Hey Nerdist here, I'm going to be upfront and apologize for the stupid long wait, things have been crazy for me as a senior and juggling work with home-life and all that fun stuff. Hopefully next update should come way faster. If not then great fan fiction like Ascension and Happiness as well as Avidity and so many more are there for us poor nerds to sustain off of. Who knows? I might just start giving recommendations every chapter! Oh on another note I am currently working on a few things I just might add to this site ;)
On to the Chapter!
"Evasion tactics!" Almost a dozen clones appear all moving in separate directions and intermingling, making the original Solosis indecipherable from the others. All of them glittering with a paper thin layer of psychic energy, making them capable of taking minor damage before fluctuating.
"Scatter and scorch!" The opposing Haunter's eyes glow a menacing red as it goes slightly intangible and sends out clouds of toxic vapor littered with ghostly energy, the gas touches a few of the clones, causing the psychic energy to hiss and erode, and the gas to spark and disperse slightly. The Haunter that goes by the moniker Hyde cackles as it goes further intangible and releases sickly purple flames that ignited the gas in a furious explosion. It almost blocked out the sound of the opponent calling out.
"Crescent shield!" Before the smoke could even clear-
"Convert, then push out! Hold and grab! Daze and slam when it's visible!"
"Sucker punch!" It all seemed to happen in an instant. As soon as the explosion had settled a curved arc of psychic energy pushed the smoke away and eventually, it slammed into Hyde just as the Haunter was turning solid causing it to be momentarily stunned just long enough for a small bright ball of energy to slam into it, and so when it tried to strike out at the cell pokemon it overreached and missed by a wide margin as it swung at open air, seemingly trying to hit an unseen enemy, as a result, it was unable to react effectively as Virtue the Solosis rammed into its side to deliver a high powered point blank psybeam sending the still confused ghost type pokemon careening to the ground with a pained screech.
"Try to rebalance, regain your senses!" The shouts seemed to be ineffective in trying to reach the ghost as the Solosis and her trainer struck.
"Shield crush then psybeam again, don't let it recover!" The Solosis follows Hyde down as a large orb of bright green energy encases it, the protect slams into the Haunter as it scrabbles at the shield dazedly with shadow claw but to no avail. They reach the ground at high speeds as the Solosis had pushed down with as much psychic energy as it could muster. The unfortunate Hyde hit the ground hard which would have been effective enough on its own, but with the protect turned battering ram falling down on him, creating an indent in the ground and knocking the ghost and poison type unconscious.
"Hyde is unable to battle, the winners are Orion and Virtue!" And seconds later Virtue starts falling to the ground as exhaustion overcomes her. I quickly return her to her ball as I whisper praise and thanks through the link. I can't help the smile that rips its way onto my face as I run over to Charlotte. And I meet her offered hand with my own with a satisfying clap. And It widens as I cherish the look of amusement and surprise on her face.
"You've been holding out on me! How long have you been working on that trick with protect?"
"Since the third time we battled! You have more experience than I do but Hyde doesn't have as much, his most intimidating feature currently is his sheer capability to counter most known threats, so I acted to counter his counter." She shook her head as she ruffled my hair, grinning lightly as I don't flinch.
"I could tell from day one you're gonna be a terrifying tactician. This just proves it, I've heard that your teachers at school want you to spar with the upper years?"
"Yeah I already train with a few of them, most of my classmates are doing pretty well but…" Charlotte finishes it for me.
"You find it pitifully easy to keep beating them." I nod. "Well then, I think that'll be good for you. Have fun!"
I nod and she looks at me expectantly. "Like I said, a deal is a deal, you defeat Hyde and I'll help you find your next team member." That is absolutely awesome, I don't waste any time and whip out my pokedex, I open a file I had been working on for a few weeks now and hand it to her. She reads over it before her eyes widen in surprise.
"Really? You're absolutely sure, and it's bizarre to find them this side of the world, how accurate is this?" I would be offended if she hadn't sounded both fascinated and impressed.
"Four different sources sight direct contact but no capture account, seventy three different reports all show evidence of it's habitation and non aggressive nature. A ranger with a dusclops reported the ghost showed no malicious or particularly predatorial nature and lined out the general area it roams. This report was written approximately three hours after the experience and this was less than 28 hours ago. The ranger was senior Jacobson with a nearly flawless 10 year track record." Charlotte hmmed thoughtfully as she looked me over.
"Though it's threat rating is a bit high you would most likely be allowed considering your score and trainer profile so far. You do realize just how dangerous having this on your team could be, right? It could further ostracize you from your classmates as well." I think a few months ago I would've scoffed at this but now I seriously think it over, while I still don't care what the majority of my class thinks I do care what a few of them think, I am surprised but I have actually gotten people I consider at least friendly acquaintances if not friends and rivals.
"I trust myself and V, and I have the distinct advantage of being under your current tutelage, there will never be a more opportune time to get one on my team. Moreover if they become team they become family and I will do my best to treat them as such. As for my classmates, I think the ones who matter to me will be able to accept my decision." She smiles at me proudly and opens her arms, I nod and hug her back even if I have to force myself to untense. And I admit that being hugged is…. Nice.
"I trust you too kid, I'm proud of how far you've come, so is everyone else, I'll fill out the paperwork and we'll set out in three days."
I can't deny the excitement I feel from this. I cannot wait.
"You know what, I'm gonna hate this." Harriet the menace throws an arm over my shoulder.
"What are you talking about, we're gonna have so much fun together!" Damnit, I can't get out of her grip, monster.
"Why the heck are you even coming?!" She squeezes harder until a giggling Virtue takes mercy on me and picks up Harry and moves her away from me. I smirk as she pouts.
"For the same reason I am, little brat." This comes from Jason, a blonde thirteen year old who has proved just as persistent in his pestering of me as Harriet. Man they're even nice to me and call me their friend, how monstrous.
~You're really good at sarcasm Rai.~
~Thank you sweetie, good job at picking up on it.~
~Yay, I did good!~
The blonde nightmare coos at my giggle (it was a chuckle, I don't giggle, obviously) and has the audacity to come over and pinch my cheeks. Honestly, who does this jerk think he is?! I turn my attention to Charlotte as she double checks all of our gear.
"They saw the open expedition pass and signed up for it on your school page, sorry kid, thems the rules for doing something like this." I nod and give up on my whining, for now.
We make small talk as we travel, having decided to go ahead and take the two hour hike to Mt Coronet, we eventually stumble onto our reasons for what pokemon we want to catch.
"I really want a Stantler, they're really strong, especially if you're patient enough to train one up!" I can't deny that but…
"Are you planning on being a normal type specialist Harry?"
"Yeah, I've always really liked them and they have a lot of promise for being dual coordinator slash battler." Huh, fair enough and she is good since her Hoothoot evolved Mercy has to usually wear herself out to win, which while we do win the vast majority of our battles outside of training with Charlotte and have never lost to our year group we still have a lot of weaknesses. The most important one being stamina, while even with regenerator a Solosis has low stamina in general we have been increasing Virtue's steadily along with her strength she can still only handle maybe 3 minutes top of going all out before she's drained, and comparatively she is still rather unversatile in her battling considering her one non psychic offensive move is rollout, and we haven't master using it effectively yet, and once she evolves she will no longer be able to use it. Though she has come incredibly far with her moves polishing everything else with an incredible tenacity. So far she has learned Confuse ray, Protect, double team, Reflect, Light screen, Psywave, Psybeam, Rollout, and Recover which lends her to a very defensive attacking style so far, she is able to keep energy usage to a minimum and underpower her moves to wear out most opponents.
"I'm gonna name them Prongs." I just stare at Harry and shake my head, god damn copyright infringement.
I turn to Jason. "Yo blondie, any ideas for your third pokemon?" The bastard smirks before resting his arms on my head as we walk.
"Yep, I want a Psyduck." Wow, a nearly sensible choice, I'm shocked.
"Wow, a surprisingly smart choice, that'll round out your team nicely."
"I know right! I'll have the three requirements for the Ace and Ranger corps when I graduate! When Fluff evolves into a fearow and Prancer evolves into a Rapidash I'll have them for land and sky transport, and even though they're smallish a Golduck can use the platform variant of surf so that'll cover my water transport!" I nod.
"Your two pokemon are well trained, your Spearow should be at peak strength for his evolution in the next week or so and Ponyta shouldn't take more than four months." Jason grew excited at this and his green eyes sparkled.
"I know right, that's what the Center said! I can't wait!" Honestly I couldn't either, he's an absolute goof but even unevolved his pokemon are very good battlers, me and V have only pulled out a handful of decisive wins from his team. Besides Charlotte he is probably my favorite sparring partner by far. Harry seems confused.
"Why have your pokemon taken so long to evolve, Fluff was your starter so he should've been a fearow a long time ago, right?" I shake my head.
"Harry the one that's strange is you, while our pokemon do get stronger it takes far longer to do it as a trainee than how the trainer system worked, or else we wouldn't wait for six year, honestly Jason is ahead of the pack, and don't even get me started on how much of an anomaly it is that Hedwig evolved in four months of training."
"That would be your fault for both of them, kid." I startle slightly as Charlotte speaks up.
"What? How?"
"Orion, in case you haven't noticed you and Virtue are ridiculously advanced for your age, so much so that sparring with you regularly and struggling to keep up forced them to get stronger in response. The saying goes, the stronger the rival the stronger the trainer, it's a saying for a reason, Pokemon thrive in adversity, you being so strong sped up their evolutions in response, that's a main reason Hyde evolved, even if you only won once you pushed him to his limits almost every battle after the beginning." Wow, that's surprising.
"But wouldn't it be more common then, surely there are several people who grew at similar rates." Charlotte shook her head.
"Not really, no. It's rather uncommon for kids to actively train outside of the classroom, and even then it's against kids at a similar level and they don't gain much from it. You however have been training and perfecting Virtue's capabilities from day one with an incredible work ethic, and you throw yourself into every challenge you can and push yourselves against a large variety of trainers too."
Jason jumped in. "Yeah, I didn't start training like you until I met you, yeah I did the school requirements and sometimes I would try to improve a move but I mostly kept myself satisfied with my level. You and Harriet are both ridiculously ahead of the curve.
~Rai Rai is awesome!~ I can't contain a blush at that, they laugh at my embarrassment. Honestly I didn't think my work ethic or Virtue's was that strange, Harriet and Jason never complained and it's not much more than Sidney's was….. But he's an elite four trainee so I guess my perspective is skewed.
"Heya Red, we told you our picks so tell us, what do you want to catch?" I sigh, I unfortunate;y couldn't convince Harry to give me a better nickname than red, it feels….. disrespectful. But I go ahead and bite the bullet and answer.
"I am planning on catching a Sableye, there have been several sightings in Mt Coronet over the past few months." They both stop and gawk at me in absolute surprise. Harriets reaction is of course the more extreme of the two.
"A freaking Sableye!? Those things are monsters! Don't you know the stories?!"
"I'm from Hoenn, of course I know the stories, they are exaggerated."
"They're born from dead hikers!"
"False, they are born from the natural darkness of a cave and the ambient energy emitted from large concentrations of gemstones."
"They're brutal and vicious butchers!"
"Nope, 87% of Sableye related deaths are proven poachers trying to harvest their bodies. "The majority of the remaining 13% invaded their territories and were killed by old ones defending a nest. Elder Sableye will raise any infants they find. And they are ranked in the top 25 most dangerous parent pokemon." They both blanch at that.
"That… Really does nothing to calm us down, besides isn't Sableye a horrible matchup for Virtue?" I shake my head as Virtue orbits around me happily.
"It's the opposite really, a dark and ghost type would compliment her very well in type coverage, especially since they share only a singular weakness in bug type pokemon. A Sableye also lends itself best to a clever evasive close combatant. And when trained from young and not having to fend off poachers they can be incredibly loyal." Jason nods slowly, mulling it over.
"Okay. How are you going to catch on though, Virtue only has one or two moves that will do anything to one and they are practically built to take down psychics." I smile, just a little, as I rub V's head.
"Exactly, having one would be a perfect sparring partner, and one of the younger gym trainers for Hearthome has a Spiritomb, and incredibly young one, so not one of the legends like Cynthia has, but the typing still remains, I convinced him to let V and I get sparring practice with him and get her acclimated to battling against the typing and increase her tolerance for the miasma it will naturally exude at times. Battling Hyde also helped a lot in that regard."
Harry just shook her head as she let out Hedwig to stretch her wings. "Honestly I don't know why I bother being surprised by you, I guess being ridiculous is one of your many virtues."
~I'm Rai's only Virtue!~ I hug my girl and nod my head, much to the groups amusement before Jason talks again. Great.
"It is both unsettling and endearing how you can go from scaring the poffins out of seniors, to cuddling your overpowered Solosis with an absolutely blank face."
"I try."
"...That wasn't a compliment."
"Thank you."
"I'm going to shut up now."
"Success." Charlotte cackles at this as I bury my face into Virtue to stifle a laugh and grin. Can't have them think I'm going soft now.
Honestly at this moment in time, Charlotte Sinclair couldn't be happier, well she could. But that is irrelevant. What is important is the incredible change she has seen in her son over the past several months. The kid came to them damaged, cold, and untrusting, there was no denying that he was forced to grow up far too fast and it causes her husband quite a bit of grief to think about just how he felt he failed the kid. And frankly, the moment she heard the barebones of the kid's life Charlotte tore her husband a new one the size of a wailord. But they moved passed that and focused on trying to raise the kids like a family. Jonah is…. Without a doubt an absolute sweetheart and a genuinely good battler, and from what Abby told her Orion had spent far more time and effort taking care of Jonah than he would ever admit. The Kadabra even showed her several of her memories of him bathing, dressing and tending to Jonah, especially after Sidney left.
Sidney is a bit of a loaded topic for Charlotte, on one hand she doesn't blame him for getting out when he could. But he cut pretty much all contact with his family and left his brothers in an extremely volatile home environment, while logically she knows she can't blame him emotionally she feels bitter that the two kids she has grown to love so much had to go through that. And she does want to get to know her oldest step son even if she may have to pound (not literally) some manners into his head first.
Back to Orion, Charlotte's heart feels warm and fuzzy watching him bicker with his friends and cuddle with his Solosis, she is so relieved to see him like this. And so much worry had been lessened as he allowed himself to open up and trust people and simply be a kid. One time she took a trip to Kanto when she was eighteen and met the gym leader Sabrina, at the time she was only twelve years old but already a terrifying gym leader. And when she battled her all she could feel was sadness, the girl was obviously a prodigy in every way and because of that they pushed her to excellency so hard she lost the chance to be a real child and turned herself into an emotionless weapon meant for battling. For a while Charlotte was terrified Orion was going to force himself down that path and while she is still a little wary she is confident he will grow into a spectacular young man and live happily and healthily. She will ensure it.
They reach the woods at the base of the mountain and Harriet wastes no time in swiftly catching herself a Stantler after Charlotte used Hyde to dispel their illusions. It turned out to be a male and she kept her promise of naming it Prongs. It was getting dark when they finally set up camp outside of the cave system, they will go after the Sableye and Psyduck in the caves tomorrow. Luckily Sableye do not sleep so they do not have to worry about sleep patterns as with catching most dark types. As they settle in after dinner and dark settles in she lets out one of her main team, Jason let out a sound of surprise.
"I've never seen that pokemon before!" Charlotte grins as a hand like tendril made of darkness and painted stone wraps around her waste in greeting and she places her hands gently above a glowing purple eye, feeling the bone deep pressure of her starter shaking under her skin.
"Arch here is a Runerigus, he's from the Galar region, and my starter, my father was a worker on a freighter that did trade with Galar, he caught Arch as a present for me when I was ten. It took a long time before he started trusting me and we worked as a true team." A happy smile is brought to the front as Charlotte watches how her son lights up at the sight of Arch, it brings back the first time she saw him smile. When he was so baffled and had no idea what Arch was he was delighted, even more so when Arch liked him from the get go, and Arch hated most people so it was a shock.
"Arch is impressive as always, I've been dying to see him battle in person." The other two shudder a little as Arch sank into the ground and a circular wall of earth rose silently around them. Orion cackled as he ducked into his one person tent with Virtue.
"Sadist!"
"I regret nothing." Charlotte could've cried, her son is taking after her.
I am the first to wake up and I set to work cooking as the sun rises, Virtue orbits around me eager to get a taste for herself, but fortunately doesn't try and steal any. I praise her appropriately as Charlotte wakes up and Arch greets her with bone deep rattle. He is honestly one of the most powerful Pokemon I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, it's a dream to battle him on equal terms. I push the thought aside as the rest wake up and we share breakfast. Jason and Harry are both still sleepy but wake up fast as we eat. We break camp and Charlotte returns Arch as his natural aura scares off most pokemon.
It takes a ten minute walk to get to the main entrance and the wide gaping entrance curves far over our heads, we turn on our lights as we move forward ad the area starts getting dim, the first several hundred yards of cave are exposed to sunlight but once we reach the bend we are plunged into a dim veil of grey that the flashlights barely break through. Both Jason and Harry gasp in awe as they take in the gargantuan cavern.
~Pretty.~
~Yeah…..~ I don't voice my thoughts aloud but I'm still in awe all the same. Coronet is the world under Sinnoh and it lives up to its name. The main chamber of the caverns only takes up 32% of the total space but it still is massive, I can't see anything close to the wall on the other side, with dozens of slopes and cliffs spread around covered in moss and various fungi that get consumed by the wildlife, and dozens of paths that lead to spider webbing cave systems that sprawls across hundreds of miles throughout Sinnoh, and there are several ponds and lakes spread across the underground. Not to mention the adjacent mining system that has several intersections. The way the miniscule light ripples and twists through the air as a few Zubat from several thousand hanging above fly around and screech softly as they chase after insects, and the tiny crystals mixed into the rock glistens with the water that ripples with activity.
"Welcome to the underworld kiddos, enjoy your stay!" I manage to minimize my flinch as the other two yelp in surprise. I chuckle as Charlotte ruffles my hair and V starts zipping about excitedly, though I do remind her to stay close. I turn to my group as Charlotte pulls out the map and we begin to plan our path.
"I'm not too worried about when we get to the pools just as long as we do, what about you miss Sinclair?" Jason turns to Charlotte expectantly. She clicks her tongue lightly as she points to a section of deep systemed caves.
"Please, call me Charlotte, hate being called miss. This is the most common area to find Psyduck and shouldn't be too far from the ghost sightings, what do you think 'Rion?" I bit and chewed my lip as I looked over the map and pull out my Pokedex and examined the notes I made. I point to a smaller system that has a few offshoots. They look at me in surprise. Harriet cocks her head.
"I don't know much about this stuff but wouldn't there be way less water in that area? Also isn't this place a fairly popular training spot? Why is no one here?"
"The recent Sableye sightings have turned off most casual tourists and the best training spots are deeper in so most don't linger in the main chamber except for Cleffa catching, but that's illegal in their breeding season which is now. But I do agree with Harriet, why there Clay? It seems like there would be lower odds of encountering either of our targets." I nod at Charlotte and pull up a few pictures and documents I found.
"It would seem like that but there are three reasons I want to go here, reason one is a small subsystem of caves that have psychic energy rich water, in one of the Psychic elite Lucian's minor thesis he reports that he trained for eight months in that area and the water was incredibly beneficial for the organic psychics on his team, and the effect was still potent in water that had been taken and purified over a year later, and reason two is that a small colony of psyduck with advanced psychic and water manipulation abilities in that area. It's not widely advertised as to prevent overhunting, the only reason I know is by compiling several of his interviews and lectures, as well as his autobiography and crossing that with any other mention of this system I could, it's largely avoided because of the difficult climb down and scarcity of pokemon. But since we are searching for specific targets this should be advantageous to us. Third is the high concentration of minerals in the water and the closeness to the Sableye sightings as well as the fact that no one has found its feeding ground yet leads me to believe that it is in an undiscovered pocket under this system."
~I already knew that, but it made me dizzy Rai.~
~Sorry sweetpea.~
~Forgiven!~
"What the actual fuck." Charlotte slaps the back of Harry's head. "Ow, what was that for?!"
"Language." Harry shrugs and then looks at me with something strange in her eyes, something like….. frustration.
"Seriously though, how?! You are so much better than everyone in class and make battling us look so easy it's boring to you, and even training my as- Ow, fine but! Even training my butt off and evolving Hedwig I can't even hold a candle to you and it's like you don't even care!" Tears pop up in her eyes as she stomps her feet. "You don't even care that you're so talented and work harder than any of us, and you keep doing all these impossible things like it doesn't even matter and what does that make us huh?! I'll tell you what, it makes me feel less than nothing. I don't know why I bothered." She turns and runs to the cave entrance and Jason follows her. "I got her! Stay with Red!" Charlotte nods and turns to me, she looks blurry, everything does.
~Rai! What's wrong, are you okay?~
"Are you okay?" I can't think, it hurts, it doesn't make sense. Charlotte kneels, I think, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know anything. My chest hurts, I can't breathe, can't breathe, shadow, there's shadow, shadow and darkness everywhere, it hurts and consumes and it pushes people away, that's what is wrong with me, I'm a monster and I shouldn't be loved. I can't breathe, I don't understand. Something is there, something. I don't understand.
~Rai!~ Virtue, Virtue, that's right I have a Virtue, she's important, she is good, I don't deserve her.
~Yes you do Rai! Listen to me, LISTEN! You need to breathe, big and deep, okay Rai-Rai, just breathe, nothing else matters but the in and out of your breath, just that, easy peasy, in and out, in and out…~ I breathe, in out, listen, that's right, the shadows are slipping back in, in, in, in, in my chest and stomach, settling down and going to sleep, easy, easy, easy. Warmth, arms are around me and something warm and round is on my head, hug, I'm being hugged. It feels nice, good, quiet, nice. And my eyes are heavy too, so very heavy, so I close them and sleep, that sounds good.
Charlotte holds her son and she can't remember the last time she felt so shell shocked. Her son's Solosis is still worked up and buzzing around his head.
"Virtue, please, calm down, Orion is fine, he's fine! Just sleeping." She finally settles and I grab his pack and carry his light body, finding a secure place to set up a temporary camp as I release Arc and have him raise a wall. He does but soon after he comes over to where Orion is laying on the floor and his eye shines like a beacon and a deep rumble that shakes the ground runs from him as his darkness seems to raise up like a felines hackles and he curls around Orion and his Solosis that crushed herself to his chest. His darkness curls around and blankets them, neither react or move negatively as most would, in fact something in Orion's face smooths over and Virtue closes her eyes and seems to relax.
That confirms it, and it explains so much as she runs the 'accident' through her head again.
Harry blew up at 'Rion after he told us about his admittedly incredible and insane research and tears into him as he stares on in complete shock, then she runs off in tears, Jason follows and she was grateful because her son needed her. His eyes went blank as he shut down and tears poured out. And he displayed all the classic signs of an oncoming panic attack and was unresponsive to her or Virtue's worry, and then things went sideways. His Solosis cried in panic and wisps of shadow seemed to bleed out of skin and his tears turned a murky gray.
"Orion!" She tried to touch him but the shadows grew darker and a torrent of them spilled from his skin like sweat, and cocooned him entirely. And for once in her life Charlotte had no idea what to do, she'd heard rumours and whispers about things like this, aura users and psychics are common occurrences, but other phenomena have occurred as well. People with the ability to breathe underwater, or have fireproof skin. People born with shadows in their skin. The only one she can think of is the retired ghost master Agatha, and there is no real proof except horror stories of the wars where the Crone could make ghosts and psychics scream in pain or obey her every whim and melt into shadows as seamlessly as her ghosts and use their powers effortlessly.
She was in such a panic that she could barely react as the Solosis slammed herself against the barrier again and again as she glowed with psychic power, the darkness seems to repel it at first until something seems to give and the shadowed figure collapses to his knees and virtue presses herself against him and the shadows seem to part and mold to let her in at this point, and Orion's breathing which had been so frantic and loud finally slows to large and deep breaths as the darkness fades and her son is left there still sobbing and heartbroken. She snapped into action then and pooled him into a hug as tight as she dared, and a moment later he fell asleep.
And now here she is staring at her son and thinking about the feeling the shadows evoked. She is a ghost type specialist, she knows their presence and the different nuances and variety that comes with it. A ghost emits the truth, that's the most basic explanation for it, the shadows that bleed from them are an extension of their very being, many call it miasma because of the negative affect it can have on the living. Arch is a good example of that, his presence is one that screams his strength and solemn pressure from the rooftops, a warning for any potential foes, and when he weaponized it in something like a shadow ball it is a heavy and sturdy thing. For something like Hyde, the Haunter that she is so familiar with, his presence is still so young but his chaos and acidic nature come through and corrode the surroundings and eat away at any opposing power, when he spreads his gas it actually eats through psychic energy and can even cause lung damage from extended exposure if reckless.
The darkness that fled from Orion was different. There was no denying it was of the same otherworld shadow that ghosts live and breathe but there was a kind of weighted indifference to it, as if it had no other agenda besides existing and desperately wanted peace. Heartbreakingly, that felt so much like her boy she wanted to cry. Orion had shown so many times that he just wanted to do his best in life and live it to its fullest, and it's only now that Charlotte realizes it's a search for meaning and to make himself mean something. It's such a centralized ideal that the shadows seemed to be chanting. A constant thrum of 'I am here, I am here, I am here!' and so much fear of being rejected that it preemptively rejected everything around him. If she had to guess, the seeming rejection and abandonment of Harry might have forced it out to protect him. And she feels a low and deep anger settle in her at that and she has to force herself not to hunt the kid down and give her the lecture of a lifetime. The damage has been done and if not for Virtue already being so important to 'Rion that he instinctively let her in she has no idea what might have happened.
Her head jerks up when Arch's darkness surges and a protective hum vibrates from his center, the shadows around her son growing thicker and stronger.
"Mrs. Sinclair? Where are you?" She curses at how loud they brats are calling, but she moves forward as Arc wordlessly opens the wall for her to exit it and closes it behind her. She moves swiftly and reaches the two teens just as the Zubat are growing visibly distressed, screeching and moving. She ignores their surprise and puts a hand over both their mouths. She keeps her voice to a whisper.
"Quiet! You'll cause a swarm if you yell that loud!" The older one, Jason, blushes heavily, apologising silently. And Harriet just scowls and looks at the ground petulantly. She takes them aside to one of the cave walls a few minute walk away from Arc and Orion. She releases her fourth oldest teammate. A doll like pokemon with a zipper for a mouth and a quiet cackle as she greets her Trainer. She rubs her head softly.
"Hey Dollface, could you throw a shroud around us sweety? I need to have a talk with these two." The small ghost twirls and dances in the air, nodding with her body jerking raggedly. Instantly her body fades into darkness and the area around the three humans slowly turns grey and the sound goes silent so fast it feels like her ears are popping. The other two are practically shaking, but the boy seems to have a spine, and actually cares about her son.
"Is Orion okay? Where is he?" Her face softens into a small smile and she ruffles the boy's hair fondly.
"He's okay now, he had a panic attack." She continues to try and assuage his fear, the girl next to him pales a little. "He is okay, I swear, luckily his Solosis managed to knock him out of it, he passed out and Arc is keeping an eye on the two." Luckily neither seemed to notice her omission, and the girl (it's difficult to address her as anything else out of pure frustration at the moment) tugs on her sleeve.
"Is it true that Orion didn't have a happy life before he moved here?" The girl seems…. Lost, and hurt, and confused. Charlotte glances at the boy and he holds his hands up placatingly. "I put the pieces together because of his touch aversion and his… Lack of social skill. I only mentioned it because I was trying to get her to see that Red struggled a lot more than we get to see."
Charlotte sighs and feels her righteous anger drain out of her, now she just feels tired. Looking at that girl, that felt inadequate and lost, looking for something to blame. She feels empathy for the girl and remembers how it felt at that age. Trying her damndest to compete with prodigal monsters that never stopped advancing. Feeling so helpless and inferior even if that was so very far from the truth. For Charlotte her pokemon helped her get over herself and she fueled that bitterness into one hell of a work ethic. This girl needs something like that too.
She kneels and makes eye contact with the petite girl. Green eyes look back and flinch slightly, expecting yelling or scolding.
"I'm not going to pretend this situation is pretty, or black and white. What you said hurt Orion a lot, and you said it from a place of pain yourself. And it will take a lot of work from the both of you if you want to make it right." The girl still seems rather uncertain, but before they can continue any further they are interrupted by three rather loud sounds.
The horde of zubat going wild and throwing sonic cries out in a frenzy.
wild and echoing cackles that send shivers down their spines
Arc roaring as the deafening reverb of shadows exploding echo him.
Words:6425
Yo, how's that little baby cliffy feel huh? But real talk I want to know how Orion's development feels, I wanted him to be more human and loosen up. And he is human, a flawed one who messes up and and deals with the aftermath. One who opened up and gets hurt as a result. It's growing up, life really. When shit gets tough so should you (Ha! If only it were that easy.) Personally I'm loving badass momma Charlotte, and her perspective is intriguing to write. And before everyone goes off about the shadows I just want to say it outright. Orion will NOT be OP and fighting Pokemon battles left and right. And there is gonna be a lot of difficulties with this. Still not gonna be an edge-lord if me and Virtue have anything to say about it.
Next one should be pretty fun.
P.s Comments are always welcome. Nerdist out.
None of the three speak. They run.