Chapter Nine:
A Walk in the Woods
Disclaimer: I do not own the series Pokémon. Like, at all. It and all its respectable characters are © to Game Freak and Satoshi Tajiri. However, all writing contents and semi-plots here are © to me; unless it is stated otherwise. All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I do not own them.
Notes: Whoo, boy. This chapter was a long doozy! It took me a while to complete, mostly because of the length, but also partly because I've been on and off with writing during my fall semester. I've mostly focused on my writing assignments, pre-production storyboards, scripts, and video game development pipelines for all my classes. Oh, and immunology. Science is fun.
So is losing weeks' worth of sleep to complete my storyboard project. *ugly distant sobbing*
But, enough about that! Let's get on with the chapter, my lovelies! Please enjoy it, and don't forget to leave a comment or constructive critique in the review section! Give a little love, pay it forward! Oh, and thank ou again to my lovely reviewers from last chapter, I greatly appreciate it and I'm always happy to hear from you guys!
Current Team: Keno the Mudkip, Sela the Poochyena, Ambrose the Ralts, Faye the Taillow
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep
- "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost
Petalburg Woods were dark and deep, even during the day. Trails had been blazed through, manicured enough to allow trainers to forge through unhindered, yet wild enough that it didn't take away from its natural beauty. It was a strange balance that achieved both touches of civilization and natural wildness in equal amounts. There was enough tangled underbrush that dissuaded the nosier of individuals from delving deeper and further away from polite society. It was like taking a walk in a national park; she imagined that officials probably scoured the place every once in a while to maintain the wilderness and keep it in check, but with as minimal interference as possible.
It would take at least a day to wade through the natural landscape and navigate their way to the outskirts of Rustboro City. Shay was nervous with pent-up energy, emboldened by the stunning battle earlier with Faye, and then promptly realizing they'd have to make up for lost time.
Now that they were well in the embrace of the woods, she was retracting her earlier decision to keep going a little after dark and then pitch camp. It would be completely stupid to up the risks of injury and attack. That, and…she wasn't a fan of bugs. And she was beginning to realize and remember that the world of pokémon had huge insects. Insects that were, perhaps larger than even her world's prehistoric insects. Remembering that gave her the heebie-jeebies.
She suddenly sympathized with Misty and felt her skin crawling at the thought of any bugs trying to get on her, especially in the cover of darkness.
"Are you all right, Shay? You look like you've seen a ghost." Sela said, breaking Shay out of her thoughts. She shook her head in response, swallowing down her unease. Even the idea of being within several feet of a giant creepy-crawly made her skin prickle in disgust and fear.
"Uh…no. No, I'm…okay. Just…not a fan of bugs, I just remembered." Shay answered truthfully. Sela offered her an all-too toothy grin.
"Aw, they're not so bad. They're a bit slimy-tasting, sure, but once you get past the first few bugs, they're rather pleasing to sink your fangs into."
"Ewww. You eat bugs?" Keno stuck his tongue out at Sela, even in the face of her devilish smile.
"When pickings were slim, my pack and I couldn't exactly afford to pass up any kind of meal that came our way. Bugs just happened to cross our paths many times."
"I guess when the going gets tough, the tough eat bugs," Ambrose quipped. Faye, perched upon Shay's shoulders, ruffled her feathers and issued a lilting laugh.
"You might not care for them, but for us Taillow, it's a smorgasbord. Bug-types truly are for the birds."
Shay stuck out her tongue. "I'm with Keno on this. You two are like, Timon and Pumbaa, and are gonna start singing Hakuna Matata any moment now, and—is Keno going to play Simba? That seems a bit weird, since he's not a cat…" She realized the stares she was suddenly getting and laughed. "Sorry. It's from a movie I saw as a kid. These two characters, Timon and Pumbaa, they liked eating bugs. A lot."
"Do you think we can watch it when we get to Rustboro?" Keno asked, staring at her so earnestly, it melted Shay's heart a little bit more. She honestly wanted scoop him right up in her arms and snuggle him just for that adorable look he gave her. The elation died quickly as the full force of what he'd asked finally hit her.
"Oh…I'm sorry, it's…a really old movie. I doubt anyone's playing it anymore."
Keno watched her for a long moment, saw the small shake she gave him and understood in that small notion. "That's too bad. I would love to see it."
"Yeah, it is. Must be pretty dang old if even television won't play it. And I've heard from Professor Birch that TV will play anything."
"Just how old are you? I can't really ever tell with human ages," Faye interrupted, turning her beak towards Shay's cheek and lightly tapping it. Shay instinctively reached up to pat the Taillow, only to earn a quick, yet effective nip that told her absolutely, positively "NO TOUCHING." She just as quickly dropped her hand, getting the message.
Shay, having grown up with a practical circus of pets in her life, has had experience with birds. Parrots that weren't comfortable with someone reaching for their head or their backsides were afraid of predators, or so she's been told. A hand going for those vulnerable areas was the same as a hawk coming down from above for them. Instinct told them to strike back. For Faye, that might not just be instinct alone, but personal experience. She would have to take her time to earn Faye's trust. Rushing and forcing it would only splinter the tenuous bridge they've only just begun to build toward one another.
"Sorry. Got it," she said to the little bird, to which Faye replied with a simple ruffle of her feathers in approval. "And to answer your question, I'm twenty-seven. It's not an old age, but it's not a super young age either."
"Most travelers that come through are…younger, then, I think." Faye said softly. "But there are some that are inherently older than you, as well."
"So, basically, it's a mixed bag. What keen observation you've provided us," Sela replied dryly with a flat look aimed at the Taillow. Faye's feathers puffed up in agitation as her clawed feet dug sharply into both Shay's shoulder and the strap of her pack.
"Easy, Sela. That's enough. We already know this is a popular trail for trainers to blaze on through. Their ages don't matter, but their skill does." Turning her head just a smidge to look at Faye, who was smoothing her feathers back down, bit by bit, she continued, "Have you had eyes on that, at least? Any strong trainers versus…well, not so strong?"
"Eloquent as always, our trainer is," Sela said with a sigh. Shay shot the Poochyena another warning look. Even Keno gave her a light push in the shoulder. Ambrose laid a paw on the Poochyena's other shoulder and her muzzle, which had begun to curl, dropped back down. Sela turned her red eyes on the Ralts, who simply motioned for her to stop. She snorted but did nothing else, finally seeming to get the message.
Shay waited until the moment had passed before turning her attention back to Faye. The Taillow, satisfied she wouldn't be interrupted, finally replied. "My last round through Petalburg Woods was about a day ago, but as far as I saw, there weren't many trainers traipsing through. Not very many that looked all that strong, anyways. Quite a number of them use bug-types."
There was a hungry gleam in the little bird's eyes as she said this. Shay cleared her throat.
"You're not eating another trainer's pokémon, bug-type or not. Let's show some common courtesy and try not to kill them either. It's considered rude where I come from."
Ambrose tilted his head, just enough to show off the little knowing smirk that Shay caught sight off. She frowned back, then sighed.
"We should get going. We've got less than six hours before it gets dark. I'd like to get through most of this forest before we camp out for the night."
"We didn't hit our target mark today. Damn it!"
Shay was scrutinizing the map on her x-transceiver with a hard frown and a clenched jaw. She was never good at math on the fly. It was a horrid subject that she was weak in without a calculator or consistent practice, but if she took her time, she eventually got to the conclusions she aimed for. It was a slow, agonizing process—but calculating where she was on a map, as well as the distance between her and a goal, that was relatively easy. Utilizing landmarks, dead reckoning navigation, number of steps taken, and so forth were all just systematic tools one could use when traversing the land.
Looking at the map now, she saw they had fallen short of the goal she had set by about two miles.
That means we have to add two more miles to our hike for tomorrow, and that sets us back at least by two, maybe three hours—
"You're overthinking things again."
Startled, Shay looked up from her device, scanning the area. It had been Ambrose, she was sure of it, and when she spotted him, she was about to chide her for speaking to her telepathically again. She stopped short when she saw other pairs of eyes on her, their faces aglow from the light of their campfire, all of them having stopped eating to stare at her. Her own food remained untouched, barely a dent put in its mass. She belatedly realized that Ambrose had spoken aloud for all to hear.
She reapplied her stare back on Ambrose, frowning. "We didn't hit our mark today," she repeated dejectedly with a heavy sigh. "We should be camping at least two miles further from here."
"Relax. We did good today, considering the amount of times we've had to deal with unplanned fights, we should probably start putting in cushion time for battles on our hikes between towns," Ambrose said breezily, offering a lopsided grin. He waved a paw in her direction in a flippant manner. "You do know how to relax, don't you?"
"I do. But we're falling behind schedule and—"
"Is there really a schedule? Is every moment of your life planned out, down to the very second?" Faye interrupted sharply, tilting her head to the side. Judging from the curious stares pinning her down, Shay realized they weren't used to the rigors of having every second planned out, every minute scheduled accordingly.
She knew how it felt to make plans, backup plans, backup plans to those backup plans and so on and so forth. A decade in the military has had her revolving her life around such nuances and being prepared to have the floor blown up right from under her feet in a veritable shitstorm if plans went south.
Shay felt herself flushing in embarrassment. "No. But I…I need to stick to this schedule."
That sounded lame, even to her ears. She wished she had formed that better, in her head first, before she had even said anything.
"Just you? Or do all of us matter at all?"
Shay groaned. "That's not—I mean, I don't mean it like that, I just…"
She glanced Keno's way, and then surveyed Ambrose and Sela, and Faye lastly. She froze up, the words sticking her throat like shards of bone catching. Only Ambrose knew the full extent as to why she was doing this. Even Keno had some ideas, but Sela and Faye? Looking at them and their expectant yet quizzical expressions reminded her that neither of them realized why she was so bent out of shape for a small bump in her plans.
Keno offered a smile and a nod of encouragement. "You can tell 'em what you told me. It's okay."
The others glanced at him. Faye cocked her head to the other side. "Tell us what?"
Shay hesitated, the decision weighing heavily in her chest like a heavy stone. The back of her throat felt dry and agitated, and faintly like bile as the nervousness bubbled up in her stomach. She curled and uncurled her fingers, lest she cut her palms with her fingernails and wiped the sweat that broke out on her palms on her pants.
"I'm…I'm not…I'm not from this world. I wasn't born in Hoenn. Or in any other region in this world. I come from a place that has no pokémon, whatsoever. It has animals, and some of them look like pokémon, but they can't use psychic powers, they can't breathe fire or create ice, or bend space and time." Shay tried to ignore the shaking in her hands, the staring eyes boring into her. She kept her gaze trained on Keno, who grinned wider at her in reassurance. Somehow, she found that encouraging and she continued. "I know that sounds strange, but it has something to do with the Creation Trio in Sinnoh. They're…disrupting things in this world and it's somehow affecting mine at the same time. And the more time I take to becoming Champion—"
"—the less time you'll have in having access to the Creation Trio Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina." Ambrose finished with flair, cutting off Shay. The other three looked at him, surprised. Sela was the first to react, her ears plastering themselves against her skull.
"Should've figured you'd know something about this before any of us. It's nearly impossible to hide things from psychic-types."
"All except from you pesky dark-types," Ambrose replied amicable, reaching over to tap Sela affectionately on the nose. She snorted and drew back, rubbing a paw over her nose as she narrowed her eyes as the Ralts. Keno closed the short distance between himself and Shay, jumping into her lap. She quickly wrapped her arms around him, finding comfort in having someone to hold.
"It's okay, Shay. We'll figure this out. How about we don't take breaks tomorrow? We just keep going!"
She smiled in spite of herself. "Naw, that's not fair to any of you. I'm sorry I'm being such a stick in the mud about this shit. I just…have a lot on my mind—"
"—an understatement, really," Ambrose drawled.
"—but maybe it's better if I get things out in the open and clear the air with you all. We're a team. And keeping things from you guys, it wouldn't be fair at all."
Shay felt her heart fluttering against her ribcage, more so out of nervousness than out of fear, as she stopped herself from going into a blundering rant. She took in a shaky breath and let it out with a shudder, the palms of her hands still unnervingly sweaty. She wiped them on the fabric of her pants once again, waiting as the others absorbed what she had just told them. Rather, it was really only Faye and Sela she was waiting on.
Keno and Ambrose were already in the know. They seemed to have accepted this on their own terms since she told them. Keno was enthusiastic in assisting her back home, and Ambrose…he was keeping things close to the vest on how he truly felt about it.
When neither Faye nor Sela said nothing, she swallowed, trying to chase away the dryness that had made home in her mouth and throat. She eventually took a long draft of water from her canteen before speaking.
"Do…any of you have any questions you'd like me to answer?"
"How long have you…been here? In our world?" Sela began carefully, her red gaze piercing. Faye fluttered her feathers and shivered her wings, her gaze equally as piercing. She only broke it to peck at her food before laying it back on Shay.
"Um…less than three months. Give or take a week or two."
"That's not very long," Faye remarked with another twitch of her wings. She paused, listening to the distant howls of a Poochyena pack. Sela's ears flicked.
"They're miles away." she stated matter-of-factly, as though to ease any nervousness anyone had. "They're hunting, but they're moving away from us. We'll be fine. My next question is why you think doing this…being a trainer…would get you home?"
"If she becomes Champion, she can do whatever she wants. She can go wherever she wants. She'll have the respect amongst other Champions and they can do little to challenge her authority if she were to, say, go meddling with the Creation Trio. They're disrupting things in the world. I know you can feel it in the earth, taste it in the air, same as me." Ambrose broke in, tilting his face towards Sela and Faye respectively. They said nothing, and for a moment out of shock, neither did Shay. Keno stirred in her lap, the first to react. He stood, bristling as he regarded the other three.
"We'll get Shay home! And she promised she wouldn't leave us behind, so, we have to help her!"
The earnestness damn near broke her heart because she didn't really know if bringing any of her team back to her world would be a smart move. But leaving them behind would be utterly heartless. It was a gut-wrenching decision she knew she'd have to make eventually, when the time came. A lump grew in the back of her throat, hard and painful, as she thought on the moment she'd have to make that kind of choice. She had to scrub it from her head, and instead had to focus on what was immediately in front of her, on what things she could control.
She wrapped her arms around Keno, surprised at how warm his little body was.
"I won't leave you guys behind. I know I'm new to this whole 'trainer' thing, but I promise I won't abandon you. If you want to leave the team, I won't stop you. If you want to sit out of a battle, that's fine too. But I'll my best to keep you in top health, and if I see a situation I think you can't handle, I won't let you throw yourself at it and get yourselves killed over nothing. We have to be smart about how we tackle each battle with other trainers and wild pokémon alike."
"Sounds like a smart idea. But perhaps we should continue along that line of thought in the morning. It's getting late, and you humans tend to prefer daylight hours. Sleep." Sela announced dryly, looking pointedly at Shay. Another wolfish grin lifted her black lips upwards to curl her muzzle. "I'll take the first shift. Who wants to take the one after me?"
"I can take it. Just wake me when you're done." Ambrose replied, tilting his head toward the Poochyena. Turning back to Shay, he waved a white paw at her, his lips curling upwards. "Let's get some rest. We've got a lot of miles to put behind us tomorrow when we start hiking again."
"I'll wake us at first light," Faye finished, giving a nod to the others when they looked at her. She shrugged a wing at their curious stares. "I'm early to rise, and the early Taillow gets the Wurmple."
"Right. I guess that settles it." Shay said, feeling a weight lifting from her chest and shoulders. In all honesty, she had thought that there would be more questions, more probing inquiries. Keno wriggled in her lap, twisting around to look at her with a wide grin. That simple action gave her a jumpstart in the courage department. It solidified her resolution that this was the best course of action. She had made the right decision, had chosen the right partner. She hugged the little Mudkip and he buried his face into her shoulder. Small comforts could go a long way.
"How big are these woods, travel-wise?"
"To a Taillow or to a human?"
"Human."
Faye preened one of her wings, as though she was stalling for time. "Mmm. Most humans who are in good health can traverse through the woods in less than a day, if they start south and head north at first light. Or go north and head south. Either or."
"That doesn't sound so bad," Keno remarked as he trotted ahead of Shay. "We're already in the middle of the woods, so we should be out sooner!"
"He's not wrong," Ambrose said. Shay shrugged, feeling Faye's wing brush against her cheek as she did.
"He's not," she agreed.
An early morning fog had rolled in from the ocean to the west and now carpeted the forest. Coupled with an overcast sky, they were beset upon a perpetual morning twilight. Sela was trotting ahead of them, sniffing out and chasing away any threats from their path. Keno would step in every once in a while if a certain persistent enemy kept on with them. Whenever the scent of a human came up, Sela would announce it before they crossed paths.
The faint smell of brine was evident in the morning breeze, and the fog rolling off from the ocean was growing thicker. It remained with them on the forest floor, making navigation slower than Shay would have liked. It remained like that for the first hour but began to slowly dissipate as the morning pressed on into later hours. In the interim, Shay came across several trainers who immediately demanded a battle, no questions asked.
It was titillating how easily dispatched they were when Shay threw Sela into the fray, as most of the young trainers were fond of bug-types filling their ranks. The woods were equally filled with, predictably, bug-types. Thankfully, her team was more than enough to dispatch of any creepy-crawlies and keeping them well and far away from Shay. Fire Fang was a very useful move when going to bat against the bug-types in the forest, and there were plenty of them, trainer registered or wild alike. Shay figured she'd gather a tidy enough profit by the time she got to Rustboro with the way things were going. Every once in a while, Shay would spot a Slakoth or Taillow hanging out in the branches of trees, snoozing or eating away as they passed by.
She made sure to gather their data on the pokédex, as requested by Professor Birch. She was aware of her secondary duties and wouldn't skimp out. In the next few days, she'd have to report everything she could to him. It could either be at a Pokémon Center, or it could be done via the pokédex itself, if facilities were lacking. Professor Birch had been insistent with his preference to her using the centers.
By the time noon came crawling by, the mist had dissipated completely, leaving the forest clean and clear. When that time came around, Shay called for a short break to check for injuries, to eat, and rest. When Shay cleared Faye, she had her fly up to give them a report on their location and corresponded that information with her map.
"We are almost through. Just another hour, maybe less, before we're out," she happily told the others as they munched away on snacks and Faye had returned. The Taillow preened herself on Shay's shoulder, puffing her chest proudly when she finished. Shay began to peel away her boots and socks, carefully checking on her blisters and their wrappings before allowing them to air out.
"And it'll be another hour before we're able to get to Rustboro, at the most. If we don't get stopped by anymore trainers, but knowing our luck so far, I doubt it," Faye added with a clack of her little beak. They finished the rest of their food off without preamble, although it was just as Shay finished lacing her boots back up that she was alarmed by the sudden bleating cries for help on the path ahead. She looked to her team and saw the same expression painted on their faces asking the same thing: I wasn't the only one who heard that, right?
With a groan building up at the bottom of her diaphragm and expelling outwards past her lips as she hauled her pack up onto her shoulders. She winced when the cry came again, closer this time.
"I think it's safe to say we're entering horror film territory. Anyone want to vote on whether we skirt past it all or should we just go barreling in?" Shay remarked facetiously. Looks were exchanged before the consensus was silently passed. She sighed as she hauled her pack back onto her aching shoulders. "Okay, we're going to head toward the voice and imminent danger."
"Aw, what's the matter, Princess? Scared of a little screaming?"
Shay cast a sour look toward Ambrose. She knew he couldn't see her face, but it made her feel better regardless. Besides, she was sure her annoyance was felt well enough by him. That was enough for her.
Ambrose simply grinned at her, as though in answer.
"Do I sound scared?" Shay finally asserted gruffly.
"Terrified. Utterly and completely," he replied flatly as she began picking up the pace. Sela and Keno began trotting alongside her. Shay paused just long enough to scoop Ambrose up in her arms.
"Might wanna check again, because I'm far from terrified. Let's go help the helpless, and all that jazz." She paused, glancing at the little smug-looking Ralts before adding with a mumble, "And don't call me 'Princess.' I hate that shit."
They weren't long in running down the trail, and they weren't too late, either. From a distance, Shay could make out two distinct people: one on the ground and the other standing over them. From afar, it might have looked like the one on the ground was being helped up by the person hovering above, but as she got closer, it was anything but a helpful hand being given to the fallen individual. They were being hauled upwards, their shirt fisted in hand by the one overshadowing them.
She stopped dead in her tracks as she ogled the scene before her. She could feel her skull suddenly flaring to the tempo of her heartbeat as it rose higher and higher up in her chest, until it lodged itself in her throat and stayed there. She froze, like a statue, unable to move even as the uniformed figure took a swing at the downed individual at their feet. The crack of knuckles striking bone and meat sounded so preternaturally enhanced in the space between them all, and that space felt so damningly claustrophobic in the span of several seconds, like distance meant nothing.
The voice snapped her back to the here and now, and she looked down to locate the source. Keno. It was Keno. He wasn't the only one who had their gaze fixed on her. She found her entire team looking at her, looking for decisiveness and leadership, although from the expressions painted on the faces…
Taking in small sips of air, Shay ignored the tremble in her hands, the shaky weakness of her legs, the tightening discomfort of knots forming in her gut. Adrenaline, she had once heard, had nothing to do with giving fits of super strength or speed or what-have-you to a person. She had once heard that it was entirely detrimental to a person's health rather than helpful in stressful situations that required a fight-or-flight reaction.
Shay wasn't sure if any of that was true, but with each step, she found strength building back up into her muscles and she found a steely resolve with every beat of her heart. If this was adrenaline, she more than welcomed it. She was going to damn well need it.
Neither party ahead of her seemed to notice her, which was fine by her.
Suck it the fuck up, Marine. Get in there. You signed up to run toward chaos, didn't you? There's chaos right fucking there.
When she had gone to Sergeant's Course nearly three years ago, one of her last major excursions toward the end had been spent in the woods just outside of Quantico. All throughout the day, her team and had spent their time hiking up and down the hills and gullies and gulches that littered the expanse of land. Intermittently, each Marine in the team had been provided with various scenarios as they were given leadership roles by their Staff Sergeant.
Shay remembered hers quite well: she had to deal with the warring desire of her subordinates, who had wanted to beat the absolute shit out of prisoners of war that had been captured, but not without the cost of Marines' lives. They had wanted blood, the rules of warfare and the Geneva Convention be damned. They would have preferred to satiate their desires for vengeance rather than to observe that they were about to commit war crimes against unarmed enemy combatants.
That scenario had been more than just a doozy.
That hour had been a spell of anxious excitement and more that involved her, as the leader, pushing aside several men twice her height and nearly three times her weight, shouting at the top of her lungs, in an effort to gain control of the situation. She had had to play interference with them while barking orders at the top of her lungs at others to restrain those frothing at the mouths, baying for revenge.
It had all been training, of course. No one really died. Two of her squad mates had played the silent enemy combatants, and no one actually wanted to kill anybody else, but man…her guys really sold it. In the heat of the moment, it had been a testosterone-fueled endeavor that took more out of her than all the hiking done throughout the day combined.
By the end of the night, after they had all gotten back to Quantico and she had gotten back in her barracks room after debriefing their work for the day, she hadn't been quite sure what had hurt worst: her diaphragm and her throat or her bad hip and lower back. But damn, if she hadn't scared the shit out of the rest of her team by showing how a skinny and short woman like herself that had steel in her voice and fire in her bones could do against the likes of them. Some of them had admitted they were terrified of her.
This moment scared her more than the training had. More than boot camp, more than combat training.
Oh, no. No, no, no. No. I've already skipped out on fighting Brendan, I've already missed him by, like, a week. There is no way that this is going the way I think it does. It can't. I can't do this. Get someone else, please. Please, for Christ's sake. Someone, anyone!
She struggled with her next few breathes, her chest drawing so tightly around her lungs, she was almost certain that it was cutting off her air supply—
"Shay! Shay, what do we do?"
Shay could already guess what they wanted to do. The air was already charged with electricity, it was only a matter of directing it. She was hesitating, hoping that someone else would come along, to take charge of the situation, because deep down in her gut, she knew where this led to—
A tiny paw reached up to her fingertips, startling her and she looked down to see Ambrose standing there. The tuft of seafoam green fur over his eyes spilt along the sides of his face, showing off the thin skin that covered his eyeless sockets. He smiled at her, giving her an encouraging nod.
'Do it.'
She was feeling that same tingling rush of adrenaline through her in that moment as she approached what she now couldn't deny was a member of Team Aqua, and a scientist from the Devon Corporation. Shay felt her heart skip a beat when she recognized on sight the uniform donning the menacing figure. That god-awful pirate-wannabe outfit along with the sigil emblazoned on their bandanna that was a modified Greek Alpha symbol…
It was all damning evidence that pointed in the exact opposite of her denial. Her gut clenched harder, like it was trying to wrap itself around a lump of stone that was slowly growing in her stomach the closer she got.
"Faye, get that fucker off of that guy on the ground. Don't…don't kill him, just distract him." It took all her self-control to not order Faye to gouge out the Team Aqua grunt's eyes out. It really did.
The little Taillow offered an affirmative to the order and took off, quick as a wink as she rocketed toward the Team Aqua member on her swift wings. Faye let off a territorial shriek the moment she was on top of the man, who squealed in surprise and began waving his arms wildly to protect his face. He pinwheeled away, and as he did, Shay scampered closer to the downed man on the ground. He nearly took a swing at her, but upon realizing he wasn't being attacked, he was quick to accept the hand up.
She immediately found concern worming its way under her skin at the massive swelling the size of a peach on the side of his face, skin purpled with bruising and red with blood where the flesh had split open. His lip was split open and bloody, and there was a thin array of cuts underscoring the outline of glasses on his cheeks. Those glasses were now crumpled and broken on the forest floor. One of his eyes was watery and already turning puffy and red after being hit in the face god only knew how many times.
Despite all the injuries, he was also just as quick to scuffle around Shay and shoved her forward like a shield, to shout at her as though she was deaf. Or perhaps he couldn't tell he was screaming in her ear, his own hearing suffering from the hits he took.
"Please! You have to get my research back from that—that thieving thug! I-I-I can't go back t-to Devon without them!"
The man was rather nonplussed about forcing her to take his place, and while it miffed her initially, she didn't blame him entirely. He had just taken a few good wallops to the face, and perhaps elsewhere as well.
Faye hurried back to Shay's side, taking roost on the back of her pack. The Team Aqua grunt, who at last noticed the lack of a feathery fiend trying to slash at him senselessly, took a few heavy gulps of air in an effort to calm himself. When his gaze fell upon Shay, his eyes bulged, his face grew red with anger and embarrassment, and a vein in both his temple and his neck began to pulse rather visibly. His eyes slid to the side to glare at the man cowering behind Shay, who gave her another shove forward, nearly pushing her straight onto her face.
She dug her heels in and as she leaned back, she shoved back at the scientist.
"Easy, easy! Jesus Christ, you're going to fuckin' make me fall over, you goddamned idiot!"
The man yelped behind her, perhaps not expecting such a savage response in the face of his plight. She swore she heard him mumble an apology, but it was lost in the sudden bark of orders from the Team Aqua grunt standing adjacent to her. His command was accompanied by the brilliant light of a pokéball bursting open and the musical chime it made. The energy coalesced together to form, rather predictably in her mind, a Poochyena. The little pokémon immediately hunched down in a defensive position, its grey hackles bristling, its black lips peeled back, and its snout curled into a vicious snarl. Red eyes glared balefully at her, a challenging growl in its throat.
Sela returned the spiteful display in kind, a low growl building in her chest. She was ready to rumble, and after a quick glance at the rest of her team, Shay saw the others were just as willing and able to jump into the fray. She motioned for them to stand down and immediately felt the back of her neck and along her spine prickle at the self-righteous smirk thrown her way by the grunt opposite her.
"Awww, whassa matter, little girl? You too scared to fight me? You might have more pokémon than me, but I bet you'll lose every one of them to my Poochyena here, easy-peasy. You might think you're protecting that weakling, but believe me, you're the one that's gonna need protection once I'm done with you."
Shay felt herself bristling at the half-assed attempt at hurling insults upon her person. Really, did everyone think her height was a major source of contempt and sensitivity for her? If anything, she was more insulted by the lack of creativity on his part.
"Ya know, I'm getting real sick of people callin' me by the most obvious and overused descriptive term they can use to describe me. Yeah, I'm a girl, and I'm short. How is that an insult, you buck-toothed, bowlegged, scurvy-riddled cunt?"
The grunt wasn't expecting that. His smile vanished and was replaced by yet another glowering scowl. If looks could kill, Shay was certain she'd be dead several times over.
Let's try not to get ourselves killed for real, she told herself.
Now that would be embarrassing.
Shay motioned to Keno with a tilt of her head and the Mudkip responded without a word. He leapt forward to face off against the Poochyena opposite them, tailfin a-quivering, back arched, and little legs planted determinedly. The others settled to watch, yet Shay could almost feel the energy roiling off each and every one of them.
There was so very little fanfare or pizzazz that preceded this battle. That was fine by her. The less dramatics, the better. She didn't need grand speeches or lengthy declarations.
"Sand Attack!"
The suddenness in which the battle started threw Shay for a loop, and rather abruptly, she felt as though she was flailing, struggling to stay afloat in the deep end. It must have shown on her face, because the Team Aqua member's face split into a shit-eating grin, his dark eyes glittering malevolently. His Poochyena responded instantly, turning on its heel and hurriedly digging at the ground, chucking dirt and grit directly at Keno.
"Counter with Water Gun! Dampen the ground, don't give him any usable ammo!"
Her cry of warning came too late; the dirt that had went flying smacked Keno in the face and sent him reeling. He went into fits of trying to scrape at his face with a paw, smacking at the orange external gills lining his cheeks in an attempt to clear the debris from his eyes. She heard him whine as he began to shake his head, looking destitute and vulnerable. Shay felt that helplessness bleed into her simply by watching.
"Get in there and use Tackle on that Mudkip! Hit it hard and don't let it get back up, or so help me, you'll regret it, Rouge!"
The Poochyena snapped an affirmative remark, its pitch and tone somewhat higher than Shay was expecting. Another female, perhaps…? Nope. Not her problem to linger on.
"Keno, dodge to your left! Turn around and hit back with a Water Gun!"
Her trusty and steadfast starter obeyed, even though she suspected the grit in his eyes must've hurt like hell. She knew how that felt. When she had been younger, perhaps about eight or nine, an older boy she went to after-school child care with didn't like how she beat him in handball games, so he had thrown a fistful of sand at her face right as they were coming back inside the building. It took the caretakers nearly an agonizing half hour to flush out and clean her eyes.
She could more than just sympathize with Keno on that matter alone.
The Poochyena's incoming attack barely grazed Keno, hardly causing any noticeable shift in his counterattack. Keno snapped his mouth open before he had even gotten completely out of the way and turned around. Water gushed from his open maw, hitting the Poochyena hard and flinging it into a nearby tree. The tiny canine yelped a wordless cry, loudly and at length.
Its trainer shouted at it to get up and fight once, twice, three times. His Poochyena struggled to get its paws underneath it, staggering with uncertainty before collapsing altogether.
"Get up! Fight! I know you can fight!"
"Your Poochyena can't fight anymore, man. You lost. Give back the goods you stole," Shay all but snarled. Sela punctuated her point by barking several times at the grunt, before emphasizing her point by allowing her maw to smoke and glow with embers dripping down her fangs. He flinched, and behind her, Shay sensed the scientist do the same, along with a tiny whimper of…hope? Anxiety? Fear? She couldn't tell for sure. She had nearly forgotten about him, and a part of her felt guilty at that.
The Team Aqua grunt spat on the ground, and with great reluctance and consternation, recalled his Poochyena back into its pokéball. With equal unwillingness, he unhitched a small messenger bag from his being and flung it to the ground. The scientist was quick to swing around Shay and dived for it like his life depended upon it. He snatched it up and scurried back around to hide behind Shay.
Wow. You're a grown-ass man hiding behind a tiny-ass woman, she wanted to say, and as soon as she thought it, she felt a strange…well, the closest she could compare it to was a tickle, but it traced right along her brain, starting from between her eyes, up and over her scalp and temples, and ending at the base of her skull. It was the strangest sensation, and she wasn't even sure what it was. It wasn't the same chill she got when it was particularly cold or itchy. She couldn't pinpoint wat it was, not until she snapped her head in Ambrose's direction. The Ralts was smiling that mysterious yet very telling smile at no one in particular.
Little shit, she thought, but without a hint of malice or ill will behind it. Turning her attention back on the Team Aqua member, noting the look of rage and wretched contempt written so plainly upon his features. His face was growing red again, this time with utter humiliation.
"Tch. If I had more pokémon, I'd keep up the constant barrage of attacks, but since I don't… argh, dammit all! You'll pay for this, just you wait!"
Another derisive spat on the ground. He turned his dark eyes on her once more, looking ready to spout off something else, but stopped himself short when Sela crept closer, once more assuming a bristling, prickly bundle of aggressive rancor aimed his way. Nervousness swept across his face, like a passing shadow. He turned on his heel and sharply took off with another shout of frustration bellowed to the heavens as he beat a hasty retreat.
Shay and the man hiding behind her watched his backside as it dove into the woods with reckless abandon. They waited until the sounds of his retreat had faded, and the white noise of the forest's chorus came back with a quietly building crescendo. When it did, the man cowering behind Shay with his newly recovered goods let out a trembling and loud exhalation.
"Oh…oh, goodness me. I thought I-I was a goner for sure. I thought that no-good rapscallion was going to make off with my research!"
He continued fussing with the messenger bag, rifling through its innards, ensuring every page and document was still within. There were a few pieces of equipment—parts, really, if she was being honest—but she didn't get a good glimpse at them before more paperwork was fluffed over them. As the papers flipped over, she caught a glimpse of something shiny, red-and-white, and…
"You had a pokémon this entire fucking time and you didn't think to use it?"
Now she was really pissed. At first, she had grudgingly accepted that someone was in need, and had swallowed down the apprehension of the situation she had ran towards—again, the white-hot anxiety that rushed through her at the thought that this, this battle that had just taken place, was part of the fucking games—but now…
Now she wanted to hit the man standing in front of her just as much as she had wanted to throw a fist at that Team Aqua grunt.
The man's face and neck flushed pink in embarrassment and he hurriedly pulled the canvas flap snuggly over everything. He stood, his gangly frame towering over Shay, but to be fair…she was pretty sure she could snap him in half over her knee. He clung to his messenger bag like it was his lifeline, his gaze glued to his feet and pointedly refusing to meet Shay's glare. She almost felt bad for getting loud with him.
Almost.
She glanced at her team and her heart gave a lurch when she noticed Keno was still rubbing at his face, emitting soft whimpers with every swipe he made. She took a knee, immediately taking out her canteen and gently began to pour water into his eyes after unscrewing the cap off.
"You know, I'm not looking for it—in fact, I could give two rat shits about it—but when someone helps you out of a really tough spot like the one you were in, people usually say 'thank you'." She growled and saw the man flinch, as though she had struck him.
"I-I'm sorry. I'm…I'm not…I'm not a good battler. I tried the League Challenge once, when I was a lot younger and I-I-I wasn't that great. I didn't even make it past Roxanne. If she was too tough for me, there was n…n-no way I could make it all the way to the Chamption. I found I was b-better equipped towards scientific research." His faced paled slightly, the flush in his cheeks diminishing to ruddy, splotchy splashes as he watched Shay. She glanced up and he immediately ducked his gaze again, his face scrunching together in concentration, bracing himself before continuing. "I appreciate the help. I was out here just do-doing research on Shroomish. I-I find them fascinating a-and…and, the properties o-of their spores…I-I…I think they could benefit people a-and pokémon alike. Medical and the like."
He looked relieved at being able to get all that out and Shay took a deep, calming breath before allowing herself to talk. Keno was blinking at her, his eyes appearing less angry, although the skin around them appeared irritated and puffy. She patted him gently on the back. He was quick to scoop his head underneath her hand, leaning into her touch. Sela sniffed him delicately, softly asking if he was all right. Keno nodded.
"I'm fine. That dirt in my eyes hurt a little, though…"
Shay, satisfied that Keno was going to be all right, straightened and capped her canteen back up. When she turned to the man hovering close beside her, his lips were pressed tightly together and his jaw was working up and down, as though he was chewing on his words before speaking them. His eyes wandered and suddenly lit up when they spotted Ambrose.
"Your Ralts knows Teleport, doesn't it?"
Shay flinched, taken aback at the excitement colouring his words. She looked down at the Ralts and frowned.
"He does, but…"
"Please…I-I-I…" He stopped himself short, clenching his jaw once again. "I need…t-to get back to Rustboro."
Shay shifted her pack around on her shoulders, throwing another glance Ambrose's way. The Ralts shrugged his sloping shoulders.
"It doesn't work that way. I've never been there before. I can't just aim for a place I haven't visited. I could overshoot and end up…I dunno, the ocean, I guess." Ambrose paused, cocking his head to the side. "I don't think he'd appreciate getting dunked with all his junk."
So that's how it works, huh?
'Kind of, but there's more to it," came the immediate and cheeky reply. Shay felt her head itching, like it had earlier, and she resisted the urge to drag her fingers through her hair in an effort to assuage the sensation creeping along beneath her scalp. She could feel the gazes of Keno, Faye, and Sela drifting between herself and the desperate gangly man staring at her so hopefully, his eyes were practically bulging.
Turning back to the man, she shook her head, then nodded to his messenger bag.
"If you have a pokémon, you should use them to get back Rustboro. I haven't even been there myself. Ambrose can't Teleport there yet."
His expression crumpled completely and he lowered his eyes. "Oh. I suppose…" He paused, taking a deep breath, and he took another jaw-clenching moment to brace himself. "I-I suppose I should get going, then."
Apprehensively, he stole a glance over his shoulder, down the trail that led north to Rustboro City. No doubt he was thinking about the Team Aqua grunt that had attacked him and whatever urgency that compelled him to get moving overwhelmed his trepidation. A part of Shay wanted to offer to escort him, but her mouth remained wired shut and her stomach curdled and churned. With leaden feet he began to lumber down the path, shooting Shay one last forlorn look over the shoulder with his swollen, bruised cheek on full display.
Shay's stomach twisted into yet another series of knots, guilt slowly worming its way into her chest as the seconds ticked by.
"That was…strange." Faye piped up after the man disappeared from sight and sound. She shivered, bursting into a feathery ball. Just as quickly, her feathers smoothed out and she turned to look at Shay from her spot on the ground. "What kind of human carries a pokémon but never uses them?"
"The kind that aren't good at battling." Sela sniffed pointedly. "He's so soft. How do humans stand weaklings like him?"
"We have laws that protect everyone, although…where I come from, the rich and the powerful like to invest their money in passing laws that benefit them and screw everyone else underneath them. They manipulate things to better their own lives and wealth. That kind of selfishness and divisiveness can lead to a lot of people suffering and dying. And it has."
Remembering all of it came in a rush and the taste of sour bile lingered at the back of her throat. The socio-political environment of her world had become a bloated corpse of redundant discourse and thinly veiled conceit, corruption, and bigoted bias that favoured wealthy corporate donors rather than the constituents that politicians were supposed to represent and help, not crush beneath their heels in an effort to increase their own personal wealth and comfort. She recalled the dismay she often felt whenever she had listened to the news, day in and day out, felt the gravity of a black hole growing ever larger with each passing hour within her chest.
Most of that oppressive stress, however, has lifted almost fully from her shoulders. There wasn't the lingering worry and anxiety that the leader of her country—a fucking man-child and fascist in the making—was going to send her overseas to fight in a war he started all on social-goddamn-media because he couldn't act like a damn adult.
Here, the political structure was strange and alien. She was slowly wrapping her mind around things. Being the Champion meant being the strongest trainer in the region. Being the strongest meant being able to handle any situation thrown your way, whether it was answering the call of a pokémon battle or settling a heated political discussion. Either way, that status could be easily challenged, and it was a position everyone who chose to walk the path of the League Challenge vied for. There were no elections held for Champion.
And Steven's held that position for ten years, Shay thought as she motioned for everyone to continue on the path north. Faye took to the air, while Sela took point, and Ambrose and Keno walked on either side of Shay. Christ. I feel like an idiot, I'm just now realizing this. Nobody's been able to knock him off his high horse in all this time. How? Why?
'Because no one's determined enough to do it,' Ambrose's voice skittered along across her skull, making her spine tingle and shiver. 'But you want to get there so badly, you're practically tasting blood. It takes that and more to make it to the top of the mountain.'
Shay swallowed thickly, her tongue numb and thick in her mouth. She glanced at her as he slunk along beside her, but he didn't lift his head to acknowledge her.
And how would you know what it takes?
'My mother was a rather…competitive battler in her heydays. She and my father both were. That was before they ran off into the wilds together. She told me all about it.'
She abandoned her trainer? That was a rather astonishing and bold claim. She stared at Ambrose skeptically as they wound their way through the thicket pressing in on both sides of the path.
'He was reluctant to let her go, but…she's very convincing. She doesn't like taking 'no' for an answer, on and off the battlefield.'
Ambrose chuckled, both aloud and mentally. It was dizzying to focus on both. She could feel Ambrose's influence pulling away from her mind like taffy being pulled apart and her vision swam.
'You'll get used to that,' he assured her, his voice a distant echo as he retreated. Warmth spread across her scalp at his absence, soothing and refreshing. It eased away the pains she had been feeling for quite some time. She sighed in relief, drawing gazes from Sela and Keno alike.
"You okay, Shay?" Keno piped up, glancing up at her from over his shoulder. His eyes were looking better now, the irritation's influence shrinking away. She nodded to him, offering a faint smile.
"I'm okay. Let's just get to Rustboro before dark, okay? Sound good, guys?"
"Sounds good to me. I could eat," Sela remarked.
"But…you just ate," Keno replied, turning his attention on the Poochyena ahead of them. She barked out a round of laughter.
"What can I say, I'm a growing girl. If I want to someday evolve, I've got to eat and train. I'm a bit upset that I didn't get to fight in that last battle."
"Tell you what, Sela: next battle, you'll go first. Sound good?" Shay said, and the Poochyena flashed her a toothy grin over her shoulder, a frenzied gleam dancing in the depths of her ruby red eyes.
"Sounds great to me. I'll hold you to that promise."
Notes: I don't often get the chance to write stutters. I did have to look through a few guides to help on the matter. I tried to focus on a core group of letters for it, as suggested by several guides, instead of just going all over the place. I hope I was able to represent it well enough.
As always, please feel free to leave a review or constructive critique in the review section, I love hearing from you guys!
