both.
They quickly got to their feet and continued fighting. Capella was fighting Lilligant, who had given Black a nasty cut and was trying to keep attacking him. Boreas shot Ice Beams at Lilligant to give Capella some freedom. "Capella, some help with Ferrothorn would be very useful!"
Momentarily not busy with Lilligant, Capella had a chance to spit flames at Ferrothorn, who really didn't seem to like that. The flames left nasty marks that kept smoking. After several flames, it actually retreated to its trainer. "Awesome, Capella!"
"Thanks, now let's get that Lilligant, together we may be able to defeat it!"
The dragon and the fox battled Lilligant, and it quickly turned into a very defensive battle. Boreas would parry attacks by making a short, concentrated pulse of cold with his paw; Capella would use a spark of electricity from the jewel on her forehead; and Lilligant would neutralise attacks with a blast of energy.
They circled around each other firing attacks that were either dodged or parried, all trying to find an opening in the enemy's defences. Capella and Boreas outnumbered Lilligant and they were both at a type advantage, but Lilligant was phenomenally fast and powerful. Even though she had to spread her attacks between him and Capella, Boreas was still having a hard time parrying all the energy balls and barely had time to Ice Beam his opponent. They tried to outflank Lilligant, but the nimble way it danced around as it battled meant they often ended up next to each other anyway.
"Keep putting pressure on it, Boreas!" Capella encouraged him after ending up next to him again, "I think we can win this battle without casualties!"
Suddenly Boreas felt something wrap around his tail, and before he could do anything Tangrowth lifted both him and Capella up. They dangled from the charred, smouldering mass of vines upside-down. Boreas used Ice Beam against the Tangrowth, but it actually seemed to like that as it put the flames it smouldered with out.
"Cradily," Ryoku commanded. "Execute them with Hyper Beam!"
The next second seemed to last for an eternity. Cradily's head glowed with a white, solar light. Boreas and Capella both realised her flames were the only thing that could save them. They looked each other in the eyes. A friendly smile tugged on the corner of Capella's mouth as a grim fatality entered her kind eyes. Boreas realised what she was going to do and wanted to tell her not to do it, to save herself first, but it was too late. She spit a string of flames at the vine Boreas was hanging on. Tangrowth yelped in pain and let go of Boreas as it retracted its vine. Capella spit fire at the vine holding her own tail as Boreas began to fall, but it was too late: a blinding light blasted just over Boreas and his tail burnt with pain. Capella's thin, serpentine form was slightly visible in the beam, like a wisp of smoke.
Boreas fell in a shallow hole on the ground, the pain in his tail far outweighed by the pain in his heart. But when Capella dropped into the hole too, her back turned to him, he was happy again. "Oh, Capella, you're still alive! I thought you'd been vapo- GAH!"
He almost gagged as he embraced her and turned her around and saw the Hyper Beam had blasted most of her flesh off her front side. There was no skin left on that entire side of the body and most of the flesh underneath it had been destroyed too. He could see most of her organs, at least the parts that were left, and could see all the way to her spinal chord in various places. Blood squirted out massively, soaking Boreas' fur within seconds. He realised what was left of her heart still beat and the one lung that remained still breathed and looked into her face.
It was horrible to see his friend like this. Her face looked as gruesome as the rest of her body, but in a way even worse because he could still recognise her kind features in it. Her cheeks and snout had been blasted away entirely, resulting in a bloody skeletal grimace. In fact, little flesh remained on her skull. But parts of her kind eyes were left in her sockets.
"Capella, evolve, right now!" Boreas desperately shouted, "Please! You will survive if you evolve! It will all be better!"
Capella looked into Boreas' eyes with the remnants of her own and exhaled her final breath as the heavily damaged remains of her heart stopped beating. "No!" Boreas cried, "no, you can't die! Please, just evolve! Everything will be alright... Please..." He cried softly as he fully embraced her horribly damaged corpse. "...please... Capella..." She was gone forever.
Boreas sat there in the hole for a while, crying for his dead friend. Then a furious, burning rage worse than anything he had ever felt before came over him and set his mind alight. "I... will make them pay for what they have done!"
He jumped out of the trench, looking like a ferocious werewolf or hellhound that has just committed unspeakable acts of horror, between the blood he was soaked with and his furious, vengeful face. His enemies stopped fighting in horror as he appeared from the ground looking like this. Boreas screamed with burning rage and attacked them. He fought his way through the battlefield in blind rage with massive clouds of snow and ice waving around him and attacking while he bit, clawed, and kicked his opponents, trying to inflict as much pain and death upon them as he could. He was screaming in inarticulate fury. His entire body was ablaze with hate as he tried to avenge Capella.
–
"My dear fellow, calm down please," said Octa as he grabbed Boreas, stopping him from continuing his rampage.
"Let me go, Octa! They killed Capella!" Boreas roared.
"I know," Octa said with a grave face. "I saw her body. Calm down."
"How could I calm down? I have to avenge her!"
Suddenly Octa slapped his face. It served to partially wake Boreas from his rage. "Yes, you do, and you shall be far more useful to that end if you just alm down and think."
"THINK?" Boreas bellowed, "I'm going to kill them all!"
"Do – so – calmly!" Octa hissed, "Put your cunning mind to avenging her, not your stupid rage! Revenge is a dish best served cold!"
"I'm serving it just fine hot! Capella sacrificed herself to save me!"
"Then don't throw her sacrifice away along with your own life! They'll easily kill you if you don't calm down!"
"It's been going just fine like this before you interfered!"
"Only because they were terrified of you! But they have realised by now you are just a mortal, albeit very angry, Glaceon. So get your emotions under control if you don't want to follow Capella!"
Boreas tried to breathe normally. His fury was still very present, but at least he was no longer ablaze with it. "Okay! I am calm!"
Ferrothorn, Shiftry, and Lilligant chose that moment to attack them. "We need to think of- gah!- something fast, my dear fellow!" Octa said, dodging seed pods and parrying attacks, "We are the only ones left standing, while we took only two of them down. Don't worry, the others are merely wounded for now."
"Where's the fourth?" Boreas asked, parrying an Energy Ball and jumping away under a crushing seed pod.
"Defending Ryoku, it's that Cradily!"
The Cradily that had fired the Hyper Beam... But Boreas tried to focus, to keep calm. There would be time for mourning and rage later. The three enemies surrounded them now and formed a circle as Boreas and Octa fought them back-to-back, Octa with his Leaf Blade and Boreas using Ice Beams and parries. "If we can get past that Cradily," Boreas whispered as they fought, "we could take Ryoku hostage, like we did with Gorm." Or kill him for what he did to Capella.
"But these- argh- three will – never let us do that," Octa said, "and we can't- just have one of us distract them, because they'd never keep fighting one of us with the three of them, and we'll need someone to battle Cradily as well. We can't do all of that with just the two of us."
He was right. In fact, it seemed they could only lose. They were thoroughly outmatched by three stronger opponents surrounding them.
Suddenly Lilligant screamed as Black dived upon it, stabbing it with the long bread knife he kept in his backpack. "Run!" he commanded Boreas and Octa as Ryoku returned his wounded Lilligant to its pokéball, "run for your lives!" he began attacking the other pokémon, wielding the knife like a dagger.
The other two would defeat or kill Black within a minute, Boreas realised, but he actually had an idea now. "Octa, you heard him, run!"
"Never! We shan't leave our trainer behind in combat!"
"I've got an idea, c'mon!"
Jumping over an attack by one of Shiftry's branches, they ran and got some distance between them and the two pokémon battling the human. Boreas unleashed an icy stormwind, not on the battlers but on a stone floating nearby. He channelled all his anger into the wind and the sparkling stone moved, kept accelerating it rapidly, until it arrived by the battle between Black and the two pokémon.
The two had just knocked Black down with some nasty blows and were about to kill him when the stone reached them. Though only Boreas had noticed it, a charge had been accumulating in the ground under them. When the floating magnetic rock approached, that charge suddenly found a way to go and arced through the air, using the bodies of Black and the pokémon as easy conduits on the way. Boreas thoroughly hoped Black would be okay, but he didn't have time to worry about it now.
Boreas and Octa ran at the Cradily, jumped out of the way of a Hyper Beam, and began fighting it. They synchronised their attacks so one of them would hit Cradily even if it defended. Though Cradily seemed slow, lumbering, and passive, it proved itself a powerful and agile battler as it easily battled the two friends with Energy Ball and Ancientpower. Ryoku watched the battle with interest. Boreas couldn't wait to get the human. He imagined knocking him to the ground, jumping on top of him, then freezing his head until he died. This little lapse into fantasy cost him dearly: Cradily slashed at him and he dodged too late. Terrible pain went through his head and he felt blood flow through his fur, but he kept fighting.
The attacks, which kept hitting Cradily soon had their effect on it. It was surprising how soon it was unable to stop them from running on to Ryoku. The human returned his pokémon to their pokéballs. "Very impressive," he said. Then he suddenly disappeared, probably with help of the Shadow Triad. They tried to find him as best they could, but were soon forced to concede that they'd lost a valued friend and the ones responsible had escaped.
–
"Today," Octa spoke solemnly, "we acknowledge a terrible loss. For this morning, Capella of the house of Draco died. Incredibly brave and selfless to the end, she gave her life in battle against her enemies, so that her friend might live. The manner in which she died was cruel and brutal, but at least her suffering was over soon.
Yet despite our terrible loss and the premature ending of a wonderful creature's life, this is not just a tragic occasion. 'Tis an opportunity to appreciate the time we spent in her presence, and to be grateful we were her friends. An occasion to celebrate her life, while we mourn her death. For Capella lived a life I believe we should all strive for. She was loved dearly by all those who had the pleasure of knowing her, and with good reason. Capella was wise, kind, friendly, loveable, sweet, honourable, brave, hard-working, fair-minded, and most importantly, a fierce friend. Capella graced this planet with her presence for a hundred and eight years. This is longer than any of us are likely to live, yet 'twas far too short. She was, despite her endless wisdom, still young. She could have made the world a brighter place with her presence for centuries. But death intervened."
Silent tears streamed over Boreas' cheeks as Octa delivered his solemn eulogy. He heard Toxica cry loudly next to him and embraced her to support her and himself. Lucius was scowling furiously, while Selene looked at her feet sadly. Black looked at the motionless corpse he held in a blanket with a trembling lip. All of them were wounded or hurt in various ways, but it was nothing compared to the gaping wound in their hearts. Toxica cried on Boreas' shoulder as he cried into her flower. When Octa described Capella with words like wise or brave, they sounded so empty. To Boreas, Capella was the memories to the kind words she spoke, the gentle hug she had given him, the friendly way she could smile, and the hope she could fill him with.
"The pain we all feel at this dreadful loss reminds us that though we may not always agree with one another, our hearts beat as one. The bonds of friendship between us celebrate a lady who was kind and brave and honest, to the very end. Though the world may seem so much darker without her light, that light is still present in all our hearts. We shall never forget Capella, and I feel honoured to have called her my friend. Farewell."
"She was good and kind," Lucius growled, "and I'll get the bastards that did this to her."
Black slowly lowered Capella into the grave he'd dug for her. "Farewell, Capella. Rest in peace."
Boreas wanted to tell him to stop as he threw the dirt back into the shallow grave, but he knew it would change nothing. Octa walked back, his face a calm mask, but Boreas knew the pain he had to be feeling under it and included him in the embrace as well.
–
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I feel really bad for killing Capella off. Also, I'll need to think of a name for the parrying move Boreas uses, it's not based on anything in-game.
FEEDBACK: fractalman: Q: I liked your hitchiker's reference. (The Somebody Else's Problem Field)
A: Good job, I was hoping someone would recognise the reference. I even considered having Ghetsis or Ryoku explain that actual invisibility is nearly impossible and why the Somebody Else's Problem field works better, but decided against it in the end.
Arronthered: Q: Ok why is it that the pokemon don't take orders from Black and just do there own thing in battles. Don't get me wrong it is cool and you made it work but I am just seeing Black as a useless character since he has barely had any character development and he has had no say in any pokemon battles. In my opion, more Black. Aside from that, this is probably the best story on .
A: Well, there are several reasons, the main reason being that this story focuses on the pokémon, and so it's much more fun to have them make the decisions in battle than the trainer. The other is that I just can't see the way battles are done in the games or the anime work in reality. The opponent will always know what you're going to do if you keep shouting attack orders at your pokémon. The anime is especially bad at this, as pokémon don't even seem to bother dodging unless their trainer shouts "dodge it!", and they always prove capable of dodging the attack then (at least they did, I haven't watched the anime for almost a decade so I could be utterly wrong). Training your pokémon to make them decide their own attacks, maybe with some pointers from the trainer, seems much more logical. And that's what Black, and every other trainer, in my story does. You're right about his lack of character development though, I find it hard to write character stuff for Black and have been very lacking in that department. I have some planned though, well see how that turns out. And thanks.
SquareRootofNine: Q: Exactly my point! who would lead someone only yo make them stop after 5 meters?
A: Yeah. The Shadow Triad's habit of making you walk a few tiles was so silly I couldn't resist lampshading it.
Glaceon34: Q: i have already guessed that Boreas will stay, however i still feel bad that we won't see Aqua again for sometimes, but hey i think you still haven't explained why you didn't mention Toxica in the previous chapter
A: If you meant chapter 29, it's because she had evolved to a Vileplume, but we wouldn't see her evolution until chapter 33. I would either have to mention she was a Vileplume or it would've seemed really odd in hindsight. That's why I didn't mention her, though she was in fact there. She was probably taking turns battling Octa or something.
"The Bulbafinatic": Q: Still awesome as ever. And this reminds me alot of the Warriors series. Like in the first book, Firepaw (as he was called then) saw the cat who had killed Spottedleaf while he and some ThunderClan warriors were attacking Brokenstar at the ShadowClan camp, and he became furious and tried to kill him. But then Whitestorm was all like, "No! We only kill cats when we have to!" And they didn't have to, so... Well, that just reminded me of Boreas and the Houndour and Zangoose (Zangoose? Zangooses? Zangeese? Zangeeses? What in the world do I say?) and keep writing, because you ROCK!
A: Thanks. As I mentioned, I never heard of the Warriors series. Canonically speaking, the plural of Zangoose is Zangoose, but I find writing "two Zangoose" or "five Glaceon" incredibly awkward and annoying. It's the same reason I don't capitalise the word pokémon, it just doesn't seem right. I pluralise Zangoose as Zangeese, but choose any form you like.
Q: Dialga's diapers. Clever.
A: Expletives and oaths for the pokémon world are a lot of fun to come up with.
Q: I wish I could make an account on this thing, but I'm only, like, 12 and three fourths years old. Darn it!
A: Eh, just select an earlier year than the one you were actually born in. Its what I usually did when I was underage.
Q: Octa evolved pretty suddenly, though. I'm not one to critique you, but it just didn't seem like a good moment to make that happen.
A: I agree with you. Chapter 13 is probably my least favourite chapter of the story (2, 6, 17, and 24 are strong contenders too) and is a bit pointless. In hindsight I should probably have made the N battle more interesting.
Q: Interesting. I'm really curious about what species Thomas and Febby are, and you really ended this well. White is the counterpart to Black or something, right? Febby must be something interesting, indeed.
A: Yes, White is meant to be the female player character of Black and White versions, while Black is the male player character. And, well, you know the answer to Thomas and Febby's species already, and that Boreas certainly thought Febby was something interesting indeed.
Q: Correct, "mephistophelian" is an excellent word. Shame you couldn't use it here. Love the story, but there's just one problem; the kissing part.
It just seems that two eeveelutions wouldn't kiss like people, but either rub their noses together or kiss like dogs do, where they, I guess "exchange tongues". Just wondering why you didn't do that instead.
A: I got to use Mephistophelean later on once or twice. I think Octa uses it in chapter 33. As for the kissing, well I suppose they might rub their noses together instead, but there are three reasons they don't: firstly, Eeveelutions, despite being based on foxes, have a more or less flat face like a human instead of a snout like a fox; so they could kiss like humans do easily. Secondly, a kiss seems a lot more intimate and sweet than rubbing noses together. Thirdly and most importantly; most of my readers are, in fact, human. Humans tend to like kissing. I know I do.
Q: Bleeaah. Kissing scenes are disgusting.
A: Well, I guess you don't.
Q: Just wondering, you said Capella the Dratini got some of the worst wounds from the Poison Type battle. Doesn't Dratini have the ability Shed Skin? Doesn't that mean they can't be poisoned?
A: Shed Skin doesn't make poisoning impossible, it just has a chance to make it wear off each turn. Which is probably how she survived it in the first place. Too bad it doesn't work on Hyper Beams.
Q: Octa, you jerk! Toxica is totally in love with you and you're all "no way" just because she's not a Snivy-lution. Pound some sense into your overgrown head!
A: Well, it's not just because she isn't a Snivy-lution. He also said he wasn't attracted to her and that she wasn't well-bred. But yes, I agree, Octa should stop being so arrogant and snobbish about it.
Q: I also thought the part about the five moons was very clever; but sometimes you reference (Earthian?) places, like Antartica, and considering this is the Pokemon world, I don't really get that.
A: Well, the pokémon world isn't so much a different planet as a different version of Earth. Notice that the characters call their planet Earth. As you said, I indeed mention real-world locations like Antarctica and real-world people like Victoria and Augustus on occasion. So it's basically the same planet, but with some differences, like the existence of pokémon, different continents (though Antarctica is more or less the same) and five moons. Gravity is also about three percent weaker and the air contains two percent more oxygen.
Anyway, thanks for all your reviews, I love them!