This story was co-developed by Titan127 and beta read by ShonnaRose and JhinoftheOpera.
[7-2] Traveling Heavy, Like a Feather
Ciel felt himself rejuvenated just hearing the voice of an angelic friend. The stress of everything, the state of Sinnoh, it was all overwhelming in so many ways, but for the duration of the one phone call, he was able to tether himself to the familiar. In some ways, he was just soaking in the togetherness apart.
"Ciel? You still there, buddy?"
Oh no. His pause was too long. It was getting awkward. "Uhh… nothing! Just trying to think of something, you know, to talk about. What about your past weeks?"
"Oh, you know, just about the same old with papers and projects. Gotta say, I was glad to be back to school at first, but now it's just boring after having gone on a real journey," he said.
"Can't say the same, I guess," replied Ciel. "It's a little, how do you say, screwed up around here."
In response to that, Brent Custos smiled. That wide, pearly-white smile blasted through the portal of his Poke GEAR, destroying the shadows that the daylight couldn't touch. He normally had no video, so Ciel supposed he was calling from a different device, and he was thankful as all getout. "But you're keeping on despite it all. I thought I was supposed to be the hero, but you're some bonkers superhero now!"
Ciel looked over to his sister, who scouted amongst the trees in search of something. Her widened eyes, reflecting the bright cover of snow, told him she succeeded.
"Seems so. I'm just here to make people happy," he said.
"As well you should. Man, I'm so proud."
Brent kept on smiling from halfway across the world. Ciel couldn't handle or get enough, leaving him in a strange state of just listening to his friend speak without much to offer.
"So where are you? It looks mighty white behind you," said Brent.
"Sinnoh Route 208 right now. And Sinnoh's just like this, it rarely gets above four degrees," he said. "It's gonna get really cold and really steep when we pass through the Coronet Range." Suddenly, another topic hit him, to offset the drying conversation. Brent was nearly inseparable from his girlfriend, the leader of the Kimono Girls, since they met on his Johto Gym Challenge. "What about Zuki?"
"She's been in and out of Cherrygrove. She and her sisters finally finished a sparkling new dance routine and they've been performing in towns around Johto," he said.
"Their mother is allowing that?"
"Suppose so. If I had to assume, it has something to do with, y'know… that." Brent put up his hand by his mouth as if to whisper.
Right. That.
He, Brent, and Zuki had all seen an extraordinary truth, one he had trouble believing months later. However, an image rainbow wings and that fiery aura above the Bell Tower in Ecruteak was one of the most vivid memories bouncing around in his head. It had been real.
Zuki's mother was the stalwart matriarch of the Dento clan who defended their tradition at all costs, up to and including her daughters, but Zuki had a lot of leverage against her after seeing what she did. She was the first in countless generations to truly herald the message of the Kimono Girls.
"Have you been to her shows?" Ciel asked.
"Course I have! And she's," Brent said, almost choking up, "she's beautiful, man, like a real-life princess. I really don't know how I ended up with her."
"Wow, such a gentleman. Does she ever, you know, stay at your place?"
"Yeah, on occasion, we— Hey! That's a mighty personal question there, mister."
His laugh came out chilly. Oh, it felt so great to laugh. "Sorry, just teasing."
"Well, what about you?" Brent asked. "Don't tell me you've had any hookups since we last talked."
"Can't say I'm interested. Never really was, I think," he said.
"Then maybe you shouldn't pry into people's private affairs, little gremlin child."
"I'm legally an adult, excuse you."
"Only legally, young'un."
Ciel was about to retort back, but his sister beckoned for his attention. Her ponytail fell straight towards the ground as she looked directly upward, pointing to the rustling coniferous canopy. He had a sinking feeling he knew what was happening and shouted at Laina to keep disaster shut in its bottle. Ciel addressed his Poke GEAR.
"Okay, I'd love to chat more, but I caught a new Pokémon yesterday and she's been nothing but a problem. I need to sort this out before something terrible happens," said Ciel.
"Is it a bird?" asked Brent, slyly.
Ciel grumbled, waved his friend goodbye, and snapped his Poke GEAR closed. He booked it through the snow towards a rumbling tree, which shed flakes around them. White blanketed his golden hair as he craned his head up to the branches.
"Hey, get down from there! You better not be threatening something again," he called up, mouth cupped by his hands. The only response he received was a screech.
A dark shape plummeted above him, growing from a speck to a boulder in seconds. He threw himself away to avoid the sickening crunch of an exhausted Zubat hitting the frozen ground. Laina screamed. Annoyed, he slammed his boot firmly into the tree, dropping both a fresh blanket of snow and, somewhere within, the culprit.
Laina caught the second creature and squeezed tight around its feathers. The Pokémon kicked and screeched, and Ciel was both relieved his sister layered two thick coats and annoyed he might have to replace one or both.
He inflated his chest for show, and, out of range of the creature's beak, he held out a chastising finger.
"What have I told you? You just beat this poor thing within a second of its life." He gently scooped up the downed Zubat and found a small hollow in a nearby tree to keep it off the ground. Its thankful squeak made his lips curl, but the first thing he'd do when he got back to camp was wash his hands—Zubat were common disease vectors.
His newly caught Staravia, however, was undeterred by such altruism. It wasn't a feeling she shouldered often, he knew. A bunch of junk was jammed between the feathers of her curled crest. Fangs, teeth, nesting material, and even other feathers, all trophies from the treetops.
"Ugh, Ciel, she's hard to keep a hold of—ow!" One of the bird's talons cleaved through Laina's jackets, and judging by her reaction, pierced the skin underneath.
Ciel felt his face contort and his brow crease. Not fully thinking, he caught the Pokémon's beak in his hand and squeezed. The bird, either in shock or sheer confusion, went limp.
"Listen, Brisa. I'm going to need you to cooperate. You can either laze about and bully a bunch of babies, or you and I can work together to fight bigger Pokémon and find you some real technique. Got it?" She couldn't understand his words, of course—no freshly-caught wild Pokémon knew that much language, barring city Pidgeys that spend all their time pilfering from downtown cafes. But his intonation and body language carried his message.
The Staravia pulled her beak away and grunted, leaving Laina to set the bird down in the snow. Goodness she was massive. At first, he thought it was just in contrast to Clovis, his Pidgeotto, who happened to be undersized for his species, but he'd seen numerous Starly and Staravia on his hike through eastern Sinnoh. This one's bulging muscles and tree trunk legs would put bodybuilders to shame.
After brushing herself off, perhaps offended by Laina's manhandling, Brisa tore through the snow towards their camp. He and his sister gave chase, wise to not fall too far behind her path of destruction.
Ciel hovered the antiseptic above the wound and looked to his sister for consent. Even though she gave it, he still cursed himself when she recoiled at the touch.
"Gah! What's in that?" she hissed. The question was a reflex, and therefore rhetorical.
Her jackets were discarded for the operation, and they sat on gathered pine logs around their makeshift fire pit. Arden's flames made sleet around him as he dozed.
"Sorry, Laina. I shouldn't have let you deal with her," he said while sealing a cotton bandage with tape. However, she tapped his arm with her fist.
"Shut it, I wanted to," she replied.
"I knew better." He sat back and pocketed the medical supplies. "That should be good. I cleaned it out well, and it's not too deep."
He noticed that, through the scuffle and his treatment of the wound, her ponytail had come undone. Ciel's mind reverted to instinct, and he repeated a routine they both performed thousands of times as kids. He undid the tie and let her locks descend over her shoulders, then he swept back through it with his fingers to smooth it out. He pulled her hair taught, fished it through each of the band's twisted openings, and then took one free piece and wrapped it around the band, securing it with a pin from her bag.
"Oh, thanks," she said, after he had finished. "I could have fixed it. But thanks."
They sat back and pulled out some dry snacks from a large food pouch. Ciel had long since learned to overpack for trips like this. He pulled out some Stantler jerky for himself and two packages for his sister, mixed nuts and a dried fruit medley.
He made sure to pack extra for this hike in particular, far more than he would have for a similar trip in Johto, even if the weight in his pack was unbearable to start. The calorie burn, according to his research, was multiplied by the cold weather and constant uphills. He could feel himself thinning around his stomach, and so he made sure they both ate their fill and then some each day to stave off the weight loss. Despite her smaller size, most of the stores were reserved for sister along with some vitamin supplements, to make up for the lack of meat.
They chewed in silence, and each pulled out work of their own. Laina pushed her back up to Arden, petting him with one hand while the other worked through an archive of worksheets and assigned readings, including a spiral-bound textbook. He thought its large font and abundant pictures were cute, especially in comparison to the featureless monoliths he'd encountered in his last years of high school.
Ciel turned back to his notes and a Sinnohan bestiary he'd found in the dumpster behind Hearthome City Library. It was a bit outdated, but unless invasive species somehow browbeat every native Sinnoh Pokémon out of the Region since the book was published, it was a great find. He did have to cross-reference with his shiny new ESM 6 to find what he was looking for, since the bestiary didn't list Light or Sound-typed Pokémon.
Clefairy, poor Clefairy, had been reclassified as Fairy/Light after having it's Normal Type overridden with Fairy in the previous edition. It could be found along the mountains further up Route 208. Why did Sinnoh even start their region numbering with an extra 2?
Finneon, Petilil, and Mareep were other Light-types close to their destination, being pretty common in northwestern Sinnoh. A Johtoan at heart, he'd always wanted one of the latter. The only other notable Light pick in Sinnoh was Gallade, but that was a fat chance. In the official ranking, it was Rare 8 on a ten-point scale. He'd be hard-pressed to find an elusive Ralts and train it through two evolutions in any reasonable time.
As for Sound types, there was the ever-present Zubat, plus Whismur or Loudred, and the Sinnohan native Kricketot. Any others like Chatot and Chimecho would be too out of the way of their destination.
There was also team composition to consider. He had a specially focused Fire-type who was his main offense, while Raven and Hector filled physical niches with their opposite speed and bulk. Now, with Brisa, his team was beginning to fill out, but there were still a few roles he had left to fill.
His new addition would need to be another special attacker. Three to one in favor of physical attacking wouldn't do him any favors in real competition.
They'd also need to be tricky. If Brisa was like Clovis—and that was a big if—she could pull some tricks with her maneuverability, but the rest of his team was built for head-on assaults. So a special attacker with an unorthodox battle style.
Over the past couple days, he'd done studies into his team's Type coverage. First of all, it was lacking. Bleh. He needed to work on training more variety with his individual Pokémon, maybe by tapping into recent classifications of Absol as Dark/Ice and Staraptor as Flying/Fighting. But as it stood, his biggest roadblock was Water-types of all kinds. He had no way to counter pure Water nor many its dual pairings, and if he fought that wrestler-looking Gym Leader in Pastoria, he'd be done for. A special attacker, an unorthodox battle style, and effective against Water.
Ciel smiled. He pulled out a red highlighter and drew a wide circle in the bestiary with Petilil at its center. And fortunately for him, it was found right around Floaroma.
He noticed his sister peeking over her homework and slammed the bestiary shut. She asked, "What was that?"
"None of your business," he said, then (only mostly ironically) blew his tongue at her. "You better keep focused so you don't fall behind."
She leered at him, then turned her determined eyes back to the textbook in front of her. He brushed himself off and stood to examine their tiny outpost on Route 208.
Brisa, the sleeping Arden, and Hector populated the clearing. The Rhydon sat on his tail, rolling a mound of snow between his arms. It grew into a proper snowball as it picked up the ground cover, after which Hector examined his creation with intrigue and then crushed it between his claws. He started again, the activity not yet picked clean of its dopamine.
Ciel wanted to call him up for this next task, but he was a bit of a daunting opponent for today's focus. Instead, he'd use his new Staravia, who unsuccessfully pecked at Hector's scales from her perch atop his head. Her brutality was offset by her inexperience, making her a good sparring partner for a Pokémon not quite yet in top shape.
He peeked inside the flap of their insulated tent. Raven perked her head up to meet him, which was a good sign. An even better sign came when she rose on her own and stepped out into the snow.
"Feeling okay? I know we noted down to get started today, but we can still take it easy. It's not like we don't have tons of time," he said.
She snarled at him, however, and that only made him feel better. Just like the Raven he knew.
He gently pulled her towards him and whetted her sickle using a grinding stone from his bag; he made sure to plug the ear hole on the underside so as not to bother her too much with the noise. Her back arched with each stroke, as if she'd finally found a surface to rub an unreachable itch on.
Brisa cawed impatiently on the opposite side of the clearing, so he finished up and gave his partner a firm pat to egg her on. Laina shouted from the sidelines, "Get a move on!"
Start with something simple. Ciel said, "Raven, Slash!"
His partner bounded forward—with a slight sway in her leaps—and swung her blade at her opponent. The Staravia soared over her head, driving her beak into Raven's back, before landing deftly on the other side. She followed up with a Fury Attack barrage, stabbing wildly anywhere she saw white fur.
Raven spun and parried each. With a simple tilt of her head, she could redirect most of the oncoming pecks across the flat if her sickle. However, a spasm interrupted one seemingly simple parry, and Staravia's beak slipped past to cut into Raven's cheek. It just barely missed the eye.
The Absol snarled. But her revenge was at the mercy of the shudders, leaving her temporarily paralyzed.
It didn't go unnoticed by the Flying-type, who flailed her wings rapidly, not in aggression but in mocking. She was unburdened by whatever-it-was that Raven was putting up with, and that made her superior. A bully.
Ciel's foot was in front of his brain. He wanted to stop this already, but by the time his thoughts caught up, Raven had thrown herself back in. She didn't appear ready to take this lying down.
"Use Quick Attack!" ordered Ciel. It was a little more strenuous than a simple Slash, requiring her to focus her energy pathways for a burst of speed, and he wasn't sure he should push her. But she accepted his order.
Her body blurred as she rocketed toward Brisa. The latter tried to take flight and escape into the treetops, but Raven's sudden speed burst allowed her to tag the bird one meter into take-off. Brisa's disrupted flight resulted in a splintered pine tree and her body lying motionless at its base.
"I… huh. That went much better than I expected," said Ciel.
Raven swayed as she came down from the battle high. She must have hated that a minor battle winded her so, but she eventually succumbed to her physical weakness and lied in the freezing white.
"Cool! She's getting strong again!" exclaimed Laina. Then, after clearing her throat, she said. "So does that mean it's over, or—"
Brisa was conscious. Brisa was angry.
The Pokémon brought herself to her feet, her coat of feathers flared twice as large as it was previously. She charged forward on her talons, beak forward.
Raven could barely pull her head up, even as her fur straightened in alarm. Ciel reached for Brisa's Poké Ball to remove her from the battlefield, but he was too slow. That knife-like beak was headed straight for Raven's eye socket.
She vanished. Brisa, stumbling, screeched in fury at the missing opponent, and was taken completely by surprise when Raven's Detect made her reappear right in front of her, blade held to the bird's throat. Raven met the indignant stare with one of her own, made even stronger by the twitching in her legs. It didn't matter how weak she was. She was still better.
In a blinding flash, Brisa dematerialized and returned to her capsule. When Ciel tossed it, it ricocheted off a nearby tree and landed silently in the snow.
"Man, she sucks. Why'd you even pick her, anyway?" asked Laina.
Ciel walked over to his partner and, after a hands-up request for permission, picked her off the ground to set her back in the tent. Her head lolled. Despite the adrenaline-fueled finale, she was utterly drained, so he tucked her inside his sleeping bag and zipped up the tent to let her sleep.
"My Pidgeotto—Clovis, if you remember—was limited by his size, so I wanted my next Flying-type to be big enough to still go toe-to-toe with most Pokémon and maybe carry passengers short distances," he said, slamming himself down on a log. "But I'm wondering if that's even worth the trouble."
"Well, she'll come around, right? I remember Raven being moody for years," Laina replied.
But Raven's A-plus personality was mostly slothful, and aside from a few incidents when he first set out to face the Johto Gym Challenge, she wasn't usually a bodily danger to the unfortunate souls nearby. Behavioral therapy seemed a better bet than training at this moment.
He recorded the experience as a note for later and decided to move on. With that ordeal over, and with a fresh headache, he called out to Hector. His Rhydon accidentally crushed the tiny white sculpture he had created, but any sadness on the matter was quickly lost when he turned his head Ciel's way.
"Ready to do some training, bud? We need to learn that drill of yours," said Ciel, poking the equal spot on his own head.
Hector was no speedster, but he still cut through the snow near-instantly at words. The Rhydon stood tall, ready for his next battle.
"Arden, you too," he called, turning their campfire back into a creature. He slipped out from beneath Laina, letting her fall into the powdery cushion below, her papers spilling all over her face.
Ciel glanced between his two readying Pokémon, and then to Mt. Coronet. He'd need these two for a week-long expedition through its cavens, so they'd need to be charged with fighting spirit before they got there. A drill spun, and a blaze burned.
On his first whistle, they took positions.
On his second, they launched.
Fun fact: It actually wasn't until relatively late in this story's development that Laina became a permanent side character. She was relatively minor in Anew, and I really liked the idea of delving into her and Ciel's relationship so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make her a member of the core cast. In that way, both Ciel and Kris kind of have dedicated foils, though if Saber gets anything similar is yet to be seen.
Next is Part 3: Cave Story. I'll see you someday!