Chapter 6
Pyre stepped up to the door of the Iceson residence and knocked gently. Within moments Shard opened the door. "Oh, hello Pyre, I'm sorry Blade isn't home right now."
"I know, I came to drop something off for him!" Pyre smiled and held out a piece of paper. "We want him to join the battle club with us, but he needs permission from you or uh…" he hesitated. "Actually just you."
"Huh, Nagi came to me with one earlier." Shard sounded surprised, but took the paper. "I'll talk to Blade and see if he wants to, otherwise I won't sign it."
"Okay, thank you Miss Iceson, we'll look out for him in the club I promise!" Pyre smiled wider as she gently closed the door, and he walked outside happily.
"Hey uh, Pyre…" Nagi was waiting outside.
"What?" The Charmander wasn't too happy to see her.
"Um, can you give this to Blade when you see him," she held out a small Darkrai shaped plush toy. "I've been worried about him, and want to do something to help him feel better."
"Give it to him yourself, he's at the hospital."
"I just don't think Shadow will let me." She frowned.
"Well it'll mean more if it's from you, besides we've tried convincing Blade you aren't all jerks all the time, but he never believes us."
"I see, fine, I'll take it to him myself. Thanks for at least talking to me. I know my siblings and I have been bad to all of you, but, I do care about them ya know. Even Blade…especially Blade…"
Pyre smiled slightly. "Go tell him that then silly, don't waste your breath on me!"
Nagi nodded and rushed down the street heading toward Panchu Hospital. And Pyre turned to head home. The sun was going down and there was a curfew.
He managed to walk half way when a loud blaring siren burst out signaling some sort of danger. He began to frantically turn left and right as if searching for whatever the source of the danger was, when he suddenly felt a tight grip on his hand pulling him across the street and into a small motel room.
That blaring siren didn't stop when Pyre, and his, he was hesitant to say savior. That is until he noticed a familiar sapphire hue to the Charmeleon's tail.
"Tin!"
The Charmeleon peeked out the window looking around. "Hey Pyre, sorry about that, I was coming to say hi when the danger siren went off."
"Ya know why it did?" Pyre seemed apprehensive, but happy to see his big brother.
"Dad said something about killers, but I can't imagine a simple group of serial killers warranting that siren." Tin frowned sitting on the bed nearby. "Last time I heard it, Palkia and Dialga were battling over the city. And they nearly destroyed it all."
Pyre was more worried now. "Maybe it's not the killers then, maybe it's something worse?" The Charmander hopped on the bed beside his brother and hugged him.
Tin hugged back, trying to comfort his brother.
*Firelink West*
Atop one of the many large shopping structures lurked three, creatures each with glowing eyes. One of Cerulean, one of Viridian, and one of Gold. They seemed to be scanning the store's parking area for victims.
And they found their next victims, an Infernape and Monferno, but not just any, the battle teacher Goku, and his son Gohan. Strangely they had no vehicle, or groceries of any type, and were simply roaming the parking lot. "You sure you wanna be here for this, it could get dangerous?"
"Yeah, if what Officer Igni said is true, these killers are strong. You might need help."
"Shaa" a choked sound came from a nearby rooftop.
"aaaaaad" another just as pained sound from the right.
"Doooooh" a third strangled moan from the left.
The lights of the parking lot burst leaving them in complete darkness.
"Dad?"
"I heard it, get ready Gohan!"
Three distinct thuds sounded around them. And they saw the glow of their eyes.
"What is that!" Gohan cried out as he jumped back as a sharp splintered claw reached out grabbing for his face.
The creature's cerulean eyes barely illuminated it, but the monferno's flame finished the job. He made out the vague shape of a Zoroark, but it was wrong, twisted. It's entire body was singed as if it had been bathed in flames, and there was a horrid stench of burned fur and flesh. Worse still it's face seemed to be falling apart exposing bone and sinew, as if someone had precisely cut it away. Its claws were broken, jagged, or at least the remaining claw was. It was missing most of its left arm. But worst of all, was the strange fluid dripping from its eyes, they weren't tears, they were glowing just like its eyes.
And it lunged again.
Meanwhile, Goku was staring down the Viridian and Gold eyed creatures.
The gold eyed creature looked like a krookodile, except its entire lower jaw was missing, and a sickly yellow liquid dropped from its mouth. Its scales were seemingly peeled away in places, and its neck looked compressed, as if someone was strangling the creature then and there. Beyond that, it's entire right arm was skeletal, held together by nothing at all. It was excreting an equally deathly scent.
The Infernape's eyes darted to the Viridian eyed creature. It seemed strangely intact compared to its allies. And yet it seemed the most unsettling, as swaying behind it, was a violet flame. The creature was a Charmander, and it looked almost like a twin to Pyre. But there were hundreds of lacerations across its body.
The krookodile charged only to be struck hard in the gut by the infernape. Yet it didn't budge or react; it simply lunged its fangs first toward him. The Infernape's flames shifted from orange to gold, further illuminating the area. Glancing back, his son was similarly transformed.
Gohan let loose a flurry of strokes against the Zoroark creature, to no avail. These things didn't feel pain, and they seemed to nullify whatever damage hit them.
*Panchu Hospital*
An announcement came over the intercom delivering the message to the entire hospital. "Until the Disaster Alarm is deactivated, the hospital is on lockdown, no one is permitted entry or exit, nurses on hand will be around promptly, please remain calm."
Nagi was following an audino nurse to Blade's room. She clutched the plush toy close, she was worried to say the least. After a few moments the nurse took a bow, pointing to the door guarded by Codsworth, and hurried off to assist other residents.
Nagi stepped up to the door hesitantly, Codsworth may have been old for a lucario, but he was no less intimidating to the weavile. "Um…I'm here to see my little brother…" she glanced inside, seeing Blade smiling and talking with Shadow.
"Master Shadow has instructed me to not permit entry to anyone but the nurses." Codsworth spoke sternly.
"I don't care, that's my little brother! I'm going to see him!" She tried to step by, but Codsworth blocked the door.
"She may enter Codsworth." Shadow called from inside, and the lucario stepped aside.
"Blade!" Nagi rushed in and came to the foot of the bed. "I uh…I was worried about you…"
"Sure you were." Blade looked away, frowning.
"I was!" Nagi stepped around the bed and held out the darkrai plush. "So I looked through our old stuff and found Shaddy for you."
Blade seemed to blush furiously at the sight of the plush. "You…found him?"
"Yeah, Dad's probably gonna kick my ass when he finds out, but you looked really hurt, I felt bad, so I dug through Dad's locked up stuff he took from us and I got him back for you."
Blade gently took the plush. "Shaddy…"
"Is there some significance to this toy Blade?" Shadow seemed oblivious to the meaning behind the name.
"Well, uhh…" he seemed embarrassed. Shadow couldn't help but smile at how flustered Blade was.
"When Blade was real little, he had a lot of nightmares, so our mom bought him this plush." Nagi smiled. "And told him it would protect him because darkrai controls nightmares, and they wouldn't dare come to someone with a darkrai protecting them."
Blade looked more surprised. "You remember that?"
"Yep, I also remember that you named him Shaddy because you just met Shadow for the first time that day and you already had a huge crush on him."
"Naaagiiiii!" Blade hid his face in the plush. "Th-thanks…I didn't know you cared that much…"
"I always cared…I guess I just got caught up in everything with the others. I'm sorry I bullied you, I never should have, you're my little brother, and I love…"
Blade hugged her suddenly. "I love you too sis!"
"Not to kill the mood, but do you know for what reason the disaster siren is on?" Shadow spoke up.
"No, it started when I got inside."
"I see." Shadow looked thoughtful for a moment, before turning his attention back to Blade. "So, Shaddy?"
"Well…it's what I thought I'd call you if we dated…" the sneasel hid his blushing face.
*Hours Later Firelink West*
Goku and Gohan were panting heavily, and exhausted. Gohan had reverted to his normal orange flames again, but Goku had not.
The creatures however, were not even winded. They weren't feeling anything, despite the smoke rising from their bodies from the numerous fire attacks they had taken.
The Zoroark creature managed to knock Gohan to the ground and proceed to jump on top of him, swinging its claws and gnashing its teeth at him, trying desperately to inflict damage, and it managed to stab the monferno in the shoulder. Suddenly it was struck in the face and sent flying.
"Are you okay?" Goku lifted him to his feet.
"Yeah, but I don't know if I've got anything left to give."
"That's fine, you did great. Get out of here, I'll handle this." The infernape straightened up and turned back to face the three creatures.
All three began to convulse horrifically, their bodies twisting and twitching in odd ways, limbs turning backwards and audibly snapping, but not causing any issues for the host body.
The krookodile and zoroark rushed by to pursue the fleeing monferno only to be hit at the same time and sent sliding back.
"Now I'm mad, I'm really really mad!" The infernape seemed to squat in place as flames erupted around him, bursting brightly into the sky, almost illuminating the entire city. The golden flames flashed brightly, as the gold fell away, only to be replaced by a brilliant blue hue. His speed and skyrocketed as he rushed forth, slamming a single punch into the charmander creature, quickly following up with a back kick to zoroark, and carrying the momentum into an overhead axe kick on the krookodile. Each strike actually affected the creatures, staggering them, but seemingly not visible hurting them.
As the three stumbled back they locked on rushing forth to assault him in unison. But they were stopped by a single beam of light, the sun was rising. And they seemed to fear it as they rushed toward the shadows of the buildings. Just as Goku made to pursue, they vanished in the darkness, as if they were never there.
But they were, evidence of them strewn about the parking lot in the form of the strange liquid they'd each been dripping. The bright blue fire of the infernape dissipated back to its simple orange.
"I apologize for the lack of information, Goku." A voice came from behind.
"Oh, Mare, why didn't you join in, coulda used your help back there?"
"Because, a lack of information. I knew you were strong enough to hold your own against any enemy, so I used you to gauge the power of these, things." Mare spoke with venom. "Whatever they were, they were not pokemon, not anymore. They are abominations. But if it took your blue form to properly stagger them, they are more dangerous than previously expected." He glanced around. "However, we may decipher a way to combat them, with all these samples to examine."
"Well, at least they're gone for now. I guess do your examining, I have to check on Gohan."
"Of course, see to your son." Mare kneeled down carefully scooping each of the three liquids into small tubes. He stared at the tubes. "Whatever you are, your filth will be cleansed from our beautiful world."
*Motel*
Pyre sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"Morning sleepy head. I texted Mom to let her know we're safe and I told her I would be taking you out today for some fun."
"Oh, cool" he yawned. "What we doing?"
"Well for now, I've rented a private battle area so we can spar a bit."
"Oh cool. Oh yeah, what have you been doing?"
"Actually, I just bought a bar a few towns over. Don't tell mom, but it's got uh, exotic, dancers…" Tin blushed.
"Oh that's cool, I guess."
"Yeah, I won't bore you with the details, but I make a cozy profit there, people love hosting bachelor parties in my bar.". Tin smiled setting a plate of bacon beside Pyre, as well as a glass of moo moo milk. "So, anything you wanna do, ya know, besides battling?"
"Actually, I kinda wanna learn to cook, lately I've been imagining owning my own restaurant." Pyre dug into the bacon.
"Oh really, got a name for this restaurant?" Tin asked looking Pyre over, and appreciating how the Charmander kept himself in shape.
"I wanna call it the Gilded Salamander!"
"Well I'll be your first customer when ya open the Gilded Salamander, how's that sound bro?"
"That's sweet of you Tin, thanks!" Pyre put down the now empty plate and glass.
"Well, you look like you're ready to go spar. Shall we, cutie?"
"We shall bro!"