-AN: Thanks for the review, YamiRuss! Reviews feed me c: This one's a long one, sar guise.
[|] Exceptional [|]
( what's god to a nonbeliever )
"Wes!" The scream tears itself from my throat before I realize what I've done.
The graveler and its trainer look up, and it immediately begins to lob chunks of rocks in our direction.
Icarus plummets.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
It's always when we face an assertion of life's fragility that we are motivated to actions, the tenuous connection between ourselves and life, that are breathtakingly beautiful, and larger than life.
My and Icarus's awe-inspiring moment occurs as he cocoons us in his wings and plummets down towards the ocean like a lead weight in order to avoid the onslaught. I don't have time to comprehend what's happening, only the feeling that my stomach is dropping, and that the lake is a hell of a lot bluer at this angle, and that it's so so cold.
And then Icarus flares open his wings and suddenly we are cheating gravity, catching the surface of the water and sending it dancing upwards in a crystal mist. Boulders crash into the lake around us, tossing up jets of spray. Water soaks through my hair and my shirt, and the column of my neck as I tilt my head back to laugh.
Suspended in the air and this moment, it feels like everything is normal again. I am just a trainer, Icarus is just a pokemon, and there is no such thing as the end. The wind cavorts through my hair and the lake's native pokemon throw themselves in impossible arcs over us.
"Flamethrower!"
Icarus roars, his breath made of molten fire, and he exhales towards the tiny pebble of a graveler in the distance. The light of his own flames glints off his scales. In that moment, as he seems to be the manifestation of fire itself, it is not hard for me to see why the ancient civilizations once thought pokemon were gods.
We are wild, untamable, powerful. This is what our journey used to be full of, battles and moments like this; these are the thrills of training pokemon, the reason why veteran trainers can never seem to give it all up.
A rough cry tumbles down from the mountain, and Icarus snorts in triumph.
When we've made our way up once again, I can see that our flamethrower has scorched a path across the graveler's side.
It's not a large graveler, but the number of crags on its body and the unevenness of its stereotypically circular shape crown it as the victor of countless battles.
Its trainer is equally weathered, fine lines drawing tight the corners of his eyes. There's no grey in his red hair yet but I imagine it's not far off.
Wes's jolteon is pressing herself pitifully against the ground, one of her hind legs incongrous with the rest of her body. Her fur reflects her state; where it was once the color of the sun, it now mimics a sunset. Upon seeing Icarus, she lifts her head wearily in greeting.
I watch her for a moment, then say, "Sand attack, then steel wing."
Icarus beats his wings until they turn silver, simultaneously buffeting the graveler with gusts of grit.
The red-haired trainer tells his graveler, "Defense!"
Taking on its own iron sheen, the graveler braces itself for impact. Meanwhile, its arms rip out handfuls of rock from the mountain and begin hurling them in every direction. The attack is inaccurate and crude, because of the pokemon's conpromised vision, but ubiquitous.
There isn't enough room between the projectiles for Icarus to fly through—the graveler is fast, and a charizard is by no measure small.
I relay this to him and tell him to switch to flamethrower.
Feeling the change in temperature, the graveler orients himself accordingly, obstinately refusing to let up on its assault.
Which leaves its back open to a desperate shadow ball assault by Wes's jolteon.
"That's not fair," the red-haired trainer snaps. "This is a one-on-one battle."
He moves to draw another pokeball from his belt, to even his odds, but I am not ready for a full-out war, so I make a choice. I say, "Burn his hand."
The graveler is fast, but there is no way that he can move faster than Icarus can open his maw. With an unearthly scream, the trainer drops the pokeball and cradles his right hand.
It's not a bad burn; Icarus didn't put much heat into it, weak even for an ember, so it's a second-degree burn at worst. Still, it means he won't be able to use his hand for a while, and, more importantly, he won't be able to give chase.
I whistle for Icarus and grab Wes. The blonde hastily returns his jolteon and climbs on.
We soar away into the unrelenting blue sky.
"Long time no see," I say, looking Wes in the face for the first time.
He pulls me in by the small of my waist and kisses me.
I blink when he sits back. "I thought you hated me?"
"I don't know...just tired...and, I missed you," he mumbles, words slowing towards the end as he passes out against my back.
Laughing quietly, I run my fingers through his hair. The sunny strands are longer than I remember, though still on the short side. His face hasn't enough to become unrecognizable in the past year, however. It's still the face of the boy who used to be my best friend.
I've missed him, too.
I hated Viridian Forest.
It had no good qualities; no cute pokemon to catch, no air conditioning, so many bug pokemon, and no lights.
Mostly, I hated the bug pokemon because they were the reason there weren't any lights at night. The lady at the information desk said adding streetlights would "disturb the natural environment of the bug pokemon.
I did my daddy proud and asked her where my tax dollars were going.
In the end, she gave me a flashlight and told me that I should probably get moving. At first, Icarus wanted to hold it, but then he accidentally shined it in his eyes, and after that, he avoided it like it was a girl charmander.
Otherwise, though, we were having a great time—plenty of weedle and caterpie for Icarus to burn, and plenty of bug-catching kids to beat—until we got to a fork in the road.
"We're supposed to turn left here," Wes said, holding the map that they hand out for free at the information desk and rotating it around.
The sun was setting, so I held my flashlight a little tighter. Something rustled on our right, and there was a flash of silver. It was shiny! It had to be something cool, like an Articuno, or a Lugia. I couldn't tell Wes, because then he'd want to catch it, too, but then I just leave him either, because then I'd have to walk alone in the dark.
I poked Wes. "No, it definitely says to go right."
He stuck his tongue out at me and said confidently, "No way you can read maps better than me."
"Can too!" I snapped back, crossing my arms. Icarus mimicked my actions.
Wes furrowed his brow. "Fine. Then you go to the right, I'm going to the left."
"Bet I'll make it through faster than you," I teased, walking as quickly as I could to the right so I could get a head start.
Wes called after me: "Wait, but I get the flashlight!"
"What, why?" I asked defensively. Then, it hit me and I smirked. "Are you a scaredy meowth? Scared of the dark?"
"N-no," the blonde stammered, cheeks warming up. "It's just, you already have a charmander. He's practically a living flashlight. You're more of a scaredy meowth if you need two flashlights!"
I threw the flashlight behind him so he'd have to run back to get it. As he hurried towards it, he called over his shoulder, "Arceus, you're so immature!"
"I'm so winning," I corrected him, laughing, and stuck my tongue out at him until I realized he couldn't see me. "And you shut up about Icarus!"
0-0-0
I shivered, trying to get closer to Icarus and his flame. Why did nighttime have to be so dark? Why did I split up with Wes again? If I was Arceus, I would've just made everything sunny. Except in the winter. In the winter, there'd just be no sun, so the snow would never melt!
Immersed in dreaming up my own world, I forgot about the fact that the shadows all looked like scary ghosts that wanted to eat my toes while I slept or criminals that wanted to sell my organs on the black market. I couldn't, however, ignore the sudden crashing noises deeper inside the forest.
We were camped for the night on the edge of the path that travelers were supposed to use to get through Viridian Forest, with a fire made from Icarus's ember and some dry sticks making enough smoke to keep the bug pokemon away. Everything was exactly like my brother had taught me. He said to stick to the path, because in the deep forest, there were beedrill who had enough poison to melt your insides, and ariados who wrapped you up in cocoons so they could eat you later.
I didn't really believe him about the ariados, because he also used to say things like 'don't use my computer without asking first because there are creepy guys on the internet who can hack into your computer's camera and spy on you'; and because I'd learned in school that ariados were found in Johto; but my dad told me it was true, people would bring them over either intentionally or accidentally when they traveled back and forth between Johto and Kanto, and somehow they ended up in Viridian Forest and became an invasive species.
Icarus looked really curious, though, and my brother always acted like such a know-it-all, so I decided to move away from the path and closer to the sounds. Mom and dad would so like me better when they heard that I'd adventured deep in the forest that my brother was too afraid to go into.
"Make your fire extra big though," I told Icarus, trying to mask my nervousness.
He gave me an amused look, but didn't miss the opportunity to show off.
I stamped out our campfire and we headed into the gloom. Leaves tickled my face as I passed by, making me shudder. I would've asked Icarus to burn them away, but I was afraid that the forest rangers had set up cameras to catch vandals.
The deep forest was too quiet, like I was wearing headphones, except for the crashing. I was almost glad for it, though, because it meant there was nothing around to sneak up on me. To occupy myself, I waved to the trees and pretended they were the audience at my pokemon battle against the Champion.
"Charrr!" Icarus yelped suddenly, leaping into my arms.
I petted his head a bit and squinted, trying to make out what Icarus saw, but all I could see was darkness and the shadowy outlines of trees. Stupid Wes, taking my flashlight. The lady had given me the flashlight so I would go away, not him.
A flash of silver, and then total blackness, overcame my vision. I screamed, scrabbling at my face and whatever freaky bug pokemon had dropped on me. Icarus kicked at it, growling deep in his throat, and a thump next to my feet confirmed his accuracy.
"It's an aron," I noted in surprise, poking at the metal-plated pokemon.
Shaking its head, it looked up at me, eyes widening in terror. Icarus flexed his muscles, proud of the reaction. I smirked, thinking about how heroic and scary we looked, looming above it with the dark trees all around us.
Those dark trees crashed behind us. Icarus wailed, and I scooped him up again.
In the nest the fallen trees had made was an aggron, struggling to get back up. An arcanine and a nidoking skidded into the new clearing, the arcanine lighting up the entire forest with the fire blast it was charging in its muzzle.
The aggron attempted to counter it with protect, but the shimmery blue shield shattered under the force of the flames. I squeezed my eyes shut and stuck my fingers in my ears as it screeched in agony, and I tried to keep my senses shut down as the arcanine howled from the pain of a metal claw to its stomach, ripping open the soft skin.
Squealing its name with rage, the aron tried to back up its evolution by throwing itself headfirst against the nidoking's knee, but the colossal purple pokemon batted it back with its tail, and the aron crashed against another tree trunk.
Purple was my favorite color, it was supposed to be a nice color. Evil was supposed to wear black, or red, or grey, not purple.
Icarus and I had taken refuge under a bush, and we tried desperately not to make any noise as the nidoking used its horn to drill against the aggron's armor again and again. But then the aron was about to hurl its body against the nidoking again, and I saw the nidoking ready to tear into its tiny form, and suddenly I was out in the open, throwing a pokeball at the nidoking, which was the only way I could think of to get it to—stop goring the aggron please!
The pokeball bounced off of its purple hide, sucking up the aron instead, and I threw myself on top of the pokeball, crying for them to stop hurting each other and praying for my daddy to come pick me up, and the blood of the aggron and the arcanine was everywhere, soaking into my clothes until it bogged me down, and mingling with my snot and sweat and tears.
0-0-0-0
I woke up at 9:38 AM to white walls in Pewter City's Pokemon Center; it said so in the report that Officer Jenny wrote up about that night/morning. I'd been brought there after being rescued by a couple of rangers who had heard me screaming. The report also said that I'd been attacked by a horde of butterfree, and the onslaught of confusions they used had messed up my brain. I asked them to get rid of that part, because my brother would make fun of me for being crazy, but they said it had to be in there to be comprehensive.
In exchange, they agreed to my request that he be put in jail if he ever made fun of me again, but I think they were lying about that because people only get put in jail for things like murder and stealing.
I wasn't sure what to do next, so I sat in the Pokemon Center and found my backpack so I could change out of my hospital gown into my own clean clothes.
Wes came in at 11:50 AM, something I delighted in telling him.
"I beat you," I told him, showing him the bandages on my arm to prove that I'd been here for a long time already.
Then, I didn't know why, but I hugged him as tightly as I could. He let me stay there for a second before he shoved me away because cooties, and made fun of the tangles in my hair, and everything felt normal again.
Except for that second pokeball that had been sitting on top of my clean clothes.
-AN: I'm determined to make it past 4 chapters. My record's 18, but that's discouraging so I'm gonna hit 4 first and then we'll see from there.