Chapter 5: I've Met the Blessed and the Damned

"And I've met some bug-eyed Joes; I've met the blessed, I've met the damned." ~ Love Don't Roam, Neil Hannon

"When fate throws a dagger at you, there are two ways to catch it;

By the blade, or by the hilt."

~ Chinese Proverb

AN: Hey there! I was tempted to put this chapter up yesterday, so I could be like, APRIL FOOLS, HERE'S YOUR CHAPTER! But then I never got around to it, so I'm posting today instead. I guess I don't really have much to say. This chapter was brought to you by the song Out of My Hands, performed by the Dave Matthews Band.

Serena sighed as she finally stepped under the archway at the entrance of Genosage Town. After she and the strange blue-haired man, who'd introduced himself as Darius, had returned the wayward professor to his colleagues, they'd both started heading north. That had led to a few discoveries on Serena's part, both fascinating and terrifying.

"So you work with the police, but right now you're on vacation?" Serena asked, frowning at Darius. "Then why were you looking for Team Flare?" In response, Darius simply shrugged.

"Call me a workaholic. That, and the very fact that Team Flare is an organized group is more than a little unsettling. Bad things happen when groups like them form."

"Bad things like what?" Serena asked, watching as a Wailmer broke the surface of the ocean far below the rocky cliff they walked along. It took her a few seconds to realize that not only had Darius not answered, he'd also stopped walking as well. A glance back showed the blonde that the young man was staring at something further up the cliff. Warily, Serena followed his gaze.

"It's an Absol." Serena muttered with a frown. "What's the problem?"

Darius shook his head. "Their natural habitat in this region is much further up the cliffs. They also usually stay away from people. And yet this is the second time I've seen one today." Serena glanced back at him as she heard him shuffling through his bag, pulling out an odd red device and flipping the cover off. "'It senses coming disasters and appears before people only to warn them of impending danger.'" He spoke in the tone of someone reading off text, and Serena frowned at the device.

"What is that?" She asked. Darius looked up and offered her a half-smile.

"A Hoenn version Pokedex. Got tired of getting used to different formats for every region so I asked Professor Rowan to just stick to updating this one." His blue eyes shifted back to the Absol before Serena could make a comment however, and the girl couldn't help but shiver as she looked at the oddly beautiful portent of doom.

"So something terrible is going to happen because Absol is here?" She demanded incredulously. Darius snorted.

"Hardly. It's not that Absol draws in the disaster, it's that the disaster draws in Absol. This is a warning. Something terrible is going to happen, and probably within the next couple of weeks. Possibly months if we're lucky." The boy shrugged as the Absol watched them for a few seconds more before disappearing over the ridge.

"Now I know the apocalypse is coming. Joy." Darius grumbled, stuffing the Pokedex back into his bag.

After that, Serena had pestered Darius over his Pokedex all the way to Cyllage City, trying to divert her mind from what the Pokedex had told them. They'd parted after that; Serena stopping to challenge Grant, the local gym leader, while Darius hopped on the back of his Altaria, which he'd called Ryuushi, and flew off to who-knew-where. Serena was still shaken up though, especially after Darius had told her what happened the last time he'd seen an Absol in the wild. Namely, the disasters in Hoenn three years ago. And to know that something of that scale could very well be brewing in her very own homeland of Kalos terrified the young trainer.

But for now, there was nothing she could do, save keep a close eye on Team Flare. Speaking of…

Serena broke into a run as she spotted a familiar red suit disappearing around the corner of a house. Rounding said corner, she spotted the member of Team Flare running several yards ahead of her. He also had longer legs than Serena, and the gap between the two was widening. At least, it was until the other teenager came out of seemingly nowhere and tackled the suited man to the ground.

"Stop running around!" The dark-skinned teen growled as he quite effectively pinned the squirming grunt to the dirt. A second later and Serena was beside them, grabbing the grunt's flailing feet so he'd stop kicking the teen balanced on his back.

"Thanks for that." She said breathlessly to her fellow teenager. The boy shrugged as best as he was able, still pinching the man's wrists behind his back.

"Thanks for distracting him. I've been chasing him and his cohorts around this town for almost an hour; I was almost ready to tell Thanau to just set the guy's pants on fire and see how fast he ran after that." As he said this he jerked his head towards a charmeleon which was standing off to the side, obviously guarding against either the man's escape or the arrival of enemy backup. Beside the charmeleon was a pokemon that Serena recognized as froakie. The little frog was staring at something behind them however, reaching up and nudging Thanau to catch the fire-type's attention. Once both pokemon were staring behind the teens, Serena twisted around to see what was agitating the other teen's pokemon.

"What are you looking at?" Said teen asked, twisting around with slightly more difficultly considering his position holding down the Flare grunt.

"It's an Absol." Serena muttered, watching the gleaming white fur stalking slowly towards their odd pile of limbs.

"You sound like that scares you." He commented. Serena debated hitting him, but froze as the pokemon stopped before them, ducking its head down to nibble at the other teen's black cap. "Cut that out!" He snapped, but the Absol just bit the brim of the hat and lifted it off the teen's honey-blonde hair, hopping back a few steps with a mischievous gleam in its red eyes.

"Absol is able to sense disasters before they happen." Serena recalled out loud, causing the teen to freeze. "I saw another one on the way up here. Unless it was actually the same one. I wonder if you're going to be involved with whatever disaster is about to happen?"

"…" Serena blinked at the other teen's silence, and then went over her last sentence again in her head.

"Sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like that! I just meant-"

"I think I got what you meant." He cut in quickly, shifting his grip on their captive's wrists so he could finally sit up. "Now before anything else, I don't suppose you could call the cops in to deal with this guy?"

Archangel frowned at the pokemon which was still holding his hat hostage. He'd checked the pokedex's entry while the girl, who'd introduced herself as Serena, spoke to the cops. Just as she'd said, the pokemon only appeared just before a disaster. Apparently the scythe-like horn on its head allowed it to sense the imbalances or something. Either way, the so-called disaster pokemon was still hanging around, holding Archangel's cap hostage.

"Should I just accept that you're sticking around?" The teen asked the pokemon dryly. In response, his hat was tossed into his lap, the lithe form trotting several steps closer before the absol lay on the ground, propping her chin on outstretched forelegs. Archangel sighed and tugged his cap back over his messy hair before promptly making a point of not looking at the white-furred hat-stealer.

Cautiously, Ark glanced around the little clearing he was in, surrounded by boulders, before pulling out the pure red pokeball out of his pocket and giving Amersu a look. He wasn't sure why Amersu was giggling again, but at least the little menace was making eye contact. She didn't seem all that concerned at the moment, despite the absol's appearance, so he tucked her Pokeball back into his pocket. A minute later, Serena exited the PokeCenter and joined him in the clearing.

"So why did you sound so afraid earlier, when Absol first appeared?" Ark asked almost immediately. Serena shook her head.

"I saw an absol yesterday when I was still south of Cyllage City." She explained as she perched on one of the boulders. "This guy I was with told me the last time he saw one in the wild was just before two legendary pokemon with a grudge went at each other and almost destroyed the region they were in."

"So I'm going to destroy the region, am I?" Ark said half-teasingly, trying to ignore the ice that stabbed through his heart at the words that struck just a little too close. Serena shook her head.

"Doubt it. That guy said he'd run into an Absol earlier that morning and said the thing was practically eating his hair; though it could have just liked the taste of his hair-dye." She laughed.

"Hair dye?" Ark asked, suddenly fighting the urge to frown. Surely it couldn't be?

"Most impressive shade of blue hair I've ever seen." Serena said. "At first I thought he was like a colorblind Flare grunt or something. Then he told me he was actually an agent with the International Police. On vacation though."

"So he is a cop." Ark grumbled under his breath.

"You've met him?" Serena asked in surprise. Archangel winced at having given that away, but nodded anyway.

"I kinda stumbled onto the case by accident." Archangel said, carefully wording his explanation. Not completely a lie. "I was talking with someone I suspected of being a high-ranking member," known boss, but no-one should know that yet, "and he just kinda hopped into the conversation. Neither of us were getting good vibes off the guy, but before I could question him further he disappeared. Though, I think I passed his commanding officer in Luminose; the one who's actually on the case."

"What, so you're a cop too?" Serena asked, raising one eyebrow in disbelief. "Pretty young recruit aren't you?"

"I was supposed to be working my first case, just dealing with fallout from an event, but something happened and I found myself in a hedge maze just south of Luminose." Again, not a total lie. The girl didn't need the details of just which event he was supposed to be cleaning up after. Serena frowned at his mention of the hedge maze however, leaning forward and staring at Ark's face.

"That was several weeks ago, wasn't it?" She practically demanded. "I think I remember you; my friend Shauna was talking to you, and you seemed really confused." Archangel frowned, casting his memory back. Finally, he blinked in comprehension.

"I do remember that! I think you thought I was crazy."

"I did think you were crazy." Serena informed him flatly, despite the fact that she was smiling. "Small world huh?"

"Small world indeed." Archangel agreed. The two were silent for a few minutes before Archangel leaned forward, clasping his hands together and propping his chin atop the interwoven fingers, his eyes on Serena.

"I don't suppose that guy told you were he was going?"

AN: So yeah! Here's another chapter. This one is rather short, I'll admit. I don't know if you guys think it's short, but not including these notes, the chapter is about 18 hundred words. Anything under a 2K word count just feels short to me, but I honestly can't bring myself to break the chapters anywhere else. Please leave more reviews; I have leftover garlic bread and brownies from feeding my classmates yesterday! I can digitize them and send them to reviewers! Please and thank you!