I remember writing this chapter after coming off a computer crash that deleted the first version. 9,000 words for the price of about 19,000.
-Chapter 7-
"You had a vision."
Wigglytuff's creepy-ass statue eyes stared at me from above the Guild entrance as I nodded, stepping onto the grate that was crucial to our completely flawed entry system and crossing my arms. Skitty's voice sounded tired, maybe even bored, which surely had to be a sign that my extremely bipolar attitude that day had not gone unnoticed.
Not for the first time, I pondered briefly whether I had truly lost my mind. Then the grate beneath my feet started talking to me, and I ignored that train of thought in favour of stepping through the opening gates and throwing myself down the ladder inside.
"Yep." My tone was light; some may have even called it peppy by my standards, as though I wasn't facing a possibly life altering change within my common sensibilities. I wasn't looking forward to telling the story all over again, seeing as it had taken up basically the whole trip back to the Guild the first time, but right now I needed more information. "And now I'm going to go talk to Chatot. Coming?"
Skitty nodded immediately, giving the outlaw board a wide berth as we walked past it. Personally, I was still very much looking forward to heading out there, but there was absolutely no way I was going to leave myself in the dark about this. For all I knew, this was something that had happened here before, and Skitty just didn't know about it.
Besides, what was the worst that could happen? Chatot capturing me and holding me against my will, forcing visions of the future out of me until he managed to climb all the way to the top of the corporate ladder and no longer had any use for me?
No, that was something
I would do. I'd treat my captive fairly, of course; maybe grant them half of all my earnings. I was hardly going to alienate someone who could see the fucking future, that would just be silly, and there really was no need for that much money anyway.
Seriously, what could all the money in the world get me that half the money in the world couldn't?
Well, one third of the money. Skitty would get a cut too, of course, even if she was a weirdo who would probably give it to a charity, or something just as likely to be corrupted and pointless.
"Should you really tell Chatot?" The question was quiet enough to not travel down the rest of the ladder we were currently descending.
Skitty's tail sprang out, wrapping around my wrist and forcing me to stop moving. Her bottom lip was moving worriedly between her sharp teeth when I turned around, already turning red from the friction. "He might end up thinking you're crazy!"
I couldn't help but laugh, carefully tugging Skitty's tail until she lost her balance and came toppling down on top of me. My grip turned out to be lacklustre in regards to the situation I had brought upon myself, and somehow Skitty ended up standing perfectly straight on top of my head, while I landed on one hand, the other jammed between the last two rungs of the ladder and both my legs stretched into a pose I had seen more than once on the teenagers back home who didn't have a reason for not being able to dress themselves properly.
Seamlessly, I twisted myself back to my feet, mentally patting myself on the back when Skitty didn't as much as budge. Oh yeah, I was good.
"Sanity is as illogical as believing logic is logical." Out the corner of my eye, I watched as Loudred mouthed 'what the fuck' towards the hole he was always standing in front of, shaking my head at his ignorance as I approached Chatot's turned back. "I'm not having my perceptions be carved for me by society. Maybe you just don't listen hard enough when your surroundings try to talk to you."
My vision was very quickly replaced with Skitty's head, and I didn't even need the twitching of her facial muscles to know that I was being stared at blandly.
"Hey, Chatot!"
Naturally, I completely ignored her. If anyone asked, I was still going to blame the dreams. Visions. Drisions. Veams!
Yeah, that works.
"A guy hit me in the head and I had a veam that he kidnapped children."
Chatot had already twisted around at his name, his expression a second later suggesting that he regretted that decision immensely.
"…And?"
XxX
"…So let me get this straight."
"So straight's the correct term for you? Now I owe Croagunk ten bucks."
"What was that?"
"Nothing! Please, continue."
Chatot's withering glare clashed against my stare of pure angelic innocence, throwing so many sparks that I was honestly surprised when nobody dove for cover. Recounting my story had taken more time than I had cared to waste, and by the time I was done, most of the Guild had fallen against their curiosity and gathered around to listen.
Too bad we didn't have a campfire, especially seeing as Chimecho had emerged from what I presumed to be the kitchen about ten minutes into the story, a bag of marsh-mellows floating merrily along behind her.
"So while you were busy shopping, you were run over by a small child, whom then began panicking due to the fact that he had left his money at home." Skitty had taken over for that part of the tale, by that point resigned to my decision. Wow, I really was a bad friend. "It was at that point you began hearing unfamiliar voices, with one threatening the other for cooperation. After the child had been joined by his brother and they had left, you collided with yet another person, this 'Drowzee' character, and began hallucinating once more, this time with ocular simulation along with auditory?"
"And now here I am, telling you about all of this." I crossed my arms, nodding along with the words escaping Chatot's mouth conclusively. "So am I finally going insane, or is this something that tends to happen around here?"
Chatot's beak clicked shut, his eyes narrowing even further as he stared at me. I wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, but he must have found it eventually, because once it became apparent I wasn't going to give any ground all he did was sigh.
"Everyone." His voice rang out sharply, making whoever was sanding at either side of me jump. I know one of them was Skitty, but I hadn't paid attention to the other one since they rocked up. It could have been Wigglytuff himself and I… actually, there was no way in Hell that I wouldn't have noticed Wigglytuff. "Back to work."
A groan swept across the entire room, as if they were all actually looking forward to whatever this little talk would be concluded with. With no small amount of dawdling and dragging of feet, everyone slowly made their way back to their posts, and Chatot waited until all attention was off himself before letting his head fall into his wings.
I'm pretty sure I heard him mutter something about a 'bad tempered Wigglytuff' before he looked up at me again.
"Prophetic dreams-"
"Veams." I interrupted out of sheer necessity, raising an eyebrow at the flat look I received. "Dream visions, look it up."
"…
Veams," Chatot rolled his eyes, shooting a disgruntled look at the massive doors we were standing in front of before diverting his attention back to me, "are not entirely uncommon. There are entire species of Pokémon who share in that ability, but Riolu and, by extension, Lucario typically do not fall into that category."
"Lucario?" Riolu was a familiar term, but it was the first time I was hearing anything about a Lucario. Cool name, though, I could definitely get used to sharing an ancestor, or whatever its significance, with one.
All pretense of annoyance left Chatot's face, his eyes scrunching up in confusion as he stared at me. "Lucario, your evolution." Chatot hedged a glance in Skitty's direction as I tilted my head to the side, not entirely sure where this conversation was going. At least when we were talking about veams, I was able to keep up. "Luke, may I hazard an inquiry that may be personal?"
My eyes drifted down from where they had been admiring the ceiling. We had a very pretty ceiling in this place. "Shoot."
"Where did you live before arriving in Treasure Town?"
All the fuzzy thoughts drifting through my head like a fog cleared away, and Chatot's eyes went back to being narrowed as I straightened up a little. Almost against my will, my body prepared itself to launch into a Quick Attack, intent on escape should the need arise.
It wasn't like I was ashamed of (most of my) heritage, but the subject in and of itself was… difficult to broach. I may have told Skitty that I hadn't always been a Pokémon, I honestly couldn't remember if I had or not and she was the only one I would trust with that knowledge, but what was I supposed to say to a guy with whom I was already discussing my brief glimpses into the future? That I'd recently changed specie after falling into what I could have only assumed to be a portal to another dimension?
Hmm, that really got me thinking, how much more absurd could my situation get? You know, if it really,
really tried.
"How do you know I didn't just keep my head down in Treasure Town for a while?" As soon as the words left my lips, I could have smacked myself. Yeah, good job not making anyone suspicious, dickweed.
"Your accent, the way you hold your satchel, your gait," So… I spoke funny, I looked funny, and I walked funny? Alright, first off, damn. Second off, Chatot, you prick. "Your seeming lack of knowledge about anything to do with Aura, your foreign style of fighting, and
especially your vocabulary."
All of a sudden, I'd found my goal in life. Skitty wanted to be a famous explorer, and I would still help her to the best of my ability, but now I was going to get Chatot to say the word 'fuck' if it killed me. But first…
"Aura?"
An odd noise arose from where Chatot was standing, and it took me a moment to realise he was grinding his beak. His stare was beginning to feel a little unnerving, and by the time he had twisted his head towards Skitty, I was getting the distinct impression that I'd just been classified as an unsolved, and perhaps even interesting puzzle.
I still don't know how I felt about that.
"Tell me," Chatot began, making me turn to face Skitty for the first time in a while when I realised he was no longer speaking to me, "did he begin to act oddly before or after the first pro…
veam?"
"A little bit before." Came the immediate reply. I would have huffed petulantly if I wasn't so blindsided; I wasn't acting strangely… was I? I opened my mouth to protest that it had merely been the result of an epiphany and making a new, albeit slightly weird friend (and wouldn't have that gone down well?), but I was forced to swallow the words as the Guild's chief of intelligence or whatever his title was snapped back around towards me, so quickly that I was honestly concerned for a moment that he'd hurt himself.
"I am going to send a message out to an old friend. If your natural ability with Aura is manifesting itself in such a way, then I am ill equipped to provide any form of assistance. The mental arts are some of the most strenuous that can be cultivated, adding to those enough power to transcend time and space can be… dangerously fatiguing." Chatot shook his head, pointedly looking through the window in any location that my reflection was not present. "In all honestly, the simple fact that a slight mercurial unbalancing is the entire backlash you have received is astounding. If it were only unskilled resistance I would be merely impressed with your fortitude, but when multiplied with the volatile nature of unrestrained Aura…"
Chatot shook his head slowly, and I felt, rather than saw Skitty huddle against me. It wasn't like I didn't understand why, but in all honesty I felt fine. Maybe a bit fuzzy in the cortex that took care of that kind of thing, but concern wasn't entirely necessary right now.
"I will, of course, be informing the Guild Master about this." Chatot glanced over his shoulder, and I couldn't quite keep the snort under wraps. What, did he think I was expecting him to keep this a secret for me? Compared to Wigglytuff, in Chatot's eyes I was nothing but a responsibility. "I also expect you to pay a visit to the dojo located near the bank. The owner has mastered Aura to a fuller extent than anyone in recent memory, and it is simply too dangerous for you to remain untrained any longer. Consider this an order."
Skitty's tail had wrapped around my waist protectively by that point, and with a small huff, I ran a nail over the centre of it. Originally, it had been an attempt to make her loosen it a little and let me breathe a little easier, but when she shuddered and started purring so loudly that the reflection of Loudred turned to regard us with an incredulous stare, I had to swallow down an evil cackle.
It escaped somewhat through my nostrils as an odd honk, which went completely ignored by her. Oh, I was so going to use this in the future.
"For now," Chatot's dry tone made Skitty jump, and I certainly did not yelp when her tail slipped down and then tightened like a vice around my hips. I
squeaked, fighting in vain to save as many future children as I could before she finally got the message and released me. Sucks to be her, now she was never going to be an aunt. "Now that we have dealt with that, I expect the two of you to get back to work. Bidoof is still waiting for you, and the boards were updated not very long ago."
Ah yes, the distant rumbling that had so very rudely interrupted my story halfway through. I nodded, not trusting my voice to have remained at an even pitch as I trudged back towards the ladder. Every step made the pain ebb slightly away, and it was only my hobbled steps that stopped me from going over to Loudred and kicking his ass after he turned to Corphish, brought a hand to the side of his enormous head, and twirled it around a little.
Instead, I snapped off a tiny piece of the third ladder rung from the bottom, hurling it with deadly accuracy as soon as he had turned back to his hole. It struck true, treating me to the most beautiful sight in the world; Loudred pitching forward, alternating between swearing and screaming as his arms pin-wheeled in a helpless attempt to remain balanced.
I was basically numb with glee as I watched him disappear over the edge, his ridiculous voice growing quieter and quieter. Which wasn't saying much; I could still understand him perfectly after five solid seconds of falling, but that didn't change the fact that it was still up there with the most perfect moment of my life.
In the end, it was Croagunk's quiet gasps of laughter from where he was standing in front of his cauldron that did me in. The laugh bubbled from between my lips, alternating between a howl and outright cackle as I began to ascend the ladder. Tears began to dampen my fur when the unmistakable thump of Loudred landing and the consequent cursing reached my ears. Dude must have managed to get through about nine previous generations of my family tree by the time I was halfway to the next floor, and every sentence was just sending me that much closer to delirium.
My amazingly good mood (which could probably count as a mood swing, now that I thought about it) lasted me up until I was standing in front of the outlaw board, my laughter closing off with a strangled choke as my eyes landed on the top corner of the innocent plank of wood and cork. Beside me, Skitty tensed up, a sound so wondrous that I could only hope it would have sent me into cardiac arrest (for then and only then would I be able to die happy) in literally any other situation tumbling from her lips.
"
Fuck!"
As it stood, however, palpitations would have to wait.
The paper was innocuous enough. A request from one Officer Magnemite, to apprehend a criminal that was giving law enforcement trouble. Two large, golden stars stood out near the bottom of the page, and a large picture took up a good portion near the top; that big, fuck ugly nose was unmistakable.
I felt the pit of my stomach drop. The voice in my first vision had definitely been Azurill's; which would mean that Blue Balls and his brother could be in some deep shit.
The poster disappeared from the wall like magic, and we were both up the ladder and sprinting through the Guild's front gates before Bidoof had even gotten the chance to say hello.
XxX
"The second veam, where was it!?"
"The mountains!" I kicked off the ground before reaching the grate, sailing over the hole and pulling a map from my satchel before I hit the ground again. "I don't know about the first one, but the second one was in the mountains!"
Skitty came up beside me, showing off some impressive acceleration as we charged down the hill. I hadn't yet launched into a Quick Attack, not wanting to leave Skitty behind, instead focusing on the map and trusting my partner to let me know if I was heading towards a tree or something similar. My brain was going a mile a minute, my neck twitching as I took in the entire cartoony terrain and silently hoped that it was all accurate.
"We start with this one, Mt… Bristle!" I decreed, glancing up just long enough to see Skitty nod her consent before shoving the map back into my bag. Mt Bristle was the closest thing that looked like a mountain on the map, which would have to do for now. Drowzee had gotten maybe a twenty minute head start on us, but if I was correct, then he would either be tailing or have Blue Balls with him.
If I were going to go with the evidence that had been presented to me, I would hazard a guess that Azurill wasn't all that quick. So Mt Bristle it would have to be.
A flash of gold caught the edge of my vision, and I ground my heels into the dirt beneath my feet, catching Skitty begin to slow down as I screeched to a halt and stared at who I had almost run into. Krabby blinked back at me, as unruffled as ever, a small bubble clinging to the corner of his mouth.
"…Hello." He said simply.
My mouth flapped uselessly for a moment, before I caught sight of Skitty over Krabby's head. She was hopping on the spot, her face getting more and more panicked with each passing moment. Without a second thought, I planted a hand firmly between Krabby's eyes, vaulting over his head and hitting the ground sprinting.
"Sorry, Krabby!" I called over my shoulder, to the…empty…path… "I'm busy r-"
"Krabby can keep up."
I almost tripped over my own feet as I caught up with Skitty, looking to my other side to see Krabby staring directly into my eyes. Risking a quick glance over my shoulder, I marvelled at the dust cloud following the three of us, almost laughing at the comical sight of Krabby's bent legs pumping so quickly that I couldn't even see them as more than a blur.
You know what? Whatever.
"Skitty, Krabby. Krabby, Skitty. I'll meet the two of you there." My body exploded with an outline of pure white, the pulse of the energy ruffling the leaves around us and digging two foot sized craters into the dirt beneath me. Swerving onto the path that would lead to the mountains, I blinked as a pink blur shot past me, so utterly dumbfounded that I didn't notice the streak of gold that followed after it.
I did, however, note the blue glow that was now accompanying the white around my body. And let me tell you, what followed was equal parts the scariest and most
thrilling moment of my life.
I took off once more- moving so quickly that the consequential shockwave sent a tsunami of water from the filled well I had been stopped in front of. I didn't even find that out until later; between heartbeats I had already zoomed past both Krabby and Skitty, traveling so mind numbingly quickly that nothing around me could have been classified as more than a vague shade of a colour.
The path leading to the Drenched Bluff, which had taken Skitty and I about ten minutes to reach the first time, had come and gone before my brain had caught up to my body. My feet were barely touching the ground before sending me forth, at a higher speed than I had been going before. By the time I had reached a path that looked like it could lead me up the only landmark I could have possibly used, Mt Bristle itself, I felt a little out of breath.
Not from the running, but from the fact that I had been moving so quickly that I think the oxygen was having a hard time getting down to my lungs before what I assume was the pressure tore it away from me.
Despite it all, I kept running.
My first step on the mountain carried me over what must have been fifty meters. The second was a leap that shed no momentum, propelling me from the ledge I had been standing on to another that would have been impossible to reach by conventional means. The third got me past an attack that had been launched from a Pokémon that I hadn't even had time to look at, and on the fourth I was joined by something that looked sort of like a bird, small and mainly black and white. The thing managed to keep pace with me for three whole heartbeats, before my feet hit the ground once more and it was left in a cloud of dust.
There was nothing but atmosphere surrounding me. Nothing was touching me; nothing could get close enough to hope to accomplish that. The energy surrounding my body, one belonging to me and the other gifted, carried me up towards the summit and around boulders, stealing the air from my lungs to grant me a platform on which to fly.
This may as well have been what I had been living for, this ridiculous speed. I felt invincible, like I could hit the tip of the mountain and still keep going up. It was exhilarating, gripping my body with the biting fingers of the universe and attempting to wrench a cheer of sheer euphoria.
Except I didn't let it.
No matter how fast I was, I wasn't likely to ever be invincible, which was something that I couldn't afford to let slip my mind.
Because I was getting close to the summit, and I had just heard Azurill scream.
XxX
It had been little more than a whisper on the wind, tugging at my ear drum with a vibration so gentle I'd almost not noticed it. Had I been a step to the right, or perhaps a meter in front of where I'd ended up, I doubt I would have been able to hear it. The voice made me snap my head around without thinking, a grunt escaping my as my foot caught a rock and sent me flying over a ledge I would have otherwise been able to navigate fine.
Tucking my legs closer to my chest, I rolled through the air, barely skimming over a particularly pointed boulder. I hit the ground feet first about ten meters down, the impact making my head spin and the bones in my ankles groan in complaint.
Before the pain had been given the chance to register, I was off once more, kicking up a pretty impressive cloud of dust if I do say so myself. Azurill's voice drifted down the path I had found myself on once more, sounding far closer than it had not five seconds before.
I shook my head, pushing my Quick Attack a little further as the blue glow around my body dimmed slightly. Figures I would find the perfect method of getting from point A to B after falling off part of the damn mountain. Now I just had to make sure to make it there before anything heinous happened.
The world
lurched around me as the blue glow receded completely, almost throwing me off balance entirely as my foot hit the ground. Before I got the chance to grumble in annoyance over it's absolutely fucking spectacular timing, the narrow walls of cliff on either side of me had suddenly fallen away, leaving me on a flat plateau of stone and a few randomly strewn out plants.
And standing right on the other end was Drowzee, his back facing me. Hmm, at full speed, I had maybe three seconds before I would crash into him. Three seconds with which to slow down and carefully think through what exactly I was going to do in this ensuing battle fo-ah hahahahahahaha, this bitch was going to get my foot up his ass.
Hey, don't look at me like that. I learned to fight on the streets. What was I supposed to do, yell at him to stop what he was doing if he may please and also you are under arrest for disturbing the peace? No, yeah, that would work perfectly.
Democracy completely ignored, I kicked myself into the highest gear I could manage, hurtling across the flat ground at speeds that I know
I wouldn't want to be hit at. My knee connected with the back of Drowzee's (hard as fucking diamond) head with enough force to make my toes twitch in pain, sending him sprawling onto the ground towards Azurill.
I have to hand it to Blue Balls, the kid's brain had been working in that moment. The second Drowzee hit the ground, he'd started bouncing away at what I hoped was his top speed, tearing ass towards the path I'd just taken. Good thing he did, too, because if he hadn't I probably wouldn't have been able to do what I did next.
See, right at that moment, I was telling myself that I needed to buy some time. Time for Skitty and Krabby to get here, and time for Azurill to get the Hell out of here. Drowzee was on the ground in front of me, my body was pretty much flooded with adrenaline, and there was now a perfectly inviting hole in the wall that was about half the circumference of Drowzee's gut. So if I told you that my next immediate action was to heft his body up, take a running leap, and jam him snout-first into the little hole in the wall a la Looney Tunes, you would have to agree with me that it was up there with the best ways to proceed with this situation.
I'll admit, I may have panicked when Drowzee immediately started screaming bloody murder, planting his hands on either side of the hole to heave his head out. Kicking him in the ass hadn't actually been on the to-do list, regardless of the foot up the ass comment earlier, but it served its purpose. Drowzee squeaked as the entire top half of his body was shoved into the tiny cavern, my next two kicks doing little more than pissing him off. He was pretty thoroughly wedged, up to around the middle of his stomach with only two thrusts, and damn it, I was a little proud of myself for my quick thinking.
Up until Drowzee's hands started glowing, and the fucking cliff wall exploded.
I'm pretty sure the noise that came out of my mouth was a shriek. It was high, it was sharp, and it certainly wasn't going to be repeated ever again. Rocks filled my vision as I backed away, at least three zooming right past my head before I could ever think about dodging. I was on the ground and rolling away by the time the fourth, pretty much a boulder in its own right, created a crater where I had been standing, on my arms and spinning away from the fifth and sixth in precisely the same moment my ability to consciously think through my actions left me completely.
I didn't need it right now, and it had realised it before I had. The next ten seconds were a blur of stone, Quick Attack, and the occasional flash of blue as my own limbs flew past my eyes. I kind of wish I had been able to view myself do that in one of my veams, it must have been pretty damn impressive to watch.
"You!" As suddenly as they had been arriving, the rocks all stopped in mid-air, dropping with a collective thump and granting me an uninhibited look at Drowzee. He looked pretty pissed off, as well as suspiciously cylindrical. "You're from before, at the market!"
I raised a hand to wave at him, doing my best to make my grin seem mocking. If the distance between us wasn't sufficient to hide how it shook from slight exertion, nobody mentioned anything. "Yep. Name's Luke, proud co-founder of Team Poképals, name pending." I tapped my chin faux-contemplatively, letting my head fall to either side with exaggerated nonchalance. "I was actually thinking of changing it when I manage to get through to Wigglytuff. Pop quiz, which do you prefer being apprehended by, Team Litty or Team Skuke?"
"I've never heard of a Team Poképals." Drowzee was backing up, ignoring my follow-up question like the total prick he was proving himself to be. Dude had thrown nearly an entire hill at my head, sure, but why had I been worried about this guy, again? "Tell me, how long have you been an explorer?"
I waved the hand that was already raised carelessly, sneaking an idle glance over my shoulder. On the good side, Azurill was out of sight. On the bad side, Skitty and Krabby were out of sight. "Eh, you know. Maybe two or three… days."
It was actually a sight to behold, watching the utter reversal of Drowzee's attitude. His hunched back was suddenly straightened out, his hands by his sides instead of in front of him and his panicked grimace replaced with a smile that was all smug confidence. "And you think you're capable of catching me? Pfft, you're about-"
"Lemme guess, a hundred years too early to even think about that?" I let my hands rest on my hips, nodding solemnly to myself. Looking back, it honestly wasn't the best plan I've ever had, letting my guard down entirely while in the presence of an enemy, but could you really blame me? Even I knew how damn clichéd that phrase was. How cringe worthy. "I was correct, wasn't I? You were totally going to say that.
You should be ashamed of yourself, you're nowhere near intimidating enough to try pulling that one off-
ohshit!"
Drowzee's aim must have been off or something, because there was no chance that I'd just moved quick enough to dodge the
motherfuckinglightningholyshit that he'd just shot at me. His fist, still stretched out, was covered with crackling electricity, the hand he was resting by his side bursting into flames. With both arms he gestured, and I was already throwing myself into a Quick Attack and setting a perimeter of a healthy few meters. No chance in Hell I was sticking around to see what he was planning on doing.
Hmm, why did my back feel so warm-
oh no.
I didn't bother turning around to confirm my theory, too worried about the fire that I assume was being shot a few steps behind me. I was very quickly running out of room before the edge of the cliff, which would leave me the option of turning around or following it along.
I couldn't afford trying to circle the lip of the summit, not if there was the chance I would get thrown off. At this height, there was every chance that I wouldn't be able to land in a way that wasn't seriously debilitating, which only left me one choice. With a grunt, I let myself fall to the ground, tumbling in as controlled a manner as I could manage and digging my heels in once I'd gotten back my feet, facing the opposite direction that I had been running.
Immediately, I regretted that action.
Fire, tinted pink at the base, crashed in all around me. The air, now that I had stopped moving too quickly to sample it, reeked of smoke and smoulder, not entirely surprising considering the tidal wave of conflagration that was flooding towards me. I was trapped, edged up against a drop of a good few hundred meters and awash within a sea of oddly coloured flames. There were only two options open to me at that moment, death by blunt force trauma courtesy of gravity, or burning to a crisp where I stood.
Naturally, I did something fucking stupid. I swear it sort of seemed smart to me at the time but hey, when you get out of a situation like this,
then you can come back and judge me.
My body covered in white energy, I leapt forward, punching through the cover of fire that had been descending on me and bursting out through the other side. It had been hot, it had hurt, and it had worked like a charm. Drowzee recoiled away from where he was standing as I hurdled through the air towards him, and with all the fury of a person who had almost been damn well set on fire I swung my leg around and kicked him right in the stupid snout.
With my foot. Which was
on fire. My foot was on- you know what, it wasn't hurting me at all, I don't even care right now.
Look, today has been a long day, alright?
Drowzee stumbled back, steam rising from his face as he swung his hand around. I barely managed to drop to the ground before an arc of lightning passed through the air above me, and I was already back on my feet as the sea of fire came crashing back towards me. With practiced grace I leapt away, not bothering to shield my face as another bout of electricity detonated a stone beside me and pelted me with shrapnel. I was already gone before any serious damage could be done.
And so it continued for a few minutes, me doing all I could to close the gap and him doing all her could to blast the ever loving shit out of me. Already, the fire had clipped me twice, and my foot was still tingly from a near miss with his electricity that hadn't been a miss at all.
A rush of displaced air was all the warning I got before I changed directions, wincing as a rock larger than my entire body skimmed across the ground millimetres from my arm. I was beginning to notice a serious problem with this entire fight, and it was stemming from the fact that I had nothing to throw here that weren't rocks.
Oh, I could throw punches. My mother may have been completely useless, but she at least taught me how to smack a bitch before I got here. Getting close enough to Drowzee to beat his ass down was the problem here, because between the fire that hadn't stopped chasing me, the occasional blasts of electricity that I was trying to avoid at all costs, not to mention the boulders that had just joined the party, there weren't enough openings, and I wasn't quick enough to use the ones that were being provided. It was a deadly dance that I didn't like my chances with, especially if I had to hold out until the cavalry arrived. It had been a handful of minutes already, and I'd only gotten two good hits in.
Maybe I shouldn't have run off on my own. Azurill had probably gotten everything under control before I blundered in and ruined everything for him. Hell, maybe Azurill could breathe fire. He could've ended this in the first minute, you don't know that.
The hairs rose on the back of my neck, and my head snapped around just before the electricity coating Drowzee's left fist fizzled out. Before I could wonder what that was all about – or hope that maybe he was starting to get a little tired – a beam of multi-coloured light burst out from his palm, carving a path through the ground beneath it as it raced in my direction.
"For fuck sakes." I mumbled under my breath, injecting some skill into the luck that had been carrying me through all the evading I had just done. Jumping into the air, I managed to avoid the beam that had been heading towards me, rolling through the air on my side and passing in between the follow-up attack that consisted of a second beam and the same cock sucking rock that Drowzee had been throwing at me this entire time.
There was a lull in the roaring maelstrom that had consumed the plateau as I landed, and in that moment of relative quiet I made out a noise that only served to fill me even more with dread.
Giggling. That crazy yellow bastard was
giggling.
"Hey dude, what's so funny?" I wasn't really tired yet, but I would be getting to that point if this went on much longer. This was proving to be the most strenuous thing I'd done in my pitiful life, a fact that was only cemented as I dropped my head in a hasty bow and tried to ignore the hair that was being ruffled as that motherfucking boulder passed uncomfortably close over me. "You're throwing me off my dodging groove!"
"You managed to free that little kid from the trap I'd set up for him. Just the fact that you found us here is impressive, but that's where it should have ended." Drowzee's voice was as light as a feather, which provided me some disturbing juxtaposition as he gestured with his flame covered fist and I was forced into running away from up until then dormant carpet of fire. "You honestly think you can take me in by yourself? Sorry to say, but you should have run off with the kid when you had the chance. I probably wouldn't have been able to catch up to you, but now you'll end up as ashes. You probably won't even get the time to regret your hubris before I catch you, and I think that's hilarious."
No, there wasn't a chance on this green Earth that I could take him in by myself. I needed help badly if I was going to get anywhere in this fight, be it from Skitty, Krabby, a local resident, a hailstone – Fuck, I would accept Jesus at this point. Why hadn't I run with Azurill when I was given the chance? Oh, yeah, I was too busy shoving Drowzee head first into a hole in the wall. Damn it, I deserved everything that was being thrown at me right-
lightninggottaduck.
"You trying to bore me to death? Fuck, dude, stop talking in the middle of a fight." Never let it be said that I can leave well enough alone. If I was going to die, it would be on my big-ass mouth's terms.
"I'd be doing you a favour, squirt." My scorched paw said otherwise, asshole. "You've only just started, but you would have learned with time. The clients? They ain't getting any smarter, that's for sure. The police are useless, and Arceus help you if you end having to escort someone somewhere."
I almost stopped running then, so help me, because I was actually curious where he was going with this one. Good thing fire is hot, and hot is a good reminder to keep running.
"Did you sign up, thinking they'd let you go off and find new things? Do you think that you're going to do anything that even counts as exploring? Of course you won't. You'll only ever get chores. Community service, if you will. There have been explorers since before you and I were born; you really think there's anything left out there that hasn't been found?"
Oh, I get it now. This was cruel irony. This was me in the future. A before and after picture, if you will. Well, jokes on you. I would love to be able to throw fire around, not to mention lightning and maybe –
ohshit notagain.
I was getting distressingly good at dodging electricity, ducking and curving around yet another bolt. I managed two steps towards Drowzee before I had to leap to the side and avoid the boulder, and another three before I had to disengage and figure out how to manoeuvre out of the ring of flames I had found myself in now.
I couldn't help the irritated sigh that escaped; this was the third damn time already. Crouching low to the ground, I let the glow of Quick Attack bleed out across my entire form rather than just my legs (I was starting to get lazy in maintaining it, I think. In my defence, do you understand how tedious this life or death situation was getting?), lurching towards the gap in the flames that I could see the sky through. Theoretically that was where it would be the least concentrated, and I would rather keep my fur, you understand.
Before I could even close half the distance, something drifted in front of my eyes. Crossing my pupils, I dug my heels in to slow my progress (and holy shit would my feet be hurting tomorrow), letting my brain slowly puzzle over why a
bubble of all things would be floating around at the top of a mountain.
It registered a moment before a second bubble floated up to join the first, followed closely by a third, and then a fourth. It was with a mystified sense of glee that I watched the bubble drift over to the wall of fire, popping with more force than the air within it should have been capable of achieving and wiping out an entire section of flame. Taking the opening that had been given to me, I bounded out of the box
I had found myself in, letting out a relieved laugh as the mass that had dogged me up and down the summit was dissipated with a barrage of bubbles.
That laugh quickly turned mocking as Drowzee went flying right past me, a panting and grinning Skitty standing where he had been a second before, her head down.
"Keep him off balance." I called to both Skitty and Krabby, who was standing a fair ways away from us all. I wasn't too overtly worried about Drowzee hearing what my plan would be, it was fairly basic, exactly what would be expected from a rookie team. "If you have anything that can be used at range, do it. Clear a path and I'll end this."
With that, we just… moved.
My body blazed blue in the same moment as I kicked off, sending me halfway across the distance separating me from Drowzee. The criminal had already gotten to his feet, his entire arm dancing with electricity as he pointed at me.
There was nowhere I could go, considering I was in the air, so I was forced into doing the next best thing. As yellow light lanced out towards me, I caught it in my own palm, the volts travelling across my entire body and playing haywire with my senses. It did very little to cancel my momentum, and even less to penetrate the Endure I had employed, which left him wide open as he gathered another fist full of electricity.
With the speed that had been granted to me by whatever it was that Krabby had done, I crashed into Drowzee in a full body tackle, lashing out and hitting absolutely anything I could get to. Face, chest, groin, it didn't matter whatsoever to me as I sent the two of us to the ground and let loose on his entire body.
A pulse of what could only be described as power passing through the air around us was my only warning before an invisible force pushed against my body, passing underneath my skin and leaving searing pain absolutely anywhere that it touched. I leapt back, skipping twice across the ground to gain distance. The stone beneath my feet shifted, the spires that shot out hitting nothing but my afterimage as I darted forward, intent on finishing what I'd started.
Skitty got there before me, hopefully breaking at least one bone as she slammed full pelt into his back and sent him flying towards me. Light caught the edge of my vision, and the grin that stretched across my face was downright sadistic as I plucked Drowzee out of the air.
He'd taken some damage from my earlier assault, one eye already swollen shut and the other following not too far behind. I'd already gathered a Force Palm as he'd been heading towards me, holding it before me and detonating it as soon as he'd gotten in range. A fist coated in what felt like ice ploughed into my chest, and I heard rather than felt the rib break as I punched him in the jaw. At that point, I'd been burned. I'd been crushed. I'd been electrocuted. I'd been punched, and if I was feeling it right, I had now been a little bit frozen. I was in pain, I was starting to see spots, and I was
beyond pissed off.
My foot, which was oddly still on fire, connected solidly where a bruise was already starting to form, and Drowzee stumbled back once again, stubbornly silent. I had to hand it to him, he was a tough bastard, which helped mollify the small part of my mind that was worried that I'd honestly hurt him when I darted behind him with a burst of Quick Attack, sweeping his legs out from underneath him and dropping my elbow directly onto his neck as soon as he hit the ground.
And yet, he'd managed to hold himself up with his hands, and was even now struggling back to his feet. Until Krabby charged in from absolutely nowhere, clocking the outlaw for a homerun with a glowing claw and sending him directly into the crowd of bubbles he'd been blowing earlier. The explosion was magnificent, and Drowzee let out the first sound of pain of the fight, a single, muffled grunt.
It was actually difficult to follow him with my eyes as Drowzee shot across the mountaintop once again, directly in line with where Skitty was now charging. My grin spread far enough to be considered manic – she may not have been here for the entire fight, but it just felt too fitting for Skitty to be the one to knock out our first crook. Which is to say, of course, that it only made sense that something would come along and ruin it for us.
Drowzee flipped around in mid-air, fast enough to make my head spin, and thrust his hand out towards Skitty. She kind of just… stopped, right where she was, before she was sent flying through the air with a sharp cry of pain. My smile slipped off my face entirely as she disappeared over the edge of the cliff.
"Krabby, do something!" I barked, the two of us moving off at the same time. Out the corner of my eye, I could see Krabby charge right up to and then off where Skitty had plummeted, and I could only spare a single moment to hope they would both be alright before I was connecting with Drowzee again.
The punch, imbued with what felt like ten times the amount of power a regular Force Palm usually had, connected solidly with the base of Drowzee's snout, his subsequent gurgle sending vindictive pleasure through my body as I swung another punch. This one, carrying the force of the last plus another on top of it, connected with his gut and sent him skipping across the stone plateau.
Fucker bounced three times, impacting and going through one of the rocks he'd not bothered to throw at me at all this fine morning, and he
still.
Got.
Up. I didn't even need to see him do it, which I wouldn't have been able to through all the dust, but I could hear it happening.
"You'll regret that!" Not to mention, I already knew what was going to happen. The cloud turned purple, and I didn't even bother looking up as I raised my arms and crossed them over my head. "Say hi to your pathetic partner for me when you join her in the afterlife!"
The impact was jarring, sending jolts down my entire body, which meant little to me. My Endure held up, and the satisfaction I took in watching Drowzee's eye widen with fear was downright vicious.
"Counter, asshole."
I didn't bother sending him flying this time; that would just mean more work for me when he inevitably got up again. His words echoed through my head as I twisted my body and slammed him into the ground, the words that had originated where they'd just entered and now refused to leave.
"Pathetic? You think Skitty is pathetic?"
I was running on little more than fumes right now. Quick Attack was harder to maintain than it looked, and I had been tagged by more than one hit before my team had managed to show up. Even then, that had been only one turning point in the proceedings. I had no idea where Skitty or Krabby had ended up, and I could only hope that they were both alright. Krabby wouldn't have gone after her if he hadn't had some sort of plan, that would just be suicide, but I couldn't help but worry.
And feel angry. Furious, even, more so than I could ever remember being in my entire life.
"Let me tell you what I think counts as pathetic. I think kidnapping children because you're too fat to fit in your own goals is pathetic."
Drowzee
cratered the ground as I pushed him into it, my fist aglow with raw energy. It had been present the entire time I had been in this world, but now I could feel it. Unhindered, wild, dangerous. A Force Palm lit up my fist, and Drowzee could do little more than raise his arms weakly as I detonated it against his stomach. Once he stopped moving, I would stop too, but until then he wouldn't get the chance.
The blue glow had faded from my body, but right now that was hardly a priority.
"I think whining about a life you used to lead, because you wanted all the fun with none of the responsibility that was supposed to come along with it, is pathetic."
I felt it then, a wash of that same power I had smelled just before Skitty had been sent flying, and my fury spiked. My teeth lengthening, I Bit down on the arm Drowzee had outstretched towards me, an honest to whatever they worshipped here growl rumbling down my throat as I jerked my head and listened to the bone beneath my grip shatter. Drowzee screamed through clenched teeth, his attempts to throw me off redoubling in intensity, and my teeth left his arm with a sound I can only think back upon as sickening.
"I think that an inability to rise above your own misgivings about a job you chose is pathetic. But you know what? Maybe you're right. If it were my choice, I wouldn't have joined a Guild. I wouldn't have put my neck on the line hunting down outlaws, or finding things that idiots manage to drop on their merry jaunts through dangerous as fuck caves, and you can bet your ass I'm not looking forward to escorting these morons around."
But I would do it anyway, and Skitty would be right by my side. Krabby, too, so long as this experience hadn't soured him to the opportunity. He would never turn me down, though, we were fire-forged friends now. Quite literally at that. A fist covered in electricity stabbed into my side, and with a shaking arm I delivered a punch down on the criminal I was sitting on, hoping I hit something that didn't hurt enough already.
"You think exploring is pathetic? Good for you, but I'm still holding on to my faith. I'll come to understand in my own time what I think about the life I've chosen, because this is the only life open to me now. I decided, a long time ago, that living for myself was useless. That I wouldn't ever bring myself to choose to keep going, just to survive for as long as the world wanted me. If anything I ever did turned out to be an accomplishment, then good for me. That would be proof enough that I should hold on, that would be my miracle. That miracle came along two days ago, and you know what her name was? Skitty."
Drowzee shifted underneath me violently at the name; perhaps he'd already known where this had been going. At that point, I felt as though I'd only been rambling, but resolve flooded me as I raised my fist once more. Force Palm after Force Palm were plugged into Drowzee's thrashing form, which I wasn't planning on stopping until he stopped struggling. The hand he'd gotten clamped on my arm slackened slightly, and I used that opportunity to wrench myself from his grip and slam that very same elbow into his forehead.
"That's her dream, to become the greatest explorer. To find things that nobody else ever has. So what if everything has already been found? We'll just explore it all over again. We'll make maps that have more detail; I'd knock this mountain over if it gave her something new to explore, because that's my responsibility now."
Stone rose up from beside Drowzee's head, sluggish intent to spear me through the heart all too clear. The rock tapped against my chest weakly, the assault completely useless in stopping me from wrapping my hands around his throat.
If he wasn't going to stop – I grinned, deranged and grim, as a hand broke away from his throat to grasp at the all but limp stone –
then I would just have to stop him with force. Even more force that I was already showing.
"Her dream is all that's keeping me here, and the more she believes in it, the more I'll believe in her. Because she can do it, and she will, even if I have to carry her to the end. So I'm going to beat the absolute shit out of you, I'm going to drag you down the mountain whether they need to restart your heart or not, and after that I'm going to collect your bounty. You better hope she's alright, because if she isn't, there's nowhere they'll be able to put you where I won't find you, I promise you that. Now go. TO.
SLEEP!"
Granite, long and rather thin broke off into my hand, and with a swing fuelled with the sweet tang of vengeance I brought it down on Drowzee's head. It turned to dust in my hands as Drowzee finally slumped, and I let out a tired sigh before pushing myself away from his stupid fucking face and standing up.
I looked down at him, worried despite myself. He had only been an outlaw, maybe even a petty thief, but what if I had…?
His chest heaved, up and then down, a slow and luxurious movement.
I barely even got the time to curse his fortune before I was falling back, my body feeling equivalent to that of an enormous bruise.
What a fucking spectacular first outlaw mission, I thought to myself before blacking out, because there was always time for sarcasm.
