Disclaimer: Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.
Temp. A/N: No update in the week of September 28/29 due to my schedule being entirely too busy.
Chapter 39: Two Roads Diverging
Five days after being rescued, Max finally felt like he could at least move around without the aches constantly making themselves known. Slowly, sure, but it was something that was going his way. Most of the rest wasn't.
He wasn't blaming everyone else for being a bit overprotective. He'd felt the anger and worry that both Danny and gardevoir had felt, and the depths of their relief when they'd seen him awake again, after the collapse from overexertion. They helped him with stuff that was hard for him in his injured state, but they also let him do something on his own if he asked – which he'd done twice now. Danny had even found a walking stick somewhere so he could get around easier.
It didn't mean that he didn't chafe at the restrictions he was under, though. He wasn't to leave the island, and anywhere outside of the couple of rooms they'd claimed as their own, he always had to keep someone with him. He also wasn't allowed to do anything physically strenuous, which apparently included lifting his pack up so he could get to something at the bottom. Gardevoir had gotten it for him, after sneaking a peek in his mind – which the Psychic-type had clearly gotten better at if it didn't even cause a headache. Just a moment of split vision and it had been plucked right out of his mind.
Max had been thinking about it, so maybe that was some help.
"You look much better this morning," Phoebe said, coming up from behind him all of a sudden, causing him to flinch. "Way better posture and all. Guess you're on the way to recovery, huh."
"Jirachi, I hope so. This isn't fun." He turned around, only to see the former Elite Four member give him a strange look. "What?"
"Oh, nothing. Nothing important," she amended. "You're the only person I've ever met to swear by jirachi, that's all." She shrugged, and the horn of a shuppet became visible for a moment. "Most people stick with mew, if they use a Psychic-type. But I guess you've got a good reason for that."
"You know about that?"
"Sidney did. Not sure why, but you know him. Understanding how his brain works is not for simple mortals like us." She sat down, inviting Max to do the same. He did, ignoring the jolt of pain. Mostly. "Bet you want to just wish the pain away, huh."
He made to reply, but a memory changed what he was about to say."Maybe? Wishes can be misinterpreted."
"Be careful what you wish for, huh. Something happened there, so… Spill."
Max shoved away the part of him that insisted that Phoebe was only there out of pity or something. "I, uh… I wished for candy, and that went wrong because jirachi filled a van with it," he started, smiling as he remembered the scramble to get out. "Then May wanted to get rid of the problem, and jirachi thought that was her, so he dumped her in the mountain of candy."
"Yep, that's bein' careful with your wishes alright." The amusement was clear as day. "Some people say you never forget your first love, but that counts for Legendaries too."
"Which one did you see first?"
"Moltres. Boring, I know, but when your aunt lives in the Sevii Islands and you spend a lot of time there, the local one eventually shows up." Phoebe laughed, for some reason. "Just realised. Eight year old me would be scandalised to hear me describe a moltres as boring."
"Ironically, it's the only one of the birds I haven't seen," Max pointed out drily. "Saw articuno with Ash, saw zapdos in Kalos."
"I've seen them all. Zapdos over in Sinnoh when I was your age, and probably the same articuno. Noland's?" She smiled at his nod. "Now I'm curious. I know that friend of yours is a magnet for Legendaries, but how many have you seen?"
"How do I count duplicates?"
"If you think they're the same, you don't, but if they're different, count all of them."
That was different from the last time that he'd had to answer the question, and Max got to counting. Start with twelve, add four for Brandon's regis and the second deoxys, add yveltal, xerneas, zapdos… He'd keep the second celebi out of it. Didn't even know for sure if it wasn't the same one, because time travel, and explaining why there were two celebi on the list if she pressed for an answer was… Not something he really wanted to do right there and then. "Nineteen," he said, proceeding to list them. "You?"
It took a moment for a reply, and a fierce shake of the head too. "And here I was thinking my seventeen was going to beat yours," Phoebe said, faking disappointment before listing them all. She'd seen the birds – twice for moltres – and the golems – twice for all of them. Then there were two lugia, three of the Alolan island guardians when she'd been training there in her early twenties, regigigas, and a tornadus to round it out. "And I'm even betting you've seen more in the last two years, so… Not even going to ask."
"It's just four."
"Still more than I saw. Or most people on their journey, for that matter." An amused sigh. "At least I've got you beat in Pokémon still." She stretched out a bit, causing the shuppet that had been behind her earlier to shoot up. "When all of this is done, how about we find some abandoned spot and have a battle?"
What now? "Uuh…. You're way better. Not sure I'd get anything out of it."
"Your bonds with your Pokémon are strong, and you've got the constitution to step back and analyse things. I think you might surprise yourself." A chill ran down Max's spine as a powerful Ghost-type suddenly descended from the ceiling, and he turned to see a banette. The shuppet joined it in a… Happy ritual? "And that is a thing too. I want to hear the whole story behind how that happened."
He sighed, not surprised that Danny – who else could it be – had told her about his sensing powerful Ghost-types. "We don't know how it happened."
"Yet. You're not the kind of teen to just let that lie. It's just that you've been… Otherwise occupied."
The delivery was so absurd Max had to snort regardless of what she was referring to. "That's one way of putting it."
"The best way," Phoebe asserted, before turning serious, mood whiplashing hard. "Between you and me… How about we make a deal. One of us captures him, we tell the other and get some payback."
"Deal."
~~§~~§~~
Another day, another trip for supplies. Gardevoir dropped him off outside of Mead Town before returning himself, and Danny donned the cap and sunglasses that kept him unrecognisable before setting out to walk the mile or so that he knew a bit from two years ago.
While walking, he made certain to slightly change the way he held himself. Maybe it wouldn't do much – he hadn't exactly asked Reginald about this, even if the spy had approved of the headwear that Phoebe had supplied at Danny's request – but from watching way too many of his Dad's shows when he was younger, he remembered that changing that did a lot to make you look different.
And it was fun, too. He could do with a bit of fun after the last week. Most fun in Mt. Pyre was sapped away by the dreary location and the fact that Max was far from recovery. Getting better, sure, but still a long way from being okay.
Even if it was faster than he thought it would be, after seeing how nearly broken his best friend was in that cellar on Izabe, even before that disruptor had started up.
And somehow, minds had aligned and something else maybe, and suddenly, there was a Mega in the room, rage whirling like a mini tornado. It had been scary, but the more he thought about it, the less it really became that.
He liked to think he was more level-headed than Max was, and part of him was a bit afraid of what gardevoir had done, but only in the sense that he was afraid of what most truly powerful Pokémon could do when they set their mind to it.
His uncle had described it as healthy fear and respect over a year back, after they'd chatted a bit about zapdos and the power it had unleashed in that thunderstorm on Route 13.
The rage didn't bother him any longer. It had been shocking in the moment because of the sudden contrast, but now that he'd been able to think about it… It was perfectly in line with the protectiveness of the Pokémon as a species, which was their defining Pokédex feature in most entries for a reason.
Max had definitely also gotten a dose of that. Either because he'd primed himself for it with wanting with all his heart for ralts to be his starter, or because of who he was of himself, or maybe it was some kind of additional influence from ralts from beyond the grave, like the sensitivity… It didn't matter. It never had. It never would.
Max was Max. His best friend. Until the day one of them died.
He looked up to see that he'd entered the town proper, and off to the side, he saw a stand with newspapers in them. The sight of one of them made him remember which exact day it was.
September eleventh. A year since Geosenge.
He paused to check the paper in more detail. The top half was just a headline and the top of a picture that Danny recognised as being taken at the ceremony in Lumiose later. Only their heads were visible – Danny's far more than Max's, naturally – and unfolding it revealed the rest of the very same picture, as well as an article that both summarised what had happened a year ago and posed a few questions about the government's continued refusal to honour them as they'd been honoured in Kalos.
Really, what had he been expecting with a headline like Heroes of Hoenn: A Year Onward.
He was tempted to buy it for Max's amusement, but decided against it. Nobody his age even read the newspaper, so it would be suspicious as heck. Still, it was a nice reminder that not everyone was of the same mind as the government about them.
He needed that after last week, too.
Just as he put it down, a man coughed behind him. "You gonna buy or what?"
"No sir," Danny said, turning around to reveal a grey-haired kindly-faced man, looking to be somewhere in his sixties. He was shorter by a couple of inches, not helped by a slight stoop. "Headline caught my attention is all."
"Can see how it would. Kids're younger than you." He reached past Danny, picking up a paper for himself. "Whatcha think, son. You with 'em government types, or ya think they didn't do nothing?"
Was he really being asked about this? Ugh, he was bad at lying on the spot. "Lost track of what they were accused of," he replied. "Some kind of destruction?"
"That's the one. 'course, G-men don't go in for nothing. They say somethin' was wrong there, I'll believe 'em any day over blabbering politicians." A glob of spit hit the pavement. "Heroes one day, exiles next. Was good to hear they got ta Kanto." He beckoned Danny to come closer. "I reckon they know too much. Summat about the government or attacks. And they don't want 'em to tell."
"Why didn't they tell anyone, then?"
"Hah. They did. Why'd'ya think they got in Kanto. Not sure why they didn't tell others, though. Iffen ya ask me, they shoulda done that. People'd believe 'em."
"They're only fourteen, I think? Why'd they be so believable?"
"Holes the size of groudon in government's story. If only ya pay attention and read a little." He looked Danny up and down. "Still on the road, I see?"
"Ever Grande. My last," the teenager replied with a shrug. "Not good enough to go on."
"With someone?"
"Friend's outside of town. I got short straw for food."
"Good on ya. Together's always better 'n alone." He held out a hand. "Good ta meet ya. I'm Phil."
"Daniel." The smile was predictable. "I know. Always been Daniel."
"Well, Daniel. Good luck in Ever Grande, 'n remember that government lies."
With that, the man went inside, and after a moment, it became clear he was the proprietor of the small store. Which explained why he'd wondered about Danny buying it.
The disguised teenager walked off, daring not to hurry too much for risk of looking suspicious. That had been a conversation for the ages, and Max was going to love it when he heard about it. If only for laughing at him for having to lie on the spot like he did.
Reginald probably would want to know this too. He remembered the newspaper being national, and if it was in a stand like that, it probably had a good amount of readers. There was probably something that the spy could glean from a newspaper being openly supportive like that, but that was way beyond Danny's understanding for now.
He'd pick that up in the future, no doubt, but for now, he was fourteen, and he…
Needed a snack, according to his rumbling stomach.
~~§~~§~~
"Norman! What's up!" the boisterous Dewford Gym Leader greeted him as he walked into the island's Gym. "Spending the weekend here or what?"
"Today and tomorrow," the Petalburg Gym Leader replied, giving a firm shake and refraining from rolling his eyes when the younger man tried to do some kind of hip and new thing. He'd long stopped trying to make sense of today's fashion. "Caroline has wanted a weekend out of town for a while, so I made reservations at the spa." They shared a grin. "It's a good way to keep your girlfriend happy."
"Oh, I know. I know," Brawly said, now full-on smiling, before sobering rapidly. "But you don't come here for nothing. What is it you want to talk about?"
Stupid Gym Leaders didn't exist, as much as some of his colleagues sometimes looked like it, and as much as the man in front of him acted like he was some kind of Alolan surfer stereotype instead of the former apprentice to Bruno. "Things we cannot openly talk about."
Two minutes later, they were in the private area of the Gym. Brawly had a house down the coast, but by convention, every Gym did have some place to unwind between matches. The Fighting-type Trainer's was sparse, and seemingly rarely used. "It's about the restrictions, right?"
"Among other things, but let's start with them." He leaned back in the comfortable chair. "You know I treat everything neutrally, looking into the issues, right? I did so when the first restrictions were announced, and found that they weren't really effective, but when the attacks seemed to taper off… Maybe the research was wrong?"
"And then they started happening more and more again."
"And then they picked back up, yes," Norman agreed. "And I started looking into the details of the specific attacks. Did you know it's always mostly wild Pokémon involved, but with a significant amount of Trainer Pokémon as well? Less in recent months, for a variety of reasons, but enough to rule out that it's some kind of Type-affecting disease or something."
"Sure," was all he got out of his opposite, who waved him on.
"Not sure what it could be, but this is two days before Fallarbor. Didn't have time to ask Maxim if he knew anything before everything went to hell in a basket." He shook his head, both at the senseless loss of life and at the reaction. "Government bans all Dark, Ghost, Psychic-type Pokémon unless you've got a permit, overruling the Gym Leader Council in the process on keeping those Gyms open. How there's talk about going even further and forcibly taking those Pokémon from Trainers if they're involved in an attack? Even if they have a permit." The forty-one year old fixed his gaze on his younger counterpart. "There's just something that doesn't make sense here."
"And what makes you think that I know more?"
"I don't expect you to, but… You're the first available target." For which he was sorry, and hopefully he conveyed that well enough. "Excepting Roxanne, but her reaction is both predictable and bordering the line of what is and is not allowed."
That got him a laugh, at least. A bit of a hollow one, maybe. "True enough, Norman, true enough." Brawly leant back in his chair in response, folding his hands behind his head as he thought. "What're they gonna do with the taken Pokémon, do you know?"
"Hopefully, try to rehabilitate them and return them to the Trainers. The more I hear, however, the less likely I think that is. Probably drop them in a warehouse under stasis until the crisis is over."
"Or worse." Brawly stood up, starting to pace. "I had a conversation a few days back, about how these things seem innocent, but mirror some very bad things. Perhaps it was scaremongering, but the pattern… Just the pattern."
"What pattern?"
"Do you remember what happened during the last war between Sinnoh and Kanto from history classes in school?"
Norman snorted. "I was… Not the most attentive child that year. Worst teacher I ever had."
Brawly paused to smile in commiseration for something that happened before he was even born. Barely. "People who were from the 'other' region were taken to special camps. Officially, that was all there was to it, but it came to light later that it wasn't all sunshine and daisies in those camps. Lots of slave labour 'n stuff. Bad time." The pacing stopped in full. "And the first thing that happened was those 'others' being put away as worth less. Just as one of those high-up politicians – forgot the name – said earlier this week. Openly."
It sounded a bit far-fetched, to be honest. The scaremongering of an extremist. Except Brawly was only into extremely big waves and an extreme interpretation of 'live and let live' that had caused him to edge around the borders of the League Politics Act before, even if he'd never been caught on the wrong side of it. "Putting those Pokémon to work like that won't work. If the government thinks they're dangerous for attacking people, you wouldn't do that. If that goes wrong, we're back in the pre-region days of Pokémon rampages."
"So, if that's not the solution to this problem, what could be?"
The question Brawly posed was not one Norman could answer, or even understand fully, but the Dewford native would say no more on the topic, instead opening the door and challenging him to a spar the moment they were out of it.
The mood whiplash was extreme, but he was able to keep his wits about him well enough to win, three to two.
~~§~~§~~
Outside, winds howled, and only closing two sets of doors on either side had made it so that the storm raging didn't come through to the rooms that they were squatting in. Even so, Max could faintly hear the sharp sound of wind funnelling into a narrow path if he paid attention to it. There had been some rain, too, but none right now, or Danny would be here instead of outside, enjoying the stormy weather.
Maybe that meant Reginald was going to return late tonight. The Gym Leader had left them two days beforehand with plenty of food and water – and gardevoir and Danny could get more anyway if needed – and he said he'd aim to be back by tonight, but that he wasn't going to fly in the worst of the storm. He hadn't shared where he was going, or even what he was doing, but gardevoir had filled that gap.
And that Danny would go wherever Max would. There was more to that; he'd been able to tell that easily, but he was long familiar with his best friend's protective instincts. Guesswork was good enough.
But before he could go anywhere, he needed to bloody recover first. He knew it was better than before, only needing the help of the walking stick for the first minutes after waking up because his muscles locked up overnight. Lifting things was okay again, even if his full pack was too much for him. He'd even gotten permission to go places on his own again, though he suspected that Danny knew he wouldn't in this weather regardless.
They really knew each other too well.
Still, though, the longer the day went, the more things ached as he tried to keep busy by walking around, helping some of his Pokémon with practising attacks, and the like. It was normal, he knew, but that didn't mean it wasn't annoying as hell.
And okay, he had kind of pushed himself a bit too far the night before when gardevoir had carefully extracted Danny's Key Stone before testing if they could replicate the Mega Evolution.
He'd barely made it to his sleeping bag in time. At least his sleep had been dreamless, unlike the annoyingly common nightmares that had popped up. They were ones he'd had before, of friends and family captured, but now tortured as well.
"You want to try again tonight?" Max asked, tapping his belt to release the green-and-white Pokémon.
"How are you feeling?" gardevoir asked in return, but the expected momentary split vision didn't happen. "Risking your recovery is not something I wish to do."
He couldn't lie. Not to a mind-reading Pokémon. "Maybe not the best. 'slike I'm a few days back now."
"Then we'll not do it," the Psychic-type declared with finality. "Your health is important."
"And you want me along for the vengeance you want to take, and I need to be in good shape for that." That evoked some surprise, palpable because they were basically right next to each other. "I remembered the exact thing I felt the moment you Mega Evolved this morning."
"I see." The silence stretched for a bit. "I need to tell you something."
That boded ill. "Yeah?"
"Remember when we met again, nine moon cycl… nine months ago?" gardevoir asked, lowering the volume, but still making himself perfectly understood. One advantage of telepathic communication. "You never asked why I wished to join you."
Oh, that. "Kind of guessed that one. You saw the place where your brother died, and..." he said, stopping because the following words sounded really awkward even without saying them. They hadn't then, but they sure did now. "Eh..."
"Because you felt I sought a connection to my brother," gardevoir finished for him regardless, causing a blush to threaten to pop up, but a calming arm soothed it away. "This was certainly part of it. Yet, it wasn't everything, or even the most important reason."
"Vengeance, isn't it?" Max asked softly when silence prompted him. "You want vengeance for him."
"Yes. I will not lie and say that the time we spent together didn't affect this, but… The thing I still want most is for those responsible to hurt." An ineffable flash of what gardevoir wanted to do burned for a moment. "Are you… Are you okay with that?"
Was he? "I shouldn't be, but… Well..." He waved vaguely in the direction of his sleeping bag, intending the walking stick. "You felt what I felt when you rescued me. We were of one mind, nearly literally."
"You were in pain and addled, only remaining upright through sheer force of will. I wasn't certain..."
"If you weren't influencing me," Max finished easily. "Maybe? I was pretty out of it. But you know what I think of when manectric Mega Evolves. Isn't this kinda similar, somewhere?"
"I suppose…" gardevoir replied, but there was clearly more to it. About a minute passed. "Did you think we were going to rescue you?"
"Hope, yes. Think…" A deep sigh. "I dared not." That clearly surprised the Pokémon opposite. "I figured out it was your mother, remember. She's capable of reading my mind. I could try to misdirect, but… You saw how weak I was."
"And yet you hoped? Was this an effect of..."
"Wasn't in the best state of mind. It doesn't make sense now, but back then? Sure. The brain's weird like that." He shook his head. "Still don't understand why she didn't."
"Perhaps… Perhaps she could not?" gardevoir ventured. "If she is under the control of that… thing on her arm, then her mental strength could be diminished."
"How so?"
"The will is important when dealing with another's mind. You trust me to do the right thing whenever I read your mind for information, and so it is easy. You resist whenever we practised that, and for less result, I had to exert more effort. Reading the mind of a stranger would be harder still, because instinct orders them to fight me." Red eyes fixed on Max's. "And we both know that making someone less willing to fight affects power."
Despite the situation, a chuckle escaped his lips. The time gardevoir was referring to was a spar with Ash. A friendly one, but one in which Ash's first Grass-type had used Sweet Scent to literally lull the Psychic-type into a mellow mood before slamming him with a Solar Beam.
Gardevoir hadn't fallen for that twice, but it was a nice reminder of the power of distraction and misdirection.
"So how's that work with your mother?"
"It's only a guess, but I cannot think of another reason for her to not do it."
The mood shifted, but the Pokémon remained silent, prompting Max to break it instead. "What's on your mind now?"
"What if… What if she doesn't recover? Controlling by force such as that… For who knows how long..."
There was anguish in the voice, but Max could understand it. His mind flashed back to the state kirlia had been in, after being subjected to that machine for months, and their mother had been captured for longer by their best guesses. "We'll get her back."
"And if we cannot?"
To that, he had no easy answer.
~~§~~§~~
It had been two and a half weeks since he had last left Mt. Pyre, and honestly, it was becoming stifling to remain there. With every day that passed, the urge to go out and leave rose, but others didn't agree.
Reginald wanted both of them to go back to Kanto, but his errands – trying to drum up support for resisting the government, as best Max had over heard – took him away often. Danny was okay with going around in Hoenn, but he wanted to have a few more days of recovery, fearful of a relapse.
It'd be okay if the date wasn't continuously being pushed back, albeit slower than the actual passage of time.
The dilemma was why he'd gone into the fresh air atop the mountain, just to clear his mind while Danny and gardevoir were off getting some more supplies on their twice-weekly run. It'd take them an hour more to get back, because they had to cover their tracks well, what with Psychic-types being illegal to possess in the region right now.
Psychic-types. Illegal. Bloody disgrace.
He shook his head, ignoring the regular feeling in his head of a couple of nearby Ghosts. They didn't feel powerful, and in daylight, they were probably more scared of him than he of them anyway. Vulpix being out also helped with that, probably.
"What do you think we should do, vulpix?" Max asked the small fox-like Pokémon as she sat upright, enjoying a bit of early autumn sun. "Stay or go?"
"You made that choice long ago," came a voice that tickled the memory, and Max stood up in a flash, only to be casually struck dumb by a golden-white blaze in his mind. He tried to muster the strength to break free, but it was strong and…
Letting him off without anything? The blaze receded, but a pair of ninetales appeared in front of again-working eyes.
No. Not a pair. The pair. The ninetales that he'd seen before. The ones who had caught him vulpix, just about two years ago. The ones who had tried to trick him with an illusion, freezing Danny in the process.
The ones who had spoken of plots and plans. Of abominations forcing Ghost-types. Of that he would do something. Do what? "Eh… What?"
"Choice is illusory," the second one – male – spoke. He sat down, thirty feet away, several tails moving calmly, but without any hint of power. "You fight, regardless the odds. You fight, regardless the location. You fight, to protect."
The words took Max aback, and back slightly over a year ago, when the desire to stop Lysandre and protect his friends, Kalos, and the world had triggered manectric's Mega Evolution for the first time.
"You were brave, to face Death, but braver still to go alone into the unknown, knowing what could await," the female of the pair spoke up, and Max suddenly found her near him. One tail rubbed under his chin, and he froze at the contact. "As you did then, so you must now."
"Doing… What?"
"Leave. Alone. Go to where it started."
"I'm not leaving alone!"
"You wish to stay with your friend, do you not?" the female ninetales said softly, almost hypnotically. "There is strength in friendship, yet… What would he do, if you found those responsible? Would he stand aside, or..."
Unbidden, a comment from Danny from a week and a bit back came to mind. "The Mega Evolution was a bit scary, not going to lie. It was a lot of rage," he had said, after discussing how gardevoir had gone through several opposing Pokémon without breaking a sweat. It had only been an offhand remark, or so Max thought, but… Was there more to it?
"He wouldn't stop me."
"Why not leave? You are fit. Yet he delays. He doubts, he doubts." The white-gold fox rose, suddenly flanking Max on the other side, exuding heat as he sniffed. "You fear for him."
"And rightly so," came from his left as two tails wrapped around his arm, soft, comforting. "But… Is it capture you fear for him, or is it something else? The enticing rush of anger and vengeance, striking down abominations wherever it goes, until..."
A flash, and Max was in an illusion. A wrecked street, buildings blown open, doors strewn across pavement, in the grey of winter. A piercing bolt of pink-blue shot across from the left, followed by blinding yellow-white, and vision shifted to reveal Max, Mega gardevoir, and manectric. All were battered, and a rough scratch bled lightly on his illusionary cheek as he moved to avoid a Dark streak before the Pokémon moved as one to annihilate the unseen attacker, almost gleefully.
The strike destroyed the front of a building on the street corner, and it was load-bearing. With a rumble, the stone came down, shifting to the other street, as did vision.
And Max saw a tall teenager – with electric blue hair – shout for help, but his Pokémon didn't appear in time, and he was buried under the rubble, along with a brown Pokémon who wasn't fast enough.
Danny and diggersby.
"You travelled together, until the endless road took you to a seat of power under siege. He ceded his Key to aid you in the time of dire emergency, but in the fighting, you were separated. He followed the rage you exuded, and paid for it. As for you..." The vision shifted once more, to a still of a slightly older Max up close, eyes were fixed on the other side of the street, and not on the pile of debris. "He was reticent in letting you practice, and in doing so, he let rage master you. A fatal flaw."
The illusion ended, and Max staggered, but the ninetales buffered him. "I… I convince him that I have to practice. That'd do it, right?"
"Would you be able to? He is rightly afraid. He, who is far more changed by his bond than you. He will extrapolate. He will fear. And he will decline. And yet… Should you leave alone..."
A flash, of a different, but still rubbished, street, and two teenagers standing still, one taller than the other. The taller – Danny – was clearly telling the shorter – Max – off in a lull in fighting, and Pokémon around them watched with amusement. A second flash, and a heartfelt embrace so powerful it caused a pang even while still.
"The path is clear. Take it. Leave to where it began. And take the Key."
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
Pokédex entry: ninetales, regular
Characteristics: vulpine, mystical, long-lived, Fire-type. Avg. height: 3'11'', Avg. weight: 45 lbs.
Detailed information: Ninetales combine intelligence with a potentially vengeful attitude. Though the common tale of a lifelong curse befalling those who grab one of its tails unbidden is not true, doing so will land you in trouble with one regardless, as these tails are both extremely sensitive and highly suited to channel the Ghost-type energies that this species is known for through. Their lifespan is on the extreme high end, with an upper limit unknown. However, most ninetales will follow their Trainer when that time comes.