Chapter Twelve:
Between a Rock and Hard Place
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: I am…so very sorry, my lovelies. I had originally completed this chapter way back in December and had it queued, but I did a very dumb thing, indeed. See, I utilize two Macs for my writings; a desktop monitor and a more portable MacBook Pro laptop. I had finished this chapter originally on my desk monitor, saved it, called it a day. I had unwittingly had the same chapter file open on my laptop. When I went to use the laptop, I saw I had the chapter, saved it, closed down the file, called it a day…and then proceeded to panic when I realized I had effectively erased all my work and I had no way of getting it back via the usual routes that entail to Mac systems. Believe me, I tried recovering previous save progresses, and it didn't work.
I am not happy with myself, and I am so very sorry for the wait. Having all my work erased due to my very dumb error knocked the proverbial creative wind out of me and stunted my progress. Nearly twenty pages of work, gone. If any of you write, I'm sure you can understand what a devastating blow it can be to have to start over, from complete and utter scratch.
I'm just glad I finally managed to complete this chapter so that you guys can enjoy it.
Current Team: Keno the Marshtomp, Sela the Poochyena, Ambrose the Ralts, Faye the Taillow, Breela the Shroomish, Luna the Skitty
"If anything goes wrong, I'm holding you responsible."
"Yeah, that'll teach me."
-Lana Kane and Sterling Archer, "Archer"
"Crissa, let's win this battle! Start off with a Tackle!"
Roxanne wasted no time at all in getting the match started up. Crissa, as Roxanne had called her Geodude as, slammed its hands, palm down onto the ground, and let out a scream before hurtling forward with surprising speed and momentum toward Keno. He was just as unprepared as Shay was as Crissa slammed its entire body into Keno's abdomen, sending the Marshtomp flying across the battlefield. Keno let out a startled and painful yelp and did so again as he was smashed into the base of the platform Shay was standing on.
Shay clung to the handrails along the platform, her heart giving a painful wrenching jolt as it shuddered from the impact. Her hands were shaking but she only tightened her grip and leaned forward to look down at the pokémon below. Crissa was already backpedaling its way back to the arena proper. The Marshtomp slowly picked himself back up, shaky but still in the fight. Shay cast a quick glance over at the screen and found about a third of Keno's health had been whittled away. Still in the green, though. That's a good sign, isn't it?
She didn't waste time pondering it.
"Keno, let's hit this off with a Mud Shot attack, now!"
Keno obliged on command, spurting out a gunky mass from his broad mouth and lobbing it across the arena toward Crissa. Roxanne called out to her pokémon to dodge the attack, but it was too little, too late. The attack hit Crissa dead-on and with enough force to bowl the Geodude several times over. Crissa finally came to a stop and remained there.
There was a sudden hush from the people watching on the bleachers, and only in their abrupt silence did Shay realize how quiet it had grown.
Excitement and hope coursed through Shay's veins as she stared expectantly at the opposing pokémon lying still on the arena floor where the Geodude had come to rest. Crissa didn't move for the longest time. Shay spared a glance at the monitor and felt her sensation of victory come to a halt. Hovering beneath Crissa's profile on screen was the hit points left. A damning little sliver of red was just barely hanging in there. Shay turned back on a dime, whirling to glance over at Keno. Across from him, the Geodude was slowly, labourously pushing back up into a fighting position.
Geodude has the sturdy ability, she recalled with a grimace. No one-hit knockouts for us.
"Quick, get in there and finish it off with a Water Gun attack!"
"Crissa, dodge that attack!" Roxanne commanded, her voice booming over the microphone on her platform to echo all around them.
"Don't let them get away, Keno; you can do this," Shay encouraged Keno in return. The Marshtomp scurried after the slowly retreating Geodude, only unleashing a steady high-powered torrent of water onto Crissa when he was closer.
The attack hit the Geodude head-on, sending it spinning across the battlefield several times in a graceless manner. Crissa attempted to stop its trajectory by grabbing hold of the ground, but stopped after the second or third try, until the attack had run its course. Shay held her breath, glancing between the monitor and the motionless Crissa. Movement caught her eye and she saw Julia raising an arm and pointed in her direction.
"Crissa the Geodude is unable to battle! Challenger Shay Kenway is the winner of this round!"
A smattering of polite applause came from the bleachers. Some of the kids watching the match were whispering to one another, and a few others pointed between her and Roxanne. What was being exchanged, however, was lost on her.
"Impressive," Roxanne said, startling Shay and she affixed her attention back on the gym leader across from her. "You've raised your Marshtomp fairly well. But I have to wonder if it will fare any better against my next pokémon."
Keno isn't an 'it', he's a he, Shay thought with a slight frown, but kept the chiding remark to herself. Roxanne returned Crissa and pulled a secondary pokéball up, letting it out.
Amidst the miniature nova of light and energy, the familiar blocky stature of Nosepass coalesced into being. It was just as faithful to its game art as Shay could recall; it had the same squat, compact shale-blue build and iconic red nose that made it stand out. Overall, its design was reminiscent of the Easter Island statues of her world, just like it had been modeled after…
The Nosepass wiggled its stubby arms, as though it was warming itself for the oncoming battle.
"All right, Azzie, it's just down to you! Let's win this battle," Roxanne barked, once again allowing her voice to boom and echo across the confines of the gym's walls. Shay steeled herself and stole a sparing glance at the monitor. Keno was still in the green. Barely. One hand fell to her waist and she swiveled her thumb in circles around Breela's pokéball.
He can do this, she thought, forcing herself to retract her hand. She trusted Keno to fight to his fullest. He was ready. They were ready.
Keno settled himself back on their side of the battlefield, facing Roxanne and her Nosepass. Julia looked to Shay, and then to Roxanne, before raising in her voice and belting out, "Are you both ready?"
She looked to see Shay and Roxanne both nodding. Julia raised a hand high up and slashed it down, as she has done in all previous matches throughout the day. "Begin!"
"Azzie, hit that Marshtomp with a Rock Tomb! Bury it quick!" Roxanne ordered quickly without fanfare.
Shay reacted just as swiftly, shouting to Keno, "Dodge it and hit it with Mud Shot! Don't let it get you!"
The arena battlefield began to shake and shiver around the Nosepass and the vibrations carried all the way across to where Shay stood. She felt them rattle the railing beneath her white-knuckled grip and she sucked in a breath, sharp and quick, as large stones began to shake themselves free from the arena ground and floating upwards to hover around the Nosepass. Keno stood still, watching, mesmerized just as Shay was.
Belatedly, she leaned forward and shouted a warning, but it was too late. The rocks floating in the air suddenly hurtled toward Keno. He ducked and dodged some of the first stones as they flew past. Those struck against the platform below Shay. She fought to stay upright, her balance knocked clean out from under her. She had to haul herself back up and as she did, a boulder struck Keno head-on, flinging him against the platform for a second time. More flying debris flew to converge on Keno's position, burying him beneath the stony detritus.
Stone struck stone, and debris flew everywhere. Shay ducked as shards flew upwards and sailed further past the platform. Her heart pounded like a timpani drum, beating away a painful tattoo against the back of her ribcage as she counted in her head before slowly peeping back up, forcing her suddenly gelatinous legs to harden up and support her once again.
Shay's mouth and throat went dry and at first, she couldn't find the strength to speak. She whipped her head to look at the monitor, watching as green gave way to orange, but Keno was still in the fight.
She leaned forward until she was halfway off, looking straight down at the rubble piled below.
"Keno? Keno, can you hear me?"
Seconds, minutes, hours, an eternity passed before she saw movement below. A few slabs heaved upward, fell back down, then pushed up, up, and off the buried body within the heart of the stony tomb. Keno expelled loudly, pulling himself up and out, tumbled gracelessly back onto the arena floor proper, and stood at last. Scrapes, cuts, and a myriad of bruises were already blooming across his body.
"Keno, are you okay?"
He turned his head slightly to glance at her and offered a thumbs-up in her direction. She hesitated, studying his injuries with growing concern. She found herself thumbing Breela's pokéball once more, torn between wanting to trust Keno to handle the gym battle, or to keep him safe and change him out.
"Yeah, I-I'm fine. Hurt my hand a little bit, but…but I'm fine! I can keep going. Really, Shay!"
She bit her lip and chewed on it indecisively. He didn't wait. He turned his back to her, facing Azzie and crouched, looking ready to go. Shay expelled a soft breath.
He can do this, she told herself, over and over again, like a prayer. He can do this. "Keno, let's try this one more time! Mud Shot attack!"
Roxanne shouted to her Nosepass to throw out another Rock Tomb attack. Keno was faster this time around; another barrage of muddy globs shot forth and struck Azzie several times, slamming it back several feet for every hit.
From the corner of Shay's eye, she saw Azzie's hit points slowly degrade until nothing was left. A frisson of excitement tentatively bubbled up inside her, cool and refreshing compared to the hot, needle-like pain of fear that had threatened to strike at any moment before. The Nosepass wobbled unsteadily for a brief moment, then went toppling over without fanfare. A small spurt of dust flew into the air. The reverberating crash brought forth a period of silence as the last of the tremors faded. No one dare say anything, didn't dare to breath. The hush continued to linger around them as the dust around Azzie began to settle back down, most of it clinging to the muck covering its stone body.
Julia was the first to move. She thrust her hand in Shay's direction and shouted, "Azzie the Nosepass is unable to battle. Challenger Shay Kenway wins!"
There was no series of claps this time around. Those sitting in the bleachers stared, whispering to one another. The platform Shay stood on trembled and began to lower. She felt like collapsing. All of her energy was completely spent and she found herself covered in a light sheen of sweat and dust. She halfheartedly swiped her hands on her pants and found them still shaking from the residual adrenaline still coursing through her. Keno rounded the corner of the platform and knocked her off her feet as soon as she stepped off the platform, arms clinging around her tightly. She laughed, hugging him back.
"We did it! We did it! We won!" Keno crowed happily into her ear.
"You mean you won. All I did was shout at you to do things."
"I know, but still," he remarked excitedly, peeling himself away. His expression dropped abruptly, silence cutting off whatever else he wanted to say and he stared dumbfoundedly at her. She noticed his enthusiasm drop away and stared back.
"Keno? What's wrong? What is it?"
"You…you're hurt! Your head, it's got rocks in it!"
Shay blinked at him, suddenly struck slow and dumb by his remark. He pointed to her temple and then motioned to his own. His voice was quiet as he added, "Right here, on your head."
She reached up, tentative and apprehensive as she did, and winced as her fingers brushed along uneven edges that jutted out at least an inch or two from her skull. Pain flared at the jostling motion and she clenched her jaw with a hiss.
Keno reached for her as well, but stopped suddenly, and pulled his hand back. "How bad does it hurt?"
"It's…debatable at this point. I didn't even feel it happen," she mumbled miserably. "I thought I dodged it all, but I guess not."
She bit her lip, looking back up at Keno and noticed how he held his arm. The dark bloom of a bruise on his wrist caught her eye and she reached for him, ignoring the cry of protest he made when she gently tugged him over.
"C'mere, let me see that—Jesus, Keno, I should be the one asking if you're all right! Did you break your arm?"
"I'm fine, I'm not the one with rocks in my head!"
"I'm not the one who has a broken arm," Shay retorted stubbornly. Keno couldn't meet her gaze when she made that point and instead made a sputtering noise. Shay dug into her sling-pack and went on, "Let's get you fixed up, and then we can worry about me."
Shay fumbled with the zipper but finally got it to slip down its track and pulled out the familiar groove-necked potion bottle and Keno grudgingly settled beside her and allowed her to apply the medicine. She mumbled a few sweet nothings to him, but her mouth clacked shut right before she could utter another word to Keno, as she saw Roxanne and Julia rounding the corner of the platform. Their smiles dissipated instantly when they laid eyes on Shay.
Julia covered her mouth with a hand, and Roxanne pinched her lips tightly together. Tilting her head toward Julia, she said, "Go get the medics. Tell them to bring the kit."
Julia nodded mutely, turned on her heel and fled from sight. Roxanne came closer and knelt beside Shay. Keno hovered on his trainer's other side, looking between the two women.
"Does it hurt?"
"I didn't even feel it hit me," Shay replied honestly. Roxanne came over to Shay, and Keno scuttled out of the way as the other woman quietly studied Shay's temple, her gaze focused and unwavering. "I thought I ducked in time when the worst of it went flying around the place."
"I've had rock shards flying around before. Usually it's contained on the arena floor and we've rarely ever had a trainer hurt. It happens, but not all that often." Roxanne paused, considering her next words before adding, "You'll be fine, but I'm sure the medics here in the gym will want you to go to the hospital if they can't remove the debris."
"Whoa, remove it? Just…pluck it out?"
"It doesn't look like it went in deep, might not have pierced the bone, but they'll be the ones examining you on that front. I can't honestly say, I don't have any formal training. They may want to have you moved to the hospital for removal if they can't do it."
"Shay? Shay, you're going to be okay, aren't you?" Keno mumbled at her and she glanced at the Marshtomp, who fretting nervously. She offered him a small reassuring smile.
"I'm gonna be okay, Keno. Hey, c'mere, it's okay. I promise, little dude."
Roxanne quietly waited beside Shay and Keno for the medics. When they finally came, they bustled into action, performing quick triage on her before doing anything else. They both donned dark trousers and white button-up shirts with a red cross emblazoned on the right side of their chests. Keno continued to fidget nervously at Shay's side, despite the little reassurances she kept giving him. She reached over and grabbed his good hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze and a small smile as she glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
The man who had performed the triage began to gently prod at the rock piece imbedded in Shay's head and she winced, hissing and jerking from his touch. She noticed a nametag pinned above the red cross that said 'Robert'. The other man's nametag she couldn't read.
"The bone most likely stopped the rock just short of hitting your brain, but I can't say for sure. If we can remove the shards here, great—if not, we'll call up an ambulance and have you transferred to the Milotic Mercy Hospital here in Rustboro," he told her. Shay nodded to him and flicked her gaze to the other. From the corner of her eye, Shay could see Roxanne pinching her lips tightly together and tapping a foot nervously.
The other man was rummaging through his pack, and extracted a vial of clear liquid, a syringe and needle, and a suture kit. She eyed the syringe as the cover on its needle was removed and driven into the vial of liquid.
"Um…what's in there, if you don't mind my asking," she inquired, nodding to the vial in question. Did she sound nervous? She hoped she didn't sound nervous, never mind panicky.
Without looking at her, the man answered, "Morphine for the pain. It isn't going to be fun trying to remove that rubble from your skull and getting stitches on top of that. We'll also give you a localized anesthetic but given the location…it might be tricky getting everything numbed up enough. Might just have to grit your teeth and bear it. Um…but don't actually grit your teeth. We don't need you cracking them open on top of everything else."
He gently removed the needle from the vial and flicked the side of the syringe several times as he depressed the plunger ever so slightly until the air bubbles were gone and a small spurt of liquid popped out. "There. That should be enough."
Keno squeezed her hand tightly, shuffling closer to her. Robert the medic glanced at him, then looked to her.
"You might want to recall your pokémon. I don't need a nervous pokémon on top of a nervous trainer."
"He'll be fine," Shay said, a little too defensively. Roxanne cleared her throat and stepped forward. Shay looked to her expectantly.
"If you'd like, I can actually heal your Marshtomp up while they get this underway. But only if you'd be comfortable with the idea."
Keno stared at Shay, looking more openly nervous than her, and it was all the more telling in the way he gripped her arm.
"You'll be okay?" he asked her for the umpteenth time, and she hesitated this time. She took a breathe and nodded to him.
"I'll be okay. Roxanne will take care of you and you'll be back here before you know it. Can you do that for me? Go with her, and let the medics take care of this?" Shay motioned to the debris in her forehead and Keno dithered momentarily. He nodded to her after a moment's hesitation and turned to Roxanne.
"It's going to be okay, your trainer is in good hands. Keno, wasn't it? Come on, I think I have a few treats you'd like." Roxanne made a motion for Keno to follow her, and he did so, if reluctantly. She continued giving him little platitudes and affectations about his performance, but Shay could tell he wasn't paying any attention to her. He kept glancing over his shoulder, looking torn between listening to her and turning tail to return to her side. When he finally disappeared from sight, the medics moved in, asking her a litany of questions before suggesting they move to the bleachers.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
The question has been asked of her so many times in the last hour, Shay was sure she'd see the words, written in subtitles, behind the lids of her eyes all night long when she finally crashed into bed and hear it in her dreams on top of it.
Might as well title it as my memoir one of these days. I can see it on the cover now: 'Are You Sure You're Okay?'
The thought was so utterly absurd that Shay broke out into a fit of giggles, surely earning a few strange looks from anyone nearby. Keno was not as amused by her lack of answers.
"Shay, I'm serious here," he whined, tugging on her arm. "You just had a bunch of rocks pulled out of your face!"
"'M fine, Keno. I promise," she remarked, and wow, her tongue felt weird in her mouth. Not exactly 'I just visited the dentist and it's too fat for my mouth' weird, but more along the lines of 'what are even words' weird. She swirled it around behind her teeth and found herself suddenly focused on counting them all. She kept getting stuck on her crooked lower front ones and gave up, wishing her stupid wisdom teeth hadn't fucked her mouth up so bad.
This feels like that, she realized. Waking up from the anesthesia and trying to remember how to people. Wow, this morphine is really…fucking me up.
"What's morphine?"
Oh, shit, had she said that out loud? Shay glanced at Keno, stopping dead in her tracks to do so. He stared back at her and she had to focus on his face, on his eyes, and it was hard. It was really, well and truly, hard to do that. She wanted to look away, to shuffle her feet, to fidget her hands, but she did him the courtesy of meeting his gaze. She could have dismissed him. She could have returned him to his pokéball and stumbled her way back to the Pokémon Center—or called a cab, let's be honest, she only made it this far away from the gym because of Keno.
But damn it all, he won that gym battle—their first gym battle, together—and she wasn't about to sour that by being a dick to him.
Wait, did we even get that badge?
The sudden horror of going through all of that, and not getting the Stone Badge struck her in that moment, before it ebbed away just as quickly as it had come. It was the same heart-stopping fear that had washed over her, many times, when she had been in boot camp or combat training and wondered where her rifle was, or when she finally got to the fleet and wondered where her CAC card was. It was that same heart-stopping fear that dissipated when she realized just where it all was, and the cool relieving balm of assurance helped soothed her nerves.
It doesn't matter right now. I just want to get back to the center, lay down, and take a nap and let Keno rest up. He earned it.
Keno patted her cheek, his mouth stretching into a smile. "Thanks, Shay. You earned a nap and some, too."
She blinked dully at him, fleetingly shocked. When was he a mind-reader like Ambrose?
"You're talking out loud. Don't you realize that?" Keno paused then poked at her sling-pack. "Roxanne gave you the badge, but…I guess this morphine stuff made you forget? It's in there, in the badge box she gave you."
Shay patted at her sling-pack and felt the contours of something new inside—the badge box, just as Keno had said, was there. She was tempted to take it out and to stare at the badge, because that was the only way she could be sure it was real. She stopped herself, and resolved that in the safety of their room, they could look at it in peace and quiet. Keno grabbed her hand.
"We should get back now. Okay? Those medics told you that you need to get some rest and you should go to the human doctors and nurses tomorrow, just to follow-up with your injury."
"Sounds good," she said, once noting how strange her mouth and teeth and tongue all felt. Heavy and burdensome, and her head was buzzing and floaty. All she wanted and all she could think about once the thought struck her was how she wanted to collapse in bed and not move until tomorrow was nearly come and gone. It was a mantra that kept playing over and over in her head: going through the lobby, going up the elevator, hiking down the hallway to their room, getting inside, and collapsing into bed and curling up under the covers.
It was a delicious fantasy that made her feel sleepy and warm.
It was especially jolting and unfairly so when someone came barreling into her right out of nowhere, shoving her away, and onto the ground as they hurled themselves along the concrete sidewalk in their attempts to flee. She immediately blustered out a few choice curses and hurled them in the offender's direction, alternating between shaking her fist and hissing between clenched teeth as her head gave a dull, aching throb that lasted nearly a whole minute. It ebbed briefly, returned, and ebbed away again. The cyclic pattern continued for a while, and Keno was at her side, holding her arm tightly as he watched her, worry etched plainly across his face. He looked away, only when he noticed a commotion before she did.
A crowd further along the street were gathered in a cluster, with one voice breaking above the clattering of the others. It was a long, drawn out wail, like the dying bleats of a farm animal than a human. She looked at Keno questioningly, the question shared between them: what had just happened and what was going on over there? She pushed herself up to her feet, slowly rocking on her heels, before the two of them made their way over, joining the cluster.
It was indeed a man at the nebulous center of bodies making the noises, and not a pokémon, as Shay had begun to suspect as they drew closer. He was rather nondescript, of average height with sandy-blonde hair and donning glasses, khaki trousers, a button-up collared shirt, and worn brown loafers that completed his look of "casual office worker". Very blue-collar in appearance. His face was streaked with tears, his glasses were cracked, and his face looking swollen and red and angry, and his nose looked as though it had been mashed into the pavement a few times to boot. Blood dribbled from both nostrils, and he had to keep tipping his head back just to keep it from dropping onto his shirt any more than it had already.
A few people were trying to console him, even as he wailed. Another few were off to the side, talking amongst themselves, and at least three others were on the phone, talking rapidly and concisely into them.
"What happened," Keno breathed quietly at Shay's side, looking aghast at the sight.
"I dunno," she said, but already a picture was forming in her head. The guy had been mugged, and rather violently at that, judging by the man's appearance. Someone had beaten his face—either with a weapon or their fists—and when he refused to give up the goods, he probably got his face bashed in even more.
"That guy who ran past us—the one who shoved you to the ground! I bet he's the guy who did all this!" Keno said, and Shay hesitated.
"We shouldn't jump to conclusions," she said, uncertain of whether her assessment was even right. For all they knew, the guy that had ran past had probably panicked when trouble came a-knocking.
But I thought…I thought I saw something…familiar.
Like blue and white stripes. A bandanna…a pirate-wannabe knockoff costume.
"You didn't see it, did you? It looked like the guy from the Petalburg Woods! That weird guy who tried to rob that man we met!"
Aw, crap, I thought my head was playing tricks on me. I really did see it, then, didn't I? Another Team fucking Aqua grunt? And it's the same fucking guy, isn't it?
Another flare of pain roiled around her head, seizing her tight like a vice and gripped hard and fast, refusing to give up the ghost until nearly a full minute had passed. Keno grabbed her hand and squeezed it, asking her if she was all right. She gave a very minute nod, trying to power through the pain. Without opening her eyes, she fumbled with her sling-pack, gently pulling out the painkillers she had inside, and popped the top off, shaking out two pills and downing them with a drink of water from her canteen. She waited a few more seconds, then peeped her eyes open and inhaled deeply. Keno was watching her with that same, fretful stare; worry swam deeply in the amber-orange depths as he waited for her to answer.
"We…we're going to help, aren't we?" Keno finally queried, glancing over at the still-wailing man. His cries had died down considerably as the people around him began to help him to his feet, offering napkins or handkerchiefs to him, a few patting him consolingly on the shoulders. The few words Shay could make out behind his blubbering took a few tries to understand: his research had been stolen by that thug, the one who had just fled the scene. Perhaps it was the same bastard from Petalburg Woods, after all.
"Shay. Shay, we're going to help, aren't we?" Keno's voice broke through and she turned to face him once again, staring into his expectant face. She didn't answer, not right away. The longer she went without answering, however, made his face seem to crumble right before her.
"We…we have to help. Don't we? We can't just walk away. He needs our help."
"Keno…"
She reached for him and was thoroughly surprised and a little stung when he pushed her hand away, darting from reach.
"No, Shay! We have to help! What's the point in being a trainer, being in a team together, in working so hard like we do, if we can't or won't do anything to help other people? So many have helped you—they helped us, all of us—to get this far! The least we can do is to…to…what did the professor always say? To…"
"To pay it forward," Shay said, sighing heavily as her shoulders slumped forward in defeat. It was something that Professor Birch had been found of saying in the lab, wasn't it? Keno stared at her with that expectant and intense stare, waiting with all the patience he could muster. "Christ, Keno. You really know where to hit, don't you?"
"We should help, and you know it, Shay. I know you're tired, but wouldn't you want someone to help you if something bad happened to you? Like it already has, but even more?" he stubbornly pressed. Shay glanced over her shoulder at the man blubbering quietly in the ring of folk around him. She could hear the faint cry of a police siren echoing in the distance and heralding closer. She turned to look at Keno once more.
"Goddamn, dude, you really know how to hit hard." Shay finally consented with a grudging nod of her head, wincing as another flare-up crawled across the innards of her skull, and especially when it began to carve itself a niche over her brow. Keno rushed to her side and grabbed her hand, squeezing it thankfully.
"If we hurry, we can catch up," he said enthusiastically.
"I doubt it, not if he's booking it like he's got fire on his feet," Shay drawled back.
Keno stared up at her, dumbfounded and confused.
"But…his feet weren't on fire."
She groaned. This was going to be a long night and all she wanted was to lay down and sleep the night away. Was that really so much to ask for?
It was dark.
It was dark and they were stumbling around the woods, looking for a man who didn't want to be found. There was only way for the thug to go, and that was east. A number of people on the streets of Rustboro had pointed his path out when asked, but the bemused looks on their faces as Keno and Shay followed perfectly illustrated just how Shay felt, even now.
If Shay was the only one who had any say whatsoever, she probably would have gone back to the Pokémon Center and washed her hands of the weird ordeal. It was easy for Keno to get all gung-ho about doing the right thing; he could be healed almost instantaneously through the modern mechanical miracles of this world. Shay had to heal up the old-fashioned way.
The sun had set long ago, while they were trekking the now-familiar path up to Route 116, where they had spent the last several weeks training in preparation for Roxanne's gym. All that seemed like ancient history, in light of the very long and trying day they've had so far. Even the gym battle with Roxanne seemed like a distant, hazy memory in lieu of their current predicament. Keno stuck close to Shay's side, and for a while, she would admit she had been annoyed with him.
The more she churned over those thoughts, however, and all venom she had been sucking on that she had wanted to spew right at him slowly soured and whiled away until nothing was left of it. Instead, she felt exhausted holding onto it all and felt it was easier, better, to just let go. There was no point in being angry with him. It wasn't his fault they were out there. He may have been the one to push for them to go, but he wasn't at fault.
It was that shithead pirate-wannabe thug's fault. Instead of being angry with Keno for pushing them to go after the jackass, she should be mad at the thieving jackass for being a thieving jackass in the first place. The jackass.
Keno was the only one willing to keep her honest and really, that was actually a good thing. If he hadn't, he probably would have resented her for slinking off and doing nothing, when they could have done something. She didn't want that. She didn't want to be controlling, forcing him to follow her orders with blatant disregards to what he or the others wanted. This wasn't the Marines. This wasn't a dictatorship. This was a team, just like he had said.
They had to work together, live together, make decisions together.
That was how she wanted it to work. That was the kind of leader she wanted to be.
This was as far removed from the Marines as can possibly be, sure, and she has known some pretty shitty Marines who had gotten a taste of power that a certain rank held and got off on it. They were the type of Marines, the type of leaders, who completely disregarded the morale, safety, or health and wellbeing of those underneath them and fucked them over, played fuck-fuck and get-back games, and more…all just because they could.
Shay vowed to never be like when she had climbed the ranks and has held that promise, for the betterment of her own troops. Even now, when she was so remotely isolated from the world she's grown into for over a decade, she wanted to hold onto that sliver of her old leadership roles with her new team.
She wasn't about to break that promise just because her team, her troops, just happened to live inside little plastic balls from time to time and could whoop her ass a hundred ways to Sunday if they chose to do so on a whim. If she couldn't show a damn good example of leadership to them all, then what good was she to them? She'd just be another asshole with the power to make them miserable just because she chose to. That was leadership Shay had promised herself she'd never fall into, and she was glad to have someone who was willing to call her out when she was edging toward that kind of territory.
Keno startled when Shay patted his head, fingers colliding against the fin and he swiveled on the spot, staring up at her with wide eyes.
"Shay? Is something wrong?"
"No, no, I just…I'm sorry. I know I didn't want to come out here at first, but…thank you."
"What're you thanking me for?" Keno remarked incredulously.
Shay smiled back wanly.
"For keeping me honest, Keno."
He stared up at her, blithe and quiet. His mouth tugged a little at the corners in that stiff yet endearing smile of his. He pulled her hand off his head and tugged her along, gentle and soft.
"We should keep going. He might try to climb that mountain."
"Mountain…oh. You mean the pass between here and…" Shay trailed off, wracking her brain. The pass between Rustboro and Verdanturf…what was it again…the Rusturf Tunnel, that's it, isn't it?
"Keno, that mountain pass wasn't completed."
The forest and the meadow clearings were overall empty and quiet. The usual signs of trainers rummaging about in the tall grass weren't present, and the quiet chirrups of the stirring nightlife around them wasn't as reassuring as Shay pretended it to be.
"How do you know it isn't?"
"It…just wasn't complete. I think they have a small sliver of wall blocking the way, and…"
What was the story again? How did it go? Shay was at a loss, and felt it slipping through her fingers like silky water. She groaned.
"I don't…remember. Something about…Whismur. And something else. I'm sorry, I can't think straight. My head…"
"Do we need to take a break?" Keno squeezed her hand and she squeezed it back reassuringly. She shook her head at his inquiry.
"It's not that, I'm fine. I just don't remember why the pass between Rustboro and Verdanturf wasn't completed." Her head was itching where they had put the stitches in, and the back of her skull was beginning to ache, slow and deliberate. It hurt trying to think. The drugs were beginning to fade.
"I'm sure you'll remember later. But if the pass isn't completed, then that thief has got nowhere to go, right?"
"Only if he's too stupid to realize the pass is blocked off, sure. And if he doesn't whizz on past us without us knowing it. This isn't exactly a chokepoint, Keno."
Keno whipped his head back and forth, only just realizing how much ground there was to cover. He hung his head with a soft groan.
"Oh. Oh, you're right. I didn't think about that!"
"But…but you know, if you are right, he might also be trying to climb the mountain. He might be that stupid." Shay backpedaled rapidly, leaning forward to hug the Marshtomp's head. Christ, he was just too fucking adorable, and she felt a little guilty in being the devil's advocate to his reasonings.
"That's mean, Shay." A beat passed and Keno chuckled. "You might be right, though. He doesn't seem all that bright, stealing from someone in broad daylight. He should have known someone would be on his tail."
"You would think, but that's the thing with people who ain't smart; they don't really think ahead. Not really."
The sky was painted with a wonderous tapestry of silvery stars spattered across the deep and dark of the night. In the far distant horizon, however, Shay could just barely make out the soft, orange glow of the resident volcano, Mount Chimney. The peak of the volcano itself was just barely discernable over the range of mountainous peaks that jutted between Route 116 and Verdanturf Town. If she recalled correctly, Mount Chimney had the tallest peak in all of Hoenn.
Route 116 itself was strangely empty. Shay was used to the sight of trainers crawling about the landscape, mostly young children and unruly preteens hellbent on challenging one another or her, and having a sporting good time with their teammates, their pokémon. Shay found the relative silence unnerving. It was a different kind of silence that wriggled itself under her skin the longer it went on. It was also rather telling; if anyone, desperate and dumb and heaving stolen goods, had gone through here, they would be notoriously easy to hear, never mind see, from a mile away.
The throbbing in her skull grew just a little more.
She and Keno pressed on, towards the hulking, shadowy smudge of the mountains that cut off the route so suddenly. It heralded closer and closer until it was barely a stone's throw away.
Suddenly, in the stark darkness of the shadow of the mountain made her wish she had a flashlight and felt idiotic for not having one in the first place.
This would be the part where I'd whip out my phone and just use the flashlight app on it…
The x-transceiver Professor Birch had procured for her had plenty of nice advantages, sure. But a source of bright, eye-searing light was not one of them.
I'm buying a tiny flashlight to fit in my sling-pack the first chance I get, she thought. And a regular sized one for my big pack to boot. And batteries for both.
The throbbing in her skull grew just a little more.
Keno pressed in closer to her. "I can't really see. It's getting really dark."
"We're right at the foot of the mountain. We have to find the tunnel entrance."
Wasn't there supposed to be a cabin nearby?
Shay squinted in the dark, straining to see any hint of artificial lights. Keno fumbled in the dark, pawing at her until he found her arm and traced it until he found her hand. He was quick to squeeze it tightly. Shay closed her eyes, trying to think. Even she could barely see where they were going.
It hit her like a brick wall and she felt along her belt, fingers swooping over the curves of each pokéball until she settled on Sela's. When she called out the little Poochyena, she couldn't make her out.
"Sela, use Fire Fang and light up the area, please."
Glowing embers sprang to life and the fire grew along the fangs of Sela's mouth, illuminating her like some kind of hellhound. Keno jumped beside her, and laughed nervously.
"That's kind of creepy."
Sela growled, but it wasn't with any malice. Her eyes flickered in the pale light.
"What's going on? Why aren't we at the Pokemon Center?" she asked, shifting her gaze between Shay and Keno.
"Long story short, we're after a shitty pirate that stole some company materials from someone."
Sela tilted her head. "Is this about that jerk in the forest?"
"Something like that," Keno added, with a sheepish shrug of his shoulders.
"Keno, I think you should take a break. We can take it from here."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm more than sure. You earned a good long rest. Sela and I can take it from here."
Keno hesitated, then nodded reluctantly in agreement. Shay recalled him and turned back to Sela.
"I'm not sure if it's the same guy. But he should be in a cave somewhere around here. It's home to a colony of Whismur, I think."
"I'll find it. Just follow me."
The throbbing in her skull grew just a little more.
Shay followed after Sela, traipsing along as quietly as her booted feet could allow. The night was still eerily quiet, and Sela noted it almost right off the bat.
"Your petty thief might have stirred things up, and not in a good way," she remarked with a low growl. Flames flickered along the edges of her mouth, but she managed to keep the light going, nice and strong. True to her word, Sela soon unveiled the creviced entrance of a cave, and sniffed at its threshold.
"Someone came in here not that long ago…I can hear them in there still." Sela reported, glancing back up at Shay. "We have the element of surprise. What do you want to do?"
"Take them down."
Sela's lips curled into a smile, peeling over her glinting fangs. "Sounds like a plan."
They crept into the dark embrace of the failed tunnel project. Sela slunk along, her belly low to the ground. Shay picked along as carefully and as quietly as her boots could allow her. Just on the fringes of the meager but welcome light of Sela's Fire Fang, Shay could see pale things—Whismurs—scampering about in the dark. They weren't a damned Xenomorph lurking in the darkness, they were tiny, blind, skittish creatures who just wanted to live in peace and quiet. Her heart was trying its damnedest to imitate a jackhammer, regardless of this reassurance.
Shortly after entering the cave, she could hear the multitude of colourful curses spitting out into the air. Light bounced around wildly ahead of them, just beyond the bend of a tunnel wall. A second voice was squawking indignantly at the first voice, cutting in on their diatribe every so often.
The closer they got, the clearer the words became.
"Stupid fucking bird—don't you understand? I'm liberating you from that senile old man! Now stop beating your damned wings for one minute and let me think!"
"Let me go! Mister Briney needs me! You stupid human, let me go, I said!"
Sela's hackles began to bristle and shake, a low growl reverberating in her chest.
"I thought I smelled sea bird. Sounds like the idiot stole a pokémon on top of those company goods you mentioned."
Shay felt a chill race up her spine and her stomach began to slowly slink and slither down further along her abdomen at the thought. She stepped close to the tunnel bend and peered around it. The outline of the grunt could be made out, stark in contrast the bright of his light's beam. It swung along wildly, back and forth, against the stone wall standing between him and a clean getaway.
Sela's eyes remained glued on Shay's face, scrutinizing and waiting, as Shay turned back to her steadfast pokémon.
"What do we do? Now we have one more thing to worry about."
Shay sucked in a breath, teeth clenched, and fists doing much the same at her side. "We take down this clown, and we take back the goods, and return the pokémon to their rightful owner."
Sela held her gaze for a moment longer, then nodded. "Do we get the jump on them, or do we just waltz in and announce ourselves?"
Shay felt her lips pull back into a feral grin. "Let's give that bastard a surprise, huh?"
Without another word, Sela turned on her heels, the light from her maw extinguishing and left Shay in the darkness. The only light left was the wild, swinging beam of a flashlight just a mere few meters away. She leaned back around the bend and got the barest glimpse of Sela's little form skulking. Shay scuttled around, watching the shadowy figure behind the beam of light struggling to maintain a hold on the bird pokémon—a Wingull—in his other hand.
"I swear to Arceus, if you don't shut your trap, bird, I will snap your neck! Stop struggling—FUCK! FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK!"
Shay saw the flames flare up just as Sela leapt at the grunt, sinking her fangs into the back of his calf. The Wingull flopped to the ground with a cry of alarm and beat its awkward wings in an effort to get away. Shay came forward, scooping the bird up. The Wingull screamed in surprise and beat its thin wings, hitting her upside the head several times.
The throbbing in her skull grew just a little more.
"Stop, stop, stop it, we're here to help you, just stop, please! We want to get you back to your trainer!"
The beating wings halted, and a beak thrust itself against her cheek and beady black eyes stared widely at Shay. Feathers remained fluffed and puffed, body stiff and ready to fling into action, but the Wingull was still for the moment.
"You…you're not going to hurt me?"
"No, no I'm not! And yes, I can understand you, so let's get over that hurdle now, shall we, hmm?"
From the corner of her eye, she saw Sela hanging on for all she was worth to the screaming grunt.
The throbbing in her skull grew just a little more.
Shay squeezed her eyes shut, teeth grinding together, her next thoughts coming along like treacle.
"Sela," she called. The screams dropped to a few pained, pathetic whimpers. Shay opened her eyes, just in time to see Sela trotting over to her. The Team Aqua grunt was slumped against the wall, clutching his bleeding calf with one hand, the other shining the beam of his flashlight at his leg. The light swept over her briefly, momentarily blinding Shay.
"You!" he cried out with a pant. "You're that fucking meddling bitch from the forest!"
"Yep, that's me. The meddling bitch."
"What kind of bitch sics her pokémon on a human trainer without a battle, huh? A fucking coward?"
"What kind of coward steals an old man's pokémon and then threatens to kill that pokémon in the same day?"
The grunt hissed out another curse and struggled to his feet, bloodied hand fumbling for the single pokéball at his waist. "The kind that's going to take back that liberated pokémon from you, and beat your ass, that's who. Rouge, get out here and teach them a lesson!"
"Sela, use Fire Fang!"
Before the opposing pokémon had even materialized, Sela flung herself wholeheartedly into the fray, bashing into the other Poochyena. Rouge went flying, yelping indignantly as Sela slammed her flaming fangs into Rouge's flank. The acrid stench of burning fur and flesh filled the air. The fire began to spread, and Rouge screamed, high-pitched and awful. Shay's short-lived smile of victory fell away and her heart gave a painful lurch, while her stomach twisted and roiled. The Wingull in her arms curled up in Shay's arms, hiding her head under her wings with a soft whimper.
Shay opened her mouth to call off the attack, but a set of bony knuckles collided with her cheek, knocking her over and onto the rocky floor. Weight settled on top of her, and a barrage of punches began to lay into her, smashing into her face as hard and fast as they could hit her.
The throbbing in her skull grew and grew and grew until her entire head was nothing but a giant, throbbing ache attached to a body.
The Wingull struggled out of her arms, and screamed, wings beating in the air until they collided with the grunt. He yelled, and his barrage, mercifully, ended.
"Get off of her! Get off, get off, get off! She's taking me back to Mister Briney, you no-good crook!"
"SHAY!"
A clear train of thought was no longer a possibility. All there was for Shay was a pure and primal urge to act. She bucked at the weight pressing down on her, hands clawing to grab purchase of anything, and she dug her fingers in like fish hooks. With a wordless scream, she dislodged the grunt atop her, bending whatever she had clutched in her grips, fighting against the resistance held against her, snarling out a stream of low-growled curses without even realizing. She didn't know if she was bending an arm, a hand, or even a neck—all she knew was that it was eliciting screams of surprise and agony, and that was good enough for her.
"—son of a pox-riddled, bow-legged, shit heeled bitch! I will fucking tear you limb from fucking limb and then beat you to death with whatever I have left in my goddamned hands and then I'LL FUCKING BRING YOU BACK TO LIFE AND END YOU ALL OVER AGAIN, YOU LOWLY BOTTOM-FEEDING TROGLODYTE!"
Something bashed into her head—something heavy and thick and harder than bone—and it sent her sprawling back onto the ground. Stars flashed across the black of her vision as she squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, a burst of bright light slipped over her eyes, blinding and brief. The desperate scuffle of a quick getaway barely registered to her. As soon as her head had hit the ground, she stayed there, the pain overwhelming her. The light faded. The darkness crept in.
The throbbing in her skull had grown to an almighty crescendo and all she wanted to do was curl up on the ground, keep her eyes squeezed shut, and not get up. Maybe not ever again.
The idea that she could cry came to her. Crying would make her head hurt even worse, though. She swallowed past the thick wall of her throat pressing in on itself, suppressing the urge to just sob.
Hot breath poured over her and the soft glow of embers bled through the thin lids of her eyes, and heat bore down on her skin. She peeped her eyes open, slow and careful, to see the outline of a toothy jaw inches from her.
"Shay? Are you okay?"
Shay squeezed her eyes shut, and let the seconds tick by, mentally trying to brace herself in getting up and moving again. It took longer than she would have liked, as she moved her fingers first, twitching and distant, then maneuvered her hands to slide up beside her, then pushed her arms underneath her to prop herself up.
"Mm-hmm." Shay managed, and grit her teeth at the unholy agony that rent through her at the simple hum of an answer. She squeezed her eyes shut, counted to ten, breathing slowly.
I can't walk back to Rustboro like this, she thought. I need…I need…
The thought trailed off and she fumbled for her pokéballs. She felt along the curved edges, trying to remember which one was Ambrose's. She had known just a few minutes ago, but the memory was slipping away like water through her fingers.
"Where's that Wingull?" Shay whispered, afraid to raise her voice any higher.
"I'm…I'm fine. I'm right here. You…you saved me." Another voice answered and Shay resisted the urge to whine. Too loud. Much too loud.
"What're you doing?" Sela inquired.
"Ambrose," Shay simply said. "Teleport."
"This one." A paw gently patted her waist, and one of the pokéballs fell from her waist. The loud chime and burst of energy and light filled the air. Shay squeezed her eyes shut once again, trying to ride out the wave of anguish.
Sela spoke softly, and she heard Ambrose's voice cut in, hushed yet clear.
Shay could just barely think.
Concussion. I need rest. No, wait. It's not good if I fall asleep. Wait, what do I need to do?
A soft little paw on her hand pulled her from her barely-coherent thoughts. "Shay, we need to get back to Rustboro."
"Mm-hmm." She inhaled slowly. "Which one's Sela's pokéball, again?"
"Here." That was Ambrose, gently pressing something against her hand. She took it, peeping her eyes open once more. She aimed the pokéball at Sela's form. The Wingull was beside Ambrose. Sela's light disappeared as she was recalled, and Shay clumsily returned her pokéball back to her belt.
"I can't see!" The loud, abrasive squawk came from the spot where the Wingull came from. Shay clenched her jaw even harder, and then regretted it when her head gave another thump.
"Oh, how terrible for you," Ambrose's dry drawl replied back. The Wingull harrumphed indignantly.
The throbbing in her skull had settled to a steady, agonizing throb.
"Can you teleport us back to Rustboro?"
"The Pokémon Center, sure." A beat. "I…don't know where the human hospital is, though."
"That's fine."
"Are you sure—?"
"Just do it."
She was wishing, just for a while, that she was blind like Ambrose. The piercing light of the Rustboro Pokémon Center was stabbing into her eyes, even past the thin and feeble shields of her eyelids. And judging from the shocked noises from nearby patrons sitting in the lobby, Shay was probably an ugly sight to behold.
She managed to pry her eyelids open, slowly and painfully, until she became accustomed to it all and slowly lurched forward, one step at a time, toward the front desk. The nurse manning the desk stared at her, eyes saucer-round and almost as wide, as Shay stumbled the last several steps and caught herself on the lip of the desk, holding onto it desperately for support. The Wingull shuffled uncertainly in her arms, trembling heavily. Ambrose scampered along beside Shay and grabbed hold of her pant leg and refused to let go.
"I…I have a pokémon."
"I can see that," the nurse replied, frowning.
"No…not mine. I got this Wingull back from a thief. He…he hurt it…her. I think. He was wringing her neck, up in that tunnel off Route 116."
The nurse's eyes narrowed and looked Shay up and down.
"Please. Just check on her. I want to get her back to her owner."
"Mister Briney!" The Wingull cried, and Shay winced, whimpering softly. The Wingull shrunk in on herself, whispering an apology. "I'm Peeko. Mister Briney's my trainer."
"Mis…Mister Briney, I think," Shay relayed the information to the nurse. The woman stared at her, eyes cold, lips thin, jaw clenched. She held her arms out for the Wingull.
"We'll take a look at Peeko. You can go sit over in one of the chairs or couches over there," the nurse said, her voice hard as stone.
Shay hesitated. "Please take care of her. She's been through enough."
"That's what we do here. We take care of pokémon. Now, please go sit down."
Shay swayed on her feet, her burden momentarily lifted. Ambrose tugged at her pantleg.
"C'mon, you crazy lady. You need to sit down before you fall down."
She didn't need much urging to follow through with that advice. There was a strange hush all around her, but Shay was too tired and hurting too damned much to really notice. Ambrose was quiet as Shay slowly lowered herself down into a squashy armchair, all but slumping into the comfort of it.
"That nurse is going to call the police. I don't think she intends to help you," Ambrose muttered quietly. A quick jab in her leg startled her. Shay jerked her leg up and away. "And you shouldn't fall asleep."
She spotted Ambrose beside her leg and frowned down at him. "I'll be fine. Le' me 'lone."
Before he could reply, Shay popped his pokéball off her belt and recalled him, thankful for the blissful silence. But damn, it was still too bright in here. Her eyes slid closed, and she struggled to keep them open, jolting awake a few times, before slumping her head against the back of the chair and falling asleep.
