Humans, Dolly decided, really can be a hindrance at times, especially when Velda's life is at stake.
Don't get her wrong, Flannery is fun to be with but it can get very annoyingly infuriating when she has to try and convey to her and the old guy Sebastian that despite looking like she's fine, Velda is actually not fine. She had sensed it not long after Velda had woken up, how a powerful curse- or maybe even curses- had been planted on Velda and that something had to be done about it before it's too late. Dolly does not have a very clear idea on what that curse might be, but she's willing to bet that the "Devouring" must have been some sort of curse.
She would have tried doing something immediately but she knew that she cannot afford to be interrupted while trying to save Velda. For Velda's sake, she cannot risk something like that happening no matter how small the chances of it occurring. Flannery and Sebastian are no pushovers and if they mistake her to be trying to harm Velda and somehow interrupt the process through force, then things will go very very badly for Velda. This was why she forced herself to be patient and tried to explain and convince them to allow her to do things her way, which wasted too much precious time in Dolly's opinion.
Thankfully, it's still not too late, and Flannery is a lot more trusting than Dolly expected her to be. Geez, where's Rena when she needed her the most? She would make for a much better translator than that stupid medicham- Oh, right, Rena had overexerted herself trying to protect Velda from the hordes of Team Plasma grunts back in Opelucid until Flannery arrived to save them. That inflexible psychic is still recuperating in her pokeball.
'You certain about this?' Wacky asked, still looking rather weak after what he had done to prevent the sudden surge of power from destroying Velda's body from the inside out when the Devouring first occurred. However, it seemed that they had underestimated the consequences of Devouring. The conclusion they came to was that what Wacky did turned out to be only a temporary solution after much discussion between the two of them.
'Vel's body is too weak to handle the strain of having so many abilities force fed into her at once. I mean, her health had definitely improved after the Devouring, so that's a plus, but it's…'
'Not enough?'
'Yeah, that,' Dolly agreed. 'And can you feel it? The presence of other souls in her mind? Like some sort of dirty stain lingering there trying to take control over her mind and I'm not going to stand for it. I'm not allowing some freak to try and possess Vel's body.'
'So what you gonna do? Finally open that mouth of yours again? The last time you did that you went crazy.'
'I can force myself to not do that if it's for Vel,' Dolly said determinedly as she floated over to her trainer's side, who was still sleeping on her bed. Dolly gently caressed her trainer's face with her arm, fondly remembering the first time they met in Dewford and how they ended up on a journey together. She's a very good friend and trainer, someone who gave her the sense of belonging she needed after she was abandoned by her previous trainer.
She has no idea what the Devouring is really trying to do to Velda's mind, but she's not going to let anything happen to Velda, ever.
'I'm starting it,' Dolly informed Wacky as she placed her arms on both sides of Velda's head and started to invoke her otherworldly powers to infiltrate Velda's mind. Truth to be told this is unfamiliar territory even for Dolly, but she should be able to work something out.
Come out, despicable parasites, let me eat you, Dolly thought hatefully as she peered and delved into the depths of Velda's mind. An ominous weight started to fill the space in Velda's room as the shadows swirled in response to her power, trying to eject the souls who forcefully entered Velda's mind and were trying to take over her body.
Dolly couldn't give a damn if the actions of those souls were voluntary or not. That's not her concern, her concern is Velda's well-being and that alone. They try to harm Velda, they die, simple as that, and allowing them to try to mess around with Velda's mind is not something that she will tolerate, even if Devouring were to be blamed for this.
Little by little, the zipper over Dolly's mouth started to unravel itself as Dolly opened her mouth wider and wider. Soon, the zipper was fully opened, and Dolly chomped down gently over the top half of Velda's head where her mind will be, sucking in all the negative energy she could feel trying to reside and hide in Velda's mind. The abilities that Velda was forced to absorb through Devouring will stay, that is not something that Dolly can change because she does not have the ability to remove them.
But removing the emotions, thoughts, and will of the souls of the victims that were absorbed and passed on to Velda through the disgusting piece of shit known as Emil? It will be an uphill challenge, but that is fully within the scope of her abilities.
To Dolly, the emotions, thoughts, and wills of the memories of the victims that were absorbed by Emil and forcefully passed on to Velda through Devouring are the greatest threat to Velda's well-being. They are effectively the souls of Emil's victims and of Emil himself, and having them inside Velda's mind is simply bad news. Having them injected into Velda's mind will one day drive her insane and that is not something she wishes to see. Nobody could remain sane if they were forced to house not just the memories, but the personality, habits, emotions, and the wills of the deceased in their own minds.
So, Dolly will remove them and eat them all, sealing them within her for all eternity. Like this, they can never harm or influence Velda ever again, even in death.
Dolly could feel her mind slowly descending into a crazed state the longer her unzipped mouth remained open, but she forced herself to keep her mind clear for Velda's sake. She absorbed as much negative energy as she could from Velda in order to force the foreign souls out from her much like a bottomless vacuum. Soon, she found them.
'Get out here!' Dolly angrily thought to herself when she finally detected the presence of the soul belonging to the damned human that nearly killed Velda back at Opelucid. She absorbed his very being into her mouth with a vengeful slurp, dropping his soul into the bottomless depth of her stomach where he can never come out to harm Velda again.
She was as equally merciless to the other foreign souls that she detected trying to leech onto Velda's own soul. In a way, they are innocent, simply victims of Emil's doing, but Dolly could not be bothered to care. They are a threat to her trainer's mind and must thus be removed with extreme prejudice. Nothing takes priority over her trainer.
It took quite a while but it was eventually done. Wacky lent her a hand- quite literally- when she was having trouble trying to zip her mouth shut again. Dolly simply flopped over and unceremoniously rested herself on Velda's chest, never having felt so exhausted before. There's a price to pay for unzipping her mouth, one that could very well mean her death if she were careless. Still, she's glad that she did it because everything turned out well in the end.
'You alright?'
'I feel like I'm about to die,' Dolly croaked back to Wacky's question. Even when she has the Insomnia ability she felt so weak that she really wanted to close her eyes to sleep right now, only barely managing to weakly move to nestle her head right in the crook of Velda's neck. There, now it's much more comfortable.
'Well, everyone's still alive, so I guess this is good news?' Wacky shrugged his shoulders and very thoughtfully pulled the covers over Dolly and Velda in a rare display of consideration. 'Take a good rest, I will get the other humans to not disturb ya in the meantime and tell them that everything's alright now.'
Dolly allowed herself to drift off to sleep, a luxury she never remembered having ever since she was born thanks to her Insomnia ability. She had thought that she had never needed something as useless as sleep all along but for once, being able to sleep doesn't feel so bad, especially when she can hug Velda to sleep like this.
Maybe she can finally experience what dreams felt like for the first time in her life. That… doesn't sound too bad at all.
My mind suddenly felt very clear when I woke up once again. I slowly sat up, still a little in disbelief how refreshed I suddenly felt and how my body felt so… invigorated as if I could run a marathon when it is something that I knew that I'm incapable of.
What truly shocked me was spotting Dolly snoring away right beside me on my bed. Dolly has the Insomnia ability, she never slept, and so for her to do so meant that something must be really wrong. My first thought was to wake her up to check what was wrong with her, but after noticing just how exhausted she looked I decided that maybe she really needed the rest, even if I have no idea what led her to be like this.
I closed my eyes and tried to feel for those foreign presences in my mind once more. For some reason while I still am able to recall their memories I don't feel any emotion from it anymore, as if I'm just an emotionless spectator spectating their story when they were still alive. The foreign habits of the deceased who I had previously felt trying to engrave into my being had disappeared entirely, as if they weren't there to begin with. I don't feel their influence on my mind anymore. I felt… me again, like something impure had finally been purged from my mind and that I am who I was all along, Velda Vera.
Just what on earth had happened while I was asleep?
"Wacky?" I called out softly when I felt his presence nearby. True enough, he was there. He slowly emerged from a nearby shadow looking as if he had seen better days but it's also obvious that he's recovering from whatever he tried to do to help me back at the Opelucid hideout when the Devouring unexpectedly occurred. I still have no idea just what he did exactly, but I instinctively understood that his actions were what allowed me to come out of that tortuous and painful process unscathed.
Wacky gave me a tired wave in greeting and grunted something to me. I understood his words as Dolly having done something to clear my mind and "eat my curse", whatever that may mean, but I suspect that she was the reason why I don't feel the presence of Emil's and his victims' souls in my own mind anymore. I looked back at Dolly, and suddenly was unable to control the sudden urge to let my tears flow.
I have such wonderful pokemon.
"I'm fine," I reassured Wacky with a smile when he found and offered me a tissue paper to dry my tears in a rare display of concern. I caught him in a hug, which he squawked and tried to remove himself from in an indignant struggle, but it was the only way I can show how grateful I am to him and Dolly for saving my life and mind, not allowing me to fall any further into the insanity that comes from Devouring, a process which implications could only be fully understood by those who experienced it personally.
Emil wasn't as lucky as I am, he didn't have such wonderful companions and looked at how he turned out to be. I'm really lucky to have Wacky and Dolly as my ghosts.
"You don't like hugs?" I teased when Wacky tried and failed to escape my hold. Well, he definitely could if he tried, but he probably didn't want to do anything too drastic that might accidentally hurt me in the process and so he decided to tolerate my antics.
Wacky shot me a scathing look and pointed a finger at the sleeping Dolly, telling me that if I wanted hugs I should go to her instead. Okay, someone is not a fan of displays of physical affection because he's too shy to do so, I get that.
"Fill me in on what happened when I was asleep?" I asked Wacky, who immediately perked up and was more than willing to do so with animated gestures and exaggerated wordings. Long story short, Flannery was worried, Sebastian was worried, Looker was worried, my family was worried, and meanwhile the entirety of Unova is currently on the verge of falling apart at its seams.
Wow, what a time to be alive. Maybe all of us had truly underestimated the threat that Team Plasma had posed to Unova. They had hid their true capabilities too darn well.
I took a quick shower to clean and freshen myself up before exiting my room to look for Flannery and Sebastian just to tell them that I'm now alright. I could see the relief on their faces when they found out that I've now fully recovered and the same goes for my family when I called them to tell them that I'm safe.
"Looker's away assisting the Unova League, we are on standby since none of us managed to be of help and uncover just where Team Plasma had disappeared to," Volkner helpfully informed me after I returned only to find my fellow colleagues all gathered in the same room and fretting over me the moment I made my appearance. My awakening was the only good news they received in the last 24 hours.
"Even you are unable to locate them?"
"Unfortunately," Volkner admitted with a sigh. "But seriously, are you alright? We heard a little of this… Devouring thingy your pokemon tried explaining to Sebastian's medicham. Your diet doesn't sound too healthy."
"Never felt better. Actually, it feels almost as if I can breathe easier now, which is kind of weird," I replied.
"That's good then," Skye patted my shoulder in a show of support. "Oh, you are not the only one with a "power-up", so to speak. Something weird happened to Shannon too."
"Something good, I hope?"
"Her metang suddenly evolved into a metagross in the heat of the battle when everything suddenly turned for the worst, for one," Akamu helpfully added. "And… we believe that she now has access to Resonance."
"What?"
"You heard what you heard."
"But… how?" I asked in awe and turned to Shannon, who was sitting at her seat and rubbing the back of her head in a sheepish and embarrassed manner. Wasn't it supposed to be very difficult to achieve Resonance?
"I… don't know," Shannon hung her head dejectedly as if in shame when she shouldn't feel that way. "When everything suddenly took a turn for the worst and we were about to be overrun I just… wanted to help, you know? Then Serene suddenly evolved and suddenly everything just… just… happened?"
"I'm a little jealous," I blurted, because I cannot help but think that if I had Resonance on my side maybe my battle with Emil might be a little less traumatising and a little easier.
"I think we all are," Nova agreed with amusement lacing her voice, "but now that gives Shannon the ability to really fight alongside us. Her ability is really useful in teamfights, allowing us to easily be aware of each other's presence and intentions in the midst of all the chaos on a battlefield."
"Not gonna lie, that's a pretty cool ability to have."
"Am I the only one who thinks that this sounds a lot like the Telepathy ability in pokemon?"
"There's such an ability?"
"I mean, it's a really rare ability to encounter among pokemon, but it does exist," Akamu elaborated a little further. "It's an ability that allows the pokemon in question to always be aware of its allies location and intention and thus, gives it the capabilities to anticipate an ally's attack and dodge it. Like this, it gives the trainer more options to choose from in double or even triple battles because they do not have to worry about accidentally hitting the pokemon with the Telepathy ability if they used a very powerful AOE move like Earthquake."
"So Shannon's a pokemon?" Volkner definitely was messing around when he said that and brought out an empty pokeball as if trying to test his claim by capturing Shannon with it.
"No I'm not!"
"But the difference is, she's able to share that Telepathy ability with all of us."
"A mutation?"
"Perhaps?"
"Sounds like a perfect test subject for some sort of unethical experiment. You know, the sort that you always see in the plot of some sci-fi movie?"
"I mean, seeing that Team Plasma is experimenting on Ability Holders and harvesting people like us…"
"Stop scaring me!" Shannon whined out loud when we started to purposefully bounce off each other just to tease a reaction out of her. For all we know Unova might really just cease to exist in a few hours thanks to Team Plasma and here we are, still joking around as if all of that wasn't happening just right outside. I'm not sure if we were just really good at taking things in stride or if we simply don't care.
But at the very least, we are all alive and well in the present, and isn't that something to be grateful for?
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 14, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Member of the International Police
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Clefairy (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male