Reminder from last chapter, this chapter contains dark thoughts and actions. If you are at all sensitive to these subjects, please skip this chapter.
Logan emerged onto the battlefield without a word. He looked at him opponent. The Pansage looked up at him rather nervously. The tall fox towered over him, and the power difference could be seen just by looking at them.
"Logan, please listen to me. Just use Dark Pulse. You don't need to burn him. Just one hit and it's over." Logan for once didn't offer any protest or arguments. A dark glow formed around his body, and a dark wave of energy shot out from his body. The Pansage was hit, and immediately went down. Logan didn't try to follow up, maul, or kill the Pansage. 'Maybe he's learning?' It was a little anticlimactic, but after the previous times Logan had "battled," Ben would happily take that. Cilan recalled the Pansage and walked up to Ben.
"Well I have no idea where or how you got such a Pokémon so early into your journey, but you won fair and square! Here is your reward for beating the Gym. The Trio Badge!" Cilan placed the tall, slim, tri colored badged into Ben's webbed hand. Ben looked at it happily. 'One down, seven to go.' He opened the badge case he had in his backpack and set the badge in the first slot. "And take this TM. It's for the Move Work Up." He pulled the disk from a pocket in his apron and set that in Ben's hand too, which he placed in the corresponding pouch in his backpack. "Your strategy to beat Pansage was solid. You just got extremely unlucky. If you continue to develop your battling prowess, I predict you'll make it far in this league!"
Cilan extended his hand, which Ben grabbed an shook with gusto. He was on top of the world right now. Sure it was only his first badge, but he'd been waiting so very long to do this. He pumped his fist, thanked Logan for his help, and ran out the door. Logan emerged a minute later. Ben's elated mood did make him show a small smile for a bit.
"So, what's next?" Ben looked back at Logan, beaming with pride.
"Well, it's too late to move on, so we'll heal the rest of the team and rest up at our room in the center for the night, and set off in the morning. Route 3 should only take a day and a few hours to traverse. So let's get back to the center." Logan nodded and the duo returned to the Pokémon Center. They ate a quick meal, Ben bought some Psychic Type Pokechow for Munna from the Mart, and fed Munna and Oshawott too. After that, they returned to their room.
Ben took his backpack and belt off as he usually did, and climbed into the bed, it was getting rather late, and he wanted to get a decent start to tomorrow. He looked over at Logan and noticed something odd. "Where did you get that phone?"
Logan didn't turn to look at him as he answered. "My parents got it for me when I was in High School."
"Not what I meant, I mean where do you keep it? You don't exactly have pockets."
"I keep it in my mane. It may be short by Zoroark standards, but it can still hold a few things. Huh, the Blues actually won today. Don't see that often these days." With that, Logan stored the device back in his mane. Ben had often heard about Zoroark's keeping things in their manes, usually their young, but he'd never actually seen it. Which made sense considering this was the first Zoroark he'd ever seen. It was quite something though. He would never know it was there if he didn't see it do in.
"How do you keep it charged?"
"I knew a Pikachu back on Route 1. Only Electric Type I ever saw there, and I promised him if he charged my phone when I needed it done, he wouldn't be on my menu. He readily agreed to the proposal." Well it may have been unorthodox, but Ben had to admit, it was smart. Ben couldn't help but think that something was off with Logan's current behavior, but maybe he was imagining it. With that, the duo curled up in their respective beds, and went to sleep.
January 8th, 2019. 30 minutes before dawn.
The alarm setting on Ben's phone went off as he'd set it early today. There was something in Route 2 he wanted to get to and enjoy for a while. He looked over and saw that Logan was just sitting in bed. 'What is wrong with you? Why re you just sitting in bed? Why aren't you eating like you did every morning when I met you?' "Morning Logan."
"Mornin." Logan got up and... well he didn't get ready for the day because he didn't need to grab anything. All he needed was his pelt. Ben didn't take much longer to get ready, as all he had to do was brush his teeth and put on his belt and backpack. After that they went down to grab a quick breakfast. Well Ben and the ferals Pokémon did. Logan didn't even attempt to get anything. Ben was very concerned. He asked Logan about it, but all he got was a deadpan, "Not hungry." He didn't hear any growling from Logan's stomach, so maybe he really wasn't hungry and that was it. He elected not to argue about it.
They set out just after sunup. They made their way through the gardens bordering Route 3, which Ben couldn't help but stop and smell a few flowers, and they set out into Route 3. Logan was walking behind him and was thinking hard. 'He cares about you ya know.'
'Yes, I know.'
'You know what's gonna happen right? You're gonna slip. You're gonna put yourself in the same situation as-'
Logan growled quietly. 'Don't you dare mention that! I'm moving on! I'm never allowing myself to go through that again!'
'Hehehe. You think you have a choice.' Logan growled again, which didn't go unnoticed by Ben.
"You ok?" Logan just nodded.
As they travelled, Ben made sure to stick to the tall grass as much as possible. There was one Pokémon that could be found here that he wanted. After a number of battles, with both Munna and Oshawott, since they both needed plenty of training if the Gym battle was any indication, he found what he was looking for. Blitzle. There were two Types Ben preferred above any other. Electric and Steel. He sent Munna out, since Logan would knock it out with his weakest attack, and Oshawott would get fried by whatever Electric Attacks it may have. The Blitzle was way faster and elected to use Tail Whip to start, lowering Munna's guard and making him more susceptible to Physical Attacks. "Start off with Psybeam!" A beam of Psychic energy shot from Munna and landed center of mass on the Blitzle, doing a significant amount of damage. The Blitzle responded with a Quick Attack, which did connect, but even with the lowered Defense, it didn't do a huge amount of damage due to the Level gap. "Ok now let's try a Hypnosis!" A few moments later, Blitzle was asleep. Ben chose to use a Great Ball. He wanted to catch this thing. His arm was good and the zebra-like Pokémon was sucked in, and within a couple seconds, Ben had a Blitzle. "Yes!" Ben checked the Pokedex once it buzzed with new information. "'Its mane shine when it discharges electricity, They use their flashing manes to communicate with one another.' Huh, cool." He sent the sleeping out, used an Awakening, and a Potion, bringing it back to fighting shape. He stepped up to his new partner and stroked his mane as he checked the Moveset. "Ok Level 10, Quick Attack, Tail Whip, and Charge. Though if I remember properly, you can learn Shock Wave at Level 11. You're a cute little guy. Now, let's get you trained up."
Over the next several hours, apart from a quick lunch break, Ben focused largely on his new Blitzle. It had a bit before it caught up, but towards the end of the day, Oshawott and Munna were level 15, and Blitzle was Level 13, and had learned Shock Wave. Which would work well when combined with Charge.
Around an hour before sundown, Ben spotted what he wanted to get to. A large lake. He let out a happy squeaking sound and he ran the rest of the way. Logan ran on all fours and effortlessly kept up. He wasn't even going half speed, a testament to how fast Zoroarks could were. They were built for speed and power.
Once they reached the lake, Ben breathing rather heavily with Logan not even breaking a sweat, which made sense considering canines couldn't sweat, Ben took off his belt and bag. He sent Oshawott out to enjoy the fun. Munna and Blitzle wouldn't like this. Ben and Oshawott dove in head first. Their fur was totally waterproof, and they were made for swimming. Ben was swimming very skillfully. His flexible body twisting and turning with ease. After a couple moments, Logan joined them, after putting his phone in Ben's bag. Whereas Ben used his webbed fingers and streamlined fur to move quickly, Logan used his raw strength. He wasn't quite able to keep pace with Ben, but he was very close. He was no where near as agile though. Ben could turn on a dime, whereas Logan turned more like an aircraft carrier. Before too long, all three of them were laughing and having fun, even Logan. He was actually enjoying himself for the first time in the longest time.
As the sun went down, they elected to get out. As Ben was drying off the top of his fur, he noticed something. "Oh dear lord, what is that smell?"
"Oh yeah wet fox apparently smells a lot like wet dog, so now we have that to enjoy." Logan got on all fours and shook himself violently. He managed to dry a good bit of his fur, but he still smelled terribly. "This is why I don't bathe."
Everyone ate dinner, Logan included, leading Ben to think that Logan was perhaps just not hungry that morning. After that, Ben began setting up camp as Logan finished drying off his fur.
'You slipped. It's too late to go back now.' Logan realized it. He'd let his guard down, and it was indeed too late to go back, or maybe it wasn't. He went to the backpack and fetched his phone, and his bottle of whiskey. Maybe he could forget this. As Ben finished up, he made an illusion of himself go into the tent and curl up to sleep, but in reality, he began drinking, a lot.
Two hours later, the bottle fell from his hand. The bottle, which before he started, was nearly full, was now more than half empty. It was a lot of alcohol, and it had the opposite of the effect he was hoping for. Instead of forgetting what he wanted to forget, he was reminded of why he wanted to forget it. The event that made him behave the way he did. He could hear voices in his head. One of which was his. The other...
Logan had a complete mental breakdown. He was crying his eyes out, and the pain of the memories he'd been trying to bury, pushed him over the edge. His totally inebriated mind lead him to one solution. One that he normally wouldn't consider.
He stumbled into the tent, opened the backpack, and grabbed what he'd been looking for. An Escape Rope.
He stumbled outside, found a tree, threw the rope over a branch about 10 feet off the ground, tied it to the base off the tree, made a loop in the rope, and put it around his neck.
