Mark.
"LEON HIGGINS! YOU GET YOUR SKINNY WHITE ASS RIGHT BACK HERE!"
My family in Hoenn could probably have heard me, I shouted so loud. I was ready to fight Lee with my bare fists.
I tackled him into a wall of the tunnel, realizing too late that it was my hurt shoulder I used. My whole right arm screamed in pain as I held Lee in place.
"M-Mark!" Lee was flushed pink from running so much. That dope, he had the constitution of a daffodil, he shouldn't have been running in the first place.
"Leon!" I bared my teeth, both in a feral rage and in pain. "Jesus H. Christ! What'n the seven hells are you doing running into the mountain with Astro left outside by himself?!
As he tried to answer, I continued barking at him and chewing him out.
"Saturn and his cronies, they just [expletive deleted]in' took Riley's Riolu, and they were hot on my ass! You know they're gonna try to get a reaction out of him!"
"I left Fallon to protect him! Fal can-!"
"Fallon can not do shit against the determination of that Riolu!" I screamed, enunciating each word. "You do this, you do this all the time, Lee! You do the stupidest shit without explaining how or why, and people get hurt! What could possibly be so goddamned important, you couldn't wait?!"
How angry I was, it shook Lee up something bad. Rarely was I ever genuinely pissed at him, or actually screamed and shouted in his face.
"T-Team Galactic, th-they...I think they're looking to summon a legendary pokemon, and I...I don't want-"
"You want to get there first?" I accused him. "You wanna be the hero, save everybody's skin? Is that it?"
"No! I-"
"Would it kill you to be where you're needed, instead of where you want to be? Christ, Lee, you...you're so goddamned stupid!"
My throat felt raw and hurt. I hated yelling at him, I just...I was so angry, and I had held it in so long, I couldn't let him pull this stupid shit anymore.
My fists loosened, almost losing my grip on his leather jacket. I closed my eyes.
"I never ask for anything selfish, do I?" I asked in a hard tone. "Just...help those damn kids, okay? Just...just do like you should, like an actual adult!"
In the half-darkness, Lee's dark eyes glared daggers at me. I was getting nowhere, except even more desperate...
"Make me." Everything about him challenged me; his tone, his eyes, everything... "You want me to do what you want? Then make me, Marcus Lowe."
That finally tipped the scales. In a moment of lucid insanity, I snapped.
Letting go of Lee's shoulders, I snatched the collars of his shirt and jacket, and I pulled him almost to his tiptoes, and I kissed him. Hard.
At first, he lifted his arms, and I thought Lee would push me away. I moved my hand, tangled it in his hair, deepening the kiss. Lee wrapped his skinny fingers around my other wrist.
His lips were much rougher than I'd imagined...
Before he pushed me away, I'd felt a bit of pressure returned. As if he kissed me back. A glimmer of hope, of sinful hope, lit a fire in my heart as he placed a hand on my chest and pushed.
"If you hadn't w-wasted so much time here," He weakly chided me, "then you could have rescued Riolu. I am going to meet back up with y'all, okay? I promise, now go!" I definitely heard his voice waver.
A long time, I'd been waiting to do that, and I even chose the worst time, too. Maybe Lee wasn't the only idiot around.
I didn't know what Lee was going to do, and at that point, I hadn't even known about Spear Pillar. But, I still let him go.
By the time I was done with that douchebag, both of the Riolus were gone. That was the last time I saw Astro, or Lee, for over seven years.
Astro.
Meanwhile.
"RIOLU! Fallon, let me go! Please! He's just a KID!"
Fallon had to hold me back, in his arms, as Blaziken fought off a now certifiable horde of Golbat in front of the cave.
Next to come from the woods was Shift, spitting out Dark Pulse after Dark Pulse. She had chased after the others, so Riley and the kids were sure to be next.
"Pipsqueak, lay low!" Fallon rumbled, his voice vibrating throughout my small body. "Let me and the others get your friend back, those Golbat'll crush you!"
I charged a Force Palm attack, slamming it into his massive forearm and startling him into letting go of me. I charged another Force Palm, firing the energy into the snow to send my flying into the air.
"Give him back..." I growled. It wasn't a sound; it felt like a feeling, a rumbling rage that gave me the strength to take down Arceus itself. "Give him back! You BASTARDS, I'll kill every last one of you!"
I grabbed hold of a Golbat's foot, and swung myself upward; I grabbed whatever I could to propel myself upward, to Riolu, who expected me to save him. I evaded attacks from the ground, and from the Bat pokemon around me.
Then, in the middle of my fourth swing upward, a Golbat grabbed me with its enormous jaws and held me like a dog would a stick.
I tried to thrash around, to fight back and get to Riolu, but...I couldn't. The adrenaline that'd pushed me forward left my veins, and it was like I couldn't move...
I pushed too far... I thought bitterly.
"Rraugh!" Fallon cried. Pipsqueak!
"Umbree!" Shift howled. Astro!
We were too high in the air for them to take me back, and if they did, the strength of Golbat's jaw would have ripped me in half.
I heard that cobalt-haired little cockroach laugh as he saw me snatched up. "There we go!" He said, cruelly. "I even managed to catch both of them! The Boss might even promote me for this!"
He ordered the Golbats and scattered grunts back to some secret spot I didn't quite catch. I tried to move, and Golbat crunched down on me, making it hard to breathe.
"Nngh...no...!" I rasped. "Ri...olu...!" I struggled until the moment I passed out.
That day was the worst I'd ever faced. I failed to save Riolu, for both his sake and Riley's, and I even failed my own trainer, Amber...
Maxwell Daniels.
[Excuse me, Maxwell...you look like you have something to add to this.]
Huh? It's not anything big, Kent. Something even Michelle'd remember.
{What is that supposed to mean?! You jerk!}
{Mitchie, calm down...Max, tell him, if you remember anything.}
Hmph. Whatever, it's nothing that hasn't been said.
Amber had already mentioned me telling her that Mom and Cyrus were fighting a lot, but she didn't even know the half of it. It was just awful for me and Michelle, but she was so little, I was the one more upset about it.
One of the reasons I liked staying with Paul and Reggie so much was to avoid my parents fighting, and I was allowed to, because our moms were good friends.
Everything about him has Cyrus nailed down as a cold, heartless bastard, but he could get into it pretty awful with Mom, the same as Amber.
Cyrus was mega-pissed that Amber had left so abruptly, especially since he hadn't ever wanted her to even leave Twinleaf in the first place. Mom's stance was that Amber had pokemon, she was of a legal age, and she was with a pretty good group of friends, so she had just as much of a right to travel and enjoy herself as any coortinator her age.
{Max, I don't...remember any of that...at all.}
Well, you're just a dumb kid! I didn't even wanna talk in the first place, turn the mic to Riley or something. Frickin' journalists...
{I'm really sorry about my brother's attitude, Kenta, please don't be offended.}
[Oh, I'm fine. A smart mouth on a fifteen year old couldn't do much damage to my self-esteem.]
Hey!