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As always lately, I apologize for my tardiness. Moving to another country's a bit hectic. This is my first post from the outback! Thanks for your feedback on Styx/Sticky. It'll likely be my next project.
Just a reminder about what symbols mean:
{} = telepathy
o ~ o = character pov change (used to b but ff's gone cooky on me)
Italics = dreams, memories
StattStatt- Thank you! Yeah, I've planned this out very carefully because I greatly dislike stories with plotholes...
japaneserockergirl- Glad you caught up! :)
ChaosAngel4us- Thank you. The Styx/Sticky story will definitely be my next project (but hopefully about a fourth of this size).
Sandy Star- Yeah, Landon's power's pretty freaky. Will do on the Styx story :)
Hell of a Time- The only thing I dislike more than plot holes are stories that the author stops writing. I PROMISE I will finish writing this story.
Last Warrior 7 - Thank you, I seriously appreciate criticism. I agree and think Reece's point of view could be better. I struggle to write from his perspective-this is all part of the writing process and I'm still learning so thanks for letting me know what's not working. I did make up the inscription on the wall, thank you for the compliment. You'll understand why Rita became upset with Landon after this chapter. A brief explanation of Liam's first dead Eevee...
Growing up, Liam's first Eevee was murdered by the ex-ex-Master of Team Glop'emm (the Master before Liam's father, Velkan, was Master). Killing the Eevee was revenge for Velkan's manipulation of the Master's life to the point she felt she had to forfeit her position as Master. He later was given another Eevee.
Thank you to my readers and reviewers who have stuck with me through all the long waits. Seriously, you guys rock.
Previously on An Apple a Day
Liam flies away from Artemis Town to interrogate Professor Hastings about the whereabouts of his cousin, Landon, who he saved when brought back in time by Celebi. He gains no new information from Hastings and decides to return to Team Glop'emm headquarters to utilize resources like the tracking device.
Carly and Reece capture several hundred poison Pokemon and release them into Cereal City. Reece goes on to release Jamie Arkle and Professor Hastings from prison. Carly remains in Cereal City.
After escaping his foster father, Professor Hastings, Landon Mendol goes to Drape Town where he enters Team Glop'emm headquarters. Despite their similar appearances, Professor Rita Teal recognizes Landon is not the Master and locks herself and Landon in the Master's office. She gives in to violent urges when Landon reads her a chilling poem that hangs on the Master's wall.
After much battling in Cereal City, Anita figures out the poison Pokemon have been brainwashed/severely hypnotized. The battle continues...
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Chapter 45: Venomous
"Anita, we're going to draw half of them away," I said, steering Griffy in the direction I thought was away from the massive fight. Of course, because it was sometime way too early to be awake in the morning and the electricity had been out long before we arrived, I went the exact wrong direction. Luckily, I was riding my wonderful psychic Girafarig, whose navigational abilities far surpassed min own in light or dark. We turned around, and Griffy galloped in the opposite direction, psychically dragging several Grimers and Trubbishes with him. Hopefully, Missy and Tweal were close behind.
Honestly, I didn't know why I tried to steer anyway—must be some sort of instinct. {Like spitting on clovers,} Griffy's tail commented.
I flinched when I heard a splat just above my right ear, but turned to find Griffy had put up a psychic barrier that worked like a windshield with one difference: sludge typically burned through windshields and Griffy's barrier held steady.
{Shall I tell Anita psychically that we've gone?} Griffy asked. {Its very unlikely she heard you in the chaos.}
"Na, she'll figure it out, and if not, she'll contact us." If Griffy got in her head at the wrong time and she was distracted… I'd spent a long time volunteering in the hospital in elementary school. More than enough time.
A light caught my eye. Unsurprising as there was nothing else for me to see.
"Griffy, head to the light." Might as well fight where I could see. Surely we'd dragged the poison Pokemon far enough from Anita to stop every poison Pokemon in town from heading towards her, where the concentration of poison Pokemon had been the largest.
As we neared the light, I noticed the haze of poison lessened noticeably. Griffy answered my unasked question. {Miss Blavoid's clearing the air most efficiently. Her effort is concentrated at the center of the city, which we are nearing.}
Ahead, I could make out the silhouette of a man. On his left was a Magmar, its tail the source of light I was seeing. He was standing in front of a large water fountain that was spurting green water.
The man heard our approach. With Griffy's hooves clacking, it was hard not to.
"Ice beam the poison Pokemon," he ordered. I was confused; Magmar couldn't learn—
From both my left and right, ice shot out from the darkness. Griffy put up a barrier around us, releasing his hold on the freezing poison Pokemon. The ice attacks, however, never reached us.
"Who are you, girl?" the man asked. His voice was scratchy. "And no funny business; I've got you surrounded. What were you doing with those poison Pokemon?"
"I'm Erin Kendle. Research assistant of…" What was I supposed to say? Styx wasn't a professor, and I didn't even know her last name. Styx, friendly human-shaped Ditto and girlfriend of the Artemis Town gym leader. "Well, I'm here with the Dustin and Tali Blavoid." Always best to name important people if you weren't sure how much of a threat a stranger presented.
Griffy took a few steps closer, and I could now see the man was middle-aged, younger than I'd expected from his voice. He had dark hair cropped so short it stuck up straight and was wearing very outdated navy blue pajamas. "I was separating these poison Pokemon from the ones my friends are battling," I explained. "Poison Pokemon are attracted to each other and it would be suicidal to attempt battling all of them at once. Especially when they keep un-fainting."
The man's stance relaxed. "Smart girl. Here we've been freezing them. They can't stink up the place when their pores are frozen shut, and we draw plenty poison Pokemon anyway with this damn fountain simmering substances of Arceus-knows what toxicity."
As if on cue, a Muk lumbered into the light. I watched in fascination as the Muk was frozen from the bottom up. When it tried to fire a last-ditch sludge bomb in the direction the ice was coming from, Magmar intercepted the sludge bomb with flames.
"I'm Gordon, by the way," the man said.
I climbed off of Griffy and shook his outstretched hand. He had a strong grip.
"I've been lugging the ice blocks to that alley back there." Gordon gestured behind him. "But it'd be easier if your Girafarig could…"
"No problem. Griffy, go ahead."
{Of course, Miss.} As Griffy psychically moved the frozen Muk to thealley, I peered into the darkness trying to make out the Pokemon using ice beam. The gym leader of Cereal City was water, so…
"Your last name wouldn't happen to be Lamar?" I asked.
"You asking if I'm the gym leader of this place?" The man laughed. "That's one I've never got before. Na, I just have high-tech gas detectors in my apartment." He gestured to his Magmar. "You wouldn't believe the fumes this one let off when he was younger."
The Magmar folded his arms and glared at Gordon.
"Those water Pokemon are the gym leader's though. I went to him when I woke up and found the city like this, but like most folks, he was passed out from the gas. Knew his Pokemon would listen to me, though. I got his Tonsil out of a pretty nasty situation once."
I gave him a look I used to give my sister when she burst into horrible, out-of-tune song on family vacations. "Are you a doctor?"
The man chuckled. "Tonsil's the gym leader's Vaporeon."
{There are three Weezings approaching from the west,} Griffy informed me. I opened my mouth to tell Gordon, but an ice beam was already being fired. It was met with flames, melting the ice harmlessly away. The attack pushed one of the Weezings into the light. Smoke poured out of his mouth.
"Griffy, psychic," I ordered, closing my eyes from the sting of the smoke. "Tweal, Missy, get over here and fight."
{I can no longer sense Missy,} Griffy said. {And Tweal is a ways away.}
Well. I should keep track of my Pokemon better.
I heard Gordon coughing somewhere on my right. "Magmar, punch his socks off," he rasped.
"Gordon, are you okay?" I asked. I felt for the edge of the fountain and followed it, towards his voice. If he was having issues breathing, maybe I could lend him my gas mask for a few minutes…
Something crunched beneath my foot. I picked up my heel and squinted down through the smoke. A PokeBall. I continued along the fountain edge and my foot hit something round—another PokeBall.
"Gordon, are these your PokeBalls?"
A large floating ball bumped into me. "Weezing." I backed away quickly, stumbling over something soft, and catching myself on the fountain's edge. Even through the smoke, I could see the Weezing begin to glow.
Selfdestruct. "Griffy!" I called.
A barrier appeared in front of me as there was a loud explosion. A minute later, the smoke lifted. One of Tali's Noctowls hovered nearby, defogging the area with its wings. The Weezings were frozen one by one while Griffy held them in place psychically.
It was extremely disturbing to see the Weezing that had just used Selfdestruct awaken a few seconds after the attack, blinking as if it had been startled from a short nap.
Gordon sat on the ground, his head between his knees and his breath coming out in short pants. "I'm fine," he said, without lifting his head. His Magmar was bent beside him. Before I could say anything, he snapped, "And don't you dare offer to take me to the Pokemon Center. I've been fighting asthma for years."
Yeah, but not in these circumstances, I would have said. However, I happened to glance down and see what I had stumbled on. It was a bag of PokeBalls.
"These aren't yours?" I asked.
Gordon glanced at the bag. "Nope. Found them here."
From the number of PokeBalls in the bag and the number scattered around the fountain, these could all belong to the poison Pokemon…
I raised the bag in the air and smashed it into the ground. I then proceeded to jump on the bag until all the PokeBalls within were broken. "Griffy, break any ball you find around the fountain," I ordered.
"What in Arceus's name are you doing?" Gordon said. "Those balls might belong to the poison Pokemon, and we wouldn't want to ruin any chance of matching the balls—"
"If these PokeBalls belong to the poison Pokemon, we'll never be able to match the Pokemon with the correct ball. There are just too man to try. By breaking the balls we find, however, we can at least re-catch some of them instead of refreezing them every five minutes."
My mind was racing. This was where the poison Pokemon had been released. Supposing we could re-catch some of the Pokemon, they'd be proof that someone was behind this outbreak of poison Pokemon. If we could find evidence here, we might be able to find who and why…
I felt a chill run down my spine and sighed. "Missy, now's not the time to be pulling pranks."
My Misdreavus appeared behind the Magmar and licked his neck, causing the Magmar to stumble over Gordon in surprise. A Vaporeon jumped out of the darkalley, firing an ice beam at Missy.
"Stop! She's my Pokemon."
Missy disappeared and reappeared by my side, ignoring the growling Vaporeon. She faded through my skin, sending another chill through my body and leaving the word 'Watch' dancing around my mind.
Tweal flapped down from high above, carrying a Trubbish whose stubby arms couldn't quite reach Tweal's wings to bring him spiraling to the ground. There was a piece of tape over the Trubbish's mouth.
Missy fired a shadow ball at the Trubbish, not bothering to aim carefully as ghost attacks wouldn't effect Tweal. The Trubbish was knocked out.
I waited a heartbeat. Then two. Three…
"It won't wake up?" I asked.
Missy cackled, flipping through the air. I took that as a yes.
"Griffy, tell Anita," I ordered. I turned to Gordon. "You see that?"
He nodded.
"Well, now we have a way to knock them out, the ability to catch at least some of them, and I've got some spare PokeBalls in my pack. Shall we get to it?"
Gordon started to get up.
{Erin, it seems Miss Anita may have a more efficient plan,} Griffy said.
"All the better. Let's hear it."
o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o
I watched the Swalot turn its blank gaze to me and prepare to launch a toxic. I could always tell when a Swalot was about to use toxic from the funny gurgling noise coming from its throat. Fiery sprung forward, roasting the Swalot before he could attack.
Well, great. "Will you quit baking them before I can even get a good look at their toxic attack?" I padded over to the Swalot and placed a paw on his back. That was all it took to ensure the poison Pokemon wouldn't seriously injure himself by going all zombie on us.
Too bad it'd taken me a good half hour to realize that the Pokemon I'd touched weren't rising again. Maybe the gas was getting to me. And now that I finally knew and was ready to kick poison butt, Anita'd given me a different mission: learn the attack, Toxic.
I tried to imitate the Swalot. Really. But the Swalot had a ginormous mouth and a blobby body. He made the poison inside himself. I looked down at my black paws covered in soft fur. I just had this niggling feeling that making poison in my body would be significantly more dangerous than the Swalot making poison in his body.
Fiery glared at me. "Not getting poisoned is our first priority."
I snorted, pointedly looking at the purple patch of fur on his tail. "You already are poisoned."
Fiery swept his tail to his side, out of my view.
Just as I was about to send my mind out to Vanilla and Allo to see how they were holding up, my ears pricked at heavy gurgling. The Swalot had brought a friend.
A toxic attack shot out from behind the mailbox on my right, aimed at Fiery. I leapt into the air, hitting the attack face first. I managed to close my eyes, but my nose and snout burned like I'd sneezed a Grimer.
Fiery, of course, fried the Swalot before my paws touched the ground.
I licked my lips, feeling the substance burn my tongue, scorch down my throat, and settle uncomfortably somewhere in my stomach. Hopefully it wouldn't burn through my intestines.
I resisted the urge to puke as my vision blurred. Oh yeah, I was 110% poisoned.
I reconsidered how the Swalot gurgled. Now that I was an Umbreon, I had better control of the hormone levels in my body. Maybe the toxic attack could be produced if—
"What are you thinking?" Fiery demanded, marching towards me. He'd whipped up a fire spin around us, and I had to take a step forward to keep my tail from being singed. I optimistically chose to believe that the fire was to keep the zombies out and not me in.
"I'm currently thinking about the hormones and necessary elements necessary to use toxic," I said, a new bubbly feeling climbing up my stomach. A literal bubbling—not the kind that often accompanied me when speaking with Fiery. "Actually, hotdogs seem to contain the majority of toxins needed—"
"You just jumped in front of an attack I could have easily dodged."
"It was for the sake of education. Have a heart."
Fiery was mere noses away from my stinging nose. "I have a heart," he said, his eyes reflecting the fire surrounding us. Oh, no. My skin was hot, and I couldn't tell if it was from the fire or this… look.
My heart raced, taking off like a frantic Fearow. Fiery padded a step closer. I made a small gurgling noise…
"Apple—"
…and spit up purple goo all over Fiery's snout. We matched.
Yes! Mission learn Toxic was go.
Fiery winced, pawing at his nose. The fire around us simmered down to a ring of smoke. "Don't worry," I said, happily prancing beside Fiery. "That won't do anything to you 'cause you're already poisoned."
Fiery shook his head, a determined look forming on his face. We stared at each other a moment.
I sensed his snout was about to form words when a Trubbish peaked around a tree and shouted, "Oy, when's the wedding?"
Fiery shot a flamethrower at the Trubbish, knocking the Pokemon out faster than he could utter his sincere congratulations.
"That's new. A Trubbish that can speak," I commented mildly, annoyed he'd attacked a Pokemon that probably wasn't a threat. "Guess someone else figured out how to un-brainwash them, or maybe we just missed him before."
Fiery growled something under his breath.
"Look. This isn't the best time for vow recitation." I smirked and nodded to a less verbal Trubbish peaking around a tree whose roots were uplifting the sidewalk. Fiery glared at me, making my smirk widen. "We're supposed to meet Anita by the dump. Later, after we've both been decontaminated of hazardous substances, we can have a nice long chat about where the wedding will be, whether Griffy's tail will be invited, what we'll name our pups, and how many times a week we'll sneak off to have mad, crazy se—"
Fiery stopped walking. I think I broke one of his mental circuits.
"Just kidding." I paused, grinning. "Of course Griffy's tail will be invited to the wedding."
"I'm not marrying you."
"No, but later I think you and I are having mad, crazy—"
And just then, Fiery felt the need to hurry ahead, loudly humming Acceber's latest hit pop song despite his ardent dislike of peppy music.
o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o
The dump wasn't much of a dump. Located on the Nutshell River, streetlamps across the river in Artemis Town reflected dim light into the dump. There were six neatly stacked piles of various recyclable materials held within separate circles of fencing. The materials were all a good six feet away from the fencing and I was taller than the pile of aluminum. One large mound of trash as tall as a house sat between the recycling enclosures and the mouth of Nutshell River. There was a schedule beside the garbage mound detailing the garbage boat schedule that shipped trash down the river to Globert Town.
The dump was so pristine there were less poison Pokemon wandering around here than Cereal City's alleys.
Sunflower shadow-balled the few Grimers and Trubbishes meandering about that started towards us when they noticed our presence. Most she didn't even have to knock out—as soon as they were hit with an attack, their focus shifted back to the garbage mound.
Several continued attacking with fiery.
Two Gulpins actually believed us when we told them they'd been brainwashed and made it their mission to convince the other poison Pokemon.
One Trubbish took offense that we were harming poison Pokemon at all and charged at Sunflower with a toilet plunger in hand yelling, {For my fallen comrades!}
{Now what?} Sunflower asked when all the Pokemon around the dump were either knocked out or preoccupied with the garbage pile, with the exception of the toilet-plunger Trubbish who had opted to leave us in an attempt to gather and bring a poison Pokemon army to the dump. I wasn't going to say no to that. Poison brought more poison.
I glanced around at the mound of trash. We needed to attract more poison Pokemon faster. More poison Pokemon in one area meant less in the city and an easier time of isolating and containing said poison Pokemon. This only worked, of course, if we had a method of containing the Pokemon. Right now, I was banking on Griffy's psychic—Apple and I were pretty much sucked dry of psychic energy at the moment.
I yawned and rubbed my eyes drowsily. "Until Apple and Erin show up, the best we can do is release as many Pokemon as we can from the deep hypnosis. Maybe we can even enrage a few into chasing us here." I shook my head and said, "Then again, we may have better luck waiting for that crazy Trubbish to show up."
Sunflower nodded, frowning as I searched through my pack for the last of my Leppa berries. {Will you be okay?} she asked.
"Yeah. I'm just a little tired." I found the berries and tossed them to Sunflower. They'd increase her endurance for now.
For nearly an hour we drew as many poison Pokemon as we could from the nearby neighborhoods. The streets were bare of human life—the fumes had probably knocked out most people in their sleep. Dustin and Styx had already combed through the area for the few awake, and mostly injured, citizens of Cereal City.
By the time Fiery and Apple arrived, the sun was rising.
Fiery seemed to have unusually high spirits, humming, {…dancing in the moonlight. Take me down like I'm a Minccinno.}
Apple looked me up and down once before proudly firing a toxic at the mound of garbage.
I sighed in relief, collapsing to the soft dirt ground. Fiery padded over to me and laid his warm tail across my leg that had been hit by a sludge attack. He acted like he just happened to move his tail on a whim, but I knew he wasn't as indifferent as he appeared and was grateful for the heat his tail emitted.
{No sign of Griffy yet?} Apple asked after thoroughly covering the mound of trash with her toxic spit. Already, more Trubbishes trickled out of nearby alleys, attracted to the dump.
"No."
{I sense Erin nearby,} Apple said. She jumped from poison Pokemon to poison Pokemon emerging from the alleys, lightly brushing against them to counter the affects of the hypnotism. Her movements were sluggish. She didn't bother to dodge sludge attacks or poison stings that were fired at her.
Fiery snarled at her, but Apple ignored him.
I blinked, understanding that she was already poisoned, and without moonlight, she couldn't compensate with an effective recovery move.
"Apple, stop," I demanded. "You're going to injure yourself if you keep it up. Sunflower can…" Sunflower was still firing shadow balls, attacking the poison Pokemon Apple missed. Apple's toxic attack was attracting poison Pokemon too fast—there were Garbodors bolting towards the rubbish pile from our left, Swalots creeping in from our right, and Muks slithering up along the shore.
The gas was making me lightheaded.
Suddenly, in a blur of blue on my right, a Dewgong carrying Erin and a man wearing flannel pajamas slid out of the alley past the Swalots. The man shouted an order and the Dewgong redirected its ice beam from the ice path it'd been riding on to the garbage pile. It was only a moment before I realized the Dewgong was creating a barrier around the pile.
Erin hopped off the Dewgong. Missy appeared behind her and immediately began helping Sunflower and Apple.
"Where's Griffy?" I asked. "We need a barrier."
Erin pointed a thumb behind her. "Gordon's Dewgong will take care of it. We can leave a hole so poison Pokemon can still enter—"
"Erin, it's not holding up. Look," I said. Erin turned around and we watched as the onslaught of poison Pokemon broke through the thin layer of ice. The Dewgong simply couldn't shoot ice quickly enough to form a barrier thick enough the Pokemon couldn't break through. "We need a barrier Pokemon can enter, but can't exit. Only a psychic Pokemon can—"
"Griffy's out cold. His tail finally managed to take a bite out of a Grimer. Unless you have a revive, he's out of the picture. Can't you—"
I shook my head. "I can't even hear thoughts at the moment. Does that guy—Gordon—have a psychic Pokemon?"
"He's got a Magmar that's on its way over. There were some other water Pokemon that used ice attacks, but they're all knocked out." Erin folded her arms. I found myself staring down at the burned hem of her lab coat. "I've sent Tweal to get Tali," she continued as if that would solve our problems.
I coughed into my arm and saw Gordon doing the same. Even without their harmful intent, the poison Pokemon unconsciously released poisonous fumes. It was becoming too concentrated. Without a psychic…
"Anita. Anita?" I vaguely heard. My breath was coming up short. I saw Fiery snapping at an Ekans aiming to lunge at Sunflower. I saw Missy directing a ghostly wind at a Swalot. I saw hundreds of poison Pokemon suddenly pouring from the center alleys, directly in front of Apple.
I saw Sunflower glowing in the dim morning sunlight and blinked, trying to see past the gas fogging my vision.
There was an Espeon where Sunflower had stood. Her eyes glowed purple, and suddenly there was a glittering barrier around the pile of garbage. Fiery and Missy immediately took to driving the poison Pokemon into the barrier. They were soon joined by a Magmar and Gordon's Dewgong.
Apple collapsed, but Fiery stood near her, ensuring no poison Pokemon injured her further.
I realized I could breath again and tapped the barrier around my head in wonder. "Anita, c'mon don't pass out on me," Erin said. She was holding me up.
Even in my state, I could feel a huge psychic presence approaching upstream. A psychic tendril prodded me and I felt the wind blowing against my neck. It smelled like algae. I was moving up and down as if—
"Hey," Gordon shouted from the river bank. "There's a garbage boat coming up the river! It's not even scheduled."
"We're going to be okay," I murmured before collapsing into Erin's arms.
o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o
After pressing my thumb to the DNA scanner, I took a moment to compose myself before twisting the door handle to my office. Recently I'd let my emotions become erratic. That couldn't happen here. Here I was the Master of Team Glop'emm. Serious. Controlled. Unyielding.
I twisted the door handle and came face to face with Landon. Irrefutably, an unexpected occurrence.
Although temporarily shocked, I automatically surveyed my office in my peripheral vision. On my right, my desk was in disarray—papers that had been lying near the edge were now scattered on the ground. There was a smudge of dirt on the edge of the desk closest to me. Judging from the mud on Landon's shoes, he'd stood on my desk recently. My rolling chair was tilted back, leaning against the wall. Someone had pushed it back in a hurry.
In my left field of vision, Professor Teal was collapsed against a wall smudged with blood. Her head lolled from side to side and her fists were clenched tightly, pushing against the ground. Blood trickled from the palm of her left fist. From the way her nails dug into her palm, this injury was presumably self-inflicted.
In front of me, Landon was wearing one of my black cloaks. From the stitched pocket on his right hand side, I could tell it was the cloak I'd left hanging by the gym entrance—undoubtedly, where he'd entered the base from. I would have to check the security video repository later to see exactly how he entered the base, though from Professor Teal's state, I already had a good idea.
I turned my gaze to Landon's face. Looking at Landon was like looking at a circus distortion mirror, but neither my reflection nor I were amused. Landon had my facial structure, but his cheeks were sunken in and there were deep bags under his eyes. His hair was an inch or two longer than mine and hung limply above his shoulders, unevenly cut. His eyes were not the same eyes I'd seen on my four-year-old cousin just hours ago—his eyes were hard and old.
I had the sudden, rather superfluous, urge to reach out and touch Landon's shoulder to confirm with one more sense that Landon was standing in front of me, alive. Instead, I said, "Landon."
"Liam." His voice was scratchy and guarded.
A heat, burning in my chest, clenching my muscles down through my torso to my toes sunk through me. Anger. While inconvenient, the spontaneous emotion confirmed my suspicions.
"I don't appreciate you manipulating Team Glop'emm's head researcher," I said.
"Yeah, well I don't appreciate being left with a deranged lunatic for ten years."
Professor Teal was shaking. I needed to get Landon away from her. "Why don't we go somewhere more private to talk?"
Landon smirked. "I'd rather fight."
I almost smiled. That much hadn't changed. "Still, we can go somewhere more suitable." I inclined my head, indicating Landon to follow me as I headed down the hall to the staircase. We encountered no other Team Glop'emm members; it was very early in the morning and unlikely that any underlings had yet arrived at the base.
We climbed the stairs in silence. What do you say to a person you'd believed dead, but after all these years still considered your closest friend?
"I was worried," I found myself saying at the top of the staircase.
"You were worried?" Landon laughed—a derisive laugh lacking any real emotion. "For what, all of three months? It can't have been long since you went back in time and rescued me." His voice was sarcastic.
It'd been today that I'd saved him; I'd worried for all of three hours. I shouldn't have said anything.
I led Landon down a long, spiraling hall. "So, why'd you accuse me of manipulating the professor? Clearly she's a nutcase," Landon said.
"Don't play dumb. She exhibited signs similar to that of a Pokemon resisting a taunt attack. From the unprovoked anger rankling my mind for the past five minutes, your gift encompasses such a power."
"You call it a gift—what a joke. Well, genius boy, guess you've got me all figured out."
"I wasn't finished. Professor Teal was unresponsive to my entering the office and she'd inflicted injury upon herself. Thus, you also have an ability similar to Flatter, the only dark typed confusion-inducing attack." It was peculiar, actually. Gifted abilities tended to be general, but Landon seemed to be able to use specific attacks. It was something to consider at a later time.
"You have any tricks like that?" Landon asked.
We reached the door to the apartment I'd lived in for several years. I pressed my thumb to the DNA scanner and the door clicked open. Inside, I dialed an eight-digit code on the pad next to my door so the alarm wouldn't activate.
"Well, guess I'll see when we duke it out, huh?" Landon said, scanning my apartment. I breathed in, noticing the apartment still had that pristine chemical smell most new apartments have. I didn't spend enough time here for it to ever change.
I walked into my kitchen, pulling two glasses out of the cabinet. "Water?"
"Sure." Landon ran a hand over the black granite countertop. "Nice place you got. Sure you want to ruin it?"
I poured water from my sink into the two glasses. Landon seemed under the impression that the fight would last more than ten seconds, assuming that we actually fought, of course. I shrugged my coat off, laid it on the glass kitchen table, and took our water glasses to the living room. Landon followed me.
I sat down in the black, stiff chair that had its back to a wall. To my left was a giant window that overlooked Drape Town. At the moment, however, the window was completely obscured by steel blinds, in place to prevent idiots from attempting to break in through my window.
I gulped the water down in moments, still dehydrated from flying across Acceber, and placed Landon's cup on the small table by my feet. Landon sat in the matching chair across from mine, making no move to take the glass.
Without the cloak, I was able to fully assess Landon's physical state. His shirt and jeans were ripped. A scrape on his knee matched the shape of a cut through his jeans. There were a few scratches along his left arm, and a bruise on his right. He'd been traveling through thick brambles recently.
His arms were wiry, too thin to be healthy.
"Ready?" Landon asked. I felt the anger in my chest rise once more.
"You really want to do this?" Another notch of anger. "That won't work. Dark's resistant to dark." I carefully avoided Landon's gaze—it'd be un-Flattering if I became confused.
Now where'd that come from? Truly, I'd been hanging around Anita for too long.
Landon made a sound of frustration under his breath. "Never had to throw the first punch?" I asked.
Landon came at me, shoving himself from his chair, and throwing a punch wildly at me much the way Anita had when I first asked her to demonstrate a punch. I swiftly rose to the balls of my feet, darting to the left and allowing Landon to fall into my chair. With my right hand I grabbed his left wrist, pushing it into his back. With my left hand, I caught the teetering glass of water he'd knocked with his foot and steadied it back on the table. Then, before Landon could twist out of my grasp, I caught his other wrist, pressed a knee against the back of his knees, and pushed his shoulder into the chair.
"Are you done?" I asked. My voice was quieter and colder than I meant it to be.
Landon didn't answer.
Thinking he didn't hear me, I repeated, "Are you—"
"I hate you." Suddenly, he was four years old again, pounding my chest—I hate you, too—looking at me with those trusting green eyes—can't you at least try—and I left him to be tortured—
I released Landon, stumbling backwards into the table. The glass tipped over and cracked when it hit the carpet. "I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't know—"
"Didn't know?" That cold laugh again. Landon turned to face me, his eyes luminescent. "You know, for years I thought there was no other way—that you had to bring me to Seth Hastings. I had wild dreams of you rescuing me from his clutches. Then one day I found out my father was alive. My father. You thought to bring me to Seth Hastings, but not to my own father."
I grabbed the front of Landon's shirt. "I was going to take care of you! I didn't know Hastings was—I thought he could help find us somewhere to live—Winsk City made sense because it was isolated and the time stream—"
"Fuck the time stream. What the hell do you know about time?" Landon grabbed my wrist and I let go of him, my head throbbing. "You should have left me to die in the tsunami."
"Landon, I—"
"I didn't need you to save me after all. I got out of hell. Now, I'm going to bring it to you."
Landon caught my eye and I knew he'd managed to confuse me. I recoiled from him as my vision blurred. Landon pushed me back into the chair he'd originally been sitting in, and I knew I had precious few seconds before the hallucinations started—
"I'm sorry," I murmured.
A four-year-old Landon stood in front of me, holding two knives out to me. His hands were bleeding. I looked down.
Mine were, too.