The dull throbbing in my head was fading fast. That golden ninetales, the one that Omega couldn't see, dodged my attack and I hit something hard. Perhaps a tree, there are far too many of those around for me to be able to run around freely. Lucky for it all trees smell basically the same when so many are around, I'll never be able to find it again.
I sniffed the air, opening my eyes first would just made the throbbing more painful again. There were a lot of scents in the air, the ages of which varied greatly. Clearly there were visitors. The scent of a chansey showed that it was the pokemon centre, though I was not on the cold floor that I would normally be on inside such a place, thus I had to be just outside. Kitsune's scent was rather fresh in the air; she had been though here recently. She must have left the pokemon centre and come back.
I opened my eyes as I got to my feet. My nose hadn't lied to me, neither had my thought on the pain that would be caused by opening my eyes. Still, there was a slight ringing in my ears and I couldn't hear anything else. It would only be temporary; I was promised full immortality meaning such inconveniences would not last long.
I focused on staring at the ground as I walked in; blacks were floating all around the place, all of them seemed to have eyes. They were taunting those of us that were stuck on the ground by floating like that; taunting us that did not have wings. I could not let them look me in the eye and see my envious feelings. Such feelings are not fitting for an immortal like myself.
Following my nose, I slipped though another door and there my master was, hugging Kitsune and weeping a bit. More of the floating black things were in the room, but neither they nor my master were important. The scent of the ninetales meant I had little time to make a better impression than Omega and Katar. Not that that would be a challenge.
I rubbed against my master, looking up, not at her, but my future mate who lay on a bed. She looked asleep, therefore she was. There was a flicker of blue in her snow-white fur, as a grey object seemed to appear out of her, falling to the ground shattering. I could hear the sound of the stone breaking clearly as if my hearing was perfect, it echoing in the lack of being able to hear anything else. Somehow it was important.
There was then movement in Kitsune as she awoke, and a brief conversation between her and my master. The words I still could not hear, the echoing of the stone shattering seemed to be blocking everything else. It wanted to haunt me, as if the stone shattering should not have happened and I was being punished for it. My master's human companion appeared and seemed to speak, leading into more conversation I could not hear and a pink figure out the corner of my eye. It was a chansey, seeming to also be talking. The lack of sounds was starting to wear away at me, then came a single word that broke the power of the echo, followed by more words…
""… neuter her," The chansey spoke, with a hint of madness in her voice, "it'll fix all the problems. Please let me do it, few people want pokemon neutered around here and I really love doing operations like that."
The first word I had heard was shocking, but since it didn't relate to me I had no reason to panic. If I were born immortal it would have been enough to stop me seeking sanctuary, but I still leapt for the first one I thought of. I had a second thought, going for my master's arms instead, but it was too late and I hit my pokeball on her waist with a paw and it opened to engulf me.
I could not think of what it was like in there; it is always so lonely that I black out. Yet I was always awake when I get out. The steps of what to do upon getting out were simple, look around, judging the importance of everything as quickly as possible and figure out whether I had anything better to do than follow whatever order my master would give.
The scenery around me was interesting, with the sand and palm trees, with the ocean quite close by. I look to beside me and Omega, Katar, and Chu were also out, all sitting looking intently at our master. It looked uncomfortable for a pichu to be trying to sit like a dog. There was also a large brutish pokemon, standing on its hind legs, exposing its underside that was in contrast pale compared to the darker top half of its face. It was standing next to my master, looking at the others and me as if inspecting us. There were no floating blacks in sight, a good sign; no Kitsune, a bad sign. All I could do was sit patently; with no females to impress there was nothing but to wait for orders.
"Biohazard, this is Cinder, you missed meeting him earlier because you were unconscious," my master spoke, waving an arm towards the large creature, who towered over me. "He'll be staying with in the place of Kitsune for about a week, a temporary trade with Ryan. Till the week is up we won't see Ryan or Kitsune, we're doing some separate training."
"But after a week it'll mean another year before she'll be receptive again," I spoke, realising instantly that that was the whole point behind separating her from us. Why did I have to be punished like this? I hadn't done anything wrong.
"Cinder, I'm sure you've met all of my pokemon before," Lilac spoke, ignoring my comment completely, "so are you going to help me learn to be a better trainer?"
"First off you should get a new team," Cinder laughed under his breath and I could see flames flicker in his throat. He looked at Lilac, who had crossed her arms and stared back, straight into his eyes. Amazing how she seemed to make him change his mind, as she didn't look too scary to me. "… Okay, maybe you could actually show me how well they react to simple orders. If at least one of them can manage to do a half decent job then maybe there will be hope for them."
"How about a game of fetch?" Surprisingly Katar was the one to suggest it. Looking at him I realised how alien his body language was to me, almost as alien as human body language would have been if I hadn't been raised around my master's family. I could understand why this would make him hard for the others to trust, as it obscured his motives. "It's simple and it'll be fun… oh, I'll go last."
"Fetch, sounds simple enough…" Lilac grabbed a bit of driftwood from the sand, carefully feeling its weight as if working out how to throw it best. "Now, I think Omega deserves to go first." She tossed the driftwood, and as it flew marvelously through the air she called out, "Omega, fetch!"
No initiative, no understanding of even the basics of the task. Omega glanced at the object being thrown and quickly dismissed it, looking back at Lilac. It took a few moments for him to recognise Lilac was embarrassed at the lack of a result and that Cinder was too shocked to talk. All Omega said to justify the lack of result was: "So, how important was what she said? I don't really understand humans."
"…Lilac, I sure hope that he's your worst AND that you have only had him a few days." Cinder's voice was a shocked whisper, "If not you should just give up, a pokemon has to understand commands from its master or there is no point."
"Biohazard," My ear's perked up at the sound of my name; an order would follow that I would obey. If I showed enough intuitive then she might get Kitsune back in time. I looked carefully at the stick in her hand, looking at its every detail. "It's your turn, so fetch."
I didn't even watch her throw it, that wouldn't be very impressive. I just ran off in the opposite direction down the beach, having a quick glance at every bit of driftwood.
"I guess this is another failure," The brute spoke, clearly too stupid to see what I was doing. "He really needs his eye sight checked, he runs into things regularly and this is just further proof he must be blind."
I didn't need idiots like that insulting something because they didn't understand it. I was glad when I was too far away to hear him.
That piece is too small. That piece is too big. That piece is too twisted. That piece is actually a rock. That piece is perfect.
I picked up the stick and ran back to Lilac with it, dropping it at her feet. "See? I got an identical one to replace the one you threw away. Much quicker than going after the one you threw."
"Um… yes it does look quite similar, a little short though." Lilac said comparing it to the one in her hand… It was the one she threw, but how? I looked around, Chu was busy eating a small pink cube that smelled a little fruity, and there was a line scratched into the sand coming from the direction
"Biohazard, you are even stupider than Omega," Cinder laughed, "while you were gone the pichu ran off and dragged the stick back himself, and promptly ran up Lilac and pulled a sweet pokeblock from an unopened bag. It even closed the bag before getting off her. How does it feel to be outdone by a pichu?"
"I'm immortal, 'Chu Chu' there is not. Therefore I am still better."
"Chu Chu doesn't quite sound as cute when it isn't Sketch saying it. I think naming the pichu merely Chu would work better, fits both with the name given by Sketch and the way Kitsune refers to Chu as chew toy." Lilac spoke before turning to the non-canine dual bladed creature. "Well, I guess it must be Katar's turn. I hope you can prove what happened with Chu wasn't a fluke."
"Actually Lilac, you probably haven't noticed this, but Chu and chew sound very different in pokemon language, much in contrast with how they sound in human language." Katar looked a little smug, though perhaps I was merely misreading his body language. "And nope, Cinder has to go before me. After he's done it I'll prove my worth."
"Well then… Cinder Fetch!"
There was no way such a hulking big mass of flesh could move so fast, even if he had dropped to fur legs. My eyes had to be deceiving me, as the illusion given to me was him moving a decent amount faster than the stick. He stopped ahead of it, turning around and standing on his hind legs in a single movement, lifting a paw to pluck the stick from the air. Then he dropped to all fours and ran back. The stick staying in the paw as he ran on it must have also been an illusion; paws could not grasp things like human hands.
He dropped it at Lilac's feet, though it had broken in two where he had crushed in with his paw. "I suppose I don't get a pokeblock because I broke it?"
Lilac giggled nervously. Was it possible that she was as scared of Cind—No, I could smell her fear, she was more afraid of Cinder than even Kitsune. "Well, I'll think about it. First I'll give Katar a go. Ka—"
Katar slashed at Lilac's legs with the back of his head blade, knocking her legs out from under her. She grimaced in pain cause by such a hit as she fell, but didn't cry out… not that she would have been heard, as the air was filled with the sound of thunder and further down the beach the sand exploded.
"It'll take a few moments for my master to realize she missed with her new toy, so you'll have to follow my instructions precisely if you want to live. You have no chance without having warning about how to dodge the next shot a few seconds before it goes through your head." Katar hissed at Lilac, "As much as I'd love to see your insides splattered all over the place, some things come above my personal viewing pleasure…"
