"She missed the beat on the day of the week she was born."
-"She Missed the Beat" from What Could Go Wrong by Red Vox
Feeling returned to Max's entire body at once, but he didn't dare try to move or open his eyes for fear he couldn't. He felt his body to probe all his nerve endings and build up the courage to move. His head rested on his forepaws, grass tickling his cheeks and chest, suggesting he was lying down. Yet, he didn't feel any grass on his legs. His hindpaws were flush with the ground, legs fully extended. Even his tail was up… leaving his back… as if he were…
"Oh, you fucking asshole!" Max shouted, shooting straight up to a normal standing position.
A comfortable position you're familiar with, as promised.
Max felt his cheeks flush at the reminder, but he couldn't help a chuckle tugging at his cheeks. "Fuck you," he giggled, tossing a self-conscious look over his shoulder just in case someone had seen him.
Oh, I'd quite like that. Shall we?
Max opened his mouth, but no retort came. Shaking his head, he grabbed his scarf and admitted defeat. "Good one," he said. "Maybe later." The warm chill on the back of his throat crawled around to breathe in his ear.
I'll be looking forward to it.
"Ngh," Max mumbled. A shiver groped down his spine. Dark Matter's extra nourishment apparently gave him more presence of speech out of the Voidlands, as well. Max shook the chill off and started… as forward as he could in a Dungeon. His stomach rumbled, so he tugged an apple out of his bag.
A quick sniff, he basked just a moment in the sweet and tangy scent of his favorite fruit before digging in. Surprisingly, he didn't have to fight his instincts demanding he eat faster. His time in the voidlands must have worked to let him regain ground against them. Still no chance he'd use that information for any kind of strategies since it required getting petrified, but it was good to know.
Despite the recovered peace, he felt instincts gnawing at his consciousness again once he looked around to see the ever-changing landscape. "Eyes… forward," he mumbled, pausing to pay close attention to his speech. "Pi… kachu." That was quick. He tried a few more times, but only said the same thing at varying levels of frustration.
"Shit, that's not good," he grumbled. His thoughts seemed too lucid for him to have already lost his speech, though, and he didn't feel any of the usual distance from himself that came from a feral state. Aside from talking, he felt in complete control. The trip to the Voidlands hadn't completely healed him, it seemed.
The heavenly taste of the apple helped to ground him, so Max kept on biting into its flesh (of course, it helped that it tasted delightful). "In control," he declared to himself. "I'm still in control." For the first time, he actually believed it. He wondered if it was Dark Matter drawing more of his fear away, but he felt a sense of strength, not a lack of weakness.
Should we form a contingency plan?
Max took a deep breath and swallowed an especially big chunk of apple. Precisely one contingency plan came to mind, and he could tell from Dark Matter's tone that it had the same idea.
Don't worry. You will not feel it, and I will be there for you when you awake.
The warm chill slid across his neck, almost patting it, and it did a lot to comfort Max. "Okay," he whispered. "Only as a last resort, though." He trusted Dark Matter, but he still hated this. "Nidoran," he mumbled to himself. He needed to stay on track. How he'd convince the Nidoran to come with him without speech or a badge, he'd figure out later.
Max regretted throwing his badge more by the minute.
Instincts hummed in the background of his thoughts with every step, sound, or sight, but didn't seem to try taking over. They chimed in, but control was his. "Are you doing something with them?" he asked.
I am not. Could it be your mind recovered apart from your body in the voidlands?
Max stopped in his tracks. "That… makes a lot of sense," he said. A branch snapped behind him, and his body dropped to the ground on his own. His forepaws spun him around to show him a storm of razor sharp leaves flying where he'd stood a moment ago. The tail end of the blast curled to hit him, but his tail flew forward to bat them away.
"Pii ka!" flew from his mouth as he felt his cheeks send a shock to the victreebel. Its body seized and fell, but faded away before it hit the ground. With the threat gone, he tried to move his paws on his own, and he took control without issue. "That's… useful," he mumbled to himself.
His awareness of his environment expanded to take in every sound, scent, sight, and sensation, and it began to overwhelm him. He closed his eyes to shut to force out the stimulus and reassert control, but that just made his hearing stronger. One forepaw went to his scarf to draw some kind of strength from it, but he didn't gain any significant foothold.
Max still had control over himself, but he couldn't hear himself think with every slightest twist of a leaf or crunch of grass flooding his ears like a klaxon.
Can you hear me? Max? Can you hear me?
"Yes," he barked.
You're still in there. You're in control. I believe in you.
A swell of confidence manifested in his chest. His sense of the world around him faded slightly enough for him to take control of his breath completely. His heart steadied, and he stood up. He looked down at his paw and turned it over to see both sides. "What did you do?" he asked.
Believed in you.
Max rolled his eyes and said, "I think there's more to it than that." He waited for Dark Matter to reply, and it was waiting for him to go on. After a few moments, he realized that was Dark Matter's full answer. "Did you at least—"
Another pokémon scraped into his periphery, and Max goes completely still, save his ears. They shoot up to listen for its exact location. Behind, steps in groups of four careful, deliberately quiet. Sneaking, small, quadruped. He spins around and drops to all fours to send his tail to the sky, collecting latent charges in the air. His eyes and the intruder's meet simultaneously.
A nidoran.
They both freeze. Max felt the kid's chilling fear before he saw it. He hops out of his fighting stance and throws his paws in the air, saying, "H-hey! Sorry, I'm not—" The kid screams and runs away, and Max can only look on in bewildered confusion.
Pika-speak.
Frustrated realization flashes across his face. "Dammit, wait!" he shouts out, then bites his tongue. Screaming at the kid probably wouldn't help. He tilted his head down and broke into a sprint. If he didn't right on the kid's tail, the dungeon would shift again and have them separated again. His mind ran a blank when he tried to think of a way to make the kid come with him, but he couldn't stop chasing him… which was probably scaring the kid even more.
Max had just lost sight of the kid when he heard him scream even louder than before, and the reason made itself dangerously apparent. The ground quaked with an impact that threw Max to the ground. Even the aftershocks alone reeked of the move's typing, and it sent his instincts ablaze. Every strand of fur, muscle, bone, and cell wanted to run away. Max needed to help the kid, but he could barely manage to keep himself from running.
That is, until he felt that warm reassurance in his chest that ebbed against the freezing chill of the nidoran's fear. Max pulled one hindpaw underneath himself, and then the other. Ground type or not, that kid needed his help. Terror both his own and the nidoran's strained to freeze him in place, but he dashed against it.
An aerodactyl stood with its back to him. Max couldn't see the kid, but figured he must have been under the living fossil based on where the whimpers came from. A shock of electricity fought to shoot out of his cheeks, but he grit his teeth to hold it back. If the kid was under his target, the shock would probably end up connecting to him, too.
Max ran faster and leapt towards the aerodactyl before he had any idea what to do, but his tail decided for him. He felt it tense to iron and heard a resounding crack when he smacked it against the dino's skull. The attack's momentum sent the aerodactyl flying to the side, while Max landed with both hindpaws on the ground, standing in front of the nidoran and holding his iron tail up as a shield.
The kid was still cowering away with whimpers pouring out, but a hint of confusion invaded the terror in his eyes. Max tried to give his best reassuring smile down without taking his eyes off the enemy.
Even still, when he looked back at it, the aerodactyl was gone. Had he beaten it with just the one attack? He looked around him and couldn't find it, but before he could relax, he heard a screech from above. A storm of boulders greeted him instead of the aerodactyl.
Time slowed, but so did he. His mind raced, begging his body to do what it needed, but it hadn't gotten the speed boost his cognition did. He yanked the kid up into his paws to rush him to safety, but the nidoran instantly yelped and started struggling. All the wriggling stopped when he saw the approaching tomb to be above, but the damage was done.
Max had to stop to reestablish his grip on the kid and leapt out of the way. Even jumping mostly horizontal, he gained just enough height for a rock to clip his back and send him tumbling back down. He tossed the kid as far as he could, and a rock smashed his tail to the ground. A scream ripped out of his throat as his momentum forward threatened to rip his tail out of its socket.
Momentum slammed him into the ground, knocking all of the air out of his lungs. He bounced off the ground, and his tail reluctantly scraped out from under the rock. Wind ripped around wings barreling from above him. He screamed, "Pika!" with breath he didn't have and sent an explosive shock into the air.
The aerodactyl squacked and begun tumbling down, but disappeared before it hit the ground as the illusion dissipated. Max tried to push himself up, gasping in air, but his arms gave out from under him. He looked up at the kid and felt his mind grow distant from itself.
His mission rang in his head. He had to get to the kid, save him, help him; what he wanted so desperately to do now served to wrest control from his paws. He dug his claws into the ground as the only defense he could muster as he fought to keep his presence of mind.
As instincts took over, he felt the pain fade away, the fear dim into the background as a tempting peace worked to seduce him into letting go. Every desperate grab at control of his psyche brought back the full brunt of pain and ripped his grip away before he could even establish it. With each breath, he felt a soothing balm cover his wounds, rubbing away the pain, the hurt, and making it harder and harder to remember what hurt in the first place. For a moment, he forgot why he needed to have control in the first place.
Deep within, that certainty of purpose, strength, set ablaze in his heart. All the pain returned, as well as the assurance he could withstand it. Max clenched his jaw so tight he felt for certain his teeth would crack. His breath slowly returned to his control as he felt the missing oxygen burn his lungs. His paws ached from holding the ground so hard.
"Control," he rasped, demanded with a confidence that could mold reality. "I'm in control." He looked up with blurred vision, barely able to make out a haze of purple far away. His vision cleared as he took in breath, and he slowly managed to see the nidoran cowering against a tree, terrified—but he wasn't running.
His wounds lashed out when Max pushed himself up to his hindpaws. He tried to bring his tail up, but a shot of pain turned his vision white. A broken bone at least, probably several. He reached into his bag, barely keeping balance at the slight shift in his weight, and pulled out a pawful of oran berries. They stretched out his throat as he swallowed each one with minimal chewing, but they quickly got to work. Broken bones still took time to heal, even with orans, but for now, they'd dull the pain.
A warmth trickled down his cheeks, and Max realized he was crying. He couldn't bring himself to care. He looked down at the kid and fought the urge to run over and drag him the rest of the way out of the dungeon. As much pain as he was in, this kid was positively terrified. Getting this deep in a dungeon usually took skill, but this nidoran had panicked his way to some of its bottom depths.
It was impressive in that special, "What the fuck are you doing, kid?" kinda way.
Max held himself back with the tightest reins, forced as warm a smile as he could manage, and reached into his bag for an apple. He couldn't tell which part of him didn't want to give up the precious treat, but he reined it in anyway.
The nidoran watched him with a mix of curiosity and terror, though Max's slow movements seemed to at least encourage the former. His eyes followed the apple with rapt attention as Max rolled it towards him. It made it most of the way, but twisted its path just enough to the side that it missed its mark.
Max cursed his shitty aim but kept himself from saying it aloud. The kid glanced between the apple and him several times, but then he finally pushed up onto all fours and walked over to the treat. After a few test bites, it snatched the apple up into its maw and crunched through it fast enough for Max to resent him for not taking time to appreciate the flavor.
Regardless, he kept his smile on. The nidoran relaxed and took a few tentative steps towards him. "You're not gonna hurt me?" he asked.
Max shook his head.
The nidoran eyed him with suspicion and asked, "Then why do you talk like they do?"
The suspicion, as well founded as it was, cut Max deep. He wanted to explain himself, say he was still himself even if he couldn't talk, but he knew it would all fall on deaf ears. He raised his shoulders to shrug, and the nidoran seemed to accept it.
"I'm Dorian," Dorian said.
Max let out a sigh of relief. At least he could still introduce himself. Well, sort of. He pointed to his own chest and said, "Piika."
Dorian tilted his head and confirmed, "Pika?" Close enough. The kid probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference, so Max nodded. "Hi, Pika."
Max felt more relieved as he saw Dorian grow more relaxed. Before he could stop himself, he squeaked out a cheerful, "Chaa!" His cheeks flushed as Dorian started to giggle, but he tried to swallow his pride.
Right when it all fell into place, when he could finally finish his impossible mission, Max felt something else approaching. He ran over to wrap a supportive arm around Dorian and look around for whatever was about to come. Dorian must have felt it, too, because he was looking around just as frantically. It didn't make a sound, and Max couldn't see hide or hair of it, but he still felt its looming presence.
The pit in his stomach grew deeper, heavier, and he could tell it was getting closer. It felt like it approached from all sides, yet Max still couldn't see even an after image, even when it felt like it could reach out and touch him.
"You're not touching him!" Max barked at the air.
The presence seemed to solidify just a bit. "I was worried about that," a familiar voice sighed. In the same moment Max remembered the voice, he saw Jake materialize barely a few yards away. Max wanted to feel relieved, but Jake looked ready to fight. Balls of swirling shadow swirled into the gengar's paws. "I don't know if you're in there right now, Max," he pressed. "But I don't want to hurt you. Step away from the kid."
(A/N: Hey, sorry this chapter's so short, but I've been busy this week, and it's my birthday today so I don't want to stress about it.)