There really wasn't very much to be said of Pewter City besides the obvious—brown, rocky, and oh-so-what's the word? Oh, yeah. Oh-so-freaking-primal.
Denise thought this as she slumped over the polished glass counter of her store. She believed that a Fossil store in the archeology center of Kanto (STONE.Z, a name of her little brother's creation and not her own, otherwise it would've been a lot smarter) would bring plenty of business and allow her to break away from the family profession and travel around as a Trainer as she wanted (Trainers' expenses were quite amazing, she realized; those guys on T.V. made it seem so easy it was unbelievable) but business was so slow day-by-day that she doubted she'd make it out of there before her thirtieth birthday.
"Cari, Lucario," Henry said, pushing through the glass doors with a cardboard box balanced on his shoulder. Denise smiled at him, brushing a loose lock of dark hair from her eyes.
"Thanks Henry; is that the new shipment of Claw Fossils?"
"Lu," he nodded. She pointed to indicate a spot near the door; he set it down gently, immediately returning to her side after. She scratched behind his ear, remembering how he loved the gesture since he was a Riolu. He sighed and pushed his head into her palm.
"When are we gonna get out of here?" she murmured sadly. As if on cue, he barked as one of the daily passersby on the sidewalk approached the doors. "What is it? A customer?"
No sooner than after she said it, a cloaked figure pushed through the doors and moved to the counter, the little brass bell ringing as they shut. Denise looked up, lips slightly parted in wonder. It was rare to have visitors uninterested in the Gym show up, let alone shady visitors. A growl built in Henry's throat as he clenched his paws; she placed a calming hand on his shoulder, leaning forward until she was eye-to-eye with the visitor.
"Whatever you want, I can't help you with that hood on," she said calmly but commandingly. "I know you didn't just happen to run in here since this place is between two larger buildings; we're pretty insignificant. Whatever purpose you have, you gotta fulfill it while I can see your face."
The person sort of grunted low enough for Denise to peg him as a him. He slowly reached up and drew the navy hood back. "Is this better?" he asked in a very soft voice.
"Y-yes," she stuttered, moving back until her back hit the shelf behind her. He had pale skin that sure as hell wasn't indigenous to the-Sun-hates-us Pewter and wavy dirty-blond hair that fell to his shoulders. Then his eyes were like crystals, changing color every time the light hit it at a different angle; at that moment, they were bright green. He looked away from her and at Henry, nodding at him.
"Your friend here really loves you," he said.
"Um yeah," she stammered, not the least bit relaxed. "W-what do you need?" she asked, trying to calm her shaking voice and trying to sound more inviting. Something about him was just so…unnerving.
"Hm?" He looked amused by her reaction. "I almost forgot. A bit hard to remember with such a pretty girl," he murmured, resting his elbows on the glass and cradling his face in his hands.
"N-no," she laughed nervously. "I'm not."
"I disagree. Well, I digress; I came here for a Fire Stone."
"Fire Stone?" It took her a few seconds to remember what that was. "But… I'm sorry, this is a Fossil store."
"Oh?" He blinked slowly, his face falling a little. "That's too bad."
"Yeah, it is."
"No, I mean your friend, Henry." He nodded at Henry, who seemed a bit startled to have been addressed. "You know, since he's unable to use Psychic-type moves."
She and Henry gasped. "How could you possibly know that?" she demanded, her initial anxiety and suspicion doubling. He blinked very slowly; Denise noticed that he had long eyelashes, like a girl. Actually, he was a lot like a girl, with his pale skin and shortness and face. She then knew for a fact that he didn't live in Pewter; if he had, he would've gotten beaten up in the schoolyard by the steroid-looking elementary school kids. (Mining stones and working with Rock-types really did wonders for the body.)
"I asked him," he said matter-of-factly. "In his head."
She frowned, starting to think he was crazy. "You can… You can speak mind?"
"It's telepathy, to be specific, and I can do more than that," he shrugged.
"Okay, yeah, I'll pretend that doesn't sound crazy for a minute, but the hospital's mental wing is a few blocks away, just so ya know."
He watched her long enough to make her squirm, uncomfortable. "Your name is Denise," he finally said. "You're five-foot-six and your favorite snack is rock candy."
"So? I'm pretty well-known."
"Lu," Henry sighed.
"You also have a collection of My Little Ponyta: Pokémon is Magic DVDs."
"W-What? No I don't," she snapped, flushing at Henry's surprised laughter. "How the hell do you know?" she hissed.
"I see it in your head," he answered. Okay, so maybe he wasn't so crazy, but the idea of someone reading minds other than Sabrina was.
"Can you, um, use the power of suggestion?"
"It works better on Pokémon, but on people? Yes."
"Could you kind of persuade people to come here and buy something?" she asked.
"I don't like pushing people to do things they're not likely to."
"What? Are you saying you don't think they'll come here?" she asked more than a little heatedly.
"I'm sorry; have I angered you?" He looked up at her like a kicked puppy, leaving her no other option than to pity him.
"No, you're right anyway; business sucks."
"It truly does," he smirked. Smirked?
"You little faker!" she accused. He just shrugged, irking her even more. "Get the hell out of my damn store!"
"I won't. I have a sort of insight, you see, and I can—hey!" His voice suddenly broke from its song into a screeching note as he grabbed fistfuls of his cloak and pulled, yanking it free from the buttons that bound it. A wriggling and sticky white mess fell onto the countertop. "Can you stop doing that?" he demanded.
Denise shied away from the thing until she realized it was a Wurmple. It squirmed on the counter, making a huge mess of its webs on the glass that Denise just cleaned before stilling. "You're cleaning that, you know?" she said to him. He shrugged. "Who are you anyway?"
"I'm visiting for personal reasons," he said. "My name's Aristotle."
"Sounds familiar."
"It's an old philosopher," he explained.
"No, I swear it was on T.V. or something…"
"I gave a name," he interrupted, though not at all rudely. "I'd expect one in return. Common courtesy."
"Denise," she answered, purposely rude, flicking a bit of hair away from her face. "Which you already know, Mr. Mind-Reader."
"Ah," he smiled, not affected at all. "But I wanted to hear you say it, because it's a very lovely name." She flushed a little, which was obviously the reaction he expected. She pegged him as somewhat—no, more than somewhat of a schmoozer, like those door-to-door salesmen Dee and Derrick always fell for.
"Um, yeah, can't do anything for you, but I'd be happy—" she grimaced, "—to help you look for a Fire Stone. I know a guy that can get it for you." Anything to get you the hell outta here, she thought. He raised his eyebrows, although she wasn't sure if it was because of her words or her thought.
"Is that so?"
"Yes." Please just get out, she thought.
"Well then, thank you for the help." He scooped the Wurmple into his arms; it cried out a bit, squirming and twisting in his grip.
"Wait!" she yelled as he started to leave.
"Is my presence suddenly more welcome, Denise?" he asked, highly amused.
"No you dolt," she snapped, pointing at the counter and spreading her hands. "You didn't clean your damn mess up."
He was still smiling, except it had become bitterer. "You're quite the catch, aren't you?" he murmured.
"Yes, yes I am, now wipe this crap off before I use your face to do it. I just cleaned this counter and you'll be damned if I can't see my reflection in it when you're done, now get to work, Mr. Aristotle."
—
"Hey, Bill," Denise greeted, bringing him from his stupor.
"Denise, haven't seen you 'round here in a while," he said, adjusting his sunglasses as he held out his fist for Henry. "How're you doin' pal?"
"Luca," he replied, bumping fists. He smiled, then frowned as he watched Aristotle look around the Gym in wonder.
"Aristotle," Denise said. She had to say his name twice more before he pulled his eyes away and looked at her. "What, you never saw a Gym before?"
"Ah, no," he said, looking around again. "Where I'm from…oh, that rock formation looks like a Golem…where I'm from we didn't have a Pokémon Gym."
"That is a Golem, by the way; it's a stray that stays here for scraps, and if you touch him he'll bite your royal behind. So what? Littleroot? New Bark?"
He looked at her curiously. "Why would you assume that I am from Kanto?"
"I don't know; maybe because you look a little amazed by the simplest things here?"
"Ah," he murmured, blinking dazedly like he just got punched in the face. "I see."
"Bill, this is Aristotle," she said, gesturing to him. He smiled in a friendly way, but that didn't help the creepiness of his demeanor. Even Bill couldn't look chill when faced with that. "Aristotle, this is Bill. He helps new Trainers along in the Gym."
"You a Trainer?" Bill asked him. He shrugged.
"I think he is. He has this Wurmple," Denise said. "But it looks kinda defective to me."
"Hey," he said disconcertedly, pulling the sticky little Pokémon from the folds of his cloak. "She doesn't like name calling."
"Oh yeah, he's a psychic too," she added. "Like that Gym Leader Sabrina."
"The Fire Stone," he reminded her, even though he looked like he'd rather keep drooling at the Gym than get it. She didn't even understand why he'd need one, unless he had an Eevee or Growlithe or something hidden in his cloak, though personally, if she was a Pokémon, she'd hate to have to share space with that Wurmple.
"You need a Fire Stone, guy?" Bill asked. He nodded. "Don't worry, ol' Bill's got ya. Hey, Brock!" he yelled across the lumpy stone structures.
"Huh?" Brock shouted back. "Bill? Is there a Trainer?"
"Guy needs a Fire Stone!"
"You know the rules, Bill!"
Bill turns back to Aristotle resignedly. "Sorry, guy; rules are rules. The Gym Leader can only give you Items if you beat him in a battle, and, well, your Pokémon is pretty sorry."
"A Pokémon battle?" Aristotle replied, rocking his Wurmple back and forth a bit. He whispered something into her ear, staring at her so intensely Denise assumed he was reading her thoughts. "Yes, that's doable. I do need that Fire Stone after all, and I am financially bereft."
"Huh? You're broke but you went to my shop anyway?" Denise accused.
"Oh, Denise," he said, stricken. She wanted to pester him some more but gave up; he was too weird, in attitude and actions. If she kept fighting with him she might catch whatever he had. "Mr. Bill, I'll fight Brock."
Bill just shrugged, like he knew Aristotle was dead meat but didn't want to tell him. He led them past the random cropping of boulders and onto the rocky battlefield. Brock was standing at the other end of it, speaking to his Onix. "Hey," he said to Aristotle.
"Good morning," he replied.
"This ought'a be quick," Bill muttered as he stood to the side with Denise. "The rules are simple: both Trainers will use two Pokémon, and the battle ends when both of a Trainer's Pokémon are unable to continue. If buddy here wins, he gets the Boulder Badge; if Brock wins, buddy has to cough up. That's about it. Let the battle begin!"
Aristotle retrieved a PokeBall from his pocket; a blinding flash of white light burst from it, forcing Denise to turn away, then it dimmed to a small red light. Suddenly a Glaceon was standing in front of him, shaking with the anticipation of battle.
"You have a Glaceon?" Denise asked, regretting doing so right after. He summoned it, didn't he? she thought. Obviously, he does. But then why would he need a Fire Stone? Unless he has more Pokémon, but I don't understand why he would carry around that stupid little Wurmple if he does…
"Denise," he said warningly. She pressed her lips together, trying to clear her mind.
"Get outta my head," she said, imagining pink Donphan.
"Denise." This time, it was more out of amusement.
"Aristotle." She spoke in annoyance.
"So your name is Aristotle?" Brock asked. Aristotle nodded; his Glaceon seemed to nod too. "Like the old philosopher?"
"Yes; I'm impressed that you recognize it."
"He reads philosophy to get scholarly women," Bill said to Denise.
"He's still chasing women?" she replied, rolling her eyes.
"Yup. No luck though."
"Go figure."
Aristotle smiled, looking at her in interest. "You're one to speak about pointless love, Denise."
"Shut it and do your damn battle."
He continued to smile to Denise's annoyance. "Please use Quick Attack." His Glaceon lurched forward; it was quick, Denise was certain of that, but it wasn't exactly Quick Attack quick.
"Onix, use Iron Tail!" Brock commanded. Onix shifted, slamming its tail into the ground and smashing the rocks apart. Aristotle's Glaceon recoiled, moving backwards. She watched it in confusion; shouldn't it have tried to run through the rocks straight to his Onix? Was Aristotle new to Pokémon battling? It was the first Gym, but usually the Trainers had some experience.
"Keep going," he urged softly. Glaceon shook its head and leapt onto the nearest rock, opening its mouth and releasing an Ice Beam. It did manage to hit Onix right in the face, but he was strong; he just shook the ice chips off and roared defiantly.
"Onix, Bind!" Brock yelled. His Onix lunged forward, curling his tail around Glaceon and tightening his grip until it was visibly straining for breath. Aristotle didn't seem the least bit worried, however; he just watched with that weirdly blank face of his.
"Hey, I'm not a Trainer, but wouldn't it be smart for you to, I don't know, counterattack?" Denise said. He didn't respond; he kept watching as his Glaceon cried out, wiggling in Onix's grip. Out of nowhere he winced, biting his lower lip.
"Don't be mad at me; I did not suggest that," he called. Denise thought that he hearing his Glaceon telepathically, but in that case why didn't he respond to it telepathically? "What? You're being highly unreasonable. What?" The Glaceon cried out. "This was your idea! Remember?"
Glaceon exhaled, encasing Onix's rocks in a thin shield of ice. He recoiled immediately, smashing his tail against the ground to shatter the ice. Glaceon took that opportunity to slip free, running up his body while forming ice crystals around its own body. It jumped onto Onix's nose and launched the crystals into his eyes; he roared, throwing his head back with his eyes screwed shut, but Glaceon held its ground by freezing its paws to his body.
"Onix, use Screech!" Brock shouted. Denise covered her ears as Onix opened his mouth and screamed with enough force to shake the boulders lying around. The ice immediately shattered and Glaceon began sliding down his body. It tried to stick to him again but the ice it made was weak with him still shouting; it just formed a thin trail as it skidded down his body to the ground.
"Stop playing around," Aristotle said with so much force it sounded like his personality did a complete one-eighty. His Glaceon stood up, shook its fur out and glared at him. "Don't say that," he said remorsefully. "You're highly irritating. Use Hidden Power."
Five golden balls appeared around Glaceon, slowly revolving around it like it was the Sun. It charged forward as Onix swung his head from side-to-side, still blinded from its earlier attack. It barked as it launched Hidden Power, which struck Onix head-on, literally. He roared as a series of fist-shaped indents appeared in his thick, rocky exterior; chunks of stone fell from his body as he shook, waved from side-to-side and finally toppled to the ground with a series of thuds and a final, grand thump!
"Onix is unable to continue; the winner of the battle is Glaceon!" Bill announced, throwing a hand in Glaceon's direction. Aristotle didn't seem pleased at all; if Denise had to describe his unusually rigid expression, she'd say he looked a little sad.
"You won, shouldn't you be happy?" she asked. He just shook his head and sighed.
"Good job, Onix," Brock said. "Bill said we needed two Pokémon, but one battle is good enough—"
"Hello there," Aristotle interrupted, looking up at his Onix. "I'm sorry we had to get rough. My Pokémon is sorry too." His Glaceon scowled; Onix snorted in response, turning away.
"Nix," he snapped at Aristotle's Glaceon. Denise couldn't speak Pokémon, but it sounded like someone her mom would've washed her mouth out for.
"Apologize," he said to Glaceon. It slowly padded up to Onix and gave one of his rocks a quick lick before moving away. "She's sorry too."
Onix grunted as Aristotle moved over, scraping at the ice stuck around his eye. "I hope she wasn't too brutal," he murmured.
Glaceon huffed and ran over to Brock, sniffing him; he patted her head. "It's okay; it'd be a pretty sad battle if neither of us went all-out," he said, looking at him. "You don't seem like a Trainer, though."
"I'm not," he answered softly. "I'm a…Traveler, if you will; I want to learn all I can about this world and the others."
"Others?" Brock and Denise asked at the same time. He smiled a little at that.
"The worlds of the Legendary Pokémon."
"What? The Legendaries live in different worlds?" Denise said this time.
"Dimensions, to be specific."
"How do you know?"
He was almost grinning, his smile was so big. He looked like he wanted to laugh but couldn't for the sake of the situation. "Books. They're very magical in the way they effortlessly and painlessly disclose information to the common man—or working-class woman."
She glared at him. "You really feel smart, don't you? Well in Pewter, it's not about brains; it's about staying alive while I beat your smart—"
"Lucario!" Henry cried out, turning to the door. Denise broke off and followed his eyes, seeing a figure dart between the rocks and make his way over the ruptured ground.
"Dee? What's up? Did something happen at the house?"
He slumped over briefly, trying to catch his breath. They were more or less alike: same brown skin, same brown hair, and same displeasure for Pewter, except their dad was hard-pressing him to take over the shop when he had more fun travelling as a Trainer and only popping by occasionally. "You better come fast," he said after finally catching his breath, terror and dread in his eyes. Her blood ran cold as she followed him back through the Gym, bursting through the doors into the construction district of Pewter. They dodged workers with steel beams and passing Golem and the occasional Hitmonlee running back to their house. "Dee, what's going on?"
"I'm not sure," he said as they passed through an alley. He ducked to avoid a low-flying Staravia before leaping over a toppled trashcan. "One minute, me and mom were talking and eating cookies—the damn good ones, the peanut butter and oatmeal ones you know that are so soft they just melt in your mouth—"
"Get to the freakin' point!"
"Then this wacko Trainer showed up, knocked her out, socked dad, took my Pokémon and our Fossils and left!"
She was barely conscious of the fast tapping of feet behind them. "What the hell?" She saw their neighborhood and barely recognized their house among the smoke and debris around it. It looked like the entire second floor had collapsed. When she moved closer she could distinguish three bodies in the rubble: her mom, a dangerous-looking red gash on her forehead; her dad half-pinned under a cement chunk; and Derrick lying face-down in the dirt, completely motionless. "Derrick!" she yelled, dropping to her little brother's side and turning him over. "Why didn't you call an ambulance?" she shouted at Dee.
"I did, but well, you know Pewter's stupidity—"
"Derrick," she said frantically, tapping his cheek. "Derrick, wake up!"
"He won't; I already tried for all of them," Dee said. "I just wanted you to see them in case, well…"
She carefully set Derrick down before getting to her feet. "Do you know who the Trainer is?"
"No; I never saw him around Kanto before."
"Do you know where he went?"
Dee pointed to the southwest. She turned and saw Henry running up with Brock and Aristotle holding his weird little Wurmple. "Henry, we're going," she said.
"Lu," he said, energized. Aristotle looked at her pleadingly, which she ignored and charged past him. He suddenly reached out and grabbed her wrist, nearly causing her to fall on her face.
"Violence is not the answer," he said, annoyingly calm.
"Tell that to the guy that jacked with my family!"
"Denise, trust me."
"Why should I?" she yelled, spinning to face him and yanking her arm from his grip. "I don't even know you, you weirdo! This joker—whoever he is—hurt my family, so I'll hurt him back!"
"But what good will that do?" He looked at her with something flickering in his eyes that she didn't recognize immediately.
"Mind your own damn business! Don't worry about what I do!"
"I will worry, because I don't want to see you get hurt." He blinked, apparently reading her reaction in her thoughts, and added, "I don't want to see anyone get hurt, not anymore."
"Then what? I'm supposed to let him walk free? Not a chance!" She turned and took off before he could say anything else, Henry running at her side. "What the hell is wrong with that guy?" she asked him.
"Lu," he shrugged. Then he pushed her out of the way as a Graveler and Golem rolled by. "Ca, Luca," he said, looking at her worriedly. She grimaced.
"I'm gonna be fine, Henry," she said, running through an alley onto the Route 3 entrance. She saw a Trainer with reddish-brown hair standing to the side laughing with his Blastoise. An unmistakable leather PokeBall belt was looped around his wrist; it was unmistakable because their dad made it for Dee when his tenth birthday came and it had so many stitches it could audition for Frankenstein. The Trainer laughed for a few more seconds before his eyes set on her.
"You look familiar," he said, and those were the only three words he could get out before Henry charged forward and decked him in the jaw. He stumbled back a couple of steps before flipping backwards from the momentum and landing in the dirt. His Blastoise snarled and grabbed Henry by the neck; he growled, grabbing his thick wrists and futilely trying to pry himself free. "Ugh," he groaned, getting to his feet and dusting off his clothes.
"You're gonna get more from me unless you give back Dee's belt," Denise threatened, stepping forward. "Or actually, I should rephrase that: you'll get a beating even if you return it, just for hurting my family."
"Your family… So those were your brothers, huh?" he mused, using a tree to get to his feet. He spat a wad of blood on the grass and wiped his mouth. He smirked arrogantly. "They were pretty damn weak, you know?"
"That's it!" She lurched forward, ready to bash his brains in, but slammed into something hard and thick like a tree, spinning to the ground. She blinked away the stars in her vision and saw his Blastoise standing guard in front of him. "Where's Henry?"
"This guy?" he said, holding him up by the arm. Henry's head lolled to the side, limp and useless like the rest of his body. Denise tried to get up but a stabbing pain in her left arm stopped her. "A Psychic-type that can't use Psychic-type moves is pretty useless, don't you think?"
"Who are you?" Denise demanded. He laughed as he threw Henry to the ground, spinning Dee's belt around his finger.
"Blue," he said plainly.
"Blue… I remember you. You were Champion before you lost to that Red guy," she smirked. His confident smile dissolved into an angry scowl.
"Yeah, well, I won't lose to him again, especially with these new training dummies." He shook Dee's belt for emphasis. Denise managed to get to her feet.
"Give those back."
"Or what? You'll try to hit me again with that broken arm? Send your dysfunctional Lucario after me?" Blue laughed. "You know, you can blame your family for the attack. I was here on a little task, see, and I just wanted some Fossils to get some kickin' Pokémon to throw around, but then your brother—the twerpy brat with the really bad puberty voice—said that I was a bad guy, that I abuse my Pokémon blah-blah-blah. Kid was the worst; I was happy to send Arcanine to deal with him. The world would be better if he didn't open his eyes again."
There weren't any words for how mad Denise was, but her anger wasn't enough to cloud her judgment; as a simple human, she couldn't fight a big Pokémon like that. Even so, she couldn't help swinging at it another time. It caught her good hand with a smirk just like Blue's, but before she could find out if he wanted to break her other arm or smash her or something, someone else came behind them.
"Excuse me," Aristotle said. "I don't think Denise likes that, so if you would please release her and return her property, that would be very nice."
"Bad news for you, guy, but I'm not exactly nice," Blue snorted.
"I see. I was just hoping you would make the correct choice."
Blue rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers; Blue's Blastoise released her and she immediately dropped to Henry's side. He was coming to, but not nearly fast enough to fight his Blastoise and whatever else he had. "Aristotle, you should go," she said to him. "This guy means serious business."
"So do I." He was still holding his Wurmple, which made Blue laugh.
"You don't expect to fight me with that, do you?"
"No, I don't. You can stop pretending now," he said to her. His Wurmple looked at them with human intelligence.
Aristotle. It took a few breaths for Denise and Blue to realize that his Wurmple was talking to him. Telepathically. I don't want to—
"Our purpose is to save lives, isn't it?" he asked her. She sighed and wriggled out of his grip. Denise watched her change form, changing from a pathetic little Wurmple into—
"Mew?" Blue gasped. It couldn't have been the Legendary Pokémon Mew, the ancestor of all Pokémon, but she looked the part and floated around and—well—it couldn't have been anything but Mew.
"Yo-You have Mew?" she asked Aristotle, eyes wide. "And a Glaceon—"
"It was it, actually," he said, pointing at Mew floating around nervously. "We just used a little powder and lights trick to make it seem as if I was calling it from a PokeBall. I told the truth earlier; I'm not a Trainer. It was the one that wanted me to battle, and I got what it wanted me to get." He pulled a Thunderstone out of his cloak. "Well, not exactly, but he should be happy either way."
"Isn't it a little unfair to challenge me with the god of Pokémon?" Blue sneered, obviously ruffled.
"It's not the god; Arceus is," he corrected. "And I know it is unfair, which is why I won't be attacking you." He tossed the Thunderstone to the grass a few feet away. A Pokémon raced out from the bushes and jumped on it; the light from the reaction forced all of them to turn away, and when it died down a Jolteon was standing in the grass, growling and bristling and ready to fight.
"Mew?" Aristotle said, gesturing at her.
This is Melvin, Mew introduced, still looking very wary. Denise shivered every time the thing's thoughts invaded her head. Melvin's mother was badly injured by Blue, so he wants his revenge. I tried to convince him otherwise, as did Aries, however children are very hard to persuade.
"Indeed," Aristotle agreed. He looked at Denise, a sad expression on his face, but before she could ask about it Blastoise took a step forward, cannons aimed at her. Twin jets of highly-pressurized steamy water shot from them, so fast she feared she wouldn't have time to call Arceus' name before she was burned to a crisp. "Denise!" Suddenly Aristotle's voice was a shriek full of pain. She felt something tug at her mind like a rope was tied to her brain, then it became a noose when she felt her body fly sideways to the ground. The water missed her by a millimeter, tearing up a thick oak tree instead. She swallowed, imagining her head in that position.
"What?" Blue said, confused. Mew looked at Aristotle, who had his arm outstretched and his face red with exertion.
I have yet to see you move something as large as a person intentionally, she said. Impressive, Aries.
"Guu," he groaned. He brought his arm down to his side with a loud crack that sounded like bone grating against bone. The sound returned when he tried to take a step forward. "Damn it," he said, actually looking human for once. "Can't move."
"So you're a psychic, huh?" Blue said, looking at him. "Like Gym Leader Sabrina?"
She is a psychic, true, Mew said, but Aries is a true psychic. Aristotle and Blue rolled their eyes. Roll your eyes all you want, Pokémon Trainer Blue, but it is very true; his mental ability is two-point-seven times that of a normal person's. You would have no chance against him in a battle.
Blue looked like he had something snarky to say, but that little Eevee—Jolteon, Melvin, whatever—shot a pretty damn impressive Thunderbolt at his Blastoise. It staggered, not exactly injured but very surprised, and was slow reacting as Melvin leapt on top of it, fur sparking and snapping. Blastoise aimed its cannons at him, but every time it tried to fire Melvin gave it a good shock. Blue grounded his teeth together and started to draw one of Dee's PokeBalls.
"Cario!" Henry came up from behind him and, in one quick movement, grabbed Dee's belt and kicked him in the base of his back, knocking him to the ground. Blastoise cried out as the electricity finally became too much for him; Blue tried to go towards him, concern on his face, but Henry slammed his foot between his shoulder blades, holding him down.
"Hey, Blue," Denise said, crouching down to meet his eyes. "Before we send you to Hell, I have a question: What task were you talking about earlier?"
"Classified information," he grounded out.
"You better un-classify it, or else Henry'll break your spine to bits."
"Sorry," he smirked, squirming under Henry's foot. Henry growled and shifted to put more pressure on his back; just then, a screeching sound vibrated through the air as a red beam shot from under his body into the sky. Denise looked up and barely moved in time as a Pigeot came swooping down; his talons raked down her back as she ducked, leaving painful scratch marks she was sure would bleed out. Henry had to back up as Blue's Pigeot came back, talons ready to cut his ears off. Blue smirked and raised his hand, grabbing Pigeot's leg as it came back around. All of them ducked as he soared high with a mighty screech, Blue laughing as he climbed onto his back and returned Blastoise. The last thing they saw was his middle finger, then they flew too far away to see.
Denise swore, kicking a rock angrily. "He got away."
Melvin the Jolteon looked sad too. Aristotle knelt down with a few more painful-sounding, scratching his scruff. Even though there was still electricity crackling around his body, he didn't seem fazed by it. "It's okay," he murmured. "Revenge is a pointless thing anyway."
Aries, Mew said, hovering awfully close to him. You're being very hypocritical right now. You're saying revenge is a pointless thing, yet you crave just that with—
"Mew," he said, closing his eyes. In anger? She couldn't be sure. "That's private."
Mew looked thoughtful, so much that Denise assumed that the conversation between them had become purely mental. A sad look crossed her face; Aristotle looked sad, but that quickly changed to determination. "In any case," he said suddenly, very loudly, startling Denise after a few minutes of telepathy. "We should help Denise and her Lucario. They are injured, remember?"
Denise barely remembered, but when Aristotle said it, the pain was revived in her body. She stumbled and would've fallen if Henry hadn't caught her, carrying her in his arms like when she was a little girl and they'd play until she fell asleep. "Henry," she said, a little annoyed, but didn't try to break from his grip.
"Cari," he replied, his face soft.
"He cares for you a lot, you know," Aristotle said, standing up and grimacing. She turned her face away from him.
"You're really annoying, you know that? You're too strange and shadowy and just plain weird."
He simply smiled, like he expected her to say that. "I did expect you to say that," he said, reading her thoughts. "To be completely honest, I enjoyed your little mental commentary of this endeavor."
"Why don't you listen to your own damn thoughts, huh?" she snapped. He made that same kicked puppy face that made her feel bad. "Don't do that; you're not innocent at all."
"Goodnight, Denise," he said. She felt something tingly in her brain, kind of like when he grabbed her psychically earlier, and suddenly she was so tired she couldn't even swear at him before her eyes were stuck shut.
