"Shine lunar light~, dancing in the night~ "
"'fore comes the sun~, to chase off all our fun~ "
Persephone wasn't quite sure when she'd stirred to consciousness, hypnotized by the song. Deep, deep down something about it put her at unease. Some distant memory screaming something in warning. But it was too deep to matter. And on the surface, the song was comforting.
She looked up to see a dark cloak towering over her. She leaned into its soft fabric, and a brimming hat above shielded her from the sky. A Mismagius, several times her size was singing the song. The giant ghost noticed her attention and smiled down at her.
"Hide in the day~, from sun's blinding ray~ "
"Again the light dies~, beckon us to rise~ "
That deep memory continued to scream, insisting that the song was something to fear. She had heard this scratchy melody before, hadn't she? Not exactly like this, and it certainly hadn't had words… What was it… ?
Ah, yes. Perish Song. This was a Perish Song.
Persephone nestled in closer against cool and comfortable folds of the Mismagius's body.
"Jingle and ring~, let our cries sing~ "
"Skies hear our chant~, boil, toil, and incan-"
The song abruptly ended.
Persephone peered nervously up at the big Pokémon, wondering why she'd stopped singing the pretty song. But rather than explain, the Mismagius instead pulled away from her, rising up into the air. Her perspective cleared, Persephone could see now that she was back in that dusty, dark tower basement.
Mismagius's eyes narrowed to slits, her mouth curling into a scowl. A hateful expression gripped her visage, and she let out a hiss—
"Humansssss…"
For a moment, fear gripped Persephone. But she realized Mismagius wasn't talking about her. And that fear quickly turned to pity.
Not for Mismagius. Mismagius would be fine. Shadows cloaked the phantom as she ascended up into the sky and vanished to darkness.
No, Persephone pitied the poor humans who crossed her path.
Pained groans were Persephone's first greeting to the morning. She hadn't had a pleasant awakening in several days now, and the increasing frequency of surreal dreams about ghosts weren't helping. She was about one bad morning away from trying to fight the sun. Unfortunately, doing so would require her to remove herself from her bed, which at some point appeared to have become magnetized towards human flesh.
"Haedys, shut the bliiiiiinds," she moaned.
The Misdreavus didn't seem to be much friendlier with the daybreak, though. In spite of their heart-to-heart, Persephone still wasn't cuddling the little bundle of ectoplasm anytime soon, leaving Haedys to snuggle with her plushies instead. She'd properly cushioned the chair with an extra blanket though, and the pretend Eevee had been thoroughly fluffed up Haedys. Persephone was regretting that now though, as the cozy Haedys squeaked indignantly, refusing to rise and face the day either.
Persephone groaned again and was forced to employ her secret technique for rising from bed on even the worst of days: rolling off the edge and hitting the floor with a resounding crash. She instantly wished she'd remember just how bruised she was before doing so. Grumbling and rubbing one of those blue spots on her leg, she shambled like a zombie to the window and ripped the blinds down.
Haedys instantly let out a relieved sigh, smiling and nestling her cheek in closer to her stuffed lover. Persephone squinted at the scene, wondering how somehow she'd been the one forced out of bed here.
"Don't get too comfortable. We've still gotta get up and go—" Persephone stopped abruptly as a realization hitting her. "Oh, frick. We never said where to meet, and I didn't get his number."
Haedys responded with a pleased mumbling in her sleep.
Persephone sighed and let it go. With no idea where they were even going, there was no point to waking the ghost up early. She was clearly nocturnal, so it was probably a miracle that she'd been cooperative up to this point.
She had half a mind to flop back down onto her bed again and join her Pokémon in blissful slumber. There wasn't much Persephone could do at the moment. Her current working theory was that getting separated from Haedys was what triggered the 'panic attacks', so short of carrying the unconscious ghost with her, she was trapped in the house until they woke. Or at least until they got a bit more rest.
So instead she sat on the head of her bed, pulled out her phone, and went to text the only person she knew who might have possibly picked up Kona's number. But to Persephone's surprise, there was already a text waiting for her from them.
[8:34 AM] Elle: Hey, you survive?
Persephone's first reaction to the concern was a scowl. She'd never been particularly close to Elle, and it annoyed her that girl had suddenly started acting like she cared now. There was something so fake about the way people pretended to be your friend after an accident.
Still, the rational part of her knew that was pointless spite towards someone trying to show empathy. And thankfully for Persephone, text allowed her to conceal her constant indignant expressions.
[9:06 AM] Percy: yeah this time
[9:06 AM] Percy: they let me go the same night
[9:07 AM] Percy: still trying to find a pokemon for you tho
Crap. Amid the uncomfortable revelations yesterday, she'd completely forgotten about catching a Pokémon for Elle. That was another problem she had to fit into this mess, before Smeargle was lost to her forever.
[9:08 AM] Elle: Oh, right. Forgot about that.
[9:09 AM] Elle: I'm heading out tomorrow.
[9:09 AM] Percy: wait dont go ill find something
[9:12 AM] Elle: Percy don't do something stupid.
[9:12 AM] Elle: We don't need to trade today. We'll get another chance to meet up.
[9:13 AM] Elle: Besides, Smeargle probably needs some time. Seeing you again might spook him.
Persephone was practically popping cinders at the implication that she'd become the face of fear to her dearly beloved, but short of typing in all caps or punching a pillow and probably waking her Pokémon, she didn't have any outlet. And she wasn't keen on finding out if Haedys' sleep deprivation would echo into her.
[9:14 AM] Elle: Did you want to battle before I go?
[9:15 AM] Elle: Have you and Misdreavus had one yet?
The question made Persephone throw back her neck and groan. She winced as the ghost mumbled something and shifted in her sleep. Persephone held statue still- even her thoughts frozen- for a long, quiet minute until she was certain Haedys had drifted back into slumber.
She certainly had tried battling with her Pokémon- and she wasn't keen on feeling like she'd been punched in the stomach a few more times.
[9:18 AM] Percy: yeah kinda sucked
[9:19 AM] Percy: shes in my head
[9:20 AM] Elle: In your head?
[9:20 AM] Elle: Like she keeps messing with you? Misdreavus are natural pranksters.
[9:23 AM] Percy: no like shes in my brain
[9:24 AM] Percy: ill explain later
[9:24 AM] Percy: but I dont wanna fight
[9:25 AM] Elle: Really? I expected you'd jump at the opportunity.
[9:27 AM] Elle: I only have a day's lead on you, you know. No need to be scared.
It was like a switch flipped and all rationality turned off. Persephone shifted upwards against her bed's backboard, her shoulders finally rising to a truly-awake posture as her weary eyes widened at the glowing rectangle. Her fist curled.
Scared? Persephone wasn't scared. She'd suffered far worse pain- from real injuries, no less! And, in fact—
There was a moment of epiphany, and a malicious smile curled onto her face. She didn't need to suffer any pain. In fact, this would be the easiest battle of all time. Snickering like a gremlin, her fingers tapped frantically at the screen.
[9:29 AM] Percy: Fine.
[9:30 AM] Percy: You're on.
[9:31 AM] Elle: So predictable.
[9:31 AM] Elle: Miki Battle Park, 11:00.
[9:32 AM] Percy: Deal.
It occurred to Persephone as she put the phone away that she'd entirely forgotten her original reason for texting Elle. But they'd be meeting soon enough anyways, so she didn't bother take it out again.
She stood up and her gaze instead fell onto the still-sleeping Misdreavus on her chair. They had a bit of time, but they also had a walk ahead of them. It was either waking up her Pokémon, or…
She had a better idea. Moving quietly, she tip-toed over to the chair where Haedys was slumped over like a heap of cloth. With uncharacteristic tenderness, she grabbed the edges of the ghost's blanket and raised them up, slipping a hand deftly under the Misdreavus's body, wincing at the slimy texture, and then stuffing the blanket underneath. From here, she maneuvered the corners around her and gradually wrapped Haedys into the blanket.
At some point during this process Haedys creaked open an eye to see something was being done to her. But it was gentle enough, and Persephone's oddities mundane enough, that she seemed to decide it wasn't worth waking up for.
A few moments later, Persephone had successfully acquired a sack containing a ghost. A certainly nigh-impenetrable shield against sunlight, and practically weightless to carry. Granted, it would certainly beget questions to carry down the street, but most people had learned not to ask her those a long time ago.
Grinning as she took her bundle under one arm and slung her backpack over the other, she set out to go win her first battle.
Persephone chose to take her time for once, being unusually ahead of schedule, still vaguely injured, and carrying a bundle of ghost. Mainly due to that last one. The bundle shifted a bit in her hands from time to time, but Haedys seemed to embrace the opportunity for more shuteye, even as odd as the circumstances were.
And the stroll down wide, cobbled roads amid a sea of residential minka and a light morning fog left Persephone time to dwell. The smell of fresh grass graced the air, wafting from the trails left in the wake of surprisingly quiet mowers that ran automatically across public strips of greenery. Even the skies were alive during the morning bustle from home to work and school, with small flocks of Pidgey sailing southward overhead as Chimeco repositioned themselves from roof to roof finding the right spot to hang for the morning hours.
In spite of her decreased speed, Persephone was just as prone to nearly running into passersby. Instead of due to a frantic scramble, it was because of her absent staring at the road, her mind distantly wandering through the question she'd put off for so long.
What was she even planning to do after this 'bond business' was dealt with?
The realization that Elle was leaving tomorrow had forced her to finally confront that. She'd always boiled the answer down to "whatever she wanted". She'd never faced the difficult fact that she didn't know what she wanted.
A league challenge? Maybe. She'd never been huge about battling, but it was an entertaining enough sport. Performances? She did enjoy showing off and setting up a spectacle… But there wasn't a particularly large scene for it in Johto, and she'd heard it could get disgustingly insular. And either option depended on getting really familiar with her Pokémon first, right?
There was the classic grand hiking trip, had she not hated hiking. A city-hopping tour? Get a degree? Track rare Pokémon in the wild? Start a band?
Persephone's pace accelerated a bit, the grumbling of her battered limbs offering her some respite from her thoughts in the form of pain. She tried to force out intrusive thoughts of Haedys playing the drums. She'd… figure it all out later.
Perhaps her little sparring match would awaken some new love for battling in her.
Unsurprisingly, battling in the streets was firmly illegal. Hell- some Pokémon were illegal to have outside of a Pokéball in and of themselves, owing to biological hazards or general unwieldiness. But all that energy had to go somewhere of course, so battle parks were comfortably accessible throughout the city. A space for Pokémon of any sort to come out, enjoy the day, and get some exercise. In most regards, they were indistinguishable from any other park, save for the particularly durable construction of the benches and availability of wide, open battlefields marked in league-compliant dimensions.
Miki Park sat in a residential block adjacent to Persephone's own. In some sense, she envied those living nearby; Ecruteak was far from an ugly city, but the large patch of green and branches stretching freely towards the sky were still a welcome sight. And it was one of the few places where a bit of rowdiness was generally forgiven, at least during the day. On the other hand, it suffered the same problem as trails: So frustratingly populated by people.
Persephone looked around, spinning slowly on her feet as she swept across the wide space from every angle, searching for her friend-not-friend. Just as she began to suspect she'd gotten here first, she sighted Elle sitting on a bench. Vee was standing with her front paws on her trainer's legs, and Elle giggled as she let the Eevee take a chomp from her pastry.
Vee was also wearing an oversized pair of sunglasses. For some reason.
Elle looked up as the other trainer approached, and her cheery expression quickly turned… neutral. Like she wasn't entirely sure if she should be happy or annoyed.
"Hey."
"Hey."
Their conversation began as awkwardly as always, and the uncomfortable silence seemed likely to remain. But it was Vee who broke the tension by raising a paw to her face and flicking the sunglasses up to her forehead, revealing her eyes. The Eevee glared disapprovingly at Persephone.
Persephone blinked, slightly stupefied a moment at the gesture. She wasn't sure what to say, and she was too confused to glare back in retaliation, trying to figure out what she'd even done to the Pokémon.
After a moment, Vee cocked her head disapprovingly, before flicking the sunglasses back down over her eyes and leaning into her trainer for another bite of castella cake. She paid Persephone no further mind.
There was something so unnatural about the gesture, so rehearsed, so… human.
Persephone groaned, finally making sense of it all and turning her pout towards Elle. "You taught her to do that, didn't you?"
Elle's chin lifted high and she beamed a proud smile. "Adorable, isn't it? Trying to tell me you haven't taught Misdreavus any tricks? Would have expected you to teach her to like… Pull peoples' hair if they annoyed you, or something." She twisted her lip.
Okay, she technically hadn't taught Haedys to do that. Which Persephone counted as a moral victory.
Elle had a sudden epiphany and jumped slightly, making Vee flinch on her lap. She quickly looked around, a tinge of fear entering her voice. "Speaking of- where is she?"
Persephone stole a small snicker, realizing just what the other trainer was afraid of. Were Haedys not currently wrapped up tight, she might have encouraged the ghost to try it. But instead she held up the bundle of Misdreavus, grabbed an edge, and let it fall free.
The blanket unrolled in an instant, sending a confused blur of gray tumbling towards the ground. Haedys's fall rapidly decelerated, the startled and disoriented ghost halting a foot above the ground and looking all around with mild alarm at having been woken abruptly in a new place.
She finally seemed to put together what had happened from Persephone's snort and Elle's nervous laugh and glared up at her trainer with the grumpiest look Persephone had ever seen.
"MIIIIIIIISSSSSS!" She cried indignantly, flying up to her trainer's eye level with hair-tendrils flailing like they were caught in a windstorm.
Persephone couldn't help but break into another snicker, raising her hands into the air disarmingly. "Okay, okay, okay. Now we're even for the ear-screaming thing, alright?" she laughed, more amused than bothered by the ghost's reaction.
Haedys's cheeks puffed into a pout that was more adorable than condemning, even by Persephone's perception. Elle had been teetering on the line between whether this interaction was teasing or mean-spirited, and with that reaction seemed to fall on the side of teasing. She snorted.
"That's the winning team spirit." Elle pulled Vee into her arms, the Eevee startled but not resisting, and stood up. She leaned in towards Haedys and grinned. "Are you excited to battle, Misdreavus?"
Haedys paused her grumbling and stared back at Elle blankly. Gears turned, and then she turned to stare at Persephone equally as blankly.
Persephone just grinned in return. "Don't worry, Haed. I've got a plan. This'll be easy!"
"Hmph." Elle scoffed and tilted her head disapprovingly. "That's a lot of confidence for someone who's never battled before. Luckily, you're used to crashing and burning."
Persephone's eye twitched. There was no change in the other woman's tone, but somehow that one had felt more vindictive.
Haedys was still staring at her with utmost skepticism about this secretive 'plan' but sensed her trainer's conviction in it. She let out a small, inaudible sigh, and tried to catch Persephone's direct gaze. But her trainer was avoiding meeting eyes again, so she fell back on gestures, and her hair tendrils curved inwards to point back at herself. Twisting locks coiled outwards then, gesturing back towards Persephone.
"Miss…" The ghost warned.
But Persephone only laughed. "Don't worry about it. It's not gonna be a problem," she reassured Haedys with a wink.
The Misdreavus watched her another moment before hesitantly nodding, putting her trust in a questionable recipient. She turned her head to look at Vee next, eyeing up the presumed opponent cradled in Elle's arms. Seeing the pose, she fleetingly eyed Persephone's own arms, unsubtly signaling her jealousy.
"Vui."
"Mi."
The conversation wasn't particularly riveting from the perspective of the trainers. The two Pokémon exchanged brief vocalizations, and after a moment both turned to eye-up Persephone, making her uncomfortable. Even the Pokémon were talking about her behind her back.
Fortunately that didn't last long, before the two turned their attention to Elle instead, Vee suddenly a bit more excited about the topic. Somehow her excitement only made Haedys's mumblings even quieter and more nervous.
Their conversation continued a minute longer, before Vee repeated the bit with flipping up her sunglasses and glaring again. Haedys mumbled something uncomfortably and hovered backwards so that Persephone would partially eclipse her. Vee took this as a victory and flipped the glasses down again, smugly grinning.
"Eevui." She said in a strangely flat vocalization, looking straight up at her trainer. Persephone had the strange sense it was something along the lines of "Let's go". And Elle had seemingly reached the same conclusion, giving a decisive nod.
The other trainer turned and sprinted away from the bench, an Eevee in her arms and an eager grin on her face. She ran across the path and into the wide, open field. Lines had been trimmed into the grass, marking the four bounds of a field, with a final one splitting it into two halves.
She made it to the far end and span around, immediately waving back to her opponent. "Ready?" she shouted.
Persephone and Haedys shared a look, both grumbling and still too tired to match the energy, before walking and floating up to the opposing edge of the field. The grass in the center was very well trimmed, and somewhere over a hundred feet separated them from Elle.
"For this battle, I'll be using…" Elle started confidently but trailed off. Her fingers instinctually ran across a second Pokéball at her waist, and Persephone's blood boiled at the mere consideration that she might throw out Smeargle- in part because her plan depended on Elle using Vee. Fortunately, the other trainer seemed to realize the tactlessness of it. "Eevee. Go get her!"
"Vui!" Vee cried excitedly, firing off of Elle's chest like a springboard and launching onto the battlefield. Her ears wiggled high and her tail swept back and forth rapidly. She bore her teeth confidently towards her distant foe.
"Oh, at least let me take the glasses off first," Elle insisted, stepping forward to carefully remove the fragile shades.
"For this battle, I'll be using Misdreavus," Persephone shouted, copying her opponent's announcement.
Haedys gave her trainer one final, worried glance, and drifted forward.
"Alright! Begin!" Elle cried, throwing her arm forward in a dramatic motion.
Persephone awaited some dramatic declaration of a move, like she'd seen on TV, but instead Vee just sprinted forward a few steps, and crouched down at the ready. The little fox slowly crept closer, circling around its prey, eyeing Haedys unflinchingly and ready to pounce.
There was an awkward moment of nothing but tension, before Persephone felt a spurt of self-consciousness about not doing anything. She resolved to do something, so she jabbed a finger towards the approaching Pokémon.
"Do the invisible thing again!" she shouted.
Haedys's expression went flat, and a disapproving mutter could be heard as the ghost vanished, seemingly deciding it wasn't the time to debate.
"Watch your flank, Vee! She goes for ears!" Elle cried in warning.
The Eevee glanced to the left just in time for something to charge screeching at her from the ether. Even with her trainer's warning, Vee stumbled back, tripping over her own feet and squeaking in surprise. The Eevee was staggered by the surprise, but unharmed.
"Yes! Uh… Just keep doing that!" Persephone shouted helpfully, seizing the opening.
Haedys was oddly unamused for the moment before she vanished. Vee had barely found her feet before the ghost was screeching in their other ear this time. The repeat was even less effective, only flinching Vee for a moment.
"Yeah! Nice work! Keep going!"
"Miss!" Haedys called indignantly.
"I know you missed, but you'll get her next time! Don't worry, she can't hit you!"
The Eevee had momentarily lost her bearings from the unexpectedly antagonistic strategy, and Elle wasn't yet giving orders. But the latter didn't look startled so much as dumbfounded.
"Do you… not know your type matchups?" she shouted disbelievingly across the field while Vee braced for the next shriek.
"Of course I know my type matchups!" Persephone yelled back sternly. "Do you? Vee can't even hit a Ghost-type!" she proudly declared.
Elle was silent for a long moment, not even flinching as Haedys appeared for a third time screaming into Vee's right ear again. Unfortunately, even the Eevee had gotten somewhat desensitized to it.
Elle shouted her next order with dripping smugness.
"Vee, Bite, now!"
"What?! -Augh!"
Persephone keeled over and clutched her torso in pain as she suddenly felt something sharp, jagged, and enormous clamp down and dig into her skin. There was of course nothing there, but across the field she could see Vee's face masked in a veil of Dark energy that was grasping onto Haedys the same way. The pain was twice as intense as anything the Combee had managed, and since Vee refused to let go, twice as enduring.
"Haedys! Agh! Get out of there!" Persephone cried shrilly, her apparent overdramatic reaction drawing the worried eyes of Elle and several spectators passing down the park trail. "Use the—thing!"
Haedys was wincing in pain as well, but took it better than her trainer. She gave a sudden jerk, ripping herself free from Vee's phantom jaws and losing small tatters of cloth in the process. The Eevee had already drawn back to Bite down again when she vanished.
Vee span around, expecting another assault on her ears, but Haedys appeared further down the field having used the attack just to gain some space.
"That's- that's cheating! I thought you couldn't hit Ghost-types!" Persephone whined, still obsessively checking her side over for bite marks as she stood up straight again. If she weren't so accustomed to injury, that might have been enough to end the battle. But she was accustomed to ignoring pain through sheer stubbornness.
"Did… did you seriously think I just forgot that?" Elle shouted back, too baffled to even bother issuing a new order. "Or that I was just going to lose immediately whenever someone was training a Ghost? Of course the first thing I did was taught her something for that! Heck, I was being nice fighting you—she's still not good with it yet!" There was a brief pause, as something else occurred to the fledgling trainer. "Wait. That was your plan and you still tried using Astonish? Percy you know that goes both ways, right?"
Silence. Awkward silence filled what should have been an active battlefield. Elle looked baffled, Vee looked confused, Haedys just looked tired, and Persephone's face was entirely blank. The wind stole the soundtrack of the field for a solid ten seconds before Persephone finally spoke.
"…So that's what that attack is," she noted.
Elle gaped. "You- you don't even know what moves she has! We should call this off."
"Never!" Persephone exclaimed. "Haedys! Just use them all! Show me what attacks you know! We can still do this!"'
Haedys sighed, having already foreseen this outcome. But surprisingly the Misdreavus didn't seem too opposed.
Taking advantage of her opponents' utter confusion, she quickly glanced back at Vee and her eyes pulsed with pink light. The paper-weight ghost was thrown back a few inches as a blast of… something launched from between her eyes. A near-invisible twist of the light flew towards Vee at high speed, whipping up a small wind around it.
The surprise attack struck head-on. Vee was thrown off her feet and tossed two feet backwards in an unwilling flip. Somehow she landed on four feet, disoriented and whimpering as the dust kicked up around her.
"Vui!" Vee cried indignantly, that pain turning to defiance. She glared up at Haedys with new determination in her eyes.
Elle let out a sigh, which quickly turned to a growl. "Fine. Seems like it's a real fight, then. Vee! Close the gap and interrupt her aim!"
In spite of her complete irrelevance to the process, Persephone was still grinning on the high of landing a clean hit. "Don't let her do that! Show me what else you've got!" she cheered.
Haedys braced, levitating back a few inches as Vee suddenly sprung off her back feet and launched forward at rocket speeds in a veil of Normal energy. She didn't fear the Quick Attack's impact, but knew something else was coming. As soon as Vee's front paws struck the dirt they flung upwards in a tremendous sweep, launching a fine spray of dirt into the air.
The Sand Attack struck Haedys' eyes the same moment she unleashed a flash of yellow and white light that hit the Eevee in turn.
Persephone let out a horrified moan as she suddenly felt her eyes water intensely and she instinctually peeled at her lids to try and get something horrid out of them. She was as incapacitated as Haedys was, the Misdreavus squeaking frustratedly and cartwheeling backwards in the air. She shook frantically, desperately trying to get the dust from her eyes.
Vee was stumbling on her feet, seemingly unharmed but looking like she'd just had a bit too much to drink—which granted, at her weight might have been a single glass. She wasn't following up with an attack.
"Now, Vee! Before she recovers, Bite again!"
"Vee!" the Eevee screamed its war cry to the sky, before turning and charging towards Haedys. She cloaked her face in that Dark mask again, leapt towards the disoriented ghost wiping dirt from their eyes, and—
Faceplanted directly into the dirt, probably harming herself more than anything Persephone had directed thus far.
"Shake it off and reset, Vee!" Elle shouted, looking a bit worried for the first time.
The Eevee rose to her feet and gave a vigorous shake, doing just that. Her movements slowly steadied at the same time as Persephone felt most of the phantom particles in her eyes fall away, leaving just one or two behind. Agitating but manageable. Haedys glared down at Vee, and the Eevee glared back. There was a newfound mutual respect between the two.
"Up, Haedys!" Persephone shouted. "Fire that… first thing, from out of her reach!"
"Mi!"
Haedys sounded strangely excited about the first good idea Persephone had given and quickly flew straight upwards. Her flight became more strained as she rose higher, but she could still get well out of the tiny fox's reach. Her eyes glowed pink and another blast of psionic energy pelted the ground.
Vee narrowly dodged this time, a plume of dirt kicking up where it impacted. Another one was already on its way and the fox let out a nervous cry as she leapt to the side again. Another plume of dirt would soon erupt, and then another, as Vee danced around them. She stole fleeting, desperate glances at Elle between shots.
Elle was biting her lip and clutching her palms, shifting nervously between her legs as she desperately searched for a solution. Persephone was grinning madly now, the power having gone to her head nigh-instantly. And Haedys seemed almost equally as enthralled.
"Keep it up!" the trainer cackled. "This is in the bag!"
Persephone's smug overconfidence snapped Elle out of her funk and her eyes narrowed with focus. "Vee… Kick up a sandscreen, then close the gap again and Bite!"
It was a vague instruction, but Vee's lost eyes turned lucid immediately. The Eevee leapt backwards, a new plume of dust erupting where the latest blast landed. Kicking her back paws like a Mudbray she threw up another spray of dirt, thicker this time and centered around herself like a smokescreen.
Haedys' assault paused, and the ghost's glowing eyes focus trying to sense what direction Vee would emerge from to line up the next shot. Persephone was watching equally as carefully, the manic smile still on her face. But the direction neither of them were prepared for was 'up'.
The puffball rocketed into the sky with startling force, cloaked in a Normal-type aura that quickly gave way to a Dark-type one as those phantasmal jaws stretched open. Haedys's eyes went wide and the Misdreavus tried to evade, but the move was too unexpected. She let out a shriek as the Eevee clamped down, ripping her to the earth with them.
Persephone let out a cry as well, doubling over and clutching her sides. It was one thing to know she wasn't in danger- it was another to convince her nerves of that. She'd gone into this foolishly expecting not to take any hits.
With a dull thud and a cloud of dust both Pokémon hit the ground. Vee was pinning Haedys now, the latter squirming fruitlessly beneath her front paws as she bore down.
"Alright, Vee! Finish her with another Bite!" Elle called for the execution.
Haedys awaited a new order from her own trainer, but Persephone was too busy whimpering and clutching a wound that didn't exist. As new jaws snapped wide around her face, she fell back on instinct instead—her eyes glowing brightly, a move forming at the cusp of her aura, and—
Same as the day before, nothing. The power flickered out just in time for darkness to envelope her.
"Eu-aghI!" Persephone let out another scream and collapsed onto her knee, barely keeping herself from falling onto her side.
"Percy?! S-seriously?" Elle exclaimed, the collapse working to distract her from the battle. Not that it mattered much. Vee let go in her confusion, and Haedys fell limply from the Bite as it dissipated. She collapsed as a heap, and certainly wasn't up for any more fighting.
An unfamiliar voice, loud and stern, suddenly called over the field.
"Misdreavus…'s trainer appears unable to continue. This battle goes to Eevee and her trainer."
Through teary eyes, Persephone planted one hand on the ground to support herself and glared up at whoever had chosen to knight themselves referee. She faintly recognized them but couldn't place it. A man probably somewhere in his thirties, in a dark gray and long, almost clinical coat. Thick glasses- frames so wide and close they nearly formed a visor- sat over his face, and his hair was kept short and combed back neatly. He wasn't a particularly large man, and between that and his aesthetic Persephone might have typically dubbed him 'a nerd'. But something about the look in this man's eyes was enough to dissuade even Persephone from testing him.
The man had taken the referee's position on the field and had given the hand signals to match. Persephone wanted to tell him to shove off, and that it would be over when it was over, but she was too busy crying.
"Gods above, Percy, are you crying? It's…" Elle looked less happy about her victory and more downright annoyed by the theatrics. Vee still seemed proud nonetheless. "It's not that serious. You're going to lose sometimes."
Persephone let out something halfway between a groan and a growl—the imaginary punctures in her stomach were bad enough, but now shame was being heaped onto the pile. The only seed of fortune was that the phantom pains faded quickly with no real wound to sustain them. Besides the wound to her pride, that was.
She grunted and pulled herself upright. Wiping the water from her eyes, she turned her gaze over to Elle. It was a positively searing gaze, yet in spite of that…
"Good match," she called over, tone certainly not carrying much sportsmanship.
She dragged herself onto the field, and over to where Haedys had collapsed. The ghost was starting to stir now, averting her gaze guiltily from Persephone. Perhaps more emboldened, the young woman might have seized the opportunity to avoid blame, but the situation hadn't left her in a fighting mood. She lifted the Misdreavus up and plopped them down on her shoulder where they gripped tight.
Elle opened her mouth to say something else, but she hesitated. Shut her mouth and her eyes, shook her head, and dropped it. She picked up Vee, ruffled the Eevee's head, and slid the sunglasses back onto her head.
Persephone finally pulled her gaze from the ground enough to question the strange man who'd intervened. As she did gears turned, and with realization her eyes narrowed suspiciously at him.
"You were in my hospital room," she accused, guarded now.
The man's lip twitched, a small hint of agitation on an otherwise stone face. He nodded in confirmation and looked over at Haedys. The Misdreavus was exhausted, but she still gave him a small smile of recognition. "While they were busy tending to you, they wanted someone to check on the Misdreavus that wouldn't leave your side. I happened to be around, so I offered to take a cursory look at her."
The corner of Persephone's own mouth twisted downward, a few things about this explanation landing sour to her. She glanced at the ghost on her shoulder for affirmation, and winced at the big yellow eyes that met her in return.
Yes, he'd looked her over. She hadn't much liked it, but he had been gentle.
Persephone tore her head away, deciding not to question her sudden certainty of it. She wasn't satisfied with that answer, anyways. "Then why were you looking at my equipment?"
She'd thought it was a smoking gun but the man hardly reacted, staring at her with the same dryly unamused expression. "Because the two were strangely correlated. As I know you know."
At that, she took a step back. Persephone's danger bells didn't ring lightly, but this man's mixture of a foreboding aura and knowing things he shouldn't have was enough to get them singing. Elle certainly noticed Percy's transition to fear, and raised an eye at it as she approached, suddenly scrutinizing the man as well.
"Who are you?" Persephone demanded.
The man stared back at her a moment, eyes calculating. Processing her reaction and sharpening. But just as she'd begun to worry what he was planning, his stern posture relaxed slightly and he let out a sigh, perhaps realizing he was intimidating her.
"My name is… Cayenne." There was the faintest twitch of his eye, as if sharing the name annoyed him. "I suppose I'm Kona's acting 'bodyguard', just for the time being. He realized he'd never got your number and asked me to track you down. But under the circumstances, battling was the last thing I'd have expected to find you doing."
Hearing that he'd been sent by Kona eased Persephone's anxiety slightly. Kona wasn't a face she loved to see, but it cleared up Cayenne's unexplained knowledge of her situation. Perhaps that eased anxiety was what returned a bit of her boldness.
"…Cayenne? Like… the pepper?" A pause, as the sass built up enough to overpower her judgement. "Did your parents hate you?"
That earned a glare with the same searing heat as his name, but fortunately no homicidal acts. "Yes," he answered flatly.
The complete stonewall of a response was new to Persephone, who didn't quite know where to go from there. For once she decided to accept that surviving a comment was probably a good place to cut her losses.
"Hey, uh, reminder: still here," Elle spoke up, raising one hand. "Not sure what's going on here, and while I'm sure it's very fascinating I imagine both of our Pokémon would appreciate it if we had this conversation at the Pokémon Center?"
Vee tilted her head and adjusted her sunglasses, smirking smugly as if to remind them all that she was fine. All gathered turned towards Haedys to see her thoughts on the matter, only to realize that Haedys was no longer present.
Persephone had a premonition of what Haedys was doing just moments before disaster.
Oh no.
"MiiiiiEEEEEE!"
The Misdreavus's signature shriek filled the air, echoing around Cayenne's ear. And terror followed moments later.
But not his.
In a blur of gray the man's arm had rocketed towards the source of the sound. Fingers grasped tight around the ghost's neck, not strangling but gripping her forcefully in place. Cayenne's eyes had gone manic. And he'd frozen in that position, looking ready to strangle the life out of the terrified ghost.
It felt like time had paused, trapping the air in everyone gathered's lungs. Someone should have done something, but everyone was too stunned.
A second. Two seconds.
Cayenne's fingers went limp, and his arm soon after. It fell away, and he took a nervous step back. He let out a heavy exhale, and though his eyes stayed widened, thought had returned behind them. He looked horrified.
"Y-you startled me," he muttered, looking away.
He seemed more startled at this point than the Pokémon he'd nearly strangled. Haedys was still terrified, and Persephone couldn't tell if the fear radiating from her chest was her own or the Misdreavus'. But it was fear all the same, and too much to challenge the older man over it.
Haedys swallowed, aghast but realizing the danger had passed. She drifted back behind Persephone's head, hiding behind her as she often did. She certainly wouldn't be pranking him again.
"…Yes, you should get your Pokémon to a Center," Cayenne agreed, still turned unsubtly away from any of them and desperately trying to hurry the topic along. "A friendly battle shouldn't injure any of them, but it's still good practice. I'll tell Kona meet you there."
He didn't wait for a response, walking quickly away from the battlefield and back towards the trail. Neither of the trainers tried to interrupt him, watching uncomfortably as he left. As the man disappeared into a gray dot down the trail, they turned to eye each other, sharing a rare moment of quiet consensus.
"The heck was that guy's problem?" Elle asked casting Haedys a pitying look.
Persephone frowned and pulled the ghost in close under her arms, feeling unusually protective of the Pokémon she'd been chained to. The affection helped ease Haedys' anxiety a bit, which in turn loosened the knot in her own stomach.
"Caught creep-itus from proximity to Kona, I'm guessing," she offered, though the usual energy was missing.
"Right…" Elle shifted, setting Vee on the ground and giving Persephone an odd look. "Have you been hanging out with that guy? Didn't seem, uh… someone you'd like."
Persephone bounced the ghost in her arms, earning a small squeak, before shaking her head. It wasn't something she had the energy for just yet. "Let's just get to the Center. I'll explain later."
Elle frowned, not liking that answer, but the Eevee rubbing cheerfully against her feet shut down any protests before they began. Vee may have seemed fine, but an amateur trainer like her wasn't going to start shirking checkups now.
She nodded.
Vee and Haedys were passed over to the Center attendants for a brief checkup, after a series of quick excuses on why the latter couldn't be in a ball. Persephone engaged in some gratitude for once, silently thanking the skies that she hadn't been chained to a larger or heavier Pokémon.
The Pokémon taken away, the two young women grabbed seats in the lobby, a large and pristine chamber with dozens of long benches, side tables, and open spaces for people and Pokémon to rest and await the care of their friends. Even here in Ecruteak, the lobby was always abuzz. The chatter of excited youth, packs on their back, partners on their shoulders or by their ankles and sharing tales of epic battles or mysteries seen. Young Pokémon- or sometimes rather bored people- played with the enrichment devices throughout the room, not too far removed from the movable blocks one might find in a dentist's office. At nearly all times at least two people were energetically plotting up their next battle, periodically requiring a nurse to step in and stop them from initiating it right then and there.
Of course, the Pokémon Center wasn't only a place for travelers. It was often easy to tell apart the locals, dressed far less practically and often eyeing the noisy interlopers with distaste. They tended to be older- unsurprising, to Persephone. After all, why would any local youth with a license want to stay here? The division between the two groups was tangible enough that they had largely self-segregated onto different sides of the lobby, the locals laying claim to a built-in coffee house and using glares to defend it staunchly from invaders.
Persephone and Elle had claimed an isolated nook, three benches circling around a table with crayons and a coloring book. Almost by instinct, Persephone had leaned in to grab the crayons. She tore a page out of the coloring book, but rather than color it in she turned to its backside and began drawing on the blank sheet.
Elle looked like she was about to comment but managed to refrain. Instead her expression grew conflicted, and her fingers wrapped slowly around the other Pokéball on her belt. She locked eyes with Persephone a few moments in advance, as if to silently warn her. Persephone realized what she was doing with just enough time to spare a scowl.
In a fizz of red, Smeargle appeared beside the table. He lifted his head once to look right, and again to the left, taking in his surroundings. His eyes locked on the coloring books, curious. And then he took note of Persephone.
"Ear! Ear!"
He barked at her, crouching down and slowly waddling backwards with a nasty glare. Elle swooped in to hold him, trying to comfort the angry Pokémon to little effect.
Which only made Persephone's fury flare.
Why the heck did he let her embrace him? She'd chased him too! Yet somehow Persephone was the only one he'd ended up resenting like this. The young woman let out a growl to match the Smeargle's. But it wasn't directed at him.
Persephone yanked the blank coloring sheet towards her and began furiously scribbling all over it in crayon like a grumpy toddler.
Elle whispered in Smeargle's ear another moment before finally letting him go, and begrudgingly the painter Pokémon relaxed. His grumpy stare was still on Persephone, guarded. He stole his own coloring sheet and pulled it close. He took his tail, a blue ink already starting to seep through the tip, and inspected his sheet.
"…Prooooobably for the best you aren't ready to trade yet, anyways," Elle noted as she returned to her seat. "He's gonna need some time to get used to you."
"Mrrrghhh…" Persephone groaned as she doodled away. She had a plan for that problem. And this one was certain to work, as most plans drawn in crayon usually did.
"Anyways, I'm heading out tomorrow morning. Going down to Goldrenrod to see my aunt," she explained. "She's been having nightmares or something about me going out on my own, and my mom wants me to reassure her. Which, like… her problem, yeah, but I kinda wanted to go see the city anyways. Maybe check out the league gym while I'm there? Could be fun."
Persephone was vaguely listening, but too distracted by her masterpiece to comment. Fingers flew furiously, snatching up brown and green and red and blue. Across the table, Smeargle couldn't help but cast curious glances her way, dripping ink slowly splattering across his own page with little regard for the lines. The blue had been strained from his tail, and green was seeping between the fibers now, mixing with what remained of it.
"Well, well, well! What a wonderful coincidence!"
The boisterous voice breaking onto the scene interrupted Persephone's focus, making her flinch. She looked up to see two faces she both expected and was still displeased to see. Kona, and his so-called 'bodyguard' not far behind him. Cayenne winced at Persephone's look and glanced aside, still embarrassed about earlier.
Kona slide onto the bench beside Elle, prompting the woman to scoot a few inches further away.
"We're all headed to Goldenrod as well!" he announced.
Persephone cast him a suspicious look. "Weren't you gonna take me to see your… 'connections', or whatever?"
Kona nodded. "Correct. And my 'connections' are all in Goldenrod. Surely you didn't think I was from here, did you Percy dear? You certainly would have seen me before now, don't you think?"
Elle squinted between the three of them, clearly confounded by the conversation she hadn't been involved in. "…Percy, is this some sort of drug deal?"
"A fantastic guess!" Kona's finger shot upright and he smiled wide. "But wrong. We're taking Percy dear to have some of her… eccentricities checked by a professional."
Elle blinked. But despite her confusion, she spared a snort. "Well, I'm amazed it took this long for someone to do it."
"It's not another psych eval!" Persephone protested, throwing down her crayon and pouting.
"Examining your case will require specialized equipment. Otherwise I'd offer to check up on you both here and now," Cayenne stated, cutting through the chaos with faint impatience. "The type of equipment we'll only find in a well-funded laboratory, I'm afraid."
Persephone squinted at him. "Not… you know, a hospital?"
The man sighed, adjusting the visor-like glasses on his nose. "I already saw what the hospital read from you. If I had to guess, only an aurascope is going to turn up anything relevant here."
"Aurascope?" Persephone asked.
"The instrument one uses to examine auras," Cayenne explained. He paused, the flare on his lens shifting just enough to reveal a skeptical stare down at Persephone. "…You do know what aura is, right?"
Persephone twisted her face disapprovingly at him for daring to question her knowledge, before turning her attention back to her coloring book. "Of course. It's how like… moves and stuff work."
Cayenne sighed and shook his head. "Close enough. More than likely, whatever is affecting you is an aural effect. Rarely medical relevant, and above the paygrade of a local hospital."
"Wait, are you suggesting a Pokémon literally messed her up in the head as baby?" Elle chipped in, totally lost.
"We are NOT talking about my… personality!" Persephone protested again, tossing another crayon. It snapped in half, and one of the desk attendants shot her a filthy glare from across the room. "Haedys did something weird to me that we're trying to fix!"
Elle tilted her head.
"The 'something weird' she is referring to 'fixing' is establishing an empathic link most people would need to train for decades to achieve," Kona interjected to explain, smiling with an uncanny sweetness.
"Empathic…?" Elle asked, trailing off as her eyes drilled through the wall trying to figure out what that meant. Her head raised in sudden epiphany. "Wait, is that why you started freaking crying when you lost?"
Persephone shuddered and paused drawing to rub her eyes. "I'm never battling anyone with Sand Attack ever again."
Elle looked like she was trying to respond, but words never left her mouth. She was, once again, too utterly baffled to form them. Her eyes kept running up and down Persephone, and then to the others, searching for any sign of a joke or perhaps some visible hint of Percy's strange curse.
Cayenne took this opportunity to pull a Pokéball from his belt which had previously been concealed. Persephone braced as she heard the click of its hatch, expecting it to unleash something as abrasive as the trainer. When she saw what did emerge, she did a double-take.
The small Pokémon barely managed to poke its head up over the table, standing on two stubby legs. A large, yellow head left plenty of room for two beady, curious eyes that inspected all around them with a smile and childlike wonder. Two seed-like bulbs adorned their forehead, with pinkish petals fanning out from their head and back.
A Cherrim. A rather personable-looking one, even.
Persephone couldn't help but glance back and forth between the colorful, cheery Pokémon and its cold and stern trainer a few times. Cayenne's fist and scowl tightened slightly as she did, the man quickly turning away to avoid her stare.
The faintest hint of a victorious smile took to the edge of her lip. Perhaps he wasn't so scary after all.
"No- seriously- what? I'm still not past the whole 'empathic link', thing," Elle interrupted her small victory, staring seriously at the other woman. "So you can like, read her mind or something?"
"No, I cannot 'read her mind'." Persephone rolled her eyes as if that was the threshold of absurdity. "I just feel it when she gets really upset, or whatever. Or if she gets hurt."
"…And you challenged me to a battle anyways?"
"I thought you couldn't hit her!"
"Why would you assume that?"
"My, my, Elle dear. If we questioned every bit of our mutual friend's poor judgment, we'd be here all day!" Kona replied, chuckling. "What matters is that we're going to get her some help. It seems we'll both be going to Goldenrod, then. What a coincidence!"
Kona's uncomfortable smile hung above a very tangible silence in the air. One that lasted for an agonizingly long time. And one that everyone present could feel- save perhaps for Smeargle, who had tuned them out entirely in his chromatic staining of the coloring sheet.
"Seems like it." Elle finally broke the silence by refusing to acknowledge the implication.
Persephone wanted desperately to ask Elle to travel with them. Not for any love of Elle- certainly not for any love of Elle. But because the alternative was traveling alone with Kona and Cayenne, which both sounded horrible and rang some bell in the back of her head that she couldn't quite place. Something about 'stranger danger'…
But of course, Persephone couldn't admit that she wanted Elle's company. Especially not to herself.
She decided to break the tension before someone else could propose it by scooting closer to Smeargle. The action earned a filthy glare, and the Pokémon scooted a few inches further away.
Cherrim had hopped up onto the table and was shuffling through the coloring sheets- seemingly uninterested in coloring any but fascinated by the pictures. At Persephone's movement, they turned and smiled at her, waving a little hand.
Persephone gave the Grass-type a strange look before waving back lazily and returning her attention to Smeargle. Excitedly, she slid the sheet she'd been working on over towards him. It had been filled with a crayon depiction of herself and Smeargle holding hands and smiling. For her choice of tool, it was surprisingly decent—she'd managed to get fine enough lines that if someone hadn't looked too closely they might have mistaken it for a proper sketch.
The Pokémon inspected it closely, Persephone's heart in her chest the entire time. His expression was scrutinizing and harsh, but that much was to be expected. And it was nothing she was unused to from critics. Surely, if nothing else, this would convey that she wanted to move past the whole 'angry' thing, right?
Smeargle finally raised his eyes from the picture and looked over at her with the same grumpy expression. She smiled back, raising a thumbs up optimistically.
His frown tightened, and he raised his tail up. Glanced back down at the paper, as red ink began to seep into the tip.
And with a single rapid swing of his tail he cast a wide red swipe over her drawing.
"Ear!" he barked, crumpling it in his paw and throwing it back at her. He didn't even spare her another glance, turning back to his own work. Which at this point could no longer be described as 'coloring'. It was more like he was drenching the paper in every pigment he could produce.
Persephone let out a whimper that was somehow more puppy-like, heart shattering as the Pokémon refused to even spare her attention. What would it take to earn his love?
Cherrim waddled forward to plant a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. And somehow, this just made her feel worse.
Elle sighed, turning away from the sad display. "Yeah. Probably best you two are kept apart a while longer. I'm sure he'll get over it eventually."
Before Persephone could bemoan her fate any further, an attendant approached the group with a Pokéball in each hand. He smiled and nodded, handing them to Elle and Kona directly. Persephone stared at him expectantly before realizing that Haedys was already floating beside her head.
"Rii!" Cherrim waved cheerfully at the newcomer.
Haedys stared at them with an uncertain gap a moment before whispering a "Miss…" in return. She floated closer, inspecting the Cherrim before turning her attention to the coloring sheets. Curious eyes ran across the outline of a Pikachu and an Eldegoss before finally settling on a Duskull and twinkling. With a shimmer of pink in her eyes, a force gripped that sheet and dragged it closer, just as a black crayon lifted into the air near her.
"Well… At least you got an artist?" Elle offered, shrugging awkwardly.
Persephone didn't respond to that, still visibly pouting. Inside though, she couldn't help but spare some curiosity for Haedys' enthusiasm. She watched intently as the Misdreavus scribbled away, carefully filling the lines.
"So, it's settled then! We'll be off in the morning, yes?" Kona broke the mood again, spinning Don's Pokéball between his fingers. "Few days walk down to Goldenrod, see the city, get poked by some doctors, and hopefully you're free from there!"
Cayenne grunted at this, casting Kona a strangely warding look. The receiver didn't even acknowledge it.
Persephone hesitated. The last thing she wanted to do was be alone on the road with these two, but she was desperate. It was just for a few days, and… She looked up at Haedys still scribbling away, coloring in the red of Duskull's eye now. The ghost sensed her gaze and looked back, surprised by the attention. Persephone smiled, before turning to avoid locking eyes.
She had Haedys, at least? That was someone to protect her. And looking away from Haedys had forced her to instead look at the attention-seeking Cherrim, again smiling and waving at her excitedly. She couldn't help but smile a bit more as she turned away to ignore the Pokémon. Surely Cayenne couldn't be that bad if he kept around a Pokémon like this?
"Fine," she relented, the word practically spilling from her mouth. "We can go to Goldenrod."
Kona's smile somehow widened further and he clapped his hands together. "Wonderful! Oh-ho-ho, you're going to love it, Percy dear. Have you ever been? Nothing like it up here—course, I'd say this city is quite lovely, but…"
Percy grumbled to herself, folding her arms nodding her head. She wasn't really listening to him, nor did she care to elaborate. She was halfway falling into another stewing session when the sound of flapping paper demanded her attention.
Haedys was floating over her shoulder with a colored sheet on full display. It was… unimaginative- having colored the Duskull in as accurately as her selection of crayons might have allowed. But the lines were smooth, and the Misdreavus had such an encouraging sparkle in her eyes.
Peresphone let out a sigh, and slowly took the drawing from the Misdreavus's tendril. She raised one hand, planted it on the slimy nest that was the ghost's hair, and scratched. Shut her eyes, tried to ignore the sensation and counted to ten as Haedys smiled cooed appreciatively.
She'd survive. Just a few more days… And this would all be behind her.