Together we sit at a picnic table, eating food in a stone-floored courtyard. There is a central building that I can only describe as being reminiscent of an observatory. The wind is violent yet warm. Luckily, the "Observatory" blocks most of it for us. The clouds are gray and thick, providing shade anywhere we might decide to sit, making today a perfect day for someone vacationing. Unfortunately, we are not.
The sandwich which I packed tasted okay, and I finished it off quickly. For the next half-hour, Hypno, Dan, and I are all on a lunch break. While everyone else finishes eating, I start to fine-tune the crossbow I've been making. Dan showed great interest in the idea, so I decided to make another. I put down a large, inedible bruised berry on a nearby low wall. I pull out the new crossbow and quickly scan the surrounding area for anyone walking past before I take aim at the berry.
I squeeze the trigger, but just as I squeeze it all the way to release the arrow, I am interrupted by the wind picking up again, causing the berry to fall over and half-flatten on the ground. I pick up the berry and place it back on the wall. With the wind ready to strike at any moment, I take the initiative and strike first.
The tuning is perfect, and I land a straight shot on the berry. I load in a new arrow and hand it to the Inteleon, and I can already tell that his hands grip it better than my paws ever could.
"What the hell?" Hypno breaks in and forcefully redirects my attention to him.
"What?" I question him and wonder what it is that he's mad at.
"You almost hit me!" Hypno speaks in short, aggressive bursts. More frustration rises from him as a result of my obliviousness.
"But I didn't!" I retort.
"It doesn't matter," He raises his arms up at me. "...It wouldn't be the first time, Adam." At this point, I could tell that his anger was growing larger by the second. I failed to defuse the situation.
"Hypno, I had to! My teammates-" I attempt to defend myself,
"YOUR TEAMMATES DIDN'T LEAVE A PERMANENT SCAR! THAT CROSSBOW IS THE ONLY REASON YOU ARE HELPFUL!-" Hypno shouts. Dan stands awkwardly nearby.
"Hypno-" I let him finish, despite what the rage boiling inside would have liked. "-NEVER BRING THEM UP AGAIN!" Being compared to my old teammates brings nothing but guilt and misery to my mind. My crossbow was handmade and tailored entirely by me, specially designed so that I could use it. I would not give it up this easily.
"STOP CALLING ME HYPNO!" He leans in to face me as close as possible, ignoring me and my words.
"What?" My frustration is partially replaced by confusion from his demand. Hypno seems to be surprised at his own words, like he said something he didn't mean to.
"My name isn't Hypno. I made that up," he explains. I can audibly hear him take a deep breath as if he was preparing for a long-winded explanation. This just makes me more confused, so I press further.
"My name is actually Ian. Please put that crossbow away." Ian clearly just wants this to end already, so he instead opts for a short sentence, and a refusal to elaborate.
The conversation on my side also suddenly turns out to be much calmer, partially because I am too dazed to form a proper response, and partially because I also want this to just end. Being given no other normal or polite choice, I finally cave in and put the crossbow away. I put it on a nearby table, and they go back to continue to eat in silence.
Just when they're about done, a loud creak comes from the tower, and the door at the base slams open. An Alakazam steps out and he is holding an object looking similar to that of my crossbow, although much darker and without the side prongs. I can barely recognize the Alakazam from somewhere; but from where exactly? I ignore him and let him walk past us, but he raises his weapon and… aims at me?
I dive out of the way just before he fires. I jerk my head to look at the area where the bolt should have landed, and I see Dan standing there with a bolt sticking out of his chest.
I freeze up viewing him. The bolt vanishes, leaving no mark or cut. Yet he stands perfectly still. My focus gets forced away from him and back to our attackers.
"What are you standing there for? Attack him!" The Alakazam gave a command. At nearly the exact same time, Ian gave the exact same command to Dan, and I'm worried about who he will listen to if anybody at all.
In the meantime, Ian launches a psychic beam toward the Alakazam, but he simply reflects it.
I look back at Dan, hoping to see a fighter for us, but instead, I am horrified to see Dan lunging at me, and I move out of the way with mere milliseconds to spare. I notice my crossbow within reach, and I go for it. Dan sees what I'm trying to do and blocks my paws, then grabs them. He transfers his grip down to my arm and tightens it up.
With my other available limb, the only thing left for me that I can reach is a singular jump orb. Clinging to my last hope, I lunge at it and throw it between us, hoping that he would let go so I could run away. However, rather than blowing us apart, it just propels us both directly upwards. Dan clings on to me, determined to not let me escape.
I never would have thought it would ever come down to this…
A punch to his face throws him just far away enough for me to have enough time to grab my crossbow when we land. Dan becomes hesitant to approach me with it, and with the extra time added from that, I have enough time to look at Ian and Alakazam still fighting.
"Adam heads up!" Ian, who was seemingly waiting for my attention throws Dan's crossbow at me.
Just before it hits the floor and breaks, I manage to catch it, and Ian knocks the mysterious object out of Alakazam's hand.
Just when the tides started to turn in our favor, another Pokemon stepped out.
It's a Floatzel, and I finally recognize where I last saw the Alakazam, but I don't have time to think about it.
"Adam! LOOK OUT!" Ian screams at me, and I see the Floatzel aiming an identical weapon to the one Alakazam had at me.
"Adam! Run!" Ian orders me, but I already know I don't have time to evade the rod. I close my eyes and brace for impact.
A second passes and nothing happens. I open my eyes and see that Ian had jumped into the path of the rod before it hit me. I can't stay long, I need to heed Ian's orders; as with how it looks for me right now, there is no way for me to win this fight. They give chase, and eventually, with just barely enough time to spare, I leap to behind a wall, where they cannot see me nor fire at me, giving me enough time to reach the next wall, then the next, and a few more. Eventually, I make it to the town gate, and Kecleon sees me and waves, unaware of the Alakazam behind them.
"Huh, didn't he run out that way just a few day' ago? I thought he woulda' learn't from-" Kecleon looked down and saw the rod that had punched directly through him before stopping so that he could see it.
My breaths turn heavier, and by the time I get deep into the forest, I know from how far I ran that there is only one place this could be: Foggy Grove. For some reason, the place feels much calmer to me than it should, as if everything is alright, and nothing bad will happen to me here. Feeling curious, I walk towards the ditch where I first appeared in this world so long ago, but rather than see the ditch, I see something much larger.
AN: Pay attention to the chapter names ;)