Super Eeveelution Bros
I remembered a time when I wouldn't eat other pokemon. That wasn't really an option anymore. I wouldn't have minded eating noctowls if it wasn't for all the feathers. Of course, everything else had fur. Still, fur doesn't stab you with needles. Sentrets were the meal of choice though I'd have taken furrets if I could get them. Those furrets are fast though and it's not like they stayed in one place to help me out. I can only catch them by ambush at night. I've gotten pretty good at it too. I found myself taking pride in how successful a hunter I'd become, even though the thought of what I had to do to survive made me sick.
I didn't have a destination so keeping track of where I was didn't make much sense. Some days I'd play a game with myself. Was I north of New Bark, east of it, west? It's not like I had a map or anything and if I really wanted to, I could always just go find the place. But that would defeat the purpose of the game, to keep my mind occupied with anything other than… her.
I had to keep on the move. Whenever I first arrived at a new location, none of the pokemon would expect me. I guessed that even in Johto, wild umbreons were rare. I'd eat like a king day after day until my prey got wise and stopped leaving their burrows at night. Last night I hadn't gotten anything.
So that's why I found myself on a raft of fallen wood, drifting to an island I'd spotted off the coast. Even though all my hope in companionship dried up, I could still imagin an island full of food and me with a full stomach. That seemed the limit of my dreams.
The island was smaller than I expected. I arrived during the day, so I couldn't hunt. Instead I decided to search the place to see what kind of pokemon lived here. That would give me an idea of how to survive. It didn't take me long to find them, even in this forest. I heard a multitude of voices coming from ahead.
The trees cleared away and I stepped out into a pleasant grove. There were a decent number of pokemon here. I could see three types, almost certainly grass types. The larger majority were small mushroom-like pokemon. They were particularly small, maybe the smallest I'd ever seen. They couldn't have come up to my knee. There seemed to be another type of mushroom pokemon here, small stubby pokemon. They were molten green, spotted and fowl smelling. The third kind of pokemon was also green but unlike the other two was not a mushroom at all. They looked a lot like a quadruped squirtle, the only true way to walk. All this group was facing the mushroom pokemon. Yeah, there was definitely a conflicted brewing here.
"Please, do not do this! I beg of you!" I heard a familiar voice call out over the crowd. Call it intuition, I never was very good at distinguishing gender in other species, but I knew that the mysterious voice was female. That could only mean one thing, the voice belonged to an eeveelution.
It was hard to pick her out the crowd but some pokemon cleared out of my sight. Yep, it was an eeveelution for sure. She seemed just about as tall as me but slimmer. The peach fur covering her midsection was stunning and really accented her pink furred exterior. The whole look was beautiful but confusing. She seemed to be wearing a couple ribbons that came together as a bow right on top of her head. The problem was that I couldn't tell where the ribbon ended and where the fur began. The way the ribbons appeared, well, they seemed like they were to same color and texture as the fur.
"The turtwig king doesn't like you here!" One of the shelled pokemon, I assumed a turtwig, said. "The great lord Yukke claims this as his kingdom!"
"And I respect your king." The eeveelution said. "Surely there must be room for both his kingdom and one for these pokemon to live in peace."
The turtwigs snorted all at once. It sounded like the world's phlegmiest refusal. One of them spoke out, "What? A kingdom of mushrooms? Don't be ridiculous! This is the proper home for us! Your shroomish and morelulls don't even come from this region."
The pink pokemon tried to reason with them further, but I could already tell nothing would come of reason. These pokemon, the turtwigs, had already made up their minds. If my time alone in the wild had taught me anything, it's that you didn't have time to reason when survival was on the line. I had to do something.
I cleared out my throat to get their attention. Either I severely underestimated my show stopping power, or the group was way too loud. Fine with me. There was a better way to make your point than with words anyway. I casually walked up to the nearest turtwig and bit him on the leg. It wasn't enough to cripple the grass type, but his scream was enough to silence the group.
Now that I had everyone's attention, I looked back to my fellow eeveelution. I'd expected to see gratitude or surprise, but to my disbelief she only looked annoyed. She must have expected negotiation to work. Oh well. Eevees, as far as I knew, didn't ever evolve in the wild. She must not have had much experience with wild types, experiences like having a few try to eat you. Stuff like that tends to shift the way you see the world.
"Hey guys." I said. "I've got a new plan for you. How about you leave and we stay. Sound cool?"
One of the turtwigs finally got the courage to speak up. Not enough to challenge me, but enough to taunt the mushrooms. "Oh, we were wrong. First the green one, now this black one. This isn't going to be a mushroom kingdom; it's going to be an eevee kingdom."
That got the rest of the turtwigs laughing. One of the mushrooms, the smallest ones, didn't react but the bigger one looked nervous. The pretty eeveelution's expression softened at first then sharply focused on me as though seeing me for the first time. I just got angry. I caused my rings to light up and that simple act was enough to set the cowards off running.
"We'll be back!" A turwtwig shouted over his shoulder.
"Yeah!" said another. "Just wait till Lord Yukke hears about this!"
It's hard to be intimidated by slowly retreating pokemon. Yelling insults while your opponent can see your butt isn't scary at the baseline, but when you're so slow you run out of material before you're five meters away, it gets a bit awkward. After a few minutes, I couldn't see the turtwigs. I turned to talk to the female, only to see her already at my side. She put her face right up to mine, studying me. Her sudden appearance brought out my shy side and I wanted to look away or stare at the ground. Strangely, a hidden instinct kicked in. It was as though keeping this pokemon's attention was linked to my own survival. Instead of torchickening out, I forced myself to gaze into her cerulean eyes.
"Ricochet?" she said.
How does she know that? I thought. Was she from the eevee farm? Even if that's true, who did I know well enough that they'd recognize me through my new evolution? Feral was a dude. This polite speaking pokemon definitely couldn't be Zip. Bullet? No, she was polite but not nearly as direct as this one. So, what eevee did I know that spoke in inconsistent old-timey speech?
"Sayre?"
She nodded her head excitedly. She swung her ribbons around my body, like a hug a human would give. It felt good and peaceful… yet my instincts started shouting at me to be careful. "I knew it was thou! Well, not at first. My, you look so much sturdier! And confident. And hungry."
"Not because I'm fat! I just haven't had much food lately." I interrupted. My psyche had been calm, but at this statement, I felt a spike of panic. Then that panic just faded away, almost like something was suffocating it. "Hey… Sayre… are you doing something to me?
"Oh, right." She said as she yanked her ribbons away.
When she did this, my whole body convulsed with returning emotion. My instincts roared back it's warning. This pokemon was dangerous. I eyed her suspiciously. She just looked embarrassed.
"Sorry, I'm not use to all these new powers." she apologize.
"Did you actually try to psychically manipulate me by accident?"
"Sort of." she smiled innocently and shrugged. "I can now pacify humans and pokemon with my ribbons. Sometimes I get to excited and do it by accident. Erika thinks it's to lure my prey into a sense of security before I eat them alive."
"Huh." I said. That was more than creepy but I certainly wasn't going to tell her that. It's not like I had enough friends to be choosey. Besides, and I hated to admit this, but her way of hunting sounded way easier than mine. I imagined my prey simply throwing themselves into my mouth. "Well, those are some great ribbons."
"Thank you!" If she was upset about accidentally trying to eat me, she didn't show it. "They're more like tentacles though, not strictly fur.
"Ah." is what I said although what I was trying to say was more along the lines of 'AAAAAHHHHH.'
"So, you don't look like a grass type." I followed up. I'd remembered an old conversation we'd had. As eevees, our genes were unstable. Erika was experimenting with Sayre, trying to find a way to evolve her into a theoretical grass type eeveelution. Looks like Erika had failed.
Sayre sighed in disappointment. "No, I'm sad to say. Erika brought me to a region where some ancient texts said that a long forgotten eeveelution had once thrived. While we were there, I evolved into this instead. The texts call it sylveon, a fairy type pokemon."
There was a lot to unpack there. First, I'm pretty sure Lin had never talked about fairy types. Second, I had to wonder where exactly Sayre had gone. Third, how had she evolved. I asked Sayre to explain.
"Fairy types are not nearly as common in this part of the world, so the elite four don't recognize them, kind of like dark and steel types. I went to a place called Kalos. Apparently sylveons evolve by getting brushed enough. But what about you! An umbreon! I've seen pictures but never one in person. It's that foolish rule they have against your type in Kanto. You must love Lin so much!"
I definitely wasn't going to comment on Lin, but Sayre had brought up some new information about dark types I could pry into. "About that stupid rule, what is it again?"
"Oh, well, unlike my type which doesn't get recognized because there are too few discovered, the Kanto elite four acknowledge that dark and steel types exist. Mostly just so they could ban you from official pokemon tournaments."
Is that why Lin had betrayed me? Because she pumped a bunch of work into a pokemon she couldn't use to achieve her goal? "What's wrong with my type? What does it mean to be dark type anyway? I don't even know what types really are."
"Well, I don't get why the Kanto region dislikes dark types." Sayre responded while using her ribbons to shrug. Now that I knew what they were, it was kind of a bizarre sight. "But dark types are just like any other type. All types are expressions of Arceus's spirit."
Sayre tone was so mater-of-fact, like she was reminding me of something I was already supposed to know. When she saw I was still confused, she followed up with, "You know, Arceus? The pokemon god who created the universe? Well, he has power over all types, even mine. And Arceus gifted all pokemon with a portion or two of his power, hence the types. My line received fairy powers and yours received dark powers."
Well that's quite a story. I thought. Sure, I believed that Arceus existed, but I'd never considered the god would be connected to me so intimately. Then again, this was Sayre we were talking about. She tended to exaggerate. I decided to take her views on pokemon types with a grain of salt.
"By the way," She continued. "Where is Lin and the rest of your team?"
It was like a splash of cold water. Whatever I was contemplating before washed away. "Uhm, just doing training somewhere else. She asked me to explore this island. Wait, what are you doing here?"
I remembered that there was a small army of pokemon surrounding us. The shroomish and morelulls had not moved since I'd come in. All of them were staring at Sayre and I. It got me really uncomfortable. If Sayre was disturbed, she didn't show it. She did look a little puzzled though. I'd probably rushed through my explanation of my team's absence. Yeah, she'd seen through that.
"It's a mission from Erika." Sayre said slowly. "We didn't know enough about fairy types. Evidently, these morelulls are grass and fairies. They're also not well liked in their home regain. I was tasked with learning from them for myself and, since they're grass type, for possible future use in the Celadon Gym.
As she mentioned the morelulls, she motioned to the smallest pokemon. I guessed that made the rest of the mushroom pokemon shroomish. I asked Sayre about them. She told me that it was a similar situation. People didn't care for shroomish and she was tasked with learning from them. I could relate to the small grass types.
"Are you here alone?" I said once I realized I hadn't seen Sayre's trainer, the gym leader Erika. I looked around the area, studying it for signs of a tent or other sure signs of human activity. I felt a flash of anger towards Erika, as though she'd abandoned Sayre on this island. My imagination ran through wild scenarios of what Erika was really trying to do by sending Sayre here. When my eyes met back with Sayre's, I could see a mixture of concern and curiosity. I mentally kicked myself, of course Erika hadn't sent Sayre off on some fool's errand to get rid of her. The only trainer I'd ever met capable of doing that was my own.
When Sayre was slow to respond, I thought I had offended her. Then she laughed, bubbly and heartfelt. Right then I knew I hadn't lost a friend; despite the changes we had gone through. She said, "Oh my, Ricochet. No, I'm here with my father and one of our eevee brethren."
"Oh." I said, remembering the strange farfetch'd Dux that had claimed to be her father by blood. I still couldn't wrap my head around that and strongly suspected a lie. Or one extremely crazy night. Then I thought about Sayre's next statement, about our eevee brethren. I asked Sayre to clarify. She told me about her trip over to this island with the morelulls. On the boat right over, Dux and Sayre had spotted a life boat. When investigating the craft, they'd found a lone eevee. He was severely dehydrated and sick. Dux had taken it upon himself to care for the pokemon. At this moment, the two were exploring a cave in the side of the mountain, right in view from the clearing. Sayre expected them at any moment now.
"You!" a familiar voice called out. I knew that voice.
Before I even turned around, I called out, "Jade! You're the pokemon Sayre saved!?"
When I turned around, sure enough, Jade was shooting me a death stare. Beside him was Dux, who looked the exact same as I remembered him. I found that comforting, among all these new evolutions and new challenges, one thing had remained the same. All except Dux's red hat. Gezz, I really hope that's not part of his body like Sayre's ribbons.
Giving out a battle cry, Jade took up a fighting stance. When the jewel on his face glowed, those deep instincts in me rose into my consciousness. Jade hadn't made a move yet. He must have been waiting for me to make the first attack. Then I remembered our first battle, back when I was an eevee. Jade had moved my whole body with his mind, he hadn't even had to move a paw. When I became an umbreon, Jade had found that it wasn't possible to touch me with his powers anymore. Instincts are hard to kill though, so Jade was trying the same old psychic trick. When Jade's psychic power started to take hold of me- I let it. Jade mentally flinched, pulling back. I knew he'd do that. Somehow, at the very core of my being, I absolutely knew that's what this psychic pokemon would do.
"Is that any way to greet a guest!" Dux rapped his leek over Jade's head.
I tried to take advantage of the distraction and charged Jade myself- but in an instant all anger and aggression left me. I looked down to see Sayre's ribbons around me.
"Oh!" Sayre said. "These two already know each other! Glories! Shall we skip introductions and get right to the tales of heroics. Jade, surly thou remember the pokemon that saved me from the dastardly Mire? This is the eevee!"
Jade rubbed is nose and stared daggers at me. Clearly, he didn't believe I was capable of anything good or heroic.
"Father," Sayre slowly pulled her ribbon off me. "Did you find food for the shroomish in there?"
Dux shook his head, then faced the shroomish. "I'm sorry shroomish, but your food is in another cave."
The shoomish looked disappointed, but that wasn't important. The important thing was the Dux and Sayre had turned away from Jade and I. Both of us used the distraction to charge each other again. Dux and Sayre called out for us to stop, but we ignored them. Jade's tail flicked up into the air. Remembering what happened last time and realizing Jade meant to predict my moves with his tail and fine fur, I tried to come up with a plan. Finding said plan was phenomenally easy. The idea instantly came to my mind. If Jade predicted moves by feeling my muscles shift with his fur, well I could just make too many movements for him to read.
When we got close to each other, I caused every muscle in my body to spasm at the same time. It was a sensory overload. Jade came to a dead halt, helpless without his power. I got ready to bite him, when I realized that I didn't want to bite him or anyone else. Even Jade's eyes glassed over. Sayre had caught up with both of us. She was using her ribbons to hold us apart from each other. I thought about how unfair it was that she was faster than me. Was I the slowest eeveelution or what?
"My compatriots!" She sounded distressed. "Why are you attacking each other so!? What could have caused such hatred?"
"He surprised me one time in the kitchen when I was a pup!" Jade and I said at the same time.
Sayre's mouth dropped open. "That's what this is about?"
She glanced incredulously at her father, but he only started to laugh. After a few moments, Sayre herself started to join in. She released us both, fell to the ground and continued to roll around laughing. It didn't feel great to have your motivation mocked. Jade looked a little ashamed too. Was the motivation for our rivalry that weak?
"Well, his trainer did blow up an island." Jade said. If anything, this made Dux and Sayre laugh even more.
"And Jade tried to fight me... but not in the cool pokemon trainer way. Like the un-cool fighting way. It's hard to explain… Ok, why are you two laughing so much."
Sayre struggled to regain control. She wiped away a tear with her ribbon, then said, "I thought you two were enemies, like this was going to be a serious problem. You two are just brothers."
"Am not!" Jade and I said in unison.
"Yeah, I'm taking this fight very seriously!" I said.
"And me too!" Jade drew himself up to full height. "I say we settle this with a fight to the death!"
"My! What quick escalation!" Dux exclaimed, grinning with his hard bill. "And so tragic. Two brothers locked in battle. What has the world come to when-
"Sounds good to me!" I knew from experience that, if you let him, Dux could talk forever. "Let's do it right here and now!"
"Art thou too exhausted for this activity?" Her voice seemed to take on an exhausted tone yet her face remained happy and energetic. "Perhaps it would be for the best if you'd duel at midnight? That has a good ring to it. 'The hero fights the villain in the dead of night!' It's dramatic!"
The night was my domain, so I promptly said yes. Jade had to spoil the whole thing by disagreeing. He wanted to fight at noon. Jade's reasoning was that duels are always fought at noon. I wasn't budging on my time though, so talks ground to a halt until Sayre suggested that we fight at dawn. I checked in on Jade before agreeing. He agreed to the terms. I wanted to disagree, but when Sayre gave me an expectant look, I relented.
"Ok, we'll do it here at the crack of dawn!" I said.
"I don't care for that." Sayre shook her head, causing her ribbons to sway as though there was wind blowing just around her. "I wouldn't want the morelulls to be exposed to such violence. Maybe you could fight to the death on the edge of the island instead?"
Jade and I both agreed, Sayre said. "Perfect. Oh! I'll pack you both a lunch!"
At the crack of dawn, I was still asleep. At an hour or two after the crack of dawn though Jade and I left towards the coast. Sayre packed us our lunches in a couple of large leaves, sending us on our way.
"Have a good duel to the death you two." She smiled at us while waving her ribbons. All the Morelull shook their stems in imitation. I wondered why I didn't see Dux or the shroomish. "Tell me about it when you get back!"
When we got to the edge of the grove, I asked Jade if it would be bad form to eat his lunch after I beat him. He wasn't sure, but assured me that he wouldn't care if he was dead. He wouldn't be of course, according to him. Jade asked if I would mind when he ate mine. I told him that it would be impossible. When he asked why, I told him I planned to finish my lunch before we arrived. In fact, I was half way through it before we even left the grove.
At this, Jade raised his eyebrow. I wasn't lying about the food thing. Jade shook his head in disbelief. "I didn't even hear you! You were talking to me! How did you manage to get halfway through without me noticing?"
"Over the past year I've managed to perfect the technique of sneaking food. It's good by the way. I could do without the leaf though."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to eat that part."
"Ahhh!" someone screamed back in the grove. I took me a second to place it. Sayre! She's under attack!
I dropped my lunch and started to race back to the grove, Jade completely forgotten. At least until he passed me.
"Wait! What are you doing?" I asked him, finding time to be annoyed that he was faster than me.
"I'm going to save Sayre." Jade said.
"You've only known her for three days!"
"And you two only spent two days together. I should be asking why you're going."
"I have a history of saving Sayre. It's kind of our thing."
"Your thing that you've only done once?"
"It was multiple times during our one adventure. That should count."
"It doesn't!" Jade's voice faded away as the distance between us grew.
"Does too!" I said, knowing he couldn't hear me. Fine enough, I needed to save my breath for the run.
When I finally arrived at the scene, Jade was already unconscious and Sayre was in the clutches of one of scariest pokemon I'd ever seen. It was twice my size, red and yellow. The size was intimidating, but I was more focused on the huge spikes on his shell. After I got over that sight, I noticed the small army of turtwig surrounding the area. The shroomish were there too, but they didn't seem all that upset to see the grove invaded.
"Well what do we have here?" The spiky pokemon asked. He snorted in my direction, causing flames to leap from his snout…. "Another hero like this espeon?"
"No!" I said aloud. Internally I added, I'm way more of a hero than this guy.
"That makes sense." The fire type said. "You are an umbreon after all."
I ignored the comment. "Let me guess, you're Yukke?"
"Yes!" He said, repositioning his give on the squirming Sayre. "I am Yukke, King of the turtwigs!"
I paused. "Turtwigs. Like, these turtwigs?"
"Yes! I'm the final stage evolution of the turtwig." Yukke, the clearly-not-an-evolution-of-a-turtwig, said.
"OK." I started to look around for a quick exit. This strange pokemon was clearly out of my league. He couldn't have been from around these parts or wherever these turtwigs had come from yet he recognized Jade's species on sight. The fire type took out Jade before I'd even arrived. All while holding a helpless Sayre. I had to get out of here, that much was clear. I wished I could save Sayre right here and now, but I'd never defeat Yukke on my own. I needed help which meant I needed Jade.
My eyes looked towards the tunnel in the side of the mountain. Could I get Jade in there? I wasn't particularly strong and that worried me. Then I remembered that I'd slammed a growlieth into a crate just a few months before. I'd been high on adrenaline at the time. So, if I was scared enough, maybe I could count on that rush to get Jade and I into the cave. I relaxed.
Then I realized that relaxing was the last thing I should do. I tried to not relax but failed, causing me an untold amount of stress. That got my blood pumping which made me start to relax again. I had to stop this vicious cycle, so while I could still feel the adrenaline I rushed towards Jade. I even screamed at the top of my lungs just to be safe.
The army of turtwigs, shroomish and whatever-Yukke-was, jumped out of my way in surprise. Jade and the tunnel were left wide open. I grabbed the psychic type by the tail and dashed inside of cave.
I took Jade as far as I could go, but even my adrenaline has its limits. My body forced me to stop. I set down Jade and turned around to see if I'd been followed. I didn't see anything, but I was also panting heavily. The entire army could be charging into the cave to get me right now and I wouldn't hear them coming, I was gasping so forcefully.
At least I'd be able to see them coming. I thought, thanking Arceus for my recently developed night vision. Even in this damp tunnel, I could see perfectly clearly.
"Hello there!" a voice called out from one of the off-shooting tunnels.
Thankfully I was so out of breath. I'd hate to think what I would have done with a full set of lungs. I tried to calm down my breath before turning around to face the local wildlife. They were mushroom pokemon. One was a morelull, the second was a familiar pokemon I'd fought before, a paras. It looked like the tortwig's idea of a mushroom kingdom wasn't too crazy. These two were standing side by side. They kept shifting their gaze between Jade and I both parties still, waiting for the other to talk.
The morelull broke the silence. "Looks like your brother has seen better days."
"We're not brothers," I said. "He's unconscious. Can you guys help me?"
The paras nodded. "We've got some nice mushrooms you can eat."
I would have said no if it was me, but Jade was still asleep. "That will work."
"Of course…" The morelull turned its head to the paras.
"Naturally!" the paras nodded.
Whatever was coming next, I knew I wouldn't like it. Wait! Jade was not going to like it! That kind of worked for me. "All right, lay it on me. What kind of quest do you need me to do?"
"Oh, we don't need you to complete some quest on the side," the paras said.
"Oh no," the morelull shook his mushroom hands. "We just want your… sister, to eat one of us."
Well, I wasn't sure I wanted to go that far. A good way to develop a reputation for being evil is to feed pokemon to another pokemon while they're asleep. "Oh, he's not my sister either."
The two pokemon seemed genuinely confused about that last part, but eventually said, "One of our mushrooms are poisonous. One of them will heal your friend. You may ask us one question, but one of us will always lie."
I thought about the riddle for a while. Then I walked up to the paras, ripped off one of his mushrooms and shoved it into the paras's mouth. The paras choked on his own fungus but managed to swallow it. After he caught his breath, he asked me how I knew that the paras mushroom was non-toxic. I winked and said, "I'd tell you, but I'm the one that always lies."
I grabbed another paras shroom and shoved it down Jade's throat. In a few moments, Jade's eyes flickered open. He jumped to his paws and started looking around. I informed him what had happened just a few minutes prior. He asked me why I let Sayre down.
"Oh, well that's easy!" I growled. "I was so worried to see you unconscious. In that moment I knew that I cared for you more than I ever realized. That's why I had to- because Yukke was a six-foot-tall ball of spikes! That's why!"
"You've always been a coward." Jade accused.
"And look where your courage got you!" I said. "Tell me how well you did before Yukke knocked you out."
Jade sulked for a bit. Then he sighed and admitted that he hadn't even landed a hit.
"And that's why we have to work togeth-" I began.
"Oh no!" Jade cut me off. "Can't we just do it without saying it?"
He wasn't wrong, I didn't want to say it myself. Instead I just shook my head and said, "For a fighter, you really don't know how to work as a team."
"I'm not a fighter!" Jade shot back. I remembered that Jade had said something about that months ago. Wow, had it already been months?
"Yeah, I remember that " I said. "What are pokemon contests by the way."
"It's not too complicated." Jade rolled his eyes. "I just look good."
"And you're good at that?"
Jade, who had a frazzled look at the time, shook himself off and licked a few placed. The mess vanished. He stretched and posed. "You tell me."
Crap! He looks good. I thought. I wasn't going to win that battle, so I changed topics to the trouble at hand.
"Did you see where Dux went this morelull- I mean morning?"
"Yeah. The shroomish took him somewhere. Poor farfetch'd."
That answered a question I'd had. "So, the shroomish did betray us. Any idea why?"
"I must have missed that part."
At that moment, we both heard an approaching group. By their voices, at least one was a shroomish. At least that's what Jade said. I knew enough not to question a psychic type about something like this. As the group got closer though, there was a voice I recognized. It was Dux! Jade and I hid while we waited for the group to get nearer. We didn't even have to discuss the plan; our natural instincts were set to ambush.
"Unhand me you fiends!" Dux voice rung out through the cave. "Why I'll have you know that this is treason!"
The shroomish carrying a hatless Dux above their head, the flying type all tangled up in vines, came to a stop just before my hiding spot. They looked around at one another, put Dux down, then one said, "Isn't this the island you promised us?"
"Yeah. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if it's our island, then you're the traitor." another shroomish said.
"Eh," another shroomish spoke out. "He's not really from here, so invader is a better term."
"No, no, no." The first shroomish shook his head, which I guess is his entire body. "We're not from here either. It's more like a civil war."
"So where does that leave us?"
"Huh." Dux changed his tone from indignant to confused. "Well I always pictured me as your king and my daughter as your princess."
"Yeah, about that." a shroomish said as they all picked Dux back up. "Is she really your daugh-"
The group was close enough for Jade and I to attack. I leapt out to confront them. Jade followed a few seconds later. The shroomish looked stunned. Both Jade and I glared at each other.
"Great timing." I said.
"Yeah, but I really wanted to hear Dux explain his relationship with Sayre," he complained.
"Heroes!" Dux said. "You must save Sayre! She's the only one that can stop Yukke!"
"Hey guys!" a group of shroomish were headed up the tunnel, sandwiching us between them and the first group of shroomish. "Some of those eevee's came through here. Did you guys see-"
The tunnels were filled with the sounds of pandemonium. Jade started to use his psychic powers on the shroomish in front of us. I made a mad dash for Dux. If only we could free him before the other shroomish could get to us. Then we could team up and fight on one front! It wasn't to be. As I got closer to the shroomish, the few holding Dux leapt into the air and flung Dux right over us to the other group of shroomish.
I cursed my luck. Checking my back, I saw some of the shroomish take off with Dux. No way we could get though all the shroomish between us in time. That left me with two options. One, get through all the shroomish to rescue Dux, only to be taken out by King Turtwig himself. Two, we go deeper into the cave and hope there's an exit somewhere.
I chose the second option. "Come on, Jade. We need to pull back!"
Jade looked irritated at first, but said, "Yeah, OK. Let's go."
Jade and I ran deeper into the tunnel. The shroomish chased us for a while before coming to a stop by some weak pillars. I had enough time to think of how stupid I was before they started chucking seeds at the pillars. Jade looked back and swore to himself. The pillars collapsed causing the tunnel to fill with dust and noise.
Jade and I coughed for a good five minutes before we were able to talk.
"Great." Jade said. "We're trapped in a tunnel."
"How would you know?" I said. "It's too dark for you to see."
"Oh yeah? And why do you suppose that is?" Through the darkness, Jade's eyes rolling in his head. "Unless you have a flashlight up your- whoa!"
Jade pulled away from me when I lighted up my rings. He could see the cave-in clearly now, massive boulders and all.
The light from my rings revealed Dux's red cap trapped with us in the cave lying next to some rubble by the hard rock wall. I went over to it and pondered how much danger we were really in. So many questions that needed answering. So many pokemon that stood between me and Sayre. There was no time to be sulking though. I needed to act and act now.
I put Dux's cap on my head, looked over to Jade and said, "Alright then. Let's go be heroes."
"So… why are you down here?" Jade asked sunflora in our path.
Neither of us were truly looking at the sunflora. We were looking up to the light we'd spotted. I couldn't believe it at first, but there was sunlight working its way down a small crack in the ceiling of the cave. Jade and I were excited to find evidence of an exit. Then this sunflora got in the way. It was standing in the light, giving us a suspicious stare.
"As a seed, I fell down here." The sunflora never removed his eyes from our position.
"Don't pokemon come from eggs?" I asked.
"When I was a sunkern! Anyways, what are you two doing here?"
"Got chased into the cave." Jade said.
The sunflora didn't respond.
"So," I said. "Could you help us get to the exit up there?"
"I knew it!" the sunflora said. "You're after my precious light!"
"Hey, neither of us eat light." Jade said. "Well sort of."
"I knew it!"
I whispered to Jade in my best impression of his voice, "'Well sort of.' Seriously!?"
"It's true though, sort of!" Jade hissed back. "And do you have to correct everybody? 'Don't pokemon come from eggs?' Great way to make a first impression."
"I see your lips! You're conspiring against me! Giratina sent you, didn't he!"
"I've actually always thought of Giratina as female." I told the sunflora.
"See! Right there!" Jade kept his voice down. "Here we were having a totally separate conversation, you overhear this raving mad sunflora spout some nonsense then just have to totally jump out of our conversation to make your smart mudbray comment!"
"Look, I've been sitting on that joke for a while." I made a point of being even quieter than Jade was being. "You have to take the opportunities as they come."
"Hey! I know what you're doing!" The sunflora started to glow. "You're whispering prayers to your dark god!"
"And don't take the high road with me, Jade." I continued. "If I remember right, you were always sticking your nose where it wasn't welcome."
"Oh, like when we were pups?" Jades tone started out innocent, then shifted into well practiced condescension. "The difference is, I grew up!"
"Demons of darkness! Witness my power!" Jade and I paused. The sunflora started to glow, then it started to grow. It sprouted up at least a foot. And then that was it. No attack, no sound, Jade and I were totally fine.
I looked at Jade and continued in hushed tones. "No, you have not. You've made snide comments all day."
"I'd ask you to tell me which of my comments you found so snide, but clearly you lack the ability to-"
"Now!" I yelled. "You're doing it right now!"
"Now you're in for it!" the sunflora kept growing and growing until Jade and I could use it as a ladder to reach the surface…
When Jade and I did that, the sunflora tried to follow us up, but couldn't get its body through the crack. It screamed in frustration. Jade and I just walked away.
"So, when we tell this story we're going to make that seem intentional, right?" Jade said.
"Absolutely." I responded.
Soon, we found ourselves on some sort of stage. I could smell the sea, but I couldn't see it. The sun was shining bright but there were clouds in the distance, towards the main land. I couldn't see the grove. I deduced that we were on some sort of bridge. Jade gave me an exasperated look that said, 'no duh.' Evidently this is the way he'd come with Sayre. I told him I came over by raft.
"That's unusual," Jade said, "usually you take the easy way."
"Yep. And how's the hard way worked out for you? Now you ready to go?"
Jade mumbled in agreement. I waited for him to show the way. When he didn't, I asked him if he knew the way. He told me that he thought I did.
"Of course not!" I stamped my paws on the ground. "I've only been here for less than a day!"
"Well excuse me! I didn't know that."
"There's a lot you don't know!"
"I know that your trainer abandoned you!"
And with that slap in the face, I started to take this argument more personally. "And you abandoned your trainer. Betrayal seems fashionable these days."
Jade crouched down to a fighting position. Before I could fight back, a voice rang out over the platform.
"You're already starting to fight each other!" Dux said. "Do I have to baby sit you for your entire stay on this island?"
"Dux!" Jade and I said, relieved Dux was still alive.
"I have your hat!" I said.
"I don't have a hat," responded Dux.
"Wait," Jade said. "I've seen you wear that hat for a week!"
"Ah!" Dux said. "That explains why I haven't been able to scratch my head. Anyway, let's go rescue my princess."
"About that," I said, "is she on the island still?"
Dux bowed his head and said, "I'm sorry Ricochet, but Sayre is in another location."
"Where?"
Dux pointed his leek towards the main land. "She's being kept in a fortress back the way we came. After we get across this bridge, we will have to walk west. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it."
"Just to be sure," I didn't take Dux's claim at face value. "Describe this fortress."
"It's a large stone house covered in fortresses."
"Yeah, glad I asked. So, it's a stone house covered in stone houses."
"Don't be ridiculous child. It's a fortress covered in fortresses, not a fortress covered in other fortresses."
"I think we're having trouble figuring out what a fortress is." Jade tried to salvage the conversation.
"Which fortress?" Dux asked. "The first or the second?"
"Uh, the first." Jade responded.
"It's a castle." Dux said.
"Well why didn't you say so!" I said.
"What's a castle?" Jade asked.
"No! We are done with this." I said. "Let's go!"
Our new party left the island behind and started down the bridge. I had to admit that it was the largest bridge I'd ever seen, at least, at first. Turns out that the entrance and exits fan out. Towards the middle, the bridge got more narrow than I was comfortable with. I could actually see the ocean from both sides after a few minutes of walking.
Dux was explaining how this all happened. In the exodus to this island, the group ran afoul of Yukke's turtwigs. They had come out of their castle and tried to eat some of the shroomish and morelulls. Sayre and Dux fought them off. On that topic, we asked about the betrayal of the shroomish. Dux told us that they felt they were being treated unfairly and that Sayre was only really interested in the morelulls. Just to add on the stress, the group kept picking up eeveelutions. It was some sort of fairy type - eevee conspiracy according to them.
"But didn't the turtwigs try to eat them?" Jade asked.
"But the shroomish thought we betrayed them." Dux said. "It's sad what a pokemon will do if they feel like they were betrayed. I think-"
A shadow from above flickered past the bridge. I immediately looked up for a flying type, but there wasn't one for as far as the eye could see. Before I could ask if anyone else had seen something, I heard a splash from the ocean. It must have been a water pokemon. But as soon as I thought of that, I felt foolish. After all, what kind of water pokemon flew through the-
"Umf!" Dux said as a blur of blue smacked him so hard, he was thrown from the bridge. Jade and I looked over the edge to see if Dux was ok. He just looked up to us as yelled, "Remoraids! Run you fools!"
I heard movement behind me and saw the water start to convulse when I peered over the side of the bridge. A blue water type with wings for fins leapt out of the water, almost flying up towards the bridge. Understanding what was about to happen, I dropped to my belly and rolled out of the way. A wet smacking sound filled my ears and the two remoraids that had been trying to attack me collided and fell to the ground. I didn't have time to rejoice. I snagged Jade by the tail and ran off.
There were a lot more than two remoraids frothing close to the surface of the water. My paws pounded on the smooth wooden planks in a rush to get away. Soon the bridge was filled with the sounds of splashing water and screaming. I'd like to tell you that those screams came from the remoraids or Jade. I didn't really have the running endurance to waste my breath like that. What really got me going was when the bridge started to shake.
"They're bringing it down!" I said.
"No kidding!" Jade said before tripping and rolling off the edge.
The bridge stopped shaking and the remoraids stopped attacking. I glanced over the side to see what was going on, but all was calm. I briefly wondered if a pokemon who was trained for pokemon contests knew how to swim before jumping in after Jade.
Swimming had been one of the activities at the eevee farm I'd grown up in. It wasn't like we had a pool just sitting around the place, it was an indoor special occasion kind of thing. We raced. We splashed. We learned how to dive into the water by spreading out our body so we slowed out decent. Some of us didn't learn that until after banging our heads on the bottom of the pool. One thing we never did in the pool was dodge rocks being launched at us at a hundred miles per hour.
Several reddish, eight-legged pokemon, deeper than Jade and the remoraids launched hard missiles at me from the bottom of the ocean. I'd spotted them quickly though, an effect of their coloring I guess. Good thing too. Looking at them helped me dodge the first two rockets. The strange water types seemed to be blasting the projectiles from round snouts. Not a good look. Oh, man! What if they're not rocks! What if they're giant snot rockets!?
Then my eyes focused on some disturbance closer to my position. It was hard to make out Jade's green form in this water, even harder to see the remoraids, but Jade's jewel glowed brightly. I tried to make my way towards him, only to be pushed back by an even fiercer assault from the remoraids companions. Worse, I could already feel the air in my lungs start to stale. And if I needed to breath, I could only imagine what Jade was feeling.
I was tempted to go back up to the surface, just for a bit to get more air. After all, there was no way I could reach Jade. Every time I got close, the cannon pokemon pushed me away. Jade was sinking. No matter how many times he psychically pushed against the remoraids, one or two would grab a tail or a foot and sink him down another foot. Jade wasn't going to make it back to the surface on his own. And soon he would be too far down for me to help.
What would Lin do? I thought. At first, I tried to push the thought away, but I needed it. I needed an idea and for better or worse, I knew Lin would think of something. Probably something that would require me getting hurt. Something like letting those projectiles hit me.
I wasted precious air groaning, then held still and let the rock- yes, thankfully a rock- hit me. Those eight-legged freaks could really pack a punch. The rock smacked into me, tossing my body up out of the water a good ten feet. But what comes up must come down. This time making my body more arrow dynamic to cut through the water.
I forced my eyes to stay open as I reentered the water. I almost thought that I'd made a misjudgment and lost Jade and his assassins in the murky depths. I didn't even see their battle until I passed it. The look on Jade's face was priceless though as he saw me pass. I couldn't focus on that though. The cannon pokemon restarted their assault. Just like I planned.
I pulled myself up, twisted my body around, and let the rocks push against my backside. Jade's face was surprised before, but now that he saw me rushing up from beneath him, well, that might make this whole fiasco worth it. Even slamming into his body was satisfying.
We both were chucked out of the water and back onto the bridge. While we both made wet smacking sounds, Jade's sounded wetter. I couldn't see him, but I could hear him coughing. Good, that meant he was alive and able to breathe. I might have been willing to risk my life to save his, but I definitely wasn't going to give him CPR.
"Well, that was unpleasant." Jade said. I spotted the espeon to my left. He had somehow already dried himself off and fluffed his fur. Fantastic. He'd learned the art of the quick groom while I'd only learned how to eat like a ninja. "Next time I get offered sushi, I'm taking it. Now, let's get off this bridge before those pokemon realize where we've gone."
"Got to say, wasn't really expecting all the ice." I slipped, smacking my head onto the cold ground. I'd thought that island meant warm tropical weather. Evidently every ecosystem was right next to each other around these parts.
Jade looked over at my fallen, yet still sliding form. He skated his way back to me, passed me, then did a few twirls as he circled me.
"I hope that makes you sick." I growled.
"What? Your trainer never taught you how to battle in a hockey rink?" Jade feigned surprise. "Seems like an oversight."
"Well, I'm sure I'll get a chance to bring it up next time I'm with her."
"Right…" Jade slowed down. "About that…"
"I don't want to talk about it," I said. I got three of my legs in place. That fourth one could be tricky. I slowly slid it along the ice, edging it ever so closer to its proper place. Once I was standing, it shouldn't be too hard to-
The last leg slipped, sending my body crashing to-
My leg caught on a warm body. Then, before I could question what was going on, Jade gently pushed me. I tried not to move a muscle as I glided over the ice. I started twisting, catching a brief glimpse of green fur in the corner of my eye, before being nudged in the right direction. The snow bank came into view, approaching me at a leisurely pace. When I finally arrived, I let the white fluff catch me in its embrace.
I popped my head out of the snow and spotted Jade letting himself off the ice. He nodded in my direction.
"Uhm… thanks." I said.
"Yeah," Jade said. "No problem."
"So… when did we decide to start being nice to each other?"
Jade shrugged. "Probably when you saved my life. It's kind of hard to hold a grudge against someone who does that."
Lin's face flashed before my eyes, but I shoved that bundle of emotions down. I examined my own feelings, and had to agree with Jade. I couldn't quite help feeling the same way about him that I did before. Though, after being honest with myself, I started to realize that our rivalry might have been a bit forced.
Jade motioned to some tunnels in the cave behind us. After some complaint, I joined him inside. Jade just couldn't understand my hesitation around caves. To be fair, Pokemon contest don't tend to take place in caves. We had been navigating the icy tunnels for a good while when Jade told me he didn't want to hear any more negative cave stories.
"Didn't one good thing ever happen to you in a cave?" Jade said.
"I do say," a familiar voice called out. "Did we not first meet in a cave, Ricochet?"
"Dux!" both Jade and I called out.
The flying type, leak and all, came flying down a side tunnel. He had something weird in his beak, a shiny star or something. At least he didn't have a new hat. If that happened, I'd never be able to convince him to take this red one back. Though, I did have to admit, the cap was doing a pretty good job of keeping my ears warm.
"I don't count that as a good memory of caves." I said. "Didn't you toss embers at me?"
Dux shook his head, sloshing some liquid in that star thing he was carrying. "That must have been some other cave dwelling farfetch'd."
It was Jade's turn. "Where have you been?"
We heard a collection of angry yells and stomping coming down the tunnel Dux had just gotten out of.
"Stealing this." Dux lifted the bottle in the air. "It's some kind of pokemon-super-charger Yukke got a hold of. Thought that it might come in handy."
"Well, we might need to use it here." Jade eyed the tunnel. The pokemon posy Dux had angered sounded closer all the time.
"Ah," I said. "We can take them. Now that we've got a flying type with us, I'm sure we'll- oh, yeah! That's a lot of guys. So…RUN!"
Jade was up and running before anyone else. Dux and I followed him down another branching path. The small army of turtwigs and shroomish pursued us down the tunnel until we came to a chasm. Luckily some humans must have been this way because there was a hastily constructed rope bridge anchored over certain death. I protected our rear, not because I was slow, just because I'm brave like that. The fact that I was so slow just made the-
"Anyway," I said as I contracted every muscle in my tail, causing my fur to get as hard as steel. "I needed to do this!"
I twisted in place as I reached the end of the bridge, practically slicing the bridges anchors. The human's work collapsed, sending our pursuers tumbling to-
They hadn't crossed. The army was just glaring at us from across the chasm.
"Hey!" I shouted. "No fair! That was supposed to get most of you!"
"Yeah," one turtwig called out. "We've seen too many movies to fall for that. I mean, could you imagine, if that's how this all ended? With the bridge just collapsing and all your enemies just falling to their deaths? That would be anti-climactic."
"How?" I stamped my paw. "You're wild pokemon! That doesn't even make sense!"
The army ignored me. Instead they elected to start pulling up their side of the bridge. I didn't know exactly how they intended to use that, but I had a feeling they weren't going to give up on the chase too easily. Jade, Dux and I ran down the only available path to us, deeper into the caves. Oh, wait! I could see a light at the end of this tunnel. My heart leapt- you know, as a quick aside, I don't know why the light at the end of the tunnel gets such a bad rap. I'd never had any good experiences in a tunnel, so I think everyone should be happy to see such a thing.
"Ricochet!" Jade shouted back to me. He came to a stop, letting Dux and I catch up. "You spaced out a second there. I said one of us needs to stay behind!"
My legs were already weak from the short sprint. You would have thought that all my time alone would have strengthened that particular weakness, but you'd be wrong so shut up. I mean, it's not like speed is important for an ambush hunter.
Jade's strategy made sense. The sounds of the approaching army were growing stronger. There's no way we rescue Sayre after running a marathon. Even if we could find her, we'd just get crushed in-between whatever Yukke had instore and this massive army. No, we needed to get them off our backs.
"You two go!" Dux said, starting to leave. "I'll hold them off!"
"That's insane!" Jade said. "There's at least fifty of them down there. What, are you going to stall them for five seconds?"
Then I got an idea. I jerked my head away from the dull roar, and towards the bottle in Dux's wing. Jade and Dux followed my gaze. Dux nodded and uncorked the strange liquid.
"Wait," Jade interrupted. "Maybe we should hold on to it for Yukke."
"What are you going to hold onto it with?" Dux asked.
After a moment, Jade responded with, "I feel like humans should have invented pokemon pouches or backpacks."
"I've got a hat." I suggested. "Maybe we could put the drug cocktail in there?"
"That would never work." Dux didn't specify why. "You'll have to let me take it! I'll do as much damage as I can while you two run ahead to save Sayre."
"I should do it!" I said. "I've never been that great in a fight anyways. The least I could do is give you two a chance."
"Not that I don't appreciate that." Jade said. "But I'm the fastest pokemon here. I can do more damage than either of you. It should be me."
"Not that I don't admire your bravery…" Dux said. I looked at the empty bottle in his wing. Dux smirked at us and ran down the tunnel.
"Well, OK then." Jade shook his head at Dux's retreating form. "That is one crazy farfetch'd."
"Ok. Ok ok ok," I shook my head. "Let's do this! RUN!"
The area we found ourselves in next was like another world. It was mountainous, rocky and unstable. Huge pillars of stone gaped up into the air like the teeth of some monstrous pokemon. As Jade and I walked through the landscape, it became impossible to continue by paw. We had to start jumping from rocky pillar to shaky pillar.
"An allergy to chansey eggs?" Jade flicked his tail. "Is that really a thing?"
"I guess it's rare." I shrugged. When Jade kept up his incredulous stare, I said, "Look, if your trainer woke up one day and got a mohawk, a tattoo and joined a gang wouldn't you think something was off?"
"Point taken." Jade said. "Still, how have you survived up till now? I didn't think our species had any survival instincts?"
"A noctowl helped me get in touch with mine."
"That noctowl sure was nice."
"Only after I got past the feathers." I shook my head. I needed to change the conversation, though I wasn't sure if it was so Jade wouldn't keep asking questions or so my mouth wouldn't start watering. "So that's how I got here. What about you and your trainer. What was her name? Reyna, right?"
Jade tensed up. "She's not my trainer."
"Oh my gosh! Is that why you're here without her? She stole you and you escaped!"
"No!" Jade said quickly. He looked so defensive that I thought sharing time was over. He took a moment to collect himself though and said, "No. That's not right. She's my trainer's daughter."
"Oh, so when your island blew up your trainer sent you to watch her?"
"Not exactly." I thought Jade was going to close up again he looked so sad. He continued though. "He died. Way before the whole volcano thing."
"Oh." I said. I wasn't quite sure how to follow up on that. We kept hopping in silence until we came across a bizarre sight.
"Is it my imagination," Jade said, staring up into the sky. "Or are those turtwigs with balloons tied around their shells?"
"Yes, Jade. Yes, it is."
There were in fact three such turtwigs. They were hovering in the air, just sort of floating up and down. When they spotted us, they called for our surrender. Jade and I got ready for a fight… but he turtwigs just kept hovering up and down. We expressed some confusion over this and the turtwigs got a bit mareep-ish.
"Actually," one said. "We can't move horizontally."
"I don't get it." Another said. "It worked so well in the test run."
"Yeah," said the third looking a little red in the face. "We just bounced up and down on the ground."
"We could actually use some help." said the first.
Jade and I looked at each other, then hopped around the trio and continued.
"Yeah," said one of the turtwigs. "That's fair."
"So…" Jade began once the turtwigs were out of ear shot. "You want to talk about it? The whole trainer kicking you off the team thing. I'm pretty sure Lin wasn't on chansey eggs then. And you seemed to avoid it around Sayre."
"She doesn't need to know." I felt the same irritation from before. "Sayre's got her own problems to deal with."
Jade seemed to buy that, but it wasn't exactly true. I didn't want Sayre to know about it because I didn't even know how to process what happened. Was it really just the fact that I didn't evolve into a vaporeon? Come to think of it, I didn't use a stone to evolve. Jade didn't either.
"How did you evolve?" I asked. "You said it wasn't by- oh, sorry."
Jade had tensed up again, like he did when I talked about his true trainer. Jade relaxed a bit though and said, "No, that's fine. Uhm, the humans told me it had to do with the power of love- hey! Don't scoff! I was feeling love at the time! Isn't that what you were feeling when you evolved?"
Yes, I had. And ten seconds later the person I trusted most in the world betrayed me.
"I have you now!"
Jade and I turned around to see the same sunflora from earlier that day. Only this time it was glowing red and had quadrupled in size. It loomed over us with an anger that out shone its unnatural light. The sunflora started to scream as it appeared to unleash its attack.
"You know," Jade said as his tail started twitching out of control. "This has been a very strange day."
The sunflora unleashed his built-up light all at once, sending Jade and I flying into the air and unconsciousness.
I woke up in a sea of clouds. Yeah, clouds. I don't know how to explain that. I'm no worldly scholar, but I'm pretty sure clouds don't support much weight. Not that I have much weight. I'm perfectly average for my species. Probably. Look, I haven't had the opportunity to meet other umbreons OK! So, what if I'm heavier than Jade or Sayre! Are they umbreons? I don't think so!
I heard Jade groaning and looked around for him, taking care to hold perfectly still. I had a feeling that I shouldn't test this whole suspending in mid air thing. Lucky for me, Jade was right in front of me. Or there was some other pokemon with a green fur covered forked tail poking out of the clouds. I called out to him, urging Jade awake.
A few moments later, Jade's head popped up from the clouds. He took one look around then said, "So… we're dead right?"
"Doubt it." I said. "I don't think we'd end up in the same place."
"I'll take that as a complement." Jade responded.
I was about to argue the point, but I sort of agreed with his conclusion so I shut up. We laid there for a few more moments, looking around for evidence, for some sort of clue as to where we were. After I worked up the courage to turn my head, I concluded that there was nothing poking up above the clouds. The only feature I could make out was a quickly setting sun and some stars.
"You might be right about that whole after life theory." I admitted.
"One way to find out." Jade pointed his tail down through the clouds. "You first?"
"I don't know. Even if this cloud is close to the ground…" I hesitated as I realized what Jade was implying. "Wait! why don't you go first! You're lighter than me so you'll just bounce off the ground."
"Glad you're finally ready to admit to your weight problem."
"Only because I might die if I don't. I don't know, you're psychic, can't you think of something? Aren't you like a super genius?"
"Not that kind of psychic."
"So… what then? We just stay up here and starve to death?" I wasn't thrilled with that plan. "Starvation is number one on my list of ways I don't want to die, followed shortly by dehydration and being eaten alive."
"Well falling to my death is third on the list of ways-I-don't-want-to-die." Jade said. "So, maybe you take this one and I'll get the next."
"Shoot, falling to death is only number nine on my list." I frowned. "Third seems pretty high. Your mom dropped you on your head once or twice?"
"Dude, neither of us know our moms. We could have the same mom for all we know."
I hoped not. The idea that Jade was my long-lost brother disturbed me more than the image of my crushed body. "Your species doesn't have any cool regenerating powers, does it?"
Jade shook his head. I sighed and stood. So far so good. I seemed to be on a platform of some kind. My paws didn't recognize the material. It was sharp enough to be rock, but warm enough to be alive. Is that what clouds felt like? Aza would know. Too bad I got stuck with the worst psychic pokemon ever.
I muttered something like, 'can't even teleport,' before jumping head first into the clouds. Going head first sounded like a good idea at the time. See, I thought that when my head broke the cloud, I'd have enough time to see what was going on. That way I'd have enough time to save myself by… yeah, that's kind of where my plan stopped. Fortunately, the platform was still beneath me. Unfortunately, the platform was still beneath me.
"Ouch!" I shouted.
"Are you dead?" Jade asked. "Are we dead? What do you see down there? It's not fire is it?"
"Give me a second!" I knew this wasn't Jade's fault and I shouldn't blame him. It was my brains fault though and I could definitely blame it. I tried to come up with a proper insult for my mind but it was currently experiencing a lot of pain and couldn't provide one for me. At least the cap had cushioned my nose dive into the ground.
After shaking off my headache, I got down to business. I started to walk around the strange platform we'd found ourselves on. It didn't take long to find out we were on a rather large collection of plant debris in the middle of the sea. At first, I thought the sunflora had blasted us all the way to the ice land. I was wrong though. When I poke my head further into the clouds, relying on Jade to hold my tail in case I lost my balance- and yes, he made it clear that he thinks he could hold on to a pokemon of my mass. Well, anyways, I could see the main land. Then I looked around at the platform itself.
When my head shot back up, Jade looked at me questioningly. "Give it to me. How screwed are we?"
"How do you handle grass types?" I asked.
"Depends on the grass type."
I poked my head back underneath the clouds. After a moment I came back and asked Jade how he'd handle a hundred very angry grass types. That's what they were, some acorn looking pokemon all stuck together with sap. After I described them, Jade was much more certain that he could not handle them.
"Oh, that's quite the pickle you've landed yourself in boys."
Dux! I couldn't see him through what I now recognized as fog, but he did have an unmistakable voice. Even Jade looked relieved. We each tried to tell Dux what our day had been like at the same time. Dux let this go on for some time before hushing us.
"Well, I didn't get any of that." He said. I heard the flapping of wings. "But I'll show you what it looks like from my perspective."
Suddenly the fog started to disperse. The first thing I noticed was Dux flapping his wings directly into the fog while still managing to stay afloat in the water. Then I noticed the angry pine cone looking pokemon looking up at us. Some of them started rattling.
"Oh, look at that!" Dux slowed down his wings and pulled out his leek from seemingly nowhere. "They're getting ready to explode!"
"What?" Jade and I shouted.
"Well these pineco are probably already stressed out so I wouldn't hold it against them." Dux looked down right understanding. "Tell you what, I'll distract them while you two swim to shore."
"How will you-" I started.
Dux twisted his leek around and started playing it like some sort of instrument. "I'm sorry pinecos, but my friend's death is at another time."
"Air guitar?" Jade looked at the flying type in horror. "That's your plan?"
But it seemed to be working. The pineco lost focus on us and were giving Dux a look of pure confusion. Dux just kept jamming to a song nobody heard. Worst, he wasn't even singing. He just kept nodding his head and strumming the leek. Jade and I shrugged at each other and jumped into the ocean.
The sun was getting low. I was excited for the change. I worked best at night. Yukke would never see me coming. If Dux's directions were correct, we were only an hour away at most. Really, I couldn't have hoped for a better set up.
"Maybe we should do this tomorrow."
I spun around to face Jade. "Are you kidding me?"
"No," Jade got defensive. He didn't look me in the eyes. In fact, he looked very nervous. He kept staring at the setting sun. "I'm just saying that we haven't truly rested. I mean, when was the last time you slept?"
I didn't buy it. Jade wasn't being kind and understanding. He was afraid of something, probably had something to do with storming the castle. Or fortress. Or whatever.
"Dude!" I couldn't believe that we'd come this far only to turn around. "Suck it up and let's go."
"This isn't smart."
"It's not about being smart, it's about doing what needs to be done."
But there was no arguing further. Jade said he was sorry, then left me. I couldn't believe it. I stood there stunted as the espeon walked off. He left me just like she did. Is there something wrong with me? Am I doing this to myself? What is going on? Why does everyone abandon me?
No. I thought. There's someone who never abandoned me. Sayre! I can't fall into self-pity now. Not when she's in danger!
I pushed on alone. With every passing moment, I became more secure. The sun set and I felt invisible. Now I could see my enemies but they'd never see me. The night was my turf. After a while, I could even see the castle were Yukke was keeping Sayre. "Just hold on Sayre. I'm coming."
When I got closer, I realized that I had a problem. The entrances to the castle were surrounded by light. I'd never felt such a hatred for the stuff before. If I tried to sneak in there, I'd surly be noticed. But I didn't see any guards. Was it too much to hope that everyone had gone to sleep instead? And as I got closer to Yukke's lair I started to wonder why Dux hadn't mentioned all the steel balls on the side of the structure.
I had to move forward though, so why not try the front door? When I reached the entrance, I realized what those steel balls were. I heard a whistling sound and looked up. One of the steel balls was falling right above my head. I barely had enough time to dodge out of the way before the pokemon slammed down on the ground. And it had to be a pokemon. I saw it open its shell for a second and search for my crushed body.
"When it saw that I wasn't dead, the strange pokemon snapped itself shut and said, "The lord of turtwigs said you'd be here. He also said your brother wouldn't be. Looks like he was right."
I got into my fighting stance and the pokemon Dux had been trying to warn me about got into his. I dodged the first strike, the fortress's heavy rear end slamming the ground where I had been moments before. When the fortress rolled back into attack position, I checked where it had struck. The steel type had left a crater. I knew that I'd gotten more durable from my evolution, but could I take that kind of punishment?
I had to move though. Before the fortress could attack again, I leapt onto its head, trying to break through the massive defense of the bug. That didn't work. Fortunately, the fortress was extremely slow. I got another chance to attack. I wasted it on trying to bite through the metal. My teeth didn't break, but that was the only good news. The fortress leapt up into the air and I couldn't get off in time. It landed on top of me. My defense had gotten stronger, I had my acing body to remind me of that.
"Uhg, cool. That would have knocked me unconscious when I was just an eevee. Yeah, me."
"Then we have good news." a new voice belonging to another fortress said. I could feel both his and a whole swarm of the pokemon's breath on my fur. As a testament to how beat up I was, when I felt the breath on my head, the last conscious thought I had was, Oh no! My hat!
Being a pokemon in the world of competitive pokemon battles, waking up from unconsciousness wasn't new. The cage was a bit different. So was the décor. Pokemon centers weren't usually this hot and grey. The lava was definitely out of place. There were a lot of unconscious pokemon around me though so I guess it was sort of like a pokemon center.
Most of the unconscious forms were morelulls, though I spotted some shroomish in the piles. When I noticed the singed skins of the group, I feared the worst, but no- I could see most of them twitching. Then I put together what must have happened. Yukke had rounded up all the morelulls, then turned on the shroomish when he got what he wanted. I almost felt sorry for the little traitors.
"You're awake!"
For the first time I noticed that this wasn't one eevee cage. Sayre was here! I didn't wait for her to wrap her bows around me this time. I rushed in and nuzzled her. She didn't so much as tense up. She nuzzled me right back. Then she wrapped her tentacles around me and calmed down my emotions. I regained some composure and backed off. Sayre looked annoyed, not at me, but at her own ribbons.
"Blast it all! I'll never get the hang of these things." She said.
"It's ok," I said. Then, not really knowing how to reassure her, I said, "I have poisonous sweat."
"Well it's a good thing you never get nervous." Sayre smiled. "What of my father? And Jade? Are they ok?"
"Probably." I gave Sayre the recap of how that day had gone. Despite all the danger we currently were in, Sayre seemed to enjoy my tale. If anything, she seemed disappointed that she hadn't been there.
"Well then." She said after I'd finished. "I guess we'll just wait until Jade gets here."
"What? Weren't you paying attention? He's not coming."
"Oh, of course he is."
"What makes you so sure? How do you know that he'll come around? How do you know that he won't just keep disappointing us?"
"You want to talk about it?" Sayre asked. "About Lin?"
I tensed up. She'd seen though me. I thought I'd hidden it well enough, but Sayre might have been more intuitive than I'd ever thought. Another lie might have worked, but in the current state we were both in, it just felt like I'd be doing us both a disservice. I told her everything. Everything about the boat, about the fight with Jade and his trainer. Everything about what Lin had said to me.
Sayre didn't skip a beat.
"Mind control!"
"Uh, probably not." I said.
"There was a sniper with a bead on you. If she hadn't sent you away, you would have died!"
"Doubt it."
"Ditto in disguise?"
"Sayre…"
"Huh? Well I'm at a loss." Sayre shrugged. "You'll have to tell me what it was once you figure it out."
"What?" I shook my head. "Sayre, I'm not going back. Lin made it very clear that she didn't want me anywhere near her."
"Why?" Sayre's voice was gentle. I thought I should be angry with her. She was relentlessly prying into my personal life. But I didn't seem to mind. I quickly checked to see if one of her ribbons was around me, but no. This was all natural.
"I don't know why." I admitted. "Not really. Not from her mouth."
"Sounds like it's pretty unclear then." Sayre said. "I won't tell you how to live your life, Ricochet. But for the brief time I was with you, Aza and Lin, I could tell that you were a family."
I waited for her to finish her thought. When she stayed silent, I said, "We're family… so what. What should I do?"
"Why, whatever it is families do." Sayre giggled at the question.
"Are we still on the whole brother thing?" a familiar voice said. "Cause if so, I want to be emancipated."
"Jade!" Sayre and I said.
The espeon wasn't alone, Dux stood by his side. Sayre's father began work picking the lock with a hair pin and a small hammer- ha! nope, couldn't do it with a straight face. Dux was using his leek, of course. Jade strolled up the cave, looking a little mareep-ish.
"Ah, no hard feelings right."
I shrugged. "Kind of hard to keep a grudge against the person who just saved your life."
I nodded at Jade. He nodded back.
"Was that supposed to be you two making up?" Sayre looked between Jade and I. She sounded disappointed. "I was kind of expecting more hugs."
"By the way," Dux said as he let Sayre and I out of the cage. He pulled something from around his back. The red cap! Dux tossed it back on top of my head. "I think that's yours."
"Nope! I'm pretty sure it's yours." I said.
"Wow!" Sayre said. "You look dashing, Ricochet!"
"Thanks for the hat, Dux." I said. Then I looked at Jade. "You ready to do the hero thing?"
"Dude, I've never stopped."
Yukke burst into the room. After taking one sweeping glance at the room, he started charging up for an attack. I guess Yukke wasn't one for talking too much.
"There's the fiend! Now remember, you must protect Sayre! She's the only one that can stop Yukke!" Dux whipped his leek into a fencing stance. "Un-guard yourself, you dastardly villain!"
"Wait!" I called out to Dux as he lunged at the fire type. "I'm pretty sure it's 'En garde!'"
Before Dux could reach Yukke, the fire type unleashed the strangest attack I'd ever seen. I wanted to call it a fire type attack, but the flames were all wrong. Just a little too sharp. And it was tealish purple. Either way, Dux was soon down for the count.
"Well," I said. "Guess that just leaves us."
"Too bad we don't have a bridge to dump him off of huh?" Jade said.
"How dare you hurt my father!" Sayre called out from behind us. She snaked out her ribbons and pulled Jade and I to the side. Then she started glowing. Not like my rings or even Jade's jewel. Ours was just light. Whatever aura Sayre was giving off was something else entirely, something magical. She unleashed her power on Yukke as a beam of silver, almost like moonlight itself. It hit Yukke hard. The gargantuan pokemon had to take a knee.
"Was that psychic energy?" I asked.
"Nope." It was Jade that responded. "I think that has something to do with Dux's whole, 'only Sayre can defeat him' thing."
Sayre gasped, eyes widening. "The power was inside me all along!"
"Yeah!" I said, watching Yukke get his second wind. The 'turtwig' lifted himself off the ground, bellowed, and prepared to charge. "And the real treasure was the friends we made along the way! Now get that attack charged! I'll slow him down!"
I didn't really believe that I could do anything to hurt Yukke, but I had a plan. As I got closer to the now charging king, I threw myself underneath his feet and curled up into a tiny ball. It wasn't exactly the most pain free plan in the world, but the weight of the fire type had nothing on a fortress. Yukke dove nose first into the ground. But fast, way too fast, he twisted himself around until his snout pressed up against my body. He grinned as a purple glow started to shine from within him.
Oh no.
I felt an energy wrap around my body, not Yukke's strange power, but one my mind knew how to counter, how to fight. I didn't fight it. I let Jade's psychic power yank me out of harm's way, and not a moment too soon. Yukke unloaded another chunk of raw power where I'd been curled up just a few seconds ago.
Jade didn't say anything and neither did I. Yukke was already standing up and we needed to move. Instinctively, I dashed underneath Yukke's rising form, counting on him losing track of me. It seemed to have worked, as Yukke turned his attention to Jade. As Yukke charged another attack, I bit down hard on the only soft part I could get at from behind him, his tail. From the sound of it, Yukke nearly choked on his own strange fire. I didn't let go, still clamping down on the-
"Right!" Jade shouted.
I trusted Jade's prediction abilities and released the fire type. I rolled myself to the right. I didn't need to see Yukke to know I'd dodged another bullet, I just had to feel the power that tore up my last position. I still couldn't believe the kind of power this King of turtwigs had. It was almost like Sayre's strange power, except where hers was gentle and calm, Yukke's was ferocious and primal.
Speaking of Sayre, she shined her mystical power once again onto Yukke. He didn't drop to his knee this time, maybe the first one he hadn't been expecting. This time he bellowed in a mixture of pain and frustration. He was panting heavily. Weakly. It was almost-
I started to salivate. My instincts howled at me to end it, permanently. I thought about my friends watching, but my instincts told me that it wasn't about right or wrong. Besides, who were they to me? I had to put my own survival above-
"Enough!" I shouted. Yukke looked up to me in surprise as I casually walked up to the giant. I could feel my friend's eyes on my back as I got closer. Good. That's where I need them. I need to feel their gaze.
"Surrender." I said.
"Yes." Yukke shifted himself, getting down on one need before me. "Of course… FOOL!"
I'd been watching his snout, where Yukke launched all of his attacks. This one though came from his clawed paw. It was wreathed in that metallic fire. I felt Jade's psychic power once again, pulling me back. Yukke just leaned into the attack, extending his range. Jade couldn't pull me back far enough, fast enough. He'd only bought me a second or two! Yukke's claws closed in-
And came to a dead stop.
I blinked. Yukke's claws were hovering right in front of my face. They were still on fire. I could feel a few of my hairs starting to sizzle for Arceus's sake! But the fist of death just stayed in place. Then slowly, ever so slowly, it lowered. And that's when I noticed the ribbons around Yukke's body.
"Hey now," Sayre's voice sounded so sweet. So innocent. "This is no way for a king to act. Compassion should be your guide. Service to your people."
A single tear ran down Yukke's face. "I never wanted to be a king. I just wanted to help out my fellow turtwigs… to teach them all to be ballerinas… like me…"
"Wait!" I said as I watched Sayre's ever-increasing brightness cast all of our shadows across the room. "What was that last part?"
Sayre robbed me of the chance to get clarification on this villain's motive by unleashing one last attack on the king. She seemed to notice my disappointment and smiled her usual innocent smile. It was a bit harder to trust a smile that innocent when the person giving it to you just took down a six-foot-tall behemoth.
"Did I hear that last part right?" Jade asked.
"There's my favorite bunch of eeveelutions!" Dux had regained consciousness and was joining us on the platform. He recovered his leek, then surveyed the aftermath of the battle. "Well, you all make a pretty good team."
"Some kind of super hero team!" Sayre exclaimed.
"Team umbreon." I blurted out before the others could try naming us.
"I'm faster, I jump higher, why not team espeon?" Jade said.
Sayre and Dux gave each other an exasperated look. Then Sayre rolled her eyes and sighed, "Brothers."
I remembered a time when I didn't have to take other pokemon's lives to survive. But I did have an option. I could eat garbage in a city or town. I could join another team. Heck, I could even go back to Lin. That was plan W, if only to get some closure. I had options. I wouldn't let the people who hurt me decide my fate. Whatever Lin, Kanto or the world thought of me, I'd gotten stronger in more ways than one.
I did have a destination, so keeping track of where I was important. I may not get it right at first but I could always keep trying. I'd have to keep on the move, I wouldn't put off my life any longer.
So that's why I found myself on a raft of fallen wood, drifting back to Johto. My hope had returned.
Plus, I got this really cool hat.