Shine
I tried as hard as I could, but in the end, I could hardly see two feet in front of me. This place was dark. Very, very dark. I would observe my surroundings, something I believed to be important whenever I wasn't in a familiar area, however, when you physically can't see a thing, it gets a little complicated. I spent my time so far following the sound of Crescent and Apex's voices, and when they were silent, their steps. I only tripped a few times, and luckily, I was able to stay silent whenever it happened. Otherwise, Crescent would hold it against me for ages. I don't need to give her any more reasons to mess with me…
I had to admit though, this assignment we were given was going as smooth as it possibly could be. No surprise ambushes, no wandering into a mess of hostile pokemon, though, according to Apex, we weren't too far off from the latter. The point is, we didn't have much trouble getting to where we needed to be, and properly communicating with our ally. Or, assumed ally at least. We didn't know anything about Apex besides the few things Crescent has asked him since we met up with him, and that wasn't much. For all I knew, Apex could have some evil mastermind planning to crush us inside of this dark abyss of a cave, but I tried to stay away from that possibility. 'Tried' being the key word.
Something bothered me about Apex, but I had no idea what it could possibly be. At first, I assumed I was just intimidated, after all, we had never met him before, and he's also the first Haxorus I've ever seen, so perhaps that added to it. Aside from those two details, something just felt… wrong about him. I couldn't specifically place what was bothering me if my life depended on it, but there was definitely something there. It could just be me overthinking a simple situation, which I apparently had a tendency to do if this is any example. I frequently asked myself why we were assigned this task with Apex specifically, and the 'group' both he and Ark had in common. From what I've figured out in this small conversation, Apex isn't a part of it, but he has ties, and Arceus knows Ark would never speak a word about it, so it was left to my own interpretations.
While I was collecting my thoughts, I heard nothing but mumbles from the two walking in front of me. I may have not been able to see anything aside from the upper end of Crescent's tail through the darkness, but I could still hear. Well, sort of. I couldn't tell what they were saying, because I simply wasn't paying attention. I was too wrapped up making possible theories about Apex and why we had to be here with him specifically. It's not like we have a long list of random pokemon that share goals with our small group, so what makes him interested? I could have asked, but I had a hard time opening my mouth to actually do so. Instead, I silently continued walking, beginning to divert my attention away from my overactive imagination.
"I guess we're… treasure hunters? I can't put a label to it." Crescent said with an unsure tone. "We look for jewels, minerals and whatnot that our boss uses somewhere. Apparently it's beneficial to something he does outside of giving us assignments, but he never goes into detail."
A short pause took place before Apex replied. "Ark does have some strange friends, perhaps he takes your findings somewhere and sells them?" He spoke with an inquisitive tone.
"Wouldn't he be like… stupidly rich then?" Crescent replied with a question of her own. "Don't get me wrong, he can very well be, but I feel like we would have more resources if he has that kind of fortune, wouldn't we?"
"You may be right. Truth be told, I'm not sure where those gems go. All I can really say is that I never see them again after he takes them away." Maybe they're getting used up in some way? "There is something interesting about the minerals you typically gather however."
"Something cool?" Crescent sounded interested.
"Depending on what you definition of that word is, maybe so." Apex took a breath. "They contain chemicals, some that can't be obtained anywhere else. When it comes to the more uncommon gems, they can be mixed with one another, or even with common ones, which can do some incredible things."
"Liiiiiiiiiiike?"
"Change the way your body works, enhance certain physical attributes, destroy those same traits, make you heal extraordinarily fast, numb all pain in your body for a short time, act as a deadly poison to kill you in seconds, wipe one's memory, create fake memories in someone's head, cause severe inflammation in-"
"Ooooo-kay, I don't think I'm interested anymore." Crescent cut Apex off. "These chemicals sound like they could bring someone back from the dead, they're kinda creepy. They make me think of some mad scientist trying create a new lifeform that can't die or something."
"They can't go quite that far." Apex confirmed with a light sigh. "However, they are miracle workers. The right mixture can do a lot to help or hurt someone. MIxing chemicals contained in each gem isn't so simple though, it takes a lot of intelligence to create an advanced mixture, especially since there isn't much room for testing."
"Wait, what's wrong with testing new things? Not that I would do it, these possibilities creep me out too much…" Crescent said, sounding nervous.
"There's nothing particularly wrong with it. These minerals don't last forever though, there's only so much to go around. I can think of one right away that doesn't exist anymore, not that I've seen at least. That's for the better." Apex trailed.
"Dare I ask what that liquid may do?"
"When other chemicals are mixed, it's possible to essentially erase one's emotions. This chemical that is no longer around could do that by itself, but when mixed with others, it can have a large variety of dangerous effects. It could make someone into a mindless drone, eliminating their sense of empathy and mercy, turning them into little more than a feral." Apex explained.
"How is that different from taking away someone's emotions though?" Crescent questioned.
"Not having emotions would disable you from functioning altogether, this mixture would still allow you to properly think, and even keep your personality for the most part, only take away any reason for you to hold back from committing mass murder."
"How lovely…" Crescent sighed.
This is all… discomforting…
"Hey, Mr. I don't talk." I couldn't see Crescent's face, but I imagined that she had a smug expression while saying that. "Maybe the right chemicals will allow you to carry all of the weights I have ready."
I shivered. "I'd like to stay away from all of this thank you very much… Including the weights... "
"Too bad bud." Crescent said with a small giggle. "But really, what do you think about this? You think that Ark is using these things to make weird combinations?"
"You know him better than I do, I have no clue." I took a second to think. "All of this sounds so dangerous, I don't get how pokemon have the courage to mess with it when they very well could just create their own death in a second."
"Some are desperate." Apex said. "Some always want more and more, they're never satisfied with everything they already have. In order to always have the ability to get more and more, they mess with these chemicals. They experiment, and attempt to keep pushing their own boundaries farther and farther, until they can create their own army for their goals." I tilted my head.
"Do you really need all of this just to control a group? I mean, getting pokemon to come together means you have to sound convincing, beyond that, why do you need these things? You hardly need to be a scientific genius to be a leader, all you need is the ability to manipulate a group with your words." I was getting sort of off topic, but it didn't seem as if you needed to force others to listen to you via weird chemical combinations. If this stuff is in short supply, how would the leader of the Void create a giant group like that with only negative intentions? Not through drugs, it would be through charisma. I think…
As I continued to walk, I bumped into something, which I quickly realized to be Apex, motionlessly standing in front of me. He turned his head and looked down, towering over my small frame. I looked up at him, visually uncomfortable, visually nervous.
"What are you implying?" He asked me sternly. I had a hard time finding words, or event forming thoughts in my head. I don't know what it was, but something about Apex in that very moment terrified me.
"N-Nothing, I was just kind of talking." I told him, taking in a heavy gulp.
Apex locked eyes with me for a few seconds, before turning away and walking off again. After I recovered from temporary shock, I shook my head and kept following him. I caught a glimpse of Crescent's face in the darkness, and she looked no different from me, stained with concern.
The three of us continued forward in awkward silence, and the theories in my mind that I crafted on the way over here began coming right back to me. With each step, another concern joined the rest, all connecting off of how worried I was about who Apex was. Maybe… He's just having a bad day? I hope so.
Crescent slowed down her walking a little bit, until she was next to me. The two of us exchanged an uneven glance, both obviously bugged by the same thing.
"Maybe… He's just having a bad day? I hope so." Crescent whispered to me.
"Yeah, same here…" I replied equally as quietly. Wait, did she just… again? I shook my head.
"I'm sure we're getting close the minerals we need to gather, let's get it done and move on, just in case this gets dangerous." She suggested, looking forward once more.
"I'm perfectly okay with that." I nodded and looked in the same direction as her, back to silently following Apex. Whatever discomfort I felt about Apex before quickly multiplied without warning. Though, making more theories about it wouldn't help my case, so instead, I began thinking of the quickest way back to our camp after we were done here.
The walking without words continued for a bit longer, and as suffocating as it was, perhaps this was better than talking with Apex more and possibly making him angry again. I dim light began to glow ahead of us, which allowed me to fully recognize Crescent for the first time since we walked in here. It wasn't much light, but it was enough. No words needed to be exchanged, all of us stepped towards the unique glow, a magenta color.
We soon arrived at the source, a small entrance within this cave, leading to another section of it. Once my eyes met the new area, I was dumbfounded. I could finally make out our surroundings, they weren't much different than what I was expecting. Dark, gray rocks surrounding us, stalactites hanging from above us, nothing special to me. What was special however, were the gently glowing pinkish gems sprouting from the walls and the cave's floor. Their shapes were all jaggad, but all unique, no gem looked identical to the next, they all had an ever so slightly morphed shape when compared to the previous one, and some were even different sizes. These are what we're collecting? Not what I was expecting.
"Whoa, these are what we're here to get? I've seen a bunch of these minerals already, but never ones that glow like this. Not what I was expecting." Crescent said, her eyes lighting up at the sight. I followed her gaze and stared, though, after a few seconds, I came to a realization. She totally just did it again…
We were only able to spend a few seconds in awe before we needed to get to work. After all, the less time we spend in here, the better. Crescent and I made our way to the closest crystal, taking another moment to gaze at it. I haven't seen much of what Crescent, or anyone for that matter gathers in terms of minerals, but it didn't seem like this was normal for them to come across. She wouldn't have sounded as if these surprised her if it was a standard gem to collect. That also meant, based on what we just learned, it could have some sort of very dangerous compounds inside of it. We need to be careful.
"Be careful with these things, they could have some dangerous compounds." Crescent said aloud, and I looked at her, tilting my head.
"Do you have the ability to read minds or something?" I asked her, legitimately curious.
"What? Not that I know of. Isn't that something in your skillset?" She replied, looking at me with a dumbfounded stare. "Why would you ask that in the first place?"
"No reason." I sighed and turned my attention back to the crystal. "I'm guessing you know how to remove something like this without cracking it?"
"It's not exactly complicated, just watch." Crescent stretched out her ribbons, wrapping one around the middle of the roughly shaped mineral, and placed the other near the bottom. She tightened her grip onto it and began slowly shifting it left and right, forcing to to loosen from the ground. She began putting a little bit of force behind her ribbons, and a second later, she popped the gem out of the ground, lifting it up in one swift motion. A small smile grew on her face from her successful removal of the mineral.
"See? Easy as that!" Crescent said triumphantly.
"I thought these things would be stuck in the ground a lot tighter than that." I said to myself, looking at the one Crescent had wrapped in her ribbons.
"You would think so, but I suppose mother nature doesn't always have it out for us." Crescent brought the crystal into her sight, looking at just as I was. "Although, this thing feels weird, like different than others."
"Different?" I questioned.
"Yeah, it's… warm." She nuzzled her cheek against the gem. "Like, it feels like it's alive."
"What are you talking about?" I sounded just as clueless as my mind actually was.
"Look." Without much of a waning, Crescent held the gem against my face, startling me a little. "Feel it, you'll see what I mean."
Just as she said, it felt very… warm. Like the heat of another pokemon warm. The heat pulsed off of the mineral and made my entire face feel as if it was pressed against someone else. That feeling quickly made my body relax, I wanted to close my eyes and rest. I didn't care about the us being in the cave, or around Apex, I just wanted to lay down with this warmth I felt. It truly did feel alive.
"Hey, are you okay?" Crescent pulled the gem away from my face, and I shivered, the warmth slowly leaving me. "You look like you're on cloud nine right now…"
"I-I'm fine." I told her, shaking my head.
"What's with you? I thought you were about to fall asleep in this place, any idea why?" She inquired, to which I shook my head drowsily.
"I don't know, best not to harp on it." I took a breath. "Geez… The last time I felt…" I cut myself off, looking to the ground a little. I shouldn't have said that out loud… I let out a sigh and shook my head again, more roughly than last time. Get all of this out of my head please…
One of my forelegs began shaking a little, I think out of anxiety. I tried my best to calm it down. I took slow and deep breaths, just wanting it all to be over already. Come on… I thought I was getting over this… I grit my teeth, trying to blank my mind. That was the only way I could really get away from every thought that came to my head, eliminate my thoughts entirely.
"Calm down a little." I closed my eyes, trying to listen to Crescent. I didn't think my unease was noticeable, but apparently I was wrong. "I shouldn't have done that, I wasn't really thinking of everything, I'm sorry."
"N-No, don't be." I replied, my voice a little uneasy. She couldn't be expected to think of what every little action could do to remind me, that would be a silly thing to ever expect from anyone. If only I was less sensitive to all of this…
All of a sudden, the warmth came back, though it felt a bit different this time. I opened one of my eyes and saw Crescent nuzzling against me, on the same spot she had previously held the gem. She kept doing it for a little bit, until slowly pulling away from me. She wasn't there long enough to make me uncomfortable, but it still felt odd, for her to do something like that.
"I know it's still rough for you, but you're getting better. It won't all happen at once, but slowly but surely, you WILL make it through this. I promise." Crescent rose one of her forepaws and gently pet my head, which again, felt odd. Odd, but at the same time, comforting.
I looked at her, and as appreciative as I was, I had questions.
"Where did the gentle approach come from?" I questioned, remembering her usual methods of aggression to help me.
"You need a balancer sometimes, if I just slap you for being emotional, that won't accomplish anything. It's not like there's anything wrong with having thoughts like that, you just can't let them bring you down even farther." Like her gestures, Crescent talked with a kind, gentle tone, as opposed to her usual one.
"You're so strange sometimes." I commented, not looking away from her.
"W-What does that mean?" Crescent sounded concerned, which made me smile a little bit.
"Nothing. Thank you." I bowed my head.
"Wait a second!" Crescent dropped the mineral on the ground, a loud crashing sound echoing through the chamber of this cavern we were present in.
"W-What?" I asked in a startled tone, thanks to her rise in volume as well as the loud noise.
She wrapped her ribbons around my head and forced me to look up at her again. She moved her head closer to me until she was about a centimeter away from me, locked onto my eyes. "Do my eyes deceive me?"
"Pardon..?" I'm confused…
"You just smiled." Crescent said, and I paused. "You smiled, that was the first time I saw you actually smile…"
"I did..?"
"Yes! You did! I'm not blind! Your mouth curved upwards, UPWARDS!" She released my head and I stumbled a little. "Holy crap, I wasn't ready for that, this is crazy!"
"Now you need to calm down…" I told the suddenly energized sylveon.
"Nope! This is a good day!" Crescent giggled and her tail swayed at a modest pace. "Come on! You smiled! How don't you see that as a massive improvement!?"
"I don't know, I guess I just… thought it was normal to go a while without smiling?" I questioned my own state of mind.
"Fair enough, you wouldn't really have a reason to think otherwise. But you're getting better! Be proud!" Why is she so excited over this?
"Alright, alright, just settle down a little bit. I don't know how to deal with you when you're like this." I looked down at the gem on the ground, now with a straight crack right down the center. Oops…
"Oh? So you can handle me when I'm beating you up and screaming at you?" Crescent asked with a smirk.
"Well… I have more experience with that version of you." A lot more…
"Fine then, but you better not take this for granted! You'll get better, I can assure you of that." She locked eyes with me and sternly nodded.
While staring back, I felt another smile. "You're right. I'm sure that… these things will work out eventually. I hope so."
"That's right! Be positive for once you stubborn espeon!" Crescent forcefully pet my head, putting more pressure than I was ready for.
"O-Oww…" I groaned, glancing down to the mineral again. From the opening on its surface, a small stream of liquid was leaking out, forming a condensed puddle. Crescent happened to have her paw against the puddle, which means that the liquid from the gem was now on her paw.
It didn't take too long for her to notice too, so she quickly wrapped up her forceful petting and lifted the contaminated paw. "Whoops… Uhm…" She stared at the unknown substance intently. A very unusual scent filled the air around us, making my nose twitch.
"W-Whoa…" I said aloud, blinking a few times. My face began to warm up, and I felt unusually jittery all of a sudden. The strange sensation spread from my face to the rest of my body very quickly, washing over every last inch. I shook my head, and my hind legs started trembling a little.
"W-What the h-hell…" Crescent stuttered. I looked up at her, face red as an apple. I assumed I probably looked like something similar. "Ugh… W-Why…" She shook her head and laid on her stomach suddenly, panting a little.
"A-Are you okay..?" I asked, falling to the ground just as she did. "A-Ahh… W-What is this..?"
"B-Bad…" Crescent dug her head into the ground. "N-Not good at all…"
I began sweating, shaking more intensely than before. My eyelids felt heavier than before, and no matter how much I resisted, they slowly but surely closed themselves.
"S-Shine..? Y-You okay..?" Crescent asked me, sounding like she was in the same spot.
"I-I don't know…" I replied weakly. I was weird. My body felt overly active, like I wanted to move, but I couldn't. I felt lightheaded. "C-Cres..?"
Before I heard anything, I fell asleep.
Hello Readers!
My apologies for the short one, I don't have too much time to work on this nowadays, but at least I can get something out!
Also, once more, apologies for being so slow, I've been kinda going through some rough stuff lately, and it's been hard to motivate myself to write, or go to class. -w- (I've only missed one because of this, but it's hard to force myself. qwq) But I'll get better! And when that happens, I'll be back to writing normally! I hope, unless college wants to puck me up and chuck me back into all of my work again. -w-
I want to thank the people who have checked in on me from this site though (You know who you are) It means the world to me that I'm actually cared for from some of you, despite me just being a person with a keyboard who puts words on a screen for all of you to read. :p But if I get some smiles out of people, what else could I ask for? Thank you all for the support as usual, I truly, truly appreciate it!
See You Next Chapter!