Ascension
ACT TWO - DUST OF DREAMS
Chapter 10 - Sacrifice and Subjugation
Well, I'll be damned. He's actually got a plan.
Samuel Oak stood at the edge of the battle-arena, his arms firmly crossed as he observed his little protégé shooting across the field like an aerial missile. He knew that Red had been doing personalized training with Mia now and then, but to organize coordinated battle strategies at his level?
Impressive.
The three-pronged attack pattern was versatile and effective, which was why it was quite common in warfare. The skarmory's Keen Eye ability allowed the avian to formulate precise trajectories and rain down feathers of steel from above with absolute precision, while the scyther's agility acted both as an insurance policy— should it fall into the path of the skarmory's attack —and an incredibly lethal asset for attacking.
Between skarmory's steel blades and scyther's ability to cut through any surface with its vibration technique, entering into close combat with either was the last thing an opposing trainer would want to do. Add a force-generator like Red's battle-ready gardevoir into the mix, and it was a deadly tri-attack maneuver.
Very impressive.
In the midst of the battle, Mia had sent Red rocketing across the arena, like a bullet zooming towards its destination— the dratini.
The ruthless Champion in him approved.
"But what will you do," Oak muttered, "if I do… this?"
He snapped his fingers, and immediately recognizing the command, Drago stomped on the ground with all fours and roared.
Like a nightmare come to life, Dragonite's roar shook the entire field, making Oak tightly shut his ears as the unbelievable loud noise radiated outwards. The scyther, closest to the epicenter, was forced to halt its assault and dig its claws into the ground to hold itself in place while the skarmory was gliding—
Wait… gliding?
Oak blinked.
But the sight didn't change. Despite the constant barrage of sonic waves discharged with unspeakable ferocity, the skarmory managed to stay adrift in mid-air. No, it was more like the bird was bobbing up and down, riding on the waves themselves as her body adjusted to the frequencies with an unnatural ease.
Similar to how a surfer stayed adrift by harnessing the might of the waves.
"Gaining control by surrendering control," Oak chortled. That bird would be a monster once it learned Aerial Ace. "My my, this day brings forth quite a few surprises. Either you're far more special than I gave you credit for, or you're just plain lucky, Red."
He glanced towards Red, who was far from unaffected by the roar. The bulwark of pure sound had slammed into the boy, sending him tumbling across the ground. Nothing nearly enough to cause a debilitating injury, but his senses were at least disoriented.
That was when he noticed something.
A tiny spurt of crimson out of the boy's nose.
Almost immediately, a wave of pressure descended upon the battlefield as Mia let out a scream of anguish.
Blackness rose out of nowhere and clung onto Mia's skirt, reforming it into countless shadowy tendrils that lashed around at the very fabric of reality surrounding it, their edges blurred yet sharp enough to tear through air itself. There was no light, no sound, no force— just a massive outpouring of energy that appeared out of nowhere, contorting and twisting into ethereal shapes around the fairy that was clearly no ordinary gardevoir.
Mia opened her eyes.
And Oak saw an indescribable madness in them.
The pokémon raised her arms in a wide arc, and a tiny sphere of pure pressure began to form in front of the red organ on her chest, sucking in wind and matter as it grew larger. Despite the large distance between them, Oak could see the dense energies rotating at incredible speeds.
It was like an Aura Sphere, but without the aura. Just energy.
Where did she learn to rotate pure energy like that?
With another angry wail, Mia hurled it ahead.
At him.
Oak widened his eyes in shock, but before he could react further, someone else did.
Drago rose up from the ground and slammed her gigantic tail into the sphere with a strength capable of toppling mountains, sending the ball flying into the atmosphere.
Twenty feet, fifty feet, one hundred— two hundred feet—
BOOM!
There were no words to convey the sheer violence contained in such an explosion. It didn't even register as any other sound. Instead, it was almost as if a wall of pure force slammed into everywhere with extreme prejudice, a hammer of cosmic proportions that resulted in disorientation so powerful that even Oak felt his senses go awry for a moment.
His eyes saw static. A single, high-pitched tone rang in his ears. His body felt iffy, unwilling to move. It was hard to tell which way was up versus down, as if his body had forgotten the rules of gravity.
Champion for over twenty years and trainer for a lot longer, Samuel Oak registered feelings he hadn't felt in ages— awe and fear.
Awe at the power of the creature floating in front of him.
Fear, because in his arrogance, he had allowed a mere child to keep it.
This creature— Mia —was a monster. Not the ones that gained strength through countless hours of diligence, but a natural monster. One that could very well become a flawless instrument of death one day.
And he'd handed it over to a fourteen-year-old who saw it as a sister-figure.
I think, Oak mused wryly, I've made a serious mistake.
Mawile was in a bad mood.
Being pushed away for being too weak was already a grave insult towards her admittedly frail constitution. But she liked living more, and getting smooshed into ketchup by a dragon's foot was not one of her life's goals. At least Red had the decency to come up with a good excuse that allowed her to save face— even if it was a stupid face.
But really, stand and watch and learn? What did he think Mawile was? A growlithe?
Surely he could've put a little more thought into it and came up with something more gallant? Like protecting the puppy and Shellder from the invisible creatures of the mountain? Not that the dumb thing needed protection.
You needed soft bits for that.
Her jaw shook in agreement.
She watched as Scyther and Skarmory hammered the massive dragons with attacks, only to be blown off like nuisances. Then she watched as the other fairy pushed those invisible forces— the ones that went all kaboom when they hit —towards the dragon. Then she watched as Red shot across like the battlefield like a shooting star, jealous that he hadn't invited her along for the ride.
But most importantly, she had her eyes glued onto the unimpressive serpent that kept floating and slithering around in mid-air with a grace it had no business having.
She had paid attention earlier when the Oak human was explaining the rules for this battle, telling Red that he had to get the dratini to win. But somehow, Red managed to translate getting the dratini to defeating the massive dragon.
How did he even do that? The words were completely different.
She blamed the Oak human and the Delia woman for getting Red all fired up about facing the angry dragon. Being the impressionable human he was, Red had quickly fallen for the devious trap. Still, as his starter, it was up to Mawile to cover up for Red's many shortcomings.
And she had a plan to salvage this whole thing.
Mawile would use her feminine charms to ensnare the serpent, and once it came close, she'd smack the living daylights out of it. It had worked on the growlithe before— why would she need to change it now?
That was exactly what she was aiming to do and—
WHAM!
A great gust of wind exploded right in her face, sending her rolling across the ground. Cursing and yelling, Mawile pulled herself up and looked towards the massive explosion. And there, floating in the middle of the sky with a strange smile on her face, was the Mia fairy.
Mawile scowled. Obviously, this was another attempt by the other fairy to spoil her plans. Really, why did Red have to go and get such a possessive little thing? It was only fair when Mawile did it, not everyone else.
That was a rule.
Mawile slowly massaged her dirtied face, horrified by the mud that now coated her face and body.
Great! Now her plans were derailed, and she'd have to think of some other way to get that dratini. She kicked off some dirt with her tiny legs and proceeded to flip the other fairy off.
…
Wait, was it supposed to be the second finger or the third finger?
Mawile cocked her head in confusion, before going with the first.
It felt natural.
He should've seen this coming.
Red's experience in his dreamscapes had given him a healthy appreciation of just how deep his connection with Mia ran. Earlier, the kirlia had been able to pick up on his feelings, but now it was much more than that. She was able to understand his very instincts, almost as if he and Mia were a single mind populating two different bodies— Red the human and Mia the gardevoir.
That is, if 'gardevoir' was still apt for someone like her.
Mia was unique. The only one of her kind in the world.
Red had known she was connected to his psyche for quite a while now, but this was the first time he'd actually felt the significance of that statement. His mind was hers. Her instincts were his.
So when Drago had let out that deafening roar and sent him toppling, two different types of injuries took place— the physical kind, through extreme disorientation and bruises from the fall, and the mental kind that affected gardevoir. As a creature of the mind, Mia's hold over her senses were adversely affected by the high-frequency waves, causing the bubble of energy she had conjured around Red to burst and send him tumbling.
In her mind, Red was hurt, and seeing him hurt was the one thing she could never tolerate.
Before he knew it, the darker powers of Mia's psyche had taken over, and Mia morphed from the happy-go-lucky fairy that demanded piggy-back rides to a leviathan who boasted powers of cosmic proportions.
Madness incarnate, in every way.
Mia… Red mentally called out, but she was too far gone already.
The sphere of pure power slammed against Drago's tail and was sent careening high up into the sky, where it exploded with enough power to reduce the standing population of a city block to zero.
Red had been directly under it when it happened, but a flicker of something transparent told him he'd be safe.
Mia… he called out again. This time, he managed to get through.
She was in anguish. Completely distraught. The very notion that he had been hurt because she lost control of her bubble was unjustifiable in her book. An anathema to her very existence.
Mia, I'm okay. Please, calm down.
But it was far easier said than done. He could feel the rage boiling inside her psyche. An insatiable anger directed at herself, at the world at large, at Oak and Drago for putting her into that situation. Anger at missing her attack. Anger at not being powerful enough. Anger at—
"MIA!"
This time, it worked— the screech brought Mia's turbulent emotions to a complete halt. The fairy blinked and gazed at Red, her shadowy tendrils receding and reforming her normal skirt-like appearance. He could sense her awareness extend southwards, feeling the stirrings of wariness and confusion and hints of fear from Scyther and Skarmory along with an overwhelming sense of regret from the old man.
Before he could delve deeper into Mia's feelings, they vanished.
She floated down, her feet touching the ground.
And judging by how the ethereal shield surrounding him dangerously flickered before dissipating, she was exhausted— a notion only reinforced by the fact that she was panting. Heavily.
Red stood up and looked around at the now-ravaged arena. Drago was floating in mid-air, her vestigial wings flat against her enormous body as she merrily disobeyed gravity. He cast a glance at Skarmory and Scyther, taking note of their perturbed expressions before glancing at Oak, who was looking at him like he grew another head.
"Well... that was something, wasn't it?"
Nobody answered.
"So..." Red tried again, suddenly feeling self-conscious for some reason. "Do we continue the fight?"
"So, do we continue the fight?"
Samuel Oak stared at his ward in debilitating confusion. Had the boy really not understood what had just happened? That attack— just one of those shots, and Pallet Town would have been a goner. Hell, he was pretty sure that the explosion had burnt out any electronic gadget within a mile radius at the very least.
Good thing they were in an isolated zone, away from the populace.
Thank whatever deity for small mercies.
He opened his mouth, ready to scold the boy. If he just thought it had just been some large explosion, then perhaps Red was still not ready to have power— the power of a Dragon —in his hands. Taking Mia away was an exercise in futility, but he could still spare the dragonling from such a fate.
Maybe after a year, after he gained a little more maturity—
Dragonite snorted and stomped one of her feet onto the ground, generating a small shockwave.
Oak promptly. closed his mouth, glancing at his old friend.
Why?
Dragonite snorted a second time, sitting down on all fours as she blew a torrent of fumes at Red.
You still think he should be tested? You still wish to judge him? Why?
He had no idea what Dragonite was thinking, but the dratini was hers to give. If she had seen something in Red, who was he to stop her?
"Yes," he said, clearing his throat. He cast a surreptitious glance at the gardevoir, who looked weary and exhausted. "We continue."
Contrary to his expectations, the boy did nothing— said nothing —to the gardevoir. To Mia. In fact, he wasn't sure if he had even spoken a single word to the pokémon throughout the entire debacle. Immediately his mind jumped to the happenings back at the hospital, when the two were apparently connected in a mutual dream world.
Just how deep does their connection go?
Earlier, Red had described how he was able to sense her emotions and deduce her thoughts based on them. Was Mia able to do something similar? Or perhaps something even greater? Had he inadvertently caused something when he'd ordered Dragonite to roar?
He glanced at the gardevoir's skirt, something that suddenly became strange tendrils in the heat of battle.
Just what was this creature that Mia had become?
Oak shared a long look with Dragonite.
He had been in her presence for far too long to not understand her shifts in body language. Dragonite thought of Red as something akin to a child, as close to an offspring as possible. The scyther, she had been treating like a child on training wheels during the fight. She had played with the skarmory like it was an adolescent kid, one who had talent but was too prideful to acknowledge the existence of powers greater than itself. And the rest of his team didn't even register.
But Mia?
Dragonite perceived her as a threat.
A Champion-class dragonite— a pseudo-legendary pokémon boasting enough power to bring multiple cities to utter ruin —considered this… this gardevoir a threat.
That in itself was everything that needed to be said about Red's sister.
"Uhh, old man? I'm still waiting."
Oak shook his head, breaking himself out of his musings. "Yes, you may continue if you wish. Though I doubt Mia will be able to keep fighting."
"Maybe, but she won't have to fight for too long," Red shot back.
Oak had a retort ready on his lips, but a spitting sound attracted his attention. He glazed to his right at the dratini— or rather, where it should have been —and found the baby dragon coiled on the ground, a sticky brown mess dribbling out of its mouth.
"What are you doing?" he chastised. "Haven't I already told you not to eat mud? I'll get you some meat when we get back to the lab."
The baby dragon just gurgled back in return.
Rolling his eyes, he turned back to the battle-arena, his gaze affixed to Red's.
"Right, now where were we? Ah, yes. Begin."
Battles of attrition, Red firmly decided, were not the way to go. Especially in this situation.
Drago was larger, stronger, infinitely more experienced, and most importantly, a dragon. The very thought of defeating her was ludicrous and practically doomed to fail from the start. Even his original idea of having Mia augment his speed to send him traveling to the other side of the arena met with a lack of success.
Not to mention, neither Skarmory nor Scyther had come out of the attempt unscathed.
He glanced at his team.
Skarmory, bless her incredible armor, was very much still in the fight— capable of soaking up more damage while dealing long-ranged attacks as she'd been doing. And judging by the fierce expression on her face, she was enjoying this upstream battle too much to stop now. Scyther, on the other hand, looked ragged and out of breath. The bug had taken some serious damage in that ham-fisted approach from earlier, and using vibroblade didn't help matters.
He looks like he'll keel over any minute now.
That only left Mia, the juggernaut of his team. So far he'd kept himself from letting Mia loose, limiting her to long-ranged bombardment at best. Given her still-fragile mastery over her powers, he was too afraid of putting her in a position where she'd lose control of herself.
...Perhaps a change of plans was in order.
There was little he could do now to balance the scales in a physical fight— he'd have to approach things differently.
He sharply whistled, a signal to recall the rest of his team back to his side. Skarmory flew in a wide arc before touching down on the ground next to him, while Scyther quickly bounded over in two large leaps, his head bowed in his typical subservient manner.
The sight made Red frown.
I really need to have a talk with him about this.
He glanced at the massive dragonite leering at him.
But it'll have to wait.
"Change of plans," he spoke up. "Mia will now go on the offensive, and Skarmory's main responsibility is to defend against any attacks that come my way. Can you do that?"
The fairy and avian both met his gaze with unwavering determination.
"Scyther, you'll need to use sneak attacks. Whenever you see Drago in pain, attack its blind spots and go for the kill."
Scyther stared at him like he'd just grown a second head. He glanced at the dragon, then back at him, his expression quizzical.
Oh.
"Don't worry about that," Red assuaged. "Drago might seem invincible, but Mia has some ways to cause her pain. You know what to do, don't you Mia?"
The fairy's lips quirked up just a little.
"We don't want to draw this battle out any longer than it needs to be. Two attacks, three if absolutely unavoidable. Stick to your strengths, and do your best." He met Mia's eyes. "Hold nothing back."
Skarmory rocketed into the air, her entire body glimmering a dazzling white as Iron Defense manifested throughout her body. Keeping a reasonable distance, she flew around the vicious dragon, who merely stayed still in the center of the arena, her eyes affixed to Skarmory's flight path.
"Wreck havoc!" Red ordered.
And Mia went in for the offensive.
"A straight up defense and offense split?" Oak muttered incredulously, furrowing his brow. "After that three-pronged attack, he goes for something like this?"
And then it happened.
Despite an exhaustion that was clear as day to the experienced eye, Mia was levitating in the air. She raised both hands ahead, palms touching each other at the wrist, as if creating a circular orifice to channel her energy outwards into the world.
Oak nearly thought it was all a figment of his imagination— the subtle bending of light, the minor wobble in the gravitational field of the arena, a shudder in the very ground itself as Mia seemed to be churning out more juice from somewhere.
She looks exhausted, so how—
Goosebumps erupted all over his entire body, every hair on his neck standing on end, as he felt a sudden, primeval terror gripping his insides.
Suddenly, Dragonite clutched her head and screamed in pain and anger.
What the— Oak's eyes widened, as he finally realized what Mia had done. What Red had intended to do from the beginning.
This wasn't a straightforward attack. It was deception.
Dragonite was powerful enough to brush off everything Red and his cohorts could throw at her. Whether it was Skarmory, Scyther, or even the gardevoir, it was no match for her scales. So instead, the wily kid had tried something she was vulnerable to.
A mental assault.
It was a repetition of what had transpired back in Pallet Town not so long ago. Only this time, it was intentionally done, controlled so that there would only be one victim.
Dragonite.
It was smart, but utterly, utterly stupid.
"What the hell are you thinking, Red?" he furiously whispered. "Making a dragon angry is not what you—"
His thoughts died as Mia launched her assault.
An invisible tsunami of pure pressure tore through the air between the two titans, cleaving a path powerfully enough that a pure vacuum remained in its wake. The air immediately came rushing back with a thunderous roar as Mia's power forced its way towards Dragonite, who opened her maw and let out a torrent of raw draconic energy.
Dragon Rage.
It was the wrath of a dragon made manifest. A culmination of everything that defined a dragon— the principle of domination that dragons exerted over their environment, the fundamental belief in its own supremacy above all else on the planet. All of that was conceptualized into a single, energy-based attack.
The two forces of nature collided in the center. The pressure from the fairy tried to push its way through and disperse the incoming ball of wrath, which simply wouldn't give an inch, just like how the pride of a dragon wouldn't be undermined.
A literal manifestation of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.
Meanwhile, Oak spied Red dashed through the arena, trying to rush past the burning fires while the steel avian cleared his way with a sprinkle of minor, concentrated gust attacks.
Dragonite slammed her tail down on the ground, causing thousands of rocks to erupt and disrupt their plan. Clearly, she wasn't going to let him win that easily.
The skarmory, it seemed, had other plans. The bird flapped its wings and dove down, improvising on the spot as it grabbed Red by his shoulders with her steel claws and weaved through the avalanche of rocks, her shiny Iron Defense easily tanking whatever debris came onto her.
"Splendid," Oak heard himself say, a wide smile on his face. Red had come far— very far. He hadn't seen his dragon companion cut loose like this in so long, so he had to give credit where it was due. But it simply wasn't enough to take on a pokémon at Dragonite's level just yet.
A choking noise attracted his attention, interrupting his thought process.
He turned around and saw—
"Again?" he chastised the young dragon spawn. "What did I just tell you about eating dirt? Spit it out. Out!"
The dratini looked at him, teary-eyed.
"Now!" Oak reprimanded, returning his gaze to the fi—
His young protégé was quickly closing in on him, his Skarmory overhead. Just a little farther, and he'd actually reach him. Victorious.
Oak felt a mix of surprise, awe, and even a little bit of excitement.
And the moment immediately shattered as Dragonite let out another vicious roar.
The world froze.
The ball of energy that was Dragon Rage now morphed into a thin lance, piercing through Mia's wall of force with pinpoint precision. No matter how much energy the little fairy poured into her attack to stop the lance in its tracks, it constantly inched closer and closer with every passing second, its power too concentrated to be stopped by something so widespread.
"Get to her!" he heard Red yell.
Skarmory instantly obeyed, leaving the boy to his job as it tore through the air at breakneck speed, ignoring everything around it like an unstoppable berserker.
It wasn't good enough.
The thin beam of energy pierced all the way through Mia's defenses, striking her in the chest. The fairy let out a soft whimper as she closed her eyes. Her hands slowly drifted to her sides as she lost her strength and fell from the sky, limp and unconscious.
But Oak only had eyes for Red.
The boy looked visibly shaken, conflicted between the prize which lay just within his reach and the fear of what happened to his sister-figure. Red stared at Oak, a primal hunger in his eyes as he discerned the fifteen-foot distance between himself and the carelessly floating dratini.
In the end, he forcefully spun, his eyes watering as he dashed back to the other side.
Towards Mia.
Lost.
Defeated.
Terrified.
"Shame," he muttered to himself. "And he was so close to winning the whole thing, too." He glanced at the dragon spawn beside him, shaking his head. "It's as if he thought Dragonite was seriously going to maim Mia. She has far too much control to do that."
He paused. "Still, I can't believe it happened this way, Dratini. I mean, your mommy had to cheat her way into winning like that."
It was true. The Roar attack was a powerful application of infrasound, something that was proven to have a sudden, adverse effect on parasympathetic nervous systems. Facing Dragonite's Roar head-on was bound to have an effect on Mia, especially when she was simultaneously contending with a concentrated Dragon Rage.
"I think she's going rusty," Oak went on, giving the baby a sideward glance before looking back at Red. "Don't you—"
He paused.
Something was wrong.
Something was… missing.
Oak spun around so quickly he feared he might get whiplash, and stared in confusion at the sight. Moments later, after his brain managed to reboot, Samuel Oak— Champion and trainer extraordinaire —opened his mouth to relay his words of wisdom.
"I have no idea what I'm looking at."
There came a time in one's life when the burden of victory or defeat lay on the back of a single decision— how much one was willing to sacrifice.
Red owes me.
Sometimes, that sacrifice was minor. A mere slap on the wrist, or even a slight injury. Other times, the price was far greater.
Red owes me.
Mawile stepped forward, setting aside her leaden heart as she single-mindedly focused on her plan. The plan that would solve everything for her trainer.
Red owes me.
She repeated the statement like a mantra, a reminder that it would all be well-worth it, as she glared up at the sky. Let the universe bear witness to the magnanimity and selflessness that this yellow creature was displaying.
An act of sacrifice so great that it should have gone down in the annals of history as an exemplar of selflessness performed by any starter— no, any pokémon —to ensure that the dreams and desires of her trainer were not scattered like petals in the wind.
But no.
No one would ever know how much she had sacrificed.
No one would care.
All they would see was her trainer's victory.
Crestfallen, Mawile glanced back at the trail of poképuffs she had left behind her.
Red owes me. BIG TIME.
After the disastrous end of her previous plan, no thanks to a certain ostentatious fairy, Mawile had to… how did the humans put it again? Yes, up the ante.
And up the ante she did. For what was more precious and treasured than poképuffs?
Right?
That was how 'Capture-The-Stupid-Snake Plan: Version Two' had taken root.
It filled her heart with inconsolable grief, but it had to be done.
First, she had taken extreme care in selecting the tiniest, yet not altogether shabby, piece of poképuff from her precious jar. She had even licked it once— maybe thrice —to assure herself that the poképuff was tasty enough. After all, sacrifices needed to be made certain they were worth it. It would've been a tragedy if the poképuff was wasted, yet the prey didn't find it enticing enough.
Mawile shook her head vigorously, steering her mind away from such morbid thoughts.
With that done, she then used her prodigious talent with Fairy Wind to slowly float the sacrificial poképuff over to the snake. Yes, that creature had to be a snake. Red might have been gullible enough to think it was some kind of dragon spawn merely on the word of that Oak human, but Mawile knew better.
It was most definitely a snake.
Unlike a certain freakishly overpowered fairy she could name, Mawile appreciated the art of subtlety. Breaking things had a certain appeal, but she hadn't earned her moniker of 'deceiver' by challenging others head-on. Such a practice had its own time and place.
After all, if you ever found yourself in a fair fight, your tactics probably sucked.
Lo and behold, the results of that sacrificial endeavor were rewarding.
The snake, bless the little tyke, had gobbled up the poképuff in one go. Obviously, the little thing had great taste for quality food, Mawile could easily admit that much. If nothing else, it could fly, and didn't chew on Red's hair like Shellder— that alone made it team-worthy material.
But why couldn't it just savor the poképuff slowly instead of gobbling it all up in one go?
Clearly, its great brute of a foster mother hadn't taught it any table manners whatsoever.
Yet another thing to add to her to-do list, which was increasing at an alarming rate. The original deal was to be Red's starter— fight some battles and see the world in exchange. Simple.
Nobody ever told her that she'd need to play governess to wannabe dragons, tolerate incompetent water-types and deal with mentally deficient bugs, all the while making sure her trainer was able to survive all the craziness the world kept throwing at him for some reason.
Suddenly, the other fairy— jealous git she was —went ahead with more of her kaboom antics, attracting everyone's attention.
Including the snake, which was now looking the other way.
This was the second time the Mia creature foiled her plans— her intention to entice the snake with puffs was now a failure.
Mawile had yelled out all the profane words she knew by heart, but unfortunately the other fairy couldn't hear them, especially with that dragon roaring like a crazed madwoman at the same time.
Really, was it so hard to decide? Either fight, or squeal and roar like children.
She shook her head. Two successive failures and the loss of one of her precious poképuffs. If Mawile had been interested in winning earlier, her determination had now reached the win-at-all-costs stage.
The brave sacrifice of that lone poképuff would never be forgotten.
Not on her watch.
And that meant she'd have to pull out the big guns. After all, desperate times called for desperate measures. She reached into the jar and grabbed ten more poképuffs— she counted and then recounted to make sure the number was exactly ten and not a trife more —and then sliced them into quarters, arranging many of them into a proper breadcrumb trail using her mastery over Fairy Wind.
And now, she had finally finished putting all her pieces in place, the train of treats leading to a solitary bush around the corner.
Her task accomplished, Mawile leapt into the bush, her jaw half-raised and poised to strike at a moment's notice as she peered outside, her eyes never leaving her prey. The snake sniffed at the air, immediately noticing the delicious aroma of her treats, and gobbled up the first poképuff piece in a single go.
And then it moved on to the next, quietly slithering along the floor.
Yes, that's right. Slither like the snake you are. Prove me right.
So it did, as it gobbled up a second piece.
Then another.
And another.
Red owes me, Mawile repeated to herself.
Dratini was constantly restricted by the whims of her overprotective mother. Overbearing even, or at least she thought so within the confines of her own mind. She was never allowed to go more than a scant few moments away from her mother's gaze.
So it was with great excitement that she had set out on this brave news adventure with her mother and her human partner. Apparently, if everything went well, she would be getting her own human partner and going on her own adventure too!
And then for some reason, her mother started fighting her future human partner and his other poképartners— something she had questioned at first, but she told him it was supposed to teach him humility in the face of overwhelming strength. She had also heard her mutter something about 'teaching the brat a lesson for last time', whatever that meant.
Dratini sniffed, looking away from the fight. She had already seen enough.
As always, her mother was invincible.
As always, her opponents could do nothing.
As always, she toyed with them.
But a moment later, she had sorely regretted her decision to look away as a massive explosion shook the entire field. All because of a single innocent-looking fairy.
It was only for a split second, but her mother had been forced onto the defensive. Never before had she laid eyes on such a sight before. And from what she understood, this Red person had only been on his journey for three months so far! She had continued to watch the battle with rapt attention, hoping to catch sight of the massive attack she missed earlier.
As a dragon, she was obviously the most important spectator of the event. It was only natural that the battlers repeated the performance for her to witness and enjoy.
But no. Instead, they paused briefly, and then prepared to resume their fight. The silver bird immediately took to the skies and—
Thud.
Something hit her in the head.
Dratini looked around for the insolent offender, but found nothing.
Nothing except a small, brown round object. Laying innocently on the ground. As if staring back blankly at her.
Suspicious, she drew closer and sniffed at the object.
It smelled delicious.
Without further ado, she laid claim to the morsel and bit into it. And literally melted.
It tasted like chocolate and honey and goodness and—
—And being the grouchy, otherwise meddlesome person that the old human was, he butted in, trying to school her over her eating preferences again. Seriously, it was as if he thought she didn't know the difference between dirt and quality food.
What did he think she was? A nidoran?
Dratini gurgled back in dismissal. Trust the obtrusive old human to try and lure her away from something that tasted so heavenly. Merely by stepping out of the ranch, she had gotten to nibble on a divine delicacy. Already, being near this new trainer was looking far better than around the wicked old man.
She looked back at the ground.
And blinked.
Then blinked again.
There were more than a dozen delicious round balls, all laid neatly in a line. They were smaller than the first, but there were so many that she couldn't find it in herself to complain. It was a banquet fit for a dragon such as herself.
A quick gobble took care of the next one, just like before.
But before Dratini could go any further, the meddling old fool had barked out again, making her wish she had hands to grab her head in frustration. Why was he doing this to her? This was simply cruel beyond words.
He's just jealous, she told herself.
Deciding to show her displeasure, Dratini firmly turned away from her mother's evil partner, the one who spoke ill of all that tasted good, and slithered forward. Slowly, she ate each morsel one at a time, extra careful not to make a sound.
As she gobbled down more, she noticed that the treats led to a bush in the distance. Every so often, the bush shook, and another of these treats gently rolled out. Dratini knew that plants made fruits— she had seen such a thing back at the ranch!
Perhaps these treats were grown from the bush like the berries back home? If so, she definitely wanted one. Her mother had always told her about the dominance and power of the dragon-kind. To take what she desired and protect what was hers with her very own claws.
It was then that she decided— this would be her first act of supremacy as a dragon. She would take the tasty-fruit-producing bush and claim it for herself.
Dratini slowly snuck towards the innocently shaking bush, gently brushing aside the leaves to peer inside.
A small yellow face smiled back at her.
THUD!
"I lost the challenge," Red murmured as he held Mia, her head rested on his lap. Beside him sat Scyther, scraping his two scythes against the ground as if to distract himself from the crushing feeling of defeat. Skarmory, the regal bird she was, chose to perch upon the floor, her eyes shut as she waited for the official pronouncement.
Mia whimpered something unintelligible in her sleep.
"I'm sorry," he muttered again. "To all of you. You did so much, and I still failed."
A large metallic wing spread over his left shoulder.
It was Skarmory.
A single, soft screech from her told him she didn't hold him responsible. That it was okay.
"But—"
"Thrrr!"
Distracted by Scyther's sudden screech, Red looked up and spotted Oak slowly walking towards him. The dratini was no longer on his person, but that was to be expected. After all, since he failed the challenge, it was only natural that he returned it to its pokéball.
Even if it hurt to admit it.
"Old man," he muttered tersely.
"So..." came the smug response. "Learn anything from this?"
"Never pick a fight with an old man," Red said. "They've been there, done that, written the book, designed the T-shirt, and they'll do anything to win."
Oak chortled. "I'm afraid flattery won't grease the wheels this time around, Red. But that was… quite the interesting display you put up."
The boy shook his head. "It doesn't matter. In the end, it didn't work out as planned."
"It could have," Oak pointed out. "I saw it. You could have rushed forward and grabbed the dratini. You were seconds away from winning."
"But Mia was hurt."
"She is a pokémon. In a fight. Of her choosing."
"She's also my sister, and I care for her."
"Clearly," Oak drawled, his smile thin. "Enough to spit on not just her own efforts, but also the ones made by the rest of the team as well."
"That's not—" Red began furiously, before it hit him. He had sent Skarmory to protect Mia— even if he himself reached her, there was nothing he could've done to save her from that draconic lance. And yet, he became wrought with fear, eventually throwing away the prize he and his team had fought so hard for in exchange for an exercise in futility.
He broke away from Oak's gaze, looking down at the ground. "You're right. I screwed up."
"Spectacularly, one might add."
Red grimaced.
"I've been watching trainers all my life— handing out starters, doing seminars, living the Champion life, you get the point. Even so, I have never met anyone with the balls to purposefully make a dragon angry."
Red coughed, his eyes wide.
"What?"
"Balls?" he spluttered. "You said the word balls."
"My word," Oak cupped his chin. "I did, didn't I? I suppose you've been a bad influence on me."
Red scowled at him.
"Or maybe it's all this bureaucratic nonsense I'm tied up in that's bringing some of my old habits back."
"Good to know," the teen muttered. "Well, what do I do now that I've... failed the challenge?"
"Huh?" the old man plastered a confused look onto his face. "What do you mean?"
"Okay, now you're just throwing salt on my wounds. That's ugly, coming from you."
Oak had a shit-eating grin on his face. "I swear I'm not."
"I failed to get the dratini," Red growled.
"You did."
"So," he drawled, as if speaking to a particularly slow child, "that means I failed."
"Not quite."
He pinched the bridge of his nose, well past entertaining the old man's penchant for riddles. "Explain."
"Well I could start by pointing out the dratini's absence and go from there, but I have a better idea."
"Which is?"
"Look to your right."
Red stared at him.
"Look," Oak coaxed, "to your right."
Red swiveled his head. And then he saw it. With an unconscious dratini draped all over her large jaw, panting with every step she took forward, was Mawile.
He gaped at Drago, who was sulking in a corner, then at Oak, who had a slightly chagrined look on his face, and then back at Mawile. His amazing, beautiful, lovable Mawile.
"I." Red tried to speak, but his mind came up with nothing.
"Guess you won. Congratulations, Red."
"...I guess I did."
Editor: Solo Starfish, the best goddamn starfish the world has ever seen.
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