Chapter 21

Flutter-By-Night didn't see what happened. Having no eyes, sight was not a thing that she understood. She knew, in an academic sense, that sight was something other Pokémon used, a fifth sense, that granted a ridiculous amount of information on the world around her. She even knew that one day, she also would be able to see.

What she did have was a superb sense of hearing. The ability to interpret the sounds she heard into a picture of the world around her.

So she didn't see the bullet spear forth from the gun, disrupting the air with its passage until it impacted her human. She didn't see the expanding circle of blood, blooming forth on his chest like a macabre flower. But she did hear it.

Her breath caught in her chest, as it did the five other Pokémon, her friends, her teammates, a small part of her extensive family. She sensed as a pair of stone fists dropped to the floor. She sensed the fluttering, shocked heart of the Singer, as he stared. She sensed the tears of the Torrent-Turtle, as she feared losing another father figure. She sensed the sorrow emanating from the Flame-Fox. She sensed the panic from the Psi-Page.

She sensed her own rage, burning in her tiny, eggshell thin heart.

It started as an inarticulate scream of pain, loss, rage and a deep, heartfelt love. She poured her entire being into the scream, as blood poured from the eyes and ears of the black-clad men. She became indistinctly aware of a small distortion, shielding her friends and the human girl from her scream, but she paid it no attention. She screamed for what seemed like an eon, but then something changed.

Her voice dropped lower, even as its frequency rose to truly dangerous levels. Her wings began to flap, where before they fluttered. Molten knives of fire stabbed into her face. She began to truly see, and she saw red. Flutter-By-Night became Swoops-in-Darkness, and she continued to scream with sadistic vengeance.

Bitter-Pill watched as the small blue bat grew larger and scarier. She wondered at the kind of devotion that could literally force an evolution. As the Golbat began to detonate heads with her sonic burst screams, whipping up winds that were gale force at least, Bitter-Pill looked down, to the human boy who had inspired such an extreme grief response.

He was unremarkable. No different than the other humans she'd seen in her short life. So what was it about him? She had to find out. Crawling low, she inched closer. He was hurt. Badly.

She had never really cared for the healing arts, a fact which her mother hadn't ever really understood, and in fact caused quite the stir in their community. Bitter-Pill was, at heart, a battler. But still, she knew she had to do something, and quickly, if the boy was to live.

She began gathering the energy for a Wish, even as the vulpix and the ralts drew nearer.

"What are you doing?" Snarled the orange vixen.

"Do you want him to live or not? Yes? Then shut the hell up and stay out of my way. He's fading fast. His will is strong, that's good, but he's lost a lot of blood. If I can't stabilize him now, he won't live. Back the fuck off."

Dawning-Embers gaped in shock. The Little Medics were supposed to be sweet, kind and cheerful. This one was just… rude. She decided she liked her.

"What can we do?"

"Damn it, I'm a Happini, not a damn director. Stay back and let me work."

And with that, a pulse of pure light burst forth, floating upwards, before arcing back down into the boys wounded chest. Looking at the wound, Bitter-Pill sighed in relief. It was his upper shoulder, he should be fine.

As the wound closed, and the boys breathing became more stable, Bitter-Pill glanced around the room. The Golbat had turned it into an abbatoir, unspeakable things dropped from the walls and ceiling. The redheaded girl the boy came with looked on in shock, as her Pokémon protected her from the worst of it.

All around were dead rockets.

The boys Pokémon gathered around him, looking on in concern. The Bulb-Frog stepped forth, a coterie of captured grass types forming behind her. A bedraggled looking Multi-Cat slinked around, looking on longingly.

"In view of the extraordinary service this trainer has shown us, we decree that he shall be taken to the Halls of our Father,

The Great Mighty King of the Forest. There, We shall tend to him personally, until he is recovered. So speaks Tiny-Root, Princess of the Great Cerulean Forest."

Bitter-Pill smirked as she shook her head. Well then. A royal welcome it is. As the hoard of grass types gently lifted the fallen hero, and his Pokémon followed behind them, Bitter-Pill couldn't help but muse to herself. If the boy was this interesting, maybe she should follow along.

Joy and Ember sat alone, off to the side of the Great Kings court. Both were troubled. Both searched their souls for anything they could've done differently.

"So," mumbled the fire-fox. "I think I've come to a decision."

"Oh? Do tell."

"I have to evolve if I want to protect him. I've gone as far as I can with the limited powers I have as a Flame-Kit. If I evolve, I gain access to the powers of the spirits, I gain power to safeguard his life."

"Oh, that. Yeah I was thinking the same thing honestly. As a Kirlia, I gain more power, both from the mind and from the fae. I suppose we're both due."

The vulpix gaped at her, before huffing exasperatedly.

"What? Evolution is just a fact of life. Anyone who wants to remain a child forever has issues."

"It's different for us."

"Oooooh, the stone thing?"

"Ugh! Yes and no. Yes I need a stone to evolve, but there's more to it than that."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you remember my mother?"

The ralts crinkled her brow quizzically. "Yeah, why?"

"How old do you think she is?"

"Why does it matter?"

The vulpix growled. "Just tell me! How old do you think she is?"

"Geez, chill. She looked old, maybe seventy, eighty?"

"My mother is eleven hundred years old."

"Wut."

"Yeah. Vulpix lose a little bit of themselves, they become something a little other when we become Ninetales. We are touched by the other side, life and death mean different things to us. We live for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. Tell me, how long do humans live?"

"I dunno, about as long as a Gardevoir or a Gallade? So maybe 80, 90 years?"

"One hundred and twenty years, if they're lucky." She said in a small voice.

"Oh. Oh."

"As a vulpix, I can live twelve years. As a Ninetales, twelve thousand. We have to choose, will we live one tenth of our trainers lifetime, or will he live one tenth of ours?"

"Arceus. That… that's just…"

"Unfair?" The vixen laughed, bitterly. "You saw what it did to mother. I love her, but I've only very rarely seen her happy. Sometimes, she smiles when she tells me stories about her young man. Most of the time though, she's just sad. She has never stopped grieving."

"So you can either stay as you are and risk his life being cut short, or become a Ninetales and…"

"Watch his life end far, far too soon."

"Well, there are other Pokémon that live long lives. Granite-with-Obsidan-Inclusions is literally a living rock. Spyke and Thorne, once they evolve, will be long lived. Plus as active as The Master is, I'm sure he'll end up catching others. A stone-serpent would keep you company. Even any of the Miscievious-Spirits. Even if He is gone, you'll still have family."

A sad smile crosses the vixens face. "Yeah. Yeah maybe."

The two share the evening in silence, watching the rise and fall of Scott's chest as he rests.

Scott's Pokédex:

Caught: Squirtle, Caterpie, Metapod, Butterfree, Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill, Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Rattata, Raticate, Spearow, Fearow, Ekans, Pikachu, Sandshrew, Nidoran(F), Nidorina, Nidoran(M), Nidorino, clefairy, Vulpix, jigglypuff, zubat, Golbat, paras, Parasect, Mankey, geodude, graveler, Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Ralts