Chapter 16: Mother and Daughter
Old people always get up early, no matter what world, right? That was Rex's gamble this morning. He'd get up early, ahead of Bristle, and sneak out for a morning walk to speak with the elder in private before they left.
Or so he thought.
But by the time his eyes creaked open, Bristle was already sitting up on her own bed, staring at him.
"Finally. I was about to wake you and the kid myself. We need to get going," she said anxiously, making no effort to keep her voice down.
Ashen's ear twitched at the noise. Groggily, he pulled one eye open and looked at the two of them. They hadn't wanted to risk Strife coming back overnight, and luckily Umbreon had invited them to stay. Ashen had crept back downstairs under the guise of not wanting to be alone. In truth, he wanted nothing more.
"It's like... Five AM. I've got stuff I need to do first," he grumbled. He took another look at her in the dim light. She looked worse than ever. "Did you even sleep?"
She shook her head. "A little bit. But I have more important things to worry about at the moment."
He pulled himself out of his bed and grabbed his bag. "More important than sleeping? You know, the thing you need to do to live?"
"Hasn't killed me yet," she muttered. "And give me that back! You stole that!"
He paused to give her an annoyed look. "Seriously? We're going back to Tranquil Knoll together. Does it really matter if I carry the bag until then?"
"Fine. But if you don't give it back then, I will take it from you," she let the threat ring. Then she waved a bud at him dismissively. "Go. Take care of your business. But if you're not back within an hour, we're leaving without you."
Rex paused to give her a nasty scowl. "Let me clear about something up front. If you take that kid anywhere without my permission, I will tell everyone what he did. And you can deal with the fallout from that."
Eyes locked on each other, neither of them noticed Ashen cringe. He clamped his eyes tighter, as if that would further sell the illusion that he was asleep.
Bristle looked stunned. "Are- are you blackmailing me?" she gasped.
"Yes," he said flatly, throwing the bag over his head and making for the door. "We both need that kid. And I don't trust you not to do something stupid. So neither of us is going to do anything with him that the other isn't cool with, or we're both going to crash and burn. Capisce?"
She glared at him indignantly. "Very well. But this works both ways. Watch your step, Helioptile."
"Will do," he muttered, stepping out to go find the elder.
What Bristle didn't realize is that it didn't work both ways. She was obsessed with her reputation. The reputational damage if this all came out was a leash around her neck. But he was a ghost. It might burn a handful of narrow bridges to him, but he could easily just go somewhere else.
There was no reason to let Bristle know that she had less control than she thought, though.
Rex made his way across the blackened meadow to the remains of the elder's shrine. Oak had blamed himself for the incident, and no one could say he hadn't paid the price. The structure did still camouflage itself between the trees- but only because it was just as charred and destroyed as they were. It had almost entirely collapsed into a heap of ash and decay.
Not far from it, a lonely figure walked peacefully along the edge of the meadow. Rex rushed over to meet him.
"Elder! Uh, Oak! Sir?" he called out, running alongside the Stantler. Oak glanced down at him with mild surprise. He gave a look around to make sure they were alone.
"Ah, good morning human. A fellow believer in early walks, I see," the old deer gave him a smile.
"Well, not exactly," Rex chuckled. "I was looking for you. See, you're kinda the only person who knows I was a human so... I uh, have a lot of questions. Like, a lot," he explained with a sheepish grin.
Oak paused and smiled eagerly. He turned to face Rex and gave his head a slight bow. "I would love to help you. What do you need to know? Come, walk with me."
Rex pulled up alongside him and they started to walk around the meadow's perimeter. With Rex tromping on two legs, even the old deer's leisurely walk was a bit much for him to keep up with, as the Stantler's strides were far too long for him. They slowed to a crawl.
"Well, Roselia is kind of up my ass right now, so I should probably start with the most important one," he twiddled his claws. "Like I said, you're the only one that knows that I was a human. And I just wanted to know if there's any reason I should be worried about telling anyone else? I'm just not sure how to expect people to react to me telling them that I'm something that doesn't even exist in this world."
Oak nodded his head slowly. "A wise use of caution. But most people aren't likely to react badly. At worst some folks may not believe you. But otherwise, most I know have nothing but respect for humans. After all, it was your kind's wisdom that escalated us above the ferals. That's not to say there have never been bad humans- history has its tales here and there. But overall, most Pokémon still hold a degree of reverence.
"Though... ", Oak glanced down at him almost pityingly, "you should be aware that if people know, they may attempt to imitate you. Especially if they're avid fans of the old tales. Humans are seen as bestowers of wisdom. You may become a role model, whether you want to or not."
Rex couldn't stop himself from snorting. Him? A role model? Anyone using him as a role model would be lucky not to wreck their own lives.
He passed that thought by and moved on to his other concern with Oak's answer. "Alright, what's the catch? You keep saying 'most', and you sound hesitant about something."
"You're perceptive, human," Oak commended him, face flashing with momentary surprise. "While you're probably safe to tell any of your friends, I would refrain from admitting your secret publicly."
"And why's that?" Rex eyed him skeptically. This deal had sounded too good to be true. He knew there just had to be something...
Oak stopped walking and turned to him, growing serious. "Have you heard about the voluntary ferals in your time here?"
Rex stopped with him, caught off guard by the sudden shift in tone, and dropped low on his haunches. "Uh... no, but I can probably piece together what those two words mean next to each other," he muttered.
"Voluntary ferals are those who have achieved higher awareness like that of a civilized Pokémon, but have made the choice to live as a feral willingly. For some this just means living as hermits. For others, claiming territory like a beast and defending it staunchly. And for the worst, this goes so far as hunting anything that crosses their path- even civilized Pokémon."
Rex shuddered. "Alright. And why is this particularly bad for me?"
"For some of them, there is active resentment for society itself. A belief that the natural, wild state of the world was the correct way of living, and that humans have corrupted this world by bringing their society here. It is a philosophy that is, quite unsurprisingly, held mostly by those who were at the top of this natural order- apex predators.
"If you spread your secret around too far, there's a risk it reaches the ears of some dangerous folks. Folks who may believe the world is better off with one less human to spread human ideals."
Rex grimaced. "Point taken. I won't sing it out to the high heavens."
Oak finally relaxed and gave him a reassuring smile. He motioned with his head for them to continue walking.
"As I said though, you're safe to tell any of your friends. Just as long as you don't go befriending any voluntary ferals," he chuckled.
"Right," Rex muttered. Yeah, he'd be keeping distribution of that info pretty limited. Being hunted like lunch by a bunch of salty apex predators was a big 'no thanks' to him.
"Now, what else did you want to know?" Oak looked down at him almost eagerly.
"Everything. A little bit of everything," he laughed, loosening the mood with a comically exasperated expression.
Over the next hour, they walked almost the entire perimeter of the meadow. They took a very wide berth around the Ashen Glade, who's eerie tendrils still slowly swirled at the far end of the field. It was no longer cloaked in fire, and it creaked without a fraction of its prior enthusiasm, but the dungeon's maw remained, inviting in the foolish.
Rex spent the time absorbing every piece of information he could. Basic geography, the names of Pokémon, social structure. He'd hardly pass any tests, but it was enough for him to avoid standing out too much anymore. It was enough for him to make plans. It was enough for him to fight back.
The trio made their way through the quiet woods, enjoying the serenity of the forest far from scars Ashen had inflicted on it. Out here, the forest was rife with life. Displaced ferals feuded with the natives for dominion in a place where verdant green littered everything but the narrow path.
But in spite of the lovely day, their band was as solemn as always. Rex, lost in thought as he debated his next moves in unmasking his elusive rival. Ashen, dripping with uncertainty at his future and what role he'd be forced to play by his newfound ringmasters. And Bristle, rigid with a nervousness that she rarely showed.
"Where do I even begin with you?" she muttered, drilling her eyes into Ashen with a deep intensity. The situation was impossible. The kid wasn't anywhere near ready. Even she wasn't ready. But in spite of that, she couldn't leave her mother waiting. Her mother hated waiting.
"The other day, when we fought. You let yourself be distracted by childish taunting. In spite of having me in short-range, where you were at the closest thing you'd ever get to an advantage, you let me escape and fight you from a distance. That stone gave you a surprising amount of brute force, but in that head of yours is nothing but an ignorant child," she offered her scathing critique unprompted.
Rex frowned annoyedly. "Do you seriously have nothing better to do than verbally abuse the kid?"
"I am critiquing the kid. If doing that accurately is synonymous with verbal abuse, then that's his fault, not mine," she scoffed. "But now that we have that out of the way, there is something better for us to do. We'll be spending the remainder of this walk training you as best we can in such a short time."
That raised an eyebrow from the Helioptile in turn. "Weren't you just taking him in as a front? Are you actually going to keep him as a member?"
She laughed bitterly. "Of course not. I'm still uncomfortable with not turning him over to the enforcers the second this is done. Like I'd ever let him tarnish my guild's name for real."
Ashen's posture sunk lower and lower as she continued. His snout nearly dragged in the dirt. His tail did. Rex cast him a sympathetic look, and then turned back to the delver angrily.
"Seriously? What the hell is wrong with you? I thought getting to be the hero back there might put you in a good mood for once, and we could endure one walk without you being an ass. But I guess that was naive of me."
Bristle stopped walking and stamped her foot. "Have you already forgotten that I was only the 'hero' in your lie? In reality we let the real threat get away, and now we have to fix that."
Rex threw his hands up, flabbergasted. "We still stopped the village from burning down, dumbass!" His hands came down and he shook his head with an exasperated look. He jabbed a claw towards her chest. "You know what, whatever. I don't care. Be as miserable as you want. Just leave us out of it."
Bristle's face contorted, ready to smack his claw aside. Instead she looked away and folded her arms. "Hmph. I would love nothing more. But when mother learns that I have subordinates, she will want to fight in pairs. And now I'm stuck keeping up your stupid lie."
"Alright. First of all- I'm not your subordinate. I quit, remember? Second of all, are you saying you're going to fight your mother?" he asked incredulously.
Bristle looked back like it was the dumbest question she'd ever heard. "Obviously? How else is she going to assess my progress?"
"Oh, I don't know?" he hissed. "By asking you over tea? Is everyone in your family batshit insane?"
"The fact that you demonstrate your performance through drinking tea says a lot about how you've ended up this way," she scoffed.
"Oh my god- the tea is irrelevant!" he groaned. "Just- whatever. But leave the damned kid alone."
She waved her arm dismissively. "All I'm going to do is train his quick-thinking some, and teach him some callouts."
"Fine. But you'd better stop insulting him every other word. And so help me if I see you hit him," Rex glared at her challengingly.
Bristle rolled her eyes. As if he could do anything about it. But she had no reason to hit the kid. He was under control at this point.
"Criminal!" she called forward to Ashen. Rex muttered a curse under his breath. "Are you still listening?"
"Yes, ma'am." he muttered weakly, not daring to look back.
"Good. We're going to do some verbal exercises while we walk. I expect you to have all of them memorized before we arrive. Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," he repeated with an empty dutifulness.
Within a few hours, they were back to the jumbled mess of homes which was Tranquil Knoll. Just walking through the streets, there was no sign of Bristle's parents. And her father would be quite hard to miss.
There was an extra bounce in the step of all the Pokémon they passed today. As if just a tiny bit of Solemn Meadow's reinvigoration had seeped through to the neighboring town. Everyone cast her fleeting glances that didn't dare to linger. To Bristle, that was proof that her parents had been through. And there was only one place they could have gone.
She weaved between the odd assortment of structures, right back to her own home. There was a healthy clusters of jobs requests posted on the board out front. Normally such a sight would have enamored her. But right now, it was nothing.
Her heart beat heavy. This was the first time she was seeing them since she'd chosen to stay behind. Since she'd chosen to be her own team, and now to make her own guild. This was her chance to finally show them how much she had grown.
With a deep breath, and a silent prayer to the flowerbeds out front, she threw back the curtain.
"Jesus christ, there's two of her," Rex instantly muttered under his breath behind her.
The Roserade leaned nonchalantly against the small fence which encircled the overflowing rose bush in the center of Bristle's home. Her arm was stretched over it, and a single delicate, thorny vine coiled out from her bouquet and nestled a crimson flower. She was examining it intently.
"Well, you've certainly done a decent job of keeping it alive. The bush as a whole is a bit under trimmed. And you clearly haven't been fertilizing it properly with your own roots. But it is still alive," Thorn commented, amusement tingeing her voice.
She turned, looking down at her daughter with a smug, almost predatory smile. "Well, how have you been, dear?"
By instinct, Bristle's back straightened with the rigidness of a soldier at report. "Very well, mother. I've decided to launch my own guild here for missions. And we already have…"
She wavered, debating whether she could get away with including Rex in her numbers. But the risk of him protesting was too great.
"Three members. And I was recently successful in defeating the outlaw that threatened Solemn Meadow." She finished her report and stared up anxiously, chest thudding. That was all good, right?
But Thorn looked back skeptically. "I heard. But they got away, didn't they?"
Bristle winced, her form drooping. "Y-yes. They did. But I'm going to find them!"
"Mmm." Thorn turned and began examining the rose bush again. "Well, I'd hardly say you've defeated them then. More like… bought yourself more time, yes? But it's good to hear you're still on the case."
Thorn's eyes narrowed. Her tendril weaved down into the bush and tugged out a single rose bud. The rest of the bush had grown over it, depriving it of sunlight. It was withered and dying. With a look of disgust, she ripped it off and let its petals fall to the floor. Soon, they'd be nutrients for the rest of it.
She continued. "Well, don't worry if you can't catch them anyways. Worst case scenario, me and your father will just add it to our to-do list. Stars know we're starved for interesting work nowadays. Speaking of… Brutus! Our daughter is here!" she yelled.
A loud grunt echoed through the house. And then a rumble. A moment later a massive, toadlike head burst out from Bristle's room. He locked eyes with Bristle and nodded, the faintest hint of a smile curling up on his otherwise blank face.
"Good afternoon dear," he croaked, squeezing himself through the doorway and into the narrow space around the bush. The house had always been uncomfortably small for him. But the behemoth usually preferred to spend his time out in the sunlight anyways.
"Good afternoon, father," she nodded to him diligently.
"Little Bristle is trying to start a guild, dear," Thorn almost snickered as she continued searching the bush for imperfections.
Brutus grunted, the noise loud enough to fill the room, and gave Bristle an affirming look.
"And she has a team now," Thorn added. "Oh, right!" She twirled around gleefully, suddenly interested again now that she had remembered the other Pokemon in the room. "I assume these two are your lucky teammates? A Flareon and a Helioptile… What an interesting group." She examined the two of them intently.
"Nope! I don't work for her," Rex proclaimed excitedly, a huge smirk on his face.
Of course, he was getting sick amusement out of her squirming. He loved ruining everything for her and then laughing at the aftermath.
"The Helioptile is a… business acquaintance," she hissed. "Speaking of, don't you have some business to take care of?"
Rex looked almost disappointed at the reminder. But he did have something to do. "Yeah, I suppose," he relented. But he gave Bristle one final grin as a parting shot. "Be sure to tell me all about the fight, afterwards."
He fled from her growls, leaving the four of them alone. By the time Bristle looked back at her mother, Thorn was encircling Ashen, appraising him from every angle. "And what about you?" she asked.
"He's one of my subordinates," Bristle quickly cut in before Ashen could answer for himself. "He doesn't talk much."
Ashen gave a meek nod. "Nice to meet you," he muttered, not daring to meet Thorn's eyes as she violated his personal space. The Roserade gave the very clear air of someone not to test.
"The other one isn't here today. She's a Vaporeon. She was needed for cleanup in Solemn Meadow," Bristle quickly explained. She silently prayed that Thorn couldn't sense the feeble vibes emanating from Ashen. But she knew full well that her mother could.
"Oh, cleanup. They've got you on the big-league jobs already?" Thorn snickered, finally prying her eyes off of Ashen.
"W-well they don't have many water types there, so…" Bristle muttered, trying to justify the menial duty.
This was going terribly. As usual, she was quickly realizing how little she'd actually accomplished. A few low-class missions, failing to start up a guild, beating up a craven child, and letting a criminal escape. How had she ever imagined mother wouldn't be disappointed?
But all the while, Thorn giggled excitedly. "Well, why don't we cut the small talk and just get down to business already, shall we?" Her face curled in an eerie grin "I still have it, you know…"
Bristle's heart sank even further as a spiky tendril curled out from Thorn's bouquet and pulled open her bag. Snaking through it, it emerged a moment later grasping a ball of orange light.
Or at least- that was how it always appeared. The shiny stone was one of the most reflective materials on the planet. Even the tiniest bit of illumination would bounce through it hundreds of times, giving it a perpetually glimmering appearance, as though it were made of light itself.
Thorn's vine held the stone up high, dangling it over Bristle like bait on a fishing rod. The same shiny stone she'd been grasping at for years. Thorn had bought it the very day she evolved from a Budew.
With just a brief grasp of that stone, she'd be at her fullest form. Complete. But it was so much more than that- the day she'd grasp that stone would be the day she'd earned that stone. The day Thorn acknowledged her expertise.
"You know the rules dear. First time you can take a win over me, you're ready to evolve," Thorn challenged her, the prospect of a fight flooding the Roserade with excitement.
Bristle nodded meekly. That day wouldn't be today. In all her years, she'd never come close to winning a single match against her mother. How could she? Thorn was world-class, after all. And she was just…
But this was Bristle's chance to show that this hadn't all been a total failure. Even if she hadn't accomplished much, she'd grown stronger. She was better now. She could never win, but she could come close.
Thorn laughed. "Come now, don't look so down. This will be fun! Oh!" Her eyes lit up and she clasped her bouquets together. "I know! Why don't we do two-on-two? Me and your father against you and your new teammate?" She turned and caressed Brutus's face affectionately with a vine, the spikes not even piercing his thick skin. "You'll even have a type advantage."
"Of course. That's a great idea." Bristle held back a sigh. She'd seen that one coming from a mile away. It was a good thing she'd prepared the kid for it.
Ashen looked far less comfortable with the matter. He didn't dare speak up, but he visibly squirmed. He wouldn't dare meet either of the expert delvers' eyes, lest they eat him whole.
As soon as they managed to squeeze Brutus back out the front door, they left in search of a place to fight. There was an unspoken understanding that they'd need to be well outside the confines of the village. Neither Brutus nor Thorn were built for restraint, albeit for entirely different reasons.
Bristle kept an eye on Ashen the whole way there. The kid's half-hearted gait and refusal to look at any of them hardly inspired confidence. All he had to do was follow instructions. If the stupid criminal cost her this…
Someone else caught her attention as they walked. Rex. He was walking along, talking to… Galvantula? She scowled.
That forsaken Helioptile loved nothing more than befriending everyone who crossed her. He couldn't put up with the spider for two days for her sake, but apparently had no problems gallivanting with her when it suited him. A tiny part of her screamed to just let Strife go so that she never had to talk to that blasted lizard again.
They made their way west of town, down the path that led up towards Flak Mountain. To either side of the path there was wide open space along the hill, dotted only by outcroppings of stone that had long since settled into their spaces. They diverged from the path, and once they were well clear of it Thorn assessed the area.
"Hmm. Open space, a few stones to use for cover. Uneven terrain." She shrugged. "Personally I prefer a more congested arena, but I suppose there's nothing wrong with it." She flashed a huge grin. "Take your places, and let's get this show started, shall we?"
"Right," Bristle muttered. A vine stretched out and grabbed Ashen by his collar, dragging him gently behind her. He winced as she tugged him across the field, far enough that she was certain they were out of their earshot.
"Listen up," Bristle hissed at her partner as soon as they'd stopped. "I need you to drop the mood for a minute and put your all into this. We can't beat them, but if you make me look stupid, I swear…"
She regretted saying that when she saw the wave of exasperation hit his face at "we can't beat them".
Bristle rolled her eyes. "We're not supposed to beat them! They're the best on the continent. If we can even come close, they'll be impressed. Just don't mess it up."
Head bowed low, he nodded pitifully. It wasn't like he had a choice in this. As long as he just followed instructions, it would be fine, right?
"You two done discussing strategy?" Thorn called eagerly across the field. "It's not going to save you, dear." She had crawled up onto Brutus's back, and lounged nonchalantly against the stalk of his massive flower.
Bristle took a deep breath. Everything that had happened in the past few months had built up to this. This was all that mattered. All of her hard work, everything she'd learned. She couldn't fail, after all of that.
Only one thing could push past the lead in her gut right now. The feral thrill of a fight.
Bristle took her position, crouching down in a battle-ready stance. Next to her, Ashen did the same without half of the heart.
"Ready," Bristle cried back eagerly. She just needed this to start, so she could drown this fear in that battle trance. Quietly she muttered to Ashen, "Get ready to dodge."
"Very well. Battle… begin!" Thorn cried with glee.
She jolted upright, still leaning back against Brutus's flower, and thrust her bouquets out in front of her. Brutus arched his back inwards a bit, bringing his thick petals down low over her head. They bent inwards, forming a loose cage around her, with her bouquets stretched out between them.
Quick as the wind, a cluster of purple shrapnel shot out towards Ashen, crossing the battlefield in seconds. The kid yelped and dove to the side, Bristle's warning the only thing that spared him the surprise poison sting.
Bristle grimaced and charged towards her parents, praying that Ashen did the same. They needed to close the gap. Her father was one of the most resilient Pokémon on the continent. His bulk was the bastion behind which her frailer mother hid. Or more accurately, her bunker. From a distance, she could rain death on them without any fear of retaliation.
Her test of Ashen's reactions complete, Thorn turned her attention towards her daughter. Her bouquets soured as they expelled glob after glob of thick, slimy acid across the field. Brutus stood ready in the interim- he couldn't use his flower to attack with Thorn on his back.
Bristle dodged two sludge bombs, the purple oozed decaying the grass where they landed. But Thorn's third shot was dead-on. With a scowl Bristle smacked it out of the air with a vine whip, groaning as the toxins ate into her vine.
Meanwhile Ashen charged as well, flames licking across his fur as he ran. There wasn't an attack in Bristle's arsenal that could pierce Brutus's thick hide while also dealing with Thorn- so she'd tasked Ashen with handling the behemoth.
Ashen's dash grew faster and faster the more he ran, covering the battlefield in a span of seconds. Thorn was too occupied with her daughter to fire on him, but Brutus was on alert.
As Ashen pounced towards him, the behemoth reared like a horse, earning a curse from Thorn. His feet slammed back to earth, sending a crack careening through the ground straight towards the Flareon. His newfound speed was the only thing that let him leap aside as the crevice shot through where he stood, a tangle of stones careening out.
Ashen had done his job. The momentary distraction let Bristle approach her father without drawing both her parent's ire at once. Her vine shot out and coiled around his back leg, letting her swing behind him with a tight radius.
She couldn't hurt Brutus, she had to deal with Thorn. She had to ignore her father as much as she could. It wasn't a good solution, by any means. Brutus was a top-tier delver too, and not someone who could be easily disregarded.
Bristle wanted to pull herself onto his back so that she could engage her mother. But Thorn wasn't having any part of that.
The Roserade frantically crawled through her nook beneath the Venusaur's petals and poked her bouquets out in front of Bristle, letting a whole den of thorny vines leak from them. They ran down Brutus's back and coiled towards her, threatening to ensnare her if she dared intrude on Thorn's ride.
Ashen had lost all of his momentum when he broke to dodge, and was left sizing up his new rival. He found himself very inadequate.
He'd felt big ever since his evolution, but he had nothing on the monster now towering over him. He tried his best to look unfettered, but he was certain that his terror was clear.
Brutus saw no need to make the first strike. If he moved, he risked throwing off his mate's own struggle behind him. Inaction was an advantage in his eyes.
But as entire seconds ticked by, Ashen knew his hesitation risked Bristle's ire. With a dreadful heart, he cloaked his teeth in fire and pounced towards the Venusaur's leg.
Faster than his eyes, a thick club of vines flew out and smacked him from the air. He crashed back into the dirt with a horrifying thud. Brutus glared down with an almost disappointed expression.
Bristle couldn't make any headway against the sea of thorny tendrils her mother had unleashed to keep her at bay. They tracked her every twitch, assuring that the moment she made an unsafe movement they'd be grasping her in a cocoon of thorns.
There was no way Bristle could approach. But if her mother wanted to sit there, unmoving, she could. With a growl, Bristle felt dozens of sharp thorns growing inside her bud. One by one, they fell loose between her petals, only for another to grow in their place. After her bud was filled with these spikes, she swung it forward, a few dozen sharp thorns flying out.
Most of them smacked into Brutus's petals and tumbled off his back. But a decent few flew through the gaps, littering the space Thorn was in with spikes. It was a petty victory, but it would make moving around more painful for her.
Now she just needed to force Thorn to move. She coiled a vine around Brutus's hind leg to help her move again, and made for her father's side to change angle of attack.
She cast a greedy glance to her partner to see him dragging himself to his feet, trembling from the mighty hit he'd received. "Right side! His right side!" she screamed. Thorn could only attack one angle at a time, so they needed to stay split up. "Hit the Roserade!"
Thorn muttered curses under her breath as she crawled across the spikes to reposition. If her daughter genuinely thought that literal thorns in her side would be enough to make any difference…
She positioned herself with half a dozen spikes digging into her thigh, and paid them no mind. She pushed her bouquets out of cover and prepared to lob more sludge bombs.
After Ashen scrambled away, Brutus had returned to waiting patiently for the Flareon to make a move. From his trembling legs and that hopeless look on his face it was clear the kid had all but admitted defeat.
It was a shame. But a fight was a fight, and it was best Brutus ended this one now.
Ashen had no warning before the titan suddenly bounded towards him, covering the gap in two massive leaps. The Flareon yipped and cowered beneath his front paws, too paralyzed with shock to even dodge.
But Brutus slammed to a halt right on top of him, and a thick coil of vines shot out. The heavy rope grasped the child's neck and slammed him down onto his side. The overwhelming force kept him restrained there. "Do you yield?" the beast boomed stoically.
Thorn didn't so much as flinch at her mate's sudden charge, lobbing sludge bomb after sludge bomb towards her daughter mid motion. Bristle deftly dodged the first as Thorn recalibrated, but the next two splashed across her, coating her in a slimy goo that sizzled as it sunk into her cuticle.
Two direct hits from a pro would have been enough to make a normal Pokémon yield a scrimmage. But Bristle wasn't normal. She couldn't be.
Her heart sank as she saw Brutus easily take Ashen to the ground. She had never expected the criminal to defeat her father. But at the very least he could have distracted him. Done something useful.
She snapped a vine towards the Venusaur, and curled it around one of his petals. With a powerful motion she grappled herself towards them in a desperate bid to close the gap. "Don't you dare yield, kid!" she shrieked as she flew through the air.
Ashen whimpered, his face still in the dirt. He wasn't exactly being given a choice.
Thorn, predictably, spilled a bucket's worth of venom onto the vine Bristle had so graciously presented to her. Her potent toxins dissolved straight through the single vine in moments, leaving Bristle free-flying.
Pain signals shot down it like lightning, desperately trying to warn her of the missing appendage. She didn't care. One vine didn't matter- it was about to get a lot worse anyways.
She crashed into the dirt not far from Ashen, tumbling clumsily to her feet. With a gulp, she turned to see both her parents looming now. Thorn's bouquets pointed out like weapons from the back of her impenetrable bunker.
"Well, shall you yield there then?" Thorn asked smugly, her derisive grin visible in Bristle's mind even when she couldn't see it.
"No," Bristle growled, any hint of intelligent thought behind her eyes replaced with a feral rage. "Do it now, stupid!" she snapped at Ashen.
Ashen's eyes went wide. Following this order was just as likely to earn her anger as refusing it. But it was easiest to just do as he was told. With the heaviest inhale he could muster while his lungs were to the ground, he put every ounce of his remaining energy into a flamethrower.
Brutus braced, unimpressed, and placed his scaly forelegs between him and the Flareon. But his stoic expression broke as the flamethrower soared past his face in an entirely different direction.
Bristle loosed every vine at her disposal from her buds, an eldritch den of almost a dozen waving tendrils. She still hadn't grown back all the ones she'd lost to Drapion, and she was about to lose a lot more.
Ashen's flames engulfed her vines, turning them into a swirling cluster of flaming whips. Brutus barely had time to gape before the mass of thorns and fire slammed into his face, staggering him. He flailed, and for a brief moment Thorn was fully exposed.
But Brutus's loud howl of surprise couldn't compare to the sound of Bristle's agonized screams. She could feel every ounce of pain from her burning vines, as though it were her arms themselves on fire.
Pain didn't matter, she'd told herself. This was the only way to win. But now, as almost a dozen of her extended limbs withered and died, piece by piece, in the span of seconds, she realized far too late that she wasn't strong enough to bear this.
Raw instinct and insanity kept her flaming tendrils gripped around Brutus's head, but she was in no position to deal with her mother. Now free, Thorn leapt up and extended her own vines into a long whip.
With a resounding, horrifying snap, Bristle was on the ground, her cheek feeling as though it had just been removed from her face. Thorn towered over her.
Her expression thoroughly unamused, the pro swiped her bouquet across Bristle's now limp and writhing vines. Bristle screamed again as something sharp cut the lot of them short, assuring the flames consuming the now-dead growths wouldn't harm her.
Move… She had to… Bristle's body quivered weakly as she struggled to move it enough to get up. To keep fighting. What would mother think? If she went down so easily…
Thorn rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh. Her own vines shot out, pinning Bristle firmly to the ground. She glared down without a hint of her usual smug amusement. "Yield," she demanded.
Bristle squirmed helplessly against binds she couldn't break in the best of conditions. "I… I can still…" she gasped.
"You are embarrassing yourself," her mother hissed, looking at her with disgust. "You can barely move. You took yourself out with a stupid stunt."
Suddenly, all the drive pushing Bristle forward vanished. Her heart and head were empty. She wasn't impressing mother like this. Only making a bigger fool of herself.
Her head hit the dirt with a pitiful thud, and her limbs fell still. "I yield," she muttered, her eyes staring off into another world.
Thorn kept her restrained another second, watching skeptically to make sure she had truly surrendered. But then she released her daughter, scowling with exasperation. As her spiky vines retreated, a thornless one reached out in an offer to pull her up. Bristle grasped it with one of the remaining stubs of her vines and was dragged to her feet. But she never looked her mother in the eyes.
Brutus let out a heavy grunt of relief. His coil relaxed around Ashen's neck, gently pulling him to his feet by his scruff. The coil dispersed into a handful of smaller vines, which combed through his fur and brushed out what dirt they could.
"You're a brave little Flareon. Not many your age would have even tried," he let out his praise in a guttural voice that unnerved Ashen more than reassured him.
The fight was over, but Bristle was still quivering. Utter failure. Again. Just like the last time. And every time before it. She couldn't even pretend she'd come much closer
How?!
She gave everything for this. This was why she worked day in and day out. To get just a little bit closer to who she was supposed to be. She winced as she finally withdrew all of her severed vines. She'd be crippled for a week because of this.
So how was it all so worthless in the end?
She finally mustered the courage to look up. Her mother loomed over her, bouquets crossed in front of her with utmost disappointment.
"After all this time, you still think raw zeal is equivalent to expertise," she chastised. "Look what your zeal got you. A bunch of burnt vines, and a single lucky blow from the sheer audacity."
Bristle's mouth flapped in a desperate effort to verbalize any of the hundred explanations rushing through her mind. The attack had worked if only she'd- the kid had gone down so easily- hadn't the spikes at least been a good trick- The end result was nothing but an incoherent mutter.
Finally, one singular question bloomed above all others. She looked up at her mother's chastising gaze, her eyes no longer those of the upstart guildmaster, but of a frightened child.
"What am I doing wrong?" Tears started to form. "I don't understand! I don't understand why it always ends up like? Tell me what I need to do!" she pleaded, her buds clasped together in a beggar's motion.
Thorn shrugged nonchalantly. "I told you what you were doing wrong for fifteen years. Have you considered that maybe you're just not cut out for this?"
Time stopped.
In all of Bristle's life, nothing had ever mattered but those words. Something said so callously, as though it were a mere casual suggestion. But those words undid an entire lifetime in an instant.
Bristle fell to her knees, her arms limp at her sides and her eyes, wide in shock, stared blankly into the void. It was too much to even cry.
She wasn't aware enough to see the surprise on Thorn's face. But after a moment, it was reduced to a sorrowful resignation. The Roserade let out a sigh.
"Well, just think about it, anyways. There's other stuff out there," she turned away from Bristle's breakdown, and made her way back to her mate. "It's been nice catching up dear, but we are here on a mission. And you already kept us waiting this morning. We need to get on our way." She gave Brutus a gentle pat on the cheek, and began to wipe away the burn marks on his face from Bristle's desperate trick.
But Bristle didn't respond. She didn't even look up. Whatever her eyes were fixed on, it wasn't in this world.
Thorn's expression grew uneasy at Bristle's silence, and she turned back to check on her daughter. Seeing her still frozen in place, the Roserade cast a nervous glance to Ashen, silently asking him what was going on with her. But all the Flareon could do was give an equally disturbed look back.
"Dear? Come now, don't be a child," she called. Bristle just shook her head and murmured to herself.
Thorn sighed deeply and looked at Ashen. "She's always been a sore loser," she explained with a heavy shrug. "Just make sure she gets home and rests. A sparring match should have never gone this far, but she doesn't know how to hold back." Thorn shook her head with a scowl.
She gave one last guilty glance at her daughter before climbing up Brutus's neck and onto his back. Bristle would get over her tantrum before too long, and nothing Thorn had ever said before had ever improved the situation.
Ashen gave a meek nod. There was nothing he could do to control Bristle, but what else was he supposed to say?
Brutus watched Bristle with a worried expression. But at his mate's direction, he muttered a deep farewell to the both of them, and Team Bunker set out towards the path to Flak Grotto. By the time they had vanished into the distance, Bristle was still frozen in place.
In her mind, her life replayed from her hatching up until this very moment. How could one sentence be so incompatible with everything before it?
She had known who she was. Because mother had told her. Everyone had told her.
The moment her memories caught back up to the present she collapsed, clutching her chest with a bud as a fountain of emotions spilt forth. Everything at once- anger, sorrow, fear, hatred.
She had no idea what to feel. What did this even mean? Had mother lied to her? Had everyone lied to her?
Ashen nervously stalked towards her at the sign of movement. He felt like the most unqualified person imaginable to help her. What could he do? He was supposed to get her to rest, right?
"Are- are you okay?" he stuttered nervously.
Bristle stirred, remembering for the first time that she was real. That she wasn't just a phantasm of memories- and she wasn't alone.
Drip. Drip. One, by one a flood of tears hit the dirt.
Slowly her head turned up to face the Flareon, her eyes drowning in those tears. But even through the garbled mess that was her face, Ashen could see what was beneath. Something eerily familiar to him
Loathing. Raw, primal, loathing
It wasn't him she loathed, though. That child had nothing. A simple mind and no spine to go with it. His failure was inevitable. The product of fate.
But her. She had the world. She was given everything, and she'd wasted it all.
She was the problem. She was the failure. She was the one worth hating. She'd taken everything she'd been given, all the faith mother had in her, and threw it all away.
Determination formed behind her eyes once again. But it was no longer steeled by arrogance. There was nothing to be proud of.
She dragged herself to her feet. Her injuries lingered, but she didn't care. She deserved to suffer.
"R-roselia?" Ashen gasped. He was trembling again. That look on her face terrified him.
She shoved him aside without paying him the slightest attention and marched towards the road.
That loathing drove her now. She couldn't fail any more. It wasn't an option. If she died trying, then so be it. But everything she'd been given- she would not let it go to waste.
She was a failure. And now she had to fix that.
Ashen bounded after her, desperately trying to get her attention. But his words never reached her. Whatever he had to say, it was irrelevant. He was irrelevant, beyond his role in fixing her mistake.
She marched all the way back to her home. But to Ashen's dismay, she didn't step inside to rest. Instead she stopped in front of the job board out front.
There were almost a dozen requests stacked up from her days of absence, and her improved reputation after Solemn Meadow.. Her eyes glossed over them all, reading the only important part of each: the location. As soon as she'd taken that all in, she stretched up on her toes and swept a bud across the entire board. Her maimed vines reached out and wrenched every available job down at once.
The criminal was pleading with her to lie down, begging her to rest and not overexert herself. Or she'd get hurt.
She almost wanted to laugh. After everything she'd been given, if she got hurt doing pathetic jobs like these, then good. She deserved it.
Stuffing all of the requests into her bag in a crumpled heap, she set off for the first dungeon on her list. Ashen followed frantically on her heels, desperately begging her to stop. But his pleas fell on deaf ears.
Rex waited impatiently on the edge of town, leaning back against a massive, jagged roosting rod that towered fifteen feet into the air. It was Talonflame's, he supposed. But the old bird wasn't here right now.
Bristle and Ashen had apparently disappeared into Rolling Fields a few hours ago, according to witnesses. Surely they would be out soon.
Entrusting the kid to Bristle for a few hours had been a terrible decision. He just needed her to not do anything stupid for a few hours, and she'd ended up dragging the kid into a dungeon. Unbelievable.
But it didn't matter at this point. Bristle had put in a request with Altaria for the specific item they needed for their trap. She'd be back in a day or two. He'd just stick with the kid until then, so that Bristle couldn't do anything else stupid.
At the very least, his time with Galvantula today had been very fruitful. He was just lucky the girl had been so forgiving.
And truth be told, the more time he spent around her the less her appearance bothered him. It was still entirely unnerving, but enough exposure could quench any fear. He felt a twisted irony in imagining that if Bristle had just waited patiently, she could have kept both of them in her stupid "guild".
Just as he was starting to get nervous, two specs appeared outside the dungeon and began to approach the town. As they came into focus, he was about to call out to them. But something about them perturbed him.
Bristle looked angry, as usual. And Ashen looked completely distressed, as usual. But his instincts screamed something was off. Something about her was more bitter. And something about him was more fearful.
Rex's eyes narrowed. What had she done to the kid?
He stormed up Bristle as she crossed the edge of town and stared her dead in the eyes. "What's going on here?"
There wasn't a hint of concern in the eyes which stared back. They looked as if they'd aged a hundred years in the past few hours. "I'm just doing my job," she snarled. "What business is it of yours?"
Rex looked to Ashen for confirmation. But he didn't have the slightest idea how to interpret the confused and terrified expression he got in response.
"You brought the kid into a dungeon with you?" he hissed.
"I went into the dungeon. To do my job. The moron followed uninvited. If you have a problem with it, take it up with him," she growled.
This shouldn't surprise him at this point. Rex shut his eyes and took a deep breath. But that wasn't enough to calm him down. "That's even worse!" he barked, "You were going to leave him totally alone! What part of don't ever let the kid out of your sight was hard to follow?"
"I told him to go find you. Instead he decided to just follow me around whimpering like a useless idiot!" Several of her vine-stubs coiled out between her petals, cracking at the air in frustration. Rex glared at the sight in disgust.
His scowl turned into a cruel grin. "So I'm guessing by the attitude that the little brawl in the family didn't go so hot for you, huh?"
Her only response was a feral growl, her vines extending to their now-unimposing full length in a shallow threat.
"I think I finally get you," he laughed sarcastically. "You're one of those people that'll just never be happy, no matter what happens. You got a whole-ass village of people sucking your stamen. It's just what you always wanted!" He threw his hands into the air. "But then you find the first thing you can to be bitter about. Cause that way, you get to pretend you're not the problem!" he jeered.
Almost as soon as the words came out of his mouth, her bud slammed into his chest, knocking him to the ground. She gave him a passing, arctic glare as she stepped through where he'd been and walked right past him. He was too stunned to get up as she left, disappearing towards her home.
Groaning, Rex pulled himself to his feet. He steadied himself against the roosting rod and scraped the dirt off of his side.
"Something happened," Ashen whined quietly, a fearful look in his eyes. "After we fought her parents. Something changed."
"Did it?" Rex muttered. "She's temperamental and violent. Seems pretty normal to me."
The Flareon let out a low cry and shook his head. "I'm- I'm scared, Helioptile."
"Hey, it's fine," Rex try to lay a claw on the kid's neck reassuringly, but found the task daunting given his size. He settled for an awkward placement on the side of his collar. "I'll keep an eye on you until our trap is set. And after that, you never have to see her again."
"It's not me I'm scared for. Spritz will be coming soon… I wanted her to get to live out her dream, but… if Roselia is like this," he muttered mournfully.
Rex's shoulders sank a bit. There wasn't anything he could do about that. "Maybe she can go join the Crest instead?" he offered.
Ashen shook his head doubtfully. Lifting it, he gazed off anxiously towards Bristle's house. "And… I'm worried about her too…" he confessed.
Rex barely held back a snort. "She's the last person you need to worry about. She's done nothing but hit you and yell at you. Don't set yourself on fire to keep her-" he paused, realizing how poorly the metaphor worked here. "I mean, just don't drag yourself down worrying about someone who doesn't care about you."
Ashen gave a mournful nod. "Y-you're right…" He sighed, still staring feebly towards Bristle's house. "What do you think happened to her?"
"Who the hell knows?" Rex shrugged. "But whatever her sob story is, it doesn't excuse this shit. Come on, let's go get some sleep. Hopefully this will all be over in a day or two."
With a begrudging agreement Ashen meandered along with him, back towards the inn.
True to his word, Rex spent the following day watching over Ashen and taking the time to practice his own moves. Perhaps it would have been too optimistic to expect the kid to have fun, but he still seemed particularly disturbed all day. Something about Bristle's breakdown haunted him. But Rex just chalked it up to him being young, and overly empathic.
Rex tried to keep them clear of the maddened delver during this time. Fortunately, she seemed to be running all over the place doing jobs, which made that quite easy. From the few glimpses of her he caught, she looked awful. He doubt she'd gotten a full night's sleep since they'd gotten back from Solemn Meadow. Or for who knew how long before that.
In the late afternoon of the next day, Altaria stopped by and handed Bristle a single wonder orb. A deep, black void filled the interior, broken up only by uniform lines of green that stretched through the sealed space like rainbows in the sky.
It was time to lay their trap, and yet Bristle had hardly accomplished over half her haul of job requests. Another failure for the pile. But this couldn't wait- she had to fix her first mistake.
Begrudgingly, she called Rex and Ashen to convene with her by the job board outside her home. The air dripped with the unspoken tension of their previous confrontation. But none of them were prepared to address it. Bristle launched into her explanations as soon as they'd arrived, sparing no pleasantries.
"This is a Scanner Orb" She held it up by three short, stubby vines, just inches from her bud. "It can reveal invisible entities and disrupt illusions. If the culprit is hiding behind something like that, then this is the ticket to exposing them." Her eyes turned coldly to Ashen. "Now all that's needed is the bait."
Ashen gulped. "I understand," he muttered.
Rex gave a determined nod. "We should go back to Solemn Meadow. Have the kid spend a few nights in his own room. Pretend he's back to staying there, while we wait in ambush. If Strife shows up, he screams, pops the orb, and tries to restrain him."
"A few nights?" Bristle muttered disdainfully. "And what if Strife never even notices the kid is alone? What if he never even knows he went back?"
"Strife… he… " Ashen muttered meekly, still struggling to speak up against his prior "friend".
He'd seen the damage they'd caused together… There should be no doubt left in his mind. And yet he still struggled to bring himself against them.
"He knew a lot of stuff about my family," the kid mustered. "Like personal stuff. I don't know how he watches everything, but… "
Rex swished his tail pensively as he considered that. The terrifying implication there was that he might already know about their plan. But it was too late to do anything about that.
"Well, if he wants you back he'll be watching you. If he doesn't, the plan never would have worked in the first place," Rex raised.
"Fine. Let's just get this over with, and then we can all be free of each other," Bristle growled.
She looked at both of them with utter vehemence. The Helioptile, smug and condescending in spite of his utter uselessness. The Flareon, too dumb to avoid hurting himself and others. How in the world had she found herself allied with such lowlifes? Getting these failures out of her life would be the first step to turning everything around.
"Fine by me," Rex met her with the same vitriol, purely out of spite. Throwing the bag over his shoulders, he started marching away without waiting for her. Ashen quickly hurried after him.
She didn't even bother to demand her bag back again. It wasn't worth engaging him.
Just before she could follow after them, she caught a glimpse of white from the corner of her eyes. She turned and glared up at the job board to see a solitary new posting on an old piece of parchment, pinned up with a thorn pilfered from her bushes, as had become the norm.
She tilted her head as she ripped it down. She'd been grabbing every request as soon as she saw them. This had to be very fresh.
Very fresh indeed. The ink was still a bit wet, as if it had been up for less than an hour. The handwriting was scrawled in large text, with the tell-tale scribble of a panicked writer.
"SHE'S AFTER HOOPA
HOOPA KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED AT SOLEMN MEADOW
HELP
FLAK HOLLOWS"
Her chest fluttered at the second line. She stole a glance to confirm that Rex had never even turned back to see if she was coming. A stubby vine greedily stuffed it into her pouch.
Whether their little trap turned up anything or not, she had a lead. One that neither of the lowlifes needed to know about.
