"I'm impressed, I'm impressed
By that Godzilla's flaming breath
I fall to bits
I confess"
"I'm Impressed" from The Else by They Might Be Giants
"Succumb?" Max asked, but she shook her head. That didn't matter as much. "Parry, what are you doing?" She pulled her tail behind her, hoping he'd follow that as well. An arrow of light stabbed into her back and sent her forward.
"Max!" Ithos shouted. Max caught herself on all fours when she saw Parry's edge gleaming again. She hopped out of the way before his attack could land, then threw up her paws.
"Parry, stop!" she shouted. Parry's eye flashed with a blood lust she'd never seen in him before barely holding back another attack. Even still, she could see him rearing to go. Behind him, Ash and Ithos had already started pressuring Gardevoir while Gligar helped Marshtomp get his bearings. "How can you work for Fara?! Don't you know what she's doing?"
"Protecting us, dear," Parry answered. His voice had a bite to it, as if he needed to make up for not attacking her already. "It has worsened since you've disappeared on us."
"Disappeared? Parry!" Max shouted. Her eyes stuck to him like glue. She could feel his gaze pining after her. Even if he was holding himself back, his edge thirsted for her blood. "She attacked us!" His eye darkened, and he gave a solemn nod.
"It is as they said, then," Parry hissed. He held his shield by his side and glared down at her in open disgust. "You brought this sickness upon our land." His shield flew toward her.
Max ducked to the side as he darted towards her other side. She ripped her tail in the way and flashed it to iron right as the attack made contact, but it didn't lessen the blow in the slightest. It sliced right into her tail and sent her flying away with a lingering sting. Even when she slammed into a tree, she could only feel the pain in her tail.
A light flashed around Parry bright enough to burn through her eyelids. She squinted to see his shield glowing with building energy. A shrill ring cut through the air that reminded her of their first spar. Hyper Beam.
She prepared to jump to the left right as he loosed the attack, and he followed her feint while she stood still. A burning bright beam eviscerated the air beside her. It burned hot enough that she still felt it, which only got hotter when it started coming back to get her. She let out a squeak of panic, and instincts drove her to scurry up the tree. Her paws flew up the bark and out of the attack below.
The tree quaked in her paws. She thought she'd lost her grip as she felt herself falling until her descent suddenly stopped. Looking down, she saw a slight flame charring the now exposed trunk of the tree. She wasn't falling. The tree was.
It started tipping over towards the attack that felled it—which meant everyone else. "Watch out!" Max screamed. No one would understand her, but she hoped it got their attention. As the tree tipped over, she saw Ithos get nailed in the side by a burst of psychic energy while Ash peppered Gardevoir in the side.
They were right in the tree's path. It was falling, and she was still on it. Chunks of bark burst from an attack inches from her head, and she realized Parry was still trying to hit her. He wasn't even warning his teammate, too focused on getting her. Without looking, she felt that blood lust staring up at her. This wasn't the Parry she knew. Fara must have done something to him, that was the only explanation.
She had to stop the tree's fall, or at least redirect it. Zapdos taught her how to stop her own descents with electricity, but this was a much taller order. Unfortunately, she didn't have a better idea or the time to get one.
The tree continued to tip over with her on the bottom. Parry hadn't even stepped out of the way. She scrambled up the bark a bit more while it wasn't horizontal and then pushed off it and directly towards Parry. He readied his shield while she pulled in all the charge she had at the ready. With one calling shot, the air above crackled and sent a bolt of lightning right through the tree above, through her, and into Parry.
It barely slowed the tree's descent, but it got her teammates attention and left Parry stunned below. The instant she hit the ground, she grabbed him by the 'arm' wing and yanked him out of the tree's path. No sooner had she pulled him to safety did he slam his shield against her skull.
The bang resounding through her head joined the tremor the falling tree sent through the earth to daze her. She skid a few feet through the grass, clutching her head. While she tried to get over the daze, a light sprinkle of water started spraying her from where she'd left Parry. "Kaaa?" she groaned, turning to see him getting doused.
Parry persisted for a second in the torrent before it sent him flying away from her. Gligar swooped down and gently helped her up with a sitrus in his claw. "Come on, get up!" he ordered. When she opened her mouth to groan, he shoved the sitrus in with a smirk. "Works every time." She channeled her frustration into chewing faster.
"Asshole," Max grumbled under her breath. Gligar stiffened and pulled back. She almost fell before her tail swung around to correct her balance. She turned to glare and saw him hovering with his tail primed for attack.
"Pull yourself together, Max," Gligar ordered. He glanced her over and mumbled, "If you're in there," under his breath.
"I am!" Max barked. She'd only wanted to insult him without his knowing. Now, he was staring at her like she was fully feral. She hadn't seen anyone look at her like that since landing. "What the hell are you doing?" When he was about to answer, Max leapt up to rip him down and out of the air. He hissed out his complaints until he watched a shadow ball sail through the air he'd flown in.
"Trust me now?" Max growled, yanking him back up. She didn't wait for an answer, turning to see Marshtomp and Parry still facing off. That shadow ball had been no more than a stray.
"Did you just lift me?" Gligar asked, but shook his head. Max already darted over to help, leaving him to do whatever he wished. She hopped over to kick off a tree and dashed towards Parry while Marshtomp hit him with another jet of water. Before it finished, she spun around to fling a shock of electricity off her tail and into Parry, and Gligar swooped over to slam into the ground and send a wave of earth into Parry.
"That wasn't about your allegiance," Gligar said as he hovered to the space between Marshtomp and Max. Max perked an ear up to listen while keeping her eyes trained on Parry. "If anything, I was worried for you."
"Oh, can it," Max barked. She bit back the rest that she wanted to say and sufficed with a sneer up at him. Distrust was bad enough, but she hated pity a lot more. For how hard she had to fight against her instincts, she didn't need people pretending to protect her from herself. Gligar narrowed his eyes at her in confusion when Marshtomp nudged his hindpaw.
"Let's talk this through later, all right?" Marshtomp said. He glared up at Gligar for a moment before looking over to Max. "You go help your Team. We can take a steel."
Max nodded and turned around to do exactly that. The tree obscured all but the brightest flashes on the other side. Had she seen them earlier, she probably would've abandoned the other two for her friends already. She picked up the pace and leapt over the fallen tree when she came to it.
The instant she cleared the bark, she saw Gardevoir pointing at her with a hand, eyes glowing as he hurled a mass of psychic energy directly into her chest. It pinned her against the bark with enough force to rip all the air from her lungs, leaving them empty when she hit the ground. She pulled herself up with one paw on the bark and shoved her tail in front of her.
"Max!" Ithos shouted. Keeping his eyes on Max, Gardevoir flung an arrow towards Ithos. Ithos ducked to the side and it still clipped his shoulder. Ash dashed at Gardevoir from behind, back ablaze with flame.
Gardevoir looked behind him for an instant and clasped his hands together. A light glow pulsed out. When Ash was about to tackle him, Gardevoir pulled the light around him in a dome that flung Ash away. While Ash flew through the air, Gardevoir threw his hand back to hit him with an arrow to launch him further.
"Oh, Jesus Christ," Max grumbled. She couldn't believe that Ash and Ithos had managed on their own for this long. Gardevoir had them trapped at a range they couldn't attack from, and he had every ability to keep it that way. Thanks to that, Max immediately knew how to deal with him. He'd needed to take a breath after flinging Ash away, so he probably couldn't do that move perpetually.
An arrow came right for her head, and Max effortlessly swiped it away with an iron tail. Gardevoir considered the feat for a second with an appreciative nod as he clasped his hands together. He blinked a piercing glow into his eyes, then focused the blast in his hands right for her.
Max tried to do the same block as before. It happened so soon after that she could swipe at the attack with the same iron tail, but the attack landed against her tail with a crack that preceded a sharp ache and made her crumple to the ground in pain. She barely kept her eyes open to see Gardevoir turning to frustrate Ithos' approach with a sweep of fairy energy that flew parallel to the ground.
Ithos stood his ground and blew a billowing plume of flame in front of him. His fire disrupted the attack and let him keep the little bit of progress for the time being. Max dashed forward, swallowing the pain for the moment, while Gardevoir aimed an arrow at Ithos with his right hand.
Gardevoir brought his left hand up and flung the arrow to Max instead. Max rolled to the side and hopped up to her hindpaws with her tail guarding her out of habit. Just brushing it against her paw hurt, though. She let it fall behind her again and flung an arc of electricity over to Gardevoir while he sent another sweep for Ithos. Her attack landed before he had a chance to notice it.
Gardevoir crumpled and put his hand to his chest. After enduring the wince, he glared at Max with the same malice she'd seen in Parry's eye. He looked more insulted than hurt. Max took the opportunity to turn halfway around and slap her own ass, enraging him further.
Ash slammed into Gardevoir in a pure ball of flames from the side opposite Ithos. The hit sent both of them tumbling towards Ithos. As they rolled through the grass, Gardevoir clasped his hands together again.
With flawless grace, Gardevoir planted his feet to the ground and used the momentum to stand up right above Ithos. The flaming ball of hedgehog on his back didn't seem to phase him in the slightest. Even as Ithos responded with a plume of fire that engulfed both Gardevoir and Ash, Gardevoir didn't let his his focus falter. His hands twisted, and he disappeared.
Ash thumped against the ground right next to Ithos. Their attacks hit each other and fizzled the other out. They shared a confused glance as Max heard another pop from the air above her inverting, just like earlier. She looked up and saw Gardevoir right above her with a building glow of pink surrounding him.
"Dumbass," Max chuckled. She didn't hesitate to send a calling charge right through Gardevoir and into the sky. He didn't flinch at all, pulling his right arm behind his left with psychic energy building around him. A crack resounded from the sky as the lightning slammed right through him and into Max, and still Gardevoir didn't falter in his focus.
Lightning crackling around him, Gardevoir flung his arm towards Ash and Ithos to hurl a cyclone of psychic energy into them. They'd only just seen him thanks to Max's lightning strike and looked over in time to see the blast that sent them flying.
In the instant Max took to watch the blast hit them, Gardevoir smashed his hand into her back as he landed. She hit the ground face first, and an arrow slammed into her back to send her skidding across the grass on her chest. It was enough friction to stop her going much further away, though. Max rolled onto her back in time to see an arrow impale the dent she'd left in the dirt.
Gardevoir took a step towards her and winced. This time, the wince didn't interrupt his blinding hatred for an instant. He glared down at her like she was a wasp that just stung him. Max hopped onto her paws, shaking off the grass.
"Disgusting," Gardevoir spat. His lip pulled up into a snarl, and she swore she could hear him growl. "Degenerate beast." He halfheartedly flicked an arrow to her that she effortlessly dodged.
Max had nearly been willing to hear him out, but she drew the line at such loaded name calling. She sent her own halfhearted attack his way and dashed over. With a smirk, Gardevoir clasped his hands together. He'd been poking her, and she'd done exactly what he wanted. He forced the pulse out from his palms and around himself right as she made it to the hem of his dress.
All the electricity she'd been holding at the ready, Max grabbed his dress with one paw and surrounded herself in a charge that flooded the air around them. It clashed and collided with the pulse that engulfed them both while she reeled back. Gardevoir's eyes flashed in indignant rage when she grabbed his leg with her other paw.
His enclosure shattered around them, and Max threw herself up into him with electricity bursting from every part of her. She slammed him into the air by the chin with an elbow and used that paw to grab his chest ornament. Her shoulder smacked into his clavicle as she threw her own weight into him with another explosion of electricity around them. It sparked with enough strength to even start stinging her.
She swung him underneath her as they flew through the air and slammed him into the ground with a concussive blast of a shock. His eyes shot open in rage and pain before falling half closed. He tried to pull his hand up, but a bolt shot through his arm for the attempt.
"Well," Max gasped. She glared down at him while electricity continued to course through them both. She kept herself tuned to its pulse and maintained the circuit to keep him paralyzed. "Look who just had his ass kicked by a degenerate beast."
"It doesn't matter," Gardevoir hissed. Shocks continued to course through him and made it a struggle to even speak. "You won't have your way, human." Even through the paralysis, he spat that word with malice Max could taste. He sneered at her as best he could through the constant shocks.
"What?" Max asked. She narrowed her eyes at him, shaking her head. "What are you even talking about, man?" Considering Fara's own philosophies, Max wasn't surprised she'd told the troops about a certain human-turned-pikachu. It didn't give Max any idea, though, what they could possibly think a human's evil plan could be.
"Don't act stupid," Gardevoir said. "You want what any human does!" He started to yell, only Max's ongoing circuit keeping him from swinging a fist into her. "A subservient army of pokémon to worship you, live for your every beck and call like pets!" Even below her, he laughed at her from a higher place, not seeming to notice the jingle of his collar's tags. "You idiots think you're so great, but look at you. Succumbing to the Taint like any other weakling."
"Glad to see you're normal about Dungeon Sickness, at least," Max mumbled with a roll of her eyes. It still didn't hit as bad as being called a feral for her, but that could change with time. The implication alone made her skin crawl.
"Go ahead, act like you're above us, human," Gardevoir barked. "You'll see the truth soon enough!" Max focused an extra strong pulse of electricity through him to calm him down. He grit his teeth to keep quiet through the pain with a smirk of satisfaction on his lips. "Here come your true colors."
"I'm just a pikachu," Max said, so tired it almost came out as a whimper.
"Sorry, couldn't help overhearing," Gligar said. Max looked and saw him swooping down to meet her, Marshtomp following behind with a mud-coated Parry in his arms. "Is he calling everyone a human, or are you something special?" Max let her hold relax a bit now that backup had come. Ash and Ithos finally started making it over, clearly a struggle for both of them.
"Oh, just me," Max said. She didn't think before trying to sit back and flopped right onto Gardevoir's chest spine. Her eyes shot up the instant she started to fall, slicing along until she tumbled onto her back and rolled onto the ground. "Pi-kaaa pika chuuu," she whimpered, clutching her self-assaulted groin.
She'd assumed hitting that area would've been less of an issue anymore. In this instance, however, that couldn't be further from the truth.
Gardevoir ripped her off the ground, digging his hands into her shoulders as he held her up to his face. "Sick freak!" he screamed. His whole body seized as he fought against the paralysis to rip her arms apart. "I'll kill you for trying to defile me like this!" His hands started to burn with a pure white glow when a plume of flame engulfed his back. He clenched his teeth to resist, but ultimately fell unconscious.
His grip loosened, and Max fell into Ithos' arms. The gesture was sweet, but turned adorable when she sent both of them tumbling onto his back. His grip faltered but didn't fail when they hit the ground, and they both started laughing. Max was still hurting, but she held her legs together instead of using her paws in an attempt to save face.
"You should've just said you were a human," Gligar said, hovering over both of them. "Everyone assumed you'd abandoned us, this time." Max winced before turning halfway around and saw him extending a pincer. "Welcome to Bronze Rank, Team Plasma."
Max let out a sigh of relief, but didn't try to get up just yet. This was probably the closest she could get to nepotism in a world so long after her parents, but she was glad to finally have this runaround behind her. Ithos took the pincer instead and started to get up, letting Max's hindpaws fall to the grass before she could object. It didn't aggravate the pain, at least, but it was still very tender.
Parry's shield started to buzz. It started so low as to be her imagination, but she wasn't really hearing it. Her awareness hadn't pulled all the way back from the fight. The shield was still in Marshtomp's arm, though, so why didn't he seem to notice? She opened her mouth to warn him when the shield flew right for her.
Ithos tackled her to the side, but that turned out to be pointless. It stopped right above Gardevoir's unconscious form. A shot of blue pulsed between it and Parry and ripped him out of Marshtomp's arms.
Everyone got ready to take him down; it was already too late. Parry smacked into his shield. It started to grow an ethereal purple, the energy steadily engulfing Parry as well. It burst in a cloud of darkness that trailed behind him as he spun upwards. His blade pointed to the sky for a single instant before spinning around and slamming through Gardevoir's chest.
"I admit I'm impressed
When that tornado from the West crushes buildings
I'm impressed"
"Check again!" Max shouted. Ithos tried to pull her back from Delphox, but she yanked her shoulder free and jabbed her own thumb into her chest. "I knew him!" She flicked her paw towards the cell block that held Parry. "There's something else! He's a completely different person!"
Delphox shook her head with a sad gaze. Frustration barely started to tickle the edges of her expression, but none came through in her voice when she said, "I'm sorry, but there's no trace of confusion." Hearing it the fifth time only made it harder for Max to believe. "Besides, hypnosis can't do that, anyway." She pulled the key onto its ring and pulled out a chute in the wall to drop it in.
Max clenched her fist. Ithos grabbed her shoulder again, and she let him. He pulled her slightly back while also coming up to her side. Delphox cleaned off her wand with a rag before depositing both into the sash resting on her hips. It reminded Max of a bandoleer.
"You're not the first one to think this, Pikachu," Delphox said. She glanced back to the cell block and lost herself staring at nothing. "Those looking to escape are usually the same, and they also have almost the same story every single time." She shivered and looked back at Ithos and Max. "Friends, family, loved ones they used to trust suddenly despise them. It's like they're completely different people."
Max's fist relaxed, and the chill that made Delphox shiver came for her. She wanted to object again, but it hadn't worked so far. She wasn't going to get an answer.
"It has to be Fara," Ithos said. He gently pulled her closer and looked at her face. Max couldn't get her eyes off the ground, but she nodded to pretend to be present. "She's had essentially free reign for months, now. Who knows what she could be doing with that?"
"Come on," Delphox said. She tugged the thick, metal door open and waved them out. "You shouldn't be out of your quarters so soon."
Ithos nodded while Max winced at the reminder. She tried to focus on his scales while he pulled her along. He started to watch her with worry, so she leaned into his hold for a moment and stood further upright to head up the stairs.
Gardevoir wasn't the first this had happened to. In the past week, any pair conspired to kill each other before being captured. The only reason Parry had survived was because they'd fully knocked his partner out. Max could still hear the slick slice slamming into the ground with a thud. Ithos nudged her against a bed, and she realized they'd made it back to their quarters.
Ithos helped her onto the bed, then hopped on after to sit next to her. She squeezed his paw tight and took a breath, shaking her head out of introspection. "Do you need anything?" she asked. Ithos stared at her. "What?"
"Max, lay down," Ithos said. Max shook her head, not willing to rest until she'd helped him; Ithos guided her head to the pillow and pulled her into a hug. He held her in silence for a moment, then pressed his lips against her cheek before rolling off the bed. "Maybe they'll have apple pie, this time," he said. He grabbed her paw in his and got her to look over with a squeeze. "I'll be right back. Are you good for a bit?"
Max nodded. When he pulled his paw away, she bit her cheek to suppress a whimper. The door closed behind him. She was alone.
It was so much worse than she expected, and so, so much worse than she ever thought it could be.
"And I find that my head's nodding yes
Though my legs are not following
I'm inspired by events
To remember the exits in back of me"
"These routes suck so much ass," Ash groaned. Max couldn't see what he meant, yet. He'd crested the hill they'd spent the past half an hour climbing, but she was too far back and keeping a watch out behind them. Ithos was walking alongside a weavile while her son followed about a yard ahead of Max.
One by one, the others disappeared over the hill-face until, finally, she followed and flopped into the snow to assess the situation. Ithos was digging his map out with visible frustration while the two of them stared at yet another peak for them to climb. It looked about half the size, but it made up for that by having ongoing precipitation of snow.
"Why would we go over? Why not through?" Ithos asked. As it turned out, he'd been right to point out the horrible routes they'd scouted.
Even the name 'Sheer Mountain Range' hadn't prepared them for how steep they were, and Max was the only one who felt the full suffering of the weather. While neither fire nor ice types had to worry about the cold, even her jacket thick as a snorlax's hide didn't keep her warm enough. Sneasel was wearing a jacket, too, but he'd been wearing that since they first met up to escape.
Max had bundled up head to paw. Her scarf bundled up at the neck of her thick, blue jacket. She had black gloves on her forepaws and leather boots on her hindpaws with some weird combination of shorts and pants on her legs. Pokémon in any clothes always looked a bit silly, so she looked absolutely ridiculous.
"Let's set up camp!" Max called. She forced herself up and pulled her pack off her back. Ithos and Ash both nodded without hesitation. Both of them were tired as well, but they'd have gone along anyway. Half Max's duty was keeping an eye on how their charges held up, and Sneasel had started losing steam. While she dug through her pack for some food, and Ithos settled down next to her.
"Piiiichuu," Max sighed, leaning into the warmth she could feel through her jacket. Ithos started pulling her jacket open to giver her more direct heat. She found an apple and pulled it out. It was so cold that it chilled through her glove. She groaned, not even bothering to try taking a bite before shoving it into Ithos' hold.
"Excuse me, Pikachu?" Sneasel asked. Max bit back her frustration and smiled up at him. "Are you gonna be okay?"
"Me? Sure! Just gotta warm-up a bit," Max said. She was used to keeping a brave face on for even her closest friends, so she couldn't have put it down for a kid if she wanted to. "You get some rest while you can, all right?"
"Yeah, I will," Sneasel said. He glanced around, fiddling with the coat draped around him. He was obviously still worried, so Max watched and waited for him to spit it out. "It's just, are you sure?" Max tilted her head. Every slightest glance her way oozed with trepidation. "You sounded Tainted, just now."
"SNEASEL!" Weavile shouted. She snatched him back by the collar and gave him a stern look before looking at Max. "I'm so sorry, Pikachu! I really thought he'd know better." Ithos squeezed Max and rubbed her back beneath her coat.
"Hey, it's all right!" Max said, throwing up a paw in his defense. Most people didn't know a better term for it, and the kid had tried his best to be polite. "I don't mind, really! He was just worried, I get it." She tilted her head to look around her to her son with a smile. "Yeah, I've had to deal with Dungeon Sickness for a while. I've got it under control, though, all right?"
Weavile's grip on Sneasel lightened a bit, and he shuffled further out from behind her. "Dungeon Sickness?" he asked. His mother might be hiding it, but Max could tell she was just as confused. "Why's it called that? It happens no matter where you are."
"Yeah, I guess it does," Max said. Her smile faltered a bit while she tried not to think about that (she'd already spent too much time trying to figure out how that was happening). "I got it spending too long in a Dungeon, though." She shrugged and felt a warmth nudging against the back of her paw. Ithos was giving her the apple he'd warmed back up. Max took it and nuzzled her cheek into his in thanks.
"Wait, so does that mean you're not tai—," Weavile muzzled her son before he could finish that thought.
"Don't call it that!" Weavile hissed into his ear. She looked back to Max with a pained smile and started to apologize again. Max shook her head and waved her down before she could. She looked around to wave Sneasel over.
"C'mere," Max said. Sneasel looked up to Weavile for permission, and she tightened her grip on her son. Max took a breath and looked up to see the fear Weavile'd been masking until now. "It's all right, I promise." She nodded to Ithos while he pulled her tighter. "He's right here. He won't let me do anything." Ithos frowned and looked at her with worry, but she kept her eyes on Weavile's.
Fear hung over Weavile's eyes even as she shifted her gaze over to Ithos. She looked between the two of them, sizing up how well he really could stop her. It wasn't why Ithos was holding her, but it made it look a lot more convincing. After a deep breath, she nodded down at Sneasel and let him head over.
Sneasel didn't hesitate to come over, only looking at her with concern. Either he didn't know as well as his mother how bad Dungeon Sickness could get, or maybe he could just tell Max had control. As nice as the latter would be for her, Max really hoped it was the former.
"No one's tainted, all right?" Max said. Now that he was next to her, she remembered that, despite being a child, he had half a foot on her. "It's nothing to worry about or be ashamed of. Just look at me." She pointed her thumb towards herself with a wink. "It can be a challenge for me sometimes, and it used to be a lot worse, but I've gotten a lot better."
Max hopped out of Ithos' hold and pulled her jacket on to—she still couldn't reach his shoulder. In fact, standing barely made her any taller at all. She rubbed along the side of his arm instead and said, "Don't listen to what they say, all right? No one's tainted. We're just different."
"Huh, okay," Sneasel said. "Th-"
The ground beneath their paws whipped into a shake that sent them tumbling. Max latched onto Sneasel without a second thought and threw herself around him as they slid through the snow. The ground continued to quake and rattle beneath too much for them to get their bearings. She could hear both of their (species') names, but didn't understand why until she didn't feel the snow beneath her for a moment.
Max held onto Sneasel with every limb she could, even considering her teeth for a moment, and he clutched her against himself as they started to tumble down the hill they'd just trekked up. The world spun around and around in her vision, so she closed her eyes.
Max didn't bother telling him to hold on as she swung her tail out and lashed it into the snow with an iron tail. The first attempt caught only snow, but she managed to hit some grass with the second. It stopped their tumbling, but as they swung down the last time, all of their combined weight hung from her tail. She yelped in pain while clutching him tighter.
They were right above an outcropping of ground. It was slight enough they would've rolled right off it. As she sized it up, she saw the contents of Sneasel's bag tumbling right for it. It must've gotten knocked open in the tumble. She tugged him upright a bit and pulled her tail out of the ground with another yelp.
Moving it at all hurt. She definitely injured it, but that was a worthy price to pay for their lives. They gently slid down the hillside until they reached their plateau. Sneasel got up gingerly, looking himself over as he did.
When Max tried to stand, her tail went to correct her balance on instinct and flared with pain. An instant later, she found herself in the arms of a very worried looking Sneasel. The kid was taking care of her. How kind of him and embarrassing of her.
"-achu, are you there? Can you hear me?" Sneasel asked. His voice was cracking. Max could feel the trembling of his arms.
"I'm all right," Max said. She tried to keep her voice neutral, but the pain forced it into a hiss. Even without moving it, the base of her tail ached to the beat of her heart. "I must've dislocated my tail." She took a breath and tried to think of what to do. They'd learned field first aid, and she very quickly realized there was no way she could set her own tail. She looked up at Sneasel with an awkward smile.
"You wouldn't happen to know how to set a dislocated joint, would you?" she asked.
"I-I can try!" Sneasel said. "What do you need—what do I do? Are you okay?!" He was still deep in a panic.
"Hey, hey!" Max said. She hissed in a breath at another throb of pain and tried to deal with the agony for a bit longer. "It's okay, all right? Take some deep breaths." She could only keep one eye open, face contorted in a perpetual wince. "Deep—PIKA chu!" Sneasel jumped a bit at her shout but did what she asked. "In." Her voice came out exclusively in squeaks. "Out."
He followed her directions as she guided his breath as best she could. Multiple unconscious twitches of her tail interrupted her, though. When it happened, he'd continue with the pace she set until she caught up. His trembling arms got a little bit steadier. He was still clearly scared, but Max needed his help already.
"Pik-okay, listen," Max said. "I'm gonna need chu to do exactly as I say, pika?" Sneasel nodded. She took a breath and got ready, both to endure the pain and explain the process. "This is going to hurt me a lot. I'm probably going to scream, but you can't stop. Do not stop unless you hear me say 'stop', all right?" He nodded again, a tremble starting to work into his arms again.
Max put a paw on his arm and said, "Deep breaths." She forced a smile through her grimace. "You got this." If he didn't, the climb back up was going to be incredibly hard for her. "Ready?" He nodded again, so she let out a sigh. "That makes one of us."
"Here, let me check my," Sneasel said as he turned to check his bag, eyes shooting open when he saw its contents scattered everywhere. "MY BAG!" He leapt up and launched Max into the snow.
Max wailed in pain as her tail flew through the air behind her. She'd never even thought about that connection when falling, but it had never been so painful, either. At least it was still connected. She saw white until she landed, and even a little while after. Her vision slowly faded to a very dark black that she assumed was unconsciousness until her nose started to freeze.
With another scream of pain, she rolled onto her back. Every movement hurt like hell. She could only move her tail by moving the rest of her body, and that relied on the very, very injured connection. Sneasel was scrambling through the snow in a desperate search for his things.
"SNEASEL!" Max screamed. It was pika-speak, but it still got Sneasel to snap up to attention.
"I, I," Sneasel stammered. He couldn't take his eyes off his search. "I'm sorry, I have to find it!" He looked over to her with pleading eyes. Once he saw her curled up in pain and half-buried in snow, his expression changed to guilt. "S-sorry!" He dashed over and reached down to pull her out of the snow.
"Stop!" Max shouted. She was surprised she hadn't slipped from the panic. Her tail hurt enough that she might've fainted from that jostling. Sneasel stood over her, ready and waiting for his orders.
Max swiped some of the snow out from in front of her to hold out her paws, closing both into fists with her thumb sticking out on the right one. "Okay, it's dislocated," she explained. "Imagine this is my tailbone," she wiggled her right paw, "And this is my. Butt." She shook her left paw, and the boy didn't giggle, though she started to realize how embarrassing this was going to be for her.
"Usually, it would be like this," she said, putting her thumb in the other fist. "But mine got yanked when it caught us. So it's more like this." She pulled her thumb away a bit and tilted it some for dramatic effect, and Sneasel winced. "I need you," she pressed her thumb back into the other fist, "to reposition it, okay?"
"H-how do I know if I'm doing it right?" Sneasel asked.
Max hissed in a breath, desperate to get this over with and trying so hard not to be mad at him for being thorough. He needed to know as much as possible, but even just laying there, she could feel the weight of the few inches of tail hanging down until they hit the ground. "Well, there's not a lot of wiggle room," she said. "You'll know it's in," she sucked in a deep breath, "when you hear a pop."
Sneasel cringed behind his arms, hissing out his own empathetic agony. Max appreciated the understanding, but there wasn't any time. She sucked in two lungs worth of air and rocked onto her front with a yelp.
Her face was stuffed into the snow. Her cheeks, at least, got to rest on her arms. When she extended her hindlegs, she was glad to have her face hidden. She could hear Eleos' ethereal voice whispering, 'A comfortable position you are familiar with,' in her head again. Of course, once Sneasel grabbed a hold of her tail, pain vaporized that worry in an instant.
Stuffing her mouth against her fur hardly diminished the scream's volume. The searing pain burned a violent white into her vision that made the snow look dim by comparison. He quickly found the right spot, and Max felt every single strand of sinew as her tail found its joint.
Then, he started to press. Max's throat hissed out silent scream. The pain short-circuited her brain, making the air come without firing off her vocal cords. She squeezed her claws into her fur while using all the strength she possibly could to stay still. Even then, her entire body was trembling as each agonizing second took millennia to pass until, finally, it slotted into place with a stomach churning pop.
Sneasel let go, and Max flopped down into the snow. Her stomach flipped. She had time for one retch to feel its contents flying up her esophagus. She rolled to the side and clutched her stomach with one arm while the other held her head up. When it ended, she was surprised she managed to fall away from the bile.
Snow made for a really great impromptu ice pack. Unfortunately, it had only just met the affected area. Its icy chill still stung at her cheeks, arms, everywhere. The more the cold numbed her tail, the more she felt the chill everywhere else. She needed to get up, get out of the snow, but she was terrified of agitating her tail again. It still hurt so much that her vision blurred.
"Pikachu? Hello?" Sneasel asked. He pressed his claws against her to shake her so gently she barely felt it at all. "Are you all right? Did I get it?"
Max sucked in a breath and put her paw up for a thumbs up. "Great job, buddy," she wheezed. Her paw fell to her side, and she tugged her jacket closed around her—full of snow. The impromptu ice bath made her hop up in surprise and yank it off, sending the snow inside flying.
Luckily, her tail was just numb enough. She only felt a dull ache from the movement, but it was already warming up. "C-c-cold," she whimpered, pulling her jacket over her, but not putting it on. They didn't have a splint or anything, and she doubted it would help a tail, anyway. "S-sn-Sneasel," she chattered. "I need y-you to p-p-Pikachu!" She bit her cheek and sucked in a deep breath. "Hold my tail up against my back!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Sneasel said. Max clenched her teeth to prepare for the pain as he hurried around behind her. The chill dulled the pain, but her knees still turned to jelly when he did it. At least he was gentle.
She threw her jacket over herself and yanked it closed over her tail while whimpering at how cold the inner lining had become. It worked, though. She had her tail on lockdown, and her instincts seemed not to mind. Maybe she was too woozy to notice the extra agitation, though even a wild animal understood an injury.
"Thank you," Max sighed. She turned to Sneasel, yanking the hood over her head, to see he'd run off in search of his stuff again. "Right, okay." She limped over to the area while pulling every string and loop on her jacket as tight as it would go. Moving would get her blood flowing again, and searching could maybe distract her from the thawing agony behind her. "Need help?"
"P-Pikachu!" Sneasel shouted in surprise, jolting upright. "N-no! You should rest, right?"
"Maybe if I want to freeze to death," Max said, forcing a chuckle. He was such a sweet kid. She glanced around the ground for whatever she could find, and he reluctantly got to searching again.
He seemed more hurried, now, though, and she noticed he was passing right over almost all of it. The few he did pick up, he turned around in his paws before tossing and going back to his search. He also frequently stole glances at her as she searched while he thought she couldn't see him. He was looking for something specific, and it was something he didn't want her to see.
As it would happen, her luck seemed to have rubbed off on him; Max took a step forward when her paw grazed against a glass bottle. "Ka?" she hummed, dropping down to lift it up. When she did, Sneasel went pale. She tried to mind her business, but read the label before she could stop herself. "Testosterone."
Well, that explained his jacket.
Sneasel stared at her, frozen in terror. They never asked why a family needed to flee, just helped without question not even asking names, but Max had assumed, based on the jacket, that this kid was dealing with increased suspicion for interest in 'human paraphernalia'. She wanted to scream. This was why, wasn't it? She swallowed her indignation and put on an excited smile as she went over.
"Here," Max said. She held it up to him, and he snatched it out of her paw. She chuckled a bit and shrugged when he looked nervously down at her. "I couldn't wait to stop being a guy, but good for you."
"Y-what?" Sneasel asked. He chucked his prescription deep in his bag and squinted at her as he pulled his bag shut tight. He scanned her over, shaking his head, and Max was glad to be wearing a jacket. "No, how?" He glanced at where her tail usually was, then back at her. "There's no way you used to be a guy."
"Oh yeah?" Max giggled, crossing her arms. Her ear pressed against her hood when she tried to flick it up in mock curiosity. Technically, she felt like what he'd just said counted as rude, but she didn't even slightly care. Considering he was saying she looked too much like a girl to have once been a guy, it was more of a compliment, but much more important was the look in his eyes.
It wasn't disbelief, at least not only. It was one she'd given, too. It was hope.
"Hey, believe me," she said. She reached up to put a paw on his arm. "It works, okay?" His expression remained unchanged. He was still definitely shocked to have been 'found out', which she couldn't blame him for. She still cringed thinking about when Ithos figured it out. Luckily, she knew just how to get his mind off it.
"You're not alone, all right?" she said, letting her paw fall and taking a step back. "I guess I'm just less obvious, anymore." She stretched her arms up and smirked at him. "I used to be a human, too."
"Th-REALLY?" Sneasel nearly screamed. Max was really glad to have her ears under padding. "But—does that mean-"
"I'm trying, all right?" Max said. She'd always kept that under wraps as best she could before. Thing is, that was never especially well. When it came out in the Rescue Society, though, she had a change of heart. She resented the special treatment, but she'd started seeing something she hadn't for a while when they moved in. "But no one's been abandoned, all right?"
She'd seen hope. Those glances might sometimes fill her with dread, with pressure, but they'd all given up on hope for a while. Everyone had. She'd endure it for that.
Sneasel snatched her up into a hug. Max yelped in a mix of surprise and pain, but she didn't resist. For one foolish moment, she thought the hug could help her warm up, but it only made her start to shiver more. "Thank you," Sneasel whispered. She probably should've pushed out of his embrace already, but she let him keep on for a bit longer.
Max couldn't stop the whimpers from coming out, though, and he hurriedly set her down when they started. She shivered as she pulled her arms closer. It didn't get her the least bit warmer and even pressed a few of the scant wet spots from the snow it picked up into her fur.
"W-we have to get going," Max said. She had emergency firewood in her bag, but she didn't even know if it was still with the rest of them. The only other person was an ice-type. If she didn't get to Ithos or Ash soon, this could get bad. "Grab your stuff, but I have to get moving." She turned and started heading back up, flinching when her tail strained against her jacket.
Her legs felt so slow already. She was getting so cold, so fast. She still had feeling, but she didn't know how long it would last. Already, the slightest twitch of her tail hurt. She knew why but couldn't help fearing it had started to petrify.
The plateau sloped up into the hill. She dropped forward to start heading up, but couldn't move. It was too cold. She was too cold. Even as they burned from the cold, she feared her forepaws had gone numb in their gloves. If she moved them, she knew the stone of her legs would shatter. Shivers and whimpers shook through her, but she couldn't understand how.
"HOLD ON!" Ithos shouted from above, but he sounded so far away. "I'm almos—AAAGH!" She craned her neck up while she still could and saw an orange speck that just lost his footing start tumbling down.
His tail flame slipped and smacked in and out of the snow as he rolled and bounced down the mountain. By the time she could make out his limbs, he managed to get enough of a grip to stop rolling, but he was still hopelessly sliding down. His burning scales melted the snow on contact and flood him from above.
He kept trying to grab the ground, but the melted snow slicked the dirt into worthless mud. The rest was stone he didn't have a chance of digging into. He drew closer and closer with every second.
By the time he was only a few dozen yards away, he looked down at Max with wide eyes. "MOVE!" he screamed. She was too cold, too scared. She couldn't risk it. She didn't even realize she was directly in his path until he yelled at her. He tried to change his course, but he still smashed right into her. He snatched her into his arms as they tumbled the rest of the way, and she took a breath.
Warmth. He was warm. The relief came just in time for her to tumble right over the base of her tail, and her vision went white.
She must have lost consciousness, because in an instant, they weren't tumbling anymore. She had warm scales wrapped around her with a gentle flame behind her. Her arms draped over Ithos' shoulders, and some band held her tail tight against her back to replace her jacket. She wondered where her jacket had gone as she opened her eyes, and then she saw it draped over Ithos like a cloak.
"Hey, Pikachu," Ithos said. It took Max a moment to realize Sneasel was probably still close by, which was why he wasn't using her name. "Getting better?" Max silently nuzzled deeper into him. He looked down at her with a smile struggling against a constant wince.
"Ith-Charmander!" Max gasped. She jerked in his hold and saw patches of discolored scales all over him. "Are you okay?" She tried to pull away to get a better look, but he squeezed her tighter.
"Wait!" Ithos said. "You're not all the way warm yet." She wriggled in his hold some more, not caring if she was still a bit chilly. If he was hurt, he needed help! She started resisting harder and harder when his paw went to the transition point from the back of her head to the back of her neck. He dipped a claw in there while his other paw scratched lower—right into the small of her back.
"Ch-ch-," Max started to squeak, but she clenched her teeth to hold it back. She knew exactly what he was doing and hated him for it. She tried to resist, but every thrash and writhe softened and weakened until she melted into the warm pets and scratches. It just felt too good. "Chaaaa," she cooed, a contented smile pulling across her lips.
She was going to kill him for this.
"It's all right, okay?" Ithos whispered. He scratched his left paw higher and pulled her head onto his shoulder. "I just have a few scrapes and bruises, okay?" He looked at her to offer a reassuring smile and found her in a pleasured daze looking at nothing in specific.
His pets and scratches tapered off until he simply held her tight. As she came down from the high, she was disappointed to find he'd soothed all of the rage out of her with his ministrations. He really knew how to get all the right spots. She let out some dazed grumbles and shook her head. As she came to, the past few minutes started to come back to her. The first memory that came was the sight of him hopelessly tumbling down the hill.
"My savior," Max chuckled. She shook her head and glared up at him with a smile. "You haven't changed a bit since the day we met, have you?"
"Of course I have!" Ithos scoffed in mock offense. He raised his head to stare down his snout at her. "I've learned to swim since then, I'll have you know." His act fell apart as they both fell into laughter. She squeezed him tighter, and he did the same.
After a while, they released their grips. When she pulled away, Ithos pulled his tail flame to her front and hurried to bundle the jacket he'd so dutifully dried and warmed around her. He even dutifully fastened and tightened every loop while she basked in the warmth. She dug her nose into the front and took a deep sniff, ecstatic to find his scent in there as well.
"How long have you two been married?" Sneasel asked. Max froze mid sniff. Her eyes went wide. She tried to sputter out some clarification, but it all came out as pika-squeaks. She'd need to rely on Ithos, which she really didn't want to do when he rose up from her jacket with a smug grin.
"Oh, we're just dating," Ithos said. He wrapped an arm around her and tugged him into a side-hug. "She proposed, but I'm just waiting for the right time, y'know?"
Max ripped herself out of his hold and yanked him up off the ground. He needed to tumble the rest of the way down the mountain for this one. He wouldn't stop giggling about it, but he'd see the gravity of the situation once he had to contend with gravity. When the massive change in mass went against her balance, her tail flicked on instinct, and searing pain thwarted her vengeance.
Max's legs gave out, and a still giggling Ithos wriggled upright to catch her, so she lowered his sentence to a firm shock. He barely reacted to it, probably because she was too dazed to really get him. Her unfocused vision swept to the view from their little plateau.
Even out of focus, the view was off. It was far off forests and towns that should've looked essentially still from so far away. It didn't look still. She rubbed her eyes to clear them, but the view didn't still in the slightest. "Do you see that?" she asked.
Ithos didn't answer her, but he pulled her tighter. His paws ran soothing claws down her back while holding her tight and secure like he always did when she was scared. She wasn't scared, though. She hadn't been, at least. Her vision started to clear as the pain started to fade. She looked up at him to see him staring off in the same distance she had been. He was staring at something, but what?
Max looked out to the horizon and found her answer. Emanating out from Lively Town, far into the sea and land, roots of darkness scarred the landscape. They pulsed with an unnatural heartbeat as they tore into the world around them, stabbing into the ground and snaking out like vines, weeds that writhed like flailing blood vessels.
Any bit of green it touched had faded to a dark, rotting black. It sank into any sign of life and drank it in until only hollow shells remained. The energy fed it, nourished it as the spire at its epicenter grew. It all grew from Lively Town's most immaculate building: The Expedition Society.