Sorry for any grammatical mistakes.
Forests were beautiful. There was no denying that. But they were also frightening. Things hid in the shadows, in between the leaves, the trees, and everything deeper you went, the worse it got.
This time was no different. The coverage of the trees thickened, blocking out most of the light, rendering visibility minimal at best- at least for the others, whose eyes couldn't see in the dark.
The darkness didn't affect Riven in the slightest. In fact, it eased the strain on his eyes that the usual daylight put on them, meaning less squinting.
Stopping in a clearing, the others watched as Sargos held up a hand, signaling a stop. Scanning the area with a quick sweep of the eyes, Riven concluded there were no threats in the immediate vicinity… Yet. The enforcers were tense, judging from the clenched jaws and rapid breathing. Viola wasn't much better, shifting her weight on both legs as she waited, wary green eyes trying their hardest to make anything out in the light.
It was understandable to be nervous. Riven felt it himself; it wasn't often he fought an Elite Four tier pokemon. Especially not one who'd already put several rangers into the hospital and killed some of their pokemon at that. War trained pokemon were as strong if not stronger perhaps, but he had an army backing him up before, willing to kill and get through with it. These people though… they hadn't killed once in their lives. Not dependable enough to deliver the finishing blow. Any hesitation meant death if this thing was as strong as it was rumored to be. He couldn't afford that right now.
Yes, they had discussed strategy before departing, but from experience, the best laid plans often went to hell the moment something unexpected occurred. Walking into this blind made things far worse. They were outside the "aberrant's" lair in the dark, about to fight a substantially stronger opponent on its own territory. For all intents and purposes, this was a terrible idea.
Still, the difference in taking the thing out or it taking them out was how well they could cooperate. Viola insisted that Riven and the others get used to their respective teams, so no confusion would go down in the middle of the fight. The rangers had a balanced assortment of types, but not many they could use in the present location. Fire types would be a bad idea for a fight in the middle of a forest, and they couldn't risk using physical based pokemon, for fear of them getting killed. The only exceptions were pokemon who could take a pummeling and stall for time- like a steel type. All things considered, that limited their choices to a few bug types, some water and ice types, and grass types. Hardly any powerhouse pokemon, and with the difference of strength in the ranger's pokemon, that lessened the offensive power Riven had to work with- which wasn't too high in the first place.
Grimacing about the daunting chances of success, he drew his sword, looking into the darkness ahead. The rangers stood ready, pokeballs in their hands. As they tensed, red eyes glinted in the black, menacing and crazed.
"Get ready," the mercenary warned, "it's com-"
A glimmer of purple light shone in the darkness of the forest.
That's- Riven reacted, just managing to kick Aline to the floor with a boot as he backed off.
A dark pulsing blast of energy cut forth, obliterating the grass and ground below it, narrowly missing Riven and Aline and slicing through a section of the forest behind them. A cascade of dirt and shredded grass rained down on them, followed by a cloud of dust. As the dust cloud cleared, black wisps of darkness rose from the tortured ground, contrasting with the sudden influx of light from the fallen trees felled by the blast.
The humans remained rooted in place, stunned. Sargos and the other rangers observed the sheer destruction that the attack had caused, rendering a part of a once lush forest into nothing but a heap of logs and debris.
"Pokeballs, now!" Sargos ordered. Several flashes of light followed, revealing a Greninja, Scizor, Roserade, Kabutops, Weavile, and Heracross. Viola let our her Surskit and Vivillion.
Riven picked himself off the ground, lifting Aline up with a hand.
She held the lower part of her back, grunting in pain. "You kicked me right in the kidney. A tackle would have hurt less! Mercenaries… ow."
"You're alive. I'd rather piss blood for a day than be dead forever," Riven retorted, kneeling down to hold a hand over the dark wisps rising out of the ground. Something had drawn his attention to them, almost like a magnetic pull would a stray piece of iron. As the wisps enveloped his fingers, a feeling of pure, boiling rage came over him, reaching into his ears, his thoughts, whispering-
INTRUDERS MUST ALL DIE. ALL INTRUDERS. ALL HUMANS. DIE. FADE AWAY AND DIE. DEVOUR IT ALL.THEIR ANCIENT. STRENGTH. DISCOVERED. DESTINY. TASK. BLOOD. JOY. SATISFACTION.
Riven pulled his hand away, head swimming in dark thoughts, seeing faint traces of red in his vision. He shook his head, swallowing hard. His eye burned furiously, but he withstood it, shutting it closed.
"Mercenary, what's wrong with you?" Pierre asked, keeping an eye on the angry pair of red eyes glaring at them from within the darkness.
Holding his head with both hands, Riven coughed."Argh… I'm fine but the pokemon… It-it's not just angry. It's completely insane."
"I'm not even going to ask how you guessed that, but if it's insane, why the warning shot? If you could even call it that with a quarter of the forest fucking gone! And more importantly, why isn't it attacking now?" Targis pointed out.
The mercenary stood in deathly silence, giving them a grim glance. "Joy. Satisfaction."
"Arceus… It likes playing with its food," Sargos snarled, letting out a small curse. "Just like in the reports of the victims. The lucky ones were crushed with a single hit. The others… Good god… "
"You mean that's going to happen to us?" Viola gasped, laced with dread. Is this what being a gym leader means? I have to fight this? Just like that girl in-
"Focus," Riven snapped, calm brown piercing through terrified green. "Don't lose it now, Gym Leader. If you do, you will die, Viola. That goes for all of you. I know you're scared, and there's nothing wrong with that. But you need to fight through it, or I promise you that you won't live to see tomorrow." He fell into a ready stance, holding his sword with both hands. "It's coming out now, I can see it. Targis, get your Greninja placed somewhere advantageous. Take note that it can see in the dark, so don't try to sneak up on it. Same goes for you, Pierre and Volma. Your Weavile and Kabutops are fast, take advantage and hit from a distance."
"And the rest of us?" Andre asked.
"My Scizor and Aline's Heracross will try to fight it head-on, buy some time while the rest of you weaken it with ranged attacks. Andre, your Roserade should try to poison it, it may slow its movements," Sargos said carefully. I don't know how that mercenary is going to fight with just a sword, no matter how big it is. Against a pokemon, it might as well be just a stick. He's going to get himself killed. Does he even know what he's doing?
Riven held up a hand and closed a fist, ceasing all talking.
Red eyes came closer and closer, the thud of heavy feet on the grass approaching slowly. When it came into the clearing, a mess of black and white fur could be seen, dyed red with what appeared to be dried blood that hadn't come out in days, followed by a deep, feral growl. Razor sharp claws and teeth shown in the afternoon sun, dripping blood from its interrupted lunch.
It was a Pangoro. A towering hulk of a Pangoro.
"Merde." Andre cursed, making a prayer with his hands.
"And that was a curse. I'm not too familiar with Kalosian monstrosities. What am I missing here?" Riven asked, dreading the answer. From the size of that thing, not pretty. Not pretty at all.
Viola and the others exchanged looks in a mix of horror and shock. She tapped Riven's shoulder with a shaky finger. "Prime… Pangoros usually don't break seven feet. T-that one's n-nearly twelve."
Merde, Riven muttered mentally, eyes as wide as the moon. "Doesn't matter how big that thing is, just means we have to wear it down. Somehow."
"Somehow?!" One of the rangers sputtered, moving away in a different direction, like the other five. The Pangoro seemed to have enough of stalling, beginning its approach.
Viola, Riven, and Sargos remained in the aberrant's line of sight, serving as a target for its aggression. If it was angry, it was predictable. With the other rangers and their pokemon attacking from multiple angles, the Pangoro's attention would be split, buying them more time and taking the heat off of the frontline pokemon.
The Pangoro lumbered towards them, snarling and growling in a guttural tone. It barely seemed to notice the other rangers splitting off in multiple directions until a salvo of highly pressurized water shurikens buried themselves into its hide, drawing a faint trace of blood.
The dark pokemon roared, enraged. It slammed both of its glowing white fists into the ground, breaking the ground beneath it.
"Formation!" Sargos bellowed, shooting a hand forward. His Scizor nodded at him, launching itself off the ground to slam a metallic claw against the Pangoro's face, followed by another, and another. Spears of ice shot out of the darkness of the trees just like the shurikens, the blurs of both Greninja and Weavile dancing through the trees.
But even despite taking several metal claws, water shurikens, and icicle crashes, the twelve foot monster barely even flinched. One of its arms began to glow, colliding with the Scizor's steel carapace, drawing white threads of light out of the bug type. The threads coiled around the Pangoro, healing whatever wounds it had sustained, as well as restoring its energy.
"It knows Drain Punch," Viola gasped quietly, watching Sargo's Scizor trade blows with the Pangoro. It was holding on, but given the restorative property of each punch the Pangoro landed, eventually the Scizor would lose- taking down their frontline defense. If that happened, they probably would be dead.
"That may be a problem," Riven noted, still monitoring the situation. "Those ranged attacks aren't doing a damn thing. Not even the Roserade's razor leaves are doing anything. We can't have the Scizor take any more hits, it's like an energy vending machine to it."
He paused, furrowing his brow. A few seconds later, the grip on his sword tightened.
"You're actually planning to go out there and fight it?" Sargos asked incredulously, looking at Riven as if he'd grown three heads.
"No choice," Riven responded, unsure and not at all calm. He began to run ahead, glancing back at the others while he ran,"Tell your rangers we're switching to light hit and run attacks! Attack. Dodge. Attack. Dodge. All right? Viola, try to restrain its movements - Where is that damn Heracross?"
His question was answered as the Heracross rocketed out of a nearby tree and slammed a green horn of light into the Pangoro as it was about to hammer arm the Scizor. The creature stumbled back, roaring in pain before grabbing onto the Heracross' horn with both hands, snapping the mega horn like a twig and launching the blue bug pokemon into the nearest cluster of trees. The Heracross crashed into nearly seven trees, the force of the throw snapping them like toothpicks, sending a shower of splinters outward.
Aline screamed.
Sargo's Scizor however, wasted no time and took advantage of the distraction, letting loose a bullet punch at the larger pokemon's face, then opening a claw, its edge glowing a distinct green hue. The Scizor slashed diagonally upwards in a flash of green light, cutting skin and the tissues underneath with a powerful X-scissor. Fresh blood stained the Pangoro's dirtied fur, serving only to enrage it further. With one powerful swing of the arms, it tossed the Scizor aside like a ragdoll, red colored steel scraping along the forest floor as the power of the blow carried it along further and further. After a beating like that, the bug pokemon was barely able to pick itself up. Sargos hurried to its side, giving it a hyper potion so it could continue fighting.
Riven closed in, slashing at the monster's knees with his blade. The edge cut in deep, he could feel it, but he didn't have enough time to react as a fist came at him, just managing to dodge before it caved in his skull. He barely had enough time to swing again as an onslaught of punches struck at him with a speed he least expected from such a towering brute. Desperately trying to dodge them all, Riven angled the blade as a fist came at him, digging in deep into the Pangoro's knuckles as its fist collided with both Riven and his sword.
The impact nearly broke Riven's wrist and sent both sword and wielder flying out onto the ground, just like the Scizor before him. Rolling to his feet and covered in dirt and grass, Riven picked his bloodied sword up, panting heavily. His right leg and arm burned from the friction and cuts caused by the ground.
It's fast too? I couldn't… even get another hit in… If he had had the time, he could have used the sword to cut its tendons and ligaments, near the knee, ending the battle prematurely. If he had- which didn't mean shit at this point, since it seemed that the Pangoro had come equipped with a natural born set of moves to utterly wreck anything's shit and laugh whilst doing so.
Fucking great.
Riven went over possible strategies again while he caught his breath. Power won't defeat this thing, since we have little better than a dry noodle at the moment in comparison to that thing. It made that Scizor's defense a joke with only a couple of hits. A couple of hits. The power difference is too high... We need to strike fast, and strike hard. Vital areas, neck and-
A sharp zing brought Riven out of his thoughts- another set of shuriken's and razor leaves assaulting the enraged pokemon, and this time, the Pangoro began to charge up another dark pulse. The attack reached maximum in a second, discharging in a howling screech, obliterating part of the tree covering that the two speedster pokemon were using.
Riven's eyes widened again, cursing. It went for the trees? Trying to get its attackers out in the open, where they can't dodge as easily… Smart. Strong, aggressive, and smart. This is a wild pokemon? What in the fuck…?
Eager to repeat its chain of destruction, the Pangoro opened its mouth to charge another pulse when a large blade raked down its face. Volma's Kabutops weaved through attacks, slashing with a grace and speed not often seen in rock pokemon. But for all its speed, it only took one of its blades to get impaled into the Pangoro's side for things to take a turn for the worst. The rock type desperately tried to free itself, but to no avail.
A drain punch hit the Kabutops directly in the chest, and a jarring crack of bony plates could be heard. The punch sent the pokemon face first into the floor, where it stayed, flailing uselessly in pain. The Pangoro placed a clawed foot on the Kabutops, pressing down with all its weight, causing more cracking and breaking. The downed pokemon stopped gasping in pain, unable to make noise from so much pain. The aberrant raised a fist, ready to deal the finishing blow-
"Volma! Return him, now!" Viola yelled across the clearing. Her Vivillion released a brilliant beam of energy, blasting the monster back with a signal beam. In the cloud of smoke and dust, Volma returned her pokemon back to its pokeball, tears in her eyes.
"Please be okay… Please be okay…" she pleaded, holding the red and white sphere in her hands. Droplets splashed onto it, as she fell to her knees.
"Volma get back!" Sargos ordered. "Retreat, both you and Aline! Your pokemon are too hurt to continue! Go back to the outpost, get out of here!" The two rangers nodded, anguish in their features.
Riven and Sargo's Scizor jumped back in to cover their retreat, the latter focusing on defending, while the former cut gashes into the pokemon's hide with his sword.
"Prime, Sargos, try to stall it more!" Andre shouted.
"Already on it!" Riven shouted back, rolling out of the way of another punch.
"I'm going to have my Roserade charge up a solarbeam. I need time!" Andre explained. "Viola can you help them cover me?"
The gym leader nodded, "Surskit, go help Prime and Scizor hold him off. String shot might slow it down. Vivillion, use poison powder! Guys, don't breathe it in, wait until the Pangoro does first, then I'll blow it away!"
Riven and the Scizor nodded, backing off when a cloud of purple powder descended upon them. Breathing it in, the Pangoro roared once again, throat stinging from the noxious powder. With a flap of its wings, Viola's Vivillion blew away the poisonous spores, allowing the others to resume their attack. Icicles and shurikens of water struck the aberrant as well; it was good to know that they still had some support left and that the dark pulse from earlier didn't hurt them too much. They were part dark type so it made sense.
Still… the drain punch was a major pain in the ass. The constant healing made things a lot more complicated than they should be, and the Scizor was starting to wane again. The poison definitely slowed the Pangoro down, but recovering substantial amounts of energy from the hits it was getting off made it a game of who could hold out the longest. Whatever damage they were doing was being outdone in a couple of hits. They needed to hit the monster with a devastating burst of damage so it wouldn't be able to recover in time. A solarbeam could work, but without a type advantage, there was no telling how effective it would truly be.
Sparing a quick glance backward as he thrust the point of his blade into the Pangoro's leg, he noticed that the Roserade's solarbeam was about nearly done, its glow nearly fully green. Ducking under a hammer arm and slicing into a bicep as the Scizor intercepted another Drain punch, Riven had enough time to deliver a multitude of slashes into the dark type's chest, splattering his clothes with crimson fluid. The injured brute let out another mighty roar and slammed a fist into the ground, releasing an explosion of force and debris, knocking Riven and the Scizor back.
An aqua jet blasted out of the trees and into the Pangoro, staggering it momentarily. Flipping back from the attack into the air, the twirling silhouette of a Greninja threw out several glints of sharpened water blades, combining with an array of floating bubbles it had set up in its flip. The bubbles didn't burst. Far from that- the water attacks melded together, forming explosive water shurikens, violently bursting highly pressurized water as they struck the Pangoro. The explosions tore fur, skin, and muscle. At the same time, ice impaled it, gleaming white spears jutting out of its arms and legs, restricting its movement.
Riven could only smirk as a small blue bug skittered around the massive pokemon, silver threads spewing out of its mouth, immobilizing the hulking beast in a cocoon of steel like silk.
Time to strike.
"Fire!" Andre commanded. His Roserade did as instructed, firing a radiant beam of sunlight that pierced through both air and darkness, heading straight for the Pangoro's heart.
The other rangers almost breathed out a sigh of relief. This was it. This was the end.
Or so they thought.
The Pangoro burst out of the cocoon seconds later, furious. But in its mouth was a flaring ball of energy, pulsating and shifting in size. Any trainer would recognize that move. Anyone should recognize that move.
"HYPER BEAM!" Pierre cried out. "GET DOWN!"
Screaming followed. But Riven felt only the concussive blast of air and sound, an indicator of the clash between two beams. Lifted off his feet, he made contact with something hard, presumably the floor or a god damn tree.
The lights went out.
Pain. Head swimming. A piercing noise in the ears. Smoke. Dust. The smell of burning wood… Something was burning.
Riven staggered to his feet, dazed and disoriented. One of his eardrums had ruptured and he felt bruises along his body, along with numerous scrapes. He picked his sword up, watching as smoke rose from burning trees. The rangers had split up, trying to fight the Pangoro and put out the fire simultaneously.
He stood for a moment until Viola shook him, yelling out his name, panicked green eyes looking into his.
"…..!"She said.
"P…ri…!" She said again.
"PRIME!" She repeated, voice finally coming through. She shook Riven's face as his senses came back to him. "There's a fire, we need help!"
"Vi…ola?" Riven snapped back into reality after the threat of a fire registered in his mind. He could hardly hear a thing, but smell? He could definitely do that, and it smelled of shitstorm. "Get whatever rangers we can to put out the flames! If that fire isn't stopped, it's going to kill a lot more than just us. Send Targis and Andre; you, me, Sargos, and Pierre are going to fight that thing, keep it off them."
"Sargos can't," Viola said quietly. "His Scizor got severely hurt trying to protect us. The clash shattered his protect and he finally gave in to his wounds. We're lucky he didn't die defending us. The metal on his body was dented and awful."
"Fuck," Riven snarled, clenched fists turning white. He walked forward, limping heavily, feet feeling like they were about to split into two."Doesn't matter, we have to try. We need to kill this thing. Now."
"But you can barely stand!" Viola pleaded.
Riven gave her a sharp look from the corner of his eye. "I'm on a job, Viola. I'm not going to give it up now. Besides…" He picked up his sword, removing some dirt with his hand. "I need to build up my rep somehow, right? Going to be one hell of a campfire story…"
Charging forward again, Riven jumped at the Pangoro, slicing into its back and diverting its attention away from the others. Rolling away from a backhanded hammer arm, he got off cut after cut on the monster, riddling it with wounds. The Pangoro swung down to the floor again, but Riven jumped on its other arm, evading the explosive blast and landing on the other side- slashing twice across the back, before sidestepping. Using another arm to try and sweep him off the floor, Riven rolled forward, hearing the swipe of air below him. Landing in a crouch, he brought his blade in and sliced into the pokemon's leg, cutting deep into the calf.
A little while ago, a move like that would have gotten him killed, but the poison was taking its toll, slowing its movements enough that Riven was able to effectively dodge and slash, outmaneuvering it and attacking while staying on the evasive. Damn tiring though.
Taking a gamble, Riven didn't sidestep the next drain punch; he stepped into the Pangoro, piercing his sword through the monster's bicep and pushing outwards- destroying the muscles and nerves in the arm. It flopped to the side flaccidly, blood trickling down the length of the arm. The ground beneath the Pangoro was stained a deep crimson, and its body littered with wounds and stabs, but despite its injuries, the giant pokemon refused to stay down. A clawed hand grabbed Riven from behind, and flung him back onto the ground again.
Riven picked himself up slowly, his breathing ragged from overexertion. His legs shook and quivered- no longer containing the energy to dodge. The Pangoro's bloodied fist raised high into the air. "You are a huge, fucking asshole," Riven chuckled darkly. "Going all in, huh? Nice try but-"
It was at that moment that a string shot held the fist back, and with lightning speed, Viola's Surskit darted around once more with its thin blue legs, covering the giant creature in silk. No longer having the strength to break free, the Pangoro charged another hyper beam, willing to take both its attackers and it down with it.
Staring directly at the glowing ball of destruction, Riven smiled, grasping his sword tighter. He held it out, in position. A Weavile appeared above the human in a cloud of darkness, a spear of ice in its claw. It shot it forward, directly into the Pangoro's throat.
Sharp steel thrusted forward and the monster lifted its mouth but for a single moment.
"It's checkmate, you stubborn son of a bitch."
A sword pierced its heart, and a hyper beam roared into the sky.
As the monster finally fell dead, Riven smiled in exhausted happiness, falling onto his back- holding a hand out to the tinted orange sky.
It was sunset. And they had won.
Opening his eyes after an emergency post-battle nap, Riven saw the dying smoke of a fire successfully quelled, and a feeling of satisfaction rose within him. Limping over to the Pangoro's corpse, he pulled his blade out, cleaning it with a flick and a wipe of his torn up shirt. The rangers spotted him and ran over before he collapsed on his feet.
"Are you all right?" Viola asked, holding Riven up.
He stared at her for a moment. "What?"
"Are you all right?"
"Am I right?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"He's bleeding from his right ear, Viola. He probably can't hear very well. The blast must have ruptured one of his eardrums. Good god, you actually killed it with that metal stick. You're insane, mercenary," Sargos stated. "Let's head back to the outpost, we need to assess our damages and check out how Aline and Volma are doing. Their pokemon were significantly injured, to say nothing about my own…"
And damages there were. The Heracross, Kabutops, and Scizor had to be put into intensive care, having sustained the most severe wounds. Broken bones, internal bleeding, warped metal- all fixed with some time in the ward, but it was a testament of the strength of the aberrant pokemon. The beginner trainers stood no chance.
Thankful for what Riven did, Viola offered him a ride back, asking one of the rangers to give him a ride back to Lumiose. He gladly accepted, and was dropped off in front of Kai's house several hours later. Twisting the key into the lock, he opened the door and stumbled inside, almost passing out on the floor.
The other three sitting at the chess table were surprised to see him in such a state- dirty, bloody, and more than a little rough around the edges. "My god, you look like hell spit you out," Cormac stated, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "The rangers told us the job was done and that you carried it out amazingly but holy shit. Did that aberrant do this?"
"Speak up, one of my ears is blown out," Riven said, pointing to the right one with a finger. His eyelids felt like lead. "So… tired…"
"Isole, take him into the bath and wash him," Cormac ordered, as if he was in charge.
"W-what? Why me? Are you nuts?"
"No. A dude cleaning another dude's body is weird. It's just an unspoken rule. And the poor guy is barely conscious! Unless you want to do it, Kai. I mean if you do, I'm not judging or anything. It's perfectly fine to like dudes."
Kai shook his head furiously. "I concur with Cormac's statement. And no, I do not like men."
"See? Two to one, majority rules."
"But!" She protested. "He's going to be naked!"
"Isole. You're a big girl, you can handle it. I really don't want to touch him, and if he goes to bed like that, he'll stain everything. And he smells like blood. Do it, please?" Cormac asked nicely. "It's nothing sexual, just don't touch his thing. I've seen enough stuff to know what happens when-"
"OKAY. You don't need to finish that. I'll do it," she sighed. "But you're buying lunch for the next week."
"Sure thing, now go get him cleaned before he stains the floor red."
Isole put her hands on her hips, looking the sleeping boy over. "I hate living with nothing but boys." I hope he doesn't notice.
And he didn't. During the time Isole was washing the overwhelming amount of dirt, blood, and grass off of him, Riven was quietly snoring, blissfully unaware of it all. Isole grimaced at the scars, and felt even less approval of what Nera was doing. Seeing the kid like this was painful.
Clothing him up, she had Kai help lift him back to his room so he could sleep. They decided he should have a week or two of rest after something like that, and no one disagreed.
The next morning, Riven woke up to an aching body, partial hearing loss, and two beady black eyes staring back at him. He stared for a moment at the Fletchling perched on his stomach, tilting its head in confusion.
He blinked.
"Vizi."
"Ling."
"What are you doing here?"
"Fletch. Ling," she said, turning around and moving her beak in the direction of the birdseed, or lack thereof.
Riven squinted at her. "My body feels like it's going to break into pieces and you want food? You entitled little shit. Shoo." He moved his body to get her off and instantly regretted it, a wave of pain ringing through him.
The small red bird flew a short distance away and chattered furiously at him, until Kai came in, tea in hand. "Ah, you're awake. I heard Vizi distressing. I figured you must have told her something unpleasant. She's a nice bird, if a bit pushy."
"Why are you whispering?" Riven asked, grunting again.
"I'm not," Kai smiled ruefully. "You just have some hearing loss. Although I'm sure you're perfectly aware of that yourself."
Riven nodded, snapping his fingers near his ear as testing.
Kai smiled once again and put a package down near the table.
"What's that?"
"Your payment. The rangers were impressed… and a little appalled that you were crazy enough to do what you did. But even I have to admit that I question your sense of reason myself."
"Isn't crazy part of the job description?"
Kai nodded. "Yes, I guess you're right. Hah. You'll have a week or two off to recover, then there should be more contracts for you. Open the package, that money is yours. Isole's words, not mine."
He did, counting the bills as his eyeballs nearly popped out of his skull. "This is…"
"A lot?" Kai finished. "Yes, try not to spend it all in one place. Lumiose can be enticing to the consumer's eye. Many a tourist have burned holes in their wallets here. Tragic."
"Oh, I know what I'm going to spend it on," Riven cackled darkly, glaring at Vizi. "But first I want some juice. I've been craving some juice. Can we go get some juice? Gargh… after I can walk without complaining, that is."
"There is a juice shop nearby. I heard they make smoothies too. Should I invite Isole and Cormac? They're out gathering information on the next job, but they'll be back soon."
Riven stared out the window, running his fingers along the stack of cash in his lap. "Yeah. Sounds good."
"FLETCHLING!" The bird chirped loudly.
"By the way, are Fletchlings edible?"
"No."
"Damn."