Outsiders (Pokémon/ZnT Reverse Summon)

Season 1, Episode 6, Chapter 4

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On the highest branch of the central tree, Tanuki stared out across the garden. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Saito drag an angry Louise out of the palace. She was still arguing with the Princess, who herself was yelling right back. They were both red in the face, flush with anger, but soon enough Louise and Saito were out of view, and the sounds of arguing ceased. They were then replaced by the Princess yelling at her servants, who dutifully complied.

"Geez, what a basket case," the hound mumbled to himself as he watched Allie stomp back to her room. Frankly, he didn't really care what she felt. Louise and Saito were one-hundred percent in the right during that scene. She had it coming. If only he…

He shook his head. It was not the time to be thinking about that. He had a job to do. Closing his eyes, Tanuki activated his Aura Sight and began to scan the palace grounds. It was easy at first, but as his sight slowly expanded, it became harder and harder to keep it up, the strain becoming worse with each passing second. Before, in Santalune, he was focusing on the Aura signatures of humans, something he had plenty of experience with. They tend to have a noticeable aura signature. Even then, it was more of a spotting a lighthouse on the horizon rather than pinpointing an exact location. Here, it was much more difficult. He was searching for a small Pokémon signature potentially in a large area, one who could teleport at that. Maindo's signature could easily be drowned out by something else.

"Gaagh!" Tanuki lost focus, the strain had grown too much. Dropping to his knee, Tanuki began to breathe deeply in ragged breaths. There had been too much for him to focus on.

"… Okay, that was…harder than expected." He stood back up and looked out over the garden again. It hadn't been that long since he'd started, perhaps only ten minutes. It wouldn't be too hard to catch back up to them. Just find Maindo, leave, and then…

He stopped. An idea slowly slithered into his mind, like an Arbok sneaking inside a nest. He could just leave. He didn't have to find Maindo. He could just say that Maindo teleported away, and despite his best efforts, he couldn't find the runaway Ralts. It was tempting, really. Maindo had been nothing but trouble ever since they met the Ralts. All the insults he threw, his lack of participation, the mean-spirited pranks, and generally being a colossal pain in the ass constantly grated Tanuki's being. Sure, he liked to joke around every so often, but his jokes were always light-hearted and in good fun. Ones where everyone could look back on and laugh. Maindo's "pranks" were just him being a dick. He was especially hard on Espirit, and that always made Tanuki's blood boil. For the life of him, Tanuki couldn't quite figure out just why Maindo acted the way he did. Saito did nothing wrong to him, and from what little Maindo had revealed, it wasn't like he was a previously abused Pokémon from another trainer. He was just an asshole, but even that wouldn't explain the depths Maindo had sunk to. It would be easier to just leave him behind.

But even then, Tanuki knew he couldn't do it. Leaving him behind was wrong, and even if he left the Ralts behind, Saito would be worried about him. Besides, what kind of Pokémon would he be if he betrayed a teammate like that, even if that teammate was a pain in everyone's ass.

Shaking the dark thought out of his mind, Tanuki closed his eyes again and extended his Aura sight. This time, he fought through the strain, and began to filter out the Auras of humans and Pokémon. This made it easier, but the strain over looking over such a vast area was still enormous. Just before he lost the battle again, he found him. The Ralts was on top of the palace roof, standing on a spire. He hadn't seemed to notice Tanuki was there.

His target found, Tanuki quietly hopped off the tree and ran towards the palace walls. His small body made it difficult for the human workers and lounging Pokémon to see him, so he wasn't impeded in the slightest. Reaching the walls, he began to hop from window to window, rising upwards with each bound. Soon, he was safely on the roof and made a beeline towards the Ralts.

'Was wondering when you'd find me. Might want to get that checked out. I mean, how hard can it be to see a bright green spot on a red roof,' Maindo said as Tanuki made his way towards him. Tanuki narrowed his eyes before shaking his head.

"Come on, we have to get back to Saito. He sent me back to get you."

'Oh, I know why you're still here. Frankly, you hounds are all too easy to read. Let me guess, he was worried about me? And people call me adorable!' Tanuki growled.

"Listen, frankly I could care less if you came back or not—"

'Thank you! That's so nice!'

"… But Saito, for some inconceivable reason, does care about you. So, I care about you by proxy. So, quit being difficult for five seconds and we can—"

'Nah, I'm good.' Tanuki faltered at Maindo's nonchalant answer.

"Wha… What?"

'I said, I'm good. At least for the moment, anyway.'

"Wh… Why?"

'And miss out on all the fun?' Tanuki's eyes narrowed at the now grinning Ralts.

"I know that look. You're planning something. So, spill."

'Okay, okay. Not like I could hide it or anything from your big nose even if I tried!'

"Get to the point!"

'Okay, geez. So angry.' Maindo smiled then leaned forward conspiratorially. 'Now here's the thing. I didn't leave with you chumps right away because I've got my eyes on something far more entertaining.' Maindo turned his gaze towards a nearby window and grinned sinisterly. Tanuki followed his eyes and found himself staring at Princess Allie, currently berating the head maid from before. What it was about he couldn't tell, but he had an idea it wasn't anything good.

"… What do you have in mind?" Tanuki found himself asking. Maindo laughed and wrapped his arm around the Riolu's shoulder.

'Listen, Tanuki. Let it me known that I'm the top asshole around here, and I don't like it when someone takes my throne.'

"…You said it, not me." Maindo shrugged and continued.

'It's a fact, and I'm not ashamed of it. Still, I don't like being usurped, and frankly, from what I've seen, this girl deserves to be taken down a peg or two. Back in Lumiose, one of my favorite things to do with my family was to bring humans down a few pegs, and that's what I'm going to be doing to Princess Stick-In-The-Butt over there.'

Tanuki went silent, contemplating his next course of action. "…Need some help with that?"

Maindo's grin got even larger.

"WHO DOES THAT STUPID, ENTITLED BRAT THINK SHE IS!?" Louise screamed as she stomped around in circles on Palais Lane. They were well past the palace now, its red roof nowhere to be seen. In its place was a sea of green grass and trees, the leaves filtering much of the summer sun and letting splotches of sunlight onto the dark forest floor. The two trainers had been sitting on a fallen log along the side of the road for some time. Or at least Saito was, as Louise had quickly began stomping around in fury.

"SHE CALLS HERSELF A PRINCESS!? A PRINCESS?! SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT A PRINCESS IS!" Louise continued to rant and stomp. The last time Louise had acted like this, Saito had been the voice of reason attempting to calm her down.

"I know!" Saito threw his arms in the air, still seated on the log. "Just what the hell was her problem?! She had no reason to act like that!"

"None at all!" Louise shouted in agreement. She had stopped stomping at this point, and was now content with angrily standing in place, facing towards the seated Saito. "And noblise oblige is "made up"? My entire family's philosophy is made up?! And she has the gall to declare me a liar! Declare that I'm "not a noble". Elizabeth is more of a noble than she is!" Louise was animated again as she sat down hard on the log and screamed into her hands.

"There, there," Saito comforted her, patting her back. "Let it out. Take a deep breath and let it out."

"It's just…," Louise sighed. "I was so excited. A chance to finally meet the nobility of this country, get a semblance of home, and she goes against everything a noble stands for." Louise sighed again. "Is this why the nobility of Kalos lost their power?"

"I'm no expert," Saito shrugged, "but from what I learned in history, that is basically what happened. Of course, there were precipitating events that preceded it, mind you. Needless and costly wars with neighboring regions, noble abuse of commoners. Oh, and don't forget famine. There was a big famine going on at the time, and while the commoner's nearly starved, the nobles lived in the lap of luxury."

"No wonder they revolted," Louise grumbled. She knew full well the root cause of many commoner revolts back home. Nine-tenths of the time, they were caused by famine. A hungry peasant was willing to do just about anything alleviate that hunger. They were all put down violently, of course, but the smart rulers always fixed the problems. Others simply had more revolts appear.

"Yeah…," Saito grew silent. The air buzzed with the sounds of insects and whistling of the wind. It was tranquil. Looking down at his belt, Saito gazed upon two of his Pokéballs. They both had the empty indicator light shining on them.

"They're still back there?" Louise's soft voice rang out. Saito wasn't surprised that she noticed. Despite how angry she can get, Louise was a very observant person.

"They are." Saito looked back in the general area of the palace. He was starting to get worried. "What is taking them so long?"

Seeing his distress, Louise pursed her lips and sat upright. Pulling out a Luxury Ball, she quickly released the Pokémon inside. The light coalesced into Aile, who preened herself before looking back up at Louise. "Aile, I need you to go back to the palace and find Maindo and Tanuki, got it?" Aile nodded and took off. Her small body disappeared into the leaves quickly, and soon she was out of sight.

"Thank you," Saito smiled at his partner, and she smiled back.

"No problem."

"Geez, where are those two?" Aile soared over the canopy, her eyes trained on the palace in front of her. It was getting closer, yet even with her excellent vision, she was having trouble making things out. "Oh, once I evolve, the things I can see." She sighed wistfully. That day will come, and she was getting closer. When it would happen, she didn't know, but she hoped it would…

"What the?" Aile stopped abruptly and hovered in place. The palace was in absolute chaos. Workers and staff were running amok, searching every nook and cranny and shouting among each other. Several of them sported marks on them, ranging from whiskers to spots and mustaches, all made of black marker. Some were crying inconsolably, and others were jumping at every shadow, as if something would jump out at them. It took a moment, but as Aile hovered in place, her eyes narrowed.

"What did those idiots do now?" She rolled her eyes flew towards the palace. With any luck, she'd be able to spot them soon enough.

Allie stomped through the palace halls. The past hour had been nothing but disaster after disaster. First, her lunch, one much fancier than the one she served to those charlatans, exploded in her face and ruined her favorite dress. When she demanded a replacement dish, the cooks all ran out, screaming about haunted appliances coming alive and trying to eat them. By the time they finally went back in, the entire kitchen was a burnt, smoking wreck. If that wasn't enough, by the time Allie finally got back to her room to change, all of her dresses had been torn to shreds.

That had been the last straw, and she promptly ordered her workers to find the perpetrators. They complied, of course, and that was when the troubles started affecting them as well. One group saw a small boy walking all alone in the halls, and when they tried to investigate further, each got assaulted by a monster of their deepest nightmares. Each one described something different than the last, but they all promptly ran out screaming like little girls. She of course fired them on the spot. Can't have cowardly workers, after all.

Other workers experienced similar events. Hallucinations, things thrown at them. One unfortunate group had their hair all dyed hot pink, somehow. She wasn't quite sure how exactly that happened, but she had to admit it was funny. There were other pranks of that more benign nature, mostly facial and body markings along with the occasional shaved head. That was what clued the princess in that there were two perpetrators, with one more malicious than the other.

"When I get my hands on them…" Allie grit her teeth as she continued to stomp in the halls. Annabelle solemnly walked behind her, now quiet after getting quite the scolding from the princess. Inside, she was fuming, but she bit her tongue. She continued to follow behind the ranting princess, contemplating her next move. Maybe…

She paused as a small noise went out behind her. Letting the Princess continue without her, Annabelle turned around to catch a glimpse at the source. It was only for a moment, a green head and blue ears sticking out from behind a corner, but Annabelle recognized them immediately.

"Annabelle? Get back here!" Allie yelled out towards her from down the hall. Annabelle turned back towards the Princess.

"Coming, Princess!" Annabelle hurriedly walked back towards the irritated Princess, softly giggling to herself.

"I think we got a fan." Tanuki watched the girl walk away, a smile on his snout. This past hour had been an absolute blast, for all things considered. Every action they took just made Allie madder and madder, and Tanuki loved it.

'What can I say? I do good work.' Maindo absentmindedly checked his nails. 'So, what shall we do next?'

"Hmm," Tanuki hummed in thought, cupping his lower snout with his paw. Tapping his foot, he began to walk back and forth, thinking up potential pranks, his original purpose for being here forgotten. "How about…no, we already did that one. Oh, maybe…Nah, too boring." He snapped his fingers. "I got it! How about- "

"There you are!" A shrill voice rang out above them. Looking up, Tanuki and Maindo saw the hovering form of Aile covering the noon sun and casting a small, fluttering shadow over them. She looked displeased, to say the least. "Do you know how long its been?! An hour! Saito and Louise are worried sick!"

All at once, the forgotten reasons came rushing back in, and Tanuki looked down in guilt. "Oh, yeah…"

"'Oh, yeah' is right! What were you two thinking? What were you two even doing?"

'Oh, lighten up, birdie.' Maindo yawned, clearly bored with the conversation. 'So, we decided to take the princess down a few pegs. Big whoop. She deserved it.'

Aile wasn't having it and she landed down in front of them. "Does it look like I care?" she asked, staring Maindo right in the eye. He wasn't affected.

'Meh, hard to tell, really. Your beady little eyes are so hard to read, and your mind is so empty that looking at it doesn't tell me anything.'

"Why you little-!" Aile lunged at the laughing Ralts, only to be held back by Tanuki.

"Maindo, that was uncalled for." He scolded.

'Meh.' Tanuki glared at Maindo's answer, then sighed.

"About what I expected." Aile stopped struggling, and he let go. "Now come on. We've wasted enough time as it is."

"Thank you," Aile thanked the Riolu and glared once more at Ralts. "That means you too, jerk."

'Okay, okay.' Maindo held up his hands in conceit. 'Fine. We'll stop.'

Tanuki and Aile's eyes narrowed in suspicion. He had given up far to easily.

"What do you want?" Aile asked, and Maindo chuckled.

'You see, my feathered friend-'

"We are not friends."

'Acquaintance, then! Point is, little birdy, you can do things I, frankly, cannot.'

"And what makes you think I would help you in…whatever it is that you are doing?"

'There's an entire basket full of berries with your name on it if you do.' Aile's eyes widened, and her stomach growled.

"I, uh…. I don't…"

'Inside the kitchen, there is a large basket filled with every type of berry in Kalos. Pecha, Oran, Sitrus, even imported berries like Tamato and Watmel.'

"Uh…"

'All you have to do is help us with one, final prank against the Princess, and they are yours."

Tanuki and Aile went silent, both staring at the grinning Ralts and quietly weighing their options.

"…I'm listening."

"What is taking her so long?" Louise pranced around in worry. Saito, now on his feet, was worried as well, taking quick glances towards the direction of the palace.

"Maybe we should go back?" he suggested, but Louise shook her head.

"Not yet, not so soon after insulting the Princess like that. It would not end well."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"Hmm." Louise cupped her chin in thought. "I think…the best bet we have is to wait a bit longer for Princess Allie to calm down a bit then head back. Then, we—" Louise suddenly stopped. The hairs on the back of her neck stood upright, and she went very still. A chill ran up her spine, and her eyes went wide.

"Louise? What's—" Saito felt it, too, and he went quiet. "What is that?"

"I don't know," Louise replied, her head darting back and forth. Without needing to say anything, Louse released her Pokémon out of their balls, Saito doing the same.

"Gaagh!" Brennaraki clutched her head and howled in pain. Ronin soon joined as he fell to the ground screaming, while Espirit fell to her knees in pain.

"Ronin!" Saito yelled at his downed Pokémon.

"Brennaraki!" Louise looked in worry between her starter and Espirit, who appeared to be using all of her psychic power to hold off against whatever was affecting them. "Espirit, what's going on?!"

A series of brief images raced through Louise's mind, and her eyes widened even more.

"Well? What is it?" Saito asked, kneeling over Ronin.

"Something's affecting their minds! A Psychic-type!" Louise revealed, now holding out her wand. "Espirit's doing everything she can to make sure we aren't affected!"

"Well…shit!" Saito swore and ripped a tree branch off the log he was sitting on earlier. He and Louise stepped back to back, keeping a constant vigil on the surrounding forest. A faint tingle could be felt on both of their minds, but thanks to Espirit's efforts, it ended there. "You see anything?"

"No- There!" Louise pointed her wand towards a nearby tree. "Fireball!" A loud explosion rang out, reducing the tree into a cloud of smoke and splinters. At once, the Psychic assault ceased, and the Pokémon's wails along with it. A quick look revealed them to be unconscious, and Espirit was panting from exertion.

"…Remind me never to get in the way of one of those," Saito murmured, eyeing the stump where the tree once stood.

"What kind of psychopath do you take me for?" Louise momentarily broke her gaze away from the tree line. "I would never do that to you or anyone else."

"Well, that's reassuring. Thank you."

"Honestly," Louise shook her head and turned back towards the trees. "I'm not that—" Louise stopped cold as she stood face to face with a giant eye. "AAAGH!" Louise jumped back and shrieked. This didn't seem to bother the eye in the slightest, as it just tilted and seemed to hum in contemplation, still hovering in the air while Louise sat on her butt and shakily pointing her wand at it.

"What is that!?" Louise squeaked as she took the creature in sight. She had seen many Pokémon since she arrived on Earth, many strange and outlandish, but this took the top prize. Outside of a single large, white eye, it was jet back. It had no wings, yet was hovering in place, likely a result of Psychic levitation. But the strangest feature was how its body was shaped. It wasn't like a normal body, one that closely resembled an animal. It didn't even look artificial, with no traces of machinery in its composition. Rather, its body appeared to be an extension of its eye, with a thin black extension coming out of the top and looping halfway around its body clockwise.

"Is that…a D?" Saito looked at the Pokémon in front of him. It seemed vaguely familiar but for the life of him, he couldn't remember what it was. At the very least, it seemed to be peaceful. It was just floating there, staring at Louise with its large eye, not making a noise. Seeing how it wasn't doing anything, he slowly pulled out his Pokédex and pointed it towards the creature.

"Unown, the Symbol Pokémon. Unown are largely a mystery to modern science. Theories exist to explain just what they are, ranging from ancient talismans coming to life to the very basis of the alphabet itself. What is known is that Unown are frequently found near ancient ruins or otherwise hidden locations, and while individually they are harmless, as the Greenfield Incident has shown, if a large enough group of Unown gather together, there is no limit on their power." The Pokédex revealed, and Saito began to sweat.

"Fuck…" he gulped. Now he remembered. He had heard about the Greenfield Incident. It was all they played on the news for weeks a few years back. A little girl found a box of Unown, opened it, and the resulting psychic energy created a reality warp that nearly destroyed the town until a group of traveling trainers stopped it. Of course, it was later revealed to have been Ash Ketchum, but people didn't put together the dots until after the Battle of Lumiose. Still, he knew just how powerful these things could be.

"Louise, we need to get out of there," he whispered to her and lifted her off the ground. Louise had heard the Pokédex and quickly nodded.

"Okay, just back away—"

"Unown…" Saito and Louise stopped as the Unown suddenly made a noise.

"Did it just…"

"Unown…. Unown…." The Unown continued to chant, but this time it seemed to be getting louder. Espirit suddenly went very still and clutched her head as the chants got louder and louder. The tingle came back, only now it was much worse, causing a mild headache for both trainers.

"What is it…!" The forest exploded in activity as a swarm of Unown, far too many to count, flew in from all directions. Their flight stirred the air around them and an already weakened Espirit was unprepared for the sudden force, sending her flying away with a small yelp. Louise couldn't even scream her name before the psychic force suddenly wailed on them.

"GAAGH!" she and Saito screamed and clutched their heads as the Unown drew closer and closer.

"Unown… Unown…. Unown…" with one final chant, the swarm exploded into a bright light and loud pop. Espirit, barely gotten to her feet, had to shield her eyes with her arm, but when the light subsided, she gasped at the sight of the empty forest in front of her.

Louise, Saito, Brennaraki, Ronin, they were all gone.

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Hello, everyone. Sorry for the delay. We almost didn't have a chapter this week, as my dog got diagnosed with lymphoma, but the show must go on.

So yeah, who saw the Unown coming? Obviously we did, but now we must wait to see exactly why they are there and why they took Louise and Saito with them. And of course Maindo is still his jerkish self, only now he's dragged others into his shenanigans with him.

Now, onto the Q&A:

MBenz4268: Thank you. I am of the opinion that any story can be enhanced by weaving in the real world. Gives it more weight. You are correct that Orre was based off of Arizona. I chose Orre because of all the different regions we've been to in the Pokémon games, Orre is the most desolate. I figured "hey, them being destroyed in a war" would be a good justification, hence why they and Unova were enemies. Ferrum is actually the region of Pokken, the Pokémon fighting game made by the Tekken developers. The Ranger regions are based off different regions in Japan as well.

Hey: Thank you for the review. The game terminology can be a bit attributed to early installment weirdness, back when we were still getting started. I do share your sentiment, though. We try to take inspiration from the games, but not to be a 1:1 adaptation of its gameplay. Its why we don't show every trainer command. Doing so breaks up the flow, so we limit them to a few succinct cases. Also, people don't eat Pokémon anymore. In our story, there are regular domesticated animals like cows and chicken. That is what people eat. As for Arceus, his reasoning will become more apparent in the future. And thank you. We wanted Louise to have some time to get used to Pokémon. No need to have her immediately jump into being a trainer, and her basically being an intern to learn the ropes before starting out seemed like the best move. And we enjoyed having Brennaraki and Louise bond as well. The battles are less like the games as time goes on and I get better at writing them, and I hope you continue to like what you see.

That does it for this week's chapter. Stay tuned next week for the next chapter of Outsiders!