Flying 3.12: The Wasteland
Kekoa
Every step you take along the boardwalk echoes out into the meadow.
Nothing answers.
Lyra walks along in front of you, absol at her side. If anything did bother you she's in the best position to take care of it right now. You have a jynx, yeah, but she's only been with you for a few hours. Not a good foundation of trust. You'll need to work on that before the water trial.
Lyra's absol stops and growls. Your hand flies down to your pokéballs. You imagine Lyra's doing the same in front of you.
"Relax, children. I am merely a traveler," a woman calls out. She has a soft voice, but its unwavering and full of confidence.
"How'd you know we were children?" Lyra asks. Huh. Good catch. Not that you'll tell her that.
"Your steps. They do not suggest weight, but there is an energy there." Footsteps have always just been footsteps to you. But she sounds a lot like Cuicatl. Is she also blind? Would it be rude to ask? She continues before you can decide. "What are you doing in this place? There is nothing here to see and it is far too dangerous for a stroll."
"Looking for a pokémon," you answer. "And you?"
"What sort of pokémon? I may be able to help you."
There's something off with her voice, but you can't quite place it. Probably not just the trace of an accent. Kalosian, maybe? No, it's something familiar but just out of reach.
"Floette," Lyra says. "My friend heard there was a rare one near here."
Friend is certainly a word. She pays bills and sometimes you think that maybe she almost gets it. And then you remember that she's a friend of the Gages with money to spare. Blood money, probably.
"A white floette, I presume?" Her voice sounds a little bit like distorted music. Sort of like Cuicatl's singing in the cave. Is that what's off? Or just a sign of something bigger?
You're paying too much attention to this.
You're paying too much attention to this.
"Yeah," you say.
"And someone is paying you for it, I assume? Either the government or the poachers." She sounds uncannily like Cuicatl does when she knows she's right and is setting up to win the argument. Something compels you to keep talking anyway.
"They aren't poachers."
"Because poaching is illegal, and they've made enough well-placed donations that they aren't illegal," Lyra says. Great. Now you're arguing with two people. Or you could just let it slide.
That would be dishonorable. And you care very much for your honor, do you not?
But that would be cowardly.
"We don't all have rich parents paying the bills," you snap at Lyra.
"Is that not the mentality of the poacher?" the woman asks. "Society gives them a way out of destitution, if only they sell out the world in which they live. An ingenious trap. When all the exploited have is their heritage, persuade some to betray it. Then use that as an excuse to steal it under the guise of conservation." She sighs. "If only your kind would use that cleverness to better ends."
"Your kind?"
Unimportant.
She makes a disturbing amount of sense. But… the cause needs money. And anything you do now will be more than offset when your people retake the throne.
"An excuse I have heard the world over."
Wait.
"I didn't ask that question aloud." You're pretty sure, anyway.
You did, actually.
Lyra's absol begins to growl. Sort of. There's a whimper mixed in. Her trainer snaps in frustration. "Snarl, damn it!"
"Easy, child," the woman whispers, "her kind sense disasters. She knows full well what would happen if she made me cross."
"I'm not scared of you." She says it with as much confidence as she can with her teeth chattering. And not just because of the cold in the meadow.
The entire area lights up in a flash of blinding white light. For a moment you get a glimpse of someone tall and pale with a big face before the light fades again. Lyra starts to whimper alongside her absol.
"I am not human, child: I will not hurt you for the sake of inflicting pain."
"What are you?" she murmurs.
The lights come back, far less harsh this time. Now you can see the gorgeous white flower in front of you, easily seven feet tall. "I am a florges. Be still now. You have nothing to fear."
Florges. A white florges. They're banned half the world over for their habit of assassinating warmongers and polluters. Some Middle Eastern nation lost its shit and started firing on people when white petals showed up in a crowd. They're the ultimate revolutionaries, and one is standing right in front of you.
And she has judged you and found you wanting.
She glances in your direction at the thought and then turns back to Lyra. "Can you not tell the difference between those who can harm you and those who will? Do you believe you must be invulnerable to be safe?"
"Fuck you," she growls. It somehow sounds like a plea for help. Damn it, you don't want to have sympathy for her.
"You will never be invulnerable child, not so long as gods walk the earth." She finally turns her full body in your direction. "Of course, you know that full well." The white light is suddenly filled with waves of blue and red. You grind your teeth together. Does she just like messing with people?
"In truth I do not. But sometimes humans, like plants, need pruned to properly grow." The light evens back out to a neutral white. Her voice lowers even further to something soothing and maternal. "I am sorry for what you have gone through, Kekoa Mahi'ai. It seems no matter how long I live the humans will never learn not to trifle with beings so far beyond them…" A shudder wracks her body and she closes her eyes. "…it's enough to make me wonder why I still walk amongst your kind."
At the edge of your vision you see Lyra start to take a few steps backwards. The florges ignores her. "There are still some people on the right side."
She tilts her head and the petals at the edge of her face flutter. Lyra slowly starts to turn around, tension building in her legs. She is once more ignored.
"The right side… most humans believe themselves to be on the right side. Few are. Some fight for justice, others…" Her eyes fix on you with a newfound intensity. As if she's staring past your mind and body into your soul. "You fight for justice, yes?"
It feels like you're walking back into a trap. But the pressure reappears on your mind to speak rather than remain silent. "…yeah…" You can only imagine what she's going to do with that.
"You want the liberation of your people. I sympathize. Colonialism is a blight upon the world that cannot recede quickly enough." For a moment you have hope. They she makes eye contact again and it falls away. "Will you fight with such when others seek justice? For a refugee seeking shelter in your homeland? Or for a child lost in darkness, trying desperately to avoid being taken by a strange man and sent away from his only home?"
It takes you longer than you'd like to admit to realize she's talking about the floette.
She takes a small step forward and it takes everything you have to avoid stepping back. In the light you can see just how much bigger she is than you. How much stronger. She could snap your neck and grow plants over your corpse so you would never be found.
"If I wished to kill you," she murmurs, "you would have never anticipated it. One moment you would be awake, and the next you would be dead." A vine extends from her stem and rests on your shoulder. "I do not kill poachers. The buyers, yes, but not the hunters. The world is complicated, and some people are victimized and victimizer all at once. I would rather judge them too leniently than take a life I should not have. But I must stop you. I hope you can accept this."
You nod. Whether that's for your own safety or because you feel bad for a child in the dark… you'll figure that out later.
"If I cannot appeal to your sense of justice, perhaps you can be swayed by your own interest. I have something to offer you in return for a pledge to call off the hunt on the child of the meadow. Are you willing to accept my offer?"
She won't say what her offer is, but it's not like you really have a choice here. Even if you wanted to continue there's no way in hell you'd live to get the money. You doubt anyone could with a florges watching over them.
The flower gently shakes her head once again. "Even I have limits, child. There are humans who still believe they can wield the power of gods against your enemies. Your own master has chained victory, has he not?"
You bristle at the word 'master.' Like you're a slave. "Or a pokémon," the florges says. "Quite a few humans use that word in reference to their team. And others say 'trainer' but mean something else. Trainer implies that a coaching service is being provided. Yet few humans would allow their coach to lock them up outside of training and matches. Even then, so many humans fail to understand why their captives dislike them…" She turns her head and stares out into the darkness. "Will you accept my offer?"
"Yes." Because what else is there to do? A choice made with a vine on your shoulder isn't much choice at all.
"So close to getting it," the fairy-type muses, "yet so very far."
You don't know what she's talking about: you 'got that' a long time ago. Run away and risk juvie or stay in foster care. Do what the system wants or be punished.
The florges sighs. Sort of. It's not quite right, probably because she doesn't have actual lungs. "There is an old trial site in this meadow. The oricorio who served as totem still lives here and he still has flying Z-crystals cached away. Perhaps your birds would appreciate it?" That would be useful. Immediately useful, even. "For the sake of your team I will give you two days time to prepare. Even in old age, the bird is no easy foe."
"And how do I find the trial?" you ask. Knowing it's there and being able to get there in the dark aren't the same.
"Walk into the meadow. Then I shall find you."
The lights die and you bite back a curse. How do you get back now?
January 18, 2020
Cuicatl comes out when you're halfway through your bowl of oatmeal. The flickering lights give you a rare chance to look at her. She's a mess, to put it mildly. Even her hair is badly tangled and she always cares for that before coming down into public places.
"Hey." She nods in response but doesn't say anything. The rest of breakfast is pretty much spent in silence. Not because she's busy eating: she barely touches her bowl at all. "You should probably eat something," you finally say as she starts to lower the almost-full-bowl down to her vulpix.
She raises the bowl back up and puts a few spoonfuls down. Her fox glares daggers at you.
Tough shit, Pixie.
"You okay?" you ask.
"Yeah." Her voice is listless, all of the usual energy behind it gone. You may have underestimated how much the beldum situation is affecting her. "Just fine."
{Do you need a hug?}
"I'm fine," she answers. "I'll be doing some training with Pix and Coco later. Alone."
You can tell when you're not wanted. "Alright. Just call me if you need anything."
It's an empty offer. Reception is spotty in the area and you both know it. You aren't sure how far her telepathy can go; she's never messaged you from far away before.
"I will," she says.
After you both put your plates away you head back to your rooms. You need to get dressed for the weather outside. Then it's time for some last-minute training.
The boardwalk sprawls on in the darkness. In the distance there's a small patch with multiple guards and a fence around it. Some fire-types and castform are keeping it lit up. "If part of the meadow survives, then the whole thing can regrow," the nurse said. Maybe. Over years. Decades. You wonder how the grass-type pokémon trapped on the other side of the fence feel, doomed to starve just a few yards away from warmth and light.
One of Skull's less-illegal branches runs a blog online. A few days back they posted pictures of some rich assholes crowded together under castform light having a normal day on their private beach. If the heiress hadn't kept her castform, would that be what it was used for? Maybe it's a scam: literally freeze your people out of the market, then buy all the land and stay hunkered down in their bubbles. Keep it all when the sun comes back. Maybe Selene's even in on it.
"Perhaps the paranoid attract one another..." You turn around just as light begins to seep into the meadow around you. The florges is wearing a hooded cloak today that conceals most of her features. Her petals are tucked behind her face like hair. At a glance you'd just think she was a really pale woman.
You remember her lecturing Lyra about paranoia and you scowl. "We're not the same."
"Correct. You lack the capacity to harm the object of your paranoia."
Harsh. Accurate, but harsh. Some day, though, you'll have the power you need to defeat her.
"Will you, now?"
"Y-yeah." You try to project as much confidence as you can. She already… hates is wrong, you think. But she doesn't like you. And florges are badass assassins and warriors that can bring down corporations, empires, and armies with a few snapped necks.
"Hate is the wrong word, yes," she murmurs. "I hate no one."
"Even the people you kill?"
"Yes, even them." She turns around and begins to walk down the boardwalk, leading you further into the meadow. "I grieve every death. Not always for the man they were, but for who they could have been. It takes talent to be truly horrific. I do not understand why they would put their talent towards such ignoble ends."
Not hate, then. You want to ask her why she dislikes you but you can't make your mouth move and she doesn't answer the thought. Eventually she halts, holding out a corner of her cloak so that it blocks the path in front of you.
"Are the pokémon under your care ready?"
"Yeah." The birds seemed eager to get the crystal and jynx… you have no idea what jynx wants most of the time. Can't even rely on Cuicatl for that.
"Good. Let us hope their training paid off." The lights fade again just as you step off the boardwalk and onto a patch of grass. A loud chirp rings out in front of you and you stop in your tracks. Another chirp. The totem?
"Alola," you say. Cuicatl just talks to pokémon like they're anyone else, so maybe you can make it work for you? "I'm on the island challenge. I heard there was still a trial around here." Would the florges have told him? You're not sure.
Three chirps. Balls of light flare to life around you and illuminate the grove. The orbs cackle and static fills the air. Electricity. Just what you need when two-thirds of your team are birds. You glance behind you but the florges is gone. The oricorio leaps to the ground and your head snaps back to look at it. The bird is nearly as tall as you are. His yellow feathers are dull with age, but there's a fierce look in his eyes.
"Ihe, let's go."
Red light shines in the grove before the rufflet forms in front of you. "Tailwind, just like we'd practiced."
Ihe shrieks and the winds answer. Cold air presses and pulls your clothes and you hug your arms to your chest. Tactic's worth it, however cold it gets; a bird isn't nearly as dangerous if the winds are against it.
Not that the totem seems to care. He closes his eyes and gently sways. Not what you expected. Is it revelation dance? No. The electric orbs don't grow or flicker and no sparks appear around the bird. Something else, then. Maybe calm mind. Is more set up worth it for you if the totem sets up, too? You're relying on jynx to pull you through, but if ice energy is weakened because of the calm mind… doesn't matter. Hekeli is as good as worthless facing an electric bird without tailwind up.
The winds grow ever stronger and the totem dances on. Did you make the wrong choice? The electric-type isn't in any hurry to end things.
The lights flicker and move. "Dodge!" It's a useless order. Even with the winds on his side, Ihe isn't fast. He also ignores you. The rufflet turns to peck one of the orbs as it closes in. He only gets himself shocked. "Good job," you mutter before pressing the recall button. Ihe wasn't going to get much else done. Cruel to leave him in.
The lights return to the edge of the grove and the oricorio gives a sarcastic bow. The grass is rippling beneath him as the winds whip it around. On to part two of the plan. "Jynx, come out." The ice-type makes exaggerated stretching motions as she reforms. Then she's almost immediately swaying her hips and babbling taunts. Oh, you got yourself a born fighter.
Your own body starts swaying. It's not too bad. You'll tell her to stop it if you can't focus on the match anymore. Even if you would really rather not be forced into a dance so feminine. This is why you can't keep her for long. You're not much of a hip shaker.
The oricorio eyes you, waiting on you to wait a move. Right. Time is against you, now, as the winds will slowly weaken. "Powder snow like we practiced." She shakes her hips and blows out a wide stream of snow. For a moment it catches in the air, sparkling in the oricorio's electric light. Then the winds carry it towards the totem with gale force. The air twirls and bends in front of you and—you dive to the side and the remnants of a hurricane attack fly over your head. You look down field and see the clearing coated in a thin layer of snow… except for a trail from the totem to you... Of course. Even if the tailwind makes hurricane attacks weaker, it's still strong enough to scatter snow.
Jynx makes an unearthly wail. You look over to see her hunched over and sobbing. Oh no. How strong was that attack? You thought she could take worse, but. The lights flicker as the totem lowers his guard and steadily walks forward.
A stream of snow hits him straight in the face. Fake Tears. She may have just saved the match and it wasn't even with your strategy. You start twirling and fall back to the ground. As if the jynx is saying that all you're contributing is her food.
The oricorio steadily gets back up, shaking off snow and holding an arm to its head. Confusion. Jynx hasn't let up at all.
"Another powder snow."
The totem moves to twist the winds, but he winces and loses his focus as his headache flares up. It's enough of a break for the attack to land true. The bird squeaks in pain before shaking some of the snow off. Then he moves and the lightning orbs move with him.
"Careful!"
The oricorio can dance, but jynx can too. She weaves and ducks between the flickering, zooming lights. You get dragged along for the ride. It's hard to see exactly what happens after that, but you hear two crackling hits.
"Sing," you call out. You doubt she can do it since you're almost out of breath just copying her movements. If she can, though? The orbs aren't stopping. The only way to stop the revelation dance and get another chance to attack is by putting the thing to sleep. Or at least making it too drowsy to dance.
A haunting tune fills the air, as if she's mocking you for doubting her. It's interrupted once by a sharp cry of pain but the song keeps going on until your movements get more sluggish and finally end altogether. You collapse to the ground in a heap and can't be bothered to push yourself up again. Good. The lights start to flicker out or go back to their places. It's. Over.
In the dying light you can see Jynx bend over to breath. Good. She needs a break. You glance at the totem and see it surrounded by a thick layer of its own feathers.
Feathers.
He's not sleeping at all.
"Powder snow, now!"
It's too late. The lights flare back to life and a pillar of writhing winds rushes towards jynx before she can even begin to prepare an attack. She's bowled over and doesn't stand back up. You withdraw her and think through what just happened. Roost. He was healing himself and letting you think that you could rest easy without attacking. Now the winds are weakened, the totem is feeling better, and he still has the calm mind boost. Damn it.
The feeling of static hangs heavy in the air and a spark flies between two of the lightning balls. The totem is telling you to hurry up. Fine. You can improvise.
Hekeli forms in a flash of red—
"Supersonic!"
–and starts screaming.
The shrill cry goes up and down in volume like a fire alarm (maybe it is a mimic of a fire alarm) and the totem steps back in surprise. Some of the lights flicker out and others start to twirl in place or vibrate up and down.
It all buys you an opening, and you need to take it now before the tailwind peters out all the way and the oricorio gets a chance to roost. You press the Normalium-Z in your bracelet deeper into the socket until it starts to glow. You move your hands through the air to form a "Z" and feel energy jolt through your arms.
"Fury attack, everything you've got."
Hekeli takes off and a halo of light forms around her. The totem recovers enough to send the lights racing forwards but Hekeli just dives under one and weaves around another. The oricorio braces his wings over his chest and—impact. A flash of Z-powered light ignites around Hekeli and it feels like you're staring into the sun. You can hear the totem go flying and the crack of impact a half second later. When the white spots in your vision finally fade, there are no lights. In a moment of panic you withdraw Hekeli just to make sure that you aren't actually blind. And you aren't. The totem is just knocked out.
…
Okay, so you hadn't thought this all the way through.
…
Should you treat the totem?
…
How would you even find it?
…
Dim lights flicker back into existence as the totem slowly pulls itself up. Tough old bird. He gestures with an arm and starts limping towards the back of the grove. You follow and reach towards your bag for a potion. Money's tight, but it feels wrong to beat the shit out of the thing and then take his treasure without bothering to heal him.
The bird bats away the medicine as soon as you bring it close. Then he continues his slow limp forward as the electric lights follow. Alright then. He can just roost up if he insists. You offered. Not your fault if something happens to the stubborn bird.
After a short walk the bird flicks your leg and looks up. "Stay here," he seems to be saying.
You do.
He comes back a short while later with something glimmering in his beak. He comes to a stop before you and angles his head so that you can see it. A sky blue crystal. In his mouth. Gross. You gingerly take it, trying your best to keep only the tips of your fingers on it.
As soon as you have the crystal in hand, the totem gives a mock salute and starts to limp back the way he came to rest up.
You've won. Three crystals down, fifteen to go. Maybe. Not sure if you'll go out of your way to get the poison and steel crystals. You're not sure of anything anymore after your vikavolt-in-the-making left and you got a rufflet instead.
The lights flicker out.
Shit.
You didn't think ahead to this part. Hopefully the florges comes back.
She doesn't. Even though you won. Why is she still disappointed with you?