Record #7: The Enlightenment

Turns out running across a field of flames and thunder is far more difficult than simply bracing against a horde of giant bees, especially when your target was an uncomfortably large distance away.

As Damien struggles to make his way down the hill, heat wraps around him so heavily it makes him feel as if he was swimming in it. Every breath was labored, and his steps would follow suit. With the amount of running he'd done today, it was a miracle his body was producing enough adrenaline to keep him functioning at all.

Flinching at yet another Roar, Damien carefully avoids dark spots on the ground that were either bubbling up or sinking further into itself. It was a testament to the intensity of the ongoing conflict around him, depicting just how abhorrently hot the combination of flames and electricity became. He was also doing his best to ignore the blinding yellow from the electrically-infused moves around him, though Damien has no doubts his eyes were screaming for a rest. With how much they burned, his eyes were barely able to stay open from the combination of adrenaline, squinting, and blinking.

'I'd be surprised if I won't need a new prescription for my glasses after this…'

The heavy, overwhelming scent of smoke, too, invades Damien's lungs, causing him to fall into a coughing fit every so often and adding to the drowning weight of the heat. He tries to cover his mouth and nose with his arm to some degree of success. Perhaps his coat would've been beneficial here, but he'd already left it behind atop the hill, and even if he was wearing it, he would've died from heat stroke long ago.

'...that, and first-degree burns…'

Grimacing, Damien quickly pushes his thoughts away as he tries to keep his vision in-line with his blue-furred target. Doing so, however, was getting far more difficult as he inevitably reached the clutch of Luxio, still engaging with the opposing herd of Ponyta and Rapidash. As the Shinx stumbles through the gaps between and under the Luxio, Damien struggles to capture even a glance of where the small feline was. Amidst the crowd of similarly colored black and blue fur, it's hard to identify the sole tinier one amongst them.

Every second where Damien lost sight of the smaller Pokémon was one where his heart seemed to pump slightly faster; he could only be glad he's on the back-end of the battlefield where there's generally less Luxio around blocking his view. He pushes his legs to move even slightly quicker despite how much they beg for him to give in or relax. He runs between the Luxio and scrambles over any of those that had fallen as he surveys through the gaps, searching for the Shinx for as long as he could.

He refuses to glance at the sight of red for any longer than he needs to, whether it be from the flames of the equines in battle or from the fallen Luxio below. He refuses to have his mind wander to the thought about what it meant for them. He refuses to even begin thinking about the impending possibility of it occurring to the creature he was currently risking his life for, because–

Damien's eyes meet that of another's for a fraction of a second in the distance, golden in hue, as he twisted his steps slightly to avoid more oncoming Luxio. For a moment, he thinks he'd found him, the stupid small feline he'd come to care for. He could finally scoop them right up so he could get back into that den and rest, knowing he'd done his job.

But, it was never that easy was it?

In another fraction of a second, he quickly realizes those eyes weren't quite right; they were so similar yet slightly a shade too dark. The eyes of the Shinx he knew had always shined brighter, matching the innocent ambience he always seemed to have around him. Damien compares that shine best to the glowing the same Shinx always does in response to fear or excitement.

Instead, he finds those eyes to be that of a Luxio, one he barely recognizes from his past few days of staring outside at what used to be a field of Luxio play-fighting. Now, transformed to a battlefield, Damien could see the Luxio's face rapidly shifting to one of surprise, their nose twitching and jaw slightly open. Their mouth opens wider, seemingly trying to say something after witnessing the pure insanity that was Damien running amongst them. He could almost predict what they were going to say, perhaps something along the lines of 'get the hell out of here, are you stupid?' and to that, he admits, is solid advice.

Yet, the Luxio didn't quite actually get the chance to say anything for something seems to quickly catch their attention, and with the disarray of flames, lightning, and other Pokémon around them, Damien can only assume they had recentered their focus towards an incoming attack. He doesn't get the chance to see how it would play out; for his part, his attention returns back towards running and finding Shinx again. His legs had paused for a moment, his body having faltered at having seen the Luxio earlier, but Damien simply kept running, passing the Luxio. No matter how much his body continues to scream at him to stop, he ignores it; he'd made a decision and it sure wasn't going to stop now, especially considering doing so would be even more a stupid decision than what he's already done.

So, he carries on keeping his mind away from any other distraction, with exceptions only to those necessary to keep him running. Luxio, Rapidash, Luxray, Ponyta, Luxio, Luxray, Luxio—his eyes rapidly flicker all over the field despite the flames, lightning, and smoke, not stopping until they found the sole Shinx in the battlefield.

His ears tunnel in on a faint but familiar mewing and numbs down the rest: the grunts, snarls, screams, and roars. It's only after he'd jumped over another of the fallen Luxio that he passes through a short clearing of burnt grass, where there's a gap between the Luxio, that he finally, genuinely, meets those brilliantly golden eyes of the Shinx he knows.

The Shinx similarly recognizes him from the shortening distance away, pupils enlarging and his head perking up as he squeezes through towards Damien. Within this Shinx's gaze, Damien could almost feel an overwhelming sense of security. Something in Damien's chest unlocks like he can finally take a proper deep breath, his legs preparing themselves for the 'final stretch'. His mind forms a half-baked plan rather than just run and search: pick the stupid Shinx up, get back into that damn cave, and finally rest .

Perhaps that's why Damien was ten times less prepared than he should've when a Ponyta charges at him.

They were taking advantage of the small clearing, away from the crowd of Luxio that had otherwise protected Damien from the war raging beside him. Rapidly bursting forward within his peripheral view, the cream-colored equine sprinted faster than what Damien's exhausted eyes had been able to process, and before he knew it, they skittered directly in front of him.

And yet, they weren't aiming for Damien.

No; assuredly, with a conviction in their brown eyes he'd barely managed to see as they dashed past, the Ponyta was heading directly for the Shinx.

Damien's leg may have been ready to take another step but as he could've expected with what he'd seen of this clash, the Pokémon moves far faster than he himself will ever be able to. It wasn't so out of place, really, considering that horses run faster than any typical person can, but it was the suddenness of it all that catches Damien off guard. His breath stutters, the back of his throat suddenly tightens, and his legs stumble forward.

The world was silent as the Shinx is tackled by the Ponyta, who had been on the other side of the small clearing just a mere fraction of a second ago. A residual white light Damien had previously mixed up with that of the fire from Ponyta's mane came off from them. His ears roar and pulse with his heart, his lungs seizing, the fight around him sharpening like fireworks, all pointing towards this one pivotal moment.

"NO—! "

Erupting back in sound, Damien's scream is what shatters the silence. In tandem, a loud wail erupts from the Shinx as he was tackled, his small feline body thrown into the air and to the side, skidding on the ground. The Ponyta let out a breath through their snout, their hooves dragging back on the burnt grass from the Pokémon move they'd just utilized.

Damien would've stood stock still if it hadn't been for his legs having already prepped to move forward. As he takes another step, he barely sees the Ponyta's focus snap onto him, of whom had seemingly not expected his presence. Instead, Damien's gaze locks onto the Shinx he knew — his Shinx — that he'd come to save, tracing a path of its harsh descent burned onto the ground. For a single instant, Damien feared the Shinx had met the same fate as the Luxio, fallen to the floor, unconscious or otherwise–

Then, without an ounce of hesitation, the Shinx pushes himself back up, though not without a struggle as indicated by his shaky limbs. He let out a silent growl, evident by the reveal of his tiny canines. The sight, once Damien registers it, snaps him away from the fear which had prevailed and slowly fills him with the same determination that now boils in the Shinx's eyes. The Shinx's golden gaze towards the Ponyta, he finds, is surprisingly akin to those of the Luxray that'd been directed at him not even an hour prior. Damien might have laughed if these circumstances were different.

'They're family alright…'

Damien's attention shifts away again as he barely catches the sound of a high-pitched squeal. Distracted from Shinx getting back up, Damien had ignored the Ponyta that now appears to have shifted back from before. But more importantly, one of their front and hind legs were pushed off of the ground, a white energy building up around them. He barely registers the sight before the equine begins to charge forward again.

In a panic, Damien could only hope his legs would be able to swiftly change his direction fast enough as his sight veers, once again, towards the Shinx that had been hit mere seconds ago. What he finds is that the feline had begun bolting towards him, seemingly not having taken in the lesson of how bad an idea it is to simply crash head-first towards danger. Instead of a lesson, the Shinx seems to have taken it as encouragement to 'do better instead'. If Damien weren't focused on fighting for both of their lives, he might have screamed again.

Perhaps it was Damien knowing the Shinx wouldn't change his mind no matter what he said, or perhaps it was the earlier sight of the white energy fluttering around the Ponyta's mane from earlier, but Damien's final conclusion somehow came around to: 'then let's fight fire with fire'.

So as the Ponyta approaches closer and closer, Damien says something rather opposite to his instincts and thoughts:

"TACKLE-! "

His command came out raspy, his voice having been tired and dried out not only from the scream from earlier but also the smoke. Miraculously, as if he'd been expecting Damien's voice, the Shinx seems to hear him.

Ignoring Damien's own opinions on this particular Shinx's own intelligence, the blue-furred feline finds himself remarkably channeling the necessary energy for the move. Like lightning, he makes impact with his target right before Damien manages to shift his momentum sideways. The equine lets out a squeal in both surprise from being hit and the pain from it thereafter. Their figure is pushed off to the side just enough that their own tackle misses Damien by a hair.

(Far later, Damien realizes how much dumb luck was required for this to happen.

First, it required the Shinx to hear his raspy scream despite the cacophony of battle around them.

Second, the Shinx had to have been able to channel the normal-type energy Damien assumes necessary for the move fast enough, even when it's not a type the feline himself shares.

Third, the Shinx had to have somehow run fast enough — which if he remembers correctly, a regular Shinx has a base speed stat of 45 to a Ponyta's 90 — to catch up to the Ponyta while making an actual impact against Ponyta's own tackle.

And lastly, Damien himself would've had to move just that bit to the side fast enough for himself to not get hit.

When Damien really thinks about it, the only reason it all worked out as well as it had was because the Ponyta had briefly backed up slightly and the Shinx had both likely known the move already and was also focused entirely on Damien; it was more a coincidence that the Shinx used Tackle right when the Ponyta was directly in front of Damien's face.)

While the Shinx's tackle landed on the Ponyta with insane fortune, such a thing couldn't be said for Damien's dash to the side. Having been running for the entirety of the day, the dodge simply doesn't play out as Damien would've liked it to be. One of his feet doesn't turn as much as he needed it to and before he knew it, Damien plummets to the ground for the second time today. He doesn't even get the grace of a volleyball dive as he did earlier in the morning; instead, he only just manages to move his arm out before his body slams onto the soot-covered grass.

Damien winces, his arms flaring in pain from burns he'd gotten by merely having run down the hill, even if only on the outskirts. He wheezes loudly from the impact, forcing a breath of the smoky air into his lungs, which only leads to a coughing fit. Instinctually, his hands attempt to cover his mouth despite struggling to even move. His ears scarcely register a soft wailing, slowly growing louder. Recognizing the cry, his neck manages to turn just enough to see the sight of the Shinx he knows – the Shinx that managed to pull of the luckiest tackle of a lifetime – with a worried expression on his face that Damien hadn't seen since the first day he'd met the little guy.

The feline's eyes downcast, he dashes closer to his side as Damien struggles to roll his back down on the grass. His arms drop from somewhere around his mouth to his chest as the pain from the fall secedes, leaving only a dull ache from the burns and stinging heat. It's there, regaining his breath, that a thought occurs to him:

'Where'd the Ponyta go?'

A jolt of fear rushes up Damien's spine as his head cranes up from the ground, muscles straining to even perform this . His eyes hastily search for the equine before he manages to catch a glimpse of it in the distance; or, at least, what he could only assume was the one that attacked him. The Ponyta was being tackled back again by a Luxio who finally seems to have caught up to the commotion from earlier. Damien mentally lets out a sigh of relief he hadn't known he was holding. For a brisk second, he feels the Luxio lock eyes with him before they nod and look away, seemingly focusing back on the Ponyta.

Settling his head back down on the burnt grass, that familiar wail brings Damien's attention back to the Shinx, hearing it much closer to his ears than before. He feels the feline squirming under his arms and curling onto his chest that's rising slowly to his labored, thin breaths. His eyes glancing upwards, Damien finds the Shinx's golden eyes begin to water; he feels a small pressure applied onto his stomach from the feline's paws.

Hurriedly, Damien tries to focus his expression from fear, relief, or whatever it was now into one far more reassuring. His hands, now partially under the Shinx himself, tries to reach towards the Shinx's head, aiming to ruffle through the tuft of hair atop of it in the way Damien knew he enjoys.

Except, the loudest roar he's heard since he'd first arrived in this world quickly interrupts that; it's especially concerning considering he'd already faced them full-blast & up-close mere hours prior. His hands instantaneously force themselves to cover his ears. Ruffling from under his shirt then makes Damien force himself up from the ground, 'fighting' an intense battle against the force of the roar and the hold on his shirt, if only to at least somewhat protect the feline on his chest.

Damien tilts his head upwards as he looks to the epicenter of the roar, and as expected, it comes from the leader Luxray of the Pride. In the center of the battlefield, full of burnt grass and fallen trees, the Luxray's maw is wide open with their head tilted towards the sky. While Damien continues to brace against the force of the roar, the remaining Luxio in his peripheral view struggles to stand upright to do the same. His eyes widen when he sees the Luxray's paw gripped onto a fallen Rapidash, the leader of the Herd.

The Pride had won.

The maw of the Luxray closes, coinciding with the fading of the force Damien feels from the roar. The remaining Ponyta and Rapidash seemingly begin to gallop away, abandoning their leader in favor of survival.

Subsequently, an odd tranquility settles in Damien's chest, only the small buzzing of energy from what miniscule amounts of adrenaline he had left remaining. His limbs still ache, his burns still hurt, and when he looks down, so too does Damien feel the fur from the Shinx having having found a way into Damien's shirt, for what little protection it served from the roar earlier. His eyes squint slightly as they register the glow from underneath his shirt, vision blurring slightly as suddenly, it's filled with star-like shapes, probably from the bright shocks of lightning and fire he'd been repeatedly seeing.

His mind, for some reason, subtly reminds him of his role within the Pride (that of a child caretaker) over anything else. Regardless of the discomfort from the glow, he knew it indicated that the Shinx under his shirt felt threatened in some way, or at least, overstimulated.

'I should probably calm the Shinx down…'

When he goes to move his hands though, Damien realizes they're still on his ears. As he begins to bring them down, he feels a slight dribble running down his cheek like warm water. His hands move to rub away what was on there before Damien looks at his hands. His palms and fingers are stained a coppery red, smearing into a sort of brown on his scrapes and burns. Blood.

'...huh.'

The sight of it doesn't really register for him until his brain nags him at the subtle ringing in his ears, and then, he realizes, he can't hear anything at all from his left. The right only gives him faint noises: the rustling of his shirt, the crackling of wood, the rustling of the burnt grass beneath him. It makes him wonder when exactly he'd lost his hearing during that roar; it couldn't have been before, considering he distinctly remembers the wailing of the Shinx currently on his chest.

Damien would panic if it weren't for how empty and tired he feels and the fact he could see the head of the Shinx coming out from under his shirt, safe and alive. The Shinx, with his glowing fur beginning to fade, merely looks back at Damien with concern, his large golden eyes expressing all he needs to know. Both Damien and the Shinx, in that moment, are silent as they inspect each other, seemingly trying to come to a consensus on if one another ended up 'alright' in the end. Damien lets out the barest of a smile as he sees the Shinx doing just swell despite the bombardment of a roar that had been let out. No blood there!

Damien not so subtly wipes the blood on his cheeks and hands away onto his clothes, only managing to slather his skin with more soot and ash. The Shinx, compared to Damien's assessment of him, reacts opposingly, their own pupils somehow widening even further at the sight of Damien's blood. Damien finally takes the chance to ruffle the tuft of hair atop the Shinx as he sees the feline open their mouth for another wail he only later barely hears.

Despite having very much deserved the head-ruffle, the Shinx appears to also very much ignore the satisfaction he usually gets from it. No, his friend was hurt, and if the continuing wails indicated anything, he wasn't going to let up on ensuring that Damien knew he wasn't okay with it. Damien could only give a shaky smile in repentance.

Distracted, neither of the two realize a final large Thunderwave from the battlefield was approaching them.

It's only when the subtle vibrations of static in the air reaches the Shinx's blue fur that the small feline finally feels something was amiss. He turns his head to see what was happening. A high-pitched grunt was his response once they saw the electrical wave coming towards them.

For Damien, it was the grunt that finally alerts him, his focus having begun to wane from exhaustion and centered on the Shinx in front of him. As his eyes focus on the direction the Shinx was looking, his eyes widen at the blindingly-yellow horizon, barely making out the successive rings of electricity coming towards him. Instead, Damien's eyes are focused on the ring closest to them and on the jagged-pattern of the electricity, trying to find the path of least resistance. The feeling of static energy in the air, which he'd begun to get used to, gives him goosebumps; though in this case, it's far more intense than 'usual'.

As the ring of yellow energy gets closer, getting larger in his sight, his mind screams for him to move, but his body, having long run out of adrenaline, refuses. By the time any of his internal reflexes to move kick in, the wave had already reached them, and with it, his arms and legs spasmed, twitching only in the ways he'd previously attributed to muscle fatigue. The ringing in his ears which he'd tried to ignore, rings louder. His body begins to grow warmer and warmer, burning despite having adjusted to the battlefield previously filled with flames.

And so, Damien screams.

In his peripherals, he could see the Shinx on his stomach turn his head back towards him in a flash. Yet, as quickly as the first ring of energy passes through him, the twitches of his muscles stop.

And so, Damien stops screaming.

His mouth is still agape like he should've kept screaming until his throat began to bleed. The previous dryness and heat reaching his throat certainly makes him feel compelled to anyway, especially as the internal heat only continues to climb higher and higher. By now, he couldn't hear anything at all; really, he couldn't feel anything, either, not even the pain. Or, perhaps there was, but it was so immense he couldn't even feel it?

Either way, with the second incoming wave, he closes his eyes from the glow, biting his lip from the expectation of something different occurring this time around (perhaps the actual feeling of agonizing pain in his limbs).

But whatever that 'expectation' was doesn't arrive. Instead, with each successive ring – with each wave – of electric-type energy, Damien feels more and more numb. It was akin to the empty feeling that comes from being so immensely tired, but simply more. It was not simply energy draining his limbs but more likely an immediate cut-off of energy being supplied anywhere within his body; whatever tiny electrical impulses his brain may try to send simply didn't arrive.

The only exceptions come with what small movements Damien could make with his eyes and the impulses needed for his brain and heart to function. If anything, the cut-off was more or less limited to Damien's limbs. In what fractions of a second he had between the yellow rings of the wave, he'd thought:

'So this is what paralysis feels like.'

A waste of a thought in all honesty; Damien should probably be thinking about his vast variety of other issues he should be taking care of. But still, ignoring the Shinx on his stomach and resolutely trying not to imagine the expression the feline has due to his scream, he focuses on what his eye captures around his vicinity. Granted, considering he's squinting and his vision was getting blurry, it isn't much.

Only when Damien finally feels the peak of the heat in his body begin to mellow down, thereby hopefully indicating the entire wave has passed, does he finally let his eyes open, and there, he immediately regrets it.

Off in the distance, back towards the center of the battlefield, the leader Luxray still remains atop the fallen Rapidash. This time, Damien could see the expression on the leader's face: his red eyes, narrowed closer than usual, strikes below with a stare full of vitriol far opposing the composed expressions Damien had become acquainted with. His upper jaw was raised, revealing the Luxray's canines while his lower jaw rested. There isn't any indication of letting out a sound from anger; Damien assumes the deafening roar from earlier did most of the work. Glancing downwards, Damien finds the Luxray's paws are dug tightly onto the Rapidash, unwilling to let go.

It was when Damien then unintentionally peeks at the Rapidash that a realization rushes up his spine.

The Rapidash's muzzle is tense as if still in battle, yet their eyes are rolled back. Their eyelids are closing, albeit slowly. They're puny details Damien could barely notice, but it was enough for him to assume Rapidash is dead.

The fact that the Rapidash died isn't even all that startling – not that his body could move to react to it anyway – when Damien himself witnessed the brutality of the fight from a near-bird's-eye-view, it was a thought he'd ignored since the first time he'd had to jump over a fallen Luxio: that ultimately, death was going to happen at some point around him (or already has). He'd refused to even dwell on the idea back when he'd been running through the burnt grass, for he was hyper-focused on finding the Shinx that'd stupidly been running, concurrently, looking for him.

Now? Damien feels he has all the time in the world to ponder over the reality that plausibly, he may or may not have run through more than one dead Luxio on the way to the burnt grass he's laying on or the fact that—

Damien's eyes veer back up to the sight of the Luxray's maw opening up again. Eyes still filled with the same amount of vitriol, Damien witnesses the sight of the Luxray's figure lowering and stabbing his canines deep into the Rapidash's flank. As the Luxray shoves his paw off of the departed equine, the leader also rips out the rest of his teeth, and like butter, an entire chunk of the Rapidash's flank follows—right into their mouth.

Damien stares in a horrified silence while his mind blanks. His eyes lock onto the gaping hole – wound? – that the Luxray leaves within the dead Rapidash with the same focus he'd put on the Shinx earlier. Despite being on the edge of the battlefield, there isn't a single Luxio in his way from the scene within the small clearing of grass he's in, now that the war between Pride and Herd has ended. He can barely see anything besides a whole mess of red with his blurry vision, but it's enough to get his mind going on what he would or could see.

Damien is only able to stare as red seeps out from where there was once flesh. He didn't think blood could flow out of something so large that fast. He wonders if that's what his ears look like; if his limbs, covered in burns, would have bled like that.

There's a heavy feeling crawling up his throat, as if something was burning.

He barely manages to hold it back down.

Damien's eyes briskly snap shut.

He still sees that vibrant red of Rapidash's blood.

He passes out.

A/N:

It's been uh… checks calendar ...9 MONTHS?! It is in fact NOT Spring but I'm finally back with another chapter I've had fully written since April. Sorry I did the thing with just 'not getting myself to post the damn chapter despite having it written' like I did last time. Part of it I think is getting myself to write an Author's Note like this one really.

I mean sure there was a month for testing, and I graduated but honestly I had so much free time in the last month of school that they're not really an excuse. Either way, I sincerely hoped you enjoyed this chapter still. (Maybe I should stop milking cliffhangers as chapter ending points though…)

I mostly wrote the chapter in two portions - once in December and the other in April; both had some plan of making the chapter out to be dark though I hadn't expected myself to make it as detailed as it is. Still, do note that while there may continue to be darker chapters once in a while, the whole fic as a whole, isn't intended to be grimdark or anything like that.

I'm just gonna stop making empty expectations of myself or any of you readers but I HAVE been wanting to edit the previous chapters (not majorly, just like tiny grammatical errors I've noticed and am hating) and do hope I can get at least one other chapter down (not necessarily posted) before the summer ends. That said, I've asked around but what are peoples' opinions on capitalizing Pokémon around here? How do you pluralize them? Or, should I continue as is?

Moving on though, as a final note, I only just started actually playing a Pokémon game on an Emulator since …last month? (Platinum, for anyone asking.) I genuinely don't know why I went ahead and wrote a Pokémon fic first.

To end off, as always though, thanks to my beta readers avardiris & ShiroHatzuki!