Welcome back to another chapter of my own personal nonsense. I appreciate you. Buckle up.
Pokemon in this chapter:
Gryffin: Loxley, braixen
Ilima: Vivi, sylveon
Chapter 36: Escape
The black clouds swirled from the west at startling speed, pulling eerie purple lightning and rattling thunder along with it. The normally colorful sunset was completely swallowed, storm hurtling forward to overtake night blue clouds in the east.
Lisette could barely see what she was packing in the rapidly waning light.
And she was definitely packing. Ilima had given the order with a tight expression as his sylveon hissed at the incoming storm from the roof of the garrison, hackles raised as if at some unseen assailant. No one had argued, they'd all just dived for their own bags. Even if Louis was doing his best to pass her everything of hers he could get his hands on.
At least all the pokémon they'd caught were already transferred away. Thank goodness for Gryffin. Her friend looked as rattled as she felt and was channeling all of that nervous energy into power packing, pulling up gear from all over the courtyard.
If there was something actually causing this unsettling squall, Lisette didn't want to know what it was. She shoved another pokeball into her bag, ignoring the bag of beans and what little other dried goods they had left. Like her friends, she was keeping her bag light, only packing up the essentials.
"Whatever that is, it's going to make the road back to Turin completely unmanageable. We're better off flying home," Ilima ordered shortly.
The Santalune graduate couldn't find it in herself to disagree. And to think the trip had been going so well.
Well, the nasty kick from l'écrémeuh aside at least. But she could admit she'd earned that fair and square. Her friends were right, she'd been a little selfish about going after the cows. If Gryffin hadn't had a pokémon with healing abilities they'd have already been airlifted out.
Actually that sounded rather nice now that she thought about it. Even if she had no idea how to afford the cost of the flight.
"I'll pay half," her newest friend promised darkly, the girl's stormy eyes matching the weather as she continued to shoot the storm front nervous glances every few seconds as she threw supplies into her own bag haphazardly.
Lisette almost wanted to protest; to split it evenly and pay her fair share. Even if she knew she could never afford it. Louis actually did object, proud idiot that he was. She loved her boyfriend, she really did. But sometimes he was too chivalrous for his own good. Neither of them had that kind of money, and they both knew it.
"Deal with it," Gryffin finally hissed, clearly in no mood for the arguing. "I get another payment from the League in less than 2 weeks, it can't possible cost that much."
"It's a little over €200,000," Ilima informed her stiffly as he placed his own gear into various pockets. Lisette felt a little sick as she watched the older teen fold his clothes with mechanical precision. And completely ignore the fancy cookware he'd brought on the trip for them to use.
"See? Affordable." Gryffin shot back harshly. "I'm paying half. I just want out of here. Away from THAT."
For the life of her, Lisette couldn't say the Kantonian girl was wrong. She spared the dark swirls and crackling lightning in the distance her own guarded look. Something about that cloud made her very, very wary.
She didn't get that feeling often, but the last time she had, it had been in Santalune. Right before the explosions. And losing her best friend.
So, yeah. Lisette wanted away from whatever THAT was too.
XYXYXY
I stuffed my backpack full of everything I had that was light and bulky. So that it looked heavy but wasn't. I wanted to be able to run if I needed to. To be able to toss the backpack aside completely if it became necessary. Losing the bag and the tent on top would suck, yeah, but all the other essentials were crammed back in my [Bag]. I could live in Pokémon Centers until I had the money to replace it. Or my dungeons. Or just stay home.
The last option was getting more attractive by the second. I distracted myself with grabbing gear my friends left behind when they weren't looking and tossing it into my inventory when no one was paying attention. Ilima's fancy cook pot. Louis's shovel-ax. Lisette's inflatable camp pillow...
Why? Why had I ever let my guard down? How could I have assumed that the Game would let up on the Plot for even a few weeks? That going out of my way to avoid it would have ever worked?
Because that cloud? Looming in the distance?
There were little red exclamation marks ALL OVER the horizon. Worse, the little alerts wavered like static on a tv with bad reception. And just for good measure, they seemed to be affecting the clouds behind them, which wavered like the view from old windows with warped glass. The only other time anything like that had happened in the Game so far was when it went haywire doing the calculations for Ilima's stats; and even that hadn't been quite so … stretchy. Nothing good could come of it, I was sure.
And I had no good way to explain any of it to my friends. Yes, they were more than a bit scared. But Ilima and Louis kept insisting it was just a bad storm coming. I hoped they were just trying to put on brave faces for us. They were doing their best to reassure Lisette and me that we'd ride it out just fine and then fly home. It fell on ears of stone. Lisette wasn't buying it any more than I was and kept sharing terrified glances with me whenever the guys turned away.
"It's going to be bad," she whispered to me as I tried to help her roll more fabric tight enough to fit.
"Yeah," I agreed hoarsely. "Ilima might not want to get out of here now, but I sure do." But as tempting as it was, I wouldn't break up the party just to run off on my own into the wilderness. I'd never forgive myself if something happened to my friends because I wasn't around to help.
Lisette hummed a discordant note, plump lips sucked into a thin line. Her eyes were wide as she stared west. The whites around her green irises painfully visible. It made Lisette's skin look almost ebony in the swiftly fading daylight, regardless of how pale she actually was compared to normal.
Still sifting through my friend's clothes, I found the cotton kerchief from Sublé and tossed it at her.
"Wear it," I ordered. It was a testament to how unsettled Lisette was that she obeyed without complaint.
With no time for a hair wrap, I quickly pulled out a hair tie of my own and shaped all her little braids into one big one with the kerchief on top.
After breaking down all of the other tents we pulled up the stakes for Ilima's. It was the oldest, he explained, and the smallest loss if it were damaged. We carried into the stable whole, ignoring the clumps of mice also sheltering where they could in the eaves, securing it with large rocks as best we could. We could only hope that the walls of the barn would ward off the majority of the wind. And the roof would hold. It already had numerous holes in it, so I didn't know how well that would work no matter how much the trial captain tried to convince me.
At least Vivi seemed properly concerned. All of our pokémon were nervous. My team was the worst, with Loxley's psychic abilities spilling his apprehension over into all of our heads on top of the Game alerts that they could see. But while the rest of Ilima's pokémon were standing resolute behind their trainer, the sylveon looked positively mutinous. Over and over Vivi wrapped long ribbons around his trainer's wrist, tugging harshly. But while it did put Ilima on high alert, the young man simply would not be swayed. He wasn't willing to risk being exposed to the weather.
Bright blue eyes turned to me in despair, practically begging me to do something.
But if even Vivi couldn't convince Ilima, I sure as hell wasn't going to be able to
We all crammed into the tent minutes before the first line of rain hit. It was a tight fit with all four of us, packed in with our bags and huddled in our jackets. It didn't help that Vivi and Loxley BOTH refused to go back into their balls. I didn't even try to put my fox away, the way his mind felt like cold fire against mine, but the sylveon had actually shaken himself loose the one time Ilima tried it. The roset had winced at the shrill cry that stunt had earned him, so much so that I was starting to suspect that he and Vivi had a mental bond like the one Loxley and I were forming. Why Ilima wasn't listening to his starter I had no clue, but I definitely felt better with the fairy type out.
A champion level pokémon was a protection I wasn't going to pass up ever.
The wall of clouds rolled in stealing the last remnants of daylight away. The only light now was from our flashlights and the streaks of lightning exploding across the sky.
The rain hit like a hurricane.
XYXYXY
We couldn't all stay in the one tent all night. Gamer's Body didn't remove the needs of basic human biology, and eventually I simply could not hold my bladder any longer. So when a huge roll of thunder drummed overhead and the rain started to lighten up for a moment I made a break for it.
Which turned out to be a good thing, because on my way back from the latrine, dripping wet despite my coat AND umbrella because the lull in the storm had ended as quickly as it started, I saw them.
Humans in distinctively unpleasantly red coloured suits. Coming in the west gate.
I ducked under the fissure in the crumbling stone wall and scrambled back to the stable, splashing straight through the middle headless of the swirling rain still spilling in from gaps in the roof.
"Team Flare!" I gasped as I yanked the tent flap open. I snagged Loxley off the sodden ground and tossed him over my shoulder. For a brief moment my friends looked up at me like deerling in headlights before scrambling to grab their bags as they fell out of the tent.
"Leave it!" Ilima commanded when Louis looked confusedly around for the tent straps for a moment. We lingered at the doorway to check for any enemies. Luckily they seemed to have headed for the opposite side of the barn, under the palisades where we'd originally camped.
"East!" I snapped. And we scurried under the wall separating the river from the buildings for cover as we aimed for the gate on the far end of the fort. Away from the one the Team Flare grunts were dragging themselves through.
Lisette about dragged Louis through the downpour with her; the blond had gotten a mulish expression for a moment.
"Don't even think it," I hissed, my fury at his antics matched only by the cold glare and death grip Lisette had on him.
"Sssssibaaaaalll," (1) Ilima practically whimpered in fear. The shocking tone was so unexpected on the normally composed young man that we all froze and turned towards him. Mustering my courage, I peeked over the wall to see what had put the older teen in such a state.
A woman had stepped out into the front of the gathered Flare grunts, clearly the commander of the group from the way she was directing her arms, even if the thunder drowned out anything she was saying. The swirling shadows and pouring rain did little to conceal the dark red and black clothing and bright pink hair plastered to her skin. Despite being soaked, she was instantly recognizable. Fucking Malva. From the fucking. Elite. Four.
For the briefest moment, just a teeny tiny second, I let myself rue all the reassurances I'd given myself, Serena, and the others that Team Flare had no way of finding out who we were. That they couldn't hack League databases to figure out our identities.
Malva wouldn't need to hack the League. Malva fucking WAS the League.
And apparently a traitor.
We were SCREWED. Looking at Ilima, at the wide grey eyes staring in disbelief at the woman who should have NEVER been here, I could tell he knew it too.
[Quest Alert!]
Gulping I ignore the obvious escape quest and, during the briefest gust lightening the rain, dared to snap a single photo on my phone of the Flare admin. Of the Elite Four member. Of MALVA.
The rain and lightning should have silenced any noise from the shutter-click, but we ducked back down and crawled as fast as we could for the gate anyways. I couldn't tell what level she was, it was all question marks, but the other admin with her had been level 42. Plus at least six grunts between levels 20 and 34. This wasn't the DS games and there was more than mere pokémon battles to consider. Team Flare was armed, just like we were, and that wasn't a fight we were going to win.
Using the cover of a particularly bad swirl of the storm, with a BOOM that actually caused my Game windows to fizzle for the briefest moments, we ran for the portcullis. Lisette was still clinging to Louis, trying not to hyperventilate in terror as we flung ourselves out the old gate.
Right into another Team Flare admin; who I vaguely recognized as the fat scientist who set off the ultimate weapon in the games. He was laughing, grey skinned jowls jiggling with each braying breath, pointing what looked like a shoulder cannon at a herd of pokémon that had tried to take shelter against the fort walls. Several of the poor creatures were already dead, white smoke shimmering off their bodies even in the torrent of the storm.
A blast let loose from the cannon, white light piercing the darkness and leaving even more corpses in its wake.
Ilima roared something between rage and despair, throwing a pokeball before we could even blink. A kangaskhan, a little one, was sucked into the ball and bounced back to the Alolan teen even as it's herd mates died around it.
Unfortunately, the action drew the scientist's attention, and suddenly the deadly cannon was aimed at us. He was still laughing.
"RUN!" I shrieked, pushing at whatever body was in front of me.
And we did.
"Save Game!" I screeched as we dodged the cannon blast, not even caring that my friends could hear me.
The map in my HUD was flashing red as Team Flare grunts staggered out of the fort behind us. We hit the river at a dead sprint, tripping over rocks in our haste to get away.
Under a hanging boulder.
Past the ledge I'd marked for tumblestones.
Gasping in desperation, I tried to pull up the Instant Dungeon menu. I was willing to risk the exposure at this point; I was just hoping to use the Game to hide from our pursuers. It was in vain.
[Game Alert!]
You cannot use the Game Menus while being targeted by enemies. You must lose or defeat your pursuers first.
Cursing the Game, I nearly tripped over Vivi as I pushed more speed into my flight. Why did the damn thing always have to be useless when I needed it the most?!
Another shot of cannon fire barely missed us and looking back I could just barely see a form of black, red, and pink shove the scientist with the cannon out of the way.
Great. A psycho with artillery or a member of the Elite Four. Which was worse? Catching Lisette by the elbow when she nearly tripped, I pulled the girl along with me as I ran even faster.
Around a copse of willows.
Over a narrow section of water that let us cross onto the north bank, still racing away from the fort as fast as we could run along the water.
The entire time my mini-map flashed red in my HUD, tainting the world in an unsettling crimson tint. When it wasn't on the fritz.
A bright light burst into existence behind us and I spared a glance back just in time to see Malva appear through the pelting rain. Beside her was a female pyroar with a mouth glowing gold.
XYXYXY
Strong hands curled around mine. I was tiny, the man was huge. Tall and lanky and almost as safe as Daddy. And I was perfectly giddy as I sat in his lap and he guided my hands around a spoon nearly as big as me. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but that just made it more funner!
We stirred and stirred. And stirred, and stirred, and stirred.
Nanu-ji laughed and told me all the things he put in the bowl, but it all kinda got lost in my head. My heart was too happy. Nanu-ji almost never laughed! But here he was playing with me!
"All done!" he declared, picking me up.
I laughed too as he swung me around in victory. Best Uncle ever!
And then we got to pour all the pretty fruit and mochi over fresh shave ice!
Nanu-ji even let me have red bean sauce! Mommy didn't like it, so we almost never had it, but it was yummy, really!
Someone else laughed richly behind us, and I turned around and gasped.
"Daddy!" I squealed, kicking so happily Nanu-ji had to let me go and I sprinted to Daddy with my arms wide.
He smiled that big soft smile at me and picked me up and hugged me.
"I can't leave you alone with her for five minutes," Daddy laughed at Nanu-ji. "And you're already spoiling her rotten."
"You're the one who named me godfather," Nanuji said back with a shrug. "So it's your own fault really. I did warn you." But he had that secret smile that meant he was still laughing on the inside.
Daddy laughed again on the outside when I said so.
"I've been trying to get that Kakigouri recipe off you forever, and you give it to your goddaughter without her even asking?" Daddy scolded Nanu-ji playfully .
"Hey, I asked!" I insisted. Because Nanu-ji was the bestest Nanu-ji. "And I said please and thank you too!"
"Well, that's okay then." Then Daddy gave me a big kiss on the head.
And Nanu-ji even got him to sit down and we all had shave ice together!
XYXYXY
I gasped, clutching my chest as I tripped over nothingness. I fell into a floating position.
[Game Over]
"What the absolute FUCK?!" I demanded, shaking my head and pulling myself up to look around with wild swivels of my neck. I was … standing… in a field of grey. I looked up at the blue box above my head.
[Game Over]
White grid lines lit up across my field of vision. Completely straight, with no sense of distance, or a horizon, or vanishing point or anything.
[Game Over]
"Oh no," I whimpered, the realization slowly dawning on me. "Not this. Not again."
[Game Over]
Welcome to Pokémon XY The Game
[Start Game] [Continue]
Trembling, I tried desperately to look anywhere else.
As if to mock me, an image appeared, faded, barely visible really, and super-imposed on the reality defying gridlines of the Game.
Of my friends. Of me. Of our bodies. Wide-eyed and unmoving on the river bank. Louis face down in the water. Lisette curled into a ball with a gaping hole in her side. Ilima sprawled on his back with Vivi still desperately tugging at him with his ribbons.
Me, with my head smashed against a boulder crumpled like a wet paper bag. Loxley's white paw barely visible underneath my body where I'd clearly tried to shield him. Clearly didn't work.
Clearly dead. All of us.
I vomited. Fell to my knees clutching my stomach as the reality of the situation finally set in.
[Game Over]
Welcome to Pokémon XY The Game
[Start Game] [Continue]
Dead.
XYXYXY
I don't know how long it took me to calm down. Time didn't really have meaning in the limbo space that was the Game's start menu anyways. So I let myself wallow in the bitter contrast between the way I'd just died …again! … and the heartbreakingly sweet memory it had dislodged.
It took distracting myself with the frustration of being where I was, as Gamer's Mind clearly didn't work here. Neither did anything else. The Game didn't want to give me anything but the single blue window hovering about my head. I couldn't pull up my status or my quest log to see what exactly that Team Flare encounter had done. I didn't have my inventory. I didn't have my pokémon.
The lack of Loxley's near constant presence next to me was like a cold pit in the bottom of my ribs.
But eventually, even alone, I managed to pull myself together enough to press the [Continue] button hovering in front of my face.
Continue from [Saved File]?
A list of grey boxed rows appeared below the game window, with five lit up in blue. Only two had saved data: one nearly a month old from all the way back in Micle and one from my most recent save pointedly labeled Le Fort de Durance, la port est. (2)
Swallowing bile, I considered my options. And cursed myself for not spacing out my save files better. Because on one hand, I really wasn't too keen on reliving a whole month on the road knowing what was coming towards us. On the other, the situation I'd just been in had literally gotten me and all my friends killed.
Dad and Nanu-ji were going to have heart attacks.
(Assuming I ever got back to them.)
Shaking my head, I lifted a trembling hand towards the second save file. I owed to myself and my friends to at least try. I owed it to my pokémon.
I could only pray I wasn't going to run into a limited number of lives or something else equally horrible.
XYXYXY
It was disorienting, to say the least, to suddenly be back outside the fort dodging cannon fire.
Adrenaline flooded my veins again, even if Gamer's Mind cursed me with near perfect clarity when I had every right to be panicking. We ran immediately. This time I shoved my friends north away from the river when we crossed, Vivi screaming when Ilima tried to keep us on the riverside and dragging his trainer by the wrist with his ribbons after me.
We sprinted over the hills of the north bank, desperately aimed at the mountains in the distance.
Over a gully with red clay and sinking mud that tried to suck us down with each step.
Through a thicket of juniper trees. I nearly lost Loxley on the low hanging branches as we rushed below.
Around a boulder large enough to be a small hill on its own.
The other river that ran down from the north came into view, and suddenly the ground trembled beneath us. We fell, sliding down the slick mud as the earth rolled and buckled beneath our feet.
Vivi screamed behind me.
And again my world went dark.
XYXYXY
Mom showed me how to make macarons. The bright white kitchen had little bits of pale blue to soften the edges, and with the sunlight pouring in the windows it felt like dancing through a piece of the sky as we baked. The smell was delicious, the warm aromas of almond and vanilla glazing over the sweet perfume of jams. Dad and Mom laughed as we sat around the small table eating fresh baked treats. ~
Getting bullied at school by a group of boys that 'had a crush on me.' They dropped a bucket of weedle larva in my hair (It was odd how this echoed something from somewhere else, but I couldn't seem to remember what it was.) I ended up in the nurse's office from the exposure from all the poison types. Both of my parents showed up at the main office absolutely livid. A united front, terrifying the admin into action when nothing had yet to be done. The boys were suspended. I went home wrapped in my mom's arms crying inconsolably. The next day I was moved to a new classroom. But now everyone was whispering. ~
Mom had finally stopped nagging me about rhyhorn and agreed to try something different today. Skipping in excitement over to the fence, I grinned at what was in the paddock. Warm glowing ponyta, soft wooly mareep, and, best of all, bouncy sweet-smelling skiddo! The stable hand had helped us lead them over to the racetrack. Mom could get up on her own, but I needed a bit of a hand. Soon though I was up and at the starting line with all the other kids. Mom and I were both laughing, our skiddo hopping in place ready to go. With Mom's cheery "Go for broke!" we were off, barreling around the track as fast as we could go. Mom's chipmunk cheeks when I actually won were hilarious. ~
Happiness when I brought home nearly perfect grades; I was soaring through classes. And neither of my parents had any problems rewarding me with a trip to our favorite second-hand bookstore. We'd all get lost for hours finding stuff to read. ~
Frustration, when all the friends I tried to make always wanted help studying instead of hanging out like they all did with each other. ~
Having to do group projects by myself, since I was the one doing all the work anyways. Surprise, when my new teacher actually noticed, and failed the rest of the group I'd been paired with. Even more surprise when she later paired me with a girl named Yvette. Happy that Yvette actually did her half of the work. Where we friends? No, not really. But at least we understood each other. We both wanted to earn our grades. She went on her pokémon journey at 10. I didn't. ~
Rolling around with Sarge in the sunshine of the garden as Rampart watched from the shade. My parents were … somewhere… but I was still perfectly safe and happy. ~
Movie Nights were different when Dad was home. Mom like sappy romance movies. I kind of thought they were boring; they all seemed to have the same plot. Or worse, she like detective movies. Dad was a detective, and he was loads better than any of the ridiculous men on the screen. She didn't seem to understand either point. But when dad was home we got to watch historical pieces and science fiction, which were way more interesting. Either way I got popcorn and melon soda though. ~
Painting my room lavender. A deep dusky shade that felt like being in a garden at sunset. Mom spilling paint on her own head. Dad laughing as he helped her wipe it all off. ~
Please for the love of Arceus, why does my mom keep buying me pink? My favorite color is purple, Mom. Purple. ~
The horrible formality of being told my parents were getting a divorce. They'd sat me down in the sitting room. They sat on opposite lounges. They were both wearing business outfits. Neither of them looked at each other. Every word was spoken with pointedly cold and calm deliberation. My whole world shattered.
XYXYXY
The Game menu wasn't much more pleasant the second time around. At least I couldn't actually see any bodies superimposed on the grey and white grid lines. Just the overturned rocks and soil of the landslide. And the woman who caused it, Malva, standing smugly at the top of the embankment. Beside her, a massive torkaol impassively pumped smoke from its shell.
Well, at least I knew how she killed us. Bitch, that made twice. Without the Gamer's Mind sapping my emotions, I indulged myself by wallowing in the anger that simmered beneath my skin. I'd spent all my terror and tears on the first death. Now I was just irritated. I was sending Dad that photo of Malva just as soon as I got back in the Game, so help me…
Speaking of which, I looked back up at the blue screens hovering above my head.
[Game Over]
Welcome to Pokémon XY The Game
[Start Game] [Continue]
There was a lingering feeling that something was trying to work itself loose in the back of my mind. Clenching my fists, I returned to focusing on the save data again instead. Mental breakdowns would have to wait; I needed to survive long enough to actually have one first.
Biting my bottom lip, I hesitated for just a moment before picking the Fort Durance file again.
One more try, I told myself. Just one. If I couldn't get me and my friends out this time, I'd suck it up and go all the way back to Micle. But I owed everyone, including myself, one more shot.
Maybe the third time's the charm?
XYXYXY
The difference came in the form of one very strung out sylveon. I didn't know what was going on with Ilima's pokémon. It seemed even more frantic and terrified than when we'd died, and we hadn't even gotten to that part yet.
Either way, Vivi didn't wait for anyone this time. The fairy type sent his own hyper beam at the Team Flare scientist as soon as the creep aimed in our direction, obliterating the cannon and sending the short, squat man flying against the gate of the fort hard enough to knock him out. And knocking over the other Team Flare members trying to exit at the same time liked a wrecking ball. Including Malva.
I wasn't about to complain.
No time to go for my phone, Vivi grabbed Ilima AND me with his ribbons wrapped tight around our arms, this time pulling us south over the grasslands at breakneck speed. If Ilima and I hadn't been dragging Louis and Lisette respectively by their own wrists, our friends would have been left far behind. Loxley was barely keeping hold of his spot on top of my bag.
The low hills and scrub brush were useless for providing cover. But that clearly wasn't what Vivi was aiming for.
The sylveon was literally pouring fey magic out of his body, the pink haze left in his wake lingering over our bodies and probably the only thing allowing us poor humans to keep up with the frantic eevee evolution. But eventually we got far enough ahead of the grunts trailing us that my mini-map suddenly went beige again.
And ribbons swirled to wrap around my throat.
'OUT!' A voice that most certainly wasn't Loxley slammed into my head./
"Out where?" I gasped, frantically pulling at the ribbons on instinct. They cut into my fingers like knives.
'OUT!'
"I don't know what you WANT?!" I cried desperately down at the raging fairy pokémon that was choking me. The foreign presence in my mind was agonizing.
'OUT!' boomed through my head a third time. The cannon would have hurt less.
'OUT! ESCAPE!'
I tried to garble a response. Somehow I could tell we were still running. More ribbons had lashed out to grab Lisette because I definitely wasn't holding on to her anymore.
I was too busy trying to BREATHE.
'ESCAPE! ESCAPE! ESCAPE! CREATE!'
I coughed, desperate for air. Ilima was trying to stop his pokémon. Trying and failing as the sylveon pulled us all forward even as it strangled me to death.
'OUT! ESCAPE CREATE! ESCAPE CREATE! DUNGEON! ESCAPE CREATE!'
"In-Instant Dungeon?!" I garbled out through the suffocating ribbons.
I could just barely see my friends' confused faces, could hardly make the red suit of a Team Flare grunt in the distance as a game screen popped up, flashing wildly as the Game scrolled rapidly through the various options. I couldn't see to press anything, not through the mass of pink ribbons that slammed through the air at the box. The world dissolved into pixels around furious, glowing blue eyes. The black clouds of the storm overhead faded into purple as the grass and dirt shifted to gravel and stone. The ribbons around my throat finally loosened, and I dropped to my knees coughing roughly.
And wasn't it the height of irony, that the crumbling headstone I landed on meant I probably wasn't dead this time?
Your Not English section is very small today. You're welcome.
1. Fuuuuuuck (Korean)
2. Fort Durance, East Gate
It took a lot of tweaking, but I personally like how the mood and pacing of this chapter turned out. I'm still twisting plot points from the manga into the storyline, so obviously this is going to have serious consequences.
The exposure was inevitable, as it is in all Gamer fics. Next time: facing the music.