Part 8: The Bell
Chapter 60: Doctor Kaiser (2)
Battle time!
I don't own Pokémon.
Cruce
I knew Alli didn't give up. I knew she couldn't have thrown herself away into some... cosmic trash can – that wasn't what this was all about. I wanted so badly to believe that she'd just been slurped into a weird new dimension where she was still her skywisp self, and not a messy floating heap of... of 'ghost' stuff. I couldn't deal with Alli like that. Vay, too. Vay wasn't laying there anymore. I left him. I left him and Rayse – sure, I didn't know Rayse much, but I could have tried to pull her with me. Vay was big. Rayse was small, and I fucked up with both of them. But, did I?!
"Vay?!" I whimpered loudly nonetheless, stepping away from the bark and setting my arms down. The whole place was a lot lonelier now, a pathetic fraction of the bodies taking cover somewhere, off at the other end of the Grove already booking it into the woods, or just...
Just, nothing. Debris'd been thrown around, undoing the work done here. The tent I'd stayed in with Vay and Derrick was gone. Even patches of soil had been ripped up from the Bell's force, a dent in the earth housing the round object. It was still settling on uneven ground, rolling back and forth.
"Dream logic:" Mew's voice continued, silence brooding over the desolate, broken Grove. He swerved into view – go figure he got away with this. He was untouchable. He must've gotten rid of that purple wisp just like... Tempyae. Just like all of the other members of his 'organization'. "The human mind fills in the blanks of what it cannot perceive with things it can: pain, color, memories.
The question is, are we human today? What are humans to Gamma if Gamma can come and do whatever it pleases to them?
"Well," he stopped, long white tail roping around the Bell. "That begs another thought. What would Gamma be without us being whatever it wants?
And I think, nothing.
Gamma is a scared child, nothing more. Gamma needs a home, and it found us to help it grow. It wants to perceive the world, but it can't do it on its own, and certainly it can't simply make something up for us to perceive.
It needs us. It needs us to chisel it, fine-tune it, kindle it – whatever you will.
My boy Drew did that, and he did okay. He would've made a fine father for it one day...
But he owes it to me. Boy never did have his head on straight without me and I'll remind 'im.
Still though, does me proud to say, like father, like son."
A jingle. My head rushed with pain. I threw a paw to it. Mew was in front of me, hunching over, the Bell still in his tail. The silk of his red tie hung before my nose. I followed it up to his smiling, haunting face. I fought back a growl.
"I'm talking to you, of course," he spoke, unlike before, where his voice was an echo. His mouth adhered to the motions of speech. "Because you're an embodiment of something that is not my son. You look like a Pokémon. You smell like a Pokémon. But..."
"Yeah, I get the message," I spoke back, turning my tiny muzzle away from him. "I wasn't really supposed to be a Pokémon, and I never wanted to be. You guys turned me into one."
"We did," he congratulated himself. "We turned the Scion into a Pokémon."
"I'm not-" I froze, another well of pain snaking through my head, almost liquid, dripping down the back of my skull and flowing into my spine, my tails. I remembered something. I remembered defending myself like this before. I'm not Scion, I would've said. The Body, I might've called it. Maybe just 'that'. All Scion deserved to be called was 'that', for what he was. How did Mew know who or what 'that' was anyway? "I'm not... that."
"But you are," he insisted, his brow lowered. "What, you don't find it odd that you woke up in that derelict Ridge Hospital? Even odder that it took hours and hours for you to transform, and by our hand no less. Believe me. I watched you, cuddled up to your... what do you call him now? Vay?"
"Not... a fan... of that," I shook my head. "Well, fine, how'd you... like, watch me? You and your... crew of baddies all lean over an all-seeing mystic orb or something?"
"Is that a sense of humor?" he asked, folding his paws over one another. "Molly did love that about you."
"Yeah, she did," I finally growled, giving him my full attention, full face – whatever he wanted, he had it now. "So what, you're just name-dropping Molly now? What about her?"
"'Cause my boy Drew didn't paint Gamma up all by himself, heck no," Mew, lax, furrowed his brow and closed his eyes, a wry grin under his nose. "He had Molly. Without Molly, we might not have even noticed so much as a change in, say, the color of somebody's eyes.
But my boy never did give a care about Pokémon until he met Molly," he took a breath. "And neither did I..."
"What? What is this—what about all the people you just eradicated?!" I cried out. "Like, half of which were people I cared about!"
He turned, lifting his tail and looking into the golden bell it held, secure and sound.
"Eradicated? No, no, I've just stored them in a fuzzy place," he said. It didn't confirm anything, and I sure disliked the way he brushed it off like they weren't scared for their lives five times over. "It'll save you and I the trouble."
"The 'trouble'?" I asked.
"You're Scion, and you're spreading Gamma," he told me. "Have you seen what you've done to Autumnridge lately? You're going to help me fix that, and then some. It'll be a very involved interaction between you and I," he simply said, his back going straight, the Pokémon floating tall, his face shadowed above me. "I'll make it worth your while, Cruce. I'll tell you everything, from Molly to Drew... I'm sure you'll even see your friends again: those skywisps, your precious Vay – all of 'em."
He spoke as if he knew a way to bring them back. He sent them all in there, so his case was looking good, but holy crap, the guy was off his nuts! I swallowed and averted my eyes from him, the unsettling heat of his stare still warm on my cheek – hell, I still saw him with my cheek's eye 'patch' anyway. I couldn't look away unless I'd wholly turned around and faced the tree. I had a little more pride than that, so, naturally, I didn't
Who is he? What did I do to Autumnridge? Why does he know Molly? I do want to know.
And what makes me Scion? That's... not right. I can't be Scion. Can I...? I remember... something. I was sitting down on a grave, I think. Was it before I woke up?
"What do I do?" I asked myself aloud. Maybe I appeared frightened to him? Sorta could've gone with him taking it easy and not being... a hyper-villain in my face. I hoped he realized that.
"Come with me," he offered, holding out a paw. "You were so close the first time, too... Remember that building deep underground? I want to take you back there, and when you see what Delta Meadow's been working on, you'll have a change of heart. I promise.
With that, and with my son's bell, we'll beat the Wave.
We might even see your sister again."
"Wh-..." I squeaked, or gasped, or somewhere between the two, watching Mew's smiling, daring face. I scanned down to his open paw. The option wasn't even remotely tempting – no way was I going to work with this guy, but... just the idea that Molly was still alive was absurd. It was profound! Did she really have something to do with all of this – with how the world looked now? I knew Tophs did. I knew 'Edge' did. And, according to crazy guy here, I did. But Molly-Dolly? Really?
She liked Pokémon. Yeah, that was always her thing. Even had an imaginary Pokémon friend.
"You ain't gonna win anyone over like that, Jonathan," came a woman's voice, heavily rural in her accent. I looked to my left and there she was. A small doe Pokémon. I'd caught a couple glimpses of her before. People liked her. She was one of the adults of the Grove. Most notably, Mew didn't throw her into the Bell's white fog the second he saw her. "Oh, my mistake, am I confusin' you with somebody else?"
"Anne," Mew greeted, dragging out the name. "You're still here."
"Eyup," she said, approaching without caution. "So, you ain't yourself no more, 'hubby' 'o mine."
"How would you know? You've seen how many faces I have. What if this is one of them?" he proposed.
"You can say that," Anne breathed in sharply. "But it don't mean much. Y'know, I ain't no scientist, but I think you done made an error somewhere in that... formula 'o yours. You can say you got a head start on Gamma 'cause 'o that fluke with the HX experiments, but'cha still can't race it. You're only human. Ain't no Gamma being, ain't no god, just... a man who wanted to change himself. Found a wife who promised he could... Didn't need her anyway."
"Anne, your words hurt me," Mew dramatized, paws over his chest. "After what I'd been through, I figured building a family was the only way I could get over myself. So I did, and I have you and the boys to thank for that."
"Not after you took Drew and broke his heart," Anne argued, solemn. "You don't need 'tell me nothin'. I know the full story. Lemme ask ya, who did that to you? Who made you into that Pokémon? Be honest now, Hon, there really ain't no point hidin' it."
"I made this body for myself, so I could avoid discrimination," he said. "A Pokémon like me... I laugh at transformation."
"But your head's not your own anymore. What'd it take to build that body?" she asked.
"Gamma – none other."
"And where'd that Gamma come from, dear?"
"I see your game. It's mine, Anne. I made this body. I made my own Gamma." he claimed.
"Mm? But you sure ain't doin' much with it. You ain't spreadin' in. Ooh, but I bet'chu wanna. I bet'chu that's just boilin' up under yer skin – you gotta spread it, don't you? It's in your nature now."
"I want-..." Mew sighed. She was getting under him somehow. "I want a world... of Pokémon. That's all! I'm no Champion, but I can do it. I can do it all by myself."
"Cruce?" Anne addressed me. I gave her my attention, but she didn't return the look. She watched Mew carefully.
"What, you think family's not important to me? I bent over backwards for my family 'till it broke me!" Mew said, growing restless, clamoring. I was still waiting for Anne to say something.
"Get your hide outta there. Go on!" she told me.
Feeling my tails flutter, I watched the mad Mew shake his head between his paws, yelling to himself. Yep, time to dip, I thought! I looked back, then high, giving the bark of the tree a close look. Screw it. I was too sloppy to climb that right now – I just bounced to the side, giving Mew a departing salute, before landing that paw and the other on the ground again, scampering off elsewhere. I skittered to Anne, since she was full dominatrix mode over Mew, the fur the back of my tails itching, anticipating chase. As I ran, she gave a step forward and a nod, gesturing for me to get behind her, like I'd made the right decision. I still didn't have my Bell, so I wasn't sure how she planned to go against Mew.
Once one paw hit the ground, I let my claws dig in and pivot my whole body around, spinning so I could get the maniac in my sights as soon as possible, standing back up behind the floral doe. She was almost as small as me, so the protection factor alluded to maybe... not at all.
That was fine. Somebody else was on it. A small shape swooped down from above, having taken a vantage in the branches. Yellow, black, and white, the shape shimmered with heat, bolts of electricity spraying off of it upon making contact with Mew. It didn't send Mew anywhere but a couple feet back, but his body went stiff, the impact seizing up his tail, throwing the Bell into the air. I followed it, wincing at the possibility that he would have caught it and opened it up again. A pair of white hands did do just that, but they weren't Mew's.
"Out!" the catcher called, thrill shining in her face, the Bell in both hands and on display. Paige! Oh, shit, of course Paige was here!
Another figure stepped in, but I'd only caught a half-second or so. This was a big guy, running himself into the scene with arms and legs goin' wild. If he was trying to save the first figure – Young – he would've needed to toss himself at Mew quickly, who had the smaller Pokémon in some telekinetic force, threatening him.
A big and beautiful roundhouse kick to the back of the head later, Mew was thrown to the ground, Young falling to his feet, catching himself on his arms, then pushing back up. It was Davidson to the rescue, being the fiery, badass bird he was. Coming in to subdue the stunned Pokémon, he lifted his foot, then slammed it into the ground. That was the problem, unfortunately; there was no Mew underneath his foot. He'd gotten away.
Mew flew clockwise around Davidson, stopping behind him, then throwing his arms and legs out. A purplish flare pulsed out from Mew's white body, the same effect occurring in reverse to Davidson, who was strung up in the air, matching the pose that Mew was making. The taller Pokémon was stuck this way, grunting, but luckily for only a brief time, before a fourth figure swerved in to his aid. A black canine blindsided Mew, drawing his attention through bright yellow rings on his ears and tail. With unanticipated dexterity, the canine leaped and took Mew's loose tail in his mouth, chomping down until Mew squealed, then he swung his head, a captured Mew following the motions until his own tail betrayed him, throwing him straight into the crater that the Bell had made. The force of the attack was great enough for the weight to toss the black Pokémon a couple feet high.
I stepped forward in excitement, curling an arm inward. Holy shit, that was cool! Team 'Grove' just came outta nowhere and rushed him! I didn't think Mew was out of the game just yet, even as Young jumped atop him, taking his tie in both paws and yanking it, the bigger Pokémon's head and neck forced up to stare right back at what I'd guessed to be a very angry, beady-eyed face.
"You think you can just come in here and fuck with MY Grove?! Haven't you done enough?!" Young yelled, shaking the other's body.
"Your Grove?! Who died and made you the boss?" he scoffed.
"It's about to be you," he spat at Mew. "Suck on that."
"Young, easy does it now," Anne suggested. She walked away from me, and I felt inclined to follow, but I kept my distance. Something wasn't right. "That's not the 'Doctor Kaiser' you and I know."
"I don't CARE who he thinks he is! I'm gonna make him eat dust until he pukes!" Young said, pushing against the other's neck and shoving him into the dirt. Right then, Mew's tail escaped from underneath him, hooking right above Young. Another pulse of pain shook me, discoloring my vision for the duration. It wasn't just me. I noticed it before, when he was talking in my face. I saw it all happen in slow motion, as Davidson took to a new position, Paige retreating over to me, eyes on the action, Anne walking up to settle the heat between Young and Mew, and the dark, yellow ringed Pokémon watching from the shadows of the branches above.
A Crossblade formed in Mew's tail, orange embers coming together to create it.
The blade was infernal, charring his tail black as he held it, its hilt smoky, the fiery bauble at its end animated, burning, like the three flame-shaped blades all held together by a pulsing, black orb in the center, breathing life into the impossible metallic fires. Of all the Crossblades I'd seen, this was the most colorful, its heat causing the air around Mew to simmer. I worried what that might have meant for Young, who, through the heat distortion, I could still see, vulnerable as the fire-pronged weapon loomed over her.
Down went the blade, a stinger of fire ready to plunge through the two and nail them to the ground. Davidson, nearest to the action, swung a fist forward, grabbing the end of the weapon. He staggered its blow, one of the blade's edges touching Young's body. A tug-of-war between Mew and Davidson, one pulling away, the other only concerned with making his point by driving it through Young. As the rodent Pokémon bailed, rolling off of Mew and climbing the small crater, Mew relinquished his grip on the Crossblade, letting Davidson have it, an unanticipated action. The large Pokémon's arm flew high, hurling the blade into the tree, where it stuck out like an axe. Right away, sparks burst from the wood, loud crackling and intense heat scorching the bark. It caught, tongues of flame throwing themselves high. A cacophony of cracks and snaps sounded, the flames traveling up the trunk, to the branches, racing around the tree like they were alive and hungry.
Wait. This is bad.
Fire? Forest? Bad. Watching the flames climb the dead, dry tree, casting wild lights on the shadows below, I felt a sickening tug at my gut. We couldn't put this out. We couldn't call anyone for this. Holy shit, the whole place was history, and that was all it took?! Some random Crossblade?!
"Paige! Paige, is Lucia still in there?!" Anne asked.
"I don't know where she is! She was out here when it all kicked off!" Paige answered, so close to me that I'd almost jumped. She faced me. "Hey. Are you going to take care of this, or do I have to steal it?"
She offered me the Bell, its luster not quite the same as before, from knowing what it could do to the flames that colored it red. I nodded, took the thing, heard it ring, and planted its cold surface firmly against the front of my neck. I shut my eyes while I did the strap behind me, fumbling around with fingerless hands 'till I heard the satisfying click. With everything in place, I swallowed just to test the tightness – yeah, it was uncomfortable, but dammit I was ready to take that over all else. I couldn't have Mew just up and 'will' the thing off my ear. He was going to need to choke it off of me this time.
"Paige, you're quick," Young groaned, grouping up with our makeshift team. He wasn't well. A lot of the fur around his chest and belly was singed black. He walked weakly, winged arms out as not to irritate the injury. "Get in there. Find some of the salvaged fire extinguishers!"
"WHAT?! You mean in the tree that's ON FIRE?" Paige contested."
"Do it, girl!" Young commanded, the black, shady Pokémon running to his side.
"Let it go," said the umbral Pokémon, his nose touching against the smaller's cheek. "We need to leave."
"Like SHIT we're leaving, Lee! That's a lot of stuff we're just letting burn, and I'm not giving any of it up! Somebody, get in there! Stanley?! You're a fire Pokémon! Do something!" the rowdy Young barked, shaking his head away from the darker 'mon named Lee. Katalyn's dad, huh?
"Already on it!" responded the tall bird, voice roaring over a crackling inferno. It'd sounded like his voice had been swallowed midway through his statement, as if he was heading behind a wall of sorts. I checked back where I thought I heard him and just about caught a peek of a his like white hair... stuff vanish into the tree's arch, the heel of a bird-like foot kicking up dirt.
"We don't have enough to put that out. Young!" Anne called. I couldn't see her anywhere. All I saw when I focused back on the elephant in the room, so to speak, was a recovering Mew, steadily rising over the crater, Crossblade wrapped up in his tail. I checked to make sure I wasn't losing it – no, the thing wasn't wedged into the tree anymore, but the tree was going up fast, the smell of smoke stifling the Grove, almost masking the pungent Gamma, were it not for an already ashen familiarity. Mew looked to cradle his big head in his paws, sad, rife with the pain I was sure the Crossblade brought.
"I didn't...!" Mew panted, composure absent. He visibly shook, tail twitching with the weapon. "I didn't... get... away? I thought I got away... Why do I have this?!"
"The Crossblade?" I answered him, as branches began to fall and crash into the ground, fortunately not too near us. "It spreads, right? You and all the other... Champions – don't they have it, too?"
"But I'm not... Am I...? I don't seem to... At least, I wouldn't call myself that. Would I? I..." he vacillated, while shadows danced around him. "I'm a Pokémon. I'm the purest Pokémon there is! I... did this! I managed this all by myself, so why...?! Why do I still have this... this THING?!"
I couldn't answer him. I'd already given what I thought was the answer. The next best thing I had was to tell him that the... non-Pokémon side gave it to him...
"Me..." I said, meek. "If I played any kinda part that you said I did, being Scion and all, then... it was me. But, I don't want-"
"You did, you did," he spoke over me, eyes shooting through his paws, piercing me like arrows. I moved my head back. "You did give it to me. It hurts... How did I get rid of it?"
"I... huh," I breathed out. It must've eluded him. The cracking of the flames was growing louder. "I don't think you'd wanna do that. It would mean you'd have to commit to your own death. I-I mean, you may as well."
"But I can't," he cried out, the scorch mark along his tail blackening like a fuse. "The times I've come close, I couldn't! It's not possible! I can never get rid of this, and you're the one who gave it to me."
"Ugh, I can't help you! I don't know what your problem is – besides the Crossblade, you've got way more than I'm willing to try and figure out. I'm not going to help you spread some kind of Gamma, and you're not getting the Bell!" I told him, resolute. Felt good. Nothing significant, but I stuck up for myself and it sounded better than I thought it would coming from this voice. I could... get used to it!
"That's right," Anne spoke the second she was allowed. "You're nothin' to me no more – just a man on a power trip. I reckon you done me a favor, changin' yerself from Jonathan. I ain't need to feel bad about leavin' you behind."
No indication came of whether or not Mew took that well. He looked at us with the same intense, sad inflection as before, head low, gaze shooting through his arms like a child who'd just rubbed his eyes from crying up a fit. I squinted, as if to find anything underneath that. Anger? Fury? More outburst? Apprehensive, I shuddered, rolled my shoulders, and treated my chest to a few deep breaths to settle myself down from all the cinematic tension. I was right to feel this way. It wasn't over. Besides the raging fire quickly finding a route to the base of the tree, Mew was too eerily still for it to mean nothing. He wanted one more go at us, had it been from a vengeful place or somewhere else. He had an ambition, but it was vague, cloudy with the teetering polarity of a lunatic.
"All I need," he began, a sinister tone, breathy, crazed. "Is the one person who can still make all my work mean anything. From Molly and Drew to the Wave, I can salvage it." he stopped, but his eyes kept speaking to me.
I wonder if this was why he hated you.
Because he needed you.
At least, he needed somebody...
But I never did get to know him,
because I was put here instead.
"Please," he begged, vulnerable, pitiful. "I can still make it right. I can still prove my worth. I'll show you all how devoted I am," continued the breathless Pokémon. None of us answered. No point to it. "I just... All I want is to be what Aza dreamed of."
He raised his tail, molten foreblade pointed for us. Arching his back, he looked at the ready to make an attack, despite the disadvantage he was facing in numbers. With the Crossblade and the awareness of his own Pokémon powers, to what he'd displayed so far, I was still worried for what remained of the Grove. They could fight, and they would have needed to put every last drop of strength into a scrap with this guy, then take care of the collateral damage it'd caused. The smell of smoke, bellowing off the tree, stressed any future the Grove had. Time was burning dry.
Only then, my ears stood. Somebody rumbled, thick with bass.
"The Death Knell cometh." the voice bellowed.
"Shit." Young uttered.
An amorphous shape began to assimilate itself into the ground, forming just beneath the distressed Pokémon. A cloudy, red pool coated the grass and dirt, some of it bubbling as to suggest it was fluid, and boiling at that. It smelled of petrol. Not two or some seconds after its formation, red-stained arms of differing sizes lurched from the bloody mass, organic, yet stripped of their skin, mimicking the anatomy of humans – mostly humans, with some unrecognizable messes of bone in there. Any of which that could grab Mew did, a couple seizing his feet, the base of his tail, and one even large enough to hold his whole midsection. Mew fought back, as more bony arms reached from the strange, eldritch puddle, clutching their fingers, some broken. Despite the recipient, the idea of that lurking under my own feet goaded a few quick glances to the ground, an uncomfortable step away from the scene, and a quick check to see how far the fire had gone. My neck popped quietly. Looked around so quickly that I'd forgotten how tightly I'd bound the Bell to myself.
"Knell! Don't THINK I didn't suspect you!" Mew raged out, flailing so wildly that it must have hurt him, twisting himself, whipping his tail and crashing his Crossblade into the skeletal arms below, several them shattering, freeing him – one more arm persisted, tugging his foot down. He pulled away from it with enough strength to break its hold, and its fingers. The action was awful to watch, the cracking of bones drumming over the cracking of fire. "You're not ALLOWED to think! Get out here!"
I assumed this newcomer obliged, a tall figure rushing out from a distant treeline at nightmarish, breakneck speed, his form smoky as it tried to keep up. The unsettling, jagged motions in which the form moved appeared like something straight out of a horror film, swerving through the Grove like terrain meant jack-all, until it stopped behind Mew, standing over him, no momentum carried through – he just stopped like was never moving, or he was there all along. This thing was absolutely freaking awesome. Edgy as fuck, but awesome – a dark-furred fox, nothing like Lee over here. It was as tall as a person – well, a human. Its legs were bulky, its torso oddly small, black fur jetting from its shoulders like flames, thin, bent arms leading to paws with three vicious, red claws each. A gust of wind, swept up from the flames, blew his large, spiky red mane to one side, the entire ponytail-resembling thing almost the length of his whole body.
When Mew turned around to face this monstrosity of a Pokémon, tie kicked up in the motion, the other was already swerving again, seemingly still while he did it. His smoky, gray form reconstituted in Mew's blind spot, so I'd imagined. Then, the tall Pokémon made a move, getting low, while the pool of red summoned a final object. A pole with a terrible, crimson blade at its end, shuddering eye fixed at the center of the ornate sickle. Orochi, I thought. It had to be Orochi – it was like the edgiest Symbi Tophs came up with and it was perfect for this guy, whose claws clamped shut around the weapon like a vice-grip, its emergence having launched Mew upward. Orochi's wielder followed this through, taking the sickle in his second set of claws and thrusting high, a chain releasing itself from the sickle's mechanical blade. Of the same aesthetic as the hands before it, this chain also ended in a metallic human hand, which caught Mew before he could catch himself.
Biting down, Mew looked fed up with all the grappling. He flicked his tail down, letting go of his Cross. It fell for Orochi's wielder, dropping along the sickle's chain, forcing the other to withdraw from his attack. Mew managed to wrestle himself free of the chain as it returned to the scythe blade, though he was flung over to us – at least in our direction, before his... what, floaty power, kicked in and saved him, which I was going to need to learn to do if it was a psychic-type thing. He looked over his shoulder and found me, still just standing here, waiting for somebody to come and direct me somewhere. I thought for a moment, was it really him? Was I supposed to go with him? I didn't want to second-guess myself, but... Molly was...
Young stepped ahead of me, still staggering over his wound.
"Alright, look," he said, turning his head a tad. "Cruce. Y'see that stream? That water – see where it goes, right around the bend in the trees? You follow that. You keep on going until you get to the meteorite."
"Wait, wait, what?! What am I doing and why am I doing it?!" I asked.
"Don't make me repeat myself," he spoke over me. "Okay? You're gonna get out of here, you're gonna go into that rock just like Caden did, and you're going to be our last goddamn hope. You got that?!"
"I'm sorry, what the—No!" I argued, gulping back the urge to call Young crazy, lest I get smacked. It hit me, though, just like a smack would – into the rock like Caden? That was the same shit Alli told me about. He went into that. I took my Bell between my red paws and looked into its sheen. "Wait. Meteorite – what—where does that go? What does that do?"
"Secany said," Young huffed, impatient. "You'll be okay. Everything points to you being living, breathing Element Gamma Scion."
"But that's not-" he stopped me.
"Stop bitching," he spun about, giving me the grief and guilt of his injury and his glare. "You're Scion. It's not our call; Gamma said so, and now you'll live with it. You wanna be Cruce? Fine! Be Cruce! You're a Gamma being – do whatever you want! You may have fallen asleep as Cruce, but you woke up to the Wave, and this was what you got! I knew you wouldn't want to hear it, especially not from some Delta Meadow wash-up like me."
I was speechless. Were Young any taller, right about now he would have been shaking my shoulders. I pictured it. I almost felt it. His eyes were sociable, small black tears foreboding his coming turn to Flux. I was amazed, with all this distress, he hadn't turned already.
Branches continued to break apart, the sunlight filtered an even brighter, paler red through the fumes blowing off of the fire's own wind.
"Hey," Lee said to me, collected. I turned my focus to him. "I know you're a good kid. Always filled a hole in Kat's heart. You and your cousin. I know shit's complicated, too. Maybe you're like me and don't understand a word of this, but then you open your eyes, look around you, and... yeah. It's all for real. And here we are, right?"
"We've all talked 'bout it, 'Hon," Anne approached me. Everyone was... consoling me – trying to make me feel okay. My chest was warm with the sentiment. "What'cha think we're up there in that tree doin' anyway? 'N why else would Young have a fit over losin' all that info he'd done stored?"
"Anne..." Young grumbled.
"Mhm," the doe Pokémon giggled, even as sparks flew, weapons colliding behind her, the clang on clang of metal telling of a fight between Mew and the wielder of Orochi. Seemed like Mew couldn't get him off of his back. I watched it while Anne spoke, not as to give the impression I wasn't listening, but... I just didn't find comfort in the idea of being told I was Scion, then told to deal with it. It answered nothing. "Cruce, you know what one of them Champion gals told us? She said Laza was a fake all along – the little dear thinkin' he could turn us humans into Pokéfolk?"
"Luna?" I asked.
"That's right," she nodded. "And when Young came around with all them findings from Delta Meadow, we put these things together. It's as simple as how it started. Two boys may's well've been bonked some on the head and knocked out by them meteorites. My baby Drew, and you. Two agents spreading Gamma – it's been you two the whole time."
"Luna had special privileges to spread as much as she did, and they came from whatever's inside that meteorite," Young added, pointing at me. "This man? This 'Pokémon'? He can't have you. That's why you're going to go in there, and you're going to take your Bell, so you have a way out. When this world goes to shit, you'll come back with all your friends, and you'll fix it, because you're Cruce, the Gamma being."
Cruce, the Gamma being? So I was like Vay, too. I thought on it, gave it a few seconds to ring around in my head. I even jingled the Bell just to accent it. If I didn't spread the Pokémon Gamma, I spread the... Hypereal one. Somehow. You know what? It didn't matter what I spread. Either way was fine, so long as I could just be me. I grew restless, one foot tapping against the ground.
"Scion, Cruce, whatever," I told them, heart going a hundred miles an hour, didn't know what to expect or where it would go. "Let's do it. I'm ready to kick fate in the face. Where do we go? The stream?"
"Not us. You alone," Young reiterated. I was afraid of that. "You get to kick fate with your puny ballerina legs."
"Oh," I shook my head. "Why did I have a feeling you would... Okay, I gotcha. What about you all, then? Are you gonna be okay? Fire's getting out of control, and Davidson's not back yet."
"We can't stay here," Anne spoke over Young, who looked like he wanted to punch something. "Even if we did manage to save everything, there's a chance the dregs of Delta Meadow'd come in and take it all for 'emselves. It's time we found somewhere new."
"Yeah, 'n since Knell decided to go rogue again..." Young said, turning to watch the intensity break down between Mew and 'Knell'. Pretty nasty, too, considering they were fighting over water, splashes shooting out from the shallow stream as Orochi's Pokémon wielder landed, missing a swipe on a floating Mew, his tail fully burnt black thanks to the Crossblade. He seemed to be no good at going in for an attack, only swerving out of the way when it mattered. Mew wasn't fighting comfortably. I took it he didn't even want to fight. He just wanted me and my Bell, and I was about to cheat him out of both.
In the distant shadows, another Pokémon was watching, fleecy covered paws touching against a tree as he, or she, safely monitored the battle. Looked like a tall, brown bunny of sorts, based on the ears, nearly touching the ground. Who was that?
"Cruce?" Young called. I acknowledged him, thinking he was still stood in front of me. He was at my side this time. One of his paws tickled along my back. I let my tails go low so he could rub it or do whatever he wanted. The winglike skin flap under his arm traced across my spine. "What... Lee said. You've been there for Katalyn. I know it won't mean much coming from me, but thanks. I hope we get to see more of that."
"Me... too," I sighed, unsure how to feel – if I wanted to smile or frown. Must've been what Katalyn felt whenever I showed up to annoy her at lunch. "I hope she's all good with me the way I am now. You know... suckin' Vay's-... Sorry."
"Pfft," he laughed – well, almost. His paw left my back. "You kids need to work that out between yourselves. Don't sweat it. Just save the world 'n shit, and everything after that should be no prob. Right?
And if you're worried about whether or not she'll like you because you're Scion, well... stop that, you dumb kid."
Who... is Young?
I looked at him, and he looked back with his... uninterested glare, but behind the grumpy eyelids, he seemed content that he got to be here with me, telling me these things about Katalyn, who shouldn't have mattered to him at all – was he someone important to her? The way Lee... nuzzled into him earlier... Did I miss something? Did it really matter?
"What're you looking at, kid? Get moving," he slapped my back, pushing me forward, the Bell ringing to my few footsteps. It actually hurt, too! Frick me, I knew I was going to get smacked by him. "Now! Down the stream, 'round the bend. Go!"
I gave them all one last look over, the adults and Paige all there watching me off. I pictured Davidson with 'em, maybe with a bunch of fire extinguishers all hugged up in his arms while the massive inferno just burned their home away and no one did a thing about it. I chuckled, grinned, and gave them that dumb, toothy face, hoping it told them I put all the faith I could in their cause. Lined up, watching me go, I couldn't help but roll my eyes as I turned around, not out of spite, just 'cause everyone was going to give me such crap when I told them that the Grove burnt down. That came in two parts – one was that, but the other was from a good place, that I would actually see everybody again. Even Mew said they were fine, and I was going to go find them. The Paradox. It had to be the Paradox. 'Sides being the most ambiguous name for a place outside of a theme park or some kind of convention or science museum, I had nothing to go off of other than 'Bell', 'Caden', and 'where Luna got her privileges'.
I got where Young was talking about. The stream did go past a bank where shrubbery and trees hung overhead, just like the sight of the river out over the bridge, outside the Grove. I took to all fours and stepped into the waters, still frigid as ever, but I ran through it, even as it splashed into my chest and riddled my fur and chin with frosty droplets. Better than burning alive or choking on smoke any day, even if the day didn't want to move on to the next. Still, if ever there was a time that I wanted something and didn't really know how to get it, this was one, running forward without looking back, imaging what it would have been like for me to be away at Metedia High, while the rest of the Circle sat in silence, maybe on their phones. Still, Alli told me straight-up I was no hot-shot. That was just 'cause she was angry, and if she held true to what she said when we were holding onto each other for dear life, she was about to get angry again, because I was coming in there after her. I wanted to see her sour, jealous skywisp face again, hug her, and tell her she was the hottest shot of 'em all. Then, maybe Vay would'a got the same treatment and that would've made Alli jealous all over again. I smiled, even through the cool spray. I wanted 'em back.
"GET BACK HERE! I am NOT FINISHED with you!" he blared. Mew. My spine tingled, ankles of my hind legs stiffening. Why? It slowed me down, my feet landing with less intent, the splashes little, cold stinging worse. It was like a ghost was on my back. Wasn't he occupied? That was Knell he was yelling at, right?
I hazarded a look back. He was in a mad, soaring dash after me, the Crossblade poised over him like a scorpion's tail prompted to strike. I took in one other detail: his face. The effects of his Cross burnt him all the way to his head, fur on his face blackened, smoldering. That was all I needed to see! I took to a full sprint, flicking my rear legs through the water so quickly that I'd lost traction, kicking up poorly, setting my front paws down as if to catch me like I'd tripped. It hurt, and I cursed it, but even as I felt the furious heat from Mew's charge singe my tails, I kept my distance somehow, crossing the treeline, where hundreds of leafy arms met above, the trail of icy water governing their direction.
Short breaths. Acidic taste on my mouth, smoke, freezing water hitting my tongue and teeth, the Bell ringing. What was I going to do?! How could I get into the meteorite?! How would I have time?! I flattened my ears, biting my tongue through the brashness, ear-shattering cracks of Mew's molten blade telling me I had nothing to spare. It was my Bell. It was my home!
This was it then. I had no room for error!
"Squiggles says a-NO! :C" I heard, clairvoyant, entering my head not as a sound, but a... depiction? A face? Some sort of expression unlike Mew's before, but somehow similar. That was how she communicated to me prior, but where was she?! Why was she here?! HOW was she here?!
Then came twenty or so loud, heavy whooshes behind me, the whole woodland going dark, quiet. So, so quiet, I thought, as my tiny splashes came to a stop, all the frenzy behind put out like a torch through rushing water.
...
I was good? I brought myself up, standing on my back legs. I sniffed. Smoldering cedar and oak, sure, but the caustic, rusty smell was gone. I looked back. Layer after layer of black, crawling appendages latched together, crossing the river gap, holding themselves tightly to the trees on either side. There was nothing beyond them but a gentle flicking, fiery glow in the gap that separated the bottom from the flowing water, the branches – Mew set more than the center tree on fire.
I heard nothing from Mew or Squiggles. I heard nothing from anybody behind that wall of... ghost arms? Nothing but the crickets, the frogs, and the gentle flow of the creek, ignoring the fires – they were in a different world to the water, and I was given a chance to be the same. Thanking the impeccably timed Squiggles under my breath, even putting in the same nasal accent to my voice that she liked, I turned and walked on.
To Be Continued...
