Chapter 43
Eric froze in place just a few steps from the center of the field and stared at his opponent. Farin, fourth in command of Team Deus, stood there grinning at him, wearing his signature lavender-colored suit. The name of Richard Edwards was a sham, disguising who he really was. Eric would recognize the man that had threatened him and the others in the Himitsu Island underground anywhere.
"Good morning," Farin extended his hand out to the small boy, "my name is Richard Edwards. I'm pleased to meet you."
Eric didn't move. It was taking all of his willpower to just stay still. If he moved, he would attack Farin himself. That would only lead to a speedy disqualification. Eric had to keep his temper under control.
"What's wrong, young man?" Farin asked pleasantly. He walked forward, took Eric's limp hand and shook it.
Eric's paralysis broke and he jerked his hand back from the man. Farin's expression remained calm and pleasant.
"Rather un-sportsman-like, don't you think?" the man grinned
"What are you doing?" Eric snapped.
"I thought that I was going to be competing in a Pokémon match against you," Farin shrugged, "is that a problem?"
"Why?"
Farin stared at the small boy for a few seconds, then recognition sank in, "ah, yes. You were with that little group yesterday, weren't you? Well, isn't this a fun coincidence."
"Go to hell."
"Such foul language for a small boy," Farin shook his head, "well, if we already know each other, then shall we get started?" Without waiting for a reply, Farin turned towards his end of the stadium, leaving the flabbergasted Eric to stand staring after him.
It was over. Farin had already displayed how powerful he was. Eric had lost before the match had even started. What was the point in fighting him?
But Eric still felt such anger at seeing him. He was one of the leaders of Team Deus, the tormentors of the small community of human Pokémon, and one of the people responsible for Fernelia's kidnapping. What did he want? Why was he fighting?
The outcome of the match was already certain. Nothing could come from this match. Why did it have to happen to Eric like this?
It was all just...unfair.
The small boy was shaking as he turned towards his own end of the stadium.
"He can't win," Mark stated the fact, "there's no way." Beside him, Cherry and Maple had stopped cheering. They each looked as forlorn as Mark felt.
Farin was far too powerful for Fernelia and Tsunami to handle alone. After yesterday's battle, Farin had defeated Shinobi, Volt and Tsunami and had only lost his warped human Crobat in the process. They only escaped because of Cotton's Sleep Powder and Farin's twisted decision to let them go. Eric didn't stand a chance alone.
A victory was impossible.
But, wait, why was Farin competing at all? Mark had believed that everything that Team Deus had done was a ploy to lure them into the base. If that were true, then why was Farin in the tournament? A regulated match held no meaning.
None of this was making sense. Everything Team Deus did contradicted itself. Why?
"But..." Cherry's small voice distracted Mark, "he's going to fight anyway..."
Mark stared at her anxious expression for a few seconds before looking back down at the field. She was right. Eric could have forfeited already, but he was walking towards his platform anyway. What could he be thinking?
"Yo, Cara," Sparks, the human Luxray nudged his trainer to get her attention, "isn't that the same guy from the bar?"
"Hmm? Gimme a second," the young woman was busy cleaning her glasses. The glare was awful from their position in the nose-bleed section. She had lost one of her contacts shortly after arriving on Himitsu Island and now she was stuck with her back-up pair of glasses for the rest of the tournament. She envied Sparks and her three-to-five other human Pokémon (she still couldn't decide whether Mano, Duon and Trine, the human Dugtrio, was one or three) for their keen eyesight.
"It is him," Ebony, the Honchkrow-woman confirmed from Cara's opposite side, "I had a feeling that we would see his revolting face again..."
"We all did, honey," Serenade, the human Jynx, sighed, "There's just something not right about him..."
At last, Cara's glasses were sufficiently clean. She slid them in place and the world returned to focus. When she looked down at the field, there was no mistaking the grape bubblegum stain that had harassed them at the Shooting Starmie Bar back in Vermilion City.
"Great...him again..." she groaned, "what do you think he's doing here?"
"No idea..." Sparks shook his head, "whatever it is, it isn't good..."
"Thank you for that stunning insight," Ebony leaned forward to sneer at Sparks.
"Then you do better, bitch," Sparks snapped back.
"Hey!" Cara broke up the fight before it got any worse, "whatever he's doing, the two of you fighting isn't going to help solve anything," she took a breath to calm down, "all we know is that he lied to us. He knows what human Pokémon are, so what?"
Her own human Pokémon looked away as their trainer scolded them. It was an old habit for Ebony and Sparks to bicker, one that dated back to well before they turned human and it was always Cara's job to end it.
"Look," Cara continued, "I think he's evil, you guys think he's evil. But so what? We can't do anything about it without good reason. Now apologize to each other."
"No," Ebony and Sparks said in total synchronization.
This is why I'm the trainer, Cara thought with annoyance. Still, she stood by what she said. Sure the guy was suspicious, but what of it? What could they do, follow him around the island waiting for him to do something evil? That was liable to be a waste of time. Time they could be using to practice songs or, better yet, train for their match against RiverofTears.
Cara was suspicious, but she wasn't THAT suspicious.
Still, it couldn't hurt to ask Alex the next time she saw him.
For now, they could only watch him compete. Whoever he was…
Eric climbed up the ladder onto the green platform. He was getting angrier with every passing second. There was nothing fair about what was going to happen. Farin was going to beat him, he knew that for certain. He had already seen how powerful Farin was. No matter what he did, this was just a footnote to Farin. The match would start, it would end, and with no effort Farin would move on.
But Eric wasn't going to accept that. He had come here to fight and compete, no matter who his opponent was. And he knew that Tsunami and Fernelia would feel the same.
He would fight, even if he couldn't win.
Farin believed that he was just an annoyance to be swept aside. He hadn't even remembered Eric was in the group that fought him. Tsunami had been the one to defeat Farin's human Crobat and he hadn't even remembered.
It was Aunt Rita, again. Somebody who thought he didn't matter, who thought that he was just an obstacle and an annoyance.
He hated them both. And he would not go quietly. He was not just some little kid to be ignored and forgotten about. He and his family had gone through too much.
"Fernelia!" Eric shouted, calling out his mother.
The Tropius-woman appeared on the field with a flash of white light. She was the very picture of calm dignity, standing with her hands folded in front of her. She did not look like a fighter. Just like her trainer, it was easy for her opponents to underestimate her. It always worked out in her favor.
Across the field, Farin's human Mightyena was the one to start the fight. He crouched low the ground and snarled at Fernelia. His mind was now warped beyond repair from the experiments that Team Deus had performed on him. It made Fernelia sick and sympathetic at the same time.
"Are you ready?" Eric asked Fernelia.
"Certainly…are you okay?" Fernelia's sharp maternal instincts alerted her to Eric's instability the moment she heard him.
"I'll be fine," Eric exhaled sharply, "I just want to teach this jackass a lesson."
"Okay," Fernelia nodded, still concerned. Then, she recognized the man at the other end of the stadium, as well as the human Mightyena. After that, Eric's anger made sense. He wanted revenge for what had happened to Fernelia. Even if they were going to lose, he wanted to prove that they weren't weak.
Fernelia sighed. It wasn't in her nature to want revenge. To her, it was a selfish act. There was no justice in harming another person for any reason.
Still, she was a Pokémon. The instinct to fight would always be with her, no matter what. She wasn't ashamed of it, but she didn't let herself be controlled by it either.
She wielded an awesome power, but she did it for her son. He was the reason that she had evolved and he was the reason that she fought. She would help, guide and protect him. They were family, after all.
"AANNNNDDDD…" the announcer toyed with them, "BEGIN!"
Just like before, Farin's Mightyena moved without orders while the lavender-man leaned back and watched. It raced across the field, crouched low to the ground. It was awkward to watch, the human frame wasn't meant for quadrupedal movement. But the human Mightyena was so well-adjusted to it, it could move with surprising quickness.
"Fernelia, start with Sunny Day," Eric instructed. It was their normal strategy. Against a Mightyena, there were no obvious type advantages or disadvantages. That made it a good opportunity for Eric to prepare and boost Fernelia's strength while he could.
Fernelia closed her eyes and folded her hands in front of her chest, as if praying. She concentrated on the warmth of the sun beaming down on her and willed for it to get even warmer.
There was no flashy visual display that went along with Sunny Day, but its effects could be felt by everyone in the stadium. The sun over their heads began to feel much warmer and even appeared brighter. The temperature of the warm, late spring day spiked by an extra fifteen degrees. It had a profound effect on the human Pokémon in the stands, as well. Fire and grass-types, Cherry and Maple included, felt energized and much stronger. On the other hand, any water, ice and even electric-types felt oppressed by the excessive heat.
Down on the field, Fernelia opened her eyes and smiled. With that, everything was set up. She was ready for the next stage.
But the time she had spent charging the Sunny Day had also been plenty of time for the human Mightyena to close in on her. Just as she opened her eyes, he was leaping into the air. She moved to dodge out of the way, but it was too late. His mouth opened unusually wide and sharp canine teeth Crunched down on Fernelia's shoulder. She grimaced against the pain and fought to dislodge the dog-man from her shoulder.
He bit deeper into her shoulder, kicking and snarling like a Rottweiler. With the Mightyena-man hanging off of her, Fernelia tried desperately to shake him off. The scene might have been comical if it weren't for the flecks of blood that flew into the air.
At last, the Mightyena's attack finished. It dropped back to prepare for another, eyeing Fernelia more cautiously this time. A ring of bloody teeth marks had appeared on Fernelia's right shoulder and she winced against the pain. Another attack like that and it would be over.
"Now, Fernelia!" Eric shouted, "Solarbeam!"
Farin's Mightyena snarled and leapt at Fernelia again, but the Tropius-woman was quicker. She brought her hands up in front of her, palms outward. Firing like a cannon, a streak of gold, green and red light shot from her open palms directly into the oncoming Mightyena. Powered by the intense sunlight, the column of light, over two-feet in diameter slammed into his chest and sent him rolling backwards along the ground.
Fernelia turned off the Solarbeam to check on the damage done. The Mightyena lay in a heap about twenty yards away from her. Drops of blood dotted the path leading up to him. Unfortunately, he was back on his feet quickly. He was badly hurt, but he ignored it and charged at Fernelia again.
"Again!" Eric shouted, "Solarbeam!" Eric's voice added strength to Fernelia's own powers. The bond the two shared wasn't simply one between trainer and Pokémon, but it was something stronger; the bond of family.
With the empowered sunlight, Fernelia could move quicker and attack more strongly. Solarbeam became a lethal weapon that could do massive damage to most anything she fought. Farin's warped Mightyena was no exception.
She fired one last Solarbeam, directly into the wild-eyed face of her opponent. Even right before the beam of multi-colored light struck him, the human Mightyena never showed fear or hesitation. It wasn't human and it was too much of an animal to even be considered a Pokémon. Eric didn't know what it was, but he felt sorry for it.
The human Mightyena bounced back across the field, knocking up clumps of dirt as its body rolled away. It came to a stop just a few yards shy of its first resting place. On wobbly arms and legs, he tried to sit up. But the effort was too much and, with a whimper, it slumped forward and fell unconscious.
There, Eric grinned at the thought, how do you like that?
Initially, Tsunami's evolution changed nothing. Even after the first two transitional days, where Eric kept Tsunami firmly locked in his room, having another adult around changed little. Eric had expected Aunt Rita to be shocked, horrified, and, a tad unrealistically, he thought she would start treating he and his Pokémon with more respect.
However, this was not the reaction that he saw. Aunt Rita knew so little about Pokémon that apparently there was no shock value in Tsunami's third evolution into a man with strange ears and a sail on his back. Instead, she tried to force Tsunami out of the house. The reason was that Tsunami was now a normal adult and shouldn't be loafing around their house. By her logic, Tsunami was a bad influence on Eric.
A small part of Eric wondered if she were right. He had no idea what relationship he was supposed to have with his former Swampert. He had told Eric that he evolved to be able to help him, but what could he do? Tsunami could not fight the battles that Eric needed to win against Aunt Rita. His evolution seemed meaningless.
Aunt Rita also still planned on selling Fernelia. They had three weeks before Fernelia would be gone forever. The only exception would be if she also turned human. Then, like Tsunami, she would have to leave. The one charity that Aunt Rita granted them was that Tsunami could stay for an additional month while he looked for work.
Eric cursed his Aunt every night and day in the weeks that followed. She had no right to treat them that way and it was downright inhumane to be so cruel to them. Tsunami couldn't even read! How long would he last in the real world by himself? Tsunami was another adult presence in the house, but he had no power.
Fernelia often thought back to the night where Eric had cried himself to sleep beside her, in the garden. Tsunami slept just a short distance away from them, wondering why he had bothered to evolve. Both of them were frustrated, angry and lost. They should have been able to fix their situation. Wasn't part of being human having the power to change the world?
Fernelia wanted to help them both. She didn't know what she could accomplish as a human, but whatever she did, it would be better than remaining as she was.
The next morning, Eric woke up in the arms of the woman that would become his new mother.
AN: I don't know if anybody remembers Cara and her group from waaaaay back in Chapter 11, but they're finally making another appearance. I tried to make it sort of a re-introduction since it's been so long. I don't want to have to force anybody to go back and re-read that chapter.
Anyways, I hope you're enjoying Eric's fight against Farin and his super-depressing back-story.
Thanks for reading and cya next week!