And I'm back again! I'm here fighting off sickness just so I can update this fanfic. Is it because I love you people? Well, there's that... but, there's also the fact that I love this fanfic too damn much to leave it alone. If it was all about the reviews, I'd wait for longer periods to update it. But, for those of you who do bother to read these and the story over all (that's important, duh), thank you for the hits and for the reviews! It's really encouraging for an author (whether they be male or female) to hear praise and it's also helpful when they hear constructive criticism, I kid you not. It's also fun to see people guessing plot turns and twists whether they're accurate or not, and now I'll stop taking up your time... after one last thing.
If you haven't done so already, read Tales of Flame and Anomaly (respectively authored by Buwaro and Dark Magician Girl Aeris)!
They are complimentary stories to each other and they're damned good. There are other reasons why I'm telling you to read them, but that will come up later in my own fanfic. For now... on with the chapter!
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Well, so much for a watery grave.
I looked around to see everyone on the boat; Mudkip and Ralts had gotten back on because the latter of the two used his psychic powers to toss them both back on. Idiot was soaking wet but apparently Greg and the old man had pulled him out of the water and back on deck. Which made me sigh, couldn't win them all now could I? And as for me...
That beak mark on my tail was now replacing the mark those glass doors had given me a couple of days back.
I sighed as I looked at the redness on my tail before going over what had just happened; the humans had started shouting at something before something else collided with the front of the boat. Thankfully it didn't tear down that area of the boat but I still had to wonder exactly what did that. And why too, I guessed, but it could just be a territorial pokémon.
Unfortunately, I turned out to be right.
"Get out of here, you mangy land lubbers! This is the territory of me and my crew, and if you don't leave right now I'm gonna tear a hole through yer hull!"
I approached the deck then to see who the heck was blabbering at us, and then I saw; she was a Sharpedo and apparently we had sailed into her home by accident. Behind her I could see two more surfacing; and, to my left I could see Peecko before her squawking began to ring in my ears. Bloody bird...
"Don't you dare touch Captain Briney's ship again or you're Sushi!"
"Dare you to come in here and say that, Gull Meat!"
"... I'm lost. What are Sushi and Gull Meat?"
Ralts had asked my question for me. And honestly, I had no idea what they were either. We both got stared at by the Sharpedo and the Wingull before they went back to their name-calling contest; who won, I wasn't sure. I couldn't be damned to keep score. Regardless of who won, the boat shook again when one of the Sharpedo behind their leader tackled it.
"Oiy, take it easy! Some of us don't want to take another swim!" I ended up shouting that out while hanging onto one of the metal bars of the railing, and to my left I could see Ralts and Mudkip doing the same. However, what made me shiver was the toothy grin the lead Sharpedo gave me after I had said that; bloody hell, were her teeth ever sharp...
"That's the idea, land lubber. Yer going to be swimmin' with the fishes if you don't turn this vessel right around and go back to where you came from!"
"Briney, why didn't you tell us we were going into Sharpedo-infested waters?" Greg was yelling at the old man, I only noticed this now because this time his voice was too difficult to shut out. They had been arguing the whole time but still... most of it I was able to tune out.
"This is the fastest path to Dewford! It would take another day if I navigated around their territory," The old man sighed while shaking his head, "And you young people wanted to get to Dewford as soon as you possibly could. I can't blame you after hearing your story, but still..."
"Go Linoone!"
Idiot had thrown a pokéball into the air before a weird, furry pokémon appeared in the water; it looked like it might have been related to Zigzagoon but I didn't think too deeply into it; what was strange about it was that it was out-swimming the Sharpedo.
"Jack, that pokémon and Peecko can't do this alone! You've got to help them, you're probably the strongest against them and they're in trouble!" Mudkip was yelling in my ear before I noticed the other pokémon dive-bombing the sharks that pursued the Linoone. It looked like they were doing just fine to me... but, I didn't get much choice in the matter when there was a very impulsive Ralts who was more than ready to dangle me above the fighting.
Did I forget to mention that he had just done so?
"Bloody... fine, fine! Just make sure not to drop me then," I glared back at the Ralts on the boat; I swore that he was smirking at me while doing that, bloody psychic... It was then that I sighed before taking in a deep breath. I never got to use this attack against the bloody Houndour but these Sharpedo were going to be the first to taste it. And then...
I blew out a lot more than air, I can tell you that much; bright green orbs of light began to pelt the Sharpedo rapidly while I kept simply shooting at them. I guess Alexa knew I could use this attack if it was taught to me, something I thought about while temporarily reminiscing about how I got my nickname. But, now definitely wasn't the time for that.
What surprised me was that Ralts was actually weaving me out of the way when it came to oncoming water guns from the pokémon below; I half-expected him to let me take the barrage. It seemed to have an ulterior motive aside from keeping me safe however; this was scaring the Sharpedo beyond all reason.
"Retreat! Enemy fire is too powerful! Return fire isn't hitting the target! Retreat!" With that final shout from the lead Sharpedo all three ducked into the water, the Linoone Idiot had released earlier crawling back onto the dock before being returned to its pokéball.
Something was wrong though... I was getting closer to the water. I looked back to see Ralts beginning to collapse, Mudkip was holding him up. That probably meant that my luck was just about to run out.
And when it did I plummeted and went straight into the water. I looked around before trying to swim to the surface; unfortunately, what I didn't know was that those three Sharpedo weren't the only ones in these waters.
A jelly-fish thing had floated up to me and grabbed at me with one of its tentacles before the rest wrapped tightly around me. The little oxygen I had escaped me then, and I could tell that trying to breathe would be pointless; even if I could, all I would get was water. I could feel life slowly draining out of me, but only one regretful thought was in my mind...
I didn't get one last drink of that wine stuff. Damn it all, now there had really better have booze where I'm going.
"It's not your time just yet, Jack. Please hurry and move, I can't keep this up for too long from this distance."
Wonderful, I was getting drunken hallucinations when I was sober now. I blinked when that happened before looking around, and then something strange began to happen; my body began to glow with an odd silver light before I could feel the tentacles' grip loosening. The pokémon kept trying to wrap them around me but it was no use; something kept it from turning me into jelly.
However, the main issue was that I still couldn't breathe. After slipping out of the pokémon's reach I broke through to the surface, right before grabbing onto a rope that had been lowered for me; maybe Idiot was good for something after all. I saw everyone fussing around me before everything began to darken; I was going to sleep, I guessed that would be okay seeing as I could breathe again. Maybe psychic pokémon weren't so bad...
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"I hope he's okay, he was down there for a long time..."
"He's just fine, doesn't even have water in his lungs. Let him sleep Norman, he deserves it after scaring off the Sharpedo like that. Now let's get back on course," The older human spoke before I looked to Jack; even if he wasn't the best pokémon around, I had let him fall into the ocean. It was my fault that he was like this...
I looked at the grass pokémon laying there before shaking my head at myself; why couldn't I keep holding him up after all of that? Was I really so weak that I couldn't hold him up long enough to get him back onto the boat?
"Ralts..."
"Leave me alone."
Mudkip sighed before she sat down beside me. And then, she looked at me before she started to speak again, "It's not your fault, you did all you could. And, Jack's okay, isn't that something to be thankful for?"
"I shouldn't have let him fall..."
"You couldn't help it. So what?"
"Am I really that weak?"
"Stop thinking like that, Ralts! What you did was very good, and then Jack was firing those things at the Sharpedo so quickly!"
"I'm not strong at all... stop lying to me, you know it's true."
I got a shocked look from Mudkip this time before she closed her eyes and sighed again, "Fine. Go on and pity yourself. When you figure things out I'll be over trying to wake Jack up," It was after that when Mudkip turned her back to me, but it didn't matter; they had been able to do so much; they were stronger pokémon than I was. Me, I couldn't even support Jack long enough to get him away from the water, I wasn't able to save Alexa when she had gotten kidnapped...
What was the point of trying if I was just going to fail again?
My eyes fell to the ground below me as I simply sat there, right before my eyes closed. I wasn't as strong or as smart as Mudkip and Jack... well, maybe I was smarter than Jack, but I knew that he was stronger than me. I smirked a little at remembering the first time I met him; he had just had really strong Oran Berry Juice the previous day and was getting over it. Really... he seemed like he was an idiot but he had a good attitude to help make up for it.
As one thought led to another I eventually ended up falling asleep where I sat. However, I ended up having a dream while I was there; it was the night where my parents had been murdered again...
Something was different. This wasn't the dream I was normally had; before me I saw the larger of the two dog pokémon over the bodies of my parents, but the smaller... they were looking at me with sorrow in their eyes. That was when a voice came, a horrifically familiar voice that caused my heart to sink straight down, "Houndour, use Flamethrower on Ralts. Make sure that it is dead this time."
The flames were spiralling towards me as I saw two icy blue eyes staring at me, no warmth in them whatsoever as my demise flew closer...
"No!"
I gasped when I realized that it was night time on the boat; it was a nightmare, but that voice... Alexa wouldn't... I sighed while looking out at the ocean, it looked like no one had moved me; they were probably in the big building I was sleeping against by this point for the night. I was considering joining them, but at the same time... I wanted to stay outside, just so that I could be by myself for a little while.
I wasn't really thinking about what had happened with Jack and the Sharpedo by this point anymore; I was more worried about the dream I had at the time. Two times, Alexa had replaced the human who had ordered those pokémon to kill my parents in that dream. The stars weren't really helping me but I kept looking to them anyway; maybe they had some sort of answer? ... yeah right, they didn't help me when I needed them so long ago so why would they help me now?
"Surprisingly, the stars have a lot more power than you think they do, Ralts."
This was familiar. I sighed while shaking my head as the projection of the star-shaped pokémon appeared in front of me; I had to wonder if she was a hallucination before she spoke to me again, "I know you're worried about those dreams, Ralts... and, those weren't coincidental, I'm afraid to say. I was warning you through them."
"What?" This time, I was going to speak to the star pokémon telepathically; I didn't want anyone else to overhear anything about my dreams, they were mine! But, she seemed to know a lot... maybe she could help me in some way, she seemed like she was trying to help before, "Why do you say that?"
"I told you that things were going to happen to your trainer while you travel to where she is being kept. I have already seen some of what's happened so far; you might be forced into an unpleasant situation because of it."
"What are you saying?" I was starting to feel very defensive now, but honestly could you blame me? This star pokémon was saying things about my trainer and now she was telling me through my dreams? That was just...! "Why are you showing me those things?"
"Simple theories of mine that you deserve to know, Ralts. No, she did not kill your parents nor would she ever do so on her own free will," I was about to ask when the star pokémon answered my question for me, it was then that she continued, "But, she has lost her free will, Ralts. She might be ordered to attack you and your friends because of it; you have to be ready to fight against her as well as other demons from your past because of it."
I didn't know what to say. I just stared at the star pokémon before me before I shook my head furiously, "No! She would never do that!"
I stopped moving long enough to see the grim expression on the pokémon's face; she didn't like this any more than I did if it was true, "I'm going to ask someone else for help. They have been through a lot recently and they have distaste for me, but... they might see that their help is needed as I cannot physically be here to help you. For now I have to leave again..."
"Wait! If you're leaving, how am I going to know whether or not they're going to help us?"
The star pokémon looked at me (or at least I think she did, her eyes were always closed so I couldn't tell) before she smiled and shook her head, "Trust me, you'll know. Their entrance will be obvious. But even if they don't come, you will still get whatever aid I can possibly give."
That was it, she was gone again. I sighed before looking at the stars one last time, eyes closing to allow blackness to appear before me. Maybe things were going to be all right... I still didn't know. But, either way I'd be taking chances, so there was nothing left for me to do but to go inside and join the others for the night. Tomorrow was another day after all...
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Blah, crappy chapter ending. I was strapped for time, can you blame me? At least it's up; you get to see more things happening as well as some less-than-subtle foreshadowing, and you get another promise from me for an update coming soon. At least, I hope I can get one up soon... it all depends on what my partners in crime are up to. If you haven't figured out who those people are yet then that shameless advertising was for nothing. XD See you later!