Fairy 6.20: Hammers and Scalpels
Kekoa

July 11, 2020

Hatterene greets you when you get back. Odd. You were expecting Golbat or Machoke. Or maybe Cranidos. He keeps weird hours. Not the worst roommate you could've been stuck with but it feels like he's always coming or going at 3 a.m. for no goddamn reason.

"How'd it go?" she asks.

You glare at Armoranth. Her arms are crossed and she's staring down at the ground. "She got into a fight with Cuicatl. And lost."

Armoranth mutters something about a psychotic brute.

Should you tell Hatterene about Armoranth's threat to make you slit your own throat? It really feels like someone should know. She hasn't apologized or confirmed she wouldn't or couldn't do it. You like her but now you aren't sure you can trust her. Who would you even tell? What would Machoke or Golbat know? What could they actually do?

…Loudred, maybe. She knows her way around scary pokémon. Doesn't really like you but maybe she can help. Just not in front of Armoranth. Things could get bad if she thinks you're rebelling.

"Well, uh, sorry to hear that?" Hatterne says. "Anyway, your charjabug evolved."

Your what—

Oh. Oh shit. That's good? Bad? Exciting. New vikavolt leave their trainers a lot. And ordinarily you wouldn't care, you don't need a full team anyway, but if she leaves it means you got bound to Armoranth for nothing and that's starting to look like a really bad deal.

"Where is she?"

"Moved her to the storage room so Cranidos could sleep."

"Thanks."

You power walk over. Armoranth might be following. Maybe she isn't. You don't really care. Translator would be nice but you also really want her somewhere else right now. Until you can talk to Loudred and figure out if she can make good on her threat. Would make good on her threat. How much shit you're in.

You open the door and see the tattered, torn remains of a charjabug's shell. A new vikavolt is sitting on top of it, wings spread wide. She looks fragile. The hard parts aren't fully set, wings are practically drooping, body is still coated in fluids. She probably spread out the wings to dry off. Can you help with that? What pokémon would you even use? Ihe can use—Ihe is gone. Anuenue and Kapuna are no help. Could Moe even do anything? Would Leilani think he's a bird and freak out?

"Aww. They're so cute as hatchlings," Armoranth trills. If she's still mad then she's doing her best to pretend she's not. "Hello, little miss. Can we assist you in drying off?"

She flicks her wings and goop flies off. It makes a short buzzing sound.

"Hmm. I think that's a yes. Kekoa, go fetch a blow drier."

"Is there even an outlet in this closet? And would he overheat?"

Armoranth looks at you like you're an idiot. "I can handle the thinking. You can do the errands with your long human legs and big human hands."

You huff but leave to find one. It's been a while since you actually minded being her errand boy. Now? Yeah. She doesn't get to threaten you and then boss you around like this. If you didn't want to get away from her for a moment you wouldn't have gone along with it.

Can't talk to Loudred soon enough.

Armoranth is trapped in a good book. Somewhat literally. She fell asleep reading and the book fell on top of her when her telekinesis shorted out. She didn't wake up and her petals are still flowing in a nonexistent breeze. She's alive.

You consider changing that. Then you feel ashamed for the thought. Should you be? It makes sense to do it if it's her or you. She hasn't hurt you yet. Maybe she can't. You don't want to hurt her for nothing. She's just a kid.

It still gives you a chance to talk to Loudred.

She's in the laundry room sitting on a little stool and folding clothes in her lap. She looks up as you enter and then back down as you close the door.

"I want to talk."

She nods but doesn't say anything. Just keeps folding a pair of jean shorts.

"I met Cuicatl last night. She got into a fight with Armoranth and she threatened to make me slit my throat. Can she actually do that?"

"Don't know," her voice is quiet. "I avoid the fair folk. Hoarfrost might know something." She sets down the shorts and finally looks back at you. "There would be a price."

"Trying not to get into any more bargains until I figure out this one."

She snorts. Smiles, even. It's faint. A slight movement at the corner of her lip. Still the most you've seen from her. "Fixed terms. I ask Hoarfrost and the others when Armoranth isn't around. You tell me everything about your meeting last night."

"Right." You can do that. "Okay. So, uh, I was there to give Ihe to Cuicatl since he wanted to go back."

She hums. Already knew that.

"I wasn't sure she would. Ihe was supposed to go to her in the first place but she said no. Needed a priest's permission under Anahuac's laws or something. I don't know. I haven't checked. Anyway. This time she said yes. Rufflet are sacred and pretty much priests or whatever."

Her gaze is piercing. You wish she went back to her laundry and just half-listened or something.

"What then?"

"She was mad at me for joining Skull."

That gets a frown. Far more pronounced than her smile. You hurry on.

"She agrees with us! Just didn't think Skull would win. Was worried I'd die or get arrested and nothing would change."

Loudred finally picks up a t-shirt and starts folding.

"She's smarter than I thought."

"What?"

"How do you think we win, Kekoa? Burning down hotels won't make the soldiers leave. We could fight them. Attack their bases, hold the governor hostage, take over another town. Then they could use their army and we would lose. If we stay small, we don't change anything. If we go big then we also change nothing. Winning isn't the point."

That's the most you've heard from her at once and it's fucking bleak.

"Then why are you even here?"

She shrugs. "Where else would I go?"

"That's it, then? We just lose? Die or get locked up for nothing?"

"No. Not nothing. They also lose." She finishes the skirt she's folding and sets it down. "They want to kill Alola without anyone seeing the blood. They attack us, everyone sees. The Tapu get mad. The community gets closer to revolt. Someone, someday, will win. America does nothing, it looks weak. If we go big, we all die but everyone knows that they can bleed. There are lots of people with nothing to lose. Some will follow us. The occupiers will bleed and bleed and bleed until they leave to make it stop." Her gaze shifts back to you. Through you. "Are you okay with that? Losing so they lose, too?"

You don't know. You want to say you have nothing to lose, that you couldn't leave if you wanted to. You're not sure about that. Maybe Cuicatl's right. Maybe you could. But you won't.

"I think we win," you tell her. "There are a lot of people who are mad. A lot of pokémon, too. They can't keep fighting all of us if we go into the forest or something."

Loudred rolls her eyes but goes back to her laundry.

"Why did Cuicatl attack Armoranth?"

"Well, Shirona's togekiss showed up."

That causes her to freeze up. She doesn't say anything, though.

"Armoranth had to reveal herself. Said that we had a bargain and, uh, Cuicatl tried to free me. Attacked with her metang and threatened to kill her unless she let me go. Armoranth freaked out. Said that her aunt, the, um, the florges we met in Hau'oli, would kill her. That didn't work. Threatened to make me slit my throat and that got her to back off."

"And then they let you go? Cuicatl and the togekiss?"

"Yeah."

"And Cuicatl would risk her life for your sake?"

"Said so."

"Perhaps she's usable. I will look into the fairies. Can also help you with the vikavolt. I had one."

Right. You assume she had six pokémon. Probably finished the island challenge with her strength. Don't know what the others were but a vikavolt fits her vibe.

"Why'd it leave?"

"They're not made to be cooped up inside."

Oh. "Mine's going to leave, too?"

"Probably." She looks at you from the corner of her eye while folding up a shirt. "You going to fight it?"

"No."

"Good."

She doesn't really dismiss you. Doesn't tell you to go away.

"Do you, uh, want help with the laundry?"

Loudred flicks her head between you and the ground next to her. You get the hint. It's pretty peaceful doing routine work over and over again in silence. You're not alone or anything. This is probably as close as Loudred gets to group bonding.

You don't know how to ask her if you can do it again sometime.

July 15, 2020

"You basically have two choices," you tell Leilani. She stares back with the endless patience of a bug. Her compound eyes bore into yours and you have no idea how she's feeling. At least Cuicatl could talk to her bug directly. You have to use a translator who still hasn't made any signs she's going to apologize. "You can stay here with me. I'll keep looking after you. Make sure you have food. Protection while you sleep. Give you tips for getting stronger. But you'd have to stay with me. Couldn't fly too far. Or, you can get your own food and trust that nothing attacks while you're asleep. You could do go where you wanted."

She doesn't respond, even after Armoranth would have long finished translating.

"You don't have to decide now. Can still grow. Fine if you stay with me for a while and then change your mind. You can do that. The other way, too, if you leave and want to come back."

After a moment's consideration, he buzzes his wings.

"Wants to know if he can go flying again."

"Again? You just went—" You check your phone "—two hours ago."

You had to follow him outside, of course. Can't trust him to wander yet like Moe.

"If you spent your life eating dirt and then could fly far above it, would you ever want to stop?" Armoranth asks.

If you could fly…

You've thought about what it would be like to have Cuicatl's powers. Probably could have avoided some fuckups with your team. Could coordinate better in battles. Probably wouldn't change your life, though. Flight would be cool. But you have planes and flying pokémon and shit. Nah, if you wanted a power you've always said you'd go with shapeshifting because—

Oh.

Is that what it's like for a vikavolt to fly? To finally become the thing they were always supposed to be after a lifetime of wondering if it would ever get better? You wouldn't accept getting to be a boy twice a day for an hour at a time. You can't go back once you've lived for real.

This isn't going to work.

"Okay, change in plans. I'm not keeping you in here. You can zip around town. I'll come out to the field a few times a day to feed you or give you training. Uh, just tell me if you think you'll be leaving for a few days so I don't come looking for you. And you can sleep in your ball at night if you want. That good?"

She answers much more quickly.

"Great. I guess I can take you outside?" You don't really have anything lined today up other than TV. You ran out of good books around and didn't want to be seen at a library so now you're just watching long-cancelled shows to the end. Some of the others can join you in that. It's feeding Moe enough that you can skip out on today.

Leilani buzzes her assent and you withdraw her.

"I think you handled that well," Armoranth praises.

"Yeah…"

She looks up and leans on her flower. "You've been distant. Why?"

You just fucking stare at her. Doesn't she get it? How would she not? She threatened to kill you this week and hasn't said a damn thing about it.

"Did your meeting with Cuicatl shake you that badly?"

You blink. Do you even dignify this with a response? Does it help you plan against her if she thinks you aren't upset?

She huffs. "As your master, I order you to answer me."

You brace yourself for your mouth to open against its will. For secrets to come out. Nothing does. It's just the same as your baby sister trying to bully you. If you had a sister.

You do, kind of, and she thinks you're throwing your life away.

Anyway, it's good that you don't have to answer. Means her threats were empty. Unless she's getting you to drop her guard?

"You threatened to kill me and now you want everything to be normal."

"I used what leverage I had to get us both out of the situation safely."

"I think I was safe either way."

"No, you were not. Letting me die while you stood by and did nothing would violate your bargain and earn the wrath of the fey reserved for oathbreakers. You would have survived the night but not much longer."

You roll your eyes. "If you'd let me talk it out, she would've come to her senses. She's not that violent."

Well. She believes in human sacrifice "for the greater good." And you've seen her take a nap next to a tyrantrum with human blood drifting from its mouth. Let her pokémon get beaten up to make a point. Kind of threatened to kill a kahuna during a match. Yeah, she'd definitely kill for you. It's kind of sweet. Really fucked up though.

"Scratch that she is that violent but now you've made her think you're a threat to me. She's suicidal. Doesn't give a fuck if you threaten her. Didn't get to see you be reasonable. Her first and last impressions were you threatening to kill me."

"Fairies do not make mistakes," Armoranth says, every word picked carefully. "As such I made no mistakes. I could see, hypothetically, why someone might think mistakes were made while a blade was at my throat and a madwoman was threatening my life. They would be wrong, but I can understand why they might have those incorrect opinions."

That sounds as close to an apology as you're going to get from her.

"Would you have actually killed me?"

"I did not," she snaps.

She's floating a foot off the ground now. Hovering closer to your face. If you keep snapping at her and she can kill you with words, might be best to back down now.

"Fine. Let's let Leilani fly."

Armoranth doesn't like the garage. It smells like an old gasoline spill and there are stains on the floor you don't want to guess the origin of. Not like you actually keep a car here, anymore. Where would you drive it when you don't want to leave the building? It's a good place to do dirty work and to talk without Armoranth listening. You can pretend you're there for the dirty work and actually be there to talk.

"So," Golbat asks, "why'd you want me here?"

You rub a rag soaked with polish over Kapuna's rocky shell. They vibrate happily in place before stilling as you hit a crystal. You polish that more thoroughly.

"Armoranth."

"You have been nervous around her. Now Loudred's looking at her like she's a target. Those related?"

"Yeah. Cuicatl sent her metang after Armoranth, she freaked out, threatened to make me slit my own throat. Won't say if she could or not. I don't think she could but don't want to find out. She kind of apologized later, said she was stressed, didn't actually kill me, wants it all to go away. And I have no idea what the hell to do." You press down harder in frustration. Kapuna just presses back. Seems to like it. Should you have always been pressing harder?

"Shit's fucked," Golbat sagely advises.

"Shit's fucked," you agree.

"Do you want advice, a venting partner, something else?"

"Advice, I think. Dunno if you've dealt with fairies."

"Haven't. An old teammate had a clefairy but we never really interacted much."

Right. She's been at Skull for a long time. This wouldn't be her first squad. Or her second. "What happened to him?"

"Left when Guzma quit." She shrugs. "Most of us who still had a place to go went to the exits. It's why Plumeria could make the changes she did. All of the people still left with her didn't like the way things were in the world, even if they weren't Alolan themselves."

You frown. That brings you to another thing that's bothering you. "Loudred doesn't think we're going to win."

"Define 'win' here."

"Win. You know," you gesture wildly with your free hand. "Kick the Americans out. Bring Alola back to its people. What Plumeria talks about. Winning."

Golbat laughs softly. It seems out of place with her scars and missing teeth. That someone who looks so rough could make a noise that delicate. "When Plumeria says it, you can almost believe. But look at us. We're a bunch of teenagers and twenty-somethings with less than two dozen pokémon between us. It's enough to do hit and runs, burn down some buildings, harass tourists, whatever. Actually fighting? That's not what we're for. I think a lot of people would leave if they expected to get a gun pulled on them during a mission. Take their chances somewhere else."

Even Golbat doesn't believe. Then why are you here? What's the point? She must see the questions on your face.

"I think we're doing good. I think we'll keep doing good. But no one thinks we'll take the whole country, you know? If anyone in the government thought we had a chance they would've shot us all a long time ago."

You turn away from her. Back to Kapuna. Put a little more force into it. They bob up and down. Seem to like it. You do want to get them polished. Talking was kind of a secondary thing. It just took over.

"Back to Armoranth," Golbat says. "Sounds like she was being childish and scared. But—um, actually how old is she?"

"Seventy."

"Fuck. Okay, so, she's not growing up any time soon and she'll be scared again. Even if you forgive her for this one, what are you going to do about the next time?"

"I don't know."

Kapuna twists under you to look straight at you. Wait. Shit. They're also a fairy.

"You going to tell Armoranth about this?"

They slowly shake side to side. Don't say anything else. Can't say anything else. You could get the abra out here but then if Armoranth found out you were using another translator she'd get really suspicious. Damn it having Cuicatl's power would actually be really nice right now.

"Even if they don't, you really do need to talk to Armoranth about this. Sounds like you're stuck together. And unless you want to get rid of her…"

"I don't."

"Then you'll need to talk. Again. About where the lines are. And if she won't agree to them," she shrugs. "Hits close to home, you know? Losing control of your body. I'll do what I have to for you. I hope you know that."

"Her aunt would kill you."

Golbat shrugs. "She can try. We stick up for our own. That includes you."

"Thanks." You want to say more. Tell her not to? Fuck no. You would like to be avenged. Give advice on fighting The Lady of the Scarlet Forest? You don't have a clue.

"Don't mention it." She says it like she offered to hold the door or something. Not kill and be killed.

You don't know how to answer that. You don't. Just go back to polishing Kapuna until you can't justify staying in the garage any longer.

July 15, 2020

Showers are still uncomfortable. Feeling water on your chest, drying it off, even having to wrap your towel high above your waist can still set you off. And you do have to linger afterwards. Putting on the binder against wet skin feels really weird. You find yourself drawn to the mirror. Ordinarily you know damn well not to look. But it's an anniversary. Your first, even. Might as well see what a year of testosterone can (and can't) do. You rub away a patch of fog and—honestly, you're surprised how little it bothers you. It's hard to say when it happened, but your face became harder. Rougher. There's even some stubble grown out. You'll pretend that's from six hours without shaving instead of six weeks. Had to trim the moustache, though, since it's still really damn wispy and you got made fun of at dinner for it. Machoke had to pull you aside and tell you that not everyone can handle facial hair early in puberty. Or late in puberty. He confessed that it still looks patchy and awkward when he tries.

That made you feel a little better.

You skirt your gaze right past your chest to the rest of your body. Wouldn't call yourself muscular or anything but you aren't twig-scrawny. The hair on your legs is more of a blanket than it ever was before. And at least you're trans masc—dressing lazily works in your favor. Couldn't imagine having to fuss around with makeup just to be validated.

There's room for improvement. There always is. Always will be. You should probably work out more since you have pretty much nothing else to do. Cranidos invited you to work out with him but he can lift so, so much more than you and you might've gotten angry and lashed out. You know you should apologize. See if he'd help you despite it. Maybe you'll do that tomorrow. Someone bangs on the door. Even the groan you let out is effortlessly deep.

No. It's not perfect. But it's night and day compared to a year ago.

July 24, 2020

You had assumptions of how things would go when Machoke told you Skull was robbing an art museum. A crack team dancing around tripwires, opening safes, carefully replacing paintings with forgeries—truth's way more boring. You're bringing a hammer instead of a scalpel. Just a ton of trainers are going to swarm the outside of the museum and fight off the cops while non-combatants loot what they can get their hands on.

Golbat asked what the plan was if Selene or Hala or someone like that showed up. Apparently, they used small teams now because throwing everyone in one place hadn't worked when Selene showed up to Po Town to fight them all.

"That's the genius," Machoke had answered with an easy smile. "Everyone scary will be on Poni hearing a thesis defense. We'll just be stalling out normal cops."

"Getting out?" Loudred asked. "What if they have mean look. We're giving them all the time in the world to get their assets together."

"Boss has a plan. You trust her?"

Loudred had begrudgingly backed down.

Turns out that when Machoke said "a lot of units," he'd meant pretty much all of them. You're doing a flash mob sort of thing. The sun went down a while ago but the lights are still on and the streets have enough tourists you can blend in. Simple street clothes with a baclava in your pocket. Machoke says there's a rotom messing with the nearby cameras.

You're walking a winding path towards downtown with Machoke and Loudred. The girl's eyes constantly swivel at anything that moves as she looks for threats. Full mission mode. She practically jumps out of her skin when Machoke puts a hand on her back. "Easy. We're here for a good time, remember? Just try to relax."

She hisses quietly but does make an effort to look straight ahead, head locked in place and fists clenched at her sides. Almost looks more suspicious.

"You find anything on Armoranth?" you ask. She's staying home since she didn't want to go in a ball. Pretty sure she blew a blood vessel or two when Machoke suggested she hide in a stroller. At least she was yelling at someone else about treating her as a child when she was three times his age. He'd just seemed amused.

"Nothing solid," she says. "A pink or purple florges might be able to. Maybe a blue. She's just a floette and neither colors. Seems like whites can do a little of everything. Probably couldn't make you if you had halfway decent telepathic resistance training."

"But, like, is the fairy bargain binding?"

"Don't think so. Otherwise, they wouldn't need to punish oathbreakers so much. It's just a contract with the death penalty and a rigged court."

"Way better."

She shrugs. "It's why you don't bargain with them."

Your breath hitches when the Royal Museum comes into view. It's an old stone building with grand columns and bright white paint and all the stuff you'd see in a stuffy building in Washington or Europe. But it's more open. Breathable. Bigger doors, bigger balconies… look, you're not an architect. You learned in school that the last queen commissioned a bunch of those things to make Western visitors think that your country was just like theirs.

They overthrew it anyway and turned the buildings into museums.

You look around the plaza in front of the museum. It's a small park with lawns, a few flower gardens, statues to dead people who probably did war crimes, all that. There are roads on three sides and the museum on the fourth. More people out than you'd expect this time of night. Mostly young people in groups of three or five. A few picknickers. What seems to be a date. A middle-aged man sitting on a bench and staring vacantly into the middle distance. Some homeless people the cops haven't gotten around to moving out of the tourist area yet. You can kind of guess which are and aren't Skull, but if you didn't already know what was going to happen you wouldn't have a clue.

In the distance you spot Golbat, Cranidos, and Yungoos. You're pretty sure they're going in to fight or at least annoy security.

"How much longer?"

"Just a bit," Machoke answers.

You find a patch of grass towards the middle of the park and just stand around. Someone really should talk or something. This has to look really suspicious. Machoke just keeps an eye on the museum entrance. Looks like you're supposed to walk in on the second floor. A flight of stairs leads up to it.

The light flickers on the steps and Plumeria suddenly appears with an abra. A gengar forms a moment later, prepares an attack, and shatters the glass on the doors. An alarm begins to blare from inside the museum and a small mob forms to rush in behind her, either through doors on the first floor or up the stairs and into the museum. You do your best to slip your mask on.

It's uh. You need more practice on whipping it on and off quickly. Machoke is already shouting orders to the crowd by the time you can breathe and have most of your face covered. Loudred rolls her eyes at you. Great. First really big mission and you've already embarrassed yourself.

Most of the bystanders leave quickly and without a fight. Some run immediately. Some seem to take a moment to understand what's happening. The middle-aged man just looks around, gets up, and calmly walks away while muttering something under his breath. There are exceptions. The guy in one couple has sent out a dartrix and makuhita and starts fighting the nearby grunts. A homeless woman is loudly arguing with another about something you can't hear while the grunt tries to calm her down and get her to leave. Overall, though, it goes pretty smooth. In the park.

Traffic's a different story. There are instantly, like, three crashes in the confusion. At least one pedestrian gets hit while running away from you. The car alarms are louder than the one from the museum.

Okay. Maybe some more thought should've gone into this. You didn't want innocent people to get hurt.

You gesture towards a pedestrian who got knocked down to the road. "Should we help them, or…"

"Best leave it be. If we help then the cops will think they're with us."

"Oh."

Loudred sends out her froslass and has her start freezing the ground in front of her. Machoke sends out a gigalith, forretress, claydol, and nosepass. Oh. That's why you don't see his pokémon much. They're all rocks. Not great on quick-moving missions and don't need a lot of attention. Three of them start setting up a ton of stealth rocks while the claydol forms a barrier. You send out Kapuna to help set light screen.

It takes about a minute for the first cop car to show up. They pull up to the square, lights and sirens flashing, and then just sit there. No one gets out.

You look towards Loudred. "Don't want to fight without numbers on their side."

"Do we take the fight to them, or…?"

"I'm happy to stall."

"Okay." You send out Anuenue and Moe, just to be safe. Loudred follows with her scyther and houndoom.

It takes another few minutes for more cops to arrive. None of them deal with the injured. They just form a line of riot shields facing the museum and start to slowly advance from the street. More cops are streaming in from the sides. "How many cops do they have?"

"Few hundred on the force. Hard to tell how many they send."

"Anyone they can find," Loudred answers. Skull's formed a loose semicircle around the main entrance. The side entrances all have about a half-dozen people guarding them. Probably the same around back. You still have a slight numbers advantage now. That's changing quickly.

The cops stop about thirty feet away from you. Their pokémon are mostly in front of the shield wall with a reflect or something in front of it from an unseen pokémon. In front are the combat ready ones. A lot of growlithe. A sandshrew. Some machop and machoke. Even a sudowoodo. Behind them are a few birds like talonflame and even a fucking braviary. One takes out a megaphone.

"Stand down and disperse. I repeat: stand down and disperse. Anyone who remains will be charged with trespassing and being an accessory to grand theft."

No one does.

Someone whistles—you don't know on what side—and chaos reigns.

The psychic barriers glow even brighter and Skull's pokémon spend a moment getting the hazards just right. One of the cops does a dance—Z-dance—and the braviary cries out before flapping his wings and causing a massive gust. The other birds help.

The hazards start to drift back towards your line. Shit.

"Moe, gust!" The growlithe run forward and Anuenue barrels into one without orders and just keeps running through the headwind, spikes, stealth rock, everything. He loses steam when he hits the shimmering barrier but keeps going until he slams into a shield and knocks down a cop. Someone pulls a gun—a fucking gun—on him and you withdraw him really quick. Thankfully you didn't freeze then. You do afterwards. Holy fuck they have guns and are going to use them.

"Focus," Loudred snaps. Her froslass is icing down no man's land to make it slippery. Her houndoom is whipping around and snarling at two growlithe. Scyther is dueling the sudowoodo, weaving between thrown rocks and getting in brutal cuts. Machoke's gigalith and nosepass aren't visibly doing anything, but the stealth rocks around them stop getting blown back. Beside him, forretress is laying down webs that are harder to blow back. Two dozen other little fights rage all along the line.

You send Anuenue back out. "Stick by me, okay. Just fight anything that gets close."

He seems reluctant but does stomp his foot and look back out at the cops without charging. There are so many more of them now. They've already replaced the ones Anuenue hurt and filled in the line more on all sides. Suddenly a group steps away and leaves a gap. Grass-types take the field. Parasect, shiinotic, a venusaur. Spores fill the air. The tailwind carries them towards you.

"Moe!" He understands. Lowers himself behind you and starts to use gust at ground level to keep them away. Not everyone's as lucky. Some pokémon and grunts slow down or even fall asleep where they stand. At least it's nonlethal.

Nonlethal until an overeager growlithe lets loose a flame burst into the cloud. One moment it's green and hazy. The next there's an explosion and half the park is on fucking fire. Including some of the grunts. Some of the sleeping grunts. Bastards. Was that on purpose? An accident? Do they care? An abra teleports in to get them to safety. Then another. When the third shows up a murkrow dive bombs him and forces him to the ground.

While you're busy looking at all that a machop has run closer and Anuenue headbutts him. He dodges out of the way and keeps running towards you. A sudden blast of ice from Loudred's froslass freezes him to the ground. A shadow ball from Moe hits him in the chest while he's struggling to get out. Anuenue finishes the job with a stomp.

No one withdraws him. Out of range? Don't notice? Don't care?

Skull's using water-types to keep the fire from spreading. The cops have sent the braviary closer to it to make sure it spreads in the right direction. Towards a fucking museum. Towards people if that matters. Skull's almost entirely surrounded now by faceless men hiding behind giant shields and literal attack dogs.

A gun fires somewhere. Then another. And another. Guess they've given up on the pokémon battle. Machoke slams you to the ground as a bullet flies over your head.

"Reflect should slow them down," he says straight into your ear. "Don't panic. They'll be done soon." For the first time since you know him he sounds genuinely worried. Is he trying to reassure you or himself? A gun goes off close by and Anuenue roars. They shot him? They fucking shot your pokémon? Was he behind the reflect or—doesn't matter. You withdraw him. Can look at it later.

"Let's get behind Onyx," Machoke says before crawling away. An onix? There's no onix here—the gigalith. He's crawling towards the gigalith. You join him. It's slow going since a lot of spikes and jagged rocks have been blown towards you. A spike pricks your leg but you hiss and get going. Better to bleed a little than get shot. The cops are getting closer as they use their shields to push away the hazards you set. Moe still floats above firing off shadow balls at the advancing police and pokémon. Kapuna body slams a growlithe. It doesn't matter. You're slowly losing and they have guns. Maybe they'll kill you all.

Are you fine with that? Is this what you wanted?

…how mad will Cuicatl be? Won't even get to tell you 'I told you so.'

You look back towards the museum and see Plumeria come out. Oh thank fuck. Help. Moe stops firing and slowly turns around to look towards the boss. So do Loudred's froslass and a half-dozen other ghosts on both sides of the battlefield.

"What's happening?" you ask him. A feeling crawls through you. Into you. His version of telepathy. The memory of the queen's grave floats into your head and your eyes are involuntarily drawn towards Plumeria's hand. There's something in it. Metallic and sharp. A knife? The fuck does she think a knife will do. She needs to get out here, now—

An abra flickers into being beside her and she disappears.

Did she just—

No—

She can't—

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

"Plumeria ran away," you tell Machoke.

He swears. Loudly.

Yeah.

You think you might be well and truly fucked.