AN #1: hey guys, how's it going? missed me? :P
okay seriously I was not expecting for this chapter to take LITERALLY TWO WHOLE YEARS to write, but life finds a way I fucking guess. Between writer's block, finishing the last semesters of and graduating from college, and getting my first paid job, I just could not find the time or energy to finish this chapter. But I've never stopped thinking about Hope, Klaw, Dewey, and the rest of these wonderful goobers – I rotate them in my brain like a plate in a microwave at least three times a day LMAOOOOO. But now everything's finally slowed down, and my motivation to write came back in full swing!
One other awesome thing happened during this unintended hiatus… THIS FIC HAS BETA READERS NOW! Thank you so so so so much to my wonderful best friends, Turkeyuwu and Xuey, for beta reading this chapter! They're honestly some of the best people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, and without their support it might have taken even longer for me to get out of the writer's block. They've also got pretty awesome PMD fics of their own – check out Royal Replacement (Turkey's fic) and Acid Rain (Xuey's fic) and show them some support!
Okay, I've rambled on long enough. Now let's get started!
"Ugh! This sucks! When are we gonna get to the crime part?!" Bai complained loudly. He turned to face his friends, a scowl on his face. "Medusa, Odin, can we do a crime right now? Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?" he begged.
Medusa and Odin looked at each other, then back at Bai. "Wow. You really are a feisty one, aren't you?" Odin purred in amusement.
"You officially moved in here… what, four hours ago?" Medusa looked up at the old, dusty clock, which was dangling for dear life off of the wall behind Bai, and turned back to the kubfu. "You've gotta be patient, kiddo." she trilled playfully.
"But I don't wanna wait! I wanna do crimes right now!" Bai whined, jumping up on the old, ratty couch. He looked at Medusa and Odin with the widest, teariest eyes he could muster and pouted so hard the skin on his lip almost split.
When Lupo and Sal had invited Bai to join the Raiders, he expected it to be a nonstop rollercoaster of fun. That was the only reason he accepted their offer in the first place.
It wasn't just because he was lonely and had no friends at school and his uncles were so overbearing and he missed his mommy and daddy and uncle and auntie so much and he just wanted someone to be friends with him, even if those someones were the misfit wannabe criminals that his uncles were always warning him to stay away from! No! Absolutely not! Not in the slightest!
No, it was because this was what he was born for. Daddy and Uncle Kashu and Auntie Mingo were heroes, yes, They were well respected, loved by the whole town, idolized even. They were kind and loyal and caring, and some of the best people Bai ever knew.
And what did it get them?
It got them all killed. It got his mommy killed. It got his old friends and teachers killed. It got his old hometown wiped off of the map. And it got him stuck in this stupid town with his stupid uncles who never let him do anything fun anymore.
Daddy and Uncle Kashu and Auntie Mingo were good and noble and brave, yes. But they were also weak. They wouldn't have been killed if they weren't weak.
Villains weren't weak. They were strong. They always won. Bai was going to become a Raider and bring the group to greatness so that he could become strong. So he wouldn't succumb to the same fate his parents and his uncle and his auntie had succumbed to.
Before he even realized it was happening, images began to flash in his head. Images he tried so hard to forget but couldn't, images that were permanently ingrained into his brain.
The sky tearing open, hundreds of strange purple creatures, pokemon-like but also not pokemon at all, descending upon his peaceful village
That purple, beedrill-like thing, the leader of the creatures, looming over him, its smile twisted and literally dripping with venom…
Mommy lying on the ground in front of him, the stab wound right on top of her heart bubbling with a sticky purple fluid, stroking his cheek weakly with her hand before it slid down, never to caress him again…
Daddy charging forward to attack the purple thing, only for the thing to cackle and dive down to meet him, impaling him right through the eye and into the brain with its stinger…
Daddy looking towards him, his face twisted with terror for the first and only time in his life, and choking out the word "Run" before the purple thing ejected its stinger and he crumpled to the floor, dead…
Only getting a few feet away before the purple thing turned towards a stunned Uncle Kashu and Auntie Mingo, cackling and spitting out more of the sticky purple liquid into their faces, dissolving fur, feathers, and skin covering it, causing the muscles and bones of their faces to melt together…
Still being able to hear their screams as the poison took its toll, regardless of how far he ran…
"Er… Bai? Bai? Bai! Earth to Bai?! You good there, buddy? Hey, what are you doi- Ow! Fuck!"
Bai's vision slowly unblurred, though his head was still pounding, and his nose felt like it was stuffed with an entire bottle of whipped cream. His fists were also sore, and as his vision cleared up, the reason for that also cleared up. Medusa and Odin were standing in front of him, grinning awkwardly while massaging huge, swollen bumps on the tops of their heads.
Bai wasn't stupid. He knew he hit them. But he was already feeling crappy enough as it was. He didn't want to acknowledge it. He would just end up feeling worse. He looked at the ground, tears once again clouding his vision. A hiccup escaped from his throat, and his head started to spin.
"Fuck! It's okay, Bai, we know you didn't mean to hit us… there, there…" Odin reached out to pat Bai reassuringly on the head, but the kubfu simply shoved him away, more and more tears gushing out of his eyes.
Odin stepped back, looking at Medusa helplessly.
Medusa sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'll get the juice boxes." she grumbled, slinking out of the room and closing the door behind her as gently as she could.
Juice boxes! Bai immediately began to feel better, lifting his head up and wiping away the tears in one long motion. The downside to this was that he hated how the fur on his arm felt after wiping away tears, the sticky sogginess of the tears clinging to his fur. There weren't any paper towels or tissue boxes in the room, but Mommy always told him that it was rude to wipe his hands on furniture, so all he could do was just sit there uncomfortably.
Grunting echoed from the other room. Eventually, the door opened again, and Medusa poked her face back into the room. "Odie!" she panted. "Can you help me move the juice box container?"
"How many times have I told you to not call me Odie?" Odin hissed, his metallic fur fluffed up.
Medusa rolled her eyes. "Can you please help me move the juice box container?" she repeated.
A sinister grin formed on Odin's face. "That's better, Dusie-Loosie." he crooned mischievously.
The door swung wide open, and Medusa darted forward, her eyes alight with indignation. "STOP CALLING ME DUSIE-LOOSIE!" she screeched furiously.
"Only if you stop calling me Odie." Odin cackled, stepping forward to meet the salandit.
"ODIE'S A CUTE NICKNAME!" Medusa hissed. "DUSIE-LOOSIE JUST SOUNDS SO STUPID AND CHILDISH!" She thumped her tail on the floor, snorted out a small puff of smoke, and sighed. "Ugh, can you just come and help me get this done already?!"
"Alriiiiiiiiight." Odin drawled cheekily, his grin so wide Bai thought it might fall off of his face. "I'll come, I'll come."
Medusa sighed and began grumbling under her breath. Odin let out a loud and hearty laugh. The salandit and the steel meowth headed out of the room, mumbling and chuckling all the way there until the door closed behind them both.
The exchange was amusing, but it also stoked feelings of sadness and jealousy within Bai. He had always wanted a bunch of younger brothers and sisters, but his Mommy and Daddy couldn't have any more biological kids - something about Daddy's species not being able to breed normally and it being a miracle Bai was born as healthy as he was - but they had begun discussing adopting a couple of children from a local orphanage near his grandpop's birthplace.
Bai had been so excited… but then that thing had attacked… and then… and then…
Stop it!, Bai thought to himself. He grabbed the ends of his white hair tufts and pulled on them as hard as he could, trying his best to keep the thoughts at bay. However, he only succeeded in making his head hurt even more. The wetness of his own tears soaking into his arm didn't help matters much either.
Bai looked towards the door, checking to make sure Medusa and Odin couldn't see them, before wiping his arm on the arm of the couch. It left a very visible trail of wetness behind, but hopefully they didn't mind - that couch was so old and ratty anyways!
His eyes trailed over to the small tableside desk to the right of the couch, where a small lamp and an even smaller photo frame sat. The lamp was nothing special - it was covered in dust and the lightbulb was covered in tiny cracks - but the photograph caught his eye.
It showed eight pokemon. On the left side, a floatzel with one missing tail and a pangoro with a misaligned jaw lounged on a couch very similar to the one Bai was sitting on currently, disinterestedly watching a rockruff and a toxel wrestle at the foot of the couch. On the right side, a tiny salandit and steel meowth, both wearing diapers, looked at the rockruff and toxel with expressions of pure childlike delight. A sceptile with shriveled seeds and a scar across his left eye and a cinderace with yellow-tinted fur and a twisted right foot sat in chairs directly behind the infants, holding bottles of what Bai assumed to be alcohol (He was a big kid! He knew what the stuff looked like!), looking at each other with sour expressions.
Bai tilted the photo towards him, trying to drink in as much of it as he could. He assumed that these other pokemon were family members of the Raiders, and boy, did he crave that family. He craved the large happy family he had before, with a mommy and a daddy and three uncles and one auntie. All he had now were two uncles who buried themselves in their work to forget what they once had.
Sure, the floatzel and the pangoro didn't look very happy, and the sceptile and the cinderace looked even more unhappy. But that was just one picture! It couldn't have been like that all the time, right?
"Bai? You doin' alright in there, kiddo?"
At the sound of Odin's voice, Bai immediately straightened up and put the photo back into place as neatly as he could. The Raiders were his best and only friends in the whole wide world, so he didn't want to accidentally break something they treasured.
"I'm alright!" Bai called back.
"Great!" Medusa responded. "Just give us one more second, buddy."
Grunting began to echo from the other room, slowly growing louder and louder, until finally the door swung open, and Medusa and Odin pulled in the largest container of juice boxes Bai had ever seen, huffing and puffing as they dragged it to the center of the room.
Bai could hardly contain his excitement. He jumped off the couch and made a beeline for the juice box container, his hands outstretched eagerly.
Then, a painfully familiar voice began to echo in his head.
"Bai! What did I tell you about taking food and drink from other people? Always wait to be served!"
His mom's voice sounded the same as it did on the day she was killed.
Bai immediately screeched to a halt, biting his lip so hard he could start to taste blood on the inside. Medusa and Odin looked up at him, then at each other, with confusion and worry clouding their eyes. They tugged at the edges of the cardboard container, letting it open with a satisfying riiiiiip before turning back to Bai.
"Soooooo… What flavor of juice would you like, kid?" Odin asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
"We've got oran, lum, rawst, grepa, pinap, cheri, pecha, and blue razz." Medusa added, her tail flicking back and forth.
Bai's sadness dissipated almost instantaneously. "Blue razz?" he squealed with delight. Blue razz was his favorite flavor of juice, and he hadn't had it in so long!
Medusa and Odin looked at each other and chuckled. Odin reached into the juice box container and pulled out a deep blue juice box, throwing it to Bai. Bai was so excited that the juice box almost fell through his hands, but thankfully, he was able to grasp it in his claws, almost puncturing it with how hard he held onto it. He pulled the straw off and stabbed it into the silver hole on top of the juice box before taking the largest gulp he possibly could.
"Hey, Bai! Slow down! I don't want you to-" Odin started.
A slow burning sensation began to build up within Bai's nose, growing stronger and stronger, almost like the little droplets of acid that he had inhaled while escaping from that thing, causing him to lurch over in pain.
"...get the juice up your nose." Medusa finished with an exasperated sigh, her and Odin looking at each other with a similarly exasperated expression.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Bai protested. He pinched his nose shut and mentally counted to ten, a trick his Daddy had taught him. The burning feeling slowly went away, and soon, Bai felt like he could breathe again. He took a slower sip of the blue razz juice and found it to be just as delicious as he remembered. "Anyways, when are we going to get to the crime part?" he asked cheerfully. "I like it in this secret treehouse, but I'm bored! I wanna go and break things and spray paint swear words on the side of Voodumb Apothecary or whatever it's called!"
Medusa and Odin looked at each other and chuckled. They each reached into the juice box container and pulled out a box of juice - Medusa pulled out a pinap juice box, while Odin pulled out a grepa juice box. They then both hopped on the couch, Medusa on the left and Odin on the right, and tapped the seat in the middle, gesturing for Bai to join them. The kubfu quickly obliged, jumping onto the couch and sipping his juice box as happily as a clamperl.
For the first time since Bai lost his family, he felt… at peace. He wasn't surrounded by people who weren't bossing him around and expecting him to suck it up and forget everything that happened to him. Instead, he was with people who just wanted to kick back and relax, who just wanted to have fun, and who appreciated Bai enough to want to invite him to join in the fun.
Bai didn't understand why Uncle Hei'an, Uncle Shui, and everyone else in Honor Town seemed to despise the Raiders so much. They were the nicest people he had met since moving to this stuck-up town.
"Um… Bai? Did you hear us?"
Bai was snapped back to reality by a light tap on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Odin looking at him quizzically.
"Sorry, sorry!" Bai yelped. "I was just doin' some thinking!"
Bai felt the softer sensation of a tail resting gently on his other shoulder, and he turned his head to see Medusa smiling at him. "It's okay, Bai." she said gently.
"Yeah, that's on us, kiddo." Odin chuckled sheepishly. "Anyways, we do things a little differently here in the Raiders. We don't do crime on a schedule or plan anything out. We strike whenever we want, wherever we want." His expression turned into a devious grin, and he unsheathed his claws. "Unlimited chaos, baby! That's our motto!" he purred.
Medusa cackled loudly at this before turning to Bai. "What Odie said." she smirked, causing the steel meowth to make a noise not too far off from coughing up a hairball. "But also, we've gotta wait for Lupo and Sal to come back. They're the leaders, after all, so they're the ones who decide what we do."
Medusa and Odin both took big sips from their juice boxes.
"Oh, right!" Bai perked up. "They're on a date, aren't they?"
Medusa and Odin proceeded to spit out their juice all over the couch.
Bai immediately sprung to his feet, dropping his juice box in the process, and began to rub the backs of the choking Medusa and Odin, a trick that his Auntie Mingo had taught him. A few minutes passed before the hacking and coughing finally slowed down, and Medusa and Odin were able to lift their heads up and turn to look at Bai. "Wha- no- did you- are you seri-" they spluttered simultaneously.
Bai began to grow anxious. Did he do something wrong? He was just stating something he thought was obvious!
"Did I do something wrong? I just thought it was obvious!" he said, pulling on his head tuft to relieve the panic. Unfortunately, this only sent poor Medusa and Odin into yet another coughing fit, and the panic set in all over again.
I really hope I didn't do anything wrong! Bai thought to himself as he resumed rubbing Medusa and Odin's backs. These are the first friends I've made in two years! I can't lose them!
Medusa and Odin once again slowly recovered from the coughing fit, inhaling and exhaling deeply as they regained their bearings.
"Are you guys okay?" Bai asked, his eyes as round as a rowlet.
Medusa and Odin looked at each other awkwardly, their breaths returning to a normal pace. As soon as they had recovered, they looked over at Bai awkwardly, then back at each other.
Bai began to shake. I've definitely messed everything up… "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" he whimpered repeatedly, pulling his hair tufts like the cord on a windup toy.
"Bai."
Bai felt light pressure on each shoulder, immediately dragging him back down to reality. He looked up to see that Medusa and Odin had jumped off the couch and had placed their hands on his shoulders - Medusa on his left, Odin on his right - to help calm him down.
"You need to stop doing that, kiddo." Medusa sighed. "You did nothing wrong. It's just…" She flicked her tail back and forth hesitantly.
"You see, the four of us have been friends for like, forever." Odin chuckled. "You see, our…" He trailed off, his eyes narrowing into slits and his claws sliding in and out of their sheaths.
Medusa's tail was flicking even faster now, and Bai swore he saw sparks flicking off of the reddish-orange pattern on her back. "...You see that photo over there, Bai?" she finally said after what felt like an eternity.
Bai followed Medusa and Odin's gazes over to the same photo he had been looking at earlier. "Yup!" he squeaked, unable to hold in his excitement. I'm finally going to know what's up with that picture!
But then he looked back at Medusa and Odin's faces, which were now twisted with fury. Bai's smile drooped - he had made a huge mistake, hadn't he? He didn't want Medusa and Odin to think that he was excited about something that they clearly had bad memories of - that would be insulting!
But thankfully, they didn't say anything else.
"Well, you see, Bai, those are our dads." Medusa sighed. "Lupo, Sal, and us, we've known each other since we were in diapers, because our dads were all best friends." She started pointing at each pokemon in the photo with her tail. "The floatzel is Lupo's dad Cyrus, the pangoro is Sal's dad Lysander…" Medusa jabbed her tail at the sceptile, her eyes and the pattern on her back suddenly blazing with fury. "The sceptile is my bastard father, Basil…"
"And the cinderace is my scumbag father, Maverick." Odin finished with a hiss, swiping at the cinderace with unsheathed claws. His eyes had narrowed so much the slits were barely visible, and his expression was as cold as steel.
The pit in Bai's stomach grew even deeper. He was definitely bringing up bad memories for both Medusa and Odin, and he definitely did not want to do that. He opened his mouth to say so, but he was cut off by Odin.
"Don't worry about it, Bai." Odin said softly. "You're the first person we've told the story of our dads to, actually. Feels good to get it off of our chests." He looked away, blushing with embarrassment.
Bai's face immediately turned razz berry red with gratitude.
"A-anyways," Medusa continued, also blushing with embarrassment, "Our dads knew each other since they were little, so when Lupo and Sal's moms were killed by ferals, and our shitbag sires got divorced and saddled with us, they all ended up moving into this treehouse and raising us together. We became best friends ourselves really quickly, but our dads…" Medusa looked at Odin uneasily. "Odie, how… in-depth are we allowed to get here?"
Odin didn't even object to the use of Medusa's silly nickname, so Bai knew they were being really serious now. He looked back at Bai, scanning him carefully. "The kid's definitely seen some stuff, Medusa." he responded. "I think we can be a bit more open with him."
They weren't wrong. Bai had definitely seen some stuff in his eight short years of life.
"Our dads… were all complete and total douches." Odin hissed, his claws having been unsheathed so far they looked like they would pop off of his fingers. "They were all nasty, neglectful, alcoholic, abusive pieces of shit, but Basil and Maverick were especially nasty, neglectful, alcoholic, abusive pieces of shit."
"Uncle Cyrus and Uncle Lysander…" Medusa's eyes narrowed, and her tail twitched. "...They were more alcoholic and neglectful than straight up abusive, but they definitely weren't the best of parents. And they… weren't exactly the fondest of what they considered… untraditional."
"Untraditional?" Bai's eyebrows narrowed in confusion for a few seconds, before widening in realization. "Like… having pie at a wedding instead of cake? That's no fun! All of the best weddings have pies instead of cakes!"
Medusa and Odin blinked in shock before looking at each other, both of them clearly trying to hold back laughter. "Not quite." Odin chuckled. For just a moment, he and Medusa looked a bit more relaxed, but their expressions became uncharacteristically serious once more just a few seconds later. "But you are remarkably close with it being wedding related."
"Let's just say… they weren't the biggest fans of… changes in who could get married." Medusa mumbled.
Bai sat there for a few seconds, sipping his juice as he racked his brain, trying to figure out what Odin could be referring to. The commune where he has grown up in was filled with rarer Pokemon with a closer connection to their gods, so attending ceremonies of all sorts was as much a part of his daily routine as school was. This included a fair share of weddings of all kinds - marriages between normal pokemon, marriages between normal pokemon and rarer pokemon like him, marriages between pokemon of the same gend-
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh." Bai exhaled, looking down at his feet in embarrassment.
Odin let out a sound that sounded like a mix between coughing up a hairball and laughing.
"You really are one smart kid, Bai." Medusa chortled. She was biting her lips, clearly trying to suppress a massive laugh as well.
Bai continued to look down at his feet. He was aware that he hadn't done anything wrong, but he still felt so stupid.
"So… yeah." Medusa trailed off. "I think you can probably guess where this is going now. Lupo and Sal started developing crushes on each other when they were around… I wanna say eleven or twelve?" She scrunched up her face in thought. "Maybe thirteen?"
"Twel- I mean, thirteen." Odin confirmed beside her, putting his hands behind his head and grinning playfully. "Trust me, I've been keeping track."
"Yeah, deeeeeeefinitely thirteen." Medusa confirmed with an air of superiority, shooting Odin a smug grin that caused the steel meowth's fur to briefly bristle. Unfazed, Medusa continued to talk. "So yeah, Lupo and Sal obviously liked each other, but they were too afraid of Cyrus and Lysander to confess to each other. It just kept going and going, and the more time passed, the more they just… bottled their feelings up."
Bai narrowed his eyebrows, wanting to ask something but knowing full well that his question would be a stupid one. Medusa and Odin, however, caught onto the conflicted expression in his eyes almost immediately, though.
"Basil and Maverick were shitty in every possible way. But the worst thing about them is that if they didn't like you, they held grudges. And though they hated us, they absolutely despised Lupo and Sal." Medusa hissed, flames flickering off of the edge of her teeth.
"Something to do with them 'distracting' Cyrus and Lysander." Odin scoffed. "Which is complete and utter Miltank-shit, because they all were equally disinterested in our well beings… but Basil and Maverick used that excuse at any possible opportunity to…" He looked around nervously and swallowed. "...shout at and even try to attack Lupo and Sal." He growled out the last part. "So Lupo and Sal trying to open up to them would have been like sticking their hands right into a steel stunfisk's mouth."
"Eventually, they all drunk themselves to death, leaving us with this treehouse." Medusa murmured. "By that time, though, Lupo and Sal had convinced themselves that their feelings weren't reciprocated, that the other had become just as prejudiced as Cyrus and Lysander, and that the friendship would be ruined if they tried to confess. So they've… just continued to stew in their feelings."
"And that's our story, we guess." Odin finished with a somber look.
Bai felt a white-hot rage bubbling inside him. It was a feeling he had become quite familiar with in the years following the deaths of his family. But this time, the rage was directed at pokemon he would never know, pokemon who had hurt his friends so deeply, pokemon who had left wounds that still hadn't healed, pokemon who would never face consequences for what they had done to his best friends.
He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could do so, the familiar WHOOSH of the door swinging open echoed behind him.
Bai whirled around to see none other than Lupo and Sal strut through the door like they owned the place, grins bigger than a Wailord plastered on their faces, a massive grocery bag in each hand… and casually holding hands.
Medusa and Odin looked like they wanted to jump headfirst into the deepest ocean possible.
"Hey, wee mate! Wot's up!" Sal chortled. "Got all o' yor things unpacked?"
"Are yuh adjustin' fine?" Lupo asked. "How do yuh like de treehouse?"
For a brief moment, they squeezed each other's hands even harder, and Bai even swore that he saw their cheeks rub up against each other. It kind of reminded Bai of how his Mommy and Daddy would act during family gatherings.
But just as quickly, their cheeks turned a bright red, and they let go of each other's hands.
A small pit began to form in Bai's stomach - a pit of sadness and longing for his friends to be happy.
"A-anyways," Sal stammered,"We're back wiv the snacks!"
"We couldn't find de exact ones yuh wanted, little buddy, but we tink we got close enough." Lupo muttered, his eyes darting back and forth.
Bai badly wanted to say something, but his thoughts mostly dissipated when Lupo and Sal emptying out the contents of the grocery bags, a wave of snacks flooding the floor.
"Hopefully dese are good enough." Lupo sheepishly rubbed the back of his mane. "Again, we couldn't find de exact ones yuh wanted, but we tried tuh find things wit' similar flavors."
"It's wot Teddy had in stock." Sal rubbed his hands together. "He 'elped us pick the snacks out - he likes a lot o' the same foods yer do."
Bai started to rummage through the pile of snacks, quickly fishing up the substitute snacks Lupo and Sal were referring to - dried barboach jerky, cookies glazed with beedrill honey, and flapple juice gummies. He hadn't tried any of this stuff before, but fish, honey, and apples were still some of his favorite foods, and he was tickled pink that Lupo and Sal remembered that. Not to mention the other goodies he saw lying in the pile - curry-cheese bread, chocolate-caramel-cookie bars, fruit gelatin cups, even a box of onigiri! So many of his favorite foods!
"These are perfect. Thank you so, so, so much, Lupo and Sal!" Bai squealed, scooping up all of his favorites into his arms.
Lupo and Sal both blinked in shock, and their cheeks turned a bright red. "I-it's no big deal, little buddy." they both muttered in unison.
Medusa and Odin both rolled their eyes and snorted before heading over to the pile and swiping some snacks of their own, both types of jerky - Medusa took a bug jerky with nymble, grubbin, and yanma, while Odin took another fish jerky, this one made with clauncher, remoraid, and carvanha.
Bai jumped back up onto the couch and ripped open one of the chocolate bars. He bit into it, savoring the combined flavors of rich chocolate, sticky sweet caramel, and crispy vanilla flavored cookies. He closed his eyes for a brief second, but was quickly snapped out of his candy-induced bliss by Medusa's voice.
"So, Lupo, Sal, what's the plan for today?" the salandit asked, leaning in with interest sparkling in her eyes.
"It's gotta be a special one, after all. It's Bai's first outing with us!" Odin interjected gleefully, also leaning in with interest.
Bai flung his chocolate bar aside with so much force it hit the wall with a loud THUD! He scurried up to the group and tried to lean in with the same amount of coolness as Medusa and Odin. Instead, however, he just ended up tripping over his own legs, only staying on his own feet thanks to his training.
All of the Raiders immediately tried to hold back loud laughs. Bai normally would have been insulted, but he couldn't help but giggle along. The Raiders just had that effect on him - no matter what, they would somehow find a way to cheer him up.
After a little bit, Lupo was able to stave away the giggling fit long enough to form actual words. "Anyways, little buddy," he exhaled. "Yuh gotta be a bit more patient for dis one. We're lettin' de chaos come tuh us today!"
Bai tilted his head in confusion, opening his mouth to ask what Lupo meant by that, but Sal beat him to the punch.
"Today, we're gonna 'ave ourselves some sweet revenge." he hissed with glee. "The Bloodcrown boys and their cheating eevee friend… They embarrased us yesterday, and we're not gonna 'ave that lyin' down!"
Bai felt his ears burn with anger, and his fingers curled in so tightly he almost broke the bones in his hands. The memory of the eevee, litten, and sobble standing in the dojo waiting room, chatting cheerily with his uncles without a care in the world - like they weren't obviously replacing him - still stung. It stung even worse than the poison of that naganadel.
"Okay." he muttered, his voice suddenly cold. "Let's hear this plan, then."
The Raiders blinked with shock at the sudden change in Bai's tone, but they quickly recovered, devious smiles forming on their faces.
"Awright, wee buddy." Sal grinned. "I knew yer was up for this!"
"So de plan's gonna go like dis…" Lupo muttered sinisterly.
MEANWHILE…
Hope looked down at her front paws and grimaced, leaning down once more to pick the bits of moss and mud out of her fur. She normally wasn't one to continually stop and fix herself up, but she just couldn't help it this time. The wet moss and mud just felt so… bleurgh! And the way that it stained her fur an unsightly dark brown and dark green! And the smell… oh, God, the smell…
What the hell is wrong with you, Hope? she silently scolded herself before shaking out her fur and straightening herself up. You're on a mission to rescue an innocent child! Why in the world are you worrying about your appearance?
Still, Hope couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right with this whole situation. Everything she had heard and seen about the Raiders thus far painted them as nothing more than petty troublemakers at best and completely, utterly incompetent at worst. She couldn't quite wrap her head around the idea of them actually being able to carry out a kidnapping.
And she still couldn't get the way Bai had glowered at her, Klaw, and Dewey out of her head. Even though he was young, his eyes had been filled with so much pain and rage. He clearly wasn't the most well adjusted of children, and Hope definitely felt like his penchant for trouble extended far beyond making messes in his uncles' dojo.
Speaking of Bai's uncles, Hei'an and Shui were walking ahead of her, not even turning their heads to ask why she was constantly stopping. They had insisted on coming along, but not because they believed that Hope, Klaw, and Dewey weren't capable of handling the situation. Quite the opposite, in fact - they were the first adults in Honor Town to see how capable the trio was firsthand. They simply had been overcome with worry for their nephew.
Hei'an and Shui's demeanor currently was the exact opposite from how it was when Hope had met the urshifu brothers in Power Pass, and it honestly scared her a little. There, they were fighting for their lives against a hundred-feet tall scolipede who had been possessed by mysterious red crystals, and they still somehow found the time to crack jokes and offer support. Now, however, their faces were devoid of any real emotion - only pure focus and determination. Their backs were completely straightened, and they walked in complete unison, never falling out of step with one another.
Though it was a little unnerving, Hei'an and Shui's demeanor made Hope realize that they truly did love their nephew. They would go to the ends of the earth and do anything to save him, whether it be from a pokemon possessed by supernatural forces or four of the most incompetent criminals Hope had met in her life.
It almost brought a tear to her eye. She couldn't quite explain the feeling, but she was sure that she had people in her human life that she would fight anything and anyone to keep safe, just like Hei'an and Shui were willing to do for Bai. It both warmed her heart and crushed her soul.
Klaw and Dewey, meanwhile, were sticking close to Hei'an and Shui - Klaw to Hei'an's left and Dewey to Shui's right. They had done the majority of feral fighting within the dungeon thus far - something that the Raiders had forgotten to mention in their letter was that Aipom Puzzle Forest was, in fact, a mystery dungeon. Hope had to give them credit for setting up their base in a forest swarming with ferals and somehow still being alive.
To be fair, the feral pokemon in the forest were pretty weak. The "Aipom" in the forest's name was a bit of a misnomer, as Hope had not seen a single aipom throughout the entire forest. The denizens of the forest mainly seemed to be weak normal, flying, and bug types. Klaw and Dewey had been giving her a crash course in the names of the various species as they had traversed the dungeon - the purple rats were called rattata, the round eyed, adorable looking ladybugs were called ledyba, the pretty plain looking pigeons were called pidove, and so on and so forth. Hope had even caught a few glimpses of spinarak - the first ever pokemon she had fought when she had arrived in the world of pokemon. It kind of made her a little bit nostalgic.
Upon further reflection, she realized that Klaw and Dewey taking so much time to tell her the names of such common pokemon might raise some strong suspicions within Hei'an and Shui. But if they did have such suspicions, they didn't voice them at all. They seemed to be too focused on their mission right now.
The forest was starting to open up a bit more, with the trees becoming less densely packed together, letting more of the wind blow through and letting rays of sunlight shine through the leafy canopy. Hope couldn't help wondering just how further they would have to go until they found the Raiders' headquarters. Lupo and Sal had said they were "hiding him in their evil lair", and from Hope's very fuzzy memories of human media, she knew that evil lairs tended to be very over the top. And though the Raiders weren't at all confident, one thing they were was flashy. Hope had honestly expected to see the Raiders' headquarters from ten miles away.
A rustling sound in the bushes behind Hope snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned around nonchalantly, expecting another ledyba or pidove to pop out for her to easily take care of. Instead, she was greeted by a light brown and dark blue blur shooting out of a bush behind her, slamming into her and knocking her into the ground.
Her head spun briefly, but as her vision cleared, she could make out the features of her attacker - a scruffy looking, light brown dog pokemon with cream colored fur on its face that resembled a mustache and dark blue fur covering its back. The feral bared its teeth at her and snapped, flecks of drool coming off its tongue and landing on her face.
Hope grimaced and fluffed up her fur, launching a Thunder Shock at the dog pokemon. The dog yelped at the shock, lifting its front paws off of her. The momentary respite gave her the opportunity she needed to jump back to her feet and glare at the dog with intense concentration, lifting it up into the air with a Confusion. The dog landed to the ground with a loud thud, but it only kept it down for a few seconds, as it too quickly jumped back to its feet, shaking the dust off its fur and snarling at Hope viciously. Hope shook herself off and glowered back at the feral, trying her best to ignore the now-familiar headache and itchiness that were starting to build up.
"O-oh shit!"
"Hope! Are you okay?"
Klaw and Dewey had noticed her predicament and turned back, rushing over to help her. Just as they reached her side, however, more rustling echoed from the bushes. Klaw and Dewey had only just turned their heads towards the noises when two more ferals jumped out of the bushes next to the feral dog pokemon - a white-furred pokemon that looked like a cross between a sloth and a monkey and a black bird pokemon with a long, multicolored beak. The trio of ferals stared down the group with ferocious glares.
Klaw and Dewey's muscles tensed up, and their eyes narrowed, both motions Hope was all too familiar with by now.
"You take the trumbeak, and I take the vigoroth?" Klaw asked his brother.
"E-exactly what I was t-thinking." Dewey grinned.
"And what does that leave me with?" Hope smirked playfully, trying her best to ignore the putrid smell of the dog pokemon's breath.
"The h-herdier." Dewey answered without missing a beat.
Hope quickly nodded in gratitude, turning to face her foe once more. The ferals had quickly gotten sick of the trio's banter - the vigoroth launched itself at Klaw with a loud screech, its claws glowing a very dark purple, while the trumbeak inhaled deeply and started launching rocks out of its beak in quick succession at Dewey.
The herdier, meanwhile, started digging into the ground, kicking up dust and grass everywhere as it did so. Hope lunged forward, hoping to strike it with a Tackle while it was digging, but just as she was about to do so, the herdier looked up at her with the biggest puppy dog eyes she had seen in her entire life.
Hope came to a screeching halt. Something deep inside of her told her that this was an obvious ruse, but how could she hurt something as cute as that? She barely had time to process this before a rumbling sound echoed from the ground beneath her, followed by a blurry shape bursting from the ground and slamming directly right into her stomach.
I can't believe I fell for that!, a small voice in Hope's head echoed. But that wasn't the only thing that was echoing - the pain in her stomach was reverberating, and she swore she could taste a little bit of blood in the back of her throat.
The herdier wasn't quite done yet, though. It flipped its body around, and its fangs began to crackle with electricity. It chomped down directly onto her one white paw, the combination of the sharp teeth and the high-voltage electricity causing Hope to scream out in pain.
Once again, Hope and the herdier went crashing to the ground. Hope groaned in pain and grit her teeth. Not even Jupiter or Dionysus hurt me this bad, and they were straight up possessed!
As her vision cleared once more, she twisted her head back and forth to see how Klaw and Dewey were doing. They did seem to be doing a bit better than her, but the vigoroth and trumbeak were also proving to be tough opponents for them. Dewey was backed up against one of the trees, shooting Water Pulses at the trumbeak while trying to dodge the combined assault of seeds being spat from its beak and strikes from its wings. Klaw, meanwhile, was being chased around by the vigoroth, trying to land Fire Fangs on it while the vigoroth lashed out at him with claws that alternated between being coated in metal and poison.
They needed help, and fast.
"Hei'an! Shui!" Hope called out, struggling against the herdier's grip.
There was no response.
The herdier snarled, fangs crackling with electricity once more, and lunged forward for another bite.
Come on, Hope! You can do it!
The voices that echoed in her head seemed both familiar and foreign to her. Regardless of who they belonged to, she knew they didn't want her to give up.
With a snarl of her own, Hope fluffed up her fur and launched another ThunderShock straight at the Herdier. With a yelp, the herdier stumbled back, allowing Hope to get back onto her feet. She focused on the herdier, lifting it into the air and slamming in back down with a Confusion. The herdier groaned in pain and tried to stand back up, but before it could do so, Hope shot a Razor Leaf at it. The leaves dug into the herdier's fur like small knives, and it let out a howl of pain before slumping onto the hole it had dug earlier, its eyes turned into swirls.
The vigoroth and trumbeak happened to look over at this moment, and their demeanors immediately changed. The vigoroth stumbled back in shock, while the trumbeak let out a trill of surprise. Both of them were now completely still, their gazes locked on the herdier's unconscious body in shock.
Klaw and Dewey took no time in making sure that this sudden opportunity didn't go to waste. Klaw lunged at the vigoroth, biting into it with a Fire Fang while simultaneously striking it with multiple Double Kicks at once, while Dewey fired simultaneous Water Pulses and Ice Shards at the trumbeak. The sudden assault was too much for the two ferals, who crumpled to the ground with swirly eyes just like that fallen leader
Man, that was way closer than it needed to be. Hope let out a sigh of relief, before immediately feeling her knees buckle. She had gotten a bit used to the individual side effects of each of her special moves, and she was slowly adjusting to the combinations of two of them together. But the combination of all three side effects was something else altogether.
Thankfully, Klaw and Dewey quickly came to her side, each of them holding an oran berry. She gratefully tore into the berries, savoring the way the juices were absorbed into her tongue and the way her symptoms practically disappeared into thin air. As she finished the berries, though, she remembered something.
She whirled around in anger. "Hei'an, Shui, what the hell is wrong with you guys?" she spat. "We were actually struggling there! We could have been seriously hurt, possibly ev-"
"Hei'an?"
"S-shui?"
"Are you two… okay?"
Hope's tirade was cut off by Klaw and Dewey pressing their sides into hers. Their eyes were filled with worry and concern, and for a moment, Hope was filled with confusion.
But then, she got a better look at Hei'an and Shui herself.
Their eyes kept darting between the herdier, vigoroth, and trumbeak with a mixture of emotions Hope couldn't quite describe. Instinctively, however, she could tell that these emotions weren't all happy ones. Their mouths were slightly agape, their hands trembled slightly, and tears started to build up at the corners of their eyes.
Oh, fuck. Something is really wrong here.
Hope opened and closed her mouth again like a fish out of water. Finally, she got the ability to speak back.
"I'm so sor-"
However, this ability to speak was cut off once again, this time by Hei'an and Shui.
"No, you're right." Shui sighed. "We're so sorry. We shouldn't have left you helpless like that. We didn't mean to. Not in the slightest It's just…" He looked at his brother and sighed again. Hope could tell that there was a buildup of tears behind that sigh.
Hei'an squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds, before opening them again. "I don't think it's going to make up for this, but I think… we should tell you guys our story." he murmured.
Shui blinked at his brother in surprise, but quickly relaxed and nodded in agreement. "It'll feel good to get this off of our chests," he said quietly.
Hei'an reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a worn photograph. He sat down on the forest floor, with Shui sitting down beside him, and laid the photograph out in front of him. The urshifu brothers gestured for Hope, Klaw, and Dewey to follow suit, and they quickly did so.
Hope peered down at the photograph in front of her. It depicted quite a few pokemon, but she could clearly recognize some of them. A younger Hei'an and Shui were on the rightmost side of the photograph, both wearing school uniforms instead of their karate gi, but those uniforms were still in the same dark crimson and navy blue that Hope had come to differentiate them by. They both had smirks on their faces that resembled the ones Klaw and Dewey would get on their faces when they were about to make some mischief. On their left was a pokemon that looked very similar to them, but with a hairstyle that looked to be split between Hei'an and Shui's hairstyles. They were also wearing a purple karate gi, and they were looking at the next two subjects of the photograph with a mix of amusement and fondness.
In the center of the photograph was a muscular black-furred canine pokemon with green markings. An odd purple chain was wrapped around its neck, but that didn't seem to bother the pokemon that was sitting on the canine pokemon's shoulders - a toddler-age Bai, with fluffier fur, a simple t-shirt instead of his karate gear, and a smile so bright Hope could feel her eyes hurt just looking at it. The canine pokemon was looking up at Bai with an expression that was both playful and filled with an intense amount of love.
The other two pokemon in the photograph shared the same odd purple chain - they looked very different from it, but they were clearly related to it in some way. Most likely siblings - Klaw and Dewey were proof that even blood-related siblings could look very different in the pokemon world. The first of these two was a small black-furred monkey pokemon with blue markings, the purple chain wrapped around its head. The second was a black-feathered bird pokemon with the chain wrapped around its chest. The monkey pokemon sat on the bird pokemon's back, and they both appeared to be laughing deliriously at the shenanigans Bai and their sibling were getting up to.
Suddenly, Hope remembered a couple of things that Hei'an and Shui had said to the trio during some of their previous encounters.
"We kinda freaked out at first ourselves. Me and my bro, we have bad history with pokemon going crazy like that."
"Doesn't help that he's not the best at regulating his own emotions. Especially after what happened to his mother… our sister…"
Hope felt all of the moisture evaporate from her mouth right then and there.
Oh no. Oh noooooooooooo.
"That's… our family…" Shui said softly, his voice quivering just like the breeze.
"That's our older sister, Tongyi," Hei'an murmured, pointing at the bear pokemon that looked almost like them. His breathing already sounded a bit heavier, and he rubbed his eyes briefly. "And that's her husband Ori…" he continued, pointing to the black canine pokemon with the strange purple chain. "They're - or, rather, they were Bai's parents."
Those two words confirmed Hope's worst fears in one fell swoop.
"The other two are Ori's brother and sister, Kashu and Mingo." Shui continued, the quivering in his voice getting stronger and stronger. "They were basically… for lack of a better word, the superhero force for our village. Protected it from any outside threats. They were actually pretty mean in their youths - bullied us a fair bit, actually." He let out a hollow laugh.
"They softened up after they helped us defend the village from an outlaw gang, and they realized they liked doing good more than bad." Hei'an ran his claws absentmindedly through the nearby moss. "Ori being head over heels for Tongyi also helped out a ton!" he cackled dryly. "She didn't like him or his siblings that much first, but she warmed up after the outlaw situation. One thing led to another, and before we knew it, they had gotten married and had Bai."
The tears were starting to fall down both brothers' cheeks now.
"Tongyi ran the dojo in town while Ori, Kashu, and Mingo defended the village and Bai… got to be a normal kid." Hei'an gulped. "Meanwhile, we were attending college overseas, training to become official dojo masters. The original plan was that we would take over the dojo from Tongyi when we graduated so she could focus on her family - the dojo in our village is a family run village, after all. But then, two years ago, we were returning home for spring break, when…" The tears started to fall even faster, and Hei'an instinctively pushed the photograph forward so that it wouldn't get stained by the tears.
"...We weren't there, of course, so we only know what happened from what the few other survivors told us." Shui sniffled. "Apparently, a giant hole opened up in the sky, and this strange… creature came out of it. We're not even sure if it was even a Pokemon - it was described as this giant purple thing - over one hundred feet tall - insectoid in appearance, with a huge stinger, surrounded in blue and red auras."
Hope suddenly felt like she had just been hit in the stomach with a giant rock. More memories of past interactions suddenly flashed into her head - this time of Jupiter and Dionysus, freshly defeated, utterly shaken, not quite all there.
"Yes. A weird ripple just… opened up in the sky. I was curious about why it appeared, and it looked kind of pretty, so I flew up to investigate it. But when I touched it, a whole slew of voices started echoing in my head at once. That was the last thing I remembered before I blacked out…"
"As soon as I touched the crystal, it kind of… took over my body. I don't really know how to explain it. I felt like a puppet, like my brain was tangled up in strings."
Something in Hope's head was screaming at her that this was much more than a series of strange coincidences. The red and blue auras, the pokemon growing to gigantic size, rippling holes suddenly opening up in the sky… there were far too many similarities between these incidents.
She didn't have time to dwell on that further, though.
"...I can still remember the smell." Hei'an mumbled. "I can't even grill feebas anymore without being reminded of the smell. We had to burn the clothes we were wearing that day, because no matter how hard we washed them, no matter what kind of detergent we used, the smell remained." Indeed, he looked like he wanted to vomit.
Hope felt something wet at the edges of her paw pads. She looked over to see tears rolling down Klaw and Dewey's cheeks. She instinctively stroked their backs comfortingly with her tail.
"That monster almost wiped out our entire village in one go." Shui snarled, digging his claws into the dirt. "It went from bustling with life to a ghost town in the blink of an eye. So many of our childhood friends… our teachers... our… our…" He swallowed thickly. "Our family… All gone. And we didn't even get the chance to say goodbye! W-w-we never c-c-c-c-considered the possi-"
Shui finally broke down, a low, guttural sob emanating from his throat. The pure grief emanating from it made Hope feel like she had been dunked in a bucket of ice water. Hei'an pulled his brother close to him in a warm embrace, allowing him to sob into the sleeve of his uniform.
"...We found them in the dojo." Hei'an whispered. "We thought that they were all dead at first. We had almost lost all hope. But then… we found Bai in the garden. I'll never forget the way he jumped into Shui's arms when he saw us… the way he just sobbed and sobbed and sobbed…" He took a deep breath. "Tongyi… Ori… Kashu… Mingo… They gave their lives to save Bai. And he saw it happen. He saw them all die in front of his eyes." His lips suddenly twisted into a furious snarl. "He was six… he was only six… and that fucking monster tore his innocence out of his chest and spat on it!"
Hei'an slammed his left hand into the ground with such force that Hope, Klaw, and Dewey instinctively jumped back a little. The photograph fluttered into the air and floated down softly, landing lopsidedly next to Hope. She gingerly picked it up and carefully moved it back into the center of the group, being as careful as humanly possible to not accidentally ruin it.
Shui finally regained the energy to speak, lifting his head from his brother's shoulder and rubbing his eyes wearily. "After that, we took permanent guardianship of Bai. He came back to college with us overseas and lived with us during the remainder of our schooling. A couple months after we graduated, the previous dojo owners of Honor Town passed away. They were good family friends of ours, so they recommended us as their successors." His eyes trailed away, and his hand began to shake. "We're still not sure if we even deserve it, to be honest. If we couldn't protect our family, how could we ever hope to protect the people of Honor Town?"
Hope wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. She wanted nothing more than to tell Hei'an and Shui that even though they were the only dojo masters she had met, she was sure that they were the best ones in the entire world, that they were some of the best pokemon she had met during her short time in this world, that they surely were the best uncles that Bai could have asked for.
But the thought of the little kubfu, and the story of the trauma he had been through in his extremely short life, slapped Hope in the face with a cruel reminder of why they were even in this forest to begin with.
"The two of us… have never been the best at expressing our feelings." Hei'an mumbled. "Tongyi was always the most emotional one of the three of us, the one who was the most open with her feelings and the one who encouraged us to be open with ourselves. For the love of Arceus, you three are the first pokemon we've even told the full story to." He let out a hollow, hoarse laugh. "But that means that we've never really… Talked to Bai about what happened. Sure, there was a lot going on afterwards, between finishing our dojo master certifications, moving to Honor Town, and becoming the official dojo masters there…"
"But also, we just… couldn't bring ourselves to talk to him about it." Shui murmured. "The pain was just… too much. We carry copies of that photograph everywhere, but this is the first time we've really looked at it since the incident. Being reminded of their faces is too painful to think about. Bai, though… I don't think he took it that way. He wasn't too bad when we were finishing college, but after we moved to Honor Town and became dojo masters, and started working with the other guild trainees, he became so… angry. I think… he felt like we were moving on, that we were trying to replace the family we had lost. I think… I think…"
Both urshifu brothers trailed off, staring ahead into the emptiness of the forest pathway. Even though they didn't say a single word, Hope could understand what they wanted to say loud and clear.
"We think that this is all our fault."
Hei'an and Shui blinked and stood up, with Hei'an gently picking up the photograph and tucking it back into his shirt. "Well… now you guys know our story." Hei'an chuckled weakly. "We should start going aga-"
He was cut off by two blurs racing towards him and his brother. Hope whipped around, thinking it was another group of ferals, but then she quickly realized that Klaw and Dewey were no longer by her side. She looked forward to see that Klaw and Dewey had grabbed onto Hei'an and Shui's legs in extremely tight hugs. They didn't say a single world - they just simply held onto the urshifu brothers, their actions speaking so much louder than words ever could.
Hei'an and Shui looked down. At first, when they noticed the younger pair of brothers clinging to their legs, their eyes widened in shock, but then, they started to tear up again. This time, though, they were also smiling.
"...It's never too late, you know." Hope murmured, stepping forward. "To fix things, I mean. So let's go. I think this will be a good start."
Klaw and Dewey both hopped off of Hei'an and Shui's legs and ran back to Hope, before turning once more to face the urshifu brothers.
"Couldn't have said it better, Hope." Klaw smirked.
"Let's go save Bai!" Dewey cheered.
Hope swore she could see tears at the edges of their eyes as well.
Hei'an and Shui blinked in surprise. Then, they smiled, and turned forward and motioned for the kids to continue following them.
"Then let's get going." Shui grinned.
"The Raiders' treehouse isn't too far from here." Hei'an chuckled. "Now let's go save our nephew!"
"Honestly, I don't know what exactly I was expecting." Hope murmured, feeling a slight pull in her neck from how high she had to tilt her head up to look. "But I think that this is pretty close."
Just like Hei'an and Shui had said, it didn't take long after their talk for the group to reach the Raiders' treehouse headquarters. It was in a pretty tall birch tree, high enough that the treehouse wasn't visible to the eyes of ferals and low enough so that the Raiders didn't trip on their own feet and fall out of the windows to a certain death. The treehouse itself was painted a deep charcoal black, which completely contradicted the little bit of camouflage that the Raiders had attempted to do with the positioning, as the black paint stood out like a sore thumb against the white bark of the birch tree. The streaks of red and purple crayon graffiti on the outside of the treehouse certainly didn't help in this regard. Hope was even able to catch a glimpse of the same crude crayon logo that had been drawn on the letter right next to the doorbell, though it also looked to be surrounded by what looked like… red and purple crayon hearts?
Hope didn't have time to dwell on that, however. There was the more pressing matter of figuring out where the Raiders themselves - as well as Bai - were. There was a ladder lined up at the base of the tree trunk, but other than that, there was no other way to get it. It didn't even go all the way up to the treehouse door itself!
Hope assumed that the Raiders, having made this treehouse their home, at least had developed some tree climbing skills over the years that made it so they were actually able to get up to that tree house. She, however, did not have those skills, and she assumed that Scorch and Riptide couldn't be bothered to teach their kids tree climbing skills as well. And Hei'an and Shui would almost certainly break the tree branches with their weight. So how would they…?
As she continued to ponder this, her eyes moved down to the branches - and that's when she caught glimpses of the slightly obscured forms of a midnight lycanroc, an amped toxtricity, a salandit, and a steel meowth, clinging onto the branches like a hawk's talons, their pinprick pupils glimmering with excitement in the darkness.
Or they can just come to us. That makes it a lot easier.
"Well, well, well! Look what de glameow dragged in!"
"Yer kept us waitin' a wile! I almost fell asleep!"
The Raiders moved out of the shadows and into full view. If Hope hadn't seen what they were capable for herself, she might have been a little intimidated.
Instead, she held her head high and stared right at them.
"Save the tough guy act." she huffed. "Where's Bai?"
The Raiders' grins… simply grew wider.
"Yuh wanna know where Bai is dat badly?" Lupo cackled.
"Well, we'll show yer where he is" Sal giggled gleefully.
Exactly in sync, almost as if they had been rehearsing this, Medusa and Odin let out a long, high whistle.
"Comiiiiiiiiing!"
Bai poked his head out of the treehouse, an extremely wide grin on his face. He sprinted out the door, grabbing onto the closest tree branch with one hand. Like a circus acrobat, he swung from branch to branch effortlessly, not even taking so much as a second to glance at the ground, until he had reached a center branch within the tree, right in the middle of the Raiders. He joined the wannabe criminals in glowering menacingly at the group, which Hope would have found adorable if not for the sinking pit that had suddenly developed in her chest.
Deep down, she had had a feeling that this was the case from the moment Hei'an and Shui had shown them the letter. It still didn't make it feel any better to have it confirmed, though.
"B-bai?!" Shui exclaimed.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Hei'an demanded.
"Ain't it obvious?" Sal cackled gleefully. "You've fallen right into our trap, mates!"
"We nevuh kidnapped Bai, ya dig?" Lupo snarled, a twinkle of joy and pride in his eyes. "He was sick and tired of your goody two-shoes act, so he joined us willingly!"
Bai smirked pridefully. "That's right!" he cheered. Hei'an and Shui, meanwhile, looked quite a bit like fish in a koi pond, their mouths opening and closing helplessly. Either they genuinely didn't expect this, or they had been in even more denial than Hope was.
…Based on what Hope had just learned about the family, it was most certainly the latter.
She shook off the unsettling feeling that had pooled within her stomach and glared at the Raiders, reminding herself mentally that in the end, they really were just petty criminals. "What do you mean by 'your trap?'" she demanded. "If Bai really did join your group willingly, then why did you bring us all the way out here?"
At her words, Lupo and Sal turned their gazes towards… Klaw and Dewey?
"Oh, de trap's not quite for yuh, dear." Lupo snarled again, this time with a lot more malice. "Yuh got me so far?"
"We'd luv ter make a fool out o' yer after that wee stunt yer pulled yesterday." Sal sneered. "But right now, our focus is on yer two."
Klaw and Dewey tilted their heads in confusion.
"We're not stupid, right, yer know?" Sal growled. "We know exactly who yer two are. The Bloodcrown twins!"
"You're de sons of Scorch and Riptide" Lupo spat. "De two greatest criminals to evuh step foot on this Marshadow-damned continent!"
Hei'an and Shui raised their eyebrows curiously, but they didn't say anything else. Klaw and Dewey continued to glare at the Raiders head on, but Hope could see the uneasiness in their facial expressions.
She, however, was just extremely confused to what exactly Lupo and Sal were getting at here.
"Yuh two are obviously huge assets to de Absolute Zero Syndicate." Lupo jeered. "Honestly, I doan know why in de world you're bummin' around wit' dat pathetic runt of an eevee."
Hope was about to let out an equally insulting response, but Sal cut her off.
"Regardless, right, we made a deal wiv Bai." Sal sneered. "He'd go back 'ome, on one condition…"
With acrobatic skill far above Hope's expectations, Lupo and Sal leaped off of the tree branches they were perched on, did a few flips in the air, and landed on the ground in front of Klaw and Dewey… in a pleading position.
"PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE JOIN OUR GROUP PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH WE LOOK UP TO YOUR DADS YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW COOL BEING ABLE TO WORK WITH YOU GUYS WOULD BE MAYBE YOU COULD EVEN INTRODUCE US TO SCORCH AND RIPTIDE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" they begged, looking up at Klaw and Dewey with the biggest puppy dog eyes Hope had seen in her entire life.
The forest suddenly became so quiet, one could hear even the tiniest of water droplets hit the ground.
After what felt like four consecutive eternities, the uneasiness on Klaw and Dewey's faces faded away, and was quickly replaced with amusement. Before Hope knew it, they were both doubled over with laughter on the forest floor.
"Oh, man." Klaw exhaled after a while, getting back on his feet. "Thanks for that. My brother and I haven't laughed that hard in months."
"In what universe do you two live in?" Dewey cackled, still trying to catch his breath. "You seriously thought that would work?!"
Lupo and Sal started at the ground. Was it Hope's imagination, or were they starting to tear up?
"Oh, you're gonna regret that!"
Hope, Klaw, and Dewey looked up in surprise to see Bai jump off the branch and storm towards them with fiery anger burning in his eyes. Hei'an and Shui took a step back, clearly shocked at the sheer fury in his eyes.
"You hurt my best friends' feelings! Nobody hurts my best friends and gets away with it!" Bai snarled, flexing his arms and getting into a battle stance.
Seeing this, Medusa and Odin jumped off of the tree branches they were on and rushed to Lupo and Sal's sides, also striking battle poses. Lupo and Sal looked up at Medusa and Odin in shock, before smiling eagerly, getting back up, and joining the rest of the group in striking battle poses.
"And for that… we're gonna take you down!" Bai declared.
AN #2: ah, it really is good to be back, huh? :P
I hope you enjoyed that chapter! It is admittedly a little flashback and backstory heavy, but it was fun getting to explore some of the side characters and diving deeper into why they are the way they are today! As always, feedback is always appreciated, and I will see you all next time!