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I side step it like it's nothing, none of the fire touching me. "Abby, what is going on? Are you angry?"
"You wouldn't believe." She says, anger coursing through her voice. "You left me… us…"
"Okay… um… well it's fine now isn't it? Just introduce me?" I say, a little perplexed by her anger.
"My name… is Jet." He say, reassuredly. "You… left her alone and thought of nothing of her well being. You shall pay." He charges forward and swings his body around, whipping his tail at me. I quickly grab it, but the very end, the yellow star, keeps moving and hits my wrist. It cuts through like a knife, I yell and pull my hand away.
"What… the heck?"
"My tail star… it's razor sharp. It's quite unique to me, and is useful…" He spins around, and I step back just in time to avoid the star again. Abby comes forward and fires a fire spin at me, but I jump toward her past the flame, and fling my leg into her neck. She yelps, the attack ending, knocked back several feet back as she slides through the mud.
"Ow… Raizu, why would you hurt me?" Says Abby.
"You aren't Abby. Or at least, not the one I know." I say, ripping a part of my shirt off and wrapping it around my wrist to stop it's bleeding. I wince at the pain; it hurts a lot more, but I won't lose a substantial amount of blood now. "If you were… really you, you'd be seeking shelter from this rain, because rain hurts fire types even, the cold sucking away their energy."
She grinds her teeth and looks at me. "I am weak, but I'm angry enough at you to attack!" She shoots another flamethrower, but I duck under it. When it clears, the Luxray is already charging at me and ready to rake me with his claws. I grab his paw before he can swing, and smile when he stalls in surprise. I swing him around, and loose him flying into Abby.
"If you're going to try and hurt me…" I say, glaring at them. "Then I guess you're nothing to me."
They get up, and Jets looks at me. With a fire in his eyes, he stares up towards the sky, his body bent upward. Abby chuckles and starts walking backwards. He begins to talk, almost chant, something, to no particular person.
Souls of the Underworld, I have a request of you
Offer your power to the truly worthy and noble.
A white and purple translucent ring appears, wide and centered around me. It also is encircling Jet. Light starts to form around us, like a dome over the circle, and it gets brighter as it brightens.
The rage and anger built in my soul,
is your entry point into freedom.
He continues, and it starts to get brighter, but I feel a strong wind blow past me. I can tell it wasn't simply moving air, but air parting way for someone in front of me. Wraith stands there, one paw forward and an ball of energy charging in his hand.
Give the sinners of this world Hell
I AM INDIGNANT!
Get out of this circle Raizu! He says to me, shoving me. I hear him and don't question, and as I slide through the mud, I jump back. I just fall outside of the circle's reach as Jet finishes the incantation.
INDIGNATION!
Lightening crashes down into the center of the ring, and it lights up the dome to it's full, as if filled with liquid energy. I cover my eyes to escape the almost blinding white dome standing in front of me.
When it passes, I move my hand away from my face, and blink a few times. After several seconds, I can see clearly again, but what I see intrigues me. There is no damage to the ground, or to Wraith. "The hell…"
Heh, I figured. They're fake Raizu!
"Fake?"
He nods. An illusion. Man, so weak! He leashes the Aura Sphere emanating from his paw, the white sphere shot at Abby and Jet at incredible speeds. It lands, hitting Abby, but the explosion encompasses both of them. I feel my heart sink, but then realize that after the smoke clears, neither are there.
"Wraith, what the hell is going on?"
Simply put, Deren at work. He says, wiping dirt off his arm. I hate this damn rain.
Deren? I think. Oh, he's… that red haired boy from Johto! He was at rocket base! He tried to kill me in that cave on the way to vermilion… he was at the base with dad… captured me and Veera… he's been involved all this time! "He's involved with this?"
Yeah, a bit, he's that illusion guy. Can't say he'll like finding me… heh, when he does, he's finished. He smacks his paws together.
"So… these two who were just here were illusions? But they hurt me, I'm still bleeding!" I hold up my wounded hand.
Here's the beauty of his power, which I'm almost envious of. If you believe that what is happening to you by the illusion is real, it happens. You believed that Jet was real, so that big spell thing would have killed you instantly. I can see through them so easily that I know they're fake right away.
"That's… quite a power… so, um, before I say anything else, lets go find Abby and the real Jet. I wonder how Deren found out about them…"
It can only be a bad thing.
I nod, and we start walking through the woods, Wraith keeping his eyes closed to use his aura abilities, and me calling out repeatedly, but I'm of little use, as Wraith, using his sight, finds them quite quickly. About a 10 minutes walk from where we were, Abby is in the side of a small rock formation, resembling a very small mountain. The out-cropping is dome-like, smooth and rounded to let the rain fall of it's sides, and it shields the two from rain very well. Jet's with her, but he growls as we approach.
"Abby!" I say loudly. She's shivering behind him. I can visibly see that she's already soaked, which apparently happened before.
"You won't get near her!" Jet says, bearing his teeth at me. "She's hurt from this rain, just leave before I hurt you!"
Not much good to tell us she's hurt if you wanted us to go away. Says Wraith. C'mon now, this is Raizu, her trainer. He can take care of her.
Jet looks at me. "Abby says you can understand pokémon, which is supposed to be odd for humans. I don't know much about humans, but maybe if you respond to my rambling right now you could give me some insight on your ability to understand us?" He finishes, taking in a big sigh as he does.
I look at him, unsure how to really respond to what he just said. "Um… Abby is right, and maybe you should come with me because I'm her trainer so you can learn more about humans?"
He turns back to Abby, who's just shivering in place. "That's him 'tard."
"Oh. Well, then, let's go where ever you think is best, Raizu." Says Jet.
"I'm fine staying here a bit, I think the rest of the part can stand some alone time." I say. Sighing, I look at Wraith, who's perched himself out on a rock just outside of the protection the rock gives us.
We sit there until nightfall. I asked Jet to go out and find Tempest and Alexis, and he agreed once Abby said it would be okay, but he hadn't returned. Too dark to leave, I just sit here when I realize what I should be doing.
I release Shimmer from her ball next to Abby. She curls up with her and she thanks me silently, and the two fall asleep together. I wish I had a blanket, it's kind of cold out here. I get up then look to Wraith, who's still sitting on that rock of his. I walk over and past him and say as I go by, "I'm going out to find Jet, I'll be back soon."
Sure you don't want me along? He asks.
"I'll be fine."
Suit yourself, I'll keep these two safe.
"Thanks."
Don't worry about it. Listen, I know you're going through hard times, questioning shit, but you can trust people you know, all right?
I start to get a little angry. "You don't have to tell me this shit, I know who I can and can't trust."
He shrugs and just turns himself to the side so that Abby and Shimmer are in his view. I turn around and just keep walking through the woods, in the direction that I am only decently sure leads to where I left my friends.
After several minutes, I start to get a little bored. I can't remember the last time I thought about if I was enjoying myself or not, so I take in the environment around me. Pokémon are few and far in between, but I can see them at a distance often enough. The rain only pelts me slightly, and it's almost comforting. It's almost evening, so the sky is dark, and what little light there is happens to be mostly blocked by trees. The green and brown of the towering plants overhead obscure the sky and make a giant roof overhead. I look forward and the maze of trees almost makes me dizzy, I'm almost lost. But I have a certain sense of direction that keeps me going where I'm almost sure they are.
Before my train of thought can continue, I hear rustling overhead, a bit stronger than some passer-by flying pokémon. I walk back a few steps and look up. Floating down toward me is Deren, the red haired boy who has been hunting me and working with Team Rocket since the start.
"You!" I say, spitting at him.
He chuckles. "You know I'm an illusion, Wraith already explained what I can do to you."
"You're teamed up with Cyrus, I know that too."
"Oh do you know? Can't be helped, can it? We only want to make this world more acceptable." He snickers.
"Acceptable? For who?"
"For pokémon of course." He says, as if it's obvious. "Humans are the problem in this world. We want to end their reign, bring them down to earth."
"How can you do that?" I ask, dismissing his claims as nothing.
"We're going to wipe the emotional drive from humans." He says, proudly.
I give him an inquisitive look. "How?"
"You don't know yet, do you? I'll elaborate, since I see you as an equal, foe or not. When you summon Arceus, what is supposed to happen is that which ever group summons him, comes to a decision about how to help the world. There is of course, a war going on, so that is probably what you simple folk will focus on. Arceus, essentially, grants a wish. It's ultimately what decides the fate of the planet, because Arceus is always disconnected from events here, because we are so miniscule compared to everything in the known universe. In fact, this 'good vs evil' thing is something that is made up completely by humans who pass this down."
He pauses, and I take the time to respond. "So we get to decide something that will affect humanity all across the globe? No questions asked?"
"Fate is at work here, Raizu. We're meant to arrive and fight for the out come we want. Unfortunately, we can't read fate, so we just go on until we get to the outcome. We don't know what is best, but we think we do. Cyrus and I have our way, and you and your friends have your ways."
"Why are you confronting me?" I ask, wondering why he's vaguely answering me.
"I want you to join Cyrus and I." He holds out his hand as if offering something. "As a gift, you take this piece of the Heaven's Pipe."
As if by instinct, I hold out my hand, and a piece of it falls into my hand. It's a row of different-height wooden pipes, and only a bit longer than the length of his hand.
I look up, and as the illusion faded, I give my answer loudly.
"My mind can be swayed, but it'll take more than that. I have close friends I have to think about, and I'm not to sure they'd appreciate the decision."
"They don't have to Raizu." Deren says, his voice a faded echo. "Just do what is best for you."