Hello! I had to take a month plus long break due to exam season, but it's summertime so I'm back to MD! Please enjoy, and don't hesitate to leave a review. I'm always seeking ways to improve my writing, so anything helps, positive or negative.
Chapter 6)
Light from the Ashes
A blood red aura lingered around the town as they crept around the city's edge. Shank halted the group after a couple minutes of prowling the area to devise a plan.
"Axel, Xaliz. You two split up and search for answers as to what happened to this place. Leo can't just put himself on display by walking into the midst of the city, and I know where he'll be safe here."
Shank handed over the tera orb to Xaliz.
"Oh, and if you so much as feel off, terastallize into fighting immediately and come look for us. Axel should be fine, just pay attention."
Xaliz and Axel nodded in agreement and took off towards the city's downtown area.
"Alright, follow my lead."
Shank led Leo away from the downtown area, into a more residential one away from where they first entered the city. The suburbs seemed to be mostly spared from the devastation unleashed on the city's inner part, and there was the occasional pokemon walking the streets. However, the eerie red aura didn't disappear, but merely weakened in the area, evidenced by the types of those in the street: fighting, fairy, and the occasional dark.
"There's tons of dark aura here, even more than I predicted…" Shank mumbled. "If it starts clouding around us, focus on purging it."
"How should I purge it? Do I just-"
"Close your eyes, calm your mind, and focus. Like you've done before. The aura will do the rest."
Leo nodded and paid attention to the aura. Though it wasn't as suffocating as in the downtown area, it still dyed his vision with a tinge of red, and felt very uncomfortable. Shank led Leo away from the still relatively intact, albeit damaged houses, and towards a road leading into a dead end.
"Remember where I lived?" Shank asked Leo.
"Underground or something, right?"
"Correct." Shank answered as he lifted a circular manhole cover in the middle of the dead end road. "And so does the 'mon we're meeting. Jump down quick before the aura leaks in."
Leo climbed down the ladder connected to the manhole with Shank following suit. The entire underground was pitch black without power, so Shank had to lead Leo through the darkened halls.
"Loita!" Shank called out before knocking on a door. "You there?"
A slow creaking noise permeated the halls before a sudden flood of light illuminated a surprised but enthusiastic decidueye.
"Cazaph!" The decidueye exclaimed towards Shank. "I thought you were dead, it's so good to see you!"
Leo didn't want to spoil her parade, but he felt like he had to correct her. "He's not Cazaph, his name is Shank-"
"Well…" Shank cut Leo off, "she's actually right…"
"Come inside!" Loita beckoned the pair in. "Whatever you need, I'm sure I can be of help."
The casual whiplash Leo was subjected to left him stood speechless against the door frame.
Should've known, it's not every day to talk to someone named after a prison weapon.
The revelation, however, sprang more questions than answers. Why did he lie about his name? Why did he have a statue of himself at the garden they visited?
The decidueye welcomed them into the place before ushering them into a more well-furnished room and told them that she would be right back before closing the door.
I don't think she could've raised the tension any more if she tried.
"Well, I can explain." Shank broke the awkward tension, beating Leo to the questions. "I used to be a general for the alliance back in its heyday; I was third in command, behind Vincent and Yolsa- which is where I get my 'expertise' on Lucarios- anyways, those around me started calling me 'Shank' after my successes in leading counterattacks against the rebirth, which I coined Operation Shank."
Leo grew frustrated at the unsatisfactory explanation. "Doesn't explain why you lied to us all-"
"Just you and Axel, Xaliz knew. And you'd be suspicious too if someone showed up at your door and claimed to be from another planet, going against pretty much all research known to you. I figured if you were telling the truth, you'd find out right when the time is opportune; though I can't exactly say this is the time I was thinking of, I trust you now enough with that information now. Just please refer to me as Shank when we're not indoors or if we're at risk of being watched."
Leo still wasn't thrilled with the reasoning, but it at least made sense.
He's totally right, but if he's lying about his name, what else could he be lying about? Are we really even here to do what he says we are?
Leo was too shy to press Cazaph about that part, but he made a note to himself to be extra suspicious of any further activities he does with him. The door suddenly flung back open and Loita squeezed past Leo before grabbing something in a cupboard behind him.
"There we go, that's what I was looking for…" she muttered.
Loita grabbed a trinket from the cupboard and closed it. The trinket looked like a standard metal-chain necklace, except there was a grey stone in the middle.
"I'm sorry, what was your name?" Loita asked him.
"I'm Leo."
"Alright Leo, could you do me- and the resistance here in the town- a favor?"
Leo reluctantly nodded. "Depends on what you're asking-"
"Alright, stand still."
Loita put the trinket over Leo's neck, with the stone dangling just beneath his chest spike. As soon as she backed up, a flood of blue aura began to pour out of Leo's spikes, congregating in the grey stone and turning it a vibrant blue.
This feels so weird in every way possible.
The process took about half a minute, before Loita stepped forward again and retrieved the trinket from Leo.
"Thank you very much, Leo." Loita graciously shook his hand before stashing the trinket back in the cabinet. "If you're wondering what it's for, it was specially engineered twenty years ago to combat the dark aura Yveltal emitted, but it had to be charged by a Riolu or a Lucario."
Leo acknowledged her thanks with a nod. "Would you mind helping me out, now? I need to know where the nearest rift is."
"I haven't the slightest clue myself, but I know the resistance has a guy who specializes in it." Loita replied. "A Sceptile, I think."
That lines up exactly with what Abaxa told me… that's some good news.
"I didn't come here for no reason, myself, either." Shank said. "I was hoping you knew what happened to this city, or whether the resistance has already begun actions here."
"Oh, yeah, about that. About 4 days ago, the dark aura concentration in the town spiked drastically; even dark types were being subjugated by Yveltal. I've been holed up in here ever since, but from what I've heard from neighbors, the resistance didn't take too kindly to that and underwent an operation of some kind, and now the downtown area is a battleground."
"Well, that certainly lines up with our Bisharp's story…" Shank paused to ponder Loita's account further. "But if that's true, then Xaliz and Axel are in danger by being in the downtown."
He opened the door to the main living room and quickly thanked Loita before ushering Leo out the house.
"We made a mistake sending them into the midst of town." Shank uttered as he sped towards the ladder. "Come on, let's go find them before they meet trouble."
Leo blindly felt his way to the ladder as Shank popped the manhole cover and helped Leo out. They ran straight through the suburbs, this time taking little precaution in hiding from any of the town's residents. The dark crimson aura had become even more intense than before, and Leo's aura worked overdrive to purge the air around him. As soon as they made it within the downtown limits, an unmistakable signal careened through the hazy sky.
Xaliz's flare.
Leo quickly rounded the last building's corner, Shank trailing behind, albeit winded. As instructed, Xaliz had used the tera orb, but the thing had seemingly malfunctioned.
"The orb's broken!" Axel shouted at Leo as he approached Xaliz. "I'm not sure what happened to it, but when Xaliz went to use it, it began to shake violently and he's barely conscious."
"Yeah, I can see that…" Leo replied.
Leo picked up the orb but quickly dropped it as it began to violently shake again. The suffocating dark aura in the area began to give even Leo a headache as he focused the aura on Xaliz instead of himself. After a few more seconds, the orb began to stabilize as the aura around them cleared and Xaliz slowly regained his energy.
"Well, that's a new behavior…" Shank commented before picking up the orb. "I believe the dark aura made the orb unable to work properly."
"Whatever the hell happened, I'm not straying another inch from Leo again while in this city." Xaliz seethed, clutching his head. "Anyways, we didn't really find much to report on for you guys… just a whole lot of empty, looted stores and some piles of rubble."
Leo took the time to take in the city now that he found himself at the center of it. Though the city was extremely damaged, there was the occasional building that looked completely intact, sometimes standing just feet away from a completely demolished one. From the looks of it, Leo guessed that they were standing in an old foot court based on the decrepit signage.
"Has the aura cleared, Leo?" Shank mused as he sniffed the air. "It just feels cleaner than before."
Shank was right; the dark aura that once threatened to subsume Xaliz had now vanished.
"Yeah…" Leo replied, still feeling a little uneasy.
The group simultaneously began to just walk down the city, with no end goal in sight. Leo tried to take in the ironic beauty of the dilapidated city, but the more he walked, the more he got a particular feeling.
One he had had before.
One similar to his first day in Veras.
Like he was being watched.
Leo slowed his pace and scoured every angle just in case, but because of his own doubt and the fact that he didn't want to panic the crew, Leo kept silent about his feeling. Eventually, the group stumbled upon a pile of rubble blocking the street, temporarily halting any further advance.
"The factory I worked at is near.. ." Axel commented.
"Oh yeah, that's right, you used to live here." Shank replied by moving behind Axel and urging him forward. "You know your way around this place better than us, you should lead."
Axel protested at first, but after a bit of coaxing and with the promise that he wouldn't lead for long, he reluctantly agreed.
"If I remember correctly, the more shady, underground part of town was the western part, and I believe we're right about in the middle, so we should probably go west."
Shank grinned. "There ya go."
Axel tried to lead the group through alleys and shortcuts, though a good percentage of them were either ruined by rubble or too narrow for Xaliz. The ones that they could traverse through took them towards a less developed part of town with scorch and burn marks all across the mostly razed, wooden infrastructure. As soon as they made a turn into a more narrow alley, Leo received a sudden impulse.
Duck.
His reflexes kicked in and scrunched him towards the concrete sidewalk just in time to witness a light blue shuriken whirl past where his head once was into the concrete just ahead of him, splashing into a puddle of water before being soaked into the concrete. The rest of the group mirrored Leo, delayed only by a second, and they turned around to meet their attacker.
A greninja?
The greninja's flanks were guarded by two pokemon that Leo couldn't quite remember the names of. Regardless, having been defeatened playing defensively in the past, Leo made the split-second decision to go offense and took a massive leap towards the greninja, seemingly catching her off-guard. He took a charge towards the left flank but the pokemon guarding it rubbed their two pom-pom hands together before delivering an electrical shock to Leo, sending him stiffly to the ground. He tried to stand back up but his muscles locked in place once more, making him nigh unable to move.
Leo could only watch helplessly as Shank's dreepies made contact with the yellow bird that had sent him to the ground, to little effect. The greninja and the pokemon by their side seemed to be winning the fight, and as the greninja took a sudden move towards Leo, he could only pray as he moved what little muscles he could in an effort to brace for the attack.
However, the greninja stopped just shy of Leo, holding their left hand in the air.
"Wait!" The greninja called out. "Don't attack, I won't do anything further."
"If you're really forfeiting, turn around and lay down on your stomach. Tell your Oricorios to do the same."
They were about to win, and they just… gave up? Something's not right.
"I can explain!" The greninja muttered while lying face down. "I didn't mean any harm, I was just making sure the Lucario was real- my name is Keipa, I'm the leader of the Horma LOR, what you might know as the local resistance here in Horma."
Shank seemed skeptical and moved in to interrogate them further.
"Hold on, Shank." Xaliz held him back with his wing. "I've heard of the LOR and this greninja, it checks out."
Shank rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine, you're lucky Xaliz knows who you are. Get up and explain why you had to attack us."
Keipa turned around and stood up, followed by the other Oricorios. Leo managed to sit up but was still paralyzed from the electric attack.
"I can give the Lucario a cheri berry from our stock-"
"That won't be necessary." Shank replied as he took his backpack off and began to rifle through it. "We have plenty."
Shank tossed Leo the berry, but he struggled to take a bite as his arms were still paralyzed. Keipa assisted him in taking a bite and Leo was back on his feet in no time.
"Thank you." Leo issued a rare smile at the greninja while standing up. "I'm now jealous of ground types."
"I think it's my turn for some questions." Keipa said, staring specifically at Leo. "What are you doing in Horma?"
"Please, I think it's better if you questioned me." Shank said, diverting Keipa's attention. "Leo claims to have been from another planet, only ending up here, what, four days ago?"
Leo nodded. "I'm trying to find a rift back to Earth, and I've been told there's one in this city."
Keipa thought for a moment before responding. "Well, I can tell you if there was one it's been destroyed by all the fighting here. The fact that you arrived here four days ago and the fighting here began four days ago seems a little too coincidental, however…"
Shank let off a ponderous look. "That's a little interesting… my personal reason for coming here was to help the resistance take back this city; the Charizard only came along to protect Leo, the Lucario, and Axel our Bisharp was a resident of the city before being attacked by Yveltal's aura."
"We can use all the help we can get. Why don't you follow us back to our hideout, I think there's someone that can help your Lucario."
It didn't take a yes for the greninja to sense their acceptance.
I guess they take the secrecy of these hideouts seriously.
Keipa had led them into a heavily wooded forest, this time with prickly bushes and razor-sharp plants that despite Leo's steel typing still managed to grant him more than a few cuts.
Keipa and those Oricorios are way more agile than I am, they haven't even got cut once.
They eventually made it to a cave in a small rocky hill. The cave was blocked by a giant steel door that made it feel more like fort knox than a hideout. Keipa knocked 3 times on the door, each with increasing intensity.
"Code 11875, Code 11875."
They sat and waited for 10, 15, 20 seconds without so much as a creak. Just as Leo began to suspect that no one had heard her, the door slowly flung open, and they were greeted by what Leo assumed to be the doorkeeper.
"Good evening, Keipa." The sandslash made room for the party to enter. "I recognize your voice, there's no need to use the code you know-"
"Sure, but I don't want you getting complacent." Keipa snapped back.
"As you wish."
Keipa dismissed the oricorios and led the group up a flight of stairs, past what Leo guessed was a small restaurant and into a spacious room before closing the door behind them. Shank was visibly nervous after the door was shut, which Leo felt was quite odd.
"Is everything okay?" Keipa asked Shank, picking up on the nervousness.
"Yeah- yeah, I'm fine, I'm conditioned to be on the watch for potential ambush opportunities and you already got us once-"
"Well, I didn't really intend to ambush you." Keipa clarified while taking a seat in an office-like swivel chair. "I expected your Lucario to sense me, so when he didn't I assumed he was a zoro."
Really should be more informative about that in the future.
"You said you knew someone who could help me." Leo questioned Keipa.
"Right…"
Keipa sat up and cracked the door open.
"Feilan, come here for a moment." Keipa shouted across the hall.
Keipa sat back down in her swivel chair just in time for a mightyena to nudge the door open.
"Is room 3-237 taking visitors?" Keipa asked.
"Oh, the Sceptile? He's specifically requested to be left alone unless critically important."
"Hmm… tell him I'll send out a recovery team to get the rest of his stuff from the Horma Tower if he helps our guests."
The mightyena nodded and trotted off before rounding the corner back down the stairs.
"What's your name, Dragapult?" Keipa mumbled while digging through her desk.
"Shank."
Keipa pulled open a drawer and took out a miniature painting of a dragapult.
"You kind of look like Cazaph, no?" Keipa positioned the painting upright against a lamp.
"Well…" Shank shrugged. "I get that a lot… if only he wasn't dead."
Keipa chuckled. "So, mister Cazaph 2.0, we've got plenty of support roles for you to sign up for-"
"Support?" Shank charged. "I may be old, but I'll faint any given mon under your command."
"I can vouch." Xaliz said. "He's more powerful than he looks-"
Xaliz was interrupted by a loud clambering of footsteps followed by the door opening.
"Sorry for barging in," Feilan retreated, "but Thyrm accepted."
"Hmm… alright, close the door, thank you Feilan."
The Mightyena swiftly left, closing the door behind him. Keipa took the opportunity turn around and reach inside her rear desk, this time procuring a small, glistening marine-colored coin.
"Alright, I'll give you an offer." Keipa muttered while spinning her chain around to face them. "I've already set up your playdate with Thyrm, and this coin basically tells everyone in this base that you are, I guess, a VIP of sorts. However, I think you know what I need in return."
"Depends on what you're asking of him." Shank said, gesturing towards Leo. "It's up to him, after all."
"Well…" Keipa muttered uncomfortably. "We were hoping to locate and destroy an aura crystal."
Shank and Keipa stared at each other for what felt like an eternity.
"So, are you trying to make a deal with us, or kill the Lucario?" Shank grumbled. "Not even Yolsa could do that and Leo has been a Lucario for what, let me check, FOUR ENTIRE DAYS-"
"Okay, you've made your point." Keipa replied with a tinge of disappointment before turning to read a clock behind her chair. "Keep the coin, get some rest and think about a counteroffer. I'll arrange some rooms for you all while you're talking to Thyrm."
Shank sighed and grabbed the coin. "Very well. Where's his room?"
"Floor 3, above this one, in the 200 wing. Room 237. You'll know when you're there, it's got all kinds of weird gadgets he requested to be put in the lab."
Leo couldn't help but feel flustered as he walked through the concrete halls of the cave. The looks of surprise and the occasional whisper questioning whether he was a real Lucario felt completely unwarranted given that he was a regular college student a mere four days ago, not to mention he never asked to be here.
"You alright?" Axel tapped on Leo's shoulder, snapping him out of his floor-staring trance.
"Oh- yeah, I'm good, just a little concerned about whatever that power crystal is-"
"No need to worry." Shank assuaged. "Even if I or Keipa wanted you to seek the crystal… well, to put it nicely, you haven't trained nearly enough yet. It's merely a thought experiment."
"Hey, this is the door, right?" Xaliz beckoned them over to a placard.
Room 237.
Leo nodded before lightly knocking on the door.
"One second!" A voice shouted from behind the door.
Before long, the door creaked slightly, and a voice whispered to Leo inviting him in.
Leo opened the door to find the Sceptile, Thyrm, seemingly studying an extremely bright white object.
"So," Thyrm muttered while tampering with the object, "what's so 'critically important' that it took you 20 minutes to get here?"
"It's about the rifts." Leo's voice trembled as he spoke. "I was told you knew about rifts, and I was trying to use them to go back to the planet I'm from…"
"I do." Thyrm quit messing with the object to wipe his hands on a nearby towel before sitting down. "However, rifts are not like elevators, I can't just send you through. They require tons of auric energy-"
"That should be no problem." Shank interrupted. "We just need to know where a rift is and how to open it."
Thyrm chuckled and picked up the white object once again. "Tell you what, why don't you find a Lucario and come back, and I'll help you out."
Shank rolled his eyes. "Tell YOU what, why don't you turn around and use your damn eyes."
Thyrm set the object down before scooting his chair around to meet Leo eye to eye.
"Well, whaddya know…"
"What I know, is that you said to find a Lucario and you'll help us out." Shank said. "So?"
"On the assumption that the recovery mission won't happen if I don't," Thyrm paused as he leaned back on the chair "…then I suppose so. It'll have to wait until tomorrow though, I'm a little preoccupied studying this at the moment."
Thyrm pointed at the cube, which had seemingly calmed down enough to where the physical properties were not obscured by a wall of light.
"That's fine." Leo said, rubbing his eyes. "I'm getting tired myself anyways."
Shank nodded in agreement and thanked Thyrm for the help. Leo opened the door to leave and stepped out, bumping into Feilan in the process.
"Whoa!" Feilan exclaimed as he lurched backwards. "Sorry about that, mister Lucario-"
"No, it was my fault, I should've watched where I was going." Leo owned up.
"I was actually coming by to give you your keys." Feilan turned his tail towards the group, with the tail containing a keyring holding four keys, one for each of the group members. "The room numbers are engraved on the keys. Keipa almost never gives people floor 4 access, so count yourselves lucky."
Leo plucked a key from the chain and read it.
4-104.
Leo thanked Feilan and walked up the stairs once more to his room. The floor above the third was lined with marble, unlike the concrete on the previous ones, and the flooring had some of the softest carpet Leo had ever touched.
"What kind of underground resistance movement has Wigglytuff fur?" Axel exclaimed while rubbing his foot amongst the carpet.
"It's the LOR." Xaliz replied as he topped the stairs. "I'd be surprised if they didn't have something luxury, and I would be even more surprised if it wasn't stolen from the rebirth."
"Great, so we're working with thieves?" Shank sneered at Xaliz before unlocking his door. "We're staying the night, but I'm not making a deal with thie-"
"Would you relax?" Xaliz huffed while unlocking his door. "It's not like we have a choice, anyways. Would you like to go back and ask the mayor to help us?"
Shank sighed in defeat before retreating to his room. Leo followed suit and entered his room as well. It looked more ordinary than he expected, and after a few minutes of searching, he was unable to find the spike covers that he was afforded in Vemine the first night he slept in the world.
Leo flopped backwards onto his bed, thinking of what to do next, when the obvious hit him.
I haven't eaten anything all day… There's no snacks in this room either.
Leo leapt out of bed and carefully opened his door before making his way back down the stairs.
That restaurant we passed by on the way to the office… I wonder if it's still open.
The foot traffic of the compound seemed to have dissipated in the time they were in Thyrm's room, as barely any pokemon still roamed the halls. Leo carefully meandered to the restaurant and slowly opened the doors, peering inside.
"Someone there?" A voice called out from inside the kitchen. "We're about to close, it's getting late."
Leo's stomach twisted at the news. "Do you know what's open, atleast?"
The mon behind the kitchen waited a few seconds before responding. "I guess I could serve you something."
Leo let out a simple thanks and opened the door. The interior was empty, and Leo tried out a few different sized seats before he found one he was comfortable in.
"Come up front, please." An empoleon emerged from inside the kitchen holding a bag of berries.
Leo walked up to the counter and looked at the menu. He could barely read the words engraved in the marble, but he was able to make out one of the dishes.
"Can I get…what does this say, sliced Passho?"
The empoleon gave him a quaint stare as he toiled over the menu.
"Sure." The empoleon replied. "You're that Lucario everyone's talking about, right?"
Leo shrugged. "I guess."
"I think I know what you would like more, in that case! By the way, what's your name? I'm Kyla. No one else in the shop and I'm also hungry, might as well eat here with you."
"Leo. What's your recommendation?"
"Occa soup. Should build your immunity against fire-type attacks, and the smooth taste is perfect for a Lucario!"
"Sure, why not. I haven't eaten anything other than raw berries in a while."
Kyla turned back to the kitchen and began preparing Leo's dish. Leo sat back down and waited for his soup to be ready.
My finals are due tomorrow… I wonder what my professor is thinking, I was a straight-A student and now I don't even submit the final test… hopefully I'm reported missing or something and authorities are looking for my sister back on Earth.
Leo sat around for a few minutes longer waiting for his food to be done. Kyla eventually came out with his bowl as well as a small bag.
Kyla sat next to Leo and pushed the soup bowl towards him. "It's not every day that I get to talk to a Lucario- matter of fact, I've never spoken to one."
Leo shrugged. "I don't mean to disappoint you, but I'm really not that special-"
"Sure you are, you're just being humble!" Kyla shot back. "I bet you'd get paid seven times our best soldier if you joined the LOR!"
Leo picked away at his soup as he spoke. "If you're looking for some cool story about combat or how I saved the day, forget it. I'm not who everyone thinks I am."
"You have more potential than anyone else!" Kyla's voice grew more passionate. "I'd trade my life for yours in a heartbeat!"
Don't make me vent.
"If I can assure you of one thing, it's that that is not true."
Kyla rolled her eyes as she picked a berry out of her small bag.
"Okay, maybe so, I wouldn't really like to be a high value target," Kyla admitted as she took a bite of her berry, "but you have to realize that everyone here, myself included, has been praying for a miracle. Hell, one of my friends thinks you were sent by Arceus himself!"
Leo laughed a little at that.
If I was sent by Arceus, then he must really be budgeting on his miracles.
"Anyways," Kyla continued, "what I'm tryna say is, everyone here needs you! There's been a request for anything infused with aura for months now, they've been offering higher and higher prices to anyone who has them. You practically have infinite of it."
Leo wolfed down the soup faster than he thought he would. "What about the dark aura? That's everywhere, can't you just-"
"I'm no aura expert, but the dark aura is incredibly unstable, and I don't think it works for what they do, else they wouldn't be paying such high prices."
Leo nodded along. "Well, thank you for the soup, you were right. Pretty good."
Kyla smiled before standing up and opening the restaurant doors. "I've gotta close up, it's getting late. Thanks for stopping by!"
"What about the bill?"
Kyla waved her hand. "No need. Stop by anytime, consider yourself a guest."
"I'm not some YouTube influencer or celebrity, but alright."
"Huh? What tube?"
Oh, right, completely different planet, can't forget that…
Leo shrugged. "You wouldn't get it, and I don't feel like explaining. I'm tired."
"Okay." Kyla waved out towards Leo as he left. "Cya!"
Leo took his time this time walking back to his room. The whole atmosphere of the cave felt like if a prison and a hotel merged into one.
It's probably curfew hours, noone's out anymore.
Leo eventually arrived at his room and flopped down on his bed once more.
Now how do I sleep without spike covers…
He wrapped one of the blankets into a ball and covered his chest spike before tying it around himself, and figured he'd just try to be mindful of the paw spikes.
Good night, Anna. Stay safe.
