Chapter Forty-Two
As suddenly as the darkness descended, light reappeared in a flash. In spite of his fur, the air's chill made him shiver. Bruno blinked, and his eyes adjusted to the surroundings. The wall in front of him had the same cracked, peeling paint as the abandoned bar his friends met at every month. He turned. The bar had more occupants than seats, most of them familiar faces, but four stood out from the crowd, two Lucario, a robed figure that hid its face, and Peter. The Lucario and Peter rose from the floor, and one Lucario nursed a sore tail.
Bruno's breath caught in his throat at the sight of Peter. Tears stung his eyes. He ran forward, arms outstretched to embrace him, but the two Lucario darted between them, poised to strike. Bruno skidded to a halt on the gravel floor and stared in confusion at them.
Peter shoved them aside and went towards him, but the Lucario pulled him back. "Let me go!" he shouted at them. "He's right there! We got him back, and he's fine!"
"He is not fine," Jarem wrote. "He needs to return to the Temple immediately. The tiniest bit of stress could set him off, and there's no helping him if that happens. Just keep your distance and wait for the Elder to arrive."
Peter read the paper handed to him and crumpled it up. "No." Peter's command had the weight of an iron rod. "You're only stressing him out more like this. Let me talk to him."
Kolar eyed him warily. He wrote, "You're not in a stable state of mind yourself. You may only make things worse."
Peter's hand went into his coat pocket. The outline of the Sudoku book made a square bulge in the fabric. "I am perfectly fine, and you are the one making everything worse. Stand aside, or I'll find a pokéball for you."
The two Lucario flinched. They exchanged some words too quiet for Bruno to pick out, in the tongue of Pokémon, and stepped aside. Though they look ready to pounce at a sneeze, they stood by as Peter walked up to him.
His embrace took the chill out of the air. Warmth seeped into him, as though Peter's soul kindled his own. His calming presence swept away the fears and doubts clouding his head, and tears poured out of him.
"I can't believe I'm finally back," he said into Peter's coat. Though the human couldn't know his words, he understood.
"It's good to have you back. I missed you more than I knew I could." He chuckled, and his grip tightened. "I won't ever lose you again, I promise."
Bruno barked in agreement. One of Peter's arms left the embrace and dug into a pocket. Peter held up a notepad and a pen.
"I have a spare on me, so write whatever you have to say."
Bruno took the pen. His hands shook, but after a few tries, he wrote, "How did you find me?"
Peter glanced at the hooded figure. "It wasn't us. The White Knights figured out where you were and arranged for your rescue. Preston was the one that got you out of there."
Bruno looked back and saw Preston sprawled on the ground, out cold. He bent to feel his forehead. A fever burned Preston's brow, but he breathed easily.
"Why are the White Knights here? And why are you here? What happened?"
Peter sighed. "That's a long story. I don't know how they found out where you were, but the Knights wanted to give you back to the police. They set off an EMP around here." He shook his head. "I hope nobody got hurt by that."
"I had the area cleared before we began," the stranger said. "There shouldn't be any injuries."
Peter nodded. "Jarem and Kolar followed some kind of trail to this place, which is how we ended up here." His face fell. "I wish you could've told me about this."
Bruno glanced at the Pokémon seated at the bar. Houdini, Sakura, and Aurum all looked as though they wanted to leave but didn't dare draw attention to themselves, Jacqueline ignored the exchange and helped herself to the bottle of sake, and Benign watched with an unreadable expression.
"I'm sorry," Bruno wrote, "The Elders didn't want anyone to know because they feared it would be stopped." He paused, and added, "It was to get me acquainted to the city. They thought if I spent time in an isolated area nearby, it'd help me build a tolerance to the city's aura."
Peter smiled at him, and Bruno's chest fluttered. "It's okay, I'm not mad. It was just startling, finding out you've been going to stuff like this for so long without me knowing. I thought we did everything together." He embraced Bruno again. "And now that you're back, it'll be just like before. Together."
The stranger stood and approached him. Though shadows hid most of his face, he recognized their glossy black fur and fox-like face.
"You look like Seven," he said. As an afterthought, he wrote it down and showed it to them.
The robed figure chuckled and lifted its hood. Though the general shape and features of the face matched Seven's, patches of pink goo disfigured its appearance. One eye peered out of a writhing bulge, and half of their jaw dripped off of their face.
"Seven's my older sister," he said in the human tongue. "So, is she their captive or their Grunt?"
"She's an Admin," Bruno wrote. "Who are you, and what happened to you?"
"My name is Nine." He touched his face and said, "That last question is a very long story, and one I don't care to tell." He held out his hand. "Mind if we shake hands? I'd like to get to know the Pokémon I spent half a fortune to rescue."
Bruno took the outstretched hand. Nine's grasp had the clammy sponginess of refrigerated pudding on half the palm, and the other half had the tingling warmth of fur. Bruno let go with a shiver. A tiny glob of pink goo clung to his fur, and it didn't come off when he scraped it against the bar.
"Thank you for your time," Nine said to the room, "However, I'm afraid I have other business to attend to. Good night, and stay safe. Who knows what the Rockets might be up to right now."
Nine walked out the front door, and the other Pokémon followed after him, Houdini first, then Aurum and Sakura leapt at the chance to leave. Benign left in their wake, and Jacqueline shook the last few drops of out the sake bottle before teleporting away.
Silence fell as Peter and Bruno watched the room clear. Jarem and Kolar tensed, and Bruno eyed them suspiciously.
"They told me you replaced me with them," Bruno wrote. "They filmed a whole day of you around town with those two, doing everything we used to do."
Peter's hands tightened around that note, and he shoved it into his pocket. "We were looking for you. We've been looking all this time, and we finally found you. Everything's going to be alright now, you're safe."
"Are we going home now?" Bruno wrote.
"Yes, yes we are." Tears ran down Peter's face. "We're going home."
Jarem stepped forward. "You need to stay here. Elder Bayron will be here shortly, and he'll take you to the Temple."
"The Temple?" Bruno asked. "Why there?"
"You're too unstable," Kolar answered. "You'll go crazy if you spend any more time here."
Fear caressed Bruno's throat like the tip of a knife. "Peter will be coming with me, right?"
Jarem and Kolar exchanged a glance. Peter looked at them and asked for a translation, and when he finished reading, he said, "I'll try to talk the Commissioner into it, but I don't think so. It's a tough time for the police right now, so tough that they agreed to work with the White Knights. They even had a law shoved through Parliament to seal the deal." Peter looked back at the two Lucario. "It'll be for just a little bit, and then you'll be back. Everything will be fine."
"And they'll stay with you?" Bruno asked.
Peter shook his head. "They'd be a big help, but the Elder is taking them back too. They may send others to stay, but it'll just be until you're all better, I promise. It'll be just like old times."
Bruno stepped back. "No, no, I don't want to go. I just got back. I want to spend time together, go see a movie, have some coffee and donuts. Can't we just do that for a day? Maybe that's all I need to get better, and I won't have to go back. Please?"
Peter looked around him. "Translation?" he asked. "I can't help if I don't know what's going on."
Jarem and Kolar exchanged a glance. Together, they leapt forward, arms blazing with the power of aura. Jarem aimed a punch at Bruno's chest, while Kolar grabbed at his throat. Bruno darted back, and his arms lit up. He swept aside Kolar's grab and rammed an elbow into Jarem's stomach, driving all his aura and strength into the blow. Jarem doubled over and vomited onto the floor.
Blazing blue light grew into a sphere in Kolar's hands. Bruno leapt aside. It curved around and slammed him in the back. Kolar pounced onto him. Bruno grabbed a pointed stone on the ground and drove it into Kolar's ribs. Blood gushed out of the wound and spattered onto Bruno's fur. With a roar, Bruno rolled over, dragging Kolar beneath him. The stone slammed into the back of Kolar's head. With a grunt, he passed out.
Jarem grabbed him from behind and dragged him to the ground. An arm wrapped around his throat, squeezing tight. As his lungs burned, Bruno bucked and drove his waist into Jarem's gut. His arms jerked. The grip loosened enough for Bruno to tuck his chin down. When the arm squeezed again, Bruno breathed in. He clawed at the grip and battered at Jarem's sides, but he couldn't get Jarem off of him.
A heavy thunk echoed off the crumbling walls. Jarem slid off of him. Bruno scrambled to his feet and found Peter standing over the limp body of Jarem with a wooden plank in his hand.
"I don't know what happened," Peter said, "So please tell me. We can work this out. It'll all be okay."
Bruno stared at the bodies on the floor and at Peter. Suspicion bubbled inside him like baking soda thrown onto acid, warring with the calming sensation that drew him towards Peter like a magnet.
He stepped forward, across the blood-soaked rocks. His foot slipped, and he wobbled, waving his arms to stay upright, but in that moment of vertigo, he imagined what would happen when Elder Bayron arrived and learned that he had stabbed a Lucario. They'd never let him leave the Temple. He'd never see Peter again.
Tears stung his eyes as he ran out of the bar. Peter called after him, but his shouts faded into silence as Bruno lost himself in the winding alleyways. Darkness loomed around him, untouched by the dead street lamps standing sentinel over the forgotten streets.
By the time he stopped running, his lungs ached, and his legs gave out beneath him. He stared up at the starry sky. His mind wandered in a numb haze until a soft glow dimmed the stars.
Two figures came towards him, one carrying a flashlight, and both wearing robes. When they got closer, Bruno recognized Houdini. The other, their face hidden in darkness, guided the blind Hypno by the hand.
"I didn't expect to meet again so soon," the stranger said. He lifted his hood. Nine smiled at him and offered a hand up. Bruno took it. He glanced at his hand, expecting more goop, but his fur was clean.
"I hid a tracker in your fur when we shook hands," Nine said. "I was hoping to trace you back to the Temple and find a way to steal a Lucario from there, but this proves far more convenient."
Bruno's mouth hung open in confusion, but before he could say anything, Houdini waved his pendulum. Purple light surrounded it like shimmering fire. Bruno's eyes drooped, and he tumbled to the ground. He felt himself carried away before sleep took him.
Changelog
12/24/18 – minor edits