7.

The Thunderstone


Professor Eiffel Laventon lay in the middle of a shallow creek in the Obsidian Fieldlands, depressed.

His face was the only part of him sticking up out of the water, head propped up by a slippery slime-slicked rock and the weight of his body keeping him from washing downstream. He stared glumly up at the summer sky. Puckered fingers drummed on his belly. Stiff shoulders shrugged as driftwood floated calmly by. He was dressed in his best cream satin waistcoat and stripey trousers. His white smock was ruined — dirtied and torn — but what was the use when his favorite hat had withered to cinders before his very eyes? How could he call himself a proper naturalist when his library was a scattering of ashes? All the great minds before him — all the poets — veiled by smoke! A bitter betrayal!

Nani brought me that typewriter all the way from Bodinia when I got into university. I used it to draft a study of Cufant's clanking footsteps for my first student presentation day… She called it shite and said I should find a way to cure the consumption instead…

Oshawott leapt suddenly out of the water to perch on his belly. It stuck its big round brown nose to his, snuffling and squeaking in a mustelid's version of a kiss. When he didn't react, it reached two white paws to its own belly, where it detached a sharp yellow seashell from the fur and pressed it into Eiffel's face.

It only took two seconds for the man to choke from the fishy stench. He thrashed and spluttered in the water until he was sitting up and dripping. The sun was suddenly warm on his back, and he shivered.

Eiffel put his fingers on his knees and mimed rapid typing. "One more surprising use for Oshawott's scalchop is when the Pokémon is wet and sweating, the shell becomes so gruesomely odiferous as to revive a man from death."

Rowlet dove down to ruffle its feathers in the creek behind him. It cooed with delight as a glitter of freezing droplets tickled its wings.

"Despite hailing from the Alolan Islands' tropical heat, Rowlet finds no trouble in cold temperatures, and will bathe in Hisuian waters quite happily."

The Fire-type Cyndaquil preferred to stay out of the water, but it used its stubby paws to splash at the other two, chittering in a peculiar laughter and flaring the flames on its back when the little waves made their targets.

"Cyndaquil is most harmonious. It will find fun even when it can't play the same as its friends," Eiffel mused. He flipped an invisible return lever with his left thumb and slid the carriage back to the beginning of the line.

"Pip! Pip-lup Pip-luuuuup!"

"Pikaaa?"

"Oi, Professor Laventon! Nice summer day for a swim, innit!? Pity I can't!"

Clumsily, Eiffel pulled himself up onto the grass, shivering and raking his fingers through his dark curls to dry them. He spied Rei and his own partners running down the nearest grassy hill. Pikachu was quick on all-fours and zig-zagged down the path like lightning. Piplup, meanwhile, was too proud to risk stumbling, and instead put one webbed foot in front of the other in a sort of toddling march. It turned up its beak when Oshawott greeted it, even puffing out its chest and letting loose a furious Bubble attack that forced the other Water-type back into the creek.

A disturbed Rowlet flew up high in the air, beating its wings until a blade of air burst forth, punching into the ground where Piplup stood. It blasted backwards, rolling through the grass until Rei came to scoop it up to his chest.

"There, there, mate. Best not be gettin' into a row."

Piplup responded by Bubbling its master in the face. Rei dropped it and fell to the ground, clutching a reddened cheek. Now the nasty little blue bird was on the hunt again, this time flying into a corkscrewing Headbutt against Pikachu, which sparkled with electricity and discharged a mighty Thunder Shock. The white-hot bolt forked out and struck both Piplup and the disgruntled Rei, face still wet from handling it.

"Accursed," the teenager groaned.

Eiffel tore up from the ground and rushed over to him, patting him down and making sure he wasn't paralyzed. Rei twitched uncontrollably, hair sent into a spiking mess and hands unable to keep still where they grabbed at the grass.

"Thought I could go a day w-wifout that rat z-zappin' me."

Eiffel helped him to his feet, placing his cap back on his head and wincing when he saw the bubble-shaped bruises already forming.

"I did offer you a choice among my more tranquil three," the professor whispered just as Rowlet flew about in circles and aimed a steaming crap at Piplup's enormous head.

"But they're all so attached to you, Professor. And I want to train Pikachu. He's not doin' it on purpose. Piplup annoys him."

Even then, Pikachu and Piplup were sparring in the creek, one releasing a haze of plasma from its cheeks and the other blasting back a shocking jet of bubbles.

"Perhaps Piplup wants to be the favorite. It's asserting dominance."

Rei scoffed. "Piplup's a prick. I only caught it 'cause Captain Cyllene told me to catch a Water-type in the Coastlands for research. It won't even listen to my commands, and it's too proud to accept food from me. I don't know how to prop'ly feed it, 'cept let it wander about 'n find food on its own, and then I'm worried it's gonna get snatched up by a Braviary 'cause I'm too busy watchin' Pikachu!"

"PIIIII-KAAAAA!" Pikachu shrieked. A pillar of electricity exploded from its tiny body, darkening the world for a moment before Piplup broke through with a Drill Peck and pushed both of them off a slimy rock into the water. Bright yellow static scattered across the surface, shocking Oshawott, who leapt out astonished, and joined the fight with its scalchop, slashing and striking with terrible speed.

"Pikachu!" Rei cried. "Come off it!"

"Pikaaa-pikaaa."

Pikachu looked confused, whining and pointing a stubby paw at Piplup, who stuck its beak in the air and huffed.

Eiffel brought a fist to his chin and nodded. "It's not easy introducing a new member to your team sometimes. I know I wasn't welcome right away in Jubilife Village."

"Wot? 'Cause Captain Cyllene would pinch your nose?"

"Well… she used to do that. But she's become a much more reasonable woman since then. Mostly…"

"I don't like her. She's much too tight-lipped and grim about things, and she's always chasing me in my nightmares. I think she wants get struck by lightning on a sunny day just so she can say she did."

Eiffel shrugged. He brought a thick arm around Rei when he looked like falling again.

"Be kind to Cyllene. She's doing her best like the rest of us. She just has a different way of showing it. She likes to appear unfazed by her circumstances. Feeling helpless is embarrassing for her."

"She told Ginter she'd make him leave the village if he has the consumption."

Eiffel's eyes widened. "Does he?"

"Says it's his heart, but you can't be too careful."

"What an interesting old bloke, that Guildmaster Ginter. He was asking me about my research on evolution the other day! Why Pokémon evolve and humans don't and such. It had me up all night in a tizzy pondering. At least until Cyllene appeared in my library like a sunburned wraith and… I shan't give you those details. They're of no substance anyway."

"Ginter gave me something," Rei said, dipping a hand into his pocket and drawing up the odd green stone. "Called it a… well, a 'lightning bolt rock.' He told me it does something. But what can a rock do?"

He spoke too soon. The rock felt suddenly warm in his hands, lightning pattern within almost flickering in the sunlight. His fingers began to tingle, and his staticky hair all flattened forward, charged particles drawn toward whatever odd power the minerals contained.

"It's got an electric charge to it," Rei mused. "I wonder if Pikachu might like it!"

The professor looked alarmed. "Now, Rei, I wouldn't suggest introducing that Thunderstone to Pikachu just yet. Not until you're more comfortable with its powers currently, and… oh, botheration, lad."

Rei ran as fast as he could toward Pikachu, the odd warmth only growing the closer he came to where his partner was fluffing Rowlet's feathers. Now the rock was really shining, spitting sparks in all directions and singing his sleeves. He tossed it up and down to himself like a hot potato until it landed in the grass and hissed like a firework.

Pikachu sniffed, smelling the stickiness of static in the air. It crept toward the strange rock, which glowed green as its approach. Suddenly its lips tightened in a rodent smile, and its crooked tail shot straight up in the air.

"You like it, then! Does it make you feel more powerful!?"

Pikachu thrust a paw onto the spark-spitting rock. The rock trembled, shook, shattered, burst apart into a shimmering, shocking emerald dust that stained the paw with a fierce, crackling aura.

Or perhaps… the paw itself was glowing.

Pikachu was glowing!

Its little body burned bright green, wreathed in a storm of sizzling static that branched off in every direction as it stood on its hind legs and shrieked. Then its flesh began to writhe and pulsate around its body. It brought its paws to its cheeks and squealed as they began to squelch and puff rhythmically, swelling out to be much larger and rounder, and stretching the bones of the jaw beneath as they grew.

Much the same was happening with its belly. The bright green energy made its chubbiness bubble and move. With sounds of gurgling it inflated into a plush, round and wonderfully soft stomach that in only a moment had outsized the rest of the body!

That was before it steadied itself on lengthening back paws, chest puffing and sagging and merging with the rounded belly and shoulders broadening with a great crick-crack!

"What the blasted accursed is happening to Pikachu, Professor!?"

"Pipe down and see," Eiffel chided with a serious frown. He watched intently, squishing fingers into his own cheeks and feeling rather squeamish.

Six back claws dug into the creekbed, stretching and sharpening while the fur of the paws appeared to rust from yellow to copper-brown. Meanwhile Pikachu's ears started shrinking, cartilage pulling until they were wider and curlier, like yellow crescents rimmed with the same copper. The skull continued to crackle. Teeth ground as they pulled into a much sharper set of fangs, breathing a plume of green-and-yellow sparks that roasted the grass all around into black, smoking ash over baked, splitting clay.

The muscles expanded, sliding onto stretching bones with ease. The legs wobbled, then straightened, forced bigger and longer. Haunches rounder, plumper, filled with power that overflowed like a bright, fluid current into the crooked tail. Like a whip, it swayed back and forth, spinal column arching under stretching skin that blossomed with a fresh coat of fire-orange fur.

The tail then loosened. The crooked lightning bolt shape went thinner, longer, uncoiling and curling into a wicked black cord, capped with a yellow bolt sharp as a scythe.

"Pika… pikaaaa!" It breathed, voice changing, too. Deepening. Going from a squeak to a confident rasp as its neck continued to quiver and thicken. The creature had doubled in height now, white-furred belly still rumbling and paws pulsing as they settled into new, larger forms.

"Raichu-chu-chu!" it finally jeered, green static flickering and settling into a faint sheen beneath its skin. Yellow cheeks sparked. Cordlike tail waggled and whipped.

Rei skittered back where he lay in the smoking grass. He looked to Eiffel, who was just as shocked, watching the process happen so cleanly and naturally.

"In a blink," the professor voiced. "Transformed."

"Accursed magic!" Rei exclaimed.

"Instantaneous metamorphosis upon the crossing of a singularity of maturation, lad. Only the unserious among us would dare call it magic."

"The Captain calls it magic."

"Right, well… she's silly," Eiffel scoffed, and then tried to scratch at a woolen pom-pom that wasn't there, settling for raking his fingers through dark wet curls instead.

"But it is evolution, then? My Pikachu evolved?"

"That's the tasteful term. Pity on Ginter for calling that Thunderstone a mere 'lightning bolt rock.' It's the critical natural catalyst of Pikachu's evolution into Raichu. As far as we know, it will never be Pikachu again."

"So I've got a bloody Raichu now!? How'm I s'posed to train that!?"

Raichu's whole body lit up white-hot. It shrieked, the energy arcing up into the sky and splitting off into a blinding tree of glitter and sparks.

"Thunderbolt!" Rei exclaimed.

And it didn't stop there. Larger muscles filled with a wild new strength, Raichu dashed up the hill, with the others scrambling to follow it. Eiffel trundled up still wet and shivering. Rei flung himself about, crying for the creature to stop. Oshawott scampered, Cyndaquil scuttled, Rowlet fluttered and Piplup was as slow as ever, marching like a little prince with its beak in the air.

"Oh, botheration, Piplup!" Rei spat, flipping up the latch on its Poké Ball and watching it shrink into steam. Then he dashed on after his first partner, who left crinkled gray shells of grass and blackened, leafless trees in its wake. The air had gone sticky, and clouds of dust exploded with sparks after every pawprint.

"Pikachu! I mean Raichu! Return! Return to your Poké Ball, Raichu!

Eiffel moaned, out of breath after running up the first hill. "Its power is surging. You really mustn't have given it that stone! Raichu is exceedingly difficult to control!"

"Well, don't call me daft, uncle Lav! We still got to stop it!"

Eiffel collapsed on his knees, but Rei continued sprinting ahead, not even stopping when Deputy Ress berated him for running through the village gates so quickly.

Raichu was like a pudgy ball of pure and solid plasma. It streaked up and down Canala Avenue too bright to see until bursting orange forks of lightning broke from the rooftops and trailed up and down the black-brick skeleton of Galaxy Hall.

Immediately came the screaming. Old women were belting out beratements in vibrato, tearing their hair out. Boys Rei's age were rolling their eyes as they threw themselves down into cowering duck-and-cover positions for the umpteenth time. The air itself clung to Rei's gi and scarf and tickled his ears, shifting and sparking and moving in visible shuddering waves.

Lightning on a sunny day! Rei fought off a blush as he barrelled through a handful of children on the waterwheel bridge. And goodness, was the water level low! They'd be filtering mud off for evening tea, if there was any to spare of that lovely numbing leek juice left to season the leaves!

"Rai-chuuuuu!"

The creature squealed and screeched, letting off stray Thunderbolts that shot into the sky like bright white signals and flickered into columns of smoke. It was near the craftworks now — one of Jubilife's more pathetic hovels, with a drafty wood-and-moss foundation and a thatched straw roof like something out of medieval times. A stack of firewood was piled up outside the front door — right before it wasn't. Raichu had now figured out how to transform its cord of a tail into a shining metal whip. A move called Iron Tail. With a swing and a crash, it sent the heavy logs rolling out into the dusty street, where the dust made them burst into flame and sputter like fresh-lit candles.

"Raichu, return!" Rei huffed out, exasperated. But his own partner seemed not to know him, as it settled itself down on four paws and crept forward with a menacing buzz in its belly. Static gathered on its yellow cheeks. Its black eyes gleamed, boggling with the thunder of its heartbeat. That deadly tail shook, sending showers of sparks raining down in all directions.

The boy had no choice but to back up, footsteps growing ever faster as the creature advanced. His sandals skidded in the dry, dry dust. His muscles burned from the earlier shock. His whole mouth tasted metallic. His fingers kept twitching.

"Don't engage it!" called the quick and agile Deputy Ress, who had come running onto the scene with his Buizel scampering along behind. "Leave battles to the Security Corps! Buizel, Aqua Jet at full power!"

"No, don't!" Rei cried.

But Buizel had already leapt up, spinning its two tails and twirling toward Raichu with a cascade of water billowing out from its mouth like a sparkling veil.

Raichu reared up on its back paws. Its cheeks puffed out, and it breathed lightning. Buizel was zapped in midair, watery attack dispersed into a splashing mess. It fell limply to the ground, where its eyes closed and all movement ceased.

"You went for Water on an Electric-type!? Does Captain Zisu not train you lot!?"

But Deputy Ress had no time to make excuses. Raichu was ready to pounce. On impulse, Ress launched himself at Rei just before orange met the dust where he had stood. Strong arms clasped around the boy's slender body, and the two of them tumbled to the ground, rolling right into the front of the craftworks building and smashing shoulder blades against the wood. Rei's vision sparked and swam. He kicked at the older man, who folded, body smothering him until the two were a tangle of confused limbs and curses.

Meanwhile an explosion of sparks rocked all of Floaro Main Street. Plasma poured from Raichu's body, orange fur made fire-bright even in the afternoon sun. Its tail glowed like a gem, whipping with the strength of steel.

Right before a bluish-yellow bolt lanced forth and struck it in the side.

Less of a strike than a tap. A kiss, even, compared to the wild charges pouring out from Raichu in invisible arcs of magnetism.

"Raichu?"

"Shinx! Shinx!"

A second Pokémon had appeared on the dusty path of a battlefield. It was small, four-legged and feline, with light blue fur covering its head and front legs and great golden eyes that looked much more cute than fearsome. It clenched its teeth and growled, its own current running through a black furry tail that ended in a spiky star-like point.

"A Shinx!" Rei exclaimed, pressing himself flat against the wall of the craftworks like Cyllene had taught him. "Don't make any sudden movements! It may look weak, but it'll put you out for days if it zaps you!"

"I know that, kid," Ress scoffed, but he had given up caution to collect his fallen Buizel, while Rei stayed stone-still.

"Rai-chuuu!" jeered the monster of orange, a blinding Thunderbolt arcing from its body right toward Shinx.

Shinx dodged with a high leap, letting the attack skitter and scatter until it struck a distant tree, frying it to the same blackness as the burnt-out building. It shook out its fur, littering bluish sparks all over the dust, then roared and raced towards Raichu, swiftly kicking dust up into its eyes.

Raichu squealed, but it only cowered for a moment. It could still sense Shinx's movements via the static in the air. With a swing and a clang, the little opponent was slammed by that tail, rolling over and over in the dirt until it came to rest, panting and snarling, near the front steps of the ruin.

Yet even then, Shinx was undeterred. It stood back up on shaking legs, blue lips peeling up to reveal its sharp little fangs. With a juvenile roar it charged Raichu again, body glowing with electric blue energy. The tackle connected, and another explosion shot both of them apart.

"Well, do something, surveyor," Ress said. His reinforcements had arrived, with less than favorable weapons, as they possessed only a handful of Water- and Flying-Types, which would do little against a raging Raichu or a pissed-off Shinx. It was why Shinx was so highly feared, especially in the Fieldlands, where its evolutions ruled the promontories and blue lightning could kill.

On jiggling legs, Rei stood up. He looked to where Raichu now perched atop the straw roof, claws singing and curling the stiff fibers into ash. It leered down at Shinx, who was wagging its tail below, pondering how to make a Spark attack reach up that high.

"Raichu, leap down and use Iron Tail on Shinx!" Rei commanded.

Raichu's buzz had now become so loud he had to shout it multiple times before the curly ears even registered the boy was speaking. The orange creature tensed. Its pudgy body rose up, and now it hacked out a buzzing squeak toward its master, who stood with clenched fists and a half-crazed smile.

"Use Iron Tail," Rei repeated, waving one fist like a stiff cord, "on Shinx," and pointed to the sparking, snarling creature in the dust.

The sparking, snarling creature which right then decided Raichu wasn't worth it and plowed into Rei instead. An ultra-blue ball of lightning collided with the back of his knees and he buckled. His vision went purple, then pitch-black as he collapsed in the dirt, twitching becoming an all-out involuntary jerking as he quickly lost consciousness.

There was a breath. A beat. A sweating, trembling moment amidst the buzzing of lightning and the crackling of static. The guardsmen watched the boy faint. Raichu watched the guardsmen shiver. Shinx watched Raichu puffing itself up. The little blue creature's star-tipped tail now waved dangerously as it charged up yet another bolt in its belly.

"MONFERNO! MACH PUNCH!"

Zisu's voice broke through the thunder. She stood jacketless and pale on the steps of the ruin, thrusting her right arm forward and mirroring her partner's brutal assault on Raichu. Fists silenced sparks. Kicks canceled out the swinging tail of metal.

All with planned, perfect timing. While Monferno took down Raichu, Cyllene crept toward Shinx on silent sandals. It was uncoordinated, she knew. Riled up, yet with a body too small and feeble to direct Electric attacks efficiently. Nothing but a dangerous little nuisance.

Ress is either a liar or an idiot, she thought, eyeing the deputy while her fingers grasped at crackling air. All available guards at the perimeter and an Electric-type still slips in? There'll be no more of that sucking up to Kamado now…

Deftly, she somersaulted forward a final few feet, scooping Shinx up around the belly and squeezing it tight to her chest. She then smiled and gave a quick nod to Abra, which stuck one paw on her forehead and another on Shinx's oversized ears.

There was nothing to do but remove the threat from the village entirely. Take it somewhere far, far away and leave it there. Abra teleported. The whole world vibrated and sizzled and changed. Thoughts became solid, throbbing in Cyllene's mind. Her stomach filled up with air, and her muscles filled up with… air? Thoughts? Water? Beer? Ink? And she hacked out a veritable glob of universe all over the suddenness of sand.

Moist.

Grainy.

Blue-green. Shifting.

The sky was taking longer than usual to settle back into being. Something was expanding in her brain, and she liked it.

Cyllene tossed Shinx as far away from her as she could, listening to the little creature hiss and squeak when it landed in something of a wave. A gentle, laving wave that rolled up onto soft sand and the sun was too hot today.

Then she stumbled backwards and fell into Abra's arms, her partner quickly lifting her up under the armpits and floating back under the cover of trees before Shinx could see where its captors had gone.

Trees, but… had it been a lakeshore? A beach? Did the air smell of salt or bilge? Taste like the rot of algae or the bloom of moistened pawprints? Whose pawprints? Footprints? A circle of light?

There had been a Shinx in the village! It shocked Rei senseless!

"How… Howfer d'you yank me?" she whimpered confusedly to Abra, feeling that juice-or-beer all drain into her fingertips and tingle until they felt heavy as iron.

Abra opened its eyes. They were glassy and golden, without pupils, and they could see far more than the sunlight which flitted off objects. Carefully, it lay its master down on the softest bed of moss it could find to let her rest.

It wondered whether to take her home immediately, and where that home might be, and whether she really wanted to return there or if she was content with being lost for a moment.

"Back," she said, blue eyes lucid. "Rei's injured. I can't let them give him more leek. He'll grow dependent. He'll die."

She was terrified. Abra could see it in her beating heart and prickling skin.

But the creature looked west, seeing for miles and miles where a failed naturalist lay heavy in a field and where an experiment of exploration lay half-baked in the sun.

Is that what you want? it thought.

Almost as if she could hear its thoughts, she nodded, straining a hand to touch its greenish peach-fuzz fur.

Then I'll take you back, and watch you transform again into that cold blue stone of a human.

Abra was intrigued.


with their one-way brain...


~N~

As someone who has never played Pokémon Legends: Arceus before, knowing where to put things on the map even within Jubilife Village is the biggest struggle here. Aside, of course, from every man I've dated over the past year explaining very matter-of-factly that writing fanfiction and watching the anime occasionally does not count as making one a true Pokémon fan.

Published by Syntax-N on FanFiction . Net June 17th, 2023. Please review! Don't repost.