I still don't own anything but the shamelessness of my self insert. This is all purely for my own amusement.
To Locnar 4556: If you didn't like the bare mention of potential drama in the last chapter, you'll positively hate this one. But seriously, it's a gamer fic. It's got a relationship function. You had to see this coming. XD
Chapter 7: A Long Night
Despite several minutes of my brain rushing through increasingly improbable worst case scenarios, I had to conclude that there was very little I could actually do about the new quest at this point. Reading through the quest screen again helped nothing, so I banished it. I'd essentially accepted the quest the moment I set foot in the forest and I couldn't exactly back out of it now. The amount of experience offered was less than the mess at the Aquacorde Inn, which hopefully meant that at my now significantly higher level I wouldn't be facing anything too dangerous. And while the possible death of a party member was alarming … the fact that it wasn't my life on the line like it had been back in Aquacorde left me oddly numb to the warning, especially considering how upset I'd been earlier. Frowning, I resolved to take a closer look at Gamer's Mind when I had the chance, since the last thing I needed was help emotionally disassociating. I had enough talent for that on my own.
Deep breathing exercises helped me focus on what I could do here in our group's makeshift camp. Realistically, there wasn't much to be done besides trying to keep watch. A sharp thin whisper of fear remained, making sleep an impossible prospect for now anyway. So instead I played with my observation abilities, scanning my friends, their pokémon, and the surrounding woods over and over to bring the ability up to level 6. My friends' stats were interesting to say the least
Serena Lapointe lvl 11
HP: 225/250 MP: 12/12 ED: 8/10
A promising new trainer…
Shauna Rayne lvl 8
HP: 115/120 MP: 10/10 ED: 7/8
A cheerful girl…
Tierno Lifar lvl 8
HP: 130/150 MP: 8/8 ED: 5/9
A talented dancer…
Trevor Cuvier lvl 7
HP: 65/70 MP: 10/10 ED: 4/7
A thoughtful student…
All together their stats weren't entirely unexpected from what I knew of their roles in the original games. The teaser of an introduction beside each name did leave me fairly curious as to what I'd be able to learn about other people later as well. But beyond my friends the woods revealed little, mostly oak trees with a few beech and pine mixed it. Moss and heather clumped together, with sprouts of bilberry and wild mints mixed into grassy weeds, all of it bristling with chains of blackberry vines. Being spring, the whole place was pretty sparse, but I could see how it would be a beautiful place to forage in autumn.
Chittering broke my concentration, and a leafy sprout popped up from a patch of grass. I barely had time to call my new staff from my inventory before a green blur charged through the clearing at me.
"Everyone up!" I screeched, "Loxley!"
Sleepy humans and pokémon alike scrambled in all directions as multi-colored blurs trampled through our makshift camp, kicking over firewood and bags as they went. Fire blazed across my hold on my staff after I thumped one little red body hard enough to send it flying and I finally realized what we were up against.
The pan-trio. Three separate elemental versions of the same little monkey pokémon, each a different vivid hue, and all of them quick, clever, and completely vicious.
As proven by the rotten blue panpour that bit me square in the ankle from behind. Snarling, I stomp kicked it into the ground before slamming my staff into its side like a golf club. A third, and then a fourth little primate was launched into the air with a wild squeal before I thought to stop and blink at my staff in wonder.
[Oak Staff]
A sturdy wooden staff pressure treated with powerful resins and capped in brass.
Requires lvl 10. +10 STR, +2VIT
I grinned maliciously at the weapon, slowly turning the expression to the small horde rampaging through our scattered belongings. A few of the closest monkeys gulped nervously, and it was like music to my ears.
"Loxley, ember!" I ordered the little fox, "Go for the green ones."
The fennekin launched himself at the nearest pansage and I adjusted my grip to beat off another panpour that was snarled in Shauna's hair, viciously yanking the girl's pigtails and causing her to scream loudly. With the staff raising my total strength to 22 the little blue pokémon didn't really stand a chance. All of the pan-trio pokémon in the group were either level 5 or 6; if their stats were similar to Loxley's they'd normally be more than a match for most humans my level. Watching my new friends clumsily try to beat off the little beasts, I could only be incredibly grateful I'd unlocked a real weapon.
"Does anyone want to catch one of these things?" I called as I got to the last of the monkeys. I shrugged as everyone loudly rejected the offer and punted a pansear back into the woods. A puff of fireball chased the final, limping pansage after it, Loxley trotting up beside me to snarl one last threat into the treeline.
I visibly slumped when a game window popped up to announce the end of the battle, tucking my staff away before one of my friends could get a good look at it. With any luck, I'd be able to pretend I'd picked up a big stick or something if any of them asked.
Congratulations! You've survived your first horde battle! +500 EXP, 1000
You've unlocked [Loot]! Enemies will occasionally drop items or money when defeated!
[Loot] has now been added to [Bag].
The experience pushed me well over the limit for level 11, but I ignored the status window that popped up in favor of reading the explanation for the new [Loot] feature while I pretended to be hunched over to catch my breath. It seemed like an awfully nice reward for something so simple as a horde of baby monkeys, especially since all of the pokémon that attacked had technically escaped. But looking around revealed a few glints of rolled light in the grass that turned out to be two small mushrooms and another €50. They flashed into my inventory as soon as I touched them, which was nice, and no one else saw me do it, if they saw them at all, which was better. Checking through the last alerts showed that I'd gotten 25 EXP for each of the seven pokémon I'd chased off in addition to the bonus, which had raised me to level 11, and that I had apparently missed Loxley's level gains from the previous night, so he was sitting pretty at level 12, but we were both low enough on HP to make me cautious.
I wandered back to the group to check on everyone and plunder Shauna's potion supply.
"We need to set up a watch," Serena declared firmly. I could only yawn in agreement, seeing as how I'd already stayed up. Trevor, bless him, pointed that out to a blushing Serena. She spluttered a bit before offering to stay up next so I could rest.
"I can hardly sleep now, though," I grumbled through a bone-popping stretch. "I'm tired, yeah, but I'm too wound up to just lay down. I'll be perfectly evil in the morning because of it, but right now I need to do something."
There. I'd warned them of the impending bitch fest that would be me, myself, and I; and gotten an excuse to go look around. I offered myself up to go scout for any more potential trouble and wandered into the woods while the others stayed to clean up the strewn bags and meager supplies as best they could. Shauna let me have a few extra potions just in case, but Loxley was already topped up on HP so I was honestly hoping to try them out on myself once I got far enough away from camp.
Edging into the woods was like walking through a black curtain. The light from the fire, relit by Loxley after the attack, faded almost instantly and a game alert warned me of a nighttime dungeon effect in place in the Santalune Forest. That explained the higher level of the pan-trio horde but the other changes quickly became clear; there were several nocturnal pokémon I wasn't expecting to find in the Kalos region. Several oddish shuffled through the brush, clearly shy of humans and doubly so for Loxley. The bat pokémon I expected, but I was pretty sure I saw a hoothoot flying as well. The soft hoo-hoo echoing through the night achingly familiar.
But if the owls reminded me of home, the spinarak most definitely did NOT. I hated spiders. Loathed them. Too many legs skittering everywhere and too many eyes glittering in every direction. And yes, despite the cute illustrations from the games and anime, spinarak really did have multiple eyes. At least 6 that I could see; 4 little ones, beady and gleaming in the weak moonlight between the main eyes. I let out a soft wail in revulsion as several descended from trees and let loose my bird pokémon again. A few solid hits from the staff and hard pecks from sharp beaks put the creepy crawlies firmly out of my misery. I flicked the glowing specks indicating loot with my feet and watched them spiral into my bag without a shred of remorse.
I skritched both birds on the head for doing such a good job, as they were both going above and beyond in the dark. Both pidgey and fletchling were daytime hunters and flying through a forest at night seemed like a completely unnecessary risk. The last thing I needed was for one of them to break a wing; so I let them hitch a ride on my shoulders My fletchling seemed particularly fond of his new perch, ruffling himself under my vest collar next to my ear.
"Hey, you," I giggled; I'd always been ticklish. "I still need to figure out a name for you…"
Fletchling warbled in agreement and I went through a litany of names, like Pyre and Gale to Hanebane or Agni before he finally decided he liked Delacour. I snickered a little at naming a male bird after a female character but I just ruffled his head again and let him have it. Tobio took the opportunity to cuddle closer on my other shoulder and of course Loxley mewled and wrapped around my feet once he realized I was petting someone other than him.
Laughing, I felt some of the stress of the last two days finally fade away. There was nothing quite like fluff therapy.
XYXYXY
I'd wandered slowly for nearly twenty minutes, ruthless squashing a few more spinarak and even another panpour, when I heard it.
"Aidez!" Someone coughed. "Help!"
All three of my pokémon perked up at the hoarse call. Tobio and Delacour cautiously flapped into the moonlit branches as Loxley scampered pell-mell toward the voice. Following at a slower pace through the dense foliage, I was surprised to find my fox stiff in front of a hollow, hackles raised. A low groan from the dip in the earth drew me forward, and Loxley's quiet snarling suddenly made sense.
Pinned under an extremely large fallen limb, his jacket missing, pants shredded, and covered in grime and smears of blood … was a member of Team Flare.
I edged around him, careful to stay out of reach, as all three of my pokémon hissed at the man.
He cringed when he saw me, struggling futilely under the weight for a moment before collapsing against the forest floor.
"S'il te plait," he rasped again. "Please help me."
I shuffled a bit closer, plucking up his fancy red sunglasses from the ground as I got a better look at him.
Oscar Duval lvl 9
HP: 15/230 MP: 8/12 ED: 2/10
A new member of Team Flare…
It was honestly the way his HP was flashing dark red, painfully similar to mine earlier, that made up my mind.
"Damn my stupid, bleeding heart," I grumbled to myself. I stuffed the red glasses into my vest pocket and beckoned Loxley over to help. The grunt flinched harshly as I reached for him, and eyed Loxley with outright fear when I directed my fox to latch onto his collar. He gave a harsh gasp of pain when I jammed my staff under the branch, and I winced myself as he lost another 5 HP.
"Loxley, pull!" I gasped as I heaved all of my weight down on my staff, levering the enormous branch up a few scant centimeters. It was enough, though, and between Loxley's tugs and the man's own desperate scrambling he was loose in moments.
Not that he got far. I watched as the Team Flare grunt swayed upright for a brief moment before dropping to the ground again with a painful whine. Hard wheezing mixed with ragged coughs as he lay in the dirt and I shook my head, wondering if I was being kind or just stupid. Still, I pulled him onto his back and raised him into a sitting position and rubbing his back to ease his breathing. Once I was sure he wouldn't choke, I popped the stopper from a potion bottle and held it lightly to his lips.
"Come on," I shushed another of his moans, "I'm hardly going to hurt you now."
He finally took slow, shallow sips, and I took the time to really study him as his health gradually pulled up out of the red.
He was probably only a few years older than I was physically, maybe 18, with a tangled mess of bright auburn hair that actually looked natural instead of horribly dyed like the rest of the grunts I'd battled in Aquacorde. Mud clung to his long, angular face, accentuating thick eyelashes and sharp cheek bones in an oddly attractive way. His lips were cracked and bleeding, but I could see the wide cupid's bow and natural pout to them. I ruthlessly squashed my rising blush down; he was stupidly handsome for an enemy grunt. For anyone really. Just my luck.
"So is there a reason I shouldn't be calling the cops?" I drawled, more to distract myself than intimidate the man in my arms. Still he cringed.
"Ne fait pas," he choked around the potion, "Please … please don't."
I hummed thoughtfully, holding the bottle back to his lips with a frown. We sat in silence for several minutes as he finished the vial, spluttering as I opened another for him. In another divergence from the Nintendo games, basic potions restored 50 HP each and clearly worked on both humans as well as pokémon. I gave him one last pat on the back when his health bar was finally half full before moving to kneel in front of him. Head cocked to the side to get a better view of his expressions in the dark, I slowly reached out to hand him back him glasses.
"Pou-" he coughed again, before deliberately speaking in Common, "Why… did you… help me?" Gingerly, he took his glasses, his body stiff and shifted away like he expected me to hit him. The continued hissing from my pokémon probably wasn't helping.
I pulled myself upright with my staff, still extending my hand to him. "You asked, didn't you?" He blinked up at me, clearly confused.
"You asked for help," I explained, willing myself to project confidence. "And you really looked like you needed it. So, what's your name, huh handsome?" Not that I didn't already know, but it might distract him.
"O-oscar," he stuttered with a blush before snapping his mouth shut and giving me a suspicious look.
I snickered, pleased and surprised he'd actually answered and also terrible amused that a member of Team Flare would have the audacity to consider me suspect. I beckoned at him with my hand, gently pulling him to his feet when he finally took it.
"So what's a cutie like you doing working for lowlifes like Flare?" I had to ask, and was rewarded with another blush on the face above my own. He was taller than me, damn it; easily 180 cm. This was way too much fun.
"It's not like I wanted to…" He mumbled, swaying a bit before he found his footing. I quirked an eyebrow at him as he trailed off, but he shook his head and refused to say more.
"Well, alright then … Oscar," I rolled my tongue as I tried it out. It was such an outdated name, and I wouldn't normally associate it with anything positive, but he said it with such a delightfully accented lilt I couldn't help but find it charming. I shifted my grip to his elbow to help steady him. "Are your pokémon hurt too?"
I didn't really want to heal any zubats or whatnot, and was relieved when Oscar shook his head. I was about to offer to show him to the road, stupid stupid hormones playing a dangerous game, when a deafening, guttural ROAR shattered the night.
The forest erupted into a panicked frenzy as shockwaves ripped through the trees, one after another after another, and within moments I was running blindly alongside a terrified mob of wild pokémon. I dragged Oscar with me, stumbling over fallen debris and panicked wildlife before managing to duck under a stone outcrop for shelter, my pokémon diving in after us, tucking themselves under arms and knees without really caring which human was which.
"REVAAAAAAR!"
"NAAAAAAAAS!"
"REVAAAAAAR!"
"NAAAAAAAAS!"
The bone rattling bellows detonated, more percussive blasts rumbling through the woods shaking earth and stone everywhere. Between bursts I could hear trees collapsing in a cacophony of shattered limbs. Wood splinters flew everywhere; Oscar and I desperately pressing together into the meager safety of the rockface as we rode out the disaster.
Finally, the explosions moved further away, possibly east deeper into Santalune. Gasping for air and shivering like mad, I poked my head out only to realize that while whatever had just left, it was now being replaced by another problem. Humans, dozens of them, were pouring through the trees, chasing after whatever had just left. Through the erratic beams of flashlights I could clearly see the color of bright crimson. Team Flare.
"Oh, no," I winced looking down at Oscar. He was even muddier than before, wide-eyed and gasping, Delacour peeping nervously from a shredded collar. Oscar yanked the bird from his shirt and shoved him squawking upside down into my arms.
"Go!" he whispered, struggling to stand and watching the approaching lights with as much caution as he had me. "Just go!"
With one last look at the incoming army, I sucked all three of my pokémon back into their balls and sprinted into the darkness.
XYXYXY
Any lingering guilt of leaving Oscar behind shattered as I cracked my staff down onto the skull of a second Team Flare grunt. Pausing just long enough to scoop up a glimmer of light, I raced through the edge of the tree line back north to our camp.
The others, blessedly, were all awake. Serena lunged for me as I stumbled over the dying embers of our campfire.
"What happened?" She demanded, "What caused that horrible noise!"
"No time!" I panted as the others crowded around, "We gotta go! Team Flare is here!"
"Again?!" Shauna blubbered, but thankfully no one bothered to argue.
They all scrambled to grab their bags, Serena only pausing to order her Froakie to soak the fire pit, and we all stumbled for the road.
"I think they're moving east!" I finally gasped out as we hit the path.
"So we'll be alright going this way?" Serena wanted to know, looking northward along the forest road with a grim expression when I nodded. Huddled together, we headed out as fast as we could.
Our flight didn't last long however. We were all way too tired to go too far too fast. Ignoring my blaring game alerts, I helped Serena usher the other three off the road again, this time to the west of the path. There was no brush line this time, just carefully cultivated woods over small hills to the edge of a wide river. A boulder hid a dell between two hills and we shuffled behind it, nearly tripping over each other in exhaustion. Too tired to bother with a fire, we all slumped unconscious almost as soon as our packs hit the ground.
XYXYXY
Weak streams of light filtered through the morning mist. I frowned against my pack, the March morning had taken on an unexpected chill. Not enough to be truly uncomfortable, but it made my thick leather vest very cozy indeed. I slowly stretched upwards into a sitting position, noticing that all the others were asleep. Rolling my neck earned me several thick pops and a perfect view of four black and white puffballs peering around the boulder that hid us from the road.
Slowly, ever, so slowly, I reached down to poke Serena awake before snagging a pokéball from my bag. Bleary blue eyes cracked open to look up at me in confusion, snapping to total clarity as Serena followed my shallow nod in the direction of the new pokémon. She rolled over carefully, nudging Trevor as she went. The quiet boy quickly followed her slight gesture towards the boulder and haltingly pulled a pokéball of his own out. The small forms had shuffled around to our side of the boulder, peeping softly and paying us no attention at all. I could see now that that it was the baby form of Gothitelle, though I couldn't remember the exact name at the moment. Lavender faces were framed with sleek black fur, with fuzzy white spots of slightly longer hair curling like ribbons around them. They huddled together like ducklings, peering back at the road nervously.
They didn't see the pokéballs coming at all.
I was up as soon as they disappeared into a blaze of light, snagging one of the capture devices before they even hit the ground. I kicked three more back to Serena, who handed Trevor one before pocketing the other two and moving quickly to wake Shauna and Tierno, shushing them both before they could make any noise. A smart move, I realized as I glanced cautiously around the border, because the pokémon we'd just captured had a very good reason to be hiding.
Six trevenant, each had a level in the low twenties, swayed ominously across the path we needed to be on.
I had never liked ghost Pokémon; even in the games nearly every one of them gave me the creeps. Seeing the phantom creatures in real life was so, so much worse. Putrefied stumps squirmed with maggots as the trevenant moved, wisps of black smoke and decayed roots writhing to form undead Frankenstein of trees. The patchwork of bark textures, rot, and smoke was nauseating. More of the black haze oozed up, connecting additional fetid logs and branches to form the rest of the ghosts' bodies. I tried to take a calming breath as I slunk back down behind the boulder; it came out a shuddering wheeze. Seeing my look of terror, Serena's expression quickly matched my own. I nodded vigorously as she jutted her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the river and we made sure to be as silent as possible as we picked our way over the hill to the water's edge.
The bank meant a break in the trees, and I shoved every last one of them into the growing light as soon as we hit it. A hoarse whisper of the pokémon I'd seen had them all pulling further away from the trees, mindless of wet shoes or thick river grass in favor of whatever protection the weak sunshine could offer. Thankfully, the trevenant hadn't followed us and the shadowed forest, filled with eerie and unnatural calls, kept to itself as we scrambled north.
I had to ignore my game windows again as we walked, and that made me very nervous. But there was nothing I could do with Shauna tucked under my arm and Tierno so close behind me I could hear him breathing. Serena had taken up the lead and I jumped when, after an hour of rattling silence, she suddenly screamed and waved her arms.
"Ici!" She shouted. "Hé! Par ici!"
We all sighed in relief when a trio of Rangers came barreling out of the woods at her cry. They shouted demands of "Est ce tout va bien?" and "Que s'est-il passé?" and I fell behind as my friends responded in rapid fire French that I couldn't follow. I was left blinking at the rangers in exhaustion. I nearly sobbed when I realized Lt. Moreau was one of them. He quickly noticed and pulled me aside.
"Mlle. Gabena, are you alright?" he asked, so gently it broke what was left of my resolve. I huddled into chest, sniffling, and was rewarded with an awkward but very much needed hug. I related the events of the past night as best I could, only leaving out the bit about rescuing the Team Flare grunt Oscar. Luckily, the rest of the conversation switched back to Common, my friends adding tidbits to my explanations and we were all quickly hurried away from the river and back to the path, which was now more open, brighter, and devoid of any pokémon other than two furfrou in Kevlar vests that clearly belonged to the rangers. Even better, there was a jeep. It was the first automobile I'd seen so far in Kalos, and we were quickly stuffed inside. Lt. Moreau slid into the driver's seat and slammed the accelerator to the floor.
Bumping along, I watched Santalune Forest recede into the distance with weary satisfaction.
XYXYXY
"You were all very lucky last night," Lt. Moreau said as he handed me a hot mug of cocoa. "Again," he emphasized, giving me a serious look.
"I know," I said blowing ripples of steam away. My friends nodded over their own mugs and Lt. Moreau left to file the reports we'd all filled out. We'd been rushed to the Pokémon Center just inside Santalune City's south gate, the nurses (which were not, in fact, Nurse Joys) had fussed over all of our pokémon and then us. The nurse had clucked as she bandaged my ankle, scolding me for walking on it so much without knowing how bad it was. I wasn't going to tell her that I did know how bad it had been. That stupid panpour had bit nearly to the bone on the muscle just above the joint. But between three potions I'd downed while escaping Team Flare and the 25% recovery from sleeping on the ground it was nearly fully recovered by the time I'd gotten to her. Trevor had been the only one to escape last night without any real injuries, but he'd been slathered in bruise balm all the same. Shauna and Serena both had several deep scrapes on their legs and were bandaged up to their thighs. Tierno had zip-clips on a deep gash on his left hand as well as a wrap on his right elbow.
And other trainers in Santalune Forest last night hadn't been so lucky. Lt. Moreau and the other rangers had had good reason to rush us out like they did. Most trainers that entered Santalune Forest at night usually stayed close to the edge, and had managed to escape back to Santalune City and Aquacorde. A few were deeper in like us though, older trainers who'd been genuinely prepared for camping in the woods. Two were in the hospital with serious injuries and a third was dead. Lt. Moreau's dark complexion had been nearly grey when he told us that. And he couldn't, or wouldn't, answer when Serena had asked if it had been the explosions or Team Flare. I was betting on Team Flare, but that was mostly because I suspected they had something to do with the explosions as well. They'd been way too close when it had started. And they'd gone in after whatever caused that much destruction instead of turning around.
Eventually we were herded up an elevator and into the dorm rooms above the Pokémon Center. With a last promise from the remaining pokémon ranger that someone would be on guard, I swallowed the anti-inflammatory I'd been given and flopped gracelessly onto the single mattress.
I don't remember falling asleep.
So this is still part of the manga chain of events, even if its a bit out of order. And where my attempt at realism begins. As we all know, there are hints in the games that the Pokemon World is a lot darker than it seems. I'm gonna play with some serious head cannon. :)
kenzieparish: You are amazing! Thank you for all the reviews! Seriously, it made my day. I'm really glad you're enjoying the pokemon gamer fic. 3 I was also looking for one to read, and eventually decided I'd just have to write my own. It's been fun for daydreaming. :) And yes, Team Flare Grunts ARE flimsy, poor things. XD