Circus of Disaster
Special Guest, Gaijin Nekono, appears courtesy of Kuro
It was a peaceful night, as Kameron and I walked hand in hand along the banks of the stream that ran through Siryntown University. Around our ankles, almost tripping us up, Azriel and Shadeon engaged in chasing games with Samantha's ghostly Vulpix. She seemed to be adapting reasonably well to being a shadow pokemon, probably helped by Shadeon, who doted on her as a mother would. Suddenly Kameron pointed at a shape in the sky.
"Isn't that your Dragosi?" He asked.
I stepped back, towards him, staring upwards and indeed he was right. A purple shape, glowing faintly in the moonlight, was circling through the sky.
"What do you think he's doing?" Kameron continued.
"Showing off, I would guess," I replied. In the Dragon Pokemon's wake followed a spiral of stars, twinkling for an instant, then disappearing.
"Perhaps its some sort of ritual."
Suddenly my mind clicked into gear. "A courtship ritual, perhaps?" I pondered, "he certainly has become fond of that Charizard."
The dragosi in the air suddenly seemed to divide into three, all looping around each other.
"That's a double team attack!" Kameron exclaimed.
"Double Team," I spluttered, "shouldn't that be triple team?"
The young man shrugged, "I always thought that myself, but even when there's hundreds of them, they still call it double team."
"Strange…"
It was a beautiful sight, and I quickly grew to wish I had brought my notebook. Wouldn't Doctor Warwick be pleased? To see notes on Dragosi courtship rituals?
Suddenly Kameron grabbed my arm. "Come on Kat, let's find the Charizard!"
He dragged me through the small plot of trees that divided the Zoology block from the Psychology block, and there we saw her.
She was a Charizard all right. A large, red dragon Pokemon with great bat-like wings. And she was sitting there, staring at Dragosi with a puzzled look on her face. After a time she scratched herself behind the horns and yawned, a puff of smoke circling upwards. She turned and walked away.
Dragosi alighted on the roof top and watched her go, his wings drooping.
"Go siii," he muttered sadly.
"Sorry Cassanova," Kameron called to him, "looks like she doesn't fancy you!"
I grabbed him by the arm. "Don't say that!" I hissed.
"But she obviously doesn't," he pointed out, "its like Freyja and Doctor Frances!"
"Perhaps not." For I suspected that since the Charizard and Dragosi were entirely different species, she may not have recognised his courtship dance for what it was. It was a way that animals, and Pokemon, restrained breeding to the right species, and why they rarely interbred in the wild. In captivity, with the help of science, it was possible to breed almost any Pokemon with any other one, but that was not natural. "I think we have to teach him to act like a male Charizard."
"How does a male Charizard act?" Kameron asked.
"That's what we shall have to find out."
Behind us, Shadeon rolled over as Foxfire managed to overpower her again. The Shadow Eevee lay on her back whimpering in submission (a huge grin on her face) whilst the tiny Vulpix sat on her, snarling proudly.
Until Azriel, over excited as he often was, careened into the both of them and sent Foxfire flying.
"Come on guys," I called, "time to go to the library!"
"Umbre…" Azriel muttered, pouncing on one of Foxfire's three tails.
"Oh, come on Kat," Kameron complained, "its such a nice night, why do we have to go to the library now? Won't your Dragon matchmaking wait until tomorrow?"
"I suppose so," I admitted, although I was as unwilling to give up on a good idea as anyone.
As we were walking further along the river's edge, Kameron suddenly grabbed my arm again and pointed at something. There was a man standing on the over bridge. As we watched, he dropped something large into the water. Then, calmly walked away.
"Man," I muttered to myself, "I hate it how these College boys always litter."
Kameron made no reply, which made me turn to look at him. A look of concentration was across his face, almost one of pain. Suddenly he released my hand and ran forward, jumping into the river.
Well, it was more of a stream really, and not very deep, not more then maybe a foot or two. But it was very muddy and Kameron quickly slipped down to waist deep. I hurried after him.
"I know I hate litterers!" I shouted, "but isn't this going a bit far?"
I reached the point on the bank about the same instant as he grabbed the sack and dragged it from the water, struggling to the shore.
"If I see him again, I shall kill him," Kameron snarled, as he dragged himself ashore.
Even that was harsh for Kameron, especially when all the guy had done was drop a bag of rubbish, was it?
Something told me it was more serious then that.
I helped Kameron tear open the sack and felt a similar sense of anger when I saw what was within it.
Three puppies, tiny scraps of fur. Quickly we fished them from the wet bag and I picked up one, whilst Kameron grabbed two, and we tucked them under out jackets and rushed them back to my quarters.
A rather confused bunch of Shadow Pokemon (and Azriel) followed us, Shadeon leaping up the side of the building to disappear through the wall. Foxfire followed suit.
Azriel, as hyperactive as ever, attempted to leap through the wall, but lacking the ability to turn insubstantial, bounced off of it with a yelp, and hastily groomed himself, trying to look as if he had done it on purpose.
We, however, had other things on our mind, as we raced the puppies inside.
Ozmos, her pups now old enough to be a nuisance, refused to adopt the three new foundlings, complaining that she had enough to look after, what with her six over-enthusiastic children and all. So, once again, Kameron and I became Pokemon parents, for the second time in less then two weeks.
The first night was horrible, and two of the pups died, the last one struggling through bravely. We got very little sleep at all, especially with Fenrill, after we nominated her surrogate mum, complaining that we really should be doing something about her remaining sisters.
Because she thought it was urgent, we had been travelling to save her sisters as quickly as possible, but because she had to teleport us, we had to wait several days between each rescue so as she could recover. The strain was plainly taking its toll. She looked skinnier then I had ever seen her before, her ribs showing through her soft pink fur. Tomorrow we were supposed to be travelling somewhere to save one of her two remaining sisters.
"You know," Kameron remarked, staring around my room, which was filled with Pokemon, "any day now they are going to throw you out of here."
I glanced at my room, which was a two bed dwelling, although one bed was currently covered in a female Vaporeon nursing three pups, whilst another two had a hearty tug of war with the pillow and the sixth one was clambering up the curtains with the aid of Florion – the proud father teaching his pup to climb.
Maki and Kiki were sitting beside the television, dismantling the remote control and Flora was attempting to eat Chiko's head leaf and getting cuffed around in the process.
Fenrill, on the other hand, was sitting beside us, nursing a puppy of some description and whining.
"I imagine I will have to adopt the pups out," I replied. "But at least my place isn't as mad as yours."
"I know," he replied, as Shadeon and Foxfire bounced through the wall and tousled on the bed. "You can have my Marill if you like. A few weeks ago she developed a crush on Ash's Pikachu."
"But she's never met Ash," I replied, startled.
"I know, but she just sits there all day watching re-runs of the old show on television. I think I might have to let her go soon, for her sanity's sake."
I chuckled, "wasn't that always the plan? To let her go?"
"Yes, well…"
I knew as well as he did that we had grown so attached to our Pokemon that it would be hard to let them go, but truth be told, we had too many of them to give them the attention they deserved.
"So, why do you think these pups were dumped?" I picked up the sole survivor and investigated it closely. Its fur was dark black-brown, bar for an orange-tinged mane about its chest and a white skull-like plate between its ears. When I looked closely I realised that it had striped as well, although they were almost invisible against its dark fur.
Kameron snapped out his Pokedex and pushed the buttons. "Okay," he said, after a moment, "I'm getting two readings here, one says it is a Growlithe, the other a Derubiru, or Houndour."
"It's a hybrid," I replied. "I'd guess that the owner was an Arcanine breeder and one of his bitches got mated by a wild Houndoom."
"And once he realised that his pups weren't purebreds, he drowned them," Kameron concluded, taking the pup from me. "Don't worry Lucifer, I'll look after you!"
"Lucifer? You're going to call it Lucifer?"
"Why not, don't you think it looks a little like a devil-dog?" The pup let out a mewing sound and sucked on Kameron's finger.
"Oh yes," I replied, "it's very vicious, very vicious indeed!"
*
Two days later and the pup seemed in the peak of health. Now it was Kameron suffering from lack of sleep, as we were forced to sleep in dormitories on opposite sides of the campus and he had totally taken over parenting duties to the little one. Lucifer seemed to grow fast, and after two days he had put on enough weight to mean we were able to leave him alone for extended periods of time. The parenting duties had given me time to do some research on Charizard mating rituals, but all efforts at reading were somewhat disturbed by a whining Mew.
"He could have caught my sisters by now already!" Fenrill complained loudly, pushing an over-eager pup from her chest. Her fur seemed less glossy then ever, almost dull. I was beginning to worry about her.
We were disturbed by a rap at the door.
I answered it, letting Freyja in. She too looked terrible, her eyes were red and surrounded by large dark bags, as though she had not slept in too many nights.
"I need your help," she declared.
"Are your psychology lectures getting too hard?" I queried. After some persuasion from Doctor Warwick, Freyja had taken up a couple of courses, partly so she could remain living on campus.
She shook her head. "No, he's haunting me."
"Who?"
She gulped. "Loki."
"Haunting you? He's somewhere on campus?"
Again, she shook her head, "no but he's in my dreams, and every time I close my eyes he's there, laughing at me."
"His psychic powers are growing," Fenrill informed me, "he cannot suck the power from all of my sisters at once, the power involved would kill him, or blow his mind. He must take them one at a time."
"And that's why he's left you?" I asked.
Fenrill nodded, whilst Freyja, who could only hear my half of the conversation, frowned. "He knows where I am, he knows you are trying to stop him. Therefore, it stands to reason that when he needs me, he will be able to find me."
"And the remaining Mews?"
"Will be as weak as kittens until he is destroyed, or the power drawn from him."
"What is going on? Are you going to help me or not?" Freyja was becoming puzzled.
I reached out and patted her lightly on the back of her hand. "If you wish to oppose Loki, then we shall help you at every step of the way."
"Thank you," she cried, tears beginning to glisten in her eyes. Suddenly she lunged forward and squeezed me in a rather surprising hug. "You can't know how terrible it is, to see his face every time you close your eyes, every time you so much as blink."
I nodded. "We shall help you, won't we Fenrill?"
"You mean we are finally going to save my sister? Certainly!" She did a little loop-de-loop in the air.
*
"This can't seriously be where the Mew is," Kameron complained, as we stared over the quaint little town. It sort of had an Olde English look to it, with two storey wooden houses.
"It seriously is," Fenrill replied. "She is here, somewhere."
Freyja squeezed her hands together. "I know where we are," she said quietly, "I, I lived here as a child."
"What??!" We both turned to her at once. She shrugged and stared at her feet as though trying to look small and insignificant.
"I lived here until I was sixteen, then I ran away…" She replied so quietly we had to lean forward to hear her. "My parents sent me to a religious boarding school and, I hated every minute of it."
"You ran away from home because you hated school?" I could actually identify with that. I had left home to avoid being sent to a terrible school.
She nodded mutely, and squeezed her hands together. Kiki bounced onto her shoulder and hugged her ear.
"Makiki," she murmured quietly. This seemed to help calm Freyja down. I realised I knew very little about her, aside from the fact that she had been with the dreaded Team Rocket.
Maki was jumping up and down, trying to pull something off of a lamp-post. Kameron turned to give him a hand.
"Hey, look at this!" He exclaimed, "it's a circus!"
The Makimur chittered excitedly.
"So?" Freyja asked.
"I've always liked circuses," Kameron replied, sheepishly. "Can't we go to it?"
I looked at Fenrill, "I'm afraid we have a job to do," I replied, feeling sad for disappointing my boyfriend.
Much to our amazement, Fenrill beamed. "You shall attend the circus," she said, nodding enthusiastically.
"Fenrill, are you okay?"
"My sisters, like me, love excitement and colour, if there is a circus in town, then that is why she is here."
"Well, the Mew says yes," I explained to Freyja. "What do you say?"
Freyja nodded. "If you think things will be alright."
"Of course they will," Kameron patted her on the back, "things always are!"
"I wouldn't go that far," I muttered.
*
It did not take us long to find the Circus grounds. Never before had I seen such a flamboyant display. There was a big top, bright and colourful, with small and bright birds flying around it, leaving in their wake a shower of colourful, but harmless sparks.
Kameron, predictably, pulled out the pokedex.
"Flitterby," it intoned, "the fantail Pokemon. The male Flitterby is bright and inquisitive and creates colourful sparks to attract females and define its territory."
"Never seen those before," I commented, "must be an exotic breed. Hey, where's Maki?"
We both looked at Kiki, she shrugged innocently and beamed at us.
"Kiki, where did he go?"
"Makiki? Makimur!"
I sighed, either she did not know or she didn't want to tell. "Well, Kiki, here is not the place to go wandering off on your own, okay, someone could step on you."
Kameron tugged on my arm and pointed. A young man was standing beside a large armoured elephant Pokemon. A Donphan. I had learned about them in one of the PokeEcology classes. They lived in great herds and devastated forests in their wake, not because they were particularly malicious, just because they were big and had voracious appetites. In times gone by, they had been used in battle, both as steeds and also to break down barricades. This one was staring at the tip of its trunk, on which sat a very small, very bold, pokemon.
"Maki!" I scolded, "come back here!"
The boy beside the Donphan stared at me. "Why is your Pokemon roaming free?" He asked, "Do you not know its dangerous around here?" The Donphan snorted and started rooting in the ground with its long tusks.
I blushed as Maki leapt onto my shoulder, not looking sorry in the least. "Sorry," I replied, "I did not realise that there were restrictions. My Pokemon roams free because he hates being confined. Would you like to be trapped in a tiny room or day, everyday, and only brought out to fight?"
I couldn't help it, this person had found one of my pressure points.
He glared at me, "I do not fight with my friends," he snarled, "but they should not be allowed to wander around without guidance."
Kameron put his hand on my arm to calm me down. "Come on," he said, "there's no point in arguing. You're both right, in your own way."
Freyja just stood there, hugging herself and shaking nervously. I think the lack of sleep was getting to her. No longer, did she look beautiful. She looked haunted.
"So, are you this Donphan's trainer?" Kameron asked.
"Nah, I've just got myself working with the circus for a while, thought it would be a good way to see the countryside. The real Trainer's just stepped out to discuss something with the ringmaster, leaving me holding the old girl here." He patted the powerful Pokemon on the side.
Feeling the anger disippiateing (and thinking that putting Maki in a pokeball would be a nice idea at times), I smiled at the boy minding the Donphan. "Is it good working for the circus?" I asked.
He grinned, "it has its moments, but a lot of the time you're up to your elbows in muck. I'm the general cage cleaner, it seems. I'll tell you what, if Marcus comes back soon, I'll give you two…" he paused for the moment, then noticed Freyja for the first time, "three," he corrected with barely a pause, "a grand tour of the place. How would you like that?"
"What sort of Pokemon have you got?" Kameron asked excitedly.
"Oh," he replied, "a rare maned Persian from the deepest darkest realms of Africa, a Jynx that will make your hair curl…"
"I had a Jynx once," Freyja muttered to herself. I was beginning to wonder if she were going mad.
The young man leaned forward. "What's with her?" He whispered.
"She hasn't slept in days," I replied. "bad dreams."
He nodded. "By the way, in case you wondered, my name is Gaijin, and whom might you be?"
Kameron put out his hand to be shaken. "I'm Kameron, and this is Kiki," he stroked the little Makimur on the forehead.
Gaijin shook his hand, then turned to me.
"I'm Kataryna," I replied, "but most people call me Kat. This is Maki, he's a bit of a scamp."
"MaKI!"
"Well, it's true!"
He bowed to me the looked expectantly at Freyja, who still seemed to be drifting in her own world. I nudged her with my elbow. She blinked furiously a few times.
"I, I'm called Freyja," she replied in a monotone.
Gaijin stared at her for a long moment, then bowed to her also. At that point a rather plump older man hurried over, huffing somewhat.
"Ah, young Gaijin, I trust my beauty has behaved herself?"
"This is Marcus," Gaijin replied, "come on, I'll show you around." He seemed in a hurry to get away. We trailed after him. Noone had noticed Fenrill yet, aware that she was quite a spectacle, she had disguised herself with some sort of psychic shield, one that meant that whilst she was still there and obvious, people just didn't notice her, their eyes sliding over her as though she were non-existent. Freyja was achieving a similar effect without any effort what-so-ever. People either glanced at her quickly then away, or stared at her. She seemed almost like a zombie. I felt sorry for her, despite the fact that she had hurt me so many times, and almost killed Kameron and I on several occasions. It is hard to hate someone in such a pathetic state as she was now.
Gaijin led us first to the Persian pen. It was still on the back of the truck and in it stalked four wild-looking Persian. Two were normal, although there was the faintest trace of spots on their crèam coats. The third was glossy black, like the one that had attacked us back in the Makimur Forest and the fourth… The fourth was the most impressive specimen I had ever seen.
A huge mane flowed around its powerful shoulders, so thick and wild that it touched the ground. It resembled the legendary lions, but even more so. The mane continued down its spine, terminating at the base of its tail.
We were all awestruck.
"This," Gaijin stated, "is Toby, one of our most popular attractions. Wild caught, and capable of tearing your head off with one bite." Toby yawned as if on cue, showing massive canines. Maki hid in my hair, the Persian could have swallowed him without any effort what-so-ever.
The Circus-hand led us further, to a paddock where three Ponyta frisked around in circles excitedly. Beside them a strange little bipedal dog pokemon appeared to be painting on a piece of board using its tail like a paintbrush. And nearby a Mr Mime created invisible walls. As Gaijin leaned over the fence to offer one of the Ponyta a sugar cube, I noticed the sun caught something in his pocket – a gold Pokeball.
"You're a Trainer?" I asked, somewhat surprised.
"Yep," he replied, "in a manner of speaking. But I don't fight."
"Neither do I," I replied, "I think its cruel."
He nodded. "I agree whole-heartedly about that. Too many people think that the entire purpose of Pokemon is to wage war on one another. Its sad."
"And kinda pathetic," I added. "So, what have you got?"
"Three at the moment," he replied, "but one's kinda useless. Meowth, Clefairy and Nidoran." He patted the balls in turn. "I notice you've got quite a full belt of balls yourself."
That wasn't quite true, since I had only brought Chiko, Fenrill, Maki and Flora with me, and one of those was sitting on my shoulder, another hiding in plain sight. "Chikorita and Florion," I replied.
"Florion, what's a Florion?"
I drew out Flora's Pokeball. "Come on out Flora," I called. The little striped pup appeared, and promptly hid behind my leg. "She's only a baby," I replied, "and thus a little shy."
He smiled and released one of his Pokemon. It was a tiny Nidoran, hardly bigger then a kit, although she had huge, bright eyes and adorable buck teeth.
"This is Manami," he replied. "She's only a baby too. I don't know why I've got her, really, but I could hardly leave her there for the dogs to kill."
Very cautiously, Flora stalked around my leg and crawled forward, until she could touch noses with the tiny Nidoran. The moment it moved she jumped back nervously, ears flattening. Very cautiously, Manami eased herself forward.
"Ni?" She said.
"Flori."
"Ni ni."
"Flori-flori!" And suddenly Flora launched herself forward, tackling the Nidoran kit, the two of the disappearing in a ball of fur as they darted around us, playing chase.
"Okay, that's enough, Manami, return." Gaijin recalled his Nidoran, leaving Flora looking at him sadly with big eyes.
I scooped her up, she nuzzled me, whimpering, sad to lose her playmate so quickly.
"Was that totally necessary?" I asked Gaijin. He stared hard at me.
"Yes," he simply replied. "Now, you better go in, the show is about to start."
"Thank you for showing us around," Kameron quickly interjected before we could start arguing again. He linked his arm with mine and dragged me away. I tapped Freyja on the shoulder as we passed her. She was leaning on the fence, staring at the Ponyta.
"I'll never forget you, my darling," she whispered to the world in general. "If only you will forgive me."
I didn't like to ask what she meant, it seemed somehow rude.
*
There was something odd with the Ringmaster, I could feel it. As he stood there in the middle of the ring, enormous hat perched on his head, it seemed to me that he was some sort of puppet. His movements were a bit too jerky, and his speech seemed forced, as though he wanted to say something but had to say something else instead. Kameron and Fenrill, the two psychics, had made no comment though, so I thought it must have been part of the show.
Maki, sitting on my head (to get a better view) was fascinated by the spectacle and several times I barely managed to grab his tail before he streaked off and tried to join in. Kiki was perched on Kameron's head, and the two were engaged in animated conversation with each other.
Fenrill sat in my lap, and ate my popcorn, whilst pretending not to. She was still "invisible" Freyja merely stared into space, as though hypnotised.
And then the circus begun, with Ponyta and Rapidash, beautiful, spangly ladies setting on their backs, trotted in from each side. They met in the middle, and each of the ladies changed position so that they were standing on their steeds. They were so graceful that it seemed almost as though they and the horse Pokemon were one being.
Until, about halfway through the performance, one of the Rapidash, which had behaving perfectly, suddenly reared up on its hindlegs, then bucked forward, sending its rider tumbling onto the ground.
Instantly, Chansey and First-Aiders rushed to her side and carried her off on a stretcher whilst the other riders filed off and the Ringmaster, in the same strained tone of voice, apologised and tried to explain that she should be okay.
I was starting to feel suspicious by now.
The next act, consisting of human clowns and Mr Mimes went without a hitch, and then the Jynx came on and danced.
I saw Freyja tighten her grasp against her chair's rail, so hard that her knuckles went white.
The Jynx was oddly familiar.
A pond was brought on and a woman dressed as a mermaid swam with two Seel and a beautiful Dewgong. They tossed balls to one another and then engaged in some rather impressive synchronised swimming.
Suddenly something tumbled into the pool. It looked like a Pokeball, but it was not. Kameron immediately sprang up.
"Get out of the pool!" He shouted, "it's a Voltorb!"
The Dewgong, who was not stupid by any account, immediately pushed the mermaid-lady from the pond, whilst the Seals began tossing the Voltorb between them.
Just as the woman was safely out of the pool, the Seel with the Voltorb tossed it high into the air, and the two of them sprang from the water as the Voltorb exploded in a brilliant flash of white light, that would have electrocuted anything in the pool.
The Ringmaster tried to fob it off as being part of the show. The crowd seemed to believe him, except for me.
There was something going on here. Something very, very bad. I began to become nervous about what next horrible thing might happen.
I think some of the performers were becoming edgy too, as the acrobats took centre stage and began swinging about it was with much less enthusiasm then I was sure was usual.
"They've got my Jynx," Freyja hissed through clenched teeth. "How did they get her, how?"
That had my attention. "When did you lose her?"
"When Loki went mad and declared himself boss, he took my Pokeballs off me for 'regular maintenance' of my Pokemon. A check up on their health. It was my first tip that something was wrong with him, because he refused to give them back, unless I were to marry him. Demanded it was his right as the new leader.
I abandoned them and left. But why is she here? Is Loki behind this?"
I was starting to puzzle that myself.
"I shall get your Jynx back," I replied, more boldly then I felt.
She smiled at me, immediately retaining some of her former beauty.
Despite their nervousness, nothing happened during the acrobats performance, and I gave a sigh of relief. The show was almost over. Perhaps nothing worse would happen.
I was, of course wrong.
Marcus brought on his Donphan, and it stood on its hindlegs, bowed, rolled over and carried a spangly lady around the ring, standing on its back. Then it was taken outside and the Persians were brought on and paraded before us whilst the Ringmaster made us aware of how overwhelmingly vicious they were, by telling us lovely tales.
Toby stalked around in circles, his eyes glinting with pent up aggression. The black Persian did a couple of tricks – jumping through a ring of fire, jumping over the trainer (a muscular young man wearing a feline face mask that reminded me eerily of the kadabra-freaks) and snarling at the audience.
And then suddenly there came a shriek from outside.
Suddenly the Donphan hurtled back through the centre of the ring, tearing at the fittings with its tusks and heading straight for the Persian-trainer. The man, understandingly leapt out of the way, but lost control of his cats in the process.
Scared by the noise, and the rampaging elephant, the felines scattered, and the audience, seeing them scatter, followed suit. Suddenly there was a stampede for the door. I quickly recalled Flora.
"Kameron, Fenrill, we have to help!" I shrieked.
"Maki!" Maki sprang from my head and landed on the railing before us, putting his hands on his hips in typical tough guy pose. Kiki landed beside him.
The Donphan ran into a support pole and the entire tent shook. People were screaming and trying to flee. And amongst it all, I suddenly saw the Ringmaster. He was laughing, and had taken his hat off.
There was something in the hat, something small and pinkish, something laughing just as hard as the Ringmaster.
Fenrill's fur rose. "Sister!" She yowled, "how could you!" She sprang into the air.
And then something equally horrifying caught my gaze. Toby and one of the other Persians were stalking around the base of a pole. Halfway up the pole crouched a small child, his arms wrapped tightly around the wood, sobbing in fear. Beside the Persian's stood Gaijin, armed with nothing but a chair, trying to force them out of the way, so he could save the child. Unfortunately, every time one backed up, the other one would lunge forward.
Kameron was one step ahead of me.
"Shadeon! Devolve those Persians!" Shadeon, somewhat small under the artificial lighting, sprang through the air as though she were flying, and disipiated into shadow.
Darkness surrounded the two Persians and Gaijin.
"Chiko, save the child," I released my Chikorita, and then turned my attention to the Ringmaster.
The Donphan now had the pole caught on its tusks. Every time it moved the entire big top rocked. The moment it got free the tent was going to fall on our heads.
Shadeon reformed herself and grinned at us. Two meowths hissed and spat at Gaijin. One, the larger one, kept tripping over its mane. The other one darted off to hide behind the seating.
Chiko grabbed the child with her vine whips and set him gently on the ground.
"Go Shrubslash!" Kameron cried, as the Ringmaster's face changed, and flaming wings seemed to unfurl from his back. "Go Marril!"
Fenrill transformed into a Gyrados, and shot a torrent of water straight at Loki, bowling him over. The Mew sitting in his hat yowled again and dived after him, just in time to be grabbed by Shrubslash's vine whips. Violet light seemed to be flowing from the Mew and into Loki.
He was feeding off it, just as he had fed off the terror, the pain.
And then with a final twist of its head, the tent fell down.
We were suffocating, trapped under the heavy canvas. The pole, tumbling over, caught me across the leg and I was sure it must have done permanent damage. The pain was sudden and painful. Chiko used her razor leaf attack to tear a hole in the fabric, and then her vine whips to drag the pole off me. Beside me, Gaijin opened his gold Pokeball, releasing a rather powerful looking Meowth. It helped shred apart the tent.
Loki had gone, leaving behind a smoking hole in the tent.
"We lost again," I muttered, as my vision blurred and flashed again.
"Makiki," Maki placed his hands on my face, soothing me. "Makikimur!"
Spitting and struggling, Shrubslash dragged something over, a Mew was entangled in his vines.
"Why sister, why?" Fenrill asked her.
"For the power," the Mew replied, and her fur was denser, her ears smaller then the swamp Mew's. "Can't you see out world is dying. We can do nothing to save it. All is lost."
Fenrill slapped her sister in the face with her tail. "We can and shall," she replied, "else we are all dead. Are you truly that lost, sister?"
The Mountain Mew hung her head. "He has stolen my power. Now the world shall die. He abandoned me. I helped him and he abandoned me."
Freyja bent down before the Mew. "He wants to be a God," she said softly, "and he will let nothing stand in his way. Nothing."
Aftermath:
The Mew obviously needed help, and although we thought Freyja might be able to care for her, she refused, and so we handed her over to Gaijin to care for. He had, after all, shown bravery over and beyond what was expected from him, and had the scars to prove it.
Toby and the other Meowth were quickly recaptured and re-evolved a short time later, since Shadeon merely devolved and did not weaken the Pokemon. The circus was however closed down and the Persians were taken into a private zoo, where Toby could father many more maned cubs. In time…
Poor Freyja still suffered from her nightmares and there was nothing we could do about that. She did however, get her Jynx back and Kameron handed over his Shrubslash to look after her, perhaps hoping it could chase the bad dreams away.
Oh, and my leg wasn't broken, although it was crushed. And now I would have to suffer with crutches for our following adventures.