...get me out of here.
If the wakeup had been fairly annoying and confusing, but alright once I'd gotten myself under control, then this was actively aggravating.
"Hiiiiiiiiii-" the Drifloon once more sways next to me, his eyes doing that "^_^" thing as though he's got an emoticon for a face. Which he might very well have, since he's not exactly organic.
"What do you want." I say through gritted teeth.
"Look over there! It's a rooooooooooock!" he giggles.
"Yes, we're in a fucking cave. There's rocks here." I growl and it only seems to fuel his amusement more. Mastery of the move or not, Aftermath as an ability or not, I'm about to Ice Punch this little shit into unconsciousness.
"What doooo you have thereeeee?" He asks, getting up close and personal to the incubator on my back. "It's a chiiiiiiild! Can I see it?" The Drifloon's eyes sparkle.
"Touch it and I'll make sure to find a way for you to die again." I hiss, feeling my emotions tide over into that violent place for a moment. Drifloon blinks, and actually seems to get the hint, floating back towards Fantina.
This place is so much longer than it is in the games. Which is also making it really hard for me to see if the Rock Tomb TM is in here. I... doubt it, since who the fuck leaves a disc laying around in a cave, but. It would be useful, if it was.
Thus, we're walking in a line. While the initial plan was for training, Fantina almost immediately threw a fit about how damp this cave was, and while I don't echo the sentiment for the same reasons, my fur has been getting humid in a fairly unpleasant manner. Thus, from the initial training of Drifloon fighting a grand total of Two Zubats, the girls promptly decided that it wasn't really all that worth it and to just have Gabite brutalize anything and everything that gets in our way and decides to make it our problem.
I'm fine with this arrangement. The day began poorly and is steadily growing worse. And I'm starting to believe that maybe there is something more genuinely wrong with me than just drug-fueled anger issues.
So far, whenever I needed to access my... Dark (?) type moves, it was mostly from me reaching a heightened state of anger. Anger that I have loads of. In that, Work Up has been then a tremendously easy way to ignite the spark.
Now... does that remind you of someone? Because it just reminded me of someone. It's not certain, because I definitely don't get angry because of a gnawing feeling of hunger that makes me go berserk, but everything else seems to fit for the most part. Aura user goes apeshit, boosts himself up, becomes Dark type, along with their moves. Of course, I'm talking about Morpeko.
I don't know how I feel about sharing more with a rodent than the humans I'm travelling with. Still... there's potential in this; if I can switch between normal and "Dark" mode, then that gives me a better type coverage than initially anticipated.
...also what the fuck is up with everyone labeling my moves differently? I'm pretty sure not one of us at this point knows what I'm doing, me included. Fantina thinks I was doing Dark Pulse when I was, in theory, using Vacuum Wave, Lucas labels my Frustration as Outrage, and the Pokèdex is no help at all because it labels whatever I do that's remotely off the mark as an Unknown Move- I net myself a nice "Unknown Move 4" when I showed off my "Shotgun" move where I pick up loose debris and fire it along the Vacuum Wave trajectory. It's... promptly gone in the "never use again" category for being exceptionally lethal against humans and pretty useless otherwise, as it destabilized the Fighting Type Energy for no real payoff except a pissed off Geodude. I could revisit it at some point, but it was more of a spur of the moment thing to begin with.
By far, Vacuum Wave has been by far my most versatile attack... and I'm pretty sure it may just be the basis for Aura Sphere. And while the latter has been evading me, I wonder if Aura Wheel, given the earlier considerations- wooooaaah stop-
I reorient myself, nearly tripping on my feet as a powerful shake from behind me rocks my whole body. Joyful warmth brushes against my spine, making me shiver.
I may have to reassess my stance on the idea that no one asks to be put into this world if this egg proves to be the norm and not the exception. This Togepi is just yearning to be born.
Anyways-
I tilt to the side again. This time, it's not because of Togepi shaking, but because, as I'm walking next to the underground river... something bumps into me from the side. Something that I didn't see coming and whose aura I can't pick up on, as it bodily shoves me into the river, giggling. While normally I'd be steadier on my feet, I do have more than half my body weight in incubator hanging from my back.
The result is that I slip into said underground river. This time, however, it's not moving at a snail's pace, but it's an angry torrent that I can immediately feel dragging against me. What's worse is that the incubator, somehow lighter than me, makes me float enough to be dragged away. I kick and thrash, my ears picking up on a shout of "Riolu!", but... I'm not made for swimming, and rivers are a powerful force of nature. It's all I can do to not drown and don't find myself particularly successful in that, much less seeing where I'm going or finding my way back to shore.
The next few minutes are... hell. My fur picks up water like a sponge, the incubator is strapped to my back and its buoyancy is higher than mine, which means that it wants to go up, and according to physics, the best way to do that is to push me down.
I manage to get my head above water for a moment, but I already can't tell where I am. There's Pokémon in river looking at me, and for a moment, I spy a terrifying sight. Destructive wrath and indignation at his territory being invaded, I'm staring down at a twenty-foot sea serpent that wants nothing more than my demise as I see light gather in its maw.
If it hits me, I am not surviving that.
Icy cold fear grips my heart and rushes through my veins like a liquid, as I form a vacuum between my hands, trying anything to distract it, and as I fire it, that ice in my veins becomes literal ice type energy that fills the vacuum I formed, shooting like an icy projectile at the Gyarados.
The effect on myself is immediate and treacherous; already, I did not really know how to use properly the only move I knew to make ice type energy, but trying to make it into another move entirely, while underwater?
I sure as hell didn't freeze the titanic murderbeast. I did, however, manage to freeze myself, entombing myself in a layer of ice. That came as a mercy- my thoughts, my breathing, my entire life-cycle was slowed down... and, at least I can presume, the Gyarados decided I wasn't worth its time. By the time I came to, shattering my way out of my own move's effect, I was shivering, wet, miserable, and most importantly, on solid ground again, though it was still not dry.
Looking around, it seemed like this was a sort of crevice on the lip of the river, where it continued downward underground and into somewhere else, but I luckily didn't get dragged further into it. I'm already hacking up a lung... most likely, I would not have survived that.
Still might not. Unstrapping the egg from my back, I inspect it, making sure that nothing happened to it... but thankfully, these incubators are stupidly sturdy.
Around me, a veritable treasure trove of... well, junk mostly. It seemed that the river spilled its contents here- at least some of them, at any rate.
What the fuck even just happened? Something hit me... I- was it Drifloon? Did the little psychopath shove me into the river because it got annoyed at me not entertaining his bullshit? I... wouldn't put it past a ghost type, they are utterly insane in every past experience I've had with them, every last one of them. Cynthia must've not been quick enough on the draw to beam me back into my Pokéball or something.
What the hell do I do now, though? Braving the river that runs under my feet seems like a fast track to a very quick death- especially with the water types inside it- but waiting around...
Unfortunately, the floor of the cave still had an inch or two of water- not enough to impede movement... but enough that I could feel my body temperature ever so slowly dropping. I think I remember something about keeping hands and feet warm being the main method of maintaining temperature because of the amount of blood flowing through them or something. Being a fighting type, I might have even more than a human.
With a sigh, I hoist myself up on the incubator. Still wet... but at least, I can dry myself up a little now. Rubbing my hands along my body for warmth, I sigh in frustration before jumping up in surprise as I feel something from beneath. Warmth.
It is figurative, and yet not at the same time. The incubator shakes again, though not enough to topple me off of it. Aura runs through me with another wave that heats up my body.
Waiting around might actually be it. I have... allies, now. I have Cynthia. Surely she's going to... I don't know, call a ranger? Catch a water type? It didn't seem like too terrible an idea, besides the fact that I was freezing... grimacing, I began shaking myself side to side like the dog that I now technically was, figuring that it was a decent way to get rid of the water if they did it.
Unfortunately, it seemed that someone finally took heed of my presence, as I felt and heard presences approach from the water. Though I couldn't see for shit, I didn't need to; my other senses were more than enough. With a great big leap, three creatures came out of the water. One big and two small. Instinctively, I felt myself getting worked up.
"Huhuhuhuh... prey? In my territory?" A deep voice said. Two higher-pitched voices echoes its chuckle. As my eyes got used to the darkness, I could see that they were... large, fish-like creatures with whiskers.
...shit. Two Barboach, one Whiscash. I have absolutely nothing that's effective on them.
"How about you turn around with your lives intact and-" I began growling to intimidate them, but one of the Barboach shot a water gun at me immediately. Leaping off, I rocketed myself to the other side of the small divot, yanking the incubator with me. I needed to protect it.
"Huhuhuhuh." The Whiscash leapt again, this time after me, and belly-flopped into the floor, slamming its back fin into the ground; the ground shook powerfully, and I nearly got crushed by a rock falling on top of me. Was this idiot causing an earthquake inside here?!
Thankfully, it didn't seem to be as strong as it could be, perhaps because it wasn't either fully on the ground or submerged, but it still knocked me off my feet.
A water projectile shot at me, forcing me to dodge... only for another to strike me square in the shoulder. Shit. Three against one isn't good odds- gotta thin the herd.
Whiscash leaps into the air after me again, forcing me to dodge- this time, when rocks fall from the ceiling, I leap onto it with Quick Attack. By the time the Barboach's attacks follow me, I'm already out of the way, and only when I land back on the ground do they realize where I am.
Just as thought. By then, my palm is aglow with Aura, and I grab the little bastard on my left before slamming it into the ground.
Thu-thoom.
Thankfully, the little guy goes down in one hit... but I get another hit to the side in return that feels like I've just been hit with a cannonball. Blood pools at the edge of my mouth, and I wipe it off. Ugh.
"Hmmmm? Smells like... egg? I've never had egg before..." I look to the side to stare at the Whiscash staring at the egg, giving me a lazy side eye before slamming its tail sideways, creating a wave of mud from all the loosened debris that sweeps me off my feet.
I slam into the wall, and I can hear the crack of my spine as the wind is knocked out of me. The Whiscash, uncaring, starts mounting onto the glass and steel incubator, trying to crush them under its weight. "Egg..."
Another roiling wave of aura, this time resonating with my own panic as the egg, for the first time, broadcasts anything other than a positive emotion. Distress, and fear.
Aura speaks in my mind when words fail.
Unimpressive, isn't it?
It's only a baby.
A baby that was traded for your ace's life. Doesn't that make you angry?
...she's the one who chose it. I can't exactly fault her for it. And I can't fault it for her decisions.
Well, what are you going to do now? Just start over again? Waste another fifteen years on your life on a Pokémon that will go on to choose something like that?
...
Your father was a consummate idiot, but he knew how to raise children. Adversity breeds strength. Comfort breeds weakness.
You shut your fucking mouth about my father.
...
Lucario... Arceus damn it, we've gone such a long way. Why now, damn it?
Your choice. This little one is in your hands, now. Feed it hatred, and watch it grow strong enough to beat any challenge, or give it love, and watch it die.
...
You know better than indulge in weakness again, don't you, ███████?
In that moment, I see red. Steel and malice, glowing in the darkness, pop out of my flexed hands and I leap with a shrill cry onto the back of the creature. "DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE! TOUCH! THAT! EGG!" I scream, each word enunciated with a gouge torn into the back of the creature. Blood pools under my fingers, soaking my fur.
It screams, a delicious scream that tears through the air. It bucks into the air, its squishy head colliding with me in a repeat of yesterday's events as psychic energy rockets me into the cave's ceiling. I gasp, as the wind is knocked out of me again, my muscles screaming in pain... and then, I press on, quickening energy rocketing me back downwards at twice the speed as my very skeleton groans in pain as I slam my metal claws into the skull of the creature.
I dig, and dig, and dig until the pungent smell of brains and pink substance starts spilling out and it screams no more. A water pulse hits me in the back, failing to dislodge me as my claws are still embedded in the Whiscash. I whip my head around... and the Barboach flees in terror, back into the murky waters below.
Blood is rushing in my ears so much that I can barely hear anything. My whole body is screaming in pain, and yet I can't help but want more. Thankfully, the cave is home to many creatures, and I can feel lifeforms approaching through my aura sense. I could be blind, deaf, but until my tassels are torn off, I'll know where to find my next victim.
"!" A shrill cry as light shines in my eyes. I can't see. I don't need it. Vacuum forms between my hands, and a projectile rockets towards it.
...hmm. Fantina was right, it does look like a Dark Pulse. Am I in the dark mode right now?
Feels good.
"-lu! !" I rocket towards the creature, and I can finally see its features. Yellow... hair, and black clothes... "Golduck, confusion!" The opponent shouts, and my quickened assault is arrested as I'm whipped back into the wall. The wind is knocked out of me again, and this time, I don't have the strength to get back up.
The red beam of a Pokéball sucks me back in, and as my brain finally catches up to the situation and I give one last look to the incubator, I finally fall into blessed unconsciousness.
Uh-oh.
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