This story was co-developed by Titan127 and beta read by ShonnaRose and JhinoftheOpera.
[8-4] Ghost From Beyond the Stars
"Some criminals are holding it up," the woman continued.
Ciel felt himself seize. Laina stayed with Ren and Eva. What if Eva brought her to work to keep an eye on her? And the flower shop was close enough to their house that they could be caught in the crossfire.
He struggled to control his own lungs enough to nod at her, beckon his Pokémon, and take off. Hector left behind his broken flower, and Arden tossed him the open Poké GEAR that he deftly snapped onto his wrist. The only one who couldn't keep up was Raven, whose muscle spasms imprisoned her and whose guttural noises fed the fear clawing its way inside him. She forced her legs forward and managed a jog, and he wasn't going to deny her for as far on the road to recovery as she was.
This is what Raven had sensed before they arrived. Ciel trusted her, but he could only interpret her signals in vague terms, and now some disaster had arrived before he had a chance to do anything about it. The brick that flew past their heads. The deranged man on the plane. Laina could be...
No, he couldn't think like that. Laina was fine, she was probably in no danger, and all he needed to do was approach this with the level head of a Champion. It didn't matter that Raven's sense had preluded Arden's hospitalization and the second time he met that Rocket woman.
As Camella led him into town, past spectrums of flowerbeds and the otherwise quiet houses, his eyes bored into the back of her head. For how hard he was scratching his neck, it must have looked raw.
The overwhelming floral scent, while otherwise pleasant, became sickening in combination with his knotted stomach. It was soon joined by metal, and he was horrified when he turned the corner and saw an entire bed painted in red iron. A woman screamed as she hugged her arm to her abdomen.
Ciel dyed his pants green as he slid on his knees to meet her. He accessed survival training from his memories and, without really thinking, jammed his knee onto the wound to apply pressure. Her ear-splitting scream was cut short when she clenched her teeth.
"M-ma'am," he said, "I need you to stay calm. Just breathe. Breathe."
She jerked her head in a nod, unable to speak. Pulling his foot back, he could see a glint of metal within the pooling flesh. Just the sight of it forced bile into his throat. A bullet. He knew he didn't have the resources nor the skill to remove it. And he couldn't even try to cauterize it with Arden's flames with it still lodged inside.
He snapped his head to Camella. "I'm going to wrap this as best I can. Call emergency services and then stay with her, I'll go see what's at the flower shop." He didn't wait for her response before he unzipped both his jackets and slipped off his shirt underneath.
It was a favorite of his, after his original version of the shirt got ripped to shreds. It said "Future Champion" in Johtoan across its sandy blue fabric. That lettering disappeared immediately as dark stains boiled up from the woman's side. He pulled it as tight as he could, ignoring her thrashing, and then replaced his inner jacket before taking off. Camella shouted behind him to stay safe, even though they both knew that wasn't the objective.
He pushed to full sprint when his target appeared behind another building. Though he didn't know exactly what it looked like, the building's striped awning protected a legion of potted flowers, with more standing in the windows. Raven kept a vague pace with him, falling behind every few seconds when a tremor disabled one of her legs, and Arden and Raven chased somewhere behind them. The doors raced to meet him, and he threw himself into the glass without a second thought.
Ciel had only a few seconds to survey the scene.
A man in a facsimile spacesuit raised a handgun to the roof of the building.
Brisa rained black feathers on the tiles, her plumage stuffed with pilfered junk.
Eva cowered behind the register.
An optimal strategy processed in his mind, and his heart pounded hard in his chest at the thought of what he was about to do. He screamed at the top of his lungs. "Brisa, Aerial Ace!"
Ciel threw himself behind a counter, and not half a second after did the man's gun fire overhead. It was aimed at his sudden shout, leaving the man wide open for the Staravia to tear her talons into his chest. His gun dropped somewhere below the counter, and a teal-green wig slipped off his natural brown hair.
A large feline shape leapt at Ciel, but all he saw was the inside of its gaping maw. He couldn't get away. Two of its longest teeth ripped into his muscles. Against all instinct, he restricted the urge to scream and instead shouted for his partner.
Raven's sickle slashed across the creature's middle and released its clamp. His pierced arm dangled in front of him, overcome with a burning sensation and leaking on the tile below.
The pain cut into his thoughts like static interference. He tried to make out what he'd learned reading the ESM 6. This thing, what was it called? A black fur and mane coated its blue underbody, which also sported yellow stripes. Luxray. It was reclassified as something. Electric and something. He came to his conclusion before his brain could confirm his suspicion.
"N-nngh!" The noise erupted from between Ciel's teeth when he tried to give his order. Raven took a defensive position in front of him, her sickle charged with Dark-type power. "W-wait for an attack."
The two Pokémon stared each other down, growling their intent. The Luxray leapt again, roaring with its maw wide.
"Catch it!"
Raven rushed to meet it, but held back just enough that the Luxray's jaws narrowly missed her face and blunted themselves on her sickle instead.
The effect was immediate. Luxray was part Dark-type, and probably used Dark-type moves like Bite or Crunch. Power coursed through Raven's body as her ability, Justified, took effect. Her muscles bulged as her entire form emitted a red glow. She ripped free her sickle and some of the creature's teeth from its jaws, then jammed her weapon into its side.
Her own Dark-type moves wouldn't have stopped it, and Ciel needed to end it immediately before the criminal could draw his gun again. He quickly turned his attention to the other struggle in the flower shop and threw out his good arm. "Take Down!"
Whether she was listening to him or not, Brisa launched herself from where her talons were embedded in his chest, swung around the interior of the flower shop-knocking over ceramic pots that shattered on the tile-and threw her entire weight into his stomach. He made no noise as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped over by the waylaid firearm.
The static overwhelmed him. All Ciel could focus on was the burning in his arm, and the emptiness left behind as he bled on the floor. He tried to even his breathing. It was safe now.
No. No. One thought wormed its way through the noise. The one man had a gun, that was his weapon. But Camella had mentioned criminals. More than one. That Luxray had to belong to someone else.
His neck creaked around the broken store, searching for movement. It allowed him a better view of the situation. Belongings had been strewn everywhere, not just the things Brisa knocked over on her trip around, leaving mounds of soil and paper pouches and destroyed petals. Eve seemed to be the only one present inside. Laina wasn't here.
The relief stole away some of his adrenaline, and his arm burned hotter. He finally let out a pained cry, and the shadow lurking between the aisle took this as an opportunity.
The click of a switchblade.
The scream of fury.
A woman in her own fake spacesuit leapt at him with her weapon aimed to strike, only for a high heel to crack her nose. She toppled as silently as her accomplice.
Ciel felt himself slip away from the blood loss. The last thing he saw was Camella, foot above her head in the final position of a high kick, and his partner standing over him.
Raven's sense only worked in anticipation of danger. Yet even as the flower shop fell silent, her shudders never stopped.
It was his clogged nose that forced him awake to gasp for air. He was in the same position as he was that morning, only this time he didn't have the energy to push himself out of bed. Not that it mattered. It was pitch black outside.
Except for his four Poké Balls on the windowsill, every empty countertop and nightstand in the room was populated with a flower vase. It would have been a sweet gesture if it didn't feel like they were offerings to a grave, and if he was able to breathe properly. A sneeze hitched in his nose and blasted out.
Immediately after, footsteps thundered down the hall. "Hey, you're awak-ah!"
Laina slid past the door and fell on her face. She was wearing socks on hardwood. Ouch. When she managed to claw her way back to the room, she threw herself beside the bed.
"Uh, hey," he said.
"I'm so glad you're okay." Her red hair was frayed in all directions, like she'd been tearing chunks out of it all day. "How do you feel?"
"I…" He paused that thought to collect himself. His left arm, which was somewhere beneath the blankets, pounded against some tight bindings all around it. He couldn't pull against the stiffness of his neck and just let himself lay back on the pillow. "I feel like shit."
"Language!" she said. "But, uhh, yeah, probably. A doctor did a house call to patch you up after you got here, said it'd take a while to heal. You got some bone damage."
He picked up on the middle part of her statement. "How did I get here?"
"Oh! Camella brought you."
Her. He started to shake, but he tensed his muscles so Laina wouldn't notice. His left arm burned.
"Well, uhh, you'd probably be happy to know that you were all over the local news today. I was listening to the radio with Ren and Eva and people stopped by all day to give you these." She grabbed one of the vases off the nightstand.
"Yeah. Great," he said.
"Oh, you'd do better to keep your head up, young man," said Ren, hovering in the doorway. He flicked on the light. "You were in the entire town's prayers. Your sister here told me that's what you want."
"It is, I just… who were those people?" he asked.
"The local police are handling them, but they claim they're part of the Galactic Company." He noticed the confusion on Ciel's face. "It was an organization, or more like a cult, from a few years ago. They all dressed up the same and claimed they wanted to make a 'new world' or such, until their leader up and vanished."
Laina looked up at him. "So they're gone, right?"
"The local police are still investigating those two, but if you ask me, I think they're just posers. Trying to rile up people with an old boogeyman, that sort of thing. Though it does concern me that they were able to get their hands on weapons like that."
The last resident of the house pushed their way inside. Eva still had on an apron, and they were meticulously playing with the petals of a flower arrangement. They hovered over the bed, almost handing him the vase multiple times but quickly snatching it back to make more arrangements.
"Darling, it's perfect. You don't need to obsess," said Ren.
With a frown, they shoved it at Ciel, and he pulled his right arm from beneath the blanket to hold it. What must have been dozens of different flowers, all in vibrant colors, stacked atop each other into a skyscraper of beauty. Other twirling stalks and strands of grass were stitched around them. They must have worked on it for hours.
They bowed deeply as he examined the magnificent gift. "Tusen hjertelig takk."
Takk meant thanks. He'd learned that much. He said to them, "I'm glad I could help."
Seemingly embarrassed, Eva stepped back behind Ren and watched from afar. Ciel imagined they were shaken from earlier.
"It means more than you'd think," said Ren, comforting his partner by taking his hand in theirs. "I can't say I share the thought, but some believe that each flower channels a deity. They're watching over you now"
"That's…" Ciel didn't know how to reply. It was all a bit foreign to him, but to know that he mattered enough to others that they'd ask their own gods to protect him was comforting in a surreal way. "Thank you so much. And for hosting us, too."
A puzzled expression marred Laina's face, and she pushed herself close to him to whisper, just low enough that only he could hear what she had to say. "Was this the disaster Raven was feeling?"
His burning arm shook beneath the blanket, and he gripped the ceramic vase so tight he was sure it would shatter. What exactly could he tell her? It wasn't her job to worry. He wanted her to never have to fear for anything again.
"Y-yeah," he said. "Everything's fine now."
She read his words a little long, wondering whether or not she could trust his uneven breath, but eventually she stood to join their hosts.
"Well, it's late for all of us. We'll take care of you as long as you need," said Ren. "Sleep well."
He pulled the door closed, leaving Ciel alone in the dark, flowered room. Only the barest moonlight pierced through the clouds and highlighted the curves of hundreds of petals around him.
His eyes wouldn't close no matter how hard he tried. He'd heard her voice in his dreams. And his memories.
Ciel felt absolutely powerless. He wanted to jump out of bed, grab his sister, and run from Floaroma as fast as he could go, but he couldn't do anything until he could move his body.
There was a demon hiding in the flowered fields. The same demon that had nearly slit his throat with a knife in Goldenrod, and whose piercing eyes had followed him all the way to Sinnoh.
She was here. And he would stop her.
Next Volume is my favorite in the entire story thus far. Come back for Volume 9, Part 1: She Who Has Everything See you someday!