Dedication: This fic is for Lightning-Strike. Lightning-Strike is a talented, cool author here, whose user id is 141533. This is her Christmas fic, especially for her! ^!^ Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, L-S!
A/N: All Pokémon speech is translated, unless otherwise indicated. Review thank-yous at the end of the chapter.
Light of a Dark Black Night
9: Recovery
When Shadowgleam woke up, it took her a while to realise that she was awake, and after that, it took her a while to force herself to act as if she were awake and in control of her body.
It began with standing up. She rolled herself over onto her front, being cautious, and tried to gather her back paws under her. She had a momentary, disorienting feeling in which she felt as if her legs were moving ever so slightly, smoothly... and then realised that they weren't moving at all. She looked down and her back twinged. Finally she raised herself to a standing position.
Then she squealed, and fell over backwards like Gavin's teddy bear into the cool grass.
She didn't want to think because her head hurt too much - No, that's stupid, I can't stop myself thinking... Headache. I'd say migraine. Agility is classified as a Psychic-type attack because its effects originate from and affect the brain, like a drug that makes one 'hyper', so to speak, with mental alertness in the bargain, with no side effects or after-effects or backlash. To recreate this effect by synthesising a chemical has been the challenge of human scientists for many years.
Gavin had often read to them from his textbooks.
Why do I care, anyway?
She repeated the standing-up procedure, with the same effect. The next time, she stayed on her back paws - although she was swaying. She kept herself there. She looked straight ahead... the trees were darkening, it was nearly nightfall. She tried to accustom herself to seeing double.
Everything ached! Everything throbbed, everything was stiff or tender. Her tail was the only thing that felt all right... except when electricity began to flow through the numb limb again. She squealed again, feeling like a Pichu... unable to use her own electricity without fainting herself.
Evolution... ah, that was the way to think of it. As if she'd just evolved into Raichu, and was learning how to move again.
Few Pokémon who evolved during a battle were actually advantaged by the change, whatever the urban myths said. It took time to adjust to an evolved form.
But this was harder.
She heard a croak from behind her and tried to turn around. It was Touchwood, she realised, as she fell over. She sighed - a raspy sigh - and lifted herself to her feet again.
"Glimmer will apologise," groaned Touchwood. He moved a few steps forward, not even trying to get up off all fours.
"Easy does it," said Shadowgleam carefully. "At least we're here."
Touchwood grimaced.
"I'm here too," said Glimmer, gettting to her feet slowly behind Touchwood. "That was... quite a journey."
"Furr-"
"I'm sorry." Glimmer said, cutting him off. "Now we need to reach the lake."
"There's a lake up here?"
"It is the source of the river we crossed."
The way to the lake was painful. Shadowgleam, Touchwood and Glimmer staggered through the forest, leaning on each other, going very slowly, and stopping often.
"Look!" Touchwood gasped, pointing up. It was a pear tree. One of the pears was quite close to the ground, but leaping up to get it wasn't an option for any of them.
"I'll try to get it," Shadowgleam answered. She was beginning to recover, and testing herself. She looked at the branch, narrowed her eyes, and tried to aim a Faint Attack at the pear's stem.
To her astonishment, nothing happened.
Shadowgleam was extremely confused. She knew the laws of attacks. Some were more difficult to use, some were less; anyway, after you had used an attack after a certain number of times, or around that number, something clicked between your brain and your muscles (or whatever) and you stopped being able to use that move.
She would have understood if Agility had failed, or one of her lighter electric attacks. But a Dark attack shouldn't be affected... it was a whole different skill. Its 'power points' shouldn't have dropped at all - she was alert, and could control her Faint Attack.
Intriguing. Icy Wind? No... she might have just been glaring at that pear stem.
She sighed, and reached up with her tail instead. She hooked the pear with her jagged 'axe', and pulled it down far enough for Glimmer to bite the stem.
Glimmer handed the pear to Touchwood. "You seem to need it most," she said. Touchwood took it gratefully, and gave her a friendly nod. Good... Glimmer seemed to be forgiven.
They continued slowly, as Shadowgleam wondered. She hadn't used a Dark attack all day. But, come to think about it, she had certainly overused Agility and Quick Attack. Was it possible that dark energy had powered those attacks? Could the PP of one attack be loaned to another? I've never heard of anything like that!
They walked.
It was fully night now, black. Shadowgleam, Glimmer and Touchwood could use nothing but their limited night-vision to help them through the forest, as Touchwood was able to use Flash about as effectively as Shadowgleam could use Dark attacks right then.
Fortunately, the lake wasn't far, and after a while, they came to its shore, where the stars glittered off its rippling surface. The moon was an unhelpful crescent.
"Come on, Touchwood," said Shadowgleam, as Touchwood lingered behind the other two.
"Just think how cold it'll be."
Glimmer laughed. "It won't be as bad as you think. Come on in."
She stepped into the water, and sighed. Then she grinned, and far more quickly than Shadowgleam would have expected, she turned around and splashed the Furret in his face.
"AAH!" Touchwood bounded forward, furious. Then he stopped. "Hey! I can move again!"
He jumped in gleefully and Shadowgleam followed. This water carried more power even than the river, for all that it was mostly still. It recharged every fibre of her. She felt evolved.
"Once, Mewtwo removed this whole vast lake," said Glimmer quietly. "He hid it in the caverns of the mountain... but when the trees above and around Mt Cayna began to fall, he realised that he had been wrong... the secret of life is a circle which you must not break. And so he brought the waters back."
After floating in the lake for a little while longer, they went back to shore and curled up to sleep under a tree.
v v v
Again, when Glimmer woke up, Shadowgleam was training. Glimmer watched carefully, and noticed a difference. This was not a routine, and had nothing to do with fitness. The Raichu was not so much exercising herself as she was testing herself, choreographing old and new moves, with an expression of deep concentration.
Some of the things she was doing were extremely... fancy.
Glimmer caught her breath as Shadowgleam crouched, placed the end of her tail carefully on the ground behind her, leaned back a little, and used her tail as a spring to send herself up, and several metres along the shore. She landed on the sand with very little noise. She dropped a twig on the ground and ran back to her original position... and on the way, still running, she shot a lightning-bolt at the twig she had let fall. It hit the twig's tip. Shadowgleam spun around, looked at the twig critically, and cocked her head to the side. She repeated the exercise. This time, the twig briefly burst into flames.
"Amazing!" said Touchwood, behind Glimmer.
"Ssh. Don't disturb her," said the Ampharos.
"It'll encourage her!" He stepped forward and called out. "Shadowgleam! Show off for us!"
Shadowgleam turned to him and laughed. "Be a good audience, Touchwood!" she said, and turned back towards the lake.
v v v
She executed her best tricks for him. She activated Light Screen in the middle of a leap... she flipped over sideways and backwards and somersaulted forwards using her tail. She sent frost across the top of the lake water in a narrow pattern... she reflected a Dark attack off the water. She never repeated a trick. She gave the best show she could for Touchwood, her friend.
These are my friends. I don't regret meeting them, I like them, I know them. I know them well enough, anyway.
This isn't a bad life... We eat all right. Glimmer and Touchwood are expert foragers, but even I could keep myself going on what I can find.
What I'm missing is one answer.
Even if I don't like the answer...
even then, when I have my answer, I'll have everything.
v v v
She anticipated Glimmer's suggestion and stopped before the Ampharos could advise her to rest.
"Across the lake?" she asked.
"On that island," Glimmer agreed, "we will find Mewtwo, or at least one of his people, and certainly we will find the way to your answer."
Miss Black Dragon: Thank you! The formal name for Mewtwo? Hmm… I'll have to think of that.
Pikacar/Marle: Here you go, and the next one should appear soon too! :)
Lightning-Strike: Yes, it's different ^!^;;
Carter Tachikawa: Thanks, CT. I'll reply more fully in an email.