AUTHOR NOTE:
So i decided to change the title from "Weekend at Brendan's" to A Gang Sworn to Bushido." I've never changed a title of a "published" work in progress before but i feel that it will fit better with the vibe of the tale from here on out as i realize that comedy is more the lesser genre used than drama. i apologize if this upsetting and ask for your thoughts below. As always, i love you guys :)
Chapter 6: A Seriously Messed Up Afternoon on Route 104
"What…What do you mean his DEAD BODY!" the male grunt asked of his female counterpart. He was perplexed by the last remark she gave and immediately needed an answer. The female grunt looked absolutely puzzled by the question, it seemed to her an obvious one.
"Well we are supposed to take him to Maxie after the serum takes care of him aren't we." The male grunt nodded in affirmation to the question. "So then, what does Maxie want with his dead body?"
"He doesn't want his dead body, he wants us to knock him unconscious so we can capture him and then take him to the Team Magma Base without seeing where it is located."
"OHHHHH….yeah….that might not happen like that…" the female grunt replied in embarrassment.
"What do you mean? Please share your concerns about the plan." He began twitching as every word that fell from the girl's mouth brought up more tension for the male.
"Well I used a deadly poison dart, not a tranquillizer dart." She began laughing in embarrassment at the mix up of darts. However, the male grunts jaw hit the floor in shock at the revelation. "So the boy will be dead in a few minutes." The male grunt slapped the girl across the face as hard as he could muster. He then began storming off in the direction of the base.
"We need to go and let Maxie know about this mess. I just hope he spares my life, yours on the other hand is without a doubt forfeit." The girl's laughter turned to shuttering as she frantically chased after the male grunt; her only goal now was to help shape the story for the boss so that she was not going to be killed for her failure.
….
As the gang exited the woods of Petalburg, a new light of hope seemed to ring about the air, almost as if everything just seemed peaceful for a change. The pokemon with Brendan were at peace and surprisingly so was he. "You guys are really kicking serious butt out there!" Brendan said to his pokemon friends. He was truly amazed at their progress in power and skill, but mainly at how well they kept themselves together as a unit. "Come on guys, let's go onward to Rustboro.
Soon however as they continued down the road, the crew noticed Brendan seemed uncharacteristically winded and exhausted. The boy was sweating profusely and panting as if he had not tasted water in many days. "My word, I feel rather hot guys." The boy said to his friends. "Lets stop up here for a quick rest. Maybe that will make me feel better." The gag stopped next to the small lake, and set up a couple of bedding for Brendan to rest upon. The boy seemed to be getting even more exhausted from before when they were marching. Soon the kid began coughing and his eyes turned blood red, as vessels burst forth in agonizing pain.
"He looks horrible." Said Katsuie. "We should give him some space to rest. The group instantly withdrew a few feet to give Brendan a bit of space. All except for Nagamasa who laid down beside his friend and master as the boy panted and coughed wildly.
"I'm going to stay by his side for comfort." Nagamasa said to the others. He nuzzled up with the boy and began to pray that a miracle would happen and the boy would find relief from the tormenting cough that so ailed him.
Soon though Brendan began to figure out what the issue was, what it was that caused his health to so rapidly decline. "Guys…it was the red guy in the forest." It took Brendan great effort now to even form the simplest of words with his swollen tongue and pumping heart. He gingerly lifted his arm and rubbed the spot where the needle hit him whilst I the woods. All the pokemon noticed this and began to grow angrier toward the man from Team Magma they ran into while in the woods. "They shot me with some powerful poison….keep….keep on guard." Brendan mouthed the words to his friends; at the same time his arm dropped back to his side as the boy felt it taking too much effort to hold it upright.
"You heard him guys, keep an eye out. Stay alert!" Mitsuhide said to the party. All stood watch even Nagamasa joined the perimeter, as Brendan seemed to have passed out from the drug's serum.
"Sleep well Brendan, and know that we have you covered." Nagamasa said to his unconscious master as he licked his face before helping set up a watch around the campsite. The group was resolved to be sure that nothing further would disturb their master as he rested to regain his strength.
After a couple hours, the group felt a bit more at ease, as they believed that if the enemy had intentions to strike then they would have done so by this point. "Look, they would have made a move by this point." Motonari said to the others. "I think we are in the clear by now, besides we are out of the forest as well, where they would be more prone to attacking our retinue." The team scaled back and simply began to lay down as rest as their master was at the moment.
"He sure looks peaceful." Masamune said to the gang.
"Yeah, he needs his rest, if he is going to beat that poison." Mitsuhide replied. The gang cozied up around Brendan and the cart used to haul Katsuie and other items. Nagamasa waltzed over and rest his head upon the sleeping boy who was hunched over leaning forward with his head drooped to the ground ahead of him.
"You're so exhausted Brendan, I hope you get well rested." Nagamasa spoke softly to the boy. He nuzzled up to the boy rubbing his back…..
"CRASH!" Brendan completely fell forward onto his face pushing up harder against his neck than before. Nagamasa and the others panicked and repositioned their master onto his back as quickly as they realized that Brendan was not responding to the stress of the movement of his body. Masamune expressed how the boy felt surprisingly limp as they repositioned him. The others agreed that Brendan's body gave a lot more than a person normally would when moving it. This brought up some interesting questions among the group.
"He sure is sleeping hard, isn't he guys." Said Katsuie to the gang. Nagamasa moved closer to listen to Brendan and see if he was breathing okay.
"GUYS!" the zigzagoon pushed away in shock. "Brendan is not breathing at all!" This panic set off the alarm amongst the crew as each one moved up to examine Brendan. While they were at first in utter disbelief of Nagamasa's testimony, within a matter of seconds their perspective on the situation altered drastically.
"Is he dead?" Masamune asked of the group. Nagamasa still remained frazzled and off in the distance. Motonari attempted to answer the question, and with his usual regal jargon of course.
"Well, his breathing has ceased. Perhaps he is in a comatose state, or perhaps his spirit has indeed fled from our side." The bird said while perched atop the poochyena. Mitsuhide being the most adventurous of the party, grabbed a nearby stick and started poking Brendan with it in random places, hoping to see a reaction from the boy.
Shaking his head however, after a few seconds the treecko gave his answer. "No he's dead guys." The treecko stepped a few paces backward and folded his arms in an upset manner.
"How do you know he's dead, you are not a chansey!" Katsuie hollered at Mitsuhide.
"Screw you I know stuff!" Mitsuhide replied.
"Oh yeah, poking him with a stick a few times will tell if he is dead or alive huh!" Katsuie snarked back toward the treecko.
"No of course not, but he crapped his pants." Replied the treecko.
"What does that have to do with it?" Masamune remarked.
"Everything!" Mitsuhide retorted. "When you die you grease yourself." The treecko said looking to the group. "That is common knowledge."
"How is that common knowledge if we don't know that?" retorted Nagamasa.
"I don't know, but it means he is dead, I know about this stuff."
"You don't know about this stuff!" replied Masamune.
"Fuck you, I know stuff!" replied the treecko. It was without question that Brendan or someone had in fact made a stinky mess. The smell lingered and thickened the air in an unsavory manner than plagued the group. The questions stopped as all began to move in and in their own way realize mentally that Brendan, their trainer, was dead. All five gathered around the body. As they looked on their lifeless master's body the group broke down. Even Mitsuhide who had picked up the stick and began poking the body of Brendan once more.
"Cut it out Mitsuhide." Asked Nagamasa of his friend. All were in shock of the death of the boy, yet Nagamasa seemed to be taking the death the hardest, at least for the moment. The zigzagoon backed away from the corpse and began bellowing out cries of anguish. Masamune however was feeling a similar fit of rage brewing in his heart and the dog soon grabbed Nagamasa and pulled him aside.
"Come with and let's make every bastard trainer on this route pay!" Nagamasa overcome with grief shook his head in disagreement with the poochyena. "Fine." The dog replied. "I'll just seek my own appetite." The poochyena let out a bellowing howl and ran further down the route, his only goal was to make every trainer and pokemon he could find pay for the horror against Brendan.
"Masamune!" Motonari hollered as the beast darted off. The bird was confused and upset as to why the dog left the group. Tears began welling up over the bird as he needed a shoulder to cry on in the moment.
"Let him have some air, Motonari." Replied the treecko, "he'll return to us once he has had time to cool off and recover from the horror." Mitsuhide closed the eyes of his departed friend and trainer. He thought back to all the memoires the crew shared together. All the times he had been reprimanded for poking people with sticks. All the times that Brendan sat back and naively watched as Mitsuhide led the charge into battle. Mitsuhide shook his head in disbelief at the situation. "Guys, help me bury our master." The four still with the group all agreed as they picked a spot a few feet from where Brendan's corpse lay dead. All pitched in as within nearly half an hour of silent digging the crew dug a sufficient grave for the boy. Katsuie and Mitsuhide stripped Brendan of his backpack, and other items used by a pokemon trainer like his pokedex and watch. Then the group rolled him gently into the grave. Once Brendan hit the bottom of the hole, the group quickly plowed the dirt back atop him.
The burial was quick as they had him safely in the ground and covered. "Motonari, before we say a few words for the boy go and find Masamune." Nagamasa said to the wingull. Motonari darted off in the direction Masamune had head earlier. In the meantime, the others built a hedge marking to distinguish the dirt from the rest of the area. They placed rocks and a few sticks around the replaced dirt to mark the spot. Katsuie was overwhelmed and eventually had to stop and breathe while the others kept placing stones until the job was complete.
For the wingull, is task was not a pleasant one as Masamune had run off in a heated storm of rage fit for the mightiest of blood lusts. Soon the bird had reached an area of great terror to the eyes, as a dead trainer lay with four half-eaten Magicarp lying about. Further along a couple other dead pokemon lay about the area, from here a blood trail with paw prints flowed down the path. The bird followed these eerie markings. Hoping only to see his friend and mount Masamune along the path still in good health. "Ohhh, please be okay Masamune." The wingull said as he flew the blood trail. After a couple moments, almost as far as the main entrance to Rustburo City was the poochyena covered in blood, with dead pokemon scattered about him, blood all around him, pooling near his feet. The poochyena was visibly scarred and worn out from the fighting. The dog panted wildly as a child coming down from a tantrum. He soon kneeled down and covered his eyes with his paws and began to cry incessantly. Motonari flew over to the dog and landed outside of the pooling blood eager to comfort his friend. He hoisted the poochyena up off the ground and embrace the dog by wrapping his wings around him. The two began to cry further in agony for the situation at hand.
"Why…why…how did we let Brendan die?" Masamune asked as he continued crying on the wingull's shoulder. Motonari simply kept quiet as the two comforted each other in the field surrounded by strewn corpses and blood all at the hands of an enraged poochyena.
"We need you back at the grave Masamune. We need you to say goodbye properly." Motonari said to his friend. The poochyena agreed and simply asked the bird for a few more minutes to collect himself before they headed back to the group. Motonari accepted and the two continued to sit and collect themselves for a couple minutes further.
Before long Masamune and Motonari had returned to the gang at the gravesite and all gathered around to say goodbye to their friend. "Masamune, its good to have you back brother." Nagamasa said to the dog. The two embraced and held on for a couple extra seconds to show the passion and strength of their friendship in the hug.
"Same here brother. We've been waiting…perhaps you could provide a eulogy for us Masamune?" the treecko asked his friend. Mitsuhide realized that while Masamune wasn't the most couth speaker in the gang, he was the boldest, and sometimes being bold is really the best thing for such a situation as this that just requires laying everything on the table and telling it straight. The poochyena was honored at the request of Mitsuhide. He smiled and nodded as the others smiled at the thought.
"Brendan….I miss you already. You caught me, and the others. You told us about EV training, and other things. You taught us how to us a pokedex and such. We swore to protect you, and we failed…please forgive us." Masamune began tearing up as he asked his dead master for forgiveness. All began weeping as well at the comment. However the dog was not over. "Permit us now, to use the bond of friendship that we now share to continue your quest for justice." All perked up and felt a fire burning in their eyes at the comment made by the poochyena. "I invoke the code of Bushido upon myself. I will vanquish the Team Magma people and restore Brendan's name, or die trying." The dog then bit into his own hand and spread his blood over the grave of Brendan. "Go with Arceus!"
"Go with Arceus!" the others said. Tension hung as the others heard the words of the dog and were waiting mostly to see the response of Mitsuhide to Masamune invoking Bushido for himself. They wondered if the treecko would join or if he would shake his hand and leave.
"Masamune!" the treecko spoke up after realizing that the others were looking toward him for the answer as to what was to happen. "I will join you on your quest for Bushido!"
"Swear it!" the dog remarked Mitsuhide extended his hand and the dog down until he bleed. "I swear the code of Bushido upon myself. I will vanquish the Team Magma people and restore Brendan's name, or die trying." The treecko said the words to the delight of Masamune, the two embraced and smiled as they felt strength for their cause together. Then without a moment's hesitation next to the two friends were the hands of the other three pokemon extended, ready to swear for the oath. Masamune smiled as he bit into each one and the others then spoke.
"I swear the code of Bushido upon myself. I will vanquish the Team Magma people and restore Brendan's name, or die trying." Pride was in the face of each person, as they knew they were still running the course of their mission from before, but while in the past it was Brendan's mission of redemption, it was now his pokemon's journey of vengeance. Happily yet with heavy hearts, they gathered up everything and threw it all in the pull-cart with Katsuie as they marched forward on the road toward Rustboro and their next challenge, the gym.
"Wait!" Katsuie hollered.
"What is it brother?" Nagamasa asked as the troop halted their advance.
"How are we going to compete in gyms and clear Brendan's name?" the group instantly understood the complexity of the situation.
"Well…we have his pokedex and trainer id, which should work to get us a battle. Right?" Masamune inquired with severe doubt in his voice.
Shaking his head no, Motonari disagreed. "No, those ID cards don't cover the fact that we are a trainer-less bunch of pokemon running about. They are more likely to try and catch us than battle us." All nodded at that level of reasoning. "But their must be some kind of way that we could do this."
Then a light bulb went off in Mitsuhide's head as he looked at Katsuie's fur atop his head. He pulled Nagamasa beside him and while looking at the head of the slakoth, he asked his friend, "Does his hair look familiar?" Nagamasa lit up with joy and nodded his head after a few seconds to ponder the idea. Mitsuhide smiled as he raised his hand to disclose the idea. "Alright we'll have Katsuie pose as Brendan. After all he looks sort of like him with that hair." The others tilted their head while looking at the slakoth and shrugged as they had no better an idea. Katsuie simply scratched his head in confusion at the notion.
"How would I be able to battle then?" Katsuie asked.
"You don't, we do and you just play trainer to get us into the gyms and such." Said Nagamasa.
"But I can't speak human." The slakoth posed another issue.
"Well then just be silent, and let others do the whole monologue thing." Mitsuhide replied. "All we need is for you to pose as the trainer and then we have a way into the battles we need."
"Alright then let's do it…I'll be Brendan." He said with a huff in his voice as he was not excited about playing a dead human and never battling again. The group smiled as once again they were heading down the path, and then another question came up. "Wait! How am I going to not be recognized as a slakoth, I mean I may be able to be disguised as Brendan but I'm not even wearing any clothes right now." The thought halted the crew once more from pushing forward down the route.
After a few moments Mitsuhide snapped his fingers and marched the group back the way they came to the confusion of the posse. As the group neared the gravesite of the boy a growing suspicion began to take hold of Nagamasa as they edged closer and closer without an answer from the treecko. Finally, the suspicion overtook the zigzagoon and he had to ask as Mitsuhide stopped right at the boy's grave. "Mitsuhide, what are we doing back here?" he asked of his friend. The treecko turned around and gave his reply.
"TADA!" he replied while pointing at the grave. The others just scratched their heads while Nagamasa gulped. "Look we need to better disguise Katsuie as a human right…" as he paused for a moment to nod his head to solicit support, the others soon nodded in agreement with him. "Then we need clothes to make that happen…" the nod pause repeated itself. "Then we'll just take Brendan's clothes!" the group gasped at the thought at the moment the treecko finished his sentence.
"NO NO NO NO!" the zigzagoon replied. "That's where I draw the line! I am not digging up a dead body just to steal his clothes!" the zigzagoon crossed his arms and turned away in disgust.
"We aren't really digging him up. Just think of it as repositioning him for a better eternal rest." The treecko tried to reason with his friend.
"I don't know about this Mitsuhide…this sounds wrong." Said Motonari. "Its Brendan's dead body."
"I get that, but we need clothes for Katsuie." The words hung in the air and eventually because no one could provide an easier method for attaining the appropriate attire for the slakoth the group consented and joined Mitsuhide in digging up Brendan. All except for Nagamasa who refused to partake despite it being a logical idea, as the zigzagoon just could not bring himself to dig up his former master.
Within a few moments the group reached Brendan and as Mitsuhide and Masamune twisted and turned the body to get his top clothes off Motonari lost his lunch all over the place just out of the grave. Mitsuhide with heavy disgust in his eyes carried on with the steel resolve of Masamune pushing him on in the task as they removed his shirt and placed it out of the grave. Katsuie seeing the mess made by Motonari began to look in Brendan's backpack for a potion to help calm the wingull down from the horror of the scene in front of the group. As he looked inside the bag he yelled, "AWWW SON OF A BITCH!" the others looked up as the slakoth pulled out of the bag a fresh set of clothes and shoes for the boy. Mitsuhide and Masamune immediately dropped the body back in place in disgust and sighed at the annoyance of the revelation. However, Nagamasa did not take the news in such stride. As the others reburied the boy in haste the zigzagoon tail-whipped the slakoth hard in the face. He then pinned Katsuie to the ground and yelled.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU CHECK THE BAG BEFORE WE DUG UP THE MASTER?" Nagamasa yelled with force and fire in his eyes.
"Because…you didn't ask me to." Katsuie mustered the best response as the others finished up replacing the dirt that was disturbed to get at the corpse. Nagamasa dismounted the slakoth as the zigzagoon simply laughed as he walked over to finish replacing the grave marking stones. Soon all began laughing hysterically at just how messed up they were as pokemon and how ridiculous their quest was ahead of the gang.
Katsuie got into the outfit and all agreed that he looked significantly more like a human than he did before and the group set back off toward Rustburo as they sought to continue onward in their quest to fulfill the Bushido vow, despite the awful setback they brought upon themselves. As they walked along the route, Masamune pipped up and spoke to the gang. "Hey when we get past this next bridge…pay now mind to the blood and dead bodies…"